Maxwell let out a hefty sigh as he placed the padd down on the desk. He rose from the chair and walked around to reach the replicator, where he ordered his fifth cup of black coffee. With the cup in hand, he made his way over to the furniture just to stand before it and stared at the stars through the viewport from the ready room of the Gemini. He had just finished reading the current reports of the incident on Frontier Day, for the fact that he was not there to be a part of it. Some say he was lucky, others would say it was a coincidence. He chose the only acceptable reason, that he was weak for taking time off when he had a duty as a captain in Starfleet.

Maxwell recalled the conversation he had with a Vulcan on the way back to Starbase 84 from Risa. ‘You humans seem to forget that you cannot be everywhere all at once. Doing so would not make you human, but a unique species of great power. An example would be the Q. To feel guilt of something beyond your control is, illogical.’ Said the Vulcan.

Maxwell took a sip of the hot black liquid as he contemplated those words. ‘Is this why people have a love-hate relationship with the Vulcans?’ He thought to himself as he took another sip. Right now he should be thinking more on the current situation than of one in the past. Starbase 415.

There was no doubt that Starbase 415 was affected during the Frontier Day incident. How much damage the Starbase endured, was unknown to command. No one was talking. Not the Talarians and not the Tholians. Especially the Tholians. The only conclusion aside from the neighbors not talking, was that the starbase communication systems were offline. But it has been at least a week and the incident was barely a day. What troubled him more was that some of the crew stationed at Starbase 415, were his former crew when he commanded the Sovereign. A communications blackout for this long is usually not a good sign.

”Captain to the bridge.” said the Operations Officer over the intercom.

Maxwell could only guess that they were about to arrive and his guess was solidified when the streaks of light faded away and the hum of the warp engines went quiet.

Maxwell made his way and stepped through the doorway when the sensors were triggered and the door slid apart. As he headed for the chair, he took a look at the view screen. “Report.” He ordered as he could see one of the satellite relays slip from the viewer, which indicated they were at half impulse towards the Starbase.

”We arrived at the Nereus system, sir. No contacts on sensors so far but we’ve yet to pass the asteroid belt.”  Replied the helmsman.

”The satellite relay system appears to be operational. I just triggered a quick diagnostic program and no errors have returned from the network.” Reported operations. “Captain, we are picking up a short-range broadcast from the station.” They transferred the audio to the bridge’s intercom.

‘Caution. Caution. A lockdown has been initiated. Civilian craft are recommended to avoid the station at all costs. For any other craft, if you would like to assist, please contact the station’s operations center. This is not a drill.’ And the message repeated until the operations officer terminated the audio from the intercom.

”Divert power to the forward sensor array. I want to know what’s going on around the station right away.” Maxwell ordered. He wondered why a Starfleet starbase would be transmitting a warning message such as that in a short-range transmission. Its own subspace relay communication systems should be able to link up with the main subspace relay system and contact Starfleet with no issue. But if long-range communications are out, then with a short-range system, they could use the satellites to re-establish link to the main subspace system and contact Starfleet. So why haven’t they?

”Just a moment, sir.” Said OPs. “Sensors are picking up several small objects outside the station, a couple of cargo vessels, and…sir, I got two Talarian cruisers with their weapons trained on the station’s reactors.”

”Red alert. Helm, full impulse.” Maxwell ordered. ‘This could explain why the Talarians weren’t talking. Could they be willing to jeopardize years of peace between the Federation and their government? Or could this be a simple reaction of fear because of the incident? Fear that the station was under enemy control? There was only one way to find out.’ Maxwell watched as the station appeared on the main viewer and began to grow more closely. He began to notice the reduction in speed as the station expanded on the main viewer slower than before. He then got a good look at the crafts around the station.

The cargo ships were just floating there, dead in space. As for the small crafts, they were a bunch of workbees and shuttles, all with sub-designations that indicated they belonged to the station. At another glimpse at one of the cargo ships, Maxwell could see scorched marks from weapons fire. “What do the sensors tell us about those crafts?” Maxwell requested as his eyes turned to the two Talarian cruisers that were just at the level of the mushroom top of the station where it caps off before the stem but they were angled nose down where their weapons had a direct line to the reactor housing of the three fusion generators.

“The shuttles and the workbees appear to be abandoned and unpowered. Trying to establish a power link to restore power and get information from their computer banks but so far no luck. Cargo vessels are adrift in space, with minimum life support, and life signs appear to be stable but I am reading concentration of Co2.” Ops reported.

“Someone coordinate with our transporter techs and have those cargo vessels evacuated. Have teams at the transporter rooms to assist in guiding the crew to sickbay.” Maxwell ordered.

“Something else, sir.” Ops continued. “The scorch marks were caused by phasers.”

Maxwell turned at his waist to look at the Ops officer. “Our own fired on civilian ships?” Obviously because of the affected crew during the incident but more information was needed.

“Yes, sir. They appear to have come from the small crafts.” Said Ops.

“I can concur, Captain.” Tactical chipped in. “More accurately, the phaser marks are from the shuttle crafts.”

After he had twisted to look at the officer at tactical, he relaxed to look back at the view screen. A plan of action was needed. “The hell was the workbees used for then? They don’t have weapons.” He thought out loud before he moved on. “Ops, I want a full scan of the station. I need to know what is online and what is not.” And while they wait for that information. “Tactical, I need an analysis of the Talarian cruisers. Have they fired on the station?”

“There appear to be no scorch marks on the reactor housing that would indicate the Talarians had fired. But their weapons are charged. Nevertheless, however primitive their weapon system may be, enough of their torpedoes will do significant enough damage to cause the fusion generators to overload.” Tactical reported.

“Except the fusion generator behind the housing that their weapons are trained at is offline,” Ops chipped in. “Generators one and three are offline. So far only critical sections of the starbase have power. Sections A, G and I are currently being powered. Shields, weapons, and as we suspected, long-range communication systems are offline.”

That would be operations, computer cores, and sickbay. It was rather self-explanatory as to why those three sections were still powered. The station would need its computer cores to function properly and sickbay was obviously to treat the wounded. But if operations were powered and online, then why have they not been able to coordinate repair efforts to restore communications and return the station to full power? Something was not right. But first. “Hail the Talarians,” Maxwell ordered.

“No response, Captain.” Replied Ops.

“Well, that’s too damn bad. Open hailing frequencies.” Maxwell paused to give Ops the acquitted time to do so. “Talarian cruisers. I am Captain Maxwell of the Federation Starship Gemini. I know you have your weapons locked onto the station’s fusion generators and I know you have your fingers on the trigger. I must warn you, that any acts of aggression towards Starfleet property, will be considered an act of war against the Federation and I will use every instrument this ship has to stop you from destroying the station.” Maxwell paused once more to give them time to weigh the consequences if they were to commit. He then changed his tone. “Now, we’re all friends here. But friends do not ignore each other, especially in the middle of a crisis. So if you would kindly explain yourselves, I will consider forgiving you and not report your aggressive stance to the Federation Council.”

The instant the word ‘council’ left his lips, the screen blinked to reveal a Talarian captain. “We were merely prepared to defend ourselves, Gemini. When one of our cargo ships left this system, the vessel reported that the station was launching several small crafts to attack other civilian vessels. When we got here, everything was silent. We were not sure if the station was preparing to attack us. We would rather be ready for a fight than not at all.”

Maxwell smirked. “Fortunately for you, Captain, if the station were to fire on you, you wouldn’t be able to get a single torpedo out. But I assure you, we are here to investigate the situation and would greatly appreciate it if you would not be pointing your guns at it.”

“We will take your request into consideration, Captain.” The screen blinked, the face of the Talarian captain replaced with the two Talarian cruisers on the main viewer.

“Keep an eye on those cruisers,” Maxwell ordered as he headed for the turbolift. “I want an away team to meet me in transporter room one. We’re going to get to the bottom of this.”

Maxwell observed the rays of light from the transporter beam disappear and leave him in the darkness that was unshrouded by the constant flash of red light from the lamps encircling the ceiling and under the consoles that encircled the entire room. There was also the faint haze of light from the active consoles but were overtaken by the red light with every flash. Maxwell could see several crew members either in their chains while resting on a console or sprawled out on the floor. Aside from them, there were quite a few still active and they stared at Maxwell and his away team. One of them was a familiar face. “Commander Ward.”

“Captain! You have no idea how good it is to see you!” Said Ward. “When we saw the Gemini on sensors, we were quite relieved but certainly did not expect you.”

Maxwell smirked, “Oh you know. Just happened to be in the neighborhood.” With his eyes having adjusted, he could see the woman rolling her eyes.

“Please. Starfleet sent someone, that someone being you because we’ve been out of contact. Surprised it took this long.” Said Ward.

“Obviously you are in dire need of assistance, otherwise you would know that what happened here on the station, happened everywhere else too.” Said Maxwell, as he watched Lexie sigh before she placed a hand on the edge of the large console in the center of the operations center and put her weight into it.

“Yeah, we’ve been living on rations and I’ve tried to sleep but it is hard to sleep on the floor as the section with our quarters has no power and no life support,” Ward told him. “Luckily, life support is still operational in other areas of the station. Just haven’t been able to divert it anywhere since we’re locked out…”

“Computer, disengage lockdown sequence. Starfleet Command authorization, code Zero-Alpha-Two-Two-Omega-Zero.” There was a pause then a response from the recognizable feminine voice of the computer, “Authorization recognized. Lockdown disengaged.” With that, the entire room went from being dark and gloomy to bright and blinding. Maxwell frowned and as his security team checked on everyone else, he tried to make sense of the situation but figured he was better off just to ask. “Why haven’t you disengaged the lockdown sequence?”

Ward sighed once more but in relief. “You think we haven’t tried? Someone scrambled the command codes. I don’t know who, but we’ve been trying to force the lockdown to disengage but so far no luck. Lucky for us, we had a team of engineers in sickbay reach the computer room, since going from Section G to I is better and faster than A to I. But so far no success.” Ward explained. “At least until you showed up.”

Maxwell took a quick look around before he looked back at Ward to ask the obvious. “The code was given to me by Starfleet Command in case of something like this. Your captain should have known the code. Where is Captain Hunt?”

“Yeah, about that. He’s in sickbay, likely still unconscious.” Ward told him.

Maxwell nodded his head, as that was one of the thoughts he had. “What happened to him?”

“He saved my life. We had some young officers in the operations center and when Frontier Day happened, it turned into a bit of a brawl. We lost a few, and one of the young officers grabbed a phaser from security. During the attempt to grab the phaser, the security officer tried to bash it out of their hand but instead, they were bashing the phaser against the wall.” Ward explained.

Maxwell watched Ward pull a phaser out of the holster on her hip and set it down before him. He assumed it was the phaser she referred to, to which he picked it up and examined it. “Doesn’t appear to be too damaged.”

“No, but try to max out the setting.”

Maxwell turned on the phaser and swiped the power setting to max but it stopped short of a few bars. “Seventy percent but still in the kill range.”

Ward nodded her head. “The affected young officer then aimed it at me and Hunt happened to have been standing next to me when he pushed me out of the way. So the young officer shot him instead when they missed me. The blast pierced through his abdomen and destroyed two, three, and four of his lumbar vertebrae.”

Maxwell shook his head. “Jesus. He survived?”

“He was in critical condition but the doctors were able to stabilize him several days ago. I mean, aside from his lower back, their focus was on the damaged organs in his abdomen.” Ward told him.

“Well, that certainly explains a lot. What about restoring communication systems? Or the two fusion generators?” Maxwell asked.

“Aside from being completely locked out and unable to disengage the lockdown sequence by someone we don’t know right now,” Ward repeated with a slight annoyance in her voice.

“I know you’re sleep-deprived but no need for the attitude,” Maxwell told her.

“I apologize, just the same reason we could not disengage the lockdown, is the same reason we have no access to critical systems. I don’t know who the saboteur is but they really screwed us.” Said Ward as she pulled out a chair and sat down.

Maxwell smiled, “Lucky for us, that code I used should release the entire station back into our control.” Maxwell looked for it on the center console and once he found it, he activated the station-wide intercom. “Attention all personnel. This is Captain Henry Maxwell and I am to inform you that, in case you haven’t realized, the station control has been restored. I recommend that security teams and medical teams search the station for anyone in need of assistance. Engineering teams and damage control teams to begin repairs on critical systems. Most importantly, do it in shifts. Those who have the energy, do their best to get as much work done. As for those who need sleep, get some rest, because your assistance in restoring this station to full functionality will be very much needed.” He paused as he thought about how his motivational speech was. “I’ll see to it that Starfleet Command commends you all.”

After he had turned off the station-wide intercom, he could hear a snicker from Ward. “You know, I used to remember you being a strict and by-the-book kind of gal.”

Ward looked at him. “I’m going to bed. If you don’t need me.”

Maxwell shook his head. “No. No. Go right ahead.”

“Henry?!” A sound of surprise and shock came from a woman’s voice. When Maxwell looked at where the voice came from, he saw a familiar face that he was quite surprised to see. The woman was Abigail Maxwell, married to his brother James. She’s one of many Federation Ambassadors but he had failed to read the entire station’s manifest to realize that she was assigned here. “Abi!? What are you doing here?”

“She’s assigned to be our ambassador with the Tholians,” said Ward.

The next thing Maxwell knew, was that Abigail practically ran towards him and threw her arms around him in a tight embrace. “I am so happy to see you!” He felt her pull away just to find her eyes locked with his. “I’ve been trying to get in contact with James, is he okay?”

Maxwell smiled and nodded his head. “Yes, my brother is just fine. As the old saying would go, he dodged a bullet.” He heard a large exasperated sigh of relief come from her.

“Thank god. Now that worry is out of the way, we have a much bigger problem.”

Maxwell frowned. “Bigger than making sure your husband is alive?”

“At the risk of a war breaking out. Yes.” Said Abigail.

“With the Talarians?” Maxwell asked with slight amusement.

Abigail did not look amused. “No. With the Tholians. The Tholian ambassador is missing.”