"Cheeseburgers and Fat Men"

The Martyrs Part IV

"Okay that's a number 1 with extra cheese no onions?.and a Biggie Combo with
tater tots instead of fries right?"

"Uh yeah?that should do it?go ahead and supersize that number one as well."

"Will that be all?"

"Uh?..yeah?.that's about it."

"Okay sir go ahead and pull around to the side to pick up your order."

The cranky old engine coughed to life, and the rust-covered flatbed truck
rumbled forward in a cloud of dust and fumes.

This may be the end of the Vered colonies as they were known.

This may be the cusp of a new era in interstellar terrorism and striking
back against the Federation oppressors?..

But a man still had to eat right?

Gavin Joor hauled on the ancient steering wheel, guiding the truck to a
squeaky stop while his assistant young Marcum fiddled with the radio
reception.

Most of the radio stations had gone to static, with only the few public
service networks continuing to broadcast evacuation instructions or notices
about scheduling.

Not a damn bit of music.

There was a rustle of bags and drink cup, and money exchanged.

Joor held the truck in position until his partner verified the order was
indeed correct, before shifting back into gear and rumbling into traffic
accompanied by a cloud of monoxide and a squeal of ancient brake pads.

"They give us enough ketchup?"

Marcum dug into the bags, rustling around. "Yeah?..not enough though. Stingy
bastards never give you enough packets and you end up eating dry fries."

Joor grimaced and guided the vehicle slowly down the crowded dirt street.

Traffic was usually light this time of day, but the evacuation had thrown
all that to hell and gone.

Vehicles littered the side of the road??double parked, or even up on curbs
as people were stuffing all their worldly possessions into every conceivable
bit of space within them.

Kids were screaming?..Fathers were swearing and tugging on ropes tying down
bundles of their lives atop old subcompact cars

,while all around them you could see the cool, emotionless glares of men in
the uniform of Starfleet Marines.

The soldiers bothered nobody, but marched up and down the street observing
everything, merely lending the threat of their presence to the situation.

"Starting to get bad." Marcum muttered, chewing on a French fry he dug out
of the bags. "People are starting to panic what with only a few days left."

"It'll get worse." Joor grumbled. "That's when the fireworks will start, and
those happy masks the Marines are wearing will come off. " he grimaced as he
drove. "They'll put away the hand phasers, and the rifles will start to
appear. That'll be the end of it."

Marcum tore his eyes from the chaos on the street and considered his
partner. "So why you doing this Gavin? You're ex-Fleet right? Seems like
you're playing on the wrong side."

Joor shifted gears angrily and sighed. "I spent 30 years in Starfleet kid.
Busting my ass up one side of the universe and down the other. Took an oath
to uphold the Federation and all its ideals?..freedom?..self
determination?..blah blah blah. "

"Yep 30 years defending that idea, and I come here to retire in peace, only
to find out that those 30 years were a lie. No liberty?.no rights to make my
own choices?..I found out I'd been used."

"Used?.." Marcum munched thoughtfully for a moment as Joor guided the truck
around a stalled vehicle. "You're gonna kill a lot of your Starfleet buddies
y'know."

"Worse things than death kid." the driver spat out the window. "Worst thing
is to being betrayed. To live your life and find out at the end it was all
for nothing?all a waste." he glanced up into the empty skies above. "Better
those boys up there in orbit die now fighting for their illusions than to be
faced with reality 20 years down the road."

The truck squeaked to a stop at a four lane intersection where a uniformed
Marine was directing traffic.

The motor chugged quietly while the two conspirators patiently waited their
turn. Traffic criss-crossed in front of them. Busses full of screaming kids
and the elderly. Private vehicles burdened down with too many packages.
Military vehicles rumbling by on clattering treads.

Bad signs.

Finally the young Marine turned traffic cop pointed to the conspirators and
motioned them forward.

Joor found himself smiling and giving a slight wave to the Marine as he
passed by.

"What was that for?" Marcum asked after they passed. "That's the enemy
Gavin. Why'd you wave."

Joor sighed and tuned a corner. "Just??" he said softly, "?.just being
polite kid."

******************************

******************************

They were nearly complete.

The Uranium was done 'cooking' as the conspirators had come to call the
process. Left alone for a week to decay, the enriched lump had naturally
turned itself into a refined lump of silver Plutonium that sat innocently
behind a radiation shield.

The manufacturing of the 'devices' was much more straightforward.

Again the Transporter expertise of Gavin Joor had proved itself quite
valuable.

An old replicator had been acquired and once its Bio-Slush tanks had been
scrubbed out, it was perfect for their needs.

"You see." Joor had explained. "A replicator is just a fancy transporter
that takes raw material from its slush tanks and recombines it into
different arrangements and shapes."

"It seems to be able to make anything, but that's only because it draws on
the periodic table of elements to put atoms together one at a time in
different combinations. It doesn't actually makes things out of thin air, it
has to have a ready stock of material to use as its building blocks."

He motioned. The difference between the two however is that a transporter
works on the quantum level?.quarks?.mesons etc etc, while the replicator can
only focus down to the atomic level?..hydrogen?helium?.iron. Your basic
table of elements.

He patted the now empty Bio-Slush tanks.

"Now normally replicators are stocked with a sort of organic 'soup'
containing all the basic elements from which to draw building blocks."

Gavin explained , "Now say you order a glass of water from the replicator.
It merely digs out a few hydrogen atoms??.combines them with oxygen and
dumps the whole mixture into a container of silicon. A glass?.filled with
water. Basic elements."

The group nodded. Most were munching on leftover French fries or slurping on
malts.

"The whole process however depends on having the right 'soup' in the slush
tanks. You need all the parts right? You cant change lead into gold, element
to element?..but you can combine tin and copper and make a bronze bowl??or
copper and zinc and have a little brass statue of something."

Marcum spoke up. "So if I wanted another hamburger?.."

Joor nodded. "Basically we're combing a whole bunch of Carbon atoms with
Hydrogen , Nitorgen and few other elements to form organic molecules, amino
acids and stuff like that. We're still just working with basic elements
drawn from the standard 'soup' mix in the slush-tanks."

He paused," But what happens if we only have a hunk of iron in the slush
tank? If you order a hamburger, the raw materials are missing, so all you
get is a metal lump that looks like a hamburger."

"Really?"

"No not really?most replicators have safeguards that will actually just
terminate the request and not produce anything, but you get my point?"

Erich asked again," So say we load the tanks with what's left of my
hamburger? What can we make then?"

Joor frowned. "Im not a chemist, but I'd say you could make anything that
had the basic elements of your hamburger as building blocks. Hydrogen
gas?..water??maybe a few different varieties of
proteins??meats?..beans?peanuts."

"Only I couldn't request a metal fork could I?"

"No??unless there was a metallic element present in the tank?.you cant make
one from scratch."

There was a long pause as everyone thought this over.

"So what?"

Joor smiled and patted the now empty Bio-slush Tanks.

"We've emptied out these bad boys, so now we just fill it back up with our
lump of Plutonium. The replicator will still make anything we want, but now
it only has plutonium atoms to use as building blocks. Since Plutonium is an
element, and not a molecule, it cant create new atoms?.only rearrange them."

Erich again had been the one to ask the questions. "So what do we tell it to
make out of plutonium??I already know replicators are hard wired not to make
explosive devices."

Joor had smiled. "We ask for a metal sphere?.."

***********

**********

They made two of them to be exact.

Two perfectly smooth and metallically pure spheres of refined Plutonium
stood on their respective pedestals shining brilliantly under the flickering
neon lights.

The rest of the bomb was easy. Easy at least for a group of miners who had
decades of experience in rigging up shaped explosives and highly advanced
timers.

The theory was simple. Take a sphere of plutonium and wrap it up under a
layer of high explosives rigged NOT to explode *outwards*?..but rather to
detonate *inwards *compressing the plutonium into an ultra dense ball of
radioactive matter that would 'go critical'.

The rest was left to nature.

Building the devices was easy.

They were much bigger than expected however. The 1st construct??LITTLE BOY
was more than ten feet long and weighed in at over 4000kg.

A true monster to behold, and that was only their first effort.

The second bomb was code named FAT MAN and was a whopping 4600kg, filling a
whole assembly area of the warehouse.

The six conspirators stood there before their terrible creations?..staring
in awe at the horrible potential they had wrought.

Two atomic bombs??

Almost 9000kg of explosive potential.

Erich cocked his head sideways. "This is fucking stupid. How the hell are we
gonna sneak anything this freaking huge *ANYWHERE*?"

*****************

*****************

It was simple if you thought about it. Horribly simple.

Being miners, there was relatively easy access to buying two surplus heavy
lift shuttles for cheap prices.

Now that the planet was going out of business, *everything *was surplus, and
if a bunch of hicks wanted to spend good money on a couple of rickety old
shuttles?.more power to them.

The pair?.dubbed *ALPHA *and *OMEGA *for lack of anything more imaginative
sat in the back lot, under a film of dust, and surrounded by rusty old
tractors and bits of scrap metal.

With the back holds cleaned up, and superfluous supply cabinets torn out,
you could just about fit one of the mammoth bombs into each.

To be sure the sides of the bomb casing were scraping the ceiling and both
walls, leaving only a tiny space for the pilot to sit, but it was in fact
technically possible to load them up.

Flying the dang things fully loaded was sure to be a lot of fun, but it was
left to Gavin Joor to solve that problem once again.

"This is still stupid." Erich was complaining. "No Starfleet vessel is gonna
let us get within 100 kilometers of it without running a scan. Heck??how are
we supposed to get the pilot inside what with the bomb blocking the whole
aft end?"

Raal, the project leader ignored the comments, " Run a scan if you please
Erich?.tell me what you see?"

Frowning, the youngster pulled out an old whirling tricorder and passed it
in front of the shuttle.

"I see a shuttle??with a big ass nuclear bomb in back?.which is exactly what
Starfleet is gonna pick up."

Raal nodded. "I see?.Mr. Joor?..if you would be so kind?"

Standing to one side, Joor grinned and tapped out a few computer commands.

A high pitch whine filled the air, and the back lot exploded into twinkling
blue light as the dancing energies of a transporter beam enveloped the
mammoth bomb, disassembling it into a sparkle of energy.

Erich stood open mouthed for a moment, staring at the now empty shuttle. "
Don't??..don't tell me after all this work you just disintegrated our bomb?"

"Not at all." Gavin motioned to the control boards where lights were
blinking, "I just used the shuttles onboard transporter to 'beam it
up'??..I'm holding it nicely in the transporter buffer."

"Scan again now, Erich." Raal commanded.

He did so and came away amazed. "I see a shuttle?.an empty shuttle, with its
transporter system running in the background."

"Exactly?.and that's all that Starfleet will see. An empty shuttle?with a
transporter that somebody forgot to shut off??until."

Gavin pressed another button, and with a monstrous swirl of light, the bomb
reformed itself inside the shuttle, the deck planks groaning under the
sudden weight.

"And ka-boom!" Raal smiled triumphantly.

"Hiding it in the transporter until we get aboard?" Erich exclaimed.
"Brilliant?.but I thought there was a limit on how long we could keep
something in the transporter buffer before it degraded?"

"Somewhat." Gavin Joor admitted. "We cant do it for hours and hours without
risking some problems on the reassembly side, but I ran across an old
article on how a retired Starfleet Engineer pulled off the same trick
keeping himself in stasis for 70 years." Joor shrugged. "I'm not that good,
but I think I can manage 30 minutes or so until we dock."

Erich stared at the two shuttles. The Alpha and the Omega.

Two Bombs??.Two Invisible bombs.

One glorious destiny.

Starfleet didn't have a chance.

~Getting to Know the Natives~

Lt. Thyago Carneiro
Ens. Sharzhevashi zh'Rin

Cutter, Thyago and Shi were led from their hut, down a series of
wooden ladders and rope bridges and tied together walkways, towards
the bottom of the village. Here, the cliffs on which the village hung
were wider than above. The rock here was softer than elsewhere and
had been eroded away sometime in the past by the river that now flowed
several more yards below them, creating a large half-tube hollow in
the cliff wall. This long space had apparently been made into a type
of common area for the village. This was where they would hold the
festival.

The two human girls, Nani and Anari'i, led Thyago and Shi, dressed in
their ceremonial 'welcomed guest' attire, their bodies painted in
symbolic expression and prayer, into the large room and to one of the
many tables that were set up. The two Fruna'lin, Cutter and Kala,
followed them into the room, but then walked off in a different
direction.

Thyago leaned towards Shi, "I think we lost our bird."

Shi glanced around. She had been paying too much attention to their
surroundings and the cool air brushing against parts of her body not
commonly exposed to cool air. "Did he fly away," she asked.

"No, he's with Kala," he said, remembering the woman's name. "I think
it'll be a while before we see them again, se ligou?"

"Oh, yes," Shi said, "it is likely we will not see him for some time.
When he saw her, she smiled. I-- I find myself considering that
perhaps I am unfortunate to have my bondmates. I do not believe I
will be able to celebrate fully as others appear to be able to."

"What? What, you think orgy? Nicccce."

Shi blinked. "I do not believe so," she said, then looked around at
the others in the room. "Though, perhaps. In truth, we really know
little about the people here. Depending on the festival, I remember
reading of cultures whose festivals would feature a variety of mating
rituals. Some would be conducted for the sake of pleasure. I know
nothing of the sexuality of the people here. I would, however, guess
that there will not be an orgy. There are not enough pillows for
that."

The room was large, very large, with grass mats covering the floor. A
series of low tables had been set in the center of the room and took
up most of the length. For the moment, they were empty but would soon
be filled with food and drink. Several people sat around the tables
and others lounged about the room. It appeared that the celebration
was just beginning. Shi found the two men she recognized and waved to
them. 'Eleu and Kanunu returned her gesture. She realized that as
people stared at her now, there was more of her to stare at and she
felt her cheeks flush purple.

Others filed in behind them and Shi had a feeling the room would be
filled to capacity before long at all.

"Please, make yourself comfortable," Nani said and walked off. Thyago
watched her leave while Shi sat down on the floor near him. The young
man who brought them here, 'Eleu, caught up to her across the room. He
wore what he was wearing several hours ago, only now, the brown
designs painted on his body were in white. They began to speak, their
words too far away to hear, but Nani smiled widely at the boy, and
blushed.

Thyago sighed, and slumped down next to Shi.

Noting the defeat in his posture, Shi leaned close. "What is it?"

"Nani," he languished. "I think she may be taken."

Shi looked up to where 'Eleu and Nani carried on an animated
conversation. She placed a hand on Thyago's shoulder. "It does appear
so," she said. "But, soon we will need to return to Galaxy and it is
likely you will never see her again. The situation here saddens me
more than I can put into words.

"Look at us. These people have accepted us as guests, dressed us in
their clothing, and have welcomed us to their table. We are a part of
their celebration. They are a beautiful and vibrant people. And when
this feast is over, we will have to tell them they have to leave all
of this. All of their homes, their chalk, body paints, shell and leaf
jewelry, and everything else will all be taken away from them when we
evacuate them away from here. This place is so much a part of who
they are, Thyago. Will their culture survive if we force them to
leave?"

"Why wouldn't it?" Thyago asked. "Brazil colonized Titan over a
hundred years ago, and those first colonists left their Sao Paolo
ranches and Rio beaches and Amazon jungles behind. But, the culture
on Titan is just as 'Brazilian' as Brazil is. Everyone is still
Catholic, we still speak the language, we still play samba and futbol,
we still celebrate Carnivale. These people can resettle somewhere
else, there'll still be chalk and wood and rock and whatever else they
have here."

"There is a difference," Shi said. "Brazil was not forced to relocate
in order to survive. And all that you have mentioned, those are
activities that can be performed in any environment where your species
may survive. The culture here is so completely tied to this place and
this land, that I do not believe it would easily survive a forceful
relocation. I believe that forcing these people will break them. And
they will not understand why it is happening."

Shi gave Thyago a significant look. "This will not be easy at all,"
she said. "Telling them, making them understand, and then uprooting
their entire civilization and forcing them to start over again
somewhere new, somewhere different."

A large, fat, round man sat down on the ground across the table from
them. "Oholo," Shi said, but the large man said nothing. He merely
smiled a ridiculously wide grin for a moment, and then shifted his
attention elsewhere. Then, two small, wrinkled old women carried two
large platters of food to the table, full of dark, leaf wrapped meat
rolls, cooked carrots and yams, various thick pastes, orange, soft
yellow and dark purple, small glazed ribs, oysters on a shell, white
fish in a thick peanut sauce, some type of stir fry, and lavender
colored bread rolls, and then the women sat down to one side of the
fat man. Nani and 'Eleu came to the table, she carrying a number of
small clay cups and he carrying two large pitchers of water, followed
by Kanunu, who carried a plate of steamingly hot roasted bird,
possibly pheasant. Nani and 'Eleu sat on the other side of the table
from them, and Kanunu sat next to Shi. The table was filled out by a
number of other people, a cute, brown haired woman sat to Thyago's
side, and another next to her, and two small girls, no older than ten,
sat next to Kanunu.

"I am quite certain I have never seen this much food in a single
location before," Shi said, her eyes wide. To their hosts, she added,
"We thank you for this wonderful meal."

One by one, the natives around them began to grab food off the
platter. They had no plates, they only used their hands.

Following the examples of the natives, Shi reached out and began to
sample from the various platters. The food, as she expected it would
be, was delicious.

Thyago shrugged and reached out for the small ribs. "What type of
meat is this?"

"'Iole," Nani said from across the table.

Thyago nodded for a moment, as if that had answered his question. "I
don't know what that is," he said.

"Um, it is a small, um... digging animal," she explained, and 'Eleu
watched him curiously.

"What, like a, like a rat?" he asked, then glanced at Shi.

"Just try it, Thyago," Shi said. She took some of the same meat from
a platter and tasted it herself. She smiled at their hosts.

He grimmaced and looked at the glazed meat with sudden amount of
disgust. He sniffed at it, and then very tentatively nibbled at it.
"Oh," he squealed, "Tastes like pork."

"For a moment," Shi said, her antennae held in a manner that might
suggest humor, "I feared perhaps it might be Cutter. But, I believe
he would taste like chicken. I wonder how many of the dishes here
taste like chicken. That is a phenomena that still fascinates the
people of my world."

"Must be your blue tongue. Only chicken tastes like chicken to me,"
Thyago said around a mouthful of food.

"Perhaps it is the humans of Earth, as that is where the claim
originates," Shi said. "We do not have chicken on my world."

"Do you like the food?" Kanunu asked from Shi's side.

"I like it very much," she said. "The taste is very pleasing, and I
find the spices used in the dishes brings the flavors alive. When we
have to leave, I will surely miss the food and people here."

"Be sure you save the bones," he said, "You must bury them at the end
of the night."

"Of course," Shi said. She set some of the bones aside on the plate,
for later. "Why must the bones be buried?"

"They were stolen from Ao," Kanunu said as his explanation.

"I understand," she said, without truly doing so. However, having
read some of the mythologies of her own people, it was not too
difficult to extrapolate.

"May I ask, what is it like to walk beneath the waves?"

"Beneath the waves?"

"Under the water," he explained. "I went to the mouth of our river
once when I was younger. I swam in the ocean, and tried to see, but
Hekili draws a curtain over his realm, and the salt hurt my eyes. What
is his land like?"

"I do not believe I know," Shi said. "I have spent time in the ocean,
on Earth and Pacifica. Sadly, while I was on my own world, I never
spent much time in our oceans. When I return, I intend to do so. The
most interesting facet of exploring beneath the waves of Pacifica was
my aquatic breather began to leak. I had to share Shalla's, she is my
zhi, my sister I believe you would say, breather until we could reach
the surface and I could replace it with a functional one."

He looked at her, very confused. "I don't understand."

"Which part do you not understand, Kanunu," she asked.

"You've never seen Hekili's palace? I thought your kind were born there?"

"I am afraid not," she said. "I am of a species known as Andorians. I
come from a world called Andor. It is a world much like yours, in
truth. There are others of my kind living on a world called Andoria,
it is a frigid place, filled with ice, snow and freezing temperatures.
I hope I have not disappointed you."

"You are not a maiden of the sea?"

"I do not believe I am," Shi said. "I am merely an Andorian and a
Starfleet officer."

"Oh."

She gave him a gentle smile, though she could really only feel the
sadness of having disappointed him by not being what he had thought
her. "Could you tell me more of Hekili and the maidens of the sea?"

"Hey, are you guys cool here?" Thyago asked, leaning into their
conversation. "Leila, here, and I are going to go off and, uh, mark
each other's necks or something. If you know what I mean."

Shi looked at the thin, brown haired woman sitting next to him.

"Enjoy your time, Thyago," Shi said. "I will remain here poking holes
in the preconceptions our hosts may have in regards to our origins. I
will see you later."

Turning back to Kanunu and wondering what else she might have yet to
do to tarnish the image of the Federation and Starfleet, she smiled to
Kanunu, though didn't really feel it. Soon, she would have to tell
the people here that they needed to leave their homes and lives
behind. Perhaps when this mission ended, she might find a way to
botch a First Contact mission or perhaps extend a diplomatic offer
that would be mistakenly misconstrued and result in a new war against
the Federation. Perhaps being in Hekili's palace would not be as bad.

~Storms of Hekili, Part I~

Cutter Kara'nin

"This is kumara," Kala said, holding out a bite of soft orange tuber for
Cutter to eat, "Once, there were no kumara anywhere. It only lived in the sky,
in gardens of Wahanui. Loko, who lived here, heard about the wonderful food
that could be found in the far reaches of the sky, in the gardens of the
stars, and he wanted some.

"So, he grew a stalk of 'ohe that was so tall, and so strong, he could climb
it up into the sky. He climbed up into the sky and into Wahanui's garden.
Wahanui is old, and irritable, but he welcomed Loko into his home as people
are supposed to do. And Loko asked if he may have some of his kumara, but
Wahanui said no. 'They are mine,' he said, 'and only I shall ever taste their
sweetness.'

"What could Loko do? He had been refused. He stayed with Wahanui for the
rest of the afternoon, and when it came time for the afternoon sleep, Wahanui
gave Loko a small patch of grass in the corner to sleep on. Wahanui went and
lay down on a woven mat, next to a large basket of fresh picked kumara, and
he went straight to sleep. Loko lied down on his grass, but he could not
sleep, so he went outside and sat on a sandstone rock.

"Maui walked by, and noticed Loko sitting forlorn. 'What is wrong,' Maui
asked. And Loko told him his problem. Maui walked up and peered into
Wahanui's doorway and saw the basket of kumara. 'That old man is selfish,' Maui
said, 'he has so many kumara, he would never know if a few were missing or not.
You should just go take some. How would he know?'

"Maui would have stolen them himself (since Maui steals a lot), but he had
not been invited into Wahanui's home, and thus, could not enter. So, Loko
went in, and tiptoed up next to where Wahanui slept. And, he reached into the
basket and took a bunch of kumara. Then he tiptoed back out, without ever
waking Wahanui.

"Maui congratulated Loko on his stealth. 'Good work,' he said, 'now give me
my share of the food.' 'What share? You did no work,' Loko said, and Maui
replied that it was his idea to steal the kumara in the first place. So,
they decided to split the food up evenly between them, two each. Maui
immediately ate his share all up, and Loko had only a taste of his. He saved the
rest, and then climbed back down from the sky and...

"Cutter?" Kala asked, noticing that the other Fruna'lin had stopped
listening.

"Yes?" he asked.

"You are not listening to me. Are you not interested in why we are
celebrating?"

"I am," he said immediately. But, there was no sincerity in his words. He
looked up at her, into her brown-red eyes, and realizing that it was okay for
him to tell the truth, said, "No. No, I'm not interested."

She, too, searched his eyes. "May I ask why not?"

Because within the week, their entire society would be uprooted and
transplanted onto another world. He opened his mouth, but then rethought his words.
He sighed. "No, I... I don't want to ruin your night."

She studied him for another moment, silently, but then decided that she
could not gain any further answers, so she sat back and cast her gaze out to her
fellow colonists. They ate quietly for several moments.

"There is some place you would rather be?" she asked.

"No," he said. It was only half a lie.

"There is," she said flatly, calling out his lie. "Is there someone you
left behind?"

He laughed, how preposterous that idea was. "No. There's no one like that."

"Like what?"

"Uh, well, you mean, do I have a mate, right?" Cutter asked.

She narrowed her eyes, trying to understand what he meant. "A blessing from
Laukapalili? No. Well, yes, I guess. But, I meant more generally. Is
there someone else you wish you were with? A friend?"

"Oh," he said, and thought. And thought. And thought. But, he could think
of no one. No one on the Galaxy that he considered to be a friend. No one?


"No," he said, "there's no one else I'd rather be with, right now." At
least that much was true. "What about you? Do you have 'a blessing from
Laukapalili?'"

She blushed, "No. I... There are rumors that a boy, Kanunu, has eyes for
me, but I think that is because he is fascinated by rare and unusual things.
And, I think he is too young for me."

There was a lull in the conversation after that. Not that Cutter minded.
He was enjoying simply sitting next to the red feathered Fruna'lin, feeling
their wings rest against one another's.

"Besides my mother, you are the only other child of Hau that anyone here has
ever seen," Kala said suddenly.

"Really?" Cutter asked, surprised at how isolated she was from her own
people. She nodded. "You've never thought of leaving? Of going back to be with
your own kind?" he asked.

She thought for a moment, and shrugged. "Of course I have, at times. When
I was young, especially. Apparently, we mature faster than humans. It was
hard for them to understand, that I was no longer a child," she explained.
"But, this is my home. I grew up here, these people are my kind."

"But, they're not. They're different from us. They can't fly, like we
can," Cutter said.

"So? 'Eleu can shoot a bird from a hundred paces. A can't do that," she
said.

"That's not... That's different. You could learn how to do that. They
could never learn to do what we can do."

She shrugged, and Cutter backed off, letting his eyes wander back out to the
crowds. "Why do they wear your feathers?" he asked.

"I am a daughter of Hau. They use my feathers to get close to her, and for
other things," she explained. "And their color is rare. Pana favors red
fletching on his arrows. Hinemoa wore red when she became pregnant."

"They worship you."

Kala looked at him uncertainly. "No."

"They do. They worship your feathers. They think you are closer to their
gods than they are. They worship you. Their kind always worships ours."

She shook her head in disagreement, but she could not come up with any
rebuttal. "You hate them?" she asked, and he looked at her. His mouth was open,
her question had caught him unaware, and he was not sure what to say. But,
that was answer enough. "You hate them," she stated, "Why do you travel with
them?"

Cutter stared at her, as if in shock. He tried to speak but could not find
the words. He never really had thought that he hated humans before. Annoyed
by them, yes, looked down on them, yes, but hated them? He did, but he did
not want to.

She looked at him, a gaze shifting as she gained understanding into one of
pity. "You do not say what you wish to. You may be a child of Hau, but you
have Hekili's tortured mind," Kala said. She stood up and held out her hand
to him. "Come."

He looked up at her, like a child, lost. He reached for her hand and stood,
and let her lead him away from the festival.

"Monsters"

Zeke Crawford, Farmer
Alinn Kedru, Farm-hand
Janis Nahri, Farm-hand

New B'Hala Colony, Gamma Vered II

===========================

'The guilty one is not he who comits the sin, but the one who causes
the darkness.'
-Victor Hugo

As the steep hills and valleys gave way to rolling farms and small
hamlets, Zeke Crawford began to have his doubts.

The ex-farmer was alone now, the squad of Federation marines now
resting comfortably with whatever ancestors they managed to remember
before dying. He bore their uniform not for any sign of respect or
honor, but merely for the effective camouflage the outfit provided
against the fields of Bajoran hakaj berries, now whithered to thin,
brown canes. Quietly, he walked along a small river along side rows
of dormant crops towards the largest of the small villages that dotted
New B'Hala's southern hemisphere.

The silence was what hooked his thoughts; the small farms and millers,
feed-lots and shops usually bustled with activity mid-day, were now
filled only with the eerie sound of a mild, northerly wind. Wooden
doors to livestock pens swung lazily in the erratic breeze that also
bore the sharp, pungent reminder that animals of many breeds had once
occupied them. They were all gone, down to the last household
critter. Gone.

Other things were gone forever as well. He remembered a freckled face
held beneath hair the color of sun-ripened corn sleeping lazily next
to him, and the broad, honest smile that spread upon her face when she
couldn't help herself. Her laugh. Her eyes, a thousand different
shades of hazel and gold. The surprizing gentleness and warmpth of
her hand, slightly callused from years of farming, Feel of the curve
at the small of her back against his fingers. The smell of her skin,
after lovemaking. The sound of her laughter, and the sound of her
voice - and the words they chose. Day Rahl was an intelligent,
resourceful woman, and should have seen the expression on her
husband's face when she asked him to fight. Zeke Crawford didn't know
how to fight.

He only knew how to kill, and he had forgotten more than she had ever
known. And he was starting to remember.

He remembered the drills, and the practice, and the assignments... and
how he was trained not to care about who he killed, that the
assignment was for the 'greater good'. It was for the 'greater good'
that Senator X needed to be shot from over a mile while delivering a
'dove' speech. It was for the 'greater good' that Captain Y needed to
be poisoned so that Commander Z could assume his command. In the
beginning, he truly wondered what the 'greater good' really was, and
if the Federation would really be the better for what he had done.
Satisfaction developed, then pleasure... then need, followed
eventually by a sheer, degenerate joy. At the top of his game,
Ezekiel Crawford had become Section 31's man, the perfect assassin,
until his last assignment claimed his career.

Kill a farmer. Plantation owner. Single mother. Nothing could be simpler.

Deep in a thicket of evergreens, Zeke had made the final adjustments
to the oil-lens on Beloved's scope and made his first focus on his
target... and froze. She was bathing her smallest in the small creek
running alongside her run-down farmhosue, covered in soap bubbles as
the toddler fought her with all the might a two-year old could muster.
Her hair was a soggy, discheveled mess, she was probably twenty
pounds over-weight from he high-carb diet the settlers had to eat, and
her clothing had seen better days. And he loved her. Part of him
raged at that moment, screaming at his finger and the cold feel of the
Gauss-rifle's oiled trigger, but nothing moved as long as his dry,
unblinking eye looked upon Day Rahl. The wind was brisk that day too,
and soon a single tear had fallen down the killer's cheek. As it
fell, he had lowered the rifle, and the growling, snarling part of him
faded with the dying breeze.

>From deep within him now, the voice raged as he walked along the
riverbank, cursing his weakness and gullibility, silencing whatever
heart or reason he had built upon over the last decade. The debate
thundered in his mind, and it was only the lightning-flash of intense
pain in his right-leg and lower back, and the surreal, slow-motion
feeling of free-fall that dislodged him from it. Gracefully, he looked
at the dark-blue sky that held the image of a thin, crescent moon,
then fell noisily into the glacier-fed stream.

"Got him!"

"Damn Fed! Finish him off Kedru! Finish him off."

TBC

"Clementine, Part 1"

Lieutenant Nathan Everett
Lieutenant, J.G. Victor Krieghoff
J. Andrus Suder (APC - Mekaela)

===

Nathan had watched the whole thing from his front-row seat. Well, it
wasn't a seat so much as a spot on the floor of the cell, but it was
close enough. He'd heard his captors talking to his new cellmate even
before he'd seen them, thanks to the wonderful acoustics these caverns
provided, but Nathan hadn't recognized the voice of the Starfleeter, nor
had he recognized his face once the insurrectionists had finally brought
him to the cell.

He waited for the insurrectionists to leave, waited until their
footfalls stopped echoing, before sitting up and addressing the
newcomer, whose back still faced him. "So, what're you in for?" Nathan
joked, pulling one leg back and resting an arm on his knee as he grinned
at the other man.

Victor continued his scan of the roomy cell for a moment, decided that
it had been adapted from an existing room - most likely a storeroom by
the spacious size - and then turned towards the only other occupant.
"The usual," he offered, eyeing the distance to the cell's other
occupant.

"Yeah, Ah hear that," Nathan replied as he pushed himself to his feet,
brushing his hands off on his pants. He looked away from Victor and
nodded in the direction his captors had walked off. "So, what was up
with them, anyway? When Ah got dragged in here they were all gung-ho,
'death to Starfleet,' but with you..."

"They're afraid of me," Victor explained. "What I'll do, what they
think I was here to do, what I am... the usual."

"Right," Nathan said slowly, an eyebrow going up. He shrugged and
scratched at his head, mussing his already tousled hair, and stepped
towards Victor, extending his other hand. "Lieutenant Nathan Everett,
Vanguards."

Victor glanced at the offered hand for a split-second in surprise before
taking it. "Lieutenant Victor Krieghoff, Security."

A shiver passed up Nathan's spine when Krieghoff shook his hand, but the
pilot mentally waved it off, chalking it up to the draft in their
cavernous setting. Still, now that he was closer to Victor and could see
him a little better, there was just something about the man that
seemed...perturbing.

Since the pilot didn't seem as strongly affected as some by his
presence, Victor decided to try and distract him so that his reaction
didn't get worse given the fact that they were trapped in the same cell
with each other. "So, I know what 'the usual' was for me - and know you
know, but I'm still in the dark about what it means for you.
Care to enlighten me?"

Thankful for the chance to think about something else besides the sense
of unease this guy projected, Nathan answered Victor's question with a
grin. "The usual. Ah was down in New B'Hala--y'know, before the
evacuation officially began--and Ah met one of the locals, a pretty
little Bajoran lady. Anyway, she and Ah kinda hit it off, which didn't
sit too well with her brother, who turned out to be one of our
insurrectionist friends."

Before Victor could say anything, Nathan raised his hands defensively.
"Ah swear Ah didn't touch her," he said. "Ah was a perfect gentleman."

"Oh, I expect that you're telling the truth," Victor nodded. "Jealous
brothers with weapons, and so little sense that they get involved with
things like this, are likely to shoot first if they feel that something
had actually gone on with their sister." He shook his head. "Angelienia
was right about you."

"Whadya mean?"

"She said that the only place women would be safe with you around would
be if you were on a ship crewed entirely by men."

Nathan laughed at that. "Ah can't imagine a worse kinda hell'n that." He
shook his head, still chuckling, but paused mid-laugh and gave Krieghoff
a worried glance. "So uh, Ah guess you and Angel're, uh...y'know..."

"Together?" Victor suggested. "Yes, yes we are." It was amazing how
natural and right those words felt as he said them.

"Good to know," Cowboy murmured, rubbing the back of his neck nervously.
He cleared his throat and looked around. "Alright, Ah guess we prob'ly
can't sit around here all day. You got any idea how we might be able to
get outta this fix?"

"You do know that they're listening to us right now, don't you?"
Victor asked with a smile. "Possibly with monitoring equipment, but
certainly acoustically at the very least - the echoes in this room
aren't just for dramatic effect."

"Yeah, well, a prisoner's first duty's to escape. Or so Ah've heard,
Ah've never actually been one before," Nathan muttered as he looked
around the cell again, this time more carefully. "You really think a
buncha civvies woulda thought of that?"

"Some of these people - the older ones at least - learned their trade in
the Occupation fighting the Cardassians, and honed their skills later on
in the Dominion War. There's simply no way that they'd have *not*
thought of something as simple as that." Victor paused, held up a hand
to forestall Nathan's response, and addressed the empty air. "I hope
that they at least got you a chair out there."

There was a moment of silence as the echoes of his voice faded, and then
a single, short, bark of laughter immediately identifiable as coming
from the half-Bajoran/half-Cardassian woman. "More than you've got."

Victor turned back to Nathan. "You see?"

"That was creepy, man," the pilot said. He looked off in the direction
the woman's voice had come from, but couldn't see her in the darkness.
"Alright, fine. Since you seem to be the expert here, what do you think
we oughta do?"

"What do we do?" Victor stretched and looked around the room. "Oh, I
think we'll check the room for any flaws in construction that might be
exploited to help us escape - this was likely a storeroom before they
converted it, and they don't normally have the same construction issues
that cells do. And while we're at it, I think we ought to have a look
for the monitoring sensors too, and see if they've left is the
possibility that we can disable or interfere with them - in a completely
accidental and unassuming manner of course." He waved a hand at the
room. "And I think we should critique their efforts in loud and clear
tones while we do it - craftsmen always appreciate honest criticism of
their work, you know."

"Got it," Nathan replied. He turned and walked off into the darkness,
planning on feeling around the cavernous walls for any loose rocks or
monitoring devices, when suddenly he cried out in surprise.

Victor turned towards the sound. "What's wrong?"

"Ah tripped on somethin'!" came Nathan's reply, followed by a few
muttered curses. The muttering stopped, and a moment later, he spoke up
again. "Hey, Vic, there's someone else here! You alright, buddy?"

The figure slumped on the floor stirred. "I should have chosen the
torpedo tube."

"What?" Cowboy asked, blinking.

"Nothing," Andrus grunted as he pushed himself up into a seated
position. Whoever had knocked him out had done a good job; it was
difficult to get a 'feel' for the people. "Where the hell am I?"

"In a cavern," Victor offered helpfully. "In a canyon. In an excavation
for a mine. In a storeroom turned into a cell." He nodded towards the
dim figure of Nathan. "And, if my companion is to be believed, in hell,
since there are no women here."

Shit, Andrus thought. He knew that voice.

"You probably ought to stay on that side of the cell, Mr. Suder," Victor
continued. "Given our atmospheric surroundings, I expect that the
difficulties with my presence you experienced in the past will be
somewhat worse than normal."

"It's okay at the moment," Andy replied, rubbing his temples gently.
"Thank my concussion."

"Let me see what I can do about helping you out, then." Victor turned
and addressed the darkness again. "I don't suppose that you'd consider
moving Mr. Suder here, and Lieutenant Everett into a different cell,
would you, Clementine?"

A disdainful snort from the darkness was his only answer.

"Would it help if I said, 'please'?" he asked again.

The answer this time was an outright bark of laughter.

"I suppose that means the dancing girls and the reception feast are off,
too?" he tried again.

"Afraid so," the empty woman snorted.

"Damn," Cowboy muttered.

"A pity, I was looking forward to it," Victor replied. "But I
understand; it's hard to run an insurrection on a shoestring, and the
little luxuries like that are always the first things to go."

Outright laughter sounded from the darkness this time. "Funny - but
you're still not getting anyone transferred out of your cell so that
they can see more of the installation here."

"I suppose that answers that, then," Victor sighed. "I'm sorry Mr.
Suder, according to Clementine out there, my efforts to get you your own
cell appear to have been defeated by budget cutbacks and
institutionalized paranoia."

"Damn bureaucrats," Andy drawled.

"They're everywhere," Victor agreed. "Now tell me, weren't you with the
Commander? How did you wind up here - in the short time since my last
check-in?"

"We discovered we were being followed and split up," The Betazoid said
with a frown. The lack of full telepathy was a bit disorienting but not
as bad as it would be when it came back full force, in a locked room
with Krieghoff. "Seemed best at the time."

"Yeah, looks lahk that worked out *real* well," Nathan replied. "Ah hope
you at least put up a fight when they nabbed you."

"Broke his nose," Andy lied easily. "How did they catch you?"

The pilot shuffled his feet nervously, hesitating to respond.

Andrus gave a smug smile.

"Hey!" he protested. "He hit me from behind, Ah didn't have a chance to
fight back!"

"Probably best that you didn't," Victor agreed. "That would have given
them an excuse, and if you'd been seriously injured, that would have
created problems for everyone." He looked around the cell. "Why don't
you join us in inspecting the cell, Mr. Suder? It may give you something
to do to keep your mind off other things?"

****

They had been in the cell for hours and the only thing that had changed
so far was that now the full weight of Victor Krieghoff's presence was
open to him. Andrus scowled at the wall as he started cracking his
knuckles - which was about the only option left to him since their
captors had refused his request for caffeine or cigarettes.

This was what you got for trying to make amends, Andy thought as he all
but wrung his hands. Twitching in a cell with no immediate hope for
rescue. Locked in a room with a ... thing and ...

In a fluid move that would have surprised him had he not been so
overwhelmed, Andrus hopped to his feet and nearly leapt towards the
bars. "Hey! Isn't it time for questioning or something?"

"TRINITY : Alpha and Omega"

Part V of the Martyrs.

Captain Johnathan Yewell reclined back in his rickety old command chair and
smiled.

Three more days of this and he'd be a rich man.

Around him a hired crew, busied themselves with the considerable task of
finding space to feed, water and house thousands of Vered Colony refugees.

Yewell was the recent inheritor of the aged Transport ship SS
BOTTOMFEEDER??An old, but solid Colonial sized transport with accommodations
for over 5000 passengers.

Unfortunately for him, he's also inherited a rather substantial debt forcing
him to accept some rather risky missions as a way of making good those
payments.

At first subcontracting for Starfleet in the evacuation of the Vered cluster
seemed like a real bad idea.

After all there was a shooting war going on, and with a maximum speed of
Warp 4.5 Bottomfeeder made for a real tempting target.

Starfleet however assured Yewell and the other freelance captains that
they'd be sending in some capital ships as escort, and that the Cluster was
out of the way from the primary Hydran advance .

So against his better judgment, but with his creditors looking over his
shoulder, John Yewell had signed up for a four week contract to take on as
many passengers and cargo as he could and transport them to the nearest
Starbase for payment.

A substantial payment as a matter of fact.

He'd have to take a second look at doing some more of these lucrative
government contracts.

Hanging low in orbit, Bottomfeeder was nearing 90% capacity of all the men,
women, and puppy dogs she could carry., and while ideally she could warp out
of system now, Yewel chose to err on the side of safety and remain close to
the USS Galaxy?..leaving only when she did.

It might cost an extra few days in system doing absolutely nothing, but
something about the Battleship's big guns were comforting.

John glanced out the starboard viewport to reassure himself that the big
grey Starship was still there only 50 kilometers away.

Nice and safe.

>> TRANSPORT VESSLE BOTTOMFEEDER?..VERED SHUTTLE OMEGA WITH YOU AT 230,
PASSING 300 MILES WITH INTENTIONS TO DOCK OVER<<

The static filled old radio speaker crackled to life snapping Yewell out of
his musings.

"Shuttle Omega, this is Bottomfeeder, I have you at?.uh?."

Yewel dialed in his external sensors with one hand while operating the Comm
unit with the other, "I have you at 230, 310 Miles, confirm you are on an
intercept course with cargo?"

>>ROGER CONTACT BOTTOMFEEDER?..JUST PASSENGERS AT THIS TIME?.DIDN'T WANT TO
MISS THE LAST BOAT OUT OF HERE. SPARE A ROOM FOR TWO MORE?<<

Yewell chuckled to himself. "Absolutely Shuttle Omega. Always room for
more."

He got paid by the head. "Initiate Delta 2 Approach for Main shuttle bay
docking?.sending the transponder codes now."

*************

OMEGA

*************

"Codes received Bottomfeeder?initiating approach??.we'll see you soon."

Raal switched off the Mic and leaned back in the shuttle seat with a
satisfied smile. "As easy as that Marcum?..we just follow the beacon in and
from there its inevitable."

The man in the co-pilot's seat was a bit more apprehensive, but that was
understandable. After all when you considered the awesome carnage they were
about to unleash.

Marcum glanced back into the rear bay of the shuttle.

It stood strangely empty and bare?.even the extra seats and storage lockers
torn out?..but that was all an illusion.

The soft glowing lights from the transporter panel, and the barely
perceptible ringing in their ears told of something waiting in the
transporter buffer. Something horrible just waiting to be released.

"This is wrong you know Raal." he said. It had to be said.

The old man frowned. "Of course its wrong??that's why its necessary."

There was no going back of course, but it was good to speak the truth one
last time.

"I wonder how the others in Shuttle Alpha are doing?"

**************

ALPHA

**************

"Galaxy ATC, this is Vered Shuttle Alpha with you, passing 220 at 400 miles.
Request approach vectors for Main Shuttle Bay."

>>>SHUTTLE ALPHA, GALAXY TRAFFIC CONTROL. WE HAVE YOU AT 220, PLEASE STATE
PASSENGERS AND CARGO FOR APPROACH CLEARANCE.<<<<

"Galaxy Control, Alpha has two souls aboard, with minimal personal cargo. We
are transporting the delegation from the Honshire province Mining Union for
negotiations with your captain."

>>>ROGER THAT ALPHA, STAND BY FOR VERIFICATION?..HOLD AT 150 MILE MARKER
PENDING CLEARANCE?GALAXY OUT<<<<

"Awfully paranoid aren't they?" Erich asked, "Wont even let us get close."

"Just standard procedure kid." Gavin Joor replied, looking comfortable in
the pilots seat. "Speaking of which, what the hell is the Honshire Province
Mining Union?"

His young co-pilot chuckled.

"It's a real mining union. " Erich answered. "Raal's a senior
representative, and pulled me in as a associate. We set up this
'negotiation' about a week ago, so everything is legitimate. Too bad we wont
have time to enjoy the coffee and tea."

Joor grunted approval, and glanced back into his own empty cargo hold. The
story would hold up?..now lets see if the shuttle transporters could do
there job.

**************

GALAXY

**************

"Hold at 150 mile Marker pending clearance?.Galaxy out." Lieutenant Gail
Buxby clicked off her mic and let out a yawn.

Five hours of nonstop traffic control for countless little piss-ant shuttles
had worn the poor girl down. Now yet *another *delegation of self-important
colonists were requesting to come aboard for a meeting with the captain.

Gail didn't get it. What the hell was there to negotiate? Just evacuate the
damned planet and get the hell out of my traffic pattern.

Stifling another yawn, the Ensign highlighted the approaching shuttle on her
board and sent a request to OPS for sensor time.

Powerful energies probed at the shuttle craft revealing all its secrets.

"Hunh?.." Gail snorted. "What the hell did they use such a big ass shuttle
for just to transport two lousy passengers?"

She refocused the sensors scanning the craft from stem to stern looking for
any sort of weapons, explosives , or contraband.

All standard procedure.

No firearms were detected, but there was a knife in the tiny galley
area?..no big worry there??also looked like somebody left the transporter
unit running in diagnostic?..again no big deal, but a bit sloppy. Not up to
fleet standards.

Finally Gail pulled up the list of scheduled visitors from the Master
Chief's logs, and sure enough right at 1400 hours was the Mining Delegation
from Honshire Province.

She tapped out a notification for security that guests would be arriving,
and with her other hand flipped the mic back on.

"Shuttle Alpha, you are cleared for approach to Shuttle Bay 2, vectors to
follow."

>>>>UHHHH??ROGER APPROACH GALAXY?..WE WERE REQUESTING MAIN SHUTTLE BAY IF
POSSIBLE?<>>

Gial frowned. What the hell difference did it make. Galaxy's main shuttle
bay was a the huge multideck facility that took up most of the saucer
section, while Bay's 2 and 3 were the much smaller areas in back of the
ship's 'neck'.

"Negative Shuttle Alpha, Main Bay is limited to evacuation personnel at the
moment?.delegations have to use the secondary bay." she paused wondering,
"Is that gonna be a problem Shuttle Alpha?"

*****************

ALPHA

*****************

Joor waited a long moment before replying, "No Galaxy?.no problem at all.
Accepting vectors to Shuttle Bay 2 at this time??see you soon."

Erich let out a low whistle. "Secondary bay??is that gonna affect things?"

"No." Joor answered quickly before adding, "Still?.It would have been nice
to be located centrally in the saucer section?..better damage distribution."

"But?.?

"But nothing kid." Joor smiled. We got a nuclear bomb aboard." he patted the
transporter console lovingly, "It doesn't really matter that much where it
goes off."

******************

OMEGA

******************

>>>SHUTTLE OMEGA, THIS IS BOTTOMFEEDER?TURN TO 230 TO INTERCEPT ILS FOR
FINAL. CLEAR TO LAND.<<<

"Roger that Bottomfeeder." Raal responded, smoothly adjusting the shuttles
flight path. "Turning to 230 for ILS intercept and clear to land?Shuttle
Omega out."

Next to him, young Marcum was a bundle of nerves. ~~~Oh shit?we're really
gonna do it?..we're really gonna kill all these people?..we're really gonna
pull this off.~~~~

What had appeared six weeks ago as a fevered possibility, was now on the
verge of reality??as real as the twin banks of landing lights that now
illuminated Omega as she made her final run into Bottomfeeder's main shuttle
bay.

The place was big?..not as big nor as tidy as a Starfleet shuttle bay, but
still sizeable and with a large number of refugees wandering about.

There were supposed to be more than 4500 persons already on board??..Men
women and children.

Puppy Dogs and Goldfish?..young and old.

So many.

>>>CUT ENGINES AND EQUALIZE HATCHES. WELCOME ABOARD SHUTTLE OMEGA<<<

"Thanks Bottomfeeder." Raal smiled a sad smile. "Its good to be here."

Turning to Marcum, he indicated the transporter console.

"Lets bring our baby in." he said simply."

***********

GALAXY

***********

"Shuttle Alpha, this is Galaxy Control. Please cut your engines and stand by
for shuttle bay pressurization." Gail Buxby clicked the mic button lazily.
This was the umpteenth evacuations shuttle today. Same old blah blah blah.

>>>>THIS IS ALPHA. THANKS GALAXY. NICE PLACE YOU GOT HERE.<<<

"Roger that Alpha." Gail replied, "Oh and by the way Alpha?..scans indicate
somebody left your transporter unit running?..you may want to shut it off
before disembarking or you'll burn your coils out."

There was a long period of silence. So much that the Ensign was about to
call again before the reply finally cut her off.

>>ROGER THAT GALAXY. THANKS. WE'LL BE SHUTTING THAT OFF NOW?.SORRY OUR
BAD.<<<

"No problem Alpha. Welcome aboard the USS Galaxy."

*********************

OMEGA

*********************

Aboard Shuttle OMEGA, Raal and Marcum were already halfway through the
transporter sequence. The cockpit literally glowed with the brilliant blue
dancing lights of the transporter beam that filled the entire shuttle.

"Easy does it there Marcum?." Raal cautioned, "Don't want to forget any
important pieces."

His partner grunted and worked the three sliders on the panel. Transporting
an object weighing over four tons with a mere shuttle transporter was not
technically easy. "Five seconds." he hissed.

Out on the Deck, a freight worker noticed the glowing blue light emanating
from the shuttle windows.

Bright?..

Sparkly?..kinda like a transporter.

He thumbed his comm unit as he started to walk over. "Hey Boss??this is Adam
down in the Shuttle bay?..whats the story on this shuttle that you just
cleared to land? Are they operating a transporter.

>>A TRANSPORTER?<< the voice of John Yewell was puzzled. <<WHAT DO YOU
MEAN?<<

By this time the light was already fading, and there was a slight groaning
of metal as the shuttle decking suddenly strained under new weight.

"Stand by Boss?I'll check it out??"

He would arrive too late.

*************************

ALPHA

*************************

On board the Galaxy, Gavin Joor was having a little bit more trouble
bringing the device aboard Shuttle Alpha.

The technique of storing things inside a transporter buffer was not an exact
science, especially where such huge weights were concerned.

"Come on come on??this is taking too long." Erich was muttering, winching
slightly against the annoying whine of the transporter beam that filled the
shuttle.

"Cant rush this kid." Joor spat, making more adjustments. "This is a
delicate procedure and all I have is a bloody shuttle transporter damn it.
Give me another 30 seconds."

****************

GALAXY

****************

Ensign Gail Huxby finished up directing another shuttle departure, and
having a few moments to spare turned her attention back to the monitor for
Shuttle Bay 2.

The bay had already equalized, but the two passengers had yet to debark.

Maybe they wer still working on their transporter??.."What the hell!!" she
swore and sat bolt upright. What was with all these funky energy readings?

"Shuttle Alpha?this is Galaxy ATC??are you?are you running your transporter
still? " Gail paused to look at the readings more closely?.they were beaming
something up.

"Shuttle Alpha?Turn off your transporter NOW! Terminate current transport.
at once!"

She was already reaching for the Comm line to the bridge when the telltale
blue glow shined out from the shuttle windows.

"Uhhh bridge?..this is Ensign Buxby in Shutle control?" She began?."We got a
uh??uh."

***************

OMEGA

***************

100 miles away on the Bottomfeeder, Shuttle Omega was fully armed, and with
the miniature timer device in place, Raal and Marcum were squeezing
themselves past the impressive bulk of the bomb to activate one final
transporter sequence.

It was understood that this was supposed to be a suicide mission, but if
there was the off chance that they could beam back to the surface???

They drifted away in a sparkle of blue light, while outside the Technician
was still walking over to check up on the funny lights.

"Hey fellahs?.." he called out, "Whats going on in??."

The timer on shuttle Omega reached zero.

What followed next happened very quickly.

To start off with, the timer sent a signal to an internal battery within the
device triggering it to start building up a charge in a nearby capacitor.

This took an agonizingly long 2 seconds to reach full charge, after which
the capacitor sent one massive charge down a single monofilament wire that
upon reaching a central junction branched off into forty smaller wires of
exactly the same length and composition.

The energy charge divided equally, and the electrons raced along the
identical wires each reaching separate terminus in the outer sphere of the
Bomb Core at exactly the same time.

This was crucial for the forty terminus were placed equidistant around the
central sphere and each was attached to a precisely shaped charge of fast
acting chemical explosives.

It was important that the explosives were shaped precisely so that their
deadly force would be directed *inwards *rather than *outwards.*

For the same reason timing was critical. One microsecond variance in the
detonation times would have thrown the whole assembly out of kilter and
halting the process.

As it was the miners knew their business and forty precisely shaped
detonations lit off at exactly the same moment driving their combined
destructive force inwards towards the central core of the bomb.

Viewed in slow motion, the explosion thrust downwards, rupturing along the
way a thin sheet of Beryllium and Polonium which reacted violently, throwing
off a shower of raw neutrons in all directions?including inwards.

Ever so slowly the explosive force, now peppered with neutrons struck the
final layer at the core of the device.

At the heart lay the silver sphere of solid Plutonium 239 in all its hideous
radioactivity.

Normally the element was relatively stable under a certain mass known as the
supercritical mass.

However if a larger mass was brought together suddenly, spontaneous fission
was a possibility.

Under the tremendous explosive pressures the ball of plutonium began to
collapse inwards, squeezing in upon itself, growing smaller and smaller, and
more and more dense.

Normally with a density twice that of lead, the squashed Plutonium was
nearing double that figure which in turn solved the supercritical problem.

Although the mass was the same the squashing increased the density to the
point that sustained fission was attainable??.now all that was needed was a
spark.

And that's why there was that spray of raw neutrons flying across the entire
mix?..like throwing gasoline on the fire??..

It happened somewhere deep inside the rapidly shrinking ball of plutonium??a
single raw neutron flew too close to a Plutonium 239 atom, and was captures
by the Strong nuclear Force, altering its course until it slammed deep into
the into the ball of protons and neutrons at near the speed of light.

In a mere picosecond (0.000000000001 seconds) the raw neutron was captures
and the Plutonium 239 split itself into a spray of protons, neutrons and
their accompanying electrons flying in all directions. Also released was a
burst of combined Gamma Radiation, and X-rays that pulsed outwards at the
sped of light, even as the explosive forces were still driving the plutonium
inwards.

Now it happened again as the neutron fragments struck new Pu239 atoms and
they split releasing more radiation, and more fragments which went on to
repeat the process ad naseum.

In the matter of mere fragments of time, there was a self sustaining chain
reaction of splitting atoms growing exponentially, each bursting apart in a
shower of Gamma radiation and heat that pulsed outwards with hellish fury.

Now was the critical moment??

The rapid bursts of energy were coming to the point that the plutonium shell
was in danger of blowing itself apart before the chain reaction had consumed
all its fuel.

The downward explosive forces were being overcome by the outward pressure of
the nuclear reaction, and if that was allowed to happen, the bomb would
'fizzle' and die prematurely.

To solve that problem the conspirators had wrapped the whole explosive
assembly with a shell made of their leftover original Uranium 238, that
absorbed the outward pulsing energy and swelled up, containing the blast for
the mere picoseconds long enough to increase the internal pressures, and
allow the flying neutrons to complete the total fission of all nuclear
material?..

Now?.mere microseconds after the whole process started there was no stopping
the outwards rush of radiation, heat, and hellish fury.

The Gamma and X-rays raced outwards first at the speed of light, striking
the shuttlecraft bulkheads and incandescing them into superheated mush.

Piercing the already disintegrating skin of the shuttle, they continued
onwards striking the fragile body of the technician named Adam who was still
in mid-sentence.

He died first as his body absorbed massive doses of gamma radiation to the
point that he simply burst into nothingness, vaporizing before he even knew
there was anything going on.

And still the Radiation raced outwards at the speed of light, filling the
Bottomfeeders shuttle bay in an instant, followed closely by the heat and
light that was only just now emerging from the remains of Shuttle Omega.

Through the deck plates and bulkheads the energies raced?..

Invisible radiation flashing Little girls and puppy dogs to glowing embers
before being swept away by hellish fury brighter and hotter than the core of
a star.

Four thousand five hundred and sixty two Vered Colonists, died in the course
of sixteen nanoseconds vaporized into their component atoms without a
thought, and thankfully without pain.

Ironically it was Captain John Yewell himself who was the last to die. He
was stationed on the bridge , as far from the shuttle bay as possible, still
wondering what his Technician was calling about before the wave of particles
slammed into him ripping his body to shreds, forever ending his dreams of
riches and the good life.

After that there was nothing left but for the bomb to do but make a pretty
bright light completely erasing the SS BOTTOMFEEDER from existence, and for
several long moments, shine like a newborn star in the midst of the Vered
Cluster.

*********************

GALAXY

*********************

>>>UHHHH BRIDGETHIS IS ENSIGN BUXBY IN SHUTTLE CONTROL?<<< came the
concerned voice over the Comm line. <<<WE GOT A UH?.UH?.<<<<

Captain Daren M'Kantu looked up from yet another troubling report from the
surface, and sighed. What wasit about calling the bridge that made people so
nervous?

"M'kantu here child. Calm down and take a breath Ensign. Whats going on?"

>>>CAPTAIN?.SORRY UH, BUT I HAVE A VERED SHUTTLE IN BAY NUMBER 2 THAT SEEMS
TO BE IN THE MIDST OF A TRANSPORTER CYCLE?I DUNNO IF THEY'RE TRYING TO BEAM
SOMETHING UP FROM THE SURFACE OR??..<<<

The rest of Buxby's comments was cut off by a massive bright light that
filled the bridge view screen causing all present to flinch reflexively
shielding their eyes.

"Crap! " swore the helmsman, as he and others blinked against the spots
before their eyes.

"Hang on Buxby," Daren cut off the intercom, "REPORT damn it! What was
that?"

Even as the science crew bent to comply, the answer was already hanging on
the view screen. A brilliant jewel of a fireball rapidly expanding from a
position 50 kilometers off the port bow.

"The transport Captain." breathed OPS, "Isnt that where??wasn't there a
ship?"

"RED ALERT! Raise shields!" Daren barked, "Full sensor scans, and try to
hail?uh?.Bottomfeeder wasn't it?" The huge transport had been tagging
alongside the Galaxy for the last two weeks like an overgrown puppy dog.

"Massive gamma radiation burst." called science from the back panel.
"Picking up ships debris?shit?just fragments really?..uh?..initial scans
says it looks to be some sort of Plutonium residue on the debris."

~~~Plutonium?~~~ Daren gaped, ~~Merciful Allah, don't tell me somebody had
really pulled that particular genie out of the bottle again?~~~

*****************************

ALPHA

*****************************

"Five seconds." Joor counted down, as he completed the final transporter
sequence, "three?.two?.and voila!"

The deck groaned under the sudden weight of four additional tons, and the
two conspirators were no longer alone Shuttle Alpha.

"Quick." squeaked Erich, nervous to be face to face again with this monster,
"Attach the timer and lets beam out of here!"

Even as Joor bent to comply however, the conspirators realized something was
not going to plan.

Red lights and sirens began to sound within the Shuttle bay, echoing across
the bare bulkheads.

"Red alert!" Joor hissed?.an ex-Starfleet vet knowing immediately what that
meant.

"It?it cant be us." Erich blanched, "Not so quick?"

Joor shook his head and worked quickly on the timer. "No?.it's the other
shuttle. They got their shot off first and the Galaxy is reacting?..damnit."

"We still have time to get away don't we then?"

"Kid?." Joor spoke softer this time as he made the final adjustments, "The
ship is at red alert?.shields are raised with us on the inside. We're not
beaming anywhere."

"Then we're." Erich stopped, looking suddenly at the ten foot bomb sitting
mere inches form his nose. "Oh man??"

"We're dead either way kiddo." Joor soothed. "Sorry, but we knew this was
likely."

Erich nodded sadly. "Do it then."

Joor nodded and reached for the timer.

****************************

GALAXY

****************************

The sudden red alert sirens startled Ensign Buxby out of her chair, and she
raced quickly to divert incoming traffic around the suddenly raised shields.

Several long moments passed as she worked, before her thoughts returned to
the mysterious shuttle in bay 2.

What was the red alert about?

Was it her report?

Something else?

Reaching for the sensor panel once again, she noticed the shuttle
transporter was no longer in operation??but somehow?.

She frowned. Had the mass of the shuttle suddenly jumped by 4000 kgs?

Gail Buxby twiddled a dial and focused in, a stream of chemical symbols
passing in front of her eyes.

Some sort of tube?..Iron?copper?..beryllium?what was that for?Uranium??wait
a minute.

She gasped.

Fucking plutonium!!!

Her hand stabbed down reflexively to vent the shuttle bay out into space.

Somebody brought a bomb into her bay, and damned if she was going to let it
stay!!

Unfortunately for the young Ensign she hadn't considered the Red Alert, and
the fact that the shields were tightly in place.

So while the bay doors snapped open on command and the resulting rush of
wind picked up the shuttle like a toy and tossed it towards the exit, the
blue shields sparkled and remained in place where the shuttle smashed
against it sideways violently.

Dented and damaged?.but still trapped inside!!

"Oh dear god." was Gail Buxby's last thoughts before she died.

?Arrival in the city.?

[slight backpost]

Lieutenant Branwen London

Various other characters played by Michael and Chris [thank you!]

Lieutenant London took another sip of her ?half ?cold ?but ?very strong
coffee.

The last 48 hours she had had ? very ?little ?sleep. ?And of course she had
not started the ? mission under the best of ?circumstances ?either.

"So let's get ?this ?straight. ?Over half ? the people are refusing to go,
and we are ?already behind ?schedule. ?Any ?chance of getting ?hold of some
City
elders that I could talk some sense ? into?" ?She ?asked ?tiredly.

Veles wasn't sure if Bran was ?addressing her ?or not but the ?young Vulcan
communications specialist ?responded ?anyway. "I've been trying ?mam, but as
yet no luck. They're ? either ignoring me...or...." She let the ?lieutennant
draw ? her
own ?conclusion to the statement. With all that had ?been ? happening it was
possible ?there was some sort of malfunction, ?or ? worse.

"Specialist, please put all your effort into ?getting ?through ?to
somebody.
This way it's taking much too ?long. ?We ?need leaders ?will ?tell these
people
that ?moving is ?inevitable." ?London was ?frustrated with ?the ?situation
herself.

Seconds later her ?attention was called ?away by ? message coming in from
another squad who ?had gotten ?into trouble trying ?to ?remove occupants
from a couple of ?houses.

"I'll ?continue to make my ?best efforts mam", Veles replied in the
calculated ?calm tone ?that only a Vulcan could manage. She then returned
her attention to ?the com unit at her wrist. One thing was ?abundantly
?clear, her ? calls
were getting through, but noone was ?answering. Finally ?she ?managed to get

through on a private channel ?that it appeared the ?colony ?elders had been
using ?to
converse ?amongst ?themselves. Seemed they'd ?been shooting messages back
and
forth ? rather franticly.

"Mam, I think ?I have them. Shall I link ? them ?through to your com?"

"Yes please, ?nice work ? Veles." ?Branwen ?smiled. ?"Do you have a name
and
the ?job title for me, the person I'm ?getting on the ?line?" ? She ?asked
the
Vulcan.

"Deputy ?Administrator Boussard mam. From the ? chatter I've been able ?to
pick
up it appears the city's security cheif ?is ?also ?present.", Veles replied
as
she ?keyed the proper commands ?into ?her ?com unit.

Branwen nodded. "Patch them through, ? Sergeant." ?Somehow ?she made her
face
neutral and ? pleasant.

"Deputy administrator ?Boussard, thank you for taking ?the ?time to talk to
me." ?She said. ? "I am afraid we ?are falling ?behind schedule, ?ma'am."

Boussard's ?voice ?was somewhat ?anxious and more then a bit hostile, "We
are
doing ze ?best we ?can ?Lieutennant. As you might understand many of ?zese
people
do not wish ?to ?leave, myself included. What is it ?you expect me to do,
have zem ?rounded up like ?cattle!"

"No ma'am. ?Of course not, and I ?understand your ? reluctance. ?If I can be
of
any help, please ?let me ?know. ?I could ?help you explain why it is not
safe
to ?stay ?here. ?And help assure them ?that the Federation will ? reimburse
them,
and help to make a new start on another ? ?planet." ?She felt like a
complete hypocrite, but had to ?follow ?orders.

"Zey have heard zee speaches madame. Many of zem ?would ?rather stay here
and
die at ze hands of ze Hydrans then ?leave." Boussard ?replied, clearly
sounding
impatient and like ?she didn't want to ?continue the conversation.

"They might feel ?like that right now, and I ?understand. But if there is
life
there is ?hope." Bran almost pleaded showing ?some emotion. "There is
always
a
possibility to build a new life. Staying ?here means certain ?death and not
a
pleasant death."

"Hardly." ?The Security Chief ?finally spoke up, wanting until now ?to give
the colony's leader the ?power of speaking alone. ?"I assure you, we ?have
provided ?sufficiently for our own security and defense. ?The Hydrans
aren't
the
ones threatening us, it's ?Starfleet."

"I wouldn't ?mind going over that with you and show you were you are wrong.
The hydrans ?won't leave a soul alive." She said. "And we are running out of
time here, ?sir."

So he was automatically wrong as he begged to differ with the great
Starfleet, hmm? ?"Well Lieutenant, we may very well be a simple people, and
not quite
as well indoctrinated as the renown Starfleet Marines, but quite ?frankly
that kind of arrogance won't fly here. ?You've been told you're not ?wanted,
leave." ?And with those final words he closed out his comm ?signal.

Chief ?Warrant Officer Fourth Class ?Ker'kez did his ?best not to listen
too
intently as the Marine ?Lieutenant and the ?colony leader talked, ?trying
instead to focus on ?flying their way ?to the next anticipated landing
zone.

He ? normally
flew Type IX or type XI shuttles, making the ?Sphynx workpod ?in ?it's
'hopper' variant something of a challenge to learn ? ?quickly. ?It wasn't
nearly as
nimble in space as the ? shuttles ?were, mostly because it had so much more
bulk. ? ?Fortunately they were ?in atmosphere, affording some relaxation ?on
those
limitations... but ?still! ?He ?knew they ?didn't exactly need ?to maneuver
given
their ?sole job was to ?drop grunts off, but damn ?you'd think hopper
pilots
would've ?requested something more all ?around capable out of pride ?if
nothing else. ?Then again ?he'd had the
distinction of ?having ?grown up ?Antaran, with the ?mighty Antares IV
shipyards a shuttle's hop ?away. ?He was ?a ?bit spoiled ?when it came to
flying things.

"Lieutenant, we're ?nearing ? the next stop. ?Arrival time is
Approximately ten ?minutes." ?With the Galaxy's transporters focused ?mainly
?on ?bringing
up
the wounded and the evacuees, the Marines ?planet ?side were ?typically left
using their hoppers, or borrowed ? shuttles and runabouts.

"Thank you, chief." Bran said. She ?could ?only pray that the people in this
location would want to be ?rescued. ?"Everybody get ready. And remember, not
loose your temper with ?these people." ?She instructed her small squad.

There were nods of understanding as everyone again checked their weapons to
make sure they were fully powered and set no higher than the recommended
Starfleet setting for standard stunning of a human, level two.

Bran herself was not in full armour. She was here as well as a counselor.
And she had asked her troops to call her in when they got into trouble with
people who didn't want to leave and then she wanted the colonists to be able
to see her not an armor. So she stayed behind in the command shuttle keeping
in contact with all the teams. And she could only pray that the colonists

TRINITY : Fallout
The conclusion of The Martyrs

Gavin Joor, Retired Starfleet, and his assistant young Erich of the Vered
cluster, died horrible deaths.

When Ensign Gail Buxby vented Bay 2, Shuttle Alpha was picked up in a
hurricane of wind and debris to be tossed toy-like towards the exit.

There was little room in Alpha as it was. The massive 4000kg bomb filling
the entire aft bay, so that the two pilots were forced to squeeze together
tight up front.

Unfortunately once the shuttle got tumbling, everything inside was tossed
around which worked out badly for all those concerned.

By the time that the tumbling shuttle wedged itself tight against the inside
surface of the shuttle bay shields, both men had already been smashed to
jelly by the shifting position of the massive bomb.

It had been painful, broken bones, smashed skulls and the like, but as
things settled down there was little left of them but mere smears.

Unfortunately Joor's work on the bomb timer itself had already been
complete, and while jostled about it continued to tick its was down happily
to zero.

Up in the control booth Ensign Buxby was already diving across the room to
hit the manual override on the shields. She had to get that thing out!

She was going to be too late.

As the timer completed its duty, things started to happen very very fast.

A battery switch clicked open and its stored charge began flowing into a
central capacitor which drained every bit of stored power in a matter of a
few seconds before pausing to prepare itself for the next stage.

Another fast acting switch snapped open on the capacitor which in turn fired
off its stored charge down a single monofilament wire that soon branched off
into forty smaller wires of all the same length.

This was critical.

The wires had to be of the same length so that the electrical impulse from
the capacitor divided properly and reached th ends of the wire at exactly
the same time.

At those ends were forty blocks of shaped charge explosives designed to fire
at exactly the same time.

The idea was to drive the inner sphere of Plutonium down in upon itself thus
reaching the supercritical mass necessary for sustained fission.

Fortunately??this did *NOT *happen.

The wild tumble across the shuttle bay deck had jostled the massive bomb
just enough that several of the delicately balanced shaped charges were out
of alignment, or simply did not fire as they were supposed to.

This is not to say that what followed was pretty by any means.

The blocks that did function, fired their explosive force downwards with all
their intended fury, smashing through the sheet of Beryllium and Polonium
that obligingly released its cloud of raw neutrons.

Problems were already arising however as the misaligned blocks were also
firing but time is several random directions, their explosive forces
disrupting the uniform wave front of the rest of their comrades.

Sure enough, a massive explosive force did reach the inner sphere of
Plutonium, but rather than be crushed into a dense supercritical mass, the
metal sphere was shattered in random directions, most of it escaping
outwards through the spaces occupied by the malfunctioning blocks.

To be sure the cloud of raw neutrons did impact some of the scattered
Plutonium 239 atoms, and as physics demanded, these atoms did split
releasing their resultant Gamma radiation and X-rays along with their own
neutrons.

These neutrons found their own targets as well, but even as massive amounts
of radiation spilled outwards at the speed of light, things were dieing off.

The Plutonium was sub critical?..not dense enough to sustain reaction, and
too few neutrons were striking too few Pu-239 atoms.

Starved of neutrons the bomb never even properly started its fission chain
reaction?..thus sparing the USS Galaxy the same fate as the Bottomfeeder.

However??.

This did not negate the fact that several hundred pounds of chemical
high-explosive had just been set off in the shuttle bay?.an explosion that
for better or for worse did not direct all its power harmlessly inward.

Firing off randomly, the resultant fireball from the shaped charges raced
across the shuttle bay, scouring it clean of all life, and rupturing the
bulkheads beyond.

The deck plating above and below were pierced in several places, and crewmen
who were only now beginning to react to the red alert were thrown from their
feet, and in several instances, burned beyond recognition.

Fire and scrapnel cut through the inner bulkheads like hot razors, blowing
out windows, smashing through walls, and shredding any unfortunate crewman
to be in their way.

The primary Impulse engines were located on Deck 14.?.just one deck beneath
the shattered shuttle bay.

Hot metal sliced downwards through the decks, puncturing pipes and conduits,
before spraying acorss the exposed area cutting down engineers and
technicians in a fury of fire and metal.

The blast wave struck several Impulse reactors, destroying two outright, and
causing three others to click over to safe mode.

In a way the thicker reinforced walls of the Impulse Engines prevented any
further damage. The compartment was shredded and void to space. Every
exposed surface was contaminated with radioactive Plutonium residue, but it
went no further.

This was good for only two decks down was the Marine Barracks, which would
have caused great loss of life.

As it was?..bodies were flung deep into the vacuum of space as the chemical
explosion ripped through three decks and several bulkheads before being
contained.

While the chain reaction never took hold, there was still the issue of a
massive burst of Gamma radiation, as well as several pounds of un-exploded
plutonium that was vaporized in the explosion, contaminating every surface
of several sections of deck.

The aforementioned Ensign Gail Buxby was one of the many that died. The
cramped Shuttle Control booth crushed by the massive explosion, metal shards
shredding her in several places.

She never knew she saved the ship.

Nobody would know for several weeks until all the sensor data was pieced
together, and the exact chain of events was ascertained.

***

On the bridge, Captain M'kantu and his staff were thrown to the floor by the
huge jolt that traveled the ship from stem to stern.

Sirens wailed and lights flickered as critical power relays were rerouted
around the damaged sections.

"Damage report!!" the Captain demanded although given what happened to the
Bottomfeeder only moments before, he could almost guess what happened.

"Massive explosion and decompression of decks 12, 13 and 14" replied OPS,
picking himself off the floor "Looks to be centered on Shuttle bay 2...we
have no telemetry from that area."

"Seal the hull breaches." Daren leaned over to study a schematic of his
ship, wincing at the massive glowing red areas running along the 'neck' of
Galaxy. "If you can that is?.looks like most of the shield generating
equipment got blown up."

"Aye Captain??.Damn?also Captain Im having trouble maintaining
attitude?.Primary Impulse engines are offline!"

"Show me."

At the Captains command the viewer switched to an internal camera in the
Impulse Engine Room.

It didn't take more than a second looking at the twisted lumps of metal, and
the stars outside to know what happened.

"Bring the Secondary Impulse engines on the saucer online." The captain
barked. "Bring us into a higher orbit quickly just in case this is some sort
of external attack?.I don't want another ship within 1000km of us."

Tapping his chest, M'kantu addressed his crew. "All stations damage
report?..Medical teams to Decks 12 through fourteen?."

"uh?Radiation Captain." a nearby science officer gestured.

M'kanu nodded and continued his announcement. "?.Strict Radiation
precautions are in effect, all civilians confined to quarters until further
notice, Security take charge?that is all for now."

He closed the line. ~~~Allah preserve us?..if this is what we think it was,
why are we still alive?~~~

"Analysis." he said aloud. "Was this internal or an external attack, and
what about that report a moment ago about some sort of transporter in use in
Shuttle Bay 2?"

OPS shrugged. "They were beaming something up, or in. Something like that. I
dunno, I didn't pick up any external transporter beams?.that would have set
off alarms immediately, and snapped the shields shut."

M'kantu nodded, touching his forehead for a moment where he had bashed it
against his chair.

He glanced up at the Display screen that despite a sudden case of bad
static, was still showing the glowing embers of what had once been the SS
Bottomfeeder.

Somebody had exploded an atomic device?..Allah be merciful?..an actual
atomic device on board a transport filled will almost 5000 civilians.

The same party?.presumably?.had just attempted the same trick on the Galaxy,
only to fail for whatever reason.

He glanced back at the glowing damage indicators.

Three decks voided to space?.Impulse engines destroyed?..dozens ?maybe
hundreds dead. For a failure it was pretty damn effective.

"Notify all commands." he ordered, slumping back into his chair. "Inform the
fleet to shut down all shuttle operations until we figure out what
happened??and keep our shields up for heavens sake."

The crew bent to their tasks, digging for answers?.digging for survivors.
One thing was for sure?..The evacuation of the Vered Colonies suddenly took

"Charge of the Thufi Brigade"

Captain Rebecca Von Ernst
Commanding Officer
USS Zeus

Commander Na'sav Lorem
Commanding Officer
USS Vigilant

=================================================

(USS Zeus- Ready Room)

Patience wasn't always something that came easy to the Vigilant's skipper,
especially when it involved 'diplomacy'. Captain Von Ernst had certainly
caught the attention of the Dreyshan government when she parked the Zeus
above their planet... and although he certainly couldn't have said he
wouldn't have done the exact damn thing given the opportunity, that
admittance would've mitigated his argument (and the subsequent irritation)
regarding the whole incident. It wasn't so much what she did, as much as it
was that he had to spend the next two hours on a comm-line with Dreyshan
officials, hearing the same damn thing repeatedly, and being yelled at like
he was in damned basic training again.

And then there was the whole 'trying desperately not to laugh the entire
time' thing. That was a painful experience in of itself.

One of the Zeus' officers accompanied him to the Ready Room. Not only was it
where Rebecca was at the moment, but it afforded the opportunity to plan the
next moves. He highly doubted a Hydran task force the size they found was
assembled for anything but offensive operations in the Cluster. Still, first
thing was first.

"Did you 'need' to give the Dreyshan society a collective heart attack?" It
was hard to actually 'stay' irritated, as the more he thought about it the
more he found it humorous. "I've spent the last few hours apologizing and
'urging their restraint'... and politicians universally are annoying
people."

Rebecca von Ernst looked up from the piece of cross-stitching that she was
still working on, a puzzled look on her face.

"Apologizing? W?what are you apologizing for?"

"Something having to do with a Starfleet warship violating the territorial
sovereignty of the Dreyshan people?"

Rebecca rolled her eyes and shook her head slightly. Politics and Diplomacy
were not her forte'. Heck, she could barely manage a cocktail party without
making some sort of social gaffe.

Fortunately Zeus was not assigned to politically sensitive missions. That's
why Galaxy was handling the negotiations with the Vered Colonists, and Zeus
was tasked with blowing things up.

Worked out better for everybody.

"Whatever." she tossed her red hair and bent back over her needlework.
"We're not violating anything important. Just letting them know that we're
keeping an eye on them. She
had never liked staff meetings, and one of the great things about being
Captain
is that nobody fussed at her for bringing along something to do. "Have a s?
.s?seat, and tell me what's on your mind?"

Na'sav found a chair opposite her desk, and placed a PADD he had with him in
front of her. "The sensor readings we've taken of the Hydran task force
supposedly 'monitoring' activities in the Vered Cluster. There's no way a
force
that large is simply watching anything."

"True?." Rebecca nodded, "But if I were a Hydran?..icky looking people by
the way?all three armed like and slimy?..but if I were them, and I saw a
Starfleet task force nearby with loads of lightly armed
transports?..Hello?.stuff to blow up."

"Even if it means crossing through the territory of a very erratic and
self-centric potential ally?" He absolutely agreed with her on her point,
but it
often helped to present an alternative view for debate.

Putting down her needles for a moment, Rebecca reached out to tap a
Holo-display.

A three dimensional plot of the Vered Cluster and its surrounding systems
formed itself over the table, glowing dimly.

In addition to designated locations of the Zeus and Vigilant in orbit over
Dreysha, and the Galaxy nearby with her transports, there were a number of
mathematical scribbles in red with seemingly random arrows pointing off in
all directions.

Na'sav recognized a map when he saw one, though the marks in red were well
beyond his standard-level of comprehension with regard to advanced
mathematics. "Pretty... what's this?"

"Oh that?" Rebecca shrugged, "Just some 4th dimensional plot vectors I'd
been messing around with trying to determine the location of the Hydran
fleet?..I plotted out our sensor reports on a Van Berger Parabola and then
correlated
them across the probability matrix allowing for randomness and exponential
vector changes."

She pointed out each horribly complicated equation in turn, "Pretty
straightforward Macro-Calculus." she shrugged. "A hobby of mine."

"The Nobel Committee would probably be very interested in your hobbies,
afidav." He was clearly impressed, and he didn't need to understand all of
it to
recognize it's tool as a strategic advantage. "Do we have a plan of attack?"

"Plan of attack?" Rebecca looked confused for a moment. "Noodles?.I dunno?
.I just kinda make this up as I go along. What about you?.any ideas?"

"Improv is a great way to win battles tactically, but a strategy is
ultimately necessary to end threats." He highlighted on her beautifully
ornate graph
a specific section of the cluster. "Looks like, if I'm reading this right,
that this path affords the greatest possibility of success for a surprise
attack on the Galaxy's convoy. If I were the Hydrans, it's what I would use.
Dreyshans and Starfleet alike would be blind... I say we initiate contact
with
them. If we stick close to the stars of this system, the radiation and
energy readings would keep us off their sensors, and we can ambush them."

"Cool." Rebecca nodded. "So how do you feel about acting as bait?"

He raised an eyebrow as if it were a trick question. "Can't say it's my
'favorite' pastime, why?"

She indicated another glowing line. "The point of initial contact is static,
but from there the possible vectors of attack for the Hydrans go in all
different directions. If we place a small helpless target here??that you by
the way??..and run this way screaming and crying like a little girl to
here?.."

She clapped her hands as is squashing a bug. " We have the big bad mother
come out and do the mashed potatoes all over them??..that's me by the way."

"Is it really necessary to refer to my ship as 'screaming and crying like a
little girl'? I prefer the term rabbit."

Rebecca rolled her eyes.

"Okay fine?.you can be the bunny." she hunched her skinny shoulders over the
display, "Now what we do is this???"

******************

36 HOUS LATER?..

******************

Prince Thufi XXIVth, Commander of the Royal Hydran Ship Slarrardo settled
deeper into his plush command couch letting his impressive bulk sink into
its leathery softness.

The Federation ship was running like a scared little 'thral, the Prince
mused to himself as he absently picked some old food out of his beak.

There was a sense of excitement aboard the bridge of the Slarrardo. Neon
lights from the control surfaces shined dimly through the swirling methane
gas that permeated the bridge.

"Range to Federation Corvette?" the Prince blortled calmly.

"Twenty thousand Half-Yorbles my leige," came the eager reply.

The crew was right to be eager?..the tiny Federation craft would be in range
soon.

Thufi breathed deeply in satisfactionas he double checked the 3-D tactical
display swirling in the Mist-Tank.

It had started out as a standard raid on Federation shipping?..they had
caught a transport full of displaced colonists from the Vered Cluster alone
and making a run for Federation territory.

Silly Humans.

When that Corvette warped in responding to the distress call, it very
quickly found itself outnumbered ad out gunned.

Prince Thufi had assembled his entire flotilla, centered on the Light
Cruiser Slarrardo, and including one Fast Destroyer, three Gunboats, and the
Escort Carrier RHS Florpy

The Corvette?..identified as the USS Vigilant had beat a hasty retreat, and
was trying to reach the safety of the Vered Cluster Radiation zone.

"I trust all transmissions are being jammed?" Thufi inquired of his Comm
Officer.

"Completely my Lord." she bleated, "The enemy is broadcasting distress on
all frequencies, but we are distorting them all."

"Good." Thufi adjusted himself in the couch, breathing in a deep snort of
methane. "USS Galaxy is still in the area and there are reports of a
Battlecruiser in orbit over Dreysha??cheeky bastard??.it wouldn't do to have
our fun interrupted.

************

************

************

************

BRIDGE OF Vigilant

"Range from the enemy?"

"Four-hundred thousand kilometers, and they're closing." Gave the

Lieutenant.

They were just 50,000 kilometers... a hair's breadth by stellar standards,

away from being in the range of the Hydran task force. Close enough to be a

very tempting target, and hopefully far enough away to buy the time they

needed to lure them into the waiting trap. It was a tactic first pioneered
by the

original Defiant's crew during the Dominion War... a real live game of cat

and mouse... and dog.

"Time to intercept point?"

"I-P in 20 seconds." The young woman at helm replied.

"Lieutenant, start designating targets."

"Aye sir."

"10 seconds, Captain."

"The Hydran task force is starting to pick up speed, sir." The Bolian at

Operations was next in the long line of voices.

"5 seconds, Captain."

'4...3...2' Na'sav ticked off to himself with the snapping of fingers. "Cut

all comm channels. Hard to port, 180 degrees, maximum yield on all weapons.

Fire at will, Lieutenant."

One never thought about what 'could' go wrong with a plan, because it

instantly killed any willingness to carry it out, however if the Zeus wasn't

watching, the current skirmish could rather quickly turn into a losing

proposition. Na'sav perished those thoughts as he watched yellow phaser
cannon blasts,

red beams, and quantum torpedoes impact on the lead Hydran gunboat. For all

their petty arguments, she never once steered him wrong. It would suck if

Rebecca Von Ernst picked today of all days to forget to carry the damned
one.

********************

********************

"Federation Corvette is coming about My Prince," honked the Weapons Officer
from across the mist shrouded bridge, "Forward batteries coming online!"

"What?!" Thufi almost leaped from his command couch with a leathery suction
noise . "Enhanced tactical display in the tank!"

Sure enough?.the tiny vessel had neatly spun 180 degrees, and even now was
engaging his lead Gunboat at almost point blank range.

"Suicide?" he breathed, purple methane spilling from his nostrils, "Sheer
madness and??."

There was a slight shimmer in the tactical display?..like static
interferance.

~~Unless?.~~

"Report!" he snapped his beak.

"Coming up on the edge of the Cluster Radiation zone My liege??negative
impact of sensor displays for at least?."

That was all Thufi had to hear?.negative effect on sensors??it's a damn
trap!

"Stop all sunlight impellers, come about to new course three two zero mark
eight?.brace for impact!"

The startled crew barely had time to respond before the deck plates reached
up to smack them in a thunderous lurch!

Consoles exploded into a shower of sparks, and rumbling shudders worked
their way down the slender blue hull of the Slarrardo.

"A Damn trap." Thufi glowered.

****************

****************

"Multiple Torpedo hits on the Light Cruiser," reported Fear.

"She veered at the last moment, so all we got were some glancing blows."
added Panic. "Shall we fire again?"

"No??finish powering up all systems first." replied Rebecca sitting cross
legged in front of her Mathematical display terminals, "They know we're here
now, and playing dead in the water wont hide us anymore."

All around the snow white bridge, lights flickered on as the ZEUS powered
back up from her near inert state. She'd been drifting in the cosmic
radiation of the Vered Cluster for nearly 12 hours now, just waiting for the
prey to come to her.

"Once Impulse is online, bear zero nine zero to intercept the Destroyer."
Rebecca tapped a polynomial equation on her screen, "Keep her off the
Vigilant for the next 40 seconds if you please, and open a channel."

"Full impulse in 8 seconds." said Fear.

"You're on Captain." said Panic

"Wolf-six to Bunny-one." Rebecca hailed, "Wolf-six to Bunny-one?..come in
Bunny-one."

*****************

*****************

Na'sav rolled his eyes as the all too familiar voice came up over the

Vigilant's comm system. That woman had a serious cutesy way of getting on
one's

nerves, and if she wasn't careful he'd have to (pull a Capellan and) either

beat the hell out of her, or propose... and he wasn't marriage material.
"They

know our ships' names, Captain."

>>>WHATEVER?..YOU'RE THE FASTER SHIP HERE. I WANT YOU TO CUT ACROSS TO THAT
ESCORT CARRIER LURKING IN THE REAR??I WANT TO HIT HER HANGERS BEFORE SHE
GETS HER FIGHTERS OFF.<<<

"Yeah, well, we all have things we want ma'am." His voice disappeared from
the comm long enough to rattle out a few more orders. "The carrier isn't the
key to this battle, the small ships are." The big carrier, smaller than the
fleet carriers but none the less objectively large, was far too immobile to
get through this region without being detected, and lacked the firepower to
single-handedly take on the Galaxy. "I suggest we take them on, first."
>>>>FINE?.THEN CONCENTRATE ON THE GUNBOATS?..WE'LL HANDLE THE DESTROYER AND
LIGHT CRUSER<<<

"Check, Vigilant out!" Na'sav stabbed the console next to him to cut
transmission. "Status report?"

"Shields holding at 90%. The Hydran weapons patterns indicate they're
having trouble seeing us, sir. The lead gunboat has sustained significant
damage... their shields are down to just ten percent."

Na'sav liked that number... it meant a single blast from the Vigilant's
phaser batteries would be enough to disable the vessel completely. Add a
torpedo
to that mix, and that Hydran gunboat trying to retreat to the safety of the
carrier's defensive screen would become a manned mine in the midst of their
formation.

"Two Hydran gunboats on our aft, they're giving chase. The other three are
streaming towards the Zeus, but not on an intercept course." The Helmsman
looked back. "It's like they're lost in a fog."

"Trim our course to starboard by ten degrees and prepare to loop back. As
soon as they cross the lead gunboats position, open fire with everything we
have." With any luck, Na'sav was hoping, they could kill (or at least
disable)
three birds with one proverbial stone. "Then take us to the group heading
in the Zeus' direction, we need to keep her covered." As much as he hated to
admit it, they owed them one.

The Vigilant's crew worked like clockwork. The course change allowed them
to let their would be pursuers cross in front of them without considerably
altering Vigilant's own speed, and the accuracy of the Defiant's little guns
were unhindered despite the hazardous environment... something which could
not
be said for the ill-prepared Hydran task force. The Vigilant's blasts
destroyed the wounded ship, and the resulting shock wave nearly destroyed
the
starboard gunboat, and put it's port sister out of action for the
foreseeable
future.

Now it was a foot race of sorts to the Zeus' position. The Hydran gunboats
had a slight advantage, but Vigilant was closing fast.

************************

************************

Prince Thufi's plan for glory were falling apart around him.

His intricately sculptured flotilla was zipping off in all directions,
destroying the cohesion of mutual fire support and interlaced shields.

"Floff Take them!!" he swore. "Get those gunboats back into line for a
cohesive attack! Dogfighting with the Corvette isn't gonna get us anywhere."

His crew bent low over their glowing displays to comply, but Thufi had
another problem besides wayward ships.

The Zues?in all her big-gunned glory was closing to point blank with
Slarrardo and her escorting Destroyer.

Nominally a match for either one of them, together they just might pull it
off against he Battlecruiser.

"Signal the Harldloth" He blorted, "Coordinate for integrated Hellbore
strikes at long range then close to fusion cannon range?.and get those
fighters aloft!"

*****************

*****************

"Yes that's right." Rebecca repeated herself, "I said get in closer with the
big ships. Point blank."

Behind her, Fear and Panic shared a silent glance, but bent to comply. Their
tiny redheaded captain had never let them down before?.however??she was also
known for not being too concerned about friendly casualties as well.

"Shall I notify Medical teams to be standing by?" Fear asked, as she pushed
the impulse drives to the limits.

"What? Huh?" Rebecca whipped her head around for a moment looking
distracted. "Oh?.m?medical teams yeah." she scrunched her eyes shut in
concentration, crunching some numbers.

"Ummmmm?.shouldn't be more than a few dozen all told. More or less."

Panic nodded, "A few ?.dozen aye. Forward batteries online and prepared to
fire ma'am."

"Goody??now here's what we're gonna do?.."

The Zeus, Slarrardo, and Harldloth all passed within 1000 meters of each
other, each pitting atomic death and destruction at point blank range.

Shields collapsed?..

Hulls breached?.

Crewmen on all sides died??.

Slarrardo limped away with her starboard impeller shot away, while the Zeus
spiraled downward trailing streams of ionized plasma.

The Fast Destroyer Harldloth was not so lucky, and tumbled end over end
through the void, lights flickering as the surviving crew struggled to
maintain a bare minimum of life support.

There were wounds on all sides, but the odds had rapidly changed. A wounded
Light cruiser was no match for a full Battle cruiser no matter how hurt she
was.

***************

***************

Prince Thufi leaned heavily against a shattered bulkhead?..gravity was
slightly askew on the Slarrardo's bridge, so everything seemed to be leaning
to the left.

He watched in the swirling holotank how the destroyer was tumbling, and at
the fringes, Zeus was coming around for another pass.

~~~To the void with my foul luck!!~~

His raiding mission was over he knew it. Already the Federation Corvette was
engaging his remaining gunboats, and the Escort Carrier was suddenly very
vulnerable.

He clicked his beak annoyed.

The Main fleet would be on its way here in a matter of days so there was no
risk of permanent loss, but his chance for personal glory was drawing to a
close.

"Raise the Tsak Force." he clicked. "Sound retreat and fall back to our
initial positions.

He glared at the annoying Federation craft. "This system will be ours inside
a week??so much the better."

*********************

The order to retreat didn't come nearly fast enough for a pair of the
gunboats that Vigilant was able to take down. Exploiting her
maneuverability, and
the massive forward firepower afforded to a Defiant Class starship, she was
able to completely destroy one, and disable the weapons of another gunship.
When all was said and done, 3 out of the 6 were destroyed, and 5 out of the
6
were out of action in total. The Zeus' destruction of the destroyer put the
last cramp in Thufi's plans it seemed... the backs of the Hydrans were, for
once, fully vulnerable to Starfleet Parting shots. Vigilant let a few
streams
of phaser fire bracket the Carrier until she was out of range... more to
make a point than for any actual effect.
The cheers on the little ship's bridge were rather intense, at least for a
second or so. Then things quieted down back to normal. They still had a job
to do, after all. "Get me Captain Von Ernst. Find out if they need any help
in sickbay or engineering... and send our congrats." There was nothing
wrong with a pat on the back for a job well done when it was warranted.

******************

******************

Things were a little quieter on Rebecca's bridge. Little black char marks
soiled the pure white walls, and at least half of her bank of Math-monitors
were fuzzy.

Behind her Fear and Panic exchanged congratulatory looks, while the tiny
captain brushed back a stray lock of red hair.

"We'll need a fleet survey ship to examine the hulk of the destroyer??if not
then put a few more torpedoes in it." she mused, "Also we need to?."

A loud beeping from Fear's Comm Panel interrupted Rebecca, and her
subordinate quickly moved to answer it.

"Incoming message Ma'am??mummy from the Vered cluster and Captain M'kantu."
she paused to read it through, turning pale as she did so. "Damn??sorry
Ma'am seems like the Galaxy took a huge hit from terrorists?.someone set off
a nuclear device."

Rebecca bobbed her haead slowly absorbing that one. "Wow??Okay, inform
Vigilant and make best speed through the Cluster. Rendezvous with Galaxy
in??" she did the math, "3 hours."

And with a sparkle of Warp power they were gone, leaving behind only scraps
of metal and the dead.

"Damage Control"

Ensign Alexandra Lee
Engineering Officer

The deck of Main Engineering shook hard as Alex steadied herself against the
railing on the upper section balcony. Sliding across the deck, her tool kit
went over the side, crashing onto the main deck and narrowly missing a
crewman in the process.

"We've got massive damage on Shuttlebay 2! Hull breaches on Decks 12, 13,
and 14! Emergency forcefields are activated! Lee, take Damage Control Teams
to that section now!" called an officer at the 'Pool table' "Looks like
you'll only be able to take the turbolift up to Deck 16!.

"Aye sir!" she called, pushing herself off the balcony. "Damage Control
Teams Alpha and Beta with me!" Grabbing an engineering belt from the nearby
storage locker, she slapped it around her waist and literally slid down the
ladder to the main deck. "Lets go!" Several crewmen were finishing
grabbing their gear and rushed off down the main corridor behind Lee. Alex
slapped the panel on the turbolift doors, which opened a moment as the rest
of the two Damage control teams squeezed into the small space of the
turbolift.

"Deck 16," she said, pressed against the side of the turbolift, which began
its journey with a humm. A moment later the doors opened and the team
rushed out. "We'll have to take the jeffries tubes to Deck 14 and work our
way up! You know the drill! Worry only about the critical systems first!"
Alex was the first into the jeffries tube as she immediately began to climb
the nearby ladder upwards and soon came to Deck 14. Alex pressed the panel
to open the access hatch with no response. She immediately pulled off a
nearby panel pulled the manual lever, causing the hatch doors to slide open
with a slight groan of the metal being opened. Upon stepping out, the
corridor was a nightmare with lights flickering on and off. The smell of
smoke mixed with burnt flesh hung in the air.

Alex froze in her tracks as a screaming man, unidentified except for the
charred remains of his uniform rushed at her. It appeared that the man had
suffed third degree burns over nearly his entire body. "Help me! Help me,
please!" the burned man grabbed Alex's uniform tightly and in the process
soaked it with blood from his own skinless hand as he immediately fell
lifeless against Alex, knocking her down in the process. She was frozen in
horror as she looked at her bllod soaked hands and then down at her
uniform, which most of the front was also covered in the man's blood in that
moment as screams filled her mind and she was transported back to San
Francisco after the Breen Attack. She could again see the burnt and
dismembered bodies littered about the street. Children simply sitting on
the ground, sobbing heavily. "Why?!" she heard a nearby woman scream,
"WHY!?!"

"Ensign Lee, are you alright? Ensign Lee!" called a senior chief petty
officer.

Alex blinked a few times as the voice of the Senior Chief pierced through
her flashback. "Ma'am, are you alright?" the chief reinterated.

"Wh--What? Yes, I'm fine," she scurried away from the now lifeless body on
the deck in front of her as she felt a tight twisting in her stomach and
immediately placed her hand against a nearby charred bulkhead and leaned
over as her stomach retaliated against the sights and smells on the deck by
ejecting its contents onto the deck through Alex's mouth.

"You sure, you're ok, ma'am?" the senior chief asked again.

"I said, I'm fine chief," Alex replied as she wiped the tears from her eyes
onto her sleeve. She then removed her uniform jacket and unzipped the
collar of the undershirt. In doing so, it seemed to make it easier for her
to breathe.

"I'm detecting above normal radiation levels on this deck. We need to get
inoculated by medical staff soon," a nearby crewman reported, studying a
tricorder.

=/\=Ensign Lee to Sickbay, we need a medical team on Deck 14 for radiation
inoculation.=/\=

=/\=We're on our way, ensign. Sickbay, out,=/\= a female voice replied.

"Alright, lets keep moving until medical arrives," Alex ordered as she took
lead down the corridor.

"Close encounter of the Raynor kind"

Lieutenant Zev Raynor
Ensign Alexandra Lee

Raynor was sitting at an engineering station on the second level, with his
feet up reading a playboy. No one was quite sure why he was
there, but his reputation for doing unusual and disruptive things preceded
him and no one seemed to have the courage to tempt fate to get him to move,
knowing that they might wind up in the middle of some really weird joke...

Carrying an Engineering kit in her left hand, she came across a man reading
a book of some type with a nearly naked woman on
the front with Playboy written across the top of the cover. "Excuse me,"
she stated politely. "Could you move? I need to do a diagnostic on this
console."

"I could but would be the point?" Raynor rhetorically asked still reading
the magazine. "Just by the vibration in my legs I can
tell you that its running over 90% efficiency and will spark at whenever put
into a stressful situation involving either some weird
anomaly or highly explosive battle... so why bother at all?"

Alex raised a curious eyebrow at the lieutenant in intel uniform. She
wondered what brought the man to engineering but then blew it off.
>From what she had heard, all of the intel types aboard the Galaxy were
mass-murders, possessed, legally insane, or just plain rude.
"Because its my duty to make sure the console is running at 100 percent
efficiency and not 90 percent. So that way when it does blow,
you'll have nearly two seconds to get out of the way instead of one."

"Why stop at hundred then?" Raynor asked, again not raising his head from
the magazine. "If you really wanted to you could go up to 300 percent for
this particular console... just a matter of breaking a few laws, whether
they be safety regulations or the laws of quantum
physics... not so hard really..."

"300 percent is an impossible equation for any console or system...and I'm
not going to break any laws or regulations. Now, if you are
done looking at a book full of women with fake breasts and no brains, I need
to get some work done," Alex replied, placing her free
hand on her hip.

Raynor raised an eyebrow, and showed her the article he was reading titled,
"Factors of the Triad Conflict", which gave a
historical view on the Federation's interactions with the various elements
of their united enemy, and chanced to give you an idea of what
this was all about from another perspective. "You know you can actually
read these things for the articles..." Raynor said. "They are
quite good."

A grin crossed Alex's face. "Ohhhh...so thats where the Intel department
gets its intel from...a porno book," she jested.

"Tasteful nudes..." Raynor corrected her with a smile. "Porn actually
involves some sort of genital contact... or the act of mating
to be seen... and getting a civilian perspective on a war is always
enlightening rather than limiting oneself to military reports. Seeing
what they can dig up and publish is also worth knowing."

"So you get the civilian perspective from a Playboy magazine instead of,
say, the Federation Times...and why are you here in
Engineering and not the lounge or the Intel Office?" The man in front of
her both fascinated and repulsed her...yet wasn't half bad looking.

"Because the Federation Times everyone actually reads and as such will be
the first to be edited on by our government..." Raynor
replied. "And I'm in engineering because of classified business officially
and unofficially because it was the closest open area with
chairs."

"Glad we could convient you, but Engineering is not a place to be sitting
around. If the chief saw you up here, she'd blow a fuse,
especially with that magazine in your hands."

"Well then, I wouldn't have to worry because she'd have to go fix the fuse
she blew, and I could get away..." Raynor grinned. "Not I really mind harsh
physical discipline... especially if there's a paddle involved. Or a riding
crop... I might draw the line at a whip though... don't fancy having to go
sickbay and explaining that..."

Alex's eyes widened at the man's sexual comments. "Sorry, I'm not into that
and not sure about the chief, but I doubt it." Why is this man talking
about such sexual practices? she mentally asked herself.

Raynor finally got out of the chair, stretching out a bit... "Well it's my
policy not to knock something until I've tried it... and being a virgin and
all I haven't really tried anything."

"You're a virgin?" she asked dubiously. "Not that anything is wrong with
that...I mean its not like I've had any experience either, so I guess we're
kinda in the same boat in that area," said rather quicker than she wanted.

"I'm trying to avoid procreation personally..." Raynor stated simply. "I
guess I should be off... need to ask if the Chief Engineer is into whips...
excuse me..."

The statement caused Alex to cock her said to the side in confusion as she
watched the man stand up from the chair and begin to leave. A grin soon
formed at the corner of her mouth. "Oh, she is. She whips each one of us
daily," she joked.

"Does she wear a kinky leather outfit to go with the whip?" Raynor grinned.

"Sometimes. Depends on her mood." Alex actually wondered if this
lieutenant would really ask the chief that. If he did, he was most likely
the bravest man on the ship...or the most foolish.

"And whats her mood right now?" Raynor asked.

"Wouldn't know," Alex replied as she set the Engineering kit on the deck
next to the console and opened it. "I haven't see her this shift as of
yet." She watched as the lieutenant headed down to the main deck. "Lord, I
hope for his sake that he was just kidding," she said to herself softly.

"Monsters, Part II"

Zeke Crawford, Farmer
Alinn Kedru, Farm-hand
Janis Nahri, Farm-hand

New B'Hala Colony, Gamma Vered II
===========================

'The guilty one is not he who commits the sin, but the one who causes
the darkness.'
-Victor Hugo

"Damn Fed! Finish him off Kedru! Finish him off."

The teenager ran to the river bank and raised the industrial branding
laser she and his friend had modified. The figure struggling in the
reeds wore the camo uniform of a Starfleet marine private, and his
rifle was still on the shore, but Alinn Kedru had never killed before.
Wide-eyed and trembling, he hesitated before taking aim.

"Alinn Kedru, you shoot that gun an' I'll can your dad's ass faster
than spring thaw!"

Kedru kept the makeshift gun trained on the marine, but doubt began to
ebb the adrenheline rush surging through him. The man's helmet was
covered in mud and soggy reeds, but there was enough familiarity in
his voice to give him pause. His companion had, by this time, caught
up to him and wheezed her words.

"Kill him, Kedru! Do it!"

"He knows me, Nahri!"

Zeke Crawford looked up at the two Bajoran youths and grinned. "Know
you too, Nahri. Aren't the two of you supposed to be makin' out near
the falls this time of day?"

The two teens froze as the man struggled up the muddy embankment,
pausing only to pick up the gauss rifle that had fallen from his grip.
Finally, he tugged the helmet off his head, fevealing a scraggly and
unamused ratjanko farmer underneath. Kedru and Nahari sighed and
relaxed, lowering the bulky laser. "Mister Crawford...", Nahri said
at last. "We're so sorry... we thought you were one of them."

"Them Nahri?"

The young girl blushed slightly, but lost none of her composure.
"Marine. You're dressed like a private, right? Are you the reason
why they're angrier than wasps near a fire, sir?"

Crawford chuckled. "A little, maybe. Gave a squad a little trouble
up the valley a bit, but that wsa a while ago. What I want to know's
how a couple of kids like you manage to get the drop on me? And with
what? My backside's achin' like nobody's business."

Nahari beamed and brought out a small radio-controller. "Mag-lev
trolly. Merauu uses it to haul feed for his cattle. We just boosted
the acceleration and silenced the 'hum'." A practiced few taps of the
controls and a four-by-six platform glided towards them from the trees
along the river. "I'll bet you never even heard it!"

The ex-farmer, looked at the floating platform - literally plank
boards strapped together and a man-lev generator and powecell bolted
beneath it. He could imagine it full of cut grass being unloaded for
the day's feed, and laughed both at the youngster's ingenuity and his
own daydreaming. "Nope. Musta been wool-gathering something fierce.
It's a good job there, Nahri - no lie - but d'you think it'll make a
difference? Really?"

Both Nahri and Kedru looked at the ex-farmer, then slowly at the
ground, unwilling to speak the truth.

"Didn't think so", Crawford said. "Like I said, this 'aint Bajor, and
these 'aint Cardassians. Believe it or not, they've actually got your
best interests at heart. Must make 'em wanna piss vinegar for havin'
to do it, but they'll move you off New B'Hala, sure as shit kids."

It was Kedru who broke the youth's silence, years starting to fall
from his face. "I just don't understand why - what makes New B'Hala
not worth fighting for? What if this was Vulcan, or Earth, or
Andoria?" The youmg man's voice trembled with rage, cracking with an
anger he could justify, but couldn't control. "We're Federation
citizens too, aren't we? Why are they fighting against us, in stead
of for us?"

Nahri answered the question, softly and still focused on the cold
ground. "It's numbers, Kedru. We're too small, too insignificant in
the 'big picture'. We're not Vulcan, or Earth, or Andoria - just some
settlers from Bajor out on the rim. Bajor didn't vote to fight for
us, did she Mister Crawford?"

"Can't say I know, and can't say I care, kids." The human emptied the
muddy river-water from the helmet and knocked it against his thigh to
rid it of the last few drops. "Welcome to the arm-pit of the
Quadrant. Disappointment's part of the adult condition - you'd better
get used to it."

"Then why do you and the others do it Zeke", the boy asked. "Why, if
it's futile? If we're going to be disarmed, and forced from our home
regardless of what we do, why are you and the others fighting?'

Crawford paused cleaning the helmet, and thought of the young
Bajoran's words. Looking up into the hills, he thought of what he
knew of the other settlers and their hopes and dreams. "They're
fools, Ked - complete, unrepentant idiots. Sure, it blows they've got
to leave what they've worked damn hard for, but that's the breaks,
kid. They know sweet diddley 'bout the Dreshayans - the folks movin'
on in to the system, and they'd shyte their collective
Prophets-be-praised pants off if they knew what's heading their way."

Both Bajorans blushed at the religious profanity, but were wise enough
beyond their years to hear the truth when spoken. "Then it'll all be
gone... after we leave.", Nahri said quietly. "Everything we've made
will be gone, and we'll have nothing."

"Yup."

Kedru cleaned his nose noisily along his sleeve, and glared red-eyed
at the former farmer. "If they're fools got fighting for what they
believe the Prophet's have given them, what does that make you Zeke?
I *know* you don't believe! Why are you fighting?"

"I'm not fighting, boy", Crawford said, taking his eyes off the
snow-capped hills. "I'm killin'. There's a difference."

"I don't understand..."

Zene nodded, and smiled. "It's better that way, Kedru - really. Way
you've lived 'till now, you've lived in frikkin' paradise. Sure, the
work's been hard an' you've had to break your balls to make ends meet,
but you've never seen the kinda crap your folks've had to go through
on Bajor. I kinda envy you. Some of us've had a different place to
grow up, an' different things to learn. I'm not killin' for a
purpose, Ken. Not to protect the land, or save the people,or follow
the Prophets."

"Then why?"

The knife was so sharp that Kedru felt only the impact of Crawford's
fist slamming into his chest. Reflexively he inhaled, and was unable
to expel his last breath. The Bajoran managed a glimpse of the knife
handle sticking out of him, and a final look at his first love as he
fell to his knees and then to the ground.

"'Cause... I like it."

Nahri's scream shattered the silence of the abandoned fields as she
dropped to hold her lover's head. As her tears fell on his still
face, she looked up at the human her family had once called friend.
Slowly, Zeke Crawford was raising the gauss rifle to bear on the young
woman's head.

"Why? WHY????"

"Like I told you..."

<<CRACK>>

The rifle shot rang throughout the small valley, sending clouds of
small birds from their snowy hiding-places. The shooter looked up
from the scope of the powerful hunting rifle, and wiped a small,
insignificant tear. Standing from her hiding place in the village
mill, Day Rahl hefted the rifle and made her way to the grieving young
woman. Nahri shook as she sobbed over Kedru's still, lifeless body.
She looked within herself for words to comfort the young woman, but
found herself looking at the headless form of what had been her
husband, and remained quiet.

All she could offer Nahari was the cold comfort of a gloved hand on
her shoulder as the snows began to fall once more, making all that was
not covered in white seem clean and pure once more.

Les Enrag?s, Part 1

Matan, township east of New B'Hala

It started with just a small handful of people and a jury-rigged stage. Most
colonists just hurried by the old man with the orange armband and the
microphone, intent on getting their families, possessions, and friends the
hell out of dodge. But a few, mostly young, single souls, weaned on heroic
tales of the Occupation, stopped to see what the speaker was saying, hoping
for inspirational condemnations of the enemy. At this point, whether or not
that was the Hydrans, Dreshyans, or Starfleet didn't really matter.

Despite three easy, solid choices, though, the old man had apparently
decided to throw a curveball.

"...How can you leave your home? Keep your heads down and bow to their
commands? It was *Bajorans*, like *you,* who allowed the Occupation, and by
the prophets, it is *you* who will allow another one. You think they will
give you a home, replace your belongings, provide you work? Do you think we
will live the way we live here? No! We will live in camps, 'for our own
protection', and all because of cowards unwilling to stand up for their home
and people!"

More passer-bys stopped. Two farmers, then one old woman, then a group of
school children. It was easy to stop just for a moment, to listen. They
would move on soon, of course. They couldn't waste too much time when they
had to pack, but surely a moment to listen to the crackpot old man and rest
their feet wouldn't hurt?

"I expect no better from Starfleet. Where were they when we needed them
before? Nowhere! And now they have stepped into the Cardassians' shoes. It
is just as before, how can you not see? I expect more from all of you! You
know what will happen to us, you have seen it before, and yet you just
scurry into their trap like rats. If we united, we could fight them. It is
people like *you-*that's right, Tanar* *Malik,* you*! You are a coward
fleeing to the arms of Starfleet, and I spit on you!"

Malik had been turning to go, tired of the ignorant man and his ugly words.
He halted his retreat abruptly and shrunk back under the accusing gaze of
the quickly growing crowd. It had been a mistake to stop and listen, he
understood that now, a mistake to stop for his daughter to rest. The old man
had chosen the fourth, less easy, but so much more reachable enemy. Entirely
reachable, Malik realized, with a parent's awareness of exactly how close
the angry crowd was to his daughter. And suddenly he knew. He knew exactly
what the old, horrible, *sick*, *evil* man wanted to happen here today. What
*would* soon happen. And he needed to get out of here. Now. He almost gagged
as he grasped frantically at his daughter.

"Liina, let's go. We have to meet your mother?"

"Daddy, don't carry me! I want to walk?"

"--Liina, be quiet. We have to go *now.*" Malik began to elbow his way away
from the noise, and the evil man who knew *nothing* about what war was
like--nothing about death, and needless violence, and pain. If he did, he
wouldn't dare to try* *for it, *beg* for it to be visited on his own people,
and by their own hands. And that's where this was going fast, for the
crowd's scrutiny was no longer silent. Questioning murmurs to neighbors
became murmurs of assent. Elbows and legs jostled him, and Liina cringed,
clinging to her father and her stuffed dog with a child's faith that one of
them would make it better.

"This is the man! Him, and people like him who forget, no, *pretend* to
forget our history! They ignore the signs of what is coming and think only
of their own cowardly interests. The rest of us will suffer?*again?*for the
cowardice of Tanar and men like him! Listen to his daughter cry! He does not
care even for his family, but only for his own selfishness!"

That took it too far. To accuse a man of cowardice was one thing, but to
accuse a man everyone knew as a loving father of hurting his little girl was
more than some people could stand. At least, for those who knew Malik. To
the rest of the frenzied crowd, this latest insult was just one more crime
by an already guilty man.

"Leave him alone!" A neighbor, holding the hand of her son more tightly than
he would normally allow.

"What do you know? You are just as bad as he is!" Another woman,
middle-aged, this one bearing a long, jagged scar across her throat. "I know
your type! It is as he has said--you are the same ones who betrayed us all
before!" She ran towards the stage yelling, but the rest of her words were
drowned out by the roar that followed the next outcry.

"We have to protect our families!" Nobody knew who said it, and what their
motive was, but everyone agreed. And so, it became the battle cry of both
sides. Over the ensuing din, it was only the microphone, and the man behind
it, that could be heard.

"We *cannot* let them condemn us to slavery again! *Do not* let our own
people betray us! They are *our* people no longer!"

**********************************

A transporter takes only moments. A shuttle only minutes. Even on foot, the
Starfleet officers arrived only half an hour after the first bullet barely
missed the woman with the scar.

It was 14 minutes too late. Matan was burning. And the nameless old man was
gone.

"Insinuation"

Lieutenant Saul Bental

Lt. Ella Grey

Cadet Artemis Bancroft

Lieutenant J.G. Nyoko Yuuri (Oded)

****

"It's a mining station," Ella said as soon as she returned.

Artemis glanced back along to where Ella had come from. "At least
the people here are friendly enough to talk to us here," she said.

Ella nodded. "I talked to a miner on a work break. The guy was very
sympathetic when I gave him the puppy eyes and told him my sad tale of a
botched operation by Federation doctors. And it probably didn't hurt when I
insinuated how great I am at blow jobs."

Saul, who remained silent throughout Ella's gallant infiltration of the
miner ranks, rolled his eyes. "Was it really necessary, Ella?"

Ella rolled her eyes as well.

"I said insinuate, Saul. Miner's lives are hard, nothing like sympathy and a
hint of sex to get people talking."

"Sex," Artemis said, ears perking up. She looked sheepish for a moment,
knowing full well that both now wasn't the time and even if it were, it
would be of no use for her. At least, not for a couple more years.
Changing the subject, she continued, "So, what exactly do they mine here?"

Ella smiled. "It's some kind of mineral and by the amount of gear I saw
plus all the security they have around, I bet anything it's Dilithum."

Artemis blinked. "Wow, no wonder they don't want to leave."

"How many people?" Saul asked sharply, before the words finished leaving
Artemis' mouth.

"Twelve workers that I could see. At least doublet that in security."

"And they didn't ask you what are you doing here? The corporation wouldn't
permit unexpected guests on an operation not marked on the
map."

Was this place the reason Takashi insisted that no Starfleet vessels will
orbit the dark side? Saul thought that the Japanese executive was
trying to send them on a goose chase. But, perhaps the bastard thought
reverse psychology would work on Saul.

"I stuck to the tents and the food mess but from what I heard there was some
kind of accident a few days ago. They're expecting new workers," Ella
replied.

"What happens if we do get them to leave and the Triad forces storm through
here," Artemis asked. "This all goes to them, right?"

"Yes, but I don't think a single rich Dilithium vein will cause the people
in charge to abandon their evacuation plans.", Saul explained. "Once you
start this kind of process, the implications of backing off are--."

He stopped suddenly, as though stunned.

"What is it, sir," Artemis asked. Had she said something wrong? She
looked around to see if maybe they had been spotted.

Ella was quick to recognized Saul's sly smirk. Sotha had the same smirk,
and it was often followed by danger and trouble. Unknown to both of them,
Nyoko recognized it and connected it to Sotha as well. Saul stepped forward
and patted Artemis' head, startling her.

"Did I tell you today I like the way you think, girl?" He asked.

The young cadet couldn't help smiling.

Saul felt like his body is invigorated with no energy, the wariness
dissolving. "Excellent. Ella, I need documented evidence of what goes inside
that mine. I'll go and speak with the miners and security personnel, see if
I can convince them the neighbour's grass is greener than this dump. Can you
handle that?"

"I think so," Ella replied. "What are we going to do with it?"

"Play dirty."

It was better if they did not know, Saul thought. Not that he did not trust
Ella or Nyoko - He was still unfamiliar with Artemis but he 'suspected' she
was OK - but if his little foul game will be discovered, it would be much
better for the rest to be able to plea their innocence.

Standing around in the mining station in her borrowed civilian clothes,
Artemis looked between each of her companions. She had a suspicion things
were about to get very interesting around here. Then again, interesting was
one of the best reasons to join Starfleet.

They decided on a time table, and Saul repeated several pointers he already
gave them during the train. They all tested the four communication
devices Saul brought along, which were disguised as - how appropriates -
orange badges. Saul's micro-tricorder, also cleverly disguised to avoid
detection, was handed over to Ella. Final words were spoken, and the pilot
and cadet departed.

When they vanished out of sight in the fog, Nyoko spoke up. "Are you sure
it's a good idea to send them scouting?"

"It's much less dangerous than them coming in direct contact with the
miners. Also, Ella's already exposed so if they find her wondering where she
shouldn't she has an excuse ready. But if they speak with her for five
minutes - or to the cadet - they'll realize she's not corporate."

"Whereas...?"

Saul picked two tiny vials between his thumb and index finger. They were
transparent, containing a colorful liquid, just a few drops in each
container. It was another item he brought along, and was about to serve its
purpose.

"Nyoko, you choose - brown hair or blond."

"I always imagined you will look cute as a Blondie, Saul. I'm not sure Nara
will be too thrilled."

"Blond it is, then."

Saul uncorked one of the vials, and a few drops of liquid landed on his dark
brown hair.

*"Captured"*

Marine Captain Man'darr Maivia

1st Lieutenant Branwen London

Corporal Smantha Beckett (NPC--Aaron)

Private So'kli (NPC--Chris)

Various other NPCs

<New B'Hala>

Man'darr, along with Corporal Smantha Beckett materialized in a swirl of
blue light and slight whine of the Federation Transporter Beam. He had heard
rumors of some of the colonists attempting to refine Uranium and in response
had the Marines conduct patrols as well as have fighters do flyovers of
suspected areas. With the recent outbreak of fighting, he wanted to check on
the other Marine platoons. Man'darr approached the nearby building where he
had spotted several Marines overseeing the evacuation of a family. "Where is
Lieutenant London?" he stated firmly.

"The Lieutenant is two blocks to the east, sir," replied a sergeant.

"Thank you," he said as he and Corporal Beckett walked briskly to the East
until they finally spotted the familiar form of Lieutenant London. "How are
things here, lieutenant?"

She came to attention despite her tiredness. "Sir." Bran greeted her husband
correctly. "We are getting there, captain. Behind schedule, but there is
more resistance then anticipated."That and the fact that she felt for these
people.

Man'darr nodded thoughtfully beofre turning to Corporal Beckett. "Corporal,
go and check on the other Marine Positions in the area while I discuss the
situation with Lieutenant London. "Aye, sir," the young woman said before
turning and briskly walking away from the area.

Turning back to Branwen, he grinned. "At ease. My unit has also met
resistance. We were attacked by a suicide bomber and then by a small group
of colonists. I have snipers out, scouting areas that have reported sniper
activity. What sort of resistance are you meeting here?"

"People barricading themselves in their houses. Armed resistance as well.

It's difficult to get them out without hurting them. I'm trying to reason
with them, with varied success, sir." She did not say that that she did not
like this assignment very much. "Use whatever force is necessary to extract
them. We could use the shuttles' transporter system to transport the
resistant ones to the Galaxy's Brig if nee de d, or at least hold them in
transporter stasis for a few moments.

She hesitated. "I am afraid there are too many to put in the brig, captain.
And my orders do not include whatever force is necessary. These are
Federation citizens, not enemy troops, sir." The last thing Branwen wanted
was a fight, especially right now, she could see the corporal watch them
with trepidation. But she was going to stand firm on her ideas and believes.

"Wrong, Branwen," he called her by her first name without thinking. "These
are the enemy. The colonel has been shot and several other Marines are
either dead or wounded. I will not be nice to those who harbor those or are
those who are killing Marines. One of my duties is to keep my Marines safe,
and I will do that because the Marines under me mean more to me than
colonists who cannot follow orders."

"Sir." She said after a few seconds of careful consideration. "I am very
sorry that the Colonel has been wounded, and that some of our own have died.
That should not have happened. But this has been an impossible task from the
beginning. If we resort to violence now, it's going to get out of hand, and
more people are going to die on both sides. Protecting our Marines works
better my way, captain. Unless by here directly from the area commander
here, I am not going to resort to violence. And that would be Commander
Ellesidil." From what she had seen of the commander he was certainly not
going to resort to violence.

Man'darr sighed. "The Commander is a Pacifist. He cares nothing for those
who have died. Has he been out here in the field or locked behind closed
doors like a coward? All of this talking is taking up too much time. To be
honest, I think we should evacuate those who are willing to leave and leave
the rest for slaughter...yet...that would not be the honorable thing to
do..."

He was tired. He nor his men were trained for this kind of deployment. They
were trained for combat, not babysitting colonists.
Branwen could see her husband was tired, she was tired&n bsp; herself,
everybody was. "Captain, can you spare me some men?" She asked him. "Some of
the more diplomatic soldiers. I could probably pick them myself. They could
help me move this evacuation forward without violence. We will do the
honourable thing as human beings. We have to get them out, but we will do it
with respect for their situation and make this has easy on everybody as we
can. Please, sir. It's the only way to do this and not come out hating
ourselves." She had to be strong now.

"Fine, you can have six, but no more. The Marines are stretched as it is."

"Everything helps, sir." She said glad that she had calmed him down. "And we
will get through this." Branwen said it with all the conviction she could
muster.

Suddenly an energy round impacted Man'darr's chest plate armor, causing him
to take a step back, followed by the sound of a disruptor rifle being fired,
as several of the colonists began to scream and run. "Take cover!" Man'darr
yelled above the screaming colonists as he pressed himself against the
nearest building.

Branwen moved at the same moment, her reflexes taking over. "Where the hell
are they getting those kind of weapons?" She shouted to her superior. "I do
not know...but someone is giving them the weapons!" Man'darr leaned around
the corner and fired off two quick shots with his Type- 2 Phaser, having
broken his rifle in the last battle. His chest plate armor still smoldered
from the previous hit.

"Aye your all right, Dar?" Worried that he was wounded she finally forgot
about rank.

"I am fine.. The arm or took the damage," he said as he fired off another
quick shot. He then spotted Corporal Beckett, also in cover, but at a better
angle on the attackers. "Corporal Becket! See if you can get a clear shot!"

"Aye, sir!" The young woman instantly lept off to the side as she sprinted
towards another building. Comming to the building, she d ropped down into a
slide as a disruptor shot went past her. She raised her rifle to her
shoulder and fired a quick three burst shot before taking cover.

Bran watched. She could do little. She was not heavily armed and watched
Becket in action.

Private So'kli was right behind her. The Vulcan man was an abnormality in
the Marine Corps, at least according to the popular misconception that they
all filled science or diplomacy roles. In reality, Vulcans made phenomenal
combatants. Their speed, calmness, strength, and infamous intelligence made
them exactl y the kind of Marine that was wanted in the 188th. In
fact, there were more Vulcans in Starfleet's security services,
intelligence, and the Marines than any civilian would have thought likely.
Carrying a squad support weapon, he began laying down accurate fire on the
shooter. Although he hadn't hit anything due to the cover of the target, he
was keeping the enemy pinned down for Beckett's eventual shot.

As So'kli laid down a heavy field of fire, Corporal Beckett leaned around
the corner of the building, taking a quick aim and fired once. The phaser
struck the man center mass in the chest, repelling him several yards away.

Man'darr fired off another three burst shot, hitting an attacking colonist
in the chest as well. The colonist then seemed to be moving backwards
slowly, while still firing.

Corporal Beckett, was caught up in her adrenaline as the rushed to the other
side of the building, dropped to a knee around the corner and fired off two
more shots, taking two more colonists down. Suddenly four colonists appeared
out of the building in which Corporal Beckett and Private So'kli had taken
cover. "What the..." Corporal Beckett wasta ken by surprise as a three
disruptor shots caught her by surprise, bypassing her armor and sending her
to the ground as blackness enveloped her.

"Shit!" Branwen exclaimed. These colonists had weapons they were not
supposed to have, and things were going badly. Was it really worth it to
move these people against their will. Beckett seemed to be in bad shape, so
Branwen started to crawl towards her to see if she could help the woman.
With the captain here he was in overall tactical Command, and besides
somehow she did not have the urge to shoot these people.

Seeing Branwen move towards Beckett's position, he sighed and jumped up,
immediately laying down a steady burst of phaser fire, hitting one colonist
in the process before being hit twice by disruptors, sending him to the
ground. Man'darr slowly got up as he fought off the effects of the stun
settings that had been deflected mostly by his armor and not high enough in
settings to completely stun a capellan. Soon, Private So'kli was also hit by
several disruptor blasts, piercing his armor.

Soon, the four colonists rushed to Branwen with their weapons leveled at
her, as more colonists appeared from the tunnel under the building and
quickly placed restraints on Beckett and Slo'kli. Others began to move
towards Man'darr with restraints as well.

"We are only trying to help!" Branwen called out. "Don't you see that. And
be careful with her, she is wounded!"

"She is only stunned," replied a man holding a disruptor rifle. Now, are we
going to do this the easy way or the hard way?" he grinned.

"Can it." Another man put it bluntly. "We need them to carry the others.

You." He pointed to Bran. "Help her up. Capellan, put down your weapon if
you want anyone to live through this." Really, he hadn't planned the ambush
with the intent on killing anyone, but if blood did need to be spilled he
was ready to do his best to see it wasn't his. "Take their weapons and
communication devices. Let's get going."

"Captain, I believe it might be wise to do as he asks." Branwen said. She
knew it was not in her husband's nature to comply. But she didn't want to
see anybody else hurt.

Man'darr thought about the situation for a brief moment. He couldn't risk
Branwen getting injured if he retaliated. With a sigh of resignation, he
tossed his type-2 phaser to the ground. A man soon grabbed the phaser and
Man'darr's communicator as well and Branwen's. Two men soon quickly placed
titanium shackles on Man'darr.

"Please, can I talk to somebody in charge." Branwen said politely. "So we
can work something out that benefits us all."

"You can shut up and do as you're told!" a man said from behind her. He
could definately think of a few things he would have loved to 'work out'
with the female marine but there was no time for that now. "Now, move!"

Branwen walked next to her husband. "At some point I will find somebody I
can reason with." She mumbled. "Damn stubborn people."

The group of armed civilians quickly took the four down into the tunnel,
from which they had emerged. The tunnel was dimly lit and narrow. The tunnel
then seemed to move deeper under the surface as it began to slope downwards
at a slight angle.

"So, you want to reason while you try to force us from our homes?" replied a
middle-aged man with a disruptor rifle. He gave Branwen a slight push with
the butt of his rifle.

Immediately, an elbow slammed into the man's face, sending him backwards as
blood gushed from the shattered nose. "Do not hit her again!" Man'darr
ordered the man.

Immediately several disruptor rifles were trained on Man'darr.

A middle aged woman appeared from up ahead quickly after seeing the
comotion. "Stop it! They are to be unharmed for our supporters!"

"Are you their leader?" Branwen asked. "Please, we have to talk it, is not
too late to work this out."

As the group moved forward and with the injured man slowly getting up, they
came to a small open area. "Talk?" the woman approached Branwen. "You force
us from our homes and now when we have you captured, you all of a sudden
want to talk?!" she then looked at the other men. "Place them apart over
there. Our supporters will be here soon."

Suddenly a Hydran stepped out from a nearby room. "Yes, they shall be. You
could have done better job of getting higher ranked prisoners," the Hydran
said with distaste as he glanced at the four prisoners. Two of whom were
regaining conciousness.

"I am sorry, but we were meeting heavy resistance," replied a younger man.

"This one," the woman pointed to Man'darr, "is second in command of the
Marines, I believe."

"Very well. You shall be rewarded."

"What the?. You can't do this." Branwen struggled to get free. "You can't
trust them! They are enemies of the Federation!"

The woman chuckled as two men restrained and slapped restraints on Branwen's
wrists. "Wrong, they are your enemies, not ours. They have offered their
protection and have promised to leave the colonies alone as they settle onto
the planets in the Vered System. They also helped us to defeat you by giving
us these disruptor rifles. What have you ever done for us other than try to
force us from our homes?" The woman suddenly slapped Branwen hard across the
face.

She did not call out, although she was surprised. "We would have helped you
if you gave us a chance." She started to say when her husband sprang into
action.

Man'darr instantly leapt to his feet and charged the woman upon seeing her
strike Branwen. Suddenly two bolts of energy struck Man'darr sending him to
the ground, unconcious. The Hydran placed his disruptor pistol back into its
holster. "Secure that one better!"

Two men immediately went to where Man'darr laid and placed restraints on his
ankles as well as a black cloth bag over his head.

"You leave him alone!" Branwen called out. "Don't you see what you're doing.
You are condemning yourself! They will never leave you alone."

"Do you have any idea what hydrans do with female prisoners." Branwen looked
the woman straight in the eyes.

The woman stood her ground. "You force from our homes, kill us, my son is
dead! Dead from your Marines! I, frankly, don't care what they do to you,
lieutenant or the female corporal. But I can only imagine what you will
endure at their hands."

"Our soldiers did not start shooting until they were attacked. And even then
they tried not to kill anybody. Those where their specific orders." Branwen
called out. "Do you know how difficult it is for my people to have to do
this? We feel for you! But it is the only way."

"Be silent!" the woman screamed at Branwen, fighting back tears. "I do not
care how difficult it is for your Marines to not be murderers. The fact that
my son is dead is beacuse they are murders.

"My government and I personally feel for your loss," the Hydran said as his
three eyes glanced at the woman and then towards Branwen.

"No, you don't. The minute the Federation turns its back the people on this
planet will be dead, and you know it!" Branwen said heated.

"You are indeed a feisty one. You'll soon learn to behave." He turned his
attention back to the woman. "I apologize as this female will say anything
to try and make you doubt our intentions."

The woman grinned at the hydran. "It is quite alright. Your actions prove
your support of us beyond any words the Federation can utter."

"At least all we have said has been honest. Think about that when they
betray you." Branwen implored.

"Honest?" the hydran asked in disgust. "Do the Federation citizens know that
you are forceably removing these people from their home simply because the
Federation fears my government?"

Suddenly several swirls of light and a whine noise were emitted as Hydran
soldiers materialized. "Take these prisoners to the Dreshayan ship and then
transport them to one of our vessels to Altroth Three."

"Yes, my lord," replied one soldier as he forceably grabbed Branwen by the
arm and the other soldiers grabbed the others and dematerialized from the
surface.

"What of our reward?" the woman asked. "Do we get more weapons? More
disruptor rifles?"

The three eyes of the hydran trained on the woman. "Yes...you shall be
rewarded." He tapped his communicator. =/\=I request transport and besure
to send our allies a gift for their services.=/\=

=/\=At once, my lord,=/\= came a reply as the Hydran disappeared. A moment
later a large object shapped like a torpedo materialized in the cavern area.

The woman coutiously approached the weapon. "What is this..." as her mind
realized their betrayla, it was too late as the photon torpedo detonated,
instantly disentegrating the woman and the nearby resistance fighters and
collapsing the cavern and several miles of tunnels in the process.

"Flight and Fancy"

Lt. Jarajen "Quattro" Quaaliu, CAG
Pilot Taev "Stubbs"

[Vanguard Two - bank right and set course to forty-five mark zero-seven?zero.]

<Roger, that Vanguard One. Boss?>

[Yes Pilot Taev?"]

<I think I'm in love.>

Secure in the streamlined cockpit, Jarajen Quattro knew exactly what
his wingman was talking about. It was puzzling though ? from what he
remembered of his days on earth, the albatross was an awkward-flying
sea bird, and the new fighter that bore its moniker was anything but.
What would be the Rogue VI was proving to be a dogfighter's dream.
Punchy acceleration and fast, fluid turning showed her Hydran
heritage, and the Nassari found that more than a little disturbing.
Federation fighter dogma largely relied on sensors and smart-missiles,
and that would have to change. The new fighter had a raised cockpit
for better visibility, re-enforcing the fact that the Monarchy's
pilots liked to get up close in a skirmish, and statistics bore that
they were trained very, very well.

[This one knows what the pilot means], Quattro said at last as his
fighter finished the turn effortlessly. [Once we are in range, the
Pilot may select his target and fire at will.]

<Roger, that Vanguard One.>

Earlier, a runabout from the Galaxy had seeded the edge of the system
with dozens of smart-targets - torpedo-sized targets with a
pre-programmed maneuvering system that mimicked the latest Hydran
starfighter. When Taev set his accelerator to max, Quattro knew the
Ferengi had found the first one and had gone for the kill. Jarajen
held back, acting as Taev's wingman to observe how the Ferengi handled
himself in the Albatross. True to its reputation, the fighter and her
pilot had no problems matching pace with the drone/. Twenty seconds
later, Taev had scored his first 'kill'.

Quattro shadowed Vanguard Two for the next half-dozen targets, and
noticed that as Taev's confidence grew, so too did his recklessness.
When the Ferengi encountered the first of two 'special' drones, he was
unprepared for the change in routine. Two of the targets were armed
with a low-watt Type III phaser and a far more aggressive attach
algorithm. Taev managed to elude the hunter-drone and destroy it, but
it took ten minutes, and the Ferengi made no request of his wingman.

~Disappointing.~

The CAG called off the exercise, and transmitted the data directly to
Daniel's file in tactical. The Ferengi protested at the cancellation,
but knew Quattro was far more intolerant of debate than Corran Rex had
ever been. The subject was closed.

Checking his chronometer, Jarajen signaled for the next pilot to
launch and proceed to the test-zone. Every pilot would be observed
and recorded, and the data relayed to Daniels' workstation. The young
human had boasted to develop the 'best fighter tactics in the fleet',
and Quattro was determined to hold him to it.

<C'mon boss ? just one more?>

Silence met the request, and the tests proceeded.

"The Devil Went Down to Georgia"

Colonel For'kel Arvelion- SFMC
Commanding Officer

Gunnery Sergeant Thral (PCC- Mike)
Demolitions Expert

---------------

Thral had done alot of things he questioned when faced with the enemy. He'd
dropped a mountain on a Cardassian settlement during the Chin'toka
campaingn.
He'd blown up a fuel depot a few meters from a civilian facility during the
Tzenkethi War. Neither quite compared to what he was doing now. Sure it was
an abandoned settlement that was once occupied by people who were now
killing
and kidnapping his squadmates. But they were still Federation citizens and
it
was their livelihoods and what they had built with their blood and sweat
that he'd be demolishing. The pit in the usually stoic Thral's stomach was
deep
enough to bury a body in. A Nausicaan. Standing up.

"Gunny, full sweep of the settlement is complete. No sign of any sentient
life.", one of the marines Fork had left to protect their operation yelled
in
his ear as he was crouched over a satchel charge.

"That's comforting Corporal. Were you able to get any goods out?", Thral
replied without looking up from his work
"Colonists didn't leave much that we could get out by hand but we managed
to
save a few things.", the corporal answered.

"Good. I want your squad back on perimeter patrol. And find Big Blue for me
would ya." Thral was straightening up as he said this enough to catch the
corporal's salute. The Big Blue he was referring to was actually a rather
diminutive Andorian named Lisar who also happened to be his second in
command. Less
then a minute later the Andorian was by his side.

"How we doing Big Blue.", Thral asked as he glared at a young PFC who was
using the wrong detonator sequence.

"Charges are in place on all the major buildings. Mostly Type 4 photonic
demolitions charges with a few thermite plasma charges thrown in for good
measure.", Lisar responded as he joined in Thral's glare. The young human
PFC
finally figured out why she was getting death glares from her NCOs and
finally
switched in the right detonators.

"Spots wanted a big fireball and he'll get one. Excellent. How much longer?
And thank you private, Colonel doesn't want these things going off til he
says so remember!"

The private looked flustered for a moment and uttered a meek, "Sorry sirs."

"My team should be done in about half an hour. We're having trouble getting
the proper firing pattern for the mortars. He really wants us to tear up
the
soil too?" Lisar was ingoring the private and showing in his voice that he
didn't like this anymore then Thral did. They'd arranged a sereies of
mortar
shells to spread a substance that would effectively destroy the soil for
half a
kilometer for a good 30 years.

"I'll send Lurak over to help. His Vulcan brain should be able to crack
that
math in no time. I'll also call up Spots." Lisar nodded and went back over
to where he had been working on the mortars. Thral stepped out towards the
edge of the village for a moment and tapped his combadge.

"Thral to Fork'el, please respond."

"I'm right here!" For'kel gave a shout as the quiet Argo buggy pulled up
next to the battle hardened Tellerite and his men. Can I presume you're
done
here?"

"Just about, Big Blue and Lurak are putting the finishing touches on things
and then will pull back to the ridge." the Tellarite replied somewhat
surpised to see the Colonel pull up next to him

"Good, hop in." The Colonel slid over a seat to make room for his
old-school battle buddy. "We're going to give the colonists one last try
before we
start beaming them up. This might take a while, but I need someone with
the
trigger close at hand."

"So you want them to see the blinking red button, understood." Thral was
already climbing in next to Fork as he pulled out a PADD "Got it right here
actually along with a list of the toys we have laying around. Can even blow
it up in bits if you like."

"Staged explosions are always good for effect." For'kel gave a nod to
Owens indicating that she should drive on. "One of the sniper teams managed
to locate the colonists that were hiding out. We've been exchanging
communications signals for a while, and they finally agreed to meet us in
person. Hopefully we'll get whoever's changed their minds to come out
peacefully, and then work on the rest."

"Hopefully. I don't want to do this anymore then you do even though I do
think might be some of my best work." Thral's head was clearly still back in
the village and not here.

"I don't know, you pulled out all the stops on Romulus before." For'kel
smirked, trying to make sure his riding partner didn't have the proverbial
itchy trigger finger. "This road here Private."

"Aye sir." Leah rolled her eyes, wondering why it was officers 'always'
felt compelled to give directions when they weren't needed... or for those
who couldn't because they never learned to read a damn map.

"There will be two meeting us there, and a guard of three further back.
Set your rifle for wide beam in the event it's needed, but don't ready it
until we're fired upon."

"Of course. And Romulus was backyard picnic compared to what I got set down
there. You've never asked me to do something spectacular before." Thral had
a half grin on his face as he reached for his carbine and adjusted the
settings.

"That's because we're trained for time, not aesthetics." The former Combat
Engineer glanced sideways as they came up on the meeting ground.

Seeing the group in the opening, Leah took the buggy into the meadow. In
addition to Thral and For'kel, PFC Jen'has got out. Leah had her type II in
her lap, while PFC Minerez manned the aft cannon.

"Greetings." For'kel offered his counterparts as he and Thral
approached. Fork wasn't carrying a rifle... it would've been a pain in the
ass as well as a bad way to make any trust. "And thank you for meeting us.
I think we should start by recognizing this situation for what it is, if you
have any wounded, women, or children in need of care and safety, we can see
to that and return them to you once we're done here."

Thral's carbine was ready to fire but was slung over his shoulder. He was a
trust but be prepared kind of guy, sorta like the Colonel. He carefully eyed
the tall, well built human walking out to them. The colonist too had a wary
look on his face and for good reason. His people were being gradually forced
out and noone seemed to care about their side of the story. How typical.

"Yeah, well, personally Colonel, I'm still not convinced that you're playing
straight with us. We've heard about what your people are doing. Doesn't give
us much reason to trust you nor go quietly."

"We're executing lawful orders passed on to us by the Federation Council."
For'kel's defense was practical, but soft spoken. "If the fact we're here
to save you isn't reason enough, let me put it more succinctly. I have a
full unit of Marines behind me... you have the Dreyshans and Hydrans behind
you. It would be wise to re-evaluate your position."

"A home is a home, Colonel." The woman next to him, a fairly average
looking Bajoran woman offered. "We will not leave here any sooner than you
would leave yours."

"If my home was going to be raised either way, I would rather act in the
greater good of my people." For'kel pushed back. "Land can be retaken, and
buildings rebuilt. If you die out here, particularly after a rescue effort,
the reprecussions of that will go 'well' beyond your loss."

"The greater good would have been to leave us alone Colonel." The human was
clearly not in much of a mood to talk. He'd heard everything the colonel had
said before. "What, if we don't leave are you going to blow up our village
or something."

Thral pulled the PADD the detonators were set to from his hip and held it at
the ready with an emotionless face and a steady stare, saying nothing.

"Not at all... the village is going to be leveled whether you come with us
or not." It wasn't a debate on whether they would or wouldn't, the question
is when. "The longer we debate the issue though, the less of a chance
you'll have to pack up your possessions." He left the fact most of their
belongings were already gathered conveniently out.

"You're lying!" the Bajoran woman nearly growled. "I do not believe
Starfleet Marines would do such a thing!"

"I make it a habit to tell the truth ma'am, it's easier to keep my stories
straight that way." For'kel did his best not to smirk. "We have to move
you. I'd rather we didn't, but it is a necessity. We can not allow you to
remain, because you would then be in danger, as well as endanger others. I
know it's not fair, but I'm asking you to remember your patriotism here."

Thral walked up quietly and sternly to Fork and handed him the PADD as the
human started looking around nervously. He wasn't sure what to do now but he
saw the look in both the Stagnorian's and the Tellarite's eyes. They were
dead serious.

"I think they would Solia. I really think they would. I know you don't like
giving up on a good fight but, well, they ARE going to do it."

The Bajoran's brown eyes went wild with rage. "What kind of criminals 'are'
you?!" Her voice was barely below shouting, and definitely edged with
accusation. "It's not enough for you to come down here, to drive us from
our homes, kill our people, now you're going to taunt us by threatening
everything we've worked for!"

The rage was palpable, and For'kel knew that no amount of "I'm sorry" was
going to change that. Despite it though, he didn't hesitate. His orders
were valid, and in this case made sense. He made up his mind when he first
got here that this was going to end one way, and one way alone... with the
colonists leaving. He wasn't going to leave a single one of them behind to
be a prisoner, a bargaining chip, and not one war prize would be left
standing. Watching the sobbing, screaming woman broke his heart, but he
knew ultimately it was better this way, the hard way. Letting them stay was
certainly the easy way, but it wasn't an option in his eyes. "We're on a
tight schedule, we have other colonies to evacuate, and a time-table within
to operate." He tried explaining to the man who seemed less 'out of it'
than his apparent wife. "The Dreyshans won't leave anyone we leave here
alone, or alive in all likelihood. My Marines will help you with whatever
they can, and provide you security to the transports... but I need an
answer."

The human looked around for a moment and then to his wife. He knew she'd
had a hard life as she had suffered alot at the hands of the Cardassians.
She knew more then most what might happen and he was more worried about her
then the others. After a moment of soul searching he looked squarely into
the Colonel's eyes. "Fine. You win. I'm sick of this. I'd rather live then
suffer anymore of this crap."

For'kel gave a nod, and solemnly passed the PADD back to Thral. In all
honesty he couldn't believe that the crazy idea actually worked. He thought
for sure they were going to have to press the button before they gave in.
Still, until every last colonist was on a hopper, shuttle, or runabout on
their way to a transport or the Galaxy proper, they weren't out of the
proverbial woods yet. "I'll send hoppers for you, and your people, in one
hour. They'll take you back to the town so you can inspect things, and
carry out anything that isn't already ready to go." For a moment, he
wondered what it would be like if he and the man were in opposite places...
if that was Berilyn crying into his shoulder, rather than some woman he
could feel only a modicum of passion being she was a stranger, for. He
wondered what decision he would make... and then perished that line of
thinking. There would be time to sort that out later. "Let everyone know."

"All's Well That Ends..."

Commander Brian Elessidil , Chief Counselor
1st Lt Branwen London, Marine Staff Psychologist
Corporal "Doctor" Cian?n Tierney , Marine Medic

When Brian left Sorvin's house he had no idea where he was going.
"Out" was the only prerequisite in his mind and once that had been met he
was more or less moving aimlessly. His head pounded with the weight and
significance of what was going on here: they were destroying a lifestyle, a
culture, and all in the name of politics.

Deep down, he knew that perhaps it wasn't that simple, but the more rational
part of his thinking was being drowned out by the clamor of his own
emotional reactions.

As he walked quickly down one of the dusty roads, he wondered if this
disruption would have just as devastating and effect on the colonists who
lived closer to the center of New B'Hala. The had more there, and their
lives weren't quite as firmly dependent on the land itself.

They could more easily rebuild somewhere else. But out here, everything
these people had came from what they'd built, coaxed and clawed out of the
land. Take that away from them, and they had nothing.

Passing an isolated pocket of people here, and individual there, the
Betazoid could feel the quiet frustrations and fears of each. He could sense
the waves of anger and alarm that accompanied their recognition of the
uniform he wore, the symbol of those who had come to destroy their lives.
With every step, he was having more difficulty separating their reactions
from his own. The psychic din had become so loud that he hadn't even heard
Lt. London's voice when she tried to raise him on his communicator. Instead,
he just kept walking, briskly, directly, seemingly with purpose yet nothing
could have been further from the truth. He had no idea where he was going or
why.

After awhile, he reached a stretch of road that was further removed from the
loosely-clustered homes and outbuildings he'd passed before.
There were no groupings of people talking or working, no individual
passers-by to fix a glare of contempt on him. As he kept walking, a bit of
reason flashed to the surface in the absence of emotional bombardment, and
he realized that he needed to turn around to get back to the meeting hall in
time. He didn't really know how much time had passed since he stormed out of
Sorvin's house, but something told him if he turned around now a half hour
would have elapsed by the time he got there.

And so he did just that...and strode once again through the emotional
gauntlet and back into the heart of the storm.

-----------------

"Maybe we *should* listen to them! Maybe we should be thinking of what
staying here might do to our families instead of just what leaving might
do!"

>From somewhere within the cluster of twenty or thirty men and women gathered
in the hall, the colonist who spoke seemed to be an isolated voice, yet he
argued just as vociferously as those who were less inclined to consider the
Federation's rationale.

"Listen to nobody but yourselves!" The directive came suddenly from another
voice, one outside the group of leaders from this part of the colony.
Commander Elessidil had burst into the large room and walked with unbroken
and determined steps to the front of the group.

Ignoring Cian?n, Brian addressed the small assembly. "Those who have told
you you have no choice are right," he continued, looking into the collection
of glaring eyes and weathered faces in front of him. "But they've presented
the wrong answer. The only choice you have is to do whatever you must to
protect what you have. Some believe perhaps that that means giving in to the
Federation argument that you must abandon your lives here. Some believe it
means you should stage a fight.

Both are futile and lead to the same result: the end to everything you've
worked for!" In a room full of highly-charged emotion, the confusing sight
of the very Federation representative who'd been sent to make them leave now
seemingly trying to ignite their opposition only added to the tension.

"Shit," Cian?n swore under his breath. Just when the Angosian was making a
little headway the Counselor decided to go off the deep end.

The scary thing was that he outlined the scenario in simple terms - you're
damned if you do and damned if you don't. Cian?n still felt the colonists
had a fighting chance to uproot and plant themselves elsewhere.

As the silence filled the room once again Cian?n stepped up, "Commander,
Lieutenant London requests to speak with you. She's waiting."

Throwing an annoyed look in response, Elessidil tapped his badge.
"Elessidil to London. What is it, Lieutenant?"

"I have been trying to check-in with you for hours, Sir," she said. "You
did not answer your com. Is everything all right with you. We are terribly
behind schedule here in town. Resistance is much more than we had
expected," she told her superior.

"Everything is fine," he rather tersely replied. He began to pace,
his whole body and tone reflecting irritation. "And of course people
are resisting! Why shouldn't they? I want everyone to stand down for
an hour while we figure this out! There has to be another way!
Elessidil out." Brian turned those assembled. "Do you hear what's
going on out there? We're not alone in our fight -- the entire
central colony is resisting as well!"

"Sir?" Branwen stared at her com unit. It certainly had not sounded fine,
it was not like the Commander she knew, who was always kind and gentle.
"What is it, Lieutenant?" he replied impatiently.

"I can hear the tension in your voice, sir. Do you need my help, commander?"
She was even concerned about him.

"I don't need any help at the moment," he said quickly. What did she
want? A counseling session right now? "You have your orders. All
units in this area are to wait until they receive further
instructions. Elessidil out."

"Sorvin," Brian continued, turning to the erstwhile leader of the
colonists out here, "are there caves or anything anywhere that you and
your families could hide in?"

The other man gave a peculiar look at first, unsure of what the
commander was suggesting. Indeed, a tense hush overtook the entire
room as the others gathered waited. "There are some hills a few
kilometers away. There are some old mines there that were abandoned
years ago."

Brian grinned. " Excellent. That's where we should go." Instantly,
the counselor felt the energy in the room increase as everyone began
to realize that he was actually on their side and that there may be a
way out for them after all.

-----------------

"Commander, this is madness." Cian?n stood stoically in front of the
Counselor who had summarily been dubbed the Leader of the Rebellion.
The two were alone standing outside while the others prepared. "This
won't work. You think hiding in caves will protect them?" The Angosian
was at a loss for how to diffuse the situation. "Up until now I could
wrestle with your conscience. I can't arbitrarily disregard orders,
particularly sane ones."

"Sane? Destroying people's lives isn't sane, not in my book."

"Commander, I'm afraid you're in a position where your judgment has
been compromised." The soldier in him relied on the doctor that was
suppressed inside. He couldn't spit out the next words, but thought
them, "your actions are treasonous and you are unfit for duty."

The truth was, there were two Brian Elessidils standing there at that
moment. One was the officer who came here to carry out his orders,
the other was the man whose training nor biology could let him not be
sensitive to how those around him were being affected by those orders.
With every minute it became increasing difficult to tell which was
which, even for him.

"If you have a problem with my actions, Corporal, take it up with
Starfleet. But for now, you'll support my decisions or get out of the
way!" Without even bothering to wait for a reply, he turned to go
back into the hall....

It was all Cian?n could take. The soldier was ripped apart in more
ways than one. His duty and orders were nagging in his mind. They were
a constant reminder of his path. Brian's psyche was also still in the
corner of his mind. He experienced emotions like never before.
Angosian psychological programming occurred before Cian?n had the
opportunity to mature into adult emotions. Brian forced those feelings
out both through therapy sessions and a primal instinct hidden in
Cian?n.

"Commander?" Cian?n called to get Brian's attention.

All it took was a round house to the jaw. It seemed like slow motion,
but was meticulously played out in the marine's mind. The Betazoid's
face moved with the arch of Cian?n's leg. His lithe frame spun in the
air. A spray of blood lept into the air from Brian's mouth.

Brian's body continued forward, his left temple hitting the side of
the building taking away the pain and knocking him unconscious.

Standing above him Cian?n looked down in horror, accomplishment,
dishonor, sadness, empathy, anger, pride, and surprisingly, love. It
was the first time Cian?n admitted the feelings. He just knocked out
the first person for whom he felt true emotions. He felt physically
ill. His body compensated to push involuntary reactions aside.

=/\= "Tierney to London, the Commander has become incapacitated and
cannot continue the mission. I am returning with him to the Galaxy for
medical treatment. He was injured, but not critically. I will provide
a full briefing." =/\=

Cian?n kneeled down, "I'm sorry." He whispered. The marine picked up
the limp body and walked away from the turmoil the Betazoid caused.

~The Fog of Ma'atulu~

Lt. Thyago Carneiro
Ens. Sharzhevashi zh'Rin

The sun rose early the next morning, shining brightly into the
cliffside room. Too early, Shi thought as she wiped the sleep from
her eyes. And much too early for Thyago, it seemed, as he let out a
long, pained groan into the fabric of his hammock and began to mumble
to himself in his native Portuguese.

Shi took advantage of his attempts to stay asleep and put her uniform
back on, knowing that Thyago would not be looking. After sliding her
arms into her jacket sleeves, she turned, to find Kanunu standing at
the entrance.

She flushed at the sight of him, wondering how much he had seen before
she had pulled on her uniform jacket. She felt somewhat sad to change
out of the native attire.

"Alo kakahiaka," he smiled and moved his hand near his eyes as if he
was lifting the visor of a helmet. He glanced at her and asked, "You
did not wash?"

"Oh, I had nothing with which to wash," she said. She took a
tentative sniff of the air around her. "Perhaps you believe I
should?"

"You still wear the past day's words," he said, stepping into the room
and indicating the paint on her face.

Shi reached up and touched her face and the white lines there. "Oh
yes," she said. "When we returned, I was so exhausted, I fell
asleep."

"You slept?" he questioned. "It is not good to speak out in sleep.
Were the gods to come and try to answer you, you would not know. You
would not acknowledge them, and they would be offended."

"I had not thought of that," Shi said. "If we are able to stay for
longer, and I wear more words, I will be certain to not speak out when
I may not be prepared to receive the answers." She picked up the
clothing she had borrowed for the previous evening's celebration. "The
clothing was exceptionally comfortable. It was an honor to be so
welcomed and included in your midst."

"Ali'i Maka said he may discuss your trading today. He will hear you
when you are ready," Kanunu said.

"Thank you very much, Kanunu," Shi said. "I should wake Thyago so he
may get ready for the meeting."

Shi moved next to Thyago's hammock and nudged him. "Thyago, it is
time to wake up. We have a meeting with Ali'i Maka."

He moaned, but did not move. It seemed he had had a livelier night
than she had. Shi nudged him again. "Como?" he asked, turning his
head to face her.

"We have a meeting."

"Com quem?"

"You need to get out of this hammock, Thyago. We have work to do. The
leaders will see us now. Put your clothes on so we may go tell these
people they must leave their homes and flee to safety."

He moaned again in protest and then sat up.

===========================================

Kanunu led them towards the bottom of the village on the other side of
the gorge. The lowest structure on the cliff wall looked very much
like the rest of the village, except it's canvas covering was dyed a
deep violet, and densely painted with bright yellow symbols. Inside,
it was barely larger than the room they had been staying in, though it
was more crowded with furniture and decorations. In the center of the
room, amongst a wide array of carved, wooden statues of varying shapes
in sizes, sat a man of no older than forty-five on a small, raised
platform. He wore an elaborate headdress, made of flowers, feathers
and grass, and a heavy neck piece, which was made of narrowly spaced
bone and looked like a chest plate. To his side, on pillows, sat four
elderly men who were also elaborately dressed. Kanunu gestured to
them once more, and left.

"Oloha," the middle aged man on the central platform said. The chief.
"You come under Hele's shawl?"

"Um, sure," Thyago said.

"This is the high Ali'i Maka," one of the older men said. "We four
form the council of elders. Makani, Kaimana, Pauo'le and my name is
Polunu."

"I am Sharzhevashi zh'Rin," Shi said. "My companion is Thyago. Oloha
and thank you for seeing us."

"What do you wish of us?" the chief said, getting right down to business.

"We come to you to discuss an imminent crisis," Shi began. "I cannot
express the sorrow I feel at bearing this news or what it may do to
your people. This entire region is being evacuated. The Federation
has requested all colonists relocate to safer areas of Federation
space, areas that will not fall within the Triad line of advance."

The chief narrowed his eyes, then look down to one of the four elders.
"He aha keeia Pekelahan?"

"He ko maakou makuahine 'aaina keeia Pekelahan," the elder explained.

"We come from the Federation," the chieftain stated, "It gave us these
lands." Even though spoken as if he knew it were fact, the chieftain
seemed to still be asking.

"You're still part of the Federation," Thyago confirmed.

"You want us to leave?"

"Only for the safety of your people," Shi said. "We would not ask
otherwise. A war is being fought, the Triad has attacked the
Federation and are expected to move through this area of space. The
Triad has already destroyed millions of Federation lives."

"He aha keeia kelaiak?" the chief asked again. This time the elder
could give no answer. "What is the Triad?"

"The Triad are a coalition of three spacefaring powers." Shi went on
to give brief descriptions of the Hydrans and others, and the start of
the war with their surprise attacks around the quadrant. "They have
instigated war against the Federation and all Federation worlds and
colonies. We have been sent to help your people to safety."

"Why?"

"To protect the people here from what the Triad has done to countless
others in their recent acts of aggression," Shi answered.

"I mean, why do they go to war?"

"I do not honestly know why they have chosen to launch this war
against the Federation," she said. "What I do know, however, is that
I was present at the beginning of that war, in one of the three
locations where they struck, and the Federation does not wish for you
and your people to suffer the same fate.".

"Do they want our land?"

"Yes," Shi said. "They want your land."

"They may share it with us. We use little," the chief offered.

"They can't live here with you," Thyago explained. "They breathe
different air. They breathe methane."

"I do not understand."

"They are not like you," Shi said. "They are alien. More alien than
I am to you. They cannot live in this land as it is, but they will
refuse you the right to live here to take it from you."

"If they can not live here, then why do they want our land? We have
no desire to raid Hekili's palace beneath the waves, we cannot live
there," the chieftain reasoned. "You puff the trader's black smoke."

"I do not understand," Shi said.

"I think he thinks we're lying," Thyago guessed, equally uncertain.

A frown crossed Shi's face as both antennae bowed in frustration.
"They will come here, they will take your land from you, and they will
change this land to suit their needs. They will make it so you cannot
live here, that no one can live here."

"The lands cannot be changed so," the chieftain said, his jaw set
firmly. He made a gesture with one hand, its meaning lost on Thyago
and Shi. "You are setting poho out for Kane's fury. We thank you for
bringing this to us. You will go. We must prepare for tonight's
feast."

The way he turned, shifted his attention away, it was a clear
dismissal. Anger flared within Shi. Anger at herself for not making
them see. Anger at them for not being willing to see the danger.
Anger at their refusal to not try to save themselves.

"You cannot truly consider feasting when your entire civilization is
about to be eradicated by alien invaders!"

The words were lost. The chieftain and accompanying elders stood,
bowed, and filed out of the room. The meeting was finished. The
people here would remain in the path of the Triad, of the Hydrans,
when they tore through here. The people of Paliba'alulu would perish
because Sharzhevashi zh'Rin could not make them see the danger that
lurked beyond Kane's ferocity or beneath Hekili's waves.

The mission had failed.

"The Emergence of One"

Various NPCs Galaxy Security

===============

It was a typical, yet untypical day in Starfleet security. Some obscure
boss led the shift, sitting behind his makeshift desk attempting to look
busy as another replicated donut suffered the same fate as the last. As the
pastry violently screamed in sugared helplessness as it entered the dark
hole, a ensign came in front of the desk with some news.

"Sir?"

His portly eyes glanced up, smirking with a dis hearted facial response as
the pleasure from the donut he was consuming quickly faded. "What is it
ensign?" The garbled words escaped, becoming clearer as the mass of donut
was finally put to rest down his throat.

The young man gingerly handed the inscribed orders to the acting
supervisor.

"Huh...." Was all the reply as his eyes scanned the information. Bringing
the monogrammed fabric hanky up to his mouth, he dabbed at a bit of
invisible powered sugar that he thought rested at the corner of his mouth.
"Well...." A long pause developed, making the young ensign uneasy.

"Get Cortez.....and retain her to the brig. You know the procedure?" His
thick dark eyebrows slightly raised as his eyes darted to the empty plate on
the desk.

"Yes...but Sir....She...."

"I''m aware. Cortez is experienced in this sort of thing....this will be
good for you....break you in.....Now....scoot." He waved his left hand for
emphasis.

"Tez......"

The older Lt. stood, placing his padd on the small desk. Ritualistically,
he glanced down checking his phaser, then nodded to his younger
counterpart. He hated arresting people. In the overall duties of his job,
it ranked right up there with armory duty. His hand shot out for the padd
containing the information on the person being 'detained'.

"Wow....."

"That's what I thought. From the report, the evidence is pretty damn
convincing."

Cortez nodded yet again. He was a man of few words, relying more on body
language verses voice language. Sighing, he glanced over at his partner as
they entered the turbo lift. Taking a breath in, his facial expression
soured. He missed fresh air. As random as that thought was considering the
circumstances he had to smile a small smile. Obscure tiny little thoughts
were always humorous to him for some odd reason.

"What?" The younger replied when viewing the smile.

"Nuttin...."

A few moments of silence passed between them before the doors hissed open to
reveal a certain part of the ship. This department that they stepped foot
into almost had an eerie feel to it. It was as if people who did not work
here were not welcome. A certain air of superiority drifted through the
corridors with invisible eyes that looked at new arrivals as intruders.

The two men felt the air around them, instantly tensing. To the common
crewman, the Liaison department was a place that few boldly volunteered to
go. It was a ship within a ship here.

Cortez's eyes darted from various people he viewed in the main waiting
area. Some looked frightened, others gave off the feeling of anger, some
even regret.

'Must be legal' He thought to himself as he trailed his partner up to the
front desk.

"May I help you?"

The security uniforms gave them away, which added to the terse tension
already in the room. "We are here to speak to Lt. Ophelia Zamora......"

"She's in a meeting right now..."

"Ma'am, it's not a request....it's an order." Cortez grumbled.

"Right this way........"

--------------------------------
"So....." Ophelia paused as she regarded the people in the room. "That
being stated, it's safe to........................."

As they entered, Zamora's face cemented in a neutral expression. "May I
help you?"

Cortez was the first to respond as he and the younger crewmen flanked
Zamora's side.

"Lt. Ophelia Zamora?"

Her eyebrows vexed. "Yes?"

And with that affirmation, Cortez brought out the binders with one hand. His
other was placed on her left shoulder, gently yet with force turning her
away from him.

She didn't put up a fight. What ever it was, she would get out of it. She
was the JAG after all. As the binders snapped, Cortez continued.

"Lt. Zamora. You are being detained under Starfleet Code, section
87-14254...."

"Wait.....it's...." She muttered.

"For the murder of a Lt. Alexander Rodriquez. You are relieved of all
duties as of this point in time. You will also be retained in the brig
until that time that transport can be arranged to Starfleet JAG Headquarters
in San Fransisco where you will undergo trial for what you are accused."

Those around the table just stared, except for one. His eyes glistened with
knowledge that only he had. As his eyes locked onto hers, he gave her a
silent shot of comfort. As he spoke the question, he already knew her
answer.

"Lt....do you want me to contact someone...an attorney perhaps?" Burdick
responded, obviously concerned.

One name, and one name only came to her mind. Her eyes frantically searched
his before an answer formed on her lips. "Faylin McAlister......."

"What's Mine"

Lieutenant Saul Bental

"Cane Newport." Cane greeted the new miners, tapping on lightly on his
throat - a common gesture on the Dark Side, inherited from some miner with
Russian heritage. "You are?"

The two identified themselves by name.

"Certificates?"

"With the rest of the supplies. They rushed us out of the magtube." Said the
male, a thin fellow with blond shaggy hair. His partner was wearing huge
shades, which Cane suspected hid a pair of pretty eyes. He was too tired to
think about it or the certificate. All of them were.
"Where's the security officer?" The blond, Joe was his name, asked. Cane
chuckled. The guys from Zanthus usually remained indoors, letting the grunts
drafted from the townships eat all the dust and the poisonous gases from the
shafts. He told Joe that he can either go inside or wait two hours for the
officer to make his routine check if he was in any rush about the
admittance. Joe wasn't in any rush, so Cane offered him and the woman to
join him for a drink.

They faltered, seeking their way in the fog until they reached the temporary
structure used as the workers and security guards' commons. It was the only
heated place the Dark-siders were allowed to. That, and the mines of course.
Everyone who weren't asleep or working were there, sitting on the carpets
around the heater - the security shift he was in charge of, a few miners,
some construction workers from Pivola, and the two admins.

"Our lucky day!" One of the miners shouted, and they all laughed. It turned
out that the woman, Ai, wasn't the first lady to join the camp that day.
There was at least one more female arrival, which Gregory was all worked out
about. It wasn't unlikely that the other woman led the poor bulky miner to
believe that she was good at blowjobs.

It was a nice change, Cane, thought. It meant the amount of women at camp
just tripled, and Olga looked and sounded just like a male miner minus most
of the beard so she didn't count in the first place.

Pretty soon a bottle was opened, and another one. Cane took only a sip to
warm up, but some of the others finished nice quantities of the fuel-like
liquid. He noticed that the newcomers didn't fill their cups either.
Perhaps, he thought, someone at HQ finally decided to send some quality
personnel in here.

Pretty soon an argument has risen. It wasn't the type of arguments they
usually had, but it was just as heated, to the point where Cane was afraid
he was going to perform his duty as a security guard and calm the miners.
The person who turned on the flame was none other than the newcomer Joe.

"... the point of working here? I don't agree with you." He spoke up, trying
to overcome the voices of the miners. "Have you ever been to the core
worlds? Any of you?"

Most of the people there never saw a place larger than Zanthus, knew
Cane. Three old miners did claim they visited core worlds in the past.
Gregory was one of them.

"So what?" He demanded.

"So why are we letting the corporate feed us shit? Do you realize you could
be cleaning bathrooms on Andor or Alpha Centauri and still have a nice comfy
apartment? And conditions much better than those here?"

"Were YOU ever in the core worlds, greeny?" Fat Olga questioned.

"Yes."

Joe's gaze fell on the heater, but it seemed to extend lightyears away.

"When I was seventeen, I took off in a shuttle and left home. It was some
crappy colony on the rim you know the kind."

"We live in one." One of the miners joked.

"Yea. Thought I would see how things look like in the core. Hitchhiked my
way to Earth itself."

"Is it really as people say?", Someone asked.

"It's a plnet." Joe shrugged. "But it's a good one. Feels like home, ya
know, as if your body knows us Humans grew up on that place. And the social
conditions... let's say they're better than here."

"So why are you here, and not on good ole' comfy Earth?" Olga demanded, her
chicks burning from the beverage.

Another shrug. "I was stupid. Got a little adventurous, went back to the
border. Ran out of credits, can't afford a trip back. I'm working here 'till
I can afford it, and then I'm off."

"What about the contact?" The female newcomer spoke for the first time. She
had, as Cane assumed, a sweet voice. There was a hint of Oriental accent in
there too.

"Screw the contract!"

"Try and say that on the spaceport on your way out. The corp' is in charge
of all traffic." Cane found himself saying. "The corporation provided us
housing and food. It ain't the best deal in the universe, but Grisha is
right - what's the alternative? Going to another planet, or live in some
sewer of some space station? At least here one can make an honest living."

"For now." One of the guards said. "Until the Hydrans will come and fuck us
all."

"I don't know." said Joe. "Cane's right, they give food and houses, but I
wouldn't want to DIE for the corporate. Not for anyone else, either."

"Maybe you ARE corporate?" Olga sudenlly said. "Maybe you want to check if
the people here are loyal? We're not stupid, you know. We know it's a
sensitive operation."

Joe narrowed his eyes. He removed the glove over his left hand and pulled
the sleeve. The miners didn't gasp, as they were used to seeing people with
encasements like Joe had on his left arms. One of them mumbled 'Sorry
buddy'. Limb injuries were frequent when you were a miner.

"I'm not more corporate than you, woman. People they care about get real
arms grafted. Lucky for me I can operate a mine-bot with a headband and
don't need the arm or they'd... what do they do with amputees anyway?"

One of the old miners told them of an example. Another continued his story,
and after the better part of an hour, almost every person around the heater
told at least one story on how the corporate was mistreating its people.
Most of them never ranted around such a large group of people; No one wanted
to get fired.

"I don't get it." Joe grumbled. "All their profits come from us, right? I
mean, we're the guys who mine the ore, who work the factories."

"Good morning Mister Marx." joked Cane. After what everyone told, what else
could you do but joke?

"You know what?" Joe said. "You guys convinced me. When Starfleet comes, I'm
not going to shoot at them under some desk biter's command I think I'm going
to go nice and easy and board one of their shuttles. Surely, wherever they
take us, it'll be better."

It was a lie, of course. 'Joe' wasn't going to be evacuated. He was going to
rendez-vous with Ella in a couple of hours, get the material, and beam back
to orbit. Then, he was going to use some technical magic to send a subspace
message. And then, then he was going to speak with Shin Takashi one last
time and end this foolishness.

He watched the people around the heater, so sorry for their blindness. For
their fixation. For needing someone to come from outside and tell them that
they're on the wrong end of the 24th. century.

He didn't require anyone else to tell him that, when he was seventeen and
left Utrecht III to avoid ending up like these people.

"A Time to Worry and a Time to Work"

Lieutenant Kimberly Burton - CMO

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ USS Galaxy ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Thrown violently to the floor as the deck bucked wildly under her for a
moment Kimberly found herself wrapped around the support stand for a bio
bed. Holding on until the shaking subsided she cautiously stood as the red
alert sirens continued to wail their muted warning. Looking around she
assessed the situation in sickbay quickly. Watching her staff get up,
helping the few patients they had to their feet she started snapping out
orders.

"Any injuries?" She called out as she stepped over to a terminal. Hearing
a few affirmatives she looked at Arrietty, "Triage." She ordered as she
tried to find out what was going on, "Stow any loose equipment, and secure
all patents with restraints just in case, have all medical staff report to
stations." She was about to continue when the Captains voice cut in.

=/\= All stations damage report... ... Medical teams to decks twelve through
fourteen... Strict Radiation precautions are in effect, all civilians
confined to quarters until further notice, Security take charge... that is
all for now. =/\=

~ Twelve through fourteen? ~ Kimberly wondered as she looked at the
terminal, "Have medical teams assembled here, and clear the gyms on twelve
and holodecks on eleven in case we need the room." Looking at ops initial
damage assessment she cringed. "EVA suits for all medical teams and have
the labs process more hyronalin. Prep for multiple percussive injuries and
trauma cases."

As she issued her list of rapid fire orders the medical staff began moving.
The few injured within sickbay were either treated or moved to a side bay.
Unnecessary equipment was unceremoniously tucked out of the way and
emergency kits and trauma packs were prepped.

She liked to think he had the best medical team in the quadrant, but then
every CMO probably had the same thought. Everyone was proud of their staff
when they worked as they should, quickly, efficiently and without any fuss
or commotion. Though toes were stubbed, kit dropped occasionally and door
blocked briefly her people moved with the practised ease that they'd drilled
so many times.

Grabbing one ensign as he put a stack of kits on a biobed she halted him
before he could vanish again. "Check the EMH systems, make sure there's no
damage in case we need them," releasing him she looked to Arrietty as she
walked up to her, "have a team check all medical systems and report any
damage to ops, it doesn't look like we're in any danger here but watch
radiation levels and make sure the atmo scrubbers are set to handle any
radiation that might leak." Medical may be designated a shelter, but it
never hurt to check things.

Looking around she caught the eye of another doctor and raised her voice,
"Kio, I need a head count. Have the computer report locations of all
personnel, see if anyone is listed as not on board or in the damaged areas
and coordinate with mission ops and see who is actually supposed to be off
ship at the moment. We need to know roughly how many people we might be
dealing with, and check the internal sensors and see what radiation we're
dealing with and how far it's spread."

Leaving the Vulcan to gather that information she looked around the now busy
sickbay, the number of people here had increased and everyone seemed to be
moving with a purpose in mind. Equipment was being prepped and trauma teams
were getting ready to head into the damaged areas of the ship.

Pausing for a second she debated on what she was going to do. After what
was probably less than a few seconds consideration she stepped over to the
collection of lightweight eva suits that were being prepped and started
suiting up, firmly intent on doing the initial triage onsite. The suits
would help provide some protection from the radiation that had been
reported, and until the volume of Hyronalin needed for everyone was
processed what they had was needed for patients.

"Serious cases direct to sickbay," she called out as she dressed, "walking
wounded to the gyms, have them ready in five minutes, non ambulatory but non
critical to the holodecks. Have teams on standby and transfer two EMH
programs to the holodecks once they're checked out. Team one takes deck
twelve. I'll lead team two to deck thirteen, team three takes deck
fourteen. Each team reports in no more than five minute intervals.
Arrietty, get someone set up to coordinate." She added, raising her voice
to be heard over the growing activity in sickbay.

Not having felt this nervous since the Hydrans had hit them with hellbores
Kimberly tried to stuff the nerves she felt into a deep recess of her mind
until later. Right now she needed to focus, not worry about anything but
the patients who needed her.

"Ready." Someone called out from behind her. Turning in time to see the
first trauma team head out the door she saw the second squad ready and
waiting for her. Snapping her helmet in place she grabbed her medkit and
nodded to them. "Let's go." She ordered, leading her team out in the wake
of the first.

Running through the corridors of deck twelve they used a Jeffries tube to
descend to thirteen and headed aft. The closer they came to the centre of
the explosion the more her concern grew. A substantial portion of the
'neck' of the Galaxy had just been damaged, how many were wounded? Could
they go to warp with the damage they had sustained? Was this some new
weapon from the Hydrans? A prelude to an attack?

All these questions raced through her mind as they ran, then fled from her
conscious thoughts as they came across a group of crew gathered around
several wounded who were laid out on the floor.

~ Time to worry later, time to work now! ~

"Clementine, Part 2"

Lieutenant Nathan Everett
Lieutenant, J.G. Victor Krieghoff
J. Andrus Suder (APC - Mekaela)
'Clementine'

****

They had been in the cell for an eternity - a day at least, perhaps more
- and the only thing that had changed so far was that now the full
weight of Victor Krieghoff's presence was open to him. Andrus scowled at
the wall as he started cracking his knuckles - which was about the only
option left to him since their captors had refused his request for
caffeine or cigarettes.

This was what you got for trying to make amends, Andy thought as he all
but wrung his hands. Twitching in a cell with no immediate hope for
rescue. Locked in a room with a ... thing and ...

In a fluid move that would have surprised him had he not been so
overwhelmed, Andrus hopped to his feet and nearly leapt towards the
bars. "Hey! Isn't it time for questioning or something?"

"Probably not," Victor spoke up from the spot he'd selected in the
corner opposite Andy's chosen spot.

"Well, why the hell not?!" Andy snapped.

"Because we don't really know anything that they need to know," Victor
explained. "We don't have secret information about plans, because
Starfleet told everyone what their plans were at the beginning. We've
got some value as hostages, but that depends on what amounts to open war
breaking out, which is worse for the colonists than leaving. We might
make useful demonstrations of good faith if they gave us up to help get
a point they wanted in negotiations, but they aren't really negotiating
for anything, either."

Nathan sighed, irritated, and scratched at the stubble on his cheeks. He
sat in his own corner, which allowed him to see both Victor and Suder.
"So what the hell're we s'posed to do, then?"

"We sit here, that's what we do," Victor explained. "Just like they are,
because Clementine and her friends are in a bit of a mess and haven't
figured it out yet."

"Well, it serves 'em right," muttered the hungry, bored, and grouchy
fighter pilot. "This has gotta be the worst terrorist group Ah've ever
heard of."

He glanced over towards Victor's corner and then looked away quickly,
feeling himself shiver again and once more trying to convince himself
that it was just the coolness of the subterranean prison cell. In the
back of his mind, Nathan knew it wasn't the temperature; there was
something about Krieghoff that just wasn't right, and it creeped the
hell out of him.

It didn't help that their fellow inmate seemed to have a serious case of
the jitters.

"Hey, would you sit back down already?" Nathan finally said, looking
testily at Suder. "Yer makin' me nervous."

"Yeah, well, we all have our problems," Andy growled, pressing his head
into the bars. He wished his parents had taught him less about the con
and more about mental blocks.

That, Victor thought, was definitely true. "I don't suppose either of
you were Federation Youth Scouts in the past, were you?" he asked,
trying to think of something to take his cellmate's minds off their
situation.

"No," The Betazoid said shortly.

Nathan snorted. "Hell no."

"Because if one of you had been, then you'd know a lot of campfire songs
and the like; and since we know that Clementine and her friends don't
have the funds to allocate to an entertainment budget, I'm sure that
they'd appreciate our chipping in and doing our part for morale. A few
songs ought to do that, especially if they have a couple of hundred
verses apiece...."

Victor wasn't certain about the songs directly improving Nathan or
Andy's morale, but the thought of what their captors would have to
endure while the three prisoners sang them over and over might. Nothing
he knew took most people's mind off their troubles like inflicting
suffering on others.

Cowboy frowned thoughtfully, trying to remember something appropriate to
the situation. "Actually, there's this one we used to sing back on New
Texas..."

"Excellent," Victor nodded. "How does that one go?"

Nathan glanced out towards where Clementine was sitting, and gave Victor
his best, most evil grin.

****

"For the love of the Prophets, please stop!"

Victor was quietly impressed; Clementine had held out longer than he'd
thought she would. Or maybe it was because she wasn't here at the mine
and it took the seven hour duration of the concert for her people to get
her back to talk to them.

He held up a hand at the end of the verse - number three hundred and
sixteen of a particularly obscene drinking song Nathan had dredged up
from his past - and replied, "What? I couldn't hear you over the
singing."

Clementine glowered at him from the other side of the bars, and spoke in
clipped one-word sentences, "Please. Stop. Singing."

"But there are..." Victor looked over at Nathan.

Nathan made a show of trying to count. "Let's see, three hundred'n
sixteen so far, that leaves...two-hundred'n eighty-four," he said with
another grin.

"...Two hundred and eighty four verses left in this one. Are you certain
that you want us to stop? If we do, you'll never know if Susan and Bill
get back together, or if Tijuana, their illegitimate daughter, really
slept with her half-brother Rodolfo after the dance at the Blue Oyster,
or the results of Delbert the Randy Armadillo and his wooing of the
vacuum cleaner, or..."

"Stop. Please."

Victor looked over at his companions. "I'm afraid Clementine wants us to
stop guys."

Andrus didn't stop singing, throwing himself into the songs - no matter
how badly he sang off key or how stupid they were - seemed to be helping
him ignore Victor.

Nathan glanced at Andrus, then shrugged at Victor and started singing
again, his exaggerated crooning echoing through the chamber along with
Suder's voice.

"I think they're in the zone now," Victor offered apologetically. "Now-"
he stopped abruptly and frowned. "Did you hear that?"

"Heah what?" Nathan asked, warily looking Victor's way.

"That noise... like thunder."

Andy switched songs abruptly, to a Betazoid rock song that had been
catchy in his youth.

"That noise..." Victor continued as he looked from person to person.
"That none of the rest of you heard." He closed his eyes and
concentrated. "Something happened. Something bad. Something... no, she's
fine. They're all fine. They're still there."

Not being particularly thrilled with the idea of spending time in a cell
with Victor to begin with, the prospect of doing so with an unhinged,
possibly insane Victor was something Nathan didn't feel like
contemplating. "What are you talking about? Who's still theah?"

Victor opened his eyes. "The ones on Galaxy. The ones I didn't give
permission to."

Andy rolled his eyes, as if to say 'of course', but kept on singing.

Nathan was sure that he'd hate himself for asking, but, "Permission?"

"Permission to die, of course," Victor answered as if that explained
everything. He turned to Clementine. "You need to decide now,
Clementine."

"Decide what?" she snapped. "And what were you talking about something
happening?"

"Go talk to your people," Victor said quietly. "They'll know. And once
you do, come back and talk to us... and decide. There's little time
left, now." He indicated his companions. "We'll be here, singing."

She stared at Victor for a moment, winced as he joined the other two in
singing the fate of Delbert and his lady love the vacuum cleaner, and
walked off into the darkness.

"Y'all come back now, y'hear?" Nathan called after her with a cheery
wave.

"Clementine, Part 3"

Lieutenant Nathan Everett
Lieutenant, J.G. Victor Krieghoff
J. Andrus Suder (APC - Mekaela)
'Clementine' - aka Counselor Fala Aesino

****

It only took an hour and a half this time, Victor noted. Barely enough
time to finish the song that they'd been singing earlier, and move on to
a repetitive children's song - something about adult sanity-shatteringly
cute little riding animals that came in pastel colors and left rainbows
in the sky as they ran through it - from Andy's youth that had one of
the most catchy and insidious rhythms any of the three had ever heard,
and possibly the most saccharine lyrics of anything they'd inflicted on
their captors to date.

They were on the fiftieth repetition of the chorus, when Clementine
returned. She stood there for the rest of the chorus, shook her head and
said firmly, "Stop singing. We have to talk."

Victor looked at the others, nodded, and held up a hand. "Clementine
wants to talk, guys - let's hear her out. We can always finish the song
later.

Andy frowned, finished the verse he'd started with Nathan, and the two
paused.

"We're listening," Victor said in the silence.

"You were right. Something happened." She studied the three of them.
"Someone did something stupid. Horrifying and stupid. People were killed
- hundreds of them, maybe thousands."

"Not," Victor said quietly, rubbing his thumb along the edge of the
disguised combadge, "exactly what you were wanting, I take it?"

"No," she snapped.

"That's why you have to decide," he continued. "You can't keep us," he
indicated Andy, who smiled and Nathan who saluted jauntily "locked up in
here forever. Not without doing something stupid yourself - and you're
not a stupid woman."

"Decide what?"

"What you're going to do, of course."

"I know what I'm going to do!"

"No," Victor said gently, "you don't. You think you do, but you don't.
We weren't part of the plan and you don't know what to do with us, and
things are going to hell outside in ways you never considered and you
don't know what to do about that, either. So you really don't."

"And you do?" Clementine retorted, the Cardassian ridges over her eyes
standing out as she frowned.

"We all do," Victor countered. "Mr. Suder?"

"Let us go," Andy said easily, slipping into the calm, convincing voice
that had served him so well over the years. "It's not too late for that.
No one's hurt here." He left out the fact that he might be insane if he
had to stay in the cell for another day as counterproductive to the
argument. "We can all just walk away."

"Lt. Everett?"

He's right, ma'am. We can all just walk away. No harm, no foul, as they
say back home."

"And you?" she turned her eyes on Victor.

"Me?" Victor smiled. "I think you should let us go, gather up your
people, and let us take you out of here."

"Leave everything? Let them have it? Let you..."

"Your turn to stop," Victor said in the quiet voice that Chulak had used
to bring his engineers up to attention at twenty paces. Once Clementine
had sputtered to a halt, he continued, "You're operating from a single,
basic misconception, Clementine. One that's colored everything from the
start."

"And that is?" she said defensively.

"That the Hydrans - and we both know that's who this is really all
about, not the Dreshayans or the Federation - care one iota about this
planet."

She blinked, but didn't respond.

"This isn't," Victor continued, "going to be anything like the
Cardassian occupation of Bajor. There will be no troops landing, no
Occupation, no guerilla warfare. The Hydrans breathe methane - a Class M
planet is utterly useless to them as anything other than a possible
source of natural resources."

"That's-"

Victor cut her off. "I'm getting to that, Clementine. Since they're
watching FNN right now, and you've all so thoughtfully let them know
where anyone likely to remain after the evacuation is complete will be,
here's what will happen: The Hydrans will arrive in the Vered Cluster -
we all know they're coming, and that the Dreshayans will roll over like
a child's ball in the face of that - and task a ship or ships to each
world that had a colony. The ships will pull into orbit, target the
settlements, and burn them down to bedrock. They will repeat this with
any industrial facilities, underground mines, and other structures they
can scan from orbit until there's nothing left."

"They can't-"

"Yes, they can," Victor corrected. "Just because Starfleet doesn't do
it, or advertise that they can, doesn't mean that any ship in our fleet
the size of an Intrepid-class or larger can't burn an entire planet down
to bedrock whenever it feels like it. It's just an energy expenditure,
that's all. The Hydrans aren't so principled." He glanced at Andy and
Nathan. "Correct?"

"Yes," Andy nodded, trying to project calm towards their captor.

"Damn right they aren't," Nathan nodded in agreement.

"Then," Victor continued, "just to make sure, they'll drop a biogenic
weapon on each world - weapons which they, oddly enough, have signed no
treaty forbidding the use of - and sterilize it. Wipe it clean. No plant
life, no animals, nothing. Once they've done that, they'll move on to
the next world, and the next. Anything they want in the way of natural
resources will survive that, but nothing else will."

"They wouldn't..."

"Dilithium doesn't breathe," Victor interrupted. "Or eat, or drink.
Anything that they want will survive. You won't. Neither will anyone -
or anything - else." He paused, considering her expression. "This is
bigger than us, you know," he told her softly. "That's a hard thing to
get past, the idea that we don't matter. Not you, not me, not my friends
here..."

"Hey!" Andy protested.

"...not your planet here," Victor continued, "none of it. The War is
larger than us, so much so that we're all just insignificant specks in
the face of it. I don't like that, but I accept it. That's what you need
to do - accept that this is larger than you and your people are. Accept
that nothing you do here will matter in the course of things one bit to
the forces in conflict with each other."

"If we're all meaningless, then..."

"I didn't say that, Clementine," Victor admonished. I said that we were
insignificant, and that we couldn't stand against the forces coming into
conflict here - not that we were meaningless."

"What meaning is there, then?""

"Life, Clementine, life." Victor smiled. "Mr. Suder here is a big
believer in life - his own and everyone else's. He'd be the first to
tell you that life has meaning."

Andy nodded.

"Lieutenant Everett is a fighter pilot, and he deals in death as part of
his job - but he's a believer in life and it's meaning too. Or, so I'm
told by people who pay attention to his pursuit of women in celebration
of it, anyway."

"That's fer damn sure," Nathan chimed in.

"And you"" Clementine asked pointedly. "What do you think?"

"Me?" Victor pointed to himself. "I know what I am, Clementine. I know
what I've done, and will likely do again. But that doesn't mean that I
don't love life, that I don't embrace its meaning. I kill to defend that
meaning, to protect it... and sometimes to avenge its loss. If I didn't,
then I'd be a monster, and someone else would have to kill me."

She stared at him for a moment, eyes locked on his, as if trying to see
into him and determine the truth of his words. "So, what? We just quit?"

"Quit?" Victor shook his head. "No, no one said anything about quitting.
Quitting is easy, quitting is defeatist, quitting is cowardice. You,
you're not a quitter, you're not a coward." He leaned forward. "Life has
meaning, Clementine - but it's hard. Dying is easy, but it takes
strength to live; especially in the face of adversity. All you really
have to decide is that."

"Is what?"

"What you're going to do. Things really, once you reduce them to their
simplest essence, are binary more often than not. Yes or no. Right or
left. Up or down." Victor nodded at her. "What you have to decide is
that simple too. Live or die. Strong or weak. Nothing or everything."

"And if I choose the way you don't think I should? Do you send in your
troops after us?"

"No."

"No?" she repeated back at him, in disbelief.

"No," Victor affirmed. "That's your choice. But if you take it, I'd like
you to do something for me."

"What?" she asked suspiciously.

"Let me take the children off-world with us," Victor asked quietly.
"They have everything in front of them, their whole lives to live. If
you're determined to die... let them live to see the future."

She stared at him for a long time, eyes still on his. "Who are you?" she
asked finally.

"Exactly who I said I was earlier: Lt. Victor Krieghoff, a security
officer aboard the USS Galaxy." He pointed in turn at his companions.
"Just like this is Lieutenant Nathan Everett, a pilot assigned to the
Galaxy, and this is J. Andrus Suder, the Galaxy's Librarian." The two
men nodded at the introductions.

Bad question," she conceded. "I meant, 'what are you?'"

"Me?" Victor smiled back at her. "I'm exactly what you think I am,
Clementine. Of course, you'll have to take my word on that, since I
don't think proving it to you is a good idea with the Lieutenant and
especially Mr. Suder in the room. I bother them enough as it is - no
point in making it worse."

"How do I know you're not lying? That you're not saying anything just to
get out of the cell?" she asked.

"Everything I've told you since the moment we met has been the truth,
Counselor Fala," Victor said quietly.

"Every..." her eyes narrowed at the use of her real name for the fist
time.

"Every word," he repeated as he lifted up the 'keepsake' combadge in his
hand and smiled.

Aesino stared at him. "That's really a...?"

"It's broadcast every word we've said since this all started," he
nodded.

"What?" Andy yelped. You mean...?

"Why the hell didn't you get someone to come and get us?" Nathan asked,
angrily.

"Because that's not why we're here," Victor explained. "We're here to
help the citizens of New B'Hala evacuate in an orderly and safe fashion.
Calling in troops to get people killed isn't going to do that, now is
it?"

Aesino stared for a moment, shook her head, and sighed. "And all this
time you just sat here?"

"Oh no, Counselor. We sang songs."

She laughed once in a rusty, unused-sounding snort. "Is that what you
call that noise?"

"It got you to talk to us, didn't it?" Victor replied.

"Yes," she sighed. "Yes it did." She took a breath, held it for a
moment, and then let it out and produced a comlink. "This is Aesino, put
me network-wide." She waited a second, and, after the comlink beeped,
started to speak, "This is Fala Aesino to all resistance groups. Pack it
in, everyone. Go and get your families and proceed in an orderly fashion
to the evacuation points. Tell everyone you meet and everyone you know
to do the same. No arguments. Fala out."

"Thank you, Counselor," Victor said quietly.

"Out of curiosity," she asked. "What would you do if we'd decided to do
that something stupid you mentioned to you, or one of the others here?"

"Oh, that?" Victor smiled. "That's easy. I would have had to kill you.
They're mine, you see. Starfleet gave them to me to protect, and no one
can hurt them. At least not," he conceded, "without coming through me
first."

"In that cell? By yourself? Kill all of us?" Aesino seemed more curious
than anything else. "How?"

"If I tell you, will you open the door and let my friends here get some
fresh air?"

"Certainly." She leaned forward, like a small child waiting for a magic
trick. "No one do anything stupid," she called out. Just go on and pack
up - one of the Fleeters is going to show me something."

After a chorus of yells, Victor nodded, smiled again, and reached into
his pocket. "I'd have done it," he said seriously, "like this."

With a gesture, an off-green beam of energy lanced out of his hand,
slicing through the bars and dropping the cell's door to the floor with
a clang.

Aesino looked at the phaser in his hand, laughed once more, genuinely
this time, and shook her head. "I wish I'd met you years ago,
Lieutenant, before you met that pretty girl."

"You... had... a combadge... and a phaser..." Andy sputtered. He eyed
the open door, shook a finger at Victor, "You...." and was gone from the
cell in a rush.

Nathan looked at the severed cell door, their laughing former captor,
and shook his head. "Remind me," he said has he started out as well,
"never to play poker with you, Lieutenant."

"I'm not much of a gambling man, Lieutenant," Victor replied. "But if
the occasion arises, I'll be sure and do that."

After his companions had gone on, he nodded to Aesino. "Shall we go,
Counselor? I'm pretty sure you have a lot to do, and I've got to explain
this to my XO."

The half Bajoran/half Cardassian woman shook her head, still laughing,
and walked out with him. "I think your superior will be pleased enough
to overlook any irregularities." After a few steps, she continued. "I
know you're taken, but tell me, is there, by chance, another one like
you back at home?"

"No, Counselor, there isn't," he admitted. "But really, do you think
that anyone would want more than one of me anyway?"

Her laughter echoed throughout the caverns as they walked into the
darkness.

"Cluster for Sale"

Rear Admiral Megarex
Vered Task Force Commander

Captain Daren M'Kantu
Commanding Officer

Commander Jaal Jaxom
Strategic OPS Officer

*

As the Nightview's aft turbolift came to a halt, Captain M'Kantu turned to
his Strategic Operations officer. "Are you confident that this information
is reliable?", He inquired, in the same serene manner in which he accepted
Jaal's news about the Dreshayan connection earlier.

"I'm as certain as I can be. Seriously, what reason does Mason have to lie
to us?" Jaal walked next to M'Kantu as they headed towards their destination
speaking quietly with confidence in his voice, "I highly doubt she's making
this stuff up. I spent a lot of time with her on DS5 and the Carthage. I
know what she's capable of, I know how she thinks. I trust her."

"I do not question cadet Mason's credibility." Daren replied, recalling
what June told him about the events on Deep Space 5. Both Mason and Jaxom
made fine impressions on her. "But she could misunderstand or be misled. The
Admiral is in a very difficult situation and I wouldn't want to come to him
with these grave accusations unless they are justified."

Jaal looked at the floor if the carpeted corridor as they walked for a
moment. Could Aina misunderstand what she'd heard? Possibly, Jaxom didn't
think she did. Mason was bright and paid good attention to her surroundings
at all times. She used all her senses when going about her duties. "How
about we phrase the initial question something like this," he said looking
back to the Galaxy's captain, "Admiral Megarex, is there any reason for us
to think that this might be going on? Is there any truth to this rumor that
we've heard from some of the colonists?... and then see what his reaction
is."

The Captain made the slightest of nods.

"What?" Jaal asked looking curiously at M'Kantu, "Why are you looking at me
like that?"

"You will handle the talking, Commander." Daren replied just as the doors
to the Admiral's room parted in front of them.

Jaal blinked and if he didn't know much better, he paled a little bit. "Yes
sir," he returned Daren's slight nod.

Inside, the Bolian flag officer was observing a holographic model of the
cluster. His forehead was wrinkled, but otherwise he did not seem wary.
"Welcome Captain, Commander." He greeted. He then pointed at a scrolling box
of text hovering on the edge of the holographic projection. "Just a few more
tough nuts to crack and we're through. The peaceful colonies are mostly
clean."

Jaal felt the Captain's hand on his left shoulder blade. Stalling would
only make it worse.

"Great news," Jaal conceded. He paused just a bit more before going on with
the 'real' question. "By the way," he started again as casually as he could
hoping to catch the admiral off guard, "Is there any reason to believe some
of the rumors we've been hearing from some of the evacuated colonists?"

"Didn't they teach you at pre-mission simulations that the colonists will
attempt any cheap emotional manipulation to stop you? No, I'm not aware of
any rumors. None with a basis, at least."

"Oh?" Jaxom asked sounding surprised the admiral hadn't heard, "You haven't
heard that some of them think the only reason they're being taken out of
their homes is to give the Vered Cluster back to the Dreshayans in exchange
for their help against the Triad?" He paused for a split second for effect
and finished with, "And 'that's' why some are protesting so hard about
leaving. You hadn't heard about all that?"

There, Jaal thought, the hot potato was tossed. Now to see what Megarex
would do with it.

"That is actually one of the more sane things I heard them saying."

Megarex shrugged, "Both us and them realize that as soon as Starfleet
presence is removed from the cluster, either the Hydrans or the Dreshayans
will fill the void."

"I'm betting on the Hydrans myself," Jaal said with his characteristic sly
smile, "The intelligence I read shows the Dreshayans won't stand much of a
chance without outside help. On the other hand, I'd also bet that
the Dreshayans move in as soon as we're gone and enjoy at least a little of
whey they consider theirs before the Hydrans get here."

"This is exactly why we evacuate the colonists. Vered Cluster is not a good
place to make a stand against the Hydran armada," stated the Admiral. He
glimpsed at Captain M'Kantu. The African remained still as though his body
was carved in stone.

"Oh, here's something I hadn't thought of before," Jaal pushing his index
finger into his cheek sarcastically, "What if the Hydrans are in
cahoots with the Dreshayans and they plan on sharing the Vered Cluster after
we're all gone." The Trill commander had no idea if that could be true or
not but tossing out a red herring never hurt anything. "The Dreshayans
'never' liked us and we 'know' the Hydrans aren't too thrilled with us at
the moment. So you suppose they signed a non-aggression pact with each
other? If they did, now the Hydrans are
practically on our doorstep with no opposition. What do you and Commander
Baker think of that?"

Jaal mentioned the name 'Baker' to see if it would elicit some sort of
reaction from Megarex.

"What Commander Baker got to do with it?" Megarex demanded

"Commander Baker doesn't seem to be too troubled with the fact that you are
cooperating with the Dreshayans."

The Bolian Admiral grimaced at Daren.

"Are you behind this, Daren? Is it OK with you to have your man confront me
with these accusations?"

"The Commander is aware of the gravity of the accusations, commander. Some
would regard what he implies you did as treason. The grimace grew darker.
When Megarex spoke, his tone sounded more low and grave than before.

"Starfleet's line of defense is too thin right now, and it would not be
wise strategically to hold on to Vered cluster when our defenses are not
consolidated enough to repel the invasion. Do you agree?"

"That depends," Jaal said, "Strategically, what we need to know is here the
Hydrans are coming 'from' and defend those gateways. If we turn over the
Vered Cluster to the Dreshayans, who may or may not have a pact with
Hydrans, we're screwed on this front. If anything we should have been
sweet-talking with the Dreshayans all along instead of giving up this
territory."

"I'm telling you that's how it is. But you reached a similar conclusion as
some of those above me in the hierarchy. When they realized that the
evacuation is required, they figured we could at least benefit from the
withdrawal. The Dreshayans are weak. But their support of one of the sides
could determine the outcome of the campaign in this sector."

"Something we already know Admiral, thank you," Jaal replied dryly. "The
truth will be discovered eventually." Captain M'Kantu said, remaining
astoundingly calm.

"I am only executing the orders I was given, Daren. And so do you. It is
not Starfleet who decides the policy. You... you aren't considering going
public with this, are you? You realize the tension surrounding this
evacuation as is? You realize that going public will translate into the
deaths of Starfleet officers, perhaps even a civil war?"

"Starfleet people have already been killed. Several of our marines have been
sniped at. I can't wait to see what else is gonna happen," Jaal replied in a
more heated tone.

"If that's what one sniper can do, imagine an angered mob who thinks we
sold them out. There's no way back right now. The choices we make aren't
always what they teach at the academy, Commander, if you'll ever reach my
rank you'll understand that as well."

"If that's the way it is I don't want your rank," Jaal answered evenly.

"Comma--!"

Megarex spun sharply on his heels at the interruption from the communication
panel. An urgent message icon blinked, demanding his attention.

"That would be a message stating that a Hydran fleet is underway to the
Vered Cluster." said Captain M'Kantu.

"Excuse me?"

Jaal was also surprised, though he did not say anything.

"The Zeus--"

"I am not talking about that. My intelligence officer informed me, just
before I beamed aboard the Nightview, that he got reports on a entire Hydran
armada changing course. They're heading to the Vered cluster."

Megarex's hand hovered over the panel. It did not tremble, but it took a
visible effort from his to keep it still.

"That's impossible."

"Admiral, if that would be impossible, there would be no reason to evacuate
the cluster." Captain M'Kantu indicated.

"Are you enjoying this, Daren?"

"No." Came the simple reply. "I do not. I advise, Admiral, that we inform
the colonists that the Hydrans are underway, and offer them board the
tranports one last time. Perhaps, with the threat being real and not
theoretical, they will cooperate."

"It doesn't make sense." The Admiral still refused to believe. "Vered is not
strategically significant. We thought they would just cut them off from the
rest of Federation space. Why?"

"Perhaps there' are things we don't know. I wouldn't want to waste our time
speculating now that our time is limited."

"Right." The Admiral turned his back on them. "We need to warn the colonists
and finish our evacuation efforts. Dismissed."

Jaal remained quiet as he and M'Kantu left. After a while the Trill stated

"Computer Emergency"

by Aina Mason, Communications Officer

USS Galaxy

=====

Aina had gotton a thirty six hour pass to head back to the Galaxy, part of it was some RnR away from the communications centre on Lambada Vered, the other was to take with her copies of supposedly secret communication between Megarex and Commander Baker.

It was more evidence, more to evidence to prove the colusion between the Dreyashans and the higher ranks in Starfleet.

She was sitting near the pilot of the small type-six shuttle. She watched as the small shape of the Galaxy sitting in orbit slowly grew larger and larger. Through her own earpiece, she listened to the efficient chatter between the flight control and the number of shuttles that were like a small cloud moving in and out of the main and two secondary shuttle bays of the large starship.

Normally the small shuttle would have been routed to Bay 3, it's small size would mean that it only needed the facilities of the smaller of the three shuttlebays on the ship. But today, there was confidential and secure physical documents on board and the small shuttle had been routed due to the urgency of getting them stored away.

Sometimes, you have to thank small favours, for both of them, it meant that they would survive.

=====

The flash of the atmosphere containment field meant that the shuttle was now inside of the ship and a few moments later was landing on it's assigned pad. The tiny side door opened and Aina walked out, with her awol bag over her shoulder.

Changing the settings on her earpiece, she contacted the Galaxy LCARS and requested Commander Jaxom's location.

Before the ship's computer could respond, there was a screaming squeal in her ear. And while her hand went to her ear in reflex, to rid her of the sound, her legs came out from under her as the ship shook.

Aina had lived on starships, for almost half of her life and as she rolled over to get onto her hands and knees, she wondered what could have caused the ship to shake like that, cause for the Galaxy to move like that would have required huge amount of energy.

Climbing to her feet, the corridor went to the red emergency lights and the red alert klaxon was sounding. Shaking her head, trying to ignore the continual ringing in her ears, she moved along the corridor, the ship seemed to be continually rolling and pitching under her feet. Already in the bay, the first signs of panic from the colonists started to manifest.

Her training kicked in as she tried to work out what to do - it was a red alert situation and her alert station at the moment was to be in the main computer area.

Dragging her awol bag over her shoulder, her balance was returning as the inner ear, as the pitching and yawing stopped, was starting to work properly, from the assualt from the scream in her ear. She ran into the main corridor leaving the shuttlebay.

As she ran, the captain's voice came over the comm - "All stations damage report... Medical teams to decks twelve through fourteen...Strict Radiation precautions are in effect, all civilians confined to quarters until further notice, Security take charge...that is all for now."

Her mind was running wild, trying to work out what could have caused the ship to shake like that and with radiation protocols in effect...saucer torpedo launcher...must have been an accident in the launcher.

If there had been a premature release, the radiation from the bay...that was right next to the computer core and the warp field power control systems. Most things were right next to the main computer core. From deck five to deck fourteen the 'brain' of the ship filled the centre of the saucer. But on fourteen was the main powerfeed for the warp field control systems.

Most people thought that the warp fields allowed the huge Federation Computer Cores to work faster and they did. But they did another job, the subspace field helped to isolate the multiple cores full of quantum registers that could do the multiple job of processing and storage simultaneously. These registers had to be kept from effects of reality, or they would just turn into huge lumps of inert metal, plastic and organic based gels, that they really were.

She dropped her awol bag just inside the door of the main computer foyer, while the rest of the ship were moving with an energetic purpose that appeared almost chaotic, in the main computer control area, all eyes were watching the huge display going through the self-diagnostics. Five people had their eyes on the information that was on the screens.

"Thank god, it hadn't effected the cores too badly," exclaimed, Edwards the lieutenant in charge. "Ok, I want a team on level twenty one through twenty seven, working on the recovery of the lost registers. It's a wonder the field hadn't totally collapsed," he shook his head, glad that the worst wasn't happening.

Aina was going to disappoint him, she turned from her own screen, to nearly everyone, what was running on the screen was just letters and numbers. To her, it was a plain warning, "Lieutenant, the portside core is going to have failure on banks seven thirty seven, onwards."

He turned to his own console and with a couple of taps, turned to Aina - "Mason, don't be an idiot the core is returning all in the green, high but still green. I've heard of your supposed computer whisperer abilities..."

As he spoke another technician spoke, "Bit rot is occuring on the port core, she's right sir." Bit Rot was a joke from the early days of computing, but with quantum computers, it was real, it was when the effects of the universe were also affecting the registers."

With a frown, Edwards just nodded, "Ok, get all essential services onto the starboard core, dump entertainment and holodeck into storage - some of the live stuff will be lost, but right now we've just lost half of the computer. Dump the engineering functions to storage and route all functions down to the engineering core, we can't take the load here, time that thing did some real work. We need a engineering team on that warp field generator."

He looked at Aina and the rest looking at him, "Stop gawping at me, get to work."

"What The!?? "

Cmdr. Jaal Jaxom
Strategic Operations

'What the?"

The Trill commander had just been tossed, rather abruptly, from his
chair to the deck.

Something, somewhere on the ship, had just exploded.

'This is a 'bad' thing,' Jaxom thought as he managed to get himself to
his feet again.

He quickly tapped out a few commands into his computer terminal and
the Galaxy's internal and external sensor readings scrolled down the
screen.

"Frak! We're being attacked!?"

After a few more tap-taps on the terminal damage reports scrolled in a
separate window. Large sections of decks twelve, thirteen, and
fourteen were open to space. The main impulse engines were practically
gone. A massive burst of radiation was seeping into the ship.
Shuttebay two seemed to be the epicenter of the destruction.

The Trill shook his head in disgust as he realized what happened.
Those damn, short sighted, self-centered colonists. Just what the HELL
did they do?

Granted, most had the sense to get out of the Hydran invasion force's
way. Others were too stubborn know when to gracefully bow out.
Politics aside, if they stayed, they'd be dead. There was no way the
Hydrans would let them live. Even if the Drayashans were unofficially
given back their territory by some clandestine Federation pact, the
colonists would 'still' be in some sort of danger.

So now it fell on the Galaxy's shoulders to save these people whether
they wanted it or not.

And NOW they were setting off nukes to make their point.

Jaal shook his head again at the readings on his screen.

Great. Just great.

He straightened up and made his way to the closest damaged section. He
'was' a former operations officer and everyone knew that ops geeks
were half engineers anyway. There had to be some way he could help
out.

==Deck 11==

"C'mon let's move!" a security officer was yelling to be heard over
the cacophony of noise and confusion. The deck was being evacuated so
radiation protocols could be put in place. That meant containment
fields that wouldn't let solid objects pass through them to keep the
radiation from spreading.

Jaal had gone deep into the deck to help rescuers pull injured people
out of the radiation-infected area.

Jaal was surprised that the damaged area of the ship was so large. The
Hydran starbeast the Miranda met over Romulus hadn't caused that much
destruction.

"There's one more person in section six, cabin forty-two," someone was saying.

Jaal handed the frightened little boy he was carrying to a nearby
nurse, "I'll go, you," he pointed to a security guard, "get these
people out of here. I'll be right behind you."

Before anyone could protest, the Trill headed back down the corridor
and around the bend searching for cabin forty-two. As he ran he
avoided fallen electrical cables, pieces of lighting, and a couple of
ruptured water lines. He read the numbers from the ID plates on the
doors as he went.

Seventy-one? Seventy? Sixty-nine? Sixty-eight?

He stopped short as a piece of overhead lighting dropped down in front
of him. Jaal quickly scanned the ceiling ahead to see if anything else
might rain down on him.

Reasonably certain the path would remain clear, he continued his
quest. He went a fair way along the hallway before starting to watch
the signs on the doors again.

Forty-seven? Forty-six? almost there?

"Here we are," he said out loud.

The door to cabin forty-two was slightly ajar. Jaal wedged himself
between the door and the jamb and pushed it the rest of the way open.
"Hello? Anyone home? Hello!" he yelled.

Then he saw a body in a science blue uniform lying on the floor by the
replicator alcove. Jaal rushed over and knelt down. He felt for a
pulse and was grateful to find it. Rolling the woman onto her back he
slapped her face lightly a couple of times to see if she was conscious
or at least close to it.

Nothing.

He wore a grim expression as he quickly pulled her to a sitting
position and hoisted her over his shoulder.

'Damn!' he thought, 'she was a LOT heavier than she looked!'

Holding the petite woman firmly, Jaal made his way back to the
corridor and began his trek back to safety.

He felt sweat began to trickle down his front and back as he carried
the woman down the corridor. Jaal was starting to think the artificial
gravity in that section of the deck was starting to fail. The woman
was getting heavier and heavier with each step.

By the time he's reached the safe zone, Jaal was heaving for breath.
The weight of the woman he carried was nearly unbearable. Coming
around the last 'T' intersection he finally saw a couple of medical
uniformed people and the guard he'd left moments ago. "Hey?" he tried
to get their attention but only the "H?" came out of his mouth.

He stopped and looked around. His vision was starting to narrow. "What
the hell is wrong?" he tried to speak. He turned again to see the
medical uniforms running towards him. Jaal saw their mouths moving but
couldn't hear a word they were saying. It must have been extremely
urgent because of the worried looks on their faces.

"I?" Jaal began but couldn't finish the sentence and he felt like he
needed to puke. For some strange reason all the energy he had was
drained from him. He could barely stand. "She needs?"

The next thing Commander Jaxom knew? everything went black?

TBC?

"Showstopper"

Lieutenant Saul Bental
Chief of Intelligence

Shin Takashi
Vice Executive Administrator

"Yes.....yes," Shin Takashi was saying into his handheld communicator.
While most people liked the convenience of hands free and broadband wireless
communications, he always liked the feel of a communicator in his hand.
Especially when he can keep the conversation private. At the light flashing
on his desk monitor, he cut the connection and tapped a button on the panel.

"Yes, Winnie?" He didn't hide the annoyance in his voice.

"Sir, a Mr. Bental is here to see you," his receptionist replied. Shin
quickly regained his composure and ensured that his suit was smoothed out.

"Send him in, please," he ordered. He stood somewhat to the left and behind
his desk, awaiting his visitor.

The secretary let Saul Bental in. The man was in civilian uniform again. His
hair, Shin noticed, was dyed blond.

Shin almost raised an eyebrow at Saul, taking in the new hair do.
Nonetheless, manners were manners.
"Mr, Bental, a pleasure to see you again," the Administrator greeted with a
short bow.

"Good morning." He bowed at Takashi. "Do you still have some of that
wonderful tea?"
"But of course, I always have some on hand," Shin replied.
"You'll need it." Saul replied sharply, striding into the chamber and
looking around. "Also, I think that for the benefit of both of us, we better
keep this conversation off the record. ALL of the records."

There was no need for posturing at this point, as Shin Takashi knew that
something unpleasant was about to be revealed. He smoothly leaned over to
his desk and tapped a few commands. After a moment, Shin merely nodded for
Saul to continue.

Saul put a small device on an end table and pressed it. A voice, a little
distorted, began speaking.

"... our sources also report that a rich Dillithium vein was discovered at
Lambda Vered I, in the Dark side. The sources indicate that the corporation
running the operation on the planet has began mining it. Prospects
estimate-- "

The rest was filled with plenty of professional terminology, which was quite
accurate. While coordinates or geographic locations weren't mentioned, most
of the other details were there - the vein's enrichment, isotope
distribution, depth below ground, number of miners... anything.

"This message." Saul said, "was sent ten minutes ago through an
communications channel used by Starfleet Intelligence, marked F45TS-1Ver.
What's unique about this line, sir, is that we're aware that the Hydrans
have tapped it. This means that the Hydrans are now aware of the little
surprise hiding within this planet's crust. They'll come and claim it,
whether you evacuate or not."

Shin was stunned. For that information to have been sent out could only be
the work of a corporate spy...or worse. "Do you know who sent that message,"
the Administrator asked.

"Yes."

"I'm not sure what you expected from me when you played that message," Shin
said, "however, that changes nothing here." He walked over to a small stand
with a pitcher and small cups with no handles, where he slowly poured
himself some tea. He then turned, and faced his opponent.

"This is Hollingston's planet, and we will stay here defending what's ours."

"And lose." Saul replied. "You won't be able to hold the planet, and
Starfleet won't be able to assist. Lambda Vered I just lost all of its
value. Luckily, the person who composed this offer is unaware of that. Yet."

Saul let a brown paper dossier slip from his hands and land on the table.

"The most important part within is that Hollingston does not lose the rights
on the planet, even though you're given a compensation. Another thing to
consider - how long did it take your people to discover the Dilithium vein?"

Takashi took at sharp breath. "It took the survey teams about twelve years
to find it after a trace was picked up quite by accident." When he had
arrived on Lambda Vered I, it was part of his orientation package, an eyes
only report from the Security Administrator. The previous Executive
Administrator didn't put much stock into what it really meant if that vein
were tapped to it's full potential.

"This means the Hydrans won't find it quickly either. So they won't waste a
lot of effort on the planet, and will assume the message was disinformation.
Starfleet, however, will be aware that there is in fact Dillithium within
the planet's crust, and will make an effort to take Lambda Vered back as
soon as it is possible. This depends on the corporation removing any trace
of the mining operation."

Saul paused for a breath. "And when the planet is again in UFP hands, it
will be yours. Please, Mister Takashi, let us do your fighting for you.
You'll regain your asset. Just not right now."

The Executive Administrator of Lambda Vered I, the decisionmaker for
Hollingston in this region of space, the man who arranged to have his boss
assassinated so that he could drive Hollingston's holdings here in the right
direction took a moment of pause. He never took his eyes off of Saul, never
broke eye contact.

Then a decision was made.

"Here's my new and final offer, Mr. Bental," Takashi said in a clear, but
low and determined voice. "One: I get the name of the person who sent that
transmission, and I...deal with that same person my own way, no questions
asked. Two, I get a reasonable timeline to give to Corporate Headquarters
in terms of how long until we can expect to get back here and get on with
the business of doing business."

He took a step closer to the Spy Master, to put greater emphasis on his next
few words.

"Finally, we want a minimum of 50% compensation for foreseeable gross
earnings, and a suitable planet for our colonists to continue doing what
they do best."
"I will see to it that it happens." Saul nodded, undaunted by Takashi's
proximity. "It's a good alternative to a bloodshed that would damage both
Hollingston and the Federation."

"Then we have a deal, Mr. Bental," Shin accepted after a pause. He extended
an arm in an ancient traders handshake. "I do look forward with negotiating
with you again."

Saul offered his hand. Both men had a firm, serious hand shake. A hallmark
of professional Terran businessmen.

"I hope the next time we do business, it will be under better circumstances.
Farewell." Saul concluded.

But Shin maintained his grip.
"Ah, Mr. Bental," he said slowly. "I would appreciate it if you could
divulge the name before you leave this office."

"Is it really necessary?" The Dutchman inquired in an exasperated tone.

"Yes, I believe it is.", was the gravelly response.

"It was a Betazoid named Suder." Saul narrowed his eyes. "J. Andrus Suder."

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