Path: inforamp.net!news.nstn.ca!news.dal.ca!torn!howland.reston.ans.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!news-feed.iguide.com!uunet!in2.uu.net!ulowell.uml.edu!news.cs.umb.edu!oitnews.harvard.edu!irs.joslin.harvard.edu!weed From: Mathew Weed Newsgroups: alt.startrek.creative Subject: New! Defender: (Also The Vortex' Defender) Part VI Date: Sun, 25 Feb 1996 14:22:55 -0500 Organization: Harvard University Office of Information Technology Lines: 733 Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: irs.joslin.harvard.edu Mime-Version: 1.0 Status: N What's Paramount's is Paramount's, what's ours is copyright 1995-6 Captain's log, stardate 52065.9: William McGinnis, commanding Starship Inflexible reporting: Unfortunately, our mission, originally a rather simple scientific scan of a previously unknown sector, has become a very complex and dangerous one. We have already faced down--at the loss of the nearly 200 crew aboard the science vessel Einstein; that vessel; and Lt. Commander Sanchez and our armed scout--a group of pirates whom we believe are members of a previously unknown culture. However, this culture has had contact with the Romulan Star Empire, and its vessels seem to operate rather freely in this area. How they transverse Cardassian space is unknown, as both Klingon and Cardassian patrols have been ... careful to look for uninvited guests. In any case, we are now returning from the planet's surface in order to face the most powerful Romulan military craft known to Starfleet defense command. Captain M'Kenna is on the surface with her platoon, looking for a man who tortured her in every way imaginable when she was a child. She has promised that she will not harm him, and will bring him back aboard for questioning, as he seems to know a good deal about the Romulan connection to this sector of space. She knows the risks, and has chosen to stay on-planet in spite of the possibility that her people will be permanently marooned there, should the forthcoming ...discussions with the Romulan commander go against us. "Sir, we've now cleared the interference layer, the Romulan ship's still up here, currently on the other side of the planet," said Thale after a quick glance at the navigational array. "Very well, we've got some time, Lt. Anders, get me a channel to that ship, ... Mr. Schultz, give me a tactical assessment on their capabilities," "Sir, they've got an interesting mix of old and new technologies," he said, trying to organize the information properly. "The ship carries multiple disruptor arrays, along with photon torpedo launchers that appear capable of launching other kinds of ordnance should this prove necessary. Their disruptors appear to be much more powerful than previous models, and are far more numerous. Their ship is built for power production, so they've got better speed than we have, under normal conditions. If we are running on the older technology warp coils we'll be at an even greater disadvantage. However, they have had to sacrifice maneuverability, and, to a degree, structural durability in order to keep their total mass down. They rather seriously out-gun us, and I'd guess that they've got a reasonable advantage over us in terms of their absolute maximum rated speed." "Fine," said McGinnis, who was somewhat embarrassed to admit that he was looking forward to the challenge that the new Romulan ship would present. "What is their current status?" "Sir, they're on the other side of the planet, shields are down, and their weapons appear to be on standby." "Fine, let's try to talk our way out of this before we have to fight our way clear." "Aye Sir," said Anders, responding to the command implicit in his words. "Sir, ... I hate to say this, but ... I don't think that their commander's interested in talking, their shields are up, and they're headed for us at maximum impulse." "Very well, red alert!, Helm, we need space, so give me warp five for the most open area possible." "Course 135 mark 5, velocity warp 5," said Thale as the ship left the planet behind. "Sir, their commander's maneuvering to catch us, as I suspected, they've not got very good acceleration, but they appear more than capable of catching us." "Try to communicate with them one more time," "Aye Sir," said Anders. After a short pause, she turned away from her station. "They're not responding," she said somewhat sadly. "Understood, helm, set a parallel course with them, and accelerate to maximum possible velocity." "Aye Sir, our course is now 134 mark 5, we're now at warp 9.63, and holding. They're accelerating, and will overtake us in thirty-two seconds at their current rate." "Very well, Tactical, stand by on the aft torpedoes, as soon as we've fired them, bring the port-side launchers to bear, and fire immediately, at these speeds, we may be out of range as it is." "Aye Sir," replied Schultz and Thale, each knowing his part in what was to come. "The Romulan ship is now at warp 9.78, and is twenty seconds from optimal range," said Thale. "... stand by," said McGinnis, as Schultz' fingers tightened on the firing controls. "Five seconds," said Schultz, "four, three, two, one, firing," The thirty torpedoes from the ship's aft launchers ripped toward the Romulan ship, quickly followed by the twenty from the port launchers as the ship healed over, both to avoid being hit, and to allow for a hard kick in the tail as the Romulan ship streaked away. "We got them hard, but they've got about fifty percent left on their shields, and only moderate internal damage. They're coming around for another pass, maneuvering doesn't seem to have been damaged at all ... Oh shit!" said Schultz before the Romulan disruptor fire hit. The blow against McGinnis' back was incredibly strong, nearly knocking the wind out of him. Had he not been restrained in his command chair, he would have found himself bent over the rail that divided the command deck from the recessed area in front of the viewscreen. He could see that the others were still in their stations, if barely. "What the hell was that!" cried Anders as she struggled to recover from the effects of the blast. "That," said Schultz, "was the effect of those new disruptors. Sir, primary shields are at forty percent, minor structural damage to the starboard wingtip, some strain on parts of the supercollimator ring, neither problem will prevent weapons firing." * * * Sub-commander Arwein, now second-in-command of the Romulan Startallon class warbird Predator was very impressed by the skill with which the Federation captain handled his craft. It was, for a Federation ship, rather ungainly, but it still had notable advantages in acceleration and maneuverability, and over the past twenty Federation minutes, he had gotten in almost two hits for each of those struck by her ship. Had her ship not had a three to one advantage in firepower, and equivalent shields, she was sure that he would have won. The fact that they could fire their phasers at warp had been a surprise, until she realized that they were using an older form of warp technology, that did allow Federation-style energy weapons to work through subspace. "Weapons, they're coming into range, stand by on disruptors, photon torpedoes, fire!" said the new commander, who had proven to be all-Romulan when she had taken out her knife and cut his wrist to prove that he could bleed. The order was obeyed quickly enough, and the Federation ship's shields took yet another hit. However, they were tough, and were taking the best abuse that she could devise with only a slightly greater loss in efficiency than Predator's shields had suffered so far. "Be prepared!", said the defense centurion just as another blast from the Federation ship's main high-energy phaser ring struck, with the usual strong effect on Startallon's shields. Although it needed several seconds to recharge, it was a terrible weapon, and Arwein's respect for its capabilities grew with each shattering impact. * * * Special clothing protected the Klingons from the radiation, but it didn't prepare them for the sight of what remained of the pirate base. "Surely they have all died." Benik shook his head. "All but one." Elise said. "And don't call me Shirly." "What?" "Never mind. Let's move out." They came across Rafe's wrecked air car. "Look!" T'Lith knelt by the wreck, putting her gloved finger against a dark rust-red smudge. A few feet away, drips of the same color marked a brief trail. "You were right." Benik gazed at the spots. "He must have bandaged himself and headed for those trees." "He's hurt pretty bad." Elise headed for the tree line. "He can't have gone far. I can still smell him!" Benik sniffed, then wrinkled his nose. No scent made it through the filters of their protective masks. His captain must be speaking figuratively again. He followed the platoon. * * * "Sir, We're coming into position," said Thale. "Fine, Mr. Schultz, you may fire when ready." "Three, two, one, now!" said Schultz, as the bridge lights dimmed from the tremendous drain caused by the full-powered blast from the main ring. In the atmosphere with the shields raised, they hadn't even been able to use this, the ship's ultimate weapon, at full power. "Sir, we've scored some serious damage on them this time," said Schultz after the lights had come back up. " The torpedoes knocked their shields down some, and we got a punch through from the main ring. They've taken moderate damage to crew sections, and serious damage to their port impulse drive." "Fine, let's ..." "Incoming!" yelled Schultz. Fortunately, the torpedo salvo didn't do very much damage, as the shields, critically weakened by continuing disruptor hits, barely deflected the force of the blow. "Sir, they've nearly gotten the primaries, and although their shields are down to about 45 percent, we'd better come up with something better than slugging it out, because they'll get us if we do," said Schultz, somewhat nervously. "Right," said McGinnis. "First thing is to get the secondary shields up, so Helm, give me a change in course, go for open space, warp 3." "Aye Sir," said Thale, working his board with the ease of long familiarity, even if the current situation was a bit ... stressful. "Course 167 mark 56, warp 3 laid in." "Engage..." said McGinnis, just before another torpedo salvo blew out the primary shields, and knocked the starboard wing off of the ship. "Sir, we've lost the starboard wing, starboard photon torpedoes out, main shields down, raising secondaries," said Schultz quietly. "Good job, Mr. Schultz, ... Mr. Thale, bring us about, we've got shields so its time to give them another taste of our medicine. Tactical, I want you to hit them with a low-frequency blast from the aft collimators, and then bring the ring up for as high-frequency a shot as you can." "Aye Sir," said Schultz. Moments later, a red bolt of low-powered phaser energy shook the Romulan shields slightly, forcing them to focus on protection against low frequency fire. The bluish blast from the main ring, when it struck several seconds later, took both ship and crew by surprise, blasting away several disruptor batteries, shattering the impulse engines, consequently doing serious structural damage to the ship's aft sections, and warping one of the main plasma conduits for the Romulan ship's high-warp systems. However, even with this damage, the Romulan ship still had better weapons, and McGinnis knew that although the two ships were about evenly matched now, that he needed a wild card to ensure their victory. It was time for a bit of his trademark creativity. "Captain Torgul to the Bridge, please." he said, smacking the intercom on his chair. * * * Things were growing worse, Arwein knew, for in spite of Startallon's enormous advantage where firepower was concerned, the Federation ship was doing far more damage per shot now, than she could with the offensive systems remaining to her. The fact that they could trick the shields into protecting against one frequency range, and then hit from another was becoming increasingly concerning to her, particularly after the last burst, which had knocked out the ship's impulse engines, made it impossible for them to travel at speeds higher than warp eight for some time, destroyed a quarter of the ship's offensive capabilities, and done serious structural damage as well. The advantages of double-layered shielding were now obvious too, and Arwein was beginning, if slowly, to believe that they were doomed to lose. "Bring us around, I want to go in *very* close," said the commander, not waiting for the helmswoman's responses before turning to Arwein. "Sub-commander, we still have a great advantage in firepower?" "Yes Lord," she replied, suspecting what he planned to do, and believing that it could not work. "Then, get power from anywhere you need it, and knock that ship out of space before they destroy us!" he said, smiling at the prospect of destroying the Federation ship that had evaded the hands of fate for too long. "Yes, lord," she said again, knowing that the Human against whom they fought was far too creative, to allow such a thing to happen, particularly when his ship's warp systems were still intact. Her best chance was to go for the warp engines first, and then leave the rest to fate. Quickly enough, Startallon lay on a parallel course with the alien craft, the stump of its starboard wing pointing toward them like a broken arm. "You are cleared to fire, sub-commander," said her commanding officer. Unfortunately, so were the humans, and as her disruptor fire cut through their newly raised secondary shielding, doing serious damage to their starboard warp nacelle, their heavy phaser array spat another of its brilliant blue bolts at her ship, temporarily staggering its shields, leaving it unprotected for just a moment. However, no fire came from the alien ship, at least not the kind of offensive for which they had been trained to expect. Arwein didn't know what the human captain had done, until the whining of a Federation transporter was in her ears, and the commander's cries to defend the bridge were then drowned out by the shriek of Federation phaser fire, and the warmth of a romulanoid on her shoulder. Then, the world went dark. * * * McGinnis could only wait now, as his people fought to gain control of the Romulan ship. Fortunately, Inflexible's shields were still proof against fire from the outside, and so he was able to give increasing support to his boarding party which was working to take it intact and ready for travel back to the Federation. The shot that his ship had taken just before the transport had done terrific damage to the primary warp coils on the starboard side, and had blasted into the starboard photon launchers taking them permanently off-line. The primary shield generators had also been hit, and MacLeod thought that they would require at least thirty-six hours to repair. With the secondaries at only thirty percent, and occasional fire still incoming, McGinnis had to hope that his people would be able to take the enemy ship soon. Anders' voice broke into his musings bringing him back to the present. "Sir, Commander T'sommahr on audio for you." "Yes, Commander?" he said, hitting his chair's comlink. "Sir, we have taken the bridge, all Romulan officers committed suicide, save one whom I was able to incapacitate via a nerve pinch. She is the weapons officer, and wears the rank of subcommander in the Romulan Imperial Navy." "Good," said McGinnis. "Bring her back aboard with you at your convenience. Any word from Torgul's capture parties?" "Sir, as yet we have had insufficient time to have a notable effect on the numbers or fighting efficiency of the vast majority of the crew. Those who are armed are fighting effectively, however, as you know, Romulan crewpersons are not generally armed, meaning that we are only required to stun them. Those who are armed are skilled, and are more than equal in number to the personnel beamed aboard. Surprise has done much, however, continued assistance from outside would, doubtless, add to the captain's efficiency." "Understood, do you know where the fighting is the most serious?" "Yes Sir. As with our vessels, the largest concentrations of crew are in the engineering sections, and the Romulans have notable security there. If you can strike at the impulse engines, you will likely create further confusion without putting our people at risk." "Understood," said McGinnis. "Warn the captain, and then prepare for transport back aboard, I don't need your people on their bridge anymore, so set explosives and disconnect their self-destruct if you can, and tell me when you're ready." "That will be accomplished in thirty-nine seconds sir, barring unforeseen difficulty," replied the Vulcan. "Fine," said McGinnis. "Tactical, ready a full salvo of photon torpedoes for their impulse engines, set them for concentrated detonation, I want to try to get rid of those shields." "Aye Sir," said Schultz. "We'll need to come about by forty degrees to starboard for me to hit them from the forward launchers," "On it," said Thale, bringing the ship around so that it would pass behind the Romulan ship. "You may fire at your convenience," said McGinnis. * * * He was close, she knew. A few minutes ago, she'd picked up a clump of hair she was reasonably certain was his. Elise had her people fan out; checking every rock, tree, and bush. Suddenly, she saw something glimmer under a moss-covered overhang. Waving for her people to get down, she crouched and eased up to the rocks. Elise knew it could be just some poor defenseless animal, but she was taking no chances. Angling over to the side, she changed the setting on her phaser and vaporized the ferns. Nothing jumped out. Heart pounding, she leaned around and looked in. Rafe tried to lift his hands, but he couldn't. His phaser seemed to weigh a ton. Already in so much pain he barely stayed conscious, he anticipated there would soon be much, much more. His only hope was he might be able to piss her off enough to get her to kill him, right away. Fat chance. His toothless gums tapped against each other noiselessly. He couldn't even get off a good taunt. "Pathetic." Elise murmured, and looked away. No instrument of torture she thought to use, could have hurt him worse. "Damn, Rafe." she knelt near him and pulled him out. "You're good and fucked up." He moaned in agreement. She sighed, then noticed him shivering. "Cold?" He nodded, slightly. Elise shucked off her jacket, and wrapped it around him. "I need another one." she said, reaching behind her. After a few moments of feeling nothing in her hand, she turned to see her troops staring at her in utter confusion. "I said I need a jacket." "For that slime?" Gank scoffed. "Why?" Elise shook her head. "Tell me one time when you asked something of me, and I asked you why." Rafe's coughing drew her attention. She braced him, holding him still. "I think I need some-" as she turned, the sight of twenty jackets in a pile beside her gave her pause. "Well gee, guys; I don't wanna bury him in em." She smiled at the warriors, and they smiled uneasily back. "Anyone have water?" she asked. "Here." Korin stepped forward, handing her his canteen. "Thanks." she nodded, and dripped a trickle of water into Rafe's mouth. "Easy." she said, holding him up. "M'Kenna," Benik knelt beside her. "Explain this to me. This person has done terrible things to you, yet you treat him with kindness." "Well hell, Benik. I should think that'd be obvious." she looked at the pitiful form in her arms. "All that shit's over. He can't hurt me anymore; and I won't harm a helpless being. Damn." she shook her head. "I sure didn't picture it like this. I thought there'd be taunts and insults and fighting, right up to the end. I even had a few lines practiced. I was gonna roar with victory, when I finally killed him. But look; where's the victory in killing him now? He's pretty much already dead. He's like a poor, hurt, little kid." Her gaze fell on Rafe again, and saw fear and pain in his eyes. Without emotion, without remorse, she began to sing. It was a song Danae (her foster mother) had taught her to sing for her children; a Klingon lullaby. Elise's voice was not the best, but she sang softly enough, that the mistakes didn't seem to matter. Soon, other voices joined hers. And like a child, Rafe drifted off into everlasting sleep. She lowered his body, and pulled her arms from under him. "You do not with to call to warn the heavens?" Benik asked quietly. "Nah." Elise smiled. "I think Rafe would prefer ta sneak up on em." She started to take back her jacket, but his sores had oozed all over it. "Yuk. You can keep it, man." "What do you wish to do with the body?" "Leave it." She shrugged. "It's just a husk, right?" Benik nodded and stood. Barking orders, he got everyone arranged in a formation. "OK, folks." Elise shook off recent events, and got back down to business. "Guess we better find out if were spendin' the night here. Let's get out in the open, and see if we cant get a beam up. Atten-SHUN. Right, FACE. Forward, MARCH." They left Rafe there where he died. His cairn, a pile of Klingon jackets. * * * "Captain Torgul," cried one of the security lieutenants. "We've gotten control of their auxiliary warp power generators, and we can knock out their shields in about a minute, assuming that we can get past the guard who's got himself boxed up under the plasma conduits." "Can't you stun him and get him out that way?" asked Torgul, frustrated at this, the first truly major problem that her teams had suffered. Their weapons were superior to the Romulan service disruptors, and although they were taking some casualties as a result of the enemy's fire, she had been able to use first surprise, and then superior numbers to keep the enemy off balance. According to the first officer, the ten guards that she'd had to send with the party that took the bridge had been released, so hopefully they'd be able to fight their way to the computer core and blow it up so that the Romulans wouldn't be able to implement a self-destruct from anywhere except their engineering control board. This, unfortunately, was not yet captured, and was now her top priority. "Shit!" cried the lieutenant's voice. "He's shooting for the damned conduits himself! ahhhyyeeee!!!!", and the channel went silent. At the same moment, a tremendous shock ripped through the ship, and the blast doors just in front of her party slammed down, just as they realized that they were getting their first view of open space without the benefit of a forcefield. * * * "Bloody hell!" cried Schultz just as the ship's forward torpedoes fired. "Sir, their shields just collapsed, we're going to do a bit more damage than I'd intended. It looks like we've just lost a large party near their shield control center, I think it was a plasma blast from a ruptured conduit," he said, his shoulders tightening with each word. "Well, there's nothing that we can do now, wait for Torgul to call us, she'll pass on news if there's any to have," said McGinnis quietly, hoping that the casualties from this rather dangerous and risky shot in the dark would be low enough to justify it in his own mind. "Torgul to McGinnis," came the tinny voice of his marine contingent's commander over the bridge speakers. "Report," he said, vastly relieved to hear her voice. "Sir, I don't know what you just did, but it nearly killed a lot of my people. The fleet security people aren't doing to well, we had about ten of them just get killed in a plasma explosion, and I lost several more when you hit us with all of those photons. We've got about eighty percent control here, and have shut off their weapons energy, so you can lower shields to bring the injured back, but ...." * * * "Captain, one of their engineers is trying to overload the quantum generator, we've got to stop it!" yelled one of the engineers whom McGinnis had sent along for this purpose. "Sir, I'll have to get back to you," she said and switched channels before McGinnis could object. "Is the main computer core out?" Yes Sir!, we can't stop it from there, security forces destroyed it about three minutes ago. We're going to die!" "Enough!" roared Torgul, ringing the combatants on both sides to a temporary halt. "For god's sake, don't stop shooting at them now, they're not surrendering yet!" she snapped at the men around her. "Lieutenant, get to their engineering command console, and get that bastard off of it before he blows us all into little tiny bits." "Yes sir!" cried her second-in-command, a young human named Frederic, who had proven his ability in the desperate battle for control over the auxiliary weapons storage locker. "With me!," yelled the lieutenant as he raced across the deck, throwing photon grenades and firing his phaser rifle at whomever dared poke his or her head up for a shot. His fingers were fast, and so no one got shots off at him before he had sent a lethal blast of energy crashing into whatever they were hiding behind. He had reached the control board behind which the young Romulan was working, and was just about to stop .... her! when the ship's klaxons sounded. "What the hell's that?" demanded a voice from somewhere on the deck. The young woman who had been working with the board responded in perfect English. "That, my human friends; or was that fools, is the overload alarm. You can't stop the core from blowing up now," she said, a victorious smile crossing her hardened features. "Wanna bet?" said Torgul, who had caught up with her second after sending a party off to try to suppress some Romulans who had become rather annoying in their determination to keep the Federation crew away from one of the computer's still-functional control nodes several decks away. "Yes, ... tellarite, I think that you're too stupid to figure out how to stop me now," said the woman with another smile. "Fortunately, you Romulans aren't good judges of intelligence," said Torgul, who had started out in Starfleet academy's command division, before deciding that security would provide a better outlet for her characteristically unpredictable temper. Her fingers worked quickly, as her second called out the time, and as the radiation levels from the overloading singularity began rising exponentially. "Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four ...." There was only one thing to do, and so she did it, praying that the mechanism would do what it *looked* like it should. She hit the switch, and watched with a mixture of horror and fascination as the core was blasted away from the ship, and the ship's self-maintaining forcefields responded, just before the overwhelming flash of an enormous explosion blasted back through the newly-created hole in the hull, before the shock of the too-near detonation threw them all about with terrific force, leaving Torgul, quite literally, bathed in darkness as her blood flowed from a hundred small cuts and lacerations, including the one on her head responsible for her new, and totally unconscious, perspective on events around her. * * * Minutes later, Torgul pulled herself to her feet, peering around in the red emergency lighting. How she was ever going to get control of the situation, she had no idea. In her mind, she pictured room to room skirmishes, as she and the remains of her team struggled to complete the takeover of the ship. Sure, the Romulans were doomed; but it never paid to leave loose ends. These guys were just crazy enough to find a way to ram Inflexible. "Torgul to boarding party." she tapped her comm badge. "Who do we have left?" The silence was absolutely chilling. Not only did it mean her entire team was either dead or incapacitated; it meant now whatever Romulans were alive onboard knew it, too. "Inflexible!" she tapped again. This time, the silence was encouraging. She knew the Federation ship was still out there, so it was likely something was interfering with comms. Sure enough, she looked down and noticed a ragged hole in her comm badge that her impatient tap hadn't detected. Still, she was lucky to have the badge. If not for it, that ragged hole would be in her chest. She plucked the badge off, gave it a once-over, and tossed it in the rubble. She'd have to do this the hard way. Just then, the bright light and high pitched scream of accelerated molecules filled the room. Torgul backed against the wall and aimed her phaser at whatever was beaming on board; just in case. The sight of twenty uniformed Klingons appearing out of thin air would be impressive enough; but the sight of twenty bare-armed Klingons in a dire mood was downright profound. "Damn, Torgul;" Elise stepped forward. "I thought you'd be happy to see us." Torgul lowered her weapon and slumped against the wall. "I am." she breathed. "You have no idea how much." "Good." Elise picked her way through the rubble. "Mind telling us where we are and what's goin on?" "We're on the Romulan ship. We've more or less taken it over." "More or less?" The sound of distant phaser fire answered Elise's question. "OK, Torgul; I think I got a good take on the situation. Are you spent, or ya wanna hang around?" Torgul looked up suddenly, aware of what she was asking. "This is my operation." she growled. Elise smiled broadly. "Good. So, cappy, what can we do for ya?" "Standard sweep, by the numbers. Don't go out of your way to take anyone alive; we already have what prisoners we need. I want every corner flushed out. This ship has to be clean, before we move out." "Got it." Elise turned to her troops. "Atten-SHUN! You heard Captain Torgul; time to bust Rommie ass." "It's about time." Gank muttered with a toothy grin. "Shuddap and lissen up!" Elise said, but couldn't resist a grin herself. "First and second squad, start topdeck. First squad take fore, second take aft. Meet in the middle, go down a deck, and do it again. Third and fourth squads, do the same from the bottom deck and work your way up. Third forward, fourth aft. We should all meet up dead center of the ship. Check every nook and cranny, and leave nothing alive in your wake. As you leave a deck, call it in as clean. Me and Torgul will be working on life-support. Should you happen to leave anything alive behind," Elise grinned again, "I hope it can live in a vacuum." A ripple of dark laughter rolled over the formation. Elise went on. "Call beam-out on any injured friendlies you find. Any able bodies, send em amidships. We may have a hell of a fight on our hands, if you boys flush out anything lively." She glanced back at Torgul, who nodded her agreement. "Questions?" There were none. "Good." she went on. "Benik, you keep in contact with the squad leaders, make sure everything runs according to plan. Fall out and fall in on your squad leaders, and happy hunting." She saluted her troops, and turned her attention to Torgul. Behind her back, her troops scurried with a purpose, and deployed. "You need anything?" "I'll be fine." Torgul answered. "Let's find an ops terminal, so we can access life support." she grinned reluctantly. "That was a good idea. I wouldn't have thought of it." "Comes from being cold blooded." "Oh? I thought Klingons were mammals." "We are, but- geez; doesn't anyone around here speak slang?" "M'Kenna," Benik called from the other side of the room. "A word?" "Are you still here?" she said, surprised. "OK, in the hall." Once the door closed behind them, Benik looked up and down the hall. "Will you be all right?" he asked quietly. She gave him a strange look. "What kind of crap is that? Of course I'll be all right. Don't I look all right?" He smiled and placed his hands on her upper arms. "You look incredible. Your strength and wisdom have never been more evident." "So what's the problem?" He reached up and touched her face. "Your choice of mate." "Oh, cripe." she pulled away. "Why do you have to start this now? Look; Kurn is my mate. That's all there is to it." "And where is Kurn?" he demanded. "Do you even know? No! Yet where am I? By your side!" "The subject is closed." "While Kurn lives." The knife at Benik's throat was no surprise to him. He simply stared at her patiently, and waited to be released. Elise swore vehemently, and pushed herself away from him. "We been through a few things, haven't we?" "My point, exactly." he said. "Then you should know when its not a good idea to push me." "It is only natural you should worry about him. But does he worry about you? Does he witness your pain, and suffer with you? Is he ever here to share in the joys of your victories?" He moved close to her, deliberately ignoring the knife she still held. "We share so much, you and I. We could share so much more." She was extremely aware of his proximity, his size, and his scent. Biology knows nothing of intentions or vows. "Your timing stinks." she said, resisting the urge to inhale his air; even as she heard him inhaling hers. "Tell me when it would be better." he was nearly dizzy from her scent. "It won't be." she turned to face him. "We have a mission. If you can not perform your duties without letting personal feelings get in the way, perhaps you should be reassigned." "I will not leave you." "Then know this; nor will I leave Kurn. The span of the galaxy means nothing to me. Even across such an expanse, I can feel him. He IS with me; and I am with him." She turned away again. "Always. You have your orders." She left him in the hallway, rejoining Torgul. "I haven't found it," Torgul said from a still serviceable terminal in an obscure corner of the room, "but I've found out where we need to go." "Good.' Elise seemed distracted. "Let's go." "Something wrong?" "Yeah, but the sooner we get this done, the sooner things'll get better. Let's move out." With a quick but painful shrug, Torgul led the way. * * * Captain's log, Stardate 52066.4: William McGinnis, commanding starship Inflexible reporting: After a very hard fought engagement, we have captured the Romulan ship, and have beamed down the very limited personnel who surrendered rather than committing suicide, to the planet with plenty of gear necessary to defend themselves should a new pack of pirates appear. Meanwhile, we are beginning to get ourselves organized for the journey home. With the loss of the science vessel Einstein, and the departure of her sister ships, necessitated by the dangers of this sector, our scientific mission is now meaningless. The fact that we have captured a Romulan warship which is, practically speaking, superior to this vessel is also of paramount importance to Starfleet, and its growing awareness of the true scale of the dangers rising around us. However, this knowledge has come at a high price, as forty-nine of my crew will not return home to receive the rewards for heroic service which they so richly deserve. I have decided to take the Romulan vessel back to DS9 where we will have a chance to analyze it. Hopefully, this analysis will teach us a great deal about Romulan technology, as well as something about their culture. I also hope that Captain McKenna will be willing to stay around in order to supervise the Klingon analysts who will doubtless want a look at the ship for their own purposes. Should she stay, I believe that we will have a very good chance at repairing much of the diplomatic damage done by the tensions in the area around the wormhole over the past three or four years. Our most notable problem at this point, will be getting the Romulan craft back to Federation space, as its auxiliary systems aren't capable of providing long-term warp power, and our systems are too damaged to permit towage of the ship. Another, more personal concern, is the violent hatred shown toward our Romulan prisoner by some of McKenna's troops, a problem exacerbated by the fact that I do not view her as a threat, and have chosen to allow her access to many parts of the ship, as long as she is accompanied by a guard. It is already clear, only three hours after beaming them back aboard, that the Klingons will not be acceptable companions for her, and that my, already seriously depleted ********* If you want parts of this story, plese mail either Matt or Cris and we'll get them to you. If you want more information or the files for the Fall of the Federation, or Vortex of Power Series, please see ftp.gdw.com /pub/startrek/story/tng for Fall of the Federation stuff, and /pub/startrek/story/DS9 (any file including the word Vortex) for Vortex of Power stories. You are also invited to contact Matt or Chris directly. and archer77@ix.netcom.com for VOP. staff, will have to take care of this as well. "Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all of those other forms that have been tried from time to time." Winston Churchill as quoted on the CBS evening news for Feb 19, 1996 Matthew Weed (617) 432-9023 mweed@count51.med.harvard.edu A.M.Harvard University