Star Trek: Dark Horizon

FORMS CHANGE

Written by Michael Gray

USS Providence sections written by

Cleve Johnson and Michael Gray

Based upon Star Trek

created by Gene Roddenberry

Copyright 2011 by Michael Gray

=/\=

Chapter 1 - Past Dreams

He tried to force it away, but the pounding came and with it the screams. Those desperate screams that he could not stop. They tore through the air and reverberated through his skull.

Silence.

No.

He watched the eyes as the last sparks of life evaporated into eternity.

He bolted up as he had every night for the last eleven months, out of breath and wishing he’d never wake again. Next to him in the dark room stirred the one person who knew his agony. She put her hand on his arm and edged close to him. “Again?”

He took in two lungs full of cool reprocessed air. “Sorry.”

He crawled out of bed and walked over to the transparent aluminum window and watched the stars streak by. The glow of a nearby sun lit his desperate face as he wished for some way to open the thick pane and leap out.

Jack McCall didn’t worry about these thoughts. He knew they’d die their own death as they did every night within the next hour or so. He hoped with time they would leave him forever, but that hope had gone unfulfilled for most of the past year.

Mei-Wan walked up behind her husband and hesitated a moment before she started lightly rubbing his bare back.

Jack closed his eyes and fell into the rhythm her fingers sent through his shoulders. The warm touch of her delicate hands drove the tension out of his muscles, bit by bit, back into the oblivion of the dreamworld from where it had come. He relaxed so much he almost lost his balance standing at the window.

He turned to look back at his wife of the last ten months. Mei-Wan was one of those women whose beauty would remain constant from age twenty to sixty and perhaps beyond. Jack knew that it wasn’t just her long dark hair, smooth skin, and deep warm eyes that were eternal. There was something within her, some deeper part of who she was that could look at the cosmos with the wonder of a child and with the wisdom of someone who’d seen centuries pass.

Jack tilted his head to the side and smiled at her.

“Better?” she asked.

“Yeah.”

She put her hands on his shoulders and gently pushed, turning him back to face the window. He surrendered to her direction and she returned her hands to his back, warmly working at his muscles.

“You know, I was wondering the other day if you’d studied massage or something.”

Mei-Wan smiled. “No… I just make it up as I go along.”

Jack grinned and turned back to the stars. His mind returned to the dream.

No, not this time. He forced the images from his mind. He let the sensation of Mei-Wan’s hands kneading his tight muscles take over. The steady rhythm— the warm touch.

He looked at the millions of stars past the window. So many worlds, so many lives. He often wondered what was the point to all of it. So vast, so empty. An endless void interrupted by bright localities fusing hydrogen to helium. Around those stars circled specks of dust inhabited by trillions upon trillions of lifeforms. Those beings existed but a moment and then were gone before they could even begin to grasp the universe about them— a universe which showed no interest in those brief precious moments of conscious existence.

Jack took a deep breath. He knew this line of thought got him nowhere, but it was better that than think through the events the dream brought to his mind. Somehow he was comforted by the idea of an endless uncaring void. Maybe, he thought, he should follow its example.

Mei-Wan stopped and leaned against Jack’s back. “Let’s go to bed.”

He resigned. “Sure.”

Jack kissed her lightly as he rested back in the bed and felt the tendrils of sleep wrap around him again. He hoped he would leave the dream behind as he sank back in to the darkness, but he knew it was a pointless hope.

=/\=

The next morning, if there was such a thing on a ship sailing between stars, Jack McCall fumbled about trying to get the most recent version of the standard duty uniform on. It never fit him quite right. He always felt if he raised his arms too high he’d rip out the shoulders.

He inspected himself in the mirror and frowned.

Jack McCall’s bright eyes gazed back at him. He wondered where the jaunty and cocksure bearing that had attracted a number of women to him through the years had gone to. Not that he was looking for women any longer since he had married Mei-Wan, but there was something missing since that day he and his former crew had been taken as prisoners of war on some nameless hunk of rock light years away.

Jack peered at the empty counter in front of him and a stern bearing came to his face. He walked over to the bathroom where Mei-Wan brushed her hair.

“Have you seen my rank pins?” he asked.

She put the brush down and straightened her own uniform. “Weren’t they with your things?”

“No.” He took a moment to stare at his wife. How did she manage to look so good in these uniforms, he thought.

“Jack, I saw you pack them.” She walked back into their room.

“I know, but they’re not there now.”

Mei-Wan stopped and frowned. She knelt down to the floor and picked up a small transparent case with four golden circular pins in it. She handed the case to Jack.

“I looked down there.”

“Maybe you’re nervous.”

“About what?” he blurted out as he began putting the pins in his collar.

“Returning to active duty.” She watched him.

“I’m ready.”

“I didn’t say you weren’t. I said you might be nervous. There’s a difference.”

He put the last pin in his collar. “Like I said, I’m ready.”

She nodded.

Jack put the now empty case on the counter. “How is it?”

Mei-Wan surveyed the four rank pins on his collar and grinned. “At least they’re straight this time.”

Jack made a wry face. “How was I supposed to know Admiral Turgidson was gonna show up?”

“I thought captains were always prepared.” She walked back to the bathroom and returned to brushing her hair.

“That’s not the point.”

“Good thing the admiral didn’t notice.”

Jack shook his head as Mei-Wan put a set of rank pins in her own collar. She turned to him. “See, mine are straight.”

“It’s a little hard for two pins not to be lined up, Mei.”

“Excuses aren’t very becoming, sweetheart.”

He grinned. “I’ll remember that the next time a certain archaeologist claims she didn’t know an artifact was a fertility symbol.”

“Hey, according to the text on the artifact it wasn’t…”

He smiled as Mei-Wan continued, “The text only mentioned their sky god. How was I supposed to know the sky god was the fertility god?”

Jack chuckled. “It almost got your Captain married off to the high priest’s daughter.”

Mei-Wan walked up to him. “Good thing I finally figured it out.”

“I could have ruled a whole planet.”

“Instead you got me,” she whispered as she leaned nearer to him.

He looked into her eyes and laughed softly, their lips but a few inches apart. “But it was a whole planet.”

“You’re impossible.”

Just as their lips met, a chime sounded. Mei-Wan smiled as Jack let out an irritated sigh.

Over the intercom, “Captain McCall… Captain Stuart wanted to let you know he would be a few minutes late to breakfast, but suggested you proceed to his quarters. Our Chief Medical Officer will be waiting for you.”

“Thank you. McCall out.”

Mei-Wan looked at Jack. “Do you know Stuart?”

“Not really. We had a class together back at the Academy. I think it was Federation History or something.”

Mei-Wan nodded and walked back to the bathroom. She stopped in front of the mirror a moment and lifted her hair off her shoulders, letting the dark flowing veil fall gently onto her back. Jack sat on the edge of the bed and watched as she turned to him and smiled.

Time froze. It wasn’t anything in particular that caught his eye. Maybe the beginnings of that always warm smile, or the way her gleaming hair draped down her shoulders.

It was in these eternal moments when the universe seemed to pause to catch its breath that Jack lived life to its fullest. Not in exploring strange new worlds, not in the discovery of some new civilization, but in the quiet moments of pause that he shared with her. It was only in those moments that the universe made any sense at all.

=/\=

Jack and Mei-Wan McCall arrived aboard the Ericsson Class U.S.S. Providence late the previous night and had yet to meet the ship’s captain, Robert Stuart. This state of affairs wasn’t too unusual. Officers often had to get transport any way they could when being transferred to new assignments. When just an Ensign out of the Academy, Jack had caught an automated freighter to his first assignment, the U.S.S. Bonifacio. The Providence, while a small ship, was much more hospitable than a freighter.

The Ericsson Class was a recent addition to the fleet and what it lacked in size it more than made up for in speed, maneuverability, and the latest technology. Most of the ships Starfleet constructed these days were these smaller, fast explorer starships. They took less time to build, less resources, and like the much used Defiant Class in the recent Dominion War, they held their own in a battle. Starfleet learned that important necessity the hard way— over the dead bodies of thousands of its own personnel.

Jack and Mei-Wan strolled down the corridor on Deck Two of the Providence to a door marked: ‘CAPTAIN R. STUART’ and below that, ‘DOCTOR J. STUART’.

They stopped a moment while Jack checked his uniform a last time. Mei-Wan smiled. “Are all captain’s like this?”

Jack finished his check. “Most are worse.”

“Heaven help the Galaxy.”

“We have to set a good example.”

Mei-Wan shook her head. “You’d think you were about to take Captain Stuart out on a date.”

“I hope not, he’s taken,” chuckled a voice from around the corner. Jack and Mei-Wan turned to see a striking woman in her mid forties who had the look of someone ten years younger.

“I’m Doctor Janice Stuart, Captain Stuart’s wife. Sorry I’m late. Rob just let me know he was running behind— I was held up in sickbay.”

“We just got here,” Jack said. “A pleasure to meet you, Doctor. Jack and Mei-Wan McCall.”

Doctor Stuart touched a control at the side of the door and it opened. “Welcome aboard. Come in.”

Jack and Mei-Wan followed Janice into the room toward the dinning area. She touched a control on the wall and the lights came up revealing a spacious environment. “And please, call me Jan,” she said.

Jack glanced about the room. “I’m surprised on a ship this size that the quarters are as large as this.”

“The Captain’s Quarters are the largest on the ship,” Janice said as she went to the replicator and started touching the flat panel above it. “Juice okay?”

Jack and Mei-Wan nodded. Janice touched a control, causing the replicator to hum to life.

“I think Rob was a little reluctant to share all this space after we got married. For me it was a nice move up.” She handed them each a glass of a strange lavender juice.

Jack looked at the glass a moment, trying to decide if he really wanted to put this strange liquid into his body. Mei-Wan drank hers heartily as did Janice. The Providence’s Chief Medical Officer smiled at Jack.

“It’s a mix of Kaferian Apples and Jaldeza Fruit.”

Jack didn’t know what a Jaldeza Fruit was, but the woman was a doctor. He took a cautious sip and felt the cool liquid go over his tongue. At first it tasted like overly sweet orange juice, but as he swallowed, it made his throat tingle in a very peculiar, yet pleasing way. He took another drink as Mei-Wan turned to Janice.

“You’ll have to excuse my husband, Jan. He’s sometimes disinclined to try new things,” Mei-Wan said as Jack gave her a wide-eyed look, but then smiled.

“Rob was just as reluctant the first time I had him try this juice,” Janice said.

“You should have seen Jack on our honeymoon. We were at one of the best restaurants in the Federation and what does he ask for?”

Jack rolled his eyes as his wife let a moment hang in the air.

Finally she said, “Prime Rib.”

Janice chuckled as Mei-Wan continued, “All the variety of hundreds of worlds and he asks for something he’d had practically from the day he was born.”

“I know what I like,” Jack said like a kid trying to defend eating his tenth cookie of the day.

Mei-Wan grinned at Jack.

Janice turned to her. “What did you have?”

“I tried the Marfasian Selic Fish.”

Janice’s eyes grew wide. “I’ve had that a couple of times! It’s incredible.”

Jack shook his head. What had he done to deserve this?

“What would you like for breakfast, Captain?” Janice asked Jack.

Jack knew he was likely to get more ribbing, but why quit halfway? “Bacon and eggs… chicken eggs from Earth that is,” he said.

Janice smiled wide. “Mei-Wan?”

Jack’s wife took a moment and said, “I’ll have the same.”

Jack turned to her. “Not something from over a thousand light years from Earth?”

Janice activated the replicator again. “You don’t use a replicator to have something exotic. It can never get it quite right.”

“Exactly,” Mei-Wan agreed.

“But the juice?” asked Jack.

“That’s not exotic,” Janice stated.

Jack shook his head as the door to the room slid open and a tall, self-assured man in a captain’s uniform entered.

“Rob Stuart,” he said as he offered his hand to Jack.

“Jack McCall, my wife, Mei-Wan,” said Jack as he took Stuart’s hand.

“A pleasure to meet you both,” Stuart said. He looked at the glass Jack held.  “I see Jan has been busy pushing the latest concoctions our replicator has to offer.”

Jack smiled. “Don’t worry, I’m used to that sort of thing.”

Stuart sighed. “I understand completely, Captain.”

=/\=

An hour later, Jack McCall and Robert Stuart stood at large windows looking out at space while their wives sat in the rear section of the Captain’s Quarters looking over images from the Stuarts’ wedding on a display screen. Both of these women, trained Starfleet Officers, knew without anyone having to tell them that there were times when starship commanders had things to discuss that were meant only for them.

Jack took another drink from his now full glass of that strange juice.

“Let’s be honest, Captain,” Stuart began. “We both know that it wasn’t chance that had the Providence ferry you the last leg of your trip to the Delta Ophiuchus Shipyard.”

Jack smiled. “You mean the Chief of Operations’ nephew doesn’t do this for every Captain?”

“The admiral wanted the insight of someone he could trust, that’s all.”

“I doubt he expected you to mention it to me.”

“I may be the admiral’s nephew, but I’m also a starship captain. I thought, as a fellow captain, you had a right to know that those above you in the chain of command are…” Stuart and considered his next word, “… concerned.”

“Scared to death was more my guess. They think my recent captivity may have sent me over the edge despite the fact that their best testing shows otherwise.”

“We both know that figuring out ways to beat psychological tests has been the favorite hobby of every command cadet since James Kirk. We also know those tests don’t tell the full story and that Starfleet history is full of captains who were certified fit and later snapped under the rigors of command.”

Jack looked at the liquid in his glass and swirled it around a bit. “Did they tell you why they were concerned?”

“For one thing, I think hauling the prison camp commander back to Federation space during your escape caught them a little by surprise.”

“I guess it sort of derailed the Trade Agreement with the Glazyalans,” Jack replied.

“Bringing that commander back was proof of the Glazyalans deceit that the Council couldn’t ignore. The Glazyalans while a minor Dominion ally, were an important symbol that the war was behind us, that our former enemies could become trusted friends.”

“Save us from politicians and diplomats obsessed with symbols,” Jack said with a frown.

“Those symbols can be important in shaping the political atmosphere the Federation functions in. Making friends from past enemies has been a hallmark of Federation diplomacy for the last hundred years. The Glazyalans were supposed to be a natural extension of that.”

“Some friends!” Jack said with a laugh. “They negotiate a treaty while still holding prisoners from a war that had ended a year before.”

Stuart looked out the window. “The Treaty was an attempt to move beyond the Dominion War.”

Jack looked out at space as well. “Millions died during that war and the Dominion were allowed to just waltz back to their puddle in the Gamma Quadrant and act like nothing happened.”

Stuart turned to McCall and watched him closely. “The war ended nearly two years ago. Its time for us to leave it to history.”

“It didn’t end for me and my crew until eleven months ago.”

Again, Jack’s thoughts were haunted by visions of his crew suffering, and him able to do nothing but watch helplessly as it happened. Seventy dead, twice that tortured to the breaking point.

He couldn’t tell if Stuart knew the full truth about the Glazyalan commander he brought back. He suspected his former XO’s report may have revealed the ugly side– that Jack hadn’t intended to bring the monster back to the Federation, but to dispense justice for his crew by tossing the arrogant creature out an airlock. It had only been Mei-Wan’s refusal to stand aside that had stayed the hand of Jack’s rage that day.

Stuart’s eyes betrayed how his mind was elsewhere. Jack assumed it was the details of reports flowing through his mind as he tried to get a measure of the man next to him. Jack knew there were things in there that Stuart probably found hard to reconcile with service in Starfleet. Jack himself found them difficult now that the passage of time allowed him the perspective he’d lacked in the moment.

If Stuart could put himself in Jack’s place and consider how he might have acted if it had been him and the crew of the Providence, then Jack had a chance.

“There’s also concern with the way regulations were discarded while you were imprisoned.”

Jack McCall turned to Stuart. “Look Captain, what my crew went through wasn’t easy and I had to do things that normally I wouldn’t think of, but I won’t apologize for a single thing I did that doesn’t fit the regulations. I’d do it all again.”

A stern look came to Stuart’s face. “Some might say more than regulations were violated.”

“They weren’t there,” Jack replied as he took another drink. “I did what every CO should do for his crew, and if Admiral Hathaway doesn’t like that then he can revoke my orders and I’ll go spend the rest of my life painting, or gardening, or whatever it is old starship captains do.”

Stuart waited a moment, then smiled. “I thought it was ‘fade away’.”

Jack grinned. “That’s old generals.”

They both looked at the stars streaking by outside the window.

“I’m not the Guardian at the Gate,” Stuart said. “I’m just another set of eyes for Admiral Hathaway. If he didn’t think you could command a ship again, then believe me, you wouldn’t command one.”

“I keep asking myself with all the questions about my fitness to command why they’d give me an Oceana Class ship.”

Stuart gave McCall an amused look. “You’re a symbol like the Glazyalans used to be.”

“Symbols again?”

“You brought your crew back from an impossible situation against all odds and flew back to a Starbase with your former tormentor in chains. A rather dramatic symbol of courage and survival and a real, hard fought victory for a Starfleet that saw few of them during the war.”

Jack shook it off and finished his juice. There wasn’t much he hated more than the label of “hero.”

Stuart continued, “And the Oceana ship you’ve been given is a symbol as well. Its size and power are meant to convey the message from a war weary Federation to any would be conqueror to take notice that the fight won’t be as easy as they might think. Perhaps you should take all of this into account when considering what you think about my uncle.” Stuart smiled. “He’s really not a bad guy… for an admiral.”

In his mind Stuart really was the Guardian at the Gate, but Jack liked him anyway. He prided himself on being able to read people quickly. While Robert Stuart wouldn’t hesitate in keeping someone from the center seat who he was convinced would be a dangerous commander, Jack could see that Stuart wasn’t a simple errand boy for his uncle. He was checking McCall out for his own sense of duty and honor. Theirs was an elite fraternity and it was the duty of every member to make sure the others lived up to that high standard they all believed in. So far, Jack had the impression he was still welcome in that group, at least as far as Rob Stuart was concerned.

Jack turned to him. “So, aren’t you supposed to offer me a tour of the Providence? I thought all captains had a near nauseating pride for their ships.”

Stuart grinned. “Right you are.” The two COs walked toward the front entrance of the Stuarts’ quarters and turned to Janice and Mei-Wan. “If our wives would do us the pleasure of joining us,” Stuart said.

The four of them moved toward the door leading back into the corridor and Jack McCall knew that at least for the moment he could relax. The Guardian at the Gate appeared, for the time being, satisfied.

=/\=

Chapter 2 - Threshold Crossing

Stuart had been glowing about his ship during the tour, but Jack was surprised at how engaging and forthcoming the senior officers of the Providence had been. He had come to expect crews on ships as small as the Providence to be a rather tight knit bunch who usually didn’t take well to invaders in their domain. This crew was different. They had a camaraderie that was rare among most ships in Starfleet, such a strong sense of it that it almost troubled Jack, but they also had a warmth and openness that dismissed any apprehension he had.

After the tour Jack and Mei-Wan were treated to a lunch with the senior officers. They were more than entertained by the antics of the Second Officer Lieutenant Commander Blake Adams and a discussion of battle tactics between Jack, Security Officer Nakamara, and Executive Officer Melanie Leeson. Mei-Wan and the Science Officer of the Providence, T’Les, discussed a recent archaeological discovery of works of Andorian poetry found in the last two months. It seemed strange to Jack that Lieutenant Commander T’Les had a fascination with that subject. He had never known a Vulcan to have an interest in anything even remotely Andorian.

Mei-Wan had gone to see Janice Stuart and left Jack with reviewing the list of his own senior officers on the comm panel before him in his and Mei-Wan’s guest quarters. One item on that list troubled Jack. Some genius in the deep bowels of Starfleet had yet to assign him a Chief Tactical Officer. This was not a job that some fresh-faced Ensign two weeks out of the Academy could do. Jack needed to know without question that the officer in that position was qualified for the job. Yet, the display listed it as still open.

There was no point in trying to raise Admiral Turgidson at the Office of Strategic Planning now. By the time Jack got a reply, they would have already left the shipyard.

Jack leaned back in his chair. He’d have to wait until he took command of his ship to solve this dilemma and by that time, the situation would probably have solved itself. Jack wondered, however, if that solution would be to his liking.

=/\=

Later that evening, at nearly 2000 hours, the starship Providence flew across the great void of space. The main viewer at the front of the bridge displayed the starlight streaking toward the vessel. Commander Melanie Leeson never tired of the beauty of the view produced by flying through warped space.

The turbolift doors slid apart with the familiar whooshing sound that announced someone entering or exiting the control center of the starship. This time the sound announced the arrival of Captain Stuart, Doctor Stuart, and the McCall’s―the Starfleet officers being delivered to their new assignment.

Commander Leeson rose from the center seat to yield it to Stuart, but he held up his hand to signify that she was still in command of the bridge. “You’re just in time, Captain,” she said. “We will arrive at Delta Ophiuchus in a little over two minutes.”

“Two minutes, twenty-seven point two seconds,” Lieutenant Commander T’Les stated unemotionally,

Stuart noticed Leeson rolling her eyes and allowed himself a slight grin. He moved close to Jack McCall and whispered something in his ear that caused the other captain to laugh.

Leeson looked at the two ranking officers, wondering what they found so funny. She decided not to ask.

The particular ship building facility the U.S.S. Providence approached had only become de-classified a year after the Dominion War, yet it was still one of the most high security dock facilities in the Fleet. It was from here that many of the newer ships had been quickly and secretly constructed and commissioned to take their place in the battle against the invaders from the Gamma Quadrant.

The shipyard orbited a gas giant planet, about twice the size of Jupiter, which itself orbited the large bright red giant star at the heart of the Delta Ophiuchus System. Almost a dozen drydocks hung in space with their attendant workbees and supply transports. Held within the protective arms of those drydocks were starships in various stages of construction. At the center of all this activity was a spacedock, itself a mammoth space station, directing and coordinating all the activity of the shipyard.

“We’re coming up on the shipyard now, Skipper,” Conn Officer Blake Adams interjected.

A gruff voice sounded over the comm, “Shipyard control to Providence. Drop to impulse, maintain your present course, and deactivate all active scanning. No logs or recordings of sensor data are to be kept during your time in the Delta Ophiuchus Shipyard by authority of the Yard Commander and the CNC Star Fleet Command. Please acknowledge.”

Stuart nodded toward Leeson. “It’s still your shift, Exec,” he said. “I’m just here for the view.”

Leeson turned to Mary Goodman. “Acknowledge the Yard’s message Lieutenant.”

“Aye. Acknowledging message,” responded the striking woman at the OPS station.

“Take us out of warp and engage full impulse, Blake,” the first officer said.

“Aye, darlin,” Adams replied in a playful tone.

Leeson glared at the back of Blake’s head. She cared for him, but he could say things at times that really got on her nerves. And calling her “darlin” in front of the other officers, and especially in front of the McCall’s, definitely counted as “one of those times.”

Stuart noticed the look that Melanie Leeson shot at Blake. He could not resist the temptation to fuel the fire that had ignited. “It’s a good thing that Commander Leeson’s eyes aren’t phaser emitters, Blake, or your head would have been fried a moment ago.”

“Robert Patrick Stuart!” Jan scolded her husband for embarrassing Mel Leeson, her long-time friend, in front of Jack and Mei-Wan. “You should be ashamed of yourse….” She stopped in mid sentence as the image on the viewer caught her eye.

Rob noticed Jan staring at the viewer. He turned his attention to the image that her eyes had locked onto.

Mei-Wan touched Jack’s arm as a distant drydock started to expand in size on the viewscreen. Jack looked up and his heart started to pick up its pace as the lines of the ship in that drydock became familiar to its new captain. It was his ship and it was definitely one of the new Oceana class.

Leeson practically fell into the center seat as she saw the U.S.S. Chamberlain in its drydock. She had never seen a starship that came close to the size of the one she now looked at. For Leeson, the biggest shock came when she saw how small two Sovereign class vessels looked next to the gargantuan craft. “Look at the size of that thing.”

Robert Stuart smiled. “It’s more than a kilometer and a quarter in length and she’s got fourty-five decks…” He paused to let that information sink in, “And eight matter/antimatter reactors to supply her power.”

Blake had a big grin on his face. “What I wouldn’t give to take that around the star system.”

Mei-Wan approached her husband from behind and put her hand on his shoulder. “So that’s our new home.”

“That she is,” Jack murmured.

Captain Jack McCall couldn’t take his eyes off the viewscreen. He watched every curve and every section come into view. This was his ship… the U.S.S. Chamberlain.

Mei-Wan took in the view of the Chamberlain and found herself caught under the same spell as Jack was. She had first served aboard a Nebula Class ship, a huge vessel, but this… there was no comparison. Though this time she wasn’t coming aboard as an junior archaeologist at the bottom of the Science Department. She was the wife of this ship’s captain and for whatever reason Starfleet had placed her and Jack aboard the Providence, Mei-Wan was now very glad she had had the chance to meet Janice Stuart.

Earlier in the evening, while Jack continued working over his personnel reports, Mei-Wan and Janice had talked about being wives of starship captains. Up to this point that idea had only been an intellectual concept to Mei-Wan. It wasn’t until the moment she had seen the ship Jack would be commanding that it finally hit her as a reality that she’d be living.

“I’ve only been the wife of a starship captain for a short while,” Janice had said, “But one thing I’ve realized is that while everyone else in the crew may reach the end of the day and relax and leave the job behind, the title ‘Captain’ isn’t a job. It’s who the man you’re married to is.”

Mei-Wan remembered the warm smile on Janice’s face as she had continued, “Its up to you to give him a place to let that go. To be that one person who doesn’t think of him as the captain, but just a human being… with all the faults, flaws, and problems that captains are not supposed to have.”

Mei-Wan McCall looked at her husband who had the look that most wives feared when it was directed toward another woman. It was that look of desire mixed with need which signaled the primal male instinct of possession. Part of her wanted to be jealous. Instead she put her hand in Jack’s.

“You okay?” he asked softly.

“Perfect,” replied Mei-Wan.

Jack smiled and returned his gaze to the viewscreen.

“I bet she could hold two or three of this class starship in her main bay,” Rob Stuart stated, referring to the small Ericsson Class ships.

Jack smiled. “She’s designed to hold a ship up to the size of an Defiant Class,” he said. “I’m told that one has been permanently assigned to her.”

Stuart watched as McCall grinned like a kid on Christmas morning. He patted Jack on the back. “I believe your ship awaits you, Captain McCall.”

=/\=

Ten minutes later, Robert Stuart escorted his guests down the corridor towards the port side shuttlebay on the Providence.

“It’s been a pleasure having you both aboard,” said Stuart.

“Thank you,” Mei-Wan replied.

The door to the bay opened and Janice stood there smiling, holding a tall transparent container filled with a lavender liquid.

“I wonder what’s in that?” Jack asked with a frown.

Janice handed the container to Mei-Wan. “Just let your replicator system sample this and you can start every day with a glass. Doctor’s orders.”

“Thanks, Jan,” Mei-Wan said. “At least I’ll appreciate it.”

Before the men entered the bay, Stuart turned to Jack. “If I could have a moment?”

Jack nodded as Mei-Wan and Janice entered the hanger deck and the door closed behind them.

“Earlier when we talked…” Stuart stopped to take a deep breath. “I had instructions from Admiral Hathaway to personally notify you that your orders had been changed and you would report for six months of intensive psychological evaluations if I came to the conclusion you were unfit for command.”

Jack stared sternly at Stuart. “I take it you didn’t come to that conclusion.”

“If I had we wouldn’t be here talking now,” Stuart said. “You didn’t make excuses for what had happened and you were willing to accept whatever consequences might face you and you said it to a person who you knew would pass it on to the Chief of Operations.” He looked directly at McCall. “I think honesty tells a lot about a man, especially a starship captain.”

“So for once, opening my big mouth and saying exactly what I thought was the right thing to do,” replied Jack with a grin.

Stuart smiled. “Probably a one time event.”

Jack chuckled.

Stuart’s smile faded. “There are evidently a number of admirals who think you need more time away from the center seat. My uncle wanted me to get a sense of who you were and if I thought you should take command of the largest ship Starfleet’s ever commissioned.”

A stunned look came to Jack’s face. “He left this to you?”

“He trusts my judgment,” said Stuart.

Jack nodded. He had been expecting the old man to do something off the beaten path. But it didn’t mean Jack had to like it.

Stuart extended his hand. “Good luck, Captain McCall.”

“Thank you,” he replied. “And call me Jack.”

Stuart smiled. “Good luck, Jack.”

“Thanks, Rob.”

Jack turned and the door to the hanger deak opened before him. Stuart followed as Jack joined Mei-Wan next to a shuttlecraft.

“Have a safe journey,” Stuart said.

As Jack and Mei-Wan entered the shuttle, the Stuarts walked back out into the corridor. Janice took her husband’s hand.

“They make a nice couple,” she said.

“They won’t after he’s stuck drinking that juice for a month or two.”

Janice shook her head. “What do you think makes our marriage work?”

Stuart’s eyes widened. “Don’t tell me that juice is some insane primitive aphrodisiac!”

“I wouldn’t call the culture on Risa primitive,” replied Janice.

Robert Stuart stopped walking. “You’re a doctor! You should know better!”

Janice walked ahead of her husband down the corridor. “I did have it analyzed, Rob.”

“Then its real?!”

Janice smiled and continued walking, leaving her husband behind.

“Jan, what did your analysis show?”

=/\=

Chapter 3 - Drydock Three

Aboard the drydock facility, Jack and Mei-Wan each held a PADD containing a copy of their orders. They’d received them the moment they stepped onto the thirteenth level of Drydock Three. Dock Security scanned their DNA, tested their molecular structure, and gave them each a retinal scan. And Jack was certain one of the security guards was a Betazoid who had done a surface reading of their thoughts. Security during the Dominion War had not been this involved.

Their luggage, what there was of it, had been sent ahead of them and was supposedly on its way to their quarters. Jack knew it was more than likely on its way to the other side of the Galaxy by now.

Finally Jack and Mei-Wan found a map of the drydock facility in what appeared to be the main concourse. Hundreds of people walked back and forth through the fifty foot wide walkway. Along one wall was a huge set of windows showing the dark side of the gas giant the Shipyard orbited. Occasionally flashes of Earth-sized lightning arced across the atmosphere of the mammoth planet.

Jack turned to Mei-Wan. “There was supposed to be someone from the dock to escort us to the ship.”

Mei-Wan smiled. “Anxious?”

Jack grinned. “A little.”

Mei-Wan glanced up at the huge map.

Destracted by his anxiety, Jack noticed a group of six maintenance workers, none of them taller than four feet, walk past arguing amongst themselves. He watched them until they sauntered around a corner.

“It looks like we can get aboard four levels down. There’s a boarding tube that connects to the Port Side Gangway,” Mei-Wan said.

Jack turned back to the map. “That sounds good.”

They walked toward a collection of six turbolift doors at the far end of the concourse.

=/\=

The Dock Supervisor had called Commander Lak Negev ten minutes ago and informed him they were unable to have Captain McCall escorted to the Chamberlain and suggested if he wanted his captain to get aboard anytime soon he had better send someone to go find McCall himself. Idiot human bureaucrat, Negev thought. Bureaucrats of any species were bad enough, but Negev always thought that humans were the worst of the whole terrible lot. On his homeworld of Andoria, they kept their bureaucrats in line and away from any real power.

Negev looked down the long line of boarding personnel lined up at the Port Side Gangway. He decided this was the most likely place Captain McCall would try to board the ship. Just to be safe, he had sent officers to the other boarding areas to search there for their new Captain.

Captain McCall’s service record impressed Negev. The only point of concern he found was the notation that his former Exec aboard the Beaumont had refused to the point of resigning to be McCall’s First Officer again. Negev had tried to contact Commander Harold E. Darnell, but the man would not return his messages. Perhaps Darnell had been through too much in the Glazyalan prison camp.

Commander Negev saw two humans step up to the back of the long line and recognized one of them as his new captain. The Andorian walked quickly past the others waiting and approached Jack and Mei-Wan.

“Captain McCall, Commander Lak Negev, your Executive Officer,” Negev said.

Jack extended his hand which Negev heartily accepted.

“A pleasure to meet you, Mr. Negev,” Jack replied. He turned to Mei-Wan. “My wife, Lieutenant Mei-Wan McCall.”

Negev turned and nodded to her. “Lieutenant.”

“Commander,” Mei-Wan said.

Negev took a deep breath. “My apologies, sir, but there seems to be a communication problem between sections of the Drydock Commander’s brain. I regret there was no one to meet you when you arrived.”

Both Jack and Mei-Wan grinned as Negev continued.

“If you’ll come with me sir, I will get you past the security check-in up ahead. There is an admiral from Starfleet Command waiting for you in your Ready Room.”

“I was hoping the captain wouldn’t have to stand in line to get on his own ship.”

Jack and Mei-Wan stepped forward, but Commander Negev didn’t move. “Captain?”

“Yes?”

“I’m afraid that the container your wife is holding will have to go through the security check point.”

Jack and Mei-Wan both looked at the juice container she held in her hands. An amused look came to Mei-Wan’s face.

“Go on ahead, Jack. I’ll meet you later in our quarters.”

“You sure?” Jack asked.

Mei-Wan nodded. “Yeah. I’ll be fine.”

Jack kissed her and then turned following Commander Negev who had already started to walk back toward the gangway. Jack looked at the personnel standing in the line. This is my crew, he thought. Well, at least a part of it.

Negev stopped at the entrance to the ship and spoke to a security officer who looked up from a display. Negev and the officer exchanged a few words and then the young lieutenant came around his desk and walked up to Jack.

“Sorry about this, sir, but I have orders directly from Admiral Turgidson himself to check the genetic pattern of everyone coming aboard.”

“Carry on, Lieutenant.”

The nervous security officer quickly waved a tricorder past Jack and then walked back to his station and touched a few controls. Several moments later, his display flashed various screens full of information. He looked up and smiled.

“You are cleared to go aboard, sir. And sir?” the Officer asked.

Jack stopped. “Yes?”

The officer smiled wide. “Welcome aboard, Captain McCall.”

Jack grinned and followed Negev into the corridor of the Federation starship, U.S.S. Chamberlain.

Jack took a deep breath and held it as he walked for the first time onto his ship. Negev led him down an expansive corridor with a color scheme friendlier than most of the ships Jack could remember. He let the air out of his lungs and took his first breath aboard the new ship.

A thousand things rushed into his mind— the heavy smell of newness that seemed a part of every manufactured item mankind had ever produced, the mild coolness of the air, the soft hum of the lights above him, the low pulsing heartbeat of the Chamberlain’s power systems, and something new. He barely noticed it, but it was there. An organic smell, almost a taste. The only thing his mind could even begin to relate it to was the smell of honey on a bright spring day. He couldn’t tell if it came from the carpet, the wall, or the life support system.

Commander Negev turned and entered a turbolift to his right. Jack followed him in.

“Deck One,” Negev said to the lift.

The doors closed and the turbolift accelerated up into the heart of the Chamberlain.

=/\=

Mei-Wan looked toward the front of the line and frowned. It seemed the same length it had been ten minutes before. She glanced down at the container of juice Jan Stuart had given her and smiled. It was worth it, she thought. Jack needs to open his culinary horizons and this juice will be the first step.

“I can’t believe this!”

Mei-Wan turned to the source of that statement and found a very irritated female officer with blonde hair, wearing the rank of lieutenant commander. The woman shook her head. “This is absurd! There are almost two hundred people in this line!”

She turned to Mei-Wan. “How long have you been here, Lieutenant?”

There was something about this woman troubling Mei-Wan, but she couldn’t figure out what.

“About ten to fifteen minutes, ma’am.”

The woman folded her arms across her chest. “The Federation will fall into oblivion with organizational skills like this.”

Mei-Wan grinned. “Hopefully not in our lifetimes.”

A smile fought its way across the woman’s face. She turned to Mei-Wan.

“Lieutenant Commander Melissa Vargas.”

“Lieutenant Mei-Wan Mc…”

A Security Officer walked past them interrupting, “Attention. Please have the PADD you received when you came aboard the drydock ready when you reach the check-in point. It will speed things up for everyone.”

Mei-Wan looked at the PADD in her hand. She was ready.

Melissa Vargas held hers up to the passing security officer who appeared less than impressed. Vargas turned back to Mei-Wan as five more members of the Chamberlain’s crew took their place in line.

“I was hoping the operations officer wouldn’t have to stand in line to get on the ship,” Vargas said.

“You’re the Ops Officer?” Mei-Wan asked.

Vargas smiled wide. “Yes, and I was lucky to get it. My last captain and I didn’t exactly get along and I was afraid my career was headed into the garbage dump. Two months ago when I got my orders the only person more surprised than me was my former CO.” She lifted an eyebrow and grinned devilishly. “I loved his reaction.”

That was it! Mei-Wan finally noticed that this outgoing woman had the upswept eyebrows of a Vulcan. She had never met a Vulcan with blonde hair before and certainly not one with the obvious emotional makeup of Commander Vargas.

“I was so glad to get off that ship, but getting second officer on the Chamberlain was more than I could have wished for.”

Mei-Wan nodded. “It’s quite a ship.”

Vargas grinned. “Getting an Oceana Class assignment was great. Getting the Second Officer’s slot was better yet, but when I heard Jack McCall was the CO I thought I had died and gone to the Q Continuum.”

Mei-Wan tried not to smile, but she couldn’t stop herself.

Vargas continued. “You don’t know how lucky we are having him as our captain.”

Jack McCall’s wife could no longer resist. “You think he’s that great?”

Vargas looked at Mei-Wan with surprise. “Are you kidding? He fought harder for his crew in that prisoner camp than probably any captain in recent history would have. He does what’s right, and throws the consequences to the wind.”

Vargas lowered her voice. “Too many captains see their crews as expendable these days. I’ll sacrifice my life for a planet of people, the Federation’s existence, or even a small colony of aliens I’ve never met before, but the idea of dying just so some diplomat can put a star next to his name makes me sick. There were actually a couple of those idiots who’d negotiated with the Glazyalans who thought it would have been better for the Federation, politically, if the Beaumont’s crew had all died and been forgotten in that prison camp.”

“I know. I heard that a couple of weeks ago.”

Vargas grinned. “Captain McCall won’t ever sell this crew out like that.”

Mei-Wan did her best not to react.

Vargas looked at her. “You don’t think he’s a great captain?”

“He’s okay, I guess.”

Vargas shook her head. “That’s all? You got something against the guy?”

“Well, he could do a better job of picking up his socks and keeping track of his rank pins and comm badge, but he can be really romantic.”

Melissa Vargas stood confused for several moments and then smirked. “You’re Mei-Wan McCall.”

A grin came to Mei-Wan’s face. “A pleasure to meet you, Lieutenant Commander.”

Vargas laughed more heartily than Mei-Wan would have expected from most humans let alone someone who appeared to be at least part Vulcan.

“You know, you could have stopped me at any time,” Vargas said.

“I like hearing people praise Jack.”

“I’m glad I didn’t say anything about wanting to date the guy.”

“Oh, I would have said something then,” Mei-Wan replied.

Vargas pointed to the container Mei-Wan carried.

“The captain’s personal brew?”

“No, it’s a gift from the Chief Medical Officer of the Providence. It’s Kaferian Apples and Jaldeza Fruit juice.”

Vargas smiled wide. “I guess we’re going to have a very happy CO.”

“What?” asked Mei-Wan.

“That juice is from Risa and it’s supposed to cause… well, certain effects on the human libido.”

“Thanks, Jan,” Mei-Wan murmured.

=/\=

Jack McCall and his new executive officer exited the turbolift into a large conference room. Windows at the back of the room gave Jack a rear view of the ship where various shuttles and workbees finished up the last of their work on his ship.

“This is the main conference room. The bridge is through that door and down the corridor. This door leads up to your Ready Room,” said Negev.

Jack nodded as he looked about.

“Though this is technically the second deck on the ship, its still listed as Deck One, with your Ready Room listed as Deck Zero. I’ll be down in my office on Deck Two if you need me, sir.”

“I’d like to meet the senior officers here at 0700,” Jack said.

Negev nodded.

“Any word yet on our Tactical Officer?” Jack asked.

“I believe that was one of the topics the admiral wanted to discuss with you, Captain.”

Jack entered the door to his Ready Room. He took a deep breath and prepared himself. Admirals never brought good news.

His Ready Room was larger than most luxury suites Jack had seen at vacation resorts. The forward section had a chair that looked out a wide window giving an unobstructed view into space. Jack shook his head in disbelief.

“Something else, isn’t it, Jack.”

Jack spun about and saw sitting behind his desk, not Admiral Turgidson who he had expected, but the most devilish grin to ever sit on the face of a Starfleet Officer. Admiral Christopher Hancock rose to his feet and walked over to Jack.

“Admiral, what in the world are you doing all the way out here?”

“Some idiot insisted I come along to see his kid off,” replied Hancock.

A door next to the desk Hancock had been sitting at opened and out walked another admiral, a man who looked like an older version of Jack.

“Chris, you’ve got to see this bathroom. It’s…” Admiral Jeremiah McCall looked up and smiled. “Jack, how are you son?”

Jack walked up and warmly hugged his father who returned it with the type of bear hug only a father could give.

“Dad, it’s great to see you. I should have guessed you’d be here with Admiral Hancock.”

Hancock smiled. “He threatened to tell all the dirt he had on me if I didn’t come along.”

“You kidding? I’m saving those files for a special day,” Jeremiah said. He laughed as he took a step back and looked at his son. “You’re looking good. Your mother sends her love.”

Jack nodded as Jeremiah looked around the room.

“Where’s my beautiful daughter-in-law at?”

“Probably still in the line down at the Port Side Gangway.”

Jeremiah shook his head. “You’ll never keep a woman like her if you do things like that.”

Hancock took a step forward. “Why don’t you go rescue her. Give Jack and I a few minutes to talk.”

“I’ll have to ask Mei-Wan why she puts up with my foolish son.”

Jack laughed.

“And send that other officer in too, would you, Jeremiah?” Hancock asked.

Jack’s father walked down the entryway out of the Ready Room.

Hancock pointed to the chair behind the desk. “Try it out. You’ve earned it.”

Jack put his hand on the back of the chair and felt the texture of the its covering. It felt almost too soft to the touch. He turned it around and sat down. Jack took a deep breath and relaxed. He watched Hancock as the admiral sat in a chair across from him.

“You know much about the Kel-j’na Region?” Hancock asked.

Jack thought a moment. “Isn’t that about thirty thousand light years away, deep in the Alpha Quadrant?”

Hancock nodded. “We’ve been sending ships and colonists there for the last two years through the Tartarus Wormhole. We’ve established over fifty colonies and a number of diplomatic outposts and there are several worlds already seeking Federation membership.”

Jack listened knowing there was another part still to come. Hancock handed him a PADD.

“I’m sending you there on a mission.”

“We’re supposed to head out on a shakedown cruise.”

“You can go through shakedown procedures on the two week trip to the Tartarus Sector. Any major problems and you can come back here,” Hancock stated.

Jack touched a control on the PADD and looked over the information scrolling on the display. “The planet Hel’yra?”

“Its about three weeks travel after you enter the Kel-j’na Region.”

“Investigate and survey.” Jack looked at Hancock. “Any reason this particular planet is the one you want us to check out?”

“We have received a request to investigate it.”

“Who made the request?”

“There are some things you’re better off not knowing about.”

Jack frowned. “I’ve known you for almost twenty years, Admiral. I think you should be able to trust me by now.”

“It’s not a matter of trust.”

Jack looked down at his desk trying to decide if he should push the issue any further.

Hancock rose from his seat. “You may receive a communication asking you to meet those who made the request. If contacted do exactly as the message instructs you.”

Hancock walked toward the exit. “You’re the only one I do trust to do this, Jack.” Just before reaching the first step, Hancock stopped. “By the way, I’ve assigned to your crew the man who discovered the Tartarus Wormhole. He knows the Kel-j’na region like the back of his hand.”

Jack stood up to protest, but held off when he heard footsteps coming up the entry. An officer entered the Ready Room.

Jack McCall smiled wide as he walked toward the grinning man in his late fifties wearing the rank of Lieutenant Commander. Hancock stood near the man. “Jack, I present your Tactical Officer, Hank Evans.”

“If it isn’t Jack McCall,” Evans said. He laughed as Jack stopped in front of him.

Jack offered his hand to Hank Evans. “It’s been what, ten, eleven years?”

“Seems like a lifetime,” Hank said as he shook Jack’s hand. “Would you look at you! Who’d have thought that the snot nosed kid who came aboard the Bonifacio would ever make captain!”

Jack laughed. “I thought you retired.”

“Tell that to Admiral Knucklehead over here.”

Hancock frowned. “Hank was destitute, no friends. I felt sorry for the guy.”

“In your dreams, Chris.” Evans turned to Jack. “What do you think of this guy, kid? I open up a whole new part of the Galaxy and this is the thanks I get.”

Hancock smiled and glanced at the chronometer on Jack’s desk. “Well, I have a ship to catch. Knowing your father, he’s already grabbed the window seat on my shuttle.” Hancock looked at Evans. “Take care of him, Hank.”

“Aye sir,” Evans replied.

The admiral went down the entry way leaving Jack and Hank Evans alone. Jack motioned over to the desk.

“Discovered a wormhole. My, my, quite the explorer you’ve become.”

Hank frowned as he sat in a seat in front of Jack’s desk. “I wasn’t exploring at the time. I was actually running for my life from a couple of Norgan Traders. I noticed a space-time disruption on my sensors and thought I might be able to lose them in it. Next thing I knew, I was thirty thousand light years across the Quadrant.”

“Norgan Traders? A little rough aren’t they?” Jack asked as he sat in the chair behind the desk.

“They’re not so bad as long as you don’t intrude in their trade negotiations.”

“And you intruded in their trade negotiations.”

Hank smirked. “They decided to take it that way.”

Jack laughed and looked closely at Hank. He had been Jack’s Department head when he came aboard the Bonifacio as an Ensign. They’d gone through a lot together. There was no one in the Galaxy, aside from Mei-Wan, that Jack trusted more than Hank Evans.

“When did you rejoin Starfleet? You told me you’d have to be dead before you’d even think of being part of this again.”

“I sort of got talked into it during the war. With my contacts and connections, especially on Kel-j’na, Starfleet Intelligence thought I was useful.”

“But the war ended, why not go back to the life you had?”

Hank leaned forward. “I was about to when Hancock came and asked me to go looking for you.”

“I thought Starfleet had officially listed the Beaumont as destroyed.”

Hank laughed. “When does Chris Hancock ever pay attention to anything ‘official’?”

Jack nodded.

Hank took a breath. “I was close too. I knew those Glazyalan back-stabbers had taken your crew somewhere near their home system. Another month and I would have found you.” Hank grinned. “But you couldn’t wait. You had to break out on your own.”

“Sorry about that. I never was the type to play the damsel in distress.”

“I hear you’re married. The woman’s got to be either a saint or insane.”

Jack stood up from his chair. “Why don’t we go see if your security officers are still keeping her imprisoned in that long line outside the Port Gangway?”

“My transfer isn’t official for another hour. They’re your security officers, Captain,” laughed Evans as he stood to his feet.

Jack chuckled as he and Hank made their way down the steps out of the Ready Room. He hoped Mei-Wan wasn’t too furious at him for being stuck in that line.

=/\=

Chapter 4 - Dance Of The Admirals

TWO WEEKS LATER…

“I am furious!” shouted a gray-haired Admiral Fergus Simmons. “This entire project is the height of folly!”

Simmons took a deep breath before he continued. He looked about the table at the other eight admirals at the meeting. He found it difficult to believe that they could not see the facts before them as clearly as he did.

“Look at this monstrosity,” he said. A holographic display came to life above the table showing the layout and specifications of the Oceana Class Starship. “Eight matter-antimatter reactors, forty-five decks, a crew of three thousand, a length of more than a kilometer, and it houses any ship up to a Defiant Class in its Main Bay, and a primary weapon system that can shatter a small moon! This isn’t a starship, it’s insanity.”

An irritated Admiral Leland Turgidson frowned at Simmons and turned to Chief of Operations Admiral Robert Hathaway. “If I may, Admiral Hathaway?”

Admiral Robert G. Hathaway, a stern looking man with white hair and beard, nodded.

Turgidson looked about the table. “My friends, we have all sat here bemoaning the fact we didn’t have the firepower to defend against the Borg and the Dominion. This ship was designed to deal with problems like them. Yes, the Oceana Class has power, but power is what’s needed against an enemy like the Borg. And yes, it’s a large ship, but when this ship was designed, it was felt that the large size was warranted due to the mission profiles it would fulfill.”

Simmons glanced at a PADD on the table in front of him. “I see you have First Contact listed under this ship’s mission profiles. What exactly do you think the reaction will be on a First Contact Mission when some unknown species sees the primary weapon system of this vessel, Admiral Turgidson?”

Turgidson smiled. “They’ll think twice before trying to attack, that’s what their reaction will be!”

Several seated around the table rolled their eyes. Admiral Hancock merely sighed.

Admiral Sanol, a Vulcan, watched the specifications of the ship as they continued to display above the table. “It would appear this ship was designed for combat and nothing else. Prudence dictates that it be kept in drydock until needed for that purpose.”

Turgidson shook his head. “With all due respect Admiral Sanol, we leave these ships mothballed and we’ll never have a crew that knows them well enough to steer them, let alone use them to their potential. We should make them a regular part of the fleet and deploy them to the outer edge of our exploratory range.”

“These ships are not exploratory vessels,” replied Sanol.

Turgidson quickly touched a control in front of him and the display above the table reversed and listed the ship’s primary information. “See, it’s listed as a Deep Space Long Range Explorer.”

Simmons smiled. “I’d hate to see what you considered a battleship, Admiral Turgidson.”

Muted laughter erupted around the table. Even the stoic Admiral Hathaway smiled.

Admiral Angela Morris, a woman whose beauty was not diminished by her gray hair leaned forward. “I think the question, Admiral Turgidson, is what image does the Federation want to project to those we meet. Do we want to be seen as peaceful explorers or war-crazed maniacs?”

“Then you prefer we let the Borg wipe us out, or that we should have surrendered to the Dominion?” asked Turgidson.

Morris shook her head. “I’m not saying that at all. Starfleet has always been the keeper of the peace, not an instigator of war. This ship will send a message I believe is at odds with our historical mission.”

“These ships will keep the peace by discouraging war from our enemies,” Turgidson stated.

Simmons looked down at the table in front of him. “Admiral Turgidson, this ship won’t prevent war, it will invariably lead us down that very dark path.”

“If work on the Oceana Class would have started in 2365 as some in this room had suggested, then perhaps the Dominion War would not have claimed as many lives as it did,” said Turgidson.

Simmons knew that was directed at him. He had fought the Oceana Class from the moment he’d heard about it nearly twelve years ago. “No one knew the Dominion would attack us as they did. When we learned of that threat, everyone here agreed we needed new ships to combat it, but the Oceana Class is the wrong ship. It would be better for Starfleet to dismantle the four of them which have been built or are in the process of construction.”

Turgidson’s eyes went wide. “So when the Borg or some other unknown threat attacks us, you’d feel much better throwing young Starfleet Officers to their deaths even though we have a ship that could prevent that?!”

Admiral Sanol folded his hands in front of him. “We all grieve at the loss of life to the Borg and the Dominion, but we also grieve at the lives which will be lost due to the type of image this ship projects of the Federation. Logic dictates we take that into due consideration, especially at a time of reduced threats.”

Turgidson stared at Sanol for a moment. “Reduced threats? Take a look at the Strategic Display Board.” He pointed at a large display on the wall across from the table. The image showed the Federation’s area of the Galaxy.

“I hate to be the one to point this out, but truth is not always a pleasant thing. The Romulans still exist, the Breen might attack at any time, the Cardassians can’t be trusted to follow any treaty they sign, the Klingon Empire is still in a state of flux since Gawron’s death, and I hear the Tholians have been expending a lot of resources building three new ship construction facilities,” Turgidson said. “I would hardly call that ‘reduced threats’ Admiral Sanol.”

The room was silent for several moments. Simmons turned to Admiral Hathaway. “You called us here to discuss the Oceana Class, Bob, but there is a related issue that I feel must be mentioned.”

Hathaway took a deep breath. “And that is?”

Simmons looked about the table. “The only operational Oceana Class starship, the U.S.S. Chamberlain, has been given to Captain Jack McCall to command.”

Murmuring filled the room. Simmons suppressed a grin. He had suspected that many in the room had not known about that particular fact.

Admiral Patricia Olanski, a woman whose eyes displayed a fierceness not usually seen in most Starfleet Officers, looked at Robert Hathaway. “I thought Jack McCall was going to be assigned a Starbase Command.”

Others about the table nodded. Admiral Hancock took the question. “Captain McCall was offered the position of Commander of Starbase 301 and a promotion to Commodore, but said he would resign if he was not given a starship command again.”

Simmons turned to Hancock. “So Starfleet Officers are allowed to throw tantrums if they don’t get their way? And we indulge these tantrums?”

Hancock frowned. “Jack McCall is a starship Captain.”

Admiral M’zellos, a member of the green-skinned Unari species, turned to Simmons. “These facts were taken to the President of the Federation Council. It was felt Jack McCall’s stature among the general populace of the Federation dictated that he remain in Starfleet and that he be given a starship command again.”

“Jack McCall violated Starfleet Regulations and Federation Ethical Standards while he and his crew were held by the Glazyalans,” Admiral Olanski said. “He is unfit to command a starship. His methods are entirely unsound.”

Turgidson’s eyes were wide. “Jack McCall is one of the finest Officers to ever come out of the Academy. He did what he had to to save his crew and I’m proud he’s commanding the Chamberlain.”

Sanol turned to Hathaway. “Captain McCall should not be commanding an Oceana Class starship. He should not have any command until we are more certain of his psychological fitness.”

The table fell silent for several moments. Simmons looked at a PADD as he spoke. “I think we all understand the political expediency that required Jack McCall be given a command again. My question is why an Oceana Class?”

“Placing Jack McCall in command of that ship is a bad combination likely to produce a disaster literally of Galactic proportions,” Olanski said.

Admiral Hathaway leaned forward. “It is the opinion of the President that Jack McCall is exactly who we need in command of a ship like this.”

Admirals Sanol and Olanski sat in stunned silence while many others about the table shook their heads.

Hathaway continued, “Both the President and the Council feel McCall has the disposition and moral center to command the Chamberlain.”

Admiral Olanski could no longer sit silently. “Bob, I’ve known you for twenty years and I find it hard to accept that you would agree with that. ‘A moral center’? Are we speaking about the same officer that used torture as a means to escape the Glazyalan prison camp?”

“Despite how repugnant what Jack McCall did is to us personally, the Board of Inquiry cleared him of any wrong doing and he has of late become a heroic figure to many of the citizens of the Federation.” Hathaway looked down for a moment. “The President sees Jack McCall as someone who made a choice for his crew knowing full well he might destroy his career and perhaps be placed in prison for what he did— in a way, willingly sacrificing himself for them.”

Hathaway looked up and saw that a number of the faces around the table were disgusted with what he was telling them while Turgidson wore a wide smile. He continued, “The President made the selection of Jack McCall personally and gave me a direct order to assign him to the Chamberlain, barring any clear psychological or medical reasons that might suggest otherwise.”

Admiral Olanski was about to say something, but Hathaway raised his hand to stop her. “I understand your objections, Patricia. I may even agree with them, but this was out of our hands. A political decision has been made and we now have to live with it.

“The President feels Jack McCall has the ability to make hard choices. It will be up to us to watch and make sure that Captain McCall does so and if not, to bring it to the attention of the President and the Council and then take appropriate action. For the time being, however, Jack McCall commands the Chamberlain.”

=/\=

Ten minutes later outside the meeting room, Admiral Simmons waited by a large window overlooking San Francisco. Sunlight filled the hallway, but not the souls of these two adversaries as they faced one another again.

Simmons motioned to Admiral Hancock as he walked out of the room. Hancock shook his head, but joined him. “I’m in kind of a hurry, Fergus.”

Simmons smiled. “Yes, you do have places to go and people to see, don’t you Chris? I understand you flew back to Earth at about warp nine point six from the Delta Ophiuchus Shipyard to make this meeting.”

“I took Jeremiah to see his son off.”

“I think you just wanted to make sure your boy made it to his command. Hathaway arranged for the Providence to transport McCall to the shipyard. You don’t suppose he had his nephew try to push any of Jack’s buttons and nudge him over the edge do you?”

Hancock grinned. “I don’t think Bob would resort to underhanded tactics like that, do you?”

Simmons looked up and down the hallway to make sure they weren’t overheard. “He might if he had the same reservations about McCall that most of the rest of us do. I know for a fact that Hathaway received a coded transmission from the Providence sent after they had dropped McCall off.” He paused a moment. “You of course knew that,” Simmons said with a smile.

“I’m afraid I don’t keep up on all the comings and going of personnel, and office intrigue that you do Fergus. I’m Chief of Tactical Operations. I find that keeps me busy enough,” Hancock said.

Simmons laughed. “That’s right. You never stray outside the confines of Tactical Operations. Forgive me!” His face turned hard. “I’m not stupid enough to believe the story that Turgidson is the one who’s been behind the Oceana Class Project, Chris.”

Hancock grinned. “Really?”

“You’ve used him as a front for your operations for years.”

Hancock ignored Simmons attempt to goad him. “The Oceana Class is worth the investment.”

Simmons smiled. He decided to let the subject drop for now. “I doubt it, but we’ll see.” Simmons paused a moment. “Two days ago, Hathaway assigned me command of all operations in the Kel-j’na Region.”

Hancock looked down at the floor, trying to hide his reaction from Simmons. After a moment he looked at the other Admiral and smiled. “Congratulations, Fergus.”

“As soon as the Chamberlain finishes whatever fool mission you’ve got them on, Jack McCall and his ship become my problem. I’m sure I’ll find something… constructive for them to do.”

=/\=

Chapter 5 - Through The Looking Glass

Mei-Wan breathed heavily as she tried to keep up with Melissa around the wide outer corridor of Deck Ten. The two women wore workout clothes as they made their way along the slowly curving twenty foot wide passage. They had done this every morning for the last two weeks and while she enjoyed the time with Melissa, Mei-Wan still wasn’t used to it yet.

“Hold up a minute,” Mei-Wan said as she slowed to a stop.

Melissa stopped, jogging in place, and turned to Mei-Wan. “Pushing too hard again?”

“No. I just need a break for a minute,” Mei-Wan said.

Vargas let out a long breath and leaned against the bulkhead, stretching her legs.

Sweat beaded on Mei-Wan’s forehead as she sat against the wall, knees up, and cradled her chin against them. She took several deep breaths.

Vargas looked over at her. “I’ve been meaning to ask you, what is the deal with your department head?”

“Zachary a problem?”

Vargas rolled her eyes. “Every time he walks into a staff meeting it’s like the room temperature drops about thirty degrees. And then there’s the way he’s always so condescending.”

Mei-Wan smirked. “The whole Science Department has been wondering if it was just us or if anyone else had noticed his unique charm.”

“I keep wanting to run a tricorder over his heart to see if he’s even got one. The man really creeps me out.”

“You don’t have to suffer his pronouncements and procedures. My Section wants to know if we can have archaeology declared an art instead of a science just so we don’t have to deal with Zachary any more.”

Mei-Wan looked at Vargas and continued. “For some reason he’s been riding me about getting my Tactical Certification in the next couple of months. He keeps droning on that I’ll never get my third rank pin without it.”

Vargas looked at her. “I can help you out with that if you’d like.”

“That’d be great. It won’t be a conflict with your position will it?”

“No, Hank Evans will be the one to certify you. It’s his department.”

“Great,” Mei-Wan said. “Anything to get it over with so Zachary won’t bother me about it anymore. I think he likes having little things to dig at people with.”

“He mentioned his department of ‘little peons’ yesterday.”

“Believe me, we hear worse to our faces.”

“Why don’t you have your husband do something about it?”

Mei-Wan shook her head. “That would be stepping outside the chain of command and I really don’t want to throw around the fact I’m the captain’s wife every time I have a problem.”

Melissa moved to the other side of the corridor and leaned against it, stretching her legs and ankles. She looked at Mei-Wan for several moments. Mei-Wan smiled.

“Okay, Melissa. What is it?”

“What’s what?”

“I know that look. You get it every time you want to ask me something, but aren’t sure if you should.”

Vargas sat on the floor across from Mei-Wan. “I heard a rumor the other day and I was just wondering…”

“What rumor?”

“Paul Falco told me he knew Harold Darnell from the Academy and that Darnell had told him something about how the captain and he had actually…” Vargas stopped. She glanced up and down the corridor to see if anyone else was nearby.

Mei-Wan looked down at the floor waiting for Vargas to continue.

Vargas lowered her voice, “He said they had tortured some of the guards at the Glazyalan prison camp.”

“That’s supposed to be classified.”

Vargas looked directly at her friend. “Is it true?”

Mei-Wan thought a moment, unsure about answering. “Yes, its true. Jack believed it was the only way we could get the access codes to escape the camp. I tried to talk him out of it, but… “

Vargas stood. “Sometimes we have to do things we don’t want to, Mei. I certainly don’t think any less of the captain because of it. The Glazyalans were torturing all of you in that camp.”

“It wasn’t easy for any of us in that place, especially Jack.” Mei-Wan continued to stare at the floor. “I watched those same Glazyalan guards brutally murder my best friend, Robin Nelson, in front of all of us, as an example to Jack— to try and break him. Robin…”

Mei-Wan stopped as tears filled her eyes.

Vargas sat down next to her. “Sorry.”

Mei-Wan forced a brief smile and looked at Melissa. “Its okay. After we got back I had a lot of trouble reconciling what Jack did with the man I know he is. Part of me feels ashamed that I didn’t stop him, and another part feels like I was betraying Jack by not agreeing with what he did. But then I think of how Robin died.”

Melissa rose and offered Mei-Wan a hand. “The Glazyalans used torture as a weapon. It bounced back and hurt them and allowed you to escape. Sounds to me like there’s a little justice in the Universe.”

“I’m not so sure.” Mei-Wan took Melissa’s hand and stood. She looked at the chronometer on her wrist. “Its almost 0730, you up for some breakfast?”

Melissa shook her head. “Sorry, a certain captain has called a staff meeting for 0800. I’ve got just enough time for another couple of kilometers and a quick shower.”

“If you want I could talk to him about it,” Mei-Wan said with a grin.

“Oh no, that’s all I need– the captain getting my complaints through his wife. No thanks, Mei,” Vargas replied sternly as they started jogging down the corridor.

“Just trying to help out,” Mei-Wan said.

=/\=

Jack McCall sat at the head of the large conference table with his senior officers assembled for their morning meeting. Behind him, out the windows, stars streaked by while the Chamberlain maintained a high warp velocity. Jack looked about the table as the Chief Engineer, Lieutenant Commander Kristen Bishop, continued her report on the ship’s rather short shakedown cruise. The dark skinned, stunningly beautiful woman continued with details of the engineering systems of this newest of starships. Despite appearing far too young to be Chief Engineer on a ship like the Chamberlain, Bishop was certainly the most competent Chief Engineer he had ever served with. Jack smiled slightly as he came to a very troubling possibility. What if she’s not young, but I’m getting old?

A holographic display of several engineering systems appeared above the center of the table. “As you can see, we’ve improved the efficiency of the reactor synchronization system allowing us to use four reactors for the warp drive which has made it possible for us to maintain our current speed of warp nine point six for the past seven days,” Bishop said.

“Any signs of field coil damage?” asked Melissa Vargas.

Bishop smiled. “None at all. We are the first starship to have a standard cruising speed above warp nine.”

Jack nodded as most of the eyes about the table went wide with surprise. Kristen Bishop had been part of the Oceana Development Project and knew these ships better than anyone. Where the class ship, Oceana, had been unable to maintain any velocity over warp eight and was still back at the shipyard undergoing repairs, Bishop had solved the problem and gone beyond the original design expectations.

“Excellent work, Lieutenant Commander, and please pass along my compliments to your entire engineering staff,” Jack said.

Bishop smiled. “Thank you, sir.” She touched a control, shutting off the holographic display. “I have sent details of our repairs back to Delta Ophiuchus.”

Jack nodded and took a deep breath. “I want to thank you all for the truly exceptional work you’ve accomplished over the last two weeks. Well done.”

Jack turned to Flight Deck Commander Lee McGuire. “Once we get through to the Kel-j’na region I’d like to start some Fighter drills, will the repairs on the Main Bay be completed on schedule, Commander?”

Lee McGuire, a somewhat stern looking man, thought a moment. “That shouldn’t be a problem, sir,” he said with a thick Irish accent.

Commander Kadan Loftus, an attractive Bajoran woman smiled. “My pilots are getting so desperate for some flight time they were thinking about taking the lifepods out for a spin.”

Soft laughter filled the room as Jack smiled at the Fighter Wing Commander. Kadan had been a daily visitor to his Ready Room impatiently requesting updates on the Main Bay repairs. She had received high commendations for her skills behind the controls of a fighter craft during the war. Jack was interested to see how well she made the transition to command of an entire fighter wing.

Jack had heard rumors that Kadan and his old friend Hank Evans had been seen together from time to time in various recreation areas throughout the ship. Jack smiled and thought, Evans always did like strong willed women.

Jack turned to Hank. “As many of you know by now, we are honored to have aboard as our Tactical Officer, the man who discovered the Tartarus Wormhole, Hank Evans.”

Commander Kadan smiled as Hank sighed. Jack continued, “I’ve asked Lieutenant Commander Evans to give us an overview of the wormhole as well as where it takes us to, the Kel-j’na Region. Hank?”

Evans touched a control and a map of the Alpha Quadrant appeared as a holographic image above the center of the table. “The Tartarus Wormhole connects to a system thirty thousand light years away. The primary world in that system, Kel-j’na, has become the Federation’s principal ally in the region and is currently about two months from full Federation membership.”

Hank touched the control again and a planet was displayed while information about it listed off to the side. “The Kel-j’na are extremely friendly folks, but be careful if the matter of their religious beliefs come up. They can be quite strident about them and have laws to punish those who speak in opposition to the religious system.”

Lak Negev turned to Hank. “What exactly does their religion involve?”

Hank smiled. “Its difficult to say because they’re not very evangelical with it and rarely discuss it with offworlders. Best as I can tell they believe that a great deity who created the wormhole looks out for the Kel-j’na and will someday return bringing a time of peace and prosperity to all.”

Commander Kadan took a deep breath. “Sounds a little similar to Bajoran beliefs.”

Duncan Zachary, the Chief Science Officer of the Chamberlain slowly leaned forward in his seat. He opened his mouth as if to speak, but hesitated a moment. His cold, deep set eyes looked over to Jack. “The structure of the Tartarus wormhole is nothing like that of the one in the Bajoran system. This wormhole seems to be a natural function of the local space-time and is not held open by any beings inhabiting it. There has been no indication of an entity within it.”

Hank turned to Zachary. “Just be sure not to bring that up to the Kel-j’na. They do believe this wormhole is an artificial construct and also have legends of a lost parchment or obelisk, depending on the particular religious sect, that is said to display a map revealing a large network of stable wormholes throughout the Galaxy.”

Chief Engineer Bishop smiled. “Well, we find those we won’t need engineers or warp drive any longer.”

Most everyone else at the table returned her smile— except for Zachary. “There has been considerable research into that very possibility by the Federation,” the Science Officer stated. “The locations of the Bajoran and Tartarus wormholes so near together as well as the one which transported the U.S.S. Voyager to the Delta Quadrant have suggested to some that there may in fact be a great system of wormholes interconnecting every part of the Galaxy.”

Zachary’s head twitched strangely as he finished causing Jack to wonder if something was wrong with his Science Officer, but he decided it was probably nothing. Jack had heard from Mei-Wan about the reservations others in the Science Department had about Zachary. Several of them had claimed to see him talking to himself on numerous occasions. Probably the strangest story, and hardest for Jack to believe, was when three officers from Mei’s Archaeology Section saw Zachary start to walk a direction, stop, turn back, stop, and turn again to resume his original direction. Jack had thus far assumed it was all just a clash of personalities and the normal breaking in period between an officer and his subordinates.

Hank touched a control again and the Kel-j’na Region expanded in the display. “So far Federation ships have explored a roughly spherical area with a radius of a hundred and fifty light years and established a little over fifty colonies. Just beyond the boundaries of this area are various small empires and semi-organized alliances. Of special note is the Fashod Empire which the Kel-j’na claim is located some hundred and seventy light years from their world. The Fashod are reputed to be quite powerful, yet rarely get involved with other species. There are rumors of some major political upheaval in their Empire that occurred some five hundred years ago, but little is known about it. For more detailed information I’ve placed a report under Kel-j’na Region on the computer.”

Hank deactivated the display and turned to Jack. “That’s all I have, Captain.”

Jack nodded and looked around the table. “We will be entering a territory which has yet to be explored to any great extent. We need to be on watch for unsuspected threats as well as be mindful of Starfleet’s primary mission of peaceful contact.”

Everyone at the table nodded as Jack took a breath. “We should reach the wormhole entrance in one hour. That’s all.”

Eleven of the thirteen present left the table and walked out of the large conference room leaving Jack and the one person who had sat silently through the entire meeting. Jack knew that Commander Paul Falco had something to get off his chest and Jack had a good idea what it was. Falco was the Commanding Officer of the U.S.S. Abdiel, the Defiant Class starship which sat berthed in the Chamberlain’s Main Bay. Jack knew Falco hated this assignment.

Paul Falco was one of those men who had the look of someone who had learned how to fight and kill before he took his first baby steps. Not known for his subtlety, Falco had only two ways of relating to people— loyalty to his friends and hatred or disgust for those who weren’t. For some reason Jack was certain he fit into the later category.

Falco sighed heavily. “Captain, I’d like to request that my ship and crew be allowed to enter the wormhole before Chamberlain. It would give us some badly needed flight time and a chance to go over the Abdiel’s systems.”

Jack thought a moment. He shook his head. “Not at this time, Commander. I want McGuire to have a chance to finish repairs on the bay before we send you out.”

Falco frowned and rolled his eyes. He took a deep breath and stood to his feet. “Exactly when were you thinking of letting us out of our cage… Captain, sir?”

Jack rose to his feet and slowly walked around the table to Falco. “Commander, I can understand your desire to take your ship out and your impatience, but… ” He stopped just a moment. “I can do without the sarcasm.”

Falco grinned. “Excuse me, sir, but I didn’t think the reason the Abdiel and I were assigned to Chamberlain was just so that we could be an overpowered shuttlecraft.”

“You’re not. You’re aboard for tactical support.”

“I can’t see how we can fulfill that mission stuck in your Main Bay,” Falco said. For some reason Falco’s grin had grown to a smile. Jack felt as if he were the canary about to be eaten by an evil human version of the Cheshire Cat.

Jack sighed and leaned against the edge of the conference table. He could afford to give Falco some sense of victory. “As soon as we’re on the Kel-j’na side of the wormhole I want you to take the Abdiel and scout ahead of us when we go to warp again.”

Falco nodded. “Aye, sir.” He strolled out of the conference room leaving Jack alone.

Jack turned to look out the large windows into space. He knew Falco was going to be trouble, but now wasn’t the time to force a confrontation. He wanted to dig some more through the Commander’s personnel file and find out why Falco had a problem with Jack and who had gotten him assigned to the Chamberlain.

=/\=

An hour later, the U.S.S. Chamberlain slowed to impulse velocity and approached a small space station hanging alone in the darkness of the Tartarus Sector. The large starship cruised along a prescribed course past the station to the opening of space and time which would propel it thirty thousand light years distance in mere moments.

Jack McCall entered the bridge of his ship and stopped to look at the dedication plaque on the nearby wall. Each ship in the fleet had one of these things stuck on its bridge. While the plaque was a throw back to old Earth naval traditions, he liked the fact that those who had supervised the construction and design of a starship in effect signed their names to their work.

Jack looked at the bottom of the gold surface and saw a quote from the starship’s namesake, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, nineteenth century Governor of the State of Maine, University President and professor, but perhaps best known as a hero of America’s Civil War. Jack had wondered many times during the last two weeks what a man like Chamberlain would have thought of the vessel that now bore his name.

In great deeds something abides, the inscription read. Jack repeated those words over in his mind several times. He hoped they were more truth than rhetoric. It had seemed too many times in the past several years that many great deeds were overwhelmed by events, politicians with their own motives, and the nature of existence itself. Jack hoped he’d get a chance to change that.

“Approaching Tartarus Station, Captain,” Lak Negev announced.

Jack turned and walked into the largest Bridge of any starship in the Federation. At times he felt an urge to shout in the large room, unsure his orders had been heard. Like the rest of the ship, the Bridge had been overbuilt as well. There were too many stations and too much activity for Jack’s tastes. He worried about the chaos of combat in this cavern.

Jack took the central station on the Bridge, the Captain’s chair. He let himself relax into its soft cushions and closed his eyes a moment. He took a breath and turned to his right where Melissa Vargas sat a short distance away at the Operations Station. “Are we secure for wormhole passage, Ms. Vargas?”

Melissa did a momentary last check of her console and turned to her CO. “Aye, sir. All stations report ready.”

Lak Negev stood forward just behind the Conn officer at the front of the Bridge. Negev turned to the orange skinned, reptile-like Lieutenant Nedj s’Felis. “Maintain half impulse and this course, Mr. s’Felis.”

s’Felis’ sing-song voice replied, “Maintaining course and speed, aye.”

Negev walked back to the chair directly to Jack’s right and sat in it. He touched a few controls on the small panel next to his seat, then turned to the Captain. “We shall enter the wormhole in forty-five seconds.”

Lieutenant Commander Cynthia Pederson, the red-headed Communications Officer of the Chamberlain, turned from her station. “Tartarus Station signals final clearance, sir.”

“Acknowledge their transmission, Lieutenant Commander,” Negev said to her.

Jack turned his chair to face Hank Evans at the Tactical Station directly behind him. “This isn’t too rough a trip is it?”

“Its fun.”

Jack frowned. “Great.”

Hank laughed. “I forgot how you hated turbulence.”

Soft chuckles came from everyone on the Bridge except Zachary at the Science Station.

Jack turned his seat back forward. “I wouldn’t say hate.”

“I remember on a shuttle mission you…” Evans started.

“Keep your eyes on your station, Mr. Evans,” Jack barked.

More chuckles from around the Bridge. Hank smiled.

Negev slowly turned to look at Jack with a curious look. Jack sighed and shook his head.

Zachary looked up from his displays, bathed in dark blue light. “We enter the wormhole in five seconds.”

Jack looked at the main viewscreen as tendrils of blue energy erupted from nowhere and enveloped the Chamberlain. A moment later, the huge starship shot down a tunnel of twisted space with an impossible velocity. Glowing claws of space and time reached out for the ship, but never quite touched it, letting it pass across thousands of light years in seconds.

Jack closed his eyes as his chair shuddered from the buffeting his ship suffered through. He took a deep breath and opened his eyes to see a glowing maelstrom on the viewscreen. This was nothing like the Bajoran wormhole. Jack had traveled that passage four times in his career and found it an easy trip. This was completely different. It was as if a giant troll were taking its payment out of the ship’s hull for the passage that normally would have taken decades.

A bright flash of light filled the viewscreen and a moment later they were back in normal space on approach to a beautiful blue-green world orbited by two small moons— the planet Kel-j’na. Hundreds of spacecraft cruised about the stunning world. A number of vessels including a Federation Intrepid Class starship flew toward a spacedock.

Cynthia Pederson looked down at her display. “Kel-j’na Spacedock is hailing us, sir.”

“On audio,” Negev said.

Over the intercom a voice filled the Bridge, “Kel-j’na welcomes you to our system, Chamberlain.”

“Acknowledge their message, and send my compliments to Commodore Choi,” Jack said.

“Aye, sir,” Pederson said as she touched controls at her station.

Jack stood and turned to Negev. “Set course for the Hel’yra system. The Abdiel will be departing and take position ahead of us.”

Negev stood and nodded.

“You have the bridge, Mr. Negev,” Jack said as he walked toward the exit. He looked over at Hank Evans who smiled.

“See, it was fun,” Hank said.

Jack sighed.

=/\=

Several hours later, Jack sat in his Ready Room going over various reports and signing off on them. He hated this part of the job. For some reason all of the minutiae of the Chamberlain’s workings mattered to someone at Starfleet. Jack was afraid to ever meet them. He couldn’t imagine what someone like that thought of someone like him— a starship Captain who faced life and death struggles as a matter of course. The only danger whoever received these reports ever faced was having their computer system overload and electrocute them.

A chime sounded, announcing someone meant to interrupt his task. He welcomed them. “Come in,” he said.

Melissa Vargas walked up the entrance to the Ready Room and turned to Jack. “Sorry to bother you, sir, but Lieutenant Commander Pederson brought something to my attention,” she said as she approached Jack’s cluttered workspace. Melissa took note of Mei’s picture prominently placed on the desk and smiled.

“No bother, Lieutenant Commander. What do you have?” Jack said as he leaned back in his chair.

Melissa frowned and handed Jack a PADD. “I’m not really sure, Captain. Cynthia said she had come across this in the communication logs and didn’t know what to make of it so she brought it to me.”

Jack looked through listings on the PADD which showed three transmissions made through the communication system of the Chamberlain. Numerous communications were always being sent to and by starships, but these were not authorized and didn’t have the usual code markers which identified the sender and who they were sent to.

Jack turned to Melissa. “You sure this isn’t someone just sending messages to a ‘significant other’?” he asked.

Melissa nodded. “There’s usually a fair amount of that on any ship. No, this is different. Someone has tried to mask these signals as sensor scans, not to keep us from finding them, but to keep any unintended receiver from thinking they were communications, but instead see it as a long range scan.”

“Any leads as to who’s doing this?” Jack asked.

“Not yet, but we’re trying to locate the Comm station on the ship that they originated from,” Melissa stated.

Jack thought a moment and took a deep breath. His first thought was someone from Starfleet had placed a spy aboard and that covert operative was sending back secret transmissions, but the last signal was sent after they had come through the wormhole, making it unlikely the transmissions were being sent directly back to Starfleet.

“Keep this between Lieutenant Commander Pederson, you, and myself. Let’s not risk the individual sending these transmissions finding out we’re on to them before we catch them. Have you tried to decode the signals yet?”

Melissa sighed. “I’ve run them through the computer and so far nothing,” she said.

“Keep on it and try to have something for me in the next few days,” Jack said.

Melissa nodded. “Aye, sir.” She walked back down the entrance, leaving Jack to himself.

Jack looked again at the data on the PADD. He had the feeling this was far more dangerous than it appeared. He just hoped Vargas found their message sender before whatever was going on blew up in their faces.

=/\=

Chapter 6 - The Pool Of Tears

THREE WEEKS LATER…

The door chime blared so loud it seemed a wild animal had been caught in a trap, fighting for its very life. Mei-Wan rolled over in bed, searching for her husband so she could kick him hard and make him answer the constant noise of the chime.

“Lights!” she shouted to the computer.

Mei-Wan found she was in bed alone. “Jack?” she asked.

Mei-Wan got out of bed, put her robe on, and walked out of the bedroom as the door chime continued its endless bleating. Entering the living room, she thought Jack probably had fallen asleep while reviewing personnel reports again, but he wasn’t there. She tightened the robe about her and walked to the door.

It opened to Hank Evans who looked as frustrated as Mei-Wan felt.

“Hank, its three in the morning, do you have to lean on that door chime?” she asked, walking back to a couch, assuming Hank would follow.

“Sorry, Mei. I need to talk to Jack.”

She frowned. “He’s not here.”

“Where is he?” Hank asked, confused.

Mei-Wan walked over to a replicator and activated it. “I’m not sure where he goes. I haven’t asked.”

Hank sat in a chair and watched her pull two cups of hot coffee from the replicator. She handed him one and sat in the couch and started sipping her own.

“There a problem between…” Hank started to ask.

Mei-Wan shook her head. “No, nothing like that. He just has trouble sleeping.”

Hank took a large drink of his coffee, then set it down on a nearby table.

“Computer, location of Captain McCall?”

The computer seemed to hesitate but a moment. “Captain McCall is currently aboard the Captain’s Yacht,” it replied.

Hank started to worry. “Is the Yacht still aboard the Chamberlain?”

“Affirmative,” the Computer said.

Hank stood. “I never would have looked for him there.”

Mei-Wan didn’t respond, but just drank more of her coffee.

Hank started toward the door, but stopped. “You okay?”

Mei-Wan forced a weak smile. “I’ll be fine after a couple more hours sleep.”

Hank nodded and walked out the door. Mei-Wan set her cup down and closed her eyes.

=/\=

The turbolift doors slid open and Hank marched through Deck Twenty-two to the gangway for the Captain’s Yacht. He couldn’t imagine what would bring Jack down here at this time of night. If Jack were smart he’d have himself back up in bed with that beautiful wife of his.

Hank smiled as he noticed the sound of jazz music coming up from the opening that led to the Yacht. He walked into the small ship and toward the front section. Sure enough, Jack McCall sat in the pilot’s seat looking into space and drinking a dark liquid from a tall glass. Hank saw a small labeled bottle on the unlit control panel in front of Jack.

“Drinking alone?” Hank asked.

Jack twisted around in his seat and saw Hank. He smiled. “Well, look who’s out roaming the corridors tonight.”

Hank sat down in the seat next to his captain. “You’re up past your bedtime, Jack.”

Jack grinned and took a drink from his glass. “You used to be the one who kept me up late. I remember the time you brought those Deltan women aboard the Bonifacio,” Jack said with a laugh.

“Those were good times, kid.”

“Those were great times, old man.”

“You better take something to sober you up. Falco’s signaled that the Abdiel has scanned ahead and it appears there’s a nebula in our path.”

Jack frowned. “There was no mention of a nebula in the information Hancock gave me.”

“That’s why I came looking for you.”

Jack examined his glass. “Figures Falco would be the one to ruin my evening.”

Hank looked sternly at him. “Seems to me you were the one who did that.”

Jack stood up from his seat and took a moment to balance himself. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I think you know,” Hank said.

Jack shook his head and placed the bottle back into a compartment. He touched a control and the music shut off. “I just needed to unwind a little.”

“Sounds like you do this fairly often.”

“I’m going to my quarters to get a quick shower. I’ll meet you back on the Bridge in twenty minutes.”

He trudged past Hank who watched to make sure Jack could walk on his own.

“Aye, sir,” Hank replied.

=/\=

Several minutes later Jack entered his quarters to find Mei-Wan on the couch, waiting for him.

“You okay?”

“I’m fine,” he said.

Mei-Wan frowned. “You’ve been drinking.”

“I had a little scotch to relax.”

“Alone?”

Jack moved toward the bedroom. “Yes, Mei, alone.”

Mei-Wan followed Jack. “I think you need to talk to Akala.”

After removing his shirt, Jack smiled. “I don’t need to talk to a Counselor, Mei. Especially one who’s telepathic.”

“I think you do. This has gone on too long. It’s not going away.”

Jack turned about. “I don’t have time for this, Mei.”

“You better make time.”

He stopped and looked at her. “What are you saying?”

Mei-Wan stepped up and put her arms around him. “I’m worried about you, Jack.”

His anger faded. He held her and closed his eyes. “I’ll be fine, really.”

“Jack, you know I’ll always believe in you, but I don’t think you can solve this by yourself.”

Jack turned away. “I have to get to the Bridge.”

She pulled her arms away and Jack entered the bathroom. After a few moments Mei-Wan heard the shower start. She sat on the edge of the bed, tears welling up in her eyes.

=/\=

On the Bridge, Jack sat in the captain’s chair contemplating the data displayed on the main viewscreen. It wasn’t like Hancock to leave out a detail like this. The nebula ahead seemed to completely surround the system they were headed for. They would have to take the ship into the nebula. Most nebulas played havoc with starship sensors and had a way of making shields inoperable, leaving them blind and defenseless. Every first year cadet learned the results from Starfleet history of ships taken into these regions of gas and dust. Jack could only remember three instances when entering a nebula had been absolutely necessary and had been the right choice. To enter one for a simple planetary survey seemed ridiculous at best, suicidal at worst.

Jack closed his eyes fighting back the pain in his head as the anti-intoxicant he had taken began to kick in at full force. He started to think back to what Mei had said to him and how she hadn’t spoken a word after he came out of the shower.

Jack shook his head and opened his eyes. He knew Hank Evans was watching him closely from behind at the Tactical Station.

“Mr. Zachary, can you scan the interior of the nebula?” Jack asked his Science Officer.

Zachary sat huddled over his station looking at his sensor reports. “Not any further than a few hundred thousand kilometers into it, sir. From gravimetric data I can conclude that there is a solar system at the heart of the nebula, but not much else.”

Lak Negev walked up next to Jack. “We could send the Abdiel into the nebula a distance and have them report back their findings, sir.”

“Communications probably won’t function much beyond a few million kilometers,” Zachary interjected.

That actually pleased Jack. The last thing he wanted was to send Falco in there alone.

“Three minutes to nebula boundary,” Vargas announced.

Jack stared at the nearing mass of blue gases on the main viewscreen. He really didn’t have much choice. They had to go in.

“Signal the Abdiel to fall back to just seventy kilometers ahead of us and drop to full impulse,” Jack ordered.

Jack leaned back in his chair and watched his officers carry out his orders. He had spent over a month with them now and each day he was more impressed. He could tell that it wouldn’t be long before Melissa Vargas was offered an Executive Officer’s position and probably not long after that a ship of her own.

Melissa glanced up from her panel and met his eyes. She offered a quick grin before returning to her work.

Negev turned to Jack. “Sir, I suggest as soon as we go into orbit around Hel’yra that we deploy the Fighter Wing on patrols. With all the nebula’s interference we won’t have much warning if something sneaks up on us in there.”

Jack smiled. “Smells like a trap to you too?”

Negev grinned. “Just considering all the possibilities.”

Jack nodded. “Instruct Commander Kadan to prepare her pilots.”

Negev turned to his console. Jack looked at the viewscreen which was now filled with the nebula. He could make out the Abdiel just ahead. The small ship had waited on the Chamberlain’s arrival as ordered. Jack could imagine how Falco was reacting to that.

“We have secured from warp speed,” Conn Officer s’Felis reported.

Jack turned about in his chair to face Hank Evans. “You know anything about this nebula?”

“No, I’ve only passed by this area a couple of times. The nebula makes a convenient navigational landmark, but I’ve never heard anything about a solar system inside it.”

“You disagree with us going in?”

“There are stories from some of the Kel-j’na about this sector of space. They usually avoid it.”

“You think we should pay attention to local superstitions?”

Hank grinned. “Not usually, but the Kel-j’na tend to be a very perceptive and insightful people. If they suggest staying away from something I at least give it due consideration, Captain.”

Jack nodded and returned to watching the viewscreen. The Bridge shuddered and the lights dimmed. Melissa Vargas moved her fingers across the Operations Console and the lights returned to full intensity.

“We have entered the nebula,” Zachary announced.

Hank frowned as he looked down at the Tactical Station. He touched several controls and frowned even harder. He looked up. “Lieutenant Commander Vargas?”

“Yes?”

Hank’s frown intensified. “Can you check your readings on the shields?”

After a few moments Melissa joined Evans in frowning. “This isn’t possible.”

Jack looked over at her. “What is it?”

“Well, sir,” she started. “It appears the shields are still holding.”

It took a few moments for that to register. “Are you sure?”

Melissa Vargas sent her fingers across her console checking and rechecking various readouts. “It appears that our shields aren’t affected by the nebula.”

Jack walked over to the Ops station as Vargas continued reviewing the status of the Chamberlain’s shields. The ship had worked flawlessly so far, but now was not the time to be experiencing problems with one of the ship’s primary systems. He tried to imagine what could go wrong with the status diagnostics to report the shields active when there was no way they could be.

Jack thought a moment and looked up at the viewscreen. The Abdiel cruised ahead of them through the gas clouds of the nebula.

“Mr. Zachary, scan the Abdiel. Are their shields still up?” Jack asked.

Zachary quickly worked his panel and turned to Jack. “No, sir. Their shields are inoperable.”

“Is there anything about the nebula’s composition that would suggest our shields should remain unaffected?”

“No, Captain. Its composition is fairly standard. Perhaps a higher concentration of certain metals than I might expect, but if anything that should make the shield situation worse.”

Jack returned to his command seat. “Ms. Pederson, contact the Abdiel and have them scan us. Ask if they detect our shields up.”

Cynthia Pederson nodded. “Aye, sir.”

As she contacted the smaller ship Jack peered over at Hank Evans who smiled at him. A moment later, Pederson turned to Jack.

“The Abdiel reports their scans verify our shields are up,” Pederson reported.

Hank shook his head.

“It appears our Chief Engineer has surprised us again,” Jack stated.

Zachary looked up from his station. “Sir, I can now detect a stellar mass at the center of the nebula and there are five planets in orbit around it.”

“Make your course for the second planet, Mr. Negev,” Jack said.

=/\=

Four hours later, the starship Chamberlain orbited about a dull red and brown world named Hel’yra. Its pale yellow star threw a half-hearted sunlight out at the starship as it circled the planet every seventy-five minutes. Several fighter craft soared away from the large vessel heading out on their assigned patrols. Each small craft left a brief trail of dust and gas behind it as their engines stirred up the thin remnants of the nebula in the heart the solar system.

No matter the direction about the Chamberlain all that could be seen was the light blue and green nebula. Jack didn’t like it. When you looked out a window on a starship you were supposed to see stars. Jack watched the swirling gases now nearly a billion kilometers distant while Melissa Vargas sat across from his desk in the Ready Room.

“Whoever it is has done a good job of covering his tracks, sir,” she said.

Jack continued looking out the window. “I find it a little hard to believe that after three weeks you still haven’t caught whoever this is.”

“I have dedicated most of my off duty time to the problem, Captain.”

Jack turned about in his chair to face her and smiled. “I wasn’t criticizing your efforts, Lieutenant Commander. In fact I’m a little surprised at how much time you’ve put into what could still turn out to be just some unauthorized personal communication.”

Melissa Vargas relaxed in her chair and returned Jack’s smile. “Thank you, sir, but you’re right. I should have found them by now.” Melissa started to say more, but was interrupted by the door chime.

“Yes?” Jack asked.

Over the intercom, “It’s, Hank.”

“Just a minute, Hank,” Jack replied. He turned back to Melissa.

“You say this occurred right after we came through the wormhole and then again about a week ago?”

“As well as the two previous times, yes, sir.”

Jack had spent too much time on this problem already. He ran his hands through his hair trying to fight off the lack of sleep.

“Keep monitoring the situation and get back to me when you find something more about who it is.”

Melissa stood and nodded. “Yes, sir.”

She walked down the entryway to the Ready Room and a few moments later Hank Evans came up the same path. Jack’s Tactical Officer and friend strolled over to him.

“What’s up, Hank?” Jack asked.

Hank sat in the same chair Melissa had vacated and watched Jack who began to smile.

“So, what were you two having another secret meeting about?”

Jack shook his head. “Something that you should have been the one to discover in the first place. As my Tactical Officer the Security Department is under your command.”

Hank nodded. “The strange communications.”

Jack’s eyes widened. “You know about this?”

“If I didn’t I wouldn’t be doing my job.”

“And you didn’t think to bring it to my attention?”

“Jack, the captain has a million things that could be brought to his attention. If I bothered you with each one you wouldn’t be free to do your job.”

“So what have you found out?”

“From the look on Vargas’ face when she left, I guess not much more than she has.”

“Any ideas?” Jack asked.

“Well, it’s certainly not someone sending dear John messages to a one night stand. From the nature of the measures taken to hide their identity, I’d say we have a spy of some kind on board.”

Jack sat up in his chair. “Any guesses about who for?”

“Not the Romulans or Klingons, if they wanted information about this mission they’d just pick up someone from Starfleet Command and use their usual means to take it from the person’s mind.”

“You think it’s about our current mission?”

“That or the next several missions. They don’t send messages often enough to indicate an interest in the ship or its crew, and the messages are too frequent for course information,” Hank stated.

“You will inform me when you find something more?”

“Of course, Captain,” Hank said, smiling.

He stood from his chair.

“You can have Vargas drop her investigation. The woman needs a social life,” Hank said.

Jack nodded as Hank moved toward the entrance to the Ready Room.

“You know those shields shouldn’t have operated in the densest parts of the nebula like they did,” Hank said as a stern look covered his face.

“I figured it had to be the extra power this ship has available to it,” Jack replied.

“I talked to Kristy Bishop and she said because we had come out of warp only two of the reactors were online when we entered the nebula.”

Jack stood and walked around his desk. “What are you saying?”

“I’ve been looking over the shield system schematics for the last hour and the hell if I can figure out how the thing works.”

“Did you run it by Bishop?”

“She told me she had asked several times on the Oceana Development Project who had designed the shield system and was told ‘don’t ask’,” Hank replied.

Jack took a deep breath. “That’s what Hancock said when I asked about who had requested we investigate this planet.”

Hank started down the entryway. “I can tell you one thing. The shields on this ship are about a hundred years beyond anything the Federation has developed.”

Jack let that thought bounce around his head as Hank left. He walked toward the front area of his Ready Room and looked through the forward window at the planet his ship now orbited. Every instinct told him to leave this system, return to Starfleet and go over Hancock’s head and demand some explanations.

The door chime interrupted his thoughts. “Come in,” he said. He walked back to his desk as Duncan Zachary shuffled his way up with a PADD in his hand.

“My report on the planet, sir,” the Science Officer said.

He handed the PADD to Jack who looked over the information it displayed.

“No life?” Jack asked.

Zachary formed a half grin on his face. “No life of any kind. Not even any amino acids present which is odd for a planet with a habitable atmosphere. True there’s not much water, but even with the small amount this world has, there should be at least some bacterial life.”

Jack placed the PADD on his desk. “What do you recommend?”

Zachary looked off to his side. “Well, between the nebula gases and the high particulate metal content of the star’s solar wind… the planet’s magnetosphere is fairly active. It makes detailed scans impossible. Since use of the transporter is out of the question, I’d suggest sending down several survey teams in shuttles.”

“Any particular area of the planet you’d like to check out first?”

Zachary rocked his head back and forth slightly for several seconds. “We’ve detected what appears to be an artificial structure near the planet’s… equatorial region. I’d say start there first.”

Jack frowned. “I thought you said there was no life of any kind.”

“Yes, sir.”

“But there’s an artificial structure?”

Zachary’s mouth narrowed into something halfway between a smile and a frown. “It appears to be, yes.”

Jack stared at the forward window where the sun was rising above the rim of the planet. “Send your teams down and keep me informed about what you find, Mr. Zachary.”

“Aye, sir.”

=/\=

Chapter 7 - “To The Moon, Alice!”

Mei-Wan held on tight to the arms of her seat. The science shuttle she rode in, Maxwell, descended through the outer atmosphere of Hel’yra, buffeted about by fierce winds.

“It’s not so bad once we get below ten thousand meters,” shouted their pilot, Ensign Merkas Elba, over the roar of the shuttle’s passage through the air.

The shuttle lurched up about a meter, making Mei-Wan glad she’d strapped herself in. She closed her eyes and kept hoping it would end.

Ensign Elba gave a loud shout through the next several bounces they endured.

Mei-Wan opened her eyes enough to glare at the excited pilot.

Elba tried to smile. “Sorry, ma’am. A pilot usually doesn’t get to fly through something like this these days what with the inertial dampers and all,” he said.

“And why aren’t they functioning?” she asked.

“Something to do with the radiation and particle fields surrounding the planet.”

Mei-Wan turned to look at her Archaeology Section and saw they were having just as little fun as she was. Ensign Natalie Fowler, a recent Academy graduate, kept her hand over her mouth and seemed near vomiting at any moment. Ensigns Todd Duarte and Jalel Nelith weren’t much better off than Fowler, but Ensign Zaldul Uduff and Lieutenant junior grade Sunita Mahajan actually appeared to be enjoying the ride.

Suddenly the torrent of noise and motion ceased and Mei-Wan looked out the forward window of the shuttle. The atmosphere was a pale yellow mixture of sky and wispy clouds that didn’t lend itself to beauty or grace— it just was. The view tilted down and ahead in the midst of a flat plain surrounded by mountains they finally saw what appeared to be a half buried sphere with thirteen columns around its circumference. The surface of the structure showed no discernable detail at the distance they viewed it from, but the six Starfleet shuttles on the ground nearby gave it a scale larger than seemed possible. Mei-Wan guessed it had to be at least two kilometers or more in diameter.

Ensign Elba turned back to Mei-Wan. “We’ll be landing in about a minute. You can start getting your gear together.”

Mei-Wan unfastened her seat restraints. “Let’s get ready.”

A cloud of dust formed about the shuttle as it touched down and came to a rest a good thousand feet away from the mammoth building. A moment later the door to the shuttle yawned open and Mei-Wan led her team out across the tired soil toward the gargantuan structure ahead. All of them wore back packs and dark glasses to shield their eyes from the glaring light of Hel’yra’s sun.

Ensign Duarte already had his tricorder out. “Definitely not natural, but no indications of seams or welds.”

Mei-Wan nodded. “And that would indicate?”

Jalel Nelith, a native of Arcturus Four, jumped right in. “That the culture that produced it was at least an eight on the Masters Industrial Scale.”

“Would you agree with that assessment, Ensign Fowler?” Mei-Wan asked.

Fowler excited by her first Away Mission had been taking in every detail since landing. “No, ma’am. This is a Class G world and since it’s unlikely that whoever built the structure originated from this planet or this solar system, the culture that produced it is more likely at nine or above on the Master’s Scale.”

Mei-Wan smiled at Fowler. The young Ensign had developed a habit of trying to please her the last several weeks. Mei-Wan knew it was just the typical admiration new Academy grads tended to have for their Section Commanders. In time it would pass. “Excellent observations.”

She addressed all five members of her team. “Remember, archaeology isn’t just about figuring out what you have in front of you, but putting it in a context. Everything you find has a story to tell. Our job is to put the pieces of that story together.”

Mei-Wan led her team through the wide entrance of the structure. Each of them removed their dark glasses once the walls shielded them from the light of the sun.

Duarte stepped closer to the wall and ran his tricorder over it. He frowned and did the scan again. “It’s metallic, but the alloy is a strange combination. Iron, nickel, and some refined metal I can’t make out. The tricorder says its atomic number is three hundred and one, but there’s no such element.”

Sunita Mahajan leaned toward Duarte to look at his tricorder display. “There is now.”

Mei-Wan pulled out her own tricorder and scanned the wall. Her scan confirmed Duarte’s. She looked up the nearly hundred foot high wall as it disappeared up into the darkness. Mei-Wan turned her tricorder upward and it showed only smooth walls all the way up, no other structure. Her comm badge bleated and she tapped it.

Zachary’s throaty voice spoke over it. “Lieutenant McCall could you bring your team into the central chamber please?”

“We’re on our way,” she answered.

=/\=

Inside a large two hundred foot wide circular chamber, nearly fifty science department officers busied themselves scanning everything in sight. Three of them worked setting up the last of twenty spot lights which gave the only illumination present in the chamber. Duncan Zachary stood with his hands on his hips looking up at the sixty foot high ceiling. He lowered his view as Mei-Wan and her archaeology crew entered the chamber.

“Nice of you to join the rest of us, Lieutenant McCall.”

Mei-Wan did her best not to react to him. “Quite a structure.”

Zachary smiled. “I hope you’ll be able to provide us with observations a little more informative than that, Lieutenant.”

He walked over to a section of the wall. Zachary waved Mei-Wan over and she reluctantly followed him as did Fowler. He stood in front of a piece of the wall which angled out from ten feet up and stopped two feet from the floor.

“This is the only section that doesn’t fit the general pattern,” Zachary stated.

Mei-Wan scanned the angled section with her tricorder for half a minute. “No discernable interior structure.”

Zachary forced a smile and a nasal laugh. “So you don’t think it’s an ice cream dispenser, huh?”

The display on the tricorder caught her attention. “That’s very interesting.”

“You find something?” Zachary asked.

Mei-Wan pulled her back pack off and rummaged around in it. She pulled out a small three inch long tube and activated a switch on its side. Mei-Wan pointed the small device at the angled section of wall and a barely perceptible group of strange glyphs appeared on the surface.

“What the hell?” Zachary asked as he leaned nearer to the glowing four inch high characters.

“This is an ultraviolet lamp I always bring along. A lot of times a UV source will add just enough energy to a control device to illuminate a display without activating the device,” Mei-Wan explained.

A crowd of twenty gathered around them watching the glowing purple alien letters. Fowler had her tricorder out making a visual record of the find.

Zachary frowned. “So, what language is it?”

Mei-Wan thought a moment. “Nothing I can place, but we are a long way from home.”

Sunita Mahajan ran a comparison through her tricorder. “I can’t find anything in the standard references that even comes close to a match.”

Mei-Wan stared at it a moment, knowing her lamp wouldn’t last too much longer. “There’s something familiar about it, but I can’t place it.”

Zachary took a step back and turned to a Vulcan lieutenant. “Toras, bring that power supply over here and let’s try starting it up.”

Mei-Wan shut her lamp off and spun around to Zachary. “What are you doing?”

Zachary snickered. “I thought we’d all just stand around and stare at it a couple of days and see if it turned on by itself.”

“I wouldn’t suggest activating this.”

Zachary looked up a moment and seemed to be in an internal dialogue that amused him. He finally turned to Mei-Wan. “Let’s see, I’ve got three rank pins in my collar and you’ve got two. Three of a kind beats a pair.”

He turned to several other officers and ordered them to clear out the supply cases in front of the wall panel.

Mei-Wan walked up to him. “Sir, I would like to remind you that we have no idea what this device does nor do we know if our power systems are compatible with it. If you overload it we may lose information from a civilization millions of years old.”

Zachary was about to respond when Fowler interrupted. “Billions of years old.”

Zachary and Mei-Wan both turned to Fowler. Zachary smiled and shook his head. “You need to keep your ensigns on a tighter leash before they make fools of themselves and you, McCall. There’s no way this can be billions of years old. The star itself is only about one billion years old.”

Fowler took a step closer to Zachary. “You’re wrong, sir. The metal in the walls is over four billion years old, possibly as old as five billion.”

Mei-Wan checked the data on Fowler’s tricorder. “She’s right, sir.”

Zachary let his head drop and stood still in that position for several moments. “Astrophysics has already analyzed the star and determined its age to be just under a billion years. That means the planet can only be that old.” He walked away.

“Go ask one of the geologists if they’ve dated any of the soil samples yet and see if it agrees with what you’ve got,” Mei-Wan said softly to Fowler.

Fowler nodded and went to the other side of the chamber where the Geology Team had set up their equipment. Mei-Wan stepped up to Zachary.

“Commander, I really think you should reconsider connecting one of our power cells to that device.”

Zachary didn’t even look at her. “The issue is settled, Lieutenant.”

Mei-Wan groaned on the way back to her Archaeology Team as Lieutenant Toras and three others began attaching devices to the wall panel.

Duarte grinned. “Maybe we should run back to the shuttle and take off before they activate the thing.”

Uduff’s eyes went wide. “You really think it might be dangerous?”

Mahajan frowned. “Only to the unimaginable information that might be lost.”

Fowler walked up to them. The young Ensign spoke softly. “The Geology Team has been trying to figure out how to give Zachary their results without him screaming at them. They date the planet at nearly six billion years.”

Mei-Wan tried to suppress the anger she felt at Zachary. It was bad enough he had the interpersonal skills of a drunken Klingon, but to have something from a civilization that existed nearly four billion years ago was the find of a lifetime. Mei-Wan knew of only one other discovery that old. That discovery had been made by the man who inspired her at the age of ten to become an archaeologist. She could not believe that Zachary’s idiocy might rob her, humanity, and the Federation of another such discovery.

Toras turned to Zachary and indicated he was ready. The Science Officer turned to look at Mei-Wan and smiled.

“Go ahead,” he ordered.

“Activate your tricorders,” Mei-Wan whispered to her section.

As the Archaeology Team obeyed Mei-Wan’s order, Toras threw a switch on the power cell and the text on the wall panel began to glow a bright red. Everyone waited for almost a minute, but nothing else happened. Mei-Wan allowed herself to grin. Perhaps all was not lost.

Zachary walked up to the panel and looked at the glowing text. He cautiously brought his hand near it. At the moment his outstretched palm was an inch away from the glowing runes the chamber filled with light from above. Everyone covered their eyes, except for the Archaeology Team.

“Spread out and record whatever happens,” Mei-Wan told them.

In the very middle of the chamber a three foot wide section of the floor rose about six inches and began to glow. Fowler saw it first.

“Over there!” she shouted.

A moment later a column of energy flared up from the circular pedestal and a figure began to take shape. A wave of energy surged across it and a humanoid figure appeared standing on the platform. The figure was obviously female and semi-transparent, indicating it was probably a holographic projection.

The figure smiled and spoke in an alien language. Sunita worked her tricorder. “I can’t get a translation,” she said.

Mei-Wan stared at the apparition before them. If took several moments for her mind to accept what she saw. She knew what species the figure was. She had seen it once before in a recording which had been discovered to exist in the combined genetic material of various humanoid species in the general area of the Federation.

“I can’t believe it,” she said.

“You know this species?” Zachary asked.

Mei-Wan turned to him. “She’s an ancestor of every single one of us in this chamber— Human, Vulcan, Andorian. She’s one of the Ancient Progenitors— the original humanoids.”

=/\=

Jack hated this. If the transporters worked he could avoid it all together, but instead he was on a shuttle soaring through the turbulent atmosphere of Hel’yra and it was not a nice ride. He looked over at Hank Evans who had insisted on coming along and Jack had agreed to let pilot the shuttle. Hank was having a good time.

“You know Jack, you really need to find a way to enjoy turbulence. I can’t think of another command pilot in all of Starfleet who hates it as much as you do,” Evans said.

“Just fly the shuttle, Hank.”

Evans galnced over at him and smiled. “Why are you going down to the surface? Why not send Negev instead?”

Jack closed his eyes even though he knew it wouldn’t help. “Starfleet has a standing order that if anything concerning a race called the Ancient Progenitors is discovered the commanding officer on hand is to personally investigate and report back to the Chief of Operations.”

Evans shook his head. “Never heard of them.”

“Not surprising. There’s only been one piece of evidence of their existence.”

Evans touched several controls and the turbulence diminished. “So who or what are they the progenitors of?”

Jack grinned. “You, me, and every other humanoid life form in the Galaxy.”

“Sounds like a fairy tale.”

“After today, it may become an accepted fact,” Jack said.

=/\=

Inside the chamber, the holographic recording of the alien humanoid was still speaking while Mei-Wan and her team stood, tricorders in hand recording every word and phrase.

“Time?” Mei-Wan asked.

Mahajan looked at her wrist chronometer. “Almost forty minutes.”

Duarte sighed. “What could she possible be going on about for this long?”

Fowler smiled. “The extent of their scientific knowledge?”

Uduff grinned. “Could be a personal diary and she’s relating all the juicy details of her date the night before.”

Mei-Wan shook her head. “Let’s hope there’s a little more to it than that.”

Mahajan touched a control on her tricorder. “Still not able to get a translation.” She turned to Mei-Wan. “You say you’ve seen a recording of this species before, Lieutenant?”

Mei-Wan nodded. “After Professor Richard Galen’s expedition ended in his death, the results were brought back to Earth. I was lucky my last year at the Academy to be a part of a team that worked on the recording found within the combined DNA of several species.”

“I heard a Federation starship, the Klingons, Cardassians, and Romulans all found it,” Nelith said.

“True, but it was Galen’s research that led them to it.”

“But you said you could translate that first recording.” Fowler said.

“Yes, but that message was intended to be understood by a multitude of species billions of years after it was recorded.”

Duarte laughed. “So they dumbed that message down so we could understand it.”

“Not the nicest way to put it, but probably accurate,” Mei-Wan said. “This was intended for their own kind and from the looks of it may take some time to translate.”

Fowler watched the humanoid female as she spoke in her indecipherable language. “She seems sad.”

Mei-Wan stopped to actually watch the ancient speaker. It was true, she did look sad, but there was something else, something in her deep set eyes. Mei-Wan thought it seemed almost a cold determination— a sureness of purpose.

Fowler nudged her arm and Mei-Wan looked up and saw that Jack and Hank had entered the chamber. She handed her tricorder to Fowler.

“Keep recording.”

She walked over to Jack who was talking to Zachary.

“So that’s our mother?” the captain of the Chamberlain asked.

Zachary tilted his head to one side and opened his mouth, but didn’t speak until a few seconds later. “That’s one point of view… sir.”

“It just happens to be the accurate one,” Mei-Wan interjected.

Zachary rolled his eyes, but bit his tongue.

Jack only glanced at his wife. “Any luck at translating the language yet?”

Zachary looked at Mei-Wan. “Lieutenant?”

She turned to Jack. “Not yet. The language has an incredibly complex structure. We may need to contact various linguistic experts throughout the Federation to get anywhere with it.”

Jack nodded and took several steps forward to get a view of the recording as it continued to play. “To think that she lived before life existed on Earth, maybe even before the Earth itself had formed.”

Mei-Wan smiled as she watched the sense of wonder coming over Jack. She knew it was part of who he was, but she didn’t see it that often. Captain Jack McCall was the one who was usually on deck.

“What about the rest of this place? Any chance there’s more to it than just a recording?” Jack asked.

“I would think there has to be, but it may take some time to find it without destroying the place in the process,” Mei-Wan said. “We should keep the site intact as much as possible and leave it to a trained team from the Federation Archaeological Council.”

Zachary rolled his eyes. “I disagree. My Science Department can do the necessary work and discover whatever there is to find here, Captain. We did after all, find the recording on our own.”

Mei-Wan couldn’t remain silent any longer. “That was dumb luck. You could have just as easily destroyed the entire holographic system and lost that recording forever.”

Both Jack and Zachary turned to Mei-Wan. Hank Evans stood back a distance and smiled.

“You’re out of line, Lieutenant,” Jack said.

Zachary stood waiting for Mei-Wan’s reaction as she turned to Jack.

“I apologize for my bluntness, sir, but in my opinion, Lieutenant Commander Zachary was far too reckless with this site which may turn out to be the greatest scientific discovery in the history of civilization,” Mei-Wan said.

Jack considered Mei-Wan’s words and turned to Zachary. “She does have a point, Mr. Zachary. We need to take the utmost care with anything we find here. My orders are to preserve any artifacts or technology that may have come from the Ancient Progenitors.”

Zachary nodded and smiled. “Now that we know what we’re dealing with, sir, I think we can investigate this structure without putting any artifacts at risk.”

Mei-Wan tried hard to contain her building frustration. She knew Zachary couldn’t care less about anything here. “I still disagree, sir. We should leave it to an expert team that can take the time to do it right.”

Jack thought for almost a minute before finally turning to Zachary. “Complete your survey, Mr. Zachary and make a very thorough examination of everything you find, but be sure to do it as carefully as possible.”

“You can’t leave this to him, Jack!” Mei-Wan said loud enough to be heard by everyone in the chamber.

Jack looked sternly at his wife. “Lieutenant, the decision has been made. Both you and Mr. Zachary have your orders. I suggest you carry them out.”

“This is too important to be just a question of orders and protocol! Within this structure may be the secrets of a technology we can’t even begin to imagine! Perhaps cures to disease, or even the secret of immortality! This is not a simple survey mission anymore!”

All eyes in the chamber focused on the confrontation between captain and lieutenant, husband and wife. Jack took a step toward Mei-Wan. “Mr. Evans, if Lieutenant McCall says one more word you are to return her to the Chamberlain and confine her to quarters where she will stay pending a full disciplinary hearing,” he said loud enough for everyone to hear.

Hank walked up to Mei-Wan and spoke softly. “Go outside and take a few minutes to cool off, Mei.”

Mei-Wan was about to scream at Hank, but caught the pleading look in his eyes. Instead she stormed away out the entrance of the chamber.

Jack turned to Zachary who wore a smile. “Carry on with your survey, Mr. Zachary.”

“Aye, sir,” Zachary said and walked off.

Hank looked at Jack and shook his head. “I’m glad I don’t have to live in your quarters tonight.”

“You have any other helpful comments, Hank?”

=/\=

Mei-Wan stood outside the structure with her dark glasses on and arms folded across her chest. She could not believe Jack had threatened her with a disciplinary hearing. Mei-Wan heard footsteps and turned to see him walking out of the structure into the hot and dry noon air.

“Don’t start, Mei.”

“You just made the biggest mistake of your entire career, Jack.”

“Just because you don’t like Zachary isn’t an excuse. You’re letting your personal feelings cloud your judgement.”

“No, I’m letting the fact that Duncan Zachary is at best an incompetent influence me. You can’t risk him destroying artifacts of this magnitude!”

Jack walked past her and leaned against one of the columns that stood away from the main structure. “I think he understands what I expect of him.”

Mei-Wan rolled her eyes and stood defiantly a short distance away from Jack. “I don’t think you understand what might be in there.”

Jack looked sternly at her. “I don’t think you understand the concept of the chain of command.”

“How can you be so blind?”

Jack’s anger started to finally boil. “Mei, Starfleet has standing orders regarding any discovery of artifacts or technology relating to the Ancient Progenitors. I am to investigate and prevent those artifacts from falling into other hands.”

“Fine. Then why not wait for the Archaeological Council to send a full expedition?”

“We don’t have time for that. I need to know in the next forty-eight hours what we’ve got here.”

“What’s the hurry?” she asked.

“I have to know if there’s something here that the Chamberlain would need to guard so that it remains in Federation custody.”

“You’re worried about someone else coming across it and hauling it off?”

“Yes,” he stated.

Mei-Wan smiled. “Jack, we’re probably the first living things on this planet in more than four billion years. I doubt anyone else is going to stumble across it in the next few months.”

Jack shook his head. “I don’t have that luxury.”

“Of course you do. Outside the nebula, no one can even detect this planet.”

“We have a spy aboard, Mei,” Jack said.

Mei-Wan took a step back. “What?”

“Ever since we left the shipyard someone has been sending coded transmissions from the Chamberlain. So far, after five weeks of searching we haven’t come up with a single useful lead as to who’s doing it. I have to assume it’s a spy who by now knows about what’s down here.”

Mei-Wan hesitated, unsure what to say. She hadn’t considered there might be something like this behind Jack’s decision. “Alright, but why can’t we send a message back to Starfleet and have the proper team on its way while we stay and protect the site?”

“Because I need to know as soon as possible if there is anything of value here. If there is then I can decide to either stay to protect it, or to destroy it from orbit.”

Mei-Wan gasped at the meaning of Jack’s words. She could not imagine destroying this place. “You can’t do that, Jack.”

“I may have no other choice. Starfleet’s orders about the Ancient Progenitors are quite clear,” he replied.

“Just don’t leave the survey to Zachary,” Mei-Wan said. “He has no conception of the importance of this discovery. I don’t know if he’s even capable of understanding it.”

“Mei, all of you in the Science Department haven’t given Zachary half the chance he’s entitled to as your department head. All you’ve done is set yourselves up in an ‘us versus him’ situation and elevate any eccentricity to the level of bizarre behavior.”

“Jack, he is bizarre. There are times I wonder if he’s in the same space-time continuum as the rest of us.”

“Maybe he has a right to act a little strange. You’ve been very willing to accept some fairly odd behavior on my part because you know what I’ve been through. Did you ever ask yourself what Zachary went through during the war?”

Mei-Wan shook her head. “No, I haven’t, but whatever it might be doesn’t excuse his condescending attitude and his demeaning treatment of his subordinates.”

“Zachary and his wife were assigned to Starbase 343. She was the Dock Master’s executive officer. A group of Danoran Renegades attacked the Spacedock and took about two hundred hostages, Zachary, his wife, and daughter included. When the Renegades demands weren’t met they started executing the children.”

“I didn’t know.”

“Duncan Zachary watched helplessly as they fired a plasma weapon and split his seven year old daughter’s head in half.”

Mei-Wan closed her eyes as Jack continued. “I think he’s got a right to act a little strange, Mei.”

=/\=

Inside the central chamber of the structure Zachary and his crew moved large pieces of equipment around the wall panel. Mei-Wan walked up to her team. The holographic recording was gone.

“It ended?” Mei-Wan asked.

Fowler nodded. “About five minutes ago.” She watched Mei-Wan a moment. “You okay, Lieutenant?”

“I’m fine.”

Fowler and the others started unpacking the rest of their gear.

Mei-Wan walked over to Zachary.

“Good of you to rejoin us, Lieutenant,” he said.

Mei-Wan forced a pleasant look onto her face. “What would you like us to do, sir?”

“Go through the standard tests and examinations. I’d like you to prepare the report to the Archaeological Council. I’ve told everyone to forward their materials to you so you can compile all the relevant data for the report. I’d also like you to be the first to examine any new chambers or devices we find.”

Mei-Wan was surprised by Zachary’s seeming reversal. Maybe Jack had a point.

“Sir, I’d like to apologize for my earlier outburst. I shouldn’t have let my strong feelings over our disagreement become a personal issue. In looking back at my behavior over the last month I can see that perhaps I could have been more supportive of you and your command of the Science Department. I will do my best to be more supportive from now on.”

Zachary took a single step nearer to her and lowered his voice. “So, he told you about my daughter.”

Mei-Wan tried hard not to react.

Zachary’s head moved back and forth for several seconds and an angry smile came to his face as he spoke with a throaty voice. “I don’t want your pity, Lieutenant. And I certainly don’t care what you think about me. You just stay in your place and do your job and I’ll tolerate you in my department.”

He turned and left Mei-Wan standing alone in the middle of the chamber.

=/\=

Chapter 8 - His Master’s Voice

Jack McCall walked down a corridor on Deck Eighteen of the Chamberlain toward a group of labs. The argument with Mei-Wan still ate away at him despite the four hours that had passed. He knew she had come back to the ship while he had been busy in his Ready Room scouring over the reports Zachary sent up from the surface. Jack still could not believe he and Mei-Wan had gone at each other like that. They had to work this out.

He remembered the discussions they had months ago on this very topic. Mei-Wan had convinced him that she could deal with being married to her captain. Now after five weeks it looked like he might have to decide between his wife and his command.

The door to Archaeology Lab Four slid open before Jack as he walked in. He saw Mei-Wan sitting at a console looking at various images that flashed up on the display. In a chair next to her sat Ensign Fowler grabbing a PADD off a far table, checking some piece of information Mei-Wan asked about. Fowler looked up from her work and noticed Jack.

“Captain,” she said.

Mei-Wan turned around in her chair at first with a smile, but it left her quickly.

“Anything interesting?” he asked.

Mei-Wan took a deep breath to compose herself. “Yes, sir. We seem to have found another set of symbols on the wall panel which started the recording. They show up in the upper ultraviolet band, so it’s possible the panel does far more than simply activate the holographic system.”

Jack nodded. “Any chance there are more chambers?”

“We’re waiting on some scans from a shuttle that’s cruising over the area. My guess is there’s probably a whole series of rooms and passages beneath the structure we were in,” Mei-Wan said.

Jack smiled and turned to Fowler. “Ensign, would you excuse us for a moment?”

Fowler stood from her seat. “Of course, sir.”

Jack sat in Fowler’s chair as the Ensign exited the lab. He watched Mei-Wan’s slender fingers touch controls on the console. She tried to ignore him as he placed his hand on her leg.

“Jack, I’m really busy.”

He pulled his hand back. “I just thought we could talk.”

“That’s what I tried to do, but was told to follow my orders.”

He leaned back in his chair. “When we’re in a duty situation you can’t act like I’m just your husband. I’m you’re captain.”

“I know that, Jack. That wasn’t what I was doing. I think you’ve let your sympathy for Zachary and what he went through cloud your judgment. He should have never been assigned to this ship as Chief Science Officer.”

Jack stared down at the floor.

“Look,” she said, “I know I can be stubborn sometimes.”

He smiled.

“Okay, a lot of the time,” she said with a grin.

Jack laughed softly. “Try most of the time.”

“Okay, so I can be bullheaded about things. But Jack, this site isn’t just the find of a career, it’s the find of the millenium. Everything we know and understand may be changed by what’s down there. I have to fight for it.”

He nodded. “How it might change things is exactly what concerns me, Mei. What might send us to new heights if discovered by the Federation might in the hands of someone else send us into oblivion.”

“I realize there are risks, but that’s always the case with new discoveries.”

Jack started to say something when the door to the lab slid open and a very exuberant Duncan Zachary trotted in with three PADDs in his hands and four more under his arm.

“Sorry to interrupt sir,” Zachary said as Fowler followed close behind. The young Ensign gave Mei-Wan a glance that said, I tried to stop him.

Zachary made his way to a large wall display and activated it dropping three of the PADDs under his arm. He reached down and picked them up and slung them onto a nearby table. He stood up facing Jack, took a deep breath and smiled.

“The last hour has been extraordinary, Captain,” the Science Officer said.

Hel’yra’s sun was shown on the display behind Zachary.

“Something about the star?” Jack asked.

Zachary turned to Mei-Wan. “I have an apology to make to you and your young ensign, Lieutenant. The data on this star told us it was about a billion years old, but we had of course assumed that it had gone through a normal stellar development.”

The display changed and a small flashing dot showed up near the star’s core. Zachary smiled like a kid hungering for an ice cream cone on a hot summer day.

“This star’s development has been anything but natural. That small spot is a micro-wormhole which has been controlling and maintaining the star’s fusion reactions for over four billion years.”

Jack took several steps toward the display. He had a hard time believing what Zachary was telling him.

“To what end?” Jack asked.

“Well, the wormhole does keep the star stable, but that’s not its primary function. We did a subspace examination of the local space-time and we found this.”

The display changed to show the planet they now orbited. The ancient structure zoomed in large and a distance below it another flashing indicator lit up.

“The other end of the wormhole is fifty kilometers below the structure we found on the surface of the planet.”

Even Mei-Wan and Fowler moved closer now. They had looks on their faces that showed both surprise and an intense desire to hear more.

“Who would terminate a wormhole inside a planet?” Fowler asked.

Zachary looked at her with wide eyes. “The more important question, Ensign, is why. Fortunately, we think we’ve got at least part of that figured out.”

The display expanded to show a wide area about the surface structure.

“They are using the power from the star’s core to generate some incredible sub-space field in a two kilometer wide chamber down about twenty kilometers below the surface. Now, what the hell that’s for, I don’t know, but the entire system is incredible! To tap a star for power and at the same time continually engineer that same star to maintain a physical age of only a billion years over the course of four billion years is about as near god-like power as I can imagine.”

Jack stepped up next to Zachary and closely looked over the images on the display.

“And it’s still stable?”

Zachary laughed. “Our estimates are it will probably remain stable for another four billion years.”

Mei-Wan smiled as she walked up next to Jack. “Can you imagine what technology like that allowed them to do?”

Jack thought about it a moment and wondered how the Dominion would have reacted confronted by such power. Something about the image on the display didn’t sit right with him, though.

“What kind of sub-space field is being generated by this system?”

Zachary let out his breath. “That’s still got us still examining our data. It appears to be some sort of multidimensional subspace folding of the local continuum, but so far we can’t penetrate it or come up with a reason why anyone would generate it.”

Jack was pleased they were finally getting answers, but they seemed to be the kind that only presented you with more questions. He was afraid it would be a downward spiral of questions and answers that never came to an end.

The intercom activated and the voice of Lieutenant Commander Pederson spoke. “Captain McCall, we are receiving a transmission.”

Jack thought a moment and realized the impossibility of what he heard. He turned to Zachary.

“I thought you said we couldn’t receive anything inside this nebula.”

Zachary shook his head. “Preposterous!”

Jack was less than satisfied by that response. “Who’s the communication from?”

Pederson hesitated a moment. “No identification, sir.”

“What’s in the transmission?”

“The message is to you by name, sir and they’re asking that you and your Executive Officer meet them at a set of encoded coordinates. The final part simply says they will await your arrival.”

Jack McCall didn’t like this situation, and more and more he wished he had never met Admiral Christopher Hancock.

=/\=

As Jack and Commander Negev walked down the corridor on Deck Twenty-Two toward the Captain’s Yacht, Hank Evans followed closely behind with a frown.

“This is insane, Jack.”

Jack smiled. “That’s becoming the standard mode for my life.”

Hank turned to Negev as they entered the Yacht. “And you’re going along with this, Commander?”

The Executive Officer nodded as he activated the Yacht’s power systems. “The captain has explained that Admiral Hancock told him to expect this so I would estimate the risk to be acceptable.”

Hank rolled his eyes. “If Chris Hancock said it was okay, I’d run the other way.”

Evans turned back to Jack. “At least take a fighter escort.”

Jack sat in the pilot’s seat and activated the navigational systems. “We’ll be fine, Hank.”

Hank walked out of the Yacht. “Don’t expect me to come after you if you get lost this time, kid!”

Jack laughed as the airlock sealed behind Hank Evans and the engines of the Yacht came to life.

“He does let himself become consumed with worry, doesn’t he?” Negev asked.

“You should have seen him when I was an ensign,” Jack said.

Metal seals about the Yacht came loose and they dropped into space. The U.S.S. Bucephalus, NCC-97301, activated its impulse engines and cruised away from the much larger starship Chamberlain.

As Hank Evans approached the turbolift doors on Deck Twenty-two they opened and out walked Commander Kadan Loftus.

“You wanted to see me?” she asked.

He smiled. “Always sweetheart.”

“I meant about something to do with the ship.”

“The captain and Negev have taken the yacht out and I’d like it if you took your pilots out on some drills. I’d like to recalibrate the phaser targeting system.”

Loftus was used to how Hank’s mind worked by this time. She smiled.

“So, you want us to follow and keep an eye on him.”

“The captain specifically ordered me not to do that. Of course, you never heard him say that.”

Loftus laughed and entered the turbolift with Hank.

“You’re going to owe me for this one, Hank,” she said.

“I love owing you. Your method of repayment is always a lot of fun,” he said as the doors closed.

=/\=

Jack sat in the pilot’s seat of the yacht Bucephalus as it cruised through the densest parts of the nebula. Negev sat at his console reviewing page after page of information.

“What’s all that?” Jack asked.

“My review of personnel reports which I must have ready for you by 0800 tomorrow.”

“No hurry.”

Negev smiled. “I attempt to be prompt, sir.”

Jack frowned. “Believe me, I’ve noticed.”

Jack checked the pilot’s display in front of him.

“Well, it seems Hank Evans still can’t follow orders,” Jack said.

Negev continued looking over his reports. “I take it there is a fighter escort with us.”

“Back just far enough that I wouldn’t notice without a long range scan,” Jack replied.

“Should we contact them?”

“No. As long as they don’t follow us out of the nebula they should be okay.”

Jack leaned back in his seat and looked about the interior of the Yacht. He absentmindedly started tapping at the side of his console. After a few moments Negev turned and stared at Jack.

“Sorry,” Jack said and stopped tapping.

Negev returned to his reports while Jack checked their position for the fourth time in the last five minutes.

“Two minutes to nebula boundary,” Jack announced.

Negev did not react. Jack looked out the large front window of the Yacht at the thinning nebula. He thought he could just start to notice a few stars shinning through.

Jack looked back down at his scanner display and saw that the fighters had turned and taken up a holding pattern some two hundred thousand kilometers to their stern. At least he would not have to get into a shouting match with whoever was leading the fighters. Probably Commander Kadan, he thought.

An alarm on his panel sounded and Jack looked up and saw the last mists of the nebula slide past. At last, he thought, stars again. Jack sat up in his chair and turned his attention to scanning the area of the coordinates they had received. After a moment he frowned.

“Nothing. Not a thing,” he said.

Negev switched off the display of personnel reports and looked over at Jack’s panel.

“They did say they would be waiting,” the Andorian replied.

Jack turned the yacht toward their destination. Out the forward window there was nothing but stars, no ship, no anything.

Negev looked down at his display. “Nothing on long range scans either, Captain.”

Jack shook his head. “I say we give them an hour to show. After that we head back. I’m not some trained dog that leaps every time someone says…”

In the blink of an eye Jack McCall and Lak Negev found themselves inside a completely white twenty by twenty foot cube. Light illuminated the room, but didn’t seem to come from any source.

“ … jump,” Jack finished his sentence.

Jack and Negev turned their backs to each other so that between them they had complete view of the room. Jack reached down for a phaser which was not there. “You have a weapon?”

“No, sir.”

Jack scanned every inch of the room with his eyes looking for a way out, but there wasn’t a door visible on any of the walls. He took a deep breath and relaxed.

“They asked us here, so I guess we just wait to find out what they wanted.”

Negev frowned. “I hope the atmosphere in this room will last that long.”

Jack hoped it would too. He told himself that if he came out of this alive he would never listen to Admiral Hancock again.

“Welcome Jack McCall and Lak Negev,” spoke a soft voice that was neither male nor female.

Jack looked around for the source of the voice but saw no one.

“We thank you for arriving here to meet us.”

Jack kept his eyes looking about the room. “Who are you?”

“What is the condition of the planet Hel’yra?”

“Who are you?” Jack asked again.

“What is the condition of the planet Hel’yra?” the voice again asked.

Jack noticed the voice did not sound angry at his question. “The planet is still there.”

The voice took several moments before it replied. “Does the mechanism on the planet still function?”

“If you mean the micro-wormhole that siphons power from the star to generate some massive subspace field, then yes,” Jack replied.

“Does the star continue to appear stable?”

“Yes, it does.”

Almost a minute of silence passed.

“Thank you Captain McCall. Please inform Admiral Hancock that we are satisfied with his fulfillment of our agreement and we shall contact him soon to relay our final payment.”

Jack took a step forward and spoke to the air. “That’s it? How about answering a few of our questions?”

“Again, please accept our thanks.”

“Now just a damn… “

Jack and Negev were back aboard the Bucephalus.

“ … minute,” Jack finished.

“Hancock is going to have a lot of questions to answer,” Jack said.

“It was an interesting experience, Captain,” Negev said.

“I’ve already got enough ‘interesting’ in my life, Mr. Negev.”

=/\=

Kadan Loftus sat in the cockpit of her fighter and checked her forward scanner again. It had been nearly fifteen minutes since the Bucephalus had fallen off her display. Hank had told her to wait only an hour before going out after the yacht, but now she thought fifteen minutes was far too long. She didn’t like letting the captain and the XO leave her sights, but Hank told her the captain had insisted and he did know Jack McCall far better than she did.

She could not wait much longer. The communication she received ten minutes before though broken and filled with static was clear enough that she knew they did not have an hour to wait.

“Fighter Wing to Captain McCall, please respond,” she spoke into her communication system. She was certain there would not be a reply, but she felt better for signaling.

Loftus hated waiting like this. Her nature was to take a situation and manipulate it to her best advantage. That was one of the things about fighter duty that appealed to her the most. Unlike serving aboard a starship, each pilot was their own captain and crew. You had some measure of control over your own fate.

Suddenly something appeared on her scan display.

“Fighter Wing to Captain McCall. Please respond,” she said.

After a brief pause Jack McCall’s voice came from her speaker. “McCall here.”

“Captain, we’ve received a broken message from the Chamberlain. They report there has been a death on the planet,” she said.

Nearly ten seconds passed. “Understood Commander. We’re going to warp two. We’ll meet you back at the Chamberlain,” Jack’s voice said.

As Loftus began turning her fighter she saw a blur soar past her front viewport. She was just glad this particular patrol was over.

The Bucephalus came out of warp one hundred thousand kilometers away from the Chamberlain. Jack signaled his ship and asked for information on the death.

“We’re still not certain, Captain,” Melissa Vargas said over the yacht’s speaker. Static accompanied the message. “We’re having trouble communicating with the surface. Recent solar activity appears to be increasing the disruptions in the planet’s magnetosphere. Hank Evans and Doctor Preston went down as soon as we got word of the death.”

“How many people do we have down there right now?”

“Twenty-seven,” Melissa said. “Sir…”

Her voice stopped, but Jack could not tell if it was due to static or something else.

“Say again, Commander.”

“Captain, Mei-Wan and her Archaeology Team are down there,” Vargas said.

Jack did not even take time to think. “We’re going down to the planet.”

=/\=

Jack took off running out of the yacht the moment the door opened and before the ship came to a complete rest on the surface of Hel’yra. He knew Negev could finish shutting the ship down. He had to get to the large structure ahead of him.

The sun had just started to rise above the distant mountain range and the warmth felt good on Jack’s face. He tried to think of anything other than the fears forcing themselves to the surface of his mind. She had to be okay.

Just as Jack reached the entrance of the structure, Hank Evans came around one of the outer columns and waved him over. Jack quickly turned and ran to four officers who stood looking down at a body. Jack saw the face that mattered most to him. She’s alive! he thought. But tears pooled in Mei-Wan’s eyes as she walked over to Jack.

“It’s Ensign Uduff. I was going to come out to our shuttle to get a piece of equipment, but he offered to go instead and…” Mei-Wan was overcome with emotion and closed her eyes.

Jack put his arm around his wife. “There was no way you could know, Mei.”

A tear slid down Mei-Wan McCall’s cheek. “I need to go back inside. I can’t stay out here.”

Jack nodded as Mei-Wan left. He walked over to where Doctor Taylor Preston, a tall, dark-complexioned human in his late thirties, leaned over the body of the now dead Ensign Uduff with a tricorder.

“What happened?” Jack asked.

Preston stood to his feet. “Best I can tell, his neck was broken and with quite a bit of force.”

Jack turned to Hank. “Zachary said there was no life down here.”

“There isn’t except for our survey teams,” Hank replied.

Jack looked down at Uduff. The body of his dead crewman seemed twisted all the wrong ways.

“Then you’re saying he was murdered?”

A lieutenant walked over to Preston and handed him a PADD.

“What about your guards?” Jack asked Hank. “Did they see anything?”

“Hendricks was out checking the shuttles at the time and Ramirez was at the front entrance. Both said they didn’t even see Uduff walk out.”

“I doubt he came through the walls.”

“I’ve got Zachary’s people running another complete lifeform scan to make sure there’s not something they missed before.”

Doctor Preston turned to Jack and Hank. “You can have them stop. It’s definite. There are fragments of genetic material around his neck. My analysis shows the DNA is human.”

=/\=

Chapter 9 - The Dark Hours

Jack walked along with Hank Evans on Deck Four of the Chamberlain. Jack did his best to suppress a yawn, but failed miserably. While sunrise had occurred only a few hours ago down at the site on the planet, aboard the starship the chronometers read 2315 and Jack was more tired than he had been in a long time.

The first death of his new command had happened far sooner than he would have thought. Every captain resigned himself to the reality that people would die under their command, but it didn’t make it easier to deal with. Ensign Uduff having been part of Mei-Wan’s Section and under her command hit Jack especially hard. He knew this wouldn’t be easy for her.

“Preston should have some firm results in the next few hours,” Hank said.

“Come on, Hank. A genetic test takes less than five minutes. He should have had the results an hour ago,” Jack replied. He was tired of not having answers.

“Usually, I would agree, but it seems there’s some contaminant mixed with the sample from Uduff’s body that’s slowing him down. He says it’s an odd isotope of hydrogen in the moisture on the planet.”

They stopped in front of Jack’s quarters.

Jack glanced down the corridor. “Then maybe it’s not a member of the crew after all. How would moisture on a planet that dry get on Uduff’s body?”

Hank looked at his younger friend. “So, what was the big meeting all about?”

“We got out there, somehow were transported to a small room and only heard a voice.”

Hank laughed. “Sounds like a Hancock operation.”

“They asked a couple of questions then told us they’d contact Hancock with their final payment.”

Hank thought a moment. “Probably where our shield system came from. I wonder what we’ll get next.”

“Have you always seen a conspiracy around every corner?”

“Only when they’re there, Jack my boy,” Hank said.

Jack touched a panel at the side of the door and it slid open. “Get me when you’ve got a suspect.”

Jack walked into his quarters and the door closed behind him. He stepped quietly through the dark living area to the bedroom where he could see Mei-Wan was already fast asleep. He hated that he hadn’t been able to be there for her over Uduff’s death.

He sat down in a chair and took his boots off and looked at the nebula beyond the windows. It threw a faint blue light into the room which gave everything an unreal appearance more like an image from a dream. It made him think of winter.

Jack stood to take his clothes off, but stopped to view Mei’s sleeping face. He noticed her eyes moving under their closed lids. Jack smiled as he wondered what she was dreaming of. After a day like this past one, he hoped it was something pleasant.

He crawled into bed and watched her until the darkness pulled him into its grasp.

=/\=

Jack felt a hand pulling at his arm, but couldn’t figure out who it was.

“Jack, wake up,” Mei-Wan’s voice said.

Jack opened his eyes and saw Mei-Wan wearing her uniform. “What’s wrong?”

She gave him a puzzled look. “It’s 0700, Jack.”

He sat up, not believing what he heard. “What?”

His wife sat on the edge of the bed next to him. “I got up an hour ago and took a long shower. I thought you’d be up by now.”

Jack worked at forcing his eyes open, instead he yawned. “I don’t think I’ve slept that hard in months.”

“I wish I could say the same. I kept waking up almost every hour.”

Jack rubbed her shoulder which brought a smile to her face. “Sorry.”

“It’s not your fault,” she said.

“I mean about coming back after you’d gone to bed. Sorry I wasn’t there to talk about yesterday.”

“I’ve seen people die before, but… ” She looked into Jack’s eyes. “I think I understand a bit better what you go through when someone in your crew dies.”

A haunted look came to Jack’s face as he remembered all those who had died from the Beaumont, but suddenly something about that seemed odd. He turned to Mei-Wan and smiled wide.

“Hey, I didn’t have that dream last night.”

“Really? You’re sure?”

Jack thought and reviewed everything he could remember from the night before. “I’m sure.”

Mei-Wan put her arms around Jack and held him tight. “That’s wonderful.”

Jack stood up from the bed and walked toward a closet.

Mei-Wan watched him. “I wish I could say the same.”

Jack turned to her as he pulled a uniform off a hanger. “You had nightmares?”

“Yeah. I kept feeling like I was locked up somewhere. I tried to get loose, but never could.”

“You had a hard day, Mei.” He leaned forward and kissed her. “I need to get ready. I have to meet with Hank and Preston. You want to have lunch together?”

Mei-Wan grinned. “How about we just meet back here and see what happens.”

Jack laughed softly and headed toward the shower. “Say around 1300?”

Mei-Wan nodded and smiled.

=/\=

Jack entered Sickbay and found Hank standing next to the Chief Medical Officer Taylor Preston. Neither seemed very happy.

“So, who’s our prime suspect?” Jack asked.

Preston twisted his mouth a bit as he tried to find a way to tell Jack. “No one, Captain.”

Jack rolled his eyes. “Alright damnit, that’s it. I’ve had it with not getting a straight simple answer. Ever since we entered this damn nebula all I’ve gotten is half answers, wrong answers, and no answers. It’s a simple DNA test.”

“I’m aware of that, but the DNA found on Uduff doesn’t match anyone on the Science Teams,” Preston said.

“But it’s human DNA?”

“Most definitely, sir.”

Jack turned to Hank. “You sure you accounted for everyone, Hank?”

“Jack, we even checked it against Mei just so we could say we ran everyone,” Hank said.

Jack smiled. “That would have been hard to explain.”

“Not to mention leaving the captain in a dangerous situation for the last eight hours or so.”

Jack sat down in a chair next to a table. “So, what do we have?”

Preston went to a wall display and a DNA pattern appeared. “We know our suspect is a human male, from the condition of the cells, I’d say between the age of twenty and thirty. Genetic matching indicates a high probability of an ancestry of North America or Europe.”

“So, that leaves us with probably four to five hundred people on this ship.”

“Jack, there were less than thirty down there at the time,” Hank said.

Jack raised his hands up. “I don’t want to hear it, Hank! We’re going to test the entire crew and if that doesn’t work, then the entire Federation database. A member of my crew is dead and before this day ends I’m going to know who did it.”

The three of them remained silent for several moments. Jack wondered if they found Uduff’s killer if they’d also find the spy sending the coded transmissions. It would take quite a turn of his luck to wrap up two mysteries in one move.

Preston looked at the display and took a deep breath. He frowned and went to the panel. After a moment he touched the screen and the image changed. He touched it a few more times and then shook his head.

“I can’t believe I left them out,” the Doctor said.

“What?” Jack asked.

“I didn’t include Mr. Evans’ guards.”

Hank’s eyes went wide. “Now just a damn minute. I’d trust those guys with my life. There is no way… “

His words trailed off as the display indicated it had a match. Jack looked at Hank as the computer presented them with the name of Lieutenant j.g. Anthony Ramirez.

“No way in hell! Jack, I’ve known the guy since he was born. I’ve known his father for thirty-five years. Trust me, Ramirez is no murderer!”

“Then he can explain how his DNA got on Uduff’s neck,” Jack said.

Hank pointed his finger at Jack. “You’re wrong, Jack. You’ll see.”

=/\=

Fifteen minutes later, Hank, Preston, and Jack stood in Hank’s Office on Deck Twelve where Ramirez sat in a chair.

“I’m afraid I don’t understand, Hank. I’ve given my report. There’s nothing more to tell,” the nervous Ramirez stated.

Jack pulled up a chair and sat in it. “Indulge me, Lieutenant.”

Ramirez took several deep breaths.

“The captain just wants to hear it straight from you, Tony. Its alright,” Hank said.

“Well, Hendricks and I had walked inside to check up on the survey teams, to make sure they were okay. We decided after we talked to them to do a perimeter check. I went one way around the building and Hendricks went the other. We passed each other on the far side and kept going.”

Jack listened to each detail as Ramirez recounted it. As he listened to the young man he did find it hard to believe he had killed Uduff.

Ramirez continued, “We got back to the forward entrance and I was feeling a little tired and Hendricks said he’d go out to check the shuttles. I leaned against the wall and waited for him to come back. About fifteen minutes later, Lieutenant McCall came out asking where Uduff was and I told her I hadn’t seen him. I called Hendricks and we began a search and found his body.”

Jack watched Ramirez’s expression and tried to decide where to go next. Hank Evans beat him to it.

“So, that was it, then?” Hank asked.

Ramirez nodded. “Yes, sir.”

Jack stood to his feet. “Did you doze off while Hendricks was out checking the shuttles?”

Ramirez seemed worried. He looked up to Hank and then back to Jack.

“Sir, I… On security duty, well…”

Jack looked sternly at the young Lieutenant j.g. “My first assignment was Security, Ramirez. I know you try to catch a bit of sleep here and there when you can. I’m asking if you did last night?”

Ramirez nodded. “Just closed my eyes for a bit, sir, but if Uduff had come out that entrance I would have heard him.”

Jack turned to Preston. “Tell him your findings, Doctor.”

Preston was uncomfortable with this. He was a doctor, dammit, not a policeman.

“The DNA found on Uduff was matched to you, Lieutenant.”

Ramirez’s eyes went wide. “That’s crazy. Me?”

He looked at Hank who tried not to react.

“Hank, you know me! Why would I want to kill Uduff? I didn’t even know the guy!”

“I agree, Tony,” Hank said.

Jack watched Hank interact with Ramirez and thought back to their time together on the Bonifacio. Hank hadn’t changed much. He was loyal to a fault.

“Jack, Tony says he didn’t do it, that’s good enough for me,” Hank said.

“Unfortunately, it’s not for me, Hank,” Jack said. “The DNA is fairly conclusive evidence.”

Ramirez breathed heavily like a trapped animal, but he remained in the chair. He turned to Jack.

“Captain, I’ll take any test you ask for, any examination. I know I didn’t kill that man!”

Jack shook his head. “Ramirez, a denial isn’t proof.”

Hank’s eyes opened wide. “Though there is a way to test that denial, Jack.”

Preston, Jack, and Ramirez turned to Hank.

“How?” Jack asked.

“Our Counselor is M’naran and a full telepath. She could tell us if Ramirez is telling the truth,” Hank said.

Ramirez turned to Jack as the captain thought.

“No, it would violate Ramirez’s rights.”

“I don’t care!” Ramirez shouted. “I’ll do anything to prove my innocence! I know I didn’t do it!”

Hank turned to Jack. “I think he’s waved his rights, Captain.”

=/\=

Akala Wilmarza walked quickly from the turbolift on Deck Twelve toward the Security Section. The beautiful dark green skinned M’naran was the Personnel Officer of the Chamberlain and that included the job of Ship’s Counselor, though in truth she had a counseling staff of almost forty. She and that staff already had a busy morning and she really didn’t need something else to do, but the captain had called her personally. She hoped whatever he wanted wouldn’t take too long. She had a near crisis on her hands.

Wilmarza entered Hank Evans office and found the captain, Doctor Preston, Hank, and another officer there already.

“Thank you for coming down here, Ms. Wilmarza,” Jack said.

“After we’re through here, sir, I’d like to speak to you about a problem I think you should be aware of,” she said.

Jack nodded and turned to the young man in the chair. “Counselor, this is Lieutenant Ramirez. Doctor Preston has identified his DNA as being that found on the body of Ensign Uduff who was killed yesterday. Ramirez denies he had anything to do with Uduff’s death. We’d like you to look into his mind and tell us if he’s being truthful.”

Akala shook her head. “Captain, I can’t do that. Testimony from a telepath isn’t admissible in court. Its also not ethical to forcefully enter someone’s mind.”

Ramirez looked up at her. “I want you to. I have to prove to them I didn’t do this!”

Akala turned to him. “But it won’t prove anything, Lieutenant.”

“It might clarify things, Akala,” Hank said. “We’re not looking for evidence to use against him. Ramirez wants something the captain can trust.”

Akala hated this type of thing. Criminal minds always left her drained for days. She wanted to say no, but something about Ramirez convinced her to give him some peace.

“Lieutenant, just relax,” she said as she pulled up a chair to sit across from him.

Ramirez closed his eyes and took several deep breaths. Akala felt his mind resisting, but that was normal. Humans had difficulty with the idea of letting someone into their mind. Akala grew up on a world where it was as normal as breathing.

Finally Ramirez relaxed enough to let her in. She saw the fear clouding everything else. The young man thought the Universe had turned against him. Akala took her mind down the twists and turns in Ramirez’s thoughts. She found an image of a female crew member he had become entranced with a few days before. Thoughts of his parents consumed much of his mental activity. She could see he was a very driven officer.

She peeled back his memories until she came to the thoughts of the night before. She re-lived his actions, walking with Hendricks who he considered a friend, going back to the entrance, then leaning against the wall. His mind drifted off, it had to be sleep, and the next memory was of Mei-Wan McCall walking up to him. Akala tried to ignore his contemplation of their captain’s wife. She had trouble dealing with the sexual thoughts of human males.

Akala was about to pull out satisfied Ramirez had nothing to do with murdering anyone when something called to her– a quiet misty whisper. It was so soft she at first thought it was from her own mind, but it came from the mind she now roamed through. It called to her again, but this time with more force. She listened, trying to determine if it was Ramirez or something else.

Then it screamed.

“Release me!” it shrieked.

“What are you?” Akala asked.

“No more!”

Akala jerked back in her chair, the link broken with Ramirez’s mind. She shoved the chair back, and almost fell backward onto the floor.

“It killed him!” she yelled.

Ramirez stood to his feet, but his face was contorted almost beyond recognition.

“How dare you enter my mind!” he screamed.

Hank Evans grabbed a phaser from his desk and turned back to the young Lieutenant, but Ramirez had somehow already reached him and yanked the phaser from his hand and threw Hank back against the wall. Jack leaped at Ramirez, missing him by a few inches as the younger man bolted out the door and into the corridor.

“Security Alert!” Jack shouted to the computer system of the Chamberlain.

Instantly alarm klaxons blared all over the starship. Jack turned to his Personnel Officer.

“You okay?”

Akala regained her composure. “Yes, sir.”

Jack waited long enough to be sure and he followed Hank who had already made it out to the corridor after grabbing two phasers from a weapons locker.

Hank stopped at an intersection as Jack approached, and threw the captain one of the weapons.

“I can’t believe it,” Evans said.

“I’m sorry, Hank.”

“I want to take him alive.”

Jack McCall nodded. The two men turned to their left and moved cautiously down the corridor as red light flashed from above. Jack tapped his communicator.

“Computer, location of Lieutenant j.g. Anthony Ramirez?”

The Computer replied, “Lieutenant Ramirez is on Deck Twelve, Section Forty-two.”

“He’s headed for the Port Side Gangway,” Hank said.

Jack followed Hank around another corner, but the next moment, was shoved back as a phaser blast barely missed Evans’ head. A nearby wall exploded in a shower of sparks and metal fragments.

“He’s got that set to maximum!” Jack yelled.

Hank pulled Jack up to the corridor wall, giving them the most cover they could hope for.

“He can’t go anywhere. He’s at the Gangway hatch.”

Jack tried to imagine why Ramirez would allow himself to get trapped like this when he could have easily made for a jefferies tube and probably lost them. Or at least he could have gone for a lifepod. With the radiation fields in this system they couldn’t use the transporter and he might have evaded their sensor sweeps.

Hank edged to the corner. “Come on, Tony. We can work this out. There’s no place for you to go.”

They waited and got no response, except from the Computer. “Warning. Port Side Gangway Hatch safety protocols have been disabled. Evacuate this Section,” the electronic brain stated.

Jack responded, “Computer, override manual controls to Port Side Gangway, authorization McCall Zed-nine-alpha, Mei-three-nine.”

A moment later they heard Ramirez scream around the corner and phaser blasts again shot down the corridor next to them.

“I think he’s a bit angry,” Jack said.

Hank shook his head. “What the hell was he opening the hatch for?”

“Maybe he plans on suicide,” Jack said.

Hank turned to the corner. “Tony, stop this! Just put the phaser down and we’ll work something out. You know you can trust me!”

Jack adjusted his phaser and held it up for Hank to see. Evans’ eyes opened wide in shock, but Jack held his finger up to his mouth and pointed off to his side. Hank thought it through and realized Jack McCall had a plan.

Jack leaped into the intersection of corridors and fired his phaser hitting the ceiling above Ramirez sending a shower of sparks and smoke raining down onto the maddened security guard. Jack continued his leap out of harm’s way through to the other side of the junction at the same moment Hank Evans stretched his arm around the corner and fired a stun blast that struck Ramirez hard in the chest.

Hank and Jack stood facing each other across the divide waiting for the smoke to clear.

“You shouldn’t have done that, Hank,” came Ramirez’s voice through the veil of smoke. “I can’t stop it!”

Hank started to move, but Jack raised his hand to make him hold his ground. “Ramirez?” Jack asked.

The voice they next heard was clearly Ramirez’s without any humanity, without warmth, without hope.

“I must escape!”

The whine of phaser fire filled the corridor until an explosion blasted past Jack and Hank forcing them to the floor. A moment later all the air surrounding them roared past on its way to the vacuum of space. Jack found a piece of molding on the wall and held on with all of his strength while the laws of physics wanted otherwise. He lifted his eyes to see Hank doing the same on the other side of the intersection.

“Computer, Activate Emergency Containment!” Jack shouted with what little air he could pull past his vocal cords.

A second later the rushing wind completely died and both men drew air into their lungs from the overcompensating life support system. Hank looked around the corner and saw a four foot wide hole in the large gangway hatch and beyond that, the body of Ramirez tumbling end over end away from the ship in the merciless empty void of space.

Hank tapped his comm badge. “Transporter Room Seven, lock onto a body off the Port… “

Jack touched Hank’s shoulder. “They can’t function this near to the planet, Hank.”

Hank lowered his head and walked toward the opening. Jack tapped his own communicator.

“Transporter Room, disregard,” he said as he watched Hank stand in silent memorial to the young man who by now was most certainly dead.

=/\=

Engineers and Damage Control Personnel walked past Jack to their work on the wrecked hatch. Chief Engineer Bishop approached him.

“We should have this repaired in about four hours, Captain.”

Jack simply nodded.

Bishop looked over at her busy crew and the gapping hole where a force field was the only thing between them and space. “We’ll need to evacuate this section and depressurize it so we can get the replacement doors installed.”

Jack started walking. “Let me know when you’re finished.”

As Jack got past the arbitrary line dividing one section of Deck Twelve from another he found Vargas and Akala Wilmarza waiting for him.

“Evans just signaled that his shuttle’s on its way back with Ramirez’s body, sir,” Vargas said softly.

Jack turned to his Personnel Officer. “Counselor, what was in that young man’s mind?”

“Something that was Ramirez, but wasn’t. It was as if he had been consumed by an uncontrollable rage.”

“Was it an entity of some kind?”

“No, not exactly. It seemed as though his mind was transforming into something, or someone different.”

Jack stood silently trying to put that in some sort of context.

“Anthony Ramirez did not kill Uduff, sir. Something in his mind used his body to do it.”

“That sounds a bit like a defense attorney’s last ditch argument,” Jack said.

“It’s the reality of what was happening to Ramirez, sir.”

Jack leaned against the corridor wall as still more Engineering Personnel walked past them toward the ongoing repairs.

“Sir, there was another matter I needed to discuss with you.”

“Go ahead, Counselor,” Jack said.

“The Counseling Staff received more than seven hundred messages this morning from the crew concerning a variety of sleep problems,” she stated.

Jack turned his eyes to the green skinned woman. “My wife said she had trouble sleeping as well.”

“Did she have dreams about being trapped or claustrophobic feelings?”

Jack’s eyes widened. “Seven hundred members of this crew had the same types of dreams?”

“Yes, and now that I think of it, the overriding sense I got from Ramirez was that of being confined or trapped.”

Jack realized he had to act quickly. The situation was spinning out of control.  “Have there been any other incidents like Ramirez?”

“No. Everyone else seems to be fine, but I’d like to have Doctor Preston runs tests on a selection of those who had the worst dreams,” Akala suggested.

“Get on it right away. Any other recommendations?”

“Ever since we arrived here I and the other telepathic members of my staff have detected a sort of mental background noise. At first each of us thought it was just the strange radiation fields of the nebula and those surrounding the planet. But with Ramirez and the dreams reported by such a large part of the crew, I would suggest there’s something on that planet responsible for all of this. I recommend at least going to a higher orbit. If it’s on the surface, my staff and I should sense a decrease in the mental noise we’ve experienced.”

“We’ll do more than that,” Jack said as he turned to Vargas. “Lieutenant Commander is anyone still on the planet?”

“No, sir. Everyone returned more than five hours ago.”

“Inform the Bridge we’re leaving orbit within the hour. I want to get the hell out of this solar system,” Jack ordered.

“Jack, we can’t,” Mei-Wan said as she walked up to Jack, Akala, and Melissa.

“I’ve lost two members of my crew, Mei. We’re leaving.”

“We can’t. Not yet.”

“I thought you were the one who said we needed to leave this world to the Federation Archaeological Council,” Jack said with a grin.

“After we go down there one last time,” Mei-Wan replied.

“It’s too dangerous, we’re leaving.”

“You said you had to know what was down there before you could leave. Your orders demanded it.”

Jack took a deep breath. He knew she had impaled him on his own words.

“I’ve figured out how to get into the lower levels of the structure, Jack. We might find out what the Ancient Progenitors were doing on this world and perhaps a whole lot more.”

=/\=

Chapter 10 - Heart Of Madness

Hel’yra’s sun still shined above the edge of the mountains surrounding the enormous structure built by the Ancient Progenitors, but soon it would set, letting the night engulf this side of the planet. With that darkness would come a cold worse than any lack of heat. It was the cold of things best forgotten.

Jack McCall, his wife Mei-Wan, Duncan Zachary, Hank Evans, and young Ensign Fowler walked through long shadows toward the entrance to a structure older than the DNA in their cells. Jack had reservations about this little trip, yet he had to know what secrets lay beneath the dead soil of this world.

The Chamberlain had gone to a much higher orbit and Counselor Wilmarza assured him the mental background noise had been greatly reduced. As an added precaution, he sent the Abdiel out of the nebula much to Falco’s pleasure. The commander of the Defiant class ship had gone stir crazy orbiting the planet. Now Jack only needed to make sure no one on the surface succumbed to the emanations responsible for the deaths of Uduff and Ramirez. Jack hoped Doctor Preston could find some answers with his examination of the dead security officer’s body.

1

All of them stepped into the large central chamber where they had first encountered the message from their humanoid ancestor which still defied translation. Mei-Wan and Fowler each pulled out a PADD and approached the wall panel that had earlier activated the holographic imaging system. Jack and Hank scrutinized the rest of the chamber for anything that seemed out of place or odd.

Zachary stared at Mei-Wan and Fowler and groaned, “We’ve been all over that panel, Lieutenant. It only activates the message system.”

Mei-Wan glanced over her shoulder at Zachary and smiled. Fowler showed her an image on one of the PADDs and Mei-Wan placed her left hand in the center of the panel. Zachary smirked as nothing happened.

“Everyone, standby,” Mei-Wan said. She placed her right hand on the red glowing text which had before activated the hologram. This time there was no message.

Text illuminated all over the panel and everyone felt a low, gut-wrenching rumble one might expect from a tectonic plate shifting its position as a section of wall separated. Jack thought the entire structure had begun to collapse until he saw that the wall moved evenly. From the floor to the ceiling the curved wall separated until a forty foot wide opening stood before them.

Mei-Wan smiled and she and Fowler picked up their equipment and moved toward the opening.

Hank quickly blocked them and Mei-Wan turned to her husband.

“I thought the point was to investigate,” Mei-Wan protested.

Jack crossed the chamber to join Hank. “We need to make sure it’s safe before we jump headlong into some dark tunnel.”

At that moment the massive corridor illuminated with the brightness of the noonday sun.

“You were saying, sir?” Mei-Wan asked with a grin.

“We need to move with caution, Lieutenant.”

“If we stand around letting you and Hank check for this, that, and the other every time we come across something new we’ll never get to where we’re going in the three hour time limit you insisted on,” Mei-Wan stated.

Jack turned back to Zachary who stood over the panel staring at it. “Mr. Zachary, you intend on joining us?”

Zachary spun around startled. “Aye, sir.”

As his Science Officer joined them, Jack waved his arm forward. “Lead on, Lieutenant.”

Mei-Wan and Fowler scanned the passage with their tricorders and stepped off leading the three men between walls of a polished shiny metal that defied analysis from the small scanning devices. Light seemed to come from beneath them, but the floor was a pale gray color that appeared more like rock than a lamp.

“Why would they build so large?” Zachary asked.

“Why not?” Fowler replied.

Zachary frowned. “These Ancient Progenitors appear to be about the same proportions as us. Why would they build hallways and chambers so large?”

“Maybe they liked open spaces,” Hank said.

“Or perhaps they didn’t build it for themselves,” Fowler added.

Jack glanced over at Mei-Wan. His face assumed the look of a man wanting answers, but Mei-Wan could only shrug her shoulders. He smiled and looked down at the chronometer on his left wrist. Jack held it up for her and she saw the 1314 it displayed.

“I guess our lunch appointment is shot.”

Jack nodded. “Figures.”

They neared the end of the large hallway where a seamless wall panel blocked their path.

“Now what?” Zachary inquired.

Mei-Wan enjoyed Zachary’s helplessness. Here he was the Science Officer and it was one of his subordinates who led them where no one had trod for more than four billion years. She reached up to the center of the panel and a small section of the same strange text illuminated on the wall. A single vertical seam formed and split open.

“I’d say we go this way,” Mei-Wan said.

All of them stepped into a small ten foot cube.

“Maybe one of us should stay behind in case something goes wrong,” Zachary pleaded.

Jack shook his head as they stood motionless. The opening sealed back to its closed state as Mei-Wan and Fowler watched their tricorder displays.

“We’re descending,” Fowler stated.

“How far?” Jack asked.

“We’ve gone about four kilometers down already,” Mei-Wan said.

Hank leaned against one of the walls. “I really hope this isn’t some trap designed to retrieve sample lifeforms.”

Jack turned to his friend and grinned. “Always the optimist.”

“Somebody has to be.”

Zachary looked up at the ceiling and closed his eyes and mumbled something.

“What was that, Mr. Zachary?” Jack asked.

“Nothing at all, sir.”

Suddenly the wall again split open, revealing another passage way. This area was not nearly as illuminated as the one they had come through a few minutes before.

“We’re twenty kilometers beneath the surface,” Mei-Wan told them.

Jack and Hank cautiously left the confines of their elevator and came to a sudden stop. Mei-Wan, Fowler, and Zachary quickly did the same as they each tried to comprehend the sights their eyes communicated to their limited primate brains.

A large array of luminous spheres hung from the ceiling more than two miles above their heads. The expanse before them stretched out for miles in every direction full of machines that flashed displays of alien information and moaned with sounds never heard by human ears. The rows and rows of mechanical contrivances disappeared in the mist of ancient air far in the distance and into the height above. Every color of the spectrum flashed onto the Starfleet Officers as they took small tentative steps toward the devices of their Progenitors.

“My god, would you look at this,” Hank murmured.

Mei-Wan moved to the nearest collection of display panels and pointed her tricorder at them to record the information presented in the ancient text.

“Probably support machinery,” Fowler offered.

Zachary snarled. “Impossible. Mechanical devices like these could not possibly function after four billion years. Someone must still be here or at least come by from time to time to make repairs.”

Mei-Wan turned to face Zachary. “Not if the machines were intelligent and repaired themselves. With the nearly limitless power supply available I think we need to be careful in assigning any limitations to what we find here.”

Zachary frowned and walked away.

Jack looked over at Mei-Wan. “Being a little rough on him aren’t you?”

Mei-Wan watched Zachary, now almost thirty feet away. “I’m trying to be good, Captain.”

“Any idea what these things are doing?”

Mei-Wan checked her tricorder. “If I could translate the language I might be able to answer that. My best guess would be most of this maintains the facility and probably the wormhole that connects to the star.”

“But what is it all being maintained for?”

Zachary rushed back to them. “I think you should see this, sir.”

The others followed the Science Officer to the side of a large machine, but instead of a wall there was a long dark passage at the end of which glowed a pale blue light. Fowler yawned and checked her tricorder.

“I think that’s the center of the sub-space field you detected,” the ensign said.

Zachary quickly walked down the narrow corridor. Hank and Fowler followed him.

“Is the field dangerous, Mei?”

Mei-Wan watched the display on her tricorder. “Apparently not, though a field of this magnitude should be like standing next to a thousand warp drive units at full output.”

Jack took a deep breath and the couple followed the other officers.

At the end of the passage they came into a large two kilometer spherical chamber with a thirty meter wide walkway around its circumference. In the open center of the chamber a glowing mass of convulsing energy hung weightless twisting and folding in on itself. It seemed near to tearing itself asunder, yet a moment later it would settle into a near perfect and uniform sphere only to return again to its torment. No other light but that from the glowing mass illuminated the chamber.

“What is it?” Hank asked.

As if on cue, a holographic image of the same Ancient Progenitor they had seen before appeared near by. The humanoid female spoke in the same indecipherable language, yet with more urgency than the previous message.

Mei-Wan nodded to Fowler who quickly turned her tricorder to record the message for later study.

Zachary stared at the luminous mass as if mesmerized by the patterns of twisting energy. “Imagine what the Federation could do with power like this.”

Jack took a breath. “I could imagine if I knew exactly what this was.”

His Science Officer turned to him. “This is space-time folded in on itself, Captain. A small universe of its own locked away in this chamber. The implications of this are incredible.”

Mei-Wan stepped next to Jack. “It means the Ancient Progenitors had the ability to alter the very structure of existence and use it the same way we manipulate matter and energy to produce power for warp drive, or the replicators, or a hundred other things we take for granted on a daily basis.”

Jack glanced back at the glowing impossibility before them. “But if they had power on that scale, where are they? Where did they go?”

“Maybe they’re in there.”

Mei-Wan turned to Hank. “Inside that thing?”

“Zachary said it was a small universe. Why not?” Hank replied.

The Science Officer nodded. “It is entirely possible.”

“Why go to all this trouble to produce a universe less than two kilometers in diameter?” Jack asked.

“In there,” Zachary started, “The laws of physics might be vastly different than what we know. There might be billions of galaxies inside what appears to us hardly large enough for a small town.”

Mei-Wan smiled. “Imagine the possibilities, Jack. You could create a universe where entropy didn’t exist. There’d be no need to find cures to disease or fear death. You might even fine tune such a universe to make your every thought come to pass.”

Zachary’s eyes were wide. “No sorrow, no pain, no death.”

“Horse hockey,” Hank said loudly. “I bet we find out all that’s in there is someone’s junk. Sentimental trinkets that meant something to the woman in those messages, but not a thing to anyone else in the Universe.”

“Could be an advanced form of a food storage unit,” Jack said.

Hank laughed. “We could open it and have a few cold drinks.”

Mei-Wan shook her head. She knew Jack and Hank like many Starfleet Officers found it difficult to admit that beings far more advanced than the Federation existed. They did not want to accept the implications of what stood before them.

Mei-Wan realized something was not right. She had been so absorbed with the sub-space mystery before them that she had completely forgotten Fowler. Mei-Wan would have expected the Ensign to be as impressed as she was.

“Jack, Fowler’s gone.”

“Where is she?” Zachary asked.

Mei-Wan took a deep breath and adjusted her tricorder. After a moment a small flashing indicator appeared on the display.

“She’s out there,” Mei-Wan said as she stepped briskly toward the passage they came through.

“Mei, now wait a… ” Jack started.

Jack and Hank followed Mei-Wan. Zachary returned to gaze at the glowing mass of energy.

Jack found Fowler grasping Mei-Wan’s throat from behind with one hand and pointing a phaser with the other hand at him and Hank who immediately pulled his own weapon.

“Deactivate the device, now!” Fowler shouted with a resonant voice that her small frame was never meant to utter.

“Calm down Ensign and let her go,” Jack said as calmly as he could.

Hank moved slowly around for a better shot while Jack held Fowler’s attention. The ensign did not miss the tactic. She turned her weapon to Hank and fired missing him by inches as he dove for cover behind a machine.

“You pathetic creatures sicken me! Do as I demand!”

Fowler adjusted her phaser to full strength and with a snarling smile that sent a blast of fear through Jack, she pointed the weapon at Mei-Wan’s head.

“Do as I say, or watch this frail thing die,” Fowler spat.

At that moment Zachary walked out of the passage and the thing Fowler had become fired at him. Jack leaped and tackled his Science Officer to the ground preventing the man’s brain from being instantly vaporized.

Fowler returned the weapon to Mei-Wan’s head.

“Fowler,” Mei-Wan forced out with the little breath she had. “You know I can do what you ask. They can’t help you, but I can.”

Fowler looked down at her captive and seemed lost in thought. Her eyes closed and for a moment appeared near tears, but that moment passed.

“Yes. You will do as I demand.”

Fowler turned Mei-Wan around, releasing the hold on her neck and grabbed her by the shoulder instead.

Mei-Wan took in large breaths to replace the stale air in her lungs.

“I need to go to the machine over there,” Mei-Wan said and pointed to a device twenty feet away.

Fowler almost dislocated Mei-Wan’s shoulder as she pulled her captive toward the machine.

Jack turned to Hank and nodded. He knew this might be their only chance.

Fowler shoved Mei-Wan against the display panel.

“Now, you will…” Fowler started.

Mei-Wan pushed against the panel with all the might she could deliver and threw herself back into Fowler. She knocked the young ensign to the ground.

Jack and Hank leaped forward and fired their phasers hitting Fowler. The woman staggered a moment, but rose to her feet and fired her weapon in Jack’s direction. The blast missed him as he hid behind another machine.

Mei-Wan dropped to the ground and swung her legs around and kicked the phaser out of Fowler’s hand.

“NO!” Fowler shouted as she moved to strangle the life out of Mei-Wan. Fortunately for the wife of Jack McCall, Hank Evans fired continuous energy from his weapon stopping Fowler’s attack. After ten seconds, the ensign collapsed to the ground.

“She’s down!” Hank shouted.

Jack ran to Mei-Wan and helped her up.

“You okay?” he asked.

Mei-Wan smiled as she rubbed her throat. “Assuming my windpipe isn’t crushed, I think I’ll be fine.”

Hank picked up Fowler’s phaser and pulled out a pair of hand restraints. He quickly bound her hands.

“Can we now get the hell out of here, sir?” Hank asked.

Jack looked at Mei-Wan. “Well?”

“Without translating the two recordings or the displays there’s really not much more we can do here. We should leave this place for the Archaeological Council.”

Jack turned to Zachary. “As long as my Science Officer doesn’t have any objections.”

Zachary started to say something, but shook his head instead.

“Hank, let’s get Fowler back to the shuttle,” Jack said.

Hank rolled the ensign over and checked for a pulse.

“At least she’s still alive,” Evans said, relieved.

Jack looked into Mei-Wan’s eyes. “Why did you tell her you could operate these machines? You can’t can you?”

Mei-Wan smiled. “Of course not. Whatever was going on with Natalie it was still her. I knew how she looked up to me, so I played on that. Never underestimate the admiration an ensign has for their section commander.”

=/\=

The U.S.S. Chamberlain cruised through the outer sections of the nebula as it soared away from the planet Hel’yra and its subterranean mysteries. The repairs on the Port Side Gangway were completed making the ship once again whole.

Jack McCall tried his best to remain still on the biobed as Doctor Taylor Preston ran a medical device across the captain’s forehead.

“Only very minor alterations, sir. I’ll have that taken care of in just a minute,” Preston told his patient.

“How about the others?”

“They’re fine,” the Doctor said as he attached a small device to Jack’s head.

The tiny machine made a teeth-rattling noise that Jack could have gone his whole life without.

“We got lucky, Captain. If Akala Wilmarza hadn’t caught this when she did, and if I hadn’t done the extensive scan of Ramirez’s brain that I did, we might have lost a third of the crew if we had remained another three or four days around that planet.”

Preston removed the device and the captain of the Chamberlain sat up on the biobed.

“What exactly was going on, Doctor?”

“Best I can tell, some form of energy from the planet was altering the very chemistry of our brains, almost rewiring our neural pathways.”

“That was causing the dreams and the homicidal behavior?”

“Again, as best as I can tell, yes. The nearer someone was to the source of the energy the worse the effect— the old inverse square law. I’m still not quite sure why it seemed to kick in when someone fell asleep. Not that I’m in a hurry to run back to the planet and run experiments to find out.”

Jack nodded. “Will the treatment you’ve come up with prevent the damage from occurring in the first place?”

Preston considered the question. “It could be developed to do that I think. I’d need several weeks to turn my current treatment into a preventative one.”

Jack hopped off the biobed. “How’s Fowler doing?”

“The treatment completely reversed her condition. She’s over in the next exam room— your wife’s with her.”

Jack sauntered over to the adjoining room and found Mei-Wan standing next to a smiling Natalie Fowler. They both turned to him.

“Captain, I want to apologize for my actions,” Fowler said. “They were… “

“Not your own, Ensign,” Jack finished.

Fowler nodded reluctantly as Mei-Wan smiled at her.

“I better get back to work on those recordings,” Fowler stated. She walked out of the room leaving Jack and Mei-Wan alone.

They stood in silence for nearly a minute.

“Mei, I think we need…”

Jack was interrupted by the door sliding open and Commander Falco entering.

“You were looking for me, sir?” Falco asked.

Mei-Wan touched Jack’s arm and walked toward the door Falco entered. After she was gone, Jack turned to the Commander.

“Yes, I understand the Abdiel is having some repairs done.”

“Nothing major, sir. Being in orbit around that planet as long as we were had pretty much shot some of our sensor systems. She should be up and running again in a few hours,” Falco said.

“Good. The Chamberlain is heading back for Kel-j’na and I want you to remain here and do a survey of the nebula. Your primary mission, however, is to keep anyone from entering the nebula and going to the planet at all costs, Commander. In a few weeks there should be a ship that will relieve you, at which time you will rejoin the Chamberlain.”

Falco smiled. He had a real life and death mission at last. “Don’t worry, sir. No one will get past us.”

Jack nodded and Falco quickly glided out of the room.

=/\=

Jack entered his quarters and found Mei-Wan sitting on a couch reading from a PADD. She smiled at him and set the device down.

“What are you working on?” he asked.

“Just some more data from Hel’yra.”

Jack sat in a chair across from Mei-Wan. “Have you figured out why the Ancient Progenitors would build a device so elaborate and complex just to drive people to become homicidal maniacs?”

“I doubt that’s what they intended, Jack.”

He leaned back in the chair and closed his eyes. “There is one positive result of all of this. The mind altering effect should keep anyone else from getting very far with the site before the Archaeological Council can send an expedition.”

Mei-Wan nodded and watched her husband.

He took several breaths and opened his eyes.

“Mei, I can’t command this ship if you and I don’t have things between us worked out. I can’t have more incidents where you blatantly violate the chain of command, insult Zachary, or defy orders.”

“Jack, this was a unique case. I doubt we’d ever have a situation like this again.”

“You really think that?”

“Yes. Check my service record. I haven’t made insubordination a habit.”

He stood and walked behind his chair. “Mei, you have to follow the rules on this ship just like anyone else. I have to know that if we were to have a situation even remotely similar to this, that next time you would act the way regulations demand that you do.”

Mei-Wan approached him. “It may be hard for you to realize this, Jack, but the fact that you’re my husband doesn’t really have anything to do with how I reacted. I’ve thought about this a lot the last several hours. If another officer had been my captain on this mission I would have done and said exactly the same things.  Who my CO is doesn’t change the fact Zachary is incompetent, nor does it change the importance of what we discovered.”

Jack drew air deep into his lungs. “Another captain would have relieved you from duty.”

Mei-Wan gazed at him. “Then perhaps that’s what you should have done, Captain.”

Jack lowered his eyes. “You know damn well I could never do that.”

Mei-Wan shook her head. “The problem isn’t you being my husband. You can’t get past me being your wife.”

Jack McCall stared at the ceiling. His mind did its best to run from the truth of her words.

Mei-Wan’s features softened as she placed her hand on his chest. “Don’t expect me to act differently because I’m your wife, Jack. I’m willing to pay the price for my actions. I have to fight for what I believe is the right course of action, especially with what we found on that planet. Even if it means I have to face disciplinary action from my captain.”

“Then maybe… ” He stopped. He couldn’t get the words out.

Jack turned to face her again. “I can’t believe I’m even thinking this, let alone saying it.”

She took a step closer to him. “What?”

He looked down. He couldn’t stand to see how the words would affect her. “I think we need to reconsider serving aboard the same ship.”

Mei-Wan’s breathing sped up as she fought back the emotions demanding to erupt from her. She walked away from him toward the bedroom.

Jack stood silently… alone.

=/\=

Several hours later, on the yacht Bucephalus, Jack sat in the pilot’s seat looking out at the stars beyond the forward viewport. He poured more scotch into his glass as his mind raced as it had for the past hour. He tried his best to get angry at Mei-Wan, but he couldn’t.

As Jack took a sip from his glass he was unaware that at that moment another signal left his ship and radiated out into space as a deep range scan to anyone who might happen upon it– except for its intended receiver. Three hours later, Melissa Vargas and Hank Evans would report the signal to him, but with no more information beyond that. Jack would yell at both of them, not because they had failed at their task, but because he simply had reached his limit. He would immediately apologize to them, but the anger over his and Mei’s situation would have been thrown at them nonetheless.

Jack closed his eyes as he felt the scotch hit his stomach and send warm comfort through his entire body. He knew he might have to take an anti-intoxicant again if they needed him on the bridge, but he didn’t care. All he wanted was a moment. Just a moment of peace.

The comm on the yacht chimed and Jack slammed his fist down on the unit. “Yes, McCall here.”

“Captain,” Melissa Vargas said through the speaker, “The Abdiel is requesting clearance for departure.”

“Clearance granted, Commander,” Jack said as he switched the intercom off.

He slid down in the chair and took a large drink from his glass, emptying it. He set the glass down on the panel in front of him and stared out the viewport. After a minute the Defiant class U.S.S. Abdiel soared past under the Chamberlain and into a wide orbit around the nebula.

As Jack’s eyelids grew heavy, the view pivoted around toward open space and with a flash the Chamberlain went to warp speed and the once stationary stars began streaking past. His mind drifted away and all he could think of was Mei-Wan. He had never loved anyone the way he loved her.

His conscious mind fell away into a mist of random thoughts and finally into the cold embrace of sleep. Once there Jack McCall returned where he always went in the arms of death’s brother.

The pounding.

The screams for mercy, the cries for life.

The desperation of endless agony.

Silence.

No.

As Jack McCall had for most of the past year, his mind took him to the time and place that had destroyed his view of himself and the universe he lived in. Jack could have stopped it all with just a few words. They only wanted a few words from him, but words he could not speak– would not speak.

He watched the twisted body gasp its last breath and make its last movement. He saw the eyes as the last sparks of life evaporated away. Lieutenant Robin Nelson would never return from that eternity… an eternity which beckoned to Jack McCall’s soul.

TO BE CONTINUED …

=/\=

Discover more Star Trek fan fiction by Michael Gray at:

http://darkhorizon.4mg.com/

Dark Horizon Story and Characters Copyright 2002, 2008, 2011 Michael Gray