Star Trek: Dark Horizon

THE KEYS TO ABADDON

Written by Michael Gray

Based upon Star Trek

created by Gene Roddenberry

Copyright 2003, 2011 by Michael Gray

=/\=

Chapter 1 - Riding The Wave

Jack McCall stood looking out the window at the front of his ready room watching the stars streak past as his ship, the Chamberlain, screamed across the darkness of empty space toward the world Hel’yra.

Four days earlier a planet named Cajma Six died. Every living thing on that world of magnificent sea cities now lay unmoving– not a single bacteria remained. Along with Cajma Six, a third of the starship Venture’s crew perished as the thing responsible passed by and departed the system on its way to where the Chamberlain now raced.

Jack tired of sitting on the bridge where all he could learn was that they were still a full day away from their destination. He hated the waiting. Even worse he hated that he couldn’t keep his thoughts off his wife.They had spoken only once since warping away from the Cajma system. Mei-Wan stopped by just long enough to get some clothes and a few personal items. The short words between them were for him to have the rest of her things sent to her new quarters on Deck Eight. His only response was to nod as she walked out.

Jack wanted her to come back, but he was convinced she never would. He had been the one to demand an answer– an answer she had yet to give. Over the past four days he suspected she no longer loved him, or worse, no longer understood what the word meant.

The sound of the ready room doors opening at the bottom of the stairs that led up to Jack’s sanctuary interrupted his dark musings. He turned to see his Chief Staff Officer, Celeste Purcell walk up to him.

“Yes, Commander?” he asked.

Purcell stood next to him and looked ahead at the path the Chamberlain parted amongst the stars.

“Thought you might want to know that Captain Gann has worked his way down the chain of command to Doctor Preston,” she said with no expression to give away her mood.

Jack raised an eyebrow. “He’s been busy.”

“He did skip Mr. McGuire, so there’s still a chance he’ll get some results.”

Jack smiled. “I’d have thought he’d have been his first choice since McGuire’s a personal friend of Admiral Simmons.”

“I thought that too, but for some reason he hasn’t sent any messages to Lee yet.”

Jack turned to her. “What about you?”

“He didn’t send any orders to me either. I did think that was strange.”

Jack took a breath. “And if he did?”

She tilted her head to the left a bit as she contemplated Jack’s question. “It would put a few days of starship command on my service record.” Purcell smiled. “However, I doubt it would be a very successful notation without the rest of the officers fulfilling their tasks.”“You think they’d refuse your orders?”

“I’ve heard a rumor that the senior officers all might become quite ill at a moment’s notice if someone were to relieve you of command.”

Jack looked back at the stars. Despite the undercurrent of unhappiness he had noticed in many of his senior officers the last six months, they had decided to stand by him. He wondered why.

“But you know it’s all a load of crap. If Gann orders you to take command, you really ought…”

Purcell cut him off. “You’re the last person I should be taking counsel from concerning following orders, sir.”

After a moment Jack grinned. “You’re probably right about that.”

The intercom chimed and the voice of the Chamberlain’s acting science officer came through the speaker. “Captain McCall, I think you better come down to the bridge.”

Jack took a step toward the stairs. “You find something?”

“Something is about to find us, sir.”

“On my way,” Jack said as he and Purcell left the Ready Room.

=/\=

Jack entered the large main bridge and turned to his science officer. “So what do you have, Mr. Blackwell?”

The light haired man sat stooped over his science station reading displays. “Some sort of subspace interference approaching at high warp, Captain. I’m still trying to get something definite.”

Jack nodded to Lak Negev, an Andorian and his Executive Officer.

Negev turned to Hank Evans at the Tactical Station, “Raise the shields, Mr. Evans.”

Hank touched the panel in front of him and a moment later the Oceana class starship was protected from almost anything that it might encounter.

“Still nothing from the Ravenscroft?” Jack asked Arthur Conrad, the communications officer.

Conrad shook his head.

“Keep trying. They eventually have to come out of that nebula.”

Melissa Vargas, the Chamberlain’s Operations Officer, turned to Jack. “Captain, I’ve gone through Starfleet’s orders for the Ravenscroft and they were required to leave the nebula to send a signal back to Kel-j’na every three days.”

“When was the last message sent?” Jack asked.

“Six days ago,” Melissa said softly.

That was the last thing Jack wanted to hear.

Hank looked up at the main viewscreen and his eyes went wide. “Holy…”

Timothy Blackwell shot up from his sensor displays. “A subspace shockwave!”

Everyone on the bridge watched as a bright green wavefront was magnified on the viewscreen. They now knew what had been approaching them.

“Red alert!” Lak Negev shouted. A second later the alert klaxon blared throughout the ship.

Jack rose to his feet. “Take us out of warp!”Conn officer s’Felis activated the controls at his station bringing the ship to sublight velocity.

Jack knew they only had a minute at most and he didn’t dare let the wave strike them while they were at warp nine point seven. The ship would have been torn asunder.

“Can we outrun it?” Negev asked Blackwell.

“Negative. Even at warp nine point nine going the other direction we’d still get hit by it in about ten minutes.”

“Time to impact?” Jack asked.

“Twelve seconds,” Blackwell said.

Jack sat back in his command chair knowing it wouldn’t be smart to remain standing when the subspace wave hit. Two seconds later Negev took the seat next to him.

Negev’s antennae twitched. “The ship is secure, Captain.”

Jack closed his eyes letting the last remaining seconds pass by. He knew they shouldn’t have much to worry about. Their new shields would be more than adequate to defend against this wave.

Everything went black.

Jack felt himself become weightless as the chair beneath him seemed to sink away. The next moment the chair slammed back against him as the hull of his ship roared in agony. Jack was more confused than anything else. What the hell happened to the shields? he thought.

The viewscreen flared brightly and then went black. Jack heard several of his bridge officers yell as the deck beneath them again fell away.

Two seconds later, Jack felt himself flung from his chair against a wall and at least two other people. One was the blonde haired half Vulcan, Melissa Vargas, the other his conn officer, s’Felis, a native of the world Trefel.

Jack saw bright flashes of light illuminate the ceiling and walls of the command center of his vessel.

He felt pressure push against his ribs, almost as if someone had kicked him. The jolt pushed him against Melissa Vargas causing her to cry out.

Jack looked up and saw something leap up to the ceiling. It took a moment for his eyes to focus enough to recognize their conn officer, Nedj s’Felis grab one of the ceiling arches that went from a wall up to the center of the room. s’Felis’ hands held tightly onto the edge of a recessed emergency light that had yet to activate despite the danger the ship was in.

The conn officer looked down from his position above at Jack as a dim light reflected in the Trefelian’s ruby colored eyes. Jack almost thought s’Felis grinned at him, but a moment later the orange skinned officer’s form moved in a blur toward the front of the bridge just as the hull of the Chamberlain again groaned in agony at the pressures attempting to tear it apart.

The ship suddenly rocked to port sending Jack and Melissa rolling into another group of officers wedged up against a wall.

“Damn it!” howled the voice of Hank Evans.

Jack smiled knowing Hank was probably more mad than hurt.

The lights on the bridge returned to normal a second later and while the ship continued to be buffeted about, it wasn’t nearly as violent an ordeal as the minute before had been. Moans and groans from the bridge officers replaced those from the ship itself. A number of them would be in sickbay for a while after they were sure the danger had passed.

Melissa Vargas made it to her feet and offered a hand up to her captain which Jack eagerly accepted. His legs resisted at first with a sharp pain from his knee.”We seem to be through the worst of it,” Melissa said while extending another hand to Hank.

Jack looked toward the main viewscreen which was black and in front of it at the conn sat Nedj s’Felis working the controls of his station. He’d evidently landed there after leaping down from the ceiling above their heads. Jack had rarely seen s’Felis show much speed or agility at walking or anything else. He’d just assumed Trefelians weren’t made for rapid movement. Now he knew better.

“Good work, Mr. s’Felis,” Jack said as he returned to his command chair. “Remind me to make sure you’re at the conn the next time we detect a subspace wave like that.”

s’Felis turned back briefly to look at his commanding officer. “I’m just glad I was able to get control of the ship again, sir. I should have done a better job when the wave first struck us,” he said in a lyrical, yet deep voice.

Negev took his seat next to Jack. “We appear to have suffered some hull damage sir, but I’m still waiting to hear from engineering.”

“Can we get the viewscreen operational again?” Jack asked, wanting to see if it was really over.

Melissa had just taken her seat at the operations station. “Working on it, sir.”

The ship bucked once more, but afterward all was calm.

Jack waited a moment before speaking, not certain if that was the end of it or just the beginning of another spell of chaos.

The U.S.S. Chamberlain emerged from the far end of the bright green subspace wave standing relatively still to the wave’s extreme warp velocity. The large vessel quickly stabilized its shifting course.

“We have come through the wave, Captain,” Blackwell noted as he watched his displays at the science station.

“That’s good to hear,” Jack responded.

Negev turned to Jack. “Lieutenant Commander Bishop is asking to see you, sir.”

Jack took a deep breath. His Chief Engineer asking to see him that soon wasn’t a good sign. “Tell her to meet me in the main conference room in five minutes.”

=/\=

“But that can’t be true. Those shields…” Jack let his words trail off.

Bishop tilted her head slightly waiting for him to continue, but when he didn’t she couldn’t resist. “It might help me understand what happened if you told me exactly where our shields came from, Captain.”

Jack smiled. Bishop had been trying every way possible to get this particular piece of information out of him for weeks, but he was under direct orders from Admiral Hancock not to tell anyone who didn’t already know that their shield system had been a gift from the enigmatic Vedala.

“Sorry, but that’s classified,” Jack said softly.

Bishop frowned. “Then I’m not likely to figure out why they failed when we were hit by the subspace wave.”

He shook his head. “Nice try, Kristen, but I doubt it would do you much good.”

“Now you’ve really got me convinced I should know. Come on, sir. I’ll never tell,” she said with a smile.

Jack laughed. “Dismissed, Lieutenant Commander.”

“Oh, come on, Jack! You know you can trust me.”

Jack’s eyes widened at her use of his first name. She was usually all business and had only used it when they were both off duty in the makeshift bar on Deck Thirty-three.

He grinned. “Out, Kristen, out.”

She stood to her feet. “You do know I’ll never give up on this.”

He shook his head as she turned and walked out of the conference room. Trust me, Kristen, you’re better off not knowing this one, he thought.

Jack looked out the large windows of the conference room staring at the nearly stationary stars. Bishop had told him they would have warp power in a half hour, but he didn’t like to lose any more time getting to Hel’yra. The appearance of the subspace wave had unsettled his already troubled thoughts.

Lak Negev entered the room and stood on the opposite side of the table.

“Captain, Mr. Blackwell has completed his analysis,” Negev said.

Jack turned in his chair. “And?”

“It was as we suspected. The wave originated from the Hel’yra system and its composition was consistent with that of the nebula.”

Jack was afraid of that. “Have you sent information on the wave to Starfleet?”

“Not possible at this time, sir. It appears that since we’re now within the bubble of the subspace wave we can no longer receive or transmit out of it,” Negev said. “Blackwell suggests we try again in twenty-four to forty-eight hours.”

“That might explain why we couldn’t contact the Ravenscroft.”

“A logical assumption, sir. However, we still have been unable to make contact with them despite now being within the radius of the wave.”

More bad news.

=/\=

Hank Evans sat up in bed catching his breath.

“You okay?” Kadan Loftus asked. With a hand she brushed the dark red hair out of her eyes.”Yeah, I’m just fine,” Hank said hoping she’d believe him. Their little excursions into ecstasy were becoming more difficult with time. I’m really getting too old for these two hour bouts, he thought.

She smiled. “Maybe we should take it easy next time.”

“No, I’m fine. Just a little winded’s all.”

“Hank, you don’t have to prove anything to me.”

He grinned and pulled her close to him. “I know.”

She looked into his eyes and grinned. “I hope you enjoyed yourself.”

Hank laughed. “There’s no question about that, darlin’.”

Loftus pulled the sheet up around them both. “You may have to do without for a while if Gann ever catches up with us.”

“Why’s that?” he asked.

“I received orders about a half hour before that subspace wave hit to relieve Captain McCall and take command of the ship,” she said looking at Hank.

“I take it you intend to disregard those orders.”

She smiled. “Of course.”

He pulled her closer. “That’s my girl.”

Loftus rolled her eyes. “Getting possessive now, huh?”

“It’s just a human expression.”

She chuckled and rolled over to face him. “You don’t think it will cause trouble with the leave I have planned in two months do you?”

“It might,” Hank said with a grin.

She frowned at him. “You’re just trying to get out of going, aren’t you?”

“Not at all. Dalvanax Two is a wonderful planet, if you like the desert,” Hank said.

Her frown intensified. “I had to pull a lot of favors in to get those two tickets. Don’t tell me you’re having second thoughts.”

“You’ll probably get into more trouble attending that group’s concert than you will for disobeying Gann. They’ve been banned from performing in most Federation systems.”

“That’s why I want to hear them.”

“I wouldn’t worry too much about Gann. Jack is the one most likely to take the brunt of this mess.”

“You think they’ll take away his command?”

Hank took a long breath. “Probably so. Jack has few friends in Starfleet Command these days.”

=/\=

Wearing a tight-fitting casual jumpsuit, Melissa Vargas strolled down a corridor on Deck Eight. She’d not had much time lately to give for occasions like this so she had decided to make the most of it.She entered Mei-Wan McCall’s sparsely decorated quarters and found the Chamberlain’s Chief Archaeologist hard at work over a bright display at a desk.

“You sure know how to have fun,” Melissa said.

Mei-Wan turned to her friend and noticed the bottle of wine Melissa carried. “Sorry. I was just reading through the Ravenscroft’s last transmission back to Starfleet. You still up for a game of chess?”“Sure.” Melissa slumped into a couch and busied herself with opening the seal on the bottle. “You have a couple of glasses?”

Mei-Wan walked over to a shelf near the replicator. She picked out two tall glasses and stared at them a moment. They were from her and Jack’s wedding and for some reason they were part of the collection of items she had taken from their quarters when she left.Mei-Wan remembered the day she bought them. She and Jack had spent the afternoon at the Hickok Museum in San Francisco and on their way home she saw the set in a small shop window. They were the first items they bought for their wedding and though it was little more than a year in the past it seemed so long ago.

The glasses had lost their significance now, but for a brief heartbeat Mei-Wan paused, feeling she was profaning something sacred.She turned back to Melissa, now with a wide smile. “These do?”

Melissa fought with the bottle seal and without looking said, “Sure, whatever you’ve got.”

Mei-Wan sat on the couch next to her friend. “You really don’t have to waste your evening with me, Melissa. You could drink that bottle with Lee.”

Melissa frowned. “We had another argument.”

“Nothing big, I hope.”

The half Vulcan woman grinned. “Oh, I just threatened to break both Lee’s legs and remove part of his intestinal tract if he followed any orders to relieve the captain.”

Mei-Wan looked down at the glasses in her hand. She knew Jack was in trouble and probably needed someone he could talk to, but she wasn’t that person, not this time. “How far down the chain of command has Gann gone?”

Melissa thought a moment as the seal finally came loose and she began working at the cork with a corkscrew from her pocket. “Today it was P’rada and Kadan.”

“You’re all setting yourselves up for a lot of trouble.”

Melissa grinned. “You’re one to talk. Who sassed Zachary in front of the CO?”

Mei-Wan sat back in the couch and let out her breath. “That was different. There was a principle at stake.”

“And you don’t think we’re acting on principle?”

“I think you’re all acting out of loyalty, which is admirable, but I don’t think it will be much to stand on at a court-marital,” Mei-Wan said.

Melissa stopped with the bottle and turned to her friend. “Mei, I disobeyed Gann’s order because I don’t think it’s legal and I think he’s dead wrong for wanting this ship to remain at Cajma. And now that we’ve gone through that subspace wave, I’m more convinced than ever.”

“And loyalty to Jack has nothing to do with it?”

“It’s not the reason I did what I did, but it made me more certain of my decision.” She returned to removing the cork from the bottle.

Mei-Wan nodded and set the glasses on the table in front of them. “I just hope the bunch of you don’t end up ruining your careers.”

The cork came free and Melissa began pouring wine into the glasses. “Or is it you can’t understand why anyone would go out on a limb for your husband?”

Mei-Wan turned away. “That’s a cheap shot, Melissa.”

“Maybe, but is it true?”

Mei-Wan turned back to watch the golden liquid fill their glasses. “No, it’s not. If it is out of loyalty, I know what that’s about.”

Mei-Wan looked directly at Melissa as her friend handed her one of the glasses. “But, I also know that loyalty to Jack has a down side.”

Melissa leaned back in the couch and sipped her wine. “Why don’t you just tell him you don’t have feelings anymore for this Hoffman guy.”

“Because it would be a lie,” Mei-Wan said as she looked at the liquid in her glass. She thought back to the last time she drank from these glasses– a happier time, but a time with its own pain.

“Look, Mei. It’s not like you’d ever act on those feelings, I know you. So, what’s the problem with telling him you no longer have them?”

“I think I could sleep with Kyle before I could lie to Jack. I just don’t think I could do that, ever.”

“Because of loyalty?”

“Because I have to be able to live with myself.”

=/\=

Chapter 2 - Near The Precipice

The Chamberlain dropped out of warp into a swirling thick sea of glowing blue and green gases.  Flashes of electrical energy occasionally jumped between clouds of dust and gas. The vessel’s shields illuminated now and then as an arc of lightning jumped toward the slowly moving ship.

On the bridge of the Chamberlain Jack McCall stood with Commander Negev staring at the viewscreen.

“Where is it?” Jack asked.

Blackwell turned from one display to another trying to answer his captain’s question, but so far he had none except, “I don’t know, sir, but these are the right coordinates. The Hel’yra system should be here.”

“But it isn’t, Mr. Blackwell,” Jack replied.

Others on the bridge had turned their gaze toward the viewscreen as well looking for what wasn’t there. Ahead of them should have been the edge of a vast nebula. Instead there were only clouds of dust and gas, but not nearly as dense as the nebula they had encountered six months ago.

“What about the star and planets?” Negev inquired of Blackwell. “Can you find them in that mess?”

Blackwell knew neither Captain McCall nor Negev would like the next thing he said. “They’re gone too.”

Jack turned from the viewscreen to Blackwell. “Solar systems don’t just disappear.”

“There are no gravimetric fields that correspond to those of the Hel’yra system,” the science officer replied. “I’m still looking, but the largest mass I have been able to find has a diameter of less than fifteen kilometers.”

Jack turned to Hank Evans. His tactical officer had far more experience with the Kel-j’na Region than anyone else in Starfleet. If he didn’t know what was going on they were in for a long search for answers.

Hank simply shrugged his shoulders. “I’m afraid I don’t have any ideas, Jack. The only people crazy enough to destroy an entire solar system are the Levalum, but they don’t have that kind of firepower.”

“What about this Fashod Empire you’ve spoken of before?”

“They tend to keep a very low profile. This just isn’t their style,” Hank said. “This kind of destruction was caused either by a terrible accident or the work of someone who’s really pissed off about something. Though I can’t think of why anyone would have a major gripe with a world that’s been dead for five billion years.”

Jack turned about to once again look out at the view before them. Why indeed, he thought. He was beginning to think it might have been better to have obeyed Gann’s order to remain in the Cajma system afterall. Jack didn’t like the look of this situation one bit.

He turned and walked slowly to his command chair. “Begin a thorough scan of the area and make a detailed analysis of whatever is out there.” Jack looked at Hank again. “And see if you can find the Ravenscroft. They must have been here when this happened.”Hank gave a nod and went to work as did the rest of the bridge crew.

=/\=

Ensign Natalie Fowler ran into the Archaeology Lab on Deck Eighteen nearly out of breath. Mei-Wan turned from a comm panel to see who had entered her lab.”What’s up, Natalie?”

The red-headed young ensign took a deep breath. “Activate your display and take a look at the Hel’yra system.”

After touching various controls the gaseous blue-green scene outside the ship filled the display.

“Are we off course?” Mei-Wan asked.

Fowler shook her head. “This is the Hel’yra system– at least what’s left of it.”

“My god,” Mei-Wan whispered as she looked intently at the view before her. “Where did it all go?”

“I haven’t heard anything yet, but Blackwell’s got most of the sensor analysis teams taking detailed readings of the system.”

Mei-Wan thought for several moments about what happened at Cajma, but the being that caused the destruction there only brought death to living things. It didn’t harm the planet.

“Natalie,” Mei-Wan started. “Before we get asked for the information, let’s pull up everything we have on that subspace field that was beneath the surface of Hel’yra.”

“You think something went wrong with that thing?” Fowler asked.

“I don’t know, but my guess is that someone on the bridge is going to ask us about it.”

Fowler went to another station in the lab and began retrieving the information her supervisor asked for. After a moment she turned back to Mei-Wan.

“Lieutenant, I heard they haven’t found any sign of the Ravenscroft yet,” Fowler said.

Thoughts of her friends filled Mei-Wan’s mind. She hoped it was merely a communication problem that kept them from responding.

=/\=

“Where the star should be we’re reading a negative gravity field,” Timothy Blackwell said eleven hours later seated in the main conference room on Deck One.

Lak Negev turned to him. “You certain you aren’t just reading the wormhole that siphoned energy from the star to the subspace field within the planet?”

Blackwell shook his head as Mei-Wan, who sat in the next chair, handed a PADD to him. “We thought of that,” Blackwell said. “But a wormhole would be radiating a far different and more localized effect than this does.”

Jack looked over at his wife as Blackwell continued with a technical description of the oddity he mentioned. This was the first time in five days he had seen Mei-Wan and he hated that he couldn’t even talk to her as a husband, but only as her captain.

“As of yet, I have no explanation for what we’ve found here,” Blackwell finished.

Melissa Vargas who sat on the other side of Mei-Wan leaned forward. “So, an entire solar system just gets shattered into dust and there’s nothing to indicate how or why?”

Blackwell turned to her. “I’m sure there’s something here that will eventually give us some answers, but it may take us a while to find it.”

Jack leaned back in his chair. “Is it possible the subspace field on Hel’yra malfunctioned?”

“I doubt it, Captain,” Mei-Wan said. “That system functioned perfectly for five billion years. The machines that controlled it certainly would have foreseen any problem and corrected it.”

Hank turned to Mei-Wan. “What about the crew of the Ravenscroft? Could they have tinkered around with something and caused the system to fail?”

“No, Hank, I seriously doubt that,” she replied. “Kyle Hoffman, LeAnn Goodwin, and Susan Tanega are some of the best archaeologists in Starfleet. They know how to deal with alien technology. They aren’t fools like Duncan Zachary.”

Chuckles came from many around the table. However, Akala Wilmarza only watched their captain.

“I just can’t believe they’d do something that would endanger everyone aboard the Ravenscroft or the site,” Mei-Wan said.

“I’m just thinking through the possibilities, Mei,” Hank replied.

Jack turned to Negev. “I think we’ve discounted most of the other possibilities leaving us with whatever was sealed up in that subspace field, the entity that escaped Cajma, or a combination of the two.”

“The question is, what do we do with that assumption?” Melissa asked.

Jack was about to speak when P’rada K’jal’s voice came over the intercom. “Captain, we’ve detected a signal. The computer confirms it’s the Ravenscroft’s transponder code.”

“We’re on our way,” Jack replied as everyone in the conference room moved toward the door.

Jack glanced up and saw Mei-Wan looking at him. He could tell she was worried. He did his best to smile, but could tell it did little to reassure her. She left with the others.

As Jack headed for the door Akala blocked his path.

“What is it, Ms. Wilmarza?”

Her eyes narrowed. “You’ve skipped our last two sessions, Captain.”

“We’ve been a little busy.”

She watched him closely. “I might declare you unfit for command because of your psychological condition, but disobeying Captain Gann’s orders isn’t exactly my department, sir.”

Jack smiled. “I thought it might be a clear example of my lack of mental health.”

Akala grinned. “Disobeying a superior’s orders could be, but in this case since most of your senior officers have followed your example I’d be stuck running the ship by myself.”

“Okay, as soon as we get a couple of free hours I’ll come by. Is that acceptable?”

Akala thought a moment. “Yes, sir, but do try to be reasonable about it.”

=/\=

Twenty minutes later the Chamberlain moved through clouds of churning gas and dust toward the saucer section of an Intrepid class starship, turning slowly end over end every three minutes. The larger Oceana class vessel slowed to a stop only ten kilometers away.

“Magnify,” Jack ordered.

A moment later the main viewscreen displayed a close-up view of the rotating remnant of the Ravenscroft.”There’s considerable damage, but it appears many of the emergency bulkheads had a chance to seal off the ship,” Hank said from behind the Tactical Station.

“Any sign of the secondary hull?”

Hank expanded his scans. “No, sir, none.”

“Call up the command code on the Ravenscroft and try to access its systems,” Jack said to Melissa at the Operations Station.

Blackwell worked at his Science Station while Mei-Wan stood behind him watching the data on the various displays. She hadn’t been invited onto the bridge, but she felt she had to find out what was going on.

Blackwell shook his head as a set of data came in. “We may have trouble accessing its systems.”

He turned in his seat and looked at Jack. “I’m detecting no energy sources, sir.”

Jack stood to his feet and approached the Science Station, but was careful not to crowd Mei-Wan. “What about life support?” their captain asked.

“Not operational,” Blackwell said. “The internal temperature of the ship matches that outside the hull. It’s down around one hundred and ninety below.”

Mei-Wan forced her eyes closed. She knew there wasn’t a chance of anyone surviving in that environment.

Jack turned to her and whispered. “I’m sorry, Mei.”

She looked up at her husband and tried to keep the tears from her eyes. She quickly looked back at the science displays for even a shred of hope to give her fears pause, but could find none.

Blackwell finally gave the report they had been expecting. “No life signs, Captain.”

Jack walked slowly back to his command chair.

A stern looking Lee McGuire entered the bridge and walked up to Jack. “You asked me to come up here, Captain?”

“We have the primary hull of an Intrepid class starship, Mr. McGuire,” Jack said pointing to the viewscreen. “Its power systems appear to be offline. Since the Abdiel is still at Cajma, I was considering bringing it aboard to assess what’s happened and to gain access to its systems.”

McGuire watched the Ravenscroft on the viewscreen for nearly a minute before responding. “I assume its structural integrity field is offline?”

“None of its systems are operational,” Blackwell said.

McGuire thought a moment. “Then we better not use the tractor beam. No telling what shape her hull is in.”

Jack turned to him. “I agree.”

“We should maneuver to match its rotation and then carefully move ourselves to bring it into the main bay,” McGuire stated.

“How long should that take?” Jack asked.

“Since there’s obviously no one aboard who’s alive, I suggest we take our time. Whatever’s over there will certainly keep,” McGuire said.

“As soon as she’s secure get your teams aboard and see if you can get the computer systems operational,” Jack said. “I want some answers.”

“Aye, sir,” McGuire replied as he walked to s’Felis’ conn station.

Mei-Wan came up to Jack. “Captain, I’d like to take a small team aboard as well.”

“Lieutenant, I think Mr. McGuire can handle this.”

“Jack, I have to go aboard,” Mei-Wan insisted. “If we hope to know what happened on Hel’yra I need to have immediate access to the data from the expedition. The sooner the Archaeology Section gets to work on it, the sooner you’ll have your answers.”

Jack thought a moment and knew she was right. He suspected she wanted to find out if her friends were truly dead, but she and her section were the ones who were most likely to figure out what had happened in this system.

He turned to Melissa. “Ms. Vargas, you will accompany Lieutenant McCall and one other person from her section aboard the Ravenscroft. She is to go aboard only after Mr. McGuire has declared it safe to do so.”

Melissa rose to her feet and walked up to them. “Aye, Captain.”

=/\=

“What’s taking so long?” Mei-Wan asked as she, Melissa Vargas, and Natalie Fowler stood outside the airlock to the gangway that extended from one side of the Chamberlain’s main bay to the starboard side of the Ravenscroft.

“You know Evans,” Melissa said. “He’s always looking for something to jump out of the woodwork and attack someone.”

Mei-Wan smiled, her frustration of the last four hours fading a bit. “He’s always been that way according to Jack.”

“I’m surprised it doesn’t drive Loftus completely insane.”

“The two of them seemed to get along fine when I saw them together on Yed Post Four,” Fowler stated.

“Where did you see them there?” Melissa asked.

“This really loud nightclub.”

Mei-Wan and Melissa looked at each other and grinned.

“He appeared to be enjoying himself when I saw him,” Fowler said.

The airlock door opened and Hank walked up to the three women who did their best not to smile too much at him.

However, his face was anything but happy. He turned to Mei-Wan and Natalie. “Look, it’s not very pretty over there.”

“Any survivors?” Natalie asked.

Hank shook his head. “Everyone is dead. So far we count one hundred and twelve, but we expect to find a few more.”

Mei-Wan took a breath– her last hope now gone. In a few moments she would walk on remains of the ship she had expected to spend more than a year of her life on. Instead she would take what information her now dead friends had collected to help solve the mystery surrounding their deaths.

Hank led the three women slowly through the gangway toward the starboard access hatch on the side of the Ravenscroft.

The minute walk onto the deck of the lifeless Intrepid class starship seemed to take an eternity to Mei-Wan. She turned to look at Natalie Fowler and realized that she and her young subordinate would have been among those who perished on this vessel if Mei-Wan had accepted the transfer back at Yed Post.

Mei-Wan saw a dead body only a few feet from the access hatch. She couldn’t help but stare at the horribly contorted form on the deck, now frozen in an eternal soundless scream.

Mei-Wan didn’t recognize the woman who appeared not much older than Natalie Fowler. Her face seemed filled with such agony that Mei-Wan couldn’t stand to look at her any longer, so she turned to stare down the corridor only to see it littered with more bodies twisted in the same pose of pain and suffering.

“They’re all like that,” Hank said. “Same as on the Venture.”

Mei-Wan thought back to Nelith and Duarte who had transferred over to the Venture ahead of herself and Fowler. Their enthusiasm had condemned them to a death like those now haunting the corridors of the Ravenscroft.

Too many deaths, Mei-Wan thought. Too much pain.

Hank stopped as Doctor Preston approached.

“Try not to disturb any of the bodies until we get a chance to examine them,” Preston said.

“So do they match those who died on the Venture?” Hank asked.

“As far as I can tell it’s the same cause of death,” Preston replied. “Total failure of all chemical process within the body. That kind of effect would be about ten times more painful than heart failure.”

Fowler closed her eyes as she pulled her backpack full of equipment higher onto her shoulder.

Mei-Wan turned to Preston. “Have you found any of the people I asked you about?”

The doctor looked down a moment then faced her. “We found LeAnn Goodwin in one of the central archaeology labs. Nothing yet on the other two.”

Mei-Wan forced away her emotions. She’d have time enough to mourn her friends after her work was done.

A few minutes later, Hank led the three women through a corridor on deck eight toward a series of labs. Twisted bodies were scattered across their path.

They entered a lab area and Mei-Wan stopped as she noticed a woman’s body near a display panel. She walked slowly up to the still form and kneeled down looking into the wide open eyes of her friend, LeAnn. Mei-Wan couldn’t stop her tears.

She had known LeAnn Goodwin from the Academy. She and Susan Tanega would join Mei-Wan and Robin Nelson for lunch most every day. They shared everything with each other– their dreams, their hopes, their fears. Those three were like sisters to Mei-Wan who had been an only child. Now two of them were dead and she feared confirmation of Susan Tanega’s death soon.

Mei-Wan took her uniform jacket off and removed her comm badge from it. She placed the badge on her green shirt and after looking one more time at the agony in her friend’s face, covered the dead woman with her jacket.

She turned to Natalie and Melissa who had watched her the entire time.

“Let’s try to access their computer system,” Mei-Wan said.

=/\=

Chapter 3 - Questions Of Motivation

Nyama rushed through the busy intersection on his way to the Government Center where his lab was located. He smiled as he often did these days because of what he knew about the changes soon coming to his world. His people had accomplished much in his lifetime, even more so these last several years, but soon all of that would be surpassed by what he knew– by what he would bring.

He stopped and watched hundreds of others hurry by on their way to their jobs or various other activities. Soon all of their lives would change and Nyama would be the force behind that change. No longer would they be held prisoner in their solar system. He had discovered the means to their ultimate freedom.

He looked up smiling as their sun blazed in the sky shining down onto his golden skin and mane of silver hair. He no longer hid his joy, though some in the government surely considered his behavior reckless. What did he care? None of them understood his research and certainly no one could duplicate it. They would have to tolerate his eccentricities for the time being. Besides, they had never understood him. He wasn’t about to give away his secrets yet to them or anyone else. The world would learn of his work on the day he traveled from their planet to another solar system and on that day his people, the people of Ninaz, would take their place among the stars.

He strolled across the dark green grass toward the building that held his lab. He had several tests to conduct this day and with them he knew he would convince those in power to begin construction on his prototype craft. They wouldn’t be able to resist what he was offering them.

True, they saw his work as giving them unimaginable power and the ability to extend the scope of their influence, but he didn’t mind. In the end he was convinced the changes to the political landscape would be so monumental that such thinking would evaporate away as quickly as morning dew on a hot day.

The leaders of the planet Ninaz thought they were using him, but he knew it was just the opposite. Eventually they’d figure it out, but not before it was too late and he was firmly established in the history of his people.

There would be the time before him and the time after him. His discovery would be the most pivotal event in the history of his world. He had worked too hard to let anything else be the result.

Nyama entered his lab and had his assistants engage the confinement system that would contain the matter and antimatter reaction. Some had said he had done nothing more than create an exciting light show thus far, but the measurements of local energy density and the spatial distortions he had observed for the last year told him otherwise.

The reaction chamber flared to life as he sat down at the controls in his lab. Nyama was excited each time the steady pulsing came from the chamber. He was certain one day those energies would take his people to new worlds where they would encounter new civilizations.

Unfortunately, that opportunity would be denied them.

=/\=

Mei-Wan walked into her quarters and dropped her gear as soon as she made it past the door. She fell into the couch and closed her eyes after seven hours of going through the huge volume of data stored in the Ravenscroft’s computers. She was beginning to question if this was really what she wanted to spend her life doing.

For a brief second she considered going to see Jack, but she knew he’d only be interested hearing an answer to his question and she still couldn’t honestly give him one. She wished he could just give her time to sort it all out in her own mind. It wasn’t like she would be leaving now. The Hel’yra Expedition was gone along with the planet. There was nothing left to discover about the Ancient Progenitors in this system.

She wondered what secrets had been lost. Mei-Wan already knew the Ravenscroft team hadn’t gotten very far discovering what had been the purpose for the subspace containment system beneath Hel’yra. While she felt the pain of losing her friends and all the others on that now dead ship, she knew that the Galaxy would mourn the loss of the knowledge that was gone forever– lost among the particles of dust and clouds of gas of what used to be a solar system.

The door chime shattered her thoughts making her sit up.

“I’m not here,” she said weakly.

From the speaker, Timothy Blackwell’s voice came, “Sorry to bother you, Mei, but I need to see you.”

Out of all the people who could have come to her door, Timothy was one of the few she’d let in right now. He had been one person she felt she could easily relate to these days. He was a scientist through and through.

“Come in,” she said.

A second later Blackwell entered and smiled at her. “Where have you been?”

She looked up at him. “On the Ravenscroft.”

“I’d have thought you’d finished with that hours ago,” he said.

“There was a lot of data they had collected, but most of it was just a catalog of all the objects they had found. They hadn’t really gotten very far with figuring out what they had.”

“Kyle Hoffman is a thorough researcher. I wouldn’t expect he’d let his people go tearing into the site chaotically looking for treasures.”

Mei-Wan closed her eyes.

Blackwell caught himself. “Sorry, I guess ‘was’ is more appropriate now.”

“It’s okay,” she said.

He sat on the armrest of the couch. “You served with him on the Farragut, right?”

Mei-Wan only nodded.

“They find him yet?”

“No, but Preston said they’ve still got about fifty more bodies to identify,” she said.

“The Department is getting together at 2130 to go over everything we have so far. I’d really like it if you’d be there to present what you found on the Ravenscroft,” he said to her.

Mei-Wan turned to him wanting to get out of the meeting, but his smile was hard to say no to. “I’ll be there.”

“Thanks, Mei,” he said as he walked toward the door. “Keep me informed on anything out of the ordinary you discover going through those records.”

The door closed behind Blackwell, leaving Mei-Wan alone once again.

=/\=

Janus Osmand stood inside the palace of Chancellor Vadelig looking out at the tall buildings of the capital city. He listened as Vadelig, a five foot seven stout humanoid, rambled on about the things he expected from the ‘relationship’ they were forging. Osmand was used to hearing the list of expectations from the worlds he convinced to join his cause. It was always the same– help with defense, better technology, improvements in medicine.

Osmand smiled to himself. He knew that within six months Vadelig would no longer rule the world of Parsandra Three with the iron fist he and his fathers before him had for several centuries. The encounter with life from an alien world always pushed these pre-warp civilizations through several stages of cultural and social change. The end of the age of dictators was the one Osmand enjoyed the most. Sometimes he almost felt sorry for the Vadeligs of the cosmos, but then they did live on the backs of their subjects, so he never did manage to let that sorrow grow too much.

“I am still concerned about how my people will react to finding they are not alone in the Universe,” Vadelig said.

Osmand turned to face him. “Trust me, Chancellor. They will react quite well once your world is transformed into a paradise that at this moment they could scarcely imagine.”

The Chancellor wrinkled his purple skinned nose. “I look forward to our future at your side, Janus Osmand.”Osmand was about to speak when his communicator chimed, demanding attention.

“Excuse me, Chancellor,” he said as he activated the device. “Osmand, here.”

Out of the communicator’s speaker came a female voice, “Janus, we have received a communication from our Skorr observer in the Ninaz system. They report a Federation vessel has entered orbit with shields operating.”

Osmand took a deep breath and turned to Vadelig. “Chancellor, if I may…”

“Of course, Janus.”

Osmand walked out into the glass enclosed atrium giving a more expansive view of the city. He looked at the monuments throughout the sprawling metropolis that Vadelig and those before him had built to honor themselves. Osmand had made certain there would be no more structures built for such vanity again on this world.

“Continue, Ahwi,” he said into his communicator now that he was alone.

The young woman’s voice went on, “The Skorr registered a warp field being generated on the planet surface. Soon afterward the starship had intensified its own scans. The Skorr were about to give further information, but their signal was cut off.”

“Anything further from them?” Osmand asked.

“No. We have been unable to reestablish contact.”

Osmand looked out at the marvelous rows of buildings that went on for nearly ten miles in every direction. How he wished he could remain on this amazing world a little longer, but he knew that wasn’t possible. It was likely his people had come under attack. He could not leave them to their fate.

“The starship must have tried to detain them,” Osmand said. “Send out the alert to all our ships in the area. Have them meet us in the Ninaz system as quickly as possible.”

He deactivated his communicator and closed his eyes. He had known that eventually this day would come, but the last thing he wanted was for the children of the Ancient Progenitors to engage in pointless fighting with one another. However, it seemed Starfleet had forced his hand.

=/\=

Mei-Wan entered the conference room on Deck Seventeen where most of the commanders of the Science Department’s various sections waited for their meeting to start. She noticed that despite what had happened to the Ravenscroft the group appeared to be in good spirits. The meetings were not at all happy occasions when Duncan Zachary had run the department, but that had changed drastically since his abrupt departure five weeks before and Timothy Blackwell’s assumption of his duties. Now they actually laughed on occasion during the meetings.Blackwell walked briskly into the room and sat in a chair across from Mei-Wan and began the discussion with questions around the table about the analysis done on the remains of the Hel’yra system. Various chemical and spectroscopic data became the focus of several spirited discussions which Blackwell allowed to go on for a time until they had exhausted all the possibilities. Soon, everyone came to understand that energies beyond anything they had seen, heard about, or could conceive of had been unleashed on the long quiet world of Hel’yra and its solar system. So far no one had an answer about the how or why that made much sense.

Mei-Wan watched a male officer in his early forties, the head of the Physics Section, talk about the subspace containment field that was generated by the machinery that used to be deep within the planet. His conclusions were that it wasn’t a likely candidate for what they found.

He looked at Mei-Wan. “Lieutenant, was there anything in the Ravenscroft logs that might give some hint?”

“Nothing from the records of the expedition,” she replied. “There was only information about translation and various displays of text found in the lower chambers.”

“The last note in their sensors logs was the entry into the system of a volume of energy at high warp,” Blackwell said. “We can safely assume that it was the being we watched leave Cajma.”

“Then you believe it was the cause of all of this?” asked Vanessa Bernardi, the leader of the Geology Section.

“Unless someone has a better explanation, I don’t think we have any other candidates,” Blackwell said.

Judith Gilroy from Life Sciences frowned. “If you go with that hypothesis, you know the captain will just go off on some monster hunt, Timothy.”

Gilroy turned quickly to Mei-Wan and smiled. “No offense, Mei, but it’s the nature of starship captains.”

“None taken, Judith,” Mei-Wan said with a forced smile. She wished they’d see her as a colleague before they saw her as the ‘captain’s wife.’

“I think Captain McCall has reason to want a quick answer this time,” Blackwell stated. “If this being has some fascination with obliterating solar systems, then we need to figure out a way to stop it before it begins attacking heavily populated worlds as it did Cajma.”

He leaned forward and lowered his voice a bit. “Most of us here knew someone on the Ravenscroft. They were our friends, fellow officers, and scientists. As terrible as their loss is we have to realize there are larger issues at stake here.

“If the being that did this can be communicated with and convinced to avoid other habitable worlds, then we will be the ones asked to provide the basis for that communication.”

He turned to Gilroy. “We need to go back over our sensor readings on the entity when it attacked Cajma and the Venture. We may be able to find some… “

The voice of Melissa Vargas came over the speakers cutting him off. “Mr. Blackwell we’ve detected a shuttlecraft on our long range sensors. The captain would like you to come to the bridge within the next ten minutes if possible.”

As Timothy replied Mei-Wan thought to herself about the occupants of that shuttlecraft and hoped that her friend Susan Tanega, who had yet to be found among the bodies on the Ravenscroft, might have escaped with her life. However, she knew hope was something in short supply this day for the members of that dead ship’s crew.

=/\=

An hour later, the Chamberlain approached the drifting craft, a science shuttle from the Ravenscroft, some ten billion kilometers away from the center of what used to be the Hel’yra system.  They brought it aboard along with its two barely alive occupants who were immediately taken to sickbay where Doctor Preston worked to save the short-haired human female who held onto life by the narrowest of margins.Mei-Wan ran into the medical area and stopped between Jack and Hank. She looked down at the exam table. “Susan,” she said.

Jack turned to Mei-Wan, knowing this was a friend of hers. “She’s alive, Mei.”

“What happened?” she asked.

“It seems their life support system was badly damaged,” Hank Evans said. “My guess is they were hit by the subspace wave as it left the system.”

“Why were they out here?”

“Probably to send their scheduled report back to Starfleet,” Jack said. “They would have come out this far to escape the effects of the nebula so they could transmit.”

“Was there anyone else?” Mei-Wan asked.

Jack took a breath and turned to his wife. “There was one other.”

She looked at him and he saw the hope mixed with fear in her eyes. Jack wished he could bring himself to hate her for it, but found it impossible.

“It’s Hoffman,” Jack said.

“Is he alive?” Mei-Wan barely got out above a whisper.

Jack nodded. “He’s unconscious, but alive.”

Mei-Wan thought she could almost hear disappointment in Jack’s voice, though she didn’t want to believe it.

“Can I see him?”

Doctor Preston turned away from treating Susan Tanega for a moment to answer Mei-Wan. “He’s in observation room four, but I doubt he’ll be awake yet. He wasn’t much better off than Lieutenant Tanega.”

“Will Susan make it?” she asked.

Preston turned back to his patient and thought a moment. “I think she’ll survive, but I’m worried she may have suffered brain damage. I’ll know more in about ten minutes.”

Mei-Wan walked toward a door to another section of the Chamberlain’s sickbay.

Hank glanced at Jack. “You gonna do something about that situation?”

“What would you suggest, Hank?” Jack asked without really wanting an answer. “Should I wait until he’s healed and challenge him to a duel or something?”

Hank grinned. “That works for me.”

=/\=

Mei-Wan stood at the bedside of Kyle Hoffman observing the medical diagnostic display above his head keep watch over his vital functions. An hour earlier a nurse had come by and let her know that Susan was still unconscious, but out of danger.She looked down at the face of the man she spent every day thinking about nearly six years ago. He had been the officer in charge of the Archaeology Section of the starship Farragut and she had adored him. She hadn’t wanted to leave without telling him how she felt about him, but she did and had regretted it.

Her feelings for him haunted her life and her marriage threatening to bring happiness to one and destruction to the other.

Kyle Hoffman stirred from his slumber forcing his eyes open. After a moment they focused on the woman standing next to his bed.

“Mei?” he asked in a whisper. “Is that you?”

Mei-Wan smiled, happy to see him awake and excited as she always was to hear him say her name. “Yes, it’s me.”

“When did you arrive? What happened?” Kyle said, disoriented.

Her smile faded. “We found you and Susan on a shuttlecraft. Do you remember what happened?”

“Shuttlecraft? Right. We went out to send a message back to Kel-j’na,” he said closing his eyes again, trying to summon the strength to stay awake.

His eyes opened again. “Is Susan okay?”

“She’s still unconscious, but… ” Mei-Wan started. Her words ended when she saw Jack enter the room.

“Commander Hoffman, I’m glad you finally woke up,” Jack said quickly. “I’ve got a lot of questions and not much time.”

Kyle’s eyes narrowed. “McCall? What the hell are you doing here?”

“I’m the captain of the Chamberlain, Hoffman. Where my ship goes, I go.”

Kyle looked at Mei-Wan. “But I thought you came on the Venture. Why aren’t I on my ship?”

“Hel’yra is gone, Kyle,” she said to the Ravenscroft’s commander.

“Gone? How?”

“We still don’t know that yet,” Mei-Wan replied.

“The expedition and our work?” Kyle asked with wide eyes.

Jack frowned. The expedition? His work? That’s all this guy cares about? he thought. Jack didn’t want to be the one to tell Hoffman, but he didn’t exactly have all the time in the world to waste. He needed some answers.

“I’m sorry,” Jack started. “But your crew is gone.”

Hoffman turned away from Jack and looked at Mei-Wan. He watched her eyes fill with tears.

“LeAnn?” he asked.

“She’s dead,” Mei-Wan said in a soft voice.

“We think they were killed by what attacked the Venture and exterminated all life on Cajma,” Jack said.

“How could this happen? How could…” Kyle closed his eyes as his words trailed off.

“I need to know what you saw, Commander,” Jack stated firmly.

“Give him a minute, please, Jack,” she pleaded.

“Mei, I’m sorry, but I really don’t have the time to…”

The intercom chimed. Communications officer Conrad spoke, “Captain McCall to the bridge!”

“What is it?” Jack asked.

“Sir, we’re receiving a distress call from the starship Sirona in the Ninaz system. They report their sensors have detected what appears to be a Skorr cruiser, cloaked and operating in orbit of the fourth planet.”

Jack thought a moment then a deep frown came to his face. “Osmand! Damn it all to hell.”

Mei-Wan watched Jack as he turned to go out the door and continued speaking to Conrad over the intercom.

“Are you in contact with the Sirona right now?”

“No, sir. They were cut off mid-transmission.”

“Take us to yellow alert and prepare to go to warp. I’m on my way,” Jack said as he left the room.

Mei-Wan turned back to Kyle. “I should go and let you rest.”

He nodded slowly.

“You want to speak to a Counselor?” she asked.

“No. Actually, I’d kind of like to be alone for a while,” Hoffman said. A smile came to his face. “Thanks, for being here when I woke up, Mei.”

She returned his smile and walked out the door.

He sat lost in thought for a full minute after Mei-Wan left. He reached for the library computer access terminal attached to the side of his bed and pulled it over to face him, activating it.

“Computer,” he ordered. “Prepare to send a message to Starfleet Command addressed to Admiral Patricia Olanski. Encrypt message, authorization Hoffman two-three-six-seven, Mei-Wan, alpha.”

=/\=

Chapter 4 - Alliances Of Opportunity

Nine hours later, as his ship sailed toward the Ninaz system to answer a distress call from the U.S.S. Sirona, Jack McCall sat in a small room keeping a promise he had made more than a day before.

“Do you think your wife blames you for the death of Robin Nelson?” Akala Wilmarza asked seated across from Jack.

“No. We’ve talked about that,” he replied.

“Wasn’t Robin your wife’s best friend? They knew each other from the Academy, right?” Akala asked as she checked information on the PADD in her right hand.

“Yes, but I know Mei doesn’t blame me for Robin.”

“But you do blame yourself for her death don’t you?” the Chamberlain’s Chief Counselor asked.

He thought back to Robin Nelson’s eyes– how they cried out even after her voice lost the breath to do so, how they’d haunted him nearly every day since she died at the brutal hands of the Glazyalans.

“If I had told the camp commander what he wanted to hear,” Jack started, “Robin would be alive now. And it wouldn’t have harmed anything. The war ended five days later.”

“But you didn’t know that at the time.”

“No.”

“You thought that information would cost thousands, perhaps millions of Federation lives.”

“Yes.”

“Then you did the right thing.”

“But she died for nothing.”

“And you blame yourself for the death of Larrisa James?” she asked.

“I was in command of the away team when she died.”

“But she was different, you loved her.”

“Yes,” he said in a whisper.

“Losing someone close to you and blaming yourself for it is a way of taking control of the situation,” Akala said. “So you don’t feel powerless.”

“I could have done something,” he said, though for twenty years he hadn’t figured out what that could have been.

“Despite what starship captains are told, they aren’t gods, Captain,” she said warmly, getting him to grin.

“I know, but…” he remembered Larissa, her warm smile and how great life had been with her. He’d always thought they’d end up together.

Jack caught himself smiling.

“You must have cared a great deal for her,” Akala said.

“Yeah, I did.”

“We all have to be able to accept loss, Jack,” she said. “The thing you have to be able to accept is people will die under your command following your orders, even people close to you.”

She leaned forward in her chair. “If you can’t find a way to live with that, then you can’t sit in the center seat.”

He looked at her intensely for several seconds. He knew that wasn’t just a Counselor’s good advice, but a warning about what might happen in the very near future if he couldn’t work past this.

=/\=

Eleven hours later, after trying to get some sleep and failing, Jack entered the bridge of his ship just as it was about to drop out of warp.

“Raise shields,” Lak Negev ordered as his captain sat down.

Jack looked around the bridge at his officers and thought about his session with Akala. Who will I ask to give their life next? he pondered. Will it be something I see or something simple that no one imagines could be dangerous? Can I live with it?

“Coming out of warp,” Negev announced.

“Begin scans of the system,” Jack ordered. “Tactical?”

“Give me a second,” Hank complained bringing a grin to Jack’s face.

“There’s a lot of electromagnetic interference about the inner planets, sir,” Blackwell said. “I’m trying to clear it up.”

“I’ve found the Sirona,” Hank said as he checked his scans. “It’s drifting.”

“Information on this system, Mr. Blackwell?” Jack asked.

“The fourth planet, Class M, is home to a heavily industrialized humanoid civilization that according to Starfleet observations is about five years from inventing warp drive. The Sirona, an Akira class starship, was assigned a year ago to monitor their progress.”

Jack stood from his seat and stepped up behind Mr. s’Felis at the Conn Station. “A little advanced for Osmand, don’t you think?”

Hank smirked. “Maybe he ran out of primitive worlds to screw up.”

Jack chuckled as he watched the viewscreen.

Suddenly Hank Evans Tactical station erupted in a cacophony of warnings.

“Eight Skorr cruisers decloaking near the Sirona!” Hank shouted.

“Red Alert!” Negev commanded. “Standby weapons!”

The alert klaxons sounded on every deck of the Chamberlain bringing the ship to battle ready conditions.

“Have they armed their weapons yet?” Jack asked loudly.

“It’s hard to tell with all of the interference,” Hank stated. “But I don’t think so.”

Jack turned and walked back to his command chair. “I need a definite answer, Hank.”

Evans shook his head. “No. They have not armed weapons.”

Jack sat down and observed the sweeping design of the Skorr vessels, built to reflect the winged shape of their builders.

Arthur Conrad turned to Jack from communications. “Sir, we are being hailed.”

Jack paused a moment. “Hank, does the Sirona show evidence of having been boarded?”

“The best I can tell, no, but I don’t get any power readings of any kind from the ship,” Hank said.

“And there are no lifesigns either, sir,” Blackwell reported.

Jack considered a number of possibilities from sensor jamming by Osmand to the crew of the Sirona having been taken captive.

“Let’s see what they want, Mr. Conrad,” Jack said.

Several seconds later, the image of the sixty-five year old former Academy professor filled the Chamberlain’s viewscreen. He did not appear happy.

“Disarm your weapons, Captain McCall. You and I don’t have time for this stupidity,” Osmand shouted.

Jack forced back a chuckle. He didn’t think very highly of Osmand, but he did have eight Skorr cruisers at his disposal. While they couldn’t defeat the Chamberlain in battle, Jack didn’t see much point in starting a fight if he didn’t have to. But if the crew of the Sirona had been harmed by Osmand things would not go well. However, Jack did have his orders to consider.

“Janus Osmand, you’re a wanted criminal. I have orders to use all the power at my disposal to apprehend you for trial by the United Federation of Planets for multiple violations of the Prime Directive,” Jack said with the slightest of grins.

Osmand rolled his eyes. “Are you a complete fool, McCall?! Haven’t you noticed what has happened here?!”

Jack’s brow tightened. “You’re not going to talk your way out of…”

Timothy Blackwell motioned to Jack. A second later Arthur Conrad nodded, indicating he had muted the communication channel.

“What is it?” Jack asked Blackwell.

“I get no life readings of any kind from the surface of the planet, Captain.”

“More interference?”

“No. I finally filtered it out. All life on the surface has been extinguished,” Blackwell said with an overwhelming sense of foreboding in his voice.

Everyone on the bridge jumped to the same conclusion Jack had– whatever attacked the Venture, the planet Cajma, and destroyed the Hel’yra system had rained down its destruction upon the pre-warp civilization of Ninaz Four. The poor inhabitants would have had no idea where their deaths had even come from or why.

And it was the why that now burned more than ever in Jack McCall’s mind.

He motioned to Conrad to reactivate the comm channel.

Osmand smiled. “I take it your science officer informed you of the condition of the planet.”

“Yes,” Jack replied. “What information do you have about what took place here, Osmand?”

“I’ll turn over everything I have on one condition,” Osmand said.

Jack let out his breath as Negev looked at him sternly. “Let’s hear it.”

Osmand smiled. “That I get your word as a Starfleet Officer you will in no way attempt to take me into custody while we’re in this system.”

All eyes on the bridge turned toward Jack. Their orders concerning Osmand left them little leeway. He was to be apprehended. But if Osmand did have information that would help them stop these attacks Jack had to accept letting Osmand go as the price.

“All right,” Jack said. Several of his officers reacted with widened eyes, but he went on. “How do I know your information is worth the price I’m paying?”

Osmand thought for several seconds then glanced away as if listening to something nearby. He turned back to face forward. “The planet Hel’yra is gone, isn’t it?”

“How can you know that?” Jack asked. “We just came from there.”

“I have people on over three hundred worlds in the Kel-j’na Region, Captain. That information network can work for you if you agree to my terms.”

Jack thought for almost a minute before answering. Osmand obviously had resources far beyond what Starfleet had in the Region. Perhaps they could give him the piece of information he needed to stop these attacks. “I agree to your terms, Osmand,” Jack said. “You have my word.”

The face on the viewscreen smiled at Jack. “And in case you or any of your officers considers violating our agreement… “

Hank Evans panel again blared with numerous alarms. “New contacts! Vessels decloaking!”

Jack stood to his feet. “External view!”

Osmand’s face was replaced by the earlier image of ships in space being joined by more craft that faded into view. Nearly forty ships now filled the display.

Osmand’s voice came over their speakers, “I think you understand the situation now, Captain. As you know, the Skorr don’t look on betrayal very kindly.”

“Don’t worry,” Jack said. “I won’t be the one to violate our agreement.”

Osmand appeared again on the viewscreen. “Excellent. Since the lack of trust between us requires such displays of raw power, I think it best we meet on neutral ground. I am sending you coordinates where several of my people and myself will be in half an hour. We shall be unarmed. I suggest you and your team do likewise.”

He hesitated a moment. “And McCall, no counselors, empaths, or telepaths. I will be able to tell.”

The display changed again showing the large number of ships between them and the planet.

Negev turned to Jack. “Captain, normally I would never contradict you, but…”

Jack smiled. “Look, everyone, I know that I’m now doing more than violating Gann’s orders. I’m violating direct orders from Starfleet Command and the Federation. I won’t ask you to go along with me on this if you don’t feel you can, but I feel the destruction of billions of lives is far more important.”

Negev remained silent.

“I’ll understand if any of you decide to remain off duty for the next day or so,” Jack said softly.

He watched as several of his officers looked at each other and then at him. Jack thought he noticed some uncertainty in Timothy Blackwell, but the science officer remained at his post.

Hank Evans stepped from behind his Tactical Station and walked up to Jack. “Now that that’s settled,” he said. “No arguments, I’m going down there with you.”

“Me too, sir,” said Melissa Vargas as she stepped up to Jack with a wide smile.

“You don’t think you’ll violate his restriction against empaths and telepaths?” Jack asked.

“I’ve got the telepathic abilities of a rock, sir,” Vargas replied. “My father’s human DNA made certain of that.”

Jack hesitated and turned to Hank. “I think we’ll need one other person to come along.”

=/\=

A Starfleet runabout cruised down through the atmosphere of the once thriving world of Ninaz. Where various species of flying creatures used to soar through the clouds, now only the small craft from the Chamberlain flew.

After a ten minute descent, the vessel came to a rest at the far edge of one of the planet’s major cities, near a government building where a once proud scientist walked thinking he would change the lives of his people. Those thoughts were now as dead as the seemingly endless number of bodies that littered the streets of the formerly bustling city.

The door of the runabout opened and Jack McCall exited onto the pavement of a street. In the distance a number of fires burned, the smoke from them rising high into the calm sky.

Calm applied to everything on this world. The calmness of complete death.

Jack and his party didn’t hear any of the sounds found where life was present. No insects, birds, or small animals could be heard. There was only the utter silence of a billion dead souls. The only disturbance in that morbid peace was from the systems of their craft shifting to standby mode.

Jack wasn’t happy with having to come down in the runabout, but the electromagnetic interference made use of the transporters impossible. Blackwell had told Jack before they left that he would try to find out what was causing it and hopefully find a way to make the transporters operational.

Behind Jack, Hank Evans left their craft followed by Melissa and finally by Mei-Wan. She knew Osmand better than anyone else aboard the Chamberlain and Jack felt he needed to have her insight into the man’s mind and motives. Jack also felt there was a slim chance that Mei-Wan might actually be able to get through Osmand’s insanity and convince him to turn himself in. He didn’t want to be left telling Starfleet he’d done nothing to bring in the Federation’s most wanted criminal.

“Notice anything?” Hank asked.

Jack, Mei-Wan, and Melissa looked about.

“There are probably a million dead bodies in this city. The stench after even a day should be nauseating,” Hank said.

Melissa pulled out her tricorder and scanned the area. “There are no bacteria present, sir. No microscopic life of any kind. Everything here is dead.”

“Just like Cajma and Hel’yra,” Mei-Wan whispered.

They all looked out at the large complex of structures directly ahead. Amongst the scattered bodies of the inhabitants of the now dead world, Jack noticed three figures using scanning devices to examine the multitude of corpses. One of those figures turned and looked their direction. It was Osmand.

Mei-Wan’s former Academy professor motioned them over.

“I’m pleased to see you took my conditions seriously, Captain,” he said with a wide smile.

As the group from the Chamberlain cautiously approached the others, Hank Evans opened his own scanning unit and activated it. Jack heard the faint sounds from the device and looked at it, but couldn’t place the design. He decided it must have been something Hank picked up on one of his past adventures in the Kel-j’na Region.

“They’re clear,” Hank said as he closed his scanner. “No weapons.”

“You see, I’m not the maniacal criminal the Federation seems to think their propaganda must paint me as,” Osmand said. “I know how to keep an agreement.”

“The jury’s still out on that, sir,” Jack replied.

“I understand you’re not one for following orders, McCall,” Osmand stated. “I hear a certain Captain Gann has been insisting you return your ship to Cajma.”

“Just a little misunderstanding,” Jack said.

Osmand smiled. “Perhaps you’d feel more at home if you joined me and my companions.”

“Not likely,” Jack chuckled.

“You think I’m only interested in building some sort of personal empire, don’t you?” Osmand asked.

“All I have to judge by is what I’ve seen,” Jack replied.

Janus Osmand shook his head. “I won’t live to see it in my lifetime, but one day this Galaxy will come together in common purpose and for the common good of all humanoids.”

“Non-humanoids might have a different point of view.”

“They will be cared for,” Osmand stated softly.

Jack looked up into the cloud filled sky. “How about we leave the future to those who’ll live it and you and I get to the issue at hand,” he said. “I didn’t come down here for some recruitment speech.”

“Down to business then,” Osmand said. “The starship Sirona was drifting in space when we arrived twelve hours ago. No one on board was left alive. One of our ships was found in the same condition.”

“Have your scans revealed anything beside the lack of life?”

“Other than some odd subspace field signatures, no,” Osmand replied. “It appears whatever did this causes all biological processes to cease upon contact.”

“We’ll want detailed reports of the scans you’ve taken,” Jack said as he watched the others present with Osmand go about taking readings from dead animals and plants.

“Of course,” Osmand stated flatly. “We have a common foe here, Captain. I do hope the transfer of information goes both ways.”

Jack considered his options and didn’t want to take the chance that Osmand and his eclectic bunch of followers might come up with something Starfleet didn’t catch. He turned to Melissa.

“Ms. Vargas, once we return to the ship, I’d like you to prepare the data we’ve collected on these attacks and send it to Mr. Osmand,” Jack said.

“Excellent,” Osmand said as he smiled wide. “Now I can tell you the rest.”

Jack frowned. “There’s more?”

“We found a survivor.”

“Is he still alive?” Jack asked quickly.

“Yes,” Osmand said. “At the time of the attack he was within that large structure behind us working on a warp field generator. Somehow he lived, but has no information about who or what did this.”

“I’d like a chance to speak to him,” Jack said.

“Wouldn’t that violate the Prime Directive, Captain?” Osmand asked with a snide look on his face.

Hank leaned toward him. “He’s right, Jack.”

“I wouldn’t want you to get into any more trouble on my account than you already have, McCall,” Osmand stated.

Because of the oppressive silence of the world they stood on, everyone was startled when two eight feet tall Skorr warriors exited the nearby building escorting a five foot one human looking young female wearing a dark gray-green bodysuit.

Hank Evans quickly pulled out the device he had used earlier to search for weapons. “Hold it right there,” he demanded.

The two Skorr unfurled their broad wings and brought their long pointed talons to bear. The mop-headed girl, who Jack decided couldn’t have been any more than sixteen years old, stared directly at him with wide eyes.

Not yet! the young girl told herself as she regained her composure. This was the first time she had been so close to her goal, the first time they had been face to face. It’s not the right time or place! I have to remain patient or I’ll destroy everything!

Osmand stepped between the two groups holding his hands up. “No!”

The Skorr looked at him, but remained alert. “They have a weapon!” One of the warriors shouted.

“It is only a device to scan for weapons,” Osmand said as he turned to calm the tall creatures. “They have not betrayed us.”

“They’re clean too,” Hank said as he let the worried breath out of his lungs.

The Skorr opened their wings and took flight. Everyone watched as the two warriors soared high into the air and flew off deeper into the city.

“Where are they going?” Hank asked.

“To search for more survivors,” Osmand said. “With the disruption of this planet’s magnetic field, we don’t want to rely solely on our sensors.”

Jack returned his gaze to the girl who had approached. Osmand stepped next to her and smiled.

“Have you had any luck decoding the message from the Ancient Progenitors you found on Hel’yra, Mei-Wan?” Osmand asked.

“Not much of it,” Mei-Wan said. “Susan Tanega from the Ravenscroft was getting somewhere with it until their ship was attacked.”

“We intercepted those translations,” the girl said as she brushed her unruly hair out of her eyes with the wave of a hand. “They weren’t getting very far.”

“You decoded their transmissions back to Starfleet?” Mei-Wan asked.

“That idiot Hoffman made it easy. He used only a single level of encryption.”

Osmand pointed to the girl. “On numerous occasions, Mei-Wan, I’ve told you that you were one of my best students,” he said. “Meet my best student, Ahwi Dasari.”

The girl crossed her arms across her chest and looked smugly at Mei-Wan.

“You get a thrill comparing your students Osmand, that’s your problem,” Hank said. “But unless it has something to do with why we’re here standing on one of the biggest mass graves I’ve ever seen, then perhaps we can leave it to another time.”

“That message has everything to do with what has happened here, Mr. Evans,” Osmand said. He looked directly at Mei-Wan. “Would you like to see Ahwi’s translation?”

“This girl translated a message that the best archaeologists and linguists in the Galaxy couldn’t break?” Melissa Vargas asked with a condescending smile.

Osmand grinned. “Well, Mei?” He handed her a PADD.

Mei-Wan quickly looked through the material on the device’s display and then turned to the young woman.

“You did this?”

“If you didn’t spend all your time maintaining that image as ‘the greatest Archaeologist in the Federation’ you might actually get some work done,” Ahwi nearly spat.

Mei-Wan read more of the text on the PADD and quickly lost herself in the sheer volume of it.

“How about giving the rest of us the bullet points,” Hank said with a sour look on his face.

Mei-Wan looked at Osmand. “Oh, my god,” whispered past her lips.

“What is it, Mei?” asked Jack.

Ahwi’s brow raised. “The end of the message goes something like, ‘We will stop the transfigured enemy of all life both present and future here on this world. We shall end the desolation they wish to bring and secure for all time the existence of our progeny. If Hel’yra’s prison is unsealed, then all will again be at risk from the Ladeo Jutamfa; the enemy. Forgive us for not finishing our work. We hope our sacrifice will be enough.’”

Ahwi paused and closed her eyes before resuming. “Fada gego-ru go zere fada ludi tefwu remece egu zahu loleo jugu ufeida cemefwomekwo lilo wudhu.”

She turned to Jack and stared at him with an odd look as if she were remembering something she had heard hundreds of times. “Do nothing to disturb this place or the great mechanism which holds our adversaries captive.”

Mei-Wan’s eyes widened as she remembered the holographic recording she had listened to over and over again. She had grown used to hearing those unknown words spoken by the Ancient Progenitor from billions of years ago, but now hearing them given voice by this girl, Mei-Wan felt uneasy. She looked at the troubled child speaking in that alien tongue– and troubled she must be, Mei-Wan concluded, for she stood at Osmand’s side.

Poor Janus Osmand, Mei-Wan thought. What has brought you to this madness of leading Skorr warriors across the Galaxy and twisting the mind of a child?

“Utuimiula cemefwo,” Ahwi said softly finishing her recitation. “Remember us.”

The others looked at her waiting for more. Instead she took a breath and raised her voice.

“The Ancient Progenitors struggled against them for more than a thousand years before finally trapping them on Hel’yra,” Ahwi declared. “The Ladeo Jutamfa are the ones who destroyed that system and killed everything on this world. They were the cause of the subspace wave you encountered.”

“And now we must stop them,” Osmand stated.

Mei-Wan looked at him. “Janus, you know the Ancient Progenitors were far more advanced than us. If they were barely able to defeat these beings, then how can we hope to?”

“Technology isn’t the issue, Mei,” he said with a warmth Jack hadn’t seen before. “We are their children. We have the same strength of heart and spirit as they did. We can rise to this challenge. We must.”

Hank Evans shook his head. “A whole hell of a lot of good that’ll do us if these, whatever they are, can wipe out entire worlds.”

“They were the enemy of the Ancient Progenitors and now they are our enemy,” Osmand said with a deep look of certainty across his face. “The duty to stop them falls to us– all of us who descend from the Progenitors.”

Hank rolled his eyes and looked at his commanding officer with a grin. Jack McCall knew what Hank was thinking, This guy’s a lunatic. Jack was in full agreement, but they needed the information Osmand had access to.

“I suggest we go back to our ships and share what we have and see if we can get some handle on the situation,” Jack said with as much conviction as he could muster– which was smaller than he wished. He just wanted to get off the dead world he now stood on and as far away as possible from Janus Osmand.

=/\=

Chapter 5 - Prime Concerns

Nyama sat in the comfortable, yet small room looking through the display of information on the wall panel. Osmand had told him he could learn about worlds far away from his home with this device and he had already seen wonders that he could hardly believe. Still, none of them could erase the horror he witnessed when he left his lab after his last and final test. He continued to hold out hope that Osmand would find others from his world still alive.

He closed his eyes asking the Universe for answers to his questions– Why did this happen? Why his world? Why was he the only one left alive?

Nyama didn’t expect the Universe to reply, but he couldn’t help his desire to know.

At least he had an answer to a question that had haunted him all his life. He had proof his world was not the only one in the Universe to harbor life. And while it was a small comfort, he was willing to take what he could get.

He turned to the sound of his door opening and saw the young female that almost always accompanied Osmand on his visits, but she came alone this time. However, she did have food for him and he was quite hungry. He just wished he could understand her when she spoke like he did Osmand.

Ahwi watched the alien creature, the only survivor of the planet below, as he ate his meal. She thought it was cruel of Janus to keep this sad being restricted to the small guest quarters.

“It’s hard to be around strangers at every turn isn’t it?” she asked even though she knew he couldn’t understand her. She watched him turn to look at her and smile. “Everyone you ever loved is gone and there’s not anyone left to care for you.”“That’s something you and I have in common.” She returned Nyama’s smile. “Don’t worry. I’ll make sure you’re okay.”

=/\=

Ahwi left the section of the ship Nyama stayed in and walked to her own quarters. She hated the tall doors and ceilings of the Skorr cruiser. It made her feel smaller than usual, but in the end it didn’t matter. Only her mission was important– nothing else.

She entered her quarters and sat down upon the bed. She touched a spot on her right arm and a small device, roughly rectangular, faded into view. Ahwi removed the object from her arm.

“And what is that my dear?” Osmand asked as he stood in her doorway.

“Nothing important,” she replied as she set the object down on her bed.

“A weapon?”

“It has only the ability to stun someone, not kill,” Ahwi responded.

Osmand shook his head. “I gave McCall my word!”

“And you kept your word, Janus.”

He looked sternly at her. “Girl, if Evans had been able to detect that, we might have had a disaster down on the planet!”

Ahwi rolled her eyes. “His detector would never have found this,” she said as she held up the small weapon. “You worry too much.”

“I have much to worry about with these Ladeo Jutamfa you told us about,” he replied.

She stood and walked over to him. “I told you to trust what you’re building in this Galaxy.”

His eyes narrowed. “You ask me to trust, but you can’t bring yourself to trust my judgment and leave your weapons behind when I order it,” Osmand said. “Pay attention to your own advice, Miss Dasari.”

He walked out and Ahwi made certain the door closed behind him and was secure from further intrusion. She kneeled down next to her bed and pulled out a small brown case. After touching it in three different spots the case unfolded revealing numerous compartments. She placed the small weapon in one of them.

“That one wouldn’t kill,” she said as she touched her left arm this time. A larger device faded into view and it had the traditional handgrip and barrel of a weapon. “But this one would kill rather quickly.”

She placed the new weapon in the case and touched the outer cover again and the container of armaments rolled up in front of her.

=/\=

Jack, Hank, and Melissa rode a turbolift in silence up to Deck One. Mei-Wan had gotten off on Deck Thirteen, where Sickbay was located. Jack knew it was to go see Hoffman. How he wished he could simply push the Ravenscroft’s commander out an airlock and be forever rid of him, but he knew that wouldn’t really solve anything between him and his wife.

The turbolift opened on Deck One and the three of them walked to the conference room where Lak Negev and Timothy Blackwell were already seated awaiting their arrival.

“I hope this was worth the risk, Captain,” Negev said with more caution than Jack had noticed before.

“Osmand found a survivor down there. He said that the individual was engaged in some sort of warp field experiments,” Jack replied.

Blackwell’s eyes perked up. “That is interesting. If there’s something about warp fields that keeps whatever’s behind these attacks from producing the death and destruction we’ve seen then I should be able to figure out a way to protect the Chamberlain.”

“That would be a good start,” Jack said. “But unless we can also use it to protect any worlds under attack, it won’t solve the problem.”

Blackwell nodded as Jack handed him a PADD with information from Osmand about the warp field experiments of the alien scientist Nyama.

“A few more years and they would have had warp drive,” Blackwell said. “They might have been able to save a small number of their people if they had only been a few more years down the road with their research.”

For a moment Jack lost himself in Blackwell’s comment. He wondered if Osmand wasn’t insane afterall. The Universe could be a dangerous place and those without warp capability were at the mercy of forces they had no knowledge of or hope of resisting.

No, Jack’s mind insisted. Handing children a phaser cannon does no good protecting them against wolves. It only leads to their own destruction and that of everyone around them. The Prime Directive had a purpose. He just wasn’t certain any longer where the line between interference and doing the right thing was anymore.

Jack still believed in the Federation and what it stood for despite everything he had been through the last four years. The Dominion War, the attacks by the Borg, even Osmand and his crusade hadn’t toppled Jack’s belief in the rightness of the philosophy behind the United Federation of Planets. And more importantly, he wanted to believe in it. Yet, occasions like this shook that belief to near breaking.

How could he violate one of the founding principles of the Federation, the non-interference directive? But how could he ask billions to sacrifice their lives for him, his beliefs, and the principles of the Federation? He just couldn’t get past the thought that there was something very wrong about standing by and allowing their deaths to take place when he had the power to stop it.

Melissa Vargas brought Jack out of his internal debate. “Captain, I thought you might want to know that I tried to scan that girl with Osmand.”

“Tried?” Jack asked, turning to his operations officer.

“Yes, sir, but I believe my scan was being jammed.”

“What about the others?” Hank asked.

“They I could scan, even Osmand,” Melissa stated. “They read as what they appeared to be.”

“You think she’s not human?” Jack questioned with a grin.

“For all I know she could have been a holographic projection of some kind,” Melissa said.

“What about weapons?” Jack asked turning to Hank. “You said she was clean.”

Hank pulled out the device he’d used to scan Osmand’s people. “This doesn’t miss weapon signatures, Jack.”

“Well, that’s good to know,” Jack replied.

“I’d still like to know who or what she is,” Melissa said.

“She’s definitely dangerous,” Hank stated more softly than usual.

“She’s just a girl, Hank,” Jack said with a smile thinking his friend was being overly paranoid.

“That ‘girl’ had a look in her eyes I last saw in an assassin pointing a weapon at my head,” Hank replied. “I’m certain she’s killed before.”

Jack stared at Hank wondering what he had seen in Ahwi Dasari. His impression was completely different. He thought she was probably a brilliant student of Osmand’s, but terribly confused and vulnerable. Jack was certain Osmand was twisting her mind for some purpose only his zealotry could imagine.

But there was something vaguely familiar about her, a hint of recognition he couldn’t place. Perhaps Hank was right about her being dangerous.”Not everyone who joins Osmand’s cause will swallow his views completely,” Hank said.

“All the more reason to think long and hard before going along with this any further,” Negev said, his antennae twitching occasionally.

Jack turned to his executive officer. “Do you have something to say, Lak?”

Negev took a deep breath and looked down at the table silently.

Jack turned to Hank, Melissa, and Blackwell. “Could the rest of you excuse us?”

Hank and Melissa paused for a moment, both about to protest, but they saw the concern in Jack’s eyes and decided instead to leave. Timothy Blackwell was still so deep in reading the information they acquired from Osmand that Hank had to nudge him out the door.

Jack sat down in the chair across from Negev. “All right, what is it?”

“Captain,” Lak began. “This man, Osmand, has given pre-warp cultures advanced technology and declared his intention to violate the Prime Directive at every opportunity. If we ally ourselves with him, even given the crisis at hand, we are just as guilty as he is.”

Jack leaned back in his chair and looked at the stars shining in the blackness of space through the windows behind his executive officer. “You felt the crisis at hand was sufficient to disobey Captain Gann’s direct order,” Jack said.

“That was completely different,” Negev stated, narrowing his eyes and resenting Jack for using his earlier act of loyalty towards him as a means to get him to back down with this. “It was my opinion then and still is now that Gann did not have a full appreciation for the facts and the danger. This is not a simple dispute over courses of action to take given a certain set of circumstances, Captain McCall. You are deliberately and actively conspiring with a wanted criminal who has violated one of the founding principles of the Federation which you took an oath to uphold, sir.”

“Damn it, I know that, Lak!” Jack said. “But billions of people have died! Whole worlds are having their entire ecosystems slaughtered! How can we not work with Osmand to put a stop to this? Which world are you willing to sacrifice? Kel-j’na? Corvanis? Perhaps Andor?”

Lak Negev sat forward in his chair. “The Prime Directive isn’t something we follow only when it’s convenient, sir. It is one of the rules we live by,” he said to Jack. “Let me ask you. Which world are you willing to sacrifice the next time Osmand tells some culture they’re not alone in the Universe and hands them warp technology before they’re prepared for it? Are you willing to sacrifice whole peoples, their cultures, their futures, just to stop this threat so that you don’t feel guilty the next time some world of billions dies?”

Jack sat up in his seat, but couldn’t look at his executive officer. He didn’t have an answer.

“We aren’t responsible for what this menace is doing, sir,” Negev stated. “But we are responsible for what we do in the name of defeating it.”

Jack looked down at the table top as Negev stood to his feet.

“Captain, you are quickly approaching a line that I cannot allow this ship to cross,” Negev said. “Go much further, and you will force me to relieve you, sir.”

The Andorian walked out the door and left Jack McCall to consider the position he had placed both of them in.

=/\=

Kyle Hoffman read silently from the PADD he held in his hand:

The end of the Galaxy’s pain is at hand. Those remaining will heal the wounds inflicted by the transfigured menace from the depths of space and time. Our legacy to all who hear this, those friends who have stood true, is freedom from the fear we have all faced.

Though what we do may seem rash, it has been only after long contemplation that we came to our decision and found we had no other.

We had thought not long ago the Ladeo Jutamfa had been brought to its end, but they used their knowledge to do the unthinkable and now we are left to respond with the same.

Out of our loss many will come and out of our loss all will be saved.

He lowered the PADD and turned to Mei-Wan who stood next to his sickbay bed. “That’s the same kind of apocalyptic crud that Susan came up with.”

Mei-Wan wished Susan Tanega had come out of her coma by this time. She’d be able to tell her if this translation was close to being accurate. Mei-Wan didn’t like how Jack was accepting Dasari’s version of the Ancient Progenitor message without question. She doubted some teenager had the abilities she claimed to have.

“Where did you get this, Mei?” Kyle asked.

“Janus Osmand.”

Kyle looked at the PADD again and smiled. “You got him in the brig?”

“No, he gave this to us,” she said pointing at the PADD displaying the translation.

“Where’d he get it?”

“You ever hear of a student of his named Ahwi Dasari?” Mei-Wan asked.

“She’s his daughter,” Kyle replied.

“He and Katherine never had children,” Mei-Wan said shaking her head.

“You’re right, they didn’t.” Kyle said as he set the PADD down on his lap. “She’s his adopted daughter.”

Mei-Wan tried to think if she’d ever heard of Janus adopting a child, but she couldn’t remember anything about it. “Are you sure?” she asked.

“Wild head of dark hair and enough arrogance to fill a spacedock, right?” Kyle asked with a wide grin.

Mei-Wan frowned. “That’s her.”

“I met the little monster about three years ago when Janus showed up at a conference on Andor,” Kyle said. “She was less than friendly.”

“Why would he adopt a child?” Mei-Wan wondered.

“A couple of archaeologists, Khalid and Renee Dasari, had died during an excavation on some world near the Klingon border and the only survivor was their daughter,” Kyle said. “She was brought back to Earth about two months before Janus left the Academy and somehow he found out about her and went through the process to adopt her. The why of it has always bothered me ever since he went off on this crusade of his.”

“I’ve never heard of her parents before,” Mei-Wan said.

“Me either,” Kyle replied. “I think they were working for a university somewhere.”Mei-Wan sat down on the edge of Kyle’s bed and lost herself in thought about the translation of the Progenitor message, Janus Osmand, and his adopted daughter.

“Can you imagine what it must have been like for her to grow up going off on expeditions with her parents like that?” Kyle asked as he sat up in the bed. “Maybe Janus saw what that kind of upbringing had prepared her for and decided not to let it go to waste just because her parents died.”

Mei-Wan wasn’t really listening to him as he inched closer to her and put his hand gently on her shoulder. She quickly moved forcing his hand to fall away.

“Kyle, please,” she pleaded. “I can’t.”

Hoffman leaned back onto the bed and let out his breath. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I know I promised I wouldn’t push things. You have to make up your own mind.”

Mei-Wan closed her eyes. “I may not get a choice,” she whispered.

“Things not going well between you and McCall?”

She shook her head and stood.

Kyle sat up. “Hey, I get out of here tomorrow. After I get assigned some quarters would you be willing to give me a tour of this ship?”

Mei-Wan turned to him and smiled. “Sure.”

=/\=

Jack walked onto the bridge of the Chamberlain the next morning. The dark blonde haired navigation officer, P’rada K’jal, stood from the command chair with a smile.

“Good morning, Captain,” she said.

“Anything to report?” he asked.

“No. It’s been fairly uneventful all night,” she reported as other members of the first shift bridge crew were replaced by those just coming on duty.

“Any movement from our friends?” Jack asked as he pointed to the viewscreen.

“Not a peep.”

Jack sat down as K’jal left the bridge. A few seconds later, Lak Negev walked up and sat in his seat next to Jack. Neither of them spoke. All that needed to be said, had been.

Arthur Conrad had just settled in at the communication station when a chime sounded from his panel. He touched several controls and turned to the command chair. “Captain McCall, we’re receiving a hail from the lead Skorr cruiser.”

“Put it on,” Jack said.

Osmand’s image came on the viewscreen.

“Captain McCall!” Janus Osmand said excitedly. “We’ve just received a signal from an automated sentry of ours in the Ikenga system. Numerous self-organizing bodies of energy have entered the system and are approaching the fifth planet!”

Jack quickly turned to Blackwell who was already bringing up the information on Ikenga.

“The fifth planet is class M,” Blackwell stated. “But there are only primitive life forms present, no intelligent life.”

Jack returned to Osmand. “Professor, I don’t think there’s a need to…”

“McCall, if they continue on their present course, they’ll head for the next class M planet which is in the Parsandra system,” Osmand said, noticeably agitated. “The third planet has a pre-warp society of over five billion!”

Negev turned to Jack, but said nothing.

“What is it you’re suggesting, Osmand?” Jack asked.

“Your vessel is much faster than any of ours,” Janus replied. He took a breath to calm himself. “If you leave now at maximum warp, you could reach Parsandra before the entities finish with Ikenga.”

Jack frowned. “And do what? Let them kill everyone aboard the Chamberlain as well?”

“No,” Osmand said. “If you get there soon enough you can warn the Parsandra government and they can get at least a few of their people off world before the planet is attacked.”

Negev inhaled deeply, but still remained silent.

Jack knew his executive officer watched for any indication of his intentions. “Why not contact them yourself, Mr. Osmand?”

“They only have the capacity for carrier wave communications,” he replied. “Anything I sent that they could pick up wouldn’t reach them for almost twenty years.”

Jack looked at Negev directly, but saw no reaction. “Mr. Negev,” Jack said. “set course for the Parsandra system at maximum warp.”

Before Negev could reply, Jack turned to the viewscreen. “We’ll do what we can, Osmand.”

“I’m sending you the frequency that I’ve used to contact their leader, Chancellor Vadelig,” Osmand stated. “They have four warp shuttles, McCall. If you get there soon enough and perhaps use your transporters, you might…”

Jack interrupted him. “I can’t do that!”

“Please, McCall,” Osmand pleaded. “You can’t let them all die.”

The viewscreen went black. Jack turned to Negev who wore a troubled expression. He knew the Andorian was about to say something, but he stood to his feet to avoid the confrontation.

“Mr. Blackwell,” Jack said. “Go over that scientist’s data from Ninaz and find a way for us to keep those entities from attacking Parsandra Three.”

“I’ve already got the whole Science Department on it, sir,” The science officer replied. “We’ll find an answer.”

Jack glanced at Negev who nodded, satisfied for the moment that Jack had a plan of some sort besides taking Osmand’s advice. As the warp drive of the Chamberlain came alive, Jack hoped Blackwell’s department would come through in time.

=/\=

A day later, the Chamberlain pushed it’s engines to the limit as it rapidly approached the Parsandra system. Its captain, however, felt the approach of a decision he wished he’d never been confronted with, but that was beyond his power now.

Jack McCall kept looking at the chronometer in his ready room, almost hoping the engines of his ship would malfunction, allowing his to be made for him. He didn’t figure he’d get that lucky.

Timothy Blackwell had yet to return to the bridge since they departed Ninaz. He was still holed up in the Science Department. Jack had given up trying to push Blackwell. He knew that if the science officer and his people could find the answer in time, they would, and no amount of inspirational speeches or screaming from him would do the least amount of good.Jack looked again to the chronometer. They would drop out of warp in ten minutes near the orbit of the third planet. If Blackwell didn’t have a solution, Jack would have to risk violating the Prime Directive, forcing his executive officer’s hand, requiring the Andorian to relieve Jack of his command. He had already talked to Hank Evans and told him not to get involved if that happened.

As they passed the Ikenga system on their way to Parsandra they dropped off several probes and just an hour ago had gotten the first of their reports. The entities had indeed remained within that system, draining the life from the fifth planet. The scans showed they moved slowly across that world, leaving only death in their wake. Hank had compared it to a swarm of locusts consuming large fields of crops. At least on Ikenga Five, no intelligent life was being destroyed.

Jack knew it was finally time for him to go down to the bridge. He stood to his feet and walked down the long stairs to Deck One. He had almost gone to see Mei-Wan an hour earlier. He had hoped for the peace she used to give, but he was worried they’d just end up in another of their arguments.

Jack entered the bridge and immediately looked at the science station and saw the seat was empty. Blackwell hadn’t come through yet. Jack would have to make the hardest choice of his career and perhaps the last. He had pondered his options for the past day and knew that he couldn’t allow everyone on Parsandra Three to die if he could prevent it. In the end, he didn’t see much of a choice.

Negev stood next to Nedj s’Felis at the conn position watching the distance indicator count down.

“Take us out of warp,” Negev said. “Full impulse and raise shields.”

Negev turned about and looked up at Hank Evans. “Any sign of the entities?”

“Nothing yet,” Hank said. “But our probes report they left the Ikenga system at high warp six hours ago on a heading for Parsandra.”

Osmand had been right about the course of the lifeforms that were causing so much death and destruction. Time was running out for the people of Parsandra Three. It would take them several minutes to get their craft far enough away to avoid the attack that was coming.

Jack turned to Arthur Conrad. “Open a channel on the carrier wave frequency Mr. Osmand gave us.”

“Belay that order, Mister Conrad,” Negev said causing everyone on the bridge to turn his direction.

Jack McCall looked sternly at the Andorian. “Commander, are you certain you want to do this?”

“I had hoped you had heard me earlier, Captain.”

“I did,” Jack replied. “I have never dismissed your counsel. But I have come to the conclusion that the lives of the people on that planet below us are what’s at stake now.”

“The Prime Directive is what’s at stake, Captain McCall,” Negev stated.

“Osmand has already caused whatever damage would be wrought by telling them life outside their world exists,” Jack said. “He’s given them warp driven craft. It won’t harm them if they’re told their world is threatened allowing a small number of them to survive.”

“Do you have any proof they have warp shuttles outside of Osmand’s word?”

“He’s a religious zealot, Lak,” Jack said with a grin. “He thinks he possesses the truth. Why should he lie about this?”

Lak Negev looked at the officers staring at him from their stations around the bridge. He was certain some of them were more than a little confused at this point. He had afterall, been the one to convince them that Jack McCall deserved their loyalty and the benefit of the doubt when it came to Gann’s orders. Negev knew Hank Evans would do whatever McCall asked. He didn’t know what Vargas, s’Felis, or Conrad would do if he held his ground.

Negev thought he had a possible way out for both him and his captain. “Sir, if the Parsandran Chancellor acknowledges he has the warp shuttles…”

Jack smiled. “Agreed,” he said. Though, if they didn’t have those shuttles, Jack was determined to use the transporters to bring as many Parsandrans aboard the Chamberlain as he could. That order would not be countermanded. Hank Evans had already agreed to carry it out even if Jack were removed forcibly from the bridge.

Arthur Conrad went to work at his console.

The speakers on the bridge spewed out static and other loud noises not normally heard when using subspace communication. A few seconds later, a deep voice came over them.

“Yes?” the voice asked. “Is that you, Janus Osmand?”

Well, at least the alien on the other end knew who Osmand was, Jack thought.

“This is Captain Jack McCall of the starship Chamberlain,” he replied. “Osmand told us we could contact Chancellor Vadelig on this frequency.”

“I am the Most High Chancellor of Parsandra, Vadelig,” the voice stated.

Jack paused to carefully chose his next words. “Mr. Osmand informed us that he had given you a number of spacecraft that were capable of travelling at warp speed,” Jack said. First things first. If they didn’t have the shuttles, there was no need to tell them about the destructive beings heading towards their world. There was no point in making their last moments of life full of nothing but fear and panic. “Are they currently operational?”

“Yes,” Vadelig’s voice said. “I traveled to our fourth planet yesterday in one.”

Jack looked at Negev who reluctantly nodded.

“That’s good to hear,” Jack replied. “Chancellor, we are currently tracking several energy beings who will enter your system within the hour. They have brought death to all the worlds they have encountered thus far. We suggest that you get as many of your people aboard those shuttles as soon as possible so that they might escape with their lives.”

There was silence for nearly a minute. “But those craft can only carry ten each! Out of the billions of my people, I can only save forty! Can you not send down more ships to save us?!”

Jack looked at Negev who approached him.

“Captain,” the Andorian began. “I wouldn’t advise sending shuttles down. We don’t want any of our people getting caught down there when…”

Hank Evans interrupted. “Multiple contacts have just dropped out of warp within the system!”

Jack and Negev both turned to Hank.

“Red alert!” Negev ordered and a moment later the alarm klaxons blared.

“Time to the third planet?” Jack asked.

“If they maintain their current velocity, I’d say about twenty-five minutes,” Hank replied.

“Chancellor,” Jack started. “We’re out of time! You have twenty minutes to get off as many as you can!”

The channel went dead.

“Signal was cut on the planet, sir,” Conrad reported. Jack only hoped it meant the Chancellor had heeded his warning.

Hank looked at Jack for several seconds. McCall gave a quick tilt of his head and Hank began activating certain controls on his console.

“McGuire to bridge,” came the Irish voice of the Chamberlain’s flight deck commander over the speakers. Jack suddenly turned to Hank.

“Bridge here, Mr. McGuire,” Negev answered.

Melissa Vargas looked at Hank and put things together in her mind. She knew what Jack had tried to do.

“I just thought I’d ask,” McGuire said. “Does anyone know why the lower levels of the main bay have had their containment fields activated?”

Negev turned to Jack and Hank. “You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you, Captain?”

Jack stared directly into Negev’s eyes. “We’re going to transport as many of those people down there as we can up to the ship.”

Negev looked at the deck and exhaled. He could understand McCall’s motivation, but while the Chancellor of Parsandra might have had contact with Osmand, he didn’t feel they could assume the same about the ordinary citizens of the planet.

“Captain,” he started. “I’m afraid I can’t…”

Timothy Blackwell entered the bridge. “Captain!”

Both Negev and McCall watched Blackwell run to his science station. “I’m sorry it took so long, sir, but that scientist was actually farther away from creating a stable warp field than we thought,” Blackwell stated as he began activating controls.

“Can you recreate what he did on Ninaz?” Jack asked.

“Yes, and if he’d had enough power he could have extended the protection he had to millions of his people,” Blackwell said. “He didn’t create a warp field exactly, but a static warp shell.”

“Can we form one that will surround the entire planet?” Melissa asked.

“No,” Blackwell replied as his fingers continued to dance across his controls. “But we can create one between the entities and the planet with us at the center of the effect.”

Jack smiled and turned to Hank. “Hold off on the transporters, Hank.”

Negev looked at Jack for several seconds. He would eventually have to discuss this with his captain, but now was not the time.

Jack looked at Blackwell. “Let’s get this thing set up, Mr. Blackwell.”

“Aye, sir,” the science officer said with a grin.

Jack sat in his command chair.

“Time until the entities arrive?” Negev asked.

Hank Evans responded. “A little more than fifteen minutes.”

Jack thought a moment and considered caution might be a good thing, just in case Blackwell’s plan failed. “Raise our shields to maximum, Hank.”

Evans did as ordered.

Jack McCall hoped he had made the right call putting his ship and crew in the path of this alien force that had remained locked away for billions of years. If something went wrong they’d all be dead in a little more than fifteen minutes.

“Warp shell activated,” Timothy Blackwell announced.

Hank Evans watched his tactical display closely and saw something he hadn’t at all expected.

“Captain,” he said slowly. “They’ve stopped.”

Jack stood to his feet. “On viewscreen.”

On the large display at the front of the bridge they all watched sixty pulsating, glowing energy forms hover motionless in space only a few hundred thousand kilometers from their ship. The bright blue and white masses of living power seemed to dance about each other momentarily, then return to their former locations. Several seconds later they moved away at tremendous velocity.

“Track them!” Jack shouted.

Hank expanded the search range on his tactical display, but couldn’t find the luminescent lifeforms anywhere. He went back through the sensor logs for the last several minutes and quickly reviewed the data. He smiled.

“They’re gone,” he said with obvious relief in his voice. “They left the system at warp nine point nine, nine…” he looked up at Jack. “Let’s just say there are a whole lot more nines after that I won’t bother rattling off.”

Jack let out his breath and stood to his feet. “Secure from red alert.” He turned to Arthur Conrad. “Contact the Chancellor of Parsandra and let him know the danger has passed.”

“Aye, sir,” Conrad said.

Everyone on the bridge was relieved things had ended the way they had, with the people of the planet below safe and their captain and executive officer not caught up in a question of violation of the Prime Directive.

=/\=

However, down on Parsandra Three, some three thousand kilometers away from the palace of the Chancellor sat a citizen of that world listening intently to his amateur radio equipment. He adjusted the frequency control slightly, searching for what he had heard several minutes before. He looked over at a computer terminal where information from several of his fellow radio enthusiasts was being displayed. His triangulation program would soon locate the source of the very odd transmission they had all caught and it would confirm his suspicions. He would finally know that his Chancellor, who they all revered, had spoken to aliens from another world.

“Chamberlain to Chancellor Vadelig, please respond,” came the voice of Arthur Conrad over the hobbled together equipment in the small room.

But it would be many months before he and his friends would learn the full impact of the messages he continued to record. Once they deciphered the content of that set of communications, many things on their planet and about their lives would forever change.

And Chancellor Vadelig would learn the price one paid for appearing to act out of cowardice.

=/\=

Chapter 6 - Painful Realities

“So, her translation is accurate?” Jack asked.

“Yes,” Mei-Wan said, more reserved than ever in front of her husband. She had barely made eye contact with him during the last fifteen minutes they spent together in his ready room.

“Of course, I havent been able to confirm all of it yet, but with some more time and Susan’s notes, I’m sure I’ll confirm what I now suspect,” Mei-Wan said.

“It’s hard for me to imagine how a child would turn out being raised by Osmand,” Jack said. “I’m having Starfleet check their records on Miss Dasari to see if there’s anything else we can find out about her.”

“Well, if there’s nothing else, Captain…” Mei-Wan started.

Jack rose to his feet before she could go further. “Mei, please, don’t go.”She took a deep breath and finally looked at him. “Why should I stay, Jack?”

“Because, I thought we loved each other,” he said as he made his way around the desk.

“I don’t know if that’s enough any more,” she whispered. “It wasn’t enough for you more than a week ago.”

He stared down at the smooth surface of his desk. He slowly traced a meaningless pattern out with his finger on the table he usually did his work on. “What else do we need?” Jack asked softly.”How about understanding that it might take me time to sort out all my feelings about Kyle Hoffman,” she replied, folding her arms across her chest.

“What’s to figure out? The guy’s a sorry excuse for starship commander,” Jack blurted out with a scowl on his face.

Mei-Wan looked sternly at him. That was the last kind of response she expected to hear from Jack. “After all Kyle has been through, I’d have thought you’d be the one person to show him some understanding!” she said.”I can’t understand a CO who hasn’t lifted a finger to notify the families of his crew about their deaths,” Jack said with growing anger. “It’s more than a requirement, it’s a solemn duty!”

Jack walked around the desk toward her.

“Preston certified him fit, Mei. He’s had plenty of time to take care of it. What the hell’s he been doing for the last four days?” Jack asked, indignant.

Mei-Wan turned away. She found it hard to believe what Jack said about Kyle Hoffman. She knew he was a caring and sensitive person. She knew he wouldn’t leave something as important as that undone. “That’s not true! You’re only saying that because you think it’ll somehow bring me back to you!”

Jack’s eyes narrowed. “I haven’t lied to you, Mei. And I’m not about to start on account of that pathetic jack-ass!”“You’re better than this, Jack,” she said, turning back to him. “At least I used to think so.”

“Why are you defending him?” Jack asked, tilting his head to one side. “You’ve slept with him, haven’t you?”Mei-Wan’s eyes burned at him. “You son of a bitch!” She tried to be angry, but was hurt more than anything else. Resignation consumed her. There was nothing left. The inhibitions keeping her from Hoffman evaporated in the flash of a moment. And she could tell Jack McCall knew it.Mei-Wan turned and stormed out of the ready room.

=/\=

She was still angry at Jack several hours later. Mei-Wan couldn’t believe how petty and vindictive he had been about Kyle. She wondered if he really thought attacking Kyle, and accusing her of unfaithfulness would help their marriage.What marriage? It’s over.

She exited a turbolift and made her way down a corridor on Deck Twelve. She knew what was likely to happen if she continued, but she didn’t care any longer. It’s time I moved on.She stopped.

Mei-Wan stood outside Kyle’s door for a full minute, her hand just inches away from the control that would let him know someone was there. She held her breath. Once she touched the control there would be no going back– her choice would be made.

Her finger hit the touchpad and the chime went off. A moment later the door opened and Kyle stood looking at her with a smile.

“Hello, Mei.”

“Mind if I come in?” she asked.

His brow raised and he backed away to let her enter.

Mei-Wan took another breath and followed him. Maybe it’s time I made a choice– the one I’ve wanted for a long time, she thought.

“Sorry I haven’t done much with the room yet,” he said. “I can’t get to my things on the Ravenscroft until tomorrow.”

Mei-Wan looked about the nearly empty room and smiled. “It’s fine.”

Kyle nervously went to the replicator. “You want something to drink?”

“Sure. How about a glass of wine?” Mei-Wan asked.

Kyle grinned. “You prefer white wine, right?”

She smiled. “You remember that?”

“I remember a lot of things, Mei,” he said as he turned to activate the device.

Mei-Wan closed her eyes a moment, then slowly unzipped the outer jacket of her uniform. By the time Kyle turned back around with two glasses of wine, she had it off.

He nearly dropped their drinks as she threw her jacket onto a couch and walked up to him.

He took a shallow breath and handed her one of the glasses.

She took a sip of her drink and let the cool liquid sit in her mouth a moment before she swallowed it.

Kyle drank nearly half of his glass down in one gulp, keeping his eyes on her the entire time.

Mei-Wan turned away from him and walked across the room toward the bed and set her glass down on a nearby table. Kyle followed slowly behind.

Still with her back to him, she grabbed the bottom of her green shirt and pulled it slowly up over her chest and then her shoulders and finally over her head. She tossed it onto the soft blankets covering the bed.

Kyle finished his drink and set his glass down next to hers. He ran his hand slowly over her delicate skin. He stopped and with two fingers gently lifted the left strap of her bra up and then down over the soft curve of her shoulder.

Mei-Wan’s heart raced as his fingers moved from her bare left shoulder over to the strap of fabric on her right. It was too late to stop now. She would spend the night in Kyle’s bed. She had wanted this for so long. Her choice was made.

His fingers removed the strap on her right. He put his hands on her bare shoulders and gently rubbed her warm, silky skin.

He smiled. “This last week has been so insane,” he whispered. “If I had known it would end with us here– like this, I would have gladly invited every bit of it.”Mei-Wan felt his hands go down her back to the last strap holding her bra in place. She felt his fingers slowly lift it. Every breath became deeper than the last for her. She could hardly keep her knees from giving way.

What did he say? she thought as her mind rose out of the warm haze she was falling into.

“It’s actually kind of romantic,” he whispered as he leaned toward her neck, his hand still working to remove her bra. “If those attacks hadn’t happened, we wouldn’t be here right now. Think of it, all of those billions died for you and I to be together. LeAnn always said we were soulmates. Maybe in some way, her sacrifice made our destiny possible.”

Just as the first hook of three came loose, Mei-Wan pulled away and spun around to face Kyle.

“What?!”

Kyle shook his head as if coming out of a trance. “What’s wrong?”

“LeAnn’s sacrifice, Kyle?!” Mei-Wan shouted. “She… died a horrible death!”

“Mei, I was just saying…” He grinned sheepishly. “All that matters is we’re finally together as we were meant to be.”He stepped forward and tried to put his arms around her, but Mei-Wan put her hands up and pushed him back.

“Mei, we’re soulmates. We’ve both waited a long time to make love. We deserve it.”

She quickly pulled her bra straps back up onto her shoulders and reached across the bed and grabbed her shirt. “Kyle, what kind of a monster are you?!”

“Wait, Mei,” he started.

“No!” she shouted as she pulled the shirt down onto her body. “Your entire crew… our friends died and all you care about is getting me in the sack?!”

He frowned. “Okay, we’ve been through a lot recently. Maybe I said things the wrong way. It’s possible I’ve got a lot of repressed feelings about what I’ve been through.”

“What you’ve been through?!” she screamed. “What about all those who lost their lives? I stood on a planet several days ago where there were dead bodies as far as I could see. What about them, Kyle?! What about LeAnn?!”She made sure her shirt was on completely and pulled her hair out of the collar. Suddenly, she realized a mistake she had made.

“Oh my god,” she said softly. “Jack was telling the truth.”

Kyle looked at her and smirked at the mention of her husband’s name. “About what?”

“You haven’t sent any messages to the families of your crew, have you? You haven’t notified LeAnn’s family she’s dead?”

“There are more important things in life than duty, Mei,” he said with a smile, stepping closer to her. “You’re the center of my universe now.”“LeAnn was my friend…” Mei-Wan’s words faded as she fought back the memory of finding LeAnn Goodwin’s dead body. She closed her eyes. “I thought you were someone I could care about. What the hell happened to you?”Mei-Wan stormed past him back into the living area. She picked up her jacket and began to put it on.

“Mei-Wan, come on!” Kyle yelled as he followed her. “You know we belong together! Don’t tell me you’re going back to that psychotic, McCall!”

She zipped her jacket up and her eyes flared open. Her hand swung up and slapped Kyle hard in the face.

“Jack’s a better man than you’ll ever be.  I watched him agonize for months over the loss of his crew from the Beaumont. You can’t even mourn a day for yours!” she yelled at him.Kyle’s face formed into a smug grin. “If he’s better than me then why did you come here? Why were you just a few minutes from having sex with me?”

“I can see now that was a mistake.” Mei-Wan stopped and thought a moment. “For the last several months I’ve let the feelings I had for you six years ago consume me.”“That’s called love, Mei.”

“You don’t know what the word means.” She walked to the door and stopped. “But maybe I don’t either.”She looked back at him over her shoulder. “And about us almost… as smart as I may be, as brilliant an archaeologist as everyone may think I am, I can still act like an incredible idiot.”

Mei-Wan left him alone in his quarters staring at the door. She ran to the turbolift and nearly leaped inside. “Deck Twenty!” she shouted.She stood silently as the compartment moved through the pressurized transport tube. Once it had traveled far enough, she called out to the controls again. “Pause.”

The lift stopped between decks which is what she wanted.

Mei-Wan paced back and forth in the small compartment trying to frantically think through what just happened– what she almost did.

She stopped and collapsed onto the floor and screamed as loud as she could. The rage that consumed her was directed inward, toward herself.

=/\=

Jack McCall sat in his quarters reading the report he had rewritten for the fifth time. He leaned forward in the couch and set the PADD down on the table in front of him. The request from Admiral Simmons for more details about the events at Ninaz and Parsandra had kept him busy most of the evening allowing him to avoid asking the computer where his wife was. He was glad for that. He was afraid of what the answer would be.

Jack took a sip from his glass of scotch and hoped he’d been wrong about what he saw in Mei-Wan’s eyes several hours earlier, but he knew he’d said the wrong thing and most likely pushed her away. What he was most afraid of was she’d spend the night with Hoffman, then feel guilty about it and ask his forgiveness, begging to come back to him. Jack didn’t think he could give her absolution for that. The part of his heart that would forever belong to Mei-Wan hated him for his inability to forgive her.

The chime sounded indicating someone at the door. Jack set his glass down on the table. He really didnt want to answer the electronic summons. It was likely further information on the attacks and he didn’t have the stomach for more talk of death and destruction. He’d heard and seen too much of it lately.

The irritating noise sounded again. Jack debated how long he could stand to hear that bleating and decided all he had to do was open the door and tell whoever it was to go the hell away.

He stepped up to the entrance and touched a control. The door opened and he saw Mei-Wan, her cheeks red from far too much crying.

“Mei? You okay?” he asked, afraid his fears had come true.

She wiped her cheeks. “Can I come in?”

“I really am not in the mood to argue again.”

She looked at him with pleading eyes. “Neither am I.”

He thought a moment and then waved her in.

After the door closed she stopped and saw the bottle of scotch on the table.

“So, I’ve driven you to drink?”

“Mei, if you just came here to given me a hard time about my drinking, then go away.”

“No. I didn’t mean to criticize you, Jack,” Mei-Wan said. She turned to him. “You have another glass?”

“I don’t think now is the time for us to become drinking buddies.”

“I just want to talk.”

“I think we’ve done more than enough of that.”

She looked directly at him. “We’ve talked, but we haven’t communicated. We’re really bad at doing that.”

He shrugged his shoulders and walked over to the alcove and got a glass for her. He tossed it in the air and she barely caught it.

She held it out. “Mind pouring for me?”

Jack grabbed the bottle and filled her glass with the golden liquid.

Mei-Wan took a long drink and then a second later was coughing.

Jack frowned and sat her down on the couch. “If you’re not used to it, go slow.”

She nodded and continued coughing. Jack sat in a chair across from her and stared. He was surprised she wasn’t somewhere else at this hour.

“It’s late, Mei. Don’t you have someone to be with?”

She took a breath. “I guess I deserve that.”

Jack took a sip from his own glass. “You’ve got a right to be with whoever you want.”

“And if that’s you?” she asked softly.

He shook his head. “Oh, no. I’m not riding this damn roller coaster again. I’m…”

Mei-Wan forced her eyes shut just as the intercom chimed.

“Yes?” Jack asked.

P’rada K’jal’s voice came over the speaker. “Captain, there’s a subspace message from the starship Balthazar for you.”

Jack turned to Mei-Wan. “That’s Dad’s ship.”

“Put it through down here, Commander,” he said.

“Aye, sir, standing by.”

Jack turned to face the comm display in his quarters.

“You want me to go?” Mei-Wan asked.

“No, you can stay,” he replied, wondering why he said it. They just seemed headed for another argument. “Activate comm.”

The screen came to life with the image of Admiral Jeremiah McCall seated at the desk in his ready room aboard the Sovereign class starship from where he commanded the Third Fleet.

“I catch you at a bad time, Jack?”

“No.”

“I need you to set a course to meet me.”

Jack had wondered when all of Captain Gann’s protests would make their way back to Simmons. But why did they have to send my dad out to get me?

“I was wondering when this would happen,” Jack said.

“How could you know about this? I just talked to Fergus Simmons less than an hour ago?”

“I’m sorry, go ahead.”

Jeremiah was silent for a couple of moments. “I need you to meet me at the coordinates I’m encoding in this message. My navigator tells me that if you go to warp nine point seven you can make it in about fifty-two hours.”

“What’s the rush?”

Jeremiah leaned forward and lowered his voice a bit. “Before I get to that… Jack, your performance at Cajma is being reviewed and frankly, you didn’t exactly distinguish yourself. The only thing tempering Fergus’ reaction about you not stopping Gann, is that he likes Gann so much in the first place. And Gann’s glowing words about you have kept you from a full scale inquiry.”

“Gann’s glowing words about me?” Jack asked, hardly believing he heard his father correctly.

“Yes, Captain Gann, while suggesting you needed to be more direct with your opinions and more willing to put them into action, praised your quick thinking in taking the Chamberlain to Hel’yra.”

Jack couldnt believe it. After nearly a week of threatening him and his command staff with everything short of a firing squad, he actually praised Jack in his report back to Simmons. It must have been Wakernaggle’s doing. Jack couldn’t believe Gann would change his mind on his own.

“You don’t say,” Jack said with a wide grin. “That was kind of him.”

“Well, even Simmons had to admit that you doing that is what has given us the little information we have about these attacks.”

“You can be certain we wouldn’t have gotten any of it if I’d stayed at Cajma.”

“I agree, but realize Jack, despite that you’re riding things pretty thinly. You don’t have a lot of margin for error anymore, son. This Cajma thing will end up as a blotch on your service record. Combined with everything else, you aren’t long for the center seat if you don’t clean up your act.”

“Are you speaking to me as my father or an admiral?” Jack asked as he set his jaw the way he had every time he and his father headed toward an argument.

“As both, Jack,” his father continued over the comm channel. “Simmons so far is painting you in a good light back to Starfleet command, but it’s no secret that Admiral Olanski wants you out.”

The Chief of Starfleet Personnel was on Jack’s list of least favorite people. She hadn’t been allowed to be in on the decision that gave him the Chamberlain and he had heard that she was looking for any excuse she could find to take the ship away from him.He let out his breath. “Okay. I have to watch it. I know that, Dad.”

Jeremiah gave a quick nod to his son. “Now, as to your orders. Is Mei-Wan doing okay?”

Mei-Wan stepped next to Jack. “I’m fine, Jeremiah.”

Jack’s father smiled on the display.

“Mei, I’m sorry to be the one to tell you this, but you’re being reassigned.”

Mei-Wan and Jack turned to each other. Both of them went numb. After all that had happened between them and all that had been said, they didn’t know how to react to this.

Jack returned back to his father’s image. “Dad, no. I need Mei here. If we’re going to figure out what’s going on with the deaths on these worlds I need her expertise on the Ancient Progenitors and their machine on Hel’yra.”

“I’m sorry, Jack. The orders are signed. Simmons feels the same way about her expertise and that’s why both he and the Archaeology Council want her back on Kel-j’na. They want her in a place of safety where she can be in contact with other experts so they can figure out what this menace is and come up with some way of dealing with it,” he said.

“This is a secure channel, Jack. You want to tell me where some of that information in your reports came from?” Jeremiah asked with a grin.

“If I told you that, you’d have to arrest me. If you didn’t then you’d be putting yourself at risk.”

“I know we needed that information, but do you really think this is the time to gamble with your career?”

“I think if it allows us protect the next world then my career is worth losing,” Jack stated.

Jeremiah smiled. “All right, I’ll not ask then. Just be careful, Jack. Don’t sell your soul for this.”“I’ll be careful.”

Mei-Wan looked at Jeremiah’s image on the display. “Should I be ready to leave as soon as you arrive?”

“I’m afraid so, Mei. I want to be headed back to Kel-j’na after only thirty minutes. As soon as I get you there the Third Fleet should be ready for me to bring them back out here searching for where those entities ran off to.”

Jack looked in Mei-Wan’s eyes for a moment. He had expected the same despair he felt, but all he saw was resignation.

“Well, I’ll see you both in a couple of days and Mei, I’ll get a chance to let you hear how Katherine’s been chewing my ears off about ‘when are those two going to have some children’.”

Jack finally forced a grin and looked at the display. “Give Mom my love, Dad. We’ll see you in a couple of days.”

“You two go back to whatever it is you were doing before I interrupted,” Jeremiah said with a grin. A moment later the screen was blank.

They both stood motionless, not knowing what to say or if they should bother trying to return to their earlier conversation.

Mei-Wan turned and walked toward the door.

“Mei, please,” Jack said.

She slowly faced him again. “I owe you an apology, Jack,” she said.

“No you don’t,” he replied.

She shook her head. “Yes I do. You were right about Kyle and his crew.”

Jack took a step nearer to her. He wondered what had happened, then he remembered how she appeared when she came to his door a short time ago.

“He hasn’t sent any messages to their families yet,” Mei-Wan said. “I doubt he ever will unless he’s ordered to.”

She turned and left his quarters. Jack McCall took a step to go after her, then stopped. There wasn’t any point in pretending things were okay between them. He felt he had finally lost her.

=/\=

Chapter 7 - Changes Of Direction

Two days later, Jack and Mei-Wan stood at the port side gangway waiting for a shuttle from the Balthazar to arrive. Mei-Wan had a small bag slung over her shoulder with the few personal items she decided to take with her for however long she’d be assigned to Starfleet Headquarters on Kel-j’na.

Jack had spent the last two days trying to think of the right thing to say that might allow them to rebuild their marriage when she returned– if she returned.

As they heard the clang of the shuttle against the outer hull of the pressure door Mei-Wan breathed quickly and looked at Jack.

“Jack, before I go I thought you should have an answer to your question about me and Kyle,” she said.

“Mei,” Jack began, “I don’t think this is the best time for that.”

“There might not ever be a best time for it,” she said as the shuttle finished docking.

“You asked me more than a week ago if I still loved Kyle and if I’d ever sleep with him,” Mei-Wan stated.

Jack stood silently, expecting the worst.

“The answer to both is no.”

Jack let himself breathe again and it was hard for him not to smile. He actually let a brief moment of hope slip into his mind.

“I never have and never will sleep with Kyle Hoffman,” she said. “I know that as certainly as I know my name.”

She waited before saying more. She tried not to smile at his obvious happiness. She didn’t want him to get his hopes up higher than he should. “I don’t know if I ever loved him or even knew who he really was,” Mei-Wan said while avoiding eye contact with Jack. “I think I wanted him there so I’d feel I had the power to make my own choices.”“You’ve always had that, Mei,” Jack said softly.

“Have I?” she asked now looking directly at him. “Did I have a choice about us? We’re together because of the whims of that bastard, Abolas, in that prison camp.”

“I’ve always thought we fell in love and that’s why we’re together,” Jack replied with growing irritation at the implication she was making.

She reached out and took hold of his hand. “My dear Jack, I love you more than I ever thought I’d love anyone, but you can’t deny we would never have even gotten to a first date on the Beaumont. If Abolas hadn’t put us in the same barracks, if he hadn’t…” her words trailed off as she hesitated. Mei-Wan held his hand tight. “We wouldn’t be together at all.”

Jack took a long breath and looked down. “Then what are you saying?” he asked. “Do you want a divorce?”

Her grip on his hand tightened as she fought back her tears. “If you had asked me that a couple of days ago, I might have said yes, but not now,” she said with more conviction than he’d ever heard from her. “I want the chance to come back to you of my own choice, not to be thrown together by the whims of a maniac or the bureaucracy of Starfleet. I want us both to decide when I’m done on Kel-j’na if we really want to be together.”

“I know that already,” he said, still not looking at her.

“I need time to be sure,” she whispered while the airlock behind her clanked and its seals opened. “That’s all I ask, Jack. Please, just give me time enough for that.”

“How much time does it take for you to realize that, Mei?” he asked, now looking directly at her, his eyes piercing and demanding.

“If you love me, as much as I need.”

The airlock door slid open and Mei-Wan leaned toward the man she knew she’d always love and gently kissed him for the first time in over a week and the last time for a period neither of them knew the extent of.

Jeremiah McCall strolled through the airlock doors and approached them.

“Sorry to interrupt,” the admiral stated softly. “But, we really don’t have much time to waste. I just received a message from Simmons that those entities have been sighted at high warp near the Tzaka system, just this side of the Fashod Empire.”

Jack smiled at his father. “If we’re lucky, they’ll go clear across the Galaxy and give the Borg a couple of centuries of trouble.”

Jeremiah gave Mei-Wan a quick hug. “How are you doing, Mei? You all set?”

She smiled at her father-in-law. “Not really, but I guess we have to go.”

Jeremiah held out a PADD. “Oh, this is for you, Jack. They’ve finally made a decision about your science officer.”

Jack took the PADD, but decided he’d read it later. He couldn’t take his eyes away from Mei-Wan.

They had done their best to avoid each other for not just the last week, but much of the last six months and now when they were finally being separated, neither of them could bear it.

Jeremiah turned to his son. “I’ll probably be back out here in a couple of weeks or so, Jack. We can talk then.”

“Sure, Dad.”

“Don’t worry,” Jeremiah said with a smile. “I’ll take good care of her on the trip back to Kel-j’na.”

“I know,” Jack replied as his father walked back into the airlock, allowing them a last moment together.

Jack took Mei-Wan in his arms and held her tight. He leaned his mouth down to her ear. “I’ll be here, Mei. Take all the time you need.”

Mei-Wan finally couldn’t hold her tears off any longer. They fell down her cheeks and she hoped that in the end she’d find her heart leading her back to this man she loved so dearly.

“Goodbye, Jack.”

Several seconds later the door sealed behind her and Jack McCall was alone.

He listened as the shuttle departed and tried to get his mind distracted with other thoughts, but found it hard. Then he remembered the PADD. He was glad Starfleet had decided not to leave Timothy Blackwell hanging. He’d proved himself as more than capable to fill the task as the Chamberlain’s science officer. He deserved to have the title.

Jack read through the text of the orders on the PADD and his eyes went wide. “Son of a bitch,” he whispered through clenched teeth.

=/\=

Jack McCall stood in his ready room, a very disappointed Timothy Blackwell standing before him. Jack had just given him the bad news.

He decided not to prolong his agony. “Dismissed.”

Blackwell turned quickly and exited the ready room. Jack walked slowly over to a window and watched the Balthazar as it turned and moments later streaked away at warp speed carrying Mei-Wan to her new assignment.

Jack spun about and found Kyle Hoffman waiting for him. He glared at the man. Not only did he detest the ground Hoffman walked on because of the situation concerning messages to the families of his dead crew from the Ravenscroft, but now he had a whole new reason to hate the little bastard’s guts.

“Mr. Hoffman,” Jack said as he walked around to take his seat behind the desk. He didn’t offer the former CO of the Ravenscroft the option of sitting. Jack didn’t feel he deserved it. “You have been reassigned, but I guess you knew that was coming, didn’t you?”

Hoffman grinned with a smugness Jack wouldn’t have minded smacking off his face.

“Let’s get this over with,” Jack said doing his best to hold back his own bit of justice just a little longer. He read from a PADD, “Commander Kyle Hoffman has been transferred from duty on the U.S.S. Ravenscroft to the position of science officer on the U.S.S. Chamberlain, effective immediately by order of Admiral Patricia Olanski, Chief of Starfleet Personnel.” He set the PADD down on his desk. “So, how’d you do it, Hoffman?”“Does it matter?” the younger man asked.

Jack leaned back in his chair. “Oh, I’m just curious, since you obviously disregarded the chain of command and bypassed me entirely.”

Hoffman hesitated, but obviously couldn’t resist shoving it under McCall’s nose. “Admiral Olanski is a friend of the family, sir.”

“That so?” Jack asked. “I get the impression you had some real important reason you pulled this many strings to get assigned to my ship. You didn’t even try for another command.”

Kyle shook his head. “Permission to speak freely, sir?”

“For the moment, go ahead.”

Hoffman took a full load of air into his lungs, he apparently wanted to savor this. “Why not stop with the games, McCall?” he asked with a derisive tone in his voice. “You know damn well why I pushed for the transfer.”

“Let me see… my wife perhaps?” Jack asked sternly.

Kyle only raised an eyebrow momentarily in response.

“Well, I think you’ll find you’ve made a terrible mistake, Mr. Hoffman,” Jack said.

“Your mistake is thinking you’ll ever have Mei again, McCall. She and I belong together. You can’t win against fate.”Jack’s eyes widened. He did his best to remain calm. “I think your permission to speak freely has now expired, Mr. Hoffman.”

Kyle stood at complete attention once again.

“As I said, you’ve made a mistake,” Jack began. “Lieutenant Mei-Wan McCall just left this ship aboard the U.S.S. Balthazar and has been assigned to Starfleet Headquarters on Kel-j’na, until further notice.”

The impact took a few seconds to hit Kyle Hoffman’s consciousness.

“What?!” Hoffman shouted. “She can’t be transferred!”

“While this might be the only time you and I ever agree on anything,” Jack said. “I’m afraid that my wife is no longer aboard this vessel.”

“I can’t believe this!” Hoffman said under his breath.

Jack leaned forward. “Oh, and I wouldn’t suggest trying the same trick to get off the Chamberlain.”

Hoffman looked at Jack and frowned. His resolve was back at least a little. “And why not?”

“Because most times a favor like the one you pulled comes at a cost. And after having to move who knows how much heaven and earth to get you assigned here, it isn’t likely the same thing will be done again to get you off. It would indicate that a favor was being done and someone like Olanski usually likes to keep that sort of thing below deck as much as possible,” Jack said with a grin. “Any request for a transfer will now have to come across my desk for approval and I think I can guarantee, Mr. Hoffman that any such request will be quickly stamped ‘unapproved’.”

“You sent her away, didnt you?” Kyle demanded. “You selfish bastard! You think you can keep us apart like this?”

Jack leaned back and took a deep breath. “That’s your one shot, Hoffman. Rest assured, there won’t be another. You refer to me that way again and you’ll spend the next several months in the brig.”

Kyle fought back his anger. “Yes, sir. Captain, sir.”

Jack smiled. “Better. As to my dear wife’s reassignment, you can be sure that was the last thing I wanted,” he said. “Sunita Mahajan will replace Lieutenant McCall as Chief of the Archaeology Section. I want you to go over all the relevant data and see if you can find any more information concerning these attacks. Lt. Mahajan will coordinate with Lieutenant McCall back on Kel-j’na. Is that understood?”

“Yes, sir,” Kyle mumbled.

“You wanted to be assigned to the Chamberlain, Mr. Hoffman. You got your wish, now live with it,” Jack said.

Kyle fumed but remain silent.

Jack stood, but didn’t extend his hand. “Welcome aboard, Mr. Hoffman.”

Kyle gave a short nod.

“Dismissed.”

Kyle turned around and left without even noticing Hank Evans walking up the steps into the ready room. Hank strolled up to Jack after Kyle was gone.

“It looks like the kid isn’t very happy with his assignment, Jack.”

“Too damn bad,” Jack replied as he returned to his seat. Hank sat in the chair across from the desk.

“Negev has laid in a course for Corvanis,” Hank said. “We’re supposed to leave what’s left of the Ravenscroft there. I hear Starfleet intends to go over every square inch of the ship for clues about these entities.”

Jack only nodded, lost in his own thoughts.

“It’s okay to miss her, Jack.”

He shook his head at Hank’s comment. “No, it’s not Mei I was thinking about.”

“The entities that attacked Ninaz?”

“Yeah,” Jack said. “It just doesn’t make sense– an obviously advanced lifeform, so powerful it threatened the entire Galaxy and a simple thing like a static warp shell fends them off?”

“I don’t buy that either,” Hank said.

“What, you think some divine force came and pulled our asses out of the fire or something?” Jack asked with a grin.

Hank chuckled. “No. It’s just all of this struck me like a weak and starving man let loose at a banquet,” he said. “He’d run to the first plate he saw and gorge himself. Then the next plate, and the next one, until finally he’d reach one more and realize he’d filled his stomach and couldn’t eat anymore, and his sense of reason would return.”

“You think the Galaxy is their banquet table?” Jack asked with a wide smile.”I guess it depends on your point of view and what you consider food,” Hank replied. “I just can’t accept that some ‘evil’ force goes rampaging around wiping out planets for no reason. The Universe doesn’t work that way.”

Jack listened intently to Hank. “Then what’s the reason?” the captain asked.

“I don’t know,” Hank said. “But there always is a reason. We might not see it at first, or maybe we can’t understand it, but it’s always there, trust me.”

=/\=

Thirty minutes later, down in the Officer’s Lounge on Deck Nine, Kyle Hoffman sat staring at a full glass of some bright pink liquid with a couple of pieces of ice swirling about each other at the top.

Hank Evans walked in and looked around the room as if searching for someone. He glanced at the chronometer near the front of the lounge and shrugged his shoulders. He walked over, taking a chair several down from Hoffman.

Hank got the attention of the Edoan behind the bar. After giving him his order Hank sat back as the bartender used all three of his arms to prepare his drink.

“Thanks,” Hank said with a nod as he took a sip of a bubbling green liquid. He turned to look around again and saw Hoffman. “You look like someone just smashed your left nut with a ball-peen hammer, son,” Hank said with a grin.

Kyle turned slowly to glare at Hank. “I’m having a really bad day, so if you don’t mind.”

“Sure,” Hank said. He purposely misinterpreted Hoffman’s meaning and moved a chair closer to the Chamberlain’s new science officer.

“I’m waiting on my lady friend, so I’ve got a few minutes,” Hank said as he took another sip of his drink.

Kyle shook his head. “Are you stupid or something? I said leave me alone.”

“No, you said, ‘so if you don’t mind.’ That’s a whole different thing.”

Kyle let his breath out. “Is everyone on this ship insane?”

“No, but we try to give that impression,” Hank said.

“Well, this is one officer who isn’t going to join in the craziness.”

“Yeah, I’d heard you had been assigned to us.”

“I’m surprised news travels that fast on a ship this size,” Kyle said.

“It travels faster,” Hank said. “With a crew of three thousand it takes only about a half hour for gossip to travel from bow to stern.”

Kyle turned his glass around nervously. “Lucky me, I got assigned to this ship. So what?”

“The scuttlebutt is you used some powerful connections to get yourself assigned here just so you could have a chance to make a move on the captain’s wife.”

“People talk too much about things they’re ignorant of.”

Hank shrugged his shoulders. “Could be, but I heard she told you to drop dead.”

Kyle stared at Hank. “Don’t you have someplace to be?”

“Like I said, I’m waiting on somebody.”

Hank took a long sip of his drink. “You know what really pisses me off about what you did, sonny?”

“I really don’t care.”

“There was a good man up for the science officer’s slot, Timothy Blackwell. He’s a smart resourceful guy. And he deserved the position. He’d earned it. He took the mess the last jack-ass left and made it work. That department loves him because he’s a nice guy and he knows his job.”

“Well, I feel for him,” Kyle spat sarcastically.

Hank frowned. “That attitude won’t help you much. Like I said, the science department used to be run by a jack-ass. In fact, he was a murdering jack-ass. Killed a real sweet girl. So, his department is used to seeing the guy at the top as the enemy. You go into this with your attitude and they’ll quickly shift that ‘us versus him’ mentality straight to your arrogant ass.”

“I outrank you. I expect the proper respect, Lieutenant Commander!” Kyle shouted.

Hank laughed. “I’m not much of one for ranks, kid. You keep this up and your stay aboard this ship will be a living hell.”

“You’ll be on report for insubordination by tomorrow morning,” Kyle said with a smile.

Hank finished his drink. “And that report will never see the light of day. Trust me on that one.”

He started to turn away but stopped and leaned toward Hoffman. “And sonny,” Hank whispered. “Once she comes back to this ship, if I ever hear you’ve bothered Mei-Wan in any way, you’ll be dead within six hours.”

Kyle chuckled until he looked into Hank Evans eyes and saw not boastfulness, not bluster, but the cold steel glare of a man who had killed hundreds of times before. Kyle Hoffman’s hand started shaking so much he almost knocked his drink over.Hank turned to the Edoan bartender. “Thanks for the drink, Praz. I think I’ll go wait for Loftus in the corridor.” He frowned at Hoffman. “I don’t much like the company in here.”Hank walked out.

Kyle picked up his glass and could barely hold it still enough to get a drink from it. It wasn’t every day he was threatened with certain death by a man who seemed all too eager to dole it out.

=/\=

Jack McCall sat in his command chair brooding. There was no other word for it and he had spent the last day doing nothing else. Mei-Wan’s departure had not angered him or made him shed tears like he might have thought he’d do. It just left him listless and depressed. Hank Evans had suggested he find a hobby. Jack had told him to go suck the exhaust out of the impulse manifold.

The boredom of their approach at warp six to Corvanis didn’t help his mood in the least. He’d debated trying to contact her and talk more, but she had asked for time to herself, so he decided against that idea.

Jack exhaled his breath slowly and looked again at the chronometer. It was exactly two minutes later than the last time he had gazed at it. In seventeen minutes, Commander Negev would arrive to take the next shift and Jack would spend a half hour in his ready room going over reports with Commander Purcell. Then he’d have nothing at all to do.

Melissa Vargas walked up to him and grinned. “Captain, I was wondering if you’d like to have dinner this evening with Kristen Bishop and me.”

“No, I think I’ve got a previous appointment.”

Vargas raised an eyebrow in typical Vulcan fashion, but the addition of her smile just didn’t look at all right to Jack. “Do you intend to do nothing but sulk around this ship the entire time Mei’s gone, sir?” she asked.”I’m not sulking,” he replied.

Melissa shook her head and was about to say something more when Arthur Conrad’s communication station let out a wailing alarm. He quickly attended to it and began checking his displays.

Jack turned to him. “What is it, Mr. Conrad?”

“A distress call of some sort,” Conrad said.

Jack sat up in his seat. “Yellow alert,” he ordered. A second later he returned to Conrad. “Another planet under attack?”

Conrad’s eyes widened as he turned to Jack. “No, sir. It’s from the Balthazar.”

Jack looked down and his mind raced. He leaped to his feet. “Red alert! Alter course to arrive at their last known location. Maximum warp, Mr. s’Felis!”In seconds, the alarm klaxon blared and the ship was turning about to head off in search of the source of the distress call.

=/\=

Twenty-one hours later the Chamberlain streaked across space, straining its engines.

Jack had only left the bridge briefly since they had received the distress signal from his father’s starship. He tried to keep his mind off what might have happened and focused on what he had to do. They already notified Starfleet, but no other ships would arrive in the area for another three days.

“Coming out of warp,” Lak Negev announced. “Main viewscreen at maximum magnification.”

A few seconds later, Jack McCall’s worst nightmares became reality. He stood and looked at what was displayed before him. All he or anyone on the bridge could see were bits of metallic debris scattered through space, tumbling about chaotically. A few chunks of a ship’s hull floated past their view as the Chamberlain slowly moved through the field of destruction.

Then they saw a body. It was a man in a Starfleet uniform, his skin burned to pitch black, like the soot found around a hot fire that had died days before.

Jack stumbled backward, almost falling into his chair.

“Mei… Dad…” he whispered. “Oh god, Mei!”

Jack McCall in that moment wished he could take back every cross word he had ever spoken and every demand he had made of her. He would have sacrificed everything that had kept them apart the last six months if he could just find her somewhere among the scattered wreckage, alive and well.

But what he saw unfolding on the viewscreen before him could not be erased with a wish. It was the reality of his life and the abyss of torment he had just fallen into.

TO BE CONTINUED…

=/\= =/\= =/\=

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Dark Horizon Story and Characters Copyright ©2003, 2011 by Michael Gray