"A
Cardassian cruiser has just entered our sensor range, distance 200,000
kilometers." Commander Enikal made his way back to the tactical station as
he spoke. "It's a Keldon-class cruiser and they came out of the nebula
without a warning." He checked the sensor display. "Right now they are
just sitting there, close to the border, but still within neutral
territory."
Tarin
sat down in the Captain's chair while Ben headed for the turbolift. If the
Cardassians wanted a fight, his place was down in engineering and not on the
bridge. "Yellow alert. Helm, full stop," Tarin ordered. "Put it
up on the main screen, full magnification."
The
image of the Cardassian battle cruiser filled the Valkyrie's viewer as
the flashing yellow warning lights and the alarm klaxons came to life. While
outwardly very similar to the mainstay of the Cardassian fleet - the Galor-class
battle cruiser - Tarin knew that a Keldon was quite a different beast. As one of
the few Cardassian ships armed with torpedo launchers the Keldon could launch a
long range attack on the Valkyrie any time and disappear back into the
nebula before she had much chance to react.
"What's
their status?" Captain Veal inquired in a matter-of-factly tone of voice.
"They
have their shields up, but weapons are powered down and they don't have a
target-lock on us." Dar sounded both relieved and doubtful. A second later
he added: "They are hailing us, Captain."
"Very
well, put it on the main viewer." From the corner of her eye Tarin could
see Commander Westmore get up and move away from the Valkyrie's center
seats. He obviously wanted to stay out off sight, but Tarin had other things to
worry about.
The
smiling face of a chubby Cardassian filled the viewer and Tarin almost smiled
herself. This man looked more like a friendly neighbor and much less like the
deadly enemy he could very well prove to be.
"I
am Gul Me'rok, captain of the Cardassian starship Trantor. May I ask what
brings you here?"
Tarin
stood up and took a step forward. "I am Captain Veal of the Federation
starship Valkyrie. We are on a routine patrol and I must admit I didn't
expect to run into any Cardassian cruisers in this vicinity." A smile
played around Tarin's lips, but she knew it wouldn't fool Me'rok, just as his
own smile didn't fool her.
"We
are here to study the protostar cluster which, if I am not mistaken, you call
the Argolis cluster. Our mission is one of exploration and scientific
studies." The Cardassian's voice sounded as friendly as his smile looked,
but Tarin hadn't expected anything else. For now they were not even trying to
call each other's bluff, but whatever it was that had motivated Me'rok to leave
the safety of the nebula, Tarin was sure he wouldn't risk a confrontation with a
single ship, even if it was a Keldon-class cruiser - that just wasn't the
Cardassian mode of operation.
She
turned around and faced the tactical station as her lips silently moved. 'Full
sensor scan.' When Commander Enikal had acknowledged her orders with a brisk nod
Tarin turned to the viewscreen again. "I see. Maybe you can help us unravel
a mystery we are facing."
"Go
ahead, please," Gul Me'rok stated, sounding more inquisitive than anything
else.
"You
see," Captain Veal slowly remarked, "our long-range sensors have been
picking up movements of several Cardassian ships in this region. As a scientific
study would require just one or two ships we are at a loss as to what those
sensor readings could mean." She smiled and sat down in her chair while
still facing the viewer. "Maybe you can explain that to us."
"Of
course I can, if that is all that worries you." Me'rok's face beamed at her
and Tarin almost fell for his jovial attitude. "We have been using quite a
lot of sensor drones in our study of the nebula and no doubt your sensors have
mistaken those drones for ships." He leaned back into his own chair, but
the Cardassian's camera maintained a tight focus on Me'rok's face. "To
overcome the interference of the nebula we have recalibrated our probes for
quite a strong com-signal, which obviously confused your sensors."
"I
see," Tarin replied matter-of-factly. "If you will please excuse me
for a moment." She didn't wait for Me'rok's reply and swiveled her chair
around to the tactical station, making a sharp cut-off gesture to Commander
Enikal.
Dar
ensured himself that the voice transmission was deactivated before he looked at
the Valkyrie's captain. "The readings are very faint and I am not
completely certain, but as far as I can tell there are two more ships hidden
inside the nebula, very close to the Trantor."
"Now
here's a surprise," Alex Westmore snorted, but Tarin wasn't paying much
attention to her strategic operations officer. She turned towards the main
viewer again and ordered Commander Enikal to reactivate the voice transmission.
"It
looks like you were right about your probes, Gul Me'rok. We have just checked
our sensor readings again and there seems to be no sign of other Cardassian
ships in the vicinity." The Cardassian nodded at her, still smiling.
"But," Tarin added, "my tactical officer will send you our data
on the current extend of the Federation border, in order to avoid any
misunderstandings we would certainly both consider rather... unfortunate."
"Transmission
sent," Dar Enikal stated and the Cardassian acknowledge the receipt.
"Transmission received," Me'rok stated. "And let me assure you,
Captain Veal," he added, "there is no cause for you to be alarmed by
our presence. Now, if you will please excuse me, duty calls and my superiors
would become a little, shall we say... annoyed, if I kept them waiting too long
for the results I was sent to obtain."
The
Cardassian's picture vanished from the viewer, replaced by the image of the
Keldon-class cruiser again, as it slowly moved back into the swirling mists of
the Argolis cluster.
"Commander
Enikal, Commander Westmore, come to my ready room. Helm, continue on our
previous heading, one-quarter impulse." Tarin stood and lead her two
officers to the ready room doors.
"Lieutenant
O'Shea, you have the bridge."
* * * * *
"Okay,
I know Me'rok was lying and I know that he knows that I know," Tarin
exclaimed as she gestured to the two visitor chairs in front of her desk.
"Tell me something I don't know."
Dar
lowered himself into one of the chairs as he spoke. "Whatever Me'rok is up
to, he will keep a close eye on us and three Cardassian cruisers are a tough
challenge, especially if they know we are coming."
"Agreed."
Alex Westmore was far from accepting the Valkyrie as his new home, but he
had developed a grudging respect for Commander Enikal and his grasp of battle
tactics. "Whatever Me'rok is up to, he won't let us out of his
sights."
"Do
you know anything about Gul Me'rok?" Tarin was about to ask the same
question, but Dar beat her to it and she just sat down, eying Commander Westmore.
Alexander
Westmore leaned back, if only to keep his distance from the Valkyrie's CO and
XO. "Me'rok is both a career officer and a patriot. He is the Commander of
the Cardassian's Second Order, but if he wanted to, he could be an influential
figure in Cardassian politics instead."
Commander
Westmore waited a moment for his statement to sink in and from the expression of
the Captain and Commander Enikal he could see they had realized what he had just
said. While the rank of Gul was equivalent to a Captain in Starfleet, the
Commander of a Cardassian military order was much closer to a Starfleet admiral
and if Me'rok had political clout as well...
"The
one reason Me'rok prefers to stay in a front-line position is that he enjoys a
challenge. To him combat tactics and strategy are a big game, like chess or the
Cardassian's kotra. He likes to pit his wits against another starship captain
because he enjoys the thrill of what he views as the ultimate battle of
wits."
Commander
Westmore drew a deep breath and crossed his arms. "Whatever we do, Me'rok
will anticipate all our likely moves and even some of our more unlikely
ones."
Tarin
folded her hands on her desk. Outwardly she appeared relaxed but her mind was
racing through all the possibilities at a frantic pace. "So whatever Me'rok
is up to, we need to do something he won't expect, that is if we can all agree
that the Cardassians are staging a major operation in this sector and that his
story about a scientific exploration was just a fairy-tale?"
"Right,"
Dar stated and Commander Westmore just nodded his head a fraction of an inch
without betraying any sign of emotion.
"Good.
Going back is what he will expect from us, assuming he knows we didn't fall for
his lies, so that is out of the question."
Captain
Veal swiveled her chair away from the two Commanders and looked out the window
at the swirling clouds of the Argolis nebula. "Whatever the Cardassians are
up to, the answers we need are hidden inside the Argolis cluster, as unlikely as
that may seem. The Trantor came from within the nebula and if the
Cardassians operated any ships outside the cluster we would have picked them up
by now. We can be certain Me'rok lied about those sensor drones and if that was
a lie we have to assume the Cardassians are moving at least some ships through
this sector."
"And
if we haven't detected them by now they could only be within the nebula,"
Commander Enikal finished the Captain's thought.
"Yes,"
Tarin turned her chair around again and leaned on her desk. "Which means we
will have to go into the Argolis and take a look ourselves."
* * * * *
The
thrusters of the small vehicle fired for a brief moment and the Type-7 shuttle
gently drifted through the hangar bay's forcefield before Tarin shut off all
systems. The auxiliary life-support would keep them supplied with air and warmth
for several hours and if a Cardassian ship was shadowing the Valkyrie
they couldn't risk powering up the shuttle's systems for a while. Now all she
and Commander Westmore could do was wait and hope their launch had remained
unnoticed. Half an hour ago the Valkyrie had started to jam all known
Cardassian sensor frequencies and she would continue doing so for several hours,
but if that hadn't been enough the shuttle would be an easy target.
As
the Valkyrie moved away from them Tarin turned to her left and glanced at
Alexander Westmore, who sat at the operations station. "I think we should
wait for at least two hours, maybe three, before we power up the engines, so
there is no need for both of us to stay in the cockpit. Why don't you take a
rest while you can?"
"No,
I don't think so." He pointed out the small forward window at the swirling
mists of the Argolis cluster. "Once we go in there you will to do all the
navigating and piloting, so, with all due respect, you should be the one taking
some time off to relax."
Tarin
studied the human's face for a few seconds, but as so often she was unable to
judge his emotion, if he had any. Somewhat reluctantly she stood and
checked the read-outs again. "I guess you are right and as I promised to
take your suggestions into serious consideration..."
She
didn't finish the sentence and just headed for the passenger compartment aft off
the small cockpit. The shuttle was configured for long-range journeys and as
such provided a small workstation and a couch in the passenger section. While
said couch was a little too small to sleep comfortably on, it would at least
allow her and Commander Westmore to take a short nap now and again, provided
their mission allowed time for it at all. On the other hand Tarin didn't feel
like sleeping and she just made herself comfortable on the couch as she started
to read a padd she had brought with her from the Valkyrie.
* * * * *
About
an hour later Tarin's head started to spin and she put the padd down. She had
studied some of the ancient myths of Earth during the Chaos War, but until now
she had never fully realized how close those myths had been to what she and her
crew had gone through. Some of the old legends were in one way or another so
close to what the crew of the Eclipse had been through that she was
almost surprised none of the old myths mentioned her or her former command. On
the other hand, however accurate those myths and legends seemed to be, they had
been written centuries, even millennia ago.
As
she starred down at the padd, Tarin realized how much she had allowed herself to
be ruled by her doubts again and she shook her head. No, whatever happened would
happen because she decided to do it. Captain Veal was ready to acknowledge that
there was something like luck, maybe even fate, but while she had profited from
it more often than she cared to remember, what she had made of the chances fate
or luck provided had always been her own decision.
"I
f you want to rest for a while I can take over the controls," she offered
to Commander Westmore and the human rose from his seat, leaning into the
passenger area of the shuttle. "No, I am fine. All I need is a bite to
eat." He picked up the baggage he had brought along for the trip and his
hand came out of the bag with a cellophane covered sandwich. "Want
one?" he asked.
"What
have you got?" Tarin asked. She had brought some food for herself, for the
time they wouldn't use the replicator, but she was curious what Commander
Westmore had packed.
"Ham
or tuna sandwiches, take it or leave it."
Tarin
snorted, half annoyed and half amused by the Commander's attitude. They had
slowly started to build a working relation, but for her taste Alex Westmore was
still a little too full of himself. On the other hand, he had reason enough to
be proud of his achievements.
"Tuna
please, if you can spare one." He handed her a sandwich and set down at the
ops station again.
After
Tarin had finished her sandwich she reached for the padd but then decided
against reading any more about Terran mythology. "I guess you are used to
this," she remarked, "the long wait for the right moment to make your
move."
"What
makes you think that," Commander Westmore asked without looking away from
the forward window.
"Oh
please, Commander, you must be aware that I know at least something about your
professional background." She reached into her own bag and retrieve a
thermos. "Despite what holonovels may suggest, espionage isn't something
flashy or romantic, at least that's what I would assume."
"No,
it isn't. Patience is one of the virtues I learned early in my career and
waiting for the right opportunity has saved my life more than once."
"I
see. Care for some Tarkalean tea?" She retrieve a cup from a small storage
compartment and filled it from her thermos. When Commander Westmore just shook
his head she closed the flask and took a small sip of tea.
"Do
you believe in fate, Commander Westmore?"
Alex
Westmore swiveled his seat around slightly but did not yet look at the Valkyrie's
Captain. "If, by fate, you mean some kind of preordained outcome of events,
then no, I don't believe in that."
"Why
not?"
"Because if I did believe that the outcome of great events hinges on some sort of fate, then I would have to believe the same to be true for smaller and smaller things as well. If there was something like fate that forced our hand in everything we do, I would be nothing more than a puppet to some force of destiny." He took a breath and looked at Tarin Veal before he went on. "If I believed in fate as you probably mean it, even my decision to drink that tea or not must be preordained and I refuse to believe that I don't have control about even those small insignificant things."
He slightly raised any eyebrow and rubbed his chin as he sometimes did without even noticing. "Why are you asking?"
Tarin slowly exhaled and filled her cup again. Only after she had stowed away the thermos did she answer the older man's question. "I assume that you know most of what has happened during the Chaos War, including at least some of the classified things." From the corner of her eyes she could she his nod and she reached for the padd she had studied for over an hour. "Read this and tell me how much of it you think came true, but keep in mind this was written a thousand years ago."
* * * * *
It
had been almost two days since the shuttle left the Valkyrie, but Ben
Tucker wasn't worried. He knew Tarin could take care of herself when the going
got though. The ability to focus on the task at hand in a tense situation, and
especially then, was one of the characteristics they both shared. On the other
hand something had troubled her and Ben was still anything but sure what it had
been.
"How
is she," he asked Doctor Jascar, his chin nodding in the direction of the
biobed.
"It's
getting worse." Theron Jascar didn't look up, but instead continued to
study the readouts of the diagnostic unit. "If her synaptic activity
continues to increase at this rate I will have no choice but to operate within
the next 36 hours." He straightened, his back still turned on Commander
Tucker. "I just wish I had any idea as to the cause of Lieutenant Hagen's
condition. Half the readings this bloody computer gives me make absolutely no
sense."
Ben
stepped to the Doctor's side and glanced at the computer readouts. "I
assume you have tried every scan in the book?"
Doctor
Jascar's laughter was anything but humorous. "Of course I have, but if you
think you can do better than me you are welcome to try!"
"No,"
Ben shook his head, "I am no medic, but maybe I can still help you."
He glanced over his shoulder at the older man, who looked mildly disgusted by
the thought an engineer might be able to help him with a medical problem.
"There
are hundreds of substances and exotic radiations that are not normally picked up
by our sensors, but we have some special scanning equipment stored in the cargo
bay that I could recalibrate to pick up at least a few of those things."
Theron
considered the offer for a moment, his head titled to a side, his eyes half
closed. "I guess it is worth a try," he slowly replied. "I have
tried everything in my book, so maybe it's time we tried something from
yours."
* * * * *
"This
is... disconcerting." Commander Westmore handed the padd back to Tarin and
she put it in her bag again. It was one of the rare moments when Alex Westmore
had shown some emotions and to a certain degree Tarin shared his uneasiness.
"Yes,
isn't it. Now you probably understand why I started to think about fate and such
things." While knowing that, in one way or another, a great many of the old
myths had come true was still somewhat unnerving to Tarin, she had thought about
it a lot during the hour Commander Westmore had spent reading and she had
finally made up her mind. Unless she came across a legend that spoke of a
shuttle entering a protostar cluster she would stay focused on the here and now.
She
took her place at the Helm station and looked at her human colleague. "I
think we have waited long enough."
"Yes,"
Westmore answered, as he powered up the shuttle's systems. "Now let's find
out what brought us here, shall we?"
"I'll
get us far enough into the nebula to hide from the Cardassian's sensors and then
set a course back to where we encountered the Trantor, unless you have
any better ideas?" Tarin glanced at Commander Westmore from the corner of
her eyes, but he just replied with a simple "No".
As
the shuttle headed for the glowing cloud of gas that hid the protostar cluster,
Alexander Westmore starred out the small forward window. "Looks just like
any other nebula to me. I know that it's supposed to be nigh impossible to pilot
a large ship through a protostar cluster, but this doesn't seem to be anything
special."
"What
you see out there is called a molecular cloud, made up of hydrogen and helium
with a sprinkling of heavier elements. We have been in this cloud for hours now,
as it is about 20 light years across, but you can see only the part of it that
contains actual protostars, as they heat up that area of the cloud enough to
give off visible light."
Commander
Westmore starred at the sensor panel with narrowed eyes. "So we are already
within a nebula, but aren't effected by it because our deflectors have no
problem dealing with a little hydrogen and dust."
"Yes."
Tarin pointed at the window. "In there things will be different. We will
run into ionized gas that will play havoc with our sensors and microwave
radiation that will be strong enough to put our shields to a real test."
She
stopped for a moment to sum up the most important aspects of protostar clusters
in her mind. "Stellar formation in the Argolis cluster only started a few
hundred thousand years ago, so we won't encounter many fully formed stars, but
those there are will be quite massive, about 10 to 15 times the mass of Sol, but
they are not our main concern."
"They
are not?"
Tarin
shook her head. "No, once they start to fuse hydrogen into helium they
disperse the gas around them and create what you might liken to the eye of a
hurricane inside the cloud. But until the moment a star bursts into full
brilliance, it is just a thick cloud of hot and fast moving molecules. With our
sensors severely limited inside the cluster we could move into one of them
before we even notice and believe me, you wouldn't like that at all."
Alex
Westmore was almost concerned, but he knew the Captain had been an expert on
stellar sciences long before she became a commanding officer. Apart from
Lieutenant Hagen she was probably the only one of the Valkyrie's crew who
was qualified to lead this mission.
"Here
we go," Tarin calmly stated as the first wisps of glowing green gas reached
for the shuttle.
Prologue Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3
Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7