The Captain’s fist slammed on the table. “I can’t believe we missed this!”
Another of the many red-uniformed officers took one of the padds scattered on the table before he replied. “You have to admit that the Romulans are damn clever.” As he scrolled through the briefing contents he went on: “Many of the ships diverted from their regular duties don’t report through our fleet HQ. We would have relied on their aid in case of a major attack, but they are not part of our fleet.”
One of his colleagues took it from there. “We would have gotten word of it eventually, but only one report at the time and nothing of it would have formed into the big picture we see now. Before we knew what was going on it would have been too late.”
“I still can’t believe we have fallen for it so easily!”
Captain Tarkington cleared his throat and the others fell silent. “This leads us nowhere. We have to decide what to do next.”
“I suggest we recall the ships shadowing the Romulan forces they used as decoys,” a Bolian offered. ‘Who made this guy a starship Captain?’ Dar Enikal thought, but his Captain spoke before he could.
“There are several reasons why we shouldn’t do that.” Tarin counted them on her fingers while she continued. “First of all this would alert the Romulans that we know what they are up to. While I assume they can advance the time-table of such a large-scale operation only within certain limits I don’t think our ships would arrive in time and it would cut into the time we have for our own preparations.”
When the Bolian Captain and several others nodded in agreement Captain Veal raised her next point. “Second, I don’t believe those Warbirds are just decoys. Each of the Romulan groups operating uncloaked within our space is capable of turning on our ships tailing them and dishing out serious damage. If the Romulans think we are on to them that is what will most likely happen.”
Tarin raised a third finger. “Then there is the possibility that the whole invasion plan is a decoy. Right now we are keeping track of Romulan movements, but if we diverted our forces to Vulcan, many Romulan ships would be left in striking distance of vital Federation targets. With all our attention focused on Vulcan they would be free to do whatever they wanted.”
“Thank you, Captain Veal.” Captain Tarkington was determined to make sure this was his meeting, even if it took place aboard the Valkyrie. The young woman and her crew had uncovered the goal the Romulans were working to and he couldn’t take that success away from her, but he had one card up his sleeve the upstart Centauran would never expect. Once he had made his move she would surely back down and prove to everyone that a scientist had no place in the command chair. The he could make the most of her informations.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, don’t forget we have some advantages of our own. We can be fairly certain about the timing of the Romulan attack. We have time to work out a strategy and position our forces to our best advantage. And let’s not forget we have the strongest Galaxy-class ship ever designed on our side.”
Tarkington turned towards Captain Veal and from what M’rroah had told her she knew that now it would get really interesting.
“That leaves only one matter to decide and that is how to integrate your ship into our forces. I believe Starfleet regulations are quite clear when it comes to multiple ships working together in the same tactical situation and that command should go to the captain of the most combat-worthy vessel in a situation like this.”
“I suggest for the time being you take command of the 5th Fleet stationed at Vulcan, Captain Veal.”
* * * * *
“What’s your status?”
“Your people are a great help. The Perseus is ready to go to warp, but repairs of the Bavaria will take a few more hours,” M’rroah replied from the viewscreen. “If you need us at Vulcan we can transfer all personnel from the Bavaria and Undoro to the other ships and go to warp immediately with the rest of the convoy.”
Tarin had already thought about this possibility and had an answer ready. “No, you just stay where you are. While I think we will need every ship on Vulcan, leading your charges into the middle of a war-zone won’t do us any good.”
Commander M’rroah silently agreed. She couldn’t leave the convoy unprotected and for now staying as far away from Vulcan as possible was the best she could do for the merchant marine’s safety.
“What do you know about the 5th Fleet stationed at Vulcan, M?”
The Caitian managed a small smile as Tarin called her by the abbreviation many on the academy had used.
“Quite a lot. We have worked in this sector for some time now. The CO of the 5th is Admiral Sudek, but I guess you wont meet him on Vulcan.”
“Why is that?”
“Well, he is an efficient commander and a brilliant strategist, but he has one shortcoming; he is prone to grand gestures. The Admiral makes it a habit to tour the border frequently to show the flag, so to speak. If I am right he should be off in the Merrimak at the moment, somewhere along the Romulan border.”
Tarin considered this information for a moment. It certainly fit the Romulan plans. “Then who is in command of the fleet while he is away?”
M’rroah grit her teeth. “Captain Tarkington.”
“I have heard of him. He is the Captain of an Ambassador-class, the Exeter, if I am not mistaken?”
Commander M’rroah only nodded and Tarin took a sip of her cocoa. “You sound like you don’t like him, M.”
M’rroah only growled but then decided that was hardly the answer Tarin deserved. “He is the worst kind of hard-liner you will ever meet. His idea of dealing with the Romulans is to assemble as many ships as we can and strike back, regardless of how many Federation worlds that would leave defenseless.”
“I see.”
“Oh, but that’s not all. He is reckless, arrogant and not at all happy playing second fiddle to Admiral Sudek.” M’rroah paused a second and when she continued she sounded really concerned. “Beware of him Tarin. Tarkington is as ambitious as they come and I don’t think he has any scruples to sacrifice you or anyone else to his ambitions, even at a time like this.”
* * * * *
Seeing Captain Tarkington’s surprise as she took his offer had almost been worth shouldering the responsibility for the safety of one of the most important Federation worlds, but now Tarin had to come up with a plan – fast. Requesting an up-to-date status report from all ships in the fleet had bought her a little time, but in an hour or two she would have those reports and then she would have to start making decisions.
As her mind ran around in circles she remembered what M’rroah had said and she could almost feel her friend’s paw touching her shoulder again. ‘You are always driving yourself too hard.’
Tarin stopped pacing up and down her quarters and activated her computer access. ‘M was right. I need to calm down and gather my wits.’
She was rather disappointed when the computer showed her that no free holodeck was available, but then she had another thought. After logging her time requirements into the computer Tarin went to her bedroom and started to change into her Gi. ‘Time to work out some problems,’
* * * * *
Catherine Lee walked onto the bridge of the Valkyrie and took a moment to watch the main viewscreen. Slowly Vulcan was turning under the huge Starfleet vessel, its rusty-red deserts unlike anything she had ever seen on Earth.
As she strolled down the ramp she noticed Commander Enikal sitting in the center seat. While she had not taken the time to get to know him well, he seemed competent enough. Certainly he would be able to answer her questions.
“Counselor Lee, what brings you to the bridge?” His question revealed some mild curiosity but sounded friendly enough. Catherine took the Counselor’s seat at his side before she replied.
“I wanted to ask you a question.”
He nodded. “Go ahead.”
“There is one thing I didn’t quite understand during the briefings and that is why we know so well when the Romulans will start their attack. Could you explain that to me?”
“Sure, but why didn’t you bring it up during the briefing?”
Again he sounded curious more then anything else and there was no reason to avoid his question. “The Captain seemed so focused on larger matters that I didn’t want to distract her with something everyone else seemed to understand.”
The Bolian fully turned towards her. “You should have just asked her, but then again, you don’t know the Captain as well as I do. Once she sets her mind on something she isn’t so easily distracted,” he remarked.
“You know her well, don’t you?”
“I guess I do.” Dar saw no reason not to elaborate on this topic. The better Counselor Lee understood Captain Veal, the better she would be able to work with her.
“We met for the first time on the Galahad. That was about seven years ago, before she switched from science to command. I was the Chief Security Officer and she was Chief Science Officer. After I was transferred to Starbase 87 we lost track off each other for a time but then she asked me to be her Executive Officer on the Eclipse. We have been constantly working together for over two years now, including the whole Chaos War.” Dar Enikal made a small pause to consider how to best describe Captain Veal in a few short words.
“Of course you know the Captain is from Alpha Centauri and you have probably heard all the notions about Centaurans being long-term thinkers who never make a decision on the spur of a moment.”
“Yes I have heard that.” Catherine added: “Judging by the Centaurans I have known it’s more then just a cliché.”
“Yes, I guess so.” Commander Enikal took his time before he went on.
“I think the same goes for Captain Veal as well. You see, the Captain likes to think things through as much as any Centauran, but what makes her different is that she can immerse herself so fully in a given task that she can quickly separate the important from the unimportant. While it may appear that she makes decisions on the spur of the moment that’s not the case. She just thinks a lot faster then many other people, because she can concentrate so well on what she is doing and what is really important.”
“And believe me, a few more questions during the briefing wouldn’t have broken her concentration at all.”
Before Catherine Lee had time to reply the Commander switched the central bridge viewer to a strategic map of the Vulcanis sector.
“Now, to answer your question about the Romulans…”
* * * * *
When Captain Veal entered the Security Department’s training room on deck twelve she went straight for the close-combat exercise area. Waving off the few crewmembers in the room with a simple “Carry on”, she began to program the computer with some of her personal files. As she started the simulation an old wiry man appeared on the training mat. He wore a white Gi very similar to Tarin’s, but instead of her plain grey armbands he wore blue ones woven in an intricate design of interlaced triangles and squares.
“What level will it be today, Captain?” the hologram inquired.
“Let’s start with level four, but I need to warm-up first.”
While Tarin started her warm-up exercises she watched the security officers from the corner of her eye. A human Lieutenant was teaching some of the enlisted crewmembers how to use Tricorders to scan for hidden weapons as it seemed. ‘Too bad we will only pick up our Security Chief in a few days,’ Tarin thought, but the Lieutenant seemed to handle the exercise quite well from what she could see.
Captain Veal turned towards her holographic sparring partner and took a defensive stance.
“Begin.”
* * * * *
“… their whole strategy is focused on diverting as many ships as possible away from Vulcan. We have to assume their attack on convoy Romeo-12 was part of the same strategy.” Dar explained to the Counselor.
“And that is important, because…?”
“Because we have lost contact with two other freighter convoys at about the same time Romeo-12 was attacked. While there could be any number of reasons for the lack of transmissions, it is safe to assume the Romulans have attacked both convoys. What makes this an important hint to the Romulan timetable is that all three convoys would have reached Vulcan within a 6-hour window. And if they had failed to arrive on time…”
“…Starfleet would have sent out ships to search for them.” Catherine finished his sentence for him.
“Exactly. Now the Romulans are no fools and they know that sooner or later we would have stumbled upon their plan, so they can’t allow us too much time between sending out our search parties and their own attack.”
Now the Counselor was starting to see the big picture the Valkyrie’s senior officers had uncovered. “So the attack will come soon after we have sent out our search parties. Which, I suppose, we will never do.”
“Oh, we will.” Dar Enikal had tried often enough to get into the Romulan mind. “You bet they have some cloaked scouts around Vulcan already. Once we send out ships in the direction the Romulans expect they will start their invasion. What they won’t expect is that our ships will return a little sooner then they think they will.”
* * * * *
“Stop.”
Tarin reached for a towel and wiped the sweat from her neck. “That’s enough for today. What do you think?” she asked the hologram.
“You did well, but you seem to lack practice. You made mistakes you have not made for some time.”
Tarin brushed her hair away from her face. “I know. Still, getting to level eight isn’t so bad.” While in the past she had managed to hold her own against the holographic instructor at level ten of the sixteen grades the program provided, Tarin was satisfied with her performance, considering how little she had trained during the last few months. “Computer, end program.”
As the hologram vanished the Captain noticed how the group of security guards watched her from the far side of the room.
At the same moment the Lieutenant who had led the training session turned to his subordinates. “What are you waiting for people?” he bawled out. “Don’t you have something better to do then just stand around?”
While the rest of the group headed for the door the Lieutenant crossed the room and addressed Tarin from a respectful distance. “Excuse me Captain.”
“Yes…” She searched her memory for the name of the man. “…Lieutenant Alvarez?”
“I don’t think I am familiar with that combat style Ma’am. What is it?”
Tarin threw the towel over her shoulder while she spoke. “I would be surprised if you find any non-Centauran who is really familiar with it. It is called Shu’Mar, but some people call it Centauran Aikido.”
Lieutenant Alvarez stroked his neatly trimmed moustache in thought for a moment. “I think I have heard of it once or twice, but I always thought it was completely focused on defense.”
“It is for the most part,” Tarin explained. “The key concept of Shu’Mar is to avoid your opponent’s attacks until you find an opportunity to throw him off-balance while you strike from another direction at the same time…” Her voice trailed off, as a sudden thought hit her.
Captain Veal reached for the communicator she had taken off before starting her training session. “If you will excuse me now Lieutenant, I have a call to make.”
“Yes of course, Ma’am.”
As the doors closed behind Lieutenant Alvarez, Tarin activated her commbadge. “Veal to Commander Enikal.”
“Enikal here, what can I do for you Captain?”
“Dar, I need you to do me a little favor.”
* * * * *
“Have a seat Commander.” Tarin pointed at a chair. Alexander Westmore just folded his hands behind his back and remained standing near the ready room’s door.
“This wasn’t a suggestion Mr. Westmore.” The Captain sounded calm, and yet there was a hidden edge to her voice the Commander recognized all too well. He had used the same tone of voice quite often when dealing with his own subordinates and it had never failed to achieve its purpose.
Slowly he took a seat. ‘This should be interesting.’
Tarin pointed at a padd on her desk. “Have a look at this Commander.” While Westmore took the padd and started reading through the file the Captain continued: “You made a transmission to Captain Tarkington two days ago. I must admit you hid it well, but once we started looking hard enough Commander Enikal found it.”
Tarin folded her hands on the desk and leaned forward. “We haven’t decoded the message yet, but I think I have a pretty good idea what it was you had to tell Captain Tarkington. On the other hand that’s not really important. What is important, Mr. Westmore, is that you understand that this is my ship and while on my ship you will learn to play by my rules.”
The Captain leaned even further across the table before she continued. “Listen and listen well Commander, because I am only going to say this once. For now your skills are valuable not only to this ship, but to the safety of Vulcan as well. If not for the intelligence you have provided you would be off this ship by now and facing a courts-martial for the unauthorized disclosure of strategic information.”
Alexander Westmore placed the padd carefully on the table and leaned closer to the Captain himself until mere centimeters separated their faces.
“Do you really believe you could get rid of me so easily?” he coldly replied.
Tarin’s sudden laughter startled him and he had no time to hide his emotions before the Captain answered. “Do you really think I care how well connected you are?”
Tarin leaned back into her chair. For the first time Commander Westmore’s expression had betrayed some of his emotions and now she knew she had won. “You see, the point is that I don’t care about who tries to pull my strings. You, Captain Tarkington, or even Admiral Collmann, don’t matter to me. I took this command because I have a duty to fulfill not only to Starfleet, but to the whole Federation, and not for some political reasons.”
Alex Westmore was still surprised. Only once had he heard Tarin Veal speak so determined before and that was when she gave her orders during the battle with the Romulan cruisers two days ago. ‘I have been wrong’ he admitted to himself. ‘I took her to be only Avanessian’s little errand-girl, but…’
Commander Westmore had no time to finish his thought.
“Here is your choice Commander. Either you are a part of this crew or not. If your answer is no you will be confined to your quarters until I can arrange transport back to Earth for you. If your answer is yes, you can still be part of this team and help us repel the Romulan invasion. It is up to you.”
Alexander Westmore leaned back into his own chair and mulled over the choice the Captain had presented him. For the first time in his life his instincts had failed him, but the question remained if Captain Veal was good enough to do what she had set out to do. There was only one way to find it out.
“My answer is yes, Captain.”
* * * * *
“Thanks for your help.” Commander Tucker closed the casing of the last torpedo he and Lieutenant O’Shea had been working on.
“Don’t mention it. I like the Ops work, but I still enjoy getting my hands a little dirty once in a while.”
As the Valkyrie’s Chief Engineer activated the hydraulic arms that pulled the torpedo back into the storage rack Moira gestured at the row of weapons they had been working on. “Do you think this will be enough to stop the Romulans?”
Ben shrugged. “That’s not really my field of expertise, but I trust the Captain has this worked out.”
The amused look the Lieutenant gave him clearly revealed that she wasn’t thinking about on-duty matters when she replied: “I guess you would have a tendency to trust our Captain, wouldn’t you?”
“Oh come on.” Ben grinned from ear to ear. “You don’t think that’s all the reason I have for putting my faith in her, do you?”
“No, of course not.” Moira had served under Commander Veal on the Eclipse and she had learned to trust the Centauran’s judgment. “It’s just that I would feel a lot more comfortable if I knew where Commander Westmore’s information was coming from and how reliable it is.”
Ben turned towards her and tried to look menacing as he imitated Commander Westmore’s voice. “I could tell you, but then I would have to shoot you.”
Moira nearly fell over laughing and it took her a while to recover her voice.
“Yes, I bet that’s what he would say.” Still grinning she added: “That guy gives me the creeps sometimes.”
Again Ben Tucker shrugged. “He sure isn’t what I had expected from a Strategic Ops officer, but what he said makes a lot of sense.”
As he went on he turned to the torpedo racks again and ran his eyes over the deadly weapons. “Hinting to the Klingons about their planned invasion was a clever move by the Romulans; selling this plan not as a full-scale invasion of the Federation, but just an attempt to reunify the Romulan and Vulcan people.”
Lieutenant O’Shea sounded somber when she added: “And with the negotiations between the Federation and the Klingons on the Ramatis sector just beginning, a successful invasion of Vulcan by the Romulans would be a strong argument for the High Council to keep occupying our worlds, maybe even increase their presence in Federation space.”
Commander Tucker nodded. “And we would probably even welcome their forces.”
“About the only good things are that we have had time to prepare and that the Romulans must still be wary of the Klingons. They will send a strong task force but certainly not a whole fleet. If they did, the Klingons would sure see it as a first step in a full-scale invasion and strike at the Romulans before they advanced too far.”
* * * * *
“Ladies and Gentlemen, I have reviewed all your status reports and I won’t lie to you. This will not be easy. We can expect the Romulans to have the numerical advantage and on a one-on-one comparison their ships are stronger than ours.”
Some faces around the room looked grim while others looked frustrated, almost helpless. Everyone knew the facts and no one doubted that whatever the Romulans would throw at them would be more then a match for the Federation forces trying to protect Vulcan from the imminent invasion.
“The Vulcans have assigned two of their light cruisers and four escorts to our forces but will keep the rest of their ships close to Vulcan as a second line of defense. That leaves us with about 20 ships and two squadrons of fighters to stop the invasion force before it even reaches the planet and whatever we do, stopping the Romulans well away from Vulcan should be our main objective. If even a single Warbird reaches Vulcan it could inflict untold damage on the civilian population. We have to prevent this at all costs.”
“Then what do you suggest we do?” Captain Tarkington had decided to attend the meeting only via commlink. ‘He wants to make sure the ball stays in my court for now,’ Tarin thought. ‘Expect whatever you will Captain, but I am not going to back down and hand the fleet over to you!’
Captain Veal swiveled her chair around to face the monitor. “Apart from the Valkyrie and your Exeter most of our fleet consists of smaller ships like light cruisers and frigates. The Romulans on the other hand will probably throw some of their heaviest warships into the fray.”
She brought a chart of the Vulcanis system up on another monitor. “The one advantage we have is that most of our ships are more maneuverable then the larger Romulan vessels.” Pressing a few controls to zoom in on part of the display she continued: “Here is where we can make the most of that advantage. The good thing is that the Romulans are most likely to take this route anyway. All we have to do is make sure they will not advance any further into the system.”
She turned her back on Captain Tarkington’s face on the monitor and addressed the Captains assembled around the conference room.
“And here is how we will do it.”
Prologue Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5
