Hi there people! Well, I'm finally back with a new chapter. I know it's been a long time coming but I've been very busy over the last month. But now I'm back, so all must be forgiven!
Anyway, I don't really have too much to write in the author's notes, for once. (Everyone gasps in horror) Now, this year I've got the special pleasure of being on the council for the BBSA, as director of nominations counting. This means that (mysteriously) all of my stories are going be nominated of a surprising number of categories, some maybe twice. Ah no, actually it means that I can't nominate or vote at all (Sob, Sob.) But that's getting away from the subject at hand. I'm supposed to have four people to help me count the nominations, I've already recruited two, and while I probably could find two more, it's easier just to write it here. If you're interested in helping out in the most prestigious awards show this side of Mars, then e-mail me and I'll give you the full details.
Tim - As usual, thanks! Lmmdas - Thank you! Jim, - you're slow, not profound.
Also - I've changed my e-mail address, again! Now it's power@utvinternet.ie. This is because my server started bullying me, and it's kind of to get away from junk mail, now, I only have ever gotten junk mail on e-mail addresses that I've given out with my stories, so that leads me to believe that someone out there has been giving out my e-mail address. And while I really love to get feedback, I don't know why I'm being harassed to sign up for straight porn! (People, I'm a guy writing stories about gay couples. Put two and two together will you?)
Ok I lied, I had plenty to write. One more thing before the disclaimers - SHAMELESS SELF PROMOTION TIME!!! I should be updating 'Powers Within' either tonight or tomorrow nigh, no later then then. I suggest that you go check it out, just because.
WRITE TO ME!!! I LOVE FEEDBACK!!! IF I DON'T GET IT THEN I'LL BE ALL DEPRESSED AND THINK THAT NO ONE LOVES ME, which can't be true - can it? power@utvinternet.ie is the address to send everything to - except junk mail.
This story is in no way meant to be a reflection or representation of real life. Characters are either real, in which case I don't know their actual sexualities, copyright of Paramount Pictures, or made up by me. I don't make a profit, so don't sue me.
Star Trek, The Star Trek characters and all related materials are copyright Paramount Pictures. No copyright infringement is intended.
This was the decision that all Starfleet Captains hated having to make, we'd all been briefed on making it, and all told the impact that it would have on us. Starfleet Academy was thorough. But I saw that they were right, you couldn't be prepared for the decision that I now had to make, but at the same time there wasn't really any choice. If I didn't destroy them now they'd simply continue on until they got to Earth. The two ships weren't even really a threat to me; I hadn't yet deployed our ablative armour, which protected the ship like no shields had ever managed. "Hail them again, we'll give them one more chance."
"Channel open." Said Tuvok.
"Vorkran ships, this is your final warning. Retreat or be destroyed." I said.
"We're getting a response, audio only."
"Let's hear it." I said.
"We are not afraid of your empty threats, Federation. If you destroy us then ten more ships will avenge our deaths."
"Close the channel." I said.
"They're making a run for Earth." Said Tuvok.
With an ice hand gripping my heart I gave the order. "Destroy them."
"Aye Captain." Said Tuvok.
On screen I saw a torpedo streaking towards each of the two ships, ramming through the weak shields and impacting on their hulls, milliseconds later fire erupted along their hulls, and in two huge explosions they were gone, only leaving debris behind them. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I opened my eyes again, pushing aside my emotions for a while. "Stand down to yellow alert. Senior staff - report to the Conference Room in one hour. I want additional defensive suggestions. Tuvok, start working on a way to improve the effectiveness of our phasers. Brian, I want you there too, we need to know everything that you know about the Vorkrans. Seven, we need to be able to sort this whole temporal mess out, soon. Data, you have the bridge." I got up from my seat, went into my ready room and sat heavily down on the sofa. I put my head between my hands and started examining my every action during the battle that had just taken place. Trying to make sure that I'd done everything properly. I'd been in fights before, but this was my first one as Captain where I'd been in a position of having to destroy two ships that weren't any threat to my ship or my crew. The doorbell chirped and I stood up and tidied myself up, I couldn't let any of the crew see how close I was to crying. "Enter." I said, trying to keep my voice firm.
Nick stepped in, looked at me, and said. "You look awful."
I collapsed down onto the sofa again, actually glad to see him, despite myself. "I know. I'm just after killing over a hundred people. How do you think you'd feel?" I asked.
He sat down beside me. "You we just protecting you crew, and doing what you were meant to be doing, protecting Earth. No one can blame you for that."
"I know all that. But it doesn't stop this feeling inside, the feeling that maybe, just maybe I did something wrong, that it's my fault." I said, the first tear dropping down my cheek.
"You know that's not true." He said, now putting his arm around me and pulling me closer to him, enveloping me in a warm hug.
"Look at me!" I said. "I'm a Starfleet Captain, and I'm crying! This isn't what I'm meant to be doing! I should be out there on the bridge, not in here, while my entire crew laughs at me for being such a baby."
"They're not laughing at you Rob, they respect your emotions, and they respect you. It's easy to see that. Just because you're young doesn't mean that they don't think that you're a good captain." Said Nick, comforting me.
I looked up into his face. "Why are you being so nice? I've known you for less then a day." I asked.
"Because you look like a person who doesn't have enough friends?" Said Nick, looking completely serious. "Or because I find you incredibly attractive."
I looked up at him in confusion and he took advantage of the situation, leaning in and kissing me tenderly on the lips. I pushed my confusion to the side and let my instincts take over, kissing back. A couple of minutes later we pulled away from each other. Nick glanced down at my visible erection.
"Those uniforms don't hide much, do they?" He said.
"Neither do the clothes that you were given." I said, pulling down a zip on the front of his top, revealing a hairless chest and a perfectly formed torso.
He shrugged out of his sleeves and then pulled my own top off over my head, revealing a body honed by having too many free hours to spend at the gym. Almost as an afterthought I said. "Computer, seal Ready Room doors."
Nick grinned. "Not a bad idea."
"Well, there's got to be some reason why they made me a Captain." I joked, before kissing Nick again, while rubbing my hands up and down his body, concentrating mainly on his nipples, I pulled away from him again, this time to look into his eyes. I saw how full of lust and longing they were. I realised that his eyes must be a reflection of my own and blinked in shock, realising what I'd almost done.
"What's wrong Rob?" Asked Nick, his eyes now full of concern.
"I can't do this, not now." I said.
"What do you mean? What did I do wrong?" Asked Nick, almost pleadingly.
I looked down at him again, top pulled off and lying on the ground, trousers almost off, his subsiding erection obvious under the thin material.
"Nothing Nick, but I'm on duty! If something happened to the ship while you and I were...y'know." I said awkwardly. "I don't want to have to run out onto the bridge naked!"
"It's ok, I understand." Said Nick. "Until later." He said, a wicked grin on his face.
"And besides, I've got a staff meeting in about half an hour." I further explained, even though I could see that it wasn't necessary. I think I just trying to console myself as to what I was missing out on.
"There's one thing though..." He started.
"Yeah?" I asked.
"If you want to get anywhere tonight, then you're going to have to give me a tour of the ship."
"Is that all?" I asked. "No problem, but I don't know how things are going to work out tonight. We'll see, I'll try."
"That's all I ask." He said.
"Do me a favour?" I asked.
"Anything."
"Put your clothes back on, you're too distracting." I laughed. As soon as Nick had put everything back on I unsealed the doors and started going over the scans of the Vorkran ships that the Lieutenant at Ops had sent to my ready room. Nick was reading them over my shoulder.
"Can you really understand all that?" He asked.
"Of course."
"But what does it all mean? How can you use these computers? None of the keys make any sense to me." He said.
"I keep forgetting what it must be like for you here." I said. "You're like a country guy who just came to the big city, aren't you?" I said understandingly. For the nest ten minutes I explained to him the concept behind entering commands. At the end of the ten minutes he was able to enter basic command sequences. "Of course, it helps that you can do almost everything by voice command."
"I guess it would, but the computer seems to enjoy ignoring me." Laughed Nick.
"That's because you don't have a Comm badge, if you don't have one then you've got to use one of the Comm panels that are in every room." I explained.
"Any chance of getting a Comm badge?" Asked Nick.
"We'll see." I said. "But I've got a conference to go to right now." I stood up, trying to ignore the puppy eyes. "Oh alright." I sighed, knowing that I was going to lose. "Computer, replicate a Comm badge, assigned to Nick Carter."
"Here you go." I said, going over to the replicator and throwing him the Comm badge. "I'll give one's to the other guys when I've got time. How are they, by the way?"
"I think your counsellor is working." He said. "And after the Doctor treating them for stress I think that they're coming to terms with everything."
"I've got to go to this meeting now." I said. "How do I look?"
"Like you've just been tumbling on the floor with someone who was very eager to get your clothes off. Only joking!" He added, seeing the look on my face. "You look fine."
"Right. You got through that door and I'll go through this one." I said.
"Awww." Pouted Nick. "Are you ashamed of me?"
"Not a bit." I said, going over to him and kissing him on the lips. "But there are certain things that a Captain shouldn't do in his Ready Room, and we came very close to doing one of them." I winked at him and then walked out the doors onto the bridge and from there to the Conference Room, where all but one of the chairs where filled.
"Where's Seven?" I asked. It was the Captain's prerogative to turn up late and then question why other people weren't there.
"She had missed her last regeneration. She said that she couldn't go much longer without it." Explained Tom Paris.
"Fine." I sighed. "Brian, are you ready?"
"Yes." He said, getting up from his seat down towards the end of the conference table and approaching the top.
I sat down to listen to what he had to say.
"There is an Earth maxim that states that Technology invention is at it's most rapid during war. This summarises the Vorkran's entire development as a people. They had near continuous war on their planet, until they discovered warp travel, at which point they started fighting with everyone else who they could." Brian paused to gather himself and then continued. "They use any excuse that they can to start conflicts, and sometimes don't even bother with excuses - I've already explained what excuse they used to attack us - they are a formidable and unrelenting enemy. It's a case of destroy or be destroyed. The ships that you went up against today are only designed as feelers, to get an idea of the power and weaponry that you have available. Next they'll send ships that they judge to be powerful enough to destroy. Fortunately, they think that this ship is a lot less powerful then she is. Just be glad that you didn't deploy your armour, at least there's one entire defensive system that should take them by surprise. They will keep on coming, and while their fleet may be small by Starfleet standards, you don't have a fleet here, just one ship. You should also be aware of the fact that they may try to attack the Federation in what you would consider to be your normal time."
"What is their most powerful ship?" I asked.
"This." Said Brian, calling up a display. "A 'Gatrunckt' or 'Vengeance' class starship." Tom Paris whistled in appreciation and, while I shared his feelings, as Captain I couldn't do that sort of thing. "One point seven-six kilometres long, forty-three decks, crew complement of nearly three thousand. It was one of these that destroyed my homeworld." Said Brian, only a hint of sadness entering his voice. "Twenty-seven years ago their policy was to only maintain two of these, however, that was twenty-seven years ago. This is what they'll send against you as a last measure."
"Thank you Brian." I said. "Tuvok, have you gotten anywhere with the phasers?"
"No." Said Tuvok, his voice, as ever, impossible to read and devoid of emotion. "We haven't finished examining the scans of the shield and hull configurations of the ships."
"How long until you know if you've got something?"
"We should be finished reviewing the scans in an other hour, and another hour and we should know if we will be able to do anything." Explained Tuvok.
"I'm open to suggestions." I said, looking around at the people gathered around the table.
Data glanced uncomfortably at Brian.
"Commander. Right now Mr. Littrell is the closest thing that we have to an expert on this enemy. So for matters relating to the defence and offence of this ship against that enemy, he is cleared up to level seven."
"We could use the cloaking technology that was developed on the Pegasus."
"In violation of the treaty with the Romulans?"
"Technically, no." Said Data, before explaining. "The Federation-Romulan treaty will not be signed for another three hundred years, by using the technology in this time period we would not be violating any part of the treaty."
"His logic is impeccable." Commented Tuvok.
"Sometimes logic isn't enough Tuvok. While we wouldn't be breaking any of the clauses of the treaty, we would be going against the spirit of it." I mulled for a while, and then said. "How much preparation could you do without breaking the treaty, if we were in the twenty-fourth century?" I asked.
"Almost sixty percent." Said Data.
"Very well. Do that much; let's be prepared. I want the ship put on separation alert. Switch to separation quarters and get any non-Starfleet people into the saucer section. Get the Blackwing; Blackwing and the two Razor class ships ready for full combat mode. I'm going contact Starfleet." I said, concluding the meeting. I stepped out onto the bridge. "Ensign, launch a temporal communications probe."
"What co-ordinates sir?"
"Set it for parallel time. Once you've done that contact Starfleet command. I want to talk to Admiral Picard, channel it through to my Ready Room."
"Aye Captain."
A minute later, when I was waiting in my Ready Room the Comm chirped and the Ensign said that he had Admiral Picard for me, visual only. Surprised, I took my hand away form the holographic controls and instead activated the viewscreen on the wall.
"No holograms Admiral?" I asked, taking in his background, which looked a lot like the Enterprise.
"The Enterprise hasn't been configured for holographic communications yet. It's going in next week for the full overhaul." He explained.
"So you thought that you'd take her for a joyride first?" I asked, a grin on my face.
"Not exactly. What's the reason for your call Rob?"
I explained our entire situation to him, hoping to get some advice in return. Picard was the man directly in charge of the TimeWeave's mission.
"I see, that is very serious. But, you seem to have everything under control there, for now. If there's anything that you need, make sure and let me know immediately."
"Some backup would be nice." I said.
"Rob, you know that's not possible, if we sent normal Starfleet vessels through, Earth would pick up on them immediately."
"I know." I sighed. "It's just, the more information that I get on this species, the less of a chance we seem to have against them."
"If the situation is desperate, we will, of course send you backup. But try not to be in Earth's solar system, it sounds like you've already got enough of a temporal mess to sort out without people on the planet seeing half a dozen ships fighting!" Said the Admiral.
"I'll try." I said.
"Have you got any leave coming up? You should take it, as soon as this current crisis is over. Beverly and I would love to see you."
"I'll see what I can do, but you know better then anyone how hard it is to tear yourself away from the bridge." I laughed.
The Admiral grinned and nodded. "You're right, of course. Good luck Captain."
"Thank you."
Well, that's it for another chapter. Make sure and let me know what you think of it! power@utvinternet.ie
Tim.