STAR TREK: THE ORIGINAL SERIES

ADMIRAL'S WRIT

By: Dan Bivens

Chapter 1

"Admiral on deck!"

No sooner said than a second crimson-shirted Security ensign used a centuries-old bosun's whistle to properly pipe in this Fleet Admiral beamed aboard the USS ENTERPRISE.

As the shrill sound trailed away, Captain James T. Kirk stepped forward from the foursome standing straight and tall before the main transporter room control console, presently overseen via navigator-turned-assistant chief engineer, Lt. DeSalle…

"Welcome aboard, Admiral, sir," Kirk grinned, though he harbored significant suspicion and even a little ill will in respects to the recent receipt of a scrambled subspace command to alter former Warp-traveled plans to streak to a Starbase for a single solitary beam up. "If you would like, my First Officer, Commander Spock, can escort you to your temporary quarters on…"

"There's no time," swiftly said the Fleet Admiral, very probably the youngest, in true years, to secure such a lofty officer's rank. "I require your top people and you in your main briefing room right away, Captain Kirk."

Before a reply was spoken from the handsome commanding officer of what was quickly becoming the most celebrated starship in Starfleet, this Admiral boldly left through the rapidly parting doors.

For Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and Scotty, curiosity quickly and quietly passed from person to person. Then, Captain Kirk quite naturally in the lead, this colorful collection of top officers swiftly stepped through barely a half-minute later.

All four, including Commander Spock, though his was the most emotionless of all the expressions currently controlling these recognizable countenances, were all clearly consumed with questions about such a secretive situation so far from Earth.

As was, a little later, more completely expressed in a starship transcription…

CAPTAIN'S LOG, STARDATE: 2133.7. As per recently received Starfleet orders via subspace, the ENTERPRISE was diverted to Starbase 27 in order to beam over Fleet Admiral Jason Bowen. Aside from the strangeness surrounding the arrival of such a high-ranking member of Command, normally located only on Earth at Starfleet Headquarters, there was the inexplicable intensity of the man from the moment he materialized on the transporter platform. Even Mr. Spock apparently pondered the possibility that the ENTERPRISE and crew were about to be thrust into some ominous operation. One that would sway whole worlds and, maybe, even affect the future of Starfleet.

Seated on all sides of the strangely shaped conference table, tri-screen display system situated in its smooth-surfaced center, were Captain Kirk, Commander Spock, Dr. Leonard H. McCoy, and Lt.-Commander Montgomery Scott. At it's head was Admiral Jason Bowen. Imposing even in a plain gold-green Command-grade duty-shirt, with appropriately impressive sleeve braids, leaving little doubt as to whom proper respect and obedience should and would be directed…

"Gentlemen," Admiral Bowen began with a grimaced mien more than tense enough to send shivers down everyone's backs…save Spock's, of course. "What I am about to divulge has been pre-approved by both Starfleet Command and the Admiralty. It has also been seconded by the Federation Council and the Federation President. Unfortunately, due to the duty-bound import of the present set of circumstances, you cannot contact Earth in regards to verification transmission. You must, somehow, place your complete confidence unquestioningly in me for the duration. Otherwise, Captain Kirk, I shall be forced to supercede your authority and temporarily take the ENTERPRISE for purposes presently unclear to you. Meaning, James, that you shall be sent to your quarters where you would remain until such time as…"

"No need for that, Admiral Bowen," a suddenly incensed starship Captain quickly cut in, while seriously struggling to maintain some semblance of obedience. Even in the shadow of such overt oppressiveness. "But, and I'm sure I speak for my superior staff sitting here…now…when I stress the respectful need to know much more. Sir."

A smile swiftly played upon the youthful features of the Fleet Admiral, which he swiftly suppressed, before finally deciding to elucidate…

"Captain Kirk…gentlemen," shakily said Admiral Bowen while looking for just the right words to preface something still so seemingly unlikely, even to those Starfleet scientific investigators already looking into a situation as potentially terrifying as this. "Before I make available the dark details, let me start by stating that nothing…not Klingons nor Romulans nor godlike deviants!…have ever posed so much menace to Federation worlds as what has recently been uncovered."

"I don't know about everybody else," Dr. McCoy quaintly quipped, his Southern drawl deepening like his glowering look. "But I, for one, would like to know what the hell's got Starfleet and the Federation so damned nervous that they sent out a Fleet Admiral to commandeer a starship! Sir!"

"Bones…"

"No, no, Captain," Admiral Bowen injected gently with a lifting of his left hand. "Dr. McCoy's quite right in demanding immediate explication. Especially since, in the next ten or twenty hours, this ship and crew could, quite probably, be hurled headfirst into harm's way! Making the good Doctor's ordinarily docile sickbay just this side of…"

"Admiral," calmly cut in Spock, sensing a sharp and rapid rise in apprehensive anxiety within his Human compeers. "Perhaps if you would utilize ship's computers to more readily reveal the precise nature of what has clearly caused concern within Starfleet and the Federation…"

"Yes, Mr. Spock, of course," nodded Admiral Bowen, completely impressed by the half-Human/half-Vulcan in blue shirt whose slanted brows lifted and whose pointy-tipped ears wriggled ever-so-slightly. "Gentlemen…this microtape will explain everything. I hope."

Suddenly, it seemed, a scarlet-colored squarish palm-sized plastic-like object, all too familiar to Starfleet officers on active starship assignment, appeared in the right hand of the Fleet Admiral.

Without a word, the grim-faced Admiral Jason Bowen inserted the seemingly solid block of lightweight plastic into a slot designed for reading microtapes and instantaneously displaying their data, visuals as well as words, onto the three small display screens seemingly hovering over the middle of the misshapen escritoire.

What would follow would invariably vex even the emotionless mind of Mr. Spock…

END OF CHAPTER 1