Tension was brewing among the assorted admirals. They knew what the situation was and how grim as things were for the Federation. Most of the admirals couldn't name anything as bad as this in the Federation's living memory. The few that could recall remembered a situation that came close in scope. It was when Gorkon was killed by a cabal of Klingons, Romulans…and Starfleet officers. As unpleasant as that was, the current crisis was even far worse. It was a tsunami being compared to a common high tide.
In short, the Federation had nearly been conquered by a group of parasites. By controlling key Star Fleet officers to slowly make a gap. A gap wide enough for them to waltz into the heart of the Federation and take over. It was the sort of long term planning that would have even the Romulans impressed: covert, precise, ruthless and cunning.
It would have worked had it not been for a small group of officers. The brave ones who felt that something was wrong and informed Captain Picard of the Enterprise. Picard then managed to stop the invasion, and save the Federation.
It was far too close for comfort. What was to stop the aliens from trying again? Especially since they sent a signal back home, and probably were even now planning their next move. And the admirals knew that they might have won this round, but that the war was far from over.
This could not be allowed. This meeting would put in motion a plan to handle the threat that the parasites posed. A threat that is to be dealt with once and for all.
An old man, retired many years ago, the now reactivated Admiral Styles, carried a swagger stick and was addressing the room. He held a grim expression on his face and looked like the weight of the galaxy was on his shoulders.
"Gentlebeings" Styles began "I know you have all read the reports on what happened and we need to deal with this, now!"
"Yes, we have to find out what the aliens wanted and negotiate" Admiral Gruiada said.
Admiral Styles glared at the Grazerite admiral and slowly walked over to him. Then he got into the admiral's face. His eyes were filled with enough rage that if looks could kill, then Gruiada and the chair he was sitting in would have been vaporized on the spot.
"My hearing must be going. You say we should negotiate with a race that tried to take over the Federation?" Styles said with each word getting louder and screamed the word Federation at the admiral.
Styles then raised his swagger stick as if he was to strike the Grazerite down with it. The other admiral cowered in fear and covered his face with his hands. Styles then walked away disgusted.
"We live in a universe filled with dangers and must be able to fight them off" Styles stated "Be it the Romulans, Cardassians, or Tholians or any new threats that will come up."
"You'll get no arguments from me on that" Admiral Gregory Quinn said. He was trying to root out the conspiracy and was later infected with one of the parasites. The vile feeling of having some other being control his body and use it against his own people would never go away. This made him probably the few admirals capable of relating to what Captain Picard felt when the Borg assimilated him years later.
Quinn knew that this wasn't a species that peaceful relations were possible with.
This was a race out to take over the Federation. You didn't deal with a threat like that with negotiations or nice words. You showed them the business end of a phaser and let them figure it out the hard way. It wasn't as enlightened as those such as Picard would want. But not everyone was like Picard. As much as Quinn didn't like it, peace is not a bloodless venture. Especially when you have neighbors like the Klingons around, who strike down those who display such "weakness", and turn the losers to "unwilling members of the Empire" - somewhere between servitor species and slaves.
"Our best course action is to assemble a fleet and deal with this threat once and for all" Styles said.
"Who do you think would be best to lead such a fleet?" Quinn asked.
"Well we can't go for Picard and his ilk" Styles said "Their type seems to think violence and being prepared for war should not be what Starfleet is about."
"Bunch of whiny children" Styles thought "Can't solve every problem with kind words and good intentions."
"While I don't like that statement, I have to agree that this is not the sort of mission that Picard and the Enterprise should go on" Quinn said "However I think Jellico and the Cairo would perfect for it."
"Agreed" Admiral Styles said "We'll need him for this one."
"He will follow orders, and can handle the threat" Admiral Visda added.
"And we know how much you Rhaandites love that sort of thing" Gruiada muttered.
"It's better then... how do they call it…ah yes….space hippies like you look for in a command officer" Visda retorted.
"Space Hippies?!" Gruiada spat "I think I've been insulted."
"Good, that was the idea."
Admiral Hanson sighed. The Rhaandite admiral always had to be the other side of the issue when dealing with Gruiada. Of course Gruiada was a dove and Avia Visda had more medals and commendations for bravery and valor then anyone else in the room.
"Why did they even invite Gruiada for this meeting?" Hanson thought "Given that this calls for action and not words."
"Logically if you have nothing to add to the conversation then you should be quiet" Admiral Savar stated. He found being controlled by these parasites even worse then anyone else. He also loathed how he was forced to eat those worms. As would any vegetarian forced to eat living animals.
At the far end of the table Admiral Toddman spoke up "I believe that a Galaxy class ship would be necessary for this kind of mission. It would be up to the captain of the ship to unleash hell on those blue gilled parasites."
"I agree" Savar said "With those criteria for a captain of a Galaxy ship, the Odyssey and Captain Keogh would be the logical choice."
"But! This should be a mission of peace!" Gruiada demanded.
"I suggest you shut up or I'll bust you down to ensign, then have you work on a space station…sans a space suit" Styles said in a subzero tone. Gruiada backed away from Styles.
"I'll escort the admiral out" Toddman said, adding quietly "And you owe me Styles."
"Of course" Styles said without breaking a smile. He met with Toddman earlier and waged with him that Gruiada would last 10 minutes longer then he had.
Styles wished that Gruiada could have been lead out by the ear. But you don't always get what you want. Still seeing Gruiada thrown out was satisfying.
"Well, now that the floorshow is over, time to really get down to business" Styles said "I'm sure a certain group has been nipping at our heels and banging their heads on the wall over this."
"It would be logical for such a secretive group to take a lower profile, then they do at times" Savar said.
"And they wonder why so many officers have formed a counter group" Styles said "Of course most of the counter group have backbone….I swear the current crop of officers is like Gruiada…dumb and naïve."
"When they show up things are going to have to change" Hanson said. The admirals all knew full well who "they" that Hanson referred to were.
"No kidding" Styles said "But its going to be pure hell getting the cry babies to grow up."
"What I can't understand is why we even invited Gruiada to this meeting" Admiral Quinn said.
"Better to have him have some information and gotten to shut up then to start digging and end up getting all the peace and love types down on us" Styles said "We can keep him from being a complete pain in the ass, but we don't need this operation hitting the intergalactic news networks."
"And the illogic of the public perception of this threat is just as misunderstood and that it can be reasoned with" Savar said.
"They don't seem to understand that a General Order 24 on a whole species is necessary in this case" Styles said "It isn't something I want to do lightly, but damn it those bastards nearly took over the Federation! You don't discuss things politely with anyone like that."
"I agree" Savar said "This is not a light decision to make, however I find your comments on the quality of the current Star Fleet officers illogical."
"Well I just think in my days we had a bit more steel in our officers" Styles said "I see nothing wrong with being a bit more willing to use diplomacy... and I don't mean the James T. Kirk school of it, but damn it the current bunch is willing to throw away colonies to appease foreign powers and to have them stop bothering us. And that never works."
"Well now that our pest is gone" Toddman said as he entered the room "I recommend an Ambassador class ship, the USS Sovereign."
"But that ship has no captain" Quinn pointed out.
"Oh don't worry I got someone in mind for that" Toddman said with a slight smile.
From there the meeting went into which other ships and who else would be perfect for the mission ahead.
-
Deep Space Five was extremely active. It seemed like the command staff was completely changed and new personal had shown up after being transported by a bunch of different ships. Many of those ships also had deep exploration missions to go on after dropping off people.
Captain Ali Garrovick, the new CO of Deep Space Five was one of those people. He was amazed at getting this star base as a new assignment. He was in the middle of the frontier of the Federation. Where ships made history exploring strange new worlds and finding new life and civilizations. Just like almost everyone who had Captain James T. Kirk as their role model dreamed of doing. Admittedly he wasn't going to be doing the exploration but at least he was going to be working with those that were. And he was in command of a port of call in unclaimed space and almost anyone could stop by.
"It beats cargo hauling on the old Daring" Ali thought. That old Miranda class ship was so far past it's prime it wasn't even funny. One of his friends once joked their grandfather served on the Daring.
At least Ali thought they were joking.
Then Ali saw his best friend Arnold Quisling board the station. Commander Quisling was now the XO of Deep Space Five. With Quisling was Captain Rixx. Or as Quisling had nicknamed him in their Academy days due to a few incidents "Bad Luck Charm".
"Ali" Arnold said.
"That's Captain Ali to you" Ali said with a huge grin.
"Yes sir Captain Ali sir" Quisling said with an equally large grin.
Then everything went to hell. Several Vulcan traders, Starfleet officers and even a Brikar went berserk. And they all went for Rixx. Everyone else panicked and was thrown around like they were made of cardboard.
"Put your phasers on kill" Rixx said "That is the only way to stun them."
Ali and Arnold shot Rixx a "You're serious right?" look as they did as he said. The Starfleet officers were sent slamming into walls from the force of the phaser blasts. However there more possessed officers then the two of them could keep at bay. It was like being attacked by zombies.
The Vulcans waded through phaser fire without stopping, and Brikar just looked vaguely annoyed.
"I told you the nickname fit" Quisling said.
"I know" Rixx snapped at Quisling as he blasted a Vulcan trader.
Suddenly a massive Kaylar slammed into the Brikar and slug him in the face. The Brikar was knocked back. The Kaylar smiled and let out a blood-chilling bellow. He then ran at the Brikar.
The Brikar smiled and then sent the Kaylar flying with an uppercut. The Kaylar slammed into a bulkhead. However instead of going down, he seemed to just find it amusing. He laughed as he repeatedly punched the Brikar in the chest and head.
Then a security crew struck seemingly gone mad Vulcans and Brikar with a barrage of phaser fire. The Vulcans finally went down for the count.
The Brikar then went down for the count when the device that let them move in "normal" gravity levels was destroyed with a phaser blast.
Then blue aliens crawled out of the mouths of the people that had gone mad. For the blue gilled aliens things got bad as they were beamed aboard a Federation ship to be studied by Starfleet Medical.
"Do I even want to know?" Quisling said looking at Rixx.
"Probably not but I think you need to know anyway" Rixx said tiredly.
"Might want to tell Lieutenant Beridant as well" Arnold said point at the Kaylar head of security "I think we seen enough of what he does to things that piss him off."
-
Doctor Beverly Crusher found her becoming head of Starfleet Medical was more then meets the eye. She was to head a dissection and study program on the blue gilled aliens due to her having the most experience with the creatures. At first the only one that could be studied was the one that came out of Admiral Quinn.
And she now had several fresh and alive ones from Deep Space Five.
Beverly in all her dreams of being head of Starfleet Medical never had ones where she was cutting apart invaders of the Federation and doing so deep in the depths of Luna in a high security lab.
"Well looks like this patch is carved up" Doctor Lockvit said with the typical Zaldan grace "These bastards are going to the depths where they belong."
Doctor Crusher shot Lockvit a dirty look. It was unprofessional, but her nerves were getting frayed after working with him.
"I understand your race has no tact, but I had hoped they had professionalism" Doctor Derman Xieoua commented.
"Whatever" Lockvit commented.
"Anyway" Doctor Xieoua said "We can rule out the parasites being related to the Trisions."
"Not that the Xirous Council would let a members of their race be used in that way." Beverly Crusher commented.
"And good thing on that." Doctor Xieoua said.
"Of course the intelligence seems to show they are from a more coreword world in the Beta Quadrant and the Trisions are at the edge of Federation space in the Alpha Quadrant." Doctor Crusher said.
"Intelligence only you have access to." Lockvit noted as he studied the Agar plates that had cultures from the parasites. He then sighed.
"These things…" Lockvit said "Have me on edge. They almost took over the Federation and we didn't even know they existed until it was almost too late. You can even look at the changes to Starfleet after the Khitomer Accords and wonder if these beings had their hands in it. To weaken Starfleet in a way that no one else had tried before."
The three doctors were silent thinking about that. And it frighteningly it was extremely logical and could have been what happened.
"I shutter to think how paranoid Intelligence has gotten." Derman said.
-
The office of Captain Ali Garrovick was quiet as two friends watched a "deep exploration fleet" leave Deep Space Five.
"Damn" Commander Arnold Quisling said "We really lucked out Ali."
-
-
"And Klingons would stop acting like space pirates if they had a brain" Lockvit commented.
-