Chapter I: Into the Unknown
Stardate 59342.7 26 September 2381, 11:00
"Admiral Kelly?" Lt. Jo Anna Trapp's cheerful voice burst from Frederick Kelly's office comm. "Capt. Nevala is here to see you."
"Thank you, Lieutenant. Send her in, please."
The door to the Commander, Starfleet's slid open, revealing a Vulcan woman in the uniform of a Starfleet Intelligence officer. Her black hair was cut in a traditional Vulcan style, and her uniform was immaculately pristine. She stood what a human would call at ridged attention, but what Vulcans considered 'relaxed'.
"Come in, come in, Lieutenant. Pull up a chair," Kelly offered.
"Thank you sir. I am fine standing."
"That's up to you, Capt. Nevala, but this will probably be the last rest you'll get in a while. I'm not going to waste any of your time with formalities. This is going to sound odd, but Starfleet is sending you on a retrieval mission."
Nevala arched her eyebrow. "Retrieval of what, sir?"
"Not what," Kelly said, calling up several pictures on a viewscreen behind him. The first one was a Starfleet launching ceremony. He called up seven of the officers on the screen and blew their portraits up on the side. "Who. This is the original crew of the USS Undaunted NCC-6408. Do you know the story of the Undaunted, Lieutenant?"
"I am not familiar, Admiral."
"Mmm. The Undaunted was a Sabre-class. She had a good record during the Dominion War, but most of the crew was killed in battle. The Undaunted was ordered on patrol at the end of the war, near the Romulan Neutral zone. She ended up patrolling Neutral Zone for three years after the war ended because their long range comm had been destroyed and they were ordered there under radio silence."
"Her Captain was one Lt. Commander Thomas J. Kale. The Starfleet Psyche-Eval reports said the isolation caused him to loose his mind. The Undaunted crossed several thousand kilometers into the Neutral Zone and engaged a D'deridex-class warbird. During the fighting, the Romulans beamed a boarding party over to the Undaunted. They were subdued and Kale ordered the execution of the surviving prisoners. He managed to get some lucky hits in on the warbird and fled to Starbase 178. Three Romulan crewmen were killed in the attack, and five more wounded."
"Kale was arrested for war crimes, tried and convicted. However, his tactical officer rallied the crew, and they freed him from prison. Security pursued them, but Kale and his men managed to slip aboard a runabout that docked with the newly commissioned Akira-class cruiser USS Remembrance. He must have organized this before his arrest, because six other ships were seized by Neo-Terra Prime operatives. Kale, the ships, and almost all 850,000 members of the NTP movement fled towards Delta Serpentis. We tracked them there, but they changed directions so many times, that the pursuing ships lost them. Most of his followers we believe were killed by Kale himself. The pursuing ships found several tons of debris in the Delta Serpentis system, consistent with the tonnage of the ships he 'appropriated'."
"A very interesting story, Admiral. Am I to understand that Section 31 has discovered Mr. Kale's whereabouts?" Nevala asked.
"Very perceptive, as always, Captain. We think that they may be in the Iconia system. A Romulan patrol picked up some faint sub-warp transmissions," Kelly pressed a button on his desk, and a garbled voice began looping back through tiny speakers. Most of the loop didn't make any sense, but Nevala's heightened Vulcan hearing picked up what sounded like 'Kale', 'construction' and 'Akira-class'. "But they didn't investigate any further than that. We sent a scout to search the area six weeks ago, but we haven't heard from them since. Your primary objective is to locate and apprehend Lt. Cmdr. Kale. Any members of his crew that you happen across will also be targets, but if we can get Kale, then they'll come to us. Starfleet Command would also like to know what happened to the USS Sicily, the scout shipHere's everything you need to know to complete the mission. Look it over," Kelly said, handing her a PADD. "We do understand that Kale is extremely xenophobic and well armed. To this end, we have assigned you the USS Pioneer and two Curry-class ships, the Trailblazer and the Spirit of Mars to escort you to the Neutral Zone. They will be under your command for the duration."
Kelly extended his hand. Despite all the years her people had worked among humans, the physical contact still bothered them. "Good luck, Captain. I expect nothing but the utmost competency from you."
Nevala nodded politely, accepting the handshake. "Yes, sir."
Stardate 59342.86 12:28, on board Intrepid-class USS Pioneer.
The Pioneer entered warp shortly after passing past Jupiter station. The trip to the Neutral Zone would take some time, so Nevala turned the bridge over to her first officer, an Andorian named Shenar and retired to her quarters to read up on the Undaunted. Nevala sat on her bed as she read, learning all Starfleet had on the subject.
Thomas Kale, the Captain of the ship, was 26 when he went rogue, young even for a human to commanding a starship. He would have been perfect for a 20th century Earth military recruiting poster; square-jawed and straight-backed, with a brown crew cut and serious-looking brown eyes. His record showed outstanding discipline, but Kale's commanding officers all noted that he was often had an overzealous and single-minded approach to problem solving.
His Tactical Officer, Daniel Clarke, was from the area of Earth known as Whales. He and Kale had been stationed together previously, and the reports strongly suggested that he was Kale's closest confidant. Clarke's mind for ship-to-ship combat had been called brilliant, by some. Nevala was certainly impressed by his maneuvers during the Battle of Cardassia, which allowed a small group of Sabres to destroy several Dominion capital ships.
The Undaunted's chief engineer was Chief Petty Officer 1st Class Gabriel Nelson. She didn't stand out as an exceptional engineer, or a terribly incompetent one. Nelson's instructors had noted her for her ability to quickly adapt and solve various technical issues, but she had never done anything outstanding with it.
Lt. Fred Volkert, and Ensigns Roland Johnson and Kirsten Friedmont were the communications , helm, and navigation officers, respectively. The Undaunted was their first assignment. All five of them were fiercely loyal to Lt. Cmdr. Kale, and had attacked and freed him from the Federation jail where he was being held. They also freed Sgt. Brendan O'Malley, a Federation Marine who had been the actual one to execute the Romulan prisoners. O'Malley had been involved in several boarding actions and would be the hardest to get to surrender.
Nevala had a plan, though, to capture her quarry without much confrontation. Intrepid-class ships had much longer ranges than Akiras. The bridge would announce that they had found the Remembrance, at which point she and a small team of specialists would infiltrate Kale's ship. After gaining the fugitive's trust, Nevala and her people would incapacitate their assigned targets, tag them with emergency transporter bands, and beam back to the Pioneer. She couldn't just attack with her Currys, because there was a high probability that Kale would just warp away before the cruiser escorts could pierce his shields and knock out the nacelles.
Only human crewmen on this mission, excluding her. With some cosmetic surgery, Nevala could pass for human, unless she was under close scrutiny. Even though he had fled Earth with a small crew complement, Kale's stolen Akira would need a significantly larger crew to operate it. Nevala's team should have no problem blending in.
She didn't know how exactly they would get on board the Remembrance yet, but her idea was rapidly solidifying into a plan. Capt. Nevala sat down and meditated, awaiting the sound of her number one announcing that they had found the rouge officer.
Stardate 59344.7 27 September 2381, 04:13
Commander Shenar had been the first officer of the USS Pioneer for many, many years. He had seen a lot of strange things, and had been in some, as the Crewman Doohan would say, 'hairy sitchy-ations'. Still, he breathed a sigh of relief when the Pioneer crossed the Neutral Zone threshold and a hail of plasma torpedoes didn't vaporize the light cruiser. The three Federation ships had just passed through one of the most avoided regions of space without a hitch.
"Lieutenant Chen, adjust heading 43 mark zero 1," Shenar ordered. This would put them on a direct line to the mysterious Iconian system.
"Aye, sir. Adjusting now," Lt. Chen replied. The stars on the viewscreen seemed to rotate as the ship changed her course.
Shenar shifted in his seat, antennae twitching slightly in boredom. He personally hated going off on a wild goose chase, and would much prefer to be exploring a nebula somewhere, or taking samples from a comet. Something at least useful.
Minutes, then hours slipped by as the three Federation ships sailed through space, looking for the probably non-existent Remembrance. Shenar almost dozed off in his command chair before Lt. Mattis, the on-duty science officer, announced that there was several tons of debris 60 kilometers off starboard bow.
"Can you identify it, lieutenant?"
"Not exactly, sir," Mattis replied. "Not unless we get closer."
"Helm," Shenar barked. "Course change. Lock a heading for those debris. Take us to 6500 meters."
"Aye, sir. 6500 meters."
"I can't be certain, Commander," Mattis said, studying his instruments. "But it looks like the profile of two Romulan interceptors."
"Any idea of what did that to them, Lt. Mattis?"
Mattis turned back to his panel, examining the readouts from a more thorough scan. "No phaser or disruptor scoring. It would seem that the damage was caused by the impact of numerous projectiles. Perhaps they got caught in an intense micro-meteor shower, sir?"
Shenar considered the science officer's suggestion. It made sense; there was no residual energy to the pieces of ship that were floating around in vacuum. Still, it wasn't like the Romulans to get caught with their pants down like that.
Something was bothering the Andorian commander about this. Shenar couldn't put his finger on it, but there was definitely something wrong. He looked closer at the sensor readings.
"What do you make of this, Lt. Evens?"
The tactical officer tilted his head as he ran the data up and down his console. Evens was an experienced weapons analyst. His brows furrowed as he drew a conclusion, one he didn't make lightly.
"I think somebody attacked these ships, sir. With projectile weaponry."
It was all Evens could do to keep his face from burning read as the bridge crew guffawed at his suggestion. Nobody fought with projectiles anymore. They were relics, ancient history. Cmdr. Shenar however, crossed his arms.
"What is the basis for your opinion, Lt.?"
"Here, sir. There's a large fragment of nacelle plating with almost identical holes punched in it." Evens brought up his personal weapons database, highlighting a large bullet. "The impact and damage are closest matched to a 20 millimeter round."
"Good work. Both of you. Hoffman, have did the Romulan government report any ships killed in by micro-meteorites before we left Sol?" The comm officer put his finger on his chin in thought.
"I believe so, sir. A wing of interceptors went missing nine days ago. The searching vessel said they were hit by micros."
"A wing is four ships. Hmm... Alright. I'm going to take this up with the Captain. Lt. Cmdr. Suarez, you have the bridge. Look for the other two, but remember we have a schedule to keep."
"Yes, sir," the second officer said.
Commander Shenar entered the bridge's turbolift, riding it down to Deck 3, which housed the chiefs and commanding officers of the Pioneer. He navigated his way to the Captain's quarters. Shenar buzzed the door, then entered on the Captain's command.
"Is there something you need, Commander?" Nevala asked. She was meditating, eyes closed and legs crossed.
"Yes, ma'am. We found the wreckage of two Romulan interceptors. The Romulan government said that they were destroyed in a micro-meteor shower, but Lt. Evens believes that they were attacked by a ship using projectile weapons."
Nevala's eyes snapped open. She got up from her meditation mat and looked hard at her first officer. "Projectile weapons?"
"That's right, Captain. I know it sounds ridiculous, but so does a starship being destroyed by rocks."
Actually it didn't sound ridiculous at all. Nevala's information said that Cmdr. Kale had pushed for the armament of anti-Borg ships to include high powered auto-cannons. Despite evidence that the Borg had no means of deploying a kinetic shield of any kind, his proposal had been turned down in favor of pulse phaser cannons, which negated the production of ammunition and the dealing with the by-products of spent casings. If Kale had been developing auto-cannons to add to the Remembrance's arsenal...
"Mattis to the Captain," Mattis' voice chirped from Nevala's comm-badge.
"Go ahead, Lieutenant."
"More bad news I'm afraid, ma'am. We're not reading any remnants of a destroyed cloaking device."
"You don't think...," Shenar started, but Nevala cut him off.
"Yes, Commander. I think that whoever attacked the Romulan ships has indeed stolen the cloaking device.
27 September 2381, at that same moment
Commander Leslie Franklin, C.O. of the Colonial Terran Authority destroyer CTD Maverick, formerly Remembrance, watched passively from his stealth shuttle as the Federation vessels came to a stop near the destroyed Romulan ships. Normally scouts relied on minimal warp signatures and low sensor profiles to avoid detection, but the newly acquired cloaks that the CTA had 'liberated' from their enemies had made Franklin's job even easier.
He was almost tempted to call the Maverick in when his piggyback spy suite had informed him that the Federation officers were on to the real demise of the interceptors, but Franklin calmed himself, and continued his surveillance.
The Federation battlegroup consisted of one Intrepid-class light cruiser and two Curry-class cruiser escorts, as designated by the updated CTA Starship Classification Chart. Their armaments were standard Starfleet issue, four Type-X phaser arrays per ship. Well. At least they didn't send a full battlegroup. This seemed to be little more than a reconnaissance-in-force.
"Commander Franklin. Report back to the Maverick. The attack is about to begin," his 1st officer said from the comm panel.
"Rodger that, Maverick. ETA six minutes."
Franklin simultaneously powered up his warp drive and lowered the cloak that shrouded his shuttle. As the ship slipped into warp, Franklin smiled mischievously. The galaxy didn't know what was going to hit it.
"Captain to the bridge!" Suarez barked into his comm-badge. "Helm, track that ship!"
"It's...damn. It warped out sir. Last heading was for the Alpha Onias system."
The communications officer, Ensign Hoffman, looked up from his LCARS panel. "Sir, I'm getting a lot of comm traffic from the Romulan starbase in that system. Not all of it is on the Romulan comm bands."
"Put it on, Ensign," Captain Nevala said, sweeping onto the bridge.
Hoffman pushed a few buttons and a distressed Romulan voice frantically gave orders to unknown ships.
"All ships form a defensive ring inside the station's battery perimeter. They're coming around for another pass!"
"This is the O'Dex! We're venting atmosphere, and have breaches on every deck!"
"Two warbirds just went down! We've lost the last of our Shrike covers."
"Any allied ships in the area, please converge on Starbase R-827. We are under attack from a large force of pirates. They're using...they've boarded us! Take him down, take him...my gods! They're juggernaughts! They're not...!"
There was a high-pitched whining and what sounded like screaming. Hoffman shook his head. That was all of the transmission.
"The Romulans kept saying 'they, they, they.' Do we know who 'they' are, Lt. Cmdr. Suarez?" Nevala asked.
"No, ma'am. It could be the Maquis."
"Or it could be Kale. Plot a course, helm. We're going to get to the bottom of this.
A/N: So, this is it. Ch. 2 is underway, and unlike my other fics, near completion, and it WILL be finished. So you know, review, tell me what you think.