Star Trek: Blackmane.
1 Between a rock and a hard place.
1.1.1 PART ONE.
Space, the eternal void, the final frontier. Captain Paul Willis stared out of a window on Deep Space Nine's promenade. Only a week ago he had a ship and crew, now he had nothing, the war with Dominion had cost the Federation a lot, the USS Atlantis, Willis' ship was one of the many lost in the final days of the war. Willis was here on DS9 to attend the funeral of his old friend Ben Sisko.
Ezri Dax walked up on Willis from behind and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"I had a feeling you'd be here Paul." She said stepping in beside him.
"Ben and I have been friends since the academy. I owe him my life at least four times over" He turned his head to the morning Bajorans near the temple, " Plus it's an honour to be asked to the Emissary's funeral." Willis smiled, "How you holding up old man."
Dax shook her head, "First Ben and now you with that old man crack, I know you both started your friendship with Curzon but why do you still call me, and Jadzia, old man?" She asked.
Willis stared off back into space before answering.
"I have no idea, Ben started it off and it stuck."
"Come on, the service is about to start." Dax shook her head again, "Kid." She added as they started to walk to the temple. Willis looked at Dax, shrugged his shoulders and laughed.
Commander Yelis Toral sat in Admiral Deeal's office on Starbase 683. The Bolian admiral walked around her desk to her seat and sat down.
"I'm sorry to hear about the Atlantis, she was a fine ship." Deeal said.
"Yes she was, Captain Willis did all he could to save her." The Trill Commander answered.
"I'm sure he did, he's a good man and a good Captain. Is there any word on his whereabouts?"
"As far as I know he's on DS9 at Captain Sisko's funeral."
"Another good man, the Dominion war cost us a lot, the Atlantis, the Defiant, the Valdemar, the Malinche to name but a few. At least we kept the Enterprise."
Toral nodded, "Has there been any word on our reassignment?" she asked.
Deeal walked over to a screen on the wall behind her desk and tapped in a command.
"The USS Blackmane NCC-24253, Sovereign class. Your new ship. Captain Willis will command, with you as his first officer as on the Atlantis. The rest of the command staff includes Rachel Haines, Chief Engineer. Sarah Fernandez, Chief Medical Officer. Gary Butler, Ops manger. David Lazarus, Tactical/Chief security officer. Gallio Prinz, Helm. Joe Milner, Science officer and Rebec Milos as Counsellor." The admiral said, passing a PADD over to Toral.
Toral started to read the PADD, which contained the Starfleet records of the Blackmane's senior staff.
"The ship and crew are ready for you, your first mission is to report to Deep Space Nine. I'll update you once you get there. Dismissed."
Toral nodded and walked out of the admiral's office and walked to the nearest turbolift.
"Deck sixteen." She said as the doors closed.
The Klingon warrior brought his Bat'leth down hard into Willis' chest, luckily it hit only dirt as Willis rolled out of the way and kicked the Klingon in the knee. The Klingon grunted and fell to the floor; Willis drove his Bat'leth into the Klingon's neck and twisted.
From behind him, Willis heard someone clapping, he turned and looked at his ordnance.
"Not bad I have to say." Lieutenant Commander David Lazarus said as he looked at the Klingon on the floor.
"It's good to see you too Davie." Willis said, "Computer end program" at that the holosuite around them reverted back its normal state. The two walked out and on to DS9's promenade.
"What are you doing here Dave?" Willis asked.
"I'm here with your new command, the USS Blackmane, you're looking at your new chief of security." Lazarus said, "you're to report for duty within the next ten minutes."
"And here's me thinking Starfleet were giving me some time off." Willis laughed, "Lets go, can't keep Starfleet waiting."
Lazarus tapped his commbadge. "Lazarus to Blackmane, two to beam up."
Willis stepped off the Blackmane's transporter pad and nodded to the tranporter chief.
Lazarus stopped at the room's door and waited for Willis.
"This way Captain." He said, raising an arm, using it point Willis in the right direction.
"Thank you Commander."
The Turbolift was a short walk from the tranporter room, Willis stepped inside first and waited until Lazarus walked in before saying, "Bridge."
About a minute later the lift doors opened onto the large bridge of the Blackmane.
Toral stood up from the captain's chair and motioned it Willis to take a seat.
"We're just waiting for Starfleet command to get in contact." Toral said as she took her position at the captain's left.
Willis stared at the wall in front of him waiting for the viewscreen to spring to life, about a minute later, the ensign at Ops said, "Call coming in from command sir."
"On screen." Willis said falling back into starship command routine.
The viewscreen came to life and the face of a Bolian Admiral stared back at them.
"I'm glad to see you and your ship are on time, I'll get right to the point. Eleven days ago we got a distress call from a civilian ship in the Polaris system. We sent a ship there soon after but we've had no reply from them or the Polaris system command centre." The Bolian's face became more serious, "Captain, I'm not going to tell it's going to be easy, the fact of the matter is that the Polaris system was in the middle of a massive meteor storm, bigger than anything we've ever seen, the Exeter has failed to report back, we have started to fear the worse."
"I understand Admiral, we'll report back just before we enter the system." Willis said.
"Thank you, good luck Captain. Deeal out." With that the Admiral cut the comm-link.
"Helm, set course for the Polaris system maximum warp."
"Course and speed set sir."
Willis looked at his new command staff and court his first officer's eye, a second later she stood up.
"Engage" she said looking back at Willis.
Willis smiled and started clapping the rest of the senior staff followed suit, Toral nodded and sat back in her seat.
"I'll be in my ready room, Commander you have the bridge."
Willis slid into his chair and grimaced as the pain in his back flared up for the first time since his battle in the holosuite less then ten minutes before.
He tapped a command into his console, second later it showed the name of the ship's Chief medical officer.
"Willis to Fernandez."
"Fernandez here captain." Lieutenant Commander Sarah Fernandez said from sickbay.
"Doctor can I see you in my ready room, and can you bring your medical kit with you?"
"Sure, I'll be there in a minute, Fernandez out."
Willis checked Dr Fernandez's file, everything looked good, and nothing that shouted 'don't expect to live through this operation.' He'd met doctors like that, mostly non-Starfleet, but still it didn't hurt to check.
Willis' door chimed, Willis tried to sit up and swore as the pain ran up his back.
"Enter." He said, as he stud up and swore again.
Lt commander Fernandez walked in to the ready room and looked at Willis.
"From the sounds of it I came at the right time." She said opening her med kit on his desk.
"You strained a couple of muscles in your lower back." She said as she ran a tricorder over his back, "Hold still I'll have you fixed up before you know it."
"Thanks Doc, I've only been on this ship ten minutes and already I've had to see a doctor." Willis said, testing his back.
"Any time sir." Fernandez said, packing her med kit away.
"Please call me Paul or Cap."
"Cap?" Fernandez asked looking a little confused.
"Commander Lazarus started it a few years ago, a term of endearment, he tends to make them up for his closest friends."
Fernandez nodded as she heard the explanation.
"If you'll excuse me I've got work to do in sickbay."
"Of course Doctor, I'm calling a senior staff meeting in an hour if you can lighten your workload by then."
"Will do captain."
As Fernandez walked out of the ready room, Willis sat back in his seat and started to run through the senior staff files and hoped to learn enough to get him through the staff meeting.
Willis sat at the head of the observation room's table, Commander Toral by his side as the rest of the senior staff entered the room. Fernandez was the first to enter followed by Butler, Lazarus, Milner, Milos and Prinz from the bridge. Last of all was Chief Engineer Haines.
"Now that we're all here we can begin." Willis said as Haines sat down, "First of all has anyone anything to report."
"We've detected a misalignment in the EPS system on decks 2 and 6, I've got people on it now but we may have to cut main power to the bridge to help get rid of background plasma radiation to help us find the source of the problem." Haines said
"Do it Chief but we'll need the mains back on in 4 hours."
"That'll be fine sir, they'll have it back online in twenty minutes, I'll tell them to get started now"
Haines tapped her comm badge and told her engineers to get started.
"Anything else?"
It was Milner that spoke up this time.
"Captain, I've been scanning the Polaris system and I've found nothing out of the ordinary as yet. The Exeter is a Galaxy class ship we should have picked it's sensor image by now, but we've got nothing."
"Any word from command?" Asked Milos
"Negative." Answered Willis, just then Willis' comm badge bleeped
"Rollins to Willis."
"Willis here, go ahead."
"Captain we're getting a hail from the Enterprise."
"I'll be right out, Willis out."
"Ok ladies and gentlemen, anything else?"
Everyone shook their heads, so Willis dismissed the meeting and walked out on to the bridge.
On the view screen Captain Jean Luc Picard sat on his bridge, almost identical to his own, except of some minor differences, On the Enterprise there were two stations at the front of the bridge, Helm and Ops, on the Blackmane there was only one, the helm, although it was the same length as the two consoles on the Enterprise. Ops was behind and to the left of the captain's chair, opposite the main tactical station
"Good to see you again Captain." Picard said as he looked at the Blackmane's bridge.
"Same to you, is this business or personal?"
"A little of both, First of all congratulations on your new command." Picard said, "Now on to business, Command has told me about your mission and asked me to lend a hand if you needed it. I've got Commander Riker and Commander La Forge standing by for 'shore leave'."
On the screen Willis could see a broad smile on Data's face, as if he was new to the idea of 'shore leave'
"I think we can accommodate for their 'Shore leave' captain and thanks for your help."
"Your welcome, Mr Data is sending you the rendezvous co-ordinates. Good luck Captain."
"Thank you, Willis out."
"Co-ordinates set captain." Said Ensign Prinz.
"Warp seven, engage."
The Exeter was dead in space, it's crew all but dead as well. Commander Winnow sat in the pilot's seat of one of the ship's runabouts. Three other survivors were at the other consoles trying to pull themselves together. Winnow took the runabout out of the system and set course for Starbase 384, just before he engaged the warp engines the runabout sensors picked up something moving large coming towards them. The Runabout was hit by weapons fire, something behind Winnow exploded and the warp nacelles began leaking plasma. Winnow tried to face their attacker but to no avail another hit knocked out the shields and impulse engines. Winnow watched their attacker move closer to them and stop, second later they opened fire again, the runabout exploded as weapons fire lanced through the hull at six different points.
The attacking ship turned around and left the mass of space particles and dust that was once a Federation Runabout.
Will Riker sat in the shuttlecraft Galileo as Geordi La Forge brought the shuttle to a standstill at the rendezvous co-ordinates thirty minutes ahead of schedule, but was not surprised to see the Blackmane was already there, Riker had known Willis for many years and knew one of Willis' character traits, he was always early.
Riker pressed the communications button in front of him.
"Galileo to Blackmane. Request permission to come aboard."
"Granted Galileo, come on in and watch the paintwork."
"Check Galileo out."
Riker turned to La Forge.
"Take us in."
La Forge nodded and moved the shuttle toward the Blackmane's main shuttle bay.
Rachel Haines swore as she closed the inspection panel in main engineering and walked over to the Master Systems Display. Lieutenant Brad Peterson walked over to Haines.
"Is there a problem chief?" he asked, placing a PADD on the MSD.
"Yeah, one of the deuterium lines is blocked, I'm going to have to clear it out again." She answered.
"Well if it's a volunteer you need I'll do it. I'm starting to get bored, nothings going wrong. Not that I want it to, but you understand my point don't you?
"Yeah I understand your point." She said passing him a PADD, "Here you go, have fun"
"Thanks, I think I will" Peterson turned and made his way to the source of the problem.
She looked at the MSD and saw that main power to the bridge had been restored, it had taken a little longer then she thought to track down the EPS problem. The bridge, that's a good idea she thought to herself and walked out of engineering towards the nearest turbolift.
Willis watched as Riker's shuttle landed and the main hatch opened.
"Welcome aboard Commander Riker, Commander La Forge. Quarters have been set up for you on deck three." Willis started to smile, "Now that the formal stuff's done with it good to see you Wil."
"It's good to see you too Paul how long's it been?"
"Six years."
"Sorry, this is Lt Commander Geordi La Forge."
"Pleased to meet you at last Captain." La Forge said shaking Willis' hand
"Call me Paul. Captain's too formal for my tastes, at lease among friends, mind if I call you Geordi?"
"Not at all Paul."
"Right that's that over on to the bridge I think."
Wills walked out of the shuttle bay with Riker and La Forge behind him.
The Vorta Altos stood in the command centre of his ship, the Aggressor as he waited for a communication from his masters, he had been late in destroying the Federation ship in the target sector. Over half of the Dominion reengineering plan was underway, if the Federation found out about it now, they could be a very large thorn in the Dominion's side. He watched as the 'asteroids' continued to move towards Polaris VI. From the side of the command centre one of the Jem'Hadar spoke up.
"First, we have a Federation starship heading this way."
The Jem'Hadar First beside him looked almost happy at the news.
"Change course to intercept and ready all weapons."
"Damn, how the hell did I miss that?" Milner cursed as a Jem'Hadar Warship leapt onto the Blackmane's sensors, "A Dominion warship coming this way at high warp. E.t.a forty five seconds."
Willis shifted in his seat and turned to his tactical officer. "Ready all weapons, red alert, shields up."
"Ready and waiting Cap." Lazarus checked his console, "Phasers and Quantum torpedoes on stand by."
They sat waiting, the forty five seconds seemed like forever. The Dominion warship fired as soon as it got close enough, the Blackmane rocked as weapons fire hit her forward shields. Willis looked at the view screen as the warship closed in, then saw the Blackmane's phasers hit home, the warship's forward shields lit up like a Christmas tree, a second later a full spread of Quantum torpedoes slammed into the warships hull, two seconds after that the warship's warp core exploded, leaving nothing more then subatomic particles floating in space.
The bridge crew began cheering, Willis smiled, if morale was below normal before, it was a great deal higher now and that was always a good thing.
"Mr Rollins get me Admiral Deeal."
"Check."
"This is Deeal, ah Captain Willis good to see you made it to Polaris alright."
"We had a run-in with the Dominion but that's done with now."
"The Dominion, I wonder what their doing there?"
"No idea and I have no desire to find out just yet, I have a mission to finish."
"Good luck Captain, Deeal out."
The Blackmane arrived at the Exeter's last co-ordinates about six hours after Willis talked to Deeal. The Exeter hung lifeless in space, the Galaxy class ship had hull breaches on all decks, the port nacelle was missing and bridge module was completely destroyed.
"Captain I'm picking up multiple escape pods and a couple of shuttle craft." Milner said from the science station.
"Start pulling them in Lieutenant." Willis ordered as Riker stepped on to the bridge.
"Paul, take a look at Polaris VI." Riker said.
"On screen."
The view screen switched from the dead Exeter the Polaris VI, also dead. Asteroids had hit at over a thousand different places, but something seemed wrong, he guessed Riker had picked up on it too.
"Mr Milner, scan the asteroid landing sites for anything unusual." Willis said.
A few seconds later Milner turned back to Willis.
"I'm picking up traces of Deuterium, Tritanium and Duranium. Trace amounts of each, not enough to suggest a landed ship."
"Was the planet inhabited?" Willis asked.
"Yes, and I'm picking up signs of life."
"Good. Mr Milner, Commander Riker you're with me." Wills tapped his commbadge, "Mr La Forge, and Dr Fernandez please report to transporter room one."
Willis walked to the turbolift, with Milner and Riker a step behind him.
"Commander Toral, you have the bridge." He said as the lift doors closed in front of him.
The air of Polaris VI smelt of sulphur as the away team beamed down, as soon as the transporter beam dissolved around him, Willis flipped open his tricorder open and started scanning for life signs.
All around the away team the once beautiful planet was now a dead world, covered with asteroid craters big and small, some too small for Willis' liking. The away team stood in what used to be a forest near the capital city, now it was little more then a few trees in the middle of nowhere.
They walked towards the city hall, one of the few building that still stood, its stone walls covered in vines, it's slate roof missing over half of its slates and a large tree lying beside the building.
Willis pushed open the city hall's door and stepped inside. A phaser shot hit the wall beside him, he dived behind an overturned table and pulled his phaser from its holster.
"We're here to help you." Willis shouted from behind the table.
"How can we be shore of that?" One of the attackers asked as she fired another shot towards the table.
Willis thought for a minute, then powered down his phaser and tossed it into the middle of the room. Riker looked at him and did the same, followed by La Forge and the rest of the away team.
"We're unarmed is that good enough?" Willis asked.
"It is a start, we shall do the same." The woman stepped out from her hiding place and placed her phaser into its holster.
"You are Starfleet!" The Women said, surprise in her voice and ob her face, "May I apologize, I am Citizen Primus Kolas, the former leader of this city." Kolas said as she offered her hand.
"I'm Captain Paul Willis of the Federation starship Blackmane. I'm here in response to a distress call from one of your ships." Taking Kolas' hand and shaking it.
The away team started to stand up and walk towards the captain.
"This is Commander Riker, Mr la Forge, Mr Milner and Doctor Fernandez." Willis said.
"May I introduce Citizen Secondus Elide and Citizen Securitus Yowled."
The group shook hands and walked to a back room.
"Why did you attack us." Riker asked
"We did not know who you were, we thought you were the Jem'Hadar back for another assault."
"Didn't you here that the Dominion war is over?" Fernandez asked.
"We know that, but there still divisions of the Dominion trying to continue the war." Yowled said.
Willis knew this too, as did the rest of the away team. At least a hundred Dominion ships had not accepted the peace treaty between the Dominion and the Federation and were still raiding the Federation's borders, the ship the Blackmane had met on the way to the Polaris system was evidence of that.
"Under the circumstances I don't blame you, but it may have been a good idea to send a recon team first before attacking."
"As I said before I am sorry, we're a little paranoid after the last attack three days ago." Kolas said.
"Three days?" Milner asked.
"That is correct, I will show you the visual recordings of the attack."
Willis and the away team followed Kolas and her men into another small room, once filled with computer screens and terminals, now only one computer worked and the others were little more then rubble.
The screen flickered to life and a Jem'Hadar strike team appeared on it, moving towards the city, something wasn't right but Willis couldn't put his finger on it.
It was Doctor Fernandez who noticed the problem.
"Their not fully formed." She said as she watched the screen in front of her.
"What do you mean, they just look a little young." Milner said, turning to Fernandez.
"I've read Doctor Bashir's paper on the growth rate of Jem'Hadar Soldiers, they're a little over a day and half old. It looks like the Dominion couldn't wait another day to release them."
Willis looked at the screen again.
"No Ketracel white tubes, no real direction, their running on raw instinct not at all like the Jem'Hadar we know." He said.
"At that age, instinct is all they know, it's not until day three they become the soldiers we know." Fernandez said.
Elide looked at the away team and stepped in front of Willis.
"Captain Willis, I have something to show you."
"What is it?" Willis asked.
"If you would please follow me."
Elide lead the away team out of the room and out into a large open area, in the middle of which was a massive asteroid. Floodlights set up around the room lit up the asteroid from all angles, Willis saw La Forge's eyes light up as he saw the set up.
"This is an asteroid from near where those Jem'Hadar you saw were. The impact crater left by the asteroid was small, almost precisely the size of the asteroid."
"That's impossible an asteroid that size would make a huge crater, around five or six times the size of the asteroid." Milner said, looking at the science reports that Kolas had passed him.
"Mr Milner, you and Commander La Forge start work on this asteroid and report to me when you have something. Doctor Fernandez I want you to see to anybody who needs medical attention. Commander Riker and myself will return to the Blackmane and start checking the system for Dominion activity. Pleasure meeting you Citizen Primus."
"I hope we meet again Captain." Kolas said.
"As do I." Willis tapped his Comm-Badge, "Willis to Blackmane, Two to beam up."
Kolas and the away team watched as Willis and Riker were beamed back to the ship.
"Something's not right down there." Riker said as soon as the transport cycle finished.
"Tell me about it, but until Joe and Geordi find something we have no idea what."
They walked out of the transporter room and on to the turbolift.
"Bridge." Willis said. The turbolift got underway as soon as he had finished.
"You think the asteroid's have something to do with this?" Asked Riker.
"Joe seems to think so, he's right about the crater that asteroid made, it should have been bigger."
Willis stepped out into the bridge and said, "Commander, report."
"We scanned the system and have found no Dominion activity. The Asteroid field at the edge of the system has stopped expelling asteroids for now but our scans show that it may start again in sixteen hours or so."
"Sixteen hours?" Willis asked, "It looks like I have some time to relax, Commander you have the bridge."
Willis turned back towards the turbolift and stepped inside.
"Deck ten."
The door to Ten Forward opened and Captain Willis walked inside.
He sat on a stool at the bar and waited for the bartender to came over to him.
"What would you like captain?" The short man behind the bar asked.
"I'll have a cup of tea." Willis answered.
"Anything else sir?"
"No that'll be all for now."
"I'll be back in a minute."
Willis looked around the room. In the corner of the room was a pool table with a red baize.
"It took me an age to fine another one." A voice behind Willis said.
Willis turned round as soon as he recognised the voice, the Parowan bartender smiled as Willis spun round.
"It's good to see you again Re'Karl." Willis said.
"Good to see you too Paul." Re'Karl said passing Willis his tea, "Not having something to eat?"
"Not just yet, fancy a game?" He asked looking back at the table.
"Why not, need to put all that practise to use." She said smiling.
In the deep of space a Dominion ship sat behind the hulk of the Exeter, The ship was about three times the size of the Galaxy class starship but remained unseen. The Vorta in charge watched the Exeter as it spun slowly in space covering the Retaliation.
"Communication coming in, Vorta." The Jem'Hadar second said.
"Thank you." On the Vorta's eye piece another Vorta appeared, it was Borath, the leader of the Dominion reengineering Project until the Founder in charge could be revived.
"Is phase two on target?" Borath asked.
"Yes the Jem'Hadar should have all finished in three days, in fifteen hours phase two will be ready."
"Good, we have lost contact with the Aggressor, we can not afford lose any more ships until phase three is ready."
"Understood, Retaliation out."
On the Blackmane the night shift that just started, the command staff met up in ten forward at 23:00 hours, Captain Willis was already there, playing pool with the Blackmanes' barkeeper. Willis and Re'Karl walked over to the command staff and sat down at the table.
"Anything to report commander?" Willis asked as he sat down.
"Nothing as yet Sir."
"That's good and bad really." Willis said, taking a drink of his beer.
Toral looked at Willis and then to Riker, she saw the same look on their faces.
"What is it Paul?" She asked.
"Something about this system is bothering me. I just can't place my finger on it."
Toral turned to Milos, "Any idea?"
"No, Morrowans are a very hard race to read for even the best Betazoids."
Willis smiled, "It's nothing personal Counsellor."
"Your not going to tell us are you Paul?" Asked Lazarus.
"You'll know as soon as I do, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to get some sleep."
Willis lifted himself off his seat and walked out of ten forward.
Toral looked at the rest of the senior staff, "Damn that man."
Captains Log stardate 321885.4. After almost a day in the Polaris system, we've found nothing to explain the destruction of the Exeter other then the Dominion Warship we met at the edge of the system, but that seems unlikely as it was only a small vessel.
The Asteroid shower started again as Commander Toral thought and again they leave only small craters, something's wrong with it all and I intend to find out what.
Willis sat in his ready room when the chime sounded.
"Come."
The door opened as the Exeter's Captain walked in.
"Thank you for seeing me Captain." Captain Luella said, the Andorian sat down opposite Willis.
"Have you any idea what destroyed the Exeter." Willis asked.
"I've gone over as much sensor data as I could get my hands on. Because I wasn't on the bridge I missed most of the action." Luella continued, "It looks like it was a new Dominion warship that attacked us. It's like nothing we have on file but it's definitely Dominion in origin. I'll downloaded all the information I found into the Blackmane's database for you to review at your leisure."
"The USS Typhoon is on its way to take you and your crew back to Earth."
"Thank you again Captain, I'm sure you know how I'm feeling round about now."
Willis thought back to the Atlantis, as he sat on the bridge, Commander Toral beside him as they ran into the jaws of the Dominion, on their way to Cardassia. A spiral wave disrupter hit the ship as its shields failed, with most of the ships systems offline. Willis did what he had to do, he didn't like it but he gave the order to abandon ship, even so over three hundred crewmen died.
Willis shook the thought out of his head.
"Captain Willis are you all right?" Luella asked.
"Yeah, sorry my mind was somewhere else."
"I see."
"Is there anything else?"
"No."
"Ok dismissed."
Luella stood up and walked out the door. Willis walked over to the model of the Atlantis that he kept near his desk.
"A good Captain, a good crew, but most of all a great ship. Dead before her time." He said to himself.
Milner swore as he punched the asteroid in front of him. He and La Forge had been working on it for over 20 hours and still had nothing. They couldn't scan more then two inches past the surface of the rock and nothing had been able the cut through it ether. La Forge walked over to Milner. "Any ideas Joe?" he asked looking at his tricorder for the hundredth time in the last ten minutes.
"None, other then firing a Quantum torpedo at it" Joe said sitting on a chair next to the one working computer console.
"If this goes on any longer that may be a good idea" La Forge meant it as a joke, but began to think it was the only way to open it.
Milner began to pace again, trying to think of something else but couldn't.
He looked at La Forge and felt embarrassed, one of the greatest engineers in Starfleet history was standing next to him and he was getting all uptight, he wasn't setting the best example of his work.
"Come on, we'll head back to the Blackmane and get some sleep, we'll be able to think better afterwards," La Forge said, looking at the PADD in his hands again.
"Yeah ok, that's a good idea." Milner said as he tapped his comm badge, "Milner to Blackmane, Two to beam up."
Willis looked at the screen in front of him, on it was the sensor records that Milner and La Forge had given him. His face blank as he watched the data on the screen, nothing looking like it shouldn't be there. He switched the screen off and walked onto the bridge.
"Report." He said dropping into his seat.
"Nothing to report sir, Mr Milner and Mr La Forge have still got nothing on that comet." Toral said.
"Great, it's like looking for a needle in a hay stack." Willis said, shaking his head.
"Sorry Captain?" Toral asked.
"It's nothing, an old earth saying thats all."
Behind them the turbolift doors opened and Riker stepped out, taking up a position at one of the science consoles.
"You got anything Will?" Willis asked.
"Not a thing."
Butler turned to the command area as his console bleeped.
"Communication coming in from Starbase 663 Captain."
"On screen."
The viewscreen in front of them sprang to life. A Starfleet Admiral filling the screen, somewhere behind him a console exploded, the Starbase was under attack.
"This is Admiral Stiles to any Starfleet vessel in the area, we under attack by the Dominion. The Station cannot last much longer we need you..." The Admiral was cut-off as the comm-link spluttered and died.
"Get that back Mr Butler." Willis ordered.
"It's no good Captain I cannot reconnect the link, the Dominion must have destroyed the station's comm systems."
Willis looked at Toral then at Riker, he made his decision.
"Willis to all away teams, return to the Blackmane on the double." He said as he tapped his comm badge, "Helm set course for Starbase 663, maximum warp."
"Aye sir." Said the Ensign manning the Helm.
Starbase 663 never stood a chance, The Dominion Ships attacked without warning. Six Warships larger then anything the Federation had seen during the war, the other thing that helped to worry the Federation officers a second before they died was that the ships was cloaked. What little that the stations data recorders picked up wasn't a lot.
"Admiral we have something on sensors, wait it's gone. Sorry sir, guess it was a problem with the system." The Ensign was young, fresh from the Academy and it was easy to see, he had no experience in the real world.
"Run another sweep to be sure Ensign."
"Yes Sir!" The boy was a little over eager to save face, he almost missed the signs of a ship decloaking near them.
"Sir! We have a ship decloaking 200km from our position. Sir it's Dominion!"
"What, the Dominion don't have cloak technology." A second later he was pitched forward as the Starbase was hit by heavy weapons fire.
"Well it looks like they do now sir."
"Open hailing frequencies. This is Admiral Stiles to any Starfleet vessel in the area, we under attack by the Dominion. The Station cannot last much longer we need you."
The recording cut off as the station was destroyed. Willis looked at his senior staff, the look of sorrow for fallen comrades was etched on each and no doubt on the senior staff of the other 9 ships that had heard the call and changed course.
"I guess the Dominion has a few more tricks up their sleeves then we thought." La Forge said.
"They could be sat right next to us and we'd never know." Milner was a more then a little worried. Willis knew how he felt it was a little difficult to think clearly with that hanging over your head.
"Do we have any way of detecting them?" Toral asked.
"No, the station was unable to get accurate reading of the ships before it's destruction so we have no idea if the cloak can be penetrated." Haines offered.
" That says maybe but we need to do something and fast, they could be sat outside and we'd never know until it was to late." Willis looked out the window.
1 Between a rock and a hard place.
1.1.1 PART ONE.
Space, the eternal void, the final frontier. Captain Paul Willis stared out of a window on Deep Space Nine's promenade. Only a week ago he had a ship and crew, now he had nothing, the war with Dominion had cost the Federation a lot, the USS Atlantis, Willis' ship was one of the many lost in the final days of the war. Willis was here on DS9 to attend the funeral of his old friend Ben Sisko.
Ezri Dax walked up on Willis from behind and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"I had a feeling you'd be here Paul." She said stepping in beside him.
"Ben and I have been friends since the academy. I owe him my life at least four times over" He turned his head to the morning Bajorans near the temple, " Plus it's an honour to be asked to the Emissary's funeral." Willis smiled, "How you holding up old man."
Dax shook her head, "First Ben and now you with that old man crack, I know you both started your friendship with Curzon but why do you still call me, and Jadzia, old man?" She asked.
Willis stared off back into space before answering.
"I have no idea, Ben started it off and it stuck."
"Come on, the service is about to start." Dax shook her head again, "Kid." She added as they started to walk to the temple. Willis looked at Dax, shrugged his shoulders and laughed.
Commander Yelis Toral sat in Admiral Deeal's office on Starbase 683. The Bolian admiral walked around her desk to her seat and sat down.
"I'm sorry to hear about the Atlantis, she was a fine ship." Deeal said.
"Yes she was, Captain Willis did all he could to save her." The Trill Commander answered.
"I'm sure he did, he's a good man and a good Captain. Is there any word on his whereabouts?"
"As far as I know he's on DS9 at Captain Sisko's funeral."
"Another good man, the Dominion war cost us a lot, the Atlantis, the Defiant, the Valdemar, the Malinche to name but a few. At least we kept the Enterprise."
Toral nodded, "Has there been any word on our reassignment?" she asked.
Deeal walked over to a screen on the wall behind her desk and tapped in a command.
"The USS Blackmane NCC-24253, Sovereign class. Your new ship. Captain Willis will command, with you as his first officer as on the Atlantis. The rest of the command staff includes Rachel Haines, Chief Engineer. Sarah Fernandez, Chief Medical Officer. Gary Butler, Ops manger. David Lazarus, Tactical/Chief security officer. Gallio Prinz, Helm. Joe Milner, Science officer and Rebec Milos as Counsellor." The admiral said, passing a PADD over to Toral.
Toral started to read the PADD, which contained the Starfleet records of the Blackmane's senior staff.
"The ship and crew are ready for you, your first mission is to report to Deep Space Nine. I'll update you once you get there. Dismissed."
Toral nodded and walked out of the admiral's office and walked to the nearest turbolift.
"Deck sixteen." She said as the doors closed.
The Klingon warrior brought his Bat'leth down hard into Willis' chest, luckily it hit only dirt as Willis rolled out of the way and kicked the Klingon in the knee. The Klingon grunted and fell to the floor; Willis drove his Bat'leth into the Klingon's neck and twisted.
From behind him, Willis heard someone clapping, he turned and looked at his ordnance.
"Not bad I have to say." Lieutenant Commander David Lazarus said as he looked at the Klingon on the floor.
"It's good to see you too Davie." Willis said, "Computer end program" at that the holosuite around them reverted back its normal state. The two walked out and on to DS9's promenade.
"What are you doing here Dave?" Willis asked.
"I'm here with your new command, the USS Blackmane, you're looking at your new chief of security." Lazarus said, "you're to report for duty within the next ten minutes."
"And here's me thinking Starfleet were giving me some time off." Willis laughed, "Lets go, can't keep Starfleet waiting."
Lazarus tapped his commbadge. "Lazarus to Blackmane, two to beam up."
Willis stepped off the Blackmane's transporter pad and nodded to the tranporter chief.
Lazarus stopped at the room's door and waited for Willis.
"This way Captain." He said, raising an arm, using it point Willis in the right direction.
"Thank you Commander."
The Turbolift was a short walk from the tranporter room, Willis stepped inside first and waited until Lazarus walked in before saying, "Bridge."
About a minute later the lift doors opened onto the large bridge of the Blackmane.
Toral stood up from the captain's chair and motioned it Willis to take a seat.
"We're just waiting for Starfleet command to get in contact." Toral said as she took her position at the captain's left.
Willis stared at the wall in front of him waiting for the viewscreen to spring to life, about a minute later, the ensign at Ops said, "Call coming in from command sir."
"On screen." Willis said falling back into starship command routine.
The viewscreen came to life and the face of a Bolian Admiral stared back at them.
"I'm glad to see you and your ship are on time, I'll get right to the point. Eleven days ago we got a distress call from a civilian ship in the Polaris system. We sent a ship there soon after but we've had no reply from them or the Polaris system command centre." The Bolian's face became more serious, "Captain, I'm not going to tell it's going to be easy, the fact of the matter is that the Polaris system was in the middle of a massive meteor storm, bigger than anything we've ever seen, the Exeter has failed to report back, we have started to fear the worse."
"I understand Admiral, we'll report back just before we enter the system." Willis said.
"Thank you, good luck Captain. Deeal out." With that the Admiral cut the comm-link.
"Helm, set course for the Polaris system maximum warp."
"Course and speed set sir."
Willis looked at his new command staff and court his first officer's eye, a second later she stood up.
"Engage" she said looking back at Willis.
Willis smiled and started clapping the rest of the senior staff followed suit, Toral nodded and sat back in her seat.
"I'll be in my ready room, Commander you have the bridge."
Willis slid into his chair and grimaced as the pain in his back flared up for the first time since his battle in the holosuite less then ten minutes before.
He tapped a command into his console, second later it showed the name of the ship's Chief medical officer.
"Willis to Fernandez."
"Fernandez here captain." Lieutenant Commander Sarah Fernandez said from sickbay.
"Doctor can I see you in my ready room, and can you bring your medical kit with you?"
"Sure, I'll be there in a minute, Fernandez out."
Willis checked Dr Fernandez's file, everything looked good, and nothing that shouted 'don't expect to live through this operation.' He'd met doctors like that, mostly non-Starfleet, but still it didn't hurt to check.
Willis' door chimed, Willis tried to sit up and swore as the pain ran up his back.
"Enter." He said, as he stud up and swore again.
Lt commander Fernandez walked in to the ready room and looked at Willis.
"From the sounds of it I came at the right time." She said opening her med kit on his desk.
"You strained a couple of muscles in your lower back." She said as she ran a tricorder over his back, "Hold still I'll have you fixed up before you know it."
"Thanks Doc, I've only been on this ship ten minutes and already I've had to see a doctor." Willis said, testing his back.
"Any time sir." Fernandez said, packing her med kit away.
"Please call me Paul or Cap."
"Cap?" Fernandez asked looking a little confused.
"Commander Lazarus started it a few years ago, a term of endearment, he tends to make them up for his closest friends."
Fernandez nodded as she heard the explanation.
"If you'll excuse me I've got work to do in sickbay."
"Of course Doctor, I'm calling a senior staff meeting in an hour if you can lighten your workload by then."
"Will do captain."
As Fernandez walked out of the ready room, Willis sat back in his seat and started to run through the senior staff files and hoped to learn enough to get him through the staff meeting.
Willis sat at the head of the observation room's table, Commander Toral by his side as the rest of the senior staff entered the room. Fernandez was the first to enter followed by Butler, Lazarus, Milner, Milos and Prinz from the bridge. Last of all was Chief Engineer Haines.
"Now that we're all here we can begin." Willis said as Haines sat down, "First of all has anyone anything to report."
"We've detected a misalignment in the EPS system on decks 2 and 6, I've got people on it now but we may have to cut main power to the bridge to help get rid of background plasma radiation to help us find the source of the problem." Haines said
"Do it Chief but we'll need the mains back on in 4 hours."
"That'll be fine sir, they'll have it back online in twenty minutes, I'll tell them to get started now"
Haines tapped her comm badge and told her engineers to get started.
"Anything else?"
It was Milner that spoke up this time.
"Captain, I've been scanning the Polaris system and I've found nothing out of the ordinary as yet. The Exeter is a Galaxy class ship we should have picked it's sensor image by now, but we've got nothing."
"Any word from command?" Asked Milos
"Negative." Answered Willis, just then Willis' comm badge bleeped
"Rollins to Willis."
"Willis here, go ahead."
"Captain we're getting a hail from the Enterprise."
"I'll be right out, Willis out."
"Ok ladies and gentlemen, anything else?"
Everyone shook their heads, so Willis dismissed the meeting and walked out on to the bridge.
On the view screen Captain Jean Luc Picard sat on his bridge, almost identical to his own, except of some minor differences, On the Enterprise there were two stations at the front of the bridge, Helm and Ops, on the Blackmane there was only one, the helm, although it was the same length as the two consoles on the Enterprise. Ops was behind and to the left of the captain's chair, opposite the main tactical station
"Good to see you again Captain." Picard said as he looked at the Blackmane's bridge.
"Same to you, is this business or personal?"
"A little of both, First of all congratulations on your new command." Picard said, "Now on to business, Command has told me about your mission and asked me to lend a hand if you needed it. I've got Commander Riker and Commander La Forge standing by for 'shore leave'."
On the screen Willis could see a broad smile on Data's face, as if he was new to the idea of 'shore leave'
"I think we can accommodate for their 'Shore leave' captain and thanks for your help."
"Your welcome, Mr Data is sending you the rendezvous co-ordinates. Good luck Captain."
"Thank you, Willis out."
"Co-ordinates set captain." Said Ensign Prinz.
"Warp seven, engage."
The Exeter was dead in space, it's crew all but dead as well. Commander Winnow sat in the pilot's seat of one of the ship's runabouts. Three other survivors were at the other consoles trying to pull themselves together. Winnow took the runabout out of the system and set course for Starbase 384, just before he engaged the warp engines the runabout sensors picked up something moving large coming towards them. The Runabout was hit by weapons fire, something behind Winnow exploded and the warp nacelles began leaking plasma. Winnow tried to face their attacker but to no avail another hit knocked out the shields and impulse engines. Winnow watched their attacker move closer to them and stop, second later they opened fire again, the runabout exploded as weapons fire lanced through the hull at six different points.
The attacking ship turned around and left the mass of space particles and dust that was once a Federation Runabout.
Will Riker sat in the shuttlecraft Galileo as Geordi La Forge brought the shuttle to a standstill at the rendezvous co-ordinates thirty minutes ahead of schedule, but was not surprised to see the Blackmane was already there, Riker had known Willis for many years and knew one of Willis' character traits, he was always early.
Riker pressed the communications button in front of him.
"Galileo to Blackmane. Request permission to come aboard."
"Granted Galileo, come on in and watch the paintwork."
"Check Galileo out."
Riker turned to La Forge.
"Take us in."
La Forge nodded and moved the shuttle toward the Blackmane's main shuttle bay.
Rachel Haines swore as she closed the inspection panel in main engineering and walked over to the Master Systems Display. Lieutenant Brad Peterson walked over to Haines.
"Is there a problem chief?" he asked, placing a PADD on the MSD.
"Yeah, one of the deuterium lines is blocked, I'm going to have to clear it out again." She answered.
"Well if it's a volunteer you need I'll do it. I'm starting to get bored, nothings going wrong. Not that I want it to, but you understand my point don't you?
"Yeah I understand your point." She said passing him a PADD, "Here you go, have fun"
"Thanks, I think I will" Peterson turned and made his way to the source of the problem.
She looked at the MSD and saw that main power to the bridge had been restored, it had taken a little longer then she thought to track down the EPS problem. The bridge, that's a good idea she thought to herself and walked out of engineering towards the nearest turbolift.
Willis watched as Riker's shuttle landed and the main hatch opened.
"Welcome aboard Commander Riker, Commander La Forge. Quarters have been set up for you on deck three." Willis started to smile, "Now that the formal stuff's done with it good to see you Wil."
"It's good to see you too Paul how long's it been?"
"Six years."
"Sorry, this is Lt Commander Geordi La Forge."
"Pleased to meet you at last Captain." La Forge said shaking Willis' hand
"Call me Paul. Captain's too formal for my tastes, at lease among friends, mind if I call you Geordi?"
"Not at all Paul."
"Right that's that over on to the bridge I think."
Wills walked out of the shuttle bay with Riker and La Forge behind him.
The Vorta Altos stood in the command centre of his ship, the Aggressor as he waited for a communication from his masters, he had been late in destroying the Federation ship in the target sector. Over half of the Dominion reengineering plan was underway, if the Federation found out about it now, they could be a very large thorn in the Dominion's side. He watched as the 'asteroids' continued to move towards Polaris VI. From the side of the command centre one of the Jem'Hadar spoke up.
"First, we have a Federation starship heading this way."
The Jem'Hadar First beside him looked almost happy at the news.
"Change course to intercept and ready all weapons."
"Damn, how the hell did I miss that?" Milner cursed as a Jem'Hadar Warship leapt onto the Blackmane's sensors, "A Dominion warship coming this way at high warp. E.t.a forty five seconds."
Willis shifted in his seat and turned to his tactical officer. "Ready all weapons, red alert, shields up."
"Ready and waiting Cap." Lazarus checked his console, "Phasers and Quantum torpedoes on stand by."
They sat waiting, the forty five seconds seemed like forever. The Dominion warship fired as soon as it got close enough, the Blackmane rocked as weapons fire hit her forward shields. Willis looked at the view screen as the warship closed in, then saw the Blackmane's phasers hit home, the warship's forward shields lit up like a Christmas tree, a second later a full spread of Quantum torpedoes slammed into the warships hull, two seconds after that the warship's warp core exploded, leaving nothing more then subatomic particles floating in space.
The bridge crew began cheering, Willis smiled, if morale was below normal before, it was a great deal higher now and that was always a good thing.
"Mr Rollins get me Admiral Deeal."
"Check."
"This is Deeal, ah Captain Willis good to see you made it to Polaris alright."
"We had a run-in with the Dominion but that's done with now."
"The Dominion, I wonder what their doing there?"
"No idea and I have no desire to find out just yet, I have a mission to finish."
"Good luck Captain, Deeal out."
The Blackmane arrived at the Exeter's last co-ordinates about six hours after Willis talked to Deeal. The Exeter hung lifeless in space, the Galaxy class ship had hull breaches on all decks, the port nacelle was missing and bridge module was completely destroyed.
"Captain I'm picking up multiple escape pods and a couple of shuttle craft." Milner said from the science station.
"Start pulling them in Lieutenant." Willis ordered as Riker stepped on to the bridge.
"Paul, take a look at Polaris VI." Riker said.
"On screen."
The view screen switched from the dead Exeter the Polaris VI, also dead. Asteroids had hit at over a thousand different places, but something seemed wrong, he guessed Riker had picked up on it too.
"Mr Milner, scan the asteroid landing sites for anything unusual." Willis said.
A few seconds later Milner turned back to Willis.
"I'm picking up traces of Deuterium, Tritanium and Duranium. Trace amounts of each, not enough to suggest a landed ship."
"Was the planet inhabited?" Willis asked.
"Yes, and I'm picking up signs of life."
"Good. Mr Milner, Commander Riker you're with me." Wills tapped his commbadge, "Mr La Forge, and Dr Fernandez please report to transporter room one."
Willis walked to the turbolift, with Milner and Riker a step behind him.
"Commander Toral, you have the bridge." He said as the lift doors closed in front of him.
The air of Polaris VI smelt of sulphur as the away team beamed down, as soon as the transporter beam dissolved around him, Willis flipped open his tricorder open and started scanning for life signs.
All around the away team the once beautiful planet was now a dead world, covered with asteroid craters big and small, some too small for Willis' liking. The away team stood in what used to be a forest near the capital city, now it was little more then a few trees in the middle of nowhere.
They walked towards the city hall, one of the few building that still stood, its stone walls covered in vines, it's slate roof missing over half of its slates and a large tree lying beside the building.
Willis pushed open the city hall's door and stepped inside. A phaser shot hit the wall beside him, he dived behind an overturned table and pulled his phaser from its holster.
"We're here to help you." Willis shouted from behind the table.
"How can we be shore of that?" One of the attackers asked as she fired another shot towards the table.
Willis thought for a minute, then powered down his phaser and tossed it into the middle of the room. Riker looked at him and did the same, followed by La Forge and the rest of the away team.
"We're unarmed is that good enough?" Willis asked.
"It is a start, we shall do the same." The woman stepped out from her hiding place and placed her phaser into its holster.
"You are Starfleet!" The Women said, surprise in her voice and ob her face, "May I apologize, I am Citizen Primus Kolas, the former leader of this city." Kolas said as she offered her hand.
"I'm Captain Paul Willis of the Federation starship Blackmane. I'm here in response to a distress call from one of your ships." Taking Kolas' hand and shaking it.
The away team started to stand up and walk towards the captain.
"This is Commander Riker, Mr la Forge, Mr Milner and Doctor Fernandez." Willis said.
"May I introduce Citizen Secondus Elide and Citizen Securitus Yowled."
The group shook hands and walked to a back room.
"Why did you attack us." Riker asked
"We did not know who you were, we thought you were the Jem'Hadar back for another assault."
"Didn't you here that the Dominion war is over?" Fernandez asked.
"We know that, but there still divisions of the Dominion trying to continue the war." Yowled said.
Willis knew this too, as did the rest of the away team. At least a hundred Dominion ships had not accepted the peace treaty between the Dominion and the Federation and were still raiding the Federation's borders, the ship the Blackmane had met on the way to the Polaris system was evidence of that.
"Under the circumstances I don't blame you, but it may have been a good idea to send a recon team first before attacking."
"As I said before I am sorry, we're a little paranoid after the last attack three days ago." Kolas said.
"Three days?" Milner asked.
"That is correct, I will show you the visual recordings of the attack."
Willis and the away team followed Kolas and her men into another small room, once filled with computer screens and terminals, now only one computer worked and the others were little more then rubble.
The screen flickered to life and a Jem'Hadar strike team appeared on it, moving towards the city, something wasn't right but Willis couldn't put his finger on it.
It was Doctor Fernandez who noticed the problem.
"Their not fully formed." She said as she watched the screen in front of her.
"What do you mean, they just look a little young." Milner said, turning to Fernandez.
"I've read Doctor Bashir's paper on the growth rate of Jem'Hadar Soldiers, they're a little over a day and half old. It looks like the Dominion couldn't wait another day to release them."
Willis looked at the screen again.
"No Ketracel white tubes, no real direction, their running on raw instinct not at all like the Jem'Hadar we know." He said.
"At that age, instinct is all they know, it's not until day three they become the soldiers we know." Fernandez said.
Elide looked at the away team and stepped in front of Willis.
"Captain Willis, I have something to show you."
"What is it?" Willis asked.
"If you would please follow me."
Elide lead the away team out of the room and out into a large open area, in the middle of which was a massive asteroid. Floodlights set up around the room lit up the asteroid from all angles, Willis saw La Forge's eyes light up as he saw the set up.
"This is an asteroid from near where those Jem'Hadar you saw were. The impact crater left by the asteroid was small, almost precisely the size of the asteroid."
"That's impossible an asteroid that size would make a huge crater, around five or six times the size of the asteroid." Milner said, looking at the science reports that Kolas had passed him.
"Mr Milner, you and Commander La Forge start work on this asteroid and report to me when you have something. Doctor Fernandez I want you to see to anybody who needs medical attention. Commander Riker and myself will return to the Blackmane and start checking the system for Dominion activity. Pleasure meeting you Citizen Primus."
"I hope we meet again Captain." Kolas said.
"As do I." Willis tapped his Comm-Badge, "Willis to Blackmane, Two to beam up."
Kolas and the away team watched as Willis and Riker were beamed back to the ship.
"Something's not right down there." Riker said as soon as the transport cycle finished.
"Tell me about it, but until Joe and Geordi find something we have no idea what."
They walked out of the transporter room and on to the turbolift.
"Bridge." Willis said. The turbolift got underway as soon as he had finished.
"You think the asteroid's have something to do with this?" Asked Riker.
"Joe seems to think so, he's right about the crater that asteroid made, it should have been bigger."
Willis stepped out into the bridge and said, "Commander, report."
"We scanned the system and have found no Dominion activity. The Asteroid field at the edge of the system has stopped expelling asteroids for now but our scans show that it may start again in sixteen hours or so."
"Sixteen hours?" Willis asked, "It looks like I have some time to relax, Commander you have the bridge."
Willis turned back towards the turbolift and stepped inside.
"Deck ten."
The door to Ten Forward opened and Captain Willis walked inside.
He sat on a stool at the bar and waited for the bartender to came over to him.
"What would you like captain?" The short man behind the bar asked.
"I'll have a cup of tea." Willis answered.
"Anything else sir?"
"No that'll be all for now."
"I'll be back in a minute."
Willis looked around the room. In the corner of the room was a pool table with a red baize.
"It took me an age to fine another one." A voice behind Willis said.
Willis turned round as soon as he recognised the voice, the Parowan bartender smiled as Willis spun round.
"It's good to see you again Re'Karl." Willis said.
"Good to see you too Paul." Re'Karl said passing Willis his tea, "Not having something to eat?"
"Not just yet, fancy a game?" He asked looking back at the table.
"Why not, need to put all that practise to use." She said smiling.
In the deep of space a Dominion ship sat behind the hulk of the Exeter, The ship was about three times the size of the Galaxy class starship but remained unseen. The Vorta in charge watched the Exeter as it spun slowly in space covering the Retaliation.
"Communication coming in, Vorta." The Jem'Hadar second said.
"Thank you." On the Vorta's eye piece another Vorta appeared, it was Borath, the leader of the Dominion reengineering Project until the Founder in charge could be revived.
"Is phase two on target?" Borath asked.
"Yes the Jem'Hadar should have all finished in three days, in fifteen hours phase two will be ready."
"Good, we have lost contact with the Aggressor, we can not afford lose any more ships until phase three is ready."
"Understood, Retaliation out."
On the Blackmane the night shift that just started, the command staff met up in ten forward at 23:00 hours, Captain Willis was already there, playing pool with the Blackmanes' barkeeper. Willis and Re'Karl walked over to the command staff and sat down at the table.
"Anything to report commander?" Willis asked as he sat down.
"Nothing as yet Sir."
"That's good and bad really." Willis said, taking a drink of his beer.
Toral looked at Willis and then to Riker, she saw the same look on their faces.
"What is it Paul?" She asked.
"Something about this system is bothering me. I just can't place my finger on it."
Toral turned to Milos, "Any idea?"
"No, Morrowans are a very hard race to read for even the best Betazoids."
Willis smiled, "It's nothing personal Counsellor."
"Your not going to tell us are you Paul?" Asked Lazarus.
"You'll know as soon as I do, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to get some sleep."
Willis lifted himself off his seat and walked out of ten forward.
Toral looked at the rest of the senior staff, "Damn that man."
Captains Log stardate 321885.4. After almost a day in the Polaris system, we've found nothing to explain the destruction of the Exeter other then the Dominion Warship we met at the edge of the system, but that seems unlikely as it was only a small vessel.
The Asteroid shower started again as Commander Toral thought and again they leave only small craters, something's wrong with it all and I intend to find out what.
Willis sat in his ready room when the chime sounded.
"Come."
The door opened as the Exeter's Captain walked in.
"Thank you for seeing me Captain." Captain Luella said, the Andorian sat down opposite Willis.
"Have you any idea what destroyed the Exeter." Willis asked.
"I've gone over as much sensor data as I could get my hands on. Because I wasn't on the bridge I missed most of the action." Luella continued, "It looks like it was a new Dominion warship that attacked us. It's like nothing we have on file but it's definitely Dominion in origin. I'll downloaded all the information I found into the Blackmane's database for you to review at your leisure."
"The USS Typhoon is on its way to take you and your crew back to Earth."
"Thank you again Captain, I'm sure you know how I'm feeling round about now."
Willis thought back to the Atlantis, as he sat on the bridge, Commander Toral beside him as they ran into the jaws of the Dominion, on their way to Cardassia. A spiral wave disrupter hit the ship as its shields failed, with most of the ships systems offline. Willis did what he had to do, he didn't like it but he gave the order to abandon ship, even so over three hundred crewmen died.
Willis shook the thought out of his head.
"Captain Willis are you all right?" Luella asked.
"Yeah, sorry my mind was somewhere else."
"I see."
"Is there anything else?"
"No."
"Ok dismissed."
Luella stood up and walked out the door. Willis walked over to the model of the Atlantis that he kept near his desk.
"A good Captain, a good crew, but most of all a great ship. Dead before her time." He said to himself.
Milner swore as he punched the asteroid in front of him. He and La Forge had been working on it for over 20 hours and still had nothing. They couldn't scan more then two inches past the surface of the rock and nothing had been able the cut through it ether. La Forge walked over to Milner. "Any ideas Joe?" he asked looking at his tricorder for the hundredth time in the last ten minutes.
"None, other then firing a Quantum torpedo at it" Joe said sitting on a chair next to the one working computer console.
"If this goes on any longer that may be a good idea" La Forge meant it as a joke, but began to think it was the only way to open it.
Milner began to pace again, trying to think of something else but couldn't.
He looked at La Forge and felt embarrassed, one of the greatest engineers in Starfleet history was standing next to him and he was getting all uptight, he wasn't setting the best example of his work.
"Come on, we'll head back to the Blackmane and get some sleep, we'll be able to think better afterwards," La Forge said, looking at the PADD in his hands again.
"Yeah ok, that's a good idea." Milner said as he tapped his comm badge, "Milner to Blackmane, Two to beam up."
Willis looked at the screen in front of him, on it was the sensor records that Milner and La Forge had given him. His face blank as he watched the data on the screen, nothing looking like it shouldn't be there. He switched the screen off and walked onto the bridge.
"Report." He said dropping into his seat.
"Nothing to report sir, Mr Milner and Mr La Forge have still got nothing on that comet." Toral said.
"Great, it's like looking for a needle in a hay stack." Willis said, shaking his head.
"Sorry Captain?" Toral asked.
"It's nothing, an old earth saying thats all."
Behind them the turbolift doors opened and Riker stepped out, taking up a position at one of the science consoles.
"You got anything Will?" Willis asked.
"Not a thing."
Butler turned to the command area as his console bleeped.
"Communication coming in from Starbase 663 Captain."
"On screen."
The viewscreen in front of them sprang to life. A Starfleet Admiral filling the screen, somewhere behind him a console exploded, the Starbase was under attack.
"This is Admiral Stiles to any Starfleet vessel in the area, we under attack by the Dominion. The Station cannot last much longer we need you..." The Admiral was cut-off as the comm-link spluttered and died.
"Get that back Mr Butler." Willis ordered.
"It's no good Captain I cannot reconnect the link, the Dominion must have destroyed the station's comm systems."
Willis looked at Toral then at Riker, he made his decision.
"Willis to all away teams, return to the Blackmane on the double." He said as he tapped his comm badge, "Helm set course for Starbase 663, maximum warp."
"Aye sir." Said the Ensign manning the Helm.
Starbase 663 never stood a chance, The Dominion Ships attacked without warning. Six Warships larger then anything the Federation had seen during the war, the other thing that helped to worry the Federation officers a second before they died was that the ships was cloaked. What little that the stations data recorders picked up wasn't a lot.
"Admiral we have something on sensors, wait it's gone. Sorry sir, guess it was a problem with the system." The Ensign was young, fresh from the Academy and it was easy to see, he had no experience in the real world.
"Run another sweep to be sure Ensign."
"Yes Sir!" The boy was a little over eager to save face, he almost missed the signs of a ship decloaking near them.
"Sir! We have a ship decloaking 200km from our position. Sir it's Dominion!"
"What, the Dominion don't have cloak technology." A second later he was pitched forward as the Starbase was hit by heavy weapons fire.
"Well it looks like they do now sir."
"Open hailing frequencies. This is Admiral Stiles to any Starfleet vessel in the area, we under attack by the Dominion. The Station cannot last much longer we need you."
The recording cut off as the station was destroyed. Willis looked at his senior staff, the look of sorrow for fallen comrades was etched on each and no doubt on the senior staff of the other 9 ships that had heard the call and changed course.
"I guess the Dominion has a few more tricks up their sleeves then we thought." La Forge said.
"They could be sat right next to us and we'd never know." Milner was a more then a little worried. Willis knew how he felt it was a little difficult to think clearly with that hanging over your head.
"Do we have any way of detecting them?" Toral asked.
"No, the station was unable to get accurate reading of the ships before it's destruction so we have no idea if the cloak can be penetrated." Haines offered.
" That says maybe but we need to do something and fast, they could be sat outside and we'd never know until it was to late." Willis looked out the window.