Uneasy Alliances


Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Paramount owns Star trek and I derive no financial gain from this story.
Summary: The crew of the U.S.S. Argo , under the command of Captain
Jonathan Soma is ordered to rendezvous with a mysterious party in a remote section of space for a mission that may lead both Soma and his crew into the hands of an enemy.

Chapter 1

The starship Argo had remained motionless for twelve hours after arriving in the Dynarius Cluster. She had received orders, from Starfleet Command, to proceed at maximum warp to the coordinates supplied and then to await further instructions. No explanation given. No further information supplied.

"Mr. Beltane?" said the man in the center command chair, addressing the ship's science officer.

Beltane, a senior lieutenant in a blue Starfleet tunic with a full red beard he wore to cover his boyish features, looked up from his instruments. The expression on his face almost made it appear as though he had just been startled. In truth, like the rest of the crew, he was simply getting tired of waiting and watching for nothing.

"Still nothing, captain," replied Beltane, shaking his head. "If they're out there, then they're damn good at hiding…begging your pardon, sir."

Captain Soma shook his head as he shifted in his seat. "It's all right, lieutenant. We're all getting a little tired of this waiting game that Starfleet has sent us on."

"I just don't understand," said a woman, seated in front of Soma. Lieutenant Commander Allysa Vemanova, the ship's navigator and first officer, turned around in her chair, looking at Soma. "Why all the secrecy. There's nothing out here worth keeping quiet about."

Soma smiled at the dark haired navigator. She never was one for mysteries. He had often wondered why she even joined Starfleet if she had no sense of the mysterious. He had finally come out and asked her point blankly. Her response had always amused him. Where else can I pilot the fastest, most technically advanced ships in the galaxy!

"Allysa, where we are may hold little interest for the rest of the galaxy," smiled Soma, "but who we're supposed to meet is another matter."

"So it's a person?" asked a voice from an aft bridge station.

Soma glanced back. Tav, his Tellerite Security Chief, was leaning with his back against a bulkhead, his red Starfleet tunic hugging against his ample frame. Tav was the first Tellerite to graduate from Starfleet Academy and Soma felt a special kinship with the man, as he had been the first Vulcan to graduate from that same illustrious institution.

"Undoubtedly," replied Soma. "Why else send us out here to wait, unless we're waiting for a rendezvous."

"Clever," replied Tav, humorously.

Soma gave him a small grin. "That's why I'm a captain."

"Ok," said Allysa. "So, if it's a person, then who?"

Soma gave the dark haired navigator a slight shrug. "If I knew that, I'd be an admiral."

"Hmmm, I'd give my next shore leave to know who our mystery person is," said the Tellerite, suspiciously. With Earth and Starfleet's heightened tension over the Romulans leading to what most in the fleet believed would be war and the recent first contact with the predatory Kzinti, the possibilities of who their contact could be proved both tantalizing and frightening. Tav was about to voice several possibiliies, when Ensign Calvert addressed Soma.

"Captain, I'm receiving a signal," said the stocky blonde man. Tav and Soma had been trying to get the Tom Calvert to transfer over to security. He had all the requirements for a first rate security officer, but the ensign had repeatedly declined, telling the captain and Tav that he was a 'communications officer…not a bully boy'.

"Source?" asked Soma, as he looked from Calvert to the still empty view screen.

"I can't get a lock, sir," answered the ensign, "But it's scrambled and encoded."

"On screen ensign," said Soma, adjusting his posture and straightening his gold tunic for good measure.

"Aye, sir," replied Calvert. "Coming through."

The view screen shimmered as the image of empty space was replaced by the face of a woman. Soma's brow shot up. She was remarkably beautiful. Hauntingly so, but it wasn't her beauty, which had caused Soma's reaction; it was her deep blue skin and pure white hair which culminated at the top of her head with to slender antennae. Andorians!

"Captain Soma," said the woman, "I am Sub-Lieutenant Thala of the Andorian Imperial Guard."

"I take it you're the person who we've been requested to meet, sub-lieutenant."

"No, Captain," the woman responded, in an icy tone. "I am escorting the person you have been ordered to rendezvous with."

Soma noted the stress she gave to the word "ordered" as if the person in question were the Andorian regent himself. "Well sub-lieutenant, my crew and I are here…we've been waiting for twelve hours…why don't you drop the pretense and tell us exactly who it is we came all this way for."

Thala glared at Soma. The Vulcan captain annoyed her; that much was plain. For Soma's part he gave the Andorian woman a congenial smile, which seemed to only increase her annoyance. Glancing off screen, she nodded her head and slowly stepped out of the frame of the viewer. Within a few moments another Andorian replaced her. This one was clearly a male and much older than the sub-lieutenant. His skin was the traditional deep powder blue of all Andorians, but it was wrinkled and worn from a lifetime of activity. He moved with a slight limp that further belied his age or possibly some old battle wound.

"It's good to see you again, Captain Soma," smiled the elderly Andorian. "It's been a while."

Soma's brow furrowed as the Andorian greeted him. He recognized the man immediately. And he was correct; it had been a long time, but for Soma, not long enough.

"Shran."