ENDEAVOUR NCC-194

The Daedalus Incident

Chapter One

October 30, 2164

Captain William Drake was awoken by the sound of the comm whistle piercing the silence of his quarters. Usually, nothing was guaranteed to put the captain in a bad mood quite so fast as being dragged out of bed at crazy hours of the night, but this morning he wasn't complaining. He had been released from a very disturbing dream, in which a maliciously grinning Alex had been chasing him through the bloodstained corridors of the Endeavour. Weird. Alex Nain had never featured in his dreams before, in any manner, and his friend wasn't like the person he had dreamed about. She wasn't a saint, she was often temperamental and violent, but dream-Alex had been downright evil.

He was glad to be awake, and back in a sane world.

"Captain," the clearly enunciated voice of Comm Officer Marcus Sturnn came from the speakers. "We have a hail for you from Starfleet Command. Real-time transmission, sir."

That caught the captain's attention. This far into deep space, real-time communications were impossible without the use of very powerful subspace amplifiers; an expensive thing. Communiqués between the admiralty and the ships of the fleet were sent as recorded messages, unless the orders were particularly vital or sensitive.

The kind of orders that Endeavour had never received.

He wrapped a dressing gown around himself and sat at his simple metal desk. The computer screen glowed with the default screen of the Federation seal. As usual, Drake contemplated replacing it with the ship's mission crest, or the Starfleet emblem, or a nice picture of home, or maybe a pretty starscape, like the one they had spent most of last month staring at while the science team did their scanning. He wasn't a supporter of the United Federation of Planets. It was, in his opinion, a doomed idea.

He pressed the comm toggle on the desk and instructed, "Pipe it down here."

"Aye, sir."

It took a moment for Sturnn to relay the signal, and then the square headed Admiral Duncan Rose appeared on the captain's monitor, looking more fatigued than Drake had seen him in years. He was surprised to see it, and surprised to see Rose at all. He reported to Admiral McCaffrey on Starbase Two, and he could tell that this was more than a casual call. What did Rose want with him?

"Admiral."

"Captain. Sorry to wake you at this hour, but we have a serious situation. The Daedalus has disappeared."

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"Disappeared?" Repeated Alex Nain.

The senior staff were gathered in the briefing room, dragged from their beds by the anxious captain. It was less than an hour since he had finished receiving his briefing from Admiral Rose, and already the Endeavour was tearing through subspace towards the Klingon border. Drake had already thoroughly briefed Commander Tholiar, and the Andorian woman was holding the centre chair in his absence, while he brought the rest of the officers up to speed.

"Disappeared," Drake told her again. "Starfleet lost all contact with the ship approximately fourteen hours ago. Even her IFF beacon's gone silent. Tracking and Communication has made several attempts to re-establish contact, but either nothing's got through or they're unable to respond. Starfleet has ordered us to investigate."

"Weren't we in the middle of a very important nebula survey?"

"This is no time for jokes."

Alex shrugged. "We're in deep space. Ships go missing all the time. The Shenandoah fell off the map last month."

"That's true," admitted Drake. "But it's the location and the timing of Daedalus' disappearance that has got Starfleet worried. Captain Matsura was on a routine patrol of the Klingon border when we lost contact."

Now Alex understood the seriousness of the situation. "Does Starfleet think the Klingons are responsible?"

"They're not ruling it out." The officers took that as a diplomatic way of saying 'yes'.

"Maybe they're not," Kana's voice whispered in her head, "but you should be. Klingons are a warrior people. If they had destroyed your little toy ship they would be loudly trumpeting it across the galaxy."

"They're not," Alex mentally finished, "so someone else took Daedalus."

Lieutenant Brok, the only Bolian aboard the ship, decided to speak before Alex could open her mouth again. He had served with the human long enough to know to get his queries in during her pauses for breath. "What's our assignment?"

"We're rendezvousing with the Helios, Icarus, Patton and Grant at our outpost on VX-41. From there, we're to proceed to the last known location of the Daedalus and begin our search."

"Three Daedalus-class ships and a pair of Phoboses?" Alex's thin red eyebrows knit above her equally fiery eyes. "Starfleet is worried, isn't it?"

"Show of force," said Drake. "Whether the Klingons are responsible or not, we want to show them that the loss of the Daedalus doesn't weaken Starfleet. We won't let them take advantage of the situation."

"And if they did do it, we're gonna blow up a few of their ships in retaliation?"

"Something like that," the captain agreed.

"I like the idea of attacking the Klingons," Brok said cautiously, "but we're not in good shape for battle. Endeavour's been on scientific duty from the day we launched. We're carrying a hundred science personnel, and we've got more probes in the torpedo bay than torpedoes."

Captain Drake had raised this point with the admiral, and he was pleased to reassure his tactical officer, "All non-Starfleet science personnel are being offloaded at VX-41."

"Sarn too?" Asked Alex, hoping that the answer would be no.

"Yes."

Alex swore and didn't care who heard. The Vulcan exchange officer was a good friend of hers. She didn't like the idea of leaving her behind on an outpost while they went into action. That's what she told herself, anyway. The truth was simpler: she didn't want to be without her friend.

Drake ignored his helmsman's anger and continued: "Our torpedo supplies are being restocked. We're taking on additional engineers, security officers, and an SMC squad. Starfleet engineers are waiting to overhaul our shield grid in preparation for heavy combat."

Brok nodded. "That's what I like to hear."

"Me too."

Alex flicked an angry look over her shoulder, not caring if anyone saw and thought her strange. "Anything that makes you happy I know is bad news." Out loud, she added, "How long will that overhaul take?"

"A couple of days with our people assisting in the work. But I needn't remind you all," Drake warned, "that even fitted for combat, a Daedalus-class ship isn't a match for a Klingon dreadnought. Our intelligence puts at least two of those behemoths in the sector around VX-41."

The officers nodded solemnly. The Klingons might not be the brightest race in the galaxy, but they had resources aplenty and they built powerful warships. It was why the Federation had worked so hard to maintain the fragile peace with its neighbour. Any war with the Klingons would devastate half the galaxy, leaving billions dead and the victor (whichever side that may be) decimated. The Federation especially couldn't afford another conflict, so soon after the Romulan War.

This meant that even if the Klingons had destroyed the Daedalus, Drake would have to limit his response to try and avoid a war.

"Remember, at this juncture this is a search and rescue mission, and it remains so until we have definite proof that the Daedalus has been destroyed. I think that's all for now. Dismissed."

The officers filed out of the briefing room one by one, until just two remained. Alex lounged back in her chair, her feet up on the smooth black table, watching her friend intently. He poured himself a mug of coffee from the pot in the middle of the table and told her gently, "Dismissed generally means leave, Alex."

"That's in that rule book, right? I really should read that one day."

"Probably," he agreed, taking a seat opposite her. "Okay, what's on your mind?"

"Just an idle curiosity," she promised. "McCaffrey hates us, and always has. He'd have us delivering post around the quadrant, if the FPS wouldn't lynch him for it. So why'd he give us this important assignment?"

"He didn't." Drake swigged his lukewarm coffee.

"Some elaboration on that statement would be nice."

"Admiral Rose gave us the job."

She hunted through her memories, but couldn't recall ever having heard of an admiral by that name before. Silently, she asked, "Any idea who that is?"

"Not a one."

"Who…?"

"Rose is a friend. He was our admiral when Matsura and I were aboard Kyoto. Along with McCaffrey."

"Ah," she understood. "You're the only man he trusts with this job."

"Something like that, perhaps."

Alex remembered Drake telling her about Hiro Matsura, the current captain of Daedalus. She had rarely heard him talk so affectionately about anyone, and it concerned her. "Don't take this the wrong way, Will, but I wonder if you're the right man for this. Hiro's a friend of yours."

"You're worried I won't be able to act professionally; that my personal feelings might cloud my judgement."

She just shrugged. He knew what her concerns were; there was no need for her to spell them out.

"This isn't the first time I've been in this situation, Alex. And I've got you to keep an eye out for me, haven't I?" He smiled affectionately.

"He trusts you to be the sensible one? He's doomed!"

Alex scratched the back of her head, looking uncertain. "You know, I think you've got a point."

"Pardon?"

Did I say that out loud? She thought urgently. Damn, I think I did! Idiot! She mentally kicked herself, and hastily blurted, "Oh? I was just thinking, maybe I'm not the best choice for the responsible one. Shouldn't Tholiar be keeping an eye out for you? Isn't that the XO's job?"

"Tholiar doesn't know me as well as you do," he told her reasonably.

"Yeah…"

"What's up, Alex?"

She shuffled in her chair, uncomfortably, like a schoolgirl asked to explain her actions to the teacher. "I hate responsibility. You know that."

"I know that. That's why you turned down Nwabudike's offer, isn't it?"

Nwabudike Lal, Drake's friend and captain of the Intrepid, was going to have to replace his first officer at the beginning of the next year, and he had offered the position to Alex.

"I'm still considering it," she replied, a little coldly.

Drake was surprised. Although he agreed with Nwabudike that Alex had the brains and the ability to be a first officer, he could never imagine her in the position. She honestly hated responsibility and wasn't good at delegating. She did not believe that anyone could do a job as well as she could.

"What's really up?"

"Just worried, that's all."

Drake laughed. "You think I wasn't worried when you decided to take on the whole Orion Syndicate? I'll tell you what you told me: trust me. I won't do anything crazy."

"He probably won't," Kana agreed. "That's really more your forte."

"You're being really supportive today, aren't you?"

"Try to be."