TREK WARS ENCOUNTERS

Part One: Ghost Ship

Chapter 1

Ominous visitor

The Galaxy class starship Camelot looked beautiful against the nebula. She was on a patrol mission, watching over a region of space on the edge of the Alpha quadrant. Though this area of space was beautiful, as well as important due to its various ore and mineral deposits, the Riker nebula was too far outside of occupied space to be vital to the war against the Imperial-Borg Alliance. Still, though, Command felt that a patrol was warranted to protect the miners and the few colonists in the area. So the Camelot had been assigned to the sector a few months before. And, naturally, the crew was bored.

"So, what have we to do today in the Riker nebula Commander?" Captain John Arthur asked of his executive officer, Commander Anne Guinevere.

"Just the usual sir," she replied. "Cortes colony has asked us to mediate a dispute, our long range sensor buoy number three has picked up some anomalous readings, and we've received an update on the state of the war from the Federation News Network subspace net."

"Patch through the news," Arthur commanded.

"Aye sir, patching through," the communications officer complied.

An FNN logo appeared on the screen, and was then replaced by the face of Jake Sisko, the senior reporter for FNN.

"Greetings citizens of the Alliance, this is Jake Sisko with the state of the war today. In the Arkanis sector of the Echo Galaxy, the siege of Geonosis is progressing well. The Borg until recently had control of the old separatist droid factories on the planet, and rumor has it that they had planned to reactivate them to produce a new form of war droid. However, the MACO SpecOps Shark squad managed to stop them and destroy the factory, though not without cost. Colonel Sawyer, the Commanding officer of the Shark squad, sacrificed himself, along with one other member of the squad, in order to allow the other four members to escape. Another member was killed on the way out, and one more later died of injury on the way off planet.

"The two surviving members of Shark squad, Doctor Jocelyn McCoy and Alex Michaels, are to be honored next week with the Alliance Eagle medal, the highest honor that can be bestowed upon an officer, created specifically for this and similar future occasions. Present at the private ceremony will be the heads of state of all Alliance member states, as well as representatives of various affiliated groups, such as the Empire of the Hand. For security reasons, only military officers, friends, and family of the two, and one civilian press member will be allowed at the ceremony.

"In other news, a Klingon Diplomatic team is to meet with the Gorn Hegemony today to discuss negotiations for a ceasefire between the two. The skirmish between them is, according to the Klingon and Gorn Ambassadors, unrelated to the war at large, and Alliance mediators have been asked not to interfere with their peace talks. General Worf, an old friend of mine, states that in light of Borg incursion on both Klingon and Gorn space, the Klingons may be willing to temporarily cease all hostilities with the Gorn, if they will reciprocate in kind, at least for now.

"Also-we-the-." The transmission was suddenly cut off.

"What happened Lieutenant?" the Captain asked the Communications Officer.

"We've lost the transmission sir," she said as she made adjustments to her board. "There seems to be some interference coming from…" she was cut off by a sudden shrill alarm going off.

"Proximity alert Captain!" the security officer shouted as a massive triangular object appeared onscreen in front of them.

"An Imperial Star Destroyer!" Commander Guinevere stated.

"Red Alert!" the Captain commanded, and immediately the lights on the bridge lowered and the proximity alert alarm turned into a ship wide klaxon as the crew manned their battle stations.

"What are they doing way out here?" asked Lieutenant Commander Gawain, the operations officer.

"Are they allies or Imps?" the Captain inquired.

"Unknown sir, their transponder is not transmitting," Gawain replied. And our encrypted transmissions are not being answered."

"Can we scan them, or are their shields blocking us?"Guinevere asked.

"Yes and no," Gawain answered. "Scans report their shields are down, but we can't penetrate their hull."

"Any signs of fighter activity?" Arthur asked Lieutenant Jim Lance, the chief of security.

"Negative sir," Lance replied. "In fact, there is no sign of any activity at all from the Destroyer."

"I can probably magnify the view enough to make out any signs of physical markings or alterations of the hull, see if it's one of ours or an Imp, or even an independent warlord or something," the science officer offered."

"Do it," Arthur commanded.

The scientist leaned over her console and made some adjustments to the forward visual sensors, and a magnified view of the Destroyer appeared, going from a dark shape illuminated mostly by the nebula to a brighter, but still mostly dark, grey. The crew could now see that the Destroyers systems were still functioning, as the lights were still working. However, there was no sign of activity and no markings were readily visible. Also, no alterations to the standard Destroyer profile could be observed from the outside.

"Can we get a magnified view of their bridge?" Guinevere asked.

The science officer consulted her console. "I think so," she answered.

"Do it," Arthur ordered. Suddenly they saw the Destroyer's forward viewport. And inside the bridge was- nothing. The lights were on, and they could barely see the consoles flickering for attention in the background. But the bridge was utterly deserted.

"Where are they?" the Captain asked, voicing the question of everyone on the bridge. "Can we send an away team over Gawain?"

"Well, we can't beam over because of the sensor block, but we could send a shuttle into their fighter bay," Gawain replied.

"Put together a team commander, and include MACOs and a fighter escort," the Captain ordered. "I want answers!"

"Aye sir," Guinevere acknowledged as she stood. "Lance, Aros, with me. Have Major Ryan and his team meet us in the shuttlebay, and tell Captain Thompson to ready her fighter to launch."

The turbolift doors closed behind the three bridge officers as it sped off to the shuttlebay.