Star Trek: Odyssey: Where Angels Fear to Tread

Captain's Log: Stardate: 57900.2. The Alexandria is currently stationed Betazed along with the rest of the ninth fleet consisting of one hundred and twelve starships. We are waiting for the final ships to arrive before we head off to Starbase 211. I have been placed in charge of the fleet and am awaiting orders to go against the Terran Empire.

Allensworth sat in his ready room going over ship reports. It really wasn't the fact that he was bored; it was more due to the fact that it was monotonous. He leaned back in his chair and let out a long sigh. He stood up and stared out the window. He stared at the Betazoid home world. It looked so much like Earth from orbit as well as on the surface. Normally, he'd allow a bit of shore leave while in orbit but due to the fact that there was a war going on, he couldn't take the chance of being caught like that. Just then the intercom kicked on.

"Captain, the Oregon, Rabin, and the Cheyenne have arrived." Sparhawk said.

"On my way, Commander."

Elsewhere, the doors to Hoshi Sato's quarters opened, then closed, they opened and then closed again. They opened and an arm appeared but was pulled back into the room and the doors closed once again. The doors opened again and Dustin and Hoshi walked out of her quarters. As soon as they stepped out, they saw Ensign Stull walking by. The two turned a bit red and straightened their posture to show a more professional form. The ensign wasn't stupid, she knew better than that. She just nodded to the two of them.

"Commanders." She said with a nod.

"Ensign." Sato and Zofchak said in unison.

Michelle turned the corner and headed down the corridor while Dustin and Hoshi headed for the turbo lift. The doors opened and they entered the turbo lift. They saw that Commander Merriell was also in there, more than likely on his way to the bridge as well. At first, the trip to the bridge was silent, until Alex broke the silence.

"You might want to zip up your turtleneck."

Dustin felt the collar of his yellow undershirt and realized that it was in fact unzipped. Hoshi noticed that Dustin turned a bit red when he zipped it up. Merriell smiled as he faced forward as the lift came to a halt.

The doors opened and the three stepped on to the bridge. Hoshi sat down at her station as Dustin stood at the engineering console nearby. Alex was the last to step off. He stood next to Zofchak before proceeding to his station.

"So, you and Hoshi…"

"I have no comment." Dustin replied.

The two smiled at each other before Alex walked to his station. He sat down just as Allensworth walked out of the ready room.

Allensworth walked out onto the bridge and headed for his command chair. He looked at who was stationed at Navigation so that he wouldn't call out the wrong name and offend the officer.

"Lt. Moran, set a course for Starbase two eleven, maximum warp."

"Aye, sir." She said. "Course laid in."

"Hoshi, send a message to all ships 'we are moving out'."

"Aye, sir."

Before he was able to give the command to head out, another set of beeping filled the bridge.

"Sir," Merriell said. "We've got multiple ships coming in at one eight four mark five nine two."

"What?"

Just then the ship was rocked by multiple torpedo hits. The navigation console exploded, sending Moran to the floor.

"Christine, take the helm. Get us out of orbit."

Christine Nycz jumped out of her chair and got to the navigation station as fast as she could.

The Alexandria left orbit and performed evasive maneuvers to avoid more torpedoes and phaser fire.

"Report."

"We have a fleet of Terran ships consisting of two hundred starships."

"They outnumber us two to one." Sparhawk said.

"Looks like that each of us will have to destroy two ships a piece." Allensworth said. "Lock on to the nearest Terran ship and fire."

Admiral Tracy stood in her office going over reports from the different departments from within the starbase. She picked up her cup of coffee and took a small sip of it thinking it was going to be hot. A lot more time had passed than what she had realized because her hot coffee was now ice cold. She damn near spit it out but held back the urge so that she didn't spit it all over the carpet or her desk. She forced her self to drink it and then took the cup back to the replicator. She wasn't sure if she really wanted to get another cup since it might be awhile before she was able to take another drink and then she'd be in the same boat again. She watched the cup dematerialize in the replicator before turning back to her desk. As soon as she turned, there was a chime at her door.

"Come in."

The door opened revealing Lieutenant Commander Nate Littleton. He was in the command division and was practically an aide to the Admiral.

"What is it, Commander?" She asked.

"Sir, we just received word from the ninth fleet."

"The ninth fleet? Weren't they in orbit around Betazed and on their way here?"

"Yes, sir. They were attacked by Terran forces before leaving Betazed. Only thirteen ships made it, sir."

"Thirteen? Out of a hundred and twelve."

"And there's more, sir."

"More?"

"The Terran Empire has taken Betazed."