SECTION ONE
PROLOGUE
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Former commander of the USS Enterprise, Captain James T. Kirk threw his bags on his bed and looked around the familiar room. He picked up the copy of his orders, and glanced at it again. "I hate mysteries," he said. Kirk flung the orders onto his desk.
"Computer, record personal log entry," he said, pacing the room.
"Recording."
"Five months ago, the Enterprise completed her last assignment and was ordered to return to Earth for refit and reassignment. After five years in space, many of the crew, myself included, were looking forward to accumulated leave time, plus the extra six months Starfleet Command had promised them.
"Two weeks ago, Admiral Nogura finally convinced me to accept promotion to Admiral. Not that he gave me much choice, other than to resign or accept the promotion and assignment in Admiral Ciana's office. A promotion and assignment that won't be effective for another month.
"At our meeting he made it quite clear I would not be getting command of the Enterprise when her refit was completed. Now, I find myself back on the Enterprise, the crew recalled, and the only orders I have are to report to Admiral Cartwright's office at eight hundred tomorrow morning. Something's not adding up here, and I don't like it. End log."
"Recorded."
Kirk grinned as he looked around his quarters again. "Oh well," he said. "It can't be too bad; I'm back on the Enterprise."
.
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CHAPTER ONE
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"Good morning, Madeleine." Kirk smiled at the auburn haired secretary sitting at the desk. "I believe Admiral Cartwright is expecting me."
"Good morning, Captain." The secretary returned the smile with a polite nod. "Please have a seat in the conference room. The Admiral will be in shortly."
"Thank you."
"Ramsey, I was expecting you here five minutes ago. Where are you?" Kirk could hear Cartwright's voice coming from the adjoining office. He glanced at the door to the office and noticed it was being propped open by a piece of wood that had apparently fallen off the shelf next to it.
"You're teaching a weapon's class?" There was a long pause. "Did you forget we had a meeting scheduled for this morning?" Cartwright was shouting now.
"I know I told you about this meeting. Reschedule the class and report to my office immediately!"
Kirk glanced around the plain, sparsely decorated conference room. The only break in the spartan appearance was the collection of driftwood on the shelves around the room and the view of San Francisco Bay from the large picture window. At the sound of the door behind him closing, Kirk turned away from his contemplation of the Golden Gate Bridge to see Admiral Cartwright entering. The Admiral picked up the wood blocking the door and carefully placed it back on the shelf.
"Good morning, James," Cartwright said.
"Good morning, Sir."
"Another person will be joining us shortly. However, since I have quite a bit I need to discuss with you, we'll start without her," Cartwright said as he took a seat. He motioned to one of the other chairs. "The Enterprise's refit has been postponed and all available crew have been recalled. Unfortunately, like yourself, a large percentage were on leave."
"Sir, if I may ask?"
Cartwright nodded.
"What kind of mission are we talking about?" Kirk wasn't the type to back down from an assignment, but the Enterprise was scheduled for refit. The crew was scattered; most still on much needed and deserved leave. Some had recently reported to new assignments. It was going to take something serious to justify upsetting schedules this much.
"James, you and your crew are the only ones I trust to carry out this assignment." Cartwright looked up as another person came into the room.
"Commodore Ramsey, reporting as ordered," she said.
The Commodore stood at rigid attention, not bothering to fix the strands of hair hanging in her face. Her face was wet and Kirk suspected she had run here from where she was instead of transporting.
Cartwright stiffened at her entrance. "Captain James Tiberius Kirk, I'd like you to meet Commodore Kelli Jolynda Ramsey."
"Commodore." Kirk stood and extended his hand. He was surprised by the strength of her grip and the rough calluses he felt on her hand.
Kirk frowned as he studied her. There was something familiar about the Commodore. Ramsey had a dark olive complexion and sharp aquiline features. She wasn't what most men would call beautiful, but he would definitely call her handsome. Her long black hair was pulled back in a ponytail that hung to her waist.
Kirk's gaze was drawn to her eyes. Eyes that were hard and defiant, but with a hint of mischief, and the same clear brilliant green as the Jaderian seas. He was surprised to realize he was looking up into her face. Despite the power he had felt in Ramsey's handshake, she was not a muscular woman. She was taller than he was, with a well-proportioned athletic build accented by the tight sapphire colored jumpsuit she was wearing.
"Is there a problem, Captain?" Ramsey asked with a slight frown.
"I'm sorry, but you look familiar." Kirk offered her a warm smile.
"Accepted." She released Kirk's hand and assumed a parade rest position.
"Have a seat," Cartwright said.
"I prefer to stand," Ramsey said.
Kirk glanced at the Commodore then turned his attention back to Cartwright. From the looks these two were giving each other, he knew he didn't want to be caught in the middle of whatever was going on. If looks could kill, he thought.
"Ramsey, sit down," Cartwright ordered.
The Commodore snapped to attention, walked stiffly to the chair next to Kirk's and sat down. As she did, she reached up and tucked the loose strands of hair behind her ears.
Admiral Cartwright took a deep breath then turned his attention back to Kirk. "James, I'm sorry, but I can think of no easy way to put this so I'll just say it. Commodore Ramsey will be taking command of the Enterprise. However, I will be placing you on board for a while as an observer."
"What?" both Kirk and Ramsey said together.
"What are you trying to pull now, Cartwright?" Ramsey jumped out of her chair and leaned on the table. "You told me I was being assigned to the Excalibur after her repairs were completed. Why are those orders being changed without notice?"
"Admiral, why was my crew recalled if you're only going to be placing another commander on the Enterprise?" Kirk asked.
"James," Cartwright said, ignoring Ramsey. "I had to put a crew together on short notice. Your crew was available, with the exception of Commander Spock. The sensible course was to issue the recall."
"The sensible course doesn't include changing my assignment from the Excalibur to the Enterprise!" Ramsey interrupted. "If a crew was needed on short notice why replace Captain Kirk?" She leaned closer to Admiral Cartwright, her tightly clenched fists resting on the table.
Cartwright slapped the table with both hands and rose halfway out of his chair. "At ease!"
Ramsey stepped back, her eyes never leaving Cartwright. "By leaving the crew intact, you are creating a problem for me. Part of the reason the Enterprise has the reputation she does is because of the rapport that exists between Captain Kirk and his crew. If he and I disagree on something, it will be reflected in the crew's performance." Her voice was now controlled, but her stance was rigid and her knuckles were white.
"You're out of line!" Cartwright rose out of his chair to meet Ramsey's glare. "Your objections are noted, but that outburst was completely uncalled for. I will not tolerate such behavior. Get your gear together then report back here ready to transport up to the Enterprise. Dismissed!"
Ramsey spun on her heel and stormed out of the office without saluting or otherwise acknowledging the Admiral.
Kirk watched the Commodore leave the room, then turned back to the Admiral. Why didn't Cartwright answer her objections? She raised legitimate concerns, even if she was hotheaded about it.
"Well, what do you think of your assignment?" Cartwright asked as Kirk watched Ramsey leave the room.
"You're serious!" Kirk said, turning back to face the Admiral. "She's my assignment? What am I supposed to do? Seduce her or assassinate her?"
"Whichever works. Seriously, I want you to watch her. I have reason to suspect she's a Klingon agent."
"You've got to be kidding! Why would you be giving her command of a starship? In particular why are you giving her the Enterprise?"
"Calm down." Cartwright picked a computer tape up off his desk. "Here." He tossed Kirk the tape. "That's Ramsey's Starfleet record. Study it. I want you to learn everything you can about her. You'll notice her medical records show her to have genetic traits in common with Klingons." Cartwright frowned.
"There is nothing suspicious in her record until after her time as First Officer on the Excalibur. She served with Captain Warren Kraus until his death in a battle with the Klingons. Ramsey assumed temporary command, and her annual physical was completed shortly thereafter. There were some discrepancies in her psychological testing, but Starfleet Medical attributed them to stress." Cartwright paused again.
"Sir, I still don't understand. Why are you giving her a command if she's under suspicion? And, in particular, why are you giving her the Enterprise?" Kirk asked.
"Let's just say, I want to give her enough rope to hang herself with. Admiral Nogura wants evidence, and I don't have any—yet," Cartwright said.
"James, I'm counting on you to get me the evidence I need to prove Ramsey is a Klingon agent. If this goes well, I might even be able to sidetrack that promotion to Admiral for you. Do I make myself clear?"
"Perfectly." Kirk looked at the computer tape and frowned.
"One other thing. Ramsey stormed out of here before I could give her this." The Admiral handed him a command packet. "That's her orders. Go ahead, take a look. There's nothing confidential in there."
Kirk glanced quickly at the orders. "An ambassadorial transport? That's the assignment? Sir, if that's all this assignment is, why the need to expose Ramsey now? Why couldn't you have waited until she took command of the Excalibur? Or for that matter, why couldn't you use another ship and crew? Recalling my crew off leave is a bit harsh for such a simple assignment."
"I know it seems that way, but I needed someone I could trust to do this. James, the Klingon Ambassador specifically requested to travel on the ship commanded by Commodore Kelli Ramsey. As a member of my staff, she has had access to the strategic and tactical defense plans for the Federation. In fact, she helped plan over ninety percent of the defense strategy for the systems bordering the Klingon Neutral Zone. With that in mind, can you understand why I need this done now?"
"The risk she may be planning to pass information to the Klingon Ambassador or even defecting is pretty high." Kirk felt some of his earlier aggravation start to fade.
"I'm glad we understand each other. Be careful." Cartwright tapped his desk intercom. "Madeleine, has Ramsey reported back yet?"
"No, Sir."
"Contact her, and let her know Captain Kirk will meet her at her quarters. They can beam up together."
"Yes, Sir." The intercom clicked off.
Cartwright stood up and extended his hand to Kirk. "Good luck and remember, I'm counting on you."
"Yes, Sir," Kirk said. He nodded to Cartwright, glanced up the shelf of wood by the door again then left the room.
#
"Jim, wait up," a voice called. Kirk turned to see Commodore Robert Wesley walking towards him.
"Bob," Kirk said, with a grin. "What's going on?"
"I was hoping you could tell me. I saw Kelli Ramsey come out of Cartwright's office a little while ago. She obviously wasn't a happy lady. I thought she was actually going to put her fist through that wall this time."
"This time?" Kirk glanced at the wall and thought he saw a slight dent in the surface, but knew the wall was stronger than that.
"I don't know what the deal is between those two, but at least three times a week I see Ramsey take a shot at the wall outside Cartwright's office. Can you tell me what their latest tiff was about?" Wesley asked.
"She was upset because Cartwright took the Excalibur away from her and gave her the Enterprise."
"Ouch! I can see that upsetting her...and you as well. You know Ramsey was assigned to the Excalibur straight out of the Academy and except for the last couple years, spent her entire career on that ship."
Kirk stopped and turned to face his friend. "You were on the Excalibur, before getting command of the Lexington. What's she really like? Her reputation says she's a rebel, with little respect for authority. That could be a description of any good starship captain. What else is there to Ramsey?"
"Kelli Ramsey is definitely a rebel. She's almost as bad as you, if not worse. From what I remember of her on the Excalibur, she's fiercely loyal to her people, arrogant and very hot-tempered.
"She's also one hell of an engineer. She went from an assistant engineer on the Excalibur to Chief Engineer in less than three years."
"That good?" Kirk asked, surprised.
"One of the best. I'd love to see her and Scotty working together." The Commodore started walking down the hallway again. "I tried to convince her to transfer to the Lexington when I took command, but she refused, preferring to stay on the Excalibur. To get even I recommended her to replace me as first officer," Wesley said, grinning.
"Thanks for the information, Bob. I'll see you around."
"See you later. I don't know what all was said in Cartwright's office, but I do know there's bad blood between those two. Don't let whatever happened in there influence your opinion of her." Wesley nodded then turned and left.
#
Standing in front of Ramsey's quarters, Kirk took a deep breath and rang the door chime.
"Come in."
"Admiral Cartwright told me to meet you here," Kirk said, looking around the room. There were a couple of bags on the bed, several shelves with books, and many miscellaneous items. A sharp almost metallic scent was in the air contrasting with the lilac perfume Ramsey was wearing.
Something crunched under his boot and Kirk looked down to see a thick layer of glass fragments on the floor around the door. He stepped carefully over the glass then looked back up at Ramsey. She was one of a small number of female officers he had ever seen wearing the pants and shirt instead of the dress. Her hair was still pulled back in the long ponytail. That hairstyle's not exactly within regulations, he thought.
"Would you like some help?" He glanced around again, not sure where to start.
"Thanks for the offer, but all I have left to pack is what's on that wall. No offense, but I normally don't let anyone else handle those," Ramsey said, offering him a soft smile.
Kirk looked at the wall. The Commodore had an impressive collection of weapons, representing many different worlds. On one of the blades hung a small figurine of a cat.
He looked at the tiny black cat and grinned. "How did you get all those cats into the Academy Commandant's Office?" he asked.
"Excuse me?" Ramsey said. She turned from the bag she was placing the weapons into to look at him, her head cocked slightly to the right.
"I finally figured out where I recognized you from. You're Kitty Kelli Ramsey. I was a plebe your senior year and I remember your senior prank. I'm curious as to how you got all those cats into the Commandant's office."
Ramsey laughed softly as she continued packing the weapons before answering. "I hid in the Commandant's office before he left that day and used the emergency transporter in the office to beam the cats in. I wiped the transporter log and got out of the office before the alarm systems activated. Pretty easy actually." She reached for the last weapon on the wall.
"That's a Klingon weapon isn't it?" he asked.
"Yes, it is. This is a bat'leth or Sword of Honor. I learned to use it as a challenge," Ramsey said, as she walked through a short demonstration.
Ramsey's movements flowed in a graceful, but deadly dance. She held the weapon lightly as she swept it through several elaborate patterns. The bat'leth reminded Kirk of a meter long two-ended scimitar. The Commodore controlled the weapon by two handholds located on the outside edge of the weapon.
He watched as Ramsey gently placed the weapon into its case. When she finished and turned to face him, he saw an expression of sadness on her face.
"Captain, I apologize for my attitude earlier. Cartwright and I always seem to bring out the worst in each other." She grinned. "It's a long story going back to when I was Captain of the Excalibur. Please, don't ask." Ramsey turned away from him and he heard her sigh deeply as she closed one of the bags.
"We've both been put in a bad position with this assignment," she said, turning back around. "Hell, I'm not even sure what the assignment is. Let's try and make the best of it?"
"I can agree with that, Commodore."
"Please, call me Kelli." Ramsey extended her hand.
"Jim." He smiled as he took her hand. "Before I forget, Admiral Cartwright gave me this for you." He handed her the command packet with her orders.
Ramsey opened the packet and scanned the orders inside. "What is this? An ambassadorial transport? What is Cartwright thinking of, replacing you with me? I can understand someone wanting to use the flagship. It even makes sense to recall the crew instead of putting a new crew together. But why in the name of the Fek'lhr, did I get assigned instead of you?" A puzzled expression crossed her face.
"Admiral Cartwright said it was because the Klingon Ambassador requested to travel on your ship. If you don't mind my asking, what is the Fek'lhr?"
"He did?" Ramsey didn't look at him; instead, she glanced at the orders again. "Now, that's interesting." Ramsey's look grew thoughtful for a few seconds. Nodding her head slightly, she turned back to her packing. "The Fek'lhr?" she said, after a minute. "Just something I picked up when I was on the Excalibur."
"Sounds almost Klingon." He watched her for a reaction, but didn't see one.
"Could be, I couldn't tell you for sure. Our primary patrol sector was near the border, and most of the crew picked up a few colorful expressions from the area. Are you ready to beam up?" Ramsey put the last of the weapon cases into a large travel bag and slung the bag over her shoulder. She picked up the rest of her bags, then turned back to face him.
"Don't you think it would be a good idea for you to contact the Enterprise about what you're carrying?" he asked.
"Not really, it'll make a good drill for the security section."
"Don't tell me you're one of those commanders who likes to call a red alert after a change of command just to shake things up?" He smiled at Ramsey.
"You can relax. I prefer my tests and shakeups to be a touch more subtle. Speaking of shaking things up, can you tell me why Cartwright decided to leave you on the Enterprise?"
"Sorry, I'm under sealed orders. I shouldn't get in your way though; I seem to be mainly along for the ride."
Ramsey's expression hardened for a moment. "I don't like not knowing what's going on, on a ship I'm supposed to be commanding, but I guess I'm not being given a choice. If you don't mind, I would like a list of your standing orders and a briefing on the command crew and department heads. Something tells me this is going to be a temporary assignment, and I'd hate to come in and completely change everything they've been doing. Considering the sudden recall, they'll react better to the change in command if they can resume their normal ship duties."
"I'll get the list and a briefing ready for you after we beam up." Kirk opened his communicator. "Enterprise two to beam up." He glanced at Ramsey's bags again and grimaced. Commander Hilte isn't going to like this, he thought.
