Lt. Colin: Helter-Shelter
Tomson came out of her office and looked at the security men standing in front of her. "You know what we're up to," she said. "On that planet below the Enterprise we will have the conference started in six hours. We know there are some rogues Romulans who want to attack it and get us into a full scale war. There was already an attempt to capture ambassador Sarek, which we could prevent. The problem is we don't have any proof that those Rihannsu we overwhelmed some days ago are not send by the Praetor. So we need to make sure the President of the UFP won't get forced by overhasty members to take military action against the Romulan Empire. Every ambassador will have assigned two bodyguards. Those will be you." She looked at the sixteen security men she had assigned. "I already gave you your assignments. It is very important that you keep close to them all the time. The meetings are not top secret, so there is no problem for you to attend them." She paused for a moment. "You know the layout of the place, but take one more look at it. Questions?" Nobody had one.
Tomson nodded satisfied. "Dismissed." She turned around and walked back into her office.
Lieutenant Vultoure let out a sigh. "Playing babysitter for ambassadors is not what I thought of, when signing in for security at Starfleet."
"It's not that bad, and it's a really important job we have," Lieutenant Colin rebuked. He slipped into a grin. "Of course, you have the Tellarite ambassador and I look forward to hear your stories afterwards of what you did all wrong."
Vultoure grimaced. "Yeah, have a pick on me, Colin. You will have no problems with Sutok and ambassador Sarek. I cannot even let Ensign Giggs do the talking, because the ambassador will make his requests to the higher ranking officer." He sighed once more then went off to talk to Giggs.
Colin looked at Sutok, who still stood not far away from him, waiting. "Do you think there will be problems?" Colin asked.
Sutok raised a brow. "I got to know Lieutenant Vultoure as a capable man," he replied carefully, "not only concerning security aspects. I do not think that he will get into a quarrel with the Tellarite ambassador."
"I was thinking more of the whole conference," Colin specified. "I'm sure Lieutenant Vultoure will be just fine."
"There will be definitely an attack during the conference," Sutok said. "If that is what you meant with 'problems'. If they are really rogues aiming for a war, it will not matter how well safeguarded the conference is."
Colin nodded solemnly. "We better get to work, then."
"I was going to say something similar," Sutok answered.
Colin stood behind ambassador Sarek, who was talking to the other participants of the conference. The lieutenant took a glance at Vultoure. The other was standing beside Ensign Giggs. The ambassador of the Tellarites sat before them, listening intensely to Sarek's speech. To this point, everything went fine; Colin even hadn't heard of any complains of the Tellarite ambassador. But with every ongoing hour, he got more nervous. This would be a short meeting, in diplomatic measures. Whoever wanted to do some harm had to strike today, or they would be too late.
"…and to get stable relationships with the Klingons and Rihannsu, we need to get to a mutual consent on how far we are willing to take back our military presence near the neutral zones," Sarek finished. "I got word of protégé Nanclus of the Romulan embassy, that the Praetor might be willing into negotiations."
"How reliable is this Nanclus?" the Deltan ambassador asked, raising his hand but not waiting for Sarek to grant him admission to speak.
"He is a young and low ranking member of the Romulan embassy," Sarek replied. "As for his trustworthiness, I have no information."
The ambassador of the Andorians interjected: "Even if he was trustworthy, it would not matter. The question is how straightforward the Praetor himself is. There was already an attack to ambassador Sarek on the way to this meeting."
Colin's communicator chirped, distracting him from Sarek's answer. He activated it, and Lieutenant Uhura's distressed voice came through the channel. "A Romulan Bird-of-Prey is attacking, definitely trying to get to the planet. Everyone is to go into the widespread shelter rooms at once. We might not be able to prevent all shots from coming through!" There was a loud crack and the communicator only emitted static.
Many security men had activated their communicator, and now there was some turbulence as every ambassador got up and went out of the room, the assigned bodyguards trying to keep at them. Some looked frightened, but many had a grim expression, like the Andorian ambassador. Sarek and Sutok, of course, showed no sign of emotion at all.
"This cannot possibly be a real Romulan Bird-of-Prey, can it?" Colin asked, as he walked calmly out of the conference room with the two Vulcans. "They couldn't have gotten through the Neutral Zone without being noticed, all the way here."
"It is not impossible," Sarek replied. "But if it is indeed a real Bird-of-Prey, then it is more likely to have come through from the Klingon Empire, which is much more close to this place. Recently, both Empires seem to coact on some goals."
They made good pace and now were already some hundred meters from the conference room, when the earth shook. Colin almost fell, but Sutok dragged him along. "That must have been a very close hit," Colin said.
Sutok nodded. He now took the lead, also Sarek new the way to the shelter as well. Colin followed closely behind the ambassador now, as Sutok opened the heavy doors, who revealed a staircase leading underground. The Vulcan was closing the door, when an immense explosion rolled through the building, shaking them off their feet and sending them plunging down the stairs. Cracks were forming in the ceiling. Smoke and dust poured down, and Lieutenant Colin stopped trying to halt his fall, but instead concentrated on hurting himself as little as possible.
He came to halt when he reached the end of the stairs. Sutok was already standing up again. "Did you receive any injuries, ambassador?" he asked.
"None that would need immediate treatment," Sarek replied, casually standing up. "I am not constrained in my mobility."
"That was not a detonation of a weapon," Colin murmured, getting to his feet as well. "But what was it?"
"Most likely, it was a ship crashing very close to us." Sutok went back up the stairs but had to stop instantly, as the dust in the air was to sick to see or even breathe. "It seems that this corridor has become impassable." He turned around. "It would be advisable to examine the other exits. If we need to get out quickly, we cannot afford to run into a dead end."
Colin nodded and took the lead. "But the concussion wasn't big enough to have come from the Enterprise," he said, mostly to reassure himself. "And whatever ship crashed, it didn't set off an antimatter explosion."
"We are still too close to survive an antimatter annihilation," Sarek agreed. "Whether it was the Enterprise, or not, we cannot be sure. It might also have been just a part of the ship."
Colin grimaced. That was definitely not what he'd wanted to hear. He pulled out his communicator and tried to raise anyone listening, despite the shielding of the shelter. But, of course, he only got static in response. They finally had reached the end of the corridor; to the right lay the bunker and from there the other exits. To the left, another corridor led farther away.
"You know, we should enter the bunker and wait for clearance," Colin said.
"That are our orders," Sutok affirmed. "But they did not consider the possibility of our actual situation," he went on. "If anything plummeted on the building with its propulsion reactor, there is still the chance of an antimatter explosion."
Sarek nodded, and Colin could see that he would have to give in on the Vulcan's reasoning. "Ok, then we should take this way," he said after a short pause. They turned left and followed the corridor in a fast stride, leaving the shelter rooms and the others behind them.
The corridor was long, so they needed about nine Minutes to get to its end and to the stairs leading upwards.
"So this exit is clear," Colin observed, when they were close enough to leave no doubt. "Are we going back now or would you rather leave the shielded area and see what's going on up there?"
"The ambassador must not be exposed to unnecessary danger," Sutok put in. "If we get outside, sensors will promptly locate us and thus reveal the existence of this shielded underground complex."
"So we go back," Colin concluded a little regretful. He was eager to get some actual information on the situation. "Then we try to hail the Enterprise with the integrated com-station of the shelter room."
"Of course," Sutok said, inclining his head a little to one side. "That would be the logical and due course of action, but there is still the danger of an antimatter explosion."
"I would agree with Lieutenant Sutok," Sarek said. "We do not know if the shelter rooms are still safe after the heavy crash. My opinion is that we are safest right where we are now. If we need to escape, we are immediately outside and can try to get as far away as possible."
"But we won't know what's happening outside," Colin objected irritated. "It might be over already."
"I attended the preparation of the security plans with Captain Kirk and Commander Spock," Sarek replied. "If everything was in order, they wanted to beam some to this entrance and get from here to the building and check the situation inside before giving an all clearance for the ambassadors to get back to the surface."
Colin stiffened. "Oh," he then only said. He sat down on the stairs. "Well, then we'll just wait here. How long?"
"If we do not here from anyone in the next half hour, we should leave." Sarek folded his hands behind his back and kept standing straight as before. So did Sutok.
Colin was glad they didn't have to wait the full thirty minutes. Otherwise, he might have gotten himself into stupid grinning watching the two Vulcans standing unmovable like statues, while he said quite uncomfortably. But after less than ten minutes, the entrance was opened from the outside, and he saw Chief of Security Tomson filling the frame, phaser rifle at the ready.
"Sir!" Colin shouted and waved his hand, standing up.
"Lieutenant Colin?" Tomson asked. "Is your group ok?"
"At least nothing serious," Colin answered. "Perhaps some bruises."
"And why are you here and not in one of the shelter rooms?" Tomson asked further, narrowing her eyes.
"Unforeseen circumstances led us this way," Sutok responded, before Colin could phrase an answer.
Tomson looked at the ambassador, who nodded. "Hmm, ok," she said. "Then get up here and let us do our work. You have a much more interesting view outside, anyway."
"Yes, Ma'am," Colin said and followed the two Vulcans outside.
Once they gotten to the surface, Colin climbed the small hill, which housed the entrance, and looked back the way they'd come. He soaked up some air, appalled. It was the Bird-of-Prey that had crashed directly on the conference room. But at the back, there was a small part missing. Then his eye fell on the left warp nacelle, which stood away in an odd angle from the hull. It had come loose, and under the typical painting, Colin could see more of the hull. But that part was obviously not a Romulan type.
Lieutenant Sutok followed him and stood beside him. "That is an Orion ship," he said after a glance.
Colin nodded, though he hadn't recognized it until Sutok said it. "That at least leaves us without anyone urging to a war with the Rihannsu. But why didn't they explode the antimatter to remove all traces?"
"They couldn't," a voice behind them said.
Colin turned and promptly saluted, but Captain Kirk waved it aside with one hand. Then he pointed to the ship. "You see the hole at the rear? There, they had their reactor, already on overload. But Mister Chekov did some great shots, after their shields where down. We couldn't prevent them from going down, but at least they hadn't their reactor chamber anymore with them. It exploded above the planet, but not that violent as expected."
Colin stared at the wreck, mesmerized.
"Do we have any casualties?" Sutok asked the captain.
Kirk nodded solemnly. "We lost Ensign Harrison, I regret. He protected the Deltan ambassador from down falling parts of the ceiling. But Ensign Giggs should come through, McCoy assured me. All others got away fairly well, as far as we know to this point." He sighed. "Well, get some rest, I have to talk to ambassador Sarek now." He turned and left them to themselves.
Colin looked at the Orion-Romulan faked ship. "One dead, those in the ship not counted." For a while, both just stood there. "How did Chekov do that?" Colin finally asked.
"With precise shots, which are highly difficult on a moving target, it is possible to carve out a part of a ship. The sensor readings on the overloading reactor chamber showed him, which part he had to." Sutok paused, then added: "It seems, Mister Chekov is one of the best weapons officers on the Enterprise." He turned and left.
Colin kept standing there for a while then murmured: "I'd rather say, the best weapons officer of the fleet."