9 Star Trek SID Catalyst
The Outbound Ventures formation detached from Serenity Station and made their way towards Tellarite administered joint colonies with Andoria. Station CO, Tom Riker, gave them a personal send off.
The squadron, representing the bulk of the nascent Outbound Ventures privateer fleet, was composed of one Shogun-class light cruiser, the SS Spearhead; the Lancelot-class cruiser, the SS Guinevere; the Sirius-class cruiser, the SS Dog Star; the Andor-class transport, the SS Lug Nut; and the Newton-class sciences ship, the SS Copernicus. Attached to the squadron was the Blackbird-class scout, SS Solstice. Although transiting with her siblings, the Solstice had an independent task from the rest of the force.
Outbound Ventures had received a contract to reinforce the three colonies jointly governed by Tellar and the Andorian Empire. The Empire had recently seceded from the Federation it had helped found and immediately began agitating the Andorians living on the colonies. The two sides had agreed that these colonies' daily administration should be provided by the Tellarites in a side deal during the creation of the United Federation of Planets.
The problem seemed to be that the Andorian government considered those treaty terms abrogated along with their ties to the Federation. Civil unrest, sparked by Andorians advocating a handover to the Empire, had exploded across the three worlds. To add calamity to the rising tensions, nearly two-thirds of the populations were comprised of Andorians. The mixed species police forces were simply outnumbered.
Adding to recent tensions, the Andorians had begun a series of deep space exercises in the vicinity. The Andorian colonists had requested an intervention, stating they were being persecuted along racial lines. How the planetary majorities were being persecuted by the minority was a question the Andorians didn't seem interested in answering.
In the meantime, the Andorian Empire had moved several starships to the region. These were older Starfleet vessels that had been handed over to the Andorians when they parted ways. There was one Ambassador-class cruiser heading up the border unit. No one knew what it had been redesignated when it was reflagged.
In addition to the heavy cruiser, six Miranda-class and six Soyuz-class cruisers were on hand. It was this very force that Outbound Ventures had been hired to reassure. The Spearhead was a contemporary of the Soyuz-class cruisers. All the other ships, except the Solstice, had been built before the Ambassador-class starship. The base line Miranda-class cruisers were older than any of the Outbound Ventures ships but had been upgraded to classify as contemporaries.
The Solstice was a fairly recent hull construction despite the Blackbird-class being built between the years 2318-2328. The Special Projects Yards had custom built the Solstice to her owner's specifications, and that owner also happened to be her captain. The SPYards had become involved owing to the captain's being an employee of the Starfleet Special Investigations Division.
An offshoot of Starfleet Intelligence, the SID also employed civilian agents in the form of licensed privateers and private investigators. Unlike Starfleet Intelligence, the SID solely employed civilian irregulars. That arrangement had come to be as a direct result of employing this particular captain and his investigative team.
Brin Macen had been an analyst for Starfleet Intelligence for decades. As an El-Aurian, those decades passed as a few years for him. He'd subsequently been cross trained as a field operative and sent to the front lines of the Border Wars with the Cardassians. After the "peace" was signed, and the Demilitarized Zone with the Cardassian Union was formed, Macen was sent to infiltrate the Maquis.
The problem for Admiral Alynna Nechayev was that Macen wholeheartedly believed in the Maquis cause. She provided a way for him to return to the Starfleet fold and after the Dominion crushed the Maquis, Macen signed up to fight the new foe.
Paired with his old Maquis commander, Ro Laren, they set out with a squad if Angosian Augments and toured space behind enemy lines. So far behind enemy lines that they were frequently cut off. It was like serving with the Maquis only with official support and superior firepower.
The war had come to a close and Macen was returning to Starfleet Intelligence when Nechayev gave him a new assignment in the field: he was to take command of the prototype Hydra-class starship, USS Odyssey, and investigate reports of Federation citizens being detained in foreign prisons. This brought Macen into official contact with Section 31 for the first time.
Macen had acquired his first Blackbird-class scout from a seemingly abandoned ship depot. Further investigation led Macen to believe that the depot was being run by a shadowy organization that wished to remain anonymous. After liberating the political prisoners from the self styled "Gulag" Macen found evidence linking the now shut down depot and the prison.
Of course, it turned out that Macen's crew had not one but two S31 operatives planted within it. The first, Julia D'Arte, was taken into custody but she was "lost" in the bureaucratic shuffle of multiple prison exchanges. Hannah Grace, on the other hand, resigned from Section 31 in order to remain with the team of her own accord. Of course, she would generate problems of her own.
Macen and S31 had reached an accord of détente that day. They stayed out of each others' business until the Cell 51 coup. At that time they had even worked together. Now it seemed those days were over.
Macen peered about the cramped bridge. The Blackbird-class had pioneered the design concept for the Galaxy-class' Battle Bridge. Macen sat dead center of the bridge. Before him lay the CONN and OPS stations.
Talera P'ris manned OPS and the aforementioned Hannah Grace sat at the helm. Despite appearances, Grace wasn't human. She was a Kelvan and like the rest of those extragalactic refugees, her biology was adapted to a near perfect rendition of the human genome since her native species couldn't survive in the Milky Way in their natural form. Grace was actually second generation so had grown up "human". Her parents, Drea and Raynar, had learned to cope with their adopted humanity while Grace took it for granted.
P'ris was a Romulan. A former Commander in the Tal Shiar, P'ris was now a wanted fugitive. She handed over plans for pushing the Gorn Hegemony into war with the Federation and had been branded a traitor for it. Ironically, since she'd been named a "Hero of the Empire" by Empress Donatra some months before, for P'ris' role in recovering from the Hobus disaster.
Macen knew that Rab Daggit manned Tactical from the raised dias behind him. The Angosian commando had first served with him during the Dominion War. After a brief misunderstanding between them during Daggit's service aboard the Enterprise-E, the Augment had volunteered to serve in the newly formed Special Investigations Division's premier team. He'd been a welcome addition since.
There were two other stations on the dais. Once was the Engineering console, which rarely saw use. The other was an Information Systems station embedded into the rear wall. The Infosys station was generally manned by Macen's fiancée, Celeste Rockford, but today she was missing.
Macen knew Rockford was tucked away in his office which was attached to their shared quarters. He and Rockford shared a rather turbulent history. She was also Angosian. She was a unique brand of Augment classified as an Infiltrator. She'd literally created new and independent personalities in order to access enemy units and kill them all. Celeste Rockford had been such a personality.
You see, Rockford had been born Annika Ryst on Angosia. She'd created the Rockford persona in order to operate inside of the Federation. Rockford was a private investigator. One of the best. Macen had convinced her to join the SID team by purchasing her detective agency.
The fact that they were a couple, and destined to be married, surprised most folks. Ryst had tried to kill Macen on three separate occasions. Although it wasn't the Ryst template that fell in love with him. It was the Rockford persona. Fortunately a little gift from a species called the Argyn had eliminated all of the personalities save Rockford. The memories of the myriad personas merged with her rather fragmented recollections and for the first time, she was whole.
But there was another distraction on the bridge today. Radil Jenrya sat by on the upper dais and was sneezing her head off. Macen had thought it was would pass but that had been two hours ago. If she hadn't been Bajoran, he'd have simply dismissed as needing an ailment needing a second of their EMH's attention. However, she was Bajoran so this could have deeper implications.
Radil continued to snuffle and sneeze and Macen decided he'd had enough. He approached Radil and asked her into the briefing room behind the bridge. She sullenly complied.
Macen escorted Radil all the way to Sickbay because he wasn't certain she'd actually arrive there if he didn't shepherd her. He also stayed in Sickbay, off to the side, while Tessa examined her. Tessa, despite being an Emergency Medical Hologram, had become quite a little personality. Macen knew Tessa was on intimate terms with Radil. So much so that they'd been lovers on occasion.
So Macen watched Tessa deliver the initial news after just one scan. She laid Radil down on the biobed and conducted a deeper scan. Macen saw strands of DNA holographically displayed above the bed. Tessa isolated the DNA and then ran a comparison with the crew's records.
Macen had already deduced that Radil was indeed pregnant. Now came the question of fatherhood. It seemed her husband Kort wasn't the baby's father. A records check of the crew would be utterly useless if he were. Tessa had replaced Kort as the Chief Medical Officer for the crew and the investigative team as he now served in that capacity aboard Serenity Station.
Adding to the unusual circumstances was the fact that Kort and Radil enjoyed an open marriage. She was openly bisexual and Kort had decided, in a most un-Klingon decision, to allow her sexual polyamorous relations with women. He would be her sole male partner.
And it had seemed to work for the over the last few years. That is...until now. But Macen couldn't remember a single overture between Radil and any of the men aboard. He was really stumbling over it when the answer hit him. There was one clear candidate and she was the best of all worlds to a woman like Radil.
Tessa approached him, "Captain, I have to report that Radil is pregnant."
"I got that," he admitted, "Just like I figured out that Shannon is the father...mother...whatever the hell we call her."
Tessa suddenly grinned, "Very good, Captain. This must be the reason why we keep surviving."
Macen gave her a wry look, "Please contact Shannon and get her in here. She needs to know she's about to be a parent."
"On it," Tessa promised.
This is going to be very interesting, Macen mused.
Forger arrived with Eric McMasters in tow. Macen mentally groaned at this development. Tessa cast a nervous glance at Macen. He nodded towards Forger and Tessa rallied herself.
McMasters looked as nervous as Forger as she nervously asked, "What's wrong?"
Radil suddenly broke into a sneezing fit from a nearby biobed. Tessa grimaced, "You could say that's the problem."
"What?" Forger was confused.
"Is she pregnant?" McMasters asked.
Forger looked at him incredulously as Tessa answered, "Yes, she is."
"But what does that have to do with me?" Forger's voice suddenly had a desperate quality to it.
"It's your child, Shannon," Tessa bluntly informed her.
Forger fainted.
Forger awoke on a biobed to find Tessa watching her. Tessa turned her head, "She's awake now."
Macen and Radil came to Forger's side. Radil looked as nervous as Forger felt. Macen looked rather pained.
"Where's Eric?" Forger tentatively asked.
"He stormed out of here the moment after you fainted," Macen informed her, "And Rhiann just called me. He's moving his things out of your quarters into an empty cabin."
Forger's face fell, "I see."
"Can I ask how this happened?" Macen wondered.
"The usual, Captain," Radil smirked, "Or have you forgotten Shannon is packing and fully loaded?"
"I think we're all well aware of that fact," Macen retorted, "But unlike you, Shannon isn't bisexual. So how did you two get together?"
"It was only once," Forger blurted, "I'd never been with a woman before."
"Once is all it takes," Tessa said sagely.
"Thanks for telling me," Forger muttered.
"That still doesn't answer the question," Macen reminded the ladies.
Radil heaved a theatrical sigh, "All right, Kort was at a medical conference on Bajor."
"That was two months ago or so," Mace recalled.
"Right," Radil confirmed that fact, "Anyway, I knew Eric was on Barrinor so I looked Shannon up. We had a few drinks."
"We had a lot of drinks," Forger amended for her.
"Anyway, we went back to my quarters and things just happened," Radil revealed.
"Gawd," Forger moaned.
"It wasn't that bad," Radil reminded her, "The fact that I was your first made it all quite charming."
"For you maybe!" Forger snapped.
"Shannon, you bear some responsibility in this as well," Macen stated, "Seduction only happens if you let it. On some level, you wanted to have sex with Jenrya."
Forger wanted to protest but she had to acknowledge there was a ring of truth to his words, "Now what?"
"Now you two discuss matters with your husbands and significant others," Macen urged.
"That covers a few people," Radil groaned. Seeing everyone staring at her, Radil protested, "I'm in a polyamorous relationship. Kort knows it. Ask him about Hayley Galloway some time and why he goes to Bajor every other week.
Despite his longstanding suspicions being confirmed as reality, Macen took no comfort in that fact; "Jenrya, in five months you're giving birth. That's going to change your life. Shannon, you're this baby's father, mother, whatever adjective we're applying to you."
"I should have undergone Sexual Reassignment Surgery," Forger grumbled, "Then this wouldn't have happened."
"Maybe the pregnancy wouldn't have," Radil said mirthfully, "I still think you would have fallen into bed with me."
Forger looked ill at that thought. Macen redirected Radil's focus, "Jenrya, you're on restricted duty from now on."
"What?" she exploded.
"You're restricted to shipboard duties," Macen clarified, "And you're off the Investigative Team until after you give birth."
"But that's not fair!" Radil thundered.
"It's a natural consequence!" Macen snapped back, "I let T'Kir stay on active duty and it cost us the life of our child. Do you really want a repeat of that experience? Because I'll tell you it can break you."
Radil recognized the raw agony in Macen's voice for what it was. Her CO didn't discuss his innermost turmoil very often. His admission now only stemmed from his very real concerns. She subsided somewhat.
"Okay, we'll play it your way. But only until I give birth," Radil responded.
Macen didn't like the sound of that but he opted to let it go, "Okay, now that that's settled, are you both ready to return to your regular duties?"
"Sure," Radil said cheerfully, "Tessa gave me an antihistamine. I should be good, for what? Six hours?"
"At least," Tessa nodded.
"And you!" Radil wheeled on Forger, "Don't start bemoaning the fact you've never undergone SRS. You are non-op because you enjoy being non-op. It's part of who you are. So go back to enjoying it. Eric will too eventually."
Radil sported a wicked grin, "And if he won't, I certainly will."
Radil strode out of Sickbay on that note. Forger wearily looked to Macen, "Mind if I report to duty? I really don't want to interrupt Eric until he's cooled off."
Macen glanced over at Tessa. She wore a bemused expression, "There's nothing physically wrong with her."
Macen looked back at Forger, "I'll see you on the bridge."
"Yessir," Forger pushed herself off of the biobed and headed out of Sickbay herself.
Tessa gave Macen the once over, "Any particular reason you're hanging around, Captain?"
"How's the baby?" Macen asked.
"Fine," Tessa assured him, "Human and Bajoran DNA are as compatible as Cardassian and Bajoran DNA. Or human and Vulcan. The baby is strong and viable. Why?"
"Shannon's in sexual transition. That makes for an interesting hormonal load," Macen replied.
"Hormones don't affect DNA. Shannon's hormonal glands have been genetically altered to feminine output standards but her DNA sill reads her as male. Hence the viability of her penis and its potential yield."
"Actualized yield this time," Macen said a tad wearily.
"Something bothering you?" Tessa had a hunch but she couldn't do anything f Macen didn't admit it.
"I've been expecting child bearing to rear its head again. Just didn't expect it from this particular quarter, or pairing," Macen confessed, "But my decision stands."
"And if it were Celeste?" Tessa probed.
"Same story," Macen stated firmly, "T'Kir and I made our mistake. It cost a life. That won't happen again."
"But random accidents happen, Captain," Tessa reminded him.
Macen had a strange gleam in his eye as he responded, "A fact I know all too well."
Tessa pondered what to say next when Macen's comm badge sounded off. He tapped it, "Macen here."
"Captain Haggit is reporting movement along the border," Forger informed him, "Captain Pryce is moving the Spearhead, the Guinevere, and the Dog Star in to intercept."
"Are they Andorian units?" Macen inquired.
"Yessir, they appear to be the party we've been expecting," Forger replied.
"Move to intercept and broadcast hailing frequencies," Macen ordered, "I'm on my way."