Chapter 3: The Monarch

I'm shaken out of my thoughts by a chirp coming from my chest, my combadge is going off. "Captain, we've arrived at Starbase 24, we have clearance to dock. Were ready on your orders."

"Good, go ahead and bring us in, I'll be right there." I answer, immediately climb out of my chair, and head towards the turbolift. "Bridge." On my command, the lift comes to life, lifting me towards the bridge. By the time I got there we were already inside the station and moving towards one of the docking clamps. I press a key on the arm of my chair, creating a quick beep, "Attention all crew. Unless you have been assigned a job to do for the next day while we are docked here, you are granted some R&R on the station. Please wait thirty minutes before getting off. Enjoy yourselves, Captain out." I press the key a second time halting the announcement, and then I get up towards the front of the bridge. "Unfortunately for the lot of you, you are senior officers and you have something to do. You have thirty minutes to pick your teams to equip weapons systems. Get to it."

In unison they all shouted back, "Aye, Captain!" Then headed towards their place of need and then started calling in team members they'd need. I then proceeded towards the station with my PADD that had all the requisition forms I needed. The promenade was massive, people and machines alike, they were everywhere. But, it was nothing new to me. I made my way towards requisitions to request the needed supplies. Only stopping once to look out at the Athos from one of the interior viewports. Once I got there, it didn't take long to get my forms handed in and the modules transported onto the Athos. They gave me extra hands for mounting the systems which would significantly shorten our stay, which is good news. Since my job was done, I realized how tired I was, sure I've only departed just above ten hours ago, but a lot has happened. That's when my combadge went off. It was my First Officer. "Captain, can I talk to you for a minute?" He asked with his usual monotone voice.

"Yeah, I've got time. I'll be in my ready room in about five minutes." He didn't say anything as he cut comms. So I head back towards the ship, which doesn't take long in itself, not stopping for anything. As soon as I arrive Matts already there, waiting for me. "I'm not cut out for first officer." He blatantly exclaimed. His eyes just staring into his lap.

"And why do you think that, Commander?" Not expecting this, I quickly try find out what this is about.

"Well, mainly because I'm not sure what to do, I feel my position would be back to where I've been, on tactical." His eyes still not meeting mine.

"What makes you think I know what I'm doing? This is my first dance too. If I didn't think you were qualified for this I would not have hand-picked you."

This made him look up. "I thought the crew was randomly assigned…"

"The crew was randomly assigned. The bridge crew however, I picked. Everyone you see on the bridge didn't roll the lucky dice. If you think I made a poor decision, I can request a transfer. But I will not do so until you prove to me that I did such a thing."

"Chris, we've known each other a long time. We've served aboard the same ship before, you know my capabilities as a tactical."

"Yes I do, Matt. I picked you for First Officer because of your tactical skills. You have a great knowledge of strategy and weapons."

"That's all I needed to know Captain, thank you." He smiled. Not something I expected from the strange Bajoran.

"Oh, and Commander." He turned, "I want you to study the Monarch and learn everything you can before the wargame, your input would be extremely valuable."

"Aye, Captain." He said with a nod before heading out, with a rather large smile on his face.

I checked what remaining reports I had from all decks before climbing out of my chair then headed out towards the bridge. As soon as I slump into my chair, getting impatient with how long I've been here, I slam my fingers into my combadge, "Engineering, how much longer can I expect to be here? We've overstayed our welcome."

"Maybe thirty minutes sir, I don't know, we've run into some issues." Chief Engineer, Borris, a rather young man who's been in Starfleet for four years. Roughly 5' 7, with a buzz cut and a dark brown beard.

"What do you mean, maybe?"

"I'm guessing, sir, like I said, we ran into some issues that set us back."

"Well, fix the issue and don't let it happen again, we don't have time for it. Get on it." I cut the comm and sighed out of frustration and let my head fall back. "Helm, how long will it take to the Monarch at warp four?"

Bryant, without the slightest delay, "It would take us an hour and a half, four hours behind schedule."

"Shit…" I muttered under my breath.

"What was that sir?"

"Hmm..? Oh, nothing, what speed will we have to travel in order to get us there in time?"

"Warp eight will make us thirty minutes early if we left now sir."

"Good. Thank you Lieutenant Commander." Helm only nodding in response, went back to whatever it is he does. Since I've done practically everything that needs to be done on my behalf I decided to go to ten forward, have a drink or two and mingle with the crew. The turbolift journey only took thirty seconds, taking me fifteen decks down. When I arrived the door arrived with its usual hiss revealing the thriving hallway, laughter all around that practically stopped when I was noticed, with someone yelling "Officer on deck!" and everyone snapping to attention. 'Great,' I thought, 'Its gonna be like this isn't it..?' "At ease," everyone relaxed, waiting for my next words, "Unless I am conducting an inspection, which will be a rare occasion, do not go to attention unless instructed. Plus, since your all in ten forward, your off duty, so relax, enjoy yourself, I can't tell you how annoying it is to be the one to ruin the fun." At this little speech I just gave, everyone seemed to relax significantly, some going back to what they were doing. They're going to like me more knowing I'm not a Captain bent on regulation, which will boost morale. I enter ten forward, expecting the exact same thing, but to my surprise, no one appears to have noticed me. I put on a smile as I relax and head towards the bar. Unfortunately I'm on duty so, no alcohol, but I do like tea, so that's what I got. I turn towards the rather pretty looking barista and get a chai tea, a personal favorite of mine. She smiled back at me, "Tea, that's not something people order very often."

"Well, it's always been a personal favorite and I haven't had any in a while, so I figured why not." I said with a wide smile. "Perhaps you'll have a drink with me?"

"I would love to." She beamed. "So, if were gonna sit together, might as well know each others names."

"Capt- Chris, you can call me Chris." Stopping myself from revealing my rank.

"Chris, huh? I wouldn't suppose you don't want me knowing your captain?" She said with a playful smirk.

"Well, my secrets out I suppose." I return with a light chuckle. "Well, you know who I am, what about you?"

"I'm Jillian." She took a sip out her tea, keeping eye contact with me. I in turn took a sip out of my steaming cup of tea, then placing it down on the bar beside hers.

"Now, tell me, what is a pretty lady like you doing on the Athos?"

"I'm part of the science team aboard, wouldn't be a Federation ship without one. I help out down here keeping it in control down here. Before I can even respond my combadge beeps, telling me I have someone wanting to talk to me. "Well," I sigh, "I guess it's back to work for me. I'll see you around Jillian." I extend my hand, shaking her small, soft hand. "It was nice meeting you."

"And you, Chris." She said, smiling with an almost disappointed look on her face. I turn and face towards the exit and slowly making my way back, while walking pressing my combadge.

"Yes?"

Bryants voice came to life on my chest, "Sir, we are ready to depart, engineering reports all weapons mounting complete."

"Wow, thirty minutes past that fast?"

"Having fun down there, Captain?" He said with a light chuckle.

"Apparently, I'm on my way."

With that, I sped up and made my towards the bridge. When I arrived, I took a quick head count making sure everyone was here, then I proceeded to my chair and sat down. "Helm, get us out of this damned station."

"Aye sir, disengaging locks." A loud bang was heard, echoing throughout the oxygenated station. "Disengaged, now engaging maneuvering thrusters." The ship began moving away from the interior ring and then spun towards the gigantic doors leading to the vacuum outside. "Ten seconds until were out, thirty until we can engage main engines."

"Good, the second we can warp out of here, set course for the Regulas system, warp eight."

"Aye sir. Engaging impulse engines." The next twenty seconds were spent in dead silence. "Main engines engaged, on your orders captain." Everyones eyes diverted towards me, awaiting the order.

I lift my hand with two fingers pointed up, and then flicked my wrist forward. "Engage."

As the ships engines roar to life, a soft buzzing is heard as the engines start their power up, within the next three seconds we've reached eight times the speed of light and are on our way to rendezvous with the Monarch. "We have three hours until rendezvous with the Monarch, I want a meeting in the ready room with Davis, Bryant, Process, Cole and Hoffman. Now." Without waiting for a response I quickly turned and made my way towards the ready room. Once everyone was in the room, I began. "Were going up against one of the biggest and most heavily armed ships in Starfleet, we need a strategy now."

Commander Cole was the first to speak up, "I've studied up as you've asked sir, She is by no means immobile, so we have that over Her, Bryant, don't let us wind up in a spot in front of them and we should be fine on that. Davis, we have a lot of forward firing cannons, correct?"

Davis, with a soft voice, responded with a surprising amount of confidence in her voice, "Yes sir, Andorian heavy cannons should have little to no trouble with their shields or hull. The torpedoes will not penetrate their shields however, so their forward shields will need to be down to have any affect."

Cole spoke up again, with his new knowledge in mind, "Alright, we also have three antiproton beam arrays in the aft arrays, right?" Davis nodded, "Good, we can use those when were flying circles around them. Bryant, what you need to keep the ship doing is moving, stay around seven kilometers away, so when their broadside or aft shields fall, we can turn hard on them and go for a strafing run on with the cannons. Although, it will be dangerous flying beside them due to the shear fire power with their antiproton and tetyron arrays they have. High shield penetration, but not very effective against ship hulls. They also have a cloaking device, we cannot allow them do use this, if they even attempt to engage it, turn hard on them and Davis will open fire with as many cannons as possible. When they cloak they have to drop their shields, so this will force them either to stay visible."

"Commander, what about our Lotus beam," Hoffman piped in, interrupting the Commander who was obviously annoyed.

"I was getting to that, please try to save questions until I'm done next time Ensign." She muttered and apology and drooped her head. "Now, the Lotus, the Lotus has a five minute cooldown, so we cannot! Repeat, NOT, afford to miss with any, or just have it be absorbed by the shields. So, we will only fire when we are at point blank range when their shields are out. Questions?" Noone said anything.

I decided to chime in and add my own input. "I know he makes this sound easy, but as he said, it will be dangerous flying to their side due to the large amount of beam arrays She has on her. But it's preferential to parking in front of Her. This will likely be our greatest challenge. Let's show Captain Razor a thing or two about being a Captain." Razor, an old friend of mine who I lost contact with a long time ago, a strange man with ice blue skin and snow white hair, eyes blank enough to melt a hole in ones own eyes, but a man with a sense of humor non the less, a superb Captain.

Cole then went on to describe the Monarchs capabilities, mostly for Davis' Bryant's and my benefit, "The Monarch is a Galaxy class Dreadnaught, one that is fully equipped with a spinal phaser lance, that is similar to our Lotus, just, it fires one burst, is much larger, will not care about our shields and will incinerate us in one hit. As for broadside capabilities, she is armed with four antiproton arrays in the for weapons arrays, two forward firing transphasic torpedoes which will not struggle with our shields, the aft is armed four tetyron beam arrays, which are designed to chew away at shields, won't do much to our hull though. One torpedo bay that is armed with a tricobolt torpedo, it won't do squat to our shields but if it hits where our shields aren't, we are very dead. But it's large enough and slow enough we can shoot it down. It's shields are the same as ours so it will be difficult to much damage with cannons, but we can widdle them down with the three anti-proton arrays in the aft arrays. We cannot afford to take hits though. That's going to boil down to Bryant's skill at the helm. That is all I know."

"Thank you Commander, any other reccomendations?" I chimed in, no responses. "Very well, this meeting is adjourned. When we arrive the fight will happen when we are both ready, the system will register where we've been hit and simulate it's effectiveness in battle. Which will most likely be worse than before. Any outcome that happens, I'm proud to call you my crew. Dismissed."

Everyone stood up, and filed out of the room, not a word spoken. 'I've got to get the crew more social. No idea how I'm going to do that right now so I may as well pay Jillian a visit.' I thought to myself. 'After all I've got three hours to kill.' I made my way to the turbolift when. It opened with the usual, boring hiss, then I sent it to ten forward. When the doors opened I was greeted by exactly who I was looking for. "Hey Jillian! I was just coming down to see you." I smiled as wide as I could.

"Really? How nice of you. Although I just got off my shift down here and was on my way back to duty. Maybe some other time?" She offered an awkward smile in return to mine.

"Shame, perhaps I could walk you there?"

"I would like that."

I stepped aside allowing here in with me, leaning on the wall.

"So, I hear were going to fight the Monarch, is this true?" She asked, rather nervously.

"Yes we are." I twitch the corner of my lip into a smirk, "They don't stand a chance."

She laughed before saying, "I appreciate someone with confidence, the Monarch is a Galaxy Class Dreadnaught isn't she?"

"The biggest ship in Starfleet, the main battle ship of Starfleet. I have full confidence in us, we both have weapons aboard that can and will just wipe either of us out in a heartbeat however."

"The Spinal Lance versus the Lotus. It's an interesting engagement. Who planned it, Quinn?"

"Actually, I contacted Captain Razor and scheduled it myself. I want to know how the crew handles a power stronger than us." Then the doors slid open.

"Well, I guess this is my stop. A pleasure talking to you Captain, er, Chris." She flashed a quick smile before turning and heading out.

"See ya. Computer, bridge." The doors slid shut just as our eyes met one last time when she turned around.

As the doors now slid open revealing the bridge, I still had two and half hours to go until we arrive, so my best bet is to get some rest. With no real schedule of day or night, you just need to take a nap whenever you can.

I awoke to the doorbell of my ready room, apparently I managed to fall asleep on the surprisingly comfortable couch. I managed to groan out while stretching my arms, "Yes?"

It was Process, havn't heard from him in a while, "Sir, we're within hailing distance of the Monarch, we will be there in ten minutes." He hadn't changed his facial expression in any way, which was somewhat unnerving.

"Thank you, Process. I'll be right out." I let out mid yawn.

"Did I disturb you sir?" He kept that soulless stare as he let the question out.

"Not at all. I just needed a nap." Without anything else he just turned and left. I know he's an android and all, but he's creepy. I finished my 'morning' stretches the climbed off of the couch.

"Welcome back to the living, Captain."

"Thanks, Commander. I'll be awake in just a minute."

"Good, it's a good thing someone got some rest down here."

"I suppose. Ensign Hoffman, go ahead and hail the Monarch"

"Aye, Captain. Frequency open."

"This is the U.S.S. Athos hailing the U.S.S. Monarch. How you doing over there, Razor?"

Razors icy blue face and snow white hair appeared on the screen, with his usual sarcastic smile. "A little boring just sitting out here doing nothing waiting for your slow ass, t'eh."

"Well, I'd like to see how long it'd take you with that monster of yours, it took just over an hour to get the Athos fitted properly."

He let out a low cackle, "Well, I hope you've prepared properly, because there is no way in hell that your beating me."

"Ah, a little cocky, I'll remember that when your sent running scared with your tail between your legs."

His eyes widened a little bit as he turned around trying to see if he had actually grown a tail, then started laughing as he realized what I meant. "I will never get used to human humor…"

"I can see that." I say with raised eyebrows, trying not to laugh. "Well, how about we get started. I'm ready whenever you are."

"If you insist." He turned around to his comms officer and ordered communications be halted.

"He's not going to wait for us! Davis, shields up! Bryant, get us away from in front of him!" Shields went up silently just before multiple antiproton arrays were fired in our direction, bouncing off our shields.

"Shields unaffected, Captain." Davis reported.

"Alright, Bryant, initiate attack form alpha, Davis, once were right beside him power up tactical mode and fire all beams." Bryant input his commands, lurching the Athos forward and full impulse circling the monster of a ship who can't counter with speed.

"Captain! The Monarch is overloading their beam arrays! If it hits it will hurt!" Davis called out panicked.

"Stay calm, Bryant! Do what you need to do to avoid that shot!" Suddenly the Monarch fired three overloaded beam arrays, one was a direct hit to the starboard shields.

"Starboard shields down, Captain!" Davis called out, still panicked.

Suddenly Matthew chimed in, "Brant, turn us around, get the port shields facing them!

Before Bryant could comply, the Monarch had turned and faced us head on firing two transphasic torpedoes toward us.

"Evasive maneuvers!" I called out, overriding the Commanders order. The ship began dancing around, but only one torpedo actually missed, the other was absorbed by the aft shields. "Well done helm. Davis, do the same to them, overload phasers and open up on them."

"Aye, Captain. Ready on your command."

"Fire." Suddenly a loud blast was heard as a volley of three beams was fired and the forward shields of the dreadnaught.

"Her shields are down, minor hull damage!" Davis called out, more confident now.

"Bryant, before they can react, turn on them with and go for a head on pass, half impulse. Davis, once you lock on, fire all forward weapons. Begin charging the Lotus." I continued barking orders just as fast as they were complying. Not stopping to admire the glory that was four heavy cannons being fired on rapid fire at the exposed hull. "Process, divert any unnecessary power and get the starboard shields up!"

Davis then called out a damage report when we broke off from our pass as we then unloaded aft beams on their shields, doing no damage. "Sir, one of the torpedoes was shot down, the cannons however damaged their saucers locking clamps, they aren't performing any saucer sepe- hold on. Captain, their powering up their phaser lance, now their cloaking." Bryant instinctively turned in on the dreadnaught but Davis wasn't prepared and didn't fire the cannons in time to stop them from cloaking.

"Davis! Stay focused! Why didn't you fire, never mind, no time for that! Bryant get us moving!"

The ship lurched forward but then came to a complete stop as the dreadnaught decloaked in front of us, firing all weapons on us, destroying our shields entirely.

"Sir, they somehow got their forward shields up!"

"Noted, fire the Lotus!"

"But, Capt-"

"Fire now!"

Without any more hesitation, she got two quick bursts off, which were just absorbed by their shields.

"Bryant, get us out of their way!" Just as the ship started moving forward, the Monarch grabbed us with a tractor beam. That's when I knew what he was doing. He was going to hold me still while he hits me with the Lotus. "Davis! Fire everything we've got at that tractor beam! All power to weapons!"

With all four heavy cannons firing at max power, the Monarchs shields stood no chance as every shot hit its target, disabling it. "Move now, Bryant!" But it was too late, the Lance let off one shot, which nailed the starboard strut, shutting down the starboard engine, and the second shot hitting the port strut, disabling that one as well. But we still had impulse so we used that to get out of the way. We've lost this fight, but we did what I wanted to do, give them a black eye in the least.

"Davis, prepare the Lotus, put all power that's not important into it. It's our only last resort."

As I said this, two more torpedoes were fired into our shields, but they were at such low power they went straight through, hitting the engineering deck, shutting off most power to the ship. Then Razors smartass face appeared on the main viewer with his toothy smile, "Ready to surrender?" I flip him off. "Very well." Well, at least he's gone now but now he began scuttling what was left of my ship. Then all power was restored, signaling that the ship had been destroyed. Then Razor came back to be a smartass. "Well, that didn't go too well for you."

"I noticed. I gave you a black eye at least."

"You forced me to stay connected with the saucer, and you knocked out my forward shields twice. So, good job on that. You and your crew did an excellent job, way better than I expected." With that he tossed a thumbs up, pointing at everyone on the bridge, in his usual sarcastic manner.

"Thank you, Razor," I said, trying to hide my chuckle.

"Well, I've got to head back towards the Gamma Quadrant, the Borg are causing more problems. Good luck with your ventures, Chris."

"It will be more fun fighting beside you some time." Razor then tossed in a quick salute then cut the channel, turning the main viewer at his ship spinning around and warping out at warp 12. Can't wait until I can requisition one of those slipstream engines, increasing maximum warp to 20x the speed of light, and can create a slipstream, hence the name, increasing velocity to 30x the speed of light.

Now was the time to put our newly equipped weapons to the test. Before the games, I received a message from Starfleet. Our first official assignment was to get to the Klingon Front as quickly as possible. The Klingons were attacking more and more transport convoys in the Neutral Zone. So our mission is to run a patrol straight through the middle of the NZ and make sure no Klingon ships are in the area. If any are, engage and destroy. We are officially at war again.

Sorry for the long wait. My poor excuse is I school but I had no homework. I've been watching a lot of Breaking Bad recently and binge watching youtube. I wanted this to be longer but I ran out of ideas for this chapter. So here you go. Oh! One more thing, I've noticed other authors have a sort of memo thing either at the beginning or the end of the chapter, so I'm going to give that a shot and see how it works out. I have an idea what I want for the next chapter, but you'll just have to wait and see! I do not have any time planned for when the next chapter will be up. Please leave a review, it would mean a lot to me to actually have feedback from somene. Thanks to DinoMan for PMing me and saying that he likes it. Good inspiration. Until next time, have a good week.