Reunion Chapter 10, a StarTrek: Enterprise + Battlestar Galactica: 2003 Crossover fanfic

REUNION

A Star Trek/Battlestar Galactica Crossover

by Robert Perkins

CHAPTER 10

ABOARD U.S.S. ENTERPRISE NX-01, THE DELPHIC EXPANSE, 26 OCTOBER 2153, EARTH STANDARD CALENDAR

Jonathan Archer lay asleep in his quarters aboard the U.S.S. ENTERPRISE. As usual, his pet beagle, Porthos, lay asleep at the foot of the bed. Archer turned over and his foot accidentally kicked the sleeping dog, which awoke with a low growl. That noise, in turn, awoke the dog's master.

"What's wrong, Porthos?" Archer asked sleepily. "Did I kick you again?" Porthos stood up, wagging his tail. Archer sat up on the edge of the bed and patted him on the head. Then, yawning, he reached over and pressed the button, on a nearby wall panel, which raised the shutters covering the windows of his cabin. Standing and stretching, he walked to the nearest view port, looking out at the stunning vista presented by the starscape above and the planet below.

Suddenly, Archer saw, one after another, bright flashes of light as large space vessels suddenly appeared, several kilometers off the port bow of the ENTERPRISE. Almost instantly, he heard the voice of Subcommander T'Pol over the intercom.

"Captain Archer, please respond," T'Pol said.

"Archer here," the Captain said after punching the button on his com-panel. "I see them, T'Pol. I'm on my way."

"Yes, Sir," T'Pol said formally.

Archer quickly put on his uniform, ran a comb through his hair, and stepped toward the door. "Woof!" Porthos said, still standing on the bed and wagging his tail. Archer looked back at him. "Sorry, boy. You have to stay here." Porthos sat down and hung his head, doing his best to look dejected and rejected. Archer smiled and shook his head as he left the room.

A couple of minutes later, on the bridge, Archer sat in his command chair, watching the fleet of newly arrived ships on the viewscreen. He looked over at T'Pol, at the science station.

"How many?" he asked.

"Fifty-seven vessels of various designs," T'Pol replied. "It appears to be the entire Colonial fleet described in your reports."

Hoshi Sato spoke up. "Captain, we're receiving an audio-only transmission from a vessel called the GALACTICA. Admiral Adama."

"Open hailing frequencies, Ensign," Archer said.

"Yes, Sir," Hoshi replied. "Channel open." The voice of Admiral William Adama came through the speakers.

"GALACTICA to ENTERPRISE," Adama said.

"Admiral Adama," Captain Archer said. "Welcome to the Delphic Expanse! We're surprise to see you so soon!"

"We ran into some…complications," Adama said. "Permission to come aboard your vessel to discuss the situation?"

"Permission granted," Archer said. "I'll meet you in the landing bay." He looked at his second in command. "T'Pol, with me."

About ten minutes later, Archer stood in the control room of the landing bay and watched as the mechanical arm lifted the Raptor into the bay. The bay door slid shut beneath the Raptor, and the arm gently set the Raptor down on the deck. There was a barely audible hissing sound as the bay was repressurized. The green light indicating full repressurization came on, and Archer, accompanied by T'Pol, stepped out into the landing bay itself. He watched as the side door of the Raptor swung upwards, and Admiral Adama, accompanied by his security guards and President Gaius Baltar, stepped out.

Archer stepped forward, offering his hand, as protocol demanded, first to Baltar, then to Adama. "Gentlemen," he said, "welcome aboard the Enterprise."

"Thank you, Captain," Baltar said.

Archer introduced his companion. "Mr. President, Admiral, allow me to present Subcommander T'Pol, my second in command."

Archer saw the eyes of both Baltar and Adama widen a bit as they took in T'Pol's pointed ears, upswept eyebrows, and greenish brown skin. Baltar stepped forward and offered his hand, smiling. "I'm very pleased to meet you, Subcommander," he said. Adama did likewise. Both men could not help staring a bit at the first alien being they had ever encountered. Baltar could not help noticing the curves of T'Pol's body which were well-displayed by the Vulcan uniform she wore.

T'Pol noticed their attention, and her right eyebrow quirked upward, just a bit, in bemusement. But she did not make an issue of it. "Welcome to the Enterprise," she said.

Looking at Archer, Baltar said,"I regret that we've had no opportunity to be formally introduced, although, as I recall, you were present at a meeting I attended with Admiral Adama." He smiled sardonically.

Archer smiled in return. "Yes, I recall that as well, Mr. President," he replied. "I hope that our present meeting is brought about by happier circumstances."

"Unfortunately, it is not, Captain," Admiral Adama said.

"I see," Archer said, frowning. "Well, if you'll follow me, we can discuss this in a more comfortable setting."

A few minutes later, Archer and T'Pol sat with Adama and Baltar in the Captain's Ready Room, just off the bridge. A Steward, sent by Chef, came in and set down a tray with scones and a pot of steaming tea.

"Thank you, Mr. Taylor," Archer said, smiling.

"You're welcome, Sir," Taylor said, bowing slightly before withdrawing.

"Tea, Gentlemen?" Archer asked.

"Yes, please," Adama said.

"Thank you," Baltar said.

Archer poured three cups, and after adding cream and sugar to Baltar's cup and his own (T'Pol and Adama took their's plain), he set the cups down before his guests. Reaching for a scone, he smiled.

"Well, gentlemen," he said, getting straight to the point, "What's happened?"

Adama took a scone as well before speaking. "Captain, you recall the SAR mission we sent to Caprica to rescue human survivors there?"

"Yes," Archer replied, nodding.

"The mission did not end well," Adama said. "Including the two Caprica survivors rescued, only four people returned alive from the mission. Nearly one hundred irreplaceable officers and men, as well as twenty Raptors, were lost. The loss in pilots was so high that our ability to mount a continuous Combat Air Patrol over the fleet was compromised. If the Cylons were to attack now, our ability to defend the fleet is in question. We felt we had no choice but to jump here immediately."

"Do you expect the Cylons to follow you here?" Archer asked, frowning.

"It's hard to say," Adama replied, shaking his head. "Given that only a massive malfunction in the navigation computer of one of our Raptors allowed us to find you here at all, probably not. But the Cylons have a disturbing habit of finding us when we think that shouldn't be possible."

The frown on Archer's face deepened. If the Cylons do follow them here, he thought to himself, that would be very…inconvenient. Although the weapons technology carried by the Cylons might be a century or more behind that of Earth, if enough Cylons suddenly showed up, it might still be possible for them to damage the ENTERPRISE severely enough to prevent her from carrying out her mission here in the Delphic Expanse. And if that happened...well, he didn't want to think about that. The potential consequences were too horrible to contemplate.

"If the Cylons should come," Baltar asked quickly, "can you protect us, Captain?" He suddenly became aware of the hot breath of the beautiful Cylon "angel" who guided...and tormented...him at her whim, as she whispered in his ear.

"I don't know," Archer said. "At the very least, we'll give them a black eye if they show up here." He smiled, gallantly.

"You saw how small their vessel is," the angel said. "They're not nearly as powerful as we thought they were."

Baltar ignored her, as best he could...as always, her presence left him feeling...aroused. Instead, he focused his attention on Adama. "If the Earthlings can't guarantee the defense of this fleet, then why did you bring us here, Admiral?" he demanded.

"Mr. President," Archer said before Adama could respond, "it was never our intention that the ENTERPRISE should be tasked with protecting your fleet. We don't intend that you will remain here very long...even if the Cylons don't follow, this is a dangerous area. The space outside this immediate area contains dangerous anomalies which can wreck your vessels and kill your people. And there are a number of hostile alien species in this region, not least the Xindi, who we came here to find." He sighed. "We shortly expect to receive a reply to a message I sent to Earth a few days ago. If, as I expect, we gain permission for your fleet to take refuge in our home star system, you will be protected, I assure you."

Baltar felt the angel's soft lips kissing him on the neck. He knew what she was about. If he wouldn't listen to her or acknowledge her, she often tormented him this way, just for the fun of it. The teasing was making it very difficult to focus on the business at hand. The room suddenly felt very hot. "Stop it!" he blurted out.

"Excuse me, Mr. President?" Archer asked, confused.

"I'm sorry, Captain," Baltar said. He wiped sweat from his brow. "I'm suddenly feeling...out of sorts..."

"Should I summon the ship's doctor?" Archer asked.

"No, no," Baltar said. "Perhaps if I might lie down for a bit..."

"Certainly, Mr. President," Archer replied. He stood up and walked over to the companel on the wall. Pressing the intercom button, he said, "Hoshi, could you come in here, please?"

"Aye, Sir," Hoshi's voice said. A moment later, the door to the wardroom opened, and Ensign Sato came in.

"Hoshi, President Baltar is feeling a bit under the weather. Could you escort him to guest quarters?" Archer said.

"Of course, Captain," Hoshi said. Her eyes met Baltar's, and her head cocked ever so slightly with interest.

Baltar stood up. "Thank you, Captain," he said, then bowed slightly to Hoshi. "And to you as well." He stepped forward and offered his hand. The young ensign took it, and to her surprise, Baltar bent and kissed her gently on the knuckle. Hoshi smiled, blushing slightly. Baltar saw the angel standing in the door.

"She's much too young for you, Gaius," she said in a huff.

Baltar ignored her, and instead smiled at Hoshi. "Shall we go? After you," he said, gesturing toward the door. Hoshi walked right through the angel without seeing her, and Baltar followed, barely suppressing a grin as he did so.

"The President is quite the ladies man," Archer remarked to Adama once the two were out of earshot.

"So I've heard," Adama said, smiling wanly. Adama knew, via the grapevine which ran through every battlestar, of Baltar's success with the opposite sex. To his disgust, even Kara Thrace, who Adama considered almost a daughter, had once succumbed to Baltar's charms. Shaking his head, he put Baltar out of his mind. "When do you expect to receive the reply from Earth?"

"Two days from now," Archer said. "The hybrid scout ship we constructed from components of one of your Raptors and one of our Shuttlepods, using the factory facilities aboard your vessel PEGASUS, has already proven very useful. It enabled us to reach one of the subspace relays we left behind on our way here to the Delphic Expanse and get a message to Earth for the first time in nearly six months. Without it, we wouldn't have been able to let Earth know about you at all."

"I'm glad we could help," Adama said. "If there's anything else we can do, you have only to ask."

"Admiral, I've been giving some thought to that very issue," Archer said, "and now that you're here, I'd like to run some ideas past you."

"I'm listening," Adama said, his interest piqued. "What did you have in mind?"

"I've been reconsidering our strategy in the search for the Xindi, since learning of your capabilities," Archer said. "I think a fundamental change in our operations could be beneficial, which you can make possible." He stood up and walked over to the viewport, which, at the moment, was oriented toward the planet, rotating slowly below them. "One of the major problems we've encountered since arriving here in the Delphic Expanse is the spatial anomalies I spoke of earlier," Archer went on. "We've found a substance called Trellium D which can be used to line the hulls of starships in order to shield them from the anomalies, but because the mineral is a neurotoxin deadly to some of our non-human crew-members, we cannot line the hull of the ENTERPRISE with it." He turned back to Adama. "The scout vessels can all be lined with Trellium D, and, with human crews, they can operate among the anomaly fields with impunity."

"We'll be glad to assist with that," Adama said.

"There is an asteroid field near here which is rich in Trellium A, which can be refined into Trellium D," Archer went on. "I understand you have vessels among your fleet which are equipped for asteroid mining operations?"

"We do. We use them to mine Tylium and other strategic minerals," Adama said.

"One of those vessels will prove very useful," Archer said. "Because we are going to need a lot of Trellium for what I have in mind." Archer moved back to his seat and sat down.

"What did you have in mind, Captain?" Adama asked.

"Two things," Archer replied. "First, rather than continue to wander about the Delphic Expanse in search of the Xindi, I propose that we set up a base here and conduct the search with hybrid scout vessels of the type we've recently constructed and tested. I want to construct several more of the hybrid scouting vessels, and line their hulls with Trellium D. This should allow us to greatly accelerate our search for the base where the Xindi are constructing the weapon by which they intend to destroy the Earth."

"That's a good idea," Adama said. "And we'll be happy to help all we can to carry it out."

"Establishing a base of operations here will also allow us to complete the second part of my proposal, which will take some doing, but I think we can carry it out," Archer said. "Since it's not practical to line the hull of the ENTERPRISE with Trellium D, or to give it the FTL jump capability enjoyed by your vessels, I propose that the ENTERPRISE remain here as a command and control vessel to coordinate the search for the Xindi. Once the Xindi are located, we will confront them aboard one of your battlestars. Before we send it on to Earth, we will line the hull of that vessel with Trellium D as well."

"But you and your security officer had said that our battlestars would be completely vulnerable to attack by the Xindi," Adama replied, frowning. Then he smiled sardonically. "I thought our defense technology was, as you put it, antiquated."

"It is," Archer said. "However, based on the specifications you provided to us regarding your vessels, they are heavily armored. Commander Tucker, our engineer, feels that it should be possible to polarize that armor as we do the hull plating of the ENTERPRISE. Doing so would increase the defensive value of your armor by a factor of ten."

"I see," Adama said. "And how would you do that?"

"With power from the fusion reactors which power your sublight engines," Archer said.

"All right, that make us defensible," Adama said. "But, what about weapons? You and your security chief indicated that our weapons technology would be ineffective against Xindi warships."

"That's true," Archer said. "But those can be upgraded too. We could do that out here in the Delphic Expanse, if we had no other option. The phase cannons currently on ENTERPRISE were installed while we were in deep space. Some were assembled from parts we had on hand and others were fabricated on the spot. Our engineers were able to do that in less than two days." He smiled. "But your FTL drive gives us a better option. We can send you on to Earth, where they can upgrade your vessel much faster and efficiently than we could do here, and have you back in a couple of weeks."

"All right," Adama said. "That sounds feasible. And of course we will be happy to assist you."

"Thank you,"Archer said, smiling.

"Which of the battlestars did you want?" Adama asked.

"GALACTICA, I think," Archer said. "It's the smaller of the two, and the time it will take to coat the hull with Trellium D will be considerably less. Besides, PEGASUS is far more useful to us as a factory ship."

"I agree on both counts," Adama said.

"If you didn't have to bother with manning your current weapons or maintaining your Viper squadrons in combat readiness, how many crewmen would you need to run the GALACTICA?" Archer asked.

"I'm not sure," Adama asked. " We'd still need a full engineering staff, and support staff for the Raptors or hybrid scout vessels. We'd want to keep our complement of marines for security and defense against boarding parties, as well as damage control teams, medical staff, and so forth. But certainly the majority of the crew could be removed as unnecessary."

"Good," Archer said. "The fewer of your people we have to risk on this mission, the better." He smiled again, wanly. "There aren't many of you left."

"So say we all," Adama said quietly.

"So say we all," Archer repeated.

STARFLEET HEADQUARTERS, SAN FRANCISCO, UNITED EARTH, 26 OCTOBER 2153, EARTH STANDARD CALENDAR

Admiral Maxwell Forrest, a stocky man of medium height with closely cropped, graying honey blond hair and a stern face marked by a prominent aquiline nose and green eyes, sat in his office at Starfleet Headquarters, looking out of one of the large windows which provided him with a sweeping vista of Horseshoe Bay and the ancient, but still intact and strikingly beautiful, Golden Gate Bridge. In his mid-fifties, Forrest was the Chief of Starfleet Operations, and among his many duties he had been in charge of supervising the NX project which had constructed the U.S.S. ENTERPRISE. After the launch of that now-famous vessel, he had overseen the mission of the ENTERPRISE, often sparring with the Vulcans and others who thought the mission ought to be curtailed. Now he had been burdened with the awesome responsibility of defending the Earth from the looming Xindi threat.

As he looked out of his office windows, he reflected on these burdens, and as he did so, he reflected on the content of the message he had received just that morning, via Prime Minister Nathan Samuels, from Captain Jonathan Archer of the U.S.S. ENTERPRISE. Archer, in addition to his message to Samuels advising the Earth government of the encounter with the survivors of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol and their petition to enter the Sol System seeking protection from their enemies, the Cylons, had sent a compressed data stream detailing specifications of the Colonial warship known as the Battlestar GALACTICA. Archer's idea was that, while the weapons and other technology...aside from the faster-than-light drive...carried by the Battlestar were primitive compared to current Earth technology, it could be upgraded fairly easily by installing a new sensor array, adding the equipment necessary to polarize the existing hull plating and installing phase cannon and tubes to fire photonic torpedoes.

At the moment he was waiting for Commander Roderick "Rod" Barclay, the Chief Yard Engineer of the San Francisco Fleet Yards, the largest and most important starship construction and repair facility possessed by United Earth. Forrest had sent Barclay the specifications and schematics of the GALACTICA, and asked him to judge the feasibility of Archer's plan. If any place in the Sol System could handle such a job, Forrest knew it was the San Francisco Fleet Yards.

Of course, as Forrest knew, the yards had their origin the old San Francisco Navy Yard which had served the Pacific Fleet of the old United States Navy, and so, the name had been retained. But these days, very little of the said yards were actually in San Francisco. Most of it was in orbit above the Earth itself, where the construction of space vessels was conducted most efficiently and cost-effectively due to the zero gravity environment and ready access to material mined in the asteroid field and elsewhere in the solar system. And that's why it was such a useful facility. Similar facilities were under construction in orbit around the Moon and Mars orbit, but Forrest knew they were far from completion. Forrest just hoped the San Francisco Yards could handle the job Archer had proposed.

At that moment, the door to Forrest's office opened and his secretary, a pretty young ensign named Maria Gutierrez, stuck her head inside. "Commander Barclay is here, Admiral."

"Thank you, Ensign. Send him in," Forrest replied. Gutierrez smiled and stepped away from the door as Barclay, a tall man with a head of wavy, dark brown hair, brown eyes, and a beard cut in the "Van Dyke" style which made him look somewhat piratical, walked in.

''Always good to see you, Commander Barclay!" Forrest said, smiling, as he rose from his seat, extending his hand.

Barclay came to attention and saluted before taking Forrest's hand. "Likewise, Admiral."

"Please be seated," Forrest said as he returned to his own chair. Barclay sat down in the chair provided for him, in front of the Admiral's desk. "Thank you for coming on such short notice, Commander," Forrest continued. "Have you had a chance to review the schematics and specifications I sent to you?"

"Yes, Sir," Barclay said. "A most interesting design!"

"What do you think of Captain Archer's ideas for upgrading the vessel with our technology?" Forrest asked. "Do you think your facility can handle the job?"

"I think so, Sir," Barclay said. "Although we don't presently have a dock large enough to handle such an enormous vessel, we shouldn't need such a facility to conduct the type of upgrades Captain Archer has in mind. Most of the work can be completed by teams of engineers working inside the ship itself, or using jet packs and environmental suits to work on the outer surface of the ship."

"ENTERPRISE carries fourteen phase cannon at present, and several torpedo tubes," Forrest said. "Archer wants to place several times that many aboard the GALACTICA. Do you foresee a problem with that?"

"Well," Barclay said, stroking his beard thoughtfully, "the main issue is going to be power. I don't think the relatively primitive fusion reactors which power their sublight engines will be enough, quite frankly. If I had my druthers, I'd rip out the sublight engines completely and put in a proper impulse drive."

"Time is of the essence, Commander," Forrest said, frowning.

"I know, I know, Admiral," Barclay said quickly. "But I have an alternate solution that should do in a pinch."

"Oh?" Forrest asked, interested. "What do you have in mind?"

"As you know, the Starship COLUMBIA is under construction, even as we speak. The warp engines have yet to be installed. If we took the antimatter reactor which was intended to power the COLUMBIA's warp drive, and instead installed it aboard the GALACTICA, there would be ample power for as many weapons and other systems as we choose to install aboard her, given that none of its output would be used for propulsion." He smiled wanly. "It seems a shame to use such an advanced reactor for simple power generation and not for warp drive as it was intended, but it is available."

Forrest looked off into space for a moment, deep in thought. "If we installed reinforced power conduits and plasma relays aboard the GALACTICA to service the weapons, could we use the surplus power to increase the power output of the phase cannon beyond the recommended five hundred gigajoules?"

Barclay smiled slowly. "Yes, Sir," he said. "I believe we could. Indeed, given sufficient reinforcement, the output might be several times that." He grinned. "We could give them enough punch to vaporize a fair-sized asteroid with one shot."

STARFLEET HEADQUARTERS, SAN FRANCISCO, UNITED EARTH, 26 OCTOBER 2153, EARTH STANDARD CALENDAR

As he looked out of his office windows, he reflected on these burdens, and as he did so, he reflected on the content of the message he had received just that morning, via Prime Minister Nathan Samuels, from Captain Jonathan Archer of the U.S.S. ENTERPRISE. Archer, in addition to his message to Samuels advising the Earth government of the encounter with the survivors of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol and their petition to enter the Sol System seeking protection from their enemies, the Cylons, had sent a compressed data stream detailing specifications of the Colonial warship known as the Battlestar GALACTICA. Archer's idea was that, while the weapons and other technologies carried by the Battlestar...aside from the faster-than-light drive...were primitive compared to current Earth technology, the vessel could be upgraded fairly easily by installing a new sensor array, adding the equipment necessary to polarize the existing hull plating and installing phase cannon and tubes to fire photonic torpedoes.

Of course, as Forrest knew, the yards had their origin the old San Francisco Navy Yard which had served the Pacific Fleet of the old United States Navy, and so, the name had been retained. But these days, very little of the said yards were actually in San Francisco. Most of it was in orbit above the Earth itself, where the construction of space vessels was conducted most efficiently and cost-effectively due to the zero gravity environment and ready access to material mined in the asteroid field and elsewhere in the solar system. And that's why it was such a useful facility. Similar facilities were under construction in orbit around the Moon and in Mars orbit, but Forrest knew they were far from completion. Forrest just hoped the San Francisco Yards could handle the job Archer had proposed.

At that moment, the door to Forrest's office opened and his secretary, a pretty young ensign named Maria Gutierrez, stuck her head inside. "Commander Barclay is here, Admiral."

"Thank you, Ensign. Send him in," Forrest replied. Gutierrez smiled and stepped away from the door as Barclay, a tall man with a head of wavy, dark brown hair, brown eyes, and a beard, cut in the "Van Dyke" style, which made him look somewhat piratical, walked in.

''Always good to see you, Commander Barclay!" Forrest said, smiling, as he rose from his seat, extending his hand.

Barclay came to attention and saluted before taking Forrest's hand. "Likewise, Admiral."

"Yes, Sir," Barclay said. "A most interesting design!"

"What do you think of Captain Archer's ideas for upgrading the vessel with our technology?" Forrest asked. "Do you think your facility can handle the job?"

"Time is of the essence, Commander," Forrest said, frowning.

"I know, I know, Admiral," Barclay said quickly. "But I have an alternate solution that should do in a pinch."

"Oh?" Forrest asked, interested. "What do you have in mind?"

"Given the capabilities of the FTL drive technology we are about to receive from the Colonials," Forrest said, "the COLUMBIA is basically obsolete now anyway. Take the sensor array out of her and put it on the GALACTICA as well. We'll need to design ships capable of carrying the FTL jump drive, and putting more resources into vessels of the NX design no longer makes sense."

"Sir," Barclay said, "before you make that decision, I think I should bring up one other issue with Archer's plan which has occurred to me. The GALACTICA, although equipped with the advanced FTL Jump Drive, is not equipped with warp drive. If she gets into a confrontation with the Xindi, what's to stop the Xindi from simply going to warp and escaping? Without knowing where they are fleeing to, the GALACTICA can't follow."

Now Forrest's frown gave his face a bulldog-like appearance. "That could be a problem, Commander. So you're saying that Archer's plan really isn't feasible, after all?"

"No, no," Barclay said. "Not at all. Since we don't have time to install warp drive on the GALACTICA...and the hull really isn't designed for it anyway...I would like to suggest an alternate solution."

"What solution?" Forrest asked.

"Back in the 20th century, various nations, especially the United States, experimented with the concept of 'parasite' aircraft," Barclay said. "These were fighter aircraft carried to the combat zone by bombers, released by them over the combat zone, and which then were picked up by the bombers after combat was finished and returned with them to their base. I think we could install an apparatus on the dorsal surface of the GALACTICA which would allow the ENTERPRISE to be carried as a 'parasite' during FTL jumps, then released once the GALACTICA reached its destination. Indeed, there is enough ample room atop the GALACTICA to carry three starships of similar size in such a manner. The ENTERPRISE could assist the GALACTICA during its confrontation with the enemy, and then, if necessary, pursue them if they go to warp."

Forrest smiled. Leave it to Commander Barclay to come up with an ingenious solution like that, he thought to himself. I would never have considered that possibility. "That's good thinking, Commander," he said.

"Of course we'll have to do some trial runs to determine if a starship transported in such a manner can withstand the stresses of the FTL jump," Barclay said.

"Well," Forrest said, "we have a few old DY-100 and DY-500 ships in mothballs at the Titan Surplus Depot. We could tow a couple of these to Earth to be used for test purposes."

"Thank you, Sir," Barclay said.

"Are there any more objections or concerns?" Forrest asked.

"No, Sir," Barclay replied.

"Then let's do it!" Forrest ordered.

"Yes, Sir!" Barclay exclaimed, his excitement building over the new project. "I'll order my engineers to get started on it immediately!"

"Good," Forrest said. "You are dismissed, Commander."