The Obsidian exchanged fire with the two attacking Iotian starships. She spiralled between them. Her phaser fire struck its targets. The Iotians' fixed mount phaser array was unable to track the UFP ship.
Having passed the two imminent threats, the surveyor loosed four torpedoes, two each for the ships engaging the Iotian Starfleet HQ. The torpedoes caught the broadsides of each ship. Visible damage was inflicted. Daggit repeated the volley and the starships staggered. The Obsidian shuddered as phaser fire pummelled her aft shields.
Grace flipped the ship over and Daggit rapidly fired eight torpedoes, four for each ship. He followed this up with multiple phaser blasts. The Iotian ships halted their advance and Riker yelled, "Now!"
Grace settled the privateer vessel right between the two stricken Iotian ships and Daggit unleashed the phaser arrays on the engineering hulls of the two Iotians. Their shields, already fluctuating, collapsed completely. Within moments, the bridge was receiving urgent hails from the two Iotian commanders.
"Put them on screen, T'Kir." Macen commanded.
Each Iotian captain appeared alongside the other. Both looked panic stricken.
"I'm Brin Macen, Captain of the UFP starship Obsidian. I will now accept your surrender." Macen informed them.
"Please," one of the Iotians pleaded, "We're down to just the batteries. If you attack us again, we'll lose life support."
The female captain was more composed, "I offer terms of surrender."
"No terms." Macen replied, "Unconditional surrender or absolute destruction."
She pondered this ultimatum while her compatriot whimpered. Finally, she nodded, "I accept, on behalf of both our ships."
"Can you get your comrade to agree?" Macen enquired.
"He's crippled." the female captain replied, "Besides, he's weak. He'll follow whatever example I set…except to fight."
"Then can you persuade the crews of the ship fighting the station to surrender?" Macen asked.
"Possibly." the woman replied warily, "Why?"
"If they're still engaging the station by the time my ship reaches them, they'll be destroyed with no quarter given."
The woman's eyes narrowed, "You're a hard man, Captain. I can see why Solarian Security Systems wants you dead."
"And how would you know that?" Macen wondered.
"This is the second time I've engaged you, Captain." the Iotian grinned ruefully, "You left me damaged last time but nothing to compare with this turn of events."
"I suggest you signal your comrades." Macen urged, "It could save their lives."
Macen terminated the signal and turned to T'Kir, "They are crippled aren't they?"
"They're both on batteries and trying to get auxiliary power back on line." T'Kir reported.
"Once they get auxiliary power back, could they pose a threat?"
Danan shook her head, "They could possibly fire their phasers a few times or activate the self destruct sequence but that's about it. They've perfectly duplicated Federation technology. That includes its weaknesses."
"Thanks Lees." Macen acknowledged, "Let's hope you're right."
"It doesn't look like they're going for it." Riker noted as the Obsidian closed into weapons range.
"Dammit." Macen muttered, "Where's Scipio and his Romans?"
"Brin!" T'Kir called out, "I have multiple bogeys inbound for the inner system. They appear to be the Roman starships.
"On screen." Macen and Riker ordered in unison.
Six Eagle-class scoutships could be seen escorting six Banner-class assault ships. The Eagles opened fire on the three Iotian raiders attacking the Enterprise and the surviving, but crippled, Miranda. Heavy phaser barrages from the Banner- class warships finished off these ships.
The two Mercury-class starships engaging the station hailed the invading Roman forces and immediately surrendered. Scipio hailed Macen.
"Greetings Commander," Scipio placed his fist over his heart, "You seem to have accounted for yourself this day."
"Just a little space combat and overthrowing a President." Macen replied nonchalantly, "Nothing much."
Scipio's lips curled into a wry smile, "So, once again you have been empire building."
Macen wanted to protest but he knew Scipio had him, "The Hereditary President's heir is being put back into office. A regent will be elected to watch over him until he achieves his majority."
"It sounds nice and tidy but you still altered the course of a sovereign planet's development." Scipio grinned now, "What would your Federation say about your violating their most sacred law?"
Macen knew exactly what the Council of Five would say about it, that and the court-martial tribunal they'd call. It didn't quite seem fair. Starfleet had only opted to reactivate his crew's commissions for just such an event. This way they could all be thrown into the stockade on Jaros II together.
Macen had been quite happy to forgo his former Starfleet rank. It had its uses but now he was beginning to see drawbacks as well. He sighed as he wondered how he was going to talk himself out of this one. The only thing he had going for him was that the Iotian Internal Affairs Division had requested his aid. That would be the cornerstone of his defence.
"Dinar for your thoughts?" Scipio chuckled.
"Just wondering how I would explain this to my employers." Macen admitted.
"They weren't expecting you to fight a private war?" Scipio asked.
"Not exactly." Macen asked with a rueful cast to his voice.
"Your actions have been honourable." Scipio opined, "The Emperor will speak on your behalf. Never fear."
Macen could see getting condemned over involving the Nova Romans as well. Despite their forays into interstellar flight, the Council of Five still considered them a quarantined planet, all contact between UFP personnel and the inhabitants of Magna Roma strictly forbidden. Macen's prior contact with the Romans had been at the Council's behest. This time it had been at his whim. He got a headache imagining the firestorm awaiting him at home.
"Never fear, Commander." Scipio's cheerfulness was annoying, "These things work out for the best."
"We'll see." Macen hedged.
"You what?" Drake's face was red as she shouted into the comm pick up.
"I enlisted the help of the Nova Romans and brought them with me to Iotian space." Macen repeated.
"My God." Drake breathed, "It sounds just as bad the second time through."
"There's more." Macen warned.
Drake's head sunk onto her desk, "Please let it end soon."
"The Iotian Starfleet's Internal Affairs Division was eager to hear our case and to assist us. Unfortunately their chief suspect was the High Admiral Oxmyx, the C-in-C of their Starfleet."
"That shouldn't have been a problem, especially not with a hacker of T'Kir's capabilities." Drake replied.
"Yes, but the criminal alliance between Solarian and the Iotians began after Oxmyx staged a coup and assumed the Presidency." Macen explained.
"Please tell me you didn't overthrow a sovereign government." Drake pinched the tip of her nose.
"We assisted the IA in restoring the rightful heir to the Presidency to office and in capturing Oxmyx for the crimes of treason and conspiracy to commit piracy." Macen described.
"Brin," Drake bemoaned, "you toppled a government."
"I also have all the proof linking Oxmyx to the raids conducted by the Iotians." Macen added, "I also have the links between Oxmyx and representatives of Solarian Security Systems that hired him to conduct these acts of piracy. Each time it occurred, the victim was a potential client of Solarian's. It seems these attacks pushed them into hiring Solarian for protection."
"Why weren't the Iotians trying to get their business?" Drake wondered.
"The trade routes were too far within UFP space for the Iotians to mount a self supporting protective detail but it was just close enough to Iotia to mount a hit and run raid. The Iotian captains and crews got to keep whatever plunder they acquired."
"Good work on the investigation." Drake relented, "I'm staying quiet on the rest until an investigation deems it necessary to try you or acquit you. I'm sending the USS Intrepid to help mop up these events. Admiral Johnson can investigate the Iotian and Roman angles to the case and recommend to the Council whether or not we should prosecute."
Macen smiled, "Of course."
"And don't just stand there grinning. Johnson doesn't owe you anything for getting him out of that Cell 51 detention facility." Drake warned.
"Of course not." Macen grinned.
"He'll be perfectly frank and will examine the evidence impartially."
"That's what I'm counting on." Macen continued to grin.
"Oh," Drake fumed, "you're hopeless. What's your current status?"
"Thanks to a combined effort by the Iotians, the Romans and ourselves, we've captured or destroyed every one of the suspected Iotian raiders." Macen reported.
"Destroyed?" Drake asked flatly.
"Some of the Roman crews were a little enthusiastic." Macen replied.
"Romans." Drake shuddered, "Based upon your last report, they seem rather uncivilised."
"Don't forget that a great deal of your planet's civilisation was based upon Roman legal traditions." Macen countered, "I've taken one of them aboard my ship and made him my Chief Engineer."
"Are you insane?" Drake demanded.
"Parva's been critically wounded. She'll never be able to perform her duties again." Macen explained.
"But a Roman?"
"This Roman is a clone of Hal Dracas." Macen described, "He was looking for a sense of personal identity. I think he's finding it aboard this ship. He helped stave of a mutiny attempt by Solarian saboteurs and he's taken to his new duties with a relish."
"Is he qualified?" Drake had to know.
"He passed all of Starfleet's engineering tests with perfect scores." Macen revealed, "And that was before he studied the tech manuals."
"How is this possible?" Drake wondered, "Your reports listed the Roman ships as being 22nd century analogues."
"Their new Banner-class ships are 24th century equivalents. In fact they may be more advanced than the Luna-class explorers." Macen disclosed.
"That's very disturbing." Drake fretted.
"The technology was a parting gift from the Omicron." Macen explained, "It just took them the last six years to incorporate it into a viable system."
Drake's eyebrows raised, "And you would know this how?"
"Conversations with the Roman Emperor Alaric and with Joachim Dracas." Macen answered.
"So the clone shares his predecessors surname." Drake mused.
"By choice." Macen clarified, "After reading about Hal, Joachim wanted to carry on his legacy."
"It could be a convenient lie." Drake warned.
"It's pretty hard to lie to an empath," Macen countered, "especially one backed by a first rate telepath."
"So," Drake sighed, "where is this 'Dracas' now?"
"In Engineering." Macen supplied, "He'd had to cold start the warp core but hadn't been allowed to stay to oversee the stabilisation of the annihilation reaction."
"Why?"
"Kort detected some anomalies in his genetic structure." Macen explained, "He was an imperfect clone. He soon would have started displaying congenital defects that would have ended his life. It's an error endemic to the Roman cloning process. We've alerted the Roman fleet commander, Titus Scipio. He's transmitting the details home as we speak."
"I'm assuming the Romans want to use their clones as soldiers." Drake remarked dryly.
"They do." Macen replied.
"The thought of cloned Roman Legions marching across the stars doesn't comfort me." Drake admitted, "Perhaps it would have been better if you hadn't mentioned Kort's treatment to them."
"They're not up to genetic resequencing on the scale that Kort implemented." Macen revealed, "It'll be a decade or more before they can treat their first batch of clones much less eliminate the defects out of their cloning facilities."
"This would be so much simpler if you'd held to the quarantine and not reinitiated contact with them." Drake sighed, "Now we have to make contact. They've progressed too far and pose to great of a potential threat. I just hope Robert is up to the job."
Admiral Robert Tavar Johnson was a member of the Council of Five as well as being Starfleet's liaison with the Federation Diplomatic Corps. He was fully credentialed as an ambassador in his own right. The Intrepid was his flagship. It seemed over the last year and a half that Macen's SID team and Johnson's crew had become tightly woven together, assisting each other in moments of need.
"Robert's a good man." Macen offered, "If anyone can strike a bargain with the Iotians and the Romans, it'll be him."
Drake snorted, "I'll pass along your compliments."
"Admiral," Macen paused, "the reason I was calling was to get permission to pursue the Solarian angle to this."
"The Intrepid will resolve the Solarian situation at their Operations Centre." Drake informed him, "I will personally handle things at their Earth based headquarters. My computer engineers aren't T'Kir but they're still awfully damned good."
"Johnson doesn't know what he's walking into." Macen argued, "That entire system will be a trap."
"And you can make the difference needed to overcome this diabolical scheme?"
"Maybe." Macen replied with conviction.
"Okay." Drake relented, "I know better than to argue with you when you're like this. Maybe you're getting some vibe off these 'Currents' you keep talking about. All I know is you never obey orders when you get this way and you're always proven right."
Drake focused her eyes on Macen's image, "Don't take the law into your own hands. I'll give you the approximate time and date of the Intrepid's arrival. Don't take matters into your own hands until they arrive."
"And then I'll take matters into my own hands." Macen grinned victoriously, "Gotcha."
The screen went dark and Drake used a word admirals weren't supposed to know. Macen was going off half-cocked again. He'd had clear parameters for his investigation and look how he'd bollixed that up. Drake was almost afraid to send him out on missions these days. His adventures during the Federation's recent civil disturbances were hair raising at best.
Those had been difficult days when the entire fleet was taking chances. Macen just seemed to take more chances than most. Johnson had been branded an outlaw and Macen seemed determined to do the same. Macen didn't even have the cover of being an active officer and had been branded a pirate. In a worst case scenario, he and his entire crew would have been executed.
As always, Drake wished him luck and said a prayer that her sister would come out all right.
T'Kir looked across Macen's desk from the couch where she was curled up, "She seemed more unhappy than normal."
"Our incursion into Roman territory six years ago set a dangerous precedent." Macen thought aloud, "That pales in comparison with my recruiting them for this mission. Starfleet has to deal with the Iotian crisis which in turn means it has to recognise the Romans' involvement with it. That'll mean recognising the Romans and ending over a hundred years of secrecy around them."
"Sounds like it about time to me." T'Kir asserted.
"Perhaps." Macen mused, "But secrets have a tendency to breed other secrets. I wonder just what we've unravelled here."
"You can bet it'll lead to Section 31." T'Kir quipped.
"Or even a remnant of Cell 51." Macen referred to the rogue splinter group formed out of S31.
"I'd kinda been hopin' to have seen the last of `em." T'Kir drawled.
"Me too." Macen admitted then hesitated, "Why don't we check on Parva?"
"Sounds good." T'Kir unfurled from the couch.
Macen shook his head, "I don't know how you do that."
"Its easy." she smirked and pinched his butt, "You simply tuck here, bend there, and curl this. Easy as pie."
Macen rubbed where she'd pinched and tickled, "What do you know about pie? You always replicate yours."
"D'you want a smackdown?" T'Kir laughed, "I know plenty about pie."
"Prove it." Macen grinned.
"The fruit goes in the crust…end of story." T'Kir jutted her jaw.
Macen kissed her, "Sounds about right to me."
"Then why are you giving me a hard time?" she asked as the Ready Room door opened.
"Argghh." Parva growled in frustration and tossed the padd aside, "I should know this. I know I know this it's just trapped somewhere inside."
Daggit picked up the engineering primer. She'd only answered the most basic of questions and that had largely been guesswork. He handed the padd to the EMH who substituted it for another. Daggit gave it a cursory review.
"How about a little face and name recognition?" Daggit asked cheerfully, "The padd will show you a face. Then you give that person's name, or what they do, or whatever you remember about them. If you get stuck, I can help you."
Parva smiled at him and he leaned in to see from over her head. The first face appeared and Parva frowned.
"I know her." she related, "It's like I know everything about her but her name escapes me."
"That's you." Daggit nudged her, "That's Parva."
"I'm beautiful." Parva remarked.
"I certainly think so." Daggit replied.
Parva leaned back and looked up. She wore a beatific smile, "Hey you."
Daggit leaned down and kissed her. The kiss lingered for several minutes before the EMH cleared her throat. Daggit seemed somewhat chastened but Parva was unrepentant. She stuck her tongue out at the hologram.
The EMH's cheeks coloured and she bustled off. Parva looked up at Daggit, "You're sure she's not real?"
Daggit's eyes narrowed and he replied with, "She certainly seems real enough."
Sickbay's doors opened and Macen and T'Kir strolled in, holding hands.
"You…you're Macen." Parva said as Macen approached her bed.
Macen nodded, "My full name is Brin Macen, but you never called me that."
"You're the Captain of the ship." Parva continued and then her eyes widened, "We're in a ship."
"That's right." Macen grinned, "Can you tell me which ship it is?"
Parva frowned, "No. I can't. I know it's yours though."
Macen squeezed her hand, "It's a start." he pointed at T'Kir, "Do you remember her?"
Parva brightened as she looked to the other side of her bed, "She's T'Kir. You love her like Rab loves me."
"That's putting it mildly." Macen remarked, "Do you know what she can do?"
"Something with computers?" Parva ventured.
"True." Macen nodded, "She can also read minds."
Parva looked over at T'Kir, "Is this true?"
"Yup." T'Kir affirmed.
"Could you read my mind and fix me?" Parva asked, voice bounding with hope.
"Sorry, Honey," T'Kir squeezed her hand, "all I can do is make it better. You'll still have gaps in your memory."
"Anything would be better." Parva sighed, "Will you help me?"
"Of course." T'Kir gathered up both of Parva's hands in hers and closed her eyes.
"What's going on here?" The EMH demanded.
"Just a mind meld to defragment Parva's remaining memories." Macen calmly explained.
"This must stop!" The EMH insisted.
Macen drew his pistol and aimed it at the computer housing the EMH program, "Interfere and I'll delete your program."
The EMH huffed, "I'll have to call Doctor Kort."
"Do what you need to." Macen told her, "This procedure goes ahead unfettered."
Your mind is fractured too. a surprised Parva thought.
More than you know. T'Kir admitted.
Can you help me?
I put myself back together with Brin's help. T'Kir described, I'm fairly certain I can help you.
Brin is Captain Macen, correct? Parva asked with childlike innocence.
I like him.
You didn't always like him in the past. T'Kir felt obliged to point out.
Too bad. He seems very nice.
I think so. T'Kir commented, Now relax. We have to go through your memory and see what you can remember. All of it.