WHEREABOUTS OF THE FUTURE

PART I

"U.S.S. Ryvius's actions are nothing more then blatant violence against Starfleet and the Federation as a result of a deliberate misinterpretation of what we stand for.

We must stand against to vile and inexcusable behaviour.

As Vice-President of the United Federation of Planets, I implore all races within the area of the Briar Patch to give us their full co-operation in the capture of the U.S.S. Ryvius. The Federation's resolve in this matter is unwavering…"

"You have to admit," an aide sighed, "he sure loves the camera,"

"And the camera loves him," James sighed as he rubbed his eyes, "What made him a good running partner,"

James Sheppard was the current President of the United Federation of Planets. He was getting on in years, shown mostly by his fading grey hair and wrinkled face, and slightly expanded girth. Once upon a time, he'd been an ambassador for Earth, and it was his work during that time that had eventually pushed him up to the highest seat in the land, so to speak.

However when he'd first started the job, the last thing he'd expected was to be dealing with something like this.

"It appears they have the situation completely under control," The aide gazed at the now blank screen thoughtfully, "They wouldn't be broadcasting this otherwise,"

"To be frank, I didn't expect them to be so well prepared," James sat back in his chair, "It's as if they foresaw these events could occur,"

"It's an outrage!" another aide slammed his fist down on the desk, "They've blocked us at every turn!"

"Indeed," The Vulcan Starfleet Admiral nodded thoughtfully, "However the fact of the matter is that in spite of all of their planning, the U.S.S. Ryvius still wonders the Briar Patch alone. This leaves an opportunity for us open,"

"Well, at least that's something," James nodded as he leant forward on his desk, turning to his aide, "Did you get the documents I requested?"

"Yes sir," the first aide produced a battered padd from his folder, "It took us a while, but we managed to secure a copy of Section 31's Operation report."

"Is Marcus aware of it's disappearance?"

"No sir. We insured the Vice-President had no knowledge of our actions. If you don't mind me asking sir, if you knew Mr. Tucker was an agent of Section 31, why did you take him up as your running partner?"

Sheppard smiled wearily, "It's an age old saying, though to be fair I was only made aware of Marcus's loyalty recently:

You keep your friends close, but your enemies closer,"

Later that night, James sat quietly in his office, the battered padd in hand.

He had been staring at it for a good hour now, half eager to discover Section 31's intentions, half afraid of what it could mean if the mission had been successful.

Finally, with a shuddering sigh, he activated the padd, and began to read it's contents, which went as follows.

SECTION 31 MISSION FILE: YS44

CODENAME: VECKER

MISSION DRAFTED: STARDATE 66199.3

MISSION COMMENCING: STARDATE 67198.3
Posing as crew assigned to the station, two special agents of Section 31 infiltrate the Starfleet Academy training facility of Starbase Delta, located in orbit of the Ba'ku moon of Nubian.

Their assignment: To alter the course of the Starbase and capture the Vaea ship concealed within her central core.

STARDATE: 67200.18

In accordance with her own maintenance schedule, Starbase Delta descends into Shear One in order to avoid being crushed by the Briar Sea at a later date.

STARDATE: 67200.20

The Dive commences.

It should be noted that at this time, that the students and civilians of the Ship Attendant Program were currently on a break, many returning to their respective homeworlds, or visiting the nearby planets or moons such as Ba'ku, Hyperion V and Noloben.

According to collective documents recovered from the various starships leaving Starbase Delta between Stardates 67199.10 and 67200.18, all two hundred officers, crew, and lecturers of the Ship Attendant Program, as well as an estimation of around five hundred Starfleet cadets and Civilians participating in the Ship Attendant program (Total.) remained on board.

"You left seven hundred innocent souls to die for the sake of one starship?" Sheppard's eyes narrowed, "Marcus, you bastard!"

STARDATE: 67201.3

Second phase commences.

In order to make it appear as though Starbase was lost due to an accident during the Dive, the operatives would change the depth to which The Delta would sink.

It should be noted at this time that on Stardate 67001.9, two weeks prior to the above date, the Excelsior class vessel U.S.S. Nevada, due for decommissioning, was posted to Deep Space Twelve at the last moment, officially to take part in battle exercises, under the command of Captain Steven Conrad.

STARDATE: 67201.12

On the verge of being crushed at the hands of the Briar Sea, the remaining Starfleet Officers and crew, under the command of Commander Jason Campbell, attempted a daring operation to purge the Central Saucer of the Starbase in an effort to slow their decent into the Sea.

STARDATE: 67201.13

The Central Core, now devoid of her Central Saucer and other external machinery, descends down to a depth of three, six, seven, Shear Two, at the reduced speed of 0.001 Herschels.

STARDATE: 67202.1

U.S.S. Nevada, now fully refitted for deep dives into the Briar Sea, latches onto the Central Core via the use of specially enhanced grapple guns, just as she is on the verge of Shear Three.

The crew attempt to carry out their plan to crush the Central Core, the four kilometre long section containing the Vaea vessel.

STARDATE: 67202.2

U.S.S. Nevada forced to abandon operation, the reason being the Vaea ship is activated by unknown circumstances.

The Vaea vessel, now released from the grip of the Nevada, continues to rise until it breaches the Briar Sea, returning to the Briar Patch.

MISSION DEEMED: FAILURE

END REPORT

James sighed as he rubbed his eyes, trying to blink away the itchy tiredness due to him staring at the padd for too long. He had to keep going, he had another report to get through.

SECTION 31 MISSION FILE: YS57

CODENAME: MIR

MISSION DRAFTED: STARDATE 67204.9

MISSION COMMENCING: STARDATE 67206.11

Nebula class vessel U.S.S. Tandel, accompanied by Luna class vessels U.S.S. Luna and U.S.S. Cruithne, is deployed. With the Tandel acting as a command ship, the Luna and Cruithne were to intercept the Vaea ship, and capture it using advanced control thrusters to hack into the ship's computers and move the ship in this manner.

STARDATE: 67206.14

The Vaea ship activates fully.

U.S.S. Luna and U.S.S. Cruithne are destroyed with all hands by Transphasic torpedoes, launched from the Vaea ship's replication torpedo launchers. The U.S.S. Tandel is then disabled via Graviton torpedo.

Soon after this event, the Vaea ship dived back into the depths of the Briar Sea, and is lost on sensors.

MISSION DEEMED: FAILURE

END REPORT.

Sheppard set the padd down on his desk, before turning to face his window, overlooking the city below him.

"A System that worked once fourteen years ago, now completely operational. However, it would still require a…what did they call it? A Sphix to operate it. Who could be controlling the system? And so efficiently?

Who could be control the Ryvius…now?

"A few items in question, such as the supposedly decommissioned U.S.S. Nevada attacking us, and the changing data we have on our shielding, appears to be implanted for the simple objective to deceive us," Serek explained as we sat around the Bridge, "It would bring about the most logical conclusion as to why all of our hails and distress signals have gone unanswered. No doubt Section 31 has been monitoring our frequencies and blocking our messages where appropriate," He looked up from his console to Blue, "It would appear that Section 31 is indeed more powerful then many people perceive them to be,"

"Tell me Mr. Vulcan," Joey spat angrily, "Exactly how does this wonderful news help us in our current situation?"

"It doesn't," Serek raised an eyebrow at Joey, "I was merely stating what we know so far from our encounters with Section 31 at this time,"

Joey rolled his eyes, "Git,"

"Well this is just great," Chris threw his hands up in the air with exasperation, "We've gone from Refugees to terrorists in nothing flat!"

"Well, let's see now," Robert of the Vital Guarder operators (Who had joined us on the Bridge.) threw a dirty look at the disgruntled Zwei, "We're a four kilometre megaton battleship, armed to the teeth with phasers, torpedoes of every design and a giant robot that can warp gravity. Since we left Nubian orbit we've not only unintentionally destroyed two Luna class starships, but blasted the Fourth Fleet and god knows what else in our way just to get back to Ba'ku. And you're wondering why the guys down at Starfleet Command suddenly braded us as terrorists?"

"You're not suggesting this is our fault!?" Marco turned on his friend, "This ain't our fault man, the Zwei told us to fly the stupid thing!"

"Would you two shut it!?!" Carlos glared at the scuffling pair, "There's no point in arguing about the past. What's done is done, we can't change that,"

I glanced out of the corner of my eye at Kurt, who had narrowed his eyes at Carlos to the point of slits.

"Carlos…makes a good point," Juli sighed, fiddling with her bangs, "Let's just…try to agree on what we're gonna do next,"

Silence reigned over the Bridge for a few minutes, the only sound coming from the gently beeping consoles, and the heavy thumping of my heart against my chest.

"Whatever we believe," Juli sighed after the silence became deafening, "We must accept the fact Starfleet has braded us as terrorists. Barring any more news releases, we have four real choices:

First: we disable Deep Space Twelve and forcibly dock with the Starbase and explain our side of the story.

Second: We leave Ba'ku Orbit and set a course for Earth or one of the neighbouring habitable planets that will hear our plea and take us in.

Third: We find a suitable un-inhabited Class M world will can land on and wait for rescue there.

Or Fourth: We Abandon ship and surrender to Starfleet Command,"

Another silence came after this speech, everyone clearly thinking about the choices before us.

"I think landing is out of the question," Kevin said after a while, "Starfleet hasn't found many M-class or other kinds of habitable worlds around the Briar Patch or the surrounding area. There are a few, but they're so remote we'd never be found. As for docking, this ship would make short work of Deep Space Twelve's defences,"

"And we could prove our innocence by submitting the Ryvius's logs to the JAG office," Anina pointed out.

"In case you've forgotten, we've gotten no response to our hails," I sighed, "I don't see a friendly dialogue with anyone over there right now. Besides if we shoot at them they're not exactly going to be any friendlier towards us,"

"I believe this would rule out the first and third options," Fina bowed her head sadly.

"What about habitable planets?" Chris suggested, "There's Noloben…Hyperion V, I think we're only a sector away from the Klingon Border…"

"We have Ba'ku and other Federation citizens on board," Charlie ran a hand through his pale hair, "I don't think anyone would approve of trying to seek asylum with the Klingons,"

"Never mind the fact we get the same problem as if we shoot the Starbase," Joey grunted, "We'd just be confirming in the eyes of command that we are terrorists,"

"That would leave surrender," Serek said quietly.

"No way man!" Marco stared at the Vulcan, "That would just be admitting that we are criminals!"

"I am not going to just sit here waiting to die!" Rai slammed his fist against a nearby Bulkhead with venom, "There must be something we can do!"

"Daniel," Joey suddenly turned his attention to me, "You know the general opinion of the people, what do they think?"

"I've gotten responses from two hundred and seventy five people," I muttered as I brought up my data on my console, "Most just want us to contact Deep Space Twelve, or head out of the Patch and try to reach Starfleet Command,"

"Are they freaking nuts!?" Rai glared at me, "Can't they get it through their thick skulls that they'll treat us like terrorists!?!"

"They don't realise what's going on," Fina murmured.

"Most of the crew wasn't involved in the actual battle," Marco agreed.

"Alan Blue," Juli turned to the leader, "You're the Captain, what's your opinion?"

"I have none," Blue replied dryly without hesitation, "You guys figure this one out,"

"You've been awfully quiet back there Wayneright," Joey suddenly turned on Kurt, "You got a opinion on this?"

"Not particularly no," Kurt replied in the same dry manner that Blue had used a moment ago.

"In case you've forgotten Kurt," I growled, "this is a problem that concerns the lives of five hundred people, yours included!"

"What's the point?" Kurt shot me a pointed look, "No matter what I or anyone else says, we're just gonna end up doing what he," He jerked his head in Blue's direction," wants to do,"

Blue smirked slightly at my brother, before closing his eyes and settling back in the command chair, figuring the phaser lightly in his hand.

"As per your orders sir," Jon sighed as he read his report from a Padd to the Vice-President, "Agents have been planted on all Starships currently residing within the Patch. We also have men planted on Noloben and Hyperion V. You should be able to make an official statement within a few days,"

"Very good Jonathan," Marcus smiled in what Jon thought was an attempted fatherly way, "Anything else?"
"Any and all material we have concerning the operation has been recorded and delivered. You should be able to review it the day after tomorrow,"

"And you made sure all communications and distress signals were deleted from the computer database?"

Sloan rolled his eyes, "As you told me too,"

"Excellent," Marcus rose from his chair, ("My chair," Jon thought bitterly,) This will be a historic day for us Jon. We will capture the Ryvius. There's no stopping it now. We've come too far. It's all falling in to place. With the help of the Vaea," He smiled gently, "I will become…invincible,"