Captain Morgan

by Khartoum

Star Trek 50 years before Kirk & Co.

3. Slavers!

Captain Morgan: Slavers!

The Excellon and its fellow vessels created quite a stir when they arrived at the colony of Ventradin three. All the colonists there had known was that the Excellon would be escorting a single freighter; instead they had shown up with a second shot up freighter with them. The Ventradin colony couldn't do much, as the planet was a giant ocean, except for a few islands scattered around the planet. Hurricanes were a way of life for the colonists, as hurricanes that could orbit the planet twice before reaching landfall were nightmares to think about. The upper portion of the colony was heavily armored, and the colonists there mainly lived underground. Fishing was a way of life, and a small engineering team was working on a way to regulate the hurricanes.

There was a hurricane going on over one of the upper portions of outpost three, but the colonists had developed air and underwater transports to an art. There was no problem involved in simply landing at another outpost and traveling in the air to near outpost three, then ducking underwater to arrive at the one of the colonies. Virtually every colonist was trained in how to operate a submersible, and many besides the pilots were trained how to operate the multi-environment craft that were used.

As the Excellon watched for any predators from space, the Amemnon began transferring cargo from the module to the colony below, and receiving the processed food from there. The colony dealt mainly with seafood, and other marine food production. Vast mats had been set up to encourage shellfish growth, and large areas were bubble tanks, designed to keep schools of fish one location by using bubbles as walls. There were larger predators in the sea, and the local version of the giant squid was always watched out for. The multi-environment craft could easily get away from it by going from water to the air, but the submersibles had only their speed and the defense web near the colonies to stay safe.

Some people had equipped their submersible with various forms of harpoons and explosive torpedoes to hunt the giant squids, and a few people had been lucky enough to succeed. Unfortunately, the meat from a giant squid only appealed to a few people, so there wasn't that much hunting going on. Second, the colony administrator had stripped those who were caught hunting of their license to pilot any craft. There was the added disincentive too, of the fact that the giant squid was in its element, and five ships had been lost hunting the two animals.

Several of the beings that had been used as slaves started looking at the windows suddenly. Asking Ved to translate, Commander Verrin found out that their race came from a similar type of world, and they would like to go down to the planet. After quickly talking to Captain Morgan she got together with the shuttles traveling to the planet, and was able to have the entire group on the planet. They knew that they would only have a short amount of time, so the beings took the opportunity to swim in the water. Seeing how much fun that group was having, Commander Verrin got permission from Captain Morgan to have the entire group of slaves down to the planet, and give them a chance to relax.

That night while on the planet, the freed beings were given a very wonderful meal, as several of the creatures and plants grown underwater agreed with their body's chemistry. There was a wide variety of foods available, giving every species something to try that they would enjoy. There were a couple spear fishing expeditions that occurred and the one race that lived in water joined in, and brought back a record kill.

But even the good times had to come to an end, and all the crews and ex-slaves began returning to the ships, to get their little convoy underway again. The beings who had crewed the Potenton before were fairly skilled in creating outfits, and were preparing a surprise for the Excellon's crew. Several of them had been asking to become part of the crew as official members, but were slightly disappointed when they were told that they would have to go through Starfleet Academy. Commander Verrin began putting together a set of training manuals for them to study with though, so that if they passed the ship-approved exams, they could be shipped off to Starfleet. Ved helped in this endeavor, as he was able to translate the material to the different languages used, and was also taking the time to create a translator program for between the various languages and Starfleet standard.

When the manuals were complete, the beings threw themselves into the manuals, devoting all their time to learning the material within. They knew that only Starfleet was their protection against becoming slaves again, and they wanted to do what they could to prevent that happening to anyone else. The species that was good in water was unusually skilled in three-dimensional combat, and learned it easily, while the two other races had members that were highly skilled in physics, and the other race was skilled in memorization.

Commander Verrin had finally managed to get the names of the three races as well. The water planet beings were called Tuilasin, and the other two races came from planets similar to Earth climate. The Secongo were highly skilled in physics, while the Veichlongosemtifutu were skilled in memorization. They understood that other races were not as skilled as they were in memorization, so they had been shortening their names to four syllables, so that others could easily say them. They had realized that long names took time to repeat in combat, and had no trouble knowing their new names now. There were individual variations in the three species, as one Tuilasin might be good in memorization, while a Secongo might now know as much about physics, but was skilled with machines, while a Veich might be among the deadlier in hand to hand combat.

Captain Morgan was getting concerned these days though, for the Excellon was down to half its fuel supply. Since it took several months for a freighter to arrive, he knew that his ship would be down to one month's fuel left when it arrived. Power-saving measures were not being used though, because the main power-saving measure was to shut down the warp drive and subspace scanners. Given that there were hostile vessels out there that was not a good idea.

But he refused to let that worry him now, and he composed a message to be sent back to starbase 121 that would be sent when he arrived at the next colony. It would be a week before they arrived, so he was able to complete it easily. He heard about what Commander Verrin was doing, and smiled. She was probably enjoying herself over there, with the entire ship under her control, and being able to enjoy every second of it.

Commander Verrin would have disagreed with Captain Morgan at that moment. One of the gravity networks had developed a surge phenomenon, and every few seconds the gravity would suddenly vary to a new value. This value ranged from one third a G, to up to two and a half times normal gravity. She had finally had enough of it, and had ordered the main gravity net shut off while the engineers figured out the problem. Although everybody had been floating around weightless for several hours, the engineers had been able to fix the problem with the power relays, and the gravity was slowly turned back up to one tenth gravity. This was done to allow objects to slowly fall to the deck, instead of having everyone land hard from a sudden restoration.

But the engineers were slowly working around the problems, and finding all the old equipment left behind by the slavers. They were replacing it with working, effective components as they traced their way through the wings and parts of the Potenton. As each component was removed, it was analyzed by the combined engineering teams, and a suitable replacement was found. Several components were found that seemed to combine several functions in them, and they were saved for the engineering teams to look over when they had a chance. New technological ideas might come out of those components, and the engineers on board were known for their curiosity. The fire-control circuits for the large energy cannon were also analyzed, and gone over for any possible loopholes in the circuitry.

When they reached the next stop, the colony of Tentarin five welcomed them. The colony had been hearing about the missing ships, and had been building new sensors to help. They hadn't sent the new sensors out yet, as they had feared that the mysterious raiders would simply capture the sensors initially, and after that because no shuttles had ever come. But when the Excellon had arrived, the colonists were very happy to use the ship as their new guinea pig.

Captain Morgan put a stop to that immediately. He didn't want his ship changed too much, so he had the colonists transport up a working model of their new sensors, along with full information on how it was put together and standard operating limits. The new technology from the Potenton caused the greatest stir, and the Starfleet security on-base had to stop a small riot as the local mad scientist engineers nearly tore each other apart trying to get to the pieces to analyze them. But after the engineers and scientists on the base began working together, they said they would have an initial report ready in a few hours. New components were quickly made by the younger engineers working there, and the Potenton was soon equipped with enough spare components to completely rebuild its electronics.

When the report was given, Captain Morgan felt a new respect for the slavers. The circuitry was designed to withstand repeated blows from heavy physical and electric shocks and keep on working. The main reason his ship had done as well as it had during the first two battles was because the Federation equipment hadn't been able to handle the stress. These components were tough, and though they had failed, it had been the Federation hardware that had failed first. Asking the teams here to see what they could do to improve Federation technology, he left them in a state of excitement as they began tossing out theories on how to improve the computer systems.

Finding a second group, he gave them the information on the slaver's ion weapon, and began asking them how the shields could be better set up to defend against the energy surges. The answer surprised him, as it was similar to what he had said; use the conductive mesh to absorb what energy gets through the shields. When one of the scientists questioned about what to do with the excess energy resulting from the dispersion, an engineer spoke up and said that the power from the battery could be channeled to a laser system, and the laser could be used to fight off the slaver ships.

Several other engineers were startled by the idea, but the idea suddenly came into focus for them, and they began getting to work on the system. It eventually was designed to use a triple battery system. One battery would be charging, one being made ready to charge, and a charged battery being used to fire the laser. The system was eventually designed to be installed on a cargo module, with four lasers being used, and a power plant on board that could fire the lasers if the slavers weren't being kind enough to provide the power to do so. The shields were designed for the Amemnon also, and were set to be slightly "leaky". This way the shields would take some of the impact, but would mainly disperse the charge inside the shield, resulting in less impact in one location, but still delivering the charge to the mesh.

Looking at the timetable for the construction, Captain Morgan asked them to send the modified plans to Starbase 121, and also asked them to send his report to the Starbase as well. In the meantime, Captain Morgan also asked them to begin research into a system that had more resistance to the surge effects from the ion weapons. The scientists said they would get on it, and Captain Morgan then turned to Captain Verrin, and asked her how the trip on the Potenton was.

Commander Verrin looked at him in the eye and said, "You knew that it would be a rough ride, didn't you?"

"I had my suspicions, but I take it was worse than I thought?"

"Let me put it this way. The temperatures fluctuated wildly, the gravity net went out a couple times, and the lights strobed several times. It was a trip that I am not going to forget, that's for sure."

"How did the other races do to help you during the time?"

"The other three did a great job. They worked just as hard as any of the other crew members to get the ship repaired, and were learning all about the Federation in the meantime. I have to admit, we'd still be behind schedule if it wasn't for their efforts.

"But the best help I have had so far is from Ved. He, at least I am referring to Ved as a he, is a perfect translator. He can learn any language it seems, and understand it in a very short time. I had him develop a translation book for the other races, and they are learning our language right now."

"Sounds like you've got a good crew right now. How do you feel about knowing that you'll have to eventually leave that ship and return to the Excellon?"

"Right now, I'd do anything for a decent shower. The shower systems on board that ship are communal, and the only temperature control is either searing hot or freezing cold. By standing between two nozzles, and aiming them at me, it was tolerable, but I plan on taking a nice shower today. Not only that, but view screens were in there, and the computer was set up to automatically route the caller to wherever the recipient was. I had to have the bridge put a limit on the calls for people, because otherwise I would have been paged in the shower.

"Quit laughing!"

Captain Morgan was chuckling at the thought of his confidant XO suddenly being interrupted, and even more at what the person calling must have thought when the image appeared. "Sorry about that, I was imagining what the person on the other end was thinking. Why didn't you just put a towel over the screen?"

"There was no place to hang it. Also, the engineering teams were busy trying to keep the engines running, and there were not enough extra hands for a job like that."

"Did you enjoy your chance to command the ship though?"

"I suppose so, yes. I did enjoy the chance to be in charge of the ship, even with all the problems. Even though I was responsible for everything that happened, knowing that everything would eventually be my responsibility, I enjoyed the fact that I could do anything, with my conscience as the only authority I had to answer to."

"And Starfleet."

"And Starfleet."

Captain Morgan smiled, realizing that Commander Verrin had appreciated the fact that a Captain could indulge in almost any whim, and she had realized that a conscience was the best friend.

"Is there anything else Commander?"

"Nothing at all Captain."

"Very well then, feel free to return to your ship."

As Commander Verrin walked out the door, Captain Morgan suddenly said, "Commander."

"Yes Captain?"

"Call me Paul."

"Susan." With that brief interchange, they now felt more comfortable with each other, and Susan Verrin smiled inwardly as she left the room. 'Yes!'

*

The next day, the convoy left the planet's orbit, and proceeded into warp towards their next stop. With the new parts, the engineering team on the Potenton was able to finish the repairs and replacements, bringing the Potenton back to its normal operation. Special compensation had been necessary for the different races, so the crew quarters were slightly different, but as for normal operations, the different species found ways to adapt to human norms in temperature and pressure. The Tuilasin simply brought a water bottle around with them to stay hydrated, and the other races made do with other similar implements.

Nothing important happened on the rest of their trip, except for the three new races causing a stir on each of the colonies as they went down to look around. There had been no fear of them causing a medical problem, because they had been living around humans for several months, and the humans had checked out fine on their medical scans. The medic on the Potenton had transferred the blood samples from each of the different beings to the Excellon, where the doctor had looked at them and pronounced them safe to interact with humans. The samples allowed the doctor to see what the effects of various compounds were, allowing her to see if various foods were poisonous to the four types of races. There had been a couple foods that could not be eaten, but on the whole, the four races were able to get their full nutrition from the foods on board the Potenton.

When they arrived back at Starbase 121, several members of the three races had asked to take the tests for Starfleet Academy admission. The tests would be administered at the base, and the results would be analyzed afterwards. Surprising Captain Morgan though, was the small construction yard in orbit. He quickly got a communications line open to Commander Wilson, and began talking.

"Commander, this is Captain Morgan. What is that in orbit?"

"Captain, how do you like my new toy? It's a small antimatter production plant. When complete it will be able to provide enough antimatter for your ship. There are also several antimatter pods orbiting the fourth planet, and I can detail several shuttles to help you in loading them aboard your ship. I ordered a freighter to perform a resupply of antimatter the last time you were here, and also asked the supply department to send an antimatter plant as well. They couldn't get all the components on board, so I just had them send the components that couldn't be built here.

"The ship arrived two weeks ago, and we've been building it the entire time. No antimatter is being produced, because all the pods here are full, and we haven't had a chance to build any. If you're willing, we can change out the pods, and see how well the plant works."

"Sounds like a great plan. I'll send the message to my chief engineer, and we'll get started on refueling. Did you send my report on to Starfleet Command?"

"Sure did, and I expect they are going crazy about what happened out here. You found a total of four new races, and possible a fifth if the slavers are a different race. Not only that, but you managed to recapture two of the freighters used, ten of the shuttles, and found out about a totally new weapon. They're probably going into shock right now over the report.

"For fueling, how does tomorrow sound? I can get a few shuttles and tow ropes together, and two shuttles can string a tow rope between them to bring one antimatter pod at a time. If the containment fails, the shuttles can disconnect the rope, and the pod will detonate. With the rope between them, the shuttles won't be burning it with their impulse exhaust."

"Sounds good. The Excellon's needed an antimatter meal for a few months, and this sounds like the perfect opportunity to eat. Is there anything else that I should know about?"

"Nothing else Captain."

"Excellon out."

Captain Morgan later got together with Lieutenant Commander Faithen, and told him the news about the anti-matter fueling. He got out the necessary materials, and got his engineering team together. Thanks to the starbase, there had been several new recruits there, and the various departments had been brought back up to normal levels. The new people were of the same grade as the original crew, i.e. the ones Starfleet didn't want to have the people back home knowing about, but they were slotted into the rest of the crew without much disruption.

The anti-matter fueling was scheduled for the next day, and Captain Morgan got together with the Amemnon and the Potenton's crew. He asked them for a report on consumables needed to keep operating, and other material needs. Commander Verrin and Lieutenant Gordon had prepared a report, and were talking to him now. Commander Wilson was there by communications link as well, to see if he needed to have his base do anything.

"Both of our ships are getting a little low on deuterium fuel. Can the base provide us with more, along with some tritium reserves?"

"We have over fifty tons of deuterium stored here. There is also one ton of tritium stored here as well, so refueling your ships should be no problem. However, do you really need to take both ships back out again? The colonies produce a small enough amount that only one module freighter is needed."

Commander Verrin and Lieutenant Gordon looked at each other in that regard. Both of them had gotten used to being in charge of a ship and neither wanted to give up that privilege. Lieutenant Gordon knew that her ship was in good shape, but she also knew that rank had its privileges, and figured that she was going to lose her command.

Captain Morgan broke the tie. "The Potenton will stay here, but Commander Verrin will transfer over and take command of the Amemnon. Lieutenant, I know you've grown attached, but it's time for you to return to the Excellon."

Command Verrin then raised an important point. "Captain, what about the different races on board the Potenton? What will be done with them?"

Commander Wilson was able to answer that. "The starbase here can handle most of them, as long as we can provide the right kind of food. I've gone over your doctor's list of foods to avoid, and I am sure that we can provide the right kinds for everyone."

"Commander, how did they do on the Starfleet exams?"

"Captain, not many of them passed the test. This could be due to the fact that they only had one month to prepare, and that most of the material on the test requires them to think from a human's perspective. I have an exact breakdown of the scores here if you want. According to the average scores of them all, they were good in engineering skills and repairing, and not so good in moral issues. Five of the group of forty three passed, and they are eligible to enter Starfleet Academy. But it will take some time to get the full paperwork in order, to allow a new species to attend the Academy, and if I might be so bold, I'd like to have them here to help me. A couple of the ones who passed have scores that are what I would normally expect from a second or third-year cadet."

"The Excellon could use a couple as well. Their presence will help us remember what we're looking for out here. How about if we give the ones who passed the exam a choice and the remaining will be assigned on an as-needed basis?"

"Sounds good Captain."

With that decided, the meeting broke up, and Lieutenant Gordon began moving her stuff back to the Excellon, while Commander Verrin began transferring her stuff to the Amemnon. The Amemnon's crew was a little disappointed, as they couldn't call their Captain 'Batgirl' anymore. Lieutenant Gordon had been puzzled by the reference at first, but after she had looked it up, she had shaken her head. True, she was good with gadgets and figuring stuff out, but the red hair had completed the nickname. Fortunately, not many people knew that her first name really was Barbara, and she was determined that nobody would find that out.

The shuttles assigned to the Amemnon performed the trip to the orbiting fuel plant, and managed to refuel the Amemnon in a matter of hours, after Commander Verrin had arrived. The Excellon was operating with zero radiated energy, and all external electronic components in the aft half of the ship were dialed down to minimum levels, or off.

Antimatter was a delicate beast, and nobody wanted to anger it. They knew that there was no real safe way to handle antimatter, and as each pod was carefully moved into place, nobody was taking it easy. Each pod was fully drained of antimatter by the Excellon's power system and the antimatter was transferred to another pod, then the empty pod was jettisoned into space. A shuttle caught it, and attached the pod to itself. Taking the pod into a higher orbit, the shuttle was responsible for making sure that the pods didn't endanger anyone as they orbited the planet.

That was the easy part. Dealing with full antimatter pods was a far more sensitive job. The containment fields were working, and the pods were in zero gravity, but the antimatter inside each pod still had its inertia. The antimatter was kept in place with gravity fields, using gentle nudges to keep the antimatter from developing any sort of momentum. After all, if the antimatter contacted the container walls, it would not be healthy for anyone nearby.

Each pod was slowly guided into position by the shuttle, and as the electromagnets anchored the pod to the ship, the gas tubes were rewarmed. To keep the gas tubes from continuously pushing the pod away from the ship, the gas inside them was chilled down to fifty degrees Kelvin, causing the gas to shrink down to less than one fifth its normal volume. This resulted in the rods being short enough to allow the antimatter pod to contact the electromagnet, and after being securely attached, the gas would be slowly rewarmed to resume its pressure.

Each person operating near the pods carried a small hand torch, in case a pod started to fail, and the gas needed to be rewarmed quickly. The torch was a small oxygen and gas torch, and could actually provide a flame in space. The reason to use the gas torch, instead of a laser or other electrical heating system, was that the gas system would provide the heat, without providing any electricity to interfere with the tank's containment.

The fueling was completed in five hours, and when the final hatch was closed and the equipment put away and safed, there was a general sigh of relief. Captain Morgan looked on as the antimatter factory got started, and received a communication from Commander Wilson.

"We have antimatter! The fusion plant is providing the power, and the antimatter collector is working properly. You'll now be able to refuel your ship here, so there's no need to worry about making sure there is an antimatter freighter on schedule. Besides, there are still over sixty full pods remaining after your fueling, so even if this plant goes off-line, you can still get fuel."

"Are you going to be okay as far as collecting hydrogen goes?"

"No problem Captain. The hydrogen collectors weren't being fully used, so I'm bringing it to normal operating level. There's enough hydrogen being collected to supply two antimatter factories like that, along with being able to collect enough hydrogen so we can keep eight module freighters full of deuterium. The collector was simply overpowered compared to what we needed here, and it is working perfectly."

"Sounds like you'll be busy then. Have fun with your new toys."

"Who knows what I'll have here next time Captain. See you in a few weeks, and good luck."

"Excellon out." Captain Morgan smiled as he leaned back in his chair, and sighed. 'Only in the Federation would they be so casual with a valuable antimatter plant like that and demand exact records of what we spend our credits on. Sheesh.' Excellon and the Amemnon moved back out, ready to complete the next round of cargo transfers.

*

During the next few weeks, the data from the shuttle records was examined, looking for any patterns. There had been a little data from each shuttle, mainly dealing with where it was in space at all times. Each shuttle's record was the same; it was cruising along in subspace, it would come out of warp, and then it would record a few seconds of wild maneuvering, then the electronics would be knocked out. When the computer was brought back on-line, the shuttle would be heading in a new direction, and would stop soon after.

The directions the shuttles went in were random, and an engineer suggested that what was happening was that the shuttle was being flown into the boat bay of the ship that had captured it. It seemed to make sense, as the shuttle's log would always record the shutdown of the main systems a few seconds after the shuttle stopped accelerating and decelerating. So there was no way to trace where the shuttles went, in an attempt to find the slavers' base. The data on the Potenton was still being gone over, both on the Excellon and at Starbase 121, but there was no result from that yet.

For those who had passed the Starfleet exam, all five of them had wanted to go back into space. The basic reason given was that they wanted to be on a ship that could survive if they got into a fight, and the Excellon was the only one that had done so, not once, but twice. For the others that hadn't passed the test, half of them were on board the Amemnon and the rest were back at Starbase 121. The choices had gone in order of score result, with the higher scoring ones choosing their assignment first from what was available.

Ved was one of the ones that had chosen to go with the Excellon. He had been selected to go with the Amemnon because he could speak any language, and if they came across any new races, he could translate for them. In the meantime, Ved was having fun learning the new languages that the Excellon had on file. He considered it a fun activity, and felt he was learning new things about humans by learning their language.

When Captain Morgan talked to him about that, Ved replied, "When one cannot understand the other, one cannot ever be truly at peace. Ved and Ved's people know this. To prevent misunderstanding over a minor thing, learn about the other.

"But when slavers come, we soon understood, understood that there would be no peace among equals."

"What can you tell about the slavers, from their language?"

"Slavers use war language. Is language made for telling of battles, of victory, and of glory. No easy way to tell of defeat, or losses. Slavers seem as warriors, wanting to fight and conquer."

"Why would they take slaves then?"

"Ved not know exactly. Just guesses. Slavers are warriors, work beneath them. When conquer others, get victory, and slaves to do work. As you say, 'two for one'?"

Captain Morgan thanked Ved for his insight, and went on thinking. 'So these slavers want mainly to conquer others, for glory? Perhaps when they lose, they are shamed in some way. That fits with when they self-destructed their reactor, and their suits on the ground. It also means that whoever is in charge of the slaving in this area has had two major losses, with the freighters. This means that they will probably want revenge.'

His thoughts kept him company on the way to the next colony.

*

After arriving at the next colony, Captain Morgan watched as the shuttles did their three-dimensional dance, transferring supplies to and from the colony. Captain Morgan and the colony's administrator were talking over a communications link, and were relaxing on their respective ends, as their subordinates were well able to handle a simple cargo transfer.

"Administrator, is your colony doing well these days?"

"Much better since you started doing the freighter runs Captain. For a while there we thought the starbase had forgotten about us, until we started picking up communications about how none of the standard shipments were getting through to or from anyone. That's when we started getting worried, as even though we can grow our own food here in our hydroponics, we would still need certain minerals and vitamins that we weren't able to grow here. I'll bet Sherrizin 12 had a fairly easy time of it though. Plenty of food, lots of sunlight, and no need to worry about oxygen. Just worrying about a plant choking you in the night to get to your breath."

"They were doing okay. Sweating while waiting for when the next solar flare occurred, but once we arrived, they were getting back on their feet."

"Um Captain, if I may ask, about how long until your little group returns with the next load?"

"We'll probably be back roughly every four months. That's why we're unloading such a large amount this time. These supplies should help you to get through the next four months until the next freighter shipment.

"If I may ask Administrator, how does this compare with before the raids started?"

"Well Captain, what we would do before is sending the request to the starbase, but we would also talk with the other colonies here to see if they had the materials we needed. If they did, we would send a shuttle over, along with some goods that they needed from us, and we would swap."

"But aren't those sort of barters illegal under Federation law?"

"Captain, I knew that every time I did something like that. But I also knew that it took three to four months to get the items we needed from the Federation. As a result, a sort of informal barter is set up between us. Nobody is profiting off it, which is the most important thing. Shuttle pilots get more practice time, and we get to exchange people between colonies. All the population transfers are logged of course, so we know where everyone is, so except for the barter, everything is legal."

"How do you determine if someone can be trusted in something like this? I mean, what's to keep me from turning you over to the Federation authorities?"

"Two things Captain. One, we don't initiate the bartering with a new Administrator. He or she must come to us first, and we tell them that the procedure is illegal. Once we have them admitting that they know that, then and only then do we start the process."

"So you only let others start the process. What if an Administrator refuses to do so and loyally continues to wait for the Federation to supply the material?"

"We do nothing. We will only work with the authorized leader of a colony. Most administrators out here care more for keeping their colony alive for Federation politics actually. There are those who will follow the letter of the law absolutely though, and we do nothing about them. That is another colony. Of course, the local population will quickly change the leader, and we can often deal with the replacement. So we only do the bartering with someone who contacts us first."

"You mentioned two reasons about why I wouldn't turn it you over to the Federation Judicial branch. The first is that each Administrator here would have to be turned in. What is the second?"

"Well Captain, according to the articles of the Federation, if a military officer removes an Administrator of command, the officer then has to step in as acting Administrator until the local population or the Federation send a replacement. And I don't think you want to deal with all the paperwork of running a single colony, not to mention every single colony out here. But if you wanted to, I wouldn't mind getting eight hours of sleep in a day for a change." The last was said with a grin on the administrator's face, as he had already figured out the Captain's answer.

"You're right, in that regards. However, I want to make sure that there is no evidence of this in any database that the Federation Judicial Branch could find. After all, if they discover that there is a barter system at work out here, they will remove you, and have me and my ship back to Starfleet headquarters so fast you won't believe it."

"Captain, I assure you, there is no way for them to find any evidence. We've had them come out here before, and they have found nothing each time."

Captain Morgan and the Administrator parted ways, each alone in their thoughts; one wondering how much was actually going on out here, and the other thinking that he had found a new ally. Captain Morgan was busy wondering exactly how much was done out here that actually obeyed Federation law, while the Administrator was busy figuring out in his head exactly what supplies a Federation warship would want, and how to provide it. He knew that his fellow administrators were doing the same thing, so he needed to provide something here, and trade for other goods using it.

Returning to his ship, Captain Morgan looked over the various status reports from the divisions on his ship. The crew of a Federation starship knew that they would be on board for months, if not years, and they were willing to live with that. Everyone knew that if you joined Starfleet, you were signing up for a six year tour, and except for the last few months, you would be in some distant corner of the Federation. During the last few months, the Federation made a special compensation. The crewmember would specify where they wanted to be when they left the Federation. This could be any colony, planet, or other location, and the Federation would transfer you to that location so you would be there when you left. Since the distances were so vast, and warp speeds so slow, the time at the end was used to transfer the person to a freighter, and the person would be a crewmember on that freighter until it reached the person's destination. With freighters going to each planet in the Federation, it was often a simple matter to schedule the appropriate changeovers when the freighters met, and the crewmember would be at the colony by the time the term of service was over.

There were no people on board his ship currently coming up on their end of service, but Captain Morgan noticed that there would be one large batch of them leaving in a year. He would have to send the appropriate requests to Federation personnel department for replacements soon so their replacements would arrive in time for the retirees to be able to leave. Seeing which departments they worked in, he began typing out a memo to Starfleet headquarters for replacements in the selected areas and numbers for each. He knew what types of people Starfleet would send him, but was determined to do the best he could with what he was given. What Starfleet didn't realize, was that the people sent to him were also free-thinkers, and those were the kind of people he wanted.

*

On the way to their next colony, a general quarters drill was held, and the sensors team reacted strangely. Instead of reacting to the false images of ships attacking, the sensor team called out, "Contact bearing 342 by 316, faint return. Looks small, smaller than a shuttle."

"That's not what the sensors are supposed to see during this drill."

"Sir, this is an actual contact."

Captain Morgan looked at the screen, and got on the comm with the Amemnon. "Amemnon, we're adjusting course for a new contact. Stay behind us in case this is a trap."

Turning back to the helmsman, he said, "Set a course to that contact, same speed."

The Excellon turned towards the faint contact, and within thirty minutes, the Excellon was well within range to identify it. "Sir, it's a life pod, looks like its power system is dead. There is no response from our hail and no IFF response as well."

"Captain, recommend we use a shuttle to investigate."

"Good thinking Commander, do it."

Commander Verrin turned to her own communications, and ordered that one of the armed shuttles and an unarmed shuttle be prepped for launch. Another communication and a security team was prepping for recovery of a life pod, and getting their gear together for outer space activity.

Five minutes later, Commander Verrin turned to Captain Morgan and said, "Sir, the security team is ready, and their shuttle is ready to launch. I also had an armed shuttle prepped as well, in case the life pod turns out to be hostile."

"Proceed Commander."

The two shuttles launched from the Excellon, the armed shuttle taking up a position to the left of the Excellon, but aimed at the life pod. This way, if the life pod was hostile, the shuttle could fire into the pod's path, trying to disable it, while if the Excellon felt threatened, the lasers would not have to go through the shuttle to hit the life pod. The unarmed shuttle proceeded above the line between the Excellon and the shuttle, also trying to stay out of any possible line of fire. But the life pod made no moves the entire time, and the entire crew was now more curious than suspicious.

When the security team in the unarmed shuttle arrived, they began a standard sweep. The modules that had been missing from the last escape pod were in place on this one, but it seemed as though the entire battery system was literally dead. There was no sign of life inside the pod, and there was no sign of explosives. With the latter consideration, Captain Morgan gave the team approval to bring it back to the Excellon for further study.

Watching through a camera receiving images from the boat bay, the entire ship got to watch as the life pod was brought on board. The security detail slowly took apart the exterior layers, and the first piece of information came in. "Captain, this life pod is from the Gervon. According to the onboard records, this life pod was damaged before the Gervon was captured, and was unable to be jettisoned. For some reason, the pieces on board weren't scavenged for anything else. We're opening the main hatch now."

The tension on the ship seemed to rise, as the hatch was forced open. Without the on board power, the life pod?s hatch was designed to stay shut to protect the person inside. Several people had wondered about how the person inside was to get out, but Federation design teams had decided that making sure the door stayed shut to preserve air more important.

The hatch opened up, and a person shoved a sensor inside, to get a reading on the air inside. The result from the probe was an atmosphere that seemed normal, with elevated amounts of ozone. The ozone was probably formed by the radiation in space impacting on the oxygen molecules and causing them to react.

What was inside was more amazing. "Captain, we've got what looks like a memory module in here. This one looks like a low-capacity, long-life module. There still might be data on them, and I'd like to use a handheld unit to access them."

Everyone on the bridge looked at each other in shock. Someone had deliberately put a data module into a life pod, and had considered that to be more important than putting a person in there! Captain Morgan let that thought occupy him for a second, then said, "Go ahead."

The engineer on the team took out a handheld computer, disengaged the radio links to the Excellon to prevent any potential computer viruses access to the ship, and began to attach it to the first module. The handheld had the power needed, and the crewman slowly began to read what was stored.

"Captain, this appears to be a record from one of the people on the Gervon. According to the file list, there are several still images, and video records here as well. There is one file that seems to be a readme file, and I'm accessing it first. My Gosh Captain, this is amazing. The person says that the images are video captures of stars outside the windows, hoping for whoever finds this to figure out where they are. The video files are records taken from several humans and other species who want to convey a message. Do you want me to transfer the data to a section of the main computer?"

Captain Morgan thought like crazy now. 'This is what we need! With pictures of star charts, we can begin to cross-reference where they are in this sector, and find them. But whoever did this might have anticipated that we would want the data, so they could have trapped it with various sorts of viruses, Trojan horses, or other computer attacks.'

"Load it into the computer, but only after you have taken level five precautions to prevent any sort of danger from those files." Level five precautions were the second most strict computer safeguards. When level five safeguards were in place, there were three firewalls between the data and any other computer programs. If any sort of unauthorized action was taken by the data without specific file requests by the main computer, the data would be deleted, and the computer would be shut down. The backup computer would be brought on-line, and the offending data would be gone over by hand line by line to determine exactly what caused the alert.

No matter the results of the search, the computer would be rebooted, and all data loaded from read-only memory. In addition, whenever data was passed from the memory, it would be analyzed by a virus scanner, and a packet sniffer would be used to make sure that the data from that memory was only heading to the intended recipient, and no others. If either of those safeguards was tripped, the main computer would be shut down. The net result of this security was to triple the time required to access data, but all data that was passed over this sort of link was guaranteed to be free of any sort of hostile programs.

The data was uploaded, and Captain Morgan began to call up the first star chart. The chart appeared on screen, and the computer began mapping various stars. The computer was assuming that the image was undistorted by the window or whatever it was looking through, so all it had to go on was the star images. The camera used to take the picture was also capable of infrared, so the data from that was also being factored in. What the computer was attempting to do was find a single star in the picture that was known, and work from there. Since there might be nebulae in the way, some of the brighter stars might not even be visible.

Captain Morgan passed that processed data on to the main sensor computer, and looked over the first of the human video records. The screen showed a single person, standing in front of a wall, with several scratchings on it.

". . .we've been held in this place for a week now. Whoever the captors are, they want to keep us alive, don't know what for. All I remember of the attack is that we dropped from warp, and suddenly the console in front of me exploded in sparks." Burns could be seen on the man's face and arms, and the way he was hunched to one side indicated grievous wounds that weren't seen. "Next thing I know is that several of the intruders suddenly came on board, and anyone that resisted was killed. When people hid behind a barrier and shot at them with our two hand lasers, they fired some sort of weapon, and their bodies were literally hurled back. The impact point was burnt badly, and the person died soon after. When someone tried to attack them in hand-to-hand, the other intruders seemed to make room for one of their own, and the person and the selected intruder were given room to duel. It didn't last long, as the intruder was wearing armor and was incredibly fast.

"After that, the rest of us were herded into the module, except for a couple who were pulled out. It seemed that the intruders wanted to find out which of us could fly the freighter, and when they finally found one who was willing to cooperate, they threw us some food. It was bland, but seems to be keeping us alive so far.

"Thank goodness Bob Durhall had his miniature camera, or we'd never have a chance to tell someone out there. When the memory module we hid is full, we'll try to launch it in a life pod so someone can find it. Ever since we've been here, anyone who has tried to defy these intruders has been beaten. Needless to say, not many of us are resisting them now.

"As near as I can figure, we were at warp two when we dropped out, and we were three weeks and five days into our shipping route. After that, it was five days while in the module, and we've been here for a week. It seems as though the intruders grab a few of us at a time, and they are never seen again. I don't know what happens to them, and I'm afraid to find out. Oh no, they're coming. Turn off the camera, turn it off." Static came on after that.

That was the end of that recording, and Captain Morgan went over the man's expression in his mind. 'The man was scared. But then again, he should be, considering what he's been through. But he was kind enough to give us the timing.' "Computer, show me a local sector map, with a line showing the Gervon's projected route."

A holographic map illuminated itself in front of the main screen, and a light was illuminated showing the Gervon's route between the various planets. "Computer, show only the route the Gervon was on when she disappeared. Several of the lines were removed, leaving a single route displayed. "Computer, show the section of the route the Gervon would have been at during the twenty-sixth day of their route." A small section of the line was now being displayed.

"Captain, that doesn't tell us anything about their location."

"No, but it does give us a place to start. The maximum speed of the Gervon is warp two, so all we have to do is search that sphere, and we'll find the base. Computer, display a sphere with a radius equal to the distance traveled by a vessel traveling at warp two for five days. Slide the sphere along the section, and display the resulting volume."

A light purple sphere appeared in the hologram, and slid along the segment. The resulting volume was displayed, and everyone knew that they were getting close. "Computer, how many star systems are contained within that volume?"

"There are eight star systems within that volume."

"Now all we have to do is search all eight of those systems, and we'll find our slavers" said Captain Morgan, with a grin on his face.

The rest of the crew looked around at each other, and they began smiling in a way that was not Federation-approved or politically correct. For their smiles had nothing to do with peace between species; instead, their smiles were based on the idea that they were going to wipe out the vermin that had been attacking their people like this.

"Commander Verrin, I want you to put together a team of people to go over all those messages, and see what sorts of useful goodies you can get out of them. What they say, what the interior layout of where they are looks like, details from the background, and stuff like that. We are going to be looking for their starbase, and I want to know as much about them as I can. After you're finished with that, I want you to try to send as many of those messages to the families of those who are still missing. Tell the families that Starfleet is doing everything in its power to rescue them."

The next couple of days were hectic, as Captain Morgan began altering their route slightly, to allow them to scan two of the eight systems. Unfortunately, the scans were rushed, and all they got was nothing for their efforts. There were no artificial structures detected in orbit around any of the planets, and there was no sign of any ground bases. However, because their scans were rushed, a base could have been built deep underground, and they wouldn't have been able to find it.

Arriving at the next colony, the dance of shuttles began again, transferring the supplies needed by the colony and the products for shipment to the starbase. Watching the shuttles move, Captain Morgan realized just how vulnerable the colonies out here were. They weren't allowed any sort of defenses, and the only ship out here that had weapons, officially, was his. There simply weren't the necessary resources to keep this sector safe.

But he would have to do his best, as Starfleet command might decide that if he couldn't handle this sector, he didn't deserve to be in command. If that happened, based on the normal group of Federation captains, there would be nobody between these people and the slavers. And that was even worse than anything that might happen to him.

*

The remaining trip through the colonies and back to the starbase went quietly, leaving Captain Morgan alone with his thoughts. The only person who he could normally talk with, emotionally an equal, was Commander Verrin. But since she was on the Amemnon, she was not available, so Captain Morgan had to content himself with his thoughts. 'We are the only armed ship in this sector. We have to find the slaver's base. But if we go to find the slaver's base, we will be abandoning the other colonies, and the freighters that are needed to keep the colonies going. The other alternative, having the freighters tag along with us, is not a good one, because if the base's defenses are tough, we might have to leave quickly, and a freighter isn't accustomed to moving quickly.

'So the only way to keep the colonies supplied is to either deposit a larger than usual amount of supplies at the colonies, or get another ship here.' "Computer, call up a list of Starfleet officers who are currently out of favor with Starfleet headquarters."

"Insufficient data provided. Please elaborate 'out of favor'."

"List all officers who have received failing marks on the section of their officer review titled 'Political Correctness'."

"Processing. List complete. Eighty-seven officers found and are listed in alphabetical order."

"Remove from that list all officers that are currently assigned to the Excellon."

"Sixty-seven officers."

"How many are of Captain rank?"

"None are of Captain rank."

"How many are higher than captain rank?"

"Three."

"List all the ones below Captain rank on this screen, in descending order of rank."

A screen in front of Captain Morgan flashed into existence, with a list of officer names on it. 'The only way for me to find the base is if I can take the Excellon out by itself. But I wouldn't feel safe doing that unless there was another ship in the area. If I can pick a select crew that Starfleet wouldn't mind putting out here, I can get that back-up I need.'

Captain Morgan began going through the records, selecting various officers for different jobs. Since there was only a commander there as the highest ranking officer, he would have to find one with good command ability. Once he had the crew assembled, he could contact the three admirals, and ask them to assign another ship out to his area. With the crew he had selected, and the admirals to assign him another warship, he could hold this sector against the current slaver raids. Unless they had some radically new technology besides their ion guns, then he could simply stand off from long range, and use his missiles to weaken them. After that, they could surrender or die, as they chose. He got to work on the project, as he wanted to have it finished by the time he was back at Starbase 121, for better communications with the admirals.

By the time the Excellon and the Amemnon arrived back at Starbase 121, Captain Morgan was ready to deliver his proposed crew list. He had gone back in later, and added various enlisted personnel that had also done poorly in their 'Political Correctness' review, and he was satisfied with the result. If he could get another Vectron class warship out here, his chances of finding the slavers would more than double, as he could literally have his ship become a mobile unit, with no one ever knowing where it would be next.

Surprisingly enough, there was a message waiting for him there, from Starfleet headquarters. Captain Morgan accepted the message, while letting Commander Verrin oversee the transfer of supplies from the Amemnon to Starbase 121, and the flow of needed materials from the starbase destined for the colonies. He saw that the message was for him only, and sat down in his room, setting the screen there to play the message.

The standard security protocols were opened properly, and the message began. "Captain Morgan, this is Starfleet Command. We have received your report concerning the disappearing shuttles, and we congratulate you on recovering the Amemnon. We are currently reviewing all possible leads on the subject, and we believe an extremist faction in the Federation is responsible for these attacks. Attached to this message is a file with full data about the group. The data on the ion weapons has been analyzed, and we don't believe they are a threat, as your shields should be able to handle them easily.

"We want you to try to contact them peacefully, and convince them to return to the Federation. After they have surrendered, take them into custody and return them to starbase 121. Contact us at that time, and we'll send a ship to pick them up and deliver them to a re-education facility.

"Although we've had our differences in the past Captain Morgan, we at Starfleet Command think you're doing a good job. Keep up the loyal work, and we look forward to hearing that you've recovered the extremists.

"This is Admiral Hunter at Starfleet Command signing off."

The standard Federation symbol appeared at the end of the message, signaling the end of the transmission. Looking over the message, Captain Morgan saw the attachment, and downloaded it to the main computer. The direct download like that saved time on analyzing the data, as nothing harmful would be transmitted by Starfleet Command.

While his actions were routine, his thinking wasn't. 'What the heck is wrong with them? A new weapon shouldn't be dismissed simply because it doesn't do a lot of damage in its current configuration. Also, if the extremists were operating in this area, they want me to trap them, and deliver them to the Starbase so a ship can deliver them to a re-education facility.

'I need to remember though, that they are operating with a two month delay in communications. It takes one month for a message to arrive at Starfleet Command, and another month for their reply to arrive. Means that it took them several months to come up with that level of political idiocy and compress it into a message that short. I have to admit, it takes a rare kind of genius to do that. Unfortunately, all of the geniuses like that seem to wind up in Starfleet Command, or in the Federation government.

'But I can turn this to my advantage though. I can say that the extremists are operating from a hidden base, and need a second ship in this area to help me find them. I can get the crew I need as well, saying that the extremists would be more willing to trust us if the crew was not as well known for their dedication to Starfleet protocol.' Smiling at the ease of what Starfleet just made possible, Captain Morgan began redoing his reply to Starfleet headquarters, attempting to redo the message to fit more in line with what they just sent him.

*

After the cargo had been transferred, Captain Morgan opened a communications line to Commander Verrin, requesting a direct link.

"Yes Captain?"

"Commander, I just got a transmission from Starfleet headquarters, and I'd like to discuss it with the senior staff. It's set up for today at 1600 hours, and I'd like you to be present. I'll be discussing the message from Starfleet Headquarters, and an idea I've had to help us find the slaver's base. Can you make it?"

"Yes, Captain. I will be there."

Captain Morgan cut the link, and turned to the main computer, selecting a specific item on the menu presented. The item selected connected him to the intra-ship messaging system, and he selected a specific address scheme. The one selected would send the message to all the senior staff, and Captain Morgan composed a message to them, informing them of the meeting in three hours. The three hours would give them enough time to complete whatever they needed to, leaving them free for his announcements. He included his idea of getting a new ship out here, along with his current work-up of the crew listing.

*

The time for the meeting arrived, and Captain Morgan had done his best to create a casual environment. This was to be a meeting where he wanted their ideas and discussion, not blind obedience. As a result, the regular chairs around the table were casually arranged, and there was a platter of snacks on the table.

As people arrived, they began to move around, casually talking to one another. They were comparing the crew lists Captain Morgan had selected, and a few changes were being made to the lists based on their own experiences with the people there.

When Captain Morgan arrived, everyone there understood that the meeting had started, and arranged themselves around the table, and waited for Captain Morgan to sit down first at the head of the table. After Captain Morgan sat down, they sat down as well, and waited for his invitation to begin.

"I assume all of you have read the proposed crew listing, and do any of you have any suggestions or changes they would like to make?"

"Captain, I assume you picked all of these people because they are not sitting well with Starfleet Command?"

"What makes you say that Lieutenant?"

"Because I know three of the people on this list, and they were among some of the wildest partiers in Starfleet Academy. Call it a hunch, but I don't think they've changed a bit."

"But do you approve of them?"

"They were good all right, I will admit that. But you're talking about putting Carla Haskins in charge of Engineering!"

"Can she handle it?"

"Captain, let me put it this way. One Friday night, she goes out partying that weekend and the rest of us are studying for an Engineering final on Monday. We don't see her at all that entire weekend, and on Monday morning, we are getting worried. But ten minutes before class starts, she shows up in uniform in the classroom, with one of the biggest grins on her face. One of the women sitting next to me says she saw Carla come in that morning, and she swears that Carla's outfit was a fire hazard because it had so much alcohol all over it.

"So Carla shows up, slouches back in her seat, and seems to zone out when the instructor hands out the tests. When the instructor tells us to start, she looks over her test, and starts going through it page by page, circling answers and writing stuff down. She finishes half an hour later, and the entire class is staring at her in shock. She hands the instructor her paper test, and leaves the classroom grinning. On the way out, she blows a kiss to everyone in there."

"So how come she is still in Starfleet, after doing something like that?"

"Because up until that day, nobody had ever gotten a perfect score on one of Starfleet's Engineering exams. I mean, normally they have to curve them, but she got a perfect score!"

"So she knows what she's doing, when she's around?"

"Well, yes. I have to admit, that in a pinch, I'd want her around. But as far as keeping track of her on a day to day business, it'd be a nightmare!"

"How do you feel about her taking on the responsibility as Chief Engineer?"

"Since she'd be on a ship, she couldn't go anywhere. So I have to admit, she would do a good job."

"Good. Do you have any other comments?"

"Compared to Carla Haskins, the others are some of the best-behaved people in Starfleet. If she is put in charge as Chief Engineer, the others will be no problem at all."

"Very well then. Engineering is settled. How about the other sections," said Captain Morgan, as he turned to the other officers?

Several other officers were named, each with their own quirks, and a few changes were made to the command structure of the new ship being requested. The various quirks ranged from changing the simulations around, to pulling pranks on instructors who were known for their devotion to Federation protocol, to adding food coloring to various meals to make them look different. But all in all, the other officers were able to be fit in to their slots with a minimum of change.

After that was done, Captain Morgan turned to the main display screen, and told them that the message came straight from Starfleet Command. The senior staff watched the message in silence, occasionally taking down a few notes as they listened. Afterwards, Captain Morgan laid the floor open for discussion.

"Captain, as senior medical officer, I can assure you that these beings are not human."

"True, Doctor Armstrong. But I would like everyone here to remember that this message is based on data that is over five months old. As far as we knew back then, there was a group of people who were stealing ships and shuttles. So along those lines, Starfleet sent us the most relevant data. The point I wanted to raise is this; do we pursue the extremist group, or do we continue after the slavers?"

"Captain, as an engineer, I would say that an extremist group is like a malfunctioning light, while the slavers are a warp core malfunction. The slavers should be our first priority, and any extremists can be dealt with later."

"As Chief Tactical Officer, I would agree."

"I agree too," said Doctor Armstrong.

The others agreed with the policy of dealing with the slavers first and dealing with the extremist group later. Turning to Commander Verrin, Captain Morgan asked her, "Do you agree with them as well?"

"Yes Captain, I do."

"Then it is agreed, we will continue after the slavers, and worry about the extremist group later. Is there anything else any of you wish to talk about?"

"How about two days of shore leave at the Starbase?"

"Sounds good. Maybe we can get another Excellon - Starbase 121 competition going again. I'll ask Commander Wilson if we can."

Turning to his communications console, Captain Morgan called Commander Wilson's office. "Commander, this is Captain Morgan. I was wondering if we could have some shore leave at your facility."

"Be glad to Captain. Your ship and crew are like heroes it seems around here, and the local town has wanted to throw a party for you and your crew. I assume you'll be down here for two days at least, to allow your crew to have a wonderful time?"

"Two days is what we figured also. You can expect the first set of shuttles down at 1700; the next one will land at 1730, being down every half hour and up every fifteen minutes before and after the hour. The shuttles will continue like that until 0800 tomorrow morning. Sounds good?"

"Sounds good. I'll arrange for my security people to provide busses and other transportation into town, and they'll have others to help your people while in town. Maybe you'll enjoy yourself too this time?"

The last bit was done with a little smile, as Captain Morgan hardly seemed to take leave at all. Whenever he did go down to a planet, it was always to meet with the people down there to go over something that was important to the Excellon's mission of preserving the peace. Several officers smiled behind Captain Morgan's back, knowing that the Commander on the planet was emotionally Captain Morgan's equal, being in command of an entire base as Captain Morgan was in command of an entire ship.

Captain Morgan smiled back and said, "If I get some free time, I might be able to come down there. But with the paperwork that can only be done here, I wouldn't count on it."

Behind Captain Morgan's back though, Commander Verrin signaled to the others to meet her in her quarters after the meeting was over. Commander Wilson saw them whispering, but gave no clue of it to Captain Morgan. Commander Wilson continued talking, "Okay Captain, but assuming you did manage to get free, are there any games you prefer?"

"Assuming I get free, volleyball was one I enjoyed. But since I am requesting another ship out here to help free us to look for the base, don't count on it."

"Well, Captain, good luck in getting your request filled. Lately, it seems as though I am on the short list of getting supplies. Maybe some bean counter noticed my request for the antimatter plant and the small shipyard, and started wondering. Fortunately, the shipyard is due in a couple days, so that will be taken care of. After that, I might be a little pressed to get extra supplies through official channels."

"I'm sure you'll do fine Commander."

"See you later Captain, Starbase 121 signing off."

With that, Captain Morgan turned back to his senior staff, and told them to have their departments ready for the shore leave, and inform them of the celebration in town that night. Seeing as there was nothing further to discuss, the meeting was concluded, and all the senior staff left the room, except for Commander Verrin.

"If I may speak freely Captain?"

"Feel free to."

"Paul, you've been on board the ship for too long. You need to get down to a planet for something other than fact-finding, and now would be a good time."

"You know as well as I do that there is still a lot of paperwork to be done before I can do that."

"Then do it tomorrow. How much of it can wait until we go back into space, escorting the Amemnon?"

"I take it that you are not going to give up until I agree to go down and enjoy myself?"

Susan Verrin just smiled at that. "You might say that. How about if I schedule a volleyball game tonight, between the Excellon's command crew and the Starbase's senior personnel?"

"All right then. I'll be ready in fifteen minutes."

"Oh Captain, just bring your outfit with you. We can change down on the planet in the gym there."

"I'll have a bag packed in eight minutes. See you in the shuttle bay in a few minutes?"

"How about at 1740 Captain? That will give us both a chance to clear up any paperwork that needs to be done by tonight. Is that good?"

"That's good for me. See you then."

Commander Verrin managed to conceal her smile as she left the meeting room, and made it to her room, where the rest of the senior staff was waiting.

"Sorry I took so long, but I was able to convince him to go down to the planet tonight for a volleyball game. Let's get Commander Wilson on a comm line, so we can arrange everything."

The communications was set up, and they set a game for 1800 hours, along with a location for it as well. The gym was near the beach, so the place was fully equipped to handle a variety of outfits and activities.

*

At 1740 hours, the senior staff met in the shuttle bay, all dressed in casual outfits, and ready to show Starbase 121's personnel who was better at volleyball. Everyone there had their own Federation sports bag, with very little differentiation among them.

The shuttle ride down was relaxed, since officers not in uniform were not required to be formal or adhere to all of Starfleet protocols concerning addressing superiors. Everybody on board was using their first names, and were relaxing. The enlisted personnel on board were enjoying the spectacle, as lieutenants and a commander harassed the captain about not having enough fun on board ship. They made sure to keep their laughter silent, but anyone who looked at their faces could tell that they were enjoying the show.

When the shuttle landed at the starbase, a small hovertaxi was there to meet the senior personnel. All of them piled on board, and were driven to the gym, which was appreciated since the gym was six miles away from the landing area. Arriving at the gym, everybody went into their appropriate changing rooms to get dressed for the game.

Captain Morgan was among the latter people to leave the room, as he took the time changing into the regular volleyball outfit he wore. A Starfleet shirt, a pair of sweat shorts, and a good pair of shoes were his usual outfit for volleyball, and he wore the same things now. He was getting himself into the mental readiness to play volleyball, so that he would make as few mistakes as possible.

But Susan Verrin came out of her changing area, and asked him a single question. She was behind him when he came out, so it is understandable what happened next.

"Paul, what do you think of my outfit?"

He turned around, and Paul Morgan's concentration evaporated into thin air. The sheer shock caused him to trip over his own feet, and his tongue seemed to be tying itself into knots as he looked at her.

"What's the matter? You act like you've never seen a string bikini before."

"Um, Susa, Comma-, is that what you're wearing to the volleyball game?" Paul Morgan's mind was racing now, trying to figure out what was going on, while the rest of his body slowly started to put itself back into some sort of order.

"Oh, that's right. I only mentioned that we would have a volleyball game. I never mentioned that it would be a beach volleyball game. You know, the one where everyone wears a swimsuit while they play? I guess it must have slipped my mind." Susan Verrin said this with a smile on her lips, and Paul Morgan realized that she had planned this whole excursion and her outfit just for this effect.

Then her words managed to get past the blood thundering in his ears, and realized that everyone except him would be wearing their swimsuit, and he would stick out like a sore thumb. Solving the problem in the easiest way possible, Paul merely took off his shirt, and tossed it back onto his bag in the changing room, and walked out the door.

Susan Verrin watched him take off his shirt and leave, and had only one thought, 'Nice.'

*

Everyone was waiting at the volleyball net as Paul and Susan walked up. Judging by the smile on her face, everyone knew that the famous Captain had been completely fooled. The teams from the two commands gathered on opposite sides of the net, and play began.

Within a couple minutes, it was obvious that Paul Morgan had understated his ability in volleyball. The ball never touched the ground near him, and whenever he hit the ball, the opposing team hardly ever had a chance to hit it in time. Calling a timeout, Susan Verrin got Paul over in one corner, and began to talk to him. The others took the opportunity to rest and have a drink.

"Paul, have you ever played volleyball before? Don't give me that nonsense about a couple times, I want to know exactly how good you are."

"I was on the Starfleet Academy team, and was considered one of the better players there. Why?"

"Because this isn't about competition out here. While officially, we may be competing for points, the main goal out here is to have fun. You've probably already noticed that most of us aren't shooting the ball to you, and that Commander Wilson's team isn't hitting the ball to you that much. Also, you are deliberately picking on that poor lieutenant back there. She can barely even see your shots coming, and you've hit the ball to her nearly every single time. I've looked at her, and she is close to crying.

"You're using the wrong strategy out here captain. The main goal here is not to score points, but to have fun playing. I'm willing to bet you even reviewed their files to see who would be the most dangerous opponents out here."

Paul turned away, all but admitting his actions. Susan continued on, taking advantage of her situation. "Now I know you've always done your best to achieve your goals by using all the information at your disposal, but in this case, the goal is not to beat the other team, it is to have fun. Laugh a little, miss a few, and let everyone have fun. If you can pull that off, while not making it obvious, I think you'll be a much better player. Now let's get back to the game."

Turning back to the others, who were returning from getting their drinks, they resumed their positions, ready for the next volley. This time, Paul was still dominating the court, but it seemed as though he had used up all his energy the first round. But he was also sharing the ball, passing to others instead of immediately slamming the ball back, and keeping everyone on the starbase team on their toes. Commander Fendrin, the starbase's doctor, was among the better players, but even she was being forced on the defensive by his strikes. Paul was even telegraphing his moves to a few others, by blinking his eyes twice, he told them that he would hit the ball to them.

The game proceeded smoothly after that, as everyone was enjoying themselves, and finally, the game ended due to a general desire to catch their breath more than anyone winning. Susan Verrin went over to Paul, and began talking to him quietly.

"You're not really out of breath are you, Paul?"

Paul just shot her a look, and briefly smiled, indicating a yes without anyone else hearing.

"I noticed you double blinking at others. That was a good trick, but it became rather obvious to others. Not the blinking, but generally we knew that who ever you looked at for a moment, you would be sending the ball to them. Still, I have to admit, everyone out here did have a lot of fun."

"So now we get changed and go into town for dinner?"

"Not just yet. There is usually another part of beach volleyball that is usually done, and when everyone gets back up, I'll explain how the teams are chosen."

Paul looked at her funny, and wondered what she meant by that. He had a funny feeling he would soon find out, and it might even be enjoyable.

Several minutes later, everyone had managed to get back on their feet, and Susan Verrin was ready to do the next part of the game.

"All right everyone, it is time to change the teams around a little. To avoid having to deal with lots of picking and choosing, the easiest way would be to simply do guys versus girls."

Several people looked around, and counted that of the eighteen people playing; only six were guys. "Won't that give an unfair advantage to you,? asked one of the men?

"Don't worry, we'll take it easy on you," returned Susan.

The teams divided up, with the six guys on one side of the net, and the twelve women on the other side. The game began again, and Paul found his skills being pushed to the limit, as he had to cover more area than before, and there was less room to get the ball onto the opposing side. Not only that, but he also had to make it look fair for both sides, and he found himself thrilling each minute the game went on, as nobody seemed to be spotting his activities.

As the teams rotated around their areas, Paul found himself face to face with Susan. She seemed to want to say something to him, and he began to pay more attention to her.

"Paul, while you are doing well, you are letting some of your skill show back through. You have to let us win in a way that we will remember."

"I know. I did notice though, that when we rotate next, I will be directly opposite that lieutenant you pointed out to me before, and you and Deanna Fendrin will be on the front lines as well. I've got an idea."

"What is it?"

"Next time you get the ball, fake as though you are going to pass it to Deanna, but really pass it to the lieutenant. She will then spike it towards me, catching me off guard."

"Why would that work?"

"Because as an experienced player, I would be expecting the attack to come from the best player on your team, not her. So I will be jumping up to intercept Deanna's shot, but will be completely out of position to intercept the lieutenant's shot."

Susan smiled at the idea. Although it might look set up, it would give the young lieutenant a reason to remember the game favorably. She quickly communicated the basic idea of the plan to Deanna, and Deanna smiled also.

The game went on for a few more minutes, and then the shot happened. The ball was knocked over to Susan, who deflected it. Seeing the deflection, Paul knew the plan, and began jumping to block the normal shot by Deanna. But Deanna didn't go for the ball, and instead Lieutenant Paula Brown hit the ball directly towards Paul. Seeing the hit, Paul began turning as though in surprise, and the ball caught him straight in the face.

He fell back down, surprised at her rather good shot, and everybody stopped the game right there. But Paul began laughing, and soon everyone was joining in the laughing, with most of them thinking that Paula had managed a one in a million shot and had totally surprised him.

Paul accepted the hand that helped him up and dusted himself off, laughing at the shot that had taken him down. His reaction had been so natural, everybody was laughing, and Paula was getting several congratulations for her shot. He went over to her and shook her hand, and everybody began shaking hands from the two teams, to show they were willing to undergo a little humiliation to have fun.

The two teams changed in their respective rooms, and came back out, intent on having a little fun on the town before they returned to the ship or their quarters, depending where they were based. Paul and Susan wound up going together to the party that was going on. They danced a little to the music there, and Paul had several drinks while out there as well.

Unfortunately, Paul wasn't that experienced with alcohol, and he eventually passed out. Susan realized that she had a problem on her hands, and managed to get John Faithen to help her out. They managed to get Paul back to the taxi, and brought him back to the shuttle area. They got on the next shuttle, and took Paul Morgan back to the ship, where they laid him out on his bed, and went to their rooms, as they had drunk a little too much as well.

*

The next morning, Paul Morgan woke up to a horrible sound coming from beside his bed. Wincing in pain, he saw that the loud sound was coming from his bedside alarm, which had been turned to low. Stumbling to his bathroom, he managed to get himself cleaned up in time for morning assembly on board the ship. He was his usual crisp self, and only those enlisted and officers who had seen him the night before knew that the Captain had gotten falling down drunk.

After assembly, Paul Morgan stopped by the sickbay, and asked for some aspirin for his headache. Jenna Armstrong, the ship's doctor, had been told all about his activities the night before, and had already prepared a good headache remedy for him. The ingredients were not listed, but it was green and bubbled faintly. Captain Morgan looked at it suspiciously, but the headache between his ears told him to drink. It tasted no better than it had smelled, and Captain Morgan said so.

"Well Captain, at least now you're not thinking about the headache anymore."

"If that's the only reason your brew here works, well, I suppose it is worth it." Captain Morgan angled his head slightly, as his headache did seem to be wearing off. But the taste in his mouth was beginning to take his attention, and Captain Morgan got an extra flask of water for himself, to help himself try to get rid of the flavor before lunch.

The rest of the day passed easily, and the crew went down again for a night on the town. Susan tried to get Paul to go back down again, and managed to merely get herself involved in some paperwork that needed doing. But Paul did go down to the surface, and Susan made sure that he had a good time.

This time, Paul stayed away from the alcohol, but the non-alcoholic drinks were many and varied, and Paul enjoyed the different flavors. Susan though, enjoyed alcoholic drinks, and was all but falling over Paul when he decided that she had had enough, and returned both of them to the ship. He also knew that she would have a big headache the next morning, and sent a message to Lieutenant Armstrong to have her headache remedy ready for Susan Verrin.

The next day, the Excellon left orbit, and the Amemnon went with her. The command staff currently on board the Amemnon was very careful to give orders quietly while she was on board, as one look from her had left a helmsman gulping in fear. But things proceeded smoothly, and the Excellon and the Amemnon proceeded for another tour of the colonies.

Captain Morgan had felt the routine begin to creep into the crew, as they were not getting sufficient action, so he developed several drills to entertain the tactical staff, and had one officer figure out some way to keep the crew entertained between planets. The trip was made in the usual routine, but with several games being done onboard to keep the crew out of boredom and mischief. Several scavenger hunts were held, and some of weirdest items on the list that nobody expected to find outside of a museum turned up onboard. Authentic home-made rugs, a cook book, an old Earth wild west outfit, and a hand-written note dating from before the Excellon left port were among some of the various items that were actually found on board the ship.

Commander Verrin had a similar problem, but with the large open space provided by the cargo module, she could hold games in there, with very few worries about getting in people's way. There had been several instances of zero-g handball, where the two teams would float in mid-air and try to get their ball past the other side. The problem with this is that if a player threw a ball to hard, the player would start rotating from the force of the throw. The game was a good balance between force, and strategy, as players would deliberately offer one option, in order to have the other side tumbling helplessly after a few more volleys. But everyone was having fun, and there were no hard feelings going on.

*

However, as they approached the region where the slaver base could be, all the crews began to tense up. They knew that the slavers were somewhere in there, and one of their ships could pop out at any time. The Excellon could not actually go in there yet, as the Amemnon had to continue its trip, and if the Excellon abandoned its post, the slavers might attack the Amemnon with all of their fellow crewmembers on it.

But they encountered nothing again, and Captain Morgan almost wished that something would happen, as the waiting was getting on his nerves. 'Then again, I can't just call them up and schedule a meeting, can I?'

He reviewed the movie list that the 'volunteered' morale officer had put together, and laughed. All of the movies in the list were various space movies that were considered 'cheesy' at the time they were played. It was as though the morale officer was deliberately exaggerating their situation, and providing a way for the crew to laugh at the predicament.

The entire trip was getting on his nerves, as he figured that the slavers must be annoyed at not having any more slaves to grab. If the culture was devoted to victory in battle, then there was probably a power struggle going on right now. While that sort of struggle could benefit him, by giving him more time to look for the base, it also meant that the one that won the struggle would immediately try to enhance his or her reputation by going on a major slaving spree. This spree could cover many planets, using the remaining transport to carry slaves back, along with whatever ship had originally begun attacking the freighters. He was afraid that something like this might happen, and he knew that there was a good chance that he would not be able to stop it.

But the tour of the colonies was going well. The crew was behaving themselves, the planets were producing their goods at standard rates, and everything seemed to be proceeding smoothly. While proceeding near the sphere where the base had to be, Captain Morgan had an idea. 'What would happen if we had the Excellon so close to the Amemnon that the two warp fields were extremely hard to tell apart? From a long distance, it should show as a single field, and might lure in anyone who is expecting a single freighter.

At the next colony, Captain Morgan called a meeting of the senior staff, and outlined his plan to them. There were several thoughtful faces, and the discussion was spirited.

"Captain, what happens if we take too long doing this, and we are late for our next colony?"

"We can simply set up a route that will keep us on time, or only mildly late."

"Can the sensors on the Excellon keep from crashing into the Amemnon's rear?"

"Yes they can. We can even reset the smaller radar in the nose to act as a Doppler system and ranging system in one. If the Doppler reads as closing, the duty officer will be notified, and if we get too close or too far, we can adjust course."

"What about coordinating the two warp fields?"

"We can use a subspace communications system between the two ships, to allow the two engineering departments to coordinate. That will allow one ship to avoid messing up the other's warp field too badly."

With most of the main problems solved, the rest of the officers agreed with the idea, as it would allow them to engage some of the slavers that had been attacking the colonies. Who knew, they might get the last freighter back, or even one of the ships that had attacked the freighters to begin with. But they knew that who or whatever had done this was dangerous, so their eagerness was tempered by the fact that they could be in a fight for their lives.

*

A new travel route was drawn up, and the Excellon began edging in behind the Amemnon. The helm position was doubled up, giving a redundancy that was important. Since both ships were traveling less than a tenth of a light-second apart while they are traveling at warp two, any deviation was important to notice. The range and Doppler reading were relayed to both ships' bridges, and to their engineering sections, allowing everyone involved to know exactly how far they were apart, and whether they were closing or separating.

Still though, everyone was keeping a careful eye on the sensors themselves, because if the sensors went bad, the two ships could close on each other without anyone noticing. Captain Morgan set the ship to condition Yellow, which was one level below General Quarters, to make sure the ship was ready for anything. Under condition Yellow, everyone near the outer hull was in vacuum gear, with only the helmet plate up. By having everyone in vacuum gear with the helmet on, all that was required was to simply slam the faceplate mask down and the person could then survive in a vacuum for up to two hours. The galley was busy making sandwiches for everyone, so meal preparation and clean-up were minimized, and meals could be eaten at the person's job location. This way, only one person was needed to run down to the galley, pick up a bunch of sandwiches, and return with everyone's lunch.

The various departments were taking the opportunity to get extra training in for their people, and making sure that everyone could still function with vacuum suits on. When a vacuum suit was on, vision was slightly distorted around the edges of vision due to the faceplate, and touch feedback was ruined by the gloves. Not only that, but everyone had to be careful moving in the halls, as the suits wee on average two inches thick, with the extra oxygen tanks and carbon dioxide scrubbing units mounted on the back. Fortunately, the units were small, so they only stuck out four inches from the suit. Still with everyone being bulkier than before, it was necessary for everyone to take care when moving around to avoid bumping someone or something.

But everyone was ready for battle, and the Excellon was ready in case anyone wanted to pick a fight. So the ships prowled through space, waiting for anyone to come too close. With the Amemnon in front, the warp signature looked like hers, for the Excellon in the rear was hiding her warp signature well. If anyone wanted to pick a fight with a freighter, they would be in trouble.

The Excellon waited, as the route passed deeper into the sphere, with all its passive sensors looking for anything out of the ordinary. Suddenly a call came from the Amemnon, "Excellon this is Amemnon, we've got to drop out of warp! There's a storm up ahead!"

Even as they spoke, the officer saw the numbers between the excellent and the Amemnon decreasing. Calling out to the helmsman, he yelled, "Stop us!"

The helmsman had also seen the numbers start to drop, and her hand was already on the throttle control when the officer yelled. She immediately pulled back on the control, and the electronics told the engines to come to a crash stop, completely disrupting their warp field in an attempt to stop the ship's velocity. The engines strained, and a few circuits blew out, but the Excellon managed to come out of warp, and was barely two miles from the Amemnon's stern as both ships came to rest relative to each other.

Captain Morgan had felt the vibrations as the engines had strained, and was rushing up to the bridge. While he was coming up there, Susan Verrin contacted the Excellon and began to fill them in.

"Sorry about that Excellon, but our sensors suddenly picked up a subspace distortion directly in our flight path. It would have been too strong for our engines to handle and it was too large for us to maneuver around, so we had to come out of warp quickly. I was watching the sensors behind us, and I was sweating as I watched the range between us drop. How are things over there?"

"Pretty good Commander. I've got damage control teams looking over the ship now, and they should have reports for me in a few minutes. I think we shaved a few years off our ship's lifespan, and a few years off mine too. In the meantime, I am going to take a good look at that subspace dis-"

"Sir, incoming vessel! Bearing 238 by 015. Coming in at double impulse!"

"General Quarters! ETA?"

"It's within missile range right now, laser range in another five seconds. For those ion weapons, three seconds to large ion range, and eight seconds to small ion range."

"Full sensors. Tell me what you get on it."

"Active sensors on-line, awaiting return, there. No shields up, judging from the ion exhaust, it has two main thrust sources, each as powerful as our own, ship mass estimated near our own judging from the warp field strength and ion exhaust."

Captain Morgan arrived during that report, and waited for the end before saying, "Report."

"Captain, we have an unknown coming in from 238 by 015, it's in missile range, and we'll be in large ion range now."

As though to punctuate his report, the unknown ship began firing the ion bolts. Three locations were firing, and one was rapid firing.

"Impact, starboard shield, looks like three large ion weapons, one is repeating! Total five impacts."

"Starboard shield is down to forty percent."

"Yaw us ninety degrees to starboard. Lasers, open fire, full power. Lock in a missile solution for eight missiles at ten megatons each."

"Captain, the subspace distortion is interfering with our own warp field. Our maneuvering is a little sluggish, figure eighty percent of normal. Deeper in, we'll be even slower."

The warp field was not used just for traveling at faster than light speeds, but also for aiding the impulse engines. By dumping most of their mass into subspace, a ship could easily triple its acceleration from its engines. But the subspace distortion was interfering with their warp field, causing their ship to have more effective mass than normal, leading to a resulting decrease in maneuverability.

"Looks like we're here for a brute force fight. All right, launch missiles."

Eight tubes were suddenly forced open, and the missiles within blasted forth, seeking their target. The slaver ship detected the sudden launch, and began targeting the missiles with its weapons. But it only had three guns, and two of them were slaved together, meaning that it could only target two missiles at a time. But their size was such that they could easily be missed, meaning that only one of the missiles was destroyed, and the other seven detonated their loads near the enemy ship.

The electronic interference from the missiles hammered the ship's electronics, but they were designed to handle high power surges, and they held. Many of them shorted out from the blast, but the ones deeper in the ship had reduced effects from the surges, and managed to keep operating. The thermal energy from the missiles detonating was another matter though, and several hundred square meters of the ship's hull was suddenly melted, and the heat began conducting through the entire ship. Including the cooling system for their main reactor, which told the slavers that it was having trouble.

"Captain, looks like they're doing a crazy maneuvering sequence. They're firing again!"

The slaver ship had managed to get its weapons back on-line, and it fired them. The two guns on the outer 'wings' of it opened fire in single shots, but the center gun mounted on the long neck in front fired a long sequence, ripping off six shots before running out of power.

"Impact, forward shields down to thirty-six percent. That gun in the center is a rapid fire one."

"Is the ship in the firing cone for the main lasers?"

"Almost there Captain. There!"

"Full power to main lasers, fire!"

The two lasers on either side of the spine of the Excellon had been waiting the entire time, with batteries at full power. The batteries began unloading their power into the coils around the lasing rods. The coolant systems went to full speed at the same time, trying to keep the rods from shattering under the heat they produced. The mirrors at the ends began glowing; trying to dump the massive waves of heat going through the one at the firing end, and the one at the stern of the ship was glowing as well, from reflecting the numbers of photons and other particles that were impacting on it.

The twin beams lanced out towards the enemy ship, impaling it with massive flares of heat from the locations where they struck. The locations where it was struck glowed within a split second, and the metal began melting. But in space there was no gravity, so the heated metal simply stayed where it was, but the structure below was also getting heated massively. The structure underneath was what kept the neck of the ship from ripping to either side as the ship maneuvered, and to keep the engines of the ship from flattening the entire thing when they were at full power.

The engines were at full power this time, and the slaver captain saw the massive damage and heating reports at the spot. Immediately ordering a sharp turn, and effectively losing the battle right there. For the sharp maneuver required the ship's structure to be relatively intact to work and the structure had been badly weakened.

The neck of the ship simply snapped off as the slaver ship turned, and the beam began to play over the main hull as the slaver ship turned hard. The hull of the ship was melted as well, but was the only thing keeping the air in at some locations. Air pressure on the inside was kept that way only by the strength of the hull, and where the beam violated those places, the hull gave way.

"Looks like, yes. Air venting from the target. Looks like part of their hull gave way under the beam, and air pressure inside did the rest."

The venting air triggered many alarms on the slaver ship, but one location had a worse alarm than the others. For the beam had impacted directly on the cooling array for the main reactor, and the hull there was very conductive. The coolant was designed to absorb massive amounts of heat, but the system of pipes containing it was another matter. The surge of heat through them, combined with the coolant expanding suddenly, caused many joints to pop from the stress. Superheated coolant sprayed from them, incinerating anyone caught near them. The coolant itself was under pressure, and the entire system began relieving the pressure through those holes, causing them to widen and release more of the coolant.

The main reactor had been powered by an antimatter reaction as well, but without coolant, it would soon overheat and the antimatter and matter would mix. The loss of coolant triggered a sensor, and the matter/antimatter stream began to slow down, vastly reducing the amount of power available. But the ship had heavy batteries on board, and the ion guns normally drew their power from them.

But the guns were designed to fire directly ahead, and the ship's turn had brought them off-target. So the two shuttles were launched, and those were the armed variant.