The Long War
Chapter Two: What's to Come
"RED ALERT, ALL HANDS TO BATTLE STATIONS. PREPARE FOR EMERGENCY DEPARTURE. CAPTAIN KIRK TO THE BRIDGE. REPEAT, ALL HANDS." A hand slapped down on the wall-mounted communicator, and a calm voice spoke over the din of alarms wailing in the background.
"Uhura, this is Kirk. I'm on the way. Over." The aging brown haired captain then took off at a run to a nearby turbolift. Crewers were already beginning to fill it, but when they saw the captain barreling through they let him pass. In a few seconds he had made it to the bridge. His first words as he stepped on to his bridge were, "somebody turn off the damned alarms in here." In an exasperated voice, he asked, "What the hell is going on? We're in Spacedock!" He finished in a slightly more humorous tone, "Don't tell me someone else is trying to steal a starship."
The black-skinned Commander at communications shook her head and hit a few switches before answering. "No, Captain. It seems the Romulans have invaded the Klingon Empire. Command's worried the conflict could spread, so all ships are being mobilized. We're to prepare to get underway immediately. They want a strong force guarding the borders."
A quick glance at the main screen confirmed her words. Dozens of ships could be seen casting off. There weren't many cruisers, but dozens of frigates and destroyers. As Kirk watched, he saw the cruiser Constantinople's moorings disengage and its tethers float free. Impulse engines could be seen powering up on ships throughout the dock, thrusters firing as ships maneuvered clear of moorings.
Looking at the bridge crew, he noticed that his first officer wasn't there. "Commander, where's Chekov?"
"He's on his way. He was helping Mister Scott with some systems in the hangar bay." Not a second after she finished the sentence the short Russian appeared in the turbolift.
"Sorry, Keptin. I was helping Mister..." He stopped as he saw Kirk had seemingly heard already, probably from Uhura, and was gesturing for him to skip it and get on with his job.
He sat down at the engineering station and began to call up status reports. "Keptin, we are clear to maneuver. All systems read ready." Another minor miracle by Scotty, considering that the ship had been in the process of powering down for a round of minor refits.
"Good. Mister Clerette, ahead one eighth impulse. Watch out for the others. I don't know if we can trust how the other crews handle their ships." The last comment was added with a grin to lighten the grim mood on the ship. No one knew what was going to happen, and that concerned them.
"Captain, incoming transmission from Admiral Morrow. He has our tasking orders."
"Put him on the main screen, Commander. I want to know just what the hell we're doing this for." The stern visage of Admiral Morrow materialized on the main screen.
"Jim, how are you?"
"Not too good. For some reason, some idiot has called an emergency scramble of all ships, and not told me why. Hopefully, you're going to do that now so I don't have to phaser my way into headquarters." He stood and stared at him, waiting to find out what idiocy Command had come up with this time.
"I'm afraid I'm that idiot. I need you to take the Enterprise and several other ships with you to watch the Klingon frontier. We don't want some Romulan commander to decide that he should grab a couple Federation worlds while they're at it. Then there are the Klingons. You never know what they might do, especially when they're losing as badly as they appear to be losing. So we want to discourage any adventuring on the part of either side, and that's why we want you and Enterprise covering part of the Klingon frontier. Sulu and the Excelsior will be on the Romulan border. Don't let them cross the border, but don't start a fight." He gave Kirk a severe look as he said that. He understood completely Jim's hatred of the Klingons, but Starfleet wasn't ready for a war.
"I understand. What ships are going to be assigned to me?" He didn't want to waste time on this; he wanted to get on with the job.
"The USS Constantinople..." that was another heavy cruiser, Belknap class though not Constitution class. "The USS Justinian and Hibernia..." Those two were light cruisers, Ranger class. "USS Stargazer..." a Constellation-class light cruiser. "USS Everest, USS Tokyo, USS Falcon..." all three were destroyers of the Avenger class. "And six frigates, to be decided shortly. I'll let you know when it's finalized. Till then you should have plenty of work to do." With that last comment his shoulder could be seen shifting as he reached over and turned off his comm screen.
Leaning back in his chair, Captain Kirk started to give orders. "Uhura, notify the proper ships that they are under my command now. Chekov, make sure all departments are mission capable. Clerette, ready the helm. Gu've'yi, I want you to run full scale drills on your weapons department." He continued to give assignments and, seeing the nods of everyone around him, Kirk hit a switch on his command chair. "Scotty?"
"Aye, Cap'n. We're ready to go, engines are at full and the ship is in top condition."
In an impressed voice he replied with a short phrase now very common. "Scotty, you're a miracle worker."
With an amused sigh, Scotty replied, "Aye, Cap'n. I've been telling you that for years."
With the air of a man suppressing a bubble of laughter, Kirk said, "That you have, Scotty. That you have. Kirk out." With that, he shut off the link.
He pressed another button on his command chair. A familiar southern voice answered it. "Jim, what in tarnations is going on? Everyone's gone crazy!"
"Looks like there's another emergency going on and Starfleet wants us to take care of it. We warp out of the system in an hour or two, so be ready to go. If you don't have something you need, steal it."
"Damn it. I was hoping I could finally get a couple of weeks off. Now quit bothering me, some of us have work to do." With that, the tart southern voice shut off the communicator. Everyone on the bridge breathed an amused sigh. They were used to the Doctor's odd behavior; it was just who he was.
USS Hibernia was one of Starfleet's Ranger-class light cruisers. It was not as well suited for prolonged combat as the larger Constitutions or Belknaps, but it still had a respectable punch. Captain Lowe had spent years commanding this ship. It had taken years of hard work and sacrifice, but he now had one of the best-trained crews in Starfleet. Hibernia had spent most of her years guarding the Federations borders from Romulans, Klingons, Orions or just old- fashioned pirates. During that time, they had learned the best ways to capitalize on the ship's maneuverability and how to compensate for her weaknesses.
"Kirk. That should be quite interesting, wouldn't you say?" the Scottish Captain remarked to his executive officer. Captain Lowe was something of a cowboy. His exec had learned to live with it, but it could get tiring at times.
"If you say so, sir. Myself, I'd prefer to just sit on the border for a while, get bored and then head back to Spacedock."
"Now what fun would that be? How are we supposed to prove Scotland's, oops, I mean, the Federation's superiority if we don't blow anything up?" Captain Lowe, often called the Baron, was looking forward to this. The galaxy would soon see what a Scotsman could do. But first he had business to take care of."
"Commander, check all departments. I want to be fully ready for combat when it's time to go."
"Aye, aye sir." Commander Dalton hurried off.
Kenneth watched his XO walk off. Rob was a good officer, but he didn't have the fire necessary to command a ship. He was actually grateful for that; Rob had been invaluable in his position of commanding the ship and getting the crew trained to their present state of ability. Dalton could be seen going from bridge station to bridge station asking questions and speaking to the various officers. Not long after he stood up and spoke.
"Ensign, send a signal to Captain Kirk that Hibernia will be ready to leave the system in less then an hour."
Lowe was impressed. He had expected it to take longer before the ship would be ready to go. He often forgot just how good his crew was.
"Commander, you have the conn, I'm going to go down to Impulse engineering and see how the repairs are holding up."
"Yes, sir. I have the conn. Any other orders, sir?"
"No, commander. I should be back before we leave the system. If not, page me at the proper time." After seeing Rob nod acknowledgement, the Baron walked over to the waiting turbo-lift and left. After the Captain left, the Ensign at communications chimed in with a report.
In a stiff, fresh-from-the-Academy voice, Ensign Smykes reported, "Captain, Enterprise acknowledges our report. I am also monitoring status reports from the other ships of the task group. There appears to be no major problems. All ships report ready to leave the system in about an hour."
"Thank you, Ensign. Continue to monitor all channels." The ensign nodded and turned back to his station.
The preparations did take almost an hour, but they were soon ready to go. "Lieutenant Jekins, plot a course to our assigned patrol area and transfer the course to the conn and communications." Captain Kirk sat in his command chair. As always, he looked cool and collected.
"Aye, sir," said the young blonde newly assigned to the Enterprise, replacing Lieutenant Abbit who had been transferred to the USS Aztec.
"Commander Uhura, relay the data to the Task Group and order them to engage on my signal."
"Aye, sir." A slight pause and then, "Confirmations received. All ships report ready." Kirk nodded his acceptance of that, and looked over the bridge, reviewing all stations. The ship was ready. He could only assume the other ships were as equally well prepared.
"All ships, warp seven on my mark." He waited a few seconds allowing everyone to get ready, and then, "MARK." With that word, fourteen Starships left the solar system in a streak of rainbow colored light.
Chapter Two: What's to Come
"RED ALERT, ALL HANDS TO BATTLE STATIONS. PREPARE FOR EMERGENCY DEPARTURE. CAPTAIN KIRK TO THE BRIDGE. REPEAT, ALL HANDS." A hand slapped down on the wall-mounted communicator, and a calm voice spoke over the din of alarms wailing in the background.
"Uhura, this is Kirk. I'm on the way. Over." The aging brown haired captain then took off at a run to a nearby turbolift. Crewers were already beginning to fill it, but when they saw the captain barreling through they let him pass. In a few seconds he had made it to the bridge. His first words as he stepped on to his bridge were, "somebody turn off the damned alarms in here." In an exasperated voice, he asked, "What the hell is going on? We're in Spacedock!" He finished in a slightly more humorous tone, "Don't tell me someone else is trying to steal a starship."
The black-skinned Commander at communications shook her head and hit a few switches before answering. "No, Captain. It seems the Romulans have invaded the Klingon Empire. Command's worried the conflict could spread, so all ships are being mobilized. We're to prepare to get underway immediately. They want a strong force guarding the borders."
A quick glance at the main screen confirmed her words. Dozens of ships could be seen casting off. There weren't many cruisers, but dozens of frigates and destroyers. As Kirk watched, he saw the cruiser Constantinople's moorings disengage and its tethers float free. Impulse engines could be seen powering up on ships throughout the dock, thrusters firing as ships maneuvered clear of moorings.
Looking at the bridge crew, he noticed that his first officer wasn't there. "Commander, where's Chekov?"
"He's on his way. He was helping Mister Scott with some systems in the hangar bay." Not a second after she finished the sentence the short Russian appeared in the turbolift.
"Sorry, Keptin. I was helping Mister..." He stopped as he saw Kirk had seemingly heard already, probably from Uhura, and was gesturing for him to skip it and get on with his job.
He sat down at the engineering station and began to call up status reports. "Keptin, we are clear to maneuver. All systems read ready." Another minor miracle by Scotty, considering that the ship had been in the process of powering down for a round of minor refits.
"Good. Mister Clerette, ahead one eighth impulse. Watch out for the others. I don't know if we can trust how the other crews handle their ships." The last comment was added with a grin to lighten the grim mood on the ship. No one knew what was going to happen, and that concerned them.
"Captain, incoming transmission from Admiral Morrow. He has our tasking orders."
"Put him on the main screen, Commander. I want to know just what the hell we're doing this for." The stern visage of Admiral Morrow materialized on the main screen.
"Jim, how are you?"
"Not too good. For some reason, some idiot has called an emergency scramble of all ships, and not told me why. Hopefully, you're going to do that now so I don't have to phaser my way into headquarters." He stood and stared at him, waiting to find out what idiocy Command had come up with this time.
"I'm afraid I'm that idiot. I need you to take the Enterprise and several other ships with you to watch the Klingon frontier. We don't want some Romulan commander to decide that he should grab a couple Federation worlds while they're at it. Then there are the Klingons. You never know what they might do, especially when they're losing as badly as they appear to be losing. So we want to discourage any adventuring on the part of either side, and that's why we want you and Enterprise covering part of the Klingon frontier. Sulu and the Excelsior will be on the Romulan border. Don't let them cross the border, but don't start a fight." He gave Kirk a severe look as he said that. He understood completely Jim's hatred of the Klingons, but Starfleet wasn't ready for a war.
"I understand. What ships are going to be assigned to me?" He didn't want to waste time on this; he wanted to get on with the job.
"The USS Constantinople..." that was another heavy cruiser, Belknap class though not Constitution class. "The USS Justinian and Hibernia..." Those two were light cruisers, Ranger class. "USS Stargazer..." a Constellation-class light cruiser. "USS Everest, USS Tokyo, USS Falcon..." all three were destroyers of the Avenger class. "And six frigates, to be decided shortly. I'll let you know when it's finalized. Till then you should have plenty of work to do." With that last comment his shoulder could be seen shifting as he reached over and turned off his comm screen.
Leaning back in his chair, Captain Kirk started to give orders. "Uhura, notify the proper ships that they are under my command now. Chekov, make sure all departments are mission capable. Clerette, ready the helm. Gu've'yi, I want you to run full scale drills on your weapons department." He continued to give assignments and, seeing the nods of everyone around him, Kirk hit a switch on his command chair. "Scotty?"
"Aye, Cap'n. We're ready to go, engines are at full and the ship is in top condition."
In an impressed voice he replied with a short phrase now very common. "Scotty, you're a miracle worker."
With an amused sigh, Scotty replied, "Aye, Cap'n. I've been telling you that for years."
With the air of a man suppressing a bubble of laughter, Kirk said, "That you have, Scotty. That you have. Kirk out." With that, he shut off the link.
He pressed another button on his command chair. A familiar southern voice answered it. "Jim, what in tarnations is going on? Everyone's gone crazy!"
"Looks like there's another emergency going on and Starfleet wants us to take care of it. We warp out of the system in an hour or two, so be ready to go. If you don't have something you need, steal it."
"Damn it. I was hoping I could finally get a couple of weeks off. Now quit bothering me, some of us have work to do." With that, the tart southern voice shut off the communicator. Everyone on the bridge breathed an amused sigh. They were used to the Doctor's odd behavior; it was just who he was.
USS Hibernia was one of Starfleet's Ranger-class light cruisers. It was not as well suited for prolonged combat as the larger Constitutions or Belknaps, but it still had a respectable punch. Captain Lowe had spent years commanding this ship. It had taken years of hard work and sacrifice, but he now had one of the best-trained crews in Starfleet. Hibernia had spent most of her years guarding the Federations borders from Romulans, Klingons, Orions or just old- fashioned pirates. During that time, they had learned the best ways to capitalize on the ship's maneuverability and how to compensate for her weaknesses.
"Kirk. That should be quite interesting, wouldn't you say?" the Scottish Captain remarked to his executive officer. Captain Lowe was something of a cowboy. His exec had learned to live with it, but it could get tiring at times.
"If you say so, sir. Myself, I'd prefer to just sit on the border for a while, get bored and then head back to Spacedock."
"Now what fun would that be? How are we supposed to prove Scotland's, oops, I mean, the Federation's superiority if we don't blow anything up?" Captain Lowe, often called the Baron, was looking forward to this. The galaxy would soon see what a Scotsman could do. But first he had business to take care of."
"Commander, check all departments. I want to be fully ready for combat when it's time to go."
"Aye, aye sir." Commander Dalton hurried off.
Kenneth watched his XO walk off. Rob was a good officer, but he didn't have the fire necessary to command a ship. He was actually grateful for that; Rob had been invaluable in his position of commanding the ship and getting the crew trained to their present state of ability. Dalton could be seen going from bridge station to bridge station asking questions and speaking to the various officers. Not long after he stood up and spoke.
"Ensign, send a signal to Captain Kirk that Hibernia will be ready to leave the system in less then an hour."
Lowe was impressed. He had expected it to take longer before the ship would be ready to go. He often forgot just how good his crew was.
"Commander, you have the conn, I'm going to go down to Impulse engineering and see how the repairs are holding up."
"Yes, sir. I have the conn. Any other orders, sir?"
"No, commander. I should be back before we leave the system. If not, page me at the proper time." After seeing Rob nod acknowledgement, the Baron walked over to the waiting turbo-lift and left. After the Captain left, the Ensign at communications chimed in with a report.
In a stiff, fresh-from-the-Academy voice, Ensign Smykes reported, "Captain, Enterprise acknowledges our report. I am also monitoring status reports from the other ships of the task group. There appears to be no major problems. All ships report ready to leave the system in about an hour."
"Thank you, Ensign. Continue to monitor all channels." The ensign nodded and turned back to his station.
The preparations did take almost an hour, but they were soon ready to go. "Lieutenant Jekins, plot a course to our assigned patrol area and transfer the course to the conn and communications." Captain Kirk sat in his command chair. As always, he looked cool and collected.
"Aye, sir," said the young blonde newly assigned to the Enterprise, replacing Lieutenant Abbit who had been transferred to the USS Aztec.
"Commander Uhura, relay the data to the Task Group and order them to engage on my signal."
"Aye, sir." A slight pause and then, "Confirmations received. All ships report ready." Kirk nodded his acceptance of that, and looked over the bridge, reviewing all stations. The ship was ready. He could only assume the other ships were as equally well prepared.
"All ships, warp seven on my mark." He waited a few seconds allowing everyone to get ready, and then, "MARK." With that word, fourteen Starships left the solar system in a streak of rainbow colored light.