USS Tirpitz

Sovereign Class Capital Cruiser NCC 84937

Observation Lounge


─•~:~•─


As much as the events in sickbay made his mind scream in sheer terror, Scott walked quickly into the lounge and tired to keep his focus.

"Admiral Bragg," he said to the old Romulan, "My apologies. There was an incident in Sick Bay that required my attention."

Bragg had already sat down, "Is everything alright, rekhai? Do you need some more medics?"

"I think we're okay, but thank you."

Bragg sighed deeply and took his chair, "Forgive me. I'm not a young man anymore, Riov. You don't mind if I sit down?"

Scott kept his gaze and his voice even, "Not at all. Would you care for something? I'm afraid we're out of Kali-fal, but I've got a nice bottle of Maker's Mark in my office."

Bragg simply stared Scott down, that famous Romulan pragmatism shining through, "Shall we skip the formalities? I don't think either of us has the time or patience for half-truths here, Rekhai."

"I can respect that. At your convenience, sir."

Bragg slid over a PADD and continued, "Once again, Rihann Ilomna had no hand in the attack on your exploration project. I like to think I'd have known about that. Besides, if you consider logic like our cousins of Thaes, what possible benefit would there be to us invoke your anger?"

"I'd believe that of you, Sir. Can you really vouch for the rest of your men? Rei Karansu still holds for a number of officers, in my experience."

"No one is more aware of that fact than me, Rekhai. I spend almost as much time training my new fleet as I do trying to purge the stain of the Star Empire from my people. But again, I realize my word is not enough, so here's proof."

Bragg pointed to the PADD. Scott read through a Republican Navy Security Brief about Erei'Riov Delon, identifying contacts he had with IRS agents, and even Sela herself. Surveillance dates, recorded meetings, even a tailing operation by the Republican Karansu Khhiu Gekha.

Scott let himself lose his temper when he saw the date of the start of the operation, "Let me get this straight. You've had this bastard under surveillance for two fucking years, knowing full well he might try something like this, and this is the first we've heard about this in the Federation?!"

"I don't recall having any need to inform your people of our internal security policies," Bragg replied in a calm voice.

Scott stood up, "That's not acceptable! What in the hell was your plan?! Hope that he dies of old age before he attacks us? As far as I see it, by you not stopping him after you've had ample opportunities do just that, you may just as well have had ordered the attack yourself, Sir."

"I'm not one for semantics, Captain," Bragg replied, dropping the pretense of manners, "So allow me to remind you of three facts."

He held out his hand and continued, "I was on my way to arrest this criminal and bring him to Mol Rihann to face justice. Two, we came to your aid, Captain, and prevented him from killing more of your people…"

Bragg then stood up, and pointed out the window, "And finally, if you choose to make an issue of this, I have seven fully armed and operational Battlecruisers to your one wounded modern ship and your other, equally wounded, older ship. I have no desire to challenge you in battle, Riov Hathaway, but do not test my patience."

Age betrayed the old Admiral as he sat down again, but he kept his voice firm, "You can accept my word, and stop both of us from spilling even more blood, or reject it, and face destruction. The decision is yours."

Scott remained standing, and weighed the heavy choice.

But before he could even try to decide, the door opened, and Ginny walked swiftly into the room, trailed by Ryhr and Dr Selar.

The Doctor spoke quickly, "My apologies, Captain, but Major Tatum insisted on seeing you right away, and the Marines refused to allow me to sedate her."

"Major, I thought I gave you an order. You should be," Scott said, but found himself cut off.

"Sorry Skipper, but there's no more time left. First of all, Bragg's telling the truth. Don't ask me how, but I know it. Delon's hauling ass to Golandan Core, and Dean's with him right now,"

Ginny continued to explain, her now black eyes rapidly darting around the room, "Shit, this is gonna take a while to get used to …"

After she had shaken the cobwebs out of her head, Ginny pressed on, "We're not gonna catch Dean, not that it matters. I own the Caller now, so I'll shut it off. But Star is only a few minutes out from fighting Other, and we're too far away to help her. We need to get home, now."

"I'm assuming this is also not usual practice on Terha vessels, Rekhai," Bragg added, not sure what to make of Ginny.

"Well, as much as we'd like to go back home, that's another two years or so Major, so why don't you go back to Sick Bay and we'll-"Scott said, before again being cut off.

"Nope, not fast enough. Hang on, I'll take of it," Ginny said as she lowered her head.

Suddenly, a massive flash of blue light filled space, and the Iron Star – Star's Home – appeared in space between The Lonely Queen of The North, Black Sheep, and seven Romulan Alehals.

Scott again tried to speak, but he was cut off yet again by the shrill, blue alarm of Omega Protocol engaging.

This time, Yue via QC broke into the lounge, "Skipper, you're seeing this too, right?! What the hell do we do?!"

Ginny touched her hand to the viewing screen, and suddenly the protocol disengaged, "Sorry, I forgot to shut that off. This is normal. Okay, hang on, we're going home now."


─•~:~•─


USS Repulse

Vanguard class Battleship NCC-89901

Main Bridge


Micheal Tovey sat calmy on his bridge, as Repulse and Vanguard slowing made their way back towards Earth, followed behind by Diamond 812 and three Romulan Alehals.

Beside him, Rain sat at the XO station, having refused medical attention and simply being too exhausted – and heart broken – to do anything else.

Quinn was sure to have something to say about escorting a Borg ship to Earth, but both Alynna Nechayev and Jack Marshall, to say nothing of the supposed "Borg King" Virnas, had assured Tovey everything was fine.

As the small flotilla rounded the corner over the Moon, a brilliant flash of blue light suddenly overwhelmed his view screen. Tovey rose to feet, when a noise erupted from the ship comm's system that yet again drove fear down his spine.

"Omega Protocol is now engaged. Omega Protocol is now engaged. All hands, man battle stations. This is not a drill."

Rain suddenly stood up, "What in blue hell is that?"

While Tovey weighed the wisdom of revealing one of the most classified protocols in Starfleet to Rain, the blue light cleared, and it didn't matter anymore.

A massive black, metal sphere appeared between Earth and the Moon, at least thirty thousand kilometres in diameter, and yet again making Micheal shake in fear.

He hid it as best he could, hitting his all-call switch, "Vanguard, Repulse. We're seeing, whatever the hell that is. We're powering up weapons, recommend you do—"

Morris cut him off, "Sir, we're reading additional signals in front of that… sphere. Seven more Alehals, and two Federation Starships. Registry coming in now. USS Tirpitz, and…"

"And fucking what?!" Rain shouted,

"NCC-1701-B. USS Enterprise…"


Scott all but ran to the wall, quickly hit his code into the built-in comm, and all but screamed on every QC channel he could call out to.

"This Captain Scott Hathaway aboard Tirpitz, authentication code 2-1-8-1. Hold your fire! I repeat, hold your fire!"

"They won't shoot at us, Skipper. It's not nice, and your code is valid," Ginny said nonchalantly.

Scott turned and walked inches away from her, "God Damn it Ginny, if you don't fucking stop—"

But the QC again cut him off.


"Ginny?! Is that you darling?!" Rain said, half in shock, and half in disbelief of the sheer insanity of seeing an Iron Star suddenly appearing between Earth and the Moon.

On the screen, Rain's former student turned and smiled, "Hi Rain. Been a while, huh?"

"That is quite enough! Just what the hell is going on here?!" Tovey shouted.

"Well it's—" Ginny started to say, just before she passed out.


"Yeah, I'll echo that. The fuck is goin' on here?!" Jackie Fishier asked from her own seat.

On the screen, Scott looked at another fellow skipper, "Captain Fishier, pleasure to meet you in person. There's a bit of a story here, but I'll keep it simple. My passed out OC-MCT here just jumped me, my crew, and nine ships about fifty thousand light years in twenty seconds. And to answer all three questions, yes that is an Iron Star behind me, yes that is Admiral Bragg of the Republican Karansu sitting next to me, and yes, we're home."


Yue decided she needed to get her own question and answers in, "Hi everyone. To add to that, yes, I am indeed sitting aboard the Enterprise-B, and we're back too. I do have one question though, is there a reason why there's a Borg Ship behind Vanguard and Repulse?! Or why RRW Courser is floating beside ESD right now?!"


Nechayev finally brought in her own authority, "Everyone just stop! Please! We've all got stories to share here, but before all that, I think I speak for everyone on this call when I say we all need a stiff drink right about now."

Beating each other to the punch, Donatra and Jack both replied at the same time, "Agreed!"