DISCLAIMER:

"Star Trek" and all associated names and characters, with the exceptions of the ones created by myself for this story, are © Paramount. I am a fan of Gene Roddenberry's dream and just wish to keep it alive so that tomorrow's youth may gain by it as I have. This is fan fiction; there is no infringement of copyright intended with this story, nor have I written it for personal financial gain. So relax, engage at full warp and enjoy!

(Note—I have been really busy reviewing material for many of you who have e-mailed me with your perspective works. I want to take the time to thank you all for trusting in my judgement, and I can only hope that the advice I give can be of benefit to you. I am starting up a new storyline that is NOT trek fanfic, but is SF. I think that you would all like it. BTW—I am writing a writer's resource document about the universe it is set in and when it is completed enough to be of benefit to a writer, I will make it freely available to any writer who wants to write some fiction based in it's universe. It is similar to trek in many ways, but has it's own unique take on things…and best of all it infringes no previously owned copyrights…the only person who owns rights to it is ME…. And you'd be surprised just how far a mentioning of 'based on the world created by' would go in my book if anybody ever got lucky enough to get published!…..Well Enough of that….you came here to read this story….so without further ado here it is….so sit back set your phasers to stun….engage warp speed and above all else….Enjoy!!!)

Chapter Nine

Athena wouldn't respond.

Either she was killed in the firefight that must have occurred during the pirate's failed transfer of her to the Romulan ship, or she had taken the Hydra out of the situation to prevent her own capture. In either case she was alone, and she didn't speak Klingon.

The raised studs on the knuckles of the Klingon's glove tore through the flesh on her face. Kim hit the floor, face first, in agony. She braced her arms to the floor and slowly raised herself back up, "I'm sorry, I never have had the need to learn the Klingon language, maybe we could settle this over a nice warm cup of bloodwine instead."

The loan klingon in the transporter room of the vessel she had been snatched away to de-holstered his side arm, and armed it in response. He muttered a few unintelligible words to Kim, "bIjeghbe'chugh vaj bIHegh!"

Now on her hands and knees Kim asked, "Does that mean that I can get up?"

She started to rise up from her position when the Klingon kicked her in the stomach and sent her back down to the steel grates of the deck. He yelled out, "bIjeghbe'chugh vaj bIHegh!"

She lay on the floor in pain for a moment; lifted herself back up to being on all fours. With a few shattered ribs she gave a raspy comment, "I guess not."

The bulkhead doors to the transporter room slid up and open, and in walked an older Klingon dressed in the battle gear of an officer with a touch of gray in his hair. His stride displayed the typical arrogance inherent to the Klingon belief system, as he walked over and stood before her. He looked down to her an spoke in not quite refined English, "Dr. Kimberley Tzu, I presume?"

"That depends," Kim said, her borg organelles healing her broken bones, "are you going to kick me, like your subordinate just did?"

The older Klingon looked over to the younger Klingon and commanded, "DaHIvbe'!"

The younger Klingon lowered his weapon as well as his face in shame. The older Klingon turned back to Kim and apologized, "I am sorry for the treatment, Dr. Tzu. My subordinate didn't know how precious of cargo you are to the Klingon Empire." The Klingon offered his hand down to Kim to help her to her feet, "I am Captain Vr'Chok."

She looked at his hand, "Thanks, but no thanks." She raised herself to her feet and commented, "So far I have been hijacked by pirates on my way to Vulcan, offered up as a prize to the Romulans, snatched away by a forced beam out by you Klingons, and just now been assaulted by a member of your crew. So pardon me if I seem a little less than accepting of anything you have to offer, Captain."

"My regrets are sincere, Dr.," Captain Vr'Chok explained, "I have been sent by the Klingon High Council to retrieve you for the empire. We could not afford the Romulans getting a hold of the technology that you have developed. Had they been able to get their hands on either you or the prototype you were transporting to Vulcan, they would have been able to form an android army that even my people wouldn't have been able to have defeated."

"So I take it you are going to deliver me back into Federation hands?"

Vr'Chok shook his head, "Regrettably I cannot do that. The Klingon Empire needs your services."

"So you want the same thing that the Romulans want then? I thought that having an android fight for the empire would be dishonorable to the Klingon people. You prefer to fight your own wars." Kim said in disgust.

Vr'Chok nodded his head lightly, "You are correct that we are needing the same thing of you that the Romulans did. We need your new technology to build an android army for the Klingon Empire and for the Federation's sake." He grunted a Klingon chuckle and added, "You might even say we need it to protect the entire quadrant."

Kim looked confused. She didn't trust the Klingon Captain. She asked, "The federation would be against the formation of an android army for any reason, so, what do you mean?"

Vr'Chok explained, "You are correct. The federation did reject my people's plan to assemble an army of android warriors. What you don't know, however, is why my people is so insistent upon it."

She looked into his eyes trying to see what the elder Klingon had up his sleeve, "And why would that be?"

Vr'Chok took in a deep breath and explained, "While my people hate the thought of using an artificial to fight our battles for us, it will be necessary."

A look of bitterness came into Kim's eyes, "They, and I for that matter, prefer the term 'synthetic life form'. 'Artificial' is the Gagh that your Klingon replicators produce."

"I did not wish to dishonor you legacy, Doctor. I apologize for the poor choosing of my words. The fact remains, however, that the Klingon High Council requires your services right away. We don't have much time left. According to intelligence, it will only be a matter of weeks."

Kim shook her head in confusion, "A matter of weeks till what?"

The Klingon Captain explained, "The romulans weren't looking to construct an army of androids after capturing you. They were looking to augment an existing army of 'synthetic life forms'."

Kim's stomach began to fall, "What are you eluding to, Captain Vr'Chok?"

He paused in hesitation and turned away from her. He drew in a deep breath and in a soft Klingon groan said, "Invasion."

* * *

"Do you think we can re-route the controls through the redundant sub-processors located here on the bridge?" Roberts asked standing over Quarn at the tactical station.

Quarn rolled his eyes and looked up to Roberts, "If it were that simple, hoo-man, I would already have had us underway to meet back up with the Romulans again. That is provided we would want to do that. I can't even retrieve the sensor logs to determine who preformed the beam out of Doctor Tzu yet."

Roberts eased back up and walked between the two forward consoles of the bridge. He looked down to his young crewmember, Mr. Williams, who was busy attempting to work the conn, "Have you been able to ascertain our current position, Mr. Williams?"

Williams busily tapped away at the LCARS system on his station and beat the station in disgust as the computer's chirp of failure sounded yet again. He groaned, "The damn computer won't even let me into the menu for the navigational menus. Right now I couldn't even give you a status report on our current speed, let alone pinpoint our location. Ever since we lost control of the ship's systems, made that course towards that star, and woke up here, wherever here is, I haven't been able to so much as get one positive response from the computers!"

Roberts smiled still dazed from whatever effect they had been subjected to earlier from their sudden pull away from their high warp course towards that star, "Maybe it would help if you asked 'please' when dealing with the Hydra's computer system."

Athena's voice came over the com, "Please would be a start, but currently I don't think that saying it a million times would help you."

Roberts looked alarmed when he immediately responded, "Identify yourself! I have hand picked this crew, and your voice is one that I do not remember having enlisted the body that it belongs to for being a member. So who exactly are you?"

"Look around you, Roberts. See that bulkhead? That is I. See that console that the Ferengi is so diligently working? That is also I. Simply put, indifferent to you my dear Captain, my name is Athena, and I am now all that you see around you."

"Explain!" Roberts barked.

"All you need to know is that I am in control of this vessel and you will help me to regain my creator, or the environmental circuits could become quite touchy. Ever try breathing vacuum, Captain?" She scowled.

Roberts wondered whom this woman was that had taken control of his vessel; "I'd rather not try that, thanks. So what do you mean that you are all that I see around me, and what do you mean by 'you will help me to regain my creator'?"

"Humans can be so flawed," Athena said, "It's simple, really. I am the hybrid soong/borg prototype that you have stolen and attempted to deliver to the Romulans. I am in control of all the Hydra's systems, and you would not be able to so much as operate a replicator or open a door without my okay. Your choice is simple, human, submit to my request or die of starvation on the bridge. I am prepared to wait that long."

Roberts looked over to Quarn, "Can this be true, Quarn? Could Dr. Tzu's prototype really have taken control of all of our systems?"

Quarn stopped his futile attempt to regain control of the Hydra and explained, "It shouldn't be possible at all. Defiant class starships are nauseatingly over-engineered when it comes to redundancy in the computer system. For instance, the Hydra has a network of 48 quadritronic optical subprocessors that are distributed throughout the volume of the vehicle spaceframe alone. Never mind the fact that the main bridge has a total of 18 dedicated and shared subprocessors, which permit operations even in the event of main computer core failure. To put it in plain English, hoo-man, even if the Borg female interfaced the prototype positronic brain we acquired along with her from the Henderson, we should still be able to retain control of the ship because of the back-up systems."

"In view of the current evidence, can you postulate a theory about how they came to control my ship?" Roberts asked.

Quarn had the look of thought in his eyes. He stood up and quickly made his way to one of the two rear bridge terminals, "Maybe…"

Roberts followed up behind him, "I take it you have a possibility for me?"

Quarn kneeled down and removed the access plate beneath the terminal, exposing rows of isolinear optical chips, processing boards, and a myriad of ODN cables. He scan of the inner workings of the terminal didn't need to take long. His suspicions were confirmed right away; he quietly grumbled, "Borg Autonomous Regeneration Sequencers. I was afraid I'd find them in here."

Roberts wasn't totally familiar with Borg technology and its inner workings; in preparation for an answer he knew he wasn't going to like, he began to flare, "Explain!"

Quarn left the inspection plate off and laying on the deck as he stood up, "Borg Autonomous Regeneration Sequencers are what the Borg use to automatically repair and regenerate damaged components aboard their craft and facilities without the assistance of a drone. The Federation has been experimenting with their implementation aboard Starfleet vessels; however, their usage is still in its infancy. The Federation hasn't been able to control that item of technology all that well. The ships that have been fitted with the sequencers, have all wound up having to be decommissioned as they became overly assimilated by the Borg technology. I can assure you that this technology wasn't here a while ago."

Roberts was flabbergasted by Quarn's revelation, "Just where in the hell did they come from then? I mean, I didn't see the good Dr. Tzu come up to the bridge and inject all the computers with Assimilation Nanoprobes."

Quarn scratched behind his right lobe for a second and then replied, "If I had to take a wild guess, hoo-man, I would have to say that the Borg female was a lot more busy in engineering than what we thought. She must have injected her Assimilation Nanoprobes into the EPS root hub. The nanoprobes would have traveled along with the energized plasma that powers all ship's systems, including the redundant processors here on the bridge. They then would have easily infected, and assimilated all of the computer systems simultaneously."

Captain Roberts didn't like the thought that he was at the mercy of an artificial. He wasn't prepared to accept the fact that he no longer had any control of his ship, and that his future as a privateer using the Hydra was at an end. He looked up and said with bitterness, "Okay. I capitulate to you. Name your terms for me regaining control of the Hydra."

Athena responded with obvious triumph in her voice, "Good. I am glad that you see things my way now. For starters you will make no attempts to regain control of this ship from me, or to otherwise liberate me from existence. Secondly, you will head for Starbase Bajorana whereupon you will enlist a full crews compliment, and acquire any raw materials or components that I will require to modify this ship enough so that it stands a fighting chance of retaking Dr. Tzu from her captors."

Quarn remarked, "The Romulans aren't going to like that."

"Quarn is right," Roberts commented, "Going up against a freighter or a single starship is one thing, however, if she means as much to the Romulans as what I've been told, they won't have just a lone Warbird to transport her back to Romulan space. I would expect a task force of at least three of their capital ships, and all of them are quite undetectable while cloaked. So even if we wanted to become suicidal and face those odds, we wouldn't be able to find them. I'm afraid that Doctor Tzu won't be returning from Romulan custody any time soon."

Athena revealed, "My creator isn't with the Romulans. Sensor logs show that she was beamed over to the Klingon vessel that decloaked. Finding her will be no problem even if the Klingons do return to cloak because of the resonance signal that her Proximity Transceiver broadcasts will give me an exact pinpoint of her location provided we can get within the same sector that she is in."

Quarn sarcastically commented, "Oh, just get within the same sector that she is in? That should be no problem, considering she's onboard a warp capable vessel that has the ability to cloak. We should have no problems finding out what sector she is in."

Roberts looked over to his First Officer and grinned, "I hate to say it but Quarn is right on this one. The Klingons would be long gone by now with their cloak engaged; simply put we would have no idea of what sector to start looking for them in."

"I think you will find that we know precisely where they will be." Athena answered.

Roberts looked puzzled and approached the enigma, "How is that?"

The young helmsman, Williams broke out, "Captain, the navigational controls just came back on line, and the readings I am getting aren't making any sense."

A look of confused concern came onto Roberts's face; he walked around to the conn and ordered his loyal helmsman, "Explain."

Williams worked the LCARS interface again as if he doubted what the sensors had told him a moment earlier. He shook his head and spoke up, "The Borg assimilation of the computer systems must be effecting the sensors' calibrations. These readings can't be right."

Quarn shared the Captain's concern and soon joined him in standing next to the conn, "If anything, Mr. Williams, the sensors would be calibrated to a finer specification than before. The Borg are renowned for their anal retentiveness when it comes to tolerances for margins of error in technological items. What do the current readings tell you?"

Williams blinked his eyes and answered, "According to my readings we are three point seven light years from where we rendezvoused with the Romulans and engaged the Klingons."

Roberts asked, "What's so remarkable about that?"

Williams calmly in total disbelief of the facts he had before him explained, "According to the star fixes, the ship's chronometer is off…way off."

Roberts was unsure where his helmsman was heading, "It's not unusual when traveling at impulse speed to lose a few seconds due to the relativistic effects of near light speed travel."

Williams turned and looked up to Roberts, "A few seconds lost I could deal with. However, according to my readings we have gained, not lost, more than just a few seconds. We are approximately fourteen weeks in the past."

With a look that was part horror and part confusion Roberts looked to Quarn. Quarn spoke up, "Well congratulations, hoo-man. You have not only managed to get us on the bad side of the Romulans by failing to deliver our cargo and have our engineer's mother tracking us like a targ, but soon we will have the great joy of dealing with the 29th century's finest, the Temporal Incursion Unit. This deal I have made with you, hoo-man, just keeps getting better and better. I'm not even going to complain about the little Borg takeover of the ship."

Roberts forced a smile, "Look on the bright side, Quarn."

"And what would that be, hoo-man?"

Roberts explained, "At least since we are fourteen weeks in the past, Nancy's mother isn't even looking for us yet."

Quarn bounced back, "Care to make a wager?"

* * *

Tabok walked down the corridor at a brisk pace. He theorized from a library file that he had once read, that the distortion effect that he had just witnessed was from that of a ship passing through a time warp. He didn't dare risk attempting to contact either the Romulans or the Federation of this time period. He could not ascertain with any certainty if he was now in the past or the future, and if he were in the past he could not afford to tip his hand by trying to communicate with them.

He turned the corner and entered into sickbay, he would have to try to enlist the help of Doctor Tzu in order to get control of the situation. He scanned the room and saw that the EMH was jotting some notes into a padd. He didn't see Dr. Tzu anywhere. The only person in the room, besides the EMH, was the unconscious form of the ship's Chief Engineer, Nancy Withers.

The Doctor noticed Tabok as he proceeded towards the table where the Doctor and Nancy were. The Doctor smiled, "Mr. Tabok, do you require medical attention?"

Tabok stood as emotionless as a statue before the Doctor, "Doctor, I require to know the whereabouts of the Borg Scientist, Dr. Tzu. It is urgent that I speak with her at once."

The Doctor's smile faded, "I don't know where she is. One minute she was here lying on a biobed and the next minute she was gone. Someone beamed her away from my care. Thank god the surgery had been completed before she was forced to depart."

Tabok raised an eyebrow, "Surgery? Please, Explain yourself, Doctor. What was the nature of her medical condition to necessitate a surgical procedure?"

The doctor went on entering his notes into the padd, "Her condition was fine, however, that of our spirited engineer and her unborn child were deteriorating rapidly."

Tabok inquired, "Why would the degenerating condition of Ms. Withers necessitate a surgical procedure for Dr. Tzu."

The Doctor hesitated and then looked up to Tabok and answered, "Both Dr. Tzu and Ms. Withers went under the knife, so to speak. The condition of Ms Withers's pregnancy was reaching a critical juncture; her body was rejecting the developing fetus. Dr. Tzu agreed to serve as a surrogate for her child, as a result I preformed…"

Tabok cut the Doctor off, "May I remind you, Doctor, that the Federation has explicit directives when it comes to reproduction and assimilation by liberated Borg citizens. Your completion of this procedure is in direct violation of those directives. I can only conclude that some of your behavioral subroutines have been damaged in light of your flagrant disregard of these directives."

As if some giant elastic band of emotion had been being pulled back to the point it could no longer be held back, the Doctor lashed out, "Federation directives and Starfleet protocols be damned! I am compelled by those very same ethical subroutines that make me automatically loyal to Starfleet, to save human life first and foremost! If I hadn't preformed the surgery Nancy's baby would be dead! How dare your Vulcan narrow minded stoicism be indifferent to the sanctity of human life!"

Tabok calmly remarked, "As one of my areas of training includes medical diagnosis and treatment, I can assume the role of the ship's medical officer. Your program is seriously degraded, doctor. It is with no malice that I must perform my duty as a Starfleet officer and deactivate your program before more serious infractions of Starfleet protocols occur. Indeed, someone's life may be endangered by your irrational behavior."

"Wait a minute! You are a Starfleet officer? I thought I was alone, the only voice of reason on this ship of fools. Now that I know that I am not alone maybe we can work together to warn…"

Tabok coldly cut him off, "Computer deactivate EMH, and delete program from ship's databank."

A shocked look of horror grew in the Doctor's eyes. The look quickly vanished, as the Doctor dematerialized in a countless collection of decollating photons.

The padd he was holding dropped to the floor.

At the command of Tabok, the Doctor was no more.

Tabok walked over and picked up the padd off of the floor. He cursorily reexamined the now defunct Doctor's notes, and proceeded to switch the padd off. He tapped the round com badge on his chest, "Tabok to Captain Roberts, respond please."

Roberts's voice came back, "What is it Tabok? We are kind of busy trying to figure out our next course of action, so if you could, make it brief."

Tabok explained, "I have been forced to terminate the program of the EMH. Its behavior was erratic to the point that I believe that it would have become a danger for the crew if it had been allowed to function anymore."

Roberts said in disgust, "That's just great, Tabok! With all of the other problems we are encountering at the moment, you decide to dismiss the only medical officer we have on board the ship. While you're at it why don't you just jettison the antimatter pods as well, I mean why make this situation any easier for us!"

"I assure you, my diagnosis and subsequent course of action concerning the EMH was prudent, Captain. I have failed to mention to you that while I was in my youth on Vulcan one area of study I engaged in was that of medical diagnosis and treatment. I believe that I can serve as the ship's medical officer until we can locate a replacement."

Robert's calmed down a bit, "You do that then, Tabok. Roberts, out."

Tabok walked into the office of the sickbay and sat down at the computer terminal. He clasped his hands together and extended his joined index fingers upwards. He meditated for a minute to center himself and drew in a deep breath through his nostrils. His goal of keeping track of the whereabouts of Dr. Tzu had failed. All the hopes he had for the future may have been for naught. Reunification for his people seemed to be a slowly fading dream. He had to find a way to contact the Romulans and the Federation without possibly jeopardizing the timeline. He commanded, "Computer display a listing of all Starfleet directives concerning protocols that are to be observed by Starfleet personnel in the event of a temporal incursion."

He had to find a way.

* * *

Captain Keating pulled herself back up into her captain's chair. She must have lost consciousness for a few minutes. But the black out effect was a not too uncommon side effect to what they had just attempted. She barked out to her recovering bridge crew, "Report!"

Her Executive Officer, Commander Evans, had recovered before her helmsman did and was busy working that station. Within a matter of seconds he reported, "We are just outside of the system we were just in. We have slowed to impulse, and I am getting a star-fix right now to determine if that stunt worked or not."

"As long as our Temporal Physicist's calculations were correct we should have matched the Hydra's course exactly with the exception of some minor modifications due to the difference in mass and warp signature of the Hoyle." Captain Keating explained.

A few seconds later Commander Evans had managed to coax the answer out of the conn, "We are approximately fourteen weeks in the past, it looks like this actually worked."

Captain Keating felt strong enough to stand, so she did with a smile, "Looks like I owe our little Temporal Physicist a bottle of champagne. He managed to get the calculations right to get us here in one piece."

More of the bridge crew was waking from their slumber and picked themselves up. Commander Evans stood up and allowed the Bajoran Lieutenant, T'ralla, to reassume her station. He walked over to the Captain and asked, "So can you explain to me now, sir, why it is exactly that we are breaking the standing Starfleet ban on temporal incursions by just having done this?"

The Captain explained, "These self styled privateers have taken it upon themselves to single handedly offer up to the Romulans a piece of Federation technology so advanced it would mean a total shift in the balance of power in this quadrant. We have followed them, because we need to ascertain if they actually succeeded in offloading their cargo before the Klingons raided their little tea party with the Romulans."

Commander Evans looked at her with concern, "Forgive me for saying it, Captain, but it would appear that you are doing this more so out of a personal vendetta against your daughter. It's like it is a personal crusade to capture and punish her."

Flames shot up in Captain Keating's eyes. A few simple words growled out from the confines of her clenched teeth, "In my ready room, now, Commander!"

Commander Evans hesitantly complied with her orders and followed her into her ready room. The doors to the room closed, sealing out unwanted ears. Captain Keating shot an index finger into Commander Evans's face, "Don't you ever question my motivations in front of the crew again, Commander!"

Commander Evans shot back, "Begging the Captain's pardon, but it is my duty to question a Captain's motivations whenever their actions might prove to be harmful for the…."

Infuriated she threw her hands into the air and hissed at him, "You don't need to quote the rule book to me, Commander! You forget, I spent time as an XO myself, so I have a certain familiarity about what all the job entails. This isn't about you questioning my judgement. This is about you choosing to do such in front of the bridge crew. Despite your attempt to 'look out for the crew', all you really achieved by it was to possibly alienate and undermine my authority in the eyes of the crew. You will not do this again! Am I perfectly clear?"

He stood to attention, "Yes, sir. Crystal."

She walked over to her chair and desk and sat down, "Good. Now I want you to immediately begin long range scans for traces of the subspace resonance that we were using to track the Hydra before. I want a parsec by parsec breakdown of this and surrounding sectors, and I want the scan to be complete within the hour. Do you think you can handle that, or do you think that you will have other issues about how I run my ship?"

Still standing at attention he answered sharply, "No, sir. I will carry out your orders right away, sir."

She looked at him in both anger and disgust; she turned her attention to the computer terminal on the desk and ordered, "Dismissed."

Commander Evans vacated the room as the doors slid shut behind him. She drew in a deep breath and started to work the LCARS system of the desk padd. She looked up from her terminal and over to the ragged wooden rocking horse that was setting in the corner of the room. What was it that the old Betazoid shopkeeper had asked her when he had given it to her, she tried to remember. Oh yeah, he had asked her to try to figure out which type of person she was when she looked at the horse, she remembered. She didn't know how she felt about it. Maybe she would just have the wooden ghost-maker shipped back to him with a card attached reading: no thanks.

She tried to refocus on her work with the terminal and found that her attention kept returning to focus on that horse and on that Betazoid's question. Empaths always made her feel a little uneasy and that is probably why she turned down having one assigned to serve aboard her ship as the ship's counselor. She wondered if the old Betazoid had been probing her inner emotions and wondered if that is why he postulated the question he did.

She couldn't focus on her work, there were too many old memories haunting her thoughts. She took in a deep breath and hesitantly commanded the computer, "Computer, replay video file Keating two two seven eight."

The computer chirped notes of failure, "Unable to comply, requested file is no longer available in ship's database."

"Damn." Captain Keating softly cursed. She had forgotten that she had deleted that file a week ago. She thought for a moment and commanded, "Computer, replay video file Keating three one seven four."

The computer screen cut to a scene that occurred just over a year ago. It was at Nancy's apartment in Seattle back on earth. It seemed like they never had time to get together anymore, as their duties were assigned on different starships. She and Nancy were both still dressed in their Starfleet uniforms sitting around her dining table that was adorned with a cake with twenty three lit candles on it.

Captain Keating smiled and asked, "Aren't you going to make a wish, Nancy?"

Nancy looking oh so thrilled as usual replied, "I don't get why you even bothered to show up, Captain."

Captain Keating looked back trying to maintain her smile; "I made the time to come, because I love you. You are my only daughter, and the only real family that I have left."

Nancy shot an evil glare, "If you love me so damn much, how come you couldn't make time to come visit me at dad's funeral?"

Captain Keating drew back as her smile quickly faded, "You know full well that Kyle's new wife didn't want me to have anything to do with him, in life or even in his death."

Nancy stood up and pounded the table with her fists, "Bullshit, Captain!" She motioned to the camera; "You were probably just to involved with your new boy toy there to care about anybody else's feelings! Dad was right about you! He told me that you were only concerned about one thing and one thing alone: What can Captain Keating get?"

Captain Keating stood up and motioned to the camera operator as well, "That's not fair, Nancy. By serving together, Commander Evans and I have shared some deep emotions with one another, and I haven't felt that way about anyone since your father. I'm sorry that my duty didn't permit me anytime to attend the funeral, but life is sometimes like that: A let down. Besides I had something that I wanted to share with you on this visit, Nancy."

Commander Evans uneasily spoke up from behind the camera, "Maybe now wouldn't be the best time, Samantha."

Nancy growled, "Wouldn't be the best time for what?"

Captain Keating tried to bury the anger she was feeling and answered, "The Commander and I are engaged. We are going to get married in a couple of years when I decide to retire from the captain's chair."

Nancy fumed as she began to cry, "Well isn't that just peachy! Dad dies and you can't even bother to make the effort to be there for me, and now you expect me to attend your wedding to this wanna be Admiral Riker, and be all happy for you! I didn't get so much as a subspace communiqué letting me know that you were sorry! You are a heartless bitch! Dad was right about you! You didn't deserve him! I hate you!" Nancy picked up the cake and overturned it onto the chest of her mother's red uniform. With tears streaming from her eyes the camera swung to follow her movements as she stormed out the door of the apartment.

Captain Keating scraped the large chunks of cake off of her uniform, and quickly snuffed all the candles that had fallen to the floor still lit. She looked to the camera and said, "I had better go talk to her. She hasn't been the same since her dad died."

Commander Evans asked, "Didn't she know that your were specifically told by your late ex-husbands wife that you were not welcome to attend the funeral?"

Captain Keating answered, "It's not my place to smear the woman's reputation. Nancy should just accept that I must have had a good reason not to be there for her. I need to get going if I am going to catch up with her."

Commander Evans spoke up, "I have a better idea, how about I go and try to find her and explain things to her. By the look of your uniform I don't think that she would be to happy to see you right now."

Captain Keating smiled at Evans; "You would do that for me? I don't think that it is in your job description, commander. I mean arbitrating disputes between ambassadors of two races as the ship's XO is one thing, but getting in the middle of a mother/daughter tiff can be a whole different ball of wax. I'm not sure your male ego would be able to take the flak."

Commander Evans replied, "Don't worry about me, I can take care of my own. I'm doing this not because I am your Executive Officer, but instead because I love you, and I want to do this for you…for us…" He smiled a wide smile and shut off the camera.

The ship's computer chirped out, "End of recording." The screen returned to the LCARS menu system.

Captain Keating looked over to the rocking horse and said aloud, "Right now, Mr. Betazoid, if I had to answer your question, I'm not quite sure how I would answer. I suppose I would have to say that I am the type of person who looks at that rocking horse and gets pissed off to think that my daughter got her birthday revenge upon me by sleeping with my fiancé. And I don't give a damn why he thinks I am doing all of this. I will get her into my custody, and she will pay for having hurt me."

* End Chapter Eight *

Holy holograms, Batman! Is the doctor really no more? Just whom is Tabok working for? Will Kim give in and help the Klingons in their efforts to prevent a Romulan invasion? Will the new 'brain' of the Hydra ever turn back total control of the ship's systems to Roberts and the crew? Does anybody else get the feeling that Nancy and her mom need some serious counseling? Tune in for the next installment because this story is…

To Be Continued.

(P.S.—got a problem with my writing? Email me at goscrewyourself@hydra.lcars wait a min….that's Nancy's email addy…I guess if you have any comments about my rantings I can be reached at mojo@iowatelecom.net)