Chapter 24 - Safe Harbor
Imperial Palace, Moscow, Terra
Frank and Victoria had just strode out of the Palace's stairwell when they immediately noticed something amiss. The armored guards that were supposed to be standing watch at the end of the hall, by the double doors that led to the Imperial Throne Room, were instead lying crumpled on the marble floor. The pair fell into combat mode, extending both their imbedded mechanical augments as well as their biological ones to their utmost. Their perception of time slowed, yet they themselves moved as they normally would. Enhanced vision modes were activated, and twin pairs of eyes peered through the wall even as they began to sprint down the hallway. Consciousness expanded, registering two beings in the room beyond. One was recognized as the Emperor. The other was something else. Changeling, has to be. That complicated things. A normal humanoid would be easy to drop with a thought. Just cause them to go to sleep, or use a TK attack and cause their spine to sever at the base of their skull, or even blenderize their brain. A changeling was different, for there was no spine or brain to harm. Every cell in their fluid like natural form could become very nearly anything in the known universe. And in its fluid state, as much of the changeling was now, they lacked anything concrete to harm. The Furies sent burst transmissions to Palace security and medical Emergency Response Teams, but knew that they wouldn't arrive in time to affect the battle before them.
Concentrate. Frank thought to his partner while simultaneously sending a mental flash of what he planned. Violent emotions bubbled forth, allowing the pair to better harness their powers just as they had been trained to. They were nearly at the door. Their combined will began to affect their target, ripping his very cells apart with the power of thought. They concentrated on the arm that was currently entwined around the Emperor's neck. The changeling began to cry out, his voice sounding distorted thanks to the altered perceptions of reality the combat mode Furies lived in. The iron like substance that had entwined the Emperor's throat was nearly dissolved through, the near unconscious leader of the Terran Empire falling out of its failing grasp. With a thought, the thick, reinforced double doors bowed in, then ripped away scant milliseconds before the charging Furies blew through the jagged hole their removal left in the doorway.
The Changeling was still in the process of turning towards the sounds of the disintegrating doorway, his arm continuing to dissolve with the decay spreading down towards his body. Four phaser beams converged on his rippling amber form, two from Frank and two from the dead guards' guns hovering in midair. Changelings were known to be highly resistant to phaser fire, but nothing could stand up to the concentrated, max level fire of four phasers at once. After a seeming eternity to the Furies, the changeling exploded, sending a spray of icor across the room. After a rapid but thorough scan of the surroundings to look for anything else out of place, the Fury pair came out of combat mode. The rest of the world seemed to speed up as the response time and thought increasers were scrubbed from the Furies bodies. The Emperor was lying on the ground gasping for breath, but a cursory probing of his vitals told Frank that he would be fine. It had been a close thing, but the leader of the Empire was safe.
The Emergency Response Teams began spilling into the room, power armored Section 31 strike teams with a medical team close on their heels. The strike teams formed a protective cordon around the Emperor's prostrate form, their weapons arrayed outward and their suits sensor systems probing every nook and cranny in the room. The medical teams began their own examination of the Emperor's well being.
Minutes later, Director Sloan himself entered the throne room. He approached the now seated Emperor still surrounded by a cluster of worried looking medics. There was a noticeable bruise forming around Jack's neck. His eyes looked shattered, bloodshot, tear filled, but not from the personal attack that nearly resulted in his death. With the look of a drowning man reaching for a life preserver, his haunted eyes locked onto the Section 31 head. His hand raised and a shaky finger was pointed at Sloan.
"You find her! Dead." the Emperor's near pleading voice caught in his throat, but he pressed on, "dead or alive, you bring her home."
"As you command, your Highness."
"And you make those that have taken her from me pay." There was fire in the Emperor's tear filled eyes and a snarl in his voice. Family was perhaps the most important value in the Empire, and someone had just made the current conflict intensely personal for the Emperor.
--- --- ---
Several minutes later, the emperor was sitting at the head of a table that housed his appointed ministers. He had funneled his pain, terror and hate into persecuting his duties. His face was like chiseled granite. The Section 31 liaison officer was currently occupying his attention.
"You will release these weapons to general fleet wide use Mr. Stark."
"But surely your Highness sees the sensibility in keeping these weapons in Section's hands alone. The recent involvement Starfleet had in bringing down the Terran Council should clearly show this. Starfleet cannot be trusted with."
"ENOUGH!" Jack roared, cutting the Section 31 officer's stock reply off mid delivery. "Preliminary reports show that this union of the ISC and what's left of the Dominion have weapons systems that outrange even proximity torpedoes. When combined with their speed advantages, there is virtually no way we can even engage them. Without these weapons, there will be no Starfleet left in action for you to worry about. You seem to be under the misconception that you have a voice in this decision." The Emperors voice went deadly cold. "You do not. You will tell your superiors that they will release both all local stockpiles and the plans for these weapons to sector command centers immediately or they will answer to me personally. Am I making myself perfectly clear?" The Emperor said dangerously. There was no doubt amongst his ministers as to who had the power in the room, they collectively blanched, with the Section 31 turning the whitest of them all.
"Yes your Highness!" He managed to gulp out.
Flag Ready Room, ISS Valley Forge, Delta Quadrant
The SAR teams had only just returned and already there was celebrations breaking out on Lilith. Some of the local political leaders were already declaring a yearly celebration in honor of the victory. Ulysses brow furrowed as he frowned at the news feed his desktop terminal showed him. He took a sip of the strong raktajino housed in the mug cradled in his hands. The civilians seemed oblivious to the sacrifice he was forced to make to protect them. Tens of thousands had died with the loci battlestations and attached starships. Thousands had died in his own battle line as they engaged the second ISC fleet. And judging from the reports flooding in from all along the frontier, those losses were going to hurt in the long run. The Galactic Unity had starships to spare, and they were, for the most part, using them smartly. With their superior speed and weapons reach, they could peck away at fixed defenses and Imperial fleets. It still took time to break down system scale defense nets even with their PPD's, but since they could dictate the battlefield it was their time to use.
Ulysses frowned anew as he mulled over the military realities facing him, trying to come up with a solution. One thing was certain, the GU wouldn't make the same mistake twice. They had wanted to make the takeout of Prescott's Star a true blitz. They got fancy, instead of concentrating their forces and slamming his command till it broke. Their forces had attempted a pincer movement, trying to catch him between them to crush him quickly. As a result, he had been able to beat back the initial assault. Yet given the faster speed and greater weapons reach of the GU fleets, he shouldn't have been able to do even that much. Must have been a bunch of green COs, Ulysses thought. Makes sense given that their whole strategy seemed to revolve around Prescott being an easy mark. They did what I would do, keep my more experienced and smart COs together to take out stiffer opposition and send the weaker ones to the softest target. Good thing my staff and I managed to get this place whipped into shape before they struck, or they might have had the cake walk they expected.
Ulysses forces had drove the enemy to retreat, though many had retreated largely intact and combat worthy. And as the systems surrounding Prescott were taken out, as even now reports were coming in that they were being over run, the enemy forces could concentrate and reattack the sector command. He had given the opposition nasty shiner, but round two wouldn't be long in coming and his enemy would be alert that he could fight.
And even though his forces had won, they had paid a heavy price. The Loci Defense Forces at both Loci Kappa and Delta had been butchered. All Battlestations had been destroyed or thoroughly wrecked. The mobile forces were nearly as bad, with only a handful of Loci Delta pickets surviving in various states of disrepair. Loci Kappa forces were better off, for the unexpected allies Voyager had brought with it had proven highly effective in aiding the battlestations and fleet units. Their exotic weapons systems both shut down impulse and thruster control temporarily, they also threw the targeted ship away from them. As helpful as they were, they had still only lightly limited the Loci Kappa Picket forces losses.
Ulysses was unsure how to proceed with them. A meeting was a given, but with the current political situation in the system as it was, he didn't really have the authority to deal with them. His promotion to flag rank was only a temporary expedient to solve some unexpected and unusual problems. He didn't have the customary authority in dealing with alien governments a usual military governor of the Terran Empire would. He would have to come up with something, but he would wait till he heard what they wanted first.
The things he did have authority over were humming along nicely however. Wounded ships were already being cycled through the vacant yard slips, with damaged bulkheads and hull breeches repaired thanks to replicators, transporters and tractor beams. Those ships waiting for a slip began emergency repairs on their own, sending out work bees and hardsuited engineering teams to patch up the holes in their hulls as best they could. Ulysses com chirped and he swatted it absently
"Vanguard here."
"Admiral?" the com officer on the other end of the line said. "We have a handful of units clearing system perimeter IFF. They appear to be friendlies."
"I'm on my way." Ulysses said, getting up from behind his desk and setting his half empty mug of Klingon coffee back in his ready room's replicator on his way out. He strode out into the flag bridge.
"Admiral on the bridge." The honor guard officer said.
Ulysses nodded in acknowledgement to his subordinates. "As you were. So, who are our reinforcements?" He said as he strode to the chair at the center of the bridge.
"They appear to be a Battleship Squadron and escorts. Their IFF says they're the 5016th BB Squadron out of Mosaul. Flag vessel is the ISS Conquest, Brevet Commodore Giles Bastigon commanding." Mosaul was a nearby system, home to 2 million colonists.
"Open a channel."
"Channel open Sir."
"Commodore Bastigon, this is Admiral Vanguard." A small com window popped up on the holodisplay.
"Commodore Bastigon here Admiral. It's good to hear a friendly voice. We thought that you might have been removed from this system already when we set out for here."
"The enemy tried, but we proved more bothersome than they expected. Tell me what happened at Mosaul."
"They sent in a fleet on us Sir. Blew out our deployed pickets from beyond our own weapons range." The young Commodore winced at the painful memory then pressed on. "They outnumbered us by four to one, and out-massed us by at least ten to one, and with their weapons range, there was nothing we could do." There was almost a pleading quality to the young officers voice. Ulysses knew well what that was caused by. He believed that he had failed in his duty. Officers that did that often weren't looked well upon by their superiors. "They were also faster than we were, so we couldn't close to our own weapon range unless they let us. And they played it smart and didn't do so. They kept scurrying away just out of reach, all the while picking away at us with fighter strikes and their damned PPD. All my attack attempts were accomplishing was maiming my command for no gain. So I broke off pursuit and left the system." Giles looked like a man waiting for the firing squad.
"Commodore, your course of action was exactly right. There was nothing you could do for Mosaul." Ulysses showed a ghost of a smile as the young Imperial officer looked like a 100 ton weight had been lifted from his shoulders. Your usual Imperial Flag officer would have at least dressed him down for retreating in the face of the enemy, even if it was the right thing to do. "Stay where you are. Engineering, Medical and Security personnel will be sent out to your command. Once they are satisfied that you are who you say you are, arrangements will be made to get your damaged ships and injured crew patched up."
"Aye aye Sir!" There was a note of startled awe in Commodore Bastigon's voice.
"Very good, Vanguard out." The com window closed at Ulysses gestured command. He turned towards his com officer's station. "Lieutenant, com Captain P'tel and Commander Heidberg and have them coordinate with system medical, security and engineering departments to see to Battleship Squadron 5016ths needs. Also send out a message on sector wide com. All Starfleet units are to fight in defense of their assigned systems if possible, but withdraw to Prescott's Star if faced with overwhelming opposition."
"Recorded for transmission Admiral."
Ulysses nodded. Then the sensors highlighted another group of ships entering the periphery of the system. It looked like it would be a busy day just organizing traffic and incorporating all the additional ships into the rest of the fleet.
Imperial Palace, Moscow, Terra
Frank and Victoria had just strode out of the Palace's stairwell when they immediately noticed something amiss. The armored guards that were supposed to be standing watch at the end of the hall, by the double doors that led to the Imperial Throne Room, were instead lying crumpled on the marble floor. The pair fell into combat mode, extending both their imbedded mechanical augments as well as their biological ones to their utmost. Their perception of time slowed, yet they themselves moved as they normally would. Enhanced vision modes were activated, and twin pairs of eyes peered through the wall even as they began to sprint down the hallway. Consciousness expanded, registering two beings in the room beyond. One was recognized as the Emperor. The other was something else. Changeling, has to be. That complicated things. A normal humanoid would be easy to drop with a thought. Just cause them to go to sleep, or use a TK attack and cause their spine to sever at the base of their skull, or even blenderize their brain. A changeling was different, for there was no spine or brain to harm. Every cell in their fluid like natural form could become very nearly anything in the known universe. And in its fluid state, as much of the changeling was now, they lacked anything concrete to harm. The Furies sent burst transmissions to Palace security and medical Emergency Response Teams, but knew that they wouldn't arrive in time to affect the battle before them.
Concentrate. Frank thought to his partner while simultaneously sending a mental flash of what he planned. Violent emotions bubbled forth, allowing the pair to better harness their powers just as they had been trained to. They were nearly at the door. Their combined will began to affect their target, ripping his very cells apart with the power of thought. They concentrated on the arm that was currently entwined around the Emperor's neck. The changeling began to cry out, his voice sounding distorted thanks to the altered perceptions of reality the combat mode Furies lived in. The iron like substance that had entwined the Emperor's throat was nearly dissolved through, the near unconscious leader of the Terran Empire falling out of its failing grasp. With a thought, the thick, reinforced double doors bowed in, then ripped away scant milliseconds before the charging Furies blew through the jagged hole their removal left in the doorway.
The Changeling was still in the process of turning towards the sounds of the disintegrating doorway, his arm continuing to dissolve with the decay spreading down towards his body. Four phaser beams converged on his rippling amber form, two from Frank and two from the dead guards' guns hovering in midair. Changelings were known to be highly resistant to phaser fire, but nothing could stand up to the concentrated, max level fire of four phasers at once. After a seeming eternity to the Furies, the changeling exploded, sending a spray of icor across the room. After a rapid but thorough scan of the surroundings to look for anything else out of place, the Fury pair came out of combat mode. The rest of the world seemed to speed up as the response time and thought increasers were scrubbed from the Furies bodies. The Emperor was lying on the ground gasping for breath, but a cursory probing of his vitals told Frank that he would be fine. It had been a close thing, but the leader of the Empire was safe.
The Emergency Response Teams began spilling into the room, power armored Section 31 strike teams with a medical team close on their heels. The strike teams formed a protective cordon around the Emperor's prostrate form, their weapons arrayed outward and their suits sensor systems probing every nook and cranny in the room. The medical teams began their own examination of the Emperor's well being.
Minutes later, Director Sloan himself entered the throne room. He approached the now seated Emperor still surrounded by a cluster of worried looking medics. There was a noticeable bruise forming around Jack's neck. His eyes looked shattered, bloodshot, tear filled, but not from the personal attack that nearly resulted in his death. With the look of a drowning man reaching for a life preserver, his haunted eyes locked onto the Section 31 head. His hand raised and a shaky finger was pointed at Sloan.
"You find her! Dead." the Emperor's near pleading voice caught in his throat, but he pressed on, "dead or alive, you bring her home."
"As you command, your Highness."
"And you make those that have taken her from me pay." There was fire in the Emperor's tear filled eyes and a snarl in his voice. Family was perhaps the most important value in the Empire, and someone had just made the current conflict intensely personal for the Emperor.
--- --- ---
Several minutes later, the emperor was sitting at the head of a table that housed his appointed ministers. He had funneled his pain, terror and hate into persecuting his duties. His face was like chiseled granite. The Section 31 liaison officer was currently occupying his attention.
"You will release these weapons to general fleet wide use Mr. Stark."
"But surely your Highness sees the sensibility in keeping these weapons in Section's hands alone. The recent involvement Starfleet had in bringing down the Terran Council should clearly show this. Starfleet cannot be trusted with."
"ENOUGH!" Jack roared, cutting the Section 31 officer's stock reply off mid delivery. "Preliminary reports show that this union of the ISC and what's left of the Dominion have weapons systems that outrange even proximity torpedoes. When combined with their speed advantages, there is virtually no way we can even engage them. Without these weapons, there will be no Starfleet left in action for you to worry about. You seem to be under the misconception that you have a voice in this decision." The Emperors voice went deadly cold. "You do not. You will tell your superiors that they will release both all local stockpiles and the plans for these weapons to sector command centers immediately or they will answer to me personally. Am I making myself perfectly clear?" The Emperor said dangerously. There was no doubt amongst his ministers as to who had the power in the room, they collectively blanched, with the Section 31 turning the whitest of them all.
"Yes your Highness!" He managed to gulp out.
Flag Ready Room, ISS Valley Forge, Delta Quadrant
The SAR teams had only just returned and already there was celebrations breaking out on Lilith. Some of the local political leaders were already declaring a yearly celebration in honor of the victory. Ulysses brow furrowed as he frowned at the news feed his desktop terminal showed him. He took a sip of the strong raktajino housed in the mug cradled in his hands. The civilians seemed oblivious to the sacrifice he was forced to make to protect them. Tens of thousands had died with the loci battlestations and attached starships. Thousands had died in his own battle line as they engaged the second ISC fleet. And judging from the reports flooding in from all along the frontier, those losses were going to hurt in the long run. The Galactic Unity had starships to spare, and they were, for the most part, using them smartly. With their superior speed and weapons reach, they could peck away at fixed defenses and Imperial fleets. It still took time to break down system scale defense nets even with their PPD's, but since they could dictate the battlefield it was their time to use.
Ulysses frowned anew as he mulled over the military realities facing him, trying to come up with a solution. One thing was certain, the GU wouldn't make the same mistake twice. They had wanted to make the takeout of Prescott's Star a true blitz. They got fancy, instead of concentrating their forces and slamming his command till it broke. Their forces had attempted a pincer movement, trying to catch him between them to crush him quickly. As a result, he had been able to beat back the initial assault. Yet given the faster speed and greater weapons reach of the GU fleets, he shouldn't have been able to do even that much. Must have been a bunch of green COs, Ulysses thought. Makes sense given that their whole strategy seemed to revolve around Prescott being an easy mark. They did what I would do, keep my more experienced and smart COs together to take out stiffer opposition and send the weaker ones to the softest target. Good thing my staff and I managed to get this place whipped into shape before they struck, or they might have had the cake walk they expected.
Ulysses forces had drove the enemy to retreat, though many had retreated largely intact and combat worthy. And as the systems surrounding Prescott were taken out, as even now reports were coming in that they were being over run, the enemy forces could concentrate and reattack the sector command. He had given the opposition nasty shiner, but round two wouldn't be long in coming and his enemy would be alert that he could fight.
And even though his forces had won, they had paid a heavy price. The Loci Defense Forces at both Loci Kappa and Delta had been butchered. All Battlestations had been destroyed or thoroughly wrecked. The mobile forces were nearly as bad, with only a handful of Loci Delta pickets surviving in various states of disrepair. Loci Kappa forces were better off, for the unexpected allies Voyager had brought with it had proven highly effective in aiding the battlestations and fleet units. Their exotic weapons systems both shut down impulse and thruster control temporarily, they also threw the targeted ship away from them. As helpful as they were, they had still only lightly limited the Loci Kappa Picket forces losses.
Ulysses was unsure how to proceed with them. A meeting was a given, but with the current political situation in the system as it was, he didn't really have the authority to deal with them. His promotion to flag rank was only a temporary expedient to solve some unexpected and unusual problems. He didn't have the customary authority in dealing with alien governments a usual military governor of the Terran Empire would. He would have to come up with something, but he would wait till he heard what they wanted first.
The things he did have authority over were humming along nicely however. Wounded ships were already being cycled through the vacant yard slips, with damaged bulkheads and hull breeches repaired thanks to replicators, transporters and tractor beams. Those ships waiting for a slip began emergency repairs on their own, sending out work bees and hardsuited engineering teams to patch up the holes in their hulls as best they could. Ulysses com chirped and he swatted it absently
"Vanguard here."
"Admiral?" the com officer on the other end of the line said. "We have a handful of units clearing system perimeter IFF. They appear to be friendlies."
"I'm on my way." Ulysses said, getting up from behind his desk and setting his half empty mug of Klingon coffee back in his ready room's replicator on his way out. He strode out into the flag bridge.
"Admiral on the bridge." The honor guard officer said.
Ulysses nodded in acknowledgement to his subordinates. "As you were. So, who are our reinforcements?" He said as he strode to the chair at the center of the bridge.
"They appear to be a Battleship Squadron and escorts. Their IFF says they're the 5016th BB Squadron out of Mosaul. Flag vessel is the ISS Conquest, Brevet Commodore Giles Bastigon commanding." Mosaul was a nearby system, home to 2 million colonists.
"Open a channel."
"Channel open Sir."
"Commodore Bastigon, this is Admiral Vanguard." A small com window popped up on the holodisplay.
"Commodore Bastigon here Admiral. It's good to hear a friendly voice. We thought that you might have been removed from this system already when we set out for here."
"The enemy tried, but we proved more bothersome than they expected. Tell me what happened at Mosaul."
"They sent in a fleet on us Sir. Blew out our deployed pickets from beyond our own weapons range." The young Commodore winced at the painful memory then pressed on. "They outnumbered us by four to one, and out-massed us by at least ten to one, and with their weapons range, there was nothing we could do." There was almost a pleading quality to the young officers voice. Ulysses knew well what that was caused by. He believed that he had failed in his duty. Officers that did that often weren't looked well upon by their superiors. "They were also faster than we were, so we couldn't close to our own weapon range unless they let us. And they played it smart and didn't do so. They kept scurrying away just out of reach, all the while picking away at us with fighter strikes and their damned PPD. All my attack attempts were accomplishing was maiming my command for no gain. So I broke off pursuit and left the system." Giles looked like a man waiting for the firing squad.
"Commodore, your course of action was exactly right. There was nothing you could do for Mosaul." Ulysses showed a ghost of a smile as the young Imperial officer looked like a 100 ton weight had been lifted from his shoulders. Your usual Imperial Flag officer would have at least dressed him down for retreating in the face of the enemy, even if it was the right thing to do. "Stay where you are. Engineering, Medical and Security personnel will be sent out to your command. Once they are satisfied that you are who you say you are, arrangements will be made to get your damaged ships and injured crew patched up."
"Aye aye Sir!" There was a note of startled awe in Commodore Bastigon's voice.
"Very good, Vanguard out." The com window closed at Ulysses gestured command. He turned towards his com officer's station. "Lieutenant, com Captain P'tel and Commander Heidberg and have them coordinate with system medical, security and engineering departments to see to Battleship Squadron 5016ths needs. Also send out a message on sector wide com. All Starfleet units are to fight in defense of their assigned systems if possible, but withdraw to Prescott's Star if faced with overwhelming opposition."
"Recorded for transmission Admiral."
Ulysses nodded. Then the sensors highlighted another group of ships entering the periphery of the system. It looked like it would be a busy day just organizing traffic and incorporating all the additional ships into the rest of the fleet.