Chapter 6
Lennon was only now willing to concede that this mission wouldn't be as straight forward as he had originally planned. Learning that the Cardassians were constantly spying on Federation space and were probably watching his every move made him feel very troubled. With a possible Maquis spy aboard his ship matters seemed far worse. In his mind both Lieutenants Glatzer and Donnachie appeared to be hiding something. To make matters worse DS9's security personnel had informed him that Anel Jura was not to be released back to the Spartan, she is to undergo further questioning. For a while he could only feel regret that he hadn't told Admiral Nechayev were to go at the beginning of this whole mess.
But if there was an upside to recent events Cumbrae was able to track the planet to which the Cardassian diplomat had been taken. Melina III, it was a small sparsely populated planet quite near the gaseous Badlands. He could also feel thankful that Doctor Dayne had been returned to the ship after being branded the victim of the incident involving Anel Jura. Lennon just wanted to quickly get off this station before any more trouble came his way.
Setting a course for the Cardassian border he could only feel happy to be leaving this station, knowing that when the mission was over he would come back for Anel Jura. Meantime the ops station would be taken over by Commander Sara.
Of course the problem still remained of how the Spartan would get into Cardassian Space without being detected, he needed his crew's help on this matter but going against his previous lecture to Cumbrae he couldn't help but to second guess every single one of them.
All of the bridge crew were on a heightened state of alert. All were aware the next step would take the Spartan into Cardassian space but no one knew what the Captain would do. Honestly he wasn't quite sure himself. He was playing through different scenarios in his mind. He could remember back to his prime years as Chief Engineer aboard the USS Aintree. In a rescue mission that took him into Tholian territory he reversed the polarity of the shields to disguise the ship as a Pakled transport, eventually he was caught as the Tholian's fired on the ship anyway and spent the next three months in a Tholian Labour Camp. However that experience had taught him a great deal, it gave him a both an inner and physical strength. Nowadays he looked back at those three months which he slaved away everyday knowing in the end he had defeated his captures not by strength, but by his utter refusal to give in.
The memory inspired him with confidence and for a while again he started to believe. Jumping to his feet he signalled for Commander Sara to follow him to Engineering, where he would make a few modifications to his ten-year-old plan.
Isaac Glatzer was still on duty as the Captain and Sara entered. On hearing of his plan Glatzer and his team got to work straight away and within the hour all modifications were complete. Perhaps fate would play a part in this mission afterall, Lennon thought. He was just ready to leave Main Engineering extremely satisfied when he spotted Glatzer searching through the sensor logs which Commander Sara had informed him of the gaps between entries. However, this time the gaps had been totally irradiated and only the complete records showed. As Lennon and Sara exited Engineering they began to discuss the matter.
" I thought Lt. Glatzer said the sensor logs were nothing to worry about," said the Captain.
" They do seem important enough for him to delete during a crucial remodification of the shields sir" Sara responded uneasily.
But that made the Captain uneasy again, no he couldn't do it. He could no longer go about second-guessing his entire crew. Everyone must work as a team and as leader of that team it was his responsibility to get them safely into Cardassian Space.
Lennon was only now willing to concede that this mission wouldn't be as straight forward as he had originally planned. Learning that the Cardassians were constantly spying on Federation space and were probably watching his every move made him feel very troubled. With a possible Maquis spy aboard his ship matters seemed far worse. In his mind both Lieutenants Glatzer and Donnachie appeared to be hiding something. To make matters worse DS9's security personnel had informed him that Anel Jura was not to be released back to the Spartan, she is to undergo further questioning. For a while he could only feel regret that he hadn't told Admiral Nechayev were to go at the beginning of this whole mess.
But if there was an upside to recent events Cumbrae was able to track the planet to which the Cardassian diplomat had been taken. Melina III, it was a small sparsely populated planet quite near the gaseous Badlands. He could also feel thankful that Doctor Dayne had been returned to the ship after being branded the victim of the incident involving Anel Jura. Lennon just wanted to quickly get off this station before any more trouble came his way.
Setting a course for the Cardassian border he could only feel happy to be leaving this station, knowing that when the mission was over he would come back for Anel Jura. Meantime the ops station would be taken over by Commander Sara.
Of course the problem still remained of how the Spartan would get into Cardassian Space without being detected, he needed his crew's help on this matter but going against his previous lecture to Cumbrae he couldn't help but to second guess every single one of them.
All of the bridge crew were on a heightened state of alert. All were aware the next step would take the Spartan into Cardassian space but no one knew what the Captain would do. Honestly he wasn't quite sure himself. He was playing through different scenarios in his mind. He could remember back to his prime years as Chief Engineer aboard the USS Aintree. In a rescue mission that took him into Tholian territory he reversed the polarity of the shields to disguise the ship as a Pakled transport, eventually he was caught as the Tholian's fired on the ship anyway and spent the next three months in a Tholian Labour Camp. However that experience had taught him a great deal, it gave him a both an inner and physical strength. Nowadays he looked back at those three months which he slaved away everyday knowing in the end he had defeated his captures not by strength, but by his utter refusal to give in.
The memory inspired him with confidence and for a while again he started to believe. Jumping to his feet he signalled for Commander Sara to follow him to Engineering, where he would make a few modifications to his ten-year-old plan.
Isaac Glatzer was still on duty as the Captain and Sara entered. On hearing of his plan Glatzer and his team got to work straight away and within the hour all modifications were complete. Perhaps fate would play a part in this mission afterall, Lennon thought. He was just ready to leave Main Engineering extremely satisfied when he spotted Glatzer searching through the sensor logs which Commander Sara had informed him of the gaps between entries. However, this time the gaps had been totally irradiated and only the complete records showed. As Lennon and Sara exited Engineering they began to discuss the matter.
" I thought Lt. Glatzer said the sensor logs were nothing to worry about," said the Captain.
" They do seem important enough for him to delete during a crucial remodification of the shields sir" Sara responded uneasily.
But that made the Captain uneasy again, no he couldn't do it. He could no longer go about second-guessing his entire crew. Everyone must work as a team and as leader of that team it was his responsibility to get them safely into Cardassian Space.