By Chaoseternus
Heres a joke for you, two ships, the Enterprise NCC 1701-E and the Dauntless class Indefatigable both investigate an unusual gate, which one ends up in the wrong universe?
23Discontinuity: USS ValiantA wave of energy passed through the nebula as once again the massive intergate activated, spilling a trio of Federation Support ships into the chaos that was the Tau'ri end of the junction.
Picard had made his deal with the Tau'ri and the Federation was going to honour it and that was as it should be, Cohen thought, her face calm and commanding as she gazed upon the glowing orifice of the gate as it blinked out again.
Valiant was Guardship for this twelve hour, responsible for controlling traffic through the gate and as such was required to be at Red Alert with Shields and weapons hot for a full 12 hours, then another Federation vessel would assume her position, assisted by a Tau'ri vessel.
It was a thankless task, but very much a necessary one.
The Goa'uld were in their universe, somewhere either in or around Federation space, at any time they could attempt to retake the intergate and then force they way through back home. That would be a disaster, too many unprotected ships, too many people floated around hard at work building and repairing for their guard to be relaxed, for an attack to get this deep into the nebula.
She wasn't so sure of the second part of the Admiralty's decision though. The Admiralty, based only on the word of Picard and the Enterprise crew had decided to form an alliance of sorts with the Tau'ri, to maintain control of the Intergate at all costs with Guardstations at both ends, this end manned by the Tau'ri and their end by Starfleet and the Klingon Empire, both stations would be maintained with the best technology available to their universe.
There was both rubs.
She could understand their trust on Picards word, after all, what use was a Captain if their word was not trusted? But they were helping the Tau'ri assume dominance over the Intergate this end and arranging exchanges of scientific knowledge, a lot of which she had already been informed would not translate across the universes due to slight variations in physical constants but enough would to give the Tau'ri a distinct advantage and that could be taken as a clear violation of the Prime Directive by some, never mind that the Prime Directive wasn't meant for other universe and in fact had been ignored before as far as alternate realities were concerned.
Cohen growled internally, wrestling her thoughts into line. No, that wasn't the rub either. The truth was they didn't truly know if the Tau'ri were the good guys of this universe. Now that was the rub.
They were dealing with the devil they knew and that had its advantages but they didn't truly know if the Tau'ri were to be trusted, if they were the good guys. Sure, they appeared to be better than the Goa'uld and they appeared to be telling the truth and Enterprise had picked up two relief efforts carried out by the Tau'ri…
Cohen sighed inwardly, she was worrying to much, it was being surrounded by so many ships that could easily pound right through her shields that did it.
Only time would tell if the Admiralty was right to follow Picards lead and trust the Tau'ri and she hoped to hell they were right, if it ever came to a full inter-universe war, Cohen was worried that the Federation would lose.
Cohen sighed, out loud this time as she stretched, easing her aching muscles slowly. Watch duty was a total pain in the arse, she grumpily thought as she rose, walking slowly over to the small replicator to fix everyone another round of their favourite caffeine fix, she after all could leave her station and wonder around, they couldn't.
Lights flickered across the bridge and the fatigue of sitting for seven hours in her chair with another five on the way instantly vanished.
"Report!"
"Nothing to worry about captain" Nog replied, visibly easing back as information flashed across the screen, "the Tau'ri just started some heavy duty scanning and it interfered with our power relays for a moment. Computers compensated for it"
Cohen relaxed, turning back to the replicator, "what kind of scans?"
Nog glanced at the sensor data, double checking the information before replying, "Appears to be a triangulated structural integrity scan from Interrogator and Indefatigable on the completed elements of the new installation and…" Nog glanced up slightly puzzled, "a triangulated scan of the nebula from Persephone and Eisenhower "
Cohen nodded, "does it give them enough resolution to spot the Anubis Fighters?"
"Right" Nog replied enthusiastically, "it could burn through their cloaks when they start to get close, the Tau'ri sensors have some serious power behind them but they would pick up the anomalies in the nebula caused by a cloaked ship passing through long before that… and their they go"
Nog tapped quickly at his console, "they appear to have a contact already… certainly sweeping a few degrees now not a full sweep… fighters diverting, going into combat formation… Contact! Unidentified vessel decloaking almost dead astern, 179 mark 184, quite a way away though…"
"Maintain our position helm," Cohen said as she glanced over the Ferengi's shoulder at the sensor display, "we don't want to have a ship come through whilst we are haring off after a contact the Tau'ri are more than capable of dealing with do we?"
"Contact is firing…" Nog breathlessly continued.
Te'sok's voice broke in now, his head tilted as the Vulcan listened with calm impassivity to the sounds of the furball, "Tau'ri Fighter transmissions identify it as an Al-kesh bomber… apparently rigged for recon"
Nog grimaced as the sensor data shifted, "they got her, but lost a Lancer in the process, the pilot didn't eject"
Cohen nodded, "record all the sensor data and add it to the Intel batch for Starfleet Command"
"Aye Captain"
Cohen sat back down in the centre seat with a sigh, the excitement over. Bringing her cup to her lips she sighed with pleasure as the fresh fragrant scent of Strawberry tea hit her nose. Ahh, for the simple pleasures!