Chief Engineer Jeffery Lambs stood in the turbolift, tapping his foot as the lift slowed to pick up another passenger. The Spector would arrive at the rendezvous point within a short while and he was due back in Engineering. This was going to be a busy day for the Chief and he was impatient to start the morning. The lift doors finally opened and Commander Dent entered. Oh great, Lambs thought.
"Morning, Mr. Lambs," Dent said, "Headed for the bridge?"
"Aye, sir."
The two continued in silence for a while, the Chief smirking at the Commander. After a moment he said, "I heard you and Lt. Commander Venax hit it off last night."
"The Lt. Commander had some interesting insights into the Zardanian situation."
"I don't recall her ever sitting and chatting one-on-one with someone at the Launch."
"What's your point, Chief?"
"Just an observation," he said, his smirk growing, "She is not like other Vulcans, eh?"
"Probably from being raised in the Tanerous sector. Her father was a archaeologist with the Vulcan Science Academy but she spent little time on Vulcan itself."
Lambs blinked for a moment, "I served with her for over a year and I didn't know that."
"It's amazing what you find out when you talk to someone instead of behind their back, Chief," Dent said, staring at the man. The Commander looked down and noticed the data pad in the Chief's hand.
"We've been having some trouble with out warp injection system. Just an update for the Captain before I start my shift," Lambs said, holding up the pad.
Commander Dent continued to stare at the Chief for a long moment, beginning to fume with subtle anger. On any other ship such a problem would have been within the jurisdiction of the First Officer, yet here the Chief Engineer was taking it directly to Captain Peterson and seeming to almost gloat about going over the Commander's head. Plus there was the thinly veiled implication about the Tactical Officer.
"The previous Commander...his name was Briggs wasn't it?"
"Aye sir."
"Not very hands on, was he?"
"Oh, no sir. A capable officer."
"So you would take that information to him or the Captain when he was aboard?"
Lambs suddenly realized the peril he was in. There was no good answer to the question. He looked at the display to see the location of the turbolift. Dent then ordered the lift to halt and then crossed his arms, eyes raised expectantly for an answer.
"I would take it to...the Commander."
"So why aren't you doing that now?"
Lambs grew quiet, then rolled his eyes and said, "Look, Dent...the Captain said you wouldn't be here long so just bring it to him. You know, go above you with...whatever is needed."
"Was that just you personally or your entire staff?"
"Ummm....the staff...actually."
"It seems, Mr. Lambs, you are in sorry need for instruction in the chain of command. When this mission is over I'll see that you get it, or have you simply forgotten my rank?"
"No."
"'No' what?"
"No, sir."
"Good. Computer, resume turbolift. Give me that pad, Mr. Lambs. I'll see that the Captain gets it."
Lambs handed it over, and then said as the doors opened onto the Bridge, "I do understand, sir, that after this mission is over you'll be leaving us. Isn't that true?"
"From what I have seen so far that won't be soon enough," Dent replied, stepping off the lift. Behind him the doors closed, but not before he good hear the engineer grumble a curse under his breath. Dent walked over to the Captain, nodding to Venax and ignoring the quick mocking glances from the rest of the crew.
"Mr. Lambs wanted you to review this, Captain."
"You're running errands for him now, Commander?" the Captain asked sarcastically.
"No, sir. I instructed him in his proper place in the chain of command. Such information appears to be lacking with the rest of the crew, you included. Perhaps you would care to attend the information session."
Peterson's face turned red, and the rest of the crew grew silent around them. "That's a hell of an attitude you got there, Commander. You're bordering on insubordination."
"Well, you run one hell of a ship, Captain. Maybe you would like to throw me in the brig? I'd love to see you defend your position before a Starbase tribunal. Ignoring my opinions, superseding my orders, discarding Starfleet rank regulations and protocols, informing your staff to bypass me with whatever requests or information they may have."
"Sir," the helmsman interjected, "we've arrived at the rendezvous point."
"We will talk about this later, Commander Dent."
"Yes, Captain Peterson, we will," Dent replied, stepping over to his station. He challenged the rest of the crew with a warning glance and activated his station.
The three Federation ships dropped out of warp and cruised towards a massive gas giant. Ahead three Zardanian ships waited, a large cruiser flanked by two smaller warships. The Gorkon drew directly in front of the larger Zardanian cruiser and stopped, the Akira's forming a standard formation on either side.
"Recommend we go to Yellow Alert, Captain," Dent stated.
"Negative, Commander. Status, Venax?"
"The lead ship is the Empress of Zardan, flagship of the Zardanian Expansionist Fleet. Their shields and weapons are down but they are directing an intensive scanning beam at the fleet."
"Any other ships in the area?"
"Negative, sir."
"That gas giant," Dent said, checking his console, "has a severe magnetic field. That would be a good place to hide a squadron of vessels."
Peterson began to reprimand the Commander when he breathed deeply, thinking it over. "I doubt it. The atmospheric pressure would be too great for their ships. You're being a little paranoid."
"Sir," Venax said, "they could place a few ships just beneath the upper atmosphere. Our sensors cannot penetrate that particular planet too deeply and this does seem like an unusual place for a meeting."
"Nothing we can really do about it now, Lt. Commander. Let's just keep our eyes and ears open and hope for the best. Ensign Rodriguez, anything on communications?
"No, sir. Comm channels are quiet."
"They are making us wait. All right, everyone get comfortable for the next little while. This is a job for the diplomats anyway."
Dent walked over to Venax and said quietly, "Lt. Commander, what is the status of the Structural Integrity Field?"
Venax looked at the Commander a moment and then replied, "It is operating within normal parameters, sir."
"Really? Because I though it was running a little odd this morning. I found on my last ship that if we ran a variance in the higher EM field through it that would balance it out on occasion."
"The only thing that would do sir is disrupt any..." she paused and then nodded, "...it would disrupt any transporters beams directed at the ship."
"And it wouldn't show up on any scans unless they were actually looking for it. Lucky for us no one should be beaming anything aboard."
"Yes sir."
"Get to work on that quickly, Lt. Commander. If engineering sees that commands go through on my console they'll inform the Captain and he'll cancel it. We don't have time for that. I've got a bad feeling about this right from the start and that scanning beam made it worse. The only reason for it would be to gain some kind of beam in coordinate."
"Captain," Ensign Rodriguez said, "comm channel is livening up. The Zardanians are hailing the Gorkon on an open frequency."
"Let's hear it. Put it on the speaker."
"Greetings to our Federation friends and allies. This is Ambassador G'quell Mo'quet of the Zardanian Colonial Empire..."
"'Empire,'" one of the officers said, and laughed. A few others followed suit.
"...We welcome you to our space. We are looking forward to meeting with our counterparts on board your glorious USS Gorkon. We await transport coordinates so these formalities may end and we can celebrate out newly forged alliance."
"That's unlike any Zardanian I know," Dent said, "Isn't the protocol for the diplomats to met on board the Empress?"
"I guess they changed their mind. They must want to see what a real starship is like," the Captain replied, followed by more quiet laughter from the bridge crew.
"Sir, the Gorkon is sending over transporter coordinates."
"The Empress is powering their transporters."
"I think I'll go to my ready room," Peterson said, standing up, "this might be over quicker than expected.
"Sir," Venax said sharply, "reading multiple transporter beams, both at the Gorkon, Phantom and us."
"What? How?"
"Those scanning beams must have been to gather coordinate information," Dent said, "Shields! Raise shields!"
"Reading multiple explosions on the Federations ships," Venax said flatly, "Transporter beam on us was disrupted by our SIF. The Empress is firing a torpedo. They've targeted the bridge."
On the monitor a flash of light could be made out in the front of the Empress, a ball of energy streaking towards the Spector. To the side, small green explosions could be seen throughout the Gorkon and Phantom as the transported charges were activated.
Captain Peterson's world became one of fire and debris as the torpedo impacted the bridge.