ACT I

"To Taste Death But Once"

Guest Starring

Tuvok

Evil Terrorist Guy

Written by

Man of Trek Lore

Station Log, Stardate 60511.1

This week is starting off rather well. I'm touring the Northstar (Nakajima decided to make the ship's name one-word. Don't know why, since North and Star are two words...) Anyway, the station's staff has taken to working on their new project workhorse, rather than keeping up with station maitenence.

I'm going to have to have a little chitchat with Mister Kim about that...

"Bring the plasma flow up another point-zero-zero-seven kilapascals," Lieutenant Commander Harry Kim ordered from his station crewman, who was working on an EPS manifold in a service juncture. The corridor on the deck began to light up a little bit more. "Good," he said. "Keep it steady. Bring the secondary power cuplinks online now."

The crewman did so. Then, the rest of the corridor lit up. "I think we got it."

Suddenly, the manifold sparked. A spark landed on the side of the crewman's face, and he went down, covering it. Then, the power went out.

Harry helped him up. "You all right?"

"Yeah, that just caught me offguard," the crewman said. "I think the cuplinks aren't compatible with this manifold."

Kim scanned it with a handy tricorder. Lo-and-behold, the crewman was right. "Why the hell would they give us a Galaxy-class power cuplink instead of a Nova class cuplink?"

"Novas aren't mass produced; I guess they thought 'One size fits all'," the crewman thought aloud.

"You're probably right." Kim sighed. "I'll go up to ops and have a talk with Commander Barnum at Utopia Planitia. I'm sure she has a few from an Intrepid in stock she can send over here."

"No problem, Sir."

Just as Kim turned around, he was stopped by Captain Bruce McGawan, who smiled down at him. "Commander."

"Captain." Kim gulped. "Is there something I can do for you?"

"For one, you can get the replicators on level ten back online," McGawan said. "And you still haven't fixed that power relay that goes into my office yet."

"As I said before, power allocation has been cut in half because we're still cleaning up from the cockroaches on level five," Kim said. "We're still trying to reinstall the old powerframe before we put the new ones in to supplement it."

"So, we have additional power?"

Kim shook his head. "Level five had a critical power junction that needs immediate repair. We've been working on it for the last three months..."

"What's taking you?"

"The part is from a time when Regula-style bases were still being used across the Federation," Kim said. "It's practically classic 23rd century tech from Captain Kirk's time. It's so damned efficient but it's so damned hard to replace."

"Well, instead of playing with yourself here on the Northstar, I suggest you get to work to continue to fix my station," McGawan said. "It is why I hired you—"

Suddenly, a comm signal sounded, with: "Situation alert! Senior officers to Operations," said Lieutenant Tao Xan Nu Wing's voice.

"What's going on?" McGawan demanded to know as he, Commander Kaori Nakajima, and Kim exited the turbolift on the upper level of operations.

Wing, sitting at his station, turns around in his swivel chair. "We're receiving an automated distress call from the Mukaihara. They've been attacked by Negarani warships."

"The Negs again?" McGawan called. "What's the position of the Mukaihara?"

Kim ran a sweep of the area. "They're near the Lambda Epsilon system, drifting towards a pulsar at full impulse."

"That pulsar will tear that ship apart," Nakajima said aloud.

"Yes, and the Lambda Epsilon system fell to the Negs four months ago," McGawan recalled.

"The Mukaihara will reach the pulsar in thirty-seven point six hours," Kim concluded.

"We should take the Northstar," Wing said. "We can cover that distance in half the time."

Kim shook his head. "She's not even space worthy yet."

"You're stuck with runabouts," McGawan said. To Nakajima, he said: "Get the hell out there and find out what's going on."

"Wing, you're with me. Mister Kim, have the hauler bay prep the Ohio."

"Aye, Commander."

With that, Wing and Nakajima left Ops and headed for the hauler bay.

Three hours later, the Ohio dropped out of warp. Slowly, the runabout came upon a heap, what was left of the Mukaihara. The vessel had been torn apart from the outside. The scans of the interior showed much worse damage.

"There is all kinds of internal damage," Nakajima said. "The bridge has been destroyed, warp engines are offline. I'm reading minimum life support on the decks that haven't been exposed to space. And I'm not reading any emergency force fields. The breaches decompressed most of the ship. Any Negs in the area?"

Wing checked, and shook his head. "Not that I can see. There are plasma trails left and right, but they originated near the Lambda Epsilon system."

"According to the captain, this is a hotspot. We need to tread carefully," Nakajima said. "Scan for biosigns."

Wing complied. As he continued to do so, Nakajima checked on the general condition of the interior of the surviving areas. They seemed stable enough for humanoid support. Should anyone be alive, that's where Wing would look. In fact... "I'm picking up two biosigns. One strong, one faint. Human and Vulcan."

"Communications are down," Nakajima said. "First thing's first. Bringing us to within tractor range."

The Ohio came screaming over the forward saucer hull of the Mukaihara. Nakajima brought the runabout up to a stable point on the ship's forward saucer. Then, Wing fired the tractor beam.

"Full reverse," Nakajima said, bringing the Ohio into a full reverse motion. It took a while, but it managed to slow the Mukaihara enough as to where it wasn't soaring for a pulsar's gravity well anymore. Nakajima nodded to Wing, who looked confused. "I'm going aboard the Mukaihara. Put me down next to the life signs."

"Are you sure you wanna-"

"Just do it, Tao."

Wing nodded. "Bringing us into position."

As Wing did so, Nakajima changed into an EV suit, just in case. She took a medical kit, and then stepped into the transporter arch. "Energize."

The blue wash of columns faded out the forward view of the Ohio. When the transporter effect ended, Nakajima found herself breathing stale air, and inside a sealed compartement in engineering.

Qucikly, she looked around, and found a dark-skinned Vulcan and a human female. The female was laying in a bloody heap, while the Vulcan tended to her. Quickly, Nakajima rushed to them and scanned the female with a tricorder. What turned up was ugly. She was going to die in a matter of moments. There was nothing she could do, or Doc could, for that matter.

Then, Nakajima introduced herself.

"Commander Tuvok, Starfleet Command," the Vulcan introduced.

"Is there anyone else?"

Tuvok simply said: "No. No one else survived."

Nakajima hit her combadge. "Nakajima to Ohio. Wing, lock onto all three of us and beam us aboard."

"Stand by," Wing replied.

Once again, the transporter effect began and ended. Wing, who was waiting in front of the transporter platform, quickly took the patients into the back, with the help of Nakajima. However, once they put the poor girl onto a cot to help make her comfortable, she died.

Frustrated, Nakajima threw her medkit across the back compartement, and headed for the forward section. Wing couldn't leave Tuvok, as he stayed to help him.

Nakajima found herself sitting in the co-pilot's seat of the cockpit, staring out into space. You can't save everyone, Kaori, she thought to herself. Aloud she said: "Get the hell over it. You're a Vulcan!" But she couldn't bring herself to let her Vulcan side take control. It should be easier than this!

Nakajima closed her eyes, and took a deep breath...

Once again, she stood on the precipice. It was peaceful here. She couldn't feel any sense of storm, nor was there the river of fire below her. The land was lush and green, but the sky was a little cloudy.

Suddenly, it began to rain. It began to rain hard. And she couldn't find a way to bring the control back anymore...

"Kaori? What's wrong?"

Nakajima openned her eyes, seeing Wing standing there, with a gentle hand on her left shoulder. The rain was still coming down.

Wing gently put a hand on her face, and wiped away the rain... and then Nakajima realized, she was crying. She fell into Wing's arms, and just went off, crying and whailing on like someone who has failed her mission.

Suddenly, the deck shook hard. That seemed to be a catalyst for bringing Nakajima out of her trance, and she sprung into action, ignoring her pain. As a Starfleet Officer, she knew her place. And she went to work as a Starfleet officer. "Three Cypher class fighters just dropped out of warp, heading for our position."

"What the hell?" Wing was amazed, surprised, and scared. "Cypher class? Those are Starfleet's newest fighters."

"I can't get a clear scan inside the vessels," Nakajima said. "Except that they've targeted our warp core."

"I'm getting us out of here," Wing said. "Setting a retreat course for SB248, maximum warp!"

However, the fighters were more maneuverable than the runabout. They quickly overtook the runabout, firing at their warp nacells. The Ohio began to vent drive plasma.

"We're not getting out that way," Wing said.

Tuvok came into the cockpit. "Can I render assistance?"

"Took you long enough," Nakajima said. "Take tactical. Wing, try to get a message to SB248, ESC. I'm taking us into evasive maneuvers, full impulse."

Nakajima, expertly, flew the Ohio around the Starfleet flighters' weapons fire. The Cypher class fighter was a formidable fighter, with a single cockpit, and a design that closely resembled an F-14 Tomcat from old Earth, without the twin tails, and with warp nacells underneath the wings; also impulse engines for afterburners. They were stealthy and very maneuverable.

Nakajima screamed for a nearby ion storm, dispite the dangers. She knew what she was doing – it was most logical, after all, wasn't it?

Suddenly, the computer's alerts went off. "Warning, ion-particle density rising."

"Kaori," Wing said over his shoulder, "what are you doing?"

Cold and steady, Nakajima simply said: "Boldly going where no one has gone before."

"Into an ion storm?" Wing echoed. "No one since Captain Kirk has ever gone head-first into an ion storm like this!"

"Then at least I know we can survive."

"But the Enterprise was heavily damaged in the storm!" Wing reminded Nakajima. "We're a runabout. We have no chance to survive!"

"Then we'll just have to make our time, won't we," Nakajima said. "Increasing speed."

"You're going to devistate our manifolds before we reach the perimeter of the storm," Wing urged. "Don't do this!"

"And get beheaded? No thank you."

"The Negarani are closing," Tuvok interupted. "They are targetting our impulse engines."

"Evasive pattern alpha-six," Nakajima recorded. "They won't follow us into the storm."

Suddenly, the Negarani vessels outran, and blocked the runabout, firing directly at the forward section. Nakajima, to keep from colliding, had to evade, bringing the vessel about. That was the window the Negarani needed, as they knocked out the runabout's impulse engines. They slid to a stop.

"Weapons!" Nakajima called.

Just as Wing and Tuvok armed themselves, and Nakajima took a phaser from the drawer under her console, ten Negarani militants beamed aboard.

"Where did these guys come from?" Nakajima wondered.

The leader of the group nodded to the forward window. Nakajima turned to see five Negerani freighters sitting directly off the bow. "With your sensors being jammed by the ion storm's particles," the lead militant said, "it gave us the window we needed to take your ship, and you, captive. You cannot escape."

END OF ACT I