Star Trek: BWTECS Episode 2 STRANDED!
By: Trekker
Author's note: I realize that Sloane was previously mentioned as a male character at some previous point in this storyline (or was that somewhere else?...) Anyway, I think that the name befits a female character a little better than a male character, so I will change this little detail. I think I can get away with the excuse that "Sloane" is, in fact a Trill (alien) and since her race has an unusual naming system, I made a mistake and I am correcting it here and now.
turning to Lt. Sloane I dub thee: 'Lura Sloane' I tap her shoulders and head with a ceremonial sword.
Besides, some of you out there want a romance, so... I think I'll tease you a little heh heh heh heh heh
CHAPTER 4: First Thing's First
Feudal World USS COLUMBIA (saucer section)
"Come in." Captain Ramon was sitting at his desk, head in hands, when Lt. Sloane walked in, followed by Boslin.
Without preamble, Sloane immediately spoke up: "What was a Cardassian warship doing all the way out here?"
"The Cardassians cannot travel freely through Federation space. They must have found another route out here. Even under cloak, they can't make the distance without being detected by some random sensor arrays. Maybe they've been out here longer than we thought they were, and this is their territory now. We could be intruding into their territory," Boslin finished. It was now clear that they all shared the same thought.
"What about a wormhole?" Ramon prompted.
"The Cardies lost everything after the war. One would think that they would have been moving colonists ever since the war ended through that wormhole. We would have detected the traffic a while ago," Sloane answered. Her Russian heritage had a tendency to show through every now and then, even though she was only 1/4 Russian.
"What if they only began using the wormhole very recently? That ship we encountered may have been scouting the sector." Ramon always asked the obvious questions when he could, even when they seemed unimportant.
"There are two things wrong with that. Number 1: That was a battleship that attacked us. Number 2: We would have been able to detect the tachyon traces on bastard's hull as a result of recent passage through a wormhole. Unfortunately, warp travel can remove those traces if the ship is at warp for extensive periods of time. If there is a nearby wormhole, it's pretty far away. Even in subspace," Sloane was doing the talking again.
"Can anybody think of a reason why they would send a battleship this far away from home, despite the fact that they have almost no fleet left?" Ramon was slowly getting frustrated and it was beginning to show through. This was a negative trait in any starship captain, and Ramon knew it. He was definitely improving since his Academy days, though. No one answered. "Let's pipe this through to Starfleet Intelligence. Maybe they have an answer for us."
Ramon was already opening a secure channel to SI on his communications interface. Admiral Nolotai's face appeared on the screen instantly, though the image was a little fuzzy as a result of the lack of signal boosters between Starfleet Command and the middle of nowhere. "Captain Ramon, it is good to see you again. However, now is not a good time to chat. This channel is insecure at this range." The screen turned black again. That was the whole conversation.
"Well, that was brief," commented Boslin when the interface shut off.
Captain Ramon was not in a good mood (not that he had been since the attack). He faced his officers, and said: "Commander, can we launch a probe from here and send a message to the admiral to be transmitted through the nearest subspace communcations array?"
"Yes, we can... but it will take weeks for the message to reach Starfleet Command," replied Commander Boslin.
"We don't have much choice, Steve," Sloane rarely addressed anyone by his or her first name. Hmmm, thought the captain, What's going on between them?
"Prepare a probe," ordered the captain. "Launch it at..." he glanced at the time displayed on his computer "0900 hours. Dismissed."