CHAPTER 7: The Incursion
The USS Incursion flew through space at warp speed, en route to Deep Space Nine. After several weeks spent dissolving the 'Warden' conspiracy, it was a relief to the crew to be on a simple fact-finding mission in Cardassian space, but losing shore leave was no fun AT ALL.
Admiral Nolotai had been very clear about the secrecy of this mission: just because the Cardassians could not fight anymore, did not mean that someone else might get interested in what the Incursion would discover.
Anyway, Incursion was to pick up three crewmembers at the space station, and then proceed into the Demilitarized Zone, a no-man's-land region on the Federation/Cardassian border disguised as a Ferengi cargo ship.
SEVERAL HOURS LATER . . .
"Captain, we have arrived at DS9 and are preparing to dock. We are disguised as one of the Norway-class starships." The call from the bridge was right on schedule. Science officer Ivan Verov was in command during the gamma shift aboard the Incursion, and he would keep his command until they had docked.
The whole reason for the Incursion to be disguised was that there were people on the station (such as Quark, the Ferengi bartender) who would tell anyone that the Federation's most Top Secret starship was there and how to get at it, as long as he got paid. There were more than a few unscrupulous people like him on the station. Deep Space Nine was at the crossroads of several different commercial routes, and it is the only space station that protects the Bajoran wormhole and the interests of ambitious profiteers from the Dominion forces the controlled the space at the other end, which was somewhere in the Gamma Quadrant.
Deep Space Nine was quite busy today, even without the regular commercial traffic traveling through the Bajoran sector. Actually, the traffic had never quite returned to the pre-war norm. The Incursion was cleared for docking at pylon 3, near an Ambassador-class starship that was recollecting her crew and loading supplies to prepare for a recovery mission elsewhere in the Alpha Quadrant. Less than one hour later, they were on their way to the Cardassian border, disguised as a non-aligned commercial freighter.
SOMEWHERE BEHIND THE CARDASSIAN BORDER. . .
DISCLAIMER:
The "USS Incursion" and the corresponding crewmembers are trademarks of ACTIVISION as well as Paramount Pictures ® and are [therefore] not my own inventions.
"Inuyasha" and the corresponding characters are also not my inventions… but you already knew that!