SUPER-DREADNOUGHT: Part I: Chapter III
Commander's personal Log: Stardate 56229.3 Star Ship USS Ticonderoga:
Admiral William McGinnis recording.
We are now two days out of construction dock, and insofar as we can tell, no ships observed our departure. As only Gouron and the three Federation task force commanders know of this ship's existence, I am relieved by this. We are still several hours from the Klingon home planet, and as all systems have continued to function perfectly for the last forty hours, the tension aboard ship seems to be decreasing by the hour. This, of course, will soon change, as we are about to enter the most difficult part of this mission. If I succeed in convincing Gouron to hold off in his attack, all sides will have more time to prepare. If I do not, we may be facing the before the Federation is ready for a war on this scale.
Because we have been very fortunate over the last seventy years, we may have become too complacent, too ready to expect that our enemies can be argued into taking our view of things. The only exceptions to this are the Cardassians, who are not a threat to the Federation anymore, and the Romulans, who are so weakened by political turmoil, that they pose little threat most of the time. They, however, are another matter.
Even with the loss of the collective now under the leadership of "Hugh", and the losses encurred at Sol, and in the Klingon war, they still pose an overwhelming threat. Why they haven't tried a more concerted attack is beyond me. So far, they have, apparently viewed us as "irrelevant," with only our technology as "relevant,". What happens if they suddenly come to the understanding that if they are to get our tech, they will have to kill us all. Then we will become "relevant," and I do not look forward to that day. The question, simply put, is whether the' planned offensive will make us "relevant," or not.
McGinnis sat back, wondering what needed to be done. With a crew of less than 400, many of the duties that went along with being a commander of a Galaxy-class ship were unnecessary aboard this vessel. There were two reasons for the small crew. Firstly, the ship's tremendous automation, something that had been designed into her with the in mind. The second, put simply, was that this ship's living quarters were not large, as the equipment that supported the weapons, computers, and shielding of this vessel, plus extremely heavy structural members took up tremendous amounts of space in a hull barely larger than a Galaxy-Class ship.
McGinnis rose quickly, remembering that he would have training in the new suits of heavy-duty armor, with which this ship was equipped. Like so many other parts of the ship, this was new equipment insofar as "regular" star fleet personnel were concerned. The suits were full-body units, with a small back-pack nuclear reactor, mounting locks for various beam and missile weapons, and a small shield generator. It was hoped that these would allow the crew increased survivability and effectiveness should it become possible to transport aboard a ship.
During his ruminations, McGinnis had put his suit on, left his quarters, and proceeded to Holo-1. His suit was all white, with a phaser rifle bracketed on his right wrist, a head-mounted laser canon, and a grenade launcher, that for on-board exercises, would fire simulated sonic grenades, since the real article would wreck both holo-simulator and user, shield or not.
The holo-simulator's doors opened silently, allowing McGinnis an unrestricted view of the combat already taking place. Several of his security crew were in their armor, blasting a contingent of simulated that had apparently tried to beam into engineering. McGinnis entered the battle, arm-mounted phaser-rifle flaring. He quickly found that the had adapted to this weapon already, and that heavier blasts would be required. Unfortunately, his armor was in its default configuration, meaning that its heaviest beam weapons were not available. He fired the head-mounted laser canon, whose raw output was many times that of the phaser. However, because it was an inefficient energy weapon, he could do little but rock the simulated soldiers. The security crew, meanwhile, had been firing their plasma canon, and their heavy graviton weapons. These could punch through the shielding available on the units, but the combined firepower of all ten security suits was required to breech the shielding on one soldier. However, it appeared, assuming that Federation intelligence was correct, that the average units could be defeated, even at their maximum adaptive efficiency.
McGinnis smiled under his helmet, for although this was not a total victory, and a larger team of would be able to defeat his crew, it did appear that effective offensive and defensive action would be possible against the for the first time. This was decidedly the best news that he'd had all week!
After a few minutes, his crew had defeated the remaining, whose attempts to capture McGinnis had failed due to his suit's shielding. Again, this was fortunate, since a sufficient number of them would have been able to break through, but, in limited action, the suits' shielding would do exactly what Star Fleet Engineering had hoped that it would do: save the wearer from absorption.
At this point, the holosimulator shut down suddenly, the lighting went red, and the ship-wide klaxons went off.
"Red Alert, Red alert, this ship is now on red alert, ... Commanding officer to the bridge." said the computer.
"McGinnis to Bridge," said The Admiral as he struck his com badge.
"Sir, we have a cloaked ship on scan, signature suggests that its Romulan!", replied Lt.Cmdr Anders' voice.
"On my way," replied McGinnis, not even wasting time to discard his armor.
The Bridge doors opened, and McGinnis, now minus his helmet, moved quickly to his chair. Data, who had been anticipating his arrival had already vacated the command chair, and was sitting at his post.
", tight beam transmission to the Klingon home world," prepare a subspace buoy for immediate launch."
"Aye Sir," replied Anders, "Buoy ready, Klingon council chamber now on main visual."
The transmission was rather scrambled as transmissions from phase-cloaked ships were extremely difficult to keep balanced. However, Gouron's battle hardened face could be clearly distinguished behind the snow.
"Gouron, I am William McGinnis, Admiral in command of the United Star
Ship Ticonderoga. We are some four hours from your planet, and have encountered a cloaked Romulan vessel. As this ship carries the best in Federation technology, I thought that I should offer the honor of destroying the Romulan to you, before I took action."
"Admiral," replied Gouron, "Consider the Romulan's appearance as a test of your vessel's capability, and your crew's honor. You are welcomed to destroy the trespasser, I hope that your arrival is not overly delayed."
"Understood, I will contact you before our arrival at your planet,"
McGinnis out.
After this communication, McGinnis turned his mind to the destruction of the unidentified Romulan ship.
For Cmdr Tomaluk, it was another routine supply mission, deep within Klingon space. His vessel and crew had made the trip at least twenty times, and it had always gone flawlessly. This run included parts for a new disrupter array, and some other spares that were needed by Family Durass' secret fleet. After Cmdr Sela's failure against Picard, the Romulan high command had decided that sending ships through singly was better than trying to send an entire fleet across the Klingon/Romulan border at once. Tomaluk, and his fellow commanders' recent success in delivering supplies was ample proof of the correctness of the plan.
"Commander, I have a disturbance off our port bow, bearing 43 mark 12," said the young female navigator.
"Scan it," snapped Tomaluk, coming out of his chair.
"It appears to be a subspace anomaly, growing in intensity as time passes," said the science officer.
"Cloaked ship?", demanded Tomaluk.
His answer came as a huge Federation-style ship appeared practically on top of his own vessel.
"Decloak..." he said, but the sentence never got the chance to complete itself.
"Sir, decloaking in three ... two... one..." said Schultz at tactical.
"Weapons, weapons control, auxiliary and secondary energy production systems on line, awaiting full charging cycle. We'll have to blanket the area, since we aren't exactly sure where the Romulan ship is."
"Understood, you may clear the computer to fire when ready," said McGinnis, hoping that the new, and largely untested, systems would work as well as Mycenae's weapons control systems always had.
"Firing now!" said Schultz.
Phaser bolts erupted from nearly twenty rapid-fire phaser batteries, and almost immediately thereafter, contained-plasma torpedoes flashed from the forward tubes. These weapons brought the Romulan ship out of cloak, effectively rendering the ship totally visible. power systems weren't affected, but this was of little import for long. Ticonderoga's main mega-collimator ring flared blue-white for less than a second, and then a brilliant white lance of energy connected the two vessels, disintegrating the entire Romulan ship on impact. Ten seconds after the firing had started, Ticonderoga was back on course for the Klingon home world, and the phase-cloak was coming back on-line.
"Sir, the Romulan ship has been neutralized, and it got no message off before its destruction. Because they were cloaked, they weren't able to handle our fire. I report that all weapons and weapons-control sensors functioned ... great!" said Schultz.
"Excellent Mr. Schultz, log your report, and stand down from red alert.
... Helm, increase velocity to warp 9.5, and give me a new ETA for the Klingon Capitol."
"Sir, at warp 9.5, we will arrive in-system in forty-seven minutes."
"Very well, get me Gouron on a double-secured channel, main viewer."
A moment passed while Commander Anders sent the transmission. Finally, the link was established, and she turned to the Admiral.
"Sir, Gouron on main viewer."
Because Ticonderoga was much closer to the powerful receivers on the Klingon home world, the transmission was clearer, but one could still see snow from time to time.
"Admiral, I did not expect that you would be contacting me so soon, how was the battle with the Romulan invader?"
McGinnis' reply was quite concise, "Short, and quite successful."
"Excellent news, Admiral, I look forward to seeing the first Federation warship in living memory."
"I look forward to giving you a tour of this vessel. We will arrive in your star system in approximately forty minutes, earth time. Am I to follow any unusual procedures once there?"
"I am told that your vessel has the ability to set down in deep water?"
"Affirmative, however we assumed that we would be ordered into orbit on arrival."
"No, we can provide better security for your ship at the special construction facility in the southern ocean."
McGinnis had heard stories about this facility from previous Federation officers who had visited there. It was a huge dome built under water, and was primarily intended to facilitate the construction of the new birds of prey. However, if what he had heard was true, it could easily accommodate twenty full-sized Klingon battle cruisers.
"Understood, I will have to contact your traffic control computers."
"We must contact your ship."
"Unfortunately, the new cloaking device makes it nearly impossible to
receive incoming hails, so it will be necessary to contact your system."
"Very well, I like the philosophy of commitment behind your vessel, Admiral," said Gouron.
"Yes, our inability to receive new orders does mean that once this ship is under cloak, Star Fleet is effectively committed to the use of this vessel. If it is better for your controllers, we can partially decloak, and receive transmissions, but we will be scannable on some wavelengths."
"Admiral, Too many dishonorable people now serve house Durass, and their masters. There will be many interested eyes turned skyward over the next few days. You are wise to remain fully invisible."
"Understood, once we are docked, I will contact you, but for now, I offer you the hospitality of this vessel at 1800 hours, Star Fleet Standard Time, for a meal and tour of inspection."
"I accept your invitation, and look forward to meeting the man who defeated the Cardassian fleet at Bajour."
"Gouron, the honor is mine, I shall see you at 1800."
"Understood, Gouron out."
With this, the screen changed to the running tactical view of Klingon space as Ticonderoga continued to streak toward the Klingon Capital.
"Commander Anders, contact Klingon central traffic and tell them hat we will need a course as Gouron directed."
"Aye sir, already in progress," she said a bit distractedly as she continued to try to contact the main traffic control center. As much as anything else, her difficulties were directly related to the fact that the ship was still out of communications range with the mainly in-system traffic net.
"Sir, I can't contact them as yet, it'll be about half an hour before we can get to them."
"Very well, keep trying and when you get through, contact me, I'll be in my quarters, Mr. Data, you have the Bridge."
Even before McGinnis could get to this quarters, the ship-wide intercom had announced in Data's voice,
"Admiral to the Bridge, please."
On his return to the Bridge, McGinnis retook his chair, and turned to his first officer.
"Mr. Data, you asked for me."
"Yes, Sir. As you can see, our long-range sensors have just begun to image the Klingon home-world. Apparently, preparations and construction are far greater than Star Fleet had been told previously. I have at least 100 long-range warship-class vessels on scan, including some of types not previously known."
McGinnis stared at Data in shock. If this were true, then Gouron's position versus those in his government who didn't trust the Federation was far worse than had been previously thought. Usually, limited information was passed back and forth on most projects, even secret projects like Ticonderoga's construction. However, information on new classes of ships, and build-ups of the proportion being reported had not been passed to him before their departure two days previously.
"Very well, scan everything, and before we get into the system, send a full report to Defense Command HQ, and copy it to the Federation Council, Star Fleet Commander, and Admiral Jellico at Star Fleet Operations."
Aye Sir, continuing scan. We are now four minutes from optimal reporting range, but it'll be very hard to get a message out without shutting off the phase-cloak."
"I know, so send it aboard a probe, we can't afford to decloak, especially as unstable as the situation on the planet appears to be."
"Downloading and copying data as it comes in, we are three minutes, thirty seconds from launch," said Data.
"Preparing probe for launch," said Anders from her station.
"Aft firing tube is clear for launch, charging cycle beginning," said
Schultz as he began the process of charging the torpedo launcher to send a communications boy back to Federation space at warp 9.9. This would mean that Star Fleet Command would get the news in less than three hours, assuming noon decided to destroy the probe on the way out.
A couple of minutes passed, and then Data's voice broke the silence prevalent on the Bridge.
"Information package ready for download. I have included some side notes on what we have received, and all is ready for launch."
"Very well, launch buoy," said McGinnis.
"Buoy away," replied Schultz.
The viewer shifted to an aft-directed shot of the small tubular object streaking away from the ship. All anyone could hope for now was that it would arrive in Federation space in time For Star Fleet to analyze the data, and hopefully send a second force of ships. There could be little question that the were on the war path, and that they would expect their Federation allies to send a comparable force of their own. The approximately twenty-one ships that had been promised were simply not enough.
"Sir, we are now one minute from sub-light speed, and should be able to contact Klingon in-system traffic control," said Thale.
"Ms. Anders, please contact Klingon control, and request a vector."
"Aye Sir."
Moments later, she turned to McGinnis.
"Sir, they're telling us to lock into their standard traffic net, and that their guide computers will bring us in."
"That's standard procedure, allow the link, ... helm, come to sub-light speed."
The great ship decelerated from high-warp, and most of the crew sat back to enjoy the ride. It wasn't often that they could simply sweep along, not concerned about accidents, enemies, or other things. Both Data and McGinnis were busy admiring the view outside, both natural and artificial. The planet was dry as compared with Earth, but there was still noticeable surface water. Orbital space was full of activity, both military and civilian. There was a truly staggering armada through which Ticonderoga was passing. No one was concerned about some of the close passes, simply because while phase-cloaked, the ship could not occupy the same space as the vessels that it was passing. If hull contact occurred, crews on both ships would think that they had seen a ghost image, rather than anything else.
As the journey continued, McGinnis turned his attention to the ocean toward which Ticonderoga was proceeding. As they drew closer, it became quite clear that there was no traffic in the entire basin, and this confirmed the importance that the put on their underwater base. Then the ship slowed, the computers apparently programmed to expect that damage would occur if a ship were to hit the surface too hard. Clearly, guiding ships in, even new Federation Star ships was not considered a sufficiently honorable task for a living Klingon to perform.
The great ship passed through the surface of the water, and then a communication came in from the on-duty computer tech maintaining the traffic control net.
"Federation ship, we can do no more for you, proceed to the base under your own navigation systems. May your stay here be successful."
"Understood, our nav computer is taking over now."
With that the channel closed and Ticonderoga was on its own.
"Helm, set course for the Klingon base, thrusters at one-quarter."
"Aye Sir."
Within ten minutes, the great ship was decelerating toward the massive under-water doors, which were as large, or larger, than those on Earth-1. Then, the doors opened, and Ticonderoga passed through, and into open air.
"Sir, I have a message from the base commander."
"Put it on, commander."
"Federation ship, you are to proceed to the fourth bay on your right, decloak and moor there."
"Understood, Ticonderoga out."
The ship slowed, then turned toward its docking bay. As the turn was completed, the cloak was shut down, giving the base commander a full view of the mighty star ship as it swept into the largest docking bay in the facility. The ship was quite impressive to say the least.
As long as the-class defender, but twice as deep, and with a far larger collimator ring surrounding the main hull. The multiple weapons implacements showed that the ship was, indeed, built for action. As it moved to meet the gangway, the great ship seemed to shudder for just a moment before coming to rest. With this action, the waiting could come aboard.
