Cloaked Enemies

Prologue- Lieutenant Candace Mitschke of Starfleet Intelligence is stationed aboard the U.S.S. Robinson currently orbiting a planet near the Neutral Zone. She is there to investigate some unusual readings from the planet's surface.

"Red alert, shields up!" cried Captain Murray. "What the hell just hit us?"

"Umm, I don't know sir," said a worried and inexperienced Ensign Parks. "All I can figure out is that it came from the planet's surface."

"Impossible," bellowed the battle hardened tactical officer Lieutenant Commander Stevenson, "We would have detected anything powerful enough to have damaged a ship in orbit."

Captain Murray scratches his chin and asks, "Mitschke, you have experience with the area surrounding the Neutral Zone, any ideas?"

"Only one sir, I believe there is a cloaked base down there that was somehow able to fire without decloaking."

"Impossible," shouted an increasingly agitated Stevenson, "The Romulans do not have the technology or the motives to stage a surprise attack like that."

"Maybe it isn't the Romulans," whispered the very nervous Ensign.

Another hull rocking blast from the planet.

"We can't take much more of this," said the Captain who had already formulated a plan. "Mitschke, I need you to lead an away team and discover the source of the attacks and, as soon as you deem it safe to proceed, determine the cause of the readings."

Mission 1: The Initiation- Mitschke and the away team take a shuttle to what appears to be an empty field devoid of life. Suddenly, several large explosions force the shuttle to make a crash landing. Mitschke is knocked out.

Mitschke awakes moments later to find herself the lone survivor of the team. One member, Ensign Lee, is unaccounted for.

The tricorder detects several Romulan life signs that seem to be in close proximity to the source of the strange readings. Determined to save her ship and Ensign Lee, Mitschke leaves the shuttle in search of clues.

Outside the shuttle, Mitschke is ambushed by several Romulan soldiers that decloak infront of her.

"The Federation spy cannot be allowed to live, kill her!" shouts the person that seems to be in charge.

Acting quickly, Mitschke grabs her phaser and begins to shoot each soldier. It is a hard fought battle and Mitschke takes a single wound to her shoulder. She is mystified because it bleeds, meaning an energy weapon could not have been what hit her. She remembers learning about projectile weapons in her Earth history class, but the fact that someone would be using one in this century completely mystifies her.

She stumbles around trying to get out of the intense heat of the early morning sun and finds herself a rock wall to lean on. She nearly passes out until a door appears from no where and a voice says, "Come in, Ms. Mitschke." As soon as she enters through the strange door, she is surrounded by a forcefield of some unknown configuration. She scans it with her tricorder attempting to ascertain where it is coming from and if there is a way she can disrupt it long enough for her to escape, but she cannot understand the readings she sees. According to it, there is no forcefield at all which doesn't make any sense to her. How can she be able to touch, see, hear, and even smell something which simply does not exist? That is when it hits her, there is absolutely no reason why a forcefield which is pure energy would have any matter for her nose to detect. She starts feeling around for a possible whole in her rather tangible and truly permanent cell. She finds something strange, a door handle of some sort. It is of a round and hard nature, and she doesn't quite know what to make of it. She feels around for a button or a release to press and accidentally turns it and opens a door that reveals an extremely bright light source.

The same mysterious voice appears again, "Good job! Most people take at least an hour to figure out how to use something so simple as a 20th century door knob. Of course, I would be more impressed if you had figured out how to use the light switch located to the right of the door knob and have seen the rather powerful rifle that you could have used to threaten me with, but oh well. I guess I can't expect too much from a pitiful human like you. So low on the evolutionary ladder, it is almost saddening in a way.

"What exactly is going on here? Are you responsible for the attack on my ship? Answer me!"

"Oh the impetuousness of youth! I was so hoping to have a nice little chat before we discussed "business." But fine, you are here to stop your ship from being destroyed? That should make your decision so much easier to make."

"Decision? What decision?"

Ensign Lee appears out of the shadows. "If you kill this officer, I will spare your ship. After all, what is one life compared to the hundreds on your ship?"

"I will never kill another Starfleet officer."

"The device that is targeting your ship will only be disabled if someone here dies.

That gives you three choices:

You can kill Ensign Lee. Honestly, is this one life so important to you that you would let your entire ship die for him?

You can allow your ship to be destroyed. Your pitiful sense of morality would probably drive you into this course of action. I will never understand how it is easier to justify 400 deaths that you let happen than 1 death you caused yourself.

Or you can kill yourself. What a "noble" way to die. You can selflessly sacrifice yourself to do the right thing. Honestly, though, how does a species who claims to value life so much make such an easy task of ending their own for some stupid blind martyrdom?"

"Why don't I just kill you? You could die here today and that would allow my ship to be released?

In a very intimidating tone, the voice says, "I am Q! You can not simply kill me as if I was some ant beneath your pretentious and arrogant shoe! You will be responsible for the death of someone you love this day, pick now or I will make your decision for you."

"I will not be forced into becoming your pathetic pawn in this game. You have all the power, so go ahead, use it."

"Computer, end simulation."

The hidden base disappears and it soon becomes apparent that none of what happened was real, occurring only on a holodeck.

"I do not especially like using the Q testing program, but it gets the job done. I needed to make sure that you could stand up to the kind of intimidation you would receive if you were ever to be interrogated by the enemy. Simply a security issue, no hard feelings."

"Who the hell are you? What gives you the right to kidnap and subject a Starfleet officer to this kind of hoax?"

"Starfleet charter, you really should read more…"