Chapter Thirteen: Battlegrounds
Serea, Raleigh, and Rilar entered the Command Center brusquely and took up their posts. Several other crewmembers rushed in after a cautionary alert was sounded. Serea did not want to go to Red Alert right away since the station was not in any immediate danger but she wanted to have her crew prepared for any developments that could arise. She felt the patrol squadron was fully capable of handling a threat and if it were a stronger foe than realized, the Victoria would not be far behind them.
"Status," Serea asked Ensign Yelar as she took her place at the command console in the center of the room to oversee everything.
"The Victoria is less than five minutes from departure and her ETA to the Ferengi ship will be three minutes at high warp," Yelar informed. "The squadron will arrive any second. The sensors are being jammed from scanning the enemy ships. There is no way to determine their affiliation or design."
"Keep track of both the squadron and enemy ships' movements on our long range scanners," Serea ordered as she noticed Naetharr enter the center with a couple engineers. "Lieutenant Naetharr, prepare station-wide systems for the possibility of a defensive readiness for an attack. I do not want us caught unaware if the attack upon the Ferengi cargo ship is a diversion tactic."
Naetharr nodded in acknowledged and set her team straight to work as she prepared for the worst possible scenario. The center was alive with a tense atmosphere as everyone awaited word from the sensors and squadron.
* * * *
"Haldia to DS13," said Shannal Haldia over the channel she was attempting to connect.
"Unable to establish link," the computer voice in her pod announced. "Ionic wave patterns are interfering with the signal."
"Great…" Haldia muttered to herself as she realized the attackers had set up a block on communications. They most like set it up after they realized the Ferengi contacted the station, she thought to herself.
Haldia had attempted to scan the attacking ships but their shields blocked out any scans. The outer hulls appeared to be designed in Breen format and technique but they seemed much more heavily armed than simple rebel ships.
"Delta wing, distraction maneuvers pattern epsilon on the two back flanking ships. Beta wing, attempt to form a blockade between the attack cruisers and the Ferengi ship," Haldia called out over the link to her squadron. "Center company, follow attack pattern omega but do not fire unless fired upon, let's just scare them a little."
Similar to their practice flight, the two flanks broke off from the main grouping of pods and began to take action. The Delta team swerved hard to port and scattered about in front of the Breen ships releasing plasma in their wake. The Beta wing then slowed and took up position holding in precision points around the Ferengi ship. Haldia led her center company straight at the lead Breen ship as if on a collision course before veering off the course and nearly skimming their own shields across the surfaces of the Breen's. If they had been able to fire on the attacking ship, they would have let loose a volley of phaser and torpedo fire that would have overloaded the Breen's shields.
"Jenkins to Haldia," rang a call through the comm.
Haldia led her company into another maneuver around the lead ship as she prepared to answer the Beta wing leader.
"Yes, Jenkins what is it?" she replied, focusing primarily on her objective.
"According to our scans of the Ferengi ship, there are power fluxuations throughout the ship's power grid and their shields will be nonexistent in two minutes," he reported.
"How many are in the crew compliment," she questioned as she led the company in front of the path of the lead ship that was attempting to get to another position.
"Thirty by our count," Jenkins answered.
She grumbled to herself. If they had the extra pods that had been left behind at Utopia Planetia within their team, beaming all the Ferengi on the pods would not be a problem.
"As soon as their shields drop, the Type-6 pods can beam some of the crew aboard," she said. "The rest will have to wait until the Victoria arrives."
"Aye," he replied. "Jenkins, out,"
Haldia called the plan into action and the rest of the Type-6 fighters flew to the Beta wing team positioned in front of the Ferengi ship. She had her own company push their maneuvers harder upon the lead ship. She noticed though, triumphantly, that the Breen ships had not resumed firing upon the Ferengi ship since they had arrived. The distractions by the squadron seemed to be working and the Breen seemed unlikely to create an incident with Federation ships.
"Jenkins to Haldia," came another call. "The Breen activated their transporters and three life forms were beamed off the Ferengi ship. We were unable to retrieve those three fast enough."
"Damn," Haldia muttered to herself. "Get as many of those left as fast as you can."
Moments later, Haldia's controls began to beep as she noticed a large ship drop out of warp on their position. The Breen ships suddenly banked hard to starboard away from the attack area at the appearance of the starship as they retreated.
"USS Victoria to DS13 Patrol Squadron. This is Captain Barsegayn."
"Hello, sir," came Haldia's reply over the comm channel. "Impeccable timing."
* * * *
"The flight pods are back in the docking ring and all are accounted for," Rilar said. "The Victoria will arrive in twenty minutes with the Ferengi ship in tow."
"Thank you, Commander," Serea said as she stood by his station. "Have the Ferengi crew members taken to the Infirmary if there are any injuries they might have. Is the DaiMon on board one of our pods?"
"No, ma'am," Rilar replied. "He was part of the compliment beamed on board the Victoria."
Serea nodded, "Have Lieutenant Haldia meet with you to debrief as soon as the squadron is finished with post-operation. When the Victoria has docked, inform Captain Barsegayn I would like to see him and the DaiMon in my office as soon as possible."
"Right away, Commander."
Serea heard the doors swish shut behind her. Looking about, she found her empty office silent except for the hum of the distant power core that only Vulcan ears could pick up. She contemplated the room a moment as she stood in the same spot. After taking a deep breath and closing her eyes for a few seconds, she opened them again as she walked over to the replicator located in the wall.
"A half liter of green tea, hot," she ordered and heard the beep as the computer complied.
She retrieved the kettle and tray that materialized and placed it on her desk. Slipping past her chair, she shifted through a box she had placed there when she had arrived on the station. Serea, after finding what she was looking for, carefully placed an ancient Vulcan tea set on her desk. She then took the kettle and filled the teapot with the green tea, not spilling a drop. Once she was finished, she returned it to the replicator and tapped a button for it to disappear.
Serea went back to her desk and contemplated to herself for a moment. This incursion had left her feeling somewhat uneasy. Something strange was going on, especially after Haldia's message that finally came through. The fact that a certain number of people were beamed off the cargo ship did not bode well with Serea. There had to be something more to it since no cargo was stolen like in other attacks. Her door chime echoed in her office while she was in mid-thought.
"Enter," she said as she walked from around her desk to see her visitors.
The bald Armenian Captain entered the room and to his side, a short and extremely bothered Ferengi seemed to mutter.
"Captain Barsegayn," she said shaking the human's hand and shaking it before turning to the DaiMon. "DaiMon Soln, it is unfortunate that we meet under these circumstances."
"It is very unfortunate," he agreed with gleaming beady eyes.
Serea nodded and motioned for them to sit in the chairs in front of her desk. She filled two cups with the greenish-yellow liquid from the teapot and placed them in front of her guests.
Captain Barsegayn's eyes lit up for a moment as he noticed the tea. He gave a slight toast to her as he lifted his cup to lips. He realized she must have remembered he liked tea, and green tea was his favorite at that. She nodded in acknowledgement as she poured a cup for herself and sat in her chair across the desk from them. The DaiMon carefully took the cup she put in front of him. He sniffed it hesitantly, before sipping some of the hot liquid, then let some of the warm steam roll over his tired face.
"I guess I should consider myself lucky my cargo was not taken. Though, it is regrettable for those three who were beamed off," the DaiMon admitted after a moment.
"Do you know why three of your crewmen were taken by the Breen? What would they want with them?" Barsegayn asked.
"They were not part of my crew," the little man quipped and then took a large gulp of the green tea that he realized tasted better after adding a dash of sugar.
Serea felt the knot tighten in her stomach a little more with his comment.
"Who were they?" she asked leaning across the desk.
* * * *
Rilar looked up as he noticed Commander Serea exit her office with both Captain Barsegayn and DaiMon Soln. The Ferengi and the captain of the Victoria bid their farewells and went on to their own business. She took notice of Raleigh standing nearby, looking over security reports of how the security teams handled the earlier situation and of Rilar who already was watching her movements.
"Raleigh, Rilar," she said to them. "Please join me in my office for a moment."
The two men nodded and followed her to her office. As they took their seats in front of her desk, they eyed her tapping her nails rhythmically on the desktop, as she appeared to be thinking about something.
"There will be some things we will discuss that I wish we could keep quiet about this incident but seeing as that the Ferengi crew has already integrated themselves among the station population, there is not much we can do about it now," she began and then turned her back on them as she gazed at the stars for a moment. She took a deep breath and then turned to face them, letting her eyes burn with the importance of what she was about to say.
"As you both know, three people were beamed off of DaiMon Soln's cargo ship," she started, the two men nodded. "However, they were not part of his crew nor were they Ferengi."
Serea noticed a flash of confusion register on their faces for a quick second. Raleigh got to his voice first.
"Who were these passengers?" he asked.
"All of them were Jetallans," she informed them. "There was a delegation of ten economists who had been on Ferenginar for a few months studying financial and marketing strategies they could implement in the future on Jetal. They had booked passage on Soln's ship in order to return back. Their movements were not secret, nor were these delegates of high importance from Jetal. There is also no logical reason as to why the other seven delegates were not kidnapped as well."
"This may cause some security concerns and panic on the planet's surface," Raleigh said tensely.
"All the more reason we should step up security in this sector," Serea said. "I have already informed Starfleet Command about the situation and they will be sending more starships out our way until we are at full strength. But I would also like to step up patrols by the squadrons during certain duty shifts."
"That should not cause any problems," Rilar replied. "I have already begun a schedule with Lt. Haldia. Her report on the incident should be on my desk by tomorrow morning when we can review it in detail."
"I look forward to going over it," Serea nodded. "I also want you two to keep your eyes and ears open while you are around the station. I want to know if anyone here knows anything about what happened."
Rilar and Raleigh nodded in agreement.
"Dismissed," she said and they stood.
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~Author's Note~
I've begun a new fanfic titled "My So-Called Undead Life" for the TV show Dead Like Me from the Showtime cable channel. Though, ff.net does not have a section for this show just yet, I have posted my first writings at adultfanfiction.net. I have a first chapter written and am hoping to see interest first before continuing. Please check it out if you get the chance and are of age to visit the site!
I also started another fanfic on ff.net titled "Eternal" from the book The Silmarillion, the prequel to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Check it out! :) I also promise more soon! I know this one was a tad short so I promise to make a long one next!
~TQ~