Chapter 63

The Gathering of Powerful Forces

On board EDS Excalibur

January 3, 2378

11am

Commander John Matheson called out, "Captain on deck!", as Captain Matthew Gideon walked onto the bridge. Excalibur was still docked on the second upper pylon of Deep Space Nine, and they would be for the next five days as they stocked up on supplies and planned out what was being called Operation Blinding Light. Gideon sat down at his chair and took the morning report from his executive officer.

"Sir, Alex Wildstar's ship is due within the hour, and the meeting is scheduled at 1400 hours.," said Matheson.

Gideon nodded and said, "Good. We need to know when those new ships will be coming into the line, because with what we've got now, this is too close to a suicide mission for comfort. How many Whitestars are we expecting to join up?"

Matheson walked over to a station and brought up the fleet manifest. "So far, we have 60 Whitestars in system and we're expecting another 80 in the next two days. Also, we're expecting eight Omega-class destroyers, six Warlock-class destroyers, twelve Hyperion-class heavy cruisers, and a variety of other forces from the Alliance."

Gideon raised an eyebrow and said dryly, "You going for a promotion, John?"

Matheson shrugged and said, "Well, it would be nice to have my own ship. Then I could have my own exec to run around!"

Gideon snorted and got up from his chair, looking out the window at the station. In his view, a vast array of Klingon and Romulan ships, as well as scores of Federation ships, could be seen. Docked in the pylon next to the Excalibur was the Yamato, and he marvelled at the massive refit the ship had undergone.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd swear that Wildstar's ship looked like the result of a battleship getting nasty with an old airliner.," Gideon said.

"Yeah, but she packs quite a punch, sir. They say that they've made her wave motion gun even more powerful, and if that doesn't scare the enemy out of a year's growth, I don't know what will.," Matheson relied.

"It's tough enough as it is, but the shield technology from the Federation makes it even more difficult to take out."

"But you'd surely find a way to blast them out of the sky if they were on the other side, right," Matheson joked.

Gideon responded dryly, "Of course! I have a reputation to uphold! You have the bridge, commander. I'll be in my quarters checking out reports before the meeting."

As he made his way to his quarters, he passed Durenna Nafeel's quarters. She was the last of her race, who were wiped out by the Shadows in the final days of the Shadow War. Unbeknownst to her, Gideon and Galen had sought to protect her as best they could, but they could not stop her from volunteering to gather intelligence on Cardassia Prime. She had served as a civilian on his ship during the plague, and he still considered her one of his critical assets on the ship.

Dureena may have been a thief, but she was a damned good one. A member of the Thieves' Guild, she had knowledge that no Earthforce officer had, and she'd proven how valuable she was on numerous missions. He knew she'd make it back, but he worried nontheless.

He finally made it to his quarters and took off his jacket as the door slid closed behind him. Instead of going to the reports lying on his desk, he went to a cabinet in his quarters and pressed a button on the side of it. A door opened on the side of the wall and a box was slid out on a shelf. Gideon took the box over to his desk, opened it, and a voice spoke to him.

The box said, "Your time is near."

Gideon's face looked puzzled. "What do you mean by that?"

"You have a destiny. You must meet it, or all your efforts will fail!"

"Are you suggesting that we're not coming back from the mission?"

The box was silent.

"Look, when I won you years ago in a poker game, I didn't know what to expect. Since then, you've come in handy many times, but one thing is for certain: you're not always right."

"Do not argue with a box. It is most unwise!" And the box somehow managed to close itself.

Gideon snorted and said, "So much for an apocalypse box!" He put the box back on the shelf and pressed the button to hide it again.

Later on in the day, Gideon made his way down to the conference room, encountering the commanding officer of the station, General Kira Nurys, on his way there.

"Afternoon, General! How are things in Ops," said Gideon.

"Busy as hell. That's not unusual around here, mind you, but with hundreds of ships orbiting the station, I haven't been to my quarters to sleep in two days."

"Sleep's for when you're dead. And with the way this war's going, that could happen any day now."

Kira laughed shortly, "Well, aren't we a barrel full of fun today!" as they entered the conference room.

Sitting at the table, in addition to Derek Wildstar and Abraham Avatar, were Derek's brother Alex and Queen Starsha, and they nodded as the two came into the room. "So, if I may be so bold, when do we get those Legendora ships to help us break this war open and go our way?"

"We have about two more weeks until the full fleet is complete, but we have ships ready to go now. Genon told me before we left that the first ships will leave a day after we do, so they should be here tomorrow.," said Alex Wildstar.

Avatar spoke up and said, "Gideon, it's been decided that I shall be the overall commander of the operation. Derek Wildstar will be the commander of the Alpha Quadrant theater, while you will command the Gamma Quadrant. Alex Wildstar will be under you as commander of the Legendoran forces that will be going with you on your assault. Ben Sisko will serve under Derek Wildstar as the commander of the Legendoran forces in Alpha quadrant. Once we have taken Orak Nor, we will establish it as our main base of operations in Alpha theater.

Avatar got up and walked over to the screen. "We have some good news. We've found Empock Nor, the station that was abandoned years ago. Kira mentioned it to me and we quietly sent a crew there to reactivate it and bring it back here. Chief Miles O'Brien worked wonders on the place, and the station will be here shortly. Gideon, you'll use it as your main base of operations in your theater. O'Brien says that it will go through the wormhole safely with no damage. We've stocked it full of supplies and munitions, so you'll be ready to go."

Gideon nodded and said, "But I should expect some bugs nontheless, because this is Cardassian tech we're talking about here, aren't we?"

Avatar turned to Derek Wildstar and said, "You didn't tell me you had another brother, Derek! Yes, we're aware of that, and, in addition to O'Brien, we're lending you some of our robots, led by IQ-9."

Gideon was nonplussed. "Robots? Well, this is something I never expected to work with in my military career!"

Derek moved to boost Gideon's confidence in the robots. "Trust me when I say that IQ-9's saved our bacon many times in our voyages, even though he can be annoying as hell sometimes."

"Annoyances I can deal with. Very well, Captain Avatar, Excalibur will be ready to launch when you are," concluded Gideon.

Avatar replied, "Thank you, Gideon. Dismissed!"

Gideon walked back to his ship and headed back to his bridge to inform his exec of what their orders were. He wasn't surprised in the least to see Matheson shake his head when he mentioned IQ-9. "Robots? What the hell are we going to do with robots?"

"That's my thoughts exactly, commander. But I'll leave them on the station, just to be safe. We'll put the station just inside the wormhole and establish a defensive perimeter as quickly as possible. My guess is that once the Jem'Hadar find out about the station, they'll likely want to give us a very hostile welcome to the neighborhood.," Gideon replied.