THE NEXT DAY...
USS SAGITTARIUS NCC 51766
PROMETHEUS -class
"Captain, we are receiving a distress signal operating on a Starfleet channel," the communications lieutenant announced. He looked up from his interface. "It's coming from the solar system, sir."
"Helmsman, set a new course for the system. All hands, yellow alert." The person manning the tactical station pressed the button and all of the lights on the ship turned amber. The lounge on deck ten emptied within three seconds, just a little bit longer than the shields needed to come online. Engineers scrambled to each of the three engine rooms on the PROMETHEUS-class starship, and all stations confirmed alert-status fifteen seconds later. Still not good enough, the captain thought. The ship dropped out of warp on the sunny side of the planet where COLUMBIA had crashed. The nacelle above the bridge automatically retracted, and the ship smoothly slipped into a high orbit directly above the source of the distress signal.
"Open a channel to the wreck, lieutenant," said the captain.
"Channel open, sir," the crewman reported. Audio only, for some reason, though."
"This is the USS SAGITTARIUS. How may we be of assistance?"
"This is Captain Levee aboard the shuttlecraft PRIMER. I would like to speak with you on a private channel if you don't mind, captain." That was an eyebrow-raiser.
"I will... talk to you in my ready-room, then, captain. See you there." Thorpe turned to the lieutenant. "Pipe it to my ready room, lieutenant," said Thorpe, rising from his chair, and he hustled off the bridge, the tension tickling every nerve-ending in his head.
He activated his console and the audio channel activated. "Thank you, captain. Which admiral sent you?"
Now THAT was an interesting way to start conversation. Might there be a conspiracy in the brass? Hopefully not. The Dominion War had seen far too many infiltrations for any Starfleet officer to feel comfortable. Because of this, Thorpe saw no purpose in denying the truth, lest this Captain not be able to tell him something important. "Admiral Nolotai sent me."
"Okay." The person on the other end of the connection was no doubt relieved, judging by his tone of voice. "I am really Captain Marcus Refelian, and my ship is really of a prototype design. We were scouting Cardassian space when we found an uncharted wormhole. That wormhole's terminus is a few kilometers away from my ship's crash site, and I request that a non-Klingon unit recover my ship, in order to maintain its cover. We're not supposed to be here, captain."
Captain Thorpe took a moment to consider this. His own ship could divide into three separate modules, any one of which would be able to tow a shuttlecraft if it were in space. But since this was a planet where it crashed, and since it wasn't even a shuttlecraft, it would take a lot more than one unit to tow it into orbit. Hmmm. "All right, captain, I will see what I can do, but sensors only detect a shuttlecraft where you parked."
"My ship has special technology that allows it to disguise itself. That is all I can say on that matter."
After a pause, Captain Thorpe continued talking. "What did you mean, exactly, when you said that the wormhole is only a few kilometers from your crash site?"
"The wormhole's terminus is just below the surface of the planet," Refelian replied.
"How does it open without ripping the planet apart?"
"I haven't the faintest idea, captain. I do spec-ops, not science."
"Well, captain, I'll see about getting you off the ground," said Thorpe.
"Preferably before the Klingons get here, captain. I understand you have three separate units under your command, and I was wondering if you would be willing to use them to get us back into space. And one last thing: could you beam down the spare parts we'll need down here for repairs? I'll send you the shopping list next time I call."
"Will do, captain. SAGITTARIUS out." The channel closed, displaying the symbol of the UFP. Captain Thorpe was left with something to think about, and not much time to do it, since the Klingons would arrive very soon. A minute later, he made his decision, and Captain Thorpe strode back onto the bridge. "Open a channel to the rest of the ship," he ordered the lieutenant at communications. "All hands, prepare for multi-vector assault mode."
"What's going on, captain?" the first-officer asked.
"Well, commander, we're about to rescue that shuttlecraft down there."
"Here we go, sir," the commander said as he ran off the bridge to Battle-Bridge One. The ops console lit up as each deck reported readiness. Within moments, all of the separation corridors were cleared, and the bulkheads were dropped to contain the atmosphere. "We're ready, captain," reported the ops ensign.
"Initiate separation."
The triangular-shaped saucer module moved forward and away from the rest of the PROMETHEUS-class ship, and its engineering section separated into two separate modules. "Open a channel to the rest of the ship, lieutenant," Captain Thorpe ordered. "All commanders, prepare for flight pattern Delta." The three sections of the starship formed a triangle. "Bring tractor beams online, and follow me. Helm, set a course for these coordinates on the surface..." The captain reached over the helmsman's shoulder to input the coordinates... "Engage, ensign."
The ship lurched as the artificial-gravity compensated for the steep dive and the planet's own gravitational influence. "Buckle up, everybody! We're going for a ride!" Someone was having fun...
The three ships dove toward the planet's surface, shields flaring against the atmospheric friction.
MEANWHILE, ON MOUNT HAKUREI...
"What is that?" Kagura asked Naraku, observing the trio of meteors falling overhead.
"I don't know," Naraku answered thoughtfully. "It seems to be a meteor shower, but it's the wrong time of year for that. Besides, there're only three of them." Naraku squinted at the falling fireballs, and nodded to Kagura. "Let's go find out." Within seconds, they were flying on Kagura's feather, and they flew towards the fireballs.
As they approached, the fireballs began to take shape! The lead flame gradually formed a triangle, while the other two formed non-descript shapes that vaguely seemed to resemble dragons, though the weird shapes at the ends of their wings identified them as something Naraku had never seen before. They seemed to be heading toward the mountainous island where one of the Shichintai would be waiting in ambush for Inuyasha, who would be heading in that direction in a few days, knowing that Kagome's knack for locating shards would inevitably cause her to come this way.
KAGOME...
She sat on the hillside above the village, over looking it and the valley below. Though Kagome did not realize it, on her own planet this very valley was even now being turned into a military railway line. Her beloved country, the Land of the Rising Sun, was preparing for war against the western capitalist democracy called the 'United States of America.' What she did know, however, was that the mysterious saucer that Inuyasha claimed to have seen was somewhere in this valley. And they were going to find it.
Inuyasha was sprawled on the grass next to her, his belly full after the banquet with the villagers. Kouga had wandered off for the moment, apparently to look for something. Kagome didn't particularly care about him, though. She was more worked up over not having brought her camera; this was quite possibly the best view she had ever seen of a vista so vast! The people in the strange uniforms were farther uphill from her, conversing some foreign language. Though Kagome had no idea what they were talking about, she nonetheless had the vague impression that they were talking about her, but she could do nothing about it because of the language difference.
Suddenly, Kagome heard a scream. The scream was followed by a shout, and the shout was followed by loud "SMACK!" sound. Kagome unnecessarily turned to see where the sounds had come from, only to see Sango standing over Mirouku, who had a not-so-mysterious red mark, about the size of Sango's hand, on his face that Kagome was sure hadn't been there more than a moment ago.
Kirara and Shippo looked up from where they were playing, unsurprised but slightly entertained by the new development.
One of the female uniformed people walked over to the fuss. "What's going on?" She demanded, more out of concern than anything else. She was holding her tricorder just below her chin, using it as a translator. It worked!
"Just watch out for his hands," Sango explained disgustedly, "They always manage to get where they don't belong." And just in time, for Mirouku was already reaching toward Sloane's butt!
Without even turning around, Sloane put her boot straight into Mirouku's thorax, and said to Sango, "I see. I'll keep that in mind." She smiled politely and took her leave, walking back up the hillside.
When she came back, the first thing anybody asked her was "Did it work?" The question referred to the universal translator in the tricorder, NOT Sloane's method of deflecting lechers.
"Yes, it did," Sloane answered. "Girls, I suggest you keep your guard up if you're anywhere near that monk."
"Why's that?" Actually, the question came from the male security officer.
"The kid's a lech," Sloane answered simply. No one contested that 'the kid' was also a member of the Buddhist clergy, as there had been a lot of strange things that happened on away missions, and lecherous monks ranked rather low on the 'strangeness scale' when compared to strafing runs by WWII-era Mitsubishi "Zero" fighters ("Shore Leave", ST:TOS), rogue Borg drones ("Descent", ST:TNG), silicon-based life-forms capable of killing creatures more than 30 times their own size and then taking over a starship ("Home Soil", ST:TNG). But that was just to name a few. Every planet possessed its own special breed of hypocrites, after all, and Mirouku was little different from that. Come to think of it, there was really no shortage of perverts in the portion of the Milky Way galaxy seen on the Silver Screen. In fact, there was (unfortunately) no shortage of perverted clergy on Earth in the 20th century, either.
Something suddenly appeared in the sky, seemingly out of nowhere! "Hey! What's that?" Kagome asked. Kagome was pointing at four objects soaring into the sky. The Starfleeters also saw the strange things, but unlike Kagome, they recognized the fourth object as a Type 8 shuttlecraft, being towed into orbit. But where had the other ships come from? Two of them definitely looked vaguely like Starfleet design, with the nacelles, but lacking the tell-tale saucer. But the third was triangular in shape. That was unusual in Starfleet.
"Lieutenant? What do you make of that?" Sloane asked specialist Heller. Though she specialized in botany, being in the science department, she still might know about recent developments in Starfleet.
"I don't know, commander. I've never seen those ships before."
Sloane tapped her combadge. "Sloane to Captain Ramon."
"Ramon here," the captain replied. He was aboard the COLUMBIA, and he was also watching the four ships.
"Sir, we just observed three strange ships towing a shuttlecraft into orbit. Can you see that?"
"Yes, we can, Lieutenant. The three ships are the USS SAGITTARIUS, of the new PROMETHEUS class. The shuttlecraft was not transmitting any ID signal, however. Do you remember if we launched any shuttles?"
"No, sir. I've done all of the flying since we got here. Did you hail the SAGITTARIUS?"
"Yes, we did. There's a fleet of ships en route to take us home."
"Hell yeah!" the Starfleet people shouted joyfully from their end of the connection. The COLUMBIA's crew would finally be going home!
NARAKU...
Naraku and Kagura watched the rescue operation with interest: the three strange things from the sky dove toward the black thing that had arrived only days previously-- except that now it was WHITE, and a lot SMALLER! Then, blue beams of light shot out from each unit, connecting with the white thing. Finally, all four things zoomed back into the sky, and it was as though nothing had ever happened! "Let's go see what the place looks like now," Naraku decided, and he and Kagura took off into the sky. They arrived at their destination two minutes later, but all they found was a large hole in the hillside! Otherwise, there was no trace that anything had ever been there! What had happened to the black thing that had fallen out of the sky?
"Have someone keep an eye on this place," Kagura suggested.
"I will..." Naraku's voice trailed off. He was thinking about something. "Let's pay another visit to the island. I think I remember something." There was a barrier around the island, but Naraku and Kagura passed through it easily. When they landed, Naraku thought he felt something. He looked at Kagura to see if she felt it.
She could feel it, too. There was something about that barrier...
"Kagura, destroy that rock," Naraku ordered off hand. Kagura tried, but her demonic powers failed her! "I thought so," Naraku muttered. A small grin slowly formed on his face. "This is a perfect trap for Inuyasha."
"But how will we be able to fight him without our own powers?" Kagura asked.
"The Shichinintai are human, or at least most of them are. They can use their weapons here, but Inuyasha, on the other hand, cannot.
"How will they get here?"
"I have a plan."
Hearing the shouts, Mirouku wandered over to find out what happened. Major Tyres saw him coming, and intercepted him. "What's going on?" he asked.
"You know we're from out-of-town, right?" she replied (NOTE: Tyres is using her UT Universal Translator. Mirouku nodded in response. "Well, our ride home is coming very soon."
"Where will you go?"
"Home."
"And where, exactly, is that?"
"Waaaaaay over there," replied Tyres, gesturing at the horizon, and being no help whatsoever.
"I see," said Mirouku, taking the hint after a moment. "You know," he said after a moment of thought, "Kirara could take you home."
"I doubt it," said Major Tyres.
"Why? You've seen her fly," Mirouku answered. How could there possibly be a place that Kirara couldn't reach?
"She couldn't make the distance." The major seemed slightly distracted. But by what?
"Yes, she could," Mirouku challenged. "She could there and back, and you'd barely notice the time passing!"
"No, she couldn't. We can't even see our home from here!" Major Tyres saw straight through Mirouku's ploy, and decided to play around with him.
PLANET B1-M2 III NEW YORK CITY, NY, USA
Whenever the software came out, the NYSE was usually one of the first to buy. The new software, called Clerk 2.4.0, was designed for trading stock in a more efficient manner than the old system. Not that it was all that different. A few lines of computer code taken out of here... another one there... and POOF: a more efficient system was designed! The trading program was designed recognize a trade in progress, facilitate it,