Chapter 2

The Way the Wind Blows

"Don't try to be a great man…Just try to be a man." -- Zefram Cochrane

Stardate 59519.6

USS Horizon

The seething winds swept grains of sand along the sweeping dunes between great mountains that reached straight out of the ground like a buried god reaching to the heavens above. A deep red sun looked down on the burned desperate wasteland. No life, no love could possibly come from these lands. Yet, some of the greatest minds, some of the greatest thoughts had come from these valleys.

Alexander leaned back in the soft, cushy seat, his hands crossed under the bit of stubble that had amassed under his chin in the last day and looked out over the ready room to the dry, emotionless painting on the wall.

A slight grin passed over his lips as he looked up at Vulcan, obviously painted by a Vulcan. Why on Earth, if one would excuse the expression, a Vulcan want to be a painter would want to be a painter was beyond Alexander's human mind to understand. It was sort of like a Klingon wanting to be an accountant.

A hiss at the doors awakened the Captain's mind back to the purple walls and gray carpeting of the otherwise undecorated ready room, and Alexander stood and smiled with his arms behind his back at the tall Vulcan male walking through the doors.

"Captain Dorsey," the Vulcan said as he stepped forward his eyes never leaving the data pad in his hands. "A pleasure to meet you."

"An odd statement, Captain Sulanic, " Alexander answered with a bit of a bow. "But the pleasure is returned in kind and full."

The Vulcan moved around his desk and set the pad down looking up at the younger Captain for the first time. His brown eyes moved up and down the Captain's torso. Alexander returned the gesture in kind, sizing up his counterpart. Alexander figured the man to be around 50 or so, though Vulcans aged so much more slowly and their age could be so deceptive.

"Your First Officer was an acquaintance of mind," Sulanic finally spoke. "Served as a helm officer for me when I was First Officer on the Olympus Mons."

"Ah, yes, Commander Belnar," Alexander answered. "Sorry, rather, Captain Belnar, now. An Angrionian."

Sulanic nodded and extended his hand for Alexander to seat, which he followed.

"Welcome to the Horizon,Captain," Sulanic finally said. "We will give you the best comfort we can on your way to Vulcan."

"I appreciate that, Captain," Alexander answered in kind.

"Tell me, Captain, what is your ship?" Sulanic asked, his eyes returning to the data pad.

Alexander shifted uncomfortably in his seat. He did not particularly like talking with Vulcans. To dry, to fact-based. They were far more interested in the "what's," rather than the "why's."

"The Queensland," Alexander answered. "It's a Nova Class science ship."

Sulanic looked up from his pad and raised an eyebrow in that thoughtful way that Vulcans like to do. "A science-class ship? Fascinating."

Alexander furrowed his brow a bit. "Why?"

"I am looking at your service record, Captain, and find that you have been very busy," Sulanic answered. "Your first assignment was aboard the Melbourne. You came on board just as it was making its way to the battle of Wolf 359. Since then, you've been in several engagements along the Cardassian front, the Dominion Wars, and the battle of Sector 001. You've received commendations for your actions, but since the Dominion Wars came to a close, you've shied away from the big ships."

Alexander swallowed and looked away for a moment.

"I'm sorry, Captain, am I making you uncomfortable?" Sulanic asked.

"No," Alexander answered. "Not really. I expected this. You Vulcans like to just get it out there, and I commend you for that. The short, honest answer is that I just want to get away from action, thank you."

Sulanic nodded, crossing his fingers above his lips.

"This is a very nice vessel you have, Captain," Alexander said, trying to change the subject.

Sulanic nodded, his eyes looking up and around. "We're still working out most of the early bugs, a few primary systems problems, and a major headache in Engineering, but we're getting the new smell out."

Alexander laughed a little. "Humor?"

Sulanic nodded and eased back in his seat, pushing the data pad away on his desk. "I find that Humans can relax and do their positions more competently if I, shall we say, 'crack a joke' once in a while. I am, after all, One-fourth human."

Alexander smiled and started to answer, but the doors opened and a Bojoran officer stomped through.

"He's done it, again!" she hissed, stopping at the desk and pressing the palms of her hands on the top. Her arms were wide and she leaned forward over the desk as though she owned it. She completely ignored Alexander, her rear waving a foot or so away from his face.

"Calm yourself, Commander," Sulanic answered far more gently and calmly than Alexander felt he could ever muster. "Whom has done what?"

"That idiot Chief Engineer you brought from the Zenith!" the Commander spat. "He formatted his team into three shifts rather than four as we explicitly asked him to!"

Sulanic took a deep breath and slowly stood from his chair. "Captain Dorsey, I do apologize, but would you mind if I spoke alone with my First Officer?"

Alexander's eyes widened and he stood immediately as he nodded. He turned to walk but the Captain stopped him. "Captain, one quick thing I had hoped to discuss with you. We will be making a quick diversion to Deep Space 7 before moving on to Vulcan. The extra stop should take no longer than fourty-eight hours."

Alexander nodded. "So long as we don't take longer, I cannot see that as being a problem, Captain."

"Captain."

"Captain!" the Commander hissed again.

Alexander turned and shook his head exiting quickly before his opinion of this Commander grew worse or his tongue slipped.

IIII

"Now, don't you worry, Mister," she answered. Her voice echoed the Midwestern accent she was born with on Earth. It had just a bit of Minnesota twang to it, but it drew Alexander in from the moment he first heard it. "I think Captain Vlenrio is more than capable of handling this little exploratory mission."

Alexander watched as she brushed a rogue strand of blonde hair back over her ear and smiled. When she smiled it was with so much more than her lips, but her eyes, and her whole face. It pulled him in, wrapped him around. From the first time he saw it, he was hooked.

"I wish I could just reach through the screen," Alexander sighed.

"Hey, I'll be back soon enough," Emily answered. "Just think, three standard weeks and we'll be standing on a warm beach on Risa."

Alexander sat up in his bed, wiping at his scratchy eyes. His dream faded quickly from his mind, though he knew what it had been about. How many times had he relived that memory? The last time he'd ever spoken to her, the last things he had ever said to her. That day on that beach on Risa never came. What was worse, there had never even been a funeral to say "goodbye."

The shrieking horns blared out from all over the room, red lights at either side of the door showing the status of the ship's alert system.

Alexander's immediate instincts were to jump out of bed and rush to the turbo-lift. Why hadn't anybody warned him of a possible situation? Where were the current communications? What was Commander Belnar doing?

Alexander threw his blanket off and turned to hurry, but caught his hands on the metallic ends of his bed. Strange, though, his bed had wooden posts on it. The Captain but the bottom of his palm on his forehead, trying to push his headache back and down as he closed his eyes.

This was not his ship. No one was communicating with him because he did not need to know what was going on.

The alarm silenced, but the red lights continued to flash.

Alexander took a deep breath as the lowered periphery lights came on around the room and stood up.

The desk before him vibrated a little as impulse engines powered up. A few of his clothes and a globe of Ganymede stood on the glass top, along with an old book he was given upon his promotion to Commander by his wife.

His wife. He looked down and twisted at his ring finger. No ring sat on it any longer. It just didn't feel right not having it there.

Alexander shook off his feelings of guilt and sadness and turned to the mirror at the edge of the room, taking a towel to wipe at his forehead. The man looking back at him felt so much older than he looked.

The deep brown eyes were lined with wrinkles, a fleck of gray here and there in his brown hair. The mind behind, wracked with death. He had seen enough dead, sure enough, but it was more than that. Ensign Majores, Lt. Talek, Commander Ku-thou. Three of the many he had ordered to their deaths. The lives of the few to save the lives of the many.

A red flash filled the room behind Alexander, coming from the window.

"All hands brace for impact!"

Alexander grabbed the edge of the sink as the room shuddered. A slow, violent shake at first, but then the rumbling continued as the shockwave passed through the ship. For the first time, Alexander felt a little apprehensive.

He turned and took a deep breath, hurrying to the closet and pulling one of his uniforms from the hangers within, his communicator and rank insignia sitting on the table next to it.

After dressing, he passed through the doorway, grabbing hold of the edges as the ship shook again. He looked down the red-lighted halls, trying to remember which hall led to the bridge on these mammoth vessels.

Is that where he was needed, though? As Captain on his own vessels, he absolutely hated another high officer stepping on board his bridge. "Helping" in any way they could often made things harder. Often times interrupted the chain of command.

Alexander turned away and started down the empty hall, curious as to where a command officer could go besides the bridge. Perhaps Weaps? Medical ward? Engineering?

The Captain turned left at the next crossing and stepped into the turbo lift. "Engineering."

IIII

The doors slid open amid chaos.

The engineering deck was larger than any Alexander had before seen. Green tubes marked with antimatter symbols lined either side of the main warp coils. Uncovered decks went up from the central portion of the bottom deck for four stories, and personnel were hurrying along each catwalk, most screaming as they manned their stations.

How anyone knew what one another was doing was beyond Alexander's comprehension.

He stepped out on to the deck and looked from one side to the other, trying to find the commanding officer on the deck as the floor beneath him shook again. Warning lights flashed through the room.

"Engineering, this is the bridge, we need to divert power from the warp engines to the shields and modulate the frequencies!"

Either no one noticed or no one cared to respond as Alexander looked about. He started to move towards the core but was quickly knocked back to the door as a dark-haired woman pushed by. "Oi! Get the fook out of the way!" she screamed as she rounded on a seat and began furiously tapping away on the shield modulation panels.

"Captain?" a familiar vioce called from Alexander's side. "What are you doing down here?"

Alexander turned to see Ensign Armand standing with three data pads. He was breathing fast and sweat poured down from the curly mop that covered the top of his head over his olive skin.

"I came down to see where I could be of some help," Alexander answered. "How the hell do you know what is going on around here?"

Amir took Alexander's arm and started guiding him towards the warp coils. "Keep your voice down. Things have been kind of chaotic since Chief Venul came on board a few weeks ago. He keeps changing our shifts around and--"

The Arab looked down at his feet suddenly as the metal grating beneath him began to shake violently.

"Brace for impact!"

Alexander and Amir both fell to the ground as the deck shook so violently. Panels through the room began to spark and explode.

"Direct hit on the fore hull!" The dark-haired woman who had pushed Alexander screamed. "Their weapons passed straight through our shields! Damn it, get to your bloody stations and prepare for another salvo!"

Alexander looked to Amir as the two stood and stepped in at two of the nearby panels that had blown out. They were still functioning, but only on the keyboard part of the terminal. Alexander began reading the numbers as they passed by before him. Energy outputs through the shields coming from the rear generators.

They fluctuated, rising and falling quickly, as though they were being manipulated by an outside source.

"You!" the dark-haired woman shouted, pointing her finger at the Captain. "Get away from that terminal and get up to the warp systems on the second deck! Tell them to get their arses in gear and get energy diverted from their end to the shields! Armand get over here and help me, will you!"

Alexander turned and hurried to the nearest ladder, pulling himself up as quickly as he could. Pangs in his arms and side reminded him of the skipped workouts of the last few weeks.

The ship shook again, and Alexander slipped, his sweaty palms barely keeping his body from falling back to the floor. He heard screams call out from through the deck as more systems blew. Smoke began lifting from the bottom floor up through the open coil room.

"Communications are down!" a voice called out from nearby. "We can't reach the bridge!"

"Shields are down to 25!"

"Damage reports coming from all over the ship! Whatever's hitting us is hitting us hard!"

Alexander was tired of all this screaming. Most of it was coming at once, and no one in particular seemed to be responding or reporting it. He turned and faced the bar looking out at all decks.

"Belay all reports!" he called out, speaking from his chest as all senior officers learn to do to be heard. "Unless you have someone specific to talk to, keep your voices down! That's an order!"

All panicked eyes looked to him.

"You've been trained for this," Alexander called out. "In fact, this is exactly what you've been trained for! You're Starfleet Officers and Enlisted! The best of the best! Now, get exactly to your stations in which you're supposed to be and stay there, I don't care if the devil himself comes and orders you away! Hold your positions and use your brains!"

Alexander turned away and stepped quickly to the nearby monitors. The roaring yells of the crew muted as the engines drowned them out, flaring and quieting as the ship made maneuvers.

The tops of the flashing monitors smoked a little and the screens stayed lit long enough to just read what one needed before flickering again. A man and an Andorian stood at the station while another stood at the edge of the deck, his dancing eyes looking over the quieting activity below.

"Do you know how to transfer energy from the engines to the shields?" Alexander asked the Andorian.

"Sir, yes, sir," the Andorian replied. His eyes turned to the officer standing at the end of the deck and he added, "But…"

"We will not be transferring energy, Captain," the officer said in an off-handed way. "I will not allow it."

Alexander looked to the Andorian, whose eyes kept darting back and forth. He nodded slowly and told the two crewmen, "Go ahead, son, it's okay."

A look of relief swept over the Andorian as he turned to his crewmate and nodded. The two quickly started punching in commands as Alexander turned to the officer. "I take it you're Chief Venuili?"

"Engineering Chief Pthel Venul," the man answered, not turning his gaze from the floor below.

"You mind telling me what is going on, here, Chief?" Alexander asked.

"A drill, Captain, nothing more," Venul answered.

The shock of his answer almost knocked Alexander from the top of the case to the floor below. "Are you mad?" Alexander asked.

Venul turned slowly and looked the Captain in the eyes. "I tire of these little games that Vulcan likes to play with us. He's just doing all this because he thinks he can straighten me back in line if he scares me enough."

Alexander turned and grabbed the human crewman's hand and held it up for the chief. "Look!" Alexander screamed. "Look at these burns! You think a Captain would harm his own crewmen just to startle you back into reality! How did you even make Chief with an attitude like this!"

The Chief rolled his eyes and walked around Alexander, heading towards the ladders. "Okay, 'Captain,' or whatever you are."

Alexander felt his heart skip and the blood rush to his head.

"You are relieved of duty, Chief!" Alexander barked. His voice echoed through the chamber, though he did not mean it to. "You will face charges, I will have you in front of a Court-Martial board so fast your head will spin!"

Venul turned and looked at Alexander, meeting him eye to eye for the first time, though Venul had to look down at the Captain. "Who the hell do you think you are?" he asked. "My father is an Admiral…the Admiral. Bpfal Venul. We'll see who is standing before a board of inquiry."

Alexander felt the blood rise in his face. Anger swelled through his whole body. Never before had someone been so insolent, so lost to reality, so…

A loose nut began rattling nearby on the edge of the bars that kept anyone from falling to the floor below. Debris all around the grating below his feet began shaking violently before falling through. Personnel on the carpeting below were looking at their feet, feeling the ground tremble below it.

Alexander could feel the hair rise on his neck. The air left his lungs as he knew…somehow just knew it was about to happen.

The wall exploded above them.

Alexander blacked out for a moment and found himself lying on the carpet floor. His hearing was muted, and his vision blurry. He could feel something warm trickling down from his ears and his nose as the heat swelled over him.

"Containment breach!" some yelled from very, very far away.

"Seal the port section!"

"Medic!"

"Oh my god, she's dead! She's dead!"

"Engines are down, Shields are dead!"

"Brace for impact!"

The room shook again. Alexander felt chunks of debris fly over him and he watched as a body slammed into the carpeting next to him. Half the Andorian's face had been burned off, bits of blue flesh hanging from his deformed antennae.

A dizzy wave of nausea passed through him as he smelled the burning flesh in the air.

From so far away, Alexander could hear someone screaming.

"We're all going to die!"

(More to come.)