Chapter Nineteen
Star Base 93 – Cargo Bay 12
1224 hours
James tapped his foot impatiently on the deck of the turbo lift as if through sheer will, he would get the lift to move faster. As the lift reached its destination, James didn't even wait for the doors to fully open as he sidestepped out the door making his way through the small group of people who where waiting for the lift. He ran down the corridor almost full tilt and walked through the cargo bay doors to see the hatch that the Rebellious Daisy should have been docked at empty.
"Can I help you with anything sir?" one of the marine guards asked.
"About five minutes ago sir, in quite a hurry too."
"Ok, Thank you Corporal." James said calmly, but that was only on the outside, in his mind, it was a flurry of thought as every instinct and every thing that he had been taught as a marine told him something was wrong, and then left the cavernous room and back to the turbo lift.
"Main Operations." James ordered the computer.
"Main Operations is a restricted area, unable to proceed. Please state authorization." The computer responded. James just grumbled with annoyance.
"Authorization Mackenzie, Tate, Lambda-Alpha-Gamma Six." James said, and few moments later he was on the Star Base's command center, he quickly looked around and found the base commander.
"Commander I need to speak with you." James said loudly, and everyone's heads turned in James' direction.
"Who the hell are you, and how the hell did you get up here. Security!" the young officer said.
"Commander, I have the proper authorization, and you have to listen to me." James said, struggling against the two large security officers that had him by the arms.
"Ok. Let him go. You can use this console." The commander said, motioning to an empty duty station. James sat down and placed his hand on the dark console.
"Computer, voice recognition Mackenzie, Tate, Lambda-Alpha-Gamma Six, display clearance information." The computer responded with a twiddle-beep and the face of 'Tate Mackenzie' appeared on the screen. The commander looked at the screen and saw that the clearance level was higher then his own.
"Ok, what can Star Base 93 do for you?" he said finally. James grabbed a padd and entered in some information and handed it to the commander.
"Transmit that to the Rebellious Daisy in a subspace burst transmission. Then send the USS Black Rose to take its crew captive. I understand that her crew's morale is a little low, and I think arresting members of the 'Legion' might be the boost they need." James said, the commander nodded then handed to the pad to the station's communications officer.
"You're telling me that I had Legion operatives on my Star base?" the commander asked.
"You still do." James responded and walked over to the base's operations console. "I need you to beam this cargo container into space, and make sure you destroy it in transport." James said, imputing the container ID, somewhat amused with himself. The young ensign did so.
"Now what?" the commander asked.
"Get the fleet to start offloading the cargo needed for the offensive, but do so with transporters, and have them replace the containers with empty ones. Then we wait." James said.
Star Base 93 – Guest Quarters
1512 hours
Tina and Mike laid there in bed, having just spent the last two hours together. "It's almost time." Mike said, taking a padd off the table next to the bed. Tina put her hand on his that was holding the padd.
"Let me do it." She said, taking the padd away from him. She then promptly pushed the button that would set off the bomb they had left in the base's cargo bay.
Then they both looked at each other in confusion. Nothing happened. They were far enough away on the other side of the large station not to be affected by the explosion, but they still should have felt something. They both jumped out of bed and got dressed and headed out the door.
Cargo Bay 12
1535 hours
James walked into the cargo bay, phaser drawn and a small team of security officers behind him, only to find the room dark. One of the security personnel turned the lights back on to find the four marine guards knocked out but still alive. James then saw Mike and Tina standing there with their phaser's squared at the security team.
"Face it. Its over, you lost. Drop your weapons." James said slowly advancing. Mike was closer to James, then Tina, who was twenty meters away next to a cargo container that James didn't recognize. Mike placed his phaser on the ground and James kicked it away.
"NO!" Tina yelled, looking increasingly nervous, aiming her phaser at the security team, then at James. When she stopped on James and looked at him squarely in the eyes, her face contorted with rage. In James' memory time seemed to slow as her thumb started to depress the fire button on the phaser has two security offers opened fire on her as the lead officer started to yell for them to stop. One phaser blast hit her in the chest throwing her back against the container behind her, her phaser shot went wild, hitting the ceiling, sparks falling from the burnt out lights. The second hit the container behind her, and all James remembered was a bright flash, a brutal, searing pain in his right arm, the cold hard bulkhead behind him, which he was thrown violently into and blackness that follows unconsciousness.
One of the security officers woke up and shook his head, his head ringing, his own breathing heavy in his ears. He looked towards where the explosion happened only to see a gaping hole in the deck, fires raging everywhere as the fire suppression systems tried to put them out. Luckily the outer hull of the star base hadn't been damaged. He was then startled by the hand of a medic who started speaking to him but he couldn't hear her clearly.
"Go help Tate." The security officer said calmly, least in his own mind, he was really screaming, a result of his hearing being damaged from the explosion. The medic then ran toward the man he had pointed too and found James' body limp on the floor, a piece of metal lodged in his right arm and blood pouring out of it. The medic quickly tapped her comm. badge.
"Emergency medical transport to the Infirmary!" she said kneeling down beside James as they were both bathed in the blue light of the transporter effect.
Star Base 93 – Infirmary
Two days later
"How is he doctor?" Amanda asked, very concerned, looking at James on the bio-bed and at the bandaged stump where his right arm used to be. Commodore Matthews put his hand on her shoulder. General Lance and Brenna Covington
"He's in a coma from the head trauma that he sustained from hitting the bulkhead as hard as he did. As for his arm, the piece of shrapnel caused way too much damage to the surrounding tissue. I had to amputate to prevent infection."
"When will he wake up?" Brenna asked. She had made her way to the star base after she had heard the news.
Apparently, the container that was hit by the phaser fire was a spare deuterium fuel pod, which still had some fuel in it. It was ruptured from the blast and exploded, Vaporizing the woman in front of it, who Brenna learned was Tina Robertson, one of her operatives that she had in the Legion, and to her shock and amazement, had betrayed Starfleet and sided with them in the end. Brenna couldn't figure out why she would recruit James, only to side with the Legion and try and kill him. Only one person could answer that now, and she was carbon atoms floating down in cargo bay twelve.
"I don't know. I could bring him out of it right now with drugs, but that would cause brain damage." The doctor said. Brenna crossed her arms and thought for a moment. She then turned to Amanda, who was now at James' side.
"Captain Harrison, I take it you know about the deal we had with Commander Soul here." She inquired. Robert and Jerry looked at each other in confusion; then realized that there are something's that they didn't need to know.
"Yes ma'am."
"Don't worry about a thing, we'll hold up our end." She said, and then turned to the other people in the room. "Gentlemen, what happened in her is classified. Doctor, have the patient prepped and ready for transport to Starfleet medical on Earth as soon as he is stable. The rest of you need to return to your duties. You guys have a war to win." She ordered, and then promptly left the room. Amanda squeezed James' hand and bent down and kissed his lips, and left with her superior officers.
"Don't worry, Captain, we'll take care of him. He'll be waiting for you on Earth when this is all over." The Doctor said. Amanda turned around and smiled.
"Thank you." She said gratefully.
When the three of them left the infirmary, they were met with the site of almost thirty men and women in irons being paraded through the promenade under heavy guard.
"What's going on?" Amanda asked.
"The Black Rose captured the rest of the members of the 'Legion' when they were sent out to look for the Rebellious Daisy. They found her adrift, disabled by the message that 'Tate' had sent, along with a stolen Starfleet vessel; her crew captured all of them with no casualties." General Lance explained.
Then the crew of the Black Rose came out of the same docking hatch, being met with cheers of congratulations of a job well done.
"Erin!" someone yelled out, as Amanda noticed Matthew Soul run past her and lifting her sister up in the air and spinning her around, then passionately kissed his fiancé. He then looked at her and raised his eyebrows smiling in a devious manner, Erin giggled, her cheeks blushed and she slapped Matthew across the chest. He just kept smiling, then grabbed her hand and dragged her off to the turbo lift. Erin looked back to her sister and waved.
Amanda then noticed that someone was standing next to her. "Your Brother's a horn dog." She said to James, feeling uneasy being next to him. She told herself that this wasn't the man she loved, that man was in the infirmary. But she kept it to her self.
"Tell me something I don't know, but which is worse, my brother, or your sister going along with him?" James asked. Amanda lightly hit him in gut.
"Come on, let's go get a beer. We got a big day tomorrow."