Chapter 8

Less we forget

It had been some three hours since the Thunderchild had been destroyed in the Illustrious's ready room, Captain Folds, Commander Seven of nine, Commodore Rothchild and Cassandra were in studding a three imagine of the Thunderchild's last battle.

"If you watch closely you will notice that the main weapons of this ship, here and here", Cassandra said as the areas flashed on the model; "are plasma weapons, they also are situated on the stern of the vessel. From the damage inflected onto the shield of the Illustrious and the armour it seems there level of weapon technology is not as advanced as ours."

Pointing towards the Astex as it started its attack run on the ship, "As we see on the attack plan, you launched a full Salvo in effect giving the Thunderchild a broadside. The armour of this vessel was of little defence when attack by the photon torpedoes, it simply vaporised, in effect on the second impact of your torpedoes the ship was already decimated, the others were of little use, and impacted on debris"

The image reformed to the time index of the Illustrious attacking the vessel, again Cassandra walked round to the side of the table closest to the models.

"We saw the Thunderchild launching most of its offensive weaponry, most of which did little damage, however when the six missiles launched from here, show that they were in essence a lucky shot. This blinded the sensors of the ship, and gave the impression that we had been destroyed."

Sitting down Cassandra looked at the model of the ships that vanished; Captain Fold's then stood up, "Commodore if I may speak freely sir?"

"Of course, I welcome any comments you have."

"I would like to know Commodore why we took an aggressive stance towards the Thunderchild, would it not of been wiser to take a more diplomatic stance towards them, before getting into a fire fight?"

The Commodore shifted uncomfortably in his chair, in a way he knew the Captain was right, however, after what he'd seen on ISN, he saw visions of what would have happened if the Dominion had won the war. Earth under marshal law, diplomacy at the end of a gun, was this what he fought the war for, was this why all his friends and crew he had known of over twenty years had died for?

And the impotence of the Captain of the Thunderchild, surrender the Illustrious, his ship, and the ship that had been to hell and back in the war. The Illustrious was one of the only ships that had made it out of the hellish sense of conflict to protect Betazed. In his minds eye he saw the fleet being ripped apart, ships engulfed in flames, imploding the bodies of so many service men floating in space, lifeless. And those that had made it to the escape pods and the shuttles, they faired little batter, for the Jem'Hadar had destroyed them all, leaving none alive.

"I took my actions as I saw fit Captain." He said firmly, and then turned to the Commander.

"Commander, how's our guest?"

"The doctor's informed me that she'll be in his capable hands for the next day at least."

The meeting continued for over an hour, a lot of the time spent discussion what the plans were and how to minimize too many hostile actions; they were alone here and needed to find a friendly port. Nathan was glad that his Commander, Seven of nine was here, she'd had experience when she was with voyager. Now he would be relaying a lot on her, for advice and foresight. While the meeting was on going, Lt Richard Sandleson sat at his intelligence station on the bridge, he had been monitoring the ISN channel, the more he saw, the more it worried him, by all accounts this President Clarke was a xenophobic, anyone that stood up to him, vanished, he'd attacked Mars and other colonists, for braking away from Earth.

Also at this time he started to hear terms that he had no idea what they meant, like Night Watch, and ministry of peace, there was only one person on this ship that probably did know, however at this time she was unconscious in sick bay, and from the report that the Commander had said a Telepath of sorts.

Back in the ready room, the Captain stood up, "I suggest that for the time being we cloak, and try and find a location that would best suite our needs. As we discussed earlier we need to find a friendly port, somewhere safe, to plan either a way home, or if we cannot get home, then were going to have to ask our selves this question; what we're going to do with the rest of our lives here."

The door chimed as the Captain sat down, a few moments later Lt Sandleson walked in and looked towards Commodore.

"Sir I think we've found somewhere that could worth while investigating, it's a space station called Babylon 5, I don't know much about it, nor where it is, however it's being called renegade by ISN. However There's someone on board that does know where it is and she's with the doctor at present."

Some time later after the meeting Nathan walked towards the doors of sickbay, they hissed open before him. Standing by a bio-bed running scans on this woman that had attacked him, was the doctor.

Looking up from his work the doctor smiled the spoke, "As I told Seven of nine, this person will be with me until at least the morning, she's suffered a neural shock after trying to read Seven's mind, something that even I wouldn't like to do"

The doctor had been transferred to the Illustrious from Starfleet Medical on the request of the Commander, his record was impressive, and like Seven of nine his expertise that came from his time on Voyager, which would be gratefully accepted in the situation they now found themselves in.

"Doctor, what is going to stop this person from attacking me or anyone else she chooses from, as she did before, this could pose quite a security risk." Nathan said with a concerned voice.

"No need for concern Commodore, I have taken the liberty to implant a small neural inhibitor under her skin, this omits a signal that nullifies this individuals ability to use any type of telepathic abilities, I must admit" He went on with a hint of pride in his voice, "this has been developed from a prototype module that I was working on back at Starfleet medical, for other uses"

"How long until your patent come round, I really do need to talk to her?"

"Commodore, please I have already told you that she will be really for you to talk to her in the morning, until then I suggest you try and get some sleep as well."

Both ships shimmered from view as they engaged there cloaking devices, onboard the Asetx Captain folds was in her ready room, talking to her Klingon first officer Korf.

"Korf I want you to assemble a wing of six Peregrine fighter craft and pilots, and six on stand by, just in case we need them. We are but two ships in this universe that we know little about, and until we find our way back I want every advantage we can get. With this we'll have the option of always having a fighter escort of six craft launched and an additional six in reserve should the need arise."

"Understood Captain," the Klingon replied bluntly.

"I want you to lease with the flight officer in the main shuttle bay, form two wings of Peregrine fighters six in each, A wing and B wing, they're going to need for want of a better words wing commanders, I would like you to go thought the files and appoint the successful candidates, then bring them to me."

"Understood captain" the Klingon replied.

At 08:00 on board the Illustrious, the Doctor took a hyper-spray and pressed it gently to the neck the woman laying on the bio-bed; slowly and groggily she started to open her eyes.

"Try not to move to fast, easy does it", the Doctor said in a calming voice as he helped the woman to sit up right.

It was at this point that Ms Samantha Parker knew there was something wrong, the back ground hum of peoples thought and emotions were gone. Her eye opened wildly in sheer panic, what had these people done, given her sleepers how dare they!

"What have you done to me!" she snapped at the doctor her voice a mixture of rage, anger and panic.

"Try to relax now Miss?"

"Ms Parker, I ask again WHAT have you done to me!"

"We have turned off you abilities, nothing permanent I assure you and nothing that a simple operation could not cure"

"Operation?" she spat, "How dare you, you have no right."

The doors to sickbay hissed open and thought them walked the Commodore, walking over to where the doctor and the woman sat.

"Doctor how's our guest doing this morning?"

"GUEST" spat Samantha Parker, "Guest is this how your treat all your guests?"

"Only the ones that try to attack me" he replied in a flat deadpan tone, "or members of my crew"

Folding her arms across her chest Samantha Parker stared at him with eyes that if you could, would have burnt a whole in his very soul.

"My name is Commodore Nathan Rothchild, your onboard the Illustrious, and who may you be?"

"Samantha Parker, Psi- core p7 rating." She snarled.

"Samantha, can I call you Samantha?"

She nodded at him eyes starting into nothingness in defiance.

"Samantha, we are not from her, we are trying to find a way back and I need to ask you a few questions…"

"NO" Samantha said sharply.

Nathan sighed, then taped his com badge, "Commander may I see you in sick bay"

A few minuets later the doors opened once again, and in walked the Commander, Samantha's eye opened wildly as started to scream, "Keep away from me, stay away, get her away!"

With this Samantha leaped from the bi bed, only to be caught by the Doctor.

"Calm yourself Samantha" he said firmly.

Struggling she tried to get away from him, but to no avail, holding her fast he looked into her eyes and spoke, "No one is going to hurt you here, what you saw before was from the Commander's past, and will not happen to you here."

After half an hour of reassuring, Samantha was in a fit sate to talk, however she kept looking back to the Commander, who raised an eye brow and smiled back, this Samantha decided she did not like.

"As I said before Samantha I need some information on where we are, what races we are likely to encounter, more information upon Earth and this Babylon 5"

Samantha looked at the Commodore oddly, she had thought as had the Captain on the Thunderchild, that they were part of Sheridan's advanced fleet.

Over the next hour, the Commodore, Commander and Samantha went from sickbay to Holo-deck 1, this was a strange room, and a vast empty room with nothing in it save for the strange yellow tubing that was all around her.

"We are from the united federation of Planets, and this is where we're from. Computer run programme NR-114"

With that the room, became dark, floating above them was the Milky Way; "We are from Earth, but not your earth, an earth from a different reality if you will."

The image of the Milky Way became closer as the view start6ed to focus in on the Sol system, then closer zooming in towards the Earth and the moon. This image that filled the room now was nothing like the Earth that Samantha had grown up on or known all her life. Orbiting the Earth was a mushroomed shaped space station that was vast, and by the looks of things highly advanced.

"What does it look like where you come from? As in what are the cities like, how different is your civilianisation to ours?" Samantha asked her curiosity peeked.

"For a start Samantha our government doesn't attack its own, or bomb civilians, we've out grown that stage of our existence. I'm not saying its perfect where we come from; in someway it's far from it, especially after the Dominion war." His voice tailed off, it was filed with emotion.

He continued to talk off the foundation of the federation and what it stood for, the more he explained the more Samantha found that she wanted, and needed to know more. Her mind wondered back to her upbringing and the entrance into the core, the way that she felt life her life was under the control of others and not her own. Though should would of never admitted as much to any one, she could see something her that tugged at her very soul.

"Now Samantha I have told you a little about where we are from now I would like some straight answers from you", as he spoke he could see within Samantha's face something starting to happen, her body language of someone that had been very self confident started to wane, and take on a very defensive posture.

"What does you society think of telepaths Commodore? Here, on this earth, they are mistrusted, and the psi-core was set up to protect the individual right to privacy, to help the telepaths fit in. Now they have become something more, something that is feared, from an early age we are taught the core is mother, the core is father." Sighing Samantha let a tear roll down her check, she knew she was betraying all her training, everything about her. "They even choose who you would 'mate with' to give a higher grade telepath; love has nothing to do with it."

This shocked all that were within the holo-deck; Samantha put her hands to her face as she let all her pent up, anger, rage, fear and frustration out, sobbing uncontrollably, for the first time, no-one feared her she was just someone else someone normal.

A short while latter Samantha had pulled herself together, "Commodore if I tell you all that I know, it would not be safe for me to return in this current climate. I'll do it on condition that you grant my asylum here on the Illustrious"

"Agreed," he said softly. "Commander Sort out some quarters for Samantha please.

On the Bridge of the Astex Captain Folds Received a hail from the Commodore, it contained co-ordains to Babylon 5, within a mater of minuets both ships jumped to slip stream heading towards their target.