Chapter Title: Sister Ships

Chapter Synapses: A communiqué indicates the sister ship to the Hyperion, the unmanned starship Cosmos, has opened fire. Collins leads Hyperion to intercept, as Starfleet has other plans for Starwind.

Written by: Seraph Koji

A large gathering of officers in dress uniforms stood as a slightly aged admiral read from his data padd. The admiral had flecks of gray in his brown hair, but not so much as to seem ancient. He was Admiral Isaac Hayes, a human man from San Francisco. Starwind and Collins stood in uniform at either side of Hayes, and all were in dress uniforms.

"'From the Office of the Admiralty; Orders effective immediately, the transfer of power of the USS Hyperion, registry NX-80975, from Victor Starwind, Captain, USS Hyperion, to Dorian Collins, First Officer, USS Hyperion. Signed, Admiral Isaac Hayes.'" Hayes read.

"Computer, transfer all command codes to Dorian Collins. Authorization Starwind Gamma-Three-Echo." Starwind ordered the computer.

The computer beeped, then responded, "Transfer complete. USS Hyperion now under the command of Commander Dorian Collins."

"I relieve you, sir." Collins faced Starwind.

Starwind nodded somberly to her, "I stand relieved."

And with that, the ceremony ended, and the crowd broke off into groups, a sort of going away party for their Captain. But their Captain stood aside, talking with the Admiral.

"Tell me more about this mission, Isaac." Starwind said in a soft voice.

"I can't. Not till we are safely aboard the Hiroshima." Hayes replied.

Another pair was West and Collins on the other side of the room.

"Something's telling me this isn't a trivial ceremony. They don't go through the ceremony for something small, for some temporary transfer of power." Collins reasoned.

"And somehow I doubt this is so he can set aside reservations about being with you…" West snickered.

Collins shot West a glare, "Laugh it up, Amy, but I don't think this is a small thing at all. He might not be coming back." Collins sighed, frustrated with trying to piece together what was happening around her, "At any rate, now that I'm Commanding Officer, I need a First Officer. And that's you. I want to see you in a red uniform in two hours on the bridge. And by then I want a revised duty roster, based on the suggestions Captain Starwind left, and some of my own. This might be a little more long-term than his last time out of service, so we have to be ready to handle Hyperion indefinitely."

"In other words, pass the load of work you hadn't got to onto me? Thanks, Commander." West smiled, "I'm gonna go put on that dreadful red uniform, then." West exited.

"Bridge to Commander Collins, we have an emergency communiqué from Jupiter Station. They say their under attack." A voice came from her badge.

"How long at top speed?" Collins asked, setting down her drink.

"One hour." The voice replied.

"Set course, engage as soon as Hiroshima has her crew back." Collins ordered. She quickly traversed the crowd to find Admiral Hayes and Captain Starwind. "Admiral, Captain." She addressed the two men, "We have a distress call to attend to. If you would get Hiroshima crew off Hyperion, we could set course immediately."

"Of course, Commander." Hayes rose from his chair, "It was a pleasure meeting you."

Starwind refused to make eye contact with Collins, "Keep Hyperion in one piece. And don't get yourself killed." Starwind then followed Hayes, who was already on his way out.

Not long later, in her normal uniform, Dorian sat in the ready room, now devoid of all the decorations Starwind once had in it. She stared at her computer, "Dare I?" She said to herself. She tapped a section on the display, and the computer started recording. "Captain's log…"

"… we are on course to Jupiter Station, which claims that though their attacker has left the system, given the identity of the ship, they want Hyperion to arrive as soon as possible. They have positively identified the ship as being the CosmosHyperion's sister ship which provided an outline for so many backwards-engineered components of this ship, such as the Multiphasic Cannon. The most frightening thing about the situation is, Cosmos was totally unmanned. My thoughts turn to Section 31, as their one of a select few groups capable of this type of operation without anyone noticing they were there. Of course, that's just my guess. What a way to begin my tenure as C.O.."

When Collins entered the bridge, she found Winters at tactical, instead of VonBach. Slightly perplexed, she asked Winters, "Where the hell is VonBach?"

"Hiroshima took him. He's with Captain Starwind and Admiral Hayes." Winters replied.

Collins shrugged, "I like you better there anyway."

"I've made the changes in the duty roster. Ensign Alderman will be our new Operations officer." West introduced a human male standing at Operations.

"Wasn't there a Lieutenant Edwards…?" Collins suggested.

"Transferred to the Normandy. She lost a lot of her crew of late." Alderman replied.

Collins nodded and turned to face Talara, "E.T.A.?"

"Now." The stars streaking on the viewer came to a halt, and a somewhat damaged Jupiter Station came into view.

"Another ship coming out of warp. It's the Cosmos." Alderman reported.

"Hail them." Collins ordered.

There was a pause before Alderman reported, "No response."

Two photon torpedoes flew at Hyperion, barely missing.

"I'd call that a response, Ensign." West said.

"Red alert. Raise shields, lock weapons on Cosmos. Try to disable her." Collins ordered.

Alderman got a look of surprise on his face, "Ma'am, her shields are weakened severely. After one pass, we should be able to board her. I'm also not picking up life signs."

"Talara, make the pass. West, take an away team to secure Cosmos." Collins ordered.

"Winters, Alderman." West gestured to the two bridge crew members, taking them to the turbolift with her.

A Stinger class fighter flew over a planet. It was a two-person craft with decent weapon compliment for a fighter craft. The two passengers were Starwind in the front seat flying and VonBach behind him, at tactical.

"What is our mission?" VonBach asked.

Starwind fixed his gaze on the athmosphere of the planet, "A swift tactical strike. It's a cell of the Syndicate Starfleet Intelligence found."

"Why the secrecy?" VonBach armed weapons.

"Because if you didn't notice, we're in the Romulan neutral zone." Starwind answered, "If we get caught, Starfleet immediately disavows our existence. And given the amount of patrol near here, the odds are against us."

"A pleasant thought." VonBach targeted an instillation, "So why have you transfer power?"

"Hayes figured that this way if we are captured, Tal Shiar mind probes will reveal nothing about Hyperion's present position. We have no ship to be on, after all." Starwind lowered altitude.

"How considerate." VonBach smiled, "Firing."

Five beams of light formed into people on the totally empty bridge of the Cosmos.

West approached the helm, turning on the console. She attempted to read the display, but couldn't decipher the language. "I can't make heads or tails of this display. And without some sort of clues as to how to translate…"

"Look!" Winters pointed her phaser rifle at the viewer. On it, weapons could be seen firing at Hyperion.

West tapped her badge. "Away Team to Hyperion. We can't translate these console displays. We are powerless to stop the automated assault."

"Maybe not." Alderman interrupted her, "We might still be able to shut down the ship without damaging it or reading the consoles. Modify all our equipment to generate a massive electromagnetic pulse, disabling all systems controlled from these consoles. Then Starfleet Command can do as they please to disable her."
"You're a smart one, aren't ya?" West grinned, "Let's do it."

The Stinger flew back into orbit over the neutral zone planet. Behind them a large Romulan warburd decloaked.

"That's good…" VonBach sighed in frustration.

"Three ships coming out of warp. The Livingston, the Saigon, and the Hiroshima." Starwind reported.

"Hiroshima to Starwind, prepare to beam out." Hayes' voice ordered just before the two dematerialized.

The three Federation ships turned around, and streaked to warp.

Phasers, tricorders and other random items lay in the center of the Cosmos' bridge.

"Activate the pulse." West ordered.

"My poor phasers." Winters looked away.

Alderman pressed a button on his tricorder and set it down with the others, "Cross your fingers, friends."

From the bridge of Hyperion, Collins watched as Cosmos stopped moving. "Analysis?"

"It's shut down. Totally." An ensign reported.

"Hyperion to Away Team, come on back! We'll tractor Cosmos back to low orbit." Collins smiled, "And great job!"

A few hours later, Collins sat with the away team in the conference room.

"What was flying that ship?" Collins asked.

"Nothing." West reported.

"My guess would be some sort of automated fail-safe programmed to seek out other ships of it's kind if activated and attack anything it perceives as a threat or imposter. And since we are a Federation back-engineered version of Cosmos herself, she considered us hostile imposters." Alderman explained.

"Where did you come up with that?" West turned to him.

"I said 'My guess', didn't I, ma'am?" Alderman smiled.

"Anyway, I'm proud of you all, you secured one of the Federation's little pet projects for future study without taking the VonBach 'blow it to hell' approach." Collins stood, "I expect a full report on my desk in two hours, West. Dismissed."

"Bridge to Commander Collins, ma'am, there is an unidentified Starfleet transport shuttle hailing." A bridge officer contacted Collins.

"I'll take it here." Collins turned to the display screen in the conference room, "This is Commander Dorian Collins of the Federation starship Hyperion, how may…"

"Dorian!" Starwind's face appeared on the monitor.

"Victor!" Collins' face lightened.

"Permission to come aboard, ma'am!" Starwind smiled.

"Granted! Meet you on the bridge. I'll inform you about the minor changes that happened while you were away." Collins smiled brightly, "Hyperion out."

Not long after, Collins and Starwind stood on the bridge, "Computer, transfer command codes to Victor Starwind. Authorization Collins Beta-Four-Seven."

The computer beeped, "Transfer complete. USS Hyperion now under the command of Captain Victor Starwind."

"I relieve you, ma'am." Starwind said ceremonially.

Collins nodded, smiling, "I stand relieved."

"So tell me about this mission of yours?" Starwind and Collins walked to his ready room. Upon entering, Starwind saw all his little trinkets back as he had left them with one exception, a painting of the Hyperion passing a nebula hung on the wall. Starwind turned to Dorian, "Your work?"

"A little something I've been working on. A gift for you." Collins smiled.

Starwind shook his head, "No, it belongs in your quarters. It's your work of beauty."

"And it was intended for your office from the beginning." Collins shook her head, "I should have ordered you to keep it before relinquishing command."

"Fine." Starwind sat at his desk, "Now, about this staff shuffling, you want Winters to be the Assistant Chief of Security and Tactical, and this Ensign Alderman to be Chief of Operations?"

"Yes, sir." Collins nodded, "Winters is happier with guns in hand, and Alderman has proven himself."

"Great, Winters is a phaseraphilliac too? The last thing I need is another VonBach on my bridge." Starwind smirked.

"They're not that close, though I think he wouldn't be opposed." Collins joked, "But in fairness, she's more level headed than him."

Starwind nodded, "Your staff changes can stay. And from what I understand about the mission you led, congratulations are in order. You did a great job today."

"Thank you Captain, but all the same, I feel better with you here." Collins said.

Starwind smiled, "For reasons personal or professional?"

"A little of both, Captain." Collins laughed.

"Dismissed." Starwind nodded to her, "And Dorian," He stopped her before she took a step, "It's great to see you again too."