I DON'T OWN STAR TREK

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Chapter 3

The Sun Bringer, Part Two

"Captain's log. Stardate 83572.9. We have received orders to proceed at maximum warp to the Amardin system to investigate the whereabouts of the U.S.S. Miligian. This isn't very comforting to the crew for very obvious reasons. If the Miligian had been destroyed by hostile action, then what chance does our ship have?"

"Captain, we've located the Miligian." Commander Hunt reported from his tactical station.

They magnified on the image and were shocked at what they saw. The Miligian's neutronium hull had been blackened and several sections of the hull were red with heat. Hull breaches were abundant.

"Life signs?" Captain Whitten asked.

"Remarkable." Hunt reported. "I'm showing that most of the crew is still alive."

"Assemble an away team. We need to help them." Whitten told him.

Hunt and three others beamed onto the bridge. The bridge lights were sporadic revealing heavy damage. They activated hand lights and looked around the bridge and saw a blond ensign at the science station. She was tapping in commands and hadn't seemed to notice them. Hunt walked toward the station.

"Is there something I can do to help you?" She asked.

This threw Hunt a little off balance. "I'm Commander Andrew Hunt of the Starship Paladin. Who are you? Where is Captain Sullivan?" He said.

"Ensign Emily Giano, this ship's chief science officer." She told them continuing with her work. "Captain Sullivan is in sickbay being treated for burns by Doctor Ling. You might want to contact the Paladin and tell them to adjust their shields to a frequency of 47.98. That will keep them safe from the massive solar waves I've been registering between the Amardin Three sun and it's orbiting sun."

"Fortunately, I've been keeping an open comm link with the Paladin. What have you been doing?" He replied.

"I rerouted helm and shield control to my station here attempting to keep this ship together. Garcia has been directing the ship's self-repair system to help with the repairs. That reminds me." Giano said tapping her comm badge. "Giano to Lenar, the Paladin has arrived and has sent an away team over."

"Thanks. I'm on my way." Lenar said.

Hunt walked over to her console. "What is going on?" He asked. "Last time I checked, this system had only one star in it. Not three."

Giano shrugged. "It happens when a device fires a proto-matter beam with the same signature as the Genesis device." She replied tapping in more commands. "Fortunately, the Miligian's shields held out for most of the attack. Then, the neutronium hull saved us until I was able to configure a feedback pulse which I think damaged it enough for it to cut off the beam and move away from us. It left the system about two hours ago."

A look of shock washed over Hunt's face. "Are you telling me you let it get away?" He asked her about at the point of yelling. "Why haven't you sent out a priority one alert?"

She shook her head. "Gee, Commander. I don't really know. With the damage that we've sustained, could it be that the communication systems were damaged and that Lieutenant Commander Garcia has been busy repairing more critical systems." She said.

Before Hunt could reply, Lenar got out of the turbolift. There was a gash on the right side of her face and she had a smile on her face.

"Garcia says he might be able to get the self-repair system online in a few minutes." She says before noticing the away team. "Did the Paladin send the priority one message?"

Hunt nodded. "Yes, they sent it the moment Ensign Giano reported it to us. Now, what can we do to help?"

Location: Romulas Capital, Romulas

Outside the Romulan Senate

An inferno had erupted taking the visiting Starfleet Admiral Necheyev as well as the new Praetor. No one had any idea what was going on. The civilians were in chaos but he knew what was going on. The centurion went through the ground and he pushed civilians out of the way. He had his eyes focused on his target. Whatever this agent was, he was bad at his job. Any competent agent of any agency would have joined the crowd running away. He was walking too calmly. He overheard someone yelling about the Vulcan-Romulan Unification movement but he knew that it was merely hysteria. The subject's ears were rounded, not pointed. His stride was too calm as if he didn't believe he'd be caught. This subject never looked behind him which was his mistake. The centurion reached from behind the suspect and applied the Vulcan nerve pinch. He found out that his suspect was male. Further inspection revealed to him that he appeared to be human-like. A look over his shoulder shown him that Senate Security Forces were converging on the idiot. The centurion heaved the suspect over his shoulder and walked away.

Captain's Log. Stardate 83579.9. I've recovered from the burns I sustained during the probe's attack and have resumed my duty. Garcia has informed me that we've lost Jump capability, not that I had any idea what 'jumping' was despite Ensign Giano's explanation. She has informed me that she has detected a trail of superheated proto-matter leading away from the system. The Miligian and the Paladin are proceeding at maximum warp along the trail. At the moment, Giano, Kremor, and Garcia are working on a way to disable the weapon.

"That won't work, Kremor!" Giano yelled at him. "Torpedoes would be vaporized in the proto-matter stream before it could create the desired effect."

"I still do not understand why we are trying to disable this device. We should be able to easily destroy this weapon before more lives are lost." Kremor told her.

Giano got up and tapped a few commands into the center console of the room that they were in. A holographic schematic of the weapon appeared and she pointed to several sections of it.

"This weapon has several independent shield systems. We could be destroyed before we got through two, maybe three." She said. "We might take out four or five but we'd lose thousands of lives and still not destroy it."

This appeared to make the Klingon think. He rested his hands on the console. "Didn't you say that you re-modulated the structural integrity field and it sent a feedback pulse that caused the weapon to disengage the beam?" He asked.

She seemed a little confused. "Yah. It seemed like it might have caused slight damage to it." She answered.

Kremor tapped his comm badge. "Kremor to Garcia. If we rerouted all available power to the shields and put ourselves in the path of the proto-matter beam, how long would the shields last?" He asked.

"Here's a better question. Why the hell would we want to put ourselves in the beam's path in the first place?" Garcia asked.

"Just answer the damn question." Kremor asked.

"I don't know. The jump drive is still generating full power but rerouting all power to shields would keep them sustain for thirty minutes, maybe." Garcia said.

"Emily, how long do you think it would take to overload the beam projector?" Kremor asked her.

She was shaking her head as he asked the question. "When I had realigned the structural integrity field, the beam cut off automatically. But..."

"...if we can discharge all of the energy we've rerouted to the shields, it would cause a cascade effect that would travel up the beam and cause the weapon's supply of trilithium to overload and presumably taking the proto-matter with it." Giano told the group. "I developed a program to track the weapon and hopefully we can intercept it before it reaches a populated system."

They were in what was used by the Miligians as their briefing room. It was a round table setup with an intricately designed table. There wasn't any interface screens on the walls because the Miligians had chosen for some reason to display such information, holographically. Because it wasn't a critical system, Garcia hadn't installed an interface screen on the wall. Sullivan bent forward slightly. He had a look on his face that made everyone consider the fact that he didn't like this idea.

"What is the potential damage to the Miligian?" He asked.

"Severe." Giano answered. "When the discharge occurs, we will still be caught in the path of the proto-matter beam. I think ninety-five to one hundred percent of the hull will be damaged. There will be breaches but several of the Miligian's self-repair measures will engage to combat this."

"I have a better idea." Garcia said looking towards the holographic display. "Computer, bring up the ship schematic."

With no delay, the alien ship's schematic was before them and Garcia brought their attention to an area of the ship. "This section acts as a refitting bay for Miligian ships. We can pull the Paladin in and refit it with a jump drive and..." He began to say before he was interrupted.

"It won't work. Jump space would tear apart the hull of the Paladin. But our extinct benefactors had other forms of travel. A chrysalis drive would be a major upgrade for the Paladin and would allow them to jump into the stream, lock a tractor beam onto the Miligian, and chrysalis out to bring us to safety." Giano informed them.

"As Captain Picard would say, make it so." Sullivan told them.

Seventeen hours later, the Miligian and the Paladin warp into the Vulcan system. According to Giano's scanning program, the probe was headed there and they had to intercept. Only fifty-seven starships were available to intercept it. Unfortunately, a lot of them were older vessels that would probably amount to little more than cannon fodder. The flagship of this fleet was the U.S.S. Dragon, commanded by Admiral Patricia Glasgow.

The good admiral was sitting in her ready room. Unlike most ready rooms, it was a lot more natural in appearance. The hardwood floors and the oak desk made it have a tranquil feel to it. Glasgow was a nature lover and loved almost any planet's plant life. The plants in her office, all of the automatic timers, made it more natural. Her ready room doors opened with a hiss and she already knew who it was. Commander Cathey walked in and set down a PADD and she walked out without saying a word. Admiral Glasgow ran her thumb print through and the message appeared.

To: The Emerald Dragon

From: The Little Hydra

Message: Plan developed to destroy Apollo's Chariot.

If Chains are located, will destroy Hercules.

The encryption virus destroyed the message and fried the iso-linear chip. She placed the PADD in a drawer so that later, a eager young ensign could come in and take it to be recycled. Hopefully, Little Hydra wouldn't fail her.

"There." Garcia said to the ensign from the Paladin. "Your chrysalis drive is on-line. Now, I need to return to the Miligian to get it ready over there."

"Thank you, sir." The ensign said thanking him. "Ever since Chief Jefferies passed away, I've been trying to keep up but I haven't been able to."

Garcia put a hand on the ensign's shoulder. "Hey, don't worry about."

Garcia left the ensign to do his duties and returned to the Miligian via the Paladin's transporter room. Without hesitation, he returned to his quarters to see a haunting message.

To: Sub-Commander Lenar

First Officer

Federation Starship Miligian

From: Centurion Havok

Tal Shiar

Romulus

Message: Starfleet Admiral Necheyev has been assassinated.

Official report links the attack to Federation Ambassador Spock's Unification Faction.

DO NOT BELIEVE.

Have recovered own suspect.

Believe him to be Federation Section 31 Agent.

Will relay further information.

Garcia read the message and shook his head. He wished that it didn't have to be this way but he had no choice. A few taps in the console initiated the automated program for the Paladin. There was no need to delete the message because in a few minutes, it wouldn't matter. He picked up his portable messaging device or PMD and sent a message to the Admiral.

To: The Emerald Dragon

From: The Little Hydra

Message: Evidence that chains will be found.

Hercules Undone.

He set down the PMD and laid down on his bed. With his tongue, he clicked the false molar and the phostan chip began to break down. A painless death awaited him unlike the rest of the crew.

The device warped into the system and automatically began to attack the fleet. Three Miranda-Class ships were the first to go. The U.S.S. Challenger then tried to protect the Dragon from a full volley but became a brilliant flower of an antimatter explosion. Sullivan shook his head. He'd seen enough.

"Kremor, tell the Paladin we're proceeding with the plan." Sullivan told him. "Helm, take us in."

The Miligian moved through space, closely followed by the Paladin, towards the device. It apparently recognized them from their previous encounter and changed its tactics. Giano detected it powering up.

"Powering shields to maximum." Kremor stated.

"Activating shield discharge program." Giano reported.

The device fired the proto-matter beam and it struck the shields hard. As hard as the alien environmental systems could try, the temperature on the bridge began to rise. Giano was hurrying through the steps of the program and she was finally ready after ten minutes.

"Discharge in five...four...three...two...one!" She yelled.

"The Miligian has discharged the wave." Cathey reported from the Dragon's science station.

"Inform the Paladin to proceed with Stage Two." Glasgow ordered.

"Engage the chrysalis drive." Captain Whitten ordered.

Outside of the ship, the artificial super-string material began to form and suddenly collapsed. Several hull breaches and darkened sections could clearly be seen.

"Engineering, what the hell happened!" Commander Hunt yelled.

" The components for the chrysalis drive have just gave out." Chief Daniels informed the bridge. "I don't understand this. Lieutenant Commander Garcia installed those systems himself. They shouldn't have gave out like that."

"Inform Captain Sullivan, he's on his own." Whitten said with a solemn tone.

"CAPTAIN!" Kremor yelled. "Message from the Paladin. Their chrysalis drive has just given out. They suspect sabotage."

"Great, does anyone have any bright ideas?" Sullivan asked.

Giano stared intensely at the sensor data she was receiving. She tapped a few more commands into the console.

"I do." She told the captain tapping the console.

The sparkle of the Miligian's transporter enveloped her and she was gone from the bridge. Lenar's head turned to Kremor.

"Where did she go?" She asked.

With a perplexed look, he said. "Shuttlebay One."

Giano threw herself into one of the Miligian shuttlecrafts and began to start it up. A panel lit up with Sullivan's face on it. She ignored it.

"Ensign Giano, what are you doing?" He asked.

"My bright idea." Giano said to her captain. "The device is severely damaged but still capable of destroying Vulcan. Trust me on this one."

"Go." Sullivan said to her.

She tapped in the commands to open the shuttlebay doors but they failed to open. Shaking her head, she said. "Engineering is going to hate me for this."

Another tapped command activated the chrysalis drive. The artificial superstring material began to appear and were directed forward. The azure strings' gravity well tore apart the doors and opened them to the proto-matter storm. Giano guided the shuttle out of the ship and her face struck the console violently but she stayed conscious. As she propelled the shuttle against the fury of the proto-matter beam, the partially formed superstring material began to crush the incoming proto-matter. She neared the device and locked a tractor beam. Pouring all the power she could, she expanded the superstring material around the device. When it was fully expanded, the device and the shuttle were shot away.

"Where is she?" Sullivan asked.

The moment he said that, the Miligian's transporter turned on again and Ensign Giano appeared on the bridge. She was badly burned and her uniform was little more than rags. Her head turned and Sullivan was shocked to see a smile on her face.

"It...worked..." She barely whispered.

"Emergency medical transport." Sullivan exclaimed. "Get her to Sickbay."

Captain's Log: Stardate 83580.1. The device has been destroyed, thanks to Ensign Giano's impromptu maneuver. This horrific device is resting comfortably in a quantum singularity that the Starship Voyager encountered over ten years ago. To be honest, it was rather uncomfortable watching Doctor Ling doing his best work for her. I guess it's just a natural human reaction to reptiles and snakes. The colony ships that had been recalled to return most of Vulcan's population to their homeworld. It came as no surprise to me that they had such an orderly evacuation. I'm sure the return will be just as orderly. On a sad note, Lieutenant Commander Jeremiah Garcia has passed away. At this time, Doctor Ling is unclear on the cause of death. He was an excellent officer.

Sullivan entered Sickbay and saw Ensign Giano resting on a bio-bed. Ling's deep-red ruby eyes saw Sullivan and he walked over to him. In his right claw, Ling held a PADD which he handed to the captain.

"A phostan chip?" Sullivan read questioning the result. "He killed himself. Why?"

As if to answer his question, Lenar came up from behind him with her own PADD. She handed it to him. Sullivan read the message she had received.

"Who is this Havok?" He asked.

"My brother." Lenar informed him. "He's a centurion who works for the Tal Shiar. If he suspects anything, he's usually right."

"When repairs are completed, we're going to Romulus." Sullivan ordered.