Disclaimer: TOS belongs to the heirs of Gene Roddenberry, AOS is property of JJ Abrams. Much of this chapter comes directly from TOS: Season 1 Episode 13
Chapter Four
The Galileo's Seven
"Welcome aboard the USS Enterprise, Commissioner Ferris," Rose greeted the man calmly. "I'm Captain Kirk, this is my First Officer Spock and this is Doris Atkins. Miss Atkins will be your yeoman for the journey."
Ferri nodded curtly at her. "Right," he agreed. "You understand our mission, I trust Captain?"
Rose's diplomatic smile tightened as she caught a glimpse of his thoughts. Ferris thought she was a stupid little girl who got lucky and didn't deserve her ship. "Don't let it get to you," she instructed herself sternly, blocking the man out.
"Yes sir, I do," she answered. "We're to escort you and your supplies to Makus III where we will rendezvous with the USS Endeavour. The Endeavour will then take you the rest of the way to Ap-Lau. I have been informed it will take us a maximum of a week to make the journey."
"A week?" Ferris cut in, looking angry. "It shouldn't take more than three days to meet with the Endeavour!"
Rose nodded in agreement. "In most circumstances that would be true," she explained. "But our course takes us past Murasaki 312. I have orders from Starfleet to perform a quick investigation while passing by. It won't take long, I promise."
Ferris glowered at her unhappily. "It better not," he snapped. "The Vulcans need these supplies urgently." Then he rudely turned to Doris and demanded she take him to his rooms. Rose slumped in relief as soon as he left.
"Are you well Captain?" Spock asked her lowly, stepping closer. She gave him a strained smile.
"I'll be fine Spock," she assured him. "It's just, difficult," she finished lamely before straightening. "Who have you chosen for your away team?"
Spock blinked at her as he replied. "Dr. McCoy, Commander Scott, Lt. Latimer from security, Lts. Gaetano and Boma from the science division, and Yeoman Mears. All have suitable backgrounds for investigating Murasaki 312."
"Excellent as always, Mr. Spock," she breathed at him. "Let's confirm we've got everything and get a move on."
Captain's Log, stardate 2258.302. On route to Makus Three with a cargo of medical supplies to be transferred to the USS Endeavour for the new Vulcan colony. Our course leads us past Murasaki 312, a quasar-like formation, vague and undefined. A priceless opportunity for scientific investigation. On board is Galactic High Commissioner Ferris, overseeing the delivery of the medicines to the colony.
"Captain to shuttlecraft Galileo," Rose said as the lift opened to let in Commissioner Ferris. "Stand by, Mister Spock."
"I remind you, Captain," Ferris strode up beside her. "I'm entirely opposed to this delay. Your mission is to get those emergency medical supplies to Makus Three in time for their transfer to the new Vulcan colony."
Rose gave him a tense smile. "No problem, Commissioner. And may I remind you that I have standing orders to investigate all quasars and quasar-like phenomena wherever they may be encountered. Besides, it's only three days to Makus. And the rendezvous doesn't take place for five."
"I don't like to take chances," Ferris huffed. "The Vulcans urgently need these supplies. We must get those drugs there on time.
"I agree with you completely Sir," Rose answered. She pressed the comm. "Captain to Galileo. All systems cleared for take off."
"Power up," Spock's voice came over the comm. Beeping and shuffling could be heard in the backround. "All instruments activated. All readings normal. All go."
"Launch shuttlecraft," Rose ordered coolly. She watched the screen as the shuttlecraft made its way slowly out of the bay.
"Captain they're hailing us!" Lt. M'Ress, the on-duty comm officer abruptly called.
"What are they saying, Lieutenant?" Rose demanded, hurrying to the station.
"Nothing clear, Captain," M'Ress replied helplessly, pressing buttons frantically. "Just a few words about being pulled off course."
"Try and get me a fix on the Galileo," Rose instructed as she hurried over to science station and switched it on.
"Scanners are blank, Captain," Sulu reported worriedly. "We're getting a mass of readings I don't understand. Nothing makes sense."
"Negative ionic concentration one point six four times ten to the ninth power metres," the computer beeped. "Radiation wave length three hundred seventy angstroms. Harmonics upward along entire spectrum."
"What is it, Captain?" Ferris demanded, looking frustrated.
Rose ran a hand over her golden hair. "That thing out there has ionized this complete sector. None of our instruments work. At least four complete solar systems in the immediate vicinity. And out there somewhere, a twenty-four footlong shuttlecraft, off course, out of control. Finding a needle in a haystack would be child's play."
Captain's Log, Stardate 2258.305. The electromagnetic phenomenon known as Murasaki Three Twelve whirls like some angry blight in space, a depressive reminder that seven shipmates still have not been heard from. Equally bad, the effect has rendered our normal searching systems useless. Without them, we are blind and almost helpless.
"I was against this from the very beginning," Ferris angrily declared as he and Rose accepted coffees from Rose's yeoman Janice Rand. "Our flight to Makus Three is of the very highest priority."
"I'm aware of that, Commissioner," Rose replied in a hard voice. "At the same time I have certain scientific duties I must perform, and investigating the Murasaki effect is one."
"Yes, but you've lost your crew," the man pointed out and Rose felt her jaw clench in frustration at the useless reminder.
"We have two days to find them."
"Two days?" Ferris looked at her incredulously, waving at the screen. "ln all that? Two days?"
"What would you have me do," Rose sharply demanded. "Turn around and leave them there?"
"You shouldn't have sent them out in the first place," Ferris retorted. "Do you know what you've done? You've concerned yourself with only seven people."
M'Ress came over, a PADD clutched to her chest. "Captain, may we?" she jerked her lion-like head and Rose eagerly took the excuse to abandon the irritating bureaucrat.
"Well Lieutenant?" she asked. M'Ress frowned at her unhappily. "There's one planet in this solar system capable of sustaining human life. It's type M, oxygen, nitrogen, and it's listed as Taurus Two. It's unexplored. As far as we can determine with our equipment malfunction, it's just about dead-centre of the Murasaki effect."
"Thank you, Lieutenant," Rose smiled briefly at her. "Sulu," she turned and barked.
"Yes, ma'am," he glanced back.
"Set course for Taurus II," the captain ordered.
"Aye, aye, ma'am." He turned back to the helm.
"You said something about a needle in a haystack. It's useless," Ferris scoffed.
Rose cast him a hard look. "They're my crew Sir. If they're not there, then they're dead already but I'll be damned if I don't try and save them."
"Captain," M'Ress whispered and Rose turned back to the Caitian, wondering what else could possibly go wrong.
"Yes?"
"There's some trouble with Lt. Uhura, ma'am."
Rose hadn't wanted Nyota Uhura on board the Enterprise. The woman was decent enough at languages but despite her personal opinion, she wasn't as great as she thought. To Rose, who'd learnt languages from Hoshi Sato herself, she was almost clumsy in her translations. Her habit of judging people based on rumors was also very detrimental to her position as a comm officer.
And during the Narada crisis, not only had Uhura used her relationship with Spock to be changed from the Farragut to the Enterprise, but she had left her station unattended several times in order to try and comfort Spock. The Admirality, however, had insisted that Rose's main bridge crew be made up of the team who had destroyed the Narada.
Thankfully, Rose had managed, with the help of her counterpart, to convince them that having so many unseasoned cadets in charge of the flagship would be too dangerous. While Rose had in fact been in command of several missions during her accelerated course, and Sulu and Chekov had both also done command training, Uhura had never even set foot on board an undocked starship before Vulcan's destruction.
That argument, as well as the fact that Pike had already selected the experienced Lt. Elizabeth Palmer to serve as Chief of Communications, had saved Rose from being stuck with Uhura constantly around.
"This is all your fault!" Her former classmate snarled. Rose kept her face impassive as she listened to the accusation.
"This side trip was completely unnecessary and you know it. We could've been half-way to Makus by now and Spock would be safe! You just can't get over him bringing you up on charges for the Kobayashi Maru can you?"
Rose had heard enough. "That's enough Lieutenant!" She barked, Uhura faltered in her tirade, uncertainty flashing across her face. "This 'side-trip' as you call it was ordered by Starfleet. And, despite your personal opinions, I did not send the away team to be killed out of some ridiculous, non-existent grudge against my First Officer."
She paused to inhale. Being around Uhura always made her irritable. She understood well that the other woman was jealous. Rose was both smarter, prettier and more successful than her, despite being younger. Uhura resented the fact that Rose breezed through subjects that she struggled through for weeks at a time. It still didn't give her an excuse for her behaviour.
"Yet again, Lieutenant, you have allowed your personal dislike of me to interfere with your duty. Clearly reprimands aren't enough. You will be confined to your quarters for one week and removed from the duty schedule for two, with the appropriate pay docking."
Uhura's jaw dropped and Rose hurried to finish before she could start to rant again.
"This will count as your first warning. If you get three punishments for insubordination, toward anyone on board this ship, or get reprimanded for any other trespass, you will be transferred from the Enterprise."
"You, you have no right," Uhura sputtered.
"I have every right," Rose refused to budge. Feelings of approval at her actions came from the other comm officers and bolstered her resolve. "This is my ship and I will not allow any dissent. You don't have to like me, but you do have to respect me as your superior. If you can't follow basic regulations, you shouldn't be on a starship." She paused for a moment before adding pointedly. "Dismissed Lieutenant."
"When Spock gets back," Uhura snapped, straightening her shoulders. "I'll tell him about this and we'll report you to Command for abuse of power."
"If that's what you want to do," Rose agreed mildly. It would do nothing of course, Rose had witnesses and Admirals Archer, Anderson, Komack, Chandra, Pike and of course her counterpart on her side.
The rest might not like her but they wouldn't take the word of a Lieutenant with multiple reprimands for disrespect from several supervisors over the Fleet's most famous captain.
Uhura glared venomously at her before turning to stalk away.
"May I just say Captain, Palmer, who'd been standing silently beside her. "It's about damn time you put that brat in her place."
"Any sign of them Lieutenant?" Rose asked as soon as she'd returned to the bridge. M'Ress shook her head grimly.
"Nothing Captain." Rose sighed and turned to Sulu.
"Mr. Sulu any readings on your scanners?" He shook his head solemnly.
"No ma'am. They're all totally inoperative. No readings at all."
"Have you tried the auxiliary power?"
"Yes ma'am. Nothing."
She sighed and commed the transport room. "Bridge to transporter room. Who's on duty there?"
"This is Lt. Bobby Captain," a man replied over the comm. Rose vaguely recognized him as being one of Scotty's favourite transporter technicians.
"Ah yes," she murmured. "How're the transporters Lieutenant? Are they beaming up yet?"
Bobby sighed. "Not yet ma'am. We've beamed down some material, but it came back in a disassociated condition. We wouldn't dare try with people."
Rose closed her eyes in frustration as she thanked him briskly before switching to the ship-wide comm. "This is the captain speaking. Flight deck, prepare Columbus for immediate exit, for a search of the planet surface. Correlate co-ordinates with Mister Sulu. Thank you." She turned of the comm and glanced at M'Ress. "Anything, Lieutenant?"
"All wavelengths dominated by ionisation effects, ma'am," the woman reported. "Transmission is blocked, reception impossible."
"Well, Captain?" Ferris raised a scathing eyebrow.
"We have two days left to continue the search, Commissioner." Rose answered calmly, refusing to let her worry touch her tone or expression.
"You don't really think you'll have any luck, do you?" The commissioner scoffed and Rose stood to look at him, crossing her arms and staring fiercely at him.
"Look, these people are my friends and my shipmates. I intend to continue the ship's search for them until the last possible moment," she told him defiantly. He glared back at her.
"Very well, Captain," he answered her icily. "But not one second beyond that moment. Is that clear? If it isn't, I suggest you look at book nineteen, section four thirty three, paragraph twelve."
Rose's black eyes flashed at him dangerously. "I'm familiar with the regulations, Commissioner. I know all about your authority." She turned away. "Launch shuttlecraft Columbus."
Captain's Log, stardate 2258.306. We continue to search, but I find it more difficult each moment to ward off a sense of utter futility and great loss.
"Captain, the Columbus has returned from searching quadrant seven seven nine X by five three four M. Results negative." M'Ress' voice was grim as she gave the news. Rose's eyes fluttered closed for half a second as she tried unsuccessfully to release her stress the way her Aunt Eva had shown her as a little girl. Her thoughts were full of worry for Bones and Spock, as well as her other missing crew members.
"Have them proceed to the next quadrant," she directed. "Any word from engineering on our sensors?"
M'Ress shook her head. "They're working on them, ma'am. Still inoperable."
"What about the transporters?"
"They're still reported unsafe."
Rose nodded, crossing her arms. "Thank you, Lieutenant." She restrained a sigh when she noticed Ferris striding up beside her.
"Captain," he barked.
She turned to face him. "Yes, Commissioner?"
"I don't relish the thought of abandoning your crewmen out there, however I must remind you-"
"I haven't forgotten, Commissioner." The difficulty of the matter was, she thought ruefully to herself, that Ferris genuinely was regretful at the missing people4.
"You're running out of time."
Kirk nodded sharply at him. "I haven't forgotten that, Commissioner." She commed the transporter room again. "This is the captain. Try using overload power on the transporters. We've got to get them working."
"Aye, aye, Captain," Bobby acknowledged. Rose turned back to M'Ress again.
"M'Ress, order the Columbus to open its course two degrees on every lap from now on."
"But Captain, two degrees means they'll be overlooking more than a dozen terrestrial miles on each search loop," Sulu objected. Rose shot him a stern look.
"It also means we have a fighting chance to cover the majority of the planet's surface. Mind your helm, Mister Sulu."
"Yes, ma'am," Sulu muttered, bowing his head. Ferris stepped into the turbolift. "Twenty-four more hours, Captain," he warned ominously. Rose ignored him, focusing on the screen in front of her.
"What word from the sensor section?" Rose asked. She reached up to pull her hair back into a fresh plait.
M'Ress didn't turn from her station. "At last report they were getting some readings," she offered.
"I'm not interested in the last report," Rose snapped, the deadline pressing on her shoulders. "I want to know now."
"Yes, ma'am."
"You have two hours and forty-three minutes left, Captain." Ferris pointed out. Rose exhaled tightly and turned to him.
"Thank you, Sir. I'm perfectly aware of how much time I have left. I would greatly appreciate if you spend the remaining time in your quarters instead of acting like my personal stopwatch. You have much more important things to do, I'm sure."
Ferris huffed indignantly but made his way to the lift. Rose slumped slightly in relief at the reprieve.
"Ma'am!" M'Ress called. "Sensor section reporting. Static interference still creating false images. Estimates eighty percent undependable."
"What about radio?"
M'Ress flicked another switch. "Clearing slowly. Still incapable of transmission or reception."
Rose squeezed her eyes closed. "Please," she silently begged the Four Deities of Betazed. "Please have mercy and let us find them."
"Your time is up, Captain," Ferris declared, sweeping onto the bridge. Rose slumped, grief filling her as she cursed herself for not working on nurturing the fragile links she had with Bones and Spock. If she had put more effort into them, she might have been able to locate them.
She shook her head. "I still have two search parties down there," she protested. "The Columbus hasn't returned yet. They're still alive, I can sense them." She waved toward her black eyes to prove it.
Ferris gave her an unyielding look, though she sensed genuine pity coming from him. "You're procrastinating Captain. The Vulcans need these supplies. Would your people truly want you to let those people suffer for their sakes? If you continue to refuse, I'll be forced to take command under Title fifteen, Galactic Emergency Procedures."
"I see," she managed to murmur. "Call back the search teams. When the Columbus has returned," she faltered for a second. "Set course for Makus III."
Her crew gave her disbelieving and horrified looks, even as Sulu nodded and Chekov reached out a shaky hand to input the coordinates.
"There must be something I can do," she thought desperately. "Please, please, let me think of something to save them. I know that they're still alive."
"The Columbus is aboard Captain," M'Ress reported, her expression solemn. Rose clasped her hands together to hide their shaking.
"Thank you Lieutenant. Mr. Sulu, set course for Makus III at space normal speed."
"Space normal, ma'am?" Sulu shot her a confused look. She nodded firmly.
"Space normal," she repeated. Her eyes were fixed on the screen, the muted senses of Spock and Bones suddenly becoming clearer than they'd been in days.
"Keptain!" Chekov yelled abruptly. "Over zere. Just above Taurus II!"
Rose hurried over to the helm, a hopeful grin breaking out on her face. "Could it be sensors or a meteorite?" She asked urgently, Chekov shaking his head.
"No ma'am," the science officer, a human named Lt. Alden answered over his shoulder. "It's holding a lateral line. There it is again. Holding steady, Captain."
"A hundred and eighty degrees about, Sulu," Rose ordered. "Lieutenant M'Ress, contact transporter room. All beams ready. Full normal speed."
"Transporters locked in, ma'am," M'Ress reported.
"Activate beams," Rose ordered eagerly. Despite the sight of the object exploding, Rose burst into a grin as she sensed Spock and Bones' familiar presences appear in the transporter room.
"Whatever it was, Captain, it just burned up in the atmosphere," Sulu pointed out grimly.
"Captain," M'Ress cut in eagerly. "The transporter room just beamed up five persons. Alive and well."
Rose felt a slight pang of grief as she registered the number. Five. Two of her men were dead. "May they rest in peace," she thought solemnly. She rose to her feet and headed to the turbolift, giving the conn to M'Ress.
"Mister Sulu," She ordered as she stepped into the lift. "Proceed on course to Makus Three. Ahead warp factor one."
Sulu nodded. "Aye, aye, ma'am. Warp factor one."
