Chapter 7

U.S.S. Huallaga

I wanted one more briefing from my senior staff. One more assessment whether or not we were ready or that we needed to do even more still. We met in conference room 1. This time the senior staff all had there own padds at the ready as I came in.

"Ladies, gentlemen. This meeting is about one thing and one thing only. Are we ready?" I paused as I studied their faces. Takerra her face betrayed nothing really spectacular. She was also the one that I was certain was the most prepared. I saw the same with Denham, the other Andorian among the senior staff. Kenahov, also present, was radiating his usual supreme Klingon self confidence. But yet he seemed to be out of it for some reason or another.

Finally, there was Ozloe. She had graduated as a doctor, but with a little encouragement from my side she had become an excellent Chief Science Officer. I would need her on the bridge, and not in sick bay until the battle was over.

Right then and there, I couldn't shake the feeling that we were going to be close to having the fight of our lives.

"That is why this meeting has only one topic. Are we really ready?"

My gaze shifted to Takerra first. A curt nod "I believe we are as ready as we can be. I would have liked to have had more time to work out some of the remaining kinks in the slug thrower study, but I guess that's time dependent now." internally I laughed. I had detected a hint of disappointment in her voice.

"I agree with the commanders assessment."Kenahov piped in. "We could do with a little more time with regards to the slug throwers."

"I understand your position, but I need you working on the ship instead of a project."

There were no more replies. My gaze shifted to Denham "Everything shipshape?"

"The ship is as ready as I can make her, sir. Engineering has also taken stock of all the damage control tools and other assorted supplies. We're fully supplied. As far as other engineering details go, the ship is fully up to spec and running within established parameters."

Ozloe came last.

"Sickbay is ready in all aspects but one. I would have like to have had a little more time in studying and preparing for the eventual slughthrower wounds that I'm convinced we will suffer during the coming operations."

Right then and there, I knew she had pointed out the only weak point still in the program. Denham beat me to the punchline. "Doctor, I have seen your abilities both in the field and out of it. I'm sure you will not let the admiral and the crew down."

I made sure Ozloe would see me agree to Denham's commentary. "He's right, doctor. You're going to have deal with whatever comes your way when the time is there." I gave her a variation of the look I had gotten a couple of times at Starfleet Command when I had to 'explain' some of my actions in the field. "Doctor, commander Denham is right. All of us here have seen your abilities in the field under fire. All of us trust you, doctor, with our lives."

A short and curt nod came from the doctor as a reply. "I'll not let you or the ship down, admiral."

"That's all I ask."

I ended the meeting a few minutes later. There was one more thing I needed to do, and that thing was the result of a certain conversation I had after breakfast and before the short meeting with the rest of the staff. It was a call, to Earth. I had the computer make the connection."Computer, establish a secure connection to Captain Audrey Torvann on Earth, using private code Tango Theta two seven."

I began to wait. Since we were quite a distance away from Earth, it took a fair bit of time to establish a connection. "Connection established."

"Hello Jenn. Finally found the time to call?" She seemed surprised, but looked genuinely happy to finally see and hear from me.

Still, I was a little embarrassed by my mother's remark. I had been so busy saving the Federation, and the universe in a few cases that I hadn't even had time to call home. "You could indeed say that I finally...found the time to call."

"So how are you?"

"Not bad. I've been having these strange dreams lately though. And those strange dreams, involve a younger version of you somehow."Again I looked for anything out of the ordinary that would betray whether or not my mother would be lying to me in the same fashion as captain Kurland had done.

"Were the counselors any help?" She hadn't lost it yet. Good.

"In a way." I answered the question "They suggested I talked to you."

"Alright then. So what are these dreams about?"

I gave her all the details as I remembered them. Then I finished with the description of a younger version of her of her picking me up, followed by the emergency beam out call. All through the story that her face remained impassive, showing no display of emotion at all.

She briefly bowed her head after I had finished. I didn't think the answer would be on the floor she was standing on, but when she looked back up at the screen again I noticed a single tear streaking down her left cheek. At the same time I began to feel more then a little guilty.

"Jenn..sweety...I believe there is no other way in telling you this but I fear your dreams are fare closer to the truth then you think." My mother began. I began to mentally surround myself with a ring of steel.

"The runabout we found you on showed up on our sensors out of nowhere. Her navigational Id showed that she came from our ship, but we had all our runabouts accounted for. So an away team was sent over. I commanded it. When we beamed in, we were met with a bunch of alarms. From what we could tell, there had been an EPS short that had produced a discharge that had killed the other two occupants. That EPS short had also caused a few other problems that we couldn't stabilize nor solve in time. So, the emergency beam out was called for Since you were the only one alive we just couldn't leave you there to die, so we grabbed you and brought you along. I've raised you as one of mine ever since, Jenn, and I have no regrets about that. The bio hazard filters on the transporters caught most of the bad stuff we took, but the doctor had the team on anti radiation meds for a week. I also remember the ships doctor at the time later threatened to put a note in my record that I was somewhat prone to taking risks."

My internal wall of steel held. And a thought suddenly hit me, but I filed it away for later use.

"Oh mother..." other words failed me. It wouldn't help to tear in to her about hiding the truth from me. I had no where else to go back then and she raised me to become an admiral. I suppose it could have been worse, especially if were to consider that I could have died on the runabout…

"I do have one question. Did I ever have any other episodes where I had trouble sleeping and had nightmares?"

Now it was my mothers turn to look pensive "I recall two times. The first time was on Deep Space 9. You fought Sandra Brink and two of her friends for the attention of a certain Bajoran boy by the name of Milak. The second time was the night before you took your pre exams for entrance to the academy."

I frowned as another memory suddenly came up. "Didn't I take those exams on DS 9 as well?"

"You did. They were disturbed by a couple of red alerts strangely enough, but nothing materialized back then."

My own frown began to deepen. Nightmares and red alerts was a clue to something far deeper.

"Mom, were you ever able to find out were the runabout came from?" It felt so strange talking to her and knowing what I did know now. But then again, would I have accepted it when I was younger? And would it have mattered later? I didn't want those questions to linger in my mind, I had more important things to worry about.

In the meantime my mother her head shook no. "No we didn't. There were no repeat occurrences or anything else remotely similar anywhere while you were growing up either. After a while, most analysts started to believe it to be a once in a lifetime thing anyway."

I nodded. My own mother had helped by filling a few gaps in my own memory, and given me an idea at the same time. The only thing that now remained was making the plan I had work out, and that would be something else altogether.

"Thanks mom. I promise to talk to you soon."

She smiled "Jenn, do me one favor. Please don't make a promise you can't keep. And, be safe out there." She then terminated the connection at her end. A few seconds later the computer announced the connection to Earth had been terminated as well.

For a brief moment I was all alone in my quarters, and still thinking about what I had just been told.

The familiar gong of a comms panel going off in my quarters broke the silence "Bridge to Admiral Torvann. We have two Breen Chell Grets on the sensors."

I was on the way to the bridge seconds later.