Discontinuity: Indefatigable
by chaos_eternus
"Do you really think that is a coincidence?" Ewing asked carefully, his eyes for once on the person in front of him, not on the darkened shape of the Indefatigable just visible through the window behind his desk.
"No," Admiral Travers sighed, "at the end of the war, Cardassia and the Dominion both surrendered and in the case of the Dominion is now in the middle of some nasty infighting triggered by the return of Odo to their Great Link but the Breen… they just retreated back behind their own borders. We haven't heard much from them since."
"Worrying,"
"A enemy that doesn't concede the war is over…"
He got a sign in response, "Is just waiting for opportunity to restart it. Osiris is providing the opportunity."
Travers nodded, "the Klingons have a few agents inside the Breen military and they are getting indications that it might be more then just opportunity Osiris is giving them, but that isn't the only joker in the deck. Starfleet Intelligence has confirmed a bounty has been placed upon the crew of the Indefatigable and on the ship itself. Quite a significant one at that."
Ewing frowned, "can she afford that?"
The admiral shrugged, "she hasn't offered much in the way of cash, what she has offered is technologies…"
The Captain groaned, "which means we don't just have to worry about individuals or small groups but quite possible 'rogue' governments as well."
"Unfortunately so, and as a result, I am afraid we will be increasing the security around the Indefatigable. "
"Understandable," Ewing noted, "Irritating but necessary. If we could be in space…"
"I am not too happy with having to uprate your ship in this fashion but I do have to admit the necessity," he shrugged, "still, Admiral Scott has decided to oversee the works himself now and frankly, I can't think of a single person more capable."
"Maybe," he conceded, turning around in his seat to face his command, wrapped as it was in the shape of a Starfleet drydock, "but still… and worst of it is, I don't even know how things are shaping back home. That simple lack of knowledge is causing more to erode morale then anything else."
Travers considered this for a moment, then sighed unhappily, "I know you want the gate opened, but I'm afraid I can't authorise that at this time. Frankly, that thing scares me and we don't really know anywhere near enough to operate it safely."
"You will have to at some point, if only to get Valiant back and allow us to return. In either case…" Ewing shrugged then continued dryly, "the mass exchange of technologies and information you're really worried about will happen."
He got a wince in response and a tight nod in worry of the hit, "but you've exchanged technologies before, so what makes you so worried about us?"
"I've studied our Earth's history," Travers replied slowly, "I know what we were like at that time in our history and frankly, whilst you don't seem to have an 'Optimal' movement, you certainly have demons of your own. If I came to Earth at that time from the outside, I certainly would be worried about the result of the Federations technologies coming into Earths hands. So far, you haven't persuaded me that Earth as a whole is worthy of the trust providing technologies require."
"And necessity makes devils of us all," mused the Captain.
"Quite,"
"There is only one true answer to that I suppose," Ewing noted, "and that is… time will tell."
Nodding acknowledgement, the Starfleet admiral strode from the room, leaving the Captain to his thoughts as he gazed upon the darkened form of his ship.
She was pleased.
For the moment at least, her enemies seemed unable to find her. They cowered in their ships and stations and died one by one as her warships slowly stripped them of the bases and worse but they did not attack.
Fools.
Still… she must not get too cocky, as hard as that might be. She had been found before, several times and each time had resulted in her retreating, not the enemy. Yes, they paid heavily for attacking their God but she still retreated and that meant they won.
The day would come when she would be able to make them pay dearly for that, already she was taking down payments on her revenge, but the time would come.
She would need far more ships, far more slaves though. The enemy outnumbered by far too great a margin for her to take them lightly. That advantage needed to be reduced. Her Ha'taks were showing great success in that regard with their raids but a station here, a group of warships there wasn't going to win the war, just make it easier.
Of course, the raid on Earth had been the most successful so far in many ways but even so, it showed the dangers of being too bold. She had almost lost one of her prime ships in that attack and she couldn't afford their loss. The vessels being built in this place were weaker compared to those she had brought through.
Of course, the ships she had been granted by Anubis weren't as strong as they could be either, the rules of this place were different in enough subtle ways to make sure of that but they were still far greater then the enemies ships, not to mention, those she had built here.
That would change in time, and maybe one day she would be able to seize the Intergate, deal with Anubis and become the Overgod of that dimension too.
And just wasn't that a delightful thought?