Proud Legion
By: bsmart
Disclaimer: Rated R for the good stuff, you've been warned. I don't own Trek, but the people who do probably shouldn't either.
VOV
Chapter 6: Wilderness
VOV
"Bandits eleven o'clock high! Engaging!" Marcos barked as he snapped the fighter into a sharp roll to port.
"Got your wing boss," his wingman replied.
Inertial compensators or not Bella's stomach threatened to empty its contents into her helmet as the star field whirled and Marcos threw the starfighter into a tighter turn. She was looking for his wingman as Marcos fired their pulse phasers right in front of her eyes. She was momentarily flash blinded until her helmet's faceplate polarized. She followed the rapidly retreating bolts of energy until they found a small black attack craft in the distance. The Scorpion exploded, the tiny two man shuttlepod like craft utterly unable to cope with the destructive energies turned its way.. Marcos let go of the trigger just long enough to bring another one in line and fired again, then kept firing, dragging the stream of bolts from the disintegrating wreckage of the second Scorpion and into a third, blowing off a huge chunk of its starboard side and sending it tumbling away. The doomed craft collided with the expanding debris of one of the Scorpions killed by their wingman and detonated in a bright flash.
"Got three!" Marcos whooped.
"Same!" Their wingman called.
Marcos pulled their ship into a long turn arcing up high above Jaisalmer's orbital plane. She could just make out the jade green dot that was their target. "The Destroyer's clear, lets get her. All flights on me." He keyed in his comms for their ship only. "Alright Bubbles, get'em hot."
"On it," she replied. Marcos' weapon system officer, or "wizzo," as he'd referred to her sat right in front of Bella's jump seat and right behind Marcos'. "Good to go, all four torps spun up and hot."
Bella twisted in her seat looking for the other fighters in the squadron. Their dark gray paint jobs made them difficult to pick out unaided but her helmet happily enhanced the image and flagged each one with a bright tag. It didn't look like they'd lost anyone but they hadn't expected to. In the mission briefing Lieutenant Guila had spoken disparagingly of the Scorpions and the cover they might give the Romulan ships. Turning back around the green dot was now a faintly bird like sliver of emerald in the distance and closing fast. Marcos had explained to her that they had to close the distance to use their torpedoes. With no launch tube to give them a push all the torpedoes had was their sustainer engines to move them and those wouldn't accelerate them much at all. In order to make sure an enemy ship didn't just move a little and escape the torpedoes they had to get close before they fired.
The destroyer seemed to know it as well, and the ship was maneuvering to complicate their shot, breaking hard to starboard to force them to take a broadside shot instead of a stern chase. Green bursts of disruptor fire started to whip through their formation as the bird like shape of the destroyer resolved itself. Marcos kept the ship bobbing in a constant motion of weaves and slides to keep the Romulans from getting a good shot. The laws of probability were unforgiving though and Bella winced as one of the starfighters disintegrated in blast when it ran headlong into a disruptor beam. The short scream over the comms was broken up as the ship was.
"They got Preacher and Saint!" Bubbles reported.
"I see it," Marcos said. "Stay on target people, stay on target."
Bella had little to do as her fingers dug into the armrests of her jumpseat. The Romulan ship just kept getting closer, beginning to fill the sky in front of them. She could make out individual portholes in the ship's side. She could see the ports of the disruptors and how they'd change as the weapons got ready to fire. Marcos' maneuvers grew increasingly erratic and violent as they closed but Bella's stomach no longer cared as each time a disruptor fired she was sure it was aimed directly at them. She could tell by the way they were drifting towards the ship's rear and she thought they might miss it.
"Hard lock!" Bubbles chirped. "We're good!"
"Torp's away!" he said a split second later. The ship immediately dropped and rolled as four blue streaks roared away from the fighter. In that instant the scale of the destroyer snapped into focus and Bella shrieked, sure they were going to plow into it as Marcos sent the fighter spinning away from the monster. She was sure they were going to slam into the destroyers flank until its keel whipped by a few meters from her canopy. "HOOAH!" Marcos whooped as they broke free. Both he and Bubbles craned their necks around to look back at the destroyer and Bella followed suit just in time to watch the squadron's run complete.
The first dozen or two torpedoes came up short, slapping into the destroyer's shields and surrounding it in a corona of their discharges. Somewhere around the sixth or seventh wave the shields gave out and the next four volleys streaked in. Over a dozen torpedoes hammered the Destroyer's drive section ripping out huge flaming chunks of the ship. The final few blasts even had enough energy left to tear right out the other side of the vessel. In an instant the ship went dark and its drive flare died just as the final volley of torpedoes tore into the ship and ripped the crippled destroyer in half.
"Got her!" another pilot cheered over the comms as the forward section of the ship tumbled away from the crumbling and burning aft half.
"Can it Snips," Marcos barked. He pulled the starfighter into a lazy turn to let them observe the destroyer's death throes. "Good kill everyone," he said as the drive section began to go dark, the few fires finally starved of oxygen. "Back to the barn."
Bella breathed a sigh of relief as the fighters joined up and headed back for Jaisalmer. Her helmet chirped as the gigantic form of the Typhoon lept into the system a few hundred kilometers in front of them. "The lady's back," Bubbles said.
"Starpalace this is Galahad Six, requesting permission to dock."
"Galahad Six, Starpalace," Came the voice of Lieutenant Danor. "You are clear to dock, good hunting."
"Thank you sir," Marcos said as he led his squadron back to the ship. Bella's heart was still pounding in her chest as he sat the fighter down on the deck. He quickly popped the canopy on the fighter and all three of them clambered out onto the rolling staircase the flight crew rolled up. Bella popped off her helmet and shook out her hair as Marcos and Bubbles did the same. The Kriosian woman's temple spots were flushed a dark brown and she gave Bella a triumphant slap on the shoulder.
"You didn't puke, not many people ride with the Boss and don't hurl."
Bella gave a little nod, she wasn't out of the woods just yet.
Marcos shook his head. "I left the IDF up to ninety nine percent instead of ninety five. We almost traded paint with that destroyer because of it. Computer, end program."
The desire to vomit came back full force as the landing bay dissolved around them into the gridded room of the holodeck. Fellow pilots that had been dozens of meters away moments ago suddenly seemed to rush right up next to them as the holodeck stopped distorting reality. Her helmet and chest pack dissolved away but not her flight suit, that was real enough. She gulped down a deep lungful of air and thought happy thoughts until the room stopped trying to dump her on her butt. "That was a lot more realistic than I thought it would be," Bella said.
Marcos nodded. "They put a lot of time and effort into making the training simulations as realistic as possible. Doesn't do any good if it doesn't feel real."
Bella offered him her hand. "Thank you for the ride Lieutenant."
Marcos shook it. "No problem ma'am, just let me know if you have any questions."
Bella shook Bubble's hand then waved to the rest of the squadron before she left the holodeck. She was surprised to find Peili leaning against the bulkhead outside.
"I was wondering when you'd be done," she said.
Peili laughed as Bella pulled up short and after a short little gasp her eyes went wide as she realized she'd breathed deeply in through her nose.
The Orion woman chuckled softly, "I'm not doing it right now sweetie, you're safe."
"I don't know what you're talking about," Bella spat out.
"For a reporter you're a terrible liar hun," Peili said.
"I have to go change," Bella said. Somehow Peili managed to make even a Starfleet duty uniform look enticing and she was painfully aware of her own less than appealing appearance in the baggy flight suit.
"Sure," the green skinned woman replied as she fell into step with Bella, making the human woman sigh. They went to the turbolift and waited uncomfortably for it to arrive. When it did they piled in and Bella said, "Deck five, guest quarters," and the turbolift was off.
"I'm sorry I hit you with my pheromones," Peili said a moment later. "I wasn't trying to drug you, just give you a feel of them."
Bella pursed her lips. "Well you did drug me," she snapped. She latched onto her anger about the episode, that seemed the safest.
"No I didn't," Peili said softly but firmly. "I can't make anyone do anything they don't want to. All they can do is give you a nudge..."
Bella glared at her and frowned.
"...ok a shove, in a direction they were already leaning in. Seriously, when I told you you got up and stormed out. If they worked the way you seem to think they do I'd have just had my way with you right there."
"You would have?!" Bella yelped.
Before Peili could reply the turbolift arrived and Bella stormed out with Peili following close behind. The guest quarters section was nearly empty. The starboard side where they were was only occupied by Bella and T'prin and while no one had told her to do it Peili had made sure that the Romulans were kept on the port side guest quarters isolated from everyone. Peili quickly followed after Bella and slid into her cabin behind her before the door closed.
"I didn't tell you you could come in," Bella snarked.
Peili stood in the small sitting area at the back of the cabin and didn't try to advance further in. Bella headed on in to where her bed was. The cabin wasn't large, the Typhoon was a warship after all, and even as she went through one of the cabinets forming the small wall that gave her bed a little privacy she was still in full view of Peili, framed by the large porthole that opened out into space. "I don't hear you telling me to leave," Peili shot back.
Bella tossed some clothes on the bed and slammed the cabinet door but said nothing. She started to unzip her flight suit. "Do you mind turning around?"
Peili let Bella's bad mood roll off her, some of her early training letting her just ignore it. "Don't have anything I haven't seen before."
"Well you haven't seen mine so turn around or get out," Bella snapped.
"Fine, fine," Peili said turning around. For a short while on the rustle of fabric and the metallic whiz of a zipper could be heard and Peili had to content herself with what she could imagine was under the flight suit.
"Would you have?" Bella asked a few minutes later.
"Would I have what?" Peili replied.
"Had your way with me right there on the couch?"
"I prefer the bed but whatever works for you darlin," Peili said with a grin.
"Ugh! Be serious."
"Fine, yes, I would have."
"While I was under the influence?" Bella asked incredulously.
"Like I said, nothing you didn't want to do already," Peili said as she rolled her eyes.
Bella slammed a cabinet closed with a loud bang and Peili turned around in surprise. The reporter woman was wearing a simple pair of brown pants and had a long sleeved white blouse on only partially buttoned up. Her hair was still undone and she had no shoes on and she was livid. "I am not that kind of girl! I don't just give it up on the first date!"
"So what?" Peili snapped. "I would. I like you, you seemed to like me and I'm pretty sure not just as a friend. What's the problem?"
"I just met you!" Bella said.
Peili looked at her like she was speaking in gibberish. "What the hell is your species' hang up? It's not like we could procreate or something."
Bella snatched a pair of shoes of her bed. "You're missing the point."
"Obviously," Peili replied as Bella sat down and started to put them on. "What's the real problem? I proved you wrong? That I could do that to you?"
Bella shook her head vehemently. "No no... I just... UGH!" she exclaimed before storming back towards her bed and ducking into the bathroom.
Peili followed her and watched as Bella started to fight with her hair, aggravated enough to frustrate her own efforts. Again Peili calmed herself down, if they both got into a shouting match it could ruin things, and if she could remain calm while Bella was flustered she could direct the human where she wanted her to go. "What's the problem honey, tell me. I can't fix it if you won't talk about it."
Bella kept trying to fix her hair but finally gave up in frustration, pulling it back and putting it in a ponytail. She turned and pushed past Peili as she left the bathroom. The Orion woman took a deep breath in through her nose and savored the mixture of smells the other woman gave off. She said nothing though, letting Bella vent her frustration. "I just... I don't like being out of control."
"You know you weren't out of control. As soon as you knew what was happening you got up and stormed out. If they really took you out of control and I'm as bad as you seem to think would we be standing here or would you be loopy on my pheromones again?"
Bella huffed. "It was still a major influence. I wouldn't have done... that..."
Peili interrupted. "Nuzzle my belly button, sniff me, check out my tits, then try and kiss me?"
"I didn't nuzzle! I didn't touch you... but yeah, that."
"Well, no argument there," Peili said. "Look, I was just teasing you. I told you before you even so much as kissed me remember?"
"Yeah, but you just said you would have had your way with me on the couch!"
Peili rolled her eyes. "So? I was being honest, and honestly I'd love to get in your panties. What? Is that a surprise? I told you about the pheromones because I didn't want you regretting it after the fact. I wouldn't get you loopy without telling you or you asking for it."
Bella was blushing slightly. "Alright then, where does that leave us?"
"That's up to you," Peili said as she moved to stand in front of Bella. "Personally I'm hoping second date."
"Alright, but this time I pick," Bella said.
Peili smiled back. "So long as there's a couch."
VOV
"Well, how is it?"
Seven poked at the eggs and pancakes on her tray with disdain. The corner of her mouth was pulled up in a grimace as she pushed her bacon away from everything else. "By my analysis the nutritional content of this food is not as balanced as my nutrient paste and I believe the fats, sugars, cholesterol, and carcinogens in it are more damaging than the nutrition is beneficial."
The Doctor's shoulders sagged even as his excited smile dissolved. "Remind me not to let you speak to the cook. It's one meal Seven, it's not going to kill you. The replicated fare is as pristine as your nutrient paste. This is real food though, and Neelix didn't make it. Enjoy."
"Since you will not let me speak to the cook I suppose I should not point out the irony of a hologram instructing me on the finer points of dining."
The Doctor glared at her. Anyone who claimed Seven was humorless didn't know her. Her wit was biting and her delivery was matter of fact. He'd seen more than a few people get offended by one of her jokes that someone didn't realize was a joke. "Just because I'm a hologram doesn't mean I haven't partaken of food... just none recently."
"Why not? Did the subroutines not prove satisfactory?" Seven asked after she took a sip of milk.
"No, they proved a little too adept unfortunately. The first thing I tasted was some abomination Neelix created. I haven't felt the urge to try again since."
"Well then," Seven stabbed a few bits of syrup soaked pancake and offered them to the Doctor.
"I don't need to eat Seven," the Doctor protested. "You do."
"Is the Doctor scared of his own medicine?" she asked flatly but with the barest hint of a smile.
"One minute you're pointing out I'm a hologram and the next you're force feeding me griddle cakes," the Doctor complained. "Make up your mind."
Seven only nudged the fork his way, pulling it back when he tried to take it.
"Oh come on, I'm a grown man!"
"You're fourteen," Seven said matter of factly.
"I matured quickly."
Seven pointed the fork at him again and this time he grumpily let her feed him. His diagnostic subroutines broke the pancakes and syrup down into its constituent parts, analyzing them for nutritional value, constituent parts, molecular structure, any and every way the food could be broken down in a medically relevant way. The taste subroutines quickly turned that information back into the sugary sweet flavor of the pancakes. Unlike the last things he'd tasted these were actually good, a bit on the syrupy side he quickly thought, he'd love more pancake flavor, but not bad. "That's... good," he said.
Seven took another bite of her food before offering him some eggs. "Perhaps we can acquire some Romulan ale during this situation and sample it?"
"I think you should get used to regular food before starting the hard stuff. In case you've forgotten when it comes to real alcohol you're a light weight. Even synth-ale causes problems with your implants."
"Then perhaps it would be best to sample it in the company of someone who can be trusted not to take advantage of the situation?"
"Are you asking me out on a date?" The Doctor asked incredulously.
"I am asking you to hypothetically sample a beverage with me that we may or may not acquire during this endeavour," Seven said simply before taking another bite.
"Something bothering you?" The Doctor asked. Just like her humor Seven's emotions were hidden behind the steely facade of a drone. The slightly clipped way she spoken said volumes.
Seven poked at her eggs again. "We're taking unnecessary risks, endangering many for only a few. It's an illogical course of action."
"What would you have us do though," the Doctor asked. "Politely sit on this side of the border and hope the Romulans don't brutally suppress the rebellion?"
"Their rebellion Doctor, they chose to do it. We can chose not to commit the whole of the Federation to the salvation of only three worlds."
"Triage?"
"In a way," Seven replied. "Protecting these worlds could cause far more damage to the Federation that they are worth."
The Doctor shook his head. "I wouldn't expect someone who joined this service to have that kind of heartless attitude."
"I joined to help defend the Federation, not create crises to defend it from. Besides, does it not seem unwise to allow a single individual to commit the Federation to such a reckless course of action?"
"As the highest ranking member of the Federation present he has the authority," the Doctor stated without much enthusiasm.
"But should he have that authority?" Seven pressed.
The Doctor shrugged, "It's a human tradition."
"When they prove to be no longer be useful they should be discarded."
The Doctor sighed.
"Do you disagree?" Seven asked.
"After dealing with Admiral Janeway's habits for seven years I find myself nervous about any major decision rushed into." The problem with Seven's line of reasoning was that it was entirely logical. His triage subroutines were designed for just that reason. If it would take three times as long to save a seriously injured person as it would to save three less injured people you allowed the one to die and save the three. It was only logical. Yet even as those ideas came into his consciousness his personality subroutines voiced the concept that occasionally the many have to accept hardship for the good of the few. It was a ridiculous and illogical concept yet it resonated with him. Where would he be if the crew of Voyager hadn't put themselves at risk for his sake. Even after returning from the Delta quadrant the entire command crew had stood before Starfleet's review board and declared their opinions that he be given all the rights of a sentient being. "It's not always as simple as it sounds Seven. What if the crew of Voyager had decided you were too dangerous to keep around, or go after when your implants malfunctioned?"
Seven jumped as if shocked. For an instant her own shock at having it pointed out to her breaking through the frail mask of Borg disinterest she normally wore. She composed herself and went back to eating her breakfast.
VOV
"Hi Harry," Terzi said he walked into main engineering, "What's up?"
Harry gave her one of his boyish smiles. "Got a question."
"And I've got an answer, but no guarantee you'll like it," replied the sprite of an engineer. She lead him to the master systems display table, or the pool table as her crew called it. "Ok, spit it out."
Harry tapped his PADD and downloaded it's contents into the MSD table, one of it's monitors coming to life with diagrams of the communications array. "Having to relay all information by message torpedo is killing us. The delay leaves us all on our own out here." He pointed to the schematics of the communications array he'd been carrying with him. "Is there anyway we can boost the power to strengthen the signal to get more range out of it?"
Terzi glanced that the schematics but she already knew them by heart. She'd learned long ago that even though she knew the systems better than anyone on the ship along with how they operated and what they were capable of people still got bent out of shape when she'd flatly declare something impossible without even looking at their visual aides. After a sufficent pause she shrugged. "Sure, we can boost it another fifty percent easy before the main signal amplifier burns out," she said tapping the appropriate piece of equipment on the display. "Problem is that it's not going to matter."
"Why not?" Harry asked.
Terzi sighed, she hated knocking his smile off him, it was cute. "Trade offs Harry. We bump up the amplitude and we can make the signal clearer but we lose range. We strengthen the warp pulse and we get more range but we lose clarity. There's a finite amount of power you can put behind the signal. We can do high amplitude at short range to preserve the fidelity of high speed data communications or we can boost the carrier pulse for range but it'll be useless for anything besides voice coms."
"Well we can make do on voice communications alone if we have to," he said. "We can use the torpedoes for the detailed info. How much more range can we get?"
"A couple of light months at best."
"That's it? Half again the power and we'll get a few more light months of voice only communications?"
Terzi nodded. "Harry, subspace itself is going haywire. We're like an old wooden sailing ship caught in a storm, we don't have a whole lot of options besides riding it out."
Harry pounded his fist on the table in frustration. "There has to be something we can do."
Terzi leaned back on the lip of the pool table and crossed her arms. "Like what Harry? We're light years away from the source, it's totally random in its effects, and even then we have no idea what caused it, why it's happened, how to fix it, or even if fixing it is a good idea. We've had the entire science staff and most of the engineering staff trying to figure this out using everything from Yam'lin's Fundamentals of Subspace Communications to Tucker's Multivariate Field Equations and we've got nothing."
"I've run into spatial distortions before, we've fixed them, or made it through."
"All of them," Terzi asked skeptically as she opened her arms up.
"Well... no," Harry admitted.
"Look Harry, we're doing everything possible. We'll give you the extra power to the comms you want but unless we have a breakthrough of epic proportions we're doing the best we can."
Harry tossed his PADD down on the table and wiped his hands across his face in frustration.
"Come on Harry, what's the matter?" Terzi prodded. She reached out and patted his arm in what she hoped was a friendly gesture. Humans were distressingly non-homogenous in their reactions.
"I wanted to try and get something for the Captain, anything," Harry said.
"Trying to impress him?" Terzi asked with an impish grin.
Harry's shoulders bobbed in a silent personal laugh. "Yeah, a little."
"Timothy's not a bad guy, he's just," Terzi paused, searching for the right phrase. She'd served under the Captain and with the old Atlas crew for so long that everyone was used to the way everyone else was. There was no need to really explain how they'd act or why, they just did. Nothing she could come up with seemed to work which left only one way to put it. "...an old man already." Terzi grimaced. "Wow that sounds bad but I guess it fits. He's already pretty set in his ways. We're all used to it and work with it but you new guys are throwing a wrench into things and that can get him cranky."
"How can he be set in his ways already, he's not that old," Harry said. "That just doesn't make any sense."
"You weren't here for the war," Terzi said matter-of-factly. Harry winced but didn't correct her. "We spent three years fighting. Three years of doing whatever we had to in order to get by. There were no real crew changes during that time, Starfleet didn't have replacements, they could barely crew the new ships being sent out and couldn't keep up with the casualty replacements. We were together for a year before the war and a few more after it. The war itself turned us into a family. We spent a long, long time together and everyone's gotten used to one another. Especially Timothy. He can't put off a promotion much longer and he knows it. Hell none of us can. This is likely our last cruise together and that's got him on edge too. Cut him some slack ok?"
Harry nodded. "I guess I know what you mean. Voyager was in the Delta quadrant for seven years. It was odd the first time I took orders from someone who wasn't captain Janeway. I wish I could find a way to impress him, maybe get him to cut me a little slack."
Terzi smiled and shook her head. "You already did Harry. That little stunt with the using the holocrew to speed up cargo loading, that got his attention and impressed him."
"It didn't seem like it," Harry said, leaning over on the table.
Terzi patted Harry's upper arm, offering some comfort to the man whose chest she barely came up to. "Trust me, if he doesn't like you he'll just start ignoring you. If the man doesn't even acknowledge your existence that's when you've got a problem."
"Did you hear about how he talked to Cesina? Or Lt. Tull?"
"Oh that? Well yeah, sometimes he's just an asshole."
VOV
"Captain?"
"Yes, Kaitlyn," Timothy replied not bothering to look up from his PADD. He'd been distracted twice already this morning by other tasks but he was determined to finish the latest report on the post-Shinzon political history of the Romulan Empire. Unfortunately the best way to describe it was a complete and total clusterfuck so obviously anything trying to explain it was pretty much just the same.
"Sir, why do you have a fish tank in your quarters?"
Timothy closed his eyes and tilted his head, opening them again to look at Kaitlyn. "What?"
"Your fish tank sir, it seems like an odd thing to keep aboard a warship."
Timothy stared at her, trying to make sense of what she'd just asked. It wasn't the question perplexing him, but the questioner. Holographic characters were usually single minded in their approach to subjects. Anything outside the norm was ignored as they had no programming on how to handle such things. His fish were certainly outside Kaitlyn's purview as his aide. Simulating anything resembling random human conversation, and doing it convincingly, was not something most holograms were capable of, ones created by amateurs at least. He wouldn't be surprised if Johan had bought a high class AI for Kaitlyn but he wasn't expecting it. "They've been with me for a long time," he said. "They made it through the Dominion War just fine."
"Yes sir, but why?" She asked again.
"They keep me company. I enjoy watching them," Timothy paused to consider his answer. "I suppose the interior of a starship is a bit antiseptic, I like seeing a bit of life around here."
"Ah, so that's why you've got the plants too."
Timothy nodded slowly.
"Do you want me to water them?" she asked as she lowered her oversized PADD to her lap.
Timothy raised an eyebrow at that.
"The plants I mean, not the fish, the fish are already in water after all," and she giggled nervously.
"I can take care of it myself," he said slowly.
"Well maybe you can show me the fish sometime."
Timothy just stared at her.
She winced. "Oh, sir. Sorry sir."
"Sure," he replied. "I can show you them."
Kaitlyn's PADD beeped, saving them both from having to continue the awkwardness. "Oh, Ms. Mavil and the Romulan ambassador are waiting in the turbolift for their interview."
Timothy grimaced. "Alright, bring them in."
"Yes sir," Kaitlyn said, hopping to her feet and bouncing out of the ready room.
Timothy put his unease with Kaitlyn to the back of his mind. He still needed to talk to Johan about it but he kept forgetting. Taking the opportunity he fetched a glass of water from the replicator before Kaitlyn returned. When Kaitlyn entered with Bella and Taliren Timothy did as he had to, standing and greeting them graciously. He noticed that Bella had straightened her hair out and had pulled it back into a tight braid. Her dress was rather conservative with a high color and aside from some eyeliner and lipstick she was unadorned. He had to give it to her, she knew how to work people.
Kaitlyn pulled out one of the chairs in front of his desk and sat down as Bella and Taliren took the couch across the way. He was only present to observe and he let them know that. He was pleased when both seemed to ignore him and focus on each other. While he wanted to be present to oversee the reporter and make sure she didn't get out of line he was not interested in the minutae of her interview. Most reporters he knew would spend a great deal of time on pointless crap to create filler for their interviews and build some kind of repore with the mark while learning how to get to them.
Those preconceptions were what nearly caused him to choke on his water when Bella started the interview with a calm, "So governor, what made you decide to betray the Romulan Star Empire?"
To his credit Taliren took it in stride, his genial smile never leaving his face. "I wouldn't say that we have betrayed the Empire at all. In fact I strongly believe we are doing what is most beneficial for the Romulan people under our jurisdiction and isn't that what a government is supposed to do?"
VOV
Cossick stood in his cabin, looking out on the blackness of space. The ship's first officer as well as several others had been questioning him relentlessly all morning but had taken a break for lunch and to collect their thoughts.
It's certainly not how he'd have conducted an interrogation. If they needed a break he'd bring in another batch of interrogators and keep things moving. Keep the momentum up, the source talking, and most of all don't let him think about things too much. Giving your source a chance to think about what was being asked could give them a chance to deduce what you were after and tailor his answers to that. Like he was.
While their naivety made his life easier for the moment in the long term it worried him. Their fates would soon be intertwined with these Federations and if this was how they ran their intelligence gathering it did not bode well. How such trusting fools managed to become the dominant power in local space was beyond him. Then again when their only other competition in the intelligence arena was the Klingons perhaps it wasn't such a mystery.
His ruminations were interrupted when the cabin's door slid open and Taliren stormed in. As he walked in the governor reached out and slapped a cup off the table smashing the ceramic container against the bulkhead.
"Difficult interview?" Cossick asked nonchalantly.
"Impertinent wretch!" he raged. When Cossick didn't respond he continued. "She attacked me! We're offering them three worlds and she acted like I'm a traitor!"
"Aren't we?"
"Not to them!"
"And yet we've already proven that when the government doesn't do as we please we're willing to leave. They've got a reason not to trust us."
Taliren threw up his hands and huffed. "Spies and reporters, you can find the downside in anything and then hound it until even the good seems evil."
"It's our job," Cossick said.
"Well she's as good at her's as you are at your's."
"Then she must have been quite formidable," Cossick said with a wan smile.
"No, she was just annoying," Taliren replied.
Cossick tipped his head.
"Have you heard back from Sesk?" the governor asked as she took a seat.
Cossick sat down across from him. "No I haven't. He's been with the Federation scientists in their lab."
"He's already back there?"
"He never left."
"Well if their propaganda is to be believed then he's probably in ecstasy from having access to their sensors and computers." Taliren looked back and forth on the table before his eyes went to the stain on the wall where he'd smashed the cup in his aggravation. With an annoyed sigh he looked about and took another cup to fill it up with tea. "So we know how Sesk's and I's days have been going. How's your's?"
"The same."
VOV
Binni picked at her food as she sat at the table in the officer's mess. She knew she needed to eat something but since the decision had been made to cross the Neutral Zone she had been too keyed up to eat anything. Still, she needed her energy and she wouldn't have any by starving herself. It was that moment that Deekan walked into the mess. He picked up a try of food from the replicator and looked out on the mess. Binni put her head down, hopeful that her superior officer wouldn't spot her. Her hopes were dashed when a huge pair of boots stopped right beside her.
"Is this seat taken?"
Binni looked up quickly. "No sir," she said as she pushed out a chair.
Deekan sat down and the ruddy man began to eat his lunch in silence, putting away more food in a few bites than Binni would eat all day. Binni didn't say anything, letting him eat in peace with the hopes that he'd return the favor. He didn't.
"Have you spoken with Lieutenant Fealst'rak yet?"
"No sir, not yet," Binni replied.
Deekan ate another bite of his sandwich, chewing silently. Binni was caught off guard, mid bite, when he began to speak again. "When I received my first assignment I was a security officer aboard Starbase forty seven. As per my commanding officers standard procedure I was assigned a partner for my duties."
Binni was thoroughly confused and decided that silence was the preferable course of action.
Deekan finished a bit more of his sandwich, a bit for him being nearly half of it. "My partner was a Xindi."
"Which kind," Binni asked.
"Insectoid," Deekan replied. He sat what little was left of his sandwich on his try and chewed, seemingly considering his words. "On Capella we have no insects. We have some small mammals and reptiles but no insects. The academy on Andoria where I was trained had none either. They was the first insectoid life form I'd ever seen. My reactions were...," he frowned. "Unbecoming a Starfleet officer."
"You couldn't have been that bad sir," Binni said.
Deekan looked at her quizzically. "Are you sure," he asked his raven haired subordinate. "My actions towards them were far worse than your simple avoidance of the lieutenant."
He paused again as he tried to gather his emotions. Binni could tell this was not a pleasant memory for her commander. His normally stoic countenance was broken by the faintest of frowns but for him it was a tremendous display of emotion. "I found every reason to avoid them. I refused to sit near them when I couldn't avoid them. I was rude, dismissive and went out of my way to make it clear I wanted nothing to do with them. In the end they requested a transfer."
Binni cringed. She wasn't that bad to Fealst'rak at least she didn't think she was but having the commander lump her behavior in with his wasn't easy. "Did they get it?"
Deekan picked up his napkin and wiped his mouth before tossing the used paper on his try and steepling his hands over it. "No, I got it. My commanding officer refused to remove my partner from their position. They were accustomed to it, performing well, and doing nothing wrong. In his opinion, and mine now, I was the one in the wrong and the one who should be inconvenienced."
Binni poked a bit of the food on her plate and didn't comment. It wouldn't do her career any good to agree with her commanding officer at the moment.
"So he transferred me, but not before sitting me down in his office," Deekan explained as he wiped his face with a napkin. "He understood my situation but told me that would only go so far. The Federation was founded upon the idea that no matter how alien we are to one another common ground can be found and we can work together for everyone's good. As a Starfleet officer I was expected to exemplify this. He told me that I was young and everyone deserved at least one chance to make things right. He transferred me out citing an abundance of security officers and a dearth of security issues needing to be dealt with. He made no mention of why he was really transferring me and for that I am thankful."
"So, you're transferring me?" Binni asked uncertainly.
Deekan sighed and shook his head. "No, I am giving you the chance I was given without the transfer. The lieutenant is a fearsome looking lifeform. That cannot be denied. However it can neither be denied that he is a member of this crew and the Federation and deserves the respect inherent in that."
"Aye sir," Binni said. "I'll do my best."
Deekan nodded slowly. "See that you do, immediately."
VOV
Yumiko sighed as she flitted through the subspace channels. Nothing but harsh grating static greeted her. She could allow the computer to just automatically scan and notify her when something came up, and it was set to do that, but she had too much pride to just let the computer do everything.
Not that there was anything to listen to at the moment. There hadn't been since the anomaly had engulfed the ship. No signal was getting very far through all the interference which meant she had nothing to recieve or send. It was a strange feeling to be sitting at her station with nothing buzzing in her ear. She reached up and plucked the ear piece from her ear, setting it down and looking at it. It just wasn't natural. With the volume of communications a ship like the Typhoon sent and received her station was never unoccupied. Even with the computer handling and routing most of the conventional transmissions the ones needing her attention almost never left her with a free moment.
So instead of bothering with communications she opened up one of the Romulan recordings. Commander Kim had her give the recordings a look at to determine their veracity and on the surface everything seemed legitimate. Still, with the volume of data she'd had to sift through she'd only been able to give it the briefest surface look. With some time on her hands she'd decided to give them a closer look. The last thing she wanted to do was just glance at the material, authenticate it for Commander Kim and then have it turn out false. That would make the Commander look bad and even worse it'd make her look bad in front of him.
She was just getting the short video she'd chosen at random open when a hand fell on her shoulder and the Commander asked, "What are you up to?" right next to her ear.
"Ah!" Yumiko squeaked in alarm.
"Whoa, calm down lieutenant," Harry said. "Didn't mean to startle you. Guilty conscience?"
"No sir, I mean... sort of sir. I'm not used to having free time on duty sir. I'm usually busy my entire duty shift."
"I understand," Hary said. "Moving from operations on Voyager to Jupiter station was an adjustment. Though in your case not a permanent one. So long as you're making good use of your time I don't see the problem."
"Right sir, I was actually going to start going through some of the video recordings that the Romulans brought with them. You know, keep looking for irregularities, that sort of thing."
"How are you planning on going about that?" Harry prompted. "The computer's had a good run through most of them and pronounced them clean."
"No offense to the computer," Yumiko said with a smirk, " but the kind of routines that are used to determine if something was faked can be spoofed if you know what you're doing."
Harry raised an eyebrow. "And you know some tricks the computer doesn't?"
"I might know a few," she responded with a smile. She felt her neck tendrils rippling and quickly ran her fingers through her hair trying to calm them without being obvious about it.
"Well show me, maybe we can update the computer's routines so you don't have to do it by hand next time."
"And give up all my secrets sir?" Yumiko giggled. "Then you might replace me."
Harry grinned. "Or maybe promote you."
"Oh, well in that case," Yumiko said before starting to show him what she knew. "You see, most routines look for the edges where things are added to or taken away from an image. The people who forge the images know this and know the tricks to disguising those edges. I just assume that whoever might have forged these is going to be top notch and probably knows more about hiding their fakes than we do about finding them." She called up a video of a large crowd demonstrating in the street. "So what we do is not bother with that. Faking a scene like this is hard because there's so many people. So what we look for is," she worked her controls and soon every face in the crowd was highlighted and tagged, "evidence that the forger got lazy. Making a crowd of thousands is easy, you just copy and paste people right?"
"Right," Harry replied. "Like in a holo program."
"Exactly! Only you can't do that for something like this. A smart forger," Yumiko leaned in close to Harry and whispered, "and a smart holo programmer," before sitting back up, "will randomize the faces somewhat and randomize the animation."
"So if it's randomized how is that helping us?"
"Well, we can't get a one hundred percent proof positive confirmation something was faked, but if we analyze all the video we can see if some patterns start to emerge either in faces or animations. We find out if the forger had any looks or loops they liked to use and might have stuck with them a bit too much."
"These are political demonstrations, a lot of what's said and done is going to be the same," Harry pointed out.
"That's why we need a very large sample, and a baseline legit romulan rally baseline to compare it to."
"Analyzing thousands of people at dozens..."
"...hundreds actually."
"Ok, hundreds of rallys is gonna take a while, even with our computer."
Yumiko nodded as she queued up the work she wanted done. "According to this it's gonna take about forty two hours."
"So right about the same time we get to Jaisalmer, perfect."
"We could allocate more computer resources to it but it's only going to cut a few hours off. It's just a very time consuming way to analyse the data. That's why it's not usually done."
Harry nodded, "I can see why."
Yumiko's neck tentacles flattened out. "Sorry sir."
"Nothing to apologize for," Harry said with his best smile. "If we can put the validity of this to bed it's worth doing it right. Good job."
"Thank you sir," Yumiko chirped as Harry patted her on the back and went back to his station. She could feel her tentacles quivering but she didn't bother trying to calm them down this time.
VOV
Cesina fidgeted in the command chair. The latest fleet disposition reports for the romulan military weren't good. At least thirty Norexans were within a week of the triumvirate worlds and they could bring two hundred D'Deridexes with them. The unfortunate part about a mostly political civil war was that it left the military mostly intact. They'd be bringing at least another two hundred escorts with them, mostly Mogami class destroyers but a few R'tran class light cruisers as well. It was more than enough to overwhelm them. They could make the romulans pay but at the end of the day if they were willing to suffer the casualties there was nothing the Typhoon and it's task force could do to stop them.
She had cobbled together a few more training scenarios but she was wondering if they'd be applicable at all. She'd been sure to leave ways for the Typhoon to win but she was beginning to think she might be doing them all a service if she started to make things a bit more like the Kobyashi Maru.
A notification popped up on the console informing her that gamma shift was about to end and she flicked it away before closing out the tactical briefings. Her latest training sim sat on the screen and she frowned at it before saving it and closing it out. After weeks of practice it was becoming obvious that her simulations were too limited. Trying to challenge the Typhoon was getting harder and harder. In spite of all she'd learned about the Romulans it was getting harder and harder to provide a real challenge to the ship without just overwhelming it.
The first elements of alpha shift started to leave the turbolift and she listened as hand over started, each officer talking to their replacement about what had happened in the previous shift and what needed to happen in the upcoming one. It was all so disturbingly normal given that they'd crossed over the neutral zone border eight hours ago and had entered romulan space two hours ago. She supposed that technically it wasn't romulan space anymore or at least that's what they'd claim but there were over four hundred warships within a week of them that would likely dispute that claim.
"Why so glum LC?"
Cesina shot up out of the captain's chair and spun to face Commander Luhrner, saluting him quickly. "Sorry sir, I didn't hear you come in."
Johan returned her salute in his usual sloppy manner. "I doubt you heard anyone Cesina, you looked like you were off in your own little world there. Again."
"I was just pondering our situation sir, and how to improve my tactical readiness programs."
"Well, at least it wasn't holo-decorating this time," Johan said with a grin. "Anything to report?"
"No sir, it's been quiet sir. We've been monitoring the disturbance and it's been holding steady. Speed is still limited to warp seven. We're running continuous level three diagnostics and everything is checking out."
"Good, you haven't run over any romulans have you?"
"Sir?"
"A joke, lighten up LC," Johan said. "It'll be a good two days yet before the shit really hits the fan. You need to stay loose until then."
"Aye sir."
"Alright, tell you what. I'll get things settled in up here and I'll meet you down in my office at oh nine hundred. Give you an hour to get breakfast. Then we'll talk about your sims. Alright?"
"Yes sir, very good sir."
"Dismissed LC."
VOV
Milana stepped to the side as the andorian second officer passed her going into the turbolift. She got held up as Villec unfolded himself out of the turbolift car. The saurian Nileen's long tails having had to wrap themselves up at an angle around the circumference of the car for him to fit in. He might have been less than two meters tall but he was four meters long.
He managed to uncoil himself and get out of the lieutenant commander's way though and followed Milana down towards their stations at the front of the ship. Other navigator's or helmsmen may have been bothered by being stationed at the front of the bridge with almost thirty people behind them, possibly watching them but they were both used to it. Non-humanoids in Starfleet were a relative rarity since they had to be able to work in and with a starship designed with humanoids in mind so they were always a curiosity. Milana just had to deal with being a Cardassian in Starfleet only a few years after Starfleet and Cardassia had been at war. It made Milana wonder if lieutenant commander Nine had to deal with the same thing and how she handled it.
Milana slipped into her seat after relieving the gamma shift navigator. No course changes, not even one. It was unusual for starships to travel in straight lines. Subspace was not a perfectly uniform medium and a good navigator could follow the ebb and flow of the immaterium, finding ways to pick up a bit more speed or reduce power consumption. It was more art than science but the disturbance had rendered it all moot. Subspace's skin was crawling and so long it was in an uproar there was no way to follow it's flow, only plow on straight ahead. Even the cetaceans who were usually such a help in fine tuning a course were out of commission, sedated for the time being to keep them from injuring themselves.
"Full speed ahead, as usual," Milana complained.
Villec cocked his head to one side as the previous helmsman's chair dissolved away and the holo-emitters crafted his prefered type of seat, more akin to a long low bench. His head twitched, looking her over with his infra-red eye and then his visible light one. She knew he did that to try and get a read on her emotions. His own people had quite a few thermal clues as to their emotions so her nearly room temperature body had caused him no end of consternation. "What other velocity would be used Milana Tuul?"
Milana waved him off as she quickly filled in her navigator's log finishing it with a flourish she'd learned at the academy.
"What does SNAFU mean?" Villec asked.
"Are you spying on me?" Milana snapped.
"Navigation logs are considered ship's records and available for viewing," he explained.
"Ok so you're a bad spy, are you checking up on me?"
Villec's jaw worked up and down, clicking his teeth together in Nileen confusion. "I consider it part of my daily duties to review navigation logs as they may contain information relevant to the piloting of the ship."
"It's an acronym. It means the situation is how it always is, completely messed up."
"The ship is operating per normal parameters," Villec stated, bringing up a list of alerts with one of his lower arms and checking it with his other eyes just to be sure.
"No, I mean when I need to be impressing the captain the only thing the ship is doing is just boring a hole straight ahead no matter what comes at it and it's not even doing it that fast. Kinda hard to impress the captain with my navigating when we've been on the same exact bearing for hours with no deviation."
"The Captain Timothy Hayes is aware of the conditions we're being subjected to. It should not reflect poorly on your service record."
"There's your service record and then there's what your CO really thinks of you. He doesn't have to say a single bad thing on your record to doom you. I couldn't get the cetaceans calmed down much less get them back to work. They're all sedated down in the pool right now after he ordered me to find a way to help them."
"These are situations out of your control Milana Tuul. You cannot be blamed for them."
"Yeah, sure, the cardassian is a total screw up but it's really not her fault."
Villec didn't respond, turning back to his console. Wars had been uncommon amongst his people as they almost always resulted in the total destruction of the vanquished. Tribes would be broken up, contentious males outcast or just outright killed, females and young redistributed among their conqueror's tribes and resettled in new places. Those not killed would be expected to adopt the victor's culture and way of life. If you lost a war the very essence of your people was eradicated. On the other claw, those who were conquered and integrated as they should were accepted as new members of the tribe and nothing was held against them. His companion's state just proved how bizarre the Federation's way of doing things was. Milana was doing all she could to integrate into their culture and doing a fine job of it but the continued existence of her former tribe only led to a continuation of the strife between the cardassians and the Federation. It was all very... messy. Tribes needed to stick together to ensure success, to think that part of their tribe was actively hoping for Milana's failure was something Villec still could not wrap his arms around.
"Captain Timothy Hayes has assured you that your evaluation will be based on your performance. You need not be concerned Milana Tuul."
"He's a Dominion War vet, he's where he is today because he spent more than a year killing cardassians on an industrial scale. He's not going to be sympathetic to me."
"Captain Timothy Hayes is of your tribe and he has given his word."
"Yeah well, we'll see.
Villec shook his head and brought up the specs on romulan warships and started to review their maneuverability.
Milana watched her saurian compatriot turn his attention back to his console and she went back to her own. She pulled up long range scans of the worlds they were headed for and checked out the subspace gradient maps. At least she could take a look at them and start planning out some rough navigation routes before they got there.
VOV
"Reporting as ordered sir."
Johan looked up at Cesina where she stood in his doorway. "Come in, come in," he said quickly. "I know the FDF is supposed to like all that stand at attention and snap to it bullshit but you're the second officer and I'm the first, no need to stand there like a statue."
"Uh, yes sir," Cesina said a bit nervously as she came into Johan's office. One deck below the bridge you could either get to it by taking a ramp down from the bridge behind the main viewer or use the turbolift. Either way it was as close as it could be to the nerve center of the ship though you wouldn't know it by the condition it was in. Whereas the Captain's ready room was kept tight and in order, with only a few small touches out of place to indicate it was even an inhabited space the Commander's was almost solid mess. Every horizontal or nearly horizontal surface in the office had something on it, PADDs, isolinear chips, hard copy drawings, pictures, knick nacks, memento's, it was as if some kind of mess monster had started growing on his desk, spilled off the sides, and colonized the rest of the room, even crawling up the walls where between the usual pictures picked up in an officer's tour there were hard copy diagrams, reports, and anything else that had caught the Commander's eye. It was all very disconcerting, but at least he prefered it cold. The oppressive heat of the rest of the ship wasn't quite so bad here, it was the six degrees celsius of her own quarters but she doubted anyone but an andorian would really appreciate that.
"Just move that stuff out of the chair and have a seat Cesina," he said indicating one of the chairs across from his desk. One had some kind of small plant in it and the other had a pile of some sort of sport's equipment. She picked the chair with the plant and relocated it to a small empty bit of Johan's desk behind his monitor that had not yet been cluttered up.
Johan watched out of the corner of his eye as Cesina moved the plant. He kept meaning to give the fern to Timothy but he kept forgetting to and it was starting to look a bit brown to boot. "What's on your mind?"
"Sir, I'm not sure my I know how to program the training simulations to reflect the situation we're getting into."
Johan nodded as he leaned back in his chair and put his feet up on his desk. "Specifically?"
"I've been going over the reports on romulan naval activity in this area and if the romulans decide to start shooting I don't think there's any way we can win."
"Already counting us out Cesina? That's awful pessimistic don't you think?"
Cesina's antennae stiffened. "Sir, I don't mean it like that..."
"Yes you did," Johan said as he picked up a coffee mug from his desk and took a sip. "It's not terribly becoming of a Starfleet officer to just give up is it?"
"Sir I just, we're outnumbered badly in the local area alone, I mean..."
Johan held up a hand to stop her. "Let me let you in on a little secret, you're right."
"Sir?"
He tried not to smile when one of her antennae twitched. "You're absolutely right. Even with the quality of our ships once this anomaly subsides," the ship quivered. "...if it subsides, we're going to be left sitting there way out on a limb with our asses swinging in the breeze for a while. If the romulans decide to come stomp us, they could probably pull it off."
"So what am I supposed to do?"
"Think about it Cesina, what have we said about the romulans?" Johan asked as he sipped his coffee.
Cesina sat back in the chair, putting her arms on the rests. "They unstable."
"Like a house of cards."
"The need to establish political power and assert control over the military," she replied as she tapped the smooth cloth covering of the chair.
"Correct, they need a mandate to rule. They need the people behind them. What they don't need right now is to get into a full on war with the Federation. What would happen if the Romulans just casually rolled in and obliterated the Task Force in its entirety?"
Cesina pondered it "There would be a war, it would force the Federation's hand."
"Exactly, thirty four ships, over ten thousand Starfleet personnel? You can't ignore that. Regardless of the why you'd be talking about a Wolf three five nine level of disaster for the fleet and that demands a response. Even in our current state Starfleet has more than enough ships to do to the romulans what happened to the cardassians and they know it." Johan set his coffee mug down and started to gesture with his hands. "So they have to keep it limited. They have to have a response, but not start a full on war."
"That sounds dangerously complicated."
Johan shrugged and picked up a PADD. "We're talking about the romulans. This is what they do, and after their civil war the only ones who are left are the really smart ones, or the really lucky ones."
"I don't believe in luck sir," Cesina said confidently.
"That's alright, you're a junior officer, it's your job to be wrong," before Cesina could respond Johan turned the PADD around and offered it to her. "I've been going over the historical records, trying to get a feel for how these kind of situations can pan out. Earth history pre-world war three has actually been rather illuminating. The period from seventeen fifty A.C.E. to about nineteen ninty A.C.E. particularly. Admittedly the brinksmanship failed and we got world war three but prior to that it we spent about two hundred and fifty years finding ways to almost wipe ourselves out. There's a few andorian examples as well but I'm not as versed in your history to know where to start looking."
"This is... comprehensive sir," Cesina said deferentially as she looked over the contents of the PADD which were extensive.
"Something I learned from the Captain, history is cyclic. If you need help to figure out how something is likely to pan out, check how it's panned out before."
"My simulations though sir," Cesina said as she tucked the PADD into one of her thigh pockets.
"Right, well first of all Cesina, don't be afraid to beat us. You're doing a good job utilizing the hardware in a romulan manner but don't be afraid to get creative, set traps, bluff, lie, and once in awhile just flat out overwhelm us. A few simulations that are just harder while you digest your history lessons will be a good start. Once you get into the historical accounts I think it'll become obvious how you need to handle the situation."
"I was hoping for something a bit more direct sir," Cesina said cautiously but Johan was already rising out of his chair so she had to as well.
"Cesina, if you were just another officer I would do just that. The problem is that you're not. You're a second officer, on the fast track to becoming a first officer and you're very good at your job." Johan walked around the edge of his desk and led Cesina towards his office door. "Good enough that I know with a nudge in the right direction you'll get where you need to go. Just laying it out for you wouldn't help you learn, not like this. Sorry."
"Understood sir," Cesina followed Johan, getting close enough to the door for it to open. "And thank you sir, I think," she said as she stepped out.
Johan grinned, "Don't thank yet lieutenant commander, thank me after you're done cursing my name."
VOV
Dramatis Personae
Crew, U.S.S. Typhoon NCC-79853
Timothy Hayes, Fleet Captain, Commander 1st Task Force of the 17th Fleet, Male Human
Commanded the U.S.S. Atlas during the Dominion War, transferred into the Federation Defense Force immediately after its establishment, given command of the Typhoon and the 1st TF soon after.
Johan Luhrner, Commander, Male Human
1st Officer of the Atlas during the Dominion War, 1st officer of the Typhoon
Cesina Bul'ra, Lt. Commander, Female Andorian
Lieutenant aboard the U.S.S Galaxy, 2nd Officer of the Typhoon
Terzi Del, Commander, Female Elaysian
Chief Engineer of the Atlas during the Dominion War, Chief Engineer of the Typhoon
Deekan Braal, Commander, Male Capellan
Security Officer then Tactical Officer of the Atlas during the Dominion War, Chief Tactical Officer of the Typhoon
Peili, Lt. Commander, Female Orion
Lieutenant in charge of the defense of a border station during the Dominion War, Chief Security Officer of the Typhoon
Harry Kim, Commander, Male Human
Operations Officer of the U.S.S. Voyager, Operations Officer of the Typhoon
EMH, Commander, Hologram
Chief Medical Officer of the Voyager, Chief Medical Officer of the Typhoon
7 of 9, Lt. Commander, Human/Borg Female
Served on U.S.S. Voyager, Chief Sensors Officer of the Typhoon
Riway daughter of Jaheel, Lt. Commander, Female Si'rak
Ensign on the Atlas, 1st Operations Officer of the Typhoon
Binni Ulin, Lt. Commander, Female Human
Lieutenant on the U.S.S. Lelander, Defense Officer of the Typhoon
Villec Bisaan, Lieutenant, Male Nileen
Starfleet Academy Cadet, Helmsman of the Typhoon
Milana Tuul, Lieutenant, Cardassian Female
Starfleet Academy Cadet, Navigator of the Typhoon
Saral, Lt. Commander, Female Vulcan
Asst. Chief Engineer of the Typhoon
Fealst'rak, Lieutenant, Rurutic Male
Headed a research project using a space telescope to study the galactic core, Chief Science Officer of the Typhoon
Marcos Hernandez, Lieutenant, Male Human
Combat shuttle pilot during the Dominion war, Alpha Squadron leader of the Typhoon
Rilo Gulia, Lieutenant, Male un-Joined Trill
Combat shuttle pilot during the Dominion war, Beta Squadron leader of the Typhoon
Tycho Danor, Lt. Commander, Yvethan Male
Airgroup leader of Akira class U.S.S. Jonestown during the Dominion War, Airgroup commander of the Typhoon
Yumiko Boritsolav, Lieutenant, Female Human/Gor'sic
Graduated from Starfleet academy, familiarization deployment on the U.S.S. Carthage, communications officer of the Typhoon
Others
T'prin, Senator, Vulcan Female
Federation senator and chief opponent of the FDF
Solin, Aide, Vulcan Male
Senator T'prin's personal assistant
Bella Mavil, Reporter, Human Female
United News reporter on assignment aboard the Typhoon
Romulans
Taliren, Governor, Romulan Male
Governor of the Triumvirate of Jaisalmer, Sarab, and Yecheng
Cossick, Romulan Male
Chief of Intelligence for the Triumvirate
Sesk, Romulan Male
Head scientist researching the anomaly for the Triumvirate
Author's Notes
1) Wow, I lasted three more chapters before going with Peili and Bella again. Go me.
2) I had to start this with a bang, after 15k words of just dialogue I had to have something blow up.
3) Yes, there's more character building going on here, I can't help myself. I'm one of those freaks who would have killed for some more episodes where nothing insane is going on, just the crew relating to one another.
4) Tucker's Multivariate Field Equations, yes that is an Enterprise reference to when they first entered the Expanse and Tucker had to rewrite the subspace physics books to get the engine's to work. Obviously Trip "Catfish" Tucker is too much of a dumb hick to pull it off. I'm going to assume Enterprise is a badly done account of the first Enterprise's missions and Trip's character was assassinated in the process because honestly... he's an idiot.
5) Could I telegraph the Kaitlyn thing a little more? Probably not.