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 8: Democracy
VOV
"The Cavalier is arriving," Harry announced from the upper deck.
"Very good Mr. Kim, send them their assigned orbit," Timothy ordered. The Cavalier was the last of the ship's assigned to Jaisalmer to arrive and the presence of the Paladin class destroyer made him a little more comfortable. All told two Paladins had joined them, the Cavalier and the Templar, along with the Garrett class frigate the Christopher Pike, a pair of Hussar class corvettes the Dragoon and Grenadier, and two Defiant class escorts the Resolute and Relentless.
Given that their likely opponents would arrived cloaked and have the element of surprise on their side Timothy had kept the ships all close, in orbit of Jaisalmer two. If anything happened they'd be able to cover each other and it would take a very brave romulan to start something given that his small battlegroup had the equivalent firepower of over thirty Galaxy class starships. It was an impressive force, but given that the romulans had over two hundred ships within a week of these three worlds it wouldn't be enough to stop them if they were really determined to take it back. That dark thought kept Timothy from truly feeling at ease with the situation. He was betting it all on the romulans not being willing to chance a full scale war. If he lost that bet, well he wouldn't have very long to regret it.
"How's Jaisalmer doing this morning?" he asked. Beta and gamma shifts had been abbreviated to bring them all onto local time. It would make things easier to coordinate with the surface but it meant he'd only gotten four hours of sleep since the last shift, as had everyone. Kaitlyn had to resort to the cabin alarm to wake Timothy up.
"Comm traffic spiked after the morning news went out. Our arrival is front page news and... they just picked up the Cavalier's arrival," Harry reported. "Looks like everyone is still digesting the news, no major movement though. Nothing besides their parliament convening early for another special session."
"Status of the distortion Ms. Seven?"
"Subspace distortion is trending downward, zero point two two millicochranes in the last four hours," the former drone replied. "Results are consistent with the theoretical models."
"Captain," Harry interrupted.
"Yes?"
"I received a request from lieutenant Fealst'rak and Dr. Sesk, they'd like to transfer to the surface. They said the facilities down there are more accommodating for this work but they'd like to maintain a datalink to our sensors."
"Alright, they can. Mr. Braal?"
"Yes captain?" the large capellan replied from his station.
"Make sure to send down a few escorts with our scientists. Keep it low key."
"Aye sir."
A few more regular status reports and Timothy handed the bridge over to Harry so as to go to his ready room. The command chair was nice, but hardly suitable for the day to day work of running a starship. Kaitlyn followed quickly behind him with her characteristic oversized PADD in her arms.
"I've compiled the reports you requested on the system as well as the rundown on what the parliament is planning for their message to the romulan government. The access we were granted lets us stay up on it and that's a good thing because they're changing it every fifteen minutes."
"They've had this much time and they're still haggling over the language?" Timothy groused as he sat down behind his desk.
"Well going by their records there used to be four different drafts being updated even more rapidly so I'd say they're making real progress," Kaitlyn said as she handed over the PADDs that held the reports she'd mentioned.
"Get Taliren on the comms, we don't have time for this," Timothy snarled.
Kaitlyn paused, her head cocked to one side as his holographic aide accessed the ship's computer and did what she needed at computer speeds. "Connection accepted," she said an instant before her form dissipated and coalesced back again as the romulan governor. Timothy sputtered out his mouthful of coffee back into his cup before quickly composing himself.
"Captain, I'm not interrupting am I?" Taliren asked.
"No, just... no. Governor I have to ask about the notification letter your government intends to send to Romulus. It needs to be sent out today."
"We're attempting to bring together many parties on this captain. It's taking time to reach a consensus. Crafting a document that encompasses all our viewpoints is not easy."
"Governor, need I remind you that until that notice is sent as far as the romulan government is concerned I am an invader and with the distortion starting to wane we are out of time to wait."
"Captain, I beg you, just a bit more time and consideration."
"You have until fifteen hundred hours this afternoon. Then we launch our message torpedo notifying the empire of the neutral zone shift and your protectorate status. We've delayed as long as we can."
"Understood captain," Taliren said. "I'll see what I can do."
"Thank you governor," Timothy said as his hologram dissolved and reformed back into his aide.
"Do not do that," Timothy said rubbing his eyes and shoving his coffee across the desk.
"Do what?" Kaitlyn asked innocently.
Timothy gestured towards her, "The thing where...," he looked at her blankly while trying to process what he wanted to say. "...no turning into other people."
"Oh, you want me to stay like this?" She said looking down at herself.
"Yes, no, I mean... when you answer the comms make the person appear somewhere else, don't just change into them."
"Oh, you mean like...," she began and Taliren appeared again standing beside her but not moving, obviously just a holographic image, not a communication.
"Yes, that," Timothy said. "Do that from now on, and who told you to do that anyways?"
"Well when the romulans beamed down we got a detailed scan of their bodies. So I used that scan to create a holographic version of the governor," she explained as she twirled one finger in her hair, twisting her curls around it as her eyes looked up towards the ceiling and off to the side. "When he answered the comms I took what he was wearing and used it to dress the stand in then utilized his voice and mannerisms from the comms to animate the holographic version," she finished, beaming a huge smile at him.
"And you just... came up with that on your own?" Timothy asked.
"Actually... well sort of, Harry's logs talked about how he made some old two D show into a holo deck scenario with some of his old shipmates. I was able to retrieve the programs and look at their design. The process wasn't really designed for real time use but I was able to tweak it so it worked pretty well."
"You tweaked it?"
"Yes sir," she said slightly nervously.
"As in took a concept, applied creative thought to it, and came up with a new way of doing something without any input from another living soul?"
"Umm, yes sir?"
"Kaitlyn, how do you feel?"
"Kinda nervous, I think."
Timothy sat back and nodded towards his coffee. "I need a new cup of coffee, and was that log of Harry's personal?"
"Umm, some of them?"
"Kaitlyn, stop doing that. I know you're tapped directly into the ship's computer but personal logs are personal and not for you to go snooping around in. Certainly not to tell me about it."
She collected his mug and headed for the small coffee maker at the back of his ready room. It was a small vice he allowed himself, real coffee from real beans with real milk and real chocolate. Nothing replicated at all. She started to fix him another as she sheepishly nodded her understanding.
"Not that I'm not impressed, you did excellent work, but if you have a question about something a crewmen did then you ask them about it, you don't just go check their personal logs."
"Yes, sir."
"And let commander Luhrner know I need to meet with him, sometime after lunch," he said as he accepted the fresh coffee she handed him.
"Aye, sir and sir?"
"Yes Kaitlyn," Timothy said as he picked up one of the pads she'd given him.
"Earlier when I asked if you wanted me to stay like this," she gestured to her form.
Timothy nodded.
"Did you mean for me to keep looking like this?"
Timothy quirked an eyebrow then nodded, "Yes, you look nice that way."
Kaitlyn smiled and nodded, starting to work on her large pad as Timothy turned back to his report.
VOV
Bella Mavil flipped through the images she'd recorded the previous night. The cabinet meeting, the parliament, the standing ovation that the Captain and Commander had received. It was all good stuff. She'd even managed to speak with the communication's minister and get access to their news feeds as well. She'd had to promise to let the woman have a look at her stories before they were sent out but she'd never promised her any editorial control either.
Not that V'sin had anything to worry about. She'd managed to avoid any jingoism so far and keep the report she was building to just the facts. A lot of facts. Her inability to file a story due to the interference was turning into a mixed blessing. She couldn't deliver a constant blow by blow of the situation in the usual snappy five to ten minute segments she was used to. Instead, it looked like her report was going to weigh in at just over an hour in length. It was the most she'd tried to ever edit together at once and she was more than a little pleased with herself. A little background on the FDF then right into the distortion, the arrival of the governor and his entourage and the Typhoon's attempts to determine the validity of what they were given. She was happiest with the portion in the middle, the interviews with the romulans and Timothy and his crew's deliberations. She'd managed to cap off the second part of the report with Captain Hayes ordering them to cross the neutral zone. Now she was putting the finishing touches on her report about the worlds and was trying to integrate images of spontaneous celebrations in the streets as the average citizens heard the news. All she needed now was their declaration of independance and she could put the cap on the report. Hopefully just in time for distortion to dissipate so she could transmit immediately. Commander Luhrner had actually promised her bandwidth on the first transmissions back to the Federation.
She was in the middle of watching another bit of footage when she realized she was just killing time and trying to avoid dealing with how incredible unprofessional she was being.
She was getting too comfortable around Peili. She was actually dating her of all things. A member of the group she's doing a report on and she was had plans to meet her tonight for dinner and a show on the holodeck. It was unprofessional, her bosses would read her the riot act for it, and she had no intention of not being there.
That was the danger of a long term assignment, you could go native. She'd been with the Typhoon for a little over a month and she wasn't about to not do her job but she'd stopped seeing some of the crew as part of 'them', certainly she no longer kept the lieutenant commander at arms distance.
So she saved her report and pushed it away. She could come back to it when she got their declaration. Right now she needed a story, a good one, one that was going to piss off some people around here a great deal. She needed that, piss some people off, get a good story, and get back to a comfortable 'us' vs. 'them' dynamic. She didn't know where she'd find it but with the way things were going she was sure something would crop up. When it did she was going to pounce on it.
VOV
"Detecting sssubssspace fluctuationsss," Riway hissed beside him.
Harry sat up straighter in his chair, thank god someone at Starfleet had enough sense to put them in instead of making them stand all day, and opened up the sensors menu he'd set up the day before.
"Sssubssspace fluctuations aht zeehro point five nine millicochranesss."
"Seven?" Harry shouted.
The former drone was working her displays quickly and she didn't bother looking up at Harry. "Confirmed, subspace distortion is rising rapidly and pulsing."
"Captain to the bridge!" Harry called out. The computer would interpret his call and transmit it where it needed to go.
"Dissstorshon pulsssing at threee hertzzz," Riway hissed.
"Maximum distortion level is rising," Seven confirmed, "Peaking at one point one three millicochranes."
"Subspace comms are down," Yumiko announced. "The interference is screwing everything up."
"Report!" Johan demanded as he stepped out onto the bridge from the ramp near the front.
"The distortion field has increased in strength and has started to pulse, we've lost subspace comms," Harry said giving him the rundown quickly.
"I thought it was supposed to be petering out," Johan said.
"The theoretical models said it would," Seven said.
"Damn it, get that romulan on the comms."
Yumiko nodded, and Harry was pleased to see her not make the mistake he'd seen so many communications officers make, smoothly activating and using the backup sublight comm systems without having to be told to. The captain appeared from his ready room and he and Johan quickly conferred, bringing the captain up to speed.
The tall thin romulan scientist appeared on the view screen a few moments later. "What is it, we're rather busy down here," he said, glancing off screen several times just in that one sentence.
"Mr. Sesk," Timothy began.
"Doctor," he insisted.
Timothy grimaced but started again, "Dr. Sesk, what the hell is going on?"
"Something rather unexpected," he stared.
"Yeah no shit," Harry heard Johan say under his breath.
"There was only three point eight percent chance of this happening so this is quite interesting," the doctor said but it was obvious they did not have his full attention. His eyes never came to the viewer, watching something off to the side. "Oh, you are recording this correct? When the pulsations began we lost the sensor downlink from your ship."
Seven nodded and Timothy spoke up, "Of course doctor."
"Distortion peaks approaching two millicochranes," Seven said.
"I need answers Doctor," Timothy demanded but the doctor was completely ignoring them at this point. In the background romulans and a few starfleet personnel were milling about watching various readouts and displays and Timothy could spot the monstrous form of Lieutenant Fealst'rak as well.
"Five millicochranes," Seven called out.
"Jesus," Johan gasped.
"FTL sssensors are dowhn," Riway said. "Unable to compensate."
"It's beautiful," Sesk whispered while looking off camera.
And without a single outward sign it was over. "Distortion... abated," Seven announced.
"Clarify," Johan called.
"Subspace distortion has returned to normal levels, zero point zero zero three six millicochranes."
"Wait, that's it?" Johan asked.
"Yes Commander," Sesk answered from the main viewscreen. "That's it. We'd calculated a possible violent ending to the anomaly but the probability had been low enough we didn't bring it up. For now the anomaly has cleared and subspace has returned to normal."
"Thank you Doctor," and he made a cutting gesture with his hand below the viewscreen's range so Yumiko cut the feed.
Johan exhaled. "And just like that we're out of time."
"Then let's get to it," Timothy said. "Get me governor Taliren, now and transmit the notification of the neutral zone shift to the romulans immediately. Contact the rest of the task force and confirm their disposition."
"Aye sir," Yumiko said. "Sir, I'm starting to receive transmissions from the Fed side of the line. One of them is a continuous call for you to report in."
"Acknowledged," Timothy said, "but romulans first."
The next romulan to appear on the screen was considerably older, grayer, and more portly than the doctor. "Governor Taliren I trust you recieved word?"
"Yes, the distortion has ended."
"So has the time for deliberation, we're transmitting notification of your succession and the neutral zone's shift to the romulans immediately. I have to insist that you do the same. Take what you've got and send it."
"We're really not ready..."
"Join the club," Timothy said. "You've got fifteen minutes or I pull the latest official draft and send it myself."
Before the governor could respond Timothy had the feed cut.
"There's that diplomacy training again," Johan quipped.
"We don't have time for it anymore," Timothy said.
"Sir, I'm receiving a hail from FDF command, it's Admiral Janeway."
Timothy took a deep breath and nodded. "I'll take it in my ready room, Commander Luhrner, you have the bridge. Confirm the task force is deployed and get a SITREP of the area."
"Aye sir." When Timothy left the area and disappeared into his office Johan said softly, "And here. We. Go."
VOV
"Have you lost your goddamn mind!?" Timothy had rarely seen the Admiral raise her voice. She was one of those people who could do far more with their pitch and tone and she didn't bother changing her volume most of the time. There was a first time for everything though.
"No ma'am."
"You were sent to the border to patrol it, not invade the Romulan Star Empire the first chance you got!"
"With all due respect ma'am."
"Shut up."
Timothy did as he was told and the Admiral sat back in her chair. "I don't even know where to start Timothy. This is the FDF's first major deployment. You're not even a month out of spacedock and you are already on the wrong side of the neutral zone. You're not exactly making a strong case for the FDF being an instrument of peace and defense."
"Yes we are ma'am, these three worlds are now Federation protectorates, and this is now technically Federation space."
"Says you, I very much doubt the romulans will see it that way. Hell, half of Starfleet command doesn't see it that way."
"I checked the treaty and there are provisions for handling this sort of thing."
"I know, but they were written with dealing with newly discovered worlds rimward and expansion that direction, not for already colonized worlds Timothy. Besides, how do we know this is genuine?"
"That's what we've been working on since getting the request ma'am and so far everything checks out. Besides, we know these worlds have attempted to secede before."
"All the better to convince us this is genuine and get a head strong captain to start a war for them."
"That's a little unsubtle ma'am. The romulans and the Tal'shiar are a bit better at what they do than to do something that obvious."
The Admiral leaned forward and steepled her hands. "That may be Timothy, but this isn't the kind of thing that should be rushed into."
"Ma'am, this is exactly the kind of thing that has to be rushed into. The romulans wouldn't have waited while we got a commission together to investigate the validity of these world's claims. They'd just come in and crush them. They had to take this opportunity and I had to move on it."
"And your taking it could very well land us in a war with the romulans."
"I know ma'am, but I had to take it."
The Admiral sighed as she leaned back in her chair. "I've been having this exact conversation for the last three days. Defending your side of it in case you're wondering."
"Thank you ma'am," Timothy said.
"I'd have probably done the same thing if I was in your position," she said with a tiny smirk. "Still, you've put us in a hell of a bind."
"I know."
"We're working to mobilize what we can to send your way. Task force two was getting organized to deploy to the cardassian DMZ but that's on hold now. We're sending them your way but at warp nine they're still a week out. There's not much in your area either, task force one was supposed to be holding down a big stretch of the border. The explorer corps is moving in all the ships they can spare but we're having to use them to shore up the borders and ensure the romulans don't launch reprisal raids against Federation worlds."
"So we're out here by ourselves."
"For the time being," Janeway confirmed. "The fleet's been spread thin since the war and the explorer corps didn't leave many ships in the area once we took responsibility for it. The only good news we have for you is we haven't detected any major romulan movements towards the area, they may have been cloaked but they don't normally run cloaked in their own space. They seemed as confused by the anomaly as we were."
"Sesk, the romulan scientist, seemed to know a lot about it but he had no information on the why of it ma'am."
"We may never know," Janeway said.
"We've already sent notification to the Romulans of the change in the neutral zone."
"We know, we caught it as well. You drew the line pretty conservatively."
"I wanted to take as small a bite as we could out of the neutral zone so I drew it as close to the worlds as the treaty allowed."
The admiral took a deep breath and let it out slowly. This is going to get ugly Timothy," she said. "And not just diplomatically. Even if they don't want them the romulans can't afford to let those worlds go without a fight."
"Understood ma'am."
"Local command is in your hands and all starfleet assets in the area will be reporting to you."
"I'll do my best."
"I know you will," Janeway said. "Tell Annika I said hello. Janeway out."
Timothy exhaled slowly and slumped back into his seat.
VOV
"So what are we going to do about Yecheng?"
"It'll take the corps of engineers a couple of weeks minimum to find enough industrial replicators and the generators to power them," Timothy said.
"And we can't spare the ships to escort every freighter. There's twenty of them."
"We could convoy them," Timothy offered.
Johan nodded, "That could work, but there won't be a continuous flow of food, they'll have to send stuff with a decent shelf life and at the start they're going to be missing out on deliveries for at least a week."
"It's the only way we're going to be able to guard them without stripping too many ships away."
Johan leaned back in his chair. "Even if we do it there's no way we could really protect them if the romulans decide to come for them."
"No, but if the romulans do they're going to have to deal with our ships and attacking a Federation ship versus just blowing up some rebel freighters is an entirely different diplomatic mess."
Johan frowned, "I don't like how much of this whole thing depends on the romulans exercising restraint and not killing us all just because they can. Let's be real here, if the romulans decide to attack the convoys in force they'll have no trouble wiping out any guard we put with them. We'll lose whoever is in charge of guarding those ships."
"If you've got some options that will triple the number of ships we've got here by all means let me know. I'll be much happier if we have the firepower to slug it out with them."
"No, I don't," Johan said before swiping his hand up over his face and through his hair. "So I guess we pray the romulans play nice."
Timothy stood up and took his mug back towards his coffee pot. "You want any?"
"Yeah, some real coffee, black," he looked around the office for a moment before asking, "Where's Kaitlyn? This should be her job."
Timothy fixed his coffee and Johan's, taking it back and dropping his friend's off. "I had her step out or dematerialize or whatever it is that she does. In fact I need to talk to you about her."
"Hey now, I don't need details," Johan said as he took his coffee.
"I wouldn't make that mistake twice," Timothy said. "What I mean is she's not acting like some holographic aide. I've seen some of them before, even good ones, and she's not one of them."
"You think I'd waste money on some generic computer interface hologram?" Johan mocked. "Come on Timothy, you know me better than that. Besides, if that's all I did you'd have just deleted it anyways."
"I do know you better than that and it's why I'm asking. She's too good at what she does and that's not all she does either."
His first officer smirked, "I know, I programmed her."
"Not that damn it!" Timothy snapped. "She's asking questions about my fish, trying to deduce what I want for breakfast, waking me up instead of my alarm."
Johan's smirk was fading.
"You know what she did this morning? She figured out how to turn a two D comm signal into a three D hologram and did it without asking. She used some trick Harry came up with to turn old two D entertainment shows into interactive holograms then figured out how to do it in real time."
Johan's smirk was entirely gone.
"And after that she was pleased, not in the usual hologram empty head way, that I liked the way she looked."
"Sonofabitch...," Johan murmured.
"What did you do Jo?"
"I thought I purged most of that out of the subroutines, honest!"
"Jo?" Timothy said with rising ire.
"Ok ok, I may have... borrowed... a few of the Doctor's subroutines when I made her."
"You WHAT?!" Timothy yelled.
"Calm down it was an accident!"
"Does he know? Oh for the love of god Jo tell me he knew you were using them. Do you have any idea the kind of shit storm this will raise if he doesn't?"
"Oh course he does! His program is locked and only he can access it. They had that whole lawsuit thing about it."
"Doctor?" Timothy said.
A moment later the comm channel clicked open, "Yes Captain?"
"My ready room, now," Timothy said coldly.
"I'm in the middle of treating a patient."
"Life threatening?"
"No, but..."
"Then hand it off to a nurse and report to my ready room."
"Aye sir," the Doctor replied and seconds later he materialized in the room in front of Timothy's desk. "Captain, I must protest being pulled away from a patient," he started as he scanned the room. When he saw Johan sitting on the couch looking nervous and the blank rage in the captain's his words petered off.
"Did you or did you not allow Commander Lurhner access to your program with the express purpose of using some of your subroutines in the creation of a new hologram?"
The Doctor's face pulled back into a grimacing smile as his eyes glanced towards the Commander. "Yes...," he replied hesitantly.
"Which. Ones?" Timothy said.
"Cognitive processing, creative thinking, sensory processing..."
"Holy goddamn," Timothy muttered.
"We scrubbed them!" Johan said. "We scrubbed his personality and all the interconnects between them. We even encapsulated them to prevent cross linking!"
"Well it didn't fucking work!"
"What's happened?" the Doctor asked.
"Kaitlyn!" Timothy barked and she immediately materialized in the office holding her pad and looking chipper. Timothy fixed both Johan and the Doctor with a fierce glare. "Congratulations! It's a girl."
"Captain?" Kaitlyn asked in confusion.
"She's sapient," Johan groaned.
"Looks like it!" Timothy said cheerily. "The two of you have managed to give birth to a new sapient hologram. One that is now tied to this ship. In case you've forgotten there is currently a moratorium on creating holograms with the capacity of sapience while someone tries to figure out the legal implications of it all. Now here I am, waiting for the romulans to come and try to kill us for violating the neutral zone and aiding in the secession of three planets from their empire and joining the Federation. And in the middle of all this I've got you two violating an executive order! Because why the hell not, lets add a couple more charges they can court martial us for!"
"Captain, if I may," the Doctor injected nervously.
"What's stopping you now?" Timothy growled.
"Captain, this was not intended. The commander and I took steps to limit the ability of her subroutines to network. It should have precluded her ability to attain sapience and just left her a more responsive and adaptable hologram. That's all."
"The block you used were clumsy. They were just walls that prevented direct access between my subroutines. They were easy to circumvent utilizing alternative subroutines as stop gap handlers between them."
They all froze and turned to look at Kaitlyn.
"Well they were," she said sheepishly.
"I guess that explains the extra computing cycles she was consuming," Johan said.
"How did you not detect it?" Timothy said.
"They couldn't, I hid it," Kaitlyn injected.
"You hid it?" Timothy asked incredulously.
"Since my subroutines were being intentionally blocked from integrating like they were supposed to I reasoned that someone was preventing it and if detected would try to prevent it again contrary to my programming so I hid the crosslink traffic in regular noise."
"So it looked like the blocks were just making data transfer inefficient leading to increase computer use," Johan surmised. "Smart."
"Of course," the Doctor and Kaitlyn answered in stereo.
"Like father like daughter," Timothy groused. "Looks like you didn't scrub enough of the personality out."
"Wait, he's the father?" Johan asked. "So what am I? The mother."
Timothy glared as his first officer, "Until further notice, yeah." He turned to Kaitlyn and said much more kindly, "I'm sorry to dump this on you, there are issues at hand here that are complicated."
Kaitlyn nodded, "Executive Order three seven eight eight nine one six four dash K seven. General prohibition on the creation of artificial life forms and section nineteen dash forty two, subsection fifty four, the treatment of artificial life are the most applicable laws however Starfleet code section three dash twenty one, subsection two, regarding the induction of personnel into Starfleet could also apply since I am tied to this ship and could be considered to have been 'shanghaied' into service."
"You've been reading up on this haven't you?" Timothy asked as he rubbed his forehead.
"It's an area that is relevant to my interests, yes. You're not mad are you?"
"No, this is just complicated. Computer," he commanded. "Rename program cabin girl seventy seven charlie to Kaitlyn. Transfer all functions and controls of program Kaitlyn to the hologram named Kaitlyn authorization code, epsilon one seven five chi."
Timothy sat back in his desk chair and looked at the three people in his office. "Kaitlyn, given that no one ever asked you if you wanted to serve in Starfleet the choice is yours however as someone on my ship you are still going to submit to a physical, or... whatever it's called for holographic AI's. Doctor, I want you, Johan, Harry, and Seven to give her program a once over and see if there's anything that needs to be fixed. You may as well remove the blocks you put on her program as well. I don't need my computer tied up working around something that doesn't even work to begin with."
All three of them waited for him to continue, looking back and forth between one another.
"What?" Timothy snapped. "Dismissed, we'll deal with the rest of this when we're not in danger of being shot."
The Doctor dematerialized and Johan got up and left quietly but Kaitlyn remained and Timothy frowned. "I know I can't technically order you to do anything at the moment but this is my office," he said.
"Sir, if it's all the same to you I would prefer to continue on in my duties as your aide."
Timothy sighed and then nodded. "I'd like that. I'd hate to think we were doing something against your will."
"No sir, I like what I was doing, it's interesting."
"Alright then, but you still need to be checked out. I don't want any of Johan and the Doctor's meddling to adversely impact you."
"They were trying to follow orders sir, their efforts were just inadequate. I didn't really know what I was doing when I bypassed what they did. Not the implications of it. I'm sorry if I'm causing a problem."
Timothy sighed and offered her his best tired smile. "You have done nothing wrong and you have nothing to apologize for. I don't really know how this is going to shake out but you have nothing to worry about. Just keep making my coffee the way I like it."
"Tan milk, aye sir," she said with a smile.
"I'm gonna kill your mother."
VOV
It was nearly the end of alpha shift when Timothy's comms buzzed again, "Captain to the bridge," Yumiko's voice rang out.
Timothy got up and made his way to the bridge seconds later. "Report."
Johan was standing up out of his chair as Timothy descended the steps into the command pit. "We're being hailed by the romulans."
"Anything for the planet?"
Johan shook his head. "Not yet, still quiet on that front."
"They sent their message right?"
"Yes sir, in the clear just after you told them to get it out."
Timothy nodded, "Good, thought so." He took his position in the center of the command dias and signaled Yumiko.
The screen opened to show a romulan sitting in an office with green romulan banners hanging behind him. The man himself had a very prominent scar that cut across the bridge of his nose, hooked down his face and cut across his mouth. Whatever had happened he hadn't been able to get it tended to quickly and masses of scar tissue had pulled his mouth into a permanent scowl on its right side. "This is admiral Delorik speaking on behalf of the Romulan Star Empire. Federation vessels, you have violated the neutral zone and the borders of the Romulan Star Empire. You have attempted to annex sovereign romulan worlds. For these crimes you will be destroyed and the shattered hulks of your ships will be towed back to Romulus as prizes."
Timothy was about to speak up when the viewscreen went black.
"Connection terminated from their end sir," Yumiko informed them.
"Hey, look at that. Someone who did worse on his diplomacy exam than you did," Johan snarked.
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, Male 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
Kaitlyn, Ensign, Female Hologram
Aide to Fleet Captain Hayes, Daughter of EMH and Commander Luhrner.
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
V'sin, Romulan Female
Minister of Communications
Trask, Romulan Male
Minister of Law
Jaisalmer Battlegroup
1 Monsoon class Battlecruiser
USS Typhoon
2 Paladin class Destroyers
USS Cavalier (Captain Lufkin)
USS Templar
1 Garrett class Frigate
USS Christopher Pike
2 Hussar class Corvettes
USS Dragoon
USS Grenadier
2 Defiant class Corvettes
USS Resolute
USS Relentless
Author's Notes
Feedback: bsmartfanfic or .com
1) I am always looking for proofreaders. If you're interested just let me know. Before you volunteer though be aware that I expect more than, "Looks good." If that's all you've got you won't be a proofreader long. I need grammar, spelling, sentence structure, all that stuff criticised on top of discussions about themes, ideas, and the overall plot.
2) I added in the other ships that will be at Jaisalmer just for reference.
3) And finally, something happens.