Here it is one more Chapter. Hope you all like reading it as much as I did writing it.
As usual, I tried my best for it to be error free, but anything that you detect please let me know. I gone through all chapters and not only changed how narration and dialog goes together, but with the help of a new word processor also fixed whatever grammatical errors I was able to detect, hope it reads better now.
Now please review
Chapter 17
Many hours later, after having found the remnants of two destroyed Klingon ships which General Tanas swore avenge, the fleet under his command was about to cross the most outer boundary of a solar system that was believed to be not only inhabited, but also where at least one survivor Klingon vessel had come.
"Report" Tanas demanded impatiently.
"This can't be right." An astounded Ops Officer barely was able to articulate.
"What is it? Speak!" an increasingly irritated Tanas shouted.
"All star charts clearly show that we are at tens of thousands of light years away from home, yet the computer keeps saying that we are about to enter Sector 001 of the Federation." A baffled Ops Officer stated.
What Tanas was hearing was so unbelievably nonsensical that he wasn't willing to hear it any longer. Therefore, he dismissed the poor klingon and then barked to another one that was close by, to take his place and give a proper reading. The Klingon immediately complied, but when he tried to read the information displayed in the console, what he saw also confused him so much that the necessary words were not getting out of his mouth. Seeing that Tanas was about to unleash is wrath upon another crewmember, Worf approach the console and read the information it contained.
"They are correct, General. The star charts confirms that we are still at thousands of light years away from Klingon space but the computer indicates that we are about to enter Sector 001 of the Federation." Worf stated.
"Put it on the main viewscreen." Tanas ordered.
Seconds later a detailed graphic of the approaching star system was displayed, and in it, every detail matched what was known about the Sol system.
"How can this be?" A still incredulous Tanas voiced.
"It may be a creation from Q as it isn't beyond him to use such artifices to manipulate those whom he is plays with." Worf informed.
"Produce an entire system? Surely, he cannot be that powerful. The true explanation must be that he is just manipulating the sensors." Tanas stated, still not wanting to believe that any being could be this powerful.
"If it suits his plans, I assure you that this is something he would be capable of doing. Merely play with the ship's sensors is not his style." Worf replied.
"Confirm these readings with every single ship of the fleet." Tanas ordered to the Ops Officer.
An hour later, after crosschecking every bit of information from all ships, Tanas reluctantly began to accept that they were indeed about to enter a solar system that in everything resembled that of the Humans in the Alpha Quadrant.
Now all sensors were entirely focused on the system's third planet and what they were detecting was not only an incredibly amount of radio chatter, but thousands of vessels of all sizes, forms and shapes surrounding the planet, almost like a shield.
Always expecting the worse, an aggressive Tanas immediately stated. "They must have detect us and are now preparing to battle us."
"I don't believe so General." Worf stated.
"Why else would they gather such a large fleet around the planet we are approaching and at the exact moment we are arriving?" An unconvinced Tanas inquired.
"Perhaps they are expecting someone else?" Worf voiced.
Tanas was starting to get tired of Worf second-guessing all of his decisions and judgments. If it wasn't for the specificity of the present situation, he would have already dealt with him in an exemplary way. So as usual and thinking that his way was the right way, Tanas put the entire fleet in red alert. So while half the fleet was ordered to continue on the present course, uncloak, raise shields, ready disruptors, and torpedoes, the other half was ordered to equally remain ready to battle, but maintain their cloaks and approach the planet from the opposite direction.
Not long after, the uncloaked half of the Klingon fleet approached the blue planet that in everything resembled the Federation's Earth. To Tanas that approaching was almost like a long dream that he recurrently had had: attack the Humans home planet and once for all undisputedly show who should rule the Alpha Quadrant. Unfortunately this wasn't the Human's planet, but for now was close enough, so if however was in front of him would give him the slightest excuse, he gladly would destroy them all and then turn their planet into a burning cinder.
-oOOo-
Meanwhile light years away and after a long game of cat and mouse where in the last hours John Sheridan the Captain of the EAS Heracles had tried everything in his power to elude his pursuer the EAS Cerberus that was known to be General Martel's ship, he finally was cornered and left with no other choice but to fight. Therefore, inexorably both Earth Alliance Dreadnoughts began heading towards each other.
However, before any ship could have the other in weapons' range, from the innards of their forward bays, dozens of Starfury fighters departed and raced towards the incoming opposite force of also Starfuries.
"Beta leader, take the spearhead. Alpha three to seven form on my wing; we will go on the right. Alpha two, you take Alpha eight to twelve and go on the left. Let's flank them and take these bastards down as fast as possible." Squadron Leader Jeffrey Sinclair, radioed.
"Copy that Alpha Leader" Acknowledged both Beta Leader and Alpha two.
However, their training being identical, the Cerberus' squadron Leader had the same idea so Sinclair's tactic did not produce the effectiveness that he hoped for and in less than a minute both squadrons were locked in a deadly dance whose outcome of who would win, would rest on the side that possessed the more skilled pilots.
"Alpha five, you have a bogey on your tail, break right I'll get him." Sinclair shouted over the radio.
"Roger that Alpha Leader." Alpha-five acknowledged.
Sinclair immediately activated its Starfury side thrusters to achieve a more favorable position and seconds later took down the enemy, scene that throughout the battlefield began to be a common event as each pilot tried to outmaneuver and shoot down the opposition.
Not far, the Heracles and Cerberus now within weapons reach of each other lost no time and immediately began firing all their forward weapons at the adversary. And while the Heracles that was shooting in manual mode missed most of the shots, the rest being intercepted by the Cerberus interceptor grid, the renegade EA Dreadnought in return with their fully operational sensors, had no difficulty whatsoever in hitting the Heracles whose interceptor grid due being inoperable, didn't have the chance of intercept any shot.
"We were hit badly!" Lochely stated. "Hangar bay, forward decks three to seventeen, and most of our frontal weapons were hit." She added.
"Fire again." Sheridan ordered.
For a second time the Heracles fired, this time with more success as some plasma pulses passed through the Cerberus' interceptor grid and caused a deep laceration in its front hull. However, the Cerberus also fired back and again all its shots hit the Heracles that now had most of its bow and weapons located there ruined.
Moments later both vessels were passing alongside each other, so their respective turrets immediately zeroed on the enemy and broadsided it with all that they had. The Cerberus' entire port side got devastated, but so did the Heracles starboard side which with the damaged that already had sustained, got in a very precarious condition.
"We have hull breaches all over the place, engineering isn't responding and only one fourth of our weapons remain operational." Lochely reported.
"How about the jump engines, are they operational?" Sheridan asked.
"Are you thinking in open a jump-point?" An appalled Lochely shot back.
"As things are now we can't hold for much longer, so we may as well go with the biggest bang possible if we aren't successful." Sheridan explained his position on the matter.
"The jump engines are already recharged but due the damage that we have sustained, I can't guarantee that they will resist the strain of opening a jump-point." Lochely indicated.
"Recall all our fighters immediately and let's do it." Sheridan decided to risk the dangerous maneuver anyway.
Seconds later the message was sent and all the Heracles' Starfuries disengaged from battle and sped up to catch its mother ship whose remaining operational weapons were laying suppressive fire to keep the enemy fighters at bay and away from its own approaching Starfuries.
By now, the Cerberus had already executed a U-turn and was forcing its engines to the maximum in order to catch its target and finally end a battle that in Martel's opinion already was lasting more than it should have. However, before that could happen, in the bridge of the Cerberus he angrily saw the Heracles and its complement of Starfuries again escape into hyperspace. But too much was at stake, so regardless of how many times he had to chase Sheridan, he was determined at not to let him get away and continue his fairytale mission.
"Hell will freeze over before I let him escape. Power up our jump engines and get us also into hyperspace!" Martel roared.
About half an hour later, Sheridan was told that they had to go back to normal space immediately or risk no longer being able to do it. The worst part however was that due the massive damage that the ship had suffered, large parts of it were inaccessible, including were the transmitter that was broadcasting their position was believed to be located. Therefore, with no other choice, Sheridan reluctantly ordered the jump to normal space were not surprisingly, minutes later the Cerberus caught them again.
-oOOo-
Not far, two starships were traveling effortlessly through the void of interstellar space. It were the USS Enterprise and USS Voyager.
"Captain, I am detecting energy discharges not far from our present location. They are originating from several vessels that are battling." Data informed Captain Picard.
"Can you put it on screen?" Picard asked.
"Affirmative Captain. Putting it on screen now." Data confirmed.
Immediately in the main viewscreen, two very large grey vessels surrounded by numerous small fighters zipping around appeared. The small fighters were single seated crafts that looked like an X and had four thrust vectoring engines, one on each extremity. The large ones, had a trapezoid-like bow section with two large pairs of identical cannons on each side, in its top, bottom and front sides was multiple arrays of large antennae-like sensors, and centrally was an open hangar bay facing forwards. The bow was also twice as tall as the middle section, which was cubic and comprising more than half the vessels' length, which from aft to stern was about one and an half kilometers. Their dorsal and ventral surfaces were bristling with weapons in the form of rows, fourteen turrets in total and each with twin cannons. The aft section was just an assembly of four massive cylindrical ion engines.
"Captain, everyone aboard those vessels read as human." Data stated.
"What? Are you certain Data?" An incredulous Picard questioned.
"Positive Captain. About their vessels however, I did not found any correspondence in any of our databases." Data added.
"Humans this far from the Alpha Quadrant fighting in enormous unknown vessels…, this is damn peculiar." Picard stated to no one in particular.
"Are we going to hail them, Captain?" Riker asked.
"If the situation was different, I might consider approach them in a cautiously manner and then see how things would go from there, but at present we already have enough problems and possibly adding more by getting into an already volatile situation isn't something I'm inclined to do right now."
Captain Janeway then appeared in main viewscreen. "Captain Picard, have you detected the battle that is taking place dead ahead?"
"Yes we have Captain." Picard confirmed Janeway's readings.
"We also are detecting that everyone in there read as human and apart from having stumbled into some humans that were abducted by aliens from Earth centuries ago, kept in cryosleep and brought here; since we arrived in the Delta Quadrant four years ago we never found any other humans before. This can be a significant discovery." Janeway stated.
"Indeed it is surprising to find humans this far, however…" As Picard was about to tell Janeway how he thought this wasn't the best circumstance to initiate first a contact, suddenly and almost on top of the following battle, both Federation ships dropped out of warp.
On the side of the Heracles the situation was dire and when even Sheridan had lost all hope, his second in command shouted. "Two unknown ships just appeared from nowhere!"
"On screen!" Sheridan yelled among the confusion that reigned on Heracles' bridge.
Then with some difficulty due the thick smoke and fires that were engulfing the place, he managed to see the newly arrived ships and what he saw made an indescribable sensation cross his whole body. Their shapes were unmistakable. Those certainly were Federation ships.
"Send a distress signal immediately and tell them that we have met Cmdr. Shelby." Sheridan ordered his communications officer.
"Do you know who they are?" Lochely questioned Sheridan.
Those ships are from the Human Federation that we came looking for." Sheridan told his First Officer.
"And how the hell do you know how their ships look like?" Lochely asked back.
"I saw ships like those in a holographic recreation room that Cmdr. Shelby showed me while I was aboard the Klingon ship."
-oOOo-
On board the Enterprise Picard was questioning Data why they had dropped from warp.
"Unknown Captain, but de occurrence seems similar to when we were accompanying General Tanas and Q forced us to come out of warp."
"Merde, what is Q scheming now." Picard vented in frustration.
"Captain, one of the ships is emitting a highly modulated tachyon beam toward us and Voyager. I believe it is some sort of communications beam." Data Informed.
"Communications through tachyons? That is a very unusual method. Will it be possible to know what they're saying, Data?" Riker asked.
Data replied affirmatively and after a few seconds during which his fingers looked like a blur so fast it were moving over the console, he voiced. "I successfully decrypted their signal, Captain, but it is audio only…, they are requesting our help..., and mentioned to know Cmdr. Shelby."
Picard immediately jumped from his command chair. "Is she aboard that vessel?"
"The message was not entirely clear, Captain. Unfortunately we may not have the chance to clarify it as the vessel that sent the signal just got critically hit and is losing power."
Now Picard was torn between not interfering and if Cmdr. Shelby was indeed aboard the unknown ship let her die, or intervene and possibly create a new assortment of problems.
"What are the capabilities of those vessels?" Picard inquired the Tactical Officer.
"Their power source is entirely fusion based and no artificial gravity or warp capabilities are being detected which is strange considering that the nearest star is almost twelve light years away. Defensively, although one of the vessels is using some sort of point defense system to intercept enemy fire, what both mainly seem to use for protection is a thick armored hull, which may explain their sheer size. Their armament seems to be entirely plasma based and despite the enormous size of their weapons, if needed be our shields will be able to resist their power for a while." Lieutenant Daniels specified.
"They don't seem very advanced and hardly a threat to us despite our battered state." Riker remarked.
After considering his options, Picard then ordered Lieutenant Daniels at Tactical to fire a warning torpedo and the Trill Conn Officer Ensign Kell Perim, to position the Enterprise between the attacking Dreadnought and its now disabled target. So moments later as the Enterprise engaged its impulse engines to execute the desired maneuver, a torpedo that had burst out of one of its torpedo launchers, passed incredibly close to the Cerberus' bow and detonated in a spectacular fashion several thousand kilometer away.
-oOOo-
Aboard the Cerberus, the surprise was complete.
"General, one of those two unknown ships that appeared a minute ago and at first were just standing there, just fired a glowing projectile that nearly hit us and now is placing itself between us and the Heracles while the smaller one is getting behind us… Bloody hell, that glowing thing that missed us, exploded at several thousand kilometers from us with a force that if it had hit us, we would be goners by now." The Officer managing sensors stated in astonishment.
"Maybe not so much a miss, but more they trying to get our attention while managing to show their teeth." General Martel uttered.
"And what hell of teeth they have." Another nearby Officer spouted.
"Who are they?" The First Officer asked.
"Let's find out. Hail them." Martel ordered.
Meanwhile the Battle between both squadrons of Starfuries had ended and one side had been the victor, although at a terrible cost as of the initial twenty-four pilots that its squadron had, only four survived. Then as Jeffrey Sinclair was about to focus his entirely attention on the EAS Cerberus, upon seeing the arrival of the unknown ships that soon after seemed to have taken the Heracles' side, he decided to wait and see what was going to happen next.
-oOOo-
Aboard the Enterprise.
"Captain, the other vessel is now also hailing us and with video." Data informed.
"On screen." Picard voiced.
Soon, a not very pleased man in his fifties, with short grey hair and wearing a dark blue uniform with a brown collar around his neck that connected to a vertical wide band of the same color on the front right side of his jacket and an unknown insignia on the left, appeared on screen.
"Who dares interfere in an Earth Force affair?" The man on the screen blustered.
Picard noticed the word "Earth", which at least told him that something more than they just being humans was going on, still he did his best to not react to that information and remain calm despite the other man's angrily demeanor. He then stood up, adjusted his jacket and addressed the stranger.
"I'm Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the United Federation of Planets; it wasn't my intention to interfere in your affairs or those of your government; however it came to our attention that there is the possibility that inside the vessel you are firing upon there may be a Federation Officer. So I would appreciate if you could refrain from taking further hostile actions."
When the woman who was traveling with the Klingons previously mentioned the existence of a faraway Human Federation, Martel never for a second believed in its existence. Yet now, another apparent human aboard an unknown ship and wearing a similar uniform to that of her, was in front of him validating Shelby's whole story.
However he be dammed if he was going to let Sheridan and his crew go back as the heroes that found the Human Federation while he probably would be executed for treason. He had risked everything upon accepting the mission of tracking Sheridan and recover the Minbari technology that so wrongly had been put in his ship instead of analyzed, duplicated and then placed where it was needed, which was aboard the many ships that bravely still orbited Earth, ready to defend it from any alien scum.
Not to mention, that he was a firm believer that the destiny of Earth and all its inhabitants should never be put in the hands of others that not their own. Therefore, with nothing else to lose, Martel decided to risk it all.
"It is the first time we come across your kind, so there is no reason for one of yours to be aboard the ship that you are shielding and whose crew consists of ruthless war criminals whose fate are not of your concern. Now step aside or I will have to resort to force!" Martel demanded.
For someone whose ship was no match for a single Federation ship very least two, the man looked very confident, so or he was incapable of recognize how outmatched he was which made him a fool, or he was insane for challenging a vastly superior opponent. Picard then made a signal for audio to be cut and addressed Deanna. "Counselor, what do you think of all this?"
"I sense much anger and deceit in him. He is not to be trusted" The half Betazoid replied.
Picard then ordered audio back and again addressed the man.
"I'm afraid that I have to insist that we verify for ourselves if Cmdr. Shelby is aboard that vessel or not. And with whom do I have the pleasure of speak?"
My name isn't of your concern, but I'm a very important member of my Government with whom you are risking go to war due your interference."
"He's lying Captain." Deanna said low enough so that only Picard could hear her.
"Why do you oppose so much that we verify if Cmdr. Shelby is aboard that vessel? Do you have anything to hide?" Picard inquired.
"Even if she was aboard, under our law, who consorts with criminals is also a criminal and warrants the same punishment." Martel ranted.
"If Cmdr. Shelby is aboard and is confirmed to be responsible for any crimes, you have my word that she will answer for all of them. But if you never met my kind before, how come you know Cmdr. Shelby's is female?" Picard countered.
"You just said it." Martel defended himself.
"But only after you referred to Cmdr. Shelby as a she; which is strange considering that you mentioned never having met a Federation Officer." Picard refuted Martel's explanation.
To Martel what was happening looked like something that had come out of a bad movie. A few minutes ago, everything was going according to plan, but unexpectedly and out of nowhere, some unknown ships that claimed belong to the same Human Federation that Sheridan had come looking for, appeared, and now were the only thing that stood between the successful completion of his mission. Moreover, despite knowing for sure that Shelby was not aboard the Heracles, he certainly did not want them and Sheridan talking, so a furious Martel cut communications and commanded.
"Target both ship, they are so small that we should be able destroy them before they know what hit them and can fire back"
Almost everyone in the bridge was aware that that order wasn't a very sensible one, especially because despite those ships being small and at spitting range, they were having trouble in getting a lock on them and their power signature was higher than even those of the large Minbari war-cruisers, however none had the courage to oppose Martel.
Soon the Massive turrets of Cerberus target both Federation ships and fired fierce bolts of plasma. The outcome however was not the one that Martel had predicted and both Federation ships remain unscathed. Of course and not unexpectedly, they also returned fire with orange beams that began taking out every single weapon the Cerberus displayed.
"General, we didn't even dent them, but in short order they disabled all our weapons." A frightened Officer yelled.
An incredulous Martel could barely believe that one of Earth's most powerful vessels had been defeated so easily. Thus blind with rage, he immediately ordered ramming speed. However, this time everyone in the bridge remained motionless, undoubtedly due starting to realize that their commanding officer was losing his mind. However, after seeing that his order was not being carried out, he unbuckled the seat belts that were hold him to his command chair, floated towards the helm station and before anyone could realize what was going on, punched the thrust leaver to maximum.
Seeing that the enormous vessel had activated its engines and now was heading towards the Enterprise, Janeway ordered its engines shot, successfully disabling them.
However, the considerable momentum that the Earth Alliance ship had gain before Voyager's action, along with the short distance it was from the Enterprise, meant that no other course of action was viable, but get out of its way if to avoid being rammed, which the Enterprise did by firing its side thrusters. However, leaving the motionless Heracles that was behind it, in the path of the Cerberus.
Now being a certainty that both Earth Alliance vessels were about to collide and there was not enough time to beam everyone from both ships, Picard had to make the difficult decision of whom to save.
Seconds later aboard his starfury, Sinclair's heart sank as he saw the Cerberus hitting the Heracles and both ships turning into a large fireball.
In the Enterprise, everyone was still shocked by the attitude of the captain whose ship had tried ramming them, but ultimately had rammed the disabled ship which was behind the Enterprise.
"Why the hell did they do that?" An appalled Riker spouted.
"Any explanation Counselor?" Picard turned to the Deanna Troi.
"It's difficult to tell with certainty Captain, but besides him being very angry, I felt that somehow we not letting him continue the attack on other vessel had put him in a situation that he found impossible to live with. Maybe any of the survivors we beamed can shed some light on the matter"
-oOOo-
Moments before the collision.
Inside the Heracles' bridge, all fires had been put out, but due the loss of all the power, darkness was complete and for them to be able to see anything, they had to resort to using flashlights. As for what was going on in the outside, all that Sheridan and his crew knew was that in the last minutes the Cerberus had stopped shooting at them. Now if that was good news or not was yet to be seen, but as time went by, the uncertainty of the situation began to take a big toll on everybody.
Finally, a frustrated Lochely said to Sheridan. "What the hell do you think is happening out there, are we going to be rescued or blown to bits?"
"Your guess is as good as mine, but for every second that goes by and we are still in one piece, I think our chances of getting out of this alive can only improve." Sheridan stated.
Them a moment later a familiar tingling sensation enveloped Sheridan's entire body and he knew what was about to happen. "Oh hell, not again…."
Seconds later, almost a hundred Earth Alliance crewmembers got the shock of their lives as suddenly they saw themselves in an ample well lit room, were besides them, the only thing there seemed to what looked like many packing crates and a couple of boxy crafts the size of Starfuries. Nevertheless, what made many almost have a heart attack was seeing that one of the walls of that room was completely missing and on the other side was the vacuum of space. Inclusive and not far away, it was possible to see the remains of a Starfury drifting. Among everyone, the commotion was widespread and only Sheridan had the faintest idea of what had happened or where they were, which was that they had been beamed and now were aboard of one of the Federation Ships.
TBC