The Hour of The Wolf
Chapter Twenty-Five

John Eddings watched as the Enterprise dropped out of warp speed. The view screen resetting to show what was happening directly in front of them.

Ahead a Nebula class ship was firing at a narrow Cardassian transport ship, it's phasers greatly overwhelming the transports pitiful shields

Riker lent forward in his seat. This was a chance to see how the young captain felt with a potential for disaster. 'Dammit. Red alert, all possible power to shields. Wesley, put us between the Phoenix and that transport. Shelby, get that madman to stand down.'

'Yes sir.' They both said at the same time. The first officer moved to the tactical console while the boy at the helm tapped away. At first John questioned having a kid, someone who rumour had it hadn't been through the academy, flying a ship into battle. Cruising around at warp was fine, it was routine, but the possibility of a mistake in a tense situation like this meant you really needed someone who knew what they were doing.

Watching how professional the boy was, however, changed his mind. Piloting the ship through the gap between the combatants and forcing Maxwell to stop. Obviously he was going to have to manoeuvre the Phoenix around the Enterprise to get a better shot. If the boy knew what he was doing that shouldn't have been a problem. A Galaxy class ship was larger, but it was also more agile than a Nebular. It's more conventional impulse drive had that advantage.

'Data, damage report on the Cardassian transport!' Riker ordered.

The Android at the operations console ran a scan. 'Unknown. We are unable to scan the transports interior. A high level subspace field is interfering with our sensors. It appears that their long range communication array has overloaded.' A subspace field from a overloaded comm. Sounded possible to John, just not something that would happen every day. Even a battle like this.

Before he could think about that Commander Shelby spoke up; 'The Phoenix is responding.' she announced. 'Audio only.'

'Maxwell to Enterprise, get out of my firing solution.' The rogue Captain's voice came from the ships speakers. He sounded calm, as if discussing the course of a comet rather than the cold blooded murder of a Civilian transport.

'Enterprise to Captain Maxwell stand down.' Riker snarled back. The idea that a suspected madman might chose to shoot threw the obstacle obviously had him concerned.

'This is war Enterprise, I'm not letting that ship go.'

'It's not going anywhere Captain. Data, does the transport still have shields?'

'Negative.'

'Then lower our shields and lock on a tractor beam. Hold them here.' the Enterprises Captain ordered. John winced, this Riker relied far too much on his bluffs. In his position he wouldn't have risked lowing the shields. The Enterprise outgunned the Phoenix, he would have used that advantage. Aiming to disable the other ship, maybe even board her. 'As for you Captan Maxwell, you are going to beam over and explain your actions immediately.'

'Let me guess, orders from Starfleet Command.' Maxwell sneered

'That's right. Enterprise out.' Riker nodded over his shoulder to his first officer who ended the transmission. With a deep breath he stood up, right into Gul Macet.

'Captain, you will release our ship. Immediately.'

'If I do that and your ship tries to make a break for it Maxwell will blow her out of space and possibly us right along with it.' Riker pointed out. 'See if you can contact that transport. Tell them to stand fast.'

'Why?' Macet asked and John frowned at this.

'Because I just told you that lunatic might just fire anyway, and I'm a little suspicious of a transport ship blocking our scans.'

Macet wasn't a good poker player, even John could see he was worried about that point. 'It's probably just damage from the battle.'

'Then perhaps I should send an engineering team over. To help with repairs.' Riker countered and Macet backed down.

'That won't be necessary Captain. I'm sure they have everything under control.' With that the Cardassian left the bridge. Riker glared at the tubolift doors for a moment before turning to Commander Shelby. 'Would you meet Captain Maxwell in the Transporter room and export him to the Ready Room.'

'Yes sir.' She responded automatically.

John stepped forward. 'Captain, I'd like to accompany her, and sit in on your meeting with Maxwell. Unless you have any complaints.'

Riker gave him a non committal shrug and turned to his operations officer. 'Data, I have a job for you…'

John would have liked to hear what that was but Shelby had already made it to the turbolift at the back of the bridge and was waiting for him. Inside she had them head to Transporter room three. 'The Captain likes to take risks.' he observed to her.

'Only when he knows the odds.' she countered.

He smiled 'Rumour has it though he's a bit of a gambler.'

'Not with peoples lives. Or the mission.'

John laughed lightly. 'I find that hard to believe, especially after what just happened.'

'The Captain knew that even if Maxwell gave the order his crew wouldn't fire on a federation ship.' She told him seriously. 'I assume your impression of him being reckless will factor into your report.'

'You've heard about that.' John sighed. The more unpleasant part of this whole adventure was that he was under orders from Admiral Nechayev to keep an eye on the Enterprises Captain. She and several others in command felt that the man was both too young and inexperienced to command the flagship. They were just looking for an excuse to transfer him to another command and put someone else in the chair. That the executive officer knew meant that everyone else would too. 'The honest truth is yes, but I'm beginning to see that's just a difference in command style. Results wise he's getting the job done. Not the way I'd do it, but then he'd say the same about me.'

'I felt the same way, had my own disagreements with him in the past. But he's a good Captain, one of the best in the fleet.' She said proudly. 'I'll tell you this, no one inspires loyalty like him. If they do decide to transfer him whoever replaces Captain Riker will have big shoes to fill.'

That explained some of the hostility John had been getting. 'I can tell. Problem is I don't know how much use my report will be. I've know Alynna… Admiral Nechayev, for a while now. If she has an opinion on someone it takes something fairly significant to change it.' The lift doors opened and they headed down the short corridor.

Inside the transporter room was a young officer. 'Phoenix ready to transport.' she reported

'At your discretion Chief.' Shelby nodded.

A moment later the pad glowed and Maxwell appeared in a familiar column of blue light. 'Captain Maxwell, I am Commander Shelby. Captain Riker asked me to escort you to him.'

'Of course he did.' Maxwell said theatricality before looking around and seeing him. 'Eddings? John Eddings? What are you doing here?'

John had met Maxwell before, both before and during the Cardassian Wars. He had hoped he wouldn't recognise him but was wrong. 'My ship got ambushed on the border a few days ago. While she put in for repairs I offered to help Riker. Thought he'd need all he could get.'

Maxwell stepped off the pad and shook his hand. 'You got that right. Between the two of us we can convince this kid the truth.'

'What truth?' John tried not to be accusatory.

'That the Cardassian's might talk peace, but we both know that's never interested them. They just want time to re-arm. To reload and try and catch us unaware, but we'll show them. Come on Commander we don't have all day.'

Hanson was escorted into the new briefing room on the Akira. This was the second a part of his trip here. Inside was Commander Sisko, Captain Williamson, her command staff and Dr Brahms, the warp field specialist on extended assignment. In all eight people.

Typically this sort of meeting would take place on the observation deck at the top of the ship, but it was inaccessible. Work was already well underway put there. Converting it to a hard point for the installation of one of three turbo-lasers for the refit. The combined Federation Colonial Fleet was already taking shape, with both the Akira and her sister ship the ThunderChild already being modified.

They weren't the only ones as the Admiral couldn't help but notice that a number of security officers were wearing what looked like Colonial gun-belts. That was the first thing he asked Captain Williamson and Commander Sisko as they began the meeting.

She looked a little sheepish and turned to her security chief who was wearing the non regulation weapon. He was a mean looking Bajoran, they'd given up the complicated earring, replacing it with several layers of overdeveloped muscle and a face that looked like it enjoyed cracking skulls. He pulled a Padd out from a pile and Hanson was being to get sick of the sight of them.

As he feared there was a long report on it he was going to have to read. 'With the help of Strike-Captain Apollo and a few of his men we've been conducting tests. The goal was to discover which weapon is most effective for the Corp; the type II hand phaser or Colonial pistol.'

'I see.' Hanson laughed. 'I take it the pistol won.'

'Yes sir. There's still a few security officers that are grumbling that we've taken their favourite toys away but in most combat scenarios we ran the Pistol proved to be better.'

'Summarise.'

The Bajoran shrugged. 'Put simply the Colonial Pistol has the punch of a type III rifle, replaceable power packs and you can field strip one and put it back together without a diagnostic scan and it won't explode. The range is the same, but it's not as versatile. There's two settings, you can't dial it down to cut through the lock of a door, but you can easily blast it off it's hinges.'

Hanson flicked through the notes, finding a diagram of the two weapons. 'Which one do you prefer?' he asked.

'I grew up on Bajor Admiral. My first school was an internment camp. When I was four the Resistance liberated the camp, by the time I was six I had learnt how to make explosives and could service half a dozen different weapons. I never had more trouble or more complaints than with the old type II.' The Lieutenant said honestly. 'It's a nice enough gun I suppose, but the thing that I've never liked is that damn handle. The weight balance is all wrong. You ever try to run with one of those in the holster? With the power cell in the handle it overbalances and falls out. That's why most security officers run with them drawn.'

'I know, you're not the only one to see that.' Hanson agreed. Running with a loaded weapon was just asking for mistakes, but so was having it jump from your belt as you ran into combat. 'Are you suggesting completely replacing the type II fleet wide?'

'No Admiral.' he shook his head. 'For day to day security the Phaser is still the best option. We're not Security.'

'Understood. I'll review the report. Until then we'll over look the uniform.'

'Thank you sir.' He grinned

'Now that that's dealt with, Mr Sisko I understand you have our final proposals for the Battlestars?'

He handed his padd over. 'Yes sir, just as we are refitting our ships we have looked at installing Federation weapons on Colonial ships. Including shields and torpedoes.'

Hanson looked at the readings. 'Am I… twenty five Phaser arrays? On top of the Battlestars standard ordinance? Is that possible?' he asked. Even with a top of the line experimental warp core there was some concern that the Akira Class didn't have the power to run both it's phasers and turbo-lasers. Simulations said yes but there wasn't a definitive answer until they actually tested it.

'Dr Brahms?' Sisko looked to the scientist.

The young woman sighed. 'While researching their Faster Than Light technology I discovered how it was tied into their main power generation. Each ship is powered by what they call an Energiser. In effect a giant subspace energy Capacitor. A giant battery that gathers energy from subspace and stores it The Galactica and Pegasus each have two…' She trailed off as she saw Hanson raise a hand to stop her.

'The answer I was looking for was; "yes, easily".'

'Then yes sir. Easily.'

'Good. What about shields?'

It was the Bajoran's turn again. 'It turns out the Colonials already have energy shields, but like everything else they don't work the way we'd expect. Our shields put up a wall between us and the enemy. Theirs work to weaken the impact of energy weapons. They still hit, but with nothing like the focus they had.'

'Impressive.'

'Unfortunately we can't do both. Our shields and theirs don't work together, they cancel each other out.'

'Damn.'

'We're looking into it but for the moment we can't do anything about that.'

Hanson nodded. 'Understood. Torpedoes?'

'Again good news and bad news. It turns out the Battlestar has been refit before, there are a number of redundant fusion missile tubes that can be modified to fire Torpedoes.'

'Fusion Missiles?' Hanson asked, not recognising them.

'Their version of mercuilite rockets. Short range missiles that can cause a limited fusion reaction upon impact. I understand they're still effective against smaller vessels like fighter craft but not much use against larger vessels.' He explained. 'They were mostly phased out of colonial service with the introduction of secondary Turbo-Lasers. Smaller weapons than the ones we're installing, but still powerful.'

'I see. That's good.'

'Mostly, but the Battlestars have another trick up their sleeve as you humans say. Solonite Rockets.'

'How many weapons do those things have?' Hanson asked.

'That's it, not including the Mega-laser.' The Lieutenant told him. 'Solonite is processed the same way Tylium is, meaning when it's triggered you get a total mass conversion. A matter anti matter explosion, without the anti matter.'

You see admiral, the fuel the Colonials use is some form of processed matter. We don't understand it yet but they find the raw materials and prime it somehow. When exposed to a specific magnetic field the fuel is broken down to it's basic components. Tylium is more stable when primed, solonite not so much.

'So we're talking a matter anti-matter warhead on what? A torpedo of their own?'

'Bigger sir. A Photon can destroy a small asteroid, Solonite, small moons. We're talking the equivalent of a full warp core breach. Weaponised.'

Hanson looked at him. 'You said these weapons were unstable?'

'When primed. While stored they're perfectly safe.'

'I need to talk to Adama about that. Some weapons shouldn't be used.' he said, remembering some of the suggestions proposed to be used against the Borg. Including Omega. A classic case of the cure being worse than the symptoms.

'Well this is why it's bad news.' Commander Sisko said. 'They're not sharing that technology. Commander Adama has the same concerns you do and because it's part of the process for Tylum fuel we're not getting access to that either. We've not pushed because we didn't want to cause trouble for the negotiations.'

'No, if they want to keep that a secret that's best for everyone.' Hanson was still going to talk with Adama about it but he felt a little better about it. 'Now what's next?'

Will sat in the Ready Room and waited for Maxwell. He didn't have to wait too long. The doors opened and the rogue Captain came in. 'Captain Riker. I've heard a lot about you. It's just a shame you got the short straw. I wish we could have met under better circumstances.' He said.

Captain Eddings stepped in behind him, as did Shelby. While Will would rather do this in private he couldn't really refuse Eddings's request so he was stuck with both of them. 'So do I.' He kept seated, letting Maxwell make the first move.

He sat down. 'Let me guess, I'm dangerous, out of control. I've been out of contact and need to be stopped.'

'Those are my orders.'

'From a bunch of bureaucrats and pencil pushers who haven't seen what those of us out here have. You can't trust a Cardassian. They're worse than even the Romulans. At least they keep their word.'

'They're not the ones attacking transport ships. Captain.'

Maxwell laughed scornfully. 'Transport ships. Try military supply ships. Like the ones I found heading to Cuellar. Think about it Riker. A scientific research station? in the Cuellar system?' He scoffed. There's nothing there, but its in perfect striking distance from three Federation sectors.' He jabbed his finger on the table.

'So you destroyed it?' Will asked, 'and now you're hunting down other suspected supply ships?'

'Incase there's more. They wouldn't build just one, what would be the point? No. They're building a whole network of stations. Resupply outposts, staging points.'

'Do you have any proof? Intercepted subspace transmissions? Sensor records.' Will asked. 'Why didn't you take it to Starfleet?'

He smirked. 'Starfleet. You mean HQ. Dusty Admirals who spend all their time polishing their rank pips. Always asking for proof. They spend time negotiating, no instinct. I don't need proof Riker. I know I'm right. So would you if you had any sense.' Will looked at Maxwell, he was smugly confident. Expecting Will to roll over and accept the word of his senior officer. 'If you do then I have a solution. Beam over there. That ship you're protecting. Board her and see for yourself I'm right. Take that evidence to Starfleet.'

Will straightened his uniform. 'No.'

'What?'

'I have no authority to board that vessel.' He told him before asking. 'What did you think would happen? You attacked the Cardassians while we're still trying to hammer out a peace treaty on nothing more than a hunch. Your actions have directly resulted in the deaths of hundreds of people. Not to mention the captain of the Crazy Horse. You single handedly almost restarted a war we have only just been able to stop fighting. If it wasn't for your war record and my respect for what you've achieved in your career as a Federation captain I'd have you throw in my brig so fast your feet wouldn't touch the deck plates!'

Standing up Will brought his size into play. Towing over the disgraced officer. 'The only choice I'm giving you is simple. Do you want to take that trip to the brig or you can command your ship on the journey back to Federation space. Ether way you will have to stand before a full tribunal.

Maxwell refused to be intimidated. He stood up too and tried to match Will. 'I don't believe what I'm hearing. You'll let them get away with this, drag me to a trial and you won't even let me prove I'm right.'

Tapping his comm-badge Will called for Data. After a tense moment his friend entered. 'Mr Data. I asked you to scan the wreckage of the transport. What did you find?'

'As you expected sir. Sensor evidence shows the transport was carrying photon torpedoes, Weapons components and military grade explosives.'

'Thank you Mr Data, that will be all.' As he left the room Will stepped around the desk. 'I fought in the Wars myself. I lost a lot of my classmates, a lot of old friends. It was never a question of if you were right about what they were carrying. It was your actions that condemned you Captain Maxwell.' The rogue Captain had froze, he was looking at the desk in blank shock and Will suddenly realised the horrible truth.

Maxwell hadn't scanned the wreckage like Will had assumed. He hadn't even thought of it, he'd been so blinded by wanting to stop the Cardassians, on destroying the ships, that he'd forgotten that basic procedure. Slowly Maxwell collapsed into the chair as the weight of that simple mistake hit him. He could have scanned the station he had destroyed and got the same results. Instead he slaughtered nearly seven hundred men for nothing. 'What have I done?' he asked himself.

'Captain…' Will started. but Maxwell looked up.

'I…' He stood and straightened his own uniform. With your permission I will return to the Phoenix. My XO will follow your commands Captain Riker and I'll retire to my quarters for the duration of the journey.'

Will nodded and for the first time since the man walked in felt he could forgive him. 'Thank you. Commander Shelby, if you'd escort Captain Maxwell back.' As the shell of a man left Will couldn't feel good about what he'd just done.

He wasn't finished. He still had to confront Macet about what Data had found. Write a report to the Federation Council and then one for the Admiral.

'It's fourteen hundred hours.' Captain Eddings said quietly. 'At Twenty-One hundred I'm going to be in Ten Forward, I'll buy you a drink. I suggest you be there.' With that he headed to the door. 'For what it's worth you did the right thing Will. He did this to himself.'

With that Will was alone. He'd completed his mission, done everything right. Prevented a war and even saved hundreds of lives, but he still couldn't call this a victory.

End Chapter Twenty-Five