The Hour of The Wolf
Chapter Twenty-Eight

John closed down the comm signal. With any luck this wouldn't go too far, they could stop everything before it went out of control. Otherwise someone was going to lose their career, not to mention their freedom, and he wasn't sure who.

'Captain Eddings to the bridge.' his first officer called. 'We're being hailed by the Enterprise.'

Admiral Nechayev was waiting for an answer and Will only had one to give her. 'No.'

'Captain, I'm not bluffing.' She warned, 'This is your last chance.'

'You'll arrest me? On what charge?' He challenged.

She gave him a smug smile. 'Following an illegal order makes you an accomplice to that order.' She quoted.

'You have no proof I am following an illegal order' He pointed out. 'All you have is handful of suspicions.'

To Will's surprise Admiral Haden spoke up on his side. 'He's right Alynna. I told you you're both pushing this too hard.'

'I'll have the proof. I know I'm right.' She insisted and Jellico nodded with her

'Something is going on.' The other Captain supplied. 'You agree, otherwise you'd never have let us go this far.'

'I'm beginning to think I shouldn't have.' Haden shook his head hopelessly, 'In for a penny in for a pound. Captain Riker, can you tell us what you know.'

'He won't say anything,' Nechayev snapped. 'He'll just be incriminating himself, and he knows it.'

Ignoring her Will faced his surprise ally. 'I wish I could, but like I have said I am under orders not to discuss what happened. With anyone. I happen to believe those orders were for the best and quite frankly none of you have exactly endeared yourselves to me.'

'That's all I needed to hear.' Nechayev strode past Will and onto the Bridge.

'Stop her.' Will warned Haden, but they both knew it was too late for that and followed. Jellico right behind them.

'Chief O'Brian, call security to the Bridge.' She ordered sharply. Will nodded his agreement. Chips were down, betting was over. It was time to see who had the better hand.

After a couple of minutes two gold shirted security officers, both who Will knew on sight, left the turbo-lift. Nechayev waited nearly a whole second for him to say something before waving them over

'Sir?' they asked.

'Arrest that man.' She pointed at Will in front of the bridge crew. 'Strip him of his badge, rank pins and throw him in the brig.'

They didn't move.

'That was a direct order Lieutenant.' Nechayev snapped, not realising she'd already lost.

Will however did and stepped past her. 'Stand down Watkins, Jones.' he told them. They took a step back. While the Admiral began spluttering he headed to his chair and tapped the controls to begin recording a ships log. 'Begin ships log, Stardate 44769.3. Mr O'Brian please put me through to the rest of the ship, and to the Bellerophon.'

'Yes sir' Will could hear the smile his friend was hiding.

He took a moment to compose himself. 'You can't do this Riker.' Jellico warned but it was obvious Nechayev had finally realised just how much she'd messed up.

'Let the log show it has come to my attention that Admiral Nechayev and Captain Jellico took command of the Enterprise under deceptive means and have since used their respective positions to disrupt this vessel, it's crew and it's ongoing mission. Their actions, as such, go against both Federation guidelines and law. They can be and are here by recognised as highly illegal actions.'

He took a few steps up to the pair of them 'With this in mind I am regaining command of the Enterprise. We will head to the nearest Federation Starbase and present all charges and ships records to the Judge Advocate General's office there. Where they will decide the matter.'

'Outrageous. You haven't the authority.' Jellico protested.

Will kept his voice even. 'This is done on my personal authority. As such if anyone objects they are welcome to do so now and it will be entered into the log.'

There was an almost stony silence. The entire ship had heard his ultimatum and knew what was going on. Not one person replied.

Admiral Haden stepped up. 'The nearest Starbase is about thirty-six hours away at Warp six. I suggest, Captain Riker, you set a course while the three of us retire to our quarters.'

Will nodded. 'Enterprise to Bellerophon, Captain Eddings, you there?'

'We're here, I agree with the Admiral Will. We'll escort you there and make our ships records available for any inquiry.'

'Thank you Captain, That would be much appreciated. Enterprise out.' O'Brian cut the transmission and Will ended the log.

'When the JAG gets through with you, your never going to set foot on this ship again, Captain.' Jellico warned.

'Shut up Edward.' Nechayev warned. 'See you in thirty-six hours, I guess I should have known you'd have the stronger hand.' She said to Will.

He looked back at her. She knew she'd lost and was looking at taking the next round. 'Admiral, I never doubted you weren't bluffing. Thing was all you had was a couple pair. I had a full house.'

'With the Ace high.' she agreed. 'This won't stop me you know. When the JAG get hold of this they'll pull all of this kicking and screaming into the light.'

'You should be more worried about that than me.' He told her.

Despite the Captain wrestling command of the Enterprise back from the Admirals he still hadn't shut down the investigation into Duras's death. Once something like this had started you had to see it through to the end.

Worf sat in the interview room, the retired Admiral and her staff sat at the table opposite. Slowly going over their notes. On his side was Commander Data, there was no one onboard that knew Federation law better and he was a good friend.

The only other person he would trust is K'Ehleyr, and she was still in her quarters, fuming about the situation. Ever since returning from leave she'd stayed onboard. Taking personal leave from her responsibilities as special envoy and while she hadn't quite moved in yet they were in the process of planning a more permeant union.

After what felt like hours, during which the retired Admiral shuffled paper and whispered theatrically to her staff in an effort to get him angry she finally looked at him. 'Lieutenant Worf. Sorry to have kept you waiting.'

'Apology accepted.' he ground out in the most un-klingon way he could. If she was trying his patience he could do the same

'Thank you.' She said after a moment. 'So, the first Klingon to graduate Starfleet Academy. Quite an achievement. Impressive record since, by all accounts an exemplary officer. Its no surprise you would make it to chief of security on the Federation Flagship.'

Worf said nothing.

'I've looked through your file Lieutenant. Every inch a Federation officer, I have to admit I was surprised. I would have expected a Klingon's career to be more colourful. More personality conflicts. You didn't have any trouble adapting to Federation rules, did you?'

Again he gave her complete silence.

She gave him a smile, 'You're not required to answer Mr Worf, but it might be in your best interest to.'

Data stood up. 'I must ask, what is the purpose of this line of questioning?'

'Establishing character.' The retired Admiral said quickly. 'You see I believe you don't get along with your fellow Klingons Mr Worf. I believe that's why you became a member of Starfleet and why you accepted your family's discommendaion. What I didn't understand, until reading your service record, was why and why you would suddenly embrace you culture to kill Councillor Duras.'

She turned to one of her staff. 'Then I found this. On stardate 44390.1, the Enterprise was tasked to escort Vulcan Ambassador T'Pel to a top secret meeting at the Neutral Zone. Ostensively to conduct ongoing treaty negotiations with the Romulans.'

'I remember. The Ambassador. She was apparently killed in a transporter accident, but Captain Riker discovered she was really a Romulan spy.' Worf told her.

'In point of fact the Enterprise gave chase and tracked down this spy that had been gathering Federation secrets. Only to let her go.'

'This is of no connection to the charges you are investigating.' Data announced.

'This has a direct connection, and I am going to prove it.' She snapped. 'Were you aware that T'Pel specifically asked for the Enterprise to take her back to the Romulan Empire. It surprised me, but she knew she had an ally onboard.'

'What?' Worf asked.

'The Khitomer massacre, an entire Klingon colony destroyed, and the only confirmed survivor? The son of the man who betrayed them. Don't you find that curious?' She said sarcastically and Worf was very glad K'Ehleyr wasn't there. His mate would have killed them on the spot. 'That's why you joined the Federation, that's why you don't get along with other Klingons, you, Mr Worf, are a Romulan Agent. Just like your father. That is why you killed Duras, not for some barbaric code of honour, but because you were ordered to by your superiors.'

Hanson handed the PADD over to Adama. The message on it was from John Eddings. A captain that had stood with him at 359 He'd been getting repeated requests from Nechayev, but with everything going on they'd constantly been pushed down the list. He meant to get around to replying to her but it looked like she'd tried to force the issue.

'I was never happy keeping ourselves secret from your people.' Adama admitted after reading the message. 'But I never expected this.'

'It's my fault, I should have contacted her months ago. I never would have expected things to go this far.'

'Threatening to arrest a serving Commander. Bringing spurious charges against a Lieutenant?' he shook his head. 'Whats wrong with her?'

'I intend to find out. The Akira and Thunderchild are still in dry dock, but I was hoping to take one of the Constellation Class we lent you. Shouldn't take too long, a couple of months to get there and back.'

'No.' The Commander stood up. 'I think it's time to change. If good men are being subjugated I will not stand by. I'm coming with you and we're taking one of my ships.'

'You don't mean…' Hanson was worried the Colonial President wanted to test the Galactica's recent overhaul and refit.

'Not yet. but there's another ship with some recent work done that needs to stretch it's legs and I think it's time we began to change things. We can't let this happen again.'

Starbase 43 was a long established Federation outpost. It had been built in deep space, in a no man's land between several warp capable civilisations. It had been built there because it was the crossroads in-between. As such, despite the Federation's lack of a financial economy, the Station had built a reputation for trade.

At any given time there were any number of transports, robot ships and large freighters hauling anything from foodstuffs to dilthium crystals between the stars. As well as legal goods the Starbase had a thriving grey and even a black market. Rumour was that if you knew who you were talking to, and could avoid or bribe the right people, you could get anything.

Naturally the unscheduled appearance of two state-of-the-art Federation starships, one the flagship no less, caused a bit of commotion. A number of Ferengi ships jumped to warp as soon as they were in sensor range. A couple of others stuck around, but only to finish their deals and felt the risk was worth it.

It was also possible they didn't have any contraband onboard. It was worth noting that a good number of other races also scattered like ants after their hill had been kicked over.

Alynna Nechayev watched out of her window. She knew the Commodore in charge of the Station, they were a good friend. Problem was the JAG office was run by a real by the book type. They'd butted heads more than once and they were running half and half as to who was right. If she was lucky the stress would have gotten to them and her friend would be able to step in.

The door chimed and she called them to enter. 'Ally.'

'John.' She turned to see her former fiancée at the door. He'd been avoiding her for a while and he hadn't called her that in a long time.

Something was up and John wasn't the sort to beat around the bush. 'You've really stepped in it this time. Why didn't you ask me what was going on?'

'Because you're not involved.' she said. 'You wouldn't be. I know you'd never betray the Federation John.'

He shook his head. 'You're right. I wouldn't and I don't know half as much as Will Riker probably does, but I know this; without what happened there wouldn't be a Federation.'

He looked at him, horrified. 'You can't save the Federation by sacrificing everything it stands for to the Borg.'

'The Colonials aren't the Borg. They helped us stop them.' He admitted sitting down.

'What are you talking about?'

'I can't… I can't tell you everything. But we were losing and we did get lucky.' John said sadly. 'I've contacted Hanson myself. Just got the reply a couple of minutes ago. He's on his way. When he sees you he'll explain.'

'Hanson is on the other side of the quadrant. It will be weeks before he makes it here.' She told him

'He'll be here tomorrow.'

End Chapter Twenty-Eight

Authors note:-

It's been a bad few weeks for me, a number of funerals in quick succession kinda knocked the wind out of my sails and then writers block dropped on my head like a ton weight.

I've also been working on a few other things, including an idea for Star Trek:- Department Omega. Basically a covert unit, part of Memory Alpha (the Federation's library come archive) dedicated to investigating technology that shouldn't exist. Like the Omega molecule, the Genesis torpedo & Manheim's time travel experiments and stoping them from getting out of control. They also have access to ancient technology such as Iconian Gateways. The idea is that these things could unravel existence, so Department Omega exits to stop them.

If someone wants take up that idea (or knows someone who's actually done it already…) please let me know.