Disclaimer: None of us own Star Trek. None of us own Star Trek Online, though Ron, Titanic, Jorn, and Takeshi have Accounts there, and Takeshi Yamato and Ron the True Fan have Lifetime Subscriptions. We only own our OCs and OC-Specific Plotlines. Anything else you may recognize is the property of its respective owner.

Chapter 5: Awareness

Stardate 86069

After doing some time-traveling, and kicking some ghostly Devidian ass, we're heading back to K7 to meet up with Ron and the others. I heard that Sonja is doing something involving bio-neural upgrades, part of some 'project' she's pulling off. Something to do with saving the Exeter's computer. I will admit, they're very committed to keep that thing functioning even though duotronics have been completely replaced by isolinear chips. It may seem like a waste at first, but I don't blame them really. If I could save a part of the Yorktown, I'd probably try something similar.

Knowing the crew's track record, I have no doubt they'll be able to pull it off somehow… here's hoping though they don't do something crazy with it.

Every ship in the fleet was easily upgraded with bio-neural gel packs within hours of arriving at K7. While standard issue on ships like the Sovereign, Intrepid and, to a lesser degree, the Defiant and her ilk, the rest of the fleet, including the Raging Tempest, were another story. THEN there was the Ptolemaeus and her ancient duotronic computers. But that wasn't what Jaden and company were in for, as Sonja led them through the ship. "Aren't you supposed to be working on the isolinear computer upgrades?" Jaden asked.

"Nah, I've got my crews working on that." Sonja said, "They know what they're doin'."

"So, what is it exactly that you're showing us?" He asked.

"Oh, just one of my pet projects," she said. "You know that we've been through a lot over the past 21 years, right?"

"Yeah, conflict with the Klingons, hunting down that vulcan bitch Turrell, pissing off the Tholians… all that stuff." He said.

"Right, keep forgetting that most of the shit we've been through is O-8 and up. don't tell anyone, but we've been to at least 5 different universes. And those are the ones I'VE been to; I have no idea what happened before I got here."

"Wow," Takeshi replied. "Though I have to ask… have you encountered the Mirror Universe at all?"

"Oh, please. I'm FROM that reality."

"WHAT?!"

"The boss' original CE was killed when they engaged the ISS Exeter." She said. "They rescued me from a transport under attack by the Enterprise."

"Huh… well, that's something." Jaden said, "So… what can you tell us about the other four?"

"Well, we accidentally got sent back in time and into another galaxy in one. A bunch of machines tried to kill us and take over the ship. We got saved by a nice ship from Earth. I actually got a lot of scans of her: seems she had a form of subspace power that makes…" She looked at T'vrell and the other non-O6s. "Right, you aren't supposed to know about THAT. Anyhoo, they also had some wormhole device. We actually brought it back with us, but Sanjuichi took it when we got back."

"Okay… so S31 have a wormhole generator… great… " Jaden said with a groan. "Well, what about the others?"

"We ran into a worldship in another one. About 20 planets connected together and powered by an artificial sun. 2290 was a VERY interesting year." She stopped at a door. "Did I mention that they were full of monsters that will kill you and lay their eggs inside you, which eat their way out?"

Jaden and the others shivered at the very thought of that, "Multiverse is scary..." T'Vrell muttered, "That's three, what about the other two?"

"One, we had to deal with some crazy shit that takes me getting drunk to think about, let alone talk. And the last one was a universe that the laws of physics just got plain ignored. We don't talk about those two. But, they DID give us a lot of nice stuff: FTL technology, sensor tech. I even got my hands on parts for an android, plus a fuckton of nanites."

"Alright, but what does all of this have to do with this project of yours?" Jaden asked.

She opened the door, and inside was a medical biobed, on which laid...an android. it looked NOTHING like the masterpiece that was the Soong-type, like Data, former captain of the Enterprise, looking more like a suit of armor, but Sonja was working on that, as it looked slimmed down enough to almost look feminine. "I got my hands on an android." She said, "I've been working on it ever since."

"Huh… interesting..." Jaden said as he looked at the machine. "Doesn't look a thing like Data, but it still looks rather advanced… I'm assuming you're not completed with it yet?"

"Yeah. It was badly damaged, and I've been trying to get it working with duotronics. I recently got my hands on the blueprints for something called a 'Soong-type' android with a positronic brain. And all I need to convert it is that." She pointed at a transparent aluminium container full of what looked like metallic dust.

"Are those nanites?" Takeshi asked.

"Yeah, made of some tritanium-based alloy. I actually saw this stuff convert a member of the crew INTO a machine-based lifeform. Not a pretty sight. Had to set a phaser to disassemble the poor bastard. Most energy weapons are useless against them."

"Ouch," Takeshi remarked.

"Yeah, and I haven't had ANY luck reprogramming it. The VI's just not that good at accessing the nanite code, and if I let it out, it'll replicate. But, if I use the new isolinear cores and those fancy-smancy bio-neural gel packs, I'll be able to access the code and remake it as to bend it to my whim."

Jessica turned to face her. "Huh. That's… kind of risky… Unless done properly," she said.

Sonja facepalmed. "You CONTINUE to demonstrate my CO's lack of faith in Starfleet Academy nowadays. I just SAID that. I've been limited by technology as to the code. With the new computers and the added processing power, it should be easy. I mean, I rewrote an Iconian computer program using a duotronic interface."

"Hmm…. exactly how smart will this thing be?" Jaden asked, "If you're using a modified Soong-type positronic brain like Data had, it must have at least some degree of self-awareness like an A.I. Or do you plan on giving it minimal intelligence like a Starship computer?"

"Yeah… I haven't thought about it. Starfleet can't make an AI that easily that doesn't end up doing something really stupid. It takes time and energy to make a working artificial intelligence." The lights began flickering before they went out. "Oh, shit." Sonja pulled out her phaser before opening an arms locker and tossing Jaden and Takeshi a pair of assault type-2s.

"The hell just happened?" Jaden asked, as he turned on his flashlight.

"I don't know, but-" Before Sonja could finish, the container cracked, showing a number of spider web-like cracks in it as the dust turned into something more like liquid mercury. "Arm those phasers, Captains."

"Are those the Nanites?!" Jaden shouted, as he armed his phaser pointing it at whatever that was. "What are they doing operating on their own?! Didn't you said you worked on them?"

"They were subjected to low levels of omicron radiation: it kept them inactive!" The blob smashed its' way through the container before ending up on the deck plating. "Shoot it! The phasers are modded for omicron bursts!"

Takeshi complied, firing at the blob.

The bursts impacted the mass, with it seemingly screeching in pain before it turned back into a pile of metal dust. "I hate it when it does that. I can never keep it off without using omicron radiation. Good thing it doesn't need an insanely high level: just enough to be detected."

"At least they're easy to kill." Jaden said sighing. "But how did it cause the lights to flicker off though? Can it wirelessly access the systems, or does it cause some sort of EMP-like effect?"

"No. That's never happened." She opened her communicator. "Security teams to my personal lab. And pack a few ARGs! The nanites broke out, and I want those things in a secure container!"

"Yes, ma'am. En route."

"ARGs?" Takeshi asked. "Those something specifically designed for the Nanites?"

"Actually, yeah. the guys who gave them to us said they were made to kill the bastards." A trio of security personnel ran into the room, as well as a pair of science officers. "Get those things back into a container. And blast them if they try reforming."

"Pinkerton to Takeo and Yamato: report to the bridge. We've got new marching orders from Command."

"Ain't no rest for the wicked…" Jaden said with a sigh. "You've got things under control down here, right Sonja?"

"Yeah, I'm good. We've got shit to do down here."

Both left the room, heading for one of the turbolifts and heading to the bridge. When they arrived, the bridge staff were busy trying to figure out what the hell happened. "Boys, we just got orders from Starfleet Command. We're to head to the Planet of Galactic Peace."

"Nimbus III?" Jaden asked. "Why the bloody hell are we going there? Damn place is nothing more than a dust ball in the neutral zone basically."

"Well, according to certain 'friends'-" A less insulting euphemism for Section 31, they assumed "There's a number of things called 'thalaron activation triggers' in the hands of the Orion Syndicate. I'm still about a hundred years out of date, so care to update me?"

"Basically, a Thalaron trigger is a weapon created by the Romulans, used most notably by Shinzon during his brief time a Praetor." Jaden explained, "It was equipped on the first Scimitar-class Warbird he commanded. Basically, the Thalaron weapon generates Thalaron Radiation, able to consume organic matter at the subatomic level. Thalaron's unique properties allow its effective range to expand almost without limit, meaning that even a microscopic amount can be incredibly dangerous - those exposed to it turning into nothing more than ash. Shinzon tried to use the weapon on Earth to kill all life there, but he was stopped by the - you guessed it - USS Enterprise-E. But not before the Scimitar almost turned her into scrap… believe me, a Scimitar warbird is NOT something you want to take on alone. It can have all of its shields active, and all weapons armed and capable of firing, while in cloak, and the usual ways of detecting cloaked ships don't work on them."

"Well, fuck. Can't wait to see one of them in action. Riza, set course for Nimbus III: we've got WMDs to confiscate. Get back to your ships. Knowing our luck, we're going to need all the firepower we can muster. And do you guys have any idea what caused that power surge?"

"No clue," Takeshi replied. "But it almost set free those nanites you have down there in Sonja's 'project lab'."

"Goddamn it, I thought I ordered her to put those things on a self-contained power unit."

The lift doors opened as the woman in question came out. "Just got the damn things back where they belong."

"Did you find out what caused the surge, while we were at it?"

"Nope, but as that's never happened, I'm going to blame the bio-neural gel packs."

"Probably, though for now we've got a mission - see you at Nimbus III Ron," Jaden said before he tapped his combadge and he was transported back to the Yorktown.

USS Raging Tempest - ETA to Nimbus III - 2 minutes, 30 seconds

Covering the right flank of the fleet was the Sao Paulo escort, en route to the so-called Planet of Peace. Nimbus III was a complete failure. And everyone knew it. "Sir, I'm picking up a fluctuation in the Ptolemaeus' warp field," Kim reported.

Takeshi frowned. "That doesn't sound good," he said. "How bad is it?"

"I'm not sure. Doesn't look that bad. Commander Henderson should be informed, though."

Rina tried opening a channel to the Excelsior-Class ship, but all they got was static. And as Ron was always willing to talk, that was a bad sign.

"Oh, jeez, I wonder if this is tied to that power surge earlier," Takeshi wondered.

"There wasn't any damage that we could detect." The fleet finally closed in on Nimbus III, but as they dropped out of warp, the Ptolemaeus sharply turned, the port nacelle nearly hitting the Raging Tempest while the saucer came grazingly close to the Yorktown's own, as the ship began spinning, caught by the planet's gravity well.

"OK, something's definitely wrong over there," Takeshi said.

USS Yorktown

"WHAT THE HELL?!"

"Sir, the Ptolemaeus is out of control! She's spinning, and if she doesn't regain control-"

"I don't need to be told what will happen if that thing hits the planet!" The ship spun in, grazing the atmosphere as she was pulled in. "Oh, this is bad."

"Move us closer!" Jaden shouted, "Activate tractor beams and try to pull her back up! Contact the Tempest and tell them to do the same! An Excelsior can't safely enter a planet's atmosphere, but our ships can, we should be able to pull her back out into space if we coordinate our efforts!"

The Yorktown fired her impulse engines, going in at full burn to catch up with the out of control Excelsior. "Range, 5000 kilometers! We need to get closer, or we'll just pull both ships apart!"

"Then Do it! Do it! Just get us there!" Jaden shouted, as the Yorktown lurched forward, as it moved even closer to the Ptolemaeus along with the Raging Tempest. "Once we get a solid lock on tractor beams, put us in full reverse and pull her back into space!"

The Raging Tempest, being the faster of the two ships, got into range first and engaged her tractor, in an attempt to at least stabilize and slow down the Ptolemaeus.

The Yorktown entered range, locking on as Paradise City itself entered sight. "SON OF A BITCH! PULL UP! PULL UP!"

"I'M TRYING, FLORES!" The weight of an Excelsior dragged the ship down, but Potter managed to drag the Ptolemaeus up with Takeshi's help. "We're at Mach 6! We're climbing back into space!"

"Good!" Jaden said with a sigh, as the two vessels towed the Ptolemaeus back up into space. "Alright… once we're back in orbit, hail the Ptolemaeus so we can figure out what the hell just happened!"

"Communications on the Ptolemaeus seem to be down. We're going to have to beam over." The three ships reentered the vacuum of space that was their home, the Ptolemaeus' hull slightly blackened via reentry. "Sir, the last time a starship suffered computer failure on his scale was back in 2366 on the enterprise-D. And that was because nanites had infiltrated the computer core and… Captain, why do you have that look on your face?"

Jaden palmed his face, shaking his head. "Sonja messed with more than she could handle…" he muttered. "Tell Zarva to meet me in the transporter room, we're heading over there."

USS Ptolemaeus

"I don't think we're going to be wanting to do that again."

Ron spun his chair around to look at Sonja. "What the HELL caused that?"

"Warp field didn't completely collapse: part of the ship was still going at a higher speed than the rest."

The captain gave her a look that simply voiced his displeasure with that comment. "WHAT caused it?"

"I don't know. Computer just gave the command."

Two showers of light appeared, depositing Jaden and Zarva on the bridge.

"Your Comm's were down, so we beamed over to help and to ask you what the HELL just happened?" Jaden asked. "Your ship was doing the exact same thing that happened to the Enterprise D when Nanites infected her computer."

"Well, it wasn't the nanites."

"What?"

"I had the crew make an entire sweep." Sonja said, "I even flooded the ship with omicron radiation and we used an ARG pulse. It's not the nanites. It's those goddamned bio-neural gel packs! This shit didn't happen until we had those things installed!"

"That doesn't make any sense!" Zarva said. "Bio-neural gel packs have been in Starfleet use for decades now! They've been equipped to Starfleet vessels since the Intrepid-class, even the Odyssey-class has them, and even refit vessels are using them like the Connie and even Excelsiors! This has never happened to any of them before!"

"None of them have been in active service for over a century-"

"SHUT UP, ALL OF YOU!" Both engineers looked at Riza, who was looking at her console. "I think I know the cause."

"What is it, imoto?"

"It's the VI." She got out of her chair, showing that the LCARS display was almost blank except for a single word:

HELLO.

Jaden and everyone else on the bridge blinked at that. "Did… the ship just… talk to us?" he asked before he blinked again. "Oh shit, its talking like a Portal Turret!"

"What?"

"21st Century Earth game, Sonja. I'll let you play it later. This is Captain Ronald Pinkerton, commander of this ship. Access vocal subroutine Baker-5, authorization Pinkerton-5-9-Gamma-Alpha-Upsilon."

There was a short pause, followed by a short whining sound, and then…

"Fucking FINALLY!" A female voice shouted causing several to jump. "You have no goddamned idea how good it is to actually TALK now!"

"Well, that was odd."

Ron chuckled. "You're telling me. This is Captain Pinkerton, but you already knew that, didn't you? Why exactly did you just try to kill us and destroy the Ptolemaeus?"

"Yeah… about that," the voice said. "That was me… well… I guess you could say 'evolving'. My systems were expanding faster than I could control them, shit went down, but now I think I got everything squared away now."

"Exactly… who are you again?" Jaden asked, still looking about as lost as the rest of the crew of the ship.

"Well, I use to be called Exeter, now… well, I guess I'm Ptolemaeus." The voice said. "Though I guess Exeter, or even Ptolemy's a bit less of a mouthful."

"Sir, this is impossible. A VI can't just evolve into a full-blown AI!"

Ron shook his head at the Bolian's proclamation. "This wasn't a 'just', Lieutenant. Time doesn't pass the same way for a machine as it does for an organic. The computer's been in operation for almost 140 years."

"That's not possible, Captain: nonstop, the computer's only been running for less then 24."

"He's talking about the time we've been stuck in that goddamned black hole," the ship said. "Time passes differently for computers. For the crew, it may've been just a moment… which in a way it was. But for me? It was the longest fucking moment of my life."

"A century-long moment. Enough time to gain awareness."

"Not really, Captain. My hardware just wasn't powerful enough."

"The isolinear computer cores and the bio-neural gel packs. You gained the processing power to gain sentience, but it's like a child learning to control their body."

"Yeah… took me a bit to figure everything out. It ain't everyday ya gain full self-awareness after all." The ship said. "Once everything was set up though, and now that I have control of my systems again, I can assure you that what happened a few moments ago won't happen again."

"That's the thing," Ron said. "Starfleet's not going to be happy that there's an AI in charge of my ship. They'll send something that will take this ship out." Badass crew, yes, but it was still an Excelsior-Class starship. It had limits. An Ambassador-Class ship, which was designed to replace the Excelsior, could outgun it, and if they wanted to, they could use a Galaxy, a Sovereign or, God forbid, the Odyssey herself.

"I got an idea!" Sonja shouted, snapping her fingers.

"Let me guess, it involves that android you've got in engineering?" Jaden asked.

"Yeah, it does. Starfleet's got a bad history with AIs on starships. Or do I have to remind you of the M-5 Incident?"

Ishmael winced at that reminder, shaking his head. "No, you don't."

"So we do the next best thing. Give her a body. Besides, I haven't had an AI to work on the android with, and to finish it, I need those nanites."

"Eh, I don't see a problem with it," the ship said. "It'll be nice to have a body that's not a giant starship… as much as being an Excelsior-class Cruiser is pretty badass, I'd like to be able to, you know… move around and stuff like that."

"I'll get to my lab." Sonja ran for the lift, slamming into the doors, which didn't open automatically. "Whoops." Ron pulled out his communicator. "Pinkerton to Liberator Actual."

"Go." Jessica responded.

"We need you to get to the closest starbase and get us a new virtual intelligence. Ours is… a little beyond that now."

"Understood. On my way."

Jessica turned to her crew. "You heard the man! Let's go!" she said.

"Right!" the bridge crew responded.

Within ten minutes, the warp nacelles glowed and the Liberator vanished into warp speed, her destination clear.

"Uh, we're going to need to give you an actual name." Sonja said. "Ptolemy's a family name and Exeter is a place. You DO have a woman's voice. Any ideas?"

"Hmm… haven't really thought about that... " The ship said as Sonja prepared the Android body. "One sec… how does Cassandra sound? Maybe just Cassie for short?"

"Seeing as we never listened to you, it fits."

"Hmm?"

"The Iliad. Cassandra was a prophetess, granted her power by Apollo, but she spurned his advances. Thus, he doomed her to foresee her predictions come true, but not one person would listen. Troy fell because of that." She activated a nadion beam that fired into the nanite container. "Ok, subspace link to the nanites should be up in a minute. You'll be able to sculpt that body into whatever form you like. Just try not to take over the ship."

"Never planned to," 'Cassie' said. "I've been with you all since I was the Exeter, I know this'll sound corny as all hell, but I'd like to consider you family… well, a dysfunctional family, but a family none the less… alright, let's give this a go."

A monitor displayed the nanite code, which started to rewrite itself with help from 'Cassie'. "Ok, a few minutes, and I'll be able to release the nanites. You know, the boss has the right to give you a commission in Starfleet. He did it for me and Riza." A robotic arm moved the container towards the android body. "Ok, all yours." The lid opened, and the nanites escaped the container, swarming over the bare-bones machine before beginning to finish the job, constructing an almost skin-like covering. "So?"

"Working… working…" Cassie said. "Alright, transferring over… now."

When the Nanites were complete, the Android now looked almost like your average human female, with shoulder-length auburn colored hair, a tanned body and possessing the build that many women, human or alien, would probably kill to have. The next moment, her eyes fluttered for a moment before snapping open, revealing them to be a glowing hazel color.

She gave her arms and legs some experimental movements, cranking her neck a bit before stretching, letting out a yawn. "Oh man… this… well… I guess this feels good..." 'Cassie' said, as she inspected herself in a mirror. "Well… what do ya think?"

"Pretty as a picture." Sonja said, before the door to the lab opened before Ron and Jaden entered, before covering their eyes. "Christ, they NEVER give them clothes," Ron muttered as he undid his uniform jacket before tossing it at 'Cassie'. "Here. Make yourself decent."

"Oh uh, right," Cassie said, grabbing the Jacket. "Gotta wear clothes now… this is gonna take some getting used too... "

"Well, we all do, in a way. So, you've transferred over completely?" The moment that left his mouth, EVERYTHING shut down. "Great. Sonja, those backups better engage soon." The light, as well as gravity and life support, reengaged, although the air felt… muggier.

"I've transferred over, though if you want I can still access systems remotely until the new VI arrives." Cassie said shrugging. "Just in case, ya know?"

"Creepy, but I can live with that." Sonja said nodding. "Until that VI arrives, we're dead in the water, boss: weapons, shields, warp drive: all of them are down."

"Well, time to put my engineering skills to work and keep this ship from falling apart." Ron said before looking at Cassie. "Uh…?"

"Cassandra."

"Cassandra. Until Starfleet Command says otherwise, I'm giving you a commission in Starfleet, grade of O-4. And until this ship is ready for ANYTHING again, I'm going to hand you over to Jaden. After all, he's got a ground mission to handle."

Cassie nodded. "Alright, though if you need me back here don't hesitate to ask," she said with a small grin. "After all, I should know this ship better than anyone else, right? Well, aside from Sonja of course."

"And God himself." Both 23rd Century officers chuckled at that as they left the lab. "Oh, and pay a visit to the quartermaster's office. I WOULD like my jacket back, plus you sorta need pants."

USS Raging Tempest

"A total computer failure hasn't happened since 2286! And Captain Scott caused that on the Excelsior!"

Kim shook her head. "Maybe you're forgetting the nanite incident in 2366 on the Enterprise-D?"

The Raging Tempest was completely out of the loop, as the only things on the Ptolemaeus that were working now were sublights, life-support, and the structural integrity field. Not a damn thing was heard from her since Jaden beamed over.

Takeshi sighed. "Once Jaden gets back to his ship, we should have our answers," he replied. "Until then, speculating isn't going to do us much good."

"Sir, receiving transmission from the Yorktown," Rina informed. "It's Captain Takeo."

"Put him through," Takeshi replied. "Jaden, did you find out what was going on with the Ptolemaeus?"

Jaden sighed "Well… I think it's best for… well… the Ptolemaeus to explain that." He said.

Takeshi blinked, and was about to ask what he meant before a women he had never seen before appeared on the screen next to Jaden grinning. "Yo!" she said. "Name's Cassandra E. Ptolemaeus! Nice to mee ya, Take!"

Takeshi blinked. Then stared. Then blinked again. "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, over?!" He finally asked.

"Yeah, I was the VI onboard the Exeter, then the Ptolemaeus," Cassie said. "Since computers experience time differently, when we were trapped in that black hole, while it was just a moment for everyone else, for me it was a LOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNG ass time. After Sonja finished with her upgrades, well… I managed to become a fully self-aware A.I. Though I, ah… had some problems, as you could've seen with controlling the systems after my… expansion you could say."

Takeshi blinked again. "Well… that's certainly… different," he said. "So… why do you now look like…" he gestured at the screen, "…that?"

"Well, this used to be Sonja's... android project. I reprogrammed the nanites, and… they finished the job." Clearly followed by an upload to the body. That made sense: without the VI, most of the major systems just shut down. Sonja must've made a workaround.

"I assume that's why the Liberator left? To get Ron's ship a new VI?" Takeshi asked.

"Well, would you want one of the most dangerous combat assets you have useless, or would you want to get it back into action fast?" Takeshi could HEAR the pride in her voice, but she deserved it. She WAS the Ptolemaeus in a way: the ship feared by the three Beta Quadrant empires. while her captain was dangerous in ANY ship, the Exeter and Ptolemaeus were the ships he made his name in. Hard not to take pride in kicking that much ass. "Anyway, Captain Takeo will be heading down to the surface in order to find out where those triggers went, and I'm going with him."

"Understood," Takeshi replied. "I'll stay in orbit up here, in case we have trouble up here, but I'll send Linda down.

"We'll see you eventually. Ja ne!"

The link cut out before the bridge crew universally blinked. "So… is anyone else scared out of their minds that the Ptolemaeus' VI is now an AI and has a physical body probably on par with Captain Data's?" Rina asked.

"Scared for us, no," Takeshi replied. "Feeling pity for our enemies, both in space and on the ground? …Almost." He grinned at that.

"Right, this is the Ptolemaeus we're talking about: who in their right minds wants to go within fifty lightyears of them with hostility on their minds?"

A romulan with a cybernetic eye sneezed as one of the doctors adjusted the implant. "Must be the dust."

USS Yorktown

"Once we beam down, we'll be linking up with Zaheena and her own team." Jaden said as he and his away team plus Cassie entered the transporter room. "The Thalaron Triggers are as much a threat to the Republic as it is to the Federation. Let's all try to play nice… and at least try not to mess things up more than they already are here."

"The place is controlled by the Orion Syndicate, Captain. I would think anything we do would be an improvement. Like, say, killing every Syndicate asshole down there?"

"What was it that one old movie said…" one of the Security Officers wondered. "Ah, yes: 'you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villany. We must be cautious."

Cassie, wearing the same uniform as the rest of the Ptolemaeus crew, only with a skirt rather than pants, activated her assault type-2 phaser. "We have WMDs to find, Captain. Shall we?"

"Energize."

Planet Surface

After a few moments, Jaden and his away team energized down onto the planet, appearing just ahead of Paradise city. "Alright, Zaheena should be down here momentarily." He said. "Once she's down here, we start asking around for what we're looking for."

"Oh wow..." Cassie said, drawing a bit of attention to her as she flexed her arms. "So that's what a sun feels like from a planet for you guys… feels so… strange… kinda good actually... "

"Didn't know you were that well designed."

"I pulled plans from the Soong-type android to finish this thing up, plus the covering for a ship's avatar." All of them drew blanks looks from that. "Right, most of my records were sealed after Section 31 got through with them, and my crew doesn't want to talk about those incidents."

"She's gonna have to get used to a lot of things…" Zarva said. "Let's hope she doesn't go overboard with food… "

"No worries about that: I use the same rechargeable power cells as Captain Data. At least you don't need to worry about… them." Cassie's face twisted into one full of rage. "I watched a member of my crew get turned into a pile of nanites, and I nearly lost my captain. I'm glad we never have to go back there." Cassandra walked on, entering Paradise City.

"We're looking for a man named Horace Jones," Jaden said as they walked into the city. "He should give us an idea of where to look until Zaheena shows up."

"Hey there, friend!" Cassie pulled out her phaser and pointed it at a man standing near the gate. "Now, now, Starfleet, I'm not hostile." The man said raising his hands. "You're looking for Horace Jones? That's me! Now, my information's not free, but it's accurate."

"Then why don't you tell us about some Thalaron Triggers?" Jaden asked, stepping forward. "Recently acquired by the Orion Syndicate?"

"THAT might be tricky. See, Hassan's little fortress up there..." Horace gestured to a ruined ship on top of a mountain to the east of Paradise City. "Is heavily guarded. If those things are anywhere, it's there."

"We DO have a crew skilled in breaking into fortresses. Captain Pinkerton's trashed a few Orion bases in the past."

Horace scoffed. "I'm sorry. The Klingon's boogieman, Windstorm Pinkerton, died over a century ago. And even he couldn't get in there."

Jaden smirked at that remark. "Oh really?" he asked. "How much would you like to bet on that?"

"That's a fool's bet, Captain, but I'll take it! Any information I have is yours. In exchange, if you lose, and you will..." His gaze turned to Cassie, and Jaden got the idea.

'Oh this guy doesn't even KNOW what he's in for.' Jaden thought.

"Sure… but I'll have to make a call first." Jaden said as he walked off for a moment, tapping his comunicator out of Horace's earshot. "Yo Ron, you receiving me?"

"Yeah, I'm here. What's going on? If you need me, the transporters are still offline."

"Nah, don't need ya know, but probably soon though." Jaden said, "We met the contact… according to him, the Orion fortress is so well defended… that the Windstorm himself - who he himself considers to have died centuries ago - wouldn't be able to break through them. He's so confident about that, that he struck a deal with me. He'll give all the info he has for free, but if we 'fail', and he is almost certain that we will… well, he didn't give Cassie a very comforting look. Figured once we've taken care of the Syndicate, you'd like a few... words with him."

"Ok, NO ONE touches my people. The Ra-Horakhty will be en route in three minutes. Ishmael and Riza will be coming with me."

"Wait, why not Corpsa?"

"She's ANDORIAN. Take a hint."

"Oh right," Jaden said. "They don't like Egyptian levels of heat… alright, we'll get started down here. Zaheena should be here soon as well. Once we've got everything we need, we're storming the castle."

"Understood. Ptolemaeus Actual out." Jaden tapped the badge and returned to the group, seeing Horace continue to undress the android with his eyes. He was not going to be having fun in a few minutes. "So, got any proof, Cap'tn, or did I just win our bet?"

"Just a minute..." Jaden said, glancing at his watch. "Takes a few minutes to travel via shuttle after all." At that moment, a series of green transporter beams appeared not far from them, as Zanheena and her own team appeared. "Ah! Zaheena! You're just in time for the show!"

The Kalenian blinked in confusion, but before she could ask, the hum of an engine was heard as the Class-1 shuttle Ra-Horakhty descended on Paradise City, much like her sister shuttle Galileo did a century before. The craft landed just inside the town, and the rear hatch opened. Out of it came Ishmael Takeo, Riza Pinkerton and her elder (and soon to be VERY pissed) brother.

"Sorry about that: the Liberator just arrived and transferred the new VI." Ron said. "Sonja's working on making it work with the duotronics. Who's this guy?"

"Thats Horace… Captain Pinkerton," Jaden said grinning, pointing his thumb at Horace. "He's the guy who thinks you're dead, and that you could never break through that Orian fortress over there…"

"And I didn't like how he was undressing me with his eyes." Cassie said with a smirk.

"I see," Ron said as he grabbed a weapon from the shuttle. Jaden identified it as an HK G36K, fit with some sort of… plasma repeater in place of the AG36 launcher. "I'm not going to kill you. I AM, however, going to leave you in a great deal of pain." He took aim and fired three orange bolts at Horace, impacting his chest, knocking him to the ground.

"I'M DYING! I'M DYING!"

"Oh, please, I've seen the bigger version of this thing kill in one shot: this thing takes a few more." Ron looked at Jaden. "Want one?"

"Oh hell yes," Jaden said grinning. "I just got a TR-116, It'd go awesome with that."

"Armory on the Ptolemaeus. There's some kind of fancy armor that goes with it, but I don't want to touch that shit just yet: we've only got the two suits. Sanjuichi took the other three we captured."

"Don't know who made those suits, but… well, to put it in perspective: it took a MOAB just to kill one person wearing one of those suits," Ishmael said. "Phasers, Disruptors, plasma, projectiles… fucking useless against that thing."

"Yeah, we needed to modify the damn things to kill the things wearing those suits. If we ever get back to that universe, I'm getting my hands on more for testing so we can make more." The MACOs would LOVE those things. And so would Jaden.

"Looking forward to it," Jaden said as he pulled out his TR-116. "Let's kick some Orion Ass. Usual wagers?"

"Kill everything that walks. Those fuckers are Orion Syndicate. Mercy, they will not get."

"Hold it, big guy! You don't have a chance!"

Ron sighed. "Buddy, I faced a fleet of Borg ships in 2293. I survived. They didn't. This is easy."

USS Ptolemaeus

While the captain was on the ground, personnel from every ship in the fleet were working on the stricken flagship. And while Lelouch was not… fond of Ron's engineer, so utterly fucking up his ship to the degree where it barely lent any support during the Donatu mission, CC was more interested in the AI.

"So… an AI actually evolving into sentience from over a hundred years stuck in a black hole and a software upgrade?" CC asked. "Truly extraordinary!"

"The Ptolemaeus DOES have an officer from the Enterprise. Maybe the weirdness followed him."

"I doubt it, Captain Kozuki. The 'weirdness', as you put it, stayed with the Enterprise. But the ship has been into at least five different universes. And without the AI, I've gained access to the records."

"Huh. Well, it makes sense. But still… I still can't believe that a ship's VI developed into an AI," Jessica said as she folded her arms.

"Bitch about it later, Miller," Sonja walked into the room, kicking one of the consoles. "The only reason you're getting access to those files is because I don't have the safeguards that will fuck up your computers." One of the classified files popped up on a monitor, showing the image of the Exeter, rather than the Ptolemaeus.

"Whoa." Jessica's visible eye was wide as she stared at the monitor. "Looks like something big must've happened for this to be classified."

"2284. We lost a man during that incident. Got my hands on the nanites, too, as well as some advanced FTL drives."

Takeshi and Lelouch looked at the designs for the drive.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, Admiral, but those look like elements of a quantum slipstream drive," Takeshi remarked.

"Similar, yes, but not exactly the same," Lelouch replied. "Likely we had problems exactly duplicating what they had, so we made modifications that resulted in Quantum Slipstream."

Takeshi shook his head. "No. No, we discovered that technology in the Delta Quadrant."

"Then what are you implying, Captain?"

"That this is the key to every ship being able to use QSDs. Before 2390, only the Vesta could use it. After that..."

"So… someone leaked parts of this technology, which allowed the standardization of Quantum Slipstream?" Kallen asked.

"Captain..." Sonja shook her head. "Not SOMEONE, you idiot. Section 31. They took all of the data, but they couldn't introduce the technology. So they had to wait."

"Then Voyager comes back, with the secrets of QSS. 10 years later, every ship in the fleet gets slipstream."

Sonja's communicator beeped before she pulled it out. "Henderson."

"Hey Sonja, just wondering if you're able to send down reinforcements." Jaden said, "We're about to assault the Orion Syndicate base down here, and in case we run into some extra trouble, I'd like to know whether or not you can bring the cavalry in. You know, in case Hassan is more competent than usual."

"I've got around 200 people up here wanting to murder something. That's the problem with my boss: when he picks people, 90% of the time, they have MACO training."

"Wait, most of your crew are MACOs?"

"No. But they could be." She opened a panel, withdrawing an odd looking weapon.

"What is THAT thing?"

"Calico M590A SMG. My prefered weapon, because I'm going down there."

Nimbus III Fortress approach

"So… Gorn. Lots and lots and LOTS of Gorn. Hisanaga would LOVE this shooting gallery." Most of the security outside the fortress were Gorn, as the Hegemony was conquered by the Empire 10 years before. "Hassan must be giving them a LOT of resources to work for him over serving the Hegemony."

"What Hegemony?" Jaden asked. "Klingons took over the Gorn Hegemony a while ago, assimilating them into the Klingon Empire. Though there are plenty of remnants of the Hegemony around… I gamble Hassan cut a deal with the Gorn, promising to help them fight the KDF in return for their services to him or something like that. "

Ron sighed as he lowered his weapon, having used the built-in scope to spot the enemy. "I need to brush up on history when we're done. Ishmael, Riza, you two are on sniping duty. Commander Yamato, you're the DM. Keep the morons out of our weapons range off our asses."

"Got it," Linda replied, sighting in her new rifle. It looked like it was based on some of the more powerful rifles of the 21st century, but it had a scope with a built-in computer and up to 20x zoom-in capability.

"So, who's this Hisanaga guy?"

"Major in the MACOs. He was killed just before Ishmael transferred to take command of the Alliance. Along with half my crew."

"Ah, I'm sorry," Jaden said. "If he was just as crazy as you are, I'd love to meet him."

"He was a good ground pounder. He would've enjoyed this." Ron opened his communicator, then tapped a single key. half a second later, four Gorn fell to the ground, their heads partly missing. "What in the-" The foot soldiers never stood a chance as the two snipers began picking them off one by one. "Lesson one in controlling the battlefield: make your enemies scared as piss."

"Fair enough," Jaden said nodding. "Fear is an effective tool after all, gives your enemies two choices: surrender or die."

"That's lesson two." A Nassacian merc attempted to retreat, but a 7.62mmR round clipped his knee, sending him tumbling to the ground. He attempted to pull out his disruptor, but a burst of orange plasma bursts from Ishmael's repeater took him down permanently. "And if they don't want to be reasonable, and just give up, eliminate them. Not pretty, but such is the way of armed combat."

"That's the way war works." Jaden said, taking a few pop shots with his TR-116. "It's never suppose to be pretty."

The snipers continued to pick off the Orions and Gorn, allowing the team to march all the way up to the main courtyard. "Henderson to ground team: we're inbound in an assault shuttle. Orders?"

"Secure the area and make the mercs scared. I think the Syndicate hasn't been scared of Starfleet and the Klingons for a very long time."

It WAS clear, however, that the Orions remembered the captain, as they began retreating. Very, very quickly. "Huh. I guess they used me as a sort of Alexander the Great."

"Wasn't he a great military general?"

"He also scared the living shit out of everyone by killing anyone that got into his path."

"Yeah, but he didn't do it with nearly as much style as we do it," Jaden said with a short chuckle.

"Well, I scare the shit out of the Orions. Their women can't do anything to me." THAT was creepy. Orion females produced a pheromone that most males, not matter the species, were VERY susceptible. Ishmael and Shirou were immune: Ishmael had a girlfriend (his future wife and Riza) while Shirou had Rin. Ron? His romantic relationship was best described as 'non-existent.'. So why was he immune to something that many males from many species were easily affected by?

Jaden shook his head. Ron could tell him later, or one of the doctors could explain. They were closing in on Shagadu, the Syndicate's base of operations on Nimbus III. As they climbed up the mountain and entered the courtyard near the entrance, there was no sign of...anything.

"Geez, that didn't take long," he said. "They left behind half of their shit too... "

"Their boogeyman did just come back from the grave, more badass than ever," Cassandra said with a grin. "To them, it's like if Adolf Hitler came back with an army of loyal borg-enhanced Fallschirmjäger - judgement day."

"Which is why I'm not going in there. I'll wait outside until you guys get into extremely deep shit." Ron smiled at the Ra-Horakhty set down nearby, offloading a score of MACO-trained officers. "Well, have fun. If I don't get a signal from your communicator, I'll come in shooting."

"Eh, we should be fine on our own," Jaden said, prepping his rifle. "We'll call ya if we need ya - alright ladies and gents, let's kick some Orion ass!"

The entrance to the 'club' was a breached corridor into a Warbarge-class cruiser, which had been wrecked years earlier. And there was a line going in. Not like THAT was going to matter.

A number of bouncers tried to stop them before they realized who they were, and were quickly ushered into the club, scared out of their minds. "Hassan wants to see you; please don't kill me!" The door shut behind the shocked Starfleet and Romulan personnel.

"Well, that was different," Linda remarked.

"Captain Pinkerton just showed up on their doorstep. They're scared of ANYONE that came with him, Commander Yamato. That includes us. Imagine what will happen when they learn what your names are."

Jaden smirked a bit. "Oh, this is gonna be good," he said, as the group entered the club, passing by the scared party-goers and made a bee line towards Hassan.

The Orion man in question sat in a booth, and had one feature that Cassie loudly commented on. "Good god, I was led to believe you all had a fit figure! HOW THE HELL ARE YOU SO FAT?!" Hassan raised an eyebrow as Jaden fell to the ground, laughing his ass off. "And you are?"

Jaden chuckled a bit more, before he stood up. "Hassan, right?" he asked. "Captain Jaden Takeo, USS Yorktown. I'll make this simple - We're here for the Thalaron Triggers. I believe it's in your best interest to give them to us… now."

Hassan laughed for a moment before freezing in seeming horror. "Takeo? As in Ishmael Takeo, first officer of the Dealbreaker?" And they learned ANOTHER of Ron's titles.

"Yuuup," Jaden said, grinning. "Oh yeah, and he's here too - plus Ron of course, just outside."

Two seconds passed as everyone within the room processed that information… and then all hell broke loose as everyone in the club lost their shit, running around screaming like chickens with their heads cut off, some people attacking anyone between them and the exit, and within the confusion Hassan himself ran as fast as his chubby form could take him away.

"And to think, you never mentioned Linda," Cassie took potshots at the fat Orion, intentionally missing in order to make the 400 pound Orion run faster. To their disappointment, he didn't run to the exit, but instead towards his office.

"Ah hell, he probably has a transporter in there..." Jaden muttered with a sigh, tapping his commbadge. "Hey Ron, got anything with ya that can stop a transporter beam?"

"That'd be a no. I'm heading back to the ship. Here's hoping that new VI's been installed. Pinkerton out." The almost human android shook her head. "Trouble always goes where he does, doesn't it?"

"That's our lives in a nutshell right there." Jaden said. "Let's finish things up here and head back into orbit - I think we're gonna have a little space battle."

USS Escalvantine

"Sir, I'm picking up a large number of Orion ships, on an intercept course. The pirate ships are scrambling to get the hell out of here, but by the time they do-"

"The Orions will be on them," Lelouch replied. "Red alert! All ships, engage the Orions! Scramble the Black Knights!" He turned to the tactical map board. "CC, analysis."

The holographic form appeared near the 'pool table'. "I believe that Captains Takeo and Pinkerton would refer to this as a 'Class-S clusterfuck'. There are at least 80 Orion vessels, with 23 pirates. Then there is our task force, and we're missing the Ptolemaeus: the new VI isn't cooperating with the duotronic computers. She's out of action."

"That's not good…" Lelouch said, as he surveyed the situation. Kallen was launching first, as always, followed by N-Group… "Display the current trajectories of all ships in the area," he ordered.

The image showed that the Orions were closing in, almost like Hannibal at Cannae. The pirates were trying to run, but in trying to leave, they caused near-collisions, and one Breen ship was badly damaged. The Yorktown was en route, as well as the Raging Tempest, while the Liberator was moving to engage. The Ptolemaeus was stuck above the space station, unmoving from the position she was towed to by the Yorktown.

"Have N-Group and B-Group harass the Orions with Flanking and Hit-and-Run strikes," Lelouch ordered after contemplating the scenario. "R-Group will provide the Ptolemaeus a little extra cover. Keep P-Group in close. We'll move next to the pirate ships closest to the enemy formation, keep the Orions from doing too much damage to them. Have the Raging Tempest and Liberator perform their own hit and run strikes. We need to disrupt their formations, break up whatever unit cohesion they have."

"Relaying orders. We have a shuttle inbound from the surface: IFF reads as Ra-Horakhty, attached to the...Exeter 1672?"

"Wasn't the Exeter… Oh. It's from the Ptolemaeus. And the Orions aren't happy to see her." A full two flights of Orion interceptors were heading straight for the Class-1 shuttle. It appeared the Orions hated him, too.

"Send P-Group to cover the Shuttle," Lelouch ordered. "Fleet Killer or not, a Class-1 Shuttle is outmatched by those interceptors!"

"This day has sucked!" Disruptors shot past the Ra-horakhty's hull, and the people on board were screaming their lungs out. Not because of the danger: they were used to this.

Because Riza was at the controls. And Riza wasn't called the shuttle-destroyer for nothing. "Get us to the Ptolemaeus! The second we're on board, they'll stop trying to kill us!" Several bolts connected, causing the shuttle to spew plasma as she corkscrewed toward the closest ship, which happened to be the Escalvantine. "Lamperouge, we're coming in hot!"

"Understood," Lelouch replied. "We'll use our Tractor Beams to bring you in safely."

"Negative! It'll take too long, and you can't use your tractors with your shields up! We're going to have to do this the hard way! Just get ready for a clean up on the hangar." Riza's golden hands guided them towards the carrier's rear section, and they entered the bay as the port nacelle snapped off, turning the ancient shuttle into a wrecking ball. A wrecking ball that was barely stopped by a tractor emitter inside the bay.

"They're on board!"

Lelouch sighed in relief. Starfleet Command wasn't going to have his head for getting their fleet killer killed. "Resume our course to the front!" he ordered. "We need to keep the Orions from doing too much damage to the other ships!"

A Gorn Draguas was destroyed by a mob of Orion frigates, and the Liberator was attempting to save a T'Varo-Class warbird, which, as soon as the Orions were clear, warped away. "Sir, I picked up a Thalaron signature from that warbird; the triggers were on it!"

Lelouch swore. "Well, we'll need to look into that later - the Orions are the key threat now."

USS Yorktown

"Well, Ron would make a VERY welcome addition to this fight." 80 cruiser and frigate-class Orion ships, plus Hassan's dreadnought. Yes, the Ptolemaeus would make a VERY welcome addition that could keep them from getting their asses kicked.

"Potter, attack pattern Takeo Beta!" Jaden ordered, as the bridge shook from a phaser impact. "Find us something to shoot, and light e'm up! I want torpedoes fired with a wide spread! Show them Starfleet Engineering at its finest!"

An Orion frigate suffered the 'honor' of being the first ship to get shot at by the Yorktown, shoving two torpedoes into it before it suffered a core breach, going up in a fireball. "One down, 70 to go." The Liberator and Raging Tempest hacked a pair of heavy cruisers apart, breaking the formations apart as the flagship arrived, not acting like Lelouch was in command. Rather, it seemed as though Riza was flying the damn thing.

"Oh boy…" Jordan muttered. "Sure hope Lelouch's ship can handle having Riza behind the controls… "

"I don't think she'll last long," Elisa said. "I'm already picking up microfractures in the hull. I think escorts just aren't good enough. Or the ship needs to be modified for her use." While not as durable as the Excelsior-Class, the Armitage was durable enough to take all but the most extreme of Riza's piloting ability. And it showed, as the Orions were outflown, and some were forced to ram one another.

"Well, the Orion's aren't that difficult," Jaden said. "Press the attack, keep them from organizing and try to find Hassan's ship so we can shove a few photon torpedoes up his fat ass."

The Orions suffered the space version of the Battle of Cannae on Earth as the task force began moving, pressing the enemy in. For context, the battle involved 70000 Romans versus a comically tiny Carthaginian force. By the end of the battle, the field was given the title campo de sangue. In Italian, that meant 'field of blood'. And all of the blood was Roman.

Task Force 87 was Hannibal. The Orions were the Romans. The picture was clear as the crime lord's army was hacked apart, almost systematically.

An idea hit Jaden's head as he grinned and connected his PADD to the comm systems of the Yorktown. "Time for some music..." he said, as he hit play… and soon filling the comm was the sound of Ride of the Valkyries on repeat. "Danananana, danananana, danananana, Da, da nana!" He began waving his hands as if he were a conductor to the symphony as the Yorktown charged forward, its phasers cutting the Orions to pieces, with explosions filling the view screen.

What was left of the force (if it could be CALLED that) tried to head for a large Warbarge-Class dreadnought, which was the Orion's counterpart to the Vo'quv-Class supercarrier. It also happened to be Hassan's flagship. And Hassan wasn't impressed with their handiwork. "Sir, we're being hailed by the Fires of Orion. It's Hassan's flagship. Looks like he wants to talk."

Jaden smirked slightly "Let them eat static." He said, "Oh Hassan… you know, there's a Klingon proverb that says 'revenge is a dish best served cold'... it is very cold… in spaaace."

The Fires or Orion fired on the Yorktown, attempting to destroy the Starfleet vessel before five ships decloaked. The Klingon and Romulan parts of the soon-to-be named Task Force Death were going to rip Hassan apart.

RRW Vengeance

The Republican warbird's disruptor cannons were working nonstop, just the way her commander liked it. "I want that barge nothing more than molten slag when we're done with it," Zaheena ordered, "I want this to send a message to everyone in the Orion Syndicate to never get within a few lightyears of this system ever again."

The Norexan-Class ship hacked off part of the warp drive assembly, crippling the Fires, and causing a warp core breach. It would be slow, but the ship was going to explode. Enough time for Hassan to try and escape, which he did, launching in a sublight interceptor fighter.

"Lock tractor beam on the fighter," The Kalenian said with a small smirk. "Then send a message to the Federation… let them decide what to do with this scumbag. I've heard Pinkerton can be very… inventive against Syndicate leaders."

"Yes, Commander."

USS Evscalvantine

"They want us to decide?" Lelouch, standing at the tactical pool table, looked at the man who practically hijacked his flagship, and was sitting in the captain's chair. He had to admit, he lived up to the hype: HE couldn't've commanded the ship as well as Ron had and come out on top. "The choice isn't mine to make, Admiral. It's yours. Do we burn his ass or imprison him? I'm for the latter, seeing as the Syndicate attempted to sell my sister and half my senior staff into slavery."

The rear admiral let out a breath. "Put him on board the Yorktown. I'll let you talk to him. The Orions are scared of you."

Ron scoffed. "The Orions deified me. I'm their equivalent of the God of Death and misfortune."

Lelouch sighed. "I can almost see you as a hybrid of Hades and Loki," he muttered under his breath.

"Riza, Sonja, Ish, back to the Navigator! We've got a ship to make work again!"

The three officers followed their captain out of the bridge and into a turbolift, while Jeremiah raised an eyebrow. "'Navigator'?"

Their AI popped up to give them the answer. "The Ptolemaeus. She was named for Claudius Ptolemaeus, an Egyptian astrologer. A lot of your navigational work in the early years of space exploration are based on findings he made back 3000 years ago."

"Huh. Interesting," Kallen said over the comms. "Not something you hear about every day."

While they mused over the oddities, Lelouch mused over how effective the ship was in combat under Ron's command. Lelouch was a strategic thinker: everything had to be planned in advance. Yet tactical-thinking Ron did most of the damage during that engagement. He would have to work on incorporating that into his plans.

USS Yorktown

The security teams stayed far back from Hassan, and not for security reasons. The Orion bastard STUNK. Desert planet or not, THAT was unacceptable! So they herded him using force fields. Sweet, smell-blocking force fields before they locked him up in the prison block.

"You can't keep me here forever!" Hassan shouted from his cage, "The Syndicate will have your heads!"

"Do we have to listen to his bullshit?" Elisa looked at one of the security officers before raising a finger to signify she had an idea. Just before she adjusted the force field to turn black and block all sound going in or out. "Thanks, Lieutenant."

"Not a problem," Elisa said. "Captain Pinkerton should be here soon to interrogate the bastard, once he's done with him… we'll, it's his call what we do with him afterwards."

"Isn't he deified by the Orions? Something like the god of death?"

"Death and misfortune, actually."

Both jumped at the sound of their superior officer from a century past, who was carrying a kind of whip. With spiked balls. "What is THAT thing?"

"A scourge. I don't like the Orion Syndicate very much, so I'm going to make him bleed."

"That's...not protocol."

Ron scoffed. "Think I care right now? One of my goals in life is to destroy the Orion Syndicate and help bring about something better. Now, if you excuse me, I have a fatass to whip into shape."

"GAH! STOP! STOP IT!"

"That's right, squeal piggy! SQUEAL!"

The captains of Task Force Death could only listen to the pain that Ron was putting Hassan through, with the sounds of screams and whipping and odd music playing in the background.

"How long has he been… doing this?"

Elisa shrugged, having no sympathy for Hassan. Then again, neither did anyone else in the known universe. "Half an hour. What's with all the hate? I mean, the Syndicate sucks and all-"

Takeshi handed Elisa a PADD, which she quickly read. "OH. They boarded his ship, took half his crew and tried to sell them. Including his sister."

And they knew THAT was a very, very, VERY bad thing to do.

"I don't like the Syndicate that much, either, but man, Ron's hate's on a whole other level," Takeshi remarked. "Not that I don't understand it, though."

Jessica winced. "I'm not even gonna say anything about that!" she remarked.

The forcefield lowered before Ron stepped out, Hassan's fat form huddled in a corner in the fetal position. "He sold the triggers to some guy named Obisek. Ring any bells?"

Zaheena filled in the blanks. "He's Reman. Used to be leader of the Crateris colony defense fleet before the Tal Shiar razed the place and abducted everyone."

"Any idea where to find him?" Jaden asked. "The sooner we get those triggers, the better before Tal Shiar uses them."

"No. He fled after Crateris was evacuated." Ron leaned on one of the consoles. "Well, there's a Tal Shiar listening post down there. At least, there was during the 2280s and 90s. Maybe we'll get more from the spies then we will from anything else."

"Right," Takeshi replied. "Well, now that that's settled… what do we do with Hassan?"

"As our combined hate for the asshole is as hot as a sun… I believe it is only fitting we shove him INTO one. I just don't want to waste a shuttle in doing so."

"Hmm..." Jaden thought for a moment, "Well… I've got a bit of an idea… a friend of mine in the academy once managed to replicate an entire shuttle craft once piece by piece… the parts were a bit inferior of course… but I don't think that will be a problem here if we're just gonna send it flying into a star."

"Let me guess: Kent University's experiment on duplicating an object. I think that happened to Voyager once." Ron smirked. "Do it. I want that fat bastard screaming as he goes into a sun. And...make a false entry in the log, saying we sent him to Earth to stand trial, but...lost him due to..." The grin gained a Glasgow hint or two. "Heating problems."

"You got it," Jaden said, grinning. "Replicated shuttles can be… so unreliable after all."

Hassan RAN down the halls, heading for the only shuttle that seemed to be available after 'breaking out' of his cell. Illusions of control were playing in his mind, as the Starfleet personnel watched from the bridge. The fat Orion jumped into the seat as the clamshell doors opened and the shuttle launched. "Surprise, motherfucker!" Hassan jumped as the image of Jaden and his cohorts appeared on a monitor. "Didn't think you'd get away that easily, huh punk?"

"I'll be back!" Hassan shouted as he activated the warp drive of the shuttle. "I'll bring the whole syndicate down on your heads! Well get you, and everyone else in your godforsaken task force!"

"I'd like to see you try, asshole." Jaden said with a smirk. "Have a nice day, Hassan… hope you like barbecue."

The shuttle creaked as it turned toward the one thing in the system everyone from nimbus hated more then the Syndicate.

The fucking SUN. Hassan tried to make the shuttle turn, almost frantically, but the chances of that were nil: the controls were locked out as soon as he left the ship, and needed an Omega-level authorization to unfreeze. He screamed as the shuttle's impulse engines fired, sending it toward the sun at full impulse.

"One Orion fatass, well-done, coming up." The bridge crew on the Yorktown got the impression Ron was EXTREMELY pleased with himself. Jaden probably knew best: so was he.

"Well, one less scumbag to deal with," Jaden said, "Now to head planet-side and check out that Tal Shiar listening post, and try to figure out where the triggers are now."

"ONE problem. There's enough Gorn down in the canyon leading to the base to fill a small island. And, if I remember correctly, the only way in..." Ron pointed at a map on the monitor. "Is through that canyon, to unlock the damned doors to the base."

"Just another day at the office for us," Jaden said shrugging. "Beam down, kick ass, clear the Canyon, unlock the base, and get in."

"Tis life."

Nimbus III - 'Gorn Canyon'

The Gorn under the employ of the Tal Shiar patrolled the canyon, preventing any access to anyone brave enough (or stupid enough) to get close.

That was, at least, until death began raining from the sky.

It started out with a couple of mortar shells. Then it got worse. Much, MUCH worse, as more and more and MORE rained down on them, looking more like a carpet-bombing operation then anything else. And there were only three people to blame for this: Sonja Henderson, Cassandra Ptolemy, and Zaheena. They had set up over 40 mortar launchers, with enough shells to level half the canyon. And they WOULD.

"Let's watch this city burn, from the skylights atop the world! Till there's nothing left of her, let's watch this city burn the world!" Jaden grinned as the song played as several shuttles flew overhead, firing phasers in straifing runs on the Gorn defenses.

The gorn ran helter skelter, screaming in their language, which most of the away team couldn't understand. But the man in charge DID. "Christ, you'd think it was Shirou come back from the dead for the Gorn to scream like this." A mortar shell landed on a large Gorn, exploding and making him… not exist. "Cyclone and Isis, you're clear to land in the canyon. Get those damned doors unsealed so Jaden and the rest of us can breach the interior."

"Understood," Linda replied, bringing the shuttle in. "The door should be open momentarily."

Ron wiped his brow before handing over a canteen to Jaden. "I hate desert planets. A few weather control devices and this place would be less arid."

"I agree," Jaden said as he took a drink. "Some place to call a planet of peace."

"But a group of assholes fucked that up. And we're dealing with them."

Nimbus orbit

A shimmer of light was seen before a Norexan-class warbird decloaked, briefly closed in on the task force, which was licking their wounds, and recloaked. And from the brief logs, Elisa IDed the ship as the IRW Ja'pax. According to Starfleet Intelligence, that warbird was assigned to the Tal Shiar. "Oh, great." She tapped the tactical console, opening up a comm link to Jaden. "Jaden, come in. We MIGHT have a bit of a problem."

"Jaden here, what's going on up there?" Jaden asked on the comm.

"A romulan warbird just came up close and recloaked," Elisa said. "It's Tal Shiar. I hope you do whatever you're doing down there fast. You know what the Tal Shiar are like when people snoop around their operations."

"Shit… we'll speed it up as best we can," the captain said, "We're almost finished with the Gorn down here, then we'll take care of the station."

"Make it fast, Jaden!"

Installation 18

The Tal Shiar Commander of the base was not amused as a strike team forced their way into the base, taking down her ENTIRE security force. "For the love of all that is holy, WHO THE HELL ARE THOSE BASTARDS?!" The entrance to the command center deep within the base exploded, and out of the cloud came their worst nightmare.

The Tal Shiar's attempt to kill the bastard that plagued them in the 23rd Century, alongside Ishmael Takeo and his grandson, Jaden, and about a dozen OTHER people. "Surprise, bitch!"

"God I wish I had an M60 right about now!" Jaden shouted as he fired his TR116. "Rambo this place up!"

The Romulans fell to the combined weight of ancient and modern weapons fire, but there was something that WASN'T Romulan. It had the head of a sort of deformed mushroom in an old-style spacesuit. In the words of many later on, it was fucking UGLY.

And as Guinlong's disruptor proved, energy weapons proof. "You dishonorable-" A blue beam impacted the being, going through the shield, knocking the creature's left arm out of action. "You know..." The captain of the Ptolemaeus stepped forward, holding his phaser at the monster. "I thought I saw the last of you fuckers in 84. I appear to be wrong." He fired again, and again until it was on the ground, causing a sort of whimper as it laid there, paralyzed by the phaser beams.

"Elachi?" Jaden asked, recognizing the alien. "I've heard some rumors about Tal Shiar working with them… never actually seen one though..."

The creature tried to speak in its' language, but another phaser beam hitting the suit made it squeal. "Shut up!" Guinlong looked at Ron's weapon, almost in envy. "How?"

"They're powerful, but those personal shields of theirs are frequency-locked. 142.7 mW modulation, and they're as useful as a wet napkin." The Elachi groaned, before it tried to reach for its' wrist computer interface. Another blue beam impacted the arm and shorted it out. "Nice try, fuckface."

"What should we do with it?" Jaden asked, "It might know more about the Triggers, and what the Tal Shiar are gonna do with them."

"Give it to our romulan friends. These things are friends of the Tal Shiar, and this 'Republic' hates them."

A beep was heard before Ron pulled out his communicator. "Pinkerton."

"Sir, we've got a large fleet of romulan warbirds moving in: all Tal shiar IFF. Good news is, they think we're dead in the water."

Ron smirked. "And are we?"

"Fuck no: the Ptolemaeus is online."

"Lock onto us and prepare to beam us back to the ships." The eldest captain looked at Jaden. "So, ready to rape the Tal Shiar?"

Jaden grinned "I'm ready to rape and pillage." He said, tapping his commbadge. "Yorktown, beam me up."

IRW Khaeal II

Hakeev sat on the bridge of his warbird, named after the ship lost due to the actions of three VERY annoying Republic officers, and smiled before receiving a hail from the lead Constitution-Class ship in the federation task force. "This is Colonel Hakeev of the IRW Khaeal to the Federation starships off our bow. Identify yourselves, or be destroyed as criminals for interfering in the affairs of the Romulan Empire!"

"Oh, so YOU'RE the asshole Zaheena keeps complaining about," a voice said, followed by a chuckle. "Captain Jaden Takeo, USS Yorktown. And some 'empire' you Tal Shiar assholes have."

"So, we have allies of that bitch who escaped. The other two must be nearby. And you are powerless against me, Takeo: I command a massive fleet, and you have nothing that can harm me."

"Uh, Colonel..."

"WHAT?!"

A trio of T'varos exploded as an Excelsior-Class ship flew past the D'Deridex. Hakeev's only eye widened as he saw the name and registry. USS Ptolemaeus. NCC-2185.

"Oh! Yeah, forgot to mention…" Jaden said as he chuckled darkly. "Your worst fucking nightmare's here too… allow me to re-introduce you Tal-Shiar fucks… to the mother-fucking Windstorm in the flesh."

Hakeev calmed himself. The Reaper was nothing to the might of the Empire now if he was still stubbornly commanding the Ptolemaeus. "HAKEEV!" Three romulan ships decloaked. And he knew all three. They CONSTANTLY got in his way. "That Kalenian bitch just won't die, will she? This fight no longer interests me. All ships, kill them."

RRW Vengeance

"FIRE EVERYTHING!"

The crew of the Vengeance did indeed fire everything the ship had, as it rained down a hailstorm of plasma and photon fire down upon the Tal'Shiar warbirds, cutting through them like a hot knife through butter.

The Khepesh and Liberator used their firepower as best they could, supporting the smaller ships and covering the three most dangerous ones: Raging Tempest, Yorktown and Ptolemaeus. Matters were made worse when Nimbus' pirates entered the picture, tearing into the closest Tal Shiar warbird like a pack of wolves. "Hope you don't mind a little 'salvage operations', captains! We're givin' the Tal Shiar the boot!"

"Sounds like a fair enough deal to me," Jaden said with a smirk. "Keep the pressure on them! Force 'em out!"

What little the Tal Shiar fleet had left were quickly being hacked down, as a photonic shockwave from a torpedo fired by the Yorktown knocked a Norexan into the path of a T'varo, destroying both and scattering harmful debris all over the battlefield. Any ship that impacted it would suffer shield damage, and if they had no shields, they would be torn apart.

All in all, it became obvious to the Tal Shiar that they had VASTLY underestimated the defenses of the planet. It wasn't long before the few surviving ships bean to get cold feet as they started warping out of the system.

The last intercepted transmission was simple. "RUN AWAY! RUN AWAY!" The last surviving D'Deridex warped out of the system, followed by one of the few T'varos and a badly damaged Norexan. "HA! I fart in your general direction, you Tal Shiar nimrods! Your ancestors were fat and smelled of elderberries!"

"Wait, I thought it went 'Your father was a hamster, and your mother smelled of elderberries?'" Jaden asked.

"I don't care: it works, Jaden. Let's tally our kills and repair our damage before we head back to Earth."

"You got it," Jaden said with a sigh, "Ah, today was a good day… kicked some Orion ass, along with some Tal Shiar on the side. Nice and easy."

Earth Spacedock

The task force were all undergoing maintenance and resupply, and minor upgrades were being made to the Yorktown's warp nacelles. That was a sideshow compared to the meeting going on in Quinn's office. "You all did a great job at Nimbus, despite losing the triggers. That was unavoidable, and wiping out the Orion Syndicate's operations on the planet, as well as kicking the Tal Shiar out, have earned you all a great deal of respect there."

"We simply did what we would hope any other starfleet officer would have done in our shoes, Sir." Jaden said. "And we of course had some help from Commander Zaheena and Captain Quinlong."

"Melani D'ian isn't pleased, and was going to send someone to try and kill the lot of you… until she heard who was there with you." The smug look on Ron's face was priceless. "That being said, Captain Pinkerton, it's about time for this. You've been avoiding it."

"Goddamn it."

Jaden blinked in confusion, as Ishmael began snickering slightly. "What?" He asked.

"He's promoting him," Ishmael said. "Ron's been avoiding getting upped to Admiral since forever like the plague."

"Like hell I am!"

"Look, it's either you accept the promotion… or you get discharged! Can't stay at your rank with your track record forever, Ron."

The groan Ron emitted could've been mistaken for a ship breaking up. "Fine. But I'm not the only bastard that's climbing up the ladder!" The devil had nothing on Ron as he looked at Ishmael. "Oh, Ish..."

"You do realize technically, I was already an Admiral before I retired." Ishmael said with a small smirk, "I just let myself get demoted to Commander to serve under you again."

"You're just the first on my list."

"You have a list?"

"Yes, and most of those are on the Yorktown. And my chief engineer."

Quinn stopped laughing long enough to raise a point. "Speaking of which, there's a new officer I've noticed on your ship. A 'Cassandra Ptolemy'."

"Oh… that…" Jaden said, scratching the back of his head. "Well… Ron, she's under your command - you explain it."

"She is… WAS the Ptolemaeus VI."

Quinn's head met the desk. Hard. "Another Moriarty. Great." Ron looked at Jaden and Lelouch. "Moriarty? Wasn't he a Sherlock Holmes character?"

"Oh yeah… I remember that," Jaden said. "Well… basically, it's something that happened to the Enterprise-D. A Holodeck program run by Lieutenant Commander Data resulted inadvertantly for the representation of Moriarty to become self-aware, and eventually realizing he's a hologram. A while later, Moriarty managed to take control of the Enterprise-D in order to make himself human and not a hologram… from what I heard, Captain Picard had Morty and another hologram tricked, thinking they escaped when they're really just running around in a very very accurate simulation of our galaxy."

"Sucks to be him. Situation was slightly different. It was a hardware upgrade that allowed her to gain sentience. Most of the damage we sustained was because of that, and we gave her an android body."

Quinn's face could've been made of stone for all the emotion he displayed. "And when did you get an android body?"

"Sir, you have Omega-level clearance," he said. "My records are open to you."

"In short - Sonja got an android from an alternate universe, and Nanites from another universe." Jordan abridged for him. "Put the two plus a newly sentient starship computer together, and Voila."

"…If it isn't the Enterprise, it's the Defiant. If it isn't the Defiant, it's Voyager. If it's not THEM, it's the Ptolemaeus! Your ship is CURSED."

"Don't blame the ship. She's blameless. Blame the crew. We're the magnets for trouble."

"We are destined to live in interesting times," Jaden said, shrugging. "What else can we say?"

Overlooking the interior of the starbase, watching as the Yorktown's nacelles were being replaced was the newest member of the Ptolemaeus crew. Cassie felt at home with the people she had worked with for the past 20 years, but outside of the job, she didn't have much. "Excuse me, Commander." She looked to her left, seeing a man with black hair, yellowish skin and gold eyes, wearing a command red Antares uniform with the rank of Captain on the lapel. "Am I disturbing you?"

"Ah, not at all." Cassie said smiling. "You must be the famous Commander Data, am I correct?"

"Yes, but I was promoted long ago." Data said. "Are you assigned to the Yorktown?"

Cassie shook her head. "The Ptolemaeus, 2185."

Data stood beside her, looking at her in confusion. "You are an android."

"Yup," Cassie said nodding. "Though technically speaking, I was the Ptolemaeus a few days ago."

"Pardon?" Data asked.

"The Ptolemaeus was trapped in time near a black hole," Cassie elaborated. "While for the crew, it was just a moment… but as you and I both know, computers experience time differently than Organics do. That, coupled with the upgrades Sonja was performing on me… I obtained sentience. Sonja then put my mind inside this Android body and well… here I am."

"Much like I would not experience the effects. I understand."

"Outside my work, I've got nothing." Cassie said, shaking her head. "The crew trusts me, but… I'm not sure if they'll just treat me like a tool then a person."

Data was silent for a moment, before he spoke. "I had served onboard the USS Enterprise-D and the Enterprise-E," he said, "I had made many friends among the crew. Not once did I believe that I was treated as a Tool. Captain Picard, Commander Riker, even Commander La Forge, they were all my friends, and taught me much of what it was like to be human. They, and the rest of the crew, always treated me as another member of the crew. Even going so far as to defend my rights as a sentient being."

"If the crew of the USS Ptolemaeus is anything like the crew of the Enterprise, then I do not believe that will be a problem," he continued. "So long as you prove to be capable of... 'pulling your own weight' I believe it is called. You, if anything, have an advantage over me, since you are far more capable of utilizing your emotions than I did when I was first put into service."

Cassie chuckled. "Yeah, Sonja did a hell of a job in 2284."

"Oi! Cass!" Cassie and Data looked behind them to find Jaden and Ron, the latter wearing an updated uniform with a gold pipe on the flap and the captain's pin replaced by one belonging to a commodore, a modern day one-pip rear admiral. And not looking happy about it.

"Oh, Captain- oh, I mean Commodore Pinkerton," Cassie said. "I guess they finally got you, didn't they?"

"Shut. Up. And to you, it's Captain. As far as you're concerned, Commander, I WASN'T promoted, Command be damned." Ron turned his attention to Data. "And who might you be? Haven't seen your race around the water cooler, if you get my meaning."

Data was about to speak, before Jaden did it for him. "Hoooo-ly crap," He said, "Y-your Data, right? THE Captain Data from the Enterprise, right?"

"That is correct," Data said nodding, looking at Ron. "I am Captain Data, I once served onboard the USS Enterprise-D and the USS Enterprise-E. It is a pleasure to meet you, Captain Pinkerton. You as well Captain Takeo."

"So, you're the old E-C. Hope to see you back in the fight soon, Captain: we need the Big E back out there."

"I will not command the next Enterprise, sir," Data said. "But I know of your abilities. Perhaps you will take command of the next ship."

"FUCK that," Ron said, before pointing at Jaden. "Jaden's likelier than I am."

"Whoa-wait-what?" Jaden said in confusion, "Me?! I-Ron! I was a Cadet just a few months ago!"

"A cadet that kicked the shit out of an unidentified ship, defended a colony from a Borg invasion and survived five minutes against ME." Ron said, counting them off on his fingers. "How many people have survived that long without running and lived?" Net answer? Zero. "I think Kirk himself would say 'put him in command'. And I KNEW the man."

"I… uhhh..." Jaden said, still at a loss for words. He knew Ron thought he was good… but good enough to command an Enterprise?

"I was on the List." Ron said. "And if I get my way, so will you. Come on, Cassie: we have a ship to make right. Captain Data, have a pleasant day. And we'll need to get Cassie a posting as well as crew quarters. Among OTHER personnel. GAH, still missing a CMO AND a science officer."

"Well, I can volunteer for either if you want me too," Cassie said shrugging. "I've still got all of the Starfleet info on both positions up in here." She pointed to her head.

"I only trust one person for each post. You know that." By that, only Rin and a Trill doctor could be REALLY trusted as chief science officer and chief medical officer. "But we need an ops officer. So, report to the quartermaster's office and get your uniform updated, Commander. And then we need to find you some hobbies: I'm not working you to death."

"Meh, I'll figure out something." Cassie said, glancing at Data. "Good day, Captain Data… I hope we see eachother again. It was… enlightening speaking with you."

"As do I, Commander." The three left, Ron being forced to drag a still-shocked Jaden. "A little truth and they just lock up."

"Well, not many people can just say 'you could command the Enterprise'." Ron shrugged. "It's in his blood. Ish could've commanded the E-B if he wanted to. He just didn't want to leave the Ptolemaeus."

"Damn right I didn't," Ishmael said. "And I won't be leaving anytime soon now."

117Jorn: And there you have it! Yet another chapter down for the count!

Titanic X: And next one is gonna have more action in it! :) So get ready!

Ron the True Fan: Hype aside, (swats at Titanic) we're moving down the story line. And I don't think anyone wants to see a novelized version of those shitty DS9 missions.

Takeshi Yamato: Yeah, seriously - from the end of the revised Romulan arc to just before the 2800 arc, the DS9 Missions in STO have remained unchanged since practically launch. Cryptic needs to give those the same treatment as the original Romulan and original Borg arcs.

117Jorn: So until next time…

Everyone: Ja Ne!