The authors wish to point out that they do not own any of the franchises used in this story. We also wish to thank the late Tom Clancy for his book, The Hunt for Red October, and the wonderful characters he created for it.
Please Review!
Chapter 22
"You're sure you can locate one of our ships, even when it's hidden by a mantle?" It wasn't that Kirk didn't believe the man. Quite the contrary. The twins had recommended him for this. He just wasn't sure how this man was going to accomplish the feat.
"Commander, I assure you, it will work."
"Do you have any experience with this type of thing?"
The man glanced at him and raised an eyebrow, not unlike the way a certain Vulcan would. "Before the nations of Earth came together, I trained men for the Soviet Navy, and I was the test pilot for each new type of submarine. I understand stealth, Commander. And I understand waiting. I can find Khan for you."
It wasn't that Kirk couldn't locate his nemesis by himself. In fact, it would be simple. However, if he did, it would not be simply skipping a boring thesis. Cheating in this matter could have terrible consequences, and he couldn't risk it.
Mentally, he went through the records on Marko Ramius, and found the man was not exaggerating his importance to the Soviet Union. In fact, he might not have said enough. He had been the golden child of the Soviet Navy. When his wife was killed by a drunken doctor, who couldn't be touched because of who he was, Ramius had defected to the United States with an entire ballistic missile submarine and its officers. The sub was on its maiden voyage, and a prototype at that. The man had style, Kirk had to admit.
They entered the bridge of Natalija. The vessel had started as a Defiant class ship, but had been intensely modified. It was used for testing the usefulness of new technologies and ideas. Some of them would never make it into use as standard equipment, but all had been tried by Captain Ramius.
One idea that had been installed into all ships utilizing a mantel, was a separate and unique phasing frequency for each. This meant that a phased ship would not be visible to another, nor would they be palpable to another. Natalija, however, possessed the ability to phase to any of her sister's frequencies. Of course, when phased, she could only perceive non-phased matter and matter phased to her own frequency. This meant that in order to find Khan, her crew had to find the correct frequency. Ramius was planning to enter the area of Deep Space Nine, under cover of normality, then do a passive scan on the frequency of Saratoga. Once she was located, Natalija would phase and then she would have the element of surprise in removing Khan and his people.
Ramius ordered Natalija's engines ahead, and they started toward the doors leading out of the sphere.
Somewhere in Cardassian Space…
"I'm sorry, Rene, but I can't transmit," Tessa Hammond told her shipmate, Rene Picard.
"We need to find a place to land," Rene responded.
They had been hit by a blast from a Dominion fighter. Their ship was without its main engines and the subspace radio antenna had been destroyed, causing a power surge that took out the transmission circuits in their comm system.
They were in a system that, thankfully, had a star similar to Sol. Tessa scanned the space in an orbital plane similar to Earth's, and found a planet that seemed likely to be class M. Using thrusters alone, Rene was able to slingshot them on an orbit that would intersect the planet in about three days.. How they would land safely when they got there was anyone's guess.
It was a long, boring trip, but eventually, they watched the planet grow slowly in their field of vision, and as they grew nearer, it became apparent that it had green and brown land and blue oceans. "It certainly looks promising," Tessa said hopefully.
Rene, in the front of the cockpit, nodded, then asked, "Can you compute a shallow angle of entry into the atmosphere, so we might be able to glide into an ocean?"
"I should be able to, just don't be too picky, okay?"
"Tessa," he answered, "if you can get us down in one piece, near some land, I'll be happy."
"Oh, now you want it near some land. Keep adding requirements, Rene," she said, sarcastically.
He glanced at the screen beside him that showed her face, and said, "I'll rephrase that. You get us down in one piece, I'll be happy. Make it near land, and I'll be ecstatic."
She laughed. "I can definitely make you happy, but ecstatic? I'm not sure." She thought for a moment and added, "That didn't come out right, did it?"
Rene smiled, but then frowned at his instruments. "Anytime on that course. We're getting uncomfortably close to the planet."
She looked up, and quickly plotted a course to put them in standard orbit. Once that was done, she would have more time to study the landscape.
Iconia prime...
Daniel Jackson knocked on the door. It opened, and he said, "Hello, Doug. Can I come in?"
Fargo stepped back and motioned the Q into his house. "Sarah, refreshments," he said as he indicated a pair of armchairs.
When they had sat down, he asked, "To what do I owe the pleasure, Doctor Jackson?"
Daniel watched as a small table, complete with a tray of sandwiches and glasses of iced tea materialized within easy reach of them both. "Thank you, Sarah," he said as he reached for a sandwich.
"You're welcome, Doctor Jackson!" came Sarah's exuberant tones.
Jackson looked at Fargo and said, "Merlin and I have been talking. We need to improve Sarah's sensor net."
Fargo nodded. "I agree. It would be nice to have real-time info about who's heading toward the wormhole on the Dominion side."
"Right. We can sense them now, but we can't pinpoint them exactly."
Fargo considered. "If we had three more platforms on which sensors were mounted, we'd get a much better reading on where things are."
Daniel didn't say anything, but listened as Fargo decided what he would need to improve Sarah's sensor net. Finally, the scientist had settled in his mind who he would need, and how they could accomplish the goal.
"I'll get the team together, then we'll need to travel to the different locations," Fargo concluded.
"Okay, I'll contact The Commander and get a Federation vessel dispatched to transport you. That will provide a work force for building the installations too," Daniel told him.
Fargo was exuberant. "That sounds great, Doctor Jackson!"
In Cardassian space…
"There are ruins down there, Rene!" Tessa was excited as she stared at her board.
"Any lifesigns?" he asked.
"None that I can determine."
Rene didn't respond as he guided the little ship into a shallow descent. Without working engines, he would have to use the minimal control surfaces available and attitude thrusters to bring them to the surface of the ocean.
The problem would be that the starfighter was designed to be highly aerodynamic. It could handle entering an atmosphere at high speeds without burning up. This created the problem of how to slow down for impact with the water. Tessa had figured the angle at which they would have to enter the atmosphere, allowing for maximum drag and temperature. Theoretically, it would work, but Rene would have to execute the descent perfectly. One mistake, and they would either burn up, or cartwheel uncontrollably.
The young Picard fired his forward maneuvering thrusters to slow them just enough so they couldn't remain in orbit, then he tipped the nose up. He would use the ventral surface of the fighter to slow their descent. It would probably destroy most of the bottom of the ship, including its landing gear, but this would be the starfighter's last flight anyway, and with the coming water landing, wheels were unnecessary.
It didn't take long for heat to begin building in the cabin. Tessa pulled her feet off the floor, which was very quickly getting too hot to touch, even through her flight boots. Unfortunately, Rene didn't have that luxury, as some of his attitude controls were operated by his feet.
After just a few minutes, however, their speed had dropped to the point where the cold from the upper atmosphere began to counter the heat produced by friction, at which point Rene allowed the nose to lower. Now, as the ship sensed the growing atmosphere around it, it switched to atmospheric flight controls. Gingerly, Rene lowered the nose still further, and tried the control stick. It was sluggish, but it worked. As long as they didn't break up from turbulence, they should make it.
Deep Space Nine…
Marie Picard stepped through the airlock and stumbled up to her brother-in-law. "Where's Rene?" she asked desperately.
"Marie," he said comfortingly, "I assure you that we are doing everything we can to locate him."
She didn't reply, but threw her arms around him and wept into his shoulder. Jean Luc turned his head and looked at Beverly. She was pale, as she realized that this was the beginning of the rift between the two, but she gave a half-hearted smile of encouragement, then turned to walk thoughtfully back to their quarters.
Picard gently guided the distraught woman to her own quarters. Once there, he sat down beside her. She had calmed enough to talk, and asked, "Does anyone know what happened?"
"Commodore Riker, Rene's commanding officer, is trying to determine that right now."
"I imagine that he's got his hands full with lots of people missing or dead," Marie said, the tears starting again.
"Actually," the Admiral said wryly, "as Rene is the nephew of the Admiral in charge, he unofficially has top priority."
"The perks of being related to the Admiral," Marie said, as she sniffed back some tears. She smiled bravely then put her head on Picard's shoulder.
"It is not something done intentionally, but it is human nature," he explained.
"And you're loved by everyone, Jean Luc," she said nodding. "People will do this for you whether you ask or not. I know he'll be found."
"You have my word that we will do everything in our power," he confirmed.
The Natalija…
"Admiral Kirk to the bridge."
James Kirk had been sitting on his bunk in the little ship, reading a book. He replaced his bookmark then stood and made his way to the bridge.
The lift doors opened and he stepped into the control center. Ramius spun his chair and smiled when he saw him. "Welcome, Admiral," he gestured for Kirk to step down beside the center seat. "As you can see, we're approaching the station."
On the screen was the familiar shape of Deep Space Nine. The captain spun his chair forward and flipped a switch beside him. "Mister Melekhin, please begin cycling us through the phasing frequencies. Give us enough time to scan in each, however."
"Certainly, Sir," came the reply from the bridge speakers.
"Mister Bugayev, proceed with your scans, but make them passive only. We do not want to alert Khan to our ability to see him."
"It's going to take a lot longer to locate him with only passive sensors, Captain," Bugayev remarked.
"I understand, Valintin, but do your best."
The science officer didn't respond, but bent over his instruments, wishing he could use the far more powerful active scanners. He didn't dare, however. He knew full well how they would alert Saratoga of their ability to see her.
"How difficult would it be for Khan to change the frequency of Saratoga's mantel?" Kirk asked.
"Not impossible," Ramius replied. "We know Khan is extremely intelligent. He's a level five augment, so what would be very difficult for a standard level three, is only mildly so for him."
"What is involved?"
"The frequency is hardcoded into the mantel. It would require building a circuit from scratch to replace the coding."
"You're right," Kirk said. "Khan could do that relatively easily. It's more physically intricate than mentally taxing."
They spent several hours simply waiting while Bugayev scanned, and at the end of the prime shift, Kirk and Ramius made their way to the rec room. On Natalija, it doubled as the mess hall, and several of Ramius' crew sat down to eat.
"I understand that your command crew is comprised mostly of the men who came to the United States with you from the Soviet Union. How did you stay together until now?" Kirk asked.
Ramius sipped his tea and tasted his steak before answering. "When we defected, we had no families that we left behind in the Soviet Union, Admiral. I was the only one of us who had married, but my wife was killed by an incompetent doctor. I named this vessel after her. My only family left were these men.
"When we made it to America, we had lost one of our comrades, Kamarov. He was my navigator, and not a day goes by that I do not think of him. But we have each other and our experiences is so unique, that we stick together." He laughed and asked, "How many people can say that they stole a ballistic missile submarine from under the collective noses of the Soviet navy?"
Borodin, Ramius' XO, added, "There is no one on Natalija who would not willingly give his life for the others, the captain included. We trust him implicitly, and he trusts us. We have been through too much together to leave."
"Have any of you married?" Kirk asked. He could have looked this information up on his own, but he had learned over the years that asking questions generally put people at ease more than simply knowing all about them.
"A few of us have," said Melekhin, "but we choose to stay together in Starfleet, nonetheless."
Ramius added, "You have handpicked the crew of Enterprise A. I choose to do the same with Natalija."
"Who makes up your B and C shifts?" Kirk wanted to know.
The captain laughed again, "I have acquired some people who were trained on Enterprise. Over the years, I have grown fond of utilizing those people who have moved off to expand their experience. It is well known that only the best people were trained on that ship, whichever letter succeeded the name. Jean Luc Picard has trained some of the best."
Kirk had to agree. He knew that Commander Sonya Gomez was in Ramius' crew, as well as Lt. Commander Sam Lavelle, both of whose commendation paperwork had crossed his own desk several times.
A planet somewhere in Cardassian space...
The starfighter had landed in the water approximately six hundred yards from shore. Saying they had landed was an optimistic description at best. Quickly, Rene and Tessa grabbed their survival packs and jumped as far away from the craft as they could.
The little starfighter sank quickly. The fall through the atmosphere of the planet had burned away several layers of the bottom side, and the impact with water had buckled several seams, destroying the airtight integrity of the cockpit. They swam to approximately fifty feet away and turned, treading water. They watched in silence as the starboard wing, the only remaining visible piece, disappeared beneath the surface, then as one, they started for shore.
Tessa had led them to this spot because it was relatively close to the largest grouping of ruins and because the beach was sandy and open. As they waded ashore, they saw an obsidian coastline extending up and down the beach, as far as the eye could see.
The swim had been tough for Rene. He had burned his feet on reentry, and he limped to a rock where he sat down. "Can you help me get my boots off?" he asked.
She hurried over and gasped as she took in the damage that had been done. "There's not much of them left, Rene." She cut away the remains, and applied what antiseptic she could find in her survival kit. Some of the sole had melted to the bottom of his feet, and she cut away what she could, but she was not sure how much to do. The burns were severe, and she was surprised that he had been able to take the saltwater from their swim. If it had been her, she would be crying right now.
There was a dense forest just past the black sand, and she grabbed some fallen limbs and went to work making a frame for a sled, using her survival knife and their flight jackets. She had taken note of the distinctive marks made by high tide, and decided that moving Rene was her first priority. In a bit less than an hour, she was able to ease him onto the sled.
She moved him away from the water, to a place sheltered from the sun, then set about locating fresh water. She was in luck there too, as she discovered a freshwater stream not more than a hundred yards down the beach. She scanned it with her tricorder, and other than the possibility of Montezuma's Revenge, it was drinkable. She quickly filled her canteen and hurried back to Rene.
Her next objective was to find food. Again, her tricorder came in handy.
She found several lifeforms in the forest that looked promising as a source of protein, and there were several types of fish that should also suffice. She had a phaser, and a small supply of hooks and line. She glanced at the trees and saw some birds. Taking careful aim at one sitting in a nest, she fired the phaser, and actually managed to stun it, then she realized the wisdom of shooting birds in flight. To retrieve this one, she would have to climb the tree out to the flimsy ends of the branches. With her tricorder, she scanned the bird. It would recover within a few minutes. She reached out and pulled on a branch, shaking the tree. Several birds took flight, and again, she aimed and fired. One fell to the ground and she quickly retrieved it.
The bird wasn't much bigger than a pigeon, so she stunned two more, then took them back to camp. She was getting tired now, but knew Rene couldn't help. She collected firewood and sticks to act as a spit for cooking, then used the phaser to light the fire. A few minutes later and she had the birds roasting on a spit.
Deep Space Nine...
Natalija had been scanning for two days, and her crew was just settling in for a long wait. When two Romulan warbirds entered the system, even the normally unflappable Ramius was on alert.
"We are receiving a communication from the Romulans," Bugayev said from the tactical station.
"On screen," Ramius ordered. The viewscreen wavered and an image formed, showing a dignified man with white hair. "Commander Keras," Ramius said in surprise.
"I am afraid that you have me at a disadvantage, Captain," the Romulan said with an easy smile.
"I am Captain Marko Alexandrovich Ramius of the Natalija. I saw you at the graduation ceremony last year, Sir."
Keras inclined his head. "I remember now. You were fourth row, sixth seat on my left. We were not introduced, however."
Ramius was surprised that the Romulan would remember so precisely over a year after the event, but attention to detail had kept him alive in a system where one could be killed easily without it.
"I am gratified that you remember," Ramius told him. "How may I be of service, Sir?"
"My crew is tired, Captain. We would like to take shore leave on the station."
Ramius knew full well that Keras would be granted shore leave on Bajor. There must be a reason why he would request it at the station instead. "I have no objections, Sir, however I cannot speak for Commander Casey."
"Thank you, Captain. Please inform your crew that we are here. I would not wish any unfortunate incidents between our peoples."
Ramius inclined his head. "Rest assured, Sir. Those on this vessel have already been informed of your presence."
"My thanks then, Captain,"
The screen went back to the exterior shot and Ramius looked to where Kirk stood out of range of the visual pickup.
"You have been notified, Sir," he said with a smile.
"The odds have just gotten better," Kirk said. At Ramius' questioning look, the admiral continued. "Years ago, the Romulans experimented with mantel technology. It's not common knowledge... in fact, it's top secret, so will not leave this room. They have one just as flexible as ours. When we find Khan, I'll take the frequency to Keras."
Those who had achieved Captain in Starfleet were deemed trustworthy enough to be told about the Q, but all of these men knew. They were Iconians and had been involved in the Ori war. They had met the later version of this man, and so knew that he could and would do exactly as he said.
On the screen, the warbirds were moving to the station. Bugayev saw the indicator on his panel, showing their communication to Sisko flash on, but then, he noticed something strange. He was receiving two different readings from the station. The mass indicated in normal phase was different than the mass showing in the phased frequency of Saratoga.
"Bozhe moy!" Bugayev breathed. "Sir! He's hidden Saratoga inside the station."
Kirk looked at the man in astonishment. Ramius trusted Bugayev but said, "Valentin, take no offense, but please recheck your findings."
"I take no offense, Captain. I have checked five times, but I will check six." There was a pause. "Confirmed, Sir."
"Khan has balls," Ramius observed.
"Yes, he does," Kirk agreed. He thought of what would happen if there was a power fluctuation in Saratoga, even for a moment.
Kirk considered, then flashed to Keras' warbird. Alarms sounded as he appeared beside the Romulan's command chair.
"Silence!" Keras said as he recognized his old friend. "Welcome, Jim," he said. "I see Captain Ramius understood my message."
"Yes he did, and I was standing off camera."
"Ah. Am I to assume you have news?"
Kirk nodded. "Khan is holding Saratoga phased, inside the station."
Keras stared at his friend for a moment. "We must get him out of there, Jim. If the power..."
"I know. Saratoga is a good ship, but even a good ship can have power fluctuations."
Keras nodded. "What is your plan?"
Kirk grimaced as he said, " I'm working on it."
"Might I suggest we pinpoint the ship within the station and go in with personal mantles? Once we're in the confines of the ship we can phase."
"I agree, that's the best approach. We are going to have level four and five augments to deal with. Your people are level three, Keras."
The Romulan shook his head. "Not so, Kirk." The Starfleet admiral raised his eyebrows. "I am sorry I kept this from you, but you must realize that my own government didn't know until recently. I authorized our military to utilize the augment virus three years ago."
Kirk stared, then a slow smile spread across his face. "And you?"
In answer, the Romulan started to glow, his body becoming energy. Then, he coalesced into matter once more. "What level would you like me to be?"
Kirk laughed. "I'm glad to see you'll be around for awhile." He considered for a moment. He didn't want to insult his old friend, but he knew that Keras would be reasonable. "General Kor is present on the station along with a contingent of Klingon marines."
Keras smiled. "Obviously, I'm not happy about working with Klingons, but the old adage is, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. I will work with them."
"Good, I'll transport back to Natalija. We'll let you know when we're ready to transport to the station."
Back aboard Natalija, Bugayev was pinpointing exactly where in the station, the ship was located. Saratoga was not a large ship, so could completely hide inside the structure.
In Cardassian space...
This world tended to be warm. Tessa waited until it began to cool off, then fastened Rene onto the sled, and they followed the creek. They reasoned that the old city would have needed a water supply, and assumed that the creek would pass near the ruins. As they travelled, Tessa began to feel like the ghosts of a dead planet were watching her.
They hadn't gone far when they came to a spring that was the source of the creek. Tessa stopped and they considered their options. Beyond here, there was no creek. They could, of course, continue travelling, but there was no guarantee that they would find surface water again. It was possible, given the surrounding forest, but she hadn't done terribly well in survival school, and caring for Rene made things tougher.
They decided to set up a camp here. There was food, water, and wood for building. Tessa picked up her tricorder to scan for the best place to build a hut. She knew they could be here for a long time. She did a double take at the tricorder. It was showing an odd reading. She fine tuned the scanner as much as possible and scanned again. She was definitely reading naquadah in the ground not far from where she was sitting
She stood and walked around, trying to pinpoint where the reading was coming from. Instead, she detected the outline of a concrete structure several feet beneath the surface. She started spiraling outwards from the structure, and found that the ruins were more extensive than she had first seen from the air. She eventually found another deposit of naquadah. This one seemed larger than the other, but it was made of smaller units. She went back to the original deposit and scanned it again. It was large. She looked around for something to dig with, but couldn't see anything.
Out of the corner of her eye she thought she saw some movement, and when she turned her head, there was a primate sitting on a branch. "You're not going to throw anything at me, are you?" she asked. It chattered a bit at her, but didn't seem inclined to throw anything. She remembered a show from her childhood about a pair of brothers and a lemur. For the life of her, she couldn't remember the name of the show, but the primate looked very much like the lemur from that show. "You don't happen to have a shovel, do you?"
The lemur chattered again, then took off through the trees. "Bring back a shovel," she called to it. It answered, but didn't put in another appearance during the night. She set her tricorder to warn her if any creature that might be dangerous entered a 15 foot radius, then sat down, closing her eyes.
In the morning, Tessa set about building a shelter for both of them. Rene was feeling a bit better and was able to cook whatever food she found.
As they ate, she told him of her discovery of the naquadah.
"Do you think this civilization used naquadah?" he asked her.
"There's always that possibility. It's definitely metallic rather than liquid. It gives off a different signature than our equipment."
"How long do you think this city has been in ruins?" Rene asked.
She laughed. "That's more up your line, Rene. You're the student archaeologist."
He reached for his survival pack and pulled out his tricorder. He touched the controls and studied the readouts for a few moments. "It appears as though the ruins are between two hundred ninety thousand and three hundred fifty thousand years old."
"How did you figure that?" she wanted to know.
"It's a program I put on all my tricorders. It takes into account several factors, including the depth of sediment, speed of sedimentation, and many more things. It's not conclusive in this case. The sedimentation could have occurred more swiftly than normal because of the proximity to the ocean, but..." he trailed off.
She considered for a few moments. "That would be around the time of the Ori war. I wonder if this is a world we knew?"
He looked at his tricorder again. "The naquadah is nearly fifty feet down and is consistent with the size of a stargate."
She nodded. If the naquadah was a stargate, then it was likely a world that they were familiar with, although that was by no means a certainty. She wondered about the other deposits of naquadah. What could they mean?
Deep Space Nine...
Kirk flashed to the station in ops. Waiting for him was The First, Picard, Teal'c, and Jade O'Neill. The science officer was using her sensors to try to locate the ship within the bounds of the station. "It appears that the bridge of Saratoga is in the central core of the promenade."
"Quarks?" Picard asked.
"Yes, Admiral."
Kirk looked The First. "I'm going down there energy."
Spock nodded gravely. "I will accompany you."
From the point of view of the normal humans in ops, all five Q disappeared. Casey turned to his science officer with a questioning look on his face.
"They're Q. It's what they do," was the comment.
On the promenade the Q met a strange sight. Just inside the entrance to Quark's bar was the smooth curve of a duranium hull. The five Q were still energy, which allowed them to remain hidden from the physical people on the promenade. They watched as a dabo girl walked into the bar with a patron on each arm. The three walked straight through the hull, not even noticing its presence.
What really made things disconcerting, however, was when a man walked out of the bar. He stopped, turned slightly, and yelled back at someone the Q couldn't see. He shook his fist at the invisible offender, and finally, Quarks face appeared through the wall of duranium. He spread his arms wide, apologizing for something, but the man turned in disgust, stalking away.
"It appears that Quark's establishment is none the worse for wear," The First commented with a slightly amused glance at the others.
Jade squared her shoulders and said, "I'm going in."
Inside the bar, things were confusing. The bridge of Saratoga was not the same shape as the bar, so there were recesses that could not be seen through the walls of the ship. Khan sat in the center chair, brooding. He seemed to be ignoring the riff-raff in the bar. A powerfully built blonde man sat at the helm. He didn't even flinch when two patrons embroiled in a fight fell through the console in front of him. They rolled through his legs and the chair he was seated on, and towards Khan. The superman curled his lip in disgust at the fighters, but didn't move when they continued their fight inside his chair.
The viewscreen was locked on the space outside where the wormhole would appear. Khan focused on it again and said to himself, "Where are you, you who would marry the woman who imprisoned me? You shall pay for her arrogance, and I shall watch her weep."
"To what does he refer?" Kirk wondered. "Obviously, he is directing his thoughts at Bra'tac, but imprisoned?"
Teal'c watched for a time, then said, "I'm beginning to understand."
Suddenly, Daniel Jackson flashed into being beside Picard. He stepped forward to place himself directly in front of Khan. He eyed the superman for some time, then said, "For all your genetic engineering, you're not impervious to outside influences."