Chapter 501

PASTOR OCTAVIAN'S OFFICE

USS WISCONSIN

Dr. Mallard stepped in. Octavian stood up from some reading and smiled, "Ducky! What brings you here?"

Dr. Mallard shyly said, "I know I've never been here before. Am I interrupting?"

Octavian shook his head, "No." He set his Bible and a datapad to the side. "I'm just preparing some of my messages for later. I always have time for you. What's your concern?"

Mallard said, "I'm not used to being shut out like this. The Captain and the others have practically locked themselves into the Bridge. They are isolating themselves."

"I would not worry about it, there's a good reason as to why they are doing what they did. Have you got any explanation from the Bridge?"

Mallard shook his head, "None. Except one thing, that general 'do not talk about this to anyone.' The Captain wants me to make sure that Nurse Griffin doesn't complain or talk to anyone."

"Ducky, this can't be your first trip around a top-secret mission."

Mallard said, "No."

"Then what's the problem?"

Mallard thought a bit then continued. "You all have obviously worked together."

Octavian shook his head. "Not so, I have never met Dominic Santini or Ben Grimm. I've talked with JJ of course, but it wasn't until the Captain gathered us together that this team was here."

"But all of you have worked with the Captain before."

Octavian smiled, "Hotchner didn't know the Captain until his interview for the ship. What is bugging you?"

"From my perspective, it seems like you all were a unit before I came. You were working together during the building and commissioning of the Wisconsin

. I was a late add-on. You all were very welcoming and I have to say that the last few months on board this ship have been the happiest in my career. You made me feel like part of the team."

Octavian said flatly, "You are part of the team."

Mallard nodded, "But the Captain hasn't included Medical in what is obviously an important mission."

Octavian nodded and thought a bit. "You have Medical confidentiality, right?"

Mallard nodded. Octavian continued, "And you can't violate that, right?"

"No."

"That's all that is happening here. Starfleet obviously has something that they want held close. I know the Captain, he would probably love to tell me, but he can't. I think that whatever it is, he would like to tell you but for whatever reason it is he cannot. Don't take it personally, Ducky. He likes you and has been impressed with the Medical branch. If it were up to him, he'd tell you. In the meantime, enjoy just some routine days with no interruptions."

SENATE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE BRIEFING

SECURE SENATE CHAMBER

EARTH

Admiral Nogura sat down in the secure chamber. While other chambers were large and ornate, this one was small and Spartan, to say the least. Nogura looked across his table to the Senators arrayed out on the other side of the room. The Chairman sounded like he was from Oklahoma, but in reality was from Alpha Centauri. He was of the same party as Senator Jameson, however Chairman Matt Douglas kept his distance from Jameson. Jameson's power brokering was legendary and Douglas had his own aspirations, it was better that the two senators don't mix.

Chairman Douglas opened, "Admiral Nogura, what are the latest developments?"

Nogura started, "Admiral Clayborne has remained consistent in his story as to how the contraband technology got to Maghreb. His story firmly places blame on Senator Jameson and also fails to implicate the President. Clayborne explained that the President made a video directly ordering any Starfleet Captain that was resisting Clayborne's pressure. He doesn't know if the President knew what was actually in the containers."

The minority leader was Christopher Marshall, a relatively young Senator from Earth, New York specifically. He was an eloquent speaker and known as a man of integrity. Marshall asked, "How much of Admiral Clayborne's story is verified?"

Nogura started, "Clayborne offered the specifics of the video. He still does not know we have copies of it. Clayborne said that Jameson would be able to somehow remove the video. He further mentioned that he knew that Jameson would be angry that the video was shown in Admiral Adama's office. The other portions of his story line up exactly with logs of what happened."

Douglas was not only the Chairman, but also was the eldest of the Senators on the committee. He had seen almost everything in his years on the committee. "In your opinion, is he telling the truth?"

"Yes, I believe so."

Douglas asked, "And your conclusion on the President's culpability?"

Nogura stated, "We can not prove that the President knew that he was ordering smuggling of contraband."

Douglas looked to the other side of the table, "Gentlemen, please understand where I am coming from. I am looking at this from a practical standpoint. We can make a very successful case against Senator Jameson. I don't think we can continue against the President. We just don't have the evidence that he knew what was in the containers."

Marshall said, "We just can't let the President off the hook."

Douglas shook his head, "I didn't mean that, we just have insufficient evidence."

Marshall asked, "What if we uncover evidence later?"

Douglas looked at his side and read their faces, "We follow the law. Speaking of which, what about Clayborne? The time for keeping him out of the open court system is rapidly coming to a close. Any suggestions?"

Nogura nodded. Douglas asked, "What do you suggest, Admiral?"

"An olive branch, of sorts."

Marshall said, "I can't believe it's you saying this."

Nogura smiled thinly, "Of sorts, Senator."

Douglas stated, "What's your plan?"

Nogura started, "First, definition of Mission: root out the problems in Starfleet and see that justice is done concerning Senator Jameson. Do we agree?"

Douglas nodded and Nogura continued. "We need to keep Admiral Clayborne from talking about what happened on Maghreb and after. I propose we simply tell him that he immediately takes early retirement, not say one word of this to Jameson, and if we ever find out that he did, we will prosecute him with the evidence we have on him. We make it clear that he is not our target, but Jameson is. We continue to work on him to produce further evidence, not only about gun running to Maghreb, but anything else that I suspect."

Marshall asked, "What do you suspect?"

"A list too extensive for this proceeding, also I want to stick to facts I can prove."

Douglas could see that Nogura still had more, "What else are you thinking, Admiral?"

"In order to show Clayborne that the stakes are high, I would like to not only make this in writing, but for the two ranking members to join me in presenting this proposal. Clayborne has to be out of Starfleet, he's not trustworthy anymore. He can live in relative comfortable retirement or sit in a tiny cell at a penal colony somewhere. Your presence would assure that."

Douglas looked at Marshall. "Let's take a vote."

SENATOR JAMESON'S OFFICE

SENATE OFFICE BUILDING

EARTH

Jameson was talking to a contributor on video when his secretary interrupted, "Senator, Samuel T Cogley here to see you."

Jameson muted the video call, "Tell him I'm in an important meeting. He needs to schedule a meeting with me, I'm too busy for unannounced meetings."

"Sir, he has a subpoena from the First Circuit court."

Jameson irritatingly said, "Then sign for it. Dismiss him."

"Sir, I tried that already."

Jameson snapped, "I don't want to meet him! Now get rid of him! That's why I pay you your salary!"

The secretary sheepishly replied, "Mr. Cogley has two officers from the Court with him, along with Federation Capital police. He states the subpoena specifically orders it to be delivered in your presence. He is not going away."

Jameson yelled, "I'll get to him after this video call, I don't know when it's going to be done."

There was some murmuring on the other side then the secretary said, "He said that will be fine, he will wait."

Jameson was infuriated. He resumed the video call but it did not go well. It was about two hours later when he was finished, admittedly Jameson was delaying because he was trying to out-stall Cogley. Jameson also knew that it was a futile deal because of Cogley's reputation of being persistent and patient. As expensive as Cogley was, evidently his clients did not mind paying by the hour for the lawyer to wait in offices.

Jameson checked the monitor for the lobby. There was Cogley along with the officers. They also had a device standing next to one of the couches in the lobby. Jameson did not know what it was, but had a good suspicion as to what it could be. He looked through his communicator for a contact. "Senator Jameson to Brian Harrison."

Harrison was the CEO of Solar Solutions, a company that Jameson had funneled some government money into to keep it running. It was working on the idea to collect solar power in orbit then transmit it down to Earth thereby making it totally 'clean' energy. "Charles, it's good to hear from you, how are you doing?"

Of course, in the funding of Solar Solutions, it was expected that some gratis money would flow Jameson's way, along with occasional favors. "Brian, I need a favor. Can you transport me out of my office?"

Harrison chuckled, "Another intern cornering you there?"

"No, just some unwanted visitors. Besides, it has been a while since I have seen the place."

"No problem, I am at my transporter right now and will have you in orbit in fifteen seconds…. No, actually I won't. Someone has a jammer nearby."

Jameson said, "It is just the Federation Senate office jammer. I have the bypass code."

"It does not matter, there is a second jammer. My sensors are telling me it is in your office. Who do you have there?"

Jameson said disgustingly, "It does not matter. Thanks Brian."

Jameson pushed the intercom button, "Send Cogley in."

In short order, Cogley entered the office with a stern face. Jameson greeted him warmly but Cogley was unmoved, "Samuel! What a pleasure to see you. On what occasion is it that I get to see you?"

Cogley produced a datapad. "Here is my subpoena. The subpoena orders you to produce all documents that you have concerning the announcement you made two weeks ago about the investigation into the events surrounding Tangia." Jameson took the pad and started to say something but Cogley shut him down. "You are hereby ordered by the First Circuit court to produce all documents within seven days. If you do not produce all related documents, you will be in contempt of the First Circuit court. Any questions?"

"Sam, you don't need to come in here like this and…"

"Senator Jameson, you were the one who made me sit here for over two hours. You also tried to evade by getting transported out of here."

Jameson responded with flair, "I did not!"

Cogley looked to one of the officers, who typed a couple of orders on the pad. "Our sensors show that this office was just probed by a Solar Solutions' transporter sensor. That makes you a liar. As you can see by the subpoena, I anticipated this and if a transport was attempted, the Subpoena now includes your communications records for the time since I first stepped in this office to any entity that we detect tries to transport you out."

Jameson was angry but trying to cover it up. "You cannot do that! This is privileged communication."

"I can, I have, and you will Senator."

Jameson was now boiling mad, "Just who do you think you are?"

Cogley said flatly, "I'm the lawyer for the Captain of the Wisconsin. The ship and crew you are running a smear campaign against. Good day, Senator." Cogley turned and left the office, followed by the officers. Jameson was dumbfounded.

The head officer said to Cogley once they were out of the Senate office building, "Sir, I've been serving subpoenas for twenty years, I've never had a show like that!"

Cogley nodded curtly, "Enjoy yourself?"

The officer looked at the two others and said, "Actually, yes. I have seen too many double-faced politicians say one thing and mean another. They squirm, they manipulate, they lie, and they never take responsibility. I never thought I would see an out-of-town lawyer do a performance like that to anyone, much less Jameson."

Cogley said, "Well, gentlemen, then let's make another stop."

"Where?"

"I got a John-Doe subpoena for whoever tried to transport Jameson. Let us go to Solar Solutions."

The officers were smiling. The head officer said smiling while he got in the shuttle, "Road trip."

MAXIMUM SECURITY CELL

ISOLATION DIVISION

FEDERATION SUPERMAX PRISON

MARIANAS TRENCH

The supermax facility was placed at the bottom of the deepest ocean on planet Earth. It was far too deep for any type of scanner to be used. There was no way that the occupants were going to be transported out with a transporter. Even if they knew where it was to begin with. Being at the bottom of the deepest part of the deepest ocean on Earth, only a few people knew exactly how to find the facility. While its existence was known, how to get there was something entirely different.

For being 31,000 ft under the surface of the ocean, you would never guess that the intense pressures were trying to crush the facility like tin foil. The interior was outfitted hospitably and resembled earlier Spartan Starship interiors. Each cell was just large enough for a humanoid to lay down or stand up and stretch, but not much more. There was also no contact with the outside world except what was strictly monitored personally by a guard.

The guard showed up at Clayborne's door and said, "Clayborne, you have some visitors."

Clayborne looked over from his bed, he was staring at the featureless ceiling when the guard came up. "Who is it?"

"Some Starfleet uniform and two others. They will be arriving in a few minutes. You are due in the interrogation room."

Clayborne nodded and sat up. He positioned his arms behind his torso and the guard hit a button on his control pad. Clayborne's wrists had large metal bands on them and when the guard touched the button, the two bands slammed together. Clayborne stood up and turned his back to the guard. The guard inspected the wrists and when everything was correct, he opened the transparent aluminum door. "You know the way."

Clayborne trudged the path along to the interrogation room and stepping in he saw to his surprise Nogura along with Senators Marshall and Douglas. The guard nodded and left. Nogura said, "Clayborne, sit."

Clayborne sat down and eyed his visitors. It was a big inconvenience to come to this facility. A trip to the Moon would be easier. Actually, a trip to Pluto would be easier. "I'm still an Admiral."

Nogura said evenly, "Yes, you are. You have been cooperative and we have been able to verify a lot of your story. May I introduce Senators Douglas and Marshall."

Clayborne looked at the two men. Not much warmth was exchanged in the glances. "You're the committee that has isolated me this last month?"

Douglas started, "Yes. All according to the law. What you have been accused of and the evidence has made the Starfleet Judge Advocate General place you here. Since this was a Starfleet operation and you are still an Admiral, this is in accordance with Federation law. You know as well as we do that the time is coming up. The big question is where do we go from here?"

Clayborne was quiet, but had an angry demeanor. "You cannot keep me held in secret forever. Not unless you have evidence."

Nogura nodded and answered. "Yes, and you know we have the evidence to put you away forever."

Clayborne looked at the three. "You want Jameson? I have given all that I know."

Marshall nodded, "You may know more than you think. You have been very helpful concerning Maghreb, but you have been his lackey for years."

"I'm nobody's lackey."

Nogura leaned forward, "If you are to be of value, you need to be totally honest."

"What if I am honest? How far back do I go?"

Douglas stated, "As we develop new evidence, we will need your input. That may lead to other areas as well. You do not know how involved you are already. Admiral Nogura, perhaps you should fill him in."

Nogura nodded. "We know that Senator Jameson coerced you to illegally transport illegal technology to Maghreb. He was depending on you to not ask questions and simply do your job. You were given that video of the President and told to use it on Starships whose Captains were giving you pushback."

"I know what I did."

Nogura continued, "You erred when confronting Captain Jackson. You played it not on a Starship but on Starbase 5."

"Big deal."

Nogura nodded, "It was. And as it is, fortunate for you, it allowed us one key piece of evidence. The reason why Jameson wanted you to play that on a Starship is because he has our Starship's communications compromised. He can delete all records of the President's video from Starships."

"How is that possible?" Clayborne was incredulous.

"It's technical, but suffice it to say he has compromised us, and badly too. With a little work, we have been able to prove every Federation government computer is now compromised too. We think Jameson had to do that after he found out that the video was resident in a Starbase computer. The big surprise was when we proved that more than Starfleet's computers are compromised, and we don't know how or when, but they are."

"What does that have to do with me?"

Nogura looked at the two Senators. He turned back to Clayborne. "We're here to offer you an opportunity."

"What?" Clayborne sounded hopeful. A month down in Davy Jones' locker was enough to make him go stir-crazy.

Nogura started, "You come back to Earth from an unspecified intelligence assignment. This places you outside the Starfleet oversight committee's reach. You take early retirement from Starfleet and become a civilian again. All charges against you will be dropped, you will have total immunity."

Douglas continued, "You start working clandestinely for us. Initially it will be more debriefs, then more as a consultant."

Clayborne asked, "Doing what?"

"Exposing more of Jameson's corruption. Eventually, you will need to testify. We can put you in witness protection anytime you want, but we plan on moving you into protection when charges are filed."

Marshall concluded, "But if you leak one word of this to anyone, Jameson will find out and we will lose our opportunity to nail him. We will turn our attention to you and bury you with all the evidence from Maghreb."

"But what about Jameson? The President too!" Clayborne exclaimed.

Douglas explained in his genteel way, "The video is not enough to prove the President knew that you were going to ship something illegal. As a member of my party, I can tell you that my party will circle the wagons initially and try to deflect any accusation as baseless."

Marshall continued, "And my party will be unwilling to pursue anything against the President unless it is absolutely iron-clad, written in stone, with completely infallible impeachable evidence. Even then we might not do it."

Nogura finished, "So the Justice Department will turn its effort on the only one who they can get a conviction on, and that is you. You were caught red-handed. You will spend the rest of your life in a facility such as this, not a penal colony, but a prison. What do you say, Admiral?"

Clayborne looked at the three men. Could he risk telling Jameson and hoping Jameson would be loyal enough to bail him out? There was only one real answer. "Do you have this agreement written down? On paper, something that cannot be electronically erased?"

The Senators opened a small folder up with the agreement written out. It was very simple, and had a few copies. They signed on their spots and slid the papers over to Clayborne's side of the table. Clayborne read the agreement and picked up the pen.

BRIDGE

USS WISCONSIN

"Captain's Log, Stardate 7917.6 Codeword Tunneldigger. Log out." Jacobs pushed the com button then opened his tricorder and selected record. "Captain's log, Stardate 7917.6 Tunneldigger entry. We have started the final approach into SHADO base, so far security on this end has been flawless. Only my department heads know what the mission is, and the crew knows we are on something secret, and not to make log entries or any form of record. Dr. Mallard has been informed to pay special attention to Nurse Griffin. So far, we have no contacts, and it has been difficult not using active scanners. Captain out."

Jacobs snapped the tricorder closed and looked around. Hotchner had a particular look on his face. "What do you have, Hotch?"

"I'm looking at a possible contact."

Leonaidas quipped, "Captain, you've got to stop saying 'No Contacts' in your log entries. You might as well say 'What could possibly go wrong."

Jacobs dryly looked at Leonaidas. Jacobs stepped up off his chair and stepped over to the Science station. "What do you have?"

Hotchner said, "I'm not sure. I believe there is an anomalous indication behind us. Lt Maya would be better at determining this."

Jacobs shook his head, "Do your best."

Hotchner nodded. He worked his controls and said. "This is what I'm looking at." He put up a readout of the scanner behind him on a screen and pointed. "I don't like the readings I'm getting in this area."

Jacobs actually squinted his eyes. The display was basically black, occasionally there was some slightly less dark dots blink. He said, "I don't see what you are concerned about."

Hotchner worked some controls. "Let me try to show you this way. False-color enhancement."

The screen now showed what looked like a static-filled environment. Leonaidas said, "Hotch, you've got the gain up so much that you're enhancing random background radiation."

Jacobs thought he could see something. It was like seeing a dark figure in rain at night. You couldn't make it out, but you just knew something was there. Grimm offered, "Let me work targeting scanners to there."

"Make sure they are only passive."

Grimm worked them and put the display up behind him. Everyone could see as Grimm worked to try to lock in on the apparition. "I can't get a lock, let me try this." Suddenly a box appeared on the screen, and Grimm tightened it down to the approximate size of the ghostly image. Grimm said, "I don't know how far away it is, but it's there. I could zap it with phasers if we wanted."

"How far away is it?" Jacobs asked.

Grimm shook his head, "I don't know." He worked a few more controls. On the screen behind Grimm was some measurements. "How big of a ship would you guess?"

Jacobs knew what he was working. "If it's very big then it's far. If it's small it's close." The fear was detection, and nearer made it easier for the target to track the Wisconsin

. "Let's assume close. Make it a Destroyer Escort."

Grimm worked the controls and said, "Assuming that, it's only two light-seconds away."

Leonaidas said, "Too close. And we're only getting scant data on this object. What can we do?"

Jacobs looked at Hotchner. "Would they see us?"

Hotchner nodded. "Almost certainly from that distance. They are following us, so they are definitely tracking us somehow. I pick up no emissions from them."

Leonaidas said, "They wouldn't need it. They could be following us from a window. This close to their sun we'd be pretty bright."

Jacobs realized something, "This close to the sun. Our next waypoint, it's by the innermost planet, right?"

Agathon nodded. "Yes, in twelve minutes."

Jacobs looked at the general tactical screen behind Leonaidas. "Ok, we've been had. Time to abort and get out of here. We'll duck behind and around that innermost planet. They are two light-seconds behind us, that is quite a ways when we are ducking around something the size of the moon. If we can't find anything of opportunity, we slingshot around the planet on full impulse and get out of the system according to protocol."

"What if we find an opportunity?" Leonaidas asked.

"We use it."

BRIDGE

USS SHADOW

Straker had been watching the chase on the screen. So far, the Wisconsin had flown the flight perfectly. It made it easy to determine that nobody was following the Wisconsin, and they knew exactly where to look because of the flight plan. Getting this close to the sun was necessary, as it would cause occasional flares in cloaking devices. It was basically the last check to make sure there were no unwanted visitors in the system.

His First Officer, Paul Forrester, announced, "Wisconsin is changing course."

Straker looked at the screen. He could see the bright dot that was the Wisconsin start to move differently. "That is not scheduled. Have they detected us?"

Forrester shook his head, "I do not see how. We are far away to be detected optically. They are moving close to the inner planet."

"He is going to try to lose us in the turn. Helm, close on him. Bring us to within 100 kilometers."

Forrester announced, "That's going to be difficult, he's going over the horizon, he's definitely trying to evade us."

Straker said irritatingly, "Do the best you can. How far behind him are we?"

"Fifteen seconds, he accelerated just before the turn. We will not catch him before he goes over the horizon of the planet."

Straker nodded. "There is nowhere to hide, we'll catch him. Besides, he cannot have an accurate fix on us. He may know we are here, but not how far away we are."

BRIDGE

USS WISCONSIN

"How far away now?" the Captain asked.

Grimm was working the controls, "He put on a burst of speed. Down to an estimated 50,000 kilometers and closing fast."

Jacobs thought a bit. "Any atmosphere around this planet?"

Hotchner shook his head, "Not appreciable atmosphere. About as much atmosphere as the Moon."

"Perfect, Alan, bring us down to 5000 ft above the mean surface height."

Carter complied. Lt Agathon added, "Mountain range ahead."

"Full reverse impulse. Alan, find a place for us to hide."

Leonaidas added, "Not much time before they are on us."

Jacobs nodded, "Sound Red Alert. Battlestations. All weapons to full charge."

BRIDGE

USS SHADOW

"Where is he?"

Forrester was working the controls. "He may be farther over the horizon than we originally thought. Maybe he added some speed and is doing a full impulse turn around the planet."

"We cannot go much faster than this, and we will not catch a Heavy Cruiser on full impulse. Assuming Captain Jacobs is going to follow orders, he will be on track to leave the system via the abort procedure."

Forrester nodded, "Maybe we can catch him on the back side. We need those supplies."

Straker's eyes narrowed. "Yes, we do. There will be plenty of time to catch them once they finish this slingshot around the planet."

BRIDGE

USS WISCONSIN

The Wisconsin was basically hiding on the far side of a mountain range. Carter found a cliff to maneuver the ship alongside given the very limited time. Hotchner said, "Target passing very fast overhead."

"Onscreen." Jacobs ordered.

The dark shape was passing in front of the sun, there was a clear silhouette. Hotchner stated, "We have found our shadow."

Jacobs smiled, "Yes, we have. Alan, pursuit course. Ben, is that the USS Shadow?"

Grimm nodded, "Silhouette matches the Shadow."

Jacobs turned to Communications, "Raise the Shadow on laserlink, minimal power."

BRIDGE

USS SHADOW

Forrester turned suddenly, "We are being hailed on laserlink!"

"Where?!" Straker snapped.

Forrester brought up an image on the main screen. "Behind us and below us!"

The main screen showed the Wisconsin low to the surface climbing and closing on the Shadow. Straker was surprised and started chuckling. Forrester said, "That's the last thing I'd expect you to be doing is laughing."

Straker ordered, "Onscreen."

The screen switched to show Jacobs standing in front of the weapons console manned by Lt. Grimm. It was obvious that the ship was at full battlestations and fully armed. Straker said, "Captain Jacobs! We surrender!"

Jacobs smiled, "Commander Straker, you gave us quite a surprise." Jacobs nodded to Grimm, who disarmed all the weapons and cancelled the Red Alert. "We didn't know until just a minute ago that it was you."

Straker nodded, "This is the way we ensure that you are not being followed into the base. May I suggest you follow us to the base?"

Jacobs nodded, "You have the lead."

The Wisconsin fell in formation behind the Shadow. The Shadow swung around to the far side of the sun and out to the asteroid belt. As they entered the considerable asteroid belt, they started the approach to Shado base.

There was a roughly spherical asteroid with unremarkable features about ten miles in diameter. The asteroid had a rough surface. As they approached the asteroid, a relatively small chunk of the surface separated revealing a hole.

Jacobs asked, "How big is the entrance?"

"Almost four thousand feet across." Hotchner said.

"Big door." Leonaidas added.

Santini remarked, "Look at the impulse engines being used to maneuver the door. That door is a sizable asteroid in its own right."

The Wisconsin followed the Shadow into the doorway and down a tunnel four thousand feet across and two miles long. Once they got to the end of the tunnel, the passageway opened to a gaping open volume again spherical roughly five to six miles across. The interior was illuminated somehow and there was a facility on the far end. Everyone was speechless as to the scope of the project.

Jareau said, "Shado control on laserlink."

Jacobs nodded, and a voice came through, "Welcome Wisconsin! We have been looking forward to visitors. Please dock at Bay 2 and back in. Prepare for a full seal across your shuttle bay to offload supplies."

Jacobs said, "Acknowledged, Bay 2, back in. What of the security concerns? We were prepared for keeping security tight using only the docking ports, but the shuttle bay will require a bit more than we planned."

Shado control's voice came through. "Please have all personnel off the shuttle areas and access tunnel to Cargo Bay 1 effective at 1800 hrs. We will do all the unloading. Please follow the other protocols."

Jacobs nodded, "We will Shado."

Straker's voice cut in, "And Captain, please be at your Port Dish docking port at 1800, you and your senior staff. We would like you to be our guests for dinner tonight."

OFFICER'S MESS

SHADO BASE

Forrester walked in leading the Staff from the Wisconsin. Straker stood and welcomed his guests in his upstate New York accent. "Welcome to Shado Base! Thank you for coming!"

Jacobs said, "Commander Straker, nice to see you again. I like the play on words between your base and your ship."

Straker smirked and nodded, "We thought so too. Also, my actual rank is Commodore. Anytime outside this base, I assume that of a lowly Commander."

Leonaidas asked, "Why?"

Straker said, "Security. Nobody second guesses a Commander as CO of a small ship. But if a Commodore was in command? They would start asking why. And I do not want any questions."

Hotchner said, "But it's a great step down in prestige, in honor."

Straker nodded, smirking. "I think you are looking for the word, 'glory.' I will leave that to the politicians, and the Klingons. We have the best kept secret in the Federation. Aside from the Shadow making occasional runs to Starbase 5, no other starship has made it out here since the base came fully operational. Speaking of which, how did you detect the Shadow?"

Jacobs motioned to Hotchner and Grimm. "They did."

Straker looked at them. Hotchner said, "I was detecting a small area of low background radiation."

Straker asked, "How? We were careful not to block anything."

Hotchner shook his head. "It was not that, it was the normal background radiation for this part of the galaxy. There was a small area that was lower than normal. I found it, then Mr. Grimm helped zero in on it. The problem was similar to US Submarines late in the twentieth century being so quiet as to be quieter than the ocean in the background. It was referred to as a 'hole in the water'."

Straker nodded, "How do we fix that problem?"

Grimm and Hotchner shook their heads. Jacobs smiled, "Commodore, I think that will be your solution to find. If we come up with something, I will let you know."

Santini asked, "How did you build such a huge facility?"

"Well, basically, the rock is just a bunch of rocks that have been stuck together. We get a rock, push it into place, zap it with a phaser to melt it, let it weld itself into position. Do that enough times, and you got a shell. Do that more and more, and you got a large shell. At some time or another, the entire surface was molten."

"You're kidding!" Santini said. "You didn't do that with your stealth vehicle out there."

Straker nodded, "I cannot give away all my tricks. But this base was assembled rock by rock. We are also sealed from the outside by a layer of iron-nickel metal from asteroids that have been melted. This makes this asteroid a giant faraday cage. No transmission can get out of here unless through our systems."

Hotchner asked, "And you have sensors hidden on the surface? It would be an impressive collection surface for passive sensors. It would be quite sensitive."

Jacobs suddenly realized something, "It was you that warned Starfleet about that Klingon Battleship. You can monitor Klingon space from here?"

Straker nodded. Hotchner added, "To get the information we have on that Klingon battleship from this distance, you need something larger than this base."

"Quite right. We started with passive sensors on this rock. We have been adding passive sensors all over this system. They are laserlinked to this facility, the farthest out is six light hours, so our observations are offset accordingly, but that is not any great trouble. Patience is key here. We have zero subspace radiation in this system. This system was selected not only because this star is relatively weak in subspace radiation, but the asteroid belt orbital plane faces the Klingon Empire, Q'onoS specifically." Straker stated.

Leonaidas asked, "How far can you monitor?"

Straker proudly said, "Well inside the Klingon Border. We have tracked ships coming from their Capital. We are not sure because we're still fine tuning the system a bit. Captain, your buddy Kang gave us a great chance to calibrate the system."

Jacobs asked, "How so?"

"He was the first ship that we knew where it started. Kang went straight to the homeworld, Q'onos. He stayed there a few days then went deeper into Klingon space. We didn't track him to the Cardassians, but let's say we know who the Emperor is going to see the next day and who he isn't."

The Wisconsin crew sat stunned. Santini said, "What do you know about the Klingon Battleship?"

Straker touched a few buttons and a rough schematic came up. "We know it has four nacelles, is very heavy, power signature appropriate for the mass. Because of the power, this thing could give the Excalibur a run for its money, in fact, with standard Klingon weaponry the betting pool is on the Klingon battleship."

"You're kidding." Jacobs said.

"You're actually betting against a Starfleet vessel?" Leonaidas asked.

"We are intelligence officers here, we deal with reality. It is a way for guys to cope and analyze. Mark my words, do not take this ship one-to-one. We are in fact calling it the Bismark for now."

Jareau asked, "You don't know what it's called?"

Straker shook his head, "No, the Klingons are very quiet on this one. No messaging traffic back and forth in their standard code, and that means they have a specialized code for that one. Be wary of that ship. Admiral Adama has a new tasking for you." Straker took a datapad and handed it over, "Your new orders and an amended flight plan to exit the system accordingly. It of course is not acknowledged, I will let you do that in two days."

Jacobs looked at the pad, "Organia? We are escorting the Ambassador to a meeting there."

Straker nodded and touched a few buttons. The screen came up with a map. "This is the only time I have been able to give real-time intel, and it is good. When we received your orders, we started looking at the Organian system and approaches from the Klingon Empire. The system is a bit to our side, so the array is not as efficient, but we did track three tracks enroute to Organia."

"Three?" Jacobs asked.

"Yes, three. A Cruiser and two scouts. One of the scouts has been there for a few days, probably cloaked. This is in violation of the treaty. Your crew has already witnessed an inaction of the Organians to enforce the treaty, here is another." Straker stated. "Josh, watch your back. You are heading into a possible ambush."

Jacobs nodded. "Thanks, we will."