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Star Trek Enterprise: Here we stand

Chapter 10

Follow up Log / Andorian Incident

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Commanders Log May 01 2151:

Enterprise spent the better part of a month at Terra Nova sending down medical teams and engineers to help with a few caves and medical staff to help with any illnesses. This was a fair play on Archers part as this went a long way to showing the Novans that we are friends. The Vulcans also saw the logic in helping build goodwill so by the time the three warp 4 Intrepid type ships arrived the crew were getting restless for the open road.

Captain Archer, in particular, seemed to be champing at the bit and climbing the walls. He has an almost predilection for roaming like an extinct humpback whale he feels at home out and free. I can see the allure. But Space is a dangerous place, and we need to be cautious. I hate being the lead weight for the man, but like a horse with an open door before him, he would charge out headless of those dangers.

We've had transfer crewmen come over from the intrepid and a few crewmen that have requested reassignment after the Klingon business was handed over to the S.S. Intrepid. It's a shame, but some of those crewmen weren't assigned to the enterprise. They were pressganged into joining so we could launch on time I think one of the engineers we grabbed was initially supposed to be heading to the intrepid anyway, so that works out nicely for them. They may even be put through for early consideration for premotion should they wish to.

[Classified]

Admiral Forest sent a currier with the Intrepid they have finished the framework for the Columbia and the stardrive section that I had outlined. When we return for the current deep space assignment, we should have our own stardrive section waiting for us and ready for immediate installation.

They have begun expanding the San Francisco Drive Yards the preliminary designs of the Poseidon class have been approved along with those of the minuet man class full production is still a way off. Still, I'm hopeful that those ships will allow for a strong foundation that Star Fleet can build on in the future.

[Classified]

Speaking of promotions, Crewman Daniels has been promoted from crewman first class to ensign. Hoshi is planning the party for the man I hope he has time to enjoy the feeling before the responsibility truly settles in. It's not easy, and you can lose friends when you get put in charge of them, and the rules about interactions can alienate you from them it's a steep learning curve that I hope that he navigates.

He seems to be one of the more stable crewmen I've met more so than myself when I was in the same boat as a young MACO. Though he does seem to not like me very much, I think that's more due to my command style than anything else, and I cannot say I blame him I push them into a secure environment so that when they enter into a more violent one, they will keep their heads.

[Classified]

I have my suspicions that Daniels may be a part of Star Fleet intelligence Black ops, or even the section. I would have thought Sloan would have learned after the last time that I wasn't interested I'll have to keep an eye on the man anyway he seems a little off and my danger sense is active when facing him.

[Classified]

We'll be pushing off in a few days the Admiralty wants to make an event of bringing Terra Nova back into the fold the president of the United Earth Council is on his way with Ambassador Soval and Admiral Forest where we will be debriefed personally. I never was one for pomp and circumstance, but duty does not afford me the chance to say no to my superiors for that.

I've spent some more time tinkering with my swagger stick I may just throw out the current design and go for something more truncheon in size while maintaining the upgrades that I have worked into the original it will take some time but I think that I can make something very interesting.

LT Reed's birthday is fast approaching and I have secured the Pineapples I need for his meal with the chief last year I got him a model ship which he quite enjoyed if his sister can be believed but Mal was always a private man and I hate intruding on that privacy.

I'm thinking of building him something with a bit more fun I know he has a love of H.G. Wells so I may build him a time machine replica, but he has taken an interest in my custom weapons ideas so I may gift him one of them. His birthday is about three months away more than enough time to do something.

End Log

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Horatio had secured a table in the mess hall away from everyone next to the porthole. Terra Nova loomed in the distance. Archer had moved the Enterprise into high Orbit so that the Intrepid types could have a more effortless time docking with them.

It had been tiring, but the Doctor had fixed his leg with almost no effort on his part he still had some phantom pain in the limb, but the Doctor has assured him that that would lessen as time went on. Horatio was absent-minded poking at the chicken on his plate with a fork when he was suddenly joined by Travis Mayweather.

"Afternoon sir." He was slightly nervous as he placed down his food tray

"Travis, we're off duty I think you can call me Horatio." He smiled slightly before taking up his knife and cutting the chicken after he ate the piece he turned to the younger man. "how does it feel to have solved one of the best mysteries in the modern era Travis?"

"I don't know." he answered looking down slightly, "what happened here, the attack I, I'm proud that we managed to help the Novan's but disappointed that it took this long."

"something you'll come to learn as your career goes on Travis is that the depth of human stupidity and political red tape is near endless."

"but we could have asked the Vulcans." He said disappointment rife in his voice. He had his beliefs tramped a bit by the experience and was unsure what he could do or if he could do anything more. Horatio knew the feeling intimately he had experienced it multiple times in his career.

"yes, we could have, but that decision was not ours I would have asked you would have asked I think even Archer would have asked, but seventy years ago we were bitter and proud." He said with a small chuckle and smile "we believed that we didn't need them then when things went off track, we allowed our pride to dictate our actions than when we lost communications. We assumed that they were just belligerent by the time we knew something was wrong. Our pride wouldn't allow us to ask for help. It's a failing that we're overcoming by generation."

"I just want to do more."

"I know, it means you're a good person Travis." The commander nodded before going back to his food.

-(-)-

Commanders Log May 05 2151

We're finally underway again, something I really wanted to get to when the president had arrived with his entourage and the press corps it was one of the most annoying moments of his life as cameras with flashes were going off every few seconds and so many questions hurled that they became a wall of noise was not how I wanted to spend my weekend.

I stepped out as soon as I was able to, the dress' uniform I had was tailored to me and it was still uncomfortable. I went back to my quarters and changed back into my duty uniform and got on with some calibrations in the armoury.

It didn't take long for the rest of the command crew to find refuge in the armoury with me I didn't mind too much in this instance even the Captain of the Intrepid and Admiral Forest had found their way there where we wet the heads of a few torpedoes before they left for the evening. The only one that was enjoying the situation was the chief who was using it as a means to show off his ability to cook anything to the highest degree possible.

Hopefully, the next encounter will be more peaceful.

End Log.

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Horatio sat in the Captain's chair and observed as the crew went about their day to day operations.

The Captain had called for T'Pol to meet him in the ready room, so she had placed him in command while she went. He was going over some of the reports that Malcolm had sent him about the crew's weapons qualifications they were coming up and he wanted to make sure the security teams had first go around as a base so he could help the rest of the crew push up their own scores.

The last crew that he had served with had managed a healthy 89% the score only brought down by a crewman that had suffered nerve damage after an engineering accident. He didn't lament that but had hoped that he could keep the score around 95% but for now, he would settle for them being able to break down and rebuild a phase pistol.

"Archer to Helm." The comm system interrupted his reading

"go head sir?" answered Mayweather

"prepare for a course correction T'pol will be giving you the coordinates."

"Understood sir."

"I wonder where we're going?" The young helmsman asked turning to face Horatio who shook his head before he answered.

"wherever it is trouble won't be far behind." The young helmsman smiled before he turned back to his control console. The door leading to the Captain's ready room opened and he stood as T'pol walked out.

If she wasn't a Vulcan, he would swear that you could almost see the annoyance in her body language. She walked to the console and input the coordinates for the helmsman. She then resumed her place at the science station.

This was unusual for her usually she would take up the Captain's chair until Archer returned.

"Everything alright Sub-Commander?" he asked her an eyebrow raised slightly

"We are headed to the temple at P'Jem the Captain wishes to see one of the oldest temples that the Vulcan people have constructed and one of the first my people constructed after we first left our planet."

"interesting, I look forward to seeing it." He said as she looked down at the console.

-(-)-

It took the ship about a day to reach the planet and T'Pol was acting like a bear with a sawtooth, or at least the Vulcan version of that. While she wasn't snappy or irritable visibly, she was shorter than she was usually when it came to incidents that she usually let fly.

Horatio could understand some of the trepidation she had, Vulcans were not very fond of humanity, they saw much of themselves at their worst in us and we're trying to make subtle changes that were working slowly but we were running faster than they could collar us.

So, her coming to a shrine, like P'Jem, where she would be confronted by the Vulcans there was something that she was not in a rush to experience. Something he had overheard was her conversation with the good Doctor where she had confirmed such.

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The Enterprise slowed from Warp a few thousand miles from the planet and approached at impulse. The time at sublight allowed Archer to study the protocols of the monastery that they would be visiting.

Horatio caught the Captain as he and commander Tucker went to the turbo lift.

"Sir, I don't like you being out of communications." Said Horatio as he entered the lift, it was cramped with the three of them but not anything they were unused to by now.

"Neither do I but the monastery has very strict rules about it." The Captain replied with a small grin, he was like a pup on a lead going to the park for the first time.

"what if there is an emergency how will we keep in contact?"

"we'll keep the shuttle close just in case." Smiled Tucker in his Southern drawl

"Understood, I will maintain a communications lock with the shuttle and contact you every hour."

"I'd feel better if you kept these on you." Horatio produced from his pockets two smaller communicators. "these are plainclothes security communicators used by most police forces they are easily concealable and have secure rotating frequencies."

"That sounds good." The Captain nodded "try to relax this is a Vulcan temple what's the worst that can happen."

Horatio shook his head as the two exited and made their way to the main shuttle bay. He tapped his communicator.

"Horatio to security teams." He waited for the device to sound that it had connected to the team. "Archer just taunted Murphy I want squad on ready status for potential deployment." He sighed as he ordered the lift to take him back to the bridge "that man will never learn." He said to himself before the doors opened, he made his way to the Captain's seat and went about his duties.

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Since the ship was at a relatively friendly port the engineering teams took the time to run a complete diagnostic on the main sensor systems which necessitated taking them offline and running checks and diagnostics manually.

It was a pretty involved check with engineering teams having to take parts of the hardware apart to run the diagnostics. But as this was a safe port in a Vulcan system where the Vulcan fleet assets would drop in from time to time the crew felt that running such an involved systems check could be done safely.

They decided without informing the command crew until they had already started, and it was a long process taking around ten to fifteen hours. To make up for the loss of the main sensor systems Horatio launched a chain of sensor probes to cover the now blinded ship.

it was amid this that the first of the probes began to communicate with the ship that they noticed something was amiss.

"probes have sent back some interesting telemetry." Said Science officer Macalister he was filling in because T'Pol was down on the planet. "we have a residual ion trail going to the planet."

"what makes it interesting Lieutenant?" asked Horatio

"the Vulcans send ships here every few weeks maybe we just missed the last supply drop." Piped up Hoshi as she turned from her console.

"no, I don't think it Vulcan." He replied looking slightly confused,

"Run a complete analysis on it."

"Aye, aye sir!" he ran the ion trail through the computers advanced spectrometer it took the machine seconds to reveal that the Ion trail was in fact not Vulcan in origin. "Confirmed Sir, the computer says that this is not an Ion trail consistent with Vulcan impulse drives."

"run it through the computer archives find out who it belongs to." the lieutenant nodded and began to run the tests; it took the computer a few minutes to identify the trail.

"I have it, sir it belongs to the Andorian Imperial Guard."

"Hoshi, open comm to the away team." She moved fast as the communications opened with a bleep. "Enterprise to away team be aware Andorian Imperial Guard elements on the planet, repeat elements of the Andorian Imperial guard on the planet be aware."

"we're aware Commander one of them has a weapon pointed at my head." It was Captain Archer, he was calm almost deadly calm

"Sir?"

"This is Shran of the Andorian Imperial Guard." The voice was male and held the edge of an experience. "we know you are in collaboration with the Vulcans."

"let me talk to my Captain."

"your ship is being monitored attempt to arm your weapons or launch a shuttle and we will execute the prisoners."

The comm-line suddenly shut down.

"I've lost the com." Said Hoshi suddenly

"try Tuck and T'Pol." Ordered Malcolm but Horatio knew that they were probably caught as well.

"Alright," sighed Horatio before he tapped the red button on the Captains Command chair, and the corresponding PA system. "Red Alert, all stations Red Alert we have a hostage situation on the planet I want all security teams at the ready I want all engineering teams to prioritise the main sensors I want them online ASAP." He pressed the button to kill the PA, but the alert claxon was still sounding off for a few more minutes before it would lose some of its volumes.

"Malcolm." He turned to face the man "I'm heading down to the Transporter you're in charge up here keep me posted about any developments." He then tapped the com on his chest "Horatio to Dragomirov."

"Dragomirov here sir?"

"Drag, I need you to take charge of the Security teams while I'm taking care of something, I want a full tactical assessment work with Reed."

"Macalister, direct the probes they have limited fuel, but they may have enough to start the search till the mains are on." The Science officer nodded and got to work.

"aye, Sir." Horatio stood but before he could move very far Malcolm stopped him.

"Commander." He said as he stood "why are you going to the transporter?"

"One, Until we can confirm it for ourselves we have to take their word that we are being watched so we can't launch any shuttles and without the sensors back online we can't disprove that fact we must conclude that it's the truth." He said as he held up one finger on his left hand while tapping said finger with his right index finger.

"Two, we have a tactical advantage with the transporter that we can execute once we have the sensors online, I am going to make sure that the device will not turn us inside out or materialise us into solid rock." He tapped the second finger with his right index again.

"and finally, three, we're going to need the complete layout of the temple, which is in the database, we'll need time to create a full tactical briefing and discuss the best options which I'm leaving to you and Dragomirov."

"shouldn't the probes be enough to give us a read on the solar system?"

"no, there good for supplementary sensors for the mains but their limited fuel and power won't be enough to do an in-depth search. But, with the mains fully restored we'll be able to do a much more comprehensive search."

-(-)-

Horatio was elbows deep in the transporter array something he had only done in the space dock. The Transporter chief operator Diego was helping with the main sensors so Horatio had all the freedom he needed to make sure that the device worked properly he had seen too many time when the machine malfunctioned so this was something that would calm his mind.

He also wanted to expand the range and sensitivity of the devices targeting computer as well as the devices Heisenberg compensator, Pattern buffer as well as the Materializer the three main components for the transport system. The adjustments he made would allow the transporter to work much more smoothly and would drop the percentage of error dramatically which would, in turn, would then drop potentially fatal issues to an almost impossibility.

After every adjustment, he would run a complete diagnostic making sure that the computer and the machinery, both hardware and software, were working. As he closed one of the many hatches on the pad his communicator beeped with an incoming call.

"Reed to Commander Smith."

"Smith here." He said as he used the hydro spanner to reseal another formally open hatch. "What can I do for you, Mal?"

"we've had a communication from Commander Tucker Sir." It was lieutenant Reed "He's using an old Vulcan transmitter."

"good, what did he have to say?"

"no major tactical update Sir but the Captain tried to negotiate with them." He said his voice was tight with emotion.

"Any luck?" asked Horatio he made his way to the main control console for the system and reactivated it. It took a moment before the machine cinchonized with its main systems.

"no Sir the Commander said that he came back with a face full of bruises."

"damn" he brought his closed hands down heavily on the console, he had to really clamp down on his anger, he could not afford to go on a rescue mission in an emotionally compromised state. "don't worry Reed we'll get them out."

"Aye sir, Reed out."

Horatio took several deep calming breaths before he tapped his communicator again.

"Smith to Dragomirov." He called, making his way to the armoury.

"Here Sir."

"I'm on my way I hope you have a plan for when I arrive."

"Yes sir, but we were unable to access the full blueprints for the temple."

"clarify."

"The Blueprints are classified it smells like black ops to me."

"you're certain."

"aye, sir."

"change to frequency 21." This was the classified high scramble line that could only be activated by Horatio or a flag officer in the intelligence branch-like Admiral Forest or Slone. He had built that into the system as a way to speak with the Admiral and not have the information leaked. But on the ship, it meant getting to the secure room within the armoury.

"21 aye."

"Are you secure?" Asked Horatio

"I am sir I have sealed the secondary level and activated the scramblers."

"Goodman." He said as he entered the turbo lift. "I'm in the turbo lift stay where you are, I will be there shortly."

The second floor of the armoury had a secure room where classified intelligence could be secure as the old MTAC rooms in the old United States Military Intelligence. It required two forms of identification to access one was retinal scanners the other was a fingerprint identifier that doubled as a number pad you enter the number and then get your hand scanned to enter. It was perhaps the most secure room in the solar system currently.

He entered the room and resealed the doors. The room was as large as the tactical Situation room at the rear of the bridge with a similar setup. Dragomirov was standing at attention as he entered the room and took a seat at the table as soon as Horatio did.

"Alright, sit-rep."

"Sir, the way the architectural plans are Classified, even the floor plans are classified. As are the names of several of the monks at the temple." He answered, "I haven't encountered this much black in a ledger since we were in the section and not in a good way."

"We have to tread very carefully the situation between the Vulcans and the Andorians are…" he paused for a moment to consider his words before continuing. "Antagonistic at best and near war at worse."

"a powder keg then."

"Indeed." He sighed before wiping his face in exasperation. "and given the strategic location of the temple it could be anything from a staging area to a listening outpost, god damn it." He took a moment before he spoke. "I thought the Vulcans were beyond this kind of sabre-rattling measuring contest." He had never believed that a race as seemingly logical and enlightened as the Vulcans could be so flawed or so human.

For years he had held them up as what humanity had the potential to become, Altruistic, Technologically strong, and Morally superior. It was disheartening that the race he held up so high proved to be just as flawed as everyone else.

"as did I.," said the large Russian, "it seems that they aren't as emotionless as we were led to believe or as trustworthy." He could tell that Dragomirov was just as upset but not quite as despondent. Horatio believed that every section 21 assignment and every off the books black ops mission would bring Humanity one step closer to what he had perceived as his ideal. That every nightmare and every black line on his record was worth it because, in the end, Humanity would be better for it like the Vulcans not as petty and cruel as humanity had been but better like the Vulcans.

"I feel like a fool for believing that we could be better like them."

"The Ideal is still something to strive for sir."

"you're right it's just disappointing."

"it always is sir that's why all my heroes are dead it's so I cannot meet them and see them as the mortal men they are."

"I'm going to need some time Drag." He said his eyes not meeting the other man's.

"Understood sir, I'll come back in an hour, or if there is an emergency."

-(-)-

The hour passed relatively quickly for Horatio and when it did, he had collected himself enough that he could work again. He had not expected the visceral reaction that comes up, it only truly meant that the fusion between who he was and who he is had been was so complete that there was no longer any distinction between the two. The original Horatio the bloody-minded belligerent that he was had believed deep in his soul that the Vulcans were something Humans could be more like.

He had held them onto the pedestal and have found that they could be just like the worst of humanity had shaken him enough that he almost had a breakdown. He had walked through rivers of blood and death so that humanity could be more like the Vulcans something that he had viewed as better than humanity.

He had to reassess his priorities and that. He had decided that he would no longer hold Humanity to the same standard as the Vulcans, he would hold all to the same standard and if they didn't measure up he would help them to do so as any good person would.

-(-)-

Horatio exited the secure room with a renewed vision luckily there was no issue planetside that had cropped up and he was ready to get back to work. Horatio made his way to the ladder leading to the lower deck he was met by the ever dutiful Dragomirov.

"feeling better sir?" he was sitting in the middle of the armoury looking up from the table. As he saw Horatio leave the room he stood at attention. Horatio made his way down the steps and was once again ready as he met the large Cossack's eyes.

"I will be but for now I would like to get this crisis over." He took the pad that the large Russian had offered him and began to read through the data that it held. "sensors operational?" he asked as he flicked through the signed receipts from engineering, the paper trail for parts replacement was the bane of any officer's life.

"Aye, sir." He said simply "on schedule too." He didn't need to look up to see the smile that had leapt onto Dragomirov's face. "I have a complete sensor scan of the whole system." He said handing Horatio a secondary pad. "there is an Andorian ship in an opposing orbit, they know we're here, but they have not moved to intercept or attack." Horatio put the engineering report pad down and took the tactical one.

"That's probably because they don't want to provoke a war." He said softly, the tactical pad showed a top-down view of the planet with one blue dot and one green dot moving in almost perfect synchronicity. "do we know what class ship she is?"

"they come into sensor range of our first probe, as soon as the sensors came online, I ran it through the Vulcan database." Said Dragomirov as he sat back at the table

"and?"

"I'm running the scan through the Vulcan database," Dragomirov repeated. Horatio sighed then walked over to the main computer. He then brought the ship upon the monitor then cursed

"it's a Heavy Cruiser." He said as he saw the imposing image of the Kumari. "looks like a Battlestar"

"Battlestar sir?"

"it's a ship from a science fiction long lost now I found a few images of it in a historical record from 1979 that's not important right now." He said as he began to go over the specifics of the ships tactical abilities that he had memorised "she's fully armed with five particle beam emitters, each with sweeping and wide arcs of fire. Three pule weapon placements and according to the Vulcans formidable deflector shields."

"How formidable?" asked Dragomirov as he joined Horatio.

"enough that the Vulcans are weary to engage it with anything smaller than the Suurok class, and it's recommended that to ensure a victory that they use a two to one advantage."

"wonderful, the largest Vulcan ship we would struggle to even equal is the class that the Andorian Cruisers are made to take on and have a good chance of winning."

"The odds do seem to not be in our favour." Said Horatio before he turned to face Dragomirov's worried face. "they won't attack us until they can get a base understanding of our threat level, the longer we remain a mystery the better for us."

"how long can we maintain it is the question then?"

"Not for long, we need to move and move quickly Horatio to Engineering..."

-(-)-

Horatio assembled all of the Security teams and Dr Phlox in the armoury, there was no briefing room large enough on the ship for such a gathering, so this room had to double as both.

"Welcome Gentlemen and ladies." He said formally he had his swagger stick in hand and puffed out his chest like Patton giving his famous speech. "we are about to embark on a very risky mission." He stalked from one end of the room to the other all eyes were on him as he did so, he made eye contact with every member of the crew. "one false move and Earth could be embroiled in a war that could ignite the entire quadrant. like the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo did Europe so long ago." He stopped in the centre of the room after his fifth pass along the room. "so, we shall be very, very careful, am I understood?"

"Yes Sir!" came the unanimous response

"Outstanding!" he smiled back at them. Said Horatio as they brought up the temple on the main computer monitor. "the Temple of P'Jem is standard Vulcan construction for the period." He said as he manipulated the controls to show the internals and the lifeform readings. "as you can see there are several locations that we can use to expedite recovery of our away team." He said, he brought the image of the catacombs up and showed a dead area where there was apparently nothing not even rock.

"what's that area sir?" it was a very junior crewman he was tall with black hair that contrasted against his very pale skin he had a polished look to him with green eyes.

Horatio looked to Dragomirov for a moment before he decided his course of action.

"what I say here is now considered Most Secret, meaning that it does not leave this room am I understood?" the nods were sporadic but everyone understood the security level "the reason the Captain has been captured is that the Andorians believe that the Vulcans have a listening post here within striking distance of several Andorian worlds and key trade routes."

"is that true sir?" it was the crewman again?

"Indeed, crewman?"

"Daniels sir"

"Daniels, that dead area looks like the most likely location for the listening post do you agree?"

"I do." Said Dragomirov before anyone else could.

"what's the plan then sir? we can't go in guns blazing, can we?" this time the interruption was from one of the female security members, ensign Miriam Park.

"Indeed, my plan has three stages." He smiled "stage one we transport a bundle of stun grenades down to every room on the hostage's floor" he held up what looked like a relic from world war two the Model 24 Stielhandgranate. "this with a little help from our learned colleagues from Engineering is a stun bundle grenade." He said holding it up for everyone to see "this little beauty can be set to a timer once detonated it will render everything in a thirty-foot radius unconscious." He then allowed everyone to take a look at the device. "With the captors and captives incapacitated we enter stage two;" he brought back up the image of the building on the screen again with the life form dots in each room. "immediate follow-up teams will sweep the building from top to bottom with weapons locked on stun before we then enter stage three. where we negotiate with the now captured Andorian commander."

"Negotiate?" this time it was Daniels, he seemed genuinely shocked like he was reading a book and it took a sudden left turn.

"let's not forget that the Andorians are a large military power and even with Vulcan support we do not want them as an enemy. Better for them to be neutral it saves on body bags later."

"understood."

"Dr Phlox will be coming along with a medical kit to see to any wounded people." He said indicating to the very excited Doctor. "the Doctor tells me he's never worked on Adorians, but he had a working understanding of what goes where." There was a smattering of laughter before Horatio brought up the sticking point.

"to make sure this mission is executed with all speed so that the large Warship in opposing orbit doesn't attack us we're going to have to use the Transporter." The murmur of discontent started at a murmur and then became a cacophony as people tried to talk over each other and accusations of cowardice were thrown around before a high-pitched sonic screech suddenly ripped across the room bringing some to their knees.

"enough!" shouted Horatio before he shut the device off. "I am not going to force anyone to go on this mission." He sat the swagger stick under his right armpit. "I need six volunteers to accompany me and the Doctor." There was a murmur for a second before six stepped forward. "Outstanding, meet me at the transporter with full kit in an hour."

-(-)-

Horatio was early, he had gotten his body armour and weapons and had just finished checking both, when the rest of the team assembled, he spent some time double-checking all their armour and weapons when he had finished Dr Phlox arrived.

"we'll send down the stun grenades first when the last one is gone the first team will be sent down to the first room and so on till we are all down there I will take the first wave good luck." The team nodded before the operation began.

As the last bundle was sent, he stepped onto the platform, his team stepped on slightly gingerly.

"I'll catch you, gentlemen, on the bounce." He said as he knelt his rifle at the ready, blue glitter light began to cascade all around him and he felt himself tingle before the image of the ship and security teams before him. He disappeared for a moment in blue-purple light.

A moment later he was surrounded by the warm wood instead of cold bulkheads, instinctively, they began to sweep the room. There were several unconscious Vulcans and a severally bruised and beaten Commander of Engineering and the Captain who appeared very worse for wear. He tapped his communications button on his chest

"Team one, room secured" it was a few seconds after that the responses came through

"Team two, room secure."

"team three, room secure."

The mission had gone well and almost completely to plan.

"secure the Vulcans," he said indicating to the security group and then to the unconscious monks. He then tapped the communication button again "Secure all prisoners and bring them in." the teams acknowledged and began to secure them with metallic zip ties. The bonds had been designed to secure anyone with a strength of a Vulcan by Starfleet security figuring that if the Vulcans couldn't break out of them then no human would be able to either.

The men brought the now mostly awake Andorian Guardsmen in they were struggling but the binds stopped them from doing anything foolish like escaping. As they passed through the threshold Dr Phlox scanned them to make sure that they were alright once he had established that they were physically fine the men brought forward the man Identified as Shran and sat him on the floor on his knees.

The blue-skinned soldier was still confused, and his eyes wouldn't focus, his antenna flexed slowly as if only now becoming awake.

"Good afternoon Commander Shran," Horatio said pleasantly as if discussing the weather with an old friend. When he noticed the eyes were still not focusing, he snapped his fingers in front of the face of the humanoid. He flinched away from every snap until his eyes focused and range consumed the confusion quickly.

"I knew it, you pink skins are in league with the Vulcans."

"ok, first rude." He flicked the Andoians nose, causing him to flinch away again. "second, bigotry over something as arbitrary as skin colour is an archaic anachronism that we have long since left behind I expect better from a race as old and experienced as yours after all you don't hear me calling you Papa Smurf do you."

"What, you."

"Hey, enough." He said stopping what was likely a building tirade. "you and I have somethings to discuss and discuss them we shall." He said as the team brought in a table and chairs, Captain Archer was beginning to come around from the effects of the stun so the negotiations could begin in earnest.

-(-)-

Commanders Log May 10 2151:

We have an agreement with the Andorian Imperial Guard for the next few months. Or as long as it takes the United Earth Government to go to Andoria and set up an official embassy. Though this has upset the Vulcan High Command something I find myself more uncaring of these days.

The listening outpost has been exposed and the Vulcans have a six-week timeframe to remove it and then vacate the planet or face a potential war that they are not currently ready for. I find myself concerned over the Vulcans sabre rattling with the Andorians its something antithetical to the Vulcans purported Logical outlook.

I have recommended that Star Fleet begin keeping a closer eye on the Vulcans there may be something very wrong with them if they are willing to abandon their principles like this.

We'll be underway in a few hours and I find myself having to rethink my opinion on the Vulcans maybe this voyage will challenge and change all my preconceptions I can only hope that I am prepared for that eventuality.

[Classified]

I have received word from Star Fleet Command they're having issues with the inertial on the Secondary Hull. I have sent the recalibration calculations and the recommended setting for them as well. If they keep running into roadblocks, they may reassign me back to the shipyard until the issues are resolved something I'm finding almost upsetting.

[Classified]

End log