Another week, another chapter of Tomorrow's Possible. It's time for action and I hope everyone enjoys it.

Chapter 12 is dedicated to whoever, at Starfleet, finally decided that their doctrine of "keep your ship moving slowly relative to your enemy while you slowly fire at them like it's a miniature in a cramped visual effects studio" was crap and designed more dynamic maneuvers. Too bad they were too late to save the Odyssey.

Chapter 12: Hidden Threads Laid Bare

It had taken a lot of string-pulling – and Doctor Crusher's direct intervention – but Kim arranged for Drakken to be transferred to the Enteprise. He was not considered a serious security risk and was allowed to move around the ship's common areas without supervision. After 24 hours of his being on board, the worst that had happened was that his quarters were full of papers – literal replicated cellulose – on which he wrote. Whether these were crazy ramblings of a madman or legitimate attempts at finding a mathematical solution to the questions at hand was a matter of interpretation. In the end, what mattered is that he was staying out of trouble, allowing Kim to focus on her investigation.

Drakken's good behavior was particularly welcome, because eavesdropping on Monkeyfist had turned out unlike any expectations. Instead of a handful of recordings, there were hours upon hours of gibberish, inane conversations with various individuals of little note, and even random moments of maniacal laughter. Still, Kim was mostly keeping up.

Another call to his butler? Ron's right, this guy is a freak, he's weeks away from Earth, why is he bothering his butler? Why does he even have a butler!?

Kim was on her way to the bridge, Tasha Yar had requested her help with some odd readings that had been flagged by the ship's combat management system for manual review. Hardly an urgent matter, since they were a day old at this point, so Kim was leisurely going through Monkeyfist's conversations on a PADD.

"Bridge," she said upon entering the turbolift. She pulled up the next recorded conversation, from just three hours earlier. Immediately, she saw it was very different. Dangerously different.

The instant the turbolift arrived, she jumped out and shouted, "Red Alert, shields up!"

Immediately the officers on duty complied and the ship was brought to Red Alert. For a brief moment, she felt like all eyes on the bridge were judging her for the most unusual entrance. This was quickly interrupted by a strong jolt.

The captain immediately called out, "Report!"

Lieutenant Yar at Tactical responded, "That was a pair of photon torpedoes, direct hit on our aft shield. Shields holding at 92%."

"Sensors read no other vessels in the area," Data reported from Conn.

"They're probably panicking because their clean kill shot that wasn't gave them away," Riker added. "I figure we have at most two Birds of Prey out there lurking."

But Kim knew otherwise, "Sir, we actually have at least three, with express orders to take us down." Seeing the surprised looks of her superiors, she added, "Long story, Sirs."

"Sensors still do not read any enemy craft," Data reported.

"Captain, they've been tailing us for hours, probably even a day."

Data offered his analysis of Kim's statements, "To hide from our sensors for such a long period would require tactical or technological innovations that the Klingons have not yet been known to field."

"Data," Tasha Yar called out, "that sensor blip from yesterday, that could have been them!"

"That would suggest that they are taking advantage of the reduced sensor performance in our wake and carefully maneuvering to maintain their advantage, a task no doubt made more difficult by our present awareness of their presence," the second officer concluded.

What if… Kim pondered. "Captain, permission to take the helm, I've got an idea, but it will need tight coordination with Tactical, we will only have a brief window of opportunity."

"Granted," the captain answered. "Take your station and explain your plan."

"We're going to do a Crazy Ivan. Drop to impulse, hard 90-degree turn and expose them to our lateral sensors – and our primary phaser arrays. Their cloaks are unlikely to be able to compensate for quick changes in our active scans when not shielded by our Warp trail. The instant we detect something, we hit them with our phasers, target ID or no target ID."

"Commander Data, are our sensors capable enough?" The captain asked.

"Based on our understanding of Klingon cloaking technology, I estimate a 73% probability of detecting a ship in the proposed scenario," the android answered.

"Beats the hell out of waiting for them to make a move against us again," the first officer added.

"Agreed, Commander. Lieutenant, make it so."

If there was any doubt that Kim was fully in mission mode, she quickly dispelled it. "Commander Data, I'll need targeted active sweeps of the most likely regions where the Klingons are hiding."

"Configuring primary sensors for rapid sweeps, three steradians, centered directly aft of our present course. Sweep frequency will be approximately four sweeps per second within this solid angle, with two sweeps per minute in other areas," he answered.

"Tasha," Kim continued, "I'm going to expose our dorsal phaser array to get you the best shot I can. If we get a second run at them, I'll turn us around for a go with the ventral phasers."

"Got it, Kim, all phasers ready. Torpedo bays are loaded, if we can get them to uncloak, we'll have a little surprise of our own," Lieutenant Yar answered.

"Helm to Engineering," Kim called out.

"Engineering, LaForge here."

"Commander, I'm going to need full deceleration, followed by a hard right turn at impulse."

"Lieutenant, I can get you full deceleration whenever you're ready for it, but I'd recommend routing auxiliary power to the inertial dampers and structural integrity fields," the Chief Engineer replied.

The captain gave his assent, "Make it so, mister LaForge."

Kim reviewed her console and called out, "Captain, we're ready."

"Understood, Lieutenant Possible," Picard responded. "Lieutenant Yar, all unidentified targets are to be treated as hostile. Use all weapons at your discretion."

"Weapons free," Tasha answered.

"Your time to shine, Kim," Riker announced.

Kim began the sequence for the maneuver, "Five seconds from my mark… Mark!"

"Tally four torpedoes on sensors, brace for impact," Data called out.

Oh snap! It was too late to coordinate a new attack plan, Kim's options were to hope for the best or push the structural integrity fields to their maximum. Naturally, Kim chose the latter, initiating a clockwise roll before the deceleration from Warp 7 even started. She kept the rest of the maneuver on track, and the Enterprise decelerated to sublight speeds in what could charitably be called an unhealthily short period. Simultaneously, the ship pitched up, resulting in it exposing the saucer section to the direction the Klingons were presumed to be.

Did they miss?

"Enemy torpedoes overshot us, we are clear," Data said, answering the unspoken question. A second later, he called out, "Four Risers at 172 mark 08 degrees. Dropping out of Warp, phaser range in two seconds."

"Got them, phasers locked," Lieutenant Yar confirmed. "Firing phasers."

Helpfully, someone else had set the viewscreen to follow the sensor tracks, and everyone on the bridge received immediate visual feedback of the engagement – a large fireball that moments earlier had been a cloaked Klingon Bird of Prey.

"Splash one Bird of Prey," Data reported.

The phasers fired once again, this time landing a serious, but not critical hit on another Klingon vessel. Its cloak apparently failed from the damage and it began maneuvering. Unfortunately for its crew, the Galaxy-class primary phaser arrays allowed for faster beam steering than any ship could hope to outrun. Without the benefit of a cloak to reduce the effectiveness of the targeting, a second phaser beam hit the Bird of Prey's engineering section and immediately caused a warp core breach.

"Splash a second Bird of Prey," Data announced. Other officers might have done so as an emotional response, despite it being abundantly obvious to everyone in the room, but Data did so because it was protocol. "Two hostiles decloaking, they are raising their shields."

"They must figure their cloaks are useless," Riker suggested.

"Let's not give them a chance to reevaluate their risk assessment. Fire at will," Picard ordered.

With the sensors no longer having much difficulty tracking the enemy ships, Kim oriented the Enterprise to face the two newly visible hostiles. Klingon doctrine mandated maximum firepower, at the expense of flexibility – in practice, most Klingon ships' primary disruptors had very limited steering and relied on the whole ship maneuvering to face the intended target. Kim's goal was to take advantage of the confusion and keep the Enterprise outside the Klingons' arc of fire. Still, they were not going to make it easy, and a few disruptor shots grazed the shields. By that point, the ship on Enteprise's starboard side had been tagged as "Hostile 3" and its companion as "Hostile 4". Several torpedoes were fired towards the Klingons, taking advantage of their proximity to each other to limit their evasion options. Hostile 3 successfully evaded the torpedoes, but at least two scored direct hits on Hostile 4. As the Enterprise closed, Kim pitched up to expose the ventral phaser array for a better shot.

The two hostiles were splitting, Hostile 4 staying below the horizon line and Hostile 3 moving upwards. The dorsal phasers fired at Hostile 3, with limited effect, their shields held. Meanwhile, the ventral array fired at Hostile 4, breaking through the shields for limited damage to the hull. This was soon followed by another salvo of torpedoes – the first torpedo targeted the shields, bringing them offline and allowing the remaining two torpedoes to pass through. One impacted the Bird of Prey's bridge, destroying it, another quickly followed and caused an explosion that soon consumed the whole ship.

Clearly Hostile 3 understood that discretion was the better part of valor and decided to beat a retreat.

"Follow them," Riker ordered, "we don't want them running home to daddy Duras telling him all about us."

Kim punched in an intercept course and took the ship to Warp in pursuit of the last Klingon ship. A Galaxy-class could comfortably outrun a Bird of Prey under nominal conditions, but Kim's little maneuver had stressed the warp drive and speed was limited to Warp 7.5 – short of the Klingons' Warp 7.8.

"Engineering," she called out, "can you give me at least Warp 8.2?"

"Lieutenant," LaForge's voice responded, "after a stunt like that, we shouldn't be exceeding Warp 5, much less Warp 8! I can give you five minutes, but then we'll have to drop out of Warp completely for a diagnostic."

"Please and thank you, Commander." That will just have to do. She input the higher speed on her console.

"Hostile 3 will be in weapons range in four minutes, thirty-five seconds."

"Lieutenant Yar, I want all weapons on target the instant we're in range," the captain ordered. "Mister Data, are you sure there's only four of them?"

Data quickly replied, "Reasonably, Sir. Sensor data is consistent with four cloaked Birds of Prey. However, it is possible for another ship to have observed us from greater range."

Riker analyzed the situation, "If that was the case, by now they're certainly far too spooked to have stuck around, not much we can do about it."

"Agreed," said Picard. "Time to target?"

"Three minutes, twenty seconds," Kim responded, "they've accelerated slightly, our weapons window is down to just five seconds."

Tasha Yar did not hesitate, "I can make that work, just don't let them get away."

After a tense three minutes, the window had widened slightly. The Klingons were slowing down further.

Riker was the first to voice concerns, "They should be able to hold Warp 7.8, did we do more damage than we thought?"

"No way, Sir," Lieutenant Yar replied, "their shields held, and we saw no damage to their hull."

"Five seconds," Data called out.

No way! "It's a trap, dropping out of Warp!"

Before anyone could protest, and just as the Enteprise was about to enter weapons range, the Klingons dropped out of Warp as well. They must have been stunned by the Enteprise having anticipated their actions, because they did not move at first. This would be their final mistake, as they had just unwittingly entered weapons range. A salvo of torpedoes combined with phaser fire quickly penetrated their shields, causing a series of explosions. A final phaser beam delivered the coup de grâce to their warp core. The final Klingon ship had been destroyed.

The threat was over. Before this could sink in, Picard wasted no time, "Commander, you have the bridge. Bring me the damage report ASAP. Lieutenant Possible, in my ready room."

She left the helm, another officer quickly took her place, and she followed the captain into his ready room. He was getting tea from the replicator.

"At ease, Lieutenant, and take a seat."

Kim did as ordered.

"Now, I would very much like to know what the hell just happened."

There was no realistic alternative to laying everything on the table.

"Captain, my surveillance of Mr. Fiske intercepted a call with the Klingon Chancellor – "

Picard was suddenly livid, "Fiske is in contact with Chancellor Duras?"

"Yes, Sir. I just found out myself. I haven't had the chance to listen to the whole recording, but I was reading the transcript on my way to the bridge. I only skimmed it, but I saw the reference to the Birds of Prey and figured there was no time to waste."

"You did the right thing, even if your entrance had a bit too much dramatic flair for my taste…"

"Thank you, Captain, and sorry."

"Not at all, this is one that shall not soon be forgotten. I'd gladly trade some additional flair for the safety of my ship and its crew…"

The door chime rang. "Come," the captain said.

Commander Riker entered the ready room, with two PADDs in hand. "Damage report, Captain. Minor damage only, but we got lucky. That damaged power coupling we found after yesterday's damage control drill would have blown up and taken half of the ship's shields with it. We would have been sitting ducks against the Klingons." He handed the damage report to Picard, who inspected its contents silently, and turned to Kim, "That was one hell of a maneuver, Lieutenant, straight out of a movie."

"Thanks, Commander…" A bit more literally than I'd like to admit…

"So Q is once again our guardian angel…" Picard said with a hint of displeasure after reading the damage report.

A bright light filled the room for a moment as Q popped his head into the room out of a bulkhead.

"Oh, I do love hearing you say that, Jean Luc."

The captain was not in the mood for such antics, "Q! What is the meaning of this!?"

"Sorry, I've told you all I can. The rest is up to you," was Q's cryptic answer. He disappeared as quickly as he first appeared.

Riker spoke as if to cut the tension of Q's unexpected visit, "Lieutenant, you dropped this during your performance." He handed Kim the other PADD he had carried into the room. "I take it this has something to do with your grand entrance?"

"Yes, Sir," she answered. "Recordings of Monty Fiske's quarters on Starbase 375, which I bugged. He spoke to the Klingon Chancellor earlier today."

Riker was incredulous, "What? How the hell? Why the hell?"

"Sit down Commander," Picard ordered, "we should all listen to the treasonous words of our esteemed guest."

Riker stepped over the chair next to Kim's and sat as ordered – no doubt little convincing would have been needed. Kim started the playback from the beginning of the session, skipping various irrelevant beeps and notification sounds until Fiske's voice was heard.

"Chancellor Duras, always such a pleasure to speak to you."

"Do not insult me, Fiske. This better be important for you to be calling me from such a public location."

"Oh, but it is. Surely you recall the story I told you of Ron Stoppable?"

"You said he was nowhere to be found!"

"He wasn't. Until a few days ago, when a most curious report found its way to me, asking the Federation registrar for all records on a Ron Stoppable. Something about a ship found in the middle of nowhere by the Enterprise."

"And he was aboard?!"

"Supposedly not. I pulled quite a few strings and managed to get an inspection tour of the ship, and naturally got a good look at the ship they found. Supposedly it had been abandoned – a nonsense tale, but I was just about to give up when lady luck decided to help me out once more. As I was leaving the Enterprise, I crossed paths with none other than Kim Possible. And if she is on board, so is he. Now, the big problem is that they are clearly onto me, nobody made any effort to silence that damned dolphin! They hid Stoppable and they're no doubt looking into me. I need not remind you of our pact…"

"Our pact!? You useless fool! You assured me the war wouldn't last a year and look where we are now! We are months away from a total collapse of our shipbuilding, in less than two years we won't have enough warriors to even man our current fleet, much less expand it! And now I'm at risk of being exposed!?"

"I seem to recall warning you not to piss off your Romulan benefactors, and that their continued support was essential to our mutual goals."

"Enough! I have a squadron of Birds of Prey shadowing the Enterprise, I'm ordering them to engage and destroy the ship. I'll see to it that you get to interrogate any survivors. Qapla'!"

"Typical Klingon, brute force their way through everything. Pity, it was a very comfortable ship, too bad it's following the Enterprise family curse."

The recording ended with a maniacal laugh that devolved into a series of monkey cries. He might as well twirl his moustache, with a laugh like that.

"That's two questions answered and five new ones on the table," Riker mused. "I can't believe it."

"I can," Picard said. "I have had the misfortune of meeting the man, and I am not surprised that he would do this. Surprised that he could, but not that he would show so little hesitation to solve matters with blood."

"Sirs," Kim added, "it goes without saying that this recording is highly illegal."

"Indeed, Lieutenant. I remind you that I ordered it, perhaps not in so many words, but I did." Picard's attempt at assuming responsibility was likely to at least soften the blow of any criminal proceedings. With any luck, Kim might get away with a dishonorable discharge and no jail time.

Riker spoke next, "Captain, our next report is due in just over an hour, I recommend we say that we detected anomalous readings following us at Warp speeds. That might buy us more time, let any spies wonder why the Klingons haven't engaged us yet."

"Agreed. I want no mention made of our battle. We're a step ahead for a change and I intend to keep it that way."

Kim took a deep breath, even in her current context, her next words were going to sound crazy, "Captain, if you want to stay one step ahead, we need to break Shego out of prison."

Both the captain and his executive officer were somewhat surprised by the proposal, though not as much as Kim had imagined.

"From what Ron tells me, this Shego used the Time Monkey to take over Earth. That means she has more experience in this matter than anyone, with the possible exception of Monkeyfist. Plus, Drakken thinks she might have valuable insight on the process that brought them here."

Riker was first to answer the bold proposal, "Lieutenant – Kim… Leaving aside the legal and ethical implications, how would you even do that? She's presumably in a maximum-security prison on Lissepia. You can't just waltz in and open the door for her. Hell, what about the Cardassians, the Lissepians are a client state of theirs, they'd surely get involved."

"Commander, I'll have a plan on your desk by tomorrow morning," Kim answered simply. I can do anything!

I figure I'm going to get comments about this, so I'll preempt them: Yes, a Crazy Ivan in submarine warfare is a 180-degree turn. How come Kim mentions a 90-degree turn? Well, it's all about capabilities, and a Crazy Ivan is meant to expose someone on the sub's tail to the torpedo tubes - which are oriented longitudinally. Thanks to the Galaxy-class' fancy phaser arrays, the Enterprise actually has pretty good weapons coverage over at least 300ish degrees, if not all 360 degrees, so Kim only needs to get the primary sensor arrays to see the Klingons.

If the geometry of the whole battle has something that doesn't seem right... a wizard did it.