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Star Trek Enterprise

Here We Stand

Chapter 04

Cleaning the House of Shadows.

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As soon as he heard that Admiral Forest was on his way, he began to sift through the computers again. When and found the contract that Star Fleet had signed with the company, he skimmed through the whole document and found what he was looking for. Taking out a pad, he downloaded the information he needed.

He then began to piece together what exactly had happened. The Cardassians had subsumed the identities of the lead scientist and the department head. They had started to make changes in the metal. Still, before they could do anything significant, they had been caught, Horatio noted that they had been working for about three months subverting the systems and adjusting the material mix.

They had changed the quality control for the metals with a man they had paid off. Taking a closer look at his personnel report it became apparent that he was part of or a sympathiser to the Terra Prime movement, there were several complains about racist comments and off-colour jokes that show the man was a useful idiot.

But he was good enough at his job that the Cardassians had kept him.

He was going through the computer again to finish the job when Admiral Forest came in followed by Soval those two he had expected but what he hadn't was the third man. Horatio before the merger had done some work for Star Fleet Intelligence and had worked with this one before. But the last mission had gone tits up, and he lost half his squad and a vital intelligence asset.

If he hadn't kept enough of the evidence himself as leverage against them, he would have been changed to the section for his whole career.

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The Flag officer that accompanied Admiral forest was not amused. For one he hated having to wear the blue uniform again, and for another, he had failed to discern this plot something that his section had been designed to do, and it rankled him. The only thing that mitigated the disgust in his own ignorance was that a member of the section had led the strike and had uncovered it. He was dressed in his dark blue Admirals uniform, but the b duty uniform with standing collar and as that was the only one, he could get in time to be here.

He was transported with Admiral Forest and the Vulcan Ambassador as a representative for Star Fleet Intelligence who would be conducting the investigation. He would make sure that the section would uncover all of the snakes in this pit his pride wouldn't let him do anything less. They came to the primary office where one of his agents, Lieutenant Commander Smith, was working with a Vulcan security agent.

As they entered, he saw the man at a computer terminal.

"Admiral Forest" he stood at attention the man acknowledges him with a nod. "Ambassador Soval" he nodded to the man and then his eyes fell on Harris. "Admiral." He nodded to him; Harris noticed that the man seemed to be a bit stiff to acknowledge him. He dismissed it as the man still not liking what he ordered him to do on the last mission for the section.

"Quite the nest of vipers you've uncovered here." Harris said he crossed his arms "why didn't you contact Star Fleet Intelligence as soon as you deciphered this issue." A flash of annoyance flickered over the junior officer's face before he answered.

"I felt speed was the most necessary component in dealing with this." Harris noticed that Horatio was aiming himself more towards Forest as he spoke, he felt that the man was disrespecting him. "And I did file a report with Security, and with Admiral forest both of which contacted Star Fleet Intelligence, so there was no need for me to do it myself, sir."

"Less of the attitude Mr Smith," Harris said.

"Apologies sir." He said looking Harris dead in the eye. "I uncovered two agents of a species that we haven't encountered yet?" he kept his eyes on Harris as he spoke. "They worked with the CEO and engineering team here sir to sabotage the armour plating of the NX-class as well as the plating used on ships that have been upgraded in the last 2 years." Horatio was holding out a datapad that had the incriminating evidence on it.

"they what!" said Admiral Forest as he snatched the pad out of his hand. There had been an increase in ship fatalities recently that the Vulcans were using as evidence for humanity to slow down their exploration efforts. "this has cost the lives of several crews and their ships." He devoured the information presented on the device, "why would they do this to their own people."

"Greed sir." He said his answer dragging the man's eyes away from the device. "With the contact, they have sir they would produce inferior hull plating to what they could make." he indicated to the pad and began to show the rest of the details. "it's still superior to the old plating." He then handed off the device back to the Admiral. "that they could easily upgrade several times over." He loosened his collar slightly "this would allow them to turn a five-year contract into an ongoing open one as stipulated in section twenty-two of the contract."

"contract?" the Admiral's head was spinning.

"aye sir, section twenty-two subsection three as long as they continued to produce superior plating iteratively the contract could roll on continuously as long as the Star Fleet engineering corps approved." He then handed him a second pad "And if you would look at the current candidates for Star Fleet master of Engineers when Admiral Greyson retires later this year." He then handed him another pad. "and the names on the Board of Directors for the company."

"Flannigan?" said the Admiral "I know Flannigan we served on the Thunder Child together he was a good hand at poker and an outstanding engineer." He sat in one of the chairs that were scattered around the office. "I recommended him for the post." He lamented "how could he do this"

"I know sir." Said Horatio said to comfort the man "the thing about betrayal is that you don't see it coming." Harris knew this too he had been betrayed twice in his life and barely managed to survive the last one.

"you've done an excellent job here Horatio." Said the Admiral as the cold rage of this betrayal rose in him. "but we will finish the job." He turned to Harris "I want heads on plates Harris." He roared the order his face turning pink with barely contained fury. "no stone unturned." Harris nodded "Unleash the hounds."

The Vulcans present looks perturbed by the naked display of emotions but didn't comment. A dark smile illuminated Harris's face at the prospect.

"you have my word, sir." He said to Admiral Forest "I will bring you every one of these jackals in Iron Cages so they can face justice." Admiral Forest nodded, and Harris turned to leave. What he didn't expect was that Smith followed him out.

"Harris." He called from the stairs.

"Well, Horatio I can honestly say you've done well here." He complimented the man "I never suspected anything." He said honestly "nor had I even thought that such a thing could be done without me finding out, more the fool me." He said as the younger man met him on the same step. "complacency is the most brutal killer in this game."

"I would have informed you had I the luxury of time." He said his face a stone mask. Harris didn't believe a word of it "It was only by accident that I found that something was going on, a pattern in the randomness." Horatio handed him another pad ", but it was too frequent, and there were too many coincidences for it to be anything other than a concerted effort to sabotage the NX program." Harris looked at the information.

"what, how many of them do you suspect?" He asked astonished as he read the report, he felt the bottom drop out of his gut as the list went on.

"that's the thing I don't know if its all of them." Horatio said. "but my assignment at the shipyard constructing the NX prototype should allow me to sift through who is and who isn't loyal." Harris nodded

"I'll make sure you have all you need."

"I want Reed."

"he's no longer with the section." Horatio raised an eyebrow at that. There was a pause before Harris continued "He'll meet you at the shipyards tomorrow."

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Malcolm Reed was tired. He had been up for what felt like thirty-six hours but in reality, was closer to twenty-six. He had been making sure that the security protocols on the new ship were all in order and working while avoiding Commander Tucker.

The Floridian had a drawl that raised his hackles, and he wasn't in the right frame of mind to ignore it yet. He was lying on his bed, looking up at the roof of his quarters. He was in that unfortunate sweet spot where he was too tired to sleep but not tired enough to do anything about it.

His console beeped, and he turned to answer it with a grown of both frustration and bodily aching. He tapped it and saw the familiar face of Harris staring back at him. He bit back an another grown of annoyance before he pushed through it.

"yes?"

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[the following day.]

The Orbital shipyards sat in orbit over the North American continent. It was a hive of activity as the new yard chief was arriving to oversee the construction of the prototype. The shipyard only had room enough for one ship and was designed with statistic construction in mind, similar to how a building or a sea ship was built.

Attached to it was the large habitation facility that housed the dockworkers and the engineers they were installing the Warp core next week and had to make sure everything was up and running before it was installed.

Horatio had gotten to the station as the day shift started and was in the central control room looking over the ship as the mechanical arms began to take off the hull plating. This had annoyed the crew as they were getting comfortable not wearing the brown suits anymore but needs must.

"Sir, I really feel that this isn't necessary." Asked the yard chief, he was an older man his hair starting to grey at the temples.

"if this were two days ago, I'd agree with you chief," Horatio replied as he went through the pad before handing it to him. Suddenly the door opened, and six security men in armour with weapons stepped through the door.

"what's this?" he asked as the rest of the people in the control room stood in surprise.

"you're under arrest."

"what?"

"you're under arrest."

"what's the charge?"

"let's start with Dereliction of duty and work our way up shall we."

"I haven't been negligent."

"So you say, but I have evidence to the contrary and to make matters worse, your men are slack in their work, slow in accomplishing it and slovenly in both appearance and attitude."

"I take offence to that."

"you should it's a reflection on your own poor leadership." He said rounding on the NCO "one of these things would have more than enough to dismiss you from this post, had you not been conspiring with outside forces to weaken Earth defences and be one of the causes for the loss of three Starships and their crews, that means that the JAG's involved now."

"I'm a just civilian contractor and have followed Star Fleet's orders to the letter."

"if you had I wouldn't need to be here, and you stopped being just a civilian contractor once you started working on a Government military contract, that means your subject to military law."

"you son of a bitch." He looked like he was going to attack him for a moment before he found himself face to muzzle with his sidearm.

"I think you should rethink this" the weapon hummed ominously. "you're already on the hook for dereliction of duty if I add assault on a member of a Star Fleet officer, you'll get the rope." Two Starfleet security men grabbed him by the arms, stopping form attacking and cuffing him.

"I have friends." He said his face red with rage, Horatio could tell that he meant that as a threat, he smiled at the bound man.

"you'll need them, old boy." He turned to the rest of the squad with him "take them away." He said as they rounded the group up and escorted them all out. A few minutes after the last of them were secured, he took a breath that he didn't know he was holding. Sitting in one of the chairs, he let out another sigh. The new crews would be there in less than a day, and then they could get back to work.

The whole issue was vastly less bloody that he feared, there were less than two fights, and they were settled quickly enough. Then with a beep and a whirr, the far side door opened and in walked Malcolm Reed and a fuming Commander Tucker.

He sighed before thinking sarcastically 'this is going to be fun.'

"what the heck is going on around here?" he demanded in his usual drawl "I got no team to get the engine room ready, and the arms are pulling the hull plating off."

"there's been a major security issue sir that's all I'm cleared to tell you." He could see the Commander getting ready to pop.

"I'm going to call Captain Archer."

"I think its best you do, and you're going to have to talk to Admiral forest too."

"what?"

"we've had a major security breach not just here but on earth too." He said, squaring up to the Commander. "I've got one maybe two Admirals implicated and enough paperwork to build three NX-class ships so how about instead of empty bluster you help me fix what was broken. So, we can get this ship in deep space doing what it's designed for instead of being the lemming the press think it is."

"what do you mean?"

He spent the next hour using the station's scanner and corresponding an engineering spec hand scanners as they did, so Commander Tucker was getting more upset; the dock crew were doing slipshod that it would fall apart at the drop of a hat. It was almost six-thirty when they finished tallying what was not working, what was working but wasn't to spec and what they had not installed properly at all.

"if this is the ship, I'd hate to see the state of the warp engine or the weapons." Reed lamented as he fished the extensive list. Horatio let out an exasperated sigh that drew the attention of the other two officers.

"what?" asked Tucker dread filling him.

"I also have suspicions that whoever these people are may have tampered with the blueprints for Archers engine." He took a pad and then changed the page before tossing it to Commander Tucker. "you see the injectors and the reaction chamber?"

"yeah?" he began looking over the blueprints Horatio could see the cogs turning in his mind as the gifted engineer began to rub calculations in his head. "This is the design submitted by Archer" he looked again ", but this has a much more robust and safe system, and by the looks of it could potentially be a higher warp system." He then changed pages and stopped, he looked up at the two security men his face pale and his eyes filled with a fury he had never felt before "this system here was added after his death."

"What am I looking at." Asked Reed, he may have been mechanically minded, but that was more for handheld weapons and small devices.

"the engine isn't a warp 5 engine." Said Tucker got up, pushing the chair back hard enough to flip it before walking to the window. He gripped the frame so hard his knuckles turned white.

"it's not?" Reed was still a bit lost even if he recognised the calculations on the pad it was still over his head.

"no, it's not." He showed the calculations that the engine was outputting in tests and the calculations that Archer himself made when he was designing it. "According to these calculations, that engine was a warp 6 design, but Warp 5 was the safest speed it could get to and stay at."

"so that means." Reed looked back at the blueprint in his hand in shock

"that someone purposefully changed the design." He said, before spinning around and throwing the device at the far wall in anger.

"This looks like the Locke engine?" said Horatio feigned recognising something. "wait a minute?" he flipped the pages back and forth a few times. "you see it now?" said Tucker

"My God, how far does this go?" Reed asked himself quietly. Star Fleet needed to clean house and quickly before something worse happened, he thought. Horatio stood suddenly shocking the fuming Commander and the lamenting Armoury Officer.

"enough moping." He said, "let's get planning." He said, picking up his Pad. "The work crews will be here tomorrow let's get to work breaking down the most immediate issues to start that's all we can do for now." They nodded determined not to let this incident set them back they wanted to get to deep space just as much as Archer did now was the time to prove it.

They worked into the night to get the teams broken down for the most important most immediate jobs than working there way forward. He was a very tired Horatio that crashed onto his bed that morning at 1:00 AM.

Horatio sighed to himself and buried his face in the pillow before turning onto his side. He stared out the window and allowed his mind to wonder. 'The time travellers had made so many changes nudged so many things that this conspiracy is even more believable.' He thought 'It's sad that so many would-bes implicated but if Starfleet had a hope in hell this was the best course of action expose it now remove the rot before it set and begin fresh with the NX class and Archer.' Horatio scratched his chin as he began to ponder again 'I may have to make Archer into the hero the future held him as or at least nudge him down that road baby steps though baby steps.' He hadn't even had the strength to take his boots off he would pay for that come the morning, but right now he needed sleep. He worked to get into a comfortable position and then nodded off.