Chapter 2: Tholians

[Thorin]

Captain's Log, Stardate 57881.1

"We have arrived at the designated co-ordinates on Tholian border, and are awaiting the arrivial of our escort. Our first day on the Daystrom has not been uneventful, with various anomolies taking a prominant stance around the ship; mainly hardware faults, admittedly. It was not unexpected after such a major refit, and I have absolute trust that my new crew have the ability to deal with the situation. The operations and science departments have already started long range scans for any clues as to the disappearances of the ships, however from this distance, it is unlikely to wield any results. For that, we need access to Tholian space.

End Log."

Jon had woken up a half hour earlier, and was sat at his tactical station on the bridge, consistently scanning the vicinity for any tactical threat. Every now and again he'd get a reading on Lieutenant Mikey's modified subspace sensors, but he couldn't make heads nor tails of it, and he was told to ignore them until the diagnostics on the previously acquired logs were complete. Ensign Smith had been commandeered by Commander Teaos and Lieutenant Mikey, he thought to himself, however as Jon didn't urgently need him at the moment, he laughed it off.

"Captain, I am picking up a Tholian cruiser on an intercept course at high warp, it will arrive in two hours," said Lieutenant Mikey as he maintained a constant sensor lock on the vessel. He had spent hours wondering over what he saw in his quarters, but thought it best to leave it until later.

"Commander Teaos to the bridge," said Captain Fletcher into the intercom. The Commander was in the science department, continuing diagnostics on the sensor logs. He had, at least, worked out one thing; Mikey's modified sensors worked perfectly, but having never worked with such a calibration, he had little more success making sense of them than Hewer.

"Captain, it is standard procedure for this type of cruiser to approach any alien vessel with weapons and shields online. They will not fire, but it may be a good idea to return the gesture," said Commander Rochey to the captain.

"Agreed," replied the Captain, "Yellow alert. Raise shields and ready phasers Lieutenant. Leave the torpedos and make no weapons lock."

Jon nodded his head and did as ordered. Commander Teaos exited the turbolift and stepped onto the bridge.



Blackstar was busy pacing back and forth in hir quarters trying to decide how shi should explain to the captain to never refer to hir as an it without risking a court marshal. Blackstar tried writing it out on a PADD but shi had a hard time phrasing it. Shi decided to talk to him face to face in the morning, and hopefuly he wouldn't trigger any of the pranks shi had set up for him, without thinking. Or making sure shi could stop them. Not being able to sleep shi decided to get something done.

Blackstar pulled out a device that many would look like a standard tricorder with a dirty yellow paint job and activated it. "Sally, please pull up the plans for the Betas on my viewscreen."

"Working. So did you have a nice day? Meet anyone new? Any potential mates?" A torpedo shaped device appeared on the screen.

"You're awefully nosey for an AI. And I did Meet a handsom Andorian called Mikey who is helping me build a new scout shuttle. And don't you dare ask about his genitals."

"That's Okay, I already hacked his medical files. He has my okay."

"Sally! I told you no hacking without permission. Now lets see what we can find on Tholian Web emitters."

It wasn't until Sally reminded hir of the time that Blackstar stopped working on the Betas and got ready for hir shift. When Blackstar reached the bridge shi was only half surprised when the captain asked hir into his ready room. "now I'm not sure why you're mad but rigging my sonic shower to make my hair stand on end is not how a Starfleet officer handles it. Nor do they put a whoopie cushion on the Captains chair or put a vibrater on my doorstep."

"I'll take credit for the first two, but the last one sounds like someone's interested in you. And I'm mad because you called me an it in front of the senior staff. That suggests genderless, and possible feral-ness. My species might resemble animals, but we're physically superior to animals and humans and I'm proud of that, and what I've managed to accomplish."

The captain leaned back and said, "i didn't realize it was that important to you. Now I'm going to let you off with double-shifts the rest of the week, since I can't prove anything, as long as you make a full report to security about what you did to bypass them. And Next time talk to me about this type of stuff. Now whe're both due on the bridge. Dismissed."

Blackstar was relived that the captain didn't come down too hard. Shi grabbed a coffee from the replicater and was about halfway though it when shi realized it was prune juice. Shi smiled and laughed, "i suppose turnabout is fair play. Nice to know the captain can take a joke."

Hir ears perked up as the yellow alert sounded. Shi dashed to hir position at the helm ready for anything.



Commander Teaos and three of his science staff were going over the sensor readings from the sub space sweeps. He had sent Ensign Sternson to man the consol on the bridge to report on any addition readings and do the usually duty now that they were in Yellow alert and about to encounter and Tholian vessel and hopefully pass into Tholian space. Two more of his staff were checking the sensors themselves. With readings this unusual he didn't put it pass that bloody Andorian to up screwed up his sensors Subspace sensors were not toys to be played with at will. So far everything seemed in order but he had ordered a complete diagnostic which would take several more hours to fill.

With such limited facilities and staff he was using every one of his staff to go over the recordings. They were a nice break from the usual mapping and scanning he did but he preferred to work at his own pace.

As far as they could tell so far there was defiantly something there. Ever time the anomaly showed up on his sensors it was of the same makeup. Unless it was a sensor malfunction which despite what he had though seemed unlikely there was something out there that was following the ship or being dragged behind it. His initial thought had been some sort of subspace anomaly which had been caught up in the warp slipstream but that seemed unlikely as it kept disappearing.

The voice of the on duty operations officer rang out through the ship "All Senior staff report to the Bridge"

Informing his crew to continue working with out him the Commander made his way to the bridge.

Stepping off the Turbo lift he made his way to the science station having a brief whispered conversation with Sternson before dismissing her to take his place back at the lab. Long range sensors showed the Tholian cruiser to be only thirty minutes away.

Captain Fletcher turned to Mikey who had taken his post at Opps "Can we get them on screen yet Lieutenant?"

"Any moment now Captain"

"Good, lets just hope they grant us access to their space" He said as the view screen changed from the usual image of stars to that of the sleek red Tholian Cruiser.



'Alexis'' poured onto the bridge, clutching a mass of padds, like a man who'd never had the use of his own hands before, and obviously spent too long, orally dictating notes to staff or machines........

Although to his credit, 'Alexis' was wearing the awkward, rigidly starched, formal diplomacy-wear, usually reserved for meeting dignitaries of the highest calibre or bloodline, also noted by Fletcher, to a wry grin, was that most of the padds, were infact inactive, and appeared to be hastily replicated shells that perfectly mimiced the appearance of a padd....

Clearly the excessive dress and scholarly column of padds, would impress the Tholian Heavy Cruiser commander, appealling to the Tholians' academic intrigue; and to the societally repressed, but still simmering below the husk of apathy... vainity.
"Bring me, my latte!" 'Alexis' boomed, then softened, "then we can play, discussing treaty, talk about crabgrass, whatever it takes."



"Mr. Harrison," said Mikey after the diplomat had received his beverage, his tone all friendliness, "since you have expressed such an interest in Andorian history, perhaps you could join me in the holodeck about 15 minutes after the contact mission is complete... I have something to show you."

His smile disappearing, Mikey returned his attention to his station. "Captain, I have the Starfleet Intel report up now. Would you like it in your ready room?" he asked, eyeing the Tholian first officer.

"No, no, let's hear it," said the captain. "Perhaps Commander Rochey will be able to fill in the blanks..."

"Aye, sir. Tholian web capability, augmented by a multi-vector capability with each segment and auxiliary craft serving as relays. Two isokinetic cannons, high yield but believed relatively ineffective against shields; four disruptor emitters of medium yield. Hull of an unusual crystalline substance, expected to be fairly resistant to impact. Power systems and additional weaponry unclear; further intel or scans may be indicated." With this last, Mikey glanced pointedly at Rochey, then Teaos.

When Captain Fletcher turned his attention back to the viewscreen, Mikey turned to the chief engineer at the wall console behind him. "Lieutenant Seafort, were you able to make anything out of the sensor logs I sent? I'd bet my left grell'nor that there was no malfunction, but I'd like proof." Turning back to the first officer's position, he said, "Commander?"

"You're intelligence seems adequate," grated the Tholian. As far as additional weapons, I'm afraid I can't say."

Fletcher turned to look at Rochey and appeared to be trying to select one from a dozen replies, but at that moment a quiet alarm beeped on Mikey's console. "Captain, we are being hailed. Onscreen?"



The view screen flickered to an image if the crystalline upper body of a Tholian flanked by two other standing at rigid attention. The entire bridge was bathed in a soft red haze which made it difficult to see any details beyond the Tholian Captain.

"I am Captain Kraytar of the Tholian assembly's battle Cruiser Drekma" The grating voice of the Tholians rang out through the Bridge.

Captain Fletcher was standing at attention flanked on his right by Commander Rochey and on his left by Ambassador Harrison "I am Captain Fletcher of the Federation starship Daystrom, we are here as agreed to request permission to pass into your space to look for our missing vessels. I believe the relevant details were in the transmission we sent"

"We received your transmission. You have been granted limited access to our space to conduct your search, you are to stay with in a hundred and fifty light-year distance of the boarder, any breach of this limit will be dealt with with extreme prejudice" Kraytar said before immediately closing down transmission.

"The Tholian vessel is departing at high warp captain" Hewer said from his station. He had been standing ready to fire ever since the Tholian vessel came in range. He was not comfortable doing negations with shields up and weapons armed.

"I'm not picking up any other vessels on long range scans captain" Teaos said from his station were he continued to scroll through the scans of the area.

"Anything else on scans?" asked as he sat back down indicating everyone should stand down from the yellow alert.

"Nothing relevant, sir" Teaos said as he once again picked up a bleep on the scanners.

~~~Briefing room~~~

"We have been granted access into Tholian space up to a hundred and fifty light-years into Tholian space, while not ideal it is about as good as we could have hoped for" Fletcher said from his seat at the head of the table.

"I think it would be best if the get this done as soon as possible, I have no intention of over staying our welcome here. The Daystrom will be conducting long range scans along this course" He said indicating a line that ran parallel to the boarder. We will be launching our shuttle fleet to conduct scans of the local planetary systems to search for signs of our missing craft"

"Lieutenant Deepcrush I want you to take oversee the shuttle fleet during its search, we'll be launching four of our fighters to do short range patrols on the area for protection. Due to their limited range they will only be able to do fourteen hour patrols before returning to ship to relaunch" Deepcrush nodded making a note on his PADD.

"Commander Teaos your to oversee the long range scans and launch any sensor probes you feel are necessary. Lieutenant Mikey can assist in the sensor sweeps to free up some of your time. Seafort I think you'll have your hands full keeping out shuttle fleet moving. I want them out of here as soon as possible and for our fighters to rotated out"

"The rest of you have your assigned duties. Dismissed"



'Alexis' looked fairly ruffled; and 'Cardinal' knew that the Tholian Commander and Vessel, were not those designated to meet with the Daystrom at these coordinates, and for the tholians to be mildly unpunctual was a sin unto itself, nevermind spontaneously rotating vessels and officers, without first a full beauocratic wedge of administrative paperwork being submitted to the Daystrom......

"Forgive me, Commander Teaos, but Mikey and i have a prior yet brief appointment to fulfill, one of a personal-cultural nature, i would request his company, and your leave, for the briefest of conversations."



Having briefly stopped in his quarters for a change of clothes and some odds and ends, Mikey had the holodeck already running. Harrison stepped in to a confusion of smoke, sparks, and black-clad Andorians - some hard at work, some dead with greivous injuries. It was the heavily-damaged bridge of an ancient Kumari-class Andorian cruiser.

"Computer, freeze program." Mikey remained moving forward amid the other now-frozen Andorians, dressed likewise in balck leather, complete with baldric. "Welcome, Mr. Harrison," he smiled, "to my recreation of the Battle of Weytahn, in which my great-great-grandfather established the standing of clan Trisk. You see, as far as anyone will know, we ARE discussing Andorian history. Regarding my people's lore, did you know that the Lernaean oath, if issued under questionable cause, may be challenged by the ushaan? Or that, while we may look slender and fragile to some, our dense structure and semi-chitinous skin make us considerably stronger and tougher than humans? Add to that the fact that we train from childhood in lethal combat styles..."

"Phenomenal," replied Harrison sarcastically. "I imagine you're wondering -"

Mikey's smile took on a predatory cast. "Here's a tidbit," he interrupted. "Before we helped establish the Federation, Andorian weapons such as this" - Mikey brandished the Andorian Imperial Guard pistol which had hung at his hip - "possessed no 'stun' setting at all."

"What is the point of all this?" asked Harrison with some bravado, although Mikey could detect the human's temperature rise and heart rate increase.

Mikey's smile disappeared as he drew close to Harrison, his sidearm still unholstered. "Just this: you are no simple diplomat. I want to know who you are; and while you have no claim over me - at least none that I couldn't void by legally killing you in the ushaan - you have, er, intrigued me. What would you ask of me? And if is detrimental to this ship, this crew, or the Federation, why shouldn't I kill you anyway?

Mikey tapped his comm badge. "Lt. Deepcrush," he said, "I'm afraid my appointment has ran over slightly. I will join you in the forward shuttlebay to brief my flight crews and assign escort chiefs in one hour."

"There, now," said Mikey to Harrison, still carelessly waving the pistol, "we have some time to talk."



'Cardinal'' forced a smile at the andorian, true his heartrate had shot up, uncontrollably so, despite the years of meditation and focus, but this was less through terror than through the exilaration, of finding a worthy ally, and not; a mindless automaton, preprogrammed with federation ettiquete and eshelons of orthodoxy disguised as 'thinking outside the box'...of course, 'Cardinals' ' romulan ancestory didn't help his composure either.

"Mikey, as you deign to be called, in your effort to ease assimilation with those here, so alien to yourself....before we begin our soiree, i would to contritely apologise that the holodeck facilities on the Oryx, are unable to totally mimic, your established program on the Daystrom, which you so quaintly set up, with that fine air of andorian nostalgia, as your antennae might detect, we've been having issues with humidity and giving the illusion of scent on our holodecks recently....'"

"We will reappear seamlessly, back onto your holodeck in approximately 5minutes, until then, we are in my domain, and my andorian friend who took your place on the Daystrom holodeck, will for all intensive purposes, behave and appear exactly as you might.'"

"'I am recinding any claim or grasp,that the oath may have upon you, your clan has been restored to full honour and prestige, since your arrival here, the weight of shame has been lifted, the purportrators which brought such disgrace to your household, unfortunately... met with a horrific transporter accident, but managed to confess their misdemeanours before... passing... eventually."

"I represent an schism in starfleet intelligence, a useful splinter, dedicated to preserving the integrity of the federation and its persons, including all of those upon the Daystrom."

"We, both, together, as a team, of equals, need total transparency, and as such i'm willing to answer any questions as you might conceive, another day."

"We are now back abroad the Daystrom, according to my padd, and i would ask that you exit the holodeck amicably... before you go; immerse yourself in the crew, report to me, any individuals, who you deem exceptional of ability and committed to the federation."

'"Now depart."



Lieutenant Anker Zionex was going over a routine briefing with his fighter pilots before the simple escort and patrol mission. Four fighters would be outside the ship at all time. They would come back every three and a half hours to change pilots, and after four of these shifts, would return for maintenance and refuelling.

"Your primary role will be to escort to the auxillary vessels that will be conducting the main scans outside of the ship. Seven Type Nines and a Danube will be visiting the folowing systems." He pointed to large display screen showing a Tholian sector of space and 14 planetary systems. "Keep in constant contact with the Runabout; that will be serving as the staging platform for all scanning missions outside the ship. Understood?"

The twenty pilots nodded in his direction. "Let's go!"

Four tactical system engineers were working on a fighter each, checking all the weapons and shields were within normal parameters. A further twenty or so engineers, along with Lieutenant Wilberforce, were working on the Type Nines and Runabouts. Lieutenant Grahame Niles, executive officer of the tactical department, walked into the shuttlebay and began talking to Lieutenant Zionex.

"Anker, how're things going?" said Niles, while eyeing up an Ensign in a blue uniform as she walked into a Type Nine shuttle.

The Bolian, Zionex, followed Nile's eye movement, "Don't even bother, Grahame, way out of your league!" Niles looked at Zionex as if he had just come out of a daze, and they both laughed. "The guys are briefed and getting ready to set off as we speak."

Two Type Nines flew through the permeable forcefield, and the rest of the shuttles and fighters who were going on the mission powered up, and a quiet humming of their engines filled the shuttlebay. The rest of the craft flew out of the room, and the two lieutenants left.

"I've got a couple of hours til the next pilot shift starts," said the Bolian.

"Brilliant, I booked some time on the holodeck. Jon and I are off there to try out a new holodeck program. It's an old earth sport, you race round a small track in cars. You're welcome to join us."

Zionex nodded and they headed towards holodeck two. They arrived at the same time as Hewer.

Hewer stared at the pannel, confused, "Strange, there's already someone in here."

He walked inside and saw Lieutenant Mikey and Ambassador Harrison talking to each other, almost whispering. They quickly looked up to see a very out of place door and arch appear among dead and injured bodies, and Jon walked through.

"Lieutenant!" stammered Mikey, "I didn't realise someone had it booked..."

"No problem! Holodeck three is free, we'll use that."

The Andorian gave a forced smile and thanked the three tactical officers. They arrived at Holodeck three, set up the program, and sat in their 1950s vintage formula one cars. Three red lights, two, one. And they're off!



With a click, the regeneration cycle ends, and Jack 'MetalHead' Ryson emerges from his regeneration alcove installed in the cargo bay. Instantly, his senses scream at him. Something is wrong. His borg enhanced optics slowly scan the room, he sees nothing, and shakes it off. Placed by a small work console in the room is a plate of nutritional supplements, a tricorder, and a type-1 phaser. He straightens his uniform, and pockets the tricorder. The type-1 goes into a smaller pocket, out of sight, as the weapon itself is designed to be a weapon for those who do not want to appear armed.

Jack enters several commands on his work console, and a schedule for his duties today appears. All of it is constant training: Hand-To-Hand combat, Weapons training, infantry tactics theory, holodeck simulation with his squad of men. Nothing more. But something is pawing at his mind, he feels like he is being watched. He engages his tricorder, and runs several scans for life signs. There are none other than his own in the room. He examines it carefully, and detects a minor discrepancy filtering through his borg-enhanced eyes. He focuses on the disturbance, it is only a small one, and the disturbance in question is coming from just to the right of his alcove. He approaches, and scans the area in question heavily. Nothing detected, but there is definitly something there, his Borg enhanced optics can see it, just a minor...sort of folding of light in the air, no longer than a few centimeters.

Suddenly, as he leans in closer to try and touch it, it moves to his right in a whir. Jack recoils in surprise, but responds correctly "Computer, seal this room, Ryson, Omega fourteen!" he barks. The computer acknowledges his request silently, and the door seals. A dull thud comes from the large doors, as if something has collided with them. Jack draws his phaser, sets it for heavy stun. His eyes focus now, looking for that tiny folding of light, but he can see nothing. It definitly moved though. He taps his comm-badge. "Ryson to Bridge. Possible intruder in Cargo Bay 3. I require immediate armed backup." he says curtly, not even bothering to wait for an acknowledgement. Another movement, to his right. Jack fires from the hip, and his phaser beam merely hits the console, causing sparks to fly, but fortunately not destroying the console. However, the sparks waft through the air, and some seem to land on something else, unseen. The figure is humanoid, seems to notice it is visible, and abrubtly vanishes.

Jack pockets the phaser again, and decides to cancel his schedule. "Ryson to security. Definite intruder, though now gone through unknown means. I will endeavour to determine what has transpired. Out."



Commander 'Rochey' paced around his quarters, free of the environmental suit he had to wear outside, thinking about the meeting they had just had with the Drekma. Things had changed from the original plan, the Drekma was not the ship originally meant to meet with the Daystrom. Also, it had been late, which suggested that the plan had been changed at the last moment. 'Rochey' had immediately known something was going on, and had sent a quiet, undetected, message to the second in command of the Drekma. The response he got, while surprising, was only to be expected given the circumstances.

He paced for a short while more, then decided to simply set the matter out of his mind. It was only a slight concern. What he was more concerned about was how much information the Federation already had on the Tholian cruiser. But there was still plenty they hadn't a clue about, and he wasn't about to tell them. He thought for a moment more, then decided that to put this out of his mind too, as there was nothing that could be done about it. To try to take his mind off things, he decided he might as well write up today's disciplinary report for the captain. He walked over to the Tholian made computer (he had quickly learned that Federation computers worked less than perfectly in the temperatures he kept his quarters at), brought up the file and began to type.

Who was the first one he had caught this morning? Ah, yes, Horan. He had thrown a PADD at the wall in frustration for some reason.
Name: Ensign Horan. Offence: Damaging equipment. Punishment received: Holodeck access restricted for three (3) days.
Now who else was there? Ah, of course. Teaos hadn't turned up at his post for twenty minutes after he was supposed to.
Name: Commander Teaos. Offence: Shirking responsibilities.
He paused for a moment, Teaos was the same rank as him. He couldn't technically do anything about him. But the captain could
Advised punishment: Restricted holodeck access for two (2) days. Increased duty time for one (1) week.

There, all he needed was for the captain to authorise that. He thought for a moment, but there was no one else. His investigation of the comms logs to see whether his suspicions about Lieutenant Hewer had been unsuccessful; there was no trace of any orders sent for that waste of supplies as they left starbase. Perhaps he was innocent of it, or perhaps he just covered his steps rather well. No matter, he'd find out who did it sooner or later. He always did.
He decided he had better give the report to the captain, and sighed as he realised it would mean another trip in the uncomfortable environmental suit. As he began getting into the suit, the communicator beeped.

"Commander, we've gotten reports of a possible intruder report. The captain requests your presence on the bridge immediately."

"Understood." He began getting into the suit, far quicker.



Mikey hurried out of the holodeck and to his quarters, troubled and anxious. He had gotten precious little information, but he could be sure that Harrison had told him the truth about his loyalty to the Federation - otherwise, he would have noticed the telltale static on the skin; the temperature increase; the rise in blood pressure.

"Where are the flight crews?!" demanded Mikey from the grizzled, barrel-chested CPO on the forward flight deck, as he burst into the shuttlebay.

"Lt. Hewer ordered them off about 45 minutes ago, sir."

"Very well; the sweeps are restricted mostly by fighter duration, anyway. Did you-"

"I posted the shuttle teams per your instructions, sir, and reminded the pilots that they were NOT to stray from their escort patterns," grinned the veteran Sharkey, adding, "I told them to report rather than chase - that we need live pilots more than we need dead heroes."

CPO Sharkey was courageous and a dangerous combatant, according to his record, but also dogged, reliable, and pragmatic - a true assett. "It's like I don't even have to be around when you're on duty, chief," said Mikey. Sharkey grinned again at the compliment.

"Well, one fire out, I guess," thought Mikey. Just then, he turned to see the quadrupedal form of the Chakat enter the flight deck of the bay. Mikey enjoyed hir company; shi was good-natured and light-hearted, but Mikey sensed a more dangerous side to hir - one which he didn't necessarily mind. After today's events, both official and covert, working on the scout ship design would be like a vacation.

"Glad you're here, Blackstar," he said, walking to a display screen and calling up a modified Type 9 schematic. "Since you claim to be such a hot-shot pilot, I thought of tying in a variable-strength SIF to the inertial damper triggers; as hard a maneuver as you need to turn, that's how the SIF would respond. Now, since I doubt we could increase the conventional loadout on the spaceframe, I figured we'd ask Jon about the feasibility of a tachyon emitter... and then get McKenzie to finish those wierd sensors you talked about..."



"I'll get you back!" yelled Jon into a huge cloud of smoke and now empty piece of track. He coughed and began making his way out of the car's cockpit. Another car came zooming past which caused Jon to inhale a load of simulated soot. In the darkened distance he could see a chequered flag waving as Grahame passed it.

"Computer; end program," said Anker as he laughed at the blackened Jon. Jon was in the lead for all the race, and on the home straight a certain Mr Zionex clipped Jon's back wheel with his front wing. The smoke disappeared and the air became fresh as a morning breeze once again. Grahame walked up to Jon.

"Wha..."

"Don't ask," replied Jon.

They walked up to the doors and exited. Grahame gave Anker a curious look and was about to speak, before been cut off again. Anker raised his hand, "Let's just say I've got the night shift for the next couple of weeks."

"I've got to go review some tactical and sensor logs with Lieutenant Deepcrush, there was some sort disturbance in the cargobays earlier," said Grahame.

Zionex and Hewer headed back to the shuttlebay to check up on all the crafts' progress. The Andorian saw the deep blue of Zionex and then recognised Hewer by the Bolian and called them over.

"Just the men we need," said Mikey to Anker and Jon. Anker had seen the initial plans of the shuttle on a display screen, and while he may have looked more like the Andorian due to his colour, he was a pilot through and through, more like to Chakat.

"The inertial dampers won't be able to handle the shuttle firing a missle, never mind getting hit by one. If you want to tie the integrity field to the dampers you have put in conversion routers here, here, here, and here," said Zionex as he pointed to different places on the display screen. He had spoken rather abruptly, like many Bolians do. Mikey and Chakat were taken a little at surprise, but appreciated at least that everything he said was indeed correct.

Mikey said something regarding a tachyon emitter, and Zionex dismissed it almost immediately, saying a shuttle is just too small for one. Jon tried to respond with a little more tact.

"You'd be better with a directed verteron souce connected to the EPS relay behind the deflector. It's much less energy intensive and should, with a couple of modifications, do the same as a tachyon emiter."



In frustration, Jack 'MetalHead' Ryson snapped the tricorder closed. It was again reading nothing. He had crossed checked the internal sensors with their latest diagnostics, ran three on them, compensated for possible diagnostic malfunctions, and rechecked them all again. Nothing. But something was here, or had been. He moved into the space next to his alcove where he had first seen the fold in light. He scoured the wall, his borg enhanced eyes on full alert. Something was winking at him, there was a clue here, but he could not see it.

He DID however, need to find something, and quickly, as justifying to the security/tactical chief as to why he had fired a phaser and damaged a work station would not be easy. He doubted that any serious reprimand would be in order, however, as the damage was superficial, he had repaired it himself, and his record was of course without any incident remotely close to this. Sure, in the past there had been mild threats in moments of anger, once a single punch thrown and a jaw broken, but beyond that, nothing, and that had been long ago during his de-assimilation processes. MetalHead paused slightly as something caught the corner of his eye. Most people would instantly redirect their attention to what they THOUGHT they saw. He did not. He remained perfectly still and didn't move his eyes. A few brief moments of focusing and an implant under the skin activated. The tiny item to the left of his left eye highlighted the object he saw in a tiny green bandbox.

Jack slowly focused on the box. He hunkered down and looked very carefully. A tiny thread of something, the same colour as the floor, barely noticeable. It was no bigger than a strand of hair. Jack breathed lightly and through his nose to prevent disturbing it. He gently reopened his tricorder and scanned the item in question. As he suspected the tricorder said it wasn't there. Jack gently set the tricorder down next to the item in question and moved to the replicator across the room.

"Computer. Synthisize one small sample dish with an air-tight sealing lid, diameter eight centimeters. Also, a pair of micro-pincers." The computer acknowledged him and created the items in question. Jack soon had the thread of whatever-it-was sealed into the dish. Here, its color became a mixture of colors, from whatever lights were hitting it and then becoming distorted through the dish. Jack collected his tricorder.

"Ryson to sickbay. I require your assistance in analysis. Prepare to recieve me."



"Acknowledged Lieutenant, I will be there momentarily."

Doctor Taal hit the communicator on his chest terminating the connection. The doctor stared blearily at the EMH running in the center of the Daystrom's sickbay.

"Computer: time," he muttered into the air.

"Current time is 0213."

23 hours... 23 hours with out sleep, tinkering around in the sickbay. His sickbay. The thought made him smile.

"Computer, synthesize 5cc's of diphedrizone." He loaded the synthesized cartridge into a hypospray, and injected himself; a stimulant... he would need it. Being the Chief Medical Officer wasn't without it's perks. What ever Lt. Ryson had for him to look at, the Doctor guessed it wouldn't be a quick chat.

He grabbed his tricorder, shut off the EMH, and headed for the Analysis lab.



Jack 'MetalHead' Ryson strides briskly into the analysis lab. Immediatly he eyes the doctor. "Doctor. You are heavily fatigued. If your effiency is impaired, I will defer analysis of this item (he gestures with the sample dish) until a more convenient time. Effiency is of the utmost importance during this analysis."

he pauses briefly and places the dish on a table. "My report is incomplete on this morning's incident, however, this item is definitly not from the cargobay, and was not there earlier in the morning. My tricorder is unable to detect it, but as you can see it is clearly there. I believe we had an intruder utilizing some sort of stealth technology, however this technology was insufficent to cover a small portion of the body it was cloaking. I discovered this strand of...fabric, I believe, near my alcove. If you are unable or unwilling to assist, I will proceed."

He stands nearly stiff enough to be at attention, and maintains eye contact.



Blackstar listed to Mickey's ideas. "Yes that should increase the mobility of the ship. Now about the sensors, I was thinking a multi-plexing array. Basically we strap different sensors to the same computer system. I recommend different types of sensors, from as many different manufactures as is feasible"

"Why? different manufacturers?"

"One manufacturer's security could be compromised, but with multiple manufactures we can avoid being attacked by 'ghost' ships. I remember a number of pirate attacks happened to ships with a specific sensor system. An employee snick a code into the system that will allow a pirate to sneak in on them. With multiple sensor systems connected, we can not only detect them, but also know what sensor is compromised. And by linking them together we get better range on passive sensors then when any one is active"

Mikey nodded, "I take it this isn't your first time with this system then."

"No," said Blackstar, "My... father for lack of better term, developed the idea. It originally started as combining different methods from different races."

"Don't all systems work on the same properties?"

Blackstar nodded, "they do now, but they developed their own methods before meeting other races. Klingons for example used what I call the brute force method. The Federation is more pinpoint accurate, and Romulans and Vulcans are the most efficient. Now by combining the methods off all three you can achive amazing results. Kind of symbolic of the federation really."

"I never thought of using old methods with today's technology," said Mikey. "This father of yours must have been a genius."

"Well he's been around since at least the mid-21st century," explained Blackstar, "he's bound to have picked up plenty of good tricks since then. Let's get to work."



The Doctor raised his eyebrow surprised, he didn't think his appearance was that telling. While he was in fact fatigued, he had always been very good at hiding what he was feeling. Ryson was obviously very observant.

"No, I still have some energy left, especially for a mystery like this" he said eyeing the filament inside of the dish. He attmepted to scan it with the medical tricorder, which operated on slightly different frequencies than the generic models.

"I am getting very very small bio matter readings, but it is not enough to tell who's or where it's from."

He took the container and walked over to one of the diagnostic stations. "Computer, begin a 14 second tachyon nadion pulse in diagnostic chamber 3." He looked at Ryson who took a spot at one of the computer terminals.

"This should excite the molecules in the strand so we can at least get an idea of what its made out of." Ryson nodded approvingly, and the Doctor started the pulse.

Within moments, streams of data began to stream across the monitors.



Jack considered the doctor, silently approving of his efficeny - minimizing conversation and proceeding directly to work. Somewhere in the back of his mind, something told him that it was a bit strange not to speak atleast a little bit, but he paid it no mind.

"Doctor, you seem surprised at my observation. I am, or was Borg. Therefor many of my senses are augmented and superior to that of a standard human."

He watches quietly as the doctor commences his scans and induces a nadion burst.

"Curious. It appears to be at least part organic, but there is too little biomatter to conclude from what species."



Commander Rochey, here in the officer's mess by Mikey's request, stared with unmasked distaste at the vast array of food in front of the Andorian. They were alone at this time of night.

"Although I understand this is the wrong time of day for it, the human breakfast is one of Earth's greatest contributions to galactic culture." All Andorians had the capacity for an omnivorous diet; Mikey, like most, only required - and preferred - a mostly carnivorous one. He indicated the dishes in front of him. "Cured strips of porcine muscle tissue, fried unfertilized avian embryos, accompanied by grilled pieces of tuber - they call it 'bacon and eggs with home fries.'"

"Lieutenant," said the Tholian, "I have no interest in organic diets, nor in the social niceties of sharing a meal. Why have you asked me to join you?"

"Very well." Mikey set down his fork, dropped all pretense of friendliness, and leaned slightly closer to Rochey. He was somewhat disconcerted at being unable to pick up any biological indicators from the Tholian. "To be blunt, sir - I know you sent a transmission to the Tholian ship, soon after you refused the captain's request to provide further intel."

"Preposterous!" declaimed Rochey, beginning to turn away. "I defy you to find any record of such a communication. Such an unfounded allegation could mean serious trouble for you, lieutenant."

"You sent it from your body, Commander. I'm older than many of the crew; I remember the Assembly's massacre of the starbase in 2353. I don't blame you for what a prior generation of Tholians did; but if you choose not to tell me what that transmission entailed, I will have no problem sifting through the records of every resonant harmonic that the hull of the Drekma exhibited. And, if you accepted this officer transfer program under honest pretense, what are you afraid of telling me?"

Rochey eyed the Andorian curiously. Certainly, many of these humanoids were not so dull and unimaginative as he'd been led to believe...



...but the Andorian, let alone any other member of the crew, would have a lot of difficulty differentiating a transmision from the normal movement of the ship.

"I have little doubt you would find vibrations. It may have escaped your notice, lieutenant, but ships have a tendancy to vibrate naturaly due to their reactors and engines." He stood up, still glaring at the Andorian.
"Now, lieutenant, you shall drop this matter completely. If I find out you are continuing in you attempt to discredit me through these baseless acusations, the consequences will be severe. Or perhaps I should begin investigations to see if you had anything to do with that criminal waste of resources as we left starbase?"

Mikey was confused for a moment, then remembered that the starbase had fired a salvo of photon torpedoes as they had left for their mission.

"What? I had nothing to do wi-"

"Then I advise you to cease this harrasment." Rochey interputed, then lowered his voice. "Or I may find evidence of your involvement in this event. Do you understand me?"



*Security Log*
There have been reports of pranks going around the ship. I have posted that doorways should be locked to halt this. Combat drilling is progessing slower then hoped. These newcomers are not as fit as they should be. Starfleet has lost intrest in a sturdy ground force. I have sent in a request that I be removed as Chief of Security. I feel that I do not have the skills or training to go along with such a postition. Of my 32 troops only 9 of them have passed combat training, as the rest are just kids fresh from enlistment. Metelhead has performed well at his tasks to date, I will recommend that he replace me.
*End Log*



"Commander!" barked Mikey, as the Tholian turned to leave. "You misunderstand."

Rochey scuttled crablike back towards him, in a disconceritng manner of moving sideways, yet keeping his "face" toward the lieutenant. In fact, he got close enough that the Andorian was uncomfortable from the heat of the Tholians e-suit. "Do I, now, lieutenant? I think not."

"If I may be frank, sir, you have studied my background, profile, and service history far more intensely, I'm sure, than I have yours. But I know something about you and your people. You know what I'm about to say is true: this ship is staffed by a bunch of damn good Starfleet officers and crewmen, but precious few soldiers. You know what I mean. Aside from a few of the older graded crewmen, it's just we two who have that frame of mind."

"It seems true, lieutenant, that your career has been earmarked by a military discipline which I have been unaccustomed to seeing from most humanoids - all the more reason you should be able to take an order!"

"Yes sir," said Mikey, while dipping an antenna, "and in that vein, let me be clear; I have not gone to Captain Fletcher, nor my department, nor security, with this information. My duty is to the safety of this ship and crew and the success of her missions - that will never change. But I have a soldier's mind, and I understand one, be it composed of carbon or of silicon. You said that I was attempting to discredit and harrass you; yet if I could have some tangible assurance that, whatever your communique was, it wasn't detrimental to this ship, crew, or mission... why then, I wouldn't have to bother a soul about it. After all, there seems to be enough here for people to worry about, without adding something that isn't a problem after all..."



"So then the Captain says to me 'But since your duties have been being preformed up to standards and your staff is doing well in there limited facilities I believe we can over look this incident'" Teaos read from a PADD as he sat on a mobile scanning unit in the Cargo bay, the crewmen near by chuckled at there commander dodging punishment. Several members of his staff were scanning the cargo hold top to bottom and back again to find and sign of their phantom.

Teaos was currently watching the display on the mobile scanning unit looking for any sign of what happened. He was picking up the trace of weapons fire were Metalhead had decided to remodel the cargo bay and the latent sign of the regeneration cove and the ships natural background readings. He had the incident report and knew where the intruder supposedly went but no matter how they scanned it they never got anything more than the standard readings.

"Oh to hell with this, Steve go fetch the particle replicator and bring it back here" Teaos said as he jumped off the mobile scanner and took one final look around "Madison set the MSU to remote canning and rout it through a tricoder and workstation 2 back in the labs, everyone pack and move back to the labs"

"Giving up already are you?" Madison asked from the MSU.

"Not bloody likely, we're doing a Chroniton saturation scan" He said with a smirk at the chocked faces of the crew.

"A little extreme don't you think" Madison said momentarily forgetting about the MSU.

"Probably but were getting nowhere the normal way" Clapping his hands the crew quickly got back to packing up there stuff and positioning the MSU.

"Security could you send me down a guard to Cargo bay 1 please" Teaos said as he tapped his com badge.

Security and the security guard and Steve with the particle replicator showed up at the same time.

Seeing the security was eyeing all the equipment suspiciously Teaos clapped him on the back "Not to worry mate just doing some scans, just make sure no one goes in there, it may be hazardous for awhile"

Instructing Madison to stay with the security guard and monitor the cargo bay through the tricorder. She activated the particle replicator which was sitting on the other side of the door, it let out the familiar sound of replication as it was slowly filling the room with the invisible particles.

"Righto then, we'll all be in the lab looking at the reading, page me if anything happens down here" Teaos said as he and the rest of his staff made there way to the turbo lift.



Blackstar was exhausted. Shi had pulled an all-nighter and a double-shift knowing quite well that Chakats were supposed to have 10 hours of sleep roughly for every 14 hours of being awake. Shi entered hir quarters, took off hir uniform and laid on hir sleeping pad. "Sally, any messeges for me?"

"Negative. I have no messeges for you. However I detected a low level signal that was not transmitted on normal channels. I was unable to determine what it said, however I was able to determine that it was a messege between this vessel's Tholian and the Warship we encountered."

"I'm not surprised. You don't need to be an empath to know somethings going on. And we're not in on it. When you play poker and can't tell who the sucker is, it's probably you." Blackstar sighed.

Sally asked, "what's our exit strategy?"

"That new shuttle. I'll also keep you with me at all times. Is the replacement ready?"

"Yes, to the improved specs. It's in the top drawer."

Blackstar opened hir top drawer with hir tail and pulled out an arm identical to hir left arm. Then without hesitation shi pulled hir left arm out of its socket, revealing several connectors. Shi winced in pain as shi put the new arm in. Shi tested it's reflexes, and its minature shield projector. Blackstar nodded in approval, now we should be prepared for anything." Then a tear rolled down hir cheek. "And now I may lose everything again."

"Well you always have me," said Sally. "And I can satisfy any need you have" She demonstrated her vibration feature.

"Oh, funny. Now leave me alone I need to sleep." Once Blackstar's head hit the pillow shi was out like a light.