USS Daystrom Beta Mission

[Teaos]

Captain Fletcher and Commander Rochey were seated in the largest assemble hall on base, and for a Starbase the size of T-12 that's saying something. The room was full with seats which curved around in a semi circle in tiered seating, all the seats looked down upon the main table in the middle and a giant view screen on the main wall.

Late last night Fletcher had received a summons for him and Rochey to appear here at 0900 hours the next day. The few officers Fletcher had managed to contact in the time since had leed him to believe it would be a meeting of a few ship commanders. His guess had been slightly off.

Assembled in the room at the moment was close to a hundred CO's, XO's and numerous other ranking officers. Fletcher smiled slightly when he realised that all the Tholians or any enemy of the Federation would have to do to cripple the local defence would be to set a bomb in this room. It would probably remove any officer over the rank of Commander or several hundred light years. He could see most of his fellow officers had no idea what was going on either.

Just as these thoughts were going through his mind the main doors opened and in walked two admirals and several aids. One of the Admirals Fletcher recognised right away, Admiral Gaffney was a two star Admiral and in command of Station T-12, Fletcher had spoken to her several times as Captain of one of the ships stationed here.

The other Admiral Fletcher had never meet but could guess who he was, after all there weren't that many four star admirals around. Admiral Davidson was supreme commander of the Maddox defence line and had this entire sector of space under his direct command.

Their entourage seated themselves at the main table while Davidson stayed standing.

"I want to thank you all for getting here under such short notice, I'm sure your all wondering what could merit such a gathering of Starfleet brass" Tapping the screen in front of him he made the main view screen on the wall come to life.

"We have known of a lose coalition or pirates, mercenaries and crime syndicates that operate in this area for several years now. They have never posed much of a problem to even civilian craft and certainly not Starfleet ships. But with the advent of the Dominion war the Federation and every major power turned their attention toward that at the cost of other areas. Now I'll give the floor to Commander Thomas who is the expert on this crime syndicate" Davidson said indicating for Thomas to stand.

"Thank you Admiral. The organisation in question has named them selves the Neutronium Brotherhood. They have been around for quite sometime but it is only in the last few years that their power has grown to such an extent as to warrant closer examination. During the Dominion war they managed to absorb several small crime syndicates as well as attracting mercenaries, pirates, people and groups with a grudge against the Federation and Tholians. They also boosted their number by receiving several defectors from almost every major power during the war, apparently they saw it as a way to survive the eventual Dominion victory" Thomas didn't even try to keep the disgust out of her voice that someone who abandon the cause like that.

She leaned over to tap something in on the screen in front of her which brought up a map of the local area on the main screen. It zoomed in several times until it was just focused on a single system.

"The Neutronium Brotherhoods main base of operations is based here. It is a stage three proto solar system still in formation. It has massive asteroid saturation and over three dozen small planetoids in formation. The Brotherhood has managed to terraform one of the smaller planetoids into a M class planet through massive atmospheric modification and deflector shields to protect from asteroid collision" Thomas changed the information on screen once more.

"We do not know the exact make up of the enemy fleet but we estimate they could have upwards of a dozen capital ship at their disposal and a large number of smaller craft. There ships come from just about ever major power, they acquire them through Piracy, bribery, corruption and desertion. They also appear to have unmanned orbital defence platforms. Perhaps most troubling of all is that we are now aware they are deploying Subspace weaponary" the room erupted into chatter as everyone took in the information. Subspace weapons were illegal due to their highly dangerous and unpredictable nature; they also damaged subspace which renders whole areas of space useless.

Commander Thomas sat down and Admiral Gaffney took the floor.

"We have only recently come into a large part of this knowledge. The Daystrom captured several members of this organisation on their last mission and we have been able to extract information from them with the help of some specialists"

Fletcher and Rochey looked at each other, neither having been aware of their prisoner's status. The Captain could feel the eyes of most of the people in the room on him and Rochey as he turned back to look at Admiral Gaffney.

"There is one last piece of information before we give the mission brief. It appears as if the Brotherhood is trying to provoke a war between the Federation and Tholians. This along with the evidence they are using subspace weapons and their increased illegal activities has left Starfleet command with little choice but to order the total destruction of the Brotherhood and their resources" Once more the room exploded into chatter as the ramification of such an order sunk in. If the Brotherhood was as powerful as they seem this would mean the deployment of almost every ship in the Maddox defence line and the first fleet action since the end of the Dominion war.

Admiral Gaffney sat down once more as Davidson stood to address the officers "Unfortunately we don't have time to wait for reinforcements thus we will be hitting them with what we have. Due to this Starfleet command has authorised us to modify our ships as needed for this mission. Orders will be issued to all of you over the next 24 hours. We deploy the fleet in two weeks time. Needless to say the next couple of weeks will be busy for all of us. Dismissed"

Fletcher turned to Rochey "We had better inform the crew that their R&R is over"

Fletcher was hardly an expert on Tholians but he could swear that Rochey almost seemed excited.

[Monroe]

"A Breen? But why?" Commadore Ford asked as he scratched his double chin. The Commadore had seen sixty-two years in starfleet and didn't look a year over his time of enlistment. Having served in nearly every single conflict of the century he had written the book on the Federation ground forces.

"Sir," Commander Snivlak, an alien from one of the lesser known Federation races that looked a lot like humans replied, "The Admiral got ahold of this Munro's reports. Including his modifications to a plasma shell rifle and well the Admiral liked it."

"The Breen lost the Dominion War, I don't see what lessons we can learn from them." The Commadore responded with some disdain. "Very well send it in." The Commador said as he took his own seat behind his metal desk. Behind him images of the American faction victory over the Japanese in World War Two and the peace accords after the Xindi Conflict among others cluttered the wall.

Munro walked into the office, stopped before the Commadore's chair and saluted. "Lieutiant Boush Munro reporting as ordered sir." Ford grudgenly returned the salute.

"At ease Lieutiant." The higher ranking officer replied as he folded his arms and leaned back in his chair. "I am in charge of organizing the ground offensive against these pirates. I've been told you might have some suggestions."

"Yes sir." Boush replied, "In the last two centuries the role of ground forces have been marginalized to supported almost entirely from starships. We need light and heavy vehilcles, gernades, flame throwers, motors, heavy weapons. "

The Commadore laughed waving off the comments, "Most of those became obsolete back in Kirk's day."

"True, but how much easier would the Federation have resisted the Dominion with armored personel transports, sir?"

Ford wrinkled his face in thought for a moment, "Say you were right. That would mean that Federation military doctrine for the last two centuries has been wrong."

"Perhaps an improvement is in order sir?" Boush asked turning his head slightly sideways.

"Sorry son, but I'm not giong to take recommendation from a Breen. Never turn your back on one isn't that what the Romulans say?" Commadore Ford replied.

"Tales of my race's evils have been greatly exaggerated." Boush replied, keeping his calm. He was used to this kind of treatment from superiors.

"Yes, and tales of your competence in battle more than likely have been too!" Ford yelled back. "Get out of my office. Maybe your Dominion lords will like your idea better. Flame throwers? hah. We had it your way you'd turn our security into what those Reptilian Xindi used to have before they joined the Federation."

Commander Snivlak on que hit the button to open the door behind Munro. Munro nodded saluted, did a clean about-face and left the room. Idiots Munro thought as he walked away from the Commadore's office. How did the Federation when led by so many species with a proud warrior tradition like the humans and Andorians fall prey to this?

[Reliant121]

Darel sat with a plasma torch in hand, trying to rip open the panel of the console in front of him. He was not on board Daystrome at the moment, A colleague on board the USS Helios had 'requested' Darel's assistance. Norma Griffin, who was in attendance of starfleet academy when Darel was, was one of the few that talked to him and befriended him, setting aside the obvious racial differences. He felt he had to repay any way he could.
Although ripping open the helm station of a Miranda class ship was not his idea of payment. She needed to get to the computer chips buried inside which had become corrupted. And, being the contankerous old bugger that a Miranda should be, the console refused to open. After a few attempts at 'Concussive maintenance', Darel had decided it was no more mister nice guy time.
"Blasted ship...." He said, melting the console cover. "Bloody console....why can't starfleet ships be modular and simple like cardassian craft? Makes the whole maintenance aspect alot easier." Norma had grown quite used to Darel's moaning, and had learned to filter his speech for anything useful.
"Thanks for doing this," She said, dodging out of the way as the console plate dropped from its position. He stood up and removed the mask, smiling.
"Not at all, Norma. Right...If you'll excuse me, I have to get back to Daystrome. If i'm not on duty in time, Commander Rocheyneskina will have my proverbial backside on a plate," he said, packing everything away, and darting for the turbolift. Before she could reply, he was gone.
It took him 15 minutes to get back to Daystrome, through the maze of corridors and lifts of the starbase. Gave him more opportunity to exercise his moaning penchant though, so all was not lost.
He almost fell through the turbolift doors as they opened. He checked the chronometer. 11:01. He almost collapsed onto the railing seperating the rear of the bridge from the forward area. The lieutenant on duty looked at him, and smiled lightly. It had somewhat become a joke between the crewmembers now. Who would turn up late This time. Occasionally it seemed they did it on purpose just to annoy him.
And sometimes....he deserved it.

[Teaos]

The senior staff of the Daystrom were assembled in the conference room on ship.

Usually when a ship was in dock the crew would use the facilities of the space station, but seeing as how the station was currently home to the majority of the fleet with more ships arriving space was at a premium.

"By now I expect you've all heard of the current situation for those of you who don't I'll give a brief run down, all relevant information is in your mission briefs" The captain said before giving a run down of the situation involving the brotherhood.

"Any questions?" The captain asked as the crew picked up their individual assignments for the duration of their stay at the station and the coming conflict.

"Will we be getting any aid from the Tholians?" Mikey asked.

"No" Rochey answered for the captain "They claim this is a Federation issue since a large part of the Brotherhood is made up of Federation races"

"They have granted us access to their space though if needed for the deployment of our fleet. I expect we will see Tholian vessels around to stop us taking advantage of our access to their space. That may make things difficult though as intelligence reports that the Brotherhood may be using several Tholian vessels" The captain added.

"Over the next few weeks we will all be busy with our assigned duties but I would like for us to meet every few days here to keep each other informed. I don't like surprises during battle. I will give a brief summery of everyones assignment so we know were to find everyone over the next few weeks.

"It has been requested that Commander Rochey join the Admiral in command of the fleet on board the Dakota. He will be acting as second in command of the main strike wing and liaison to the Tholians if they show up. I suspect he will be spending the rest of the time in dock inspecting the Dakota and getting ready for the mission. Thus for the duration of this mission Lieutenant Commander Mikey is being giving a temporary promotion to acting XO of the Daystrom" The captain said looking at the silent conversation going on between his officers, everyone looking between Mikey and Teaos surprised at the Commander being passed over, they were even more surprised to see them both smiling having been aware and approved of the decision before hand.

"Lt Monroe I have heard of your issues with the Commadore and have put in a word for you. It would be a gross over sight for them to not recognise your obvious skills in your area just due to your race. At the least you'll be leading the Daystroms unit into battle and maybe more depending on the Commadores thoughts. You will have access to the holodecks being prepared for training purposes"

"Ensign Darel you are to report to the holodecks for a more in depth mission brief and training schedules, I believe you'll be working with all the other helm operators in the fleet for the next few weeks in simulation as well as prepping the Daystrom"

"Commander Teaos will be in a think tank for the remainder of our stay trying to come up with a counter to the subspace weaponry deployed by the brotherhood. The rest of you will be in basic training and getting the Daystrom ready for combat. Dismissed"

[Mikey]

There had been no time to let the information register earlier, but now it swam through Mikey's head. XO of a capital ship on a severe-duty mission - even if it was just a brevet position - was something on which he could hang his name in the annals of Clan Trisk. He would make damn sure that nobody regretted that decision; and now that he had caught up on sleep and a couple of missed meals, he had by the three icy hells better get to work. "Lt. Hewer?" Mikey called into his commbadge while entering one of the Starbase's lounges. "Please join me in the office-level lounge."

The lieutenant approached as a waiter set down a cup and walked away. "You wanted to see me, sir?" asked Hewer, standing at attention by Mikey's table.

"At ease, Mr. Hewer," smiled Mikey. "Please have a seat. Would you like anything?" he asked, raising his cup of espresso.

"No thanks," answered Hewer, who then said frankly, "Is something wrong, sir?"

"Not at all. But things are going to get wrong pretty quickly, and I want to be ready. First, as you're the head of tactical - and the person most familiar with the Daystrom's refit - I want you to coordinate with Starbase on upgrading our arrays to type XII's and maximizing our on-hand torpedo stores." Handing Hewer a PADD, Mikey continued, "Here is my authority for the project and for requisitioning assistance from engineering."

"Anything else?"

"Just to let you know: we'll be shipping out with two additional fighter wings... and I've asked Lt. Cmdr. M'real to oversee fighter ops."

Hewer began to rise from his seat. "Now wait just a damn minute-"

"Calm down," said Mikey, motioning for Hewer to retake his seat. "You will, of course, retain overall control of fighter deployment and Zionex will retain command of his wing. M'real will have an in-situation oversight capacity as well as working on and crewing the new auxiliary craft in development."

Hewer seemed somewhat mollified but still bristled a bit. "As long as she understands her place..."

"I've gone over all this with her as well. You may come to me with any issues. Lastly - once plans for the phaser upfit are set, I'd like you to see what you can do about upgrading effective shield strength and endurance. Questions?"

"No, sir," said Hewer. "I'll make the old boat something to reckon with."

Mikey smiled. "I know you will. Dismissed."

[Monroe]

"Computer pause program." Munro growled. He had been given access to train the Daystorm security plus an additional two hundred security personel which were assigned temporarly to the Daystorm, using the hanger bay's new bunkers from the prisoners.

Munro walked towards the soldier hiding behind a rock to avoid blaster fire. Grabbing the crewman by the collar Munro dragged him into a standing postion. Poiting at the crewman who had just been shot by the fake bolt of energy Munro yelled at the crewman he was holding, "Where was that soldier's covering fire? How can he advance on a fortified position with no covering fire?!" Munro tossed the crewman onto the ground. "Troops form up!" He yelled.

The crew from the Daystorm ran into their positions in a few seconds but the new comers came straggling in afterwards. "When I say form up you have five seconds to get into a rank!" He yelled at a Lieutiant commander.

"That's sir!" The higher officer replied. Munro swung a fist into the human's gut sending him toppling over.

"I am in charge of this force. Get into position, lieutiant commander." Munro turned towards the three hundred of his command. "It has come to my attention that you all need a lesson in covering fire." He paused looking around, "Computer load program France 1916." The rocky ground disappeared to be filled with a terrain filled with winding trenches, barb wire, crater holes and a musky smoke. "File into the trench!" Munro ordered walking out of the way as his troops surged into the mud and shit filled trenches.

"Computer resume program." Munro watched in satisfaction as the computer shelling began. All the programs had been ordered to ignore him so he could watch in satisfaction without having to worry about the lead filled air.

As the first whistle blew the hundreds of federation troops charged out of the trenches, many of them exposing their entire bodies in a full standing position. Munro only shook his head, Undoing generations of military neglect.... this was going to be difficult.

[Thorin]

"Hewer to Nelson," said Jon over his communicator, and Nelson's distinctive grizzly voice answered.

"Nelson here."

"Assemble the troops, R and R is over. We're commandeering engineering and their staff. I've got a list of about twenty five system upgrades which I'm patching through to the Daystrom's engineering. We're also doing a full phaser array refit - the new type twelves, by order of Starfleet Command."

"Errr... Yes sir!"

"One more thing; we've got two weeks. Hewer out."

Jon could just about hear Nelson start speaking somewhat objectionably before the communication shut off - refits of this magnitude generally took months and tens of thousands of man-hours. Probably safe to say that Jon had preempted Nelson's response and didn't want to be forced to 'discipline' the veteran.

Jon moved walked past an immense arch which led into one of the starship sized holodecks, and saw a disgruntled Lieutenant Commander come out clutching his stomach, and muttering various obscenties under his breath while discussing - seemingly with himself - how he intended to discipline that insolent little Lieutenant.

Lieutenant Zionex, the Falcon Class fighter Wing Commander, was already waiting for Jon in one of the many shuttle complexes on the starbase.

"Well, I must say it's been a while since I flew one of these," said Zionex as he inspected a nearby 'worker bee' shuttlepod.

"You know the story - we've been granted unlimited access to any of the starbase's resources and assetts - but we're still short on man power, and with every other ship vying for the starbase's crew, I was told to... Improvise."

Jon handed Zionex some detailed schematics of the required new phaser array plating and coils, along with the new emitter's details.

"You'll basically be manually emplacing the new parts, and assisting Nelson's team as they refit the computer systems. Niles and myself will be ensuring everything is going smoothly; or as smoothly as things can go considering the circumstances, and testing the new systems. We'll also be going over the targeting systems to see if we can get anything out of that, and co-ordinating our efforts with Commander Teaos to develop a counter to these subspace weapons."

The rest of Zionex's team stood around listening in to the informal briefing. Jon pointed out of one of the absurdly large viewing windows to the increadible-sized docking area inside the starbase.

"There's the Daystrom. Contact Captain Base, the station's resource and development manager, when you need to get hold of the stuff on the schematics." Jon carefully checked out his team again. "Let's go!"

[Reliant121]

Darel sat in a breifing room with the other helm officers, listening to the commadore giving a presentation. He knew how to handle a ship. But it would be good to get some tips.

"Right, everyone. I'm Commadore Juan Mendoza. And for the next two weeks, i'm your best friend. I'm going to give you a timetable of practices to get yourself up to speed. First you'll be training in simulations against suspected hostile craft including K'tinga's, B'rels, Keldons and possibly Tholian vessels. Then....as my present to you all...Your fighting head to head. This isn't entirely necessary, but 1) it gives you a combat situation against REAL opponents plus...A nice bit of fun to lighten the mood," He said smiling at the end.

"Right...To the basics. You all know how to pilot your ships. But not in a fleet. Your ship is essentially an arm, a finger, a toe whatever...of the main fleet. You will do exactly as the Captain tells you, in turn being ordered by the commander-in-chief aboard the USS Dakota. But how you do it is another matter. Say....your ordered to run interference for one of our newest ships....a Defiant maybe. Whats your priority?"

Blank faces filled the room. Darel slowly raised his hand.

"Ensign, please continue," Mendoza said.

"To stop the Defiant from getting hit?" Darel replied, voice trailing up at the end to show he wasnt too sure.

"thats half the task. the other half?" He enquired. Nothing.

"Keep your ship alive!" Mendoza shouted, shocking a couple of the officers there. "Your ship aint no use in interference if she aint there, eh?"

He turned to the large display, and played a short simulated clip. It showed a recording of the Defiant, the Sitak and the Majestic.

"The reason the Miranda's were destroyed was they weren't concentrating on keeping themselves in one piece. Dont just stay parallel to your profile! Keep moving, jolting, even barrel rolling if you have to!" He said.
"The most important thing to remember: Keep your ship alive. That is rule number 1. On to number 2..."

This was going to be a long week.

[Teaos]

The Daystrom spun out of the incoming fire being clipped on her port shields by a disruptor beam. Suddenly the Daystrom and the two ships flanking her went dark. Shields dropped lights went out and engines went off line till they just floated in space.

Suddenly the space in front of the ships was split open in a blinding white light. It looked as if a massive bolt of lightning was tearing through space. Suddenly it impacted the Daystroms exposed underside literally ripping her in half, the engineering section then being engulfed in a explosion that sent the front section tumbling away. The tear in space didn't stop there but continued onto the Saber class ship on her flank and disappearing in a blinding flash as the M/AM storage tanks gave way causing a cascading failure.

"Computer end simulation" Teaos said rubbing his eyes. This was his third day at it. He and over three dozen other scientists from the Starbase and other ships had been at it for days trying to come up with some counter or strategy for the subspace weapons.

"Well dropping all power didn't seem to help" Ensign Amy Sternson said. While not a subspace specialist like he was Teaos had asked her to join due to her natural creativity. Sometimes experts over look things other don't.

"Seemed to make it worse if anything. At least when we redirected all power to shields we only lost one ship" Peterson said. Peterson was the other ranking officer along with Teaos and would be stationed onboard the Dakota for the mission. It was his job to report to Admiral Davidson on their progress.

"Well lets call it a day. 0900 tomorrow people" Teaos said as he and Amy left to go back to the Daystrom and report to Fletcher.


"Hey Commander hows it going?" Darel said as he saw the two science officers walking by.

"Not bad, blew up the Daystrom three times. You?" Teaos said as he slowed his pace down.

"Phew impressive. I've only managed it once so far" Darel said with a smirk.

"Don't feel bad Ensign I'm sure you'll catch up" Teaos said with a laugh and continued on to Fletcher quarters parting with Amy who headed to their lab.

[Mikey]

"Thank you all for coming. I know you all have full plates, so I will make this brief," Mikey addressed the department heads. "First, I'll need your shift schedules, updated to include contingency coverage. Next, I'd like all crew schedules over the next eight days to include time for refresher training on sidearms and hand-to-hand combat. Coordinate with security to schedule your teams with an available instructor. Once we're on approach to a potential hot zone, all on-duty personnel will wear a type-II. Any questions?"

There were desultory mumbles from the gathered officers, but no definite comments. "I know we're asking a lot from you right now, and we will make accomodations to complete the training while underway, but I do need the schedules. Captain Fletcher is tied up in meetings and I don't intend to drop the ball in his absence. Lt. Commander M'real, Ensign Grr'lek, please stay; everyone else is dismissed."

As the group filed out of the conference room, Grr'lek stood. "Yes, commander?" he purred.

"Brevet commander," Mikey corrected him, smiling at the familiarity. "You'll take alpha shift on the bridge; move Van Pelt to beta and put Friedman on gamma. Carson and Taylor will remain on the flight deck and I'll take your recommendation for a third down there when I collect your schedules, Lieutenant." Mikey enjoyed Grr'lek's speechlessness as he slid a set of pips across the table. As Grr'lek began to speak, Mikey forestalled him with a gesture. "Don't thank me - you've earned it. Now, I believe you have some work to do?"

"Aye, sir," answered the Caitian, showing his small fangs in a smile and then departing.

"That was good of you," said M'real from her corner. "It'll help him forget the recent anti-Caitian sentiment around here."

"Yes it will. And it will encourage him to make sure he does his job even better than before. Now, on to you." Mikey ignored her dubious look and handed her a PADD. "These are the specs for the new craft I was working on with Blackstar." At the mention of the name, M'real looked at the PADD with new interest. "It's two-thirds built in the aft shuttlebay," Mikey continued. "I'll help when I can, and you've got McKenzie from engineering and Carson and Taylor from ops. It needs to be done in eleven days and ready for operational testing in fourteen. Can you do it?"

"Damn straight I can, and it'll kick butt, too," answered M'real, rising from her seat. As she left the room, Mikey reflected that perhaps red went well with the shade of his skin after all.

[Reliant121]

"Photon torpedoes, fire on pass!" Darel shouted. The simulated computer responded to his command as he dragged the ship into a sharp starboard turn. 4 torpedoes streaked out of their launchers, ripping into the Galor class ship. The port plane exploded, leaking yellow plasma into space.

Another ship, the Simulation of the USS Helios, fired off a phaser burst into the plasma cloud. It enveloped the Galor and blew it out of the stars. But just as the Helios came out of its pass, a K'Tinga opened fire with its disruptors, slamming into her starboad nacelle. It shattered, shunting the Miranda class ship into a starboard spiral.

"Computer lock Tractor on the Helios! Engage when ready," He ordered. The forward emitter grasped on to the Helios. She began to slow down. But not quite in time.

The drifting hull plowed into another Federation ship, the USS Inverness, Nebula class. The Miranda broke up on impact, splitting across the hull of the Inverness. But it left a huge tear in the hull, and the weapons pod had been completely sheared off.

"USS Helios destroyed. USS Inverness disabled." The computer reported.

"Target the lead attack ship, K'Vort class. Open fire on my mark." Darel said, swinging the Daystrome into a barrel roll to starboard.

"Fire at will!"

The array of phasers mounted on the hull opened fire, sending streams of energy into the K'vort, ripping away at her shields. It gave an opening for the USS Guangzhou, steamrunner class, to blast away at with her torpedoes. The combined fire of the two craft obliterated the Klingon vessel.

And then everything froze.

"USS Dakota destroyed." The computer reported.

DAMN IT!

[Teaos]

"It works most of the time" Sternson said after the simulation had ended.

It was their fifth day at it and they had made little progress in finding a counter to the subspace weapons.

"But then our ships can't fight, which is kind of the point of this mission" Peterson said rubbing his eyes.

"If there is no other option" Sternson said before being cut off.

"The ships will be sitting ducks, if they don't get destroyed when the warp core explodes" Teaos stated collapsing into one of the chairs scattered around the room.

"We're not ejecting the warp core when ever one of these goes off. It's suicidal in fleet actions" Peterson said firmly putting the idea down.

"Do you have a better idea?" Sternson challenged him.

"Better than losing the power source of our ships Gee let me think on that" He snipped back.

"We could just send a shuttle into the subspace breach and seal it up" Teaos said absently.

"I doubt we'll find many volunteers for that" Sternson said with a small laugh.

"Or get approval for trashing dozens of shuttles" Peterson pointed out.

"It could work though " Teaos said sitting up straighter.

"We can't sacrifice pilots or shuttles like that" Peterson said with a frown at his fellow officer wanting to send men to their deaths.

"All it needs is a antimatter explosion to seal the rift, doesn't need to be manned." Teaos said as he scooted over to the main table and started programming a new simulation.

"What have you got in mind?" Sternson said looking over his shoulder.

[Thorin]

Hewer was stood on the bridge as masses of people - many of them from the Starbase - were busy looking confused as they frantically punched buttons, removed pannels, and rewired the internal systems.

The turbolift doors opened in their typical 'swish' noise and out walked Grahame Niles, stopping short of tripping over someone who was virtually laid down infront of the doors, with his head down one of the trapdoors.

"Jon, Captain Base asks what we intend to do with our current photon torpedos," said Niles.

"Well we can't keep them on here, there's no room," replied Jon.

"He suggested we could keep them on the Starbase, they've got a few cargo bays where we could stow them til we get back. The quantum torpedos won't last for ever, and our fleet has just taken thirty four sector's worth of them. It's a shame they're not replicatable."

"Maybe you should get on to Starfleet Research and Development and tell them to sort their act out!" laughed Jon.

A message came up on ops with a quiet beeping, and Niles walked over to it first. "It's Commander W'Trisk, he says the quantum torpedos are ready to be transferred over."

Jon tapped his communicator, "Hewer to Fletcher," said Jon, and waited for the Captain's reply, "Commander W'Trisk reports the quantum torpedos are ready."

"Understood, begin shuttling them across, I'd rather not risk beaming several tonnes of zero point energy anti-matter into our cargo bays. Fletcher out."

Jon relayed the message that tactical had made the necessary arrangements and that Captain Fletcher had gave the go ahead for them to be transfered back to Mikey. Each shuttle could only carry eight torpedos, and as they were expecting around one thousand two hundred, it would take a hundred and fifty journeys - at least six hours. Jon sat down at tactical - moving a young Petty Officer who was sat beneath the station with a transfer discriminator - while Niles moved over to the sensor station.

"Right," exclaimed Jon, half enthusiastically and half arduously, "Let's see what we can get from these targeting systems," and with that they began the long, tiresome job of searching for any - however tiny - inefficiencies.

[Tsukiyumi]

" Captain's log, Stardate 5752 5753 I honestly don't remember. I haven't slept in two days trying to get the upgrades operational. I spent six hours in a Jeffries tube yesterday with a pair of green ensigns trying to get the new shield emitters installed. I'm sure my friends at Command will get a laugh out of the situation; I was the one who introduced the Lakota subtype concept before the Dominion War, after all. I think the old bird might really be obsolete at this point, regardless of any efforts to bring her up to par with modern designs " Captain Thompson paused, his defiant pride urging him to defend his ship, his home.

" I know the Shoshone has at least one more fight in her, though. In a little over a week, I guess we'll see if the naysayers were right to declare me a sentimental old fool trying to wring the last drop of functionality from the Excelsior class. I'm to oversee the installation of the modified warp core in an hour or so. I think I'll grab something to eat; that's yet another thing I haven't made time for End log."

He sighed, rubbing his temples in frustration as he ambled toward the replicator at the far end of his austere quarters. He felt old down to his bones today; climbing down into the bowels of any ship was a job for much younger men.

Sixty next May, William, he thought, as his back provided an unwanted reminder that he should be directing this refit from the bridge, not up to his elbows in circuitry.

" Computer, Chef Salad with chicken and extra Thousand Island, please."

The replicator complied, and the meal promptly appeared on a small tray. He scooped it up, and started picking out the hard-boiled eggs; they were his favorite, and he liked to save them for last.

" Computer, milk, 4 degrees." He added, and the milk appeared as well. He smiled, remembering that he hadn't even seen a replicator as a child. Everything on his homeworld was grown the old-fashioned way, through time and toil, and he never took the miracle of technology for granted.

He settled into a chair with a small groan, and proceeded to devour the salad as he read through the intel reports for the eleventh time. A lot of ships had gone missing in nearby sectors recently, and there was no way to know if they'd been destroyed, commandeered, or had defected.

" Maybe they all got stranded on the other side of the galaxy " he chuckled to himself, scrolling past the unverified or useless reports to review the known strength of the enemy fleet and orbital defense platforms. He concentrated on the latter intensely, still trying to find any flaws in their design. His task force would be up against these things soon enough, and he wanted to be as prepared as possible.

"Dammit " he growled, noting the lack of any detailed scans; all they had were second-hand diagrams, and almost no tangible data on their capabilities. A small piece of grilled chicken slid from his fork as he stared at the few known facts; he absently reached under the table to pick it up, his eyes never leaving the PADD.

" Commander San'dral to Captain Thompson. We are ready to proceed with installation of the new warp core. What is your status?" The chief engineer's emotionless voice came through the comm. just as he grasped the errant chicken strip.

He sighed again, tapping his combadge, " My status is irrelevant, Commander. Is the engineering crew up to the task?" he asked, knowing the always-reliable Vulcan would consider the question a challenge to her capabilities.

A short pause followed; Thompson retrieved the chicken strip in the interim. " My staff are always ready, Captain. Shall we proceed without you?" he could almost hear her smirk through her tone.

" You can upgrade my ship without me when I'm dead, Commander. I'll be there in five." He cut the channel, gulped down the glass of milk, then headed for the door, stumbling over a self-sealing stembolt as the doors slid open with a slight hiss. He glanced back at the table, and the PADD atop it.

Plenty of time, William. We'll figure something out, he thought, popping the piece of chicken in his mouth as he stepped through the door.

He sure as hell hoped so, at least.

[Teaos]

Commanders Peterson and Teaos were waiting outside Davidsons office. Even being two ranking officers and heads of the team finding a counter to the Brotherhoods subspace weapons they had still been waiting over an hour to see him.

"I still don't like the success rate of this. Seventy percent is to low, we're going to lose to many ships" Peterson said as he absently scrolled through some notes on his PADD.

"It's the best we have and if we spend any more time planning we're not going to have time to deploy it" Teaos said with his head resting on both hands as he looked out the window of the station with half glazed eyes.

After another ten minutes of waiting and idle chatter a young Ensign informed them that the Admiral would see them now.

"You only have ten minutes, then the Admiral is going to inspect the Dakota" The ensign said as she ushered them into his officer.

The office was grade for a Starfleet office. Paintings on the walls and several plants around the room gave the room a more wholesome feeling than the usual recycled air in space.

"You've come up with a counter to the subspace weapons?" The admiral said, it was phrased as a question but seemed more like a command. If they didn't find a way to neutralize the weapons they were going to lose a lot of ships.

"Yes sir" Peterson said handing over several PADD's with the data on them.

"The subspace weapons naturally seek out warp cores due to the matter/anti-matter reaction inside. Initially we though of using shuttles to intercept the rift formed by the weapons and once hit they would seal the rift" Teaos began explaining as he looked at his notes. He didn't notice the Admirals frown as he said the idea of sending shuttles in to seal the breach.

"But then crewmen Matterson from the Larket suggested all we would need is the reaction of matter/anti-matter not the core its self" Peterson continued before the Admiral could interrupt.

"As you'll see in PADD three we have drawn up schematics for a modified torpedo. It's the same basic shell as either a Quantum or Photon torpedo so can easily be launched from existing tubes with no modification. Once clear of the ship the torpedo shoots out over a dozen small capsules containing a sample of antimatter acting like a wall of flak. The rift will hopefully close right in on them and close" Teaos finished waiting for the Admiral to look up the schematics.

"Hopefully?" The admiral asked.

"Yes well in simulations the rift only went for the flak antimatter around seventy percent of the time. The warp core on ships is just to powerful and sometimes the rift goes right for it"

'Well it's the best we can do. I'm granting you access to one of the Industrial replictors on the station. Talk to Captain Base about which one you can use. I want every starship to have at least twenty of these flak torpedoes by the time we deploy. Dismissed" The Admiral said with out giving them time to respond. The meeting had already gone overtime.

"Over six hundred torpedoes in three days ' Teaos moaned as he and Peterson wlaked out of the office.

"Yeah who needs sleep anyway" Peterson said with sigh this was going to be along three days.