NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #31/NN_1992_31.iso/spool/alt/startrek/creative/2886

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From: [e-mail] (Sujay Shaunak)
Subject: DELPHI : Chapter 6
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Date: Mon, 28 Dec 1992 16:43:26 GMT
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DELPHI : Chapter 6

"Tangled webs"




    "Who are these people?" Lieutenant Meede stormed.

    "We'll find out soon enough." Commander Assali said coolly.

    "We need to exercise utmost caution. We have been abducted
by an unknown force. This clearly constitutes a hostile act. If
these were Star Fleet officers, they sure as HELL wouldn't treat
other officers in such a manner. I suggest we make mental
preparations for becoming hostages... That 'Commander Norton',
looks suspiciously Romulan to me..." Meede responded.

    The fierce sandstorms down on the planet and the stale
sweat from wearing the environmental suits had left all of them quite
grimy, so they were all taking turns using the toilet and washing
facilities.
    Yeoman Albert watched as his two senior officers
talked. He decided that he would take first shift on the shower.
It did feel good to take a shower...
    Upon exiting the shower, he had the replicator create a new
uniform for him. Before he put the uniform on however, he took
a few moments to inspect the drawers which were near the replicator.
    "Sirs, you might want to see this .." he pulled out a laminated
card which had been lodged in the back of one of the drawers.


'
Welcome aboard the U.S.S. Vigilante.

--- There will be a mandatory meeting for all personnel at
    0830 in shuttle bay 1.  This should give all a chance to
    get settled.  All crew assignments will be handed out at
    this time.

--- Ship's uniforms are available from the replicators in
    each room just program required size.  Standard Star
    Fleet issue boots are appropriate. (a slight wait may be
    necessary, full power is currently not on line)

--- Please make yourself as comfortable as possible,
    as soon as more quarters are finished they will be
    assigned.
'

    Assali and Meede both quickly looked over the card.

    Assali spoke first, "It really doesn't tell us much. Except maybe
the name of the ship."

    "It fits", Meede interjected, "That original hail we heard was
garbled, but could have been directed towards a vessel named 'Vigilante'."

    Albert unwisely interrupted the discussion, eliciting a scowl
from the grimy face of Lt Meede.
    "Sirs, perhaps you should use the showers before they decide
to talk to us", he sheepishly suggested.
    Assali and Meede glanced at one another. Meede shrugged.

    "Thank you Mr Albert. I almost forgot" Assali said as he
headed for the shower.
    Meede waited his turn, and looked over the card some more.
    Albert remained silent.

......


    Malory stood at the tactical position on the bridge. Tactical
was still where he felt the most comfortable. He looked on as Lt T'irna
began working again at her post. As well, Dr Mayak was present,
observing T'irna.

    Lt T'irna sat calmly at her position of primary ORACLE operator,
and after a few moments of work she faced the Doctor.
    "Dr Mayak, you do not need to continue observation. Such
a course is wasteful of both your time and energy. I am more than
able to perform my necessary duties."
    She then turned and addressed Malory.
    "Sir, I have been able to eliminate the distortion from
ORACLE. It was merely a matter of focusing on a smaller area and
accounting for a sensor shift of a fixed magnitude.
    The distortion was caused by the fact that the substrata
of this planet is crystalline. I am unsure as to exactly how yet,
but this causes a sensor wavelength shift. The scale was more than
ORACLE compensates for on its own, thus I had to manually change the
scale."

    "Can you detect any lifesigns ... or bodies." Malory asked.

    "No sir, I detect a small amount of material that could have
compromised the hull of a very small ship. There is some organic
residue as well, indeterminate amounts..."

    Malory's face grew stony. So this was it. Now he had lost
three of his best officers. Malory felt the gaze of his crewmen
on him. A tear formed in his eye.
    "I can't believe they're actually dead!" O'bourne was
somewhat hysterical.

    "Calm yourself Lieutenant, this is StarFleet, danger and tragedy
come with wearing the uniform...
    Lt T'irna, continue sensor sweeps of the system and sensor
searches of the planet. Just in case we may have missed something.
    Mr Penthrach, inform Dr Mayak and Ensign Zalvosta to meet me
in the conference room. As well, send a message to StarBase 89 informing
them of our situation. Let them know that we will depart after
sensor sweeps have concluded that there is nothing salvageable left.
    Mr. Qhasmon plot a course for StarBase 89, inform me when we
are ready to leave.
    I'll be in my ready room, for a moment, then the conference room.
I think it is time that I spoke with one of our 'guests'."

......


    Assali, Meede, and Albert were escorted through the
corridors of the 'Vigilante'.  The three were perfectly groomed in
standard Star Fleet uniforms.  The few others they saw in the
hallways wore the same baggy black uniform with several large
'cargo' pockets.  Everyone they saw walked crisply and stiff,
all seemed to be overly disciplined and didn't ever give them a
second glance.
    Meede paid particular attention to these behaviors.
    'DISCIPLINED....', he thought. His abductors had just moved
up several notches on his personal 'danger scale'.

    The trio was lead into a fairly large size room. Large compared
to most of the other rooms that they had seen. The walls were a flat gray,
like the rest of the ship, and a U-shaped table that had eight chairs around
it was centered in the room. Around the perimeter of the room there were
other chairs as well. Moreover, in the center of the U there was a
single chair positioned to face any persons who were seated at the table
    Assali and Meede knew the scene.

    "It's a court room" Assali said after they had stood in it
for a moment.
    Albert was decidedly confused.
    "Are we being put a trial?" he asked.
    Meede simply scowled, gritting his teeth and raising his blood
pressure. His muscles flexed involuntarily in anger.

    Just then, the door slid open. The trio looked on as the
"Vulcan/Romulan" whom had identified himself as Commander Norton
walked in. He was accompanied by a short female. She looked Klingon
save that her forehead was smooth, absent of ridges.
    'A KALONIAN', Meede thought. He knew them to be a very
warrior-like race. They were similar to the Andorians or Tellarians in
aggressive tendencies. This one looked composed though, and that
bothered Meede.
    What really disturbed Meede was the last figure to walk in.
He was a goodly sized human male, about 2 meters in height with
long graying black hair which was thinning on top and pulled back in a
pony tail.
    Meede stared at the man for a moment.
    "I thought you were dead," he hesitated a moment, and then added,
"Sir."
    "It's good to see you again too, Mr Meede" the man said.

    Assali turned to the Lieutenant "You know this man?".
    "Yes sir, I served briefly under him aboard the Nielsen
before I was promoted to the Charlemagne."

    "Wasn't the Nielsen part of the armada destroyed at
Wolf-359?" Albert asked.

    "Please allow me to introduce myself" the man said, ignoring
the question. He offered offered his hand to Assali.
    "I'm Captain Anthony and I'd like to personally welcome you
aboard the U.S.S. Vigilante."
    He motioned to the Kalonian with him," and this is
my first officer, Commander Tarva."

    She didn't offer her hand, just slightly nodded toward them.
    "Now, I suppose you have a lot of questions, why don't you
have a seat and we'll see if we can answer any of them." Anthony
indicated the chairs at the table as he and Commander Tarva
headed for them.
    "Sir, if you really are a commissioned Star Fleet ship why
have you not allowed us to contact the Delphi?" Meede asked
before everybody was fully seated.

    "I thought that would be the first question you'd ask"
Anthony said with a grin.
    "As I'm sure Mr Norton has advised you, the U.S.S. Vigilante is
a top secret project.  We are under strict orders not to reveal
ourselves to anybody.  We are to remain anonymous until such time we
have completed the mission for which we were designed and are training
for.  If we were to simply allow you to call the DELPHI that would be in
direct violation of one of our primary mission directives."

    "Its interesting that our sensors didn't directly detect you
as we approached the planet ...", Assali lead. Assali knew that the
sensor interference from the planet could have made it difficult
to notice a ship which was just coming into the system, or one on the
opposite side of the planet.

    "As I've said, we are an experimental ship, I really can't
get into our 'stealth' capabilities."
    Assali, Meede and Anthony exchanged evaluating looks.
    Assali was amazed at the audacity and confidence of Captain Anthony.
    "Captain, aren't you concerned that the Delphi is looking for us?"

    Tarva fielded this question, "We were aware that the remains of
the ship that had crashed would be destroyed after the survivors
were evacuated.  We pulled you three off the planet just before
you would have been vaporized by the blast.  Hopefully the
DELPHI will think that you were killed."

    "Hopefully they'll think we were killed?  You want them to
abandon us?  Then what, you keep us against our will, kill us
yourselves, what?"  Meede was angry, and thus assumed his head-of-security
authoritative tone.

    Anthony replied calmly "Lieutenant, our intention was to keep you
from harm, if we wanted you dead, we would have ignored you."
     "Which we almost did." Tarva added, a hint of a smile playing on
her lips.

    Assali thought while Meede, Tarva and Anthony spoke. He reached a
conclusion.
    "The way I see it then, you are looking for some way to exchange
us for your missing crew without revealing your selves.  Does that sum up
the situation? " Assali was guessing that the DELPHI had been able to
beam up whomever had made the distress call, and that those people had been
members of the Vigilante's crew.

    "Most of it." Anthony said.
    "There is a bit more we must accomplish to clean up this
incident properly."  Tarva added.
    "And that is?" Meede asked.
    "We must insure that all computer and other records of the
DELPHI's foray into AR-24 are erased or altered to exclude any
and all contact with the Vigilante and her personnel."  Tarva
replied casually.
    Albert could scarcely believe what he was hearing.
    "That's impossible...Sir", he blurted out.
    He turned to face Assali, "Sir, Captain Malory would never go for
altering the computer records... would he?"
    Tarva looked at Assali "Is the Captain of the DELPHI
Percival Malory?" she asked seemingly innocently.


......


    Percival Malory stood outside of the main conference room of
the DELPHI as Dr Mayak and Ensign Zalvosta arrived. He addressed Zalvosta.
    "Ensign, I know that this will be a shock to you, but I have
decided to make you the new Chief of Security for this ship. Since it is
not acceptable for an Ensign to be in this position, I contacted StarFleet
and am authorized to grant you a field promotion to Lieutenant, Junior Grade,
with all of the priveleges and responsibilities that that rank entails.
    Congratulations. I wish the circumstances weren't as they are and
this change could have been made less abruptly."
    Malory thought about his decision. He knew from Meede's logs that
this was the security officer he was training to be a leader. All he could
do was trust his late security chief's confidence in her abilities.
    "Here are your new pips ..." he said as he handed her a half-
pip for her uniform.
    Together, Mayak, Malory and Zalvosta entered and took their places
around the long conference table.

    Malory stared down the table of his relatively large
conference room. He looked at the lady at the other end of the table.
She was dressed in a standard yellow StarFleet uniform with no rank
or insignia. Malory then looked at Dr. Mayak and his acting security
chief, Lt Zalvosta.
    "Ms Smith", he began, "Let me get this straight, you claim
that you and your crew are the survivors of a private registry transport?"

    "That's correct."

    "And the name of the transport was The Vigilante"

    "Actually it was the Klingon equivalent, but essentially yes."

    "Don't you think that VIGILANTE is a rather severe name for
a transport?" Malory was calmly paging through notes on his
terminal, notes totally unrelated to what was going on at present.

        "Not for the makeup of the crew." The lady leaned casually
to one side, her hands now apparently resting in her lap.

        "Now there's something I'd like to talk about." Malory said
as if suddenly finding something interesting.
        "It is most intriguing that you accomplished getting a Kalonian
and a Klingon to work together? The only time I've ever seen some in a
room together, they were trying to kill each other."

        "It's amazing how much hatred and prejudices can be put
aside if the price is right."  The lady responded in a somewhat bored tone.

        Malory was intrigued. He felt sure that this person was hiding many
things, a few of which he began to glean.

        "Then your cargo was extremely valuable?"

    "Some would think so."

        "What exactly was your cargo?"

        "An assortment of things."
        Malory continued his questions quickly, he knew which answers
he was interested in.
        "If it was so valuable, why did you destroy it."

        "Who said I destroyed it?"
        "Then what was that you were doing with the tri-corder after
you were beamed up?" interjected Zalvosta.

        "I was in the process of activating a homing beacon when we
were beamed up, I was just trying to finish what I started."
        "That was some homing beacon." Lieutenant Zalvosta said
incredulously.

        "The tricorder must have malfunctioned when YOUR man lost
his cool.  The tri-corder did also have a destruct function in
it, but that is not what I was activating."
        "Once again you try to blame US for the death of the away
team." Malory took a slightly agitated tone, right now he was biding his
time, waiting for the right answer.

        "I lost more then THREE comrades in that crash, I have to
live with that.  I am not going to accept the blame for the
death of three people who were some place they shouldn't have
been when someone else caused a malfunction.  As far as I'm
concerned, I'm more of a witness than a participant to the
matter." The female straightened out and placed both hand palms
down on the table. She stared directly at Malory.

        A piping sound came over the intercom.
        "Captain .. Bridge here." Malory recognized the icy voice of
Lt Qhasmon.
    "Go ahead Mr Qhasmon."
    "Sir, we are ready to get under way."

    "Stand by", Malory rose and stood for a moment beside his chair,
gazing at his 'guest'.
        "I am sure that we will speak again, Miss... Before we reach
the StarBase at any rate...." Malory worked at reading her expression.

    "Starbase 89?" she asked.

    "Yes, the Admiral has shown a specific interest in you and
your crew." Malory clapped his hand atop his chair and abruptly
left the meeting room.


.......


    Rear Admiral Hrgon sat in his ready-room aboard the Fangorn.
He reviewed the priority message that he had received from StarFleet
command. He hit his comm button.
    "Commander Hause.
     Get me StarFleet Command top-priority.
     Code : Rho Tau Psi."

    "Yes Admiral?" the scrambled voice responded.

    "Who now commands the DELPHI project?" Hrgon asked.
The transmission was scrambled, and voice only for security
purposes.
        "We have yet to assign a new project leader ...
Are you interested in overseeing the project?"

        "Yes. I will oversee DELPHI."

        "Are you capable of handling the DELPHI project as well
as your other responsibilities ?"

        "Yes.
         What has the search found?"

        "What search?"

        "The Commodore search, his death.."

        "The investigation into the death of Commodore Albrit
has yet to determine anything."

        "Romulan involvement?"

        "Nothing has been shown yet, but we are looking into it. We will
inform you when we have more information.
        Anything else Admiral ?"

        "No. Hrgon out."

        Hrgon looked at the map of the Neutral Zone which hung
in his ready room. Now he was in command of Project DELPHI as
well... He chuckled.


.......



    Assali scrutinized the recognition in Tarva's face. He
wasn't sure who had the advantage in their information exchange at
this point...
    "Yes, Percival Malory is the Captain of the DELPHI, do you know him?"

    "After Wolf-359, the New Auckland rescued me from an escape
pod.  The Captain of the New Aukland was Percival Malory, we actually
became quite good friends." She seemed to be speaking more for her
Captain's benefit, than for Assali's.

    Anthony turned to Tarva "Between Commander Assali and
yourself we may be able to convince Captain Malory...."
    "Hold that thought," Assali interrupted "convince Captain
Malory about what, I'm not convinced myself. You're going to
have to tell and show me a lot more than you have so far to get
me to try to convince my Captain to do something that is
strictly against policy."

    Now, it was Meede's turn to not be able to believe his ears...
    "Sir," he said to Assali "Are you saying that you may
even be considering asking Captain Malory to forge his logs?"
    "Lieutenant," Anthony said "You must learn to look beyond
the rules and regulations of an individual ship to the security
of the entire Federation."
    Meede scoffed, "Are you trying to tell us that this project
is that important?"
    "We are." Tarva answered seriously.

    Assali motioned for Meede to remain silent. He needed a moment
to think and to examine his options.
    "Let's try to compromise some here. Show me what you
can of this ship. If you can convince me, then I'll do what I
can. At no time, however, will I involve myself in lying to or
attempting to deceive my commanding officer, is that clear."

    A pipeing sound came from the intercom.
    "Bridge to Captain Anthony."
    "Go ahead"
    "Sir, We read the DELPHI powering up, she's probably
preparing to get under way." came a female voice.
    "Have we obtained our new orbit?" Tarva said to the speaker.
    "Yes, sir."
    "Very good, we'll be right up." Anthony stood followed by
the rest at the table.  "Mr Norton would you have someone
escort Lieutenant Meede and Mr Albert back to their quarters."
    Norton who had remained standing by the door acknowledged
the command with a slight nod and a "Yes, Sir".
    Anthony toward Assali "Won't you please accompany us to the
Bridge?"
    "    Sir, I must protest," Meede interjected "I don't know that
we should allow ourselves to be split up by these people."
    "Mr Meede," Assali turned to the man "If we were not safe
with these people, there's not much we could do about it.  So I
suggest we take them at face value until they give us reason to
believe otherwise. You can take that as an order, understood? "
    "Yes, sir"
    "Now, return to our quarters and wait for me."
    With that the two groups exited the briefing room.


.......


    *VHOOSH*

    As he stepped out of the turbo-lift doors, Malory saw Qhasmon turn
to face him.

    "Engage Lt Qhasmon."

    Qhasmon slowly increased velocity as the DELPHI surged our of
orbit. After a reasonable distance from the system had been attained,
Qhasmon performed a sharp 90 degree facing change and then proceeded
on course again. Moving from impulse speed to warp 6.

    "Sir", T'irna spoke up, "For an instant there was a ship on my
ORACLE 1 console readout. It was in a position where I had detected some
brief anomolous behavior."
    "Could it be a cloaked Romulan or some form of sensor error?"
    "No sir, I do not think that it could be a cloaked Romulan unless
there ship design has changed radically. I will run another full
diagnostic on ORACLE, it is possible that there was still some resonance
clutter on  the main sensors."

    "Very well Lieutenant, carry on.
    Mr Penthrach, inform the crew that there will be a ceremony for
Commander Assali, Lieutenant Meede and Yeoman Albert in the main rec room
at 2000 hours."

    Malory looked over the tactical readout. He ran a quick replay
of the sensor logs as run through tactical and observed the 'ghost ship'
that T'irna spoke of. He decided to stay on the bridge longer, but
no more anomalies were discovered, even after ORACLE had been given
a full diagnostic and a minor sensor routing problem had been fixed.
It was only at this point that Malory lowered the DELPHI's shields,
cancelled the yellow alert.


........


    "One thing still puzzles me.." Assali said to Anthony as
they entered the turbo-lift to the bridge.
    "What's that?  BRIDGE" Captain Anthony stood in a casual at
ease posture.
    Assali felt his knees buckle from the extreme acceleration of the
lift. This was definitely not StarFleet standard.
    "I've been trying to figure out why none of our sensors spotted
your ship and why we had such a hard time zeroing in on your crew."
    "Mr Assali" Anthony said in mock shock.
    "Like we've said, this is a secret project it wouldn't do us any
good if any passing Star Ship could see us, Would it?"  The door to the
turbo lift opened and Assali and Anthony stepped onto the bridge.

    On the main screen was the image of the Delphi.  The
Vigilante had come up behind and above it.  The angle and the
distance made the single warp drive ship seem extremely small.
    Reality dawned on Assali, "My God, you're cloaked, aren't you?."
    It still didn't make sense though, since Assali knew that the
DELPHI should be able to tracked cloak ships... Something didn't add up.

    Anthony smiled "Yea, I suppose we are.  Ensign O'Malley
report."
    "Sir, the DELPHI has maintained it's shields and appears to
be preparing to leave orbit." O'malley reported.

    "If they leave orbit, we're going to have a tougher time
fixing this problem."  Anthony stood behind O'Malley looking at
the ship on the screen.
    "What were your plans with my ship?" Assali asked.

    Anthony looked at the Delphi's first officer "It doesn't
matter, Malory seems to be playing it safe."
    "He does seem to have a sixth sense"  Assali agreed with a
smile. He knew that Malory was anything but safe in his style
of Captaining.
    Tarva walked up behind them from the other lift "That does
seem to be a major requirement of a Star Fleet Captain."

    The DELPHI changed its orbit and vectored away from the
planet.  It made an abrupt half turn and changed course for a
little more than an instant. Then it resumed its course and
heading.  Within seconds it was out of sight as it increased to
maximum impulse power.
    "What kind of maneuver was that?" Anthony asked curiously.
    Assali smiled "I call it a 'Crazy Qhasmon'"
    "What's the point?" Anthony was not satisfied.

    Assali merely shrugged his shoulders.
    "You know Andorians ..." he offered. He was wondering
if ORACLE had picked up the Vigilante now....

    O'malley listed as her Captain and his 'guest' spoke.
She decided to offer her opinion to her Captain.

    "Sir, I have been monitoring the DELPHI as closely as
possible. I have ... noted ... that the DELPHI seems to have a
very sophisticated scanner emission pattern. There seems to be
some problems with it however, as periodically, the scanner
bandwidth that they seem to be using gets flooded with
garbage, akin to resonance echoes sir.
    I would think that this may lead to some problems with their
navigational sensors. "

    Tarva apparently didn't agree with O'malley's opinion,
    "I doubt that a Captain would have his ship prepare for warp
speed if he felt that his sensors  were faulty ....".

     Assali merely stood by, trying to appear non-chalant about
the whole matter.

    "Ensign O'Malley, at current course what is their best
destination?"  Anthony asked.
    "Sir, current course will set them directly to Star Base
89."
    Anthony turned to Assali "Commander, would Star Base 89 be
an appropriate destination for the Delphi at this time?"
    Assali made no reply and simply stood mute.
    "What would be the average cruising speed of a Pentalia
class ship?"
    "Warp six" Tarva replied.
    "Plot a wide course to Star Base 89 best speed.  We'll just
go and wait for her." Anthony said.
    "Best speed, Sir?" O'Malley confirmed.
    "Best Speed" Tarva confirmed.
    "Aye, sir" O'Malley worked a few buttons.  "Course plotted
and laid in, Sir"
    "Engage." Anthony stood casually with his hands in his
jacket pockets.
    The helmsman next to O'Malley pushed a few buttons and the
Vigilante vectored out of orbit just like the Delphi except for
the 'Crazy Qhasmon'.  "Full impulse" he reported.
    "We're clear for warp" O'Malley said after a couple minutes.
    "Engage" Tarva said from the Captain's chair.
    The star field on the screen suddenly blurred to the
standard rushing stars optical illusion of warp.
    "Best Speed attained" the helmsman said immediately.

    "Very good, notify me when we arrive at Star Base 89."
Anthony then turned to Assali "Won't you join me in the briefing
room" and headed toward a door near one of the Turbo Lifts.

    Assali turned and followed the Captain off of the bridge.


......



    Malory stood in the main rec room aboard the DELPHI. He
had prepared himself for this unfortunate duty that always fell
to the Captain. He looked over the convocation. There were many
crewmembers present. Most notably, a large security contingent
was present, every member of security who wasn't on duty in fact.

    "We are gathered today together", he began, "to lay
to rest, three of our friends and comrades : Lieutenant Commander
Akimbe Assali, Lieutenant Garin Meede, and Yeoman Antoine Albert.
Let it not be said that their lives were lost in vain, for they were
men of StarFleet. Each knew the risks associated with the rank and
uniform which they wore. Moreover they died trying to help others."
    Malory paused. The crowd was solemn.

    Anna Zalvosta was barely able to restrain her tears, now she
would never get a chance to learn more of Lt Meede. Now, even as
she was realizing that her feelings for him were more than she had
thought. She hurt.
    'I AM STARFLEET SECURITY ... WE DON'T CRY,' she tried to
convince herself.

    "Let us remember them as we will, for the good and the noble
that was there. Let us have a moment of silence, then you may
pay your respects as you feel appropriate."

    All was silent.

    "Company Dismissed."

    Malory looked at the three holograms of the men one last time.



.......



    Assali spoke with Anthony at great length. At every
question it seemed as if Anthony had a "pat" answer, or was
"unable to comment" on the question. In all of their talks,
Assali found out very little about the ship. He was able to
observe slight differences in the way that certain things operated
however.
    At this stage, Assali was undecided. He was convinced that
either 'Captain' Anthony was sincere in his secrecy, or was
really pulling a masterful deception. Assali could only picture
Anthony at the extremes, there seemed to be no middle to this man.
    Assali's first priority was to get to the DELPHI and inform
Malory. From there, maybe they could piece together the truth.
Assali decided upon a course of action....

    "Captain. you have more or less convinced me of your
sincerity and the importance of your mission. My question remains...
how are you going to contact the DELPHI or alter its logs after it arrives
at StarBase 89?"

    Anthony answered quickly, he head obviously thought about this
a great deal.
    "Actually, near a StarBase, a starship is likely to have
minimum security. Especially when it comes to having its shields lowered
for transport..."

    This last statement really concerned Assali. He was almost
afraid to ask his next question.
    "And what do you plan to do when the Delphi lowers its
shields?"

    Assali could only look on as Anthony calmly smiled again
and smoothly evaded the question
    "Not the same thing we would have done if they had dropped their
shields at AR-24."

    Assali finally scowled, it seemed as if he were running
up into a brick wall. Still, he was going to continue in his attempts to
get back to the DELPHI.
    Then, it seemed as if something changed in Anthony ...

    "Okay, here's my plan, since it involves you and will
require your help..."


......


    Malory sat in his chair in his ready room. A tall glass
of dark-golden liquid sat at his right. He stared at the wall.
Yesterday had been a long and trying day. Today didn't seem
as if it were going to be better. One thing did remain constant,
he still hated 'morning' meetings....

    *BLEAP-BLOP*

    "Come in" he said.

    The door opened and Lt Qhasmon stepped in.

    "Come in Lt , have a seat."

    Malory watched as Qhasmon sat before him.
    "Lt, I have called you in because of your actions towards
another crewmember yesterday. Such actions could be considered
grounds for dismissal by some....
    I have read your record, this isn't the first time this has
happened, in fact, it is the NINTH.
    I couldn't believe it myself, among all those marks of praise
for your ability, you have NINE records of disciplinary actions.
It's a wonder you still have your rank, not to mention your position.

    Lt, I know how Andoria is, I know the mindset. This is NOT
Andoria. This is a starship, starships require discipline. We're all
in this together Lt, we can't be our own bad guys, we have enough
enemies without that...
    Talk to me, what is wrong."

    Qhasmon looked at his Captain. It was rare for humans to know
of Andoria or its customs, and yet, there his Captain sat. Holding
his hands in a posture of an Andorian Advocate.
    "Captain. If you know Andoria then you may understand
what the rage of and Andorian is like. Without outlets, this rage
gets contained, only to release itself fully at some undetermined
time..."

    "I see, and understand Lt," Malory eased back into his chair.
He took a sip from his synthetic beer. He had indeed looked over
Qhasmon's file at length.

    "Lieutenant, I am forced to place a disciplinary action on
your record. However, you will suffer no loss of rank.  Your punishment
will be an extended bridge shift as well as required physical training.
You and I can match our skills there .. I need the excercise at any rate.
I spent time on Andoria and as well have worked on some of the
fighting styles.. This should be a fine outlet for you...."
    Malory spoke with a smile.

    Qhasmon could hardly believe his ears. Andorians rarely
let humans observe combat excercises or fighting styles, that his
Captain knew of them and possibly knew some of them was most
remarkable.

    "Yes sir."

    Malory gave his helmsman one last appraising look.

    "That will be all Lt, dismissed."


    Malory eased back into his chair. He sipped his beer, and
reflected. He still hated morning meetings.



.......


    Security officer Klepling stood at attention outside of the
quarters of the 'visitor', 'Andrea Smith'. He had been on duty for almost
an hour now, and so far had nothing to report. He had been surprised,
in fact, that it was he, and not one of the more notable security officers
who had gotten to stand watch.

    *BLEAP BLOP*

    Klepling whirled around as the door opened. He gazed steadily
at 'Miss Smith'.

    "What do you want?" he asked somewhat gruffly.
    "I was told that you had excercise facilities that
could be made available to me." She said.
    Klepling was surprised by the apparent pleasantness in her
voice...
    'COULD BE SOME RUSE', he thought, 'BUT .. ORDERS ARE ORDERS ...
OR WERE THEY....'.

    "One moment", he reached for his communicator pin as he closed
the door, closing 'Smith' back in her quarters.

    Klepling accessed the security communications net, so that the
message would only go through security and not through the bridge.
    "Greely, Hamden, SHE is about to move to the security excercise
area ... Klepling out."

    Klepling opened the door after receiving confirmation that his
message had been received. He faced the 'lady' , whom he felt was
responsible for the deaths of Meede, Assali and Albert.

    "Facilities are currently available, are you ready at this time?"

    "Yes, that would be fine."
    Klepling watched as she grabbed the bag of excercise attire which
he had issued to her earlier. Klepling motioned to the 2 other guards,
who promptly fell in behind the woman.


    Ensign Hamden and Yeoman Greely walked into the security hall.
Both strode calmly but quickly into the area of the hall containing
excercise equipment.

    Hamden spoke first,"You're the one, aren't you?"
    Hamden glared at the woman, Ms. 'Smith', as she had named herself.

    "I'm sorry, were you talking to me *Ensign*", she replied.

    Hamden heard the tone of her voice, it reminded him of Meede, and
this only fueled his anger more.
    "You're the one who killed the away team. What are you doing in here?
Shouldn't you be in the brig?", Greely spoke up harshly now.

    "What caused that terrible accident is still under investigation",
Smith said as she stood up.

    Hamden approached her.
    "Where the hell do you think you are going?" he said, as he
pushed her hard enough to make her sit back down on the bench. He
continued, "You kill *two* security officers and the First Officer and
now you are in the security training room acting like you own the place.."

    Smith rose quickly and stared at Hamden.
    "Mister, if you touch me again, I *WILL* KILL you, is that
understood.

    Greely grabbed her by the arm as he spun her towards him,
pulling her 'in his face', "How dare you threaten StarFleet officers!"
He felt her grab his arm as she pulled herself free from his grasp,
twisting his arm behind his back as she did.
    He groaned and then screamed in agony as his arm was suddenly
stretched and twisted as his elbow gave way and his arm started to
double back on itself.
    Hamden rushed Smith. For all his training, he received
a kick square in the chest which winded him, causing him to
reflexively double over. As well, the force of the blow threw
him almost 3 meters across the room.

    Smith stood behind Greely and continued applying pressure.
As he screamed she whispered icily, "Death is easy is you know how
to apply it."
    Greely could feel his life in her hands.


    Two more guards had come running into the hall after hearing
the screams.
    "What's going on here?!" one of them yelled as they approached.
    Smith let Greely go and pushed him to the floor as she
answered, "Why did you let these two in, you know I am not allowed
company."
    One of the new guards held a phaser pointed at Smith,
while the other knelt down to examine Yeoman Greely. His arm
was still twisted up behind his back and he lay on his stomach
moaning. The guard with the phaser touched his communicator
pin.
    "Security and Medical to Security training room one."

    He heard a voice respond, "Penthrach here, message
acknowledged, security? and medical are on their way."



......



    Malory gazed down the conference room table yet again.
He felt the feeling of 'deja-vous'. He was flanked by acting
security chief Zalvosta and Doctor Mayak. He stared at
'Ms Smith', as she stood in a stiff at-ease posture. Standing
beside her were two large security guards, in security vests.
Malory recognized Yeoman Bronsdale, but did not know the name of the
other guard.

    "Ms Smith," Malory began ,"we are here to determine the
circumstances around the incident earlier today in the Training
Room.  In your own words what exactly happened there today?"
    Calmly, he listened.

    "Sir, I was approached at a time when I was led to believe
that I was to remain segregated from the rest of your crew.
They accosted me in a rough and threatening manner. I told these
ENSIGNS to leave me alone, instead they persisted in confronting
me. Since they were not supposed to be there I knew they didn't just
happen upon me. They had planned to confront me and were in collusion
with my guards. It was obvious that they had plans for me. I was not
about to allow them to follow through."

    Malory nodded, as 'Smith' finished.
    "The Ensigns of course, tell a different story .. I tend
to believe that the truth is somewhere in the middle."

    Zalvosta was somewhat shocked.
    "Captain, Sir, do you believe that four StarFleet officers are
lying?"
    Malory turned and faced his acting security chief.
    "I believe that both parties' perceptions of events may be
slightly clouded."
    He turned and faced Mayak.
    "Doctor, what is the status of the injured crewman?"

    Mayak looked down at the small chart in front of her,
"The gentleman with the injured arm should be healed in a day or two.
His arm however, may never be exactly right .. but we'll see. The other
merely had the wind knocked out of him, he'll be fine."

    "Thank you Doctor. Ms Zalvosta, inform all personnel involved
that appropriate disciplinary action will be taken."
    Malory was tired. He had let this go on long enough and
now someone was hurt. Moreover, he didn't like the idea of members
of security going 'on their own'. He hoped that he would get someone
like Meede back as a security chief. He brought his mind back to
the events at hand.
    "Ms Smith please take a seat, the rest are dismissed."
    "But Sir..." Bronsdale started to speak.

    Malory stared at the Yeoman and then swept the room with
his vision. He rose from his chair, glaring.
    "But NOTHING, everyone is dismissed. I wish to talk privately
with Ms Smith."
    Grudgingly, Zalvosta, Mayak and the two guards exited the
room.
    "Aye sir", Malory heard the other guard mutter as he left.
    Malory turned and faced 'Smith'. He gestured for her to take
a seat across from him as he sat down. After she had seated herself
as well, he began.
    "Lieutenant Whitecloud, I believe it is time we ended this charade."

    "I'm sorry, you must have me mistaken for somebody else",
Smith/Whitecloud said calmly.
    Malory pushed a few buttons on the console before him.
The scream at one end of the room came on with the first page of
Whitecloud's file from StarBase 89. The visual was poor, as was
standard, but it was obviously Smith."
    "Are you trying to deny that this is you?"

    Malory watched as his guest paused for a moment.
    "Sir, I'm hoping you will realize that the persons in those
files can't be on this ship."

    "I must know why three of my best officers were killed. I have
a lot of questions I need answered, before I can accept that
you were never here."
    "Tell me what you have", she offered.

    Malory paged needlessly through his notes on the terminal
for a few minutes as he thought and then rested his mind. Finally,
he spoke again.
    "The explosion?"

    "We could not leave top secret equipment to be found by anybody.
Policy."

    "What really happened?"

    "You stumbled on a top secret project just when things weren't
going well."

    "You are still being extremely evasive Lieutenant."

    "I have my orders."

    "And what do your orders say about answering to Admirals
while under direct questioning?"

    "I'm willing to pay the price for keeping my orders."

    Malory frowned. He wasn't getting much further than he had
already hypothesized. Malory wasn't happy with the fact that Admiral
Hrgon wanted to speak with WhiteCloud. Malory felt it better if
fewwer people were involved. He knew that she was hiding a lot
but she was sincere about the secrecy. If she was telling the
truth, as his gut told him, he shouldn't be asking her questions
and DEFINITELY the Admiral didn't need to be. It was out of his
hands now however.

    "I'll leave the rest of the questions to the Admiral, maybe
you will be able to talk more freely with him." He turned off his console.

    "I don't think so.."

    "Well, we'll find out very soon."

    The conversation was interrupted by the comm pipping on.
    "Captain, Bridge here."

    "Go ahead Mr Penthrach."

    "Sir, we are preparing to drop out of warp for approach
to StarBase 89."

    "Very Good, I'll be there in a few minutes."

    "Bridge out."

    Malory turned and faced WhiteCloud again. Calmly he strode
out of the room. He knew that the two security guards would be
standing outside of the door. He spoke to them quietly.
    "Escort her back to her quarters. She is to be confined
there for the duration of the voyage. I don't want any more
incidents ... Understood."
    "Yes sir", the guards said almost in unison.

    Malory then went and made his way to the bridge, which
was one level above.




.......


    *VHOOSH*

    The doors to the turbo-lift opened and Malory looked over
his bridge. Qhasmon was still at helm and the large figure of
Penthrach dwarfed him as he sat at his communications position.
T'irna was back at the ORACLE 1 station and a secondary officer
was at ORACLE 2. Malory stood at the tactical position.

    "Preparing for impulse speed Captain" Qhasmon spoke.

    The ship dropped out of warp and approached the StarBase.

    "Lt T'irna, maximum sensor sweeps, let's see if we can catch
that anomaly this time ... if it should reappear ... route displays to
tactical."

    "Sir, sensors indicate nothing unexpected."

    "Wait, there.. did you just see it Lt, what could be the
explanation for that. I saw the small ship for an instant."

    T'irna was puzzled.

    "I am not sure Captain. Attempting to focus on that area."

    "Discreetly Lt , if it is a ship, we wouldn't want it getting
jumpy now would we?"

    "Jumpy sir?"

    "Never mind, just be discreet about the sensor sweeps."

    Malory looked at his display. Sporadically, at several
second intervals, a ship would appear and disappear from his
display. It would only appear for an instant though, so he could
never be sure.

    "Lt , is it possible that this is a cloaked ship?"

    "If it were cloaked, then I would surmise that it would
have to be able to constantly shift its cloaking frequency. Thus
we would detect it only occasionally, as it shifted across the
frequency which we are scanning at.
    There is no known device that would allow for this however."

    "Is there any way which we could shift our sensor frequency
so that we could get a better idea?"

    "No sir. We would have to know the pattern in which they are
shifting, otherwise it would merely be poor guesswork which would
more likely result in less observation of the potential vessel."

    "I see...."

    "Lt Qhasmon, take us into StarBase.
     Lt T'irna, see what more you can make ORACLE do."

    The DELPHI slid easily into a standard orbit around
the StarBase.

    The StarBase was a massive structure which was capable
of docking more than 10 starships at a time. The top half was
dome shaped with a long pylon-like tail extending below it. The
structure ended up looking very much like a mushroom. From every
surface of the base, a multitude of sensors and antennas protruded.
Evenly spaced around the periphery were five large doors to allow
StarShips to drydock.
    Since the base was also a monitoring station for Neutral
Zone, and more importantly, undur durisdiction of Admiral Hrgon,
the base was heavily armed and shielded. It not only had phaser
rings on the dome, but had a multitude of phaser cannons and
torpedo launchers spread over the surface.
    Malory knew that the Base could stand any attack for
quite a long time.

    He looked on at it nevertheless, wondering what awaited him
and his ship here, once again...


......

--

'Sooge'
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