The Alpha Centauri Mystery - Part 16 - A Stand-off, by Ben Versteegt
Summary:
When mysterious crystals are found in the Alpha Centauri system, they become a wanted commodity. A Cardassian named Enbek attempts to steal the samples from Starfleet Ensign Sandra Burke, but his plan is thwarted and he is imprisoned. After a Romulan raiding party beams into and destroys the Starfleet base on the planet, it is clear that it is the samples they are after... Which Sandra was carrying with her. She, Enbek and the Ferengi named Zaag are beamed up by the Aquinas, an old Excelsior class under the command of Captain Ayer, Sandra's uncle. He intends to take her to a Starbase, since she and the samples clearly are no longer safe on Alpha Centauri.
But the ship never makes it to the Starbase. A Starfleet Prometheus class vessel intercepts them and opens fire, crippling the Aquinas. Sandra and the samples are beamed off the Aquinas and onto the attacker, after which the Prometheus class warps away.
For the remaining Aquinas crew, there is nothing to do but wait, when suddenly help arrives in the unexpected form of a Romulan Warbird. The Romulan commander forces Ayer into co-operating, after which Ayer shows the Romulans how to track the Prometheus class ship.
The Warbird intercepts the Starfleet vessel, and cripples her. The Romulan commander takes a team to beam down to find the samples and -- contrary to the agreement he and Ayer had -- orders Ayer and his crew locked up in the Brig. They escape with the help of Enbek, and beam to the Prometheus class, where they hope to find Sandra and the samples before the Romulans do.
And now the continuation...
Captain Donovan slammed his fist on the conference table. His eyes were flaming and he looked like he could breathe fire and turn the conference room into ashes. "I want those Romulans off my ship!" he shouted. "One way or another, I want them gone!"
"My teams are well-trained, Captain," said the chief of security. He was a muscular human and was wearing the same type of black uniform as his Captain did -- as did the rest of the crew. The three pips on his collar indicated he was a Lieutenant Commander. He responded calmly -- almost stoically -- to the demand of his Captain. "We will have the Romulans off of the Iapetus, sir. We'll throw them out of the airlocks one by one if we have to."
Donovan wasn't all that convinced. He knew his STC probably had the best trained team in Starfleet, but when dealing with Romulans, one could never be too sure. "Where are the Romulans now, Vince?"
"They beamed down in the shuttle bay, Captain," the STC replied. "They have broken through our initial defences, but my teams have them pinned down further down the corridor. Deck 8, section J-30, to be precise."
"See that they stay there, commander."
"That goes without saying, Captain."
Donovan turned to his science officer. "Anything?" he simply asked.
The Trill CSO folded her hands and brought them to her chin to rest her head on. "In all honesty, Captain, we really haven't got that far. We need more time to study the crystals."
"Our engines are gone, we lack the capability to defend ourselves properly, and Romulans are invading the ship. I wouldn't say we have any more time, would you, Lieutenant?" said Captain Donovan, his sarcasm apparent. He slapped his hand flat on the table, but his voice, contrary to his posture, was not aggressive at all. In fact, his voice sounded calm and controlled -- an eerie sound to listen to. "Tell us what you do know, Lieutenant."
The Trill Lieutenant took a deep breath and then informed her Captain what she and her team had discovered. "The crystals emit a strange form of high-intensity radiation, sir," she began. "Just as we expected. "We have confirmed that the radiation can be harnessed and used as a power source. We expect that the power output of a single crystal will be at least twice as much as a conventional warp core." A smile crept up her face. "And here's the best part, sir. We believe it is fairly easy to harness the energy from the radiation. Together with the engineering staff, we have devised an energy conversion matrix to collect the energy radiating of these crystals."
Donovan looked at the box of samples on the table. Per his instructions, the crystals always had to be near a senior officer -- preferably near the Captain. In the Romulan attack, the samples would be safest on the Bridge, he had figured. He looked from the samples to the Halian Chief of Engineering, and the expression on his face made clear to the CEO that she should begin her report.
"The contraption is nearly finished, sir," she said. "It's relatively easy to build. The tricky part will be to hook it up to the ship's systems. I'm not sure how the stronger power flow will affect the engines -- we don't want an overload, so I'll probably have to reconfigure every EPS conduit, every power intake valve..." She shook her head while blowing air through her lips. "Going to be quite some work, sir. Two months at a Starbase, at least."
"Forget about the engines," Donovan sighed. "We're crippled." he seemed lost in thought for a minute. "Can you tie the conversion matrix directly into a single system?" he then asked while a sly smile formed on his face. "Like... weapons?"
The Halian CEO thought about it. "Yes..." she said softly. "Yes, I think I can. We'd be risking a major overload of all weapons systems and could even blow out every power coupling on the ship if we fire our weapons then, but we'd be giving them one hell of a blow."
Donovan grinned. "Exactly. Go down to Engineering and finish your work on the conversion matrix. When you've finished, find a phaser array that works and hook up the matrix to it." He opened the container which held the samples and tossed her a crystal. She caught it. "Make this work, Lieutenant."
"What about the rest of the samples, sir?"
"They're staying here on deck 1, where they will be safe," answered Donovan. "Now, dismissed."
The Halian stood up, but Donovan stopped her from walking out of the conference room. "Bring a security team with you. I don't want the Romulans getting their hands on the samples or the conversion matrix. Understood?"
The CEO simply nodded and walked out of the room. Donovan stood up as well, as did the other officers. "In the meantime," he said. "I'm going down to sickbay to have a chat with your guest." He smiled. "Vince, you're with me."
* * *
The fact that Ayer, Watters and Zjavick were wearing Starfleet uniforms didn't seem to work to their advantage. Blending in with the crew seemed impossible, since every crewman Ayer had seen on this ship was wearing a totally black uniform, instead of the customary regulation grey and black outfit. The only colour on those strange black uniforms came from the collar; its colour indicated to which department an officer belonged. Ayer had heard Watters complain about the lack of colour on his own uniform, but at least the grey and black, as opposed to totally black, offered some variation.
As a result of their wearing different uniforms, Ayer and his team had quickly been identified as not belonging on the ship. Granted, the fact that the crew of this ship wasn't expecting Starfleet officers to beam aboard, facilitated their walk through the ship, but the enemy crew seemed to be on alert. Not long after leaving the cargo bay, they had encountered heavy resistance already. Of course, besides the difference in uniforms, Zaag and Enbek were not exactly typical Starfleet officers, and neither did they behave as such.
The resistance they had encountered was overall quickly disposed off; the crew expected to see Romulans, not humans, a Cardassian and a Ferengi. The enemy vessel's crew's initial hesitation in firing made it easier to get the upper hand in a fight. But gradually, as the crew of this ship had contacted each other and informed one another to the presence of hostile Starfleet officers on board, resistance got stronger. Still, there was some hesitation, mostly among the junior security crewmen. They weren't used to fire at Starfleet officers.
However, the security team they had run into now, clearly consisted of more hardened security officers. They had been ordered to shoot anything that moved, so they did, be the targets Starfleet officers or not. After finding out that turbolifts were rigged to only open to officers with the right access code, Ayer and his team had taken the long way to wherever they were going (Ayer himself didn't even know where Sandra was -- they needed a place to go where they could access the computer and locate Sandra first). It turned out that some of the jefferies tubes had been closed down as well, but they were relatively easily opened: A Romulan disruptor served many purposes.
Now, they were pinned down on deck four, after having fled inside some unused quarters. Ayer turned to his companions. "Anyone got a plan?"
"The samples are probably on the Bridge, where they could be guarded easily," said Enbek. "It was a mistake going down two decks."
"Then why did you come along?" hissed Ayer. "If I read the internal sensor readouts correctly, there is a human female in sickbay. That must be Sandra."
Zjavick had his doubts. "Captain, how can you be sure? There must be dozens of human women on this ship. Maybe it's someone who was hurt when the Romulans attacked." He shrugged. "Respectfully, sir, the logical place to start looking for Ensign Burke would be the brig."
Ayer shot him a glare. "I've accessed internal sensors. The brig is empty."
There was a moment of silence. The only sound that was heard came from the phaser beams that rapidly shot in and out of the quarters through the doors that had been forced open. It seemed as if there was an entire army out there, with the sole purpose of shooting down every member of Ayer's team. Things didn't look too pleasant... again.
"USS Iapetus," Watters said suddenly. Ayer turned to see Watters staring at a monitor, which displayed ship diagrams. "We're on the USS Iapetus," said Watters, now addressing the rest of the team.
"Never heard of it." Ayer sounded surprised. He had come across many starship names in his career, most of which he could even name the Captain of. But not this ship. The name Iapetus sounded completely unfamiliar.
"That's because it doesn't exist," Watters explained. "Not officially, anyway."
"What do you mean?" asked Zjavick. "If it looks like a Starfleet ship, smells like a Starfleet ship..."
"...And attacks like a Starfleet ship, yes I know," Watters said, interrupting the CEO of the Aquinas. "It is a Starfleet ship all right. Just... a very unofficial one."
Ayer looked at his STC questioningly. "And what is that supposed to mean?"
"I would say that its unofficial status allows this ship to go on certain equally unofficial missions," surmised Watters. "Maybe even missions that go against Federation principles." He paused and typed in a few commands at the console. "This ship's mission is classified," he informed the rest. "As is practically everything else, actually. Apparently, this whole ship has been classified."
"A classified, unofficial ship for classified and unofficial missions?" Zjavick asked in disbelief.
"Unofficial missions... like attacking the Aquinas and stealing the crystal samples!" Ayer realised. "I can't believe that these bastards were on a Starfleet mission. No Starfleet vessel ever attacks another!"
"This one has," argued Enbek, as he fired his disruptor at the crowd of Starfleet security crewmen in the corridor. "It would seem that this vessel belongs to an organisation not unlike the Cardassian Obsidian Order, or the Romulan Tal Shiar."
Ayer, Watters, Zjavick and Zaag stared at him, not quite believing what Enbek had said. But still, Enbek's hypothesis did make sense. "You're saying that this is a vessel of Starfleet Intelligence?" asked Zjavick.
"No. I am saying that this is a vessel that belongs to a more..." Enbek paused and fired his weapon. "...unofficial organisation." At seeing the surprised look on the faces of his team mates, he frowned. "Surely this doesn't surprise you. The Romulans have such an agency, so do the Cardassians, and a number of other species. Or did you think the Federation was too 'civilised' to have such an organisation? Hmm?" he added with a sarcastic grin.
Before anyone could reply to this, an object was thrown into the room. It landed about two metres away from the door opening, and rolled toward the group of five. Watters immediately recognised the object.
"Stun grenade!" he exclaimed.
As fast as they could, all five members of the group jumped away from the grenade, seeking to find refuge behind a table, a chair, a bed, anything to escape the unavoidable stun field the grenade would emit. They knew they would have less than a few seconds to try to get way. But it was not enough. A blinding flash enveloped them moments later.
* * *
Sandra woke up with a major headache. Whatever drugs they had put in her, it sure made her head feel as if it was going to explode. Pondering the usefulness of such an after-effect for any interrogations, she tried to sit up straight. ~Big mistake,~ she told herself, and went to lay down again. She couldn't sit fully straight even if she wanted to: her hands and feet were restrained by locking mechanisms that held her limbs firmly in place.
The truth serum that was injected in her had finally worked. She had given the Captain of this vessel the co-ordinates of the asteroid field near Alpha Centauri where the crystals had been found. She didn't want to, of course, but she'd had no control over her own words. She had told them everything they wanted to know, but had felt like she was hearing someone else speak in her voice. It had been a weird feeling, to say the least. She was just glad that the truth serum seemed to have worn off now.
Her mind took her back to the moment in this strange Captain's ready room, or quarters, or interrogation room, or whatever it was. Dazed from the drugs she was administered, she had been laying on the ground all the time, trying to move but not being able to. When she had finally regained an ounce of strength, that strength was sapped away from her when her abductor had informed her that the Aquinas had been destroyed. Lost with all hands. There were no survivors.
The shock had still not disappeared. Disbelief had turned into anger, frustration, hate, sadness. She knew that someone had to survive to tell the tale. She was that someone; she had to tell Starfleet what happened. She had to break the news to the Federation council that a Federation starship had attacked one of their own.
She didn't even care about what happened to the samples anymore. The only thing that truly mattered was to survive and escape, preferably with as much information as was needed to get this crew, which, in her opinion, didn't even deserve to serve the Federation, to trial. And there was no doubt in her mind that, when she had nailed these phoney Starfleet officers, they would spend the rest of their lives in a Federation prison. The charges were clear, and so was the proof against them: attacking and destroying another Federation starship, abducting a Starfleet officer... Those charges were easily proven. She would come up with a few more charges when she finally was free.
That was, if she was ever set free. As long as there was still some information that they had to drag out of her, she would remain on this vessel in relative safety; after all, they needed her. But it was entirely possible that when this mysterious Captain had no use for her, he would throw her out of the nearest airlock personally. He didn't seem to enjoy her company, to say the least. Sandra was afraid that she had reached that point where she was no longer useful, and feared for her life every time the Captain or any of the senior crew came to see her.
This was one of those moments. Taking large steps, the Captain was walking into Main Sickbay to check up on Sandra. She felt chills run down her spine when she saw him again. This time, there was an armed escort with him. The Chief of Security looked menacing, and was a formidable presence. It was hard not to notice him, actually.
"Well well, she's awake," said Captain Donovan with a sinister smile. "Ready for some more questions, doll?"
She decided to be uncooperative. Again. "What do you want from me?" she cried out to him. "You've already taken all the information you need! Just give me a shuttle and I'll be on my way." When she saw she wasn't having much success at convincing the Captain -- which was something she had been expecting already -- she changed strategies. "Please," she said, looking at her captor with a pleading look. "Please, let me go. I won't trouble you again."
"Oh, but you will, doll." He smiled and ran the back of his hand along her cheek. Sandra winced, and wanted to lash out with her right arm and push Donovan away, but the restraints around her wrists made that impossible. "You'll go straight to the Federation council and blow the whistle on us." Sandra wanted to respond to this, to say that she wouldn't do that at all, but Donovan had already placed a finger on his mouth and was looking at her as if daring her to try to bite it off. Sandra was tempted to do just that -- to cause this Captain at least some pain -- but she noticed the security guards around the Captain, all of them armed to the teeth. She knew that they would respond to any threat to their Captain, and wouldn't hesitate to use deadly force. She was valuable, she knew, but not *that* valuable. So Sandra simply said and did nothing.
"Besides," began Donovan. "We need you to help us mine more crystals. And to analyse the samples of course." He sighed. "Not that we can go anywhere with this damned Romulan attack we have on our hands." He saw the look on her face -- it was one of relief combined with worry -- and added, "Don't worry, Ensign Burke. Those Romulans are just a minor nuisance. We have the situation perfectly under control."
And then happened something that neither Donovan nor Sandra nor any of the security personnel in the room had expected: the sickbay doors slid open and an angry Ferengi lurched forward. Before anyone could react, Zaag, standing behind the Captain, had the neck of Captain Donovan in one hand and a Romulan disruptor in the other, pointed at Donovan's temple.
"Zaag!" shouted Sandra in surprise. The Ferengi sure was a sight for sore eyes to her. Especially since she thought he was dead; killed when this ship blew up the Aquinas. To say that she was happy to see her friend again, would be an understatement. She was on the verge of crying and laughing at the same time.
Not so for Captain Donovan and his crew, however. "Kill him!" shouted the Captain, but Zaag quickly backed away, so that his back faced a wall and his hostage faced the phasers of the security officers.
"I wouldn't fire if I were you. You'll only vaporise your Captain," Zaag informed them, breathing heavily. He had gone through a lot these past few minutes. But at least he had escaped the blast of the stun grenade -- he wished the others had been so lucky... He felt quite alone right now. "And if you stun him, I'll vaporise him."
"You're sure about that?" the STC, Vince Hall, said in a tone of mockery. It was almost as if he considered the situation amusing. "If you kill your hostage, we will kill you."
"But I will have killed your Captain already," countered Zaag.
"Then I guess we have an old-fashioned stand-off, wouldn't you say?" said Hall, still smiling.
"I guess so too," said Zaag with as much confidence as he could muster. "Now," and he nodded his head toward Sandra. "Release her."
Hall grinned and swung the phaser in Sandra's direction. "I have a better idea," he said with a threatening voice that gave Sandra the willies. "Release the Captain..." If possible, his grin grew broader. He was enjoying this. "...Or I will kill her."
