USS OLYMPIA - Rings of Gold?

[jabez]

"Who put that smegging rock in the way?" Jabez said, rubbing his head as he picked himself up from the shuttle floor. Q2 had risen and was deactivating the noisy claxons.

"I bet it was that Greenwood guy from the Maj, he's always creating unnecessary asteroids." The main warning claxon now off, a whole variety of bleeping patterns was audible from all over the shuttle. Both officers ignored minor injuries to get to their consoles, then work around the panels in opposite directions to investigate the array of interesting noises being generated, and combining to make a tune not unlike the Hokey Cokey...

The warnings they were alerted to ranged from the useful, such as 'propulsion systems are undamaged' to the obvious, including 'the shuttle has been involved in a collision' and the completely pointless and inane, mostly involving items like 'subspace broadcasts suggest value of deuterium in this sector is 25% less than that of sector 001'.

Q2 and Jabez met again at the other end of the shuttle, which now rested silently on it's rocky landing spot, having confirmed that major systems were still functioning. Fortunately the huge amounts of measures they had instated to make the wormhole journey a smooth one had cushioned the crash somewhat.

After breaking out the first aid kits and tending to any bleeding areas, the two officers headed to the pilot seats and began preparing to take off again. They stopped however when Q2 checked over some sensor telemetry, to discover something rather worrying.

"You'd better take a look at this, Jabez."

"What's wrong?"

"I'm showing no signs of any wormhole in the area."


OOC: Sorry for my recent absence, it's uhh...well there was umm...I blame Q2!

[sulla]

Max Sulla was surrounded in shimmering blue transporter energy as he was beamed off the Argaut, bound for his new assignment: The USS Olympia. The emotions of leaving behind his old crew were still raw, but he buried them deep down.

The image of the Olympia's transporter room became clearer and Max could make out two crewmen working frantically at a console.
"We're losing him!" one of them shouted.
The image went fuzzy and all he could see was blue anti-matter.
"Boost power to the confinement beam," the transporter chief ordered. Two seconds later Max was there in one piece.
"Bishop to Soto. We've got him."

A PADD was thrust into Max's hand.
"Directions for sickbay, Lieutenant Commander. Now we're throwing you in at the deep end, Sir. It's not pretty up there. Commodore Soto wants you to do your best with the wounded."
Sulla threw him a glance and headed for his new sickbay. The sickbay doors hissed open and jammed half-way. Max squeezed through and observed the carnage.

All of the biobeds were occupied. There were patients lying on the floor missing limbs and coughing blood. Some were in the final stages of delirium before death, calling for their mothers.
'You've seen worse. Get on with your job,' Sulla thought to himself. The truth was he'd only seen worse in Starfleet training on the holodeck. A hand grabbed him on the shoulder and pulled firmly. A gruff voice called,

"Hey you! Are you medical or science?" the older man asked.
"Medical. I'm the new Chief Medical Officer."
"Starfleet works fast. Our old one's only been dead five minutes," it wasn't an attempt at humour, just a fact.
"The bridge has been hit pretty hard, Sir. Would you accompany me there?"
"Of course," Sulla answered and they headed for a turbolift.

The doors to the bridge glided open and revealed a battle-scarred scene. Debris littered the floor and the consoles were sparking. Sulla looked from Navigation to Tactical and paused at Tactical.
"Spiro Vassiliou?" he asked. A head turned.
"Max! Good to see you." Spiro began. Commodore Soto looked towards him.
"Welcome aboard, Commander. Our Navigation Officer and the First Officer have been severely injured." he informed him. Sulla hurried to the helmsman lying by his exploded console. He withdrew a medical tricorder and it screeched as soon as he began scanning.

"He's taken a hard hit to the chest cavity. His aorta and pulmonary artery have been severed. Both atria are ruptured. Massive haemorrhaging. It's not good." Sulla sighed. The medic was pressing on the chest cavity trying to restart the heart. It made a squelching sound.
"It's no good. There's too much damage." Max said.
"What about an artificial heart?"
"The arteries and veins have been destroyed. We wouldn't get a circulation."
"But-"
"No buts. We've done all we can. Note the time of death stardate 89110.9 17:34 hours." Sulla grimaced, standing and then walking to the injured First Officer. He examined the tricorder readings.
"He's unconscious, there's fracturing to the spinal column. I want to get him to sickbay and have the spinal column set in place to prevent further degeneration." Only Sulla was qualified enough to know that 'further degeneration' meant paralysis.

The First Officer was transported directly to sickbay leaving Sulla a few moments of peace on the bridge. He was breathing heavily and went up to Spiro.
"I had no idea your casualties were this heavy. When this is over, I'll meet you for a drink in the local Ten-Forward," he smiled and headed for sickbay.

[Soto]

Soto knew they had to get out of the area as soon as possible. Anytime soon, the Romulans and Cardassians would be done fighting, and by the looks of the battle the Cardassians would be the winning side.
That meant the Argaut and the Olympia best not be around by then.

Soto turned to Salek for info.

"Captain, I analysed the data we collected before the Cardassian interruption, and it seems that the wormhole is somewhat unstable. The exit point is already de-stabelizing and it will only be a matter of time before this end is becoming erradic as well."

"When will the next window appear?"

"In three, two,...[2 second silence]...one; there it is", Salek replied.

"Warn the Argaut, and take us in."

As the two ships approached the wormhole, Soto finally saw the golden rings people were talking about. It was by far, the most beautiful wormhole he'd ever seen.

In the stream things got less peaceful..

"We're taking damage, shields at 55% .... 50%...trying to compensate....we've got radiation leaks at decks 4 through 8..."

As the wormhole spit them out, the sounds of the alarms made apparent the severity of the situation
"Status", Soto shouted.
After 10 seconds the word came back "we've sustained quite some damage. Shields are at 25%, radiation leaks are under control, repair teams have been dispatched. There have been minor injuries only. Long range sensors are offline, as is our warpdrive."

"Captain, the Argaut is hailing us"
"On screen"

On the viewscreen the bridge of the Argaut appeared, or what was left of it. The face of Louvraine, was badly damaged with burns and cuts.
"Olympia, we..'ve... taken... massive...damage. Life..sup..port..failing...eject..ed..warp..core...explosio.nemin.." And the screen faded away.

Soto immediately ordered the opps officer to begin evacuation of the Argaut.

=/\=Soto to doc Sulla; it appears more business is coming your way=/\=

Meanwhile he was walking to the science console. With everyone busy, Soto was going to figure out where they were and if he could locate the Olympia's shuttle.

[Deleted]

"Yeah, yeah, pull the other one, it has bells on it." Jabez joked.

"Um. Yeah, you wanna check?" He chucked the tricorder to Jabez, who after running the scan a few times exclaimed.

"Oh llamas."

The two officers moved back into the shuttle, and checked over the main, secondary and even tertiary systems. They ran a few simple repairs on the systems, and then checked the warp core.

"Ah. That...um. You wanna see how much food we got here, coz I'm no engineer, but I don't think this thing is going anywhere." The warp core was, to say the least, completely destroyed. It was located at the back of the shuttle, so that in a crash, it was protected and would remain mostly undamaged. Of course, that presumed that the crash was nose first, and that the pilot wasn't stupid enough to reverse into an asteroid. In this case on the other hand, there was very little to defend the warp core, and it had ruptured completely. The only saving grace for the Xenexian and El-Aurian was the fact that the emergency forcefield had stayed online, and had prevent a breach.

[spiro]

"Captain Repair teams are reporting slow progress on our repairs, Our shields are up to 60%".
Spiro Said.

"Very well COMMANDER!"
The Captain said in a broad voice.

"Commander Sir?"
Spiro said in a shocking type of way. Thinking the Captain had made a mistake.

"Yes, I herby promote you to Lieutenant Commander, you have all the rights and responsibilities of every Lieutenant Commander. You have done very well during this mission. Well done Mr Spiro."
As the Captain would always call him.

Spiro was astonished with the Captains remark
as the bleep of his console started.

"Sir because our long range sensors have been offline we haven’t been able to detect them but 1 of the Cardassian vessels has followed us the other must still be playing with the Romulans. This is the same one that attacked us, but they took even more damage than us coming through the wormhole they have 5 minutes of life support left and there hailing us."
Spiro said.

"Sorry Commander we will have to leave the celebration until we are back at the Starbase.
On Screen!"

"Federation Starship please help us wee will all die on here if you don’t! That wormhole nearly destroyed us please do somthing!"
The Cardassian Captain shouted.

"And what makes you think that we should help you, after you fired on us?"
Soto Said in an annoyed voice.

Please we take back everything we done to you HELP US we only have 3 minutes of life support left.
The Cardassian Captian said in a panicking voice.

"Grrrrrrrrr, Ahhhhhhhh Very well I suppose we have to Transporter room prepare to beam all the cardassians abored, beam them directly to the brig JUST IN CASE.
Mr Spiro I want you to boost security in that area"
Said Soto.

"Eye eye Sir, Sir the Cardassians report they have severe injuries from there fight with the Romulans."
Spiro said.

"Oh deer, I feel sorry for Mr Max Sulla he wont be very happy, I want the wounded taken to sickbay Mr Spiro please inform Mr Sulla and boost security in sickbay"
They Captian said after sighing.

"Yes Sir."

=^=Spiro to Dr Max Sulla=^=

=^=Sulla here, hey Spiro drinks later=^=

=^= Yes ok im afraid I have some more bad news for you=^=

=^=Well as long it not more patients I should be ok=^=
Spiro gave a fake laugh

=^=Its just that, just be ready Spiro out!=^=

he ended the conversation quickly everyone on the Bridge gave a laugh whilst the Captain said.
"I envy you sometimes Mr Spiro."

"So do I Sir so do I"
Spiro said in a sarcastic way.

[sulla]

Lt. Commander Sulla had already ordered the Mess Hall to be converted into a relief sick bay, following the admission of the Argaut's crew. The combined medical staffs of the Olympia and the Argaut were barely managing to cope with the large numbers of wounded.

"Be ready," Sulla said under his breath. He was unsure how to handle the Argaut's crew, let alone a large number of potentially hostile Cardassians.
"Is Cargo Bay 1 fairly empty?" Doctor Sulla called into the air.
"No, we have deuterium and other materials stored there," an engineer replied, "I think Cargo Bay 2 is almost empty," he added.
"Good. Is there anything we wouldn't want the Cardassians getting their grubby hands on? Weapons? Explosives?" Sulla asked.
"No, Sir, I don't believe so."
"Right then people, I want medical teams 1-4 down in the cargo bay. Ask the Argaut's medical staff if they can spare anyone to help. I'll also be there personally."
Sulla said and tapped his comm badge.

=^= Sulla to Vassiliou = ^=
= Go ahead =^=
= I'm transferring some of the wounded Cardassians to Cargo Bay 2. There's more room there. Can you arrange for extra security?"
= ^ = They will be there, Max =^=
=^= Thank you =^= the comm channel closed.

Six Cardassians were in sickbay and Sulla could sense they were anxious for him to leave.
"Who are they?" Max asked his assistant.
"Cardassian medics. They're here to treat a patient of theirs."
Sulla nodded, "Just keep an eye on them," he said and headed off for the cargo bay.

Ten seconds after he left, the Cardassian Chief Medical Officer said, "Now!" and his medics headed for the door.
"Hold it!" a security officer said and extended his phaser.
"Doctor Sulla wishes us to treat our injured crewmen in the brig. We understand Cardassian anatomy better than your doctors." the Cardassian CMO said. The security officer paused for thought but decided to let them go.
"All right then. But I'll escort you."
"As you wish," the Cardassian grinned.


The doors to the cargo bay rattled open and Sulla paced in. The wall was lined with security personnel, all armed with compression rifles. In the middle, lying on the floor, were the injured Cardassians. As soon as he walked in Sulla knew something wasn't right. He walked up to a female ensign at the opposite side of the room.
"Ah Doctor Sulla, we're glad you came. These Cardassians....according to the tricorders they're not injured. Maybe the tricorders are malfunctioning." she suggested, confused.
"No. They're not injured. They're pretending."
"You're sure, Sir?"
"I am Betazoid. I can sense it." Sulla informed her.
"What do we do?" she whispered, an edge of panic in her voice.
"Go...to the security officers....tell them-" Sulla stopped as he felt a weapon press into his back.

He didn't turn. He was told in the Academy never to turn in that situation: It only incited the enemy to fire.
"Did you sense that coming, Betazoid?" a Cardassian rasped. He continued:
"Now if you want to live this is what you do. Go over to the security officers and tell them they're taking up too much room and you need it for more patients. Tell them to leave. Understand?"
"I understand," Sulla said calmly and walked off.

He approached the guards who looked at him expectantly.
"Doctor, how can we help?" one asked.
"Ready your phasers. They're armed!" Sulla exclaimed.
The officers thought it was a joke but the disruptor blast that hit the wall confirmed Sulla was deadly serious.
"SULLAAAAAA!" the angry Cardassian screamed and fired towards the doctor, missing. Sulla ducked behind a cargo barrel.

By now, all of the "injured" Cardassians had taken cover behind cargo and were shooting towards the exposed Starfleet security officers.
"Return fire!" the lead officer ordered. The room exploded into an exchange of disruptor and compression rifle fire. The female ensign was buried under Max's arm, stricken with fear. One by one the security officers were stunned and fell, and it was clear who the victor would be. Max cursed violently and the guns fell silent. Loud, heavy footsteps converged on their position. A large Cardassian rounded the container and held a disruptor to Sulla's face. He spoke angrily.
"I should kill you for what you did. I lost some good men in that fight. However, you two will come with me as hostages. Now, men, we will go to their Main Engineering!" he exclaimed and the Cardassians roared in excitement.

Meanwhile, at the brig....

The Cardassian medical team stopped at the entrance.
"Doctor Sulla asked us to treat the remaining wounded. I am the Cardassian Chief Medical Officer."
"Very well. Lower the forcefields." the forcefields were lowered for 2 seconds as the Cardassian medics stepped inside. Each one opened their med kits. Instead of hyposprays and instruments, lining the cases were several Cardassian disruptors. The healthy Cardassians each took one, including the ship's captain.
"You're pretty smart for a doctor," the Cardassian captain said quietly to the Cardassian CMO.
"I'm not a doctor. My real name is Markus Allora and I'm with the Obsidian Order. Another agent and I were sent here in case we needed to plan an escape. You people in the regular Military always fail at these things. He is in the cargo bay as we speak. Now prepare yourself." Markus said and approached the forcefield.
"We have treated them and are ready to come out," he said and the forcefield shimmered away. The Cardassians charged out of the brig cells, disruptors drawn, and fired into the security officers, taking them by surprise.

=^= Lt. Marquez to Vassiliou! =^=
=^= Vassiliou here =^=
=^= Sir, the Cardassians have broken out of the brig! Request re-inforce- =^= Marquez fell silent. It was Markus Allora who had silenced him with a disruptor blast to the chest.

"The other agent and his men have gone to Engineering to take control. Now we must go to their Bridge and take the ship. Come!" Markus Allora ordered, and the Cardassians ran for a turbolift.

[spiro]

=^=ALERT!, ALERT! All Security Personnel
Proceed To Emergency Positions Immediately=^=
Spiro said.

"Captain I have managed to put up force fields around the ship but the Cardassians are already to close to Engineering. The Bridge has been secured, and the internal Phasers on the turbolifts have been activated to kill any Cardassian who tries to enter it.
I think this is a good time to inform you of a little personal assignment I have been working on.
I have been training 20 security officers to act as the Olympia’s Special Forces, in case of a defence condition or an attack on somewhere. They have been highly trained and have nearly finished their training course for this I will need your Approval for them to intercept the Cardassians. They have the latest technology and armour. What do you say Sir?"
Spiro said.

"You should have told me about this Commander"
The Captain replied.

"I know Sir, I was going to as soon as there training was finished, I had authorisation Starfleet to start this."
Spiro said.

"Very well tell your men to intercept the Cardassians with any means necessary.
Soto said.

"Eye eye Sir"
The Chief Security/Tactical officer said.

=^= Security Group Alpha, intercept the Cardassians at all costs, I repeat intercept the Cardassians at ALL Costs. I will meet you in main Engineering. Vassiliou out.=^=

"Good Luck Commander, get our Chief Medical Officer back in one piece he still has work"
The Captain said with a smile.

"I will sir, I will"

Then Spiro walked into the turbolift, turned round waiting for the doors to close and gave a last smile to everyone on the Bridge.

"Main Engineering"
Spiro shouted to the turbolift as he took his phaser out from his belt.

The doors opened with a hiss and Spiro could see no one. He started to walk towards the main doors of Engineering when a Cardassian Marine shot at him.
Spiro duct and hid round the corner waiting for his chance to shoot at him when he heard the Cardassian scream. He turned round and all he saw his Special Security Forces.

"Commander are you alright?"
The leader of the Force replied.

"Yes, im fine, glad to see you lot lets go in"
Spiro said as the Leader gave him a Rifle and body armour.

=^=Vassiliou to Bridge I need you to open the doors to Engineering we are in position.=^=
He said in a quite voice.

=^=I am attempting to override the Cardassians new command code stand by=^=
Salek said.

"Ok remember our main priority is to get Dr Sulla out of there alive. 6 of you will try to get him while the rest of you will back them up. Good Luck everyone."
Spiro said as the doors to Engineering started to open.

[Felix Savali]

Salek just started to owerwrite the cardasian security codes to open the doors to main engineering , it would not be to difficult as he did in his SFI career deal with cardasians , and logic dictated that they always use the same algorithms to create codes.

=/\=Salek to cmdr. Vasilou, prepare to enter=/\=

=/\=Understood mr. Salek =/\=

=/\=Dors open ..... now.=/\=

ANd the doors of the engineering hvae flung open and Spiro and his security team stormed in on the surprised cardasians.

Meanwhile Salek was bypassing cardasian controlls to lock out all controlls in engineering , hen sudddenly all the consoles and light started to flicker.

Soto:"Mr. Salek report"

Salek:"Sir , the cardasians managed to gain access to our power grid and are attempting to lock out the bridge by cuttting power."

Soto:"Can you owerwrite them?"

Salek:"Trying now sir."

ANd he started to use all kinds of alghoritms and security codes to owerwrite the cardasians , but it seemed they had more complex codes and encryptions used this time , but as always logic prevailed , and he managed to find the logic patternswhich allowed him access to the power distribution systems.

Shortly after the flashing stopped and the power stabilised.

Salek:"Sir i have managed to shield our power distribution systems for now , but it would be logical for you to lock out all controlls from main engineering and transfer them up here."

Soto:"Excellent work mr. Salek."

Soto:"Computer lock out all controlls in main engineering and transfer them to main bridge."

Computer:"Unable to comply manual override has been acitvated ."

Soto:"Seems that these cardasians know what they are dooing."

Just as he said that a jeffries tube doors have opened.

[sulla]

The Jeffries tube door clicked open, and the security team fanned out, aiming their rifles at the opening. Their lights clicked on illuminating the entrance to the Jeffries tube.

Sulla squinted at the lights like a fox popping its head out of the ground during daylight.
"Hold your fire!" he said and crawled out. He drew himself up to full height.
"Your arrival provided a useful diversion. I was able to get away but they still have one of my ensigns hostage," Max sighed. He pointed in the direction the Cardassians ran to and the security team headed off.
"Wait for me!" he called and pursued them.

[jabez]

It wasn't long before, down on the asteroid, Jabez and Q2 had got the thrusters working again, and sensors had informed them of a vessel conforming to the Olympia's dimensions. There also appeared to be another vessel, of larger size. They surmised it was most likely locals, checking out the recent arrivals. Of course the vessel could be hostile, but by it's erratic movement patterns, didn't appear to be in any state to be of threat.

It only really remained for them to eject the remains of the warp core, for safety purposes, before launching and heading back to the Olympia. Upon ejecting, however, they realised that the shuttle design caused it's core to eject through the floor, which was fine for almost all ejections, as they were spaceborn. In these circumstances of course, it only served to launch them at some speed from the asteroids surface, and triggered a slight panic to get the thrusters online before they spiralled completely out of control.

Working quickly in the adverse conditions, they got thrusters online in time to avoid a collision with another asteroid, and turned back for the Olympia. There was still no sign of the wormhole, and no apparent way home, but at least they weren't alone.

[Deleted]

As the ship shuddered after the ejection, Q2 glanced over the read outs, checking they were all within set parameters. With the sole exception of the warp read outs they were fine. The shuttle slid slowly along towards the Olympia, impulse engines moving them very slowly towards the thankfully stationary ship. As long as the prometheus class vessel didn't decide that warp would be nice, they were in luck. As communications were out, they couldn't contact the vessel to announce their pending arrival, and had to hope the sensors picked them up.

A couple of boring hous later, during which the pair had replicated a game of backgammon to play (though neither knew the rules), they set down in the shuttlebay, and started back towards the bridge. They started on their way to the bridge, turning a corner towards the turbolift, when they saw a pair of Cardassians.

"What the heck?" They quickly doubled back and grabbed a pair of phaser rifles from the nearest weapons locker, before advancing around the corner once more, a shot taking down each of the Cardassians.

[spiro]

As Spiro’s Security team charged into main engineering they managed not to fine Dr Sulla but his assistant. Thankfully he was ok other than in shock from all this.
Spiro managed to take over engineering quite easily because of his new team he had trained, and had minimal casualties.
Spiro had ordered all available Security teams from the Argaut to take posts on the Olympia.

=^=Commander Vassiliou=^=
Spiro heard over his comm.

=^=Go ahead=^=

=^=Sir we have word that the remaining Cardassians are surrendering, they no longer want to fight=^=

=^=Very well, put all of the remaining Cardassians in the Brig, however be cautious when you do so, you never know when they might change there mind. Make sure you have a lot of Security personnel with you=^=

=^=Eye, eye Sir=^=

Spiro then told his newly trained Security team to stand down.
The Olympia was finally secured.
As Spiro went to walk towards the turbo lift doors to get back to the bridge he saw Commander Jabez and Commander Q2 walking in the same direction.

“Hey you two your ok?”
Spiro said in shock.

“Yes just about, I can see that you have had a lot on your plate”
Q2 replied.

“Yes, long story, anyway glad you’re ok”
Spiro said.

“Yes, anyway looks like a lot of work needs to be done on here, better get straight to work”
Jabez said.
“Deck One Main Bridge”
Spiro shouted to the turbo lift once they had all gotten in.

=^=Commander Spiro to Dr Sulla=^=

=^=Go ahead Commander=^=

=^=We managed to secure the Olympia and save your assistant, I have sent a security officer to assist her back to sick bay, she is a bit shaken up=^=

=^=Very well now all we need to do is get out of wherever we are=^=

=^=We will get to work on that immediately Doctor, Vassiliou out=^=

Spiro said as the turbolift reached the Bridge.

[Soto]

Soto was working on the science station to figure out where they were, when Q2 came walking in.

"Glad to see you're with us again, Commander."

"Nice to be back here, although i recall the ship being in a better condition when i left", Q2 replied somewhat sarcastic.

"Yeah, it's been a rough ride around here. No doubt yours was as well...i expect a full report soon but first find out where we are. I've been pushing all the buttons i could find, but i still haven't got a clue. I can't make head nor tailes of all this nifty starfleet science equipment"

Q2 took over from the Commodore, by almost pushing him out of the way.
'Great, I have to reallign the entire station now', he thought to himself, holding his lips firmly together to not make a remark in the cap's presence.

As Soto left the station he could hear Q2 mumble something, however he chose to ignore it.

Soto walked towards his ready room. As the doors hissed, he turned: '"Mr. Spiro, can I have a word with you". Not waiting for the reply Soto entered his room.

Spiro immediately knew he had some explaining to do. And even his Betazoid heritage couldn't mask his reluctance to do so.

When he entered the room, Soto was already seated behind the desk.
"Commodore.."

"Yes, Mr. Spiro. We have to talk about a few things. First off, I wasn't to happy with the fact you are implementing elite security teams without my knowledge, even if they are sanctioned by Starfleet."

"The trainings already commenced when you assumed command. I just never came round to inform you about them. By the way I thought you already read about them in the memos.", he defended himself.

"Very well, Mr. Spiro. I still have some unread business to attend to. However, if there's anything else I would like to be informed of them now."

The Betazoid nodded 'no'.

"Second, with all those Cardassians aboard, I want all senior officers to carry fasers. Please see to it that everyone does."

"Aye, aye sir", Spiro replied to the Captain as he walked out the door.

'Mmm...at least my ready room made it through the recent events unharmed', Soto thought to himself while adjusting the small prometheus and intrepid replicas on his desk.

[sulla]

Maximilian Sulla breathed a heavy sigh of relief knowing that the Cardassians had been contained. The young woman he'd been taken hostage with entered sick bay. Sulla had his back to the doors, but he sensed it was her.

"Good to see you again, Ensign. You've suffered mild shock trauma but no physical damage. Those Cardassians....they kept their hands off you?" Sulla asked delicately in a whisper.
"Yes, Sir." she replied quietly.
"Good," Max said and prepped the hypospray.
"All you'll need is this and a follow-up appointment with the ship's counselor."

Sulla entered his office where it was quieter. The casualties from all three crews had been treated and so he sat quietly with his eyes closed, dropping off to sleep.

A few minutes went by and he snapped awake again, sensing danger close by. The Jeffries tube hatch in sickbay popped open and a Cardassian with a large frame clambered out, and drew himself up to full height. He readied the compression rifle strapped across his back and set it to kill. The Cardassian was the surviving Obsidian Order agent, Markus Allora. No-one saw his approach from around the corner.

"All right, nobody move!" he commanded and stepped into view. The female Ensign screamed and went hysterical before Allora shot her.
"Silence!" he boomed. Indeed, there was now silence.

Allora positioned himself with his back to the office doorway.
"I want one of you to order security to release my men or I will kill all of you." he ordered and aimed the rifle at the Argaut's Chief Medical Officer.

Hiding out of sight, Sulla had prepared a sedative strong enough to take down two Nausicans just to be safe.

Emerging from his office, he walked silently and took slow paces. Bringing the hypospray up in his right hand, he moved in on the Cardassian and pressed it to his neck in one swift movement. The Cardassian let out a gasp and his arms went limp. The compression rifle fell to the floor shortly before the Cardassian did with a loud thud.

"Nobody but me gives orders in this sick bay," Sulla said with a triumphant grin. The medical staff began working on the ensign who had fortunately been shot in the leg, rather than any vital areas.

Acting on suspicions, Sulla felt inside the fallen Cardassian's sleeve, under his armour. He withdrew a small capsule from a compartment and scanned it.
"A compound of cyanide and nogage hemlock. I'd say he's Obsidian Order."

He tapped his comm badge.
=^= Sulla to Vassiliou. =^=
=^= Go ahead =^=
=^= I have a Cardassian in custody whom I believe to be with the Obsidian Order. I'm sure you have a few questions you'd like to ask. I'll wake him when you get here. =^=
=^= I'll be there soon. =^=

Sulla ordered the Cardassian to be secured on a biobed. He scanned for any more suicide pills or devices and concluded there were none.

[Deleted]

Q2 sat in front of the science station and groaned heavily. Soto may be a good captain, tactically, and even socially...but the damn Lethean couldn't work a science station if his life depended on it. Somehow, he had managed to change virtually every single setting that it was possible to change. He had even changed the calculator from degrees into radians, something Q2 changed straight away. They made these things idiot-proof, but obviously that wasn't enough...

Slowly he advanced through the settings, altering almost everything, and the sensors and readouts started to come back into some kind of focus, and make sense. He was nearly done, and decided to check what kind of a read he could get on their position, as that was all he had got completely working.

...distance from Earth: 15 million ly...

Almost falling off his chair with surprise, Q2 set to completing the recalibration once more. Not too much longer, and he was done. He once more got a read out with their position.

...distance from Earth: 15.2146 million ly...

=/\=Commodore...I think you may want to see this...we're umm...we're not anywhere around here anymore. Well. Actually, we're exactly here. Right here. The only problem is...here isn't where it used to be. =/\=

=/\=See me in my ready room. You can transfer the files to my computer yes? =/\=

=/\=Yes, I can.=/\=

He quickly transferred the information both to a PADD, and to the computer in Soto's ready room. He then locked the console out, as the covering science officer wasn't there, and he didn't want to risk a repeat of the previous events.

He quickly went to the ready room and pressed the call button outside. Almost instantly Soto replied.

"Come"

He stepped into the ready room.

"We're out on a limb here. The only ship to ever go further than this and return was USS Voyager, and that was a miracle. Our only hope is to find the wormhole again. From the other side it looked stable. It could just be that it's cloaked somehow. I have the computers looking over it now, I should have the results back in a few hours."

[Soto]

"Well, at least we know where we are now." Soto answered the science officer. He made it sound positive, although the prospect of a journey like voyagers didn't exactly fill his heart with joy.

"Concentrate all the resources you need at finding us a way back commander. Coördinate all your efforts with our new first officer".
"I'm already on it, sir" the El aurian replied. As he walked out the door, he immediately looked at his station. He was content to see, that apparently nobody had touched it while he was away.

A few minutes after Q2 had left the ready room, Soto followed. He immediately made his way to the lift. As he turned inside, he saw Jabez's puzzeling look.
"I'll be in sickbay commander. Because of recent events, I haven't had the opportunity to properly welcome our new CMO aboard. You have the bridge commander."

[jabez]

"I'll be back in two minutes," Jabez called to Q2, heading to a turbolift. He had not long found out about his promotion to acting first officer, having been in a shuttle on an asteroid for quite some time.

Just under two minutes later he returned to the bridge, now wearing red. He had quickly made it down to the uniform stores and found a more suitable colour. For now, however, his mind was still in engineering mode, as he coordinated with Q2 to attempt to find that wormhole. In the meantime he had his old department looking for alternative methods, a contingency plan in case the wormhole was really gone for good. Jabez was not optimistic about finding a way to traverse the entire galaxy particularly quickly, but thought it would give them something to do, might give the crew some added hope, and who knows, they might just find a way to revolutionise faster than light travel.

Working from the science panels, and tactical console, the two senior officers had run through everything they could think of, from the obvious tachyon sweep to the slightly more obscure holding a shuttle on a tractor beam and basically waving it around, to see if it disappeared. All to no avail, unfortunately, leading them to sink back in despair.

As they drew the shuttle back in, however, it suddenly swivelled heavily, as if having been knocked into a large object. Although scans showed nothing, they were able to move the shuttle about enough to determine an approximate size, and managed to blindly draw the object towards them, using the shuttle to pull it in.

After five minutes of slowly bringing the object closer and closer to the ship, it was finally nearing the main shuttlebay. With security and engineering teams headed there, the main doors were opened up and shuttle and object drawn inside. As it passed through the forcefield protecting the bay, something made the cloak disengage, revealing a small craft of unrecognised design.

By the time Jabez and Q2 had got to the shuttlebay, the personnel already there had found the craft to be completely deserted. They had also hypothesised that the cloaking device may be biologically based, and so the anti-contamination filters in the force field may have been the cause of deactivation.

Having assigned a couple of engineers to touch up the paintwork on the now heavily scratched Federation shuttle, Jabez ordered the new arrival opened up. Q2 then led security teams in to perform a quick sweep. Although he now wore blue, the commander could still serve as an excellent tactical officer when required.

Before long a large device lay in the middle of the large shuttlebay, what the officers believed to be the cloaking device. It was reasonable to presume that this was a vessel native to the area, and so if they were attempting to find a cloaked object, a native cloaking device could be very useful.

[Soto]

As Soto made his way to sickbay he saw repairteams working virtually everywhere.

Somehow they had managed to patch the ship up fairly well in just a few hours. While entering sickbay he could see that the doctor had done a terrific job; nothing indicated that the place had been the scene of battle nor mass triage.

The doc was standing by the bed of one of the few remaining patients. As he turned towards Soto, the commodore could clearly see the fatigued look on the Betazoids face.

"It's been hell around here", Sulla said. "I thought I'd seen enough battle carnage, but recent events sure topped it all"

"Well you performed admirabel doctor. I'm sure glad we have a doc who can handle such a frenzy. For now I want you to activate the EMH and take some rest. Judging from the look on your face you must have pulled at least three shifts in a row."

The Betazoid only now realised how long he had been working and instantly became even more tired. "You're right commodore; time for some food and rest".

Before Soto could take the conversation further he was interrupted by Spiro:
=/\=Captain. I'd think you better come down to the brig. The Cardassian we overtook has some important information he wants to share.=/\=

With that Soto left sickbay and headed to the holding cells.

[spiro]

Spiro waited for a few minutes before the Captain came down.

"Report Commander, what does he have to say?"
The Captain asked.

"Well, tell him, go on"
Spiro turned to the Cardassian and said.

"Very Well. Every five days on the first hour of the morning a new worm hole appears, it only happens for one month every 1000 years, tomorrow morning will be the last time it will open for another 1000 years, I have been counting the days."
The Cardassian said to Commodore Soto.

"I see, are you telling the truth or are there going to be 20 Cardassian Keldons waiting?"
The Captain said.

"Believe it or not, being stranded out here in the Delta quadrent with petty humans does not comfort me, even I prefer to be back in the Alpha quadrent. Now get back to the Co-Ordinates of were we came through from the wormhole before it is too late."

Soto took a moment to think. Then he tapped his comm. badge.
=^=Helm, set course for the place were we entered the wormhole warp 6, Engage.=^=

=^=Aye aye Sir=^=

"I hope your right, well done Mr Spiro, now lets get back to the Bridge, we only have four hours left till 01.00 hours, make sure our shields are working ok."
Soto said to Spiro as they both walked into the turbolift.

“Yes Sir”
Spiro said with a smile, hoping this would have made up for what he did with the new security teams.

[Soto]

With all the precautions in place the bridge crew held their breathes when the seconds ticked away. 5...4...3... a violent rupture exploded into space. Once again the ever so beautiful rings became visible.

Not in the opportunity to enjoy the beauty, Soto quickly gave the order to enter the wormhole. Ensign Drax didn't even wait for Soto to finish his order and set course for the wormhole. He didn't want to get stuck here for sure.

Although even better modifications had been made to the shields due to the data gathered going in, it was still quite a bumpy ride which caused several non-essential systems to stop operating.

A few seconds later the Olympia came shooting out at the other end. As expected there were several Cardassian ships waiting, although Soto had expected more. 'At least we ended up in the right place', Soto thought to himself.

Not wanting to wait on conversation the Olympia immediately jumped to warp. The Cardassians apparently were surprised by this move, as it took them a while to get themselves in persuit.

"Inform Starfleet of our situation, and have them send reinforcements", Soto ordered. "We are in no condition to engage in battle"

After a few minutes Mr. Spiro informed the bridge:
"The Cardassian taskforce has split up. There are only four ships following us. We are exceeding the other ships' warpcapabilities".

=/\=Engineering, transform some torpedoes into mines. Low damage only =/\=

"Let's try to get home people"

[jabez]

With no seat for a first officer on a Prometheus class bridge, and no replacement chief engineer, Jabez had taken to temporarily haunting main engineering once more. With news from Spiro he had given up with the cloaking device, now knowing it held no useful purpose for now.

Instead he had turned his attentions to getting the ship back to useable condition for the return home. Limited time meant the department could only fix up the shields to a certain extent, and make only some of the possible modifications. That left them with plenty to do having exited the wormhole and picked themselves up again, not least of all bringing the warp power up to full. Currently they could muster only warp 7, and the Keldons were catching, but hopefully the secondary and tertiary cores could be activated and power could be run through all three to get them back up to 9.

Leaving his old department to take care of that and the torpedoes, he headed to the shuttlebay to check on the cloaking device that still lay there. He still fully intended to give it a good look over, and might even be able to find a loophole in the Treaty of Allegron that allowed them to use it, being organic it may not be covered. Once sure that the device was still intact, he would head up to the bridge and monitor activities from a free station. After all, he realised, he should really be spending more time on the bridge now he was the first officer.

Once he had converted a science panel, Jabez quickly established and reported to the commodore that the newly converted mines were ready, the Keldon class cruisers would intercept in 16 minutes at present speed, and the Horatio, Excalibur and Agamemnon were on their way to assist.

[Soto]

The ship was buckling and cracking under the speed she was doing. Engineering had pushed the engine to the max and even further. They were now at warp 8.2 and given the state the Olympia was in, it was a small wonder she could travel this fast at all.

Spiro's eyes were steadily focused on his station: "Sir, the Cardassians are still gaining on us. They will come into weaponsrange within 2 minutes."

Soto: "How long before backup arives?"

"At our current speed the first vessel will intercept us in fifteen minutes. It'll be the Agamemnon.", the Chief Tactical and Security replied to the Commodore.

Soto thought about the options for a second. He knew that they needed a miracle to hold the Cardassians off for so long.

"Prepare the mines, Mr.Spiro."
"Aye, aye, sir. Mines prepared."

Several seconds passed and an unusual and grim silence was present on the bridge. It made Soto remind him of the videos he'd seen of old earth subs as they were being located by the enemy. Or of the old Hergossian warriors of Danuuosi Alpha 2 as they marched into a battle.

Spiro broke the silence: "Cardassian ships will intercept us in 30 seconds"
"25"
"20"

Soto interrupted the Lieutenant Commander's countdown:"Fire the mines"

The viewscreen turned to aft view and showed the mines being fired. A fraction later the view was complemented by several small explosions.

------------

Meanwhile in shuttlebay the commander was reading the output from the science console carefully. He couldn't tell for sure if the cloak was still operational or not. Afterall, he was an engineer and not a doctor....

[spiro]

"Sir, our sensors our picking up 3 Klingon ships, 1 Bird of prey, 1 Vor'cha and 1 Neg'va class."
Spiro said to the Captain.

The Captain gave a smile.

"The Klingons are firing on the Cardassian ships, The Neg'va is hailing us".
Spiro said.

"On Screen"
Soto replied.

"Olympia we are here to assist our fellow allies, keep going, don’t stop to help us we will be fine, we know you are damaged badly, as soon as you see your other ships, give them our co - ordinates so they can destroy these Ko'pa, if we don’t before."

"Thank you Captain, I will not forget this"
Soto said.

"No problem, if we die we die with honour! Qaplak! Stovokore awaits us, ATTACK, FIRE DISRUPTORS!

"That was nice of the Klingons"
Spiro said.

"Indeed, tell the fleet, to assist the Klingons, they have delayed them enough for us to get away. Maintain course for the nearest Starbase for repairs."

*30 minutes later*

“Sir we have arrived at the Starbase. We are being hailed.”
The Helmsmen said.

“On Screen”
Soto said.

Commodore, what happened out there?

"It will all be in our report Admiral, all I can say is the wormhole is there but it is unstable. Sir is there any word on the Klingons?"

I see never mind at least the Olympia is back. Oh, yes and about the Klingons, no ships were destroyed, 2 of the Cardassian ships fled, and the other 2 they managed to take over once our ships had arrived, they are brining the captured Cardassians in for questioning. Complements to your crew Commodore. You did it Olympia well done.

Everyone on the Bridge gave a smile in relief, as the ship started to initiate docking procedures.

[jabez]

Entering the bridge, Jabez thought he could not be happier to be docked up. Just a short time ago he had wondered, along with most of the crew, if they would ever see Federation space again. It was only fortunate that the Cardassians had known so much, and that they had attacked. If the prisoner currently being debriefed by starbase staff, before being returned to his own people, had not been with them and willing to talk about his knowledge then they most likely would not have got home.

Jabez watched the beleaguered crew head to the docking port for some well earned shore leave, as repair crews took their place in order to get the Olympia back to tip-top condition.

In the meantime, Jabez had a report to write, a new helmsman to greet, and a cloaking device to investigate. He hoped to enlist Max's help on the latter, as he figured organics was more Mr Sulla's field than his own. A member of the starbase's diplomatic team was already looking for loopholes in Alegron, anything that meant they might get away with using it. To be honest, Jabez thought he seemed glad to have something to do.

The Cardassians shouldn't kick up too much of a fuss. Apart from the fact that the Starfleet vessel hadn't done anything wrong, and all prisoners would be released before long, they couldn't afford to make trouble anyway. The Federation and Klingon fleets were already back to full strength, and the Romulans were getting there despite the set-backs of the Shinzon incident.

As the Cardassian Union would not be allowed to increase the size of their fleet for another four years yet, they were in no position to argue with anyone right now. That meant the post mission clean-up operation would be limited to the Olympia's repairs, now that the wormhole was known to be unstable and closed for 1000 years.

Jabez headed down to the docking port, intending to find the ship's senior staff and get to the main crew lounge. They had the important task of welcoming in the 2390's to be seen to.