010 : The Risks We Take

[Nia Lemond]

Following the tragedy that sent Starbase Forty-Seven almost sixteen-thousand light years from home
The survivors knew they must make a concerted effort to acquire technology they could from Races occupying the Omega Centauri Cluster
If they were ever to return home


ooo000ooo


During interactions with a race known as the Ireuken, in the final months before they traversed the αCen Wormhole
Technology was discovered that could aid the Federation, possibly enabling advancements in Starship development, among other opportunities
Alas, whilst agreeing to aid those on the Starbase return home, the Ireuken were reluctant to disclose their scientific or technical knowledge to what they considered to be outsiders

A decision was made, in secret, and at the highest levels, to acquire whatever technology from the Ireuken and a second race, the Alarodian, regardless of their clear lack of cooperation

Prior to transit to the Beta Quadrant, a small, handpicked team from the Science Division, had already begun to investigate that newly procured technology


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Ten days ago, Senior Command Officers had been informed that one possible development of the technology, could be to enhance their transportation systems to allow beaming through a cloaking device
With what was believed to be a cloaked ship within the one light-year exclusion zone, and with no means of testing their suppositions
It was decided a small team would 'test' the new technology as a prelude to discovering who was hiding in their midst, and why

The risks were high, and if discovered, the consequences for those captured, and possibly the Federation itself, could prove catastrophic



ooo000ooo

[David Tan]

One Week After Initial Meeting with Fleet Admiral Torek ...

Main Engineering
USS El Alamein ::

"You said six hours, Doctor..." Admiral Torek said patiently, "... There is a slight difference between your original 'six-hour' estimation, and where we are now,"

"This is hard, Admiral, we are not simply trying to move an inorganic sample from 'A' to 'B' we are in new territory and incorporating new technology can take more time than first thought," Doctor Naylor replied defiantly.

"I was under the impression this was going to be incorporated into the transporter systems, not the warp drive," Tan said, eyeing the device with well-founded suspicion.

"We did try that, Sir..." Doctor Vernos replied haltingly, "... But we found there were too many, issues,"

"As I keep trying to explain ..... We are not sending a cup of Earl Grey tea over there, you are asking me to condone sending a living, breathing, PERSON! ....." Naylor began, but David interrupted:

"Five living breathing persons actually,"

"FIVE!" Naylor spluttered, clearly on the edge of a complete mental breakdown.

"Technician, please get the Doctor a glass of water..." Torek said, urging the man to sit down before he fell down, "... Doctor Vernos, you said you were having trouble with the targeting scanners?"

"Yes, erm, originally, we thought we would know the target location prior to, erm, transport. But we cannot know that, obviously, so... We are hoping that once we began to scan for a transport location on the unknown ship, the transporter will supply a basic layout of erm, wherever we are trying to go. We, them, where 'they' are trying to go," Elena had a distinct feeling that neither man knew what they did or didn't have, as she watched the pair.

"Just out of curiosity here, but this 'will' actually transport us through the cloak in one piece, as opposed to one large puddle?" David asked, completely unconvinced the tech' would work.

"We still have the issue of being discovered the second we materialise," Iorte commented as he took a tool off the table and turned it over in his hands idly.

"Well, we believe that we can overcome that erm, problem..." Vernos stammered nervously, "... We believe that your life-signs will be masked by the transport through their cloak,"

"Ahh, so we'll be invisible?" Tan asked, his interest peaked.

"Of course not!" Naylor said as if admonishing a child in school.

"Then what ...... Doctor?" David asked dangerously.

"Your transport will be masked, as will your life-signs, at least for a while, an hour, possibly more, but you won't be 'invisible' by any means,"

"Erm, there is another slight issue we have encountered whilst incorporating the new technology....." Vernos said, receiving a glare from Naylor before continuing, "..... The distance we can, transport will be substantially diminished,"

"How close will we need to be to ensure safe transport, Doctor?" Torek asked the nervous Scientist.

"Within, two hundred meters ...... Ideally as close as possible," Vernos answered.

"Two hundred meters?..." Tan repeated in astonishment, "... And just how do you propose we achieve that, may I ask!?"

"That is alas, your problem, Sir ..... But, given your shields will be down through necessity, and if whatever is out there is 'indeed' a ship, their shields cannot function while they are cloaked ....." Naylor shrugged as if that were all the explanation required to get his point across.

"Presuming they haven't developed the capability in the last three years," Elena said nervously. But all the Scientist did was grin.

"I want this completed and functioning in twenty-four hours," Admiral Torek said, glaring at the two men before heading out of the lab, the Intelligence Officers close behind ..........

[Iorte Clancy]

The team's efforts to get aboard the cloaked vessel, if that's what it was, were continuing apace, despite the minor snag of six hours turning into over a week. They were still waiting, though Naylor and Vernos had informed them they now had just a few minor difficulties and hiccups to resolve; the tech had been, on the whole, successfully integrated into the warp core.

"It seems to me the main problem is going to be evading personnel on the ship, in the event they're hostile," de Luca said, "Naylor still isn't able to give us any reassurances that the tech will allow us to see concentrations of lifesigns."

"Not with sufficient clarity anyway," Iorte conceded. The group which also included Demik and the engineer Carre were sat around a table in the cramped, deserted El Alamein mess. Only seven crewmembers were back aboard, mainly engineers, the rest of the crew still on leave while the scientists finished the installation.

"For me the main issue is getting close enough to the cloaked anomaly without immediately blowing our cover," Tan added.

"Quite. A Defiant class just happens to pull up immediately next to the cloaked ship. There is no way our presence there could be considered by the boardees as coincidental," Clancy bashed the table with a fist.

Of course it was possible technically to draw that close, but it would be clear to the anomaly that it'd been detected. The plan as it was did seem ludicrous, Iorte thought, but apparently there was another idea to be had, Nico Carre spoke, "Either the El Alamein stays situated less than a 100 metres away, or we can use the Vicksburg... The cloaked maybe-ship is still located some 200 metres away from it, yes?"

Iorte admittedly hadn't surveyed a tactical report recently. Tan confirmed, "It is, yes. The 'maybe-ship' seems to have headed there intentionally."

"Well, that's much less suspicious," Carre nodded, "The Vicksburg could seemingly accidentally drift within the 100 metre range of the maybe-ship for a time. You will briefly transport over to the Vicksburg, the El Alamein having travelled to within say several hundred thousand kilometres of the two vessels, still within the exclusion zone so we don't have to violate that."

"We remain on the pads on the Vicksburg and use it as a waypoint to reaching the cloaked ship?" Elena asked. Carre nodded. "What about..." de Luca said, "Ha, well Dr Naylor may not be very happy to hear that. Yes, the Vicksburg is also a Defiant class vessel so they'll know the map but-"

Carre recognised where she was going, "No, the tech won't need to be reinstalled on the Vicksburg; it's not integrated into our transporter system, rather the warp core. The Vicksburg will be a sort of stepping stone, or a mirror. You'll materialise briefly on the Vicksburg once the technology to covertly cloak-transport has been used from the El Alamein, and you'll then bounce from the Vicksburg transporter pad onto the maybe-ship."

There was silence for a moment. "Very good, Nico," Iorte quickly drank some more coffee. "That'll allay any suspicion, provided the transport is masked."

"I recommend you use EVA suits," Demik said, Carre agreeing. "It's likely the ship, or station, or whatever it is, is crewed, but we don't know what environmental conditions will be prevalent. I mean, it could be a vacuum over there, and populated by androids."

Iorte drew himself up, "Well, there are only a few species we know that use cloaking technology. Still, though, it's true they could be friendly or hostile."

---

A few hours later they were alerted by Naylor that the installation of the machinery into the El Al's warp core was now complete. The huge device was connected to the dilithium crystal chamber, looking to Iorte like an old-fashioned jury-rigged atmosphere scrubber. Unfortunately the 50 metres of cabling in and around the device could not be cleared away, and so Nico Carre and the few engineers back aboard were continually tripping over and moving wires obscuring consoles. The machinery also gave out fantastic heat, Carre wondering if he should request his own EVA suit for work in and around the core.

"Once the tech is spun up, it should be able to detect clusters of lifesigns within the... ship, or whatever it is," Vernos said hesitantly, gesturing with both hands to a display of the cloaked anomaly - as first detected by the USS Raven - on engineering's wall. The three main Intel officers were present along with Admiral Torek and the newly returned Komin. "So we can avoid beaming you into the midst of a large group, but detecting and evading individual biosignatures is out of the question. I'm sorry, sirs," Vernos pursed his lips with regret.

"Once it's spun up?" Iorte said, dripping with sweat with the machinery at his back. The environmental controls had already been readjusted to recreate what would normally be mild Antarctic conditions.

"Yes, the device is currently in idle mode. Once it's activated, the temperature will increase, I'm afraid."

Torek turned to Komin who nodded and addressed the rest of those assembled. "Very well. We depart in two hours. We'll have the Intelligence team on the cloaked ship in three. I advise you begin preparations," she nodded at Tan, Clancy, de Luca. Iorte acknowledged, leaving to seek out an EVA suit.

[David Tan]

USS El Alamein
Spacedock ...
Fifteen Minutes Before Departure ::

"I know it's probably nothing ....." Elena commented as they waited for the Dockmaster to give permission to leave the Dome.

"But?" Iorte replied.

"In the briefing... Our friendly scientists said that we would need to be within two hundred meters of the cloaked vessel to be successful, right?"

"Yes, he did say that,"

"OK, well, can someone explain to me how transporting several hundred thousand kilometres, then the original one hundred, equates to us beaming one hundred meters?" she fell silent, sipping her coffee as the others around the table took in what she had said. Doctor Naylor 'had' insisted they be within one hundred meters to ensure the beam-in worked, presumably without transporting them into a bulkhead, or worst still, ten meters away from the cloaked ship.

"I'm assuming he's only utilizing the cloaked element of the transport from the Vicksburg," David said, a hint of insecurity growing within him suddenly.

"But I can't see how that would work..." de Luca replied, "... If he can transport us one hundred thousand kilometres to the Vicksburg, why not simply beam us directly to the cloaked ship, the risk is just as high given this is untested technology and we're the proverbial 'Guinea Pigs' so to speak. Personally, I'd like some sort of explanation," she said defiantly. David tapped the commlink and asked the two scientists to come up to the ready room .....

~~~~~

"We are on a time restrain here, what do you want?" Doctor Naylor demanded as he and Vernos entered.

"My colleague here has raised a question I believe we need an answer to Doctor," Tan said. Pushing a chair out for the man to sit on, he voiced de Luca's fears ..... To his credit, Vernos tried to explain, but Naylor shot to his feet, the chair toppling over as he did so, he informed them in no uncertain terms that the technology would perform as predicted and if they had any further issues they were free to keep them to themselves. Captain Komin had entered the ready room unnoticed during the tirade and was blocking doctor Naylor's way when he spun to leave.

"I don't think it is too much to ask that you explain, however, simplified, given you are asking five people to put their lives into your hands and a device that at this point we have no way of knowing works," Komin said quietly. Naylor glared at the woman as if engrossed in some playground staring contest, but he finally gave way and turned back to the group around the table:

"If you would prefer to step down from your assigned mission, please feel free to contact your Commanding Officer, and do so, otherwise, we are done here. I have other things to occupy my time," he stood looking at those around the table almost as if 'daring' one of them to speak out. It was his Deputy who broke the silence.

"To fully explain the technology would take weeks... I know you are all concerned, and justifiably so. You are being asked to attempt something no one has done before... Yes, it could fail, and believe me, if there was 'ANY' way to verify it was working we would do so. We can only ask that you take our word, we have done everything possible to ensure your success, we really have," It was clear they were going to get nothing more from the two scientists, and frankly, David doubted he would have understood if they had agreed to go through everything with a fine-toothed comb. He nodded to Komin, who allowed Naylor and Vernos to return to Engineering.

"I think we need to find another way," she said finally.

"There isn't another way..." Rosa Noon said, "... They can't blame us for our trepidation Captain," ......

Two Hours Later ::

The El Alamein had left the Starbase and was on an elliptic course that would eventually put them on the border of the exclusion zone ..... Fran Komin had modifier their course so that they would pass relatively close to the USS Vicksburg. Routine comm traffic would be passed between them on open channels, something they assumed the cloaked vessel would be monitoring. When the El Alamein was within twenty thousand kilometers, the 'window' of opportunity would open, and remain so for approximately twelve minutes before the Intelligence Vessel began to put distance between the sister ships. The Captain of the USS Vicksburg had bee briefed on the sequence of events which required five people transporting onto his pad before being beamed away almost instantaneously. If all went well, no one but the Captain would be aware of their visit, so to speak... David had spoken to Nia and Admiral Torek prior to departure and had received the go ahead.

The five stood on the transporter pad of the El Alamein, each dressed in an standard 'EVA' suits, standing so as to cover the full three hundred sixty degrees around them, each holding a phaser ready. They could hear Naylor and Vernos through the link in their headsets seemingly disagreeing over one point and another. They heard Komin saying they were in the transport window and the count was running ..... A minute passed, then a second, third, finally Tan spoke:

=^= What's the delay? =^=

=^= Two minutes David .. Stand by .. They are almost ready =^= he heard Komin say.

=^= About time =^= Elena said.

=^= Transport in three .. .. .. Two .. .. .. One .. .. .. =^=

Tan felt the tell-tale caress of the transporter beam, the room fading from view before seemingly reappearing, this time though the room was empty save for the Captain of the USS Vicksburg. He stood motionless as the five appeared on his transporter pad only to dematerialise almost instantaneously. Satisfied he had carried out his part in the confidential activity, he returned to his Bridge ..... David wasn't sure if he'd materialised or not. The caress was no longer present, but neither was any vestige of light. Wherever they had beamed to was in complete darkness!

Unknown Vessel ::

Waiting for his eye to accustomed themselves he dropped to one knee, phaser at the ready, knowing his team had dome likewise. Hardly daring to breathe for fear of giving away their presence, he gradually began to make out vague shapes, realising quickly that they were in a room normally unused, possibly a storeroom or cargo area. He turned to left, placing the visor of his helmet against Iorte's:

"Everyone here?"

"Yes,"

"Bloody hell!" David couldn't help saying as de Luca tapped him on the shoulder. She was holding a tricorder and turned it so he could see the readings, he nodded then turned her to the others as he tentatively released the seal on his helmet, tasting the slightly stale air as he did so. given no one had suddenly burst in, flooding the room with light and unhappy people holding weapons, he assumed Doctor Naylor's hypothesis that beaming through the cloak would in turn mask their life-signs, seemed correct, though for how long this would be so was impossible to say, so they needed to get to work, quickly!

He tapped each of them in turn, pointing to his helmet .....

"Let's find out what we can," he whispered ..........

[Iorte Clancy]

Iorte finished donning his EVA suit, slotting in the hand-piece and rising from the bench to face Iezelda. "Here, let me help you, Petty Officer," he lifted her helmet by the clasps and brought it down over her head. He caught her extended look, "What is it, are you nervous? Don't be. You may be an administrator by training, but you're fully qualified in field oper -"

"No. Iorte..."

He clasped her helmet into place and winked, "Testing the intercom. You can hear me? Good. We're going to be fine..." He walked from the room and sensed she wasn't following immediately, "Let's go."

They joined the rest of the quintet in the transporter room, XO Milo Van doing the honours from behind the transporter console. Iorte took up his final position on the pad, towards the rear, kneeling with phaser pointed to cover an arc that was taller than it was wide, and with his back to the transporter operator Van.

He listened with only mild curiosity to the chatter between the scientists - with occasional interjections from Komin from the bridge and Carre also in engineering respectively - as they argued over the various procedures. "Spinning up. No, shutdown. Automatic again." "God damn it..." Naylor muttered. "Ok, here we go," Vernos sounded more optimistic this time.

"What's the delay?" Iorte heard Tan comm.

As Komin answered, Clancy slipped back into a meditative mental poise as he visualised the dematerialisation and what may lie the other side. They'd been careful to choose a beam-in site that seemed to be away from lifesign centres, but what would it look like?

"3... 2... 1..."

The world faded from view in cerulean static twice, with an intermediary image of what appeared to be the Vicksburg's transporter room, though very little difference from the El Al was discernible, before fizzling out completely into utter darkness. Clancy absorbed the situation and their apparent surroundings that revealed themselves as he cast his suit's cranial-mounted torch here and there. "Everyone here?" "Yes," he replied, clunking up alongside Noon who like de Luca held a refitted tricorder (modified with the same tech as that installed in the warp core); he looked over her shoulder, realising he no longer needed the magnetisation of his boots and deactivating, also unlocking his helmet.

"Let's find out what we can," Tan whispered.

"According to these readings, as planned this ship's sensors aren't detecting us. I don't know how long it will last," Noon said, and squinted into the darkness as she also removed her helmet. de Luca confirmed the readings.

"An hour, possibly more, according to Dr Naylor," Iorte replied breezily, still a little unbelieving at the transport success. "Someone find a panel, let's get some light," he searched for a door, trusting it wouldn't automatically open when he stepped towards it; there was nothing to guarantee that, he realised. Finding movement much easier without the magnetisation, he located a panel at the same time Iezeld found a separate set of controls.

"Illumination," she laughed nervously as she found the right controls, and the room was indeed bathed in light. Tan and de Luca reflexively whispered that she should keep it down. "My apologies, sir. Oh, ah..."

"Does this seem familiar to anyone?" Iorte pointed out the grey-green quadrangular storage room door with his Mk.II phaser. "Romulan," most of them echoed.

"There's no guarantee of that," Noon spoke, "We don't know how large this ship is. Given average probabilities, it may well be a scout." They looked to her to explain. "In this sector, very many Romulan-designed scout vessels and destroyers are operated by independent peoples, sold by Romulus as part of long-term hardware contracts in return for an arrangement of semi-vassalage with the Star Empire, or bought on the black market. It's in the Romulans' interest to support and subordinate third parties who share a border with the Klingons."

Iorte nodded, "Ok... well whoever owns it, we're on a Romulan-designed vessel. That's a good part of the information we need right there."

They made an effort to identify lifesigns the other side of the door and in the corridor beyond that wall of the storage room - no one seemed to be in the vicinity. Perhaps then the ship was very large, or it was a scout with very few people aboard - both were definite possibilities. They couldn't see far - or with much precision - with the modified tricorder and so had no idea how many people might be aboard this thing; whatever stopped their lifesigns from being detected seemed to hamper - to a much lesser degree - their own scanning abilities.

Into the unknown, he thought, hoping his apparent bravado hid his apprehension. They deactivated the simple locking mechanism and started into the deserted grey corridor. Through the gloom they were able to confirm: this was a Romulan vessel. Noon had them halt, "One lifesign, 15 metres away. Species... unknown."

"A species unknown to us, or the tricorder can't decipher whatever it might be?"

Noon looked up slowly, staring down the corridor, "I don't know."

"Well, let's skirt round it for now, if there's a way," Tan was saying as Iorte felt himself get drawn away; Tan's voice grew distant as of passing down a tunnel until it faded completely. Iorte floated to the surface of a barren world, a cityscape of ruined structures lay before him, and around him... He arrowed through it at great speed, coming to a hovering halt in the centre of one of the bombed-out council buildings.

"Iorte?" Tan queried. Clancy blinked rapidly and held the bridge of his nose, "Huh?" he said almost to himself.

"Ok. You seemed to phase out there for a second. Rosa, what does your tricorder say about the next junction? See if you can..." The tunnel effect came again and he passed out of the world. He soon realised that this desolate place was home, if home it could still be called. Ravening, monstrous shapes seemed to roam the grey horizon, razor-limbs of screaming terrors silhouetted black against the street-level graphite smog. Something substantial in the oppressive atmosphere of the place seemed to lance through his mind, there was a screeching like nails on duranium, and he faltered, his body crumpling into the dust. The abominations were long since gone, but it was no consolation, he lay there destroyed in the empty howling wasteland of his home colony's capital.

"Iorte!" "What?" he called out, "What's going on?" For a moment he was sure he'd been elsewhere; an odd sensation came, it took a moment to realise it was dread, and despair, terrible despair. He took stock: it seemed they'd bypassed the lifesign and were on their way to what they thought could be a science lab. Apparently de Luca and Iezeld had suffered the same disorentiation, the same emotional disturbance.

[Iorte Clancy]

"I had a sense of dislocation," Iorte said to the group once they'd reached somewhere reasonably secluded. Indeed, two others of the group had as well, Iezeld and de Luca. Gradually, as the group hunkered down in the little-frequented junction and discussed their next move, their recent memories returned to Iorte, Iezelda and Elena. The events were reconstructed - they told each other and the rest of the group of where they thought they'd just been, all the while still experiencing the fading reverberations of dread and despair from the strange experience.

"I was... home, or what was left of it," Iorte said, "My colonial homeworld." He stopped himself from shaking, reminding himself that the psychological disturbance was just that; it had no reality. "It was terrible, yes, but nothing unexpected; in actuality, I witnessed the destruction of one of my homeworld's cities some years ago. I know what to find there if I ever go back." That's not going to happen, he said to himself for the thousandth time.

de Luca and Iezeld nodded; they'd found something similar, taken from their own memories, with a similar result.

"Then what caused the negative emotions?" Tan said, "You're still experiencing them?"

Clancy nodded, "But they're fading fast," and he was able to clear his mind, cause the tremor in his limbs temporarily to cease. He looked round the dark junction, "Perhaps something on this ship has attacked us, some technology has been used."

"You're saying the crew, however many there are, are aware of our presence?"

"Not quite that. It may be an automated defence system. The theorised tech itself, if it has an AI, may not even know we're present; it may be switched on all the time in this area of the ship, or perhaps in multiple areas of the ship."

Something that generates despair and anxiety, a neural weapon, something capable of being used remotely, he thought. Perhaps it wasn't even meant to repel intruders or trespassers amongst the crew: it could be a weapon to keep order on the ship, used by the CO. The group had to trust that it was automated, if they were right about it at all. There was nothing to suggest that they'd been discovered by the crew; if that was so, they would've tracked down by a few of them by now.

"Well, let's continue onto the science lab, if lab it is," de Luca suggested.

Clancy nodded and climbed off his haunches, looking to Iezeld who looked like she needed some support. Tan and Noon took point and the rear respectively while the three who'd been 'attacked' took up the middle. "When did it happen?" Iorte asked Iezelda, "Your son."

"He was killed four years ago. The vision, if you can call it that, didn't seem quite right. It showed him younger, much younger than he actually was when it happened," the Petty Officer watched the deck as they walked, very troubled. Iorte nodded, perhaps the tech used in the attack was modifying memories to make them that much more distressing to re-experience. "If it helps, mine was worse, too. None of it was real, Iezelda... There's nothing it can show you which necessarily means anything." Iezelda nodded, "It's... It wasn't long ago that I finally felt able to move on. But being shown it all again, it's all been brought back..." Clancy looked at her, "No, nothing's changed, nothing's changed from how it was before."

They reached the science lab, starting to unlock the translucent glass doors; before they had it open, they froze in shock, the tricorder had told them nothing, but two people were inside.

"We'll have to incapacitate them, whether friendly or hostile," Iorte said quietly, "We can't take the chance of the crew becoming aware of us." What would they be like? he wondered, if Romulan, that would damage Noon's theory that this ship was independent and only purchased from the Star Empire; it would virtually confirm it was indeed a Star Empire-operated vessel. "How long do we have 'til we become visible to internal sensors?"

"The cloaking effect lasts another 25 minutes, at minimum."

[David Tan]

The group had been forced to pause when several had been subjected to something akin to 'hallucinations' ..... Finally, everyone regained their momentum and they began to move forward, quietly discussing what they had seen .....

As they continued, David was acutely aware of the time constraints and the fact they needed to gather as much information as possible then transport off the unknown vessel before being discovered. If by some means they could damage the ship without it being looked upon as anything but a systems or equipment failure, then all the better. At least they would know that the cloaked vessel was going nowhere. They reached what they hoped was a Lab, but were confronted with two people inside the room. Tan shook his head wondering why they hadn't been picked up by the groups' tricorders, alas, it was something they would need to address later!

"How long do we have until we become visible to internal sensors?"

"The cloaking effect 'should' last another twenty-five minutes, at minimum..." Noon replied, checking her tricorder, "... The El Alamein is scheduled to come around approximately five minutes before we become visible,"

David motioned to Clancy and both men reached forward placing a hand on each of the doors .... Behind them, Elena and Iezelda had knelt, their phasers aimed into the room. Tan silently mouthed the countdown and on zero they pushed the doors aside .... Both occupants turned, their expressions going from confusion to shock as they were both incapacitated by the phaser-fire.

Entering the room quickly, they pulled the two out of sight of the doors, Iezeld and Noon took up positions near the door while the remaining three made a quick inspection:

"I can't make head nor tail of all this stuff..." Tan said, his frustration showing, "... Record everything you can, maybe our people will have more luck,"

Rosa Noon had been stood by the door and now she focused on the material around the semi-translucent doors themselves. It had every appearance of Romulan design and technology, but what about the 'weapon' used against them, where the Romulans producing mind-altering technology, and if so, why? ..... She constantly scanned the corridor outside the Lab but no-one else appeared. She looked at the two unconscious technicians, neither was Romulan, in fact, apart from minor differences in their physical appearance, they could have almost passed as Human!

"I'm going to try to access schematics, we need to know all we can about this ship," Tan said, moving to a console at the far side of the Lab but even activating the panel proved impossible. Several times he tried but with the same result, he asked Iorte to join him and both discussed the problem:

"Why would the most basic assess be restricted?" David asked.

"Maybe those two were less than willing aids?" Clancy said.

"Sir, those two were working over here when we entered..." Iezelda said, pointing to one console that seemed still activated. Tan and Clancy approached, seeing the panel illuminated they tried to decipher the glyphs, not quite Romulan, but not quite not. It was then that Iezeld pointed out that the console they were stood at differed from the others in the room. David and Iorte stepped back, realising she was right, while at a cursory glance it would have seemed compatible with the others in the room, on closer inspection they could see it had clearly been installed as a stand-alone console.

"Could that be responsible for the effects we suffered?" de Luca asked.

"Possible..." Tan replied, hesitant to touch the panel. He looked at a screen above the panel which seemed to be displaying the current readings from the console "... Looks like I might be able to open up schematics without tampering directly with the current configuration, but if this goes wrong we could have company, quickly. What do you think?" he asked Iorte and Elena.

"We can't sit here doing nothing until the El Alamein arrives... Just be prepared for company," Clancy said as de Luca nodded her agreement. David eyed the panel then tapped what he 'hoped' was a menu .....

The screen changed instantly, but thankfully no alarms sounded, at least no audible alarms. Clancy leaned in and tapped one of the options: A view of what they presumed was the vessel they were on appeared on the large screen.

"Hey presto," Iezelada whispered from the doorway, Tan and Clancy were too busy sighing in relief to reply.

"Valdore Class... So Romulan!" Tan commented.

"Bigger, I'd say it's likely a prototype, it might need to be bigger to accommodate possible experimental technology?" Elena said as she pointed to the length of the vessel and the wider 'mid-body' that held the two wings with their nacelles.

"What about that?" David asked, pointing to a dome-like protrusion on the Dorsal section, but no-one had an answer.

"David, Iorte..." Elena said, getting their attention as she scanned the console, deep in thought, "... Remember when we were working alongside the Ireuken's ....."

"You're not saying they have been to the αCen System are you?" Rosa Noon commented.

"No... But we do know that Anna Lindqvist was working with their technology..." de Luca continued, "... For a split-second, I was sure I picked up readings similar to the Ireuken technology Lindqvist was studying on the other Starbase,"

"That can't be possible," Tan said.

"I'm not saying it is, but, we know Lindqvist was alive when the other Starbase entered the wormhole, on exit we managed to retain only partial contact for approximately eleven minutes before it slammed into the Moon, we never did find her,"

"Oh come on! ..... Are you suggesting that a single woman passed through the wormhole 'without' the benefit of the Ireuken shielding technology we had?... Not only that..." Noon continued in complete disbelief before anyone could voice their opinions, "... She survived 'AND' was snatched from the Starbase before it slammed into that rock out there?!"

"We know that at least twenty percent of the Starbase was vaporised during transit. I would say it was a given that Anna Lindqvist went the same way," David said, almost apologetically.

"We would need to scan every square meter of the impact site to confirm there were no organic remains, Rosa. Even if any would have remained at all," Iezelda commented.

"Not to mention the astronomical odds that a cloaked Romulan vessel, that just 'happened' to be in the area, had time to pluck our Chief Scientist and whatever Ireuken Tech' she was working on, off the Starbase in eleven minutes," Elena said. But the Petty Officer fell silent, unable or unwilling to continue her hypothesis given the other clearly believed her insane.

"OK... We have less than fifteen minutes..." Tan said, trying to calm the 'discussion' that threatened to give them away if it erupted any further, "... Lets get what we can," ..........

[Iorte Clancy]

Experimental Valdore

Clancy was watching the unconscious bodies of the two near humans, while de Luca and Noon went about the room trying to shunt locally stored data in the various consoles onto their tricorders, without much success. The info was accessible without using the panels from which the team were locked out, but it was all encoded and shut within curiously configured computer mainframes. They had less than 10 minutes before detection by Naylor's best estimate...

"At least we can be sure this vessel is definitely operated by Romulans," Iorte said, Noon looking his way and frowning as if she wasn't certain. "Well, have you ever heard of a Valdore type, an experimental one perhaps even, being sold to a non-aligned party? No, this is a ship of the Romulan Navy..."

"Be that as it may, who are these?" Iezeld said, gesturing to the unconscious forms.

"It's unusual for Romulans to employ such people," Clancy agreed, "Though we can't even say what race they are, unless they're humans who've been altered in some way, perhaps genetically. Look, what if the Romulans of this vessel don't even know these two are here? Consider that we haven't had anyone else come by since we got to this lab... It may not be utilised during times the ship is on purely military assignments. Under cloak close to a Starbase, trespassing in an exclusion zone - that sounds covert military to me."

"Then where did they come from?" Iezeld wringed her hands as if that would provide some answer, "Are you saying this ship's been infiltrated already?"

Iorte nodded, "And perhaps there are more of these quasi-humans." He approached the activated panel from which the neural weapon may have been used - if he was right, that weapon may not even be in use by the Romulans themselves, "Perhaps this console was brought here," he thought again of the neural weapon's effect, the memory of the experience fading fast but somehow still quite present, still quite real.

"According to the schematic, we're on the lowest deck but one," Iorte said, "Down here, we'd likely go undetected a long while. We've only had to avoid one apparent guard - by taking different corridors - since we got here. Perhaps he or she wasn't Romulan either." It was eerie, to consider they'd perhaps beamed into the midst of an infiltration already in progress...

"We've got seven minutes until we may become visible to internal sensors. I suggest you stop talking and assist us," de Luca commanded.

Iorte nodded, and El Alamein would be on its way, hopefully approaching in an innocuous manner to avoid giving the warbird grounds for suspicion. As he began to leave the out-of-place console, something caught his eye, besides the strange dome protrusion in the dorsal surface. "Wait, this panel's giving basic ship status readouts... I can't be sure, but the velocity reading... I think we're at warp."

"What?!" Tan whispered, hurrying over, "When did this happen?"

"Impossible to pinpoint, but it must've been after we beamed across, any time up to a few moments ago!" Clancy hesitantly worked the console, expecting that any moment a Romulan-style old-fashioned horn claxon would start up, "I think I can access external visual - passively, don't worry," he muttered and completed the commands.

The Intel officers stood back speechless, almost in disgust. Now displayed on the console - and the large viewer as Iorte tapped the requisite button - was an external view from the dorsal side, showing stars streaming by in the vacuum. Indeed, the Valdore was at warp velocity.

In the foreground of the live image was the dome-like protrusion; it was far from smooth, jagged spindles and spires dotted its surface and it was surrounded by battlement-like crenallations. Could that be the source of the Ireuken tech that de Luca thought she'd detected, and could Dr Lindqvist even be present?
Iorte thought it was perhaps just possible the warbird had been in the region to study the wormhole, or had headed here upon detecting the opening of the wormhole to admit the phantom Starbase.

"We've got two minutes, Iorte."

He acknowledged, still trying to access navigational readouts, to discover where they may be heading; he allowed Noon, who seemed to know better what she was doing, to take over. The team had to trust the El Alamein, or some one of the Starfleet ships near the station, was following, but that wasn't anything like certain. And those ships didn't even quite know what the anomalous reading was (ship, station, spaceborne alien entity...) let alone knowing it was a Romulan vessel.

---

USS El Alamein

Ensign Vaharqa took over from Alan Ross at the Operations console, receiving his senior officer's last instructions, "Yes, sir, I understand." As he settled into the station, the tactical officer alerted the bridge that the cloaked anomaly and possible ship seemed to be leaving the area. It was no longer being detected.

"You must pursue now, Captain, if you want to find our people," he heard Dr Naylor speaking to Fran Komin in the middle of the bridge behind him, "Need I remind you that if they're unable to return, their effective captors may decide the officers are obliged to explain how they got there. They could tell them about the transporter tech. It's meant to be a Federation top secret. Whether they're in enemy hands, or friendly, they must be recovered."

"You don't give orders here, mister," Komin replied as she took her seat, "But in this case I'm inclined to agree with you."

"But how to follow without giving away that we know of their presence, Captain?" Milo Van asked. "Revealing we know they're there may compromise the boarding party."

Vaharqa heard nothing, and assumed Komin was deep in thought. Eventually she spoke, "Contact Starbase Ops and let them know that the anomaly seems to be on the move. Breaking the exclusion zone ourselves would be too obvious, ask if the Vicksburg, Maxwell or Schrodinger can pursue, at a distance and on a slightly different course. Either that, or let's get the exclusion zone lifted early and we'll follow the same tactic ourselves, drawing as little suspicion as possible." The second option would surely be too suspicious, Vaharqa thought, but perhaps the Captain knew a work-around.

"Aye, Captain," Van replied and relayed the orders.

[David Tan]

They were discussing their rapidly diminishing options when Iorte dropped what could be called a 'bombshell' .....

"Wait, this panel is giving basic ship status readouts... I can't be sure, but the velocity reading... I think we're at warp." moving quickly, David looked at the readings, almost unable, or unwilling to believe their situation had become so much more dangerous without them knowing it. It occurred to him very quickly that should they be caught aboard this ship they would undoubtedly be tried and executed in the Romulan capital!

"Any thoughts on our next move?" Rosa Noon asked rhetorically.

"Well... I'd say ideally we find the nearest escape pod and 'get the hell out of Dodge' ..... But given that would likely get us all killed, I'd say hold off but keep the idea on the proverbial back-burner?" Elena commented.

"According to the schematic, we pretty much have the run of this deck, and the lowermost too..." David said, thinking quickly, "... Let's make sure we're not discovered. The lowermost deck should be waste management, possibly storage and sensor arrays, if we can get down there we could possibly come up with a way to help our being detected. I'd imagine the El Alamein is already looking for us if our sudden departure has been detected,"

"These two rooms look like labs, or Med bays, though why you would have medical at the bottom of the ship is beyond me," Rosa commented, pointing to the two blank spaces on the schematic.

"What about these two?" Iezelda asked, pointing at the unconscious duo.

"They're a problem..." Elena replied, "... Leaving them here is out, there's always the chance someone will come looking for them in due course. We 'could' take them with us."

"We're visible," Clancy said with a shake of his head. But given no alarms sounded, nor was the door opening to countless armed enemies, it appeared for the moment that they remained undetected.

"OK, we'll take them with us..." Tan reluctantly decided, leaning down to grab one of their arms before pulling him up and over a shoulder in one movement. Sighing, Clancy followed suit, "... There's an access panel twenty meters away to the left, we'll head there then down. With luck, we'll not meet any of their friends,"

Leaving the room, the five Intel Officers and their unconscious burdens moved quickly but silently. Iezeld slid the panel said and looked down, it was narrow, too narrow to be able to carry someone, so the decision was made to have Tan and Clancy go first, make sure the lower level was clear, then have the two lowered by hand hopefully without killing either in the process ..... Iorte climbed onto the ladder and started down, phaser pointing below him, David followed, both moving as quickly but quietly as possible. At the bottom, Iorte listened intently then used his tricorder, it seemed clear of personnel so he tentatively slid the panel aside, phaser aimed through the growing gap until he could see to his right. Moving the panel further he could see left, the corridor was clear. David climbed several steps then reached up to grasp the first unconscious man's arms as he was lowered head first. The transfer went well and Clancy pulled the man into the corridor. David turned in time to see the second man, he was falling, fast!

Tan could do nothing but push himself against the wall as the man fell past him and slammed into the deck... There was a distinct 'snap' as he hit, and David knew his neck was broken. He looked up to see Elena, her face expressionless as she eyed the fallen body before she turned to look up. Clancy was already pulling the corpse out and into the corridor as the others descended in silence.

Finding one of the two un-named rooms, they entered to see it was indeed a lab of sorts. David carried the still unconscious man inside while the other was brought in by Clancy. They found an area out of the line of sight from the door and deposited both behind one of the inert panels. The room was large, larger than expected, and held two large pieces of equipment in the centre side by side, both were functioning.

"Find a panel, try to get the schematics up then try to access navigation," David ordered.

"Sir..." Iezelda said, motioning Tan to the panel she had activated, "... This looks like a power distribution layout... These could possibly refer to those two things there, they could be tied directly to the ship somehow?" David looked back at the two constructs, both were approximately six meters in length, three meters wide, by maybe two in height. Apart from numerous lights indicating sporadically, they were practically featureless. They were also the only things not painted in the patient standard drab grey/green the Romulan Star Empire seem to be so fond of.

Elena, Rosa, and Iorte were stood at two active panels side by side, Elena had managed to access the ships' schematics, but Clancy was having difficulty bringing anything legible up on his screens, he reset then began again, this time something came up, he was about to tap one of the indicators:

"Please, do not touch that....." everyone turned in unison towards the location of the command. In the doorway, a man stood eyeing them impassively. It was clear he was the same race as the two they had recently encountered. Iezelda, closest to the door and almost out of sight of the newcomer, slowly raised her phaser and moved forwards ..........

[Iorte Clancy]

Iorte was tempted to start working the panel in whatever way he could to tempt the newcomer into some sort of reaction; any risk of him having a concealed weapon was tempered by the fact Iezeld was approaching the door with a raised phaser, just out of sight of the man. In the end he decided not to risk it, though, and stepped back holding his hands slightly aloft; de Luca and Noon did the same.

"And who might you be?" Clancy asked in a sort of querulous tone.

"I am Vakrik, and this is my daughter, Meptia, those at least are the names the grey ones have given us." Daughter? Iorte thought, and as he was wondering who might be being referred to a young woman, much shorter than her father, rounded the bend in the corridor and entered the room beside father Vakrik.

"So, you've discovered us," Iezeld said, lowering her phaser slightly with a nod as she saw Tan indicating that she stand down, at least part of the way. "You're going to take us to this vessel's commander?" Iezelda stepped fully from behind the wall where it joined with the doorframe, taking Vakrik off guard.

"No," he said simply, "No, M'Sak doesn't approve of me. If he were to discover I've already spoken to you, it would mean my death. He's a difficult man to get on with, even for a grey one." Grey ones, was evidently how Vakrik referred to Romulans. "But they would consider you a fine prize, something to be satisfied with, even given how the grey ones' lives are full of avarice and endless thirst for conquest."

"Who are you really, and what is the purpose of this room, and the other we found on our arrival?" Iorte asked, inadvertently revealing that they'd been in one of the other science labs. "Wait, why would you be killed for having talked to us?"

"We're not allowed to talk to others beyond fellow members of our species, or the Chief Science Officer," the daughter Meptia said.

"There are eight others of us aboard," Vakrik said, stepping into the room and doing a quick visual scan of the two hulks of machinery, he seemed not unpleased, "Ah, good... Well, I see you are human. We are Crocions, our species, nominally part of the grey ones' interstellar polity, from a world on their boundaries; two of your human months ago this warship visited our world, presumably having heard of our development of a form of what we call PicoFarad technology, as well as warp trials on warp factor 2 test articles. We'd been outlawed from developing warp power, and the grey ones cracked down on us, rounding up and eliminating our ten most prominent warp scientists, arresting arbitrarily amongst ordinary citizens and spreading terror to quell us. Ten more scientists and PicoFarad military strategists, us included, were taken aboard their vessel and made to work on the technology."

"Which are you?"

Vakrik seemed puzzled, "Ah, yes, we are scientists, not military. The four PicoFarad military personnel work on different decks, two of them only a deck above this, however."

Iorte looked at his colleagues before looking again at the Crocion, "I'm afraid that one of them has died, in an accident." Vakrik and his daughter were distressed, but only for a moment. "The other is safe and well, in this room."

Vakrik nodded, "Perhaps you'll answer my own questions. Don't worry, we are safe here. The room is blinded to the grey ones' surveillance, as sensor equipment would interfere with the functioning of the PicoFarad technology," he indicated the two hulks of machinery. "We are also a blank space on real-time schematics. In any case. I see you are humans and going by those badges, Starfleet personnel. But how did you get here? I assume it has something to do with the Starfleet installation M'Sak told the crew they'd be spying on?"

They paused, Iezeld eventually answering, "I'm afraid we can't tell you that. But if you could tell us a little more about this PicoFarad technology."

"This machinery is delicate," he replied, "Both lie in magnetic fields, applying slightly to much force may push them out; any contact with the warship would destroy it. See, underneath," Vakrik and the rest got down on hands and knees and looked under the two hulks of machinery - both machines levitated a centimetre off the floor.

[David Tan]

David had been watching the pair, Father and Daughter since they began their interaction, and while part of him understandably remained suspicious, he felt the Crocions could be trusted, at least until they proved otherwise ....

"So you are saying that the Romulans essentially restricted you to 'sub-light' travel?!" Elena asked, astonished.

"Indeed... Oh, we could travel, but only on Romulan aligned transports, and never, up to our being taken, on one of their warships," Meptia said as she checked readings on a panel.

"We come from a small binary star system on their border, I believe you had named it, Canopis. We have a lot to offer in regards to technology, but again we can only export at the whim of the Romulans, who thoroughly check, test, and assess everything prior to our being allowed to begin production. They also immediately, withhold, confiscate, anything they consider useful to our own development, thus their appearance when they heard of the PicoFarad technology," Vakrik said.

"This 'PicoFarad technology' can you give us some idea of its usefulness?" Tan asked.

"Alas... I cannot... Needless to say, it would benefit anyone with access, and would undoubtedly strengthen anyone wishing to use the technology for weapons development,"

"A new form of energy then?" Iezelda asked, but the Crocion just smiled, clearly unwilling to expand on what they were doing, or what the Romulans thought they would gain by the killing of several people in their respective fields, and the subsequent kidnap of the eight, now seven, currently aboard.

"This ship, we thought it could be Valdore Class, but it seems bigger," Rosa Noon commented, trying to keep the clearly suspicious father engaged.

"Yes, I do believe it was retrofitted, these labs for example and the level above us, were added when they knew they were going to take our technology. These two levels are also somewhat wider than the original hull..." Vakrik began, moving to one of the panels to bring a must updated schematic up, "... As you can see, the nacelles have been updated, as has the phaser banks and torpedo launchers, Their cloak is benefiting from the drive systems being connected to our equipment, making it more reliable, and practically invisible,"

"Well, we found you," Clancy said with sudden disdain.

"Yes, alas, we couldn't completely mask our spatial resonance ....." he finished with a glance at his Daughter, David wondered if he detected a fraction of a smile appearing before Vakrik turned away.

"Do you know where we are heading?" Tan asked.

"I do not... But I did overhear the commander, M'Sak, discussing your USS Charleston. He also spoke of someone I believe could be in the Romulan Senate, but I couldn't be sure. They tend to confine us to our assigned levels unless sent for,"

"You think they could be shadowing the Charleston?" Elena asked as the two Crocions revived their unconscious colleague. She watched as all three appeared to take a moment of silent prayer for the deceased, then they stood, casually watching the Federation Officers for a moment before moving to one of the consoles, presumably to continue working. David nodded in their direction and Iezelda, acknowledging his silent order, casually approached them.

"Why follow the Vice President?" Rosa queried.

"They may not have unless we can see what they see we'll have to go on the assumption that it's likely we're heading back into Romulan Space..." de Luca speculated, "... There's that unknown Romulan Scout vessel that had been loitering outside the exclusion zone, maybe they are going to rendezvous with them at some point,"

"OK... Where do we go from here?" Tan asked ..........

[Iorte Clancy]

Iezeld approached the three working Crocions, stepping between Vakrik and Meptia, "If you don't mind me asking, what are you doing?" she said.

On the screen was a plan-view schematic of the ship with a zoomed section showing the lowest two decks and the equipment scattered through each. The blank spaces - including in this room - clearly indicated where the PicoFarad technology lay. Rows of irregular polygon graphics annotated various parts of the two decks, seeming like indicators for release mechanisms or something of the sort.

"We can't tell you. We're following orders from the science officer and the tactical officer of this warship, transmitted through this console," the unnamed PicoFarad military man replied.

Vakrik signalled the display, "I don't expect that you'll understand these graphics." Despite the comment, Iezelda didn't pick up anything particularly untoward in Vakrik or the other two - they were polite, if slightly overconfident in themselves. "Which is as well, as if you did find out what we were doing, and M'Sak discovered it, he would eliminate both myself and my daughter."

"Then I'll watch in silence. Though, actually... if I could make some conjectures?" Iezeld asked tentatively, "You don't have to say yes or no, or anything at all in fact." Vakrik looked at her distractedly as he worked the display, seeming a little irked, a little worried; he glanced at his daughter, before nodding hesitantly. "I would say that you're preparing the PicoFarad technology for something, perhaps even an attack on another vessel -"

"We don't know that either way," Vakrik interrupted, "We aren't told of what happens beyond this ship."

"You may not know, though I'm only theorising," the Petty Officer replied, and pointed, "Going by that graphic, the PicoFarad tech is perhaps being used to manually release something towards the weapons systems. It will provide an energy boost as well as supply the disruptors or plasma torpedoes with something else, something unique they wouldn't normally be capable of."

"You're right about that," Vakrik stammered, and Iezeld realised that he'd been wanting to tell them of the function of the PicoFarad tech all along, only now revealing something given someone was probing and probing successfully.

"You're risking your life," she said wonderingly.

"I know, but I can't allow myself and my daughter, and my other colleagues, to be the accessories to any crime and not inform someone, someone who may be able to prevent us doing what we're doing."

"There must be another ship out there?" Iezeld asked, "The target of this ship?"

"Indeed. Perhaps it's a vessel of your own, perhaps not. The grey ones have numerous enemies, as you know. I believe the disruptors will be modified by this usage of the PicoFarad technology to discharge a psionic blast at the target. It causes temporary neural damage in the crew of the targeted vessel - its crew will attempt to destroy one another, with ranged weapons, hands, teeth, whatever is convenient."

"You've already told us so much, getting yourself into trouble with your commander. Perhaps you can access navigation and tell us where we're heading...?"

Vakrik nodded and accessed navigation, "It would appear we're eventually headed for New Romulus, however our course takes us past several outposts on the Klingon border. Ah, the system has given me access to other basic information, including data from short range sensors... " he hurried lest his roamings were discovered, "It seems there are two ships relatively nearby, one following, one being chased by us... Both are Federation starships, identification... USS Schrodinger, the ship being chased; the USS El Alamein, the ship following, about half a parsec behind us." He exited the system and turned slowly to Iezeld, "What do you intend?" She didn't give a direct answer, thanking him and returning to the other four.

While Vakrik spoke with Iezelda, Meptia and the PicoFarad military man completed the series of commands, having little choice; the hulks of machinery started humming and buzzing, before a QED zap was heard and the PicoFarad energy was presumably shunted to the weapons. The Crocions and the others in the room didn't know it, but the Romulan tactical officer on the bridge now fired the PicoFarad-overcharged disruptors at the Schrodinger ahead of the ship. The psionic blast, emerging from the still-cloaked warbird, engulfed the Federation vessel; no physical damage was done to the hull, but the crew would now be experiencing a collective psychopathic episode, beginning to kill each other off; it would last some 45 minutes, enough to do irreparable harm.

"The El Alamein is following us, obliquely and at some distance; we're following the Schrodinger," Iezeld told this and the rest of it to the group - none of them knew the Schrodinger's crew were engaged in self-destruction, though Vakrik warned them hesitantly that a psionic weapon may well have been used.

Clancy took all this in, exhaling and nodding, "Hopefully Komin and the Schrodinger CO will team up if they haven't already. She'll probably let him know about our mission. Meanwhile we should try to find a way off here, to either vessel, before the Romulans detect us; perhaps pick up something on the Charleston."

Vakrik, Meptia and the PicoFarad military Crocion came over, "There is somewhere we can show you where you will be safe, secure from the grey ones for many hours," Vakrik said, "My quarters two decks above."

[Elena de Luca]

USS Schrodinger ::


"Captain, the anomalous reading is now astern of us," the Tactical Officer informed Legránd.

"Change course, come to three, four two, mark one five..." the Captain ordered, watching the viewscreen as the stars changed slightly, after a moment he asked, "... Where's the anomaly now?"

"It appears to be changing course, and closing on us,"

"Where's the El Alamein? Legránd asked, hiding her trepidation.

"Point eight seven parsecs behind and on our Port side, it too is changing course,"

Legránd was about to issue another course change when the Bridge was flooded with what appeared to be a blueish green light, accompanied by an almost inaudible 'hum' as the light intensified.

"SHIELDS!" he ordered quickly, now feeling the intensity of the almost sub-harmonic pulse as it seemingly drilled into his consciousness, beginning like an annoying 'itch' towards the back of his head, around the parietal lobe. He squeezed his eye shut, trying to ignore the pulsing intensity as the frequency changed again and again. Finally, the pain unbearable, he fell forwards, just managing to grasp hold of the armrests to prevent him from falling to the deck. He looked around the Bridge, seeing other affected, he could hear moaning, but then, as quickly as the effect had begun, it ended, the light dissipated, the irritating pulse subsiding... After a moment he was able to speak:

"What the 'HELL' was that!?"

"Unknown Captain, the Operations Officer replied shakily.

"Sir, we are getting reports from throughout the ship, headaches, nausea, though the effects seem to be calming down now," the Comms Officer informed her. Legránd nodded as within minutes of the unexplained attack if it was such, there appeared to be no side effects suffered by anyone throughout the ship. On the viewscreen, the Tactical view still showed the El Alamein and the projected location of the anomalous possibly cloaked vessel, which now seemed to be moving away.

He sat back in his seat as she heard raised voices, his Executive Officer, Tane Petrov, had stood and was watching an altercation between the Science Officer and the Security Officer:

"As you were!" Petrov ordered, but the Security Officer, taking advantage of the fact that the Science Officer had turned to reply and slammed a fist into the woman's neck, landing a second so quickly the woman didn't have time to defend herself as she was physically thrown to the deck, the large Security Chief falling upon her before slamming blow after blow into the unconscious woman's bleeding face... Petrov ran forward as two other Bridge crew tried to drag the man away.

Without warning ..... The ship jumped to warp!

Experimental Valdor Class Warbird ::


Elena had been taking in what the Crocions had been willingly divulging, and was completely shocked to hear that they were being restricted to sub-light travel unless allowed otherwise, it was beyond ridiculous in this day and age that any civilisation capable should be treated this way ..... Eyeing the door, she moved around the room, trying to get a better idea of what they were up against and overheard Vakrik explaining the readouts.

"It's firing on the Schrodinger?" she heard Iezelda ask.

"It would appear so....." Vakrik replied hesitantly.

"Can we scan the Schrodinger from here?" Elena asked quickly.

"Not without our efforts being related to the Bridge..." Meptia answered, then turned to the readings before continuing, "... It would be useless to try given your Starship seems to have jumped to warp," she said, shutting down the console along with the others in the room, she looked at her Father, whispering something none of the Intel' Officers could make out.

"What did they fire?" David Tan asked as the others milled around the one console.

"We have no way of determining that without full access, and that, as you can imagine, would be detrimental to our health. In fact, it is possible our 'curiosity' has already been noted,"

"..... We should try to find a way off here before the Romulans detect us," Clancy said quietly.

"There is somewhere we can show you where you will be safe, secure from the grey ones for many hours..." Vakrik said, "... My quarters are two decks above."

"Just how do you propose we get there undetected?" Rosa Noon asked.

"The lower levels of this vessel are rarely visited by our, masters, they choose to remain among themselves, sending for one or more of us as required..." Vekrik explained, "... It is unlikely one will be down here so soon after an attack."

"We don't really have any other options at this point..." Elena commented, turning to the Crocions, "... As stated, we need to get off this ship and onto one of ours, quickly, is there any way you could help?"

"We are moving away from your other vessel, and are heading towards Romulan Space, the likelihood of our coming close to another of you Fleet, 'and' conveniently dropping from warp within transporter range, is somewhat unlikely, so I fear our hiding you on our level is the only option open to us at this time," Meptia said apologetically.

"Given our assumed course, the only option would be to remove you from this vessel when we are close to one of the Klingon outposts. Achieving that may prove problematical," Vakrik said turning to leave, presumably expecting the others to follow ..... They entered a stairwell, something almost unheard of on a Starship, and climbed up the two levels before moving along the corridor. Vekrik stopped at a door and entered a code, the door obligingly sliding aside.

The quarters were large, much larger than the Intel' Officers had thought possible for a Warship, let alone a Romulan Warship!

"You may have that room, it was supposed to be an office of sorts, but I work better at Meptia's desk..." the room was small, but with a little ingenuity they moved furniture to allow them to rest on the floor, not all at once, but hopefully the need for sleeping arrangements wouldn't be an issue for too long Elena thought, "... The replicator is there, be careful what you request, the sudden materialisation of Human food may alert the Bridge to our sudden change in dietary requirements and they may want to investigate,"

"Does he have to be so long-winded in every explanation?" Rosa Noon whispered.

"Please do not open this door for anyone, only Meptia and myself have access, so if it should open it will be us," Vakrik assured them.

"..... And what if one of our Romulan friends accompanies you down here?" Iezelda asked.

"They won't my dear... Now, We need to return to the lower level, our 'Captain' will want to review the results of his latest attack," the Scientist said, turning to leave, his daughter a step behind. The door closed and for a long moment, no-one spoke as they examined the room, hoping not to find anything untoward.

"He's hiding something," Elena stated, matter-of-factly.

"Ya think!" Rosa replied.

"I think he knows what that equipment does, in whatever configuration they set, and what the Commander of this ship is doing..." David admitted, shaking his head, "... Our main priority is getting off this ship to report our findings. Until then it seems we are at the mercy of our Crocion friends,"

"Last resort, we destroy what's down there, hopefully taking their weapons out, jump into an escape pod and leave. With luck, the El Alamein will know to follow at a discrete distance?" Iezelda speculated.

Let's get some rest, I have a feeling it's going to be in short supply soon," Tan said, dropping into a seat close to the room they had been allocated ..........

[Iorte Clancy]

Capital of New Romulus

The Romulan proconsul was sat in her office in the wings of the Senate house, attempting once again to get through to M'Sak's warbird. Why isn't that cretin answering? she wondered, rummaging in her tray of Kikarian chestnuts and picking a particularly vulnerable one. She crushed it in one hand; this gave some relief. Letting the crushed remnants of it slide through her fingers to the floor, she again hailed M'Sak's vessel, this time including the highest alert and secrecy signature outside of the various Tal Shiar channels.

Eventually she got through, but it was the Second Officer who answered; as he gave his name she recognised the man from his family's execution warrants, signatures to which she'd made out herself. "Where is your Commanding Officer, scum?"

"Scum, proconsul -?" the man throttled himself to silence too late, looking horrified, but the proconsul couldn't stir herself to punish him with a disciplinary... or removal from his position... it wasn't worth the effort. The officer knew to apologise would make matters worse, so he wisely plunged ahead, "Commander M'Sak is indisposed at this time, proconsul, as is the First Officer. May I be of service?"

"Tell M'Sak's sorry self to stop dragging his heels. I am personally requesting he make all due speed for New Romulus. Have him enter a low orbit situated to pass over the capital every orbital period. He is to beam down with his First Officer to the administrative complex, for an audience with the Senate, followed by an interview with me."

"Yes, proconsul," the officer saluted. The proconsul nodded to herself, her eyes narrowing - she had a nasty surprise for the warbird's commander, when he arrived.

<Tag Warbird>


Experimental warbird

While de Luca and Noon tried to sleep and Tan kept watch on the door - from his seat near the quarters' converted office, - Clancy and Iezeld scouted out the rest of the quarters. He found himself creeping behind Meptia's desk... Why did he feel the need to be so cautious? The Intel officers were the only ones present, and Vakrik had assured them only he and Meptia could gain access to this place.

Already on edge, he was caught off guard by the sudden brief blaring of an invisible claxon; following the sharp sound was a Romulan voice, the team's universal translators lagging only initially as the announcer's words began to be converted, "All hands, we have now entered Romulan space. Prepare for possible inspection. Likelihood is 14%; regardless, be wary. We have increased speed to warp 8, and are currently 5 lightyears from the nearest Klingon outpost. Long live the Star Empire."

"Well, that was informative, if unnerving," Iorte said pithily. He got down on hands and knees and looked under the desk, there were some notes on something similar to real paper stuck under there, all in what he assumed was Crocion, on a writing material presumably native to their planet. "It was Crocion to me," he said and grunted a laugh, replacing the quasi-paper. Dread continued to accompany him, and he suddenly remembered the anxiety-inducing device he, Iezeld and de Luca had been influenced by shortly after beaming aboard. "We have to leave now, find an escape pod."

"It's too early, Iorte. The Schrodinger and El Alamein are likely still unable to identify this as a Romulan ship, let alone - ... My word," Iezeld beathed, backing away slightly from near the far left corner of the room (as one looked at the door), "Noon. Noon, your tricorder?"

"She's asleep," Tan sprung up, taking Rosa's tricorder (one of two the team possessed) from her side and handing it to Iezelda. "What have you found?"

Iezeld pointed, "I'm going to do scans for blood plasma."

A trembling Iorte noticed, to his considerable surprise, Iezeld running the tricorder over what looked suspiciously like a large smear of green Romulan blood, on the wall near where it joined with the floor.

"Wait, there's a cupboard near you," he called over shakily, experiencing serious dread from the presumably reactivated neural device further up in the ship. The piece of furniture was almost invisible, set into the wall and of the same colour as it; however, a small gap where it reached towards the floor revealed its nature to them. As Iezeld and Tan turned to it, and as Clancy watched, a pool of viscous green began seeping through the gap, beginning to soak into the carpet...

[David Tan]

USS Schrodinger ...
Location: Unknown ::

He left Sickbay, there had been blood ..... So much blood ..... He wiped his hands on his already stained tunic and began walking down the corridor ..... He waited, eyes glazed for the turbolift doors slid open. Inside, a young Officer was leaning up against the wall, her hair stained as his hands had been. She looked at him, reaching up, then seemed to lose interest as blood ran down her arm. Almost fascinated, she traced the line from her elbow to her wrist, smiling as she held her arm out and began to trace a circle with the drops.

The doors opened and Captain Legránd stepped onto the Bridge ..... On the viewscreen, stars flashed by almost impossibly fast. He looked down as something caught his ankle, he kicked the arm away dismissively then walked to the centre seat. There, a woman was holding onto something he suspected was an eye, though he couldn't be sure as he took hold of her tunic and threw her to the deck. Lowering himself gingerly, he felt the pain in his lower back and remembered the metallic rod he had pulled out after someone had attacked him. He could feel the cold as blood oozed from the gaping wound.

His Executive Officer, Tane, something, he couldn't remember the man's surname, was slamming the head of an Officer into the step down the middle of the Bridge to his right. He watched for several minutes, fascinated by the sight knowing that the man being assaulted was already dead. He felt something rising within him, and for some unfathomable reason, he chuckled, before bursting into almost deranged laughter .....

USS El Alamein ...
Location: Unknown ::


Fran was sat on the Bridge, she had a choice to make which needed making very quickly: Their assignment had been to shadow the cloaked vessel in the hopes of finding a means to identify it. But it had closed on the USS Schrodinger and appeared to have fired on the Federation vessel. The cloaked ship had turned away on a presumed heading that would take them back into Romulan space. Komin had contacted the Schrodinger, but the ship had jumped to warp before they could commence any conversation! ..... Her Tactical Officer, Lieutenant Demik approached and spoke quietly:

"If we delay we'll lose the trail from the cloaked ship Captain," he informed her.

"Contact the Starbase, give them what we have and request another ship approaches the Schrodinger..." she ordered then turned to Navigation, "... Helm, set course to pursue the cloaked vessel, keep us as far back as possible, I don't want them realising they are being followed, at least for the moment," she ordered, raising her eyebrows.

The USS El Alamein turned, locked onto the sporadic emissions and jumped to warp herself. As the hours passed it became more and more evident where they were heading.

"Captain, we are approaching the Romulan border," Lieutenant Yip said from the Helm.

"Understood," Fran said, then fell silent.

"Are you planning on crossing into Romulan space?" Milo Van asked.

"Can you think of any plausible, or semi-plausible reason, one that the Romulans will accept on face value?" Komin asked with a frustrated shrug.

"We're a 'supposed' to be friends, albeit tentatively, aren't we, and I'm sure the Romulans will be happy, no, make that 'reluctant' to help us with our warp core issues?" he said casually.

"It would mean dro ...." Komin began, but Van interrupted her:

"It would mean we need to have damage to our warp core, damage that when they come aboard to inspect us, they will believe..." Van looked around then opened a Comm to ask the Chief Engineer to join them. When he arrived Milo continued "... Nico, is there any way we can rig phaser damage to one of the nacelles to replicate say, Klingon fire, nothing serious, just enough to make the Romulans think it's completely out of action?" Carré mulled the query over:

"I could replicate their firing signature, reconfigure the weapons on one of the shuttles, get ahead and say to Port of us, then open fire, but it will do 'real' damage, we can't simply fake burn marks on the hull,"

"Just to be clear here... You're not 'actually' going to destroy out Port nacelle, right?" Komin asked dubiously. Carré could only shrug.

"Lieutenant Demik ..... How sure are we that the trail from the cloaked vessel is heading into Romulan space?"

"Because it already has Captain..." the Tactical Officer replied, checking his panel before continuing, "... I guess they are heading to, or close to New Romulus,"

"Guess?" Fran repeated.

"Captain, we're barely able to keep reading their trail as it is, so there's some guesswork involved," Tom replied.

"Given there are no outposts between us and the Romulan Homeworld, it's likely that we would be towed to New Romulus or one of their orbital facilities ..... Our problem will be making sure they don't take us all off the El Alamein and throw us into their roughest gulag, then plunder the ship for information, they can be fickle like that!" Carré said.

"Bloody hell ....." Komin muttered.

"If we're going this route we need to get moving Captain, it'll take time to reconfigure the shuttle phasers, and I'll need time to remove the modifications before we have company," Carré prompted.

"OK ..... Shana, slow to warp one point, three ..... Nico, get to work on the shuttle, just make sure that 'IF' I need warp then I'll have it,"

The unnerving silence from her Senior Officers spoke volumes ..........

[Iorte Clancy]

Clancy looked at the others, still experiencing the dread, his hands still trembling from the suggestions in his mind of his colonial homeworld's desolation, terrible fowl and other, strange beasts picking at the blasted ground and the few corpses that dotted the destroyed urban landscape. Iezeld, also troubled, edged towards the cupboard's near invisible boundary and slipped fingernails into a part of it with a wider aperture, pulling the door back.

A dead Romulan fell out, having been propped haphazardly in the cupboard. Iorte peered with a morbid curiosity at the crewmember and his rank insignia; a sub-lieutenant with a gash in his chest, this man must've been a mid- to high-ranking officer on this ship. Clancy peered into the darkness of the cupboard, there was no one else in there at least.

Debating what to do about this finding, over an hour slipped away before Meptia returned. The Crocion female stood in the quarters' doorway and dropped a datapad onto a chair then began leaving again. Iorte and the others moved to stop her and ask a question, but she put a finger to her lips and gestured surreptitiously down the corridor to the left - they guessed she meant someone, likely a Romulan, was round the corner. She left.

Iorte shook his head, whispering, "Well, great." Most of the working hours of the day slipped by; surely their lifesigns were now no longer invisible to internal sensors, but they were relying on Vakrik's reasons for hiding them in his own quarters. Perhaps - like the room with the PicoFarad tech - this room was shielded from the eye of sensors.

They dared not leave the room, trusting in Meptia's information about the nearby Romulan. Still, they'd nearly resolved to begin searching for an escape pod, when Vakrik returned.

"Good news," he said with jollity as he entered with his duty jacket slung over his shoulder, "We've avoided inspection. You're safe from the probing eyes of any boarders. We're proceeding directly to New Romulus, and -"

"Vakrik." Tan stopped the Crocion, "What's this?" he pointed to the body of the Romulan, its eyes and mouth open, staring at the ceiling. "It's no problem, Vakrik, just tell us."

Vakrik staggered back, hand over his mouth, seemingly attempting not to gag, "I..." he began coughing incessantly, a tear fell from one eye; he was virtually convulsing.

"Well?!" Iorte said impatiently. He knew such things were difficult, but Vakrik's killing of this sub-lieutenant wasn't worth this reaction.

"I... I don't know anything about this!" Vakrik cried, collapsing to the chair with Meptia's datapad. "A grey one. A dead grey one... I am finished!" He wept. Iorte folded his arms and tried to banish the images of destruction caused by the neural device, while Iezeld glanced at Tan, de Luca, Noon, uncertainly; they weren't sure what to make of this.

Well, how did the body get in here? Iorte thought, very unconvinced, whoever it was didn't do well in concealing it. "Noon, scan the body for any signs of the assailant's DNA. Let's see if we can confirm what Vakrik's saying," he ignored the scenes of catastrophe as best he could, "And scan Vakrik himself, for his own DNA reading of course. If it's not him, it matters who it is."

"No," Vakrik shook his head urgently and stood up, backing away, seeing Rosa approaching with her tricorder. "No, I will not submit! I will not!" he fled out of the quarters.

"Ridiculous," Iorte collapsed back on the couch. If it wasn't for the weight of Vakrik's emotional response, it would seem certain he was responsible. Clancy wondered now whether Meptia had been truthful about the Romulan round the corner; maybe she knew about the dead man. Why such a fierce reaction from Vakrik? What would he consider wrong about scanning him unless... he wasn't really Crocion. Oh, Clancy was sure the Crocions existed, he distantly recalled reading about them and their interesting world on the confines of Romulan space, but perhaps Vakrik was more truly identified as what he called a 'grey one', a Romulan.

Iorte signalled the body to Noon, "Scan it, search for Crocion DNA. Use the things about these quarters for comparison, surely plenty of fingerprints over everything."

"We're directly en route to New Romulus, then. Let's hope the El Alamein is following," Tan said.

Iorte nodded, "Vakrik we can't trust anymore, and we thought he was hiding something before. It remains to be seen with Meptia, she seems more genuinely Crocion, though I have a feeling she isn't actually Vakrik's daughter."

"I've had enough of this," Tan shook his head, "Let's head left down the corridor, see whether there's still a Romulan around there, if there ever was. We'll find and plot out a route to get to an escape pod," he directed, "Noon, Iezeld, stay here and perform your scans. We'll return."

Iorte nodded and followed Tan and de Luca, though he wasn't sure of the wisdom of this - they would surely be detected by internal sensors; they stepped out of the room and ran immediately into Meptia.

<Tag Tan, de Luca>

* * *

Far from continuing to pursue for the moment, the El Alamein dropped from warp. "Full impulse, Captain," the helmsman reported.

"Acknowledged. Reduce to one half. Prepare to receive fire from the deployed shuttle. Demik, open a channel to the shuttle." The CTSO signalled it was ready, Komin nodded and stood, "Carre, are you ready over there? We are orienting the ship to prepare to take your fire."

The engineer's voice came, "Modifications are complete, ma'am. Our phaser energy should return a distinctly Klingon signature when Romulans scan our nacelle. I've taken Demik's advice and have prematurely aged the apparent disruptors' coherence rating. Scans of the blast marks will seem to reveal they were caused a couple weeks ago, in line with the apparent level of degradation. Enough time for us to have apparently fled from Klingon space at warp 8 and ended up here in Romulan space."

"Good work. Prepare to fire in 30 seconds. We're presenting our port nacelle to you now."

The engineer acknowledged, the shuttle shooting ahead slightly to be in the port-fore quarter aspect of the Defiant class. Demik gave audible signal of the finish of the countdown. "Fire on us, Commander Carre. Just don't make a habit of it." The modified phaser beam came, again, and yet a third time. The ship was rocked severely, a lot of force; perhaps it was Komin's imagination but the attack seemed much heavier than designed!

<Tag other El Alamein people>

[David Tan]

"I've had enough of this..." Tan shook his head, "... Let's head left down the corridor, see whether there's still a Romulan around there if there ever was. We'll find and plot out a route to get to an escape pod ..... Noon, Iezeld, stay here and perform your scans. We'll return."

The group stepped cautiously into the corridor and were confronted by Meptia! ... She raised a finger to her lips, looking back down the corridor, then pointed to the room they had just left.

"You have some ques ...." Tan began, but Meptia put a hand over his mouth and pushed him back towards the door. Deciding not to resist, the group filed back into the room and the Crocion closed the door. A second later they could hear raised voices, two Romulan Officers were clearly in the midst of a heated argument, unfortunately, they chose the corridor to fight it out. Tan and Clancy stood either side of the doors, weapons ready, but the firing came from outside as they heard a phaser discharge! ... Again, Meptia put a finger to her lips as they heard more raised voices, It appeared that some of the Romulans were fighting among themselves.

Five minutes past, then the Crocion seemed to relax. She walked to the door and activated the control, the door sliding aside at her touch. The corridor was empty but there was clear evidence that someone had been killed, notably by the scorch mark on the bulkhead further down the corridor. Sighing, she came back into the room, locking the door.

"Talk," David said without preamble.

"Some of the Romulans are, shall we say, less than happy that we are being treated as allies and not servants to the Romulan Star Empire,"

"..... and this?" Tan asked, pointing to the body.

"Fine, so tell us about Vakrik," Elena said.

"I don't understa ....." Meptia began, but David interrupted her:

"LOOK! ..... It's a given that something is amiss here. I don't doubt that you are working, albeit under duress, for the Romulans, I just can't see how they are letting you wander around their 'experimental' Starship, yet at the same time they make sure you know your place, and clearly enforce their superiority whenever suits them. So, it begs the question: Why is this Romulan here, and why hasn't he been missed? ... My other issue is the fact that Vakrik almost threw u when this Romulan fell out of the locker, and I have the feeling he knew nothing about it. I'd be surprised if he isn't informing the Romulans where they can find their missing Officer as we speak,"

"Despite appearances, Vikrik is not in charge here... I am,"

"Oh?"

"He is, was, a member of one of the teams working on the Picofarad technology, but a junior member only... The Romulans, in their infinite wisdom, took it as read that a male was leading the research, it was felt that correcting them might be, unwise..." Meptai said, taking a seat where the dead Romulan was out sight, "... This Romulan overheard a conversation regarding the possible uses of our technology, and he quickly realised that Vikrik was subordinate to me. He confronted me and demanded, benefits... Benefits I was not prepared to supply!" she fell silent, clearly unwilling to explain further.

"You killed him?" Elena asked, but Meptia remained stolidly silent.

"It won't take us long to discover which of you killed him," Rosa Noon said almost sympathetically.

"..... and that knowledge will help you in your situation, how... May I ask?" Meptia mused, raising her eyebrows. David and the others realised that she clearly had the upper hand given none of them could answer satisfactorily.

"Is Vakrik your father?" Clancy asked out of the blue.

"He is, at least, in a sense," Meptia reluctantly replied.

"Meaning?" David was asking as there was a bang on the door! ... Elena raised the phaser she was holding and rested it against Meptia's temple, this time it was she who held a finger to her lips, but the Crocion whispered that if she didn't reply, whoever was outside would override the door lock and enter anyway. Everyone moved out of the line of sight as much as possible then David pointed to the door. Elena moved behind Meptia as she walked across the room. She placed a finger on a small pad beside the door and spoke:

"Who is it?"

"Centurion Karok .. Your presence is required,"

"By who?" Meptai asked, clearly frightened.

"Do not question orders Crocion .. Open the door or I will woman!" she looked at David, then at the phaser being held to her head. Tan looked at Elena, motioning for her to lower the weapon. Sighing with relief, Meptai straightened her tunic then stepped in front of the door. With a look at Tan, she activated the lock and opened the door. The Romulan Centurion was stood glaring:

"Keep me waiting again Crocion, and I will deprive you of the use of your legs!" the man said.

"I don't think so..." Meptia said defiantly, "... Nevertheless, I am sure the Commander will be interested in your, enthusiasm for your work!" she left the room, the door sliding silently closed behind her.

"Not wanting to be a 'nay-sayer' here..." Iezelda began, still kneeling beside the dead Romulan, "... But am I the only one that didn't get a straight answer from her to any of our questions here?"

"Do you have anything from your scans?" Tan asked, avoiding her question.

"Actually... No,"

"Come again?" Clancy demanded.

"He's a Romulan, and he was killed .... His neck was broken ... It required swift flexion, extension with rotation resulting in separation of the 'C2' and 'C3' cervical vertebrae ... Whoever did this was fast and experienced ... As to which of them did it, I can't tell you. The readings are inconclusive," the woman said with a shrug.

"So, basically ... You're telling us that we have no means of saying who killed this Romulan, and on top of that, you can't even say if Vakrik or Meptia are related, let alone bloody Crocions?!" Rosa asked incredulously. After a few seconds, Iezelda threw the tricorder up to Rosa Noon and walked away from the body, taking a seat as if waiting for a movie to begin:

"Feel free to redo the scans," the woman said. During the conversation, Elena had walked over to the door, having been convinced something was amiss. She tapped the door activator, then again, before she realized suddenly their predicament:

Meptia had locked the door when she had left! ..........

[Iorte Clancy]

Iezeld had swapped roles with Noon, the Petty Officer now scanning the quarters while Rosa knelt beside the body of the Romulan. She had an idea to scan the shower room off to the side of the makeshift living quarters they'd set up in place of Vakrik's (or was that actually Meptia's?) study. Indeed, it was a sonic shower, as she'd hoped; she modified the tricorder and scanned intensively up close to the particulate collectors, and there it was, dead skin cells, flaked off under the sonic effect.

"We have here two distinct strands of DNA, both degraded and difficult to read," she reported five minutes later, "They're marginally different from one another, but not in the way you would expect a father and daughter to be differentiated; on the face of it, it's a more superficial difference than that, except it is critical, one of the strands seems to have been genetically modified, augmented; if I had to make an educated guess, I would say it was the female strand."

"It is Meptia, then? I mean, its definitely Crocion DNA?" Iorte asked.

"Yes, I believe so," she nodded, "It doesn't match anything in our database, and as the Federation to my knowledge have never come into contact with Crocions or collected DNA samples - although we've heard of the Crocions - I'd say the ID is certain. But we don't know whether or not they're father and daughter."

"It may not matter. One has been genetically altered, that's more significant, but for what reason...?"

"Meptia has said she was Vakrik's superior. She may have been granted such improvements. Perhaps it reflects a wider characteristic of their society, a form of matriarchy," Iezeld replied, surprising Iorte with the breadth of her understanding of these matters, "The Romulans assumed the Crocions were patriarchal; they may have eliminated the wrong scientists... maybe they haven't scientifically and technologically crippled the Crocions as much as they think."

"I'm feeling more and more like a prisoner," Iorte said, "Let's do something about it." He thought of how the Romulans still didn't know they were here, and internal sensors couldn't penetrate these quarters. He went to the wall intercom and played with the controls.

"What are you doing?" Tan said.

"If I pretend to be a Romulan crewmember, claiming that Crocions have trapped us in here, they will send crew our way. They enter unawares, we overpower them, we find a route to an escape pod." The team paused, considering the madness of the plan, no doubt. "Meptia isn't helping, at least not as much as she could. Do we wait on the El Alamein? We don't even know if they've been able to pursue. We're running out of options."

David nodded and Iorte after hesitating a moment opened the comm he'd prepared, modifying his voice for aggression and impatience, "Bridge, umm... My security detail has been trapped by one of the Crocions in Vakrik's quarters. I've been informed through the door that the offending Crocion has now been killed," Iorte made a scapegoat of the Crocion who'd fallen from the ladder between decks earlier, "Umm, damn it, I should've liked to have killed -"

"Security officer here. Vakrik's not responsible? What about Meptia?"

"As much as I would like them to be, no, they're not responsible," Iorte said roughly. He thought it a good idea to keep potential Crocion allies than implicate them while impersonating a Romulan, "In fact, they have tried to assist us. Will you send someone down to let us out?"

A long wait followed, then, "I've confirmed it with the Commander. Sub-lieutenant Vero is on his way to you now.

<Tag Tan>

Meptia located Vakrik in the science lab she believed the Starfleeters had first entered when arriving on the ship. She studied the schematic on the wall and the sector overview of the warbird's course through Romulan space. They would be at New Romulus the day after tomorrow, she saw, and was thankful the ship hadn't been boarded for inspection.

Romulan inspectors wouldn't have spared the nine Crocions on board, once they'd found out what the Crocions were doing. But what would happen once they reached the Romulan capital world? What would happen to Vakrik? She'd already lost the rest of her family, she couldn't lose her son, too. She watched Vakrik as he stood next to the Romulan working the neural weapon console, the Romulan increasing its effect upon Clancy, de Luca and Iezeld with a finger slid across the intensity bar.

<Tag de Luca>

* * *

Komin asked the shuttle what'd happened as damage reports flooded in from the port section of the ship. "I'm sorry, deeply sorry, Captain," Carre replied on screen, "We mistargeted by a few centimetres and struck near one of the EPS junctions, we've caused significant overloads through two decks. Port nacelle is damaged, some coils offline. Nacelle only partially operational, going by our scans."

A casualty report came in, a few injuries; luckily for Carre and all of them, no fatalities. "Very convincing battle damage," Komin said tersely.

"Yes, sir..." Carre pursed his lips, "I'd say the El Alamein is now only capable of warp 6.5 maximum until repairs can be completed. Warp 7 in a couple hours, perhaps. Full functionality will take days."

At least if they were intercepted by Romulans, ordered to halt, or even boarded, it would appear they had genuine problems... because they did have genuine problems, Komin thought. "Return now, Commander. You can go straight to engineering to start undoing your handiwork. Try to repair the damage but leave the signs of it intact. Jump to warp 6.5 once the shuttle is aboard, helm. Go after that cloaked anomaly." And towards New Romulus, she thought.

"Aye, Captain."

[David Tan]

David was still understandably dubious about the outcome of inviting one of the Gecius Officers to 'rescue' them, but it was done now, and the fact was he couldn't come up with a better option, so they were forced to go with what they had... Everyone had hopefully moved out of the line of sight of the door, with luck Sub-Lieutenant Vero wouldn't stand on ceremony in the corridor, but chose to enter the room, their problem would be if he didn't!

Moments later, almost catching them unawares, the door suddenly slid aside ..... Vero, small for a Romulan, stepped forward and began to lean into the room, Elena reached forward, her hand clamping around the man's throat as she pulled hard. the Sub-Lieutenant was already shouting for help as she cut the air passing over his vocal cords off. David stepped forward, slamming a fist into his temple, grasping at his as he fell unconscious to the deck. Without warning Iezeld moved, landing a hard kick to the already prone man, Elena pushed the Petty Officer away, a finger in her face:

"What the hell!" de Luca spat in almost a whisper, but the woman just glared, eyes darting between the prone Romulan and the dead one, while Elena fought the urge to smack her colleague.

"We need to make sure he's not going to raise the alarm anytime soon..." Tan said, finding something to bind the man before twirling a long piece of cloth in a spiral then forcing the middle into the man's mouth, he tied the ends behind the Romulan's head and tested it to ensure he wasn't going to free it, "... "Iorte, check the corridor,"

"It's clear," Psonoir said a moment later.

"He was on their Bridge... They will no doubt expect him back up there," de Luca commented, finally releasing her hold on Iezeld.

"Let's go ..... If we don't find a way off this ship they will undoubtedly find us during their search for the Sub-Lieutenant here," Tan said.

The group moved to the door, then one by one exited the room, they had scant knowledge of the layout of a Valdore Class Warbird, and this one had been greatly modified, so they would need to trust to blind luck to come across escape pods. They had moved less than twenty metres when a door up ahead opened suddenly ..... They could do nothing but put their backs against the bulkhead as a Romulan stepped into the corridor, he turned to speak to someone in the room, laughing at some comment fired back at him. He stepped away from the door pulling at his tunic then turned to head away from them. I took several seconds for Tan to ease the pressure on the firing mechanism of his phaser, and several more to remember to breathe ..... He turned to the others who could only look back expressionlessly.

Clancy moved first, stepping into the middle of the corridor before moving past David, he stood with his back against the bulkhead opposite the door the Romulan had recently exited from, his arm slowly coming up to level his phaser. For a second, Tan thought his friend was going to step forward and open the door, but he finally waved the weapon to indicate everyone should pass the door while he watched for unwelcome attention.

David had been under the impression that they were moving 'away' from the Lab they had been in earlier, but now he recognised the door up ahead. Unfortunately, Iezeld was close enough to activate the door and it opened. Clancy was the first to look into the room to see not only Vakrik and Meptia but also a startled Romulan Officer. The Romulan reached down, drawing his weapon, eyes locked on Iorte, who was already reacting, but then Vekrik seemed to hit the Romulan guard, who fell to the deck. The Intelligence Officers entered the room quickly, Meptia ran to the door activating the lock before turning to the others. David knelt beside the fallen Romulan but needn't have worried as he saw the tool protruding from the side of the man's throat. From his kneeling position, he noticed Vakrik was shaking violently, a clear reaction to what he had done.

He stood as blood began to spread around the man's head and onto the tips of Vekriks' boot... The Crocion looked down, then turned away to vomit violently, Meptia took him to one side as the Intel' Officers gathered around yet another body.

"Well, at this rate, we'll have killed off all the Romulan's aboard before they even know we're here," Elena said, a chuckle escaping her lips.

"I'm not sure what aspect of this you are finding so humorous," David said, genuinely shocked.

"Oh c'mon, it was a joke, you know: something said or done to provoke laughter or cause amusement, as a witticism, a short and amusing anecdote,"

"Are you alright?" Tan asked, suddenly concerned.

"She's a comic, who would have known," Iezeld said, her sarcasm obvious as she glared at de Luca.

"This thing is on..." Rosa Noon said behind them, pointing at the panel the Crocions and the Romulan were stood beside when they entered, "...Why?" she asked, her query aimed at Meptia who continued to tend to Vekrik.

"She asked you a QUESTION!..." Iezeld said, grasping the woman's shoulder and spinning her around, David again interfered, dragging the Petty Officer away. Iezeld was already bringing her hands up, fully intending to relieve the arrogant Intelligence Officer of his eyes as Noon tapped a control icon on the panel ..... For a moment Iezelda looked at David, her face a picture of confusion as Tan slowly released his grip:

"..... Sir?" she said, confused as David shook his head and moved to the panel.

"What does this thing do?" he asked without turning, the question clearly aimed at the Crocions ..........

USS El Alamein:


Carré brought the shuttle back into the 'bay and disembarked ..... Quickly he made his way to Engineering and began to 'undo' his handiwork ..... It was as he was working that a thought occurred:

"If the El Alamein could achieve warp, then 'why' would they choose to continue on their heading towards New Romulus... Why not turn toward the nearest Federation Outpost to affect repairs? ..... He was still mulling this over when Captain Komin entered Engineering, he was on his knees working on one of the power conduits when he felt the tap on his boot:

"Commander," Hearing Komin's voice he extracted himself from the conduit and got to his feet.

"Before you chew me out Captain, the damage looks more authentic then we first assumed, alas it did cause more 'actual' damage in the process. Nothing that we can't fix, and nothing that a few hours in Spacedock wouldn't remedy cosmetically,"

"Do I 'look' like I'm about to chew you a new one?..." Komin asked. Nico could only wait for her to continue, preferring not to comment on the option, "... What is your opinion on our situation?"

"I think we're making a mistake charging into Romulan space... Don't get me wrong, I agree we have little option but to go after our people, but we should try to make our system's issues following our supposed attack more, convincing,"

"..... And how would you propose to achieve this, may I ask?"

"Blow Navigational Control..." Carré replied instantly. Unphased by Komin's eyebrows raising, he continued, "... Failing their carrying out a micromolecular examination of the phaser hits, hey will have no choice but believe the damage to the ship, but ....." he went on to explain his theory regarding their current course, Komin listened and then asked him to explain it to her Exec' who agreed with the Chief Engineer, admitting it was something they should have thought of.

"..... Which brings me back to my previous question: How do you propose we achieve this?" Komin finally asked. Unfortunately, this was the point Carré was not looking forward to.

"We will need to do two things, quickly: One, we crash the main Nav Computer..." he said, seeing Kmoin's and Van's eyes widen momentarily, "... We'll also need to make sure we can't use the backup Nav," he fell silent, watching the two Senior Officers. Both of which seemed to be inwardly grappling with the idea of effectively stranding them in the depths of space with 'zero' chance of finding a way anywhere, let alone home!

"That woul ....." Milo Van began, but Nico interrupted quickly.

"We wouldn't be completely helpless ..... We can copy the most basic star charts, enough to know roughly where the Starbase is, and our current position. Hide the program somewhere, hell, on an isolinear chip at the bottom of a locker... At least that way we have something, because if, no 'when' the Romulan's board us, they 'will' ask the question ....." Komin looked at the Engineer, who far from seeming insane, looked perfectly sincere.

"How long would you need to do a basic backup?" she asked, seeing Van look at her out the corner of her eye.

"An hour, maybe two, depending on detail,"

"Start making a backup, we'll keep it as an option for now," the Captain said, rising and leaving the room. Milo Van could only shrug, Carré felt like he had just suggested condemning them to death ..........

[Iorte Clancy]

Clancy surveyed at the console that Rosa was working, seeing once again how it stood out from most of the rest of the room. Noon had pressed a particular icon, it now no longer flashing a lurid green, and Clancy felt a surprisingly pleasing relaxation, as if he'd been tensed in the shoulders, in the limbs, and hadn't realised it.

"What does this thing do?" Tan asked, approaching the console and Rosa.

"It's..." Meptia began, hesitating before turning to her possible father Vakrik, who on the contrary seemed to want to look up to Meptia most of the time but in this case returned a soothing smile, despite his own state of mental weakness, suggesting she go ahead. "It controls a technology similar to the Romulans' own psionic blast weaponry, but on a much smaller scale and with different and greater potentialities," she replied.

"Psionic blast?" Iorte said, he'd heard of such a thing but was appalled to think the Crocions could be accessories to its usage.

It did make sense now, the scenes of torment, the destruction of his homeworld - which had actually happened, - the demented impulses: he'd nearly dived through the doors of this room earlier, his fingers prehensile as they'd gripped the phaser, his limbs almost seizing with the urge to barrel through the door and use the weapon, tearing life from all whom he encountered. But the madness had faded in the last few minutes, after Iezeld had apparently accidentally triggered the door and Noon had used the console.

"Yes, a Romulan weapon employed usually on experimental, prototypical warships," Vakrik responded to him, "It's still in the development phase. Our own technology - the PicoFarad - has the potential to augment such weaponry if used in the correct manner."

Meptia nodded, "It's been incorporated by Romulan and our own scientists into small, related versions of the psionic blast, such as this one, allowing telepathic suggestion, more subtle and delicate modes of manipulation of the target, rather than overt psychopathy as induced normally by the ship-scale weapon. It had only effected yourself, and those two," she pointed to de Luca and Iezeld. But observe," she moved to the console, gently pushing Rosa aside; she worked it and tapped the same icon, and Rosa found herself walking towards the left-hand wall; she placed a hand on it, then the other hand, and pivoted about.

"Her DNA deposited on the console surfaces has been input into the tech," Meptia said, "She is under the control of the neural dev- "

Iorte pushed Meptia away from the console, "You can't just do that." Meptia moved back, pressed icons, and the effect was lifted; Rosa moved, blinking in disorientation, away from the wall. "This can control people remotely, effectively?" Iorte asked.

Meptia apologised and nodded her head, "And unfortunately, we must tell you... it makes sense for us to start telling you these things now... that the ship-mounted psionic blast weapon was used against your vessel the Schrodinger. The crew likely will not have survived, mentally at least."

Minutes passed as they took in this information, knowing it wouldn't do any good to punish the two Crocions or the other Crocions aboard (in return for withholding this information) even if they could. The Crocions were at the command of the Romulans and were in fear of their lives, having already experienced the brutal terrorising of their home planet by the Star Empire.

"Tell us how to reach an escape pod," Iezelda asked, still shaken from her previous aggressive impulses. Meptia shook her head, she didn't know where they might be. "Then perhaps you can tell us about this vessel's commander. How can we outwit him?"

It was some question, but Vakrik had edged towards the neural device's console, "I may have an idea. We may be able to turn this weapon's effect upon the Grey Ones, control one of more of them telepathically. Perhaps Commander M'Sak will be susceptible."

The experimental Valdore was seven hours away from New Romulus, and its captain's potentially fatal meeting with the Romulan proconsul. The latter sat in her office, waiting patiently as she received the latest execution warrants from the traitorous crew of three warbirds who'd defied the Senate and sided with the Tal Shiar, who'd lost a recent brush fire.

[David Tan]

Everyone took a moment to absorb the information regarding the USS Schrodinger .....

"Tell us how to reach an escape pod..." Iezelda demanded, Meptia shook her head, she didn't know where they might be. "...Then perhaps you can tell us about this vessel's Commander. How can we outwit him?"

"I may have an idea. We may be able to turn this weapon's effect upon the Grey Ones, control one or more of them telepathically. Perhaps Commander M'Sak will be susceptible." Vakrik said.

"You must understand..." Meptia said, watching her son, "... Had we taken you to an escape pod, the launch would have been detected instantly. The Gray Ones would have either turned around and destroyed you out of hand, or worse, they may have chosen to capture the pod, and you. An alternative, one which I believe M'Sak would appreciate, would be to turn this very device upon you. I do not think you would have enjoyed going collectively mad," No-one could argue with her logic, none of the options was desirable in the least, but it didn't deflect the fact that they needed to escape this ship, they had been aboard over twelve hours now, and it was only a matter of hours before they arrived at New Romulus!

"Can you set that thing to affect everyone on the Bridge simultaneously?" Tan asked.

"Yes, but there are others aboard, and I am unsure as to how many we could effectively incapacitate at once," Vakrik said as he worked.

"We're turning," Iezeld said, placing a hand on the outer bulkhead.

"How can you know this?" Meptia asked the woman.

"She has a 'knack' for these things..." Tan said, moving to the console they had seen activated earlier, "... Can you check our new heading from here?" he asked quickly, the Crocion nodded .....

"There is an asteroid field, small, approximately six hundred thousand of your kilometres across, very dense. It is somewhere we have been before, there is a research facility there along with a large munitions storage facility hidden deep within the field..." she checked again, all the while trying to ensure that her snooping remained undetected on the Bridge, "... We expended a large about of power reserves, it is possible we need to recuperate hose losses,"

"I'm going to guess that this 'facility' is heavily guarded?" Rosa Noon asked rhetorically.

"It is," Meptia said, closing down the terminal.

"Great!" Elena said, "... Out of the frying pan ....." the two Crocion's looked at her for a long moment, clearly not understanding the comment.

"So we go back into hiding?" Iezeld commented.

"No..." Meptia replied quickly, "... Once we dock, the ship will be checked by the facilities' personal Security, no-one, not even 'this' vessel, is allowed to simply arrive uncontested, the ship will be searched thoroughly!"

"Which only makes our getting off this ship more of a priority!" Noon commented.

"Our only hope will be to get you off the ship between docking and inspection," Vakrik said, clearly unconvinced this could be achieved.

"Is this the only working prototype in existence?" David asked.

"Of course," Vekrik replied.

"..... And the schematics?" he asked, seeing both Crocion's stiffen, "Well.....?"

"One complete set is on the facility we are approaching ...... The other is ....." Vakrik began before falling silent.

"..... The other is within the computers of the Gecius," Meptia finished.

"Then we have two options..." David said, thinking quickly, "One: We destroy this ship 'AND' the facility the second we dock... Two: We take the schematics and run like hell for Federation space,"

"You cannot take the information from this ship's computers, any attempt to do so would be suicide," Meptia informed them.

"Then we take it from the research facility..." Clancy said defiantly, looking at the others before raising his arms, "... Well, I'm in no mood to blow myself up, at least not today," Iorte clearly mistook the Crocion's laughter as a result of his witty comment, alas he was wrong, Vekrik and Meptia looked at each other with a look of sadness on their eyes. Suddenly the comm chirped to life:

=^= This is your Commander speaking .. All non-essential personnel return to quarters .. We are approaching Zova Dox .. Security .. Lockdown the Crocion Scientists immediately =^=

"They will be coming for us!" Meptia said, clearly terrified, "... Vakrik, take them now, I will delay them!" she turned away and activated one of the consoles, Vakrik took Tan's arm, leading him forcibly to the door. It was clear they had no option but to allow themselves to be led from the room. They moved quickly along the corridor, hoping not to run into one of the Romulan crew heading to the Laboratory ..... Thankfully they entered Vakrik's quarters undetected. David was about Meptia when she entered, thankfully everyone was out of the line-of-sight of the door as they heard a Romulan laughing as the door closed and locked.

Elena and Rosa helped Meptia to one of the couches, lowering her gently as they tried to stem the flow of blood running freely from a deep wound in her forehead. David watched as the Crocion was tended to, he silently noted her torn tunic, the deep cut on her shoulder, and could already see the bruising rising around her face. His anger and frustration rose as he realised that whoever had been ordered to return the Crocion to their quarters had clearly not taken kindly to her delaying efforts. He had beaten her severely and would have undoubtedly done more if time had permitted.

Iorte came up to David, whispering:

"Have you ever heard of this 'Zova Dox' facility?"

Tan just shook his head, his eyes on the battered Crocion ..........

[Iorte Clancy]

Iorte lost patience and began pacing about Vakrik's quarters, vacating the makeshift futon within Vakrik's (or was that Meptia's?) office section. It had been discussed they'd best find a hiding place from the inspection off ship, because their initial hopes that the Crocions being locked away in their quarters would mean they'd avoid the check - while line officers remained on duty - had proven misfounded. Hopefully, though, they could find a way off the ship before the inspectors arrived...

His attention was drawn by Iezelda tugging at the sleeve of his black-uniform, "Iorte, look there." She pointed to Meptia still prone on the couch, the slowly-mending gashes in her forehead and shoulder, and the now substantial bruising; beside her was Vakrik, down on his haunches, looking into her face holding both her hands.

Iorte didn't need Iezelda's suggestion, he was already listening to the Crocions and could just make out their words, I'm sorry, my son, I'm sorry for having done this to you..."

"No, mother..." Vakrik whispered urgently in return, "There's nothing you could have - ... You saved these people, staying behind in the lab so our Starfleet guests could return here first. And you saved me!"

Mother? Iorte thought, blinking rapidly; the young Crocion woman looked about half her putative son's age. He was about to discreetly approach the pair, trying to remain respectful of their private moment, but internal claxons started up again,

"All hands. Inspection beginning. All stations, report readiness for boarding by Zova Dox personnel in 12 minutes. You know General Rihavu's reputation for... speed, efficiency, ferocity, and his willingness to take vengeance should he deem it necessary..." the tannoy's user paused, perhaps he'd had prior experience with Zova Dox's commander,

"His teams will comb the Gecius deck by deck in groups of five. I trust all non-essentials are now secured; officers and enlisteds, prepare your personal and professional data for political and competence rating respectively. Commander M'Sak out."

Iorte and de Luca lifted Vakrik from beside his mother/daugher, hands under the poor Crocion's armpits, "No, please, my moth- ... daughter!"

"She'll be fine," de Luca said, "Our colleague Rosa will see to her en route."

Tan turned from observing the door, understanding de Luca's initiative, "Agreed. We've got less than 12 minutes before Romulans, and possibly whoever else is in their empire's employ at this station, start swarming onto this ship and ripping it apart... hopefully only metaphorically."

Iorte nodded, "Is there another schematic we can bring up, one which might normally be out-of-bounds to Crocions and lower-level scientists but can be accessed from this room?" he asked Vakrik. "This place is well-appointed after all... You need all this space for your scientific work, presumably, and considering your professional career may soon be at an end, I'd suggest looking for a way to work round a Romulan firewall..."

David agreed, "We need an escape pod, Vakrik. Fleeing the Gecius in such a way, in open space, would be dangerous, but with this ship making dock, main power is going to be shut down, isn't it? And -"

"I can't tell you where the escape pods are; computer security is too tight," Vakrik said apologetically, but he swung into his office seat that'd been jammed up into the corner of the room by the presence of the futon, "However, I can use a schematic to locate this vessel's docking ports, without drawing unwanted attention, and -"

"Ten minutes, Vakrik."

"Ah, ha," the Crocion said suddenly; he'd now recovered some of his characteristic affable brightness, "I've located four docking ports used for embarking and disembarking personnel. Sorry, have never had to use them, we were always beamed to and from our homeworld. Two of the ports are on starboard and not part of any linkage with Zova Dox. Of the other two ports, vestibules have been extended to both; the nearest to us is now admitting flow of about 40 inspection officials, the second available vestibule and airlock is much farther but not, I believe, currently in use; it's powered down at the moment, in fact. Ah, it's near the bridge complex. I believe it provides has a somewhat clandestine character, in allowing the most senior officers to leave and board the ship. It'll be difficult of access."

"Regardless, the last-mentioned is our only way onto Zova Dox," Clancy nodded, Tan tentatively agreed. "Time to traverse the ship from here to that airlock, before General Rivahu's inquisitors are amongst us?" Iorte sighed with impatience.

"Eight of your minutes, venerable Starfleet officer," Vakrik nodded, standing from his desk's chair which was trapped against the futon, and stumbling from the quarters' office compartment.

The group of seven had eight minutes, which became three mintues, as - somehow, mostly by avoiding the better-used routes and using maintenance hatches and ladders where available - they arrived at the port forward airlock, just two decks below the level of the bridge though some 150 metres to port of the bridge complex itself. A tunnel for the private use of just Commander M'Sak and perhaps a couple other officers extended from the ward room - adjacent to the bridge - to this airlock. The stowaways, however, had found a way into the tunnel via a maintenance hatch.

Noon approached the panel to the side of the inner airlock door, Tan, Clancy and de Luca watching the approaches - crouched in cover with phaser rifles held aloft. Iezeld and Vakrik walked with Meptia but the latter pushed them vociferously aside, striding on faster, approaching the inner hatch and pushing Noon away. "I can help," she said, still weak from the earlier attack.

Iorte saw blood drip from Meptia's temple onto her hand; the deep red ran silently over the lock's mechanisms. "This requires an high-level access code, only in the possession of senior and flag officers; sometimes the airlock can be configured such that no one on the warbird will know an officer has departed."

Thinking unfavourably upon the Romulan need for absolute secrecy - their shadowy command structure, military forces under the ubiquitous glare of hidden organisations - Iorte entered the airlock about in the middle of the group; through the outer hatch was the vestibule leading onto the Zova Dox asteroid field facility.

Vakrik turned to Tan once they were at the end of the vestibule - now only a small battered hatchway lay before them and presumed passageways of the Zova Dox station.

"Mr Tan, I have an idea. You wish to manipulate the Romulan commander's mind, with the PicoFarad tech, yes...? Well, you at least signalled some sort of agreement. If I can communicate with one of my own people still aboard the Gecius, transport from here one of your personnel devices - commbadges? - to him for him to attach to the PicoFarad neural console... You might find a way to beam that PicoFarad tech from there to here."

Tan was perhaps a little incredulous: if only the PicoFarad psionic device had been in Vakrik's quarters and not the vacated lab, the Starfleeters may have been able to carry it with them; Tan seemed uncertain, Vakrik shook his head, "I admit I don't how you could perform the beam-out undetected by the station or the warbird, but if you want the means to subvert the mind of the Romulan Commander and others of his staff this presents such an opportunity."

[David Tan]

Airlock connecting IRW Gecius to Zova Dox Facility ::

"..... you at least signalled some sort of agreement. If I can communicate with one of my own people still aboard the Gecius, transport from here one of your personnel devices - commbadges? - to him, for him to attach to the PicoFarad neural console... You might find a way to beam that PicoFarad tech from there to here..." Tan was perhaps a little incredulous, "I admit I don't how you could perform the beam-out undetected by the station or the warbird, but if you want the means to subvert the mind of the Romulan Commander and others of his staff this presents such an opportunity."

"There's no way we can use the transporter, David..." Elena said quickly, "... He has said as much, it will be detected well before we can 'manipulate' M'Sak or anyone else,"

"I'll go back for it," Tan said.

"THAT is a RIDICULOUS IDEA!" de Luca said, shaking her head id disbelief.

"It's the only way..." Tan replied, looking at the Crocion, "... Give me your lab coat," he waited in silence as the man took off the coat, it was ill-filling but would hopefully do what he needed it to do.

"You cannot pass as one of us, you must know that," Vakrik said unhappily.

"If this thing allows me to get within arms' reach of anyone spotting me, I'll be able to silence him before he raises the alarm. Contact your colleague, have the device ready when I get there," he was about to leave when he realised that Clancy had also moved to the airlock door:

"You don't think you are going alone, do you?" the man said, more statement than query.

"Elena, Rosa, Iezeld, take these two onto the facility, find somewhere to hole up until we return. Once we're back in the airlock I'll contact you for your location," he said as Vekrik grasped his arm.

"You will need this..." he handed Tan a small chip, "... It contains the access code for this airlock along with other... Commands ....." David looked at the small piece of clear plexiglass, turning it slowly in his hand. He couldn't help wonder 'how' Vekrik had come into possession of such information, nor did he have time to question the Crocion on the topic. He placed the chip in his pocket and opened the airlock door. Thankfully the corridor beyond was empty and he stepped out into the open, Clancy a metre behind him. As the 'lock door slid back into place the two Intell Officers moved quickly to find a way back up to the Lab where a smaller, more portable version of the device would be waiting for them.

It took almost fifteen minutes of nerve-wracking walk to reach the lab ..... Knowing they had no other options open to them they approached the door and activated the release pad ..... Inside were two more Crocions, both Female.

"I am Talpa, this is my colleague, Durapa, Vakrik gave us instructions to comply immediately with your requests,"

"He instructed you to give us the device, I'd like it now, please," David said, seeing the second woman moving slowly to one side. Without warning, she raised a weapon, clearly Romulan!

"I am afraid I cannot comply," she said with a smile at her genuinely incredulous colleague. The blade left Clancy's hand on a trajectory toward the woman named Durapa, it impaled itself deep in her throat, the shock on her face was obvious as she reached up to touch the weapon, she began to raise the phaser but dropped to her knees before she could fire. Iorte ran forward, grasping the phaser and stopping the Crocion hitting the deck too noisily.

"Has she contacted anyone ?! ..." Tan asked quickly as Talpa pointed towards a small storeroom watching as Clancy trapped the woman across the room, "... Well!"

"I .... I do not know, I was in my quarters when Vakrik contacted me, she was already here when I arrived," the clearly shocked and frightened woman replied, eyes locked on the corpse as Clancy put several crates in front of the dead woman and closed the door, he saw a small panel and activated the lock.

"They shouldn't see her unless they enter the storeroom itself,"

"The device... Do you have it ready?" David asked, placing a hand on the woman's shoulder to hopefully ease her distress.

"It will take a few moments," Talpa said, moving quickly. David looked at Iorte, knowing full well that his friend did what he needed to do to ensure their safety, Clancy in turn remained expressionless.

Talpa took a case from a locker, approximately a meter by a meter and half a meter deep .... Placing it on one of the tables she took a piece of equipment off another table and placed it inside the case, she then took a second, explaining that they would need to be connected and powered-up before activation, saying Vakrik knew how to operate and target the device. She was still packing when the door slid aside ..........

[Iorte Clancy]

Clancy checked the body of Durapa was secure and that there was no sign of any sort of struggle in the room, no blood on the floor from her neck wound, no clue that might lead someone towards the cabinet. He placed things back the way they were and turned back to the room, dusting his hands off. Talpa was making quick progress in her packing up of the PicoFarad device, and Tan was watching the door.

Iorte took stock, their first priority overall had to be to return to the El Alamein or whatever Federation starship was heading out this way (they had to assume that one was able to pursue, otherwise they had nothing to base their actions on at all), and from there to Starbase 47. If they could achieve the first, they might also like to take back this portable version of the PicoFarad tech, and whatever else they might grab to aid in intelligence. First things first, they had to escape the inspection that was presumably still ongoing.

The door slid aside and a Romulan entered. The Uhlan raised his disruptor rapidly at Tan. "No further!" Tan said, phaser having already been raised and now zeroing in on the Uhlan's cranium.

The Romulan remained impassive, seeming quite cool for one of his passionate race; eventually he spoke, "If you would lower your phaser, Starfleet officer, I will lower my own weapon. It wouldn't be right to attack you, a potential ally, nor would it be right for you to attack me, for the same reason. It would be most illogical."

Clancy lowered his own weapon but Tan kept his own raised until the Uhlan had dropped his disruptor, "Very well, a show of trust," he said, leaving the weapon on the deck and raising his hands, "I don't blame you." Tan's phaser dropped a fraction.

"Your communicator," Clancy gestured, and the Uhlan nodded and took off his Romulan's commbadge equivalent and threw it into Clancy's clasping hand.

"You are Starfleet Intelligence. I - am not a Romulan but a Vulcan... I have been on this vessel, the IRW Gecius, for 2.7 years. I predicted you would return to the Gecius too soon, after deciding to disembark for the duration of the inspection. Such is your irrational nature, and grasping tendencies for technology such as that developed by the Crocion scientists."

"Now, look here, mister -" Clancy began.

"Enough, enough... enough," the Vulcan spy - if he was as he claimed to be - characteristically for Vulcans didn't hide his sarcasm and impatience very well. "Now, I hope to assist you, and in return perhaps you will assist me. The Zova Dox inspection will be passing through this sector of the ship in the next few minutes. To attempt to return to your airlock of choice by the same route as you came here will only get you killed. To survive, you must follow me. Once I have guided you successfully, I will ask for use of the PicoFarad technology... that Talpa has just finished with... to assassinate General Rihavu of the Zova Dox installation."

There was no way Clancy and Tan could trust the Vulcan, and said as much to him. The Vulcan attempted not to roll his eyes and instead rolled up a sleeve to extract a scalpel; he drew blood from his palm and offered a drop of the green fluid for close study by Clancy's tricorder. Iorte nodded, "I'm reading unique identifiers and genetic markers; it would appear he is Vulcan as he claims," he looked up, "But then this can be faked."

"Regardless of your doubts, the window of opportunity is closing," the impostor Uhlan said, "Rihavu's teams will be here in under a minute. My own absence of passion will spare me the emotional disturbance of being apprehended. The same may not be said for human beings, no matter the discipline to which they may have subjected their minds."

Tan and Clancy conferenced and agreed, following the Vulcan with weapons raised, Talpa following in their wake with the PicoFarad tech transported on a small anti-grav gurney. Clancy saw reason in protecting her and the device and fell behind, bringing up the rear.

Not heading for an airlock, the Vulcan guided them to his quarters, appropriately shielded from sensors, he claimed. The inspection teams had already passed through here in any case. It appeared a typical Romulan officer's quarters, this known only in a negative sense - it wasn't adorned with any Vulcanian objects.

The inspection having passed through and presumably soon to conclude, there was as much reason to leave the experimental warbird Gecius as there was for the rest of the team to remain aboard Zova Dox. Either way, to unite they'd have to head to Zova Dox or the rest of the team should head back here. Vakrik - presumably also his young mother Meptia - being the only ones able to operate the PicoFarad device was perhaps the only deciding factor. Clancy reminded Tan and the Vulcan of this.

The Vulcan nodded as he returned from surveying the corridor, "If one of Meptia and Vakrik could make it to these quarters, he or she could use the device to target Rihavu from here. The device's range is sufficient." He looked back at the door, "I believe the inspection is finished. If you wish to join your colleagues on Zova Dox, with or without this device, I won't prevent you. I have bridge duty." He left the quarters.

Meanwhile, the El Alamein - with its helm locked out and making its way roughly towards New Romulus - was apprehended by a D'deridex class warbird. The Romulans beamed a party across to inspect warp core, computer core, nacelle damage and the locked-out navigation.

[David Tan]

David watched as the Romulan, or Vulcan 'spy' left his quarters, the door gliding silently closed behind him. He sat on the bed as Iorte retrieved the earlier discarded weapons:

"Is it just me, or is this all getting a little 'too' complicated?" Tan mused, shaking his head.

"Why do you think he's intent on using the device on the base Commander?" Clancy replied.

"There's no way of knowing, our main objective is getting off this base and somehow back onto a Federation vessel before our luck runs out completely..." David replied, getting up to begin a search of the quarters, ten minutes later he was no further forward, he had found nothing to prove or disprove the man's claims, "... Let's say we believe the Romulan, Vulcan, we give him the means to use the device then what: if he targets Commander Riahvu, then his colleagues will know and they will double their efforts to find their culprit. If he uses it to incapacitate the whole facility then ..... What?"

"Either way, we have to make a decision, go back over to the facility, or contact Elena and have her bring the others back here,"

"I still can't see why the spy would want to target the Commander, if he wanted off the facility then there must be numerous ways he could achieve that ..... No, I think there's something else over there that he wants," Tan said.

"This place is a research facility right, so it's plausible to think they are developing new kinds of offensive and defensive technology?" Clancy commented.

"Why reveal himself to us?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," Iorte said his irritation at their situation clear.

"I can't believe that he wants to share whatever he's found, otherwise he would have found a way to contact Vulcan to be recalled or a Federation post for that matter, so why the sudden revelation,"

"He knew we were Starfleet," Clancy said.

"How?" but all Iorte could do was shrug. It seemed they were such between the proverbial 'rock and a hard place' on this, but they had to make a decision. If all went well, no-one would enter these quarters, so theoretically they were safe until the spies duty shift ended, at which point he would presumably return unsuspected. David conjected that the Gecius would likely remain at the facility for some time, restocking, cargo transfer, downtime for the crew, so hopefully, they had time to act. His worry was that the ship would suddenly depart, thus separating them from the others still on the facility.

"It's possible he took a stab in the dark about us and given our lack of denying his statement, it confirmed his suspicions?"

"So he's looking at us as a means to an end, he helps us, we give him what he needs ..... It still begs the question 'why' but that aside, we would have to assume he has a means of getting off the Gecius and presumably back into Federation space before his identity is discovered, which in turn could give us a way out alongside our Vulcan spy," Tan mused.

"Then we bring the others back over here?..." Clancy asked, mulling over options before nodding, "... My only worry is that there are only so many places we can stay hidden, and if M'Sak or Kavik decide to scan the ship we'd be hung out to dry quickly. Our other worry is what he wants on the facility, I have a feeling he's about to say we're helping him out in return for safe passage,"

"We may have no option but to help him," David said resignedly ......

Aboard USS El Alamein
Adrift ::


The D'deridex Class warbird, passed the Federation vessel and made a slow turn to Port, finally matching heading with the drifting ship. They contacted the El Alamein instructing everyone to prepare to be boarded for inspection. The Romulan vessel closed the distance to six hundred meters and held station, moments later a six-man boarding party materialised on the Bridge!

foregoing introductions the Romulans meticulously made their way through the Defiant Class vessel, checking then double-checking, scanning panels, opening others, moving quickly through the ship pushing El Alamein crew aside. One of the crew unwisely complained and received the butt of a rifle in his jaw for doing so ..... All the while, the Senior Staff were held on the Bridge, one Romulan eyeing them with clear distaste. Finally, the person in charge returned, he looked at the crew, finally focusing on Komin, he approached her, suspicion in every line etched into his face:

"How, did you come to suffer such damage?" he asked quietly.

"We were attacked," Komin replied, deciding not to expand on her answer.

"By whom?"

"We have no idea, though a couple of suggestions pop to mind," Fran said, clearly goading the Romulan. The back of his hand landed on Komin's jaw, knocking her off her feet. Demik and Massa took a step forward, halting as several disruptors spun in their direction. Fran wiped the blood off her cheek and looked at the Romulan Commander impassively.

"This, vessel ..... What is it's purpose?" the Romulan asked, turning to address Milo Van.

"Mapping," he replied instantly, clearly amusing the Commander.

"..... Mapping, hmm, where, may I ask?"

"The Tau Delx 94 cluster," Van answered. The Romulan seemed to mull this answer over as he walked around the Bridge, glancing now and then at inactive consoles.

"..... And how did you come to be drifting into Romulan space?"

"We were attacked before we could react, their first volley took out our drive systems, navigation, and main computer..." Komin began, deciding to continue the Romulan turned to face her once again, "... Secondary systems failed moments after they attacked a second time. we managed to get life support and artificial gravity back, but nothing else. In fact, until you 'arrived' we had no way of knowing which direction we were heading. Thankfully, you can tow us to the nearest Starba ....."

"I do not think so, Captain. You entered Romulan space without permission, you will be towed to a Romulan Base, where you are your crew will disembark and a more 'thorough' examination of your ship will be carried out,"

"Oh, I don't think so, Commander..." Komin said, sitting up in her chair, "Mister Kennit, is the probe ready?" she asked, eyes on the Romulan.

"Yes, Captain," the Science Officer confirmed.

"Prepare to release..." Fran said, raising her hand off the armrest a fraction, "... Commander, everything that has happened to us prior to the attack, and subsequently, have been recorded, including your arrival. The probe is set to return to the closest Federation Outpost. Last I checked the Romulans and the Federation were 'friends' of sorts, so you're taking us against our will could prove, somewhat delicate amongst the higher echelons,"

She fell silent, waiting while the man clearly weighed up the pros and cons, the main 'pro' being their capture of a Starfleet vessel, the main 'con' being he could start a war if he acted rashly ..........