Mission 35: Sleepers

[Carl Torek]

~ Mission 35: Sleepers ~

~ Synopsis ~

ooo000ooo


Approximately fifteen years ago, almost invisible devices were unknowingly implanted into four seemingly random people, designated 'Sleepers'
The Neural-Synaptic Gel Interface, which rests against the cerebellum of the wearer, was being used to store vital, highly confidential, information
Which in the right hands could bring the Federation to its knees

All the while, the currier remained completely unaware of his or her complicity

'The Cabal'

The people responsible, have been patient, biding their time, whilst rising within their own professions into positions of authority
Waiting until they felt that the time was right to remove the Federation from what they deemed its lofted position over so many Races

'The Annex'

Now, someone else has learned of the Sleepers, and the responsibility they were entrusted with many years earlier
These people are now intent on irradicating the custodians of this information before the Federation collapses

... Today ...

With the Federation completely unaware of earlier events
The USS Raven-C has been dispatched from Starbase Forty-Seven to investigate a Klingon Vor'cha Class Heavy Cruiser, adrift on the Federation side of the border
Finding the vessel supposedly abandoned, they have rescued the vessel's only survivor

⁜

[Carl Torek]

Beta Docking Arm ...
Starbase Forty-Seven ::

Having reassured the Director of Federation Intelligence, Admiral Nia Lemond, that the Raven could return if or when needed, he had returned to the Family Suite on the Starbase to pick up the last few items he was taking with him. He remembered the conversation with Nia, wondering just 'who' he was trying to reassure, her or himself ..... He didn't want to leave the Starbase given they were trying to hunt down a group known as 'The Pirates' who had been responsible for the deaths of at least three people on the 'base, but the issue of the adrift Klingon Cruiser was pressing, and with no other Starships available, he had had no option but to take the Raven out to investigate .....

En Route to unidentified Vessel
Identified as a Vor'cha Class Cruiser ::

The turbolift came to a stop, the doors gliding almost silently aside ..... For a long moment, he stood still, wondering if he had done the right thing joining the ship, rather than remaining to help in the search aboard the Starbase, knowing his Executive Officer, Commander Blakus, could have handled the investigation into the drifting Klingon Vessel easily.

But here he was ..... He sat in the Center Seat as Andae handled the ships' departure from the Dome and into open space. He set course for the Klingon Vessel at warp four, then sat in his own seat beside Torek and Calli Valente opposite. Andae tapped several instructions into the PASS set in the arm of his seat, then motioned to the information on the viewscreen:

"The Klingon vessel has been identified as the IKS Kzir'pA..." Blakus said double-checking information on a PADD handed to him before continuing, "... The High Council now reports it missing, previously part of Defence Force Mobile Response Unit Eight, which had been patrolling this region of the border their side,"

"What took the Council so long?" Torek wondered aloud.

"It's possible the Commander of the Response Unit didn't see fit to report the incident; Klingon Military communications, when it comes to their tech, are usually fairly efficient... The weak link might lie in the Chain-of-Command itself and there aren't many Commanding Officers or Bureaucrats imposed between a vessel or unit Commander wanting to get something to the Defence Force Headquarters, or the High Council."

"Lysia, see if you can make contact with the nearest Klingon outpost," Torek said, "Pass a message that a 'High Official' of Federation Starbase Forty-Seven wishes to speak to the Commanding Officer of their Mobile Response Unit Eight. That should get their attention....." T'Seng acknowledged and set to work as the Raven closed on her target.

"No reply Admiral," Lysia said.

"Hmmm ....." was all he replied, distractedly.

~~~~~~~~~~

"Distance?" Carl asked.

"Two point zero three million kilometres," the Gynoid at Helm informed him.

"All stop... Hold position here..." he said, his chin resting on one hand, the elbow in turn on the arm of his chair, "... Run a long-range scan... Is there anything in our quadrant?"

"Nothing," T'Seng replied from Tactical.

"What about the Klingon border, anything moving there?"

"I'm not picking anything other than us, and the Klingon Cruiser Admiral,"

"OK... Helm, take us to fifty thousand kilometres and hold position relative to the Cruiser," he instructed, waiting as the distance between the two massive vessels closed, nodding as Marionette confirmed the distance was stable, "... Can we get a tractor beam onto that ship and bring it to a stop?" he asked. Blakus confirmed that despite slight hull stresses, it should be able to withstand the forces inflicted upon it whilst slowing to a complete stop. Carl asked Andae to see to it, waiting as the two vessels, began to slow ..... Finally, after ten minutes, they were stationary.

Carl listened as his Senior Officers did their jobs, reporting on their findings as they received them. He was surprised to hear that one Klingon remained aboard, always believing that the Klingon's had no use for such things as 'Escape Pods' believing escape to be dishonourable, apparently choosing to die and be allowed into Sto-vo-kor, than live in shame 'Well good for them' the thought oozing sarcasm as Andae spoke:

"Sir, recommend we transport the remaining Klingon aboard...?" he requested then turned to Lysia, "... Can we track the escape pods?"

"All escape pods were initially heading back into Klingon space..." T'Seng replied, frowning, "... But their traces disappear well before the border,"

"Yes, transport him directly to Main Sickbay, have Doctor Roach keep him sedated, and let's put a forcefield between him and everyone else, just to be on the safe side... I don't need an irate Klingon running amok ..." Torek ordered, standing to walk closer to the viewscreen, "... How's structural integrity over there?" he asked.

"Nothing immediately worrying, it should stay in one piece unless pushed too hard," Lysia confirmed.

"..... and there are still no other vessels in this quadrant...?" he asked, wondering where the hell the Klingon's were, "... Andae, take a team over there, let's get a look while we can," he said, returning to his seat ..........

[Calli Valente]

On the transporter pad, the away team, consisting of:

Commander	Andae Blakus
Commander	Calli Valente
Commander	Milyanov
Lt. Cmdr	Nate Tinsley
1st Lt	Zu Yang
2nd Lt	Dave Scott

..... Were waiting, while the Transporter Chief had found a suitable location to beam into the Klingon Vessel ... They wanted to beam in close to the snagged escape pod holding the only remaining occupant of the ship after it was abandoned. Having attempted to transport the Klingon directly out of the pod into Main Sickbay, they had met with resistance, and it was decided that the away team would free the pod then it, along with its occupant, would both be beamed aboard the Raven, and extraction completed there .....

"Whenever you're ready Chief ....." Blakus said with a wry grin as he shook his head in mock annoyance.

"It's not going anywhere," Calli said with a wry grin as the Chief confirmed he was ready ...... Blakus nodded, then they felt the tell-tale caress of the transporter and the Raven disappeared from view. Seconds later they materialised in a dark, damp corridor ..... The two Marines, acting as both Security and Medical, moved off left and right as the others turned to look at the pod still held fast. Milyanov and Tinsley began assessing the pod while Andae and Calli discussed heading towards the Bridge of the massive vessel.

"You smell that?" Calli asked.

"They're Klingons..." Blakus replied, clearly believing his comment was explanation enough as he stopped to squint at a schematic of the ship. Calli, seeing as little as he was, found a control panel and managed to bring the lighting throughout the Vor'cha Class Heavy Cruiser up to something they could live with, "... According to this, we're next to their Shuttle Bay, so we need to go, down one deck, then forward, then up, erm, three to the Forward Bridge,"

Valente nodded then turned to the two Engineers:

"Can one of you work of releasing the pod while the other goes Aft to their Engineering Section, try to find some way to access their computers,"

"I'll go....." Nate said, beating Milyanov by a fraction of a second in volunteering. She instructed Lieutenant Scott to accompany him, then turned to see Andae, who along with Lieutenant Yang were further along the corridor, they were taking their time, checking rooms off both sides of the corridor as they reached them. Calli did likewise, using her tricorder to scan ahead and behind her, occasionally raising, or lowering the device to get an idea of the Decks above or below them.
The Vor'cha Class Cruiser was large, comparable in size to the Raven herself, and would normally hold almost nineteen hundred Officers and Crew, so where the hell was they, and way was one left behind? ...

As she caught up with Blakus and the Marine Lieutenant, she heard Andae's commbadge chirp to life, pausing he tapped the badge:

=^= Blakus =^=

=^= Milyanov .. .. I've managed to free the escape pod .. The oxygen level was almost zero in there .. Any longer we'd be looking at a corpse .. It's been transported to the Raven =^=

=^= Understood .. What happened to cause it to jam? =^= Calli asked.

=^= The manual override had been tampered with .. It was never going to move more than a few millimetres .. Just enough to prevent the door from being opened =^=

"Why would they want to trap one of their own?" Yang asked no one in particular.

=^= Beats me .. .. Maybe we can ask him once he's revived enough to talk .. I'll go meet Nate in Engineering unless you want me up there =^= Milyanov replied, having heard the Marines' query.

=^= OK .. Try not to do any damage .. The Klingons are bound to know we've been here but I don't want them having any proof we've been tampering =^= Andae said, tapping the badge on his jacket to close the comm. Calli stopped at another Deck Plan Plaque realising this too was something new, Klingons didn't usually require directions, so maybe they were for someone else's benefit she thought as she ran her finger from their current location Torpedo Launchers and Forward Phaser Arrays.

"I'm going to head down to weapons, see if there's anything useful down there," she informed Blakus, who told her to keep in touch as he stepped into what he assumed was a Klingon version of a turbolift, Yang followed, trying not to hold his nose as the smell increased in the confined space ..... Grinning, at their discomfort, she moved through several Decks until she arrived at what she assumed was the lowermost Desk ..... Here, she could see a distinct change, the hull plating was heavily armoured in these sections, understandable, given that she doubted even the Klingons wouldn't want to blow themselves up if hit by a stray or lucky torpedo.

Taking out her tricorder she moved to the nearest console and tapped it, the pressure brought several systems online, including phasers and torpedo aiming. She had never seen these configurations before, and assumed this was one of their 'modified' Vor'cha, not unlike the one encountered previously. Setting the tricorder on the console she brought up targeting schematics and began recording, it was then that the hair on the back of her neck rose!

For a second she remained perfectly still, her hand inching towards the phaser at her hip, then she spun, dropping as she did so. Grasping the phaser she brought it up in a tight arc until it was aiming at arm's length, directly ahead of her. She tracked the weapon left and right as she looked in those directions for whoever had been behind her, but she realised quickly that was alone.

"Frighten yourself half to death, why don't you," she muttered foolishly as she turned back to the console to retrieve the tricorder which was beeping to indicate it had completed its task.

She made a circuit of the room, activating consoles as she reached them, again recording what she could .... Done, she headed for the door which was still open. She stopped, eyeing the door up and down, convinced that it was wider open when she had entered. Shaking off the unease, she went into the corridor and contacted Blakus ..........

[Calli Valente]

USS Raven-C
Station Keeping with IKS Kzir'pA ::

On the Raven, Carl was sat in the centre seat watching the Vor'cha Class Heavy Cruiser a mear five thousand metres from them ..... The vessel, designed and built to intimidate, looked every dangerous inch, the warship. The Klingon's weren't known for aesthetics, the green-painted hull made a statement to anyone lucky enough to get close enough and still be among the living.

"Sir, Commander Milyanov requests the escape pod be transported directly to Main Sickbay immediately, Sir, he suggests having someone from Engineering be there," the Duty Tactical Officer informed him.

"Very well, transport when ready," he instructed.

As the transport of the escape pod containing the sole remaining occupant of the Kzir'pA was completed he again turned his attention to the ship before them as the comm chirped to life:

=^= Sickbay to Bridge! =^=

=^= Bridge =^= Carl said, hearing the urgency in Doctor Roach's voice.

=^= Admiral .. Lieutenant Finch is requesting Commander Blakus and Commander Milyanov be transported back here immediately .. We are having trouble releasing the locking mechanism on the escape pod =^=

=^= Stand by Doctor .. .. .. =^= Torek said, instructing the Comms Officer to contact the two Officers and have them ready for transport... A moment later she confirmed Blakus and Milyanov were in Main Sickbay .....



< Tag : Blakus & Milyanov >

IKS Kzir'pA ::


Calli heard the Comm, and confirmed when Andae informed her that he and Milyanove were returning to the Raven. She was asked to continue the search until contacted.

With only four of the Raven Officers remaining aboard the Klingon Cruiser, Calli decided to meet Tinsley in Engineering, from there they could decide on their next move ..... Nate was stood over a console, deep frown lines crossing his forehead, behind him and facing the door, Marine 1st Lieutenant Zu Yang was standing with his back to the Engineer, a moment later, David Scott entered, having been with Blakus when he beamed out. Calli walked over to Nate and looked down at the inert console. Presuming he had already attempted to activate the console, she nevertheless reached forward and tapped the nearest panel... Nothing happened.

"Maybe it's been disconnected from the ships power supply...?" she speculated as Tinsley shivered, "... Cold, what were you expecting, the balmy warmth of a tropical island?" she asked with a grin.

"No, it's....." the Engineer began.

"It's, what?" David Scott asked a little 'too' urgently for Valente's liking.

"Nothing, maybe it's just this ship being completely, empty... Giving me the creeps," he said, slightly embarrassed.

"No, I too have thought on two occasions that there was someone else, besides us, on board," Yang said, seemingly grateful he hadn't been imagining things.

"We've scanned a fair percentage of the ship ourselves, and I've used the internal sensors to account for everyone..." Valente replied, a subconscious glance at the door before she continued, "... There is no one else on board, just the four of us, so no more jumping at phantoms. In fact, let's get what we can then go back up to their Tactical Bridge,"

"Commander Blakus and I passed the erm, lift, on our way to the Forward Bridge, it didn't look too inviting," David Scott said, remembering the aroma.

"Well, I've got all I can here..." Tinsley said, tapping the dead console once again, shrugging as it remained steadfastly inert, "... Let's go up there now. The sooner we're off this Marie Celeste the better," no one argued with the Engineer as he strode out of the Klingon Engineering Section ..... With Scott taking the lead, Yang followed behind Valente and Tinsley.

"Here..." the Marine said, indicating a dark opening in the dirty rusted Bulkhead.

Calli moved forward and leaned into the Klingon version of a turbolift, "... Three Levels as far as we can tell from the schematic, what to see who can hold their breath longest?" he said, stepping past Valente into the 'lift, the others following. With a jolt the thing moved, stopping on a dimly-lit Level. Like the Forward Bridge, there was only one seat, a smaller viewscreen, and three operations stations. 'Clearly, Klingons didn't put too much store on comfort' Calli thought as she looked around the compact room.

Nate moved to what he assumed was their Tactical and Weapons Station and tentatively placed his hand on the console .... All four involuntarily lept into the air as claxons sounded almost deafening them!

"WHAT DID YOU DO?" Valente shouted over the cacophonous din.

"NOTHING!" Tinsley yelled back, eyes scanning the panel before picking out the only blinking indicator before placing a finger on it. The noise immediately subsided as a screen showed a vessel in close proximity to them. Given they were almost certainly the only vessels in the quadrant, it had to be the Raven.

What was more worrying, was the fact the ships automatic defence systems had brought the shields online and had locked an impressive array of weaponry on the USS Raven-C ..........

[Calli Valente]

IKS Kzir'pA ::

"We need to take the weapons systems off-line," Calli said, receiving a look from Tinsley for stating the startlingly obvious. He was about to reply when her commbadge chirped to life:

=^= Raven to Away Team .. .. =^=

=^= We know Admiral .. Commander Tinsley is trying to deactivate the weapons and shields as we speak =^= Calli said.

=^= I don't have to mention what would happen to 'both' ships should you fire on the Raven at this range =^= Carl said, his voice calm.

=^= No .. We're well aware Admiral =^= She stopped talking as Nate double-checked what he had touched earlier, his feelings were that it all came down to the deactivated console.

"You said it was deactivated..." David Scott said, looking over the Engineers shoulder, "... If it is, then ....."

"It has to be something else..." Calli interrupted the Marine, "... Maybe something was left active when they abandoned ship. There's no way the Klingon's are going to allow a vessel like this fall into anyone hands but their own, maybe we set off some failsafe when we initially boarded, and the defence systems have only now activated. It would work if we take into account that the Raven was keeping a fair distance between it and this ship, the moment we closed the distance and boarded, the systems began to come online," she speculated, about to continue when Zu Yang, stood at another console, spoke.

"What about this?" he asked.

Nate and Calli walked over to where the Marine was standing, he pointed to a display set into the console, it clearly showed their vessel and the Raven, along with the status of phasers, torpedoes, and the shields.

=^= Away Team .. Raven .. Not wanting to interrupt here .. But we are 'still' showing weapons locks on us .. .. =^= Torek said through the comlink.

=^= Admiral .. You should try to put some distance between us and the Raven =^= Tinsley suggested.

=^= Andae feels that could force the automatic systems on the Kzir'pA to react =^= Torek said, having tied-in with Sickbay so Blakus and Milyanov could hear the conversation.

=^= Is there any way you could revive the Klingon you have and ask if he is able .. .. .. =^= Calli asked.

=^= We have our own issues with our guest .. I'm afraid you are on your own over there .. Are you able to bring the ships drive systems online? =^= Torek asked.

=^= I'm not sure Admiral .. Do you have a suggestion? =^= Tinsley asked, open to any and all idea's at that moment.

=^= Nate .. It's Andae .. It might be possible for 'you' could turn the Kzir'pA away yourselves .. If nothing else it would take the forward phaser banks and torpedo launchers' locks off the Raven =^=

=^= Any idea's on how I might make that happen? =^=

=^= It may be possible to vent one of the warp nacelles .. The thrust would be minimal but might be enough to turn the Kzir'pA =^= Blakus said from the Main Sickbay, still trying to extract the suffocating Klingon.

=^= It will have to be done manually .. Otherwise the ship might bring further countermeasures online =^= Milyanov warned as Tinsley, already running for the 'lift, he gave a running account of what he could try while making his way to the Port Nacelle

=^= If I can route the plasma ejection system through the warp field coils, the computer 'should' see it as a routine plasma vent .. Unless the Klingons have thought of this too .. .. I'll get back to you =^=

He closed the comm, not wanting to be distracted while he ran through what needed to be done ... On a Federation Starship, what he was about to try would be difficult enough, having to overcome a barrage of safety measures, but on an unknown vessel, with unknown systems ..... One thing was certain, should it all go wrong, no one would have time to ponder the repercussions of his abject failure ..........

[Andae Blakus]

Blakus and Scott moved into an anteroom to the bridge, a heavy metallic door sliding only partially aside. He squeezed through followed by Scott, and the marine closed the door with a finger to the slow flashing scarlet control panel as Blakus moved with his back turned into the bridge's main arena. A gust of wind seemed to blow from behind them, a dull silvan echo and chilled rustling of something like leaves as if they inhabited a forest at night.

"What on earth..."

"Don't worry," Andae said to the marine who'd caught up with him, "It was probably the change of pressure from the door. Many of these compartments' localised life support systems seem to be functioning incorrectly; there's a large pressure differential from low at fore to high at aft."

As the two moved around the main bridge, Blakus was commed by the Raven. Listening and realising he had to return, he braced himself for whatever might await him in the Sovereign class's sickbay.

Surprised to find Blakus transport in next to him, Milyanov nodded at the first officer and moved towards the escape pod. The pod dwarfed a biobed next to which it'd been beamed in as the transporter operator had realised the load was going to be too heavy for the bed itself. Surrounding the pod were Finch, Dr Roach and a junior medic.

"The release mechanism's not giving, sir," Finch reported, rattling a hand against the panel that should've popped to open position and retracted, as if he was attempting to unlock an ancient automobile's door. "Oxygen is being depleted within the pod all the time."

Andae stepped up alongside the Chief Engineer and then round the pod, finding the status readout, "Has anyone seen this panel?" he asked, appalled and taken slightly off-guard with the realisation that the Raven's scanners had missed something, though what they'd missed was now inanimate matter: the readout showed two sets of biosigns with a humanoid outline next to each, one glowing yellow, the other red. "There are or were two individuals in the pod, one has deceased, apparently for lack of oxygen."

"Let's get this thing open," Milyanov murmured, leaning against the panel while he ran a jerry-rigged Klingon decryption program on his tricorder, "I never thought this would be useful, at least not in the current context." As affirmative lights began flashing on the tricorder, the panel's mechanism clicked and receded to reveal an unconscious Klingon, face without animation except for a passing peacefulness that might suggest he'd fallen into a restful sleep.

The other panel was opened and the unfortunate Klingon was revealed; Milyanov manually closed the panel, not before he'd registered the Klingon's insignia that indicated a reasonably high rank.

The other Klingon had awoken, his eyes roaming back and forth as he rested in one place, "Where... am I?" his voice croaked.

"You're on the Federation starship Raven," Blakus answered, "One of our science ships detected your vessel adrift. We came to investigate."

The Klingon gradually became fully conscious and made some observations, before speaking with difficulty, "I am still in my pod. Where did you find me? On my vessel?" Blakus confirmed it and the Klingon was aghast, "My first officer?"

The assembled gradually realised the Klingon was referring to the individual in the pod with him, "I'm afraid he didn't make it. Your pod's oxygen supply was malfunctioning and was only drawing its supply from your ship; I'm sorry but that link too malfunctioned." Blakus was rapidly evaluating the situation - so they had here the captain of the vessel? His insignia indicated as much, showing a rank superior to the deceased nearby as Milyanov noted.

"Allow me out." The officers looked at one another and all stepped back as Milyanov indicated his tricorder. Dr Roach raised a spacious forcefield around the pod and adjacent biobed. Milyanov remotely activated the outer release mechanism on the Klingon captain's side and after sitting still for a time, presumably to build up his strength, he gingerly raised himself from the pod and walked to the other side. "My memory..." he murmured, "I can recall little of events. People yes, but the incident... Nothing," he looked at Blakus in alarm and then at the deceased first officer.

The Klingon howled the death rite that warded off evil spirits and the shades of enemies, to allow the officer safe passage into the afterlife and he trusted to Sto'vo'kor.

After standing in silence some time to show respect, Blakus spoke, "You'll remain here for now until we can learn what's happened. Perhaps your memory will return to you shortly." He tapped his commbadge to let Torek know the Klingon was secure and awake and that there'd been another in the pod who'd expired.

"Ok, we've got a bit of an emergency up here, Commander," Carl replied.

Meanwhile on the Vor'cha class, the tactical display which had activated showed for a fraction of a second the graphic of another, unidentified vessel on long-range scanners; it faded from view as Tinsley darted back to the display after attempting to disconnect the defence systems manually from a panel.

Torek informed Andae of what was happening and after a time the first officer and Milyanov were put through to the Klingon vessel, able to hear the exchange between the two bridges. Blakus and Milyanov contributed while Tinsley ran towards the port nacelle's main control interface, accessing systems and bypassing the rudimentary safety measures to allow plasma to run through the nacelle and eject mass from the vessel, imparting a yaw to bring it about. He would have to make the plasma flow cease and have thrusters fire to stabilise the yaw or the vessel would rotate back to face the Raven periodically.

[Carl Torek]

IKS Kzir'pA ::

After finally finding what he was looking for Tinsley began to vent plasma as arranged ..... Nate had placed his tricorder on the console and was watching for any change in the Klingon Cruiser in relation to its neighbour ..... At first, nothing happened, frustrated he increased the plasma ejection, fully aware of the consequences should he fail to turn the ship away from the Raven. Then he noticed the reading change, only one degree, at first, then another, and a third. Had the comlink not been open he would have shouted at his success. Suddenly he felt a shudder through the deck plates, he was about to contact the others but Calli bat him to it!

=^= Nate .. You need to get back up here quickly =^=

=^= What's happened? =^=

=^= The Aft Shuttlebay has just decompressed .. .. =^= Tinsley did a quick mental calculation, the bay was above and behind him, so he 'should' be safe, but Calli's next comment changed his mind instantly!

=^= Nate .. Get back here now .. The ship is decompressing sections one by one! =^= she said, unable to hide the concern in her voice.

Tinsley didn't need telling again, he snatched up the tricorder and ran. Seconds later he felt another shudder, still running back towards the main corridor that ran the length of the Vor'cha Class Cruiser, he didn't contemplate looking back. He heard Calli over the comlink giving him a running commentary as yet another section opened to the unforgiving vacuum of space. He almost lost his footing as the ship yawed to Port as part of Engineering decompressed. He asked what was happening still running along the almost six hundred metres long corridor. Valente could only speculate, but she believed it was yet another safeguard to prevent any hostile takeover of the Klingon Vessel .....

USS Raven-C ::

On the Bridge, the three-way comm had just closed and he was watching the Klingon vessel as it began to turn away almost imperceptibly. Breathing a sigh of relief he informed Harry Wedlerson that he had Conn ... He was halfway into the turbolift when the Operations Chief called him back. Torek turned to see something venting from the Aft of the Cruiser:

"What the hell's that!" he asked, reentering the Bridge.

"The Aft Shuttlebay just decompressed!"

"What are they doing over there?" Carl asked, dropping into the centre seat, before he could instruct the Comms Officer to contact the Away Team once again, a second section decompressed.

=^= Away Team .. Raven .. What's happening over there?! =^=

=^= Not sure Admiral .. But we think it could be another protection measure .. Commander Tinsley thinks we need to get off this ship before it's completely open to space =^=

"We can't transport them off while the Klingon shields are up," Lysia T'Seng informed Torek.

=^= You heard that Calli? =^=

=^= Yes Admiral .. It looks like we're going to be stuck here .. All previously activated consoles are now locked .. sir .. It looks like everything Aft of the Main Shuttlebay is now open to vacuum =^=

=^= Where is Commander Tinsley? =^= Carl asked.

=^= Here .. .. Admiral =^= the Engineer said, gasping for breath.

=^= Get to the Shuttlebay .. With luck .. The ship won't tamper with the shuttles themselves .. It will buy you some time until we can get over there for you =^=

=^= On our way =^= Nate said, joining the others running back the way he had come moments earlier, knowing that this section could decompress at any second ..... On the Raven, Carl ran for the turbolift .....

Deck Seven ...
Main Sickbay ::

Torek stormed into Sickbay and headed right to the Klingon Officer:

"Your ship is decompressing sections one by one,"

"Ahh... Indeed..." the Klingon said, an almost disappointed look on his face, then realised everyone was looking at him, "... Apologies, Admiral, let me introduce myself, Captain Ko'vz of the Klingon Heavy Cruiser IKS Kzir'pA ..... The ship I refer to has numerous defence systems as you are undoubtedly becoming aware. Alas, or rather, fortunately for your Officers, something has gone wrong. The three stages should be completed within fifteen minutes. Shutting everything down is the first stage, Decompression the second, and should the ship still detect life signs, it should self-destruct to prevent being taken by enemies of the Klingon Empire," he finished.

"But if you go over there you can disengage those protocols," Carl said.

"I could but why would I...?" the Klingon asked, frowning as he looked at Torek, "... I believe I know you... We met once, years before the disaster that befell you and your Starbase. Oh, I was only a lowly Lieute ....."

"Can you halt the destruction of your vessel, ... OR NOT!" Carl asked.

"I can, though I doubt the Klingon High command would be too happy," Ko'vz said, shaking his head.

"Your rank insignia, Captain, is it policy for Command to assign 'Captains' to their fleet now?" Carl asked, keeping his tone neutral.

"The High Command and I had what you could call, a disagreement on 'policy' ..... Let us say that had it not been for 'influential' family members, I would have found myself scrubbing the hulls of garbage vessels. Alas, here I am, still with my rank, still in Command, but with little more responsibility than to approach unidentified vessels to 'ask' what they carry and where they are heading, A fall from grace indeed,"

"The Kzir'pA ....." Blakus urged, his temper fraying.

"I'm afraid that even 'my' family ties, could not save me, should I hand over a Klingon Cruiser to the Federation," he said apologetically.

"I've got news for you... 'Captain' ... Your so-called friends believe that you are already dead," Milyanov said, pointing at the escape pod, but Ko'vz refused to believe him until he was manhandled by the Engineer and made to look at the pod. He pointed at the forced door, "... The lock and pod release mechanisms were tampered with, you were never getting off that ship of yours alive!" the Klingon looked at the locks for a full minute, then knelt beside the body of his First Officer:

"This ..... Is my Son..." he said, rising with every fibre of dignity he could, "... I trust you are able to reconfigure one of your terminals to display Klingon alphanumeric symbols and form a link to the Kzir'pA's computers?"

Milyanov nodded as Carl pointed to Doctor Roach's office. Ko'vz followed the Engineer, standing in the doorway while the Engineer made the requested changes before stepping aside.

"Admiral... If I do this my life and that of my family will be forfeited. For what it is worth in compounding my fall from grace, I request 'Political Asylum' with the Federation,"

"That's above my paygrade, unfortunately..." Carl replied, a hint of sympathy for the man, "... But I will do everything I can to see you are given a fair and unbiased hearing,"

"I will hold you to that, Admiral," the Klingon said before sitting at the console. Carl ordered that the Bridge viewscreen be put up on the Sickbay monitors. Everyone watched as the Kzir'pA, still turning away, suddenly lit up like a proverbial Christmas Tree! ..... The weapons systems and shields snapped offline before manoeuvring thrusters halted the yaw, and the massive Vor'cha Class Cruiser aligned itself with the Sovereign Class Starship, finally holding position one thousand metres astern, and one thousand metres off the Portside Aft Quarter. The room remained completely quiet for a long moment until the now-disgraced Klingon Captain stood. He walked out of the office, and stood before Carl:

"Sir... I present you the Klingon Heavy Cruiser Kzir'pA," he turned back to the pod, kneeling, then spoke again, "... Would it be possible to bury my Son?"

"We'll see to him, Captain..." Carl said knowing the enormity of what had just happened, "... Commander Blakus, please arrange for our Away Team personnel to be returned to the Raven, then assign a crew to man the Kzir'pA,"

"Admiral, I fear that your Engineers' enthusiasm to turn the ship has vented too much plasma. While you can achieve Full Impulse, Warp Drive is out of the question..." Ko'vz said, "... I also suggest we get underway with all due alacrity, It is rare for a Vor'cha Class Cruiser to remain unchecked for long, undoubtedly, whoever wished my crew and myself dead, will want confirmation of the success of their task," ..........

[Andae Blakus]

"Yes, Admiral," Andae replied. He had the console in Dr Roach's office modified to show Federation symbols and characters and a layout intuitive for the main body of Federation species, but retaining the link with the Kzir'pA which could now be used after Kv'oz had given access to the empty vessel's systems. Andae was able to open the main shuttlebay door and supply power to the Klingon shuttle the remaining away team members had taken refuge in.

He established a commlink, =/\=Shuttle Qe'vis, are you reading me? This is Blakus.=/\=

=/\=Yes, Commander,=/\= Calli's voice came after a time, =/\=We're glad to hear your voice. How did you manage the connection and power-up?=/\=

=/\=We've had help from the Klingon, the captain of the Kzir'pA, no less.=/\= He studied the graphic of the shuttlebay and surrounding space, =/\=Set course for the coordinates I'm transmitting to you now. Once at that location, you should be far enough clear of the cruiser for us to beam you four aboard.=/\=

Calli acknowledged and Roach entered, asking if Blakus was just about done with her office. He held up a hand, "A moment if you please," and swung over to the secondary terminal, opening the personnel roster and assigning a skeleton crew to the Kzir'pA - while the new crew wouldn't be able to set a course and jump to warp themselves, they could monitor the cruiser's status while under tractor beam and the warp power of the Raven, with impulse engines primed to break away from the course on which they were under tow, if the situation called for it.

Wedlerson was assigned to lead the Kzir'pA away team and Tinsley would be his second-in-command, the engineer having to head back to the Klingon vessel immediately. Blakus nodded in satisfaction - Tinsley after all had the most hands-on experience of the Kzir'pA out of anyone aboard with the exception of Kv'oz.

He rose and handed the office over to the CMO, "Our personnel over there should be able to handle the vessel's systems themselves, but if we need to access those systems from here, I'll need use of your office again. That station's the only one correctly configured, unless or until Captain Kv'oz sets up another console."

The XO returned to the bridge and watched for a time an aft view of the Kzir'pA, frowning, being far from sure that all of this added up. It'd seemed too easy to take control of the Vor'cha cruiser and have it drawn along under tractor like this, without any external intervention. Admittedly some hard work remained before them - they didn't really know what'd happened to the cruiser except that the main drive had begun to go critical and the crew at that point had presumably entered their escape pods. This had happened, but they didn't know for what reason or who may have instigated it.

Remembering the Klingon's stated lack of memory, he assigned someone from the counselling department to attend Kv'oz in sickbay.

---

"I don't need you. You aren't helping!" Kv'oz said irritably and shook himself, his armour clinking as the counsellor stood frozen before realising the Klingon captain was only venting his frustration. The counsellor looked to Milyanov for help, who'd remained to study the tampering with the escape pod's release mechanism, the Chief Engineer advising the counsellor go on break.

"You should work with our psychiatric experts, Kv'oz," Milyanov said, raising himself from under the escape pod where he had all the fibre wiring exposed."If you can remember what happened... who knows, you may even be exculpated for having handed the Kzir'pA over to us. Perhaps the Empire will decide that you had no choice, that your actions were determined from the moment you had to abandon your vessel, or before."

Kv'oz sat still on the biobed, eventually nodding his shaggy head, "From before the incident you say? Or from before we had to abandon our vessel... Hmm, perhaps there's no difference. Perhaps the first time we learnt something was wrong, we immediately had to use our escape pods, Fek'lhr take them."

"Do you know who may have been responsible?"

A low growl emanated from the Klingon before he spoke, "Honour demands I avenge my son upon them. I don't know, it may even have been a member of my own crew, or more than one of them. It would not surprise me if some of the senior staff sabotaged my and my son's personal escape pod at some time in the past. I trust you'll be able to learn the time any tampering took place."

"I am trying. In the meantime try to recall events of the days leading up to the incident, though the latter may remain foggy."

"We left Harpalus Prime some three weeks ago, going by your current stardate. Everything was routine, border patrol and customs checks. I had a migraine for a number of days. Wait... There was a ship, or perhaps two," Kv'oz looked at Milyanov in surprise, "Something they fired at us, it overloaded a shield grid... I was overconfident, ordered that torpedoes be primed, and... My memory fails me," he tightened a fist and struck his biobed.

"This is something," Milyanov nodded, "Try to remember details of the vessel, or vessels, what did they look like?"

[Carl Torek]

Main Sickbay ...
Deck Eight
USS Ravan-C ::

Doctor Roach was finishing up her report on her findings after conducting an investigation into the death of Tn'ir, the First Officer of the Kzir'pA. Concluding that the young Officer died of asphyxiation. Closing the report she turned to the scans she had taken of Captain Kv'oz when he too, suffering from oxygen deprivation, had been taken from the escape pod, when something caught her eye ..... She brought the scans up on Sickbay's main viewscreen, larger than the desktop screens, she was able to see more definition. Frowning, she increased magnification to one small section of the third scan. For a second she was going to put the 'shadow' down to a fault on the screen, making a mental note to have Engineering look at it when they had time. Then she turned back: "Computer. Rotate image on the screen by five degrees to the left." she looked at the image closely for a full minute, then asked for the image to be returned to normal view .....

Three Hours Later ::

She tapped the commbadge and asked Admiral Torek and Commander Blakus to join her .....

"What am I looking at again?" Carl asked, squinting and almost ready to climb on a stool to wipe the screen himself.

"There...!" Roach said, manipulating the image manually, "... Resting against the hippocampus, behind the right Amygdala..." Carl adjusted the setting of his prosthetic ocular implant and stood back, tilting his head back and forth while moving through several visual and invisible wavelengths, until the item Roach was referring to was clear, while Andae, not having Carl's advantage, was non-committal on the subject, until she changed the screen's resolution to match Torek's implant.

"..... and that is in Kv'oz' head? ..... It looks like a scar, a square scar, maybe?" Andae said, non too convinced.

"It's not ..... I've only ever heard of these, never actually seen one, they were very 'HIGHLY' expensive, not to mention illegal... Prolonged use tended to cause blocks of memory to vanish... Leading to complete memory loos over years of use." Roach said grinning, clearly relieved the two Seniormost Officers didn't think she was losing her mind, "... It's used for data storage, usually highly confidential data, the kind of information you wouldn't want getting into the wrong hands, access codes, and the like, though why Kv'oz would have one is beyond me. He was never Klingon Intelligence, never did any covert work as far as I can find out?"

"Why didn't it show up earlier?" Carl asked.

"It did, I just didn't 'see' it until I was almost looking at the screen askew. That thing is approximately ten milimetres by ten milimetres by zero point two of a millimetre thick!" she said, clearly impressed.

"So let's just ask him about it," Carl said, but Roach was well ahead of him and had been waiting for one of them to make the suggestion:

"He may not even know it's there," she said.

"How can someone have an operation to fit one of, whatever it is, and not know they have it?" Carl asked.

"Had Kv'oz been involved in some seriously vital or dangerous covert assignments, it would explain its presence, but I've gone through his record, from school to today. I even asked the computer to highlight any gaps, of twelve hours or more ..... No ..... He is exactly what his record says he is. Apart from a forty-eight-hour gap when he fell foul of the High Command, through no fault of his own, and even then he was seen in the Capitol on the Klingon Homeworld on numerous occasions, after that he was practically set aside to pass his time where we found him," the Doctor said with a shrug.

"So he's no 'Super-spy' then?" Blakus asked, almost disappointed.

"To be honest, for a time, I was ready to say that his record was a complete work of fiction, but there are records when he went on holiday, he went exactly where he said he was going, even the times he spent on his estate in the Chu'lki Mountains, where he could have easily been spirited away to do the 'Spy' thing, there are records of him in the local town, shopping, out with his Daughters, with his wife, swimming. No, I can't see how he could have been doing anything covert, he'd have to be in two places at once in my opinion," she said, dropping onto one of the chairs.

"What about since?" Blakus asked.

"Since what?" Roach replied.

"Since he was moved to his current role...?" Carl asked, "... He holds the rank of Captain, in Klingon terms he had a fleet of ships under him. Then he gets sidestepped to his current position. What's he been up to since the move?"

Well, I can't assess Klingon Military Records, so I've no idea," the Doctor replied.

"So the proverbial question is: What's he been up to, and what's on that chip...?" Carl pondered.

"That's two questions," Roach said with a wry grin ..........

[Andae Blakus]

While Kv'oz was still sleeping, he was subject to a non-invasive scan of the area of his brain around the tiny chip. The chip itself was mapped extensively, its contours and whole relief stored on a tricorder, in case the information was accessible from this 3D pattern alone, which was possible, thought Milyanov, as he nodded at Roach who was free to end the procedure and allow the Klingon to come around by himself.

He entered engineering and headed for Lieutenant Finch and an NCO, holding his tricorder aloft briefly and smiling to let them know the scanning had been successful. As he placed the tricorder on the console's small pedestal, Blakus rounded the corner, clearly keen to see what might come of this analysis and the hoped for access to the chip's secrets.

"Ok, finding a way in," Finch said, checking his own tricorder's results against those of the tricorder on the pedestal it was currently networking with. "Taking a scan of the object map. Right, should be on main viewer. Preparing to translate into alphanumeric code; can change to images if that's evidently what's on the chip."

Three of them turned to the central display in the raised part of the pool table while Finch continued working. "Whoa..." the lieutenant said as the screen changed. Blakus observed the display as it flickered and was overlaid with static, a great wash of it passing through and fluctuating randomly across the screen which was now filled with lines of machine code and then winked out to blackness.

"Well, that can't be right," he said, as Milyanov reset the console as well as the tricorder with the image of the chip contained in it, asking Finch to try again.

"I don't know if that'll do any good, sir, though I'll try," Finch responded, "That wasn't an encryption layer or anything of the sort; what we saw was what was on the tricorder and in Kv'oz's brain. Our systems merely seem unable to make sense of it."

They did indeed try again to virtually the same result. "Ok, before the local system begins to get corrupted," Milyanov said, and they brought the attempted reading and analysis to a halt. "I don't understand... I would ask Kv'oz but he seems utterly bewildered. It does seem he's lost his memory, so perhaps he's unable to say whether he had the chip installed recently himself or someone did it for him, or rather to him."

"It seems odd that someone in his erstwhile position should have something so important - or apparently nonsensical - imprinted in his mind," Blakus said, "The counselling department didn't have any luck with him, going by my report. But you said you managed to point him in the right direction, Milyanov, at least some way?"

"Yes, he was able to remember something about a ship, or two ships, encountered by the Kzir'pA and perhaps other Klingon vessels within the last three weeks. He's unable to say exactly who they were, but he's able to eliminate Klingon, Federation or Romulan. So it's either one of the minor powers in this region or perhaps more likely an entirely independent adversary."

"They may have caused him to lose his memory?"

Milyanov frowned and thought on it before replying, "I don't know about that. He can remember leaving the outpost the Kzir'pA was at three weeks ago, but when I asked about events prior to the outpost, he was likewise unable to remember a great deal. I would say those that attacked the Vor'cha - by whatever method - caused the partial core meltdown in all likelihood, and therefore were responsible for forcing the crew to abandon ship. The jamming of the pod may have been coincidental. As for Kv'oz's memory, though, I'd say it goes further back, hmm, perhaps there are biomarkers on the chip. We'll cease trying to read it; see if we can't identify the species of who may have planted it."

"Very good." Blakus began returning to the bridge to report to Torek this news and Milyanov's new plan to learn the implanting species.

* * *

Meanwhile on the Kzir'pA, the unmanned tactical console continued to show another vessel besides the Raven every now and then, appearing and dropping off the sensors every five minutes. Of the small crew assigned, Tinsley had sat at the engineering station while Wedlerson had taken up the centre chair. The cruiser was being towed under tractor at warp 3.5, to prevent hull stresses, by the Raven further into Federation space.

Someone entered the bridge, "Ah, Bute," Wedlerson said on turning, "Take tactical will you?"

[Carl Torek]

SD: 2407.1224 ...
USS Raven-C
Towing IKS Kzir'pA ... Velocity: Warp 3.50 ::

With the help, seemingly willingly, of the Klingon Captain, Kv'oz, the Away Team, led by Commander Harry Wedlerson had brought most systems online, but despite all efforts, the forced expulsion of the Escape Pods had caused damage to the Structural Integrity Systems, making travelling any faster extremely dangerous ..... Carl had left the Bridge of the Raven several hours ago to spend a little time with his family while he could. Bethan and Vanessa had decorated their quarters for Christmas Day, and despite their situation, Carl couldn't help hoping there would be no issues forcing him to remain on duty, at least for part of the day .....

"..... And it's still there?" he heard Andae Blakus saying as he entered the Bridge from the Aft Turbolift.

"Well, yes, and no..." Lysia replied from Tactical, "... It's there, then it isn't," she said with a shrug.

"Possibly another Klingon Vessel with a twitchy cloak?" Lieutenant Svensson commented.

"Twitchy? ....." Carl commented with a grin as he approached the Tactical Station where Blakus was looking over the shoulder of T'Seng, he glanced at Svensson at Science Station 1, "... It's good to know that the best Starship, in my humble opinion, only has the most 'technically proficient' Officers serving aboard her,"

"Jammen Rett," the Norwegian-born Science Officer replied. Carl didn't bother to ask for a translation as he looked at the tactical readout:

"It's still holding position beneath the Kzir'pA?" he asked.

"As far as we can tell, yes..." Lysia confirmed, transposing a Tactical view on the main viewscreen, "... Its five hundred metres below and three hundred astern, or at least every time we actually spot it, it is,"

"They haven't tried to interfere with the Klingon ship?" he asked, the frustration obvious.

"From what little information was can gather, it's likely to be a B'Rel Class Scout Vessel..." T'Seng replied, a shrewd expression forming, "... I 'could' release a couple of proximity charges, that might stir something up with our shadow?" she finished, shrugging when no one seemed to take her suggestion seriously.

"They're taking a big risk if they are simply going to follow us back to Starbase Forty-Seven," Calli commented. Silently, Carl had to agree with her.

"What about our friendly Klingon Captain, is he talking?" Carl asked his Exec'

"Well... Given he's finally coming to terms with the fact that someone attempted to sabotage, or at least make it appear that his vessel was in imminent danger, forcing the crew into Escape Pods, which along with the ejected warp core, promptly disappeared. His own Escape Pod having been previously tampered with, leaving him and his Son to perish of asphyxiation before the ship could be recovered... He's saying surprisingly little, even for a Klingon," Blakus said.

"Great," was all Carl could say as Doctor Roach stepped off the turbolift.

"Doctor..." Carl said, acknowledging her presence, "... Please tell me you have some news,"

"News, yes, good, hmmm..." the Woman said, tapping input into the console at Science 2, "... As far as I can tell, without asking if I can take the thing out to have a good look, not that I believe for a moment that that is even possible. It's some form of Neural-Synaptic Gel Interface, it's powered by the brain itself, and I have an inkling that it would simply rip itself apart if any attempt was made to remove it ..... Admiral, I've checked the Federation Medical Database, even linked into the Mainframe at the Daystrom Institute, we have nothing like it on record,"

"So who the hell put it in his head?" T'Seng asked.

"Beats me, but I do know one thing..." Roach said, presumably pausing for dramatic impact, "... Given the tissue surrounding and enveloping the interface, it's been in his head for at least ten, maybe fifteen years!"

"WHAT!" Calli said.

"I could, of course, narrow that down considerably with better access to the Captain, though I have serious doubts that he would be willing to allow me to slice the top of his head off just to acquire a more precise timeframe," she said, shrugging before erasing the display and heading for the turbolift. No one spoke as she left the Bridge, no doubt pondering the thought of having the top of their head lopped off in the name of Science.

"OK... So the, whatever it is, was put in his head at least ten years ago, so not long after he had been promoted to Captain, and had the issue with the Klingon High Command..." Carl pondered aloud, everyone waiting to see where he was going with his speculation, "... Could the Klingon High Command gained access to as then unknown technology, and have put the thing in there themselves?"

"Why... What would they possibly need to hide in an essentially disgraced Klingon Officers' head, that they couldn't have hidden anywhere much more easily, and securely?" Lysia asked. Alas, Torek wasn't able to give her any plausible answer.

"So, according to the Doctor, it's been there a while, and as far as 'she' can ascertain it isn't any technology we are familiar with..." Calli speculated, frowning, about to suggest something no one was going to like, "... So if he is adamant that he knows nothing about the thing, why not tell him we're taking it out with or without his content?"

"Because he knows we would be bluffing?" Svensson replied.

"Hold on a minute...!" Lysia T'Seng said, suddenly realising something possibly no one else had thought of, "... According to the Doctor, that thing is possibly a data storage device, so either there is some way to access that data remotely. Or, whoever put it in there will have no qualms about taking it out, presumably having put it there in the first place, if or when they need what's on it,"

"Which makes the Captain a very dispensable commodity!" Calli commented.

"How about we be open, and tell him everything we know?" the Ships Counsellor, Lieutenant Commander Miral Grel asked, feeling the need to add her voice to the discussion.

"..... And what if our 'openness' backfires...?" Lysia asked.

"Then we all lose!" Calli commented ..........

[Andae Blakus]

Blakus was sat in his chair on the bridge, slouched slightly and watching the viewscreen which alternately showed forward and aft views from the Raven and then the Kzir'pA. Somewhere in those aft views, particularly from the Kzir'pA, was the hidden Klingon B'rel class vessel, positioned just out of plane of the Raven and Vor'cha class ship, its cloaked passage not causing any disturbance in the starfield that provided a spectacular backdrop.

Despite its cloaking device being faulty, the B'rel class never became visible, not even slightly; the Raven crew were reliant on ship's sensors to reveal the fact of the scout ship's existence. Andae looked over his right shoulder, "Are we any closer to discovering a warp trail?" he asked T'Seng. Despite the B'rel vessel being cloaked they had additionally being able to read the ions given out by the old ship's warp drive.

"Yes, Commander. Given my analysis, I'd doubt that the chasing ship is from Mobile Response Unit 8." That was the force which the Kzir'pA under K'voz's command had been a part of, Blakus recalled. Lysia went on, "It's trail doesn't remotely come from Unit 8's last registered position, even given the trickle of information to which the Klingon outpost closest to this part of the border is allowing us access."

"Where does it come from?" Andae asked wonderingly.

"Tangential to both Federation and Klingon space, out of the nearby regions of the southern galatic halo. It's known there is a Klingon fortress starbase there, dating from the early 23rd century, immediately prior to the first commissions of Constitution class starships to be precise. The starbase has been little visited over the years by either Klingon vessels or their trading partners, and not at all - that we know of - by Federation starships or Fed civilian vessels. The fortress's exact status is largely unknown, even to the Klingons themselves."

"And the B'rel class definitely came from there?"

"I don't know where else it could've come from, unless there are now other colonies and facilities belonging to the Klingons in the near part of the halo, but I would've thought those settlements had come, originally, from their fortress in those regions."

Andae clenched a fist and rubbed the fingers together, then placed them on his arm panel's controls, hovering over the requisite buttons for opening a hailing frequency before withdrawing and clenching the fingers together again, "We'll hold off on trying to comm them for now. Let's begin a series of small course adjustments. Rotate us 10 degrees every 30 minutes, alternately in the lateral and z axes, twice for each direction, before returning us to our original course, then repeat. We'll observe if the B'rel class continues to follow as closely as this." The zigzag course would still carry them - as quickly as they were able given the fragile state of the Kzir'pA - towards Starbase 47.

"Someone is taking a strong interest, either in us or the Kzir'pA, or perhaps both," he said virtually to himself. He wondered if the B'rel class wasn't worth pursuing in its own right - he had a feeling that if the Raven was drawing this much interest, then part of the key to the mystery of the Kzir'pA, to what'd happened to the crew, and to what was in K'voz's head might lie with the B'rel class.

=/\=Bridge, this is engineering. Milyanov speaking.=/\=

=/\=Go ahead.=/\=

=/\=We have some more information from the scan of the neural-synaptic gel interface.=/\=

He entered engineering and approached the main console, "What do we have?" Milyanov drew his attention away from the pool table while Finch who stood beside the XO offered him a PADD. Andae read what was on its screen; a part of the implanted interface's information had been decoded, a very small part, one word: Baskin.

"What's that? A surname?"

Milyanov spoke, "We thought that, too, and had the computer give us results for the name. We have a slew of Starfleet officers, NCOs and Federation officials. Amongst them, the governor of Aldati Prime and his family, who've held the governor position for almost 80 years. The head administrator of Utopia Planitia. The commander of the USS Shetland. A renowned figure from the recent history of the colony at Gamma Orionis. It's also the name of a Federation world. And has hundreds of other uses, inside and outside the Federation."

"Try to decode something more, perhaps we can begin to narrow it down."

[Carl Torek]

Second Day ...
Towing IKS Kzir'pA
Six Days from Starbase Forty-Seven ::

"I'm not one hundred percent sure as to what part of my explanation you are failing to understand ....." doctor Roach said as Carl asked yet again how long it would take her to access the interface implanted in the Klingon's head.

"It's quite simple, Doctor... Captain Kv'oz has given permission to try every means at your disposal to get the information in his head..." Torek asked, trying to hold his temper in check, "... So, how long?"

If the 'Captain' there has the access codes, along with the description protocols, I'll be more than happy to comply. But as we both know, he is saying that he has no recollection of the device ever being implanted, let alone how he or anyone else would go about getting at whatever information is on it .... Off it! ..... From what I have read, which is very little given no one seems too keen to advertise this type of equipment openly. There are two means to adding or retrieving data, one is to 'physically' connect with the device, which would require a microscopic interface, one that I don't have, and have no idea as to how to manufacture one..." the Doctor said, moving away to check readings on one of the screens in Main Sickbay, Torek, Blakus, and Valents following like obedient sheep, "... The other would be via a link, possibly sub-spatial, that could access the interface in situ, and before you ask, no, I don't have one of those either,"

"Why would anyone invade my privacy in such a manner, it is dishonourable!" Kv'oz said from the biobed he had been sat on for the last hour.

The comm chirped to life:

=^= Bridge to Admiral Torek =^= Carl walked over to the desk and tapped the comlink.

=^= Torek =^=

=^= Sir .. We have received a subspace communication from the Klingon homeworld .. They are demanding to know why we have taken one of their vessels without content and demand we release the tractor immediately =^= T'Seng relayed.

"So the ship following us supposedly covertly 'is' part of the Klingon Military," Calli said.

=^= You explained that we contacted the High Command regarding the Kzir'pA =^=

=^= Yes Sir .. This isn't from the .. Klingon High Command .. .. .. =^= Lysia replied.

=^= So who is it from? =^=

=^= They declined to introduce themselves when asked Sir .. You are to confirm that you found the vessel abandoned .. Taking it under tow without permission .. You are also instructed to set the Kzir'pA adrift immediately =^=

=^= Tell them I will need more infoma .. .. .. =^= he stopped talking as the Raven shuddered.

=^= Admiral .. The previously cloaked vessel has fired on us .. We have been given thirty seconds to confirm the Kzir'pA was abandoned and to set it adrift .. Or they will =^=

"They don't know we have him..." Calli whispered, motioning to Kv'oz, who remained expressionless, "... So they either don't know he's alive, or are expecting to find his body when they board,"

"Give them the ship..." Andae suggested in a whisper, "... I doubt what we need is over there anyway?"

Calli nodded in agreement with the Exec'. Carl looked at Kv'oz, who just returned the look giving no clue as to how the Raven Commanding Officer should react. He was still pondering options when the ship shook for a second time, this time more violently than the first, clearly the other ship was getting impatient. He approached the desk:

=^= Commander .. Confirm we found the Kzir'pA abandoned .. Release the tractor and drop us to impulse .. Raise shields and bring weapons online .. We're on our way =^= He closed the comm then approached the Klingon Captain:

"Why would they be under the impression that your ship was abandoned with all hands?"

"I cannot answer you, Admiral. Did you yourself not say that my escape pod had been 'tampered' with to ensure I remain aboard..." Kv'oz replied, "... Why leave me there only to be picked up by my own rescue vessel?" Torek had to admit that he couldn't answer that one. From what they had discovered, the Klingon core containing the singularity was ejected for no good reason, effectively leaving the ship adrift months from the nearest rescue at sunlight. It was a given that 'someone' meddled with the escape pod, but why leave, why not just get rid of Kv'oz and his Son than disable a perfectly usable Cruiser? Carl pondered.

"With respect, Captain..." Calli began, "... Given there are no signs of your former crew, and once the Kzir'pA was found, your body would be discovered. Someone in authority could put any explanation forward as to how events took place,"

"Indeed," Kv'oz said, glancing at Torek, who turned to the two Security Officers assigned to accompany the Klingon Captain.

"Bring him with us, once on the Bridge take him to my ready room and hold him there,"

"Aye, Sir,"

"I sense our relationship has changed somewhat, Admiral," Kv'oz said as he was led out in front of the others ..... As they reached the Bridge, Carl could see the now adrift Vor'cha Class Heavy Cruiser adrift, still travelling at high sublight having no means to reduce velocity unaided ..... Alongside it, and keeping pace, was a much smaller Klingon vessel, a B'Rell Class Scout Ship Carl Recognised. He dropped into the centre seat as Lysia informed him that the other ship had made no effort to hold the headlong flight of its much larger cousin, and the Raven was holding station relative to the pair.

"Is it possible that 'whoever' ordered the Kzir'pA abandoned, and the escape pod tampered with, wanted whatever is in our Klingon friends' head?" Calli pondered.

"Have they tried to board her yet?" Blakus asked the Tactical Officer.

"No... In fact, apart from taking up their current position, they have done nothing. Possibly waiting on further instructions?" T'Seng speculated.

"Then maybe we should get our people off their ship and take our leave," Carl commented ..........

[Carl Torek]

"Helm, bring us to one thousand metres from the Vor'cha, Tactical, lock phasers on the B'Rel," Carl ordered calmly, sitting with his eyes on the viewscreen as the massive Sovereign Class Starship slowed until it was effectively travelling directly ahead of the Klingon Cruiser .... Two thousand meters away, the small B'Rel Class had also begun to reposition itself, climbing slowly.

At Conn, Lieutenant Anna Fields was making slight adjustments to the Raven, allowing it to fall back towards the two Klingon vessels until there was zero room for the smaller ship to force itself between the two much larger Starships. Carl didn't interrupt the Helm Officer, allowing her carté blanché to act on her instincts. Almost impossibly slowly, the Raven was allowing the Kzir'pA to catch her ..... Now, the USS Raven and the Klingon Heavy Cruiser Vor'cha were a mere one thousand metres apart, and Fields once again matched velocities. The B'Rel Class had now halted its approach, holding at three hundred metres beneath the Vor'cha, any closer and her shields would touch the bigger vessel, effectively forcing her aside. Likewise, with the Raven, they too needed to ensure their shields didn't interfere with the Klingon vessel, the slightest error could send all three tumbling end over end!

"Sir, we will need to drop shields to transport our Away Team back onboard," Dyson said from Engineering one.

"We're aware of that Ensign... " Blakus said, eyes on the Vor'cha, "... Instruct Transporter Room two to confirm when they have a lock on our Away Team,"

"Transporter lock confirmed," the Engineer replied a moment later.

"Sir...!" Lysia T'Seng suddenly interrupted, "... I'm picking up a vessel on long-range sensors, it's on an intercept course with us,"

"How long before it's in weapons range?"

"Forty-one minutes..." T'Seng confirmed."... The B'rel has locked their disruptors onto our Engineering Section," the Tactical Officer added.

"Calli..." Torek said, watching as the Intelligence Advisor moved over to one of the vacant Stations. Unfortunately, the B'rel wasn't inclined to allow them to transport their crew back aboard.

"How much closer can we get before our shields begin to become a problem?" Torek asked.

If we fall back another two hundred metres it's highly probable that the Vor'cha will make contact with our shields and go right over the top of us, as to damage?" T'Seng replied.

"OK ..... Helm, I want you to begin to drop us beneath the Vor'cha, very slowly, understand?"

"Sir?" the woman replied, clearly unsure as to what she was being asked to do.

"Lower us until you are confident that the Vor'cha will pass over us without making contact..." he said, explaining patiently, "... Once you are sure we will pass beneath the Vor'cha, I want you to reduce our forward velocity by one hundred metres per second,"

"Understood, Admiral," the Helm Officer confirmed, turning back to her Station ..... On the viewscreen, the Kzir'pA began to move upwards, so slowly the change was almost imperceptible, but meter by meter, the Raven began to drop below 'Zee' ... Five meters, ten, twenty, fifty ..... Carl was counting on whoever was in Command of the smaller Klingon vessel, would right now be holding back from taking any offensive action, wondering what the Federation Starship was doing. As Lieutenant Fields confirmed they would pass safely beneath the Klingon ship, Carl instructed her to carry out his previous instructions.

Suddenly realising that the Raven was now directly in their path, and slowing, the B'rel dove out of sight until it was almost thirty thousand kilometres below the Galactic Plane, Zee .... Carl quickly ordered the shields dropped and the Away Team transported aboard. Barely had the Transporter Room confirmed they had them when the ship shook violently. T'Seng had superimposed Tactical data onto the viewscreen, the B'rel Class was climbing fast, so fast Carl was convinced they meant to ram the Raven. Anna Fields had been monitoring the whereabouts of the smaller, more manoeuvrable vessel, and had planned accordingly:

Using lateral thrusters, she pushed the Raven to Port, then using the Impulse Engines, pushed the Raven forward, as Lysia snapped the shields back in place, the B'rel passed less than one hundred metres astern of them!

"Helm, warp six!" Blakus ordered ..........

[Carl Torek]

He watched on the large viewscreen as the smaller, more agile B'rel Class pasted behind the Raven climbing rapidly above galactic Zee ...

"Helm, warp six!" the Exec' ordered, watching the Tactical track as the Klingon Scout vessel rolled and began to fall back towards them, that changed as the Raven went to warp, effectively leaving both Klingon ships far behind them.

"Sir, I've been analysing the firing pattern of the B'rel..." Lysia said from Tactical, she frowned as if rechecking her data then nodded, "... When the B'rel fired on us, it wasn't using the full phaser capacity," Both Carl and Andae looked at the Tactical Officer, waiting while she again looked at her readings.

"You're sure?" Calli asked.

"When they impacted our shields they were only using seventy percent of their capacity," T'Seng confirmed.

"So if they were trying to force us away from the Kzir'pA why use reduced firepower?" Calli asked speculatively.

"Are they coming after us?" Carl asked.

"No ..... They returned to Zee still heading in our direction, but long-range scans show they have turned and are currently approaching the Kzir'pA," Carl thought for a few seconds before making a decision:

"Andae, Calli, with me..." he said rising from the centre seat to head for the turbolift, "... Harry you have Conn, I want to know what our guest thinks of proceedings ....."

Deck Seven
Main Sickbay ::

"Admiral..." Kv'oz said as the trio entered, "... I believe you have been driven away from the Kzir'pA,"

"Driven away ..... Interesting analogy..." Calli replied as Torek and Blakus approached Doctor Roach for an update.

"They wouldn't have let you maintain control of a Vor'cha Class Cruiser young lady," the Klingon replied with a smile.

"Doctor Roach believes we can allow our Engineering Staff to probe further into the interface embedded in your head, How do you feel about that...?" Carl asked, Kv'oz merely shrugged noncommittally, so he changed tack, "... Out of curiosity, the B'rel Class Scout, had it been with the Kzir'pA since you left you home Port?"

"I believe you are already aware of the answer Admiral," the Klingon replied.

"Humour me,"

"No ..... When we left Port, the B'rel wasn't with us," the man finally admitted.

"So, given the nominal range and duration of a B'rel's assignment, where would you speculate it originated from?"

"Alas, I cannot answer that," Kv'oz replied.

"Well, I think you can ..... Not only that, you are more than capable of giving us more information than you have been doing thus far..." Torek said, finally making the Klingon Captain think, "... We were ordered away from the Kzir'pA by someone with the appropriate authorisation codes, yet we are fully aware that the order didn't come from the High Council, or anyone associated with it,"

"You believe it was someone outside the Council?" Kv'oz replied, clearly trying to keep his tone neutral.

"You have information in your head that someone has decided they require...!" Torek said, his patience thinning, "... Whether you believe it or not Captain, someone was responsible for the events leading up to your crew evacuating the Kzir'pA and presumably for making sure you remained aboard to suffocate. We've already gone over this Captain, and frankly, I'm beginning to wonder if it wouldn't be best to turn the RAven around and return you to your own people!"

"You appear to be under the impression that I 'KNEW' of the implant ....." Kv'os said in almost a growl.

"Actually, no, I'm convinced you had no idea it was there. As to how it got in your head without you knowing is something I'm going to set aside, at least for the time being. But my problem still stands ..... At this point, all we have is several splintered segments of data and one full name: Either _ASKIN possibly, BASKIN... Either way, you have no idea how many people within the Federation have that surname, so you can hopefully understand our frustration, Does either name bring anything to mind?"

"There is one other fragment, but we still can't fully access the data to get a more precise result, maybe you can help..." Blakus said, watching the Klingon closely, "... All we can decipher so far is... _O_TR___ ....."

"Any idea what that could refer to...?" Carl asked, moving to one of the screens to look at the data. He turned the screen so the Klingon could see it, "... Does this mean anything to you?" the screen showed a detailed overlay of the surrounding space around the Raven. On it could be seen the location of Starbase Forty-Seven, which they had been heading away from at warp for over an hour now. On the very limit of their sensors, approximately twenty-one degrees to Port of their current heading was a Star with no habitable Planets designated '93 Aqulae' on Federation Star charts.

This green track is us, heading roughly towards the Talarian Republic. Here, above and behind us on the screen, is Starbase Forty-Seven. There, the Romulan border, and the Klingon border..." Carl said, needlessly pointing out specifics on the readout, "... Now, we're surmising, given this is speculation only so far, that the blue trace, is a possible heading we managed to get by backtracking the B'rel's Ion signature. Difficult as you can understand, given it travelled while cloaked for the majority of the time, but we did pick up sporadic Ion traces, and kind of played 'joined the dots' so to speak,"

They waited, allowing Kv'oz to study the tactical plot on the screen before allowing himself to sigh.

"As you can see... The blue trace, came not from Klingon Space, but somewhere else entirely... So... Given the nominal range of a B'rel, as we've discussed, would you have any thoughts on where it originated?" ..........

[Andae Blakus]

Engineering

"Do you have it, Finch?" Milyanov asked, climbing from beneath the pool table having had the lower panels removed. They had thought that perhaps something was wrong with the console's systems, with how they were receiving commands from the computer core. This could have been causing the analysis of the neural imprint's topology to return nothing but gibberish.

"Yes, sir," the junior engineer tapped away at his tricorder, "No, wait... Well, there's virtually no difference except..."

Milyanov waited, "Spit it out man!"

"I have another name, prior to Askin. It appears to read, Dalt. Dalt Askin. There are characters missing again." Finch exited the readout of the interface, re-entering having typed in and run the requisite algorithms once again. The characters the improvised program had unmasked were the same as those before.

"Wait a minute. Let's have another look at that list of names." Milyanov rounded the pool table and entered commands the other side to Finch, displaying personnel rosters and descriptions on engineering's main viewer that was attached to the near wall. "Ah ha!" he paused the display in its run-through of personnel files and pointed at the current file's portrait - a Starfleet officer with Commodore pips. "Dalton Baskin, head administrator of Utopia Planitia fleet yards, Mars."

"Family members... I recognise this name," Finch gestured at the large display he was studying close up, "Brother: Mont Baskin. Former merchant, now Federation junior ambassador to the Klingons at the embassy on Morska, a planet in a Klingon-owned system just the other side of the border from here."

"Can't be a coincidence," Lieutenant Taylor said as she approached, though it was clear she wasn't confident in this assessment.

"... Perhaps Mont Baskin is a middle-man for someone in this sector, providing a link to Dalton Baskin at Mars?" Finch said, turning to Taylor briefly, "A link for what... Information perhaps?"

Milyanov had picked up Finch's tricorder, studying possible text surrounding the letters DALT__ _ASKIN, where there was nothing but unparsed lines of random alphanumeric code, "Baskin's name appears to be situated in the midst of four paragraphs that lie distinct from the rest of the text. Every so often there is a lunate sigma, which would indicate to me a paragraph break. Finch? Pay attention would you. Get to work on the strings within the other three paragraphs. Just a theory... I wonder if each paragraph may not refer to a particular person."

Sickbay

"As you can see... The blue trace, came not from Klingon Space, but somewhere else entirely... So... Given the nominal range of a B'rel, as we've discussed, would you have any thoughts on where it originated?"

"None at all, Admiral," Kv'oz replied, standing stalwartly, before his shoulders slumped and he appeared to search inwards, "Well, now. Towards nearby halo stars..." he shook himself, "No, it's impossible. Do not mistake me, the B'rel class would have the range, but... No, I tell you... It's quite impossible."

"What?!" Blakus volunteered for the trio, unable to bear the suspense the Klingon captain had created.

"Any ship whose coordinates of origin are as you indicate would have to come from a long-abandoned starbase near the Jalkoth system. The Empire last had contact with it in your year 2315, or thereabouts. The B'rel class is fairly antiquated - any ships still remaining there would of course be old," Kv'oz huffed and regarded them with frustration, or despair, "But that is hardly proof. Are you sure the ion trail does not lie farther back than the vicinity of this fortress?"

"It doesn't lie farther back, from what we can tell. Fortress?"

"That is how we refer to the type of starbase established near the Jalkoth system," Kv'oz replied, "It is or was, as you may guess, heavily fortified. But it is old technology. I do not believe it still exists... If it does, it would be fruitless to explore what remains. If you wish to pursue who may have sabotaged my ship, you are better off following the B'rel; if the vessel leads back to this fortress, I will hold my peace; if it leads elsewhere, you will have still gained an advantage."

Blakus nodded at what seemed a reasonable suggestion and looked to Torek and Valente. As they were about to respond, Torek's commbadge chirped.

=/\=Admiral Torek, this is engineering. We have a full name, sir. Dalton Baskin of Utopia Planitia. He has a brother, Mont Baskin, Junior Ambassador to the Klingon Empire, assigned to the nearby Klingon sector.=/\=

Bridge

Meanwhile, upon Wedlerson's orders to T'Seng and Svensson, scans of the coordinates where the B'rel had moved to recover the Kzir'pA revealed the third vessel that had been approaching the site of the sharp battle between the Raven and B'rel. Bypassing this location at some 0.75 lightyears, the Raven was still able to uncover the third vessel as having a mass of something like 130 kilotonnes. A standard ship configuration meant that it was likely to be 150-200 metres in length. It may have been Klingon like the other ships, but this was far from certain.

[Carl Torek]

Deck Seven
Main Sickbay ::

Everyone was beginning to be annoyed with the Klingon Captain's seeming evasiveness. Yes, it was possible he simply didn't have the information they were asking for, It had already taken almost two full days and all they had managed was a partial name or location ..... It was obvious that whoever designed the encryptions for the interface didn't mean them to be broken over a sandwich!

On a more positive note, Kv'os was possibly realising that he had limited options, he wasn't deliberately withholding information, he simply didn't 'know' what they wanted, but that in itself could be his downfall. Should the Federation Officers decide they had got all they could, he wouldn't put it past then to hand him back in some gesture of goodwill ..... Unfortunately, his reaction when confronted with the tactical plot, he had reacted before he could stop himself, and his reaction had been noticed instantly. Now, despite his sudden misgivings, he had told them what he knew about the supposedly dilapidated Fortress, he had tried to, as Humans say, bluff it out, but it was useless .....

The comm chirped to life:

=^= Admiral Torek .. Engineering .. We have a full name Sir .. Dalton Baskin of Utopia Planitia .. He has a brother .. Mont Baskin .. Junior Ambassador to the Klingon Empire .. Assigned to the nearby Klingon Sector =^=

=^= Understood .. Keep trying to get what you can .. Torek out =^= Carl thought for a moment then turned back to Kv'os:

"This 'Fortress' of yours, would there still be a record of it in your Military Archives?"

"It would be classified, and undoubtedly hard to access without authority..." the Klingon answered, "... Even then any attempt would be notified to the High Council. They were something of an, embarrassment,"

"THEY!" Blakus repeated.

"Four were initially planned, placed strategically to allow us to enter or annex any Sector within range of our Warships. Alas, they proved to be less than efficient in numerous respects,"

"Oh?" Andae urged.

"It was a matter of logistics ..... The Fortresses were supposed to be ultra-secret heavily-armoured, impressive weapons array's ..... The Military was convinced it would take a Fleet of STarships to break through their defences. They had planned to outfit several Negh'Var Class prototypes, long before the Class even came into active service you understand. But they hadn't counted on just how much they would need in personnel and materials. The ships simply became too 'big' and despite almost treble, the armour, treble the weaponry, the first prototypes were next to useless and became an embarrassment to the Military,"

"..... And the Fortresses?" Calli asked.

"Again, they proved to be lacking..." Kv'oz said, almost embarrassed at having to tell a long-hidden secret, "... Ther were meant to be massive, dwarfing your Ournal Class Starbases by a factor of four... Squatter, rather than physically 'tall', From memory I believe they were approximately three of your kilometres in height, but almost seven kilometres in diameter, with a void in the centre....."

"Doughnut-shaped then?" Doctor Roach said as she passed, getting several looks from the others.

"I believe you would call it, Torus-shaped, but yes ..... They were to be the Military's crowning glory, which, they had succeeded, would have undoubtedly turned the Klingon Empire over to the Military!"

"So what happened?" Carl asked, knowing full well how much this revelation must be taking on Kv'oz.

"Alas, like everything secret, there is always one too many people holding that knowledge..." he paused, clearly fighting the urge to tell the Federation Officers to go to whatever Hell they believed in. He stood, walking around Sickbay as if waiting to hear dire news of a loved one, but finally he continued, "... It was only a matter of time before someone questions the trillions upon trillions of tonnes of material being shipped from our fabrication facilities and even raw materials from our mines that was being diverted, food, basic living materials. Not to mention the tens of thousands of Personnel drafted in to undertake the work ..... You must understand, it was a turbulent time within the Empire, some wanted nothing more than to crush the Federation into submission, but events prevented that as we know. But the Military continued regardless, and was eventually instructed to appear before the High Council,"

"So the Military gave in?" Andae asked, like the others, almost unable to believe what he was hearing.

"With only one Fortress anywhere near completion and only four ships retrofitted, they had little option but to cease all work on the Fortresses they believed were vital to Klingon survival ..... Many of the Senior Military openly ceded to the Council while secretly plotting to continue the work. But again, loose lips and eight of the highest-ranking Military were... Retired,"

"Wait..." Calli said, frowning, "... That wouldn't have been around the time one of your vessels suffered a core breach, around twenty Military and their Families were lost?" Kv'oz could only nod.

"I was a Bekk, on my first deployment when all this happened, so forgive me if my memory is blurred," the man said as if defeated.

"OK ..... So, we have a decision to make..." Carl said, looking at everyone before continuing, "... Do we go back to Mars and check out this Baskin... Do we inform Command of our concerns... Or do we make for this 'Fortress'?"

"At this point, I don't think we have enough to go to Command with..." Calli commented, "... I think our first priority should be to find out how many other people have the interface implanted, and we can't do that until we can decipher what's on Captain Kv'oz' ..... So in the meantime, my recommendation would be to follow the trail to this Fortress, see what we could be dealing with there,"

"Commander?" Torek said, addressing his Executive Officer.

< Tag : Andae >

"Then it's settled," Torek said, turning back to the Klingon Captain, "... I don't suppose you would have any means of finding out just 'how' active this so-called abandoned Fortress of your is, would you?"

"I've told you all I can Admiral,"

"You said it wasn't completed, so what are we looking at?" Valente asked.

"As far as I am aware, the ships were stripped down and returned to our Orbital Construction Facilities... As for the Fortress, I don't believe it is still functional in any way. It was stripped and abandoned over forty years ago, but protocol states that any facility abandoned must be completely destroyed to prevent it falling into enemy hands," Kv'oz replied. Torek nodded, trying not to think what this once-proud Klingon was going through.

"Security, escort the Captain to his quarters..." Carl said, turning to Kv'os as he passed him, "... I appreciate how hard this must be for you. If you want to be retu ....."

"No. My dishonour, and that of my family, is complete, but thank you for the offer, Admiral," the Klingon said, walking out of Sickbay, the two Security Officers behind him.

Bridge ::

"Helm, have you extrapolated a precise heading from the Ion trail of the B'rel Class Scout?"

"Yes Admiral," Lieutenant Fields replied from Conn.

"Very well..." Carl said, dropping into the centre seat, "... Change course, slow us to warp four,"

"Course and velocity laid-in," the Navigation Officer confirmed

"OK, let's go," Torek ordered ..........

[Andae Blakus]

Bridge

"Right on the path of the ion trail, Admiral," Fields reported as they left the main clusters of stars in this arm of the Milky Way and headed into the very near part of the galatic halo.

Torek acknowledged and Blakus nodded to himself. It seemed the ion trail was going to pass by a star system some 2 parsecs to port, but this apparently was not the destination. No object of the sort of dimensions of the torus fortress had been detected in or near their path so far, and Kv'oz had descibed the Jalkoth system - around which the fortress orbited once every 80 years roughly - as a loose binary; the system they were passing now was nothing of the sort.

"The starbase should be powered down, if it is out there and is as Kv'oz says, so remember to search for a variety of metals and not just active power sources," he told Wedlerson and T'Seng.

"Reading a binary system on long-range sensors," Wedlerson called out, virtually cutting Blakus off in his instruction, "It just appeared." He checked with Fields and nodded, "It seems the ion trail runs right through the middle of the system and then sharply terminates, sir."

Blakus nodded - that would suggest the fortress was currently on the far side of the system relative to the Raven's position. It also clearly meant the B'rel class in its journey to the Federation-Klingon border had jumped to warp within the Jalkoth system, shortly after leaving the presumed base. "Scan for vessels. Kv'oz thought they should all have been dissembled and recycled for basic materials, but if the base still remains, and we've already encountered the B'rel class, other ships may remain, too."

They were unable to find anything until they approached the 75 AU mark, at which point two vessels of displacement matching the B'rel class became visible, patrolling the outer system on the near side.

"Ok... This may be more difficult than we anticipated," Andae said. Of course, the B'rel class was no match for a Sovereign class starship; even two, the Raven should have no problem, but the Starfleeters would rather not cause an interstellar incident, unless the B'rels were aggressive as the previous one had been.

"Approching the Jalkoth system, sir. Still not detecting the fortress starbase, but the ion trail ends abruptly the other side of the star to us."


Engineering

Milyanov had been running out of patience, the program being run again on their tricorder (with the map of Kv'oz's neural-synaptic interface on it) and once again getting almost nothing but machine code. That was when Finch had the idea of using a part of the energy carried through the PTC from the dilithium chamber to the nacelles in combination with an open LCARS database. If the ship's computer couldn't make sense of the information, perhaps they could for a short time use a greatly magnified power source to at least be able to read the text, data, images, whatever had the preponderance on the chip, for a brief time before the tricorder burnt out. It turned out to work.

They would need a new tricorder but fortunately didn't have to scan Kv'oz's imprint again, the topology being stored in an isolated back-up section of the computer core's memory. The text, as it revealed itself mainly to be, was decoded only in part and only for a few seconds before the tricorder fried, but Taylor had taken a snapshot of the incident of decoding enabling the engineers to study the information in detail later. New tricorders with the implant's object map on them could be plugged successively into the main PTC to have more information revealed, but it may not work forever: the imprint was smart, and was likely to learn what they were doing and prevent circumvention of its defensive measures.

About 20% of the chip's data had been revealed, with many corruptions and lacunae. Unfortunately only one of the four paragraphs of note had been disclosed sufficiently to give any sort of sense, and they'd restored it thus:

N'Grol, Romulan, diplomat, Betazed, newly appointed as of 2392, suspected Tal Shiar operative. We believe he is about to leave the Tal Shiar. The necessary secrecy of his work, and the destruction of neurons surrounding our interface should he be captured, make him an exemplary target for imprinting with the data given below. When this sleeper is required, apply EM wavelength (ultraviolet) = 320 nanometres, tachyon density = 2.1 megajoules per square metre, pressure = 1.4 Pascals. Activation and remembrance follows.

The text broke off at this point. Another name connected to Utopia Planitia was also found, and the form of the surrounding text seemed to suggest that the new name, Savon Fens, was of similar designation to N'Grol. Savon's connection to Dalton Baskin was unclear, besides both being at Mars.

"Sleepers," Milyanov said as he studied the screen, uncomprehending, as a stunned group of engineers who'd gathered round also read and analysed the data. He read, "'We believe he is about to leave the Tal Shiar'... who are 'we'?" he asked rhetorically.

Finch spoke beside him, "Look at these. Wavelength, tachyons, et cetera... Apply this and remembrance follows? Who else do we know who can't remember anything, or very much?" Kv'oz, of course. "Kv'oz could also be one of these, perhaps in this paragraph here," the lieutenant pointed to the first block of still unrevealed text on the screen. Milyanov tapped his commbadge.

OOC: I'm assuming that only now we know something about the sleepers and that there is more than one interface in more than one mind

[Carl Torek]

"Scan for vessels. Kv'oz thought they should all have been dissembled and recycled for basic materials, but if the base still remains, and we've already encountered the B'rel class, other ships may remain, too."

They were unable to find anything until they approached the 75 AU mark, at which point two vessels of displacement matching the B'rel class became visible, patrolling the outer system on the near side.

"Ok... This may be more difficult than we anticipated," Andae said.

"Helm, all stop, hold position here..." Carl said, rising from the centre seat to look at the tactical plot Lysia had put on the viewscreen. He watched as the two unknown craft moved across the screen, "... So, Options?"

"We 'could' simply begin a pass through the System, allowing ourselves to be seen by those two..." T'Seng suggested, pointing at the screen, "... They'll see us eventually and come to either investigate or warn us off,"

"Sounds fair enough..." Call speculated, "... At least we'll have some clue as to how our arrival has affected them ..... We could try coming up on the System from the other side, as if en route back to Starbase Forty-Seven?"

Carl looked at Andae, who shrugged, but Anna Fields at Helm pointed out that to remain undetected while circumnavigating the System would take approximately three days.

"Sir, we might have another option," Lieutenant Svensson commented.

"Do tell," Torek replied.

"Well ....." the Science Officer began, "... The designation 'The Jalkoth System' is Klingon in origin, we use it for convenience sake, but the Federation designation is ... '03 Aqulae' ... A System only basically plotted, we could go in there scanning openly, they will obviously not want their Fortress discovered and would likely turn to dissuade us from entering the System at all,"

"OK, Instruct Stellar Chartography to commence detailed scans the moment we enter the System..." Carl ordered, dropping back into his seat, Blakus and Valente doing likewise, "... Helm, full impulse, let's see if we can't attract their attention,"

The Raven began to move, heading further into the Jalkoth Str System, and given the intensity of the scans would be lit up like the proverbial Christmas Tree ..... Everyone on the Bridge was watching the tracks of the two suspected Klingon vessels as they continued on their original heading, then both of them turned abruptly and began heading directly for them. Carl instructed T'Seng to keep weapons and shields off-line, they were here to scan the System and surrounding space as a prelude to a more thorough mapping assignment to be carried out at a later date.

"It didn't take them long," Harry said from Opps.

"All stop," Torek ordered.

"They are coming into visual range Admiral," Lysia informed Torek.

"Let's take a look," Blakus instructed. The viewscreen changed, the tactical plot disappearing to show the two rapidly approaching vessels.

"..... Are those K't'inga Class Starships?!" Svensson asked.

"Don't be fooled, Lieutenant..." Lysia replied from Tactical, "... They might look decrepit, but they have upgraded disruptors, torpedo launchers and shields, as well as Federation specification phaser arrays, along with Cloaking tech,"

"They look like they're about to fall apart," Carl commented as the two ships came into weapons range.

"Sir, they are locking weapons on us," T'Seng confirmed.

"OK ..... Let's leave ours offline for the time being... After all, we're here on a simple mapping assignment, not for a fight," Torek said as the two Klingon Warships slowed until they were a thousand metres ahead of the Raven ..........

[Andae Blakus]

The two old-style battlecruisers of which the Vor'cha class had been an eventual replacement - the last of the K'tingas had in fact only just been phased out of the Defence Force, or so it'd been believed, and were themselves outsized by the B'rel class - hovered with no little menace before the Raven, rotating with lateral thrusters about the Sovereign class in opposite directions, passing each other every couple minutes.

On the bridge, Blakus regarded them warily, glancing at T'Seng every so often as he retook the XO's chair: surely defensive measures would have to be taken eventually, if the ships continued to ignore the Raven's hails. "Any luck so far, Commander?" he asked the tactical officer.

"Negative, Commander... Wait a moment, they are sending a response, text only. It reads... 'leave immediately or be destroyed'."

"Well, I hate it when they mince words," Blakus said.

"It seemed fairly unequivocal to me, sir," Fields replied from the helm.

About to respond, he decided it could wait as T'Seng alerted them to a build up in one of the battlecruiser's weapons arrays. "Raise shields," Torek ordered quickly, T'Seng executing the command and placing the protective bubble round the ship as one K'tinga class opened up with its disruptors, attacking not the Raven but its own sister battlecruiser!

"What on earth...?" Andae murmured as on the viewscreen both the K'tingas had ceased rotating about the Raven and were positioned in the same arc of the Raven (so that they wouldn't find their weapons fire impeded by the Sovereign that would've sat between them); the second vessel had fired on its attacker now.

Eventually - as the Raven was attempting to contact both vessels again to perhaps try to mediate in the dispute - the Klingon vessel that'd fired on its sister ship first caused the latter vessel's power core to go critical, and the destruction of starboard weapons arrays simultaneously brought about the loss of the starboard nacelle. The second K'tinga was destroyed in a spectacular fireball.

The first K'tinga was now hailing them, this time requesting visual. Blakus waited as Torek requested 'on screen' and the battered (by the ravages of time as well as the recent fight) bridge of the Klingon ship appeared. The lighting was dim over there, making the commander difficult to discern until he appeared out of the dull red glow (as if of brimstone) that surrounded his chair,

"The IKS MalKaTH's commander was without honour," the commander grinned toothily as his face filled almost the entire screen, "He threatened you, the crew of a vessel on an exploratory mission, with destruction. It was a long wait to have a good enough pretext to pulverise his petty ship into nothingness... He had long been an enemy of my house."

"To whom are we speaking?" Blakus asked from his chair. He noticed the Klingon couldn't be more than 50, younger than the time since the fortress starbase had been out of contact with the Klingon Empire. It seemed to Andae the Klingon had paused after saying 'exploratory mission', perhaps not believing in their show of scanning the surrounding system.

The Klingon commander turned abruptly to Blakus, as if surprised at his presence, "I am Talthor. My ship the BortaS will escort you to where you may take on supplies, if you need them. To where you may rest - we know the Federation likes its comfort. And where you will be able to sample Klingon entertainment," Talthor paused and gave a belly laugh, and Blakus and Torek felt obliged to laugh a little in return, although Talthor's mirth wasn't of the hearty sort that characterised some or most Klingons, but was cold and fey, almost nihilistic.

The Raven's crew decided they would follow the K'tinga class; Talthor's vessel led the Raven towards the fortress starbase. Indeed, it appeared that the base was so, and as it appeared on the viewscreen, first as a speck and then larger until its features could be distinguished, some of the bridge crew gasped as they saw that Kv'oz's description had been accurate: a gigantic space station in the shape of a torus hovering against the distant starfield.

There were scars and scoring in the hull, evident damage from combat and age. While not all the internal lights were illuminated, a good many were - it seemed the suggestion the base was now abandoned had been emphatically wrong although its stated form and size were now confirmed.

The Raven was instructed to take up station-keeping half a kilometre from the equatorial line of the outside of the torus. Torek nodded to Fields to carry this out. Blakus asked that they might hail Talthor's vessel and Torek allowed it, the Klingon appearing on screen (his vessel about to enter a dock in the torus), "You're lucky you ran into me, of all our people here at the Jalkoth station," Talthor said, "What do you want now?"

"We'd like to know why you and your fellow warriors are still here. We had reason to believe this base was abandoned many years ago."

"You knew about us? Then you weren't on an exploratory mission. At least not of an uninhabited star system?" Talthor's tone didn't reflect his words - he seemed utterly unsurprised.

"We came to scan the star system as part of our general charting operations," Andae said, apologising silently to his fellow officers for the slip, "But we also had an idea that there was an old, abandoned base here... It was unimportant to us," he hoped he sounded convincing.

The fact of the fortress's existence had itself been on Kv'oz's chip, amidst a mass of other data Milyanov had been trying to decode with some success. What was important about the fortress that it should relate to the plurality of individuals who were named on Kv'oz's chip as sleepers? (Exactly how many sleepers there were was unknown).

"Very well," Talthor said dismissively, "Ready a small team if you so wish and transport to the base coordinates I'm sending to you now," he turned to one of his officers who grunted and began transmitting data to the Raven. "We will welcome you with lavish entertainments suitable for Federation people."

[Carl Torek]

With only a thousand metres between the two decrepit K't'inga Class Battle Cruisers and the Raven, Carl was beginning to wonder if the two could even fire let alone cause any damage to the Sovereign Class Starship ..... When they first locked weapons the Raven immediately raised shields, but what happened next was completely astounding ..... No one on the Bridge spoke for a moment, taking in the destruction and loss of life that had occurred before their eyes!

Finally, the surviving Klingon Commander had introduced himself and shortly thereafter invited the Raven to approach the Fortress.

During the time it took to approach the structure, both Lysia T'Seng at Tactical and Jor Svensson at Science had been running every scan they could to get the fullest information possible on the aged Klingon starbase. Despite Talthor's seeming openness, there were sections of the Fortress Raven's sensors couldn't penetrate, more surprising was the fact that they were now openly gathering data, no one demanded they cease their efforts.

Holding Station ...
Five Hundred Metres from Fortress Superstructure ::

During their final approach, the IKS BortaS had maintained a position close to the Raven but then veered off to allow the Federation Starship to take up its holding station. Anna Fields at Helm voiced her concern at the proximity even though it was clear why they had been told to take up such a close station - Firing at such a distance would undoubtedly damage or destroy the Raven herself. Satisfied his instructions had been carried out, Talthor offered an invite:

=^= Ready a small team if you so wish and transport to the base coordinates I'm sending to you now .. .. We will welcome you with lavish entertainments suitable for Federation people =^=

"Coordinates received Admiral," Wedlerson confirmed from Conn.

=^= Thank you .. But there is no need to go to any trouble Commander .. We ar .. .. =^= Torek said, about to continue when the Klingon snapped the comm off.

"Is it just me, or does he seem unconcerned about the loss of life he had offhandedly caused, there could have been over five hundred people on that ship?!" Calli commented.

"He clearly had his reasons and given how quickly he disposed of them I'd say he's been awaiting his opportunity, and we handed it to him," Wedlerson said.

"Alright... Let's not keep our hosts waiting..." Carl said, rising before heading for the turbolift, "... Harry, you have Conn. Keep drive systems online and keep a close eye on what's going on. Andae, Calli, with me,"

"Sir, I think we should take Colonel Burwell along, his military expertise could be useful?" Calli suggested, Andae nodded in agreement.

"Commander..." Carl said, still addressing the Operations Officer, "... Have Colonel Burwell join us in Transporter Room One," .....

Klingon Fortress
Reception Area ::

The four Federation Officer materialised in a wide area ..... Its 'former' use could have been anything from a Banqueting Hall to an Auditorium, even a Troop Staging Area. The bulkheads, much like those on the exterior of the Fortress, were rusted, pock-marked, possibly where items had been forcibly removed or destroyed. They were surprised at the number of people, having given no real thought as to how many might actually be aboard. Given the size and relative floor space being possibly half again that of STarbase Forty-Seven, it could theoretically hold hundreds of thousands in Federation terms, relative comfort.

They remained motionless as they watched Talthor, followed by two subordinates approach. The Klingon held out a hand, a typical 'Human' gesture which surprised the four Officers.

"Welcome... My Officers, K'olr, and Vur'ka, will be able to assist you if I am not present ... Now ... We have refreshments ready if you will follow me," the two Subordinates fell into step two paces behind Talthor, the Away Team followed a few more behind, taking in the room and notably those occupying it. There were several other races here as well as Klingons, but what stood out was the fact that there were several Humans present! ... As they walked across the large auditorium-like space, Burwell leaned close to Torek:

"I think I recognise one of his Officers... Vur'ka... I'm sure she is, or rather, was, Klingon Security,"

"You're sure?" Torek asked.

"Not one hundred percent, but I'm sure I've seen her name somewhere before," the Marine replied.

"If you will..." Talthor said, stepping aside to allow them into a smaller anteroom, inside there was a long bar with plates of food, and drinks, with a Ferengi serving as bartender, again several people were in small groups talking among themselves, "... The food and refreshments should I hope be to your liking. Alas, duties call me away for a short time. My Officers will remain should you need further assistance until I return,"

The four walked to the bar and requested drinks. The Ferengi, clearly not enjoying his role went off to fill the order. Andae spoke quietly to the others:

"Talthor's Officers are watching us,"

"Hardly surprising," Carl said as the Ferengi returned.

"Good evening ....." they turned to see a small woman, possibly of Indian origin, she smiled at each of them in turn then continued, "... May I introduce myself, I am Degani Kalta, I did not realise we were expecting more visitors tonight,"

"Admiral Carl Torek... Commander Blakus, Colonel Burwell, and I am Commander Valente," Calli made the introductions.

"I was unaware we had enrolled such a..." the woman said before pausing midsentence, her eyes narrowing as she took a step back, "... May I enquire as to which vessel you belong?"

"We are from the Federation Starship, USS Raven-C," Carl informed her, and judging by her reaction the news was anything but welcome!

"I am sorry... If you will excuse me ....." Kalta said, moving away from them before speaking to two men close to the door.

"Well, that clearly didn't go down well," Burwell said, subconsciously moving his hand to the phaser at his hip. Carl had to agree as several other people in the room suddenly began to take an interest in their presence ..........

[Andae Blakus]

Andae settled into his meal and sipped at the drink, it was reasonable synthehol that had perhaps a slight touch of blood wine, hopefully just residue from the last use of the glass rather than a problem with the beverage itself, though neither option was very palatable. He glanced across the bar, seeing Torek give some instructions to Burwell who nodded and moved off to near the entrance.

Taking in the auditorium space, the senior marine tried to pick out exactly how many humans there were, and how many races in general; besides human and Klingon, what were the three most represented species? He tried to escry the far side, picking out a large group of Tellarites. That's two of the four founding Federation species, he thought. Conspicuously absent were any green-blooded pointy ears: no Vulcans, or Romulans for that matter, as far as he could tell.

"Can I help you?" the Klingon woman questioned.

Burwell turned, "I apologise, am I not meant to be here?" He realised his phrasing had been poor, sounding sarcastic. "Tell me, how many people are aboard this base?"

"I don't know know the current roster exactly," Vur'ka said brusquely, "There are typically about 50,000 warriors aboard. As for visitors, perhaps 14,000 at any one time."

"How often do people arrive here? How do they know how to find it, or that it's even here?"

"Federation fools," she grinned toothily, "Jalkoth base may be virtually unknown to you, but there are many independent traders, large and small organisations that know about this place. You are from the USS Raven. Presumably you are based out of the renowned Starbase 47 that miraculously reappeared? Perhaps you've noticed a drain in the trade that passes through your Starbase, less business than your models predicted? While we are quite far distant, it is still because of our fortress."

"Why do you have so many Federation species here?" the SMO asked.

"I'm amazed you need to ask that question. Your customs rules and non-monetary policy are ridiculous and hamper free exchange. Why wouldn't trading peoples from the Federation seek a place such as this, given the minimum restrictions we place on the faithful who use our base as a market?"

At the bar, Blakus had been wondering about human who'd approached them, Degani Kalta. He looked towards the door where she'd gone to speak to the two human men; the three were no longer in sight.

Degani sat with Malcolm and Berech on the upper level of the reception area. Berech was evaluating the information he'd just been passed. He hardly needed to say anything. All three were aware of the importance of the USS Raven, the vessel which they'd registered in close proximity to the Kzir'pA just before their own Klingon vessel had attempted to approach to recover the second sleeper.

"They cannot be allowed to escape," Malcolm determined, also speaking for Berech, if not Degani Kalta.

Berech shifted in his seat and grasped his glass in both hands, "Of course not. But don't you see? The Raven will have Kv'oz. He lies within our grasp after all."

"How is Fens? Has she calmed down now?" Degani asked concernedly.

"She's finally accepted that we're going to zap her brain to recover the implant's information, if that's what you mean," Malcolm said.

"The Annex will not accept casualties, Malcolm."

"Ms Kalta, the Annex has already signed off on our procedure on Savon Fens," Berech replied, "And they will do the same with Kv'oz, once we have him. They are happy to exploit this Klingon population, what would another Klingon and a human be to them? Look, don't worry, focus on eliminating the guests from the Raven. Malcolm, you too." Malcolm nodded and moved off to the jukebox.

At the bar, Blakus was finishing his meal and received a tap on the shoulder from the Klingon K'olr. Blakus, Torek and Valente turned as they were alerted by the Klingon officer, "I've been instructed to inform you about entertainments," K'olr said hesitantly, "Perhaps you like music?" He turned and clapped his hands once, and a human attendant somewhere on the upper level acknowledged and began adjusting a machine of some sort. It was a sound amplifier, Blakus realised, as it began blaring music that'd been fashionable in the Federation in the early 24th century. "Ah, perhaps not," K'olr registered their reactions, "What, Mozart?" The music began. Blakus remembered the opera somewhat differently. K'olr's eyes gleamed, "It's performed by a Klingon orchestra! Notice the abrupt shifts in tempo and the ferocity of the playing style."

"K'olr, do we really need to torment our Starfleet guests?" Talthor had entered the room. "That will come later." He paused for effect and eventually laughed, Andae doing his best to see the funny side. Degani fell in alongside, "Perhaps the Raven officers would like to see our power generation centres?"

[Carl Torek]

As they ate, Burwell came up with an excuse to speak with the female Aide assigned to them by Talthor .....

It was clear during their conversation that the woman disagreed with having been assigned as 'babysitter' to the Federation Officers, but other things were bothering Burwell: He 'knew' he had seen the woman's name before and was trying to recall the details. It was also clear that they were not expected, and judging by the reaction of Degani Kalta, their arrival at the Fortress was decidedly unwelcome! ..... Once they had finished eating, the four found a table where they could view the comings and goings of the visitors to this supposed hub of commerce.

"I knew I knew the name...!" the Senior Marine said suddenly, "... She was Klingon Intelligence, she, along with a group of so-called dissidents were practically drummed from service. One or two were able to rely on their family names, and that alone saved them from summary execution. Vur'ka was from a family with a position on the Council, she was sent off to some back end location out of the 'public' eye, she had let it be known that her 'opinions' didn't fall into line with the Councils and was advocating change to the Klingon Empires' submission to Federation rule,"

"..... and that's what got her thrown out?" Calli asked.

"I can't be one hundred percent certain, but yes, I think so..." Burwell replied, sipping at the extremely hot tea he'd got from the replicator, "... She was all for there being a 'committee' to run the Federation,"

"But we have that now," Valente said, referring to the Federation Council on which the Klingon Empire is represented.

"Wasn't there some talk of a long term plan to resolve the Council in favour of independent rule?" Carl asked, trying to remember his political theory from the Academy.

"Yes, but there's something else that's been bothering me..." the Marine said, "... If we're to believe what our 'guide' has said, and this place is some clandestine centre of commerce, where is everyone?"

"I'm not with you," Calli replied, frowning.

"Well, our scans show that this place is approximately half again the size of our Starbases, which under nominal activity hold upwards of half a million people with space to spare. Vur'ka said there were approximately fifty thousand people here, so even allowing for the fact that a fair percentage of those could be residential, where are the rest of them, and where are their vessels...?" Burwell said, pausing to sip at the tea once again before continuing, "... I'm guessing that the rest of this 'Fortress' is in either the same condition or worse than what we've seen thus far, and let's not forget that this place is hardly on or even close to fixed shipping routes between Systems!"

"That's right..." Calli said, "... This place is at least eighty-two lightyears from Starbase Forty-Seven and a good one hundred forty from the closest section of the Klingon border. Further out there's nothing but hundreds of lightyears of nothingness, Moving relative East would bring us far beyond even the Telerian Republic, so they saying that people are going days, possibly weeks out of their way just to get a better deal than they would in Federation space?"

"Is it possible all this is just a front for a smaller group?" Lew pondered.

"But who ..... More importantly, why?" Carl replied. Their conversation was interrupted when an alarm began to sound. Klingon's throughout the room began to file out, leaving meals and drinks, he was about to look for someone to ask what was going on when the Klingon Aide, Vur'ka seemingly materialised next to their table.

"What's happening?" Carl asked.

"There is no cause for concern..." the Klingon said, noticeably positioning herself so it was difficult for Torek to get to his feet, "... A vessel is approaching without clearance, we are dealing with the issue. Please, return to your refreshments, if there is anything else we can get for you please ask one of the stewards who will be happy to assist,"

"Is there any danger to the Fo ..... Facility?" Carl asked, correcting himself mid-sentence.

"No, we are more than capable of, dealing with the, vessel," the woman said, turning before walking away. She motioned to two Klingon's who turned in their direction. Making it clear they were to remain where they were!

"Andae, contact the ship!" Carl ordered, eyeing their guards.

"..... They have been instructed to hold position or risk being fired on," Blakus said a moment later.

"Let's go," Torek said, rising from his seat. He had barely got to his feet when the Klingon's both drew their disruptors.

"You will remain here," one ordered, aiming directly at Carl. Having no other options open, he lowered himself into his chair and picked up his drink. Neither of their Klingon 'guards' moved or reholstered their weapons. Carl heard Andae's commbadge chirp to life and sat back, eyes on the two Klingons as Blakus spoke with the ship. What he had to report was disturbing:

"Sensors picked up a Klingon Cruiser approaching. A moment later defences were deployed, a phase cannon located less than two hundred meters from the Raven fired on the oncoming vessel, they returned fire but were hit by several batteries simultaneously. The cruiser was destroyed with all hands as far as Harry could tell,"

"That's the second time they have fired on and destroyed one of their own vessels ..... What the hell are they hiding here?!" Burwell commented.

"So much for hospitality," Calli said ..........

[Carl Torek]

Despite asking, they had been forced to remain in the Reception Area for over an hour ..... Finally, Talthor arrived full of apologies for their treatment but assuring them it was for their own protection .....

"The ship you attacked, it was Klingon," Carl said, making his comment more statement than question.

"Yes. Alas, there are some within the Klingon Empire that shall we say, disagree with our Enterprise," the man said trying to lighten the issue.

"..... And what about the Raven..." Burwell asked, taking a pace forward, "... It was in the line of fire, how do you justify that as safe?"

"Your vessel was never in any danger, Colonel, in fact, it was safer where it was asked to remain than had your Officers taken it upon themselves to, reposition the ship. The oncoming Vor'cha would have fired on your vessel had it moved,"

"You destroyed one of your own ships, surely the High Command won't just sit back and accept the loss!" Calli said as her commbadge chirped to life beneath her jacket. She excused herself to refresh her drink, and once out of earshot, she tapped her pocket to accept the incoming transmission:

=^= Wedlerson to Valente .. .. =^=

=^= Valente =^=

=^= Calli .. I'm contacting you as it's less likely they would overhear what I have to say =^=

=^= We're aware of the destroyed vessel Harry =^=

=^= Good .. Well .. Can you inform the Admiral that our friend Kv'oz was beamed off the ship during the altercation .. He's currently on board the Fortress =^=

=^= Understood .. Do you have a lock on his position? =^=

=^= He's currently several Levels below your position but we're having trouble keeping track .. That place is a deathtrap of rusted and decayed superstructure =^=

=^= Stand by .. I'll have the Admiral or Commander Blakus contact you when they can .. Valente out =^=

Picking up her fresh coffee she returned to the others still in conversation with the Klingon Commander. Andae glanced in her direction and knew something was amiss, but he dared not ask about it in the presence of the Klingons. If Talthor was aware of her conversation he gave no indication as he chatted almost casually about the Fortress and what they were trying to achieve. Of course, everyone knew he was talking nonsense, yes, the facility was fast becoming a growing trade centre, but there was no way it was going to become anything more than it was. So why were the Klingons going to so much trouble to keep it running?

Realising Torek needed to know what Calli had to say he asked Talthor about the Fortress, she pulled Torek aside and related what Wedlerson had told her. He looked at the Klingon Commander who seemed more than happy to expand on his plans for the facility.

"Commander..." Carl interrupted, "... You have taken someone from the Raven, we would like him returned," Talthor's tone changed as if a switch had been flipped:

"You were holding a Klingon, against his will, we did what anyone else would have done," the man said darkly.

"Return Captain Kv'oz to the Raven Commander ..... Once he has assured me that he is coming back here willingly, I will arrange his return," Carl said, his eyes locked on the Klingons.

"You have a very impressive vessel, Admiral..." Talthor said as he looked at each of the Away Team in turn, before returning his gaze to Torek, "... Sovereign Class, Starfleet's most sophisticated Starship in fact. I do not doubt it could do significant damage to this facility, but it, and your crew, would suffer the consequences of such action. So, I suggest you refrain from giving any orders that might be interpreted as, hostile ..... We have no quarrel with you Admiral, in fact, you have done us a favour bringing Kv'oz here, it saves us having to go in search of him ourselves,"

"If you think we are going to stand by and allow you to dismantle the Federat ....." Carl began, but hesitated as the Klingon Commanders' expression changed subtly, "... We want the Captain back, then we're leaving," Torek said.

"..... Alas, for the moment I must insist you remain with us, Admiral. Quarters have been prepared for you, and your ship has been informed of restrictions it must comply with. Once we have spoken to Captain Kv'oz I am sure he will be more than willing to confirm his willingness to remain here with us. Once that is done, you and your vessel will be free to depart,"

Carl tapped his commbadge, hearing a chirp as he did so, but that was all.

"Please, be patient Admiral, I fear you are somewhat mistaken in regards to our purposes, no doubt all will become clear in due course..." he stepped aside to allow two Klingon Officers to pass. They led the Away Team to two adjoining rooms then locked the doors. Carl stood for a few seconds, recalling the conversation and Talthor's expression when Carl threatened him should he take action against the Federation.

"Did anyone else notice Talthor's attitude change as you spoke to him?" Andae asked ..........

[Andae Blakus]

As Blakus was led away with the rest of the away team and shut in two linked rooms, he found he wasn't entirely surprised. Klingon guards had been gravitating around them in the reception area for the last 15 minutes, and the exchange regarding the taking of Kv'oz had seemed to hasten the inevitable as the guards had at last taken hold of them.

They entered the rooms and a waiting Klingon ran a device over them, revealing Valente's hidden commbadge along with Burwell's concealed Mk.I phaser. These were snatched away by laughing Klingons, Blakus and Torek's commbadges and weapons were also taken.

The team was left to its own devices and Andae studied the rooms. "Did anyone else notice Talthor's attitude change as you spoke to him?" he asked Torek.

"Yes, he was very defensive. As if he knew we were on to him. Even though there isn't a great deal we know."

Their educated guesswork would seem to have come in handy, as they did happen to get a response of significance out of the Klingon commander. Why did the Klingons - and people such as Degani Kalta - want Kv'oz? Could it have something to do with the neural-synaptic interface? Or had it truly only been concern for their compatriot who'd been staying on a Federation starship? "What did the Raven say about Kv'oz specifically?" he asked Calli, while trying out the first room's fairly uncomfortable couch.

"Harry told me that Kv'oz had been transported to a location a few levels below us, but that was while we were still in the reception area."

Andae nodded, "I tried to keep track of our passage to these rooms. It seems to me we've travelled down half a dozen decks, although the extent of horizontal movement was unclear. We could be quite near Kv'oz, or at least on his level, if not near in space." The torus-shaped fortress was eight kilometres across after all; it was just possible Kv'oz was somewhere close, but would Talthor and co have made the mistake of keeping them close by the Kzir'pA's former captain? And how did the team know the Kv'oz wasn't some 90 degrees away around the station?

"Federation! I cannot open the door manually but have overrode the lock. Release from the inside."

Andae looked at the others in surprise, before calling, "Who is it?"

"Vur'ka, you fool! You are in serious danger. Now open up!"

* * *

Klingon triage centre, Jalkoth base

The human stepped through the series of retracting doors, hexagonal shapes parting to admit him in his flowing long tunic and mantle. He stopped beside the pedestal and his right hand fell on the instrument; he felt for the grip. He took it up in his grasp and peered at it briefly before stepping forward to where the Klingon lay in his med-casket.

"Greetings, Kv'oz. My name is Berech," the human injected the Klingon's neck with the tranquiliser. "There, that should do."

Kv'oz, who had been writhing and pulling at the restraints at his wrists and ankles, relaxed against his will. "You will pay for this, petaQ," he said, but without the same conviction as before.

"The Annex is paying, Kv'oz. I am only a neuroscientist." Kv'oz made another effort to break free of his binds, though the strength he'd exhibited in fighting off Klingons and humans on being transported aboard the fortress was no longer evident. "Please relax, Captain. We need your body in good condition if we're to successfully salvage what's in your mind." Berech moved behind a console a couple metres from the glowing med-casket with its fibre-optic lines and accessed a read-out of Kv'oz's cortex, seeing the implant as he activated the display's false colour.

"What is the Annex?" Kv'oz said with difficulty as the tranquiliser began lulling him to sleep.

"It wouldn't be a particularly good shadow organisation if I was able to answer that question," and he entered a command on the console to send the modified nanites into Kv'oz's mind to remove the interface.

"If you've finished, Berech?" Malcolm was alerting him via comm from the observation portal behind mirrored glass. "Ms Kalta wishes us to put paid to the guests from the USS Raven." Berech turned to the glass and nodded, collecting his tranquilising instrument and joining Malcolm to walk to a lateral turbolift that would take them to the Raven team.