Captain Terry - U.S.S. Kitana, Bridge
Tran responded over air. "We need ships to support us to search the Natara expanse for the U.S.S. Molly before the probable Heralds in the expanse find them first. We were just about to depart for the expanse, and your assistance would be wonderful."
Terry nodded. "We'll follow your lead." The audio communication cut out and Terry slouched in his chair. The Kitana departed and jumped to warp when the Falzon was ready and did themselves.
"Ugh, man," came the groan of Trelane, the chief engineer. He had his fingers on his forehead. "Why'd we drink so heavily again?"
The Captain sat up. "Because you said you thought someone was coming after you and it was going to be your last night alive."
"Right!" Trelane recalled. "Well, they never came, so it'll probably be tonight."
Terry shook his head. "I don't know what you did in the future or the past to illicit this punishment of being completely mortal for an entire lifetime, but it's not worth getting on my nerves."
"It's not like I was left with the memories of my other self, so, who knows? Also, I wonder if I should quit Starfleet? I can't let the crew suffer for me?"
The human looked at him. "The crew needs you. You're the only one who knows how this Ezri Dax-ship works."
"That, or your obsessed with something again," Trelane squinted at him, judgingly. "Remember that time you dedicated your life to proving the Phoenix-X was taking odd missions from Section 31?"
Terry waved it off. "That was eons ago, and I'm way past trivial things like that. Not to mention, all the trouble I got into with those creatures. I'm good now."
"You better be. I still have two more bottles of green drink. In the meantime, I'll ensure the engines are running smoothly-ish. I never actually like them working at peak efficiency. Trelane out." He slyly saluted and went to a console at the back of the Bridge.
In time, the Falzon and Kitana entered the expanse, arriving in a system with a wormhole leading elsewhere, deeper into the anomalous region.
Terry was sitting in his chair, when his security and tactical officer, a Ferengi named Hann, walked over with a bowl of food. "I know we talked about having you try this, but I'm too upset to let you eat it."
"Is this one of those bargaining things? I'll offer you time-off for them?" Terry asked.
Hann shook his head. "This is about you leaving Spacedock in such a haste that nothing else mattered."
"Oh, please! Like you're one to judge? You were paid to join Starfleet by your uncle."
The Ferengi pulled the puree of beetle away from Terry's reach. "I funnel that latinum to the Bajoran Orphan Fund! True, I was driven by greed once, but I changed. What drives you, doesn't seem to stop."
"Am I going to try the beetle or not?" Terry deadpanned.
Hann reluctantly extended the bowl and the Captain took a handful into his mouth. Seconds later, his viewscreen displayed the discovery of the U.S.S. Molly. Terry chewed and smiled for their safety.
The Falzon, quite unpredictably, then began firing on the Molly with some newly added Herald Antiproton weapons. Clearly, the Falzon was not here to save the Molly. They came to destroy them, and make it appear that the Heralds destroyed them.
When Terry realized this, he spat out the beetle in complete horror!
"You know, it took me an hour to prepare this? Never mind. I'll get to weapons," Hann said, going back to his station.
Terry shook his head. "Why'd they try recruiting people if they were just going to attack the Molly??" He turned to tactical. "Lock weapons on the Falzon and open fire!"
The Kitana sliced phasers into the Falzon's dorsal shields, weakening them. Then Terry opened hailing frequencies.
"Terry to Falzon, I thought we were on a rescue mission??"
The Falzon replied. "No, Kitana. The Molly's crew has been proven to be working with Admiral Nat and his alliance. They must be destroyed."
Soon enough, the Molly hailed the Kitana. "Federation vessel, this is Captain Nat of the U.S.S. Molly, from an alternate universe where I wasn't a traitor! We have reason to believe that your universe's Captain Sarah Walker has been kidnapped by The Infamous, who we believe is flying a moon-sized ship! Quick, we have to inform Starfleet Command! Just--"
Nothing more than static. The Falzon was jamming communications on all frequencies.
"Hmm. Well, that was short-lived," Terry observed.
Britta turned from her helm controls. "Captain, we can't let them destroy the Molly. If they're telling the truth, we have an obligation to keep them alive."
"And if they're lying?" Hann broke in. "That Admiral Nat went crazy and attacked Quinn, according to reports. He also sided with the Iconians. Anyone siding with them must be stopped."
For a second, Terry could feel something inside of him grumble. He wanted to destroy the Molly for their involvement with the Iconians. He needed to fight the Iconians. But he couldn't let his judgement be clouded; not with his crew watching. Terry stood up. "That last communication is reason enough for doubt. They expressed nothing like that, so I'm going to have to go with our guts. We need more information and the Molly can't give it to us if they're dead. Continue firing on the Falzon." He turned to Trelane. "Can we analyze their hull for quantum signature?"
"How advanced do you think this ship is? You're best bet is a medical RNA scan of one of their crew," Trelane replied.
Turning back to the viewscreen, Terry replied. "Very well. Hann, continue firing until they stop. Target their weapon systems." The Vesta-class Kitana flew over the Falzon and launched a photon torpedo at it.
As the Kitana flew by the Falzon, the Falzon fired on the Kitana with a transphasic cluster torpedo. A hard disruption of gravity from the cluster threw the Bridge crew to the floor in a pit of violence. Luckily, the ship was up to 25th century standards with its quantum phase resilient shields and withheld most of the attack.
Then, the Falzon fired on the Molly with a salvo of antiproton blasts, which the Molly deflected with a feedback pulse, weakening the Falzon's shields further. The Kitana's forward shields were still burned right through, but Hann got up and fired a quantum torpedo through the hole in the Falzon's shields, taking out their weapons.
The Falzon then set on a collision course for the Molly, at ramming speed, determined to ensure they didn't get any information out.
"Captain! They're on a collision course with the Molly!" Britta reported as she took her seat.
Terry got up, feeling that something within his bones begin to rile up. "Ugh!" He looked to arms and something beneath his skin began to slither around, as if there were snakes inside of him. Looking around, he found the crew was too busy to notice.
"They're here for other reasons," Terry snapped back to his calculation of the battle. His eyes changed to a glowing green, but he quickly closed them and attempted to calm his adrenaline. "Destroy them!"
He opened his eyes with a large shot of energy. The Kitana flew overhead the Falzon and began pumping a complete load of thoron infused quantum torpedoes into the Breen ship.
"Sir?" Hann asked, questioning the last order.
Terry sat in his chair and closed his eyes. He subdued whatever was happening to him for the moment. "I mean, disable that ship. Target their engines."
The Ferengi gave an awkward look before switching to phasers to give them time to reload torpedoes. "Firing, Captain."
Despite any attempts to stop her, the phaser-rained Falzon barely collided with the Molly. The fore section on the Molly's saucer was torn right off, creating a sizeable hull breach, killing 7 of the crew.
The Falzon, damaged, saw no end as it came about and opened fire on the Kitana with a volley of transphasic cluster torpedoes. This time, Kitana's dorsal shielding was weakened.
After the violent hit, everyone got back to their seats again. "Target their torpedo launchers," Terry ordered.
"Are you sure you want to do that?" Trelane asked. "Falling off my seat adds so much to my day."
Terry waved him off. "I'm trying to disable a Breen ship right now. No time for you."
Regaining another torpedo load, the Kitana fired both a succession of thoron infused quantum torpedoes into the Falzon's launchers, and phasers at their propulsion systems.
Something has to go, Terry thought, impatiently. Soon, the Falzon's warp core was ejected, a pair of Plesh Brek frigates and a squadron of 12 Bleth Choas Fighters launched from the Falzon, and flew off into the nebulae, undetectable by sensors. The Falzon went on a collision course for the Molly, with the sole intent of colliding with them repeatedly until the Molly was destroyed.
Terry then turned to Hann.
"Destroy the Falzon if you can. Fire phasers and whatever's left of this torpedo load."
Hann nodded and began firing. When Terry turned away he was met with Trelane.
"Uh, I thought you were going to spare the Falzon and then work with them?"
Terry waved him off a second time. "They forced my hand. With communications jammed, and their retargeting of us, we had no choice. Nothing more."
"Huh," Trelane said, dropping it and giving him a passive but critical look before returning to the back of the Bridge.
The Falzon's port section then blew off, from intense torpedo fire by the Kitana. The rest of it began drifting away. Terry attempted to exhale, and recover from what was a near-call on his condition. He had no idea he'd almost lose control like that, and hoped no one else noticed either.
"Report?"
Trelane tapped at his controls. "Warp is down, but impulse is good. Life support is lost on Decks 7 and 8."
"There was a hull breach in Section 24 of those decks, but it's force-fielded now," Hann continued. "Forward and dorsal shielding can't be brought back up without repairs to the emitters. Forward torpedo launchers and forward phaser arrays are offline."
Terry nodded. "Get to work, and I want supplementary teams from all departments to support the Molly." He turned to Britta, who was moving her long hair out of her face. "Take us into the matter cluster and sync us up with them. We'll help however we can."
Trelane had set all his teams into motion, fixing the engines. He was quite impressed at his organizational skills, and expected warp to come online at exactly when he intended it would. Turning to the screen, he crossed his arms comfortably.
"What are you doing? Are you trying to look smug?" Terry took notice.
Trelane looked quite smug, as expected. "Trying, sir?"
"Just... stop... for the children," the Captain suggested.
It was then a polaron bolt missed Trelane by a hair. Everyone turned to see a Vaadwuar assassin on the Bridge. "Trelane, you tortured my people eons ago. I discovered your existence and now your hour of death awaits."
"Are you kidding me? Now?" Terry said, annoyed while watching Trelane make a b-line out one of the Bridge's exits. The assassin followed.
Hann tapped his commbadge. "Hann to security. Intruder alert!"
"Guh," Terry rolled his eyes. He switched the view screen to an angle on the ship. A small shuttle was attached to Section 24, Deck 7, where the breech was. One Vaadwuar loose on the ship wasn't going to be a problem. It was more like Trelane was having a play date at an inopportune time. Terry would just keep the annoyance to himself so he could focus on more important things.
With communications not being blocked anymore, the Molly hailed the Kitana. The viewscreen activated and Terry spoke first.
"Are you guys okay over there, Captain? You're probably thinking I'll want an explanation; everyone always thinks that of me. I'd also like to run an RNA test on some of your crew, to validate your origins."
Nat replied to say, "That makes perfect sense. However, I'd just like to point out that not all of us are from my alternate universe. Most of the crew we have are actually from your own universe's U.S.S. Molly, which the Heralds destroyed. Captain, would you mind if me and an away team beamed over, so I can explain everything and you can do those scans you mentioned?"
"Beam over to my ship?" Terry asked by way of procrastination. "Oh, you want to beam over here? Heh, heh." And then, "One second, please."
He muted the transmission and the pressed a button on his chair.
"Terry to Hann. What's the situation on the intruder?"
Hann's voice replied, "We lost him in the jeffery's tubes. Trelane too. They're a crafty bunch, those two."
"Oh, for the love of--?? This is not one of your Ferengi crab hunts! Just hurry it up, and be discreet. We have more important things to worry about," Terry finished impatiently.
He then switched the transmission back on.
"Sorry about that. Yes, you guys can beam over. Let's meet in the Kitana's Observation lounge."
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