Operations - Earth Spacedock
Elric entered Operations on Earth Spacedock and approached the holographic display at the Command Ring. He found several ships preparing for missions.
A fleet of Starfleet vessels followed another fleet, setting course out of the system, escorting a now phase-cloaked Galaxy-X-class U.S.S. Sally, heading for the U.S.S. Hepzibah's last known location.
Elric finished reading the report to get him up to speed on a situation with the Hepzibah. He put the PADD down and then tapped into remote subspace relay stations throughout Federations space to connect with the ships at the edge of Klingon space. After a moment he could see that the Prometheus-class starship was surrounded, and local sensor reports indicated that it was boarded.
"I've got an eerie feeling about this," Elric said, as if having the upper hand was too good to be true.
Captain Nat walked over to Elric and noticed the situation regarding the Hepzibah. He raised an eyebrow. "You might be right..."
The human nodded to the alternate universe Captain Nat, as he was handed a report from an intelligence officer. Elric read it and turned to Nat. "Several similar-looking humans were found killed around Qo'noS," he reported. "They appear to be Infamous clones. It's just like the death here. What do you make of it?"
Captain Nat sighed. "Word has it the D'ren out there is on a mission to take out the entire Infamous Armada. Makes sense to kill off all the other D'rens so they aren't a threat to his success."
In a moment, an officer walked over to them and glanced at the display, reading the location of the Hepzibah. Before Nat or Elric could speak, the unknown officer vanished into a somewhat sparkly, roundish, and yellow transporter beam, not unlike those used by the Undine.
Captain Nat stepped back, opening his mouth. No words came out.
Elric was taken in shock as well. He then spread his arms, cautiously. "I got this. I relocated Spacedock's lockdown controls to right here, next to the daily ship rosters and coffee orders. I can't even count how many times we've gone full lockdown, but we may as well make it easy for us if it's going to be a regular occurrence."
He activated the console and set the station into mode again. Transports and communications went into limited status.
Captain Nat sighed. "How the hell did he even board the station without those devices sending him back? Did he have access to whatever that other Undine used?"
"Hmm. According to Aeris' report, the Undine Doctor Kohogeth used the devices as a cross-universal proxy to pull in people to the Unknown Undine Biobase, and, eventually her old ship into Fluidic space. His access came from the same biobase, so, it's possible whichever Undine faction is in play here either has a similar control or took over that same base. Either way, they've found a way to modify Spacedock's devices, which are inaccessible to us, even after all our efforts to uncover them."
He thought for a moment.
"Maybe we can go back to that base and use the controls there to go from proxy-access to something more thorough to possibly sync these anti-devices to our universe. That way we could repair and upgrade them as necessary?"
Captain Nat shrugged. "We can try, but the admiral did tell me to stay put, cuz hyper-Q powers."
"So, you've got the powers, huh? What's to stop you from using them to get what we want aboard the Hepzibah? Or merge the anti-devices to our realm without all that work? Or even run off, never to be seen again?"
"The admiral ordered me not to," the AU Nat replied. "First step towards power hungry insanity."
"Your restraint is commendable, Captain. But how are you able to stand by when people's lives are in danger? The Undine could board Spacedock and kill us all, or that armada could go to war? How do you know you aren't being tempted into power hungry insanity right now?" Elric asked. "Sorry about all the questions, but having those abilities surely warrants some inquest."
"The Undine aren't boarding spacedock and killing everyone." Nat replied. "If they do, I might just cave in and stop them."
He sighed. "Your concerns are completely understandable, though. As for the armada, what would I do? They have anti-Q medallions, and yes, I am being tempted into power hungry insanity right now, but I'm resisting it."
"Sorry, Captain. I may have spoken out of turn, but only because I know that if I had such powers, I'd be doing everything I could to help people in need. But I'm not in your shoes, and I don't know how something like that would really effect me. I can only imagine how it's working on you. I admire your dedication to staying within the command structure, and I know your intentions are good, but if you can't hold onto your sanity, we may be in trouble."
Then he remembered.
"Wait. What if we tried to annihilate this power like I tried before? The ancient El-Aurian amplifier artifact is still aboard the I.S.S. Amaterasu which is inside Spacedock right now. I may have lost the medallion, but there was another medallion on that clone earlier which we could attempt to use on you in the same way."
"We had the admiral take it in case D'ren had another Q working with him."
Before Elric could respond, his console beeped. "Okay, looks like the message I sent to Admiral Nat, while we were talking, informing him of the Undine, has been received by his ships." He then went to another console. "No signs of Undine anywhere here, according to Spacedock sensors and other Sol system relay stations. But there was a linear distortion near Jupiter, possibly caused by a moving cloaked ship. I think I can track them if I get to the Amaterasu quick enough."
He nodded to the alternate universe Captain Nat before heading for the interior shipyard.
"I'll be back before supper."
---
Earth Spacedock, Shipyard
When the Captain reached the section where the Prometheus-class I.S.S. Amaterasu was docked, he was blocked by Commander Barnes at the docking doors.
"Going somewhere?" the Benzite asked.
Elric took a breath from his run. "There are no ships around to investigate a distortion at Jupiter, so I'm taking my ship out for just a quick run around the block."
"This was your mirror counterpart's ship; not yours," he explained. "Also, your attempts at dismantling its Dominion transporter device has irrevocably damaged its systems."
The other man threw his arms up. "What!? First my original Amaterasu is nearly totaled by Na'khul and now this."
"You should be kinder to your starships, crew issues notwithstanding. At least propulsion still works on the original vessel. Space magic, I assume."
Elric snapped his fingers. "Yes, that's right." And then, "Hey, look over there!"
"Ugh. You really think that would actually work on me?" the annoyed Benzite said as he rolled his eyes, disappointed at the attempt at all. But when he returned his gaze, he found Elric was gone. "Oh."
Minutes later, the Hestia-class U.S.S. Amaterasu was activated, taken out of Spacedock and into open space.
---
Operations
Later, the fleet retuned with the Hepzibah, and docked with Earth Spacedock.
Admiral Nat contacted Captain Nat who was sitting at a work station on the bridge, which was being repaired. "We need more crew."
Admiral Nat facepalmed. "Of course you don't have enough guys. Scott, get some more guys. Anything else?"
Captain Nat replied. "That probable-Undine we sent a message about, and Elric went looking for some cloaked ship or something out by Jupiter."
"We'll go help him check it out, I suppose," Admiral Nat replied, "once Scott and his guys finish getting over there to help you."
Captain Nat nodded. "Sounds good."
---
Captain Elric - U.S.S. Amaterasu, Bridge
The Hestia-class starship dropped an unprecedented short burst of warp at Jupiter Station. With Zeta crawling around the helm, the ship moved passed the science structure and toward the spot the station personnel had detected. Elric stood when a Starfleet officer suddenly entered the Bridge in surprise.
"Oh," she said. "My name is Jessie. I'm the holographic maintenance program working on this ship, considering the engineering staff was reassigned."
Elric turned to her in shock. "Sorry, Jessie, I just needed my old ship back for a moment. We're scanning a distortion in space that may be a cloaked ship."
"Hm," she thought. "You could attempt a tachyon burst to reveal it."
The Captain nodded. "I agree. Thanks, Jessie."
She went over to a control panel and got to work. The Amaterasu shot out a burst which suddenly deactivated the cloak around a Caitian Atrox Carrier. Elric scanned it and found it was a ship registered as the Emerald and that there were lifesigns for Caitians and one human aboard. In the next second, 6 advanced Stalker Fighters shot out from it and opened fire on the Amaterasu.
"Elric to Admiral Nat," he replied, noticing the hail. "I guess those Undine are still unaccounted for."
