Admiral Nat - U.S.S. Sally, Bridge
"We're here to assist." The admiral motioned for Jim to open fire, and the Sally rained on the carrier, as a pair of elite Delta Flyer-class runabouts launched from the Galaxy-X dreadnought and moved in to intercept the fighters.
The admiral watched the battle closely, while Sarah gave out orders for various maneuvers and such.
---
Captain Elric - U.S.S. Amaterasu, Bridge
Two more Caitian Atrox Carrier's, the Feverent and the Gallaka decloaked behind the Amaterasu and the Sally, flanking them. Elric switched his viewscreen angle in mild shock.
"Admiral," Elric said. "These appear to be a thug group of Caitians not like the kind we are used to, or serve with in Starfleet. I believe them to motivated by brainwashing, but, from who, may be the father of a woman named Claire that I encountered on Spacedock. He must be the same guy that gave them cloaking devices. Claire's in danger now, aboard the Emerald, and I plan on focusing my ship into getting me over there. Elric out."
Two of the Stalker Fighters were destroyed by the two Elite Delta Flyers, prompting the remaining four to focus their tetryon pulse cannons into one Flyer at a time. Six more Stalker Fighters, three per ship, were launched from the two new vessels.
Elric tapped a few panels. "Initiating multi-vector mode. I want to target all vector firing into weakening the Emerald's shields to get me through."
The Amaterasu began moving forward as it split into three. The Emerald opened fire on them, while the Feverent and the Gallaka opened fire upon the Sally. Lancing phaser beam after phaser beam from each section of the Amaterasu suddenly caused a hole to be burned through and, doing as he planned, Elric transported aboard the Emerald to search for Claire.
---
Admiral Nat - U.S.S. Sally
Admiral Nat quickly turned to Jim, then Narekkun, then Sek, Burt, and finally 4 of 7. "You five, come with me. The rest of you, prepare for a Saucer separation. They won't expect this one. Separate on my signal, and immediately fire off an antimatter spread when you do."
The officers rushed into the turbolift to the Battle Bridge, and arrived there soon after, signalling Sarah on the Saucer section. The Sally separated, the saucer firing off an antimatter spread, scrambling the Caitian's sensors as the Stardrive launched 2 more Delta Flyers, then turned about to aim its Phaser Lance weapon at the 2 carriers. The Sally's Stardrive fired a wide-beam soon after, and the Saucer began firing its own Phaser Lance at them soon after, disabling the Feverent's weapons.
The Gallaka's forward weapons went down, but the impacts to its hull from that section weakened it further.
---
Captain Elric - Caitian starship Emerald, Bridge
The human made his way down the corridors, firing his phaser rifle into Caitian after Caitian. His tricorder led him to the Bridge, where Claire was already kicking one of the last Caitian operators out and to the floor.
"I see you have everything under control here," the Captain observed.
Claire smirked. "Which is more than I can say for you. Did you really think I needed saving?"
"Hey, I just met you," he replied. "Also, to be honest, I blame myself for what happened. If I hadn't manufactured those cells or messed with Raven, I wouldn't have been distracted enough not to stop that hunter group."
The woman looked at Elric's arm, which he revealed to be cybernetic. "Clearly doing things is not your forte, but I appreciate the sentiment. By the way, behind you?"
"Argh!!" LuKet, completely covered in body armour now, swiped at Elric, knocking the rifle away and into a corner. The Caitian launched a second claw for the man, but Elric caught its wrist and forced a punch with his robot-arm into LuKet's helmet.
Elric let go as LuKet was knocked back-walking several meters until the wall. "New threads? I like them," Elric said. "But how'd you fit your misshapened form into that suit?"
"The hardest surgery of my life, no thanks to you," the completely covered Caitian replied in a deeper, augmented voice. "I wasn't fully prepared to leave the system to meet Fury without Claire's intel just yet, so I remained here until then. You're just a lucky bonus."
He launched a suit-powered knee as he leapt at Elric, which was blocked with both the Captain's hands in an attempt at holding LuKet's momentum back. But, while in mid-knee-catch, above Elric, LuKet fired a straight-line-of-sight-punch down to his head. Elric arced his neck back, barely dodging it and then brought his cybernetic arm into an uppercut through LuKet's chin. The Caitian's movement was redirected and LuKet was sent upward, back, and then down onto the floor.
"He may need more surgery," Elric said catching his breath and flexing his robotic hand. The new equipment was working better than he expected. "Well, at least I got the boss, right?"
Claire shook her head as she walked over with the medallion and a stone tablet. "Seline leads the brainwashed Caitians. She's in another sector." Then she held up the tablet to a dissatisfied Elric. "These Ancient El-Aurian etchings were what they wanted me to decipher. It talks about a world in what's now Romulan space."
"How the hell did that species get here before their present day equivalents?"
She shrugged. "Who knows, but if you can help me figure the rest of this thing out, we can beat the Caitians to that world."
"It looks like there are more parts to that box I recovered," he said as he examined it. "Err, anyway, let's finish this fight first." Elric went over to the helm and rotated the Emerald to face the Gallaka. Claire took weapons and joined the two sections of the Amaterasu in weakening the Gallaka's shields and hull. With weapons offline, the Feverent activated its warp bubble and stretched off through altered space, out of there.
The third section of the Amaterasu assisted the Delta Flyers in destroying the rest of the automated Stalker Fighters. They exploded like popcorn in space.
A surge was shot through the Gallaka's already overloaded interior, sending the warp core into a breech. The ship exploded in a bright plume of energy and debris.
"Elric to Sally. I've got the Bridge under control on the Emerald, but there may still be men on lower decks. What's your status?"
Admiral Nat replied from the stardrive. "They scratched our shields and put some dents in our Delta Flyers and the Saucer Section, but we're otherwise fine. I can have the Saucer beam over some MACOs to assist you, and have additional MACOs secure the rest of the ship."
"Sounds good, Admiral. Thanks," Elric replied, noticing the Amaterasu reintegrating on another screen. "After it's secured, I'll bring the Emerald back to Spacedock. The Caitians on here will eventually need to be un-brainwashed. If that's possible. Elric out."
The Sally's Saucer section started beaming MACOs to the Emerald. In a matter of minutes, twenty MACOs were already on the bridge, and more MACOs scattered throughout the ship, taking it over.
Elric and Claire transported to the Amaterasu and the Hestia-class starship tractor beamed the Emerald back to Earth.
After the Caitian vessel was brought into Spacedock, the MACOs took the Caitians to the brig, albeit temporarily, and then returned to the Sally.
---
Captain Elric - Earth Spacedock, Operations
Some time later, Elric went over to the command ring with the holographic displays of ships around Spacedock. He could see the Sally, the Lexington and the mirror Chronostorm nearby. A report told him Captain Jade was under medical care. He hoped she was okay, and wondered what was happening with the attacker.
Then he brought up the data on the Caitian starship Emerald, which was being cataloged by Spacedock engineers. The brainwashed Caitians were all in the Brig, being examined by Doctor Melzine.
Next to the alien ship was his old ship the Amaterasu, a vessel with only one person on board: a holographic engineer was all Starfleet would spare. He then watched the starship move into Spacedock's interior.
"Stealing your own vessel?" came Commander Allura's interruption. "Hasn't that been done before?"
Elric turned to her. "Doesn't mean it can't be done more than once."
"Either way, it doesn't look good for you, despite the fact you revealed unregulated cloaked ships and captured intruders," she replied. "Starfleet likes the results, but the methods aren't always appreciated."
The Captain crossed his arms. "Do you guys want me to raise my hand before I go to the bathroom too? I'm Captain in rank for a reason. If they didn't want me making decisions, they should've demoted me."
"Rumour has it, it'd been discussed," she added. "Not that I'm on their side or anything."
Elric thought about it for a moment. "Well, I'm not going to let that stop me from doing my job. Hopefully they can see past my rash nature for my integrity. Anyway, thanks for the heads up." He nodded to the Aenar and Operations officer and walked off, noticing Captain Lyras nearby. "Everything okay, Captain?"
Lovely, more people... Lyras observed the approaching captain. "Yes, I am well," she replied, wondering for what purpose this captain was approaching her. Curiosity, perhaps? "I do not believe we have met," she said, successfully in keeping her tone calm and even. "I am Lyras." the Vulcan continued, studying the man before her.
"Captain Elric," he extended his right hand, as his left, cybernetic hand was gloved. Elric was slim built, had dark brown short hair, and wore the Odyssey white-shouldered uniform. "Sorry to interrupt you. I was just curious. Are you on Spacedock for long?"
"I do not know." Lyras replied, "Currently, I have not been given a mission, though that will no doubt change soon enough..."
"Captain! Y-you're alive!" A young man with fiery red hair and a slight Irish accent, made his way to where the two captains were standing. "I can't believe it! When I talked to Commander Lissan earlier, she said that she couldn't sense you! We all thought you were-"
"O'Donnell..." Lyras interjected, raising her brow slightly in warning. "How many of the crew made it?"
His expression sobered. "Only... only those of us who were on the bridge when... well, you know..." he trailed off. "So... five, including you."
"Five..." Lyras whispered, closing her eyes for a moment, before remembering captain Elric. "Captain Elric, this is Lieutenant Commander Kieran O'Donnell, my Chief of Operations."
"Pleasure to meet you, Commander," Elric nodded to the Chief. He then looked at both of them. "I'm sorry about your crew, Captain Lyras. Sounds like things were rough? I lost my own crew as well during a Na'khul attack. I'm still in mission limbo. Though, I'm forced to wonder if they just want to keep me around Spacedock as a result."
Upon hearing Elric mention the Na'kuhl, Lyras narrowed her eyes. So they're active in this timeline as well...
Captain Sarah Walker entered Operations and waved to Elric, then continued over to center area, glancing at the holographic display of the system, and then looking over various reports.
Minutes later, another Sarah came in, seemingly didn't notice the Sarah standing by the center console, and walking over to Elric. "Heya. How's the whole thing going on with those Caitians and that El-Aurian artifact?"
Lyras observed the woman who looked exactly like the one who was studying a console nearby. Just then, she felt a nudge from O'Donnell. So he'd noticed it, too. She gave him the tiniest of nods.
"Well, Captain, I'd better go round up the others. It was nice meeting you, sir." O'Donnell bobbed his head at Captain Elric, good-natured as ever despite the situation.
"I had better go as well. It was nice meeting you, Captain." With that, she ambled casually over so that she was now on the other side of the woman currently in conversation with Captain Elric.
In a flurry of action, she tapped her combadge, spun around, and aiming for the nerves at the base of the neck, attempted to deliver a Vulcan Neck Pinch.
O'Donnell heard his combadge chirp. The signal! As smoothly and discreetly as he could he pulled out his phaser, and having previously walked over to stand behind the woman examining the console, aimed his weapon at her head. "Excuse me, Miss," the Irishman said conversationally, "Would you mind turning around slowly? I've got a phaser trained at your head right now, and I'd hate to have to use it."
Sarah and Sarah quickly glanced at the two officers. The Sarah by the console raised an eyebrow. "What's your problem?"
The Sarah by Elric dodged the incoming nerve pinch, grabbed Lyras' arm and twisted it behind her, pulling out her phaser. "So you mind explaining why you're running around delivering nerve pinches, captain?"
Scott, still by the ensign, glanced over at the various events, pulling out his phaser, not sure which Sarah to aim the weapon at, but eventually aimed for the Sarah that had now subdued Lyras. "Alright, which one of you is the real one, and which one of you in the Undine... or Changeling... or other assorted shapeshifter..."
The two Sarahs glanced at each other. They seemed confused.
Elric crossed his arms. "Hm. Let's run a blood test," he suggested as Doctor Melzine was entering Operations.
"What??" the human Doctor widened his eyes in shock. "If I had known you guys were engaging in shenanigans, I would've stayed in the Infirmary!"
The Captain rolled his eyes at the old man. "Just do the thing, please."
"Fine, but you owe me an hour of calibration and review for your cybernetic arm for each test I take. Since that's two tests, that's two hours," the cranky man took out a blood screener from his carrying case and approached the Sarah in front of Elric first. He pressed it to her arm.
Nothing happened. The Sarah by the console seemed genuinely surprised that the Sarah by Elric was a fake. Scott looked horrified. "THEY'RE BOTH FAAAAAAAKES!"
The Sarah by Elric started growing into a large, imposing looking Undine, and swatted the nearby officers away with ease. The Sarah by O'Donnell grabbed him with an extended changeling arm and threw him into a wall, then glared at the Undine, who glared back, as Scott moved to try to prevent them from reaching Admiral Quinn in his office, but the Undine lunged at him, knocking him down while the changeling started fighting off security officers.
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