The changeling replied. "Like I said, I'll do what I can once the Dominion is freed, and once the Dominion is free, I'll return the Starfleet officers we have in one of the Alliance Dyson Spheres."
Admiral Nat sighed. "Well... I'll have my officers send you the data to remove the Infamous nanites. As for the eventual Infamous armada confrontation we're expecting after you do remove those nanites, we'll need to plan ahead."
The changeling answered. "Don't bother. We'll have the Alliance to defend us if they do."
"Sounds like a plan, I guess, but I'd recommend you give Krystal a chance to convince them not to attack before just going in and slaughtering them!" Sarah exclaimed. "They do deserve a chance!"
The changeling continued answering. "Fine. Krystal, get a ship and wait for us at the Bajoran wormhole by DS9. Admiral, I'll wait for the data, then take it, bring the Alliance to the Gamma Quadrant, and begin removing the Infamous nanites, and signal Krystal when we're ready for her. Oh, and I'll have that ship delivered to spacedock for you; I'll have the crew returned once the Dominion freedom is certain."
Admiral Nat nodded. "Sounds like a plan, actually."
Admiral Nat shrugged. "Sounds reasonable. I'll have my officers send you the data on how to remove the nanites, and we'll have Krystal in position by the wormhole within 48 Earth hours."
The changeling closed the door, barely giving the admiral time to step outside the closing door. He turned to Sarah and motioned for everyone to follow him. "Sarah, I'm giving you and Krystal command of the Mephiles. I'll need all my crew to work on the Firestorm, Chronostorm, and the other ship that should arrive any time now, so you'll need to find an entirely new crew for the duration of the mission" he continued turning to Krystal, "feel free to borrow your guys from the Lexington. Or not. It doesn't really matter, just find a crew." He stopped, and turned back to Sarah. "You've got 36 hours to have the ship ready for deployment; after that, you move to the Bajoran wormhole."
Captain Nat spoke up. "What about me?"
Admiral Nat turned to the captain. "You are going to stay here and give me a tour of the Chronostorm, naturally."
In a flash of Iconian gateway energy, a Galaxy X dreadnought, apparently the U.S.S. Sally, appeared outside the window. The admiral turned to Sarah and Krystal. "Well get to it. We have work to do."
He motioned for Captain Nat to follow him to the transporter room, but stopped midway there. "No, wait. This way." He turned sharply and headed for the nearest MACO, remembering that ESD's communications were down and that the MACOs were the only way to contact anyone outside. "Get me Captain Dennison on the Mephiles."
The MACO complied, and soon, Jim's voice came over the MACO's external comms. "Jim here. What's up?"
Admiral Nat replied, almost jokingly. "Evacuate all our guys from the Mephiles over to ESD, but don't leave yourself until Sarah and/or Krystal show up, because I'm giving them the ship, albeit temporarily. Once they show up, let them handle everything from there; I want you and our ever so lovable crew working on the Firestorm and helping me check out this other U.S.S. Sally that the changeling just "returned" to us; in fact, me and Nat are just heading there now. Have a few of our guys beam over with some teams to help us, alright? Also, have somebody give that changeling the data on how to the remove the nanites, ASAP."
Jim replied. "Acknowledged. Jim out."
Nat and Nat went back to the transporter room and beamed over to the Sally as Burt and Scott materialized on the bridge with 3 other officers. The admiral turned to Scott. "Nice to have you back on duty, commander. Let's get to work."
Commander Tarsi, considerably less angry than before, was talking to Six of Eleven. “...and you’ll need to hit warp immediately after leaving the ‘bay. You have the coordinates for Sol Sector, right?”
Six nodded. Despite everything that’d happened so far, despite having new scars that crossed her ashen face, she was still as professional as ever. “I will attempt to contact Admiral Nat as soon as I arrive.”
The Andorian gave the ex-Borg a small PADD. “That should fill him in on everything that’s happened over the past 72 hours. And please, be careful.”
“I intend to, Commander Tarsi.”
About five standard minutes later, a Yellowstone-class Runabout left the Hepzibah’s shuttlebay and quietly hit warp drive, flickering out of existence…
In the Brig.
Rosette gasped as she came out of her trance, reaching out to steady D’ren. Was this what a mind meld felt like? She opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out. She felt like she was back in Starfleet Academy, after her partner Lena had had one of her "episodes." She would need some time to process everything that'd happened to her, and being near D'ren was not going to help. "Captain?" V'rar calmly walked over and started scanning Rosette with a tricorder. "You were standing still for quite some time, and scans show some neural abnormalities that I'd like to examine."
"Do what you need to do, V'rar. I need to make some announcements when you're done." She turned to the officers guarding the cells. "Leave him alone with the Trill. Please."
In a few minutes, the brig was empty, save for D'ren, Aenlyn, and Kidna.
Scott sighed. "Where do we start?"
Admiral Nat chuckled. "Bring main power online, obviously. Though, the lights are on, so it appears that's done. We should get somebody to main engineering..."
Burt nodded. "4 of 7's got that covered."
"Guess you guys do know what you're doing. Might as well look around and figure out what to do with this thing," the admiral replied, looking around. "Looks pretty standard. Main tactical station, command chair... first officer and the other seat are a little further than normal, but ok. No extra seats? Huh."
He walked around a bit, and Burt turned to the admiral's new location. "Well, I'll take these guys start looking over the ship for any anomalies." The admiral nodded, and Burt walked out followed by the other 3 officers.
Captain Nat walked over to the back wall consoles. "Tactical Systems, Propulsion Systems, Engineering, Environment... Damage Control. Typical for a warship, I guess."
Admiral Nat glanced over. "Well, if this is the same ship your universe's Sarah commanded, it kinda makes sense."
The captain chuckled. "Not really, considering she usually used the place as a mobile starbase and a command ship. I don't think they made these changes until the Iconian War started..."
"Hmm. Another tactical station? Intelligence? Science?" the admiral questioned. "Who knew a refitted exploration ship would have intelligence sensors?"
Scott sat down at the science station. "It doesn't. It's just a console to access intelligence databases and such, I think. As for the science station..." he continued, sighing. "Basically just a guy to watch the sensors for anything weird. It's got all the essentials, but I feel like they don't get used much."
Admiral Nat walked over to the left side of the bridge and the wall consoles there. "Mission Ops, Communications, and Fleet Operations. Definitely didn't waste any space here." The admiral turned to the captain. "This is certainly command ship material."
Captain Nat glanced at the forward consoles. "Guess there's no need to look up close; those are definitely the conn and ops."
Admiral Nat walked over and sat in the command chair, looking over at the view screen. He pulled up a view of ESD's lower section; still brimming with Borg technology. "Hopefully they'll get that cleaned up. Though, I wonder..." the admiral continued turning to Scott. "The Firestorm definitely isn't in any condition to fly, so there's no sense in settling in there again. Check this ship over for nanites and such, and once it's all clear, bring the crew here."
He leaned back in his chair. "Once this whole mess with the Alliance, and Infamous armada, and everything is over with, I think I'll keep this one, and give you the Mephiles. I mean," he said turning to his captain counterpart, "the Mephiles may be a nice ship, but it's not really suited for an admiral, especially since things might actually start calming down around here for a change, which means they'll probably have me only using an actual ship in large scale fleet actions and peace operations, and in either case, this ship is actually more ideal."
Captain Nat sat down beside the admiral. "Honestly, we've lost a lot of ships lately, and you're jumping from ship to ship is making it worse! Are you sure?"
Admiral Nat laughed, then stopped smiling. "Yeah, I'm sure, and yeah, we have lost a lot of ships, especially from what you've told me. The Sally, from my universe. The Molly. The other Molly. We've practically lost the Firestorm, at least for a long while, too long given how busy we've been. Heck, even the Lexington has blown out their deflector, what, twice lately?"
The captain nodded, and spoke up. "So I'm assuming you plan on having Jim be your first officer here?"
The admiral answered. "Yes and no. I figured I might bring Sarah, too. She's good with Galaxy Xs as long as she's not free to run off and do something stupid." He went to say more, but Scott interrupted. "Sir, a Yellowstone just warped into the system. Considering that we were relaying comms between ESD and the Mephiles, doesn't that mean we should contacting them since we're all moving over here?"
The admiral stopped for a moment. "Is this ship free of nanites?"
Burt called up. "We've run scans; the ship is nanite free."
Nat deadpanned to Scott. "Call the Runabout."
Later...
The admiral waited for a response from the Runabout, but his crew were already getting set up on the ship. Most of the bridge crew had already arrived on the bridge and were getting set up at their stations, while 11 of 14 got set up in main engineering. Jim soon arrived and sat down over on the other side of the admiral. "Well, everyone's transferred, and we brought over some other new guys from who knows where to fill the rest of the crew compliment. Don't worry, I checked them all out first. They'll serve us well."
The communications officer, a Bolian, turned to the admiral. "Sir, turns out the Runabout is just here with an ambassador from New Romulus. I already took care of coordinating their landing with spacedock."
Admiral Nat replied. "Good. Don't bother informing me about every other Runabout though, alright? Well, unless they ask for me specifically, of course. Then let me know."
"Yes sir," the officer nodded, returning to his duties. "Wait, sir, we've got another one. Hailing them now."
Krystal called in the crew from the Lexington and got to work on the new ship. As soon as she was confident everything down in Engineering was in order, she made her way up to the bridge. While she wasn't familiar with this particular class of ship, she was sure she'd perform well.
On the Sally’s side, Admiral Nat and his crew would see an ashen skinned woman with two long scars, white buzzed cut hair, and pale green Borg implants covering her right cheek and eye. Next to her was a fresh-faced human male who looked right out of Starfleet academy. Both were dressed in a Starfleet uniform that looked more at home on the Voyager or Enterprise-E.
The woman spoke. “This is Six of Eleven, Chief Engineering Officer of the U.S.S. Hepzibah and pilot of the U.S.S. Monticello runabout. I would like to speak with Admiral Nat regarding matters concerning the Hepzibah.”
Sarah shrugged. "Until then, enjoy this thing. You ready for a trip to the Gamma Quadrant in, like, 47 hours?"
A random officer turned to Sarah. "Why is it always 47?"
Sarah deadpanned. "Cuz that's Starfleet for you." She turned back to Krystal. "I suppose we should do some research on the Dominion, huh? Would be a good idea to know who we're dealing with... very closely..."
Admiral Nat - U.S.S. Sally
Admiral Nat turned to the communications officer. "Hepzibah? Never heard of them. Put them on screen."
The 2 officers appeared on the viewscreen, and Admiral Nat turned to them. "What is it?"
Sarah laughed. "Yeah, maybe ten minutes, tops, unless we use transwarp or slipstream drive. What kind of warp drive do you guys use on the Lexington? The time is practically all waiting for that signal."
Six gives Admiral Nat a nod. "Admiral Nat, my ship, the U.S.S. Hepzibah, became stranded in Klingon space. After transmitting a distress signal, two ships from the Infamous fleet attacked and boarded our vessel. ...There were some unusual events, sir, that resulted in the surrender of the entity known as D'ren, who we believe to be the Infamous himself. Our captain went to speak with D'ren, but something happened, sir. We barely escaped before the Infamous's ships noticed us. We are requesting your assistance."
Commander Reeve, head of security, made his way to the Conference room attached to Spacedock's Operations area on Deck 47. He joined the other department heads at the table, who were already well into discussing the situation.
"If we don't repair Power Generator 4, half the station's main power will never be back to unfractured operational status," argued Commander Batou, a human and head of engineering. "Remember when Suvel was supposed to fix it?"
Commander Allura, an Aenar and head of operations threw up her arms in frustration. "Are you still going on about that? That was so long ago! It's never going to be properly fixed! We need to focus on the core system software, which regulate everything on Spacedock."
"Just one question," Commander Lucrecia, a human and station's counselor, interrupted. "Is that mess in Engineering all cleaned up?"
Reeve nodded. "As best as we could get. Mirror Borg technology is being removed and stored, and I don't even want to say what was all over the Gravity Control room. Sufficed to say, all Mirror Borg have been tagged and put into the supplemental Medical Bays throughout the station for life support, leaving Deck 47's Infirmary clear."
"What's the status of communications and main power?" asked Commander Barnes, a Benzite and head of shipyards.
Reeve sat back. "Hey now, that's a question for our commanding officer to ask. Speaking of which, anyone see Captain Sulu anywhere?"
"We think he's thoroughly engrossed in something in the Command Ring," answered Allura. "But truthfully, he could be any place."
Suddenly, the footsteps of another man entering the Conference room knocked everyone's attention off and toward him. "Well, well, if it isn't the Commander's summit," came the sly observation of Doctor Melzine, an older human male just outputted from the Valhalla.
"You?" Lucrecia sat up. "Weren't you the guy who compartmentalized the care of a group of school children in order to secure a chemical compound meant to cure the Andorian shingles?"
Melzine scoffed. "A good Doctor manages case priorities based on his experience and judgement, and the Andorians appreciated my work so much that they facilitated my following five projects. Anyway, I'm here to take a position at Spacedock to assist in your drone situation, as it seems preventing an infestation, despite your over-powered anti-devices and Q-injested individuals, was clearly impossible for you."
"Okay, all this petty bickering has only proven to get part of our workflow done," Batou said. "I'm not saying we ever stop, but, to answer Barnes, the exocomp Elric set to fix communications was successful and communications are now back online."
Allura perked. "What about main power?"
"Despite my earlier qualms, it should be back online now as well," Batou reported. "What we need to focus on at present is the removal of the Mirror Borg tech along our exterior hull. The kids don't like it. A Starfleet Academy field trip saw it this morning and were absolutely horrified."
Reeve snapped. "Exocom—"
"Exocomps!" yelped Lucrecia. "I said it first."
Commander Reeve thought for a moment. "Exocomps operating workbees? No, that'd be redundant."
"Either way, it's a plan," Allura said. "Let's prep those adorable shakey-hovering bots. The compliant ones, I mean; not the ones who keep rebelling after our requests to have the lavatories fixed at Club 47."
Melzine sighed. "The recovered drone officers will need rehabilitation programs. I will set those up, but that giant Mirror Borg, regarded as Mr. Raven, will need more work and special attention. He will be my project."
"Very well. Let's all get this station back to normal and prepare for the next crisis," Allura said. "And we will have more crises; it's our thing we do and we should be very proud of it. Dismissed."
The bridge fell silent. Admiral Nat turned to Scott for a moment, who pressed some buttons on his console, out of view from the viewscreen of the runabout, then turned to the admiral and nodded, evidently concerning the admiral further, as he turned back to the viewscreen. The admiral spoke up. "Land your runabout in our main shuttlebay immediately. Nat out."
The communications officer ended the transmission and the admiral turned to Jim. "Get some MACOs, and get down to that shuttlebay. When they get there, don't let them go anywhere. Don't tell them anything, either. They're just being held to wait for me to arrive, assuming I'm not there already." The admiral turned to Scott. "You still have that Relativity phaser handy?"
Scott nodded, and the admiral continued. "Then get down there and be ready. You're just... another officer to support Jim there, alright? Nothing unusual or anything." He motioned for Jim and Scott to go, then turned to the nearest engineering officer, 4 of 7. "Tell 11 of 14 we need that nanite removal tech installed and working on this ship, effective now."
4 of 7 scrambled to inform 11 of 14 of such, and the admiral tapped his combadge. "8 of 14, get ready. 11 will know where you need to be, but just get there."
8's voice came back over the comms. "Yes, admiral."
Captain Nat turned to Admiral Nat. "Admiral?"
Admiral Nat turned to the captain, dead serious. "They might be tagged with nanites, in which case anything we say or do around them will probably become knowledge of their new Infamous, so we'll need to be careful, and mislead the Infamous if we can. Stay here and keep an eye on things; I'll be in the shuttlebay."
The admiral got up and walked over to Jenn at the Fleet Operations station. "Get the 8th fleet's 3rd and 4th tactical wings out here."
Jenn nodded, and the admiral headed into a turbolift, headed down to the main shuttlebay.
“Understood, Admiral.” Six tapped her console and started the Monticello’s docking procedures.
The runabout flew into the shuttlebay and landed into an open spot, where it was greeted by MACO officers. The young human, an Ensign, looked over at Commander Six with fear in his almond brown eyes. “With all due respect, ma’am, I think it was a mistake coming here. We should’ve stayed on the Hep.”
“And with all due respect, Ensign, it is better that we are here. It would be foolish to be in an environment conducive to the Infamous’s unique physiology any longer than necessary.” Six unlocked the aft doors from her console. “Let’s go meet Admiral Nat.”
The doors opened, and the MACOs, along with Captain Jim Dennison and Commander Scott, were waiting for them. Admiral Nat walked in a door and started walking over; he looked annoyed by the whole situation as a whole, as though it were a nuisance to some greater events that were happening. He eyed the commander and the ensign. "So you say your ship is having problems with the Infamous?"
Six speaks. "It's more than having simple problems, Admiral. We had the Infamous in custody, until Captain Rosette went into the brig to meet with him." She hands the Admiral a PADD. "First Officer Tarsi prepared that for you. It has a full combat report, in addition to the status of our ship and medical reports from Chief Medical Officer V'rar. Captain Rosette went...unresponsive for approximately 20 minutes while speaking with the D'ren entity."
Admiral Nat looked down at the PADD. "Oh goodness. This doesn't look good..."
He turned to Scott, then looked back at Six. "Unfortunately, we're in the middle of preparing for an Alliance invasion. We can't spare any ships, or even officers, to deal with this little incident..."
Nat motioned his head, as though signaling someone to do something.
Later...
The two officers woke up in sickbay, but didn't have a clue what just happened; seemingly jumping from their meeting in the shuttlebay to now. They were being scanned over by a Borg drone, still fully Borg. The two MACOs by the door didn't find this concerning, so evidently, the drone was actually a liberated Borg; or the MACOs, too, were actually Borg, but that seemed unlikely. Admiral Nat walked in followed by Scott and 2 more MACOs, and looked over at the two now awakened officers. "So, enjoy your little trip around my new ship?"
The resident forum voice of reason (I HAZ FORUM REP! YAY!)
Admiral Nat sighed. "Well... I'll have my officers send you the data to remove the Infamous nanites. As for the eventual Infamous armada confrontation we're expecting after you do remove those nanites, we'll need to plan ahead."
The changeling answered. "Don't bother. We'll have the Alliance to defend us if they do."
"Sounds like a plan, I guess, but I'd recommend you give Krystal a chance to convince them not to attack before just going in and slaughtering them!" Sarah exclaimed. "They do deserve a chance!"
The changeling continued answering. "Fine. Krystal, get a ship and wait for us at the Bajoran wormhole by DS9. Admiral, I'll wait for the data, then take it, bring the Alliance to the Gamma Quadrant, and begin removing the Infamous nanites, and signal Krystal when we're ready for her. Oh, and I'll have that ship delivered to spacedock for you; I'll have the crew returned once the Dominion freedom is certain."
Admiral Nat nodded. "Sounds like a plan, actually."
Winning.
"With Lexington out of comission for repairs, I'll see what I can do."
The resident forum voice of reason (I HAZ FORUM REP! YAY!)
Winning.
The resident forum voice of reason (I HAZ FORUM REP! YAY!)
The changeling replied. "2 days. Maybe longer."
Winning.
As both Rosette and D'ren came out of the trance, the man's knees wobbled. He stumbled forward, catching himself on Rosette's shoulder before staggering over to the wall beside them. D'ren blinked and rubbed his eyes, blearily glancing around.
He didn't speak, merely stared at each of the Starfleet officers before his gaze rested on the unconscious Aenlyn. A few moments later, after adequately recuperating from the nanite-trance, D'ren slowly made his way across the security room toward the Trill's cell, his gait not in the least bit elegant or smooth as he nearly tripped over himself several times.
When he finally reached the cell, Kidna moved away from him. V'rar had long since finished what she had been doing and the guard has re-established the force field; but D'ren moved in unabated, albeit causing him pain. Pushing through the field, he descended to a knee and placed a hand on Aenlyn's disheveled hair.
D'ren simply stared at her as the guards moved to apprehend him, by first reaching to deactivate the force field so they could approach him. But he ignored them, he ignored everyone but Aenlyn. Kidna stared at him with wide, empathic eyes as she took pity on him.
Finally, he slowly turned to peer sadly over his shoulder at Rosette. His eyes told her, I'd like to be alone with her...
The changeling closed the door, barely giving the admiral time to step outside the closing door. He turned to Sarah and motioned for everyone to follow him. "Sarah, I'm giving you and Krystal command of the Mephiles. I'll need all my crew to work on the Firestorm, Chronostorm, and the other ship that should arrive any time now, so you'll need to find an entirely new crew for the duration of the mission" he continued turning to Krystal, "feel free to borrow your guys from the Lexington. Or not. It doesn't really matter, just find a crew." He stopped, and turned back to Sarah. "You've got 36 hours to have the ship ready for deployment; after that, you move to the Bajoran wormhole."
Captain Nat spoke up. "What about me?"
Admiral Nat turned to the captain. "You are going to stay here and give me a tour of the Chronostorm, naturally."
In a flash of Iconian gateway energy, a Galaxy X dreadnought, apparently the U.S.S. Sally, appeared outside the window. The admiral turned to Sarah and Krystal. "Well get to it. We have work to do."
He motioned for Captain Nat to follow him to the transporter room, but stopped midway there. "No, wait. This way." He turned sharply and headed for the nearest MACO, remembering that ESD's communications were down and that the MACOs were the only way to contact anyone outside. "Get me Captain Dennison on the Mephiles."
The MACO complied, and soon, Jim's voice came over the MACO's external comms. "Jim here. What's up?"
Admiral Nat replied, almost jokingly. "Evacuate all our guys from the Mephiles over to ESD, but don't leave yourself until Sarah and/or Krystal show up, because I'm giving them the ship, albeit temporarily. Once they show up, let them handle everything from there; I want you and our ever so lovable crew working on the Firestorm and helping me check out this other U.S.S. Sally that the changeling just "returned" to us; in fact, me and Nat are just heading there now. Have a few of our guys beam over with some teams to help us, alright? Also, have somebody give that changeling the data on how to the remove the nanites, ASAP."
Jim replied. "Acknowledged. Jim out."
Nat and Nat went back to the transporter room and beamed over to the Sally as Burt and Scott materialized on the bridge with 3 other officers. The admiral turned to Scott. "Nice to have you back on duty, commander. Let's get to work."
Winning.
Commander Tarsi, considerably less angry than before, was talking to Six of Eleven. “...and you’ll need to hit warp immediately after leaving the ‘bay. You have the coordinates for Sol Sector, right?”
Six nodded. Despite everything that’d happened so far, despite having new scars that crossed her ashen face, she was still as professional as ever. “I will attempt to contact Admiral Nat as soon as I arrive.”
The Andorian gave the ex-Borg a small PADD. “That should fill him in on everything that’s happened over the past 72 hours. And please, be careful.”
“I intend to, Commander Tarsi.”
About five standard minutes later, a Yellowstone-class Runabout left the Hepzibah’s shuttlebay and quietly hit warp drive, flickering out of existence…
In the Brig.
Rosette gasped as she came out of her trance, reaching out to steady D’ren. Was this what a mind meld felt like? She opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out. She felt like she was back in Starfleet Academy, after her partner Lena had had one of her "episodes." She would need some time to process everything that'd happened to her, and being near D'ren was not going to help. "Captain?" V'rar calmly walked over and started scanning Rosette with a tricorder. "You were standing still for quite some time, and scans show some neural abnormalities that I'd like to examine."
"Do what you need to do, V'rar. I need to make some announcements when you're done." She turned to the officers guarding the cells. "Leave him alone with the Trill. Please."
In a few minutes, the brig was empty, save for D'ren, Aenlyn, and Kidna.
Scott sighed. "Where do we start?"
Admiral Nat chuckled. "Bring main power online, obviously. Though, the lights are on, so it appears that's done. We should get somebody to main engineering..."
Burt nodded. "4 of 7's got that covered."
"Guess you guys do know what you're doing. Might as well look around and figure out what to do with this thing," the admiral replied, looking around. "Looks pretty standard. Main tactical station, command chair... first officer and the other seat are a little further than normal, but ok. No extra seats? Huh."
He walked around a bit, and Burt turned to the admiral's new location. "Well, I'll take these guys start looking over the ship for any anomalies." The admiral nodded, and Burt walked out followed by the other 3 officers.
Captain Nat walked over to the back wall consoles. "Tactical Systems, Propulsion Systems, Engineering, Environment... Damage Control. Typical for a warship, I guess."
Admiral Nat glanced over. "Well, if this is the same ship your universe's Sarah commanded, it kinda makes sense."
The captain chuckled. "Not really, considering she usually used the place as a mobile starbase and a command ship. I don't think they made these changes until the Iconian War started..."
"Hmm. Another tactical station? Intelligence? Science?" the admiral questioned. "Who knew a refitted exploration ship would have intelligence sensors?"
Scott sat down at the science station. "It doesn't. It's just a console to access intelligence databases and such, I think. As for the science station..." he continued, sighing. "Basically just a guy to watch the sensors for anything weird. It's got all the essentials, but I feel like they don't get used much."
Admiral Nat walked over to the left side of the bridge and the wall consoles there. "Mission Ops, Communications, and Fleet Operations. Definitely didn't waste any space here." The admiral turned to the captain. "This is certainly command ship material."
Captain Nat glanced at the forward consoles. "Guess there's no need to look up close; those are definitely the conn and ops."
Admiral Nat walked over and sat in the command chair, looking over at the view screen. He pulled up a view of ESD's lower section; still brimming with Borg technology. "Hopefully they'll get that cleaned up. Though, I wonder..." the admiral continued turning to Scott. "The Firestorm definitely isn't in any condition to fly, so there's no sense in settling in there again. Check this ship over for nanites and such, and once it's all clear, bring the crew here."
He leaned back in his chair. "Once this whole mess with the Alliance, and Infamous armada, and everything is over with, I think I'll keep this one, and give you the Mephiles. I mean," he said turning to his captain counterpart, "the Mephiles may be a nice ship, but it's not really suited for an admiral, especially since things might actually start calming down around here for a change, which means they'll probably have me only using an actual ship in large scale fleet actions and peace operations, and in either case, this ship is actually more ideal."
Captain Nat sat down beside the admiral. "Honestly, we've lost a lot of ships lately, and you're jumping from ship to ship is making it worse! Are you sure?"
Admiral Nat laughed, then stopped smiling. "Yeah, I'm sure, and yeah, we have lost a lot of ships, especially from what you've told me. The Sally, from my universe. The Molly. The other Molly. We've practically lost the Firestorm, at least for a long while, too long given how busy we've been. Heck, even the Lexington has blown out their deflector, what, twice lately?"
The captain nodded, and spoke up. "So I'm assuming you plan on having Jim be your first officer here?"
The admiral answered. "Yes and no. I figured I might bring Sarah, too. She's good with Galaxy Xs as long as she's not free to run off and do something stupid." He went to say more, but Scott interrupted. "Sir, a Yellowstone just warped into the system. Considering that we were relaying comms between ESD and the Mephiles, doesn't that mean we should contacting them since we're all moving over here?"
The admiral stopped for a moment. "Is this ship free of nanites?"
Burt called up. "We've run scans; the ship is nanite free."
Nat deadpanned to Scott. "Call the Runabout."
Later...
The admiral waited for a response from the Runabout, but his crew were already getting set up on the ship. Most of the bridge crew had already arrived on the bridge and were getting set up at their stations, while 11 of 14 got set up in main engineering. Jim soon arrived and sat down over on the other side of the admiral. "Well, everyone's transferred, and we brought over some other new guys from who knows where to fill the rest of the crew compliment. Don't worry, I checked them all out first. They'll serve us well."
The communications officer, a Bolian, turned to the admiral. "Sir, turns out the Runabout is just here with an ambassador from New Romulus. I already took care of coordinating their landing with spacedock."
Admiral Nat replied. "Good. Don't bother informing me about every other Runabout though, alright? Well, unless they ask for me specifically, of course. Then let me know."
"Yes sir," the officer nodded, returning to his duties. "Wait, sir, we've got another one. Hailing them now."
Winning.
Felt good to be a Starship Captain again too.
The resident forum voice of reason (I HAZ FORUM REP! YAY!)
“On screen.”
On the Sally’s side, Admiral Nat and his crew would see an ashen skinned woman with two long scars, white buzzed cut hair, and pale green Borg implants covering her right cheek and eye. Next to her was a fresh-faced human male who looked right out of Starfleet academy. Both were dressed in a Starfleet uniform that looked more at home on the Voyager or Enterprise-E.
The woman spoke. “This is Six of Eleven, Chief Engineering Officer of the U.S.S. Hepzibah and pilot of the U.S.S. Monticello runabout. I would like to speak with Admiral Nat regarding matters concerning the Hepzibah.”
Admiral Nat - U.S.S. Sally
The communications officer turned to the admiral. "Sir, we've got a runabout asking for you. It's about some ship called the Hepzibah."
Winning.
The resident forum voice of reason (I HAZ FORUM REP! YAY!)
A random officer turned to Sarah. "Why is it always 47?"
Sarah deadpanned. "Cuz that's Starfleet for you." She turned back to Krystal. "I suppose we should do some research on the Dominion, huh? Would be a good idea to know who we're dealing with... very closely..."
Admiral Nat - U.S.S. Sally
Admiral Nat turned to the communications officer. "Hepzibah? Never heard of them. Put them on screen."
The 2 officers appeared on the viewscreen, and Admiral Nat turned to them. "What is it?"
Winning.
"Will take some time to get there anyways," she said.
The resident forum voice of reason (I HAZ FORUM REP! YAY!)
Winning.
The resident forum voice of reason (I HAZ FORUM REP! YAY!)
Winning.
The resident forum voice of reason (I HAZ FORUM REP! YAY!)
Winning.
The resident forum voice of reason (I HAZ FORUM REP! YAY!)
Winning.
"If we don't repair Power Generator 4, half the station's main power will never be back to unfractured operational status," argued Commander Batou, a human and head of engineering. "Remember when Suvel was supposed to fix it?"
Commander Allura, an Aenar and head of operations threw up her arms in frustration. "Are you still going on about that? That was so long ago! It's never going to be properly fixed! We need to focus on the core system software, which regulate everything on Spacedock."
"Just one question," Commander Lucrecia, a human and station's counselor, interrupted. "Is that mess in Engineering all cleaned up?"
Reeve nodded. "As best as we could get. Mirror Borg technology is being removed and stored, and I don't even want to say what was all over the Gravity Control room. Sufficed to say, all Mirror Borg have been tagged and put into the supplemental Medical Bays throughout the station for life support, leaving Deck 47's Infirmary clear."
"What's the status of communications and main power?" asked Commander Barnes, a Benzite and head of shipyards.
Reeve sat back. "Hey now, that's a question for our commanding officer to ask. Speaking of which, anyone see Captain Sulu anywhere?"
"We think he's thoroughly engrossed in something in the Command Ring," answered Allura. "But truthfully, he could be any place."
Suddenly, the footsteps of another man entering the Conference room knocked everyone's attention off and toward him. "Well, well, if it isn't the Commander's summit," came the sly observation of Doctor Melzine, an older human male just outputted from the Valhalla.
"You?" Lucrecia sat up. "Weren't you the guy who compartmentalized the care of a group of school children in order to secure a chemical compound meant to cure the Andorian shingles?"
Melzine scoffed. "A good Doctor manages case priorities based on his experience and judgement, and the Andorians appreciated my work so much that they facilitated my following five projects. Anyway, I'm here to take a position at Spacedock to assist in your drone situation, as it seems preventing an infestation, despite your over-powered anti-devices and Q-injested individuals, was clearly impossible for you."
"Okay, all this petty bickering has only proven to get part of our workflow done," Batou said. "I'm not saying we ever stop, but, to answer Barnes, the exocomp Elric set to fix communications was successful and communications are now back online."
Allura perked. "What about main power?"
"Despite my earlier qualms, it should be back online now as well," Batou reported. "What we need to focus on at present is the removal of the Mirror Borg tech along our exterior hull. The kids don't like it. A Starfleet Academy field trip saw it this morning and were absolutely horrified."
Reeve snapped. "Exocom—"
"Exocomps!" yelped Lucrecia. "I said it first."
Commander Reeve thought for a moment. "Exocomps operating workbees? No, that'd be redundant."
"Either way, it's a plan," Allura said. "Let's prep those adorable shakey-hovering bots. The compliant ones, I mean; not the ones who keep rebelling after our requests to have the lavatories fixed at Club 47."
Melzine sighed. "The recovered drone officers will need rehabilitation programs. I will set those up, but that giant Mirror Borg, regarded as Mr. Raven, will need more work and special attention. He will be my project."
"Very well. Let's all get this station back to normal and prepare for the next crisis," Allura said. "And we will have more crises; it's our thing we do and we should be very proud of it. Dismissed."
The communications officer ended the transmission and the admiral turned to Jim. "Get some MACOs, and get down to that shuttlebay. When they get there, don't let them go anywhere. Don't tell them anything, either. They're just being held to wait for me to arrive, assuming I'm not there already." The admiral turned to Scott. "You still have that Relativity phaser handy?"
Scott nodded, and the admiral continued. "Then get down there and be ready. You're just... another officer to support Jim there, alright? Nothing unusual or anything." He motioned for Jim and Scott to go, then turned to the nearest engineering officer, 4 of 7. "Tell 11 of 14 we need that nanite removal tech installed and working on this ship, effective now."
4 of 7 scrambled to inform 11 of 14 of such, and the admiral tapped his combadge. "8 of 14, get ready. 11 will know where you need to be, but just get there."
8's voice came back over the comms. "Yes, admiral."
Captain Nat turned to Admiral Nat. "Admiral?"
Admiral Nat turned to the captain, dead serious. "They might be tagged with nanites, in which case anything we say or do around them will probably become knowledge of their new Infamous, so we'll need to be careful, and mislead the Infamous if we can. Stay here and keep an eye on things; I'll be in the shuttlebay."
The admiral got up and walked over to Jenn at the Fleet Operations station. "Get the 8th fleet's 3rd and 4th tactical wings out here."
Jenn nodded, and the admiral headed into a turbolift, headed down to the main shuttlebay.
Winning.
The runabout flew into the shuttlebay and landed into an open spot, where it was greeted by MACO officers. The young human, an Ensign, looked over at Commander Six with fear in his almond brown eyes. “With all due respect, ma’am, I think it was a mistake coming here. We should’ve stayed on the Hep.”
“And with all due respect, Ensign, it is better that we are here. It would be foolish to be in an environment conducive to the Infamous’s unique physiology any longer than necessary.” Six unlocked the aft doors from her console. “Let’s go meet Admiral Nat.”
Winning.
He turned to Scott, then looked back at Six. "Unfortunately, we're in the middle of preparing for an Alliance invasion. We can't spare any ships, or even officers, to deal with this little incident..."
Nat motioned his head, as though signaling someone to do something.
Later...
The two officers woke up in sickbay, but didn't have a clue what just happened; seemingly jumping from their meeting in the shuttlebay to now. They were being scanned over by a Borg drone, still fully Borg. The two MACOs by the door didn't find this concerning, so evidently, the drone was actually a liberated Borg; or the MACOs, too, were actually Borg, but that seemed unlikely. Admiral Nat walked in followed by Scott and 2 more MACOs, and looked over at the two now awakened officers. "So, enjoy your little trip around my new ship?"
Winning.