Star Trek: Vanguard

Revelations

 

Prologue

 

The bright purple glow of the Dominion warship scared her more than she would let on to her officers. Her captain was dead and the ship was badly damaged. The colonists below, on Tryptis IV, were expecting the almighty Starfleet to save them from the bloodthirsty Dominion but the battle-damaged Supernova was no match for the pristine Dominion ship. She glanced at the tactical station, Ensign Verity Slank, the only other living officer on the destroyed bridge, had her hands in the panel trying to fix it. The young ensign suddenly drew her hands out and let out a whoop of delight.

‘We’ve got weapons, communications are online still – just – and the shields are holding.’

‘Ensign, if we get out of this I’ll get you a promotion.’

‘Sir, if we get out of this I’m gonna have a long soak in a bath before I touch a panel again.’

Commander Angharad Jones looked at her and smiled. ‘Target that beetle’s engines and fire whatever we’ve got.’

Three torpedoes and a barrage of phaser beams streaked out to the Dominion warship and the warp engines suddenly glowed even brighter.

‘Congratulations Ensign,’ Angharad said.

‘Shockwave,’ Verity replied and then looked to her commanding officer in horror. ‘Without thrusters we’ll be knocked around like a genie in a bottle.’

‘Hold on to something,’ Angharad acknowledged, not knowing how to reassure the younger woman.

Seconds later the shockwave from the exploding warship washed over the Supernova sending her into a downward spin, directly into the atmosphere of Tryptis IV. Verity was holding onto the rail by the tactical station but the rail came loose and the buffeting ship threw her into the rear bulkhead of the bridge. Angharad heard the sickening crunch as the ensign crumpled to the ground, shockingly still. She was still alive, the captain’s chair held. She quickly tapped her combadge, checking that the comm system was still active, and received the acknowledging chirp.

‘All hands, abandon ship,’ she told anyone that still lived.

Walking over to the body of the captain and letting a single tear drop down her cheek she took one last look at the dead bodies of her friends on the bridge. When she reached Verity’s inert body she knelt down and said a prayer for her fallen comrade. She forced open the turbolift doors and started climbing down the shaft.

The ship began groaning around her and she suddenly heard the hiss of escaping air. Groaning at her continual bad luck she managed to climb inside a turbolift and closed the hatch. While the sounds of the ship breaking apart in the upper atmosphere terrified her they also reassured her. There would be nothing for any Dominion ship to capture. She realised that the turbolift was still intact even though the Supernova had broken up around her and then she grabbed on to the handrail as the starship’s warp engine exploded, sending another shockwave toward whatever debris was left of the Oberth-Class ship.

The shockwave hit the turbolift and she tumbled about in the confined space. She thought of her crew, her friends and her ship as her head hit the hatch and she mercifully lost consciousness.

 

Chapter One

 

The Utopia Planitia shipyards in orbit of Mars were busier than they ever had been before. Starships that Starfleet had once said were ready for decommissioning were now being overhauled and retrofitted with whatever new technology could be stuffed into their hulls and damaged ships were being repaired as fast as the engineers could go. They were backlogged and ships were badly needed at the frontlines. Admiral Melvin Walsh stalked the corridors looking for engineers to reassign to critical tasks and found none. Every engineer he had, and those with minimal engineering qualifications, was busy fixing ships. Dejected, he returned to his office to find a woman waiting for him. It was a surprise to be sure but a welcome one. She had a cane resting between her legs and an expression that bordered on the homicidal. Her uniform was clean but too big for her gaunt frame.

‘Are you waiting for me?’ he asked wearily.

‘As it happens, I am,’ she answered with a wan smile.

‘Then come in,’ he gestured her toward his office.

When they were both seated he took another look at her and realised that she had no rank pips on her command-coloured uniform. Her face bore too many lines for a woman of her approximate age and her eyes were almost completely dull. They should have been a piercing blue beneath her raven-black styled hair but death had clouded them. Walsh silently cursed the war and the pesky aliens that started it but straightened his uniform and became all business-like; putting out of his mind all the paperwork he had to do.

‘What can I do for you?’ he asked her.

‘I need a ship,’ she answered.

‘Who are you?’ Walsh asked with uncharacteristic kindness.

‘Angharad Jones,’ she answered and Walsh suddenly understood why she looked so haggard.

He understood the look in her eyes. ‘You were lucky, Commander.’

‘No, I wasn’t,’ replied and her expression changed to one of outright hostility but it didn’t carry to her tone of voice. ‘I want a ship.’

‘Are you fit for duty?’ He had to ask that question.

‘I think so but Doctor Highland doesn’t.’

The station’s Chief Medical Officer was rarely wrong in his diagnoses but Walsh thought privately that she should be given a ship and might destroy the Dominion single-handed. It was a wasted thought. ‘Then I can’t give you a ship,’ Walsh replied and actually felt sorry for the woman.

She looked up at his eyes and hers twinkled with something he couldn’t quite identify. ‘I don’t need pity, I need a ship.’

‘I’m sorry. Perhaps Admiral Barker in the next office might be able to help you. He has more sway with Doc Highland than I do.’

She stood up. ‘Thank you for your time, Admiral.’

Walsh acknowledged her as she strode from the door, leaning lightly on the cane, and then went back to work. Angharad walked to the next office and knocked on the door. A voice from within gave her permission to enter.

Admiral Richard Barker looked up from the padd he was working on and then stood to greet the newcomer. A quick glance told him who she was and the determined expression told him what she wanted.

‘How fortuitous,’ he said and gestured for her to take a seat.

Angharad looked up and her blue eyes brightened just a little. ‘Sir?’

‘Doctor Highland has been pestering me to toss you off his station because you’re aggravating all his other patients,’ Barker told her with a slight smile.

‘He’s got too many patients,’ Angharad replied. ‘Some are actually fit enough to return to duty.’

‘Are you a psychologist now?’ he asked with some acerbity.

‘No, I’m half Betazoid,’ she answered and his brow relaxed.

‘That explains it. I’ll have a word with him. Now, you wanted to know why your meeting me was fortuitous. I’ll tell you. Starfleet Command has informed me that certain special missions need to be undertaken and I am to furnish those missions with personnel from the ships under repair at this station. I hate to break crews up but in your instance only the senior staff will change.’

‘Am I going to get a ship?’ Angharad asked without preamble.

‘Yes.’

‘Sir, may I make a request?’

‘It depends.’

‘I’d like a Nova-Class, if there’s one available, I’ve had experience on them and I’ve found them reliable against most…species.’

Barker smiled and nodded to her. ‘A Nova-Class is the only vessel that is available, the USS Vanguard, NCC 2368-A.’

‘Wasn’t that Captain Felik’s ship?’ Angharad asked, astounded.

‘It was. He’s still alive, but he’s been taken off active duty, until further notice.’

‘What happened?’

‘The Cardassians captured him and killed most of his senior officers trying to get information out of him,’ Walsh told her and he then noted a similar expression that Walsh had seen but this one was most definitely homicidal. Thankfully directed at the Dominion but he was hesitant about assigning her to a ship so soon.

‘Bloody Cardies,’ she muttered and then composed herself.

‘There is something else,’ Barker said.

‘Sir?’ asked Angharad.

‘By order of Starfleet Command, because of your courage under fire and surefootedness in the face of danger, I hereby promote you, Angharad Jones, to the rank of Captain, with all the rights and privileges therein.’

She looked stunned, she was sure of that, but her eyes regained some of the blue that had been lost. Her own ship! Her own command!

‘I’m sorry it took me so long but I had to find suitable officers to assign to you. Please look them over before you leave the room,’ Barker told her, ‘so that I can make changes if necessary.’

Angharad glanced at the list and paused at the top name. ‘Sir, this reminds me. I wondered if the Federation Medal of Honour has arrived for Ensign Verity Slank. She saved my life and the lives of the colonists of Tryptis IV at the cost of her own.’

‘It has, Captain, the medal was sent to you this morning. I assume that a ceremony will be wanted?’

‘No sir. Just her remaining family and I,’ Angharad said. ‘I think it will be better for all concerned.’

‘As you wish Captain,’ Barker said.

The word felt good to her but it brought back memories of her dear friend Don Eagleton, former Captain of the Supernova.

‘I don’t see anything wrong with these names sir, thank you.’

‘Captain, you’re dismissed.’

‘Sir, what berth is the Vanguard docked at?’

‘Forty-seven, I suggest you familiarise yourself with her and pull together those officers as soon as possible.’

‘Aye sir,’ she replied and strode from his office, her eyes having a little more colour now.

 

The bridge of the Vanguard didn’t quite glisten but it still looked better than the Supernova’s had. With the cane in one hand and the padd in the other in had been a slow walk to docking berth forty-seven. She was sitting in the command chair looking at the biographies and histories of the officers assigned to her and actually recognised a few of them. So engrossed in her reading material she didn’t hear the turbolift doors swish open and deposit a man on the bridge.

‘Sir?’ he asked, almost timidly.

She stood up and turned to face him. He stood at attention just in front of the doors and her heart did a little jump. ‘Commander?’

‘Commander Roger Slank,’ the man said. ‘You asked to see me?’

He was older than she and looked like he’d been in a few battles. If they gelled they would make an excellent team.

‘I’m sorry about your sister.’

‘Thank you, sir.’

‘She talked about you a lot, was proud to follow in her brother’s footsteps.’

‘Family’s footsteps sir, both parents were Starfleet and their parents. It’s a tradition, been that way since ’61,’ Slank told her.

2161, the year that the Federation was chartered and the year that Starfleet became a power to be reckoned with.

‘Stop calling me sir, ma’am will do, I’m not a fan of such strict protocols.’

‘Yes ma’am.’

‘That’s better. Do you have any other family?’ she asked him.

‘No ma’am, Verity and I were all that was left.’

‘I’m sorry.’

‘Ma’am, you wanted to see me.’

‘Admiral Barker has assigned you as my first officer,’ Angharad said and the man’s eyes widened in surprise.

‘I’m the second officer on the Rio Grande,’ Slank replied.

‘Not any more,’ Angharad shot him with a winning smile that almost lit up her eyes. ‘Unless you’d rather be a second officer still?’

‘First officer sounds good.’

‘Excellent. I was hoping that I would have this to present to you before we left,’ she said to him and his eyes glanced toward the box that held in her hands.

He stepped over to her from the rear of the bridge and stood at attention, realising the significance.

‘Computer,’ Angharad intoned. ‘Activate the viewscreen, and play the recording.’

Ensign Verity Slank’s face appeared on the screen. ‘Hi Roger, Commander Jones got me to record this before we went up against the Dominion, I think she did it for everyone, just in case. Well, just to let you know that it’s been a pleasure serving in Starfleet and if I had a chance to do anything else, I wouldn’t. I’ve made so many friends that I could never invite them all home, there’d be no room. I hope this finds you well, I just hope that you can find a wife and settle down. The family name stands with you Commander Roger Slank, Starfleet owes our family a great deal and we owe them the same. This is Ensign Verity Slank, Starfleet Command, signing out.’

The screen went blank and Angharad wiped away a tear. It looked like Verity’s brother was doing the same.

 ‘I have something to present to you,’ she told him and he turned to face her.

‘Ma’am?’

She held out a box, engraved with the seal of the United Federation of Planets.

‘When I was rescued and realised that the Supernova had been destroyed, with all hands but mine, I knew the sacrifice that your sister had performed. She worked on the tactical console to give us one last chance to stop the colony from falling to the Dominion and she did it. She saved all our lives and in my mind, and that of Starfleet and the Federation, she deserves this.’

He took it. He opened it and looked at its contents then glanced up at her. He held the box like it was the most precious thing in the world.

‘Stow it in your quarters,’ Angharad told him. ‘Meet me in the briefing room at,’ she glanced at the ship’s chronometer, ‘1900 hours.’

‘Yes ma’am, and thank you. This means a lot to me and I know that she would have appreciated it.’

Roger strolled from the bridge. He was surprised at being posted with the woman that he thought had gotten his sister killed but now that he knew the truth he decided that she was a good woman but more than that that she was a good officer.

Angharad looked at the padd in her hand and then left the bridge herself, she was supposed to seek out her senior officers. It was lucky that there were so many officers at Utopia Planitia waiting until their ships were repaired. Many were also waiting to see where they would be reassigned. She sought out her tactical officer first, he was currently on leave and had recently arrived to try and get a new assignment from the brass. He was in the station’s bar, sipping a synthale.

She took a seat next to him and ordered a Raktajino.

‘Lieutenant Commander Gregson?’ she asked, to confirm.

‘Yes,’ he answered and looked her. His first impression was of a beautiful woman sitting beside him and then he glanced at her collar and four pips. ‘Sir.’

Angharad sighed. ‘Captain Angharad Jones of the Vanguard, you’ve been assigned as my tactical officer.’

‘Is there an emergency?’ he asked, starting to rise from his chair.

‘No, I wanted to meet you before the briefing at 1900 hours.’

‘Oh,’ he sounded dejected.

‘Eager to get back into the fight?’ she asked.

‘I’ve been on medical leave since the destruction of the Yucatan eight months ago. Starfleet Medical finally cleared me to back on duty.’

‘Well then, it’s good to meet you Commander, I look forward to blowing up Dominion ships with you,’ said and flashed him a smile. Being half-Betazoid actually helped people relax around her. Probably a good thing in the current climate.

‘Yes sir,’ he replied and returned the smile. ‘See you at 1900.’

Angharad nodded to him and got on with her travels. She had just left the bar when her combadge chirped.

‘Jones.’

‘Captain? This is Admiral Barker. Join me in my office please.’

It sounded urgent so she headed straight to the executive corridor. Barker was sitting behind his desk which was littered with more padds than had been there when he shooed her out several hours ago. He waved his hand in the direction of the seats opposite him and she sat down, her padd and cane in hand.

‘I’ll get straight to the point Captain,’ Barker said. ‘I’ve just received an urgent communiqué from Captain Sisko on Deep Space Nine. It seems that the Dominion is up to something in the Badlands. And seeing as you’re supposed to be heading out there anyway I’d like you to gather your crew and depart as soon as possible. Your orders are to check out what their doing and stop them if it is necessary. If not return to DS9 and inform Captain Sisko just what they are up to.’

‘Aye sir,’ Angharad replied.

‘Dismissed.’

 

The Nova-Class Vanguard was capable of warp nine-point-seven-seven-five at maximum speed and they were travelling at nine-point-five now. Angharad glanced around the bridge. Roger Slank was busy pacing the bridge, checking that everyone was doing their best. Lieutenant Commander Ian Gregson was at tactical, but looked out of place. He had gone from being the head of security on the Beta shift to the Chief of Security in a heartbeat. It would probably take him a while to get used to the responsibility. One of the reasons that she had wanted to meet everyone first was to get a feel for them, to know how they would gel with her.

She didn’t really have a command style, but what she did have was a flexible routine that allowed officers under her command to do what they did best without the sticky discipline that other ships had. It worked well on the Supernova under Captain Eagleton and she wanted to make it work here on the Vanguard. Lieutenant (junior grade) Kevin Carty, someone she had served with previously on board the Rachmaninov, was at the science station to her right, trying to fix one of the numerous problems that had popped once they left Planitia. Lieutenant (senior grade) Philip Cooke, also from the Rachmaninov, was at Operations and making a nuisance of himself by making sure that everything was ship-shape.

Jerome Mitchell, a junior grade Lieutenant she’d served with on the Dirigible, was in engineering and nursing the temperamental warp engines that were standard on the Nova-Class starships. The warp engines had been designed for another class of vessel and were stuck in the Novas when that class failed its tests. Because of that, and the relative age of the Nova fleet, Starfleet hadn’t put new warp engines in the ships. They were supposed to be retired.

Angharad had two Ensigns under her command. Ensign Kristin Southgate was at the helm and doing a good job of keeping them at warp and away from the large number of stray enemy warships that seemed to be too close to them and encroaching in Federation space. The Chief Medical Officer assigned to the Vanguard was Anne Docker, fresh from the Academy. She had heard that Julian Bashir had been san Ensign when he was assigned to Deep Space Nine but the Chief Medical Officer’s rank meant nothing in sickbay. In there, the doctor could override the most senior of Admirals.

‘Sir, I’m detecting a debris field on our present course, three hundred million kilometres ahead,’ Cooke said, trying to make sense of the readings on his screen.

‘Friend or foe?’ asked Slank.

‘The debris has a…Klingon signature.’

‘Friend,’ Roger looked at Angharad, for advice or confirmation, she wasn’t sure.

‘Slow to half impulse,’ she told Southgate. ‘Scan the debris for life-signs.’

The Vanguard shuddered as she slowed but nothing else happened.

‘Inanimate debris only,’ Cooke replied after several moments.

‘What ship?’ Roger asked and Angharad looked at him, why should it matter?

‘Sensors identify it as the IKS D’seQ,’ Cooke answered.

‘As soon as we’ve cleared the debris field return to high warp, notify Starfleet of the D’seQ’s destruction,’ Angharad said; getting her tongue round the Klingon language easily. ‘They’ll pass it on to the Klingons.’

‘Aye sir,’

 

 

Chapter Two

 

Angharad stared out of the viewscreen as the peculiar scorpion-like shape of Deep Space Nine came into view when the Vanguard dropped out of warp, slowing to impulse speeds. The station, built by the Cardassians to plunder Bajor more than sixty years ago, was currently the most important place in the galaxy. Before leaving Utopia Planitia she had been given a padd with the complete history of the station, including its temporary ownership by the Dominion before Starfleet took it back. An addendum to the report contained information about the wormhole, through which the dreaded Jem Hadar poured through with the Vorta and the shapeshifting Founders. What surprised her most had been the added report by Captain Picard, the legendary commander of the Enterprise (and youngest captain in Starfleet, before her), about the artificial wormhole that the Dominion had been trying to build. Her only hope was that such a thing was not being attempted, again, in the Badlands. If it was then the mission that she was up against would be another suicide mission.

‘Open a channel to the station,’ Angharad told Gregson.

‘Aye sir.’ 

‘This is Captain Angharad Jones of the Vanguard, requesting permission to dock.’

‘Captain, this is Major Kira Nerys, first officer of Deep Space Nine. We’re having trouble with the docking berths at the moment. You’re next in line as soon as another vessel departs.’

‘Thank you Major,’ Angharad replied, knowing what it was like to be backed up. ‘I’m supposed to be assigned to one of the fleets,’ she added, not knowing who in this backwater section of the known galaxy would be dealing with that aspect.

‘Captain Sisko will deal with that when you dock’ Major Kira told her.

‘Thank you again Major, I’ll just have to wait I suppose,’ Angharad replied.

‘The worst thing,’ Kira agreed and signed off.

After ten minutes, though it felt like longer, Gregson piped up. ‘Sir, we’re being hailed by DS-Nine, it’s Major Kira.’

‘On screen.’

‘Captain, you are cleared to dock on upper pylon two.’

‘Thank you Major, Jones out.’

Kristin Southgate manoeuvred the Vanguard through the ordered chaos of the other vessels surrounding the station to the upper pylon that had just become free. There were Klingon Birds of Prey, Starfleet cruisers of all different classes and numerous freighters. Southgate was human, from one of the border colonies that the Cardassians had appropriated when the Federation marked up the Demilitarised Zone, a few years ago. She, like many of her compatriots, was only too willing to pay the Cardassians back in kind for their brutality, and that included their allies, namely the Dominion. Her crew weren’t exactly a ragtag bunch but they all seemed to know the horror of the war (almost no-one didn’t) and the vagaries of the past of the Alpha Quadrant. At least two of them knew the Badlands intimately.

A metallic thud-like sound stirred Angharad from her thoughts. She believed that she’d heard the mechanical docking clamps seal magnetically to the hull and Southgate confirmed it.

‘We have a seal, sir.’

‘Right, I’m off to see Captain Sisko. Commander Slank, you’re with me. Lieutenant Commander Carty, the bridge is yours,’ Angharad said as she strode to turbolift.

Slank followed her and once they were actually off the ship and walking through the corridors of Deep Space Nine he asked the question that had been on his mind since he first spoke to her.

‘Captain, permission to speak freely?’

‘Go ahead,’ she replied, glancing at him as they walked through the Promenade. She’d never been here before and thought that she wouldn’t like to have been stationed here, even before the war; the place looked permanently depressing with all the hard angles that Cardassian architecture favoured.

‘Do you think its right that I should serve under you knowing that you got my sister killed?’ Slank asked, mincing his words badly but unable to correct the mistake quickly enough.

She whirled on him, anger showing in her eyes making them very blue. ‘I didn’t get her killed,’ she said, clamping a hand down on his shoulder. ‘We were outgunned and when the rest of the bridge crew were killed by well-placed hits by the Jem Hadar and she damn near killed herself rummaging through the panels to give us one more shot at destroying them. A strategy that paid off I might add. The shockwave of the exploding Jem Hadar warship killed her and most of the few remaining living people because we didn’t have working thrusters or impulse engines.

‘That wasn’t my fault and I would have prevented it if I could. I knew from my engineer before everything failed that the warp engines were a lost cause and the impulse wouldn’t work without two weeks in dry-dock.’ People were starting to look at them now as her voice became raised above the high decibels that the station population managed normally. ‘I couldn’t do anything about it and yes, I feel guilty that I survived and she didn’t, but I lost a lot of good friends that day. I’d been on the Supernova for six years and knew the crew intimately, Captain Eagleton was my mentor and I had served with him on three ships. Don’t make me feel any guiltier than I already do.’

Slank looked at her, unable even to apologise for his bad choice of words. ‘Why did you survive, but nobody else?’

She walked a few steps away to lean against a pillar, although the effect was more like a slump than a lean. ‘I don’t know.’

He laid a hand on her shoulder. ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t really think about what I was saying. It wasn’t…precisely…what I meant to ask you.’

Angharad flicked her raven-black ponytail away from her face. ‘I wish that more of them had survived because it meant that I might have more people I knew under my command but I have to live with the reminder that none did. If you want to be reassigned then just ask and I’ll fill out the paperwork,’ she told him and walked off, strolling in the direction of the turbolift that would take to the Operations Centre of Deep Space Nine.

He jogged to catch up with her long stride. ‘I don’t want to transfer. I just wanted to know the truth about you. Like if you were a changeling or something. There were some people on Planitia who thought that you were a collaborator, working with the Dominion; that you were saved because you meant something to them. Those same assumed you were a changeling and that Starfleet was ignoring it and keeping an eye on you.’

She grinned with a smile that made it to her beautifully blue eyes and the artificial lights of the Promenade made her hair shine. ‘Hah! That would make a really good holo-novel but to satisfy you, I just want to blow up as many Jem Hadar, Vorta and Founders as possible, to pay them back for killing my friends and the people on the colonies that they’ve decimated.’

‘I really am sorry,’ Slank said.

‘Don’t worry about it. Mentally I’m fine, physically might take a while longer.’

‘I notice you haven’t got your cane with you.’

‘Don’t really need it unless I’m walking great distances like I was at Planitia, walking kilometres every day trying to get a ship before one fell in my lap.’

 

The turbolift arrived at Ops and they emerged into the hustle and bustle. Angharad glanced around and saw O’Brien from the Enterprise, the red-haired woman that was Major Kira and numerous Bajoran and Starfleet personnel around the various stations.

‘Captain Jones?’ Kira asked and she nodded. ‘Captain Sisko is expecting you, go right up. Only you,’ Kira reiterated.

‘He’s coming with me,’ she replied and pushed Slank along with her.

Kira sighed and went back to work. Sisko probably would make his feelings known about security. If Odo had been in Ops that Commander wouldn’t have been allowed there. Apart from the senior officers of DS9, Ops was Captains’ only territory.

The doors to the station commander’s office opened as she walked up the steps and a pair of Klingons left, one wearing a Starfleet uniform and the other in Klingon military dress. Lieutenant Commander Worf nodded to her, obviously recognising her from his former security team on the Enterprise, and she returned the compliment. The Starfleet Klingon merely gave Slank an appraising look and turned to the other Klingon who ignored both of them completely.

‘Come in, Captain,’ Sisko said, inviting her in. ‘Er, I only wanted to speak with you.’

‘Captain,’ Angharad began, ‘my entire senior staff has been reassigned from battle-hardened ships at Utopia Planitia and either you tell him now or I tell him later, it makes no difference.’

‘That is completely against Starfleet regulations,’ Sisko said, his voice was raised sufficiently that all others in Ops looked at them.

‘My ship will be alone out there Captain,’ Angharad told him. ‘I’m not about to let my senior officers head off into the Badlands without knowing why.’

‘Alright, but I’ll have to report this to Admiral Ross.’

‘I understand sir,’ Angharad replied.

Sisko nodded and let them into his office. When they were seated he handed her a padd which she read as he talked. ‘Down to business. Now that the Dominion have retreated back to Cardassian space we have control of the wormhole again and the Dominion are, for the moment, giving it a wide berth while they regroup and figure out another strategy to wipe us off the face of the galaxy. The Enterprise was here a couple of weeks ago and Captain Picard gave me the report that he and a ragtag crew destroyed the artificial wormhole that the Dominion was attempting to build.

‘I think that they’re now trying something else. From the looks of the reports I’m getting from ships that make it through the area it would appear that they are trying to engineer new Jem Hadar in the Alpha Quadrant. With the added reports from our moles in the Cardassian Union that their shipyards are working overtime to make new Dominion warships, my guess is that they’re trying to set up a way of winning the war with overwhelming numbers. That is bad news and I want you to find out what is really going on and stop them, at all costs.’

‘Sir, we are one ship and there will undoubtedly be a lot of Dominion activity in the Badlands, are we getting an escort?’

‘No, I’m afraid that you’re the only vessel we can spare for this mission,’ Sisko answered. ‘More help may be forthcoming if you find something but other than that I can promise nothing.’

‘You definitely think there’s something to the reports and not just a hoax?’

‘The thought had occurred to me, which is why I asked for a single fast ship with an experienced crew, some of whom must be familiar with the Badlands.’

‘Aye sir,’ Angharad replied and made to rise. ‘I’ll get underway immediately.’

‘Wait a moment,’ Sisko said. ‘I want to make sure that you understand that this could be a one-way mission.’

Angharad looked at him with a glint in her eye. ‘Starfleet send me on a one-way mission to Tryptis IV, Captain, I survived. The Supernova was a weakened ship after all the battles we’d been in previously. The Vanguard hasn’t been in a battle for about fifteen years so its structural integrity isn’t so weak. We’ll survive and deal the Dominion another dying blow. I don’t intend to let them tramp over what our families have built up over the last two hundred years.’

Sisko nodded, a slight smile tugging at his dark features. ‘Starfleet was right to give you a command. I’ll see about an escort into the Badlands. Good luck.’

*          *          *

Slank managed to wait until they were on the turbolift heading away from Ops before he opened his mouth. ‘What was all that about?’

‘It was a speech designed to get us that escort. I don’t want to be blown up before we even get into the Badlands,’ Angharad replied.

‘Is that all it was?’ he asked.

‘No, I intend to deal a death blow to the Dominion. With numerous single-ship missions going on at the same time and the numerous allied fleets pounding their front lines the Dominion have to be spreading their fleet pretty thinly. That will be our greatest advantage.’

‘And you think we’ll be able to handle whatever we come up against. I don’t want to die like Verity did,’ Slank said.

‘You won’t,’ Angharad told him. ‘This mission will be successful and the Dominion will be suffering their new losses.

‘Where are we going?’ he asked as they walked down the promenade again, away from upper pylon two.’

‘I want to have a chat with an old friend of mine,’ she answered as they walked into Quark’s.

‘Not Quark I hope,’ Slank replied, knowing all about the devious Ferengi.

‘Chief,’ Angharad said as she caught sight of the Irishman ascending the steps to the upper level of Quark’s bar.

‘Angharad,’ O’Brien greeted her warmly. ‘I heard what happened, are you alright?’

‘Fine, thanks,’ she returned the greeting while Slank stood to one side.

‘What’re you doing here?’

‘Mission,’ she answered. ‘Wanted to know something about the Dominion, though you’d be the one to know.’

‘What d’you need?’

‘Their tactics,’ she told him. ‘I want to know how well they know the Starfleet textbook.’

‘Better than we do,’ O’Brien said. ‘Throw it out and make up your own, it’ll keep ‘em off guard and they won’t deal you the same blow as they did to the Supernova.’

‘Thanks Chief,’ she said and nodded to her commander as they disappeared down the steps

‘What was all that about?’ Slank asked her.

‘O’Brien is from the Enterprise, now he’s here on DS9. If anyone knows about alien tactics, it’s him. And he confirmed what I thought. We need a new textbook on evasive manoeuvres,’ Angharad told her number one. ‘Can you see to that while we get underway?’

‘I think I can mange that,’ he answered as they got into a turbolift.

‘Upper pylon two,’ Angharad said the turbolift darted upward.

 

Chapter Three

 

The roiling plasma needles of the Badlands were a beautiful but deadly sight. The Vanguard was flanked by a Klingon bird of prey and an Oberth-Class like the Supernova. As they ploughed head-on into the plasma storms the two others pulled back, turning round and heading back to the station.

‘Good luck Captain,’ Worf said from the IKS Rotarran.

‘Thank you Commander, Jones out.’

‘Captain, plasma storms are particularly heavy in this area,’ Carty told her from Operations.

‘Ensign Southgate, think you can pilot around them?’ Angharad asked and was actually relieved that they had reached the Badlands without Dominion interference, though that was unlikely to last as they were heading into Dominion occupied territory.

‘Just like a game of hopscotch, ma’am,’ Southgate replied and the Vanguard tilted to starboard as a violent tendril tried to snatch them.

‘Keep it up Ensign, and we’ll get there in one piece,’ Slank said, thankful for her quick reflexes.

‘Follow the computer-guided course,’ Angharad told Southgate. ‘We know roughly where the Dominion are hiding their base. I want to have the element of surprise.’

‘Ma’am, we could send out a Cochrane-Class shuttlecraft to scout ahead,’ Gregson said from tactical, keeping an eye out for any Dominion ships.

‘How many have we got?’ Angharad asked.

‘Three, we also have three Runabouts and the Captain’s Yacht.’

‘Are the Runabouts armed?’

‘Yes ma’am, so are the Cochranes, but the Runabouts have microtorpedoes.’

‘Commander, take a Runabout and scout ahead. Gregson, keep an open comm link at all times.’

‘Aye sir,’ Slank said and headed for the turbolift.

‘Yes ma’am,’ Gregson replied. ‘Commander, take a couple of my security people.’

Slank glanced at Gregson and nodded. ‘Have them meet me in shuttlebay three.’ He entered the turbolift and stopped himself from collapsing. She obviously knew he was a good pilot and he had tried not to let the Badlands get to him. He’d been posted at Deep Space Nine three years before, with the crews of the Canton and the Dostoevsky. Both vessels had been destroyed by Dominion warships in the Badlands and he had only just managed to escape with his life. Forty-three people survived out of nine hundred and ten. The turbolift emerged in the corridor outside the shuttlebay and three security personnel were waiting for him.

‘I thought I was taking two of you?’

‘Lieutenant Commander Gregson thought that I should come along too sir, I’m a pilot, four hundred hours in Runabouts,’ Lieutenant Villy answered.

‘Let’s go then.’

The doors to the large shuttlebay parted and Slank entered, heading right for the only Runabout in that bay. The hatch was open and he walked in, quickly followed by Villy and the other two security personnel. Ensigns Richmond and Ty’Dew took the rear seats in the main compartment and Villy sat in the co-pilot’s seat, Slank taking the pilot’s chair. Villy ran through the pre-flight checklist and Slank activated the internal power systems.

‘Red Rock to Bridge, ready for launch.’

‘Go ahead Red Rock, launch when ready.’

The external shuttlebay door opened and the bay was depressurised. Slank quashed a pang of terror as he piloted the Runabout on thrusters out of the bay and then engaged the impulse engines. The warp drive would be inactive the entire time they were in the Badlands because the plasma storms prevented a stable warp field from being formed and Slank cursed Starfleet for awkward missions. Especially suicide missions.

The Red Rock manoeuvred round the plasma tornadoes as if they weren’t there, it was far more manoeuvrable than the Vanguard was but Slank relayed his course back to the ship, making sure that she followed in his footsteps. Sitting beside him Villy was busy making minor course corrections and mapping the Badlands, like so many others had on many occasions, although few had returned to tell about it and provide Starfleet with their maps.

After several hours in the Runabout two of the security officers had fallen asleep, but Slank knew that the slightest jolt would bring them awake in nanoseconds. He was looking at the screens and out the forward viewscreen when an alarm sounded. The two security officers were on their feet and Villy was checking all the systems.

‘We have a planetary system dead ahead, bearing three-five-eight-mark-two-seven.’

‘Red Rock to Vanguard, do you copy?’ Slank asked as he slowed the craft almost to a halt.

‘This is Vanguard, we read you Commander,’ Angharad replied. ‘What have you got?’

‘A planet that isn’t on the previous maps of the Badlands. It could be a Maquis base but I thought they were all but wiped out.’

‘They were, the Dominion routinely practice genocide,’ Angharad told him. ‘Come back and we’ll use the Vanguard’s sensors to get a better look.’

‘Captain, the Red Rock is smaller, we’ll probably be able to get closer and make more detailed sensor scans,’ Slank said.

Before she could answer her first officer Villy screeched a warning as another alarm klaxon sounded.

‘Red Rock, come in,’ Angharad said, her voice rising.

‘Dominion craft approaching, a type not before seen. Two life-signs aboard, both Jem Hadar.’

On the bridge of the Vanguard Angharad was fretting. ‘Southgate, go to full impulse, catch up with the Red Rock, engage.’

The Dominion Expropriator sped past the Runabout and then turned around, coming back for a strafing run and let of a volley that went wide. Slank pulled up, making as tight a circle as possible and coming level with the rear of the Expropriator. Villy fired a phaser blast but it went wide and a plasma storm appeared out of nowhere. Slank pushed the engines and went right through the needle at the top of the storm and the Expropriator followed, narrowly avoiding a burning fate. Villy fired the rear phasers and the Expropriator shuddered as it was hit but continued moving forward, inching closer and closer to the Runabout. Villy continued to fire as Slank performed evasive manoeuvres.

‘We have to get closer,’ Villy said.

‘I’m gonna slow down and fake engine trouble, when they get close – point blank – fire phasers.’

‘Aye sir,’ Villy responded and held his fingers poised over the firing button.

Slank slewed the Red Rock to a stop, with the impulse engines idling low and the Expropriator slowed as it approached the Runabout. When Slank detected the build-up seconds before firing he nodded to Villy who hit the phasers. The beam lanced out from the Red Rock and hit the cockpit of the Expropriator. It careened wildly and was swallowed up by a plasma storm as the Vanguard streaked into view.

‘Well done Commander,’ Angharad said, her voice taut with suppressed emotion. ‘Come on back and we’ll see about those sensor readings.’

‘Aye sir,’ Slank replied, he didn’t have the energy to argue.

When he emerged from the Runabout, Angharad was standing there tapping her foot in agitation. He knew he’d had have to explain himself.

‘Well?’ she asked without preamble.

‘It was a new type of Dominion craft. Lieutenant Villy took sensor readings of it before we destroyed it. They did not send a transmission,’ Slank told her once the security guards filed out.

‘That is not the point. I would have preferred you not to open fire on the craft at all.’

‘We were fired upon first,’ Slank said, ‘and with all due respect, Captain, if we hadn’t destroyed them they would have destroyed us.’

Angharad sighed and her blue eyes momentarily flashed in the reflected light of the shuttlebay. ‘You were right, but I would have liked to have given permission first.’

‘I apologise, Captain. But we did get a lot of sensor readings.’

‘Let’s look at them,’ she replied and touched his shoulder.

 

On the bridge, at the science station, Lieutenant Carty was collating the data gathered from the scouting mission. Angharad stood behind him and Slank stood next to her. The information scrolling across the screen told them nothing about the Dominion base they were looking for and Slank said as much.

‘Sir, I think you’re wrong about that,’ Carty said, bringing up the specifications of the small craft. ‘It’s a short range craft and that means that the base is nearby. Secondly, there’s no data on this type of Dominion vessel, which means its new and because its small there must be a lot of them to keep tight security on this base.’

‘What are you saying Lieutenant?’ Angharad asked

‘Sir, there may only be one or two warships, the security is maintained by the fast and manoeuvrable Expropriators.’

‘Starfleet’s been working on Interceptors,’ Gregson added from the tactical station. ‘These ships look like modifications to the Starfleet Interceptors.’

‘And you know that because?’ Slank asked enquiringly.

‘I was stationed on the Yucatan when the Dominion attacked some of the Maquis outposts in the Demilitarized Zone. Starfleet wanted a new fast scout designed that could act as a swarm, twenty single-person ships that could keep a warship busy while waiting for reinforcements.’

‘Aren’t they supposed to be short range?’ Angharad asked.

‘No ma’am,’ Gregson said. ‘The Starfleet Interceptors were designed to be high-warp ships, capable of high manoeuvrability at warp much like the Fighters are at impulse. Starfleet’s aim was to have them launch from any nearby starbase, outpost or planet to aid our allies and colonies at a moment’s notice.’

‘How close is that base?’

‘About three billion kilometres,’ Carty answered.

‘Lieutenant Gregson,’ Angharad said, ‘is it possible to use materials on board to create the Interceptors?’

‘It’s possible ma’am, but you’ve have to ask Lieutenant Mitchell.’

‘Bridge to Engineering.’

‘Mitchell here.’

‘Lieutenant, can we build a few Starfleet Interceptors from the materials on board?’

‘Sure we can, but I’d have to take the shuttles and Runabouts apart to do it.’

‘Use everything but the Red Rock, I want to keep that one.’

‘How many do you need?’

‘How many can you make?’

‘With the three shuttles and two of the Runabouts, plus the surplus material we have on board I can make seven. But if I may ask, sir, what purpose would it serve?’

‘I was thinking…,’ she began and Gregson smiled at her thoughts.

 

While Ensign Southgate navigated the plasma storms while trying to stay almost stationary, Lieutenant Gregson and Lieutenant Mitchell, plus most of the engineering complement, worked around the clock to make the Interceptors. Gregson had used the Starfleet designs and made a few modifications because of their current predicament. It took them two full days to build and test them but both senior officers were happy with the result. Angharad was in the ready room looking over the sensor reports from the tests of the Interceptors when the door chimed.

‘Come in.’

‘Captain,’ Gregson said. ‘You wanted to see me?’

‘I did, I want your people to pilot the craft. Have a list for me within the hour.’

He handed her a padd with eighteen names on. ‘These are all the security personnel with piloting skills that border on excellent. Lieutenant Villy is at the top of the list. He was on the Red Rock with Commander Slank.’

‘Good, pick six of them. Lieutenant Villy is to be team leader aboard the Himalaya.’

‘Aye sir, what are the others called?’

‘They’re named after mountain ranges from Earth. I asked the crew and selected the names from the list. There’s the Sherdawaza in Afghanistan; the Andes; the Tian Shan in Kyrgyzstan; the Jura in France and Switzerland; the Catskill in the Central United States and the Ogilvie from Canada.’

‘Yes sir, I’ll assign pilots immediately.’

‘Good, they launch at 2300 hours,’ Angharad said.

‘Ma’am?’

‘I want them to launch immediately but I understand that they will need to familiarise themselves with the craft. Look Lieutenant, the Dominion are up to something and I want to know what it is. I will be aboard the Red Rock with Lieutenant Carty and you, we’ll beam into the complex directly and find what we need to, destroy it if we have to and get out.’

‘And the Interceptors?’

‘The Interceptors will act as a diversion while the Red Rock goes in undetected.’

‘I don’t appreciate my people acting as a diversion,’ Gregson argued angrily.

‘The Dominion have who knows how many Expropriators of their own and a warship or two. The Red Rock is the mission ship, the Interceptors are the first line of defence and the Vanguard will be there to back them up. Is there something you don’t like about that arrangement?’

‘No ma’am, but tactical decisions are supposed to come through me.’

‘Noted, Lieutenant, go and assign your pilots. There will be a mission briefing at 1600 where you can make all the adjustments you like to my plan, but the pilots need to be there so they know what they are doing.’

‘Yes ma’am.’

‘Dismissed.’

Angharad sighed once the door had closed again. She hadn’t had time to bring aboard any of the artefacts that would have made the ship feel like home because of their rushed departure from Mars and she felt like she was alone. Though she had served with a few of the others under her command before she hadn’t gotten to know them because she was busy trying to impress the command staff. It had paid off but it had cost her dearly. She had few friends in or out of Starfleet and often wanted to just quit and go somewhere that nobody knew her to start a new life. Then there was the war. If she survived she might just quit Starfleet and run, but that all depended on this mission which was a suicide mission by all standards. Hopefully the unexpected addition of the Interceptors would make the difference.

*          *          *

Commander Roger Slank watched from the observation deck as the Red Rock and the seven sleek Interceptors lifted off from the deck of the two shuttlebays and arranged themselves in attack formation a few kilometres away from the Runabout. All the Interceptors had micro-warp-cores that Mitchell had designed on the spur of the moment based on an old design by Zefram Cochrane’s co-designer of the warp engine, Henry Archer. But he knew that they wouldn’t be able to use the warp cores within the Badlands, but they might be able to beyond full impulse with the fusion reaction from the warp core. It went against all the laws of physics but that’s what engineers did.

‘Vanguard to Red Rock,’ Slank said when he returned to the bridge. ‘You are cleared for Operation Prometheus, steal their fire.’

‘Red Rock to Vanguard, we acknowledge.’

‘Good luck, Captain, Slank out.’

The Runabout hung back as the Interceptors moved further away. ‘Red Rock to Himalaya, go and make a noise,’ Angharad said and the Interceptors disappeared at full impulse. ‘Keep them on sensors as long as you can,’ she told Gregson.

‘Aye sir.’

‘Carty, let me know whatever they find out about that complex, the more we know the better.’

‘Yes ma’am,’ the science officer replied.

Gregson watched as several Dominion Expropriators appeared on the screen and he felt the Captain’s gaze on him and the screen. Villy took the lead and the others targeted an Expropriator as well, firing until it had been destroyed. It was like watching a ballet as the Starfleet craft outmanoeuvred the Dominion. Then the warship appeared and the Expropriators hung back.

‘That’s what we were waiting for,’ Angharad said, turning to the pilot’s console. ‘Red Rock to Vanguard, we’re going in.’

‘Understood, Vanguard out.’

The Runabout went to full impulse until it reached the planetary orbit and then slowed to one quarter as it drifted like fast debris past the fighting Interceptors. Villy on the Himalaya was darting in and around the nacelles of the Dominion warship as the others attacked the shield generators and weapons ports. The Red Rock slowed to thrusters only as it descended into the atmosphere of the rogue gas giant.

‘I see it,’ Carty said, pressing buttons. ‘It’s a huge floating collection of spheres, intersected by protected walkways. Looks like nothing I’ve seen from the Dominion before.’

‘Might not be Dominion in origin,’ Angharad replied. ‘They could have appropriated it for their own uses.’

‘That’s what I was worried about,’ Gregson added.

‘Are we in transporter range?’ she asked.

‘Yes, extreme range.’

‘One hundred thousand kilometres,’ she said and turned to Gregson. ‘Keep an open comm link, as soon as we’re done we’ll probably need an immediate beam out.’

‘Yes ma’am,’ Gregson replied. ‘Don’t worry, I’ll be right here when you get back.’ He glanced at the screen. ‘Looks like our Interceptors have taken care of one Dominion warship, but there’s another one coming in, and a second wave of the Expropriators.’

‘They’ll do fine, you helped design them after all,’ she told him as she stood up and walked over the transporter.

‘Yes ma’am,’ Gregson smiled when he touched the controls.

‘Energize.’

Both Angharad and Carty could feel their molecules come apart as they were beamed to an unshielded section of one of the spheres. She only hoped that whatever was going on would be easy to stop. Otherwise they would be in trouble.

 

Chapter Four

 

They materialised in what appeared to be a cargo bay as there were hundreds of crates piled up. Carty whipped out his tricorder and began scanning as Angharad held her phaser up, pointed at the door lest they should be spotted. From the inside the sphere looked geodesic in design, but it had some kind of outer covering that wasn’t visible from the inside, some form of protection from the gaseous atmosphere.

‘Where are we?’ she asked her science officer.

‘We’re in Sphere Three, the cargo sphere. There’s no shield generator here but there is in the closest one to us. I’m picking up massive energy signatures in that sphere as well. I tried to find a beam-in point as close as possible to our destination. I’m not picking up any life-signs in our immediate vicinity. This complex could be completely automated.’

‘Not good,’ Angharad replied as she cautiously opened a door. ‘Nothing here at all,’ she commented.

‘That could be a blessing, no surprises,’ Carty replied.

‘Don’t bet on it,’ she amended as she stepped out of the cargo bay holding her phaser ahead of her.

Carty followed her waving his tricorder around. He was picking up no life-signs at all. The inanimate cargo was just metal alloys ready to be used for whatever purpose. He stared the chemical composition of the alloys that the tricorder detected and it took a few minutes before it made sense. Angharad was cautiously walking along a connecting walkway to the next sphere and she put her hand on the handle to open the door when Carty touched her shoulder.

‘What is it?’ she asked.

‘I know what this place is,’ Carty answered. ‘It’s a shipyard, the Dominion are building more of their Expropriators.’

‘Damn, can we put the ace out of commission?’

‘Maybe,’ Carty acknowledged, ‘but we have to know more about the place before we do that.’

‘I agree,’ she said. ‘Jones to Gregson.’

‘Go ahead, Captain,’ the tactical officer replied.

‘We’re going to explore the complex, it looks like it’s a shipyard. Carty’s going to find a way to put it out of commission.’

‘Aye sir, the Interceptors are holding their own.’

‘Good, Jones out.’

‘Shit!’ Carty hissed as the tricorder picked up a reading.

‘What?’

‘Bad news,’ Carty said opening a conduit by the door. ‘Do you recognise that layout?’

Angharad glanced at the layout, at the green circular pads with stylised script surrounding it.

‘Borg.’

‘Why would the Dominion be using a Borg base, and I’ve never seen the Borg use this type of design,’ Carty replied.

‘They probably assimilated it and saw no need to change the design.’ Angharad told him. ‘This place must be put out of commission,’ she added as she opened the door.

Alarms started going off and the two Starfleet officers looked at each other and Carty tapped his combadge. ‘Carty to Red Rock, get us out of here.’

‘You won’t get an answer,’ Angharad said, looking at her own tricorder. ‘They’ve raised shields, definitely Borg technology.’

‘Have the Dominion allied themselves with the Borg?’ Carty asked, aghast.

‘The Borg obviously think that the Dominion will win, then they can take over the Alpha Quadrant,’ Angharad surmised.

‘And the Borg promised the Dominion that they would be safe from assimilation?’

‘Bad news for us, good for them,’ Angharad agreed.

‘I know Borg technology, if we can find the central power nodes we can deactivate the whole station and the Vanguard can destroy it.’

Angharad stared at him for a moment and then let out a curse from her native Welsh language. ‘There’s a Borg Cube or Sphere around here somewhere. They won’t let the Dominion have complete control.’

‘We need to get the shields down and communicate with the ship.’

‘Ships, plural. The Interceptors are no match for a Borg Cube.’

*          *          *

‘Red Rock to away team,’ Gregson yelled to the comm system. ‘Gregson to Jones.’

Gregson pulled the Runabout away from the complex when the shields suddenly appeared and he didn’t believe the power reading until other systems confirmed it.

‘Red Rock to Vanguard.’

‘Go ahead Lieutenant,’ Slank said. He sounded nervous.

‘The shields have been raised around the complex. They’re Borg.’

‘Borg?’ Slank asked incredulously. ‘This is bad, get them out of there.’

‘I can’t even get through to them sir.’

‘What about the Interceptors?’

‘They’re up against the few remaining Dominion Expropriators.’

‘Get them to fire on the complex’s shield generators. We have to get our people out.’

‘Aye sir, Gregson out.’

He closed the connection and sighed. The Red Rock’s phasers wouldn’t be able to punch a hole in the shields but the Interceptors were built with more powerful phasers as they were first-line-of-defence ships.

‘Red Rock to Himalaya.’

‘Himalaya, go ahead Red Rock,’ Lieutenant Villy said.

‘Break off from the Dominion and try and get these shields down. This is a Borg outpost and I have no doubt that a Cube is gonna show up soon. The Captain is trapped with Lieutenant Carty.’

‘We’re on our way, Himalaya out.’

Seconds later all seven Interceptors did strafing runs at the sections that looked like shield generators. The Dominion craft followed them and Gregson fired phasers and microtorpedoes at the remaining five Expropriators. The Himalaya led the strafing runs at the complex and fired his powerful phaser beams. After what seemed an interminable amount of time the shields flickered briefly and vanished. Gregson manipulated the controls and tried to beam out his people but he couldn’t get a lock on them. They were still on their own.

 

The alarms were still going but Angharad and Carty ignored them as they ran through spheres and connecting walkways. Carty was ahead of her, waving his tricorder in all directions while his other hand held a phaser. Angharad was running flat out trying to keep pace with his longer legs, but she had an advantage. New Cardiff was a heavy-gravity world. She had grown up there and could run marathons on her world so she could run farther and faster than he could in the long run. Carty started to tire so she took the lead, running faster than he had. She wanted to get out of there as soon as humanly possible.

‘In here,’ Carty shouted a minute later when they approached what was the central sphere. On their run they had encountered about five thousand Dominion Expropriators and they all looked ready for launch.

‘Can you figure out how to disable the complex’s security systems?’

Before he could answer her question one of the conduits exploded. ‘That would be the shields going down,’ he said with a smile. ‘Starfleet signatures, eight of them.’

‘Work out the self destruct sequence and then we’ll leave.’

‘Er…,’ Carty began and his face showed fear.

‘Lieutenant?’

‘Over there.’

Angharad turned and whipped her phaser round in the same motion. ‘Get to work,’ she told him as she fired at two of the approaching Borg drones.

*          *          *

‘It’s a Borg Sphere,’ Southgate said on the Vanguard.

‘Wait,’ Slank replied as she was about to activate the impulse engines. ‘We’re the surprise element. Let the Red Rock and the Interceptors have a go first.’

‘The Red Rock is supposed to get the Captain back,’ Cooke said from the Operations console. ‘Gregson can’t fight.’

Slank looked at the officers on the bridge. ‘We have to give them time.’

‘I know,’ Cooke said. ‘But even the Enterprise had trouble with the Borg Spheres.’

‘Ensign, prepare to go to full impulse on my mark.’

‘Aye sir,’ Southgate replied and her hand was poised over the button.

Slank watched helplessly as the Himalaya, the Sherdawaza and the Tian Shan made point-and-shoot runs at the Borg Sphere’s shield generators while the Ogilvie, the Catskill, the Jura and the Andes covered them by attacking the weapons banks. A Borg tractor beam captured the Sherdawaza as it flew away and the Tian Shan with the Catskill flew in close. Twin phaser beams struck the tractor port and it exploded. Mitchell was on the bridge watching the Interceptors fight and he smiled, they were working better than he had expected. Cooke wasn’t watching the fight, he was running simulations and suddenly thought of something.

‘Did anyone here serve on the Enterprise recently?’

‘Why d’you ask?’ Mitchell wanted to know.

‘When the Enterprise fought the Borg Sphere at Earth, Picard knew where to hit it and ordered the fleet to do so. It’s not in the database.’

Slank looked at them. ‘Picard gave a talk at Starfleet Headquarters a few weeks after that, before his impromptu mission to the Briar Patch.’

‘What mission?’ Cooke asked.

‘Don’t worry about it, it’s classified,’ Slank answered. ‘The Borg Sphere’s weakest point is the exhaust manifold, at these coordinates, I think.’

‘They look about right, do the Interceptors have the power to hit them there?’ Cooke asked Mitchell.

‘They might, only one way to find out.’

‘Vanguard to Red Rock.’

‘Red Rock.’

‘Send these coordinates to the Himalaya and the Interceptors, a weakness in the Borg Sphere.’

‘Aye sir, Red Rock out.’

‘All we can do now is wait,’ Slank said with a note of regret in his voice.

 

‘Well?’ Angharad asked as the Borg kept coming.

‘The subspace interference in the Badlands is preventing them from adapting. Just keep firing,’ Carty advised her while he and his tricorder disconnected more and more power couplings.

‘My phaser’s running low, how long are you going to be?’

‘Two minutes,’ he answered.

‘Hurry,’ she ordered.

Carty’s tricorder picked up a burst transmission and he yanked out the power nodule that allowed the transmission to filter through to the other spheres. ‘Gotcha.’

The lights went out and the Borg stopped where they were.

‘Jones to Red Rock, Energize.’

‘With pleasure,’ Gregson replied as they felt the familiar tingle of the transporter beam.

Angharad returned to the pilot’s seat and steered the Runabout away from the complex. ‘Red Rock to Vanguard, Commander, can you please use your handy quantum torpedoes to turn this shipyard into a debris field.’

‘Acknowledged Captain, we’re on our way.’

‘A mission well done,’ she told her officers.

‘The Borg Sphere is still there,’ Gregson reminded her.

‘Let’s go and give the Interceptors a helping hand.’

The Red Rock fired its microtorpedoes at the designated coordinates as Lieutenant Villy on the Himalaya tried a run through the gauntlet but was waved off by the Ogilvie which was closer.

‘Ogilvie, what are you doing?’

‘I’m going in, fire my torpedo inside the Sphere.’

‘What torpedo?’ Gregson asked over the open comm between all ships in their miniature fleet.

‘I loaded one quantum torpedo in each Interceptor, can be used as a self destruct sequence or a weapon,’ Mitchell answered.

‘I should have been advised,’ Gregson warned the Chief Engineer.

‘Quiet!’ Angharad took command. ‘Go ahead Ogilvie, open up the gauntlet for us.’

‘Yes ma’am,’ replied the pilot and the Ogilvie disappeared the gaping hole on the Borg Sphere.

Just then the Vanguard appeared and the Runabout moved out of the way as the Nova-Class starship launched a volley of six quantum torpedoes at the multi-sphere Borg/Dominion complex. It exploded in a blaze of metallic debris and then the Red Rock swung round to dock with the Vanguard as it fired at the Borg Sphere. The Ogilvie came flying out of the Sphere and the whoop of joy heard over the comm was answer enough that the gambit had been successful.

‘All craft, fire on those coordinates,’ Slank said as Angharad emerged on the bridge.

Moments later the Sphere exploded, sending debris toward the Interceptors who scattered likes bees. They docked with the Vanguard and Angharad met them in the shuttlebay.

‘Congratulations to all of you,’ she said. ‘This mission would not have succeeded without you. Now let’s the hell out of here before the Dominion decide to come and see what happened to their shipyard.’

 

Epilogue

 

The Vanguard was docked at Deep Space Nine while Captain Sisko debriefed Captain Jones and Commander Slank. He didn’t seem too surprised about the Borg but he was keen to learn about the Dominion Expropriators and the Starfleet Interceptors.

‘It would seem that you’ve managed your first command well enough,’ Sisko said when he was finished. Starfleet will be pleased to see that they made a good choice. Commander, do you have any problems with Captain Jones’ command style?’

Slank looked at Angharad. ‘No sir, we’ve got a good crew and a good ship. Held our own against the Borg too.’

‘Then I see no reason why you should still be here.’

‘I do,’ Admiral Ross said, entering Sisko’s office.

‘Sir?’ Sisko and Angharad asked at the same time.

‘I’ve just finished reading the Vanguard’s reports,’ Ross told Sisko. He turned to Angharad. ‘Currently you have the only working Interceptors in Starfleet. With my recommendation Starfleet has agreed to provide you with eighteen more, with Lieutenant Mitchell’s modifications, of course.’

‘Is the Vanguard to be used for…special missions?’ Angharad asked.

‘Yes, with twenty-five Interceptors we’ll have our swarm ships,’ Ross answered. ‘And I have this to present to you with Starfleet’s thanks for a mission well done.’

‘Thank you sir,’ Angharad said, taking the padd from him. She looked at it and then looked again at Admiral Ross.

‘Problem, Captain?’

‘No sir, but was that mission important enough to warrant these promotions?’

Ross looked at her. ‘Don’t the crew deserve them?’

‘To be honest sir, I haven’t known them that long. We’ve only worked as a team once.’

‘And you destroyed two Dominion warships, a Borg Sphere and space station,’ Ross told her. ‘That, to me, suggests a good team.’

‘Yes sir.’

‘Dismissed,’ Sisko told both Slank and Angharad.

*          *          *

‘Congratulations Jerome,’ Angharad said to Mitchell as she put another pip on his collar. He’d been promoted to Lieutenant, senior grade.

‘To all of you,’ Commander Slank said, raising his glass of synthehol to the others that had been promoted.

Kevin Carty had been promoted to a senior grade Lieutenant and Philip Cooke was promoted to Lieutenant Commander. Ensign Southgate was also being promoted, to a junior grade Lieutenant.

‘To the best crew in Starfleet,’ Angharad raised her glass in a toast.

‘To the best crew in Starfleet,’ the senior officers echoed.

 

The only one who didn’t seem so happy was Ensign Anne Docker, the Chief Medical Officer, who hadn’t had a chance to show off. She knew that her time would come and a smile tugged at her youthful features. She hadn’t joined Starfleet to let others get the glory. Besides, there was someone on board that she owed something to, something that needed to wait for a long time.