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Act I:
Kelly looked up at the view screen. From his chair the screen had a small spot of glare that bugged the hell out of him. He made another mental note to get station maintenance to replace the offending light. These old stations were functional, but lacked some of the finishing touches that people get used to. "Sir, I have an incoming message from the Diecius," announced Ensign da Silva. 'Finally,' thought Donovan, but said only, "On screen". The image was of a Starfleet officer, the uniform and rank pips a dead give-away And the species was Andorian, the blue skin; white hair; and antenea were visible, but the bloody glare hid the actual identity of the individual. So Donovan welcomed his visitor with a general statement. "This is Commander Kelly Donovan of the Federation Starbase 47. Please state the pur ..." "Kel," interrupted the Andorian, "is that really you?" 'That voice,' thought Donovan. He stood to get a better view of the visitor, and in doing so, noticed the other side of the Andorian's head. The hair was bright red, and in the antenna was an earing. Donovan put all the pieces together and almost shouted his old friend's name, "Laxis! It's been years!" "It's good to see you too, Kel. And to think, I only had to travel 1200 light years to do it. I see Starfleet rations haven't turned your skin green yet." Donovan chuckled at the old joke. Back at the academy, when he and Laxis were roommates, he was quite vocal about his distaste for non-replicated food. "Yes, but at least my hair is still its natural color." "Enough with the hair jokes, Kel" The big smile on Laxis' face made Donovan smile as well. But this hello had gone on long enough, and Laxis didn't want to sit out with the stars forever. "How about letting me dock now? I have a special passenger who is dying to come aboard." Donovan knew exactly to whom he was referring. "Please transmit your security clearance and we'll let you have port Beta-Six. Commander Donovan out." The security chief motioned to Donovan indicating that the security code checked out. "Then I'll be at the docking hatch to port Beta-Six. Leutenant Suur, you have the conn." Although the turbo-lift was some 12 meters away from the command area,
Donovan's feet didn't seem to touch the ground once.
Old friends have a way of making you feel young again, and right now
Kelly felt like taking on the whole Dominion single-handedly.
. . . The air-lock hissed as the passageway was pressurized. Commander Donovan stood just outside the massive door that protects the corridor from the vaccuum of space. After what seemed like minutes but was in fact less than 17 seconds, the control pannel light changed from red to green, and the massive tri-duranium hatch slid effortlessly to the side. Donovan could see the condensation on the walls of the passageway and thought about how cold the emptiness of space really was.Finally a passenger emerged from the docked vessel. His blue skin contrasted well with the mustard yellow of his uniform. The smile on his face mirrored Donovan's feelings. "How the hell have you been, you Smurf?" "Smurf?!? You know I always hated that nickname." The men embraced roughly, but the reunion was cut short -- very abruptly. "Commander, I need your attention now." The voice was calm yet demanding. Even though Kelly had never heard it before, he knew exactly to whom it belonged. "Admiral, welcome abo ...", started Donovan, but never got a chance to finish the greeting. "Assemble the senior staff immediately. I have priority-alpha news that requires our undivided attention. This is Lt. Cmdr Chen, my chief of security." Shelby turned her head ever so slightly to indicate the oriental man at her left. "He will be performing blood scans of every crew-member and civilian on the station. See to it that he has sufficient resources to accomplish his task within the next 48 hours. And alert the maintenance team to refit the Deicius with quantum torpedoes and inter-phasic shielding. Are there any questions?" "Just one," responded Donovan, "how was your trip?" "We have no time for pleasantries during a time of war," snapped Admiral Shelby. "Have the senior staff assemble in the briefing room in ten minutes." And with that she turned on a dime and headed straight for the turbo-lift. Donovan couldn't help but stare after her as she walked away. Awestruck his jaw dropped. So all those rumors about her were true. 'She does have male genitals,' thought Donovan, but said nothing. Laxis slapped Kelly on the shoulder and reminded him that he wasn't alone. "Hey Kel, are you too busy to find quarters for me and the Ensign?" Laxis indicated a nervous looking human male standing a few meters behind them. "Right this way, gentlemen." Donovan walked toward the turbolift with the three men, knowing that life as he knew it would never be the same. Exactly nine minutes and forty-seven seconds later, Admiral Shelby entered the briefing room. There was a hushed silence as all eyes present turned toward her. Shelby quickly looked around the table to identify those seated. From the empty chair at the head of the table going clock-wise, she recognized a pair of bynars, a human female (not in uniform), a bjoran male, an empty chair, a human male, a vulcan female, and the empty chair of her first officer. This latest discovery made her scowl slightly. She quickly made her way to her seat, sat down and announced, "Under the direct orders of Admiral Reega of Starfleet command, I ..." She stopped in mid-sentence as the door slid open, and Commander Donovan appeared. "How nice that you could join us Commander." Shelby's voice was dripping with sarcasm. "Please take your seat before you make me lose my place." 'This attitude had better change,' thought Donovan. Yet without a word or grumble, he crossed the room and sat down at the admiral's right. This was Shelby's cue to continue. "I hearby take command of Starbase 47, effective immediately." Turning her head to face the ceiling in the center of the room she instructed, "Computer, initiate a level one security seal on this room - authorization, Shelby tao one one." A chirp issued from the speaker and the computer answered, "Authorization verified. Level one seal enabled." With that Shelby pulled out a hand phaser and fired. The wide beam fanned the entire room like a search light. Although it startled the staff, only Donovan voiced his surprise. "I apologize for my tactics, but blood screening would be too slow at this time." Shelby left the phaer on the table, stood, and approached the large monitor/interface on the wall. "I am unfortunately the bearer of some very bad news." She paused, and activated a diagram of sector zero zero one. Earth and mars were highlighted. "Seven days ago, Utopia Planetia fleet-yards was distroyed by a 2200 mega-ton explosion." The quiet that was the atmosphere turned racous. "No!" exclaimed the human female. The bynar pair clicked and screached at each other. Commander Donovan stood up so suddenly that his chair fell backwards. Of everyone only the vulcan seemed calm. She let her eyebrow raise for a moment before regaining control. Donovan spoke, "Do you mean completely distroyed? All crew and civilians dead?" "Unfortunately, yes. Only three of the starships docked had time to evacuate. One of them, the Signus, suffered irrepairable damage and had to jettison its warp core. The others managed to get to McKinely station earth. Only 1,500 of the 100,000 people survived. Starfleet didn't want to broadcast this news across subspace channels, to avoid unnecessary fear, panic, and speculation. You see, the explosion was no accident. Starfleet intelligence in San Francisco received a terrorist message thirty seconds before the blast. They claimed responsibility and promised more retaliation unless their demands are met." Shelby walked back to her seat, which seemed to calm most of the senior staff. Only the human female kept sobbing with her hands covering her face. Shelby decided that this woman was none other than Dr. Leah Brahms. Visiting Starbase 47 on a lecture/training schedule to personally teach the engineers building the newsest starfleet vessels. Her husband was on Utopia Planetia while Dr. Brahms was here. 'It must be a hard thing to loose a husband,' thought Shelby, and decided to continue the debriefing without Dr. Brahms' complete attention. "Are there any questions?" "By terrorists, do you mean Dominion?" asked the human male. Actually by his large dark eyes it was obvious that this was a betazoid, Benulli Karpa. Ben had been stationed here on Starbase 47 as counselor for the last eighteen years. There were ensigns on board with less years of life than he had years of service. He spoke with insight and savvy that comes from a life-long quest for understanding the human condition. "Yes. Spectral analysis of the bomb residue revealed Ketracel White. Only the Dominion could get their hands on that." "But .. How .. Was .. the Bomb .. Planted," the Bynar Pair asked with less emotion than a Vulcan or even the main computer for that matter. Their broken English was hard to follow from one to the other. Shelby decided to listen with her ears crossed (much like how one crosses his eyes to look at a stereoscopic "Magic Eye" artwork, not focusing on the canvas but on a point somewhere behind or infront of the surface) to hear the whole message as if the two sources were one. "Could .. the Dominion .. Penetrate .. the shields of .. Utopia .. Planetia ?? Or .. Was .. a Sabateur .. Actually .. Onboard .. the Starbase ??" "No vessel was detected by the tachyon grid. It is unlikely that even a cloaked Dominion ship could bypass that security net. No." Shelby pushed her chair away from the table and looked up at the ceiling. "Starfleet believes that a changeling gained access to Utopia Planetia and somehow planted the explosives in its Main Engineering. The explosive wasn't the only thing the sabateur did. The final log entry memtions complete main computer failure, structural integrity field failure, a warp core breech, and a host of other failures ALL initiated concurrently. Everything that could go wrong did." Shelby placed her hands on the table and gripped the edge to gain control. She had a steely look in her eyes that indicated she meant business. "No, changeling is going to do the same thing here." That piqued Donovan's interest, "But Admiral, why would the Founders find Starbase 47 a threat?" "Because of this," answered Shelby pressing a button on the table. The display screen across the room blinked and revealed the schematic of a new class of warship. Something only Dr. Brahms had seen previously. The title block of the wireframe rendering read simply "Prevariacate Class". . . . The turbo lift doors opened on deck 452 and Laxis and Ensign Hanson stepped out. "It's gotta be down this way," said Laxis. "Look if you aren't feeling well, maybe we should go to Sickbay first." "No," replied the Ensign. "I'll be fine after a little rest. How long since we left the Cygnus Seven colony?" "Only 20 hours. Come on a mug of Raktegeno in the Rendesvous lounge will perk you up." Laxis wanted to go with him to the Starbase 47 resturant / lounge. It was coming back from there that he would want Ensign Hanson to make himself scarce. "You go ahead. I'll try to catch up with you later." Ensign Hanson faked a cough and put a hand to his forehead as the two men stopped at the temporary quarters they would be sharing. "Just a couple hours rest; that's all." The doors slid open and Ensign Hanson entered the room. "Okay, but if I come back here with a Dabo girl and you're sick on the sofa, your ass is mine." Laxis' threat was received in the light-hearted manner in which it was given. "Computer, dim lights to 20% and secure the door," instructed Ensign Hanson. An obedient chip came from the intercom. With that the Ensign made a bee-line for the bathroom. He closed the valve on the washbasin, and quickly transformed into a puddle in the small sink.
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