Chapter 5: Game Plan (part 1)

Chapter 5: Game Plan (part 1)

CHAPTER FIVE: GAME PLAN

Captain’s Log. Stardate 57171.3

With this phase of the Klingon rescue mission complete and our officers and crew finally back aboard, we are now ready to proceed toward our rendezvous with D’Tan and the Blackwing. Hartzer, Archer, and Cyl did a superlative job of patching up the badly damaged Klingon ship and her crew as well, while Counselor Pasqual coordinated all of the efforts of the repair crews and personnel admirably from his station.

The WovHaqtaj and her crew are now able to proceed homeward… damaged but with the ability to defend themselves honorably and hopefully quite effectively; especially under the given circumstances. According to the newly appointed commander Captain Duron, several Klingon ships are set to meet them shortly and accompany them back to Klingon territory.

I am determined that we will not meet a similar fate as this brave ship and her crew experienced. Our reconfigured sensors when implemented skillfully and precisely, will allow us to detect virtually any vessel out there hiding in the shadows. If nothing else, we’ll at least take away an adversaries opportunity to execute any type of sneak attack on the Icarus. While enroute toward our rendezvous, each department will thoroughly prepare for any possible contingency; both offensively and defensively.



Sterling turned to assistant science chief Lena Than and commanded “Lieutenant, initiate scanners to detect if there are any cloaked vessel signatures registering out there... anywhere. I don’t want any Romulan or other ships jumping out to surprise us once we get moving.”

The trill science officer nodded and then went through a series of steps to scan all of the area in the immediate vicinity and as far reaching as the possible signals could be detected.

“No cloaked signals detected Captain.” Than replied. “I’ll continue monitoring as we proceed, Sir”

“Thank you Lieutenant” he acknowledged.

The Captain then received an encrypted message from Admiral Kelek at Starbase 39. After completing the security protocols, he perused the message. The Admiral acknowledged that he had received the message sent by Pasqual and then provided the most recent coordinates of the designated rendezvous point with the Blackwing. Sterling then transferred the flight information to the helm station.

“Sub lieutenant Falcar, you should now have the required coordinates to meet up with the Blackwing. After we achieve warp and are enroute to meet up with this Romulan ship, perhaps we can continue our conversation about D’Tan. Meanwhile, engage thrusters and let’s get this mission started again… shall we?

As the Icarus started moving Sterling stated “Bring us safely up to warp six Mister Falcar.”

"Aye, Captain." Falcar tapped away on the console sending the ship on its next course.

"Engaging warp. It will take us about 1 hour 10 minutes to get to the coordinates."

"Acknowledged Mr. Falcar. Keep me posted if any irregularities appear on route."

Moments later Commander Hartzer arrived clean and refreshed back onto the bridge. This was his cue. He then stood up and summoned his key officers back to his ready room for a brief impromptu meeting.

Sterling then turned and stated authoritatively “Sub lieutenant Falcar… you have the conn.”

Brian Archer had just finished debriefing his security team from their adventure on the Vor'cha and made his way to the bridge when the captain summoned the senior staff to the briefing room. As he listened to the captain, Brian was already thinking ahead. He was contemplating security arrangements for the delegates, and for the conference itself. There so many factors involved..too many for his liking. Captain Sterling invoking his name brought him out of his thoughts.

Sterling arrived into the Ready Room and took his place in the ornate yet comfortable leather chair behind the desk and observed as each of these officers selected a beverage and found a place to sit. Once everyone seemed settled in, the Captain began his discussion.

“Thank you all for working through this rescue and repair mission so swiftly and successfully. Despite the setbacks and difficulties faced, your tenacity and efficiency is allowing us to proceed on with our mission with relatively little time lost.”

Sterling leaned forward and looked keenly at each of these officers. “As we have seen, this mission has been a challenge before it even started. We know that we are dealing with not only a monumental objective, but also with adversaries hell-bent on disrupting or at least delaying our progress toward achieving this objective. Therefore, I want each of you to lead your departments in a series of on-going drills, contingencies, and simulations in preparation for any conceivable confrontation or emergency situation. For every shift that is on duty there should be a shift that is participating in these exercises.”

“Mr. Archer, select several key members of your department to cross-train both science and engineering teams in a variety of combat simulations and exercises. They also need to plan out contingencies in the event that we are somehow boarded by hostile forces.

What Brian thought was "What they don't teach basic self defense anymore?" but what he actually replied was "Aye Sir, I will get on it immediately." then he continued "and I will be assigning two security officers to each delegate whether they like or not Sir. As long as I am Chief of Security those delegate will have protection."

Sterling smirked at the security chief’s authoritative and determined response.

He nodded in acknowledgement that he was most fortunate to have been given such a dedicated and proficient officer.

“Lieutenant Commander, are you anticipating resistance from one Klingon and three Vulcan delegates?” the Captain inquired jestingly.

He then added more seriously “Just let me know Mister Archer if anything with our delegates escalate to a point of heading toward reaching critical mass.”

He then turned to Pasqual “Counselor, once K’vada is given the green light by Doctor Cyl, set up a meeting with all of the delegates. Initially, it will just be with Commander Hartzer and myself engaging them, but I’d like you to be there as an observer. Meanwhile, work with Commander Hartzer to put together a team responsible for setting up and maintaining the observation deck for this upcoming meeting. The set up needs to be carefully designed to optimize the space, view and the overall aesthetics yet still be functional enough to conduct the meeting without any difficulties. The selection of food and beverages while also need to be considered.”

''Consider it done, Sir, Said the Orion. ''Easy enough; both Vulcans and klingons dislike any and all frivolities in meetings and prefer to get right on the job. I would recommend to better avoid food. Salad with Altair water and Klingons, Gagh with Bloodwine and Vulcans... not conductive to good mood for our current guests.''

Captain Sterling agreed with the recommendations of Pasqual and stated “Affirmative Counselor, let’s not provide any additional points of contention among our delegation. We’ll just set up a temporary replicator and separate dining table and chairs far away from the delegation table. This way any one of them could access whatever is required individually without impacting the sessions, or choose not to partake in anything at all during any phase of the meetings. The choice and options would be theirs alone.”

He then turned to Commander Hartzer as she sipped on another one of those fizzy drinks.

“Number One, I need you to oversee the implementation of all of these activities. Each department needs to prepare a brief report of their procedures and their results so that you can share their progress with me. Like I mentioned previously, we have no room for weak links. Whenever an individual or department is struggling in any capacity, see to it that they are given addition training and support. Every member of this crew needs to be ready mentally and physically. All crew members are to be up to speed and ready to act or react immediately.”

Hartzer looked seriously at Sterling and responded “I’ll see to it Captain.”

Sterling then peered at each officer one-by one.

“This is what we have trained for throughout our respective careers. Let’s put this training to good use!”

* * *

*Security Office After the Briefing*

"So what?" Cassie Strider said "The captain wants us to hold the entire ship's hand?"

Brian could tell his friend, and right hand was not happy about Captain Sterling's orders for the security department to spend some time training the rest of the crew.

"They all had self defense training at the Academy," Cassie continued "They do phaser quals every year don't they?"

Brian held up a hand to temporarily silence her "Cassie, I thought the exact same thing when he gave me the order, but orders are orders, and given the issues we've already had with this mission it might be a good idea. So, here is what I want to do: I want you, and you Mister Callen along with Cadet Thran to schedule time with each department to review basic weapons training and anti-boarding procedures. Thran should be up on any current changes being taught at the academy. If you need more help draw as many people as you need from the various shifts on my authorization. For example, the night shift can conduct some training for the late duty shift, and the sooner we move on this the better."

Cassie rolled her eyes and responded with a sullen "Aye Sir."

"Don't pout Cass...its unbecoming." Brian said with a smile "remember what I told you...you don't have to like it..."

"I just have to do it," she finished "I know I know."

"Good then get to it. Dismissed."

Callen, and the dejected Lt. Strider left the office and Brian turned to his security plan for the diplomats. Two security personnel from each shift would rotate and would accompany the delegates wherever they went. If they were in their quarters the guards would post outside. Any protests were to be directed immediately to Archer himself. Brian also issued orders to have each delegate's quarters swept for listening devices, and other possible sabotage including explosives. With those details taken care of he locked the security office and made his way to the bridge.

* * *

Hyralan Sector Space: Meeting location with the IRW Akhiy'ae

The IRW Akhiy'ae, known in the Federation as the “Blackwing”, slowly moved their position away from their companion ship the IRW Khazara so that they could potentially flank their adversary upon its arrival. The encoded message from the USS Icarus had securely reached D’Tan and their Captain merely hours before, yet this warning of the impending ship of destruction heading toward their sector was deemed critically valuable in the upcoming confrontation with this Romulan antagonist. Little did the Captain of the IRW Leahal know that Ambassador D’Tan was actually stationed on the bridge of the Akhiy'ae and not the IRW Khazara as he had been misled to believe. But such is the risk of any Captain relying on “leaked information” from a secondary source and acting blindly on it. The consequence of these circumstances now potentially tilted the upcoming events toward their favor; something the Captain of the Leahal may not have anticipated, but the Captain of the Blackwing was now counting on.

While they repositioned and awaited the arrival of the IRW Leahal, Captain Terrh of the Blackwing ordered his chief tactical officer Stelam to ‘prepare’ their plasma torpedoes. These weapons were an extremely powerful torpedo of high-energy plasma as they were, but now Stelam’s tactical team were going to customize these weapons by adding specialized sensor packs to detect gaseous anomalies. This in effect would enable each torpedo to lock onto even the slightest of the engine emissions of even a clocked vessel. After configuration, upon the order of Captain Terrh, the torpedoes would be fired and would automatically acquire its target: IRW Leahal and its traitorous crew of cowards.

Almost 1.5 hours later, Stelam notified his superior officer “Captain Terrah, your packages are prepared and ready for delivery.”

“Acknowledged Sub-lieutenant” as Terrah then turn toward Ambassador D’Tan and asked sardonically with a slight grin “Would you like to add a ribbon or a bow to the gifts we have prepared for these dha'rudhs Amdassador?”

D’tan’s facial expression was as esoteric as a set of ancient hieroglyphs as continued to gaze toward the main viewscreen and simply stated

“Our weaponry response should be quite sufficient Captain Terrah… at least initially.” D’Tan added, with a mere hint of distain laced within his firmly controlled voice.

Shortly thereafter, the Blackwing’s sensors activated as the IRW Leahal abruptly came out of warp.

IRW Leahal.

Exiting from warp space, the Valdore class cruiser swiftly increased its impulse speed. With her sensors reading the magnetic distortions thrown out by the imbalanced nullifier cores of the Khazara, she swung directly toward the known position of the D’deridex heavy cruiser.
On the bridge, Setal began ordering his attack.

“Centurion, charge the generator and fire.”

The main deflector of the Leahal began to glow a hazy orange on its build up to firing. As the intensity increased through to a bright yellow, the antithoron generator fired its pulse through the array and the blindingly brilliant cone of antithoron's shot forward ahead of the Valdore cruiser toward the tracked position of the cloaked Khazara.

Passing across and through the structure of the D’deridex hull, the weapon pulse weakened the containment field of the warbird’s forced quantum singularity. As the field dropped in intensity, the gravitational pull of the small singularity increased exponentially. Seconds passed, and the increasing gravity well inside the power system began to reach farther out, interacting on the structural members supporting the engine. As these started to bend toward the increasing gravity well, the groans and shrieks of tortured metal could be heard throughout the ship.

Captain Terrah jumped out of his seat as he saw what was happening to the Khazara and barked out “Prepare to fire our primed torpedoes Stelam!”

He then addressed his tactical officer “Lock onto that ship and move into firing range… and do NOT allow them to reach warp and escape after this attack!”

Turning back toward his helm officer, Setal gave the order to come about.

"Get us out of here Erien. Prepare to go to warp once we clear the gravity well."

The increasing force of gravity starting to reach out from the Khazara and disrupted local space enough that generating a warp field was impossible within its zone of influence. The Leahal, her impulse drive under full stress, turned away from the expanding miniature black hole and strove to reach safe distance to enter warp.

'Thus perishes the ryak'na that promotes peace with the Federation,' Setal thought smugly.

Skillfully avoiding the gravitational pull of the deadly gravity well created perilously in close proximity to their location by the Leahal, the Blackwing stealthily pursued its prey.

Before the adversarial ship could engage their warp drive, the Blackwing swooped in like an unseen bird of prey as Captain Terrah roared “FIRE TORPEDOES!”

Immediately, the tactical officer engaged the firing mechanisms and launched four programmed torpedoes that accelerated menacingly toward the Leahal.

Within mere seconds, two torpedoes exploded within the ship's ventral hull, and two virtually destroyed the tail of the vessel. The damage from these four torpedoes immediately knocked the ship's offensive and defensive systems offline and wiped out the main power of the now crippled vessel. As the old Earth expression conveyed: they were now a sitting duck!

Captain Terrah then passionately exclaimed an expression from old Terran literature “Ah… revenge IS a dish best served cold” and then embellished “Areinnye'n-hnah dha'rudhs!”

Consoles around the Valdore bridge erupted with violent burst’s as feedback ruptured their connections to the varied systems destroyed by the torpedo strikes. Setal barely maintained his seat as the artificial gravity failed throughout the ship. Now adrift without power the Leahal coasted under momentum, maintaining a tumbling course away from the Khazara and its expanding gravity well. Looking around his destroyed bridge, Setal swallowed the bile rising in his throat as he saw the dead and dying officers that lay spread about the area. He also noted the comm stations power indications as functioning; which surprised him slightly. Tapping keys on the chair pad console, he began to compose a message, to his superiors. In particular, to his real commander, Empress Sela of the Romulan Empire.

The crew of the Blackwing watched with a sense of redemption, relief and to a few, perhaps a bit of melancholy as the Leahal drifted vulnerably in space. The vessel was severely damaged and seemingly unlikely to readily recover from such an extreme level of devastation.

Why does violence and destruction always seem to take precedence when faced with change? D’Tan wondered to himself. The last thing he intended when accepting this role as a diplomatic ambassador for the Federation was to be associated with more useless killing and destruction. Hadn’t they endured enough of this devastation already in attempting to recover from the Hobus Supernova itself?

Captain Terrah however, felt no ambivalence whatsoever; only a sense of poetic justice after what those zealous cowards had inflicted on the Klingon ship WovHaqtaj and mere moments ago to the Romulan D’deridex heavy cruiser the IRW Khazara.

Terrah sat back in his seat and turned slowly toward the Ambassador and exclaimed “Ah… D’Tan… there is nothing more gratifying than to defeat an adversary at his own game.”

The crew of the Blackwing nodded in agreement with their Captain’s sentiment, along with several bridge officers embellishing their reaction with a few choice words of distain for Setal and his contemptible so-called-mission.

D’Tan’s eyes remained fixed on the viewscreen as he stated simply “The man who seeks revenge digs two graves”.

Captain Terrah snarled at that remark and swiftly replied ”Justice was the only revenge I sought, Ambassador… or perhaps you would have preferred to have met the same fate as our recent predecessors?”

“Not at all Captain,” D’Tan responded. “It’s just that I find little comfort or accomplishment in bringing more death and destruction to our brethren; as misguided as they were.”

Although the Captain was now livid, he maintained his composure and inquired “What was our alternative here D’Tan, to negotiate with Setal? Did he demonstrate any sense of honor in how he attacked those ships and their crew? No, like a spineless coward, he snuck up and viscously attacked these vessels from the shadows… unprovoked and unprepared! The justice here Ambassador is that he was handed the same fate that his victims were dealt… this time though, it was he and his ship that were ambushed… before they could sneak away again to inflict more devastation elsewhere.”

Setal finished composing his message and engaged the barely functioning console to prepare to transmit it.

“Empress. With regret, I must undertake full responsibility for the failure to stop the delegations. Factions hostile to you and the empire have destroyed the Leahal. Battle logs are encoded with this, my last transmission. Thei’khaiell ssuin hw’aenevha. May there be wind to your wings.”

Pressing the transmit icon, Setal then faced the viewer, where the background of stars swung slowly past as the Leahal spun about her lateral axis. As a Tal Diann officer, he could not allow the capture of his ship and its varied secrets. This was what not what he had envisioned… as he now resigned himself to his fate and failure.


Detecting the transmitted message, the tactical officer of the Blackwing then immediately interrupted Captain Terrah’s somewhat heated exchange with D’Tan.

“Captain, a scramble message was just sent from the Leahal.”

The Captain immediately brought his attention back to the somewhat distant but still visible damaged ship on the main viewscreen.

“Who is the message to… what does it say?” he demanded and he then turned his attention from the viewscreen to the tactical officer.

Before receiving a response, the Captain stood up and asked “I thought the ship was without power?”

He then turned to his helm officer and ordered “Move us further away from the Leahal… immediately!”

It was a hunch perhaps, but Captain Terrah did not want to be the recipient of this villain’s last possible act of desperation.

Helm engaged the impulse engines and moved the Blackwing further away from the Leahal.

Captain Terrah then turned back to the tactical officer and stated “get a team together and have them work to decrypt this message. I want to know who this message is for and what this message states!”

Setal looked down at his arm chair controls and, slowly, pressed the one icon that he never thought he would have to push. Lifting the protective cover open, he pressed the plain, red hued icon.

Within the forward and aft torpedo rooms, all one-hundred and twenty eight remaining torpedoes remaining on board detonated simultaneously. Along with the induced containment failure of the Leahal’s artificial singularity, the resultant self-destruct created a blinding explosion that rocked the nearby IRW Akhiy'ae, throwing it back like a dust mote in a tempest. Even the expanding gravity well of the dead Khazara engine felt the pulse of the expanding shock wave.

Setal’s last thought as the IRW Leahal disappeared in a flash of destruction: ‘Jol-ao au, my Empress.’

Of course in his mind, love had everything to do with it.

On the bridge of the Blackwing, all conversation ceased as they suddenly witnessed the blinding light of the immense explosion of the IRW Leahal and the saw the resultant shockwave rippling outward toward them. Apparently Setal was somehow able to engage his dormant weapons into a massive self-destruction detonation.

“All power to shields!” Captain Terrah howled as he jumped out of his command chair.

“Position us away from…”

The wave slammed the Blackwing as if an angry cosmic hand slapped the vessel and sent it reeling like a ship caught in a volatile tsunami. Crew members throughout the ship were tossed about violently. Systems throughout the ship were temporarily incapacitated as the ship rode out the last surges of the violent wave. Then just as suddenly… it was over.

After a brief moment of darkness and disorientation, the emergency systems engaged and the sounds of heavy breathing and a few moans were soon replaced by the resonance of the primary systems whirling back to life.

Crew members all through the ship began to get back to their feet and dust themselves off. Others though were injured and their conditions were being assessed by nearby crewmen.

Although all of the Bridge officers were thrown from their stations, none of them appeared to be seriously injured. Even Captain Terrah and D’Tan who were a bit bruised from their fall appeared to be stable and slowly worked their way back to their previous positions.

As Captain Terrah wiped a bit of greenish blood from his forehead, he engaged his ship-wide communications from his command chair.

“All departments… once you have surveyed your stations and crew members, report the status of your areas to me immediately. Sickbay, give me an update on casualties once you have this information established. Terrah out.”

He then turned to D”Tan and stated “As the Terrans once proclaimed early in their history: an eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.”

D’Tan solemnly responded “heat not a furnace for your foe so hot that it doth singe yourself… also from Earth’s early history Captain Terrah.”

Terrah’s previous anger then shifted almost manically into a deep resonate laughter.

“Yeah D’Tan… that was one helluva furnace blasting out from that hhakh veruul” the Captain howled; most likely as a reaction of relief… as much as it was in response to D’Tan’s unintentionally humorous response.

It appeared that Setal’s attempt to destroy the IRW Akhiy'ae along with his own self-destruction was another failure from the now deceased renegade.

Too bad Captain Terrah thought to himself. I would have relished his last thoughts fixated on yet another of his failures before he perished.

Then remembering another Terran phrase, he settled for a conciliatory notion: c'est la guerre... translated roughly to “such is war”.

Captain Terrah then shifted his attention back to the immediate issue at hand: getting his ship and crew functioning once again at full capacity.

* * *

Captain’s Log. Stardate 5718.6

We are now mere moments away from the scheduled rendezvous with the only federation delegate hailing from Romulus itself; Ambassador D’Tan. This will be our last scheduled pickup on the way to Khii; the site of our negotiations between the United Federation of Planets and the remnants of the Romulan Star Empire. Admiral Kelek in his last transmission indicated that D’Tan is confirmed to be aboard the newly upgraded D’Deridex-class Romulan ship. I am just hoping that when we exit out of warp, that we will find this vessel and her crew fully intact and awaiting our arrival. However, after our last encounter, I must admit that I am somewhat skeptical of what we will find.

The meetings on the ship with the current Federation delegates transpiring on the observation deck have been precarious in nature and slow in progress… not that this is any great surprise.

Our immediate mission thus far during these sessions have at times digressed into Commander Hartzer and myself repeatedly reminding these delegates that as Federation ambassadors, they need to be able to approach this upcoming summit from the same side of the table. Counselor Pasqual up to this point has been quietly observing these sessions and subtly offering us valuable suggestions along the way. However, it looks like I may require a more active role from him in the upcoming sessions if we intend to accelerate our progress.

We were striving to reach some level of agreements before adding D’Tan into the mix. However, ready or not if everything proceeds accordingly, the Romulan ambassador will be joining us shortly. I am just hoping that his perspective and experience with both Romulan and Federation rules and protocols will serve as a crux to somehow unify this delegation before we arrive to our destination on the planet Khii. Otherwise, all of these grand ambitions of the UFP and the sacrifices that have transpired getting to this point could possibly have been for naught.



Captain Sterling, sitting attentively at the center seat turned his gaze from the main viewscreen to the Romulan helm officer occupying the seat in a slightly lower position in from of him.

“Sub lieutenant Falcar… take us out of warp.”

As the Icarus dropped out of warp Brian immediately set the tactical sensor array loose looking for any targets in the immediate area. He then addressed his CO:

"Captain, given our experience meeting Klingons I recommend we go to Yellow Alert Sir."

Sterling nodded affirmatively to his head security and tactical officer “We’re still maintaining Yellow Alert Mister Archer… and ready to switch to Red Alert at a moment’s notice” he added with a slight wink.

Again sitting at the comm station, Ray Quinn Pasqual looked intently at the main viewer while his finger ran through several channels at once on his board.

If there was any distress signal coming out in this part of space, he would immediately pick it up and pinpoint the signal to locate the source.

And so doing, he prayed.

One channel however he kept open in the background of his earpiece; it was a wide band, low frequency one, usually ignored because it contained only the noise of the universal background radiation.

But if there was weapon fire nearby... or if there had been a recent explosion of high magnitude, like that of a plasma torpedo or a starship power core... he would hear it.

And so he prayed... for silence.

Moments later though from behind the command seat then rose the soft voice of the counselor, etched with controlled but definite alarm.

''Sir... I now hear several detonations in the vicinity... now one more... Sir... background radiation is shifting as if...''

His amber eyes went wide as they rose towards the viewing screen, as if he could see what came through his earpiece.

''Another conflagration, Captain... and this time, it's a big one. And I mean BIG, Captain Sir!''

"Raising Shields, full power" Brian said without being ordered. "Powering phasers and quantum torpedoes."

After what happened to the Klingons Archer was taking no chances whatsoever. The counselor's report was enough to prompt him into action without waiting on the captain.

As they exited out of warp, Captain Sterling stood and gazed at all of the destruction surrounding the vicinity of their arrival point.

“Damn… what the hell happened here?” the Captain exclaimed to no one in particular.

"Scanning for targets...picking up one intact, heavily damaged Romulan vessel and a whole lot of debris captain. Intact vessel is D'Deridix Class… it's the Blackwing Sir!"

The Blackwing! The Captain silently rejoiced to himself. Thankfully, they must have received our warning.

Sterling turned immediately to his tactical chief. “Maintain Red Alert Mister Archer… we’ll keep our defensive posture as is until we ascertain what happened here and whether there is still anything out there posing a threat.”

He faced toward the assistant science chief and stated “Full sensor scans Lieutenant Thran… I want to know if there is anyone or anything still lurking out there.”

Afterward, he turned back to the communication station “Counselor Pasqual, let me know if you are getting any unusual readings as well. Then see if you can raise the Blackwing. I’m sure they have a story to tell.”

Sterling then slowly sat back down and took a few deep breaths; probably to compensate for the fact that he hadn’t inhaled once since they exited out of warp and entered this zone of debris.

He then looked toward helm and stated calmly “Mister Falcar… move us toward the Blackwing… slowly.”

Within a matter of seconds, communication was established with the IRW Akhiy'ae; known in the Federation as the Blackwing. The signal was transferred to the main viewscreen and the image of the Captain of the Romulan D’deridex heavy cruiser suddenly appeared.

“Ah… Captain Sterling, it is good to see that you too have survived the confrontation of these dha'rudhs intact” Captain Terrah responded rather jovially. “I have a guest standing somewhat impatiently by my side that seems most anxious to depart our fine hospitality here on the Akhiy'ae and join your ranks on the Icarus. Shall I concede to his request at this time?”

Sterling could read between the lines here to sense the bantering that must have transpired between D’Tan and the Captain of the Blackwing for Terrah to have chosen his selective phrasing in such a manner.

With a smile Captain Sterling responded “At your earliest convenience Captain Terrah. I can see that you have a few repairs to undertake and I’m sure that you’re most anxious to get back on your way. Thank you Captain for bringing Ambassador D’Tan safely to us.”

The Captain of the Akhiy'ae nodded respectfully to Sterling and then inquired “Would it be acceptable to you Captain if I were to transport over to your ship with the Ambassador? I have something that I would like to discuss privately with you.”

Sterling was a bit surprised by this request but responded immediately “I would be honored Captain Terrah.”

With a grin, he responded enthusiastically “Excellent Captain Sterling. Shall we say in ten of your standard minutes?”

“I look forward to our meeting Captain Terrah” Sterling emphasized with a slight bow of respect.

After the communication was terminated, Sterling turned to his assistant science chief and stated “Lieutenant Than, continue your vigilance in scanning the area while we are stationed here. Be on the lookout for any signs of an uninvited guest attempting to slink in and disturb our tranquility.”

Then addressing the chief tactical and security officer, the Captain affirmed “Reduce our status back down to yellow alert Mister Archer, and when our guests arrive in ten minutes, would you join us with a small contingency of security officers; just to ensure the safety of our guests?”

Focusing his attention to the Counselor stationed at the Communications console just behind where he stood, he notified him “Mister Pasqual, would you accompany us to transporter room as well when our guests arrive, and see that Ambassador D’Tan is escorted and set up properly in the VIP quarters? I can then lead Captain Turrah to the Ready Room, along with a security team following us in reasonable proximity” he concluded with a nod to Lieutenant Commander Archer.

Falcar turned slightly with the statement, but then quickly turn forward again. He would have given anything to meet with D'Tan, however duty came first.

''Aye, Sir.'' He responded as Ray signaled to a junior bridge officer to take over and followed his commanding officer into the turbolift.

Now, the fun begins, he silently told himself.

* * *