McKenzie's Preparations

Lt. Shran walked through the McKenzie and entered the Armory. There he met with the security teams to give out orders.

“Ok men, we are about to embark on our mission. This mission will be a fleet wide mission to stop the anomaly that we have come to know for the past few months now. Our job is simple, to defend the McKenzie at all costs. We will also be joined by a MACO team, who, if there is an opportunity, will board the enemy and complete a special assignment. So please work with them as if they were any other Starfleet officer, and show them the hospitality of the McKenzie. Now everyone arm yourselves with a hand phaser and go onto your patrols. If we are boarded, rifles will be issued out. Your dismissed.”

Everyone then proceeded to grab a phaser and left the Armory. As everyone left Shran grabbed his phaser and took a last look around the room to make sure everything was in place and ready to go. He left and made his way to cargo bay 1.

He entered the cargo bay and a 6 man team was present getting their gear ready for the op. Shran walked up to the team and spoke, “Who is Lt. Cmdr. Jolan?”

A brown haired Betazoid man turned around, “That’s me, and you must me Lt. Shran.”

“Yes that’s me, I’d like to welcome you to the McKenzie. If you need anything please contact me and I’ll get it for you.”

“Thank you, I’d like you to meet a few of my team members, Lt. Durat’Eklat,” motioning to a Jem’Hadar officer, “and yes his really Jem’Hadar, I can explain later. And this is Lt. Noble, “motioning to a Human with implants on his face. “These two are my two right hands, or right and left hands.” He smiled.

“It’s a pleasure.” Shran began looking over the Jem’Hadar and former Borg officer. “If you’re ok with these officers, I guess I can be. Anyways, I’d thought it was a good idea to come here and meet you guys. I’m about to report to the Captain and I think it may be a good idea for you to join us.”

“Yes, that’s a good idea. Durat, make sure everything is in order, and I’ll be right back.”

Durat’Eklat, “Yes, sir.”

Jolan, “Shall we Lt.”

Shran and Jolan left the Cargo Bay and walked to the Captains Ready Room.

“So a Jem’Hadar and a Borg, huh?” Shran asked.

“Weird huh, yeah I thought the same too, but they are some of the best officers I’ve ever worked with. Durat, defected a few years back, and joined Starfleet. He joined the MACO’s after they were reformed, and was assigned to me. Best weapons specialist I’ve ever seen. And Noble, after the Borg Invasion, we rescued several Borg, Noble was one of them. Best science officer I’ve seen. I’ve made it a personal mission to create the best team possible.”

“So you trust them?” Shran asked.

“Oh yes, I’d place my life in their hands. Truth is, I have on more than one occasion, saved my life.”

“Well, I can’t wait to see them in action.” Shran said with a smile.

They arrived at the door which leads into the Captains Ready Room.

“Well, here it is, ready?” Shran spoke.

With Jolan’s nod they entered.

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In Sickbay, a Human man walked from bed to bed. He had black hair and a beard to match. He was checking over the systems of the biobeds. Once he was done, he spoke, “Ok, everyone gather around.”

With the medical staff coming together, the man spoke again.

“For those of you who don’t know, I’m Lt. Kinstar. I know this transfer is rather sudden but I hope that all of you can come through despite me being new. So I here we have a new mission, now I’m not sure what this will entail, but we will do our jobs to save and treat the crew if there are any injured. So let’s get to work, Lt. set up a triage center in cargo bay 2, and the mess hall. But only set up the mess hall if we head to yellow or red alert. I don’t want to interrupt the crew, need to think of moral after all. Ensign, go through the sickbay stores, make sure were stocked up on everything we may need. Ok, let’s get to work people. If anyone needs me, I’ll be in the Captains Ready Room, reporting to the Captain.

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Hughes was sitting at his station on the bridge. He had been going over the course the McKenzie would be taking during the mission. He rose after being satisfied with the course he was given and any corrections they could make. He made his way to the shuttle bay, to make further arrangements.

He entered the main shuttle bay. It was small and would never be considered a main shuttle bay on any of the larger ships in the fleet. I contained only one shuttle, the shuttlepod Grissom. He walked up to an engineering ensign who worked in the shuttle bay.

“Ensign, I need the auxiliary shuttle pads to be cleared. All workbees and shuttlepods except, the Grissom here, are to be removed. We may need to store micro warp cores there for deployment, for our mission.”

“Yes sir, that shouldn’t be a problem. I’ll get some pilots from the Starbase to fly them out. If you’d like sir, I can rig something to hold the mirco cores.”

“That would be great Ensign please do.”

“Yes, Sir.”

Hughes then looked around and thought, ‘deploying micro cores, almost like the Defiant deploying those mines at the Bajoran wormhole all those years ago.’

Hughes then left the shuttlebay and headed for the Captains ready room. It was a quick walk as he stepped in the Ready Room and noticed the Captain sitting behind his deck, as well as Shran sitting on the couch, and an unknown man with Shran. A minute later another unknown man entered, this one wearing medical blue.

Hughes, “Sir, I’ve made arrangements to have all our shuttles removed except for one. I’ve also gone over the course we are to take and made any possible corrections that we can make.”

Crist, “Good work Hughes. Let’s wait for our other two officers, so we can begin.”

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Snowfire shook her head as she stepped through the door to the McKenzie's Ready Room, her eyes - although shadowed by tiredness - bright and alert. She had made her way to the bridge as soon as she could after checking one final piece of analysis. And there was something...off. Normally she was easily confident and self-assured. But this time...this time something was different. There was a hesitance to her step, seemingly brought about by constant glances at the PADD in her hand. It was like someone had just handed her the access codes to the universe. And she was terrified of them.

She nodded an acknowledgement to Hughes and Shran, cocking her head slightly at the new arrivals but clearly welcoming of them before turning to Crist.

"Captain. My apologies for my tardiness, I had to check a final piece of data regarding our...quarry." She shook her head again, this time slightly slower. "I don't have anything definite yet, but what was said at the conference gelled with a few of my own ideas. And...I think I might have a way to permenantly contain the Horizon. And in a prison that almost no one will be able to break." At Crist's nod, she slid into a seat. "But that aside, I believe we have a rather important mission ahead of us. Any modifications to the plan or is what was said at the conference standing at present?" She asked.

Crist turned and answered Snowfire, "Well, as it stands, what was disscussed in the conferance is what we will be doing. However, i'm sure there can always be modifications to the plan, if a new idea or new data comes to light. I'd like to hear what you have, but lets wait for our chief engineer first." Crist said with a smile.

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Sorripto stood in the turbolift entering the final calculations on the PADD in his hand.
As the door whooshed open Sorripto stepped onto the bridge, walked over to the
engineering console and handed the PADD to chief Reichman. Nodded to the older chief
Sorripto spoke.

“Chief here is the calculations for the new modulating shield frequencies. This should
give us some serious stability through the anomaly and more importantly protect as
us we get closer to it. I want you to head to engineering and begin these preparations
immediately.”

Nodding slowly the chief responded.
“Me sir? But an engineering project of this magnitude is always handled by the chief
engineer.”

“I know old friend, but you are the most senior enlisted man on this ship and the only
person who knows her inner workings as well as I do. As we talked about before there
are some personal things I have to take of and I meetings up to here to get through.”

“Personal things sir?”

“Don’t worry about it… trust me everything will be fine.”

With a dual nod Sorripto headed towards the ready room and Chief Reichman headed
towards the turbo lift.

Walking into the briefing room Sorripto nodded to the crew.

“I apologize for the hold up sir, but in better news engineering is working on the shield
modifications”

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“Ah welcome Lt. Cmdr., now that we are all here let’s get this meeting going. Let’s start off with introductions.”

Crist rose and made his way around the desk to the black haired man who wore a blue uniform.

“This is Lt. Epit Kinstar. He will be our Doctor during the mission. Doctor, do you have anything to report?”

Kinstar nodded, “Sir, I’ve gone over the ships sickbay, and I’ve gone over our supplies, and everything is in order. I have the medical staff, converting a cargo bay for a triage center, and possible the mess hall as well, but we’ll wait till we need to, I don’t think we should interrupt the moral of the crew.”

Crist, “Good thinking.”

Kinstar, “Anyways, the medical staff will be ready if we’re needed.”

Crist, “Good work Doctor.” Crist moved over to Shran and the new guy. “This is Lt. Cmdr. Res Jolan. As you may know, we have been assigned a MACO team. In the event that we need extra security or if there is a chance to board the enemy to get an asset, they will be the ones undertaking that mission. Jolan is the leader of that MACO team, that has been assigned to us. Mr. Jolan, do you have anything to report?”

Jolan, “Yes sir, we have everything set up in Cargo Bay 1, and are prepping as we speak. Once this meeting is over, we should be ready to start our patrols.”

Crist, “Very good, Mr. Jolan. Please be aware that you will be reporting to Lt. Shran. He will be the chief of security on this ship, is that clear.”

Jolan, “”Yes sir, I can live with that.”

Crist, “Good, Lt. Snowfire, we are now at you. You said you had an idea about containment of the anomaly?”

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Snowfire rasied her head at her called, and nodded slowly. "Yes." She said simply, before rising from her chair. "May I?" She indicated the room's holoprojector, and at the Captain's nod connected her PADD to the display and tapped ina few commands. Two wire-fram planes shimmered into being in the centre of the room and she indicated them.

"Imagine the upper plane as subspace, lower as what we know as normal space." She said, brushing a strand of white hair away from her mouth as she tapped a few more keys on the PADD. A roiling disc of golden flame expanded into being on the subspace plane. "The disc, as you can likely guess, is the Azimuth Horizon/ As you all know,the Horizon expands into normal space through subspace fractures and follow the path of least resistance whilst in subspace - much like water flowing downhill." The hologram showed the lower plane cracking ahead of the the disc, and the section of disc approaching it dropped into the crach and spread out through it.

"Now we know, thanks to the efforts of the Artemis, how to to close the fractures that the Horizon propogates through. And this mission we are about to embark on will - hopefully - contain it." On the graphic, a transparent cylinder surrounded the disc, its lower edge almost, but not quite, touching the plane of normal space. "The problem is," she continued, "is that this containment will be extremely fragile and remarkably simple to break - wih the nature of such breaches being potentially catastrophic." The hologram showed a small section of the cylinder touch the plan of normal space, and a cone of gold exploded out through it, transitioning swiftly back into subspace and spreading out with prodigious speed.

"As you can see, anything inthe way of the area of the breach would be swiftly overwhelmed by the anomaly. However, there may be an answer." Snowfire stopped for a few moment, sqeezed her eyes shut, and then hit a final sequence on her PADD. Another section of the cylinder - opposite the first - lengthened and touched the normal space plane. As the gold flowed down it, a cut-off circle extended perpendicular from the plane of normal space where the cylinder touched it, passing into the subspace plane, through the disc representing the Horizon and then back down to normal space where the other section of the cylinder touched the plane. "Wormholes."

She paused for a moment, allowing the simulation to continue. The golden disc of the Horizon poured down the cylinder into the ring connected to it, emptying steadily out of subspace into the link extending through it. And then the cut-off ring disconnected from normal space, trapping the gold of the Horizon within. Snowfire waited again, allowing the picture to sink in before continuing. "An artificial wormhole, created using the methods Dr Lenara Kahn refined in liht of what the Federation learnt from the MIDAS Array could, theoretically, act as a permanent - and far more secure - prison for the danger the Horizon poses to the galaxy.

"If we opened two subspace fractures into the Horizon using an inversion of the method the Artemis developed to seal them, and at the same time created an artificial wormhole link between the rifts, we could funnel the entire Horizon into the fundamentally infinite space within a wormhole and seal it inside. "Snowfire's violet eyes sparkled with excitement. "We might not be able to put it out, but with this we can contain the Horizon until we work out a way to make it safe. And once we have the link established within subspace and the Horizon 'vented' into it, the only way to get it back would be to reopen the wormhole. And we would be the only ones with the means to do so." Snowfire looked across at the others in the room, desperately hoping they understood, and her lips curved in a gentle smile.

"Don't you see? We can fix this!"

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“Hmm, that’s very interesting. I do have a question or two. From what I know about wormholes, they are 2 points in space that are connected. So if we were to use a wormhole, wouldn’t the anomaly just end up somewhere else and the problem will continue? Also to my knowledge, the last known experiments of creating artificial wormholes, only lasted 23.4 seconds, or a minute at the most. How will we be able to create a wormhole and keep it open for an extended amount of time?”

Crist waited for Snowfire’s response.

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Snowfire shook her head gently at Crist's response. "I'm afraid you misunderstand the theory, sir." She said respectfully, indicating the hologram. "As you can see here, a wormhole consists of two apertures in space-time, connected to each other by a subspace conduit. If the apertures are opened over two artificially created rifts into the Horizon, then the Horizon would - following its basic nature - pour out of subspace into the wormhole conduit. And as the size of the interior of those conduits are - for all intents and purposes - infinite, the Horizon would simply empty into it and imprison itself.

"As for your other question...Sir, that test took place over thirty years ago. Since then, Dr Kahn and many others like her have continued their work. The Pathfinder Project and Operation Watson were milestones in the Federation's understanding of wormholes, and those acted as springboards for Dr Kahn and those working with her. And beyond that," Snowfire paused for a second, then sighed, "beyond that is the fact that my people's primary form of FTL involves the creation of stable artificial wormholes with no fixed destination point." The words came out all in a rush, and Snowfire found herself short of breath. "I'm sorry sir, I would ask that any mention of that statement would be removed from any report you file on this matter." She sunk into a chair, almost shakily. "I...I came perilously close to breaking my oath to the IDF by saying that. And it doesn't really matter, because if we don't contain the anomaly then everyone dies. And that puts me in an incredibly difficult position.

"I know, not think Sir, I know that the current theory on how to create an artificial wormhole will work. How I know that? I can't tell you without clearance from an Admiral or higher. It involves knowledge that my people are - incorrectly in my opinion - unwilling to share with yours. As for the energy cost? The Horizon can pay that. Once the apertures are linked, subspace itself will ensure the wormhole remains stable. In fact sir, we could use a series of phase-conjugate graviton beams to stabilise or even seal the wormhole. And as long as we're the only ones with the correct phase rate, we're the only ones who can open the wormhole." Snowfire slumped in her chair, looking up at her commanding officer.

"I know I'm asking you to trust me with a lot here sir, but please give me that trust." She raised her eyes, meeting his with pain-studded amethyst, and her final words were almost a whisper. "I know Starfleet can do it. Just let me show you how."

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"Very interesting. That plan sounds good. However, as this is a fleet wide mission, I'll let the fleet leadership decide. So I'll pass the idea onto the Fleet Captain. But know the main plan is to contain it without destroying the anomaly, so Starfleet can study it or interact with it. But again the decision will be up to the Fleet Captain.”

Crist turned to Sorripto, “Ok, what do you have to report Lt. Commander, about engineering?”

Realizing it was his time to speak turned to the captain and began to speak.

“As I stated earlier Sir the shield modifications are being implemented now. The idea
behind is something similar to the shielding of the nano probes during the borg wars.
A constant modulating shield that adjusts and reconfigures based on the effects of the
anomaly.

I also was able to finish the reroute of the internal power matrix to the transporters. The
McKenzie has the best transporters in the fleet sir, but now we should be able to lock
onto a spec of dust through the interference. Only thing was sir the sensor output is only
at one hundred and thirty percent of design capabilities which is below my original goal.

On a secondary note Sir I was going to give Chief Reichman my access to the
engineering protocols as we need a second set of hands to be able to do what I can do to

the system. I trust him and he has not let me down so far, I picked him personally back
when I started in the Science department as an ensign.”

Looking around at all the faces that were not present for the battle with the Borg Sorripto
laughed.

“Seems like another life time ago does it not Captain?”

Crist, "Indeed. Very good work, Lt Cmdr. We will be launching soon, so get everything ready to go. Now as you all know we have our task with handling the Children, and the Republic will be helping if they can. I've spoken to the Captain of the Republic, and we have discussed a plan. I'm not going to go into details, as we don't want the Children to get wind of it. But I will say this, the McKenzie and the Republic will be stationed on different edges of our quadrant. This is to allow a maximum area that we can cover, so we’ll be on our own. If any of your officers ask, you may say that. As appose to the rest of the plan, I am not at liberty to say. I hope you can understand this. Also, all essential areas of the ship will have armed guards, this will include the Bridge, Engineering, the Armory, Main Deflector, the Torpedo Rooms, and a few other locations. Anyone who enters these areas must have high clearance to enter. Lt Cmdr Sorripto, if you need your teams to repair anything in a restricted area, I’m afraid you’ll need to see to it personally.”

Crist took a moment to pause, “Now, I believe that’s all, so get your stations ready for launch. We may need to launch in a hurry. If everything goes well, we’ll be launching in 2 hours. Your dismissed.”

As Crist watched, as the officers left the ready room, he then began reviewing the data form Snowfire, to send it to the higher ups.