A Call to Arms

Sometimes the captain's chair was a lonely place aboard a starship, and Rachele Rivers was finding that out now. Never even having expected to be on a command track she had found herself as the first officer of Lotus Fleet's USS Alsea and now with the grave injury to Kalten Siduri Rivers was asked to command the Alsea during Operation Horizon. As she contemplated all of this the terminal on the ready room desk demanded her attention. When she activated it, it was the face of Starbase Ten's XO Commander Karen Schmidt that greeted her.

"Captain Rivers, Starbase Ten has detected the presence of a Romulan Scimitar Class warship in Federation space. Fleet Captain Samji has ordered the Alsea and the Artemis to deploy immediately to intercept this vessel and discern its intentions."

Rivers acknowleged Schmidt with a nod "Understood Commander, we'll depart as soon as I know my Chief Engineer has finished with the warp drive."

"Good luck Captain, and good hunting. Schmidt out."

Captain Rivers rose slowly from behind the ready room desk and strode onto the bridge.

"Captain on the bridge," her tactical officer, and now first officer Oseno Jureth announced.

"Thank you Lieutenant, but we can forgo that formality I think. Status report."

"I've implemented the new security measures throughout the ship Sir," Oseno replied "We've found three Horizon Children sympathizers among the crew and the Doctor transferred them off the ship. All major systems are showing online and functioning Captain."

"What about engineering?"

"I've not heard from Commander Lire."

Rivers nodded and tapped her comdadge "Rivers to Lire, Commander we've received orders to depart immediately. What is our warp core status?"

Upon hearing the communicator bleep, Niomo jumped from his desk where he had fallen asleep. "Il Colosseo!" he shouted in automatic response. Something he had not done since sleeping in grade school. Rubbing his nummbed face he cleared his throat. "Ahem. Sorry, Captain. All systems are go and all modfications have been complete for..." He paused to check the chronometer on his desk. "...Hours. We are good on my end. I just have to power up the cores. I'm powering the primary core now; and as we fly, I can open up the secondary and tertiary cores. Lire out."

Niomo's fingers started to fly over the console as he started to input his activation command codes. The warp core began to hum to life as the M/AM Reaction began to start again. Smiling to himself, he tapped his communicator. "Lire to the Bridge. You have full power. Should I unlock the warp nacelle speed restraints?"

Rivers contemplated the question for only a moment before answering "Yes Commander, and get those other cores online as soon as possible. We will be need our multi-vector mode shortly after departure, Bridge out."

Niomo smiled, he had not been on a moving starship in some time and was giddy with anticipation. He began to unlock the warp speed limiters, allowing the ship to breach the regulated “safe” speeds. He called Alpha shift to duty and gave them instructions on how to monitor the warp core while bringing power to the two other cores. If all went well, all 3 warp cores would be online in 35 minutes.

On the bridge, Rivers then turned to her XO. "Mister Oseno, coordinate with the Artemis and take us out."

Oseno nodded "Aye Captain."

Jureth looked to the ops station " get me a channel to Starbase Ten, and get the joint channel with the Artemis set up as we discussed before Ensign Wynn."

"Aye Sir, channel to Starbase Ten ops open."

Oseno nodded in acknowledgement. "Starbase Ten operations, this is USS Alsea requesting permission to depart."

"Alsea, permission granted, you have priority clearance for departure."

"Acknowledged," Oseno replied "Alsea out."

Jureth looked down at the helm where Shawn Hunter was seated awaiting the order to put the Alsea into space and then he looked at Rivers who nodded at him confirming that he should be the one to give the order.

"Mister Hunter, clear all moorings, and take us out."

"Aye Sir," Hunter replied as his fingers danced over the helm controls of the Alsea. "Mooring umbilicals retracted, all Starbase personnel and workbees clear. Engaging maneuvering thrusters."

The gracefull lines of the Alsea, freshly repaired after her confrontation with the Klingons, slid clear of her berth and approached the mighty spacedock doors of Starbase Ten. As she did, the great doors slid apart revealing the vast space ahead. Jureth stood as they cleared the doors, and turned back to Rivers.

"We are clear of spacedock Captain."

"Good work Lieutenant, the bridge is yours. Coordinate with the Artemis and inform me when we reach the intercept coordinates."

"Aye Sir," Oseno replied and Rivers stood and exited the bridge to the ready room.

Hesitantly Jureth sat in the center seat and then addressed Wynn at ops again. "Is that channel to the Artemis ready yet?"

"Aye Sir, channel is open and secure."

Oseno nodded "Good work Ensign." Oseno stood again before attempting to reach the Artemis.

The USS Artemis had been moving out for half an hour at almost two thousand times the speed of light and crossed a tenth of a light year when the call came from the Alsea. Immediately, Doctor Elliago nasaro-Myth, alone on the bridge at the multitask console, spoke out loud through the computer channeling of his own call:

"Captain Kheren; incoming hail from the Alsea."

The Andorian, having barely started his diplomatic simulation, took the time of two heartbeats to realize the holographic doctor seating besides him on the simulated bridge had not spoken and that the call had come from the ship's real inner channel.

"Computer, hold."

As the entire holosuite froze around him, he then answered crisply to the real chief medical officer:

"On my way, Doc."

As he swiftly exited the holosuite, he said outloud:

"Computer; implement new communication protocol for intraship communications. Reinstate twenty-third century whistling hail when an actual communication is sent throughout the ship. Do not allow this signal in simulations. Command authorisation Kheren --- white-alpha ---"

"Command code recognized. Protocol implemented," confirmed the computer, easily able to catch the ultrasonic words of the Graalek langage integrated in all of the Andorian captain's command codes.

Not a good idea to get confused between fantasy and reality... especially now, admitted Kheren from this last incident.

As he stepped onto the bridge, he went to stand before his large old style command chair as he ordered:

"On main viewer, Doc."

"USS Artemis, this is USS Alsea Lieutenant Oseno speaking. We have cleared spacedock and are ready to coordinate operations at your direction."

Kheren recognized the Bajoran Lieutenant from the general meeting and that had accompanied Acting captain Rivers and him afterwards, the one that had impressed him with his keen mind and sound judgment despite his relative inexperience. Tyvya also had noted to her captain his sharp sense of tactic and security protocols and necessities. He nodded in aknowledgement to Oseno on the screen.

"Good to hear from you, Alsea. We are currently on course to the estimated position of the approaching intruder at our maximum speed of warp 9.6."

He stepped down to the navigation station and computed for a few seconds before adding:

"Moving out now at warp 9.9, you will overtake us in... forty-eight minutes. Once we are together, we should intercept together the Romulans in the next eleven hours. We will have several hours to discuss and prepare our joint action once you rendez-vous with us."

Oseno nodded in acknowledgement of the senior officer's orders.

"Understood Captain, we'll see you shortly. I will keep this channel open and secured in the event you need to relay any additonal information, Alsea out."

Oseno immediately addressed Shawn Hunter at the helm

"Plot that course Mister Hunter, maximum warp."

"Aye Sir, course laid in."

"Give a moment, I want to give Commander Lire a warning."

Oseno toggled the comm unit on the command chair "Bridge to engineering, we're going to maximum warp Commander. Just wanted to give you a heads up."

Niomo responded positively. "Affermative. The warp core is warming up and will be ready shortly. The other cores are powering up now and should be ready a few minutes after the primary core."

He looked to a few of the engineers that were staring at the massive warp core. "You there! Spread the word that we are going to be hitting 9.900. Make sure to monitor the stress fracture rate. I don't want to come apart before we see combat."

"Understood Mister Lire, let us know when we have it. Bridge out."

Oseno then toggled the ship wide intercom "Attention all hands, this is the XO. We will be moving shortly to intercept a Romulan vessel that has encroached on Federation space with unknown intent. Multi-vector assault mode is almost a certainty. All hands should report to multi-vector assault stations in preparation for this action. That is all, Oseno out."

Jureth wasn't exactly one for motivational speeches, he just wanted to give the crew information about what was going on. Just enough to prepare themselves and hopefully not enough to panic them. He looked back at his assistant tactical officer.

"Weapons and shields Cat?"

"Online and standing by Sir."

Oseno nodded it seemed the Alsea was primed and ready for what was to come.

Niomo looked to the ceiling as Oseno gave his order. He sighed and motioned for his assistant to come into his office. He closed his eyes for a moment and thought about his orders. James Thompson was a man who would one day be a Chief Engineer, Niomo knew. It was time to see him tested to his limits. When he opened his eyes, Thompson was at his desk. "James, I want you to take over here. If we are going into MAVM, I want to be with Core3. I'll take Brenes with me. Use Warner as your second. The Secondary Hull shouldn't have any major problems. Sparbok and Stark should do fine together."

Thompson only nodded. Niomo could tell that he was worried. It was the first time he had sat in what the eingeers called "The Chair" It wasn't on the bridge, of course. But was at the heart of engineering.

"James, I have full confidence in you." Niomo responded to his silence, trying to make the man more confident.

Thompson smiled slowly. "I know sir. I'm ready."

"Good." Niomo smiled. "I'll be leaving now. I'll probably be wanted on the Bridge. It's part of the tertiary hull anyways. Might as well take my 'official' station for our event. I'll watch you from there, if you need me."

The two men said their goodbyes and seperated. Niomo went to his replicator and retrieved a cup of coffee. He then looked around and found Ensign Leo Brenes. After drawing his attention, Niomo notified him of his new duty.

"Leo. I want you to be my eyes down in tertiary engineering. Head over there now, please. I'll be on the bridge coordinating power systems on all 3 sections. Read over the modifications I made to Core3 and let me know if you have any questions before we seperate.

Brenes smiled and responded "Sure thing. I'll let you know if I have any problems."

The two men exited eingeering and boarded a turbolift together. The ensign got off at tertiary engineering and Niomo exited onto the Bridge.

"Anyone need any coffee?" He stated with raise of his cup and a smile.

While all this was going on aboard the USS Alsea, Captain Kheren straightened from the nav console after the subspace transmission was terminated, his antennae straightened with obvious satisfaction. Raising his head slightly, he said outloud:

"Kheren to Tyvya and Syntron; rendez-vous with the Alsea on our present course in forty-eight minutes confirmed. Both of you meet me in my ready room in forty-five."

"Acknowledged, Sir," came back over the bridge's speakers the throaty, soft feminine voice of his acting tactical chief.

Syntron just arriving back to his quarters laid down the woven basket and activated his combadge. "Affirmative Captain. I will be there."

Gives me just enough time to go back play around with the diplomatic sim Kheren thought as he exited the bridge to get back to the holosuite he had left.

"Carry on, Doc," he said in parting as the turbolift doors closed on him.

The Deltan returned his attention to the controls with a smirk on his handsome face.

"Here we go... again," he mumbled to himself.