Operation Horizon

At the heart of the command center of Starbase 10, the huge holographic display installed there allowed Samji and his senior officers, if not in fact anyone in the vast circular room, to see a live representation of the entire sector. At a touch or a word, the display could zoom in at any point on any scale in the entire 20 light years-on-a side cube of the Hromi sector to show in visual representation, tactical display or hard data, any information or event available in real time, compiling constantly what was transmitted from subspace relays, long range sensors, linked starships or probes and compared, added or enhanced by computer data stored in the immense computer cores of the base.

It had an omniscient quality to it that was a bit overwhelming, even to a seasoned officer like Fleet Captain Allen Samji. But despite the uncomfortable feeling, it was certainly handy in their present situation and what they were attempting to do.

Save the universe.

Standing arms crossed in front of his chest, the golden-skinned, bearded man barked out:

"Situational report."

"USS Artemis and USS Alsea are together on course at warp 9.6 to intercept the Romulan dreadnought still beleived to be bound for our position," answered his executive officer, Karen Schmidt. "Interception estimated to occur in eleven point forty-seven hours, halfway between Beta Caeli and Rho Puppis along the edge of our sector. No other report of Romulan activity."

"Yet..." mumbled Samji, but he signalled the dignified-looking woman to continue.

"USS Aurora and USS Steamrunner are in synchroneous orbit with us, assuming guard duty and ready to assist in any evacuation or fleet support action if need arise. USS Pittsburgh and USS Wisconsin are en route to the anomaly's quadrant of operation one at warp 9.6; estimated time of arrival and confinement operation initiation is four point six hours. USS Lotus and USS Spectre en route to quadrant three at warp 9.8; estimated time of arrival and start of confinement operation is four point eight hours. No report of expected Klingon presence in that region so far."

"Oh they'll be there," assured Allen with a frown.

The real question was: as ambushers... or as hunters?

"USS McKenzie and USS Republic just started towards quadrant of operation four," finished Schmidt with the same clinical tone as she almost always adopted on duty; sometimes even off-duty; "USS McKenzie is at warp 9, estimated time of arrival is five point seventy-five hours. USS Republic is moving at warp 9.2; ETA with designated theater of operation is five point two hours."

"Good," said the starbase commander with a nod. "They're trying to throw off the Horizon Children's timetable if they planned anything against us or the operation itself by coming in out of synch."

"Which is most probable, judging alone by the infiltrators we flushed out on most ships and over here," the woman added.

"Most but not all..." then chimmed in Lieutenant Commander Ja'Hark. The Klingon intelligence officer looked even more edgy and annoyed, if that was possible. "We received no such report or suspects from the McKenzie."

"That does not mean they have not found any," pointed out Samji with a joyless smirk. "My guess is that Captain Crist might have some plan to lure them into revealing themselves before they are ready and exploit any weakness that will thus be revealed."

"A fearfully risky game," commented Ja'Hark gloomily.

Not for a man willing to have a Section 31 Cardassian agent as a chief engineer... thought Samji as his eyes roamed the tactical tridimensional diplay and the tiny dots of blue light representing the ships of Lotus Fleet, most of them converging towards a huge ball of golden-orange fire with a blindingly white center.

The next five hours were strangely, even eerily quiet as all ships rushed to their theater of operations and everything on the starbase was ready for either tactical condition or mass evacuation. On the holodisplay, the progression of the ships looked deceptively peaceful; even the glowing orb of the anomaly itself became like any other representation of a Sol-type yellow-white dwarf, so familair to most people quietly working in the command center around it.

It was so calm and quiet for so long now that Samji, just out of a few hours of rest since deployement, almost jumped out of his seat when Grok's screechy voice called out to him.

"Sir... who was here before we resumed our shift?"

"The starbase commander looked at his returning Exec and she checked her own command board before answering:

"Gamma shift, as usual...is there a problem, Lieutenant Commander?"

"Just something odd; some of our systems are currently on a level 2 diagnostic cycle."

"Which systems?" inquired Samji.

"Station thrusters; secondary sensor grid; tractor emitters; secondary computer core; industrial replicators."

"All non-essential systems, at least for a while. What's so odd about it?"

"Well, that's just it, Sir; they're all non-essential systems that have been through a level 1 diagnostic a week ago along with the main ones. So... why do they need a level 2 diagnostic now?"

"Who authorized the work... and when?" then inquired Samji.

"Lieutenant Junior Grade Montgommery Scott, the new Gamma shift senior engineer, Sir," answered Karen Schmidt, just at the end of Gamma shift. The diagnostic is under supervision of Gamma shift senior ops officer Danik Brie."

"They both came from the Artemis' senior staff, no?"

"Yes, Fleet Captain," nodded the stately woman with her usual formality. "My guess is, they are both overzealous regarding security matters. Their former captain was rather quite stringent on the matter, as you know. Old habits die hard..."

Allen Samji just made a noncommittal grunt.

"Mister Grok, find me the current assistant security chief on duty... what's his name again? Mandella... yes ; I'll ask this Lieutenant Junior Grade John Mandella to make an impromptu inspection of those serviced areas. Scott and Brie will expect it and they will see that we do take station security as seriously as they do... And it will be a good opportunity for this new officer to see why Lotus Fleet is called the elite division of Starfleet."

"Aye, Sir," answered the Ferengi chief of operations.