Departure: USS Horizon

On the large viewer of the command center of the Horizon, the long, sleek, fish-like form of the USS Phoenix emerged from the innards of Starbase Lotus with the grace and majesty unikely typical of the starships of the United Federation of Planets. From her external docking pylon, the bridge officers of the much larger flagship of Lotus Fleet had a splendid overhand view of their companion vessel for the trek that awaited them among the stars; those that they could see and those that lay beyond even them.

The door of the turbolift swished open to admit Governor Sufra on the vast bridge. Her usual severe mien looked as hard and somber as that of a Klingon about to become Chancelor of the High Council and having to fight for it. Without hesitation, she walked up to the large command dais to stand in front of the Andorian in the command chair.

"Are all of your people comfortably settled aboard, Governor Sufra?"

Whatever she was about to spit at him, it was deftly countered by his sudden question Kheren addressed her. She took a moment to get her bearings back before answering in a curt, dry tone that was obviously toned down by her surprise to hhis expressed concern.

"They are not. It's like being aboard a prison ship."

"You most assuredly have no experience with one, Governor Sufra," Kheren said, signing over the departure readiness report handed to him by Redding.

"I do now," she countered the obvious sarcasm with one of her own. "rest assured my next report to the Federation Council will be no more flattering to you than the last, Captain kheren. And I can tell you that one was not to your liking."

"Neither are you, Governor Sufra."

Before she could explode, he lifted his eyes and his antennae to her and his voice was as cold as the winds of his homeworld.

"Governor, we have a job to do, wether we like it or not or wether we like each other or not. So, the best way for you to get rid of me and me to get rid of you is for you to let me do my job. The sooner we disembark you in your... Eden, the sooner both of us will find bliss. So, if you don't mind..."

His rough hand made a soft brushing gesture to the left. For a moment, the Bajoran Woman became as tense as if she had been about to slap him. Then, she bit her lip and stepped to his left, to stand in front of Doctor Nasaro-Myth. The handsome Deltan flashed her his mesmerizing smile and his dazzling purple eyes smoothed her mood better than even his pheromones could have done had he sent them out. At the same time, he spoke with his soft, musical voice to his commanding officer beside him.

"Starbase Lotus Flight Control is giving us all green for departure, Captain. Fleet Captain Samji, on behalf of rear Admiral Kotari, wishes us good tides and fair winds sailing towards paradise."

Kheren made no comment and his rigid face didn't betray the slight annoyance that he felt. His voice was as soft and deep as ever despite it,s authority but those who knew him close heard the strange mixture of relief and annoyance that laced it.

"Take her out, Number One."

Just as Redding did so, Nasaro-Myth spoke again. This time, their was no easy going manner in his voice.

"Captain... Flight Control reports the Phoenix is requesting emergency departure... The coordinates given do not match course towards the Azimuth Horizon."

Kheren did not have to ask what was going on. On the bridge, every officer now worked to give him an answer to this obvious question of his. And again, it was the Deltan Doctor manning communications that gave it.

"They received a distress call... Their chief engineer is stranded in a damaged shuttle at the edge of a nebula."

"Patch me through to the Phoenix," Kheren ordered.

"Captain Kheren," suddenly interrupted Sufra, once again stepping in front of him, " are you entertaining the notion of delaying this mission to..."

This time, and despite the deceptive softness in them, the eyes and voice of Kheren shifted from frigid ice to blazing fire.

"Governor Sufra; a distress call instantly suspend until resolution all orders and activities, as per Starfleet General Orders. And as per those same Orders, if you start interfering with the operations of this ship, I will have you removed and barred from this bridge for the rest of the voyage as potential hazard to the success of the mission. Do I make myself clear?"

As she was about to protest, Elliago cut in.

"Sir, you have Starbase Command calling."

The voice of Fleet Captain Samji was heard over the bridge's speakers.

"USS Horizon; the USS Phoenix will be delayed for a while. She will rejoin with you momentarily. Proceed as scheduled. Samji out."

It was hard to tell if the Andorian felt further annoyed by missing this opportunity to delay the mission, or releived that it would not be. Crossing his muscular arms over his wide chest, he sat deeper in his seat and looked straight at the bajoran woman in front of him as he spoke to his officers.

"Resume departure... once on the way, proceed to the Horizon Portal at warp 5."

Chief helmsman Aguk Snow turned halfway in his seat to try to look at his captain.

"Warp 5, Sir?"

"Problem with the warp drive, Mister Snow?"

"Ah... negative, Sir, but... ETA will be... almost three days."

"You are in a hurry?"

The copper-skinned man looked a bit bewildered for an instant, then slowly just turned back to his flight controls and started inputing the necessary commands.

Of course, Governor Sufra, who had wisely moved back to stand beside nasaro-Myth as if using him bodily as a shield, again spitted out her annoyance in no uncertain terms.

"We are, Captain Kheren! WE have suffered the outrageous delays of your unjustified security measures and now we are more than ever eager to reach our destination, if only to get rid of you!  As a planetary representative duly mandated by the Federation Council, my orders prevails for this mission. Now, you will proceed at best possible speed. And that is an order, Captain!"

The Andorian looked at her, his face as expressionless as ever. His voice had cooled down.

"That, Governor Sufra, is exactly what I am doing."

"At warp 5? I am no Starfleet officer but even I know that this ship can certainly go much faster!"

"Indeed she can, Governor Sufra... but only in case of an emergency... which we are not responding to right now. Starfleet General Orders supercedes any and all orders given in the field. And they specifically state that, to prevent deterioration of subspace, no starship shall exceed warp 5 except in an emergency situation... to which a colonization mission do not apply."

Sufra wanted to protest... but she understood that no protest could go against the standing superceeding orders of Starfleet, not even the authority of the Federation President himself.

Of course no one, especially not Aguk Snow almost hiding his barely restrained smile between his running fingers and his deep concentrating stare, cared to mention that this restriction did not apply to vessels equipped with the most up-to-date propulsion systems built specifically to minimize any damaging to subspace...

He simply awaited Redding's orders to complete departure proceedings.

Aron'Son witnessed the exchange between his captain and the insufferable Bajoran woman and after checking his tactical console and the ship's weapons addressed Kheren.

"Captain, tactical systems are fully operational, and Sir if our 'guest' is interfering and you wish her removed...." and with the last sentenced he fixed a cold stare on Sufra "I will see to it." 

"That will not be necessary, Lieutenant, I am sure." The Romulan engineer cut in. He had experienced enough tit-for-tat arguments on Romulan ships to know this would not end well for either side. "Even if we did need to go to warp 9, that speed is off-line. A last minute diagnostic caught a tear in our subspace deflector matrices. Going faster than warp 5 increases the chance of us tearing ourselves apart. I need at least a day to fix it. I would not suggest making me rush, either."

The Romulan shrugged defeatedly to the Captain, hoping his act would be enough. He believed his comment would diffuse the two side of the argument. Most politicians knew nothing of starship engineering, and therefore, usually the threat of destruction simmered any hot attitudes. He did not know much about this Governor Sufra, or her Cult, but she acted much like a Tal Shiar agent on board a Romulan vessel. Arrogant and headstrong. That alone was alarming to him, especially after reading the briefing PADD that was delivered. To have so many of her agents made the Romulan highly suspicious. He made a mental note to discuss engineering security with Lieutenant Aron'Son once the woman left the bridge.

Kheren's mastery of body language told him all of what the Romulan truly meant. He felt that the point has been sufficiently made and he became concilliatory.

"Make sure we are fully operational by the time we reach the anomaly, Chief Engineer, Everyone here wishes for this mission to succeed and as expedititiously as possible... Do you agree, Governor Sufra?"

Between an Andorian, a Jem'Hadar, and a Romulan, the woman could only pause before daring letting herself go into what she truly felt. She finally only took a deep breath, more a sigh than anything else and, without even the hint of a smile or a nod, grumbled between tight lips.

"Yes, Captain. And let us all keep that in mind."

"Aye, Sir. Repair team is already on site." The Romulan responded to his Captain, ignoring the Governor. "All other systems nominal...though I am reading additional drain from the replicator and environmental systems.... a point oh five drop across the board on those systems. I was under the impression that the Horizon was able to support the colonists with ease..."

"Ease, sadly, does not mean without any strain, Lieutenant." Snowfire spoke up from her station, a quelling glare lancing from her towards the Romulan engineer, and she tapped through a sequence on her station before turning her attention to the Captain. "As to the deflector, my department was running a series of tests prior to our entrance to the Horizon anomaly to ensure that our defences against its influences would be fully effective. The multiple software runs clashed with with the Engineering diagnostic and caused it to return a false positive." Her eyes flickered, an edge of warning inside them even restricted by the nature of the working relationship on the bridge. "As we are, then, not limited to low Warp speeds - and as you said yourself it will be easier for all involved if we settle the colonists quickly - I suggest that we utilise the full capability of the Horizon's excellent warp drive." Her gaze met the Governer's as Sufra's eyes flashed around, conveying a mixture of restrained sympathy and responsible discipline, but again with that same flicker of warning.

Given the reactions so far, this was going to be a delicate balancing act. But if it was, it was. And she had a duty.

"Recommendation noted, Commander," Kheren acknowledged drily. "But we will follow Starfleet General Orders nonetheless."

The Andorian was a bit baffled by Ke'Leysha's attempt to oh so subtly but still openly interfere with his decisions. Along with necessary precautions, a point of authority, order and fair warning had to be made to their guests; and worse, she was completely missing the point of it all out of some misguided impression that he and the rest of the crew were, what... deliberately attempting to have the mission fail? Out of resentment for past sufferings? 

Yes, it was baffling that she, the most experienced of her people about Starfleet in general and Lotus Fleet in particular, did not see that they were all professional enough to reing those feelings in and do their job to the best of their abilities. If only one word alone defined a Starfleet officer, it was professionalism. And yes, they were doing their best; ordering warp 5 was not a spiteful act; it gave them three full days under regulations to further make sure that nothing would go wrong in the mission with a people having a history of deceit, disruption and foulness out of the very beliefs they espoused above, beyond and in contrast to those of the Federation. Probably the main reason why they were engaged in this project and the Federation Council so eager to grant them their request... especially that these cultists... so far... were doing it by the rules, not with terrorist acts the first of their group had done, just because things weren't going good enough and fast enough for them. 

No, Kheren was not hampering them; he was giving them a chance to prove themselves... or to damn themselves. If anything wrong would happen with this mission from those people, it would start to show in those first three days of frustrating slowness so close to their dream; and if anything did, it was far better for it to happen on this side of the horizon anomaly.

And then, there was the Phoenix; a distress call was the oldest trick in the book to separate vessels in order to better overpower them.

And Kheren also had no intention of crossing the border of the other universe without Syntron by his side.

But puzzlement was not alone in the captain's mind regarding the Illythirii woman. The way she acted now was starting to look like the way former chief engineer N'Eligan Etarudbo had acted on board the Artemis when they met the X'Ell of the Hromi Dyson shell... before he too became sympathetic to the Horizon Children's cause when they violently attempted to take the ship... before he joined their destructive exodus...

It was more than puzzlement; it was starting to become genuine concern.

His toughts were interrupted by the bajoran woman now staying rigid at his left behind the CMO and besides Counselor Lyrya eyeing it all silently.

"Am I to understand from your science officer that this ship could go faster?"

"As I said so," retorted Kheren with a deliberately calm tone. "And as I said so, we will follow our regulations. This will also allow the Phoenix to catch up with us after they complete their rescue operation before we enter the Portal."

"Isn't the Phoenix a Starfleet vessel too? How is the Phoenix going to catch us if it is bound by the same regulations?"

The way she said it, crossing her arms under her bosom, showed plainly that she beleived she had caught the Andorian in a blatant lie. Her triumphant sneer however soon dissolved with each of his next words.

"The Phoenix has a Quantum Slipstream Drive that works completely outside of subspace mechanics; there is no restriction to it's use."

Now, he turned his molten silver stare to her.

"And as another useful point of information, Governor Sufra; I am not in the habit of explaining my orders; nor am I required to by any order or regulation short of a board of inquiry or a court martial. I do it only out of courtesy to you. Please do not abuse that courtesy."

Snowfire settled back into her place at Kheren's reply, subsiding fully and - for all intents and purposes - without any sign of wishing to continue the interjection conflict. She was quite sure she'd annoyed her Captain, yet the flavour of almost worry that she could feel was almost amusing - but she had to remember that Starfleet had none of the complex internal working hierarchy that her people did. She understood why, a lot of it would drive the average Starfleet Captain to absolute distraction, yet she still sometimes had trouble separating the two working structures. And sometimes she still wondered if Starfleet constrained itself too much.

The IDF had a complex - some might even say feudal - nature to much of its command structure, designed to create the ability for subordinates to channel their concerns easily to superiors and also granting them the right to speak their minds in situations that the Federation would - and likely did - find truly baffling. Snowfire could not have counted the number of battles that that structure had won for them, yet it went deeper than that. Saying it was a right was...wrong, the more appropriate term was duty. And sometimes, like now, that feeling that her superior was making a mistake had overridden her normally tight self control. Yet in the end she was glad of it, for if none would speak out then she would. And she would continue to do so,for a free society had no need to require its own citizens to 'prove themselves'. That wasn't the point of a free society.

Aron'Son eyed the Romulan momentarily and then turned his attention back to his console, he believed that removing the governor from the bridge would only benefit all present as she seemed to be...uncooperative, even more so than most Bajorans. He had read the official reports from what Starfleet called Operation Horizon and while he was impressed at what Lotus Fleet had done he was concerned regarding the reports of sabotage. The Horizon was his ship, for security purposes, and he intended to see that there was no sabotage aboard his ship. He would have to look over the major spaces again and ensure there were enough guards, and he made a note to have a team check the auxiliary spaces for signs of tampering based on the engineer's report regarding the replicator and environmentals. 

From his station Oseno Jureth observed as the exchanges took place between the ship's bridge officers and the tit for tat between Governor Sufra and Captain Kheren. He also watched the ship's new tactical officer's actions as well. Jureth had been shocked to hear that Stafleet had accepted a Jem'Hadar into its ranks and assigned him to the Horizon. He had never met on in person and still hadn't as he had not spoken yet to Aron'Son. It would be difficult for him to do so he knew, his hatred for the Dominion and Jem'Hadar in particular ran deep as it was Jem'Hadar that had destroyed his father's starship, and more recently Jem'Hadar serving a reincarnated Khan Noonien Singh that had imprisoned him and the crew of the Polaris. Jureth knew he would have to cross that bridge eventually, but he also knew now was not the time. 

As for the governor, while Sufra was a Bajoran Oseno did not have any ingrained sympathy for her, her cause, or her "mission." His security team aboard the Alsea had taken down a Horizon's Children cultist attempting to sabotage the ship's computer core during Operation Horizon and he was aware of the other attempted and successful sabotage incidents throughout Lotus Fleet. Those things alone made Oseno skeptical of the governor and her people. Then there was the mission, Jureth had read the brief summary of their orders that had been released and knew he would get more information at the official briefing, but he didn't like it. It made little sense to him to attempt to colonize an area of space that so little was known about. Normally extensive site surveys, and other research was carried out before attempting to colonize new planets except under extreme circumstances and Jureth didn't believe this qualified as one of those. A feeling inside told him that there was something not right about this mission, and he decided now was not the time to ignore that instinct. He sent a message on his console to the Strategic Operations Center and intelligence officer Variel Palos "Lieutenant Palos, give me everything Intelligence has on Governor Sufra."  To the captain he said 

"Captain, Strategic Ops is ready for departure and the Strategic Operations Center is online and ready. The Polaris is fully repaired and standing by as well Sir." 

"Thank you, Commander; start planning a survey of the target stellar system with your crew."

"I thought charting and survey was to be the Phoenix' job..." again cut in the governor.

" It is, Governor Sufra," the captain explained with a still patient tone, " but of the entire sector around your colony; that means exploring a cubic area twenty light years on a side. Even with her QSD, it will take a lot of time just to catalog the space bodies and phenomenons in such a large volume of a totally new universe. By doing the same job on a much smaller scale, the Polaris will free the Phoenix for that larger task and further secure the planetary ressources closest to your colony while establishing the best patrol circuit within it to ensure adequate protection."

"I see..." the woman said, apparently slightly mollified. "Well... if you do your job that well... I should not have anything further to... say to you."

"Then rest assured that will gladly do it all to the upmost of our ability."

The Romulan frowned as he tried to pull up any data on the science team running system checks and, yes, they had. She wouldn't have security clearance to engineering diagnostic logs, so as far as he was concerned, his ruse was still in play.

"Sir, I'd still like to send a team down to check out the false positive. There are some things computers just can't do. If we do need to accelerate, I'd like to make sure everything is good to go. You know how starbase maintenance teams are..."

"You have three days, Chief. Once we cross the border, we will be the only starbase in an entire universe."

"Don't remind me sir. Us Romulans have sailor stories of ships trying to do this, and never being heard from again because ghosts eat their crew." The Romulan shook, shaking off the memories of creepy stories as a cadet.

"Not to worry Lieutenant; I am Andorian. I have no belief whatsoever in the supernatural," Kheren shot with a serious tone. "And as I understand it, you have to beleive for it to work."

Sufra however seems suddenly a bit ill at ease; not so much about the ghost stories or even the avowed faithlessness of Kheren as with what he had said before.

"Ah, Captain... if there are some technical difficulties... do you think you will have enough time to..."

"Three days are more than enough for this crew to resolve all difficulties regarding this mission, Governor, barring any interference."

She obviously got the point as her now familiar scowl returned.

"Make sure that you do. This mission of exploration and colonization has top priority from the Federation Council and of upmost importance to Starfleet itself. It is not for our sake alone, Captain; in this day and age, the Federation is most concerned with a return to it's policy of establishing peace and prosperity accross the universe... and Starfleet has to prove itself to be more than just the instrument of war it has been these last decades... It's workings and even possibly it's very existence itself are slowly being currently put into question."

Oseno wanted to laugh out loud, this Sufra was self important one to be sure. Instead though he restrained himself and stood from his console. 

"I will be in the Strategic Operations Center if I'm needed Captain. I'd like to confer with my staff regarding the survey mission." 

Kheren nodded without turning to him.

"Your status report and deployement plan will be needed at the briefing, Commander."

He didn't react to the Federation representative's words. Either he didn't believe her...

Or... he already knew.