Trouble on the horizon

 Against the blue-white cloudy backdrop of the great galactic barrier, the USS Horizon, flagship of Lotus Fleet, shone like a pearl on some blue foaming shoal. Dwarfing both warships with it's hull over a kilometer long, It's twin upward nacelles dragged stellar dust behind it like seawater droplets as it emerged from the barrier. Lights blinking on it's wide saucer towards the inert Achilles and still separated Alsea, it was still several minutes away at maximum warp, but closing in fast.

Kheren, still on the open channel with the Alsea's three modules and engineering, mused outloud.

''Must be working with a skeleton crew to have come this soon after us. And I guess my wives are aboard. Not so much as a deterrent from violence on my part as to convince me to surrender.''

Then his tone became more forceful as he addressed purposefully his comrades in crime.

''I must tell you, gentlebeings; before we left Starbase Lotus, I recorded a confession; stating that I tricked Syntron to comply with my actions and kidnapped the rest of you. Hence why I assaulted you back there, Captain Jureth. It's on security recordings now. As a civilian, I can only be criminally charged in a Federation court; so is Syntron, but I covered him with my confession. But you three Starfleet officers can be, and will be court-martialed and lose everything... unless you follow my lead in this.''

His deep tone became strangely commanding and pleading at the same time.

''You will be able to keep careers and all that you have if you all continue the present set-up; pretend to be attempting to stop me hijacking the Achilles for my own purposes; you three from the outside, Rogers from the inside. I urge you to play along. For all our sakes... and that of the galaxy. Once we get Redding or whoever is in command to acknowledge the threat of the planet-killers and the peaceful intentions of the Iconians, we will have succeeded.''

Far below Kheren, in main engineering, Rogers began transferring control of the Achilles to the battle bridge, speaking on the open channel as he did so.

"If you say so Kheren, but how you going to explain THIS little gem of a ship?"

''I encountered that ship twice already, Commander. I was the first aboard since it had been lost. My crew and I were responsible for it being stranded out here. Me knowing of it's existence and location basically explains itself... and gives much weight to my... devious plan.''

With that David commanded the secondary computer core, as the main core was off-line in diagnostic mode. "Computer! Run a level one diagnostic on fire control. Send hard copy report only, to main bridge engineering station alpha."

That would take computer guidance for all weapons offline and keep them off until the report printed, mechanically, on the bridge. And, just to make a show of it for the newly arrived audience, David manually tuned the forward phasers to a variable power rate between forty through sixty-five percent then fired them at the Asleas' Beta section. One of the three beams struck a glancing scrape to her port nacelle at fifty-three percent power.

“What the hell?” Sorripto yelled back with a combination of surprise and sarcasm.

“There are three of us and you shoot me?”

"Just making a show of it," David said laughingly to the group. "Computer! Transfer all command functions to the battle bridge. Raise shields!"

'The ship, and the next scene of this masquerade, is yours Kheren,' David thought.

Jureth was not happy with Kheren's deception and the expression on the Bajoran's face showed it. They had all made this decision together and knew what the consequences of their actions could be. Redding was a smart man, surely they could make him see what was really happening here. 

"Kheren, we all knew what we were getting in to here, letting you alone face the consequences is not the way this should end. Captain Redding is as smart as Admiral Redding is or was. Surely we can make him see what is happening here. He may have even already figured it out."

“I am with the Captain on this one.” Sorripto chimed in. “After the career I’ve had no one is going to believe that I was not in on this plan. I would imagine the same thing could be said for a few of us… no offense boys”.

The Andorian sighed.

''Your lives are your own, gentlebeings. I just provided you an escape door. Use it or not, it's up to you. In the meantime... ''

Finding out that ship command has been automated to his location, he took no time in bringing the Achilles hard about and away from the incoming capital ship and activating impulse; one-quarter impulse. His antennae curved inward as he spoke.

''Gentlebeings; the traitor is trying to escape.''

And that so-called escape route was in direct trajectory with the still far-off but incoming planet-killers.

Look my way, Redding... he called out silently.

Jureth hesitated, he had two choices and neither of them were exactly easy. He could bring the Alsea about, hail the Horizon,  attempt to talk sense into Captain Redding, and introduce him to the Iconians; or he could go along with Kheren and see how things unfolded. The Bajoran had no idea how the Iconians would react to the arrival of another starship even though Jureth had warned them the vessel was coming nor did he really know how Redding would react. Jureth had known, albeit briefly, Admiral Redding; he did not know this man even half as much. He muted the open channel and spoke directly to Sorripto. 

"Commander, we may have to go along with Kheren's plan. Much as I would like to attempt to talk to Redding directly I just don't know how he'll react. You and I both know what his orders likely are, but...if we lead him directly to the planet killers...he won't have a choice."

"Those were my thoughts exactly." Sorripto responded.

As if on cue, the Horizon dropped out of warp, aiming herself at the fleeing siege destroyer. But she did not immediately pursue the Achilles. She launched the Polaris, the state-of-the-art sagittarius-class starship docked under the huge secondary hull of the Lotus class capital ship.

The escort vessel moved immediately at full impulse towards the three modules of the Alsea. The Polaris was boxing them in between her and the gigantic flagship, which had yet to also implement fully it's tactical options; separate her vast saucer from her massive secondary hull or detach her small but effective bridge module to even the odds; or add the complement of fighter shuttles the Alsea's sensors were detecting through it's two layers of shielding and it's armor plating.

Seeing their clear predicament, Sorripto continued.

"Not to mention some of us are already criminals. Showing him why we came out here is probably the only way anyone truly understands what we are doing."

Sorripto navigated the beta section slowly towards their new escort shadow.

"I am tactical, let me take point on this one. If anyone can survive a few blasts it will be me."

With that Sorripto veered the beta section in the direction of Kheren and the planet killers. No matter what the Horizon and Polaris wanted, they were about to get involved in this fight.

Engaging in games of deception was not a strong inclination for a Vulcan. Syntron was no exception, although he had learned during his time in Starfleet that a cunning approach could be applied on rare occasions to bypass an otherwise potentially disastrous situation. Apparently, this would be one of those times.

Having worked closely with the Andorian through a multitude of perilous missions, he had learned that he was a stalwart individual who would make a judgment call based on sound reasoning despite any consequence to himself, personally or professionally. He would put the needs of those living among the united federation of planets above any such organization bearing the same name, especially when their assessment and ruling on a situation conflicted with the well-being of those inhabitants.

Processing the discussion occurring among his co-conspirators, he began modifying helm control before engaging ship-to-ship secured communication.

“Readjusting velocity of gamma vector to coordinates that will intersect the projected pathway of the doomsday devices as well. Despite no wind factors to consider, I will navigate to the third position of a three-dimensional delta formation with the Achilles and the beta section.”

The gamma vector immediately veered then surged away from both the Horizon and the Polaris as they attempted to corral the vectors into captivity. How the Horizon and its captain would respond to their apparent defiance was certainly an unknown factor in this risky endeavor.

"Alright Mister Sorripto" Jureth replied "We'll follow your lead. Shields up gentlemen, this is going to get bumpy." 

From the Alsea's main tactical station Jureth dipped the triangular saucer section of the warship away from the on rushing Polaris. Oseno was well aware of what the little escort's capabilities were and were not having been her captain himself at one time. She was formidable, but no match for the Alsea if they really wanted to swat her away. Jureth ordered the Alsea's computer to follow a series of evasive maneuvering patterns that the ship's former commander Kalten Siduri had written and her pilot Shawn Hunter had perfected while continuing on course with Sorripto and Syntron. That would keep the Polaris off his back and save his shields for the planet killers. The captain then opened the encrypted channel to Rogers again.

"Commander Rogers, Alsea is with you. I am also starting a data dump to our new friends out there." 

A few taps on the console started the encrypted data transmission to the Iconians with a rotating pattern. Jureth knew the Iconaians would decypher it and even if Polaris and Horizon intercepted it, it would take them hours or days to crack the encryption and by then it wouldn't matter.

The Iconian response indeed did not take long to come back.

''We are complying.''

Rogers had heard Jureth's announcement but declined to reply, as both himself and Kheren on the battle bridge could see the Alea's main section following in their wake but smoothly catching up. Also, David was changing position's on the Achilles, heading to the bridge. He did this for two reasons.

One; he was the sole Federation officer on the ship and he figured he had best be there than in main engineering. The consoles on the bridge were handy enough for any observation of the ships systems. A short minute's ride in the turbo lift dropped Rogers off at the main bridge and David entered into the sparsly lit command center. Its size caught Rogers off-guard for a second. Then the sight of the small scattering of disturbed dust floating around struck into his engineer's heart.

'What a mess,' David thought sadly.

Walking over to the command chair, David paused slightly, not wishing to attempt the maneuvre, then resolutely sat in the center chair. Looking around again, David attentively checked the functionng of all the various consoles about the spacious room. He had to get some of these online.

"Computer! Configure all bridge displays to standard operational flight status. Display tactical readout on main viewer."

As the multitude of displays lit up the room garnered a more livable lighting, dispelling some of the gloom from before. Settling into the unfamiliar chair a bit more, David began manipulating a few keys on the right arm of the chair. The resulting display nearby disclosed the result of the main computer memory core diagnostic. David studied it slosely, trying to interpret ehich of the fairly large dedicated files was Khan's, and more importantly, which was Reddings.

Two files did stand out however, but they were both similar and, as of yet, undistinguishable from each other. David had a slight problem on his hands;

"Which one to delete!", David mused to the empty room.

''Both.''

The answer came with the woosh of the turbolift doors. Kheren stepped in, his eyes on the viewing screen.

If the Horizon noticed the Intruder, it gave no sign of it. No fighter shuttles launched, no saucer seper occured and both the flagship and it's escort maintained course and speed. And by this time, they too would have noticed the planet-killers incoming from the void.

What was most baffling however was not that there was no incoming fire from the pursuing vessels, but that no hail had come yet.

After several minutes of pursuit it was the Alsea's captain who made the observation over the established channel between the ships. 

"Gentlemen, has anyone else noticed that not only are we not being shot at...but they aren't ordering us to stop either? No commands to stop and prepare to be boarded, no announcement that we are under arrest, or that they are here to help. They haven't even tried lock a tractor beam on any of us. If I were in command of the Horizon and I had Kheren's confession in hand or even the appearance that we stole the Alsea I would at least be trying to talk us out of whatever we're doing. Something is wrong here."

"Any chance we lucked out and the Horizon followed us here with the intent of helping from the start?" Sorripto inquired.

After a brief pause he chuckled to himself.

"We are not that lucky are we?"

Syntron processed the audio speculation occurring as the gamma vector veered into its transitory flight position near the other ships. He then began scrutinizing the transactions occurring from the Lotus Class starship the moment it entered their region.

“The Horizon appears to be operating autonomously, without a commander or crew.  This would explain why there have been no orders emanating from the vessel. It does not however explain the details of what occurred or what the current situation is aboard that vessel.”

Kheren's voice came over the speakers.

''They didn't transwarp beyond the barrier. Even at maximum warp, they would all be unconscious after such a long exposure to the area. But my guess is, they wisely went in on automation while putting themselves in stasis. With a skeleton crew of mostly novices, just getting command of an unfamiliar ship, maybe how conflicted he must feel with us and this whole war mess... My other guess is that Redding, of all people, would not be foolish enough to challenge such an unknown aphazardly.''

There was a pause before his deep voice resounded again.

''No telling how long before they regain their senses; and what they will do next. Meanwhile, danger is still looming.''

A glance at the incoming planet-killers was not even needed to catch his meaning.

"We could always wake them up." Sorripto interjected.

"When we fought the borg all those years ago I had to do an energy transfer to charge the nano probes I designed. A similar power transfer, if aimed to their central core, would create enough of a power variance to jumpstart the stasis protocols. If they followed the book, which I am sure they did to the letter, then the stasis will be programed to wake the crew if it detects the possibility of uneven power to the stasis system."

“An old Terran metaphor comes to mind,” Syntron chimed in after listening to the Cardassian’s proposal.  “Kicking the hornets’ nest, I believe was the phrase utilized.”

He ran scans across the Lotus Class starship again, looking for active biosigns on the bridge then throughout key sections of the vessel. Nothing stood out.

“Would your recommendation be to provoke their commander and crew into unknowingly following us into battle or attempt to present a true picture of these circumstances directly to their commander, assuming that logic would dictate the only course of action that must be taken to curtail this lethal threat entering into our region?”

Kheren's voice was heard again over the speakers.

''I agree with Syntron; so let's not add any more weight on the ice, thin as it is already. We had a plan, let's stick with it as much as we can... before something makes it crash and burn. But let not that something be ourselves. That's my recommendation.''

Jureth pondered Sorripto's suggestion and Syntron's recommendation as well. He realized that the decision was his to make as the ranking, for now, Starfleet officer. 

"The problem I see," the Alsea's captain began "is that if we leave them in stasis they could be more vulnerable to the planet killers. If they don't wake in time they will not be able to react to the situation. Is there a greater risk to the Horizon and her crew if we wake them or if we leave them in stasis. Yes, we have a plan, but can we count on the Horizon's computer to be functioning normally?" 

It was Kheren who broke the silence.

''Guess what you are saying is; somebody should go there.''

"Do we have the time for that?" Jureth responded "I don't want to endanger them, but we cannot fail at our mission either." 

The Andorian took a moment before responding.

''You three are already busy running the Alsea.  Commander Rogers, by virtue of being the only Starfleet officer on board the Achilles, is nominally de facto it's commanding officer; although by virtue of galactic law, we BOTH actually OWN it now, as we boarded together an empty vessel, moreover officially declared lost and outside of any space jurisdiction.''

He let that sink in for a moment before continuing.

''But that is a discussion for another time. Right now, the only option I see left is for me to beam over to the Horizon.''

Before anyone could object, he explained his reasoning.

''I among us know this ship best. I can ensure the safety of ship and crew... and then try to delay them from hampering you guys; if need be, by surrendering, maybe a bit reluctantly, to the authorities to answer for my crimes. At least distracting them long enough for you to finish what we came here to do.''

They could all hear the smile in his voice as much as the resignation he felt.

''My recommendation, Captain Sir.''

Rogers immediately responded to the Andorians' statement with an objection.

"Sirs! We likely will need the Horizon's immense capabilities to augment these two, no, three ships; Three, assuming the Iconian's are able to assist against the threats. They could not aid us against the Achilles you recall! Surrendering is not an option out here."

David keyed a few strokes on the arm of his command chair on the Achilles and brought up a small list of Star Fleet regulations, projecting them to the main screens on all ships.

"If you'll notice something, I've remembered a little while ago, there is one sure-fire way to guarantee the cooperation of the Horizon. Note regulation of star date 7500: in essence it authorizes for any officer to second any Starfleet officers to their command, and seniority in command decisions relating to an invasion of the Federation."

“Take command of the fleet.” Sorripto added.

Rogers gave the rest of the small group a few seconds to read the Secret Regulation of 7500 before adding to his response.

"I believe Captain Jureth, you could invoke this regulation to second the Horizon to the Alsea, thereby putting you in tactical charge of this force."

David glanced over to look at the tall Andorian nearby, adding quickly; "I think Commander William Riker of the USS Enterprise invoked this same order in 2270 ..." David faced forward again to look at the main viewer again before finishing ... "Unless I am interpreting it wrong."

Kheren answered Rogers loud enough for all the others to hear over their speakers.

''A good call, Commander; unless, Redding has orders stating Captain Jureth, Lieutenant Commander Sorripto and you as being hereby relieved of duty; and to place you all under arrest on charges of theft, sabotage, dereliction of duty, unauthorized action, disorderly conduct, if not plain mutiny. Whatever they come up with, it will revoke your status as Starfleet officers. Thus, the regulation becomes null and void for you all gentlemen.''

He winked at Rogers; one of the very few human expressions he was able to give.

''But Redding knows me. He may disagree with all I say and did; but he will listen, at least for a while. If only, at worst, to buy you guys some time, I might do just enough over there to help. At best, I just might be able to do a lot more.''

Jureth sighed heavily, these were the burdens of command that as a less experienced officer he had wished to avoid. Now, they were commonplace for him and these weren't even among the hardest decisions he'd had to make in recent months. 

"Kheren is likely correct. Captain Redding will at least hear him out, even if the Horizon crew think we are all traitors it will buy us time. Once they see the planet killers, they'll have to put off any other actions until the threat is dealt with. After that...well I hear Earth's New Zealand is a nice place."

The last part was a reference to the Federation penal facility on Earth, which is Jureth suspected they'd probably all end up.

“They would probably send me back to Mars” Sorripto mumbled barely to himself.

"Unless Syntron or Commander Sorripto have any additional input I think we have to send Kheren to the Horizon." he glanced at the Alsea's main tactical station "I'm still not reading shields or weapons, so we won't even have to hack her computer."

“I have to agree here.” Sorripto responded.

“I have the longest file here and trust me when I tell you that having someone who is willing to listen, even to a criminal or an enemy, can make all the difference.”

Gesturing around, Sorripto continued.

“When I took down those cultists, I was able to save everyone because the team who captured me listened. I was a traitor and as far as they knew the enemy, but they respected me enough to hear me out. If we have that chance here, then we have to take it.”

Syntron contemplated the situation and limited options from every conceivable angle he could garner before engaging communications to reply.

“If the decision is made to send Kheren to the Horizon, I would request accompanying him as well. At the very least, I could provide another set of hands. If there are issues with the computer systems or with the stasis fields, I could help resolve a variety of problems, which could potentially require a tandem solution.”

The Andorian's voice grunted an assent.

''Never count out Vulcan logic. Well, you're in Command, Captain Jureth Sir. Decision is yours. But that means Sorripto will have to manage two Alsea modules at the same time. Unless you decide to rejoin the ship and tackle with the Achilles each planet-killer separately; the Alsea tugging it's tail while the siege destroyer go for the throat... and hopefully the Iconians, maybe even the Horizon, offer a tempting distraction to the others.''

“Only two?” Sorripto said with as sarcastic a tone as he could muster in this serious situation.

“I practically designed the sensor program and navigation modifications. Hell, I could control all three if anyone else wants to leave me behind.”

“You may only need to juggle the two vectors until situations aboard the Horizon are resolved or at least stabilized,” Syntron confirmed from the gamma section of the Alsea as he moved it closer in proximity to the larger Lotus class ship.

“My intent would be to resume control of the vector as we approach our oncoming adversaries; to provide additional independent distractions, among other tactics, to the anticipated offensive responses likely to occur once we rendezvous within range of the lethal devices,” the Vulcan added.

"That works." Sorripto responded.

"I can set the program to bounce the signal back to you. There will be a momentary overlap so we will have no delay on the commands."

There was a moment of silence before the distinctive voice of Kheren came over the speakers of all ships.

''The word, Sir?''

Jureth paced the main bridge of the Alsea as he listened to the dialogue between the four expert officers of his crew. With no one else to impede him the Bajoran was wearing quite the rut in the deck as well. He knew what needed to be done he just didn't like it. The Horizon was too much of an asset to be left with her crew disabled even if it meant all the conspirators were led back to Starbase Lotus in holding cells after the battle. 

"Alright," he finally said "Kheren, Mister Syntron proceed as you've outlined. Update us on the situation as soon as you can. If nothing else once they are awake I'm sure I'll hear from Captain Redding, even if it is at phaser point."

“Acknowledged,” Syntron affirmed as he began setting the gamma vector in standby mode. Once the helm and control sequence were set for the Cardassian to remotely assume command, he hailed the surrounding vessels.

“Ready to transport aboard the Horizon.”

Kheren's voice followed.

''I'll try to have him drain his phaser on me before you meet with him. Should give you some time. I'll signal when I am in position for the boarding action.''

Rogers stood and stepped down from the Achilles' command chair and moved purposely starboard and took possession of the helm. Squirming slightly to get the feel for the unfamiliar seat, he began to bring the ship into conjunction with the Horizon. Once he had matched velocities with captain Redding's ship he glanced to the stoic Andorian nearby.

"Velocity and bearing's equalized with the Horizon. You still have command, via the battle bridge,  ... Captain."

The slight amusement in the Andorian's voice was unmistakable.

''Transfering all command to your position, Commander. The ship, our ship, is yours. And thanks for the care.''

David didn't have to remind the former Horizon commander that ship-to-ship transport, while not a standard practice, was safest now that the two vessel's were matched in velocity and bearing. Turning back to face the main viewer, he enabled its function for tactical display and confirmed the Horizon's position. Then, with a slight pause, he continued.

"I haven't deleted those files yet. I'm not comfortable with ... killing? Terminating Admiral Reddings file."

With a sigh he grudgingly admitted further."

I've left them both locked in the Gamma computer until I can ascertain which is who."

Kheren shrugged.

''I'm no commanding officer anymore so, your call. Anyway, I'll be off this ship so... have fun with them.''

David again turned and looked Kheren in the eye, immediately realizing the gesture was wasted, but continued anyway.

"Give my regards to Captain Redding."

This time, the Andorian laughed.

''Hope he doesn't phaser me before I have a chance to.''

He exited from the battlebridge, heading for the nearest transporter room and actibvated his combadge once there.

''Kheren to Syntron; I have set coordinates for my transfer into transporter room 1 of the Horizon. In two minutes... mark.''

And so saying, he stepped onto the platform, waiting for the annular confinement beam to grab his atoms and transport them to the flagship of Lotus Fleet, his former command.

Hearing confirmation of the Andorian’s timeframe to transport to the Horizon, Syntron contacted the Achilles traveling at a synchronous velocity within range of both vessels.

“Requesting immediate ship-to-ship transfer to transporter one of the Horizon.”

Upon receiving the request from the Vulcan Rogers again stood and headed to the nearby engineering station across the bridge, answering Syntron as he started activating icon's on the engineering panel.

"Acknowledged Sir. Setting transport for one. Would you care for an in-flight meal?"

The main transporter locked onto Syntron in the Alsea' gamma section, exactly three point six kilometers from the Achille's. David rapidly set the confinement beam to bring the Vulcan to this ship, store the pattern in the Achille's buffer and then re-transmit to the Horizon's transporter room one. 'Pad three,' Rogers thought as he keyed in the target.

"Commencing transport in ten seconds," David stated stoically. "Please return your trays to an upright position", he added, from a memory from an old holo program.

"... three, ... two, ... one ..."

Rogers watched his board carefully as the entirety of Syntron's buffer pattern loaded into the Achilles' transport buffer, verified and transported on to the Horizon. Once the transport completed, David anxiously hailed Syntron through his comm badge.

"Achille's to Syntron. Status?"

The hands of the Vulcan moved slightly about his torso as if reflexively confirming his state of matter after rematerializing aboard the Fleet vessel.

“Arrival confirmed Commander,” Syntron verified, as he pulled out his tricorder and began scanning the area.

On the pad next to him, Kheren could not help but notice the gesture of his former Number One. he imitated it, but in a more théatrical manner, opening his mouth as if sighing.

''Emotional, Syntron? Hope Redding will feel as nostalgic as you when we will meet.''