SEASON 1

EPISODE 3

"The Derelict"

Captain Korleth, Son Of Mi'Goth

Various members of the Crew.

********************

Main Bridge - IKS Ty'Gokor

"Captain's Log, Second Season in the Year Of Kahless 1512. That's roughly March of 2382 for any Hu-mans listening to this. Captain Korleth, Son Of Mi'Goth, recording. We have been back out in space for roughtly a month now, out on patrol operations along the Klingon-Federation Border. I have no idea why High Command has chosen to send us out this way, it is not like the Federation is going to attack us or anything, as much as my warrior heart would sing at the chance to engage one of their Galaxy Class or even a Soverign Class Starship in battle. Bah! Such as life."

Korleth paused to take a swig of Bloodwine before continuing. "Patrol work along the Federation Border is menial at best. Our warriors have become complacient in their duties and pretty much bored. Can't say that I blame them. Although, watching Ihsaan whip them into a frenzy when he bested Guiher back on the Homeworld was fun. I'm proud to say that Ihsaan has more than proven his worth as my First Officer."

His train of thought was interrupted when Duke'Plah called out from the sensor board in the forward part of the bridge. "My Lord! Long Range scanners have picked up a vessel, Bearing 192 Mark 5. Its faint, almost like its running on low power or just merely drifting along, not trying to attract attention."

Korleth ended the log entry and stood up. "Do you have a visual yet Warrior?" he asked.

"Negative sir." Duke'Plah replied.

Korleth stroked his beard and turned to his First Officer. "Thoughts?"

"Definately worth investigating sir" Ihsaan replied. "Beats charting stars."

A few members of the bridge crew chuckled at that. "Indeed." Korleth said. He then turned and pointed to his human Helmsman. "Hunter! Set course and speed to intercept!" He then turned to T'Akio who was manning both security and tactical for the time being. "T'Akio! Arm weapons and raise shields! Whoever this is, we shall not be taken unprepared."

"Cloaking Device?" T'Akio asked.

"Not yet, let them see us coming and let them quiver in fear. Continue to monitor." he said.

********************

"Coming up on the ship now sir. Reads as a Federation Constitution Class Refit." Duke'Plah reported as the Ty'Gokor dropped out of warp.

The visual image came up on the viewscreen. Sure enough, an the old Federation Heavy Crusier sat out there, drifting. It was not tumbling, just merely pointed forward as if it were heading someplace. "Power? Lifesigns?" Korleth asked.

"Negative on lifesigns sir." Duke'Plah reported. "There is minimal power and even some life support running."

"Ihsaan, Prepare a Boarding Party. If no one is indeed onboard, then the ship is ours per Interstellar Law. Perhaps we can find something of use on that old cruiser." he said.

Their patrol just got a little bit intresting.

____________________________________________________________________

*****************************************************************

"Chief, six to beam up"

Commander Ihsaan, First Officer

Lieutenant T'Aiko, Security & Intell Officer

Lieutenant Carson, OPS officer

Ensign Holden, Engineering Officer

Warrior Pallara, Medical Officer

NPC:

Warrior Kahgar, warrior

Warrior Feral, security warrior

Warrior Tufok, security warrior

Warrior Poilar, engineer and damage control

*****************************************************************

Neutral Zone - I.K.S. Ty'Gokor, Main Bridge, Deck 8- Second Season in the

Year Of Kahless 1512

The last month had been very boring for most of the crew, especially the

young warrior eager to fight. Few asteroids hadn't been enough to

entertain them. They need needed action. But for Ihsaan it had been a good

opportunity to install his function in smooth conditions. He made progress

in many on going research programs even if the administrative part of the

First Officer function took a lot of his time. He had to make Captain's

life easier: to deal with the details and to leave the Captain only the

main decisions.

The most impatient warrior had been assigned to the Ashtanga Mok'bara

sessions. Three classes, ninety minutes each. It took him about five hours

but after a while it made its effects on them. A small effect though. They

were Klingon after all. That is why the discovery of the old Starfleet

vessel was welcomed as a hope for action. Not a fight, but at least

something that went out from the ordinary.

***************************

"Ihsaan, Prepare a Boarding Party. If no one is indeed onboard, then the

ship is ours per Interstellar Law. Perhaps we can find something of use

on that old cruiser." Captain Korleth said.

Ihsaan nodded: "Yes sir". This was a wonderful scientific opportunity.

This ship was a antique, maybe not powerful against a XXIVth century ship,

but her database, her logs could be bring interesting information. It

didn't take long to think about an away team: "Lieutenant T'Aiko and

Carson, Ensign Holden, and Lieutenant Carson, meet me in transporter room

1 in ten minutes. Ensign Holden, take with you memory storage unit to

download their logs."

T'Aiko grinned while saluting the first officer. This would truly be an

opportunity gain some knowledge and that suited the intelligence side of

her persona.

"In the meantime, Lieutenant, could you please make a short range sweep to

search for any booby trap around the ship?" Ihsaan said the Security

Officer before going toward the science console and gave a clearance to

Hunter "Ensign Hunter, you can use my... the science console, there is a

Starfleet database, check if you find anything about this ship. Her crew,

when she was seen for the last time, anything that could help us

understands what she was doing here."

"Lieutenant Carson come with two warriors, among them one damage control

specialist." Ihsaan told him before he left the Bridge.

As Carson left the Bridge, he looked at the Constitution-class refit on

the main screen. He had always wanted to step aboard one of those great

ships. As the doors slid shut, he ran to his quarters to gear up.

The weapons on the wall beckoned to Daniel as he entered his quarters.

Reaching for the modified S.P.D. blaster, Daniel used his other hand to

flip the log record switch. "Operations Officer's Personal Log, Second

Season in the Year Of Kahless 1512-Federation Stardate 59423.2. I am so

excited. After a month of routine patrol, the Ty'Gokor's sensors detected

a century-old Constitution-class refit heavy cruiser. I am getting ready

to head to Transporter 1 to join an away team to explore her. End entry,

Lieutenant Daniel Carson, Operations Officer, IKS Ty'Gokor."

With his gear in hand, Daniel headed to the transporter.

After giving the last instructions, Ihsaan opened a channel with Sickbay.

"Ihsaan to Doctor Pallara."

=^=Pallara here, sir. How can I help you?=^=

"We are going on an away team to investigate an Old Federation vessel.

Meet us in transporter room 1 and I'll give you more details. Ihsaan out".

This was an opportunity to share some time with his good friend and Ihsaan

didn't want to miss it.

T'Aiko was making some final adjustments to her handheld scanner. She was

already armed with her disruptor pistol and several bladed weapons. She

was eager to find the Federation vessel's armory to examine some vintage

phasers. She dutifully followed Ihsaan when he left the bridge and headed

towards the transporter room.

A first scan revealed not evidence of any trap waiting for them. Ihsaan

trusted T'Aiko's ability to read the results and interpret them properly.

If she said that they were clear, he knew she meant it.

Michael arrived at the transporter room speedily. He was carrying a small

portable first-aid kit. Actually he was pretty excited to get away from

the ship for a while, and do something else than waiting for patients.

Klingons did not seek medical help often if there had not been a battle.

Holden wandered in, distracted. He had been working on some project or

another down in engineering, and seemed o still have his mind on it.

Klingon scanning equipment wasn't the best, and he happened to have an

interesting piece of Starfleet hardware which he'd "borrowed" from the

Magellan several years earlier. Other than the tricorder, all of his tools

were strictly Klingon make. The Human medical officer caught his eye for a

moment. Holden had no preconceptions of the human, but hoped he was

honorable. An acknowledging smile hopefully made Peace.

Michael was surprised at the smile of the fellow Klingon. Not something

most Klingons did when they first met somebody. He however returned the

smile.

Carson entered the transporter room. He looked at Commander Ihsaan.

"Commander Ihsaan, sorry I haven't had the chance to say it, but

congratulations on making first officer. That prick Commander Guiher

didn't stand a chance," Carson said.

"Thank you very much Lieutenant. You may learn that when you have the

Truth in your side, you can be an implacable warrior." Ihsaan said as his

role made him say. But deep inside he wanted to express his regret he had

to use the violence to stop the Commander making harmful choices. The

wound was still there and a month wasn't enough to help him heal it. Sure,

the talks with Pallara had made him feel that things weren't very

different from before. But Ihsaan life was imperceptibly changing. He had

to behave like a Commander otherwise the crew would never respect him. And

not only a Commander, but he had to be a good one. He didn't want to send

any crewmates to Sto-Vo-Kor to keep his seat on the Bridge. A look at

Pallara reminded him that he could be himself when he was with the Doctor.

They met when he was a First Class warrior and things could change between

them. He liked to leave his rank at the doorstep of Main Sickbay. But

right now he needed to be a Commander leading an away team.

Everyone was there and Ihsaan informed them about their assignments. They

would start with the Bridge and try to get all the information about the

ship. Only Feral, Tufok and Poilar would be directly be beamed over

engineering to assess the possibility of turning the Warp Core back online

and secure the area. Ihsaan had chosen them since they had been one of the

most eager warriors during the last boring month. They did well at his

Mok'bara class and needed reward. "Keep you senses opened and don't

over-react." He told them privately. Holden might give them a help if

needed but Ihsaan wanted him on the Bridge.

After the short an informal briefing the essential had been said but

suggestions were welcome: "Any suggestions before we transport?" Ihsaan

asked to the warriors.

Carson unzipped his utility pouch and pulled out a Federation-style PADD,

which he programmed to emit a beeping when new data was received.

"Commander, I received a data transfer from Ensign Hunter. The ship is the

USS Eldridge, Constitution Class Refit, NCC-1982, lost near the old

Federation-Klingon Neutral Zone a century ago," he said, reading the

report.

"Good, anything else in the report?" asked Ihsaan. This was interesting

information but not enough.

It seemed that this was all what they had: "Well, I guess, we will have to

get to the source directly to know more about her." Ihsaan said with a

shrug.

"Indeed," T'Aiko replied with some of her Vulcanness coming out, "I'm sure

the security codes are out of date. We should be able to download the

entire ship's database. There should be something of interest," she

chuckled, "Unless her crew was lazy."

"In that case let's proceed." Ihsaan said stepping on the tranporter.

"Chief... energize!"

*****************************************************************

"Echoes of Death"

Commander Ihsaan, First Officer

Lieutenant T'Aiko, Security & Intell Officer

Lieutenant Carson, OPS officer

Ensign Holden, Engineering Officer

Warrior Pallara, Medical Officer

NPC:

Warrior Kahgar, warrior

Warrior Poilar, Engineer and damage control specialist

*****************************************************************

Neutral Zone – USS Eldridge, Main Bridge

Six pattern of energy appeared on the dead Bridge of the USS Eldridge. It

didn't take long to recompose every molecule of the away team. A second

later, six humanoid forms were stepping on a Bridge that didn't see a

living person for about a century. Life support was at minimum but enough

to make the air breathable. Breathable but not agreeable. It stunk. There

was a smell of Death all around and the smell was strong enough to go

through the breather. Ihsaan lit his palm light and spotted around: the

source of the smell was obviously coming from the corps of the crew. They

were all at their stations as if death had caught them by surprise.

~Even with the sterilized air of a starship, you cannot avoid

micro-organism working to decompose the body.~ Ihsaan commented. "I

suggest we keep our breathers as long as we don't know what caused the

death of the crew." He said glancing at the Doctor. "Doc, is it safe to

remove our breathers?" Ihsaan asked to Pallara who start scanning the

area.

"Sir," Daniel said to Ihsaan, "do you want me to begin to access the

ship's records? Try to find out what caused the crew's deaths?"

"Very well lieutenant. Please proceed." Ihsaan responded.

Carson nodded, then moved over to the Engineering console. "I worked on

the crew that refitted the Enterprise-A at the Starfleet Museum during my

fourth year at the Academy, so I know my way around a Constitution refit.

I'll get this thing back online quicker than you can say..." Carson then

said in Klingon, "All hail Kahless!"

At the mentioning of Kahless, the Klingons on the away team turned to look

at Carson. "It's a figure of speech in Federation standard, which I

adapted for present company," Carson said.

As Carson turned back to his work, Ihsaan turned back to the other members

of the away team to issue additional orders but he was cut by the voice of

Warrior Poilar. =^=Commander, we are in Engineering, everyone is dead

here, as if the Death came without a warning. Is the air contaminated?=^=

Ihsaan turned to Pallara to see whether he had finished his scans.

"The air is stale, yet it's not toxic anymore. We should be safe." Michael

said a little later.

=^=Understood=^= The warrior responded. =^=I need more hands to put the

engine back online. I will also need some starter energy from our ship.=^=

Ihsaan thought for a moment: "Alright, call a team with what you need. And

call Ensign Hunter, he might be useful." He paused without closing the

channel "Ensign Holden, I think you might be needed down there, but first

I would like to know if you can do anything from the Bridge."

"I will take a look at the controls. But I believe I may need to be in

engineering to learn much of anything m'lord." Holden responded.

=^=Tufik and Feral have secured the Engineering, we call the team. Poilar

out.=^= Ended the warrior.

T'Aiko was at the helm console attempting to call up the records of where

the ship had been and where it was heading when the tragedy happened. "If

only I'd studied Federation Standard more closely." she muttered to

herself. She was having a hard time with the language barrier but was

loathe admitting it.

Suddenly the lights went on. It revealed the horror at once. What just

spots of lights had shown partly was now completely visible. Ihsaan felt a

cold in his neck as If the soul of the restless dead had passed through

his body. ~Poilar may have found some energy to re-route to the Bridge~

Ihsaan thought in an attempt to forget the macabre scene.

"I am heading over to locate sickbay. Anybody care to join me?" Michael

called out.

"As a matter of fact I do" Ihsaan said with a smile. "Everyone, you know

what we have to do: find out what happened, and assess how long it would

take to turn her online." He paused: "Lieutenant T'Aiko if you don't

mind... Carson, you have the Bridge" He said on a joking tone to ease the

atmosphere.

T'Aiko didn't even hear what was going on in the background. She was

busily deciphering the console to gain information on the apparent 'ghost'

ship.

"Warrior Kahgar you are with us." Ihsaan said leaving the Bridge with the

Pallara.

Ihsaan heard Holden talking to himself as usual: "Jorik...You'd be as

disturbed as I am right now, my brother." He made a mental note to talk

with him about his 'conversation with his brother'.

"lead the way, oh noble leader." Michael joked when they had stepped

aside. "The ship really gives me the creeps." Ihsaan smiled to the his

friend's joke.

*******************************

"Telltale"

Lt T'Aiko, House of Hov'vaj

Security/Intel Officer

==Eldridge's Bridge==

T'Aiko used her powers of concentration giving herself a crash course

on Federation Standard. She'd made many mental notes to start studying

it more since it seemed they were to have more dealings with the

Federation dogs.

Well, it wasn't that she thought they were 'all' dogs ... just the

ones that thought Starfleet should be the galaxy's police force.

She was bent over the communications console at the back of the bridge

right behind and slightly to port of the captain's command chair. She

worked diligently using her Vulcan attributes gained from her father's

heritage to logically deduce her way into the log files of the ship.

T'Aiko let out a yelp of glee after about an hour. Victory was hers!

The list of files that contained the Eldridge's record of battle ...

rather the Starfleet version of it scrolled down the screen. "If I'm

reading this correctly ... it's by date ... earliest first."

T'Aiko tentatively choose a file and hit the display button.

"Captain's log, stardate 9007.6 ..." A clean-shaven human male

appeared and began speaking. He really wasn't saying anything that

interesting. He was simply talking about how he'd gained command of

the vessel through a promotion and some other news.

"Bah," T'Aiko cut him off. She continued scrolling down the list until

she reached the last log entry. She held her finger over the 'play' a

moment. She hoped the last file would give a clue as to what happened.

The crew seemed valiant enough ... too bad the captain wasn't more ...

warrior like.

Then she decided to back up to the third last one hoping to gain the

full story as it were.

T'Aiko tapped the button gingerly... "Captain's personal log stardate

9102.2. It has been now one year since we made peace with the

aggressive Klingon Empire. Yet I am not convinced it is a good idea.

We should have bitten hard when the dog was weakened by his own

hubris. The explosion of the Praxis moon was a benediction and we let

the chance gone."

"It has also been one year since the team has worked on the Project.

Chief Science Officer Gallary is a good scientist, and I am sure

History will remember him as one of the builder of Peace in the

Galaxy. The real Peace will be achieved when the Klingon Empire will

be destroyed. This species is nothing but barbarians with warp capable

ship. A plague to the Galaxy. It is our duty to make sure they would

never recover."

T'Aiko scowled deeply as she let recording play on

"Captain's personal log stardate 9135.9. We have received the samples

of Klingon; they were alive put in stasis. I have never seen one of

them so close and so vulnerable. I am sure that we will have to pay a

price for it. Our 'partners' in this operation are not the best

bedfellows, but I think we have a common goal. Besides, Romulans are

more civilized and with them a Peace is not just a dream."

T'Aiko let a low growl emanate from her throat.

"I didn't want to know how they got them. And they didn't propose to

tell us. It is strange that they are ready to give us a cloaking

device, but maybe they don't want to do the last part themselves. I

don't like the idea of having their delegation on board though. But it

is part of the price. This cloaking device is vital to the success of

this mission. We need to strike the heart of Empire"

"Captain's personal log stardate 9159.7. The delegation of Romulans is

on board. It has been a while since I hadn't sent a report to

Starfleet Command. Being Admiral offers certain privileges. Among them

selecting a crew that I know they would never question my choices. I

am not sure about the whole crew, but among the 271, three quarters

share my beliefs, and I know they would follow me until the end. Most

of all, all senior officers and department assistant has serious

reasons to back me.

The Project is now in its final stage. The virus is almost ready. The

team is still working on the DNA composition. We must assure that only

Klingons will be affected."

The recording ended and the screen went blank.

T'Aiko angrily drove her fist into the console.

She yanked her communicator off her belt. While flipping it on she

struggled to calm herself, "T'Aiko to Captain Korleth, come in!" She

had to inform her commanding officer of her findings.

____________________________________________________________________

*****************************************************************

"The Awakening I: Sickbay"

Commander Ihsaan, First Officer

Warrior Pallara, Medical Officer

NPC:

Warrior Kahgar, warrior

*****************************************************************

Neutral Zone – USS Eldridge, Corridor for the Turbolift

Dark corridors with few dead bodies and a very weak lightening. Ihsaan

spotted on a panel. He opened it easily and found some hundred year old

emergency kit. He took a small type I hand phaser. "I thought I never saw

another again in my life." He said showing it to Pallara. "Those small

hand phasers can stay in your pocket without any problem. Yet if you are

trapped somewhere it cut through duranium."

"Make sure you put the safety on, and check it first. I don't want to

clean up the mess if something goes wrong." Michael commented casually.

~The Doctor has spoken~ Ihsaan commented with a smile. "At least they have

a stun setting." He said putting the phaser in on of his pocket after

checking it was still working. "I am glad we can still have some moments

for our debates and talks. I thought the duties would not allow me to

continue our interesting lunch." Ihsaan said as they walked. Everything

was welcome to ease the atmosphere.

"Indeed. The last week or so you have only been working, and that is very

bad for your blood pressure." The Doctor wiggled a finger. "You need to

build in more time to relax with your friends. That will keep you on your

toes."

They arrived in front of the Turbolift. The doors didn't open. "I see, no

power of course." He looked at Michael: "Well either we try the Jefferies

Tubes, or we ask to the Ty'Gokor to beam us directly to Sickbay"

"let's live dangerously and beam. Should save some time."

*********************************************

Neutral Zone – USS Eldridge, Main Sickbay

The three energy pattern shinned fraction of second in the dark Sickbay,

but none of the transported warriors could see it. When their ocular

nerves had been reconnected to their brain the transport was completed.

The ray of light from the palm revealed the same vision of horror. A crew

suddenly taken out by Death. Corpses were in a bad shape even there. ~The

body is full of bacteria and micro organism. Nothing can stop

decomposition. Apart cryo, of course.~ Ihsaan thought.

A man with a blue shirt and what used to be the Commander rank collar was

on his Desk grabbing something, in his hand. "Science or Medical Officer"

Ihsaan thought aloud. Focusing on him and therefore ignoring the nurses

and other bodies.

Michael whistled softly. "Whatever happened, it hit them pretty fast. It

looks like a literary dropped dead at what they were doing."

Ihsaan got close rand tried to pick the device. The fingers broke up

easily and the crack sounded coldly in Ihsaan spinal bone. "Looks like a

recording device. There is no energy left though."

The Doctor had winced slightly at the sound, of course not within his

superiors field of vision. "Let's ask our people if they can do something.

We need energy here if we are to find out what happened."

"Ihsaan to Engineering, could you re-route some power to Sickbay. Enough

for lights and to get the logs." Ihsaan asked.

=^=Aye, M'Lord. I will try.....=^=

"Thank you, Ihsaan out". The Commander said. "Well, we have few more

minutes to appreciate the landscape with our palm lights." Ihsaan said on

a joking tone as he swept the Sickbay and inspected it. The movement of

the lights made the shadows dance on the walls. The macabre ballet would

continue for a while until they could get normal lightening. It wasn't a

comfortable situation, even for a Klingon or a Half Klingon.

It gave Michael the creeps, he didn't speak out of course. Dodgily he

began to explore surroundings searching for clues to this drama.

"Warrior Kahgar, there might be a backup system, Sickbays always have one.

Let's search for it." Kahgar nodded but there was no way for the other to

know it. Ihsaan smiled and spoke up: "Michael, do you remember the stories

our parents used to tell us about restless souls who missed the Balck

Fleet?" Ihsaan asked as the shadow of Warrior Kahgar sized twice on the

wall when he spotted him to check whether he got the message

"Remember?" Michael rolled his eyes. "It used to terrifying me as a child.

My full-blooded mother was very good at them. And I know it is a very un

Klingon thing to admit, but I am not comfortable here. This place has bad

vibes."

"Indeed, all these dead shell, and I wonder where the souls are..." Ishaan

continued.

Lights flickered on at Holden spoke again. =^=There you are.=^= "Thank

you" Ihsaan responded as he closed the channel. At last they have lights,

at low power, but that was better than the palm light. Even if it wasn't

the first time, watching the scene was still a bit surprising and

disturbing. Those bodies had been sleeping for a century. Nobody to take

care of them. Only the silence of space to listen to the last shout they

might have spoken before Death took them. Ihsaan felt sad for them.

Whoever they were, whatever they had done, they didn't deserve to die in

such way. Away from home, without any hope of rest. And now the Klingon

were disturbing their restless sleep. The lights on, Ihsaan wondered

whether they would actually start to wake up, stand and return to their

duty.

"My Lord, I think I found something." Kahgar said. Ihsaan went over the

body of a female nurse to reach the warrior. He saw the panel Kahgar had

found. "Good job! This is the backup system, but it should be online."

said Ihsaan. He regretted saying that when he saw the mark of a disruptor

shot. He scanned the mechanism and his tricoder displayed the results: an

ODN relay had been cut with a disruptor shot. Looks like a sabotage.

"Ihsaan to Ty'Gokor's engineers, can you beam up one guy to fix a

Starfleet ODN relay."

=^=Warrior Dolar, here, I send you someone.=^=

"With the backup system online, we will have access to the computer

memory." Ishaan said to Pallara.

"Good. May be we can get some get some better light as well than." Michael

muttered.

Not long after an energy pattern announced the arrival of the Engineer.

"Warrior Gemek, reporting for duty My Lord" said the Warrior. "The panel

for back-up energy system is right there. The ODN relay is fused, it seems

that it was a disruptor blast. Scan it before proceeding to the repair. I

want to check whether it was a Starfleet phaser or a Klingon disruptor."

instructed Ihsaan. The warrior nodded and began his work.

"What did you biological scan reveal?" Ihsaan asked to Michael.

"Some spores of toxins. Nothing I am familiar with." The Doctor was now

really interested.

"Maybe a toxin released in the air killed them all. But to do that people

must had access to sensitive part of the ship." Ihsaan speculated.

"Yes. And so far we have not found parts of a struggle. Maybe a spy? I

wonder if he got away."

Ihsaan nodded. He paused, disturbed by something he couldn't determine:

"Well, I served on a Starfleet ship long time ago. Almost during the same

period, about two or three decades after actually. But it was a Science

Vessel, pure exploration. So security protocols weren't that prudent. But

there is something different with this ship. I know Constitution class,

were bigger than Orbeth, but this Sickbay doesn't looks like a normal

sickbay." Now that they had lights Ihsaan noticed how large it was. "It's

larger and yet medical care instruments are not overwhelming."

"You are right. I have done my cadet cruise on a Starfleet vessel and it

was a little different from this one. This might very well have been a

research vessel."

Ihsaan nodded: "Humm..., it looks like they have joint the Science Lab and

the Sickbay."

"Very interesting." Michael was not really listening anymore, he was

studying.

The end of Michael's sentence was underlined by the beeps and other sounds

triggered by the whole system turning online. "Done, My Lord" said the

warrior "I analyzed the residuals. It was faint but enough for the

scanner. It was definitely a disruptor, but not a Klingon energy

signature. Even those we used at that time. The signature is Romulan!" The

word sounded like a thunder! "Thank you warrior, you may go to Engineering

help the other. The sooner we start the warp core the better it will be."

The warrior nodded and exited from Sickbay. ~Doors mechanism is online.

Good news~ Ihsaan thought. He turned to Pallara and spoke up: "We

definitely need to access to their memory bank. Romulan on a Starfleet

ship. Something very bad happened a century ago and we need to know it."

"Yes I agree." He was still studying the bodies. "Can you get in?"

"I am trying." Ishaan said pushing the buttons of the console. It was an

old an primitive ship. Still using lights and manual button. "Computer,

access last record of the Chief Medical Officer"

<> Processing <> said a mechanical male voice.

"CMO personal logs, the Romulan... betrayed us. The whole ship is dying,

Sickbay filters won't hold. Virus is safe. They... will never get it. If

you want it... Humans will understand: 'ashes to ashes'. If you're a real

Starfleet Officer, you will continue what we couldn't... The gaz..."

<> End of Records <> said the mechanical male voice.

Michael whistled. "A Romulan. Those treacherous bastards." He thought for

a second. "Hold on, that means the virus is still onboard somewhere. We

have to warn the others."

Ihsaan considered the message for awhile. "But what did he mean by 'ashes

to ashes'. It must be a human reference... we are not going to take every

piece of the ship to find it. Let's think about it a second." Ihsaan

paused: "It must be easy, at that time Human and Klingon didn't know each

other very well, so maybe the CMO didn't take a complicated reference.

Maybe something every human should know."

"I know they refer to it in the funeral rites. It has something to do with

their religion also so I think. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust." Michael

mused thinking back of all the time he had spent on earth.

"Exactly!" Ihsaan said "There might be a kind of morgue, around. Let's try

to find it." He added.

"Shouldn't be that difficult. Usually it's not too far from sickbay. In

case doctors want to do an autopsy." He punched up some schematics in the

computer. "There it is, just down the hallway. Are you coming?"

"Of course! Let's go." They it wasn't very hard to find the way even if

the corridors were still lowly lightened. In this atmosphere every

cracking sound, every movement of shadows was a test to the nerves. The

antique ship had emerged from the past with her secrets and her drama. Why

now? How could it be undetected for so long. Ihsaan didn't have a precise

stellar cartography in mind, but maybe the Stixx Nebula located half light

year away had kept her in her mantle most of the time. That would explain

the bad shape of the external hull and the ellipse of the ship. Her orbit

could be explained by the Nebula. Ihsaan tried to compute how long it

would take, using the figures they had. ~It might be half way from her

revolution. It could take two centuries to make full ellipse around the

Nebula.~ His thoughts were cut by the whoosh of the doors revealing the

morgue. ~Here we are~ Ihsaan commented

The morgue was quite large and Ihsaan couldn't remember seeing such big

place for a simple morgue in the ships he visited. It was a huge room and

it seemed connected to Sickbay since the backup system restored energy

there too. "When I was on the USS Aurora, someone died, and they made a

ceremony. They sent his shell in space... In a torpedo. They didn't keep

the body very long.

Michael started to look around. "This is bigger than a normal morgue. It

looks more like a science laboratory. What the hell where the humans

doing?"

Ihsaan shrugged: "According to the records they were preparing a virus."

He paused "with the help of the Romulan. No wonder they developed such

equipments" He started inspecting the place with Pallara.

After a lot of moments and prodding from his superior to move on, Michael

did so. He then found some storage next to the lab. Big dark spaces,

almost big enough to call it a room. Suddenly he held his breath.

The Ship had still few horrors in store for her unexpected visitors. The

lights revealed the memories of a fight lost by the two dead bodies long

time ago. The holes on their chest were the obvious causes of their death.

A precise disruptor's shot. Something that their breather couldn't stop.

But this wasn't the most intriguing fact. The USS Eldridge had a more

terrifying mystery to reveal: Klingon bodies.

"There are Klingon bodies in here. There were no Klingons serving with

Starfleet in those days were there?" Pallara exclaimed.

Pallara was right. The ship was lost a bit after the Klingon and

Federation peace treaty, but still, it was too early for exchange program.

Ihsaan had to wait quite some time before visiting Earth. The virus, the

Romulan, the Klingon bodies, not to mention the historical context, all

those elements were the pieces of a dark puzzle. And Ihsaan had the

feeling that the Klingon Empire was the target. There was no way to know

what happen aboard this ship before getting to the logs. But the logs

would only one side of the story. There were eleven bodies. All dead! "The

stasis was interrupted by the failure of the backup system. And looking at

there expression they died slowly after their awakening. They died slowly

tied up like Targs. We have to do something for their souls or they would

never enjoy Sto-Vo-Kor." Ihsaan looked at Pallara and added: "We should

contact the other, see if they have gathered some information."

When he finished the lights flashed and a terrifying sound came from

outside room. It was as if a century year old howl had finally found his

way. Ihsaan glanced at the bodies wondering if it was one of the warrior's

soul condemned to haunt the ship. A cold air entered. A powerful smell. A

smell full of death and sorrow. A hundred year-old blow coming from the

air ventilation. After a while the disgusting smell disappeared and the

temperature got back to normal. Ihsaan who stood speechless staring at

Pallara found comfort realizing that he wasn't the only one petrified this

manifestation of Death. But he really felt better when they both

understood that the Engineers must have got enough power to restart the

environment control.

Ihsaan was amused by his own fears: "They must have found a way to get

life support to the optimal. But the conduits were not very clean." He

said on the joking tone.

Michael was trembling, yet he did not want to admit it. "Yes indeed." He

managed to say casually. "Very sloppy." He grinned weakly.

"Michael, until we are completely sure, those bodies have to remain under

quarantine. We don't know whether they have been infected, plus how

contagious this virus is." Ihsaan instructed.

"You just beat me to it. And even worse, I think we have to stay in

quarantine as well, just to be on the safe side. I need medical and

sciences to work on this, and if a year out exactly what these people were

making." Now he was deadly serious.

If the virus had been released with the activation of the air circulation

the whole ship would be contaminated in a matter of minutes. "Understood,

please investigate the bodies and the records of the doctors. I go and

check the Bridge." Ihsaan proposed. He left the Sickbay and opened a

channel with the Ty'Gokor to report the situation. Now no Klingon or human

would transfer from one ship to another. Fortunately no Klingon had

returned after visiting the Eldridge. With his awakening the ship had

released a terrible threat.

____________________________________________________________________

"New Developments"

Captain Korleth, Commanding Officer

Lieutenant B'Rel, Tactical Officer

********************

"Captain, the first salvage team has beamed over to their cargo bay"

B'rel reported as Korleth returned from his ready room having just

reported the find to high command.

Korleht was in the ready room sipping a mug of bloodwine as he went

over reports that were coming in from various parts of the empire.

Aside from the discovery of a old Federation Heavy Cruiser, his life

was dull at the moment and his blood thundered for some action.

Although the salvage of a derelict would be good on the ship's record,

it netted little honor. Sighing at this thought, Korleth punched the

comm button to reply to the bridge. "What's the haul so far?" he

asked briskly.

"Ensign Jo'meg reports the ships stores are intact for the most part;

there are weapons, rations, engineering equipment, this is definitely

a mighty find." B'rel replied.

"Indeed. Continue to supervise the transfer of material. I'll

contact High Com-" his words were intrrupted by the shrill of the Red

Alert Klaxon. He was on his feet and on the bridge in moments.

"Report!" he bellowed.

Suddenly they were interrupted by the ships warning systems. B'rel

looked up at Korelth. "Long range scans report a Federation starship

heading towards us"

"On screen!" Korleth commanded. The viewer shifted from the view of

the old Constitution Class ship to one of a newer Akira Class

Battlecruiser. The captain smiled with glee as he sat in his command

chair. "Standby weapons and shields." he commanded. "Do not raise

them unless I so direct. Let us see what our Federation neighbors

want."

"Captain, they are hailing us" B'rel announced, with so many of the

senior staff onboard the USS Eldridge, B'rel had rerouted several of

the stations to his console.

Korleth stood again and crossed his arms in front of him. "Let's have

it." he said.

On the viewscreen appeared a human male Starfleet officer, perhaps in

his mid thirties. "Captain Korleth I presume" The man said, he stood

proudly and confidently at the centre of his bridge seemingly unaware

that the IKS Ty'Gokor posed a serious threat to his ship. "This is

Commander Etienne Davout-Martine of the USS Fortuna"

As the man introduced himself, B'rel immediately opened up the files

they had on Starfleet officers and began searching for this young

officer's profile. While To'pek at the science console began analysing

all the information they had on the Akira class vessel.

"Commander Davout, your reputation preceeds you." Korleth said. "What

brings you into Klingon Space this fine day?" he asked, deep down

already knowing the answer. His eyes darted about the Federation

Starship's bridge while he spoke to the Fortuna Commander. The bridge

crew was a bit more active than normal.

Etienne had to restrain himself from correcting the Klingon, knowing

Korleth had purposely left out the Martine and stated his wifes name

to set him off balance. "Klingon Space?" He said with a suprised look

on his face. "Don't you mean Federation Space, Captain?"

B'rel frowned at the human's arrogance, before displaying his profile

on the left hand side of the viewscreen so Korelth could see. The

officer had previously commanded the Defiant class, USS Normandie,

destroyed in battle against superior forces, he had numerous victories

under his name; he was a hunter not an explorer.

"Is now really the time to discuss borders?" Korleth asked with a

slight sneer. This human was itching for a fight, why else would he

cross the border into Klingon Space. A quick glance at a monitor on

the helmsman station confirmed that they were in the right place and

that the Fortuna was not. "We are all, after all, brothers in arms...

or so I am told."

"Indeed we are" Etienne replied, signalling his helmsmen to check the

charts with a slight nod.

"How about we cut to the chase then, as you humans say." Korleth said.

"My crew is involved in a salvage operation and time is critial, so

don't waste mine Commander. What do you want?" he asked, at the same

time he turned slightly to B'rel and gave him a nod to tell him to be

ready to throw the shields up in a hurry. He hoped that he had

contacted the away team while all of this was going on as well.

Etienne raised an eyebrow. "That my dear Captain Korleth is a

Federation vessel which you are salvaging. As we are allies and this

ship is apprently on youre side of the border, we would ask you to

assist us in tractoring it back to Starbase Thirty Four to be examined

properly."

"Under the articles of 'Your' interstellar law," Korleth put much

emphesis on the 'your' in his sentence with much distaste in his

mouth. "this ship now belongs to the Klingon Empire."

"Captain there are things on that ship which you do not want to take

home with you or we can allow you too" Etienne said firmly, although

he himself did not know what exactly was on that ship, he had been ordered

from Starfleet Command to bring back that ship at any cost. "I'm sure

we could come to some agreement over salvage rights later"

"Why?" Korleth asked innocently. "Why is Starfleet all of a sudden

intrested in one lowly Constitution Class Cruiser? There wouldn't be

anything on here that you wouldn't want us to see, would there?"

Korleth said slyly, watching Etienne's reaction on the viewscreen.

"We shall discuss this soon enough, Captain. Until then good day"

Etienne replied before his image cut away from the screen.

B'rel looked up at Korleth. "Captain they are beaming personnel onto

the Eldridge." He looked down at his console once again. "They are

beaming onto alternate decks to our own teams"

"Notify the salvage teams and let them know to engage on site!"

Korleth rumbled. He pointed sharply at B'rel. "FIRE TORPEDOES!

We'll get in a few good shots while their shields are down!" He

shouted. This made his heart sing. Battle! With a Federation

Cruiser that actually had the gall to initiate hostilities no less!

This is what Klingons lived for. "Go to Red Alert and raise shields!

Fire as your weapons bear B'rel! We will show this honorless petaQ

that we in the Empire defend ALL that is ours!"

B'rel grinned, somehow he had a feeling the Federation Captain was

saying the exact same thing on his bridge to his tactical officer.

Torpedoes lanced out toward the USS Fortuna...

___________________________________________________________________

"We've Got Company"

Lt T'Aiko

==Eldridge's Bridge==

"You've got company." Korleth's image on the main viewer said. "We're

engaging them now."

Sensors already had indicated multiple beam ins.

T'Aiko had most of the bridge's functions figured out by now and even

managed to route them all to one console for ease of use. It wan't

easy considering the age of the technology. She'd been downloading

logs and other information back to the Ty'Gokor until the short, but

telling message from her Captain came through.

"Yes Mi'Lord, we'll prepare for battle." T'Aiko answered.

The screen went blank after Korleth nodded and put his attention to

more pressing matters. Now the company that Korleth spoke of showed on

the screen; another Federation ship ... a modern one. T'Aiko grinned.

Next she turned and barked out some orders to the warriors with her.

"Cover all exits! Let no one through! As long as we control the bridge

we control the ship!"

T'Aiko drew her disruptor and bounded up to the main engineering

station. Her shipmates in the engine room had managed to get the main

reactors started. The Eldridge had some 'real' power now.

"I'm going to try and power up their weapons!" she said.

"Shields would be better M'Lady. Preventing them from beaming any more aboard."

T'Aiko turned to face the warrior with a sneer. Before berating by

calling him a coward, she realized he was right. The logical side of

her Vulcan/Klingon heritage agreed.

"Agreed," she replied grudgingly. "I just hope we have enough power for that."

TBC...

___________________________________________________________________

*************************************************************************

"The Awakening II: The Threat"

Commander Ihsaan, House of M'Vagh

First Officer

Lt T'Aiko, House of Hov'vaj

Security/Intel Officer

Ensign Holden

Engineer Officer

NPC:

Warrior Jarram, Communication officer

Warrior Soulas, Damage control specialist

Warrior Hamad, Xenobiologist

Warrior Kerred, Nurse

*************************************************************************

==Eldridge's Bridge==

T'Aiko used her powers of concentration giving herself a crash course on

Federation Standard. She'd made many mental notes to start studying it

more since it seemed they were to have more dealings with the Federation

dogs.

Well, it wasn't that she thought they were 'all' dogs ... just the ones

that thought Starfleet should be the galaxy's police force.

She was bent over the communications console at the back of the bridge

right behind and slightly to port of the captain's command chair. She

worked diligently using her Vulcan attributes gained from her father's

heritage to logically deduce her way into the log files of the ship.

T'Aiko let out a yelp of glee after about an hour. Victory was hers!

The list of files that contained the Eldridge's record of battle ...

rather the Starfleet version of it scrolled down the screen. "If I'm

reading this correctly ... it's by date ... earliest first."

T'Aiko tentatively choose a file and hit the display button.

"Captain's log, stardate 9007.6 ..." A clean-shaven human male appeared

and began speaking. He really wasn't saying anything that interesting. He

was simply talking about how he'd gained command of the vessel through a

promotion and some other news.

"Bah," T'Aiko cut him off. She continued scrolling down the list until she

reached the last log entry. She held her finger over the 'play' a moment.

She hoped the last file would give a clue as to what happened. The crew

seemed valiant enough ... too bad the captain wasn't more ... warrior

like.

Then she decided to back up to the third last one hoping to gain the full

story as it were.

T'Aiko tapped the button gingerly... "Captain's personal log stardate

9102.2. It has been now one year since we made peace with the aggressive

Klingon Empire. Yet I am not convinced it is a good idea. We should have

bitten hard when the dog was weakened by his own hubris. The explosion of

the Praxis moon was a benediction and we let the chance gone."

"It has also been one year since the team has worked on the Project. Chief

Science Officer Gallary is a good scientist, and I am sure History will

remember him as one of the builder of Peace in the Galaxy. The real Peace

will be achieved when the Klingon Empire will be destroyed. This species

is nothing but barbarians with warp capable ship. A plague to the Galaxy.

It is our duty to make sure they would never recover."

T'Aiko scowled deeply as she let recording play on

"Captain's personal log stardate 9135.9. We have received the samples of

Klingon; they were alive put in stasis. I have never seen one of them so

close and so vulnerable. I am sure that we will have to pay a price for

it. Our 'partners' in this operation are not the best bedfellows, but I

think we have a common goal. Besides, Romulans are more civilized and with

them a Peace is not just a dream."

T'Aiko let a low growl emanate from her throat.

"I didn't want to know how they got them. And they didn't propose to tell

us. It is strange that they are ready to give us a cloaking device, but

maybe they don't want to do the last part themselves. I don't like the

idea of having their delegation on board though. But it is part of the

price. This cloaking device is vital to the success of this mission. We

need to strike the heart of Empire"

"Captain's personal log stardate 9159.7. The delegation of Romulans is on

board. It has been a while since I hadn't sent a report to Starfleet

Command. Being Admiral offers certain privileges. Among them selecting a

crew that I know they would never question my choices. I am not sure about

the whole crew, but among the 271, three quarters share my beliefs, and I

know they would follow me until the end. Most of all, all senior officers

and department assistant has serious reasons to back me.

The Project is now in its final stage. The virus is almost ready. The team

is still working on the DNA composition. We must assure that only Klingons

will be affected."

The recording ended and the screen went blank.

T'Aiko angrily drove her fist into the console.

She yanked her communicator off her belt. While flipping it on she

struggled to calm herself, "T'Aiko to Captain Korleth, come in!" She had

to inform her commanding officer of her findings.

********************************

More power was available. This conclusion was obvious since Ihsaan could

use the turbolift to reach the Bridge. ~They are doing a good job down

there in Engineering~ noted Ihsaan. As he entered he saw Lt T'Aiko and Lt

Carson busy on their console. The Bridge seemed more alive than before.

Warrior Kerrad and Warrior Hamad had gathered the bodies together after

scanning the DNA in order to prepare a report for Starfleet. The lights on

the panel were flashing and Ihsaan recognized the sounds of twenty third

century ships, something that disappeared about five decades ago. He

really wondered how those primitive panels could be accurate to run a ship

like this one. The screen definition was low, the button mechanical. Well,

that was the genius of human kind. In spite of the low level material,

brilliant minds like Admiral Kirk had shaped the face of the Galaxy.

This increase of activity on the Bridge was comforting. Ihsaan looked at

the crew that turned their attention toward him: they must have heard his

announcement of putting the ship on quarantine until Pallara found out

about the virus.

"As you know, we have to stay onboard because of the risk of infection."

Ihsaan stated looking at the officers

Holden stepped onto the bridge just as that had been asked. "Very Good

M'Lord. We will have power to most main systems very soon. A decent vessel

for its age."

Ihsaan listened to the records, T'Aiko had decrypted and his worry grew as

the terrible plan was revealed so coldly. He listened and feared the

worst. An invisible enemy, still undetected by the scanners even,

Starfleet tricoders. He looked at the Crew and announced. "We will remain

here until we are sure we don't pose a threat to our crewmate. Something

happened on this Ship. For sure, from what is said here and what I found

with Pallara in the lab, these humans were working on a virus directed

against the Klingon. Romulan were involved. Maybe the Romulan turned the

virus into a threat also working against the Human. It would fit with

their way of acting."

It seemed that awakening this vessel threw a curse on them. This antic of

the past, she came from a time were Klingon and Human couldn't trust each

other brought with her the old conflict. The air was spoiled, and even the

normal lightning couldn't erase the dark mantle covering them. Death and

treason were deeply incrusted between the atoms of the Hull. One could

smell it. And all those bodies. The faster the medical crew could finish

the DNA scans the faster they could beam them away toward the nearest

Star. 'Dust to dust'. It wouldn't be much elaborated. There weren't enough

torpedoes for all of them. 'Dust to dust'. A dark suspicion crossed Ihsaan

mind. The Doctor said the virus was hidden. And they easily had found the

eleven bodies. What if the virus was still somewhere on ship? 'Dust to

dust' Ihsaan remembered the Ceremony and the torpedo modified to welcome

the dead shell of the human.

"I have something to check" He suddenly stated. "I think I know where we

can find the virus." Then he left the bridge with a warrior. Adjust your

scanner to search for Klingon biosigns. We are going to the armory."

____________________________________________________________________

"Waiting Game"

Captain Korleth, Commanding Officer

Lieutenant B'Rel, Tactical Officer

********************

B'rel grinned, somehow he had a feeling the Federation Captain was

saying the exact same thing on his bridge to his tactical officer.

Torpedoes lanced out toward the USS Fortuna and caught the Akira Class

Starship amidships. Explosions rippled long the starship's sleek form

as warheads impacted the hull, penetrating into the vital systems

within. Korleth called it all right: The Fortuna was so preoccupied

with beaming boarding parties over to the derelict that they figured

that the Ty'Gokor wouldn't shoot while their shields were down.

They figured wrong, and now they were paying the price for it. The

Federation Captain might call it a dishonorable attack, but in

Korleth's eyes he was just as dishonorable for beaming personnel over

to the Eldridge in an attempt to jump Korleth's crew. For once, the

Federation initated hostilities. For that, Korleth was more than

willing to blow them straight to the human hell that they believed in.

Korleth saw that their torpedoes did much damage. But from what he

remembered of the Akira Class, they didn't get much in the way of

vital systems. Mainly their Sickbay, Research Labs, Lounges, Crew

Quarters and maybe a few Transporter Rooms. Either way, they had

their shields up now and Etienne would not make the mistake again of

underestimating them. Korleth grinned as he saw his foe turn on the

viewscreen. "Helm! Course 2-3-2 Mark 5! Full Impulse! Tactical!

Fire at Will!" he ordered.

B'rel managed to fire the mark ten disruptors and get off two

torpedoes before the Federation ship moved out of the forward arc,

forcing him to rely on secondary type eight disruptors, which did

little damage to the Federation ships shielding. B'rel could feel the

ship shake under him as the Federation ship returned fire with a

burst from their eight forward firing torpedo banks.

"Captain, aft shields down! Medium level damage, decks eight to

eleven!" A warrior announced.

"Captain, rear torpedo launchers out of action" B'rel added as he

pressed the fire button repeatly only to receive no feedback.

"Helm, take an escape vector, make it look like we're being driven

off. Tactical, raise the cloak then coordinate with the helm to line

up a crippling shot when they drop their shields again." Korleth

said. "Get damage control teams to those decks immidately!" he said

as he watched the tactical display. He was a gambling man now,

gambling that the Federtaion Dog would play it cool and cease his fire

and then turn his attention to his new, apparant, prize.

Once again, the Fortuna did not fail to deliver. Once the Ty'Gokor

cloaked and moved off a bit, the Fortuna came around to turn its

attention to the Eldridge. Korleth smiled. "Set up a subspace

dampening field and scramble their communications." he said slyly.

"We do not need word of the Empire's newest technology leaking out

once we begin firing again." he said.

"Captain, they are sending out fighters..." B'rel said with a look of

suprise, as two squadrons of Peregrine's appeared out of the fore

section of the Fortuna and moved to form a pickett line around the two

larger vessels.

Kor'mech a younger warrior perhaps sixteen or seven years old, looked

up from the science console. "Its a tachyon detection grid" He

informed them, but Korleth and B'rel already knew, it was a common

Federation tactic.

"Bah!" Korleth said, waiving a hand up in the air in disgust. "If

these Federation petaQ think we're stupid enough to fly through that,

then this battle is already won!" he said.

B'rel nodded.

"Lay low for the oppertune time. Soon they'll get nervous about their

crew getting slaughtered on the derelict and they'll be compelled to

lower their shields to beam reinforcements over. When they do that,

we strike." he said, tightening his hand into a fist almost as if he

had the human captain's heart in it."

"We find a ship full of dead humans and our warriors." B'rel stated.

"Now a Federation cruiser turns up to drive us off. Why now? Why

haven't they removed that ship before?"

"Because there is something over there that the Federation does not

want us to see..." Korleth said grimly

B'rel began to wonder. "It probably is to our advantage to lay low,

Ishaan might find something on that ship, considering the mysterious

way in which all those humans died, I doubt the humans will want to

stay on that ship for too long"

"True." Korleth agreeded. "But they dare not lower their shields lest

we pounce."

____________________________________________________________________

"Fighting Chance"

Lt. T'Aiko

Security/Intel Officer

IKS Ty'Gokor

==Eldridge's Bridge==

T'Aiko and her shipmates watched the brief exchange of fire between

the Fortuna and Ty'Gokor. Frowning when their own ship cloaked and

retreated, T'Aiko tried continued to try and power up the ancient

ship's weapons array.

It was no good. The old power couplings couldn't take it and overloads

blew all over the ship. Essentially, all the great work the Klingon

engineers did was wasted. The only thing that managed to stay powered

up were the impulse engines and the internal sensors.

After taking a quick glance at the sensor board, T'Aiko began the

computer lock-out sequence. Next she went back to the engineering

console on the port side of the circular bridge and shut down the

turbo-lifts. 'That should at least slow them down,' she thought.

The main viewer showed the Akira class Starfleet ship moving into

position. "Carson," she called, "Evasive maneuvers! They won't take us

without a fight!" Now T'Aiko was attempting to raise the shields. If

they could be raised even at minimal power it would accomplish two

things; no more beam-ins and no getting caught by the Fortuna's

tractor beam.

The Eldridge's shields flickered to life. T'Aiko smiled a toothy grin.

Now if they could figure out a way to reroute power to at least one

phaser bank they could distract the Starfleeters and give the Ty'Gokor

a chance to blind side them.

T'Aiko tried to call engineering. There was no answer. That left two

possibilities; they could not answer or they were unable to answer.

____________________________________________________________________

**********************************************************************

"Dancing with the Fire II"

Commander Etienne Davout-Martine, Captain of the USS Fortuna

Commander Ihsaan, First Officer

Ensign Holden, Engineering officer

Warrior First Class Michael Pallara, Chief Medical Officer

**********************************************************************

==Eldridge's Sickbay and nearby==

Etienne slowly walked down the corridor with his hands held high above his

head. Unbeknown to Captain Korleth and the crew of the IKS Ty'Gokor, they

had just fought the battle against Commander David Hunter, Etienne's first

officer. The Starfleet Captain had beamed over to the Eldridge right after

cutting communications with the Klingons.

"Commander Ishaan" He called out down the corridor with a certain amount

of confidence that the Klingon's would not shot an unarmed man. "I believe

we have something to discuss."

The doors where open but the force field active. "Indeed" Ihsaan answered

yet staying inside the sickbay. "Come over, we cannot leave sickbay, since

we don't want to contaminate the rest of the ship."

Ihsaan gave a look to Pallara. "If you have finished extracting a sample

from the body and secured it, would you please join us?" He asked to the

Doctor. "And please keep this force field" He added to the Engineer.

"Just one second." Michael said. He would not be rushed in finishing this

delicate work.

The Starfleet officer was standing on the other side of the force field.

Unarmed. Ihsaan felt the experience and the authority emanating from the

human, a feeling confirmed by the pips on the collar. He was a Commander.

There was no hostility in his eyes or in his tone. Yet, few minutes before

they were shooting at themselves. They just had the time to start with

formalities when Michael joined them.

A minute later Doctor Pallara joined his superior officer at the door.

"Done." Michael said. "You want me to take over the negotiations now?"

Ihsaan nodded and spoke up: "Doctor Pallara! Could you tell to Commander

Davoust what you have found on the dead Klingon."

"Certainly, my Lord." Michael said. "Evidently you nice ethical Starfleet

people were playing around with a virus to kill Klingons. Would you care

to explain that, Commander." Michael said nonchalantly.

Etienne sighed, he was a Federation Captain and these people were his

allies up until an hour ago. He decided to lay down all his cards before

this escalated even more. "Two days ago, I recieved a dispatch from

Starfleet Command. Informing me that a Klingon ship was nearing the

Eldridge and that I had to prevent you and my own crew from boarding this

ship as this virus had the potential to wipe out both our peoples"

"Wrong Commander. Whipe out the Klingon species. I have found no evidence

yet that it is harmful to humans." Michael corrected him.

"Unfortunately I arrived much to late and you were already on board. From

what limited information we had. After neogations failed with youre

Captain, my teams and I were beamed down to beat you to the virus...

fortunately this move was mistaken as an attack and... well you know what

happened." Etienne informed them.

"Of course we see it as an attack." The Doctor laughed softly. "And you

don't seriously think we will hand it over to you. I think it is much

safer in Klingon hands."

Ihsaan nodded to this statement. "I guess you have been informed on a

'need to know basis' Commander. Otherwise you wouldn't pretend that the

virus was deadly for human." Ihsaan added with a smile.

Michael watched the human, he was curious to see how the man would react

to this accusation.

Etienne ignored the Klingon's accusation.

A slight fluctuation in the force field attracted Ihsaan's attention. He

gave a look at Holden to get information about what just happened. He also

hoped that the containement was more a formal safety procedure than a real

need for the rest of the crew. But this only Pallara could tell.

"It's like I' im dealing with Ferengi merchants haggling over this damn

ship... you can have the ship, if you cure this virus" Etienne said. He

guessed that the Ferengi part might upset them somewhat, but at least it

would get the point across that there were more important things at state

as to claiming rights, besides the fact that everything on the ship was

obsolete and the information in the databanks was eighty years out of

date.

Michael chuckled. His human blood had given him a sense of humour. "Why

don't you humans go back to your ship then? That way I can work in peace,

and don't have to be nervous about you Starfleet types." He couldn't care

less about the ship, just the virus.

'I know Klingon bird of Prey Captain's." Etienne replied. "The second we

lower our shields to beam back, the Ty'Gokor will decloak and attack"

"Not if he gives his word." Michael said. Ihsaan nodded. Captain Korleth

was an honorable Klingon. His word would be stronger than any treaty.

Etienne frowned. "I would hail them, but your side is jamming communications"

"I am sure that can be stopped." He looked at his Commander. "Can you take

care of that, my Lord?"

"Indeed" Ihsaan answered. He opened a link with the Bridge and informed

Lieutenant T'Aiko about the negotiations. He asked her to get the

confirmation from Captain Korleth to guaranty safe passage to the

Starfleet officers. Looking at the Starfleet officer he said:" We just

have to wait the confirmation from Captain Korleth. Well, Commander,

before you leave us, I would like to know if you have anything that might

help us find a cure. There was no sign of anti-virus in the database."

"It indeed would be helpful if I could talk to some of your medical

people." Michael said. He still had not told the human that he had been

educated on earth.

Etienne pondered on it for a few seconds. Before one of his officers

stepped up from behind and joined him, whispering something into his ear.

Etienne nodded. "The Ensign here has something to tell you" He said.

"There should be a small primative shaped black box somewhere, there maybe

several... they are called biocomputers, we used them before padd

technology." The young medical officer informed them.

"I see." Michael said. In fact he had seen some in the Naval Museum in

San Francisco. Yet he did not know how they worked.

"There should be a bunch of red disks nearby, they hold the information...

you need to slot the disk into the entry in the biocomputer... oh and

there's an on and off button too..." He added.

"Thank you very much. That should help a great deal. Now if all you

gentlemen will excuse me, I need to get back to work." With that he

turned back to his workstation.

It was too easy to be real. First Starfleet shoot at them, tried to erase

clues, and now they were helping them. Well, they were supposed to be

allies after all. A good thing they didn't have to fight in the middle of

a biohazard situation. Tension had dropped. Pallara could return to his

analysis. "Thank you Michael" Ihsaan said still looking at the Commander.

"Well, I think Warrior Bektel can escort you to the transporter room, if

nothing more can be said." This wouldn't be the last time they would talk,

but right now they had a virus to neutralize.

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