Episode 28
Prologue
Days had passed since the battle in the
Plexion Nebula, and the Dark Star was well on its way to Zephyrus
IV. Prior to the battle, Lucas Tompkins
was extremely curious about the reason for their mission and its secrecy. He had his ideas about what the mission
might be, most of them pointing to something extralegal, and as it turned out,
his suspicions were dead on.
He was still more than a little foggy about what
exactly the Ka’Tulans did at Zephyrus IV, but one thing was clear: it was
defiantly something that the Federation would want to know about. But as he sat in the cramped aft compartment
of the Dark Star, also realized what would happen if the Federation
found out.
There would be grave consequences for the
Ka’Tulans. Because something to this
extent had never happened before, Tompkins wasn’t sure what those
consequences would be, but he feared they would be dire. Expulsion from the Federation, perhaps.
Whatever these consequences proved to be, it would inevitably
trickle down into daily life. Captain
Christopher, being a Ka’Tulan, would probably be removed from command, which
would mean another new commanding officer for the Starlight. Two Captains in two years was generally not
something that went over to well with a crew, and considering Commander
Harrison would probably get the position, things would be that much worse.
Tompkins sighed, and slowly turned his head to Erin Keller, who
was seated on the floor beside him.
“What do we do?” he asked. He
knew the topic was on her mind, as well.
For her part, Keller seemed strangely indecisive. She shrugged, and then considered the
proposition for a moment before composing an answer. “I know the right thing to do as a Starfleet officer is to
tell the Federation,” she said softly.
“But considering what might happen to Alan’s people, I’m no so sure if
it’s worth it. Besides, who knows what
the Federation would do with Omega?”
Now it was Tompkins turn to shrug. “I don’t know enough about Omega to judge,” he said. “But I think we owe it to the Captain to
keep this to ourselves.”
Keller readily nodded.
“He’s trusted us this far. It
wouldn’t be very becoming of us to turn on him now. We’d be just as bad as Harrison.”
“Besides,” Tompkins added, “the Federation has lasted this long
without knowing about Zephyrus IV. It
won’t kill them to go a while longer.”
This conversation was having exactly the effect Tompkins had
anticipated. It was letting his mind
know that his gut instinct was absolutely right in its feelings. Keeping this secret from the Federation was
in everyone’s best interests… he hoped.
He would have been a little more enthusiastic about it if Keller had
been.
“Is something bothering you?” he asked.
She compressed her lips and looked up at him with her wide brown
eyes. “Sort of,” she said
enigmatically.
It was exactly the answer he had been expecting. An answer so carefully crafted, it failed to
answer the question. Tompkins grunted. “As in?”
Keller tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear. “This… this… situation changes
things.”
Again, Keller managed to produce a totally cryptic response. Tompkins had come to expect such answers
from women, but not from Erin Keller.
Because of this, he wasn’t sure if he wanted to press her for more
information. But then again, he had
nothing else to do. “Yeah, it changes a
lot,” he agreed, hoping that would get the ball rolling with a bit more
direction.
Keller nodded. “You have
romantic feelings for Alan, too?” she asked sheepishly.
Tompkins blinked. “No!”
he said, readily defending his position.
“Not at all. I was thinking in a
more… universal sense. How this will
change our perception of Ka’Tula Prime.”
“Good,” said Keller. “I
don’t want you thinking the other way.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that… Whatever makes you happy, I
guess. I’m just glad it’s not the
Captain.”
“It isn’t,” Tompkins repeated, just to make sure he was
clear. But beyond that, he wasn’t sure
what to say. He hadn’t expected the
conversation to turn in this particular direction, and wasn’t prepared to
discuss romance. But something else
readily popped into mind, “I guess this is why Kendall was so pissed at you
two.”
Keller frowned. “I hadn’t
noticed.”
“Well, had you not been drooling over the Captain, you would have
noticed he turned into Commander Harrison’s lap dog. You crushed him, Erin.”
She suddenly cupped her hands over her mouth as the realization
sunk in. “He’s such a sweet person,”
she said softly. “And I knew he loved me.
I knew he would wait on me hand and foot and do anything to make me
happy, but I’m not looking for a slave, Lucas.
And that’s what he’d be. I want…
a counterpart.”
“Kendall is no counterpart,” agreed Tompkins. “At least not for you.”
“Maybe I should talk to him again, when we get back. I don’t want him to get confused again.”
Tompkins gave Keller a pat on the shoulder. “I wouldn’t worry about it too much for the
moment. Let’s get ourselves through this
first,” he said, referring to the situation at hand.
Suddenly, the doors leading to the cockpit slid apart, revealing
the lanky figure of Navek in the doorway.
“Just thought you’d like to know: we’ve reached Zephyrus IV.”
Their journey was practically over. Tompkins, a bit excited, quickly rose from the floor, offering
his hand to Keller. She grabbed it, and
pulled herself to her feet, and then followed Tompkins through the doors to the
cockpit.
At first, Tompkins saw nothing but stars and a dense jungle world
out the forward windows. He simply
assumed that outpost was located somewhere on the surface of the planet. But then, as the Dark Star drew closer, a
few of the stars began to ripple, gradually coalescing into a massive orbital
facility, the likes of which Tompkins had never seen. It was absolutely huge.
At the heart of the starbase was a massive black spire that
encompassed at least two hundred decks.
It was littered with thousands of windows, hundreds of docking ports,
and a plethora of antennae jutting out from all angles. Connected to the spire at the center, via a
series of pylons, was a massive ring, consisting of at least another forty
decks. The entire unit slowly rotated
about on its axis, eventually revealing a glowing red power core at the bottom of
the base.
From the helm, Captain Christopher looked back at his two
officers. He grinned. “You two should feel extremely honored to be
the first humans to ever visit the Zephyrus IV outpost.”
“And survive,” Tallera groaned under her breath a moment later. It was a detail that Tompkins could have
lived without. Still, he hoped it was
true. Survival was always a pleasant
outcome of any mission.
A moment later, Tompkins spotted a flash of pink light about a
third of the way from the top of the spire.
It lingered for a moment before lashing out at the Dark Star,
tossing the tiny ship about for a brief moment. At first, Tompkins thought they were under attack, but when he
saw the hazy pink beam persist through the cockpit windows—not destroying
them—he realized they had been captured in a tractor beam.
And when the ship jerked in the direction of the base, he knew
they were being pulled inside…
The battle in the Plexion Nebula had not gone as Commander
Harrison had anticipated. In fact, the
exact opposite had occurred. When he
received word from Captain Towner that the Explorer would be rendering
aide, Harrison assumed that it would be to the Starlight. True to his word, Towner did help defend
against the Gorn attack, but when push came to shove, Towner ultimately backed
Captain Christopher.
Naturally, as it seemed to be a recurring theme, Harrison could
get no information on Towner’s reasons for his actions. The Captain of the Explorer simply
changed sides in the heat of battle, just like that. To make matters worse, Harrison found that
he was unable to get any information on the whereabouts of Captain
Christopher. Starfleet claimed to have
no knowledge about the Captain’s mission, and the Explorer refused to
answer any hails. Perhaps,
Harrison thought, the entire Federation had gone mad.
Still, Harrison was vigilant in his efforts to track down the
Captain, hailing Starfleet Command every six hours, demanding answers. But again, in his latest communication, the
Commander’s efforts were setback yet again.
“We have been ordered to the Bajoran Sector,” he said
unenthusiastically, crossing the bridge to the command chair, where he took a
seat. “Once there, we are to oversee
the transportation of several industrial replicators to Cardassia.”
“Busywork,” Trinn grumbled from the engineering station.
Harrison nodded.
“Exactly,” he grumbled. “My
efforts to uncover the Captain’s plan were apparently making too much
progress.”
Now, he had two choices.
One, he could comply with Starfleet’s orders and go to the Bajoran
Sector, or two, he could refuse, and continue looking for the Dark Star. At first, the choice seemed like an easy
one. Harrison wanted to find some
answers, and he was fairly certain he wouldn’t find any on Bajor. But before he could give the order to the
contrary, Kendall Johnson spoke up.
“Sir,” he said. “Might I
point out, there is a Gorn delegation visiting Deep Space Nine this
week.”
Immediately, Harrison’s interest piqued. Perhaps the mission to Bajor wouldn’t be so terrible after
all. “If we were to have a fortuitous
encounter with the Gorn Commander, then perhaps we could finally begin to shed
some light on this mystery…”
“That’s assuming the Gorn will talk to us,” Johnson replied. “We did destroy one of their heavy
cruisers.”
“The Gorn don’t know that,” pointed out Trinn. “All they know is that two Federation
starships engaged and destroyed one of their vessels.”
Harrison nodded his agreement.
“I find it highly unlikely the Gorn will recall the individuals involved
in the encounter… It is a risk worth
taking.” He turned his attention to the
helm. “Ensign Drayge, set a course for Deep
Space Nine, transwarp speed!”