You can always trust an Admiral, right?

An Admiral's Trust

Written By

The Crew of the USS Fang  

Rear Admiral Paul Drew, Cmdr. Anna Shipley, Cmdr. Leah Lamont, Cmdr. Graeme Janeway, Cmdr. Ragin Cajun,  Lt. Cmdr. Nikki Archer, Lt. jg. Illiana, Cmdr. Trylophis, Lt. jg. Kai'Laria

Special Guest: Captain KezTrek

“Welcome back” Anna greeted Drew with a warm smile as he walked out of the docking port the Captain returned the smile “Thank you Number One”. The pair began walking along the corridor, heading for the nearest turbo lift “So what did the Admiral want?” Anna inquired as they settled into a steady pace, Drew had spent the past few hours in a meeting with Admiral van Hoek “We have new orders” Drew told his First Officer “A few weeks ago the Grissom was sent to the Gamma Erandi nebula” Anna thought for a moment “The Grissom… isn’t that out looking for a suitable location to build a stable wormhole”, it was a well known fact that the Trill Dr. Lenara Kahn was still studying the possibilities of creating a stable wormhole, she had had a few success’s over the years, most notably 18 years ago in the Bajor sector, in recent years the Doctor had taken to studying nebulas, believing they may be able to support such a device. Drew nodded his head at Anna’s question, the First Officer tried to remember what could about the nebula “Didn’t the Enterprise - D map that one?” again Drew nodded his head, before continuing to fill Anna in on their mission specs.

“The Grissom was due to report in two weeks ago” Drew told his senior staff who had gathered in the briefing room “I take it they never did” Leah chirped in “That’s correct, Command has not been able to raise the ship on any known frequencies” Drew answered her with a nod of his head “So they are sending us off to go searching?” Ragin asked, again Drew confirmed his Staff’s answer, the Fang’s new science officer Trylophis spoke up next “With all due respect the Fang does not have the scientific equipment required for searching the nebula” “That’s why ten minutes ago new sensor equipment was beamed onboard the ship” Drew told him “Chief, you have a week to get the equipment installed, Dr. Trylophis you are to help him” “Well that’s all very well” Ragin told him “But where do you expect the things to go?”

Now came the bit Drew knew would raise a protest “Your to convert one of our weapon rooms into a new science lab” “Sir” Graeme spoke up as both the Captain and his First Officer suspected “I must protest” Drew cut him off “I understand your concerns Commander, but we need the room, and Command do not think it likely we will be requiring all of our present weaponry, everything will be returned to normal once we complete the mission” Graeme appeared satisfied with the answer “Leah you are to begin analysing the last logs that were received from the Gission, after Graeme has finished helping Ragin clear the weapon room he will be assisting you” confident that everything had been covered Drew dismissed his staff, bar Anna.

Leaving the briefing room they walked into Drew’s ready room that was adjoining “We also have to rendezvous with the Hanson, and transport Captain KezTrek back to her ship” Drew said taking his seat “While Kez is here, she may as well take the helm, Nikki is not due back yet” Anna commented taking the seat opposite the desk “Agreed” Drew replied “Graeme did not seem too happy about losing one of his weapon rooms” Drew commented “He’ll get over it” Anna told him “Besides he is too busy working on those new weapon and defence systems, before he knows it he will have the equipment back, plus he is starting up that new special unit”.

Drew nodded his head he agreement “Have you had a chance yet to speak with our new Counsellor?” he asked “Only a few pleasantries, she seems to keep herself to herself” “That’s strange for a Counsellor” Drew remarked “True, but not for a Cardassian” Anna said with a dry smile “Indeed” Drew thought for a moment “Tell her to report to my ready room when she has the time”. Anna roused from her chair “Will do”.

“Oh and Anna” Drew called out as his First Officer left “Better pay a visit to Kai in sickbay and tell her to get ready for casualties, not telling what state the Grisson crew will be in” he caught the women’s grin at the chance to visit sickbay, although she had been First Officer for a while now she still had a love for her old home of years. “Consider it done,” she said with a smile.

Drew watched her leave the ready room, and then he wheeled his chair round to face the observation port, staring out at the vastness of space “Computer open a channel to Starbase 25 Alpha” “That is a classified fatuity, please give command codes” the soft tone of the computer replied “Authorisation Drew Alpha Two Mars”. Turning his attention back onto his computer he smiled “Long time no see old friend”…

"Hello Admiral, its good to see you" Captain KezTrek appered on the screen, Drew noted the changes in his friend since he had spoken to her last. Her hair was longer, and if he didn't know better he'd almost say she had a certain spark in her eye that wasn't there before.

"I hear you've been conned into taking me back to the Hanson" Kez said, smiling, almost smirking infact. "Well I wouldn't say conned, but essentailly yes" Drew responded with a smile of his own.

"We are ready to recieve you anytime you are ready to come over" Drew said turning to the matter at hand, the quicker they got underway the quicker they'd know what happened to the Grisson.

"I'll be with you soon, I just have one more matter to take care of, I should be over within the hour" Kez replied, her eyebrow quirking as she heard a noise from the side of her.

"Kez" Drew asked, his own expression showing it as a question. "Nothing Sir, just a friend, I'll be over as soon as I can" she said before reaching over to the link, "Captain KezTrek Out" she said before closing it.

Drew sat a moment longer wondering, what was going on with Kez, before he turned back to his work, he'd no doubt find out soon enough if she saw the need to tell him.

++90mins later++

"Sir, Captain KezTrek is requesting transport" the transporter chief reported as Drew entered the transporter room, "Go ahead Lt" Drew ordered, waiting for his friend to materialize on the platform.

As the form appered, both officers seemed to be sixing each other up, catching hold of the ground they had lost since they had last seen each other, Kez had a fleeting thought of hugging Drew, but dismissed it before it was fully formed, it was niether appropriate, or really particularly something she was prone to doing, no need to get him too worried about her mental health, she had a feeling he already knew something was going on.

"I'll show you to your quarters, and have your things brought to you" Drew said, as he lead KezTrek out of the transporter room.

Kez was looking around her as they walked, falling easily into step with Drew, her eyes scaning every bulk head, she had walk this ship stem to stern many times, she was even able to recognise the replaced bulkheads.

"Been a while" Drew said, noticing his friends behavior, "Yes, Nikki has kept me upto date on all the goings on around here, but it still seems strange to be back" Kez answered. Drew looked at her, "Nikki?" he questioned. "Oh of course, I don't suppose you would know, with the different names, Nikki is Daniels Neice, his older brothers daughter" Kez told him, "Strange, she never mentioned it" Drew said. "I don't suppose so, Daniel and her father haven't spoken in years, he forbid her to have contact with him after her mother died" Kez told him, and Drew just nodded, not really understanding, but knowing well enough to know it was not his business.


"VIP Quaters, well this is new, since when am I a VIP?" Kez asked, Drew smiled, "Technically your not, but what Starfleet don't know won't hurt them, and its not like anyone else is using them" he told her. "Well I am honored" Kez replied a teasing tone in her voice. She had been worried that they would find it difficult to fall back into the old routine, but apprently not.

"I was thinking you could take the helm while you are her, if you like" Drew told her, "If I like, are you kidding me, of course I would like" Kez responded her face almost lighting up, "no place like home huh?" Drew asked her, Kez nodded in agreement.

"Would you like a drink" Kez asked as she headed for the replicator, "please, tea, white" he said, Kez placed his order and her own for Racktajino, before handing Drew his cup and sitting down.

"So how have you been" Drew asked eventully as his sipped his drink, "Very well actaully, the Hanson is a fine ship, not as fine I think just yet as the Fang, but its a good crew, I have great faith in them" Kez answered him, "thats good I meant more personally though, last we spoke you had ammneisa, and well something seems different about you" Drew said setting his cup down on the coffee table.

"I have been fine, the ammneisa was temporary, coutesy of Q, and well I guess I am different, more centered prehaps" Kez answered him, she had something else different, but she hadn't even told Daniel yet, she could hardly tell Drew. "Why do I get the feeling I am missing a peice of the puzzle" Drew asked smiling.

"I really shouldn't tell you" Kez said, but well quite frankly she did want to tell someone, and she wouldn't be able to talk to Daniel until later that night. "well that person who was with me earlier on was a doctor, it would appear I am to be a mother again" she told him, smiling, happy with her news, not that she had really thought about having another child, but now that it was to happen, she wasn't sorry about it.

"Congratulations" Drew said, "thats great news", Kez smiled, "indeed I think so, I just have to tell Daniel now" she told him, her voice leting him know that she believed that Daniel would be as happy as she was.

"Bridge to Admiral Drew" the voice of Anna Shipley came over the comm, "Drew here" he replied tapping his comm badge lightly, "Sorry to bother you sir, but can you come up here for a few minutes" Anna asked, he nodded to himself, "On my way" he told her standing, "looks like we'll have to talk later, I'll have Anna get you a copy of the duty roster, in the mean time, I'm sure you'd like to get reaquinted with the ship" Drew said, "Of course" KezTrek said watching him leaving, before moving over to the computer console, she might as well have a look through the mission logs of the past few months while she was settling in......

Even though she'd been on the ship for a short while, now, she still got lost on her first assignment. She was trying to get to the holodeck to try out a new holotherapy she'd read about. Illiana wandered around the deck aimlessly, until she bumped into someone.
"Oh, pardon me," she said startled.
"No matter, I just got off duty," Anna smiled warmly. "You seemed like your mind was in the stars."
"Yes, I suppose so," Illiana replied reservedly. Then she smiled a little bit. "I've always had my mind in the stars. I guess joining Starfleet was the only way to reunite my body with my mind, hehe" She winked, and made to go on her way, but Anna stopped her.
"Oh, by the way, the captain wants to see you whenever possible."
Illiana nodded, "Alright. Thanks a lot. I'll be seeing you around, I guess."

--Bridge--

"Captain, you wished to see me?"
Drew nodded and signaled towards his ready room.

Anna continued down the corrider after her encounter with the new counselor. As she walked into the turbolift she couldn't help but think how loose she'd gotten lately. It wasn't doing to much for her reputation.
At least now she had the chance to get to know the new counselor and the doctor a little better. She grinned as the turbolift landed on the sickbay's deck.

The commander stepped into the familiar and almost comfortable sickbay.
Rounding the corner to her, well to Kai's office she was suprised at the condition the doctor was in.

Kai was leaning over desk, head in hands.
Anna rushed over and lifted up the doctor's hair out of her eyes, tears were streaming down her face.

"Kai, what's wrong?" Anna insisted. She couldn't understand though through kai's sobs what she was trying to say. Leaning down on one knee Anna glanced at the computer screen.
It was a message from Mojave, Earth. Apparently someone named Mason had died there.

Anna switched into her "motherly voice" and lifted Kai's head up.
"Kai, who is mason?" Anna pleaded with her.
"He... was.. my fiance..." she managed to whisper.

Anna had never heard that Kai had had a fiance but then again, had been out of touch with reality the past couple of months. She put her arm around Kai's shoulder and lifted her up.

"Shipley to Counselor Illiana"
"Yes sir?"
"Sorry to interupt counselor I assume you're still with the admiral?"
"Yes commander. What can I do for you?"
"I need you to meet me at Kai'Laria's quarters as soon as you are finished there, and I need to speak with the admiral as well." Anna said.
"I'll be there as soon as I can commander... Illiana out"

Anna then led the shakey doctor out of sickbay and towards the turbolift.

Leading llliana into his ready room Drew indicated for her to take a seat, walking around the desk to take his own chair he spoke “How are you settling in?” the young woman nodded her head enthusiastically “I am slowly starting to find my way around, and the crewmembers I have met with seem pleasant”. “Good” Drew simply said nodding his head “Counsellor, I am sure you are aware there is another reason I called you here”, taking on a more serious tone Illiana answered his question “You have reservations about my species joining Starfleet” she said it in a matter of fact way as if she had dealt with topic daily, Drew supposed that she probably did “Frankly Admiral I can’t blame you, I reviewed all the crew’s bios before I came onboard” she lowered her voice even though no one else was in the room “I know about your past experiences with my people, and your feelings towards them”.

Before Drew could answer her, llliana’s comm badge chirped, Anna wanted her in regards to something to do with Kai, “We had better go and see what’s wrong Counsellor” Drew told llliana “We can discuss this later”.

The two walked out onto the bridge and entered the turbo lift “Permission to speak freely sir?” llliana requested when the life was riding down “Granted” “Your people have a saying don’t judge a book by its cover, don’t judge me based on my cover Admiral”, Drew gave her a dry smile “I will try to remember that”.

Finally the life stopped on the quarters deck, within minutes the pair had reached Kai’s quarters, when they entered they found what could only be described as a broken woman llliana quickly hurried beside Kai, while Drew spoke to Anna, “What’s happened?”

********* In Kai's Quarters *********

Anna stood up from her place on the couch and let Illiana take over with Kai. She'd let Kai get the story out to the counselor, hopefully she could help.

Standing beside Drew, Anna looked back shaking her head slightly at the sight of the sobbing woman.

"She lost her fiance sir. I read it on the computer in sickbay where I found her crying. There was an accident on Earth where he lived."

"Why did she never speak of him?" Drew asked

"I asked the same question. But right now I don't think we should put anything else on her... Admiral, I really think she needs to go back to Earth. More than anything right now she needs her family." Anna said with a pleading look, she couldn't bear seeing the doctor in so much pain.

The admiral hesitated for a moment but then looked at Kai and his appearance softend.
"Agreed No.1.... Counselor..."

Illiana walked over to the two of them.
"Counselor, We have decided the best thing for the doctor right now is to send her back to Earth for a while. Stay with her till she gets calmed down then report back to me."

"Yes sir." The couselor nodded.

Drew and Anna walked out heading for the bridge...

Meanwhile on the Bridge

"Computer log USS Grissom, Captain Entebe. We are starting up our 5th experiment at the 5th part of the gamma Erandi nebula, after 4 trys to create an artificial wormhole failed in early stages. Yet Dr. Kahn, the leading scientist is not willing to give up. She is confident that the perfect location is still out here somewhere in this nebula. Other than the failiure of the experiments we have not encountered any difficulties. We seem to be the only ship out here, federation or other. All systems are functional, nothing unusual to report. I am including Dr. Kahn's log, as she is better suited to inform starfleet of her progress. Entebe out."

Leah shook her head, no signs of any problems, nothing that gave even a small hint to what could have happened to the Grissom. This last log had been transmitted to Starfleet four days before the ship was reported missing. Sometime within those 4 days something unusual must have happened. Only what?

Hitting a few buttons Leah moved on to Dr. Kahn's log. Maybe her log would be able to make more sense of the current situation.

"Scientific Computer log, USS Grissom, Dr. Lenara Kahn." The screen showed the face of a woman with the characteristic brown spots of a Trill on both sides of her face. Leah knew her, well not personnally, but she had read some of the doctor's theories. Back at the academy she had done a close study of Dr. Kahn's work in the Bajor sector. Wormholes had always fascinated her, and the idea of creating a stable artificial wormhole would open so many new possibilities to the exploration of space. Leah was eager to meet Dr. Kahn herself, and therefore she dearly hoped they would succeed localizing the Grissom.

"The current sector of the nebula looks promising," Lenara continued. "But then again, that's what he have thought almost every time at the beginning. Who can say if it will really be different than all the previous times when we failed. We have finished the general analysis of the area and I'm confident once more. Within the next days we will set up first experiments, I can't wait. Unfortunately the instruments have to be calibrated so exactly that it takes several days to restart every time, thank god we have very skilled engineers with us. During the waiting time I am running through previous simulations, trying to discover errors or the key to why the previous experiments failed. But now we have found one very different feature that the other locations were missing, a high concentration of neutrinos. This is fairly unusual, and we have not been able to discover the exact origin of the neutrinos. They seem to be almost everywhere in this area, but we don't know where they come from. Neutrinos play an important part in the formation of wormholes. I hope very much we have finally found what we were looking for."

Leah was so concentrated studying the log she didn't even register that Graeme was standing next to her. She continued as if he wasn't there, leaving Graeme confused. He decided to try again, this time speaking a little louder.
"Commander Lamont," he said, ennounciating very clearly.
Leah started and turned over to him. "Mr. Janeway, don't scare me like that!"
"Umm sorry Commander. I did try to say hello nicely, but you didn't listen to me," he replied, not sure whether to be annoyed or amused.
"I'm sorry," Leah said. "These logs, they've taken up all of my attention. Am I right assuming you are here to help me?"
"Yes," Graeme replied. "We've finished moving the equipment and Ragin will have it installed much quicker without me standing in his way."
"I understand," Leah replied smiling. She knew how the chief reacted to non-engineers in these situations.
"You seemed quite absent, found anything important yet?" Graeme asked.
"No, unfortunately not. They were just about to start their experimenting at the nebula, apart from that they didn't have anything unusual to report. My guess is something went wrong when they started it, but of course it could have been anything else. Let's go through previous logs too, to get a better picture of the situation."
"Alright," Graeme nodded and started accessing the database with the logs.

Back with Drew and Anna

Walking out of Kai’s quarters Drew and Anna began discussing the tragic event in Kai’s life “I didn’t even know she was engaged” Drew was saying, Anna shook her head “Me neither, I guess she wanted to keep it quiet” Drew nodded his head in agreement as the turbo lift arrived “You had up to the bridge and check on Leah’s progress” he said to Anna “I will go and pay Ragin and Trylophis a visit, see how the installation of our new sensors is going” “Sounds good to me” Anna said instructing the lift to take her to the bridge.

Minutes later Drew walked into what was to become a new science lab, spotting Ragin bent over a console Drew approached him “How’s it going Chief?” he asked.

"Just a second drew"
said the chief and he walked around to the back of the console he was working on.
he looked at it, sized it up then took a few steps back.
drew was about to say something when the chief took a short run at the console and gave it a vicious kick.
on the readout something bleeped
"chief?" questioned drew
"if in doubt, hit it" old enginnering saying" said the chief
"is it working?" asked drew
"yup, gimme 20 minutes or so, and she'll be good to go"
"nice work chief" said drew.

the two let a moment of scilence form, then the chief spoke
"so for the first time, i'm not the only one with a problem with the Counselor"
drew smiled.
"she's... not what i expected"
"well to be honest,i never liked counselors, but the kid she seems ok. lets not have her lynched before we have a chance to get to know her"
drew nodded "your not the first person to say that... well ok, no-one ever put it like that, but essentially..."
hey don't get carried away, if she's really bad, we *can* lynch her... i know where we keep the rope on this ship"
the chief grinned
drew sighed and nodded.
if he didn't know the chief was joking he would have had him locked up seconds after taking command of the fang

drew turned to leave
"20 minutes, chief?"
"drew, have i ever lied to you... i mean about impotant stuff"
drew sighed again, and left the new science lab.

Back on the Bridge

Kez checked the time, Anna had just sent her the crew rotations, she had a about half an hour before she had to get to the bridge, but she decided to head out now, walk the long way, slowly.

Along the way she found herself once more taking note of the changes, small though they were, the odd replaced bulk head, a few new faces, but essentailly still the same ship she had known, except it wasn't her ship anymore, not that it was ever in the literal sence, but it was the first place she could really call a home, and that in some small way made it hers.

Coming to the turbolift she checked the time on the screen, 10 mintues, she might as well go a few mintues early.

Arriving on the bridge KezTrek took in the place, she saw Leah and Graeme working, and decided she may as well say hello, "Hello Captain" Graeme said as she approched, Kez paused, "Please, Kez, having you guys call me Captain would just be too strange" she insisted, gald when they just smiled and nodded.

"So, whats going on?" Kez asked and Leah set about telling her about Doctior Kahns work, and the Grissons mission.....

Confident with Ragin’s answer Drew headed back to the bridge, walking out into the busy command centre Drew caught eye busy at the operations station, obviously checking on Leah and Graeme’s progress. Just as Drew was about to take his seat Leah spoke “Captain, incoming message from Starfleet, its marked Captain’s eyes only” Drew thanked Leah and told her to patch the message through to his ready room. Leaving the bridge in the capable hands of Anna he made himself comfortable behind his desk. Pressing a control on his desk console Drew saw the message was from Starbase 25 Alpha, his friend was replying to his message (see my first post for reference). The computer again informed him that 25 Alpha was a classified factuality and asked for his command codes, finally the face of Drew’s old Academy friend Admiral Rick Edwards appeared on screen, “Paul” Edwards greeted “Your correct in your assessment my friend, I would advise you to stay out of our way” his voice turning darker “I would hate to see you and your ship burning in space” with that the message ended, the knot Drew had been carrying in his stomach started to get tighter.

Before he could send off a response to his friend KezTrek’s voice sounded over the comm “Admiral, we are approaching the nebula”, Drew pulled back his chair, his message would have to wait till later.

Walking on to the bridge Drew tapped his comm badge “Chief, your twenty minutes are up” “Ready and waiting” Ragin replied, confirming Drew’s question. “Very good” Drew said as he took his chair from Anna “Science Station begin scanning for the Grissom’s ion trail, I want to know if they were here, and where they went”.

30 minutes later Trylophis reported, “I have the ion trail, its faded which suggests they were here sometime in the past few weeks, from what I can tell they entered the nebula at the following coordinates” he transferred the coordinates to the helm and Drew’s station “Guess that’s where we are going” Drew replied “Helm take us in”.

The Prometheus Class ship flew at speed into the green clouds of the nebula.

Almost as soon as they entered the nebula the ship began to shake, though only slightly “Report” Drew ordered “Some kind of turbulence, attempting to compensate” KezTrek reported from the helm “Trylophis, are you still detecting the ion trail?” Drew asked trying to stay in his chair as the bridge shook “Hard to tell” the Scientist “I am getting a lot of sensor distortion” Drew merely nodded his head.

Suddenly the ship shook violently, throwing most of the officers to the deck “I thought you said it was just some turbulence” Drew said to KezTrek who was now retaking the helm “I did – its getting worse though”. Clinging onto the hand rail for support as the ship continued to shake Drew made his way to tactical “Graeme try and re-moderate the shields”. As Drew spoke a bright lighted filled the bridge as all the consoles began to glow with a bright white light, as Graeme’s fingers touched his console the white light travel to his body causing the young man to fall to the deck, as Drew reached out the light caught hold of him as well, going stiff Drew fail to deck.

As the white light began to fade Anna called out “No one touch your stations” casting a look down at Drew and Janeway Anna desperately wanted to treat them, but she had to remind herself she was a First Officer first now, Doctor second and right now she needed to protect her crew. “Helm get us out of here” she ordered as the white light faded. As quickly as the ship entered the nebula the ship exited it.

When normal space returned to the screen Anna raced down to the follow crewmembers feeling there necks she was relived to find they both had pluses “Medical teams to the bridge” she ordered, now knowing that her friends were alright Anna turned her attention to the bridge “What happened back there?” she asked, “I don’t know” Leah replied “I think I may have some idea” Trylophis replied “While scanning the nebula I detected high traces of protomatter” “Dear lord” Leah whispered under her breath, protomatter had been illegal ever since the failed geniuse project 100 years ago.

“Trylophis go over all your data, confirm that its protomatter, Leah you call up all the data we have on the stuff” Anna ordered taking the Captain’s chair. “Bridge to Engineering” Anna continued tapping her comm badge “Go ahead” Ragin replied “Damage report Chief” Anna told him “That white energy did minor damage to some systems but I should have repairs done shortly” Anna thought for a moment “Speaking of that white light, any ideas what it was?” “Not at the moment” Ragin told her “But I am working on it”.

Anna heard someone walk out onto the bridge turning around she seen it was llliana, the Counsellor took the empty chair to Anna’s left. Turning around Anna brought the counsellor up to speed.

Trylophis sighed. "No use... it seems this sensor quite dead. Commander Shipley, I'm afraid that I cannot repair this. I'm a molecular archaeologist, not an engineer. That means that I can't find out if there actually WAS any protomatter here - at least not with our main sensors. I could, perhaps, try and use some of my own scanners in the science labs, but these have only limited range, so I don't think they could be of much use here. Anything else I can do for you?"

Commander Shipley frowned for a short moment when she heard that main sensors were out. Ragin was busy at the moment and wouldn't have time to repair long range sensors, as they didn't belong to the most crucial systems. Yet it was important to find out what exactly had happened there.
"Cmdr. Lamont," Anna said. "Go take a look at the sensor array, see if you are able to fix it, or at least get back parts of it's power."
Leah nodded. "I'll see what I can do. Cmdr. Trylophis, why don't you take over the task of putting together a report about protomatter while I work on the sensor array. If they really used protomatter we have to find out how they intended to use it to create a wormhole. It might give us a clue to what happened to them."
The scientist acknowledged and Leah started to run a diagnosis on the sensors.
'Looks like that white light blocked several of the main currents of the array,' she thought. 'No use to try to fix it from up here, time to start crawling.'
"I'll have to go fix the problem at the main node of the sensor currents in jeffries tube 39d Commander," she told Anna.
"Ok," Anna said. "Inform me as soon as you are done. I will be in sickbay to check on the captain and Cmdr. Janeway. Counselor will you accompany me?"
"Of course," Illiana replied and the two women headed for sickbay while Leah opened the jeffries tube entry on the bridge, sighed, thought for a moment to use the excuse that she was operations officer and not an engineer, but then decided against it and started the long crawl.

Illiana and the commander walked briskly down the corridor near sickbay. Anna could tell this whole ordeal was beginning to shake her, but she didn't let on. Then again, she was walking with a counselor.

The two walked into sickbay. Since the regular doctor had been sent on leave to earth, Anna approached the temporary medical officer.

"Report Doctor."
Commander Camp looked up from his padd. " Well sir, I can't tell you much at the moment. I don't want to wake them until we're sure what really happend."

"What do you know so far?" Anna asked

"All I know, is if it was protomatter, that combined with a high electrical stream is going to create some serious problems with the two of them. Right now I have their body systems at almost normal except for their brain waves which are constantly fluctuating, but if I wake them and something reacts it could, in a sense, blow the wrong fuse."

"Alright commander." Anna eyed the two bodies on the biobeds, "Do what you need and inform me immediatly of anything you find out. I want to know everything." The doctor nodded and turned back to his computer.

Anna wanted more than anything to be in his position and care for the Admiral and Graeme herself as it had been before, but she turned along with Illiana and walked out of sickbay, she had other matters to attend to.

Illiana walked down the hall alone, lost in her own thoughts, still contemplating her new ship. 'Why do I feel so alone here? Other than the fact that you're the only Cardassian on the ship. And you don't have any good friends yet. And it's your first assignment. Goodness, I'm supposed to be the counsellor, and I'm even counselling myself, here. Well, at least I know I'm doing my job.' She went to her quarters to take a short rest, and made a note to herself to check on Ensign Kai when she returned to duty.

The dark jeffries tube was only lit by Leah's portable lamp and occational glows of currents that weren't isolated enough to keep in all the light. After a few minutes of toilsome crawling she finally reached the intersection she had been looking for, the main node of the sensor array. As practical as the invenion of the jeffries tubes had been for the starship design Leah still felt at times that there should have been a more comfortable way to reach the delicate parts of the ship's system.

At least the intersection gave her enough room to sit up, and after streching her legs a bit she opened the lid behind which the sensor array was located. Immediately the light source in the case lit up, illuminating the area around her, allowing her an optimal view into the many cables of the sensor array. At once Leah frowned, it did not take an engineer to see that the array couldn't possibly be working like that. Parts of the wires were melted, making a complete mess. The way that the collected data had to pass in order to get to the main computer core to be processed was blocked. Whatever the white light had been it had sure produced a major overload to the whole sensor system. With a sigh Leah grabbed her tool case and started to carefully remove the broken wires.

20 minutes later the situation already looked more like functioning starfleet technology and less like a failed 19th century experiment. With an almost tender gesture Leah thankfully tapped her phluxconverter that had helped her bypass the malfunctional relais.
"Computer, check the integrity of the sensor array," she ordered.
=^= Sensor array functioning at 90% =^= came the the reply of the computer voice.
"Not too bad," Leah said to herself. "Should be enough for now, and the chief can finish the remaining 10% later on..."
After closing the lid and packing her tools back into her case she started to crawl back towards the bridge.

With a satisfied smile on her face Leah got out of the jeffries tube and walked over to her station. Cmdr. Shipley wasn't on the bridge and Leah assumed she was still in sickbay. She decided to run a few basic tests on the sensor array to be sure that it was functioning properly before she started the scans on the nebula. They had to be 100% sure that the readings they got were correct. All tests were finished with a positive result and finally Leah thought she could no longer find an excuse not to scan the nebula. If the sensors now stated that there was protomatter then that was the case. She only hoped very much there wouldn't be...

"Cmdr. Trylophis," she called over the bridge towards the science station. "The sensors array is back up, we should be able to scan the nebula for protomatter now."
"Acknowledged," Trylophis replied. "Initialating scan..."
Leah observed the data that now came through the sensor array on her station, she involuntarily held her breath for a second until the final result was in.
=^= Scan complete =^= the computer stated. =^= Traces of protomatter found in sectors 23/24 of the gamma erandi nebula. =^=

"Commander Shipley to the bridge," Leah said over the intercom, and then turned over to Trylophis. "Have you been able to run a simulation as to how a wormhole could possibly be created using protomatter?"

"Enginering to the bridge" called out the chief as he tapped his comm badge

"yes chief" replied anna
"what damage was caused by the 'white light' has been repaired, though the parts that were damaged are beyond salvage"
"very good chief.. there will be a staff meeting in 15 minutes"
and the com went dead
Ragin was no scientist, but he's allready heard the murmers around the ship that proto-matter was involved in 'white light' incident.
the very idea of a protmatter weapon worried him, and also made him fear for the fang
there was no way he could think to modify the shields to repel that sort of weapon

-* 15 min later*-

the chief was last to arrive in the ready room, he sat down next to Illiana.
she looked at him and then reaced over and picekd something off the chiefs shoulder
the cheif flicnhed as the cardassian reached over, but grinned when he saw the counsiller holding a piece of wiring
"thanks...." the chief muttered, grinning sheepishly

anna sat at the head of the table
"scans have shown a traces of protomatter in the nebula, so we have a duty to investigate this further, hopefully it is a natural phomonon"

there was a small scilence before Ragin spoke
"its most likly not though.. right"
anna grimanced
"we can't be sure..." she began
"the idea of constructing a wormhole with protomatter isn't exactly novel, just illegal" commented the chief

anna sighed , sometimes the chief was more than most could handle

"after all, protomatter is just a sort of template for matter, manipulate it in the right way and you can have a planet, or a rock, or a wormhole.. or a really big gun"

"chief?" asked Kez
"well, a protomatter based weapon wasn't possible a hundred years ago, bar the gensis device being used on an allready inhabited world, but what if it were possible to fire beams of protomatter, the reaction with a modulating energy source like shields, would be.... explosive to say the least"

anna cut accross the chief "well before we start getting into lone gunmen and book depositories.. maybe we should be a bit more.. logical about this?"

anna turned to Trylophis

Kez intruputed before Trylophis had a chance to say anything, "Chief, wouldn't a protomatter weapon be just as likely to blow whoever it using it up, why would anyone take the risk? asuming for a second you could be right" she said.

"I don't know, your right, it would be just as dangerous to them, but if they had motive enough to use protomatter in the first place...." Ragin answered her.

He was right of course, if someone was stupid enough to use the stuff, they had to be pretty desperate.
"Well lets ignore that for now, until we know more, if we want to think about this logically we need to think what the most likely reasons for using protomatter would be, if it was something to do with the wormhole project, what would the most likely application be?" Kez asked again directing her question to Ragin.

"Its hard to say, there are a number of possible applications" Ragin told her. "Any that would cause a reation like that?" Kez asked him, she knew he probably didn't know all the answers, espcailly since protomatter was illegal, and he hadn't had any reason to study it before now.

"I don't know" Ragin said, his voice mildly put out, "there are just to many possiblities with protomatter, anything you use it for can, and mostly does go wrong" he said.

Anna chooes that moment to speak, "Leah you have already looked through all the Grissons data, I'd like you and Ragin to look through it somemore, see if you can find out what they might have used the protomatter for, a weapon seems unlikely at this stage, lets just see if we can't find a more reasonable explination before we jump to conclusions" she said, "we'll meet again as soon as you have something for us" she added, and nodded dismissing everyone back to their posts.

Sickbay…

Drew awoke to the bright lights of sickbay, raising his hand to rub his eyes he felt a slight stiffness throughout his body. Looking around the room in confusion he realised he was in sickbay, a young Doctor approached him from the adjoining office “Admiral, welcome back” Drew could not remember the officer’s name for all the tea in china so he merely nodded his head in thanks “What happened?” he asked, concern in his voice “We are still trying to determine that, we believe you and Commander Janeway were the victims of a protomatter reaction” Drew glanced over to the bed next to him to see Graeme still in a deep sleep “What’s his condition?” “He took a heavy dose of the protomatter then you did, the treatment will take a bit longer to work on him”. Satisfied with the answer Drew asked to be brought up to speed with the current state of play, after learning that the senior staff were all in a meeting at the moment he asked the Doctor not to yet announce his recovery “I am fit for duty?” he inquired “Yes, but don’t go over doing things”.

“Don’t worry Doc” Drew said heading out of the door for the bridge “I will spend the next few hours sat in the most comfortable chair on the ship”.

*Meanwhile*

Lt. Calvert stood above Commander Janeway. He was still in sickbay still suffering from the accident on the bridge. "Dont worry sir, i'll keep an eye on the ship while you're away" Peter muttered. He turned away and left sickbay ignoring the stare from the medic. He walked to the turbolift close by and headed for deck 1. As the turbolift moved Peter started to think about his new responsibilities. Ever since the death of lt.cmdr Crozier, he had been concerned about his ability to perform his duties. He had a lot of resposibilities since he was now the second in command of tactical/security. Suddenly the doors flung open. He looked around the bridge to see no members of the senior staff. He looked at the tactical station and felt a shudder of fear slide down his neck. He sat at the station relieving the ensign at the station and took control of the console....

As the senior staff walked out onto the bridge they were greeted with the site of Paul Drew at his station “Aren’t you meant to be in sickbay?” Anna said with a small smile as she walked down to the command deck “I bribed the Doc to let me out” Drew told her with a laugh “Doctor’s these days” Anna said taking her chair “No idea how to keep a Starship Captain down”, taking on a serious tone Drew added grimly “Sadly Commander Janeway is still in his coma, apparently he was exposed to more of that protomatter energy than I was” Anna cast a look up to the tactical station “Lt. Calvert is a good officer, I am sure we can trust him” Drew agreed with her “So how did the meeting go?” he asked with obvious interest “Pretty well, Ragin was his usual self, he thinks whoever is causing all this is intending to use the protomatter as a weapon” Drew rubbed his chain “An interesting theory” “It’s the only one we have at the moment” Anna informed him “I have told Ragin and Leah to start studying the logs, see if we can find anything about the protomatter, and maybe its cause” “Good” Drew said nodding his head, before turning to tactical “Mr. Calvert, begin working on a way to modify the shields from the protomatter effects, I want to go back into that nebula, I have a feeling it holds the key to all this – Mr Trylophis help him”.

At that Drew stood from his chair and moved to where llliana was standing, next to environmental station she looked deep in thought “Counselor, can I have word with you in my ready room?” “Of course sir” llliana replied, as they both headed for the room Drew called out to KezTrek “Captain, start looking for an area in the nebula clear of protomatter”.

Inside the ready room…

Drew indicated for llliana to take a seat before telling her why he wanted to talk to her “I am curious Counselor, based on what we know so far, what sort of person do you think we are dealing with, what type of person would be mad enough to use protomatter?”

"Well, captain," Illiana began, "it might not be a matter of being mad, disturbed maybe, but disturbed with an idea of a purpose worth using protomatter. No pun intended, sir."
"Of course not, please go on," Drew replied magnanimously.
"Well, we don't know enough about the individual or individuals to presume any--"
=/\= Lamont to Captain =/\=
=/\= Captain here, what is it, Leah? =/\=
=/\= We've discovered something you ought to know, please come down here as soon as possible =/\=
=/\= On my way. Drew out. =/\=

“I am on my way Commander” Drew replied to Leah’s message, “We will have to finish this later” Drew told llliana, handing her two pads “These contain the bios for both the Grissoms Captain and the Head Scientist of the experiment” the young Counselor took the two devices “You want me to review these and report back?” she presumed “Spot on correct Lieutenant, you have until 16:00 hours” Drew told her heading for the back door of his ready room that led to the corridor.

Engineering

Engineering was full of buzz, engineers where running all over the place repairing systems, shouting out instructions, the humming of the warp core acted as a background noise to all this, briefly Drew remembered his days spent in an engineer room as he went to seek Leah and Ragin out.

Finding them in what counted for Ragin’s office space busy working at the two large stations Drew coughed to let them know he was here, both looked up, not surprised to see their Captain “You wanted to see me?” he stated.

"Yes Captain," Leah replied. "It looks like we have found something here."
"Actually more than only something," Ragin added.
"Well why don't you just start somewhere," Drew said, trying not to be impatient.
"Alright," Leah started. "First we went through the logs about protomatter, as you know it has been illegal for more than a century and starfleet has distroyed all known sources of protomatter. Therefore it has neither been used or studied in all that time."
"Not officially anyway," Ragin mumbled. Drew did not react to his little comment but it seemed that his face froze for an instant. After a short awkward silence Leah went on.
"Now there are theories around that say that protomatter could be used to create practically anything, if it was possible to stabilize it somehow. Weapons, as Ragin said, a stable wormhole, the perfect weapon if you think about it. A wormhole would be pretty simple to do really, because the protomatter would create a perfect matrix for a stable rift in subspace. There are only two problems, one, how do you stabilize it, and two, there is no protomatter around."
"And I imagine you are heading to the conclusion that the Grissom solved both problems," Drew said.
"Well we know that it has solved to problem of obtaining protomatter, there is enough evidence of that around in the nebula. Which leads us to the question where did they get it from?" Ragin said.
"And I imagine you are going to give me the answer to that right now," Drew said, trying to finally get to the point here.
"Indeed," Leah said. "The computer logs of the Grissom don't state anything about protomatter, which makes sense as it is illegal. They definitely did not run into any by chance, and Starfleet Command sure did not provide it, as they don't have any themselves and would not use it anyway. But it appears the Grissom has been in unofficial contact with someone else."
"Who?" Drew asked, although he did have a very strong feeling already that he knew who it was.
"Starfleet Intel, Starbase 25 to be exact, they seem to have an operation base there. With their official logs that probably don't state anything that is true the Grissom also sent hidden, encrypted logs to the starbase, definitely directed to Intelligence. We can't decrypt them unfortunately, they are too clever for that. But the fact that they exist already tells us enough."
"So you are saying that Intelligence is doing secret experiments with protomatter?" Drew asked, just to get things completely straight. For some reason he did not seem too surprised.
Leah and Ragin just nodded. Then Leah added "And as the Grissom is not here anymore and we did not find any debris as evidence of a failed experiment we must assume they succeeded, created a wormhole and went through it. They could basically be anywhere now."
"I guess there's only one way to find out where they are and what they are up to," Drew said. "Recreate the experiment."
Leah and Ragin looked at him like he was insane. "Captain," Leah said. "We neither have the resources nor the knowledge to do that."
"Looks like there is enough protomatter out there still, and as to knowledge, well we have some skilled scientists and engineers here don't we? There must be some evidence in that nebula how they did it, and the rest you should be able to figure out."
In that moment Graeme walked in and saw them talking somewhat irritated.
"Oh Cmdr. Janeway, good to see you up," Drew said. "Why don't you help Lt. Calvert with the shield modifications and send Mr. Trylophis down here instead. Meanwhile I will inform Cmdr. Shipley about all this." With that Drew left and turned around to leave.
Leah murmured "Hopefully she's a bit more sensible," just loud enough that Drew heard it as he left. He decided not to comment, it was better for now if they did not know who he suspected to be responsible for all this and that things might not end up too pleasant if they did not act quickly.

With Drew walking off Graeme raised an eyebrow and then felt a sharp pain in his head. It disappeared as quickly as it hit him. He noticed nobody had seen him bend over in pain, and so quickly left engineering. "Janeway to trylophis" Graeme said as the turbolift started moving. "Trylophis here" a voice sounded. "The captain wants to to report to engineering now." Graeme said. "Understood. Trylophis out." He replied. With that Graeme tapped his comm badge and the doors to the bridge opened. Trylophis was standing infront of him. Graeme smiled politely and walked out of the turbolift. He heard the turbolift leave the area as trylophis left the bridge. Graeme walked over to lt. calvert. "Hows it going with those shields?" Graeme asked. The lt smiled weakly and Graeme knew that meant not very well. "Let me have a look" Graeme said taking the station. Another sharp pain hit him but he tried to ignore it. He started work on the shields....

***Mean while***

"Doctor, hes regaining conscience." a medic called out. Graeme could only hear slight whispers in his head shouting out. Then he could see grayish then he started to regain vision. The colours swirled quickly then slowed down as his vision lost its hazy texture and began to focus again. He saw somebody look overhim. He had no idea where he was or who he was until the person spoke. "Take it easy or you'll be in here for another 4 weeks" the person said. Graeme's memories flooded back to him as he looked around and realised he was in sick bay. "What happened to me?" Graeme asked. "Yourself and the captain were exposed to a burst of protomatter energy on the bridge. Graeme looked around. "Where is he?" Graeme asked. "He returned to duty 8 hours ago." she replied. Graeme noticed she was a commander. "I think i'll be getting back to my post now" Graeme said as he stood up. His head was spinning and throbbing but he didnt care. He started to walk. "I did'nt say you could leave." the commander said bluntly. "I feel fine and anyways if i don't get to the bridge who would protect her?" Graeme retorted. The commander stood there considering it. "I promise if i feel even remotely ill i will report to sick bay at once." Graeme said. "Okay then." The commander replied. Graeme left sickbay and headed for the bridge.

**A few minutes later**

Graeme walked out of the turbolift and saw no senior members of staff. He spotted lt.calvert and went over to get a report. The lt filled him in. "Okay you stay here and i am going to engineering to report in and to get some information." Graeme said. The lt simply nodded as Graeme left the bridge.

**A minute or two later**

Graeme walked into engineering and spotted the captain talking with leah and Rajin....

Anna left the meeting a little puzzled. She had been with Drew long enough to know how he worked so this stunt didn't come as a suprise, but the decision seemed a little rushed.

The engineering doors opened and Anna stepped in, walking towards Leah and Ragin. Both turned around to look at her.

"Well, is everyone ready to build a wormhole?" Anna said a little lightheartedly, trying to keep down the tention.

"With all do respect commander, don't you think we are taking this recovery mission a little too far." Leah asked.

"I agree, but it isn't what I think commander. The admiral has made his decision and we are obligated to follow his orders." Anna sighed, she still got the concerned look from Leah "I made my objections but it didn't help, he's stubborn."

Ragin had returned to his work, still listening to the conversation. Anna knew he had some comment and could tell he was holding back. She grinned a bit and raised her hands.
"So, let's get this wormhole started shall we?"...

"Let's summarize what we need to do," Leah suggested. "We have a whole bunch of protomatter out there that we need to collect. Then we have to fit it together to build a rift in subspace, which leads of to the last, most difficult part to keep the rift stable. Only question, how do we do all that?"
"Collecting it shouldn't be much of a problem," Ragin said. "We could modify the tractorbeam to wide angle and adapt it's frequency to that of the protomatter. If we fly through the nebula with it activated the protomatter would litteraly stick to it."
Leah and Trylophis nodded, while the others weren't really sure how to understand this. But if those three thought it would work it probably actually did.
"Ok, why don't we start the collecting then, it will take some time, and meanwhile we can work on the 2nd problem, the actual process of building the wormhole," Anna suggested.
"I will inform Cmdr. KezTrek of the necessary course changes, so we fly through as much protomatter as possible. Cmdr. Janeway, are the shield modifications finished, so we can fly through without any danger?"
"Yes Sir," he replied. "Lt. Crozier is still working on the fine tuning, we should already be save enough though. I'll order him to constantly keep an eye on the shield strength."
"Good," Anna said. "Why don't you help Cmdr. Ragin on the tractor beam modifications. Dr. Trylophis, Cmdr. Lamont, start running simulations on how to create that rift using protomatter. Ragin and Graeme will help you as soon as they are done with the tractorbeam."
"Alright," Leah said. "Let's get to work."

Ragin and Graeme left engineering and headed to the deflector control room. Graeme was walking when more pains suddenly hit his side and head. He gasped in pain and as suddenly as it hit him it disappeared. "Are you okay Graeme?" Ragin asked. "Fine."Graeme replied blandly. "Janeway to Crozier" Graeme said as he tapped his comm badge. "Lt. Crozier here sir" Peter replied. "Lt. how are the shield modifications coming along?" Graeme asked. "Very well sir. They have almost been exactly fine tuned." the Lt reported. "Good work Lt." Graeme said. "Janeway out" He said abruptly and hit his comm badge. Graeme and Ragin were in the turbolift heading to the deflector control room. There was silence as the turbolift zoomed about heading for its destination. Both officers had lots to think about and there was little time for talking. Finally the doors opened. "Here at last" Ragin said trying to start conversation. Graeme smiled. "You know i don't think i've ever been down here before." Graeme said. "Its like a third home to me" Ragin said happy the mood was better. "Okay, lets see what we can do with this deflector" Graeme said as both officers approached the necessary stations....

Commander Trylophis approached his superior officers. "Er... Sir? I do believe that there is a little... er... problem concerning that protomatter..." "What is it, doc?" "Wellll... er... I regret to... no, better read it yourself. here's my report." The Bolian handed over a small piece of paper.

The line "Protomatter around the Fang" was followed by only once other sentence: "Details unknown".

"I'm sorry sir. You know this is not at all to my liking either. i've never failed a scientific project before... it's..."

Anna turned to Trylophis with a grim luck "That's not good enough Doc, we need details" Trylophis nodded his head in agreement "I know Sir, but I have ran every standard test" "Then run some non-standard tests Commander" Anna told him sternly “See if the new sensor equipment installed can help you”.

The scientist lowered his head, leaving engineering heading for the science labs.

Illiana approached the captain discreetly. "Excuse me sir, may I speak to you privately?"
"Surely, Lieutenant. My ready room."

In the ready room, Drew offered a seat to his counsellor. "Something the matter?"
"Well, sir, as you know, protomatter has been illegal in the Federation for quite some time. There's not much on record about it, but that's in Federation records. My father was...well, he was a scientist working with the Obsidian Order, and I remember as a little girl hearing him reporting to his colleagues. They tried an experiment with protomatter, something to do with trying to create another wormhole, but the experiment wrong, and it had adverse effects. I don't know the specifics, but I do know there was some sort of explosion, and people were affected in strange ways. They started acting strangely, not knowing it. They lost cognitive abilities and common sense. The few that are still alive are in private government asylums in Cardassia."
"Lieutenant, that does pose a problem."

Meanwhile on the Bridge

"Protomatter Wormhole, and he expects me to fly through it?" Kez asked Graeme, she knew Drew was stubborn, and sometimes a little more risky than most would like, but this was beyond insane.

"Thats what he said Captain" Graeme answered her, "of course it was" Kez said "next time I come anywhere near this ship I am updating my will first" she added.

Graeme smiled slightly. "I'm sure the Admiral knows what he's doing" the security officer said. Kez nodded, "I'm sure thats what the crew of the Titanc said right before there Captain crashed them into a block of ice" she said.

She was smiling, the sting not really in her words, even if she did think that this was the most insane idea Drew had had yet, and he'd had some really insane ones in the past.

"I guess we better get her ready for flight then, I'll need checks on every system even a little bit tied into Helm, I guess I better get them done" Kez said, "need a hand?" Graeme asked, not much for a security officer to do where science is concerned.

"Thank-you, if you could run the checks on the impluse engines, and thrusters I will get started on the rest, I want every conseviable test run" Kez told him, and Graeme nodded, and Kez set about her own tests.

Thinking to herself as she did, that she should really, really learn to avoid Paul Drew at all costs, it tended to be hazzardius to ones health

the chief headed back into the science labs, the tractor beam modifications had been completed and the tractor beam was slowly gatering protomatter

as he walked in he saw Trylophis and Leah working at various consoles
"mornin' kids... whats the good news?"
Leah shot the chief a look
"well the protomatter is defying analysis and we're stumped.. sound like good news to you?"
"well that depends on if you REALLY want to go through with this suicide run" replyed the chief
"besides didn't i install some new sensors recently... are they helping"

Trypholis spoke "prehaps you can help us with these reading chief"

Back with Drew and llliana

"Lieutenant, that does pose a problem..."

Drew sighed heavily; turning to the small view port to the side of the room he let his arms full to his side, there was an awkward few moments when neither spoke. Finally Drew turned back round to face the young Cardassian, who was worryingly looking around the room, unsure what her Captain’s reaction would be to this news.

“Do you have any idea what could have caused the explosions?” he finally asked, llliana shook her head sadly “As I said I never knew the specifics, just that it did happen and the results of it”. Drew nodded his head obviously llliana was trying her hardest to remember anything that may be of importance “One more question Counselor, than you can go – were any other species affected?” again llliana shook her head “To my knowledge it was just Cardassians, but though it shames me to say it, at the time our two peoples were enemies” her voice softened ever so slightly, “You know as well as I what my people did to war prisoners”.

Drew could tell the young women was upset, for the first time in a long while he found himself feeling sorry for a Cardassian, maybe they were not all the same after all, he put a reassuring hand on her shoulder “Go get some rest” he told her kindly, llliana nodded her head in gratitude and left the ready room.

When she was gone Drew fail back into his chair, the knots in his stomach tightening even more, llliana’s admission had startled him, he was unaware that other groups had been researching protomatter, a terrible thought entered his mind then of a time long ago in his youth, he prayed his fears would not come true.

(Pull yourself together) he thought to himself, no longer able to stand the silence he tapped a control on his desk to open a communication signal to where most of his staff was now located – engineering “Anything to report?” he asked over the channel, waiting for any of his staff to respond.

*Beep Beep*

Drew was about to receive his report from engineering when the door buzzer sounded, “Come in” he called, closing the channel to engineering, with a promise that a full report would be with him within the hour.

“Kez what can I do for you” Drew asked, granted he already had a good idea exactly what she wanted to talk about but manners were manners.

“The ship is as ready as it’s ever going to be for this plan of yours” Kez told him, “assuming you are going ahead with it,” she added.

Drew smiled, “Have a seat Kez” he motioned to the seat Kez was already taking, something’s never change.

“I am going ahead with the plan” Drew told her, “Why, is there something wrong with it?” he asked.

“You mean aside from the fact, its dangerous, illegal, oh and has the potential to kill everyone on this ship, no nothing wrong with it at all” Kez told him, “and of course the small fact that every single member of your senior staff think you have lost your mind”.

Drew had to smile at that, “they might well be right, but that doesn’t change the fact that we are going a head with this plan. We have a duty to protect the Federation and its members, this situation could destroy everything we work to protect, we have to find out what happened, and make sure it won’t happen again” he told her, his voice brooking no arguments, not that it had ever stopped Kez in the past.

“This has nothing to do with protecting the Federation, this is something else, I don’t know what, but I know that the man I once called a friend would never do anything like this” Kez argued back, she didn’t know what was going on, some personal vendetta no doubt, but it could, and likely would kill everyone on board this ship if he didn’t back down on this insane plan.

“This has everything to do with protecting the Federation….” Kez cut Drew off, “No Sir it doesn’t, because if it did, you would be listening to me right now, instead of barrelling on a head regardless of the possible consequences”.

Drew sat stock-still, he was seething, Kez could practically feel the anger as a tangible thing, “Dismissed Captain” Drew said. “Admiral…” Kez was about to protest, “I said dismissed Captain, don’t force me to have you escorted to the Brig”.

Kez backed down, she didn’t like this at all, they’d argued before, but he’d never threatened anything like that, something was very wrong, but Kez knew being in the brig wouldn’t help her find out what, she needed to be where she could keep an eye on him, where she could stop him if she had to, and she would stop him if it came to that, friendship be dammed, she wouldn’t let him put this crew at risk like that.

Drew watched KezTrek as she walked out of his ready room, if looks could kill then the Captain would not be standing, the rage inside Drew threaten to boil over at any moment, who the hell did she think she was, coming onboard his ship and addressing him, her superior officer in such a manner.

Regardless to what the Captain and the others thought Drew knew he was doing the right thing, he would not allow the likes of Rick Edwards to destroy something he had spent a life time protecting, he would personally see to it that Edwards and his followers fail in their mission, even if that meant sacrificing the Fang. Captain KezTrek be dammed.

Angrily he hit his comm badge “Commander’s Shipley and Lamont report to my ready room – NOW”

***A while before***

Graeme had just finished helping out Captain KezTrek with running diagnostics on all helm related functions. He was currently in the mess hall eating some lunch. He still was feeling really ill from his 'experience' on the bridge a while ago. His head was aching and he felt distant and distracted. He just finished his Plomeek soup when an ensign came up to him. "Excuse me sir." the young ensign said almost scared. "How can I help you?" Graeme replied. "Heres that report you wanted on the efficency of our shield defenses, sir" the young ensign replied. "Thank you ensign" Graeme said. "Excuse me." Graeme said almost bluntly. Graeme gave a weak smile and walked away. He left the mess hall and headed for engineering to help everybody else out. The pains in his head now had spread to include his neck. He thought he should go to sickbay but his ego and pride prevented it. He walked on trying his best to ignore the immense pain.

***Later***

Graeme walked into engineering. The sound of the warp core soothed him slightly. He walked over he walked over to Leah. "Do you require any help?" Graeme asked trying to look happy. "Well i could use a hand to....." Leah was broken off by the sound of her comm badge. "Commander’s Shipley and Lamont report to my ready room – NOW" the comm badge yelled. Graeme flinched and Leah appeared to be shocked. "Right away sir...." Leah stammered.....

Anna didn't like the tone in Drew's voice at all.

"Leah, stay here for a while, I'll call for you when I'm finished with the captain." Anna ordered
Leah nodded and Anna walked out of engineering not looking forward to the bridge.

She entered the ready room to find Drew staring out the window, one arm resting on the wall above him.

"I think we need to have a serious chat Admiral." She said as softspoken as possible.

Drew whipped around "Where's Leah?"

"I told her to stay in engineering, I think we need to talk first. Care to tell me why I saw Captain KezTrek storming down the corridor? Anna asked.

Drew recounted the entire conversation to his FO, his anger obviously present in the way he spoke.
Anna could hardly believe what he was telling her. She sat still for a minute, taking in everything slowly.

"What is it you're not telling me Paul?" The glare Anna recieved pierced her.
"Oh not you too..."

"Oh come on, we both know there's something. Something personal that you don't want to admit, but you know could have an huge impact on the situation." Anna couldn't remember ever talking to the captain so forcebly, but the time called for it, and she rememberd Drew telling her to speak her mind.

Endless moments of silence fell between the two of them.
"Fine Admiral, have it your way, but I hope you come to your senses before something happens that you regret. Am I dismissed sir?" She asked, regaining the cold formality.

Drew only nodded, looking up slightly from his folded hands resting on his desk, exposing almost bloodshot eyes.
Anna stepped in front of the doors, ready to leave.

"Wait commander..."

"Wait commander..." Drew said wirily “There is something you should know” he indicated for Anna to take a chair as he himself sat down, as he opened his mouth to speak he was interrupted by KezTrek’s voice “Admiral Drew and senior officers report to the bridge”. Drew let a small sigh; Anna could not tell if it was from relief or frustration at the interruption.

The two walked out onto the bridge the same time as the rest of the senior officers poured out of the turbo lift and took their stations, “Report” Drew said as he took his chair “Starfleet vessel approaching, Sovereign Class” Leah replied from Ops “We are being hailed”, Drew and Anna exchanged puzzled glances before Anna ordered “Onscreen”.

The face of a middle-aged man, about Drew’s age in a Starfleet Admiral’s uniform appeared on screen “This is Admiral Edwards commanding USS Hawking” the man introduced himself “Admiral Drew we know what you are planning, we will not let you proceed with your dangerous experiments – stand down”. The bridge crew all exchanged nervous looks – what was going on? – Drew looked directly at the Admiral onscreen “Go to hell” there were gasps of shock around the bridge, Admiral Edwards looked at KezTrek who was seated at the front of the bridge, with a claim tone he ordered “Captain KezTrek, relieve the Admiral of command”.

At first KezTrek appeared to hastate, then just before the Admiral could add “That’s an order” she rose from her chair and walked to the centre chair were Drew was seated. Drew stood straight to face her “You dare” he told her sternly, KezTrek spoke no words, everything that need to be said was in her eyes, years of friendship was falling apart in that one look Drew desperately turned to Graeme “Commander Janeway remove Captain KezTrek from the bridge” Graeme looked nervously at Anna, not able to look at Drew or KezTrek. Seeing his reluctance Drew tried to reinforce his authority “I gave you an order Commander – do it”, this time Anna placed a gentle hand on Drew’s shoulder “Please don’t make this any harder, stand down” she told him as gently as she could.

At the moment Drew could see the looks all of his senior staff were giving him, not one of confidence, trust and respect that he usually saw but one of upset, pity, untrusting. Worryingly Drew felt his body begin to shake “I am your Commanding Officer” he said with what was meant to be a confident voice, but came out in a shaky tone, knowing he had lost this battle.

“Commander Janeway” KezTrek ordered, maintaining eye contact with Drew as she spoke “Escort Admiral Drew to his quarters, he is to remain there for the duration of this mission”.

As all eyes were on the centre of the bridge no one noticed the smug look of victory on the face of Admiral Rick Edwards as his old opponent was escorted of his bridge, when all eyes did turn to him again his face returned to neutral “Good work Captain, I know that was a hard decision, prepare to receive me onboard we have much to discuss”.

KezTrek merely nodded her head, as the realisation of what she had just done sank in.

KezTrek merely nodded her head, as the realisation of what she had just done sank in.

“Commander” KezTrek said, turning to face the Fangs First Officer, “prepare to receive Admiral Edwards” she ordered, she looked at the chair where Drew had sat moments before, she had sat there many times before, but it was different now.

“Captain, what about…” Anna was about to ask.

KezTrek stopped her, “he made his own choices Commander, and the consequences are on his head” she told the First Officer.

Anna sighed but turned to follow KezTrek’s orders.

KezTrek sat down, Drew had been her friend, but he had made his own decisions, and now he had to live with them, she had her orders, she would follow them, she just wished that it hadn’t come to this, but it had, and now she had to do her job.

“Captain?” Leah was beside her, “Don’t Commander, I know all of us here feel a loyalty to Admiral Drew, but if anyone here can tell me they haven’t been concerned about his irrational behaviour of late, I know you’ll be lying" Kez said.

Leah nodded her head, “Yes Captain” she said, KezTrek felt sorry for them, they didn’t understand what was going on, the man they trusted with their lives, had just been to all intense purposes arrested, its almost a pity Kez couldn’t feel sorry for herself, but for that she would have had to have trusted Drew and right now, she wouldn’t trust Paul Drew if she was under orders from the Section Admiral himself.

Kez knew something was going on, and she didn’t like it, she didn’t know what it was, but she didn’t like the feelings it was giving her, and she was determined to find out.

“Admiral Edwards is ready to come aboard Captain” Anna said from the side, “Thank-you Commander, send him into the ready room when he arrives” KezTrek said, and headed for the small room to the side of the Bridge

As Anna left the bridge to greet Admiral Edwards she tried to make sense of what had just happened, at the moment Captain KezTrek’s actions were by the book, she could think of no way to question her actions…yet.

Walking into the transporter room she found the Admiral already onboard, he was a tall man, with musty white hair, he had a jolly face, but something about his eyes sent a shiver down Anna’s spine. “Captain KezTrek is waiting for you in the ready room” she told Edwards “Good” the Admiral simply replied in an commanding tone “ If you would follow me” Anna told him with a pleasant smile.

***In the Ready Room***

KezTrek sized up Edwards, before he had came onboard she had done a quick read over of his bio, he was quite a big shot at HQ “Admiral a pleasure to meet you” she said offering him the Vulcan salute “Thank you Captain – I just wish it could be under better circumstances” something about his tone told KezTrek he did not really mean that, but she put it to one side, she had some answers to get.

“I suspect you have some questions” Edwards told her calmly “Just a few” the Captain replied “Well let me tell you what is going on and see if that answers some” KezTrek nodded her head in agreement “Twenty years ago Paul Drew was involved in a Starfleet operation to attempt to build a stable wormhole, as you know its been a continuing project of the Federation’s for some time” he told her “However the attempt was un-successful, after that Drew developed a way to build a wormhole using protomatter, as we both know that substance is highly unstable, but he believed he could stabilise it” KezTrek merely nodded her head “Could he?” “Stabilise it I mean” Edwards shook his head “Not at the time, and we still believe he cannot do it now, but he thinks he can and he is going to try” KezTrek thought over the Admirals word’s it was true that Drew was planning on using protomatter to build a stable wormhole, just one thing bothered her “But we were sent here to find a ship” “A ship that Admiral Drew had sent here, and ordered to remain on communication blackout, he then used his contacts to assign the Fang to find her” Edwards finished.

“So” KezTrek said leaning forward “Your telling me the Admiral is corrupt” Edwards nodded his head, pleased KezTrek understood him “Yes”.

Before this mission KezTrek would never had believed it, but she herself had seen Drew’s recent actions, it all fitted together “What do you want us to do now?” she asked “The Fang is to remain in the area for the time being, the Hawking is going to enter the Nebula and try to find our missing science ship, you will assist us from outside the Nebula, scan for anomalies, monitor the protomatter reactions in the Nebula” Edwards told her “And Admiral Drew?” KezTrek asked “For the time being leave him in his quarters, when we are ready he will be sent to the nearest Starbase for a court marital”.

Satisfied he had done what he came to do Edwards stood “If there is nothing else I will return to the Hawking – good day Captain” and with that the Admiral left.

KezTrek watched him leave, the Admiral’s story had the rings of truth to it, but something about him just left her feeling uneasy

As soon as Anna had escorted their guest to the ready room, she turned on her heals and went directly to Drew's quarters. There was something she just didn't like about that man. No one could trust him, you could tell by the smirk he carried on his face.

Graeme was posted outside Drew's quarters, waiting for his security officers to take his place.

They gave each other the same glance they had shared earlier on the bridge. Both confused and overwhelmed.
Anna stepped up to the doors.
"Sir, the Captain Keztrek gave strict orders not..."

The glare Anna gave him made Graeme stop midsentence.
"I'll take care of Captain Keztrek." Anna said continuing into Drew's quarters.

Drew sat in a chair, head in hands... he was furious she knew. Anna cleared her throat, thinking maybe he hadn't heard her come in. Drew didn't budge.

"I believe you Paul." Drew looked up, but offered no response.
She walked over to him and leaned down on her knee, resting a hand on his shoulder. "Now, let's start convincing the rest of the them."

Drew gave Anna a tired smile, taking her hand into his, he shook his head sadly “Its going to take a lot more than my word to convince Captain KezTrek to back down” Anna nodded her head “Maybe, she can be pretty stubborn” with a sly smile she added “Like another starship captain I know”. That got a small laugh from Drew “She has to be, Captain’s need to play things by the book, she can’t let her personal feelings interfere with the safety of her crew, or her mission”. Anna was surprised Drew seemed to understand KezTrek’s decision, even in some ways support it “I must admit that is something I have lost track of lately” Drew continued “I let my own feelings interfere with the safety of this crew” “What are those feelings?” Anna asked, hopefully to finally uncover the reason for all this. And so Drew told her…

“About twenty years ago Starfleet was ‘obsessed’ with building a stable wormhole, following the discovery of the Bajoron wormhole it was felt that if Starfleet could build its own wormholes it would render warp drive obsolete, and provide a new way to explore space, as well as give us one major tactical advantage” Anna nodded her head, the same was still true today, to an extent. “Edwards and myself were both on the USS Johnson at the time” Drew continued, “I was Chief of Operations, he was Chief Tactical. We were sent on a fact finding mission to try and discover a stable substance that could support a wormhole matrix”.

“What did you find?” Anna asked with interest “With the help of the Science Officer Lt. Louise Walker” “Wait a minute Louise Walker as in Louise Walker-Drew?” Anna interrupted Drew nodded his head “I never knew she was in the service” Anna said “She left not longer after we were married” Drew explained, “Our relationship started on the Johnson” Anna nodded her head in understanding, indicating for Drew to finish his story.

“As I was saying with the help of Louise we discovered a possible way to stabilise a wormhole using protomatter, but we ruled the idea out as being too dangerous, but Edwards would not accept that the answer, he kept working on the problem and found a way he believed could stabilise the protomatter first”. Drew walked up to the replicator and ordered a drink before continuing “He took the idea to the Captain, who approved the plan and we started a similar experiment to what the Grissom was sent out to do”

“However we started to notice strange behaviour among the crew as the experiment proceeded, eventually me and Louise discovered the protomatter was responsible, it was some how regenerating the crew’s minds making them lose common sense as it where”

“So Edward’s idea was a failure?” Anna asked “Yes” Drew confirmed, “It was later discovered he was aware of the side effects his approach would have, but he failed to inform the Captain of that”.

“So do you think he is somehow involved with what is happening here?” Anna asked “I have no doubt” Drew told her “But my knowledge of the past events is not the only reason he wanted me out of commission, he also holds a grudge against me for getting the girl we were both after”.

Now it started to make a bit more sense to Anna “You were both pursuing Louise?” “Yes, it was join that mission that we became even closer, Edwards has always believed that I used the situation to gain favour with her”.

Anna shook her head and silently cursed men “I really need to hand back up to the bridge, I want to explain some of this to KezTrek, she if it will get some sense into her head” she gave Drew a supportive smile “We will have you back in that chair before you know” and with that she left.

Anna had just entered Drews quaters. Graeme stood outside his doors. Lt. Calvert then arrived. "Excuse me sir, is there anything I can do?" Peter said. Graeme thought quickly. "Yes lt. , you can stay here with Ensign McKee and make sure Drew dosn't go for a walk." Graeme said bluntly with the sarcasm unemphesised. Graeme walked off towards the turbolift. He still had a headache and the present situation only made it worse. He walked coldly and felt puzzled. Admiral Paul Drew had been like a role model for Graeme. He wanted to be as wise and as calm as he was, but in light of recent events his faith was being shattered. He could'nt believe how Drew had reacted when Admiral Edwards had appeared on the viewscreen. The turbolift suddenly stopped as it reached the bridge. Graeme sighed when he saw Admiral Edwards step into the turbolift obviously feeling happy and unregreting of his actions. Graeme looked at him for a moment in shock. "I said get out of my way!" the man shouted at Graeme. He was paralised not from the Admiral standing infront of him. "Do it or you will be thrown into the brig!" He shouted. Graeme snapped out of his daze. He stood seeting with hate but controled it. He stood back allowing the Admiral to step in. "You are lucky commander that I am in a good mood" Edwards added menacingly. "I bet you are" Graeme muttered under his breath. Luckily for him Edwards hearing was bad enough for him to not have heard him. Graeme walked out onto the bridge. He made a decision. He turned round and waited for the turbolift to go back down to Drews quaters. He spotted a couple of officers looking at him perplexed by his behaviour. "As you were." Graeme said angrily. The officers quickly returned to their previous activity. Annoyed at pretty much everything and everyone Graeme waited impataiently for the turbolift to arrive. "Hurry up!" he shouted losing control. The officers on the bridge looked at him. The turbolift finally arrived and he walked into it. He commanded it to go to Drews quaters. It moved and Graeme regreted his outburst on the bridge. He suddenly started thinking about Edwards and if there was any possible connection to what he was remembering or seeing. The turbolift stopped and Graeme left it. He walked up to Drews door and suddenly Anna exited through the door. Graeme looked at Anna nervously. "Can I help you Graeme?" she asked warmly considering the circumstances. "Yes actually. I need to speak with you urgently." Graeme replied aware of the two security officers listening. "Okay. Lets take a walk" Anna replied. The two officers walked along the empty corridors. "Commander, I have a bad feeling about Admiral Edwards. I could have sworn i've seen him before." Graeme said bluntly. Anna nodded listening to what Graeme was saying. "Go on Graeme." Anna said. Graeme gave a weak smile and continued. He described what he had seen in what he though had been a dream.

Two young men in an old fashion Starfleet uniform were on the bridge of an old Federation ship. It was a Miranda class vessel. The two people were a young Lt.cmdr Paul Drew and a figure Graeme had only recognised....a young Lt.cmdr Edwards.

Anna looked at Graeme in shock and some disbelief. "Whats more diturbing is that I think I saw this when I was in sickbay. I had never seen Admiral Edwards before until he arrived. How could I possibly have known what he looked like?" Graeme said quickly and with panic present in his voice. Anna stood still trying to comprehend it all. She was about to speak but Graeme beat her to it. "Theres more commander." He said meekly

The two younger Admirals stood on the bridge of the USS Johnson. They were gathered around a science console. The reading showed Protomatter scans and on a pad in Edwards hands were plans to use the protomatter.....

Walking beside Graeme, Anna stared intently at the floor infront of her, trying to put all the pieces together after hearing his story. "The protomatter, side effects" Anna whispered to herself.

"Are you alright sir?" Graeme asked.
Anna looked up "Let's take a stroll to sickbay."
"I'm sorry sir?" Graeme looked confused.
"I'll explain on the way. Shipley to Captain Keztrek"
"Keztrek here, what is it commander?"
"Please meet me in sickbay as soon as you can. Shipley out" She purposly didn't give her time to respond.

----In sickabay----

Graeme lay on a biobed when Keztrek walked in, obviously a little annoyed at Shipley. "What is it commander?"
Anna explained to her parts of Drew's story and how the side effects that Edwards recieved is now what Graeme's being put through.

"So you see, I believe Edwards has his story a little backwards captain." Anna said.

Kez glanced back an forth between Graeme and Anna. "I'm not so sure commaner... I need more proof before I can take this seriously. It's hard to disagree with me that Drew isn't at his best at the moment." Keztrek said.

Anna sighed. She knew that Kez was only doing what a responsible captain should do, no one could blame her for that, but she would just have to try something else now. However it happend, the captain had to know that Edwards is a fraud, and Drew has the real story.

"I'm going to call the senior staff into a meeting after I talk with Lamont, is that alright with you sir?" Anna asked.
"Certainly." Kez responded a little hesitantly.

Anna handed a padd to the doctor beside her. "Complete these test on Mr. Janeway and then he may be released. Come to engineering when your finshed please Graeme." Anna smiled and left sickbay behind Kez, headed for a much needed visit with Leah.

Leah had mixed feelings, for one she was glad that the wormhole experiment had been stopped, but on the other hand she could not understand why Admiral Drew had reacted in such a manner towards Admiral Edwards. She had not seen him lose his temper for a very long time. It was obvious that this whole experiment meant a lot to Drew, so much he was willing to sacrifice his carrer. But the man she knew and whom she had served under and developped a strong loyality to would never do anything to endanger his ship and do such an illegal thing. She couldn't understand what had happened to him, what had changed him so much. Now, above all, she was glad that Captain KezTrek was here and had taken control of the situation.

After Drew had been sent to his quarters Leah returned to engineering to abort the simulations. They had not produced many results yet, they had a first few steps on how to use the protomatter to create a matrix for a wormhole. But they were still a long way from being able to hold it at a stable level. The tractor beam and the deflector had been modified to collect the protomatter from the nebula, but that would not be needed anymore now. She sighed for a moment, thinking about the hours wasted with such a crazy project. Basically they were back where they started, they had no idea where the Grissom was, or how they could find her. It was all in Admiral Edwards' hands now.

"Computer, save simulations in the file proto-alpha, level 5 classification, authorisation Lamont Beta-493," she ordered, making sure it would not fall into the wrong hands. Only herself, the first officer and the Commanding Officer had the necessary authorisation to open it now, although Drew's command codes were not valid now that he had been relieved of duty. Shortly after she had saved it she recieved a transmission from the Hawking, it was Admiral Edwards.
=^= Commander Lamont, I heard you were leading the project of the wormhole creation. I want you to transmit all the data you've collected and all your results to the Hawking, they might be of help when we are trying to localize the Grissom."
"Yes Admiral," she replied, a bit perplex. Edwards had obviously stopped the experiment, and she didn't understand what goood her results would do to him. "We did not get very far. Sir, I'm aware that the experiment was against federation law. However we've had no choice."
=^= Don't worry Commander. You were just following orders. It's a pity Admiral Drew has lost his mind and gave such fatal orders that would have endangered the whole ship. Just transmit the data, then delete your files, and I will make sure that Starfleet Command puts appropriate classification on it. Noone will try such a thing again."
"Yes Admiral," Leah said. She did not like the tone in his voice, but she knew it was the sensible thing to do. Noone should be tempted to try this again. She was preparing the transmission just as Anna entered engineering.

"Leah, we need to talk," Anna said, and Leah could hear she was very disturbed.
"Just a moment, I'm just finishing this transmission."
"Transmission?" Anna asked.
"Admiral Edwards requested our results on the experiment," Leah explained, and then she saw how Anna's face darkened.
"Wait with the transmission, that's a direct order," she said.
"But Sir, he is higher ranked," Leah objected.
"Please Leah, just listen to me first, and after that judge for yourself if Admiral Edwards should get these results or not."
After she saw the questioning look on Leah's face Anna started to explain. She told her Drew's story, not leaving out any details. Leah thought the story sure sounded good, it would explain Drew's behaviour towards Edwards, but how could they be sure that was the truth?
"Anna," Leah said gently, after Anna had ended. "Basically it's Drew's word against Edwards'. Admiral Drew is our captain and obviously we feel loyal to him, we want to believe his side. But what if Edwards tells the truth? He's right in one point, the experiments are dangerous and should never be done. Drew knew of the effects, but still he wanted us to recreate it, and Edwards stopped him. As to now, as hard it is to say, Edwards is still in the right. We must find proof for Drew's story."
"Captain KezTrek also wants proof," Anna replied. "Maybe I don't have an objective proof, but you should have seen the Admiral when he told me his story. His face was honest, and his voice was full of regret about the events back then. On the other hand there is something in Admiral Edwards' voice that gives me the creeps."
"I know what you mean," Leah said. "I don't like the fact he wants me to send him those results."
"Then don't, wait with it and tell him whatever reason why you can't submit them yet. We will have a staff meeting shortly. Maybe we'll find a way to proof Paul is right, and Edwards wrong."
"Above all we need to find out the truth," Leah replied. "But by all means I hope it is Paul's story."

“Trust me Paul it will work” Rick Edwards assured his colleague as they ran simulations of the protomatter experiment “I don’t know Rick, protomatter is very unstable, what if the same thing as the genesis planet happens?” Paul Drew asked concerned “It wont, you heard what Louise said, we could stabilise it” “Yeah in theory” Rick laughed softly to himself “You need to get a bit more adventure in you”, Drew laughed as well “Maybe your right”, the two continued to make small talk as Graeme looked on, the security chief tried to angle his head so he could see the console displays, maybe discover just how they were planning to stabilise the protomatter.

As Graeme looked on another Starfleet officer in an old style uniform came up to the two future Admirals “How are you boys doing?” she quizzed them with a teasing tone, Graeme noticed with amusement the two young men’s reactions to the women, she obviously had both wrapped around her finger, hard to believe this was the same Paul Drew who just a few hours ago from Graeme’s prospective was commanding a starship.

“Remember that theory you had on changing the chemical balance in the protomatter matrix?” Edwards answered the women, she nodded her head “Well I…” he stopped mid sentence and looked to his leg, then up at Drew who had a glare in his eyes “I mean we may have found away to turn the theory into fact”.

And as Graeme looked on the trio discussed the entire process.

Meanwhile in enginnering


the chief wasn't the happiest of men, usually something small that broke down on the fang, or one of drews awkward requests
and as annoying as they could be, they were fixable.
Now drew was under arrest, apparently for being a megalomaniac with wormhole creating tendancies, and the man who had arrested drew had caused drew to fly into an almighty rage

something wasn't right... unfortunatly the chief was no sherlock homes.... or miss marple come to that.

the chief sighed....
as much as he was loath to talk to councilors he decided that now was a good a time as any to start

"enginnering to Illiana"
"illiana here" replied the young cardassian
"its me, Ragin, i think we need to have a bit of a chat, can you meet me soon?"
"sure chief, say an hour in my office"

*one hour later*

"well chief, it look liek your long over due a visit to me" began illiana as she thumbed throught he chief file
"actually thats not what i wanted to talk to you about"
"ohhh... really" replied illiana "and what *did* you want to talk about"
"drew" replied the chief
"i see.... why me, surely you'd know him better than i, you've been on the fang for well over a year and a half now"
"true, but i wasn't spending alot of time with him recently, you were, and your a councillor.... so, whats your take...
is drew guilty?"

the chief waited for the young womans reply

On:
"Guilt is a funny thing, it has a tendency to arise whether or not an offense has been committed. I don't know whether the Admiral's done what Admiral Edwards is accusing him of, but I do know it's taking a heavy strain on both him and the ship."
The chief rolled his eyes at the counsellor talk. "So, this protomatter, it's having an impact on all of our judgement, isn't it?"
"Perhaps. But speculating about everything really is not going to help our current situation. Personally I wish we could just settle all of this and finish as soon as possible, I dislike being here."
"You feeling any effects of the protomatter?"
"I am still competent, I hope, but I'm starting to forget things, walk into rooms without remembering why. I just need to concentrate harder. What about you?"
"Well, for me, I'm--"
=/\= Incoming message for Lieutenant Illiana on secure channel =/\=
=/\= Please patch it into my quarters =/\= Illiana replied. "Excuse me, please," she turned to the chief. "I'd like to be able to converse with you later, perhaps in the mess hall."
"Alright, I'll meet you later." The commander turned and exited.

Computer, on. Illiana was greeted by the face of Admiral Rick Edwards. "Lieutenant," he said.
"Admiral, this was unexpected."
"Yes, well, unexpected but necessary. Congratulations on that promotion, by the way. It was a while ago, but--"
"Admiral, not to be rude," Illiana interrupted, "but I'm a counsellor now, I understand that you're trying to make small talk. What did you really contact me for?"
"Well, you're getting good at what you do, Lieutenant, I'll say that much for you."
"Thank you, sir, I suppose."
"How do you like your position on the Fang?"
"It's a good ship, and I'm proud to serve on her."
"And how do you like your commanding officer?" Edwards pressed.
Illiana blinked, as she realized the true intent of the communication. He was trying to find something to bring against Admiral Drew. "He's...nice. Goal-oriented."
"That's not what I asked, Lieutenant."
"He is my commanding officer, and I respect him."
"Mainly, the thing I want to know is, does he respect _you_? I'm sure you've discovered that he's not too fond of Cardassians, and--"
"Admiral, forgive my frankness, but a Cardassian in starfleet is extremely rare, and I have to deal with the adversity. I can't go running somewhere every time I get a harsh look, otherwise I'll be imagining them left and right. If my own memory serves correctly, you weren't too happy having me in the fleet either."
"Those were completely different circumstances."
"Well, pardon me, Admiral, but I go on duty in a few minutes. Take care."
"Lieutenant, you never answered my question."
"I'm sorry, sir, I have to be on duty." To the computer, "End transmission."
Illiana sat back in her chair, disgruntled by Edwards's communication. "Oh, how I hate politics," she said to herself. She stood up and walked out of her quarters, breathed, and started down the corridor.

***Back in the past***

Graeme stood listening to the plans for the protomatter. He absorbed the information as well as he possibly could but even he couldn't deny that this was extremely detailed and complex. "Well now that this main part is over, I think we all deserve a break" Lt.cmdr Edwards said confidently. The people present agreed and everybody went over to talk with someone else. Drew and Edwards, aswell as about half the people present walked out of the room and headed to the messhall. Graeme quickly ran after them.

**In the messhall**

Edwards and Drew sat at different tables but were both talking over some soup Graeme was unfamiliar with. "Looks delicious" Graeme said sarcastically knowing that nobody would hear him. Drew and Edwards both appeared to be talking about Protomatter. Then Graeme noticed the girl than had transfixed Drew and Edwards earlier on the bridge enter the messhall a bit later than everbody else. Graeme still found it quite amusing how Edwards and Drew almost acted as tough as possible. They both straightened up and Graeme also noticed that they weren't the only men acting differently. Graeme noticed Drew and Edwards stand up to go over to meet her...

“Louise wont you join us?” Paul said with a pleasant smile as he and Rick greeted the beautiful young women who gave both men a sweet smile “Why not” she replied, both Paul and Rick smiled back at her, pleased with themselves.

Graeme watched as the three officers returned back to the table and began chatting about the current gossip on the ship, Graeme noticed that almost every human male in the room was staying at Louise, he wondered if she realised the effect she had on men. Suddenly a scream interrupted Graeme’s thoughts, automatically he spin around to see a young officer laying on the floor, obviously in pain, for a moment Graeme forgot he did not belong in this time and went to help the officer, luckily so did the Starfleet Officer’s in this time zone.

“Drew to sickbay, medical emergency” Paul called out over the ships intercom. As events unfolded Graeme moved closer to Drew, anxious to see what was wrong with the young man on the floor, maybe it was something similar to what was happening to him.

**A few minutes after the young officer hit the ground.**

A medical officer ran through the doors of the messhall and headed in the direction of the young Lieutenant lying on the floor in pain that reminded Graeme of what he had experienced. The officer clutched his head in his hands just before the medical officer arrived. "How long has this been happening?" The medic asked impatiently. Everybody just gave her blank stares. She groaned angrily. "Mizollen to sickbay, two to beam in" She said impatiently. The two officers de-materialised before Graeme's eyes. He stood perplexed for a minute then he realised that with protomatter around, the crew was somehow being effected in the same way he was when he was hit with that surge of protomatter energy. Graeme turned around to see Drew and Edwards escorting Louise out of the room. Graeme decided to persue them. They left the messhall and headed for the bridge. In the turbolift Graeme noticed Drew and Edwards still staring at her, and Graeme didn't blame them. He had to focus on his work and then the turbolift arrived on the bridge. The captain looked up at the officers arriving on the bridge. "Well shall we continue then?" The captain asked. They all sat down as the captain stood tall. Graeme though he reminded him of his captain, future Paul Drew. Just then the captain clutched the tip of his chair and hit the ground. Gasps of shock filled the deck 1 as officers ran to the assistance of the captain. "Lets get him to sickbay." Drew said taking control....

The Senior staff were almost all present, almost, someone was missing, but that someone was who they were here to talk about.

"Well Anna, you said you had something to tell us, so what is it?" KezTrek asked. She knew she sounded apprupt, but this whole thing was setting her on edge, and she really didn't like it one little bit.

"I was talking to the Admiral..." KezTrek shot her a look, "I know we were ordered not to, but Captain, you should see him, he was telling me about the back ground he and Admiral Edwards have, I just don't think any of this sits right, please Captain you can't really believe that Admiral Drew would ever do the things Edwards is saying can you" Anna pleaded.

KezTrek sighed, "Anna, I want to believe the Admiral, really I do, but you saw how he behaved out there, I can't believe that this is just a simple dislike for Admiral Edwards, there has to be more to it than that" she paused, "tell me what you know, all of it, leave nothing out" KezTrek said, part of her wanting to go and ask Drew herself but the other part knowing that just now she wouldn't be a welcome visitor.

Onboard the Hawking…

Admiral Edward’s stepped off the transporter pad to be greeted by the Hawking’s actual commander Captain Robert Wood, the tall Captain saluted the Admiral as he strolled towards him. “I take it everything went according to plan?” Wood asked eagerly, he wanted to get this phase of the mission over as quickly as possible Edward’s gave his old friend a smile “Captain KezTrek is young, idealistic, loyal to the chain of command” “That’s what Admiral’s used to say about me” Wood interrupted him with a laugh which Edward’s shared “Indeed they did” Edward’s agreed “But Captain KezTrek will obey my orders, I have no doubt” he added confidently “You sound pretty sure of that” Wood told him “I am” Edward’s explained “I could see it in her eye’s she doubts Drew herself, she believed the story I gave her and will keep the Fang well out of our way”.

“Speaking of which, we are ready to proceed with the plan,” Wood said with a smile “Good” Edward’s replied, “Let’s get to the bridge”.

The two command officer’s walked confidently out of the turbo lift onto the huge bridge of the Hawking, both headed for the three centre seats on the bridge, although Edward’s took the captain’s chair “Helm enter the nebula full impulse” he ordered “Aye Admiral, entering nebula” the Commander at helm replied “Science activate the deflector dish like we spoke about, tactical raise the protomatter shielding”. Both officer’s carried out their tasks finally Ops reported “It worked sir, a wormhole has opened” Edward’s allowed himself to cheer inside, he knew he was right “Send in a probe make sure it leads to the same place as the Grissom reported” Edward’s continued to order, rubbing his hands in anticipation “Probe away” Ops reported “It will take one hour for us to get the results” “One hour until I become the most powerful man in the Federation” Edward’s said with an evil chuckle.

Meanwhile on the Fang 

The senior staff, Graeme excluded because he was in sickbay, was listening attentively as Anna told Drew's story again. As Leah had already heard it her mind wandered off, thinking again about Admiral Edwards. She had not sent him her data, and although her excuse had been a bit lame he had not inquired anymore. He probably was too busy coordinating the searching for the Grissom. She was still unsure what to believe, as she heard Anna's version again she felt it did sound good, and she really wanted to believe it. The rest seemed to feel similar, believing their old captain and first officer seemed more right than believing an admiral they did not know. Only Captain KezTrek listened to the story with the cool logic of a vulcan, not letting her feelings of friendship interfere. Anna finished, and then they started debating.

"If there is only a small possibility that Edwards is a traitor," Anna said, "we can't risk him taking over this mission."
"But if Admiral Drew is back in charge we risk the same thing," KezTrek stated. "They are both admirals, we are supposed to follow their orders but one of them is not acting for the good of the federation."
"Admiral Drew's first priority has always been the safety of the federation," Anna replied. "We have all known him for so long."
"A human mind is easily corrupted," KezTrek said. "I'm not willing to put power back into his hands. According to Admiral Edwards he has planned that for a long time, he sent out the Grissom to test it and then followed with the Fang, pretending to have the orders from starfleet command."
"But Paul says it's the other way around, Edwards sent out the Grissom, and when Starfleet Command sent out the Fang to investigate he followed to keep us from interfering."
"The logical way will be to check with Starfleet Command which were the actual orders," KezTrek said.
"But if Edwards is the bad guy it will be too late when we get a reply," Anna replied, starting to be desperate. "We have to act now."
"Commander, we don't have the possibility to act against his orders. That would be mutiney and you know it."
"Not if I am right!"
"One moment," Leah interfered suddenly, causing the two women to stare at her. "Drew is right," she said with a certainty that even surprised herself. Anna smiled but KezTrek looked at her sceptically.
"Cmdr. Lamont we can't be sure of that. We can't be sure of anything."
"Yes we can," Leah continued. "There is a clear evidence that Drew was telling the truth, and Edwards was not."
"And that would be?" KezTrek asked, and everyone looked at Leah in suspense.
"Remember the logs of the Grissom we analysed? The carrier wave contained encrypted messages directed to Starbase 25. The code was impossible to break, so we don't know what the content was. But we do know that the official logs said nothing about protomatter, so the actual tests must have been described in the encrypted part. The Fang did not get the logs until we were ordered to investigate, but Edwards on Starbase 25 got them the whole time. Therefore it was him who sent out the Grissom, and not Drew."
There was relieve to be seen on everyone's faces, but also worry about what Edwards was up to. KezTrek considered Leah's argument, then nodded.
In that moment a transmission from the bridge was put through to the briefing room.
=^= Bridge to briefing room =^= sounded Lt. Calvert's voice through the intercomm. =^= There's a wormhole opening in the nebula =^=
Now all doubt was washed. "Release Admiral Drew from his quarters," she ordered. "Now let's stop Edwards."
They all headed back to the bridge immediately where the screen showed a rift opening not far from the Hawking.

USS Fang – 2388.

Paul Drew had fallen, a mare few hours ago he was the commander of a starship with a good reputation, now he was nothing more than a common criminal, doomed to spend the next few years of his life in a penile colony. As the Admiral wallowed in his self-pity his door chirmed repeatedly, finally registering the noise Drew spoke “Enter”, he expected it to be the women who had relieved him of duty – Captain KezTrek here to read him his rights and state which Starbase he was to be tried at, he was not expecting an energetic Anna Shipely. His First Officer had the biggest grin on her face that Drew had ever seen “Now’s not the time to be laying in bed Captain, you have a bridge to command” she told him in a triumphant tone. Drew felt his body come alive, knew his eyes were widening, he tried to stop a smile playing across his face but was unsuccessful, he didn’t like showing his emotions to his crewmembers but this moment was an exemption.

USS Johnson - 2370
“Medical teams to the bridge” Lt. Commander Paul Drew ordered taking the centre seat on the USS Johnson, he cast a look down to his fallen Captain who was on the deck clutching his head in pain, whatever was going on onboard this ship Drew did not like it. As he was preparing to issue orders to try and discover what was going on the turbolift doors open and the ships First Officer – Commander Jake walked onto the bridge, imminently Drew rose from the command chair and headed for his Ops station, though he resented giving command up it was the First Officer’s duty to take command in this situation.

USS Fang - 2388
Admiral Paul Drew walked out onto the bridge of the USS Fang; most of the senior staff were at their stations calling out the status of the wormhole that had just opened. Seeing Drew walk on to the bridge KezTrek stepped away from the command chair nodded her head at Drew and then took the helm. Strolling down to the command deck, savouring the moment Drew began to take command “What’s the status of the wormhole is it stable?” he asked taking his chair, he allowed himself to admit how much he had missed seating in the centre of the action. “From what we can establish from these readings, which isn’t much the wormhole matrix is 90% stable matter” Leah reported from Operations “What’s the concentration of protomatter?” Anna requested, “The nebula is interfering with my sensors too much” Trylophis report “From what I can tell at least 50% of the matrix is protomatter” “How do they expect to be able to survive that?” Drew thought out load “We took heavy damage just from the small amounts of protomatter in the nebula, a Sovereign Class is not that much more powerful than a Prometheus” no one on the bridge dared to answer the question.

USS Johnson - 2370

The senior staff of the Johnson had gathered in the small conference room, unbeknown to them the visitor from the future also joined them, quickly Drew explained his theory on why most of the crew had suddenly started becoming ill “You think the protomatter we are experimenting with is causing this?” First Officer Jake asked “Yes sir” Drew replied, Jake looked to Edward’s who was possibly boiling with rage at the moment “Commander this is your baby, is what Drew saying possible?”, reluctantly Edward’s nodded his head “Yes sir, but I believe I may have a way to adept our shields to block out the negative effects of the protomatter”. Graeme’s ear’s peaked up with interest this could be just the sort of thing the Fang needed “Get to work then Commander Edwards” Jake ordered dismissing the senior staff, Graeme followed Edward’s out of the room eager to discover the secrets to this shield.

USS Fang – 2388

Drew watched the Fang’s viewscreen as the Hawking prepared to enter the wormhole, he made a vow to himself to stop them “Ragin get down to engineering, get all the power you can into the shields” Drew told his CEO, Ragin nodded his head and entered the turbolift. “KezTrek as soon as Ragin gives us power take us into the nebula, Leah prepare to fire all weapons at the Hawking, target there engines only” both officers replied with “Aye sirs”.

Drew leaned back in his chair “Open a channel to the Hawking” he ordered, within seconds Rick Edward’s face appeared onscreen “Captain KezTrek I told you to stay…” Edward’s voice dropped half sentence has he seen Drew in command “Sorry to disappoint you Admiral but I am in command again” Drew told him with a smile “Now stand down before I open fire”.

Edwards sat at his station and started talking with the computer trying to find a way to block the effects of the Protomatter. Graeme followed him noting every calculation he made. "Computer, what shield frequency would fare better against the adverse effects of the protomatter?" he asked. The computer bleeped then replied. "Results in-conclusive." The computer replied. "Computer at present shield strength, how many pulses from the deflector dish at any given frequency would it take to begin countering the adverse effects of protomatter?" Edwards asked. The computer bleeped again. "Ingenious" Graeme thought. The computer replied. "9 pulses every hour at any frequency in the high tera-hertz region." The computer stated. Graeme was actually shocked that he was able to figure out how to start countering protomatter's effects in a few minutes while back on the Fang, even with more technology and understanding, the crew had spent hours trying to find a way. "Computer, tri-axilate the exact frequency emmited by the deflector which would produce the highest protection from the protomatter." Edwards demanded. The computer bleeped once more. "This can't be the same man that threatened me earlier or is that someday. I finally understand the advice my aunt gave me when I joined Starfleet- Try not to figure out time because it's not worth the headaches it gives." Graeme said chuckling. "Frequecy unknown." The computer stated bluntly. Graeme could see the anger of Edwards as a vein in his forehead became noticebly large and stood out. "Computer state any possible option that could further reduce the effects of protomatter!" Edwards asked showing his anger. Graeme knew by the look on his face that he knew something he was waiting to share. It was the same look Drew had when he knew exactly what to do in certain situations like when..... Graeme's thoughts were cut off by the computers voice. "Variables too vague to compile a list." It stated. "Computer what if the hull was magnetised to the same tera-hertz frequency that is emmitted by the deflector, in assistance to the shields at a frequency in the high E-band range?" Edwards asked relaxing a bit. Graeme noticed he looked too comfortable and confident. The computer bleeped for a few minutes then replied. "There is a 60% chance of protection"  The computer stated emotionless. A smile crossed Edwards face. "Computer using current knowledge and hypathetical knowledge, extrapilate the exact frequency needed for shields then for deflector pulses and hull magnetism. The computer bleeped. "Hypathetical frequency for shields and deflector pulses found......."


***20 YEARS LATER***

In sickbay aboard the USS FANG, Commander Graeme Janeway lay in sickbay. Commander Camp
was taking more scans. She looked on in horror. "50CC's of Tricotrazine now!" She shouted. A nurse
quickly handed her the hypospray as she put it to Graemes neck. The simple subdermal transfer
began and ended in a second. She sighed in relief. "Sickbay to Lt. Calvert, Commander Janeway's
condition is getting worse. I would be greatful if you could inform either Commander Shipley or
Admiral Drew. Thanks. Camp out." She said before Peter could get a word in. She took more scans
of Graeme as he lay unconscious in a biobed.......

Shipley and Drew both looked up as Lt. Calvert approached them with the news on Graeme “They could probably use some experienced hands down there Commander” Drew told his First Officer, Anna nodded her head in agreement “I will see what I can do” she said with a smile as she entered the turbolift.

Drew watched her leave and then turned his attention back to the task at hand “Captain KezTrek, find us an opening in the nebula clear of protomatter” “Understood” KezTrek replied from the helm, her hands starting to fly over her navigation sensors, Drew then pressed the communication button on his chair “Bridge to Engineering” “Go ahead Drew” Ragin replied “Chief I need that shield power” “I am working on it, just give me some more time” Ragin explained “That may be one thing we don’t have” Drew told him before cutting the signal.

Drew leaned back in his chair and sighed, he had given his crew their tasks now all he could do was wait.

Anna hurried to sickbay, there was no telling what was going on in Graeme's head. She just hoped they could find out before it was too late.

The sickbay doors opend and a nurse stood by Graeme's biobed, holding a hypospray. She hurried over to him.

"I don't know what's wrong" the Lt. said "the tricotrazine isn't working."

"He's going into shock! 10 more ccs tricotrazine." Anna ordered.

"Heart rate is falling commander" she said.
Then, Graeme said something. He seemed to repeat it over and over.

"What's he saying Lt.?" Anna asked
"I'm not sure sir, it sounds like... Edwards."

Anna suddenly pieced everything together.
"I get it now! Lt. 25 ccs vertizine and hurry."
"Vertizine sir?"
"You heard me... 25 ccs." Anna took the hypospray and injected Graeme... His heart rate began to go back to normal and his body calmed down.

"Shipley to Drew: I understand now what was wrong with Graeme sir. He'll be sedated for a few hours but you should come down here after while."
"Good, Let me know a good time No.1. Drew out"

Leah closely monitored the actions of the Hawking. Edwards had not reacted to Drew's threat, he did not seem to think the Fang would be able to stop him.
"Sir," she reported, "The Hawking is starting to turn, they must have decided that the rift is save enough to go. They can't enter the wormhole at high speed, but it won't take them more than 10 minutes to get in now. We will have enter the nebula now if we want to be able to stop them."
"Ragin, do we have these shields?" Drew yelled into his communicator.
=^= Almost Sir, =^= the engineer replied.
"Almost is not good enough, we have to go now! KezTrek, lay in course. Leah, fire as soon as you are in range."
KezTrek hesitated for a short moment, but the followed the order. The ship started to shake, the provisory shields flickered, but seemed to hold for the moment. Ragin yelled a curse through the communicator, =^= I told you almost. They should hold now, but I have to start half the repairs of the other systems from scratch now. =^=
Drew smiled briefly, "Sorry bout that chief," he said and ended the transmission before the chief could add anything else.
"How long until we are in weapons range?" Drew asked.
"7 minutes Sir," Leah replied. "Won't leave us much margin to stop them, but it should be enough. Sir, Edwards is hailing again. Must have noticed we are following him."
"Put him through," Drew said.
=^= Get the hell out of here Paul, you are messing up everything again. I won't let you this time =^= Edwards yelled furiously, then ended the transmission before Drew could answer.
"Sir, he's increasing speed," Leah reported. "They'll enter the rift in 7 minutes at this speed. Although I doubt they'll stay alive like this."
"Will it be enough time for us to stop them?" Drew asked.
"I'm not sure," Leah said. "Possibly."
Drew glanced at KezTrek, but she immediately shook her head. "No way Sir, I can't go faster. The shields are barely holding now, if we go faster we are history."
"Well Leah, you'll have one shot, better not miss."
"Sir I'm not even a tactical officer," she reminded him. But at his sharp look she smiled and said "but I never missed at the tactical simulations."
Both ships crept through the nebula in a race against time.

The Fang begin to race towards her sister ship, now nearing the edge of the wormhole mouth “ETA to the Hawking” Drew ordered from the centre of the bridge “At full impulse 3 minutes” KezTrek reported down from the helm. Drew let out a breath, they may just make it “According to sensors the Hawking will enter the wormhole in 2.5 minutes” Trylophis reported grimly.

All eyes turned to Drew at Trylophis’s words “Captain, shall I fire?” Leah asked, Drew starred at the viewscreen a few moments watching the Hawking sped closer to the wormhole “Captain?” Leah asked again forcefully “No” Drew said, surprising himself “All stop”, now KezTrek turned to face Drew “Sir?” she said raising an eyebrow “That’s a Starfleet ship, a Starfleet crew, we have to find another way to stop them”. “Hawking entering the wormhole” Trylophis reported from science, all eyes watched as the Sovereign Class ship disappeared, at once Drew as on his feet “Leah, Trylophis get down to the shuttle bay, I want you to make the changes to a runabout so it can travel safely through protomatter areas and then follow the Hawking, I don’t want to take the ship through until we know what we are dealing with – take Ragin with you”, both officer’s nodded there heads and entered the turbolift, just as Anna was walking out.

“Captain KezTrek you have the bridge” Drew called out, indicating to Anna to follow him to the ready room, when the door was closed the two sat at the desk “I have the basic’s of what happened to Graeme from sickbay” Drew said “All I want to know is what happened” Anna took a deep breath and started to explain “When you and Graeme were first hit with the protomatter, it somehow caused a brief telepathic link between the pair of you, because you recovered so quickly from the shock than Graeme we think whatever thoughts were in your mind at the time were transferred to Graeme, Graeme’s mind could not deal with your memories and so it shut down the body to process them, causing Graeme to relive them”

Drew nodded his head in understanding “How is the Commander now?” “He is doing ok, I think it would probably be a good idea for llliana to speak to him though, he has had quiet an experience” Anna replied, Drew nodded his head in agreement “I will leave it in your hands to tell the Counsellor to pay him a visit” as Anna started to move towards the door Drew called out “Tell Captain KezTrek I want to speak to her”

“You asked to see me” KezTrek entered the room, she was apprehencive to sat the least, this was not going to be an easy conversation.

“Yes, I thought we better talk” Drew said, motioning her to sit across from him.

Kez wondered what there was to talk about, she had done her job and followed orders, the fact that those orders turned out to come from a mad man, well it was unfortunite but given the information she had at the time, she couldn’t have done it any other way, could she?

“I won’t apploigise, I did what I had to do at the time” Kez said, she was decisive on that, she’d had no other option.

Drew smiled, “I didn’t think you would, and I wouldn’t ask you too, I just wanted to tell you that I understand what you did, I just wish you’d trusted me enough to listen to me first.”

“It wasn’t about trust, it was about me doing my job, you know you told me about the future me coming back when we were on the prison planet I didn’t think I could ever be like that, I still don’t, but I understand that me more now. I understand you more now, and I think if you’d been in my place you’d have done it too” Kez told him.

Drew nodded, “I might have at that” he conceded.

Kez bowed her head, she felt a sadness, but at the same time a strength, “Your not my Captain anymore” she said raising her head, it was strange he was her commanding officer certainly, but no longer her Captain.

“No I don’t suppose I am” Drew said, smiling a little, almost sadly.

Kez looked at him, they’d known each other a long time, she’d hate to think that everything was gone.

“You may not be my Captain anymore” she said, “but I hope you are still my friend, as I am yours”.

Drew nodded, they weren’t the same team they had been, but they were still friends, and they still had the greatest respect for each other, perhaps even more so than before.

*BEEP * BEEP*

“Enter” Drew called out, and the door opened to reveal Graeme...

With the Away Team

=^= Cmdr. Ragin please report to shuttle bay 1 =^= Leah said tapping her comm badge as she and Trylophis entered the turbo lift. Ordering the turbo lift to deck 7 she ran her mind through the changes that would need to be made to the runabout. Adapting the shield frequency should provide them with the necessary protection, just they had to make sure the shields stayed up at all times. They'd have to transfer all energy from the warp core to the shields. She did not feel too good about this whole affair, sure, if the shuttle were blown to pieces the Fang would have been also so it didn't really make a difference. Trylophis also didn't look very confident, he was shifting on his feet nervously and Leah couldn't blame him for that, she felt similar. When the turbo lift stopped on deck 7 she gave him an encouraging smile, and the two headed for the shuttle bay where Ragin was waiting already.

"What are we up to?" he asked.
"Take one guess," Leah replied. "Us lucky three were chosen to be the guinea pigs."
Ragin didn't look too pleased about the news, but he didn't waste any time arguing.
"We will need to divert energy from the warp core to the shields," Leah explained. "The shield frequency of 804.7 should protect us from the protomatter, so we should be able to get through there, considering that the rift does not collapse while we are in it. Ragin you know your job, just keep the shuttle together. I'm piloting, Trylophis will collect as much data as possible. We need to determine if it will be safe for the Fang to pass. Everything clear?"
The two men nodded.
"Ragin, how long will you need to get the shuttle ready?"
"Diverting energy and adapting the shields won't take more than a few minutes," the chief replied.
"Alright, get to work. We will launch in 5 minutes."
Leah and Trylophis entered the runabout and Leah took the helm, programming the course, as Trylophis started the senory equipment. Only 3 minutes later Ragin joined them. "I'm done," he said and took his station where he could monitor all functions of the shuttle. "What are we waiting for?"
"We're on our way already," Leah replied, and the gates of the shuttle bay opened as she said it. They could see the glowing gases of the nebula ahead. Leaving the Fang behind they moved closer towards the black rift in the heart of the whirling gases, where the Hawking had disappeared a few minutes earlier.

Trylophis looked up to Ragin. "Well, it seems we don't have much choice, do we? Er... let's see. Ragin, could you give this shuttle's sensors some extra priority in power management? Even if things go wrong, I really need those things to remain functional - for as long as possible that is - or we could just as well abandon this mission nów... and Leah, do try to keep us on course, will you? Sensors indicate that there may be quite some turbulence over there, but I really MUST have a more or less stable course for more detailed sensor readings to be more or less trustworthy." Leah shrugged. "Sure - and thanks for the confidence", she mumbled sarcastically. The Bolian gave her a quick and rather uncomfortable smile. "Good. Well, let's get started, shall we?"

Trylophis turned away from his sensors. "Er... Ragin? Leah? I've just done a scan on that wormhole..." "What about it?", Leah asked briskly. She didn't look happy at all, but then again, she hadn't been since this mission started. "Wellll.... er... let me start by saying that reliable readings are difficult to achieve because of the high protomatter interference in there... but er... I think that I can safely say that this wormhole is completely stable. I suggest extreme caution when travelling through there because of the protomatter inside - one doesn't want to stay in there for very long, so speed is essential." "Then what's the problem?" "Well, according to my data, it's extremely likely that there's a black hole not far from the other side hole the wormhole. I cannot see the hole itself, but the way some of these particles inside the wormhole seem to move... so my guess is, that if you move through the wormhole fast, you crash into the black hole on the other hand; in other words, moving into the wormhole is probably the most lethal thing one can do at this moment." Leah frowned. "Ah. I see. Ragin, contact the Fang. We need orders... NOW!"

Graeme stood nervously in the doorway for a few moments, obviously worried he had interrupted something “Graeme, its good to see you on your feet again” Drew said warmly indicating for Graeme to walk into the room “I am interrupting?” Graeme asked with concern “Not at all” KezTrek said raising “We had just finished” she nodded her head to Drew who returned the gesture and then left.

“So Graeme what can I do for you?” Drew asked leaning back in his chair, just as Graeme was about to speak Anna’s voice came over the intercom “Bridge to Captain” “Go ahead Anna” Drew replied “We are receiving a transmission from the shuttle, shall I patch it through to the ready room?” “Please” Drew stated, turning to Graeme he said, “Hold that thought two moments Commander” and hit the comm control on his desktop console “Drew here” he spoke to the screen

"Drew, according to Trylophis the wormhole exits very near a black hole, anyone that enteres the wormhole at high speeds will most likly be sucked in"
"i see..." said drew
"erm.... orders?" enquired the chief
"leah, i leave this up to you, if you feel confident enough to take the runabout into the wormhole then please procede. otherwise return to the fang"

Drew could sense the officer’s uncertainty and tried to reassure them “There must be a way to do it safely, the Hawking would not have entered the wormhole otherwise, and we seen them launch a probe so they must know about the black hole” Drew told his officer’s, using a tone that implied he wanted suggestions “There is one way we could do it” Leah’s strong voice added “But its very risky”

“Well Commander, risk is part of the job” Drew told her lightly “Let’s hear your idea” “We attempt a sub-space jump at high warp speed as soon as we exit the wormhole, in theory we would be able to ‘jump’ around the black hole, as you know a black hole does not suck matter in at the speed of light, so we should be able to outran the pull” “That’s more than risky” Ragin replied “Its near suicide, we make just a fraction of a miscalculation and we could end up right bang in the middle of the thing” “Ragin is correct” Trylophis said in agreement with his colleagues assessment “But theoretically it is possible”.

Drew listened quietly as his officer’s agued the pros and cons of the proposed solution, finally he spoke “Well it seems to me that for this mission to work we need to prove theory as fact”

“I don’t like where this is going” Ragin said under his breath Drew smiled at the comment “Try the sub-space jump, you should only receive minor damage, if you are successful then send us a high speed transmission through the wormhole” “And if we are not successful?” Trylophis asked with growing concern “Then we will do everything we can to save you, I know its risky but this is our only chance” Drew tried to reassure them, finally it seemed all three were ready “Good luck and god speed” Drew said ending the transmission.

Trying to shake the feeling that he was sending three members of his senior staff to their deaths, after the channel was clear he turned his attention back to Graeme “Sorry about that Commander, now what can I do for you?”

Graeme walked into Drew’s ready room as Kez had just left. After the comm. channel had finished, Graeme sat in the chair thinking. Sir I would like to propose going after Hawking, we could disable them and tow them back to the nearest Starbase where Edwards and his crew would be court marshalled." Graeme said optimistic.
"No!" Drew said almost immediately.
"I won't fire on another Federation starship. I don't want to be responsible for any lives." Drew said determined.
"Sir, recently Lt. Calvert and I have been working on something that could help us here" Graeme said hopeful that he could convince Drew to persue the Hawking and get Edwards.
"Go on" Drew said.
"We believe that we have created a torpedo that could be modified to disable a starship instantly. It could deactivate propulsion and weapons systems. It can be modified to target different systems and it's field range can be altered" Graeme said.
"How does it work?" Drew asked.
"Basically it emits an electromagnetic field around the target. We could fire a tachyon burst to force them to remodulate their shields. The field frequency can be modified to affect different systems on a ship." Graeme said confidently.
"It's an interesting idea. Are you sure it would work?" Drew asked.
"Not exactly sir but from what Lt. Calvert says, the simulations have all concluded that it will work. Lt. Calvert says that there are four torpedoes which have been modified to carry out its required functions" Graeme said.
"Very impressive commander. I will discuss the matter with Anna and then we will decide." Drew said
"Okay sir. Permission to return to my station?" Graeme asked.

"Granted" Drew said as Graeme left the ready room for his station.
"Cmdr. Shipley, I need to see you for a minute."

"Yes sir" Anna said entering the ready room "What can I do for you?"

"Take a seat Anna" Drew said and he explained Graeme's theory to her. Then he leaned back in his chair, "So what do you think?" he asked, looking a bit hesitant about the situation.

"Well sir, as far as the idea goes, he obviously has the simulations to support it." Anna noticed the look on Drew's face, "but we could hold a staff meeting to discuss the matter further" she said with a grin and waited for Drew's reply...

On the Fang…

Drew thought over Anna’s suggestion “Agreed, if we get time we will hold a staff meeting on the Graeme’s idea” he regarded his First Officer with a smile “Anything else?” “Just one thing….” Anna was interrupted by a call from Graeme “Bridge to Ready Room, Admiral we are receiving a transmission from the shuttle” “We are on our way” Drew reported.

Minutes later Anna and Drew were listening to Leah’s message, not only informing the Fang that the sub-space jump was a success, but also that they were under heavy attack “We have to help them” Anna stated, her voice filled with concern “And we will” Drew told her as they both took there seats at the centre of the bridge “Captain KezTrek, take us into the wormhole, prepare to initiate sub-space jump the mirco-second we exit the wormhole” Drew ordered facing the viewscreen.

The Fang shook slightly as she flew through the wormhole, and finally at KezTrek’s expert handling disappeared into sub-space, to reappear seconds later the other side of the blackhole.

On the shuttle…

Leah was flying the shuttle almost as good as KezTrek was flying the Fang, but no matter how well she could fly, a shuttle was no match for a fully armed Sovereign Class starship “We can’t take much more of this” Ragin called out, clinging onto his station for support as the shuttle was hit by another volley of phaser fire “The Fang should be here any minute” Leah said through clenched teeth as she tried doing everything she could to avoid the quantum torpedoes heading towards them. She started counting down in her mind the seconds until impact, bracing herself for shield failure, to her utter surprise the torpedoes never hit, she looked to the viewscreen to see a large silver ship shielding the shuttle just as Trylophis called out joyfully “It’s the Fang”

On the Fang…

“Red Alert” Drew ordered just as the quantum torpedoes hit the Fang’s shields, Drew wasn’t worried about them, he knew his ship’s shields could withstand the first few spreads of torpedoes, even phaser’s would not be too much of a worry at the moment “Drew to Lamont” he called hitting his communication control “Are we glad to see you” Leah’s warm voice replied over the channel “The feeling is mutual” Drew told her “Reconfigure your shields to pass through ours and get back here” “Aye Sir” she said closing the channel.

“Starboard shields are down to 50%,” Graeme reported “KezTrek try and protect the starboard shields” Drew ordered “I can’t do anything until the shuttle is onboard” KezTrek replied grimly from the helm “Graeme, fire a few warning shots across there bow, remind them we have teeth”. “That could be a problem” Graeme reported his voice filled with regret and annoyance “How so?” Drew said sharply “My station just went dead, I have lost weapon control” “Damn” Drew cursed before addressing the computer “Transfer tactical control to my station” “Firing phasers” Drew reported, “Wait, I have lost phaser control, all weapons are offline” “I think I may know why” Graeme reported from mission ops “There is a virus in the main computer, its affecting all our main systems”.

“Edward’s” Anna cursed “He must have done it when he was onboard”

“The shuttle is onboard” KezTrek reported, “Starting evasive action” “Do we have warp engines?” Drew asked her “According to my readings yes” “Then take us to warp, your choice of destination, we can’t face them without our weapons”.

Just then the away team walked onto the bridge “Just in time” Drew said greeting them “There is some sort of virus in the main computer, I want all of you to work on clearing it out, you to Graeme”.

As the Fang flew into warp, its two sister ships followed…

“Captain, if this virus continues to affect all systems at the rate it is now then we will lose warp drive in 17 minutes and provided we take no more shield damage, which is highly unlikely, we will lose shield power in 22 minutes.” Graeme reported regretfully. Kez turned around to look at Drew and nodded in agreement with Graeme’s statement. Drew took a deep breath and looked around. Each officer assigned to get rid of the virus scanned the ship for an exact pinpoint. A smile crossed Leah’s face as her console bleeped.
“Sir, I’ve found where the virus was deployed. If we can scan it, we will be hopefully able to identify it then counter it.” Leah reported.
Drew nodded. Leah got up and went over to Ragin. They both headed to the turbolift.
“Be quick Leah.” Drew said anxiously. Suddenly the ship shook as a volley of quantum torpedoes hit the shields.
“Shields down to 70%, starboard shields are at 30% and dropping.” Graeme reported.
Leah and Ragin disappeared from sight as the turbolift doors shut.
“Captain KezTrek, all stop the turn us around and jump to warp again. That should distract them for a minute.” Drew ordered cunningly.
Kez hit buttons on the Navigation console and the Fang slowed to impulse. It swooped around and jumped to warp 5 as the Hawking and Grissom slowed to impulse. The sister ships then turned around, notably slower and jumped to warp to pursue the Fang.
“We’re out of their weapons range but that could soon easily change.” Graeme reported according to his console.
“Helm, jump to maximum warp.” Drew ordered determined to protect the lives of his crew and save his ship.
The Fang gracefully increased speed and was now faster than the Grissom but the Hawking wouldn’t be far behind.
“Lamont to bridge, we’ve reached the site of the virus and are conducting scans, we should have results soon. Lamont out.” Leah said before anybody could respond.
“Sir main power will fail in 9 minutes!” Graeme shouted from his station.
Drew turned and looked at him.
“What!? What happened to 17 and 22 minutes?” Drew asked.
“The virus is spreading quicker through the systems than expected.” Graeme reported.
“Sir, we are being hailed. It’s the Hawking.” Kez reported.
“Lets see it.” Drew said.
Edwards appeared on the screen.
“I see you are having a little power troubles Paul. This is your last chance get out of here and forget this happened or we will destroy you and your pathetic ship!” Edwards spat.
Kez shut the channel before somebody said something irrational. Drew looked furious. Anna stood up defiantly.
“Sir we can’t surrender, we can’t lose to this cruel, evil, spiteful, cheat of a man!” Anna said angrily.
Graeme nodded as did Kez and Trylophis.
“Lamont to bridge, I have the scan and I think I know how to compromise the virus sir.” Leah reported.
“Excellent, get started now and lets show Edwards how pathetic the Fang can really be” Drew said darkly…..

at the site of the virus

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

leah showed the scan to the chief
"its a nasty little thing isn't it" said the chief as he scanned the code
leah nodded.
"but i can just start killing it now, we should be clean of it in 5 minutes"
the chief nodded and continued reading the code
"ok lets kill this..." said leah
"wait!" the cheif reached out and grabbed leahs hand before she could finish the last command
"chief! what the hell..."
"edwards a smart little puppy, this virus has take over a small bandwith of the comm dish and is relaying our systems information to the hawking"
"so? we cut the link"
"no, he'll rely on this more than anything else... if we re-write the code we can give him any kind of info we want"

"do we have time?" asked leah
the chief paused
"yeah... probably
lets see if your coding is as sharp as your flying"

leah grinned and set to the task

-*-*-*
five min later
-*-*-*

"Leah to the bridge"
"go ahead"
"the virus is taken care of, edwards was using the virus to spy on the fangs internal systems. we've hijacked that code and we can tell him anything we want, awaiting your orders"

the chief grinned
"i'll give you 5 bars of gold pressed latinum if you transmit some really old 20th centuary cartoons right to their main screen" he said to leah
leah grinned back
"chief, behave. we can tease him later"

the chief started to head for the door
"i'll be in enginnering if you need me"
he called as he headed out the door and started to run for enginnering

"Sir we will lose warp in 7 minutes and shields in 6 minutes." Graeme interrupted from his station.
"Commander Lamont you have 6 minutes to save us all." Drew said worried.
"Understood sir. Lamont out." Leah said ending the transmission.
"Well no pressure." Leah muttered to Ragin. He completed her last scan.
As the Fang gracefully maintained maximum warp, the Hawking fired another spread of quantum torpedoes at the Fang.

**During Ragins post**

"Incoming torpedoes!" Graeme shouted.
"All hands brace for impact!" Drew yelled over the comm.
The torpedoes hit the Fang and inside the Fang took a beating. Consoles everywhere erupted into flames. They sparked and exploded. The helm station exploded just as Kez got out of the way. She fell to the ground but quickly got back up. The engineering station exploded violently as main engineering was in shambles. The warp core had been targeted.
"Report!" Drew ordered.
"Helm controls are responding again" KezTrek said.
"Long range sensors are down and we have short range only." Trylophis reported.
"Aft shields are down, starboard shields are down as well. Weapons still inoperative but we have a full complement of torpedoes armed." Graeme said looking optimistic.
"Casualty report." Drew said.
Anna looked at her side console.
"17 injured, 3 dead sir." Anna regretfully reported.
"Captain, the Hawking is charging it's phaser banks. We can not survive another direct hit to our warp core." Graeme said panicking.

**After Ragins post**

TheHawking slipped along after the Fang at high warp. It began to fire phasers. A phaser blast hit right into the Starboard nacelle. More consoles exploded on the bridge.
"Direct hit to our starboard nacelle, we're venting plasma!" Trylophis regretfully yelled at the captain.
"Engineering to bridge, we have extreme damage and things aren't looking so good!" Ragin shouted.
The Fang slipped out of warp and the Hawking behind it. Drew looked around the bridge. It was almost in pieces. Pieces of bulkhead lay around. Massive coils hung from the ceiling.
"Leah status!" Drew asked.
"I am going to let Edwards see exactly what he wants to see" Leah said evilly.
"Anna, hail the Hawking. Tell them we surrender." Drew said cunningly.
"Don't worry. This is a ploy to buy us a few minutes so as Leah can save us. Graeme as soon as we get power back, hit them with everything we've got. Captain make sure they can't see our damaged areas. We are not going to be beaten like this!" Drew said with ambition and confidence.
Leah finished her work.
“Leah to bridge, Edwards thinks that we are completely disabled and not far from destruction.” Leah reported happily.
“Well done Commander” Drew said.
“Lt. Calvert, are our torpedoes ready?” Graeme asked.
“Yes sir.” Lt Calvert replied.
“Captain, the Hawking has acknowledged our surrender and are powering down weapons.” Anna reported.
“They took the bait.” Drew added pleased…….

Drew leaned forward in his chair, watching the approaching starship on the view screen, once he had called her Captain his friend, today he was his enemy, and in a few moments this would end, either way.

“Drew to Engineering, Chief I need everything we have into the shields” “You already have everything” Ragin’s voice usually clam, but today stressed replied “Admiral, we are being hailed by the Hawking, with terms for our surrender” Leah reported from operations “Stand by to put on screen” Drew ordered “Graeme when I give the order fire the modified torpedoes” confident that everyone knew what to do he added “Onscreen” the face of Rick Edward’s appeared on the distorted viewscreen, a smile spread across his cruel face as he seen the extensive damage to Drew’s bridge “We accept your surrender Fang” he said coldly “You and your senior staff we be beamed aboard the Hawking as prisoners” “Please” Drew pleaded “Spare my crew, they were only following my orders” “That was there mistake” Edward’s said with an unemotional voice “You will beam aboard my ship in five minutes” “That may be a problem, as you can see we are heavily damaged our transporter systems are offline, you will have to move within minimal transporter range and beam us aboard” Drew told Edwards, trying disparately to hide the desperation in his voice “I see your weapons are still offline, very well Drew we will beam you onboard” and with that Edward’s closed the channel.

Now Drew’s bridge came to life as the crew began making preparations for the next leg of the plan “Fire on my mark” Drew ordered Graeme “Ready and waiting” Graeme replied eagerly “They are dropping shields” Leah reported coolly from Ops “Full shields now!” Drew ordered “Graeme Fire!”.

A powerful golden light shot out from the Fang’s rear end it flew across space at impulse speeds before impacting on the Hawking’s naked hull there a golden surge moved across the mighty starship.

“It worked!” Graeme cried out with excitement “There shields, weapons, and engines are all offline” Drew smiled proudly “Hail them” he said taking his chair, Edward’s angry face appeared onscreen, this time filled with emotion “Hawking, we offer you unconditional surrender, I am placing you Admiral Edward’s and your senior staff under arrest for treason, Captain KezTrek is beaming aboard with a security team to take command” before Edward’s cut reply Drew singled for the transmission to end.

“KezTrek get over there, Graeme escort her to the transporter room and then show our new guests to the brig, Leah and Trylophis find the Grisson and then lay in a course to intercept them” Drew watched proudly as his crew carried out there tasks.

Leah accessed the short range sensors, searching for the Grissom. When they had left the wormhole with the shuttle the Grissom had been right next to the Hawking, but as the battle with the Fang started, the Grissom got out of range. They were a scientific ship and not equipped with the weapons to endanger a prometheus class ship. And when they saw that the Hawking had lost, they were quick to disappear.
'Well they can't be far,' Leah thought, even if they had gone to high warp they'd still be in sensor range for quite a while, yet she could not detect them anywhere. 'Where are you hiding?' she asked them silently, as she scanned and rescanned the surrounding area.
"Trylophis, can you find them anywhere," she called over to the science station.
"Negative. They simply disappeared," came the reply. Leah raised her eyebrows, a ship just did not simply disappear. Where could they have gone? And then it came to her mind, the only place they could go, where they would not be detected, was the boundary of the event horizon. But that was crazy, if they went a bit too far, there would be no return. Still, it was the only place they could possibly be hiding.

"Sir," she said to Drew. "I believe I know where they are. I'm afraid you won't like it though."
"Well where is it, Commander?" Drew asked, looking at her curiously.
"Very close to the black hole, just infront of the critical point. Our sensors cannot scan this area from here, we will have to approach more to confirm, but this could be quite dangerous. Only a little miscalculation and we won't be able to escape the gravitational forces of the black hole."
"I imagine it is just as dangerous for the Grissom?" Drew stated, and Leah nodded. "I guess they chose the spot because they hoped we wouldn't go after them."
"Silly captain should know exactly that we will," Drew said. "Prepare a tangetial course along the event horizon, keep us as far away from the critical point as possible."
"I'm calculating the course, and transferring it to helm," Leah said, and a few seconds later the assistant helm officer signaled that he got the data.
"Approach carefully," Drew reminded him, "Leah prepare tractor beam so we can pull the Grissom out as soon as we are in range."
"I don't have anything on sensors yet, we should be close enough to get data in one minutes," Leah said. A minute passed, but Leah still got no sign of the ship, and slowly she started to think she might have misinterpreted the Grissom's disappearance, maybe they had found another way to get away from the Fang unnoticed. Drew looked at her expectingly, and she couldn't do more than shrug. Then finally the sensors reacted.
"I see them," Leah said, and put the image on the screen. "They are darn close to the horizon, too close for my liking."
"Keep approaching," Drew ordered. "Leah hail them." She opened a channel.
"Grissom, this is Rear Admiral Paul Drew, you can't hide from us in there, so why don't you make it easier for all of us and come out, before you are caught inside the event horizon."
"No reply," Leah stated. "Looks like they want to do it the hard way. I've got the tractor beam prepared, but we need to approach another 1000 kilometers before we are in reach... Sir they are powering their engines. But into the wrong direction! At this speed we won't catch up with them before they are too far in."
"Speed up," Drew ordered. "Sir," Leah said. "We might not be able to turn away quick enough."
"But there is a good chance we will?" Drew asked, and Leah couldn't do much more than nodding. "Then we'll follow," Drew said. "They can't be as stupid to fly in, they just want us to break off the pursuit." Leah very much hoped he was right.
The two ships were gliding along the event horizon of the black hole at dangerous speed.
"You were right, they are turning," Leah said as she saw the Grissom change course. "Oh no, their engines are not strong enough to counter the gravitation. They can't get away! We have to get them."
"Get all you can out of these engines," Drew ordered and the Fang sped up rushing towards the Grissom on parallel course.
"5 seconds until we are in reach, 4, 3 ... activating tractor beam," Leah said, and the situation tensed, "Got them," she yelled.
"Sharp turn," Drew ordered, and the Fang's fought against the black hole. The ship shook and twisted, but eventually broke free. The whole bridge crew breathed out ouf relief. "We are leaving the critical area," Leah said, "We made it, and the Grissom is safe in the tractor beam."
"Very good," Drew said, "although their captain might soon wish that they were lost forever in the black hole... Helm, set course for the Hawking, and then let's head home!"

The Fang slid quickly along space towards the Hawkings position. After a couple of minutes they arrived. Drew stood up from his chair.
"Drew to Captain KezTrek, I assume everything is going according to plan?" Drew asked confidently.
"You assume correctly sir." Came Kez' blunt, Vulcan voice over then comm.
"Excellent. How soon can we be underway?" Drew asked.
"In a few minutes sir. We are running a final safety check before we move and blow to bits." Kez said still without emotion.
"Acknowledged and Captain, don't keep me waiting." Drew said with a grin.
"Yes sir. Hawking out." Kez stated and closed the channel.
The Fang was currently at yellow alert. Edwards was in the brig along with his senior staff.
"Graeme, how are our 'guests'?" Drew asked abruptly.
"Uncomfortable I hope." Graeme replied sarcastically.
Drew simply smiled.
"Keep me updated. Edwards is resourceful and tricky." Drew warned.
"Aye sir." Graeme replied.
"Hawking here, we're ready to get underway." Kez happily reported.
"Very well Captain. Let’s go home shall we?" Drew asked knowing the response.
"Yes sir." Kez replied.
"Ensign Blackstone, lay in a course for the wormhole, maximum warp." Drew ordered.
"Course laid in sir." The ensign replied.
"Engage!" Drew ordered with glee.
The Fang jumped to warp 9 and the Hawking behind it.
"Leah, keep an eye on the Grissoms hull integrity." Drew ordered carefully.
"Some stress but nothing important will happen by the time we reach the wormhole entrance sir." Leah reported.
Drew nodded.

***A FEW MINUTES LATER***

The Fang slipped out of warp with the Grissom still in a tractor beam. The Hawking left warp shortly after.
"Ensign, take us in at full impulse. Leah, Ragin see what extra data you can collect from the wormhole. Graeme keep an eye on our shields and do make sure they are modified correctly." Drew said in a teasing voice as well as serious.
The Fang began to move into the wormhole with the Hawking not far behind it. They passed the opening and proceeded through it.
"Sir, I'm getting very strange results from my scans." Trylophis reported with worry.
"What like?" Drew questioned......

Illiana sighed as she looked about her, at the officers rushing to and fro. She knew this craze before, but never in humans. She sighed and thought once again of the appeal of being back on Cardassia with her own people, with the coldness that she knew, instead of the fury of these alien humans. She rested back in her chair and watched the struggle unfold.

"Sir, I'm getting very strange results from my scans." Trylophis reported with worry.
"What like?" Drew questioned......

“I am detecting high gravitational waves emitting from the core matrix, I would say that at this rate the wormhole will collapse itself in ten, maybe fifteen minutes” Trylophis reported grimly “How is that possible?” Drew asked walking over to the science station to see the results himself, “That wormhole has all the signs of being stable” Trylophis moved aside so Drew could view the screen, seeing the Captain’s puzzled expression at the scientific data Trylophis translated it for him into plain English “The protomatter is creating an unbalance in the matrix, it can no longer stabilise itself”.

Nodding his head in grim understanding Drew walked back to the centre of the bridge “How far from Federation space are we?” he asked Leah, everyone knew what the question really was – if we can’t travel through the wormhole how long will it take us to get home? – “According to the sensors the nearest Federation outpost is 3000 light years away” Leah reported, tension started to build on the bridge, if they could not use the wormhole it would take them three years to reach that outpost.

“Can we enter the wormhole” Drew asked out to anyone who wanted to answer “I believe we could, though we would take damage, the Hawking may not be able to take high levels of damage at this time” Trylophis reported “They may have no choice, in there current state it would take longer than 3 years to get home” Drew told him, “Leah hail the Hawking and bring them up-to-speed, tell Captain KezTrek to be ready to ride the Fang’s sub-space jump in two minutes, we will try to bring our shields around the Hawking to protect them best we can”.

Two minutes later…

“Hawking reports ready” Graeme reported from tactical “We have enlarged our shields to include the Hawking, the Grimson is standing by” Drew nodded his head satisfied “Very well, go to red alert, helm prepare for sub-space jump, you know what to do after that”.

The bridge of the Fang shook violently as the starship jumped into sub-space and then entered the destabilising wormhole; briefly the bridge was in darkness as the lights failed, to be replaced by the red emergency lights. Finally the shaking stopped.

“Report” Drew said pulling himself off the floor where he had fallen back into his chair “We are back where we started” the helm officer reported happily “Good job” Anna said, a smile spreading across her face “How long until the wormhole collapses?” Drew asked Trylophis “Three minutes” the science officer reported “Helm, get us out of here warp one” Drew ordered from the command chair.

Later…

Beep beep “Come” Drew called out to whoever was waiting at his ready room door, he smiled as Anna walked in “Ragin is cursing you blind” she told him handing him a PADD containing the repair reports “Says you can’t ever get this ship through a mission without damaging something” “He is right” Drew told her with a laugh, “The USS Sherlock will be here within the hour, they are going to transport Edward’s and his staff to Earth for a court marital, the Hawking and Grimson will be going with them” Drew said reading out the information on his screen “The Fang is to head back to Starbase Assailant, Admiral Sheldon and I have some busy to take care off before we both head out on missions again” “We could certainly do with the rest” Anna said wirily “Well don’t start planning shore leave just yet, you and Leah are to transport KezTrek back to the Hanson on the Silver Stone” “Typical” Anna said with a dry laugh “No rest for the wicked” “Kez is waiting in the shuttle bay” Drew said sharing the joke, “Better not keep her waiting then, I will meet you at Starbase” Anna called out as she walked out of the room “I look forward to it” Drew called after her, before turning his attention back to Ragin’s repair report.

Anna walked into the shuttlebay to find Kez and Leah already by the Silverstone.
"Well Captain, have you said your goodbyes?" Anna asked.

"Yes commander, I'm ready to return to my ship." She replied emotionless.

"Leah... shall we?" Anna said motioning for them to climb in. Anna turned around before sitting in her chair and noticed Kez glance around the shuttlebay. Everyone knew how she loved this ship even if she didn't show it.

Kez turned around and got into the Silverstone.
"Alright Leah... let's get going." Anna said as they headed for the Hanson. "By the way Captain, we can't wait to have you back." Anna smiled and detected a grin from the person in the seat behind her as well.

Graeme sat at tactical trying to comprehend the latest missions results. He asked the computer for the time and how long it would take to reach the star base.
"At current speeds, we will intercept the star base in 2 hours and 43 minutes." The computer replied bluntly.
Graeme had lost all his drive and energy over this mission, especially after being near death and everything. He tapped a few buttons on his console and then decided that he needed to get away from the bridge.
"I used to love action, but now I have too much action." Graeme muttered to himself.
Drew walked out of his ready room and looked surprised to find Graeme at tactical.
"Commander, are you not supposed to be with the counsellor?" Drew asked mischievously.
"Not that I know of sir" Graeme retorted.
"Oh dear, wait till she finds you Graeme" Drew said with a huge grin and controlling his laughter.
Graeme simply smiled.
"Sir, I know that I'm supposed to be here, but do you think I could finish now and rest for a while?" Graeme pleaded.
“Drew to Lieutenant Calvert, report to the bridge immediately." Drew commanded over the comm.
"Yes sir!" Peter replied abruptly and with extreme panic and fear in his voice.
Drew smiled and Graeme then realised that he was free to go.
"Commander, my only conditions are that you must report to sickbay for another check." Drew said in his dominating voice.
Graeme’s smile faded and left only a weak sarcastic smile. He sighed and then gave in.
"Very well sir." Graeme said unhappily.
Drew smiled and then sat down as Lt. Calvert entered the bridge with a trace of sweat running down the side of his face. He walked over and stood in front of Drew.
"Rrrr....Reporrr..ting forrr... duuty sss..siii.rrr" Peter croaked out.
Drew smiled being quite amused.
"Take your station Lt and good work recently." Drew said with satisfaction.
Graeme stood up and walked away from his console leaving Lt Calvert to replace him. Just as Graeme pushed the button for the turbo lift the doors opened and to Graeme's horror, Llliana stood before him.
"There you are!" Llliana said loudly enough for everybody on the bridge to hear.
"Can I help you Lt?" Graeme asked trying to avoid the counsellors questions.
"Actually I think I can help you." Llliana retorted knowing what Graeme was trying to do.
"That’s nice, but I have a date with rest so I'll talk to you later." Graeme said stepping into the turbo lift.
"Captain...?" Llliana said trying to get Graeme ordered to go with her.
Drew simply laughed and then nodded his head. Llliana smiled triumphantly as she pushed the buttons to head to sickbay.
"You can see the doctor and then we can go to my quarters and talk about what happened to you." Llliana said confidently.
"You had this all planned didn't you." Graeme said sarcastically.
"Of course!" Llliana replied.

*****IN SICKBAY*****

Commander Camp looked disgusted at Llliana because she was a Cardassian. She then refocused her efforts on her work rather than her grudge.
"Well I see no physical damage." Commander Camp stated matter-of-factly.
Graeme got up silently and walked out of sickbay. Llliana walked out after him while Commander Camp shouted a few Klingon swear words.
"Deck 3!" Graeme shouted to the turbo lift.
Llliana barely got in before the doors snapped shut. The turbo lift began to move quickly. As soon as it opened Graeme walked straight for his quarters but Llliana redirected him to hers. They walked in and both sat down.
“Are you comfortable? Okay Graeme, tell me what happened to you recently. I don't have to be a betazoid to know that something happened to you when you were in a comma and that it has mentally affected you." Llliana said.
"I don't need to be here Lt, all I need is some rest and peace..." Graeme said before Llliana cut him off.
"No you need to tell somebody..." Llliana said just as Graeme got up and walked out of her quarters and rushed to his.
"Computer seal the door, deactivate the comm. and deactivate the door panels security clearance gamma 6" Graeme shouted.
"Computer, give me a spicy drink." Graeme ordered.
"There are several different spicy drinks, please specify." The blunt computer voice replied.
"Choose one at random." Graeme said.
A yellow glass with blue goo appeared in front of him. He dared himself to try some but wasn't too thrilled. He put his lips to it and suddenly he dropped the glass. His lip felt as if it was on fire.
"Water, cold!" Graeme ordered quickly.
A glass of freezing water appeared in front of him and he grabbed it and stuck his lip right into it. He could have sworn he saw steam. He decided to ignore the glass of goo spilled over his quarters and went to bed.
"Computer deactivate alarm." Graeme commanded.
The computer bleeped in compliance. He got into bed and quickly fell asleep. He was back in he past. He was standing in the mess hall of the Miranda class star ship. Edwards and Drew both looked as they did in Graeme's present and not as young as they did when Graeme experienced whatever he experienced in sickbay. Edwards suddenly turned and was staring at him. Drew turned round swaying his head as if saying no. Edwards raised a phaser and pointed at Graeme. Graeme instinctively ducked as Edwards fired the beam. Drew removed his phaser and this time Graeme had no chance to react before he was vaporised.

He suddenly awoke in a sweat as Drew entered his quarters closely followed by commander Camp, Llliana and Peter. Graeme noticed that the Fang was no longer at warp speed by looking out the window. He picked up his phaser and aimed it at Drew.
"Why? Why? Why? Why did you kill me?" Graeme asked not being able to tell reality and dreams apart.
Drew looked at Graeme with shock. Commander Camp took scans of Graeme and Llliana looked at him sharply, observing every sudden move and emotion.
"When did I shoot you?" Drew asked carefully.
"YOU KNOW!! STOP LIEING!!!" Graeme shouted.
"Commander snap out of it!" Drew ordered.
"Commander Camp get him to sickbay, Llliana you go with him. Peter assign security outside sickbay until further notice, and you are temporarily the head of security." Drew said still perplexed by what was happening with Graeme. Commander Camp injected Graeme with a hypo spray and he collapsed motionless, unconscious. Commander Camp and Graeme beamed to sickbay. Drew returned to the bridge to arrange meeting with the star base and Peter ordered a security team to guard sickbay while he followed Drew to the bridge. Llliana went to sickbay....

Following the incident with Graeme, Drew decided to take some rest in his quarters it had been a long and draining mission. Just as he was about to order a hot drink from the replicator the computer informed him someone was waiting outside, walking to the front of the room he called out “Enter”, he was surprised to see it was Trylophis, standing with a PADD in his hands “Good Evening Captain” the Scientist greeted him “I hope I am not disturbing you” “Not at all Commander, please take a seat” Drew said with a smile walking to the seating area, the Bolien shook his head “I would prefer to stand”.

Sensing his Science Officer had something to tell him Drew nodded his head “How can I help you?” the other man handed Drew the PADD “I have decided to retire from the service” Trylophis explained “My reasons are on the PADD” Drew glanced briefly at the small device “Well I will be sorry to see you go Trylophis, but I understand your reasoning” “Thank you” Trylophis replied “It has been a pleasure to serve on the Fang again” with that he stood to attention waiting to be dismissed, Drew stood up to salute him “Dismissed”.

An hour later,

As Drew sat at his desk typing out his message to HQ informing them of Trylophis’s retirement and requesting a replacement when the console beeped to inform he was receiving a communication from Earth, he taped out the code to bring the message onscreen, interestingly it was a written message, he read it with a sorry heart, Kai Laria had decided to remain on Earth following her fiancés death, the shock had made her re-examine her life and discover she no longer wished to be separated from her loved ones. Drew sent off a message wishing her the best of luck, then leaning to look out at the stars he wondered what new blood would soon be filling his senior staff, -all things must changed- he told himself before returning to his work.