The Monroe had come within transporter range as expected, and so its captain and some of its senior staff were beamed aboard the Bristol. They, along with some members of the Bristol's bridge crew, including Ivanovna who had not been on duty, gathered in the observation lounge. The captain was pleased to see his old friend again, but his curiosity over Wu's sudden cryptic behaviour overshadowed the reunion.
Once all were in the lounge, Captain Freeman took the chair at the head of the long table within, with Yilaan seated immediately to his right, and Wu to his left. The others took up places along the table.
"So what brings you to us in such a hurry, Harry?" the captain asked.
"Right down to business, eh Mark?" Wu said, smiling as he teased his old friend. "As well it should be, under these circumstances." Lt. Commander Wu became more serious as he continued, "We've been having troubles here, Mark."
The captain folded his arms and sat back in his chair. "What sort of troubles?"
"I think there's something very suspicious going on in the Neutral Zone. We've been detecting strange patterns of behaviour amongst the Romulan ships; vessels grouping together and dispersing, fleets heading right for Federation space and veering off at the last minute." The face of the Asian commander of the Monroe took on a grimmer expression, "We've not been able to contact anyone about this either, Mark. We tried to hail other Federation starships on patrol, as well as the outpost stations; no one would respond. At first, we thought that these ships and bases had been destroyed, but when we weren't able to contact Starfleet Command, we realized that our communications must be being dampened by something." After a pause, he added, "Or someone. Clearly short-range still works, though."
The tall, muscular blonde-haired chief of security of the Bristol sat up in her chair and leaned forward onto the table, placing both hands ahead of her. "The Romulans," she said simply, her accent reminding everyone of her heritage.
"That's the logical conclusion, yes," replied a tall and lithe Human woman sitting next to Lt. Commander Wu.
Wu nodded, then got an apologetic look on his face. "Captain, I'm sorry; I was negligent in the formalities." Pointing at the woman who just spoke, he said, "This is my first officer, Lt. Gillan Haywood." She nodded and smiled while Wu pointed out everyone else, "This is my security chief, Lt. Curtis Mitchell, and my chief engineer, Lt. Calla Ironside." All three were clearly human, though certainly of different heritage.
"My apologies as well, Harry. These are my officers," Captain Freeman began. "You've met Commander Yilaan; this is my security chief, Lt. Katrina Ivanovna, and my chief engineer, Commander Jevor," he said, pointing out his shipmates to the crew of the Monroe.
"You're Jevor?" Lt. Calla Ironside asked abruptly, clearly excited.
"Uh, yes," Jevor answered, somewhat startled.
"Commander, we've been having intermittent computer troubles for the past few weeks on board the Monroe. I've managed to circumvent the problem for now, but I was wondering if you could take a look at it. I hear you're one of the best in the business," the dark-haired Ironside said. Jevor beamed with pride as she added, almost as an after-thought, "If your captain approves of course." She looked at the captain, then, hoping for a positive response.
"I don't see any reason why not," Freeman replied. "Go when your duties permit Jevor."
Jevor nodded and smiled at the two of them, while the captain continued to speak. "This is very disturbing," Freeman said, referring to Wu's earlier discussion. "Do you suspect some sort of invasion or something by the Romulans?"
Wu shrugged, "I don't know, Mark, but I'd like to be ready for one all the same."
Freeman nodded, "We should try to contact Starfleet; I'll get people working on breaking through this dampening field you're talking about."
"One thing I'd thought of, was that a ship could try and send out a shuttlecraft beyond whatever the range of this dampening field is, and try to contact a Starbase somewhere," Wu offered.
"But, you don't know how far this dampening field goes, and if there are Romulans cloaked nearby, you could be sending crewmen to their deaths," Freeman replied.
Wu nodded and smiled at Captain Freeman. "Precisely why we haven't done it; besides, as I'm sure you're aware, destroyers only come with one shuttlecraft, and that one isn't designed for any sort of long journey."
"And cramped quarters from what I remember too," Freeman smiled, remembering his days back on the Potomac, as an overzealous and abrasive Lieutenant who nearly got himself court-martialed. 'Boy, did I learn something from that cruise,' Freeman thought to himself.
"While I'm checking out the Monroe's computer, I could get my people to work on modifying one of our shuttles for an extended journey, as well as self-defense," Jevor offered.
The captain's mind barely returned to reality in time to catch the gist of what Jevor had said. "Um, sure, Commander! Good plan," he stammered.
Yilaan suppressed a smile, and the urge to open the telepathic part of her mind to see what had distracted her captain. Even as a child she had disliked reading others' minds; something just didn't seem right about it to her. She limited her telepathy to communication with other telepaths, and let it go at that. She did use her empathic senses, however, and alarms were going off in her head as she began to mentally survey the room. 'These people are existing dually within themselves; it is more than the duality of self-contemplation that all humans have. It is less than two complete and separate beings,' it told her over and over. 'What the hell does that mean?' she kept thinking. She barely noticed when the captain and Wu ended their discussion and dismissed the gathering, returning to their respective commands.
The captain stopped as he was heading out the door, as he noticed Yilaan was still seated. "Something the matter?" he asked, as the door shut behind the last of the others.
Slightly embarrassed at having been distracted herself, she said, "No sir; I'm trying to sort something out. Something just isn't right about all of this; it's nothing I can put into words right now."
The captain's facial expression turned to one of troubled concern. "I trust you'll keep me advised," he said finally, turning to leave.
Yilaan also stood, "Aye sir."
It had been a sweaty hour that Jevor had endured in one of five service crawlways on board the Monroe. He'd been swayed sure enough by the kind words of the Monroe's attractive chief engineer. 'The sure way to get me to do anything is to boost my ego,' Jevor thought irritably as he banged around in the confined work area. It was hot for the Andorian in the crawlway; he didn't even care to imagine how hot it must've felt to the Human engineers. He used a couple of electronic tools on some of the circuits, then tucked them in his boot as he retrieved a couple others. 'Easier than carrying a big tool case into these crawlways,' he'd always said to the many people that teased him for doing that.
Commander Jevor continued to work, and after tweaking a few bits of wiring, he called out, "Try it now!" to the Monroe's engineers at the end of the tunnel connecting it with a hall outside.
"Still nothing," a voice from the end of the tunnel said.
Jevor sighed. "Dammit! Alright, I'm coming back out; I need to have a look at Tube 23-Baker again," he said as he pushed his way back down the crawlway towards the relative comfort of the hallway.
Jevor found his way out of the tube. "I think it might have something to do with...," he began to say as he wiped his brow, but stopped when he saw the Monroe's chief engineer, Lt. Ironside, along with Lt. Curtis Mitchell. The latter was aiming a phaser at him."
"What in the name of the four moons is this?" Jevor demanded.
"You're a little too valuable to Freeman to have you running around," Ironside said. With that, Mitchell fired.
Jevor staggered from the blast, clearly on a stun setting. He fumbled around briefly for his own phaser, which his semi-conscious mind then recalled was still on board the Bristol. Lt. Mitchell increased the setting on his phaser, and fired again as Commander Jevor made a staggering half-hearted effort to charge at the two officers. Jevor crumpled.
On board the Bristol, preparations were being made on the shuttlecraft, and work was being done on breaking through whatever it was that inhibited long-range communications.
Ivanovna was shrugging her shoulders as the captain, Yilaan, and she were having a discussion. "I just don't understand, Captain. Unless someone was following them around blasting a dampening field, they should've been able to contact Outpost 12, 13, and 15 on their patrol route, using the distance they were from us when they first made contact. And if that someone was following them around, why did they let the Monroe contact us? Why didn't they just destroy the ship, and, for that matter, us along with it?" Ivanovna pointed out.
The captain and Yilaan looked at each other. "Those are very good points, Katrina," the captain replied. "Having a dampening field like that clearly indicates outside tampering; for what reason, who can guess? If it is the Romulans, they must have some sort of plan which they aren't ready to spring yet."
"Let's not jump to too many conclusions; it could be someone else," Yilaan suggested.
The Bajoran helmsman, Lt. Reiv, who had taken over for Lt. Hathaway, swung around lazily in his chair to face the others. "Like whom Commander?"
"The Borg, for one," Yilaan answered. "You'll recall from the briefing we received when we first were posted to this ship, that their first strikes were to eliminate Romulan and Federation outposts along the Neutral Zone; almost two and a half years ago now."
The captain shook his head, "No, this speaks of something a little too devious, a little too subtle for what we know of the Borg. If it's not the Romulans, it's still someone who is toying with us, and that speaks of danger."
A console next to Lt. Ivanovna beeped. "Sir, we're getting a message from the Monroe," she said simply.
Captain Freeman and Commander Yilaan walked around the tactical station towards the front of the bridge, while the captain said, "Put it on screen, Lieutenant."
Freeman smiled as the image of his friend Wu appeared on the screen. "What's up Harry?" he asked familiarly.
The sadness in Wu's eyes made Freeman's smile wane. "Harry," he said, pausing, "what is it? What's happened?"
"There's been a terrible accident," Lt. Commander Harry Wu replied, his voice choked with distress. "Your chief engineer, Commander Jevor, is dead."
Reiv gasped. A look of shock, mixed with bitter despair, gripped the bridge crew of the U.S.S. Bristol.
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