He awoke, what seemed like hours later, to a familiar voice, and a breath of fresh air. He had an awful taste in his mouth and on his lips; dried blood, mixed with sweat and saliva. One that he'd certainly had before, mind you, but not one that he relished by any means. 'Oh, and here, this kind man is offering you a glass of water,' his barely conscious mind told him happily, over and over, before he could finally make his right arm reach up and accept the oasis that he was being offered.
The water snapped the captain back to reality soon enough. He tried to sit up straight, but slipped back down to one arm, as the room started spinning around him. Captain Freeman then blinked his eyes several times and stared at the figure who'd given him the water, a slow smile creeping on his face.
"I'd been told you were dead," the captain said in a hoarse voice, and with a bit of a slur, as he grinned at the Andorian.
Commander Jevor looked surprised, until the Caitian at his side said, "Our captain told your captain you were dead, and sent back fake remains. He wanted Jevor out of the way." She, speaking as one might think of a Terran cat speaking English if it could, drew out her 's' and rolled the 'r,' such that someone unfamiliar with hearing Caitians talk would think she was alternately hissing and growling.
"Who are your friends, Commander?" the captain asked.
"Two who managed to throw off the affect of whatever the Romulans did to the Monroe's crew. Your friend Harry Wu was kind enough to leave barely a skeleton crew on his ship so that he could send his people over here to take ours; with these two with clear minds, it became simple enough after awhile to free me and retake the Monroe. And, since I have access to the Bristol's computer codes, I figured the easiest way to solve this problem was to gas everyone," Jevor replied simply.
The captain nodded, "Crude, but certainly effective. Well done Commander." He paused to collect his thoughts. "What is the status of the ship?"
"We're headed for Del Ghulax Five at warp nine, along with the Monroe and a Romulan ship. Ensign Elylssel," he said, nodding towards the Caitian, "tells me that the plan was to attack the planet with our own ships, then to beam the Romulans back aboard their cloaked warbird and depart, leaving only us to blame for the destruction of the dilithium mining operation and no proof of Romulan involvement. However their timetable got somewhat screwed up when Yilaan started telepathically probing Lt. Commander Wu. He and the others had been overcome by a combination of drugs, and," he paused. "Oh, what do you call it? Brain-washing, I guess. That's what's behind all this. Anyway, so here we are; my two friends here regained their self-identity about two days ago, and decided to see how the plan played out before making their move." Jevor then chuckled, "As fate would have it, they didn't know the other had broken the Romulan's control until they ran into each other trying to break me out of the Brig on the Monroe! Oh, and by the by, in case you hadn't guessed by now, the 'computer troubles' on the Monroe were fake, as was the weapons fire against them; phasers were carefully tuned to inflict no real damage on the Monroe by the attacking Romulans. Our scanners were fed errant information. Pretty clever, really."
"What's the status of our crew?" the captain inquired.
"We saw that some of the cargo bays had been turned into makeshift Brigs, which are now housing the Romulans and the unfriendly Monroe crew, by the way," Jevor reported. "Our people are somewhat underfed, definitely abused, but alive. We left most of them asleep, but I had Ivanovna and Reiv awakened to help round up the Romulans and the others, and Dr. Giovanni to look after Commander Yilaan. They all have life support belts."
"How am I awake if I don't have one?"
"I had the computer clear the air in this room, in Sickbay, and on the Bridge. We have about another fifteen minutes before the Romulan ship will be expecting a check-in from their personnel on the Monroe and the Bristol, according to what Lt. Tago said about their patterns. They shouldn't be suspicious yet, as I had the Monroe's computer, and ours, continue course and speed until we were ready to act," Jevor said, gesturing at the Tellarite as he referred to Lt. Tago.
"Well, I'm glad to hear you've taken care of everything, Commander," the captain said, attempting to stand again. He wobbled, and Jevor caught him and helped keep him upright. "Wake the rest of the crew; we have less than fifteen minutes to prepare ourselves to deal with the Romulans."
Jevor nodded, and the four proceeded to the Bridge, where they found Ivanovna and Reiv at their posts. Jevor gave the computer the order to inject agents into the air to counteract the effects of the aenesthrizine gas, and soon the ship was again bustling with the activity of the Bristol's crew. Ivanovna had hid her shock and dismay at the captain's very obvious injuries, but Gates wasn't so polite; she gasped and stared open-mouthed at Captain Freeman as she emerged from the forward-starboard turbolift onto the Bridge.
The captain gave her a curt nod, and said, "Take your station Ensign." She quickly sat down at the navigation console, embarrassed by her reaction and doubly so that it had not gone unnoticed.
"Tie in to the Monroe's computer, Lieutenant," Freeman ordered Ivanovna. "Though her computer should keep her on course and carry her away from this battle, I want you to raise her shields nonetheless." Ivanovna nodded and made the appropriate preparations.
A few moments later came the inevitable; a signal from the Romulan warbird attempting to reach its personnel aboard the Bristol. "Put it on the viewing screen," the captain ordered, his voice still weak and hoarse. Ivanovna nodded and the image of a very surprised Romulan appeared on the screen.
"Uh, um, Captain, I...," the Romulan managed to gasp before Freeman cut him off.
The captain allowed himself the moment of enjoying the Romulan's distress at seeing him back in command, before replying. "Save it! You've conducted an act of aggression in Federation space," the captain interrupted angrily. "I demand that you stand down and prepare to be boarded!"
The Romulan swore and his image on the screen was replaced by the shimmering of stars.
"Raise the shields! Bring all weapons to bear on the Romulan ship," the captain attempted to shout, though his feeble voice made it sound more like a squeak.
His orders were carried out, which included raising the shields on the Monroe, as he had previously planned to do.
"Captain, the Romulans are beginning evasive maneuvers, and they're charging weapons," Reiv reported.
The captain turned to Lt. Ivanovna, "Fire when ready."
She raised one eyebrow at the unusual order to fire first, but did so happily nonetheless. A barrage of phaser and photon torpedo fire hit the Romulan ship, who promptly returned fire and damaged the Bristol. The bridge crew was tossed violently about. The U.S.S. Monroe, meanwhile, continued on the course and speed set for it, and was soon out of range of the conflict.
Ivanovna fired again, hitting the Romulan ship. The Romulans then cloaked and disappeared from view.
"Can we get a lock on them? Where are they?" the captain asked vehemently.
Ivanovna's fingers frantically worked over the controls. "I had them for a minute sir, but I'm no longer detecting a trace of their energy signature." She looked up at the captain with a pained expression on her face, "We've lost them sir."
"Project their possible current position via last known course and speed and open fire!" Captain Freeman ordered.
Ivanovna complied, though she and her captain both knew it was a long shot; the Romulans had most likely altered course and speed once their cloak was engaged, to completely lose their Federation pursuer.
The captain stared at the stars on the screen, his emotional state flooded by anger. His thoughts were interrupted by Lt. Ivanovna. "Sir," she said, "the communications dampening field is fading away."
"Why doesn't that surprise me? Signal all the border outposts to be on the lookout for a Romulan ship, and send a message to Starfleet; inform them of our status and tell them I will be sending a detailed report shortly." The captain then looked around at his bridge crew and nodded, "Well done, people." He paused, "I'll need full reports from all of you, especially you Commander Jevor. I look forward to reading yours." The captain started to sit down and face the viewing screen, when he stopped, stood back up, and faced his crew again, with a half-smile on his face. "Considering what we've been through, at your leisure I should think." Captain Freeman then strolled up to the front of the Bridge and laid a hand on Gates' shoulder. "Ensign, plot a course to take us back to the Monroe. Once there, we'll reduce its speed via remote computer hookup and take it in tow to Starbase 14."
"Aye sir," Gates said, carrying out the captain's orders.
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