Episode 10: "The Visitor"

Gently, with an almost graceful movement, the USS Gibraltar slid out of the Starbase's spacedock after having completed repairs. The attack by those unknown aliens had left the Intrepid class Starship damaged, but quick repairs soon fixed that.

Our mission to Ku'Vat can continue. Captain McMillan thought to himself as he sat in his chair, more relaxed than he had felt in a long time. Perhaps we'll finally find out why those aliens were so interested in that place. The Gibraltar had been on a diplomatic mission to this colony -recently given to the Klingons to preserve good relations- anyway, but the interruption of the unknown aliens had interfered with that. Now, they were good to go.

Or were they?

"Captain." Ms. Sereana Westland, the Vulcan now manning OPS, stated. "We are receiving a message from Starfleet." An eyebrow perked up, showing as much surprise as McMillan would ever see from the Vulcan. "We are ordered to hold our position, to await the arrival of a new crewmember."

The Captain showed more than just a perked up eyebrow at this reaction. "I wasn't aware of any new crew... send me the transfer orders please." Just as it appeared on the Captain's console, and just as McMillan read the name -being unable to suppress a shudder of recognition- all hell broke lose. In the middle of the Bridge, space seemed to twist into itself. Air was sucked out of the lungs of anyone unfortunate to be near this phenomanon, and a blinding flash blinded all who dared to gaze into it. It lasted only a few seconds, but they were seconds the Gibraltar crew could easily have gone without.

When the phenomanon -a spatial rift, it would seem- had vanished, a man stood there, armed to the teeth. A man who McMillan had met before, during a mission on the Connecticut where he had been asked to observe. Slowly, McMillan rose from his seat, and took the two steps towards this man. "So this is the Gibraltar." The man said, looking around. "How disappointing."

"Colonel Serp Auer." McMillan uttered with as much respect as he could muster for this man. He didn't envy Captain Seelowe, the former Captain of the Connecticut, for having to deal with this man day in, day out. Auer was a menace. Lack of respect for any rules but his own. And apparently, Starfleet simply let him get away with it. Mostly because they needed him. And they couldn't stop him if they wanted to. In many aspects, this man reminded McMillan of Slade, the renegade officer. Though Slade was more elusive, more deadly... and, McMillan couldn't help but think, definitely better looking.

"The same." Auer responded, looking down at the petit Captain with the lack of respect piercing from his eyes. "Let me get to the point, Captain. I'm here to observe the Gibraltar crew on this mission of yours to see if they're worthy of a special mission." He huffed. "And I do hope your crew fares better than the crews of the ships I've recently visited. So far though, I must admit, I'm rather disappointed."

McMillan didn't know what stung more: the lack of respect, or the insults the man dared to utter. "Colonel Auer," he merely responded, looking up at the man while still making sure Auer knew who was in charge, "Let me make one thing clear. If you are here to observe, then I expect you to do just that. Don't interfere... just watch." He paused, and looked into the man's eyes. "From the *back* of the Bridge. Do I make myself clear?"

Auer merely smiled a toothy little smile. "I like you Captain. You've got guts." And with that, he moved on to the back, stopping at the Tactical console. "Kelly, fancy meeting you here."

Lt. Kelly Heron merely looked at her old aquintance. "You've got some nerve coming here. If you're planning to do the same to this ship as you've done to the Carolina and Connecticut, forget it."

McMillan had to admit: he was thrown off balance by this sudden arrival of this special Starfleet envoy... but he couldn't show it. They were under 'observation', after all. Better do what they went out there to do. "Helm." He said to Angelis Bourne, who was sitting dutyfully at the helm. "Set a course for Ku'Vat, warp 6, and engage."

"Aye Captain." the Ensign said in response. "Course laid in, engaging at warp 6." He paused, as the starfield at the main viewscreen changed to the view of stars flashing by in a beautiful hue of colours. The Gibraltar was on her way.

-----

"Captain, we're entering the Ku'Vat system." Ensign Bourne reported. "Dropping out of warp, engaging impulse engines." The planet was in visual range already, thanks to some excellent piloting from the Ensign at the Helm.

McMillan nodded, and turned to Ms. Westland at OPS. "Let's let them know we're here. Open a channel."

But the response was not how the Captain had envisioned it. "No response Captain." The Vulcan at OPS answered. "In fact... it would seem communications are being jammed."

Who could that be? "Science, scan for any ships in orbit." McMillan ordered, having a very bad feeling about this. He glanced at Counselor Giffen, who merely looked at him with a worried look on his face. This sudden observation from Colonel Auer who was armed to the teeth, was enough to make anyone feel ill at ease. This sudden jamming of communications... it could not be a good sign, that was for sure.

"Sir, I'm detecting a Cardassian freighter leaving the planet." Ensign Braveheart, the Chief Science Officer, spoke up. "It's heading..." He then paused. "No wait... it's gone!" The man seemed surprised himself. "It's like... it was there, and all of a sudden it vanished!"

"Cloak?" Heron suggested.

"I didn't know Cardassian freighters *had* a cloaking device?" McMillan responded. While he enjoyed a mystery holo-novel like any other man, there could also be a thing as too much mystery.

"Not much is known about the Cardassians' techological advances since the end of the Domionion Wars." Ms. Westland responded dutyfully. "Generally, it is assumed that..." But she couldn't finish her sentence. All of a sudden, consoles flickered and shut down, the constant humming of generators silenced, and the Bridge was plunged into darkness. Only the emergency lighting and the immediate Red Alert signals which were activated, illuminated the darkness.

And then, an orange transporterbeam delivered the answer to the un-asked questions in McMillan's mind as to how this could have happened. The person materialising smiled, and spoke up immediately. "Please state the nature of the Command emergency." The silence which greeted her only made her smile more. "Hello Gentlemen. You don't know how long I've been waiting to say that line."

McMillan stood up from his chair, as he watched Security react almost as fast as he did. "Slade." He spoke.

With mock surprise and genuine sarcasm, the Gibraltar's public enemy nr. 1 responded. "Oh my god, Captain Obvious. You recognised me!" From the corner of his eyes, McMillan saw the counselor react... no doubt responding to the surge of anger irradiating from the Captain himself. Again, Slade had caught them completely by surprise.

"What do you want Slade?" He demanded.

The scourne in the Captain's side responded casually. "Oh, nothing really, Captain. Just... playing a bit of hide and seek. I've got 45 disruptors aimed at you, and you don't want to find them. So I suggest you start working on your lovely little boat..."

The cruel reality of the situation began to sink in. "You want us to repair our ship after you've disabled it... and if we don't do it quick enough, you'll blow us to bits?" McMillan summarised, not caring for a nanosecond if his nickname 'Captain Obvious' given by Slade was only reinforced now.

"Well, I must admit," Slade commented casually, "I do enjoy being followed. Though I do have work to do: doing all those dirty jobs that Starfleet is afraid to." She smiled another smile. "But my brave Captain... that isn't your concern." She leaned forward ever so slightly, and said in a lowered voice: "By the way, if I were you, I'd change my command codes." With that, she stood up straight again, and concluded her visit. "If you'd all please excuse me... I've got a job to do."

Recognising too late what was going on, McMillan bellowed "Security! Transporter inhi..." but by the time he had finished his half-sentence, Slade was gone again... disappeared in a beam of light and energy.

-----

Captain's Log. There is no sign of Slade, although with the ship in this state, there is no way to be certain. She caught us completely by surprise. Sensors, warp drive, shields and weapons are offline. I cannot help but go over the conversation in my mind. She's got us out-gunned, that's for sure. 45 disruptorbanks would be more than a match for the Gibraltar's phaserbanks... even if they were working now. And what did she mean by 'doing Starfleet's dirty work'? Is she somehow working for Starfleet? I find that hard to believe... otherwise we've been sent on a fool's errand: a futile mission. Surely Starfleet wouldn't send us to capture one of their operatives? Nevertheless, there *is* the matter of the command codes to consider. Slade had them. Without a doubt. Otherwise she couldn't completely disable the ship without even firing a weapon. But how did she get it? I wouldn't put it past her that she'd be spying at us... but an even more frightening option is possible... could Starfleet have given her these codes? If she *is* working for Starfleet on a top secret mission, then would this actually be as far-fetched as I hope it is?

Sitting at his desk in his office just outside of the Birdge, Captain McMillan looked at Counselor Dolamite Giffen and Colonel Serp Auer. The latter he had asked to talk to in private... the former had asked to come along. McMillan had granted the Counselor this request: the man could be helpful in 'reading' Auer.

"I hardly find it a coincidence that you get assigned to our ship, just as Slade disables us again." McMillan started. He disliked falsely accusing people, but after Slade using the Gibraltar's command codes... well, it opened up some disturbing possibilities. "Why exactly did you come on board? What mission is it that you're testing us for?"

If Auer was insulted, he didn't show it. The same lack of respect came from his eyes. "I have nothing to do with Slade." He told the Captain and the Counselor. "But this... coincidence has shown me what I need to complete my observation. You want to know about this mission, Captain? Fine. But if you tell *anyone*, I have the authorisation by Starfleet Tactical to *terminate* the 'leak'." He leaned forward, his hands on the Captain's desk. "Do you understand?"

McMillan was horrified. To think that Starfleet Command would agree on such... terrible ways of keeping securicy. Nevertheless, he nodded. "I understand." He said, making sure not to sound apprehensive, even though he was. "What's the mission?"

Standing up straight again, Auer spoke up. "The Federation wants you to capture an alien warship: the Harbinger. They have a... crued, but effective way of propulsion that the Federation wants to posess."

This was too much for the good Captain. "Are you saying that the Federation wants us to *attack* and *capture* a ship of a race we haven't even had diplomatic contact with? A race which we don't even *know*, or even pose a threat to us?"

Here, Auer's face became more serious, if that was at all possible. "Oh, they form a threat alright." He activated a holographic display of what seemed to be a sleek fighter. "Behold. The fighters that this Harbinger carries. They're capable of destruction on an epic scale." He paused, and glanced at both Captain McMillan and Counselor Giffen. "These... aliens are on their way to Earth, Captain. They've targeted the very heart of the Federation. And what's worse: they have a way of propulsion which lets them travel around huge distances, instantly." Another pause, as he transferred information to the Captain's console. "Proof, Captain. All the data we have on them."

Looking at this data was enough to make anyone turn pale. "My god." McMillan winced.

"This is why we have this veil of secrecy, Captain." Auer continued. "This is why Starfleet wants one of their ships... to get a similar means of propulsion. To pretect the Federation."

For a moment, McMillan said nothing. Then though, he regained his composure. "Colonel Auer... what you have told me sounds terrifying. But my first duty *now*, is to this ship, this crew. And right now, we may very well have Slade out there, her disruptors aimed at us. We will deal with one situation at a time. First Slade... then the Harbinger." He paused. "Do I make myself clear, Colonel?"

"Perfectly." Auer answered, as he walked out the door. McMillan bit his lip, and turned to Counselor Giffen. "See what you can find on him." He whispered despite nobody else being in the room. "He might be telling the truth, but I want Starfleet's confirmation on this. In the meantime, I want to learn more about him." With a nod from the Counselor, both men exited the Captain's Office, and entered the Bridge.

"Captain," Ms. Westland spoke up, "I think we have something. Sensors indicated what seems to be a large mass, over 1100 meters, directly in front of us." she reported. "If it *is* Slade, we can disrupt her cloak by sending out a modified tachyon pulse."

"Well then?" McMillan could almost sense the 'but' coming. "Why haven't you done this yet?"

"It's not without risk." Braveheart answered for his colleage at OPS. "There's a serious chance we could blow out the Main Deflector Dish."

"A 76.5274 % chance of that happening." Westland pointed out.

Glancing at the viewscreen where the alleged cloaked ship seemed to be, McMillan thought of their previous encounters with Slade, and then shook his head. "How about we put it in a tractorbeam? And push it further away? That would at least give us a better chance of firing that pulse."

"Captain, we cannot move something that large with our tractorbeams." Braveheart spat out. "The chances of us succeeding are slim, at best."

"The chances are 1.092 % of this working." Westland echoed. "The tractorbeam wasn't designed for this." This was true, of course. The Gibraltar wasn't a big ship... it would need a big ship to tow another big ship away. But, so McMillan figured, not just now.

"Thank you. Prepare the tractorbeam." McMillan ordered, sticking to his opinion. "At the very least, we'd be able to get an idea of the mass of that ship." If he knew Slade -and he did- then she wouldn't make this *that* easy for them. "Activate the tractorbeam, and run a detailed scan." He was fortunate that Engineer Clawtooth had worked so hard to put the sensors back online again, otherwise this wouldn't be possible.

As a blue beam emitted from the tractorbeam emitters at the front of the ship, Braveheart gasped. "The mass I'm getting from these readings isn't anything like that of a big ship." He looked up at the Captain. "This seems to be a Scorpion class attack shuttle, used by the Romulans."

"Bring it in." At least it was something. "And put a secure forcefield around it. I want a research team to go to the shuttlebay immediately." McMillan guessed that it was this shuttle which had given them false readings, letting them think that there'd been a big ship out there instead of this shuttlecraft. And well, it had worked. "Any *other* sign of Slade?"

"I'm detecing what could have been a warpfield being formed." Braveheart informed the crew. "I believe Slade has gone to warp."

"If we can trust those readings." McMillan responded quickly. "Alright. Lt. Clawtooth, I don't want to stay here too long. When can we go to warp?"

"Now would be good a time as any Sir." The Engineer said, tapping some commands on his console, "But we have warp 5, at the very best. You'll have to be careful."

"It's better than nothing." McMillan was unable to keep a sigh from escaping. "Slade's got us good... again. But we will be back. Twice already, we've not been able to beam down to Ku'Vat... first because of those aliens, and now Slade... I don't know about you people, but that only makes me more curious."

"First things' first though." The Captain quickly sat down in his chair, and nodded to the Helmsman. "Mr. Bourne... set a course back to the Starbase for repairs. Warp 5... engage."

-----

As the USS Gibraltar left the system, Slade sat in her personal Scimitar, shaking her head. She allowed herself a faint smile, before she focussed her attention on the other things that mattered. There was work be done... and no time to waste.

Episode 9: "Walking into the Trap"

A decoy. Captain McMillan flinced as he remembered when the Gibraltar had initiated persuit of the Runabout leaving the dinosaur world they had visited. They had been fully convinced that this runabout housed Slade, the treator. The renegade officer. When they had *finally* managed to get the elusive runabout in a tractorbeam, they had found... nothing. It had been a decoy.

And as a result, we're on simple diplomatic duty. He'd rather be hunting down Slade, but for that he needed an *idea* as to where Slade could be. At the moment, neither he nor his crew had even an inkling of a thought as to where the most-wanted-person could be hiding. So Starfleet had decided to give the Gibraltar a diplomatic assignment instead: to go to the Klingon Ku'Vat colony and strengthen their diplomatic relationships. Their recent escapades had always included some form of danger: from being trapped on the Challenger to being attacked by dinosaurs. Perhaps a quiet mission is what this crew needs. Their last few missions were barely 'quiet'... they usually involved some sort of danger. From being chased by dinosaurs to being trapped on a dying Challenger... no, the Gibraltar crew was no stranger to dangerous situations.

Still, to have a mission with no danger at all... "Science, anything interesting on our path? Something worth exploring while we're on our way to Ku'Vat?"

Ensign Braveheart answered. "Nothing we don't already know Sir. There's a nebula, not far from here."

"Not even a comet." McMillan answered with nothing more than a faint smile. He was about to ask for what kind of a nebula it was that his science officer had located, but he didn't get the chance. "Sir," came the voice of the Vulcan Sereana Westland, standing at Tactical, "Two unidentified ships are closing in on us: they're on an intercept course."

The Captain leaned forward. Whoever could these be? There had been no reports of unidentified ships in this area of space before. "Can you get any readings on them?" he asked.

Ensign Braveheart at Science seemed happy that he had some sort of target to scan, but his face fell when he noticed the results. "Not much Sir." the Science Officer answered. "They're too heavily shielded."

"Sir, we're receiving a hail." Mr. Quinn Lanzius, at OPS, announced. "It's from the lead ship. They're not identifying themselves, but they do say that we have to follow them." He paused for a second to verify this information. "It uh... would seem, Sir, that they have valuable information about Slade."

"What?" McMillan responded, as if he hadn't heard the report correctly. Part of him was thrilled at this sudden stroke of good fortune coming their way. He had silently wished that Starfleet Intelligence would bring them some more information about the renegade officer, as they had last time. But he had never imagined some alien ships delivering such information... "Mr. Lanzius, please ask them how they know we're interested in Slade?"

The officer worked for a few moments, and then answered. "They claim they have listened in on our communication channels, Sir." He answered, looking unconvinced himself. "They're leaving now, so if we want to follow them, they advise we do so now."

McMillan glanced at the viewscreen in front of him, and wondered if this might be a trap. It was all a bit *too* good to be true. But then again, the offer *might* be genuine. If they'd let it go now, they'd lose any advantage they might have. "Mr. Bourne," He finally said to the helmsman, "Stay with them. In the meantime, I want the ship to go to yellow alert. Keep weapons at the ready. And Science... keep scanning those ships. Get to know all you can about them."

As the Bridge alert signs showed the entire ship being at yellow alert, Captain McMillan leaned back into his chair, wondering what they'd encounter.



"Sir," Ensign Bourne spoke up after a little while, "We're close to our destination, it would seem. There's an asteroid belt ahead, and those ships are leading us to it." The viewscreen flickered on, causing the entire bridge crew to see various smaller asteroids, and one big one.

"The large asteroid has an L-Class atmosphere." Ms. Westland at Tactical said. McMillan couldn't tell if she was surprised about this or not: Vulcans were renowned for their lack of emotions, and this woman was no different. "Also, I managed to scan the ships' weapons systems. Their phaser capacities are similar to those of a Steamrunner class vessel."

While McMillan hoped to avoid a conflict, and instead wished that the intentions of these people were as they said it was, he couldn't ignore the bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. "Thank you Ms. Westland." The CO said. "Let's just hope we..."

"Three more ships coming from the other side of the large asteroid, weapons hot!" Braveheart reported, interrupting the Captain, who was frowning now.

"Damn." He muttered. "Walked right into their trap." Then, louder, he added "Red alert! Lock weapons and prepare to fire. Helm, evasive maneauvres. Get us out of this asteroid field, and once you're through, engage at maximum warp!" As the first shot struck its target -and the target being the Intrepid class vessel- McMillan knew that the Gibraltar could not possibly survive an confrontation with five of these ships.

The USS Gibraltar lurched, both from the fire it was taking, as well as from the evasive maneauvres. As Mr. Bourne tried to shake their attackers off, Ms. Westland worked on the phasers and torpedoes, making every shot count. Finally, they were out of the asteroid field, and Ensign Bourne activated the warp drive. McMillan braced himself for the jump to warp... but it didn't come.

"What the hell?" He asked.

"Sir, the warp field won't form!" Bourne shouted over the sound of another hit. "There's some sort of tachyon field preventing us from creating a stable warp field!"

In other words, we're dead in the water. McMillan realised. "Very well then. Take us back into the asteroid field, maximum impulse. At least there we might have some cover. Science, any idea on how to get rid of that field?"

It wasn't the Science officer who responded, but the Vulcan Tactical Officer. "If we release concentrated parts of deuterium from the ramscoops," Westland began, "it might interfere with the tachyon field."

"It would also be exposing the entire front end of the ship to severe doses of radiation!" Braveheart stated. Yet, he didn't seem to disagree. "But it might be worth the risk."

Even though McMillan didn't like all the 'mights' that he had just heard, he also knew it was their only option. "Make it so." He ordered. "Tell me when we have the ramscoops ready." As the officers set their respective departments to work, the Gibraltar shook again: despite Bourne's magnificent politing, there was no way to avoid all the blasts being sent at the Gibraltar.

"Minor hull breach deck 3." Quinn Lanzius said from OPS. "Forcefield in place."

"Sending out medical teams." Doctor Seesaw responded. "Sickbay is on hot standby."

While it pleased McMillan to see his crew working together like this, he knew there would be time for praise later. Right now, survival was their goal. "Helm, evasive maneauvre theta. Keep them behind us." He knew Bourne would be able to use the asteroids here to avoid those ships getting a clear shot, but for how long?

A few more hits later, both Westland and Braveheart spoke up. "Ramscoops prepared Sir." Westland said, while Braveheart added "We just need sixty more seconds to get all the personnel away from the forward sections."

Sixty more seconds. That might as well be an eternity. Nevertheless, it was what McMillan had been waiting for. "Ensign Bourne. Bring us around, and get out of this field. Ms. Westland, fire everything you've got on them. Mr. Braveheart... release the deuterium on my mark."

As his orders were followed, he watched the chronometer steadily. The ship shook and lurched tremendously, letting the Captain know that there was a hullbreach before it was even reported. He hoped there'd be no loss of life... but that too, had to wait until this situation was resolved.

The Gibraltar emerged from the asteroid field, phasers blazing. For a moment, their assailants seemed surprised... but only for a moment. It was all the Gibraltar crew needed. "Now." He ordered.

The deuterium was ejected from the ramscoops, interacting with the tachyon field. At the same moment, Ensign Angelis Bourne tapped his console... and the Gibraltar accellerated to warp 9.6. A cheer was heard through the Bridge, but it seemed to be premature. "We've got two persuing vessels." Bourne announced. "And I'm not sure how much longer we can hold this speed."

McMillan nodded. "Understood." He said, knowing exactly what to do. "Science, where was that nebula of yours again? Transfer the co-ordinates to the helm. Perhaps we can lose them in there."

The Gibraltar changed course towards the nebula, and at first the two persuing ships followed. But the closer they got to the mutara-class nebula, the less enthusiastic those ships seemed to be. Finally, they abandoned persuit.

"It would seem they are not keen on fighting in our playing ground." Bourne observed. He sounded relieved, and McMillan didn't blame him.

"Keep on going." The Captain ordered. "But change course to Starbase 436." That starbase was close to the Klingon colony Ku'Vat anyway, so they had been heading towards that. It shouldn't be far now.

"Slowing down to warp 9, Captain." Bourne then announced. "Otherwise we'll fall apart before we even reach 436." McMillan nodded: he wanted to be alive to tell the base commander of this new threat they've discovered.

It was then that Braveheart spoke up. "Sir, our friends are back on a persuit course. Seems they got reinforcements. But it doesn't seem they'll catch up to us before we arrive at the Starbase."

"One of them will." the Vulcan announced. "It is transferring all its power to its engines. It's overtaking us..." Was there surprise to be heard in the Vulcan's pause? "Sir, the enemy ship is passing us, going straight for the Ku'Vat colony."

McMillan turned around, facing the tactical console. "Why in the world would they want to go to that colony?"

As the Gibraltar came closer and closer to the starbase, that question was more and more on everyone's mind...