Episode 55: "Facing a Friend"

Never in his life had Captain RoBobby McMillan thought he'd have to lead the Gibraltar into a fight against a Federation starship. Yet now he was doing that exact same thing. "Red alert," he ordered, as the image of a Galaxy class starship appeared on screen. It had been following for some time now, and had finally caught up with them. "Raise shields, ready weapons."

Ensign Zwilling, who had taken over helm, seemed nervous. McMillan couldn't blame her. Unlike the rest of the crew, she wasn't here by choice. In fact, the USS Ohiom – the starship out there – might be her only hope away from this fugitive crew.

The problem though, was that McMillan didn't know if the ship they were facing was the *real* Ohiom. Kelly had said it a while back: the Gibraltar wasn't the only cloned starship. The USS Pico and the USS Ohiom had been cloned too. So the ship out there could be the real USS Ohiom, on the lookout for the Gibraltar, or they could be clones. There was no way to tell.

"Sir, we are being hailed," said Ensign Debbydo, who had taken up position at the Engineering console for now. "It's the USS Ohiom. . . Captain Esteban would like to have a word with you."

 

McMillan nodded, at which point Esteban's voice echoed through the Bridge. =/\=Captain McMillan, you and your crew are under arrest. You will lower your shields and power down your weapons.=/\=

McMillan smiled ever so faintly. "I'm sorry Captain, but we can't do that. We still have to prove our innocence." He paused for a moment. "Our clones destroyed the outpost. And we have reason to believe more Starfleet officers have been cloned."

But Esteban didn't seem to be in for a discussion. =/\=You will power down your weapons, Captain McMillan. Once we're back in Federation space, we can discuss this more thoroughly. But right now I have orders to take the Gibraltar in.=/\=

Captain McMillan glanced around the Bridge, looking at his crew. Esteban sounded like the real deal. . . but then again, a clone would sound like the 'real deal' too. No, they couldn't risk it. "I can't abide to your orders, Captain." he finally responded. "I'm sorry, but there's too much at stake."

=/\=Then you leave me no choice.=/\= Esteban commented. McMillan knew what was coming next. Before long, the Gibraltar shook violently, as the Ohiom fired its weapons.

"Return fire." McMillan ordered, knowing full well that he was telling his people to fire at what could be another Federation vessel. "Target their weapons."

The fight was not going to last long, that much was certain. The Gibraltar was hopelessly outclassed. While they definitely had the advantage of manoeuvrability, their shields and weapons just weren't made to endure a fight like this. Thankfully there was the Gibraltar's armour, which held on while most of the shields had already failed. But that too wouldn't hold out forever: a point proven when Ensign Johnson shouted out that most systems were offline, weapons and shields were out and several key-systems were badly damaged.

 

Just when McMillan wanted to give orders for a new set of manoeuvres, he found himself – and his entire bridge crew – transported to somewhere else. Before he knew it, they were no longer on board the Gibraltar. . . but in the shuttlebay of the USS Ohiom. Facing them was Captain Esteban with a couple of security officers.

It didn't take the crew long to figure out that this was not the real Captain Esteban. First of all, she talked about the Galaxy class as having only 200 crewmembers. Second, her attitude – and that of her security staff – was way wrong. One of them even stunned Ensign Johnson, without provocation. Well, perhaps with *some* provocation, but still. . .

No, Esteban was a clone. This was the fake Ohiom, that was certain. Esteban even admitted it, when she didn't have to keep up appearances anymore. "You have become quite the nuisance, Captain." she stated. "You and the Gibraltar crew. I'm afraid the Creator won't tolerate this anymore. So enjoy whatever days you have left. Now if you'll excuse me, the Creator wishes me to destroy starbase 24." With that, she and the security team walked out, locking the shuttlebay door behind her. The Gibraltar crew was trapped.

"Alright," McMillan said quickly, looking around. "Options?"

Before anyone could answer, the shuttlebay's side door opened, and in walked. . . "Kelly?" If McMillan sounded surprised, it was because he was. He had never expected Kelly to walk in, but then again. . . Kelly was like the spanish inquisition. Nobody ever expected her.

After easily dealing with the guards outside the door, Kelly turned to the Gibraltar crew, handing one of the phaser rifles over to Ensign Johnson. "I portrayed as one of the Ohiom's crewmembers." she explained. "And then I heard you were in some trouble. . . so I thought I could help out."

"We're sure glad to see you, Kelly." Commander Braveheart commented, saying the exact same thing that everyone was thinking. "So what do we do now?"

"Now we get out of here." McMillan said quickly. "But not before we destroy this ship." There were a few surprised looks at the faces of his crew, but they did all understand. This ship could not be allowed to exist for much longer. The lives of everyone at Starbase 24 were at stake.

 

What followed was a shooting battle, running through the corridors while taking out the crewmembers of this fake starfleet vessel who tried to stop them. Finally, the Gibraltar crew made it to Engineering. "See if you can overload the warpcore." McMillan ordered Ensign Convair and Lt.Cmdr. Weatherwax. "Once we did that, we'll beam back to the Gibraltar."

"Won't the crew of the Ohiom be able to stop the overload?" Ensign Debbydo asked. She had a good point, but McMillan shook his head. "Not if we time it right. Now let's get to work."

 

Apparently though, word of their escape had reached 'Esteban', who responded by sending security teams to Engineering. Kelly and Ensign Johnson did what they could to hold off their attackers, but it was clear that even they wouldn't be able to hold on for much longer. Luckily, they wouldn't need to.

"All done!" Weatherwax shouted. "I've accessed the Ohiom's transporters and I'm beaming us back!"

Moments later, on the Gibraltar, the crew watched as the USS Ohiom – or well, the clone-ship – was destroyed in a ball of fire. The shockwave did some more damage to the Gibraltar, but that was insignificant compared to the damage already dealt: most of the major systems were offline, and some were so damaged that they needed to be replaced. There was just one problem: there wasn't a friendly starbase nearby...

To be continued...