Chapter Text
USS Valley Forge—23rd Century, Approaching Drozana Station
Alone in the observation lounge of the Constitution-class starship, Ashley sat quietly, lost in her thoughts, observing the K-class station amidst an ocean of stars, not hearing the captain as he entered the room.
“Quite the view, wouldn’t you agree, Lieutenant?”
“Oh!” Ashley exclaimed, her cheeks turning red with embarrassment as she quickly rose to attention, “I’m sorry, Sir. I wasn’t paying attention.”
“As you were, Lieutenant.” Captain Magnussen smiled as he inclined his head at the seat the former gunnery chief had just vacated, “I’m sorry to interrupt your reverie. If you’ll pardon me for saying…” the handsome starship captain observed as he sat down next to Ashley, “you seem rather preoccupied.”
“I was just thinking, Sir…” Ashley replied in a soft voice, “Back where I come from, I was stationed as part of a colonial garrison on this lush paradise of a planet.”
“What was its name?”
“Eden Prime.” Ashley responded as she sat and watched the stars. “My unit…the 212…was assigned to watch over some archaeologists. Well…the geth…they’re sentient AI’s in my universe…they attacked the colony.” Shaking her head, the former marine repressed a sob, “I lost my entire unit. Including a good friend.”
“I’m sorry.” Magnussen replied apologetically. “I shouldn’t have pried.”
“No.” Ashley shook her head, “It’s all right. It’s just…Nirali…my friend…she liked starry nights like this. Told me that her husband, Samesh, proposed to her on a clear starry night.”
“That’s very romantic.”
“Yeah.” A sad smile briefly crossed the former gunnery chief’s face. “She was about to get her discharge. Her and Samesh were going to open a restaurant together. Her husband was an excellent cook and Nirali was great with both numbers and people. I was with Commander Shepard, my CO on the Normandy, the ship I served on after Eden Prime, when she had to tell Samesh that the Alliance was holding Nirali’s remains to run tests on the effects of geth weaponry. Shepard didn’t want to have to tell him that. More than anything she wanted Samesh to have his wife’s body back so that he could give her a proper funeral. But she understood that what the lab rats could learn from studying her remains…”
“Would save a lot more lives.” The starship captain finished. “It’s often a hard call to make…whether to listen to your head or your heart. All too often what seems to be the right choice is not always the best one and sometimes the best choice is not always the right one.”
“I know…Commander Shepard had to make another hard choice…the one that caused me and Rana to end up here.” Ashley reminisced.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Magnussen gently prompted.
“Yeah.” Ashley nodded her head, “I think I do. I think I need to. We were assigned to track this rogue former Council agent down…” The raven-haired beauty then recalled all her adventures that led up to Shepard making the fatal choice at Virmire while the man with her listened quietly, only interrupting to ask a clarifying question. “The Commander assigned Lieutenant Alenko to arm the nuke while I went with the salarians to secure the anti-aircraft guns.”
“Sounds like your CO had a sound plan.” Magnussen noted as Ashley nodded in agreement. “So what went wrong?”
“The geth were overrunning our position at the same time that Saren was attacking Alenko.” Ashley explained. “She had to make a choice. Either rescue me and risk Saren getting to the nuke before the LT could set it off or…”
“Help your friend at the cost of losing you and your team. A hard call to make.” Captain Magnussen interjected with a sigh, filling in the blanks. “Unfortunately, those are the sort of decisions that come with the gold braid. Your CO found that out. Do you understand why she made the choice she made?”
“Yeah, I understand, Sir.” Ashley replied, “And I don’t blame her. It was the right call to make. That cloning facility had to be wiped out and I told her as much. I just wish…”
“You wish that you could tell her that you’re still alive.” Magnussen remarked as the woman seated next to him nodded her head.
“And my mother and sisters. I wish I could tell them too.” Ashley heaved a mournful sigh. “I miss them.”
“Service life is rough on families…it doesn’t matter what universe you’re in.” The captain declared in a somber tone.
“You have family, Sir?”
“Ex-wife and a child.” Magnussen responded. “The ex is…was…” he paused momentarily before continuing, “a good woman, but I guess it was one five-year tour too many for her. Subspace communications isn’t the same as being there for your son’s birthday or your anniversary.”
“I understand.” Ashley sighed, “My Mom and Dad managed to stay together, but that was mostly because he got shit postings on safe colonial garrisons so that he could bring us along and she was willing to give up her career to stay with him.”
“Why just garrison postings?” Magnussen inquired, “I’m sure he was capable.”
“Politics.” Ashley grumbled. “I don’t want to get too much into it right now…but let’s just say that where I’m from the Williams name counts for jack shit.”
“Understood.” The starship captain nodded his head, “Unfortunately, it happens here too. If you should ever want to talk about it…”
“I’ll know who to come to.” Ashley smiled at the handsome Dane as the intercom interrupted their conversation.
“Approaching Drozana Station. Captain to the bridge. Special team to transporter room one.”
“Well.” Magnussen sighed as he and Ashley rose to their feet at the same time. “Time for us to go to work.”
“Yes, Sir.” Ashley responded with a grin as the pair exited the observation lounge. “And Captain…thank you.”
“Anytime, Lieutenant. Good hunting and don’t forget the first duty of a security officer…take care of your people.”
Grinning broadly, the newly commissioned lieutenant grinned, “Aye, aye, Sir.”
Drozana Station—23rd Century
“Lieutenant Commander Meyers. Chief of station security. You don’t know how glad we are to see you!” A man wearing a red shirt accompanied by another man and woman, also wearing red shirts, greeted Nelia and her team after they had materialized on the transporter pad. However, before they could step off the pad, the security officer held up his hand as he nodded at the transporter technician who then pressed a button on her console. “Wait one. Decontamination procedure.” The lieutenant explained, “As you already know, the station’s on medical quarantine. We’ve also been suffering some strange computer malfunctions. Doc’s swamped with patients in sickbay, Commander G’aarv is shorthanded in engineering, and I could use a couple of extra hands in security.”
“Point us to where we need to go.” Nelia requested after the decontamination procedure was complete.
“Come with me, please.” Meyers indicated, gesturing with his hand to the door. “Ensign Pavlov will escort…”
“Lieutenant Thanoptis.” Rana interjected, “Medic.”
‘Lieutenant?” The female security officer, Ensign Pavlov, smiled. “If you’ll come with me, Doctor Jemil will be happy to see you.”
“Lieutenant?” Meyers requested, turning his attention to the raven-haired science officer standing next to the exotically beautiful blue skinned alien.
“Glex.” Twesata introduced herself, “Twesata Glex. Sciences specializing in computers and physics.”
“If you’ll come with me and the Lieutenant Commander, I’ll escort the two of you to Engineering.” Addressing the human and Andorian security officers standing next to the lovely green Orion engineer, the station security chief requested, “Lieutenants?”
“Williams, Sir.” Ashley promptly replied.
“Shelana.” The lovely Andorian acknowledged, adding, “My surname is too difficult to pronounce.
“Lieutenant Williams. Lieutenant Shelana.” Meyers nodded professionally, “Ensign Franks will give you a quick tour of the station if you’ll go with him and then we’ll put you to work. We’re shorthanded in security as well.”
“Yes, Sir.” Both women acknowledged, as Ashley gave the dark haired young ensign assigned to them a smile, “Whenever you’re ready, Ensign.”
Drozana Station—Engineering
“Commander G’aarv?” Lieutenant Commander Meyers called out to the station’s Tellarite Chief Engineer who was currently chewing out a poor crewman. “Lieutenant Commander Terre and Lieutenant Glex from the Valley Forge are here to give you a hand.”
“You see what you did?” The engineer shouted in a coarse voice, momentarily ignoring the newcomers as he harangued the hapless young crewman seemingly wilting before him. “When you bypassed the duotronic relays, you failed to adjust for the increased current through the EPS circuitry. Now you’re going have to go back and replace all those circuit boards you burnt out because you were in too much of a hurry to do the job right the first time.” Quickly turning about, the Tellarite engineer scowled at the sight of the green Orion woman standing next to the station’s security chief. “What is she doing here?” The Tellarite bellowed, “I wanted an engineer not an Orion stripper from the bar dressed up to look like an engineer.”
“You wanted an engineer, you got one.” Nelia barked back at the Tellarite. “Helluva lot better engineer than you too.” Pausing, the green Orion gave the power relays a quick visual inspection. “I think I’ve spotted part of your problem. The containment fields are beginning to weaken. You’ll need to adjust the Heisenberg compensators to shore up structural integrity. It’s not too serious now, but if you don’t fix it soon…” Her lips turned up in an evil grin, “You and everyone else here will be swimming in vacuum.”
A sly smile appeared on the grumpy Tellarite’s face as he regarded the Orion woman standing before him. As the lighting in the engineering room flickered blue, the station chief engineer scowled as he turned his attention to the dark haired woman standing next to Nelia, “You. Go with Kiroki to the computer core. See if you can track down the lighting malfunction there.”
“On it.” Twesata replied as an Asian man wearing a blue shirt joined her. “Come on Kiroki, let’s get to work.”
“Okay…” Nelia frowned as she spoke to the crusty Tellarite engineer, “I’d suggest that the first order of business should be to fix the shielding before that radiation kills us all.”
“Agreed.” G’aarv nodded, “You handle matter-antimatter containment while me and my assistants take care of structural integrity.” Taking a deep breath, the old engineer admitted, “You were right about those compensators. Good catch.”
“Thank you.” Nelia responded with a grin, “Ready to get to work?”
Drozana Station—Ashley and Shelana
After being assigned their patrol routes, Ashley and Shelana went on shift. As the pair made their rounds, Shelana wryly jested, “I forgot how boring walking a tour was.”
“Tell me about it.” Ashley sighed in agreement. “Walk to post…check in…walk to next post…”
“Rinse…lather…repeat.” Shelana finished with a laugh. “At least you get some variety with shore postings. Shipboard is just up the corridor. Turn. Then down the corridor again.”
“I never served on a ship until the Normandy.” Ashley replied, “But it got boring planetside too.”
“Patrol Three…disturbance in the lounge. Respond immediately.”
“That’s us!” Ashley exclaimed, “Sounds like a barroom brawl.”
“Yup.” Shelana concurred as she flipped her communicator open and acknowledged the order. “Patrol Three enroute.”
“Ready to sit on some drunks, Ash?”
“Be careful what you wish for…right, Shels?” Ashley grinned as the pair rushed down the corridor and into a turbolift.
“Yep. Something like that.”
Drozana Station—Sickbay
“Time of death…1940 hours. Cause…neurogenic failure. Same cause as the last one.” A middle-aged man with caramel skin and dark-hair turning grey and wearing a blue shirt scowled as he spoke to a human female wearing a pale blue miniskirt. Noticing the newcomers, the doctor grunted as he spoke to Rana. “You that nurse from the Valley Forge?”
“I’m not formally a nurse, I’m a geneticist. However, I have had medical training.” Rana replied, taking out her tricorder.
“Good enough.” The doctor responded. “Whatever this disease is, it’s suppressing neural activity and crosses species lines.” He grunted as he examined first a human and then an Andorian. “It seems to suppress or remove the natural electrical energy that’s transmitted between neurons. It also seems to be tied into that blue lighting. It’s emitting some sort of strange radiation that our sensors can’t detect. That crusty Tellarite engineer managed to strengthen the shielding here and in a few other key areas, but much of the rest of the station is vulnerable.”
“If we scan the infected patients’ neural energies and compare them with a healthy control we should be able to synthesize an antidote.” Rana proposed, receiving in return a warm grin from the harried physician.
“You took the words right out of my mouth, Lieutenant. Get to it. Heavens know we have enough patients for you to take your samples.”
“On it, Doctor.” Rana acknowledged as she quickly went to work, going from patient to patient, calling out readings as a nurse dutifully recorded the results. After taking several samples, the asari scientist turned to the nurse, requesting as she held out her hand for the tricorder, “Let’s see what we have.”
“Here, Lieutenant.” The nurse responded, handing the tricorder to Rana who then quickly perused the results.
“Hmmm…lower than normal neuron resting point…elevated exterior potassium levels…sodium and potassium ions depleted. Sodium-potassium gates damaged.” Nodding her head in satisfaction, the asari scientist called out, “Doctor? I think we have what we need for a cure.”
“Let me see.” As he carefully went over his recently deputized assistant’s findings, Dr. Jemil hummed to himself, “It’ll work.” Turning to his nurse, he commanded, “Fix a hypospray with this compound and bring it back here stat.” Speaking to Rana, he requested, “When she returns, inject Ensign S’vell over there. He’s our most serious case at the moment. If it works on him, it should work on the others.”
“Right, Doctor.” Rana replied as she administered the hypo to the patient, carefully monitoring the readings. “It’s working!” She excitedly called out, motioning for Dr. Jemal to come. “See…the sodium-potassium gates are repairing and his ion exchange is returning to a more normal level.”
“Good!” The doctor responded with an exhausted sigh as he called his nurse over, “Eileen! Make up more of this compound and inject it into the patients immediately. Thanks to our friend, Lieutenant Thanoptis over here…” Jemal smiled as he regarded the asari woman standing next to him, “we’ve found our cure.”
Drozana Station—Lounge
Meeting Lieutenant Commander Meyers, the station’s security chief, at the lounge entrance, Ashley ducked just in time as a chair flew over her head. “What the hell!”
“Orion freighter crew decided to get a little rowdy and began mixing it up with the crew from a Tellarite ore transport.” Meyers responded, raising his voice so that he could be heard over the din. “Then the crew from another merchant ship joined in…then station personnel…”
“And now we have a full scale riot!” Shelana quipped as she grabbed one of the brawlers, twisting his arm behind his back and shoving him against a wall.
“That’s about the size of it.” Meyers bantered back as he handed the two women, along with another security team, spare restraints. “Now we’ve got to wade in and break it up. Ready?”
“Hands off the girls!” Ashley barked as she threw a rather drunken Orion freighter crewman to the deck, binding him with one of the plastic restraints she was carrying.
“Break it up you two!” Shelana ordered, glaring at a human and an Andorian, both station personnel, who had been brawling with each other.
“He started it!” The human cried out, “He called me a pink skin! He’s a speciest!”
“Am not!” The Andorian shouted back, “You laughed at my bondmate’s picture!”
“No I didn’t! I was laughing because Chrissie had shot down that Orion trying to pick her up!”
“Really?”
“Yeah.” The human declared in a softer tone of voice, “Look, Drelin…I’d never make fun of you or your bondmates. You know that. I’m sorry if you thought I did.”
“No…I’m sorry.” The Andorian responded. “Too much ale.”
“We good?”
“Yeah.” Drelin grinned, “We’re good.”
“Gonna run us in, Officer?” The human asked Shelana.
Barely able to keep from laughing, the Andorian security specialist replied, “No. Just get the hell out of here.”
“Yes, Ma’am!” Both men acknowledged with broad smiles as they exited the bar, “Thank you!”
Just as it seemed that the security teams had brought the bar under control, the lights flickered as the lounge was bathed in blue light. Then the phantoms appeared. Gritting her teeth as the ghosts began to attack the now subdued brawlers, Ashley drew her phaser and shouted, “Shels! Commander! We’ve got problems!”
“What the hell are those things?” Meyers cried out as he drew his phaser.
“No time for explanations now!” Shelana yelled as she fired her phaser at one of the phantoms who had a dancing girl in a death grip. “We’ve got to take these ghosts out now before people get killed!”
“Right!” The security chief responded, firing his phaser at another phantom, commanding his team, “Take those things out! We’ll figure out what’s going on later.” In a softer voice, he whispered to Shelana and Ashley, “When all this is over, we’re going to talk.”
Computer Core—Drozana Station
It was everything Twesata could do to keep from giggling like a schoolgirl as she entered the station’s computer core and laid eyes on the antique computer system, now looking spanking new. The old duotronic circuits and relays, the sounds and humming of the systems, not to mention the archaic consoles reminded the young Betazoid woman that she was indeed back in the past. But, as the lighting flickered and turned momentarily blue, the nostalgic feeling quickly went away to be replaced by a sense of urgency as she gazed on the frightened eyes of the man standing beside her.
“Ensign Kiroki?” Twesata called out in a soft voice, “You still with me?”
“Uhhh…Yes, Ma’am.” The youthful human male stammered, his training reasserting itself as he took out his tricorder and began to take scans while Twesata did the same. “I can’t make heads or tails out of these readings.” Ensign Kiroki glumly reported with a grimace. “Are you picking up anything?”
“Yeah.” Twesata replied with a frown, explaining with a half-truth. “We ran into a similar phenomenon on an earlier mission. I’ve since made a few adjustments to my tricorder. Triolic radiation.”
“What is that?”
“Like I said…it’s new.” The lovely Betazoid answered back as she scanned the area with her eyes. “Have you or anyone working with you seen what looks like…”
“Ghosts?” Kiroki stammered.
“Yeah.” Twesata affirmed, inquiring in a gentle tone, “You saw them…didn’t you?”
Nodding his head, Kiroki confirmed in almost a whimper. “Yesterday. I was with Ensigns Paulus and Rodriguez. We were sent down here to fix the computer malfunctions that have been occurring throughout the station. They were working over in ‘D’ section. I heard Rodriguez scream and when I went to investigate…”
“She wasn’t there?” Twesata interrupted, her empathic senses at once picking up on the young ensign’s distress.
“No. Both her and Paulus were gone. I saw one of those…ghosts…pass into what looked like a…”
“Portal?”
Nodding his head, Kiroki affirmed, “Yeah. After it passed through, everything went back to normal. Do you know what’s happening here?”
“Somewhat.” Twesata replied. “I know that we need to fix this computer core before something critical malfunctions…like that!” she exclaimed as alarm klaxons sounded.
“What’s happening?” Kiroki gasped, his eyes widening in near panic.
“Self-destruct activated.” The computer announced, but, instead of its normally feminine voice, it spoke in a harsh masculine tone. “Three minute countdown initiated. 3:00…2:59…2:58…”
“Hold it together, Kiroki!” Twesata exclaimed, “I can’t do this alone. I’ve gotta have your help!” Taking out her communicator and flipping it open, she called out, “Twesata to Nelia. We’ve got a problem here.”
Drozana Station—Engineering and the Computer Core
“The matter-antimatter flux has become unstable!” One of the engineering crewmen called out in alarm.
“Magnetic containment breaking down!” Another crewman shouted.
Hearing her communicator beeping, Nelia flipped it open.
“Nelia?”
“Got a problem here, Twes.” Nelia responded with a harsh edge to her voice.
“We’re going red!” Engineering crewman Sampson shouted in alarm
“Yeah, well…I've got a feeling our problems are related.” Twesata responded, her voice taking on a grim edge. “The computer’s activated the station’s self-destruct.”
“Shit.” Nelia swore under her breath. “We’re working on it from our end, but we’re gonna need your help.”
“Working as fast as we can!” Nelia overheard her teammate speak to someone else, “Try the Sato algorithm, Kiroki. If that doesn’t work then feed the computer this string…”
“Bring the matter-antimatter ratio down to .0004 Tuckers.” G’aarv called out to Nelia.
“On it!” The green Orion engineer responded.
“Two minutes.” Kiroki called out, his voice cracking. “Trying Sato algorithm. It’s not working!”
“Shore up that magnetic containment, Sampson!” G’aarv commanded, “Terre! I’m going to adjust the flux compensators. On my mark, bring the ratio back up to .003 Tuckers. Sampson! When she does that, bring the containment field down to standard level—but not before!”
“Ready when you are!” Nelia acknowledged as she did what the crusty old Tellarite instructed.
“Magnetic containment weakening!” Sampson called out in alarm.
“Don’t panic Sampson.” Nelia admonished, “Just reverse the positron flow by .058 percent. That should stabilize it.”
“Sato algorithm not working.” Kiroki’s voice resounded from the speaker, “Feeding in the sequence…It’s slowing the countdown.”
“One minute until self-destruct.”
“Just what I thought.” Twesata growled, “It’s a goddamned virus. Kiroki…try this…” The Betazoid downloaded a complex series of equations into the other computer technician’s tricorder. “That should quarantine the virus.” Speaking into her communicator, she exclaimed, “Virus neutralized. Aborting self-destruct sequence.”
“Thirty seconds until self-destruct.”
“Just about there.” Nelia announced as she made the final adjustments on her console. “Try it now, G’aarv!”
“Now, Sampson!” The Tellarite engineer barked as he pressed a button on his console. Nodding in satisfaction as the readings appeared on his screen, G’aarv again called out, “So far…so good. Bring up the matter-antimatter flow mix by three percent, Sampson. Terre…bring up magnetic containment three point two microjoules.”
“It’s working!” Engineer Sampson shouted out in glee, “Containment restored!”
“Self-destruct aborted.” The station computer announced, its normal female voice returning.
Heaving a sigh of relief, Twesata quipped to her teammate, “I am going to get soooo high when we get back.”
“Save some for me, Twes.” Nelia laughed as the engineering crew offered their congratulations to her and their supervisor. Looking up, she saw the gruff Tellarite approach her with an unaccustomed grin on his face.
“Not bad, Terre. Magnussen is lucky to have you on his ship.” The senior engineer stated in grumpy praise, “You can…” Before he could finish his words, however, the lighting in the engineering section flickered and turned blue as the Devedian phantoms suddenly appeared.
“Oh shit.” Nelia swore.
“What in Sulmar’s nine tits are those?” G’aarv cursed as one of the phantoms grabbed Sampson and began feeding off the hapless engineer, releasing its victim after it had drained the poor young man dry, the crewman’s body falling with a thud to the deck.
“Shoot now! Explain later!” Nelia barked as she fired her pistol at the phantom, disintegrating it, but unfortunately, too late for its hapless prey.
“Going to hold you to that.” The Tellarite responded as he drew his own phaser and fired at another ghostly figure, also disintegrating it. “Sampson was a good engineer, you son of a bitch!”
Sickbay
“The patients are all showing signs of recovery, Doctor.” The nurse reported as Doctor Jemal and his temporary assistant, Rana, doublechecked the results of the inoculations.
“So I see.” The station doctor responded with a sigh of relief, “It looks like we’re through the worst of it.”
As the lights flickered, sickbay was bathed in a blue light as the Devedian phantoms made their appearance, moving relentlessly towards the recovering patients. “Oh no, you don’t!” The asari scientist yelled as she summoned all her strength, putting up a biotic barrier between the phantasms and their intended victims. “I can’t keep this up long!” She cried out, straining, “Get security in here—fast!”
Lounge
“That’s the last of them.” Ashley sighed in relief as she and her Andorian teammate brought down the remaining phantoms in the lounge. Turning to the security chief, her lips turned up in a wry grin, “I guess it’s time for that talk now, huh?”
“Later.” Meyers replied with a grimace, “I just got a report that there are more of those things in Engineering, the computer core, and sickbay. You two get your asses to sickbay.”
“What about Engineering and the computer core?” Shelana inquired.
“Already got units converging on those locations.” Meyers responded, “Now get going!”
Sickbay
“Can’t hold out much longer!” Rana groaned as her barrier began to weaken. “If we don’t get help soon…”
“Someone call for the cavalry?” Ashley called out as she, Shelana, and another security officer burst into sickbay, firing their phasers at the phantoms as they did so.
“Thank the goddess you finally got here.” Rana sighed as the last of the Devedians were dissolved by the combined phaser fire. “Don’t think I could have…” Staggering, the asari scientist fainted as her friends and Dr. Jemal rushed to her side.
Running a medical tricorder over her, the human physician declared, “I’m unfamiliar with her biology…but she has some interesting nodes…I’m guessing those are the source for that ability of hers.”
“Long story.” Ashley replied as she knelt down next to her asari teammate. “She’ll be better. She just needs time to recover.”
“Put her on one of the beds. She’s earned a little rest.” The doctor responded with a slight smile as Lieutenant Commander Meyers entered accompanied by Nelia and Twesata.
“You girls okay?” Ashley asked as she gazed at the haggard expressions on her friends’ faces.
“We’re fine.” Nelia replied as she glanced down at Rana, sleeping peacefully on one of the biobeds. “Is she all right.”
“Yeah.” Shelana responded with a nod of her head, “She’s just tired.”
“She threw up a barrier to protect everyone in here when the Devedians attacked and held it up until we arrived.” Ashley explained, not missing the momentary look of pride on her Betazoid friend’s face that Twesata quickly hid behind a knowing smirk.
“Told her she was stronger than she thought she was.” The raven-haired empath quipped.
“You called those things ‘Devedians’.” Meyers noticed, “What do you know about them?”
“Much of what we know is classified.” Nelia quickly replied, telling a half-truth, “We’re…”
“Starfleet Intelligence.” The security chief sighed, “I should have guessed. I’m not some rookie just out of the Academy. You and your people bailed us out of a bad situation, so I owe you one. But, I’m going to have to tell the Commodore something. He’s not a fool or an idiot, so it’s got to be something good.”
Her lips turning up in a sly grin, Nelia answered back, “Fair enough. Here’s what you tell him…”
Nodding his head as the green Orion outlined her scheme, the world-wise security chief reluctantly agreed, “That’ll work. There have been a couple of instances of something similar happening recently to the Kongo and Atlanta, I can sell the idea of a rogue comet spewing out dangerous radiation to him.”
“Great.” Nelia responded as Rana, refreshed from her brief nap, rose from her bed. Now, if you don’t mind…” She requested as she flipped open her communicator, “We need to get back to our ship.”
“Go ahead.” Meyers nodded in assent as Nelia requested beam out. “And again…thanks for the help.”
“Anytime.” Nelia grinned back as the transporter beamed her and her teammates back to the Valley Forge, just as the ship’s red alert klaxon sounded.
“Red Alert. Red Alert. All hands to battle stations. This is not a drill”
“Shit.” Ashley groaned as she and her teammates rushed out of the transporter room, “Out of the frying pan…”
“And into the fire.” Shelana interjected, “Welcome to Starfleet.”