Tales of Starfleet
Angels and Lionesses
Part 10
by Phillip Barlow
(p.barlow@ic.ac.uk)

Angels and Lionesses - Part 10

General Klach sat in the command chair of the cruiser JAq'Ten watching as Qualor II circled peacefully. It had been five hours since the K't'inga class ship had arrived at the surplus depot and Colonel D'Kan had transported down. D'Kan was Klach's Chief of Intelligence - although he was a skilled and able warrior, his prowess was not up to the same standard of some of Klach's infantry commanders. But, his mind, his capacity for seeing patterns and solving problems was second to none. Klach was sure that, had he shown the data he'd looked at to any of his other commanders, they would have taken as long as he had to see the solution. D'Kan had not only seen it straight away, but had also set out trying to find the two Earth ships, which had led them here.

"General," said Captain Chek'va, the commander of the JAq'Ten. "Colonel D'Kan has transported aboard and is en route to the bridge."

"Excellent." Klach turned as he heard the access doors open. D'Kan marched up to the General, followed by a pair of soldiers dragging a fat Ferengi.

"This is him General," said D'Kan, indicating the Ferengi, who was now cowering on the deck at Klach's feet.

"You are Omag?"

"Yes General sir," replied Omag.

"Do you know why you are here?"

"I can only guess that it involves a pair of obsolete Earth ships that I purchased here on behalf of a client." Klach was surprised, though he did not show it. He looked at D'Kan, who was obviously just as surprised. Evidently, D'Kan had not said anything to the Ferengi. "To answer the question you are going to ask next," continued Omag, "I purchased them for the AOR Corporation, which is based on Zantor Prime. I arranged for the two ships to be transported to their destination on barges, but I was never told what the destination was." Omag looked from Klach to D'Kan. "That's all I know. And you can believe me when I say that because I am too terrified of Klingons to lie or omit anything."

"How did you know that was what we wanted to know?" asked D'Kan.

"Because you're the third group of people who's come along to interrogate me." This aroused Klach's interest.

"Who were the others?"

"The first was a group of human females. Second was Riker, first officer of the starship Enterprise." Now that was interesting. Klach had learned that following the theft of the Orion, another, much older Federation vessel had also been taken from Hampton Orbital, and that three young female Starfleet officers had disappeared, along with a sizeable proportion of new Britannian officers and trainee crew. A rumour was circulating that they had something to do with it. Could they be involved? But, if they were, why would they come to Qualor II and ask about the two Earth ships? What was just as interesting was the fact that the famous Jean-Luc Picard had also come here inquiring about them. Klach knew Picard by only by reputation, but it was a formidable one. Anyone who would willingly be the Arbiter of Succession for a Klingon Chancellor was deserving of Klach's respect, given the often violent and sometimes fatal nature of Klingon politics. And, if Picard thought there was something interesting about the two ships, it probably meant there was.

"Take the Ferengi to the transporter room and beam him back to the surface," Klach said to the two soldiers. "Once he is off the ship, take us out of orbit and rendezvous with the Grel'Chor." Chek'va nodded, before turning to bark orders to the bridge crew. Klach beckoned D'Kan to come closer. "Once we return to the Grel'Chor, I want you to find the Enterprise and get us to her as fast as you can."

"Yes sir."

* * *

Harry Kendall could not help but smile as he watched the monitor. Ever since the Falcon had entered sensor range of Zantor Prime, ships had been leaving orbit at a rate of about one every three minutes. Now that the starship was orbiting the planet, she dwarfed every remaining vessel, which was some feat, given that the Steamrunner class was not among the biggest in Starfleet's inventory.

"Report," said Captain Clays, as she emerged from her ready room.

"We've entered orbit," replied Kendall. "A significant number of vessels left once we entered sensor range."

"What about contacting someone in authority?"

"We've made contact with a Mr Sento, who describes himself as 'Legislative Coordinator'. He's said he'll look into our request regarding the AOR Corporation." Clays frowned at this.

"I thought we only asked for their location," she said.

"We did; that was 30 minutes ago."

"Fair enough. If he won't confirm the information we've got, we'll confirm it ourselves."

"He also requested that no-one come down from this ship unless they've received permission." From the expression on her face, Kendall could tell that his captain didn't really care.

"Do I look as if I care? Anyway, this is supposed to be a freeport in neutral space." She turned to her security chief. "Mr Turner, ready a security team. You're going down to the surface. Once you've confirmed the location of AOR, let us know." Turner nodded and headed to the turbolift.

"What's the plan?" asked Kendall.

"There's nothing yet to link whoever's bought the ships to whoever attacked Hampton Orbital, so we'll play it cool. Once Turner's found AOR, you and I'll go down and talk to whoever's in charge." Clays sat in the captain's chair. "Take the tactical station," she said to Kendall. "Maintain contact with Turner while he's down there. I don't want any surprises."

"Aye captain."

* * *

Captain Gee sat on the bridge of the Santa Maria, drumming his fingers on the arm of the captain's chair. The ship had been at the coordinates provided by Mr Big for nine hours, and still the Friendship had not arrived. For someone in Captain Gee's profession, staying in the middle of nowhere for too long was not conducive to maintaining life and liberty, especially with the number of enemies he had made over the years. All he needed now was for a Federation ship to turn up.

"Sir," said Smedley. "There's a ship approaching at warp."

"What kind of ship?"

"Oberth class." Captain Gee frowned. That could be anybody; Starfleet still used Oberth class vessels, but so did several other space borne branches of the Federation. There were also many floating around in private ownership. Unfortunately, none of his few allies (so far as he was aware) owned one of them.

"Identification?"

"The vessel is now in visual range," said Smedley. He switched the screen to show the image of the ship approaching their position. "We're being hailed."

"On screen." The screen changed again to show a Vulcan wearing the uniform of a commander in the Naval anti-Smuggling and Export Administration, the Federation's border patrol service.

"This is Commander Varnek of the NSEA Defender. Your vessel has been identified as the Santa Maria belonging to the individual known as Captain Gee. The governments of several Federation member worlds want this individual. You will surrender your vessel and prepare to be boarded." Captain Gee looked at Smedley.

"What's the status of weapons and shields?"

"Shields currently at 50%; spiral wave disruptor and photon torpedoes are operational, but half of our ordinary disruptors are non functional."

"Not the best situation to be in," said Captain Gee. "Battle stations."

* * *

The last thing that Commander Varnek expected on a mission to meet up with an antimatter convoy was to run across one of the most wanted men in the Federation. Nevertheless, he approached the situation in a logical manner - the Defender had been at warp 4; its maximum speed was warp 7, which meant that it could engage Captain Gee's vessel and still rendezvous with the convoy in sufficient time. Additionally, apprehending Captain Gee was a task that was almost as important as supplementing the escort of an antimatter convoy.

"Sir, they've raised shields and armed weapons."

"Very well, sound General Quarters. Raise shields and charge weapons. Lock phasers on their main weapons emplacements."

* * *

The ship had taken the first few salvoes from the NSEA vessel and was holding up well. But, the more the shields took, the less they could carry on taking.

"Shields at 15%," said Bonecrusher. "Two more shots like that and they'll fail." Although Captain Gee was from a family of devout Catholics, he had never considered himself to be one. Now though, he was prepared to do anything, even consider prayer, to avoid what was happening.

"Another vessel has just come out of warp," Smedley reported. "It's attacking the NSEA vessel!" It was true - the image on the screen showed the Defender being lanced by phaser beams.

"Maintain fire!" said Captain Gee, before offering his eyes skyward. The NSEA ship, facing attack from two directions, quickly became overwhelmed. It had been knocked from its axis, and was clearly powerless and adrift.

"We're being hailed," said Smedley.

"On screen." The image of Mr Ell came onto the viewer.

"Sorry we're late, but we had to take a long route around a Federation convoy."

"Fine; now that you're here, we can deal with that Federation ship."

"What are you talking about?" said Mr Ell.

"That ship can identify us. It must be destroyed."

"I have my orders, and they don't include destroying Federation ships. Follow us, or I'll leave you for the Federation convoy that is 90 minutes behind us." The anger was evident on Captain Gee's face.

"Very well. Mr Smedley, lay in a course that follows the Friendship," he said through gritted teeth. Leaving the stricken Defender, the Friendship and the Santa Maria banked away and jumped to warp.

The Enterprise was at warp 2, travelling along the Neutral Zone boundary in the general direction of Zantor Prime. Picard had decided to replace the Destiny, as a means of keeping an eye on how Clays was doing.

"Captain," said Data. "There is a massive subspace displacement wave following us. It appears to be matching our course and speed."

"On screen." The viewscreen changed to show the direction of the displacement wave. "What is that?" said Picard. There was a severe distortion of the starlines on the screen. "There's a cloaked ship following us." Picard got out of the captain's chair. "Slow to impulse, stand by weapons and shields." Ensign Perim brought the Enterprise out of warp. Immediately, the distortion began flickering; whatever was following them was de-cloaking.

"That wasn't what I was expecting," said Commander Riker, as he came to stand at Picard's shoulder. Instead of the Romulan warbird that they could legitimately have thought was following them, instead a Klingon Negh'var class battleship confronted them. But that wasn't all - surrounding both the battleship and the Enterprise was a squadron of Klingon capital ships.

"I get the impression Number One," said Picard, "that the Klingons have something they want to talk to us about."

* * *

Clays and Kendall materialised in the street outside the Trelb Building to find Turner waiting for them.

"Captain?"

"Yes Mr Turner?"

"Sorry Ma'am, I wasn't aware you'd be coming down."

"I felt it necessary to attend to this personally. Is the information accurate?"

"I'm not sure. The information point told me that there was no AOR Corporation listed in the building, but when I mentioned Omag, it said that he had met with a man called Horton, who was the manager of the Rock Garden Casino and Hotel." Clays nodded.

"Fine, then we'll go talk to him." Turner held up his hand, stopping her entering.

"That's not all. It seems that this Horton is no longer the manager of the Rock Garden." Clays frowned, looking at both Kendall and Turner.

"It's still the best lead we've got," she said. "We'll talk to whomever's in charge; hopefully they'll be able to tell us something."

* * *

Clays, Kendall and Turner entered the manager's office to find that the person occupying the manager's chair was watching the viewer behind the desk, which was showing security footage of the casino floor. As they came up to the desk, the chair turned, to reveal its occupant.

"Captain Clays I presume," he said, holding out his hand. "I'm pleased to meet you. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Tarin."

* * *

The damage control teams had managed to secure the ship, and repairs were now well under way. Given what she had undergone, the ship had held up surprisingly well. What structural damage there was had been repaired, along with the shields, while the warp drive was close to being restored. Although there were serious injuries sustained, the number of people injured was small; even better, there had been no fatalities. Altogether, it could have been much worse.

"All hands," said Claire into the intraship. "Based on Lieutenant Gallagher's estimate, we'll be able to get under way in four hours. Well done all of you."