David Sheerin's Toronto Bye Bye Miss America Pie Captain Larson stood looking out the window of Admiral Harkness' Ready Room looking out at one of her favorite views. The planet Earth floated below the massive starship, facing the dark side of the planet. But that would soon change. As the Federation's biggest starship crossed the Terminator, where the planet was once a black marble, was now a beautiful blue and white hazed sphere. On any other day, Larson would move away from the window a happy person, but today, she continued to stare out into space, not really looking at anything. Hoping she could get a handle on the situation. She was now in Command of the Federation Starship Toronto, but she hoped that she would return to her original post of First Officer. She looked into her reflection and was disgusted at what she saw. To her, she was no longer the beautiful 30 year old - one of the youngest captains in the fleet - Captain in Starfleet. But now, the only thing she saw was her resentment for losing Admiral Charles Harkness. To her, he was a father. She lost her father several years earlier and Charles was the only man in her life who seemed to care. She had several Boy Friends, but none of them felt the same about her. Only about getting into her pants really, which mind you she sometimes liked, but on the most part she was looking for what most humans looked for - A companion. Someone who she could talk to about anything, and not feel ashamed about it. Someone who would hold her when she felt like she was the only girl left in the entire Galaxy. Sure, she acknowledged the fact that everyone needs physical intimacy every once in a while. That meant she could have sex, but to her it was only sex. In her life, she had only made love a couple of times, and that was in High School with her Boy Friend. But that also broke up, and now she never spoke to Adam Karch. She loved him 15 years ago, but now he was man who she loved in the past, yet in a way was still in love with him. But he was no longer around. She heard he joined Starfleet, became Weapons Officer on the USS Ville de Quebec. She had the chance to go over and see him, but she thought better of it. Now he was dead, and she missed him hating herself for not having a chance to say anything to him. She looked even deeper into the sad, depressed face she saw in the window. She really hated her self was the realization she came to. For once in her life, a disturbing thought went through her head. Larson backed away from the window and walked over and sat behind the desk. On it was a phaser. She picked it up and held its smooth handle and thought to herself that she was a screw up, and didn't deserve to be in command. The Captain spun around in her chair, and set the phaser to level 6, enough to vaporize her. She stood and walked back to the window and held it to her stomach. Her index finger fumbled around the trigger as she looked at her reflection. She thought again of how much of a loser she was, as a tear trickled down her face. She sniffled, and thought about her family, but they no longer cared. The last time she saw them, they were extremely mad with her because she had? She couldn't remember what was wrong with them, but they were mad at her. She finally got her index finger on the trigger, and silently ran it across the smooth surface. She looked around once more at the room that her 'father' once used as an office and took in a deep breath. She was happy in the fact that in a few seconds it would be over. Her finger lifted above the trigger and was held in a momentary hesitation. Just as she started to let it drop, the COMM system beeped. "Captain Larson to the Briefing Room." The cold voice of the Computer announced to her. Larson looked down at the phaser, and smiled a bit. She turned around and walked to the Desk, and placed the phaser into her holster on her belt. She wiped away a tear and took a glass of water, and walked out the door.   End Teaser.   Act I   Captain Larson walked into the Conference Room; there was Captain Bean of Section 31, Lieutenant Command Lefler, March, England, and Lieutenant Jenkins. Colonel Dubins was staring out the window. The Room went to attention as Larson passed past the table on her way to the head of the table. "As you were," She said as she took her seat. Larson adjusted her self in her seat, a sign to everyone who knew her well, that there was something that was bothering her. "First of all," she started to speak, "I'm sure that most of you have heard by now, Admiral Harkness has been captured by the Dominion," Larson said looking down at the table. Dr. England at the end of the table, immediately went into tears once she heard this. Lefler had already told her but it still hurt her. The Captain looked down at England, and started to feel for her but something clicked in side her. She went into automatic, cut off from her emotions. "Doctor England, I'm am aware of your relationship with the Admiral, but I must remind you that he was a Starfleet officer and was aware of the risks that come with the uniform. I must also remind you that you ARE A STARFLEET OFFICER, AND YOUR BEHAVIOR IS UNACCEPTABLE. If you wish, I could take you off active duty, and make Doctor King the CMO of this ship. Do I make my self clear, Commander?" England sniffled and sat up straight. "That won't be necessary, Captain. I am fit for duty, SIR," She said, forcing the last bit out. England felt like telling Larson where to shove her sense of duty, but thought better of it. March shifted in his seat. "Sir, what are we going to do now?" The Captain looked over at the German. "Well, as of now, 15:52 hours, I take command of the Federation Starship Toronto. And we continue on our mission." Larson looked to Bean. "I guess this is where I start off," Bean said after a moment, thrown by the display. He stood and walked over to the monitor at the end of the room, punched in a command into the LCARS pad and turned back to the group. The screen changed to a picture of a man, in his late 40's wearing a Green uniform. "This man here is Major General David Stidham, USMC, an officer in the United States government. The mission of Gul Leranal was to assassinate him and this man." The screen changed to a picture of a teenaged boy; he had red hair and wore thin glasses. "This is Lieutenant Commander David Sheerin of the Royal Canadian Navy. As of 08:35 hours this morning, he was officially commissioned as an Intelligence officer. Several months ago he hacked into a top security database and the base commander decided he was what they were looking for." Dubins snorted. "And what does this have to do with us, sir?" "I'm getting to that, Colonel. The Cardassians' mission was the kill these two people. According to our intelligence, they are directly responsible for events leading to the Third World War. The Cardassians figure if you took away the Third World War, the warp ship would have never been built, and the Federation would have never formed. Well, The plan was to kill them tomorrow. Major Stidham requested that the Canadian Military send a liaison officer, who would help the joint fortifying of North America. At around 4 PM, Halifax time, a ceremony will take place aboard the HMCS Toronto, the Canadian Flagship. The plan is for an operative at the ceremony to use an old projectile weapon and kill both of them, then beaming off the ship before he can be arrested." Everyone in the room sighed. March looked at Bean. "What are our options?" "Good question, Commander," answered Bean. "One, we can find the Cardassian ship, and destroy it. Or, we can stop the attempt on the planet." Captain Larson shifted in her seat. "I think our best option would be to destroy the Cardassian ship, but the only problem I see, is that no Gul will want to show it's self to the Toronto, with out the support of several Jem'Hadar Battle Cruisers." Bean smiled. "Well captain, the thing is I've kept the Dominion in the dark about the Toronto. They think it's a Galaxy Class Starship that's here. So the Gul may feel he can take her out. And I think he will. He isn't the brightest man I've ever met." The room shared a smile, except for England who was still in shock about the loss of her fiancé. Bean took his seat and looked at Larson. "If that's all?" Larson looked around; no one put up his or her hands. "Keep your men and women informed, dismissed." The senior officers of the Toronto stood and walked out the door. Only Captain Larson and Lieutenant Colonel Dubins remained. Larson looked out the window, and sighed. Dubins slowly walked behind her. "Melissa, are you okay?" He asked in a concerned tone. "I'm fine, Matt, anything else?" "I know you too well, something if bothering you, and I'm assuming it's the capture of the Admiral." "Matt?" she was cut off by Dubins again. "Look, all I'm saying is that you should go see Doctor Lameiro. She's a good psychologist." "Matt, back off." "If you want I'l-" "Matt, BACK OFF NOW!" "Melissa." "GET OUT!" "Aye, Captain." Dubins said finally, leaving the room. Larson continued to stare out at the blue marble she called home, and even though she was less than a 100,000 kilometers from her home, it may as well been on the other side of the galaxy.   * * *   Charles Harkness coughed as Gul Leranal removed a small probe from his throat. "Feeling any better, Admiral," the Gul chuckled to himself. "Shove it up your ass." Harkness retorted. The Gul lost the grin on his face, as the universal translator translated his last comment. "Admiral, I ask you again. What is the position of the Fifth Fleet, and what is their staging area?" "I don't know, my ship isn't part?" Harkness was cut off as the Gul inserted another probe in to the flesh of the Commanding Officer of the USS TORONTO.   End Act I   Act II   Lieutenant Jenkins sat in the Command Chair of the Toronto; she loved her Command Shift, not many young Lieutenants were left in command of the biggest and most powerful ship the Federation had ever built. She looked over the ops position, and smiled at a young Ensign. He had recently transferred to the Toronto, and Jenkins wanted to get to know him a bit more. "Is there anything I can do for you, sir?" Ensign Billet asked. Kristina smiled to herself; she had a couple thoughts but said "No, ensign, nothing at all." He smiled back at her. Yes! She thought Looks like you won't be single for much longer, Kris! Just then, the young ensign's console beeped, and the smile quickly fell off his face. "Sir! A Temporal Vortex is opening!" He called in an urgent voice. "Red alert, position?" "232 Mark 300." "On screen." The massive screen changed from the blue planet, to a greenish opening in space. "Vessel coming through," Billet reported. She looked over at her side console and tapped the comm. line. "Captain Larson to the bridge." The ensign yelled again, "I should have an ID on it in 5 seconds." "Lock phasers and quantum torpedoes." "Aye," came the voice of the young Marine NCO. "Sir, I'm picking up a Federation warp signature." Billet said in a relaxed tone, "ID code is NCC-63459? USS Thunderchild." The back Turbolift opened up, and Captain Larson walked on to the Bridge. "Stand down from Red Alert," she ordered as she walked over to her seat. Jenkins stood and walked over to the helm. "They are hailing sir," replied the young ensign at Ops. "On screen." The screen changed to the image of Captain Arkcana. "Well this is a surprise, I didn't expect to see the Toronto in this neck of time," he said with a grin. "Captain, may I ask what you're doing here?" replied Larson "I could ask the same of you. FTC didn't report any ships being in this time period when we logged our mission plan. By the way, where is captain Harkness?" "Actually it's Admiral Harkness, and he was captured by the Cardassians. I am in Command now. My name is Captain Larson." Arkcana sighed. "I'm sorry to hear that. Starfleet didn't inform us of your mission? perhaps we should meet to work out a plan so that our teams don't interfere with each other. Time can be a tricky thing." "I agree captain." She tapped her Comm badge. "Transporter room, prepare to receive captain Arkcana." "I'll see you in a few captain," he said. The screen changed back to the Thunderchild. Larson turned in her seat to look at the ops position. She looked over at the chronometer on her right hand console, "Damn, only oh-two-thirty," she said to herself. The Captain stood, and looked at Jenkins. "You have the bridge, Jenkins." "Aye, sir."   * * *   Larson walked along the hall towards her quarters. The hall was empty, since it was still early in the morning. She reached her door and punched in the code, 12-07-41, the day the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. The Captain entered her quarters and looked around. It was dark, but she was able to see her bathrobe lying on the couch. She walked into her bedroom, and started to take off her uniform, first with the top, which she threw on her couch at the far end of the room. Next came off her pants, which fell to the ground, she didn't bother to pick them up. Melissa climbed into bed, and was quickly asleep.   Melissa awoke from her dream, only to see her bed spinning around the room. It was dark; the only lights she could see where red eyes which were looking intently on her. "Melissa, Melissa, Melissa, I am a ALIVE!" A familiar voice cried out to her. Larson sat up in her bed, and tried to look into the dark, but she could only see the red eyes. "Hello," She desperately called out, only to hear her name being called back. "Where am I?" She called again, and still, nothing. Just then, her bed started to slow down, and she could see a bright white light in the distance. Melissa stood from her bed, and walked over to the light. She abruptly stopped by the sight that she saw. On a chair was her friend, Commanding Officer, and surrogate father, Admiral Harkness, with a phaser burn to the chest. His right eye was gouged out; his left arm had been severed and was sitting on his lap. He looked over at her, and started to speak. "Melissa, how could you leave me?"   Just then, Melissa awoke from her dream. She was sitting up in her bed. Beads of sweat were forming on her forehead. She looked around her room, trying to figure out what had happened. "Computer: Time?" She asked, while still trying to catch her breath. "The time is oh-six-thirty-eight." Came the cold, unemotional response from the computer. "Well, better get up." She thought to herself.   End Act II   Act III     Captain Thomas Arkcana walked into the conference room of the USS Toronto with a slight limp. He looked around the table and noticed that most of the senior staff of the massive battleship where seated. "Am I late or something?" He joked, as he took his seat. "Welcome to the Toronto, Captain," Larson greeted him from the head of the table. "Thank you, though I must admit I'm a bit intimidated by the size of the vessel. Starfleet rated me a level two commanding officer a while back; they won't let me command a ship with more than 300 people on board. I almost got a Sovereign class ship once, but then that's life I suppose." He smiled back at her. The tired skipper of the Toronto was done with the usual pleasantries, and got up from her seat and walked over to the monitor. "The Toronto was sent back to capture the rogue Lieutenant Commander Christopher Bean. The thing is, Bean is working for us. He is an operative placed into the Dominion by Section 31." "Figures," Arkcana said with disdain. "Seems like Section 31 and FTC and Special Ops are always butting heads." Captain Bean walked through the door as Arkcana said this. "We are the first and last line of defense for the United Federation of Planets." He said as he took his seat. "Yeah, that's the same thing Admiral Hayes said about Special Ops five years ago. Not one month later we found out one of the members was a Romulan operative. I don't care how damn secret your operation is, its still not good enough." Bean sighed, walking over to the monitor and ignoring his last statement. "The Cardassians want to screw up the time line, and it's our job to stop them. They're going to try to kill two people, in the hopes that it will stop the Third World War. They think it will stop humans from starting the UFP." Captain Larson walked over to her seat. "We are really glad that you guys came back, because we need two ships. We need the Thunderchild to try to stop the attempt from Earth. The Toronto is going to try to find the Cardassian ship, so we can save Admiral Harkness. Got it Captain?" "I hate to tell you this, but the Thunderchild will be unavailable. We've got a serious situation on Halais III that needs to be attended to." "Captain, Halais III is an abandoned planet. The Dominion is trying to change history, and if they succeed you won't be around to get to your mission." Arkcana sighed, tapping his communicator. "Arkcana to Thunderchild, Lieutenant Lavelle, what's the ETA of our target." "We got here three days early sir. The Dominion had plans to arrive in five days." "Thank you Lieutenant. We're going to have to delay our trip for two days. I'll brief you later. Arkcana out." He tapped his badge. "Very well captain. Two days, and no more." "Okay, Captain Bean is going to help you guys, while the Toronto looks for the Admiral. Got it?" "Aye, Captain," Bean responded. "Very well, dismissed."   * * *   "Look at the pathetic human," said a Cardassian officer, as he looked over the body of Charles Harkness. The man who used to command the biggest ship in the Federation was drifting between a conscious state and one of unconsciousness. He couldn't understand a word the Cardassians were saying since he didn't have his translator. "Water," Harkness called, as he felt his lips chap. "Luke enyway chon," was the only response he got, of course it meant 'I don't think so,' as they slapped him across the face. It stung for a couple of seconds, but the other pain in his body quickly drowned it out. "Go to hell," was Harkness' only response. "Well you should know," Gul Leranal reentered the room from a door which Harkness could not see, "Admiral. That we Cardassians do not believe in what you call 'hell', and from your record I stole from Starfleet, I see you don't believe in it either. So, your statement is one of stupidity." Harkness smiled at that comment. "Why are you smiling?" Demanded Leranal. "Well, untie me and I'll make us both believers." Inside, he felt like a new man. A man that could do anything would do anything to see his fiancée again. Leranal growled. "Well, let us begin with round 5. I've got a new toy, which I think you might like." He picked up what looked like a long laser scalpel. Harkness didn't think it was something that harmless. "So, now I know why you like to interrogate." This intrigued his tormentor. "Why is that, Mister Harkness?" "Penis envy. You use big tools like that, and it makes you think you have a big dick! Also, I have a big one myself, hell Michelle can barley?" he was cut off. "Shut up human." his tormentor, warned. "I'm going to make it painful for you, because of that remark. Now, see this devise? To put it in terms your feeble mind can comprehend it takes off your epidermal layer, and exposes your nerve endings. Have a nice day." He smiled at the last bit as he went towards Harkness' right arm. "This might hurt a bit, and you know how to end the pain. Where is the Fifth Fleets Headquarters?" "Kiss my ass." "I was hoping you would say that."   * * *   Captain Larson sat behind the desk in Admiral Harkness' ready room. She needed to relax so she walked over to the Replicator, "Computer: Extra large Long Island iced tea." The computer hummed as it produced her drink. She took a sip, and embraced the cool liquid as it traveled down her throat. She walked back to her desk, and sat down. "Computer: Play some Dave Mathews Band." The song started with an acoustical guitar.   We were walking just the other day. It was so hot outside you could fry an egg. Remember you were talking I watch as swear ran down your face. Reached up and caught it at your chin licked my fingertip. Wasting Time. Let the hours roll by Dong nothing for the fun.   For the first time in a few days, Melissa Larson was content with her life. She leaned back in her chair and took another sip of her drink. "Computer: Raise volume 120 percent." She was now engulfed in the music, and this made her feel a lot better, nothing could touch her now. She reclined even more, enjoying every second of it. Till she her music was drowned out by a different sound, a sound she didn't want to hear. The klaxons of Red Alert. She cursed as she got out of her seat and walked towards the door. "Computer: Stop music," she ordered as she left the room. The bridge buzzing with activity, Colonel Dubins was sitting in the Command Chair, barking orders. "Colonel, report." Ordered Larson as she walked towards her seat. "Captain on the bridge," Yelled Dubins as he got out of her seat. "Sir, one of our Halifax Gun Ships got caught in the Gravity of Jupiter and was pulled in. Lieutenant Bishop found way to get out of the pull of the Planet, but in the process he did a lot of damage to his ship. Right now, we are trying to get him in." "How far is he from us?" Asked Larson, who was already working on a plan to get him and ship out of this situation. "About 2.6 million clicks off our starboard bow. We cannot beam him out, even if he was in range. Some sort of radiation is affecting his hull." "Patch me into his cockpit." March at Ops nodded singling that she was connected. "Lt. Bishop. Prepare to eject. We'll pick you up ASAP. Toronto out." "He's acknowledged." Reported Dubins in a concerned voice. He knew that the ejection systems on the Halifax class Gun Ship we're just added, not even fully tested. And even if they did work, he wouldn't last more than 8 minutes in that atmosphere. "He's about to go," yelled some officer at the science position. On the main viewer, the lone ship was engulfed in a bright flash, as the cockpit was ejected, and thrown away from the crippled ship. "He's clear." "Helm, plot a course to pick him up, full impulse. Engage!" Larson ordered. Dubins noted that she sounded somewhat scared. Her voice quivered a bit. "ETA?" "3 minutes." Replied Dubins. "Very well, you can handle it from here. I'll be in my ready room. Stand down from Red Alert. Oh, and make sure there's no trace of the wreckage? we can't afford to have the timeline affected." The Captain of the massive warship retreated back to her music, and Long Island Iced Tea.   End Act III   Act IV   Admiral Harkness awoke from his drug induced sleep. He surveyed the room he was in. For the first time since he was captured he was out of the interrogation chamber. He looked around at his new surroundings. It looked to be a SickBay of some sorts. Oh yes, he now remembered. During one of his tormentor's attempts to 'extract' information, he had fallen unconscious and Leranal probably panicked and thought that he would lose his only source of information on the Federation, so he had him saved. Harkness chuckled at the stupidity of his captor. He also had to laugh again as he noticed that he was not secured to the table. Charles cautiously got up from his relaxed position and sat at the edge of the bio bed. He still felt a little lightheaded as he tried to gain a sense of his position. His room was dark, but he the Admiral could make out several tables. He got up and walked to one, opened one of the drawers. Charles could barley contain his laughter as he picked up the Cardassian hand phaser. "God, these lizards are pretty damn stupid," he chuckled to himself as he walked to the door. But to his dismay, the door didn't open. "Ah well, gotta give 'em that much." He quickly walked back to the table. And for the first time looked down at his body. The Cardassian's didn't give him the 'honor' of clothing. As he looked down, he could feel the bile in his stomach rise. The Admiral's body was in tough shape. From his 8 week medical course a few years ago, he was able to determine that he had at least 6 fourth-degree burns to his body, and the rest were second to third degree. Doctor England would have a lot of work once he returned. He looked around and decided that it was time for him to make is departure from the Cardassian ship. He walked over to the Cardassian version of a LCARS display and punched in a query. "Ah, only 40 Cardassian troops on board," he said aloud. Just then he heard the door lock being released. "Crap." He ducked behind the table where he got the phaser. "Oh, Admiral Harkness, time for you to be awoken from your slumber." The evil Cardassian Doctor said as he entered the room. He hit a button on a nearby table and the lights came on. "What the hell!" Is what Harkness assumed what the Translation was? Charles stood up from his hiding place and pointed the phaser at his target. "Nice try, you bitch." He said, as he was about to pull the trigger. The Cardassian Doctor's translator told him what the good admiral said. "Valiant effort, you female dog." The last part puzzled him, but he only had a fraction of a second to think about it, as the human pulled the trigger.     "Captain Arkcana," Melissa said in a soft tone to the monitor on her desk. "Any luck in finding the Cardassian operatives?" "No, captain," the man on the monitor responded. He looked tired, but he seemed confident that they would find their men. "The ceremony is not for a couple more hours, and even if we don't get them before it, we can get them as it happens." "Thank you, Captain. Toronto out." She said as she pushed a button on her monitor. Larson leaned back into her seat, and took a deep breath. They had been at it for 6 hours, and still nothing. She knew that trying to find a Cardassian ship was tough, but Captain Bean had gotten her hopes up when he told her that the Cardassian's felt the Toronto was as powerful as a Galaxy class ship. A Galore Type 5 Destroyer could take on a Galaxy class vessel; the result was a fifty-fifty chance for both ships during the war. She closed her eyes and remembers all the good times she had with Charles. A single tear rolled down her face as she thought of him. For one brief moment, she was out of her zombie like automatic mode and was a human again, but that quickly ended when the alert klaxons went off, and the ship went to red alert.   * * *   "Gul," shouted a scared young Cardassian officer, "I'm picking up a Federation Starship." Gul Leranal looked with shock at the officer. "This is all we need, get me a full damage report and tell me where my 'toy' is, I want to kill him. Also, what type ship is it?" The bridge of the Cardassian ship was glowing. Many small fires were burning at blown out computer consoles. "The cloaking devise is non-operational sir, the Human has made it to the shuttle bay, but he cannot exit the ship. We have him pinned down." A young Cardassian shouted from the back of the bridge. The Command center for this warship was starting to get very warm. Even though Cardassian's enjoyed the heat, the Gul of this vessel was now very uncomfortable and irritable. "What ship is that?" He barked. "Sir, it appears to be the USS Toronto, identification code NX 711867." The Gul was now happy; his informant had told him that the Toronto was as strong as a Galaxy class vessel. It would make a great war trophy for his triumphant return to Cardassia Prime. "Alert Status One. Ready all weapons and prepare boarding parties." He said with a slithery smile.     "Captain on Deck," yelled a Marine positioned at the back of the Command and Control center for the Federation Starship Toronto, as Captain Larson walked towards her seat. "Report," she ordered. "A Cardassian Galore class 5 Destroyer de-cloaked 8 million Kilometers off our port bow." Replied March. "Is there a human life on board?" Immediately asked Larson. "I'm reading 50, make that 48 Cardassian's and one human." Larson smiled. "Ready all weapons, target their weapons and propulsion systems. Let's show them what the Toronto can do." She said with a smile. "Attack pattern echo-echo-bravo-charley-8-pi, enable!"   The massive battleship turned towards the Cardassian vessel. From her aft marine hangers, came several Halifax gun ships. As soon as the gun ships were in position, the Toronto unleashed a volley of Quantum torpedoes, which struck the shields of the Cardassian vessel. The ship seemed to shake them off and moved towards the Toronto. The Cardassian's fired off 3 torpedoes, which just bounced off the shields. The Toronto retorted with a full phaser sweep. All forward batteries opened fire, in total 15 phaser beams made contact with the shields of the Cardassian ship. Finally penetrating them. A second volley of quantum torpedoes stuck the hull and caused the weapons systems to overload in a massive explosion, which destroyed to nose of the vessel. She started to slow down as her impulse generators gave out. She was dead in space. The battle was over in less than 2 minutes. The mighty Toronto was successful again.     End Act IV   Act V     The bridge of the Toronto was quiet. They had crippled their enemy, but they were still wondering about the fate of their Commanding Officer. Larson looked the most distraught, she thought the worse and thought that the attack on the Cardassian ship had killed Harkness, but since she had no way of knowing, and little part of her told her to think like an optimist, and not a pessimist. "Report." She ordered. Around the bridge, people pushed buttons on their LCARS display units to get answers for their Captain. "Captain, Engineering Reports no serious damage. Only a couple blown out EPS conduits around the ship." "Captain, All marine fighters have checked in, no damage to hangers." "Captain, Shields are down to 78%, weapons are at full power." "Captain, Sickbay reports that there were 32 injuries during the attack. All are minor, no deaths." Melissa let a sigh of relief out, and now it was down to business. "Commander March: Scan the Cardassian vessel for Human life signs." "Scanning," he said as he pushed a button. "I detect one human life sign. Weak, but he's there." For the first time in the past 36 hours, Melissa smiled. She got out of her seat. "Hail them." "They are responding." The screen changed from the crippled Galore Class Destroyer to the face of Gul Leranal. "Ah, Captain," he started but was abruptly cut off. "Let's cut the bull shit, Gul. I believe you are holding a Federation Citizen, and on behave of the United Federation of Planets, I demand that you return him at once." The smile across the Gul's face quickly disappeared. "We did have a Human aboard," the Gul turned his head to the right and nodded. "But he died." Larson got impatient, and moved her hand across her throat. "Muted," the Marine at the tactical position reported. "March, scan the ship." "Sir, I am no longer detecting the human life sign." He said with remorse in his voice. Larson choked up as rage filled her body. "That son of a bitch. Weps lock all weapons on that ship. Open the channel." "Gul, I'm going to kick the living," a beep, "shit out of you." Larson yelled at the screen. She was oblivious to the beep. "Captain Larson, please sit down." Colonel Dubins said in a rational voice. "Colonel, what do you think your doing." "Captain Larson, under Federation Law, I am hear by relieving you of duty till further notice. Please, Melissa, don't make me have you escorted off the bridge." "Matt," she was cut off by two marines walked beside her. "Take her to sick bay." "Aye sir." The threesome walked off the bridge as Dubins took the center seat. "Put him on screen" The screen switched back to the Gul. "Sorry about that, Gul. We would be grateful if you could return the body of Admiral Harkness to us." "But of course. We will send it over in 2 hours." "Thank you, Toronto out." Dubins turned towards March. "Commander, are they're Sensors working?" "No, sir." "Good, send a re-con probe, and have it attack to their hull." "Aye." "I don't think we've seen the end of Leranal." Dubins said under his breath.     * * *   Marine Commanders Personal Log: Supplemental.   We have received the body the Admiral Harkness, and are getting ready for his funeral. We are now back in our time, and have set course for the nearest Starbase. On a different note, Doctor Lameiro has informed me that Captain Larson can return to active duty, she was just over come by rage and is now better. Doctor England has also enlisted the professional help of Lameiro. But I feel this afternoon will be tough for both of them.   Admiral Pressman stood overlooking the crowd that formed to bid farewell to their Commanding officer. By his side on the stage was Captain Larson, the widow, Lieutenant Commander Michelle England, Commander March, Colonel Dubins, Commander Lefler and Lieutenant Jenkins, all were in their dress uniforms, and all looked very distraught. "Charles Harkness was our friend, he was as well to most, our Commanding Officer. He was a man who took pride in this ship and this crew, and he was happy to call you all his extended family. Charles was a man who worked hard every day, and didn't complain. When Starfleet sent him on dangerous missions, he was happy to put himself in danger, because he had the faith in his crew that they would get him through anything that might happen. Charles, you were my friend; I wish you one final good-bye. May your death be peaceful." The shrill sound of a whistle told the crew to stand at attention. "Computer, begin American Pie. This was one of Charles's favorite songs."   The day the music died. … So bye bye Miss American Pie. Drove my Chevy to the levy but the levy was dry. Good old boys were drinking whisky and rye, singing this will be the day that I die. This will be the day that I die. Did you write the book of love, and do have faith in god above. …   "Charles, good bye my friend" The Admiral said as the Torpedo tube that Charles's body was laid to rest in was moved toward the opening to the vacuum of space. Larson turned her head away for a second, but forced her self to watch it leave the ship on the monitor showing the exterior torpedo bay. She sniffled a bit as she held back her tears. -- David J. Sheerin sheerins@interlog.com dave@kingalira.com http://www.kingalira.com He who laughs last probably doesn't understand the joke. Q: What's the most popular form of birth control? A: The headache. Weiler's Law: Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself.s Ancient Chinese Curse: May all your wishes be granted.