SEASON 2: EPISODE 01

NO REST FOR THE WICKED: Part Six

  “Commander, do you know what is going on?”

  Susan shot Ensign Cole an angry look.  This was the tenth time someone had asked her the very same question.  The entire crew of the USS Swiftfire were in a large hall in one of the orbiting Spacedocks, that is the entire crew except the Captain, and everyone thought that Susan had a clue what was going on.

  “I have no idea, Frank.  If I did I would have told you,” snapped Susan.  Frank was taken back by this and Susan immediately felt bad.  “Sorry, Frank.  I’m just sick of getting asked that.”

  “I understand, Commander.  This is pretty weird though.”

  “I agree with the Ensign,” said Letac from beside Susan.  “The Captain gets us in early for deployment.  Not the standard few hours early, but a whole day and then he is ten minutes late and counting to his own gathering! Something strange is going on.”

  “Maybe he’s getting a special briefing from the Admiralty on our mission.  Maybe they’re going to send us on a suicide mission to Cardassia Prime!  Or have us go through the wormhole to strike the Dominion where it lives!” said Frank getting all excited and nervous at the same time.

  “I very much doubt that,” said Susan.  “Wait, here comes someone.”

  A Starfleet Chief Petty Officer walked to the front of the hall and gestured everyone to quiet down.  “I regret to inform you that Captain Masters cannot join you here.”

  The noise level went up as everyone tried to make sense of what was going on.

  “But instead we’re going to beam you to join the Captain.  Have a good time.”

  Before anyone could ask every single person in the room was transported off out of the hall…and to an open space on Earth, to be greeted by the Captain, who was very out of uniform.  Jonathan was in recreational gear that was best suited for warm climates especially the type with beaches.

  “Welcome everyone…” shouted the Captain.  “To Fiji!”

  There were gasps of surprise from the group.

  “As you know we’re shipping out early back to the war and I thought it would be a good idea for us to have one last good relaxing and fun time before we do that.  Thanks to Colonel Tiki we have a little resort island all to ourselves, so until tomorrow I order you all to have a good time and enjoy the facilities!”

  The crew broke into applause and cheers.  It took a bit of time before they started to break up and go to scope out the facilities.

  Susan went up to Jonathan with an amazed look on her face.

  “What do you think, Susan?”

  “Sometimes you scare me, Jonathan.  But this time is not one of them, I love it!  I can’t believe you thought of this!”

  “Neither can I,” said Tiki who appeared from behind Susan.

  “Thanks to you it became a reality,” said Jonathan to Tiki.

  “It was nothing.  Getting a resort island at short notice for a night is easy in Fiji, everyone’s always looking to help.  They don’t call us the friendly islands for nothing.”

  Susan put her arms around Jonathan and Tiki.  “You two are my favourite people right now.  I can even forgive the fact we’ve got our break shortened because of this.”

  “That was the point.  The crew has to be repaid for what they do and will do.  Plus getting them all together will foster between crew relations and make sure they leave on a happy note.”

  “So is everyone here?” asked Susan.

  “No,” answered Tiki.  “Some people couldn’t make it or will be here later, like some of my Marines who are up on the ship.”

  “You did work your Marines through our break did you?” asked Susan shocked.

  “Of course not!  The new members of my group at up their stowing their gear and getting a tour and briefing from my second-in-command.  They’ll be down here shortly.”

  “That’s good,” said Susan relieved.  “I’d hate for anyone to miss out on this!”

  It took awhile for everyone to get into the swing of things.  Mostly it was because people didn’t know what to do!  It had taken everyone by surprise and they waited to see what they should do.  Eventually several people took the lead and started to fully enjoy themselves in the sun, sand and surf and then everyone was enjoying themselves.  Plus since everyone was in uniform it took a while for them to get outfitted with more appropriate gear for their location and situation.  Since it was afternoon they could only enjoy the daylight for a few hours and as it got dark the crew moved from the beach to the resort buildings.

  Jonathan watched as his crew enjoyed the resort pool from a balcony.  Susan walked up to Jonathan and fell into the seat next to him.

  “That was fun!” she said and rubbed her hand through her hair, spraying water everywhere from her wet hair.  “You should have joined in, Jonathan.”

  “It’s okay.  Watching was enough for me.”

  “Someone doesn’t look like they are having fun…”

  “No, I’m enjoying it,” reassured Jonathan.  “Just not in the same way.  I’m enjoying seeing the crew happy, seeing all these happy people.  It’s relaxing.”

  “Sounds very boring.  Jonathan, you’re getting old on me!” ribbed Susan.

  “Very true.  Soon I’ll be needing a cane to get around,” Jonathan joked.  “Look here he comes!”

  Jonathan pointed out to the distance.  Susan looked out and saw a flame coming closer.  Every now and then it would stop and light another flame and then continue.  Into view came a Fijian native in traditional dress running with a torch, stopping to light standing torches.  As he went past groups of crew they cheered him on.

  “What is he doing?” asked Susan.

  “He’s lighting the torches.  It’s a signal that dinner is ready.”

  On queue several resort staff appeared and announced that dinner was ready and for the crew to follow them.

  Jonathan stood and offered his hand to Susan.  “Would you join me for dinner, Commander?”

  “Of course, Captain.”  Susan took his hand and stood up.  Jonathan led Susan to a large open dining area that was filling up with people; luckily the area was more then able to handle the crew of the Swiftfire.  Jonathan led Susan to a table that was specifically for him.  Several other people were there, this included Colonel Tiki, Doctor Murphy and Ensign Cole who looked a bit confused.

  Jonathan pulled Susan’s chair out and pushed it in as she sat in it before taking a seat himself.  The other places at the table were soon filled by Lt. Commander Celcho and Whitechapel, Lieutenant Letac, Karak and Wessling and Wing Commander Benton.

  As soon as they were all seated Frank quietly said, “Captain, I’m not sure I’m meant to be here.”

  “Of course you are, Ensign.  Seated here are the people who I most deal with on the crew, you may have the lowest rank but you are as important as anyone here.  But if you want to sit with your friends, you can.”

  “No, no!” said Frank quickly.  “I’m with friends here, sir.”

  “Excellent.”

  An army of waiters appeared and started to distribute food to the crew.  This had all been prepared before hand by Jonathan and Tiki.  They had checked the replicators’ logs and found what type of food to serve, which was especially important with the non-human crew who didn’t eat the same things as humans and had gotten the chiefs to prepare a variety of dishes for the crew.  It had been a huge task for Jonathan and Tiki to gather and sort the information and an even large task for the chiefs to prepare it.

  “This is unbelievable!” said Letac as their food arrived.  “You went to all this trouble just for us.”

  “Nothing you and the rest of the crew don’t deserve,” said Jonathan.  “It might be awhile before we get to do anything this relaxing again.”

  “So where are we heading, Captain?  Back to the Fifth?” asked Tiki as he enjoyed his food.

  Jonathan shook his head.  “No, we’ve been assigned to Taskforce 59.”

  “As in the group that we helped destroy the Dominion Carrier?” asked Benton.

  “The very same.  The Admiral in charge of the group requested that we be assigned to it.  They seem to be a more proactive taskforce from what I’m been briefed on.”

  “Excellent, it is about time we had some fun.”

  “Fun is not the word for this, Colonel,” said Karak.  “We will be under increased pressure and danger; it will most likely stress the crew not give them enjoyment.”

  “Come on, Karak.  Don’t you want to give some back to the Jem’Hadar?”

  “Vengeance is something that is illogical.”

  “What about if the Jem’Hadar had broken through our defence of Vulcan and conquered the planet?  Wouldn’t you want to go out and free your homeworld?”

  “It is only logical that I would want my homeworld to be free from a hostile force.  But I would not do anything without permission from Starfleet Command.”

  “And if Command said to abandon your world?”

  “Then I would,” said Karak coldly.  “Command would have a better appreciation for the situation and if it warranted that the cost was Vulcan then that is what it will be.”

  Tiki shook his head in disapproval.  “Sometimes I wonder about you Vulcans.”

  “And sometimes I wonder about you humans.”

  That brought a laugh from the others at the table.

  “Enough of that you two,” ordered Susan.  “So where are we heading, Captain?”
  “The Breen border.”

  “The Breen border?  I thought this was a proactive group, shouldn’t we he heading for Cardassia Prime?” said Letac.

  “Command wants us at the Breen border.  I can’t say anymore since I don’t know why myself but there are quite a few ships heading that way.”

  “We were heading to the Breen border before the Jem’Hadar destroyed the Sydney,” said Lieutenant Aimee Wessling, the newest member of the crew at the table.  “Acts of piracy have really increased in the area close to the borders there.  Probably because Starfleet has really reduced our presence in the area for the war against the Dominion.  Maybe the Taskforce is going there to crack down on it.”

  “It must be pretty bad for an entire Taskforce to be diverted from the war to handle the situation,” said Cole.

  “We’ll Starfleet was happy just to send the Sydney before and that was not that long ago.  I don’t see how the situation could have gotten so out of control since then.”

  “Maybe they just want it dealt with very quickly,” suggested Tiki.  “Look at the Maquis, Starfleet and the Cardassians had only a few vessels trying to stop them and they lasted for a few years, then the Jem’Hadar come with a fleet and wiped the Maquis away in a few days.”

  “I guess the lesson is there is no replacement for brute force,” commented Letac.

  “If that is true, then we’re in big trouble,” said Jonathan.  “I’ve seen the intelligence reports on Dominion and Cardassian fleet strength and it looks like they both specialise in brute force.”

  The rest of the dinner went well with the people at Jonathan’s table focusing on lighter topics then they were at the start.  Plus as the alcohol started to make its way into the party everyone lightened up.  By the end of the dinner everyone was still at the dinning area, not sure what they could or should do now that dinner was over.

  Susan stood up and tapped her spoon to her glass to get everyone’s attention.

  “Since you’re all here I guess no one knows what they can do.  Here’s a list: you can go back to the pool, lie on the beach, go to the dance halls, holosuites, you can go to one of the rooms and sleep, you can do whatever you want to do at this resort.”  Susan went to sit back down but appeared to remember something and stood back up.  “Oh, and the Captain says that since we don’t have an early start tomorrow that the bar is open all night!”

  The room erupted in cheers for the Captain and the alcohol.  Jonathan got into the mood and stood up and took a bow.  He then picked up his glass and proposed a toast.

  “To the crew of the Swiftfire.  And to the downfall of the Dominion!”

  Everyone stood raised their glasses and applauded.

  “Now, have some fun!” yelled Jonathan.