SEASON 3: EPISODE 01

CROSSFIRE: Part One

  For the second time in as many hours Captain Jonathan Masters woke up with a throbbing head.  The only difference was this time the source was at the front of his head and not the back.  He pushing down on the ground to try and sit up and found it to be different texture then what he expected.  He opened his eyes to see he was looking at the soft earth under him.  He looked around confused and saw his kidnapper standing a few metres away with a phaser rifle trained on him.  It was one of the pre-2370s models of phaser rifle, two handles with a boxier shape and a head that looked like an overgrown hand phaser.  His shuttle had not contained any phaser rifles so she had obviously brought it herself.

  “Where are we?” he asked cautiously as he slowly and carefully sat up due to the weapon trained on him.

  “On the planet you crashed us on.”

  Masters thought about arguing that point with her.  It was not his fault they crashed.  Given they were pursued by an Ambassador class starship they were lucky to be alive.  He decided it was not worth the trouble of getting into an argument with her, the last thing he needed was another whack on the head. 

  She continued, “We’re some distance from the shuttle.  I beamed us away and made sure that they wouldn’t be able to track us.”

  By that Masters took it that she sabotaged the shuttle’s computer and/or transporter to stop them following them straight to wherever they were.

  “So what now?” he asked as he moved his limbs to make sure they were not damaged.

  “There is a village not too far from here.  We’re going to go there and see if they have a ship.”

  “I doubt it.  The computer indicated that they were a pre-warp civilisation.”

  “Then I’ll convince them to hide us until our pursuers leave.”

  Masters was not in a great mood so he decided to have a go at her.  “Everything not going to plan?”

  The raven hair woman scowled at him.  Her dark hair, eyes and smooth skin made him think of Rachel Daley.  It was only a passing resemblance; unlike the Marine his captor did not fill him with warm feelings.  “It could be worse.  They could have captured me.  Now stand up, we have to get going.”

  Masters briefly considered resisting her, but decided not to.  The longer he was alive was more time for him to find out more about whom his captor was and why she was doing this.  At this point he had no advantage over her.  Not only would he make it out of this alive, but it increased the chances of her making it out alive.  Left on her own he did not doubt she would be killed, by her own hand or by the forces pursuing her.  Plus he had a gut feeling that there was something more, something important that he had yet to gleam.  He doubted that she wanted to kill him, but that did not mean she would not.  All he needed was a bit more time.

  “It was definitely of Federation design,” said the First.

  Jasis had no reason to doubt the First Aral’hartra’s word.  His eyes were much better then hers and while she could not make out the shuttle’s design the Jem’Hadar would have been able to.

  “Take a squad of Jem’Hadar to the crash site to check for survivors.”

  “If we find any?”

  “Dispose of them.  Make sure that the methods do not hint at our presence here.  That means no energy weapons.  As close as we are to the subspace relay in this sector if they got a message out it would be soon intercepted by another vessel.  The last thing we need is to have Starfleet crawling over this planet.  Their prime directive will mean they will be quick and quiet about their retrieval, I don’t want them to have a reason to remain close by.”

  “Do you have any further orders before I leave?”

  “Also prepare the others to leave.  I don’t want to be in the open when their rescuers arrive.  We will return to the outpost as soon as possible.”

  The First acknowledged her orders and left her as he went to organise the others.  Jasis knew she could trust the Jem’Hadar to get this task done.  The First had served for her for all of his six years of life.  He had been on many missions with that required him and his Jem’Hadar brothers to keep a very low profile.  She was not joking when she said that the last thing they needed was Starfleet crawling around.  The Jem’Hadar were fearsome warriors but she only had a platoon of Jem’Hadar on the planet with no hope of reinforcement.  Stealth was the key to their survival.

  Her First returned.  “We are prepared.  I will leave my Second to command in my absence.  What do you want to do with the villagers?”

  Jasis frowned to herself.  That was going to be a problem.  Originally once the outpost was set up the Jem’Hadar were to destroy the village and its inhabitants to make sure their secret was kept.  It was to be a simple task, gather the villagers in the centre and beam her out and replace her with a bomb that would wipe out the whole village.  The Jem’Hadar would then search out for anybody who had not been in the village.  But now it was too risky.  There was too much chance that any ship come to rescue the downed shuttle crew would detect the use of advanced explosives and look into the destruction and she was not confident that the hidden outpost would remain hidden from a dedicated search.

  That was the key, the secret listening outpost they were installing.  This planet had been chosen because of its proximity to a Federation subspace relay and its position behind the front.  Here it was hoped the listening post would be able to intercept transmissions going through the relay and then send them back to the Dominion.  Starfleet would never know it was here.

  Another major factor in choosing this planet was the Federation’s foolish Prime Directive that would not allow them to contact the inhabitants of this planet.  There was little risk of them poking around the village.  As for any crash survivors, if they had spotted the village and decided to make their way here against their own rules then they would have to pass the Jem’Hadar she was sending out.  At the moment it seemed to be safer for the operation’s security to allow the villagers to continue living their pointless existence.  At least for the moment.

  “Do not do anything.  I doubt that Starfleet will make contact with these peasants.  After the situation has calmed down we will deal with these people.”

  Commander Susan Core examined the latest personnel reports on her padd.  As much as she hated it she was almost getting use to the amount of administrative work she had to do as a commanding officer.  It was not like she did not have any as XO, she just never really enjoyed it.  Though as the commanding officer she got some more interesting pieces to read than would never cross her desk.  Damn it if it was not starting to grow on her!

  “Commander, we are being hailed by Admiral Douglas.”

  Core looked up at Lieutenant Karak.  He was half turned from his Op’s console that flanked the helm console at the front of the bridge to face her.  “Onscreen.”

  The commanding officer of Task Force 59 appeared on the viewscreen.  Rear Admiral Jennifer Douglas had been in command of the group since the Swiftfire had joined it.  She was a charismatic and if not a bit intimidating flag officer.  She was a good strategist and tactician but was not above letting those below her chip in.  Core had not had much interaction with her, though the last had not been pleasant.  It was after the Captain had left and the Admiral was not shy in showing the Commander her displeasure at his departure, not that Core had anything to do with it.  Other then that she really had nothing bad to say about Douglas, she was a good officer to work under.

  “Admiral, what can we do for you?” Core asked.

  The Admiral appeared to take in a deep breath.  Her expression was not one that filled Core with joy; the Admiral had some bad news.

  “Commander, I’m sorry to be the one to bring you this news but,” the Admiral paused again and her eyes darted away before returning to meet Core’s gaze.  “I have received a report that Captain Masters has been killed.”

  There were audible gasps from members of the bridge crew.  Core could not believe the news herself.  The shock blanked her thoughts and it took her a few heartbeats before she could reply.

  “How?” was all she could manage as her thoughts slowly started to return.  Her voice was low and seemed to be forced out of her with effort.

  “I just received a message from Command.  It appears he was involved in a shuttle accident.”

  “An accident…where?”

  “The Naos system.”

  She wanted to yell and rant about this turn of events.  What on Earth was the Captain doing in the Naos system?  Why had he left?  What the hell did accident mean?

  There was an uncomfortable silence on the bridge where the only noise was the soft background noise of the consoles as everybody held their breath for what she thought was for more information from the Admiral.  She then realised they were waiting for her to say something.

  There was only one thing on her mind.  “Admiral, request permission to head to the Naos system.”

  “I thought you might, I can’t really afford to have you disappear at this point but…a ship has already been to the crash site and has gathered what was left.  I’ll have them meet you at the coordinates I’m sending over.  I want you back to your patrol as soon as possible.”

  “Thank you, Admiral.”

  “I am very sorry for your loss.  Captain Masters was a good man.  I’m sending over my authorisation releasing all the command codes of the USS Swiftfire NCC-76125-A to Commander Susan J. Core, dated stardate 52042.37.” She paused.  “The Swiftfire is yours, Commander.”

  The transmission ended returning the viewscreen to showing the emptiness of space.  It was somewhat symbolic as it was exactly how Core felt inside.

  “Ensign Cole, set a course for the coordinates the Admiral sent us,” she ordered.  “How long will it take us to reach there at maximum warp?”

  She watched the ensign as he got her the information she required, he was obviously unsettled by the information but was trying to keep his head level.

  “It will take us eight hours, Commander.”

  “Very well.  Take us to maximum warp.”

  The crew worked silently and quickly as they sent the ship into warp.  Once the ship was safely into warp she excused herself to the Captain’s ready room.  Once there she fell into the chair at the captain’s desk.  In the privacy of the ready room she let her emotions free and started to grieve over her lost friend.