The starship Dauntless slowed as it neared Earth
orbit. In the distance, the immense
Starfleet spacedock floated serenely, the spacedoors closest to the approaching
starship slowly parting, allowing access to the protected interior. The Sovereign-class starship passed silently
between the open doors and into the starbase’s interior. Moments later, the Dauntless pulled into her assigned slip.
“Vessel is
moored, Captain,” Lt Commander Setton To’Lock Arbelo reported to Captain
K’danz. The woman in the center seat
nodded.
“Very well,
Monster.” K’danz then looked over to her
right, where her first officer, Commander Tom Paris, sat. “Shall we beam over and see what was so
important that Starfleet Command had to pull us off our mission and recall us
all the way back to Earth?”
“After you,
Captain,”
Minutes later,
the pair materialized on the transporter pads just outside the spacedock
administrator’s office. A young human
female lieutenant looked up as the two Dauntless
officers stepped over to her desk.
“Captain K’danz
and Commander Paris, starship USS
Dauntless, reporting as ordered,” K’danz announced.
“Yes, Captain,
you’re expected,” the lieutenant replied pleasantly as she gestured toward a
pair of nearby chairs. “The Admirals are
currently meeting with someone else, but they will see you shortly.”
K’danz exchanged
a glance with
“Val’ri? Val’ri, what are you doing here? And back in uniform!”
Rear Admiral
Val’ri Raiajh turned toward the voice addressing her and a look of shock came
across her Vulcan-like face.
“Carrie? My gods, it’s been what? At least fifteen years! Not since we were both aboard the Sarek.
What brings you here to spacedock?”
“To tell you the
truth, I’m not sure,” K’danz admitted.
“My starship was recalled, and I’m here to find out why. But what about you? I thought you had resigned your commission
before the Gamma Quadrant mission.”
“T’Veer talked me
into reinstating as a reserve officer.
Then when everything started happening after V’Pier N’Vorda almost
destroyed the ship, Starfleet requested I come back full-time. Worked my way right up to flag rank during
the Dominion War.”
“Excuse me,
Captain,” the young lieutenant behind the desk interrupted. “The admirals are ready to see you now.”
“Thank you,
Lieutenant,” K’danz said before turning back to Admiral Raiajh. “Val’ri, any chance we can get together after
my meeting and catch up on old times?”
“I really wish I could,”
the Deltan-Vulcan woman replied as she held up a padd in her hand. “But I just got new orders myself. A brand new starbase on the edge of the
frontier, and I have to get out there to oversee the last stages of
construction. My transport leaves in
three hours.”
“I
understand. Maybe I can arrange for the Dauntless to make a port call there some
time?”
“Captain?”
“Maybe,” Raiajh
replied. “I’ll keep an eye out for you. Good seeing you again, Carrie.”
“You too,
Val’ri,” K’danz said before shaking her former shipmate’s hand and turning back
to
Space,
the Final Frontier…
These
are the voyages of the starship Dauntless!
Star
Trek: Dauntless
“FTL” By PJK
Several Hours Later…
The senior staff
of the Dauntless gathered in the
briefing lounge behind the bridge. Through
the large windows looking aft, beyond the warp nacelles of the starship, the
interior of the spacedock could be seen, various shuttles, work bees and travel
pods moving about delivering supplies and personnel to the various ships moored
inside as a transport vessel departed through the distant spacedoors.
“FTL?” Commander
Dar, the starship’s Chief Engineer and K’danz’s half-Klingon husband asked as
he looked at the project proposal displayed on the padd the captain had passed
around. “Isn’t warp drive already a
faster than light propulsion system?”
“Yes, but this
isn’t warp drive,” K’danz explained.
“The way Admiral Harle explained it, it’s a brand new way to travel
around the galaxy. Not even space travel
as we know it.”
“And we’ve been designated
the guinea pigs?” Lt Commander Setton To’Lock Arbelo asked.
“In a manner of
speaking, Monster,”
“I don’t like the
idea of them pulling out four of our impulse reactors to make room for this
equipment,” Dar added. “That’s almost a
full 50% reduction in our sublight propulsion ability. Not to mention secondary systems that depend
on those reactors.”
“The admirals
assure me that any reduction in propulsion will be more than made up for by
this new system,” K’danz said.
“How long will it
take to install all this?” Chief Pono Kyman, the starship’s Chief of the Boat
asked after the padd was passed to him at the opposite end of the conference
table. “I admit my engineering knowledge
is limited, but this doesn’t look like it can be installed in just a day or
two.”
“Two weeks,”
“Doctor Gaeta,”
K’danz added. “Doctor Juliani
Gaeta. The inventor of the FTL drive.”
“I still have
some misgivings,” Dar admitted, looking at his wife and commanding
officer. “But we don’t really have a
choice, do we?”
“Nope,” K’danz
replied with a shake of her head.
*
* * *
Captain’s log,
stardate 62438.2:
It has taken two
weeks to remove the four fusion reactors that normally provide half the power
to our impulse drive, two on each side, and replace them with the equipment
that is the bulk of the new FTL drive, a system that the drive’s inventor,
Doctor Gaeta, promises will make Zefram Cochrane’s warp drive obsolete.
K’danz, out.
In the area that
formerly held two of the starboard impulse fusion reactors and now contained
two huge pieces of equipment, Commander Dar, Doctor Gaeta and several members
of both their staffs made final checks on the new drive components, hooking up
power connections and control cables.
“They just look like
big gyroscopes to me, Doctor,” Dar said to
“It won’t,”
“Then how does it
work?”
“Imagine, if you
will,” the inventor said, gesturing with his hands to create a mental picture,
“warp drive is like driving an old fashioned land car along a road. To get where you’re going faster, you need to
drive faster, like on an ancient highway instead of a winding mountain
road. But you are using up fuel
maintaining that accelerated speed.” Dar
nodded. “My FTL drive avoids all that
unnecessary travel and needless energy usage.
Instead of driving down a road, your car simply vanishes from where you
were and appears where you want to be, instantly, with only a marginal use of
energy, at least in comparison to what is applied to propel a starship at warp
speed.”
“That sounds like
warp 10,” Dar said, drawing the attention of his two subordinate engineers to
the conversation. “It’s been done, but
at a fantastic energy cost and with… shall we say… unexpected results.”
“We studied the
starship Voyager’s warp 10 experiment
when I was in advanced warp theory at the Academy,” Faggio remarked. “Doesn’t sound like anything I would want to
participate in.”
“That is the
brilliance of my invention,”
“How is that
possible, Doctor?”
“I can’t quite
explain all the physics involved, Commander.
But think of space as a piece of paper and simply folding the paper and
moving from one side of the fold to the other.”
“And we’re going
to be the first to try this?” Faggio asked, her voice betraying her
nervousness.
“Not
exactly. The Dauntless is phase two. The
first full-size starship to have my drive installed. But I have experimented aboard a modified
Runabout, and the system worked exactly as planned. Unfortunately, due to the physical size
restrictions, the phase one FTL drive had a limit of only 5AU, or just over
747,500,000 kilometers, barely anywhere when you consider the size of the
universe. I’m hoping these full size
units will increase that range significantly.”
“How
significantly?”
“If it works as
designed,”
Dar looked
skeptical, but nodded toward Windsor and Faggio to finish the installation.
*
* * *
Chief Engineer’s
log, stardate 62457.4:
Once Doctor Gaeta’s
new drive system was installed, it took another week of tests and simulations
before the Dauntless finally left spacedock.
Even after
carefully studying
Dar, CEO.
“Thrusters ahead,
Mister Breitling,” Captain K’danz ordered as the helmsman and Strategic
Operations Officer maneuvered the starship around and faced her toward the
opening spacedoor.
“Thrusters ahead,
aye,” Breitling replied. Almost thirty
seconds later the Dauntless passed
through the doors into open space. “We
are free and clear to navigate, Captain.”
“Very well,”
K’danz said as she stood up and moved up next to the ops console, where Setton
Arbelo sat. “Set course…” The captain leaned down and typed several
commands into Arbelo’s console, which displayed the coordinates for test point
Alpha. “…180 mark 1. Ahead full impulse.”
“Course plotted
and laid in,” Breitling confirmed.
“Accelerating to full impulse.”
The young officer then looked over toward the captain and said, “You
realize it’s going to take us almost five days to reach this point,
ma’am.? It’s over thirty two billion
kilometers away. Two hundred and fifteen
AU’s!”
“I know, Mister
Breitling, but the Corps of Engineers has deactivated our warp nacelles. They don’t want us cheating on these tests I
suppose.”
“It’s going to be
a long mission,” Arbelo mumbled.
*
* * *
“Approaching test
point Alpha, Commander,” Lieutenant (JG) William Hyland III reported.
“All stop,”
Commander Paris ordered before pressing the intercom on the arm of the command
chair. “Captain K’danz, Commander Dar,
Doctor Gaeta to the bridge please.”
Several minutes
later, all three people arrived on the bridge, and while K’danz stepped over to
where Paris now stood by the center seat, Dar and Gaeta walked over to what had
originally been the engineering user console on the outboard port side of the
bridge. The console had been modified to
control the new FTL drive. At its center
was what looked like a large keyhole.
“With your permission,
Captain?”
“By all means,”
K’danz replied, watching the inventor and her husband from next to the
free-standing engineering console.
“Spinning up the
FTL,” the Doctor announced.
Back in the
spaces that housed both the normal impulse drive reactors and the newly
installed FTL drives, the new components hummed to life, a hum that could be
heard throughout the decks of the saucer hull.
Everyone on the bridge looked around before all eyes settled on
“Programming the
jump coordinates,” the Doctor announced as he started tapping commands into the
console. “Just a short jump for the
first test. 402,336 kilometers, the same
distance as from Earth to the moon.”
“FTL drive is
ready,”
K’danz nodded and
returned to her chair. Sitting down, she
touched the intercom on the arm of the seat.
The sound of a bosun’s whistle was heard throughout the starship.
“Attention all
hands, this is the bridge. We’re about
to test the new FTL drive. We are among
the first people who will experience this radical new drive, and I have been
informed it can be a little disconcerting.
Everyone who can, I recommend you sit down and remain seated until after
the jump has occurred. Stand by for
further word from the bridge. Captain,
out.”
K’danz then
looked at the crew around her while Dar stepped down and sat in the chair to
his wife’s left, the one normally occupied by the ship’s counselor. “Status?” she asked.
“All systems
ready,” reported Lieutenant Thomas Riker from ops.
“EPS power taps nominal. Engineering stands ready,” Lieutenant John
Smith added from his position at the engineering console in front of
“FTL is spun up
and ready, Captain,” the Doctor confirmed.
“Ready when you
are, Doctor,” K’danz said.
A half-second
later, the Dauntless seemed to fold
in on itself.
*
* * *
At nearly the
same instant, over four hundred thousand kilometers away, a split-second flash
of light preceded the sudden appearance of the Sovereign-class starship. The vessel hung motionless, as if dead in
space.
On the bridge,
the light above the key was now red and the hum of the FTL drive ceased.
“Jump complete,”
“According to
star readings, we are exactly 402,336 kilometers from where we were a moment
ago. Elapsed time, point five
seconds. About three-quarters of a
second faster than if we were traveling at warp factor one,” the helmsman,
Lieutenant Hyland, reported.
“Helmsman’s
calculations confirmed,” Lieutenant Riker added.
“Engineering
systems nominal,” Smith confirmed. “Ship
is intact.”
K’danz touched
the intercom once again, the whistle sounding throughout the ship once more.
“Attention all
hands. Jump complete. Report ship status to the bridge.”
As reports
started coming in to both Riker at ops and Chief Kyman at mission ops, the
captain looked over at
“That was
nothing,”
“Granted,” K’danz
replied. “How far now?”
“One AU, or 149,500,000
kilometers.”
“Proceed,
Doctor,” K’danz ordered.
*
* * *
Captain’s log,
stardate 62476.6:
We have
successfully completed four tests of Doctor Gaeta’s FTL drive, each a greater
distance than the last, culminating in a jump of five light years, the distance
that separates the Sol system from Alpha Centauri. I have to admit, I am amazed by this
revolutionary new drive.
We are now
positioned just outside the Sol system and about to attempt our longest jump
yet, over sixty light years distant, to the vicinity of Bajor.
K’danz, out.
“Spinning up the
FTL drive,” Doctor Gaeta announced.
Again, the hum of
the drive units filled the hull.
“Captain,” said
Dar from the engineering console. “I’m
detecting a severe power drain on both the fusion reactors and the
matter/anti-matter warp core.”
“Doctor Gaeta, is
this normal? Or expected?” K’danz asked.
“This jump is the
greatest distance possible with the current design. We’re going to be close to what I call the
‘red line,’ the maximum range of the FTL.
It needs to build up a maximum charge in order to make the jump. The drive will be ready in just a moment or
two.”
“FTL drive is
ready, Captain,”
K’danz paused for
a second, listening to the loud hum that filled the hull, feeling the vibration
through her seat.
“Are you sure
everything is normal, Doctor?”
“All systems
nominal,” he replied.
K’danz exchanged
a look with her husband. Dar merely
shrugged.
“Very well,” the
captain finally said. “Jump the ship.”
*
* * *
“Please state the
nature of the medical emergency,” the holographic doctor said.
“Over by the
mission ops console, Doctor,” K’danz directed.
On the port side of the bridge, Doctor Gaeta was laying on the deck
between the outboard consoles and free-standing consoles, Chief Kyman trying to
comfort him before the EMH stepped over and started scanning Gaeta’s arms and
hands with a tricorder.
“Second and third
degree burns,” the holodoc reported as he pulled a protoplaster out of his
medikit and ran it over the wounds before finishing up with a dermal
regenerator. Just as the EMH finished,
Doctor Justin MacMillan and another medtech stepped out of the nearby
turbolift In a couple of minutes, the
two new arrivals were escorting Gaeta down to sickbay to make sure he was not
hurt any worse than the EMH had diagnosed.
Meanwhile K’danz stepped over to her husband.
“What
happened? Why did the console overload?”
she asked.
“I’m not sure,”
Dar said as he examined the now-darkened console. The key that controlled the FTL drive was
scorched and blackened.
“Monster, contact
DS9.
Inform them of what happened during the last jump test,” K’danz ordered.
“Aye, Captain,” Lt
Commander Arbelo replied before opening the hailing frequencies. A moment later he turned to look at
K’danz. “Captain, I have a problem.”
“What’s the
matter?” the captain asked. “Something
related to the overload?”
“I don’t think
so,” Arbelo replied. “I’m hailing on all
standard frequencies, but I’m not receiving anything. Nothing at all!”
“Ensign
Breitling, can you confirm our present position?” K’danz requested urgently.
Carter Breitling
accessed his console for a moment, then with a frown looked at K’danz and said,
“No, Captain. All I’m sure of is we’re
not in the Bajor system.”
“Then… Where are we?” K’danz asked, looking with
alarm at Dar.
*
* * *
A short time
later the captain, Dar, Chief Science Officer Alasdair Wallace, Lt Commander
Arbelo and Doctor Juliani Gaeta, who aside from several patches of plastiskin
on his hands and arms was in good condition, gathered in the briefing lounge to
discuss their situation.
“What happened,
Doctor?” K’danz wanted to know.
“As near as I can
tell, the system overloaded,”
“And that puts us
where?” K’danz asked.
“We’re still
workin’ that out, Cap’n,” Commander Wallace said. “Near as we c’n figure, we may have jumped
halfway ‘cross the galaxy. …Maybe
halfway ‘cross the universe!”
“What?!?” K’danz
asked in shock.
“I’m afraid it’s
true,” Doctor Gaeta admitted. With the
amount of energy the drive built up, we jumped way past the red line, beyond my
calculations. Truthfully, I’m surprised
the drive units didn’t tear themselves apart.”
“Thank God for
small miracles,” K’danz remarked as she glared at
“I already have
Windsor, Smith and Faggio working on the console out on the bridge,” Dar
replied. “Fortunately it wasn’t beyond
repair. Doctor Gaeta still needs to look
at the drive units themselves and make sure they did not sustain too much
damage.”
“Why do I
suddenly have the log entries of the USS
Voyager running through my head?” K’danz said with a groan before adding,
“Dar, once the console on the bridge is repaired, have your staff start working
on reactivating the warp drive. I have a
feeling we’re going to need it.”
“What’re you
thinkin’, Cap’n?” Wallace asked.
“Alasdair, work
with Arbelo and his staff. Figure out
exactly where we are. If we’re only a
relatively short distance outside Federation space or the Gamma Quadrant
entrance to the Bajoran Wormhole, I’m willing to take the time to get home at
maximum warp. But if we’re too far out
of reach…?” She looked at
“Yes, Captain.”
K’danz looked at
those gathered around the table, then said, “You all have your
assignments. Dismissed.”
*
* * *
K’danz was
sitting at her desk in the ready room, looking over the reports Dar and Doctor
Gaeta had filed concerning the repairs to the FTL drive and its control
console, both currently undergoing repair, when the door chime rang. She looked up at the door connecting to the
bridge as she said, “Come.”
The doors swished
open to admit both Commander Wallace and his Assistant Chief Science Officer,
the Vulcan Commander T’Ashara.
“I go’ good news
an’ bad news for ya, Cap’n,” Wallace said in his heavy Scottish brogue. “The good news is we’ve figured out where we
are, an’ we’re still in the Milky Way galaxy.”
“Great! Where?” K’danz asked.
“We overshot our
target coordinates by about 30,000 light years,” Wallace explained. “Well beyond Cardassian space.”
K’danz made the
calculations in her head, her eyes going suddenly wide.
“That’s almost
nine years at maximum warp, no stops along the way! The engines can’t sustain that!” The captain took a deep breath, then asked,
“If that’s the good news, what’s the bad?”
Wallace looked at
his Vulcan companion, who answered, “Stellar cartography made a disturbing
discovery in the process of determining our location. We’re currently in extended orbit of a K-type
star, range 72,500,000 kilometers.”
“Why do I have a
feeling I’m not going to like what I’m about to hear?”
“In just the
short time we’ve been in this system, stellar cartography has noted a five
hundred degree Kelvin rise in temperature and a two thousand kilometer decrease
in diameter,” T’Ashara said.
“The star is
collapsing?”
“If things
continue as they are, the star will go nova.”
“When?” K’danz
asked, dreading the answer.
“The precise time
cannot be determined,” T’Ashara admitted.
“It could be in the next week. It
could be in the next hour.”
“And if the star
goes nova, how far will the subspace shockwave extend?” K’danz inquired.
“Based on the
mass of the star, if it explodes, the shockwave will extend at least
140,000,000 kilometers. It will destroy
the two innermost planets…,” T’Ashara replied.
“…And us.”
K’danz
immediately pressed the intercom on her desk.
“Captain to
engineering.”
“Engineering. Dar,” came the reply.
“Status of the
warp drive?”
“The Corps of
Engineers did a pretty thorough job, Carrie.
It may be a few days before we can have warp drive back on line. Why?”
“Because we need
to get out of this system as soon as possible.
Keep working on it.”
“All hands are on
deck. Engineering, out.”
K’danz looked up
at her two science officers, her eyebrows raised as if to ask if there was
anything more.
“Cap’n, there’s
one other thing,” Wallace added. “From
what I c’n tell from the data we have, th’ collapse o’ the star only started
recently.”
“Meaning?” the
captain asked.
“Meanin’… That star’s destruction may have been caused
by the FTL drive. An’ us.”
*
* * *
Captain’s log,
supplemental:
I am disturbed by
the fact that this new drive method may be responsible for severe environmental
damage, damage grave enough that it will destroy an entire star system.
K’danz, out.
“It’s not my
drive!”
“How can you be
sure?” the captain asked.
“Because if it
was the FTL drive that caused that star to collapse,” the doctor said, pointing
out the ready room window at the bright red star in the distance, “it would
have caused severe problems in the Sol system!
Where do you think the phase 1 tests were conducted? We ran the runabout through its paces in
standard orbit of Earth and various spots around the solar system, including
well within the orbit of Venus and the vicinity of Mercury. And last I checked, the solar system is
intact.”
“Granted,” K’danz
replied. “In that case, we need to use
your drive to get back home! Will it
work again, Doctor?”
“I don’t want to
risk another jump beyond the red line,”
“What’s the
maximum distance you feel comfortable with?
We need to get away from this star before it goes nova. And we’re 30,000 light years from home.”
“I would be
comfortable with jumps of no more than 50 light years at a jump.”
K’danz’s eyes
widened with shock again.
“That’s 600
jumps!”
“I can live with
that,” K’danz said as she stood with
“Aye, Cap’n,”
Wallace replied as Dar also nodded and the three men headed toward the jump
drive units. Meanwhile K’danz turned
toward the Terran-Vulcan-Efrosian man sitting at ops.
“Monster, prepare
a class-1 probe to study the nova after we leave,” she ordered.
“Aye, Captain,”
Arbelo replied as he began tapping commands into his console. “You do realize it will take thousands of
years for any telemetry from the probe to reach the Federation?”
“I know,
Monster. But perhaps Doctor Gaeta can
perfect his drive in the near future and another FTL ship can head back out
here to retrieve the data. After all, we’re
explorers. Why let this opportunity
pass?”
“Agreed,” Arbelo
said, entering the last few commands into his console. “Probe ready for launch.”
“Stand by. I want to wait until just before we jump out
of this system.”
*
* * *
12 Hours Later…
An alarm sounded
on both the ops console and the science console, drawing the attention of the
cat-like Lieutenant M’nday at ops.
“Commanderrrr!”
she exclaimed with her customary purr. “The
starrrr’s temperrrraturrrre has just jumped up to 10,000 degrrrrees Kelvin, and
the diameterrrr decrrrreased by half!”
“Yellow alert!”
Commander Alasdair Wallace ordered from the center seat before announcing,
“Cap’n to the bridge!” He then looked over
to his left at the woman sitting behind the engineering console. “Please tell me Dar an’
“Dar’s been
working a triple shift, Commander,” Amanda Windsor replied. “Last report was they thought they were
almost done with the modifications.”
The turbolift
door next to the tactical console swished open and K’danz, still shoving an arm
into the sleeve of her uniform jacket, emerged.
“Status, Commander?” she asked.
“The star is in
its last stages o’ collapse, Cap’n,” Wallace replied. On the screen, the star that had been large
and red when the Dauntless had jumped
into the system was now half its original size and glowing a bright blue and
getting brighter. “We need to get out o’
here now!”
“Lieutenant
M’nday, launch the probe,” K’danz ordered.
“Bridge to engineering, please tell me the FTL drive is ready!”
“As ready as it’s
going to be,” replied the familiar voice of Commander Dar. “Doctor Gaeta is already en route to the
bridge.”
Dar had barely
finished his sentence with the other turbolift doors swished open and Juliani
Gaeta rushed out and over to the former engineering user console. Pulling the key, still smudged with soot,
from the pocket of his jacket he practically jammed it into the keyhole and
started programming in coordinates.
“How long,
Doctor?” K’danz asked, watching the star continue to shrink on the viewscreen.
“If everything
works as planned, we can make it home in just three jumps!”
“Very nice,
Doctor, but how long before we can jump out of here?”
“Ready to jump
in…” The light on the console quickly
turned green. “Now!”
“Captain,
prrrrobe away!” M’nday reported.
“Very well. Doctor, jump the ship!”
“Jumping!”
Less than a
minute later, the star went nova, destroying the small system.
*
* * *
“Status?” K’danz
asked.
“All conditions
nominal, Captain,” replied
“Location?”
“Checking,” answered
the Antican helmsman G’Raff. A moment
later he added, “Ship’s present position matches projected coordinates Doctor
Gaeta predicted. We’re 10,000 light
years closer to Federation space than we were a moment ago.”
A quick cheer
went up around the bridge.
“Great work,
Doctor,” K’danz said as the cheers died down.
“How long before you’ll be ready for the next jump?”
“Just a moment,
Captain,”
“While not
exactly allies, th’ Cardassians are far from bein’ th’ enemies they once were,”
Wallace commented.
“True, but how
are they going to feel about a foreign starship, even one from a relatively
friendly government, suddenly popping into their territory?”
“We could keep
our fingers crossed, those of us that have fingers,” remarked the non-corporeal
entity called Lieutenant Spot in his slightly metallic sounding
British-accented voice, “and hope there’s no one around in the sector we jump
into.”
K’danz shook her
head, partly in frustration and partly trying to hold back a smile that was
forcing its way onto her lips.
“Proceed,
Doctor. I don’t see as we have any other
choice.” Then as
“I took the
liberty of conducting a full sensor scan as soon as we completed the last jump,
Captain,” Spot replied. “While we are
not within the confines of a solar system, and thus nowhere near the same
proximity as the last star 10,000 light years ago, I can find no indications
our FTL jump has caused any environmental damage.”
“Thank you,
Lieutenant,” K’danz said before returning to her command chair.
“Coordinates have
been entered,”
“Very well,”
K’danz said. “Jump!”
*
* * *
Gul Temtek of the
Cardassian patrol ship Komaire was
slouched in his command chair. Much had
changed in the ten standard years since the end of the Dominion War and the
complete change of Cardassian government, but little had changed for career
military officers like himself who had allied themselves with the new
government very quickly in order to survive.
Here he was, still patrolling the backwater sectors of what remained of
the Cardassian Union, as far from Cardassia Prime as possible and still be in
home space, protecting against ‘incursion’ by any species so stupid as to
actually consider annexing the resource-less asteroid fields and gas giants
that abounded in the sector.
Temtek would
gladly have paid several hundred lek to be transferred to guard duty on
Cardassia Prime, protecting some government VIP like Elim Garek. Perhaps he would simply leave the military
altogether and settle on one of the worlds near the Federation border? Really get away from it all.
Temtek’s reverie
was interrupted by a shout of alarm from his tactical officer.
“Gul Temtek, an
unidentified ship has just appeared out of nowhere, bearing 222 mark 6, range
six kilometers!”
“How did they get
so close undetected?!?” Temtek exclaimed.
“Raise shields and arm all weapons!
Helm, turn us about, course 222 mark 6!”
“Weapons charged
and ready, Gul,” the Komaire’s weapons
officer confirmed.
*
* * *
“Jump complete,”
“Very well,”
K’danz replied. “Mister G’Raff…”
Suddenly the
captain’s order was cut off as the Dauntless
was struck by a disruptor beam, sending sparks flying from various consoles and
causing the Klingon Lieutenant Rinja Ka’Dan and Alasdair Wallace to be knocked
to the deck.
“What just hit
us?” K’danz demanded to know.
“Captain, we seem
to have jumped in almost directly atop a Cardassian warship,” Spot
reported “Probably startled the heck
out of them.”
“Shields!” K’danz
yelled.
“Shields and
deflectors are up, but not before that first disruptor struck us,” Ka’Dan
reported as he climbed back up to his post.
“
“It’s a good
thing we had the warp engines shut down,” Lt Commander Windsor said. “If we’d been hit with drive plasma running
through the pylon, it would have taken out the entire aft section of the ship.”
“M’nday, hail the
Cardassians. Tell them we’re not hostile
and that we jumped into their space by accident and only wish to withdraw.”
The Dauntless shook once again, but not as
violently, as another disruptor blast struck the starship’s shields.
“Hailing the
Carrrrdassian vessel,” the Caitian officer acknowledged.
“How soon until
you can jump us out of here, Doctor?” K’danz asked
“I can’t do
anything until Mister G’Raff confirms our position, otherwise we risk jumping
into a star or planetary body, and you certainly wouldn’t want that!”
“Certainly not,”
K’danz agreed. “G’Raff?”
“Calculating,” the
dog-like Antican replied.
*
* * *
“I have
identified the ship, Gul Temtek,” the Komaire’s
tactical officer reported. “It is a
Federation starship, Sovereign-class.”
“What are they
doing here?” Temtek asked rhetorically.
“And how did they appear out of nowhere?
The Federation does not normally use cloaking devices, and I have never
seen a cloak that completely hid all emissions perfectly, especially at such
close range. We must know more, and to
do that, we must capture that ship.
Intact if possible.”
“Gul, they are
hailing us,” Temtek’s communications officer announced. “They claim they ‘jumped’ into Cardassian
space accidentally and want to withdraw.”
“Chogan, contact
Gul Benil’s ship and get them here fast!
We can’t let this starship, Federation or not, escape.”
*
* * *
“The
Carrrrdassians arrrre not rrrresponding, Captain,” Lieutenant M’nday reported.
“They’re firing
again,” Ka’Dan added just before the Dauntless
shuddered a third time. “Minor damage to
the power conduits on decks eight and sixteen.
Request permission to return fire?”
“I don’t see as
we have much choice,” K’danz said. “I
just hope this doesn’t completely destroy the uneasy truce we’ve had for the
past decade. Return fire!”
The Dauntless’ phaser banks flared to life,
beams of phased energy lancing out and striking the Cardassian vessel’s
shields.
“No appreciable
damage,” Ka’Dan reported.
“Keep
firing. Convince them to withdraw,” K’danz
ordered before looking back at her helmsman.
“G’Raff?”
“Coordinates
confirmed! Relaying to the engineering
user station,” the Antican officer reported.
K’danz spun on
her heels to look at
“Just a couple of
minutes, Captain,” the doctor said.
“We may not have
a couple of minutes,” K’danz replied, her words emphasized by another hit from
the Cardassian phasers.
“Captain! I’m detecting anotherrrr Carrrrdassian vessel
apprrrroaching!” M’nday reported with alarm.
“Bearrrring 212 marrrrk 7, rrrrange 100,000 kilometerrrrs and closing!”
K’danz looked
back at
“You have my
permission to jump the instant its ready!”
“FTL is
ready. Jumping!”
And once again,
the Dauntless seemed to fold in upon
itself, leaving two very confused Cardassian crews behind.
*
* * *
A flash of light
and suddenly the USS Dauntless
appeared out of nowhere.
“Status?” K’danz
demanded.
“Damage control
crews are reporting to decks eight, fourteen, fifteen and sixteen,” Lt
Commander Windsor reported.
“Sickbay is
rrrreporrrrting severrrral casualties, Captain.
But none serrrrious, and no deaths.”
“Shutting down
the FTL,” Doctor Gaeta informed.
“Doctor, wait!”
K’danz said urgently. “I want to make
sure of where we are first.”
“Confirming
coordinates,” G’Raff added.
“Captain,” said
Lieutenant Ka’Dan. “We’re being hailed.”
“By whom?” the
captain asked, hopeful.
“Utopia Planitia,”
Ka’Dan announced.
“Confirmed,”
G’Raff added. “We are within the Sol
system, sixty four million kilometers from Mars orbit.”
A cheer went up
among the crew.
“Ka’Dan, answer
the hail. Tell them we’re going to need
some repairs.” K’danz then looked over
at Doctor Gaeta and added, “And that the FTL drive still needs some work.”
*
* * *
Captain’s log,
stardate 62484.8:
The Dauntless is
currently undergoing the removal of the FTL drive and the replacement of the
four fusion reactors removed for the test.
We expect to be spaceworthy again in just a few days.
Meanwhile, Doctor
Gaeta, Dar, Wallace and I have been asked to debrief with representatives of
the Starfleet Corps of Engineers.
K’danz, out.
“I told you it
wouldn’t work!” Admiral Coi, an Andorian, said to Admiral Harle, a human.
“What are you
talking about? It worked fine! They jumped away, and they jumped home, did
they not?” Harle asked. K’danz was
privately amused at the argument going on between the two engineering admirals,
neither one of them Tellarite. The three
Dauntless crew and Doctor Gaeta had
reported exactly what had happened during the tests. Both admirals seemed to believe the same
report backed up each of their wildly divergent viewpoints.
“Yes, they jumped
away and jumped back, but not to where they were supposed to be!” Coi remarked.
“If I may
interject, Admirals?” Dar said, interrupting them both. The two admirals looked over at the
half-Klingon engineer, both with foul expressions. “Speaking as an engineer, like yourselves,
and having seen the FTL operate under real-world conditions, I have to agree
with Admiral Coi that it just is not a viable propulsion technology…” Coi looked pleased, his antennae twitching in
satisfaction, until Dar added, “…Yet! I
believe with refinement, better equipment, better programming, the FTL may just
be the next standard in Federation propulsion technology.” Now it was Harle’s turn to look smug. “Doctor Gaeta needs time to make those
refinements. I would recommend the FTL
drive program continue with further experiments.”
Both admirals
looked at Dar for a moment, both frowning again slightly before Harle finally
said, “Thank you, Commander. Your
recommendation will be taken under advisement.”
He then looked at all four people and added. “Thank you all. Dismissed.”
As Wallace, Dar,
K’danz and Gaeta left the briefing room and turned down the corridor, the
Scottish science officer commented, “I don’ know ‘bout you, bu’ I think I’m
gonna find the pub and have myself a cider before I return to the ship. Anyone care to join me?”
“Right behind
you,” remarked Dar. “Carrie?”
“I’ll be right
along,” K’danz said before turning to
“You know how it
is,”
“It has great
promise,” K’danz admitted. “You just
need to make it more reliable.”
“But you saw
those paper-pushers in there,”
“Did Doctor
Cochrane give up just because he didn’t have the funding? I’ve heard it took six months just to
scrounge up enough titanium for the cockpit module of the
“You have a
point, Captain,”
“Your FTL has
promise. But you have to refine it, test
it, work on it, until it is ready! Don’t
let those desk-bound stuffed shirts pressure you. Just keep at it, and someday, your name will
be listed right alongside
“You really think
so?”
“It wouldn’t
surprise me,” K’danz said. “But until
you do it, I’ll be happy to rely on plain old warp drive for the time being.”
“You’re right,”
he admitted.
“I know I
am. I’m the captain. Now come join us for one drink.” And with a gesture down the corridor, K’danz
led
The End
Return to 2385.
Return to Stories Archive.