Cooper crossed the room toward the stairs leading to the supervisor’s deck. He took the steps two at a time until he reached the hub. “What’ve we got?”
“Unidentified vessels just dropped out of warp, Commander,” Jackson replied. “Distance three hundred sixty million kilometers. They’re not on a direct intercept course, but they’re definitely heading in our direction.”
Glancing at the sensor display monitors dominating Haniff’s station at the hub, Cooper saw that the lieutenant had already ordered the station’s deflector shields raised and weapons energized and placed on standby. “Any idea who they are?”
“Three ships,” replied Ensign Kail Tescar from where he stood at another station, leaning over a hooded viewer. “Sensors identify them as Tholian in design, sir.”
Tholian?“What are they doing here now?” Cooper asked as he and Jackson exchanged confused frowns. As far as Cooper knew, there had been no Tholian vessels near the station for weeks, since just after the incident in the Jinoteur system. The reclusive race had seemed content to draw even further in on itself, which did little for the advancement of diplomatic talks between the Tholian Assembly and the Federation. Despite that, they at least had not seen fit to cause trouble, for either Federation or Klingon vessels traversing the Taurus Reach. At the time, that had been enough to keep Cooper happy.
Glancing down once more at the hub’s active sensor displays, he felt that mild contentment beginning to melt away.
It was fun while it lasted.
“We’re picking up weapons fire, Commander,” Tescar said. Still hunched over his viewer, the young, lanky ensign paused as he studied the information being fed to the viewer via the station’s vast sensor network. “Two of the ships appear to be firing on the other. That ship’s warp engines look to be disabled, and it’s flying what I think is an evasive course toward the station.” He looked up from his station, and Cooper saw that the man seemed more than a little nervous. Cooper found it hard to blame the ensign, especially considering that Tescar was less than a year out of Starfleet Academy and still adjusting to his first deep-space assignment.
Hell of a way to earn your stripes, kid.
“Just the three ships?” Cooper asked.
Tescar nodded. “Yes, sir. Sensors show no other traffic that we haven’t already accounted for.”
Across the table from Cooper, Jackson frowned. “Why the hell would they be firing on one of their own ships? That doesn’t even make any sense.”
“Tell me anything about a Tholian that does make sense,” Cooper countered. “Tescar, what’s the condition of the pursued ship?”
The ensign took a moment to recheck his sensor readouts before responding. “Besides their warp engines, I’m picking up fluctuations in what I think is their life-support system. Their weapons appear to be offline as well.”
Just behind him, seated at another station at the hub’s opposite end, Lieutenant Dunbar looked up from her console. Her right hand moved to the Feinberg receiver she wore in her ear. “Commander, we’re being hailed by the Tholian ship.”
After exchanging another surprised glance with Jackson, Cooper nodded to the communications officer. “Open a channel.”
“Federation starbase.”A shrill, high-pitched voice blared from speakers recessed into support columns around the supervisor deck’s perimeter. “I am under attack and request your assistance.”
“This is going to be fun,” Jackson muttered as he took a seat at his own station.
Scowling, Cooper moved around the hub until he stood behind Dunbar. “Tholian vessel, this is Commander Jon Cooper aboard Federation Starbase 47. Please identify yourself, and state the nature of your emergency.”
“My name is Nezrene,”the Tholian responded, “and I bring knowledge you may find helpful. I—”
The rest of the transmission exploded into a burst of static, loud enough that Dunbar grunted in protest as she yanked the receiver from her ear. “Damn, I hate it when that happens.”
“What?” Cooper asked.
Dunbar shook her head. “The frequency’s being jammed, sir. Probably from one of the pursuing ships.”
“Distance from the station less than two hundred fifty million kilometers, sir,” Tescar reported. “The ship is still evading the worst of the attacks, but it won’t last long on its own.”
“Commander, did I hear that Tholian say her name was Nezrene?”
It took Cooper an extra moment to realize that the question came not from one of his officers on the supervisor’s deck but rather from somewhere down on the command center’s main floor. Looking over the railing, Cooper saw the imposing visage of Ambassador Jetanien glaring up at him, the mandibles that formed the Chel’s beaklike bill moving up and down in a frantic motion suggesting that the diplomat was more than a bit anxious. Where in the hell had he come from, and how had he gotten out of the turbolift and across the room without drawing anyone’s attention? And why had he chosen to come up here now?
“Ambassador?” Cooper held up a hand in warning. “This really isn’t the best—”
“I’m aware of the situation, Commander,” Jetanien snapped, clicking his manus in evident irritation. “I wouldn’t be so stupid as to bother you at a time like this if I didn’t think it was important. Now, did that Tholian say her name was Nezrene?”
Nodding as he tried to keep his attention focused on the situation at hand, Cooper said, “Yes, she did.” He paused before offering a frown. “At least, I think it was a she.”
“You need to grant that ship safe harbor, Commander,” Jetanien said, having moved to stand at the bottom of the stairs leading up to the hub, as his large form would not allow him to climb the steps to reach the upper deck.
I bet he’d get up here if I pissed him off enough.
His eyes narrowing in confusion, Cooper asked, “Other than the obvious reason that it’s a ship in apparent distress, Ambassador, what aren’t you telling me?”
Several agitated clicks erupted from the Chelon’s mouth before he replied. “Because that Tholian may provide us unequaled insight into the Taurus Reach.”
So much for shore leave.
Leaning forward in her chair at the center of the Endeavour’s bridge, Atish Khatami forced the inappropriate thought from her mind and returned her attention to the situation at hand. All around her, the members of alpha shift’s bridge crew were focused on their stations, and the tension they exuded hung in the air like a stifling blanket.
“We’ve cleared the docking port, Captain” called out Lieutenant Neelakanta without looking up from his helm console. “We’re free to navigate.”
Khatami nodded, pleased at the report. Unable to resist a final jab before getting down to business, she said, “Well, it’s not as though we even had a chance to tie up or anything.”
Her observation was not far from the truth. The Endeavourhad just returned to Vanguard the previous day, only to receive orders from Commander Cooper not to utilize one of the docking bays in the station’s massive primary hull section. Instead, the starship was directed to one of the external ports ringing the docking wheel at the center of the secondary hull. Khatami had at first been confused by the instructions, but Cooper’s reasoning had been straightforward and—as evidenced by events currently unfolding—remarkably prescient.
“Bring us about,” she ordered. “Lay in that intercept course, and engage at full impulse. Shields up, and place weapons on ready status.”
Neelakanta replied, “Time to intercept is less than two minutes, Captain.”
Within moments of Cooper’s order to take any and all necessary action to protect the apparently rogue Tholian vessel, the Endeavourwas away from the station and ready for battle. This, too, was an unexpected dividend from the starbase commander’s orders, given his concern about the increase in activity throughout the Taurus Reach in recent weeks. According to the daily security briefings Khatami had received from Cooper’s staff, long-range scans had even revealed Klingon vessels at extreme range—presumably to conduct their own sensor sweeps of the station and other ships traversing the region. To this end, the Endeavourhad standing orders to dock at one of the external ports and, while moored, to maintain a crew complement sufficient to undertake combat operations in the event that an emergency arose in proximity to the station.