To: , ,
        , ,
        , "JustKenning"
        
From: "Jay  P Hailey" 
Reply-To: trekcreative{at}yahoogroups.com


Title: Star Trek: Outwardly Mobile
Author: Jay P Hailey (JayPHailey{at}yahoo.com) Series: MISC - TNG OCs
COdes: None
Part: 143/335(?)
Rating:[PG]
Archive: Fine with me, just tell me where. Disclaimer: Paramount owns all
things Star Trek.  I claim Original Characters and Situations for me.
Webpage HTTP://www.phoenixinn.iwarp.com/jayphailey

The Defiant
by
Jay P. Hailey
And
The Star Trek Players

Jonathan Baker sat on a bunk in the ward room of the runabout and sulked.
He didn't want to admit to himself that Birdy was correct. He was just
marking time at Deep Space Ten. His fast track command career had ended in
a transporter accident. Period. He took a deep breath and examined the
feeling. Starfleet Officers sometimes had a reputation of being arrogant.
Baker knew that he was at times. A certain amount of arrogant self
confidence was necessary to do what Starfleet Officers did. Baker carefully
listened to his arrogant side, his resentful side while it raged. He should
have been on a starship. He should have been a department chief or a first
officer by now. He worked hard. He was good enough. He deserved it. One
little accident and it wasn't even his fault! Now, whenever he was
transported he became miserably ill. A routine geological survey and a
routine beam up turned into an undignified disability. It wasn't fair!

Now his career was stalled, his Commanding Officer was some Green Orion
woman, The Chief Science Officer was blue woman from some planet he never
heard of, and his Chief of Operations was a hard partying little gnome with
a massive disrespect for standard Starfleet procedure. The Chief Engineer
kept turning down Command postings, because he wanted to keep his hands
dirty with his beloved starships. The Chief of Security was a retired
pirate for Pete's sake!

This much non-conformity could only mean one thing. Deep Space Ten was a
dumping ground for the square pegs who could not fit into Starfleet's round
holes. Baker wasn't one of them. He was one of Starfleet's roundest pegs.
He
 didn't deserve to be dumped with all the weirdoes on a station in the back
end of beyond. IT WASN'T FAIR!

Baker realized that his face was buried in his pillow. His fists were
clenched, and his teeth were straining together as hard as he could clench
them. He sat up and blinked away a few tears. Baker always kept his
arrogant inner voice as an edge. He knew that despite his excellent record
and qualifications that he was actually rather generic as a Starfleet
Officer. A hint of that arrogance made him stand out. He caught the eyes of
superiors. His attitude said "I am on the way up, don't get in the
way."

For the last year, that voice had been controlling him. It was the voice of
a spoiled brat who wanted the moon. He had turned ugly inside. The truth
was that Jonathan was a square peg now, too. He felt for a moment that he
wanted to cry. No more "Captain Jonathan Baker of the
Enterprise." (If you're going to dream big, then why not dream all the
way?). He felt himself let it go. He was a square peg now. What did that
mean exactly?

Baker thought about it long into the night.

-*-

The next day they began preparations to rendezvous and dock with the
derelict. John Baker caught up with Birdy in the front of the runabout.

"Mr. Birdy." Baker said.

"Sir?" Birdy said mildly.

"I've been thinking about what you said yesterday. You had some good
points. However, you made them at the wrong time. Maybe I have been acting
a little self-centered and childish but now was not the time to bring it
up. I want everyone focused on our mission, Okay?"

Birdy nodded. "Yes, Sir."

"All right, Mr. Birdy. I'll ask you to log on and put yourself on
report for insubordination. I know it doesn't mean much to an old space dog
like you, but I want you to remember that the time to make your commanding
officer face his emotional problems is not during a critical away team
mission."

Birdy grinned. "Yes, Sir." He turned around and logged on to the
computer and noted the report.

"Very good. Carry on." Baker went aft to continue with his preparations.

Tandala said "That was interesting."

"Yeah," Birdy said "But. don't you feel a little better
about him now?"

"I guess so." Tandala said thoughtfully. "I guess so..."

-*-

The Shangri-La approached the boundary of the subspace anomaly. Tandala
brought the small ship to a stop while Birdy locked down all subspace coils
aboard. Warp drives, communicators, the transporter, all of them.

"These communicators use old fashioned radio signals. They might
suffer interference from the subspace instability, but they won't collapse
the anomaly on us." Crystara said, as she handed out communicators.
The comm-badges they wore were disabled.

Back in the main section of the runabout Baker handed the two security
crewmen batons. "No phasers." He said.

"Sir? Are you serious?" Paxton asked. Mileu looked similarly doubtful.

"Any energy expression might collapse the anomaly on us. So today your
mission is to seek out new life forms and new civilizations and then beat
them on the head with sticks." Baker said.

"Back to basics, I guess." Paxton shrugged.

"Ook ook, Ensign." Baker said, grinning.

Mileu essayed a short martial arts kata with her new weapon. "Hmmm,
not too bad." She said.

Taucia Smith came through with a hypospray. She gave shots to all of them
and handed out hypo-sprays. "This is the treatment against interphase
syndrome." She said. She handed out emergency ampoules. "This is
more of the drug. The amount I just gave you will work for eight hours.
When that's up, use the ampoules. They ought to hold you for another four
hours."

"What happens after that?" Paxton asked.

"Well, if what I read is correct, sometime after the drug wears off,
you'll become violently paranoid, and try to kill your shipmates before
they kill you." Smith said.

Mileu and Paxton measured each other. "Can I have one more
ampoule?" They both asked.

Smith and Baker laughed.

"The interphase is only due to last another twelve hours. You have
sixteen hours worth of drugs there. If we're not out of the interphase
before then, it won't really matter." Baker said.

-*-

The runabout shuddered slightly as they penetrated the zone of warped space.

"We're inside the anomaly." Tandala reported.

The runabout rocked and swayed. "Report." Baker said.

"I'm having problems with the controls. It's as though there are heavy
currents or something." Tandala said.

"I'd advise that we slow down." Crystara said. "There are
random regions of warped space. It's like flying through a storm only the
wind is gravity."

Tandala slowed the Shangri-La's progress through the anomaly and the
turbulence decreased.

Soon they were able to spot the Defiant. Tandala moved the runabout closer
and they docked with the old cruiser. The best place to hard dock was just
behind the bridge of the ship where the shaft for the turbo lift was.

"Link established. Hatches synchronized. Containment fields active.
We're docked." Birdy reported.

The crew went and gathered around the hatch. "Is everyone ready?"
Baker asked. They checked all equipment and nodded.

"Okay." Baker said. "Open the hatch and let's go."

The hatch opened and the crew found themselves looking eleven decks down
the turboshaft.

"Boy that looks pretty far down." Tandala said.

"Lets rig the ladders and get started." Baker said.

-*-

Climbing carefully led them to the doors to the bridge. The doors were
jammed. Unjamming them took work and a plasma cutter from the runabout. The
doors gave and the crew of Deep Space Ten found themselves standing in a
scene of chaos and destruction. There were dead bodies and bloodstains
every where.

"Oh God." Baker said. It was worse than anything he'd ever seen.

Birdy was troubled by the carnage, but something else caught his eye.
"What in the hell is that?" He pointed. The science station of
the bridge had been badly damaged during the rioting that killed the
Defiant's crew. Now out of the wreckage there was a slim silvery metal
staff that blossomed towards the end into a glowing ball that swirled with
pastel colors. The silvery metal flowed into various circuits. It looked
like a tree had grown out of the ruins of the station.

Crystara waved her tricorder at it. While she was doing that Dr. Smith was
checking the dead bodies on the bridge. Mileu and Paxton were checking
around to the front of the Nav/Helm console. A hatch there led below decks.

"It seems to be an electronic device, whatever it is." Crystara said.

Baker went to the captain's chair and looked at the control panel on it.
The panel had been smashed and the burned. The captain lay in a pool of
blood, his throat slit nearly ear to ear. Something other than the
grisliness of the scene bothered him. The blood, sticky, tacky and red.

"Wait a minute." Baker said. "This was a hundred years ago,
right?"

"Nope." Dr. Smith answered him. "These people have been dead
for about ten hours."

"How is that possible?" Baker asked, confused.

"It's implicit in the math, Sir, but I don't know how to explain it in
plain English." Crystara said.

"None of the master command pathways are intact here." Birdy
said. "Someone systematically cut the bridge out of the control
systems."

Crystara made one more scan. "This is a computer of some sort, Commander."

"Really? I've never seen one like it, before."

"Nor have I, but it's plain that it is trying to interface with the
science station computer in some way."

"Is someone after our data files?" Baker asked.

"Not through the science station, Commander. The main command pathways
are cut." Birdy said.

"I guess that means we'll have to proceed with our original
plan." Baker said. "C'mon let's get to it." He walked around
the command console and down into the Defiant.


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