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: 142/335(?)
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
(Stardate 49023)

Once upon a time there was a starship named Defiant. She was a proud ship,
crewed by the best crew available. She represented the Federation in
distant corners of space, and opened new territory to the eyes of Earth
people and the Federation.

What ever became of the Defiant? She exists in a place that is not a place
and a time where time is an irrelevant concept. The Defiant drifts
endlessly outside of time and space, her crew driven mad and then killed by
exposure to unreality in strong, undiluted doses. Randomly she reaches the
end of eternity and bounces off. It takes no time for this to happen.

Currents that can only be expressed as arcane mathematical probabilities
sweep her hither and thither. Every so often she reaches an eddy in the
currents of time and space. She swirls around and briefly has contact with
what might be called reality before another current comes by and dislodges
her, sweeping her away...

-*-

"I have no idea what that is." Crystara Acnapma said. On her
screen a subspace anomaly swirled. "I am scanning."

"How large is it?" Jonathan Baker asked.

Crystara looked at him as she tried to phrase the answer in English.
"That would be extremely difficult to quantify Lieutenant Commander. A
few hundred kilometers maybe. It's an expression of the potential energy
density combined with the efficiency of the mechanism for conversion of
energy into subspace distortion."

"Does it pose a danger to the station?" Li'ira asked.

"No, Commander. It is a good distance away and it does not appear to
be expanding, as far as I can tell."

"How far away?" Li'ira asked.

"Approximately a light year and a half." Crystara said.

"Commander," Tandala MacBier said. "I'm receiving a distress
call from inside the anomaly. It's a distress beacon."

Li'ira paled. "Identify the call."

Tandala bent over her station comparing the signal to Federation records.
"It's reads as the USS Defiant NCC-1764."

"Oh wow! The Defiant!" Jonathan Baker said. "The Flying
Dutchman of space!"

"See if you can open a data channel, Lieutenant." Li'ira said to
Tandala. "Mr. Baker, I see you've heard the legends of that ship. Have
you read the actual file?"

"Bits and pieces. Lost in 2268, with brief contact by the Enterprise.
Encountered in 2315 by another Federation starship. They lost their away
team when the Defiant disappeared again. Sighted a couple of times since
then by ships all over known space." Baker said.

"Interesting that you don't know the rest of it. There are standing
orders in effect about the Defiant. We are to attempt to recover her data
banks." Li'ira said thoughtfully.

"After a hundred years?" Baker asked. "There's no way those
are going to be intact."

"There is too much subspace interference, Commander. I can't open a
channel to the Defiant." Tandala reported.

"What can you tell me about the subspace anomaly that the Defiant is
caught in?" Li'ira asked Crystara, her Chief Science Officer.

"I'm reading the reports on it now, Commander. I'll be able to give
you a risk assessment in a short while." Crystara said.

"You can't be serious!" Baker said. "The last starship to
encounter the Defiant lost their away team."

"It was the Harrier. And the standing orders mean that I have to at
least consider the possibility." Li'ira said.

"Weren't you the First Officer of the Harrier?" Baker asked.
"Are you saying you..."

"No, That was fifty years ago. I'm not that old. However, that's where
I started reading the reports of it. The Harrier's away team reported that
there was heavy damage to the internal support systems of the Defiant.
Their last communication said that they were going to the main computer
banks to try and recover the data first hand."

"And then the Defiant disappeared and no one ever heard from the
Harrier's away team ever again." Baker reminded her.

"Can you scan the Defiant?" Li'ira asked Tandala.

"Maybe, Sir. Do you want me to try?" Tandala asked.

"I am forwarding correction data to her station." Crystara said.

"Go ahead."

The brown Australian woman scanned the derelict. "The Defiant's main
power is out. So is auxiliary power. I can read emergency batteries, and
life support is active at minimum levels."

"After one hundred years? Are you sure?" Baker asked.

"Yes, Sir. I am also picking up intermittent life signs."

"What?" Li'ira and Baker said together.

"They aren't consistent. It's not like anything I've ever seen before.
It's as though they are fading in and out." Tandala said.

"Oh God." Baker said.

-*-

Two hours later in the briefing room of Deep Space Ten. Crystara Acnapma
gave her report.

"The subspace anomaly is temporary but appears to be stable. If no
subspace energy is used inside the anomaly it should remain stable for
another forty-five hours before collapsing in on itself."

"If we had something bigger than a runabout here, then I might be able
to drag the Defiant out of the anomaly altogether." Birdy said. He was
the Chief Engineer of Deep Space Ten.

"But we don't." Baker said.

"Fascinating, Lieutenant Commander. I would like to see your
proof." Crystara said.

"The question is, can a team board the Defiant and retrieve the data
banks with a reasonable chance of success?" Li'ira asked.

"To hell with the data banks!" Taucia Smith yelled. "Can we
evacuate any survivors?"

"I can't say for certain. Only three ships have ever had close contact
with the subspace anomaly. The Enterprise, the Harrier and the Defiant. I
don't have a lot of information to work with but the hypotheses put forward
by the science teams of the Enterprise and the Harrier are quite
convincing. Enough so that I will go myself if ordered." Crystara
said.

"Me, too." Birdy said.

"I don't understand why Starfleet put the emphasis on the data banks
rather than people's lives." Tandala said.

"I don't know why they did, either but I know why we should."
Li'ira said. "What ship has had the most experience with the subspace
anomaly? The Defiant. With their records at hand, the next ship or station
that encounters the Defiant may be able to free her or rescue her
crew."

"I have been doing a little reading myself." Dr. Smith said.
"It seems that the subspace instability of the region has a very bad
effect on the humanoid brain. The team from the Enterprise reported heavy
casualties and destruction aboard the Defiant. It seemed as though they all
killed each other. I can protect our team from the effects of the anomaly
for a short time, but if there have been any survivors, I don't see how
they could be treatable after a hundred years."

Li'ira thought about it carefully. "We'll go anyway. Mr. Baker, will
you lead the away team?"

Baker thought it over carefully. "Yes, Commander."

Birdy, Crystara and Tandala all chose to go.

-*-

The runabout Shangri-La left Deep Space Ten and warped off to rendezvous
with the Defiant. The trip was going to take a little over thirty hours.
The away team spent most of the time studying the layout of the Defiant and
planning their moves.

The runabout had to hard dock with the old starship. No transporter use was
allowed. From the docking port in the saucer section, the team would split
into two parts. Birdy, his second officer Silvia Schuler and two security
officers, Mileu and Paxton, would go to Engineering and try to pull data
from the main engineering computer.

Tandala, Baker and Crystara would start on the main bridge and then work
their way down to the main computer core.

Baker looked over Birdy's shoulder and saw that he was reading the arcane
math postulated by Spock and Montgomery Scott to explain the weird physics
of the anomaly.

"Most of us are studying the layout of the Defiant." Baker said.

"I already know the layout of the Defiant. I'm studying the layout of
the anomaly." Birdy said shortly. More than half his mind was still
busy with the heavy duty mathematics.

"I might have known you would. Is that why you're going? To have a
chance to work on a hundred year old starship?" Baker asked.

Birdy stopped and looked at him intensely. "If I wanted to know about
a one hundred year old cruiser, I'd go see the Republic in the museum. It's
safer. This is about getting some data and some people out of there."

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to offend you." Baker said hastily.

"Hmmm." Birdy thought. "We've been stationed on Deep Space
Ten for nearly a year now but we don't really know each other. Why is
that?"

"Well, ah, I'm not sure..." The simple fact was that Jonathan
Baker didn't really feel like getting to know anyone at Deep Space Ten. How
to phrase it delicately?

"It's because you've been sulking about your accident." Birdy said simply.

"Hey now!" Baker said sharply. The mention of his accident stung.
The truth of the statement stung worse.

"I bet you were on the fast track, before you got sidelined, weren't
you? Lieutenant commander by age twenty six. I bet you had yourself at
commander by thirty and a full captain by thirty-five or so. Wasn't that
your plan?"

"I don't see what that has to do with anything..." Baker said.

"You're not the first man to get put on the bench, John. You're not
the first one to find out that we don't all get to be captains. You've got
to decide if you're still in this game, or if you're going to go play
somewhere else." Birdy said relentlessly.

"God damn it! One little accident and everyone talks to me like I'm a
cripple. I'm not a cripple and I'm not a has been." Baker growled
softly. "I'm your commanding officer on this mission and I'll remind
you to show due respect."

"All due respect, Lieutenant Commander, you are crippled. You've spent
the last several months taking it out on your shipmates. Now we're about to
enter a dangerous situation. I generally like to know and trust my
commanding officers. You're competent or you wouldn't have been on the fast
track in the first place. It's time to decide if you're an ex-wonderkind or
a real time officer."

Baker's face was red and his mouth worked. How was he supposed to deal with
getting dressed down by member of his team in front of everybody? How was
he supposed to handle the fact that the old boor was right? Baker turned
around and walked into the back of the runabout.

"Weren't you a little hard on him?" Tandala asked gently.

"I'm an Engineer, not a Counselor." Birdy grumped.

The runabout flew on.


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