Chapter 4: Return to Archangel

JP between Vice Admiral Yaroslav Ivanko and Brigidier General Rhys Stubbs

|U.S.S. Tirpitz
|Deck One, Bridge
|Stardate 2399.513

Admiral Ivanko stood stooped over the helm console, one arm propping him up, the other holding his ever present cane. All the running around aboard Archangel what seemed like so many years ago had taken its toll on the Admiral who now struggles to walk even with a cane. But, with him being such a stubborn old goat, he persevered and just got on with the job. The Admiral had decided to accompany the Tirpitz on its routine reconnassiance of the Tlumach Sector, it got him away from the station which had become his home for the past two years - and although he enjoyed just sitting around doing the remedeal tasks that a Sector CO did, he did need some time away.

"Anytsing new on sensors?" asked the Admiral, his Ukrainian accent as thick as ever, his deep voice breaking the shroud of silence on the bridge.

"Nothing sir, just the usual Dominion patrols," came the reply from an officer towards the aft of the bridge.

"Have we tried the new sensor bandwidths that Dagmar programmed in, Lieutenant?" called out General Stubbs, Acting Executive Officer of the Tirpitz as Captain K'Rene had the Station to manage - Ivanko originally thought it was Starfleet's idea of a joke to promote Colonel Stubbs to the Rank of Bridgidier General, but since doing so, the new rank seems to have sorted out some of his immaturity and as a result, Ivanko was getting to quite like Rhys.

"Yes sir, I've tried all bandwidths and modulations in the computer. No luck."

"Helm, do you have the co-ordinates where we lost contact with the Thunderbird?" asked Stubbs, making eye contact with Ivanko almost as if looking for approval, but he didn't need it, they trusted each other enough to make the right calls.

"Aye sir, shall I plot a course?"

"Sir, are you suggesting we head into the dampning field? We'll be without support and Virgo might think we've been lost in action!" stated the Tactical Officer.

"Lieutenant Smiz, zis is a hardened Battleship. General Stubbs is making tse correct call in investigating the disappearance of one of our starships. We are aboard tse toughest ship Starfleet has in tse region -" said Ivanko coolly, turning around slowly to cast his gaze on Lieutenant Smith. Since the loss of Archangel, more and more personnel had started to question orders. In a different life, Ivanko would have relieved them there and then, but he had softened up a little as it was perfectly understandable.

"Mister Smith, if I didn't think this ship could handle itself, I wouldn't have suggested that we go in blind. Send a message to Arch...I mean Virgo indicating our position and to expect our return within two hours."

"As Tactical Officer, I think it prudent to have an escort, this is a big ship...as soon as we enter, the Dominion are going to send everything they have straight at us."

"We have our fighter detachment to act as escorts, I'd trust a pilots eyes over any sensor system any day - if you have any further objections, I do not wish to hear them. Battlestations everyone. Helm, take us into the dampning field, Warp 2."

"Yes sir," said the Ensign manning the Helm as the Red Alert Klaxon began to sound. Yaroslav looked at the General sat to the right of the command chair - Stubbs seemed to have inherited his knack for telling people exactly how to do things and not putting up with quizzical officers. He was learning.

"Well General, you seem to have everytsing here under control. I'll be in my Ready Room." the Admiral said, limping away through the Ready Room doors.

"Yes sir," replied Stubbs.

--

Tag Open.

"Confirm we've recieved message from the Tirpitz and keep them on sensors for as long as possible." K'Rene said, keeping her tone calm.

Every muscle in back and thighs screamed at her in pain. The seat had being designed for Peterson, gone for less than a month now, and while the two were of the same height, Peterson was a human, meaning soft cushions that currently were trying to toture her were the order of the day.

Ivanko had already told her she was welcome to change the chair, she was acting commander after all, but some superitious part of her that didn't really believe it was true yet, wouldn't let her.

"Do we have any ships in the area?"

"Only the Thunderbird, mam'" The young luitentant's eyes widened with fear as K'Rene glared at him.

"Any ships we haven't lost contact with?"

"The B'Moth is the nearest one." Luitentant Lestat volunteered, and K'Rene managed not to wince at the mangling of the name.

"Contact them and ask them to keep an eye on the Tirpitz."

She didn't like doing this, implyign that she didn't trust Ivanko or Stubbs, but there was something about this situation that she didn't like.

tag open.

|Bridge, USS Santiago

Sol sat on the bridge of his ship, the Santiago. He’d been in command for a little under a year and he was used by Admiral Dixon to deal with ‘problems’ that required urgent attention. For this task he’d been given a galaxy class, and it had held up and performed admirably.

His first officer was Commander Kane, a worthy and wonderful woman to have at his side. She took all the weight off his shoulders when needed, which was her biggest asset.

“Commodore, we’re coming up on the Klio system that Admiral Dixon wanted us to check out.” Stated Commander Kane from her chair console.

Admiral Dixon had sent them there to investigate reports of missing civilian freighters that had been going missing over the past couple of weeks. They had been sent distress calls from 4 of the missing vessels with the security codes matching on every one.

The security codes were implemented to stop Dominion traps and to ensure that the distress calls were genuine. Although, there was nothing to stop the Captains of the freighters giving up the codes…

“Any sign of the freighters Commander?” Sol asked, moving back to sit down.

“We have the 4 signals just by the second planet sir.”

“Take us to yellow alert…”

“Sir? We’re well within Federation Borders…” Kane questioned.

“That’s true Commander, but what are the odds of the 4 missing freighters all suddenly being in the same place, and all needed assistance at the same time?” he asked rhetorically, “I have a feeling this is more than it seems.”

The ship was brought to yellow alert, per his order, and they approached the planet slowly.

|5 Minutes Later

They came into range of the freighters, and sure enough there they were, all 4, together.

“That’s odd… Commander, open a channel. This is Commodore Zano of the USS Santiago, please respond.”

The biggest freighter responded.

“This is Captain Yemmick of the Freighter Jolanda, thank you for coming to our aid.”

Sol rose from his seat and pulled at his uniform to straighten it out. “Captain Yemmick, your ship has been missing for over a month, can you tell me where exactly you’ve been?”

The screen flickered for a moment as the man seemed to think of an excuse, “We were, eh, caught in an ion storm. It damaged our engines and communications, the end result was that we were carried along with the storm until it deposited us here, as this planet.”

“All four of you?” Sol replied.

“Yes. All four of us.” The man replied dryly, as if slightly annoyed.

Sol signalled for the comms officer to mute the transmission, and then turned to look at Commander Kane with a look that she knew well.

“All life signs are accounted for sir. There are no dampening fields in place, and as far as our sensors show they do have damage to their engines and communications, but I do share your apprehension about the situation. It doesn’t sit right.”

“I agree, resume audio.” He said turning his attention to the freighter Captain. “At this time Captain Yemmick I am not prepared to send any engineering teams over to your vessels as I do not have them to spare.” It was a lie, but he wanted to see his reaction, and the reaction was one of pure fear.

“We have wounded, would you be prepared to beam them on board your ship for treatment.” The man asked, almost begging. “Please (!)?”

Something did seem odd, the man was clearly under-duress but they were unable to reject the aid of wounded civilians. “How many?”

“We only have 50 wounded, the other freighters are fine.”

“All right, we’ll lower shields and start beaming over your wounded, stand by.”

He signalled to his officers to start transporting the wounded over.

2 minutes into the transfer he noticed the Jolanda starting to move towards them at an incredible speed.

“Hail them, now!” the channel opened, “Captain Yemmick you are on a collision course with us, break off, now!”

There was no response.

“Commander, stop the transport. Raise shields! Helm, manoeuvre us out of the path of the freighter. All hands brace for impact!” he yelled.

The freighter stuck the shields, exploding on contact, rocking the ship violently.

“Damage report!” Sol yelled.

“We have casualty reports coming in from all over the ship, our ventral shields are at 30%, main power at 55% and holding at the moment. Weapons and sensors are ok, engines and life support are holding steady. Sir, Lieutenant L’pel is dead…” she trailed off.

Sol look behind him to the upper level of the bridge, Lieutenant L’pel was his tactical/security chief. She now lay motionless, on the ground with the remnants of a console now within her.

He pinched the bridge of his nose, “Lesley, take over her station, and do something about the shields. What’s the status of the other 3 freighters?”

“They are falling into the planets gravitational pull sir…” she replied, looking worried as her hands flew across the tactical readout.

“What Lesley?”

“Sir, it’s a trap. We have 1 Dominion heavy cruiser, a Breen destroyer, a Cardassian Galor class vessel and a ship that I don't recognise coming this way. It's definately Dominion, but it looks pretty nasty.”

“ETA?” he asked.

“15 minutes sir.”

“How long would it take to rescue the crews of the freighters?”

“20 minutes.”

“Alright then. Release the Hells Angels and Dogs of War squadrons to keep them at bay for the moment. Our main focus is the retrieval of the civilians on the freighters. Get to work people!” he ordered.

He headed to his ready room to send a message to Admiral Dixon.

END OF PART ONE

|Ready Room, USS Santiago
|5 Minutes before Dominion Ships arrive

Sol typed in his security clearance so he could reach Admiral Dixon. Dixon had been very strict about keeping his whereabouts, and indeed his existence, a secret. From Sols end the picture was a little static due to the damage, but he sent the message anyway.

“Admiral, we’ve been set up by the Dominion. We are currently rescuing the crews of 3 of the missing freighters and are about to be engaged by a Dominion group of 4 vessels. The specifics aren’t important at this stage Nathan, but I’m sending you the data we’ve got on the ‘mystery’ ship they’ve got coming after us. It doesn’t look friendly as you can see. It looks like it’s got some sort of plasma cannon on its dorsal side. For the moment the Santiago has taken moderate damage from a collision with the first freighter, don’t worry I’ll fill you in with my report later, and we have taken casualties. Upon your receipt of this message we should be en route towards Station Virgo, as it’s the closest Federation station, but in what state I don’t know. Don’t send anyone to the Klio system, or to come find us if we don’t show up. You know our rules sir. We’re not even meant to be here as it is. I’ll contact you--”

The recording caught the jolt of the new Dominion ship’s plasma cannon, sparks flew into view as well as Sol ducking down out of the way of a falling beam.

“What the fuck was that?!” he yelled, for once you could see a little surprise and fear in his eyes. This was the one time he thought he might now make it back. “Sir’ I’ve got to go. I’ll transmit data on the new ship as long as I can. Zano out.” He finished tapping the computer console.

|Bridge, USS Santiago

He rushed out onto the bridge, noticing a fire and a dishevelled looking Commander Kane.

“Lesley, what the hell was that?!” he asked.

“That new ship… has some sort of plasma cannon on its hull. Its got a hell of a hit of it sir.”

“Did we get all the civilians off the freighters?”

“Just. The squadrons did there job and the survivors have already landed back on deck.”

The ship took another massive hit. People fell to their feet, consoles lit up like Christmas trees, and Sol threw himself into his Command chair.

“Evasive manoeuvre Sol Gamma 3. Commander, tractor one of the freighters into the path of the Galor class and fire a quantum torpedo at it. That should disable them and even odds up a little.”

He watched as his orders were carried out. A blue beam of shimmering light flew out of the Santiago, pulled a freighter from the clutches of Klio 2 only to be decimated by a torpedo directly in front of the Cardassian ship.

“Report?”

“Cardassian ship disabled sir.”

“Well done. We’re not going to win here people, helm set a course for Station Virgo, maximum warp, or the nearest you can get.” He ordered just as the plasma cannon fired again, ripping through the shields and hitting the hull.

This also cut out the transmissions he was sending to Admiral Dixon.

Sadly a beam had fallen on the ensign that sat at the helm. He’d only been on the ship a month, bad career move it seemed. Shields had failed; life support was marginal at best, and the bridge? You wouldn’t have recognised it from what it was half an hour before. Scorch marks, little fires, a couple of working consoles, and people.

He could hear the sounds of torpedoes and phasers hitting his ship, battering her within an inch of her life.

Sol began to crawl towards the helm station, shaken from the injury to his head, but he would make it, even if it killed him. The ship took another hit, the plasma beam blasting through a part of the drive section as if it were tissue paper.

As he looked up at the viewscreen at the 3 ships beginning to bear down on him he smiled, “Come on, catch me if you can.” He said, pressing the engage button, and then losing consciousness.

Luckily it seemed this trap had only been set to test the new ship of the Dominion and they chose not to pursue the Santiago deeper into Federation space.

The USS Santiago was now on autopilot, heading for Station Virgo. No communications, marginal life support, with a massive casualty list and a severely damaged ship.

Will the ship hold together long enough to reach Virgo?

END OF PART 2, and Done.

|USS Tirpitz
|Administrative Office, Deck One

Emma sat at her desk quietly contemplating what she’d followed Ivanko into yet again. She’d been his aide for many years now and through that she’d came a long way, professionally and as a person. She was more confident in herself these days and since the Lodrian incident she handled herself a lot better in heated situations.

Now there were even bigger problems as they lost Archangel to the Dominion and had been pushed further back into their own space.

Leaving the office, with a cup of tea in hand, she entered the ready room to see Admiral Ivanko sitting at his desk.

“I brought you something to help relax you sir. How’s your hip?” she asked genuinely. She’d come to care for the old man, even though she probably shouldn’t but he’d been like a father/grandfather figure in her life. She knew his hip was causing him difficulty walking, and that he’d never admit he was in any discomfort.

Tag Ivanko

|U.S.S. Tirpitz
|Deck One, Admiral's Ready Room
|Stardate 2399.513

Ivanko lowered himself into his Ready Room chair, which now automatically raised itself whenever he stood near - something which he had objected abhorrently to, but K'Rene and Dagmar had insisted otherwise. It still made Ivanko laugh a little at just how affectionate K'Rene was towards him, perhaps it was something to do with the fact that he'd saved her life a few times now.

The Admiral rubbed the edge of the desk nervously once he slotted his cane into its tubing, he didn't like waiting games and unfortunately, he had nothing to distract himself with other than the usual remedial reports that he'd probably already read through back aboard Virgo. Ivanko had entered many situations without knowing much about them, but rarely did he not know anything. On the other hand, at least they had astrological charts from when the Tlumach Sector was part of the Federation, there was little chance that anything drastic had changed in the two years since its loss.

Feeling the smoothness of the glass along the edge of his wrinkling fingertips, Yaroslav felt somewhat soothed knowing that the Tirpitz is a hardened battleship, in the last few years, it has withstood pounding after pounding after pounding - a truly awesome piece of engineering for Starfleet thought the Admiral.

=/\= "Admiral, we're entering the dampening field," =/\= came the voice of General Stubbs.

=/\= "Drop out of warp, launch escort fighters and maintain current heading. Three quarter impuse," =/\=

=/\= "Aye sir" =/\=

The channel had just finished when the door from his aide's office opened. Yaroslav had almost forgotten she was aboard, she was practically his daughter - well, he thought she wanted to be his daughter, his own had cut off all communication with him since the death of his wife.

“I brought you something to help relax you sir. How’s your hip?” she said softly, approaching the Admiral's desk with a cup of tea in her hand and offering it to Ivanko.

"Dyakoyu, Ensign," he said taking the cup, "Oh it's fine, notsing I can't live wiz," he whispered, smiling meekly. His entire face moving with the smile, his soft blue eyes not leaving the young officer who had a look of sympathy in her eyes.

"I didn't realise you were aboard, you're so quiet zese days," he said taking a sip of his tea. He had just about finished his tea when Stubbs' voice echoed around the room once again.

=/\="Admiral, we have the Thunderbird on viewer - and several destroyed bug ships - the Thunderbird looks like at has some power, but she's in bad conidition," =/\= The Admiral looked up at Rosenburg.

=/\= "I'm on my way," =/\=

|U.S.S. Lightning
|Admiral's Quarters, Deck Eight
|En Route to Station Virgo

Admiral Nathan Dixon stood over his operations table in his quarters, he'd received a message from his Deputy, Commodore Sol Zano a few hours ago and it was causing him some concern, Dixon and Starfleet Command had been a little worried by the lack of Dominion activity recently and this seemed to fulfil some explanation, but not enough. Dixon knew that it was a trap, and so did Zano, which is why he'd ordered a Galaxy Class to investigate, something that could withstand punishment.

Dixon was miffed at the Commodore's choice of not taking any sort of back-up, but he trusted the Commodore enough, he was his former Executive Officer back in the days when Dixon commanded Starbase Pegasus - the two have been friends ever since.

Nathan brought up the recording that he'd received of the new Dominion ship and its weaponry, something that could immobilise the Santiago was something to be reckoned with - it was a good job that Dixon was already two days through his three day journey to Station Virgo aboard the Lightning, a testbed ship for Starfleet's latest propulsion system, the Quantum Flux Slipstream Drive. The journey from Starfleet Command to Virgo would have normally taken 84 days at maximum warp, with the QFSD, it took 64 hours.

The Admiral peered over his half moon glasses at the table in front of him, he could just about see his own reflection - his Admiral pips reflecting what little light there was in the room, one of the downsides to using the QFSD - all non essential systems had to be taken offline which included lights, but still, if it made his journey quicker, it didn't matter. Dixon was eager to see how the staff of Virgo would react to seeing him return alive and well after spending the last four years 'dead' - he had just been working back on Earth under a pseudonym on the Starfleet Manifest, only Zano and the Command Council who Dixon frequently met with knew who he really was.

"Menzies, get in here!" called the Admiral, running his finger across the table top, shutting down the STACO systems. Special Tactis And Command Operations was a new department which was charged with managing practically everything related to ensuring that Starfleet wins this war. The sound of the door swishing open as Dixon's aide walked through.

"Sir?"

"Get me all the intelligence we have on the Tlumach System, everything from when the Dominion took over the system, until the point where we lost all sensor contact and S31 intelligence reports,"

"Yes sir,"

"I'm taking back my station...this week."

|Bridge, USS Santiago
|A couple of hours after incident

Sol awoke to a smoky bridge, dark from lack of light and life. His head was throbbing and he noticed that he had in fact split his forehead open, but for now the bleeding had stopped and his face bore the brunt of the dried in blood. Sluggishly he rose to his feet, letting out a straining noise due to the pain he was in, and looked around the room. It was a complete shambles.

Moving over to the Operations console he saw the officer in it was dead, “Sorry Lieutenant, I need your console.” He said sympathetically as he moved him to the floor. Wiping the dust and dirt from the console he could see that the sensors were not in complete working order at the moment but that at least someone was still up and about in Engineering, hopefully it was Commander Duchamp.

Someone began to cough from behind him, it was Commander Kane.

Sol sped up to help the woman up, making sure she was alright. “Lesley, take it easy commander.”

“Wha- What’s going on?” she asked.

“We’re on our way to Station Virgo, that’s all I know just now, I’m only just conscious myself. I need you to try and restore communications, can you do that Commander?” he asked as she began to take a look around. Her face dropped but she realised she needed to keep her composure, so she nodded to him.

Sol smiled weakly to her and went back to the engineering station. They were still at warp, and had been increasing in speed as those in engineering did their jobs exceptionally well.

Looking at the damage report, which was an incredibly long list. No shields or weapons but at this point they weren’t needed so he was fine about that. Life support had been restored in all areas of the ship and those with hull breaches were still sealed off. The casualty list was extensive with a lot of people in the drive section unaccounted for due to the last hit of the plasma cannon when their shields were offline.

“Let’s see if I can just…” he said to himself as the lights came back on, well some of them. “A bit better…”

From what he could tell they were near Station Virgo and would most likely arrive shortly after the Lightning. No doubt to some surprised faces, one of them being Admiral Dixons no doubt. The Santiago would hold together, she was tough, like her Captain. He’d been through worse.

He tried to send a message to Station Virgo, even a little one. A beep, a signal, a signature of some sort. He didn’t know if it got through or not.

|USS Virgo.
|Bridge
"Sir." K'Rene turned from her seat, ignoring the rush of pain it sent spirling down her spine. "We're picking up a distress signal."

"Is it the Tirpitz?" She demanded moving rapidly to bend over his station.

"No, it's the..." Lestat shook his head, his long blond hair falling all over his face. "The Santigo" he blinked. "Sir, another message coming in. This time from the USS Lightening. They want permission to dock, claim they have S.T.A.C.O. Director aboard - Admiral James Morrow, They're sending the security codes though now."

K'Rene glanced down at the codes, and blinked. She read them again to make sure she hadn't misread them. A growl formed in her throat.

"Give them permission to dock, Luitentant, and send someone to assist the Santigo, but send them to bay 3 and have security ready. There's something fishy going on here."

"Sir?" Lestat asked, turning around. "Where are you going?"

K'Rene smiled. "Surpicious, or not, Luitentant, they claim to have the S.T.A.C.O. Director aboard and as I am currently in command of this station, I must be there to greet him. YOu have the Bridge, Ms. Storm."

She stode out as teh african american woman took her place standing by the chair.

tag open

J.P. between Admiral Nathan J. Dixon and Fleet Captain K'Rene

|U.S.S. Lightning/Station Virgo
|Main Airlock
|Stardate 2399.513

Dixon stood at the airlock of the Lightning, watching as the Windsor Class Starbase grew exponentially in size. It should be fairly easy for him to navigate around the Starbase since Pegasus was a Windsor Class too. A pretty station, even if not the most well defended. The letters of Station's airlock quickly became legible, it was at this point that the Admiral's nerves caught up with him, he'd left without so much as a message to say that he was okay - leaving everyone to believe he was dead.

The Lightning jolted slightly as it joined with the Station. The Admiral felt the presence of Captain Tycho and Lieutenant Menzies behind him.

=/\= "Docking complete," =/\= came the voice of someone on the bridge. The red light on the LCARS interface panel on the wall changed to green.

"Keep your phasers targeted, but set to stun only." K'Rene muttered. "It is possible this is just a weird concidence, but..." Her eyes narrowed as the door began to open.

Dixon pushed his half moon specs and straightened his uniform. He reached forward and tapped the wall controls, a loud beep sounded followed by the unlocking of the airlock door then the noise of the door repositioning itself inside the wall.

"This ought to be interesting," said Dixon, thinking outloud as he read over the personnel listing for Virgo on his wrist interface built into his uniform - Fleet Captain K'Rene, Commanding Officer.

Taking a deep breath, Dixon walked through the airlock followed by Tycho and Menzies.

K'Rene froze. It was impossible. The man was dead, yet the man standing in front of her smelt, looked, and sounded like Dixon.

"You!" She hissed.

"Hello?" said Dixon faking his bewilderment.

K'Rene couldn't help it. She swung her fist, smashing into Dixon.

The Admiral had forgotten just how much of a grudge Klingons held, and for how long. He'd also forgotten how much a punch off a klingon hurts too, unfortunately, he still had his instinct and once he had recovered from the initial surprise of being hit, launched a punch right back at the Captain landing clean on her nose.

"What was that for!"

K'Rene growled. "YOU ASK WHAT IT IS FOR? YOU toh-pah!" she screamed. "You were dead. You..." her human failed her and she lasped into klingon for a few moments before growling. "YOu'd better have a good explaination, you petaQ!"

She felt that most humans would be proud that she remember the difference in thier ranks enough not to retun the attack on Dixon.

Dixon raised an eyebrow as he shook the fist which he had hit K'Rene with since it was now aching, with his otherhand, he adjusted his glasses so that they were now straight once more.

"It's a long story that would take a long time to explain," he said simply.

K'Rene folded her arms. "Neither you or your companions are going anywhere." She replied.

"Excuse me?" replied the Admiral blinking in disbelief.

K'Rene shrugged. "If I check the records, I will find that Admiral Dixon died, nearly 10 years ago. Thus I would be forced to assume that you and your crew are Dominon, and hold you here until I can make contact with StarFleet command. With the comminicaiton issues we've being having that, could take days."

"3 years Captain. I've been 'dead' three years. I used my fathers surname and my middle name as a pseudonym. The Romulans managed to beam me off the Carbonek just before it was completely destroyed," explained the Admiral, rolling his eyes wondering why she just couldn't take him at face value.

K'Rene snorted. "Then why did they not respond to the Federation hails? Peterson's ship was not too far away, nor was my own."

"You..." She shook her head and spoke calmly. "I spoke to Luke Dragos, He confirmed that you went down with the ship."

"It was a Dominion Sensor Dampening field, much like the one currently covering the entire of the Tlumach sector right now, no sensors, no communications...he confirmed that I never left the ship while he was on board," added Dixon.

K'Rene breathed deeply. "Three years." She said, softly. "You let me, you let Peterson, you let Adelle, you let Crystal believe you were dead for THREE FUCKING YEARS!"

"Bloody Klingons," muttered Dixon breathlessly, from behind his hand before lowering it and speaking audibly.

"Somethings just have to be left as they are. I'm here now aren't I, and Krystal knows I'm alive and well. She was the first person I went back to," sighed the Admiral.

K'Rene's eyes narrowed. "Do you know what happened after you were gone?" She hissed. "I have spent the last three years, trying to hold things together here." A part of her registered the lack of wisdom of having this argument in front of thier men, but she ploughed on. There was nothing here rumour hadn't already said or that they wouldn't know soon.

"Peterson became obessed with building a ship to go on a qoH 's mission of revenge. He stole supplies, conspired witht eh romulans and was lucky to escape a courtmartial."

She ploughed on "Adelle. Kahless, how she is even still alive is beyond me."

She glared at him. "When a captain is lost, then his crew is dishonoured."

Dixon had tuned out by this point but he looked as if he was paying attention.

K'Rene's temper went again, and she hit him across the cheek. "Listen to what you have done, you lo'Be Vos!"

"Will you stop hitting me woman!" he snapped, rubbing his cheek where she'd just hit him again.

"You, Peterson and Ivanko have done an admiral job of holding things together: unfortunately, Peterson needed to be reassigned to Pegasus," said Dixon, now chewing his tongue slightly to stop him from losing his temper.

Dixon was now aware that the two officers behind him were smirking from their reflections in the glass across the room.

"Stop smirking or I'll wipe it off your faces'" he said darkly, turning his head slightly to look over his shoulder.

K'Rene snarled. "I am still waiting for an explaination. And I should remind your men that currently I have the power to throw them in the brig. Or to the medics."

"Everyone but Captain K'Rene is dismissed, that's a direct order." called the Admiral, deciding to pull rank, he wasn't going to stand and argue with the Captain in front of an audience. His cold eyes flicked around the room over the rim of the half moons.

"Want to challenge that Captain and I'll have you dismissed also," added Dixon coolly.

Lieutentant Quintus glanced at K'Rene who nodded. "It's Dixon alright." She said. "I doubt the Dominion would make thier version such a stuck up, smart assed, bossy git".

"Oh good, you believe at last?" he asked rhetorically, standing up straight and crossing his arms, meeting the Captain's glare.

"In short, one of the damaged Warbirds I came across in the dampening field transported me aboard and I hitched a lift to New Romulus. My previous position of Special Operations Head allowed me to offer some help with their plans to enter the war to get you lot -" pointing to K'Rene's ridges on her forehead, "-off their backs,"

"It was the least I could do for saving my skin. Once they entered the war, with a ship that I helped design, I returned to Starfleet and became Special Tactics and Command Operations Director, a fancy name for somebody that planned Starfleet's war efforts,"

Dixon paced around the room, it was surprisingly large for an airlock, bigger than ones he remembered from Pegasus but that was 16 years ago.
The Admiral stopped at the steps to the upper level and took a seat, analysing K'Rene's facial expressions.

K'Rene breathed deeply. "That does not explain why you did not let any of us know you were alive. I will overlook your work with the Romulans, Kahless knows you're hardly the first Federation officer to do that, but why did you allow us to go on believing that you were dead? And leave me handling that Alternative you?"

"Do you know how bloody confusing it would be with two of me on one Station? And it slipped my mind...besides, it was probably better that I let you believe that, you didn't need the distraction of knowing I left without saying bye,"

"You managed okay didn't you?"

K'Rene shook her head. "What about Dagmar? Dragos? Peterson? They went to pieces with out you! Yes, we surived but by the skin of our teeth and by making some morally dodgy compromises!"

"That's what war is all about. Coping with loss, morally dodgy compromi - where did you learn to use words like dodgy?" said the Admiral, suddenly losing train of thought then regaining it again.

"Life's all about living on the edge, I'm sure Ivanko showed you that. What is Ivanko like anyway, I've yet to meet him...and where is he?"

K'Rene snorted. "Don't preach about war to Klingon, human. We know about war. And as for my language, 3 years is a long time."

She paused. "Ivanko is very Klingon. He is a man of honour,"

'As I thought you were' was left unsaid.

"Oh right. So that's what this boils down to, honour. I'd have happily died out there, I didn't go 'Oh hello Romulans, help please, I'm about to die'," uttered the Admiral, raising his arms in demonstration.

"Anyway, I'm bored of this. Unless you have anything valuable to add to my very long list of things to plan, which includes retaking Archangel within the next week - I have 140 plus ships en route to this station, then I'm done."

K'Rene's eyes flashed. "Honour involves not lying to your friends, to your crew." She said, softly. She frowned. "Retaking Archangel. Is that what this is about? Then forgive me, but if you have 140 ships, what are you doing here?"

"This is the staging ground, I intend on getting my station back, tired of sitting all safe and sound in a little office over looking the Californian Gulf,"

K'Rene snorted. "I believe for that you need the permission of the Area CO, and as Ivanko is currently out of contact..." she let it hang.

"I take temporary charge of the Sector being the lead Flag Officer, and I'm in charge of the war effort, he can either like it or lump it. In any case, I'm boss," Dixon said with a soft grin.

K'Rene rolled her eyes. "I see death hasn't decrease your arogance. Do I have any say in this?"

"You up for the ride, or has being in Starfleet weakened the Klingon lust for battle? Out of contact, how exactly - I'd cite regulation but that would be hypocritical," said the Admiral, getting to his feet.

K'Rene laughed. "I'm still angry with you for the record. But retaking Archangel, that would put a sweet taste in my mouth." She shrugged. "As for being out of contact he and his ship were chasing the Thunderbird, though really I suspect he was just bored of sitting around." her back gave a slight twinge and she muttered. "Can't say I blame him."

"I'll add you to the list of angry people, above or below Admiral Levenham?" smiled Dixon taking a few steps up the stairs waiting for the Station Commanding Officer to walk alongside.

"One of the reasons why I'm here, bored of sitting on my arse,"

K'Rene considered it. "Above. His reasons for anger at you are merely at you command style. Mine are personal."

"He's an egit. He's just a mess of photons and...more photons,"

K'Rene laughed "Where as you are the offspring of a Fergeni whore and a Regelian slime devil!" She thumped him on the shoulder. "I am still very, very angry at you, but I won't deny it is good to see you."

Dixon stopped mid step and turned, "A Feregi whore? Are my ears really that bad?" chuckled the Admiral before resuming his, "Come on, fill me in. What have I missed?"

tag

|Bridge, USS Santiago

=/\= Comm—Duchamp to the Bridge, I rep… to bridge. Commodore, do… hear me? =/\= came the voice of his chief engineer.

Sol spun round and rushed down to his comm. panel on his command chair. “Just barely Chief, try boosting the power to the communications system.”

Moments later the officer tried again, this time clearer.

“Commodore, thank God. We thought we’d lost you up there.” Duchamp said incredibly relieved.

“Almost did Leo, almost. Commander Kane and I are the only ones left from the bridge crew. Any news of the rest of the crew? Senior Staff?” he asked.

“Well with you two and I still alive that’s the best news so far. I’ve been unable to restore communications to sickbay, but have heard that Doctor Heval is still ok. I also have had Lieutenant T’soni down here helping me with minor repairs. The ships pretty smashed up sir.”

That was a little good news with some bad. His Chief Ops officer had survived, as his Chief Medical Officer, but the ship was indeed gubbed.

“What’s the… I’m not even going to say damage report, what are the systems that have been destroyed Commander?”

“Weapons systems and shield grid are totally fried to the point where the gel packs imploded in their respective junctions. From the data gathered from the Dominion ship I theorise that’s its purpose. To target the ships power supply by dealing devastating bouts of plasma to the targets shields.”

“That’s an interesting theory Commander, one worth exploring when we reach Virgo.” Sol replied.

“We have no long range sensors and limited communications. Our emergency power has been depleted and needs to be recharged, and our main power is currently only just holding at 48%. I could go on…” he said trailing off.

“I get the idea chief, thank you. It looks like help has found us either way. I’ve detected the USS Tiberius coming up and they’re going to escort us to Station Virgo. Looks like we’re only an hour away. Nice to see the Gods aren’t that busy… I’m glad your alright chief, but I’m going to have to see you on the station. Need to get some things sorted for Admiral Marrow. Zano out.” He said closing the channel, then getting up, nodding to Commander Kane before escaping to his office.

|Ready Room, USS Santiago
|An hour later

Sol had been using his for the past hour, pulling files, making theories up on how the plasma weapon works and possible defences against it, but that latter was not that forthcoming at the moment, not with only an hours thought anyway.

“We’re coming up on the station sir.” Commander Kane reported.

“Good Commander, set up and orbit around the station and send our details to their command centre. Then get them to use the transporters to beam over wounded and then the rest of the crew for a physical check-up. I’ll be over shortly, I’m just finishing up.”

No doubt when the Station Commander is informed of their arrival Admiral Dixon would also have found a way to hear about it.

Looking in the cracked mirror across from Sol he sighed. He’d looked better, tattered uniform, messy hair, or messier hair… and dried blood face. He couldn’t wait to see Nathan’s face mind you, and hear what he had to say about it all.

|U.S.S. Tirpitz
|Deck 1, Bridge

Luke strolled off the turbolift with a PADD in his hand. It contained the daily conn report, which had been quite dull latley. He took a look at the viewscreen, his eyes focusing on what was left of the Dominion ships.

"Looks like the Thunderbird took a beating," he said, nodding at the Admiral as he walked towards the helm, relieving the Ensign on duty.

"Shall I take us to them, sir?" he asked, already plotting the course as he sat down.

TAG

Ivanko nodded to Stubbs who left the Command Chair and returned to his rightful seat allowing Yaroslav to take a seat with Rosenberg in the spare seat to the Admiral's left. Admiral Ivanko glanced at his control panel positioned between the XO and CO chairs before taking his gaze to the viewscreen, catching sight of Lieutenant Dragos taking over the helm.

The Thunderbird was a mess, she'd taken a heavy beating but with it being a Prometheus Class, it had managed to hand one out too. Some plasma conduits were still flaring up from beneath the battered hull and the lights flickering on and off, as were the nacelles.

"Looks like the Thunderbird took a beating," came the voice of Dragos, providing an obvious commentary - the Ivanko of past would have commented on this, but he didn't bother.

"Shall I take us to them, sir?"

"Open a channel to them first, Luke" said Stubbs, his voice soft and calm, there was some slight sniggering on the bridge as people knew of the two officers' relationship.

The Lieutenant tapped away at the controls, opening a channel. Admiral Ivanko cleared his throat before speaking.

"Thunderbird, this Vice Ad-" he managed to say before the sound of static shreiked around the room followed by the voice of the fighter escort commander came through.

"Admiral...incoming Dominion ships, bearing 761'43 -" then nothing.

Ivanko narrowed his eyes as someone from behind him mentioned something about communications suddenly becoming jammed.

"Helm, evasive action!" he ordered quickly, clamping his hand against the arm of his chair. No sooner had he given that order, the ship jolted sharply.

"Damage report!" called General Stubbs, clinging to the arm of his chair as the ship jolted once again, a shower of sparks erupting from the ceiling and from a number of consoles towards the back of the bridge.
"Aft shields down to 67%! Dorsal to 81%"

Ivanko watched as a few polaron torpedoes struck the Thunderbird, ripping the ship apart.

"Fire everything we have, random targetting...we may get lucky!"

tag open

|U.S.S. Tirpitz
|Deck 1, Bridge

Emma sat in the advisors chair to the Admirals left. In truth she never knew why she sat there, she had no real purpose on the bridge other than to cater to whatever the Admiral needed of her.

Ivanko hailed the Thunderbird to be welcomed by a loud shrieking noise that Emma actually thought was going to kill her it was that bad. There were also the Dominion ships now closing in on them.

Emma hated fighting, she was opposed to it, but then again some questioned her as to why she joined Starfleet in the first place when it was a military organisation of sorts. Listening as Ivanko gave orders it wasn’t long before the ship shook violently under the attack of the Dominion.

Again the ship shook, this time with sparks flying from various consoles behind them and lights flickering all round.

As usual they seemed intent of firing weapons, and randomly at that, at what ever Dominion target they could find, or not find.

“Can I make the silly suggestion of getting out of here? The Thunderbirds been destroyed and I don’t fancy being next on the Dominion’s check list…” she finished looking, almost pleadingly at Admiral Ivanko to see some sense, and not go off on a mans crusade of revenge.

|Touring the USS Santiago

His ship was empty, devoid of all life but himself as everyone else had been beamed aboard Virgo. He would be taking his last walk through the ship as he didn’t know how long it would be before he would get it back, if at all. The power of the weapon could clearly be seen in the aftermath of the battle.

He wondered if Starfleet would probably decommission the Santiago rather than try and repair it, it would depend what’s easier for them. No doubt he’d be hearing about a Santiago-A soon.

His last stop was the bridge, where he’d spent nearly all of his time whilst in command of the ship. The friendships made there he would keep for a long time due to the nature of the missions they carried out. Putting them all in dangerous position, with no back up, placed an emphasis on trusting the person next to you.

=/\= Virgo to Commodore Zano, the Santiago’s courier ship has arrived to take it back to Utopia Planetia sir. Would you like some more time on board? =/\= came the voice of someone in the Virgo’s command centre.

=/\= No… I think I’m finished here… beam me over at your leisure. =/\= he replied. Taking one last look around he sighed before watching his surroundings disappear before him only to arrive within Virgo’s CiC.

|CiC, Station Virgo

His appearance was still that of what it was when the Santiago was attacked. Slightly torn, dirty and a wee bit bloody due to his head wound, but apart from that, all good.

“Where is the Admiral, and I don’t mean Ivanko?” he asked the nearest person.

They pointed to Admiral Ivanko’s office where it seems that in his absence Admiral Dixon had taken over for the moment. Sol thought of straightening his uniform before entering the room but there would really have been no point.

He rang the door chime and waited for Nathan to invite him in.

Tag Dixon/K'rene (if your talking to dixon)

|Station Virago
|Ivanko’s office
Dixon skimmed over the intelligence reports that he'd borrowed from Special Operations, the new Director of that department owed him a few favours so this more than made up for it. He glanced down at the table as an alert indicated that Commodore Zano had arrived popped up.
"I'm not sure whether you've met my second in command have you, Captain?"

K'Rene shrugged. "The only second in Command I knew was Peterson and he is no longer here." She fell silent, trying not to provoke the situation again.
"Peterson's expertise was needed over on Pegasus, I need not remind you of that again -" Dixon slid his finger over the door controls on the table, unlocking it.

"-Come in, Commodore," stated Nathan calmly.

From behind the doors he heard people talking, no doubt it was Dixon... he did like to talk. As he listened he was invited in, he entered trying to look as presentable as possible. Walking into the room they looked at him quite oddly... "What? Is there something on me?" he asked half joking, knowing it was his tattered appearance they were looking at.

"Could've made yourself look like a Deputy Director old friend," smiled Dixon before getting serious, "How bad is the Santiago?".
"In pieces Nathan. I mean really bad. I have no idea how they came up with a weapon like that but you can be damned sure you don't want to get in the way of it... I lost a lot of people on this mission, and even nearly came close to it myself." he said walking up to him handing him the padd before turning to the Klingon woman.
"Captain K'rene, thank you for sending a ship to help us. I know it's not honourable to limp back to the station in tow but I do appreciate you assistance in getting us 'home'."

K'Rene had been watching the two men in silence, but at the others acknowledgement, she shrugged.

"I have spent enough time among humans to understand the need to tow ships, and believe me, Commander your honour is the least of my worries at this time." She turned to Dixon.

"I think you'd better fill me in on how you plan to retake Archangel at this point, don't you? Ivanko left me in charge and I do not want to hand him back a station in pieces!"

"I'll have you know 'Captain' I am a Commodore, and where as i do not place a great deal of emphasis on ranks I do on respect, so try showing some before I through you out the nearest airlock for being disrespectful to me when there is no need for it. For your information I am not Human either, I am El-Aurian, so get your facts right before you shrug off a thank you." he stated simply before turning to Nathan.

K'Rene raised an eyebrow. "I assure you, Commodore that no disrespect was meant to you." She laid special emphasis on the last word. "As for throwing me out an airlock, you would not the first to attempt it."

Dixon shook his head, somehow the power had gotten to Sol's head, but it wasn't to bad, it was sometimes amusing and he did have a point - even if El Aurian's were difficult to distinguish from humans.

"Now now Commodore, Captain. Let's not start to argue, we are here to retake Archangel, it's an essential station that requires our full concentration and excellent coordination if we're to be successful,"

"I've managed to nab some intel reports from my former friends in Spec Ops - as Commodore Zano knows, I used to head that branch of Starfleet for seven years,"

The Admiral handed his former Executive Officer a bundle of reports that he hadn't yet looked over himself.

"What do we know about Dominion activity along the borders, Captain, Ivanko hasn't been submitting them to his superiors," quizzed Dixon, raising an eyebrow as he brought up a menu of what information he had at his disposal.

K'Rene frowned. "We have submitted the reports. They go though about three different stations, it is true, but they have been submitted." She glared at the other man daring him to challenge her on it. "I can produce the receipts if you wish."

Dixon looked around Ivanko's office, waiting for his Deputy to respond

Sol took the padds from Dixon, he would read them later in private once he'd cleaned himself up a bit. "The Captain is right sir. The fact that there are 3 stations to go through is a complete nightmare of a situation. Its possible the reports have simply been lost in transit, which is more than likely the case. Capricorn Station has the worst record for keeping track of transmissions." he replied

"Nothing any of us can do about that." K'Rene said, softly "The Dominions are blanketing all our communications." She glanced briefly at Sol, hoping he would take her comment as a peace offering.
Dixon followed the receipts through to Capricorn Station, it was also possible that they had been intercepted by the Cardassians, since Libra transmitted to Capricorn over their space.

It was something that the Admiral was aware of and had been in talks with the Joint Cheifs about but wasn't getting very far with.

"That's a matter that needs to be dealt with urgently, I dread to think how bad the situation is around here, it was nowhere near this bad four years ago,"

K'Rene laughed. "It was this bad four years ago, we just had a Klingon base on site with ships regularly running to the home world. I used to just slip reports in the letters to my cousin who worked at the Klingon Embassy on earth."

Sol smiled at K'rene, he had no intention of holding a grudge and he did understand how frustrating a position she was in. She seemed nice enough, and he liked a little bite from time to time.

"Hmmm...how long ago did the Tirpitz leave sensor range, Captain?" asked Dixon, his mind suddenly leaping from one thing to another as the first Taskforce of four en route to rendevous at Virgo appeared on scanner.

"If they get into a conflict with that new Dominion vessel then they are not going to stand much of a chance." Sol added with no real reason.

"The Tirpitz is a tough ship, she'll manage for the time being,"

"She has the toughest Commander in the fleet." K'Rene agreed, glancing at Dixon.

"I thought that was my honour, Captain," smirked Dixon.

K'Rene frowned. "I'm still mad at you." She replied.

"It may be a tough ship Nathan, but so was the Santiago." he added.

"Ivanko needs to retire, he's getting too old for all this running around,"
Dixon said, testing K'Rene's feelings towards the Vice Admiral.

There was a microsecond's pause, before K'Rene's knife was out of its holder and at Dixon's throat.

"I know," She growled, "You are testing me, but if you make such a statement again, about the man who has ensured most of your crew is still alive, I WILL Kill you."

She replaced the dagger back into it's holder.

Dixon didn't flinch as he knew, deep down, K'Rene couldn't do it.

Sol smiled and moved to sit down at the desk. Nathan did like to push peoples buttons. He'd tried with him on so many occasions but Sol wasn't an aggressive character at the best of times and let Nathan have his own little way. He watched to see how the two would continue their 'discussion'

"Let's get down to business shall we?"

K'Rene breathed deeply, and nodded.

"I insist however on the whole truth. No half lies." She said, "And I remind you, before you reprimand me, I have five Klingon squadrons loyal to me who I can summon here, so I asking as their commander, not as Federation officer."

Dixon looked across at Sol, he was giving him the same look as he used to when Dixon used to fight Stasnovich.

"We have two Romulan taskforces nearby ready and willing to help as well,"

"I think I can convince my brother to loan us the Voxi as well. Don't think I didn't notice his ship near by." he said winking at Nathan a little.
"He's not part of Starfleet, not our responsibility I'm afraid Sol,"

K'Rene snorted. "Does it matter? About the only good thing you can say of the Dominion is that they unit everyone against them. There are some Klingons who believe that they are actually a creation of the Federation.”

"Neither are the Romulans and Klingons sir, but still they are helping. If the Dominion plan a new push into the Quadrant with that weapon then everyone is at risk, not just us."

"That is true, the main problem we have is that Sensor Dampening Field, that's our priority before we move onto the Station. Special Operations believe it's near the station, as that's the best place to keep it defended." explained Dixon, bringing up some blurred stills of a strange massive object in the distance from Archangel.

"If you can get five squadrons Captain, what's that, sixty ships? Two Romulan taskforces, around twenty four, that gives us 228 vessels,"

K'Rene paused. "Actually nearer 70. Two are household squadrons, they are bigger than the Defence Force ones."

"Sounds like a good party." Sol added. "But I do feel the need for some better intelligence on the sensor dampening device, and where it actually is. How well its defended? I don't like going into anything half-cocked, let alone completely unprepared."

"I think the best course of action is to send a reconnaissance taskforce supported by a cloaked Taskforce,"

"That begs the question of how you have survived as Dixon's second." K'Rene said, cooly. "My memory of his missions is that it was proof of the luck of Enterprise if anything." She paused, and glanced at Dixon. "Dare I ask who will providing the reconnaissance taskforce?"

"I kept us both alive. I'm the calmer more sensible one of us both." Sol replied with a smile.

"Sol was my Executive Officer when I was in command of Starbase Pegasus," Dixon explained.

K'Rene laughed, the ridiculous of the situation suddenly hitting her. "Where were you three years ago?"

"I let him off the leash." Sol replied laughing before giving a quick reassuring look to Nathan.

"Photon man kept then-Captain Zano on a leash," Dixon's eyebrow raised as the second of the four taskforce's enter sensor range.
K'Rene groaned. "Why am I not surprised? He still hates me, because I served under you."

"Special Ops had some fun with his programming a few years ago..." Dixon left it at that for now, "We need to study these intelligence reports thoroughly before we make any decisions,"

Dixon wished he had the rest of his old crew here, especially the old Pegasus gang, they'd know what to do, not that he didn't have faith.

"I love intelligence reports. It's what I live for." Sol said.

"Couldn't you have given him a personality at that point?" K'Rene joked. She turned her attention back to the PADS. "The reports are pretty straight forward. We are outnumbered, outgunned and majorly outclassed,"

"They have the upper hand, especially since we're going in blind. Maybe we should just blow off the reports and go with good old intuition," Dixon sighed, pressing his palms on the desk.

"Well to be honest even the best plans are the worst. I think we should go in with an outline of what we want to do but nothing too complicated." Sol suggested.

"DujlIj yIvoq" K'Rene offered. She glanced at the PADs again. "Base on the range of the dampers it seems most probable it situated here." She pointed to a custer of stars. "The magnetic pulses there would increase the range and might account for the messages going astray."

"You're a science officer now?" Dixon said wryly, before taking a moment to think, "If we had the Tirpitz on the horn, I could order Ivanko to have a scout around...what exactly is he doing anyway?"

Reports said he was looking for the Thunderchild."
Sol replied.

K'Rene permitted herself a small smile. "It is the Thunderbird. And she was trying to do exactly what we are. "

"Why can't people just follow protocol..." Dixon smirked a little, knowing the irony and hypocrisy of what he had just said.
If he were to follow protocol, both he and Commodore Zano would be well away from the fight.

"Pot calling kettle." Sol coughed under his breath.

"I never follow my own advice, it's what makes me so unpredictable,"

"You might have fewer Klingons wanting to kill you..."K'Rene observed, dryly. "And Ivanko followed protocol by making sure that the first transmission we were to send after communications was restored was to starfleet requesting permission for the mission."

Sol looked down at a padd, "I see the USS Niagra is in one of the taskforces. It would be useful to have that ship scout the sensor dampening area. Its a Defiant with a cloak. Quick, quiet and easy to evade the Dominion, especially their new toy."
Sol suggested.

"I just wish we knew what frequency the Dominion sensors operated on, they've got to have a gap for their sensors to be operational," Dixon said, shutting out what everyone else was saying.

K'Rene paused. "The Niagra is good," She agreed, "I may have a method to solve both problems."

"We could try and get it, and a few other cloaked ships to pick out a patrol and steal a Dominion ship,"
Moving over, she began tapping at Ivanko's computer. "tI'ang has sensors from the Dominion, long story linked to why I have control of the squadron, but.." She trailed off.

Dixon suddenly clicked on, he was amazed that it had taken so long for him to realise just how simple the problem could be solved.

"I think to try and take a Dominion vessel would be a bit beyond our abilities at the moment. Think how many Jem'Hadar there would be and how many we would lose. I'm not saying it's a bad idea I just don't believe it to be a sensible one at the moment. I think our best bet is to send a couple of cloaked ships on a scouting mission and come back with solid intelligence." Sol finished.

"It's a big space to cover, but make it so, Sol. The last of the taskforce's has just entered sensor range, I need to try and work an attack plan with the information we have presently in case you're unsuccessful. I'll leave you to manage this for time being,"
Dixon explained.

K'Rene hit the desk, "Kahless have you being struck deaf? I told you, the tI'ang has Dominon sensor. She can be in here in a little under an hour. We can use those to figure out the sensor configuration, set the shields to that frequency and sneak across the border."
She glared at them. "I'm the Klingon. I'm the one supposed to propose Death or glory missions, not you two."
Dixon frowned at K'Rene, although he'd known her for fifteen years, some times she still utterly bewildered him.
"I've been in this game much longer Captain," Dixon said.

"And you haven't learnt that when a Klingon suggests something sneaky that it is a good idea to listen to them?" K'Rene demanded.

"True. Been taking lessons from the Romulans?" smiled the Admiral.

K'Rene's hand gripped the knife. "No, from you, Admiral." She snarled

Dixon almost took offence, "I'm not sneaky!" he said.

"No, just completely underhand." K'Rene snapped back.

she sighed. "The tI'ang has Dominon sensors. I've never suggested using them before now, because, quiet frankly, I didn't trust my cousin, who received the sensors as part of his bride's dowry. Now he's dead and II has confirmed the sensors are genuine."

“That's part of Special Operations I guess," Nathan replied coolly.

"Can we please focus..." Sol pipped in pinching the bridge of his nose.

"She started it," grinned the Admiral.

"I sometimes forget how young you are..." he replied rolling his eyes at Nathan.

"Younger than Ivanko,"

"Who had this plan in place, in case he didn't come back, which is more than you did." K'Rene snarled. "Ivanko managed to make a relationship with K'mtar which actually worked, instead of your constant bickering with him, and me caught in the middle."

"It's not my faut I got dumped with a station with Klingons on the doorstep...you know my relationship with them isn't exactly a good one, specially after I blew up one of their research facillities back in '82”

"you did not have to offend him at every opportunity though." K'Rene snarled. "My promotion was about the only thing you did that he agreed with!"

"He didn't exactly make it easy to get along with...hiding sensor logs, keeping intelligence reports. Basically giving two fingers to the Alliance," snapped Dixon back.

"Look you two, if you want to argue with each other I suggest you do it after we've come up with a viable plan of action here. I don't care if you fight to the death, I like you both so I'm happy either way, but right now shut the hell up. Both of you and focus on the problem we've got, and not on your dislike for each other or whatever the problem is!"
He was getting a bit bored of the childish behaviour he was witnessing, in the grand scheme of things it was immaterial.

"And you of course were completely honest with him." K'Rene snarled. She sighed. "But you are right, Commodore Sol." She breathed calmly.

"I was...for the most part," Dixon slipped the last word in.

"And so was he. For the most part."

"I've had dealings with more reliable Romulans,"

"oh yes, your dealings with the Romulans, do we really want to go into that, Admiral?" K'Rene demanded. "How about the Romulans experiments at Kalic, the Federation was quite happy to turn a blind eye them until the Klingons reminded them that we had all agreed not to work with bio weapons?"

"Hey! Stop being petty, for the love of the Gods!" he said raising his voice and also rising to his feet, above both of them "Can someone just be the bigger person here and let it go? Before you two drive me up the wall!"

"Don't look at me, that wasn't anything to do with me...at all,"

"Oh look. There's a finger print on the window," Dixon said, changing the subject.


K’Rene breathed deeply. "Alliance is a two way street, Admiral. And the Klingon people are sick and tired of having to let things go!" She glanced at Sol. “you see what I had to put up with?”

|Tag Open

|USS Tirpitz
|Bridge

"Get shields back online!" bellowed Ivanko, clinging onto the arm of his chair for dear life as the Tirpitz was on the receiving end of a Dominion Ambush. Three bugs ships appeared on screen flanked by the latest Keldon class refit from the Cardassian Union as they made an attack run. Ivanko knew he had taken a big risk by going into the dampening field and as a result of the present situation, would probably lose some of the crews already dwindling support.

The ship jolted sharply again, a bulkhead slammed into the deck from the rear of the bridge as the ship was struck by a volley of torpedoes.

"Sir, this is hopeless, we must retreat!" called General Stubbs, who had manned the Tactical position having dragged the body of the Lieutenant that was originally stationed there.

Ivanko's eyes narrowed as he realised his tactical mistake, a group of fighters would have made much more sense as a recon group than a great big battleship - he'd placed to much faith in his trusted ship. Everyone makes mistakes, everyone fals so that they can pick themselves up again. One of the bug ships erupted into a fireball before quickly being extinguished by the vacuum of space, the shields of another flared wildly as they themselves were taking punishment from the Tirpitz's fighter escorts.

"Shields are down to 14%, if we don't go now, we'll never get back to Federation territory si-" Stubbs was interupted by the Admiral's angry snarl.

"Get every craft out tsere - Helm, bring us into a broadside position wiz ze lead Cardassian ship!" order Yaroslav, picking himself up of the floor as another explosion tore through one of the brigdes consoles sending a shower opf shrapnel in every direction and filling the room with thick, black smoke.

"FIRE!" came the voice of one of the officers, Ivanko ignored it, he didn't need anything else to worry about. He could feel the ship responding to Dragos' control as it manoeuvered at full impulse.

"Target at will Mister Stubbs!" Ivanko tapped the controls of his chair switching the viewscreen from that of the front to that of port side. Stubbs gave a brief acknowledgement before the ships broadside Pulse phasers and micro torpedoes fired continuously into the side of the now evasive Keldon Class. It's shields didn't last long, and the weapons made short work of the hull and within seconds, the Cardassian ship had gaping holes in her side - drifting as it lost power.

The Tirpitz resisted another torpedo blow followed by a couple of blasts from the Theta Class Battlecruiser that was coming back around from the aft of the ship.

"All small craft are in the air sir, they have us covered..." Stubbs trailed off knowing that although that might raise the morale of the bridge slightly, shuttles were not offencive ships and would be lucky to be able to withstand even one shot from a Polaron cannon.

"One of the warp cores is losing containment, Engineering are trying to fix the prob--" came the voice of the Engineer before there was another explosion then nothing from the officer.

"Rosenberg, man the Engineering console...just give me ze readouts - oh, and tell tsem to eject zat core we have backups." Ivanko commanded, ducking to avoid being sprayed with sparks.

"We've lost Starboard and Aft shields, Dorsal are down to 22%, Port 4%, Ventral 17%, Fore 11%. Hull integrity at 73%..." called Stubbs.

"Sir, we've lost power to the Starboard Stardrive nacelle...looks like we've lost a power coupling" reported Dragos. This was bad news, the only way back to Virgo now would be to seperate the ship. The saucer section had hidden nacelles that could only be operated once it was seperated, the Stardrive also had some backups. The Admiral wasn't going to seperate the ship just yet, only as a last resort.

"Helm, make haste for ze border. Divert all power to aft shields and impulse engines - everytsing. Stubbs, try and send a message to our pilots, we're retreating, cover our backs!"

TAG

|USS Tirpitz
|Bridge

Emma was not enjoying herself to say the least. Admiral Ivanko was a stubborn man and determined not to back down from anything. No matter how much she respected him she hated this side of him and had tried to change it on many occasions, to no avail.

Essentially she was being shook from side to side like a child with a rag doll. Even though she had suggested that they leave the area in order to safeguard their own lives it had not been listened too. Instead they were fighting a number of ships when they were just one. The Admiral was not letting this go. General Stubbs had already suggested, like she had before the fight began, that they retreat to Federation space.

She looked truly dishevelled and a little scared. She hadn’t been in a battle like this since they abandoned Archangel a long time ago now, or so it seemed.

From behind she heard the panicked shouts of an engineer cut short as he was killed by an explosion. Admiral Ivanko then ordered her to take his position. Reluctantly she moved over to the console, paranoid about how she witnessed the younger man die, and that it might happen to her.

“Core ejected sir, replacement being put in place.” She said sharply to him, not even wanting to look his way.

The ship shook again this time she was alright, as was everyone else. The bridge didn’t want to kill anyone this time. She was mostly quiet reading out the odd occasional update from the battered engineering crew down below, but mostly it was just that power was failing, hull breaches… the usual fun stuff.

As they began their retreat a torpedo slipped through their shields and erupted. This time Emma was not lucky, it seemed the engineering console had danger drawn to it today. The torpedo dislodged a beam from the roof and it swung in Emma’s direction, just in time for her to look at it. It smacked her across the room into the wall, knocking her unconscious.

|Station Virago
|Ivanko’s office

Lestat had not served under Captain K'Rene for very long, but he had learnt one thing about her. She was a Klingon, with a Klingon's attitudes, respects and loyalties.

Had it been any other officer on the station, he would have thought twice about bursting into a room where they were in the middle of an interview with a Commodore, let alone a Commodore and Admiral, but he knew that the trouble for him would be worst if he delayed.

Drawing a deep breath, he opened the door.
"Captain."

K'Rene spun around to look at him, looking completely Klingon as she bellowed. "What?"

Lestat swallow.

"The Tiptiz has just come on our sensor, sir. She's in a bad way and not responding to our hails."

K'Rene froze, uttered what Lestat was fairly certain was a Klingon curse (it sounded like baka), before unceronmiously pushign Lestat out of the way and heading in the direction of the bridge. She didn't even bother to look at the other two men in the room, though they both out ranked her.

Lestat paused, shuffling his feet.

|Tag Dixon, Zano

|USS Tirpitz
|Bridge

"Helm, make haste for ze border!"

Luke diverted all the power he could into the impulse engines and aft shields, but he knew it wouldn't hold long. The shields had already begun to weaken as consoles exploded around him. "Sir, I've lost port thrusters," he shouted as the starboard impulse engine became sluggish.

The left half of Luke's console exploded in a rain of sparks, sending shrapnel onto his hand. He looked at his sensors and saw that one of the Dominion ships was on a collision course. He quickly thought of how he could get the ship to turn fast enough with only starboard thursters, and a sluggish impulse engine. "Everyone, hang on!"

He knew this would send a few people flying, but it was either that or have half the ship explode from the collision. He diverted more power to the thrusters, and sent the ship into a barrel roll, and Stubbs managed to fire the phasers at the right time. As the ship came out of the barrel roll, he realized he had completley lost the starboard impulse engine. "Sir, I've lost the starboard impulse engine!" He shouted as he shoved the power into the main impulse engine, hoping that would get them back to full impulse. "We've still got two bugs, and the Cardassian ship on our tail!" Was all he managed to get out before his console exploded, sending him flying backwards.

TAG

|USS Tirpitz
|Bridge

Stubbs watched in horror as the Helm console disintergrated and exploded, knocking his partner unconscious. Stubbs wanted to yell and move to tend to him, but there were other peoples lives at stake if didn't perform his duties. The General wished that wasn't the case, but it was part of being in Starfleet - others relied on the split second decisions of those in command.

Ivanko was busy attending to Rosenburg, propping her up and strapping her into the XO's chair, while Stubbs was busy rerouting information from both the Engineering and Helm consoles to the Tactical one. The bridge stank of burnt plastic and singed flesh. It wasn't pleasant.

Rhys was now tasked with taking care of three officer's duties, none of which he was fully trained to do. The Tirpitz was now in bad shape, with only one fully functioning impulse unit that was somehow still carrying the ship along at Warp 0.5, twice the speed of which all three impulse drives are tested and considered safe at.

Aft shields were just about holding, with all other shields deactivated and non-essential system power along with some of life support diverted into them, they were now at 31%. This provided at least some hope that the ship would return home alive, however, phaser banks now had no power and due to issues with supplies, the Tirpitz now only had 11 torpedoes loaded into the aft tubes.

A few tense moments passed before the ships sensor system became operational again, they had just about about managed to make it out of the dampening field.

"Sir, sensor systems are back online. I have a target lock on the lead Cardassian ship!" called Stubbs with some degree of relief in his voice.

"Make ze shot General!" replied Ivanko, taking a seat in the command chair and initiating a General Distress Alert.

"With pleasure -" Stubbs tapped at his own console and fired a volley of Plasma torpedoes at the Cardassian ship, all four struck the enemy vessel squarely knocking out its sensor and weapon systems.

"Keldon Class has been disabl - incoming torpedoes!" Rhys exclaimed, bracing himself. Ivanko did the same. The ship lurched forward as the torpedoes fired from the bug ships slammed into the Tirpitz's remaining shield. More sparks, more shrapnel and more fires ignited from the back of the bridge sending a turbolift door flying across the room, bouncing off the helm console.

"Damage report!" ordered Ivanko, realising that that last hit had caused some significant damage. Stubbs worked quickly and glanced over the Engineering tab which he'd redirected to his console.

"We've lost communications, shields holding at four percent. Multiple hull breeches from deck six through twenty eight."

The ship shuddered lightly again as the remaining Dominion ships fired their polaron beams one last time before retreating back into their own territory.

"Shields have failed. We're losing power to engines, weapons are offline. Life support at twelve percent. We're in bad shape, but I think we're safe for now. Three federation ships are on an intercept course, ETA eleven minutes."

"Use manoeuvering trusters to align our heading to Virgo. We should be able to maintain some of our interia." said Ivanko softly, he was very relieved that they had made it out alive - just about.

TAG OPEN

|Station Virgo,
|Docking bay of Caesar
Dixon pursued Captain K'Rene to the Airlock doors where the Caesar was docked to Virgo. She was about to cross the line with him, she'd being pushing his buttons since the two were reunited and his patience was wearing thin.

"Captain! I order you to stop and return to the briefing room!" he yelled angrily, placing his hand on his phaser ready to use should it be required.

K'Rene turned. "Admiral Ivanko is my commanding officer, Not you." She said, her eyes blazing. "My standing orders from Starfleet Command are to ensure his safety, and I intend to obey them."

"I am the flag officer in charge Captain -" he barked back, drawing his phaser and firing a warning shot just in front of the Captain.

"Don't think because you are my friend that I won't hesitate to fire and throw you in the brig,"

K'Rene turned. If she had been wearing armour, she would have torn it off.

"Go ahead then." She said her voice soft and challenging. "But we both know you won't. You know me, you know full well the only way you'll stop me is to kill me. That as long as there's breath in my body I'll keep trying for Ivanko. If you were serious about it, then you would have shot me already."

Dixon stood, his hand shaking, his eyes locked onto K'Rene, she was right in that he wouldn't shoot her on a kill setting but he had no questions about stunning her and busting her right back down to Ensign.
He lowered his phaser.

"K'Rene, you do this, and the moment you return, you'll be in the brig,"

K'Rene shrugged. "You say that, like you think it will affect me." She said. "I know I have to live with myself, to know I have acted with honour, all days of my life. That I may walk across the river to find Sko-ka-vor."

She stared at him. "One cannot achieve honour by acting dishonourably, Admiral, and a Klingon does not permit a friend to face danger alone. Besides," She grinned suddenly. "It is a good day to die."

"I’m not going to stop you, you're mind is already made. But I won't forget this and there will be reprisals!" snapped the Admiral defiantly.

K'Rene shrugged. "Again, like I care." She shrugged. "I've served the Federation faithfully for nearly 10 year now, and sometimes I miss my own people. Maybe it is time I return to them."

She stepped up the gangplank and stared back down at Dixon, almost sadly. "Once I would have sworn you would have been at my side, Admiral,"

"War has a habit of tearing people apart Captain, there are three perfectly capable ships on an intercept with the Tirpitz. You've changed," Dixon said, his voice going soft, a small smile cracked along the side of his face as he holstered his phaser.

K'Rene shrugged. "Perhaps. But so have you." She turned, closing the door.

She was not a human, so she didn't lean against it, breathing deeply and trying to regain her balance.

Instead she head for the bridge.

"Set an intercept course with the Tipiz, Maximum warp." She said.

Dixon watched out of the window as his old friend boarded the Caesar, an Interceptor Class and then disappear into the void. As much as it pained him, he was going to have to follow up on his word when she returned. She was off the mission for retaking Archangel, and that was that.

"You do realise," asked, Koran shaking long blond hair out of his blue face, "That Dixon was serious?"

K'Rene shrugged.

"He won't forget this."

K'Rene snorted. "Dixon has caused me so much trouble and pain over my knowledge of the man, Commander, that I can't say I honestly care."

"Yet you still count him as a friend?"

K'Rene paused. "We have a saying Commander among my species. Care about your students. That bond goes both ways. Many Klingons will risk all to prove their old teacher innocent of some crime."

"But you...?"

He was shocked at the anger and pain staring at him from out of the Klingon's eyes. "Dixon broke faith. Try hailing the Tipiz again."

Koran nodded and concentrated on his station.

Ivanko and Stubbs worked with one of the damage control teams and a medical team to try and get the bridge as clear as possible. The Medical teams had already managed to get the dead to the morgue and were now tending to the injured, Dragos and Rosenburg among them.

"Zis was a mistake," admitted Ivanko, helping Stubbs lift a beam of a screaming officer's legs as a Medic attended to him.

"We all make mistakes Admiral, and it was my call. I take the blame," replied Stubbs.

"I have to take responsibility General, I'm ze Sector Commanding Officer -"

"Admiral, look at it this way, we we're investigating the disappearance of one of our vessels, that had been giving out a distress call. It's procedure to investigate, you we-" explained Stubbs before being alerted to a hail from tactical console. He finished helping Ivanko with the beam before turning his attention to the console.

"Communications must be back online," said the Genera as he tapped the console.

"Incoming hail from the USS Caesar, from Captain K'Rene..."

Ivanko's eyes narrowed, what was she doing leaving the station.

"What of ze other three federation ships zat were on an intercept?" asked the Admiral

"Captain K'Rene to USS Tipiz. baQa’ Ivanko, you'd better bloody be alive after this!"

K'Rene snarled, ignoring the strange looks she was getting from her crew. She was furious, but she knew, she hoped the message was getting though

"The Caesar is an Interceptor Class, fastest class of ship in the fleet...next to the Lightning, she's over taken them...ahh.Here we go, audio only, out of range for a visual," said Stubbs running his fingers delicately over the console.

Ivanko moved to his command chair and lowered himself into it. His back was really hurting right now after all the sudden jolts and lifting of heavy pieces of the bridge, but he always had time for K'Rene.

There was a strong mutual respect and friendship between them.

"Vice Admiral Ivanko of ze Tirpitz, we're alive," he responded, clearly his throat as his thick Ukrainian accent sounded across the bridge.

K'Rene laughed, throwing back her head, surprising everyone on the bridge. "Kahless be thanked. I hate to think I'd thrown away my career on a fool's errand."

"And why would zat be Captain?" queried the Admiral, he hadn't told her she would lose her career leaving the station.

K'Rene smiled. "Trust me, Admiral, you wouldn't believe me if I told you. Now my engineer says that your warp coil is about to explode in the next hour, not that it matter as you have only half an hour’s life support left, so I trust you would not object to us evacuating you?"

Ivanko muted the microphone and turned to Stubbs.

The look that Stubbs received could've killed even the most hardened nausicaan warrior, Stubbs brought up the Engineering grid and looked it over.

"Oh...must have overlooked that. The coolant systems around our primary warp cores have failed, sir. Warp core ejection isn't possible as we don't have the power to release the clamps." said Stubbs.

"Overlooked?" snapped the Admiral, it was a good job that K'Rene had scanned the ship otherwise the rescue operation would be an inquiry to why the ship had exploded.

The Admiral unmuted the microphone and resumed talking.

"Very well. Somehow, zat information hadn't come trough to ze bridge. I'm issuing an abandon ship order now, once you arrive, transport ze coils out of ze ship. She's done us well, let's save her," said the Admiral calmly, letting out a deep sigh.

K'Rene rolled her eyes, muttering, "Only Ivanko would do this." She muttered. "We're in range now, Admiral. We'll try and transport as many as your people as we can. The coil and ship are secondary as per Starfleet regulations."

Ivanko tapped the ships Intercom, "Zis is Admiral Ivanko, all hands, abandon ship. Repeat, all hands abandon ship!"

"Begin transporting Captain, leave me until last," he instructed, as the face of the Captain appeared on the main viewer, visual communication was now possible.

"Admiral, the Endeavour, Escalade and Eclipse have just dropped out of warp" reported Stubbs.

"Instruct zem to assist Caesar in evacuations -" Ivanko turned to the screen where K'Rene appeared to be looking around the Tirpitz's bridge, or rather what's left of it.

"Ensure zat I'm transported to your ship Captain,"

K'Rene rolled her eyes. "Trust me, Admiral, I'm going to."

"Sir, the core is beginning to destabilise at an exponential rate, looks like she's going to blow in less than ten minutes now," updated the General from the rear of the bridge.

The Admiral looked glum, he didn't want to lose his ship, equally, he didn't want to risk lives by ordering the cores to be removed straight away.

"How long until evacuation is complete?" asked Yaroslav.

"At present rate with all four ships transporting, six minutes."

K'Rene glanced at Koran, who nodded.

"We're getting you out now, Admiral. No arguments."

She nodded at Koran who pressed the buttons, over the admiral's furious yells.

"Didn't I tell you to wait?" asked the Admiral sharply, looking at Koran, "A Captain is last to leave his ship!"

"Don't take it out on him, he was following my orders." K'Rene said calmly. "On top of that, you were the last to leave the ship. The others are in transport as we speak."

"Well zen, save ze ship," instructed the Admiral irritably, hobbling over to the command chair which was conveniently vacant.

K'Rene rolled her eyes. "Admiral, forgive me, but what do you want me to do with two warp coils, which are on the verge of explosion? We barely have enough time to get out of range."

"Transport zem off ze Tirpitz and to a reasonable distance. Zese shields should be able to take ze brunt of ze explosion if we position us between ze Tirpitz and ze coils," explained the Admiral, adamant that he was going to save his ship, whether anybody agreed or not.

K'Rene glanced at Koran. "Take us to a safe distance. Then worry about the coils."

Koran nodded, slightly nervously as he moved to obey.

"You would not believe the kind of day I'm having," came the voice of Stubbs as he was transported onto the bridge of the Caesar.

Ivanko ignored him as he turned his attention to the Captain

K'Rene rolled her eyes. "Trust me Brigadier, I could sit around and compare days happily. But we have other issues."

"You seem distressed Captain, sometsing up?" asked the Admiral, looking over to the Klingon. She might not show emotions other than anger well, but he knew her well enough to know when something was bothering her.

K'Rene began fiddling with the consol under her fingers, adjusting the shield frequency as she waited for the explosion to come.

"Captain?" asked the Admiral again.

"What would you say, Admiral, if I told you Admiral Dixon was waiting for us back at the Virgo?"

"I would suggest you see a counsellor, if you were any ozer person. But, isn't he dead?"

"What!?" said Stubbs, surprised.

"Apparently not." K'Rene sighed. "He claims it was security, that he was with the Romulans, and..." She trailed into silence.

"Any particular reason why he is here -" he stopped midway through his sentence as the ship rocked violently from the exploding warp coils, "- and why now?"

K'Rene sighed. "He wants to retake Archangel." She said softly. "Asked me to be a part, though I suspect he's withdrawn it."
|Tag Open
JP between Ivanko, K’Rene and Stubbs over MSN.

A Joint Post by Fleet Captain K'Rene, Vice Admiral Yaroslav Ivanko and Admiral Nathan Dixon
|Ivanko's Office
|Station Virgo

"I can't believe he's deactivated my Sector controls!" cursed Ivanko as he marched along the corridors of Virgo. The Admiral had tried to order a tug ship to drag the Tirpitz back to the Station, but Admiral Dixon had assumed full control of all starships in the sector, which had angered Yaroslav greatly.

K'Rene shrugged. "Cooperation and working with others has never been one of Dixon's strong suits, I'm simply relieved not to be in the brig."

"I wouldn't hold your breath Captain, he doesn't sound like my kind of Admiral," said Ivanko as he entered the turbolift, as he did, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a hypospray to relieve the pain in his back and leg. He'd managed to cope so far with the pain, but he could only take so much and it was reaching his limits.

K'Rene shrugged. "I'm not. " She ignored the hypospray. "He is a good man, just..." She shook his head. "He is too human for his own good most of the time."

"Too human? Care to explain?" asked Yaroslav as he imput the duo's destination on the wall panel.


K'Rene paused. "When Klingons and Humans first started having...issues, it was over some people fleeing, they claimed from Klingon tyrany, which had resulted in thier planet starving. The human Captain, Jonathan Archer believed them and became the first human to be tried for traeson by a Klingon court. In reality, the whole empire was tarivng. the food was rationed as best the planets Governers ccould, but they were starving too. The people caputred were rebles, who had actually blown up the grain store, killing nearly 300 people." She paused. "Do you understand what I mean?"

"Humans tend to be very trusting of aliens that look at least nearly humans. Klingons are nothing physically like huamns, though we share many traits." She apused. "And Dixon is very inclined to trust those nearer to humans, like the Romluans, and to ignore the advise of Klingons. When he had command of Archangel, K'mtar was always threatening to kill him and me for something."

"Klingons, Romulans and a sneaky human...never a good mix if you ask me K'Rene," Ivanko nodded in agreement, he was still angry over Dixon completely sidelining him. Ivanko admitted to himself that he did occassionally do it, but he never did it to such an extreme and always consulted the person in question.

K'Rene shrugged. "You know my grandfather's views on the subject, sir"

The turbolift stopped . Ivanko stepped out of the car and limped along the top balcony of the CIC, taking a brief look around watching the crew scuttle around preparing for whatever Admiral Dixon was planning. "I take it ze Admiral has assumed command of tse station too?" asked Ivanko as he made his way through to his office, imputting his command code on the controls only to find that they too had been relinquished.

K'Rene paused. "He certainly had when I left." She shrugged, pointing to her collar. "Starfleet regulations, he out ranks me"


"Regardess of rank, it is not proper to just take control," replied Ivanko, tapping the buzzer for the door.

K'Rene shrugged. "Dixon has never cared about what is proper, if he did I would have probably never advanced beyond Lieutenant Commander."

"Who's there?" came the voice of Admiral Nathan Dixon on the intercom.

"Vice Admiral Ivanko and Fleet Captain K'Rene," replied Ivanko, his accent becoming thick again and his voice turning much more formal than what K'Rene was used to.

"Enter," came Dixon's response. The was a click as the door unlocked, Ivanko stepped through followed by K'Rene to see Dixon sat behind Yaroslav's desk.


K'rene stepped in behind Ivanko, looking around. She could see Louis, looking fantically uncomfortable, but there were no other guards present. A pity, she thought Dixon might need them.

"Captain, report to the brig immediately. I'm placing you under arrest for neglect of duty and mutiny. You are stripped of rank and removed of command pending a court martial," said Dixon bluntly as he looked back down at his notes again.

"Ignore tsat Captain," said Ivanko, looking at K'Rene and placing a hand on her shoulder, "She stays. I owe her Admiral," interjected Ivanko.

K'Rene shrugged, looking around the room. "Only one guard." She observed. "Either you are more confident that I would obey, or the rest of them are more loyal to Ivanko than you thought. Oh and I think his presence here would be a fairly good indicator I have not been neglecting my duty."

"Your duty lies with this Station Captain, you took a vital asset on an errand to bring back Vice Admiral Ivanko when a number of perfectly capable ships were already en route. You failed to obey a direct order and therefore I must place you under arrest. Either obey, or be taken by force," replied Dixon coolly, peering over his glasses.


"Admiral Dixon, sir. If Captain K'Rene had not disobeyed your orders, I would not be standing here. My ship was more badly damaged tsan first anticipated," said Ivanko, moving to stand infront of K'Rene.

K'Rene eys flashed dangerously. "I repeat one guard. Even you Dixon are not stupid enough to think he stands a chance against me. And if I had waited, we would have lost both Tirpiz and Ivanko. As it happens, both are in a salavageable condition"

"I repeat, you took a ship without authorisation, you disobeyed an order. To be frank, Ivanko is replaceabe, he made a choice to enter the dampening field knowingthat he was blind, I'm sorry Admiral, but that's the way it is," Dixon paused, "Go to the brig, or force will have to be used Captain K'Rene,"

Ivanko stood there, not knowing what to say in the slightest.

"Admiral, as I understand, you are not a person for procedure, you cannot lecture anybody on it. I was responding to a distress signal,"

K'Rene shrugged. "I repeat, you have one guard. Those from Zano's or your own ship are in no fit conditon to take on a Klingon child, let alone me. And of my own," She shrugged. "I suppose it was an ugly rumour that most of them are already in the brig for refusing to obey orders."

Dixon tapped the desk controls, alerting secruity that a situation was brewing in the office.

"Corporal Anders, take Captain K'Rene and Vice Admiral Ivanko to the brig. I do not have time to stand and argue," ordered Dixon, standing up from his chair.

Dixon moved around the Dixon and stood before the two officers, Anders didn't move, he justed stood there. His loyalties lied with Ivanko and K'Rene.


"Sir, I cannot in good conscience obey that order. The Admiral and the Captain have saved so many lives since you abandoned us," chirped up the Corporal, moving to stand with K'Rene and Ivanko.

K'Rene couldn't help the smile, proud and trumiphant, that slid across her face.

The office door opened and the room flooded with secuirty guards and a marine clad in riot gear. Dixon eyed the three officer's carefully.


"What are you doing Admiral? We've managed to hold Tlumach trough tsick and tsin, you're wanting us to step aside while you take charge of an area tsat you have not stepped foot in in over tsree years? As much as I respect you Admiral, you are quite deluded in your ways," stated Ivanko quietly as he looked around the room, the guards holding their phasers to the group.

K'Reen sighed, unslinging her batleht. "Well you did promise me a good fight, Dixon. Just sorry it's against Starfleet." She glanced at the men. "Consider this your one chance to surrender and live."

"Looks like tse good Admiral wants to pull rank," snarled Ivanko, placing his hand on his phaser.

Dixon smiled, he liked a challenge. One of the guards took aimed at Yaroslav, issuing a warning.

"Drop the weapon, sir. Come with us and nobody will be hurt," instructed the guard.

"Choose your side carefully, pick where your loyalties lie, wid me or him,"

"Funny." K'Rene observed. "I was about to say the same thing to you."

She raised the blade and spoke slowly. ""I know you Bruce. You buried Clark two years ago." She looked at the other man. "Joey, You know that Jacequline was on the Carbone. She never came back." Lastly, she turned tot the Marine. "Do you really want to betray your teacher, Jack?"

"So this is what it's come to is it? A pissing contest between myself, against a klingon, a corporal and an old man?" said Dixon, placing his own hand on his phaser. One of the guards looked at the others and lowered his weapon.

"Oh this is bloody ridiculous. Why can't you just do things simply," muttered Dixon, tapping at his wrist ccontrol unti and activating a evel seven forcefield seperating him from the others.

K'Rene raised an eyebrow. "The man who lied to me when the truth would have done speaks of making things simple." She shrugged. "I knew you were a dillusional fool, Dixon but I never took you for a coward,."

"A coward? I can't risk my life because some officers refuse to take simple instructions. I'm taking command of everything as of this moment, Ivanko, you might of already noticed that I've disabled you Sector Command codes and revoked your security clearance for the time being, it was a precautiion in case you were as difficult as the Captain here is being. It's okay, if these officers won't take you into custody, these ones will," Dixon explained.

Ivanko drew his weapon and fired at the forcefield, but it was too strong to break using a low level phaser shot.

"Which officer's would tsat be?"


"These," Dixon hadn't finished the sentence when a team of Special Operations Commandoes beamed in, wearing full battle armour with Enhanced Compression Phaser rifles.

Ivanko looked at K'Rene.

K'Rene shrugged. "Sir, request permission to clean up the office?" She said, loking at Ivanko.

"We stand no chance, live to die anozzer day -" then Ivanko realised that he too had a back up plan. He fiddled with the controls of his phaser slyly as he holstered his weapon. A loud, high pitched tone began to emit from the phaser, he'd set it to overload.

"At arms!" called Ivanko.

The Vice Admiral's loyal guards took aim at Dixon's. Ivanko took a few steps back allowing his men to form up in front of him and K'Rene.

K'Rene frowned. Her Klingon blood protested at allowing thises men to be put in danger, but she knew she must allow it, becuase she was convinced that Admiral Dixon had gone mad. Whether it had alwyas being so, or whether the war had turned his mind, she neither knew or cared. This was not her friend.

"You would be advised to lower that shield." She commented.

"I strongly advise against pursuing this course of action Vice Admiral-" Dixon started, only to be interupted by Ivanko.

"I don't tsink Starfeet condones your messods Admiral,"

"I'm empowered to do whatever is necessary to protect the Federation,"

"Isn't that the motto of section 31?" K'rene said to no one in particular.

"Does tsat include betraying everyone tsat once cared for you? You're tse one tsat pointed tse gun at us first, you start a fight wid a klingon and someone tsat has worked wid Klingons and expect no repercussions?"

K'Rene stepped forward.

"Dixon" she said, trying to channel the scared young Klingon who he'd first promoted. "Please. Put it down ."

This is your final chance before I give the order for you to be detained by force, starting with you Ivanko, since K'Rene cares so very much for you," said Dixon calmly, his eyes flicked across the faces of everyone who was pointing a weapon in his direction, "And you be advised to disarm that weapon Vice Admiral,".

Ivanko took a deep breath, he wasn't prepared to be forcefully removed from command for following protocol, he leaned over to the Captain.

"Are we really prepared to do zis Captain?"

K'Rene stepped forward, it was obvious to anyone that if she had been human, she would have being crying. She took the phaser from Ivanko and nodded. "Yes."

Ivanko stood, taking a breath, he moved towards the nearest of his men and took his rifle before moving to stand in front of everyone.


"If you're going to do it, do it Admiral. But Starfleet will have consequences for you," said the Ukrainian, raising his rifle and taking aim at the ceiling where he knew the forcefield emitter was located, he flipped the safety off the rifle and powered it up to full.

Dixon could see what Yaroslav was doing.

"Set phasers to kill" he ordered, "Take aim, stand by. K'Rene, stand down or we will kill Ivanko,"

K'Rene stared him. "One can not achieve honour by acting dishonourable, Admiral." she kept the phaser pointed.

Ivanko fired the phaser, the blast knocked out the forcefield and the lights allowing for a brief fire fight. Ivanko had already planned his cover, and chucked himself to the deck, firing twice at Dixon's special forces. A few seconds later, the lights came back online, accompanied by a weapon discharge alarm.

Ivanko remained lying on the floor his rifle pointed at Dixon, who had a weapon pointed at both Ivanko and K'Rene.

K'Rene had come to a decision. This had gone on long enough. Now the force field was down, she took aim and fired in one smooth movement.

Dixon collapsed as the stunning shot hit him straight in the chest knocking him back onto the desk. Ivanko used the rifle to heave himself back up to his feet.

"We've made a mistake Captain," he said quietly as he walked over to the Admiral, but Dixon had been wearing armour that had disipitated the shot, he opened his eyes and fired a stun shot at both Ivanko and K'Rene.

K'Rene was quicker, she fired again. "Next time, " She snarled " I will set it to kill."

A team of marines burst into the room and observed Captain K'Rene pointing her weapon over the unconscious body of Dixon. In seeing this, they reacted quickly and fired a number of stun shots at her catching her off guard.

K'Rene growled. "Humans poke of the berserker, Klingons simply called it Kahless call," In either sense, she spun around, the pain from the stun shots going.

"Captain, there is no way you can fight out of this. Surrender NOW!" roared the lead Marine, taking a shot at her weapon knocking it from her hands. Ivanko managed to open his eyes and looked at K'Rene.

"We surrender," cried Ivanko. Enough was enough, he knew that both he and K'Rene were definately off the mission to retake Archangel, there was no point in prolonging the stand off.

"Today isn't a good day to die, not yet anyway," Ivanko said with a soft smile.

K'Rene snarled, her teeth bared. Practically, she knew she couldn't fight her way out of this, but Ivanko's words reached her. She knew he was a man of honour who would not surrender with out a good reason. She obeyed.

Dixon managed to regain consciousness, and slowly managed to regain his vision and the rest of his feeling.

"Take them to the brig." ordered Dixon was a sense of finality to the situation.

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