One Week Later
The doors to his quarters opened to reveal Amaya Donners, wearing a stern expression on her dark face.
“Captain,” she said.
“Captain,” he said.
“I just got here and I thought maybe we should compare notes before the meeting,” she said.
“Excellent idea, Captain. Come in,” he said and moved aside to permit her into his quarters.
She took two steps inside, enough to allow the doors to hiss shut behind her and then turned back around to face Glover. Then she reached out for the collar of his uniform.
Glover offered no resistance as she practically yanked him close to her and then pressed her lips against his.
He went along with it all, even as she reached up to first take hold of his neck and then brushed her hands through his short hair and when she began to push him towards his bedroom. He became more active when she started to pull down the zipper of his jumpsuit and followed suit to undo her own.
They had shed their boots and tunics by the time Donners pushed him down onto his bed without ever removing her tongue from deep inside his mouth.
“Commodore Schwarzkopf to Captain Glover.”
“Ignore it,” she hissed as she pulled up his grey turtleneck shirt, only to discard it haphazardly on the floor.
“Damn right.”
“Schwarzkopf to Glover, please come in.”
He needed no further motivation to leave the call unanswered when she started to pull her own shirt over her head while she was sitting on top of him.
“Schwarzkopf to Captain Donners.”
She stopped in mid-movement and Glover frowned when she let her shirt fall back down. Donners dropped onto her back next to him with a heavy sigh. “The man really knows how to ruin the mood.”
Pulling himself up onto his elbows, Glover shrugged. “Don’t let him. Ignoring him was a good call.”
“Commodore Schwarzkopf to Captain Donners, please—“
But Donners didn’t follow her own advice and had reached down onto the floor to find her uniform and the communicator still attached to it. “This is Donners, go ahead.”
“Ah, Captain, I’ve been trying to reach you.”
“Yeah, sorry about that, I was … busy. How can I help you, Commodore? The meeting is not until a couple of hours.”
“That’s why I’m contacting you. I want to get this out of the way now. The people I want you to meet are on a tight schedule, so the quicker we can get this done the better. I want to see you and Captain Glover down here as soon as possible.”
Donners glanced over to Glover lying next to her and he emphatically shook his head.
“I’ve been trying to get hold of Captain Glover but I can’t reach him.”
“That’s alright, I think I may know where to find him. But to be honest, I have some things to take care of first. Are we sure this can’t wait?”
“Trust me, whatever you are doing, this is more important.”
Glover uttered a subdued little laugh which caused Donners to instantly shoot him a dark look.
“Sorry, I didn’t get that.”
“Uh, never mind, just my … pet.”
Glover noticeably fought off another amused laugh.
“Give me ten minutes and I find Glover and we’ll both meet you on the surface.”
“Excellent, Captain. I’ll see you in ten. Schwarzkopf out.”
“What a jackass,” Glover said.
She sat back up, beginning to pull the black and red jumpsuit back on.
Glover reached out for her, gently touching the small of her back. “Hey, ten minutes. More than enough time.”
She fixed him with a bemused look. “Really? That’s rather disappointing.”
He rolled his eyes. “You know what I mean.”
Donners stood as she pulled her zipper all the way back up. “I would also prefer some discretion on your part. I don’t need that ‘jackass’ to know about us.”
He shrugged. “Why not? I don’t care who knows.”
“Well I do,” she said as she began to pull on her boots. “It’s none of his business. Besides, I don’t know about you but I care about my career.”
“I wouldn’t be worried about that. The way things are going, experienced starship captains are in high demand all over the place. No way they would bump either one of us for something like this. They need all hands on deck if we are serious about taking on the Nyberrites.”
Fully dressed once more, Donners stood to look down at the still half-naked Glover on the bed who hadn’t made a single move to put any of his clothes back on. She looked pensive for a moment. “I’m starting to have my doubts about all this. It’s been four years since we got rid of the Borg and the Schism. The Preservers are no closer to rejoin with us now then they were four years ago. On the contrary, all they can do is hold Betazed up over our heads when what we really need to do is to let bygones be bygones and unite against the Nyberrites for once and for all. Take back and rebuild the Federation.”
“Hey, you’re preaching to the choir here, lady.”
She uttered a heavy sigh. “I just get so frustrated with Owens and the rest of that misguided bunch that thinks that playing it safe will keep the Nyberrites away. You heard him last week. The man hasn’t change one iota. Still the same thick-headed, lying son-of-a-bitch.”
Glover smirked and reached out to take her hand into his. “And that’s why you kicked him to the curb and got yourself an upgrade. He’s a sour loser, you always knew that.”
She slapped him away angrily. “I am being serious, Terrence.”
Glover jumped out of bed, his facial expressions becoming more sober. “Owens is an idiot. They all are. Sandhurst probably the biggest one of them all. They’re all just happy to stick their heads into the sand and hope the Nyberrites won’t come for them next. They are so afraid of losing the little bit they have left since the Borg rampage that they jump at their own shadow instead of taking action.”
“Then what’s the point in doing all this?” she said as she watched him hunting down his strewn-out clothes and boots. “Why are we even doing this if there is no hope in reuniting us? We can’t hope to take on the Nyberrites alone and its not like anyone is lining up to join us. We struck out with the Caitans. That’s what? The fifth world in a row who has given us the cold shoulder.”
“Have some faith. Sooner or later even those blockheads on Earth will see that they don’t have a choice but taking the fight to the real enemy. And even if they don’t, they won’t be able to keep this up for long. And when the time comes, we’ll make them see the truth, even if we have to pry their eyes open by force,” he said as he put on his shirt. “Besides, didn’t Schwarzkopf give you his speech about this new mission of his?” He pointed at the gray and red planet visible through the windows of his quarters, which the Cuffe was currently orbiting. “’This is what we have been waiting for. This is what will change everything and bring back the Federation we once knew and loved. This will mark the turning point of this conflict’. The man sure loves his hyperbole.”
“Probably another harebrained scheme getting us nowhere. I swear, with a blowhard like Schwarzkopf on our side, you don’t need any enemies. We might as well just turn our phasers around and shoot ourselves in the head.”
Glover finished dressing. “Tell you what, he gets between us like this again, I know exactly who I’m shooting first.” He turned back around when he reached the doors to his bedroom after noticing that she was still standing by his bed, looking at him askance. “What?”
She just shook her head. “Sometimes I really can’t tell when you’re joking,” she said and then swiftly walked passed him and out of his quarters.
Bolarus IVb, more commonly known as Panea, had been a vibrant and bustling world once. Located within the same system as the home world of the Bolian people, the second moon of a massive gas giant had been a melting pot of many different races from all across the Federation and beyond.
That was before the Borg and the subsequent Schism. It remained home to nearly ten million people but the fat years had long since passed, replaced by wide-spread poverty and crime.
It seemed therefore a terrible place to discuss the future of the Federation, at least to Terrence Glover, as he and Amaya Donners walked down a narrow alleyway towards their meeting with Schwarzkopf.
Most of the inhabitants who noticed the two Starfleet officers shot expecting glances their way, a few children even came up to them to beg for scraps, which neither of them had brought.
“If there is a more miserable place in the Rim, I haven’t seen it,” said Glover as he gently pushed aside two young girls who were trying to get his attention, and more importantly, his money.
“Sounds to me you haven’t been planetside much of late. This is not too different than many other places I’ve been to.”
“Bet Earth doesn’t look anything like this.”
She frowned. “One more reason we’re in this fight.”
They reached their location, a rundown warehouse from the looks of it, with a rusted and patchy roof but a surprisingly sturdy looking and reinforced door. Seeing no other means to gain access, Glover shrugged and then knocked against the metal door.
They didn’t have to wait long, within moments the door slid aside to allow them entry, only to promptly slide shut again once they were inside.
It was dark and dirty and cramped inside, looking no better than it had from the outside. A single dim light strip build into the floor seemed to mark their path and they followed it all the way to the other side of the warehouse where they found another set of doors which opened for them as well.
These ones led to a turbolift which set in motion as soon as the doors had closed again behind them. They moved downwards for only a few seconds before the doors parted once more but this time to reveal a more expensive facility of sorts, looking clean and sterile with predominantly white walls and ceilings. Even the air seemed fresher down here.
Schwarzkopf was waiting for them.
“Fancy setup you’ve get here,” said Glover. “Right out of the Starfleet Intelligence playbook I bet.”
“Let’s just say that we’ve taken all necessary precautions.”
Donners frowned. “I hope that whatever it is you are cooking up down here is important because from the looks of this, the resources you’ve spent setting this up would have been enough to feed and cloth half of that city above us.”
The commodore led them down a wide corridor. “Oh, it’s important alright. Perhaps the most important project since the Schism. I want you to meet the people behind all this.”
“The suspension is killing me,” said Glover and shot Donners a smirk which she clearly didn’t find very amusing.
Schwarzkopf showed them into a large conference room, with equally white walls and a large, glass table at the center and a number of computer screens which were all currently turned off.
Three men were standing near the table and turned to face the new arrivals. All three were strangers to Glover. Two were humans, the third man was Vulcan judging by the shape of ears. The Vulcan and one of the humans appeared to be close to his age, even though this was naturally quite difficult to tell with Vulcans. The other human was gray-haired, with hawkish facial features, white hair and at least middle aged. He got a distinct scientist vibe from the two humans and not just because they were wearing lab coats. The Vulcan could have been one as well, but he wasn’t wearing a coat. None of them were uniformed.
“Gentlemen,” said Schwarzkopf, “I want you to meet Captains Donners and Glover who will play a key role in security over the next few weeks while you focus on your work here. I can confidently say that they are amongst the best and brightest on either side of Starfleet.”
The two captains exchange quick, surprised glances. This was the first time they had been given any indication as to their role here and clearly neither of them was happy to play the role of a babysitter.
Schwarzkopf turned back to the two Starfleet officers. “These men are the brainchild of this entire undertaking,” he said and pointed them out, starting with the oldest human. “Doctor Westren Frobisher, Doctor Matthew Owens and Mister Jarik.”
All three nodded briefly but Frobisher seemed obviously impatient. “Well met, both of you,” he said quickly. “I’m sure you will do an adequate job to secure this facility, but we are really on a tight time table here—“
“Wait a minute,” Glover cut in. “Owens? As in Michael Owens?”
Matthew Owens seemed pained to admit to it. “Yes. He is my younger brother.”
“Oh this is just great,” said Glover and looked back at Schwarzkopf. “Are you serious about this? You are running some sort of super-classified operation here and one of the people leading it is a close blood relative to our number one enemy. You don’t think there is a bit of problem with that?”
“Now hold on, Captain,” said Frobisher, clearly not quite able to suppress his anger. “Matthew and I have been working on this project for over thirty years and this has absolutely nothing to do with his brother. In fact, the two of them have hardly exchanged words during that entire time, which I can attest to. This project is far too important to be endangered by misplaced paranoia.”
Schwarzkopf nodded. “Doctor Frobisher is right,” he said, giving Glover a stern look. “You don’t need to worry about the family connections of this team. Your only concern is security.”
“Family connections are exactly why I am concerned about security,” said Glover.
“Doctor Owens and Doctor Frobisher have been fully vetted,” Schwarzkopf said dismissively. “We know that they will not endanger their own project.”
“Vetted by whom?”
Donners stepped in before Glover could shoot back another terse reply. “Alright, so we are to provide security here, I suppose some sort of heads-up on this would have been nice.”
Glover didn’t miss that judging by the looks that were being exchanged between Donners and Owens, the two of them were at leas somewhat familiar with each other which wasn’t much of a surprise considering that she had used to date his brother once upon a time. It was clear however that she had not expected to find him here. He also thought that he could spot recognition between the Vulcan and Donners. Since the Borg War in which billions had died, the galaxy had of course become a much smaller place.
It took Schwarzkopf a moment to get over Glover’s uncooperative attitude and consider his colleague instead, shaking his head. “Not possible, I’m afraid. All this is on a strict need-to-know basis.”
“Fine,” said Donners. “We’re here now, so clearly we need to know,” she added and looked towards the other men. “What exactly are we providing security for? What is it you are doing here?”
Frobisher took that one. “I don’t wish to sound patronizing, Captain, but it is highly unlikely that you or your fellow starship captain would be able to fully comprehend the scope of the work we are engaged in—“
“Good thing you prefaced that statement because you, sir, sound extremely patronizing,” Glover interrupted.
Frobisher tried not to take notice, keeping his focus on the one captain he clearly had decided was the more reasonable one. “Sufficient to say that our work revolves around a totally new, and immensely powerful technology which will most likely change the face of the galaxy as you know it.”
That was apparently too much hyperbole even for Schwarzkopf. “It’s vitally important for the future of the Federation. And by that I don’t just mean the Guardians. If we want any chance to stand up to the Nyberrites and liberate the worlds they’ve stolen from us, we will need what these men here are working on.”
Glover looked them over again and his eyes came to rest on the Vulcan. “Mister Jarik, was it?”
“That is correct.”
“What exactly is your role here?”
He offered a very small smile, revealing that he was perhaps not as much of a Vulcan as he appeared.
“We are not here to be interrogated by you,” said Frobisher angrily. “Mister Jarik fulfills an indispensable role and that’s all you need to know.” He looked back at Schwarzkopf with obvious impatience painted on his features. “Now, are we done here, Commodore, or are there any other asinine queries we need to cover before we are allowed to return to our work?”
“No, that will be all, Doctor,” he said and looked at all three men. “Thank you for your time. And please rest assured that you will be able to complete your work here without any further interruptions, from us or anyone else.”
“I sincerely hope so,” said Frobisher and then was the first to leave the room.
Jarik followed closely while Matthew Owens at least made brief eye contact with the two Starfleet captains before exiting the room.
“Lovely people, those,” said Glover.
Schwarzkopf turned on him. “Was it really necessary for you to antagonize them? Do you not understand what is at stake here?”
“To be honest, no I don’t, considering that I’m learning all this now, instead of being briefed ahead of time.”
“We covered that already,” Schwarzkopf said sharply. “Now, I will provide you both with a full patrol schedule and rules of engagement within the hour. I want every vessel entering this system meticulously scanned and analyzed. No ship is to approach this moon without prior authorization. The Bluefin and Orion are on station at the far side of the system, so all you need to do is focus on the immediate surroundings of Panea.
Only a very small number of people know this facility even exists, which means it is unlikely anyone will try to gain access but if they do, Heracles will lead a rapid response fleet stationed less than half a light-year from here at Starbase 6, which can get here in less than an hour.”
“And who exactly thought it be a good idea to put this facility on a densely populated world? From what I’m hearing you’re playing with fire here, building some sort of super-weapon. Right under a bustling city,” Donners said.
“This has been approved by the Security Council. Nobody would expect such a facility here. It’s a perfect cover.”
“Sure it is,” said Glover, laughing mirthlessly. “Right up until the point when it all blows up into our faces.”
“Possibly quite literally,” said Donners.
“That’s enough,” Schwarzkopf said sharply. “I need you both focused on keeping this place safe form external factors. You’ll have your assignments shortly. I trust you can find your own way back to the turbolift.” He said and turned his back on the two captains to follow the scientists.
“Don’t say it,” said Donners the moment they were alone.
“You mean that this all sounds like an atrociously bad idea, dreamed up by fools who don’t know their ass from a hole in the ground, and which is doomed to fail from the start?” He shook his head. “I wouldn’t dream of it.”