Encounter with Ickaris - Matthew Thrawn

 STORY SET ON THE EVE OF THE ROMULAN INVASION OF FEDERATION SPACE. YEAR DS9 PLUS 2.

Lieutenant O’Hara was bored.  He had been looking at his scanner scope for over an hour, studying the comet Ickaris that was heading into federation space from the Romulan sector.  Although he was interested in astronomical phenomena, ever since he was a kid at earth colony Trallius IX which orbited a binary star system, he really wanted to be on a starship.  His hero during his younger years had been Captain James T Kirk of the original enterprise, searching out for new civilizations and new sciences, fighting off new and old enemies, and sometimes away for months on end between visiting star bases. 

He had hoped for a starship posting when he left the academy, but he had failed a vital module in his exams, and so he had ended out here on the border of the neutral zone.  True it gave him chance to revise the module for his retakes in 2 months time, but it was a severe blow to him mentally.  Instead of mixing with other officers on a quest for exploration, he was stuck here on this forgotten sensor station with the rest of the six man crew.  They were okay he reluctantly admitted to himself, but they were all older than him, and wouldn’t let up telling him what he should be doing, giving him all the rotten jobs and all in all making him feel dejected.  Today was a good example, it was his turn to do a routine check up on the secondary transmitter situated about 20 kilometers away on the planetoid horizon, right in the middle of a thermally active region.  He had been told that was deliberate so that it was harder to find using a planetary sensor scan, but he still believed that the designer was simply drunk when he had suggested it to star fleet engineering, who had constructed the place.  

To keep himself sane, he liked to imagine that he was on board a starship, translating every random signal or stellar anomaly into an invasion force of beings unknown in this quadrant, hell bent on the conquest of the federation.  It was all make believe though, and after a while even that got boring.  He just couldn’t believe this part of space was so boring.  The only craft that visited this area of space was the regular monthly shuttle bringing stores and crew changes.  The next one was due the day after tomorrow and was exchanging their current team leader who was retiring, for a new one.  

He took another look at the comet on his scope, ejecting an occasional particle every so often to join its cold vapor tail.  It was going to pass fairly close to their position, within 20 million kilometers, so they were expending a large amount of their sensor time analyzing it for the Federation Science Group.  His eyes glazed a bit, loosing focus, as he stared at the screen and then he suddenly sat upright, trying to focus his eyes on the comet.  Or rather trying to find the particle that he had just watched being ejected from the comet, and then seemingly reabsorbed.  He saw nothing, and despite continuing the watch he didn’t see anything else.  He must have been mistaken, he murmured. 

Just then, Johnson stuck his head around the door.  “Come on, we’re late to set out for the transmitter”.  “I didn’t realize you were coming with me – I mean it’s a one-person job after all”.  Johnson looked over at him “Yer, but I’m bored, lets go out at take a leisurely journey”.  He looked at the scanner “Have you seen anything yet then?, Any enemy ships – ha ha ha”.  He laughed whilst he gathered his tools together, not maliciously but rather to himself, to lighten the mood.

O’Hara liked Johnson.  He was the next youngest, only 3 years older than he was, and seemed to have a similar sense of humor so they had quickly gelled together as a team, and friends.  He wondered whether to tell him what he thought he had seen, but he decided not too – he could always re-run the log when they got back.

They both walked down to the changing area, and put on the suits that would keep them alive during the journey.  The planetoid didn’t have a breathable atmosphere for humans, and the journey meant that they had to travel through the thermal discharges, so the suits contained a lot of bulky cooling circuits as well as the chemical oxygen producing system, catalyzing carbon dioxide back into breathable oxygen.  They collected their tools together, and Johnson contacted the control desk to report that the two of them would be going to the transmitter.  The acting controller, sounded like Drynnan, made a joke about not trusting O’Hara to do it alone, to which Johnson just told him to grow up and that they were off.

They exited through the air lock and clambered down to the repulsor craft.  They set off at a leisurely pace, and it didn’t take too long before they entered the thermally active region.  This was where it got a bit more interesting, as it allowed them to combine the repulsor capabilities of their craft with the thermal gases emerging from the surface, so that they had a good time putting their craft through twists and turns that exceeded on more than one occasion the design parameters.  Net result was that they arrived way behind schedule.

They eventually reached the secondary transmitter, and clambered off.  They entered the airlock and the first sign of trouble was when the airlock refused to open when it had been pressurized.  After several minutes of cursing and double checking the gauges, they used the manual override to force the door open.  The door slid open to reveal utter destruction.  The room was a complete mess with equipment thrown around the room, and the main status screens smashed.  They looked at each other and started checking what was working and more likely, what was not.  After a few minutes they had come to the conclusion that the long range sub-space transmitter was beyond repair.  What was interesting was that the one piece of equipment that was still functioning was the status monitoring module, which was routinely interrogated by the main base for defects.

O’Hara turned to Johnson “Should we tell someone”. His colleague turned around “Who?.  You know who was here last don’t you – it was Drynnan”

The color drained out of O’Hara’s face, visible through his view port “You mean he deliberately did this, but why?”

“I don’t know, but we need to get back to base and warn someone.  Something tells me this is more serious than it looks”

As they collected their tools together, Johnson turned  to him.  “On second thoughts – you had better stay here and see if you can rig up something to get a message out.  I guess that when I get back to base it will probably be in the same mess as this one.  If I’m not back within 3 hours, get a message off to anyone and warn them”

O’Hara was suddenly very scared “what do you mean, warn them.  Why?  What’s going on?”

Just as Johnson put his helmet on, He stopped and looked at O’Hara, fear clearly visible all over his face “Think about it – backup transmitter station sabotaged – what do you think it means?”

O’Hara froze “Invasion - Johnson. Before we left I saw something strange about that comet that’s near to us.  I didn’t say anything because I thought I had imagined it, but I’m not sure now.  I could have sworn that I saw something ejected and then retrieved by that thing”

Johnson had by this time fully suited up.  He went over to a locker and punched in a security code.  The panel opened to reveal a compartment where 3 phasers should have been.  “Very professional” he murmured.  He then punched in a different set of numbers that opened the false back to the compartment, revealing 3 more phasers.

“But how did you do that?” O’Hara said.

Johnson took one of the phasers and pocketed it, took another one and handed the third to O’Hara. 

He removed O’Hara’s comm badge and picking up an adjuster off the bench top removed the rear plate.  He then prodded around a bit, replaced the back plate and returned it to him.  “I have set your comm badge for receive only – that way no-one can scan and detect you are here”.

 “Look, there is something about me you should know – I’m with Star Fleet Security.  There is always at least one of us on every observation post, and we have our own ways and means to do things”.  He went over to another store cupboard, and did something similar there. He cleared out the destroyed equipment and removed a false backing plate, to reveal some undamaged equipment.  “There should be enough equipment to construct a simple short range device, capable of reaching the nearest listening post.  Construct it and send your message.  Preface it with Star Fleet Intel – alpha gamma seven”

He turned to O’Hara “You got that, Star Fleet Intel – alpha gamma seven.  You will be surprised how many ships that code will bring here”.

He made his way to the airlock, when O’Hara said “Johnson.  I’m scared.  Who’s coming”.  He turned backed to him “You’re scared, I’m scared.  What’s important is that at least we know something is going to happen.  As to whom, well, we have believed that a Romulan attack was possible for sometime, but it is happening far too soon.  We are not yet ready.  We have got to warn people, and that’s where you come in.  Whatever it takes get that message off, okay?”

“Okay, I’ll do my best”.  He started to collect the spare parts together.

The airlock door closed and O’Hara could hear the depressurization cycle commence.  He vaguely heard the outer door open and close, watched as Johnson got onto the craft, and headed back to the base.

Examining the components, he started assembling the short-range transmitter.  It didn’t take too long.  Then he realized the slight snag – no power source.  He returned to the panel but there was nothing there, and looking around the transmitter, apart from the room lighting and the status monitor power source there was nothing else still functioning.

He was hunting around when his comm badge came to life

“Johnson, O’Hara, come in.  This is Sensor Outpost”

He went to tap his comm badge when he realized that he couldn’t reply.  Then his badge came to life.

“Sensor Outpost, this is Johnson.  Drynann what do you want?”

“Just requesting an update on your arrival back”

“We’ll be there in thirty minutes or so.  How are things?”

“Everything is okay back here.  O’Hara’s comet is looking quite spectacular on the scopes and……….WHAT?????”

O’Hara dashed over to the view port and looked in the direction of the sensor station.  He couldn’t see Johnson in the craft, and he was in time to see a Romulan Warbird materialized over the sensor post.

He heard more communications, the sensor post trying to communicate with the Warbird, and then finally the sensor post calling Johnson and himself telling them that the Romulans weren’t responding and to look out for themselves.

Suddenly a loud hissing came over the comm badge, and O’Hara watched helplessly as the Warbird fired a solitary Torpedo into the station, utterly destroying it.

He just stood there, shocked, as he quickly re-ran the conversation through his mind.  He understood Johnson inferring that he was on the craft as well, but the station responded as if they expected all was well with the secondary transmitter station.  He started mumbling to himself, trying to fathom it out, but there was no other explanation.  It wasn’t Drynann who had sabotaged the secondary equipment – they had extra visitors on this planetoid, unfriendly ones.

Suddenly Johnson came on “O’Hara, I’m presuming you can hear this.  I got it wrong.  You are in extreme danger.  There must be a Romulan team around here.  They may think you are with me, as our craft was close to the air lock door.  For all our sakes, get that message off and qui…….”

His badge went silent, coinciding with an explosion a few kilometers away.  He sat down on the nearest table top, a cold fear spreading down his neck.  He was the last one left.  It all relied on him now.

He went over to the status monitoring module and removing the rear plate, pulled the energy cell out.  He quickly slid it into the transmitters compartment, and switched the transmitter on.  After going through its start-up sequence, he spoke in short monotone phrases his call for help  “Star Fleet Intel – alpha gamma seven.. This is sensor outpost 17.  We have been attacked by a Romulan Warbird.  Can anyone hear me, I repeat..” and he repeated the call for 3 more times.  He waited but there was no response.

He repeated the message again, with the same response.

“Okay”, he said to himself, “I need to get away from here quickly”.

He put the transmitter into a bag, put his helmet on, collected his phaser and made his way to the airlock, only to hear it running through its pressurization sequence.  Someone was coming in.

He was suddenly very scared.  He turned around and crouched in a corner behind a free standing consul.  There was two more of them as he could see shadows outside, through the view port.  He quickly tried to think of a way out, but the only way out was through the airlock door.  It suddenly went quiet as the door started to open.  From where he was situated, the door was moving round towards him – he wasn’t in any danger of  being crushed, but it meant he would be able to see the person before they saw him.  He brought up his phaser and set it on stun, realizing that a stronger beam would be noticed from the outside.  He was sweating profusely with moisture getting into his eyes, blurring his vision.  He saw the black form of the person and was just about to fire when he heard a double click on his comm badge.  The person in front of him dropped to the ground in a lifeless fashion, only to be followed by another federation suit.  He looked up into Johnson’s face, who simply smiled and said “You didn’t expect me to fall for that old trick did you.  I am disappointed.”

They took their helmets off and grabbed each other in joy.  O’Hara stammered “What happened, I thought you were dead”

Johnson looked back “I would have been except I was thinking about what Drynann said and I realized the mistake I had made.  I noticed some people in the thermal region, so set it up so that they would think I died when they attacked me.  I jumped behind a rock, and they destroyed an empty craft.  Any way, we are not out of it yet, there are two more outside by the view port.  Get your helmet back on and when I say so, fire your phaser on its lowest setting into the center of the window”

He then removed a small device from one of the suit pockets, and gently tossed it towards the window.  “Now”

O’Hara fired at the window, knowing that it wouldn’t do any real damage.  He noticed the two outside try to peer into the room, when Johnson pulled him down onto the floor.  The device still in mid-air exploded, shattering the window and causing thousands of shards of windows to tear into the uniforms of the two Romulans as the room depressurized.  They didn’t stand a chance.

When the atmosphere had exhausted, Johnson pulled O’Hara up off the floor.  Indicating the bag, O’Hara picked it up and followed Johnson out onto the Planetoid’s surface.  Johnson signaled O’Hara to follow him, and they started walking further into the thermally active region.

It was getting unbearably hot and O’Hara had started to stagger, when they came across a rocky escarpment.  Resting for only a few moments, they set off again and walking between two boulders, Johnson directed him into a cave.  After about one hundred meters they turned a corner and O’Hara found himself standing in front of a small old shuttle craft.  Johnson tapped in the access code, and the side door opened very slowly, juddering as it did so.  They moved inside and shut the door behind them. A few more instructions onto a local control pad and the craft started to repressurize.  Only then did they remove their helmets.

O’Hara looked around at the shuttle.  To say it was old was being generous.  There were no indication lights, only those on their suits.  His companion walked over to the pilots side, and pressed the master supply switch.  It was clear that the energy stores were low, as the internal lighting came on very reluctantly, and the air felt very stale.

Johnson looked up “Before you ask, this shuttle has been here over 20 years.  Its meant as an emergency refuge in case of need, and I think this situation warrants its use.  How about the message, did you get one off?”

“I tried several times, but there was no response.  Either there is a dampening field in place, the energy levels too low, or there was no-one actually out there to receive the message”.

Johnson thought for a moment.  “I doubt they could sneak up another outpost, after all they only got this close undetected because they were shielded by the comet.  The trouble is that they will be looking for us, when they realize that their patrol is missing.  Are you any good with engines?”.

O’Hara smiled at that suggestion “well I was close to top of the group for that module – you thinking about this shuttle?.  Let me take a look at the state of the systems”.  Whilst Johnson reset the comm badge back to full function he removed a few deck plates, and saw that although there were signs of deterioration, it was repairable, but that wasn’t any good unless they had the energy.  They did a quick stock check, but the phasers and the small transmitter energy sources were all they had.

“I can transfer the phaser energy but we would still not have enough.  However it shouldn’t take much to get off this planetoid, and once we launch we might be able to warn the incoming shuttle”.

Johnson put his helmet back on, “I’ll see if I can find any undamaged energy cells from the craft I was using.  In the meantime why don’t you sort out the engine system, but keep your comm badge close – if you hear anyone coming down that tunnel and you don’t get a double click it isn’t me”.

There was enough power in the environmental field for it to work, so Johnson simply walked through the field into the airless environment outside.  O’Hara secured the door and started on the engines.  He estimated that they had about 30 hours left until the shuttle appeared so he needed to work fast.  O’Hara was still scared, but at least he had something to focus his mind on.  He guessed that it was unlikely that either of them would survive this encounter but something inside him made him realize that that wasn’t really the relevant point in all this – he had joined star fleet because he believed in the aims of the federation, and he had accepted that eventually he could be called upon to make the ultimate sacrifice if that was required – only thing was he didn’t realize it would be so soon.  He knew that didn’t matter of course – there was still a slim chance they would survive, but more important than that they had an obligation to try and get a message to the federation to prevent the attack.

After lowering the lights and environmental conditions to conserve power, he repositioned himself over the open deck plate and started work.

The job took a lot longer than he had anticipated, and it was only because he was starting to feel the cold in his hands that he had to stop for a moment.  He was hungry but didn’t dare try the replicate – after all this downtime, there was no guarantee that it would produce anything edible or non-toxic.  He reached over to his suit and removed one of the ration bars, famous throughout star fleet for its nutritional content and absolutely bland taste.  He looked at the chronometer and realized that Johnson had been missing for over 8 hours.  The suit could last longer than that, but where was he? was he alright?.  He was tempted to try and raise him, but he might be in a position that would put him in danger so decided to keep comm-silence.  From what he had seen, Johnson could look after himself.  He reached for the comforting feel of his phaser.  There was nothing he could do except ensure that everything would be ready for when Johnson made an appearance.  He sat back on the floor, and returned to the compartment to continue his work.

He had not long finished the engines and the energy transfer system when he heard a double click on his comm badge.  Relieved he opened the hatch as Johnson staggered in through the field, struggling under the weight of two heavy bags.  He took them off him as he fell onto the floor to regain his composure.  After closing the door, he helped Johnson remove his helmet, noticing as he did so that his suit was covered with black scoring marks, and smears of a bluey green substance.  He was clearly exhausted, and though puffing and panting, he gestured to one of the bags.  O’Hara opened the bag, and passed one of the emergency water packs to him, taking another for himself, obviously taken from the supply locker at the secondary transmitter station.

When he had recovered enough to speak, he explained that the Warbird had gone but there was a Romulan patrol vessel still in orbit, and they had patrols out trying to find them.  He had run into one patrol some way away towards the edge of thermal region, and after killing two of them, he had managed to lead the patrol away on a different bearing before doubling back.  He had managed to gather supplies at the wrecked transmitter station and recover some undamaged energy sources from the craft.

They checked the small transmitter again with fresh energy sources with the same negative result.  Without contact, they had to continue with their original plan.

Whilst O’Hara started the energy transfer Johnson, still weak but improving, started to jettison extraneous equipment from the shuttle to lighten the load.

……

It was within one hour of the expected arrival of the shuttle.  They had completed the warm-up sequence and could depart at a few minutes notice.  Energy supplies were critical, but enough to get them into space where hopefully they could rendezvous with the shuttle, or at least get their warning message transmitted.

They were surprised that Romulan patrols had not found them, but surmised that the thermally active region had hidden the entrance to their cave.

“Okay, lets go”, Johnson said, breaking the silence.  “Our course away from the outpost is laid in, and if my observations from the cave entrance are still correct the patrol vessel should be approximately half way around this lump of rock”  Pressing the start-up sequence switches he was relieved to see that most of the repulsor coils were showing green, and the shuttle rose from the ground.  He started the forward motion, and as they neared the entrance to their cave he accelerated, turning right just as they appeared into starlight.

Almost immediately sensor systems started enunciating their warning tones as the Romulan patrol vessel momentarily appeared over the horizon behind them.  It was obvious they had been seen, as the vessel appeared once again heading for their position, presumably trying to get into tractor range.  Warning shots were fired at them, and a voice sounded over their comm system.  They were glad the shots missed – due to the power shortage they were running with no offensive weapons and no shields.  Staying close to the surface for the moment, they managed to increase the distance between them, and soon the vessel was below the horizon again.  Finally, approaching the expected vector of the incoming shuttle, they increased power to their maximum and pulled away from the planetoid.

Trying the transmission again, they still didn’t get any response.  The sensors then sounded, and identified the incoming shuttle – too far away for communications due to their rapidly decreasing power reserves but the distance was at least shortening.

The patrol vessel reappeared and now started to direct shots at them, getting ever more accurate.  It was only a matter of time before they were hit, and they were very fortuitous that when the shot connected with their shuttle, it was on a part of the hull which was quite thick.  It didn’t stop the inside being covered in sparks from overloaded relays and circuits, but it wasn’t critical at this stage.

Johnson tried the comm again “Incoming shuttle, This is Shuttle Post 17.  Star Fleet Intel – alpha gamma seven.  Romulan invasion in progress.  Please retransmit to nearest federation post.  I repeat …..”

O’Hara could hear his colleague repeat the message over and over again, whilst he kept jinking the shuttle to keep out of the way of the shots.  Just when they were about to give up, they were rewarded with an incoming signal “This is shuttle exador 7.  Message received and will retransmit”

They looked at each other, a sense of relief taking over them – they had done it.  The shuttle was buffeted by more shots form the Romulan.  This time they were on target, and the engines suffered direct hits.  O’Hara turned to Johnson “You know we are not going to get out of this one alive, but we can at least give the shuttle time to make their escape”.  He heard a laugh escape Johnson “You know I have been thinking the same thing and trying to find the right words to use”.  He extended his hand to take O’Hara’s right hand in his grasp and shook it firmly “Its been an honor – I wish it would end anther way, but at least the warning has got out”.  O’Hara dropped power, simulating a system failure, and they waited for the vessel to approach.  The shuttle shook as it was caught in a tractor beam, and O’Hara slowly re-orientated them until they were facing the vessel.  At the right moment, just when they could make out the faces of the bridge crew, he reached over and pressed the emergency thrust button.  The engines roared into life with their last remaining energy and rammed the Romulan vessel, causing a huge explosion and blowing both vessels into billions of glowing fragments.

Shuttle Exador 7 came to a complete halt, and surveyed the position of the explosion.  The co-pilots’ finger was positioned over the retransmit button, which would send the warning message to the nearest star fleet bases and ships. 

She shook her head, and moving her finger depressed the erase button.  “Brave men, so near and yet so far”.  Turning her chair around to face the bodies of the pilot and the relief outpost team leader, she pressed more buttons and spoke into the comm.  “Centurion Xalfen to advance leader.  Objective secured”.  She didn’t have to wait long before the simple reply came back “Acknowledged.”

With a smile on her face, she started up the shuttle and headed for the planetoid to await the arrival of the main Romulan Invasion Fleet, and her guaranteed glory.  The Federation, unwarned and unprepared was theirs for the taking.