Capt. Dominic Santos USS Vanguard After "Phoenix Ascendant, Part 1" RPG: "On my mark, prepare for warp six-point-five," Santos ordered. "Acknowledged," Mandrake replied. "And...mark," Santos said. =/\= "All hands, duty stations," =/\= Quetan ordered. Acknowledgements from every department flooded Quetan's board. She looked at Nick Santos and nodded. In the conduit, the Vanguard made a slight course correction. Her nose pointed in the direction from which they had traveled all these weeks, like a hound catching a scent. The Vanguard reached for infinity and became a pinprick of light in the Borg conduit, just one of the many lights in the conduit kaleidoscope. "Warp six...warp six-point-five," Valentine reported. The Vanguard reached for infinity again, achieving another increment past the speed of light. "Warp eight," Santos ordered. "Aye, sir: warp eight," Mandrake replied. As soon as Mandrake entered the command on the helm computer, the Vanguard began to shake. The bridge officers held on to the nearest bulkhead to keep their balance. =/\= "Bridge, engineering!" =/\= Chief Engineer McCaw sounded urgent. =/\= "Go ahead, Sam" =/\= Santos replied. =/\= "Ramping up to warp eleven and giving her time to adjust to the speed is a good idea, overall, but the sheering forces are awesome." =/\= =/\= "Is 'awesome' good or bad, Sam?" =/\= Santos asked, smiling. =/\= "The latter, sir." =/\= =/\= "Keep her together, Sam. The ride's about to get even bumpier." =/\= Santos replied. =/\= McCaw groaned. "Aye, sir. We'll do our best." =/\= =/\= "That's the spirit, Sam. I know you can do it. Santos out." =/\= McCaw signed off without another word. As the Vanguard took another jolt from the sheering forces, Darkwater turned from his station. "Begging my captain's pardon," the A&A Officer began, "but on what have you based this latest decision? Let me guess--tea leaves? No? Lose your lucky charm? Tarot again? Strange feeling in the pit of your stomach from eating too many jacket potatoes?" Santos grinned and said nothing. "Oh, damn," Darkwater said. "Some nagging 'sixth sense' about things in the back of your mind? Or--I would venture--a dream you had last night after too much alcohol? "Permission to speak freely," Darkwater said, and without waiting for a reply, continued, "the next time you have a premonition, do us all favor and speak to someone who relies on, I don't know, logic, reason and intellect to make their decisions. It doesn't have to be me, you know, even Jaav would do in a bind." E'thexx looked over at Darkwater with a how-did-I-get-dragged-into-this expression. Darkwater ignored him and turned back to his board, muttering something about "stone knives and bear skins." The Vanguard took another jolt. Santos stood and placed a hand on the back of Mandrake's seat. "Warp ten, then warp eleven when you feel she's ready, Cynan," Santos said quietly. The wait was interminable. Mandrake studied his board. "Here she goes." In the conduit, the space surrounding the Vanguard became a prism as Vanguard broke the warp barrier. At that point, the Vanguard's very reality blurred as space-time no longer had traditional meaning. "Schrodinger Compensators are working beyond maximum capacity," Darkwater reported. Santos stood calmly behind Mandrake. He glanced at Highwaij. "Mister Highwaij, I'm expecting company. Can you give me a shout when they arrive?" For the first time that Santos could remember, Highwaij looked worried. "What sort of company, sir?" the Communications officer queried. "The kind that adapt to us," Santos said quietly. The Bridge fell silent. "Aye, sir," Highwaij finally acknowledged. "Increasing long-range scanners; shunting 10 percent of emergency power to all scanning devices." At this point, the Vanguard continued to shake as if its very hull were tearing apart at the seams. =/\= "Me again," =/\= Sam paged from Engineering. =/\= "Not to sound like a cliche, but she can't take much more of this, captain." =/\= =/\= "Hold her steady, Sam. We are not giving up, we are not turning about." =/\= =/\= Sam sighed audibly. "Aye,sir. I had a feeling you would say that." =/\= "Mister Shar, stand by all weapons and shields," Santos ordered. "Aye, sir," Shar responded, his fingers dancing over his board. "Sir! We have incoming!" Highwaij reported. Santos' attention snapped to Highwaij. "Number and configuration, lieutenant," Santos queried. "One," Highwaij said, "Borg sphere, scout-class." "She's armed to the teeth," Shar added helpfully. "Mister Mandrake, prepare Santos-omega-one." "Aye, sir." Mandrake looked at his board. "That's a neat one," he said, a note of appreciation in his tone. "Isn't it, though?" Santos said. "Nine seconds from target," Mandrake said. "She's powering up." "Now 7, now 6, now 5..." The Borg sphere became massive in the front viewscreen. "Now," Santos ordered. The Vanguard passed close to the Borg sphere's starboard, caught its gravity and shot forward. "Slingshot around a Borg sphere," Mandrake grinned. "It's days like this that make me glad I was jolted awake from the dark recesses of my dreams." The Vanguard rocked violently. "...and for the record, we momentarily achieved warp twelve-point-six," Mandrake reported. "That's a new record. No one has ever gone that fast." "Buy you a drink later, helm," Santos grinned. "You mean if we live that long? You have a deal," Mandrake said. "Two minutes from zero-zero-one," Quetan reported. "One minute thirty," Quetan then said. "One minute," Quetan said. Shar's board suddenly exploded in alarm. "Sir! We have a Borg cube! I repeat, a Borg cube! Heavily armored, heavily armed, last reported by Captain...Admiral Janeway as a '29th Century' configuration!" "I expected as much," Santos said under his breath. "Time to intercept...?" "Sir, we have contact with Starfleet. The USS Charles Tucker, Prometheus, Taurus, Nova, Rising Fawn, Eisenhower, Hawthorne, IKG Invectress and Colorado are standing by to assist." "Tell them to clear the zero-zero-one entrance to the Borg conduit by 20 light years," Santos ordered. "Aye, sir," Highwaij acknowledged the order, but not without confusion. "Sir, need I remind the captain that if we emerge from the conduit with that cube hot on our tail, we could certainly use the backup...?" Quetan asked. "That cube won't be there when we come out," Santos said. "Time to cube?" "Thirty seconds," Mandrake said. "Mister Kavan?" Santos said. "Aye, sir?" "Do you see that big, red button on your board? The one labeled 'Do Not Push Except in Case of Emergency'?" Kavan glanced down. "I don't see anything like that, sir. But I do see a glowing LCARS with 'Phi Directive' beneath it." "You get to push that." "This is exciting," Kavan said. "Isn't it, though?" Santos grinned wolfishly. "Ten seconds!" Mandrake said. "They're powering all weapons!" "Mister Kavan, activate the Pegasus Cloak," Santos said. All eyes turned to Santos before turning back to their respective stations. Kavan pushed the LCARS button. In the conduit, the Vanguard shimmered and then seemed to disappear. =/\= "Now, *that* did interesting things to the quantum singularity," =/\= McCaw reported. "Fly through her," Santos told Mandrake. The Borg cube hung in space as the Vanguard, cloaked under Pegasus, passed through. The crew were riveted to the viewscreen as they glanced, but couldn't identify, a highly-advanced Borg cube with drones of a kind never seen, except by the crew of the Voyager. "Time to Earth!" Santos said. "Thirty seconds," Quetan said. "The Pegasus Cloak is de-stabilizing," Kavan reported. "The Romulans never can build a ship without a cloak. Unfortunately, this one is unstable. And good for one use," Santos said. "Deactivate the Pegasus and arm the trilithium warheads." Darkwater shook his head and looked to the sky. "Ten seconds! Borg cube is gaining fast! They're firing!" Santos stood. "Shar, target the cube and fire when ready." The Vanguard launched its trilithium payload. It struck the cube head-on. The cube exploded, and a shockwave emanated from the point of impact. "Shockwave will overcome the Vanguard before we reach the mouth of the conduit. The conduit is collapsing," Quetan reported calmly. "All power to engines," Santos ordered. As the shockwave gained on the Vanguard, and as the shockwave began to overtake the Vanguard, the timeship emerged, in front of the shockwave, breaking into normal space, like a deep-sea diver coming up for air. The Bridge erupted in cheers. Santos sat hard in his chair and reclined into the headrest. "Sir, Starfleet priority one, Admiral Ostend wishes to speak with you." "Audio only," Santos said. "I don't want Command to see me sweat." Santos laughed. =/\= "Captain...I mean, Commodore Santos, this is Admiral Ostend." =/\= "Commodore?" E'thexx grinned. "Since when?" Ostend overheard E'thexx. =/\= "Your commanding officer was promoted in absentia," Ostend said. "Welcome home. You gave us quite a scare when you disappeared without a trace, Commodore." =/\= =/\= "Thank you for the welcome, Admiral. I have a lot I need to discuss with you and Command," =/\= Santos said. =/\= "Looking forward to it," Ostend said. "In the meantime, the Colorado will escort you back to Earth. Safe journey, Commodore. Ostend out." =/\= "Helm," Santos said. "follow the Colorado's course. Lock onto her and sail in the same direction." "Aye, sir," Mandrake said. Santos stood, clasping his hands behind his back. "Good work, everyone. And thank you." The Bridge officers looked at one another and smiled. They nodded at their commander. "Let's go home," Santos ordered. [End.] ************************************************************* USS Vanguard: http://ncv80221.netfirms.com/default.htm Vanguard Archives: //www.freelists.org/archives/ncv80221 FreeLists: //www.freelists.org Trying to contact the USS Vanguard managers? Send an email to: vanguard.staff@xxxxxxxxx *************************************************************