Chapter One
Katriana Heller looked over at the chronometer. The Beta shift had just ended and the Delta shift had just begun. She had been so engrossed in the reports, that she had lost track of time. Walking out of her reading room into the bridge, she noticed that Lieutenant Commander David Micah, or XO, was preparing to take over for the night. He looked over in her direction. "Night, Captain," he said with his southern accent.
"Morning to you, XO. Take care of her."
"Course ma'am," he said, patting the railing and then sitting in her command chair.
She walked into the turbolift and told the computer the location of her quarters, deck six. Walking into her quarters she thought she had heard a voice, but no one was around, not even in the corridor. She figured her imagination was getting the better of her. Taking off her jacket, she threw it over a lounge chair. Then she took her curly, shoulder length blonde hair out of the ponytail it wanted to escape from.
"Chocolate chip pancakes with maple syrup," she said to the replicator, and it obeyed. Placing the warm plate on the table, she sat down and took a bite. Never have tried the replicator's version of her favorite meal in the three months she had been in the Gamma Quadrant. She found it disgusting. She shoved the plate back into the replicator for it to recycle.
Sitting down in the lounge chair, she picked up her Aunt Corenthia's copy of Jane Eyre. Lost in reading, she suddenly heard a thump. Unnerved, she stood up and looked around. Everything was in place.
Gods, I'm too stressed. Now I'm hearing things too. Maybe some time in the holodeck will help, she said to herself, heading towards the door. She suddenly stopped and whirled around. A very tall man was now heading right towards her. As a reflex, she brought her hand up to hit her combadge, but he drew his sword and knocked it to the floor. He then brought it up so it was a millimeter away from the tip of her nose.
The crystalline blade glistened in the light and reflected in his gray eyes. "If you move, I'll kill you." She stood perfectly still, too stunned to say anything.
"I'm Damion Hunter, of the Mobean Republic Space Force. You're Commander Katriana, correct?" He lowered the sword, but kept it ready beside him.
"Actually it's Captain," she said, finding her voice. "But it's a pleasure to meet you," she added, looking at the sword. The sword was almost as tall as her, and she was five foot ten.
"Hmm, same thing." He whipped his sword around slid it into the scabbard that was on his back. "This was supposed to be a stealth recon mission, you'd better not tell anyone about me."
"I won't if you answer a question."
"Er... what?"
"What's your mission here?"
He folded his arms across his chest. "To observe the human ship and its capabilities and to gather all data on the so called Starfleet. This ship is a better choice for study than the one in the Delta Quadrant."
"I would think the Voyager in the Delta Quadrant would be more interesting than this one."
"No one around here much likes that ship, besides this one has continuous contact with Starfleet."
"That changed when the MIDAS array was made. Now they get communications from Starfleet every couple of months.� She bent down to pick up the mess that had been her comm. badge.
"I know people who would much rather destroy the cruiser. What is that anyway" He pointed at the remains of the combadge.
"It was my combadge. Good thing you completely destroyed it or else it would�ve alerted the ship,� she replied, placing it in the replicator, then watching as it recycled.
Damion raised an eyebrow. "What does it do? Some kind of tracking device, or is it a rank badge?�
"It can be used as a tracking device, but it�s mainly used as a communicator." She turned her attention to the console that controlled the replicator.
"Hmm, I used to have something like that as a kid."
"Really...," she said not turning around. In the replicator an identical combadge appeared. She then pressed some buttons to erase the log of the last two entries and enter false entries to take their place. No one would ever know.
A holoscreen appeared in front of Damion's right eye. "Tigercat, time to go home."
It was Damion's wing mate. "Right, I'll be along in a minute."
"You don't have to worry about me telling Starfleet or my crew about you or your mission," Katriana said, pinning her combadge back to her shirt. She glanced up at him, wondering if she should tell someone. After all, he had threatened to kill her. Then again, he probably would kill her if she told and if he was advanced and as strong as he appeared to be it would be better to be on his good side rather than his bad. He didn't really look all too friendly either.
If it comes down to it I can at least make a note of it in my personal log.Damion lifted his rifle to his side. "See to it." He hit his personal transporter and was gone.Seconds after he had disappeared, red lights started flashing and klaxons went off. "Captain to the bridge," came the southern voice of XO.
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