SSSSS t TTTTTTTTTT kk SSSSSSS tt TTTTTTTTTT kk SS SSS tt TT kk SS SS ttttt aaaaa rr rr TT rr rr aaaaa kk kk sssss :: SSSS ttttt aaaaaaa rrrrr TT rrrrr aaaaaaa kk kk sssssss :: SSSSSS tt aa aa rrr TT rrr aa aa kk kk ss ss SSSSS tt aaaa rr TT rr aaaa kkkkk ssss SSS tt aaaaaa rr TT rr aaaaaa kkkkk sssss SS SS tt aaa aa rr TT rr aaa aa kkk kk ssss SSS SSS tt aa aa rr TT rr aa aa kk kk ss ss SSSSSSS tttt aaaaaaa rr TT rr aaaaaaa kk kk sssssss :: SSSSS ttt aaaa aa rr TT rr aaaa aa kk kk sssss :: MMM MMM ll t ii MMM MMM ll tt ii MMMM MMMM ll tt MMMM MMMM eee ll ttttt ii nn nnnn ggg gg MM M M MM eeeee ll ttttt ii nnnnnnnn ggggggg MM MM MM MM ee ee ll tt ii nnn nn ggg ggg MM MM MM MM eeeeeee ll tt ii nn nn gg gg MM MM MM MM eeeeeee ll tt ii nn nn gg gg MM MMM MM ee ll tt ii nn nn gg gg MM MMM MM eee ee ll tt ii nn nn ggg ggg MM MMM MM eeeee ll tttt ii nn nn ggggggg MM M MM eee ll ttt ii nn nn ggg gg gg gg gggggggg gggggg PPPPPPP t PPPPPPPP tt PP PPP tt PP PP oooo ttttt PP PPP oooooo ttttt PPPPPPPP ooo ooo tt PPPPPPP oo oo tt PP oo oo tt PP oo oo tt PP ooo ooo tt PP oooooo tttt PP oooo ttt Star Traks: Melting Pot is based on Alan Decker's Star Traks, which in turn is based on Star Trek, created by Gene Roddenberry, may he rest in peace. Welcome to the Second Season of Melting Pot - who'da thunkit? Copyright 2005. "The Ice Cube Gambit" by Paul Cloutier This story is dedicated to Lam Ching Ying, who died eight years ago, in his mid-forties, from liver cancer. No one has ever combined charm, wit, martial arts and a willingness to laugh at himself so successfully! Sifu Lam, you are surely missed! Beauty, like ice, our footing does betray, Who can tread sure on the smooth, slippery way, Pleased with the surface, we glide swiftly on, And see the dangers that we cannot shun. John Dryden "Vell! It appears zat our search ends here!" Ivor Matalon announced from his Security Console on the Bridge of the USS Aikido. "Where?" asked Captain Adrian Thorne, looking up from the PADD he had been reading. "Right there!" Matalon re-affirmed, indicating the main viewscreen. The screen displayed the image of a derelict starship. A Federation Saber class ship listed aimlessly through space. The ship's hatches were all open, exposing the interior to hard vacuum. Oddly enough, there appeared to be no battle damage on the outside of the ship which could explain the ship's abandonment. "The ship is in extremely low power standby mode," announced Ensign Virgil Cordwainer from his station at Ops. "I'm detecting no lifesigns and not even any organic residue." "I wonder why they just left it here?" Thorne mused. "Your guess is as good as mine," admitted Doctor Preston Stewart, the Aikido's Chief Sciences Officer. "Really?, Asked Thorne, amazed. "I would have thought that with your training and all of the sensors at your disposal that your guess would have been much better than mine." Stewart sighed and resisted the nearly ever-present urge to bang his head against his console. "Sir, I can describe to you in minute detail the current condition of that ship. I can even extrapolate backwards to project what its condition was before it was abandoned. However, even if I were a powerful telepath, there is no way that I could tell you WHY they abandoned the ship. Its not like there are any minds over there to read!" <> Stewart added, mentally, to himself. Stewart's explanation was ending as the aft turbolift doors opened, discharging Commander Justine Monserrat, the ship's First Officer. By the pained looks and forced smiles all around the Bridge, she could tell that Captain Thorne was being stupid, again. Not that he was ever anything else, it was just that sometimes he seemed to have taken and extra dose of stupid pills. It was times like this that could be either really fun or really trying. Considering the extra stress the crew had been under for the past several weeks as they tracked the USS Utricularia and the last Black Queen, this looked like it was well on the way to becoming a trying time. Monserrat decided to try to avert that kind of situation. "Oh good!" she said, "we found the Utricularia." "Not so good," Thorne explained. "Its been abandoned." "Good!" said Monserrat. "That means we don't have to mess around with it, anymore. Cordwainer, scan for evidence that any other ships were here about the time that ship was abandoned. Sir, you should let Admiral Sontak know what we have found." "Good idea, Justine!" Thorne agreed. "I'll tell Sontak about this and he can have the Menny... the Merry... the, the other ship deal with it!" "Still having trouble with the long words, Sir?" Monserrat asked sympathetically, knowing that she had diffused the situation when Throne had tried to pronounce 'Menagerie.' "It's not that, Commander!" Thorne announced, angrily. "You know I have no problem with words with lots of silly... lots of syble... with long words!" The junior officers on the Bridge were now having a hard time keeping their laughter under control. Watching Monserrat spar with Thorne was one of the few perks to being posted on the Aikido, recently. When the ship had been part of the Earth Defense Force, the close proximity to Earth had been its major benefit. Now that the ship was in deep space, on this wild goose chase after the last of the Black Queens, these little battles of wits were about the only entertainment the crew got. Of course, it was hard to have a battle when one of the opponents was un-armed, but the crew would take what it could get. "Of course, Sir" Monserrat agreed with her commanding officer. "Captain, isn't it about time for you to pick up Alex from school?" "You're right, Justine!" Thorne suddenly remembered, his linguistic difficulties forgotten in an instant, as he rushed off the Bridge to retrieve his son. "OK - Marcus report this finding to Sontak. Ivor, Preston, Virgil what do the sensors have?" "There is a small cloud of ionized particles right next to the ship. I don't have any explanation for them. But, there are much smaller clouds, puffs, if you will, of those same particles leading away from here." "It is possible that another ship was here that was giving off those particles. If it stayed still long enough to scuttle the Utricularia and then moved away, it could explain those puffs." "Alright," Monserrat decided. "Let's go on that theory. Where do those puffs lead?" "They head towards Deep Space Nine!" Cordwainer exclaimed. "The Wormhole!" the rest of the Bridge chorused. "Ignore the trail," Monserrat ordered. "Make best possible speed for DS9. Alert Admiral Sontak and General Kira of our suspicions. The Bridge was a flurry of activity as the crew valiantly hurried about their duties. They worked with the full knowledge that if the Black Queen managed to establish a foothold in the Gamma Quadrant, there would be no stopping 'her'. This soon after the Dominion War, there was just too much confusion and chaos in the Gamma Quadrant to allow for any kind of organized hunt of the Queens. They would be able to take over before anyone was the wiser. Their efficiency would have done even the Enterprise, herself, proud. It was too bad that all of their work was in vain. The Black Queen had no intentions of leaving the Alpha Quadrant! Several parsecs away, on board the USS Menagerie, Commander Banjo was finding the First Officer's seat decidedly uncomfortable. Not in any physical sense, you understand. Banjo was a Changeling, able to alter his shape at will and, therefore, pretty much immune to physical discomfort. No, the discomfort that he felt was more due to the psychological weight of the added responsibilities that his new position brought with it. When he had been simply Security Chief Banjo, he had been responsible for the safety of the ship and her crew. These were pretty heavy responsibilities, admittedly, but compared to the responsibility of making sure that everything functioned smoothly, every day on a ship the size of the Menagerie, they were as nothing! Now he had to resolve scheduling conflicts, petty bureaucratic squabbles, housing requests and a myriad of other minutiae that, quite frankly, the Changeling found to be barely worthy of notice, let alone the full attention of the First Officer! Shouldn't there be some sort of Paperwork Officer or something to deal with this? He had posed that very question to Commander Ustrano the night before in The Pirate's Cove. Ustrano had laughed that rumbly laugh of its and assured Banjo that indeed there was such a position on every starship. That position was called "First Officer"! Ustrano had laughed even harder at the expression on Banjo's face when he had realized that he was stuck with the job. Annoying, tedious and pointless as the job was, however, Banjo had a strong sense of duty. He had been, at first, amazed to discover this. He had originally volunteered to come to the Alpha Quadrant and join a Starfleet crew because he had been, to put it frankly, bored out of his mind in the Great Link. What he craved was adventure, battle and glory! What he had found was friends worth fighting for, the satisfaction of duty and a growing respect for the abilities of others. At first his Founder bigotry had prejudiced him against the Alpha Quadrant 'Solids' (as the Founders had called those who couldn't shapeshift). As he had worked with the crew of the Menagerie, he had come to realize that each of them had special abilities and talents and that, when they combined as a team, there was just about nothing that was beyond their abilities. Banjo had come to respect that teamwork and found himself the better off for it. He even had to admit a certain, grudging, respect for Starfleet, which seemed to have come up with the whole teamwork idea in the first place. Of course their Human-centric point of view had never really allowed them to gain the full benefits from that concept - at least not until Project 'Open Arms'. Banjo could only imagine what would have happened if he had been assigned to a 'normal' crew. It was nearly certain that he would never have been made First Officer, that was for sure. Of course, that would have meant that he wouldn't have to be doing this stupid paperwork! Banjo sighed. Maybe the Founder Elders had been correct, after all. There was no good without a commensurate bad. Sighing again, Banjo made a notation on the PADD he was reading (Ensign Diftur was requesting that The Pirate's Cove stop serving shrimp cocktail since he was allergic to shellfish and felt left out). Hearing that sigh, Lieutenant Mantron turned from his position at Helm and asked, "Command not all you had hoped for, Banjo?" "That's Commander Banjo to you, Lieutenant. One more breach of protocol and I'll put you on report!" Banjo snapped back. Startled by this outburst all Dil could do was stammer out a hasty, "Yes, Sir!" before snapping his attention back to his Console. Behind Dil, Banjo stifled a laugh for as long as he could before it escaped. Throwing back his head, Banjo formed several additional mouths so that even more laughter could bubble out. Dil, realizing that he had been fooled, turned red with embarrassment. How could he have thought that one week as First Officer would turn Banjo into a 'by-the-book' Starfleet Officer. "OK, OK! Ya got me!" Dil admitted ruefully as M'Dral puffed her fog-filled laughter on one side of him while B1 & B2 piped away with their high-pitched singsong on the other. Dil knew that Banjo would get a copy of the in-flight recorder data so that he could replay this tonight in The Pirate's Cove. That was OK with him. Maybe he could make a big sympathy play with Linnea. Not that he needed to. Linnea, the Orion woman who ran the Menagerie's combination Restaurant/Lounge, The Pirate's Cove, had been Dil's girlfriend now for some time. She had even taken him home to meet her father and gained the head of the Character Assassin's Guild's blessing to continue dating the Betazoid. M'Dral's laughter was suddenly stopped by a blinking indicator on her Ops Console. Quickly keying in a retrieval sequence she announced, "Incoming comm from Admiral Sontak!" "On screen," Banjo decided. "Commander," Sontak greeted the Changeling, "I have an assignment for you." "Yes, Sir," Banjo prompted. "The USS Aikido has discovered the USS Utricularia, abandoned. Your orders are to secure the Utricularia and then proceed towards Deep Space Nine. Commander Monserrat seems to believe that the Black Queen may be attempting to cross over into the Gamma Quadrant." "We will get right on it, Sir," Banjo assured the Vulcan, trying to keep the unease out of his voice at the thought of the Black Queens invading 'his' quadrant. "Excellent. Keep me posted, Commander. Sontak - out." "Coordinates received," Dil announced. "Best possible speed, Dil. Engage when ready." "Estimated time of arrival - just over 18 hours, Sir." "Looks like tomorrow will be a busy day," Banjo observed as the ship sped on its way. Down in Main Engineering, Commander Ustrano was feeling very satisfied. It had been working on this project, more or less in secret, now, for three weeks. There were still a few minor bugs to work out, but if Ustrano could just lick them, it would be able to safeguard the Menagerie as no ship had been safeguarded in centuries! The Engineer had turned it's attention toward one possible solution when the comm system announced, "Commander Ustrano to Briefing Room One." Ah well, they'd left it alone for quite some time, Ustrano had known it was too good to last! The Briefing Room viewscreen showed the derelict Saber class Utricularia, drifting peacefully just off the Menagerie's bow. The briefing had been called to figure out what to do about it. Seetamyn was allowing Banjo to conduct the briefing. "What I'd like to know is /why/?" Banjo asked. "Why abandon a perfectly good starship?" "Anonymity!" offered Gisech, the ship's new Security Chief. "They have found another ship. Since that ship is unknown to us it would stand to reason that they would want to disassociate themselves from the known ship." Banjo worked his way through that explanation, "OK, that makes sense. Just seems odd that the Queen wouldn't have sent off a Thrall with a thought egg just to make sure." "She would have," Ustrano offered up. "That means that that ship is being put to a more important use." "What, floating dead in space is an important use," Mantron asked. "Yes, if that ship is some sort of trap," Ustrano answered. "Ah yes!" Gisech agreed, sagely. "The old Trojan Horse Trick!" The rest of the room just looked at him, having no idea what he was talking about. "You know! The Trojan War! Helen!" seeing he wasn't really getting through, Gisech began to recite, "All vote t' admit the steed, that vows be paid And incense offer'd to th' offended maid. A spacious breach is made; the town lies bare; Some hoisting-levers, some the wheels prepare And fasten to the horse's feet; the rest With cables haul along th' unwieldly beast. Each on his fellow for assistance calls; At length the fatal fabric mounts the walls, Big with destruction. Boys with chaplets crown'd, And choirs of virgins, sing and dance around. Thus rais'd aloft, and then descending down, It enters o'er our heads, and threats the town. O sacred city, built by hands divine! O valiant heroes of the Trojan line! Four times he struck: as oft the clashing sound Of arms was heard, and inward groans rebound. Yet, mad with zeal, and blinded with our fate, We haul along the horse in solemn state; Then place the dire portent within the tow'r. Cassandra cried, and curs'd th' unhappy hour; Foretold our fate; but, by the god's decree, All heard, and none believ'd the prophecy. With branches we the fanes adorn, and waste, In jollity, the day ordain'd to be the last. Meantime the rapid heav'ns roll'd down the light, And on the shaded ocean rush'd the night; Our men, secure, nor guards nor sentries held, But easy sleep their weary limbs compell'd. The Grecians had embark'd their naval pow'rs From Tenedos, and sought our well-known shores, Safe under covert of the silent night, And guided by th' imperial galley's light; When Sinon, favor'd by the partial gods, Unlock'd the horse, and op'd his dark abodes; Restor'd to vital air our hidden foes, Who joyful from their long confinement rose. Tysander bold, and Sthenelus their guide, And dire Ulysses down the cable slide: Then Thoas, Athamas, and Pyrrhus haste; Nor was the Podalirian hero last, Nor injur'd Menelaus, nor the fam'd Epeus, who the fatal engine fram'd. A nameless crowd succeed; their forces join T' invade the town, oppress'd with sleep and wine. Those few they find awake first meet their fate; Then to their fellows they unbar the gate....*" "That's enough, Gisech! Save the history lesson for later. Right now we need to come up with a solution for the current problem," Banjo interrupted. "Just let me pop on over there," Ustrano offered. "I'll jump across, through an airlock, and have a quick look around. That way, if there are any sensors triggered to blow the ship on detection of energy signatures or heat sources or even transporter traces, we won't have to worry." "Sounds good to me. Just to be on the safe side, we'll back the ship off a bit, once you are outside." "Don't back off too far!" Ustrano laughed. The Bridge was tense. Ustrano had jumped out of one of the forward airlocks fifteen minutes ago. The massive Velvattian had drifted over to the abandoned Utricularia without incident and then made it's way inside. Mantron had nudged the ship away from the derelict, following Ustrano's advice to maneuver on thrusters only. They were even using the passive sensors to keep an eye on the ship, since there could have been any number of ways to trigger a trap, including detection of above-normal EM levels. The passive sensors didn't give as clear of a view as the normal sensors, but better a fuzzy view of a ship than a clear view of a debris field. The most maddening thing was that nobody knew how long it would the Velvattian to find and disable any booby-traps that were found. Suddenly, light filled the viewscreen! Fearing the worst, the crew braced for the shockwave. Fortunately, that wave never came. Looking more closely, they could make out that Ustrano had turned on the Utricularia's external lights. Just then the comm system beeeeped to life, "Ustrano to Menagerie. Come in Menagerie." "Give us a moment while our pulse rates subside, Commander," Banjo answered. "Oops! Sorry about that, I figured that you would realize that I was letting you know that everything was OK." "Unfortunately, the picture that the passive scanners provided wasn't particularly clear." "Understood, again, my apologies. It is safe to send over an engineering team. They had rigged a couple of quantum torpedoes to the warp core. Pretty primitive stuff, really, but it would have blown if anyone had transported aboard." "Saved by paranoia, once again!" "Remember, just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean someone /isn't/ after you! Ustrano - out!" Banjo contacted the engineering team and had Gisech send over a security team, just in case there were any further surprises. Gisech, decided to head up the team, himself. Banjo was strangely relieved by this. For some reason the over-anxious new Chief of Security made him nervous. "Sir," B1 & B2 suddenly piped up, "we are detecting some sort of ionized particles leading away from this area." "In what direction?" "They appear to be heading for Cardassian space, very near to Deep Space Nine!" "That must have been what the Aikido discovered," Mantron guessed. "Yes, but they had decided to go /directly/ to DS9! What if they just guessed that that was the destination and didn't bother to look closer?" "Then we might lose the Queen's trail!" "Banjo to away teams! Secure that ship and return immediately! You have two minutes to get back here or we leave you behind! Banjo - out." "Ustrano! We're going to need everything you've got, speed wise. Looks like the Aikido has headed in the wrong direction!" "I can give you 9.96 for as long as you need it, and 9.98 for two hours," the Velvattian replied. "What about the Utricularia?" "Lock out the command codes and secure it against entry. We'll either pick her up when we're done or Starfleet will send somebody else after her." "Done and done, Commander. The last of the teams are beaming back, now." "Dil..." "Course set." "Ensign Zamtra?" "All personnel present and accounted for! Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra!" "Engage!" The ship sped off into the never-ending night of space. "Sir," Doctor Stewart spoke up, "the puffs are veering off towards Cardassian space!" "All stop!" Commander Monserrat ordered. "Matalon, Cordwainer, can you confirm that?" "Aye," Matalon responded, moments later. "Our initial course seems to have been incorrect. Do we pursue or maintain heading for DS9?" "The mission is to pursue the Black Queen, DS9 was just our best guess at the time." "So," Sheridan spoke up, "we follow the puffs!" "Make it so," Monserrat ordered, thinking, not for the first time, that they should come up with some sort of appropriate technobabble to describe the trail. Somehow 'puffs' just seemed silly. "I'm getting a very faint contact on long-range scanners," Cordwainer announced, several hours later. "On our course?" Monserrat demanded. "Reciprocal course, actually, they're headed back this way!" "On screen," Monserrat ordered. On the main viewscreen, a tiny blip appeared, too far away for any detail to be discerned. "What are we looking at, Stewart?" Monserrat wanted to know. "I'm getting some odd readings," Stewart fiddled with his console for a bit. "Either there's more than one ship, or our sensors are out of alignment, again." "All stop," Monserrat decided. "No need to get excited. This is probably nothing." "There's no information in the civilian transportation database about any sort of convoy operating in this area," Cordwainer informed everyone. "Hmmm," Monserrat pondered. "Better go to Yellow Alert, just in case." The amber glow of the Yellow Alert flooded the Bridge as the crew waited for the sensor contact to approach close enough for a clean scan. Their patience was soon rewarded. "OK, I'm reading four contacts. Three look like Cardassian Hideki class fighters and the other is..." Stewart looked up in confusion, "a Klingon K't'inga class battlecruiser!?" "Why on Earth would they be traveling together? Are they fighting?" "No. I'm not reading any weapons discharges... but their weapons /are/ hot!" "Go to Red Alert!" Monserrat decided. She activated the allcall, "We have found a small battle group returning along the course that we have been following. It is possible that this is a false alarm, but, just in case, everyone to battle stations!" "Matalon, ready all quantum torpedo launchers. Sheridan, try to keep the fighters between us and that battlecruiser. It probably won't keep them from firing, but maybe they'll take some of them out for us." Both officers responded with 'Ayes' and the Aikido got herself ready for battle. As the two forces closed with each other, Stewart continued to play with his console. He seemed disturbed by something. Finally he said, "I'm not reading any Black Queen lifesigns!" "So this was just a false alarm, after all!" Sheridan exclaimed. "Ummmm, I don't think so!" Matalon announced as he pointed at the viewscreen. The four enemy ships had opened fire! The Akira class ship darted and danced about, her fifteen torpedo tubes launching volley after volley at her opponents. The Hidekis were obviously outclassed, but the orders from the Black Queen kept them in the fray. Two were damaged almost immediately, while fire from the battlecruiser rained down on the Aikido. The two ships were pretty much equally matched, and it looked as though the Aikido would carry the fight this day. That's when, with a rippling of distortion fields, the Warbird decloaked. Stewart didn't even have time to shout a warning as the massive ship opened fire with its disruptors. The blast immediately overwhelmed the Aikido's shields and pummelled her hull. Decks were breached and debris drifted silently away, as main power failed, blowing couplings throughout the ship, which tumbled, helplessly, through space! "Sir, there's something I need to tell you," Ustrano's voice sounded on the Bridge as he contacted Banjo. "Go ahead," Banjo acknowledged. "You know that 'secret project' that I've been working on?" "Yes," Banjo encouraged the Velvattian. "What I've been doing is trying to come up with a way to apply a coating of polyiridichromnium 'on the fly', as it were." "What are you saying," Banjo asked, excitement tingeing his voice. "We can, right now, be coated with polyiridichromnium, in about 30 seconds!" Ustrano announced. Excited babble filled the Bridge. "That's excellent news, Commander!" "Sir!" M'Dral's cry broke into the conversation. "I'm picking up massive energy discharges and subspace distortions! There's a battle going on, just ahead of us!" "Ustrano - that polyiridichromnium would come in handy /right now/!" The ship sped into the battle. The K't'inga was blasting away at the wreck that had been the Aikido, while the smaller fighters hunted down escape pods and destroyed them. The Menagerie appeared on the scene like an avenging eagle, swooping down to protect her sister ship - when all of the sensors when blank! "I've lost targeting telemetry!" Gisech announced from Tactical. "Main viewscreen - off! Subspace communications - out! What's going on?" M'Dral screamed. The ship shook as weapons fire smashed against her shields. "Shields down 6%!" Gisech reported. "Ustrano!" Banjo hailed. "What's wrong with sensors?" "Well, there are just a few little bugs left to work out with the instant polyiridichromnium," it explained sheepishly. "What? You mean we're blind, deaf and dumb when we use it?" "Well, so far, yes," admitted the Engineer. "Can you open a hole in it or something so that we can at least see what to shoot at?" "Let me see what I can do." The Bridge was quiet except for Gisech's recitation of the dropping shield power levels. He had reached 28% when the main viewscreen suddenly sprang to life. Everyone immediately wished that it hadn't! "Warbird! Coming right at us!" M'Dral yelled, rather unnecessarily, since everyone could see it! "Gisech! Fire at will. Take some of this heat off of us!" Banjo ordered. "Sir, targeting sensors are still unavailable!" "Then use manual targeting," Banjo ordered, knowing how futile such an order was even as it left his lips. Gisech didn't seem phased by the order, though. <> Banjo mused. The Warbird fired a full volley of disruptors at the Menagerie, obliterating the ship's shields. Fortunately, the polyiridichromnium held, as the Warbird re-cloaked to reposition itself for another pass. Gisech had miraculously dispatched the Hidekis by now and was focussing on the battlecruiser, which was still firing on the helpless Aikido. "Dil," Banjo ordered. "Put us right next to the Aikido. Shield her with our hull." "Moving into position, now!" Dil responded. "Sir, incoming signal from the Aikido!" M'Dral cried suddenly. "On screen!" The main viewscreen switched to a static-filled view of a nearly destroyed Bridge. Smoking consoles and duranium girders filled the screen as the Aikido's crew tried to move around through the debris. "Thanks for the assist, Menagerie," the Aikido's First Officer coughed. "We're in pretty bad shape over here. We're on emergency power, weapons, warp, impulse and damn near everything else is gone. We've lost our Helmsman and I don't even know how many others." "We're sending over repair teams now. We will shield you, if at all possible while we effect repairs to your weapons systems." "Why weapons?" Monserrat demanded. "Because, we can't effectively fire while we are shielding you. We'll provide the defense, you'll have to provide the offense. Once the Queen is destroyed, we'll concentrate on getting the rest of you back in order, but first we have to survive that long!" "Understood! I'm gonna sign off now to conserve power, Aikido - out!" "Ustrano, get an emergency repair team together. We need the Aikido's weapons!" "Here comes the Warbird, again!" M'Dral yelled, again. The ship bounced as the new disruptor volley was dissipated by the poly- iridichromnium. The aft turbolift suddenly arrived, discharging Seetamyn and Sperr. Banjo brought the Captain up to date with their situation. The battlecruiser's engines had been disabled, which allowed everyone to breath a sigh of relief, knowing the Black Queen's past reliance on ramming. However, its weapons were still firing at the Starfleet vessels, although they weren't doing a lot of damage. The Warbird de-cloaked at regular intervals to blast at them with its disruptors. Eventually, they would be able to penetrate the polyiridichromnium, so it was a race to see if Ustrano and his team could make sufficient repairs to the Aikido to even up the odds before both ships were destroyed. Of course, there was still that whole cloaking problem to deal with, but one problem at a time. Ascertaining that Banjo had the situation well in hand, Seetamyn and Sperr made their way to the Captain's Ready Room. "Sir, request permission to beam aboard the Aikido as a replacement Helmsman." "Lieutenant, you realize that this is a combat situation? That ship has been seriously damaged." "I understand, Sir," Sperr affirmed. "And let me clarify something. I'd like the reassignment to be permanent!" "May I ask why?" "Of course, Sir. I just can't stay on board the Menagerie any longer. There are too many memories of Thog, here. I know the rest of you barely remember her, but thoughts of her torture me every day. Perhaps a change of scenery will help me to get over her." "I understand, Lieutenant. But remember the Human saying 'No matter where you go, there you are'." "Ummm, sure, Sir. I'm not sure what that means, but, I'll try to keep it in mind." "What it means is that you take your memories with you, Aceed. Being on a new ship does not change /you/." "I understand, Sir. But, my request still stands." "Very well, Lieutenant. I will file the appropriate paperwork to effect your transfer. I hope the crew of the Aikido appreciate who they are getting. You will be missed." "Thank you, Sir," Aceed responded and left the Ready Room. His few possessions were already packed. Foregoing long goodbyes he slipped from the Bridge and made his way to Transporter Room One, where Zamtra beamed the Saurian to his new life. Sperr rematerialized amidst the clutter of the Aikido's battered Bridge. Locating Commander Monserrat in the gloomy twilight of the emergency lighting, he reported in to his new ship's First Officer, "Lieutenant Aceed Sperr reporting for duty, Ma'am!" "You're to be our new Helmsman?" "Yes, Ma'am!" <> Monserrat thought to herself. Out loud she said, "Welcome aboard, Lieutenant. See if you can get the Helm and Ops consoles operative. I've sent most of the rest of the Bridge crew to help get weapons back online, that leaves just you and me to straighten things out up here." "Yes, Ma'am," Sperr agreed and immediately crawled under the Helm panel to get to work. Monserrat turned back to the work she was doing - disintegrating sections of fallen duranium girders, so that there would be room to move about on the Bridge. For some time they worked in silence, before their tasks were interrupted by Monserrat's commbadge. "This is Ifukube. We have re-established one main power coupling. Once you have repaired the damage to your consoles and the main viewscreen, they should be functional. We have about twenty more minutes before we'll have, hopefully, thrusters and weapons. That Velvattian from the Menagerie is amazing. I've never seen anybody work that fast! Sure does talk a lot for a 'vat, though." Sperr jumped up from under the station he had been working on. Making a few, last connections, he powered up the Helm Console, "Affirmative. I can confirm power is restored to the Helm Console. Starting on Ops and the main viewscreen, next." "Wer war das?" (Who was that?) "Our new Helmsman, fresh from the Menagerie," explained Monserrat. "If he's half as good as that engineer, we're in good hands, Ifukube - out!" "OK people! Ustrano tells me that the Aikido will be ready to fight in about ten minutes. We need a way to overcome that cloak!" Banjo announced. "The usual method is to flood the area with radiation to cause the cloaking field to fluoresce," Gisech reported. "Can't do it," M'Dral argued. "The Aikido is too badly damaged. We'll kill half of her crew if we use that heavy of a radiation field." "OK - radiation is out," Banjo agreed. "What else can we try?" "In ancient Earth literature there were stories about people who could turn invisible," Gisech offered. "Any methods of detecting them," prompted Banjo. "I believe that the most famous of the stories, involved tracking the person's footprints through the snow," Gisech responded after several moments thought. "Well, I think we can rule that out," M'Dral laughed. "Not much chance of snow out in deep space!" Mantron didn't join the laughter, "Why not?" he asked. Every head on the Bridge swiveled to see if the Betazoid had suddenly gone crazy. "Why not tie in one of the heavy duty replicators to the transporter? Have it produce a steady stream of water and send it out in front of the ship at full dispersal? The water will crystalize when it re-materializes and form a cloud of ice crystals. We should be able to see if those crystals stick to anything, shouldn't we?" Everyone just stared at him for several long moments. Then Gisech laughed, "Instead of a flood of radiation, we'll use a flood of water! How very biblical!" As was becoming the usual case, nobody understood a thing he was saying. M'Dral and B1 & B2 headed down to the main shuttlebay to see about setting up Dil's ice trap. "Ustrano to Banjo!" "Give me good news, Commander!" "Weapons and thrusters are restored aboard the Aikido. We are ready!" "Excellent. M'Dral and the Killer Bs tell me that they will be ready in a few moments. We'll flood the area with ice and that should give you your target." "Understood. I'll brief the Aikido's crew on the plan and we'll be all set by the time the ice forms! Ustrano - out!" Gisech continued to take potshots at the disabled battlecruiser, which continued to take potshots at the Aikido and the Menagerie. All of the ships were pretty much immobile, the battlecruiser because her engine room had been destroyed, the Menagerie because she had to stay in position to protect the Aikido and the Aikido because of blown power couplings throughout the ship. Someone on the battlecruiser had gotten the bright idea to use several large chunks of wreckage from the Hidekis as a shield, much the same way the Menagerie was shielding the heavily damaged Akira class. Gisech would fire a phaser at the battlecruiser, and it would move the wreckage to absorb the blast. This situation had persisted for some time before Banjo finally noticed, "Why not use a torpedo?" "Commander Ustrano's coating of, what was it, 'polyiridi-something' has sealed off our torpedo tubes. Firing a torpedo would undoubtedly result in substantial damage to us." "Then why not fire two phasers? I doubt that they could intercept two different beams?" "Starfleet battle protocol," replied Gisech. "What?" demanded Banjo, who, being unaware of any such protocol had always fired away as much and as often as he could. "During a battle, if shields are compromised, you must conserve your plasma conduits and protect the ship by limiting phaser fire to only one emitter," Gisech explained. "You can't be serious!" Banjo cried, amazed. "No wonder Starfleet gets its butt kicked all the time! Lieutenant, I order you to fire at least two beams at that ship until it is destroyed!" "Won't we be trying to disable the ship and rescue the Thralls?" Gisech asked. "Lieutenant, haven't you been keeping up with the Black Queen situation? Thralls can not saved. Once en-Thralled they serve their Queen until their deaths. The death of their Queen, also kills them. Once those Klingons were en-Thralled, they were already as good as dead. We, on the other hand, are not, so get firing!" "Aye, Sir!" Gisech responded, triggering two phasers this time. As Banjo had predicted, the K't'inga class ship wasn't ready for this, and the second beam blasted a hole in the ship's hull. The tractor emitters went dead, and Gisech was able to finish off the ship, in a few minutes. "Much better!" Banjo approved as the firing from the battlecruiser ceased. Of course, the Warbird chose that exact moment to de-cloak for another bombardment. "I'm really getting tired of this," Banjo grumbled. "Why can we not dessssstroy the Ssssstarfleet vessssssssssel?" Demanded the Black Queen. "They seem to have reinforced their hull with some sort of extremely hard, extremely reflective coating. It is minimizing the damage that our disruptors do." "Have we no other sssssshipssssss with which to ram them?" "Sorry! Having a bunch of fighters flying out of a cloaking ship would kinda defeat the whole 'cloaking' thing, ya know," Pixiestix explained. "Yesssss, I sssssee," agreed the Queen. "Can we not ussssse a tractor beam to basssssh them with sssssome wreckage?" "Not while the cloak is active, I'm afraid. Energy usage is severely limited during cloaks. "Cursssssesssss! I'm really getting tired of thisssss!" Matalon and Cordwainer returned to the Bridge, crawling out of the Jefferies tube in the floor. With curious glances at Sperr they took their posts, surprised to find their consoles working. "Lieutenant Sperr has restored most Bridge functions," Monserrat explained. "What is our status?" "Actually, surprisingly good," admitted Matalon. "The damage was mostly confined to the periodical literature archive section of Deck 8, and that's not a critical area, anyway. Other than that, we have several hundred meters of plasma conduit and dozens of power couplings to replace, but, with the Menagerie helping, we can get the ship back in shape in a day or two. Assuming we survive, that is!" "Has anyone heard from the Captain?" Monserrat asked, more out of politeness than any real concern. "He's trapped in the Kindergarten class," Cordwainer informed her. "We didn't put that as a priority repair area, either," he admitted. "Well, for now he and the children are safe. That's the important thing." "Yeah, safely out of our way!" Matalon piped up. Sperr began to get the distinct impression that the crew wasn't very fond of their captain. "What's our next move?" Monserrat wanted to know. "The Menagerie is going to try some trick to reveal the Warbird. If it works, I've got six quantum torpedoes ready to go say 'hi'! Once we've damaged her, both the Menagerie and we can open up at take her down!" "I like that idea!" Monserrat agreed. "I hope this works, I'm really getting tired of this!" On Deck Four, the Aikido's Kindergarten class had ground to a halt. With only emergency lighting and no other power, it was too dim for storytime. With the replicators out of service, no clay, or toy cars or blocks or anything could be made. Captain Thorne had taken it upon himself to keep the children's morale up. "I love you, you love me! We're a happy fam-i-ly! With a great big hug And a kiss from me to you Won't you say you love me too!" Thorne was presently on his 324th chorus of a song that he had once heard during a children's historical special. Somehow the song had gotten wedged in his brain, much to the delight of the Captain. The bright, happy joy that it projected was sure to cheer up anybody, wasn't it? "Hey, Alex!" "What?" "Is your dad ever going to shut up?" "I doubt it! This is like his favorite song!" "Oh man! You're kidding!" "Wish I was!" "Man! I'm really getting tired of this!" Fortunately for everyone involved, it was then that the Menagerie started squirting water out into space. "What is that?" Monserrat wanted to know as the sparkling crystals started forming a cloud in front of the two Federation ships. "It's... water!" Cordwainer exclaimed, after consulting his sensors. "Water!" Matalon and Monserrat chorused. "But how is that going to help?" "Warbird at 32 kilometers! Heading 311 mark 4!" Sperr shouted. "Oh! Like that!" Monserrat acknowledged, as Matalon loosed his quantum spread. The ice crystals didn't even slow down the torpedoes as they sped towards their fully visible target. Rimed in frost, the Warbird looked like some ghostly avian specter, waiting to cart departed souls to the land of the dead. It would soon need such a service for itself. The torpedoes detonated against and around the ghostly ship. Unshielded, the ship was nearly torn to pieces by the blasts. As the delicate cloaking circuitry failed, the ship lost its ghostly aura, revealing the putrid green associated with Romulan ships. "Black Queen lifesign confirmed!" Cordwainer announced. "Matalon. See what you can do about correcting that!" Monserrat ordered. "With pleasure," the Security Chief smiled as he reloaded his tubes. The repair teams had only been able to activate those six tubes, so that was all he had to use. Before he could launch his next spread, however, phasers snapped out from the Menagerie, cutting right through the Warbird! Power went off throughout the enemy ship. "Black Queen lifesign, still present," Cordwainer reported. "What! Where?" demanded Matalon. As the Ops officer was transmitting the coordinates to the Security Console, Banjo's voice came over the comm system, "Aikido, stand down, we'll finish off the last Queen." "Negative, Menagerie! Our orders clearly state that WE are to destroy them." "Aikido, you have been temporarily attached to our division. Therefore you will yield authority to us!" "Sorry, I can't do that without authorization from Admiral Sontak," Monserrat argued. "There is no way to contact the Admiral, right now! Captain Seetamyn is the senior officer present, and he concurs with me!" "I dispute that he is senior officer! He has been out of Starfleet for years and only rejoined a few months ago! If anyone is senior, it is Captain Thorne! Since he is unavailable, I would be next in seniority!" As the debate raged on, Cordwainer noticed that the Black Queen lifesign had moved some bit away from the wreck that had been the Warbird. Focusing the sensors on the lifesign, he found a small, escape pod, zipping away from the scene. Apparently the Black Queen had managed to make it to the escape pod that had been still secured to the Warbird, just off of the Ready Room. He pointed this out to Sperr and Matalon, who just shrugged their shoulders. What could they do? Finally, unable to contain himself any longer, Cordwainer shouted out, "Excuse me, but while you're over there arguing, the Black Queen is getting away!" Banjo and Monserrat stopped, in the middle of their argument, to stare at their respective viewscreens. Immediately understanding what they were seeing, they both ordered, "Fire!" Gisech and Matalon both activated their weapons systems simultaneously. Since Gisech was using phasers, a light based weapon, his shot reached the escape pod, first. The pod was instantly vaporized. However, as has been previously mentioned, Black Queens were notoriously difficult to harm with energy weapons. It was, therefore, very fortunate that Matalon's quantum torpedo reached the drifting Queen soon after. The explosion was satisfactorily effective and the Black Queen menace was ended, once and for all. "Sir," Commander Ustrano's unmistakable voice came over the comm system, "I should go over to the Warbird and make sure there are no other booby-traps." "Good idea, Commander," Banjo agreed. "Keep us informed!" Fortunately, there had not been sufficient time for the Thralls aboard the Warbird to sabotage the ship, the danger had, indeed, passed. Captain's Log; Stardate 57997.1 - Repairs have been made to both the Menagerie and the Aikido. Fortunately, the Menagerie suffered only minor damage, mostly confined to the shield generators. The Aikido suffered considerably more damage, and is headed back to Earth for complete repairs. We are on our way back to continue salvage operations on the USS Utricularia. We will reach the abandoned ship in a few hours. Commander Ustrano has reversed the process that was used to plate the ship with the polyiridichromnium. Commander Banjo and I have asked it to speak to us about its further plans to utilize this 'quick apply technique.' "You can't have us entering into battle completely blind!" Banjo was still unhappy about the way things had gone at the start of the battle with the Black Queen. "I said I was sorry!" Ustrano responded. During the conversation, the Velvattian's tentacles had slumped and its whole posture had sunk into itself. The Engineer currently looked like an over-abused bean-bag chair. If its physiology had allowed it to, the Velvattian would have been crying by now. Its well-meaning experiments had put the entire ship and crew in danger. This was inexcusable behavior and Ustrano was terrible embarrassed and upset about his failure. Seetamyn, sensing his Engineer's discomfort, sought a way to allow everyone to get on with their lives, "Commander, I am afraid Commander Banjo is correct. I must insist that you refrain from deploying the polyiridichromnium armor until such a time as you can exclude the sensor arrays and torpedo tubes from your coating mechanism." Ustrano's tentacles, tentatively extended and its whole body seemed to perk up, "Did you say 'until', Sir?" "Well I certainly don't expect you to cease your experiments," Seetamyn encouraged Ustrano. "Let us just try some testing before we try to utilize this in combat, again." "Agreed," Banjo and Ustrano acknowledged. "Dismissed," Seetamyn watched the pair exit the Ready Room before sitting back in his seat. He had now lost two crewmen in the space of a fortnight. While the circumstances around Commander Thog's departure had lent themselves to an automatic replacement, Lieutenant Sperr's transfer had left him without a Shuttlebay Chief. Oddly enough, Shuttlebay Chief was one of the very few positions on a starship that really didn't have a second in command. Shuttlebay operations were too infrequent and, generally, so routine on a ship the size of the Menagerie that there had never been any need for such a backup. Seetamyn was, therefore, left with the decision of who to promote or transfer to that post. One name /did/ stand out in the Captain's mind. He would have to broach the subject to the person he had in mind later that evening. That evening, Dil, Linnea, Banjo, Jantoo, M'Dral, Hirthnole, Zamtra, Gisech and Seetamyn were gathered at their customary table in The Pirate's Cove, offering up a toast of good luck to Aceed Sperr. Commander Ustrano was working extra hard securing the Utricularia for towing. Admiral Sontak had received permission to transfer the ship to Project 'Open Arms', and Ustrano was sure that it could convert the Saber class ship into a Captain's yacht. Ustrano seemed to be trying to make up for its little /faux pas/ with the polyiridichromnium, earlier. The metal had been already removed from the entire hull. Ustrano's process was wildly successful at coating or removing the material /in toto/. Spirits were high as the death of the last Black Queen had lifted a huge weight from the crew. (Since they had been pretty much responsible for the existence of the monsters in the first place.) Seetamyn decided that it was time to talk business, "Ensign Hirthnole, you have served with distinction since coming on board. Tell me, why are you still an Ensign. You have been in Starfleet for fifteen years." "Yes, Sir, my fifteen year service pin should be arriving some time next month. As for why I'm only an Ensign, you must understand that I never attended Starfleet Academy. I was a civilian contractor for many years working on Starbases and on various ships. One day when I was working unloading a Bolian freighter at Starbase 47, there was an explosion in the docking bay next door. I managed to get the emergency bulkheads closed and rescue a couple of stevedores. Captain Posthue, the Starbase's commander, gave me a field commission on the spot. Then I was, if you'll pardon the language, screwed! The local unions wouldn't hire anyone with an active Starfleet commission and no Starfleet captain wanted a officer with no training! I finally got a posting on a small Oberth class research ship. "I served there for five years and then got transferred to a few more ships, over the years. No one ever notices a Ship's Services officer unless they screw up. So I've just gone along for the ride. I never expected to be an Ensign, and now, I don't expect to be anything else!" "Then I must report that I have a surprise for you. I am granting you a field promotion to Lieutenant and asking you to take on the Shuttlebay Chief's duties." Seetamyn held out a pip to the surprised Tellarite. "Me? Shuttlebay Chief? Thank you, Sir! I won't let you down!" The grateful unicyclist took the pip and Lieutenant M'Dral helped him to affix it to his collar. The celebration was even happier than before as everyone congratulated the overjoyed Tellarite. Linnea even decided that she would schedule a Karaoke night in the lounge for the next evening. The evening's festivities were suddenly interrupted by Seetamyn's commbadge, "Sir, we have detected an very unusual signal," came the announcement from B1 & B2. "What kind of a signal?" Seetamyn asked the obvious question. "Sir, the computer can find no similar match in any Federation database. Furthermore, if these reading are accurate, the power level for this signal is in the terawatt range! B2 and I believe that it is some sort of distress signal!" "What kind of trouble can anyone who can generate a terawatt-strength signal be in?" Banjo mused. "I believe that there is only one way to find out that information, Commander," Seetamyn mused. "Aye, Sir," Banjo agreed. Tapping his commbadge he ordered, "Commander Ustrano, finalize your preparations with the Utricularia. We have a distress call to go investigate." Turning to the rest of the table he asked, "Would you all like to join me on the Bridge while we go and save the day, again?" "With an invitation like that, who can refuse?" Dil piped up. Of course, only M'Dral, Dil and Seetamyn joined Banjo for his trip to the Bridge. Jantoo headed for Sickbay. Zamtra made his way down to Transporter Room One. Linnea just stayed in The Pirate's Cove. And Hirthnole headed down to Shuttlebay One, /his/ Shuttlebay, with a smile on his face and a unicycle under his rear end! * Virgil's Aeneid, Book 2, Lines 1669-1715 Next Time: The Menagerie returns to Foreena Four to give the OverMind more training in being corporeal. What better way to give this training than with another Dungeon Crawl? "Elemental Temple of the Elder God 2" available December 5th! But, before that, I proudly present, Melting Pot - The Movie! Will a menace from another universe spell the end of the Federation? Will a hero emerge to save the day? Melting Pot - The Movie: Brothers in Arms Available November 21st! I welcome Reader Feedback! Please let me know what you've thought of Melting Pot so far, and, in particular this story! Contact me at: meltingpot@khobrah.net