Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2001 18:43:27 +0100
From: Tim <power@utvinternet.ie>
Subject: TimeWeave 3

Hi there people! Well, I'm finally back with a new chapter. I
know it's been a long time coming but I've been very busy
over the last month. But now I'm back, so all must be
forgiven!

	Anyway, I don't really have too much to write in the
author's notes, for once. (Everyone gasps in horror) Now, this
year I've got the special pleasure of being on the council for
the BBSA, as director of nominations counting. This means
that (mysteriously) all of my stories are going be nominated of
a surprising number of categories, some maybe twice. Ah no,
actually it means that I can't nominate or vote at all (Sob,
Sob.) But that's getting away from the subject at hand. I'm
supposed to have four people to help me count the
nominations, I've already recruited two, and while I probably
could find two more, it's easier just to write it here. If you're
interested in helping out in the most prestigious awards show
this side of Mars, then e-mail me and I'll give you the full
details.

	Tim - As usual, thanks! Lmmdas - Thank you! Jim, -
you're slow, not profound.

	Also - I've changed my e-mail address, again! Now
it's power@utvinternet.ie. This is because my server started
bullying me, and it's kind of to get away from junk mail, now,
I only have ever gotten junk mail on e-mail addresses that I've
given out with my stories, so that leads me to believe that
*someone* out there has been giving out my e-mail address.
And while I really love to get feedback, I don't know why I'm
being harassed to sign up for straight porn! (People, I'm a guy
writing stories about gay couples. Put two and two together
will you?)

	Ok I lied, I had plenty to write. One more thing
before the disclaimers - SHAMELESS SELF PROMOTION
TIME!!! I should be updating 'Powers Within' either tonight
or tomorrow nigh, no later then then. I suggest that you go
check it out, just because.

	WRITE TO ME!!! I LOVE FEEDBACK!!! IF I
DON'T GET IT THEN I'LL BE ALL DEPRESSED AND
THINK THAT NO ONE LOVES ME, which can't be true -
can it? power@utvinternet.ie is the address to send everything
to - except junk mail.

	This story is in no way meant to be a reflection or
representation of real life. Characters are either real, in which
case I don't know their actual sexualities, copyright of
Paramount Pictures, or made up by me. I don't make a profit,
so don't sue me.

	Star Trek, The Star Trek characters and all related
materials are copyright Paramount Pictures. No copyright
infringement is intended.

-----------------------

This was the decision that all Starfleet Captains hated having
to make, we'd all been briefed on making it, and all told the
impact that it would have on us. Starfleet Academy was
thorough.  But I saw that they were right, you couldn't be
prepared for the decision that I now had to make, but at the
same time there wasn't really any choice. If I didn't destroy
them now they'd simply continue on until they got to Earth.
The two ships weren't even really a threat to me; I hadn't yet
deployed our ablative armour, which protected the ship like no
shields had ever managed. "Hail them again, we'll give them
one more chance."

	"Channel open." Said Tuvok.

	"Vorkran ships, this is your final warning. Retreat or
be destroyed." I said.

	"We're getting a response, audio only."

	"Let's hear it." I said.

	"We are not afraid of your empty threats, Federation.
If you destroy us then ten more ships will avenge our deaths."

	"Close the channel." I said.

	"They're making a run for Earth." Said Tuvok.

	With an ice hand gripping my heart I gave the order.
"Destroy them."

	"Aye Captain." Said Tuvok.

On screen I saw a torpedo streaking towards each of
the two ships, ramming through the weak shields and
impacting on their hulls, milliseconds later fire erupted along
their hulls, and in two huge explosions they were gone, only
leaving debris behind them. I closed my eyes and took a deep
breath. I opened my eyes again, pushing aside my emotions
for a while. "Stand down to yellow alert. Senior staff - report
to the Conference Room in one hour. I want additional
defensive suggestions. Tuvok, start working on a way to
improve the effectiveness of our phasers. Brian, I want you
there too, we need to know everything that you know about
the Vorkrans. Seven, we need to be able to sort this whole
temporal mess out, soon. Data, you have the bridge." I got up
from my seat, went into my ready room and sat heavily down
on the sofa. I put my head between my hands and started
examining my every action during the battle that had just
taken place. Trying to make sure that I'd done everything
properly. I'd been in fights before, but this was my first one as
Captain where I'd been in a position of having to destroy two
ships that weren't any threat to my ship or my crew. The
doorbell chirped and I stood up and tidied myself up, I
couldn't let any of the crew see how close I was to crying.
"Enter." I said, trying to keep my voice firm.

	Nick stepped in, looked at me, and said. "You look
awful."

	I collapsed down onto the sofa again, actually glad to
see him, despite myself. "I know. I'm just after killing over a
hundred people. How do you think you'd feel?" I asked.

	He sat down beside me. "You we just protecting you
crew, and doing what you were meant to be doing, protecting
Earth. No one can blame you for that."

	"I know all that. But it doesn't stop this feeling
inside, the feeling that maybe, just maybe I did something
wrong, that it's my fault." I said, the first tear dropping down
my cheek.

	"You know that's not true." He said, now putting his
arm around me and pulling me closer to him, enveloping me
in a warm hug.

	"Look at me!" I said. "I'm a Starfleet Captain, and
I'm crying! This isn't what I'm meant to be doing! I should be
out there on the bridge, not in here, while my entire crew
laughs at me for being such a baby."

	"They're not laughing at you Rob, they respect your
emotions, and they respect you. It's easy to see that. Just
because you're young doesn't mean that they don't think that
you're a good captain." Said Nick, comforting me.

	I looked up into his face. "Why are you being so
nice? I've known you for less then a day." I asked.

	"Because you look like a person who doesn't have
enough friends?" Said Nick, looking completely serious. "Or
because I find you incredibly attractive."

	I looked up at him in confusion and he took
advantage of the situation, leaning in and kissing me tenderly
on the lips. I pushed my confusion to the side and let my
instincts take over, kissing back. A couple of minutes later we
pulled away from each other. Nick glanced down at my visible
erection.

	"Those uniforms don't hide much, do they?" He said.

	"Neither do the clothes that you were given." I said,
pulling down a zip on the front of his top, revealing a hairless
chest and a perfectly formed torso.

	He shrugged out of his sleeves and then pulled my
own top off over my head, revealing a body honed by having
too many free hours to spend at the gym. Almost as an
afterthought I said. "Computer, seal Ready Room doors."

	Nick grinned. "Not a bad idea."

	"Well, there's got to be some reason why they made
me a Captain." I joked, before kissing Nick again, while
rubbing my hands up and down his body, concentrating
mainly on his nipples, I pulled away from him again, this time
to look into his eyes. I saw how full of lust and longing they
were. I realised that his eyes must be a reflection of my own
and blinked in shock, realising what I'd almost done.

	"What's wrong Rob?" Asked Nick, his eyes now full
of concern.

	"I can't do this, not now." I said.

	"What do you mean? What did I do wrong?" Asked
Nick, almost pleadingly.

	I looked down at him again, top pulled off and lying
on the ground, trousers almost off, his subsiding erection
obvious under the thin material.

	"Nothing Nick, but I'm on duty! If something
happened to the ship while you and I were...y'know." I said
awkwardly. "I don't want to have to run out onto the bridge
naked!"

	"It's ok, I understand." Said Nick. "Until later." He
said, a wicked grin on his face.

	"And besides, I've got a staff meeting in about half
an hour." I further explained, even though I could see that it
wasn't necessary. I think I just trying to console myself as to
what I was missing out on.

	"There's one thing though..." He started.

	"Yeah?" I asked.

	"If you want to get anywhere tonight, then you're
going to have to give me a tour of the ship."

	"Is that all?" I asked. "No problem, but I don't know
how things are going to work out tonight. We'll see, I'll try."

	"That's all I ask." He said.

	"Do me a favour?" I asked.

	"Anything."

	"Put your clothes back on, you're too distracting." I
laughed. As soon as Nick had put everything back on I
unsealed the doors and started going over the scans of the
Vorkran ships that the Lieutenant at Ops had sent to my ready
room. Nick was reading them over my shoulder.

	"Can you really understand all that?" He asked.

	"Of course."

	"But what does it all mean? How can you use these
computers? None of the keys make any sense to me." He said.

	"I keep forgetting what it must be like for you here."
I said. "You're like a country guy who just came to the big
city, aren't you?" I said understandingly. For the nest ten
minutes I explained to him the concept behind entering
commands. At the end of the ten minutes he was able to enter
basic command sequences. "Of course, it helps that you can
do almost everything by voice command."

	"I guess it would, but the computer seems to enjoy
ignoring me." Laughed Nick.

	"That's because you don't have a Comm badge, if
you don't have one then you've got to use one of the Comm
panels that are in every room." I explained.

	"Any chance of getting a Comm badge?" Asked
Nick.

	"We'll see." I said. "But I've got a conference to go
to right now." I stood up, trying to ignore the puppy eyes. "Oh
alright." I sighed, knowing that I was going to lose.
"Computer, replicate a Comm badge, assigned to Nick
Carter."

	"Here you go." I said, going over to the replicator
and throwing him the Comm badge. "I'll give one's to the
other guys when I've got time. How are they, by the way?"

	"I think your counsellor is working." He said. "And
after the Doctor treating them for stress I think that they're
coming to terms with everything."

	"I've got to go to this meeting now." I said. "How do
I look?"

	"Like you've just been tumbling on the floor with
someone who was very eager to get your clothes off. Only
joking!" He added, seeing the look on my face. "You look
fine."

	"Right. You got through that door and I'll go through
this one." I said.

	"Awww." Pouted Nick. "Are you ashamed of me?"

	"Not a bit." I said, going over to him and kissing him
on the lips. "But there are certain things that a Captain
shouldn't do in his Ready Room, and we came very close to
doing one of them." I winked at him and then walked out the
doors onto the bridge and from there to the Conference Room,
where all but one of the chairs where filled.

 	"Where's Seven?" I asked. It was the Captain's
prerogative to turn up late and then question why other people
weren't there.

	"She had missed her last regeneration. She said that
she couldn't go much longer without it." Explained Tom Paris.

	"Fine." I sighed. "Brian, are you ready?"

	"Yes." He said, getting up from his seat down
towards the end of the conference table and approaching the
top.

	I sat down to listen to what he had to say.

	"There is an Earth maxim that states that Technology
invention is at it's most rapid during war. This summarises the
Vorkran's entire development as a people.  They had near
continuous war on their planet, until they discovered warp
travel, at which point they started fighting with everyone else
who they could." Brian paused to gather himself and then
continued. "They use any excuse that they can to start
conflicts, and sometimes don't even bother with excuses -
I've already explained what excuse they used to attack us -
they are a formidable and unrelenting enemy. It's a case of
destroy or be destroyed. The ships that you went up against
today are only designed as feelers, to get an idea of the power
and weaponry that you have available. Next they'll send ships
that they judge to be powerful enough to destroy. Fortunately,
they think that this ship is a lot less powerful then she is. Just
be glad that you didn't deploy your armour, at least there's
one entire defensive system that should take them by surprise.
They will keep on coming, and while their fleet may be small
by Starfleet standards, you don't have a fleet here, just one
ship. You should also be aware of the fact that they may try to
attack the Federation in what you would consider to be your
normal time."

	"What is their most powerful ship?" I asked.

	"This." Said Brian, calling up a display. "A
'Gatrunckt' or 'Vengeance' class starship." Tom Paris
whistled in appreciation and, while I shared his feelings, as
Captain I couldn't do that sort of thing. "One point seven-six
kilometres long, forty-three decks, crew complement of nearly
three thousand. It was one of these that destroyed my
homeworld." Said Brian, only a hint of sadness entering his
voice. "Twenty-seven years ago their policy was to only
maintain two of these, however, that was twenty-seven years
ago. This is what they'll send against you as a last measure."

	"Thank you Brian." I said. "Tuvok, have you gotten
anywhere with the phasers?"

	"No." Said Tuvok, his voice, as ever, impossible to
read and devoid of emotion. "We haven't finished examining
the scans of the shield and hull configurations of the ships."

	"How long until you know if you've got something?"

	"We should be finished reviewing the scans in an
other hour, and another hour and we should know if we will be
able to do anything." Explained Tuvok.

	"I'm open to suggestions." I said, looking around at
the people gathered around the table.

	Data glanced uncomfortably at Brian.

	"Commander. Right now Mr. Littrell is the closest
thing that we have to an expert on this enemy. So for matters
relating to the defence and offence of this ship *against* that
enemy, he is cleared up to level seven."

	"We could use the cloaking technology that was
developed on the Pegasus."

	"In violation of the treaty with the Romulans?"

	"Technically, no." Said Data, before explaining. "The
Federation-Romulan treaty will not be signed for another three
hundred years, by using the technology in this time period we
would not be violating any part of the treaty."

	"His logic is impeccable." Commented Tuvok.

	"Sometimes logic isn't enough Tuvok. While we
wouldn't be breaking any of the clauses of the treaty, we
would be going against the spirit of it." I mulled for a while,
and then said. "How much preparation could you do without
breaking the treaty, if we were in the twenty-fourth century?" I
asked.

	"Almost sixty percent." Said Data.

	"Very well. Do that much; let's be prepared. I want
the ship put on separation alert. Switch to separation quarters
and get any non-Starfleet people into the saucer section. Get
the Blackwing; Blackwing and the two Razor class ships ready
for full combat mode. I'm going contact Starfleet." I said,
concluding the meeting. I stepped out onto the bridge.
"Ensign, launch a temporal communications probe."

	"What co-ordinates sir?"

	"Set it for parallel time. Once you've done that
contact Starfleet command. I want to talk to Admiral Picard,
channel it through to my Ready Room."

	"Aye Captain."

	A minute later, when I was waiting in my Ready
Room the Comm chirped and the Ensign said that he had
Admiral Picard for me, visual only. Surprised, I took my hand
away form the holographic controls and instead activated the
viewscreen on the wall.

	"No holograms Admiral?" I asked, taking in his
background, which looked a lot like the Enterprise.

	"The Enterprise hasn't been configured for
holographic communications yet. It's going in next week for
the full overhaul." He explained.

	"So you thought that you'd take her for a joyride
first?" I asked, a grin on my face.

	"Not exactly. What's the reason for your call Rob?"

	I explained our entire situation to him, hoping to get
some advice in return. Picard was the man directly in charge
of the TimeWeave's mission.

	"I see, that is very serious. But, you seem to have
everything under control there, for now. If there's anything
that you need, make sure and let me know immediately."

	"Some backup would be nice." I said.

	"Rob, you know that's not possible, if we sent normal
Starfleet vessels through, Earth would pick up on them
immediately."

	"I know." I sighed. "It's just, the more information
that I get on this species, the less of a chance we seem to have
against them."

	"If the situation is desperate, we will, of course send
you backup. But try not to be in Earth's solar system, it sounds
like you've already got enough of a temporal mess to sort out
without people on the planet seeing half a dozen ships
fighting!" Said the Admiral.

	"I'll try." I said.

	"Have you got any leave coming up? You should
take it, as soon as this current crisis is over. Beverly and I
would love to see you."

	"I'll see what I can do, but you know better then
anyone how hard it is to tear yourself away from the bridge." I
laughed.

	The Admiral grinned and nodded. "You're right, of
course. Good luck Captain."

	"Thank you."

--------------------

	Well, that's it for another chapter. Make sure and let me
know what you think of it! power@utvinternet.ie

		Tim.