Star Trek TOS: Ruse Chapter Four - "Into the Breach" (standard:Fan Fiction, 2402 words) [5/10] show all parts
Author: Kirk	Added: Aug 06 2006	Views/Reads: 2408/1856	Part vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
Four Starships cross the Neutral Zone.

Click here to read the first 75 lines of the story

facilities there. 

“I'm not reading any ships or activity on the moon at all, Sir,” replied
Grant, his science officer. 

“You mean there are no ships in orbit?” snapped Wesley. 

“No ships Sir.” 

“Damn,” he said to himself. That meant a ground based defense, which was
usually more powerful than ship to ship. Ground based weapons weren't 
as accurate, but they make up for it with sheer power and virtually 
limitless reserves. Then it hit him. “Did you say there was no activity 
on the moon?” 

“Yes, Sir. There are no power emanations and I am not reading any life
signs. The moon is deserted,” replied the science officer. 

“ETA, navigator?” snapped Wesley. 

“Four minutes, Sir.” 

“Do we continue with this mission, Sir?” asked his Exec. 

Wesley rubbed his pronounced chin in thought. “Break radio silence and
hail Komack on the Excalibur, tight beam.” 

YORKTOWN: 

Captain Angela Shultz ordered a status report from her science officer
manning the long-range sensors. Their target was the Planet Delekus VI. 
According to the outdated intelligence, it was there that the 
anti-matter producing plants existed for The Star Empire. 

The young female science officer squinted into her readout display. Then
she punched a few buttons on the consol and looked again. “Captain, I'm 
not reading any power emanations at all from the planet. Life scans 
show negative as well.” 

“Are you saying that the Romulans abandoned that planet for anti-matter
production and are now using a different one?” 

“No, Sir. There are signs that it was recently in use, but now
abandoned.” 

“Or maybe evacuated,” stated, Walker, Shultz's Amazonian Exec from
behind her chair. 

“That would presuppose that they knew we were coming,” stated Shultz.
“ETA?” 

“Five minutes, Sir,” stated the young navigator. 

“Get me Komack,” she barked to her Comm officer. 

“Captain! A Romulan Vessel is decloaking to starboard!” shouted the
science officer. 

“Red Alert!” ordered Shultz. 

CONSTELLATION: 

Commodore Decker was tapping his fingers on the arm of his chair in
frustration. “How much longer, damn it!” he shouted at his navigator. 

“Three minutes, Sir.” 

Decker went over the attack he planed for the planet L'Ian, the sole
provider of tritanium to the Star Empire. The metal used for hulls of 
warp driven starships. 

In and out. That's how he wanted to do it. One pass around the mining
sites, send down a few photon torpedoes, and run like hell. 

“Where's my scanning report?” he barked at his science officer. “If we
get any closer we can open a window and look!” 

“There are no visible ships in the vicinity and the planet is deserted,”
replied the science officer. 

“Couldn't ask for an easier way to do it. Helmsman, full power to
weapons. Navigator, set course for that orbital run we discussed. Let's 
get this done and over with, people. I'm homesick already,” beamed 
Decker, as he twirled his chair in a circle around the bridge. 

“Captain!” said the helmsman, “A Romulan Warbird is decloaking directly
ahead.” 

“Aw sh--! Damn it!” snapped Decker. He waved his hand in the air as he
said, “I knew it was too good to be true.” He looked at the young 
Lieutenant seated at the helm. He was watching his captain intently. 
Decker's eyes bulged as he waved both hands in the air. “Well? What are 
you waiting for? Sound Red Alert!” 

“Aye, Sir,” he replied, as he twirled back around in his seat and hit
the Alert button. 

ENTERPRISE: 

“ETA Mr. Finney,” asked Kirk. 

“Eight minutes, Sir,” was his reply. 

“We are now within scanning range of Remus, Captain,” said Spock. “There
are several dry dock facilities in orbit, but they appear to be empty. 
No ships are evident in orbit either. Shifting my scans to Remus itself 
reveals billions of inhabitants on the dark side, but the ship building 
facilities on the planet seem deserted.” 

“There are no defensive vessels around one of the two planets that make
up the home system of The Romulan Star Empire? Are we close enough to 
scan Romulus?” 

“Barely, Sir,” Spock replied, as he fine-tuned the sensors to direct
their search for Romulus. “Even at this distance, I can make out about 
a dozen ships in orbit around Romulus, that I would assume would be 
defensive in nature. The rest seem to be supply vessels.” 

“I'm not going to rip into deserted planetary facilities so close to
inhabited areas without being directly ordered to. Begin targeting the 
orbital docks and open a channel to Komack on the Excalibur,” said 
Kirk, as he squinted at the planet Remus on the view screen, which had 
just come into visual range. 

“Aye, Sir,” answered both Sulu and Uhura. 

As Kirk started at the screen, Remus began to shimmer as a Romulan
Warbird decloaked in their path. 

“All stop! Red Alert!” shouted Kirk. 

The red panels flashed and the siren sounded. 

“Mr. Sulu, sound battle stations,” said Kirk to his junior officer. 

“Battle stations! Battle stations! This is not a drill! All hands,
battle stations!” said Sulu over the ship wide Comm system. 

“Silence the alarm, Uhura,” Kirk said, over his shoulder. 

The siren stopped. 

“Captain, I can't get through to the Excalibur,” said Uhura. 

“Why, Uhura?” asked Kirk. 

“I'm not sure, Sir, they may be jamming us.” 

Kirk watched the display on Sulu's board as red indicators turned to
green very quickly. Within seconds of sounding battle stations, all 
indicators were green. 

“All stations report green, Sir,” said a dead serious Sulu. 

Kirk nodded his approval to Sulu and then turned his attention to Spock.
“What is our friend doing, Spock?” 

“They are doing nothing, Captain. They haven't raised shields or powered
up their weapon either. If you will notice, that ship is of the same 
configuration as the last we encountered,” replied Spock, as he raised 
his head from the station read out to look at the view screen. 

“Meaning...” started Kirk. 

“No warp drive!” shouted Scott, from his station. 

“Captain, we're being hailed,” said a startled Uhura. 

“We're invading their space and they're asking questions first?” asked
Finney. 

“Open the channel, Lieutenant,” said Kirk. 

“... act of war!... Earth vessel, you have crossed The Neutral Zone into
the Romulan Star Empire! Your very presence is an act of war!... Earth 
vessel, you have...” 

Kirk held his hand up to have Uhura cut the audio. The message stopped. 

“Mr. Finney, take us around it. Mr. Sulu, is warp possible or are we too
close to Remus?” asked Kirk. 

“We can go to warp if we are heading away from Remus, otherwise, no
Sir,” replied Sulu. 

“Impulse only. Half speed,” said Kirk, as Finney set course and Sulu
entered the command. 

The Enterprise made a low moan as the impulse engines came on-line to
half power. On the screen, the Romulan vessel passed below the bottom 
of the frame as the Enterprise moved above and past it. 

LEXINGTON: 

Commodore Wesley stared at the Romulan ship on his screen that was
sending a message repeating the fact that his Earth ship was committing 
an act of war. 

“Any luck on getting through to the Excalibur?” asked Wesley. 

“No, Sir. I think we're being jammed, but I'm not sure,” replied the
communications officer. 

“That ship doesn't have warp drive, Sir,” chimed in his science officer,
staring into his sensor readout. 

“Why hasn't it fired on us?” asked a mystified Wesley. 

“Maybe they can't,” speculated his Exec. 

YORKTOWN: 

Captain Shultz sat in her chair, listening to the message. 

“Earth vessel, you have...” 

She gave the cut motion to her Comm officer. The message stopped. 

“That ship is impulse alone, right?” she asked in the direction of her
Chief Engineer. 

“Yes, Sir,” she replied. 

“Captain, I still can't raise The Excalibur,” said her Comm officer. 

“Okay. Ensigns, take us on an evasive course to Delekus VI, half
impulse,” she said to the two young ladies sitting at the helm and 
navigation. 

The Romulan ship disappeared from the view screen as the Yorktown went
around it. 

“Okay, set for warp to Delekus at...” she started to say, as the Romulan
Warbird slipped under them and matched their speed and heading, 
preventing them from going to warp. 

“What the hell are they doing?” asked a stumped Shultz. 

CONSTELLATION: 

“What the hell are they doing?” asked a very agitated Commodore Matt
Decker. 

“They appear to be blocking us, Sir,” said his eager to please helmsman.


“Thank you, Lieutenant,” Decker replied, while counting silently to ten.


“Why haven't they fired their plasma weapon at us?” asked his Exec. 

“You want to hail them and ask?” replied Decker. The Exec didn't
respond. “I have a better idea. Why haven't they fired they're plasma 
weapon?” he asked in the direction of his science officer, who had his 
head buried on the data readout. 

“Because that ship has no shields or weapons,” he replied. 

ENTERPRISE: 

“They have no shields or weapons on board that ship?” said Kirk, jumping
out of his chair. 

“That's correct Captain. That ship is equipped with impulse drive and a
cloak only,” stated Spock. 

“It's stripped. Spock, you know what this means, don't you?” 

Spock stood up from the sensor station and looked at Kirk gravely. 

“Uhura, open a channel to any ship in the Fleet, Priority One!” 

LEXINGTON: 

“A ship with no weapons or shields is suicide,” said Wesley. “Unless
that ship is meant to keep us preoccupied.” 

“Commodore, I have a bad feeling about this,” stated his Exec. 

“Oh no, I should have seen this sooner. Open a channel to the Fleet!”
shouted Wesley to his Comm officer. 

YORKTOWN: 

“No weapons or shields and they're playing ‘tag' with us?” said the Exec
with the Amazonian stature. 

“Something is really wrong here. One photon, they're dust, and we
continue on like nobodies business. What am I missing here that should 
be obvious?” asked Captain Shultz. She jumped from her chair like 
something shocked her. “Send a message to the Fleet, Priority One!” 

CONSTELLATION: 

“Son of a bitch! Son of a bitch! Open a channel to the fleet!” said
Decker to his Comm officer. “Navigator, 180 degrees about to The 
Neutral Zone, Helmsman, maximum warp. I can't believe I failed to see 
it right away!” 

“Nobody's perfect,” said mister ‘eager to please'. 

Decker kicked the back of his helmsman's chair. 

ENTERPRISE: 

“Finney, Sulu, get us back to The Neutral Zone, maximum warp!” shouted
Kirk. 

The Enterprise turned on its axis and shot into warp like a predator in
wait. 

“What's happened, Captain?” asked Yeoman Rand, who was standing behind
his chair. 

A loud groan was heard as the engines increased in speed and pitch up to
their maximum output. 

“It's been a set-up, Yeoman. It's been a set-up since they sent that
ship across the Zone six weeks ago. They watched what we did with that 
ship. They watched as we rebuilt the outposts and watched as Komack 
gathered the Fleet. The whole time, they allowed us to believe a 
weakness existed with their cloaking device. We thought it wouldn't 
work with larger warp driven vessels. That ship appeared in front of us 
without warning. Unless the Commander guessed our exact exit point out 
of warp, or...” Kirk paused for moment, then continued gravely, “Our 
motion detectors couldn't detect it until it started to decloak,” 
explained Kirk. 

“What does this all mean?” she asked. 

“The Romulan invasion of Earth has begun.” 

Next: Chapter Five "Let the Game Begin"


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