STAR TREK
"Both Hands Full"
by
John Erik Ege
EHP
EXPERIMENTAL HOME PUBLISHING
"Both Hands Full" edition 3, first edition Dec, 2006
EPH
Copyright 2007
All Rights Reserved.
Licensing for this is pending and can only be considered fan fiction at this time. The author agrees to share this edition for the sake of sharing and for editing purposes with the understanding that Paramount, the official owners of Star Trek related products may revoke the sharing privilege. Comments and corrections can be directed to the author for story refinement.
Author contact info:
John Erik Ege
214-907-4070
Email
solarchariot@hotmail.com
This story is the third in the series. Book One: "A Touch of Greatness. Book Two: "Another Piece of the Action." Fourth Book coming soon. Still waiting on word from Simon and Schuster. Don't understand the process, but literary agent and S&S seem to be in dialogue.
PROLOGUE
Lt. Kevin Alber's hands were shaking as he tried to boost the gain on the subspace communication. He had anticipated the signal being jammed and so he had hidden a number of relays through out the the nebula just in case the "worse case scenario" happened. And it was happening even as he tried to get Admiral Eric Pressman on the line. Just getting the Admiral on the line was problematic enough. Because Alber's assignment was top secret, even if the Admiral was in his office taking calls, he might not be able to respond. Fortunately the Admiral was available, but he sounded distant, his voice hollow. Admiral Eric Pressman's face was distorted, not from static, but from the waxing and waning of the digital signal which caused blocks of pixels to freeze or fade out completely before new information swept in to refresh it. The Klingon's must have been jamming a wider area than usual, perhaps anticipating that Alber would have hidden relays in order to circumvent their jamming a signal. Which also meant that they knew that he knew that they were onto him.
"They're moving everyone out now," Lt. Kevin Alber said. "I'm not sure where they're taking us, but we're going to lose this project." Alber was afraid of more than just loosing the project. He was certain he and the other black-ops' engineers were likely to lose their lives so that the Klingons could maintain the secret and the technology to themselves. And since the present Engineers and Admiral Pressman were the only ones in Fleet that knew about this particular project, it was unlikely anyone would be missed and Pressman would be unable to complain, even to the Klingon's who he had made the deal with. Alber had known the risks when he had signed on for the joint venture and had figured some of the counter measures he had taken would detour the "worse case scenario." He was wrong.
The project was a simple one. Under the command of Admiral Pressman and his counter part in the Klingon Empire, an Admiral Sheaar, the two would design a new class of starship. It would be the first Klingon Federation hybrid ship, at least, that Alber was aware of, combining some of the best technology the Federation and the Klingon Empire had available. It was Pressman's idea to legally circumvent the restrictions placed on the Federation by the Romulan Federation treaty, a treaty that prevented the Federation from developing their own cloaking devices for ships. Since the Klingon's already had cloaking devices and they were not a member of the Federation when the Treaty between the Federation and the Romulans had gone into affect, there was no restriction on the Klingon's use and development of cloaking technology. The Romulans had no doubt believed the Klingon Empire's days were numbered, and, consequently, were not impressed with Klingon research and development or there would have been greater emphasis on the restriction of Klingon technology. Considering the peace between the two empires was tenuous at best, it was also likely the Romulans had simply chosen to risk the Klingon's improving their technology. The Romulans had stolen technology from the Klingons in the past, so they could do so again if need be.
