Star Trek: Cardassian Galaxy

Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Paramount Studios and the estate of Gene Roddenberry own copyright of all things Star Trek. The original plot is my own as are any characters created specifically for this story. 

A.N. For any Non-Trek readers the Obsidian Order are the Cardassian Military Intelligence Division.

'Report.' Such had been Picard's opening comment once again with all command staff gathered in the Observation Lounge. He was beginning to wish he had not made that command to his first officer. Glancing around at the crew sat around the elongated table he pulled down on his tunic and leaned forward in his seat. 'Alright. Ideas. Options. Anyone? Mr Worf?' 

Worf turned his head toward Picard grimacing. 'Well sir, this is, as Lieutenant Mendez said to Commander Riker, highly unusual and not in the normal pattern for Cardassian troops, be they ground troops, or Fleet officers. Cardassians do not practise, at least not in the full light of day where anyone could observe them. That part of their nature is forcibly strengthened by the inclusion of at least one member of the Obsidian Order in their group. 

I am suspicious. However, the fact remains. The Cardassians were here, correction somebody armed with Cardassian weaponry was here; within one light second of our last sighting of the Enterprise-D. We must take that seriously and endeavour to detect if they obtained anything useful from their visit.' 

Geordi LaForge spoke up. 'On that note Captain, if I may be excused. My crew and I have a job to do if we are to map this entire sector and find, hopefully, either the hull of the old girl, or better yet, residual particle decay from the explosion. Worst case scenario is that we find neither, but we do find decaying warp signatures from Cardassian warships.' Picard nodded, to both points. This would indeed be worst case scenario. 'Yes Mr LaForge. Dismissed.' Geordi stood and made his way back to Engineering where he gathered his team together to begin operations as directed. 

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'Sir, the dilithium.' The young commander stepped back respectfully from his superior who glowered at him. The case was taken from him and its' recipient turned and pressed the correct access code for the panel behind him. He reached inside and very carefully placed the casing into its' correct position within the dilithium articulation chamber, for such it was. The panel slid shut as he again keyed in the correct code. A long slow breath passed his lips as he stepped back and turned to the rail at his side. The tilt of his head back and forth took in the entire height of the warp core, currently dormant. 

'Kotin to bridge. The warp core is ready to be brought online at your command.' The reply, crisp and officious could not quite hide the speaker's pleasure at the news. 'Excellent. Do it now.' Kotin turned to the younger officer, and hesitated. In less than a second's time they would either be watching a fully operational warp core being brought online up to full power, or be vaporised in the anti-matter blast that would signal a serious error in their construction techniques. Even a non-serious error might be enough; he recalled how many times as a child he had played with toys, disassembling them and reassembling them, only to find there was a piece left over. As a child such errors were forgivable; as an adult there might be nobody left to forgive him, or he noted with a wry smile, anybody left to know about his error. He delayed the inevitable no longer. He touched the final key of the initialisation sequence and held his breath. 

Nothing. 

He breathed a sigh of relief. Closely followed by another thought on its' heels. Failure was not an option. They were deep inside enemy territory, their escape hinging on his skill as an engineer. He curse under his breath and rechecked the sequence. Ah! He repeated the sequence. This time to be rewarded with first a low pulsing, growing inside the tube to his left. It grew in tempo and strength. Unknowingly mimicking the act of his opposite number aboard Enterprise-E he stood and watched the blue column of energy growing in intensity as the forebear to that ship, the Enterprise-D breathed once more.