Chapter 5 - Through The Looking Glass
Mei-Wan breathed heavily as she tried to keep up with Melissa around the wide outer corridor of Deck Ten. The two women wore workout clothes as they made their way along the slowly curving twenty foot wide passage. They had done this every morning for the last two weeks and while she enjoyed the time with Melissa, Mei-Wan still wasn't used to it yet.
"Hold up a minute," Mei-Wan said as she slowed to a stop.
Melissa stopped, jogging in place, and turned to Mei-Wan. "Pushing too hard again?"
"No. I just need a break for a minute," Mei-Wan said.
Vargas let out a long breath and leaned against the bulkhead, stretching her legs.
Sweat beaded on Mei-Wan's forehead as she sat against the wall, knees up, and cradled her chin against them. She took several deep breaths.
Vargas looked over at her. "I've been meaning to ask you, what is the deal with your department head?"
"Zachary a problem?"
Vargas rolled her eyes. "Every time he walks into a staff meeting it's like the room temperature drops about thirty degrees. And then there's the way he's always so condescending."
Mei-Wan smirked. "The whole Science Department has been wondering if it was just us or if anyone else had noticed his unique charm."
"I keep wanting to run a tricorder over his heart to see if he's even got one. The man really creeps me out."
"You don't have to suffer his pronouncements and procedures. My Section wants to know if we can have archaeology declared an art instead of a science just so we don't have to deal with Zachary any more."
Mei-Wan looked at Vargas and continued. "For some reason he's been riding me about getting my Tactical Certification in the next couple of months. He keeps droning on that I'll never get my third rank pin without it."
Vargas looked at her. "I can help you out with that if you'd like."
"That'd be great. It won't be a conflict with your position will it?"
"No, Hank Evans will be the one to certify you. It's his department."
"Great," Mei-Wan said. "Anything to get it over with so Zachary won't bother me about it anymore. I think he likes having little things to dig at people with."
"He mentioned his department of 'little peons' yesterday."
"Believe me, we hear worse to our faces."
"Why don't you have your husband do something about it?"
Mei-Wan shook her head. "That would be stepping outside the chain of command and I really don't want to throw around the fact I'm the captain's wife every time I have a problem."
Melissa moved to the other side of the corridor and leaned against it, stretching her legs and ankles. She looked at Mei-Wan for several moments. Mei-Wan smiled.
"Okay, Melissa. What is it?"
"What's what?"
"I know that look. You get it every time you want to ask me something, but aren't sure if you should."
Vargas sat on the floor across from Mei-Wan. "I heard a rumor the other day and I was just wondering…"
"What rumor?"
"Paul Falco told me he knew Harold Darnell from the Academy and that Darnell had told him something about how the captain and he had actually…" Vargas stopped. She glanced up and down the corridor to see if anyone else was nearby.
Mei-Wan looked down at the floor waiting for Vargas to continue.
Vargas lowered her voice, "He said they had tortured some of the guards at the Glazyalan prison camp."
"That's supposed to be classified."
Vargas looked directly at her friend. "Is it true?"
Mei-Wan thought a moment, unsure about answering. "Yes, its true. Jack believed it was the only way we could get the access codes to escape the camp. I tried to talk him out of it, but... "
Vargas stood. "Sometimes we have to do things we don't want to, Mei. I certainly don't think any less of the captain because of it. The Glazyalans were torturing all of you in that camp."
"It wasn't easy for any of us in that place, especially Jack." Mei-Wan continued to stare at the floor. "I watched those same Glazyalan guards brutally murder my best friend, Robin Nelson, in front of all of us, as an example to Jack-- to try and break him. Robin…"
Mei-Wan stopped as tears filled her eyes.
Vargas sat down next to her. "Sorry."
Mei-Wan forced a brief smile and looked at Melissa. "Its okay. After we got back I had a lot of trouble reconciling what Jack did with the man I know he is. Part of me feels ashamed that I didn't stop him, and another part feels like I was betraying Jack by not agreeing with what he did. But then I think of how Robin died."
Melissa rose and offered Mei-Wan a hand. "The Glazyalans used torture as a weapon. It bounced back and hurt them and allowed you to escape. Sounds to me like there's a little justice in the Universe."
"I'm not so sure." Mei-Wan took Melissa's hand and stood. She looked at the chronometer on her wrist. "Its almost 0730, you up for some breakfast?"
Melissa shook her head. "Sorry, a certain captain has called a staff meeting for 0800. I've got just enough time for another couple of kilometers and a quick shower."
"If you want I could talk to him about it," Mei-Wan said with a grin.
"Oh no, that's all I need--- the captain getting my complaints through his wife. No thanks, Mei," Vargas replied sternly as they started jogging down the corridor.
"Just trying to help out," Mei-Wan said.
***
Jack McCall sat at the head of the large conference table with his senior officers assembled for their morning meeting. Behind him, out the windows, stars streaked by while the Chamberlain maintained a high warp velocity. Jack looked about the table as the Chief Engineer, Lieutenant Commander Kristen Bishop, continued her report on the ship's rather short shakedown cruise. The dark skinned, stunningly beautiful woman continued with details of the engineering systems of this newest of starships. Despite appearing far too young to be Chief Engineer on a ship like the Chamberlain, Bishop was certainly the most competent Chief Engineer he had ever served with. Jack smiled slightly as he came to a very troubling possibility. What if she's not young, but I'm getting old?
A holographic display of several engineering systems appeared above the center of the table. "As you can see, we've improved the efficiency of the reactor synchronization system allowing us to use four reactors for the warp drive which has made it possible for us to maintain our current speed of warp nine point six for the past seven days," Bishop said.
"Any signs of field coil damage?" asked Melissa Vargas.
Bishop smiled. "None at all. We are the first starship to have a standard cruising speed above warp nine."
Jack nodded as most of the eyes about the table went wide with surprise. Kristen Bishop had been part of the Oceana Development Project and knew these ships better than anyone. Where the class ship, Oceana, had been unable to maintain any velocity over warp eight and was still back at the shipyard undergoing repairs, Bishop had solved the problem and gone beyond the original design expectations.
"Excellent work, Lieutenant Commander, and please pass along my compliments to your entire engineering staff," Jack said.
Bishop smiled. "Thank you, sir." She touched a control, shutting off the holographic display. "I have sent details of our repairs back to Delta Ophiuchus."
Jack nodded and took a deep breath. "I want to thank you all for the truly exceptional work you've accomplished over the last two weeks. Well done."
Jack turned to Flight Deck Commander Lee McGuire. "Once we get through to the Kel-j'na region I'd like to start some Fighter drills, will the repairs on the Main Bay be completed on schedule, Commander?"
Lee McGuire, a somewhat stern looking man, thought a moment. "That shouldn't be a problem, sir," he said with a thick Irish accent.
Commander Kadan Loftus, an attractive Bajoran woman smiled. "My pilots are getting so desperate for some flight time they were thinking about taking the lifepods out for a spin."
Soft laughter filled the room as Jack smiled at the Fighter Wing Commander. Kadan had been a daily visitor to his Ready Room impatiently requesting updates on the Main Bay repairs. She had received high commendations for her skills behind the controls of a fighter craft during the war. Jack was interested to see how well she made the transition to command of an entire fighter wing.
Jack had heard rumors that Kadan and his old friend Hank Evans had been seen together from time to time in various recreation areas throughout the ship. Jack smiled and thought, Evans always did like strong willed women.
Jack turned to Hank. "As many of you know by now, we are honored to have aboard as our Tactical Officer, the man who discovered the Tartarus Wormhole, Hank Evans."
Commander Kadan smiled as Hank sighed. Jack continued, "I've asked Lieutenant Commander Evans to give us an overview of the wormhole as well as where it takes us to, the Kel-j'na Region. Hank?"
Evans touched a control and a map of the Alpha Quadrant appeared as a holographic image above the center of the table. "The Tartarus Wormhole connects to a system thirty thousand light years away. The primary world in that system, Kel-j'na, has become the Federation's principal ally in the region and is currently about two months from full Federation membership."
Hank touched the control again and a planet was displayed while information about it listed off to the side. "The Kel-j'na are extremely friendly folks, but be careful if the matter of their religious beliefs come up. They can be quite strident about them and have laws to punish those who speak in opposition to the religious system."
Lak Negev turned to Hank. "What exactly does their religion involve?"
Hank smiled. "Its difficult to say because they're not very evangelical with it and rarely discuss it with offworlders. Best as I can tell they believe that a great deity who created the wormhole looks out for the Kel-j'na and will someday return bringing a time of peace and prosperity to all."
Commander Kadan took a deep breath. "Sounds a little similar to Bajoran beliefs."
Duncan Zachary, the Chief Science Officer of the Chamberlain slowly leaned forward in his seat. He opened his mouth as if to speak, but hesitated a moment. His cold, deep set eyes looked over to Jack. "The structure of the Tartarus wormhole is nothing like that of the one in the Bajoran system. This wormhole seems to be a natural function of the local space-time and is not held open by any beings inhabiting it. There has been no indication of an entity within it."
Hank turned to Zachary. "Just be sure not to bring that up to the Kel-j'na. They do believe this wormhole is an artificial construct and also have legends of a lost parchment or obelisk, depending on the particular religious sect, that is said to display a map revealing a large network of stable wormholes throughout the Galaxy."
Chief Engineer Bishop smiled. "Well, we find those we won't need engineers or warp drive any longer."
Most everyone else at the table returned her smile-- except for Zachary. "There has been considerable research into that very possibility by the Federation," the Science Officer stated. "The locations of the Bajoran and Tartarus wormholes so near together as well as the one which transported the U.S.S. Voyager to the Delta Quadrant have suggested to some that there may in fact be a great system of wormholes interconnecting every part of the Galaxy."
Zachary's head twitched strangely as he finished causing Jack to wonder if something was wrong with his Science Officer, but he decided it was probably nothing. Jack had heard from Mei-Wan about the reservations others in the Science Department had about Zachary. Several of them had claimed to see him talking to himself on numerous occasions. Probably the strangest story, and hardest for Jack to believe, was when three officers from Mei's Archaeology Section saw Zachary start to walk a direction, stop, turn back, stop, and turn again to resume his original direction. Jack had thus far assumed it was all just a clash of personalities and the normal breaking in period between an officer and his subordinates.
Hank touched a control again and the Kel-j'na Region expanded in the display. "So far Federation ships have explored a roughly spherical area with a radius of a hundred and fifty light years and established a little over fifty colonies. Just beyond the boundaries of this area are various small empires and semi-organized alliances. Of special note is the Fashod Empire which the Kel-j'na claim is located some hundred and seventy light years from their world. The Fashod are reputed to be quite powerful, yet rarely get involved with other species. There are rumors of some major political upheaval in their Empire that occurred some five hundred years ago, but little is known about it. For more detailed information I've placed a report under Kel-j'na Region on the computer."
Hank deactivated the display and turned to Jack. "That's all I have, Captain."
Jack nodded and looked around the table. "We will be entering a territory which has yet to be explored to any great extent. We need to be on watch for unsuspected threats as well as be mindful of Starfleet's primary mission of peaceful contact."
Everyone at the table nodded as Jack took a breath. "We should reach the wormhole entrance in one hour. That's all."
Eleven of the thirteen present left the table and walked out of the large conference room leaving Jack and the one person who had sat silently through the entire meeting. Jack knew that Commander Paul Falco had something to get off his chest and Jack had a good idea what it was. Falco was the Commanding Officer of the U.S.S. Abdiel, the Defiant Class starship which sat berthed in the Chamberlain's Main Bay. Jack knew Falco hated this assignment.
Paul Falco was one of those men who had the look of someone who had learned how to fight and kill before he took his first baby steps. Not known for his subtlety, Falco had only two ways of relating to people-- loyalty to his friends and hatred or disgust for those who weren't. For some reason Jack was certain he fit into the later category.
Falco sighed heavily. "Captain, I'd like to request that my ship and crew be allowed to enter the wormhole before Chamberlain. It would give us some badly needed flight time and a chance to go over the Abdiel's systems."
Jack thought a moment. He shook his head. "Not at this time, Commander. I want McGuire to have a chance to finish repairs on the bay before we send you out."
Falco frowned and rolled his eyes. He took a deep breath and stood to his feet. "Exactly when were you thinking of letting us out of our cage… Captain, sir?"
Jack rose to his feet and slowly walked around the table to Falco. "Commander, I can understand your desire to take your ship out and your impatience, but… " He stopped just a moment. "I can do without the sarcasm."
Falco grinned. "Excuse me, sir, but I didn't think the reason the Abdiel and I were assigned to Chamberlain was just so that we could be an overpowered shuttlecraft."
"You're not. You're aboard for tactical support."
"I can't see how we can fulfill that mission stuck in your Main Bay," Falco said. For some reason Falco's grin had grown to a smile. Jack felt as if he were the canary about to be eaten by an evil human version of the Cheshire Cat.
Jack sighed and leaned against the edge of the conference table. He could afford to give Falco some sense of victory. "As soon as we're on the Kel-j'na side of the wormhole I want you to take the Abdiel and scout ahead of us when we go to warp again."
Falco nodded. "Aye, sir." He strolled out of the conference room leaving Jack alone.
Jack turned to look out the large windows into space. He knew Falco was going to be trouble, but now wasn't the time to force a confrontation. He wanted to dig some more through the Commander's personnel file and find out why Falco had a problem with Jack and who had gotten him assigned to the Chamberlain.
***
An hour later, the U.S.S. Chamberlain slowed to impulse velocity and approached a small space station hanging alone in the darkness of the Tartarus Sector. The large starship cruised along a prescribed course past the station to the opening of space and time which would propel it thirty thousand light years distance in mere moments.
Jack McCall entered the bridge of his ship and stopped to look at the dedication plaque on the nearby wall. Each ship in the fleet had one of these things stuck on its bridge. While the plaque was a throw back to old Earth naval traditions, he liked the fact that those who had supervised the construction and design of a starship in effect signed their names to their work.
Jack looked at the bottom of the gold surface and saw a quote from the starship's namesake, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, nineteenth century Governor of the State of Maine, University President and professor, but perhaps best known as a hero of America's Civil War. Jack had wondered many times during the last two weeks what a man like Chamberlain would have thought of the vessel that now bore his name.
In great deeds something abides, the inscription read. Jack repeated those words over in his mind several times. He hoped they were more truth than rhetoric. It had seemed too many times in the past several years that many great deeds were overwhelmed by events, politicians with their own motives, and the nature of existence itself. Jack hoped he'd get a chance to change that.
"Approaching Tartarus Station, Captain," Lak Negev announced.
Jack turned and walked into the largest Bridge of any starship in the Federation. At times he felt an urge to shout in the large room, unsure his orders had been heard. Like the rest of the ship, the Bridge had been overbuilt as well. There were too many stations and too much activity for Jack's tastes. He worried about the chaos of combat in this cavern.
Jack took the central station on the Bridge, the Captain's chair. He let himself relax into its soft cushions and closed his eyes a moment. He took a breath and turned to his right where Melissa Vargas sat a short distance away at the Operations Station. "Are we secure for wormhole passage, Ms. Vargas?"
Melissa did a momentary last check of her console and turned to her CO. "Aye, sir. All stations report ready."
Lak Negev stood forward just behind the Conn officer at the front of the Bridge. Negev turned to the orange skinned, reptile-like Lieutenant Nedj s'Felis. "Maintain half impulse and this course, Mr. s'Felis."
s'Felis' sing-song voice replied, "Maintaining course and speed, aye."
Negev walked back to the chair directly to Jack's right and sat in it. He touched a few controls on the small panel next to his seat, then turned to the Captain. "We shall enter the wormhole in forty-five seconds."
Lieutenant Commander Cynthia Pederson, the red-headed Communications Officer of the Chamberlain, turned from her station. "Tartarus Station signals final clearance, sir."
"Acknowledge their transmission, Lieutenant Commander," Negev said to her.
Jack turned his chair to face Hank Evans at the Tactical Station directly behind him. "This isn't too rough a trip is it?"
"Its fun."
Jack frowned. "Great."
Hank laughed. "I forgot how you hated turbulence."
Soft chuckles came from everyone on the Bridge except Zachary at the Science Station.
Jack turned his seat back forward. "I wouldn't say hate."
"I remember on a shuttle mission you…" Evans started.
"Keep your eyes on your station, Mr. Evans," Jack barked.
More chuckles from around the Bridge. Hank smiled.
Negev slowly turned to look at Jack with a curious look. Jack sighed and shook his head.
Zachary looked up from his displays, bathed in dark blue light. "We enter the wormhole in five seconds."
Jack looked at the main viewscreen as tendrils of blue energy erupted from nowhere and enveloped the Chamberlain. A moment later, the huge starship shot down a tunnel of twisted space with an impossible velocity. Glowing claws of space and time reached out for the ship, but never quite touched it, letting it pass across thousands of light years in seconds.
Jack closed his eyes as his chair shuddered from the buffeting his ship suffered through. He took a deep breath and opened his eyes to see a glowing maelstrom on the viewscreen. This was nothing like the Bajoran wormhole. Jack had traveled that passage four times in his career and found it an easy trip. This was completely different. It was as if a giant troll were taking its payment out of the ship's hull for the passage that normally would have taken decades.
A bright flash of light filled the viewscreen and a moment later they were back in normal space on approach to a beautiful blue-green world orbited by two small moons-- the planet Kel-j'na. Hundreds of spacecraft cruised about the stunning world. A number of vessels including a Federation Intrepid Class starship flew toward a spacedock.
Cynthia Pederson looked down at her display. "Kel-j'na Spacedock is hailing us, sir."
"On audio," Negev said.
Over the intercom a voice filled the Bridge, "Kel-j'na welcomes you to our system, Chamberlain."
"Acknowledge their message, and send my compliments to Commodore Choi," Jack said.
"Aye, sir," Pederson said as she touched controls at her station.
Jack stood and turned to Negev. "Set course for the Hel'yra system. The Abdiel will be departing and take position ahead of us."
Negev stood and nodded.
"You have the bridge, Mr. Negev," Jack said as he walked toward the exit. He looked over at Hank Evans who smiled.
"See, it was fun," Hank said.
Jack sighed.
***
Several hours later, Jack sat in his Ready Room going over various reports and signing off on them. He hated this part of the job. For some reason all of the minutiae of the Chamberlain's workings mattered to someone at Starfleet. Jack was afraid to ever meet them. He couldn't imagine what someone like that thought of someone like him-- a starship Captain who faced life and death struggles as a matter of course. The only danger whoever received these reports ever faced was having their computer system overload and electrocute them.
A chime sounded, announcing someone meant to interrupt his task. He welcomed them. "Come in," he said.
Melissa Vargas walked up the entrance to the Ready Room and turned to Jack. "Sorry to bother you, sir, but Lieutenant Commander Pederson brought something to my attention," she said as she approached Jack's cluttered workspace. Melissa took note of Mei's picture prominently placed on the desk and smiled.
"No bother, Lieutenant Commander. What do you have?" Jack said as he leaned back in his chair.
Melissa frowned and handed Jack a PADD. "I'm not really sure, Captain. Cynthia said she had come across this in the communication logs and didn't know what to make of it so she brought it to me."
Jack looked through listings on the PADD which showed three transmissions made through the communication system of the Chamberlain. Numerous communications were always being sent to and by starships, but these were not authorized and didn't have the usual code markers which identified the sender and who they were sent to.
Jack turned to Melissa. "You sure this isn't someone just sending messages to a 'significant other'?" he asked.
Melissa nodded. "There's usually a fair amount of that on any ship. No, this is different. Someone has tried to mask these signals as sensor scans, not to keep us from finding them, but to keep any unintended receiver from thinking they were communications, but instead see it as a long range scan."
"Any leads as to who's doing this?" Jack asked.
"Not yet, but we're trying to locate the Comm station on the ship that they originated from," Melissa stated.
Jack thought a moment and took a deep breath. His first thought was someone from Starfleet had placed a spy aboard and that covert operative was sending back secret transmissions, but the last signal was sent after they had come through the wormhole, making it unlikely the transmissions were being sent directly back to Starfleet.
"Keep this between Lieutenant Commander Pederson, you, and myself. Let's not risk the individual sending these transmissions finding out we're on to them before we catch them. Have you tried to decode the signals yet?"
Melissa sighed. "I've run them through the computer and so far nothing," she said.
"Keep on it and try to have something for me in the next few days," Jack said.
Melissa nodded. "Aye, sir." She walked back down the entrance, leaving Jack to himself.
Jack looked again at the data on the PADD. He had the feeling this was far more dangerous than it appeared. He just hoped Vargas found their message sender before whatever was going on blew up in their faces.
