Chapter 5 - Prime Concerns
Nyama sat in the comfortable, yet small room looking through the display of information on the wall panel. Osmand had told him he could learn about worlds far away from his home with this device and he had already seen wonders that he could hardly believe. Still, none of them could erase the horror he witnessed when he left his lab after his last and final test. He continued to hold out hope that Osmand would find others from his world still alive.
He closed his eyes asking the Universe for answers to his questions--- Why did this happen? Why his world? Why was he the only one left alive?
Nyama didn't expect the Universe to reply, but he couldn't help his desire to know.
At least he had an answer to a question that had haunted him all his life. He had proof his world was not the only one in the Universe to harbor life. And while it was a small comfort, he was willing to take what he could get.
He turned to the sound of his door opening and saw the young female that almost always accompanied Osmand on his visits, but she came alone this time. However, she did have food for him and he was quite hungry. He just wished he could understand her when she spoke like he did Osmand.
Ahwi watched the alien creature, the only survivor of the planet below, as he ate his meal. She thought it was cruel of Janus to keep this sad being restricted to the small guest quarters.
"It's hard to be around strangers at every turn isn't it?" she asked even though she knew he couldn't understand her. She watched him turn to look at her and smile. "Everyone you ever loved is gone and there's not anyone left to care for you."
"That's something you and I have in common." She returned Nyama's smile. "Don't worry. I'll make sure you're okay."
***
Ahwi left the section of the ship Nyama stayed in and walked to her own quarters. She hated the tall doors and ceilings of the Skorr cruiser. It made her feel smaller than usual, but in the end it didn't matter. Only her mission was important--- nothing else.
She entered her quarters and sat down upon the bed. She touched a spot on her right arm and a small device, roughly rectangular, faded into view. Ahwi removed the object from her arm.
"And what is that my dear?" Osmand asked as he stood in her doorway.
"Nothing important," she replied as she set the object down on her bed.
"A weapon?"
"It has only the ability to stun someone, not kill," Ahwi responded.
Osmand shook his head. "I gave McCall my word!"
"And you kept your word, Janus."
He looked sternly at her. "Girl, if Evans had been able to detect that, we might have had a disaster down on the planet!"
Ahwi rolled her eyes. "His detector would never have found this," she said as she held up the small weapon. "You worry too much."
"I have much to worry about with these Ladeo Jutamfa you told us about," he replied.
She stood and walked over to him. "I told you to trust what you're building in this Galaxy."
His eyes narrowed. "You ask me to trust, but you can't bring yourself to trust my judgment and leave your weapons behind when I order it," Osmand said. "Pay attention to your own advice, Miss Dasari."
He walked out and Ahwi made certain the door closed behind him and was secure from further intrusion. She kneeled down next to her bed and pulled out a small brown case. After touching it in three different spots the case unfolded revealing numerous compartments. She placed the small weapon in one of them.
"That one wouldn't kill," she said as she touched her left arm this time. A larger device faded into view and it had the traditional handgrip and barrel of a weapon. "But this one would kill rather quickly."
She placed the new weapon in the case and touched the outer cover again and the container of armaments rolled up in front of her.
***
Jack, Hank, and Melissa rode a turbolift in silence up to Deck One. Mei-Wan had gotten off on Deck Thirteen, where Sickbay was located. Jack knew it was to go see Hoffman. How he wished he could simply push the Ravenscroft's commander out an airlock and be forever rid of him, but he knew that wouldn't really solve anything between him and his wife.
The turbolift opened on Deck One and the three of them walked to the conference room where Lak Negev and Timothy Blackwell were already seated awaiting their arrival.
"I hope this was worth the risk, Captain," Negev said with more caution than Jack had noticed before.
"Osmand found a survivor down there. He said that the individual was engaged in some sort of warp field experiments," Jack replied.
Blackwell's eyes perked up. "That is interesting. If there's something about warp fields that keeps whatever's behind these attacks from producing the death and destruction we've seen then I should be able to figure out a way to protect the Chamberlain."
"That would be a good start," Jack said. "But unless we can also use it to protect any worlds under attack, it won't solve the problem."
Blackwell nodded as Jack handed him a PADD with information from Osmand about the warp field experiments of the alien scientist Nyama.
"A few more years and they would have had warp drive," Blackwell said. "They might have been able to save a small number of their people if they had only been a few more years down the road with their research."
For a moment Jack lost himself in Blackwell's comment. He wondered if Osmand wasn't insane afterall. The Universe could be a dangerous place and those without warp capability were at the mercy of forces they had no knowledge of or hope of resisting.
No, Jack's mind insisted. Handing children a phaser cannon does no good protecting them against wolves. It only leads to their own destruction and that of everyone around them. The Prime Directive had a purpose. He just wasn't certain any longer where the line between interference and doing the right thing was anymore.
Jack still believed in the Federation and what it stood for despite everything he had been through the last four years. The Dominion War, the attacks by the Borg, even Osmand and his crusade hadn't toppled Jack's belief in the rightness of the philosophy behind the United Federation of Planets. And more importantly, he wanted to believe in it. Yet, occasions like this shook that belief to near breaking.
How could he violate one of the founding principles of the Federation, the non-interference directive? But how could he ask billions to sacrifice their lives for him, his beliefs, and the principles of the Federation? He just couldn't get past the thought that there was something very wrong about standing by and allowing their deaths to take place when he had the power to stop it.
Melissa Vargas brought Jack out of his internal debate. "Captain, I thought you might want to know that I tried to scan that girl with Osmand."
"Tried?" Jack asked, turning to his operations officer.
"Yes, sir, but I believe my scan was being jammed."
"What about the others?" Hank asked.
"They I could scan, even Osmand," Melissa stated. "They read as what they appeared to be."
"You think she's not human?" Jack questioned with a grin.
"For all I know she could have been a holographic projection of some kind," Melissa said.
"What about weapons?" Jack asked turning to Hank. "You said she was clean."
Hank pulled out the device he'd used to scan Osmand's people. "This doesn't miss weapon signatures, Jack."
"Well, that's good to know," Jack replied.
"I'd still like to know who or what she is," Melissa said.
"She's definitely dangerous," Hank stated more softly than usual.
"She's just a girl, Hank," Jack said with a smile thinking his friend was being overly paranoid.
"That 'girl' had a look in her eyes I last saw in an assassin pointing a weapon at my head," Hank replied. "I'm certain she's killed before."
Jack stared at Hank wondering what he had seen in Ahwi Dasari. His impression was completely different. He thought she was probably a brilliant student of Osmand's, but terribly confused and vulnerable. Jack was certain Osmand was twisting her mind for some purpose only his zealotry could imagine.
But there was something vaguely familiar about her, a hint of recognition he couldn't place. Perhaps Hank was right about her being dangerous.
"Not everyone who joins Osmand's cause will swallow his views completely," Hank said.
"All the more reason to think long and hard before going along with this any further," Negev said, his antennae twitching occasionally.
Jack turned to his executive officer. "Do you have something to say, Lak?"
Negev took a deep breath and looked down at the table silently.
Jack turned to Hank, Melissa, and Blackwell. "Could the rest of you excuse us?"
Hank and Melissa paused for a moment, both about to protest, but they saw the concern in Jack's eyes and decided instead to leave. Timothy Blackwell was still so deep in reading the information they acquired from Osmand that Hank had to nudge him out the door.
Jack sat down in the chair across from Negev. "All right, what is it?"
"Captain," Lak began. "This man, Osmand, has given pre-warp cultures advanced technology and declared his intention to violate the Prime Directive at every opportunity. If we ally ourselves with him, even given the crisis at hand, we are just as guilty as he is."
Jack leaned back in his chair and looked at the stars shining in the blackness of space through the windows behind his executive officer. "You felt the crisis at hand was sufficient to disobey Captain Gann's direct order," Jack said.
"That was completely different," Negev stated, narrowing his eyes and resenting Jack for using his earlier act of loyalty towards him as a means to get him to back down with this. "It was my opinion then and still is now that Gann did not have a full appreciation for the facts and the danger. This is not a simple dispute over courses of action to take given a certain set of circumstances, Captain McCall. You are deliberately and actively conspiring with a wanted criminal who has violated one of the founding principles of the Federation which you took an oath to uphold, sir."
"Damn it, I know that, Lak!" Jack said. "But billions of people have died! Whole worlds are having their entire ecosystems slaughtered! How can we not work with Osmand to put a stop to this? Which world are you willing to sacrifice? Kel-j'na? Corvanis? Perhaps Andor?"
Lak Negev sat forward in his chair. "The Prime Directive isn't something we follow only when it's convenient, sir. It is one of the rules we live by," he said to Jack. "Let me ask you. Which world are you willing to sacrifice the next time Osmand tells some culture they're not alone in the Universe and hands them warp technology before they're prepared for it? Are you willing to sacrifice whole peoples, their cultures, their futures, just to stop this threat so that you don't feel guilty the next time some world of billions dies?"
Jack sat up in his seat, but couldn't look at his executive officer. He didn't have an answer.
"We aren't responsible for what this menace is doing, sir," Negev stated. "But we are responsible for what we do in the name of defeating it."
Jack looked down at the table top as Negev stood to his feet.
"Captain, you are quickly approaching a line that I cannot allow this ship to cross," Negev said. "Go much further, and you will force me to relieve you, sir."
The Andorian walked out the door and left Jack McCall to consider the position he had placed both of them in.
***
Kyle Hoffman read silently from the PADD he held in his hand:
The end of the Galaxy's pain is at hand. Those remaining will heal the wounds inflicted by the transfigured menace from the depths of space and time. Our legacy to all who hear this, those friends who have stood true, is freedom from the fear we have all faced.
Though what we do may seem rash, it has been only after long contemplation that we came to our decision and found we had no other.
We had thought not long ago the Ladeo Jutamfa had been brought to its end, but they used their knowledge to do the unthinkable and now we are left to respond with the same.
Out of our loss many will come and out of our loss all will be saved.
He lowered the PADD and turned to Mei-Wan who stood next to his sickbay bed. "That's the same kind of apocalyptic crud that Susan came up with."
Mei-Wan wished Susan Tanega had come out of her coma by this time. She'd be able to tell her if this translation was close to being accurate. Mei-Wan didn't like how Jack was accepting Dasari's version of the Ancient Progenitor message without question. She doubted some teenager had the abilities she claimed to have.
"Where did you get this, Mei?" Kyle asked.
"Janus Osmand."
Kyle looked at the PADD again and smiled. "You got him in the brig?"
"No, he gave this to us," she said pointing at the PADD displaying the translation.
"Where'd he get it?"
"You ever hear of a student of his named Ahwi Dasari?" Mei-Wan asked.
"She's his daughter," Kyle replied.
"He and Katherine never had children," Mei-Wan said shaking her head.
"You're right, they didn't." Kyle said as he set the PADD down on his lap. "She's his adopted daughter."
Mei-Wan tried to think if she'd ever heard of Janus adopting a child, but she couldn't remember anything about it. "Are you sure?" she asked.
"Wild head of dark hair and enough arrogance to fill a spacedock, right?" Kyle asked with a wide grin.
Mei-Wan frowned. "That's her."
"I met the little monster about three years ago when Janus showed up at a conference on Andor," Kyle said. "She was less than friendly."
"Why would he adopt a child?" Mei-Wan wondered.
"A couple of archaeologists, Khalid and Renee Dasari, had died during an excavation on some world near the Klingon border and the only survivor was their daughter," Kyle said. "She was brought back to Earth about two months before Janus left the Academy and somehow he found out about her and went through the process to adopt her. The why of it has always bothered me ever since he went off on this crusade of his."
"I've never heard of her parents before," Mei-Wan said.
"Me either," Kyle replied. "I think they were working for a university somewhere."
Mei-Wan sat down on the edge of Kyle's bed and lost herself in thought about the translation of the Progenitor message, Janus Osmand, and his adopted daughter.
"Can you imagine what it must have been like for her to grow up going off on expeditions with her parents like that?" Kyle asked as he sat up in the bed. "Maybe Janus saw what that kind of upbringing had prepared her for and decided not to let it go to waste just because her parents died."
Mei-Wan wasn't really listening to him as he inched closer to her and put his hand gently on her shoulder. She quickly moved forcing his hand to fall away.
"Kyle, please," she pleaded. "I can't."
Hoffman leaned back onto the bed and let out his breath. "I'm sorry," he said. "I know I promised I wouldn't push things. You have to make up your own mind."
Mei-Wan closed her eyes. "I may not get a choice," she whispered.
"Things not going well between you and McCall?"
She shook her head and stood.
Kyle sat up. "Hey, I get out of here tomorrow. After I get assigned some quarters would you be willing to give me a tour of this ship?"
Mei-Wan turned to him and smiled. "Sure."
***
Jack walked onto the bridge of the Chamberlain the next morning. The dark blonde haired navigation officer, P'rada K'jal, stood from the command chair with a smile.
"Good morning, Captain," she said.
"Anything to report?" he asked.
"No. It's been fairly uneventful all night," she reported as other members of the first shift bridge crew were replaced by those just coming on duty.
"Any movement from our friends?" Jack asked as he pointed to the viewscreen.
"Not a peep."
Jack sat down as K'jal left the bridge. A few seconds later, Lak Negev walked up and sat in his seat next to Jack. Neither of them spoke. All that needed to be said, had been.
Arthur Conrad had just settled in at the communication station when a chime sounded from his panel. He touched several controls and turned to the command chair. "Captain McCall, we're receiving a hail from the lead Skorr cruiser."
"Put it on," Jack said.
Osmand's image came on the viewscreen.
"Captain McCall!" Janus Osmand said excitedly. "We've just received a signal from an automated sentry of ours in the Ikenga system. Numerous self-organizing bodies of energy have entered the system and are approaching the fifth planet!"
Jack quickly turned to Blackwell who was already bringing up the information on Ikenga.
"The fifth planet is class M," Blackwell stated. "But there are only primitive life forms present, no intelligent life."
Jack returned to Osmand. "Professor, I don't think there's a need to..."
"McCall, if they continue on their present course, they'll head for the next class M planet which is in the Parsandra system," Osmand said, noticeably agitated. "The third planet has a pre-warp society of over five billion!"
Negev turned to Jack, but said nothing.
"What is it you're suggesting, Osmand?" Jack asked.
"Your vessel is much faster than any of ours," Janus replied. He took a breath to calm himself. "If you leave now at maximum warp, you could reach Parsandra before the entities finish with Ikenga."
Jack frowned. "And do what? Let them kill everyone aboard the Chamberlain as well?"
"No," Osmand said. "If you get there soon enough you can warn the Parsandra government and they can get at least a few of their people off world before the planet is attacked."
Negev inhaled deeply, but still remained silent.
Jack knew his executive officer watched for any indication of his intentions. "Why not contact them yourself, Mr. Osmand?"
"They only have the capacity for carrier wave communications," he replied. "Anything I sent that they could pick up wouldn't reach them for almost twenty years."
Jack looked at Negev directly, but saw no reaction. "Mr. Negev," Jack said. "set course for the Parsandra system at maximum warp."
Before Negev could reply, Jack turned to the viewscreen. "We'll do what we can, Osmand."
"I'm sending you the frequency that I've used to contact their leader, Chancellor Vadelig," Osmand stated. "They have four warp shuttles, McCall. If you get there soon enough and perhaps use your transporters, you might..."
Jack interrupted him. "I can't do that!"
"Please, McCall," Osmand pleaded. "You can't let them all die."
The viewscreen went black. Jack turned to Negev who wore a troubled expression. He knew the Andorian was about to say something, but he stood to his feet to avoid the confrontation.
"Mr. Blackwell," Jack said. "Go over that scientist's data from Ninaz and find a way for us to keep those entities from attacking Parsandra Three."
"I've already got the whole Science Department on it, sir," The science officer replied. "We'll find an answer."
Jack glanced at Negev who nodded, satisfied for the moment that Jack had a plan of some sort besides taking Osmand's advice. As the warp drive of the Chamberlain came alive, Jack hoped Blackwell's department would come through in time.
***
A day later, the Chamberlain pushed it's engines to the limit as it rapidly approached the Parsandra system. Its captain, however, felt the approach of a decision he wished he'd never been confronted with, but that was beyond his power now.
Jack McCall kept looking at the chronometer in his ready room, almost hoping the engines of his ship would malfunction, allowing his to be made for him. He didn't figure he'd get that lucky.
Timothy Blackwell had yet to return to the bridge since they departed Ninaz. He was still holed up in the Science Department. Jack had given up trying to push Blackwell. He knew that if the science officer and his people could find the answer in time, they would, and no amount of inspirational speeches or screaming from him would do the least amount of good.
Jack looked again to the chronometer. They would drop out of warp in ten minutes near the orbit of the third planet. If Blackwell didn't have a solution, Jack would have to risk violating the Prime Directive, forcing his executive officer's hand, requiring the Andorian to relieve Jack of his command. He had already talked to Hank Evans and told him not to get involved if that happened.
As they passed the Ikenga system on their way to Parsandra they dropped off several probes and just an hour ago had gotten the first of their reports. The entities had indeed remained within that system, draining the life from the fifth planet. The scans showed they moved slowly across that world, leaving only death in their wake. Hank had compared it to a swarm of locusts consuming large fields of crops. At least on Ikenga Five, no intelligent life was being destroyed.
Jack knew it was finally time for him to go down to the bridge. He stood to his feet and walked down the long stairs to Deck One. He had almost gone to see Mei-Wan an hour earlier. He had hoped for the peace she used to give, but he was worried they'd just end up in another of their arguments.
Jack entered the bridge and immediately looked at the science station and saw the seat was empty. Blackwell hadn't come through yet. Jack would have to make the hardest choice of his career and perhaps the last. He had pondered his options for the past day and knew that he couldn't allow everyone on Parsandra Three to die if he could prevent it. In the end, he didn't see much of a choice.
Negev stood next to Nedj s'Felis at the conn position watching the distance indicator count down.
"Take us out of warp," Negev said. "Full impulse and raise shields."
Negev turned about and looked up at Hank Evans. "Any sign of the entities?"
"Nothing yet," Hank said. "But our probes report they left the Ikenga system at high warp six hours ago on a heading for Parsandra."
Osmand had been right about the course of the lifeforms that were causing so much death and destruction. Time was running out for the people of Parsandra Three. It would take them several minutes to get their craft far enough away to avoid the attack that was coming.
Jack turned to Arthur Conrad. "Open a channel on the carrier wave frequency Mr. Osmand gave us."
"Belay that order, Mister Conrad," Negev said causing everyone on the bridge to turn his direction.
Jack McCall looked sternly at the Andorian. "Commander, are you certain you want to do this?"
"I had hoped you had heard me earlier, Captain."
"I did," Jack replied. "I have never dismissed your counsel. But I have come to the conclusion that the lives of the people on that planet below us are what's at stake now."
"The Prime Directive is what's at stake, Captain McCall," Negev stated.
"Osmand has already caused whatever damage would be wrought by telling them life outside their world exists," Jack said. "He's given them warp driven craft. It won't harm them if they're told their world is threatened allowing a small number of them to survive."
"Do you have any proof they have warp shuttles outside of Osmand's word?"
"He's a religious zealot, Lak," Jack said with a grin. "He thinks he possesses the truth. Why should he lie about this?"
Lak Negev looked at the officers staring at him from their stations around the bridge. He was certain some of them were more than a little confused at this point. He had afterall, been the one to convince them that Jack McCall deserved their loyalty and the benefit of the doubt when it came to Gann's orders. Negev knew Hank Evans would do whatever McCall asked. He didn't know what Vargas, s'Felis, or Conrad would do if he held his ground.
Negev thought he had a possible way out for both him and his captain. "Sir, if the Parsandran Chancellor acknowledges he has the warp shuttles..."
Jack smiled. "Agreed," he said. Though, if they didn't have those shuttles, Jack was determined to use the transporters to bring as many Parsandrans aboard the Chamberlain as he could. That order would not be countermanded. Hank Evans had already agreed to carry it out even if Jack were removed forcibly from the bridge.
Arthur Conrad went to work at his console.
The speakers on the bridge spewed out static and other loud noises not normally heard when using subspace communication. A few seconds later, a deep voice came over them.
"Yes?" the voice asked. "Is that you, Janus Osmand?"
Well, at least the alien on the other end knew who Osmand was, Jack thought.
"This is Captain Jack McCall of the starship Chamberlain," he replied. "Osmand told us we could contact Chancellor Vadelig on this frequency."
"I am the Most High Chancellor of Parsandra, Vadelig," the voice stated.
Jack paused to carefully chose his next words. "Mr. Osmand informed us that he had given you a number of spacecraft that were capable of travelling at warp speed," Jack said. First things first. If they didn't have the shuttles, there was no need to tell them about the destructive beings heading towards their world. There was no point in making their last moments of life full of nothing but fear and panic. "Are they currently operational?"
"Yes," Vadelig's voice said. "I traveled to our fourth planet yesterday in one."
Jack looked at Negev who reluctantly nodded.
"That's good to hear," Jack replied. "Chancellor, we are currently tracking several energy beings who will enter your system within the hour. They have brought death to all the worlds they have encountered thus far. We suggest that you get as many of your people aboard those shuttles as soon as possible so that they might escape with their lives."
There was silence for nearly a minute. "But those craft can only carry ten each! Out of the billions of my people, I can only save forty! Can you not send down more ships to save us?!"
Jack looked at Negev who approached him.
"Captain," the Andorian began. "I wouldn't advise sending shuttles down. We don't want any of our people getting caught down there when..."
Hank Evans interrupted. "Multiple contacts have just dropped out of warp within the system!"
Jack and Negev both turned to Hank.
"Red alert!" Negev ordered and a moment later the alarm klaxons blared.
"Time to the third planet?" Jack asked.
"If they maintain their current velocity, I'd say about twenty-five minutes," Hank replied.
"Chancellor," Jack started. "We're out of time! You have twenty minutes to get off as many as you can!"
The channel went dead.
"Signal was cut on the planet, sir," Conrad reported. Jack only hoped it meant the Chancellor had heeded his warning.
Hank looked at Jack for several seconds. McCall gave a quick tilt of his head and Hank began activating certain controls on his console.
"McGuire to bridge," came the Irish voice of the Chamberlain's flight deck commander over the speakers. Jack suddenly turned to Hank.
"Bridge here, Mr. McGuire," Negev answered.
Melissa Vargas looked at Hank and put things together in her mind. She knew what Jack had tried to do.
"I just thought I'd ask," McGuire said. "Does anyone know why the lower levels of the main bay have had their containment fields activated?"
Negev turned to Jack and Hank. "You wouldn't know anything about that, would you, Captain?"
Jack stared directly into Negev's eyes. "We're going to transport as many of those people down there as we can up to the ship."
Negev looked at the deck and exhaled. He could understand McCall's motivation, but while the Chancellor of Parsandra might have had contact with Osmand, he didn't feel they could assume the same about the ordinary citizens of the planet.
"Captain," he started. "I'm afraid I can't…"
Timothy Blackwell entered the bridge. "Captain!"
Both Negev and McCall watched Blackwell run to his science station. "I'm sorry it took so long, sir, but that scientist was actually farther away from creating a stable warp field than we thought," Blackwell stated as he began activating controls.
"Can you recreate what he did on Ninaz?" Jack asked.
"Yes, and if he'd had enough power he could have extended the protection he had to millions of his people," Blackwell said. "He didn't create a warp field exactly, but a static warp shell."
"Can we form one that will surround the entire planet?" Melissa asked.
"No," Blackwell replied as his fingers continued to dance across his controls. "But we can create one between the entities and the planet with us at the center of the effect."
Jack smiled and turned to Hank. "Hold off on the transporters, Hank."
Negev looked at Jack for several seconds. He would eventually have to discuss this with his captain, but now was not the time.
Jack looked at Blackwell. "Let's get this thing set up, Mr. Blackwell."
"Aye, sir," the science officer said with a grin.
Jack sat in his command chair.
"Time until the entities arrive?" Negev asked.
Hank Evans responded. "A little more than fifteen minutes."
Jack thought a moment and considered caution might be a good thing, just in case Blackwell's plan failed. "Raise our shields to maximum, Hank."
Evans did as ordered.
Jack McCall hoped he had made the right call putting his ship and crew in the path of this alien force that had remained locked away for billions of years. If something went wrong they'd all be dead in a little more than fifteen minutes.
"Warp shell activated," Timothy Blackwell announced.
Hank Evans watched his tactical display closely and saw something he hadn't at all expected.
"Captain," he said slowly. "They've stopped."
Jack stood to his feet. "On viewscreen."
On the large display at the front of the bridge they all watched sixty pulsating, glowing energy forms hover motionless in space only a few hundred thousand kilometers from their ship. The bright blue and white masses of living power seemed to dance about each other momentarily, then return to their former locations. Several seconds later they moved away at tremendous velocity.
"Track them!" Jack shouted.
Hank expanded the search range on his tactical display, but couldn't find the luminescent lifeforms anywhere. He went back through the sensor logs for the last several minutes and quickly reviewed the data. He smiled.
"They're gone," he said with obvious relief in his voice. "They left the system at warp nine point nine, nine…" he looked up at Jack. "Let's just say there are a whole lot more nines after that I won't bother rattling off."
Jack let out his breath and stood to his feet. "Secure from red alert." He turned to Arthur Conrad. "Contact the Chancellor of Parsandra and let him know the danger has passed."
"Aye, sir," Conrad said.
Everyone on the bridge was relieved things had ended the way they had, with the people of the planet below safe and their captain and executive officer not caught up in a question of violation of the Prime Directive.
***
However, down on Parsandra Three, some three thousand kilometers away from the palace of the Chancellor sat a citizen of that world listening intently to his amateur radio equipment. He adjusted the frequency control slightly, searching for what he had heard several minutes before. He looked over at a computer terminal where information from several of his fellow radio enthusiasts was being displayed. His triangulation program would soon locate the source of the very odd transmission they had all caught and it would confirm his suspicions. He would finally know that his Chancellor, who they all revered, had spoken to aliens from another world.
"Chamberlain to Chancellor Vadelig, please respond," came the voice of Arthur Conrad over the hobbled together equipment in the small room.
But it would be many months before he and his friends would learn the full impact of the messages he continued to record. Once they deciphered the content of that set of communications, many things on their planet and about their lives would forever change.
And Chancellor Vadelig would learn the price one paid for appearing to act out of cowardice.
