Chapter 2 - Public Policy
16 November 2378…
Jack McCall consciously forced his lungs to take their fill of air. Of all the women he'd been with, only Melissa left him completely exhausted as if he'd been running up and down thirty flights of steep stairs for an hour. He wondered if it was something about her combined human and Vulcan physiology which left him like this.
His mind always drifted this way after they'd had sex. It distracted a part of himself he wanted to avoid, but the distraction never lasted.
He didn't want to admit he might be falling in love with Melissa Vargas.
It was always the same set of rebukes his mind threw up. It won't work... What would the crew think... It was too soon... Mei-Wan had only been gone for nine months...
Nine months...
Jack stared up at the ceiling of his quarters, illuminated only by a nearby display panel.
Nine months...
It seemed to Jack to be the perfect span of time for something new to be born.
But the reasons for avoiding this new part of his life came back.
Melissa turned on her side to watch him inhale deeply again. "If I didn't know better, I'd say you actually enjoyed that."
A smile took over his face as he rolled over on his stomach.
Melissa took her own breath, not quite as deep, and enjoyed the fragrance of their combined sweat as it drifted off her own skin leaving a pleasant coolness behind. "Well?" she pushed with a grin.
"Oh yeah," he said. "Most definitely."
"So did I," she whispered with a wide smile.
Turning to face her, Jack leaned over and gently touched his lips to hers.
Melissa felt her breath go away as it did every time he kissed her. She slowly opened her eyes as their lips parted. She watched him gently trace a finger down her neck and then between her breasts. His hand stopped at her navel.
"It never ceases to amaze me," Jack began softly. "No matter how far away, no matter the species... this little spot in the belly is almost always there."
Melissa looked down just as Jack tilted his head up to look into her eyes. "What more proof do you need that we all come from the Ancient Progenitors?"
Jack looked down. He tried to catch himself, but he couldn't help his reaction. For him the Ancient Progenitors had only one connection to his life.
Melissa rolled on her stomach and leaned on his shoulder. "I'm sorry."
"Don't be," he said with a forced smile. "Nothing's off limits, remember?"
She nodded, but knew her offhand remark had still been painful for him.
"Akala's put too much work into me to backslide now," Jack said with a smirk. He turned to Melissa. "It's okay."
"Is it?" she asked with a determined look in her eyes.
"You think I'm lying?"
"No," Melissa told him. She looked down over the edge of the bed at the floor. "But you still don't feel right about this... not completely." She watched small beads of perspiration roll down his back.
He remained silent.
"Jack, you can't keep feeling guilty about... this." Melissa wanted to say "us", but she'd never felt right using that word to describe the two of them. She carried her own guilt about their situation.
"Then why do I?" he asked. "Why is it every time I wake up and you're here, I..."
She slowly rubbed his back. "Because you still love her. Because you'll always love her."
"You deserve better."
She wrapped her arms around him. "I'm a big girl, Jack. I knew what I was getting myself into."
"Then why is it..." his words drifted off as he turned to her. "Then why do I feel like I'm using you."
"Because you are," she said flatly.
Jack almost turned away.
She tightened her arms around him. "I'm the one person you can be honest with and that lets you hold onto your humanity."
Jack ran his fingers through her blonde hair and lightly touched her pointed ears. He smiled.
"What is it about you and my ears?" she asked, glad for the moment of levity.
"I have a half-Vulcan woman in my bed so I can hold onto my humanity," he said. "Doesn't that strike you as a little funny?"
"I'm half human too," she whispered. "And I care about you."
He put his arms around her. "I know."
The comm in the other room chimed. Jack exhaled loudly in frustration. "I'd like it if I could go just one night without someone needing something from me," he said as she fell back onto the bed. "This is the part of starship command they never tell you about back at the Academy."
Melissa grinned as he stood. "Would it have mattered if someone had told you?"
He shook his head. "Probably not, but then I'm a stubborn bastard."
Melissa Vargas rolled over and pulled the sheets tightly around herself. While her feelings for Jack McCall had grown beyond the admiration she came aboard his ship with, she knew better than to let them blossom fully. The pain he felt over the loss of Mei-Wan still weighed too heavily upon him--- upon them both--- for her to even consider anything more than what they had at this moment. Yet in her heart, buried away deep inside her, she knew it was too late for those thoughts.
Less than a minute since leaving the bedroom, Jack rushed back in and went to a drawer. He pulled out a uniform.
Melissa rolled over at the ruckus he was making. "What is it?" she asked. "Another attack?"
"Yes," Jack responded. "This time against Starbase 514."
She got out of bed and went to the chair she always set her uniform on. "We're not headed there, are we?" she asked. "Even at maximum warp it would take us..."
"No," Jack told her.
She turned to him. "Then what's the hurry?"
"We've been ordered to Kel-j'na by Admiral Simmons. My guess is he's been given orders to stage an attack against the G'voda."
Melissa's eyes widened. "That's insane, Jack! We can't take them on directly."
"I know that," he said as he pulled his pants up. "I'm sure Simmons knows it too, but I doubt it was left up to him."
Melissa walked over to Jack. She was much calmer. "You want to do this, don't you?" she asked in a whisper.
"Why would you think that?" he asked doing his best to ignore her.
"To get back at them for Mei and your father."
Jack was about to pull his shirt over his head, but stopped. He turned to her. "Don't I have a right to a little revenge?"
Melissa took his hand in her own. She looked up at him with a combination of sadness and something he was afraid to see--- love.
"Melissa..."
She turned away. She knew he'd seen into her heart. Her feelings for him were the last thing she wanted him to worry about.
"You better go," she told him.
He started toward her, but stopped and quickly pulled his shirt over his head.
Melissa lay back on the bed, angry with herself. She watched him as he quickly put his uniform jacket on.
Jack started to walk out of the bedroom, but stopped and walked back to her. He knelt down at the side of the bed and looked over her beautiful body.
She forced a smile. "What?"
"Thanks for putting up with all of this," he said. "And me."
She sat up and looked at him. "I'm right where I want to be, Jack."
He leaned over and gave her a quick kiss, but she put her arms around him and wouldn't let go. She kissed him more passionately than either of them had wanted.
After half a minute she released him.
Jack wanted to stay. Before he was running away from his pain, but now it was different. He felt drawn to her.
He smiled at her. "I'll see you later?"
She bit her lower lip and nodded.
The next moment Melissa was alone. She listened for the sound of the outer doors of his quarters to open and shut. After she was certain he was gone, she got out of bed and walked toward the bathroom. She wasn't on duty for another hour, but she didn't see much sense in staying since Jack was gone.
She stopped and stared at a picture of Mei-Wan sitting on a small table next to the bed. The guilt rushed back.
"I'm sorry, Mei," she whispered to the image. "But I do love him."
***
The ancient world hung in the blackness of space. It had long since stopped supporting life, despite having an atmosphere many living things might find hospitable. Civilizations had risen and fallen upon its surface millions of years ago, but all of those cultures and the beings who created them were long since gone. The last one had engaged in a pointless war of one religious order against another. Both sides, sure their own deity would protect them, unleashed energies which rendered their world as lifeless as it now sat.
Folam Six was a worn out world no one in this part of the Galaxy considered worth their time. Which was precisely why the being who inhabited the body of Starfleet Admiral Jeremiah McCall chose it for his attempt to reverse the recklessness of the G'voda.
Setacvas looked through Jeremiah McCall's eyes at the large machine being constructed by several of the G'voda he had brought along to this barren world. It stood more than fifty feet tall and wide, its main structure being that of two half rings of massive metal held perpendicular to the ground. Sections of it remained unfinished, but he was pleased with their progress. However, he knew every moment could be their last if certain parties discovered what he was doing.
One of the metal skinned G'voda walked up to him. He recognized it as the one which contained the mind of the human, Duncan Zachary.
"What can we hope to accomplish with this?" Zachary asked. His concerns about the project had been boiling up for days. He had feared asking before this, but fear had finally given way to frustration. Zachary wanted to be with the rest of the G'voda delivering pain to a Federation he blamed for having been responsible for so much of his own.
"You have lost someone before haven't you?" Setacvas asked. "A daughter I believe?"
Zachary's shinning metal head nodded as he wondered why a being as powerful as Setacvas would ask such a thing. "Her name was Cindy. She… she meant everything to me." His glowing red machine eyes appeared to flicker a moment.
Setacvas looked at the powdery ground beneath his feet. His mind drifted a moment to the history in that dust. How many had walked here before him? How many had died upon this soil? How many dreams were buried here?
"I lost my family to the enemy we now fight," he told Zachary.
"The Vedala."
Setacvas shook the head of the body he inhabited. "They are powerful, but they are not our true enemy." Closing his eyes, he turned his face to the dead, pale blue sky. "The Vedala are pawns like so many others."
He turned to the machine next to him. "Our adversary takes no prisoners, feels no remorse, and knows nothing but its goal, Mr. Zachary." He took a breath and smiled. "They work in subtle, almost imperceptible ways to achieve their ends, and that is their one weakness."
"How is that a weakness?" Zachary's electronic voice asked. "It seems the perfect tactic."
"Yes, it has worked well for them," Setacvas stated. "However, it leaves them vulnerable to major changes in the situation. It forces them to alter all of their planning and calculation, giving us an opportunity to keep them off balance long enough to move against them."
He turned to the construction going on a short distance away. "You will give us such an opportunity, Mr. Zachary, and I intend to take full advantage of it for the sake of those who I have lost to this madness."
***
21 November 2378…
The Federation starship, Chamberlain slid into orbit alongside her sister ships above Kel-j'na. The Oceana, Tethys, and Hyperion cruised in a high orbit, leaving a space for the last of their class. The four mammoth vessels were accompanied in their path by a group of Sovereign, Nebula, and Akira class starships.
***
Jack entered the conference room and took a seat at the large round table. He straightened his uniform and took a sip of water from the glass in front of him. He hated being the last one to arrive to anything, let alone a meeting of fellow starship CO's.
Anthony Donato, a bright eyed man with a receding hairline and in his mid forties, gave a quick nod across the table to Jack. A usually serious man, Donato appeared to be oddly jovial this day. Jack thought it might be his way of dealing with the situation at hand.
"Hey, Jack," Donato said as he approached the seat next to the Chamberlain's captain. "You know anything about this?"
McCall shook his head as he set his glass back down on the table. "I'm the last to hear anything these days."
"I know the feeling," Donato responded with a frown. He leaned toward Jack and lowered his voice. "I'm sorry about Mei-Wan."
Jack nodded.
"You think they've decided to send us on a real mission for a change?"
Jack chuckled. "What? You don't enjoy building starbases?"
"Starbases I don't mind," Donato murmured. "It's those damn oddballs from the Corps of Engineers."
"Don't tell me you're having trouble with them."
"My crew has only one problem with the Corps of Engineers," Donato said, letting it hang a moment. "They're still breathing."
Jack laughed and looked around the rest of the table. There were twenty-four ships represented. Jack recognized Liniak and Golu, along with a couple of others, but his eyes stopped at one person he hadn't expected to be at the table, let alone wearing the rank of captain.
The last time they'd met, K'lremi was executive officer on the Venture. He hadn't heard through any of the regular channels that she had been promoted.
The Caitian looked Jack's direction and smiled.
Jack tapped his own rank pins and pointed her way.
She rubbed the gold pins with a fur covered hand as Jack raised his glass of water her direction to toast her accomplishment.
Donato leaned over to Jack. "You know her?"
"Old friends."
"For crying out loud, Jack," Donato said softly with a grin. "How many female officers are you 'old friends' with anyway?"
Jack turned to him. "What the hell's that supposed to mean?"
"I hear things," Donato said, taking a drink from his own glass.
"From who?"
"Oh come on!"
"What?" Jack asked, unsure what the Oceana's captain was talking about.
"Fariha's my XO," Donato said.
Jack's brow tightened. "Since when? I heard she was Exec on the Addanz."
"She was," Donato said. "She got transferred to the Oceana once we got back from our shakedown cruise. My first XO didn't enjoy the feeling of his career in freefall."
Jack was tempted to stop by the Oceana to see Fariha Sahami, but he doubted she'd be all that excited about seeing him again. Besides, he told himself. I'm having enough trouble handling the relationship with Melissa. I don't need to add to my troubles.
"She doing okay?" Jack asked, trying not to appear too interested.
"She's doing an excellent job," Donato said. "Talks about you all the time."
"I'm sure that's fun."
Donato grinned. "It started out fairly nasty, but she's not so angry anymore, especially after we heard about..."
Jack nodded quickly so Donato wouldn't have to say it. "After we heard about Mei-Wan," was what Jack knew he was going to say.
Admiral Simmons Chief of Staff, Tavak, entered the room. "Admiral on deck!" the Vulcan called out as Simmons marched in. Everyone else rose to their feet.
"As you were," Simmons murmured as he made his way to the front of the room.
The assembled group returned to their seats.
"Ladies and gentlemen," he began as a star chart of the Kel-j'na region filled the display behind him. It quickly zoomed in on one system. "The Federation Council has ordered the CinC of Starfleet to mount an assault on the Nybiros system."
Eyes widened and jaws dropped around the table.
"Uh, excuse me for asking, sir," Donato asked hesitantly. "But isn't there supposed to be an impenetrable defense shield around the G'voda homeworld?"
"Yes," Simmons answered. "All of our scans have indicated we have no weapon which can possibly penetrate the shield around the planet." He let that sink in a moment before continuing. "However, their planetary defense emplacements..." He turned to the display as twenty-four red markers flashed around a graphical representation of the G'voda homeworld. "…are not within that shield. Their only protection is the same metal alloy which the G'voda use on all their vessels."
Jack frowned. He had a good idea where this was going.
Simmons continued. "And thankfully, due to the diligence and hard work of Kristen Bishop, Chief Engineer aboard the Chamberlain, it appears we now have a weapon against that."
All eyes turned to Jack.
"Assuming her analysis is still correct," Simmons directed to Jack.
"Yes, sir," Jack responded. "Commander Bishop is currently reconfiguring our primary weapon system and quantum torpedoes to take advantage of the weakness of the G'voda alloy."
"The rest of you will be receiving the specs on these upgrades in the next few hours," Simmons informed them as he turned back to the map. "This should allow us to disable the planetary defense network."
K'lremi raised a fur covered hand. "To what end, Admiral?" she asked. "The shield will still be there and if only one of those ships I've seen in the intelligence reports is there... "
Simmons took a moment to look at all of the faces around the table. His voice became a bit softer. "Forty-seven days ago, the G'voda fleet left Nybiros and has not returned. The planet, aside from their shield and orbital emplacements is undefended."
"I doubt they've ever had to worry about an attack before now," Donato whispered softly enough to give the appearance of not wanting to be heard.
"You're right, Tony," Simmons said, glad Donato had voiced what he was sure everyone else was thinking. "But their complacency should give us the element of surprise."
Jack noticed another person enter at the back of the room and lean against the wall near the door. Ambassador Cyrus Wakernaggle still looked about as dead as someone could without actually being a corpse, but Jack thought something was different about the man. It took him a moment, but he finally realized Wakernaggle no longer wore the eyeglasses he had the last time they had met.
Simmons didn't appear to notice the ambassador had entered, or had and simply didn't care. "I know this mission seems a foolhardy one at best. I voiced most of the same objections to the CinC."
"Doesn't Admiral James understand there's nothing we can really do, aside from destroying a bunch of satellites?" Captain Liniak, an Andorian, asked.
"As I said, I spoke to him directly," Simmons reinforced to them. "He, along with the Council and the President have decided not to make the same mistakes we did with the Dominion. They want a clear message sent to the G'voda and that message is, 'take heed, we can defend ourselves'."
Sighs and muffled moans came from the captains around the table.
"I know," Simmons said. "However, as much as I may disagree with the method of achieving their goal, I think it is necessary that we make some response to the G'voda attacks on Federation worlds."
Jack raised his hand.
"Captain McCall?" Simmons asked.
"Sir, has the Council considered that this assault, instead of giving the G'voda pause, might encourage the very thinking behind whatever reasons they have for attacking us?"
Simmons did his best to fight back the grin struggling to come to his face. Jack's question left him in the position of only answering, rather than giving the appearance of questioning his orders.
"That very point was made to the Council and the President," Simmons said. "However, they felt this assault would make the G'voda more conducive to negotiation."
Jack raised a brow. For some reason the childhood memory of shaking a tree with a hornet's nest came to mind. He had never forgotten the painful result of that act.
He wondered if the Federation would get the opportunity to learn from this one.
