Ready or not

"Sir; ships are reporting readiness."

"About time," growled Samji as he turned towards his exec, the woman pointing at the monitors dedicated each to one specific ship. Nodding to Karen, he stepped closer to them as one woman's awesomely beautiful face despite the utter baldness of her head appeared over that of a Nebula class starship, its wide oval saucer sporting two flat warp nacelles underneath and a large fight pod on top where class XI shuttles were finishing docking maneuvers.

"Starbase 10, this is the Wisconsin; we are ready to depart for Quadrant One," said the sensuous yet firm voice of the Deltan.

"Thank you, captain Onia," acknowledged Samji. "Captain Speaker-Of-Names, is the Pittsburgh also ready to depart?"

On the monitor next to the one showing the gorgeous commanding officer of the USS Wisconsin was seen the image of a New Orleans class vessel, similar to the Wisconsin but for upswept nacelles and added pods on the aft section of the flat, oval primary hull. It faded to display the startling tiger-like head of the only Kzinti to ever serve in Starfleet.

"Affirmative, Fleet Captain."

The curtness of the answer from the naturally low, growling voice emphasized the nervous flapping of the batwing-shaped ears expressing the slight annoyance of the massively built felinoid. There was only one female captain in the entire complement of Lotus Fleet and the Kzinti had been matched with her. He obviously still had to work at completely going over his instinctive racial prejudice against females. Kzinti females were barely sentient, so it had taken several years for Speaker-Of-Names to realize and accept that such was not the case with other species. Not to mention that, in his culture still not part of the United Federation of Planets, even a past fierce enemy, everything had to be earned, from respect to belongings, even down to their very names.

Captain Onia had proven herself more than enough to him during the Borg Invasion, when during his command of the entire operation from Starbase 10 he had witnessed her attempt to peacefully stop the Borg advance by sharing her overwhelming sensuality with the Borg Queen, breaking her Vow of Celibacy with her Ferengi first officer to try and convince Sedin of renouncing her mad campaign of annihilation against the Federation. It had almost worked... and Onia's willingness to sacrifice her career and even her sanity to try and stop a war without bloodshed had not gone unnoticed, even from the Kzinti officer. Samji knew he would not stay indisposed for long once they started working together again.

"Wisconsin, Pittsburgh, you are free to depart. Godspeed."

"We will earn our savior's names today," answered Speaker-Of-Names.

Onia only smiled and winked.

The small viewscreens reverted to external view in time to show both ships moving out of the immense interior of the starbase on all thrusters, then making some distance quickly on full impulse once outside before a distant pair of flashes confirmed their warping out towards the Azimuth Horizon anomaly.

The voice of Lieutenant Koral then came from the flight control station.

"Fleet Captain; the USS Aurora and the USS Steamrunner are reporting in."

Two other small viewers lighted up. One showed another Nebula class starship but with its upper pod dedicated to laboratories and study rooms, as befited a Starfleet Academy ship under the Lotus Fleet banner. The other displayed the peculiarly flat, unusually rectangular and characteristically angular frame of the prototype of the Steamrunner class of escort vessels, one of the smallest designs of Starfleet. Samji looked at them both with visible relief and satisfaction in his voice.

"Our first good news of the day. Lieutenant, tell Commodore Brigham to position his cadet cruise school ship coreward and Captain Ramabai to do so rimward. Both will maintain standard synchroneous orbit around the starbase. We'll keep them as our reserve for either the operation... or the evacuation."

"Or if the Romulans get past the Artemis and the Alsea..." whispered Karen Schmidt to Allen Samji's ears alone.

After a moment, the starbase commanding officer looked at yet another monitor. It displayed the slim, elongated but classic capital ship lines of forward top saucer, lower secondary hull and two upward nacelles of an Excelsior class Lakota refit. Straightening his uniform, the bearded man turned again towards his statuesque exec.

"Commander, do we have any readiness confirmation from the Republic?"

"Aye, Sir. They are as we speak taunting the McKenzie."

Then, the distinctive voice of Captain V'Rell Gould resonated throughout the command center.

"Port control this is the USS Lotus requesting clearance to exit the station, all lights are green I repeat, all lights are green."

*Lotus you are clear to leave station at this time, maintain port speed until you have cleared the station.*

The helmsman gave a confused look and his captain, then replied. "Roger port control, maintaining port speeds." then looked around the bridge "I wonder what that was all about?" and shrugged.

Lt. Commander Tomah gave a chuckle "Seems a certain blue skinned captain left in a hurry earlier, I think their still scrapping the paint off the door as we speak."

Gould shook his head and mumbled the word 'reckless..' but said nothing of it, he had his own problems to concern himself with. "Helm, once clear put is into position to best support the other vessels, we may not be a fighting ship by design but most of the rest of them are even less so."

As the ship cleared the station Gould opened a ship wide announcement "All hands, red alert, man your stations. red alert."

In the command center of Starbase 10, Lieutenant Koral turned towards his commanding officer with the characteristic raised Vulcan eyebrow.

"Sir? the Lotus is moving into support position of the Aurora and the Steamrunner."

"Confirmed, Sir," then said Commander Schmidt also frowning. "They have implemented Condition Red on board."

Samji sighed to refrain from blurting out an expletive.

What the hell does he think he's doing? His Romulan side is flaring up it looks like...

"Grok, patch me to the Lotus."

"Channel open, Sir."

"USS Lotus, this is Lotus Fleet Command. Belay your current action and prepare to proceed to your designated operation area. Once the Spectre undocks, best speed to Quadrant Three as planned."

Almost in the same breath, Samji then ordered again to his Ferengi chief of ops:

"Give me the Spectre."

"Go ahead, Sir."

"USS Spectre, this is Fleet Command. The Lotus is already out and ready to proceed. Launch immediately and best speed to Quadrant Three."

His tone of voice was firm and hard enough to make it very clear that he was getting impatient with the delay. The anomaly was still spreading like wildfire accross space, the Horizon Children had already tried again to infiltrate them all, the Romulans were already on their way... and, if anything, Klingons were not known for procrastinating. Things were picking up pace and, ready or not, it was time for action.

Their whole universe was at stake.

Grok then addressed his commanding officer:

"Sir, the Spectre is fully powered up and ready to go... but still no confirmation from Captain Summers."

Mumbling an expletive , Samji went closer to the communication board.

"USS Spectre, this is Starbase 10; the Lotus is already out and waiting. We have suited up personnel that can go out and push if you need it..."

He interrupted himself before he said something even more acidic and instead turned towards his Ferengi chief of Ops.

"Grok, if they are not out in five minutes, tow them out."

Aboard the Lotus Lt. Vincent was standing by at his controls when the message came in to stand down from red alert but Gould had not yet replied or ordered this to be done. Almost with a wince he acknowledged the order. "Bring us to yellow alert Mr. Vincent, but everyone is to remain at station until further notice." He was obviously annoyed.. but an order was an order and so he did what he was told, but he felt like a fool for doing it.

"Keep a weathered eye for any sign of a cloaked vessel Lt. Sainthill, I'm not as comfortable as our fleet captain about standing here being an easy target as he seems to be." The man obviously knew nothing of Romulan tactics. The vary fact that their flagship could be seen surly meant they were drawing them out.. Malfunctioning cloak? please.. oldest trick in the book.. it was a trap.

"The Lotus is complying, Sir," then officially confirmed Commander Schmidt from the reports she got of Lieutenant Koral at flight control.

"Good," simply grumbled Samji.

Whatever had gone through the flagship captain's mind about waiting at red alert for thirty-four hours straight until the intruder would possibly be in range, when their most powerful warship and their largest starship were both already out to intercept it in less than twelve while two others stood guard already, the starbase commander could not fathom. But at least Gould showed discipline and had put back his priorities straight.

The fire was spreading out there.

Samji however knew that the captain of the flagship had extensive experience with Romulans; he of all people certainly knew their way of thinking. Reflecting on his seemingly panicking reaction, Samji concluded that the man possibly feared a Romulan trick with this threatening dreadnought... and that might just have been the reaction the Romulans hoped for.

Yet...

"Lieutenant Commander Ja'Hark," he then asked; "report from the Neutral Zone tachyon grid and surveillance outposts?"

"Negative so far, Sir," the intelligence chief answered with his characterisic gruff Klingon voice.

"Keep constant contact with them..." insisted Starbase 10's commander. "And with the Klingon border watch as well."

"Aye, Sir."

This certainly was no time to panic, second guess or fall asleep.

Just as he was thinking so, the voice of Captain Daniel Summers came through the open fleet channel.

"Spectre here Fleet Command sorry for the delay in our response we are ready and leaving port as we speak, good luck Fleet Command we will see you soon" Summers repsonded quite annoyed that for some reason he could recieve messages but not respond, I'll have to get O'Conner to take a look at that later no time right now we need to be ready.

"Sir, their Ops chief is reporting comm problems only just now resolved," reported Lieutenant Commander Grok. "That's why they were long in answering and requesting departure."

Samji sighed and rolled his eyes skyward before ordering curtly:

"Understood. Confirm priority departure spacedoor B. Clear their moorings from up here and release tractor hold."

"They are free to navigate," confirmed lieutenant Koral after a few seconds.

"USS Spectre, full thrusters out and join with the Lotus. Proceed to Quadrant Three now."

On the viewer, the flat disc with low-angled nacelles so distinctive of the Akira class cruiser slid between docking pylons and quickly through the huge opening filled with stars.

"Commander once we are clear take us to Quadrant Three best possible speed I will be down traveling through Engineering and Security to take a look around and check our operational readiness with my own eyes, to give me a little peace of mind" Summers said as he got up and walked off the bridge and into the turbolift.

In a few moments, the Spectre and the Lotus were side by side facing away from Starbase 10 and towards the distant, tiny flare of gold-orange light that looked like a nearby star but that was in fact a blaze about to devour the cosmos; a blaze they were tasked to put out, against all odds... and anyone who would try to stop them.

"Aye Captain," Rogers responded.

Rising and moving to the now vacated center seat, David stood before it and co-ordinated tasks.

"Helm, prepare to match course and speed with the Lotus. Comms? Open a channel to her."

The small chirp preceded the almost immediate response from the comms officer. "Channel open Commander."

"Lotus, the Spectre is ready on your mark. We have your six Captain."

Down in main engineering, the massive core pulsed rythmically, awaiting a simple press of the helmsman's finger on an icon button. Sustained warp six was standard cruising speed for an Akira class, but the Spectre was poised to follow the flagship of Lotus Fleet, so her matter/anti-matter reaction assembly would sustain warp nine point eight for about twelve hours if need be.

"This is the McKenzie, Captain Crist speaking, we request permission to head out."

"Your clear McKenzie."

"Thank you control."

Gould responded to Captain Summers "Thank you Spectre, linking nav systems for tandem warp now.." he looked at his helmsman who gave him a nod. "Engage!"

Matching to the second the two ship's powered up their warp drives and vanished leaving behind only a brief stretched after image to mark their passage.

They were on their way.