"Edge"

[Cptn Elias Moore 0]

Governor Mendell was on edge. More on edge than usual and for more than one reason. His colony, Deneva, once little more than a backwater Starfleet outpost, was now at the center of a mounting interstellar crisis.

 

The colony was not placed near Orion space without purpose. Starfleet wanted a base with proximity to Klingon territory. The Syndicate territories wedged between the two powers provided a buffer. The purpose of the base was threefold--intelligence on Klingon activities, a launching pad for Klingon-related missions, and the simple message of "we're Earth, we're expanding, and we'll put a base right in your backyard without hesitation."

 

Mendell didn't agree with such an aggressive policy, so it was with the bitter taste of irony that his former colleagues in Starfleet Command 'offered' him this governorship. The same colleagues who'd 'encouraged' him to resign his Admiralty when he voiced his support for less aggressive policies one too many times.

 

Deneva served its purpose when a meeting was planned between Captain Archer and Klingon officials. Governor Mendell had a seat at the planning table; he observed as the warning signs mounted. The meeting was originally to be conducted in Orion space between Archer and a political officer. It rather abruptly morphed into a meeting in Klingon space between Archer and a military officer. Governor Mendell had been one of the voices urging that the meeting be called off if the original arrangements could not be restored. It seemed the sensible approach. It was an approach that both Archer and the Coalition's expert on Klingons agreed with. But Admiral Hawk, overseeing the operation and speaking for the Coalition, was hell-bent on a Klingon alliance. He felt that acquiescence would be a show of their desire for peaceful relations, while refusal could risk putting even more distance between the two powers.

 

Mendell recalled the urgency on the part of Hawk and the two Commodores that had accompanied him. There was something driving that urgency, and Mendell wondered if Archer, a man who'd had a bounty placed on his head by the Empire, would still have been catapulted into Klingon space if that 'something' wasn't weighing heavily on their minds.

 

Mendell still had friends at Headquarters, and those friends kept him apprised of Starfleet affairs. He'd heard the rumors of war brooding on the horizon, of a mysterious new faction posing threats to interstellar peace. If Mendell were still back in San Francisco, he'd be recommending that the UEG make contact with this new faction. But Starfleet's approach was involving anything but contact.

 

Admiral James Gardner, just a Commodore when Mendell handed in his resignation, was gaining a great deal of support within Starfleet and, it was rumored, the UEG. Gardner was a man who had achieved rank advancement mostly through military prowess; it troubled Mendell that Starfleet's and even Earth's future could fall under the direction of such an officer. Sure enough, rumors told that Gardner's clique appeared more interested in preparing for war than averting it. Hawk, also a Commodore when Mendell resigned, had always been a close friend of Gardner's. Was his urgency being driven by the rumors of war? Was the request for an alliance, in fact, a plea for military support?

 

It seemed like they would be getting quite the opposite. The meeting, as expected, did not go well at all. The two ships and their crews had been captured and not heard from since. Worse, long range sensors showed the number of Klingon vessels near the border increasing by the day. 'Imminent invasion' was the inevitable conclusion. Not even the Coalition expert could shed any light on this alarming shift in Klingon policy. Attempts to contact the Empire were failing, and now the rumors from back home had Starfleet preparing to mobilize its own forces along the border. The whole situation was taking on a million shades of ugly. But it wasn't ready to implode just yet...

 

Challenger was returning to Deneva...

 

... as were the Orions.

 

Governor Mendell still recalled the last time that both Challenger and the Orions had visited his colony. Deneva had been threatened by an errant asteroid, and like the knights in shining starships that Starfleet's officers were supposed to be, Challenger's crew managed to deflect the astral body. But in the chaos of the evacuation efforts, Orion slavers, possibly responsible for the asteroid threat, swooped in and kidnapped several colonists. The abductions were another incident cleaned up by Challenger's crew. They'd been the second crew to take an NX-class vessel out of drydock, and their response to the two Denevan crises showed them to be a capable group.

 

The Orions had the potential to be a menace to Denevan operations. But Challenger's thwarting of their abduction attempt went a long way in warding them away from the colony. On top of that, Coalition policy was concerned heavily with neutralizing any Syndicate threat. With the once squabbling Coalition worlds now united, trade routes were better protected against piracy and smuggling operations were pursued rigorously. The Coalition was also working on the inside, establishing contacts within the Syndicate. The Orions currently on their way to Deneva were lead by one such contact.

 

Mendell wasn't sure how he would feel about seeing another Orion vessel in the Deneva system. But he knew exactly how he'd feel if he saw fifty Klingon vessels in the system. If the Klingons were preparing for war, they'd look to Deneva first. The little backwater outpost would become the arrowhead of the Coalition defense... and it probably would not last long in that role.

 

Two Starfleet crews presumably held captive behind what could now safely be classified as enemy lines--a crisis about to be entrusted to the whims of a race with a reputation for thuggery and decadence.

 

Yes, Governor Mendell was quite on edge... yet he simply couldn't refuse the sixth cup of coffee brought to him already that day... along with a report that their Orion guests had just appeared on long range sensors and would be arriving in under twenty minutes. The game was about to unravel.