Star Trek: The Ranger, Part 3: Showdown

Chapter 1

The Ranger, Part 3

Showdown

I

Admiral Alynna Necheyav was happy as a clam, but at the same time, mad as hell. The dichotomy actually made her smile.

The operation on Covis III hadn't turned up Seven of Nine, but the information gleaned from first Commander Ozi's canvas, followed up by the Special Forces operation, had deposited a treasure trove of information that she could use.

She knew now that Kathryn Janeway, her old, hated nemesis, was more than likely hiding Seven of Nine from The Federation. It was possible that Tom Paris and B'Elanna Torres were with them. From this, she could make an educated guess that Owen Paris very well could be involved in this.

She now knew that Janeway had co-opted one of these technological marvels that were being built on Covis III (correction, she thought icily, that were no longer being built), and had the ability to nimbly hide from anyone. Her engineers were picking apart the two ships that had been lifted from Covis III, and already were salivating at how advanced those ships were: slipstream drives that The Federation had yet to perfect; ablative armor far better than what her fleet had; an astonishing shield capability that could protect multiple vessels.

On top of all that, a cloaking system that the Klingons and Romulans would drool over. Not only was the cloak infinitely better than what those two powers had, but it could fire while cloaked. No one had seen that since the battle between the U.S.S Excelsior, under the command of Hikara Sulu, and an experimental ship at Khitomer a century earlier.

All that information made Necheyav nod in satisfaction, but so much was still unknown.

Where were Seven and Janeway?

Who was backing them? They couldn't be operating as rogues.

Was anyone in Starfleet or The Federation involved?

Had the Fenris Rangers, and by extension, the planet of Fenris, acquired these advanced ships, making it easy for them to hit targets without warning?

How at risk was Section 31's own XB prison from an attack?

She needed those answers, and quickly. The time for subtleties were over. It was time for The Federation under her orders to flex it's military muscles to get those answers.

Within a few hours after receiving the devastating news from Covis III, a shaken B'Elanna Torres had initiated the heavily Borg-encrypted subspace message that would find it's way to Seven of Nine and Kathryn Janeway. The mere thought that The Federation now had two of their coveted ships disturbed both she and her husband, Tom Paris, to no end.

The only comfort to B'Elanna was that it would take the engineers at San Francisco, Utopia Planetia, or McKinley Station a long time to figure out how many of the systems worked. Any decent pilot could fly the ship, but there were so many advanced, Borg-like encryption throughout the infrastructure of those ships that it would be slow-going, at least insofar as The Federation mass producing their own version of those ships.

They had some time. Not a lot, but they did have some.

Now they were trying to make plans.

"I was up all night", Tuvok explained to them, "to try and sort out a logical path forward as to what our priorities should be. I must tell you that I am not certain as to exactly where to start."

Tom groaned. "If you don't have any idea, Tuvok, then we're dead in the water."

Tuvok shook his head. "I did not say I was bereft of any ideas, Mr. Paris, but that there are so many variables now that, quite frankly, it's hard to sort out what step should be taken first."