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File #9 - "Determination"

"Captain, I'm getting an encoded message coming through on a lower subspace band" Ensign Akando called out as Captain Nicholson entered the bridge from his ready room.

The subsequent disruption in Engineering had affected the main power systems of the Warrior to such an extent that the ship was limited to emergency power. The warp drive was offline and there was still no response from the main computer itself.

Captain Nicholson walked behind the female ensign, looking over her shoulder at the information that was coming in. "That's the emergency code!" he responded, recognising the distinct patterns of binary code that displayed across the holographic console that both he and the ensign were looking at. "Run it through an alphanumeric sequencer."

The ensign obliged, skillfully tapping over the control panel with her fingers. She looked up at the Captain, her wide eyes and darkened skin glistening from the sweat of working in this environment since the environmental systems began to malfunction on the bridge. She had straight cut black hair and her most distinctive feature, a tribal tattoo over her right forehead, displaying her tribe similar to the famous U.S.S. Voyager first officer Chakotay.

Her's was different however, symbolising that she originated from a different tribe that had colonised a different world along the demilitarized zone on the Cardassian border. It was a complex spiral that quite amusing to her fellow crew members that had nicknamed her "Milky" due to "having the milky way on her face". It was all meant in good humour, a trend brought over from her academy days.

The message on the console changed from the pattern of zeros and ones into an readable format.

"It's from Commander Val'sha!" exclaimed Ensign Akando as they read the message. "She's letting us know that she is still alive aboard the Victorious. From what I can tell, there is some sort of entity that is what...?"

Captain Nicholson looked down at the perplexed Ensign. "What is it?" he asked impatiently.

"It just says the word "melded" sir..." responded the Ensign. "And the word "Danger" but I believe she must have run out of space. The Emergency Code can only be used for a short message. With comms down... I cannot get anymore then that."

"Yeah..." responded Captain Nicholson, his usually formal approach starting to buckle under the stress of the situation. "...Pretty much everything on the ship is down at the moment..."

He turned and walked to the center of the bridge, Kiska was still attempting a manual bypass to the propulsion systems without using the main computer and was continually swearing in Bajoran as her efforts were met with little success.

"Captain!" alerted Ensign Akando. "There is a vessel entering the area. Its Romulan!"

Captain Nicholson immediately turned to the Ensign, looking over at her with determined eyes. He hoped it was not a Tal Shiar vessel or their problems just got a lot worse the a few system malfunctions. "Can you identify it?"

"Norexan Class, R.R.W. Serpentarius"

Nicholson breathed a sigh of relief but was hoping that his crew did not see it. The Serpentarius was the warbird of Commander Donaris, a Romulan Commander who he had worked very closely with during the recent shakedown tests for the Warrior. The Romulan Republic had been assisting Starfleet in perfecting the MIDAS-Touch Array by providing a live warbird for the Warrior to track.

He had been working with Commander Donaris very closely indeed, maybe a little too closely as one drunken night in his quarters may have indicated.

However he had no time to continue feeling relieved...

The bridge consoles suddenly sprung to life, like somebody had flipped a switch. Ensign Kiska was almost blinded as the power conduit she had been working on blazed to life in front of her as she swore in Bajoran.

"Report!?" cried out Captain Nicholson in complete surprise.

Ensign Akando shot up from her station, rushing over the to the vacant tactical console. "Captain, our shields have gone up! Phasers are coming online and we have Photon and Quantum Torpedoes online and ready to launch!"

"U.S.S. Warrior, this is the R.R.W. Serpentarius. We are detecting power fluctuations over there... is everyone alright?" came the voice of a Romulan female over the communications system.

"Open a channel!" ordered Captain Nicholson as Kiska finished rubbing her eyes and returned to her station at the helm.

She looked surprised, almost disturbed as she looked to her commanding officer. "Captain! I'm completely locked out of communications... helm control... weapons... even the ARC Thrusters arn't responding!"

Captain Nicholson watched helplessly as the huge wingspan of the Romulan vessel edged closer and closer. "Has the Serpentarius raised shields?" he asked, expecting the worse. "Of course they wouldn't... " he thought, chastising himself for even being so stupid. "To them, the Warrior was an allied ship. But just maybe Commander Donaris would be more cautious."

An alarm blared on the Bridge as the vessel suddenly dropped to red alert by itself. "Captain... I can't get any of the control systems to respond... we are loading Quantum Torpedoes!" screamed Ensign Akando, her Starfleet training dropping just a little from her lack of experience.

"Shut them down!"

"I can't Captain, I'm locked out of all Tactical control. The computer is not even accepting an manual override!"

Seconds were all they had. Before anyone had a chance to say anything further, Captain Nicholson could only watch in horror and powerlessly as his ship fired two blazing blue bolts of light at the Romulan Warbird.

He closed his eyes as the torpedoes ripped through the unshielded wing of the Norexan Class warbird, blasting it clean off and causing a chain reaction that engulfed the ship in a fiery oblivion.

"Captain..." called out Kiska as he found himself transfixed by the horror that he had witnessed. His thoughts not only going to his casual intimate encounter with Commander Donaris but also to the crew and families of the warbird that his ship had just massacred. "I'm receiving a transmission but I cannot pinpoint its source..."

A voice filled the room, the same voice that he had heard before and exactly the same jumble of tones.

"I am... aware".