New Frontier

A wildness raged within Captain Mackenzie Calhoun, one that was often absent from the other officers of Starfleet. But, as he walked the bridge of his command, the USS Excalibur, he felt grateful for its presence inside him, burning away at the fear he felt at facing down the cloaked Romulan Bird of Prey that followed them out there in the void of space.

Whist the Excalibur had gotten the drop on their Romulan friends and had achieved a glancing blow on one of their warp nacelles, their opponents had managed to cloak before any damage that might have disabled their vessel could be dealt. Now Calhoun and his crew were on red alert, looking for any sign of the Romulans, and whatever it was that they were so desperate to defend.

Calhoun was used to knowing where an enemy was. In his youth, when he’d fought the Danteri for the control of his homeworld of Xenex, knowing the movements of his enemies had been almost second nature to him. Now, after being cooped up for so long in the walls of Starfleet Headquarters on Earth, Calhoun’s senses had dulled, leaving him with only the sensors of the Ambassador Class he captained to find his cloaked opponent.

But Mackenzie Calhoun had a plan.

“Lieutenant MacHenry” Calhoun called to the man slumped in the seat by the navigation console, “figure out which direction those Romulan...” He glanced quickly over to his science officer Solleta before refocusing his attention onto MacHenry “individuals might have vectored in from.” MacHenry sat straight up in his chair and started his calculations as soon as the last words left Calhoun’s mouth, hands dancing across the controls almost too fast for his human physiology to handle.

He turned back to his science officer “Lieutenant Soletta, scan for any ion leaks and filter by the length of particle decay.”

“Aye captain!” Soletta turned to her console so quickly her knifelike ears seemed to cut lines out of the air around them.

Finally, Calhoun turned around to take in the sight of the veritable living mountain stationed behind him “Lieutenant Kebron, reload photon torpedoes, recharge phaser banks and prepare to fire on my mark.”

“Yes, captain” came the rumble of Zack Kebron’s voice and his stone fingers could soon be heard crashing against the control panel, carrying out Calhoun’s commands.

Now waiting for results was all Calhoun and his crew had left. His hand’s grip tightened on the armrests of his chair as the time dragged on, watching each speck of starlight for any hint of movement across their surfaces. But the bridge’s viewscreen remained empty, aside from the few pieces of debris left over from the wound they’d already dealt the bird of prey, and Calhoun’s anxieties over the Romulan’s movements only grew.

A beep of conformation came from Machenry’s console as his final calculations came in and the entire bridge crew, aside from Lieutenant’s Soletta and Kebron, turned expectantly towards him.

“Most probable vector 90˚ to starboard, 220˚ to keel.” MacHenry started to slide back into his chair, task completed.

“Good work Lieutenant, take us to the those coordinates and follow their trajectory, one-quarter impulse.” Barked Calhoun and MacHenry sprang back into action in a way that might have seemed comical in safer circumstances.

As soon as the Excalibur began to move Soletta’s console leapt to life “Captain, detecting faint readings of an ion trail coming from about 180˚ to port.”

Calhoun smiled “Good work Lieutenant. Kebron, take aim a couple of degrees above the coordinates that Lieutenant Solleta has so kindly provided for us.”

“Yes, sir.” Zack said, “targeting now in place.”

“Then fire away.” Calhoun gave the order and watched on as the phaser fire lit up the outline of the cloaked Romulan ship, giving him and his crew the perfect view as the photon torpedo smashed its way through the vessel’s already damaged warp nacelle.

“Good work people” called Calhoun, smile widening at the now very full view screen, “Comms, send a message to Starfleet command about our little Romulan friends here, MacHenry, keep us on course, let’s find whatever it was they were so keen to keep us away from.”