USS Malinche NCC-38997-A

ON:
[[Bridge, USS Phoenix, 2373]]

"Report, Mr. Hansen." requested the first officer of the nebula-class USS Phoenix, Commander April Vos (NPC).

Sean looked up from his console at the auxiliary operations station. He normally worked gamma shift but the Phoenix had detected increased Dominion activity and Captain Maxwell had requested extra officers on the bridge while he spoke with command. "I don't really know what to make of it, Ma'am. The ships are almost trying to let us listen in on their communications, but none of it makes any sense."

The chief operations officer looked over to where Sean was seated. "Ensign," he said, "if you're going to report something, it had better be something more than 'I don't know.' Why doesn't it make sense?"

Sean glanced at his immediate superior before answering the question toward the executive officer. "The messages are just random information. It's not even coherent with each other. I think they're trying to make it *look* like they're planning something."

The chief operations officer stopped himself from laughing. "Ensign, please. If you're going to theorize about something, make it a realistic theory. If they're transmitting messages, there has to be a point to them."

"I wouldn't be too sure of that, Lieutenant." said Maxwell, who had just emerged from his ready room. "The Dominion and Cardassians have made their move on Deep Space 9. I've conferred with the sector commander and she agrees that now is the time to strike the shipyards that we've been monitoring on the other side of the border."

"Captain," responded Commander Vos, "Are you sure that is a good idea? The Dominion ships we've been monitoring..."

"Are little more than decoys, Commander." Maxwell interrupted. "From the information we've got, the Dominion hasn't had a chance to build up their forces since they came through the wormhole and the majority of their forces are part of the fleet on its way to DS9. If we strike now, I have a feeling that we'll find that the battleships on sensors are skeleton crews. They'd want the most Jem Hadar to serve as boarding parties for the attack on the station."

"I agree with the Captain, Commander." Lieutenant Heaney (NPC) said from her station at tactical.

Vos nodded, knowing that at this point it was a moot point to argue and also knowing that the Captain's hunches were normally right. Turning to face the front of the bridge, she looked at the helmsman and ordered, "Lieutenant, set course for the shipyards, maximum warp." Turning back to Maxwell, she asked, "I presume we're going to have assistance once we get there, aren't we?"

Maxwell smirked slightly. "Of course, Commander. The Legacy and Davidson will be joining us en route. Lieutenant, engage."

~Snip three hours later~

"Either the Captain was right, or someone is asleep at the wheel over there." Heaney said as the Phoenix dropped out of warp. "They haven't even raised their shields yet."

Maxwell tapped the tips of his fingers together into a triangle shape in front of him. "Lock torpedoes onto their key systems and fire. Helm, attack pattern Maxwell delta six."

A few moments later Heaney smiled. "We've disabled their shields and weapons. Shall I continue firing, sir?"

"You know me too well, Lieutenant." Maxwell said. "Clear that ship from my screen."

"Aye Captain." she responded, tapping in her controls exactly what she wanted to see happen. "Quantum torpedoes, firing."

Seven blue flashes emerged from the Phoenix's forward torpedo launcher. A breaths later, they impacted on the hull of the Dominion ship near its engines. It could only be presumed that one of the hits took out a plasma relay of some sort because secondary explosions could soon be seen all over the ship. Within a few moments, the explosions made it to the warp core causing a spectacular explosion, sending out a shockwave that rocked the Phoenix.

Maxwell smiled. "There we go. We don't want to go around leaving entire hulls floating in space, now can we? Helm, resume course to the shipyards."

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<<USS Phoenix, 0800 hours, 3 days after the end of the Dominion war>>

Sean walked into the ready room and looked over at the empty desk. Captain Maxwell had requested him to meet him there, but when he arrived the XO had told him the Maxwell wasn't there, but he could just go right in. Soon after walking into the room, Sean became curious at some of the items on display and began taking a closer look. There were some items there that fit in, but others he couldn't identify and didn't seem like they were meant to be pieces of art.

"Finding anything interesting, Mr. Hansen?" came the voice of Captain Maxwell, scaring Sean and causing him to jump up and twist around.

"Captain!" Sean exclaimed. "I'm sorry sir, I didn't hear you come in. I didn't touch anything, I was just looking."

Ben waved his hand up and down slightly. "Calm down, Sean, calm down. I'm not going to bust you back to cadet for looking at my more... unique items."

Sean swallowed, now curious even more than he had been as to why he had been called. "Sir, if I may ask... what are these? They look like tools, but they're like nothing I've ever seen before."

"Those, Mr. Hansen," Ben said, pointing to one of the items sitting out, "are why you're here."

Sean quirked an eyebrow. "Sir?" he said, not entirely sure what the captain meant by the statement.

"Sit down, Sean." Ben said as he took a seat on the couch along the wall of the room. After Sean did as he was asked, Ben continued. "In the last few years I've seen a lot of officers... good officers, come and go. Some of them died in the war, some of them transfered, but others... others I've seen to keep an eye on. You're one of those officers, Sean."

Sean's attention was now fully involved in what the captain was saying. He had never had a CO tell him something like that before, and Captain Maxwell was one of those that seemed to rarely give his approval, least of all verbally.

"You care about the Federation, don't you Sean?" Ben asked, his voice slightly hushed, in a caring tone.

"Most definitely, Sir. Of course." Sean responded. He wanted to leave it at that, but he just couldn't. "We just fought a war together for the Federation. Why would you have to ask something like that, sir? Haven't I proved my loyalty?"

Ben patted Seans knee slightly and got up from his seat. "Because there are people out there that would let the Federation fall to our enemies. There are people out there that think that in order to get along with other species we must be submissive to them. Those are the kind of people that we can't use, those are the people who would see us fail."

Sean looked at his captain with a quizzical face. "Sir, if I may? Who is the 'us' you're referring to?"

"The 'us' I'm referring to, Sean, is a small group of patriots that know what needs to be done to protect the Federation and will stop at nothing to do so. A group that's been around since the founding of the Federation, and a group that will live on far longer than the petty politics of today. A group... Sean... that wants you to be a part of it."

Sean swallowed. This was what he had been waiting for... why he had been assigned to the Phoenix in the first place... but the question was, with all of what he had been through with Ben, where *did* his loyalties lie?

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