Yay! I finished another episode. Please let me know, what you guys think.

EPISODE 7: STOP THE SIGNAL

Captain's log, stardate 91692.1. Starfleet Intelligence has decrypted the information found from the Klingon listening post in the Paulson Nebula and they believe there is at least one more of those posts out there. They have located the signal repeater, which boosts the subspace transmissions from these listening posts. Our orders are to go to the Bomari system, find the signal repeater and use it to track down the coordinates of the other listening post.

"Captain, we are approaching the signal repeater. If we can get close enough, we can eavesdrop on the transmissions and determine the point of origin. Starfleet has reported hostile ships in the area, so we should be cautious," Elisa said when they had dropped out of warp in their destination. Around the ship lay an asteroid field and blue-colored gas had assembled in clouds around larger asteroids.

"Very well. Potter, bring us around to the repeater. M'Rew, raise shields, just to be on the safe side," Lyzara ordered and ship moved forward, circling around smaller asteroids to avoid impacts that could inform the enemies of their location. When the ship reached the satellite, T'Vrell informed: "Captain, the Klingons are using a low-frequency subspace carrier wave to send their stolen transmissions. We'll need to listen through the spectrum to figure out what the Klingons have heard and where they're sending it."

"Begin the frequency scan, lieutenant."

"Subspace frequency 8.3. Rerouting it through the speakers," T'Vrell informed a moment later and a male voice said: "… just two more weeks, but then the semi-finals are right upon us and…." The signal broke up.

"That's not it. Continue scanning," Lyzara said and leaned forward on her chair.

"Frequency 14.9," T'Vrell told and speaker lit up again. A male voice could be heard, saying: "… along the border of the sector. Redeploying tachyon sensors to pick up cloaked Klingon vessels…"

"That is valuable Starfleet deployment information. Sir, this must be the signal that the Klingons are tapping," T'Vrell said.

"We need do trace the destination of that signal." Lyzara agreed and T'Vrell started pressing buttons on her console.

"Tracing the signal now," she informed. "The Klingons are bouncing the signal off of another repeater."

"Potter, bring us around to the second repeater," Lyzara ordered as soon as T'Vrell had transmitted the coordinates to the conn officer. The ship moved deeper into the asteroid field, still trying to avoid smaller space rocks, but they grew thicker and soon they could see the ship's shield flickering as several of them crashed with the shields. They were closing in on the repeater as M'Rew informed: "Klingon vessel decloaking on the starboard side. It's powering up its weapons." The Bird-of-Prey fired a quick burst from its dual cannons, closing quickly on the Starfleet ship as if it were trying to ram it. Then, on the last moment it pulled up and around to come in for another pass. The Altair fired its phasers at the Klingon ship and its aft shield was quickly losing its integrity. But the Klingon Bird-of-Prey engaged its cloak, before the Altair could cripple its hull and vanished from the sensors.

"M'Rew, stay alert, T'Vrell, start tracking the signal," Lyzara ordered.

"Aye, sir," She answered. After a few minutes of scanning, there was still no indication of the Klingon ship and T'Vrell informed: "I have piggybacked a carrier wave on the signal from the repeater and tracked it to the source. There is a listening base located between the binary moons of Bomari II."

"Potter, lay in the course, warp four. Engage!" the Captain ordered.

"Captain, I was wondering about that Klingon ship that attacked us. It is not like the Klingons to disappear into thin air," Elisa said.

"I agree, but whatever its reasons were, I think we'll never know," Lyzara answered.

"Maybe they got scared? I mean we did cripple their shields with just a few shots."

"Possible, though very unlikely. The Klingons' idea of honor makes them quite willing to die in a battle rather than flee, which in every case is considered a great dishonor," T'Vrell stated. Elisa considered that explanation for a moment and thought that maybe they shall find out the Klingons' reasons sooner than they think.

"Sir, I'm detecting a Klingon transporter disruption field around the listening post. The field is maintained by a transporter disruptor near the asteroid belt between the moons," T'Vrell informed once they had reached Bomari II. The planet was straight ahead and the two moons just off the starboard flank. The Altair moved towards the asteroid field, there were no Klingon ships on the sensors, but they could be cloaked. They reached the disruptor fairly quickly and still the system seemed quite abandoned.

"Loading photon torpedoes," M'Rew said as they were in weapons range.

"Fire," Lyzara ordered and a volley was moving fast towards the satellite, crippling it a moment later. Less than ten seconds after that, a Klingon Bird-of-Prey decloaked on the port side, fired a volley of photon torpedoes at the Altair and then recloaked.

"Sir, our port shields are down to 65 percent," M'Rew informed.

"Thel, can you reinforce the shields in case the Bird-of-Prey decides to come around again?" Lyzara asked her chief engineer.

"I believe I can," he answered.

"When the ship decloaked, I scanned it and I am positive, that it was the same ship that attacked us before," T'Vrell said.

"You mean they followed us, but why?" Lyzara asked.

"Their reasons are unknown, but it seems like their intention is not to destroy us, but rather make us leave," the science officer said.

"But they could have just hailed us," Elisa stated.

"It wouldn't matter. We're here now and we're going to finish this mission one way or another," Lyzara said. "Helm set course for the listening post." And the Altair was closing in on the large asteroid in the field.

"Sir, we're receiving a hail from the Klingons," T'Vrell reported.

"On the main screen," The Captain said.

"Why does Starfleet interfere with the internal affairs of the Klingon Empire?" A dark-skinned Klingon Woman said. She had long dark brown hair and a fierce expression. On her left eye she wore an eye patch and a long scar was running down from her left eyebrow to her chin. Her good eye was hazel-colored and fixed on Lyzara. She wore dark brown body armor with round shoulder pads on both shoulders.

"We had no intention to interfere with your affairs, however this listening post is on the Federation territory and we have full right to be here. May I inquire who you are and why have you trespassed to Federation territory?" Lyzara answered.

"I am K'Val, daughter of Gara, from the house of Mol'An, Captain of the I.K.S. Acaltec. My intentions on the other hand are none of your concern. Leave now or I will destroy your ship."

"Don't threaten me, K'Val, you could have destroyed this vessel more than once, but you didn't. I want to know why," Lyzara said solemnly.

"That is none of your concern, Lyzara Dalis," K'Val answered.

"I never told you my name."

"You don't need to tell me anything, I've been following your progress, Dalis. You've been out of the academy for less than a month and already you have been made a ship commander and you have killed several Captains that are much more experienced than you are. You are really an extraordinary leader, I must admit," the Klingon said.

"I don't have time for this," Lyzara answered. "Are you going to attack my ship or not?"

"Attack you? No. I intend to help you," K'Val said with a smile.

"Captain, I don't believe her," Elisa said silently to Lyzara.

"Believe me or not, Commander Flores, frankly, I don't care," the Klingon snapped before Lyzara could answer. "I will beam down with you to the station; I suggest we hurry, because most likely we have been noticed by now," K'Val said and ceased the communication.

"Captain, that could be an ambush," Elisa stated.

"I don't think so. Njahla, Dgirexox, T'Vrell and Thel, you're coming with me. M'Rew, keep a target lock on the Klingon vessel and be ready to raise the shields, whether the away team is still down there or not. Elisa, you have the bridge," Lyzara said and stepped into the turbolift.

"Sir, we have received authorization from Starfleet to destroy this facility. It is considered vital to our war effort to protect our transmissions from enemy reception. I recommend we plant spatial charges throughout the area. If we hit several parts of the structure at once, it should suffer a catastrophic failure," T'Vrell said once they had beamed down. There was no sign of the Klingons. They were in one of the hallways. The corridor was hexagon-shaped and pipes ran across the walls. There were several crates around and consoles pulsed red, giving the walls a slight red glow. The lightning in the hallway was dim. They planted one of the charges right where they had beamed in and then entered to a room on their left. Klingons in the room took cover and exposed their weapons as the Starfleet officers hid in the doorframe. Two of the Klingons fell with a few shots, but the others constantly changed places to recharge their personal shields and keep firing at the away team. Suddenly, there were disruptor blasts behind the Klingons and when Lyzara turned to look, she saw that K'Val and her squad had taken care of them. The Klingon Captain was now wearing a black armor with smaller shoulder pads and tall boots. Into her team belonged another Klingon with a similar outfit, although he was also wearing gauntlets, a Nausicaan, who was wearing dark brown spiked armor and a breathing mask that covered most of his face, an Orion male and a Lethean who was wearing black body armor. To a bystander they would look quite an odd company, since Klingons usually veren't very eager to involve other species in their military operations. Lyzara soon realized why they were dressed in black or dark brown – that allowed them to blend in the shadows and make a surprise attack.

"I'm disappointed, you can't even handle a few Klingons by yourself," K'Val said. "Now, since you really need to destroy this station, better plant the spatial charges. Although it's sad really, it took such a long time to build it without Federation noticing." Lyzara decided to ignore K'Val's remarks and ordered Thel to set the charges. Then they moved back to the hallway they had come from and forward, around the corner. Thel planted one last charge another ten meters down the hallway and then informed: "Spatial charges are armed and ready, sir."

"Good, we need to determine what kind of sensitive information this listening post has picked up. We'll need to blast our way into the computer core and upload their records, just like we did at the listening post in the Lackey system. Thel, do we have enough spatial charges?" Lyzara said.

"Yes, I think so," the chief engineer answered and then K'Val, who had held back and remained silent for a while, said: "Are you serious? If you blow the doors, every Klingon on this station is going to come after you."

"Are you afraid, K'Val?" Lyzara asked.

"Don't insult me, Dalis. I am just pointing out that maybe you could be less conspicuous in your grand mission to protect the Federation. But don't let the mumblings of a Klingon disrupt you. Shall we continue?"

"After you," Lyzara said and they walked forward to the computer core.

There was a Klingon patrol just outside the core room, but they fell quickly as the ten officers killed them with phaser and disruptor blasts. Thel then planted a spatial charge on the door and they retreated around the corner to not be caught in an explosion. After the door blew, Lyzara and K'Val moved to both sides of the doorframe to assess the situation in the room and give orders to their teams for entry. Several Klingons in the room were already shooting their disruptors towards the intruders and K'Val signaled her squad to move in and hide behind the crates. Then she herself tapped something on her left arm and disappeared. Lyzara was quite amazed as she knew that Klingons rarely used personal cloaks. She also signaled her team to engage the enemies and rolled herself behind one of the containers in the room. The room was big with large view screens on the walls. There was a higher platform on the back of the room with several consoles on it, probably the main command consoles of the facility. Everything was still dimly lit. They kept constantly firing at the Klingons and Lyzara noticed that there was a melee fight going on between Dgirexox and a Klingon swordmaster. Dgirexox's blades were much more agile than the Bat'leth, and she was quickly gaining the upper hand and had already pierced the Klingon's armor in several places. In a few more moments the Klingons were dead and Lyzara could make her way to the platform to begin download. As she was setting up the link to the Altair, Njahla yelled:"More Klingons!" They took cover behind the consoles as the Klingons opened fire. Njahla threw in a grenade at them, killing three and making the others lose their footing. But more Klingons started to swarm in through the doors. K'Val shook her head, probably thinking I told you so, and threw a grenade at the enemies. It landed just in front of the door and caused a large plasma fire as it exploded, stopping the other Klingons from entering the room.

"You owe me one," she said to Lyzara as she turned her back on the door. But plasma fire apparently couldn't keep out everyone, because a Klingon swordmaster walked right through it, as if it hadn't hurt him at all. For a moment, everyone looked at the swordmaster with startled expressions and K'Val, who had been with her back at the door, slightly turned her head towards him, smiled and said: "I knew you had to be around here somewhere." Then she took a pistol off her belt and fired a single shot right into his head. For a moment it seemed to have no effect, but then the thing she had fired – a sticky bomb of some sort – beeped quickly three times and the swordmasted flew backwards against a wall. He seemed quite dead, but nobody dared to go in closer. A few seconds later they were glad they didn't, because the Klingon got up again and started twitching uncontrollably. His hands got longer and he seemed like he was climbing out of a shell. That Klingon swordmaster was an Undine! However, it didn't stay around to be hit with another sticky bomb and beamed up into the ship.

"That was an Undine infiltrator! They must be manipulating this whole situation to pit the Klingons and the Federation against each other – and to get valuable intelligence into Klingon hands for war," Dgirexox said to which K'Val made an impression that she was stating something very obvious.

"That makes it more critical than ever that we get this information back to Starfleet. We need to finish the download," Lyzara said and closed in on one of the computers.

"Captain, sensors just picked up an Undine ship on the far side of the moon! They've beamed someone aboard and are heading into the comet debris! Please return to the ship immediately!" Elisa said through the comm. Lyzara pressed a few buttons on the console and then said: "Very well, beam us up." Before she beamed out she could see K'Val detach something from the computer.

"Captain, the Klingon Bird-of-Prey is fighting the Undine ship! With their help we may be able to defeat it!" Elisa informed once they had reached the bridge.

"Well, let's help them," Lyzara said and the Altair was moving towards the Undine frigate that was already under fire from the Acaltec. The Bird-of-Prey was constantly flying around, making it hard to target, but the Undine ship kept constant pressure on its shields. The Altair fired a volley of photon torpedoes at the Undine frigate, crippling its port shields and making its hull vulnerable. Both ships concentrated their firepower there and although the Undine vessel was trying to get away, the Acaltec had no problems with keeping the hole in the shields in its front firing arc, while the less maneuverable Altair kept pressure on the shields while broadsiding, to prevent them from coming back up. The undine ship was viciously pounding them both with its antiproton arrays, but together they could destroy the vessel.

"Sir, the Klingon vessel is hailing us and K'Val is requesting to come aboard," T'Vrell informed.

"Request granted. Escort her to my ready room," Lyzara answered.

"Hello again, Captain. May I ask, what brings you onto my ship?" Lyzara said once they were alone with K'Val in her ready room.

"I assumed you wouldn't let me leave unless you got some answers. So shoot your questions – I believe you have many – and I'll do my best to give you satisfactory answers," K'Val said and sat down on the couch.

"Why are you suddenly so obliging?" Lyzara asked.

"You have aided me in battle, Captain, and I respect your bravery," K'Val said simply.

"I have aided you, but you killed your own people."
"That was necessary for the success of my mission."

"As simple as that, huh? Are you working for some Klingon separatist organization?" Lyzara asked. It would be hard to believe that the High Council would someone to shoot their own people for the sake of the mission.

"I'm working for a task force that is committed to discovering and terminating the Undine infiltrators in the Klingon Empire. In some ways, my job lays above the law. My orders are to kill the infiltrators by all means. That inevitably requires also killing Klingons every once in a while, although usually I work much more silently," K'Val explained calmly.

"But how come you know so much about me?"

"I first learned about you through the best possible source – the Undine. They have grown quite an interested in you."

"Why?" Lyzara asked, quite puzzled.

"That you're going to have to ask them," K'Val said. "But it seems like it's time for me to go. In honor of your actions against the Undine, we will not destroy you… today. Next time you may not be so fortunate."

"Perhaps someday we'll fight on the same side again, Captain," Lyzara answered and K'Val beamed out.