Star Trek (The battle for Bajor)

The heart of the Federation resided on Earth in the ancient city of Paris. For almost a hundred years the Federation had expanded its influence throughout the quadrant, stretching far and wide reaching over 8000 light years and coming to encompass hundreds of worlds. As time would have had it, the federation itself would have lasted for eons expanding well beyond the borders of the known Galaxy. Unfortunately the unravelling of a single thread had torn apart the federations future, now only uncertainty lay before its inhabitants.

On Earth the many races of the federation gathered, fear coursing through their very bones, as heated arguments about Starfleet deployments fuelled anger.

"We will not stand for this" a voice yelled out over the crowd "everyone in the known universe has heard of Vuclans demise, we are not safe!"

A hammer resounded throughout the meeting hall bringing the crowd to order, and a very blue Andorian rose from his seat "Nero has been defeated, his weapon destroyed, there is no need for fear, it is as my Vulcan friends would say, Illogical" the Admiral announced.

"We have nothing to fear?" A female ambassador from Tarallite questioned "We have lost not only a founding member of the federation, but six star ships. What is stopping the Romulans, Klingons or any number of bordering worlds from invading?"

The Blue Admiral shook his head "Of Romulans and Klingons we have nothing to fear. Our intelligence tells us that with the demise of a vast number of Klingon vessels, the Romulans have chosen this moment to invade their neighbours. As of now they will be too consumed in their own war to be of any threat to the federation. But you are correct in worrying about bordering worlds, our deep space observatories have detected a build up of Cardassian forces along our boarder. We believe that they are planning on taking this opportunity to invade our colonies in the badlands."

"What is to be done?" Another ambassador questioned.

The Admiral turned to ambassador "We are redeploying a number of our vessels to reinforce the border including the flag ship of the federation, The Enterprise" he announced.

&

Kirk sat at a table in ten forward with Bones, looking out on the streaking field of stars that represented warp travel. He knew that in reality super luminal travel did not cause stars to streak by in this manner, that it was in fact a by product of warping space around the vessel that caused the visually stunning illusion.

"Great, our first assignment and it's at the ass end of the universe" Bones sighed taking a sip of his drink.

Jim smiled "Come on Bones, where's your sense of adventure?"

"Adventure, you call patrolling a border adventure? We're a ship of the line we should be out there exploring the unknown not guarding a border" Bones defended as a Vulcan approached the seated pair.

"Is this seat taken?" Spock questioned, gesturing to a pair of empty seats beside his captain.

"No please join us" Kirk stated flatly as Uhura and Spock took the empty seats.

"So the Cardassian border!" Uhura stated enthusiastically "Think we'll get a chance to visit Bajor, I hear they're a very spiritual race, almost like the Vulcan's" she added looking at Spock intently for a reaction.

"The Vulcan pursuit of logic has been on many occasions compared to a form of spirituality, I assure you however, that it is not" Spock replied pointedly. "But from a strictly professional point of view, Bajor does peak my curiosity"

"From the reports I read they're not very advanced, at least not technologically anyway" Kirk stated.

"Indeed that is what I find most curious about their species, they have history and philosophy dating back tens of thousands of years. There are even claims that they have been a space fairing race for over a hundred thousand years" Spock replied.

"And their language is just beautiful, I've been reviewing samples of it and it's almost poetic" Uhura added.

"Well I'm not sure we're even going to get a chance to visit them, after all our orders are to patrol the badlands, not Bajor" Kirk announced.

&

The Journey from Earth to the Cardassian boarder was one of the longest treks in the federation. Even the fastest of vessels generally took at least three weeks, and passed through the most empty expanse of federation space. Kirk now sat at the bridge of the Enterprise, having been patrolling the badlands for several days now, everyone was tired and boredom had descended upon the crew.

"Status?" Kirk questioned, he had been watching the view screen for five hours now, and not so much as a stray electron had passed by the sensors.

"Still no activity from the Cardassian side Captain" Spock replied from the tactical station.

"Sir I believe I may have something" Uhura announced from the communications station.

"Please God let it be something interesting" Kirk sighed before standing up and moving to the communications station.

"I intercepted this message from Cardassia Prime almost six hours ago, It's taken awhile for me to decode but look at this" she announced as text began scrolling down her console.

Spock raised an eyebrow as he too read the information contained within the data packet "It would seem that our intelligence has been correct. We have known for some time now that the Cardassians have wanted to Annex Bajor, but have been hesitant due to our proximity to the Bajoran system. Now that the majority of our resources have been diverted to aiding with the creation of a new Vulcan colony, and the protection of individual planets, they have decided to take Bajor."

"I don't understand" Kirk questioned "Isn't Bajor part of the Cardassian Union?"

Spock nodded "It is, that is why they had declined membership into the federation" he replied.

"Then why would they want to annex a member world?" Uhura pushed.

"The most logical reason would be for the creation of a new slave race. Cardassia is an inhospitable world with next to no natural resources, with the annexation of Bajor they would have access to billions of labourers and the vast resources of Bajor prime and its surrounding moons" Spock stated.

"Then we need to warn the Bajorans" Kirk replied.

Spock shook his head "I must warn you Captain that because Bajor is part of the Cardassian Union, this incident would be considered an internal matter, meaning that the Prime directive must be observed" he stated.

"So we can't warn them because it would violate the Prime Directive!" Kirk replied.

"That is correct" Spock answered.

Thoughts raced through Kirks head, every ounce of Starfleet training told him he could not violate the Prime directive, but his heart told him he had to do something.

Kirk shook his head "No" he stated moving towards the center of the bridge "The Prime Directive is all fine and dandy in the classroom, but when billions of lives are at stake, I can't just stand by and hide behind a mantra"

"Captain, we cannot violate the Prime Directive" Spock replied sharply.

"Sulu set a course for Bajor, maximum warp, Uhura..." Kirks voice trailed off as Spock shouted.

"Belay that helm!"

Kirk turned to face Spock squarely in the eyes "We can't just stand by and do nothing"

Spock returned Kirk's gaze, and then faltered "Very well" he uttered, backing down from his Captain.

"Uhura, hail Bajor on subspace" Kirk finished as his first officer retook a seat at tactical.

Uhura frantically worked over the communication systems "Captain, I can't get any signals from the Bajor system, something is blocking all transmissions" she announced just as one of her controls lit up "Incoming transmission from the USS Falcon"

"On Screen" Kirk ordered.

A few second later the image of an older human in an admirals uniform appeared on screen "This is Admiral Litch aboard the Falcon, Verion Colony is under attack by Cardassians every ship in the sector is ordered to engage" the man stated before the image flickered away.

Kirk shook his head "It's just a distraction, they want to keep us occupied while they annex Bajor"

"Sir that was a direct order from an Admiral, we have to get to Verion immediately" Sulu stated.

"No, stay your course to Bajor, Uhura send a message to Admiral Litch advising him of our situation" Kirk ordered.

"Aye captain" Both Uhura and Sulu replied in unison.

&

Kirk sat in his ready room, some time had passed since he had ordered the ship to Bajor, and the journey would take a few hours. For now he had taken the time to get some paperwork in order. Just as he had pulled up the first systems reports a chime filled the room "Come" Kirk stated as the doors parted to reveal Bones, and angry look on the man's face.

"You're violating the Prime Directive?" Bones questioned, walking up and taking a seat opposite Kirk "What the hell are you thinking man, you just made Captain and you want to be demoted to cadet on your first command?"

Jim smiled, he and Bones had been friends since he first boarded the shuttle in Iowa over three years ago. "Calm down Bones, I take it the Pointy eared bastard got to you?"

Bones sighed nodding his head "He just suggested that maybe you might be putting your personal feelings ahead of your duty"

"Bones If I had followed orders, instead of my instincts, Earth would be in a black hole right now" Jim defended "These people deserve a chance to save themselves, we may not be able to fight a war for them but we sure as hell are going to give them a fighting chance"

"Well you might not be able too, Admiral Litch forwarded your message through to Starfleet command, and orders have come down directly from fleet Admiral Negala, we're to aid the Flacon and under no circumstances warn the Bajorans" Bones stated.

"And so an entire world becomes enslaved, while we sit back and do nothing" Jim spat the words in distaste.

He stood up and walked into the bridge where everyone silently stared at him.

"I'm ready to reverse course Captain" Sulu finally broke the silence.

Jim sat in his chair contemplating.

"Sir?" Sulu pressed.

"Jim you have to reverse course" Bones stated.

Kirk stood up and turned to Spock "Spock, you have command" he stated then turned and left the bridge heading for the Turbo lift with Bones following close behind him.

"Jim what are you going to do?" Bones pressed as he raced to keep up with the Captain.

"What makes you think I'm going to do something?" Jim questioned.

"Because I know you, you got that stubborn look on your face, the same one you had just before the whole Kobiashi Maru incident" Bones replied.

"I'm not going to let Billions of people suffer when I can do something about it" Jim stated as the turbo lift came to a stop at the shuttle bay.

"A shuttle, are you insane?" Bones questioned.

"We're only 2 hours from Bajor at full impulse" Jim replied storming into one of the shuttles "You coming?" he added.

"I just knew you were going to be trouble from the day we met, and now you're going to get me court marshalled to boot" Bones complained as he strapped himself into one of the shuttle seats.

The space doors opened to reveal the streaking stars, then abruptly came to a full stop as the ship exited warp and began its 180 degree turn. The shuttle darted out of the shuttle bay just as the enterprise completed its turn and jumped back to warp.

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