.. Whose the fairest of them All - Pt1
By Ch'tatch

 Ch'tatch stared at his double in horror as he thrust the knife into Kirish,she fell gasping for air, he drew his knife and charged cursing.

ONE WEEK EARLIER

 The bridge was a mess, several bodies lay twisted on the deck and Hu'chiknew they would'nt be getting up again. He looked over at Ch'tatch who wasgetting to his feet and helping Kirish as well, he shouted over the hullbreach alarm."Status?"Sauk, at ops looked over the damage reports."We have a hull breach on deck two, warp engines are off line and there is acoolant leak, Engineering is on repairs already. There are eight reporteddead and twelve missing, the twelve are all in the area of the leak." Hu'chi nodded in acknowledgement, mark them down as dead as well. Ch'tatch came up beside him. "The Defiant?"

Sauk activated the scanners and after a moment shook his head. "What did we hit" coughed Kirish, she was bleeding from a wound above the hairline,"Was it a mine?"

Ch'tatch went over and stood behind Sauk as the younger man operated the scanners, the overhead fans cut in and started to remove the fumes of burnt out stations, the ops panel bleeped. "There are no traces of explosives in the area,"said Sauk,"In fact considering the shock wave we encountered I find that impossible, a shock like that is equal to a ships warp core exploding there are no debris of any kind!!"

Ch'tatch turned to Hu'chi. "If the Defiant hit it the same as us then where is she? And if she exploded where is the wreckage? Widen the search pattern, and contact starbase 145, we'd best warn any other shipping in the area."

"Captain," shouted Kirish,"Multiple warp signals heading straight for us, sensors indicated six ships."

Ch'tatch mounted the upper platform, "Type?" Kirish checked her scanners and frowned, "There are four Klingon battle cruisers and two Jem Had'ar attack ships? The weopens are armed."

Ch'tatch went back down and sat in his seat, he glanced at Hu'chi, "Cloak, go to battle alert, get those repair crews moving, I think we may need our engines sooner rather than later."

 Weyoun watched as the blip on the screen disappeared, he raised his eyebrow and turned to the Klingon stood behind him. "It would appear they have cloaked. Obviously not one of your ships then? Initiate search pattern tell the other ships to continue on to the wormhole." "Shall I inform the Regent of our detour?" rumbled the Klingon. Weyoun turned his back to him and studied the scanner. "I thought my orders were quite clear Captain Torrell, please carry them out. I will inform the Regent." The Klingon grimiced and turned toward the ops station, Weyoun smiled to himself, he always liked a good working relationship with his crew. He watched as the rest of the fleet headed off bound for the Alpha Quadrant, he turned as the captain came up beside him. "What do you think they want?" he asked Weyoun smiled again. "If they are anything like the Klingons I encountered in the alternate universe they are here to conquer." Torrell looked at the Vorta with hate in his eyes. "It was not my choice to join with you in an alliance, but the Regent saw fit to take us down that path." "The Regent is a very smart man, and may I suggest you refrain from questioning my orders on the bridge again." Torrell glared at the Vorta, Weyoun knew if not for the Regents protection everyone on the ship would happily tear him to shreds, but as it was the Klingon's needed him for now, when the mission was over he would have to revue his options.

 Ch'tatch watched the screen as the ships split and one remained. "They are scanning the area, the others are headed for the wormhole." Ch'tatch nodded aknowledgement to Sauk, he turned as Hu'chi approached, his first officer looked concerned. "We are getting strange readings, the radiation levels are way above the norm and the wormhole has moved?" Ch'tatch looked at the screen. "And another thing that ship out there, I have three bio-readings here that suggest we are not where we started." "Well spit it out." "First off one of the readings belongs to the Vorta Weyoun and it would appear that you and I are on the bridge with him." Kirish looked up from her station. "Their arming thier disruptors sir, orders." Ch'tatch returned to his seat. "Get us a safe distance from them for now, tell engineering I want us fully operational within the hour." He looked at Hu'chi. "So this is the Alternate Universe."

---- End ----

Phil Norris