((TAS Feer’aht))

Assemblyman Admiral Girzhak of the Tholian Assembly sat in the command tunnel of his flagship. It was he who had been given the orders to bring the meddling bureaucratic hoarders(the Shelliak) to heel. There had been reports from their analysts back at HQ that the Shelliak may even reach out to the Federation for assistance using some clause in the massive and nearly incomprehensible treaty the two shared.

His plan would never succeed if the Federation joined this conflict on the side of their enemy, and he knew this. But the fact still remained, he needed to take the Rhontaka system. And the Rhontaka system sat right on the border between them and the Federation.

The system had a very peculiar gravitational etty that slowly orbited in between the main star a yellow dwarf about twice the size if Sol and its pulsar companion. His initial gambit, to bait a Starfleet vessel or patrol close to the border, destroy it, and then use diplomacy to warn the Federation to stay away from the area(a tactic that had worked before historically) had met with mixed results this time.

The system itself had originally been mainly inside Federation space with only about a quarter of it on the driftward side being inside Tholian space. But stellar drift and the gravitional dance of the 2 stars over the past 170 years since the Tholian treaty had been signed had caused border line to actuall run the the main stars corona, splitting the system into roughly equal halves.

The destruction of the Starfleet ship and the crippling of another about 12 lightyears rimward of the system had given his forces enough time to scout and form a beachhead in the Rhontaka system. The gravitational waves and neutron radiation from the second star in the binary system helped to mask their manuevers. But his most recent intel reports showed that Starfleet was indeed sending a force to the area, atleast 8 Starfleet vessels had been spotted by his observation posts and scouts in recent days.

They would have to move quick if they were going to form the artificial wormhole and strike at the heart of the upstart corporatists(the Shelliak).

“Is the initial wave of the strike force ready to proceed aa soon as Scientist Droonik reports that he’s been able to form the wormhole?” He asked his comm officer

“Yes Admiral, the first 4 squadrons are able to make way on a moments notice.” The aide replied, still nervous about his Admirals sudden fixation with the responses of the carbon based humanoid Federationers.

((Blythe Bridge))

After returning the hulk of the Shuswap back to SB420, the COs of the CC and the Blythe were called to a meeting in a conference room aboard SB420. Before departing for the transporter room Tyler asked Danny “How are the new people working out so far Number One?”

A group of volunteers from the survivors of the Shuswap wanted to return duty on the front line since their ship would likely be layed up for months. Wong had selected 11 of them and requested they be assigned to join the Blythe. Surprisingly SF Command had quickly granted the request. Most were operations specialists or small craft pilots which the Blythe had been short on.

“Settling in well so far sir. Chief Dale, one of the new damage control specialists is already making improvements to our battle damage response plans and the advanced deployment of equipment we might need if we even get into a bad scrap. He’s an asset for sure.” Wong replied.

Tyler “Excellent Number One, get the ship ready to deploy to the border again as soon as I return. I have a feeling I’ll be receiving our marching orders shortly.”

((USS Culver City, Bridge))

Lieutenant Varyn K’lev and his command staff – including Chief Engineer Pelix, who had wanted to be on the bridge for this moment – passed excited grins around amongst each other as they watched on the viewscreen the badly-damaged USS Shuswap, their charge for the last two days, limp into dock at Starbase 420 under her own power, something that had been beyond her when she was first rescued.  Lieutenant Syranna and the Shuswap survivors had insisted that they bring their ship in, when K’lev offered the opportunity.  As Culver City now took her own berth, with far fewer eyes on the humble California than on the scarred-yet-proud Reliant, K’lev turned to face Ensign Lotharys, his XO.  “I don’t know how long this meeting will take, so let’s reprovision and stay ready for a quick departure just in case.  And let’s follow up on our request for some additional hands, see who’s available quickly; I’m sure we’d all like to have a larger crew aboard.  As would the lounge,” he finished with a chuckle.

“Tell us how the meeting goes!” Lotharys said cheerfully.

“You know it!”  K’lev replied, then headed for the turbolift.

He made his way to Transporter Room 1; the chief on duty there confirmed the transport with the starbase, then in short order had K’lev materializing on one of the base’s transporter pads.  The Orion lieutenant stepped down, informing the station’s transporter operator that he had been summoned for a meeting and asking for directions.  The chief’s directions were most helpful, and within perhaps 10 minutes or so K’lev was approaching the conference room door.

He stopped outside, using a bit of reflection from a bulkhead control panel to make sure his combadge and rank pips were straight, then tugged on the hem of his uniform tunic to smooth it and ran a hand through his hair.  Taking one last moment for a deep, steadying breath – he was settling in well enough on his ship, but this was a command briefing, so his impostor syndrome was rearing its ugly head again and causing him to be nervous – he entered the room.