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Henrietta Hardhoof Captain of the light attack cruiser Kohl was an unusual commodity, and sought out by star fleet. Equids as a general rule just aren't interested in commanding ships of the line. They dominate Logistics and make very good fighter pilots wear their preference for speed, aggressiveness, and innate sense of team work makes them excellent first strike pilots. Those precious few who can find the inner calm to suppress the flight response that comes from the horse part of their sole do go on to command larger vessels. They tend to find the solution that requires the least amount of force. They tend to work well in squadron-sized groups but can work independently. However, mostly they are valued for their ability to pull a group of individuals into a cohesive fearsly loyal crew. Captain Hardhoof was no exception, at 6'3" she was a bit small for her sepses, but she carried a presence about her that more than made up for her lack of size.

First officer Gerhard, an up and coming human Lt Cdr had the command watch, when the point defense system fired at an incoming piece of debris. That should not have happened unless the debris was traveling at near light speeds. "Tactical what did we just shoot and wear did it come from?"

"Sir it was a piece of manufactured nickel iron alloy, mass about 500 Kg. It approached from our vector 256.32 mk 038.21 at 0.8c."

"Navigation what is in that direction?"

"Sir I have a distress call from Amistad colony broadcast from a deep space civil defense buoy sir." Ensign Ahudin a jet black cat at com watch announced, into the momentary silence. She knew that protocol required that distress calls be reported immediately, but still felt like she had spoken out of turn.

No one needed to hear the massage those buoys had only one function. In case of an antimatter annihilation reaction in near proximity to a planet all radio and subspace communication would be disrupted to an extent that maid long range communication imposable. Amistad had been attacked.

"Sir Amistad colony is the nearest thing in that direction beyond that is frontier and poorly explored space. There are no reports of hostilities in the area, some H1 activity mostly political initiatives. Are we at war Sir?" That last question from ensign Guitars a young vulpine quartermaster was the first break in protocol of the watch. It carried the faint hope everyone on the bridge held that this was a drill.

"Thank you Mr. Guitars," then to an unsure looking 19 year old yeoman 3rd class, "wake the captain she hates bad news over the com."

"I sir," and the yeoman cretin the captain would know what to do hurried on her errand.

"Mr. Guitars lay in a course for Amistad at high warp. What will travel time be?"

"Forty one hours and 25 minutes to stationary orbit insertion, sir"

"It will take 5 hours for the distress signal to reach Star base 16, 5 more hours for their response to reach us if we stay hear. If we go to their aid, the signal will be chasing us and will not reach us for an additional 8 to 10 hours. We will just have to wait for your answer Mr. Guitars."

"Captain on the bridge!" barked BMSC King, a permanently upset looking collie who possessed the rear ability to look immaculate and disheveled at the same time, even in a dress uniform.

Commander Gerhard wasted no time waiting for the captain to ask for a report. "Point defense fired on a piece of manufactured metal debris that approached from the direction of Amistad colony. That followed immediately by a distress call from a civil defense buoy. We have a course plotted and laid in transit time 41 hours 25 min." Then with a quick glance to Ensign ah Din who nodded just enough, "a report and transcript are ready for Star Fleet pending your approval sir."

Captain Hardhoof glanced around the bridge for just a moment to see every one ready to act. They are coming together, and not a moment to soon it would seam. She thought to herself "very well, division officers to my office in 15 minutes." Then to a cores of 'Aye, Aye sir's she retreated to her office. While Ensign ah Din busied herself with contacting the division officers throughout the ship without using the 1 MC.

__________

Chawkat Dusty was the last to arrive with a tear in the right sleeve of hir uniform and sporting a knot on the back of hir head. "Would it be too much to ask for a little warning when going to high warp?" At the somber mood in the room hir words just died in hir mouth, and shi wished for the umpteenth time that shi had enough of that vaunted chawkat empathetic sense to have read the emotions of the room BEFORE shi walked in and put hir paw in hir mouth, yet again. "Chief engineer Lt Dusty as requested sir."

"Come in, plant your rump, and watch your mussel." Then to the navigation officer "Mr. Guitars is their some reason helm failed to notify engineering of an unscheduled acceleration, especially during a scheduled inertial stabilizer maintenance cycle?"

"No sir, it will not happen again sir."

"See that it does not." Lessons like that are hard on engineering, but Dusty seamed not too bad for the experience and shi was not one to suffer in silence.

"What have we picked up on long range sensors Mr. Guitars?"

"Captain, the shape of the debris field, the size and intensity of the sub-space anomaly suggest that this was from a single rather large explosion in near planet proximity. Until we can look at the debris closer anything else would be guessing." Guitars pulled up a simulated image of the shape of the debris field and the sub-space disturbance as he spoke.

"Get with Mr. Dusty look at that debris as close as you need to and get back to me in two hours."

"Aye, aye captain," responded Guitars and Dusty together.

"Operations, are we ready to go into a fight if we need to?"

Lt Cdr Hunter a former enlisted read wolf growled, "There is always something left to do, but yes we are ready for a fight."

"Bright and cheerful as always Mr. Hunter, this may yet turn out to be a terrible accident."

"We can hope, captain." At 60, Lt Cdr Hunter was the oldest member of the crew. He was the only member of the crew to have seen combat and to have abandoned a stricken vassal. No amount of preparation would totally satisfy him. That he had stopped looking over Lt Dusty's shoulder gave Captain Hardhoof enormous confidence in her young chief engineer.

"Very well we will return in two hours when engineering, navigation and tactical will give us an idea of what to expect, until then." With that the captain busied herself with hir own study of sensor logs while every one filed out of the room. "Mr. Dusty."

"Yes captain?"

"Have you ever dropped out of warp through a sub-space disturbance?"

"No sir, but I understand it is hell on sensors and internal equipment."

"That it is, drive systems tolerate it the best sensors the worst. Take tactical sensors off line just be fore we drop out of warp. It will take several seconds to re boot them but that is better than hours to rebuild them."

"Aye, aye sir," and Dusty left to meet ENS Guitars in hir office puzzled about how the debris reached the ship at the same time as the subspace message.

Dusty and Guitars traced the path of the debris back to its source, or attempted to. The piece they had encountered and all the others in their vicinity showed residual warp signals with in a few million kilometers of where the Kohl encountered the first one. In space terms it was practically on top of them when it came out of subspace. Together they calculated the mass of the debris, and the force of the explosion. They estimated the intensity shape and size of the sub-space disturbance. Lt Cdr Hunter came in with Lt Cdr Gerhard to look at the work about 15 minutes before the next meeting in the captain's office. As the two of them looked at the results Lt Cdr Hunter said "scan for dilitheum" and left.

When Lt Dusty and ENS Guitars arrived in the Captain's office Dusty's mate of conveyance for this voyage CDR Slate a chawkat named for the color of hir coat and the Kohl's medical officer was just arriving with Lt Cdr's Hunter and Gerhard. The usually bright Slate looked unusually somber. Dusty wished shi knew what shir Slate was thinking.

Slate looked at hir and said "No you don't, but you will soon enough."

"Engineering, What have you learned?"

Dusty cleared hir throat wishing that ENS Guitars could give the brief. "Amistad had an orbital space port of about two million metric tons, and that corresponds with the calculated mass of debris we are seeing. The pattern of distribution suggests that the blast originated inside the station and with a yield of about one-half times that of one of our torpedoes, and that the shields were down at the time of the blast. We have mapped the best place to come out of warp to minimize damage from debris and the sub-space disturbance. Navigation has that now. The disturbance can be expected to last another 72 hours and then dissipate rapidly. Sensor files from the civil defense satellite show 15 ships in proximity to the planet most not showing normal power curves, but accurate readings are difficult with the sub-space disturbance"

"So the reactor that powers the station went critical, and how is it that the subspace disturbance is still there?" Asked captain Hardhoof. Such disturbances while common with antimatter explosions are usually much smaller than the fire ball and very short lived. This was enormous as such things went all be it of very low intensity. But most strange it was still their.

"No the body of the reactor was propelled in our direction. The debris we encountered was part of the reactor. There was a different source for the explosion. The observation deck would be my best guess, sir. As for the disturbance Commander Hunter suggested we scan for dylitheum, and we found a great deal of it in the fringes of the disturbance. That is the best explanation for the size and durability of the disturbance. It will confuse our sensors but there should be no other consequences of coming out of warp close to it. Not even a ruff ride."

The captain seemed discouraged by this. She next called on shir Slate. "Doctor what can you add?"

"Most of Port Amistad will be gone. A million and a half soles, gone without leaving a body to burry. At a bout 20 miles from the center below the blast, casualty rates should be down to 60% and diminish rapidly as we move out. This is where we are most needed. Closer in, their aren't enough survivors and their injuries will be too severe for us to treat, in the mass casualty stage. Roughly three million dead, twice that injured, and five times that homeless. That is almost 40% of the colony that will be directly affected. Our recourses will be overwhelmed immediately and exhausted in about 30 hours or less. As other ships arrive to help the prognosis will improve, but thousands may dye waiting for help that will arrive too late. We can only do what we can."

The scale of this made Dusty's head spin and hir stomach churn. This was too much to think about.

Captain Hardhoof was becoming angry this sounded like a terrorist attack. "People we have our work cut out for us. Comm. send a message to Starfleet with what we know and ask what resources they can send. The people of Amistad will want to know, and we will need the help."

As Dusty left the office, shi felt a comforting presence and a hand on hir shoulder "Take heart we will do what we can, and a lot of help will come. The out poring of help from all around the Federation will give us support."

War or terrorist made little difference to Dusty the idea of deliberately harming any one upset hir to do so on this scale was too much like the great wars in history books, and it frightened hir greatly to think shi might be part of such a war. "Piracy I thought I was coming to understand, but this?" Dusty leaned into the older chawkat shi felt a need for contact right now.

"Can not be understood, don't even try." Slate hugged Dusty, then shi said, "Go busy yourself with what you can do. It will help you get through this."

________

The drop from warp started out routine, sensors were confused through the actual transition, but they were coming back on line. Then the routine was shattered by a blast that shook the entire ship. Almost immediately the read alert sirens blared. Lt Dusty diverted power recourses from low priority uses to impulse engines and shielding before the orders to move out of near planetary proximity, placing them in stellar orbit and pacing the planet. This gave them maneuvering room and moved them away from the lingering disturbance and the sensor confusion that came with it.

The bridge was organized chaos as damage reports came in, orders went out, and a warning to other vassals in the area.

"Mr. Guitars, what just hit us?" demanded the captain.

"Sensors indicate an atomic missile consistent with federation planetary defense sir."

"Why would they be shooting at us?" asked Lt Cdr Gerhard.

"Sir I can't raise any one on the planet surface, or in the near vicinity."

"Very well. The IFF signal is probably blocked by the dilitheum collecting in the atmosphere. Welcome to your graduation people." Hardhoof would learn just how well her crew would work. So far their performance was excellent. In fact the greatest problem was a persistent sense of fear almost terror that she felt. This is what usually caused her kind to retire from the fleet, but she had herd that it came on slowly over time. This was as sudden as the missile had been. Well she would get through this mission and submit her papers. She would above all not endanger a crew by staying in command too long.

"Captain an urgent call from medical actual sir."

The captain activated the com link on her command chair "Hardhoof."

"Captain I need to see you now! Shall I come to the bridge or will you come to medical?" CDR slate had urgency in hir voice as hard as hir name sake. This was unusual for any chawkat and especially for her old friend.

"My office now," The sense of fear was getting worse as she punched the comm. Link off.

Decorum be dammed Slate ran to the captain's office and used the door from the corridor rather than the go through the bridge. Shi arrived just after hir friend entered from the other end of the large office/conference room.

"This better be important you old house cat."

"We have an intruder aboard, is that important enough for you? That feeling of fear is not yours. Probably every one aboard is feeling it too."

Henrietta ordered the computer to connect her directly to Lt JG Skywalker and the chief of security.

"Skywalker here."

"Assemble a security team and tell Slate and Dusty where to meat you. If we have a psyon on board I do not want any of you facing it alone and I sure do not want any one else to face it without the three of you. Master at arms do you have that?"

"Aye aye sir I am issuing side arms now ready in one minute with first team."

Captain Hardhoof was impressed with Chief Wolf. She was a vulpine vixen with an unusual name and enormous drive.

Skywalker was in fact already looking for the intruder, alone and unarmed. "I am in corridor C, O3 level section 23 I will wait."

"Dammed right you will you ally cat!" said Slate though the still open com link. Then with control returned to hir voice "I will pick up dusty on my way."

"Could we have some decorum at least on the com?" Without waiting for an answer Captain Hardhoof went on to say "Now get out of here. Apparently I have a cloaked ship to find before it can reap any more harm." and she returned to the bridge.

When dusty and Slate found Skywalker the six members of security team one were waiting for them. Skywalker looked miserable with hir eyes closed and hir hands on hir head. "This way," was all shi said as shi started down the corridor.

Dusty was feeling fear pain confusion, and disorientation, and knew it must be terrible for Skywalker. How can shi stay open to this?

In short order they found the source. In a berthing space empty now only because everyone was on duty. They found a terrified creature unrecognizable except as some kind of cat huddled in a corner. It radiated fear panic and pain at levels that made some of the security team dizzy and ill just to be near this creature. When the security team entered the room it screamed and its jaw remained at an unnatural angle distorting the shape of its head in ways that hurt just to see. The screams coming from this creature were more panic than pain even so Dusty felt them, like ice water pored throughout hir body. Shi had always wished for more of that ability to share ones feelings without words and over distance that was peculiar to chawkats. Now shi was grateful that shi was barley more perceptive any other species. Slate could only just stand the assault of emotion by shutting down hir sense entirely. Dusty could clearly see Skywalker was in agony at a mid e-4 shi was the strongest empath on the ship, until now, and to lead security here shi had to remain open. This unknown cat was the most intense empath any of them had encountered. It was rear for a chawkat to push their feelings out to a large group of non-chawkats. Yet this cat had affected nearly the entire crew.

Skywalker took a weapon from one of the security team a vulpine named Valery and simply shot the intruder. The emotional assault stopped immediately, like a terrible screaming that was just gone.

Skywalker quietly turned and slowly walked back down the corridor the way shi had come and towards the cabin shi shared with Slate and Dusty. Slate activated hir comm. Link "medical response team to berthing compartment C 30 on the 0-3 level, weapons discharge injury to intruder felanoid taurform." Slate then went to Skywalker and with Dusty's help took hir to the sick bay. The intruder was almost certainly more injured but Skywalker was crew and hir life mate. The intruder could wait.

Skywalker was really mostly exhausted shi had pulled a double shift and with the added strain of the empathetic attack shi would sleep for hours. At sick bay Slate sent Dusty back to engineering and sent a report to the captain.

In engineering Dusty found hir crew had things well in hand. "We took some damage to the starboard shield emitters and sensor array sir," reported a young 3rd class mouse whose name dusty could not remember at the moment.

"Thank you petty officer, what is the state of infrared sensor repair?"

From the pained look on his face Dusty could see that the petty officer desperately wanted to have the answer but just did not an answer to give. "Relax if they ever find out you have all the answers they will put you behind a desk."

"That sounds good to me right now sir."

"It does to me right now too. Tel me your name."

"PO Alverez sir, but my friends call me whiskers, sir."

"Well Whiskers I promise I will not let you down. Get back to your section and see what your first class needs you to do."

"Aye sir."

Dusty walked to the central console "Sensor section leader status report."

First class Clancy met hir their "starboard sensor array is at about 60% sensitivity and 40% resolution."

"How soon will we be 100%?" asked Dusty.

"We are helping structural with repairs to the pilon..."

"Stop we are looking for a cloaked ship. How long to get the sensors back to 100%?"

Clancy thought a moment before answering "Two hours minimum."

"Clancy realign what we have, get the best you can and get a crew to replace the inferred now, you got 15 minutes."

Dusty called the bridge.

"Gerhard here."

"Let the captain and navigation know we got a black eye on the starboard side 30 minutes to fix it."

The captain's voice came on next "I need that sensor can you get it for me in 15 minutes."

"I can give it to you now but it won't be stable."

"That will have to do. Bridge out."

Clancy' team had the sensors realigned and calibrated in 10 minutes at 90% of rated sensitivity. 20 minutes more had the inferred sensor at 100% of manual sensitivity.

Evan a cloaked ship leaves an inferred signature when maneuvering.

Over the next few hours the Kohl remained on full alert, with the rapidly changing energy demands of a warship playing cat and mouse with a hidden enemy. Dusty was beginning to wonder if they would ever find the cloaked ship when shi noticed the energy demand spike to charge weapons. Three short spikes for low power un-focused beam shots them one large spike for a full power shot. What ever it was it was small. Next came a power demand as the tractor beam came on. Dusty was just thinking well that about does it when the power demand spiked again and an alarm sounded. Some thing had happened and the tractor beam no longer held any thing. If the target had ripped out of there tractor they were in trouble.

"Stand down general quarters, set one third alert, maintain condition zebra, division officers to the captains office." The message over the 1MC caught Dusty by surprise.