My apologies to those of you who haven't yet read Bonaventure, the first story in this chain. It is advisable (though not exactly required - I mean, I can't force you) to read Bonaventure first. Just switch 'fanfiction_net' listed below for the actual URL of this site and you're there!

fanfiction_net/s/11109175/1/Star-Trek-Online-Bonaventure

I apologize also for the fact that my initial attempt at posting the first chapter of Warspite was apparently overridden at some point by the contents of the first chapter of Bonaventure, which must have been confusing. I've amended the post below and everything should hopefully fit together. I would seek forgiveness in advance for any deviations from the plot of the Star Trek Online video game, or any aspects of the Star Trek universe whether they be book-canon or film-canon or shot-from-a-phaser-cannon or whatever. I accept full responsibility for shortcomings in my research and so forth. Also, please be advised that this story is a long one, if only because I keep on writing chapters for it and because I like the characters. I hope you like them too, and I hope you enjoy the story. :)

Of all the various types of shuttlecraft and small vessels available to Starfleet, the Yellowstone class starship really was the way to go. Opulently decorated in its aft section (this particular Yellowstone in diplomatic configuration, as it happened), Rear Admiral Twaiheak (Tw'eak) Sh'abbas sat in the seating area, occupying a rather cozy leather armchair in the corner. Given the events of recently, with the near-destruction of her vessel and the reassignment of her senior staff to a new project, yet to be fully explained.

Next to her, seated on a loveseat, was her executive officer, Commander Eight of Twelve. A liberated Borg, better known as Octavia, she seemed to be pensive, although what about was not immediately clear. Her operations officer, Lieutenant Commander Birmal Dazz, was in her grav-chair, half-asleep with her head down. She was still recovering from the effects of being shot into space during a hull breach, only to be beamed back aboard. Tw'eak had personally played a role in that rescue, one from which she, too, had required time to heal.

At a table nearby, Doctor Shirley Ellington, science officer Lieutenant Zolnaen 'Zed' Didaggo, engineering officer Lieutenant Commander Aurora duBois, and helmsman Lieutenant Denver O'Leary were dealing cards. Occasionally O'Leary would reach over and note something on a piece of paper next to him, using a small pencil. He had replicated both since they were not given access to library computer systems or padds. That access was restricted since it might inadvertently give away their location or heading. Alone at the large aft window, looking outwards pensively, stood Commander T'uni, ship's counselor, and one of Tw'eak's oldest friends. Maintaining a silent vigil, she remained as inscrutable as ever to Tw'eak.

Tw'eak turned to Octavia, T'uni's solitude reminding her of Octavia's recent attempt at romance. "So how did it work out with, um, Larkin, was it?" she asked.

Octavia waited a moment, then responded in her typical, efficient manner, as though reciting a cargo manifest. "Since we had lunch, I have had contact with him on two occasions. In the first instance, he wanted to see how I was doing, which I notified him was unnecessary, as I had other officers available for support if I required them. I then terminated the subspace frequency, but three hours later he contacted me again, and strangely enough, apologized for offending me."

"He apologized?"

"Yes. He was uncertain what he had said to do so, and I advised him that I had taken no offense. I think he misunderstood that I do not require his support."

"It's a conversational thing, Octavia. You don't get many hails, do you?"

"No, I do not."

"Asking someone 'how are you' is a neutral way of showing them you're interested in how they've been since the last time you talked to them. It's a form of social pleasantry."

"I see. That would explain why he asked me how I felt about sushi."

"Sushi? The Earth dish?"

"Yes. He advised me that he loves having sushi, and asked me how I felt about it. I advised him that I had no specific sentiments towards sushi, as I cannot recall having tried it. His response was quite enthusiastic, as he feels that once we are together again, eating sushi together would be, in his words, 'lots of fun'."

"Oh, it can be lots of fun to spend time with someone special." Tw'eak smiled at remembrances of times she had spent with people she had cared about. "You don't remember having anyone special in your life, do you?"

"I remember many interactions I have had, but all of them date from since my liberation from the Borg, not before. My marital status was indicated in my biography as negative, however."

"You mean you'd never married before."

"Correct. My maternal status was also negative." Octavia appeared pensive for a moment. "Do you suppose that Commander Larkin is considering me romantically?"

"I don't see why he wouldn't. Seems fairly obvious that he likes you."

"I had not considered the possibility. To be honest, I was utilizing his reactions as a social experiment."

Tw'eak chuckled to herself. "Don't tell him that."

"Of course. However, I must admit that I find the reactions of crew members with whom I have served to be... limiting. I feel that, in order to gauge the reactions to my social understandings in a scientific fashion, I will be compelled to 'get out there and network', as the saying goes."

"You'll probably get lots of chances to do that at our new assignment. Which reminds me." She looked over her other shoulder. "O'Leary, which one of you was the big winner?"

O'Leary looked up from his cards. "Neither one of us. God, who dealt this?"

"You did," Zed replied, and Aurora giggled.

"Looks a lot like the last hand," Doc added. "We need to teach you how to shuffle better."

"Whatever." O'Leary looked over at T'uni. "Anything?"

"Not at present," the Vulcan replied. "Wait." The ship shifted slightly, and as it did, T'uni's eye watched a star in the aft compartment intently. "Movement of Sirius thirteen degrees right, twelve degrees declension."

"So we're moving that way, are we." O'Leary took his pencil and jotted down a few points.

"Who's winning, anyway?" Tw'eak asked.

"Not him," Zed responded.

"We're just playing for fun anyway, Captain," Aurora added, then corrected, "I mean Admiral. Sorry, Admiral."

"It's okay, I'm not used to it yet either. So what are you doing, O'Leary?"

"Astrogation."

T'uni spoke up, her eyes not drifting. "I am providing Lieutenant O'Leary with updates on our star position. He is making his best guess as to warp speeds, which I am attempting to validate by distance and movement. The validation is difficult and I am uncertain as to whether I am accurate, but the star position is an easy matter."

"And her co-ordinate changes link to my understanding of where we are, so I can guess at where we're going."

Tw'eak smiled at her navigator. "Didn't Admiral Hawkins have some specific words for you about that?"

O'Leary smiled right back. "If you wanna reprimand me, ma'am, go ahead."

"I will. Eventually. Right now, tell me what you've got."

"Well, based on what I can tell, we started out headed roughly towards the transwarp gate to Gamma Orionis, passed Vulcan on the way, and then we doubled back towards the Regulus system, and now we're probably about, what, ten light-years from Starbase 39?"

"Probably closer to twelve," T'uni corrected.

"Whatever, twelve. Point is, we're going past it. Towards Bolarus, actually."

"Polaris?" Aurora perked up. "In Ursa Minor?"

"No, no, home system of... well, Dazz."

"What?" Dazz picked her head up.

"Nothing."

"Would you like me to help you to lay on this loveseat?" Octavia asked Dazz.

"That would be lovely, thanks." Octavia stood up and, with Doc's help, they got Dazz onto the loveseat, her legs hanging off the edge.

"Do you want a blanket?" Doc asked.

"Please."

Doc went to find or replicate a blanket, and Tw'eak by this point had taken her seat at the table. "So let's see. What's out there in Bolarus' direction that could be our heading for this project."

"As far as I can tell, ma'am, and remember, I don't have the best memory of this place since it's been a while, but there are a string of outposts in this area which run across systems that used to be near the Neutral Zone. Some of them are abandoned but a few of them make sense. Starfleet likes to post a station in the outer perimeter of a star's gravity well, usually in an asteroid belt or around a planet, as a sentry position, guarding an installation closer in."

"Right, like the Mars Defense Perimeter keeps the Sol system from being easily overrun."

"Exactly. Now, they can't exactly throw up an orbital defense network - the energy readings could be picked up from light-years away." O'Leary crossed off a couple of the round dots on his piece of paper. "That'll eliminate those places. Plus anyplace which is too populated, which includes all of those places plus here, here and here." He crossed off three more. "That leaves us with basically two - maybe three... no, just these two. There's Breshar and Quezlain."

Octavia, by now, had joined the conversation at the table. "Quezlain is closer to the former Romulan Neutral Zone than Breshar."

"And it's been raided by the Reman resistance at least four times in the past five years. You all remember, we got a distress signal from there while we were defending the Alhai system against a separate group of the same set of Remans."

There were nods from Zed and the others. They all remembered the Remans - they had fought so bravely to try to take what they needed, all the while refusing Starfleet's offer of aid. Many of the crew had been appreciative of their resilient bravery and insistence upon self-sufficiency. Tw'eak had refused to return fire except to disable, and still two of the Reman birds of prey had chosen to self-destruct instead of surrender. It was an unforgettable, if ambiguously successful, defense of Federation assets.

"So Quezlain is too busy... it's probably Breshar, then," O'Leary said after a moment.

"Breshar," Octavia recited from memory. "Outpost Quebec Alpha orbits the only habitable world in-system, called Breshar Prime. The world has no moon, only an asteroid belt. It is a staging area for freighters distributing aid to Romulan and Reman colonies, as they request it."

"Only habitable world..." Tw'eak mused. "Any in-system?"

"At least one, although I cannot remember any particulars. An unremarkable world, probably either a class D or class H planet."

"So that's got to be it." Tw'eak snapped her fingers. "It's perfect. Freighters coming and going in large numbers to a sentry station that seems to be for logistical and scientific purposes... they can slip into the system with resources for construction and back out again without anyone noticing."

"Sounds like that's where we're headed," O'Leary concurred.

Some hours later, the runabout arrived in a system and passed a station which looked very much like Outpost Quebec Alpha orbiting Breshar Prime. Tw'eak congratulated O'Leary. "If you couldn't guess what correctly," she told him, "you did a good job guessing where."

O'Leary smiled. "All part of the friendly service, ma'am."

A smaller station came into view through a port-side window, looking much like Quebec Alpha on a smaller scale, with additional attachments. Out one side of the small, thin saucer stretched a rib cage of tritanium and duranium, the shape of the shipyard. Barely visible therein was a shadow of a spaceframe. At compass points relative to the shipyard's connection extended a series of transceiver assemblies and communications relays. Through the central pole of the saucer extended a ventral pole dotted with antennae, further relays and a number of cylindrical pods. The runabout approached, obscuring the view of the station completely until, before long, it shuddered from contact with the exterior force field of the docking bay. Touchdown was much more smooth by comparison.

"Let's go," Tw'eak said. The officers rose, several of them attending to their personal kit at the back of the craft. Zed turned to Dazz and helped her into her chair. "How are you feeling, Dazz?"

"Much better... Hope I didn't... nap through anything too ...exciting."

"Not at all." Tw'eak turned towards the only visible door and stopped as it refused to open. "Come on." She tapped the console next to the door, but it offered only notification of its refusal to comply. "What's wrong with this thing?"

The door opened, revealing the presence of a security officer, a male human lieutenant in an armoured EV suit. "Take a step back, please."

"What is the meaning of this?"

"Security, ma'am. Take a step back." This time the lieutenant spoke a little more forcefully.

"Hey. I'm a rear admiral. Watch yourself."

"Ma'am, I have my orders from a rear admiral. And a phaser." He gestured towards his belt, revealing he did, indeed, come prepared. "Now would you like to continue this conversation in the brig?"

Tw'eak smiled.

"You do realize that threatening a superior officer with confinement is a violation of Starfleet regulation-"

"T'uni, save it. Let's just do as we're asked so we can get to it already."

"Look, I got my orders. I don't need this. One at a time, please." The security lieutenant reached behind his phaser to retrieve a retinal scanner, a series of empty vials, and a hypospray. "I need blood samples and retinal scans from all of you." He turned to Tw'eak. "Might as well start with you."

Ten minutes later, the security officer, now wearing a clip with vials of blood in different colours - green, blue, red and purple - brought Tw'eak and her officers into an area just on the other side of the docking hatch. They could see the hull of the runabout curving upwards and blocking the view of the rest of the docking area through a small window near a seating area. "Wait here, please," the security officer muttered as he moved past them and through a door. Tw'eak moved to follow him, but as the door closed behind him it locked and refused to open for her.

"Well," Zed said after a moment. "And to think I was expecting drinks and balloons when we arrived."

"I'll tell you this much," Doc quipped, "we've got to get that man some lessons in how to properly use a hypospray."

"Sure, Doc. I'll show him right where to put it."

"Zed," Tw'eak interrupted. "No."

"Exactly," Doc interjected. "I can get it much farther in."

"Doc, please, if you-"

"What? He has bigger hands than I do."

"Doc!"

Aurora giggled. Both Octavia and T'uni looked confused. Dazz merely shook her head, while O'Leary made a pained expression."Just consider yourself fortunate that the security check didn't include a cavity search," O'Leary joked.

"For all intents, we did," Octavia replied.

"Exactly," Zed agreed.

"What I mean is, we were scanned by tricorder - the intent of which is similar, but not nearly as specific in its search area."

The door opened, revealing Admiral Currie and two other officers alongside him. The one to his left, in science uniform, was a human female lieutenant commander a bit shorter than him with pinned-back dark hair. The other, taller than Currie, was a Rigelian male commander in an engineering uniform. "Welcome to the station," Currie opened. "I hope everything went well on your way here."

"Just fine." Tw'eak turned to her officers. "May I present Lieutenant Denver O'Leary, Doctor Shirley Ellington, Lieutenant Birmal Dazz, Lieutenant Zolnaen Didaggo, Lieutenant Commander Aurora duBois, Commander Eight of Twelve, and Lieutenant Commander T'uni. They will be serving as my advisors while we're stationed here."

"Commander Tredegar, our ship's systems engineer, and Lieutenant Commander Woolwich, our warp engine specialist. Commander McQueen, our tactical systems specialist, will be along shortly."

"Great, thank you."

"Would you all follow me, please?" Davis said with a wave of his hand towards the door through which he entered. As a group, the officers moved down a corridor at a moderate walking speed, with Zed pushing Dazz along in her grav-chair.

"Is that normal?" Tw'eak asked Davis as they walked.

"What?"

"The security level around here. It's not often that I'm asked for such... rigorous requirements of admission."

"That's Admiral Hawkins' area of expertise, I'm afraid. He's probably being cautious on account of the recent discovery of the Orion spy ring here."

"I can understand that, I suppose." Tw'eak heard Zed make a disapproving grunt noise, but ignored it.

"His predecessor actually turned out to be one of the Orion spies, if you can believe it. Which is part of the reason, I think, for the additional procedures and requirements - I hope you understand." This revelation struck Tw'eak into silence. She wasn't the only one who was new to the rank of rear admiral, then. Tw'eak nodded and considered for a moment.

"May I ask you a question, ma'am?" This question came from the female human lieutenant commander, Woolwich. About the same height and built much the same, with a slender frame and slight, if muscular, shoulders, Woolwich seemed earnest in her request.

"Sure."

"We- I mean, the officers... we don't get a lot of news. The restrictions on what we're allowed to access and all. I don't suppose you could let us know a bit of what's going on out there?"

Tw'eak considered the request. "Perhaps later we could arrange a get-together, some of my officers, some of your officers." Tw'eak smiled at Woolwich. "That way you can find out whatever they know, and get to know them as well."

"Thank you, ma'am."

Tw'eak looked at the labels as they continued down the lengthy, rounding corridor. "How are the quarters arranged around here?"

"We'll see to that shortly. First I'd like to show you where the main design control room is located." The corridor reached a crossroads and Currie waved a hand to his right. "This way, please."

A few doors down the hall, Currie turned left through a doorway leading to a large, open room with a vaguely triangular shape. The centre of the room was dominated by a massive holo-display built into the floor, around which was a tri-sided railing with consoles built into it. A walkway extended in either direction from the doorway and met, on both sides, a third walkway on the far side of the triangle, beyond which on one side rose a work station dedicated to engine systems, and on the other, tactical systems. Currie escorted Tw'eak and her officers around to the far side of the holo-display. "This represents some of the most advanced technology in Starfleet, all built into a single spaceframe for the first time in almost a generation. The Avenger represents a huge leap in Starfleet's capacity for defense and counter-attack, and will hopefully prove itself to be an important asset for the Federation in the years to come."

Currie nodded to Tredegar, who spoke. "We've worked around most of the flaws in ship systems and power distribution, but we're still having trouble with the simulated EPS flow."

"Simulated?" Aurora interrupted. "Oh, no. EPS can't be properly simulated without a thorough understanding of the infrastructure. Have your people actually laid out the relays?"

"Yes."

"Have they run checks and tested transmission?"

"Only locally, not across the whole network. We're reliant upon batteries and generators, not the impulse engines."

"It won't work." Aurora turned to Tw'eak. "Let me get over there and take a look at their setup. A simulation's no good - you've got to balance the systems properly or you'll short out half the ship's power grid."

"Half the ship's power grid is about all we have installed right now," Currie replied. "I appreciate your enthusiasm, but the simulations are done with a high degree of precision, in miniature form. They should work fine to assess the basic feasibility of the design."

Aurora seemed mollified. "All right, but there's no substitute for actually crawling the Jefferies tubes and finding every last glitch before she tries to leave spacedock. You try to run warp power through that EPS before you do and all that'll be left of this whole station is one big explosion when the core breaches."

"I agree," Octavia added. "Balancing a ship's overall power grid requires a full-time effort, and we will need to be careful."

"Understood. Commander Woolwich?"

"The new warp core design has been tested, for the record. We've run tests with the whole system by installing it into an older Excelsior-class starship. It was the perfect choice - Starfleet couldn't spare any newer cruisers for the test, but the old Excelsiors are so well-engineered you can do just about anything to them as a test-bed. Anyway, it's worked really well, and the ship's overall power levels were off the charts in initial tests. We're just not sure about the warp field."

"The warp field?" Octavia asked.

"The placement of the warp nacelles, traditionally, is high and outside, along and behind the saucer section. This way they can be jettisoned at any speed and gather particles with the Bussard collectors in front. Some ships, such as the Akira class starship you're familiar with, use what we call flat-pack nacelle design, where the nacelles are either at the centre of the engineering section or slightly above or below, rather than at an angle above thirty degrees. Then there are those like the Intrepid which utilize a variable-geometry design, in order to..." Woolwich was suddenly aware of her audience. "This is becoming a lecture. I was trying to say that we don't know how to best align the nacelles."

"We have come up with an innovative solution," Tredegar offered. "At warp speed the overall field shape becomes important, but at sublight speeds, the nacelles can create drag and particle build-up behind the ship. In order to compensate for this we've come up with an RCS assembly that is mounted at the aft outer end of each nacelle, what some call a 'fin'."

"And these fins are only active at sublight?"

"Yes," Woolwich responded to Tw'eak's question. "They won't work at warp speeds. But in simulation they make a difference otherwise."

"Well, I'm excited." Tw'eak and several other officers turned to see O'Leary gazing up at the holo-display in awe. "She's beautiful. When do I get to fly her?"

Currie addressed the subject. "We've set up a few simulations - a flight simulator, a sickbay and research lab holo-mock-up, as well as holo-mock-ups of the main deflector and the warp core."

"When can my people take a look?" Tw'eak said.

"I was going to suggest immediately. They're all ready. Amelia, why don't you take the sciences people and Lieutenant Dazz to their quarters? Tredegar, you can show the engineering people and Lieutenant O'Leary to theirs." Currie turned, looking over Tw'eak's shoulder. "Here comes Commander McQueen."

Through a doorway at the far end came an officer in a tactical uniform, looking much like Lieutenant Commander Woolwich's evil twin. As the two passed each other, Woolwich escorting Tw'eak's officers to their quarters, Tw'eak compared the two. She too had dark hair tied back, but her eyes were more predatory, sizing up the situation as she moved. Where Woolwich had appeared open, even cordial, this officer walked as though she had known a harder life. She certainly had the look of an experienced tactical officer.

"Kit, I'd like to introduce Rear Admiral Twaiheak Sh'abbas. Admiral, this is our weapons systems specialist, Lieutenant Commander Kathryn McQueen."

"Tw'eak, please."

"Kit." She shook Tw'eak's hand. "I have all the information here. Would you like to take a look at tactical now, or is later better for you?"

Tw'eak was impressed with this officer. The way she held her head, the searching look of her eyes following Tw'eak in hope of a hint of reaction, the build of her neck and shoulders... suddenly Tw'eak had a sense of how she herself must seem to others. "Now. I'm curious as to your recommendations around energy weapons."

"It's all in the report. I believe that using traditional phaser beams rather than heavy cannons in dual tandem setup would be most optimal, along with a torpedo launcher fore and aft."

Currie moved past the two tactical officers. "I'll leave you two. I myself have a briefing with senior staff in half an hour." Currie half-turned towards Tw'eak. "Normally I would ask you to come along, but it's strictly procedural and, now that you've met everyone, I'm sure you'd rather get into the tactical problems."

"Actually, not to be contrary, but I don't yet know your procedures and would appreciate the chance to come along." Tw'eak indicated McQueen. "The commander and I can review the tactical situation afterwards, and I can read up about it in the meantime."

"Very well." Currie turned to McQueen. "Commander, would you show the admiral to our meeting room, please? I'll join you there shortly."

"Yes, sir," McQueen replied. "Right this way." Together, she and Tw'eak went back the way they came, discussing torpedo yields and energy weapon firing arcs as they went.