Star Trek: Federation Book One: Exodus

[Captain Michael Pike]

I don't own Star Trek...blah, blah, blah....insert disclaimer here....
Most of these are characters of my own creation, so kindly don't steal them.

Prologue


Echelon Prime
Stardate 55728.6
Old Earth Calendar 2378

�Amar Kol,� Kevlix smiled warmly as he approached the Kerovi planetary leader. Kol turned at the sound of his voice, brushing a strand of brown hair from her yellow eyes, her orange skin blushing just slightly. Kol adjusted the white dress she had worn to the event, gold slashes tore through the fabric and were accented by the gold jewelry the Amar wore around her neck and wrist.. Kevlix diplomatically extended his hand and took her four fingered appendage in his, bowing slightly before kissing it gently.

The expansive room in which they stood amiably, lit by the enormous windows filled by the setting Echelon sun, seemed almost like the mountain home of the former Earth gods. Flowing curtains of gold draped each of those enormous windows, white marble tiles, struck through by veins of the same gold color, reflected the sound of each footstep on their surface. Massive antique wooden furniture of the old earth wood mahogany added strength and substance to the gigantic diplomatic theater. The only thing missing from the illusion were servants dressed in togas, serving every whim of their masters. Not that the Federation hadn�t supplied servants, even if it was of the holographic type, dressed in tuxedos and sporting trays of delicacies from every member world.

Kevlix tried to remember the name of the mountain home of those Gods, but failed. Not that it mattered, clearly the Federation had spared no expense to treat their guests like the very gods this hall recalled. It was no surprise that they had �rolled out the red carpet�, as it were, for these government representatives, especially considering the seriousness of the situation, as each of the worlds represented at this meeting were seriously discussing secession from the Federation itself.

Currently, the Federation representatives had called another break in the meeting and the Denobulan ambassador wanted, perhaps needed, to meet with the influential woman that was Amar Merin Kol. Secretly, Merin Kol wanted to stay within the Federation, but her needs and the needs of her people were two vastly different things. Kevlix continued in his jovial Denobulan manner, noticeably skipping the small talk, he ventured on, �I understand you, that is the Kerovi, will withdraw from the Federation?�

Merin Kol smiled sadly, before, �Indeed, it is with great regret that we�ve decided to secede from the Federation.� Amar Kol stopped momentarily to take a proffered drink and thank the holographic waiter before returning her attention to Kevlix. �The Kerovi have been Federation members now for just over forty years, but the Denobulans,� Kol paused dramatically, �your species has been with the Federation since the first warp five starship the�.Enterprise, I believe?�

�That�s correct, a doctor Phlox.� Kevlix seemed to bristle a moment, adjusting the collar of the black tunic he wore, before continuing, �Quite a famous physician among my people really. They still tell stories of the great Phlox.� His voice held awe, tinged with a hint of disgust.

�So tell me,� Kol continued and eyed the Denobulan fiercely, �why is it that the Denobulans wish to withdraw from the Federation?�

�That is a guarded matter, Amar,� Kevlix said, his joviality faltering. The truth was, the matter was so closely guarded that even Kevlix hadn�t been privy to the full explanation. It had to do with a planetary exodus, that much he knew, but he didn�t understand what that meant. With the manner in which his government kept secrets, Kevlix wasn�t sure he would know until the exodus occurred. He shrugged more to himself than to Amar Kol. �Suffice to say that when it is time for me to know and understand, all will be made clear.� Kevlix tugged at his dress tunic, pulling the black garment down over his ample body. �And you, Amar, why are the Kerovi withdrawing from the Federation?�

�We feel that peace can only be brokered by the neutrality that only nonalignment can bring, Ambassador.� Kol sipped the tranya, absent-mindedly unaware that the very beverage she consumed was a gift of the First Federation to this, the new United Federation of Planets.

Hippocrite, Kevlix thought angrily as he watched her drink the delicacy with great delight. His people needed to withdraw from the Federation, to prevent their people from being drawn into this inexplicable exodus which threatened to consume his home planet and its peoples. But this trite woman withdrew for what could only be described as the selfishness of a small-minded peoples.

The Dominion didn�t care about allies and enemies, only that you align yourself with them, lest they roll over you. The same could be said of the Klingons one hundred years ago, the Borg, and the Romulans, had Praetor Shinzon been successful in his revenge. The few, brave enough to stand in their way, have always been the humans and their United Federation. All of this screamed through Kevlix�s mind even as he said a cordial farewell to Amar Merin Kol. Good riddance, he thought when she�d gone.

[Captain Michael Pike]

Chapter One



Captain Caroline Rousseau stared at her reflection in her ready room window more than the white streaks representing countless stars which streamed past at faster-than-light speed. The delicate porcelain teacup she held, perched precariously on the equally delicate saucer beneath it, emanated steam and the fragrant scent of chamomile tea. The blend was rumored to sooth the nerves. How could anyone�s nerves be soothed at a time such as this? She wondered. And so it was that she discovered herself staring into a haggard shadow of herself, reflected by the transparent aluminum and filled with the darkness of space. Full of doubt, full of anger, full of fear. Perhaps not so unusually, she wondered if this wasn�t a true representation of herself. A transparent void, obvious to all who knew her, full of darkness and doubt. The door chimed, breaking her self-recriminations.

She rounded the desk, no small feat in so small a room, and sat in her captain�s chair behind her captain�s desk and wondered why she was sitting there. The events surrounding her captaincy weighed heavily on her mind, especially of late. She sipped the tea, placing the cup and saucer on the desk when she�d finished, arranged her hair and uniform, and finally answered, �Entre,� in the language of her homeland. She steeled herself, knowing whom it would be, Michael Taylor. Commander. First officer. Current friend. Former lover.

Michael entered the ready room with the accompanying swish of the pneumatic doors. �Bon matin, mademoiselle.� It was intended as a jolly good morning, but it came off sounding as half hearted as Caroline felt. Mike obviously felt the weight of their impending mission. �Sorry,� he said as he sat in the deep, gray chair across from Caroline, �it�s hard to be chipper at a time like this.�

A time like this, Caroline thought, his words echoing the thought she�d had just a moment earlier. �Funny you should say that,. I was just thinking the same exact thing. With all that�s happened in the last year, in the last few years, who could really blame these worlds for wanting to secede from the Federation? The Dominion took a lot out of us, all of us,� Caroline thought of her own haunted expression, the ship under her command because of the death of senior officers, of friends and colleagues. �Then the Borg, the Bak�u and Sona escapade, the Tezwa, the Romulan coup, the subsequent fall of the Romulan Empire�the whole quadrant is a mess and the Federation is spreading itself so thin that they can�t possibly cover it all. Michael, we�re returning to Earth only to be sent to some world full of people who no longer want us there.�

�At least we�ll be able to refresh the crew and fill some important positions.�

He was right, the Odyssey, was still missing several key senior officers and she�d been run ragged since Shinzon had deposed and murdered the Romulan Senate. Odyssey had been patrolling borders along the neutral zone, and though the Romulans seemed far more interested in their own power struggles, it couldn�t be denied that the Romulans could strike at any moment. In any case, the Odyssey was missing its chief conn officer, chief of sciences, chief of security, chief transporter operator, and so many more key personnel.

Caroline knew that Michael had been reviewing personnel files for the last three days. Consequently, she asked, �So, have you decided on any of the new replacements?� Caroline had allowed Michael the pleasure of selecting the new personnel. She hardly had the time to review the files of thousands of Starfleet officers and noncommissioned personnel applying for transfer, promotion, or first assignment.

Michael smiled knowingly before answering. �You�re aware that the list you forwarded to me was several thousand names long�� His voice trailed, it wasn�t really a question so much as bait for his next comment.

Now it was Caroline�s turn to smile. �I am, but I have every confidence in you to sort through and find us the right personnel, Mike. However, you may want to start by narrowing the parameters a bit.�

From his interior jacket pocket, Taylor produced a padd and gently laid it on Caroline�s desk. It contained a list of twenty names, each assigned to a key position, some to the same position. �As your first officer, I�ve already taken the liberty to reduce the number of qualified candidates.�

Michael saw the look of puzzlement cross her face and answered the unspoken question of how he had accomplished this so quickly. �If you�re so inclined to ask, I started by asking the computer to single out officers and noncoms with exemplary records, ready and recommended for advancement. Of course, that narrowed it down to several hundred. My next query was to limit the personnel to those officers already on Earth which narrowed the list to less than a hundred. My final query was to limit it to personnel available to ship on or around the date required.�

�Sometimes you amaze me, I knew there was a reason I kept you around� she replied gently. �After all those months in the Rashanar Battle Site, you still have so much energy, so much enthusiasm for the job.�

�Rashanar was bad,� Mike said referring to the site of the deadliest battle of the Dominion War where hulks of dead Federation, Romulan, Cardassian, and Dominion ships orbited an unexplained gravity well, where violent, toxic, explosive gas nebulas formed from the vented atmospheres of those dead ships, the corpses of their former crews floated freely in space, energy spikes from dying warp cores stabbed from hulk to hulk, and an antimatter �asteroid� traversed the region at incaculable intervals. Then there were the legends of ghosts, raiders, death, and the unknown which threatened the very core of any officer stationed there. Odyssey had recently finished a three month tour of duty there, like the soldiers once posted at the tomb of the unknown soldier, guarding the sacred site. It was enough to make every member of this crew introspective.

�It was bad,� Caroline agreed reverently. �And now, we go from one nightmare mission to another, and another again.� Caroline looked at the teacup resting on its saucer and decided she didn�t want the tea within it any longer. �Who would have ever thought that we would be evacuating key Federation personnel from one of the member worlds?�

�Former member worlds,� Mike corrected her. He had read about the secession of tens of member worlds throughout the Federation. He never would have thought he would see the day. �So, do you have any idea which world we�ll be evacuating?�

�I�m as privileged as you, Mike,� Caroline replied tersely.

�So you don�t know either then?� Mike chuckled halfheartedly.

�That�s the reason for our return to Earth. A personal briefing by the C&C of Starfleet itself. Whichever planet it is, I�d say it�s a longtime member. If I were to venture a guess, I would say Denobula.� Caroline had long considered to what planet Odyssey would be assigned, the Sovereign class starship was no toy with which to be trifled. Thankfully, Odyssey had always gotten important missions.

Mike whistled low. �Denobula is seceding?�

�Consider that top secret, Mike. At least for now.� Caroline stood and picked up the padd from her desk before she crossed to look out the window, this time at the streaking stars. She sighed and began scrolling through the names. �Let�s talk about Kashida Ishikawa as Chief Security officer, shall we?�

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[zero]

Very good!

You have quite an imagination!

[Captain Michael Pike]

Kashida Ishikawa sat on the bare floor in her room. The floor was cold and imparted a soreness to her behind which she was supposed to be able to put out of her mind through meditation techniques. Her knees, bent into a position that allowed her to sit �Indian-style�, equally ached from the cold with a fervor unrivaled from any other torture she might have endured. She opened her left eye to peer around the room like a child peeking from the corner to which they have been exiled for punishment, as if to check for an offending adult. As she suspected, she was alone. No adult had restrained her here, in this Tibetan monastery, this was an undertaking of her own accord. An attempt to find an inner peace which continued to elude her. She closed her eyes again and was propelled to the moment in time which had forced her to seek out this enlightenment.

�Incoming!� Someone shouted repeatedly. It seemed as if he�d been announcing incoming for hours now.

Kashida buried her head in the dirt and threw her arms over it as a protective cover. The missile landed and exploded, sending clumps of dirt and rock into the air, accompanied by the sound of screams and the thud of earth, stone, and bodies as gravity returned them from their short flight. Anyone who had been directly caught in that explosion was dead, Kashida was certain of that much, but it didn�t matter. �Medic,� she cried out, even as battlefield medics rushed in to evaluate their fallen comrades.

War on a starship had been unnerving to Kashida, the thought of being exposed to hard vacuum and suffocating in space held no regard for her. She had requested to be assigned with ground troops, to be able to see the enemy and stare into his eyes as she vaporized him, or as he strangled the life from her.

Now she was stranded on some planet she�d never heard of but whose strategic importance against the Cardassian/Dominion Alliance could not be denied. She was holding the line against an implacable foe, and she was ready to kill for her cause.

Standing from her foxhole, Kashida shouted, �Bravo team, Charge!� Dazed for a moment by her brazen attitude, Bravo team held back for a second, bewildered but also strengthened by her courage.

Hours later, Kashida stood bruised and bloodied on the battlefield. Bravo team had suffered losses of nearly seventy-five percent, but they were victorious. As she picked her way through dead Jem Hadar and Cardassians, Kashida reflected on a job well done. The Federation was safe for one more day thanks to the military might of her team, but as she looked closer at her fallen enemy, she realized they were just boys mostly. Obviously, not Jem Hadar with their accelerated growth curve, but the Cardassian ground troops could be no more than sixteen to eighteen years old.

�Cannon fodder,� she thought angrily. �We�re all just cannon fodder.� Kashida dropped her phaser rifle and returned to active starship duty two weeks later, of course, that was just in time for the War to end. She�d seen enough death, dealt by her own hand, and she would far prefer the death of anonymity aboard a starship. She thought.

Her recollections were interrupted by the sound of a Starfleet com badge chirping. Kashida opened her eyes, lifting her hands from her knees as she stretched out her legs and stood for the first time in days. She stepped over to where the badge lay and deactivated it. She didn�t want to be bothered, a note in her file at Command said about as much.

Apparently, Command cared little as the miniscule Tibetan monk who was to be her mentor stepped into the room. He bowed his head slightly and quietly said, �You have a visitor.�

Kashida muttered a nearly silent curse before stepping out to greet this newcomer. Wrapping a tan robe around her equally tan tunic and pants, Kashida slipped into a pair of sandals which in turn were another shade of damnable brown. Idly, Kashida wondered why the monotone vestments which matched the monotone monastery.

As if in response to her thoughts, Master Yoshi murmured, �Everything out there is meant to distract you, everything in here is meant to focus you.�

Defensively, Kashida replied, �Distract me from what?�
Serenely, in response, Master Yoshi replied, �From what you seek here; enlightenment, strength, peace.�

Still on the defense, Kashida responded, �The Federation is among the most enlightened governments in the galaxy and I have strength enough, thank you.�

Barely missing a beat, the Tibetan cleric murmured, �Then it is peace you seek. Ask yourself, however, whether it is peace from without or from within which you seek.�

Kashida bit back the sarcastic reply as they reached the great room. Standing there, and completely out of place with her surroundings, stood a Vulcan lieutenant carrying a Starfleet padd. As she turned, Kashida would have sworn the Vulcan wiped a smirk from her face, quickly replacing it with the cold Vulcan passivity for which her people were known. �Lieutenant Ishikawa,� she started by way of greeting, �I am Lieutenant T�Raneh of Starfleet security. I have been sent by Command to issue orders for termination of your shore leave and your immediate recall to Starfleet Headquarters in San Francisco.� The Vulcan extended her hand, and with it the padd on which Kashida�s orders were written. When Kashida took the padd, the Vulcan smoothed out the front of her jacket and tucked a stray lock of her raven hair behind her ear. As Kashida considered the Vulcan while reading the padd, she wondered at the Vulcan�s almost nervous demeanor and assumed it expressed the seriousness of the recall orders. She would go to Headquarters, not that there had been any question anyway. She had been at the monastery for months now and it had gotten her nowhere. No inner peace, her hatred for the Dominion and Cardassians was as strong as ever it was, and her own self doubt and loathing remained a constant nag in her mind. In mere seconds all this flashed through her mind and before she finished reading the recall, she said, �I�ll need a few minutes to pack.�

�Of course,� the Vulcan said, inclining her head just so slightly. �We have some time��

Moments later, when Kashida emerged from her room, she was dressed in a regulation uniform complete with active com badge. Over her shoulder was slung a duffel bag complete with everything she had when she�d arrived at the monastery. The Vulcan waited patiently, meditating silently among the monks while Kashida packed. It seemed that in a matter of minutes the Vulcan had done what Kashida had not over the course of months. Attained equality with the monks, and inner peace was nice too. She summoned the Vulcan with a light tap on the shoulder and indicated with a nod of her head that she was ready to depart. Both women silently made their way to the great oaken doors and stepped out into the frosty mountain air. Kashida considered retrieving her jacket from the duffel, but reconsidered when she realized that they would soon be out from the energy field the monks employed to prevent beam ins.

Inwardly, Kashida remembered her first steps into the monastery, counting each of the ninety-nine steep steps up the equally steep hill. Again, as if in response to her thoughts, Master Yoshi asked from behind her, �Do you understand why there are ninety-nine steps?�

Kashida whirled, surprised by the speed and stealth the monk possessed. Admittedly, Kashida replied, �I do not.�

The monk nodded thoughtfully before enlightening her. �With the first step onto the stairs, you begin life anew, leaving behind the chaos and distractions of a universe in discord. With each step forward, you understand that you must leave this all behind before entering to study with us. And with your final step into the monastery, you accept the chaos for what it is and attempt to find peace among the chaos. With that choice, you step toward enlightenment, strength, and true peace.�

Kashida considered it a moment before responding, as she knew he awaited her response. �With each step out, I embrace those things that I wanted to leave behind.�

The monk nodded sagely and watched sadly as Kashida gently stepped out onto the first of the ninety-nine steps without looking back. The monk turned to the Vulcan still waiting beside him. Sadly, he whispered, �I hope she finds what she has been seeking.�

�And what might that be?� T�Raneh asked.

The monk�s eyes closed as he considered the question. When they finally opened, the monk simply said, �Absolution.� When it was clear no further reply was forthcoming the Vulcan stepped forward into the swirling snow and wintry wind and left the monastery permanently behind her.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *