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From: mcmelmon@btr.btr.com
Newsgroups: alt.startrek.creative
Subject: Five Star Trek - 6
Message-ID: <6528@public.BTR.COM>
Date: 6 May 92 02:47:07 GMT
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Organization: BTR Public Access UNIX, MtnView CA. Contact: Customer Service cs@BTR.COM
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Begin preface:  

I am aware of the popular discontent over segments, but it's either segments
or long periods of silence.  It seems moot to me, as those who dislike
segments can simply wait until the 'final' flag to know the whole thing is 
finished.  I know where I'm going and there will be an end.  I've done this
before, and have always managed to bring the thing to a conclusion.

Trust me.


Begin part 6:


Space.

Ripples of light.  An explosion.  Similar to that which preceeded Poseidal's
arrival.

A fleet of ships.  Perhaps forty or fifty.  Long, narrow ships.  Not unlike the
Grand Adas, but even the largest of the newcomers would still be dwarfed beside
Poseidal's dreadnaught.  

On closer inspection, the new ships lack the finish of the Grand Adas.  Their
materials seem more primitive, their design more garish.

Some of the smaller ships break apart upon arrival, vanishing in explosions of
fire and steel.

The Zentradi fleet.

On the bridge of his flagship, BRETAI scans the scene.  Though there is no
meaningful scale by which to measure him, Bretai stands nearly twenty meters
tall - though he looks otherwise human.  Half of his face is covered by a steel
plate, with a large, glowing crystal eye.  Slightly behind him stand EXEDORE,
Bretai's chief advisor.  Though a comparitive runt to the Zentradi commander,
Exedore himself stands nearly fourteen meters tall.



Bretai:  Seven battleships.  Four super-carriers.  Eighteen heavy cruisers.
Twenty-five cruisers.  Missing are two battleships, one carrier, fifteen heavy
cruisers, and thirty cruisers.  All smaller vessels appear to have perished in
the transference.  We have been reduce to nearly one sixth our total capacity...

Exedore:  It was a tremendous risk, Commander Bretai, to follow Poseidal...

Bretai:  The risk was not in vain.  We have arrived.  How far behind Poseidal?

Exedore:  Impossible to say.  We rode the primary aftershock of Poseidal's
bio-relation manipulation.  We should not be far.

Bretai:  What is the status of our own bio-relation supply?

Exedore:  Our coils are at 75% of capacity.  Some of our reserves were disipated
by feedback from Gustogol.

Bretai:  Any estimate of Poseidal's remaining reserve?

Exedore:  Impossible to say.  Gustogol's potential was beyond estimation.  He
most likely drained that world's supply to affect this transfer, given the scale
of the aftershock.  Strange.

Bretai:  How so?

Exedore:  Poseidal is a creature of the bio-relation energy pool.  His skill at
it's manipulation is second to none.  Had he desired, surely he could have
calculated the amount exactly necessary to transfer only the Grand Adas to this
galaxy.  Instead, he used too much, creating an opportunity for us to follow.

Bretai:  I must think on that.

Exedore:  It is as if he wanted us to follow.

Bretai:  Perhaps...  Perform a bio-relation scan immediately.  Poseidal will
seek out worlds he can bend to his purposes.  We must destroy those worlds
before he is able to regenerate the equivalent of Gustogol's reserves.  We would
be no match for him, should he accomplish that.

Exedore:  The Grand Adas will be formidable, even so.

Bretai:  Yes.  Formidable. Our greatest challenge...  Our only challenge.



Earth.

A dim room.  Lynn has her arms wrapped around a flustered cadet.  A transporter
platform is vaguely visible in the background.



Lynn:  Could you beam me up to the Yamato?

Cadet:  I could...

Lynn:  Would you beam me up to the Yamato?

Cadet:  We'd get in an awful lot of trouble.  An awful lot...

Lynn:  You are in an awful lot of trouble...

Cadet:  I am not!  Am I?

Lynn:  You're all alone.  In a dark room.  With me.  That's an awful lot of
trouble...

Cadet:  It is getting pretty hot in here.  Maybe we should go out...

Lynn:  Maybe you should beam me up to the Yamato.

Cadet:  It wouldn't do any good.  They'd know someone beamed on board, and
they'd know where.  Security guys would be crawling all over you...

Lynn:  Doesn't sound so bad...

Cadet:  It would be.  And I'd have a lot of explaining to do.

Lynn:  The Yamato will be leaving high orbit soon.  On a priority mission to
some God-forsaken spot.  Do it just before they warp out, and no-one will do
anything about it before it's too late...

Cadet:  How do you know all that...

Lynn:  I'm good.

Cadet:  I dunno...

Lynn:  What do you mean, 'I dunno...'

Cadet [nervous reaction]:  I mean, I don't know about all this beaming around...
Not that you aren't good...  Not that I know...

Lynn:  I can see I'll have to be more convincing.



She convinces him.



Meanwhile, somewhere else, Kyle looks around the party for Lynn.  He stops a
private security guard.



Kyle:  Where's Lynn?

Guard:  She went off with some kid.  Said she didn't want to be bothered.  He
was looking pretty bothered, though...

Kyle:  He?

Guard:  The kid.

Kyle:  Right.  Who was it?

Guard:  I dunno.  Some Starfleet twit.

Kyle:  I see.

Guard:  Trouble?

Kyle:  That girl was made for it.



The dim room.  Lynn stands on the transporter platform.  The cadet - uniform
badly dishelved - works the control panel.



Cadet:  This is a real bad idea...

Lynn:  I'm a real bad girl.  Beam me up, Scotty.

Cadet:  My name isn't Scotty.

Lynn:  Beam me up anyway.



Kyle bursts into the room.  He sees Lynn on the platform and immediately rushes
over to her.  She steps back.  He grabs her arm.

They vanish.



Bretai's command center.



Exedore:  No indications of recent bio-relation use in this region of space.  No
trace of the Grand Adas or Poseidal.

Bretai:  He is here.  I feel him.  What of bio-relation capable worlds?

Exedore:  No mature sources exist.  We are, however, detecting three planets
with high potential.  Anyone of which would be suitable to Poseidal's purposes.

Bretai:  Three?  How unfortunate.

Exedore:  Yes.

Bretai:  He has not made use of his bio-relation booster capability.  He has
not, therefore, affected another transference.

Exedore:  That is a reasonable conclusion.

Bretai:  We cannot detect any signature emissions from the Grand Adas' ez-laser
turbines?

Exedore:  The technology is unfamiliar to us, but it's signature is not.  We can
detect no sign of Poseidal's vessel.

Bretai:  Potential explanation?

Exedore:  The ez-laser turbines are known to be exceedingly efficient.  If the
Grand Adas is running at a comparitively low speed relative to her potential,
she might not emit any signature radiations.

Bretai:  That would fit with Poseidal's tactics:  stealth and precision.  He is
moving towards one of these worlds...  Which one is furthest?

Exedore:  This one.

Bretai:  Prepare a transference.  We shall go to that world.

Exedore:  By my estimation, such a transference would consume nearly one fourth
of our remaining bio-relation reserves...  Why the furthest potential source?

Bretai:  We must choose one.  To intercept Poseidal before he is able to deploy
his bio-relation mecha is of the utmost necessity.  It takes time for the mecha
to harvest and develop a world's bio-relation potential.  Poseidal must suspect
we are coming, or he would not seek to mask his presence.  He is playing for
time.  Were I he, I would choose the furthest planet, expecting my foe to
investigate the nearer ones first.

Exedore:  Poseidal has never been outmaneuvered on the battlefield.  He may
already have followed such reasoning...

Bretai:  We must choose one, and I have chosen. We shall destroy this distant
world, completely and utterly.  And then we shall destroy one of the other two.
Ultimately, Poseidal will have no choice but the third.  Ready the fleet for a
transferance.