From: tlb2665@usl.edu (Burleigh Thomas L)
Newsgroups: alt.startrek.creative
Subject: ST:USS Cavalier, Chapter 10, "Radio Race"
Date: 5 Oct 92 14:51:22 GMT
Organization: University of Southwestern Louisiana


(C) Copyright 1992 by Thomas L. Burleigh. The following are the property
of Paramount Pictures, Inc: the characters of William T. Riker, Jean-Luc
Picard, D'Tan, and Spock; the Borg, Romulan, and Vulcan races; the
StarFleet organization; and, the USS Enterprise. This story is an original
work of fiction base on Star Trek: The Next Generation, a registered
trademark of Paramount. All rights reserved.

                               ST:USS Cavalier
                                 Chapter 10
                                "Radio Race"

   The large grey and black-stripped saucer, the whole of the USS Cavalier,
towards the nearby sun. As it neared the low point of its pass, the ship
extended its internal nacelles. At the low point of the orbit, these 
radiated blue light; generating a low-level warp field. Then, the Cavalier
disappeared in a brilliant flash of blue light.
   Time travel had begun.
   From Riker's view, avec Holoview, his field of vision grew increasingly
white; like entering a thick cloud. He found that his thoughts, in spite
of any efforts he made, kept going back to the recent past. Thoughts of his
order to engage, his argument with Picard, the destruction of the Borg
ship, the arrival at the Borg planet, his flight through Romulan space, and
the death of Spock flashed through his mind as he recalled, involuntarily,
the recent past. Riker was finally able to clear his mind as the white
clould cleared from view, and he returned to the space that men call
'real'.
   "Status report," Riker ordered.
   "Time travel successful, sir," responded Lt. Darby, "according to our
quantam clocks. Course to intercept Borg tachyon stream calculated and
relayed to Navigation."
  "All ship systems nominal, Sir." added Cdr. Thompson.
  "Very well," said Riker, "cloaks up and engage."
  The Cavalier retracted its nacelles as it accelerated and shimmered to
invisiblity. Shortly after it circled past the sun, Lt. Samek spoke up
again.
  "Sir, we are approaching the Cavalier."
  (A time paradox is the LAST thing I need right now!) Riker thought to
himself. "Give it a wide berth, but magnify it into view."
   As busy as Riker was before he took command of the Cavalier, he never
got the chance to conduct the service-honored tradition of inspecting his
new command. Well, this will just have to do.
   Ensign Duhon at Navigation slowed the Cavalier ever so slightly so that
Riker could get a good stare at his ship. Riker stood in a salute, and
after a moment's silence ordered the ship underway.
   The Cavalier sped out of the solar system after the Borg's tachyon
stream. Riker was reviewing his hopes that they could scramble it before
it could reach the Borg Uni-Mind when the Alert chime sounded from his
command chair.
   "Approaching the tachyon stream, Sir." Samek said.
   "Thompson, have your Holoview identify the target." Riker said.
   "Yes, Sir." Thompson responded. After touching a few keys, he got the
stream in view as a long, thin, green line to their front.
   After studying this for a moment, Riker issued commands, "Duhon, move us
to intercept the head of the stream. Darby, prepare for cryptographic
analysis. Thompson, full shields and ready all weapons."
   The Cavalier rushed foward past the tachyon stream and slowed down just
slightly ahead of it. Riker turned and saw the green stream heading 
strait at him.
   "Everyone ready yourselves. All hands brace for impact."
   Riker had been shaken around a good bit more in the past than he just
was. But, many of the new hands felt decidedly nauseous as the stream hit
the ship, shuddering it rather violently.
   But the crew on the Bridge did their duties. Lt. Darby read the entire
stream into his computer systems. At the same time Cdr. Thompson fire the
heat beams and phasers into the tachyons.
   These tachyons increased their sub-molecular velocity as result of being
heated by the Cavalier heat beams. Thus, the majority of the tachyons
bonded with the high energy particles of the phasers. They were now
effectively scrambled. But, their amplitude magnified substantially.
   On the Borg home planet, a HUMAN male walked to his communication console
in response to its alert buzzer. He tapped a button on the console and
said, "Uni-Mind, incoming transmission from Cyborg Ship #12. Emergency
codes being used." Keying a few more buttons, the receiver's television
screen came to life, "Uni-mind, we are in imminent threat of destruction.
We have engaged a powerful vessel of unknown origin that was interfering
with our work on Assimilated Planet #57. This is what it looks like..."
   But before the viewscreen could show the Cavalier, it blew up from the
tachyon overload; killing its blonde-haired male attendant.
   The USS Cavalier just claimed its first living being.

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