====== Bridge, USS Qashqai ======
Shane was taken by surprise about the announced call. Harker
was a traitor to the Federation, he was ex-black ops who
defected to the Romulan Empire and was responsible for the
death of several officers under Shane's command. Things
went personal between the two men.
Looking at his OPS officer, Shane said: "Try to track down
the location of this transmission. But be careful not to
give our position away. Is this call routed through
UNITY?"
The ops officer nodded: "Yes, the signal comes from UNITY,
through the security broadband"
Shane nodded. "On screen" he said finally.
"Commodore Guzman," Nicolas greeted his old nemesis with an
insufferable grin. "I hope I have not caught you off-guard."
"Mr. Harker" Shane said, "I can not say that it is a
pleasant surprise, but a surprise is it none-the-less.
What's on your mind?"
"I have something you want, Guzman," Harker replied. He
looked to the side and held out his arm, motion with his
hand for someone to come nearer. A moment later Martin
appeared on the screen. "Come Martin, come say hello to your
daddy. Tell him how much fun we've bee having."
Shane had to stop himself as he was about to burst out in
anger. This man had his son and Rangi most probably as well
in his hand and dared to threat them … maybe worse. He bit
his tongue … and counted till 5 before saying: "Hi,
Martin my boy. Daddy is finally here to bring you home.
Don't worry, everything will be all right". Looking back
at Harker he asked coldly: "So … what do you want,
Harker?"
"Let me make it plain and simple. You want Martin, and I
want you," Nicolas said, getting down to business. "We meet,
you come aboard my ship and Martin goes safely aboard yours.
Once that happens, I'll let Rangi go. She won't be harmed...
too much."
Shane had to bite his tongue once again. It was obvious that
Harker was playing cat and mice with him, trying to make him
act impulsive, playing the "I-have-harmed-your-beloved"
card. "I do not trust you Harker and I will not come on
board your ship. I am stupid enough to meet you somewhere,
but not stupid enough to come on board your ship. What about
meeting on board my ship?"
Harker just laughed. "I've sent you the location of our
rendezvous. It's not encrypted, but only you would recognize
it. You've been there before... in another universe."
Shane looked a bit puzzled for a moment before realizing
what is Harker hinting at. It was several years back during
the X!Chi mission where Shane disappeared through a
multidimensional rift and experienced a life in an alternate
dimension. He returned only hours later … but long years
passed where Shane was. He nodded: "I understand"
"Oh, and tell the good people at Unity that they should
really change their communication codes," he smirked. "It's
getting too easy now." And then the channel closed.
Shane slammed his hand console with his fist and cursed.
Harker played a foul game … but he had all the good cards
in his hands. Shane could do little then obey and play
along. Looking at the message from Harker, Shane fastly
extracted the rendezvous coordinates and passed them to
helm.
"Set the course, maximal warp" he commanded.
====== End of log ======
Nicolas Harker (NPC by Bren)
Ex-SFI black ops
&
Commodore Shane Guzman
CO, 1st TF, SSF Command
CO, SB 234: UNITY
