Piarn sighed again. “I’m going to talk to Alliance HQ about this.”

“We should both talk to them,” Chris suggested.

Piarn nodded. “Agreed. We’ll transmit in one hour.”

Chris nodded. “Talk then. Dragon out.”

The view screen immediately changed to show the remaining fleet of ships and the huge, and partially damaged, defense base. Several weapons platforms were all over the area of space, and designated repair spots were all over, the Dragon being in one of them.

Chris sighed, for he hadn’t expected a small debate with Piarn. The war that lie ahead would be a hard one. If the Alliance survived the next battle, that is.

Chris looked around the bridge to see that no senior officers were around. Then he remembered Perkins. He smiled a bit at himself for forgetting the ceremony and all.

As he stood, he also knew Perkins would be surprised. “Perkins, you have the bridge,” Chris said as he headed towards his ready room. As he expected, Perkins looked at him, a look of great surprise on her face.



“General, I believe we should fight to the end,” Chris simply stated. He was in his ready room talking to both High-Admiral Piarn and the head of the Hintaru Alliance, General Abiarn.

Piarn immediately spoke afterwords. “As I just said, surrender is the only sure way of survival for the Hintaru.”

Chris sighed. “I guess Piarn does have a point,” he said.

“So you think we should surrendor,” Abiarn asked.

Chris shook his head a couple times. “No sir, that would be a mistake,” Chris replied. “To do that would cause the Alliance to be destroyed. No doubt after the resistance we have put up, the Vorkalai wouldn’t bother with us, and just take our technology. They’d then either kill us or leave us for dead.”

Piarn in turn sighed. “Perhaps he is right, but at least there’s a chance they’d leave us alive,” Piarn stated. “We’d most likely find a way to rebuild the Alliance.”

Abiarn shook his head. “We’re fighting,” he simply stated.

Piarn had an obvious look of surprise on his face. “General, after all we’ve just discussed?”

Abiarn nodded. “In less than five minutes you should be seeing a large fleet come from Hintaru 3 towards the Defense base,” Abiarn stated.

Both Chris and Piarn were confused. Abiarn smiled. “About ten hours ago, I finished negotiations.”

“Negotiations about what,” Piarn asked.

“And with who,” Chris piped in.

Abiarn’s smile broadened. “During the battle, an unknown ship approached an outer Starbase,” Abiarn began. “It turns out that, despite what appeared to be heavily armed ships, they are a peaceful collection of beings. Their entire species is spread out among about one hundred planets, and they have over three hundred thousand ships…and those are just the heavily armed ones.

“They said they had just stopped a fleet of about a thousand Vorkalai ships from coming in behind us and destroying Hintaru 3. With simply three days of negotiations, we’ve formed a battle alliance with them. There will be no borders between our space and theirs, and they will follow our command.” Chris was smiling since he heard how many ships they had, and now he was smiling even more so.

“Once this war’s over,” Abiarn finished. “We will negotiate about merging.”

Chris’s face now hurt because he was smiling so much. He hadn’t felt this much joy and hope since he first stepped on board the Dragon. “Perhaps we still will win this war, gentlemen,” Chris commented.

Both Piarn and Abiarn frowned. “Gentlement?” Abiarn asked.

Chris let out a quite laugh. “I’ll explain later,” he replied. “But right now, I’d like to share this information with my crew.”

“Of course,” Abiarn said. “Good luck in the upcoming battle.” Abiarn moved to close the channel, and then stopped himself. “Oh, and General Bertaan will be liazon with the Britar fleet,” Abiarn stated. “He’s their head of military operations.”

“So they are called the Britar,” Piarn said. “You neglected to inform us of that.”

Abiarn smiled. “No, just wondering if you’d catch it or not,” he said.

Chris smiled again, and said sarcastically, “Suuure you were.”

Abiarn smiled wryly before finishing with, “You are to treat him as if he were an equal to both of you. Abiarn out.”

With that, Abiarn’s image vanished and the image of Piarn widened to cover the whole screen. “Talk to you later, Admiral,” Chris said. “Harriman out.”

“Bridge to Captain Harriman,” Perkins said over the comm system in an alarmed voice.

Chris smiled. “Go ahead, Commander,” he replied.

“Sir, we’re receiving sensor feeds from the Defense Base,” She began.

“Would it be about three hundred thousand unidentified ships closing in on our position,” Chris asked.

“Umm, no sir,” Perkins replied. Chris frowned. “Only about a hundred thousand.”

Chris frowned again for a moment, then thought that they didn’t want to send their entire fleet yet. Her certainly hoped they weren’t making a mistake…

“It’s all right, Perkins,” Chris said. “They are our reinforcements…”


“Jesus,” Tom said in a voice of awe. “I’ve scanned what appears to be their lead ship,” he said to Chris. “They have very advanced Quantum Torpedoes, and they have about ten launchers positioned about their ship. Plus they have some kind of Phaser technology I’ve never seen before, but the power it’s feeding to those alone is a huge amount. Plus their shields are being fed a huge amount of power.”

Chris smiled. “Indeed they didn’t make a mistake when sending only a third of their battle fleet,” Chris commented.

Sarah looked at him, baffled. “That’s only a THIRD?”

Chris smiled as he looked into her eyes, seeing hope and awe all at the same time in them. “Yes, a third of their battle fleet.”

Her eye brows raised. “They have even more ships?”

Chris nodded.

“Sir, the lead ship is hailing us,” Perkins stated.

Chris stood, Sarah following him. “Put it on screen,” Chris ordered.

The screen changed immediately to show what appeared to be mostly humanoid. The man, if their species had different sexes, was very large and ‘buff’ looking. He had ridges along his face that made him look some what similar to Cardassians. He also had a some what dark complexion.

“I’m General Bertaan, head of military operations for the Britar,” the man said in a low voice that seemed to carry.

“Captain Chris Harriman, chief coordinator of this war,” Chris replied. “As are you, sir.”

Bertaan smiled. “Thank you, captain,” he replied. Then he did what looked to be the equivilant of a frown, which was actually some what of a menacing look for him. “I thought that Admiral Piarn would be the chief coordinator of this war.”

“No,” Chris replied. “The Hintaru don’t have that much battle or tactical experience.” Chris shrugged. “Plus, it’s kind of an honorary thing, for us being stranded out here and helping them with this war instead of continuing on our way.”

“I see,” Bertaan replied. He leaned back in his seat. “I hear that you have a fleet in size equivalent to our own fleet massing not far from here,” he said.

Chris nodded. “Yes, sir,” he replied. “I suggest that we meet aboard the Defense Base as soon as possible to discuss strategy as soon as possible.”

Bertaan nodded. “Agreed. I’ll contact Piarn immediately, and then I’ll meet you over there once my fleet arrives.” He looked down then back up at the view screen. “My scanners show us to be about an hour out from the base. Talk to you then, Captain.”

Chris nodded. “Harriman out.”


Chris came to the door in time to meet General Bertaan. Chris extended his hand, but Bertaan frowned at his hand. Chris smiled.

“In the Federation, for us it is customary to shake an aquantences hand,” Chris commented.

Bertaan did what Chris said with a shrug then shook Chris’s hand. Bertaan was a very tall man, no doubt over 2 ½ meters tall. He was very muscular, as his image on the view screen had suggested.

“Any way, it’s good to meet you in person, General,” Chris said.

Bertaan nodded. “Like wise.”

Bertaan pressed a button that opened the door leading into the tactical briefing room aboard the Defense Base. This was actually the first time Chris had been in it, and it impressed him.

In the center of the room was a large flat table that was completely black except for small consoles at every chair situated around the room. At the other end of the room from where Chris was standing was a large monitor that showed the tactical situation, including the several hundred-thousand Vorkalai ships gathering at the system that had now been nicknamed the Battle Sector.

Five Vorkalai were seated at the briefing table, leaving four chairs open. Chris and Bertaan sat down next to each other. As Chris expected, Piarn was in the chair whose back faced the tactical monitor.

“We may now begin,” Piarn stated.

Chris immediately spoke. “If I may, Admiral, I already have a plan in mind,” Chris said.

Piarn smiled. “I thought you might. Go ahead, Captain.”

Chris stood to make sure he had every one’s attention. “It’s an obvious plan, really,” he began. “We simply let our new allies,” he said, gesturing to Bertaan, “be the spear head of our assault. We should have all of their ships stay on the front lines merely because of their many torpedo launchers. They could easily destroy several thousands of Vorkalai ships. The Hintaru fleet would stay in the rear only to join the battle once they reached it. Once we would reach the battle, we would merely be a helping hand to make a battle that should go pretty quickly go even faster.”

Chris sat as Piarn spoke. “That was our original plan,” he replied. Suddenly, a 3D hologram appeared in the middle of the table they were sitting at. It showed a tactical of the Battle Sector, and about 300,000 Vorkalai ships.

It began it’s animation. As one, 105,207 Hintaru and Britar ships emerged from warp. Almost immediately, weapons fire came from the Britar ships and were destroying Vorkalai ships left and right. Suddenly, the hologram stopped.

“If all goes well, We’ll only lose a few ships,” Piarn stated.

“Simple enough,” Chris stated. He stood. “Let’s hope it goes as planned.”

Piarn’s face was blank for a moment. Finally, he said, “I don’t want to lose more people…not like last time.” He took in a big breath before saying, “Let’s win this war!”

Chris smiled. “With pleasure, Admiral.”

Bertaan now stood and said, slapping Chris on the back hard, “Let’s do it!”



Star Trek Dragon graphics and written material copyright Jon Wasik. Star Trek is a registered trademark
of Paramount Pictures, a Viacom company. No copyright infringement intended