The Continuing Story of Deep Space 2: Page 118
Admiral Arthur put his hand up, made a fist.
"I Apologize Admiral Straker, Sarah, Ernie, we have to go. Thank you for the information. But as long as I cannot prove Vice President Scarlett is indeed the same person who did all those dreadful things, I cannot do anything. But we are warned. We will keep an eye on him. He probably will find out, but we can always tell him it is a matter of his own security. He cannot object to that. We have to go now."
Colonel Theys had already transported to the USS Ajax while Arthur said good-bye to the small party left in Admiral Straker's room. A moment later the Admiral materialized on the bridge of the USS Strike, which was ready to do honor to its name. As droid 727 reported the ship was battle ready, Athur walked to his center seat. The USS Ajax had taken position to protect the USS Alice Cooper-B, with the automated battle drones flying around the two ships ready to attack the Romulans, waiting for the order. The drones would not hesitate, would not think about it, would not object and certainly wouldnot have any mercy or remorse. They were machines build for only one purpose: battle. Slowly the USS Strike moved into a position to cover the flank of the USS Alice Cooper-B. Arthur didn't understand why suddenly the Romulans had shown up. The Romulans must have realised that they were no match for a powerful battleship like USS Ajax. The fact that the Romulans had not yet attacked, made this situation close to being weird. And further more, the fact that the Vice President Scarlett had not yet given any orders yet was more than a bit strange. The words of Admiral Straker came up again. What had she called Scarlett? God of Death? Arthur refused to let this carry him away to do something which he would regret later. He needed information fast.
"Droid 727, can we transport a sensor device abaord the Romulan ships to see what the Romulans are up to?"
"That is a negative Admiral as the Romualns have their shields to maximum. And it is not recommended that we will lower their shield by firing on them, because if they are destroyed, we will not gain any information. We can monitor communications between the two Romulan warbirds sir, but that is all we can do. For the moment the Romulans seem to keep communications to a minimum."
"Keep me posted. And contact Captain Kalee aboard the USS Alice Cooper-B."
"Aye sir. Channel open sir."
After the little chat with Captain Kalee, it was clear to Arthur that Kalee didn't know what the Romulans intentions could be. All he knew was that the Romulans did not have an appointment with him. Droid 233 at communications closed the channel. But Arthur had one more thing to do.
"233, open a channel to the lead Romulan warbird, but a secured channel."
"Is that wise sir?"
It was strange to hear a droid say a thing like that, but knowing the history of these droids, looking like machinated robots, they seem to look more like humans than some humans Arthur knew.
"I am going to invite them to dinner."
Droid 233 didn't understand, but opened the communication channel. But there was no reply. Apparently these Romulans were not the talking type...
Deep Space 2, many lightyears away...
Droid 1 had personally come to the call. Two other droids were looking at him and at an old man who had again appeared on the station without any problems. Apparently Deep Space 2 security had not organised patrols deep down on these lower decks. Without interfering, the old man listened to Droid 1's report.
"...came closer. The Romulans do not respond to communications and it is uncertain what their intentions are. We have calculated that they have to do with Vice President Scarlett. The chance that Scarlett has invited the Romulans is 48.16 percent. It is to much to ignore. But there is nothing we can do about it at this time. It will be dangerous to use time alternation to get all the details. Three species have vanished already, the Denoradons, Katsimari and the Erogarndi. If we are going to temper with time as well, things could get worse. That is a calculated chance of 17.3 percent. That is way above the safety margin."
"I know. It is just that I don't like waiting. We haven't found a sollution either. Not yet anyway. Our time oscilators run at full speed. there is little else we can do. The time oscilators we use are concentrated on ourselves, and not on others. If their is any danger coming to us directly we will intervene. We can intervene, but we don not have the power to survey the entire universe, and certainly not parallel universes. We do not have the power to do so. And so far we have been very successful. I have to go back now. Keep me informed about any changes."
The old man vanished, leaving Droid 1 behind. Droid 1 made sure the droid collective was completely up to date about the latest developments. In fact there was not much to share and more information came from Droid 233 aboard the USS Strike and Droid 133 aboard USS Ajax...
Admiral Arthur had always wondered about the hierarchy in the droid collective, supporting the federation officers aboard Deep Space 2 and the support ships like USS Ajax and USS Strike. He wasn't really sure where these droids came from. suddenly without warning one of them had just shown up in one of the corridors. He had introduced himself as Droid 1. He had explained that there were more droids to come. That was several years ago. At this time there were almost six thousand droids present, at least the ones who had been counted. the droids had saved Deep Space 2 more than a few times. If it wasn't for them, they would all be history. And then Arthur realised that time was the key to all of this. Who could control time, was in control. And he made a mental note that if he ever had the chance he would get his hands on time control. Whatever it had to take.