POINTS SYSTEM

Our next assignment is to head for Starbase 1492 to take on some new crew. One of the new crew is a lieutenant to take command of our Mauna Lao fighter wing. He has made arrangements to bring his own 'specially modified' fighter and should be arriving sometime during the next shift. Both Cmdr. Wall and Lt. Cmdr. Swift have rearranged their schedules so that they will be able to be in the fighter bay when he arrives. Any other two officers I would suspect of trying to weasel out of a diplomatic occasion, but those two probably don't even realize there is a party on the planet tonight in their excitement over a new toy to play with.

Behind the Captain, the turbo lift doors opened and Derrick Hughes stepped out onto the bridge. "All shuttles have returned from the planet, Captain. The gifts to the ship, Starfleet, and the Federation turned out to be some unique sculptures made of crystal mined from the gas giant Bernard VII."

"Very good, Mr. Hughes. Are they all stored safely?" Capt. Marla Brindley turned in her seat to watch as Derrick replaced the junior helmsman to begin the calculations for the trip to Starbase.

"The ones for Starfleet and the Federation are." Derrick shook his head, "Tams is seeing about some kind of display for ours in the forward lounge."

"Very good, Lieutenant," replied the Captain. "Mr. Wiser, inform Starbase that we will be leaving orbit at 2300 hours and should arrive at 0800 tomorrow morning."

"Aye, Captain."

"Captain," Lt. Reed Strawn at Tactical said, "there appears to be a cloaked ship in the vicinity, and it's not the Va'QwI."

"Is it another Klingon ship, Mr. Reed?"

"No, Captain. I cannot identify the signal at all. In fact, it is so faint, and not even like any signal I've seen before. I was not even able to confirm it was a cloaked ship, Acting Ensign Stevens did that."

"Do we know which way it's heading, Lieutenant?"

"One moment, Captain." He fiddled with his controls and called the tactical control room again. "It is definitely headed in this direction, and Crewmen Einreinhof and Savage believe it is intending to rendezvous with us."

"Rendezvous with the Rendezvous?" whispered Lieutenant JG Ben Wall who was manning the bridge Engineering console.

Capt. Brindley smiled as she got up and walked around to look at Reed's screen. The blip was indeed heading towards the Rendezvous, but she had no idea where they got the information on it being a cloaked ship from. She turned towards the ops station.

"Mr. Chism, is the Va'QwI in the area?"

Matt hit a couple of keys, and replied, "Yes, Captain. They're last reported position would be twice as far from the blip as we are and at 90 degrees."

"Pushing the limits, as usual," Marla smirked. "Mr. Wiser, let them know what we have and ask for confirmation, then try to contact this apparently cloaked vessel."

"Aye, Captain."

Surreptitiously, Lt. Wall tapped his comm badge. "Lt. Wall to Comm. Wall and Lt. Comm. Swift."

"Wall here." "Swift here," came the replies.

"Sirs, do either of you know what the special modifications on the new fighter are supposed to be?" Ben asked.

"No," both replies came simultaneously. "Why?" asked Lt. Comm. Swift.

"We seem to have a cloaked ship headed our way, but the signature is unlike anthing anyone up here has ever seen."

"Feed the information to Engineering, Lieutenant, " ordered Comm. Wall. "I'll take a look at it. Wall out."

"Aye, sir," Ben transferred the information, then realized Lt. Comm. Swift was still on the comm channel. "Would you like to see it too, Commander?"

"Sure. I'm headed to Sciences to go over the tests on a new alloy. Lt. Heath might like to see it too. Swift out."

"Captain," announced Vicki Wiser, "I have confirmation of the cloaked ship from the Va'QwI. They think it's one of ours and would like to know where we got the technology for such a sophisticated cloak."

"Not in so many words, I bet," Marla remarked. "Is the ship responding?"

"Not yet, Captain, but I'll keep trying."

"Do that, it should be easier if it is one of ours."

Shortly, the comm system came on the bridge speakers. "Rendezvous, this is Mauna Lao One requesting approach vector."

Marla stood up, surprised. "Looks like you've already got it, Mauna Lao One. Continue on present course. Oh, and could you please drop your cloak? This is friendly territory."

"Aye, Rendezvous, dropping cloak."

"Thank you, Mauna Lao One. Oh, and this is your new Captain speaking. We didn't think we were picking you up until Starbase 1492 with the rest of the new crew."

"Captain Brindley! I'm glad to finally meet you. You've already become something of a legend in the last year. I was too excited to wait, and since I was capable of coming on my own, I did so."

Marla whispered to Matt, "What's his name?"

Matt had already looked it up, "Lieutenant JG Micheal Baum, graduated from the academy a year ago and fresh out of fighter school."

"Great, just what we need, a hotshot pilot." Marla raised her voice, "Lt. Baum, you've brought yourself to my attention, and are going to get to meet me a lot more intimately than you probably wanted. Rendezvous out."

Marla sat back down in her chair, and rubbed her forehead. "Commander Wall and Lt. Commanders Swift and Adams are to meet me in the fighter bay in half an hour. Shirley, bring two of your people along."

"Captain," said the officer at the security console, "Commander Adams and most of the Security staff are down on the planet helping clean up from the party."

"What, oh, sorry Ensign Walker. Well, you come, and bring whoever else is on board. Borrow some of Reed's people if you have to. Matt, are we really that low on security officers?"

"Yes, Captain. We lost most of them when the Retributer was commissioned, and are picking up a whole new load at starbase."

"Shirley's going to love that."

Marla strode into the fighter bay with Renae right behind her. Laura and Steve were already there, along with Jan Stevens from tactical and Jesse Briggs from Security.

Laura looked up from the flight controller's console she had appropriated, "Captain, it looks like you're throwing a party to welcome our new fighter commander."

"Not quite, Lieutenant. I'm done with parties for a while. Glad the two of you managed to make it."

At that Steve looked up, a disappointed look on his face. "That doesn't mean I enjoyed it, Captain."

Marla burst out laughing as Steve's face fell even further, and Laura, the flight controller, and the security squad smirked slightly.

Something happened on Laura's console. "Captain, we have visual contact with Mauna Lao One. he'll be in tractor range in one minute."

"Very good, Mr. Swift," replied Marla. "Let's go ahead and open the fighter bay doors."

"Aye, Captain," she replied, and the depressurization warning lights came on in the flight deck, while the control area remained calm. "Fighter in tractor range. I have tractor beam lock, and bringing it in."

"Nasty looking bugger," murmured Jesse when it came into view.

Within seconds the fighter had landed on the deck and the bay was repressurized. The three security officers immediately surrounded the craft, and the hatch popped open.

A tall, lanky alien with vaguely purple skin and bright orange hair climbed out. He glanced around, noticed Marla's Captain pips, and came to attention.

"Sir, Lieutenant Junior Grade Baum, Michael reporting for duty. Request permission to come aboard."

"Granted, Lieutenant," Marla Said. "At ease. You will be reporting directly to Lt. Hughes, our chief helmsman, who is currently manning the bridge." She motioned for Laura to step forward. "This is Lt. Comm. Swift. She is in charge of small craft maintenance." Another gesture, "She and Comm. Wall, our Chief Engineer, would like a chance to go over your 'special modifications with you. Particularly that odd cloaking device."

"Oh, do you mean this one, Captain?" and the fighter pilot disappeared. Instantly the three security officers jumped forward and brought their phasers to bear, even though there was nothing to shoot at. A few seconds later, Michael reappeared, but no one quit knew how to react.

"It's okay, Captain. The engineers can crawl all over my ship if they want, and I even expect your Chief Medical officer would like to have a look at me too. There is a modification to my ship to enable me to do this," he turned around, and there was a small jack at the base of his skull, "I need to be physically connected to anything I cloak with me."

Laura stepped forward and felt the jack. "That would explain the strange signal we got."

Michael spun around. "You were able to pick up a signal!? But this cloak is supposed to be undetectable."

"Oh, it probably would be," Laura replied.

"Enough," said Marla, "You can talk on the way to sickbay. Everyone else, return to your posts. And don't forget the party on the planet this evening." She turned and walked out of the shuttle bay, and the security officers followed her.

Steve looked disappointed. "Mr. Baum, tomorrow right after we pick up the rest of the new crew, I would like to go over your ship with you. For now, explain them to Mr. Swift like the captain said, and do so on the way to sickbay."

"Aye, sir." The engineers and the fighter pilot left the shuttle bay and separated. Ensign Ewing was glad to get her controls back, even if there was nothing to do.

"So, Lieutenant," asked Laura as the two headed for sickbay, "your cloaking device is a biological one?"

The alien was looking back the way the Captain had left. "Hum, oh. Yes, Commander, all my people are capable of doing that. The reason for it has been lost to memory, though. I thought humans were taller than that."

"There's a range. the Captain's at the low end. Well, Dr. Smith is a specialist in Xenobiological Medicine. If anyone can figure it out, she probably can."

"Excuse me, Commander, but you mentioned that you picked up an unusual signal from my cloaking device. It's supposed to be undetectable."

"Most cloaking devices are undetectable in themselves. It's the impulse emission trail we pick up."

"But even during training, when I'd engage the cloak, they couldn't detect me. But as soon as I arrive in this sector, I'm detected by one of our older ships, and a Klingon ship. Why is that?"

"Probably because out here we always have our sensors set to detect cloaked ships, and so are constantly fiddling with them. We have an efficiency about 100 times that of Starfleet protocols on our sensors, and the Va'QwI is even better."

"So we're on friendly terms with the Klingon ship?"

"Enough of the time, yes. And enough not to make life a little exciting."

Captain's Log, Additional: It seems our new crew member will get along fine, here. Jenny Smith has already started tests to find out how his cloaking device works, and Laura is working out his interface with his ship. I expect the results to be the whole fighter wing improving efficiency, as well as the shuttles, and once Steve gets his hands on the new ship, similar improvements will be made to the Rendezvous.

All crew has returned from the planet and we are on our way to Starbase 1492. I expect there to be no more surprises before we get there.