Akula: "Preparations"
 by Ensign T'Kang


The Klingon took the phaser that was handed to him and curled his 
upper lip slightly showing his long sharp canines to the security 
officer that was handing them out.   Following orders, T'Kang 
thumbed the controls and illuminated all ten of the green bars.  The 
weapons highest "non-lethal" setting.   T'Kang would prefer to simply 
kill the Cardassian scum with mek'leth swords, but it seemed that a 
less drastic approach was being called for.   Was this too the work of 
Doctor Nelsy?  Her Cardassian brothers are armed with weapons of 
a lethal nature just waiting to attack those in the shuttle bay with stun 
only weapons?    T'Kang shook his head.

It was all moot now.  Lieutenant Za had agreed to try the Doctor's 
plan.  Already the Cardassian had left the bridge to set up this sub-
space masquerade that would soon play out.   It depended entirely 
on Nelsy acting skills, on the Cardassian's gullibility, and on ancient 
access codes.   At any rate, the Klingon's modifications to the sub-
space transmitter wouldn't be needed unless the Doctor's plan 
failed.  If the Akula was blocking all sub-space transmission in the 
immediate area, her message would never reach the Cardassian 
shuttle.   T'Kang thought it might be an excellent time to run field 
tests on the Akula's weapons systems, just to be sure they were 
standing by at the ready.  Somehow he had a distinct feeling 
everything wasn't going to go according to the Doctor's plan.

At least Captain Lakarr was back aboard the Akula.  He hadn't 
reported to the bridge yet, but was supposedly in sickbay taking care 
of things there with the casualties from the mission.  T'Kang hoped 
that the Captain would make it to the bridge before all hell broke 
loose with the Cardassian light cruiser, the shuttle and the Akula.  
Something Doctor Rivas Nelsy forgot to mention when explaining 
her plan to Lieutenant Za was that the Akula would have to decloak 
in order to let the Cardassian shuttle dock with the ship.  It wasn't 
outfitted with the special guidance systems the Captain's shuttle had 
on board her to allow a cloaked docking with the Akula, right under 
the Cardassian's noses.    T'Kang knew that once they dropped the 
cloak, even the Akula with her neutronium armor plating, was a 
sitting target at the Cardassian's mercy.

If Doctor Nelsy did turn out to be a spy..   It would mean almost 
certain death for the crew of the Akula.

T'Kang sat at the helm station and waited for the Doctor's plan to 
play out.  Hopefully Lieutenant Za hadn't just been tricked by the 
female viper in Cardassian clothing.