The Return of Khan

The Dominion turn to the past to find an intermediary between humanity and the Dominion.

Summary
The USS Ottawa (NCC-75057) is dispatched to intercept a Jem'Hadar attack ship on an unusual heading toward the Mutara sector. With Ottawa following, the Jem'Hadar vessel emitted chronoton radiation, opening a temporal vortex to the year 2285, Stardate 8141.5.

The Jem'Hadar transported Khan aboard their ship, and gave Khan an offer of the Alpha Quadrant in exchange for his assistance. Having come what they came for, the warbug returned to the 24th Century.

Five months later, USS Baldwin (NCC-2013) captain Richie Kennedy reviewed his first six months in command of Baldwin, noting that they have been fortunate not to experience any fatalities so far in the war. Meanwhile, Weyoun had a task for Khan: go to Earth and recover the four founders. To accomplish his task, Khan is given a captured Starfleet vessel, the USS Tian An Men (NCC-21382).

Baldwin picked up Tien An Men on long range sensors. Richie ordered the cloak activated for a sneak attack. Once they were in weapons range, Khan declined the invitation to engage, intent on simply allowing Baldwin to follow.

Richie monitored Khan as he picked up the founders from Earth, then turned his attention to Starbase 227, which Richie quickly identified as the location where Dr. Murrow was being held. Richie ordered Baldwin to engage Tien An Men again. This time, Khan elected to stop Baldwin by using a stolen prefix code. Richie responded by activating "decoy-destruct" sequence.

Ottawa picks up a distress call from Baldwin and approaches their last known coordinates. They found what appeared to be the wreckage of a destroyed spacecraft and a message buoy. The buoy sensed Ottawa's presence and transmitted a pre-recorded code 47 message for Ottawa captain Jenna Carson explaining the decoy and advising her not to disclose the decoy. Ottawa picked up the "public" pursuit of Tien An Men.

On approach to Starbase 227, Ottawa engaged Khan, but not before Khan beamed Dr. Murrow aboard. Baldwin came out of hiding and engaged Khan alongside Ottawa. Khan retaliated by disableing Baldwin, boarding, and taking DNA samples from the crew. Ottawa would use the multi-vector assult to disable Tien An Men, but Khan would get away with assistance from a fleet of warbugs.

After reviving and recovering Baldwin and Tien An Men, Richie came up with a new plan. He took the runabout Neosho and confronted Khan personally. He intentionally told Khan how to scan for the cloaked ship, knowing that Baldwin could easily come up with a countermeasure and that the other ships would detect the battle.

As Tien An Men and Baldwin took out the warbugs, Ottawa decloaked above the compound. Khan elected to retreat, while Ottawa recovered Tien An Mens crews and destroyed the DNA samples of Baldwins crew

Background

 * This is the first story in USS Baldwin to feature Khan. He would continue to be a advisory for Baldwin's captain, making his next appearance in the opening story of the second "season", Storm Front.


 * An explanation for the recovery of the Tien An Men is provided to resolve the on-screen mention of her loss and presumed demise in and her subsequent appearance in the First Battle of Chin'toka, seen in.


 * This is also the first, and so far only, appearance of a destruct sequence (real or decoy) in USS Baldwin.


 * Dr. Murrow would not make his next appearance until "Evolution"

Links
The Return of Khan Full text of the story, at the USS Baldwin series home