The Complication

If You Give a Tribble a Piece of Grain

Author's Note: Thank you for your continued support with this series. All of your reviews, likes, kudos, and messages are wonderful! 

It's been a long road (don't @ me please) but it ends with some *nice* fluff. 

I'm dropping this chapter and the next together. It was intended to be one chapter. However, it got to be quite extensive, so I divided it into two.

When they get to be over the 10k/12k line I try to split them up.

However, there wasn't a great spot to break so please dive into the next chapter stat! Mostly fluff and friendship in these chapters.

But now, the *ALMOST* conclusion to this particular arc of "The Complication."

So what's next on our roadmap?

We're going to see Angel One, an original adventure that introduces a romantic interest for Geordi, the visit of Worf's parents, and Haven including the introduction of Lwaxana Troi.

Content Warning: This chapter contains scenes of violence as our beloved crew works to help defend this sector from a Cardassian advancement. This also includes the conclusion of the hearing and therefore themes of workplace harassment.

This story is AU. Please suspend your disbelief re: canon for a fun wee character cameo in this instalment.

As always, if you like my works or want to stay up to date with art, comics, or just like chatting about the fandom you can like/follow at charliefenwick.com or @TheTartanTart on Twitter.

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"Bridge to Captain Picard," Deanna's voice came across the communicator. "The Shepard has dropped out of warp."

Captain Picard was in his Ready Room with Commander Riker.

For the last hour, they had been waiting for Admiral Walsh's ship the USS Shepard to arrive at the rendezvous point.

They had already been joined by the smaller USS Lakota where Geordi, Worf, and Data were currently aboard retrofitting their holo-imagers to enact Worf's plan.

"Counsellor, please hail the Lakota. Once our team is finished, we'll send them over to the Shepard to get started on their holo-imagers," Captain Picard responded.

They were close to Starbase 118.

Close enough that they hoped stopping would set the Cardassians on edge and further aid in making it appear that a fleet of ships was approaching.

Worf's plan was to utilise the holo-imagers on the three ships to make it appear that there were other ships present when the dropped out of warp. The effect wouldn't last long, but they desperately hoped it would be long enough to frighten the Cardassians.

Thanks to Tasha's false communications, they had already managed to make the Cardassians think there were numerous ships en route to the area.

Captain Picard was hopeful that in building from that, they would be able to avoid a firefight.

The sooner the Cardassians left the base, the more likely it was they would not attempt to transport hostages off the Starbase.

However, Captain Picard still knew that there was the possibility of having to open fire. There was no guarantee the plan would work.

The risk of error was high.

And if it did come down to a firefight, he would be in the difficult position of having to possibly fire upon ships holding Federation hostages.