"Here is the damage report." Dar placed the padd on the Captain's desk. Tarin stood by the window and continued looking out at the stars. "How bad is it?"
"We were lucky." The Bolian took a seat in one of the visitor chairs and ran a hand over his head. "Primary life support for the engineering hull took some damage. Back-ups are holding and the repair shouldn't take more then a few hours. Crewman Mendez and Ensign Ta'kala received burns from a ruptured EPS relay, but Doctor Jascar assured me that their situation isn't critical and that they will make a full recovery in a few days. Apart from that only minor damage and a few light injuries."
He leaned back into the chair. "That's about it. As I said we were lucky. Without the regenerative shields it would have been a lot worse."
"I see." Captain Veal turned away from the window and activated the small replicator recessed into her ready room's wall. "Anything for you?" she asked her XO.
"No thanks."
"Cocoa, hot, extra sweet," Tarin ordered and a moment later a steaming cup materialized from shimmering lights. With her drink Tarin went back to the window. Holding the cup with both hands she leaned against the sill and looked at Commander Enikal. She didn't want to ask the next question, but she had no choice.
"What about the convoy?"
Dar leaned forward and his expression tensed. "I guess it could have been worse, but it's still pretty bad. The Bavaria has lost main power through a feedback pulse when her shield generators overloaded. For now their auxiliary generators are keeping the systems running and we should be able to repair the damage, but it will take a while. I don't have an estimate on the repair time, yet. The Tangier and Entebe are towing her at the moment."
Again he ran a hand over his bald pate. When his hand came down it clenched into a fist. "Compared to the Undoro the Bavaria still got off lightly. The Undoro's warp drive is done for; she will need a complete new nacelle so we have to tow her to Vulcan. But it gets even worse. When the nacelle ruptured it caused secondary explosions throughout the ship. Half her crew is dead and of the rest many are in critical condition." Noticing his hand he slowly unclenched his fist.
"The other transports have all taken damage, but none of it as severe as the Bavaria or Undoro. Some of them have casualties and all have injured personnel in different conditions. The most serious cases are transferred to our sickbay for treatment as we speak."
Captain Veal took a cautious sip of her still steaming cocoa. When she lowered the cup from her lips she sighed. "And the Perseus?"
"The Romulans got her warp drive with their first attack. Shields and weapons will take a lot of work to restore and there are secondary damages as well. Her engineers are still assessing the damage. As for her crew..."
"Twenty-three dead and nearly a hundred wounded, some of which may not see the next day, even with our help."
Tarin slowly lowered herself into her chair and set the cup down. She considered the situation for a moment.
"Alright, here is what we will do. Tell Commander Tucker to send an engineering team to assist the Perseus. If he can spare some people for the Bavaria they will receive a team as well, but if not we will transfer energy to the Bavaria to keep her systems running for now. In addition Moira should assemble a team from the Ops department to assist repairs as much as possible."
"Understood. Anything else?"
"Nothing I can’t take care of myself.” For the moment Tarin Veal seemed to be lost in her own thoughts, then she focused again. “Please get to the strategic analysis I asked for as soon as possible.”
Dar Enikal rose. “Yes, of course.”
Before he had reached the door Tarin stopped him.
“Dar?”
“Yes Captain?” He turned around just as the Captain looked up at him.
“Have
we… have I done the right thing? I know we saved a lot of lives today,
but we killed a lot of people to do it.”
Commander Enikal seriously considered the question for a long moment.
“Yes…
Yes, I think we did the right thing today.” Before Tarin could
interject he continued: “You know that I believe no life is worth more or less
then any other and I know that you feel the same way.”
As Tarin nodded the Bolian took a deep breath.
“But you didn’t make a choice about that. We are in the middle of a war we never wanted. When the Romulans committed to their course of action they made the choice, not you. ”
He took a step towards her. “I am your Executive Officer and I am the one who carried out your orders to fire on that cruiser. I didn’t question your orders during the briefing and I didn’t question them when you told me to fire those torpedoes. If you were to ask me if we should have used less firepower I’d answer ‘maybe’. But what if we had and he had managed to fire a salvo of plasma torpedoes on us at close range, because we didn’t take him out fast enough? What if the second Temrek had destroyed the Perseus while we battled the first cruiser? What if we had just damaged our target and he had decided to start another attack run on the convoy instead of bothering with us?”
When the Bolian continued he sounded almost pleading. He wanted her – he needed her - to believe him.
“In battle no one has all the right answers, yet despite all the possible mistakes we continue to fight because we want to protect the weak from the strong preying on them. And that is what we … what you have done today.”
Tarin starred down at her desk for a moment then set staright and looked at her Executive Officer. “Thank you Commander, that will be all.”
As the doors closed behind him Dar Enikal knew that Tarin would soon regain her confidence. He had seen those self-doubts before and he was glad she had them again. Killing never got easy for Tarin Veal and that was one of the qualities he admired most in his Captain.
*
* * * *
Moira O’Shea stopped by the open Jeffries tube access. The Lieutenant leaned down to find out where the curse she just heared had come from and saw someone familiar.
“Mr. Reto, next time you use such colorful language try being just a little bit louder. I think someone on C-Deck couldn’t hear you.”
The young Bajoran slumped against the wall of the Jeffries tube. “Sorry Ma’am. It’s just that this stupid relay is stuck tight and by now I am almost willing to cut it out with a phaser.” His frustration was obvious as he gestured to the open panel in front of him.
“This isn’t one of the shuttles you used to work on Kevas.” As she climbed into the tube she went on: “You will have to decouple the ODN links first and re-route the power-flow before the clamps will disengage.”
Pushing away some of the tools the technician had strewn all around him Moira opened another panel and the two went to work.
After a while Reto Kevas asked: “Say, how did you end up in operations, Lieutenant? I expected you to stick with engineering.”
“I guess I just needed a little change of scenery.” She leaned against the wall while Kevas pulled the defunct relay from the wall and started to install a replacement.
“You know what Starfleet had me do after they scattered the crew of the Eclipse to the four winds?”
The Bajoran shook his head. “No idea. What was it?”
“They just kept me aboard. Me and a grand total of five.” She sounded gloomy as she remembered those four weeks on board their old ship. “Starfleet apparently just couldn’t decide what to do with the Eclipse, so they left us there to keep her in working condition as best as we could.”
Moira grabbed a tricorder and started checking the new relay’s workings.
“For a month we ran the ship, three shifts a day; one man on the bridge and one in engineering. There we were; six people and a hundred ghosts circling Earth day after day.”
The Bajoran whistled softly. “Phew, must have been tough.”
“Yeah, when we were finally ordered off the ship I just couldn’t stand the engine room any more. It seemed like a graveyard to me.”
She helped Kevas shut the access panel and sounded a little more cheerful as she continued. “Besides, even on the Eclipse I felt a little out of the loop being down in engineering, but now on the bridge things are different.”
Reto Kevas grinned while he crawled from the Jeffires tube behind her. Lieutenant O’Shea wasn’t prone to gossiping, but if he knew someone who had never been ‘out-of-the-loop’ on the Eclipse it was her; she had always kept her ear to the ground and known every little tid-bit about her fellow crewmembers. Hearing her describe herself in this way seemed like the best fun the Bajoran had the whole day.
*
* * * *
Commander Westmore rubbed his chin as he often did when deep in thoughts. So far none of his inquiries with Starfleet Intelligence and their Vulcan counterpart, the V’shar, had turned up anything useful.
On the other hand he hadn’t really counted on any of those contacts to shed much light on the Romulan situation. Since the war the V’shar had its hands full with the Vulcan Isolationist Movement and for Starfleet it had always been difficult to get reliable intelligence on Romulan operations. Since they had started their attacks the Romulans had tightened security even more and SI’s resources had been depleted by the Chaos War just as much as the rest of Starfleet, so it was even more difficult today.
Still, there were a lot of other ways to gain the information he needed and Alex Westmore wasn’t willing to give up so easily. One of his contacts in particular was more than likely to have what the Commander wanted, but he hated using the single favor this informant owed him. Still rubbing his chin he considered his options, but he came to the conclusion that he had no other choice. For once he had to agree with Captain Veal. If the Romulans were staging some major operation they needed to know about it before the Valkyrie ended up in the middle of a war-zone unprepared.
As he made the call to his informant on a frequency quite unlike any Starfleet used, his thoughts wandered to the Captain. ‘She must know at least some of my background’ Westmore thought. The way she had ordered him to use all his resources made that obvious. ‘So someone has been telling our little Captain a bit more then she should know. Probably one of Avanessian’s boys.’
Commander Westmore wasn’t really angry about it. He of all people knew that no secret stayed that way forever, but he still felt a bit annoyed.
‘At least she has no qualms about pulling the trigger on some Romulans. Maybe she will manage to keep us alive after all.’
*
* * * *
Commander Tucker looked into the Captain’s quarters from the door connecting their cabins. “Ladies.”
“Oh so that’s where the extra door leads to. Must be quite convenient.”
Ben answered M’rroah’s grin with one of his own. “You could call it that.” He had met the Caitian only once before, but had taken an instant liking to her. Both shared the same sense of humor and the same frank mentality. “Would you two mind if I joined you?”
Tarin waved him over to the sofa where both women had made themselves comfortable. “Anytime Ben.”
The Engineer looked down at his grime encrusted hands and dirty uniform. “I’ll be with you in a minute. I just need to take a quick shower and get into some fresh clothes.”
When door closed Ben had already started getting out of his uniform jacket. After working for over ten hours on the Perseus ‘ warp engines he felt exhausted, but the prospect of spending the evening with Tarin and the Caitian did more to refresh him then the shower would.
*
* * * *
“Are
you sure this information is reliable?” Commander Enikal asked.
Alex Westmore gave him a cold stare that seemed to last for an eternity before he managed a reply.
“Yes.”
“DAMM!”
Commander Westmore was a little surprised by the Bolian’s outburst but had no trouble hiding it. “I assume your own results support my findings?”
“Have a look for yourself.” Dar shoved a padd across the desk.
The Strategic Operations Officer took his time to study the data Commander Enikal had collected and even went through some passages two or three times.
He handed the padd back. “Then it is confirmed.”
“Yes,” Dar replied. “I’ll have to tell the Captain. Want to join me?”
“No thank you. I have done my part.”
Dar looked closely at Commander Westmore, but nothing betrayed the human’s emotions. ‘Does this guy even have emotions? He’s colder then a Vulcan’ Dar thought while he grabbed the padd.
When the doors opened before the Bolian, Commander Westmore broke the silence. “Do you believe the Captain is up to this?”
Dar turned around, but Alex Westmore still had his back towards the door.
“No Commander, I don’t believe she is up to it, I know it.”
When the XO had left Westmore turned to the desktop viewer. ‘Let’s find out if that boy is right. Time to make a few more calls.’
*
* * * *
“You know, Ben had a good idea when he mentioned getting out of uniform.” Tarin stood up and stretched her arms. “I’ll just do the same, if you will excuse me for a moment.”
“Sure.”
As Tarin began rummaging in her bedroom M’rroah called to her. “Can I ask you a question?”
“Of course, what is it?” came Tarin’s muffled answer from the next-door room.
“When you gave your ultimatum to the Romulans you never mentioned your name. It is customary for a starship captain to identify herself when making transmissions. Why didn’t you?”
“Oh that.” As Tarin started to undress she explained: “Starfleet wants this ship to become a symbol and so I thought it would be best not to mention my name in the same sentence with identifying my ship. Think about it; when the freighter crews finally get to Vulcan they will start telling their friends not how some Captain or another saved them, they will tell a story about the USS Valkyrie. It’s a small step, but I think it’s a step in the right direction.”
M’rroah
had to agree. “I’d say you are right about that.”
Tarin finished dressing and checked her appearance in a mirror. With a broad smile she stepped from the bedroom and slowly turned around. “Now what do you think about this decision?”
*
* * * *
Doctor Jascar sat alone at the bar in Ten Forward. Slowly he reached for the glass the crewman had just placed in front of him. Theron raised it and studied his own reflection carefully before bringing the tumbler to his lips in one swift motion and gulping down the whiskey.
Before he had even set the glass down on the counter he had already called out to the barkeeper: “Another.”
As
he reached for the refilled glass Theron noticed that someone had taken the seat
on his left. He didn’t care.
When a soft female voice ordered “Wu Lung tea” he finally glanced at the newcomer.
He and Counselor Lee hadn’t spoken more then a few words since they both came aboard the Valkyrie and the Doctor hoped it would stay that way. All he needed now was some shrink lecturing him about his life.
When they had set in silence for a few minutes Theron finaly relaxed again and placed his hand on the bottle the barkeeper had just used to fill up his glass another time. Just as he reached for his whiskey the Counselor spoke.
“You know, whatever it is, drinking won’t help.”
“Don’t you ever go off duty Counselor?” As he spoke Theron already regretted the acrid bitterness his voice betrayed.
When he looked at her he was relieved to see no trace of hurt feelings in her face, but he saw something he hadn’t expected. ‘She looks so lonely.’ When she replied Doctor Jascar still studied the Counselor’s face, unsure if she even noticed him or not.
“No, I don’t.”
Before Theron had time to decide if he should reply the Counselor turned in his direction. Avoiding her look he starred down at his glass again.
“But I think we were talking about you, not me.”
The
Doctor took a small sip of his whiskey and concentrated on the burning warmth
running down his throat.
“Why should we?” he asked.
When he received no reply from the petite Asian he started thinking about the question himself. ‘She has no business meddling in my affairs and yet…’ He remembered his last evening on Jupiter station and his talk with Turan. Getting his life out into the open like that had opened a lot of old wounds and yet it had been a tremendous relief at the same time.
He reached for his drink again but withdrew his hand at the last moment.
“All right, let’s talk about me.”
*
* * * *
“Isn’t it a bit… you know… tight?” M’rroah asked while she carefully studied the black one-piece suit that strongly accentuated Tarin’s figure.
“Ah you’d be surprised how flexible modern fabrics can be.” She turned around one more time and asked: “So, what do you think?”
“I think I should leave before Ben returns. When he sees you like this I bet his male instincts will kick in – fast.”
Tarin pouted in mock hurt. “Do you really think I need to dress up like this to get Ben going?” M’rroah joined her laughter. “That aside, this is for my own benefit, not Ben’s.” Tarin made herself comfortable on the sofa again, pulling her legs in below her.
Commander M’rroah’s curiosity was evident in her expression. “How so?”
“You know how demanding the job of a starship Captain can be.” M’rroah just nodded and Tarin went on: “This is my way of pretending for a little while that all those duties don’t exist. At the end of the day I try to get as far away from my uniform as possible, if only by changing into something I could never wear on duty.” She reached for her wine glass and took a small sip.
“Okay,” the Caitian replied, “but what about all your hobbies? You have your cooking and your dancing, the holodeck and the martial arts. Doesn’t that help you unwind?”
Tarin carefully set her glass back on the low table. “Oh yes, it would. This ship has holodecks, gyms, and a lot of other recreational facilities. Do you now how often I have seen one of those from the inside since comming aboard?” Not waiting for a reply she answered her own question. “Not once. There never seems to be time for it.”
M’rroah lightly touched the Centauran’s shoulder. “That is so like you. You are always driving yourself too hard.” She placed a paw on Tarin’s lips to stop her from speaking. “All right, let’s pretend we aren’t starship Captains, but just two old friends who ran into each other and decided to have a little chat about old times. That’s the best offer I had all day.”
Tarin gently moved her friend’s paw away from her mouth and held it for a second before she replied: “Thanks.”
“Hey, you are welcome,” M’rroah beamed at her. “Now, if you don’t have any plans for that studly engineer of yours tonight, could I borrow one of those outfits from you? I might want to make a pass at him myself.”
Tarin playfully jabbed her friend in the ribs and M’rroah’s “Umpf” was the first thing Ben heard when he entered the room.
*
* * * *
“Hold that lift!”
Lieutenant
Hagen hurried to catch up with Dar before the turbolift doors could close behind
him. “Deck 5” she instructed the computer, still out off breath.
After a moment she looked at the padd in the Commander’s hands.
“Bad news?”
”Why? You reading my mind?” the Bolian grumbled.
The young Betazoid looked at him in mock surprise. It didn’t take a mind reader to have expected his reply.
“No, of course I don’t, you know me.” When the Commander only grunted in reply she added: “It’s more that dark ominous cloud hovering over your head.”
Dar managed a small smile. “Very funny.”
The turbolift stopped on deck five and Rishana walked out. Before she had gotten far Commander Enikal held the doors open and called out to her. “Lieutenant.”
As she turned around the Valkyrie’s XO raised the padd. “You were right about this. If you want my advice head straight to bed and try to get some sleep. I imagine you won’t get much of it during the next few days.”
Rishana was really surprised by this turn of events. “Thank you Commander.”
Again the Bolian only grunted in reply, as he let the doors close between them.
As Lieutenant Hagen walked along the corridor towards her quarters she noticed she was alone and loudly asked herself: “Why is it that I can never predict anything good?”
*
* * * *
“Enter”
Dar Enikal stopped just inside the door and nodded towards the three people seated on the sofa opposite the entrance.
“Captain, I am sorry to intrude, but it’s quite urgent.”
Tarin wasn’t happy about the sudden interruption, but she knew that whatever Dar had to tell her would be important. “That’s alright. You have met Commander M’rroah?”
“Yes, I have.” They had run into each other when the Caitian had beamed aboard two hours ago. With a nod in M’rroah’s direction he took a few steps forward and handed the Captain his padd.
“Commander Westmore and I have completed our analysis of Romulan activity in this sector and I am afraid you won’t like our findings at all.”
Tarin took the padd and surveyed its contents. It didn’t take her long to come to the same conclusion Commander Enikal had drawn.
She placed the padd on the table and turned towards the Valkyrie’s Chief Engineer. “Ben, if you take every engineer you can, how long would it take you to complete repairs of the Perseus?”
While Ben contemplated the question M’rroah took the padd and began to read through it’s contents. Tarin didn’t stop her.
“Six hours if I wake up a lot of people, why?”
She knew that unlike many other engineers Ben’s honesty prevented him from overstating his time estimates much if any. ‘So much for a nice evening’. Tarin took her glass and downed the small rest of wine before she replied.
“You have two hours to do as many repairs as you can. If the Perseus’ engineers can finish the job from there, that’s it. If not, select some of your people for temporary transfer to the Perseus. We move out in two hours and not a second later.”
M’rroah
had just glanced at the summary at the end of the report, but now she threw the
padd down on the table, nearly toppling the glasses. “I’d better get back to
my ship!”
“Why?” Ben Tucker asked. “Would somebody please explain to me what’s going on?”
Captain
Veal looked Commander Enikal in the eyes to confirm that he had come to the same
conclusion she just had, but there was no doubt about it. For a second her
shoulders sagged, but then she straightened and turned towards the Valkyrie’s
Chief Engineer again.
“The Romulans are about to invade Vulcan.”
Prologue Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5