No Man's Land (Part 8 of 10)

Posted on 21 Apr 2017 @ 2:48pm by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Commander Aren Ban & Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Lieutenant Amaranai Franklin & Commander Marisa Wyatt & Ensign Miraj Derani & Ensign Mimi & Lieutenant JG Eelim Galan & Petty Officer 1st Class Eviess
Edited on on 21 Apr 2017 @ 2:54pm

2,777 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: Episode 14 - Statecraft
Location: IKS DuJa'Q, Klingon Neutral Zone
Timeline: MD 11, 2341 hrs

Previously, on No Man's Land (Part 7)...

"General," she said, suddenly filled with more adrenaline. "Vor'cha class battlecruiser decloaking to our aft."

She checked the sensors as they reported new information.

"Sir, they are charging weapons."

Lirha's eyes went wide. She started to run down to the command chair as fast as she could in order to view her tactical display, but it was too late.

And Now, the Continuation...

[ON]

The Vor'cha-class heavy cruiser maneuvered into firing position and launched two green photon torpedoes from its forward launcher. The glowing neon projectiles streaked through space at warp at the invisible K't'inga-class until they impacted the ship's port nacelle. Without shields due to the enabled cloaking device, the warheads penetrated into the duranium hull plating and exploded brilliantly. Debris ejected from all angles at the point of impact and sheered off the entire nacelle pylon while sending large pieces of shrapnel into DuJa'Q's engineering hull. The warp field surrounding the starship immediately destabilized and forced the K't'inga-class out of warp while sending it into a dead spin at sub-impulse speeds.

Mimi ran back to the Ops console as the bridge exploded around them, she felt tiny shards of metal dig into her face as she ran. "We have taken major damage General, the port nacelle is gone and the warp drive is down."

Abbey, now free from Mimi, rolled to one side shielding her face and exposed arms from when she had ripped them to make a tourniquet for Luke. The bridge erupted in noise and color as the bridge consoles began to explode. Using a pause between the bombardment she stood and ran over to Lieutenant Franklin at the weapons console. She didn't speak, and for reason, not to her knowledge she knew she'd be in trouble later about shooting Miraj but right now they had to just survive.

Marisa had just stepped onto the bridge as the ship was hit. Without thinking, she grabbed the door frame with her injured arm to keep her balance. The pain was too great, causing her to lose her grip and fall back into the corridor, the door closing quietly behind her.

Aren had grabbed on the nearest hand hold when the first shots struck the ship. The auxiliary display screen was cracked but was still displaying information. "General, we have multiple hull breaches on the lower decks." Aren called out as he read the incoming data.

A console behind Amaranai exploded and sent small bits of debris her way. She shielded her head as best she could and could feel the bits of glass and metal piercing her uniform.

"Weapons have been rendered offline, sir," she spoke with a raised voice. "Cloak has also been disabled."

IKS DuJa'Q slowly tumbled through the cosmos in an empty corridor of the Neutral Zone. The vessel shimmered as it's cloak failed, and the damaged dark green hull quickly became visible to any starship that happened to be in the vicinity. Conduit ruptures from the exposed section of inner hull spewed orange and blue plasma into the vacuum of space from the severed nacelle pylon.

A bright flash in the nearby sky signaled the arrival the Vor'cha-class that had just crippled DuJa'Q. The larger and more modern battlecruiser dropped out of warp and quickly came about to face Saalm's vessel and its crew.

"Battlecruiser DuJa'Q, I am Councilor Karh of the High Council," sounded a new Klingon's voice over the open transmission channel. "You have violated the Neutral Zone under the guise of a Klingon warship. Surrender your vessel and bring me the traitor Ko'raH...and I will spare your lives," he demanded.

"More Klingons?" Mimi exhaled hard. "Keelah"

Allyndra was too busy tending to people but she quipped, "Just hand him over and let's be done with all this mess."

"What this person said," Miraj agreed.

Abbey stood still covered in drying blood, shaking and angry but her mood slowly became a small matter with the rising tension on the ship she looked across to the battered crew and shook her head slowly. As much as the federation believed in their ways they were not too far different from the Klingon Empire and in some ways worst. Righteous wrongdoers were some of the words she had been told about Starfleet. "Orders?" She asked cautiously worried with her place and her weaponless state. All she could think is that this crew would throw her to the wolves for doing what she at the time knew was right.

Having lost her footing during the sudden attack on her battlecruiser, Saalm winced and panted while climbing back to her feet. Councilor Karh's message still echoed in her head, but while she was trying to digest the implications of his presence in the Neutral Zone, she heard Abbey's voice asking for orders from behind her. The Orion general turned her head around towards the woman with a fierce glare that would melt most humanoids. "You are relieved!" she snapped at the Mirror Universe Wyatt. She didn't have time to deal with another usurper on top of the arrival of another Klingon warship. "Mister Galan, take her below decks to the brig," she coldly ordered. Hopefully the brig was still intact.

Abbey turned to the general but addressed the whole bridge crew her eyes wild with anger once again. She would have been a scary sight covered in blood and sleeves ripped from aiding Luke and fighting the Klingon. "Are you f--king kidding me!" She pointed her finger towards where Miraj was being helped by medics. "She falls in league with a mutinous Klingon, agrees to kill the General and you act as if she has done nothing wrong! There's a word for it and that's a traitor, punishable by death! She wouldn't even say no! Is that someone you want to serve with! I did what I thought was necessary and you punish me!"

She started back peddling towards the door still shouting in anger. "You're worst than the Terran Empire and the funny thing is you think you're better than us! You claim you hold your rules and regulations, your prime directives.." She said spitting out every word with venom "at the very core of what you do! It's bullshit! Take a good hard look at you all, the things you've done the past weeks and months and you have the nerve to send me to the brig. I spent enough time on Earth to know what you're doing is wrong and you know it! If it had been one of your own would they be taken to the brig"? She turned to Eelim "And if you so god as touch me I will do worst than what I did to that Klingon..." She turned again "When trying to save you ungrateful green ass! Oh and in case you haven't thought about him, my father is dying on the other side of this door making sure we could get onto this bridge" This time she stared at the Orion cold-bloodedly as a predatorial like snarl began rumbling in the back of her throat this is why she joined the Terran Empire she thought before knocking it back into the vault she had locked away, a tear running down her blood crusted cheek. She had considered telling Luke how she felt but this was as good as time as any being as they were about to all die anyway.

Eelim felt quite uneasy. He placed a gentle hand on Abbey's shoulder. "Abbey...Abbey let's go."

She turned, her jaw clenched as she felt a hand rest on her shoulder. "I said..." She trailed off after seeing his face and she stopped her sentence, the anger in her boiling still but she was able to keep it under control.

"Just let's go!" He said more firmly. A tone that said both don't argue and trust me.

"Fine" She said taking one more glance back to the bridge sighed and allowed herself to be led of the bridge. On the other side of the door and she saw Luke. She leaned down and kissed his cheek. "Please get better father, I think I'm going to need you," She said softly before seeing what his response was and walked down the corridor with Eelim in Tow.

The Mirror Wyatt's protest had been filled with rage, Lirha couldn't help but notice, yet it strangely seemed to be devoid of guilt. It was almost as if Abbey, in her mind, had felt completely justified in her actions. And this concerned the Orion. All she knew of the situation was what she'd seen with her own eyes -- the woman's arrival on the bridge followed by a deliberate attack on the ensign. And while she remembered what Derani had told her when she showed her the d'k tahg, the fact that Abbey knew of the secret meant one of two things: either the half-Boslic had told others about her plan to kill her and had purposeful not told Saalm, or Wyatt was correct and Derani really was a traitor -- perhaps one who'd had a change of heart at the last moment.

Saalm looked back over to where Miraj had been treated and eyed the pink-haired conn officer. "Commander Tojor," she began, not wanting to give the order but knowing she couldn't take any chances, "Restrain Ensign Derani and keep her under guard."

"As you wish general." Tojor said as he marched over to Denari. He reached into his personal field kit and pulled out what looked like to the Klingon equivalent of Zip-ties. Placing her hands behind her back, Tojor looped the restraints around her wrist and pulled making sure they were secure. Tojor didn't hate the Federation crew and he knew the general had a soft spot for them, he made sure that the restraints were tight enough to cause Ensign Derani any pain, just severe discomfort.

Miraj listened to the woman's accusations, flabbergasted. "That's not what happened!" she protested, too shocked and surprised to even think about resisting the Klingon. "I tried to warn them all! Find Luke, he'll tell you, or the Admiral! I tried to tell her. Ask her!" Where was the admiral? What had happened to the entire crew? Had these new klingons taken them out?

Aren turned to Miraj and the Klingon. "Please just hold her where she is for the moment. Ensign Derani, you are being temporarily detained but the ad...I mean general's order." Aren said, his tone trying to mean that there wasn't much up for debate, but a look of sympathy did cross his face. "As soon as we get a handle on the situation we will get this matter settled." He finished before nodding to the Klingon to keep her out of the way until the situation was under control.

She wanted it settled now! She didn't know anyone here. Some of her crewmates were dead, she was sure others were injured. She couldn't see Luke. Was he okay, or had he faced down a Klingon he couldn't handle? Her blood ran cold at that thought. She glanced over her shoulder at the Klingon behind her. He looked as sympathetic as a stone. She sank back away from the new commander, out of energy to argue. She was alone now.

Eviess had made it to the bridge in once piece. It had gotten choppy for a while and she was still raw from the surgery and shaky but she wanted to help. She hoped Varro was okay. She sent a silent prayer to the universe as she knelt down by a wounded Petty Officer and started to treat her.

Once the Mirror Wyatt had been escorted off the bridge and restraints put on Derani, Saalm turned her attention back to the most pressing matter at hand. Based on the damage report she'd received, their starship was crippled and certainly not in any shape to either flee or face an opponent. In addition, the attempted mutiny just minutes beforehand had probably thrown the lower decks into turmoil -- the casualty report alone painted a grim picture of the number of available personnel able to operate the starship. Saalm's command training kicked in, and without a second thought, she began to silently evaluate their options. They'd just been instructed to surrender -- an offer to spare lives, peacefully with no more aggression. It was an offer the Orion had refused inside the Paulson Nebula when she'd been in command of Galileo, and it'd been the worst decision of her career. The lives of her crew that had been lost because of her stubbornness and the subsequent semi-imprisonment of all of them still lingered freshly in the forefront of her thoughts. No, she would not repeat that mistake. Not after she'd promised her crew she would return them home to the Federation safely.

With a shaky yet forceful voice, Saalm gave the order for compliance. "Ensign Mimi," she swallowed a lump in her throat, "...signal our surrender." She then looked at Ban and gave him a weak smile. "We have done all we can. I am sorry," she mouthed silently.

"...Understood." Mimi said as she worked at what remained of her station, both it and the comm system had taken damage. "Klingon vessel, we surrender, repeat we surrender."

Aren shook his head, not at Lirha's proclamation but at the situation. Normally Aren would have protested, but he didn't have the energy nor would the pounding in his head even let him form a better idea. The whole situation felt like something out of the Kobayashi Maru test back at the Academy. For the most selfish of moments, Aren wondered what this would do to his career. As the thought entered his mind, he pushed it away. This wasn't all about him, he made a promise to the crew and the admiral.

Rage took hold of Eviess. After everything they had gone through this was how it would end? The CO would just let them be taken? Didn't she know who the Klingons were? Of course she realized that her own experience with her people might be clouding her judgement but nevertheless she had to say something. She walked over to Lirha. "Ma'am with all due respect we can't trust them."

Saalm turned and stared up at the Klingon woman who'd entered the bridge. It was Eviess, the only Klingon member of Galileo's crew who towered over the Orion with her tall build. That she would serve aboard a Starfleet vessel despite her heritage spoke volumes, and her disdain for the Klingons on the other starship was understandable despite it's optical contradiction. But given their current situation -- the casualties they'd already suffered and their crippled warship -- there was little in the way of alternative options. "I would agree with you, but we have no choice," she replied. "We cannot fight or flee...we are at their mercy." The cold truth of their predicament was one that only a member of the command staff could understand. It was why they'd been trained in their specialty.

Frustrated Eviess just gave a nod. "I know." It was a haunted whisper. Her mind swirled with shadows of the past. She knelt back down and continued to tend to one of the wounded so that she could at least stabilize the ensign. She looked up at Lirha with haunted eyes. "Let's get this over with."

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

GEN Lirha Saalm
Commanding Officer
IKS DuJa'Q

Commander Chorag
First Officer
IKS DuJa'Q
[PNPC Saalm]

Ensign Miraj Derani
Chief Flight Control Officer
IKS DuJa'Q

CPO2 Crispin Snow
Operations Officer
IKS DuJa'Q
[PNPC Derani]

Ensign Mimi
Operations Officer
IKS DuJa'Q

Cmdr Allyndra illm Warraquim
Chief Medical and Second Officer
IKS Duja'Q

PO2 T'Lin
Science Officer
IKS Duja'Q
[PNPC Warraquim]

Lieutenant JG Marisa Sandoval
Counselor
IKS Duja'Q

Petra Varelli, PhD
Forensic Anthropologist
IKS Duja'Q
[PNPC Sandoval]

Ambassador Sorel Varro
Chief Diplomatic Officer
IKS Duja'Q

Petty Officer Eviess
Medical Officer
IKS Duja'Q
[PNPC Varro]

Lt. JG Eelim Galan
Security Officer
IKS Duja'Q
[PNPC Varro]

Commander Aren Ban
Executive Officer
IKS Duja'Q

Lieutenant JG Amaranai Franklin
Assistant Chief Security / Tactical
IKS Duja'Q

Lieutenant Commander Luke Wyatt
Strategic Operations Officer
IKS Duja'Q

Ensign Abbey St James
Security Officer
IKS Duja'Q
[PNPC Wyatt]

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