The Battle of Latari (Part 1 of 6)

Posted on 06 Jul 2019 @ 11:47am by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Chief Warrant Officer 3 Lamar Darius & Petty Officer 2nd Class Donald Andrews & Petty Officer 3rd Class Jeysa Zeror & Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Commander Luke Wyatt & Lieutenant Amaranai Franklin & Lieutenant Lake ir-Llantrisant & Lieutenant JG Matthew Plumeri & Lieutenant Commander Ryan Alexander & Ensign Callin Mastrel & Lieutenant JG Sofie Ullswater & Captain Hiroshi Tanakata & Commander Teegan Jones & Chief Warrant Officer 3 Alexion Wylde & Chief Warrant Officer 2 Kala Gorvel & Senior Chief Petty Officer Goldie Brown & Petty Officer 3rd Class John Hollenday & Crewman Draia Thero & EMH Mark X-C "Shirley" & Verity Thorne & LuAnn Lovegood PhD
Edited on on 06 Jul 2019 @ 11:57am

3,715 words; about a 19 minute read

Mission: Episode 17 - Crystal of Life
Location: Latari System - Latari A III Orbit
Timeline: MD 01, 0513 hrs

Previously, on The Genesis Directive (Part 6)...

The main viewscreen at the front of the bridge blinked from the image of the planet Latari A III and now showed a close-in view of streaking warp trails surrounding several small objects. The captain squinted and looked close at the streaming image -- a formation of six-sided starships resembling polygonal cones with pointed and elongated frontal features.

Swallowing a heavy lump in her throat, Lirha rose from her chair and stepped forward towards the viewscreen to stare at the incoming threat. Her Starfleet service before Galileo had been with the Intelligence division and it only took the Orion a few seconds to recognize the alien ship design profile of the vessels.

"They're Tholian."

And Now, the Continuation...

[ON]

The image of the Tholian vessels on the main viewscreen seemed to mesmerize the captain. For several long seconds, she remain motionless while the contents of her conscious thought process remained hidden. Lirha took a much needed breath and sprang into action, pressing her emerald index fingers to the commbadge on her chest.

"All hands, Red Alert. We've detected incoming on our current position. All crew report to stations. Tactical report to the bridge."

The Yellow Alert lighting suddenly changed upon Saalm's voice command and was replaced by pulsing crimson strobes. The overhead ambient lights dimmed to wash the bridge in a cloud of low-light darkness designed to highlight the readings from the instrument consoles.

Goldie Brown walked quickly to Mission Ops and logged in, taking a moment to look over the console's various readings.

Luke was quick to move into action, though his place wasn't usually on the bridge and if it was it would usually be as the tactical officer, Luke could see that Scarlet was missing in the picture infront of him which meant he was the second-ranking officer. Quickly putting 2 and 2 together he deduced that he'd likely have to step up and let someone else do the firing. He moved to the XOs seat but before sitting. "Captain, room for one more?"

Turning to return to her seat, Saalm observed the arrival of additional bridge officers including the unmistakable form of her large, muscular gold-collared Security chief. "Luke, good. Come." She gestured to the command chair to the left of hers indicating for him to sit. "I'm afraid your XO orientation will have to wait," she added with sawdust-flavored humor.

Saalm pointed to the main viewer and started to brief Wyatt. "We just deployed our second away team to the planet but it seems we now have visitors. I've studied this type of starship design philosophy and it matches the entries in the computer's Tholian database. But we're too far away to obtain detailed tactical analysis." She instinctively moved her right hand to her hip holster to verify her phaser was securely on her person.

"Make no mistake," she continued, "this is Federation space and I intend to defend it as necessary while our away teams are on the surface. But we must first follow protocol and attempt to establish communications. The Tholians are...xenophobic and intolerant of other species." Lirha's light green eyes turned back to the viewscreen in deep thought. "...For them to venture so far across the border away from their territory is....concerning."

With the captain words still ringing in his ears Luke took to the seat like a kid in the proverbial candy shop, he had commanded soldiers into battle, and in away teams but never had he been the second in command on a starship and he was going to use this experience as a very steep learning curve.

It was never meant to be true. Over by the science stations Ullswater stared blankly at the oncoming ships displayed on the view screen. After all the rumours and speculation she'd always assumed they would be proved happily wrong upon reaching Latari. She grasped wildly for anything to ground her back to reality but could only watch on as she felt more and more detached and dread filled her stomach to bursting point. The alarms for red alert wailed in her ears, years of training tried to pull her attention back to her station, but she was falling helplessly with only one thought in her head: They killed the colonists, and now they're going to kill us.

Ryan stood quietly at his station. He had been there throughout the patients escape from sickbay and, if Ryan was being honest with himself, was only mildly surprised Tholian vessels. With the sounding of Red Alert, Ryan was busy adjusting his console settings to bring up the tactical picture so he could be ready to anticipate the needs of the shio. He had noticed Crewman Brown take her post at the other ops station. "Crewman Brown, I am sending you the mission monitors of the Away Teams. I will assist in monitoring them as well, but I want another set of eyes on those readouts." Ryan said to Goldie.

"Yes, sir," Goldie pulled up the proper displays so that she, too, could monitor the away teams as a backup.

Ryan nodded absently. "Very well." He said as he quickly continued to bring up status screens and relevant information.

From his own station, Callin struggled as well, though for different reasons. He'd managed to put his own doubts about himself aside and rely on his training now, but he couldn't help but pick up on the fear coming from Science I. His friend's terror hurt, and the concern he felt didn't leave any room for his own fears now. Callin cast a concerned glance at Sofie, and then tapped out a message to route directly to her station:

We're going to be okay.


Deck 3 - Sickbay

It may have been a fast sprint out of Sickbay in pursuit of the escaped patient for Wylde, but it was something of a limping prowl back there. The anger was tight in his body from everything that had happened and the thought of Elegy out there, alone...Alexion forced himself to shake it away as he made it through the door of Sickbay, moving straight for a hypospray to press a painkiller to his arm. What he really needed was a strong drink, but the sirens told him it would have to wait.

Verity Thorne followed closely after, watching Wylde with concern even though he was trying to process it all himself. He was still in shock from the drama that had unfolded. It had all happened so fast....he sighed heavily as he moved to Wylde, touching his arm, but the other man shrugged the hand off. Verity glanced down but nodded gently with acceptance, moving away to give him some distance.

LuAnn walked into sickbay and nodded to the others. "Can I get you two anything?" she asked.

Wylde just waved a hand sharply in the negative, moving away with a frown as he rolled his shoulder awkwardly. He doubted a double shot was what she meant.

Verity smiled weakly to LuAnn, shaking his head. "No, no thank you. Let's all just...catch our breath until the next emergency," he added dryly, but kept a half smile for her.

LuAnn nodded. She, too, was affected by what happened to Elegy, but focusing on work would no doubt help.

The doors to the corridor slid open again, allowing entrance to Lake ir-Llantrisant. The neuropsychistrist had returned to Sickbay later than the others because he had stopped to secure his hand phaser in the armoury. Perhaps it hadn't been entirely necessary for Lake to divest himself of the phaser, especially given the call to red alert. Perhaps he would even need it again soon. Still, the gnawing feeling in the pit of his stomach told Lake he didn't want to feel the weight of that phaser on his hip. That phaser that had been instrumental in his confrontation with Elegy Reiko, in what would prove to be Elegy Reiko's final confrontation in life. Without saying anything, Lake dashed aside into the Chief Medical Officer's office to busy himself by reading patient status summaries until Allyndra arrived and gave him something better to do.

On the other side of the compartment, the Emergency Medical Hologram was fussing over a patient with a tricorder. She turned her head from side to side, comparing the results on the tricorder display with the results beeping on the biofunction monitor. Shirley's pixie-cut was still mussed from the commotion earlier and, for a moment, she worried at the back of her head with her left hand in an approximation of a nervous twitch. Suddenly, she caught herself doing that and then used both of her hands to clasp the tricorder. Shirley kept the scanner pointed at her Cardassian patient as she paced around the length of the biobed. "I grant you, your vitals are looking strong," Shirley said.

"I told you that," Draia Thero said, snapping back at the EMH. "I told you I was fine. It didn't hurt that much when your patient ran into me, and then he whined a bunch, and skittered away. I'm fine I swear." --Draia's gaze snapped in the direction of the other doctors who had recently returned to Sickbay en masse-- "Tell her," Draia called out to them. "Tell her I'm fine and can go back to Engineering."

Alexion moved over to them with a heavy sigh, looking to the readings with an arched eyebrow and a distinctly unimpressed look. "Yeah, you're fine," he waved a hand to dismiss her. "Get out of here and keep the ship together..."

Allyndra had waited before going to sickbay. She wanted to be on the bridge but her prime duty at this point was going to be handling anything that might happen from the red alert. She wanted to also give space as she had disagreed with Alexion wanting to bring Elegy body back in. It was moot point right now with a red alert. She finally made it back still dragging her sort of jury rigged silicone based biochemistry anesthetic gun with her only to come in to another argument taking place or seemingly another argument with another patient. She had already been involved with getting into one with the doctor and did not want to get into one right now. She would let him handle it and only intervene if asked. Instead she made her way to the office and flopped into the chair and got the feed from the bridge so she knew what might be happening there.

Allyndra stuck her head out of the office and announced, "We have Tholians arriving. Intent is unknown at this point but they are very xenophobic race best prepare for injured."


Deck 7 - Engineering

Kala readied herself for the battle to come, she had made her way down to engineering as soon as yellow alert began announcing through the ship and now those warm colors of yellow switched to a threatening red she was glad she was already there. She grasped her console the color in her hands draining she often wondered if this is what it felt like to be in a submarine during earths world war 2 deep below the surface of the water firing highly packed explosive tubes at one another.

John saw the other engineer looking a bit pale and quipped, "One of the most secure areas of the ship. Besides if we take a big enough hit, you will never know it, be over before you know it. Reminds me of some old Earth movie about an even older time in Earth's history the main protagonist was telling his troops: 'If you find yourself walking through green grass with the sun on your face, be not afraid for you are in Elysium and you are already dead'."

She was appreciative for his words and found the quote fitting. “Thank you, and I know it's just I've never really been in Proper combat, what I make up in technical knowledge I lack in experience. " Kala chuckled nervously releasing the console, "I'm sure we're be fine, we have a fine ship and a fine crew"

"Indeed we do, now you keep an eye on that panel for the energy level circuits and I am going to grab my kit in case we need to get things patched." John nodded and went to grab an engineering kit.

"Who did we annoy this time?" Donald asked as he came through the door tucking his uniform shirt into his trousers, he grabbed a engineering kit and slung it over his shoulder.


Deck 1 - Bridge

With the red alert klaxon going off Jeysa figured she should be right by the Captains side for if she needed her, she ran for the nearest turbolift and lept inside when it opened only to be joined a moment later by Lt Franklin.

As soon as the Red Alert sounded, Amaranai realized she was in the wrong place. It took her several minutes of running and trying to patiently wait for the turbolift. It was while in the turbolift that Amaranai scolded herself for not using an emergency transport to the bridge. She shook her head and luckily stopped herself before the lift doors opened.

She looked at the captain as she entered and could see the near disappointment in her face. Amaranai moved to her station and began scanning the nearby space.

The captain observed her yeoman and acting tactical officer finally arrive then turned towards the Ops stations. "Send a priority message to the Trial and tell them we have Tholian company. Galileo has better sensors and they might not have picked them up yet." Lirha then looked up to her young blonde yeoman who was hovering nearby. "Jeysa, I need you to compile all of our recent logs and sensor data from both planets and transmit it to Starfleet Command on Channel One. Level ten encryption." It was her best attempt to make sure that - in the event Galileo and Trial were destroyed - the knowledge they'd so far gained from the star system would help the next brave crew to investigate.

"Understood Captain." Jeysa scurried off to an unoccupied panel and started to gather the information she needed, she didn't know much about Tholians but if the Captain was worried enough to make her transmit what could be the ships last will and testament things must be serious.

Ryan entered a few commands onto his console. "Priority message sent, awaiting confirmation of receipt." Ryan said to the captain.


USS Trial - Bridge

The message came in and Hiroshi read the message. "Tholians," he said to no one in particular.

"Number one, please acknowledge the message. Red Alert, shields up! All hands to duty stations!" The lights changed to that red colour and alarms let everyone know that this was serious.

Teegan nodded and switched over to comms so that she could respond. "This is the Trial. Message acknowledged." She was not looking forward to a tussle with Tholians.

"Mister Plumeri," Hiroshi looked to the Galileo science officer. "It would appear that you will be our guest for a little longer. If you would please take the science station and feed into tactical please."

"Aye sir" Matthew said to Captain Hiroshi's order. He looked at the other Science Officer and meekly shrugged. "Sorry! I'll try not to get in your way." With that, Matt sat alongside his counterpart at Science I station. "OK, so let's configure this up for active scanning. You're back to baseline specs. These sensors now operate as you remember them. Captain wants the data patched into Tactical array...there...that should do it." Announcing the new sensor configuration, Matthew said, "Sensors have been aligned to the Tactical Array Captain. You're getting live feeds...we're back online."

"Very good, keep up the good work and hope to return you to the Galileo when we can." Hiroshi was glad to have the science officer. His expertise while in ancient cultures never the less meant he had to have a good grounding in sensor arrays.


Latari A III, High Orbit

From the bridge of USS Galileo, the dark-skinned helmsman gave an urgent callout to the CO and the rest of the bridge crew. "Captain, the Tholians are entering the system." He looked up from his console's nav display to look at the large holographic viewscreen in front of him and see the sight for himself.

In space, four bright flashes appeared in the far distance and were followed by multiple grey streaks which quickly snapped out of warp. Their unique triangular shape was highlighted by their muted grey hull plating yet accented at the rear by glowing warp nacelles embedded into the sides of the spaceframe.

The helm console chirped and Lamar processed the new data coming in. "They're passing the other colony planet and headed straight for us. Thirty seconds."

Lirha wasn't particularly fond of violent standoffs and silently grit her teeth for a moment. "Hail them on all frequencies," she instructed. Despite the odds of verbal success, perhaps a dialogue could be achieved with the reclusive species to prevent any loss of life.

Ryan quickly entered in the command to open hailing frequencies. "Channel is open, captain." Ryan said.

"Tholian vessels," broadcast the Orion commander, "I am Captain Lirha Saalm of the Federation starship Galileo. Your presence here is in violation of Federation territorial boundaries." There was a slight pause while she did her best to be diplomatic. "What is the reason for your intrusion?"

"No response, ma'am," Goldie said after a moment.

Ryan furrowed his brown as he reentered hailing frequencies. "I am repeating the message Captain." Ryan said, as he attempted to boost power the communications array.

Many long seconds of silence passed which felt like an eternity. "Ten seconds," came the report from the conn. Lirha couldn't form any further ideas before the Tholian task group appeared on short range-sensors and slowed to approach them.

In space above the green and blue backdrop of Latari A III, the four Tholian vessels decelerated to maneuvering speed and stopped just outside weapons range.

Galileo's captain looked to her acting XO for counsel. "Options, Mister Wyatt? We must communicate--"

Her voice was suddenly drowned out by an intense high-frequency screech which blared through every speaker and communication device on the bridge. Lirha quickly put her hands to her ears to cover the painful sound but not before it had temporarily deafened her and the rest of the bridge crew. She squinted her eyes in pain then opened them to look around. "Report!" she yelled, unable to hear nothing but the ringing in her ears.

Ryan tried to cover his ears as the high pitched sound permeated throughout the bridge. The sound was almost debilitating, and the pain from it made it hard to concentrate. Ryan squinted through the pain and looked down at his console an idea forming in foggy, pain riddled, mind. Releasing one hand from his ears and using his shoulder to attempt to cover it, he typed in a series of commands that utilized the interior force field projectors to extend a small and localized field around the bridge that reduced the impact of the auditory to a more manageable level.

Ryan heaved a sigh of relief moments before a mild headache took root. "Captain, I have set up a localized energy field to dampen the sound." Ryan relayed to the captain.

Amaranai was getting the readouts of the Tholian vessel when there was a sharp noise around the bridge. Her hands immediately went from the console to cover her ears but the noise was loud. It wasn't a sound that the security officer had heard before and was beginning to feel nauseous. The sound seemed to quiet and heard the muffled voice of Ensign Alexander. She removed her hands and noticed the sound had been dampened.

Goldie's ears were ringing by the time the volume lowered to a more manageable level. She shook her head, adjusted her skirt, and checked her console to see if there was anything pertaining to the cause. "What was that?"

Callin flashed a grateful smile Ryan's way - that terrible sound had felt like a drill to his skull - and focused back on his readouts. "Um..." He didn't have an immediate answer but his fingers flew as fast he could manage, sorting through different sensor reports to isolate the specific frequency. "Sofie, take a look at this," he said, linking a readout to her station that showed the spectrum of energy that had hit them. A flowing wave of a graph in bright green with a sudden climb that coincided with the sounds appeared. "The resonance patterns, what's that look like to you?"

Ullswater tried her best to snap back into professionalism. As she looked over the data from Callin's station she found her mind wandering again to images of the tectonic destruction they had witnessed. She rubbed her forehead and did her best to concentrate - the noise didn't help. "Its a scan." She muttered and then, remembering she was an officer, more strongly to the captain "Captain, the Tholians are scanning Galileo and the Trial, I think that would be the source of this racket." She glanced across her shoulder to Callin and offered a grateful grin.

Within seconds the silicon-based frequency scans abruptly ceased. For a moment, there was an eerie silence on the bridge - the red alert sirens had ceased their audio calls and all consoles remained silent. Such leisure did not last long, however, and the unmistakable alert of an incoming hail started to chirp from the Operations alcove at the aft of the bridge.

"Captain, I have an incoming message," Goldie said. "From the Tholians." After the audible assault, she was surprised by this more pedestrian approach. "Audio and video."

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

All Crew
USS Galileo-A

All Crew
USS Trial

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