Victory (Part 1 of 2)

Posted on 16 Sep 2020 @ 1:06pm by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Commander Scarlet Blake & Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Commander Luke Wyatt & Commander Marisa Wyatt & Ensign Mimi & Lieutenant JG Sofie Ullswater & Commander Andreus Kohl & Chief Warrant Officer 2 Oliver Sylver & Senior Chief Petty Officer Goldie Brown & Cadet Senior Grade Jemima de la Coeur

3,380 words; about a 17 minute read

Mission: Episode 17 - Crystal of Life
Location: Latari System, Latari A III High Orbit
Timeline: MD 04, 2332 hrs

Previously, on The Second Battle of Latari (Part 3)...

The captain said something that the universal translator decided not to let Sofie in on but from the tone of voice the captain used she guessed it wasn't the sort of thing you'd say at the dinner table. The Tellarite took a moment to look over the tactical displays a last time, trying to pick out any last thing that they might have overlooked. They hadn't caught the last of the Tholians but it seemed that the work was done. "Hail Lagrange and Galileo. The Tholians are retreating, it's over."

And Now, the Continuation...

[ON]

Above the mushroom-clouded world Latari A III, the lone surviving Tholian dart accelerated away from its Federation pursuers and quickly disappeared from visual range at high impulse. The remains of the silicon assault force now only consisted of scorched hull debris and a disabled frigate. With the proto-Tholian destroyed on the planet and the Tholian fleet repulsed from orbit, the Starfleet task group had just held the system against improbable odds and achieved one of the primary Genesis Directive goals.

"The remaining Tholian vessel is in retreat," came the call over the Starfleet tactical frequency from the Akira-class.

From the bridge of the MacPherson-class, a small commotion of disciplined jubilation could be heard in the background followed by Captain Rasmussen's forceful voice.

"All hands, this is Lagrange. We've achieved victory and the battle is ours," he roared with confidence. "Stand down to yellow alert and regroup. Prepare search and rescue teams and emergency maintenance crew."

All three Starfleet ships had suffered damage and casualties throughout the course of the battle - some more than others. It was prudent then, that the task group CO now prioritized repairs and crew recovery efforts to tend to their wounds.


USS Kali

Blake just stared with her hands on her hips, holding her breath for a long moment. Victory? It rang hollow...as well as ringing a warning bell in the back of her head that made her heart thump just a little bit faster. It didn't feel right, not for Tholians, not with their nature, not when one of their ships was still in one piece...but she couldn't be sure that it wasn't the adrenaline from their near death experience still pumping through her and driving her on for the full kill. So she folded her arms and looked across to the Captain for the order; they'd been in this fight from the start and had the scars to show it, and she was ready to work however she was needed, whatever was going on in the field.

Captain Evry Navren took another long look at the retreating Tholian ship on the tactical display. To her left the captain noted the stern expression of Vincenzo 's commander. It made Evry feel alone, she wanted her first here, not someone else's. She wanted her science officer... She hoped they were both going to be alright. The commander was probably right to be on alert. Who knows if the Tholians would come back? Maybe with even more numbers. With Kali in her current condition Evry sincerely doubted they could survive another engagement in one piece.

For now the battle was over though, Navren turned back to her chair - she'd been on her feet the whole battle and sitting down was a symbol all the crew recognised - a symbol of victory. Sadly it seemed a good portion of the bridge officers weren't actually from her crew but all the same it was ritual and on a warship ritual is important. "Lieutenant, bring us about and rejoin the formation." She called out to Mosette.

"Will do Sir," The lieutenant responded from the helm "We'll be limping back but limping back in glory!"

"Thank you Mosette..." The captain replied with a shake of her head, her helm officer might not always the most professional but she was the best pilot in the galaxy. Evry made it to her chair and collapsed into it without much delicacy. She hit some buttons on the armrest to broadcast to the whole ship. "This is the captain speaking, we are standing down to yellow alert. Now is the time to get ourselves patched up." She glanced at the monitor displaying a report from her medical officer "Temporary medical facilities have been established in the labs on Deck 3 and medical teams and search parties will be making their way through the ship. I am once again incredibly proud of the work we've done today. Thank you - all of you." Pärt let out a cheer and Mosette a little clap. None of Vasile cracking stupid jokes or Telry's quiet banter but the battle was over for now.

Ensign Ullswater had turned in her chair to watch the proceedings, a post battle ritual perhaps? She hadn't really been on Galileo long enough to notice if she had any similar practices. It seemed nice, reassuring. Blake was standing there too, a familiar face amongst all the strangeness. She offered a meek smile in her direction but the commander was all cross armed and businesslike. That didn't matter though. The battle had been long and at every moment of it she had wanted to escape. Now that it was over Sofie could not wait to get off this bridge.

Marisa felt sick at what she'd seen since boarding. She was seriously concerned about where the fleet would go next and what they would do if they went to the other colony. Would they even rescue the survivors?

Blake's shoulders relaxed a touch at the direction of the Captain, trusting her instinct. She let out a soft breath and swallowed back her adrenaline, taking a look across the bridge. She caught Sofie's gaze as she did, a small smile coming to her at the familiar face. She moved across to her, watching the young woman with approval. "Ullswater...it's good to see you, I should have known we had someone here watching our backs..."

Sofie looked up at Blake, the commander's words bringing her some real calm. Having someone from Galileo around was a link back to her reality helping Sofie remember that there did exist a world outside of the bridge, outside of the battle. "I..." Sofie blinked a couple of times and coughed, her thoughts stumbling over themselves for a moment before she pulled herself together "Thank you sir. It's good to see you again too. Especially after..." She gestured towards the view screen, recalling the moment she had witnessed the explosion "I'm glad you made it out."

"Me too," Blake assured with a slight chuckle, arching an eyebrow as she gave a firm pat to Sofie's shoulder. "And I'm glad you were here to help make it happen."

She glanced toward the viewscreen, grateful to be back too. "It's good to see you, too," Marisa said to Ullswater.

Sofie didn't say anything but nodded in response. The escape had been miraculous, the whole day felt like it had been filled with impossibilities. She was glad to have helped.


USS Galileo-A

"Keelah, that was a close thing." Mimi remarked as she sat back in her chair, her body finally allowing itself to relax ever so slightly. The battle might have been over but the ship had taken a beating.

"It's not over yet," interjected Andreus Kohl, as he lowered himself into the Captain's Chair. Kohl did his best to make the words sound wry or sardonic, but, as far as he was concerned, the crew couldn't rest yet. There was no way to know what other Tholian forces were out there --beyond sensor readings-- and the Genesis Directive hadn't yet been fully satisfied. "It is truly a miracle that we made it this far, though," Kohl said and he raised his voice, looking around at the bridge crew. "This crew wouldn't be here without each and every one of you," Kohl announced. "All hands to yellow alert. You heard Rasmussen: move us into formation with the others and commence search and rescue efforts."

The red alert strobe lights on the bridge quickly ceased and now silently rippled with yellow pulses. Overhead lighting was restored to 75 percent which brightened the command chamber and highlighted numerous blood and debris stains on the floor.

"Yes Sir," Sylver frowned as he plotted the course, taking a deeper breath to push past the headache he was noticing now the adrenaline was leaving his system. "Moving into formation..." he took note about the ship's sluggishness, how she now responded to the controls. Flyable, yes. He could handle her well, but there was a difference from between how she had been before the battle and now. He pushed that knowledge into a little box in his head labelled 'stuff Oliver would worry about later for his after action report'. Right now, what mattered was flying.

Search and rescue? They'd just destroyed a planet. Who were they going to rescue? The first away team was gone, the Tholians fled, and they were in serious trouble. Jemima wasn't sure if they could do anything more than limp back to Federation space.

Goldie wanted something good to come of all this. She'd seen nothing but death and destruction since coming to the sector. There had to be something more, something to redeem them all from what she felt was the wanton destruction of a planet. She firmly believed that they could have come up with a better solution to the Genesis Directive.

Mimi turned to her console, the alert board was rife with notifications about things needing repaired, some fairly minor some major. Quickly checking each one she began to order them via priority and started to send task lists to engineering and ops teams.

"Sir, with your permission," Allyndra kept things formal. She was still not happy about the destruction of the planet and a life form that they had little information about, resulting in almost the destruction of the ship as well. This was not the time to argue over it. "I will begin to sweep decks for injured as per the admiral's orders."

"Make it so, Allyndra," replied Andreus Kohl. Glancing in Allyndra's direction, Kohl knew nothing of her inner-turmoil. In the time they'd spent apart, serving different shifts, Kohl had forgotten the exact meaning of all of Allyndra's micro-expressions. All he offered her was a warm smile. "In your hands," he said, "I know our crew will be made safe."

With a small nod to Kohl, Allyndra left to begin just that. There were plenty of injuries to take care of. However, in her hearts, she knew that once things settled she was going to bring up objections.

The bridge's access door hissed open then shut behind the Akkadian doctor as she departed under orders. A small silence formed within the command center, giving Lieutenant Diego a chance to focus on his tasks at the auxiliary/tactical station. Ever since the recent Tholian retreat call and the subsequent return to yellow alert, the Lagrange-turned-Galileo security officer had continued to do his diligence and monitor the last Tholian ship leaving the battle space. The tactical display on his terminal was tracking the vessel as it moved away on the local grid area and now he observed the enemy frigate begin to decelerate then hold position within the Latari A III outskirts.

The young gold-collared officer frowned and expanded his display with several taps to zoom in on the silicon warship. Something didn't look right about the maneuver. Diego looked to the small recessed command deck at the center of the cramped bridge and spoke to Commander Wyatt in a quiet tone.

"XO, can you come look at this?"

Luke, who had for a moment thought it was over had just sat back down his hands in his head when his name was mentioned again. Standing up he moved to Diego and nodded for him to go on.

When the tall muscular man arrived next to Diego at his console, the lieutenant kept his voice low to avoid any alarm or prying ears. The recent Starfleet victory at Latari was no doubt a monumental achievement for the historical archives; one which he didn't want to unnecessarily distract from.

Diego reported his findings in a hushed tone, "I've been tracking the last Tholian frigate since the end of the battle." He tapped his fingers on his LCARS terminal to show Wyatt the course the silicon ship had taken away from the engagement. "They've withdrawn for the moment but now they're holding position just outside the planet's gravity field. And look at this," he manipulated his tactical console to superimpose the Federation fleet's weapon range rings over the space grid. Coincidence or not, the enemy frigate was currently at a distance just beyond Starfleet's long-range torpedo capabilities.

Diego knew command personnel were often impatient so he summarized his thoughts in a couple short sentences. "Commander, I don't think they've fully retreated. And how could they know - or guess - our weapon ranges...?" he quietly asked Wyatt with a frown. "It looks like they're just...waiting."

"Because someone has told them our ranges." He crossed his arms thinking, "Well let's keep an eye on them I don't think this is over just yet. Have the other ships picked this up?" The XO didn't mind if the Tholians had simply backed of and wanted to keep an eye on them, but there was still one person unaccounted for. Lirha. "Scan for Humanoid life signs or Federation IFFs from where they are holding."

Someone has told them our ranges rang in Diego's head, causing confusion and anxiety. Not only did the Tholians possess technologically superior ships, but now they also had superior intel? The lieutenant executed the XO's command and trained the ship's short-range sensors on the Tholian ship. Scan data started to stream in across the LCARS display for several seconds then Diego shook his head. "Negative returns. Do you want me to call it in to Lagrange?"

The chief security officer considered for a moment and then shook his head and took his seat again, "Can we get a direct line with Commander Blake on the Kali?" Or whatever was happening was because of their missing friend then he was going to give her every opportunity, something he hadn't before. Luke looked to the control panel in the army of his chair. "The moment you get her patch her through, secure channel."

"Aye sir."


USS Kali

On Kali's bridge the gaggle of officers were doing their best to coordinate with and assist the medical teams sweeping the ship and their engineering counterparts. The room was more somber now as updated casualty reports continued to flow in. It was clear the ship had taken a beating. From across the bridge the Vulcan operations officer called out to the captain "We have an incoming comms request from Galileo."

Navrin who had been keeping a very close eye over the repair and rescue efforts hardly looked up from her work and waved a hand "Put it through."

"No sir, its a request for Commander Blake, with a private channel."

The captain's eyebrows shot up and she glanced in Blake's direction with a questioning look. Her instincts were telling her that something might be up here and she did not like being out of the loop. "Feel free to use the ready room." Navrin turned to Blake and gestured to a door leading off the bridge. "We can put it through to you there."

Blake looked to Navrin with equal surprise, but nodded firmly in gratitude for the use of her office. She moved through quickly, checking the door was closed before acknowledging the call, remaining standing rather than taking a seat as she folded her arms. She wasn't sure what would require a private channel, but the fact such a call was coming from her ship made her throat tighten. "Blake here, go ahead."

"Blake, we have detected the Tholian ship staying just outside our weapon ranges we're thinking that somehow, someone has leaked information to them. I'm... have you seen or heard from our friend in green?" He didn't want to say Lirha's name even across secure means, call him an old fool but he never trusted wireless communications.

Blake was silent for a long moment, her hands moving to set on her hips as she tried to work out what she was hearing. She knew Wyatt well by now; he was avoiding saying what he wanted to say. From there, it was an easy assumption that he meant Lirha after discounting other options as not particularly relevent. She shook her head with confusion though...because last time she'd been on the ship, Lirha had been sending her off with her orders. The adrenaline that she'd pushed down started to crawl back through her. "No, should I have? Why aren't they where they're supposed to be?"

As Luke started to respond to the now very concerned First Officer's question, the Captain's voice sounded over the ship's comms. She lifted her head, trying to catch the main thrust of the message but found it hard to tune in and out between the two voices. She glanced upward and swallowed back a curse at the way the red alert light flooded the room with an ominous hue. "Wyatt, I have to get back...we'll pick this up as soon as we're in safer waters," she assured, her voice firm and delivering a promise before heading back to the bridge, body tense and chest tight.


Latari A III - High Orbit

Ten minutes ticked past the end of the battle on the chronometer. The Starfleet task group continued to slowly maneuver in loose formation at their defensive positions while finishing critical primary repairs and treating the most injured of casualties. The Second Battle of Latari had been less deadly for the Federation than the first yet the medical reports still listed over sixty dead and two-hundred injured across all vessels.

Hope still remained despite the losses. The tricobalt ordinance used against the proto-Tholian on Latari A III had proved successful and now one planet was sterilized in compliance with the Genesis Directive's protocol. But the cost of biological life on the world couldn't be measured by computer numbers, for the thermokinetic blast had incinerated all local organisms within the shockwave's radius. Whatever organic or silicon life still remained on the devastated Class-M planet was destined to become extinct within six months from the fallout clouds.

The Federation fleet's recovering demeanor was broken by an audio communication from the command ship.

"All hands, this is Lagrange. Prepare for warp to the Latari B system in two minutes," said Rasmussen's rough voice of authority. "We're not finished here - there's still another Genesis organism in this star system. Set condition battlestations, red alert. Galileo, prepare for additional tricobalt warhead transfer. Tactical, I need a full sensor sweep of that solar system. Yesterday!"

"Red aler--, all hands to combat stations."

"Sensors searching..."

"Tricobalt devices secure, ready for transport."

In space at the far edge of the planetary system, the lingering Tholian frigate suddenly came about and charged its warp engine. Three blue nacelles on the silicon dart's hull illuminated then pulsed, leaving behind a thin dust trail along the path of their warp vector punctuated by a faint flash in the far distance.

"The last Tholian vessel is leaving the system. No local signatures detected. Stand by."

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

All Crew, USS Galileo-A

Lieutenant Diego
Security Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Saalm]

ENS Sofie Ullswater
Science Officer
USS Kali

All Crew, USS Kali
[NPCs Ullswater]

CMDR Scarlet Blake
First Officer
USS Galileo-A

LT Marisa Sandoval
Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo-A

Captain Rasmussen
Commanding Officer
USS Lagrange
[NPC Saalm]

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