The Second Battle of Latari (Part 3 of 3)

Posted on 31 Jul 2020 @ 1:59pm by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Commander Scarlet Blake & Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Commander Luke Wyatt & Commander Marisa Wyatt & Lieutenant JG Tris Shizn & Ensign Mimi & Lieutenant JG Sofie Ullswater & Commander Andreus Kohl & Lieutenant Aria Rice & Chief Warrant Officer 2 Oliver Sylver & Petty Officer 1st Class T'Lin
Edited on on 31 Jul 2020 @ 2:01pm

2,740 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: Episode 17 - Crystal of Life
Location: Latari System, Latari A III High Orbit
Timeline: MD 04, 2330 hrs

Previously, on The Second Battle of Latari (Part 2)...

Luke felt like he was suspended over a large canyon, and suddenly dropped so he was free falling. The ever stead fast stumbled, as if his very heart couldn't take what Mimi was telling him. “No" was the word that left his lips, shaky and broken, worst was he wasn't sure who he felt the loss of more and for that he hated himself.

Sitting silently in his chair, Andreus Kohl spared a quick look in Luke's direction. There was a desperation in his sapphire eyes and his mouth hung open slack-jawed, as if he had a question he needed to ask. Returning his gaze to the viewscreen, Kohl set his jaw, but he couldn't hide his hopelessness. His shoulders had slumped and the light in his eyes had dimmed. Kohl stared at the screen, but he couldn't process any of what he was seeing anymore.

And Now, the Continuation...

[ON]

USS Kali

Kali's bridge was silent. The violent destruction displayed on the main viewscreen for all to see. Time slowed to a moment that lasted forever. A core of fire followed by the inexorable spreading of a cloud of debris. In that awful moment everything was quiet, even the computers seemed to have ceased their protestations.

The captain, trepidation in her voice turned to ops. "Report."

"We have five of them, in transporter room two." The ship sighed with relief. Even Sofie as consumed as she was by the horror of battle felt lightened somewhat in the knowledge that the explosion had not claimed the lives of her crewmates. With two of the enemy ships disabled maybe they were even winning now. Maybe they would all survive this.

"No time for celebration Team." The Captain said authoritatively as she turned back to the tactical display, "there's still one of them out here so our job is not yet done." She gestured to Pärt "Let's do our best to get them this time." then to the pilot "Take us close, you know what your doing."

And the bridge swung into motion once again.


Deck 7, Transporter Room 2

Meanwhile deep in the belly of the battered Kali Crewman Dawson stared with mouth slightly agape at the assembled group on his transporter pad. He hadn't really expected to do any transporting during the battle and it still seemed like a miracle that the transporter had been able to get these five out at all. Given all the damage the ship had sustained in the first moments of the battle even just having the transporters working seem like a bit of a miracle.

He realised that Vincenzo's crew looked just as shocked as (if not much more than) he was and his open mouthed staring was likely not helping the situation in any way. He fumbled for something useful to say "Welcome ab-" he began before the comms cut him off.

"Bridge to transporter room two." Came the perhaps over-convivial voice of the captain "This is Captain Navrin, USS Kali, I'd love to be there in person to welcome you all aboard but... Well, we're still a bit busy up here. Welcome aboard!"

It seemed an eternity until Blake was able to let out the breath trapped in her chest. Her body was held in its usual upright, military stance, but her fingers were spread and hands held out slightly, as if to test the reality of where she was. Despite her best effort, the customary coolness of her features was broken with a heady mixture of disbelief and relief. "I'm sure you can imagine just how pleased we are to be here, Captain," she assured in response to the welcome, glancing around to the others with a small smile before giving Dawson a knowing nod of gratitude.

Marisa's heart was still pounding, believing she was about to die. She stared forward for a long moment as the reality that she was in a transporter room slowly penetrated. Then she took a deep breath and stepped off the pad.

Aria looked around for a moment, blinking, before she let out a breath and smiled. She stepped off the pad, trying to stop the way her body was suddenly shaking. She looked over at the others and the smile grew a bit before she gave a small shrug and tried to put the shaking, the happiness, the surge of life and disappointment and everything in a box for processing later. They were...still in battle, right? Just no longer being blown up!

Tris knew it was all over when everything to him seemed to go black. It had been an eerie feeling, a tingling all about him, but then realized that it was a transporter effect about him. When the feeling went away he was starring at the gray/silver panel. He looked down and saw the transporter pad beneath his feet. The Andorian slowly turned on his heel to see the rest of those from the shuttle and his smile broadened with relief.

T'Lin was still crouched with her fingers just as if they were still touching a control panel. She realized that she was now standing on a transporter pad. Straightening she simply raised an eyebrow and quipped which was strange for a Vulcan. "I believe that Fleet is not going to be happy about having to replace a shuttle."

With his hand still extended before him, as he had controlled the shuttle, almost locked in position. The Andorian slowly lowered them and looked to T’Lin. Tris’ smile went from broad to a silent chuckle at the Vulcan’s dry humor. “Yes indeed. Yes indeed.”

After a moment to drink in the luxury of still being a living and breathing human being, Blake shook herself back to reality, her shoulders pulling back just a touch with the knowledge that the battle was still raging. "Captain Navrin, put us to work, where can we help?"

On the bridge the captain took a moment to glance at Vincenzo's recently arrived manifest between giving orders. Having lost her own first officer and science specialist the prospect of filling in some gaps with experienced personnel was enticing. "We took heavy damage earlier in the battle," She responded over the channel "Any help in the repairs is going to be very appreciated, lest we meet a similar fate to your poor shuttle. I've also got some gaps in my bridge team. If you and your science officer are feeling up to it we could do with the support here."

Marisa looked at Blake and nodded her readiness to help.

"On our way, Captain," Blake nodded back to Marisa in agreement, pleased to see she was just as eager to see the end of this fight. "Sandoval, we'll head to the bridge. Everyone else, get down to Engineering, see where they need you most."

T'Lin would have denied it to anyone's face but she sighed. It seems she was becoming more engineer than alternative biochemistry specialist. "Very good sirs," she said, "point me the way."

"Yes, ma'am," Marisa said, following Blake to the bridge. She wanted to help, and she wanted to finally be able to transfer data she'd collected on the proto-Tholian and the planet. Maybe some of it could help with the battle. If nothing else, it could be used after.

“Of course,” Shizn replied, still a touch disoriented by the sudden transport. Tris looked over to Rice and T’Lin, “Follow me. I know the way to Engineering.” He smiled with a better expression and his antennae looking more perky than recently and headed out the door into a busy passageway.

Aria looked at the others for a moment before she nodded to Shizn, her heart making an odd pattern in her chest. Still breathing. But it felt like they were not yet out of harm's way...


USS Galileo

On the bridge of the small Nova-class starship, the Starfleet tactical frequency squelched and distorted for several long seconds. The indecipherable noise punctuated the silence of the room but did little to soften the blow of their crew's loss.

"Diego," Kohl said, and his voice cracked; "Get on the tactical frequency." Trying to convince himself, as much as the bridge crew, that there may still be hope, he said, "I want Kali and Lagrange searching for survivors from our away team too."

The young Lagrange security officer remained shaken and the sudden interruption of silence from the captain went unheard. Diego's mind was consumed, wanting to do something: fire on the Tholians, maybe beam them into space and watch them suffer as they exploded. The lieutenant zoned out at his station, his eyes staring forward at the main viewscreen while his cerebral cortex fought his visceral brain.

"Lieutenant Rodrigo Diego! To your post," Kohl snapped, because it was easier to be angry at the security officer than at an unfair universe. When times were tough, there were times when a captain had to appeal to each officer's Starfleet Academy trauma to motivate them. Kohl found his feet, and starting pacing back and forth around the command well. "Our sensor pallets are damaged," Kohl remarked; "We need Kali and Lagrange to support our search for survivors!"

The gold-collared lieutenant returned to reality when he heard his name and snapped away from the dark thoughts. He blinked twice then looked down at the familiar LCARS console in front of him. It was hard for him to focus but between the blinking frequency numbers on his screen and his superior's chastising, he was reminded of his duty. "Sir," was his only reply of acknowledgement.

"Galileo reads an explosion at zero-zero-two, on the bearing," Diego announced over the fleet comms with his finger held on the red LCARS transmit rectangle. "Request Vincenzo update. Repeat, explosion at zero-zero-two--"

The tactical frequency again squelched when multiple competing replies simultaneously overlapped.

"--alileo, shuttlecraft destroyed.. no survivors," replied a methodically robotic-like voice from Lagrange on the overhead speakers. "We are engaged defensive."

"Kali is in pursuit, target turning cold, -hasers recharging."

There was a long pause before another transmission -- from a familiar woman's voice -- came across the comm.

"Kali reports the successful retrieval of all Vincenzo crew..." Commander Blake's voice sounded loud and clear over the chaos of the bridge, laced with a mixture of pride and ardour at finally speaking to her crew again, and the determination to shut the Tholian's down for good. "Now let's figure out how to take advantage of whatever small amount of time that valiant little bird gave us."

Allyndra went from having her hearts break to sudden elation at the message. She actually jumped and fluttered a moment with an cry of, "Blessings to the Twins Be!" She then realized she was acting not quite like a senior officer and settled but hopefully no one else would think it out of place.

At the sound of Scarlet's voice Luke bowed his head giving a silent prayer for their safe retrieval and to whatever deities may have saved them from the clutches of death. He almost didn't want to believe it now but looking around at the relieved faces of the bridge crew he knew it was true.

Sylver grinned at hearing Blake's voice, unable to stop it. By some miracle, their crewmates had survived. He gave a small thanks to God for it, swallowing hard as he schooled his features. A win, yes. But the battle was not over yet and now...now they were playing for keeps.

Similarly, Andreus Kohl was momentarily light-headed and giddy at the blissful relief he felt washing over him. He felt a brief respite from the adrenaline raging through him, as another massive win took them one step closer to safety. The away team --Blake-- had been rescued; one fewer thing to keep them from the Genesis Directive. "Thank you, Kali!," Kohl hollered.

For once Mimi was extremely glad to have been wrong with her assertation about the shuttle crew, the sensors being all out of whack must have given her false readings, she felt like apologising but now wasn't the time or the place..

Lieutenant Diego silently pumped his fist and allowed a wash of relief to flood through him. The XO and her crew had survived after all; alive and seemingly rescued just before the moment of death by some angelic fortune of fate. Adrenaline surged through the young security officer who then refocused his attention toward his console.

"We'll be in phaser range in six seconds," Diego reported as he watched Galileo's Starfleet LCARS icon move into the battle space.


The Second Battle of Latari

The heavy cruiser USS Kali expertly rolled hard to starboard at combat impulse and accelerated over the top of Lagrange's hull in hot pursuit of the sole remaining Tholian combatant. Just moments ago, two enemy frigates had been on the offensive targeting the Starfleet command ship for the kill, but now one had been destroyed and the single surviving silicon dart was turning away from the battle.

Four consecutive orange phaser beams fired from Kali's main dorsal array and burst against the Tholian ship's aft shields in a concentrated sequence. The protective force field surrounding the foreign vessel's rear hull flashed from each impact then fizzled and collapsed. The small enemy ship started to initiate erratic course changes.

From her seat by the damaged science terminal Sofie was beginning to calm down a bit. The familiar face of Lieutenant Sandoval on the other side of the bridge having taken over as senior science officer had taken a weight off her shoulders and quietened the her terrified heart. It seemed now as if the battle was drawing to its closing moments.

Sofie had time now to take her eyes of her screen for a moment and glance at the people she had spent the last who knows how long with. Only earlier today she hadn't known any of these people, even now she didn't really know much about any of them. It felt like a lifetime since she had arrived on the bridge though, a lifetime she had shared with all of them. "Evasive manures," the captain observed from her standing position with that same wry tone Sofie noticed from earlier. "We won't let them get away." After a short pause she called out to Pärt "Do you think you could land another torpedo strike on them?"

The tactical officer from his station on the raised area performed a quick evaluation. "Targeting systems are still down, its all manual and those Tholians are fast, they're maneuverable," Sofie could hear definite disappointment in his voice "If they continue the retreat I doubt we will be the ones to catch them."

"Helm, can we do anything?" She could hear it in the captain's voice too. The tension of the bridge was starting to unwind, all the adrenaline of combat starting to slow - the chase was over. Sofie could feel it and she was sure the rest of the bridge crew were also feeling it.

"With our engines in this state, nope sir, not a chance." Responded the woman at the helm.

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, its over."

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
[NPC Ullswater]

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