The Third Battle of Latari (Part 1 of 2)

Posted on 08 Apr 2021 @ 3:26pm by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Commander Scarlet Blake & Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Commander Marisa Wyatt & Lieutenant Lake ir-Llantrisant & Ensign Mimi & Lieutenant JG Sofie Ullswater & Commander Andreus Kohl & Chief Warrant Officer 3 Alexion Wylde & Chief Warrant Officer 2 Oliver Sylver & Senior Chief Petty Officer Goldie Brown & Petty Officer 3rd Class John Hollenday & Crewman Draia Thero & Cadet Senior Grade Jemima de la Coeur & Verity Thorne & LuAnn Lovegood PhD
Edited on on 08 Apr 2021 @ 3:32pm

4,492 words; about a 22 minute read

Mission: Episode 17 - Crystal of Life
Location: Latari System, Latari B III High Orbit
Timeline: MD 05, 0002 hrs

Previously, on Endgame (Part 6)...

Multiple spacial blurs in the distance rapidly approached and closed in on the Federation starships. Within seconds, three more incoming warp signatures merged on their position and burst into close proximity as they also slowed to sublight speed.

Three new Tholian vessels pierced the warp barrier into impulse right on top of Lagrange, Kali and Galileo. Gray-hulled and six-sided geometric in appearance, they were massive in size compared to the smaller silicon frigates encountered earlier. Their unmistakable forward polygonal cones maneuvered to face their enemy with intimidating pointed features.

The rest of the Tholian task group had arrived.

And Now, the Continuation...

[ON]

Inside the three Starfleet vessels, crew members sprinted between stations while red alert klaxons blared through the corridors and compartments. Tactical alerts overwhelmed the bridge consoles as the ships' computers rapidly analyzed the new threats.

"Unknown contacts, presumed Tholian - ..right on top of us!" came a frantic call from Lagrange's helm officer over the fleet comms.

"They are inside minimum torpedo range," added a monotone Vulcan voice.

"Hold formation, --ivert power to forward shields!" ordered Rasmussen.


USS Galileo

The bridge of the small science frigate had suddenly erupted into cacophony mere seconds after their arrival at Latari B III. The helm, auxiliary and science consoles all chirped with critical warnings related to the new sensor contacts off the forward bow. Voices from USS Lagrange blared across the Starfleet frequency adding to the impending calamity.

"New Tholian ships in close," Diego yelled over his shoulder. The security lieutenant looked back to his LCARS panel just in time to see indicators of surging EM emissions from each of the unidentified ships.

"They're powering weapons!"

The sound of the red alert klaxon was distorted in Commander Andreus Kohl's ears. Maybe it was caused by his blood pressure rising or maybe he was having a slight out-of-body experience. Kohl had been given strict orders to obliterate Latari B III to eliminate the threat of the Genesis Device, and said orders had included theoretical Federation colonists, who had suddenly become confirmed, living colonists down below.

After Galileo's small fleet had defended itself against the Tholian ships mere minutes ago, the arrival of additional Tholian contacts seemed almost comical amid Kohl's extreme stress reaction. Maybe this was for the best. This was what Kohl had debated with the senior staff and the science crew: destroying the planet's surface was going to be a moot point while the Galileo was ensnared by a Tholian web. Defending the crew would be easy, comparatively, to launching the tricobalt warheads. Kohl felt a numb sense of calm wash over him.

"Diego," Kohl said, his voice only raised enough to be heard over the red alert klaxon. "I'm going to need a tactical analysis before they fire those weapons."

Holy shit, Diego cursed to himself, trying to quell the sudden panic in his stomach. The Tholian warships in front of them were more than intimidating and he feared what he would find on the tactical sensors. The gold-collared lieutenant tapped his fingertips against his LCARS display as quickly as he could to input several consecutive computer commands. The Nova-class' sensor instruments rapidly scanned the three silicon starships and began to identify hull sections, shield grids, and weapons ports.

"Contacts Master-1 and Master-2 designated Tholian, light cruisers. Master-3, Tholian heavy cruiser. Unknown classifications." Diego breathed heavily as he watched the three enemy vessels begin to maneuver into spread formation to counter the Starfleet posture. His console chirped in different tones while Galileo's advanced sensors actively scanned and interpolated teraquads of data every second.

"Captain," he continued, "sensors can't penetrate their shielding but I'm detecting multiple forward weapons hardpoints...including heavy tetryon disruptors."

Sylver's eyes narrowed as he looked at what was happening. His body felt...well, adrenaline did a lot of great things to keep you alive. And the annoying sounds of the consoles, the sensors doing their jobs...he realised that he was recognising things happening, familiar patterns emerging. "Sir, the Tholians are going into attack formation, based on how they have been engaging," he called out, awaiting orders, not looking over at the others. He couldn't get distracted, not in the state they were in.

"Sylver, maintain formation with Lagrange and Kali," said Kohl, with a wave of his hand towards the viewscreen. Sitting ramrod straight in the command chair, Commander Kohl gave the orders: "Diego, we only need one burst-fire torpedo launcher for the tricobalt warheads. Load the other two with photon torpedoes and get the phasers hot. Prepare to fire on my mark."

"Yes Sir," Sylver frowned as he took a deeper breath. His instinct told him a lot of things but he pushed it all aside, in favour of the order. He had orders to maintain formation. Which meant he was reliant on the other two ships to do the same.

Lieutenant Diego tapped at his console to manually adjust the torpedo firing sequence. Inside the forward launcher bay, the automated loading mechanisms transferred tricobalt warheads from one tube to the other then rapidly reloaded standard-issue photon torpedoes into the vacant tube.

"Phasers at full, torpedoes ready," Diego reported, adding a dire warning in a low voice. "...Sir we're in too close, way inside the blast radii if we fire on those ships..."

Jemima wished she'd taken the time to write out a final message to her family, even though they'd never read it if the ship was destroyed. All they'd ever hear was that the Galileo was lost with all hands. She'd given up wishing the new captain would listen to anything resembling logic.

Goldie was getting a sore neck from shaking her head at the decisions of this current command. "We regret to inform you that your relative is dead because of the stupidity of Fleet Command." No one would ever say that, at least not out loud, but recent decisions were more knee-jerk reactions to Genesis than to anything else. He thought he was doing what was right, but he was just a modern Kodos the Executioner.

"Captain, we are not in any kind of condition for another battle." Mimi remarked quite nervously, more Tholian ships were the last thing the ship needed. She reshuffled the repairs schedule to prioritise the defensive systems.

Commander Kohl tilted his head to the left quickly, stretching out a spasm in his neck. "Doesn't look like the Tholians," Kohl replied wryly, "have taken that into consideration."


USS Kali

A viewscreen isn't always the best at conveying a sense of scale. It isn't a window, its an impartial snapshot of the outside situation, it deals in the quantifiable as an aid to the starship's crew to deliver clear and concise data - It has no artistic aspirations. Despite all this as the three Tholian vessels popped onto the screen Sofie couldn't help but understand how they were an order of magnitude more significant than anything she had yet seen on that viewscreen. It was a feeling that found its roots deep in her gut like that primal fear of heights, the sort of thing that just can't be summed up in the quantifiable. It felt like her eyes were glued to that image - like she was staring down death itself. She could hear the captain shouting battle station orders and trying to bring them into readiness but all she could focus on was the image in her mind of home and her family. She wished she could see them again.

We need to get out The Tellarite captain had called her crew to battle stations once again but it was clear to her that this was a battle she could not currently win. If they had some tactical advantage, an element of surprise or useful stellar geography then maybe Kali stood a chance against these three monsters but in her current position there was no victory to be found here.

"Mosette," her voice betrayed none of the anxiety that was beginning to worm its way into her mind "Make sure you have an emergency warp course prepared. If it comes to fighting we will need to make a swift exit." Her crew were always going to be a higher priority to Navrin than any genesis directive but the fact had not been lost on the veteran captain that the Tholian ships had yet to fire on them, maybe there were other plans for today. "In the meantime keep us in formation." The lieutenant responded in the affirmative but Evry's mind was already elsewhere, racing with the possibilities as she looked for a way out.

Blake's eyes were narrowed as she watched the screen, her features remaining neutral despite the cold fury writhing in her. When she'd realised they not only had no intention of helping the colonists, but more, they were going to wipe out everything down there, the icy anger had started to coil inside of her. But now they were staring down the Tholians....again....she narrowed her focus, channelling the anger and adrenaline from the mess she'd walked in to towards the impossible task at hand. She strode across the bridge to steal a glance down at the tactical readout. The other two ships were maintaining formation, which meant they were squaring up for a fight. "Ready phasers...and prepare to push everything we can spare to shields when we start taking hits..."

"With all due respect, Captain and Commander, you aren't going to go through with this?" Marisa asked. It was rhetorical, she knew, because clearly they were. "Those colonists are counting on us. If you give me a few days, a week, I'll come up with a way to neutralize the proto matter myself." She didn't go to all that effort to collect and save the data for them to wipe it out. If they wouldn't listen to her now, she would do everything in her power to see they were punished for murdering a thousand innocent colonists. Genesis be damned, the scientific community would be in an uproar over this.

"This is not the time!" Evry snapped at the scientist in an uncharacteristic display of annoyance. "I have three duties here. One:" she gestured aggressively, counting off on her fingers "I have a duty to protect this crew, this is always the first duty. Two: as Captain Rasmussen pointed out we are bound by Federation law and Starfleet orders and right now they tell us to respond to the threat of the Genesis issue as a priority. Three: we do..." and her tone softened slightly as she said this, betraying her doubt "We do have a duty to those colonists."

"Now I am no scientist nor a scholar of ethics." Evry continued, though she was little she commanded a significant presence on the bridge. "The priority of those last two and whether they can both be achieved are not something I can say for certain at this moment." She then turned her ire towards Blake with an accusatory tone "But this debate is not relevant currently because the first of those duties will always trump any others and on that topic I can speak with great certainty." She gestured with force, throwing an arm in the direction of the viewscreen and shrugged "I don't know why they have yet to fire on us but if they do and we try to fight them we will not win. Kali is a tough ship but I have already lost too many of my crew today. I will not lose a single one more. I respect that this is not your crew Blake but while you are on my bridge you share that duty. The task force has not one tactical advantage here - there is no plan and the Tholians are right on top of us. To stand and fight here is stupidity."

"Yes, ma'am, dealing with the Tholians comes first," Marisa said. "But what happens once we get through this is what concerns me. The colonists had no trouble with them before. As they haven't fired on us, maybe there's something they want? Maybe they'll talk to us?"

Blake simply gave a nod, features calm as she clasped her hands behind her back. She actually didn't disagree with anything the Captain had said...or Marisa. They were both right, and they were all stuck between the frying pan and the fire. "Captain, I would suggest if you're considering retreat that you call it in to the others...their formation and weapon charge tells us they're ready to make a stand, not fall back..."

Evry did her best to ignore the complaints of Galileo's science officer and instead to concentrate on saving the lives she knew she could "Mosette? We have retreat coordinates calculated?" Kali's pilot responded in the affirmative and Evry continued with some urgency in her voice "Transmit them to Galileo and Lagrange and call the retreat. We'll wait for their response." If the Tholian ships had intended to destroy them they had missed their moment. It was time to get away. "Be prepared to take us to warp on my mark."


The Third Battle of Latari

In high orbit above Latari B III, the tension before battle was thicker than a comet's tail. The three Federation starships faced down their Tholian adversaries - each vessel preparing to fire and surging with weapons emissions. The silicon warships now targeted the Starfleet task group while their sensor arrays probed for biological and technological intelligence. Bright white vertical beams suddenly manifested within Kali, Lagrange and Galileo, slowly sweeping laterally across each compartment on all decks accompanied by a continuous audible shriek.

Within the Nova-class' bridge, Lieutenant Diego turned his head away from the blinding sensor beam just as it washed over him and all other nearby crew members. He held his hands to his ears to preserve his hearing then tried to yell through the piercing sound.

"We're being probed! Tholians are targeting us!"

Instinctively, Commander Andreus Kohl rocked back in his seat when the light of the sensor beam washed through him. Kohl winced through the light and just about made out what Diego was saying about the Tholians' sensor sweep. In Kohl's book, a probing wasn't inherently hostile. "They're curious about something," Kohl replied, his voice raised. "We can work with curious. Diego, hold on weapons!"

The Operations consoles in each Starfleet ships' bridge suddenly chirped with a familiar, less hostile notification. One which notified them of an unorthodox incoming transmission.

While Mimi's eyes filtered the light to a reasonable level quickly her very sensitive hearing was another issue entirely. The frequency and intensity battering at her ears till something gave in.

When the noise of the probe finally stopped she could hear nothing of the bridge around her but an intense ringing sound, she looked around the bridge for several seconds while her head spun before noticing but not hearing the ops console flashing a notification. "The Tholians are hailing us!" She unknowingly shouted unable to hear her own voice.

For a heartbeat or two, Kohl's mouth hung open, agape in naked surprise. He had done his research for this mission, and he had watched Galileo's video logs of the previous Tholian encounter. The Tholians were not known to be chatty, as far as Kohl was concerned. Pleasantly bemused, Kohl spoke back over his shoulder to say, "Open a channel, Ensign Mimi."


Deck 3 - Sickbay

Dr. Alexion Wylde physically gasped out as the screeching sound and glaring light dragged through Sickback. On sheer instinct from the shock of the sensation, he lowered into a crouch and clapped his hands over his ears, but it did little to help. His eyes screwed shut with the burning bright light and the combination knocked the air out of his chest for a moment. He let out a shaking breath of relief as it subsided, tilting his head with the 'echo' of noise that still rang in his ears. "Everybody okay?" he shouted across the room, blinking his eyes to try and readjust. There were times that having more sensitive hearing and sight were a definite hinderance.

Allyndra got cut off in the middle of her log and was swearing by the Twins and in Akkadian. Whatever was going on up there she did not know and already the holodecks, bunks and beds were filled. It seemed that all the equipment was functioning and nothing the worse for wear.

She pressed her communicator, "What was that? What is going on up there?"

"Stand by, Sickbay," came Commander Kohl's response through the communicator. "Updates to follow when reports are in from science and engineering. Bridge out."

The ringing in LuAnn's ears was so great she could barely think. It even messed with her awareness of the others around her. She put her hands over her ears, but she felt the probe in her bones and nothing could block that.

When the blinding sensation of the probe had swept through Sickbay, Lake ir-Llantrisant had been stepping through the threshold, in his return from Engineering. He'd also crouched down in the doorway, with his palms pressed against his temples and his eyes tightly screwed shut. "What the--" Lake muttered as he staggered back to his full height. "Were we just irradiated?" Lake called out to any of the medical staff, clearly alarmed. "Are we going to need radiation therapy?"

"I think the human phrase is 'walk it off'..." Alexion groaned as he rubbed his eyes, running his hands back over his face and hair as he tried to shake it off, every nerve on edge.

Verity moved to him, a half smile on the human Chaplain's features. He reached down and gripped Alexion's wrist, helping to haul him back up onto his feet. "How about we start with standing..."


Deck 7 - Main Engineering

A bright light with screeching sound went through Engineering and John typed in a query. The analysis came back as a scan probing wave.

"What in the blue blazes!" He shouted. The shields were up and things more or less functioning but all they needed was a bit more damage and systems would cascade fail and engineering was notoriously short handed and now even more so.

Systems check showed mostly green to some yellow and only a bit of red after the scan but to be going through shields and all, he swallowed hard. He was not sure what was out there but there was no choice but to inform the captain.

Pressing a comm line he called up, "Captain, engineering here. That was a big scan probe went right through the shields. I am not sure what is going on but we are just functioning. We get into a fight we are going to have cascade failure of multiple systems. We are terribly short handed and could not keep up."

From the belly of the warp core, a shower of sparks spat out, and they were quickly followed by a yelp from Draia Thero. After a couple of hurried breaths, Draia promised, "I'm okay, I'm okay." She changed the setting on her rectangular sonic driver and the flashing tip shifted colours from white to blue. Emboldened to act, she jabbed the driver back through the open hatch into the secondary EPS power stabilizer.


Deck 1 - Bridge

From the overhead communications node, Commander Andreus Kohl took note of the report from Engineering. He had promised to get back to Doctor Allyndra after he had assessed the damage from Engineering. Galileo was in a fragile state. From the sounds of it, any damage to the EPS at this point could cause a cascade failure of any number of systems reliant on the power grid. "Understood, Engineering," Kohl replied. "The Tholians appear curious to talk, rather than raise their fists... Bridge out." As he said the words, Kohl took notice that the view screen was still displaying the Tholian ships. He'd ordered Ensign Mimi to open a comm channel, in response to the Tholians' uncharacteristic hail, but there was no evidence she had done so.

Pushing off the arms of his chair and his boots on the deck, Kohl got to his feet in a heartbeat. Turning back to face Mimi's console, Kohl repeated his order, "Ensign Mimi. Open. A. Channel." The frustration in his voice had faded by the last word, based on his observations of Mimi. Years back, Kohl had started his career on the old Galileo as a Nurse Practitioner, and he noticed something strangely familiar about the lack of non-verbal responses from Mimi. He had watched her eyes and her ears and he noticed a subtle lack of stimulus reaction.

Mimi looked back at Kohl as he looked at her, he was trying to say something but she couldn't hear him over the noise nor lip read english, she cocked her head to the side slightly trying to understand him.

"Petty officer Brown," Kohl said, worry etched on his face, "Can you help Mimi, please?"

"Yes, sir." Goldie said. She switched from fleet comms and helped the Nakomi. Between the two of them they were able to get it working. "Channel open, sir."

With a few moments to spare given the pause in the craziness of battle Jeysa moved from the console beside Goldie where she had been keeping the tactical log and went to check on Mimi kneeling beside her. "Mimi, are you alright?" She asked then tapped Mimi's arm when she didn't get any reaction from her.

Looking down at the young Trill "Can I help you Jeysa?" She asked quite loudly.

Taking a Padd from her pocket Jeysa wrote out a message on it and held it up to Mimi. "Can you hear me talking?" she and the message both said.

Mimi shook her head, all she could hear was ringing.

Jeysa tapped out another message. 'your hearing has been damaged, you need to go to sickbay. Take this Padd with you and show it to one of them' She quickly added another few sentences then gave the Padd to Mimi to take with her.

Taking the Padd Mimi nodded and after tapping a button to call someone to take the Ops station she got up and crossed the bridge to the turbolift.

A series of high-pitched crystalline shrieks suddenly assaulted the humanoids' ears before Galileo's universal translator could interpolate.

"..Federation vessels..." the piercing continued. "Surrender - or we will destroy you." The brief translation came to an abrupt end yet background noise could still be heard in the form of continuing shrieks from multiple silicon entities. A Tholian argument?

"Starfleet..." the message continued, "stand..down." There was a different tonality and inflection in this new communique, one decidedly less Tholian which the universal translator revealed as a new speaker.

"This is... -aptain Saalm aboard -olian heavy cruiser..." The voice was humanoid but translated into Tholian then re-translated back to Federation Standard, testing the ears of those who knew her best. "Stand down," repeated the translated voice. Silence ensued across the comm channel leaving nothing but intermittent static to punctuate the revelation of the Orion captain's sudden reappearance...aboard a Tholian vessel.

Rasmussen's rough voice was the first to reply on the frequency, with forceful doubt. "...Saalm?" He paused while he looked up the latest command code authorizations pertaining to their classified mission. "Authenticate. Challenge, Genesis."

"David," came the response from the Tholian heavy cruiser.

From the Captain's chair, Andreus Kohl was delayed in his response to the authentication. His knowledge of the Genesis Directive was limited and very recent. All eyes were on him and he let them wait. Kohl queried the computer from the companel by his side and it silently confirmed Saalm's authentication code.

Angling his gaze to the Tactical panel, Kohl didn't hesitate to order, "Diego, stand down weapons." Looking at Diego Kohl's eyebrows had risen up his forehead given the surprising turn of events. After taking a deep breath, Kohl sat up straighter in the chair and he considered the viewscreen again. "Challenge code verified, Captain Saalm," was Kohl's reply to the Tholian heavy cruiser.

Goldie looked down at her console. It was indeed Saalm. She just stared, dumbfounded. Of all the possibilities she could imagine, this wasn't even on the list.

At the aux/tactical station, Lieutenant Diego listened to the Tholian comms in disbelief then did a double-take at the captain's tactical order. "Sir!" he objected with trepidation, overwhelmed by what appeared to be the miraculous reappearance of Galileo's CO. Combined with the imminent prospect of death by Tholian disruptors, he was compelled to speak out. None of this can be real, he thought. "This is impossible - it's got to be a deception. They have us dead to rights..." The Nova-class' defensive systems were still blinking furiously on the LCARS console to remind of the enemy's weapons lock.

Shaking his head slowly, Kohl replied, "She's saved my life too many times. I'd know that haughty inflection anywhere..." Kohl took a breath and offered a glance back over his shoulder. Sheepishly, he tacked on, "All the same, petty officer Brown, give the forward shields some extra umph from wherever you can find it."

Diego clenched a fist and let his nails dig in, wanting to punch his console in frustration. Every element of his security and tactical intuition warned him this would be a terrible idea. But he swallowed the adrenaline and reached to his display to safe the starship's phasers and torpedoes. "Weapons cold - on standby," he confirmed.

Goldie nodded, looking for any place she could pull a little extra power to give to the shields. There wasn't much by now, but she managed to pull a bit here and abit there. "Forward shields increased by fifteen percent."

Jemima began to bounce, ever so slightly, on the balls of her feet. She hoped that, at long last, this would be good news. If not, she hoped they'd die quickly. Power...she looked to see if science could lose some power, but it was already cut down as far as it could and still allow them to do the work needed.

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

All Crew, USS Galileo-A

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

All Crew, USS Kali
[NPCs Ullswater]

Captain Rasmussen
Commanding Officer
USS Lagrange
[NPC Saalm]

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