High over Boreth, the Sacramento maintained its steady orbit surrounded by the remains of the Klingon fleet, wounded leviathans drifting slowly around the planet, watchful for the return of the enemy. Each vessel bore the evidence of the recent confrontations: hulls pockmarked with deep, charred gashes, flickering power lines struggling to keep mighty warships together long enough for repairs to be made.

In the Sacramento’s conference room, the senior officers sat together with a degree of weariness. Doctor Vennock leaned against the edge of the long, metallic table. Though her uniform was spotless, the shadows pooling beneath her eyes betrayed the toll of the last few days.

“Let me guess,” she stated flatly, “General Rartek’s intent is to transform our ship into a massive triage station?”

Captain Ayres offered no immediate retort as the gravity of the situation settled around them.

“They have nowhere else to turn,” Kincaid added with a frustrated sigh, “Some of their ships have no medical facilities, and those that do are overwhelmed. With no reinforcements and no access to the rest of the Empire”, Ayres gestured a shrug.

“And now we know what we’re up against, to an extent. The Vaadwaur,” Parr observed, massaging the side of her temple as if to ease the overwhelming pressure.

T’Vaan interlaced her fingers, her voice calm, “General Rartek’s request is a sensible one. We are not a warship and there can be little gained by sending us away for help. The probability of the Sacramento successfully leaving the system, with the Vaadwaur at its edges, is negligible”

Turning his steady gaze to Vennock, Captain Ayres asked, “How far can we truly stretch our capabilities?”

For a long moment, she hesitated, then answered with a determined edge, “With proper assistance, I can triple our triage capacity. We’ll transform the cargo bays. I’ll require every capable hand conversant with trauma protocols. Engineering, I need you,” she motioned to Elash, “to repair and adapt equipment as quickly as it fails”

Ovindar’s voice, tentative with concern, punctuated the room, “Do you really think we can manage it?”
Drawing a slow, resolute breath, Vennock met their eyes. “It’s not just about adding more beds. We’ll need to adapt how we care for the Klingons, especially those who are going to die here in our hands”

Ayres leaned towards Kincaid, “Would Divok help? You seemed to build a rapport with him during the journey”

“I can ask. I’ll contact the monastery when we’re done here”, the older man nodded.

“Thank you, commander,” Ayres turned square to the rest of his staff, “so, the Vaadwaur”

T’Vaan, seated beside Parr, brought up images of several different types of the attacking ships on the screen, “The hull configuration, energy signatures, weapons, all match known records, albeit with significant modifications”

Parr frowned, “The ships vary in design, some old?”

“The data we have from the USS Voyager’s encounter mentions this ship,” she highlighted one of the designs, “but these others were not encountered. They are all significantly more advanced, and heavily armoured, than those in our records”

“They gave the Klingons, and us, a good kicking”, Kincaid tapped the table to emphasise his point.

“What do they want? Why are they attacking Boreth?” Parr looked around the room, hoping someone else had an answer.

“I think we can assume that the attack on Boreth is not an isolated incident”, T’Vaan replaced the images of the ships with a summary of what little data they had accumulated on the blackout phenomena, “It is a plausible hypothesis that the technology that caused the blackout was a precursor to the attack on Boreth. Given the extent of the blackout that we experienced during our travels, I surmise that the Vaaudwaur are attacking on a quadrant-wide scale”

Ayres exhaled deeply, giving everyone in the conference room a moment to gather their thoughts on the magnitude of that proposition. His mind raced to keep up, to push through the enormity and think about their problem, here and now at Boreth.

“We’re one Federation starship, in Klingon territory, during an invasion,” he knew everyone knew, but voicing the situation gave him more time, “We should focus on what’s in-front of us. Here and now. It’s what there is,” Parr glared at him for the phrase, but her face softened as she noted the fear at the edges of his voice, “Boreth is sacred to the Klingon Empire. Not to mention the time crystals, the effects of which cannot be allowed to be used as weapons of war”

“The general, and the monastery, will be thinking that way”, Kincaid nodded in agreement with Ayres.

“So we do our best to help them. We treat their wounded – Doctor, you’ll have whatever we can manage – and continue our repairs. Commander Kincaid, when you get through to Divok, see if there’s anything we can do for the monastery”

Parr looked at Ayres, “I don’t think they’ll want us anywhere near the monastery. We may be useful right now, but they’re looking at an attack on one of their most important spiritual sites. They’ll be on edge,”

“Because they’ll lose,” Ayres added.

Kincaid tapped at the panel, changing the view to one of the system, with them and the Klingon fleet at one end and the Vaadwaur ships at the other, “It seems likely, captain. The Klingons lost almost half of their ships in the first attack. The Vaadwaur have fewer ships but they fared significantly better. If, when, they press their attack again, it will be an even fight. But,” Kincaid tapped again, and the screen showed the beginning stages of the attack, “given how the Vaadwaur appeared from Underspace, I guess that they’ll have reinforcements and the Klingons, or us, won’t”

“Right,” Ayres looked at the screen, thinking, “we’re all fucked”

Parr laughed, stopping herself after a second, “Yes sir”