Day of Trial 5: 0545 Ship’s Time

Orex was in his quarters, straightening out his uniform as he prepared to take his shift on the bridge. He was weary. They all were. He had seen the signs. Crewmen were bumping into bulkheads and even tripping over their own steps. Tempers were frayed and many of the crew had had bouts of snappishness with each other. All were sure signs of fatigue. The worst part there was no end in sight yet, even with the slight improvement of speed and sensor range in this part of space.

But the worst was there hadn’t been a signal from any Starfleet vessel or station. They felt utterly alone and the path to safety seemed to wind forever, or even be false. With no idea how far this anomaly spread or what part the Vaadwaur had played in it, it was impossible to know if Starbase Ninety Three was even there anymore.

It was all they had though.

“Grkovic to Captain Orex.”

“Orex here, go ahead, XO.”

“Screamers Seven and Ten have gone off, confirm at least four hostile contacts in system.”

Orex’s stomachs lurched, “On my way, you know what to do, XO.”

“Aye, sir. Starting escape plan now.”

“Orex, out.”, Orex left his quarters and headed to the bridge at a brisk walk. No need to alarm the crew. Yet.

Grkovic sat in the captain’s chair, hawk-like gaze was intent on the small armrest console as she studied sensor readouts. Though intermittent and distorted, the contacts were definitely Vaudwaar. Without looking up she spoke, “Helm, plot course to Ansalon B and stand by to move.”

“Aye, sir.”, the Saurian officer currently manning the helm responded.

A few moments later the turbolift doors opened and Lieutenant T’Prenn, Lieutenant Abercrombie and finally Captain Orex entered the bridge and relieved their stations. As Orex took his place at the captain’s chair he asked, “How do they hunt, Commander?”

“As best we can tell, thoroughly, sir.”, Grkovic replied seriously as she sat herself in the executive officer’s chair to Orex’s right, “They seem to be searching the poles of the outer planets as well as the outer asteroid belt. Hard to tell for sure, but it’s our best guess from the intermittent contacts.”

“Finally searching the poles, huh?”, Abercrombie chuckled lightly as he took his own seat at the operations station, “About time they picked up on that.”

“I believe they weren’t searching that intently until we, ‘bloodied their noses some, mate’ I believe you would say.”, T’Prenn said, the Vulcan’s tone as serious and professional as it always was.

Aberrombie smiled and replied, “Definitely sounds like something I would say, Lieutenant, but you got the inflection all wrong.”

“Indeed.”, T’Prenn cocked an eyebrow before turning her attention back to her console.

Abercrombie’s smile broadened as the operation’s officer turned back to his own console. That was as close to making a joke as the Vulcan would ever get and the Australian appreciated that.

For his part, Orex let the light hearted exchange pass and he felt the tense atmosphere on the bridge loosen, if only slightly. He sighed inwardly as he knew the bridge crew was waiting on him to give the word. It was time.

“Mr. T’Prenn?”

“Sir?”, the tactical/security officer replied.

“Give word to the convoy to make ready to move when the noise starts.”

“Aye, sir.”, a pause, then T’Prenn replied, “All ships acknowledge and signal ready, sir.”

“Alright then, Lieutenant, activate the decoys.”

“Acknowledged, sir.”

As T’Prenn’s hands worked her console and, slowly, one by one, the twelve of the converted “screamers” began to broadcast loudly from various parts of the system as the repeated activation signal broadcast finally reached them through the interference.

From planetary poles, from both asteroid belts, from around moons and even from random points in the middle of nowhere they screamed into the void. Then they began to move in random trajectories, spreading confusion and chaos throughout the Anoad system as the Vaudwaar began to chase after them.

“Helm, take us to Ansalon B, best speed.”, Orex commanded.

“Aye, sir.”, the Saurian helmsman’s hands danced over the controls.

“Now for the worrying part.”, Grkovic said to Orex, sotto voce, and Orex nodded in agreement.

Orex knew what his executive officer meant. The last reported locations of the hostile ships were in the outer system and nowhere near their flight path, but with the unreliability of the sensors and oftentimes spotty contact with the screamers in this murky void that had been inflicted on them they couldn’t be sure. It would be very easy to get a nasty surprise in very short order.

The bridge crew held their breath as they traversed the system. They held their breath as they plunged into interstellar space. They held their breath until they were well on their way.

“Still negative contact, Captain.”, Abercrombie reported from the operations station as he had at regular intervals for the hour since they left Anoad behind.

“It worked.”, Orex said, “I never had a doubt.”

There was an almost incredulous silence at Orex’s bold statement, then a slight titter of laughter from some of the bridge crew as tensions drained.

Orex partially turned his head to Grkovic, “I believe we are clear, XO. Probably should get some rest.”

Grkovic gave a tired smile, “Going to bully me again, sir?”

Orex gave his executive officer a look of amusement mixed with his own tiredness, “At this point, I don’t believe I have to.”

Stifling a yawn, Grkovic nodded, “I do believe you’re right, sir.”

Grkovic stood, “By your leave, Captain.”

“Rest easy, Commander.”, Orex replied, then watched for a moment as Grkovic moved towards the turbolift.

He felt a moment of pride as he realized he couldn’t have asked for a finer crew. Despite all the hardships they had endured since this whole mess had begun, they had consistently risen to the occasion.

The escape plan had worked, but they hadn’t been able to recover any of the converted probes and they only had so many. Orex hoped they wouldn’t have to use too many more decoys before finally arriving at Starbase Ninety-Three. He prayed to his ancestors that Starbase Ninety-Three was still there. If only their luck would hold.

It wouldn’t.

Day of Trial 5: 0953 Ship’s Time

When it happened, it was swift and brutal.

Orex was in his captain’s chair going over some reports from engineering. Being a California-class of the Engineering subtype, they had more engineers aboard then other versions of the class and even with all that the engineering team had worked themselves almost to death to keep the San Diego running. Add to that periodically supporting several ships on the convoy when they had issues arise and the workload had been prodigious.

The calm quiet of the bridge was shattered as T’Prenn reported loudly, “Contact bearing 112 mark 15!” 

Orex raised his gravelly voice, “Shields up! Arm weapons!”

The red alert klaxon began to blare out its warning throughout the ship.

Orex knew that the net of screamers travelling with the ship was far from infallible, but had unconsciously hoped they would continue to work as well as they had.

“Mr. T’Prenn, what do we have?”

“Vaadwaur signature, quite large.”, T’Prenn’s head snapped up, “They’re engaging, sir.”

The large Vaadwaur warship roared into the convoy like an ursine amongst a herd of grazers. The civilian ships scattered, though not before ravening, purple beams lanced out, spearing a freighter called the Bountiful Harvest and causing the ship exploded spectacularly. The large ship then swatted aside Captain Corrin’s Bardan’s Folly with contemptuous ease.

On the bridge of the San Diego, Orex gave a sharp command, “Phasers and photon torpedoes, full spread!”

The phasers spit out their orange light as the more reddish photon torpedoes raced towards the Vaadwaur ship. T’Prenn’s aim was true and the burst of weapon’s fire actually managed to rock the larger ship, which immediately turned to face their threat head on.

“Moderate damage to their port shields, Captain.”, T’Prenn reported.

“We have to buy them more time.”, Orex stated.

The bridge crew was under no illusions on what this meant. They weren’t going to survive this encounter.

As fate would have it, even as the San Diego braced for her heroic last stand, an unlikely pair on board the Bardan’s Folly who no one would ever know, would prove to be the true heroes of the day. 

On board the Bardan’s Folly, Captain Corrin was dead, the Deltan slumped in his chair with his throat opened up by shrapnel, eyes staring sightlessly. Most of the bridge crew was dead, the large Vaudwaar warship’s polaron beams striking close to the bridge and reaping a terrible harvest.

Only the helmsman and navigator survived, both worse for wear. The navigator, a Human woman, spoke through pain gritted teeth, “Warp core breach. It’s bad, we don’t have a lot of time. I can’t raise anyone in Engineering.”

The helmsman, a Cardassian man, coughed wetly and wiped a trickle of dark blood from the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand as he painfully clutched his side.

“We’re dead already.”, he said with a grim smile full of blood stained teeth.

The two crewmen shared a look. They had never much cared for each other, always interacting with a faint air of disdain towards one another. Now however, in this time, in this place, they shared an understanding.

“Do it.”, was all the Human woman said.

The Cardassian helmsman simply nodded his head and began to work at his controls. The Human woman worked her own controls sending the Bardan’s Folly’s final message, a single word screaming out into the void.

The San Diego rocked as she weathered the Vaadwaur warship’s initial salvo.

“Return fire, Mr. T’Prenn!”

“Aye, sir! Sir? A priority message from the Bardan’s Folly. It says ‘Run’.”

Suddenly Lieutenant Abercrombie shouted, “The Folly’s warp core is going critical!”

Orex’s head snapped towards the viewscreen as he roared, “Evasive action! All hands brace for impact!”

The San Diego suddenly lurched violently to port, sending the bridge crew tumbling.

Like the last desperate punch from an exhausted boxer, the Bardan’s Folly moved next to the Vaadwaur warship. For it’s part, the Vaadwaur warship had written off the Bardan’s Folly as a threat, if it indeed had ever considered her one. By the time she started to react to the sudden appearance of a mortally damaged freighter a third of her size racing towards her, it was far too late.

With dazzling, white hot intensity the Bardan’s Folly exploded, the warp core going up in a massive flash of energy. When the light subsided, there was nothing left of either ship but atoms.

Orex pulled himself up and sat heavily into his captain’s chair, “Damage report!”

“Working on it, Captain.”, Abercrombie said as he aided T’Prenn to her feet, blueish green blood trickling from a cut on her forehead. She nodded her thanks and staggered to her station, leaning heavily on the console for a moment.

Ping!

Orex’s head snapped around to T’Prenn, his heart starting to race.

T’Prenn looked down at her console for a moment, then looked at Orex.

“It is Screamer Nine, sir.”