Post by Captain Universe on Jan 20, 2012 18:13:54 GMT -8
This is my first Cayuga story, 'Beyond Our Farthest Stars'. I've changed it from the original that I posted at the STPMA.
Star Trek: The Cayuga Missions
001 – ‘Beyond Our Farthest Dreams’
By Captain Universe
Even the most reverent man could grow indifferent to the majesty of space.
Josh Riley hopped past his star-filled window while he struggled to pull on his boxers. Discarded pajamas tripped him onto the bed and he lay squashed against the sheets before he gingerly rolled onto his back. There was still time before his shift so he relaxed against the mattress. His gaze drifted over the opposite wall, across the crucifix and down to the framed collection of his medals.
He had fought against the Borg and in Operation: Return, the Battle of Betazed and countless other engagements during the Dominion War. His valor and skill had been recognized by Starfleet and he should have had his pick of any assignment in the fleet, not tossed onto a Miranda class starship like an afterthought.
The U.S.S. Cayuga was a minuscule ship, standing at only eleven decks, less than one hundred and fifty meters long and held fewer than a hundred crewmembers. She had very little weapons to speak of, except for a few phaser banks and a couple of photon torpedo launchers. Her mission was to handle all of the little tasks that Starfleet wouldn’t send a real ship to handle and quite frankly, she was an insult.
Riley checked the chronometer at his bedside and decided that it was time to make the short walk to the bridge. He pulled his uniform jacket on and jammed his feet into boots before pushing his way through halls clogged with gamma-shift officers returning from duty. The first officer glanced up from his post at Ops as Riley walked onto the bridge and he watched as Ensign Polcheny gave him the helm. At the center of the bridge, the Chief Engineer stood beside Captain Addy who was examining her status report with a suspicious eye.
“In small words,” his thick voice almost boomed as he returned the padd to her,” does everything on the ship work?”
Aimee Maguire opened her mouth, ready to explain that the matter-to-antimatter ratio of the warp core had been adjusted to within a fraction of a percent, that all six shield generators were once again calibrated to each other, that all of the hiccups in the environmental and gravity systems that had plagued the ship for the last seven months had been tracked down and smoothed out and that her and her engineering team had been able to do all of that work without the assistance of a repair yard or for that matter, a real engineering team.
Instead she simply said,” Yes, sir. All damage sustained at the Battle of Betazed has been fixed. The ship is back up to specs.”
“Well done, Lieutenant,” Addy said before he paused to listen. “You know, you’re right. The pitch of the warp drive is back where it should be.” He smiled at her, pleased with his own connection to the ship. She coughed to cover up a snort of ridicule.
“It took two months to finish repairs on the Challenger after the Battle of Betazed,” Riley interjected. “Galaxy class. I manned the helm during the battle. We led a squadron against one of those Jem’Hadar dreadnoughts. We took a lot of hits but I managed to avoid most of them. Nailed the target too.” He made one last alteration to his console and then turned around. “Where was the Cayuga during the battle, Captain?”
Addy smiled faintly, remembering that day. “We were in a mixed squad with some other Miranda class light cruisers and some Klingon birds-of-prey. We ran interference on Jem’Hadar attack ships, taking’ em out before they could get to the bigger ships. One of them managed to ram us but we were lucky that the Klingons were able to cover us during our retreat.”
“You didn’t have me at the helm.” Riley matched Addy’s smile and nodded appreciatively. “Everybody who walked out of that one was a hero.”
From the Ops station, they heard a quiet snort.
“Opinion, Commander?,” the captain asked.
Emeri Durzan looked up from his console. “Just what he said, about everyone who fought at Betazed being a hero.”
“You disagree?”
Durzan shrugged. “Yes, I do, sir.”
Riley bit down on the impulsive rejoinder that threatened to speak out against what he said but instead he took his time to phrase his response. “Commander… the Battle of Betazed was one of the battles that helped to end the war. We fought against the greatest threat this side of the Borg and we saved the Alpha Quadrant from being enslaved by the Dominion. What’s more heroic than that?”
“Stopping the war without fighting at all, Lieutenant,” the Betazoid said quietly.
An uncomfortable silence settled over the bridge. “Commander…,” the captain said. “Against an enemy like the Dominion, I don’t think that simply talking out our differences would have resolved anything. You’ve fought the Jem’Hadar; you know how ruthless they can be.”
Durzan shook his head.
“I’m sorry?,” Addy asked.
“I’ve never fought the Jem’Hadar or anyone else for that matter. I spent the war working as a Starfleet liaison to the Federation Council in Paris,” Emeri spoke quietly since he knew the effect that his words were going to have.
Captain Addy was slowly turning different colors, none of them being pleasant at all. Riley snorted and went back to his console. Maguire decided that there was someplace else that she desperately needed to be but before she could escape from the bridge, the captain spoke.
“We’ve spent the last three years fighting the bloodiest war in the history of the Alpha Quadrant – possibly the entire galaxy – and you spent it… hiding?”
Durzan cleared his throat. “Captain, with all due respect… I don’t believe in fighting of any kind. It’s wrong to intentionally hurt another being.”
Captain Addy slowly and deliberately turned his chair back towards the forward viewscreen. The rest of the shift was very quiet.
----
Back in Engineering, Aimee Maguire felt much more at home here than she had on the bridge. She perched herself down on the edge of the main situation display, the thrum of the warp core soothing her while she listened to a Vulcan engineer dutifully read from his padd.
Her concentration wavered as Ensign Connelly walked past her with an equipment kit tucked under his arm. He opened an access panel to a Jefferies tube and crawled inside while she watched his retreating backside appreciatively. Aaron Connelly had been her wartime fling and after the peace treaty, she had decided that he spent too much of his off-duty time on times other than her and had broken it off.
“… by repositioning the emitters .004 millimeters, we would create a noticeable increase in shield efficiency,” Ensign Sayvok finished, never realizing that his Human superior’s attention had wandered away from him.
Maguire blushed slightly at the memories and hopped off of the status board. “Sounds like good work, Sayvok,” she agreed casually as it would have been highly illogical for him to have suggested anything other than the best course of action. The warp core surged and yellow light flooded the bay. She turned to the status board; the ship was tearing away through space at Warp Nine-point-Three and when she noticed this, her hand flew to her combadge,” Engineering to Bridge –“
“We’ve received a distress signal from the Cardassian colony on Laiat Prime,” Durzan answered her before she could ask anything.
“What’s distressing them?”
“Unknown,” the Betazoid said grimly,” but we’re about to find out.”
----
Captain’s log, April 30th, 2376;
After receiving a distress signal from the Cardassian colony on Laiat Prime, the Cayuga has arrived to discover complete and utter devastation.
Hours later after the Cayuga arrived at Laiat Prime; Emeri Durzan stalked into his quarters and collapsed down onto his couch. He lay in the darkness for a moment before he pulled his uniform jacket off and stared sullenly at his own reflection in the window. Leading the away team down to the planet, blasted landscape, decimated buildings and charred bodies still flashed across his vision. Tears burned at the edge of his eyes as he tried to put the nightmare behind him.
The door chime sounded and he jumped at it. Wiping at his face, he answered it with a stutter,” E-enter.”
The door slid open and Aimee stepped inside, crossing over to the replicator. “Scotch Whiskey, neat,” she told it and after the drink disappeared, she downed its contents with a wince before she turned to face Emeri. The Betazoid was quickly cataloguing the wetness lingering in his eyes. “Emeri,” she said helplessly, the drink glasses reclaimed by the replicator as the chief engineer perched down on the couch,” I thought that the war was over.”
“I know,” the First Officer replied,” so did I.” He brushed away a strand of blond hair that had fallen into Aimee’s face. “We’ll find those responsible and bring them to justice.” This was a quick response but he clung to it.
“You don’t sound very happy about it.”
“I’m afraid that we’ve been put into a position where the captain will find violence to be a necessary solution.”
“It’s not? No… I don’t want to fight,” Aimee continued quickly. “I just want to… quit seeing what we saw down there.”
She drifted closer and heat flared beneath Emeri’s skin. He imagined tasting the whiskey on Aimee’s lips, finding its burn in his mouth and then pulled back. “No… not tonight, Aimee,” he managed to say. “I need to write up my report for Captain Addy. And I need to …”
Aimee leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek. “I know. It’s okay.” She stood up from the couch and walked over to the door, turning back to him before leaving. “If you do want to talk, you know where to find me.”
----
“Disturbing, this is,” Vice-Admiral Tattok said over subspace. The image on Addy’s monitor was edged with static because of the Cayuga’s distance from the Federation communications network. “Have you, any leads, Captain?”
“We believe that we’ve picked up the warp trail of the assailants.”
The commander of the Eleventh Fleet scowled at this information. Though the Cayuga didn’t fall within his chain of command, the Miranda class starship was still within his sphere of influence and it was according to protocol that Addy had made his report to the Horrusi admiral.
“Within range, not much,” Tattok said,” to assist you. Handle it, can you?”
“We should be able to, Admiral. I have confidence in my people.”
“Good, good. Inform the Cardassians, I will. Starfleet out.”
The admiral’s visage darkened from the screen, only to be replaced by the Federation logo.
----
The Cayuga had been following the warp trail of the assailants when Durzan finally announced from Ops,” Captain, there are four ships showing up on our long-range sensors.”
Addy leaned forward in his chair. “On screen,” he ordered. “Durzan, tell them to stand down and to prepare to be boarded.”
Durzan sent the message before shaking his head. “No response, Captain.”
The captain sat back in his chair, considering his options. “Fine,” he said imperiously. “Tactical, lock photon torpedoes and disable their warp drives.”
On the viewscreen, twin flares streaked across space, hammering into the nearest ship. The distinctive blue glow from its warp drives dimmed violently before the ship dropped out of warp. Cayuga blew past them in pursuit of the others.
“The first target’s warp drive is disabled,” Durzan reported. “The other three ships are dropping out of warp and they’re coming back around with their weapons hot.”
“Helm, take us to impulse and prepare to engage.”
Riley twisted the Cayuga towards the approaching ships which pulled into a loose formation. They opened fire, splashing energy across the Starfleet vessel’s forward shields.
“Return fire!,” Addy ordered.
Cayuga’s phasers lashed out at them, disrupting the enemy’s shields before they pulled out of range. Riley rolled the ship after them but the raiders expertly stayed clear of their weapons arcs. “Captain,” they’re outmaneuvering me,” the lieutenant said. “I can’t line up a sho – “
The ship shook hard from the weapons impacts. “Their attacks are draining our dorsal shields, Captain,” Durzan reported. “They’re holding at seventy-seven percent efficiency.”
The bridge rocked again and Addy grabbed the armrests of his chair for support. “Mister Riley, set up a shot and take them out!”
A panel across the aft section of the bridge exploded, showering sparks across the deck. “Damnit,” Riley snarled under his breath,” stay… still!” The phasers struck one of the ships but it quickly swung out of the line of fire.
“Captain,” Durzan yelled over the chaos,” ventral and aft shields are failing! We’re taking damage!”
Addy grimaced down at his status board and sighed angrily. “We’re not going to win this. Riley, set a course and get u –“
The bridge flared white as a tremendous explosion sent everyone down to the deck from their posts. Durzan pulled himself back up into his seat, staring at his board in horror. Riley wiped blood off of his forehead and tried to look at his instruments without crossing his eyes.”
“Engineering to Bridge!,” Maguire’s voice flared over the intercom. “We’ve got hull breaches all across Deck One, micro-fractures in the port nacelle and power fluctuations are tripping breakers throughout the plasma relay system! I just fixed the damned thing!,” she cried indignantly.
Durzan squinted through the smoke filling the bridge. “Captain,” he coughed. “Captain?! Your orders, sir?!”
Then he saw it.
Addy had been thrown clear of his chair before the girders that were supposed to line the ceiling had crushed it. Unfortunately he had been thrown headfirst into the support for the helm console. The Betazoid realized that the artificial gravity was off-kilter by the way that his blood pooled farther up the deck.
“Riley! The captain’s dead. Get us out of here! Now!”
Riley grunted, punching buttons on his display. “Course… zero-eight-one, mark seven. Warp Three.” Groans rose from deep inside the ship’s hull and on the viewscreen, the stars blurred briefly before the screen itself gave out.
----
“… twenty-three fatalities, not counting the sixteen missing in action. We presume that they were lost in the hull breaches,” Moru told Durzan. He was leaning up against the turbolift wall, listening to the Bolian’s report as he watched the lights pass by the lift’s single window. “Forty crewmembers are injured but able to report back to duty.”
“Deities,” the Betazoid whispered,” that’s a third of the crew dead.”
The Bolian nodded. “Including the captain. How are you adjusting?”
Emeri looked up, studying the ceiling. “I’m all right. I’ll deal, Doctor.” He paused for a moment before continuing,” I’m calling for a senior staff meeting in four hours. And… if I’m the captain now, I guess that makes you first officer.”
“I’m a doctor, not a tactical specialist. I only took the bridge officer’s test on a dare”
“Still, you’re the next highest ranking officer on the ship and I need you, Zim.”
The chief medical officer looked at him and didn’t show any satisfaction in his new position. “Have you requested for aid from Starfleet or from the Daedalus?”
The lift reached Deck Five and the doors opened. “I’m told that the subspace communicator is down,” Durzan said. “We’re not getting any help out here.”
----
After he had gotten the Cayuga clear of the enemy ships, Josh had gone back to his quarters and kicked the wall until his foot ached. He slumped down to the floor, muttering to himself angrily.
“They outmaneuvered me. They managed to out-fly me!” He raised his hands in front of his face, recreating the battle. The Cayuga’s weapons were concentrated in the forward arc; the other ships had merely followed behind them and pounded away. “It was stupid to underestimate them,” Riley reprimanded himself. Their opponents weren’t the idiot pirates that he had assumed. They were just as intelligent as the Jem’Hadar.
The pilot struggled up to his feet and paced the short length of his room. “They had us,” he said aloud. “If they had just given chase, they could have tracked us down and taken us out. Why? Why didn’t they?” He angrily sat down at his computer console and brought up the sensor scans of the battle with the determination to find some answers.
----
The wardroom adjacent to the bridge had been destroyed so the meeting was held in the mess hall. Zimthar Moru, the Bolian chief medical officer, Brandon Hobbes, the chief science officer, and Riley sat expectantly around one of the smaller tables. Durzan stood at the head of the table, toying with a piece of fruit that had rolled free from the centerpiece.
“Lieutenant Maguire would be joining us but the repairs take precedence,” he explained, consciously keeping his back straight as he sat down. “Funeral services will be held at twenty hundred hours. I’ve assumed command and Commander Moru will replace me as first officer for the moment.
“Our long-range communications have been disabled so we can’t call for help with either repairing the ship or arresting these raiders. They can’t be allowed to escape and I’m afraid that if we turn in for repairs, we’ll lose their trail. So I’ve decided to follow them.” The other officers at the table shifted uncomfortably but Durzan only asked,” Anything to report?”
“Yes, sir,” Riley said with a nod of his head. “After the battle, I sifted through our sensors records and I think that I have a plausible identity and motive for the attackers.” This information got Durzan’s attention and he took a moment to bask in it. “The vessels were Peregrine class courier vessels which were phased out of public service in the Federation about fifteen years ago. Since then, a number of them have been refitted as attack ships by the Maquis.”
Durzan sighed. “That would explain why they destroyed a Cardassian colony.”
From the end of the table, Hobbes said very quietly,” My understanding was that once the Cardassian Union joined the Dominion, the Maquis were destroyed. The Jem’Hadar wiped out entire populations suspected of harboring Maquis sympathizers using such tactics as biogenic weapons and orbital bombardment.”
“Nobody said that the Jem’Hadar were nice people,” Durzan said softly. He remembered the accounts of survivors from his own home planet during the Jem’Hadar invasion of Betazed. “No, they’re monsters but they are thorough.”
“Intelligence reports do indicate that they were practically annihilated,” Doctor Moru agreed. “Where were these ones hiding?”
Riley shrugged at this question. “I don’t know but we do know of Maquis who survived the slaughter. These few might have been able to hide some ships.” He made a fist, then checked himself before he thumped it carefully on the table. “I… watched how they flew. In the scans, they’re good but I don’t think that they’ve had any formal training. Their skills are learned from experience, Commander… Captain, and I think that I can beat them this time.”
Durzan nodded and continued,” We can’t charge off without notifying the other ships in the sector. Any ideas for how to get word to them without the subspace communicator?”
“Shuttlecraft,” Riley said immediately. “The bay was damaged but we’ve still got two Type-10s that can be prepped for launch inside of a half-hour.”
“And who’s going to fly it?,” Moru asked him. “You can’t. We need you here.”
“I will,” Hobbes said.
The room fell silent at the science officer’s declaration. “Are you sure?,” Durzan asked her.
Hobbes nodded her assent.
“I… Hobbes, no one’s saying that you can’t do this but after the Sarajevo, do you really want to spend more time alone?” Concern was written on Moru’s face. Including his duties as chief medical officer, he was also the ship’s counselor.
“The circumstances are hardly the same. I’ll be helping, rather than being helpless.” Hobbes looked pleadingly at Durzan. “Besides, a science officer is useless in the coming engagement. I can help by alerting the other ships.”
Durzan paused as if he would object before he nodded decisively to this idea. “All right. Riley, help Hobbes prep the shuttle. Hobbes, you need to leave as soon as possible. Find any of our ships and zero them in on our position. Everyone get your sections as close to combat-ready as possible. Dismissed.”
Hobbes and Moru filed out of the mess hall but Riley kept Durzan pinned in his seat with a questioning gaze. After the mess hall doors opened and closed behind them, he asked him,” Something else to add, Josh?”
Riley stood up to pace in front of the mess hall’s large windows that looked out into space. “What are you planning on doing when we catch up with them, Commander? Captain, sorry.”
“I don’t know,” he confessed. “I’ve read about the Maquis and their tactics. They’ve never destroyed a Starfleet ship before, not even those pursuing them. They crippled the Defiant and the Malinche when pressed but they’ve never killed Starfleet officers before on a scale like this.” He rose from his seat, walked over to the window and stared out of it. “It’s like they’re angrier, more violent.”
“Their comrades are dead. I’d be angry too. I am angry. But what are you going to do about it? they aren’t going to surrender since they’ve killed twenty-six of our people already and I don’t think that they’d mind murdering another seventy. This isn’t the war where you have some easy job behind the lines. We’re going to have to fight here and now. Are you ready to do that?”
Durzan closed his eyes and rested his head against the window. They stood in silence for a minute before Emeri wordlessly turned and walked out of the room.
Riley sighed. “That was what I was afraid of.”
----
Engineering had been demolished.
Durzan stepped over a piece of blasted piping, jumping as electricity sparked from it. Someone swore in Gaelic and the power cut out. Maguire peeked over the status table and sighed. “Emeri, hi.” She stood up and gestured grandly at the wrecked environment of the engine room. “I guess you’re here for the damage report. You couldn’t call, of course,” – she gave a harsh laugh -- ,” because the intercoms are out.”
“How bad is it?”
Maguire opened one of the access conduits lining the wall, eyeing the innards warily. Her voice came back at the acting captain muffled. “The last time that the ship was hurt this bad, I was made Chief Engineer by default. We’ve got hull breaches across multiple decks. Atmospheric force fields are holding but it’s going to take some time to make those sections livable again. Thanks to the damage to the port nacelle, warp efficiency is down to seventy-two percent and that won’t last long over a long haul. Ventral and aft shield generators are damaged but I’ve got Ensign Connelly working on them. all weapons are functional,” -- she sighed -- ,” and my quarters got blown to Hell.”
Durzan heard the edge in her voice and silently cursed his next question. “Can the Cayuga intercept the raiders?”
Maguire pulled her head back from the conduit and stared at the commander. “Emeri, tell me that you’re kidding.”
“The long-range transceiver is out so we can’t call for help and by the time that we return with backup, we’ll have lost their warp signatures. We wouldn’t be able to track them then so we’re going to launch a shuttle to locate one of our ships while Cayuga goes to capture the raiders.”
“I think you’re insane.”
Durzan shrugged his shoulders. “I know.”
Maguire looked uncomfortably at her feet. “Duly noted.”
“I need to know if you think that we can pull it off.”
Maguire glanced around her engine room with her gaze lingering on the unlit warp core. “All right, yeah. I can get the tactical systems back up to spec but if we go into combat, outnumbered and outgunned like that again,” – she kicked the scorched piping -- ,” we’re gonna get killed.”
Durzan nodded solemnly. “Thanks, Chief.”
“Emeri…” Aimee’s voice was quiet. “Like I said, my quarters was in one of the destroyed sections. I was wondering if I could… “
“Bunk with me?”
Aimee bit her lip and nodded.
“I’ll leave some sheets on the couch for you,” Emeri said. “Mr. Riley is anticipating between ten and fourteen hours before we catch up with the raiders. I want all combat systems online by then.”
“Yes, sir,” Maguire said, straightening her back unconsciously. “I promise you that we’ll be ready for them this time.” Durzan turned and left, leaving the chief engineer to her work. Standing amid the blasted remains of the engineering section, Aimee couldn’t help but think over the conversation and smile just a little.
----
“I’ve got an idea,” Riley said as Durzan walked onto the bridge. “If we try to take them all at once, there’s no way that we can win. What we need to do is draw them out one at a time.” He motioned to the main viewscreen. “We sent a Class-Nine surveillance probe ahead of us and it got us some pretty good information.” A planet circled by two moons dominated the viewscreen and four dotted lines indicated the raiders’ course with three of them falling into a patrolling orbit around the planet and the moons while the damaged fourth ship had landed on the innermost satellite.
Emeri slowly walked around the bridge. “Josh,” he said,” I want these Maquis captured alive.”
Riley sighed and turned in his chair to face him. “I can’t promise that and I know that they won’t bother trying to keep us alive. Durzan, you’ve got to face it. if we’re going to arrest these people, then we’re going to have to fight and we’re probably going to end up killing somebody.” He paused for a moment. “You know that and if you disagreed, you would have turned us around already.”
Durzan stood at the center of the room. The captain’s chair had been replaced and with some uncertainty, he slowly sat down in it. “Take us in, Mister Riley.”
----
Maguire knew that they were going into action when the warp core’s throbbing slowed its frantic beat and the ship slowed to impulse speed. She looked over the status board and her engineering crew.
“All right, people, here are your assignments. Last time, the raiders focused on our upper and aft shields so we’re diverting power from life-support in the breached sections to those shields. I want Connelly and Newberry on-hand at the generators, in case, they begin to take damage. Nerrit, monitor the electro-plasma systems from possible overloads. If anything goes, reroute it. Happy and I will stay here in Main Engineering and trouble-shoot as trouble comes. Everybody got it? Good. Go!”
the officers filed off and Maguire and the Vulcan called Happy studied the status board. “Do we have any tasks before we engage the raiders in combat?,” he asked her.
Aimee shrugged at his question. “Nope. Nothing to do now except to wait – “
Over the repaired intercom, Durzan’s voice echoed through the room. “Red Alert! All hands to Battle Stations.”
Aimee smiled grimly. “Not so much waiting any more.”
----
Riley piloted the Cayuga into the system from the ‘north’, dropping the ship down over the central planet. He pulled the ship in close to the atmosphere so that the magnetic interference from the poles would jam the Maquis’ sensors.
“You know,” the helmsman said, his nerves shaking his voice almost imperceptibly,” if this was the Challenger, this wouldn’t be a problem. We would just tell them that they were under arrest and they’d give up just like that.”
From the ops station, Moru wished he was in Sickbay instead. “You’re not on the Challenger any more, Riley,” the Bolian physician told him. “You’re on the Cayuga now. Deal with it.”
The planet rotated silently below them for a few moments before the lieutenant said,” There… there’s the first one.”
The viewscreen shifted to show a single Maquis raider in orbit. “Lieutenant,” Durzan said from behind him,” deal with them quickly.”
The ship angled downward and Riley murmured to himself,” You think that you’ve hit the big time? You’re going to die, big time.” He bared his teeth. “Here comes the pain.”
To the raider, it must have seemed like the Cayuga appeared out of nowhere because it tried to break orbit but Riley lashed out with the ship’s weapons, pinning the smaller craft with phasers and photon torpedoes. It staggered under the blows until plumes of plasma vented from its aft section.
“The target’s communications are down,” the Bolian reported. “Sublight and warp engines have been disabled. Power output is minimal.” He checked his board.” I estimate two minutes before the next raider’s orbit brings it into range of the ship.”
“Excellent,” Durzan said. “Bridge to transporter room, lock onto all lifeforms aboard that raider and beam them directly to the brig. Mr. Riley, as soon as our guests are aboard, take us back to the planet’s magnetic pole.”
They waited for a few tense moments before Moru said,” Second raider’s been sighted. They’ve spotted the wreckage and they’re altering their course to head for the moon.”
“Riley, bring them down.”
The lieutenant grinned and the Cayuga leapt eagerly after the Maquis ship. He fired but the phaser shots were absorbed by the shields.
“They got a message to the other raider!,” Moru announced.
Riley grunted and throttled the ship up. Again, he probed the raider’s shields with phaser blasts and this time, sparks flew from the hull plating. The glow in the impulse engines disappeared and the fighter tumbled down towards the moon. “Too bad they won’t be around to get a response,” he smirked.
“The last raider’s zeroing in on us,” Moru reported. “They’ve locked weapons -- !”
the bridge rolled and bucked. Durzan wrapped his legs around his chair’s support, looking warily at the girders that braced the ceiling. “What’s the status of the second ship?!,” he yelled after another explosion shook the ship.
The explosion died down and Moru looked back at him, his blue face smudged with black soot. “The raider’s engines have been disabled, though they’ve managed to control their descent. It’ll be rough but they’ll land safely on the moon.”
“Good,” he muttered. “Josh, the last ship! Disable it!”
on the viewscreen, the stars shifted and the Maquis raider pulled into view. “I am so on it,” Riley said, more to himself than to anyone else. There was an exchange of phaser fire and the fighter pulled up and over the Cayuga. “Not this time, damnit,” Josh snarled, forcing the ship into a dive that showed the surprised Maquis, the ship’s armed face rather than its undefended rear. Torpedoes lashed out and exploded first against the raider’s diminished shields and then against its exposed hull, blasting one of its wings off. The ship spiraled out of view.
Riley whooped at his triumph, yelling,” Damn right! This isn’t a place for pissed-off colonists! We’re Starfleet!”
“Status of the enemy ship?,” Durzan asked.
“Crippled,” Moru answered him. “The transporter room is ready to take the crew aboard. Engineering reports minimal strain to the shield generators.”
Durzan’s shoulders lifted and he stood up a little more proudly than he had before the battle. “Beam the prisoners aboard and collect the crew of the other ship and the moon base. After that, set a course back towards Federation space.”
“Aye, sir,” both men acknowledged.
“Doctor Moru, you have the bridge.”
----
An impromptu celebration had begun in the mess hall with the tables littered with snacks, synthehol, and semi-conscious officers. A crowd had gathered around Josh Riley and he was living it up, delighting everyone with telling them all about the action against the Maquis. Even the drunks were paying a bleary sort of attention on his account of the battle.
“So, I realized that they weren’t out-flying me. It was just that with the three of them, I couldn’t keep track of them all at once. After I got the idea to break up, they didn’t stand a chance with me, taking them out, one at a time.” He took a swig of synthehol and grinned at Ensign Polcheny, the helm officer from the graveyard shift who was watching him with stars in her eyes. “I wish I could have seen the looks on their faces when they saw this old Miranda class starship roaring at them out of the magnetic field and heading straight for them.”
“Actually, I should be honest,” he said grandly. “I didn’t think up that stunt with the pole interference. I saw the Dominion do it during the war. See, the Challenger was on patrol through the Kalandra sector with the Kongo and just as we were passing this Type-L planet, half a dozen Jem’Hadar ships pop out of the interference. It scared the hell out of me but…” His voice trailed off and he noticed the helm officer’s gaze again. Losing his train of thought, he asked,” What’s your name?”
----
While most of the Maquis had been detained in the ship’s equally tiny brig, several of them were too injured not to receive medical care. Durzan walked between the beds, searching for the man whom the Maquis in the brig had identified as their leader. Against the far wall, the faint blue aura of a force field shimmered as he struggled in the surgical suite.
“Mister ch’Eenar?”
The Andorian focused his eyes on his three pips. “These conditions are intolerable. I demand to speak with the captain.”
“I’m afraid that your first attack made such a meeting impossible. Though I’m sure that you’ll find the accommodations at the Jaros II stockades to be far more pleasant.” The Betazoid looked over his chart; concussion, four shattered ribs, a broken femur, and several displaced vertebra. “Were you on the ship that went down on the moon?”
“It was one hell of a ride,” ch’Eenar agreed with him before exploding with questions. “Just what do you think you’re doing, Commander? How many classmates, friends, family, did you lose to the Cardassians during the war? How can you defend them now?”
“The Cardassians that you killed were colonists, not soldiers. Their population had no say in the actions of their government. They were innocent.”
“They were Cardassians. There are no innocent ones.” He drew in a breath to continue but Durzan turned on his heel and let him speak to his back.
----
“Our performance in the second engagement was significant improvement over that of the first engagement,” Sayvok said,” when one considers the amount of damage sustained.”
Engineering was empty except for the warp core, Ensign Sayvok, and Maguire who were killing time before the next shift came on. Aimee studied the status board carefully, tracing the flow of power from the warp core out to the nacelles, watching for any sort of drop-off that would indicate damage.
“We got badly beaten up enough the first time. Cayuga’s gonna need a month or even two at a starbase to get those breaches patched.” She straightened up and played with the strands of blond hair that came loose from her bun. “Yeah, I guess we did all right.”
“You are an excellent engineer, Lieutenant,” Sayvok said simply. “You must have trained carefully at the Academy.”
“I learned a lot of things at the Academy, Happy,” Aimee said, smiling as she began to fix her air. The Vulcan officer raised an eyebrow at her nickname for him but he didn’t interrupt her. “I didn’t start off in engineering, you see. I trained in the sciences, specifically astrophysics. I was going to explore space and find new phenomena. I was pretty good at it too.”
“Why did you transfer to engineering?”
With her hair arranged, she looked up at him with a crooked grin. “I met this guy. He was… he was a great guy. He convinced me to change my major and I actually lived with him for most of my junior year.” Her eyes unfocused. “I was going to marry him.”
“You allowed emotional attachment to separate you from your intended profession.” As Vulcans went, he looked very surprised. “How… illogical.”
“You should talk, Happy,” she jabbed back at him.
Sayvok conceded the point and turned away.
“Anyways, I’m only Chief Engineer by default. I was on the Cayuga during the First Battle of Chin’toka during the war. We took some hits and before I knew it, I was the only one in a yellow shift left around down here.”
Across the room, the main doors slid open and Emeri Durzan walked in. he saw Aimee and smiled. “Lieutenant,” he said,” we just heard from Hobbes. He found the Sangamon and they’re on route to pick us up. We’ll be back to a starbase in no time.”
Aimee grinned and even Sayvok seemed pleased. She stepped forward with her hands behind her back and did her best to glow at her commanding officer.
“And,” Durzan said more quietly,” I realized that you didn’t have a way to get into my quarters tonight. Also I was hoping that you would join me for dinner.”
“Wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Aimee said. “Hey, Happy! Finish covering the shift for me, eh? I’ll see you tomorrow.”
For his own part, the Vulcan watched his superiors walk out of Engineering and he couldn’t help but notice that they both seemed to be smiling and touching more than usual. If only it was so simple for him.
“Why do you call him Happy?,” the commander asked her once they were in the corridor.
Aimee made some vague gesture in the air. “Oh, that’s just the first part. His full nickname is Happy the Gay Vulcan.”
Emeri frowned at this. “He doesn’t seem to be any more cheerful than your usual type of Vulcan.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
----
Through one of the many windows that dotted the Sangamon, Durzan watched the Cayuga pull in alongside one of Deep Space Nine’s upper docking pylons and power down. From his vantage point, he could see the substantial damage done to his ship. Her hull plates were blackened and buckling and despite the best efforts of the atmospheric force fields, he could still see puffs of frozen gas leaking from the savaged hull.
“Colonel Kira tells me that the Cayuga is the first one on the repair list,” Kyrisha Munroe said from behind him. Emeri turned away from the window and smiled at the commodore. He thought that the distance between them was ridiculous since the captain’s ready room on the Sovereign class starship had to be the same size as his quarters on the Cayuga.
“We’ll be back on patrol soon enough, Commodore. Cayuga’s a good ship with a good crew.” ‘A very good crew,’ he thought to himself with a smile. “My only concern is that we’re extremely shorthanded with twenty-six dead. With me assuming the captain’s position, I need a first officer who can cover the ops position.”
Munroe nodded and stood to wander over to a painting on her ready room wall. It was done in oil, a pale man dressed all in black, smiling against a dark background. She reached out as if to touch it but she stopped herself short. “I’ve relayed your personnel requests to Starfleet Command. Most of your new crew should reach Deep Space Nine before the Cayuga is ready to push off but getting you a new first officer could take some time. The fleet is still short of good officers and I’m afraid that you’ll have to do without for a while.” She turned to him and with the painting framing her, she continued,” I’m worried about you, Captain.”
“May I ask why, ma’am?”
“Starfleet officers with civilian murder records worry me, Durzan,” she replied evenly. “Especially people with a criminal past who command starships.”
“There isn’t a captain in Starfleet who hasn’t killed in the last three years,” Durzan said, biting off every word.
“True,” Munroe said,” but they never killed in cold blood.”
“Neither,” the Betazoid whispered with restrained fury,” did I.”
silence stretched uncomfortably between them as they waited for the other to say something else. Finally, Munroe said,” When repairs on the Cayuga are finished, you’ll be assisting Sangamon and Cochrane in ferrying supplies to the Cardassian worlds.” Durzan nodded, still not quite trusting himself to speak. “Dismissed, Commander.”
Durzan left the commodore’s ready room and stalked across a bridge large enough to play soccer on. Once inside of a turbolift, he directed it to the airlock leading the Deep Space Nine’s docking pylon and sagged against the wall. When the lift left him out, he walked down the corridor until he found a window facing the Cayuga. Hovering around the ship’s mangled hull, he could see repair crews from the station and Cayuga moving in like moths drawn to the flame of work that needed to be done. One of the spacesuited figures, he sensed, was Aimee. Aimee, who hadn’t requested any guest quarters on Deep Space Nine.
Emeri Durzan smiled, thinking of her and the ship.
The End!
Next time on Star Trek: The Cayuga Missions – 002: ‘Cry of Deities’
Star Trek: The Cayuga Missions
001 – ‘Beyond Our Farthest Dreams’
By Captain Universe
Even the most reverent man could grow indifferent to the majesty of space.
Josh Riley hopped past his star-filled window while he struggled to pull on his boxers. Discarded pajamas tripped him onto the bed and he lay squashed against the sheets before he gingerly rolled onto his back. There was still time before his shift so he relaxed against the mattress. His gaze drifted over the opposite wall, across the crucifix and down to the framed collection of his medals.
He had fought against the Borg and in Operation: Return, the Battle of Betazed and countless other engagements during the Dominion War. His valor and skill had been recognized by Starfleet and he should have had his pick of any assignment in the fleet, not tossed onto a Miranda class starship like an afterthought.
The U.S.S. Cayuga was a minuscule ship, standing at only eleven decks, less than one hundred and fifty meters long and held fewer than a hundred crewmembers. She had very little weapons to speak of, except for a few phaser banks and a couple of photon torpedo launchers. Her mission was to handle all of the little tasks that Starfleet wouldn’t send a real ship to handle and quite frankly, she was an insult.
Riley checked the chronometer at his bedside and decided that it was time to make the short walk to the bridge. He pulled his uniform jacket on and jammed his feet into boots before pushing his way through halls clogged with gamma-shift officers returning from duty. The first officer glanced up from his post at Ops as Riley walked onto the bridge and he watched as Ensign Polcheny gave him the helm. At the center of the bridge, the Chief Engineer stood beside Captain Addy who was examining her status report with a suspicious eye.
“In small words,” his thick voice almost boomed as he returned the padd to her,” does everything on the ship work?”
Aimee Maguire opened her mouth, ready to explain that the matter-to-antimatter ratio of the warp core had been adjusted to within a fraction of a percent, that all six shield generators were once again calibrated to each other, that all of the hiccups in the environmental and gravity systems that had plagued the ship for the last seven months had been tracked down and smoothed out and that her and her engineering team had been able to do all of that work without the assistance of a repair yard or for that matter, a real engineering team.
Instead she simply said,” Yes, sir. All damage sustained at the Battle of Betazed has been fixed. The ship is back up to specs.”
“Well done, Lieutenant,” Addy said before he paused to listen. “You know, you’re right. The pitch of the warp drive is back where it should be.” He smiled at her, pleased with his own connection to the ship. She coughed to cover up a snort of ridicule.
“It took two months to finish repairs on the Challenger after the Battle of Betazed,” Riley interjected. “Galaxy class. I manned the helm during the battle. We led a squadron against one of those Jem’Hadar dreadnoughts. We took a lot of hits but I managed to avoid most of them. Nailed the target too.” He made one last alteration to his console and then turned around. “Where was the Cayuga during the battle, Captain?”
Addy smiled faintly, remembering that day. “We were in a mixed squad with some other Miranda class light cruisers and some Klingon birds-of-prey. We ran interference on Jem’Hadar attack ships, taking’ em out before they could get to the bigger ships. One of them managed to ram us but we were lucky that the Klingons were able to cover us during our retreat.”
“You didn’t have me at the helm.” Riley matched Addy’s smile and nodded appreciatively. “Everybody who walked out of that one was a hero.”
From the Ops station, they heard a quiet snort.
“Opinion, Commander?,” the captain asked.
Emeri Durzan looked up from his console. “Just what he said, about everyone who fought at Betazed being a hero.”
“You disagree?”
Durzan shrugged. “Yes, I do, sir.”
Riley bit down on the impulsive rejoinder that threatened to speak out against what he said but instead he took his time to phrase his response. “Commander… the Battle of Betazed was one of the battles that helped to end the war. We fought against the greatest threat this side of the Borg and we saved the Alpha Quadrant from being enslaved by the Dominion. What’s more heroic than that?”
“Stopping the war without fighting at all, Lieutenant,” the Betazoid said quietly.
An uncomfortable silence settled over the bridge. “Commander…,” the captain said. “Against an enemy like the Dominion, I don’t think that simply talking out our differences would have resolved anything. You’ve fought the Jem’Hadar; you know how ruthless they can be.”
Durzan shook his head.
“I’m sorry?,” Addy asked.
“I’ve never fought the Jem’Hadar or anyone else for that matter. I spent the war working as a Starfleet liaison to the Federation Council in Paris,” Emeri spoke quietly since he knew the effect that his words were going to have.
Captain Addy was slowly turning different colors, none of them being pleasant at all. Riley snorted and went back to his console. Maguire decided that there was someplace else that she desperately needed to be but before she could escape from the bridge, the captain spoke.
“We’ve spent the last three years fighting the bloodiest war in the history of the Alpha Quadrant – possibly the entire galaxy – and you spent it… hiding?”
Durzan cleared his throat. “Captain, with all due respect… I don’t believe in fighting of any kind. It’s wrong to intentionally hurt another being.”
Captain Addy slowly and deliberately turned his chair back towards the forward viewscreen. The rest of the shift was very quiet.
----
Back in Engineering, Aimee Maguire felt much more at home here than she had on the bridge. She perched herself down on the edge of the main situation display, the thrum of the warp core soothing her while she listened to a Vulcan engineer dutifully read from his padd.
Her concentration wavered as Ensign Connelly walked past her with an equipment kit tucked under his arm. He opened an access panel to a Jefferies tube and crawled inside while she watched his retreating backside appreciatively. Aaron Connelly had been her wartime fling and after the peace treaty, she had decided that he spent too much of his off-duty time on times other than her and had broken it off.
“… by repositioning the emitters .004 millimeters, we would create a noticeable increase in shield efficiency,” Ensign Sayvok finished, never realizing that his Human superior’s attention had wandered away from him.
Maguire blushed slightly at the memories and hopped off of the status board. “Sounds like good work, Sayvok,” she agreed casually as it would have been highly illogical for him to have suggested anything other than the best course of action. The warp core surged and yellow light flooded the bay. She turned to the status board; the ship was tearing away through space at Warp Nine-point-Three and when she noticed this, her hand flew to her combadge,” Engineering to Bridge –“
“We’ve received a distress signal from the Cardassian colony on Laiat Prime,” Durzan answered her before she could ask anything.
“What’s distressing them?”
“Unknown,” the Betazoid said grimly,” but we’re about to find out.”
----
Captain’s log, April 30th, 2376;
After receiving a distress signal from the Cardassian colony on Laiat Prime, the Cayuga has arrived to discover complete and utter devastation.
Hours later after the Cayuga arrived at Laiat Prime; Emeri Durzan stalked into his quarters and collapsed down onto his couch. He lay in the darkness for a moment before he pulled his uniform jacket off and stared sullenly at his own reflection in the window. Leading the away team down to the planet, blasted landscape, decimated buildings and charred bodies still flashed across his vision. Tears burned at the edge of his eyes as he tried to put the nightmare behind him.
The door chime sounded and he jumped at it. Wiping at his face, he answered it with a stutter,” E-enter.”
The door slid open and Aimee stepped inside, crossing over to the replicator. “Scotch Whiskey, neat,” she told it and after the drink disappeared, she downed its contents with a wince before she turned to face Emeri. The Betazoid was quickly cataloguing the wetness lingering in his eyes. “Emeri,” she said helplessly, the drink glasses reclaimed by the replicator as the chief engineer perched down on the couch,” I thought that the war was over.”
“I know,” the First Officer replied,” so did I.” He brushed away a strand of blond hair that had fallen into Aimee’s face. “We’ll find those responsible and bring them to justice.” This was a quick response but he clung to it.
“You don’t sound very happy about it.”
“I’m afraid that we’ve been put into a position where the captain will find violence to be a necessary solution.”
“It’s not? No… I don’t want to fight,” Aimee continued quickly. “I just want to… quit seeing what we saw down there.”
She drifted closer and heat flared beneath Emeri’s skin. He imagined tasting the whiskey on Aimee’s lips, finding its burn in his mouth and then pulled back. “No… not tonight, Aimee,” he managed to say. “I need to write up my report for Captain Addy. And I need to …”
Aimee leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek. “I know. It’s okay.” She stood up from the couch and walked over to the door, turning back to him before leaving. “If you do want to talk, you know where to find me.”
----
“Disturbing, this is,” Vice-Admiral Tattok said over subspace. The image on Addy’s monitor was edged with static because of the Cayuga’s distance from the Federation communications network. “Have you, any leads, Captain?”
“We believe that we’ve picked up the warp trail of the assailants.”
The commander of the Eleventh Fleet scowled at this information. Though the Cayuga didn’t fall within his chain of command, the Miranda class starship was still within his sphere of influence and it was according to protocol that Addy had made his report to the Horrusi admiral.
“Within range, not much,” Tattok said,” to assist you. Handle it, can you?”
“We should be able to, Admiral. I have confidence in my people.”
“Good, good. Inform the Cardassians, I will. Starfleet out.”
The admiral’s visage darkened from the screen, only to be replaced by the Federation logo.
----
The Cayuga had been following the warp trail of the assailants when Durzan finally announced from Ops,” Captain, there are four ships showing up on our long-range sensors.”
Addy leaned forward in his chair. “On screen,” he ordered. “Durzan, tell them to stand down and to prepare to be boarded.”
Durzan sent the message before shaking his head. “No response, Captain.”
The captain sat back in his chair, considering his options. “Fine,” he said imperiously. “Tactical, lock photon torpedoes and disable their warp drives.”
On the viewscreen, twin flares streaked across space, hammering into the nearest ship. The distinctive blue glow from its warp drives dimmed violently before the ship dropped out of warp. Cayuga blew past them in pursuit of the others.
“The first target’s warp drive is disabled,” Durzan reported. “The other three ships are dropping out of warp and they’re coming back around with their weapons hot.”
“Helm, take us to impulse and prepare to engage.”
Riley twisted the Cayuga towards the approaching ships which pulled into a loose formation. They opened fire, splashing energy across the Starfleet vessel’s forward shields.
“Return fire!,” Addy ordered.
Cayuga’s phasers lashed out at them, disrupting the enemy’s shields before they pulled out of range. Riley rolled the ship after them but the raiders expertly stayed clear of their weapons arcs. “Captain,” they’re outmaneuvering me,” the lieutenant said. “I can’t line up a sho – “
The ship shook hard from the weapons impacts. “Their attacks are draining our dorsal shields, Captain,” Durzan reported. “They’re holding at seventy-seven percent efficiency.”
The bridge rocked again and Addy grabbed the armrests of his chair for support. “Mister Riley, set up a shot and take them out!”
A panel across the aft section of the bridge exploded, showering sparks across the deck. “Damnit,” Riley snarled under his breath,” stay… still!” The phasers struck one of the ships but it quickly swung out of the line of fire.
“Captain,” Durzan yelled over the chaos,” ventral and aft shields are failing! We’re taking damage!”
Addy grimaced down at his status board and sighed angrily. “We’re not going to win this. Riley, set a course and get u –“
The bridge flared white as a tremendous explosion sent everyone down to the deck from their posts. Durzan pulled himself back up into his seat, staring at his board in horror. Riley wiped blood off of his forehead and tried to look at his instruments without crossing his eyes.”
“Engineering to Bridge!,” Maguire’s voice flared over the intercom. “We’ve got hull breaches all across Deck One, micro-fractures in the port nacelle and power fluctuations are tripping breakers throughout the plasma relay system! I just fixed the damned thing!,” she cried indignantly.
Durzan squinted through the smoke filling the bridge. “Captain,” he coughed. “Captain?! Your orders, sir?!”
Then he saw it.
Addy had been thrown clear of his chair before the girders that were supposed to line the ceiling had crushed it. Unfortunately he had been thrown headfirst into the support for the helm console. The Betazoid realized that the artificial gravity was off-kilter by the way that his blood pooled farther up the deck.
“Riley! The captain’s dead. Get us out of here! Now!”
Riley grunted, punching buttons on his display. “Course… zero-eight-one, mark seven. Warp Three.” Groans rose from deep inside the ship’s hull and on the viewscreen, the stars blurred briefly before the screen itself gave out.
----
“… twenty-three fatalities, not counting the sixteen missing in action. We presume that they were lost in the hull breaches,” Moru told Durzan. He was leaning up against the turbolift wall, listening to the Bolian’s report as he watched the lights pass by the lift’s single window. “Forty crewmembers are injured but able to report back to duty.”
“Deities,” the Betazoid whispered,” that’s a third of the crew dead.”
The Bolian nodded. “Including the captain. How are you adjusting?”
Emeri looked up, studying the ceiling. “I’m all right. I’ll deal, Doctor.” He paused for a moment before continuing,” I’m calling for a senior staff meeting in four hours. And… if I’m the captain now, I guess that makes you first officer.”
“I’m a doctor, not a tactical specialist. I only took the bridge officer’s test on a dare”
“Still, you’re the next highest ranking officer on the ship and I need you, Zim.”
The chief medical officer looked at him and didn’t show any satisfaction in his new position. “Have you requested for aid from Starfleet or from the Daedalus?”
The lift reached Deck Five and the doors opened. “I’m told that the subspace communicator is down,” Durzan said. “We’re not getting any help out here.”
----
After he had gotten the Cayuga clear of the enemy ships, Josh had gone back to his quarters and kicked the wall until his foot ached. He slumped down to the floor, muttering to himself angrily.
“They outmaneuvered me. They managed to out-fly me!” He raised his hands in front of his face, recreating the battle. The Cayuga’s weapons were concentrated in the forward arc; the other ships had merely followed behind them and pounded away. “It was stupid to underestimate them,” Riley reprimanded himself. Their opponents weren’t the idiot pirates that he had assumed. They were just as intelligent as the Jem’Hadar.
The pilot struggled up to his feet and paced the short length of his room. “They had us,” he said aloud. “If they had just given chase, they could have tracked us down and taken us out. Why? Why didn’t they?” He angrily sat down at his computer console and brought up the sensor scans of the battle with the determination to find some answers.
----
The wardroom adjacent to the bridge had been destroyed so the meeting was held in the mess hall. Zimthar Moru, the Bolian chief medical officer, Brandon Hobbes, the chief science officer, and Riley sat expectantly around one of the smaller tables. Durzan stood at the head of the table, toying with a piece of fruit that had rolled free from the centerpiece.
“Lieutenant Maguire would be joining us but the repairs take precedence,” he explained, consciously keeping his back straight as he sat down. “Funeral services will be held at twenty hundred hours. I’ve assumed command and Commander Moru will replace me as first officer for the moment.
“Our long-range communications have been disabled so we can’t call for help with either repairing the ship or arresting these raiders. They can’t be allowed to escape and I’m afraid that if we turn in for repairs, we’ll lose their trail. So I’ve decided to follow them.” The other officers at the table shifted uncomfortably but Durzan only asked,” Anything to report?”
“Yes, sir,” Riley said with a nod of his head. “After the battle, I sifted through our sensors records and I think that I have a plausible identity and motive for the attackers.” This information got Durzan’s attention and he took a moment to bask in it. “The vessels were Peregrine class courier vessels which were phased out of public service in the Federation about fifteen years ago. Since then, a number of them have been refitted as attack ships by the Maquis.”
Durzan sighed. “That would explain why they destroyed a Cardassian colony.”
From the end of the table, Hobbes said very quietly,” My understanding was that once the Cardassian Union joined the Dominion, the Maquis were destroyed. The Jem’Hadar wiped out entire populations suspected of harboring Maquis sympathizers using such tactics as biogenic weapons and orbital bombardment.”
“Nobody said that the Jem’Hadar were nice people,” Durzan said softly. He remembered the accounts of survivors from his own home planet during the Jem’Hadar invasion of Betazed. “No, they’re monsters but they are thorough.”
“Intelligence reports do indicate that they were practically annihilated,” Doctor Moru agreed. “Where were these ones hiding?”
Riley shrugged at this question. “I don’t know but we do know of Maquis who survived the slaughter. These few might have been able to hide some ships.” He made a fist, then checked himself before he thumped it carefully on the table. “I… watched how they flew. In the scans, they’re good but I don’t think that they’ve had any formal training. Their skills are learned from experience, Commander… Captain, and I think that I can beat them this time.”
Durzan nodded and continued,” We can’t charge off without notifying the other ships in the sector. Any ideas for how to get word to them without the subspace communicator?”
“Shuttlecraft,” Riley said immediately. “The bay was damaged but we’ve still got two Type-10s that can be prepped for launch inside of a half-hour.”
“And who’s going to fly it?,” Moru asked him. “You can’t. We need you here.”
“I will,” Hobbes said.
The room fell silent at the science officer’s declaration. “Are you sure?,” Durzan asked her.
Hobbes nodded her assent.
“I… Hobbes, no one’s saying that you can’t do this but after the Sarajevo, do you really want to spend more time alone?” Concern was written on Moru’s face. Including his duties as chief medical officer, he was also the ship’s counselor.
“The circumstances are hardly the same. I’ll be helping, rather than being helpless.” Hobbes looked pleadingly at Durzan. “Besides, a science officer is useless in the coming engagement. I can help by alerting the other ships.”
Durzan paused as if he would object before he nodded decisively to this idea. “All right. Riley, help Hobbes prep the shuttle. Hobbes, you need to leave as soon as possible. Find any of our ships and zero them in on our position. Everyone get your sections as close to combat-ready as possible. Dismissed.”
Hobbes and Moru filed out of the mess hall but Riley kept Durzan pinned in his seat with a questioning gaze. After the mess hall doors opened and closed behind them, he asked him,” Something else to add, Josh?”
Riley stood up to pace in front of the mess hall’s large windows that looked out into space. “What are you planning on doing when we catch up with them, Commander? Captain, sorry.”
“I don’t know,” he confessed. “I’ve read about the Maquis and their tactics. They’ve never destroyed a Starfleet ship before, not even those pursuing them. They crippled the Defiant and the Malinche when pressed but they’ve never killed Starfleet officers before on a scale like this.” He rose from his seat, walked over to the window and stared out of it. “It’s like they’re angrier, more violent.”
“Their comrades are dead. I’d be angry too. I am angry. But what are you going to do about it? they aren’t going to surrender since they’ve killed twenty-six of our people already and I don’t think that they’d mind murdering another seventy. This isn’t the war where you have some easy job behind the lines. We’re going to have to fight here and now. Are you ready to do that?”
Durzan closed his eyes and rested his head against the window. They stood in silence for a minute before Emeri wordlessly turned and walked out of the room.
Riley sighed. “That was what I was afraid of.”
----
Engineering had been demolished.
Durzan stepped over a piece of blasted piping, jumping as electricity sparked from it. Someone swore in Gaelic and the power cut out. Maguire peeked over the status table and sighed. “Emeri, hi.” She stood up and gestured grandly at the wrecked environment of the engine room. “I guess you’re here for the damage report. You couldn’t call, of course,” – she gave a harsh laugh -- ,” because the intercoms are out.”
“How bad is it?”
Maguire opened one of the access conduits lining the wall, eyeing the innards warily. Her voice came back at the acting captain muffled. “The last time that the ship was hurt this bad, I was made Chief Engineer by default. We’ve got hull breaches across multiple decks. Atmospheric force fields are holding but it’s going to take some time to make those sections livable again. Thanks to the damage to the port nacelle, warp efficiency is down to seventy-two percent and that won’t last long over a long haul. Ventral and aft shield generators are damaged but I’ve got Ensign Connelly working on them. all weapons are functional,” -- she sighed -- ,” and my quarters got blown to Hell.”
Durzan heard the edge in her voice and silently cursed his next question. “Can the Cayuga intercept the raiders?”
Maguire pulled her head back from the conduit and stared at the commander. “Emeri, tell me that you’re kidding.”
“The long-range transceiver is out so we can’t call for help and by the time that we return with backup, we’ll have lost their warp signatures. We wouldn’t be able to track them then so we’re going to launch a shuttle to locate one of our ships while Cayuga goes to capture the raiders.”
“I think you’re insane.”
Durzan shrugged his shoulders. “I know.”
Maguire looked uncomfortably at her feet. “Duly noted.”
“I need to know if you think that we can pull it off.”
Maguire glanced around her engine room with her gaze lingering on the unlit warp core. “All right, yeah. I can get the tactical systems back up to spec but if we go into combat, outnumbered and outgunned like that again,” – she kicked the scorched piping -- ,” we’re gonna get killed.”
Durzan nodded solemnly. “Thanks, Chief.”
“Emeri…” Aimee’s voice was quiet. “Like I said, my quarters was in one of the destroyed sections. I was wondering if I could… “
“Bunk with me?”
Aimee bit her lip and nodded.
“I’ll leave some sheets on the couch for you,” Emeri said. “Mr. Riley is anticipating between ten and fourteen hours before we catch up with the raiders. I want all combat systems online by then.”
“Yes, sir,” Maguire said, straightening her back unconsciously. “I promise you that we’ll be ready for them this time.” Durzan turned and left, leaving the chief engineer to her work. Standing amid the blasted remains of the engineering section, Aimee couldn’t help but think over the conversation and smile just a little.
----
“I’ve got an idea,” Riley said as Durzan walked onto the bridge. “If we try to take them all at once, there’s no way that we can win. What we need to do is draw them out one at a time.” He motioned to the main viewscreen. “We sent a Class-Nine surveillance probe ahead of us and it got us some pretty good information.” A planet circled by two moons dominated the viewscreen and four dotted lines indicated the raiders’ course with three of them falling into a patrolling orbit around the planet and the moons while the damaged fourth ship had landed on the innermost satellite.
Emeri slowly walked around the bridge. “Josh,” he said,” I want these Maquis captured alive.”
Riley sighed and turned in his chair to face him. “I can’t promise that and I know that they won’t bother trying to keep us alive. Durzan, you’ve got to face it. if we’re going to arrest these people, then we’re going to have to fight and we’re probably going to end up killing somebody.” He paused for a moment. “You know that and if you disagreed, you would have turned us around already.”
Durzan stood at the center of the room. The captain’s chair had been replaced and with some uncertainty, he slowly sat down in it. “Take us in, Mister Riley.”
----
Maguire knew that they were going into action when the warp core’s throbbing slowed its frantic beat and the ship slowed to impulse speed. She looked over the status board and her engineering crew.
“All right, people, here are your assignments. Last time, the raiders focused on our upper and aft shields so we’re diverting power from life-support in the breached sections to those shields. I want Connelly and Newberry on-hand at the generators, in case, they begin to take damage. Nerrit, monitor the electro-plasma systems from possible overloads. If anything goes, reroute it. Happy and I will stay here in Main Engineering and trouble-shoot as trouble comes. Everybody got it? Good. Go!”
the officers filed off and Maguire and the Vulcan called Happy studied the status board. “Do we have any tasks before we engage the raiders in combat?,” he asked her.
Aimee shrugged at his question. “Nope. Nothing to do now except to wait – “
Over the repaired intercom, Durzan’s voice echoed through the room. “Red Alert! All hands to Battle Stations.”
Aimee smiled grimly. “Not so much waiting any more.”
----
Riley piloted the Cayuga into the system from the ‘north’, dropping the ship down over the central planet. He pulled the ship in close to the atmosphere so that the magnetic interference from the poles would jam the Maquis’ sensors.
“You know,” the helmsman said, his nerves shaking his voice almost imperceptibly,” if this was the Challenger, this wouldn’t be a problem. We would just tell them that they were under arrest and they’d give up just like that.”
From the ops station, Moru wished he was in Sickbay instead. “You’re not on the Challenger any more, Riley,” the Bolian physician told him. “You’re on the Cayuga now. Deal with it.”
The planet rotated silently below them for a few moments before the lieutenant said,” There… there’s the first one.”
The viewscreen shifted to show a single Maquis raider in orbit. “Lieutenant,” Durzan said from behind him,” deal with them quickly.”
The ship angled downward and Riley murmured to himself,” You think that you’ve hit the big time? You’re going to die, big time.” He bared his teeth. “Here comes the pain.”
To the raider, it must have seemed like the Cayuga appeared out of nowhere because it tried to break orbit but Riley lashed out with the ship’s weapons, pinning the smaller craft with phasers and photon torpedoes. It staggered under the blows until plumes of plasma vented from its aft section.
“The target’s communications are down,” the Bolian reported. “Sublight and warp engines have been disabled. Power output is minimal.” He checked his board.” I estimate two minutes before the next raider’s orbit brings it into range of the ship.”
“Excellent,” Durzan said. “Bridge to transporter room, lock onto all lifeforms aboard that raider and beam them directly to the brig. Mr. Riley, as soon as our guests are aboard, take us back to the planet’s magnetic pole.”
They waited for a few tense moments before Moru said,” Second raider’s been sighted. They’ve spotted the wreckage and they’re altering their course to head for the moon.”
“Riley, bring them down.”
The lieutenant grinned and the Cayuga leapt eagerly after the Maquis ship. He fired but the phaser shots were absorbed by the shields.
“They got a message to the other raider!,” Moru announced.
Riley grunted and throttled the ship up. Again, he probed the raider’s shields with phaser blasts and this time, sparks flew from the hull plating. The glow in the impulse engines disappeared and the fighter tumbled down towards the moon. “Too bad they won’t be around to get a response,” he smirked.
“The last raider’s zeroing in on us,” Moru reported. “They’ve locked weapons -- !”
the bridge rolled and bucked. Durzan wrapped his legs around his chair’s support, looking warily at the girders that braced the ceiling. “What’s the status of the second ship?!,” he yelled after another explosion shook the ship.
The explosion died down and Moru looked back at him, his blue face smudged with black soot. “The raider’s engines have been disabled, though they’ve managed to control their descent. It’ll be rough but they’ll land safely on the moon.”
“Good,” he muttered. “Josh, the last ship! Disable it!”
on the viewscreen, the stars shifted and the Maquis raider pulled into view. “I am so on it,” Riley said, more to himself than to anyone else. There was an exchange of phaser fire and the fighter pulled up and over the Cayuga. “Not this time, damnit,” Josh snarled, forcing the ship into a dive that showed the surprised Maquis, the ship’s armed face rather than its undefended rear. Torpedoes lashed out and exploded first against the raider’s diminished shields and then against its exposed hull, blasting one of its wings off. The ship spiraled out of view.
Riley whooped at his triumph, yelling,” Damn right! This isn’t a place for pissed-off colonists! We’re Starfleet!”
“Status of the enemy ship?,” Durzan asked.
“Crippled,” Moru answered him. “The transporter room is ready to take the crew aboard. Engineering reports minimal strain to the shield generators.”
Durzan’s shoulders lifted and he stood up a little more proudly than he had before the battle. “Beam the prisoners aboard and collect the crew of the other ship and the moon base. After that, set a course back towards Federation space.”
“Aye, sir,” both men acknowledged.
“Doctor Moru, you have the bridge.”
----
An impromptu celebration had begun in the mess hall with the tables littered with snacks, synthehol, and semi-conscious officers. A crowd had gathered around Josh Riley and he was living it up, delighting everyone with telling them all about the action against the Maquis. Even the drunks were paying a bleary sort of attention on his account of the battle.
“So, I realized that they weren’t out-flying me. It was just that with the three of them, I couldn’t keep track of them all at once. After I got the idea to break up, they didn’t stand a chance with me, taking them out, one at a time.” He took a swig of synthehol and grinned at Ensign Polcheny, the helm officer from the graveyard shift who was watching him with stars in her eyes. “I wish I could have seen the looks on their faces when they saw this old Miranda class starship roaring at them out of the magnetic field and heading straight for them.”
“Actually, I should be honest,” he said grandly. “I didn’t think up that stunt with the pole interference. I saw the Dominion do it during the war. See, the Challenger was on patrol through the Kalandra sector with the Kongo and just as we were passing this Type-L planet, half a dozen Jem’Hadar ships pop out of the interference. It scared the hell out of me but…” His voice trailed off and he noticed the helm officer’s gaze again. Losing his train of thought, he asked,” What’s your name?”
----
While most of the Maquis had been detained in the ship’s equally tiny brig, several of them were too injured not to receive medical care. Durzan walked between the beds, searching for the man whom the Maquis in the brig had identified as their leader. Against the far wall, the faint blue aura of a force field shimmered as he struggled in the surgical suite.
“Mister ch’Eenar?”
The Andorian focused his eyes on his three pips. “These conditions are intolerable. I demand to speak with the captain.”
“I’m afraid that your first attack made such a meeting impossible. Though I’m sure that you’ll find the accommodations at the Jaros II stockades to be far more pleasant.” The Betazoid looked over his chart; concussion, four shattered ribs, a broken femur, and several displaced vertebra. “Were you on the ship that went down on the moon?”
“It was one hell of a ride,” ch’Eenar agreed with him before exploding with questions. “Just what do you think you’re doing, Commander? How many classmates, friends, family, did you lose to the Cardassians during the war? How can you defend them now?”
“The Cardassians that you killed were colonists, not soldiers. Their population had no say in the actions of their government. They were innocent.”
“They were Cardassians. There are no innocent ones.” He drew in a breath to continue but Durzan turned on his heel and let him speak to his back.
----
“Our performance in the second engagement was significant improvement over that of the first engagement,” Sayvok said,” when one considers the amount of damage sustained.”
Engineering was empty except for the warp core, Ensign Sayvok, and Maguire who were killing time before the next shift came on. Aimee studied the status board carefully, tracing the flow of power from the warp core out to the nacelles, watching for any sort of drop-off that would indicate damage.
“We got badly beaten up enough the first time. Cayuga’s gonna need a month or even two at a starbase to get those breaches patched.” She straightened up and played with the strands of blond hair that came loose from her bun. “Yeah, I guess we did all right.”
“You are an excellent engineer, Lieutenant,” Sayvok said simply. “You must have trained carefully at the Academy.”
“I learned a lot of things at the Academy, Happy,” Aimee said, smiling as she began to fix her air. The Vulcan officer raised an eyebrow at her nickname for him but he didn’t interrupt her. “I didn’t start off in engineering, you see. I trained in the sciences, specifically astrophysics. I was going to explore space and find new phenomena. I was pretty good at it too.”
“Why did you transfer to engineering?”
With her hair arranged, she looked up at him with a crooked grin. “I met this guy. He was… he was a great guy. He convinced me to change my major and I actually lived with him for most of my junior year.” Her eyes unfocused. “I was going to marry him.”
“You allowed emotional attachment to separate you from your intended profession.” As Vulcans went, he looked very surprised. “How… illogical.”
“You should talk, Happy,” she jabbed back at him.
Sayvok conceded the point and turned away.
“Anyways, I’m only Chief Engineer by default. I was on the Cayuga during the First Battle of Chin’toka during the war. We took some hits and before I knew it, I was the only one in a yellow shift left around down here.”
Across the room, the main doors slid open and Emeri Durzan walked in. he saw Aimee and smiled. “Lieutenant,” he said,” we just heard from Hobbes. He found the Sangamon and they’re on route to pick us up. We’ll be back to a starbase in no time.”
Aimee grinned and even Sayvok seemed pleased. She stepped forward with her hands behind her back and did her best to glow at her commanding officer.
“And,” Durzan said more quietly,” I realized that you didn’t have a way to get into my quarters tonight. Also I was hoping that you would join me for dinner.”
“Wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Aimee said. “Hey, Happy! Finish covering the shift for me, eh? I’ll see you tomorrow.”
For his own part, the Vulcan watched his superiors walk out of Engineering and he couldn’t help but notice that they both seemed to be smiling and touching more than usual. If only it was so simple for him.
“Why do you call him Happy?,” the commander asked her once they were in the corridor.
Aimee made some vague gesture in the air. “Oh, that’s just the first part. His full nickname is Happy the Gay Vulcan.”
Emeri frowned at this. “He doesn’t seem to be any more cheerful than your usual type of Vulcan.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
----
Through one of the many windows that dotted the Sangamon, Durzan watched the Cayuga pull in alongside one of Deep Space Nine’s upper docking pylons and power down. From his vantage point, he could see the substantial damage done to his ship. Her hull plates were blackened and buckling and despite the best efforts of the atmospheric force fields, he could still see puffs of frozen gas leaking from the savaged hull.
“Colonel Kira tells me that the Cayuga is the first one on the repair list,” Kyrisha Munroe said from behind him. Emeri turned away from the window and smiled at the commodore. He thought that the distance between them was ridiculous since the captain’s ready room on the Sovereign class starship had to be the same size as his quarters on the Cayuga.
“We’ll be back on patrol soon enough, Commodore. Cayuga’s a good ship with a good crew.” ‘A very good crew,’ he thought to himself with a smile. “My only concern is that we’re extremely shorthanded with twenty-six dead. With me assuming the captain’s position, I need a first officer who can cover the ops position.”
Munroe nodded and stood to wander over to a painting on her ready room wall. It was done in oil, a pale man dressed all in black, smiling against a dark background. She reached out as if to touch it but she stopped herself short. “I’ve relayed your personnel requests to Starfleet Command. Most of your new crew should reach Deep Space Nine before the Cayuga is ready to push off but getting you a new first officer could take some time. The fleet is still short of good officers and I’m afraid that you’ll have to do without for a while.” She turned to him and with the painting framing her, she continued,” I’m worried about you, Captain.”
“May I ask why, ma’am?”
“Starfleet officers with civilian murder records worry me, Durzan,” she replied evenly. “Especially people with a criminal past who command starships.”
“There isn’t a captain in Starfleet who hasn’t killed in the last three years,” Durzan said, biting off every word.
“True,” Munroe said,” but they never killed in cold blood.”
“Neither,” the Betazoid whispered with restrained fury,” did I.”
silence stretched uncomfortably between them as they waited for the other to say something else. Finally, Munroe said,” When repairs on the Cayuga are finished, you’ll be assisting Sangamon and Cochrane in ferrying supplies to the Cardassian worlds.” Durzan nodded, still not quite trusting himself to speak. “Dismissed, Commander.”
Durzan left the commodore’s ready room and stalked across a bridge large enough to play soccer on. Once inside of a turbolift, he directed it to the airlock leading the Deep Space Nine’s docking pylon and sagged against the wall. When the lift left him out, he walked down the corridor until he found a window facing the Cayuga. Hovering around the ship’s mangled hull, he could see repair crews from the station and Cayuga moving in like moths drawn to the flame of work that needed to be done. One of the spacesuited figures, he sensed, was Aimee. Aimee, who hadn’t requested any guest quarters on Deep Space Nine.
Emeri Durzan smiled, thinking of her and the ship.
The End!
Next time on Star Trek: The Cayuga Missions – 002: ‘Cry of Deities’