ST:C - 01 - 'TO INIFINITY AND BEYOND'

Star Trek: Cayuga

‘TO INFINITY AND BEYOND’

By Jack D. Elmlinger

Even the most reverent man could grow indifferent at the majesty of space.

Ed Riley hopped past his star-filled window, struggling to pull on his boxers. A pair of discarded pajamas tripped him onto the bed and he lay squished against the sheets before he gingerly rolled onto his back. There was still time before his sift so he relaxed against the mattress. His gaze drifted over to the opposite wall, across the crucifix and down to the collection of medals that he had framed.

He had fought against the Borg in the Battle of Sector Zero-Zero-One, and during the Dominion War, he had fought with Federation forces in Operation: Return, the Battle of Cindel, and countless other engagements. His valor and skill had been recognized by Starfleet Command and he should have had his pick of any assignment in the fleet. Instead, he was tossed onto a Saber class starship like an afterthought.

The USS Cayuga was a minuscule ship, standing at only eleven decks. She was less than one hundred and fifty meters long, and she held fewer than a hundred crew members. There were few weapons to speak of, aboard her, and her mission was to handle all of the tasks that Starfleet wouldn’t send a real ship to do. 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 on and jammed his feet into boots, before he pushed his way out of his quarters and through a corridor clogged with Gamma-Shift officers returning from duty. The First Officer glanced up from her post at Ops as he walked onto the Bridge and watched as Ensign Polcheny handed over the helm. At the center of the Bridge, the Chief Engineer stood before Captain Bradley who was examining her status report with a suspicious eye.

“In small words,” his thick voice almost boomed across the Bridge as he returned her PADD to her,” does everything on this ship work?”

Aimee Maguire opened her mouth, read to explain that the matter-to-antimatter ratios of the warp core had been adjusted to within a fraction of a percent. She also wanted to tell him that all six shield generators were once again calibrated to each other and that 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. The Chief Engineer also wanted to give credit to her engineering crew who had managed to help her do all of that without the help of a repair yard or, for that matter, a real engineering team.

Instead, she simply said,” Yes, sir. All damage sustained at Cindel has been repaired. The ship is back up to specs.”

“Well done, Lieutenant,” Bradley said, and then paused as if listening. “You know, you’re right. The pitch of the warp drive is back where it should be.” He smiled at her, pleased at his own connection to the ship. She coughed to cover up a snort of ridicule.

“It took two months to finish repairs on the Buckingham after the Battle of Cindel,” Riley interjected. “She’s a Galaxy class and I manned the helm during the battle. We led a squadron against one of those Jem’Hadar dreadnoughts and 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 before he turned around. “Where was the Cayuga during the battle, Captain?”

Bradley smiled faintly, remembering that day. “We were in a mixed squadron of Miranda class light cruisers and some Klingon birds of prey. We ran interference against the Jem’Hadar attack ships, taking’em out before they could get to the bigger ships. One of them managed to ram up but we were lucky that the Klingons were able to cover us until we could retreat.”

Riley matched his captain’s smile and nodded appreciatively. “Everybody who walked out of that one was a hero.” He glanced towards the Ops Station and the first officer standing over it. “Did you participate in the battle, Commander?”

Leila Nazari looked up from her console. “No,” she said,” I spent the war as a Starfleet liaison to the Federation Council in Paris.”

“Oh,” he echoed inelegantly.

“Now, Lieutenant,” the Captain said, magnanimously,” there’s no dishonor in that. It was a job that needed to be done.”

Riley’s face flushed and he said,” Yes, sir. My apologies, Commander.”

“None needed, Lieutenant.” Nazari dropped her gaze back to her console. Some days, she missed Paris more than others.

****

Back in Engineering, Aimee Maguire felt much more at home here than she had on the Bridge. She perched down on one side of the main situation display, the thrum of the warp core soothing her anxieties while she listened to a Vulcan engineer read dutifully from his PADD.

Her concentration wavered as Ensign Connelly walked past her with an equipment kit tucked underneath his arm. He opened an access panel to a Jefferies tube and crawled inside while she watched his retreating posterior appreciatively. Aaron Connelly had been her wartime fling and after the peace treaty was signed, she had decided that he spent too much of his off-duty time on things other than her and broken it off.

“… by repositioning the emitters .004 millimeters, we could create a noticeable increase in shield efficiency,” Ensign Sayvok finished, never realized that his Human superior officer’s attention had wandered away from him.

Maguire blushed slightly at the memories of her past association and hopped off of the status board. “That sounds good, Sayvok,” she agreed, casually with him as it would have been highly illogical for him to suggest anything other than the best course of action.

The warp core surged suddenly and yellow light flooded the room. She turned to the status board and saw that the ship was tearing away through space at Warp Nine-Point-Three and when she noticed it; her hand flew to her combadge.

“Engineering to Bridge –“

“We’ve received a distress signal from the Cardassian colony on Laiat Prime,” Commander Nazari answered before she could ask.

“What’s distressing them?”

“Unknown,” Nazari said, grimly,” but we’re about to find out.”

****

Hours later, Leila Nazari stalked into her quarters and collapsed down onto her couch. She lay in the darkness for a moment before pulling off her uniform jacket and staring sullenly at her own reflection in the window. Blasted landscape, decimated buildings, and charred bodies flashed before her eyes and tears burned at the edges of her eyes.

The door chimes rang and she jumped at the sound. She wiped at her face before answering with a stutter,” E-enter.”

The door slid open and Aimee stepped inside, crossing the room over to the replicator. “Scotch Whiskey, neat,” she told it and after the drink appeared, she downed its contents with a wince before she turned to face Leila who was quickly cataloguing the wetness lingering in her eyes.

“Leila,” she said, almost helplessly as the drink glass was reclaimed by the replicator before the chief engineer perched down on the couch beside her,” I thought that this war was over.”

“I know.” The First Officer brushed away the strand of blond hair that had fallen into Aimee’s face. “We’ll find those who are responsible and bring them to justice.” This was a quick, well-practiced response but she clung to it.

“You don’t sound too happy about it.”

“I’m afraid that we’ve been put into a position where the Captain will find violence necessary.”

“It’s not? No, I don’t want to fight,” Aimee continued, quickly. “I want to… quit seeing what I saw down there.”

She drifted closer and heat flared beneath Jeanne’s dark skin. She imagined tasting the whiskey on Aimee’s lips, finding its burn on her mouth… but then she pulled back. “No… not tonight, Aimee,” she managed to say. “I need to write my report for Captain Bradley. And I need to…”

Aimee leaned forward and kissed her on the cheek. “I know. It’s okay. “ She walked to the door. “If you do want to talk, you know where to find me.”

****

The Cayuga had been following the warp trail of the attacking ships from the Laiat system when Nazari finally announced,” Captain, there are four ships on long-range sensors.”

Bradley leaned forward in his chair. “On screen,” he ordered her. “Nazari, tell them to stand down and prepare to be boarded.”

Nazari sent the message before shaking her head. “No response, Captain.”

The captain sat back in his chair and said, imperiously. “Tactical, lock photon torpedoes. Disable their warp drives.”

On the forward view screen, twin flares of energy streaked across space and hammering into the nearest vessel. The distinctive blue glow from its warp drives dimmed and the ship dropped out of warp. Cayuga blew past them in pursuit of the other assailants.

“The target’s warp drive is disabled,” the First Officer reported, her eyes on her screens. “The other three ships are dropped out of warp and they’re circling back around, weapons hot.”

“Helm, take us to impulse power and prepare to engage.”

Riley twisted the Cayuga towards the approaching ships which pulled into a loose formation. They opened fire, splashing phaser energy across the Starfleet ship’s forward shields.

“Return fire!,” ordered Bradley.

Cayuga’s phaser lashed out at them, disrupting the enemy ships’ 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 reported, frustrated. “I can’t line up a sho—“

The ship shook hard from the phaser impacts on their shields. “Their attacks are draining our dorsal shields,” Nazari reported. “They’re holding at seventy-seven percent efficiency.”

The bridge rocked again and Bradley grabbed the armrests of his chair for support. “Mr. Riley, get us a shot and take them out!”

A panel across the bridge’s back wall exploded, showering sparks across the deck. “Damnit,” Riley snarled at the enemy ships on the main screen,” stay … STILL!” The phasers struck one of the ships but it quickly swung out of the line of fire.

“Captain!,” yelled Nazari. “Ventral and aft shields are failing! We’re taking damage!”

Bradley grimaced down at his own status board. “We’re not going to win this. Riley, set a course and get u –“

The Bridge flared a bright white as a tremendous explosion sent everyone down to the floor from their posts. Pulling herself back up into her chair, Nazari stared at her 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 static-filled voice blared over the intercom. “We’ve got hull breaches all along Deck One. There are micro-fractures in the port nacelle and power fluctuations are tripping breakers all throughout the plasma relay system!” A moment passed and she cried, indignantly,” I just fixed this!”

Nazari squinted through the smoke filling the bridge. “Captain,” she called out, coughing. “Captain?! What are your orders?” Then she saw it.

Captain Bradley had been thrown clear of his command chair before the girders that were supposed to line the ceiling had crushed it. Unfortunately, he had been thrown, head-first, into the support frame for the helm console. She 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 his response, punching buttons on his display. “Course… zero-eight-one, mark seven. Warp Three.” Groans rose up from deep within the ship’s hill and on the view screen, the stars blurred briefly before the screen itself gave out.

****

The Situation Room adjacent to the Bridge had been destroyed during the fighting so the meeting was held in the Mess Hall. Zimthar Moru, the Bolian chief medical officer, Winston Hobbes, the chief science officer, and Riley sat expectantly around one of the smaller tables. Nazari stood at the table’s head, toying around with a piece of fruit that had rolled free from the centerpiece.

“Lieutenant Maguire would be joining us but the repairs take precedence,” she explained, consciously keeping her back straight as she 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 meantime.

“Our long-range communications have been disabled. We can’t call for help with either repairing the Cayuga 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 men at the table shifted uncomfortably but she only asked them,” Anything to report?”

“Yes, sir,” Riley said, leaning forward. “After the battle, I sifted through the sensor records and I think I have a plausible identity and motive for the attackers.” This information got Nazari’s attention and he took a moment before he continued. “The vessels were Peregrime class courier ships that were phased out of Federation public service, about fifteen years ago. Since then, a number of them have been refitted as attack ships for the Maquis.”

Nazari sighed. “That would explain why they destroyed a Cardassian colony.”

From the end of the table, Winston Hobbes said, very quietly,” It was my understanding that once the Cardassian Union joined the Dominion, the Maquis were completely destroyed.”

“Reports from Starfleet Intelligence do indicate that they were practically annihilated,” Doctor Moru agreed with him. “Where were these ones hiding?”

Riley shrugged his shoulders at this question. “I don’t know. There are some Maquis who survived. Maybe they were able to hide some of their ships…” He made a fist, then checked himself and thumped it carefully on the table. “I… watched how they flew… in the sensor records. They’re good… but I don’t think they’ve had any kind of formal training. They’ve learned from experience, Commander … Captain, and I think I can beat them next time.”

Nazari nodded and continued.” We can’t charge off without notifying the other Starfleet ships in this sector. Are there any ideas about how to get word to them without the subspace transmitter?”

“A shuttlecraft,” Riley spoke up, immediately. “The bay was damaged but we’ve still got two Type-Tens that can be prepped for launch inside of a half-hour.”

“And who’s going to fly them?,” Moru asked him. “You can’t.”

Nazari paused as if she would object to such a plan before she nodded decisively. “All right, Mister Riley. Help Hobbes prep the shuttle. You’re to leave as soon as possible. Find any of the ships of the Eleventh Fleet and zero them in on our position. Moru, get Sickbay ready for combat. Dismissed.”

Hobbes and Moru filed out of the room but Riley kept Nazari pinned to her seat with a sharp look. After she heard the Mess Hall doors open and close, she asked him,” Something else to add, Ed?”

Riley stood up from his seat to pace in front of the Mess Hall’s large windows. “What are you planning on doing when we catch them, Commander? Captain, sorry.”

“I don’t know,” she confessed. “I’ve read about Maquis tactics and they’ve never destroyed a Starfleet ship. Even those pursuing them. They crippled the USS Defiant and the USS Malinche, a few years ago, when they were pressed to defend themselves, but they’ve never killed Starfleet officers before on this scale.” She rose from her chair and walked over to the window to stare 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 because they’ve murdered twenty-six of our people already and I don’t think they’ll mind murdering another seventy. This isn’t the war where you had some job behind the lines. We’re going to have to fight here and now. Are you ready to do that?”

“Dismissed, Mr. Riley,” Nazari said, lowly, staring at him until he turned and walked out of the Mess Hall.

****

Engineering had been demolished.

Nazari stepped over a piece of blasted piping, jumping as electricity sparked from it. Someone swore in Tellarite and the power cut out. Maguire peeked out over the status table and sighed.

“Leila, hi.” She stood up and gestured grandly at the wrecked engine room. “I guess you’re here for the damage report. You couldn’t call, of course,” – she gave her a harsh grin --,” 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 to the acting captain, muffled. “The last time that this 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 said,” Oh, and my quarters got blown to Hell in a hand basket.”

Nazari heard the edge in her voice and silently cursed her next question. “Can the Cayuga intercept the raiders?”

Maguire pulled back from the conduit and stared at her. “Leila, tell me you’re kidding.”

“We can’t call for help. And by the time that we return with backup, we’ll have lost their warp signatures and we won’t be able to track them. We’re launching a shuttle to locate one of our ships while Cayuga moved to capture the raiders.”

“I think you’re insane.”

Nazari shrugged her shoulders. “I know.”

Maguire looked uncomfortably at her feet. “Duly noted.”

“I need to know if you think we can pull this off.”

Maguire glanced around her engine room, 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 at the scorched piping -- ,” we’re gonna get killed.”

Nazari nodded solemnly. “Thanks, Chief.”

“Jeanne…” Aimee’s voice was quiet. “Like I said, my quarters – “

“Of course,” Leila interrupted her. She brushed the back of Aimee’s hand with her fingertips and added in an undertone,” Of course, you’re welcome.” Her hand returned to her side and her demeanor hardened back into the impenetrable duranium of a Starfleet officer. “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, her back straightening unconsciously. “I promise you that we’ll be ready for them this time.” Nazari turned and left, leaving the Chief Engineer to her work. Standing amidst the blasted remains of her department, Aimee couldn’t help but remember Leila’s fingers against her hand and smile just a little.

****

The Cayuga’s main view screen was dominated by a planet with two moons circling around it. Four dotted lines indicated the raiders’ course with three of them falling into a patrolling orbit around the planet and moons while the fourth ship had landed on the innermost satellite.

Nazari walked to the center of the Bridge. The captain’s chair had been replaced and slowly but with uncertainty, she sat down in it. “Take us in, Mr. Riley.”

Riley dropped the Cayuga over the central planet, pulling the ship close to the atmosphere so that the magnetic interference from the pole would jam the Maquis’ sensors. “You know,” he said, nerves shaking his voice almost imperceptibly,” if this was the Buckingham, this wouldn’t be a problem. We’d just tell them that they were under arrest and they’d give up, just like that.”

From the ops position, Doctor Moru told him,” You’re not aboard the Buckingham anymore, Riley. You’re on the Cayuga now so deal with it.”

The planet rotated silently below them for a few moments before the lieutenant said,” There… there’s the first one.”

The view screen shifted to show a single Maquis raider in orbit. “Lieutenant,” Nazari said,” deal with them quickly.”

To the pilot of the raider, it must have seemed like the Cayuga had appeared out of nowhere because it tried to break orbit. However, Riley pinned the smaller craft with phasers and photon torpedoes until plumes of plasma vented from its aft section.

“Target’s communications are down,” the Bolian reported from Ops. “Sublight and warp engines have been disabled with minimal power output.” He checked his board and added,” I’d estimate two minutes before the raider’s orbit brings it into range with the ship.”

“Excellent,” Nazari told them. “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 pole.”

They waited a few tense moments before Moru said,” The second raider has been sighted. They’ve spotted the wreckage and they’re altering their course to head for the moon.”

“Riley, bring them down.”

The helmsman smiled and the Cayuga leapt eagerly after the second Maquis vessel. He fired at them but the phaser shots were absorbed by their shields.

“They got a message to the other raider.”

Riley grunted his acknowledgement and phaser blasts probed the raider’s shields again. This time, sparks flew from the hull plating. The glow of impulse engines disappeared and the ship tumbled towards the moon. “Too bad they won’t be around to get a response,” he whispered with a smirk.

“The last raider is zeroing in on us,” Moru reported. “They’ve locked weapons -- !”

The bridge rolled and bucked under the onslaught. Nazari wrapped her legs around her chair’s supports and looked warily at the girders bracing the ceiling. “What’s the status of the second ship?!,” she yelled as another explosion shook the Cayuga.

Moru looked at her, his blue face smudged with black soot. “The raider’s engines have been disabled, though they managed to control their descent. They’ll land safely, if roughly, on the moon.”

“Good,” she muttered underneath her breath. “Ed, the last ship! Disable it!”

On the view screen, the Maquis raider pulled up and over the Cayuga. “Not this time,” Riley snarled at them, forcing the Cayuga into a dive, showing the surprised Maquis ship its armed face, rather than its undefended rear. Photon torpedoes exploded first against the raider’s diminished shields and then against its exposed hull, blasting one of its wings off and sending the ship spiraling out of view.

Riley whooped at his triumph but Nazari silenced him when she asked,” Status of the enemy ship?”

“Crippled,” Moru answered her. “Transporter room is ready to take the crew aboard. Engineering reports minimal strain to the shield generators.”

Nazari’s shoulders lifted as she stood up from her seat. “Beam in the prisoners, then set a course for Federation space. Doctor Moru, you have the bridge.”

****

The Cayuga was a small ship and so was its Sickbay. While most of the Maquis had been detained in the ship’s equally small brig, several of them were too injured not to receive medical care. Nazari walked between the beds, searching for the man that the Maquis in the brig had identified as their leader. Against the far wall, she saw him. The faint blue energy of a force field shimmered as he struggled against it.

“Mister ch’Eenar?”

The Andorian focused on their three pips. “These conditions are intolerable. I demand to speak with the captain!”

“I’m afraid your first attack made that impossible. I’m sure, though, that you’ll find the accommodations of the Jaros II stockades to be more pleasant.” She looked over the PADD with his medical chart on it; concussion, trauma to his right antennae, 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 her before attacking her with questions. “Just what do you think you were doing, Commander? How many of your classmates, friends, or family did you lose to the Cardassians during the war? How can you defend them now?”

“The Cardassians on that world were colonists, not soldiers. They had no say in their government’s actions. They were innocent.”

“They were Cardassians, Commander. There are no innocent ones.” He drew a breath to speak again but Nazari turned around and let him speak to her back.

****

An impromptu celebration had begun in the Mess Hall. The table was littered with snacks, synthehol, and semi-conscious officers while a crowd had gathered around Ed Riley. Even the drunks were paying a bleary sort of attention to his account of the battle.

“… I realized that they weren’t out-flying me. It was just that, with the three of them, I couldn’t keep track of all of them at once. After I broke them up, they didn’t stand a chance.” He took a swig of synthehol and grinned at the helm officer from Gamma Shift who was watching him with stars in her eyes. “I wish I could’ve seen the look on their faces when this itty-bitty starship came roaring out of the magnetic field, 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 that during the war. The Buckingham was on patrol near the Kalandra Sector with the Thermopylae and just as we were passing this Type-L planet, half a dozen Jem’Hadar fighters popped out of that interference. It scared the hell out of me but…” His voice faded as he noticed the helm officer’s gaze again. “But… what was your name?”

****

Except for the hum of the warp drive, Ensign Sayvok, and Lieutenant Maguire, Engineering was empty. “Our performance in the second engagement was a significant improvement over that of the first,” the Vulcan officer told her,” when one considers the amount of damage sustained.”

Maguire glanced up from the readings that she had been studying on the status table. “We got beaten badly enough the first time. The 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 had come 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,” she said as she began to fix her hair. 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 was trained in Science, 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 smile. “I met this guy. He was… he was a great guy. Anyways, he convinced me to change my major. I actually lived with him with most of my junior year.” Her eyes unfocused with memories. “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.

The main doors slid open and Nazari walked inside. She saw Maguire and smiled. “Lieutenant,” she said, addressing her,” we’ve just received word from Hobbes. He found the Starsong and they’re on route to pick us up. We’ll be back at a starbase in no time.” The engineer grinned and even Sayvok seemed pleased.

“And,” Leila added, more quietly,” I was hoping that you’d join me for dinner tonight.”

“Wouldn’t miss it. Hey, Happy! Finish covering the shift for me, eh? I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Why do you call him Happy?,” the commander asked her, once they were outside in the corridor.

Aimee gestured vaguely at the question. “Oh, that’s just the first part. His full nickname is Happy the Gay Vulcan.”

Leila frowned. “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 USS Starsong and despite the best efforts of the atmospheric force fields, Nazari could see puffs of frozen gas leaking from the Cayuya’s hull as it maneuvered alongside Starbase Five-Seventy-Three, making its way to a repair gantry.

“Admiral sh’Diaar tells me that the Cayuga is the first one on the repair list,” Weyni offered from behind her. Nazari turned from the window and smiled at the Roylan captain. She thought about the distance between them since the Captain’s Ready Room aboard the Excelsior class starship had to be the size of her quarters aboard the Cayuya.

“We’ll be back on patrol soon enough, Captain. My only concern is that we’re extremely shorthanded with twenty-six dead. With me assuming the position of Captain, I’ll need a First Officer who can also cover the Ops position.”

Weynik nodded at her, his large Roylan head moving with every motion of his head as he approached a painting on his ready room wall. He reached out as if he were going to touch it, but he stopped himself. “I’ve relayed your personnel requests to Starfleet Command. Most of your new crew should reach here before the Cayuga is ready to push off. However, securing you a new First Officer could take some time. I’m afraid you’ll have to do without one for a while.” He turned to her and said, with the painting framed behind him. “I’m more worried about you, Captain.”

“May I ask why, sir?”

“Starfleet officers with criminal pasts worry me, Nazari,” he replied with an even tone,” especially when they command starships.”

“No charges were filed,” she reminded him, biting off every word.

“True,” Weynik granted and silence stretched before them as they waited for one or the other to speak. Finally, the Roylan captain said,” After your repairs are completed, you’ll assist the Starsong, and the Samurai with ferrying supplies to Cardassian worlds. I’ll expect weekly reports.”

Nazari nodded, still not quite trusting herself to speak.

“Dismissed, Captain.”

Nazari left his Ready Room and stalked across a bridge large enough to play squash on as she made her way to the nearest turbolift. Once inside the lift, she directed it to the transporter room and sagged against the wall. After the lift released her onto the correct deck, she walked down a corridor until she found a window facing the Cayuga. She could see repair crews from both the starbase and the ship hovering around the mangled hull sections like moths drawn to the flame with work to be done. In one of them, she knew, was Aimee. Aimee, who hadn’t requested any living quarters while they completed repairs at Starbase Five-Seventy-Three.

Leila Nazari thought about her and her ship and smiled.

The End.

Stay tuned, next time for Star Trek: Cayuga!

02- ‘Cry of Deities’