Please be aware that i do not own any of the rights to Star Trek, and all Credit for It creation and intellectual property belong to Gene Roddenberry
Chapter 2
Chapter 2
The smell of burnt flesh and hair assaulted Shenki as the door to the Infirmary whooshed open; there was also a taste iron in the air. She stepped into the cramped room the defiant classes had been given for an infirmary. Three cots stood next to each other, all occupied, as well as four other crewmen who were leaning or hunched over against the wall being attended too by two others substituting as nurses.
Saatok was treating a crewman on the middle cot of the three, most of his uniform was burnt away and the flesh pink and red with signs of charring. As the doors closed behind her the Vulcan looked up and nodded to her, she then used a hypo spray.
“We have one dead, Chief Zerp, two major injuries due to plasma burns from a ruptured conduit, and four lighter injuries, as well a Lieutenant Koutlin on the bridge.” Saatok reported before moving on to the next subject.
“How did the Chief die?”
Shenki moved for the furthest cot from the door and pulled back the grey sheet covering the body to revel the Veteran Bolian. The cause was clear from looking at her; an energy burn that cut deep into her chest right through to under the ribs.
“From what the crewmen who brought her in said a Drone materialised in front of her and fired. It would have been quick, instantaneous; she was dead before they brought her here.”
Shenki stood looking down at the Chief. She felt a mixture of sorrow and anger, she had been on the Kyoto
“Admiral, are you ok?” the Vulcan asked as she followed Shenki out.
“Yes I’m fine, I should get back to the bridge and deal with the other reports, and there is a message to send back to Zerp’s family, preparation to defend the colony and of course the Klingons.”
“We have all served together for long enough, you won’t be the only one to miss Chief Zerp’s unique presence.”
Shenki turned and smile, “I know, there are just a lot of things that need dealing with right now.”
“Mourning is natural for all species, especially for those who have worked together for so long.”
Shenki nodded her thanks and continued down the corridor, past a crew repairing damage to a conduit to the turbo lift, once in side she stopped and lent back against the wall opposite the door, she sighed and tried to run her fingers through her pink hair but they only got so far before getting caught up tangles.
“Bridge.”
She stood up pulled her tunic straight and shook her head clearing it of the memories of another friend lost to the Borg, renewing her mental vow to see an end to the threat this menace posed, not just to the federation but also to the whole galaxy. The turbo lift doors opened up to the bridge with the view screen showing the every increasing planet of Arturo V. She stepped out on the lift and crossed the bridge to where Lieutenant Koutlin was work on repairing the console he was assigned.
“Are you sure you’re ok to continue working?” she asked as she approached.
The man turned and looked up before standing to attention he had a bandage around his head covering her left eye, there were cuts down his young face and his uniform was singe and cut along the same side.
“Yes Ma’am, I was given something for the pain and one eye is still good enough to fix this thing.” He state with a forced smile.
“Don’t push yourself too hard; it wouldn’t do for you to make your self worse.”
“N-no Ma’am.” He turned back to the consoles repairs.
Shenki smile to herself, the headed to the other the other side of the bridge where her First officer, Chief Engineer and Tactical officer stood waiting to give their reports.
“Main power has been restored, shields will be fully operational within the hour and the hull breaches have been sealed, I am looking into why the ablative armour didn’t activate correctly, my apologies.” Seven reported.
Shenki simply nodded and look at T’Shemap.
“All weapon systems are now fully active, there is no lasting damage, the cloak is alos active though I feel we need to run a diagnostic on the system.”
“Have Lieutenant commander Davis begin work on that now T’Shemap. Thysis is there any news from our new friends?”
“Nothing directly, though they have stemmed the plasma leak, their power systems appear to have been mostly restored though there are fluctuations. A scan shows they have taken everything offline apart from engines and life support, their repairs must have been extensive to all other systems. Should I enquire if they need any aid?”
“No, Klingons aren’t known for graciously accepting aid. Helm, how long until we enter orbit?”
“Twenty minutes, we reduced speed while running repairs; we can accelerate to full impulse.”
“No, maintain the same speed with the Ko’Vash, just in case the Borg arrive quicker than expected.” She turned back to her senior officers. “As we will be beaming down and meeting the Governor as well as the Commander of the Ko’Vash I suggest we make our selves slightly more presentable, I will be in my quarters.”
Shenki left the officers to take care of their duties and proceeded through her ready room into her quarters. Since the defiant class refit a lot had been changed, now commanding officers have been given more control of their ship layout and design. Shenki had made subtle changes, moving her quarter here from the crew deck, and the removal of the sonic showers for hot water ones, they may not be as efficient but they were far better as easing the stress of deep space.
She activated the panel next to her shower and the sound of rushing water filled the room and steam rising from behind the frosted glass. She began to remove her smoke soiled uniform and pull a towel cloth out of a draw, before removing a more formal uniform placing it on the simple draw unit. Returning to the shower she tapped another sequence in and her quarters filled with the sounds of classical instrument and vocals harmonising with heavy electronic sounds and beats, symphonic metal had become a favourite over the past few years.
Stepping into the shower directly under the torrent of water and tilted her head back and turned on the spot while the water worked out the knots in her hair before she began to wash her self. It didn’t take long to get clean, but she didn’t have a huge amount of time otherwise she would of stayed beneath the water for hours. Drying herself and dressing in her formal uniform, she brushed out her long pink hair and dried it off. She guessed the timing was about right and made her way onto the bridge, muting the music as she left.
The bridge was now clear of the evidence from the encounter, just Koutlin fixing the new panel covering over the damaged consol. Crossing to her chair the formal uniform was proving why they were not used daily, sitting down she looked around and saw that almost all of her senior staff were present and cleaned up. The doors open and Saatok came out of the turbo lift fastening her tunic up she took her station relieving the Ensign.
“We are entering standard Orbit, the Governor is hailing us.” Davis
“On screen.”
“Admiral it is a relief to see you again, Have the Borg been dealt with?”
“The patrol has been destroyed, but they will send more ships looking for them. We will need to meet with you to discuss the situation.”
“I will make arrangements to greet you, we shall send coordinates for you to transport to.”
“We wont be alone there is a Klingon ship here as well, they were the ones to engage the Borg. They will be assisting us, please relay the coordinates to them.”
The Governor nodded and made a signal to someone out of view, “It shall be done Admiral. I look forwards to your arrival.”
The screen cut off returning to a view of the planet.
“I have relayed the coordinates to the transporter room.” Davis
“Good, Seven, Thysis, Saatok and T’Shemap with me. Davis
She stood and led the way into the turbo lift; once all five of the away team were present she gave the command to the computer to take them to the transporter room. It took a fraction of a second to go down in the lift, then a short walk into the Transporter room.
“Take standard kits and weapons down.”
“Expecting problem from the Klingons?” Thysis enquired.
“No, not really, but we know the Borg are interested in this planet so it is better to be safe than sorry.”
“Understood.”
Kitted out the away team took their places on the transporter pad, Shenki gave a nod to the transport Chief and he began energising. Shenki always wondered what her view would be like while dematerialising and re-materialising on the other side if it weren’t from the bright light from the transport beam. The process was near instantaneous and now the view was of a courtyard surrounded by Prefab buildings on three sides, the fourth wall had a large archway with a door across it. The courtyard itself was a good twenty five metres square, the walls covered in a climbing plant; the centre was a soft blue-green grass surround by a border filled with plants and small shrubs.
“A little piece of heaven surround by plast-i-metal” Saatok summarised the view, “clearly a place of tranquillity in the busy life of a fledgling colony.”
The door in the archway slide open and a hooded robe figure lead a small group of well dressed men and women from a variety of federation species into the courtyard. The party came to a halt a few metres in front of Shenki and the away team. The robed figure pulled back the hood to reveal a gentle Caitian face covered in a blue-grey fur with long white whiskers and bright amber eyes.
“Admiral, it is an honour to have you in our midst, you have our deepest thanks, as does the crew of the Klingon vessel. Will they be joining us?”
Shenki bowed to the Governor “Thank you for allowing us to transport down, I believe the Klingons will join us as soon as they are able.”
“I hope you didn’t suffer too much damage from the encounter with the Borg?”
“The ship can be repaired, but we lost one Crewman, and another seven are injured, but most will make a full recovery”
“I am sorrow to hear that, if you would like we can arrange for your crewmen’s body to be buried here.”
Satook spoke up “We will be returning her body to her family for burial; the body is currently under stasis.”
“Allow me to introduce my ships doctor and science officer Commander Satook, My Tactical officer Commander T’Shemap, Chief engineer Commander Seven of Seven, and my first officer Commander Thysis.”
“I understand Commander, it was meant as no offense. We all would prefer to be buried with our families.”
“Thank you for the offer, none was taken.”
The conversation was broken by the sound of a transporter and the soft red glow the energising beam emitted. Materialising a few meters to the right was a group of five, A Gorn, two Klingons, an Orion female and a Nausicaan, the Klingon away team looked around.
“My name is Governor Xantor, may I welcome you to the Arturo V, and offer our thanks for your engagement in Orbit.”
“You should be on your knees if you were truly thankful.” The young male Klingon barked out.
No sooner had he finished his out burst did the Female Orion turn sharply smashing her clenched fist into his midriff causing him to double over before bringing her knee into his head sending him staggering back and falling to the ground.
“What did I tell you about your manners Kartag, we are their guests, try to behave like one. Xoulak got him up. If you can’t take punishment don’t break orders.”
The Gorn grabbed hold of the Klingon, Shenki assumed was Kartag, drag him up off the ground and let go leaving him to fall a few inches and catch himself. The Orion then stepped forward and bowed low to the Governor, who looked both confused and curious as the interactions.
“My apologies about my officers outburst, he will be reprimanded, this is his first mission. My name is Command Himaki, of the I.K.S Ko’Vash.” She straightened up and turned to Shenki, the Commander stiffened, stood to attention and gave a Klingon Salute. “You must be Admiral Haman, I owe you a debt for your assistance.”
“I believe we are quits, you saved our colony and we helped you deal with the Borg, and call me Shenki.”
Shenki held out her hand, she had never met an Orion, not that she recalled and never one in command of a Klingon War ship, was this how to greet one? Since she had join Starfleet the Federation had been at war with the Klingons so she didn’t know how to greet one of them either way. Commander Himaki took her hand and shook it firmly.
“I can accept that, you can call me Himaki”
Kartag spat an insult, though Shenki didn’t catch it or who it was aimed at, but the commander didn’t move to reprimand him, she just turned her head and glared at him through the corner of her hair. The other Klingon, a female, struck him with the palm of her hand in the face sending him back to the ground.
“Hector, Take him back to the ship and lock him in the brig.”
The Nausicaan pulled the young warrior and activated his communicator, giving a command and the pair dematerialised.
“Commander, Admiral shall we go and begin our discussion?”
Shenki nodded and fell in behind him and his entourage, the Orion fell into step alongside her. She was about Shenki’s height and build, slender yet toned; her hair was a deep midnight blue, with bright green eyes. She and the rest of her group were in traditional Klingon military uniforms, but in black and red colours. They all had a disruptor pistol at their hips.
The Orion looked at her, “I will follow your orders as this is a Federation system, so your authority runs. I am not going to try to take the colony if that’s what you’re worried about.” She smiled slyly.
“That wasn’t what I was thinking; I was just thinking I had never met an Orion in person before now, well not on terms which didn’t involve taking cover and firing a weapon at each other.”
“We are not at peace, yet, just working to end a greater threat. There is time for us to be shooting at each other on another day, on a different world.” Her eyes seemed to brighten “That would be glorious or so the Klingon High council would have us believe.”
“You don’t agree?” Shenki was curious now.
“The Orion people believe in profit and survival, fighting a battle isn’t our main nature, but joining the KDF gives us a chance to experience new things, our society is somewhat stagnant. Its not like everything in the fleet is to do with war and defence, we are also trained in diplomacy and the science if we choose to be, that’s why Orion’s and other species have been aloud into the KDF, for example I Choose diplomacy after my experiences before military service, Xoulak is an accomplished scientist.”
“Sounds like the Klingons are mirroring Starfleet, and federation development though in a far more aggressive format, instead of bringing a world into its own through peace they conquer them.” T’Shemap offered up.
“Play to your strength, Klingons are good warriors, not so good diplomats.” Xoulak replied.
“Klingons believe battle is their existence but there are some things force cannot win over.” Himaki stated
The Governor added looking at the Klingon female; she nodded her agreement to the statement. The party entered a large room with a three sided table in the centre, the Governor and the other colony representatives sat on one side Shenki and her officer on another and the third was being occupied by the three remaining KDF officers.
“We understand the seriousness of the situation,” the Governor began, “The Borg are not a threat to be taken lightly and we are not, we understand both Starfleet and the KDF are stretched to the limits, and this colony is small and has only been here a short time. It would be unwise to ask you to lay down you lives in a battle that if the Borg were to come in force we would be a lost cause. That is why we suggest evacuation.”
“You’re just going to run away with out a fight.” The Klingon female cut across.
“Losing a battle against the Borg will simply strengthen the collective, they will assimilate the population. Our two ships cannot take on that much.” Seven responded.
“We have three cargo ships and the initial colony ship, we have begun convert the cargo ship to transport civilians but we estimate we can only fit seventy-five percent of the population on these vessels.”
“Both our ship are combat vessels, we can’t offer much room for refugees Governor.” Himaki looked at Shenki “Any ideas?”
“The fleet maybe stretched thin, but they might be able to spare ships if in the long run it enables us to be redeployed. I will contact Star base 82 and see what they can spare. How long will it take you to finish modifying the ship and begin evacuating?”
“A day or so, if the Star base can spare ships it will take them at least that long to arrive here.”
“Then we need a plan to hold off the Borg till them.” Shenki remarked.
“What ever it is it will need to keep them out of transporter range other wise it will be pointless.” Commander Himaki stated.
“Mines.” The female Klingon suggested.
Xoulak nodded, “We could modify our mines to use tractor beams and remain cloaked, and we could also increase the explosive yield of other ones, which would slow them down.”
“We could then use hit and run tactics as we know the Borg will engage something that poses a great enough threat. Using speed and the cloaking devices we could take turns in taking runs at the large vessels.” T’Shemap added, “I believe that is a traditional Klingon tactic for confusing enemies.”
Everyone seemed to accept this plan of action, but it would still take a miracle for two ships to hold of a Borg force of any real size.
“We should set up transport inhibitors through out the colony, to prevent any Borg that may break through from either transporting down or transporting colonists off the surface.” Shenki add.
“Can we offer any assistance?” An Andorian who was sat next to the Governor asked.
“When we bring down the inhibitors you will need to set them up and ensure they remain running, other then that, concentrate on preparing your people to leave, this could be cutting it close.”
“Xoulak, Na’brel work with your Starfleet counter parts on the mines” commanded the Orion, her subordinates nodded.
“We would be best working from the Klingon Vessel Commander, we can transport anything may need across.” Satook advised, the Gorn nodded his acceptance.
The two KDF officers stood and moved away from the table, T’Shemap and Seven moved and joined them. The Gorn tapped a communicator and the four dematerialised.
“With you permission Governor I would like to look around your colony?” Commander Himaki stood and bowed to the Governor.
“Of course you are our guest.”
She straighten up, turned and left the room, Shenki watched her, she was followed out by the counsellors, the Governor was the last to leave.
“They are not what I expected from KDF officers” he commented as he was about to exit
“No they aren’t.” Shenki agreed.
Shenki stood as did Thysis and Satook, her two remaining officers, Satook pulled out her medical tricorder and began running a scan on Shenki.
“What are you doing?”
“Orion females are known to have an adverse affect on Human females and you look a little flushed, I am doing my job.”
“What kind of adverse effect?” Shenki felt her forehead crease with confusion.
“Head aches, nausea and difficulty in focus, but there is no sign of anything on the tricorder. Are you feeling ok?”
“I feel fine, put that thing away. I want you both to return to the ship and make sure everything is ready. Contact Star base 82 regarding extra ships. Also have Davis
“Are you sure you want to trust him with this?” Thysis ask, “his record doesn’t display he is able to take responsibility for such a task.”
“I have given and order, I will take your opinion into consideration, my order stands, have Davis
“Yes Admiral.”
“And you will be?” Saatok asked.
“Seeing if we can offer any other assistance to the crews working on the ships.”
“Understood, Saatok to Lightning, two to transport. Energise.”
And with that Shenki was alone in the room; she began to walk out of the building to see the colony. The Colony was made up entirely of prefab buildings interspersed with natural vegetation. There were people moving around the streets, moving boxes and bags around clearly getting ready to evacuate.
“Federation colonies are very different from Klingon ones, less organised and much brighter, far more relaxing.” A voice came from her right.
The commander stepped forward and stood next to her, she had tied her hair back into a pony tail and it reached down to her should blades, revealing a red tattoo on the left side of her face.
“The differences in our cultures comes into play with that, I thought you were going exploring?”
“I am Admiral.” Her voice sounded mocking, “But where is the fun in exploring alone if you can’t share the experience, would you like to accompany me.”
“Are you mocking me?”
“No, Orion’s are very different to the rest of the Empire, we are not militaristic. Of course we have ships and fight when pushed. The Orion syndicate would have our race portrayed as uncultured pirates raiding Federation shipping lanes. We are an ancient race, we are very sensual, our home world may be toxic now but we have art and culture, that would rival the Vulcan’s but we have kept to our selves for far too long. Many of us joined the Empires military in order to escape from it.”
“Is that why you joined?”
“Exploration, contact with new species, to learn and experience new things, as well as other more personal reasons.”
Himaki moved down the few steps and looked back at her. “Why did you join star fleet? For the same reasons or something darker? Your actions during the war are well known in the Klingon academy, maybe not as famous as Kirk, Picard, Archer or Riker, but you are studied.” She put her hand on her hip. “I’m not saying this to agitate you; I have a lot of respect for you. I feel luckier being here with you rather than have some other officer stood on those steps.”
“I’m not sure what to say to all that, but I joined Starfleet for a lot of reasons.”
“As a compliment Admiral Shenki, that’s how I meant it.”
Shenki moved down the steps and stood opposite her. “Then that’s how I will take it and its just Shenki. I have a question for you.”
“Oh and what is that?”
“I am under the impression Orion women have adverse effect on Human women, but I feel fine around you.”
“I was altered genetically when I was a child so that my pheromones react different to others of my species; it has become a common treatment I guess, for Orions who will have dealing outside of our own species.” Himaki turned and began heading down a street. “They said there is a market down here, are you coming?”
Shenki put more questions down to the back of her mind and started to follow, she was curious about the Orion, they were elusive and avoided cultural contact with other species, there were records of Orion’s joining Starfleet but they rarely shared much on their race. Himaki has sparked a curiosity in her, and Shenki wanted to learn more.
