by Commander Salvek
81214.0200
After The Consequence
-=USS Polaris=-
81214.0200
After The Consequence
-=USS Polaris=-
“We are being hailed?” Lieutenant Farnsworth asked, more than reported. Salvek’s crew was small.
Himself, Farnsworth at tactical, and several members of Blakeslee’s security staff in case the opportunity presented itself to board the Romulan vessel. Everyone else was fully engaged in attempting to repair the Sera.
“The Romulans?” Salvek asked.
“No, Federation signal.”
“On screen,” Salvek requested. Keiran O’Sullivan and the man Salvek recognized as Ashton Ledbetter appeared.
[O'Sullivan here, aboard a ship called Consquence. Could'ya use a hand, Commander?] Keiran asked, giving a small grin. [I heard we’re lookin’ for a missin' daughter of yours.]
“Stand by.” Salvek motioned for the channel to be cut, and Keiran vanished from the screen.
“Sir?” Farnsworth asked, puzzled.
“This is a ruse. The Romulans aren’t aware O’Sullivan is not aboard the Sera right now.”
“Well, I’ve got a ship on sensors. Unknown configuration but it has a Federation transponder signal. I suppose it could be some sort of hologram. This ship doesn’t have the ability to make that determination.”
“Put them back on screen,” Salvek said.
-=USS Consequence=-
“How rude! The brute hung up on us,” Ledbetter cursed.
“Relax. He’s probably just tryin’ to figure out if it is really us, or if he’s the victim of a Romulan trick. Salvek knows where I am supposed to be right now, and he’s far too intelligent to take it on face value that we just showed up right when he needed us.”
“Well I don’t care what he thinks we are, he could have at least shown some manners. I should be curled up around that Risian girl right now. What was her name?”
“Veoda.” Keiran replied, photographic memory kicking in. It was an ability that came in handy sometimes but generally had caused him nothing but agony in his life.
He closed his eyes and thought of the diamonds on Liis’ wedding band, and everything else was shut out. Finally he had something to hold on to that could silence what, up until now, was only a lifetime of memories he did not want.
“Yes, her. Instead I’m out here trying to rescue that man’s child and as my thanks I get to sit and wait for him to decide if he’s even going to talk to us.”
“Get a hold'a yerself, they’re callin’ back.”
Keiran brought Salvek back up on the small screen. The Vulcan got right back down to business.
[Who won the contest?]
“’T’was a tie,” Keiran answered with a nod of his head. “Though your wife would beg to differ.”
[How did you know?]
“Warning bells went off at TI. Things are not as they are supposed to be.”
The tone of O’Sullivan’s voice was deadly serious, and Salvek was not at all set at ease by it.
[The Captain?]
“Headin’ for Lethus.”
[Stand by.]
“Well I never!” Ledbetter gasped in a very Dabin Reece like expression of outrage.
-=Polaris=-
“Well?” Farnsworth had no idea what contest Salvek was talking about, but the Commander had seemed to be satisfied with Keiran O’Sullivan’s reply.
“I believe they are legitimate. How long until we can catch the Romulans?”
“About another hour.”
Salvek wished they could afford the time to speak to Keiran face to face, but they could not slow down under any circumstances, or they would risk losing the Romulans. Nor could he discuss any sort of attack plan with the Consequence or he would risk Taris intercepting the communiqué and being prepared for any strategy they may employ. He would have to be quick and to the point.
“Resume,” Salvek waited for O’Sullivan and Ledbetter to reappear. “The Romulans are likely monitoring these channels. We need your assistance. We plan on doing everything we can to bring them out of Warp. If we do that the Sera can catch up and handle the situation. Do you concur?”
[Aye, you can count on us, Commander.]
“Maintain subspace silence from here on out. Salvek out.”
Salvek closed the channel, and Ledbetter scoffed at the screen. “Thank you so much, Commander Salvek. I will have a lovely day, and I hope you do as well.”
“You've got conventional weapons on this thing, I hope?” Keiran asked, ignoring Ashton’s continued critique of Salvek’s social skills.
“Oh, but how I would love to use a temporal torpedo. She’d never see it coming, since it won’t even appear in our space time continuum until it detonates inside her ship.” Ashton grinned at the prospect of upending Taris with technology that, from her point of view, had not been invented yet.
“Temporal weapons are off the table, you know that, Ash. Or did you sleep through the lecture on the Qo’Cha incident?”
The Qo’Cha Incident had been the final Jump in the “unfortunate” career of Grell, the only Bolian to ever serve in Temporal Investigations.
Grell and his ship had been dispatched to Klingon space to correct a flaw in the timeline that resulted in the extinction of the Klingon race.
The Qo’Cha, unaware that the Federation ship invading their territory was actually there to help them, decided to attack. Grell postulated, in his finite wisdom, that while history may have missed the entire Klingon race, it would not miss one ship. Knowing the Klingons would have no defense against a temporal torpedo, he decided to destroy them in one shot.
“Hardly sporting.” Ledbetter had commented during the lecture given by Jonas Vox.
Grell’s plan was, in his mind, foolproof. Unfortunately, the torpedo’s detonator was not. Rather than destroying the Klingon ship, the torpedo became lodged in the hull. The Qo’Cha destroyed Grell’s ship, and returned home to Qo’noS where the torpedo from the future was discovered.
The Klingons dissected it, duplicated it, and outfitted all their vessels with temporal weapons within a year. They also decided that if the Federation had temporal weapons, that they were too much of a threat to be left around. Within one more year, the entire Federation was conquered or exterminated.
The irony of the mission was that Grell was sent to prevent the Klingon Empire from extinction, but his mission ended up spelling doom for the Federation.
It took a team of forty-three TI agents sixteen years to restore the proper timeline, along with Grell, who is by all accounts the best barber TI has ever had.
“Besides, we can’t be riskin’ destroyin’ the Romulan ship, at least not until Lair Arie is safe and sound.”
“Fine, conventional weapons it is, uncivilized and barbaric as they may be,” Ledbetter relented. “We’ll catch the Romulan in less than an hour, you better get started on an attack plan. A good one.”
Keiran was already reviewing schematics of the Romulan vessel in the Consequence computer and plotting the quickest way to bring down their Warp engines. Truth be told, he would have been pleased to use one of those temporal torpedoes to disable Taris, retrieve Arie himself, and end this fight before Liis even had the chance to show up with the Sera.
He had no desire to see her put at risk. No matter how many scrapes they went through in life, it never got any easier knowing she was in danger.
Keiran had long ago given up any hope of emotional detachment where it came to the safety of Zanh Liis.
-=Polaris=-
“You have the conn Mister Farnsworth,” Salvek stepped into the back for a moment of privacy before the battle.
He dropped to his knees, and held his hands out to channel his thoughts in meditation. He wanted so desperately to tell O'Sullivan to turn his ship around and go back to Lethus IV to retrieve Kellyn. Salvek had no way of knowing how long it would take Zanh Liis to find the Away Team.
In his mind the presence of the Consequence more than doubled the chances of successfully rescuing Lair Arie. If Kellyn were here, she would have told him to use every resource at his disposal to save their daughter.
His emotions threatened get the best of him. They simmered just below the surface, and the farther from Lethus they got, the more present they became in his mind. No one had any idea just how hard Salvek was trying to maintain his focus.
Salvek had long ago given up any hope of emotional detachment where it came to the safety of Lair Kellyn.
He began chanting in Vulcan, attempting to calm his spirit.
“Lair Kellyn, no matter how far from you I am, my heart beats in your chest. Use my strength when you are weak, to survive.”
He repeated the phrase over and over, until he lost all track of time. It just did not seem to help. He loved her, desperately, and no amount of training could possibly contain the pain inside of him; knowing he had left her behind, possibly to die.
If it were anyone else on the Romulan ship other than their daughter… anyone.
He would have to send Keiran back.
The Polaris would just have to be good enough to stop Taris alone. If Keiran’s presence could possibly be the difference between Kellyn living and dying, he had to return to Lethus. Arie and Kellyn both had to come home, or there would be nothing left of Salvek.
[Commander Salvek, please come to the cockpit. We are five minutes away.]
“Computer, how long have I been in this room?” Salvek asked, not believing that nearly an hour could have passed.
^Fifty two minutes.^
Salvek rose from his knees, and returned to the cockpit of the small vessel.
“Mister Farnsworth, please inform the Consequence that they are to return to Lethus to see to the safe return of the Away Team.”
“I’m sorry sir, but it’s too late for that.”
“Why?”
“They’ve already commenced their attack on the Romulan ship.”
********************
Commander Salvek
First Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
Currently aboard the Polaris
Commander Salvek
First Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
Currently aboard the Polaris