Aftermath Part 1

Posted on 13 Sep 2009 @ 4:55pm by Commodore Da`nal of the House of Varal

1,480 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: M2: Aggressive Negotiations
Location: USS Freedom...Deep in Romulan Space

OLD:

The Romulan ship closed on them as they headed home, they couldn't let the Freedom get back to Federation space. Standing from his seat Da`nal made his way to the helm. Extending his arm in Silonez's direction. "Close the gap in the cloak. CJ, kill the engines....let her coast. Take us to Z minus 300 kilometers then reverse course."

NEW:

CJ quickly powered down the engine's and shut down primary controls. "Maneuvering thrusters only, sir." he replied.

"Good, Now let see if this works, and if the Ambassadors friends are out there."

[Liberator]

"We've got to dock, we can't help anymore out here." Wandella sighed, hating to leave a good fight in the middle, but the Aerowing just wasn't going to do any good out there, =A=Liberator to Freedom, permission to dock?=A=


[Escort Vessels]

The respective commanders of the Yhae and the S'harien conferred as they persued the Federation vessel. i-Nn'Verih was adamant that they should find and destroy the ship but his counterpart, unaware of i-Nn'Verih's additional orders, had developed something of an imagination since the initial attack, possibly prompted by the near roasting the Yhae had just received.

Still, the Freedom was at a disadvantage and the S'harien's sensors had already detected an approaching signature, at high warp from deeper within Romulan space - once the reinforcements arrived the Freedom stood no chance - all they had to do was make sure it did not get away.

[USS Freedom]

The ship was running silent as the slowly moved away from their 'escorts'. The view displayed the scene playing out above and behind them while the Romulans began running there search patterns. However the respit was short lived.

T'pal hated the fact that they where hiding in this way. From what she knew of their Captain he didn't like it either. Her tactical sensors sounded as another ship entered sensor range. "Sir. We have company. Another vessel is entering the area, D'Deridex class Warbird."


[Approaching Warbird]

Galae EnRiov Hru’hfirh Llaiir e-Ramnau t’Khellian had taken the warning seriously and for a number of days the Mosaram had been patrolling the flight path provided by that Tal'Shiar officer that her daughter insisted on associating with. Sure enough there was a Federation vessel with a Romulan escort.

Llaiir had the stately d'Deridex class Mosaram shadow the formation, staying just beyond sensor range, and receiving data from a series of probes set along the flight path - only when one of those probes reported the discharge of phasers and disruptors did she have the Mosaram move in.


[USS Freedom]

Da`nal rubbed his chin. "Understood." They were now out numbered and out gunned, and alone. Had the numbers remained the same he would have done hit and run attacks on the two ships as they conducted their search. But now....now that would be fool hardy. Victory lay in their survival, not the death of the enemy, they must survive this day. "Maintain course and speed, let see what happens."

"Captain, I've got some not so good news." silonez paused then continued "We can maintain cloak for twnety minutes before we start to loose coolant control and have to de-cloak, the ship is too badly damaged to keep it up for any longer, I'm going over the damage control reports right now, judging by them we're going to need a week in a ship yard to get things working properly, I recomend we find somewhere we can rendesvous with an engineering support vessel and make as many repairs as possible or we'll be going home in escape pods." he said as bluntly as possible

That wasn't what he wanted to hear. "We had Senate approval to enter Romulan space. Anyone desperate enough to go against that isn't going to let escape pods survive." Turning to his XO currently manning Operations. "Prepare a class 8 probe for launch for SB 47 loaded with our current status, we need to let someone know what really happened out here.

"Helm, bring us around perpendicular to the ship nearest us. T'Pal, get those enhanced torpedoes ready to fire."

"Aye, sir." CJ replied, quickly following his orders.

T'Pal nodded sharply, "Ready."

"Target their warp core."

Da`nal watched as the ship looped back coming up underneath the Romulan escort. "Drop the cloak and Open Fire! All Weapons!"

Phaser fire lept out at the same time four double-yield quantum torpedoes burst from the Freedom's launchers, followed by another four. The concentrated fire proved too much for the shipd shield already weakened from the the previous encounter. The Freedom pulled away and her ventral phasers opened up, keeping the pressure on. A final volley fired from the aft launchers sealed teh vessels fate.

"Sir, their core is going critical."

"Move us away and launch the probe."

"Probe launched, launch buoy has been uploaded to the Probe's memory." Fienneman replied quickly.

The Romulan ship's core went critical, sending a shock wave in all directions. Behind that shockwave was sections of the ship of various sizes. Fortunately the fragments that struck the Freedom where of no concern.

With a warp nine probe now on its way to Federation space the Romulans had failed. Soon the entire Federation would know what had happened. But despite that fact the other escort moved in to avenge its counterpart.

"Captain I have an idea, if I can re-route power from everywhere accept shields to structural integrity I can possibly get us up to warp 9.9 and we can make a run for it" Silonez paused "the engineering ship Angera is about 2 hours away from here at that speed I'll transfer the coordinates to the helm."

"Sir." Fienneman replied, "Even if I could find that kind of power to divert, structural integrity won't be able to hold it, and if we took any.. I mean any fire while attempting, this whole ship would fly apart; shields be damned."

Da'nal grinned slightly at the XO's words. "We can't turn around if we do we fail our mission." Da'nal knew his motivation were not only that of his orders but of personal nature as well. He tried to push that away, but it wasn't easy.

"Continue Evasive Manuevers and open hailing frequencies."

Silonez fumed at the XO ignoring his suggestion, ~Idiot, one more hit and this bucket of bolts is toast, I can't keep the containment for much longer.~

CJ pulled the vessel into a tight turn, and smiled down at his panel; the work he and the Engineer had done was holding things together better than he had imagined.

"Romulan vessel S'harien, We are here with the permission of your Praetor and the Romulan Senate. Cease fire immediately or join your commrades!"

Aware of the approaching Warbird, the S'harien did no such thing.

[IRW Mosaram]

"enRiov, it would seem that they think we are reinforcements," Llaiir's first officer said with sincere deference. "I can only surmise that it was panic that drove them to attack one of the escort vessels - had they not they could have evaded detection until we had introduced ourselves."

Llaiir nodded as she curled her fingers around the arms of her chair. "Have you verified that my daughter is on board the Federation vessel?"she asked. After many long years of acquaintence she trusted the man's judgement and would listen to what he had to say before making her decision.

"A beacon was reported - the signal is unique and a match." He paused for a moment as he examined a screen, "the 'friends' of their escort have just entered sensor range - we were lucky to get here first."

"Hail the Federation ship, the commanding officer is a Klingon," she warned with a wry smile, "I want to speak with my daughter, At the same time order the escort vessel to stand down, if they refuse or ignore the order fire a volley across their bough."

A little puzzled, the first officer did as Llaiir requested.

[USS Freedom]

T'Pal looked up from he console. "Sir, the escort vessel is breaking off thier persuit and we are Warbird is hailing.

Da'nal was still waiting on a reply from the escort vessel when the Warbird hailed. "On Screen."
The view screen shift to that of the Romulan Officer Commanding the Warbird

Galae EnRiov Hru’hfirh Llaiir e-Ramnau t’Khellian blinked once. The resemblance between she and the Ambassador would be apparent even to the eyes of a Klingon, but where Isha possessed a fragile beauty, Llaiir, even at the age of 150 was clearly still a strong and powerful woman, quite comfortable with her station in life. Her dark eyes glinted at the Klingon.

"You seem to be in some difficulty, Commander," she noted in a tone as thick as honey.

TBC...

 

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