The Longest Night
Posted on Sat Nov 21st, 2015 @ 10:50pm by Captain Liarra Von & Colonel S'er'in'e
Mission:
By Dawn's Early Light
Location: Operations Center, Starbase 332
Timeline: Less than 24 hours until Sojourner Arrival
It was another sleepless night for Liarra Von. There had been far too many of those lately, and despite her insistence on her officers getting time off to rest and clear their heads, she rarely afforded herself the same luxury. It was hard to relax when she knew that there was an evil out there that planned harm to her station, her crew.
It wasn’t like she hadn’t been trying to relax. Her usual methods just hadn’t been working. She was three cups into a chamomile tea, and the otherwise silence of her office was filled with the soothing sounds of a composition by Niri, her fourth host. Niri had a way with a violin that Liarra was never able to recreate. She may have gained her predecessors taste for music, but never her artistic talent. If anything, she took on more of Darzen’s arrogance after she joined, which Liarra didn’t think was necessarily a bad thing.
But she still couldn’t shake the sense of dread. As she stared out into space, Von knew that somewhere out there, her nemesis Vaishaa was staring back at her, plotting her next move. She would never have guessed how right she was. At that very moment, in orbit of the second planet in the Thane system, the Sojourners were making their move, setting out on a mission that would define their fate. A defeat against Starfleet could mean a complete collapse of their war machine. But victory could cement their place as a major power in the sector, and the loss of Starfleet’s last stronghold before reaching the frontier. Just like the strings on Niri’s violin, small vibrations would lead to huge waves.
Liarra took another sip of her tea, afterimages of department readiness reports and security arrangements still floating in her head. She still held out hope that they wouldn’t be needed, but that hope wasn’t about to last long. Her commbadge, still attached to her uniform jacket draped over her desk chair, was barely heard over the sound of the music. When it chirped again, Liarra realized that it wasn’t a figment of her imagination, and stood up from the couch under her window. “Computer, pause playback.” With the music stopped, the third chirp was much louder. Von pressed the comm panel on her desk. “Von here.”
The voice of Lieutenant Nvaiden, the station’s chief of strategic operations, replied on the other end of the comm. ”Captain, can you report to Ops? There’s something you need to see.”
Liarra grimaced. She wasn’t sure what it was about senior staff members, but they never seemed to give any useful information over the comm channel. “Copy that, Lieutenant. I’m on my way.” Von closed the channel and grabbed her jacket. As she slipped it on, she stifled a yawn. Naturally she was tired now. But she fought passed the bout of sleepiness and hurried out of her office.
“Lieutenant,” Liarra barked out as soon as she found Nvaiden. “What’s the problem?”
The strategic operations officer led her to the situation table in the center of the room, and gestured towards a star map of the sector on viewscreen. “Captain, we just received a message from the USS Stormarrow, a patrol ship new Sojourner controlled space. The message was brief, but they were reporting a large Sojourner fleet moving from the Thane system, a few dozen ships at least. The Stormarrow tried to keep their distance, but reported that several ships broke from the Sojourner formation and took off after them. They said that they had engaged the Sojourner ships, but that was their last transmission. We haven’t been able to reestablish contact.”
Von stared intently at the viewscreen as she listened to Nvaiden’s report. Suddenly any concerns of falling asleep were gone. “What did the Stormarrow report as the Sojourner’s heading?” She dreaded the answer, but knew that she had to ask.
“Here, Captain,” the Lieutenant replied somberly. “Their heading at the time of contact would take them directly here.”
Captain Von nodded. “ETA?”
“Maybe a day, Captain, probably less. Contact occurred just inside Federation space, but we weren’t able to receive much before we lost contact with the Stormarrow.”
Von continued to nod. Those preparations that she hoped would not be necessary could now be a matter of life or death. “Wake Commander Ballard and the rest of the senior staff. Tell them that we have work to do.”
Nvaiden acknowledged and returned to his console. Von stayed at the situation table and activated the comm panel. “Ops to Major S’er’in’e.”
S'er'in'e was with his work crew preparing his fighter for action, sifting through lines of data, simulation evaluations and flight settings when the call came through. "S'er'in'e here, what may I do for you Captain."
“I’m sorry if I woke you, Major, but we’ve received a confirmation that the Sojourner fleet is on its way here. We estimate about a day, maybe less, based on their detected speed and position. We need to consider shoring up our defenses. Any ships inside the inner marker need to be brought inside the dock. We’ll find a spot for them from up here. Any ships outside of the inner marked either need to come in, or need to be turned away. Their choice. But anything else that comes into range needs to be turned away. We don’t need civilians getting caught in a cross fire.”
"I understand." S'er'in'e responded, a wise precaution in light of what was coming, minimise civilian casualties and provide a safe haven for those unable to escape. "Are you able to tell me any information about the direction the enemy is coming from?"
“Good,” Von replied, nodding along. “The best we know at this point is that they are coming from the general area of the Thane system, from just inside Sojourner controlled space. We've lost contact with the patrol ship that detected them. They were most likely destroyed. The assumption is that they will approach in a straight line, but we'll know more once they get closer to the station's sensor range. Any thoughts on how we can improve our detection?"
"In preparation for this 120 of my birds are on long range umbrella screen. As the first layer detects the enemy it will fall back. It should give us accurate time relative information as it comes in. I will launch two additional flights to ferry ships to safety or turn away." Now came the iffy question. "In regards to captains failing to abide by directives, what are my orders?" While he would attempt to ensure safety of ships, not everyone was forthcoming when it came to orders from Starfleet when it came to time sensitive cargo's or schedules.
That was indeed a tough call, and one that needed to be handled delicately. "Tell them that a Sojourner fleet is heading for the station. I would prefer to put them under the protection of our armored hull, but if they choose to stay outside, they are on their own. We have enough to worry about protecting this station. We can't escort every ship to safety if they refuse to abide by our directives."
"Understood, as soon as the fighters are in place I will relay information direct to Operations. You will have the information as soon as I do, I will begin launching the other craft in moments." S'er'in'e was already giving typed commands via his console to get the fighters launched. "Would you like the screen to attempt to detect what happened to the patrol ship?"
Von shook her head, even though the Caitian had no way to see her. "The patrol zone was well outside the operational range of our fighter wing, Major. They were patrolling near the border of Federation and Sojourner controlled space. According to their transmission, some of the Sojourner ships broke formation and set a pursuit course." Von paused a moment as she thought about the crew of the Stormarrow. "Most likely the ship was destroyed. We'll see what we can find out, but right now our focus needs to be on defending this station."
"Understood Captain, I will begin." S'er'in'e gave more hand gestures to gather key personnel around him.
“Keep me posted, Major. Ops out.” Von disconnected the channel to S’er’in’e and moved around the viewscreen to the dockmaster’s station. She placed a hand on the shoulders of each of the two non-commissioned officers manning the station. “Find a place to dock those ships. I don’t care if you have to move the ships that are already docked around. Just find a place to get those ships to safety.”
The ranking dock controller on duty nodded slowly, the new dock assignments already running through his head. “Aye, Captain. It won’t be easy. There are more ships out there than we have berths.”
“Just get them inside. They don’t need to have a berth, just a place to fit inside,” Liarra replied adamantly. “We can’t leave them as sitting ducks. If any ships refuse to comply, then send them away at their own risk. I can’t guarantee their safety if they’re not inside the dock. Just find a way to do it.”
The two enlisted officers nodded reluctantly and muttered under their breath, “Yes, ma’am.”
Von left the two men to their work and went back to the situation table. So much for trying to relax and get some sleep. What was already a long night was about to get much, much longer.
Captain Liarra Von
Commanding Officer
Starbase 332
Major S'er'in'e
Commander, Air Group
SVW-17
