The Ghosts of the Dominion War

Posted on Thu Aug 31st, 2023 @ 9:09am by Commodore Edward Antilles & Captain Rykar Julani & Brigadier General Sorlora, Daughter of Edraks

Mission: Mission 127: Old Friends and New Enemies
Location: Various Locations - USS Roanoke-A / Klingon Warship
Timeline: 0900Hrs - January 18th, 2394

General Sorlora looked at her main viewscreen and the hopeless situation she found herself in. She was down to just one ship, a Negh'Var, which was heavily overloaded with over 15000 people on board, all crews and marines she had evacuated from the rest of her squadron. Her one battered ship was trying to run away from a dominion fleet of a dozen bug ships and two battlecruisers. and the enemy was gaining on her. She had managed to buy a little time by diving into a nearby stellar nebula, even passing very close to a forming protostar, but the enemy was determined to catch her.

She tapped on the Comm, "Ebeyov. I hope you have more to give me, because the enemy is gaining on us.

Ebeyov groaned. "I'm diverted almost all of our ships power top the drive systems." she paused. "We're going about as fast as I can get you... Any more and we risk blowing up the impulse engine generators." came the response. "It's simple numbers and I don't have anything left to give you." she paused. "Whats worse is our long-range coms are out, the system gave up the ghost five minutes ago." the Klingon woman paused. "The starfleet engineers working here used that exact term, whatever the hell, that means."

Sorlora didn't respond or press further, instead sighing inwardly and growling," If we live through this, I'm gutting Gowron with a rusty dak'tag."

The ship shook from another hit, prompting Ashiv to Curse, "Damn, that hit disabled the main fire control computer. And our aft shields are gone."

"Fire control Sensors are out too," Etok reported.

Sorlora sighed while Chatoza pointed out the reality, "Well, looks like this is it then, General Sorlora, it has been an honour."

Sorlora nodded, "Yes it has captain, All hands, prepare to abandon ship. I'll stay behind, drive this ship at them. Maybe, some of the crew will be able to escape. Ebeyov, I need you to rig the ship to blow."

Ebeyov raised an eyebrow. "Its been an honour." came the response. "Say the word and I'll make this area of space shine like a fucking star..."

Sorolora sat down in her command chair, sighinng in defeat, saying to herself," Damn, sorry Paul, I wasn't able to give you the answer you wanted."

Sorlora then tapped the intercom on the chair to make the call to abandon ship when suddenly the ship lurched hard, throwing her and the rest of the crew off their feet. Then there was a bright flash of light through the viewscreen, then it went blank.

"What the hell is happening?" Sorlora questioned as the ship lurched in the other direction, throwing everyone around again. Consoles sparked as circuits overloaded, then all the lights failed.

A few moments later, Sorlora regained consciousness and found herself floating in mid air, the ship was dark and silent. The only light came form a few of the consoles that where still powered on.

"Anyone else still alive," Sorlora called out.

Etok replied first, "Yeah, I'm still here, massive headache though."

McEntee looked down as he touched the ceiling. "Uhh... If this is the afterlife. It sucks. I demand my money back." he looked down at everyone else on the bridge. He sighted where he wanted to go as his zero-Gee training kicked in. He kicked off the ceiling before landing on the deck. He caught ahold of his console. "Let me see about restoring internal gravity." he commented while he went to work at his panel.

Ebeyov groaned softly. "Uhh..." as she found herself floating up off the deck. "What happened?" she asked aloud. "Why are we not dead?"

McEntee answered. "You're too pretty to die. Now hold on while I see about fixing this."

"I will kill you for this McEntee."

"Oh, relax already," he growled in her general direction. "Sit back and enjoy the ride."

"I hate weightlessness!" the Engineer snarled.

"Working on it." McEntee reminded her.

Ashiv floated over to her console, saying, "Yeah, I'm ok. What happened."

"Not sure" Etok called out as he got to the main ops console. I've only got partial sensors." He took a moment to study the readings, "But I can tell you we are not in that nebula anymore. Don't ask me how though."

"I guess that explains why we aren't being shot at anymore," Ashiv commented dryly.

McEntee smiled. "Alright. I have the internal com system now." he tapped the display. "Attention all personnel. I'm going to bring the gravity back online in ten seconds. Prepare yourselves accordingly." he commented.

Ebeyov looked down. "Ummm. What!?"

"Two... One." with that, he brought the gravity back online But he started at zero g and slowly increased the system back to Klingon normal over the course of a minute or so. So nobody would drop out of the skies.

Sorlora found herself slowly drifting towards the floor rather than faceplant at full force. Once she got back to her feet she commented with a smile, "Well, Mr. McEntee I do appreciate you not turning the gravity back on at full force and causing us all to face plant into the deck."

"We have fifteen thousand souls aboard. I'd rather they face death at the hands of their enemies and not because I was stupid." McEntee explained. He sighed. "However, that's where the good news ends." he tapped the display. "Ebeyov. Check the status of the starboard power coupling. Tell me I'm reading this wrong."

The deadpan tone of the Klingon woman was telling. "If you mean that he system has been almost fried to a crisp handling the life support needs of this vessel then... No, you read it right."

"Shit." McEntee commented in a flat tone of voice. "Ebeyov. I think I need to teach you about subtlety."

"Humans, who can understand them?" came the response. "McEntee. I think I need to teach you to speak directly and not waste words."

McEntee sighed. "General. Your life support is severely overtaxed. The system will fail in about sixteen hours. After that, We'll be down to twelve hours of reserve air before we all asphyxiate." he explained the issue in blunt and simple terms. "The ship's battle damage is also extreme. I have issues all over the ship."

Yeah not surprised," Sorlora commented dryly, "Etok, have you figured out where we are yet."

"Working on it," Etok replied, not taking his eyes off his console. "Alright, I've got stellar Telemetry back online." He then paused as he interpreted the readings," If I'm right about this, and I hope I'm not, "We are nearly two thousand lightyears from where we were. We are in the Taurus reach area." He frowned as the readings did look off to him. He couldn't help but feel something was amiss.

"Taurus reach," Solrora questioned. " McEntee, isn't there still a federation presence in the Taurus Reach."

"Yes." McEntee answered. He frowned. "There are about twenty Federation colonies in the area but over the last thirty years, this area has been dismissed as something of a backwater. Other areas taking notice and attention," he commented. "I'm going to shut down the impulse engines, we don't need those and I'm going to divert the energy to life support."

Ebeyov's voice came back. "McEntee. Keep an eye on the EPS grid. Its become highly unstable with all this battle damage."

"I see it." he answered. Suddenly there was a high pitched whine as McEntee shouted. "Everyone, down!" Thats when a plasma relay blew out, spraying the area around McEntee with small shards of metal.

"McEntee... John?" Ebeyov inquired. "Wake up, John.."

"Mmm.." McEntee shook his head. "That sucked," he commented, despite having been lacerated in over a dozen places by metal shards. "Yeah... That Really sucked."

Sorlora then called to sickbay," Sickbay, I need a nurse up here on the bridge right now if you can spare any."

"Someones on their way," The CMO replied. A few minutes later, Greji arrived on the bridge and started to look over McEtee's injuries.

At the same time. Captain Chatoza asked, "Has the dominion been in the Taurus Reach area."

Thawi, the ships XO and the one whom paid the most attention to intelligence reports replied. "Not that i know of, that being said, we can't be too careful. But I do know the KDF has no presence in the area anymore."

Sorlora nodded, "Alright, send out a general distress call on Federation frequencies only. Ebeyov, whats the status of the cloaking device and the warp drive. How long will repairs take on them."

"The cloak. I can have that for you in less then twenty minutes but the warp drive is... shit." Ebeyov sighed. "Uhh... gimme a minute bridge."

McEntee was the one who commented. "The warp matrix itself is fried. The dilithium housing is damaged and the crystals themselves are all shattered," he commented. "We're stuck at impulse. Until further notice," he commented. "Last time I checked, the nearest starbase is Three Seventy-One... Thats... Roughly four centuries away."

Sorlora cursed, "Damn, alright, any nearby inhabitable worlds, and can we extend our life support lifespan by turning on the shuttle life support systems."

Etok looked at his half-functioning sensor console, "There is the nearby Utguard system. It's about two weeks away at full impulse. No way our life support system is going to last that long."

Ashiv then came up with an idea, "Maybe, maybe not. Impulse engines are normally safely limited to 25% the speed of light. If we disable those safeties, we can take the ship up to well over 90% lightspeed in under two hours. Then at that speed, time dilation will reduce our observed time here on the ship. If we go to 96% lightspeed, we can make it in four days, but time dilation will reduce our observed time to one day."

Sorlora nodded, "Ebeyov, can you do it."

"Sure," Ebeyov answered. "Give me thirty minutes to get things set up and I'll light this Greek candle."

"Thats Roman candle, dear," McEntee commented quietly.

Meanwhile, as Etok worked further on the long-range sensors, he noticed something else, "Hang on, I'm picking up some kind of subspace disruption, what the hell is that."

Sorlora came over and looked at the readings herself, "I have no idea."

McEntee looked over the sensors. "What the hell..." as he noticed the contact approaching awfully fast. "Ebeyov. dear... We need that cloak." he paused. "Like quickly, dear..."

The snarling was the answer he got. McEntee sighed. "Okay, I'm going to work on the viewscreen," he added.

Etok was focused on his own sensor console, "Three contacts just appeared on my sensors, I can't get a good enough reading on their warp signatures to tell who they are, but they are big. Biggest contact is around 500 million tons."

Sorlora gulped just a little, "Um, Ebeyov, cloak please. Because otherwise if these guys turn out to be hostile, we are so dead."

"The cloak needs more time and work. I can't get it in time." Ebeyov answered. "Sorry skipper," she added.

McEntee tapped the display once. "I got the viewscreen working," he commented as he activated the system.

Sorlora's expression shifted to a confused one when she saw the image of a massive federation ship appear on the main viewer. "Um, McEntee, is that thing working right, because there is no way the federation has built something that big? Right?."

"The viewscreen is no worse off than the rest of this ship General," McEntee commented. "I know the Federation had the capability to build battleships but those facilities were all newly established... To the best of my knowledge. No. We don't have the capability to build ships on that scale." he paused as he looked at the designs. "That's an Excalibur variant." he paused. "The other two look like evolved versions of the Sovereign."

Etok checked his readings again, adding, "Yeah, according to these readings that ship is over 500 million tons and over 3500 meters long."

The comms console then beeped, and with Sorlora's chief comm officer in the medical bay, she went over to the console herself and answered the hail.

The face of Rykar Julani then appeared on the main viewer, "This is Captain Ryker Julani of the Roanoke-A, what assistance do you need."

"A lot of assistance captain," Sorlora replied. "I have over 15,000 souls on board and a life support system that is collapsing, so it would be nice if you could evacuate most of my crew before we all suffocate. And we do have a lot of wounded as well"

Rykar nodded, "That can be arranged." She then hit the intercom on her ship, "This is the captain to all hands, prepare for a mass casualty event, I need everyone with medical training to assist in sickbay."

Meanwhile, Commodore Edward Antilles turned his head. He frowned as he wondered what was going on. The turbolift doors opened and he stepped out onto the bridge. "Hey, Rykar. What's up?" he asked of the skipper. Before he turned his attention to the viewscreen, suddenly he found himself locking eyes with his mother.

Sorlora instantly saw Ed, but with his older appearance she mistook him for Paul, she smiled innocently, "Um, Hey Paul, how are you doing, I'm alive and well." A console sparked loudly behind her. "Mostly."

"Mother. I fear you have confused me for my father." Ed addressed his mother. "However, you have no idea how happy I am to see you alive and well."

Sorlora's smile dropped instantly, "Ed? You look old. The realization then started to dawn on her. And she wasn't the only one. Both Ashiv and Etok started getting that sinking feeling with Ashiv leaning over to Etok. "What was it exactly that you were uneasy about with your sensor readings."

"Star alignment," Etok answered grimly, "They seemed off, and I think I now know why."

McEntee sighed. "Shit..." he commented. "Yeah. I know why too." he lifted his attention to Rykar on the screen. "What today's stardate, Captain?" he asked aloud.

"18 January 2394," Rykar answered promptly. "What were you doing last, before you ended up here."

"We were fighting for our lives against the Dominion, we had been sent on yet another suicide mission by Gowron." Sorlora answered. She then turned to McEnntee, "McEntee, I'm not familiar with the Federation dating system, how long is that."

"Nineteen years, three months and five days ago," McEntee answered quietly. "We're almost twenty years into the future," he added.

Sorlora's ears skipped a beat, "Shit, I was afraid about that."

Ashiv looked to Etok, who confirmed it, "Yeah, the stellar cartography computer agrees. over 19 years of stellar drift have occurred."

Sorlora then turned to the viewscreen, "And I take it a lot has happened in my absence. I'll be over in a few minutes, we need to talk face to face."

Edward turned to Rykar. "I'll see to the General's party," he commented with a gentle smile.

Rykar nodded, "Yeah, well she is your mother after all, Im sure you want to catch up. I'll be sure to not bother you until we get to Vanguard."

"Thank you, Captain. I will remember your respect." Antilles smiled warmly at her before he departed.