Task Force: Gamma

uvek · Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2009 10:09 pm Post subject: A bloody nightmare

Uvek sat straight up in his bunk, bathed in sweat. He awoke himself again with a shout, the fear and anguish rising within him and overwhelming his senses. The lights came on, sensing his movements, and he quickly oriented himself to where he was; his quarters on the Hartington.

"Water," he said into the replicator. He downed the drink quickly, moved through his room and entered the sonic shower. When will it stop? He shook the memories away, but he could still see the faces of the men left behind as he pulled away from the crippled ship. It was seven, maybe eight years ago now. Seems like yesterday. The mission had gone badly. He was required to retrieve a team of Romulans from the Klingon border. The civil war was going badly for Duras, thanks to timely intervention from the Federation. They (Tal Shiar) were pulling out in droves and leaving the Klingon family to deal with that fact alone. As a result, Duras' allies were determined to take as many traitorous Romulans with the family as possible, and thus the attack.

The Romulans had been totally surprised. They were using an old freighter to make their escape, having no Romulan ships available (for the sake of anonymity). Worse it had no cloak and was very exposed. The Klingon bird of prey decloaked almost on top of them. There was a perfunctory order to stop, but everyone knew that meant nothing. The Klingons were there to kill. They opened fire and a photon torpedo tore through the engineering section, detonating the old unstable warp core. A breach was initiated but the Klingons didn't stop there. They fired again, disruptors tearing through the non-existant shielding and opening whole sections of the ship to space.

Uvek knew he only had moments. He set the ship on autopilot, targeted directly at the bird of prey, and moved to the escape pods. The ship shuddered again and explosions began rolling through the halls under the attack. Uvek made it to a pod, opened the airlock, and pushed in with two other men both bleeding and dying. There were no others. Another explosion.

NOW! He punched out and the pod released. At the last possible moment, just as the pod rushed into space, he looked back through the portal on the door. Through it, inside the doomed ship, were the faces of three men looking back at him in horror. There was nothing he could do. He swiveled the chair he was in, crushing his emotions down, and pushed the thrusters to their max. Seconds later the ship exploded in blue white light. Thanks to the energy discharge of the warp core, the Klingons did not realize that part of the ship's debris was actually the escape pod. They remained a moment later, then cloaked and disappeared.

It would be days before a Romulan cruiser would pick the pod up along the border. Days when his wounded comrades would die without medical attention. Days of regret, uncertainty and fear. Days Uvek would never forget. Days that would haunt him as a bloody nightmare for the rest of his life.