Posted by Civilian Captain Khain (Captain of the I.K.S. Khazad’hea) in Runabout Fenrir - “Scattered Memories”

Posted by Lieutenant Duncan Rhodes (Chief Science Officer) in Runabout Fenrir - “Scattered Memories”

Posted by Lieutenant Duncan Rhodes (Chief Science Officer) in Runabout Fenrir - “Scattered Memories”

Snip

It took minutes but finally the two were back in the Runabout, airlock closed and Duncan removed his helmet. “Get that safely secured, I’ll get us headed out of here.” He told the woman and turned for the pilots seat.

Sitting down he began to check the systems off for damage, and then noted the flashing blips on his sensor screen. Touching the LCARS display he brought up the image on screen, they were still too far away through the debris field for a visual. The clear image of two Romulan fighter craft heading towards them stared back at them.

“Well, that is a problem.” His tone was calm and matter of fact as he flicked the autopilot off. “Toveka, we have company and I do not think they want to comment on the weather.” He called out behind him, then hit the impulse engines into life and got the Runabout moving.

Lt Duncan Rhodes, CSO

“The Romulan ships are within range,” the Khazad’hea’s Weapons Officer stated and looked at Khain, still sitting calmly in his seat. “The Starfleet ship will soon be under attack, I have weapons lock on them,” the Officer said with his own lack of emotion. It was little concern of his if the Federation ship got destroyed, he even had a lock on them if Khain decided to destroy them instead.

“Hold your fire,” Khain told the Officer, and looked at the knuckles of one hand in thought. “It is, after all, none of our business.”

Duncan brought the Runabout around just as one of the asteroids beside them exploded into fragments as Romulan disruptor fire hit it from the lead fighter, it was close, but he rolled the Runabout and hit the thrusters to let the larger ship slide behind another Asteroid as it gained speed in the field of debris and energy eddies.

On his screen he saw the two fighters split in different directions, trying to cut off his escape so they could come at him from different angles he couldn’t hope to hide from. “Where the heck did they come from,” he muttered under his breath as he angled the Runabout away from them and towards another clump of asteroids. He knew his shields were stronger than the fighters, and his own weapons were more powerful but they had him in thrust and maneuverability. He had to keep them moving and dodging hazards if he wanted to keep his own ship together long enough to jump to warp when clear of the debris.

Another asteroid exploded beneath him as he turned, then one to his starboard as the second fighter opened fire. “Dammit!” A shot hit the runabout but the shields held, only surface damage resulting that wasn’t going to cause a problem yet. Twisting the larger craft Duncan pulled it into a hard turn around a big rock, almost skimming the surface and praying he had the drift worked out right as the big asteroid blocked both him and the smaller ships from each others sensors. Ahead of him he noted the dark silhouette of one of the fighters boost past as it tried to cut him off, and he rolled again so that the bigger Runabout’s nose turned towards it as it drifted past searching for him, the pilot had underestimated the tightness of Duncan’s turn.

Watching the screen, Khain grunted. It had been a good move, aggressive and clever. It had put the Starfleet ship in a position to even the odds a little, despite the little fighters having a clear advantage in the debris field. “Touche, Starfleet. You get to live for another few moments.” Khain grinned, and it was wide and genuine but behind it was a lethal demeanour that few people who met it walked away from.

Duncans fingers moved over the controls as his eyes followed the small Romulan fighter, and not a second later the familiar beam of a Starfleet Phaser cut through the distance between them, multiple pulses from the beam weapon finding their mark on the lightly shielded craft which exploded in a bright flash that quickly vanished, only brightly glowing plasma from the wreckage drifting in it’s place that would cool in minutes.

Nodding, Khain grunted again. “If he had missed that shot I would have been worried at what kind of Officers Starfleet was sending out these days. Well done, you earn your place in the hall of the warrior today.”

“One down, one left. Hold on to something!” Duncan called back to Toveka, hoping the device they found was secure at least. He twisted the big ship again, looking to place as many asteroids between them and the last fighter as he could until he found another break. It never came as the first fighter appeared to take more care than the second, it held off and scored hits on the Runabout that brought its shields dangerously low and resulted in loss of power to a series of thrusters that meant Duncan had to resort to the same maneuvers to avoid it, and these finally meant the Romulan fighter caught onto the pattern.

“They have been hit,” the Khazad’hea’s Operations Officer announced. “Port thrusters are offline and their shields are low, they have a plasma leak and structural integrity is compromised.” She began listing the damage to the Starfleet ship as the little Romulan fighter pounded it with Disruptor cannon. “Keep an eye on their shields,” Khain stated in no rush. “When they drop, they have seconds left.”

Duncan threw the Runabout into another turn as the fighter came at them again, more rocks exploding near where they would have been as Duncan hit the thrusters and pushed the Runabout into a last ditch slide, feeling the Disruptors of the smaller craft reaching out and finding their mark on his hull. Duncan knew what that meant at this point, and he swore, loudly and viciously as he opened fire with his own Phasers, determined to take this last Romulan down with him as his thoughts turned to Lily and what might have been. He could see her face, hear her laugh as around him consoles exploded, the computer declared that his own weapons were offline and told him of hull breaches as the disruptors tore the Fenrir apart. Duncans world seemed to drop into slow motion as his eyes watched the fighter and it’s weapons reaching out to him with an odd feeling of sadness. He wasn’t afraid, or angry. He was going to leave Lily, and in his heart he felt as if somehow that was betraying her and the feelings of love that he had found he had. It was guilt he felt, that she would never know he loved her. He had never said the words.

“Their shields have gone,” the Klingon Operations Officer declared as she looked up at Khain in the Captains seat. “Very well,” Khain said, and pushed himself to his feet, raised his hand and clenched his fist. “Fire.” From the cloaked Klingon Bird of Prey, a single flash of light appeared and streaked towards the battle as the torpedo took fewer seconds than a sneeze to reach its mark.

The console he was sitting at exploded in front of Duncan, and he felt an odd sense of disconnection as he was thrown backwards out of the pilots seat. He could feel the burn on his skin as the Plasma took hold, felt his chest tighten as metal in his lungs made it hard to breathe. Duncan could feel the warmth of his own blood as it filled his mouth and the flames licked at his legs and arms while the Romulan fighter kept shooting at him. Yet he could see only Lily’s face as a bright light filled his vision and the air around him suddenly went cold, the breath sucked from his collapsed lungs.

Lt Duncan Rhodes, CSO

On the screen of the Khazad’hea, Khain watched as first the Romulan fighter in front of the Runabout dissolved in the blast of the torpedo he had launched, then the shockwave from it engulfed the Runabout itself and tore the remains of the Starfleet ship apart, spreading them throughout this part of the debris field as the ships own reactor exploded in response to the damage sustained. In short seconds, Khain and the crew of the Bird of Prey felt their own ship rock slightly as the shockwaves reached and passed it.

The bright bloom of the explosions subsided, and the Khazad’hea’s viewscreen returned to normal once more. The field was calm, although many asteroids now drifted away from the explosion site and collided off in the distance. Sensors indicated many shards of the remains of the Romulan and Federation ships, and in the distance the large dead bulk of the Romulan Warbird that the Starfleet people had visited. Turning to his crew, Khain looked into the eyes of his Operations Officer. She looked back at him, her eyes expressionless. She had done her job.

Captain Khain, Captain of the I.K.S Khazad’hea

–A few days later–

As far as days went, today had been just as insignificant and monotonous as most others in the Operations center on Outpost 42. At the sensors were NE’s King and Franks from the stations Science department, King especially had been watching Franks carefully and plotting ways to get even from the previous nights poker game where Franks had soundly beaten her longtime friend King and claimed ownership of his VIP tickets to the current hot thing in music entertainment. Of course Franks intended to invite King along, but he didn’t need to know that and could stew a while longer, while King busily tried to plot ways to get the tickets back. The only thing holding them back at this point was the delayed arrival back from a mission of their Department Head, Lt Rhodes. Without his approval of leave, the tickets didn’t mean much to either of them at this point other than something to focus their rivalry on.

The sound of an alarm buzzer from the console woke King from his diabolical plots, and moved the rest of the Operations centre into a far more aware and energetic phase of the day. Looking down at his sensors, King bit his lip for a second as he looked at what was being displayed, then he brought up the image onto the view screen. “Klingon ship decloaking in sector 17, mark 22,” he told the room and looked up at the screen.

Displayed on it, was a Klingon Bird-of-Prey, one of their smaller warships built in huge numbers as a raider, patrol and support warship for the larger Klingon battlecruisers. This one however, looked different. Instead of the standard Klingon green livery it was a mixture of blacks and greys, it’s superstructure far more angular than the standard Bird-of-Brey. Scans were unable to penetrate the interior of the ship even though no shields were detected, but surface scans were showing multiple weapons points that seemed at a cursory glance to be far more heavily designed than a run of the mill vessel. Scans detected no build up of energy in those weapons either. A small’ish emblem was visible on the ships nose, the computer identifying it as belonging to the Klingon House Kholl, while another of the Imperial Klingon Navy showed on the hull.

“That thing doesn’t look friendly.” Franks commented almost under her breath to the nods of a few other Operations crew. King glanced over at her and chewed his lip again nervously, “Their weapons aren’t armed and their shields are down, but it’s odd that they decloaked so close to the Outpost, they are still our Allies.” Franks looked at him with a raised eyebrow, “When they want to be, we’ve seen plenty of separatist Klingon pirates in this sector without the Romulans as strong as they used to be.”

Another console beep alerted them to an incoming hail, and as was normal procedure with any ship, the Watch Officer answered.

The screen changed from the view of the Bird-of-Prey to an image of the interior Bridge, and the Starfleet personnel immediately noted a difference here as well. It was clean and clearly lit, the consoles looked state-of-the-art, and the visible Klingon Crew were wearing the same neat black uniform with studded leather armor covering shoulders and neck, and they were all clean and smart looking in comparison to regular Klingon crew who wore an ensemble of different pieces of uniform and armor.
In the centre of the screen was the Klingon Captain, seated in his chair he still looked tall, and the multi-layered leather armor pieces only served to emphasize is already impressive muscular bulk. Shaven bald and with an eye-patch and moustache, the figure could of been seen as menacing if only he hadn’t been leaning forward with a polite, friendly smile on his face that was carefully concealing the teeth that often turned a Klingon smile into a threat of pain and injury. The smile was at odds with his physical presence, however the eyes showed something else, intelligence beyond that of a common barbarian.

“Federation Outpost 42,” the Captain announced, his voice deep but not unpleasant. “I am Captain Khain of House Kholl, of the Imperial Klingon Ship Khazad’hea. We request permission to dock at your station on an Official Klingon matter from the High Council. I also request your medical facility be made ready, I have on board two of your Officers who are gravely wounded, and we do not have the facilities on board to keep them alive much longer.” At this the big Klingon paused, clearly awaiting an answer from the Outpost.

“Captain Khain, you are cleared to dock,” the Watch Officer replied and nodded to Franks to make the arrangements, they were allies and there wasn’t any reason to decline them, especially with wounded on board. “Can you tell me who you have on your ship and how they came to be injured?”

Khain nodded, and his smile slipped slightly but instead of anger, it was into an image of regret and sadness. Just slightly. “I believe from the equipment they carried, that we have on board a Lieutenant Rhodes, and a Lieutenant Junior Grade Brine. They appear to have been posing as a Federation sponsored Romulan survey team, inside the Quarantine Zone of the Romulus system. The inhabitants of that system did not take kindly to their presence, we were able to rescue them at the last moment as their Runabout exploded.”

The Watch Officers face fell at hearing their own Officers were the injured, and he looked at King. “Get the Lieutenant Commander up here, and inform the Infirmary they have incoming wounded.” King turned to the console, and sent the message to Jessica that a ship had arrived with their injured officers then alerted th stations medial section.

Giving the Federation crew a curt nod, the screen showing Captain Khain returned to the image of the Klingon Warship, which now visibly began to approach the station for docking.

Captain Khain of the IKS Khazad’hea