Third Place Winner Stardate 20403.14
Extrended Shore Leave - Lt Areack Jackson
© 2004 by Federation Space and the author pen named Areack Jackson
Year 33. Volgo 1. A planet near the Romulan Neutral zone
“Commander Jackson! Commander Jackson!” LCdr. David John Jackson turned around to see Lt.{JG}. Jonathan Travis come running up the path towards him.
“Woah, Calm down Travis, what happened?”
Travis breathed deeply for a few moments before he had enough breath to respond to David’s question. “We found it, We found it!”
“Found what?”
“The communication array, so we can send out an S.O.S.”
“That’s great!”
“The scouting party found it about 50 miles to the north; they are planning on heading out tomorrow with some wagons and pack animals.”
“Why don’t you head back to the town? , I’ll be down in a while.” said David.
Travis tore down the hill toward the small town they had built during their 12 years on this planet. David looked over at the town. It was about half a mile away from the peak he was sitting on. With all the trails and climbing, it took about half an hour to make to the camp from the hilltop. He looked up at the sky. It had been a calm day with clear blue skies. The sun would be setting soon and it wasn’t smart to be out after dark. He thought back to the day that had changed his life and the lives of many others, the day of the battle…
Year 21, Aboard the U.S.S. Bonaparte, Akira class. Near the Volgo system.
“Captain Johnson, I’m getting a strange reading, its like were being scanned but I can’t identify the source. It might be Romulans.” LCdr. Jackson said from his position at the engineering station of the bridge.
“Might be Romulans” is usually the last phrase of many officers before a Warbird de-cloaks and tears their ship apart. “Red Alert!! Lieutenant Robin, inform the rest of the fleet that we have a possible Romulan scan.”
“Captain!” yelled Cdr. Te’Q, the first officer. Captain Johnson turned around and looked at his FO. Te’Q’s gaze was toward the main viewing screen and Capt. Johnson turned to see what Te’Q was looking at. There were a few federation ships near the edge of the screen, but in the center of the screen was over twenty Romulan Warbirds.
“Captain they’re hailing our fleet, audio only”
“On speakers”
“This is Admiral Indack of the Imperial Romulan Navy to the federation fleet. I order you to surrender.”
Lt Travis leaned over to David, “Isn’t that your father in law?”
“Yeah, I get to tell my wife that her father tried to kill me when I get my next shore leave” he said with a chuckle in his voice.
Their conversation was interrupted by another voice coming over the speakers. “This is Fleet Admiral Richards and I have a question in response to your command. Why do you always order us to surrender when you know we never will?”
“I have often wondered that as well, must be in a protocol file somewhere. I assume that your reply is a no, so shall we begin the battle?” replied Indack
“Sounds good to me, may the best fleet win!” Fadm. Richards said
“I hope it does.” Said the Romulan, sounding almost sorrowful
“The channel is closed.” Stated Lt. Robin.
“That was strange, no snide remark about the Romulans planning to win, no insults. That was the most unusual Romulan I have ever heard” the Captain said thinking aloud.
“Commander Jackson get as much power as you can for weapons. Lt Travis head for the nearest Romulan ship and open full fire, target their shield generator and bring the shields down!”
“Yes sir!”
The Bonaparte headed for the flank of the Romulan line and engaged a Warbird,
“Captain we have damaged their shields, it wont be long before they go down and we can get a clean shot at their generator.”
“Keep it up, don’t let off!” the captain yelled over the roar of the red alert alarm, photon torpedoes and phasers combined.
“Captain they are limping away from the battle”
“Follow them don’t let them escape”
The Bonaparte pursued the Warbird until they were about 80km away from the rest of the fleet.
“Captain, the Warbird is turning around and a second one has de-cloaked off our port aft!”
“An ambush! Get us out of …“
Before he could finish his sentence Romulan fire ripped across the hull causing massive damage. Debris covered the bridge; there was no movement except for the few fires that had started. Suddenly a hand popped out from beneath a pile of ceiling panels, David came out, and looked around dazed. He felt a trickle on his head and reached up to find he had a scrape on his head that was bleeding. Looking around he saw the captains hand sticking out he ran over the debris, from the engineering station where he had been to the captain’s hand. David began pulling panels and wires from off of the captain. Once the final piece was pulled off of the captain’s head, the captain started coughing.
“David, where’s Te’Q?”
David looked over to where the first officer had stood; there was a small flame. A large beam had fallen exactly where he had stood, there was no chance that he could of survived.
“He’s dead”
“I feared it, David you are in charge now. Get the ship to safety. The crew depends on you now.”
“But captain you-“
“Don’t kid yourself David; you and I both know I won’t live much longer. I’ll give you one last word of advice, never underestimate the Romulans, it cost me my life. And those of many oth-“. The captain never finished. David stood up with tears in his face. Most of the main viewer was still functioning and he still saw the two Warbird, the first one was leaving, letting the second one finish the kill. David heard debris moving and he looked back to see Lt Travis stand up.
“Travis what weapons do we have?”
Before Travis could answer there was more movement and Ensign Paul Connell the helmsman got up.
Then Travis responded “we have photon tubes 3 and 4 and 2 phaser banks at half power”
“Fire at the Warbird, target their engines”
The Warbird had lowered their shields to send boarding parties over just as Travis fired.
“Direct hit! Their engines are out cold!”
“Connell get us out of here, head for the rally point at Volgo 1, maximum warp!”
4 hours later
“Any other ships yet?”
“No sir.”
It had been four hours since the Bonaparte had fled the battle. They had arrived at the rally point were all the ships were to go after the battle ended, so far the Bonaparte was the only one there.
“Well crew we have to face it the battle was lost and the Romulans now hold a key sector. As soon as repairs are complete enough we will head back to star base 472.”
“Captain I have a ship on sensor.”
“Can you identify it?”
“No sir.”
“Back away, stay out of their sensor range.”
“Too late they’ve seen us. Captain I have Identified them, Romulan”
“Were being hailed.”
“On screen”
A Romulan sitting in the center of a Warbird bridge came on the screen and began to speak in a sarcastic voice.
“So one escaped us. No matter, you will soon join your friends”
The Romulans fired tearing the hull of the ship apart. Small fragments of the ship survived and crash landed onto the nearby planet. One fragment contained the bridge and most of the next deck.
Back at the planet
… But the battle was over and now that the sensor array had been found they would be able to send an S.O.S. David realized it was getting dark so he ran back to camp. There was a celebration that night and the next day the retrieval team left the get the array. They returned two weeks later. After 3 weeks of sending distress calls a freighter picked them up and came to begin the rescue.
the day of evacuation
“Hurry up! The last group is about to leave.” Lt. Travis entered the ready room where David was packing up the last of his things.
“I’m coming.” They walked out of the ready room and entered the main bridge and walked over to where the view screen had been, it had been blown out in the crash and a stair case had been cut into the hull to make it easily accessible from the ground where most of the village was.
“So what do you plan on doing once you get back to earth?” Travis asked David
“Well Star Fleet owes me 12 years of back pay, I doubt they’ll pay it though, they’ll probably dismiss it as extended shore leave. Seriously though I’ll probably spend some time with my wife and son.”
“Well keep in mind your son is 22 years old now.”
“That’s right; He might be in Star Fleet.”
“With you as his dad, is there any doubt?”
They both laughed as they stepped into the pattern enhancers and beamed up to the freighter that would take them back to earth.
The End.
