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Lieutenant Dentari wrote The Fire in Which We Burn, receiving 2/3 of the votes - an overwhelming victory. So we thank everyone for their submissions and we congratulate Dentari for his winning entry. Enjoy the winning story!
The Fire in Which We Burn
Written by: Dentari
Time Period: Dominion War
Her eyes flickered open. The veil of darkness was pierced only by intermittent sparks and the flickering of the LCARS panels from which they originated. Tentatively, she drew herself up from the floor and began to survey the damage.
Captain Evangeline Larrenson had always been considered by her peers to be stalwart, stoic and unwavering in the face of even the most horrific of situations. To be in command of a Miranda class vessel at the height of the Dominion War required her to be so; she, and by proxy her crew, had garnered a reputation as being brave to the point of recklessness and fearless in the face of death. Even the name of her ship, the Audacious, echoed this characteristic and this point had not gone unnoticed by those who served under her. The young men and women who together formed the bridge crew of the Audacious had held Larrenson as much in fear as they had done in awe; her orders were law and she demanded unquestioning loyalty, yet despite this unrelentingly abrasive, distant and seemingly cold personality, they had respected her as a strong maternal figure.
As her eyes adjusted to the dimness of her surroundings, she began to discern the layout of the bridge which she had spent three years serving on. The once pristine bridge she had known was gone. She was instead confronted with a scene of devastation; shattered glass coated the floor like a morning frost on grass, smoke billowed from blown out control panels around the room and debris was scattered throughout. It was then that she was hit by the sudden realisation. Those same young and fresh faced officers who had served under her command for the past year and a half were scattered across the bridge in various levels of disarray, all of them motionless. She had lost crewmen before, but never on such a scale.
The cold grasp of shock took its hold and momentarily she was nearly as still as the officers who lay around her. Even her loyal first officer, the person she was closest too aboard the Audacious, was among the familiar faces she picked out from across the room. "No time for grief, do your duty", she thought to herself. She jolted towards the helm only to keel over in pain the first step she took, the return of her clarity of mind also heralded a sensation of agony which emanated from her midriff. Her hand instinctively shot to grasp the pain, only to be ripped away swiftly at the tenderness it encountered; she felt the warm, clinging dampness of blood. The ship suddenly groaned and the floor went out from underneath her. Phaser fire. They were still there, they were still a part of Operation Return. Pulling herself back to her feet yet again, Captain Larrenson lurched towards the helm in an attempt to take manual control of her ship. She was relieved to find the view screen in working order, but this relief was overshadowed by what the view screen showed her; the flotsam and jetsam of the battle arced across her field of vision and the opposing Jem'Hadar and Cardassian fleet was heavily engaged with the Federation Task Force.
A tangible rumble passed through the ship and the USS Defiant flanked by the Majestic and the Sitak roared overhead and punched straight into the Dominion formation, followed closely by a vast array of Federation vessels. As they drew away into the distance, Larrenson witnessed the destruction of both the Majestic and the Sitak, both succumbing to intense phaser fire. She would not sit idly by and watch as her Federation counterparts fought for their lives. Weapons and shields were offline, the air was becoming noticeably thin, blood seeped from her chest wound and her eyelids were becoming heavy. She knew her death was inevitable, but the manner in which she met it was still entirely in her control. Her eyes roved the battle for viable targets and they came to rest on the Galor which had just moments before blown a hole through the saucer section of the Majestic. "A beautiful irony", she exclaimed to her absent crew, "It was an honour to serve with you all". And with that, she slowly angled the Audacious, which was under heavy fire, towards the offending Galor, which was preoccupied with a wing of fighters, transferred all available power to impulse engines and punched in a collision course.
As the Audacious careened peacefully through the battle which encompassed it towards its final destination, Larrenson took one last look around her home and at her family. She was proud of them, despite not having voiced this to them often enough. She limped over to the Captains chair and tenderly seated herself. The Galor was quickly growing on the view screen yet she felt no fear; a comforting warmth passed over her and her vision became murky. She thought only one thing:
"In the morning glad I see
My foe outstretched beneath the tree."
My foe outstretched beneath the tree."
With that final thought, Captain Larrenson of the USS Audacious fell into unconsciousness and never awoke to find out what had become of the Galor, Operation Return or the Audacious.
Epilogue
His eyes flickered open. Dust filled his lungs and swirled all around him, his head span as his vision began to wane and a bright light filled his eyes as he was dragged from the blaring heat of on out of control fire. He lost consciousness as the medics prepared him for emergency transport and unbeknownst to him he spent the next few days in a medically induced coma in the sickbay aboard the USS Farragut.
He woke what seemed to him to be moments later, surrounded by a multitude of other bedridden strangers in a sickbay which was unfamiliar to him. Commander Charles Blake could not recall how he had got to where he was now from the dark maelstrom of a room he had found himself in, nor could he understand how he had arrived in that dark ruin from the bridge of the Audacious in the first place. He intended to find out.
The Fire in Which We Burn, is the first in what is intended to be a series of short stories which take place during the Dominion War.
Can't wait for more!
