Isaac sat at his desk and slowly sipped on his drink, his ready room was darkened and the only light source being his desk's holographic okudagram and the stars streaking by his window.
A casualty report sat on his display. Over the course of the last fourteen days in the Delta Quadrant, the Vigilance had suffered eight deaths and forty two injuries. Many of those from the damaged sustained while the ship covered the fleeing Talaxians from their asteroid base when Gaul, leader of the Vaadwaur, under the guise of a meeting of peace massacred most of the remaining talaxians there.
Now after finishing its mission in the Orlitus cluster, the Vigilance was escorting the Romulan Republic's flagship Lleiset back to the Jenolan sphere after it was damaged and boarded by the vaadwaur. Giving Isaac a small amount of free time to himself.
Captain's Personal Log, Stardate 84230.92
"I haven't had time to make a personal log since we got to work on the Vigilance, our new Guardian Cruiser, back at the Sol system. The days were long and the nights longer. By the time we launched we had to head out."
"She is a tough ship though, dare i say tougher then the Grissom and we're lucky. With the things we've had to face here in the Delta Quadrant...i'm not sure if the ol' excelsior would have held up to it."
Isaac went quite while readjusting the sling on his injured left arm.
"We've only been in the Delta Quadrant for fourteen days and the whole quadrant save a few people seem to be, in one way or another, trying to kill us. Raiders, bounty hunters with a work ethic, remnants of a species nearly wiped out by the Borg now hellbent on killing anything thing that is borg. You name it, this quadrant has it. Then there is the Vaadwaur...a people from a bygone era. Put a large part of their race into stasis pods to survive the onslaught they brought on themselves. A species when last seen by the crew of Voyager was nine hundred behind the times in terms of their technology, has found itself with enough advanced technology that has sent them back to the top and in a position to take back their old territories and then some."
"Barely an hour ago we found out the hard way that they also have some kind of nigh invulnerable soldier. Damn thing wiped out entire security teams and pummeled myself plus the away team in the Lleiset's core room while we got it under some vents that were rigged to spew out an experimental type of plasma used by the Lleiset to weaken it just enough to hurt it. But even then it took a large security team bombarding it with weapons fire just to keep it away from the singularity controls, plus a photon grenade for good measure just to kill it by knocking it over into the core."
Isaac shook his head.
All i know is this, Jarok is right. We need a better way to take down those things, can't keep knocking them into singularity cores just to kill them. Then there is the Kobali. I...i don't even know what to--"
The door to Isaac's ready room chimed.
"Computer, save and end log."
"Come."
The door slid open with T'Vrell and Lenaris entering. They both handed Isaac a report and took a seat in front of him.
"Doctor Rasha has cleared all but Ensign Christie for active duty." said T'Vrell after she took a seat.
"Why?" asked Isaac while looking over the medical report she gave him.
"Overnight observation. The doctor wants to make sure there are no adverse effects from the concussion she suffered from our fight with the vaadwaur super solider."
"Speaking of the super solider, we found out his name." Lenaris said, pointing to the padd she handed him. Isaac looked through the information on the padd as Lenaris continued.
"Security footage from the Lleiset caught one of the soliders calling him Overseer Relin, and judging by his garb we believe he might be the same vaadwaur you saw leading the enemy forces when you were defending the bridge to the Kobali city."
"Was wondering if they were one and the same." spoke up Isaac, still staring into the padd.
"Lieutenant Selan is still shifting through their databanks, if he finds anything else he said he would pass it along."
Isaac set the padds down and looked up to his officers.
"Hows the Lleiset doing?"
T'Vrell answered. "They have managed to temporarily repair their core long enough for us to enter slipstream together, cutting our trip back to the sphere down to twenty hours from our current location."
"Good. I wasn't looking forward to playing dodge the vaadwaur fleet for half our trip back."
"Indeed." echoed T'Vrell."
"We'll take the lead into the stream and setup a telemetry link with them to take a load off their primary computer."
"We also have some of their injured in our sickbays still. Do we want to beam them back before we enter slipstream, sir?" Lenaris asked.
Isaac sighed quietly and turned toward the window, looking out at the Lleiset alongside them.
"...No. We'll keep them on-board until we dock at Alliance Headquarters."
"Shall we post security at the sickbays?"
"No, but i do want a security team stationed on deck twenty nine at all times while they are on-board. I don't want them getting near the Particle Conversion Matrix."
"Aye, sir. Zarva has also asked if we could stay at Alliance HQ for a day or two, to facilitate repairs to the ship."
"Field repairs with the workbees have kept us going so far, we'll be fine without the drydocks for now."
"Should we really pass up a chance to get into drydock, sir? The starboard nacelle is still giving us trouble, i mean hell, we were almost forced out of warp on our way to the Orlitus cluster. We can't keep risking it."
Isaac's eyes fell from the window to the floor and scanned along it while thinking.
"The commander is right, captain. It world be prudent to take advantage of the finished drydocks while we take on new crew and a new officer."
Isaac turned fully to T'Vrell with a confused look. "New officer?"
T'Vrell nodded. "Starfleet Command has assigned a counselor to the Vigilance."
"A counselor??"
T'Vrell gave him a look of confusion. "Its not unusual to assign a starship a counselor, more so when the starship is in many areas of conflicts and far from federation space."
"Can't be shocked, sir." Lenaris chimed in. "We never did get one on the Grissom, only a matter of time till we did on the Vigilance."
"Mmm...Ok then. We'll stay for two days"
"Would you like the personnel file?" asked T'Vrell
"Have it sent down to my quarters, i'm due back in sickbay in a few minutes and i don't want Rasha hunting me down with the bone-knitter if i don't show."
Isaac stood up and placed his cup in he replicator. "Thank you for the updates. I want you two to rest while we make our way to the Jenolan, that means you T'Vrell. You may be Vulcan but you still need rest like the rest of us."
"Captain. As you know vulcans can go weeks without sleep and--"
"Rest, T'Vrell. Don't make it an order." he said with a smile.
"Yes, captain."
All three of them stepped out onto the bridge, with the two officers making their way up to the turbolift and Isaac walking over to Elisa. T'Vrell stopped and turned to Isaac before stepping into the lift.
"There was one more thing, captain."
Isaac paused with Elisa and turned up to T'Vrell. "Oh?"
"Yes. Mr. Selan asked if you had put anymore thought into helping him improve our...vulnerabilities?"
Elisa gave T'Vrell a confused look and turned to Isaac with the same look. "Capt'n?"
Isaac shook his head with a smile. "Tell Gaius he'll have to find them on his own."
T'Vrell raised an eyebrow and nodded, continuing her way into the lift with Lenaris.
"Vulnerabilities?" Elisa asked.
"I'll tell you about it later over dinner, if we're still on that is?"
"Of course. My shift is over in thirty minutes, once your done getting that arm fixed we can meetup at my quarters around twenty hundred hours."
"I'll see you then."
An ensign spoke up. "Captain, we're being hailed by the Lleiset."
"On screen."
It was Subcommander Merol. "Captain Angelos, we're ready to make the jump to slipstream."
"Very well. We'll establish a telemetry link with you and take lead into the slipstream, that should ease the load on your end, subcommander."
Merol signaled to a officer to be ready for the linkup. "Thank you, captain. Proceed with the jump on your mark." the channel closed afterwards.
Elisa took her seat. "Helm. Bring us out of warp and to a stop in front of the Lleiset."
"Yes, ma'am."
The two ships dropped outta warp a few seconds later and the Vigilance assumed a position in front of the warbird.
Watcher turned to the captain. "We're ready, captain."
"All hands this is the captain. Take your stations, secure all systems and prepare to make the jump to slipstream."
"The telemetry link is ready, captain." said a science officer.
"The Lleiset has signaled, sir." came another officer.
"Prepare to the enter the slipstream . . .engage."
Watcher begun the countdown. "Slipstream velocity in four, three, two, one."
Both starships glowed a blue hue as they jumped. Then with a soft flash, both ships had entered the corridor.
"Status?"
Watcher tapped a few buttons on his console. "The corridor is stable and the Lleiset is directly off our aft section."
"Link?"
"Telemetry link is active and sending data."
Isaac turned to his first officer. "Another fine jump. The bridge is yours, commander."
"Aye, capt'n."
And with that, Isaac made his way to the turbolift.
"Deck eight, sickbay."
Isaac didn't know which to be more worried about. The Vaadwaur...or a Counselor.
Quote. Now, time to write up the next part.
Keep up the good work !
. I have the next part planned out but i have been really busy as of late. So i'll try to get it written up soon.
