Stardate 53244.3
“Captain’s log, stardate 53244.3. The Federation starship USSOakland is on a training mission to Gamma Hydra, section 14, coordinates 22 87 4. We’re approaching the Neutral Zone, all systems normal and functioning.”
The young woman in the captain seat was obviously trying to hide her nervosity behind calm and detached voice. Anyone who didn not known her would look for pointy ears. But her best friend wouldn’t be fooled by that.
“We’re leaving section 14 to section 15. When did you start to sound like a Vulcan, Steph?”
If looks could kill, Steph would have been without a pilot.
“Focus on your work, Gabe. Being this close to the neutral zone make me nervous. May I have a parabolic course to avoid the Zone on screen?”
Gabe typed a few commands, and a schema appeared on the bridge’s views screen. It showed the neutral zone as a green sphere surrounding the Romulan Empire while the ship’s trajectory formed a red line following the border without crossing it. Being that close would allow the long-range sensors of the ship to reach the other side of the zone and monitor any suspicious activity. A behavior that felt anachronic after the Dominion War during which the Romulan Empire and the Federation fought together, but these were the orders.
For the following order, the bridge crew did its work until the executive officer of the ship opened his mouth.
“It looks like today is going to be a good day.”
Looking at the lumberjack in red uniform, the young tactical officer standing behind the captain’s chair broke the mood:
“Commander, I’m picking up a distress signal.”
Steph gave another one of her death glares, to her executive officer this time.
“Ryan, you just jinxed it. Put the distress call on speaker, Max.”
“Yes, Sir.”
At these words, Max pressed the right button.
“Imperative! This is the Kobayashi Maru, ...nineteen periods out of Altair Six. We have struck a gravitic mine and have lost all power. ...Our hull is penetrated, and we have sustained many casualties.”
Afraid to understand the situation, Steph answered the call:
“This is starship Oakland; I don’t hear you. Can you repeat your coordinates?”
“Oakland, our position is Gamma Hydra, Section Ten.”
The whole crew looked at each other, as their fear was now confirmed. Sitting next to Gabe, at the Operations console, Victoria voiced everyone thought: “inside the Neutral Zone.”
“Hull penetrated, life support systems failing. Can you assist us, Oakland? Can you assist us?”, continued the voice through the speakers.
“What do we know about the Kobayashi Maru?”, asked Steph immediately.
“Subject vessel is third class neutronic fuel carrier, crew of eighty-one, three hundred passengers.”, said the ship computer to the request.
“Fuck.”, reacted Steph, with no pretense of looking calm. After a second, she gave her orders: “Plot an intercept course, Gabe. There’s no ship closer to them or they would have answered the call.”
“Into the zone? That’s illegal, the Romulans could...”
Gabe was surprised by the order, but Ryan didn’t let him continue:
“The captain is fully aware of her responsibilities. Now please set a course.”
“Yes, Commander.”, and Gabe plotted the course as all the younger officer glared nervously at the three older officers. “We should reach the Kobayashi Maru in two minutes, captain.”
“We’re now entering the Neutral Zone. Should I put us in yellow alert?”, asked Caulfield from the back of the bridge.
“We're not looking for trouble, we’re in a rescue mission.”, answered the captain.
“Warning. We have entered the Neutral Zone. ...Warning.”, said the computer before Steph shut down the alert through the touch screen on her chair.
“We’re now in violation of the Treaty. Should I send an alert to both our government and the Romulan one?”, asked Ryan to her captain.
“That’s a good idea but Max can do it. I want you to lead the rescue mission. All our transporter room must be ready.”
“Yes, captain.”, and Ryan left his seat, walking toward the turbolift.
At that moment, Max became livid:
“Captain, I’ve lost their signal.”
Ryan stopped at the door of the turbolift and wondered if he should continue his mission or return to his seat, as Victoria made a snarky comment: “Maybe you need to focus more on the present events.”
“Enough. Send on all frequencies that we are on a rescue mission, put the visual of the Kobayashi Maru on screen.”
“Yes, captain.” Answered the two young women to Steph. As Victoria changed the view on the screen, showing the ship floating in the middle of parts and dead bodies, Max launched the message on all frequencies.
“We’re jammed captain. Both on the subspace and electromagnetic spectrum.”, she instantly realized.
“Yellow alert, shields up.”
Steph and Ryan reacted at the exact same time. But it was too late. A spaceship who looked vaguely like a green bird was now facing the Oakland, dwarfing both the ship from the Federation and the civilian freighter. And it immediately fired on the rescuing ship.
“Evasive maneuvers!”
This time again, Steph and Ryan screamed at the same time as he was trying to reach his seat. But he felt on the floor as the ship was now rocked by the enemy weapons.
“Taking evasive actions. This is a D’Deridex class Warbird. They have an almost blind spot in their back, I gonna try to reach it.”, said Gabe as Ryan tried to get back to his seat.
“I’m trying to jam their targeting system with all our countermeasures, do you allow me to return fire?”, asked Max, looking at Steph instead of her screens... Which was a mistake:
“Torpedo lock, alert, torpedo lock.”, started to say the computer.
“Second warbird behind us!”
Aware of their blind spots, the Romulan decided to team up, and not take any risk despite the Oakland weak weaponry.
“Fire at will!”, shouted Steph as Max was launching decoys while the computer’s automatic jamming tried to divert the torpedoes away from the ship. One torpedo missed, another one exploded close to the ship… And a third hit the ship, sending it on a new trajectory as Gabe’s console exploded.
“Gabe! Fuck!”, shouted Ryan, running toward him.
“I’ll take the helm!”, said Victoria, switching her console with the destroyed one from the flip of a switch, before stabilizing the ship trajectory.
“There’s now three of them!”, said Max with a surprised voice as she was firing with all the ship’s phaser array and torpedo launcher.
“What’s the status? How’s Gabe?”, asked Steph, worried.
“He’s dead, Steph.”, answered Ryan.
“Our shields are barely above thirty percent of their nominal power. We’ve got a hull breach on deck nine and lost one of our impulse drives.”, was Max answer as she tried to focus on shooting down one of the three Romulan warbirds. But the ship was under armed to face such adversaries, and the enemy shield were holding when suddenly…
With horrified eyes, all the crew watched as the view-screen explode and they faced the void of space. Gabe’s body and Ryan were sucked outside the ship as Max, Steph and Victoria tried to survive by holding anything they could put a hand on, be it their console or chair until a safety force field activated, restoring atmosphere integrity inside the ship.
“We’ve lost our shields, a phaser array and I lost the monitoring of hull breaches.”, said Max with a nervous voice.
“We will never be able to save the Kobayashi Maru. Victoria, set a trajectory that take us back to our side of the border.”, was Steph reaction, to Max and Victoria surprise.
“We will never reach it, but yes Captain.”, were Victoria’s words as she nervously answered and tried to set a course.
“Max, open ship-wide comms.”, ordered the captain.
“Yes, captain.”, answered the brunette.
“This is the captain speaking, this is a general evacuation order and….”, As Steph was speaking, the bridge was engulfed in a fireball. As darkness enveloped Max, she was surprised to think about how she ended in that situation.