PLOT - JL | Com Ivanova, Cmdr Dahe'el, Capt Neyes, Cmdr Neyes, Ael'Riov Tr'Bak - "Flight of the Valkyries" PT I

Posted on Tue Nov 17th, 2015 @ 9:54pm by Admiral Rochelle Ivanova & Commander Almar Dahe'el & Commander Tristan Neyes PhD. & Captain Landon Neyes

2,301 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Agua Mala

Time was of the essence. Everywhere Rochelle looked, she saw faces. Expectant faces. Worried faces. Scared faces. Out of uniform and stuck in their finery, with rare exceptions, they had become more than officers - they were people. Superman had been rolled back into Clark Kent and it would seem that the magic shield of the delta insignia had left people raw and vulnerable in the face of what was sure to be tragedy. Of that Rochelle was so very certain.

"Enterprise." She started, casting an eye to Almar as her small retinue passed quickly through the halls. "Send them off. Tell them to head back to Theta, no exceptions, no fight. Go." The order was concise, but it rose eyebrows about as much as the idea of a Commodore in a Romulan gifted gown did. The politician that had been forced to fill it out, however, was gone. "Tr'Bak has no quarrel with the Enterprise. It isn't them he wants and I won't have them die on my watch for his personal vendetta. Might as well have all non-essential personnel get the Hell off this ship as well." She grumbled, struggling to unfasten a diamond laced bracelet as she stepped into the turbo lift.

Tristan, Landon and the others were following quickly behind. "I'll get started on evacuation procedures immediately." Tristan offered, veering off from the pack to begin organizing the crew. His first thoughts were of Zed, but he would need to trust the security crews to care for his family. Zed knew in this situation exactly what to do.

"It will be done," Almar replied simply as he strode towards the nearest console to busy himself about the work, she was right and deep down inside he knew it, the Enterprise would be best to make itself scarce in the coming firefight.

"We should put some distance between us and the planet if we expect the worst. There are four of the most powerful explosives in the Federation sitting in Engineering. Vindicator could tear the atmosphere off the planet if we were close enough." Landon said. He wanted to reach out for Rochelle, offer something. He could see her taking command, but he knew it they were now in this predicament because of his decision. His failure to control himself. Any action other than following her orders in this crisis would undermine her ability to command the situation, however, so he held back.

With Tristan off taking charge of evacuations, Rochelle could feel the weight of what was to come begin to settle solidly across her chest and shoulders. Landon's words, however, coated them in heavy, galvanized steel. Down below there was an entire civilization of people that were likely feeling a steady combination of fear and anger. They didn't deserve to perish because of the Empress' gross misjudgment of Vrith Tr'Bak's character. "Right," She nodded, "We'll stall long enough to get people off the ship and demand that we move out of orbit and then some. Or we just say 'fuck you' and let him chase us a bit." The Commodore shrugged and gave up on the bracelet's clasp. The wrist it adorned fell heavily against her side, the stones hissing as they made contact with the crystals, sequins, and beads of her gown. With one Mogai sitting off their bow, she had more than enough reason to be tense. Their last run in with a well-equipped, and smaller, D'Deridex had nearly left the Vindicator in ruin - this... Was going to be disaster. Spying a quick look at Landon, she could see the guilt wrapped across his facial features bright as Christmas wrapping paper - and yet she couldn't bring herself to blame him. Moments before he'd come sauntering in on his proverbial white horse, she'd been praying to a God she didn't even believe in that Archer lay hidden in the rafters just waiting for a clear shot of the green blooded bastard's third eye.

"Give me the helm, Commodore. I'll get us the distance and time we need." Neyes walked astride Rochelle as they made their way onto the bridge.

"You have it." Her response was short, clipped, concise. The face on the view screen kept her from offering Landon any sort of warmth as it sent a cold prickle racing up her spine, forcing the baby hairs on the back of her neck to raise.

"He's on mute?" She asked the crew member vacating the center chair.

"Yes ma'am. Can't hear a thing."

"Take him off silence."

"Aye, Captain."

Vrith Tr'Bak sat in his command chair, his injured hand cradling a snifter of cold Romulan Ale while he gazed upon the encroaching figures of the Vindicator's illustrious command team. "Oh, Commodore..." He sighed heavily, "We both know how this is going to play out." He was silenced, albeit briefly, by the draw of ale between his lips. "I'm going to ask you to turn over Landon Neyes for his attempt on my life, and you're going to refuse, and then we're going to come to blows." He smiled, "So instead of me destroying your pretty ship, and killing hundreds of your crew for one man," He held a single finger away from the coolness of his glass, "how about we do this peacefully. What is it the Vulcans are always saying? The needs of the many?"

Rochelle smirked and ran her tongue over the fullness of her lower lip, "You know... You paint an awfully vivid and pretty picture with words, Tr'Bak, you must have been a poet or an artist in another life." She admonished him as she daintily took her seat, folding her coltish legs as she spoke, "I like art. Admire it, really... Even collect it. So I'm going to need a little more convincing as to why I should simply give you what you ask for and miss out on one Hell of a story." Time continued to tick, continued to burn, and Rochelle could only hope her cocky display would buy Landon what he needed to protect Apsha from what was likely to transpire if either ship bought the farm that night.

"Enterprise has acknowledged the order to move off," Almar replied as he hammered a few commands into the console and transferred himself to the First Officer's chair on the bridge, opening up the console in the arm.

Had he been with any other commanding officer, he knew offering himself to save the ship would have been refused but expected. Not even bothering to waste his breath about something he knew Ivanova would never go for, he entered a slingshot maneuver into the helm. Tr'Bak's ships were already circling the Starfleet behemoth, waiting to unleash their destructive power on her the moment she started to run. Using the massive mass of the Vindicator to their advantage, Landon figured he could get enough speed going in the gravity well of Apsha to give them a few seconds head start.

“I don’t know how much more convincing I can do, Commodore.” The Romulan replied flat and boredly.

From behind Rochelle, a young Lieutenant’s voice croaked from the Vindicator’s Tactical station, “Mogai is powering up its weapons, Captain.”

“Raise shields, arm all weapons.” She replied in much the same tone Tr’Bak had taken with her. The only difference was that the brazen young redhead settled deeper into her chair and arced a brow, never pulling her eyes from the Ael’Riov’s face.
The man sighed, “Please, Rochelle, don’t make me destroy you.”

“So we’ve taken to begging people to consider their own lives?” The second brow went up in mock surprise, “How very un-Romulan of you, Vrith. I’m touched. Really.” The entire façade nearly broke when the Vindicator began to break orbit, her thrusters rapidly working to accelerate her hulking mass past the Mogai. She wanted to look to Landon, to question just what his plan was, but couldn’t. It wouldn’t have worked well for the dangerous hand of cards she continuously worked.

“This is how you want it to play out?” Vrith sighed, yet again, “How very un-Federation of you to not want to work things out amicably.” His eyes nearly rolled as he took another sip of his Ale.

“I don’t see anything amicable about trading lives. Call me selfish, a trait you can surely understand.” Rochelle retorted almost haughtily as her ship gleefully flew along Landon’s selected course. It was only a matter of time, she knew, before Tr’Bak snapped and fire was exchanged – all she could do was pray to whatever God happened to be listening that it would buy them enough time to get people to safety and for the Enterprise to be able to break away to head for Theta. So far her assumption that the Ael’Riov couldn’t have cared less for the aging Odyssey class vessel had proven to be correct, and for that she’d be eternally grateful.

Vrith silenced an officer behind him with nothing more than the raise of his hand, “If it’s a fight you want, you may have ten minutes to get your civilians off your ship.” He said, watching their progress on his screen, “No need for innocent people to die for your misjudgment.”

The redhead closed her eyes in brief respite, relief washing over her features as her head bowed ever so slightly. “Ten minutes.” She agreed, setting in stone the time of their gunfight. Instead of tumbleweeds blowing past them on the streets of down town Tombstone, it would be the shimmer of starlight somewhere in uncharted space belonging to the Stenellian Ascendancy. Any other time it would have been comical.

The screen went dead with nothing more than the lifting of Vrith’s glass in acknowledgement before he tossed back the rest of his drink. Rochelle, however, felt as if she were about to crumble the moment the screen went dark and was quickly replaced by the flash of stars as the great ship boomeranged away from Apsha with the Mogai in hot pursuit.

--

On the edge of the system, the Pendragon sat pensive, watching, waiting. The Vulcan sitting in the command chair was watching the tactical display on the viewscreen with interest and an eyebrow raised as the symbol marking the Enterprise began to move away, "Who's ships is the Vindicator facing down?"

"Reports indicated Ael'Riov Vrith Tr'Bak, sir." came the reply from the communications officer sat just to the side of the Operations console, he'd been a very efficient addition after his recruitment from the ruins of Starfleet Intelligence and had proven himself a font of useful information, "It would seem this is personal, the Ael'Riov has mentions in his file of multiple involvements with the Vindicator and Commodore Ivanova."

"Personal? That would explain why the Enterprise is turning to run, she's been ordered away." Vokar replied as he tapped a button on his console and strapped himself into the chair, "Helm, set an intercept course for the Vindicator, the moment they make a stand, join them." he added before turning to look at his tactical officer, "Order our escorts to position themselves for flanking strikes, decloak on my order, weapons hot and free."

--

Strapping himself into the chair was something Almar had not done in a while, but he could see that it might come in handy within the next few minutes as things began to develop, he was keeping one eye on what the Trill at the helm was doing and another on the sensors monitoring the Enterprise, "Commodore, there's... something approaching." he stated as he attempted to verify what it was, "It's not Romulan or Klingon and there's no running Starfleet transponder, something looks familiar but until it gets closer I can't tell you why."

Rochelle's head lifted to acknowledge Almar, "Keep an eye on it. Could be Ascendancy coming to see what the Hell is going on."

"Another four minutes on evacuation." Tristan said over the comm. Landon chimed in behind saying, "The Romulans are just 30 seconds behind us." The escape pods jettisoned from the hull of the cruiser with alarming frequency, taking the non-Starfleet personnel off the ship and launching them back into the system to be retrieved.

With a nod, the Commodore found her feet. "If fortune decides to favor them instead of us, I expect you all to leave when I give the order." She said, leveling her eyes between the Cardassian and the Trill. "Defying that order isn't an option. I hope I make myself clear."

Neyes didn't look at her, just turned enough to bring his face above his shoulder, "It wouldn't be the first time I told a flag officer no."

Landon was at a crossroads if this thing went south. Rochelle would gladly give herself to the fight; ending herself to the cause of saving the crew. She would dig her claws in deep, then hurl herself and Tr'Bak off the cliff's edge. He had to remind her that her duty was not just to Starfleet now, but to a life that wasn't her's to give. If that didn't work, there was only one way he wasn't leaving with her in tow...

"You'll have to pry my cold...er, dead corpse out of this chair before I let you stay here alone." Almar replied with a slight smile as he tapped into the engineering readouts and began monitoring the power flow.

---

Commodore Rochelle Ivanova
Commanding Officer
USS VINDICATOR, NCC 78213-E

Commander Almar Dahe'el
Executive Officer
USS VINDICATOR, NCC 78213-E

Captain Landon Neyes
Civilian Liaison
USS VINDICATOR, NCC 78213-E

Commander Tristan Neyes
Chief Counselor
USS VINDICATOR, NCC 78213-E

Ael'Riov Vrith tr'Bak
Commander, 3rd Tal Shiar Task Force
Romulan Star Empire

 

RSS Feed