This is the final episode of Star Trek: New Beginning story. Not because the adventures of the main characters are over but because with the destruction of the USS August the chapter in our friend's lives is closed. And while they began a new chapter, it is time for us to go and write our own chapters. Time to embrace our own unknown, our future, and find out what happens to the main protagonists in our lives: US.
The first episode of the story, of which this episode is the last one is HERE (ie." Last time on Star Trek New Beginning)
BUT FIRST: A shoutout to my Sponsor. He is the first and once more only person that ever willingly associated his name with my work, and even pays me for it. Thanks, Pantera!
And now for the conlusion:
==Marine Temp Quarters==
Nelson heard and felt the explosion that came from Cargo Bay 4. He knew it could not be good. He tapped his combadge.
=^=Nelson to McClintock, do you know what the hell that was?=^=
There was no response.Nelson grabbed his phaser rifle and slung it across his back.
"Damn it!... What the hell is going on?!", Nelson thought to himself.
=^=Nelson to Captain Dylan, I need to speak with you, McClintock, and Captain Trask ASAP, Sir! It is in regard to the crew's safety aboard this station.=^="
=^=Agreed Lieutenant, Please contact Captain Trask and have him meet me in 15 minutes in my office, And please inform the captain that we are meeting. He may want to be present but He may not have the time to do so. McClintok is currently in Sickbay due to the accident =^= Ordered Dylan.
=^=Dylan to all Marines, I want All EOD specialists to report to Cargo Bay 4. I want reports Every other to Myself and Captain Greener, Dylan out. =^=
Jolan had just gotten to his makeshift quarters after a stint at ops, he didn't really have anything to do and had just laid down when his badge went off. He had been oblivious to the explosion as no alerts were sounded, or he had ignored them, after all, he had been up the past 24 hours straight.
=^= On My Way... what's your location Lieutenant?=^= Jolan asked, a hint of irritation from not sleeping in his voice.
He grabbed his now returned rifle, and gear.
=^= Captain, we are meeting at Captain Dylan's office. I will meet you there.=^=
Nelson tapped his combadge as he turns into Captain Dylan's temporary office. He rings the bell and the door opens. As Nelson walked into her office, Dylan was reading the report from the EOD teams in Cargo Bay 4. So far they had found no traces of any more explosives, but they were still sweeping the Bay.
"Good evening Lieutenant, you are the first to arrive. I would like to thank you for taking the Initiative. It's a quality that I value in my Officers. And as such I would like you to take lead in the Meeting," Said Dylan.
"Aye Ma'am!" Nelson said as he stood at a modified attention stance.
Jolan entered the office, he had still not slept but was used to pull multiple days up, he had more than his fair share in fact under his 20 or so years in uniform, he had his custom carbine, drop weapions{consisting of a hidden type 1 phaser and a knife>and his duty phaser type two on his hip, as well as a tactical tricorder, and his utility belt<medical supplies spare power cells extra comm badges ectra} and his personal shield
"Chief tactical officer reporting, ma'am," Jolan said, snapping a quick salute.
He then tapped his badge if was only fitting
=^="Second Lieutenant Zoteke Madwan report to captain Dylans office ASAP"=^=
he then turned to face the officers in the room "we forgot him in the initial announcement,it only seemed proper."
Nelson nodded at Captain Trask.
"I will wait for Madwan to arrive before I get started."
As the comm from Captain Trask came in Zoteke's eyebrow rose in surprise. He was just a minute out from the station returning from another grueling triple watch on Combat Space Patrol. Even though they kept the patrol route variable so no one could predict where the patrol was, and more importantly where it wasn’t, after a while it gets tedious to simply fly through the same area of space all of the time.
Having set up the routes in such a way that the station and its immediate surroundings were always within sensor range the distance from the station didn't get far enough to combat the tediousness of the patrols.
=^= Zoteke to Capt. Trask. I'l be touching down in a minute. I'll go straight to the Captain's office from the hanger bay.... unless this is an emergency, then I'll beam over now...=^=
Just to make sure he got there as soon as he could he kicked up the engines to full and punched the afterburners, as he started calling the capacitors that gave him this "turbo-boost" like an option. Obediently the Sparrow charged forward closing the distance to the station rapidly. From the station, Zoteke noticed, the relief shift of fighters which should consist of Yeager and Trask, launched into space and turned into their mission vectors.
He was proud of his squadron and humbled to be allowed to lead them.
Three minutes later the pilot, still in his gear accept for the helmet, entered the office. “reporting as ordered SIR” Zoteke snapped as he came to a quick but crisp attention.
A nod acknowledged and a wave of the hand told Zoteke to sit down.
"I have called this meeting to discuss our security and defense measures for this station. No offense to the Agiri, but I do not trust their security team to defend our crew. I want to start preparing for any type of attack that may arise.
We need to have Madwan keep his squadron on high alert to give us any forewarning of any ships that might be attacking. We need to have both Alpha and Brava Squadrans ready to be deployed at any time. We need to have marines on each deck that our crew is on, including Ops.
That EOD in Cargo Bay 4 is, I am sure, just the beginning of an attack from that alien force. I do not want to have a thumb up my..." Nelson pauses and remembers that he is in the room with his COs.
"...rear end. They already have taken out too many of our men and women and they will not take anymore! Obviously these are just suggestions, but I do believe we need to be ready." Nelson went to the at ease stance. "Captain Dylan and Trask, your thoughts?"
"Like you said we have the EOD teams sweeping the Cargo bay, We should have some of the computer specialists work on strengthening our comms encryption routines. We should also change our shifts around as well, to at least 10-hour shifts. I am also going to recommend to the captain that he move the senior officers onto the Dunham and keep the engines primed ." Suggested Dylan.
"Captain Trask, what do you think?"
“let's not get too hasty, everybody has a right to be worried, I've only seen the reports of the explosion, I didn't hear any klaxons or feel the shudder or anything from my temp quarters, do we know the yield of the warhead? and have we found anymore or tried to reconstruct it to find its origin" He asked as he set the report down
"The EOD teams have only swept 10 percent of Cargo Bay 4, and they haven't even started on cargo bay 7 yet. It will be a while." Replied Dylan.
"indirect regards to the senior officers well being, I say we either keep an active lock on them and beam them out at a moments notice or have the dunam on standby and have an evacuation route pre-planned, keeping fully aware of where any and all senior officers are, perhaps even expand the EOD Sweeps" he paused again taking a sip from a glass of water.
"internal security is your department ma'am but id recommend we up patrols for strange activity and coordinate with the station teams as well, being the tactical officer I can't really do much save maybe monitor the entire situation from ops.
As Trask said all of this Dylan was making up her mind on how she wanted to arrange things.
"Okay, I want at least 1 marine with the Captain and the First Officer, at all times. I want three shifts patrolling the Cargo bays, 2 squads per shift.
Lieutenant Madwan, I want your people alert and ready for anything. And keep the Dunhams engines ready to go at a moment's notice."
Zoteke could help but grinn at that, nor resist the temptation to reply with a smartass remark. “Ah, so I was called here to sit in my flight suit, to get ordered to do what we have been doing all the time, and what I was in fact doing at the time I got called to report here for this meeting.”
A glance around those present told him that half of them had to stifle their laughter and the other half…. Not so much.
As Zoteke’s joke fell flat, she thought of the Arrangement of Security teams and said,
"Nelson You are now in command of Delta Team, I will take Alpha, And McClintock will have Beta Team. Anything Else?"
Jolan nodded
"I can watch the skipper and Exec, they spend the majority of their time in ops and I'm helping out there anyway" Jolan started as he took a sip of water.
"I would however like to have an emergency cache on hand at ops through a few weapons, tricorders medical kits shields or armored uniforms or something, I want the skipper and Exec to have armor or a shield on them at all times maybe some spare power cells too,i have my rifle on me at all times"He finished as he slung his custom carbine across his chest from his back"
ill probably grab a set of combat armor for myself just to be safe"
Jolan added.
"Sounds Good, Thank you, Lieutenant Nelson. Now we have a lot to do, Dismissed." Said Dylan.
With an exxaggerated sigh, Zoteke got up. Stretching his arms he remarked “Glad I was called into this meeting, I really feel part of the team right now.” before slipping out into the corridor before anyone had the time to react to what he’d said.
Zoteke stood at the bed of his son, watching the kid sleep peacefully, in silence. The scene was not however giving him the inner peace and balance of mind it used to. Sure, Arend was sleeping quietly, peacefully, and most importantly: Healthy. But all around him, there were reminders of the dire situation they were all in. Hushed whispers, footsteps... the general sounds of a few hundred people forced to live in makeshift living spaces.
The pod they were in was located in the center of the setup created from the escape pods and other materials they'd salvaged neighboring other pods with kids and their parents. It had been decided the children should be grouped together so that when their parents were called away on duty they would all be easily gathered and supervised.
Unfortunately, the pods, stripped from their normal power supplies were no longer able to control the environment inside and so had to remain open for the temperature inside to remain bearable. This also meant there was little in the way of soundproofing. Their location at the very center of it all meant all the sounds made in the bay in which they'd set up the makeshift village, reverberating off the metal walls and ceilings, made their way into the pod Zoteke shared with his son and Jeanette.
Jeanette was busy at that moment being called away on some emergency in the disassembly area where the pods were being stripped for salvageable parts. Zoteke kissed Ahrund on his forehead and went over to the other "bed" in the pod and sat down. His mind was still feeling overwhelmed with all the things that had happened recently.
Not only had he,
upon returning from an extended leave after losing his wife and his parents in an attack on the space station they'd been stationed on,
been caught in the frontline of a Borg invasion attempt,
gotten offered a job on August,
settled in with his son on the ill-fated vessel,
got involved in incredible missions and battles,
gotten romantically involved with the most beautiful woman on the Uss August who for some reason had fallen in love with his,
the lovely Jeanette Calloway,
but he'd also been promoted to Squadron commander,
had accepted the August as "home" and its crew as his extended family.....
only to be forced to watch his new extended family scatter from the August in escape pods and everything else they had that could fly and then watch helplessly as his newfound home exploded and cease existing.
Now to most people, those events would be at the forefront of their thoughts and worries but oddly enough what was occupying most of Zoteke's thoughts was how the events had taken the relationship between him and Jeanette to the next stage without them even having the chance to talk about it or think about it.
When the housing arrangements were made no one even considered that officially Jeanette and Zoteke were only dating, and still each had their own quarters. By the time he and Ahrund had been able to touch down after the battle with the... what were they called, oh right the Shin'Ma, most of the arrangements had already been made and the basic plan for building temporary homes out of the pods had been drawn up already.
So when he'd finally been able to think about where he and Ahrund would be bunked he'd been pointed to the escape pod he was now in and was very warmly, lovingly, and eagerly welcomed by the opened arms of Jeanette. He noted to himself he really should send them Shin’Ma folks a thank you note really. A woman like Jeanette, living and loving with him, AND being almost unconditionally accepted by Arend? That had as much chance of ever happening as snails going faster than the speed of light unassisted!
Mulling over that particular development for a time longer brought him to the conclusion that, no matter how bad things really were on a whole, and how much they’d lost getting here, Zoteke was happier and more grateful than he had ever been in his entire life.
With a conclusion reached he pushed thoughts on the subject from his mind. This brought no mental rest though, as those thoughts were immediately replaced with those one would expect to be on the mind of someone in his situation.
Zoteke had been the very last to land inside the landing area of Kintana station. As squadron commander, he felt he could do no less. By the time the spectacular action had been over for half an hour Ahrund had fallen asleep and was happily snoring away, oblivious to the smell he was wafting into the small bubble of the cockpit.
Despite the smell, Zoteke had worked hard. For hours he'd helped coordinating the protection of the pods being brought into Kintana station and the ones stranded at the location where they'd fought of the Shin'Ma fighters. As sensors showed no other activity in range but that of the crew of the late Uss August he'd sent Beta wing in to get rested, and have their fighters re-prepped for Combat Space Patrol.
Trask and Verspaget had stayed on his wing for the first few hours but then he had ordered them in for rest and re-prepping. Since then a rotation schedule made sure there were always 2 fighters patrolling the area, himself and one other. Nothing threatening had appeared though, during the retrieval operations, and after the last escape pod had been tractored into the station he had guided his Sparrow fighter to the landing deck.
When he opened the canopy of the fighter, shocked gasps could be heard over the hum and drum of the activity in the hanger bay as the smell of Ahrund's.... produce... exploded out of the cockpit and into the noses of those working nearby. Taking the kid gently into his arms after releasing the safety webbing he'd climbed down, thrown a thermal blanket onto the floor, and had cleaned and changed Ahrund right there and then, using the emergency kit he always carried on him.
An ensign had been kind enough to take the diaper, filled to capacity, to the nearest HazMat disposal unit and disintegrated it.
Ahrund had slept for 10 hours straight after that, and when he woke up he'd been so excited he'd nearly hyperventilated. Not only was everybody from the August, whom he considered his close friends, safe and sound but they had "gone camping" as well. And where on the August the other children lived at least one deck away from their quarters all of his school buddies were now only meters away from their pod, or camp as Ahrund called it.
The day had been full of excitement for the little guy as he used his PADD to scan each and every micrometer of the devices' scanning range. Ahrund had even managed to connect to, and access, the station's computer system, and data library with his little PADD.
Though proud the kid was able to do it at his age, Zoteke had firmly explained that the station, the computer, and the information in it weren't his or the Federation's property and that it wasn't nice to access it without permission of those who owned it.
When the kid had been forced to accede and go to bed 2 hours before it hadn't taken more than 2 seconds for him to go to sleep. The blessing of ignorance Zoteke jealously concluded. But despite the happiness and joy it brought in Ahrund's eyes, Zoteke couldn't be more aware of the precariousness of their situation. Apparently getting into contact with Starfleet wasn't as simple as opening up a subspace channel and asking for the Admiral's office. spatial circumstances prevented that, so they were essentially cut off from everything and everyone they knew and could help them.
They were on an alien station at the mercy basically of the Aliens who owned, populated, and ran it. If they decided they no longer welcomed the shipwrecked crew they'd be forced to find other accommodations. Having hundreds more crew than space on the vessels still space-worthy would indeed be a big problem.
Then there were the Shin'Ma which brought back memories for Zoteke of his dealings with the Kon'Ma which he could only barely force back into the dark corner where he kept those memories he would rather erase entirely. The Shin'Ma had gotten themselves in over their heads with the fighters they'd sent to attack the August's crew and fled the scene with a bloody nose but Zoteke was sure they'd not seen the last of them.
No doubt the Shin'Ma's leadership was now analyzing the data the escaping fighters had brought back and he'd even less doubt he and his fellow crewmembers would be facing the Shin'Ma one way or another in the near future.
Zoteke checked the chronometer and noticed the time for him to go back on duty was drawing near. He opened a channel to Mrs. Divot, the civilian who'd been August's teacher before it blew up, and confirmed she was on her way to take care of Ahrund until either he or Jeanette returned from their respective duties.
When she'd arrived and he'd kissed his son one more time he headed to the locked room near the hanger bay. After having made sure his family was settled and safe Zoteke had worked on setting up a Combat Space Patrol schedule so that 2 fighters, with extended senor modules, were on patrol in the area at all times and have 2 fighters on hot standby at all times who'd be able to scramble for the intercept in minutes.
This gave 2 pilots the opportunity to eat, sleep and do all the other things one has to do during a day. Ten minutes later as he launched in his Sparrow, now smelling like vanilla instead of Poo, all worries and thoughts washed off him and he focused on the mission and his duty protecting the survivors of the Uss August.
Pushing the sensor package his Sparrow was now fitted with, replacing the auxiliary microtorp. launcher, to its limits using the power of the capacitors fitted as buffers for the power distribution systems he was determined to find out as much as he could about the region of space they all had been forced to call their temporary home.
Knowledge is power so the more they could learn about their surroundings the better.
Whatever it would take, however long it would take, nothing would keep Zoteke from keeping his Son, his love, and his crew safe until they were back in the Federation. Because that would be when his….. their… lives would finally enter into a new chapter. Maybe not a new beginning, but surely the beginning of the main part of the book that was their lives.
One thing was for sure though, with the matter anti-matter annihilation that had changed the USS August into an expanding cloud of superheated plasma, particles, and energy a chapter in their lives had been closed and they had begun a new chapter in their lives.
Cut to scene in space, as the Sparrow Fighter and the Peregrine wingman fly past, and go on to dissapear into the distance.
Fade to black.
Cueue end credits and musicThe End.
(thank you for reading this story. Stay safe, and stay happy!)
I did not expect that you can write stories too 😅