"The True Way will avenge us!" The yells of the Cardassian Commander suddenly cut off from the comm line as his ship's Warp Core was breached, the blowback pushing us back about a kilometer. Tovan turns from his station on the bridge to face me in my Captain's chair at the center. "I can't believe Charva would betray us like that! I'm sorry, I thought that she could still be trusted. It's my fault we were led into this trap."
As much as he tried to hide it, I could still see the hurt in his eyes. He had honestly believed that the information was good. I wasn't going to hold that against him. The line of his shoulders curved forward just the slightest bit, like Atlas, from Terran mythology. Holding the sky on his shoulders. A sudden realization flitting through my mind. In a way, he was. His home destroyed, his friends gone, and the only family he has left, missing. Tovan's sister, Rinna, was the reason that we had just ended so many Cardassian lives. We had gotten intel from what we thought was a credible source that she would be on one of the three transport ships we had just disabled and destroyed.
The plan was fairly straightforward. Three Romulan Star Empire prisoner transport ships, each armed with maybe ten guards each. An unspecified but definitely low number of Tal Shiar escort ships for external protection. Destroy the escorts, disable the transports, find Rinna. But then it all went to hell in a handbasket. Multiple Cardassian Hideki Class escorts, which, on their own, would have been all too easy to deal with. Then came the bigger ones. One Keldon Class and one Galor Class. By themselves formidable, but together, nigh impossible to beat. But, we did.
As they always do, the Romulan Republic prevailed and endured. We destroyed the escorts, and by then we should have realized that Charva's intel was faulty. But, we went on, disabled the transport ships. There wasn't a single prisoner on any. They were all cargo ships, carrying weapons and soldiers. We walked straight into a firefight. We almost lost. After all, it was five Romulans against a literal army of Cardassians. But, somehow, we fought through. Then, Satra commed from the ship, alerting us to additional Cardassian patrols on the approach.
We immediately beamed back, and defeated them with ease. It was one Keldon class starship. Rinna wasn't on any of the ships. The sound of Satra calling me from across the bridge snapped me out of my introspection. "Sir, incoming transmission from Commander Charva,"
"Alright. Put it in my ready room." I hesitated for a moment. "Tovan, with me. I don't trust her, especially now." Looking back on it now, I should have listened to my gut. Tovan being with me when I tell Charva that her intel was wrong wasn't a good idea, but I owed it to him. Well, no. I didn't owe it to him. I didn't have to keep looking for Rinna, but I thought back to my family, before I arrived at Virinat. A little sister. Forever gone, because I hadn't been good enough. I couldn't do that to Tovan. So, against my better judgement, he came with me.
