Authors Note
This is the first of what I hope will be a series of episodes involving Captain Jorge Valdez and the crew of the U.S.S. Eternal Vigilance. The actual character of Jorge Valdez came from a real-time sim I played, he was an Chief Engineer aboard the U.S.S. Punisher. But due to time pressures of the school and life, I had to quit the sim. But about a year later craving the creative stimulation I begin work on the series. I worked on three drafts before I came up with the right combination of characters and storyline. I hope it was worth it, and you enjoy this story.
The main drive of the series is the aftermath of the Dominion war, and how not only the main characters but the federation as a whole deals with the consequences of the war. The Premise is that this is the time when the Federation is at its weakest, both internally and externally. The Federation is now is as much Danger as it was at any time during the war, Anything from Dominion malcontents, the Orion Syndicate, Political Agendas and even Temporal enemies Threaten to break apart the Federation.
90% of the Sources used are cannon to the Star Trek Universe... with only few references to some of the extended book series, plus I took creative license to create the Starfleet Marines. This is my first attempt at a Fan Fiction Series so I appreciate any Criticism you have about the story. Bios of all the Characters and Ships Specs are Available at
http:// usseternalvigilance . tripod . com/
Now Lets begin...
*****************************************************
Prologue – California Dreamin'
*****************************************************
"You don't wait for the enemy to come to you - you go to him" O'Brian to Nog DS9 "Empock nor"
*****************************************************
Early 2374 – 43 Days after the fall of Deep Space 9 Solarion III – 50km NW of New Forester
The sky was splashed with a thousand brilliant colors. Inside the wide mountain ravine a river trickled underneath, its southing sounds echoing throughout the vicinity. In any other set of circumstances this would have been a site to behold, but these were not normal circumstances at least not to the small cluster of Starfleet Officers huddled behind the cold rocks over looking a deep ravine. The intense beauty of the area around them was lost to them, as they were just struggling to survive. This was especially for their commanding officer, Lt. Commander Jorge Valdez. As he looked toward the end of the ravine in through his binoculars he reflected on how he got into his situation.
The Dominion War had been going on for over a month. After Deep Space Nine fell, system after system continued to fall under the control of the Dominion-Cardassian Alliance. The Dominion juggernaut seemed unstoppable as they kept rolling over fleet after fleet. It was at this time that the U.S.S. Destiny, the ship Where Valdez served on as Chief Helm Officer, was ordered to evacuate the Federation colony on Solarion III. Which was located right outside what used to be the Cardassian DMZ, Assisted by the starships William McCool and Aristotle. Everything went well at first, until the Dominion attacked, forcing the starships to strand the Starfleet away team as well as the civilians still on the surface, Valdez being among them. Soon after the ships left, the First Officer of the U.S.S. Destiny, was killed leaving Valdez in command of the remaining ground forces, which included 30 Starfleet officers and 50 civilians (with children being among them). The only thing stopping the Dominion from beaming them up was the relitivally weak Ion Storm that engulfed the region, so for now it was all a ground war. Valdez knew he had to protect the people under his command as well as the civilians, until a rescue operation could be attempted. Unfortunately getting into the end of the first week on the run, that possibility seemed to be more and more unlikely, but it was better then the alternative, spending the rest of war in a Dominion POW camp.
"Damn it." Valdez thought "I am a helmsman, my expertise is in piloting starships, not dodging phaser blasts and out running Dominion patrols." As a cold wind pierced through his cold weather uniform, Valdez shivered. Having been born and raised in Los Angeles under the warm California sun. Snow was almost a foreign concept to him, his limited Starfleet survival training in the mountains of his home state, was all he had to arm himself against the elements. Unfortunately the civilians he traveled with didn't have that training.
"Commander." Valdez heard a voice whisper.
"Commander." The voice repeated Valdez lowered his binoculars and turned to see a young red haired ensign, "Ensign Johnson, report." Valdez ordered
"Sir, Lt. Fedrickson reports the Jem'Hadar have just crossed past point delta. They should be coming into the pass soon enough." Ensign Johnson reported.
"How about the rest of the group, did they make it past the checkpoint yet?" Valdez said, knowing that if this ambush didn't work, they would have to put a lot distance between themselves and the approaching Jem'Hadar, or else they were really going to be in really deep trouble very quickly.
"Yes sir, just a few minutes ago." The Ensign reported.
"Good... hopefully they will think we took the pass following the river, alright Ensign find a good sniping spot and sit tight." Valdez kneeled behind a rock, which overlooked the deep ravine. On each side of him he saw two other Starfleet officers under his command. He recognized them as Lt. Lith'al and Ensign Patterson. Lith'al was looking toward the other side of the pass where Valdez noticed several large boulders some about the size of a small shuttle. The bases of the boulders were laced with raw dilithium, which they found in one of the colony's mines a few days earlier. The plan was to wait until the center of their group were right below them, and then Lith'al would fire at the raw dilithium. Hopefully the rock slide which followed would kill most of the Jem'Hadar.
While waiting for the Jem'Hadar to come down the pass bellow. Valdez Took out the picture of his wife Isabel and his son Gabriel that she sent him the week before from his pocket. It had been more then 6 months since he had seen Isabel or his 2 year old son Gabriel in person. Depending on how this war went it would be a long time, if ever, before he would be able them again. When he first transferred to the Destiny he was only supposed to be apart for a few months then thought he would be able to negotiate a transfer for her with the Captain. But things were different now, this war complicated things. As much as he had missed them both dearly, he was glad they were both in San Francisco, far away from the front lines. "I never be able to forgive myself if either of them have gotten hurt or killed in this war, even if it means never seeing them again." He thought, But it still didn't help the pain.
"Here they come." Ensign Johnson whispered from his position a few feet away. Valdez quickly put the picture back way wiped his eyes hoping no one noticed. "Ok, Valdez time to put your game face on". He thought, as he readied his phaser rifle he saw them, three dozen Jem'Hadar soldiers marching down each side of the river bellow. Each as stone-faced as the one Next to them, unfeeling ,uncaring unwavering, despite the cold they still only wore their standard uniforms which would be deadly for most of the races of the federation. Making large footprints in the snow with each step they took. Apparently unaware of the ambush that was soon to follow, "or else they would have been cloaked in those damned cloak shrouds" Valdez quickly thought. Just as the center of their ranks moved directly bellow them, the Lt. Lith'al fired his shot as planned. With dead-on accuracy he hit the dilithium. the heat from the explosion was large enough for Valdez to feel from his position a few meters away. The resulting chain reaction explosion rocked the boulders loose, sending them tumbling down on top of the unsuspecting Jem'Hadar bellow. Be the time they looked up it was too late as the heave rock piled upon them unmercifully. There was a dead silence for a moment as the smoke and rubble began to settle. Soon a hand pushed from under the rubble, then a hand, then a few torsos appeared as the surviving members of the Jem'Hadar squad began to push themselves up from under the rubble. After a few moments of waiting Valdez shouted "OPEN FIRE!", immediately everyone on the ledge unleashed a rain of phaser fire on the helpless Jem'Hadar . Killing what was left of their party.
"Cease Fire." Valdez ordered since it was pretty obvious that the skirmish was over. Valdez walked cautiously toward the edge of the ledge and peered over, checking the effectiveness of their ambush. He never liked killing, after every attack he had to remind himself that they were the ones who started this war, and that he was only fighting to protect those who he had sworn to protect. But it never made it any easier.
"Alright every one lets move out, if we hurry We might be able to catch up with the rest of the group before nightfall." He said turning back to the people under his command. Knowing full well in a couple of days he would have to stage another ambush, and another, until either Starfleet came through with a rescue team or.... Death.
This is the first of what I hope will be a series of episodes involving Captain Jorge Valdez and the crew of the U.S.S. Eternal Vigilance. The actual character of Jorge Valdez came from a real-time sim I played, he was an Chief Engineer aboard the U.S.S. Punisher. But due to time pressures of the school and life, I had to quit the sim. But about a year later craving the creative stimulation I begin work on the series. I worked on three drafts before I came up with the right combination of characters and storyline. I hope it was worth it, and you enjoy this story.
The main drive of the series is the aftermath of the Dominion war, and how not only the main characters but the federation as a whole deals with the consequences of the war. The Premise is that this is the time when the Federation is at its weakest, both internally and externally. The Federation is now is as much Danger as it was at any time during the war, Anything from Dominion malcontents, the Orion Syndicate, Political Agendas and even Temporal enemies Threaten to break apart the Federation.
90% of the Sources used are cannon to the Star Trek Universe... with only few references to some of the extended book series, plus I took creative license to create the Starfleet Marines. This is my first attempt at a Fan Fiction Series so I appreciate any Criticism you have about the story. Bios of all the Characters and Ships Specs are Available at
http:// usseternalvigilance . tripod . com/
Now Lets begin...
*****************************************************
Prologue – California Dreamin'
*****************************************************
"You don't wait for the enemy to come to you - you go to him" O'Brian to Nog DS9 "Empock nor"
*****************************************************
Early 2374 – 43 Days after the fall of Deep Space 9 Solarion III – 50km NW of New Forester
The sky was splashed with a thousand brilliant colors. Inside the wide mountain ravine a river trickled underneath, its southing sounds echoing throughout the vicinity. In any other set of circumstances this would have been a site to behold, but these were not normal circumstances at least not to the small cluster of Starfleet Officers huddled behind the cold rocks over looking a deep ravine. The intense beauty of the area around them was lost to them, as they were just struggling to survive. This was especially for their commanding officer, Lt. Commander Jorge Valdez. As he looked toward the end of the ravine in through his binoculars he reflected on how he got into his situation.
The Dominion War had been going on for over a month. After Deep Space Nine fell, system after system continued to fall under the control of the Dominion-Cardassian Alliance. The Dominion juggernaut seemed unstoppable as they kept rolling over fleet after fleet. It was at this time that the U.S.S. Destiny, the ship Where Valdez served on as Chief Helm Officer, was ordered to evacuate the Federation colony on Solarion III. Which was located right outside what used to be the Cardassian DMZ, Assisted by the starships William McCool and Aristotle. Everything went well at first, until the Dominion attacked, forcing the starships to strand the Starfleet away team as well as the civilians still on the surface, Valdez being among them. Soon after the ships left, the First Officer of the U.S.S. Destiny, was killed leaving Valdez in command of the remaining ground forces, which included 30 Starfleet officers and 50 civilians (with children being among them). The only thing stopping the Dominion from beaming them up was the relitivally weak Ion Storm that engulfed the region, so for now it was all a ground war. Valdez knew he had to protect the people under his command as well as the civilians, until a rescue operation could be attempted. Unfortunately getting into the end of the first week on the run, that possibility seemed to be more and more unlikely, but it was better then the alternative, spending the rest of war in a Dominion POW camp.
"Damn it." Valdez thought "I am a helmsman, my expertise is in piloting starships, not dodging phaser blasts and out running Dominion patrols." As a cold wind pierced through his cold weather uniform, Valdez shivered. Having been born and raised in Los Angeles under the warm California sun. Snow was almost a foreign concept to him, his limited Starfleet survival training in the mountains of his home state, was all he had to arm himself against the elements. Unfortunately the civilians he traveled with didn't have that training.
"Commander." Valdez heard a voice whisper.
"Commander." The voice repeated Valdez lowered his binoculars and turned to see a young red haired ensign, "Ensign Johnson, report." Valdez ordered
"Sir, Lt. Fedrickson reports the Jem'Hadar have just crossed past point delta. They should be coming into the pass soon enough." Ensign Johnson reported.
"How about the rest of the group, did they make it past the checkpoint yet?" Valdez said, knowing that if this ambush didn't work, they would have to put a lot distance between themselves and the approaching Jem'Hadar, or else they were really going to be in really deep trouble very quickly.
"Yes sir, just a few minutes ago." The Ensign reported.
"Good... hopefully they will think we took the pass following the river, alright Ensign find a good sniping spot and sit tight." Valdez kneeled behind a rock, which overlooked the deep ravine. On each side of him he saw two other Starfleet officers under his command. He recognized them as Lt. Lith'al and Ensign Patterson. Lith'al was looking toward the other side of the pass where Valdez noticed several large boulders some about the size of a small shuttle. The bases of the boulders were laced with raw dilithium, which they found in one of the colony's mines a few days earlier. The plan was to wait until the center of their group were right below them, and then Lith'al would fire at the raw dilithium. Hopefully the rock slide which followed would kill most of the Jem'Hadar.
While waiting for the Jem'Hadar to come down the pass bellow. Valdez Took out the picture of his wife Isabel and his son Gabriel that she sent him the week before from his pocket. It had been more then 6 months since he had seen Isabel or his 2 year old son Gabriel in person. Depending on how this war went it would be a long time, if ever, before he would be able them again. When he first transferred to the Destiny he was only supposed to be apart for a few months then thought he would be able to negotiate a transfer for her with the Captain. But things were different now, this war complicated things. As much as he had missed them both dearly, he was glad they were both in San Francisco, far away from the front lines. "I never be able to forgive myself if either of them have gotten hurt or killed in this war, even if it means never seeing them again." He thought, But it still didn't help the pain.
"Here they come." Ensign Johnson whispered from his position a few feet away. Valdez quickly put the picture back way wiped his eyes hoping no one noticed. "Ok, Valdez time to put your game face on". He thought, as he readied his phaser rifle he saw them, three dozen Jem'Hadar soldiers marching down each side of the river bellow. Each as stone-faced as the one Next to them, unfeeling ,uncaring unwavering, despite the cold they still only wore their standard uniforms which would be deadly for most of the races of the federation. Making large footprints in the snow with each step they took. Apparently unaware of the ambush that was soon to follow, "or else they would have been cloaked in those damned cloak shrouds" Valdez quickly thought. Just as the center of their ranks moved directly bellow them, the Lt. Lith'al fired his shot as planned. With dead-on accuracy he hit the dilithium. the heat from the explosion was large enough for Valdez to feel from his position a few meters away. The resulting chain reaction explosion rocked the boulders loose, sending them tumbling down on top of the unsuspecting Jem'Hadar bellow. Be the time they looked up it was too late as the heave rock piled upon them unmercifully. There was a dead silence for a moment as the smoke and rubble began to settle. Soon a hand pushed from under the rubble, then a hand, then a few torsos appeared as the surviving members of the Jem'Hadar squad began to push themselves up from under the rubble. After a few moments of waiting Valdez shouted "OPEN FIRE!", immediately everyone on the ledge unleashed a rain of phaser fire on the helpless Jem'Hadar . Killing what was left of their party.
"Cease Fire." Valdez ordered since it was pretty obvious that the skirmish was over. Valdez walked cautiously toward the edge of the ledge and peered over, checking the effectiveness of their ambush. He never liked killing, after every attack he had to remind himself that they were the ones who started this war, and that he was only fighting to protect those who he had sworn to protect. But it never made it any easier.
"Alright every one lets move out, if we hurry We might be able to catch up with the rest of the group before nightfall." He said turning back to the people under his command. Knowing full well in a couple of days he would have to stage another ambush, and another, until either Starfleet came through with a rescue team or.... Death.