Star Trek: The Next Generation
Swan Song
Stardate 82352.28
10 lightyears inside Gorn space
Near Se'racht VI, Se'racht system
Captain's Log, Stardate 82352.28. We're a few minutes from our rendezvous with the Gorn frigate, Slar, and the ambassador from the sil'tar Gorn.
"Ensign, ETA?", asked the captain, her Port Shangri-La accent still prominent after all these years.
The viewscreen changed from streaking stars to points of light as Se'racht VI and its moon slowly grew larger.
"Nevermind, then," she said, a hint of laughter in her voice at her timing. "Anything on sensors, Jason?"
"Nothing yet."
After two minutes, but what felt like an eternity, the Gorn frigate dropped out of warp in front of them and closed in on the stationary Enterprise.
"Hail them," she said to her comms officer.
She nodded in reply as a member of the more well-known Gorn subspecies appeared on the viewer.
"This is Captain S'kar Sist-el of the IGV Slar. Who am I speaking with?", he said in the bass voice of the Gorn, holding each 's' for a few extra beats, as was typical of a Gorn speaking English.
As she rose from her command chair and tugged down on her jacket, something she did often, subconsciously imitating her old captain, she said, "This is Captain Miranda Kadohata of the USS Enterprise. Pleasure to meet you, Ambassador."
He made a noise, a Gorn laugh, but it sounded like more of a hissing. "No, I am not the ambassador. He will be transported aboard shortly."
"Very well, Captain. Let us know when they are ready."
He nodded in reply. "Very well." He closed the line. The Gorn were notorious for not saying goodbye. And for their short conversations. She sat back down and waited for the signal.
After a few moments, the tactical console beeped a signal, but not the one she expected. Moments after, the ship shook. Hard. The lighting changed to red and the red alert klaxons sounded.
"Mr. Nesmith, what the hell…?"
The Enterprise shook again, still hard.
"Hail the Slar!" she yelled over the klaxons.
"No reply, Captain."
"Captain," said Nesmith somberly, bringing up the viewscreen. Ahead of them was the burning hulk of the Slar her starboard nacelles floating free of the ship and independently of each other, her portside nacelles blown out. Her upper five levels were missing, probably the debris floating around the ship.
"What the hell?" she said under her breath. "Mr. Nesmith?"
"I'm reading twenty three Gorn attack fighters all around."
"An ambush? Why would they ambush…?" she said, trailing off realizing that the sti-serl Gorn must have been behind this. "Cwansi, hard about! Get us the hell out of here!" she yelled, realizing their odds were not good at all.
He entered the course, swinging the fifty year old ship around as hard as he could. C'mon girl, you can do it, thought Cwansi, giving motivation to the Enterprise. He felt it his responsibility, as helmsman, to keep the ship itself in good spirits, even if it was an inanimate object.
Even as the Enterprise began her retreat, the Gorn ships continued their assault, launching a torpedo salvo at her. The ship shook violently as the torpedoes impacted. The lighting flickered.
"Mr. Nesmith, where are my shields?"
"Shields are offline. They must have hit the generators."
"Divert all available power to structural integrity. Mr. Cwansi, lay in a course for Federation space, maximum warp."
"Aye," they both responded, almost in unison.
Three more torpedo hits to the saucer. "Hull breach, deck five, section 14!" announced Nesmith. "Emergency forcefields are online."
The ship shook more roughly than it had before as several consoles on the bridge beeped alerts.
"What the hell just happened?"
"Sir! The Gorn…" Cwansi paused, checking the readouts, "They've crippled our port nacelle and ruptured our starboard." He checked the 2D holographic readout projecting from the top of the console, a then-prototypical feature installed in 2385, that was now standard on all Federation ships. He entered commands for it to show the damage to the warp nacelles. The aft end of the port nacelle had been completely blown off and the starboard nacelle had a Level 2 rupture, also at the aft end.
He brought up warp drive status on the projection. It flashed red, indicating warp drive is offline, which he promptly told the captain of.
"Damn! Cwansi, make for Federation space, full impulse! David, full power to aft structural integrity and aft weapons!"
More torpedo and disruptor hits. "Captain, I'm reading a warp signature off our port bow."
She turned to look at Nesmith. "Please tell me it's a friendly."
He shook his head and, as though it was choreographed, the ship dropped out of warp as he said, "It's a Gorn battlecruiser."
The large, green ship, about fifty meters longer than and over twice as wide as the Enterprise began to open fire on the Enterprise, in conjunction with the attack ships.
The ship shook violently. "Structural integrity at 67%!" yelled Nesmith as the stations on the port side overloaded and exploded, sending several crewmembers flying.
"Captain," her often-quiet XO, and Enterprise-D alumni Commander Sam LaVelle, said, "We're not going to last long."
She took a quiet, deep breath and pushed a button on her command chair, opening the shipwide PA. "All hands, this is Captain Kadohata. Abandon ship. I repeat, all hands abandon ship."
The alert klaxons sounded again as the crew throughout the ship. As she stood up, she told the bridge staff, "That order goes for you too, people," as none of them had moved from their stations yet. They stood and made for the turbolifts, the captain standing, looking at the viewscreen.
"Captain?" asked LaVelle.
"Go on. I'll be right there."
The doors closed as the ship rocked violently and the turbolifts made their way down to the escape pods on the decks below.
"Computer, execute General Order 13. Set course 305 mark 12, full impulse. Five minute countdown. Authorization code Kadohata Mutara-7-1-Echo-5. Engage."
She made for the turbolift as the Enterprise took several more hits, the ops console erupting in a blast of sparks. "Warning: autonavigation is offline," the computer chime.
She was now down to one option: fly the ship in manually. She made her way to the helm console and sat down. She fired the maneuvering thrusters to adjust the course towards the battlecruiser. "Computer, divert all available power to structural integrity." The computer did the double-beep to indicate it had been done.
"Shut down all systems on empty decks and transfer power to structural integrity." Another double-beep.
"Warning: hull breach, Deck Three, Section Eight. Warning: Emergency forcefields are offline.
LaVelle came over the P.A. "Captain, we're ready to eject. Where are you?"
"I'm not coming. Auto-nav is down, I'm going to have to fly her in manually," she replied somberly.
"What? What do you mean fly her in? Fly here in wh…" he stopped, realizing what she was going to do. "Understood, Captain. Best of luck."
"Thanks, Sam. But you need the luck more than I do. Keep it," she said with a small smile. "That's an order."
"Aye, Captain," he replied, hearing the smile in his voice at her last order.
"Cwansi, take care of him, okay? The Eff'll need herself a good captain."
"Understood, Captain. It's been an honor, Miranda."
"The honor's been all mine, Cwansi. I'll say hi to your dad for you."
"Thanks, Mir," he said, hearing his smile in his voice as well. Even though she didn't know what lay on the other side, she was well-known for keeping her promises and intended to, if she could, say hello to his father, Si Cwan, who had died over a quarter century prior. She had only met him once, in late 2378, at a small diplomatic conference between the Federation, the New Thallonian Protectorate and the Klingons where Picard, Worf and herself, as well as Chancellor Martok and Si Cwan and a few others, attended to discuss the fate of a binary system that lied right on their mutually shared border. Even though she only talked to him in a non-diplomatic context for a few minutes, she found him to be friendly and kind and she wished she had gotten to know him better, but his death the following year prevented that. "I'll make sure they make it home safely."
"You better. And Jason, take care. The Eff needs a good tactical officer too."
"Thanks, Miranda."
"Kadohata out," she said, closing the comm line. "Computer, eject all escape pods and engage firing pattern delta-7-3. Cover the escape pods on their way out." A double-beep, followed by the clunking of the clamps releasing the escape pods.
She continued on her course towards the battlecruiser. "Warning, hull integrity failing. Outer hull breaches on Decks 2 through 14, 16, 19 through 29." "Computer, shut down all systems on Decks Two through Twenty-nine and divert 80% power to SIF and the rest to weapons."
"Computer, time to battlecruiser?"
"Forty-five seconds at current velocity."
She pushed the thrusters to beyond their maximum tolerance, placing a heavy strain on them. "Warning: Thruster One overheating."
"Full coolant power to all thrusters."
"Time?"
"Thirty seconds."
The projected screen on the conn began showing an alert that read: "Warning: collision imminent. Adjust course." She deactivated the projection and carried on, the ship being assaulted by the battlecruiser, as well as the seventeen remaining fighters.
"Warning: collision in ten seconds." The computer began its countdown.
The bow of the Enterprise collided with the Gorn battlecruiser, mimicking Picard's maneuver of 26 years earlier, only this time the Enterprise wouldn't be making it home. It plowed into it almost straight-on, but at a slight upward angle. The Gorn ship was being torn up as the saucer of the Enterprise sliced through its hull. After a rough ride, the Enterprise came to a jerking halt. The bridge was in tatters. She got up off the floor and looked at the viewscreen to see the damage, but to no avail: the viewscreen had evidently been destroyed in the collision. She carefully stepped over debris and sat in her chair for the last time.
"Computer, enable autodestruct sequence omega. Authorization code Kadohata Mutara-7-1-Echo-5."
"Authorization code authenticated. Awaiting final code to engage destruct sequence."
"Destruct sequence null-zero-zero. Enable."
"Autodestruct sequence omega enabled."
Even up on the bridge, she felt the jerking of the antimatter reacting with the surrounding hull, ripping the ship apart. She took one last breath and closed her eyes and let the flames engulf her.
He felt the jerking of the clamps releasing and the thrusters firing as his escape pod cleared the hull. He switched controls to manual; it would be easier using manual controls in this situation than using autonav. Cwansi accelerated the pod to full throttle and began his maneuvers. Ahead of them were six pods, behind them were the rest. Beside him sat LaVelle, behind LaVelle was Nesmith and the empty seat next to Nesmith was reserved for the absent captain.
The console in front LaVelle beeped in alert. "Cwansi, we have fighters coming up from behind." He paused, "They're firing on the pods! Approaching from one-seven-two mark four-four." Cwansi did a quick calculation in his head and pitched the pod up. After a few moments, more fighters joined in, destroying the pods in one or two quick disruptor blasts.
Nine pods left. That's all. Nine pods. Thirty-five people, at best, thought Cwansi as the last remaining pods dodged and darted around each other, accelerating, decelerating, up and over and down and under the fighters, going every which way. Less than a minute ago, the flash from the Enterprise exploding filled the windows and, fortunately, it took the battlecruiser and most of the fighters with it, but a lone fighter had made it clear of the explosion and was picking off the last of the pods.
"Fighter on our tail!" said LaVelle, who was simultaneously trying to nurse a wound on the side of his head. Earlier, one of Cwansi's maneuvers had been too abrupt and his head had hit the side of the pod.
He pitched up, gunned the retro-thrusters, then cut all throttle so the fighter would pass right over them as it delivered a torpedo strike to the pod ahead of them. The fighter banked around and went after the pods behind them as Cwansi restarted the thrusters and fired them at full throttle.
Behind them, the fighter hit the starboard-side aft end of an escape pod, causing its engines to misfire and propelled it straight into Cwansi's pod.
The last thing Cwansi remembered before he blacked out from the concussion received during the impact was LaVelle's seat flying out into the abyss, LaVelle still in it.
Stardate 82353.14
Empty space within Gorn territory
7 hours, 22 minutes after the loss of the Enterprise
Cwansi was startled out of unconsciousness by the co-pilot's console beeping. He checked the chronometer. Seven hours? I've been out here seven hours? he asked himself in disbelief. He looked to the right, seeing the large hole in the hull where Sam had been pulled out into space, chair and all. He looked behind to check on Lt. Nesmith, but it was pointless: his head had slammed hard into the remains of the starboard-side hull, splattering it with blood. His whole body slumped forward. He was the last one alive on board. He wasn't sure if he should feel lucky or to wish he was dead.
He ran a sensor sweep on the other three pods, but sensors were down, as were all systems, but life support, barely, gravity and the emergency transpoder.
The console beside him beeped again and he checked to see what the problem was, but it wasn't a problem: it was a reply to the escape pod's distress beacon. He opened the channel.
On the small screen in front of him came an Andorian male. "This is Captain th'Zoarhi of the Aldebaran. Who am I speaking with?"
"I'm Lieutenant Cwansi of the Enterprise. We were ambushed by the sti-serl."
"My god," he said. "Where's the rest of your crew? Where's the Enterprise?" he asked, genuinely curious.
Cwansi shook his head. "This is it," he said somberly.
"Understood. We'll be there in under a minute. Standby for transport."
Cwansi nodded and closed the line and looked out the front window.
Within seconds, the Aldebaran, the class ship of the eponymous class, dropped out of warp a few thousand kilometers from the pods. Starfleet was starting to move from a traditional separate saucer/drive design and towards a more integrated saucer/drive design, the Aldebaran being the latest in this line.
She carried a crew of fifteen hundred, was over eight hundred meters long and was armed to the teeth. The module that was held up by a single pylon, which covered half of the tail of the ship, over the drive section, could be outfitted for different missions, like the old Nebula class ships. Her elongated saucer resembled a hybrid of the Prometheus class and the Sovereign class, in shape and design, respectively. The bright red glow from the ramscoops on the bow of the integrated, pointed nacelles illuminated the other pods. If he wasn't so in shock, he might have admired the beauty more.
He suddenly felt a tingle as he was beamed aboard the Aldebaran, rematerializing in her state-of-the-art sickbay.
Epilogue
Following the destruction of the Enterprise, Lt. Cwansi and the Chief Engineer, Lt. Cmdr. Chell, formerly of the USS Voyager, the only two surviving senior officers of the Enterprise, as well as the twelve surviving junior staff, were debriefed on what had happened and were awarded 6 months of shore leave. After the battle, all the survivors sought counseling, none of them really recovering from the loss of 699 of their fellow Starfleet officers.
Within two weeks, on Stardate 82384.81, the Federation Council authorized military action against the "warrior", or sti-serl, Gorn, the Gorn faction comprised mostly of the more reptilian Gorn subspecies, the same subspecies that Kirk famously encountered on Cestus III over a century prior, that wanted to maintain their militaristic foundations, for the unprovoked attack. Due to their history with the Gorn and their alliance with the Federation, the Klingon Empire volunteered two fleets to assist in the action.
Two weeks following, the Federation-Klingon allied fleet made for the Federation-Gorn border and entered their space on Stardate 82414.95, rendezvousing with a fleet of sil'tar, or "traitor", Gorn, the more peaceful, Federation-like faction, comprised mostly of the more human-like Gorn subspecies, the same subspecies as the famed Gorn General Slar, adding the sil'tar fleet to theirs.
Over the next four and a half months, the fleet would push through Gorn space, engaging all sti-serl ships en route and taking only 2% losses against the sti-serl fleet, which had taken an overall 48% loss.
On Stardate 82799.18, the fleet arrived at, and surrounded, Gornar and forced the surrender of the sti-serl military government that had taken over after the coup a week before the Gorn Civil War started.
Following a fifteen minute, bloody, and ultimately futile battle waged by the Gorn, as the Federation Alliance fleet only lost 25 ships while the Gorn fleet lost 192 out of their 309 ship fleet, the sti-serl military leadership surrendered and Gornar, and all Gorn space was put under joint Federation-Klingon control as a protectorate, and would remain as such for nearly two decades.
The leadership was tried and imprisoned on Ssilrik, the Gorn Hegemony's prison camp for military criminals, stated once to be like Rura Penthe, but as many times worse as there are stars in the sky and hotter than the inside of a warp core.
The new civilian government, comprised mostly of sa-sal Gorn, most former
sil'tar supporters, elected three months after the military government surrendered, began rebuilding and reforming their government, essentially winning the war for the sil'tar Gorn.
While the reorganized Gorn Hegemony, now the Gorn Republic, governs itself, the Federation-Klingon alliance still patrols Gorn space. The Klingon Empire has been tasked with placing troops on planets as peacekeeping officers while the Federation is tasked with the overall maintaining of the government and patrolling interstellar space within the Republic.