Disclaimer: I don't own Starfleet, Spock, Giotto, Nyota or any random Klingons, Romulans or Cardassians
Special thanks to beta Notes from a Classroom.
Nadock's War
"Sir," Nyota said to Lieutenant Jane Cleary, "Epsilon 1235's subspace array has been down since I started my shift three and three quarter hours ago..."
"You've told me that, Cadet," the Lieutenant said.
"I think we should be concerned," Nyota said, trying to keep her voice even.
"Cadet, Epsilon 1235 is so far out in the woop woop..."
Nyota's mouth opened. Woop woop?
"Butt end of nowhere, Cadet," said the Lieutenant with a kindly smile.
...the kindliness of it made Nyota want to slap her. Cleary wasn't taking this seriously...
"These stations go down all the time," the Lieutenant continued. "They're having the reactor capsule of their power generator replaced...and from what I've heard, repairs to their electrical infrastructure as well...it is very conceivable they broke it while they were fixing it."
Not my man, Nyota thought. She licked her lips. "Yes, but maybe a ship should be sent to investigate?"
"Cadet," the Lieutenant sighed, "right now most of our ships are busy in the neutral zone. Epsilon 1235 is so far removed from where..." The Lieutenant looked down as though she wanted to say more.
"Lieutenant Cleary, Cadet Uhura," Chang-He called, "we're getting a signal from Epsilon 1235. They're talking to Starfleet Command...I'll put it on speaker."
Nyota caught her breath, hoping...
It was not Spock. The voice that cut through the room was rough but human. "...We experienced a power outage. But we are currently undergoing repairs."
He sounded nervous. Of course, he would, she told herself; they had just experienced a power outage...
The composed tones of a Starfleet officer responded. "Epsilon 1235, do you require assistance? We could reinforce the Starfleet team already there."
Did Nyota hear the man on Epsilon 1235 swallow?
"Negative, negative...the situation is well under control," the rough voice said quickly.
That was a quick dismissal from a place that had just lost power for four hours...and why hadn't their emergency generators kicked on for the subspace array? Surely they had emergency generators for such a vital piece of communication equipment?
"Very well. We will expect updates, Epsilon 1235."
"Affirmative," the rough voice said -- finally sounding calm.
"Starfleet out."
Nyota felt a pang in her stomach at Starfleet's easy acceptance of the message.
"You see, Cadet," said Lieutenant Cleary. "Nothing to worry about. You are dismissed."
As the Lieutenant walked away, Nyota swallowed. Something felt wrong...she needed a logical way to prove it...and her shift was ending...
x x x x x x x x
"Affirmative," said Nadock's human crewmember.
"Starfleet out."
"You see, he is useful to us," said Nadock to the two other Klingon captains. "...And will be again, no doubt. There is no need to kill him."
The human visibly straightened.
"Captain," his Cardassian engineer said, "we have destroyed 95% of the colony's buildings and infrastructure. This ruse," he waved a hand in the human's direction, "has bought us adequate time to depart. I say we consider this a victory and..."
"Silence!" Nadock bellowed. Angry murmurs came from the other Klingons. The Romulan hissed...the Romulan understood Nadock's need to exact vengeance.
This Cardassian, however...he might have to die sooner rather than later.
"It is not enough to destroy buildings!" Nadock shouted. "Buildings, roads, power stations...these are empty things! Things that can be rebuilt."
Families...honor...these were more difficult to recover...Nadock knew from experience.
"We will stay!" shouted his fellow Klingons. They understood. They all had lost clan members and honor.
"We will hunt down the colonists one by one! We do not want this to be just an attack on a little colony," Nadock spat. "We want this to be a genocide! This time we will give the Federation and our Empire," he paused to spit, "no excuse to avoid a war!"
Nadock took a deep breath. When the war came, he would be among the honorable dead, but his part in instigating it would be known far and wide throughout the Empire. It would be known as Nadock's War.
His name would be honored once again.
x x x x x x x x
For the first hour after the initial tremor, the sky above Epsilon 1235 had been alive with lights and sounds as civilian hover craft tried to dart from the city center to the outside borders of the colony. Most were shot down. A few space going vessels had also attempted to blast off through the atmosphere. From the ground, Spock and his team had seen them rise and then tumble like falling stars.
In a weird twist of the randomness of the universe, Spock and his team had wound up in the safest place possible that evening--on foot and on the ground.
Now they were on a tree-capped bluff in the forest surrounding the colony. They were nowhere near the cliffs...they needed to rest.
Or to be precise, the civilians they had been picking up along the way needed to rest. They had encountered groups of three and four as they made their way further from the center. All had come from the city on hover crafts and had been hit or landed as the sky became too dangerous. There were three middle-aged couples and some young adults all in good shape, and carrying three projectile rifles between them...but also two elderly women, a man, and seven children of various ages, all unarmed, of course.
Each time they had encountered a new group of survivors, Roland had given the same order to Spock's men and the civilians alike. "We all stay together. No one gets left behind."
As Federation officers, Spock and his crew had a duty to protect these civilians. And for now, sticking together seemed the most logical way to do it.
As they waited for the elderly and the young to catch their breath, Spock scanned the skies through night-vision binoculars. He watched one of the last of the colony's small police craft engage with an invader. The colony's police vehicles did have guns, but the attackers had more ships. In the end each police craft had been on its own suicide mission. Each tried to harry the invaders and allow as many civilians to escape as possible. Inevitably the police craft were obliterated...but none had retreated. Vulcan forces would have done no differently. The good of the many outweighed the good of the few...
Spock didn't hear humans say that, and yet now when the situation called for it, that is exactly what they did.
"These invaders aren't a military force, that's for sure," said Angel next to him, holding up her own set of goggles.
"Agreed," Spock replied. He searched through his encyclopedic knowledge of various vessels. "They appear to be tug craft -- usually used for hauling cargo between planets and orbiting freighters."
"They are outfitted with some really mean guns...and powerful shields," said Angel.
"So we've got some really determined pirates," said Roland. "But what would they want from Epsilon 1235? We don't have dilithium, or latinum...They can't keep this planet -- the Federation is going to come down on them hard...so it's not like we could make a good stronghold. It's a suicide mission for them."
"Do we have an identity on the species behind the attack?" Spock asked.
Angel hissed, "We've had reports that they are predominantly Klingons, but some transmissions I've been receiving have said they've seen Romulans, a few Cardassians; there was even a report of a human --"
"Beautiful, we're all cooperating now..." said Roland.
"Everybody down...." Ensign Giotto whispered.
Spock's hand went immediately to his phaser and he crouched low. Angel and Roland had their rifles around their bodies and were ready to fire a split second later. Ensigns Singh and Smith were waving down the civilians.
All was quiet in the surrounding trees. Spock didn't breathe...and then one of the children in the group cried out. From the forest came the sound of heavy footsteps and two Cardassians came slowly into view, rifles ready.
A/N:
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More Nyota/Spock goodness coming up.