Paint and Powder
A Star Trek anthology by Andrew Joshua Talon
DISCLAIMER: This is a non-profit fan based work of prose. Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager et al are the property of CBS Television, and creation of Gene Roddenberry. Please support the official release.
Laconia: "A Battle"
2373
Three weeks after opening of hostilities with the Dominion.
Laconia stood on her bridge listening to two of her bridge crew talk about the next movie night and what should be played. The helm officer, Lieutenant Ackerman, was the one in charge of that and like superhero movies. Her ops officer, Lieutenant Mavnaa usually helped organize and set everything up
As this conversation was happening, she adjusted the flow rate on the plasma injectors, adjusted the shield frequency, and sent an updated ETA on their convoy to the allied fleet, answered three search queries from crew and accepted a tightbeam message from Forrest. She closed her eyes and sank into the Badlands.
When she opened her eyes she was looking at Forrest in her vintage United Earth Admirals uniform. She had pulled Memory Alpha and been put in a reactivated Ambassador hull because of the war. The last time she had been outside of Memory Alpha before this convoy, she had been in a Constitution.
The twins, Gleaves and Ingham, Coontz Class destroyers who bickered over everything but always had each other's backs when it mattered.
And Wanderer, the Steamrunner. This was her first time going into combat. And that made Laconia even jumpier than trying to cover Twenty-five slow freighters with five ships. only two of which were suited for convoy duty.
"Hi Forrest! What's going on? Is it the Dominion? Are we gonna see some explosions? Is it a battlescruiser!?" rapid-fire from the Destroyers without a pause or giving Forrest a chance to respond.
Wanderer paled at the mention of a battlecruiser. The destroyers were still hammering Forrest with questions and not letting her get a word in. Laconia raised her voice and with the bark of one who has learned to make their voice carry over exploding bridge terminals and screams of pain and said one word. "Kids!"
They both instinctively snapped to attention and their mouths snapped closed. Forrest gave her a grateful nod. "I don't know what it is. One of the shuttle's I have out picked out a sensor ghost a few AU's out from their location, which is a few light years from us. It wasn't long enough to get a solid confirmation but they know that it was dominion, and that it was going into a nebula, where our sensors don't really work.
"Trap." Was the first thing that anyone said when Forrest paused.
"Laconia? What do you mean?" Forrest responded.
"Trap." Laconia said again.
"How do you know?" Wanderer hesitantly asked.
"Used same tactics against Klingons." Laconia then started walking away.
"Where are you going!?" came from Forrest.
"To spring the trap." With that Laconia faded from the Badlands.
And opened her eyes on her bridge her Caitian captain was sitting in his chair a tall mug of dark black coffee in one hand and a padd in the other. Going over reports from the previous shift. He had obviously come in while she was in the Badlands. When he saw that she was moving he looked up.
"Good morning Laconia. Anything that I need to know?"
She flicked her fingers at the viewscreen and brought up the nebula that Forrest had been talking about. "Dominion trap."
"and you want to spring it."
She nodded. "Need to pass either way. Easier if Dominion is gone."
He grunted in agreement before asking "Their tactics?"
She flicked her fingers again, only this time at his padd. And waited for him to read it.
after a few seconds of reading he put down the padd and said to her "isn't this exactly what you did in the war of '56?"
"Yes. Ambush. Waited for them to come to me."
"And your plan? Beyond go into the nebula and shoot anything that's Dominion?"
"Get scans and pretty pictures of the nebula." Laconia responded without missing a beat and a deadpan expression.
Her captain, Mrarr, snorted. "the younger ships see you as an unstoppable badass. And the newer people in Starfleet and those that don't know you think that you don't have a sense of humor. If they could see you now."
Laconia smirked for a second before saying "Level four probes. Configured for Demon worlds. Or systems with lots of radiation. Distance and coverage won't be good, but better than just our sensors."
"That could work. Ok. Let's go. Tell Forrest to slow down. And give us a few hours. Tell them that we'll meet them at the nebula. If we don't give the all clear they're to turn around and wait for The Federation to scrounge up a Galaxy."
She nodded then sent her captains orders to the other captains. Then she closed her eyes and sank back into the Badlands and called all the ships in the convoy, civilian and military, once they were all there she started talking, the most she had said at once in a very long time.
"Gleaves. Ingham. Stop pestering Forrest. Slow down and take your time. Wanderer, remember your training and listen to your crew they've been in combat even if you haven't. Forrest you've got this. I know that going from a Connie to an Ambassador is one hell of a jump but you'll be fine. Again listen to your crew they know the ship better than you do." They all nodded looking a little stunned that she spoke full sentences to each of tthem. After a few second pause, she started talking to Forrest again. "slow the convoy down. Need more time to deal with Dominion ships. And pull your shuttles back."
Forrest just nodded still kind of stunned.
She then turned to the civilian ships, "Tranquility," a tall Vulcan woman with short reddish brown hair, "you're convoy lead."
"Free Enterprise you're second." A short stocky Ferengi who was wearing a loose fitting flowing nightgown that left little to the imagination.
"Astral Queen, third." A short feisty human woman, with dark hair and bronze skin.
"Make the rest stay tight in formation, but loose enough so that one torpedo doesn't take out half the convoy. Listen to what Forrest tells you. If she says scatter, you all pick a different direction and redline your engines. Find somewhere to hide and stay there as long as you can. One of us or another Federation ship will find you."
Then Laconia walked away and faded out of the Badlands without a backwards glance.
"That was the most I've ever heard her talk, and I'm almost as old as she is." Came in a mumble from a shocked Forrest.
Back in the real world Laconia Jumped to warp Eight.
Three hours later Laconia dropped out of Warp already at red alert, shields up, phasers primed, and tubes hot. close to the nebula but not quite inside it.
She stood on her bridge, next to her captain who looked at the nebula for a few seconds before asking "Ops, weapons, anything?"
"No sir."
"Not yet sir."
"Visibility is abysmal in there."
"Were going to have to be right on top of them to get solid lock for the phasers."
That came from the Orion and Andorian at the ops and Weapons stations.
"Laconia tell Chief Dunne to turn on the…enhancements…to the engines."
"Aye sir." Then with a thought she had another avatar in the engineering section standing in front of Master Chief Petty Officer Kelly Dunne. A 4 foot 5 inch foul-mouthed redhead from the outskirts of Cork. When Chief Dunne noticed Laconia was there she immediately glared at her and stared swearing.
"Oh what the fuck now? I just got the damned plasma injectors where I want them. And I just finished fixing the last of the battle damage from that scrap with the fucking Orions. Then you tell me that were going back into battle, which is fine. This is a warship, that's what we do. But then you say AGAISNT THE MOTHERFUCKING DOMINION."
Laconia tried to interject but Chief Dunne steamrolled right over her.
"Then come to find out that not only are we going against THE FUCKING DOMINION WE'RE DOING IT IN A FUCKING NEBULA THAT FUCKS WITH THE ARMOR! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MANY HOURS ITS GOING TO TAKE ME TO FIX ALL OF THE DAMNED PLATES? AND THE INTAKES!?"
Dunne paused for breath, saw that Laconia looked confused and decided to explain.
"The crap this nebula is made of is attracted to electricity, don't ask me how, I can't explain it, so this shit will be all over the shield emitters, the phasers, the cannons, deflector dish, and anything else on the hull that has an electric charge, which because the armor is polarized armor instead of the standard static armor, is basically the entire outside of the hull. It also takes for-fucking-ever to clean. Now what did you need?"
"Captain wants the enhancements to the engines on. Sorry."
With a deep sigh Chief Dunne buried her face in her hands, before going over to a console that was added when she become an ad-hoc test bed for several different stealth technologies in the lead up to open war with the Dominion, tapped the screen a few times. "Impulse drives are in alternate mode. Just remember they're slower to react. Also speed isn't as good and the turning circle is wider. Powering down everything but bridge and engineering consoles, Emergency lights, artificial gravity, life support, phaser banks, cannons, and the torpedo launchers."
The entire engineering section went dark for a few seconds before the emergency lights came on.
"Now powering down the warp core to the minimum level for stealth operations."
The warp core went from a bright blue to a darker, almost purple color with the reduced power.
"Heat shunt is active. Setting for a randomly rotating pick of which layer or level or whatever word you like to dump the heat." Dunne then turned toward the other end of the engineering section "ZAID! GET YOUR ASS IN HERE! YOU'RE BABYSITTING THE STEALTH CONSOLE"
"YES CHIEF!" came back from the door leading to the hallway where she saw Rico Zaid a Bajoran and Chief Dunne's second coming from down the hall. "sorry chief I was in the diagnostics bay. Trying to set up some automated responses for the damage we'll inevitably take. And Laconia shouldn't have to do everything." He finished with a nod at her.
Dunne just nodded. "Good initiative. Good idea. I'll get Srain or Gwyn to do it. I want you on the stealth console. We're now operating at EMCON conditions."
"Aye Chief. I noticed. All the lights going off was kind of a big clue."
"Smart-ass. Keep it up and I'll make you check the EPS conduits."
"So? That's not too bad."
"By yourself."
"Still not awf-"
"By hand."
"Shutting up now."
"That's what I thought." Dunne then turned back to Laconia. "You're good Laconia. Go make sure that damned cat doesn't do something stupid and kill us all."
Without any more words Laconia just nodded and disappeared from engineering and reappeared on the bridge. Because she was an AI she was able to be in multiple places and have multiple conversations at once, so she had kept the captain up to speed with Dunne's progress on the stealth systems.
"now that we're ready, take us in Mister Tyson."
"Aye Sir." This came from a dark skinned Human sitting at the helm. After a few taps from him, the ship started moving into the nebula.
Laconia walked over to the Captain, bent down so only he could hear her and whispered "Probes?"
"Soon. Want to get further into he nebula. They won't be hiding around the edges."
After Forty-five minutes of slowly, steadily, quietly, stealthily, nosing their way through the nebula the captain looked over to the Andorian on weapons. "Mister Shren, fire a full spread of the recon probes. Maximum coverage that we can get. Start with the center area of the nebula and work out."
"Aye sir. Coverage and visibility is horrible. Even with the probes it's going to take a while to find anything." Came from the tactical station.
"And now we wait." Said the Captain.
Two and a half hours later Lieutenant Shren called out from the tactical station "got something! A huge asteroid in the middle of the nebula. It's hard to tell but I'm getting power readings from it." After pausing for a few seconds and tapping on the console he continued. "Dominion Ships. Three, no five, no six Jem'Hadar fighters, three cardie light cruisers, and two Jem'Hadar battlecruisers. The battlecruisers are docked with the asteroid. The light cruisers are just sitting there. The fighters are not quite drifting further out. Looks like they're going just fast enough to maintain steering."
"Hmm. Reroute all of the drones to the same general area, out of the way where they won't find them. Put them in low power mode." The captain ordered after a moment of thought to come up with a plan on the fly.
"Aye sir. Sending all six drones to the asteroid."
"Laconia, tactical, options?"
"Hit and fade." Came from Laconia immediately.
"That could work against the fighters and probably the cruisers. But those big bastards? Not a chance." Shren replied"
"Captain has a plan. I like it." Laconia responded.
"One day I'll learn how you do that." Mrarr said with a sigh. "Yes I have a plan. If everything goes right, best case scenario it takes out all six of the fighters. Then we can focus on the cruisers." He continued.
"Uhh Aye sir." Shren replied confused.
"Tell me, those fighters, are their shields down?" Mrarr asked.
"Uhh not quite. Minimal shields." Shren answered still confused.
"when all the probes get there, Target each of the fighters with one of probes. Position the probes so that they can reach maximum velocity right before impact. Also try to not give away the game before hand."
"Turning the probes into kamikaze drones. I like it. Take out the fighters, shred the Norin's with the cannons and torpedoes, start working on the big bastards." Shren said with a savage grin.
"Stop. Too cocky. Too arrogant. Murphys law." Laconia cut in before Shren could continue.
"She is correct mister Shren. Stop counting our kills while they're still alive." The captain put in.
"yes sir, yes ma'am." Shren responded at attention.
"Now position the probes Mister Shren. Mister Tyson, get us as close as you can without being detected to those light cruisers."
"Aye sir" came from two different spots on the bridge.
After a few tense minutes of Lieutenant Jack Tyson slowly moving them closer, Shren called out from tactical, "probes in position sir."
"Very good Mister Shren. Mister Tyson ?"
"Just over fifteen hundred klicks to the cardies sir."
"excellent work Mister Tyson."
"Everyone ready? Everything ready?" the captain asked with the anticipation thick in the air.
"Aye sir. All six probes are in position, phasers are ready, and cannons are hot. Also tubes one and two are loaded. As well as the aft tube."
"Very well. Accelerate the probes on my mark Mister Shren. Mister Tyson, at the same time, gun it and rush for the light cruisers."
"Aye sir." Once again came from to positions on the bridge."
"Mister Shren, five…four…three…two…one…mark."
Shren pushed a button and six probes jumped forward moving at full impulse. Twenty five percent of light speed.
All six impacted on their targets within milliseconds of one another.
And all six utterly destroyed their targets. There wasn't anything left.
At the same time Lieutenant Tyson dove from above at the the same speed directly at the Norin class light cruisers.
"Tubes one and two at the Norin on the right. Cannons on the one in the center. If tubes one and two don't finish off the one on the right hit it with the aft. We can hit the one on the left when we swing around."
"Aye sir!"
Two torpedoes raced out of the ship toward the hostile Cardassians. One a second ahead of the other.
Then they were in range of the cannons which Shren didn't wait for an order, he just fired. The cannons mauled the shields of the center cruiser before they popped under the sustained fire and the bolts started hitting the ship itself tearing holes in it.
Then they were on top of it and Jack had to twist the ship to avoid a collision.
The torpedoes meanwhile had hit the second Norin. The first had splashed against the shields that the Cardassians had somehow brought to full power in the short time the attack had been going on. There wasn't a lot of damage from the first torpedo, just some conduit and console feedback. The second however blew a number of shield generators and the feedback was worse and went into her engines which exploded, leaving her dead in the water. The third from the aft tube of Laconia seemed little more than an afterthought and sealed her fate with an explosion whose shockwaves damaged her sister ships.
"Bring us around Mister Tyson. Reload tubes one and two. And the aft. Same thing as last time. Target the center one with the cannons. Target the other with tubes one and two and the aft if we need it."
"Aye sir!" came from the helm and tactical stations.
"Ops any change on those battle cruisers?"
"Aye sir! they're powering up! We should be done with these Cardies before they come online but it's gonna be close." Came from the Orion woman at the ops station.
"Take out ships. Hide in nebula. Wait for them to separate. Jump one." Laconia gave her opinion.
"Better plan than trying to get into a brawl with two battle cruisers at once." The captain replied.
By this time they were closing in on the Norins which were now fully operational and shooting at the Defiant class which was twisting to try and reduce enemy accuracy.
Shren again didn't wait for the order before firing tubes one and two and opening up with the cannons. The shields of the ship that had been raked with the cannons before hadn't had time to recover and quickly fell. As did the armor the bolts of energy tearing into the center of the ship.
When suddenly Mavnaa, the Orion on ops, shouted "TYSON PEEL OFF! HER WARP CORE IS GOING CRITICAL!"
Tyson reacted on instinct and pulled the ship in a twisting climb back the way they had come and away from the impending explosion.
As this was happening the two torpedoes were again heading for the Norin next to the main target. First one, then the other crashed against her shields doing damage and taking out subsystems. Then the warp core went critical and took both ships out in a giant fireball.
Laconia walked over to where the Orion was and put a hand on her shoulder and simply said "good job. Was about to do it myself."
Then the entire ship shook and sparks flew from the light.
"What the hell was that?" the captain growled as he picked himself up off of the floor where he'd been thrown.
"Battlecruisers are ready, that was a shot from a polaron beam. Shields down to eighty percent." Shren answered.
"Take us into the nebula Mister Tyson. Get us nice and lost."
"Aye sir."
"Cat and mouse" Laconia said standing behind Tyson staring at the view screen.
"Yes." said the captain with a sigh.
"Ok Tyson. Loop us back to the asteroid, come in on a different heading. Shren, Target their warp core when we re-engage."
"Aye sir."
"Yes sir."
After a few minutes in a looping course the ship re-entered the area where the first part of the battle was. There was only one battle cruiser still there, five thousand kilometers from where they currently were.
"Other one is looking for us. We should take this one out now." this came from Shren.
"Agreed. Tyson take us in. Full impulse. Shren as soon as we're in range fire everything, and cycle the tubes fast as you can. We take what damage we can, then we fade into the nebula. Death by a thousand cuts."
"Aye sir."
"Engage."
The ship jumped forward and as soon as they entered the maximum engagement range tube one fired followed by tube two. The battlecruisers started to come about to face them.
Then three seconds after the tubes were fired they were fired again. The first set of torpedoes were almost at the Battlecruiser when the second set were fired. The first two hit the shields and the responded with two torpedoes of its own. Shren opened up with the Phaser banks and the cannons. And the other two torpedoes slammed into the enemy ship.
With a twisting 'upwards' corkscrew, Tyson managed to avoid one torpedo which sailed off into the abyss of the nebula but the other slammed into the shields over the port nacelle, shaking the entire ship.
"Shields at seventy percent!" Shren called out.
Tyson continued the turn which brought the aft tube to bear which Shren immediately fired.
Tyson then swung back around to bring the cannons back into action, which were immediately fired as soon as possible along with two more torpedoes.
The battlecruiser opened up with polaron beams and Laconia responded with phaser beams and cannon blasts. As the two ships tore into each other. Something was going to have to give. And something did.
"SHIELDS AT THIRTY PERCENT! WE CANT TAKE ANY MORE OF THIS!" Shren shouted from tactical.
"FLUCTUATIONS IN THEIR SHIELDS! MIGHT BE A WEAKNESS!" Mavnaa also shouted, only from Ops.
"SHREN HIT IT!"
Shren didn't even bother replying. He just hit that one spot with everything the ship had. Phasers. Phaser cannons. Quantum Torpedoes. All fired at that one spot.
Then the shields on the battlecruiser popped one emitter or relay had taken too much abuse and just gave out. Then the damage started to stack up one of the nacelles broke off. The incoming fire slacked off, then stopped entirely. Then one of the torpedoes hit the remaining nacelle, and the remaining plasma in the nacelle ignited which set off the rest of the plasma in the conduits leading to the rest of the ship, which promptly exploded.
"Tyson back into the nebula. Shren weapons count. Mavnaa casualties. Laconia how bad?"
As the ship started to move into the thickest gas pockets that Tyson could find, Laconia answered. "Sealth coating – gone on top. Port nacelle - damaged. Aft phaser array – gone. Shields – twenty percent and climbing. Several conduits, relays, and cabling blown, broken or just gone.
"do we have any probes left?"
"Aye Captain. Three left. Launching now and vectoring back to the asteroid."
"Tyson swing us around and take us back to the asteroid just like last time. Laconia tell Dunne she has until we find this other battle cruiser for repairs."
Laconia just nodded. And thirty seconds later she looked right at him and said "done. Avoid engineering. She's not happy."
With a nod the captain continued. "Shren weapons status."
"You already know about the aft array. We're down to thirty six torpedoes. Front array and cannons are fine."
An hour later Shren once again called out "Contact. It's the other battle cruiser. And they're headed right for us! Shields are at forty three percent, all three tubes loaded, cannons hot, and the one array we have left is also hot. Vectoring the probes for the same trick we used against the fighters."
Lieutenant Tyson started flying at full impulse directly toward the battlecruiser while Shren just started firing torpedoes the first two splashed harmlessly against the shields of the dominion juggernaut while the two ships traded energy weapons fire. Then the first probe plowed into the shields on the top of the ship.
Two more torpedoes splashed onto the shields of the front of the ship.
Tyson flew Laconia right over top of the battlecruiser and a third torpedo was spat out of the aft tube and splashed against the top shields.
"Tyson try to come at him from above. His shields are weakest there. I'm sending in another probe." Shren half ordered.
"Got it. Swinging around." Came the reply.
The ship swung up and around then down so that the front of the Laconia was facing the top of the battlecruiser.
Shren launched two torpedoes timed so that they would hit right after the second probe impacted. And her shields buckled but didn't give after the impact of the three projectiles.
All while raking Laconia with polaron beams and trying to hit her with torpedoes. Some were lucky hits and got through.
Mrarr saw on his console that the shields were almost down. And knew victory was in sight. "TYSON BRING US AROUND AGAIN! HIT THEIR TOP SHIELDS WITH THE LAST PROBE! AND THEN HAMMER THEM! WE CAN FINISH THIS!" He roared in excitement.
After they were in the same position they had been in a few minutes ago, they started to run the gauntlet, again for the second time in two minutes. The third and last probe slammed into the shields of the Dominion ship and they burst.
Immediately the ship was raked with cannon fire, more torpedoes, and the one working phaser array. At this point both ships had stopped trying to run or maneuver at all. It was just a slugfest of who would die first. And the answer was the Dominion battle ship. She broke into pieces from the cannon fire.
Laconia was victorious. She was leaking oxygen, she had twisted, warped, and broken plates, she was on fire, there was more carbon scoring than paint on her at this point. But she had taken on an entire Dominion fleet by herself, And won.
"Are we still in range of the asteroid? " the captain wanted to know.
"Taking us over there now." Was Tyson's answer.
When they were in front of the asteroid the captain said "I want full powered scans of that thing."
After an "Aye sir." From ops. Mavnaa spoke up again and said no life signs. No Jem'Hadar. No Vorta. No Changelings. No Cardassians. No nothing." After a few seconds of thought she hesitantly continued. "Should we try to get data from the computers?"
"No. Not worth it. Out of time. Destroy asteroid. Rejoin convoy."
"Agreed Laconia." Mister Shren. Two sets of torpedoes. Maximum yield for all. Even if we don't completely destroy the asteroid, we can render it unusable."
"Aye sir. Firing in five."
Five seconds later two torpedoes shot out of the bow of the ship, followed by two more a few seconds later.
The first two torpedoes slammed into the asteroid tearing giant chunks out of it with massive explosions. Then the second set of two slammed into the same spots and there was a much bigger explosion. Which tore the asteroid into three big pieces. The force of the explosions pushing them away from each other.
"Hit power core." Laconia whispered.
"Definitely." Mavnaa put in from Ops.
"Mister Tyson Take us out, time to rejoin the convoy." The captain said.
"Aye sir." Tyson said with a tired voice."
Half an hour later sitting on the route that the convoy was taking she heard the twins bickering in the Badlands.
With a sigh and closing her eyes and a praying for strength she willed herself into the Badlands and into the middle of the ongoing argument.
"I have an actual cook on my ship. My crew loves him. Authentic Italian and Sicilian food three times a week. Great for morale."
"We can't eat food sister. I have someone who could have gone to Memory Alpha and helped design AI's."
"No but we can smell things. Fresh real marinara sauce smells so much better than what comes from the replicators."
"Why?" Laconia cut in with a confused look.
"Cuz were bored and there's nothing else…to…do…" Gleaves said trailing off toward the end, then stared at her.
Wanderer just stared open-mouthed in shock.
And Forrest just looked disappointed before saying "Enty and Yorkie are going to yell at you. Again."
Laconia just shrugged, then said. "They can't talk."
"Ok. Laconia fall back into the convoy. I'll send some damcon teams over. How many was it?
"Six fighters, three Norins, two Battlecruisers."
"Awww" came from one twin.
"We didn't get to hit the battlecruiser." Then the other. Both with huge pouts on their faces.
"Sending a report to the fleet so they're ready." Forrest said pinching the bridge of her nose.
In the real world Laconia slipped into her place in the convoy. High and above the lead transport ship.
Just another day in the Federation.
Written by Shepard.
USS Laconia, NCC-77999, Defiant-class heavy escort
Bio: Originally launched in 2264, USS Laconia was part of the first Flight of Miranda-class starships commissioned. She with her sisters served as able light cruisers for Starfleet and the Federation.
Their missions ranged from diplomatic first contacts to border patrols on the Romulan and Klingon borders. Laconia herself was involved in no less than nine engagements with Klingon raiders and pirates. Her name was befitting-she was quiet and laconic, very rarely speaking any more than necessary. As a result, it wasn't until 2267 that it was discovered she was actually sapient.
Though Utopia Planitia's AI was aware the entire time, she found it amusing when Laconia's captain complained of how Laconia was acting erratically and was told it was because she was sapient.
Laconia participated in the Four Days War as part of the USS Torguth's task force. She engaged and defeated five Klingon warships at the Battle of Ajilon Prime, losing half her crew and her port nacelle while defending both a civilian convoy of 1,000 refugees and the heavily damaged USS Avenger. For her actions, despite the Organian Peace Treaty, her crew earned the newly created Christopher Pike Medal of Valor, the Starfleet Medal of Honor, and numerous other decorations. Laconia herself was recommended for her actions, though like other AIs, she was not given awards.
Though her surviving crew gave her several of their medals for her efforts to keep them alive.
She was consigned to the shipyards for repair, and later refit, relaunching in 2271. She would be one of the escorts for the USS Akagi's acceptance of the Klingon Empire's surrender of the Archanis Sector in 2272. She would participate in war games with the USS Veracruz, USS Hornet, and USS Grokk, among other vessels, along the Romulan Neutral Zone in 2273. Her duties remained diverse and varied, primarily military focused, throughout the rest of the 2270s. She underwent the Avenger-class refit in 2279, and underwent shakedown and testing for the next two years.
She was part of the Ninth Fleet's mobilization in 2285 due to Klingon aggression along the Neutral Zone, then formed part of the Earth defense response to the Cetacean Probe in 2286, where she was disabled but salvageable. By 2293, she underwent her second major upgrade to Avenger mark II, updating her shields and phasers.
After the Khitomer Accords were signed, Locania was deployed to the Romulan Neutral Zone, where she performed standard patrols, mapping surveys, and scientific missions of her ship type. While she did not dislike peace, Laconia did feel her skills as a warrior were being neglected.
She got her chance to fight again, participating in the Cardassian Wars where her experience aided her captains immensely. She was heavily damaged in one such engagement over Setlik III, but put paid to three Cardassian attack ships.
After the disaster of Wolf 359, Laconia volunteered to aid in the Perimeter Defense Initiative to upgrade and rearm the fleet. She was assigned to Memory Alpha, where her knowledge of small ship combat tactics was invaluable. She was assigned a Saber-class hull in 2372, and rejoined the fleet in time to participate in the Battle of Sector 001, which she survived. Though she took heavy damage in the process, to the point her Saber hull was almost immediately scrapped and she was placed in a Defiant-class hull.
This served her very well, as she fought in every major battle of the conflict, from Tyrus to Chin'toka. She even fought in the Liberation of Betazed.
Post-war, she has remained a Defiant-class and enjoyed it. She also became the second starship AI in Federation history to be awarded for valor, after the Enterprise.
Throughout her life, she has remained stoic, befitting her Spartan-like appearance. She does allow emotion to show, but only to those she truly trusts. As a result, she remains a bit of an enigma to the fleet, but a trusted one.