2374: Yenna Chor'dan
(IPS Old Rusty – Cockpit – 2374.22.09, 0830)
The Imperial Parcel Service was a branch of the Romulan government. And it was exactly what it said on the tin. To deliver parcels and packages throughout the Romulan Star Empire, they owned eight freighters and a whole fleet of shuttles. After the Romulans had re-entered the galactic stage in 2364, the Star Empire had signed several agreements with the Federation. One was an anti-Borg pact, but another allowed the passage of packages and parcels between the Federation and the Romulan Star Empire.
As part of the latter, the IPS had established routes between Romulan colonies and Starfleet starbases. Route Three ran between Valerius Prime and Starbase 276. It had been the assignment of the Old Rusty since she had rolled off the assembly line in 2365. Old Rusty was a Class-C shuttle. This class of shuttle was the same size a Federation Type-9A cargo shuttle. But it took two people to operate the Federation version, while Old Rusty only had one crewmember.
That crewmember was Yenna Chor'dan. Twenty-six years old, she was daughter of Xerius and T'Rul Chor'dan. She also had a brother called Remus, who was four years older. Xerius was a history teacher, while T'Rul sat on the colony's council of agriculture. And Remus was an engineer at the Valerius spaceport. Yenna had just dropped off a load on Starbase 276. And now she was on her way back home.
The Federation and the Klingons were at war with the Dominion. Until recently, the Romulan Star Empire had been neutral in this war. But then the Dominion had killed a Senator called Vreenak. And soon after, the Star Empire had joined the fighting. For Yenna and the IPS, this had resulted in a lot more work. Old Rusty's cargo section had been practically empty on her trip to the Starbase. But now it was loaded to the brim. She was double-checking the manifest when her long-range sensors sounded the tactical alarm.
"What the hell !?" Yenna said as she sat down behind the controls.
The sensors had detected four Jem'Hadar warships. And they were heading straight for Valerius Prime. ~Crap !~ Her tactical options were far from good. Old Rusty had a top speed of warp 4.5. As far as weapons went, she had two forward disruptors and two aft ones. They were equal in firepower to Type-4 phaser emitters. Her fingers flew across the controls as she tried to send a warning to Valerius Prime. But the computer told her that it was unable to connect. ~They must have taken out one of the relays already.~ Which was not a good sign.
She looked at her reflection and brushed her blond hair from her green eyes. ~Could on, Yenna, there has to be something you can do.~ Taking a deep breath, she looked at the warp controls. Old Rusty was doing warp 4.1 at the moment. She increased speed to warp 3.5, then turned off everything she could and diverted the power. ~Warp 4.51, 4.52…come on, girl….4.53, 4.54.~ But that was the best she could do. All she could do now was hope it would be enough.
(IPS Old Rusty – Cockpit – 2374.22.09, 1303)
The past couple of hours felt like an eternity. ~Is this what Humans mean with relativity ?~ It felt like time itself had slowed down. On her any other flight, Yenna would have been singing to pass the time. But this time, there was a knot of worry in her stomach that kept her staring at the clock. Then the communications section of the controls beeped. It was an emergency message from Relay Station Valerius One. Valerius One was not located at Valerius Prime, but was safely tucked away deep inside an asteroid located at the edge of system. Yenna figured that was why it had survived long enough to transmit a message. ~Here goes…~ She pressed play.
/\= Attention, all vessels. The colony on Valerius Prime has been destroyed. I repeat, the colony on Valerius Prime has been destroyed. Do not enter this system. There are no survivors./\=
The message ended and Yenna's stomach dropped. ~Dad, mom, even Remus. He's an idiot, but I love him.~ Her brother could be a pain in the rear, but he was family. He was the reason the tip left ear was missing. Remus had been practicing with an energy rifle when he had accidentally blasted her left ear off. Their family doctor had managed to heal the wound, but the tip had never grown back.
The mere idea of having lost all her family, made her stomach turn like their was a tornado inside. ~The message said there were no survivors.~ But Yenna refused to believe that. She continued on her course towards Valerius Prime.
(IPS Old Rusty – Cockpit – 2374.22.09, 1355)
Yenna's luck ran out less then an hour after she got the message from the relay. The communications system raised the alarm first, because the long-range channels were being jammed. Then the long-range sensors detected a Jem'Hadar fighter on an intercept course. ~Blast !~ She dropped the Old Rusty out of warp and swung her about. Her only chance was getting back to Starbase 276. The big problem was that Jem'Hadar fighters could do at least warp 7. Which meant that Old Rusty couldn't outrun it.
She reduced speed to warp 4 so that she could divert power to the shields and weapons. ~Think, Yenna, think !~ The Jem'Hadar ship was closing fast. And her disruptors were useless at warp. Unfortunately, the Jem'Hadar could fire on her. They hit Old Rusty with their main weapon, reducing her shields to twenty percent. Yenna diverted all the remaining power to the aft shields, but that only brought them back up to forty-five percent. Out of options, she dropped out of warp. Another energy bolt barely missed her.
Shields down to thirty-three percent.
Yenna threw the shuttle through a turn, so that when the Jem'Hadar came out of it warp, she was not where they expected her to be. They only hit empty space, while Yenna fired the Old Rusty's forward disruptors. She scored three hits, but her weapons didn't even but a dent in the enemy shields. ~Come on, girl, you can do it.~ The Jem'Hadar hit her again.
Shields off-line. Aft disruptors off-line.
Yenna send all the power to the forward disruptors and fired again. She scored two more hits, but to no avail. The computer told her that the Jem'Hadar had locked weapons on her. ~This is it.~ And then…two photon torpedoes hit the Jem'Hadar. Before she could gasp, a Klingon bird-of-prey came into view and cut loose with its disruptors. The fighter that had been attacking her exploded, but the long-range sensors indicated that three more were on the way.
"Time to go, Yenna."
She took the Old Rusty back to warp. The shuttle didn't like the acceleration one bit and the lights flickered, while one of them exploded. But she made it to faster-then-light. Still, Yenna suspected that the damage would back to haunt her.
(IPS Old Rusty – Cockpit – 2374.24.09, 0917)
Starbase 276 was finally a dot on her sensor display. And Yenna was glad to see it. She was exhausted. For the past two days, she had been dodging the fighting. She had also come across wreckage of ships destroyed by the Jem'Hadar. There had also been two Jem'Hadar wrecks. Now, she has only a few minutes away from safety. ~Maybe even a ride back home.~ But first she had to land at the Starbase. Then she put the shuttle through the last turn to put it on an approach course…and her heart sank. Starbase 276 was a traditional mushroom shaped Starfleet base. But the sensors showed that large chunks of that shape were missing now. The damage had clearly been done by weapons fire.
~Bloody hell.~ She tried hailing the Starbase, but there was no reply. ~Stay at warp as long as you can.~ Yenna bit her lower lip and did her best to hold her nerve. Finally, she reduced speed to full impulse. At that speed, she was still three minutes away. She hailed the Starbase again. ~Still no answer.~ But then the space station launched a Danube-class on an intercept course. She slowed to one quarter impulse and hit several buttons on the communications controls.
"IPS Old Rusty to Starfleet vessel."
/\=Old Rusty, this is USS Ijssel./\= A male voice said. /\=Come to full stop and provide security code./\=
"Okay, coming to full stop…" Her fingers flew across the controls and soon Old Rusty stopped. "…now. Holding position. Security code is One-Four-Four-Alpha-Gamma-Bravo-Six-Delta."
/\=Security code clears out. But your flight plan has you returning to Valerius Prime. Why are you here ?/\=
"Valerius Prime was wiped out by the Dominion." And she knew why. Because the colony was so close to the Federation, it was home to a listening station. But now that the Empire and Feds were allies, the station had been reassigned to monitoring Dominion ship movements. "I tried to get there, but they're attacking anything with a heartbeat."
/\=Understood. We'll still need to perform a blood screening./\=
"Shields are down. You can come over whenever you want."
Ten seconds later, a Starfleet officer beamed aboard the shuttle.
(Starbase 276 – Conference Lounge 27 – 2374.25.09, 0815)
Yenna was tuned out as a Starfleet officer droned on about the tactical situation. The only thing that penetrated the fog in her head was the fact two Starfleet ships had made it to Valerius Prime. They had spent days scanning planet and searching the debris. But there had been no survivors on the planet. The only survivors in the whole system had been the three Romulans manning Valerius One. The Jem'Hadar had attacked the relay, which had survived because its location deep inside the asteroid. That, and the fact that it was heavily armed.
As for getting a ride back to Romulan space, the chances of that happening were zero. This sector and ones bordering it were one massive battlefield. Starfleet and the Imperial Navy had declared the whole theater a no-go zone for civilian ships. And their ships had better things to do then play shuttle service. Her cargo had been offloaded from the Old Rusty to a Federation freighter, which was headed to a depot three sectors over.
Yenna had tried to contact her superiors in the IPS, but all the channels had been dead or jammed. So here she was, listening to the drone. The officer – a lieutenant – finally finished. ~So, now what ?~ With going back to Romulan Star Empire not being an option, she could either stay on the Starbase, or head deeper into Federation space. Starbase 276 was right on the edge of the fighting. So she found take all the food and water she could and head deeper into the Federation. She walked out of the conference lounge and got to work.
(IPS Old Rusty – Cockpit – 2374.06.10, 1030)
It had been days since she had left the Starbase behind. And the fog in her head just kept getting thicker. It didn't help that she was down to three days' worth of food and water. Old Rusty did not have a connection between the replicator and the waste extraction unit. So when the supply of raw matter was done, the replicator became useless. It had given up the ghost two days ago. So now Yenna had to make due with what she had been get on the Starbase.
"Can this get any worse ?"
As if on cue, the lights went out and the shuttle dropped out of warp. The damage from her original fight with the Jem'Hadar had come home to roost. Yenna activated the emergency beacon. Then something exploded to her left and the world went black.
(SS Nautilus – Sickbay – 2374.06.10, 1318)
Yenna woke with a bad headache. The first thing that she saw was a bright light. She blinked and her eyes adjusted. A Human male with short black hair and brown eyes was standing over her. He was wearing a lab coat and a stethoscope around his neck. ~Classic doctor look.~ Looking around, she realized that she was in a Federation sickbay. She tried to sit up, but the room began to spin.
"Sorry, lass, but you'd better lay down on the bed." The doctor began. "You took a nasty knock to the head. I'm Doctor Jin Nakamura."
Yenna was surprised. She had visited Starbase 276 often enough to know a couple of things about Humans. Doctor Nakamura's name and appearance were Asian. But his accent was Scottish.
"You're aboard the SS Nautilus, a Federation freighter. We detected you beacon and fished you and your ship out of space. Speaking of your ship, it was in rough shape. The captain will want to know what happened to it."
"Jem'Hadar, you know how they can be….cranky, aggressive, always in the mood to vaporize shuttles."
"Aye, I've heard stories from Starfleet people." Nakamura scanned her with a tricorder. "You'll be fine, lass. But you need rest."
She closed her eyes and went back to the world of black.
(SS Nautilus – Shuttlebay - 2374.16.10, 0830)
It had taken two days for Yenna to recover. She had met the Nautilus' Captain, a Bajoran man called Wels Morack. Morack had told her that his ship's final destination for this trip was in Sector 006. From there, she would have to continue of her way aboard the Old Rusty. While they had been on-route, the Nautilus' engineering department had been hard at work trying to repair the shuttle. But because the craft was powered by an artificial quantum singularity, there were some components they simply didn't have. Still, Old Rusty was in much better shape then she had been when she had left Starbase 276.
"Hello, beautiful," Yenna said as she approached Old Rusty.
"Ready to go back into the big black ?" Doctor Nakamura asked as he entered the shuttlebay.
"Yes, I've restocked my food and water. And your engineers did an excellent job on the replicator. They even connected it to the waste extraction unit. So I should be able to go for the foreseeable future."
"Good luck."
Yenna gave the doctor a nod and then boarded her shuttle. She ran the checklist. ~All good.~ Then she fired the impulse drive and left the Nautilus' shuttlebay behind. As she swung the ship to a new course, she could see that the Nautilus was a Sydney-class vessel. ~With all the bells and whistles.~ From what Yenna could see, the ship was state-of-the-art. Then she took Old Rusty to warp.
(IPS Old Rusty – Cockpit – 2374.02.11, 0332)
Yenna was in a land of nightmares. In her mind's eye, she was standing outside the family home. Her parents and Remus were preparing dinner. But then the Jem'Hadar fighters appeared in the sky above. Yenna screamed at the top of her lungs, trying to warn them. But no sound came from her mouth. And then the Jem'Hadar opened fire and….she woke up screaming. Looking around, she realized she was in Old Rusty's cargo section. Before she could ponder her dream further, it hit her that the lights were out and that the computer was yelling at her.
Power grid at critical levels. Repeat, power grid at critical levels.
Yenna bolted to the cockpit. Her fingers flew across the controls as she tried to figure out what was wrong. ~Crap, the intercooler.~ The main intercooler had been one of the parts that the Federation folks had not been able to fix. And now it had packed in, causing a whole list of problem and failures. At the top of that list was the power grid, which was on the edge of overheating. She shut down what she could, but it was too late. Several lights exploded and parts of her console went dark. ~This is not good.~
She checked the navigational computer. Old Rusty was passing through a solar system. And not just any solar system. ~Earth ?~ Then a second series of explosions and more controls went dark. Yenna barely managed to turn Old Rusty towards Earth before gravity cut out. Fortunately, her chair came with seatbelts and she was able to strap in. Three seconds later, the shuttle began falling towards Earth like a brick.
"Crap, crap, crap !"
The shuttle heated up as it passed through the atmosphere. Yenna rerouted all the remaining power to the thrusters and fired them. The craft leveled off a bit. ~But still falling like a brick.~ Fortunately, the sensors showed that she was above uninhabited land. ~Better keep it that way.~ She fired the thrusters several more times, slowing her descent down further. After three more bursts, the main thrusters died completely.
"No, no, no !"
For a couple of seconds, all she had to work with was Old Rusty's aerodynamic qualities. Which weren't all that great. ~Come on, old girl, don't let me down now.~ Finally, the chemical back-up thrusters kicked in. She managed to get eight more bursts before they ran out of fuel. ~This is it.~ Old Rusty plummeted to the surface. Fortunately, she had saved her last burst as long as she could. So she was only nine meters above the ground.
The warp nacelles hit the ground first. But the shuttle didn't stop, skidding along instead. Finally, the nose dug itself in. ~This is not good.~ She had barely completed the thought before her chair came loose. Yenna went flying – chair and all – and hit the rear bulkhead. The world began to wobble. ~Not again.~ And then she passed out.
(Nothing, Arizona – Clinic, Main Ward - 2374.02.11, 0930)
This time, Yenna woke up to a lot of pain. Aboard the Nautilus, it had only been a headache. But now she hurt all over. On the bright side, that probably meant that everything was still in working order. Or something close to it. She opened her eyes to see a male Bajoran doctor standing over her.
"I'm Doctor Hi'yall. And you are lucky. This is my last day here."
"Where am I ?"
"You're on Earth, in a hellhole of a town called Nothing, Arizona," He threw down a clipboard Yenna only noticed now. "Good luck."
And with that, the doctor walked out. Yenna closed her eyes and felt the fog in her head. Even with the pain in her body, it had not been this thick since she had lost….well, everything. And then the dam broke. For weeks, she had been going on instinct and auto-pilot. But now all the sadness, loneliness and pain she had been holding back were released.
Next: 2375 – Loose Ends (Conclusion)