Chapter 10

Location: USS Warspite

Date: February 14, 2158

Time: 2230

When he walked out and sat in his small office, situated off to the side of the main medical bay, Dr. Watson was tired, he'd been in surgery for nearly four hours and then went over his people's work on some other minor injuries. Apparently, Engineering had taken some hits, resulting in a few burns to some of the repair crew. Six engineers were taking their turns undergoing dermal regeneration in the three imaging chambers of the main medical bay. One of the MACO's had been brought in unconscious from the fight on the captured Kriosian ship's bridge. Four others had gotten jumped in the melee in the main Kriosian shuttle bay and were pretty badly bruised up. Watson had heard Lieutenant Povaliy too had gotten the worst of a fight while Commander Rowley and Major Odell had taken some lumps but were in better shape.

But, his biggest task was complete and Ensign Simms was going to be alright. Her brain bleed was already handled and the swelling was gone and he had gotten the skull being returned to its whole status while a crack in the skull had been sealed. The skin was likewise mended with microsutures and now only a thin scar would be there under the regrown hair. The girl was now in recovery under observation as medication to resolve the concussion was being fed in alongside an IV and anti-inflammatories. The room had a second bed inside, and laying in it was Ensign Castello. Eddie had not developed the same sort of injury needing emergency surgery as Monica did, needing only a quick run of an autosuture. But he had likewise suffered head trauma and so the two were lumped in together for regular check-ups.

Watson's first stop was the surprise sight of the battered Lieutenant Povaliy, who was now walking in and was being seated on one of the cots with Commander Rowley helping her over. Dr. Watson got a look at Major Odell going to visit his troops in the cots, and saw nothing but a few bruises and a slight cut on his cheek, barely even bandaid-worthy. Commander Rowley had a much more worrying sight, a lot of blood was evident on his uniform and a swelled-up eyebrow and a cut lip.

"Commander, are you injured?" Watson immediately demanded of the senior officer as he came over.

"I'm fine, Doc, really. The blood's not mine," he brushed him aside, "She probably needs your help more though."

"Oh dear…" Dr. Watson gasped as he lifted Nadia's chin with a freshly-gloved hand, taken aback at her state.

Nadia was pretty battered and bloody. Dark swelling had shut her right eye, a cut dribbling blood down her brow and while another one did the same to cheek and another line of blood was coming from her nose as her jaw had several dark bruises. Her hair was disheveled and her uniform had multiple drips and smears of blood on it. Watson could not help but have a flashback, an uncomfortable and wretched memory. He froze, eyes zoned out as Commander Rowley noticed it.

"Doc? What's wrong?" the senior officer asked quickly.

"Huh? Oh, sorry, I'm alright," he said as he reassumed his professional decorum and lifted a scanner to check for potential head trauma thankfully finding none, "You're going to be fine. Just cosmetic," the doctor then turned and assembled a tray with the requisite medical equipment with swabs and disinfectants gauze and bandaids.

It took him some time to get her cleaned up. Nadia put on as brave and tough a face as she could. But one could tell that the process hurt quite a bit. But soon enough, Dr. Watson had wrapped up with placing a couple of bandaids on for her. She still looked a little rough, but Dr. Watson knew that things could have been far worse. He finished up with a shot to her neck.

"That'll help with the swelling," he told her, and gave her a second shot which made her wince again, "And this'll help with the pain. Now go get some rest."

"Thank you, Dr. Watson, but I'm okay," she replied in a tone barely above a whisper, managing to stand up.

"We have a senior officer's call in a few minutes in the ready room," Rowley advised them as Nadia wordlessly went to stand up, "We'll need you there too."

"Right," Watson replied as he walked over to his desk, still a bit shaken as he took a deep breath once he got there and rolled his shoulders back and refocused on the task at hand. He knew that this was part of the job, he'd known that for years in a sense.

Once he got a quick roster of the injured and their return to duty times Watson joined the others in heading to the ready room through the turbolift. Major Odell and Lieutenant Povaliy went first. Waiting for the second turbolift, Commander Rowley looked over at the doctor, still remembering the look he gave Lieutenant Povaliy when he saw how bloodied and bruised her face was. It was not something that many would forget, especially given Rowley's role as first officer being to look out for the crew and their wellbeing. But he'd looked at what happened today, and felt he'd failed in that, and Dr. Watson had witnessed it.

"Doc, I feel like I owe you an apology," Rowley said, getting Watson to turn slightly towards him curiously, "It's my fault. I should've known better."

"You're not responsible for the actions of your opponent, Commander," Dr. Watson offered as kind a word as he could.

"That's the thing, I'm the head of security, knowing what they might or might not do, that's my job. And I got it wrong, and I shouldn't have. Now they're dead and it could have been prevented," Rowley explained as the turbolift arrived.

"The Captain would reply to that with something to the effect of, 'they signed away their right to life when they attacked us'. Me, it's not for me to judge or take action against. But, I will say that it's done, don't let it keep you from learning from it," he responded as he walked in.

"Thanks, I guess I needed to hear it from someone. What about you? You okay doc?" Rowley asked.

"I'm fine," Dr. Watson replied, "Which is more than I can say for you, physically at least. You still look rough."

"I've had worse scraps in high school. Although that dude I fought knocked one of my fillings out, any chance you can take care of that?" Rowley responded with a smirk.

"First time I've had a patient go out of their way for a dental appointment," Watson chuckled, "I'll get an appointment for you."

"Thanks, but…mind if I ask why you looked at Povaliy like there was something wrong?"

"In a manner of speaking…I suppose I did," Watson replied in a reserved sigh as the lift arrived.

"Doc, is it something we need to worry about?" Rowley stopped him from exiting.

"Not any more than the fact that we just got our first punch in the nose, so to speak," Watson retorted sternly.

"It wasn't what I wanted, what any of us wanted," Rowley replied, a bit of sadness to the tone, as the two now walked towards the captain's ready room.

"I know," Watson nodded calmly as they now entered it to see the other senior officers were all present.

All were present, with Lieutenant Povaliy catching Captain Shaw's attention. Her swelling had gone down, but she was still quite bruised up and had several bandages on her face. The captain looked over at Commander Rowley, pursing his lips in an internal wince as he stepped over to the young officer.

"Lieutenant, you alright?" he came over, laying a hand on her shoulder.

"I'm okay sir," she shrugged.

"Here, take my chair," he beckoned her to sit in his armchair by his fireplace, "Hell of a first away mission. I promise they won't all be that unpleasant."

"Thank you, sir," Nadia offered a quick smile, more of a brave face showing that she was okay.

"If anyone wants tea or coffee, say so now," Shaw said as he opened the cabinet and took a cup and saucer and placed in the synthesizer, "Chamomile Tea, hot."

Once the tea was dispensed, he handed it to Nadia, who took it thankfully. Dr. Watson too got himself some green tea, as did T'Pmin and Lieutenant Commander Frost. Once they were done, Captain Shaw got himself a cup of black tea and as he stirred in some sugar and milk he turned and walked to his desk and sat down as everyone else sat in the chairs or on the couch.

"Now, let's go through the action as we always do," Shaw assured everyone present, knowing that the events aboard the Kriosian Battlecruiser were fresh on the minds of all present, but that he had a routine aboard the Warspite for how they handled after-action debriefs and wanted to be sure that they didn't break things up. Not only that, he was the captain, he had to show his senior officers a visage of poise and strength and that despite the events he was still calm and collected and knew what to do, "Sub-Commander, our damage report, if you please."

"Yes captain," T'Pmin replied as she lifted her tablet, "A plasma coolant conduit in main engineering ruptured and is being patched, several nacelle coils on the port nacelle received damage and are being assessed as we speak. Three power plasma relays were damaged. One plasma conduit was damaged in the starboard support pylon. Ventral hull plating was buckled at a section near G Deck, Section 1, a hairline crack resulted in atmosphere venting was detected and was patched, the same impact caused a water line break at a previously-damaged pipe. My crews have completed repairs and found that there were grossly overlooked inadequacies in the installation of the water mains in that section. I have a detail conducting a more thorough inspection of the ship's plumbing system as a whole."

"No other damage?" Shaw inquired.

"Negative, captain, but I have ordered more detailed follow-up inspections that are currently underway. If the inadequate installation of the water system was allowed to go this long without detection, other systems may have been likewise affected. Likely the root cause of any defects will have been rushed construction and installation and a lack of detailed inspection and testing prior to launch due to our accelerated launch schedule," T'Pmin explained, "I recommend a full and comprehensive all-systems testing regimen in spacedock for the ship once we return after the mission is completed."

"Well, do what you can, Sub-Commander, thank you," Shaw nodded in agreement, and looked to Dr. Watson, "Dr. Watson, I take we have a butcher's bill?"

"Eleven injuries I've classed as serious," Dr. Watson responded, "Top of the list, was Ensign Simms, she suffered a severe blunt force trauma to the skull. We conducted a craniotomy and I'm confident she'll pull through without much issue. Ensign Castello too suffered some similar injuries but to a lesser extent. He's under observation along with Ensign Simms."

"Well done, Dr. Watson," Shaw nodded to him, "And the others?"

"Six engineers suffered severe burns, we have them undergoing dermal and neural regeneration at the moment, they'll be back to work in a couple of days," Dr. Watson recited, "Another twelve other crew were lightly burned through a mixture of causes, they were treated and released to return to duty effective immediately."

"Rough day, Sub-Commander," Shaw noted, and then nodded to Dr. Watson to continue.

"And lastly, three of Major Odell's MACO's were injured, two that were badly beaten, one that was hit by a stun baton and is under observation as per regulation. Thirty-two other personnel have reported to medical for a variety of various injuries and have been released to return to duty," Dr. Watson finished his report.

"Thank goodness, still no fatalities," Shaw nodded as he took a sip of his tea, and then leaned forward, "Commander Rowley, now, for the hard part. What happened aboard that ship?"

"We boarded, the ship's captain was there to meet us, as reported," Rowley explained, going through it step by step, "The MACO boarding team swept the ship, secured all engineering and weapons systems and all the Kriosian crew were confined to their shuttle bay. I conducted a quick questioning of the Kriosian leader. He was a noble, and he claimed that he and his ships were hired to find us and either capture or destroy us to protect pirate shipping.

"Hmm…" Shaw hummed to himself, having suspected as much, but now had a confession, "Did he say who contracted him?"

"He didn't say, but we were able to glean enough to know their last port of call was Rigel X," Rowley explained.

"We're on the right track then, go on, Commander."

"Lieutenant Povaliy and I went to the ship's computer core, but found it badly damaged. We have…no previous experience or reference points to Kriosian technology, and so we had no way of knowing if it was sabotage or if it was damage sustained in the battle. The whole ship was…pretty trashed, it wasn't going anywhere under its own power without comprehensive rebuilds of several systems. We began offloading the contents of the ship's most secure storage bay, which are all aboard and secure now as well as any datapads, hand-held scanners, weapons, etcetera. I took the decision to take two engineers from the Kriosian crew to help fix the computer core so we could access and copy over the ship's database. At that point, the two crewmen we selected attacked Major Odell and I as we entered the bridge. We fought, the two Kriosians were killed. The third Kriosian, who kept separated from his crew, managed to get the jump on his escort and hit him with a stun baton. Lieutenant Povaliy managed to enter the bridge from the computer core, went to draw her weapon but she too was too close and was jumped. She was overpowered and held at phaser point. But, to your credit Lieutenant," Commander Rowley nodded with a proud smirk, "She secured her weapon to safe, the Kriosian captain was unfamiliar with the weapon and had no clue it wouldn't fire. She pointed that out, I eliminated the threat to her person. Meanwhile, it seems that the Kriosian crew was in on that plan to jump us, and tried to rush the MACO's in the shuttle bay. Two of our guys guarding the door on the deck with them got pretty bruised up, but our guys that were on a catwalk above them fired down into the crew, and all of them were killed. We then finished the task of downloading their database once the ship was secure and an engineering team brought over. To Lieutenant Povaliy's credit, she remained on task and saw to it her orders were completed even after all that."

"I see…" Captain Shaw noted, "Do we have any idea why they did that? Pride? Arrogance? Fear? Misplaced sense of cunning?"

"Little bit of all of the above, sir," Major Odell responded, "If I were to hazard an educated opinion. But, I think their main incentive was that they felt that we would have killed all of them once we had what we came for. And so, they acted out a tactical plan that they must have thought would give them a chance of escaping alive."

"Indeed…" Shaw lifted and clasped his hands together, lowering his head, "Once Starfleet Command hears about this they will want to investigate. So, before we return to our task, let's conduct our own so that if anyone wants to come after the ship and its crew, we'll have our bases covered. Did we download the ship's security files?"

"Yes sir, Commander Rowley and Major Odell were adamant that I confirmed that we had that data," Nadia spoke up calmly.

"Go ahead and get that extracted first for me, I'll want to include that in the report on the incident. In fact, all reports are to come to me, and me exclusively. We're doing this by the book, can't give Starfleet investigators a reason to feel as though we have been dishonest. I will need one of your uninvolved officers to gather up your lads' helmet cameras, Major Odell, and send a data file to me. And Dr. Watson, your medical treatment reports on the individuals as well, with pictures. Best to be thorough in regards to your reports on this matter. Again, send those to me exclusively."

"Of course," Dr. Watson nodded.

"Now, Commander Rowley, have Lieutenant Commander Jackson, your second, report to me immediately after we wrap up. He will conduct the scene examination. Once finished, he will interview all involved personnel and officers with the standard questions for the record. During his investigation, you and Major Odell are to refrain from contact with him on any matter regarding this fact-finding assignment of his unless pertinent to ongoing operations. Again, we must do this by the book gentlemen, I trust that you do not take any of this as a personal slight against my opinion of your handling of the situation, and know that no disciplinary hearing will occur while we are deployed out here. For the record, according to your report I think you were given little recourse but to do what you did," Shaw declared openly, making sure he was understood by his First Officer and his MACO commanding officer. He could not afford to undermine the crew's confidence in them nor undermine their confidence in him.

"Thank you, Captain, but there were mistakes made on our part," Rowley acknowledged firmly, "Mistakes that I should have known better than to allow that could have prevented the incident from taking place."

"Like what?" Shaw inquired, leaning back in his chair.

"Well sir, as you know, I came over from MACO, it was my original training. And procedure for this sort of situation in MACO is that we should have had the prisoners more secure than we did. In this case, we were abiding by Starfleet regs which was to secure them according to their level of cooperation."

"The intent of that regulation is to prevent provoking a hostile response through preventing the act of securing prisoners by deescalating the situation with proportional actions based on the judgment of the senior tactical officer present," Shaw noted.

"Well sir, it seems that regulation didn't reflect the reality of the larger regional situation. It never took into account that we would be doing what we've been doing. Hostile intent was already provoked. I should have made the call sooner to have cuffs put on all of them from the start, and that the two guys we took to the bridge, we should have had weapons drawn on. Instead, we were cocky, and they thought they had an opening to try and nail us and took their shot," Major Odell stepped in to offer his appraisal as well.

"I see. Well then, be sure to include your recommendations in your report. And in the future, all future prisoners will be treated according to MACO SOP, not Starfleet," Shaw responded after a few seconds to think on it, "We will call it a lesson learned for now. Get yourselves squared away, get those reports in, and get ready for our mission to Rigel X. We're still not even at the hardest part. Because after we have completed our business there, we have business with the pirates' facility in the Valakis System."

"Aye sir," Rowley responded affirmatively.

"Lieutenant," Shaw then looked to Nadia, who had been nervously but appreciatively sipping at her tea.

"Sir?"

"Tomorrow I would like you to break into the Kriosian ship's database, get some sleep tonight after you write your report, don't press yourself too hard. But we need to know if those ships paid a visit to Rigel X, I very much would like to know what is down there so we can plan accordingly. Sub-Commander," he then turned to his engineer, "Install a sensor package aboard the runabout, when we visit the planet on our scouting mission I'll want to map the area and ascertain the whereabouts of anything Major Odell may need to know of for his mission."

"Of course, Captain."

"Any other questions?" Captain Shaw looked out to his officers who all answered in the negative, "Alright, dismissed."

With that, everyone began to file out, relieved at now having time to themselves as it was also quite late. They all knew they'd have some reports to file before they got some sleep. But it was definitely still a relief to be done. Although Dr. Watson had hesitated, remaining there, dropping his head into his hand. The fatigue of the day, the surgery he'd handled, and then the sight of Lieutenant Povaliy.

"Doctor? You alright?" Shaw arched an eyebrow as he got up, going to grab a cup himself.

"Yes, yes…" Dr. Watson sat up, blinking away, still having a mile-long stare on his face, "It's been a long day."

"My word, you look like you've seen a ghost," Shaw stopped to look at his friend more closely.

"I suppose I have, in a way," Watson sighed as he took a sip on his tea as Shaw tapped the button for some of his own.

"Passionflower Tea, hot," the man stated and turned back to him, "Penny for your thoughts?"

"Lieutenant Povaliy," Watson said hesitantly, "Her…injuries, they reminded me of a rough time in my early career. When I was working doing my residency, I was working in a hospital that also ran a clinic in one of the rougher parts of London. I saw quite a few young girls, girls who'd been the victims of domestic abuse. The young Lieutenant reminded me of that, one girl in particular."

"It couldn't have been easy," Shaw said as he took his cup and placed a small plate inside, "Smoked salmon deviled eggs, cold."

It was his bedtime ritual, passionflower tea was high in melatonin, a crucial component to getting deep meaningful sleep. As was egg and as was fish, allowing him some different melatonin-rich snacks to take before bed to help with sleep. It helped, especially given how stressful and how high a tempo Warspite had operated, going from battle to battle now every couple of days almost. It seemed to Captain Shaw that his ship doctor was feeling the effects of that stress which was bringing up some trauma of his past. This time of war did that quite often, and it had been noted by Starfleet in several fleet-wide advisories. It seemed he'd have to deal with that.

"No, it most was not, for a young resident, starting out and having to watch young girls come in almost afraid to even say their names for fear of what might happen later," Watson responded with a terse sadness, "Although, we found ways to help them. There were always ways. So…when the abuser who was responsible came with them…acting like nothing had happened…you find it difficult to keep your composure."

"Sounds like you might not have," Shaw responded as he took a bite of one of his four deviled eggs and turned his chair to face him, somewhat eager to return to the electrically-generated heat. Dr. Watson noticed this, but didn't say anything for now.

"The first time that it happened, it was a young girl, no older than…sixteen or seventeen. Pretty little thing, if it weren't for the…cracked eye socket, broken nose, multiple lacerations, and a tongue she nearly bit through. Her father came with her, I had a sense that things were tense between them. I thought at first her situation had infuriated him as a father would. But, something was off. I examined her closely, and I saw something caught in the skin where she was cut by her brow. It was a gem, a…sapphire or something of the sort. I didn't think much of it, until I saw the girl's father's hand, and the ring that was missing one small stone."

"He beat her," Shaw replied in recognition.

"I grabbed his hand to look at his ring more closely and sure enough, the others matched, and I…lost it. We fought and I beat him and beat him and beat him…" Watson began to strain at his own words down to a pant, turning red in the face with eyes wide at reliving the fury and hatred of that time, "until my fists were as bloody as his face. As a doctor, I know if I'd gone on like that for much longer, I'd have killed him."

"I wouldn't have thought you would have that in you," the captain said as he took a sip of his tea.

"Neither did I," Watson nodded as he leaned back, taking a deep breath.

"What happened after that?" Shaw asked, surprised at such a statement.

"The judge was very lenient and the man fortunately was caught on camera throwing the first punch. I was lucky. Given the severity of the girl's injuries and the criminal history of the father the courts let me go with a fine and the medical board forced me into an anger management seminar, and I was court-mandated with a restraining order to not seek that bastard out. But…I never found out if I ever did any good because I never saw that girl again."

"What's brought this up?" Shaw asked after a moment of silence.

"I, to this day, have no idea if because I went off and beat that sorry excuse of a father within an inch of his life that that poor girl would never have him raise his hand to her again or if I may have made it worse."

"I think I'm sensing what you're getting at," Shaw replied succinctly, halting a second before eating another of his snacks.

"Do you?" Watson responded, looking up at him, somewhat testily.

"Of course," Shaw nodded matter-of-factly, "It's a dilemma that people have had to deal with for millennia. Enemies exist in this world, Watson, the strong stand up against them to protect themselves and others from their cruelty and savagery. But in standing up to it, fighting it, where do you stop yourself in order to dissuade it? If you don't fight hard enough, you may as well have done nothing, your meager struggles only serving to embolden what you fight against. If you come down too hard, you may risk provoking the exact response of that of a dying animal, desperately fighting for survival. Would you like to know my point of view on it?"

"I suppose I may as well," Watson stated as he sipped at his tea.

"That when fighting someone, if you worry about measuring your punches, holding yourself back, you miss the point of fighting in the first place. Violence, is a means to an end, the last one if you have done your due diligence and have not acted impulsively. But, violence is directed at you, you respond in kind and never hold back," he stood up and walked slowly over to his mantle, and looked up at his painting of the old battleship HMS Warspite firing her main guns in a capture of the Battle of Narvik, "Take for instance, the second world war," he gestured to the ship once known as the 'Grand Old Lady', "When German destroyers entered the fjord at Narvik, they were confronted by two Norwegian coastal defense ships. And long story short, the Norwegians hesitated, and both ships were torpedoed and sunk within mere moments, taking almost their entire crews to the bottom with them. Then the Royal Navy came, and they didn't hold back, they didn't hesitate. Two battles were fought, one, a daring swirling destroyer action, unleashing broadsides and torpedoes. Then a second battle, this time, the Warspite, a battleship led the way. True, she was only up against destroyers, but she was there, her enemies were there. So steamed in, and Warspite laid waste to those German destroyers. Those German ships never served to menace the Allied cause again. And whenever the Germans encountered British battleships they never dared to face them again."

"So, your answer to this is…damn the consequences, kill them all?" Watson responded with a scoff.

"Watson, out here, our enemies have made themselves known, they did that when they began to attack our ships and murder our people. Whether it is for pay or for sport, I don't care," Shaw said back, a dangerous tone and glare showing on his face, "Out here, these kinds of people do not fear ships, they do not fear weapons. They fear monsters. A foe which fears you is one that is far less likely to make themselves your enemy. And now, they have started to fear us. We must make sure that fear is completely ingrained with one more strike."

"And then?" Dr. Watson asked, exasperated by the concept of yet more conflict at this time of night and after such a long and stressful day.

"Then, we go to Valakis, by all accounts, the major gathering point for pirates and the one individual with the money to keep them operating in the region. We give them a choice, cease attacking our shipping, lay down arms, and come to the table and negotiate. Or we will finish the job," Shaw said firmly.

"That would be war if they fought you," Watson reminded his friend, "Not precisely within Starfleet's interests."

"Oh, I know," Shaw responded with a nod, "And I have a plan in mind for a potential refusal."

"And that would be?" Watson leaned forward as he put his elbows on his knees, laying his cup on the table.

"I'll tell you if the worst should happen, get some rest," Shaw gave a nod to him before eating his final snack and then stepped over and laid the plate he had been using in the synthesizer, which dropped a glass screen and then conducted a quick cleaning and then sanitized it.

Dr. Watson nodded, agreeing that it was time to get some rest. Before he left he made one last observation as he saw the captain return to his chair by the fireplace.

"You still having cold flashes?" he asked as he reached the door.

"Not as bad as before," Shaw replied after a moment, "Need to remind myself to get some of my good blankets next time I'm home."

"Hopefully we'll be there soon enough, all of us," Watson nodded before, turning to depart and opened the door intent left Shaw alone with his thoughts before he realized the captain was still not done for the night, "Oh, it seems Lieutenant Commander Jackson is here."

"Oh, yes," Shaw stood up from his chair, remembering he had to receive the young officer, who was actually the fifth in line of overall command, and give him his marching orders, "I shall see you tomorrow."

Shaw gave him a nod as Dr. Watson nodded back and departed, allowing the ship's captain to continue, knowing that the man would be up for some time to come still.