Dash stared at the number.
Three hundred and twenty six.
It wasn't good enough, and it made his blood run cold.
Three hundred and twenty-six.
Out of five thousand refugees in the temple, they could only bring up little more than three hundred of them. How could five thousand people even take refuge in a temple unless they had no other choice? The man, a Vedek, or priest as it was best translated, had told him that they had been forced into the temple by the Cardassians. That snipers and artillery teams watched from the hills, and that those who wandered out were killed within moments.
Three hundred and twenty-six.
And Dash Reinarr, his heart dropping into a black hole, could barely rescue a tenth of them.
The warning klaxons broke him from his trance, and his head lifted so fast he felt a twinge in his neck.
On screen, what they could only assume were Cardassian fighters had detached from the main battle group and were headed straight for them.
"Mr. David, evasive maneuver Reed-One-Seven."
"Aye, sir."
The ship lurched as it pulled free from the gravity of Bajor, its impulse engines straining to complete the maneuver as it did so. But it was of little use, the Cardassian fighters strafed the bigger ship, blasting it with enhanced plasma fire. The shields held, but it was only a matter of time before bigger cruisers joined the fight.
"Mr. Chekov," Dash said, straightening up in his chair, "Take down those snub fighters. Mr. Traviss, best speed back to Federation space."
Dash interlaced his fingers, elbows resting on the arms of the chair. He had to get clear of Bajor, get clear of the Cardassian war fleet, and send a message back to the Federation, warning them of what was going on here. Until then, though, he had to survive. The tactical monitor on his chair beeped at him, and checking it only sunk his spirits further.
What appeared to be a capitol ship and a destroyer had broken off from the fleet and were laying in a pursuit course towards the Archer.
Three hundred and twenty-six.
The Archer's crew compliment was one hundred.
Sacrifice one hundred lives to, only maybe, save three hundred and twenty-six.
They'd all perish regardless if the Archer was destroyed, but if it could survive long enough to get a message to the Federation, perhaps more lives could be saved…
Perhaps three hundred and twenty-six is the sacrifice to save thousands.
The thoughts did not do him any good, and Dash Reinarr pushed them to the back of his consciousness.
"Bring up a tactical overlay on the screen, wire-frame only please."
The viewscreen fizzled for a moment as the stars outside were replaced by a blank background. Blue-white lines began appearing on the screen, slowly forming a grid. The rough outlines of the Archer, the Cardassian fighters, and the incoming cruisers. The Archer, with its half-saucer hull, upper-pyloned warp nacelles, and rectangular impulse drive molded in between them, looked almost helpless against the sleek, angular Cardassian cruisers fast approaching.
Dash Reinarr and the crew, however, knew better.
They would make every moment and movement count. A no-win scenario was never truly unwinnable, you just had to know how to make the right moves in the long game. Sacrifice a few things here for the ultimate victory later on.
Dash thought of the billiards table in his quarters, the same one he'd been lugging around for years since he became a full captain. A deceptively simple game of odds, luck, and strategy, where one move could scatter the board for both you and your opponent. If he could be unpredictable enough, he could make this game last as long as he needed to.
Sparing a glance at Chekov, the captain had a brilliant idea. There was only one ship in range he could think of that would really shake up the playing field.
"Miss Traviss, send a tight-beam distress signal."
"Destination, sir?" The communications officer asked, looking up from her console.
"The Enterprise."
The mechanized screeching sounded much harsher than it was intended.
James T. Kirk had met many lifeforms and civilizations over the course of his career, but he'd never seen anything before or since like the Tholians. Tall, imposing scorpion-like beings made entirely of superheated crystal, who spoke at ear-bleedingly high pitches and were so xenophobic their entire territory was devoid of all other alien life. They had a few colony worlds on desolate planets, and then their homeworld of Tholia, but that was it. As far as Kirk knew, the Enterprise and her crew were the first aliens in Tholian space, possibly ever, in history.
Yet, despite this, the Tholian Assembly was one of the strongest powers in the galaxy. Their highly advanced technology made them second to none, and it was damn near impossible to get any sort of intelligence on them due to the intricate methods they took to disguise and hide themselves from the rest of the quadrant. Which is what made this meeting even more historic, and not just because it meant Kirk would need new eardrums.
The Tholian Assembly, in light of recent events, had decided to extend a gesture of friendship to the Federation.
A minor war with the Gorn Hegemony had been the first thing to catch the attention of the Assembly, as did the peace agreement that ended the war. Then, Kirk's encounter with the mystical Organians during a skirmish with a Klingon armada, which had ended when the highly advanced Organians had forced a ceasefire between the Klingon Empire and the Federation, had piqued their interest further. Finally, as the Tholian Ambassador had told it, the Enterprise's encounter with the probe known as V'Ger had solidified support in the Assembly that diplomatic relations had to be opened.
Kirk's opinion on each of these events certainly differed from the Ambassador's.
The Enterprise hadn't truly been involved with the Gorn Hegemony. Their only contribution of note had been when they ferried Una Chin-Riley, the former first officer of the ship under the late Captain Christopher Pike, to the peace talks. When things went awry due to a botched assassination by a Klingon spy, Kirk and crew had salvaged the talks.
Organia was… A different matter entirely, and even he still wasn't certain what to make of the whole thing. Especially since Organia had been abandoned ever since, and nobody had seen heads or tails of the Organians themselves. The Klingons had withdrawn and an uncomfortable cold war had settled itself in place of the actual one.
V'Ger had been an experience, to be certain. A probe, a highly modified version of the Voyager satellite from the 20th century, had returned to local space, wreaking havoc as it went by destroying Klingon cruisers, Earth ships, and anything in its way. Whether or not they were actually destroyed or somehow assimilated into V'Ger was another matter. The whole ordeal had been wrapped up under so much black and red tape that it gave Kirk a headache just thinking about it. The only bright spot from that event was that it was the last time the entire Enterprise crew had been together, uninterrupted.
Since then they'd all taken various assignments away from Enterprise, usually when she was in spacedock for repairs or refits. Even Kirk had stepped away, however briefly, to join a top-secret mission to thwart an attempt by the Romulan Star Empire to harvest Vulcan psionic powers for their own gain. That mission had been an adventure, and it had also been the last time he'd encountered Liviana Charvanek.
Fleet Commander Charvanek, as was her formal title, was fierce, determined, and, to Kirk, an absolutely invigorating Romulan woman. She commanded no less than three Romulan warbirds and was as formidable an opponent as she was beautiful. Although older in years, she carried herself gracefully, and her time in service to the Romulan Empire had given her experience and wisdom unparalleled in the galaxy.
Her hair was not quite so Romulan, brown and flowing with perfectly accentuated curls at the ends, and her eyes held a warmth that had, initially, given Kirk pause. Romulans tended to have one of two things behind their eyes, and their words: Deception and anger. Kirk had seen neither from Liviana, but instead an inviting, friendly kindness.
It was an act, of course, but, during the mission to stop the experiments, there had been a moment between the two of them that cast doubt on that.
A tense, emotional moment, to be sure, but one that had sparked a connection between them. Add that to the fact that they openly considered each other worthy adversaries, and her fascination with Spock that she'd attempted to use numerous times to her advantage, and it was a potent combination indeed. Since then, they had exchanged correspondence when circumstances permitted.
Despite the hostile nature between the Federation and the Romulans, the talks between him and her had been enjoyable, and Kirk had found himself lost in thought to her more and more often. It was mere dalliance currently, the kind Kirk so often seemed to find himself in with so many lovely alien men and women, but he couldn't deny she was an extremely intriguing woman, even for a Romulan.
Still, that intrigue paled in comparison to today's mission.
The Tholians, of all people, wanting diplomatic conference with the Federation. It was quite unbelievable, even as Kirk talked with the Ambassador himself.
"Yes," He replied with a chuckle and a smirk, "I too agree that a meeting like this is long overdue between our peoples."
The Tholian screeched indecipherably at him again, pupilless yellow eyes continuing to stare intently at him. The thorax armor adjusted itself as the Tholian Ambassador moved, his claw-like arms spreading as he talked. It was strange to gender the Ambassador because, as far as Kirk could tell from Spock's briefing, the Tholians shared a hive mind, and gender didn't factor in to their discriminating of each other.
Which made this conversation even stranger because Kirk wasn't talking to the Ambassador alone, technically, but, according to Spock, he was speaking to the entirety of the Tholian race.
"Kirk of Earth, we are pleased to have your designated Earth-Constitution Vessel here. We offer nothing to you but our gratitude and our kindness. Tholia wishes to proceed apace with immediate trade and allegiances as per your predicted protocols."
The universal translator did a decent job rendering the Ambassador's speech to English, but there were definitely still some flaws. After all, the Tholian language had only been dumped into its database this morning. It would learn as the conversation continued, but that meant that Kirk would still have to sometimes make an educated guess as to what the Ambassador was saying.
"We would be happy to do so, Ambassador. The Federation has sent one of our best diplomats to assist in that endeavour."
"Pleasure we are involved in at the knowledge being attained of this. Tholia willingly accepts your offer, and the Assembly will attend to you a feast of human varieties in order to instigate these heretofore mentioned proceedings of peace."
Kirk blinked, digesting the broken translation.
"Of course, Ambassador. Enterprise is deeply grateful to be chosen for this historic meeting. We can begin in, say, an hour?"
The Tholian Ambassador agreed, and the transmission ended, leaving Kirk staring at the field of stars again. The Tholian warship Quadrant Hunter, again a questionable translation, sat in the distance, the yellow and orange glow of its interior reflecting off the sharp, reinforced hull and turbolaser emplacements. A not-so-subtle reminder that the Tholians were not to be angered.
Spock, as usual, was at his side.
Although their relationship had started off incredibly rocky, with Spock outright marooning him on a desolate, frozen world, over time they had become friends. More than that in many respects, too, but neither dwelled on the thought much now. They were the strongest team in Starfleet, and their adventures had rankled the noses of plenty of admirals back on Earth, both for how sheerly ludicrous some of them had been and for how much the duo had managed to accomplish.
"That was an interesting interaction, to say the least," Spock commented.
"You think so?" Kirk said, looking up at the tall Vulcan, "Here I thought trying to decipher his broken translations was rather dull."
"Indeed?" Spock raised an eyebrow.
"I'm joking, Spock," Kirk said, still mildly disbelieving that, after spending his whole life around humans, the Vulcan still couldn't always tell the difference between sarcasm and the truth.
"Ah, of course," Spock said, before quickly changing the topic, "I have received word from New Vulcan."
"Oh, they finally got back to you, huh?"
They, in this case, referred to the Vulcan Elders. A group of ancient, wise, and fiercely logical Vulcans who often facilitated the more advanced practices and rituals of the Vulcan people. They lived in total isolation from the rest of Vulcan society, and often only trained a few candidates at a time.
When the invaders from the future used their weapons to not just destroy but completely annihilate the planet Vulcan, the people had become endangered refugees, with barely ten thousand left alive. For a people as stoic and long lived as the Vulcans, this crisis was particularly damaging, as reaching maturity alone took decades. Not to mention the loss of nearly all ancient texts, holy sites, and the disruption this caused as Vulcans all over the galaxy were recalled to the core worlds. One of the most damaging casualties of the sudden genocide had been the loss of nearly all of the Vulcan Elders.
As Spock had once put it, "The loss is equitable to that of twenty centuries of knowledge and experience being wiped from existence. It is as if that time never happened."
The event, and the years surrounding it, had been intense for all Vulcans, but Spock took it far more personally than most, as he had been one of the last Vulcans to ever set foot on the planet. He had seen it destroyed, swallowed into a singularity, with his own eyes, and the damage had stuck with him. He had never been given, or, more accurately, had never given himself, the time and space to properly address the tragedy.
It was only recently, years removed, that he had begun allowing himself the reprieve to process it. In doing so Spock had begun trying to put the ever-warring sides of himself, his humanity and his Vulcan heritage, at peace. Part of that effort had been to reach out to the few remaining Vulcan Elders and formally requesting to undergo the process known as Kolihnar.
"Indeed," Spock said, "They have finally agreed that I am ready to begin the trials."
Kirk was proud of his friend, "Alright, way to go, Spock. I'm glad they finally came to their senses."
Spock queried his friend with a raised brow and confusion, "I am not certain to what you are meaning. Two years of rejections is considered unusually quick for a candidate."
Kirk rolled his eyes and stood up from his chair, "Where I come from, Spock, two years of rejection normally ends in a restraining order."
The Vulcan barely hesitated before responding, "Then perhaps I was not aggressive enough in my applications."
Shaking his head, Kirk patted Spock on the shoulder and headed for the turbolift.
"Oh, Commander," He groaned, "I don't know what I'd do without you."
"Depression, most likely." Spock responded flatly.
"That'll be the day," Kirk smirked at his old friend, "'James Kirk- depressed' will make headlines around the quadrant."
Before the doors to the turbolift could close, however, the whistle of an incoming message sounded off. Lieutenant Nyota Uhura quickly answered it.
Kirk held the door from closing, watching to see if he was still needed. If the Tholian Ambassador was calling back, he wanted to be as far from the bridge as possible, after all.
Unfortunately, as her expression quickly became one of surprise and concern, Kirk could tell something much worse had come through.
Earpiece still pressed in, Uhura was decoding the message with her free hand, writing as fast as she could. The longer she wrote, the more her expression dropped. Kirk tentatively stepped off the lift, crossing his arms as he waited.
When she was finished, she removed her earpiece and turned to the assorted bridge crew.
"Emergency distress signal from the Archer, Captain, from Sector Nine-Seven-Two-Six."
Kirk and Spock exchanged a look.
"Anything else, Lieutenant?"
"They say they need immediate assistance. They discovered a planet under siege and are now being engaged by a Cardassian war fleet, sir."
"Cardassians?" Kirk was incredulous, "I didn't even know they were capable of mustering anything more than a trading ship."
"It does seem rather unlikely," Spock followed up, "However, we cannot be quick to discount this. From what I am aware, Captain Reinarr is not a man to overstate a situation."
Kirk rolled his eyes, already hopping back into the captain's chair, "Captain Reinarr just states the facts, a bit of flair never really suited him," Kirk began tapping on the communicator on his console.
"Captain," Spock asked, slowly turning on his heel, "I advise we relay this message to Starfleet Command."
"So they can do what, Spock?" Kirk was more than a little skeptical, "Send out a Miranda-class to investigate in another week? I don't think so."
He opened a line to engineering.
"Scotty, power up the warp engines and prep your crew for battle stations."
"Aye, Captain."
Just as quickly, Kirk opened a channel to the quarters of their esteemed diplomat.
"Saint John? This is Captain Kirk, I need you to evacuate to the shuttle Galileo immediately, sir."
The man's voice on the other line, though tinny, was aghast, "What the devil are you talking about, Kirk? What's going on?"
"I'll tell you later, right now, I need you to do as I ask."
Kirk thumbed the communicator off before the ambassador could respond.
Spock, hands folded behind his back, watched Kirk.
"Captain, I would strongly advise against abandoning our current mission. There are several other ships in range of Captain Reinarr's position."
"Other ships, sure, but no experienced captains," Kirk waved him off.
Spock, again, argued against it.
"Captain, we are at best speed seven hours away from the distress signal's position. The Potemkin, Roosevelt, and Challenger are only three hours distance."
Of course, Spock had the positions of nearly every Starfleet ship memorized. He'd found it necessary given how many times Kirk tended to, as the humans said, dive off the deep end and go chasing rabbit holes. It never truly worked but, logically, it was still worth the effort.
"The Potemkin is undergoing a refit, the Roosevelt is a Sacagawea-class and not strong enough to help, and the Challenger isn't going to be allowed leave to investigate something that Command will find wildly unlikely," Kirk countered, "Yes, I'm aware that we aren't being granted leave either, I'll deal with the fallout when it happens."
Spock had to fight to keep his contempt from showing. Emotions were difficult things to control, even for a full-fledged Vulcans. James T. Kirk, however, could even give the Vulcan Elders an impossible challenge. Although the two were close, Spock could never quite manage to stand Kirk's carefree attitude in the face of danger, or the risk of a court martial.
He was a smart man and always had plans upon plans in the back of his mind, plans that usually panned out, but Spock knew just as well as Kirk did that, in reality, he was just taking careless risk after careless risk in barely calculated maneuvers, hoping instead of knowing that they would pay off in the end.
"Mr. Sulu," Kirk looked up from his chair to their helmsman, a brilliant man in his own right who was nearing ever closer to his own command after years of service, "As soon as our ambassador clears the Enterprise, give us best speed to the Archer's last known position. Warp factor eight."
"Aye, sir," Sulu said, turning back around to his station, charting the best course for the Enterprise to sling itself across the universe.
"Captain, I must object. We are endangering talks with the Tholians by leaving so abruptly."
"Spock, you are insistent, aren't you?" Kirk gave a joyless smile to the Vulcan, "I understand the risks, but Saint John should be able to handle himself. The Tholians might be disgruntled, but the man's settled entire wars before. I'm sure he can smooth over something like this."
Spock sighed, shaking his head.
"This is not advisable, Captain," Spock said as he walked over to his station.
"Nothing I do ever is, Spock," Kirk said under his breath, "But the Enterprise didn't become famous because we followed the rules."