Battered and Bruised

Posted on Wed Oct 17th, 2012 @ 3:32pm by Ensign Talva Ren
Edited on on Fri Feb 22nd, 2013 @ 10:25am

767 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Episode 1A - Welcome Aboard
Location: Main Engineering, U.S.S. Unification
Timeline: Day 1 - 1100
Tags: New Bajor, Damage, Bajorans

ON:

Talva surveyed Main Engineering; the Unification was still heavily damaged following the efforts of her previous commander. Following yet another stern reprimand for his part in the proceedings and having been stripped of his recently bestowed rank of junior-grade lieutenant Talva was almost as sore as the vessel herself. Only a skeleton crew remained to make repairs. Talva had barely retained his post as the Chief Engineer of the Unification; Only a shortage of suitable personnel coupled with their remote position had made that possible. Talva was one step away from a full court martial and ejection from Starfleet, and he knew it.

"Ensign Ren." stated a level female voice behind him. "Ensign Talva... for the last time!" Muttered Talva under his breath before turning to face her. Lieutenant T'Var stood regarding him coolly; the typical dispassionate Vulcan gaze met his. Talva could have sworn he saw a glint of smugness in her eyes. The chief engineer of the U.S.S. Agamemnon was no doubt an established engineer, no doubt a distinguished officer and no doubt was here to babysit him through the repairs to the Unification. "Yes?" Talva asked shortly, "What can I do for you, Lieutenant?" The Vulcan lifted her PADD and gazed at the contents for a moment. "My people have repaired your handiwork on Deck 3; you now have a regulation EPS junction in place; starboard phasers will be online shortly." she stated before lowering her PADD, "You are aware that a hand phaser is NOT an appropriate welding tool? Also it is inappropriate to create a direct connection between your primary power grid and the phaser array." Talva glared at her, "I'll remember that the next time we're on the verge of becoming another piece of burned out debris in orbit of New Bajor, Lieutenant. Anything else?" T'Var took another look at her PADD. "Repairs to primary systems are complete. I will be returning to the Agamemnon and recalling my personnel shortly. I trust you are capable of completing the remaining remedial work." Talva understood her meaning only too well. 'I don't think for a moment you're a competent engineer, however replacing access panels and repairing Replicators and lighting grid malfunctions is YOUR problem'. Without wasting another word on the Unification engineer T'Var turned and strode back into the corridor. "Good riddance." murmured Talva, grimacing after her.

"Ensign Talva, this is the Bridge." buzzed the intercom unhealthily. Talva tapped the panel in front of him, "Talva here." A brief silence followed. "Sir, the Agamemnon has reported that our new CO and XO have been assigned and are en route. Arrival is expected shortly. Bridge out." the accompanying static was silenced as the link closed. Talva sighed heavily; why did he need to know this? He didn't have the time to roll out a red carpet or whatever stupid archaic human custom was expected of him. It simply wasn't going to happen; let Lieutenant Annhwi deal with that!

The arrival of the U.S.S. Agamemnon had been a welcome relief following the events of the preceding mission. The uprising on New Bajor had quickly been put to an end. Talva knew Bajorans too well to expect that to be an end to the matter; the same spirit that resisted occupation by the Cardassians was also present here, and while they may have been publicly silenced behind closed doors plans for a new offensive would be developed. Nobody would tell the Bajoran people what to do. Nobody would oppress them, and if it took terrorism for them to get their way then so be it. Talva disliked humans; their idiosyncrasies perturbed him, but that bore no comparison to his feelings towards the kind of idiotic religious Bajoran zealots that caused this kind of trouble. In the meantime the Unification had to be repaired. New Bajor lacked the facilities to repair all of the battle scars that marred the once smooth surface of the Unification's hull. Next to the splendour of an Insignia Class vessel like the Agamemnon the Unification looked a sorry sight indeed. The scornful words of the Admiral were still ringing in his ears, "How the hell does ANY modern Starfleet vessel take that amount of damage at the hands of a couple of old Bajoran ships with barely enough fire power to warm a cup of Coffee!?" The admiral may have been speaking via a decidedly unstable subspace link, but her point was valid. For that exact reason the Unification was awaiting replacement senior officers; the investigation was ongoing, but Talva at least had escaped with his career intact.

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