Prologue: Casualities of War
October, 2375
USS Kirov, Geosynchronous orbit
above San Francisco, Earth
Commander Jerran
Terel looked out the large window of his quarters
briefly, watching a shuttle fly by, as he sat down to put on his boots. “When are those fighters from the Nimitz supposed
to come in today?” he asked, speaking in the general direction of the bedroom.
LT St John Briggs had just
finished zipping up his shirt and was putting on his uniform jacket as he
walked out. “Around
ten-hundred. Last I’d heard, two of the fighters were having some intermix problems, so
they had to slow down.”
Terel walked to the mirror, meticulously making sure the pips on
his collar were straight. He’d only had
the third solid pip for about a month now, though he’d been the XO of the
“Just wait till the next time
you’re promoted,” Terel said with a grin as he put
his arms around
“Why bother now? I figure I can coast along and just ride your
coat tails. In fact, I’m thinking of
retiring, a nice life of leisure on the holodeck
writing new programs involving the beaches on Risa
while you work your butt off for a captain’s chair.”
Jerran laughed and said, “You’d get bored if you couldn’t tinker
with shuttles and fighters anymore.”
“You’re probably right. And the open shuttlebay
doors do give one of the best views on the ship.”
Jerran smiled and kissed his partner before saying, “Alright,
Lieutenant, get to work.”
Before
“Just in time,”
“What’s going on, Captain?”
Commander Jerran said as he got out of the turbolift and walked up to look over the shoulder of the
tactical officer.
“The Sol System has some
unexpected guests, Commander… The Breen.”
“The Breen? What do they want?”
Zane rubbed his goateed chin and
said, “I have no idea, and they’re not answering any hails. ETA?”
The tactical officer replied,
“They’re just about to cross the Mars defense perimeter, sir. Still no response to hails
from Starfleet Command or any other ships.”
“Surely they didn’t come for a
fight,” Jerran said, watching the tactical
display. “We outnumber them almost 10 to
one in this system.”
“Captain,” said Commander Chang
from Ops. “Commodore Steele is ordering
us and the Georgia to form up on his
flank.”
Zane nodded over to Jerran who immediately turned to the helm and said, “Set
course for the Perseus,
101 mark 4. Half
impulse.”
“We’ve lost contact with the Mars
defense perimeter, Captain!” the alarmed tactical officer said.
“Perseus is signaling us to go to battlestations,” Chang said.
Zane nodded, clenching his teeth
as he said, “Red alert. All hands to battlestations!”
The klaxons sounded and even more
crewmen filed onto the bridge to assume damage control and backup functions.
“Where are they, LT?” Jerran said as he turned to the tactical officer.
“We’re getting telemetry from
Utopia, Commander. They say the Breen
are warping towards Earth now.”
“The Perseus is moving into a
defensive formation with Admiral Blousse’s squadron,”
Commander Chang said.
Jerran moved over to the secondary tactical console as Zane said,
“Helm, keep us on Perseus’ flank.”
[Shuttle OPS to bridge]
Jerran was comforted as he heard
[Fighter squadrons Alpha and Gamma
are ready for launch. Beta and Delta are
in prep now and will be ready in 5 minutes.]
Jerran looked over to Zane, who nodded acknowledgement back to
his XO. “Launch fighters,” Jerran said. “Have
them form up in front of us, defensive patern
November.”
On the viewscreen,
the bridge crew watched as the twelve fighters launched from the
Jerran looked up from his tactical console and said, “The forward
sensor pickets have picked up the Breen fleet.
They’re now at 100,000 km and closing.”
[Admiral Blousse to all ships. Ahead full impulse.]
“Perseus is heading out, Captain,”
the helmsman reported. “We’re staying in
formation.”
Zane nodded and said, “Stand by phasers and photon torpedoes. Don’t fire till you see the whites of their
eyes.”
Jerran grinned slightly and said, “I don’t think they have whites
in their eyes, sir.”
Zane raised an eyebrow and said,
“Come to think of it, I’ve never seen a Breen without one of those damned
helmets, so I wouldn’t know, either.”
“Breen fleet in weapons range in
15 seconds, Captain,” the tactical officer said nervously.
“On screen.”
The viewer area in the front of
the bridge wavered for a moment to display a three dimensional view of space
before the Starfleet ships. The Breen
ships were completely alien looking to the Starfleet crew, as were the Breen
themselves. The Romulans
had a saying: “Never turn your back on a Breen,” and now the Federation fleet
could see why.
The lead Breen ships began firing
on the Starfleet ships. The flagship,
the USS Agamemnon, was the first to
get hit. They were unprepared for what
the Breen had to offer.
“Agamemnon’s been hit,” Jerran
reported. “They’re not returning fire.”
“Perseus is moving in to help,”
Chang said.
“Keep on them, helm,” Zane
ordered.
“One of the Breen ships is moving
to intercept us, Captain,” Jerran said.
“Evasive, but
stay on Perseus’ flank.”
Two bolts of green energy lashed
out from the Breen cruiser as it turned towards the
The bridge lights flickered on and
off as consoles exploded, occasionally giving flashes of light to the smoke
filled room. “Report!”
Zane said, trying to shout over the explosions as he got up off the floor in
front of his chair.
“We’ve been hit by some sort of
energy dampening weapon,” Jerran said. “Shields are down, weapons are inoperative,
and helm is not responding. I can’t even
get anything on external sensors. We’re
dead in space, Captain!”
As if to accentuate Commander Jerran’s last statement, another salvo of Breen disruptor
blasts struck the ship at various points.
“We’re loosing auxiliary power, Captain,” the ensign at the engineering
sub-station reported. “Life support is
failing.”
Jerran looked over at engineering and said, “The shuttlebay forcefields?!”
“I can’t tell much with the
internal sensors, Commander, but it looks like we lost those during the first
volley.”
“No,” Jerran
said quietly as he looked down at his console.
Zane looked around for a moment as
the ship rocked around him and said, “All hands, abandon ship!” The captain stood at his post for a moment to
make sure everyone was off the bridge before heading to an escape pod
himself. He looked over at Jerran who was still standing mutely at the tactical
console.
“You too,
Commander.”
Jerran looked up at the captain, who could tell that the half
Vulcan, half Bajoran first officer was fighting back
tears. “I…. I have to get to the shuttlebay.”
Zane pulled out his phaser and fired it at Jerran
before he could make a move towards the turbolift. With the tactical officer’s help, they
dragged Jerran to the lifeboat bay on the deck
below. By the time he woke up a few
minutes later, they were already away from the