CHAPTER 14
Supplemental
USS Independence, Conference Lounge
In Orbit of Cybertron
The room was lit only with lanterns and star light. The crew appeared particularly motley at this meeting. Captain Aurelia, Tang, and D’nas were still in their white EVA under suits. First Officer bin Nadal was armor-clad. The rest of the senior officers, Windslow, Kimula, Zo’Kama, Hatora, Operations Manager Dorian, and the temporary tactical chief, Ensign Lemipil wore the standard duty uniform.
Aurelia didn’t sit. She immediately blurted as the last of the crew assembled, “Report.”
Normally, bin Nadal would begin, but he gestured to Windslow as he had been the de facto CO during most of the action.
The chief engineer interlaced his fingers and rested them on the table, “Including Virak, five are KIA.”
“Another three are being treated for exposure,” inserted Zo’Kama.
Dorian reported, “So far, three of seven armed shuttles have been destroyed.”
“How many unarmed do we have?” questioned the captain.
“Three Type-15 shuttlepods.”
“Arm them,” coldly ordered Sintina.
The ops manager responded, “It’ll take an hour or two, ma’am,” as he made a note on a padd.
“Fine,” she turned to Tang, “What about that damned virus?”
“As I said, ma’am,” he apologetically began, “I’ve tried every counter measure and isolation algorithm I can think of. …I can’t stop it.”
Picking up on his previous statement, Aurelia assumed, “But you think that other faction on the planet can?”
“Yes, ma’am. I’d have to think the Autobots have dealt with this type of attack before,” the science officer concluded.
The captain crossed her arms and sighed deeply. “…Alright, we don’t have much of a choice anyway. At this point, we’ll either die from lack of oxygen or freeze to death…”
The Arkonian doctor leaned in, “Oh, we’d die of asphyxiation first…in about two days… Captain.”
All eyes in the room momentarily found Zo’Kama. After an interesting pause, Sintina continued, “Right. …So we contact the Autobots and get rid of this virus first. Then we get our core back.”
“Captain,” started Windslow, “We’re about twenty light years away from Tamarian space. We should have one of the shuttles send a distress call. They might have a ship in range.”
Aurelia realized that would be one of the first things most Starfleet captains would do. If she had a failing, asking for help was it. Her crew looked at her expectantly. They all knew it was the right course of action. She knew it too…but not yet. She said, “If our first attempt at recovering the core fails, then we’ll send out a general distress call. Not before.”
There were subtle reactions in the group, but no one pressed the issue.
The officer in grey armor raised another point, “There’s something you should know, Captain.” He uncomfortably informed her, “The Autobots are expecting us to provide them with power generators for saving Tang and D’nas.”
Sintina deliberately placed her hands on the marble table and looked into her first officer’s eyes. “I’d be willing to give them a lot more than that if they help us.”
*****
Karim approached the Honduran captain as she made final adjustments to her TEVA in the darkened locker room. He made sure no one was in ear shot. “Sintina,” he began.
She knew exactly what he was going to say and she was in no mood to beat around the bush. She didn’t look up, “I watched Virak explode, Karim. One of these…Autobots was shot at point black range as he reached to save me.” Aurelia ran a check of the tricorder interface. “Their actions speak volumes.” She listed off, “They defended us against Shockwave, they evacuated two of my officers, and they allowed them to go home.”
The Persian observed, “The Decepticons allowed you to go home too.”
Sintina gave him an annoyed look, “Do you really think the Autobots are the bad guys?”
“That’s too easy,” countered Karim, “In real life, there is no such thing as ‘good’ guys and ‘bad’ guys.”
The captain retrieved a pulse phaser rifle from the arms locker. “Fine…but they haven’t tried to kill us.”
Bin Nadal paced a bit. “Will you ask them to help us recover the warp core as well?”
“Yes.”
“And what if they ask for weapons?” he prodded.
Sintina looked up at him from under her brow. She walked over and grabbed a helmet. Then, she moved to exit to the room. Without looking back, she said, “The ship is yours, Commander.”
*****
Lieutenant Kimula entered the locker room a minute later. She regarded Karim with a smirk as he began pulling his black duty uniform pants on over his underwear. “You in command of the boat for now?” she asked.
Bin Nadal was only slightly embarrassed as he turned toward her. “Yeah, I guess so. Sintina’s shuttle just left.”
The Andorian stated, “Since internal comms are out, Windslow wanted me to tell you, the shuttlepods should all be armed with two type-IV phaser arrays in about an hour.” She gestured to the bulkhead, “But you could probably go next door and figure that out.”
Karim zipped up his red undershirt. “Yeah…oh well.”
Kimula stepped forward. She responded to his inflection, “What do you think she’s going to do?”
He paused as he was slipping on his black and grey jacket. “I think she’s going to start a war.”
*****
Captain Aurelia saw three vehicles emerge from their hiding places as the shuttle landed. Before the hatch could open, the trio had amazingly reformed themselves into humanoid robots. The sight was rather spectacular, now that she wasn’t being shot at.
Aurelia, Hatora, Tang, and a couple of security personnel exited the craft. They all wore the more advanced extra-vehicular activity suits. And all were armed.
As they rounded the shuttle, Kup approached them. “You’re back. You’ve managed to surprise and old ‘bot.”
“I’m Captain Sintina Aurelia of the United Federation of Planets. I’m in command of the ship in orbit.”
Sideswipe prompted, “Have you brought the energy?”
She pointed to the security officers. Each went to the shuttle and returned carrying a duffle-sized power generator. “These are microfusion generators. Each will provide about 600 gigawatts of power before the fuel runs out.”
Wheeljack walked up. He got on all fours and scanned the devices. “These generators can power all the Autobots and Iacon for centuries.”
Her heart raced just being in the presence of the colossal beings. Her trepidation…and excitement…was muted, however, by the urgency of their situation. She offered, “There’s more where that came from…if you help us.”
The five meter tall Kup cautiously said, “I told the other one, we can’t get you into Kolkular.”
“I have two problems,” elaborated Sintina. “Your…our enemies have stolen my ship’s main reactor, and they uploaded a virus into my ship’s computer.”
The Autobot engineer volunteered, “I can handle the virus; if you can get me to your ship.”
“As for the reactor,” said Kup, “there’s only one place the ‘cons would take it.”
“To Vector Sigma,” finished Sideswipe. He looked at his comrades, “They’re going to start making new Decepticons.”
Hatora deduced, “Then our problem is your problem.”
Captain Aurelia walked closer to the towering robots. She stated with steely resolve, “If you help us…I promise you…Kolkular will be razed to the ground. What’s that worth to you?”
END OF CHAPTER 14
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