Lieutenant Commander Erin Hayden was not prepared to command a starship, and she certainly wasn’t prepared to command said starship during an emergency and humanitarian crisis.  Yet, here she was on deck eight leading the evacuation effort of an entire planet. 

“Young lady I demand to see your Captain. These accommodations are unacceptable for a man of my stature,” Prime Minister Lou Gerakis complained.”

Erin took a deep breath fighting the urge to roll her eyes or disintegrate him with her phaser. “”Prime Minister we are at our evacuation limit as it is. No body gets an executive suite.  This isn’t a pleasure cruise and neither is this a diplomatic mission.   If you are too stupid to know that then I don’t know what to tell you. You aren’t getting special treatment.”

The Prime Minister stared down at her in disbelief anger filling his eyes, “When I speak with your Captain I’ll have you court-martialed for that!”

“Again your stupidity or lack of listening ability knows no bounds.  I AM the acting Captain of this ship.  Caption Mckenzie and Commander Halstead are missing in action.  In fact I am here rescuing you instead of finding them. Now go back to the cargo bay or I’ll beam you back to the planet and leave you there.”

“You wouldn’t. That’s murder.”

Erin leveled her gaze on him, “I’m thinking I’d be doing your people a favor, but you’re right I won’t kill you, but you aren’t getting your own quarters. Replicators will remain off-line until further notice.  We cannot know what 10,000 people using replicators would do to our aging power grid. You’re just going to have to rough it for a few days until we can reach safe harbor. Is that clear?” She saw him about to protest and cut him off, “Uh! Not another word unless it relates to something along the lines of, ‘I understand and I’m sorry’.”

The Prime Minister stopped mouth open in preparation to speak. He apparently thought better of it and instead shut his mouth and turned disappearing into the crowd. Loud and incoherent mutters could be heard from him coupled with several shouts of indignation directed at his own people.

“A most irrational man,” Dr. T’lar said approaching her.  

The CMO was also acting as her XO, and Erin was relived to see her. “Privilege does that to people sometimes.   Give them power and they think they can bully their way through any situation and get what they want.”

“For all of your advances,  humans still give into their base traits of greed,” T’lar observed. 

“We are emotional creatures,” Erin replied.   “I just wish it was the Captain and not me on the receiving end of it.”

“Indeed, but you are conducting yourself adequately. I have completed my scans of the colonists.   Twenty-two have Altria flu.  I have quarantined the sick and isolated those they came in contact with from the general population, and we are a capacity.  Any more we risk lifesupport failure.”

“Thanks T’lar.” 

The ship’s chief of security pushed his way through the crowd. “Everyone is situated.   I evan have families set up in the brig.  We’re packed to the gills here,” Diego Garza said looking more stressed out than she felt.  “There’s still another five-thousand on the planet.”

“Then we’ll have to hurry then, ” She tapped her combadge,  “Hayden to bridge.  Set course for Rigel, warp seven.”

Acting Captain Erin Hayden entered the conference lounge reading a PADD.  She glanced around and took her seat at the side of the table.  She refused the take the captain’s seat. “Okay,” she started, “What are we looking at people?”

There was a pause as officers looked back and forth at each other. No one willing or sure they should be the first to speak. “We should arrive at the planet in an hour,” Ensign Anthony Talon reported breaking the awkward silence. That seemingly simple first sentence broke the tension and the staff opened up.

“The storm has increased to a Catagory 5,” the replacement operations officer said. Ensign Tessa Jones was a dark skinned woman with close cropped black hair, and had been Erin’s assistant for almost six months now.  “It should hit the planet in about three hours.”

Erin grimaced at that.  That wasn’t something she wanted to hear.  There were still 5,000 colonists left on the planet.  They were cutting things way too close.

“It will take about two hours to beam the last of the colonists up,” Chief Engineer Marcus Washington announced echoing her thoughts.

“That’s way too close for comfort.  Anyway to speed that up?”

Washington shook his head.  “Not with a Mark V transporter.   The new Mark X definitely.  We could do it in forty-five minutes.   Two hours is the absolute best I can do.”

Erin sighed and turned to the Science and tactical officers, “Shrin and Garza I need you  two to work together.  Let’s get some sort of emergency shelters built planet side just in case.  Anthony push the engines as hard as you can.  See if you can squeeze out warp 8.7 or a bit more if you can.”

Anthony nodded, “Engines aren’t rated for that, but I’ll do what I can.”

“In case we get caught in the storm we should reinforce the shields and use an inverse warp field to make a sea anchor or sorts,” Washington suggested.

Erin didn’t even give it a second thought.   They were going to be there until the last minute and the likelihood of them getting stuck in the storm was a real concern.  “Do it Markus, and help Shrin and Garza if you can.”

Washington nodded.

“Okay people,  we’ve got work to do.  Let’s get on it.” 

  -Galina Prime-

The away team materialized in a transporter beam.  There was an energy in the air that you couldn’t quite put an objective finger on, but it was present nonetheless. Maybe it was the unnatural feel of the hot wind blowing against them.

Shrin had her tricorder out and started scanning the area.   “Commander,” she shouted above the gale, “There’s a large concentration of lifesigns in that building over there.”

She was pointing at what looked like some sort of a stadium.  Something told her that it was a soccer stadium,  but for some reason she hadn’t the foggiest clue where she got that from.  “Is that one of your designated shelter locations?”

“No,” Diego Garza replied. “It’s open to the elements.  There’s a handful of buildings including the Colonial Senate House.  We need basements so the shields are only being hit by one side.”

“Okay, Garza take your team and start getting set up.” She tapped her combadge,  “Hayden to Crazy Horse.”

“Go a head Commander,” Washington’s voice came from the other end.

“Markus how are the beam ups going?”

“We’re working our way through it.   Got a lot of surprised people,  but Doctor T’lar is getting them sorted and settled. They seem relieved that they weren’t forgotten.”

“I would be too. Hayden out.” Erin nodded to Shrin and they started across the street to the stadium.  They entered through one of the open gates, there was no one there to greet them.  Walking down a long dark corridor that during game day would be alive with vendors and excited fans.  The corridor deposited them at the base of the stands encompassing a lush green field with white lines painted on the grass. 

The stadium had capacity for roughly 10,000, and maybe 2,000 colonists were there. Kids played with each other as they ran about the seats while worried parents looked on. Shrin had her tricorder out and was entertaining commands, “Ma’am I linked your combadge to the stadium’s sound system.   You just need to tap it and speak.”

“And what if I need to contact the ship?”

“Tap it twice or move 500 feet from the stadium and it will revert to default settings.”

Erin nodded appreciating the initiative.  Tapping her combadge she started speaking.  It was a the surreal experience heaing her own voice coming from all around her.  “Hey Folks.  I am Lieutenant Commander Erin Hayden with the USS Crazy Horse. As we speak we are beaming as many as we can to the ship, but a little over an hour will not be enough time to get everyone off the planet.   We are going to be establishing emergency shelters to ride the storm out.”

This prompted a smattering of fearful,  angry, or uncertain muttering from the crowd.  Finially a lone voice rose above the crowd,  “And who decides who gets to stay and who actually makes it to safety, ” a middle aged man demanded,  his wife and two daughters clinging to him.”

“No one is making any decisions. We will take everyone we can, but we just don’t have enough time.  You here since you are massed together will be the last to be beamed up, so plan on heading to the shelters.   I assure you they will keep us safe until the storm subsides and either the transporters work again or shuttles can be used to ferry people to my ship.  Also myself and the crew here establishing the shelters will not be transporting up either.  We will not going to trade ourselves for someone else’s spot.  Stay here and we will direct you to your shelters soon.”  Erin tapped he combadge to close the signal not that it would have mattered as those started shouting in protest.  She sighed, and absently wondered if this was how the Titanic crew felt when they turned passengers away from the lifeboats. At least here, there wouldn’t be any fatalities if she could help it.

The air was practically electric.   Discharges of electricity arced across the brown-yellow sky.  The wind had even picked up to a deafening gale whipping Commander Hayden’s yellow hair free of its bindings to strain against the roots.  

The trees bent against the wind and all across the settlement the sounds of destruction echoed through the streets.   She couldn’t see the source, leaving the cause to her own imagination.  The storm was here and they were out of time.

“Hayden to Crazy Horse.“

“Go ahead Commander,” Lieutenant Marcus Washington said on the other end, barely audible over the wind.

“What’s the status of the evacuation?”

“We’re bringing up the last of the unsheltered colonists now.  We can start br…. y…r… up.

“Crazy Horse…  I’m having difficulty reading you. Come again.”

“Comm…  …. …. …. we… ….” 

And that was it. Her combadge gave an electronic buzz as its connection to the ship was severed. Thunder punctuated the silence from the ship as it was close enough for her to physically feel the vibrations.

Not far away lightning struck a tree splitting it apart in a shower of electric sparks.  The trunk and leaves ignited into flames momentarily before the wind blew it out.  It was time to seek shelter.

–USS Crazy Horse-

The bridge of the Crazy Horse was in near chaos as all communications had been severed from the away teams. So far Washington had held things together, but an uneasy cloud hung over the crew. Doctor T’lar,  who was technically in command,  was down in sickbay taking care of injured colonists. 

“Ensign where are we on the ‘have to evacuate’?” Washington asked the young lady at operations.

“There are still seventy-five colonists in several small settlements across the planet,” she replied. 

“Do we have any kind of transporter lock?”

The Ensign turned to him and shook her head, “The ionization is making it impossible to even get lifesign readings let alone a solid transporter lock.”

Washington rushed to the engineering station and started entering commands routing the primary sensor array through the deflector dish in order to boost their power. No joy.  Not only had the storm enveloped the planet it was starting to envelope the ship as well.

He took a deep breath and turned away from the console to change gears, “Full power to shields.  Engage inverse warp field.”

-Galina Prime-

There was a rumble overhead and the forcefield protecting them buzzed and hummed.  Everyone in the bunker looked up nervously at the only thing separating them from the now toxic atmosphere outside. A baby started fussing, sensing her mother’s unease.

Shrin approached Erin and handed her a cup of something hot.  “The worst of it should pass over us in a few hours.”

Erin sniffed the contents of the cup, and she was pleasantly surprised that it was coffee.  She sipped the bitter brown liquid and absently wished she had some cream and sugar, but this really was better than nothing.  “Thank you.  Where did you get this?”

“One of the colonists had it and wanted to share,” the Andorian science officer replied. 

“Well, thank them for me.  Better than anything we can get out of Starfleet rations.”

“Agreed, but we won’t go hungry.”

“No, we won’t,” Erin agreed. There was a moment of silence between them. “How do you figure the rest of the teams are holding up?”

Shrin shrugged. They hadn’t heard from anyone outside of this shelter since the storm and settled in on the settlement.   She knew the ship’s chief of security, Diego Garza, wasn’t more than fifty meters away,  but with the ionization he might as well have been fifty kilometers away.

“I figure,” Shrin replied finally,  “About the same as us.  Mostly bored, and surrounded by people who are facing losing everything.”

Erin frowned. That was an unfortunate thought.  She had been so focused on saving their lives, she didn’t know if they could even return to their homes after this. She sighed and looked around and she felt for these people.  “Damn the luck!”  She said it with passion,  but it was restrained so that only Shrin could hear it. “I wish there was more I could do for them.”

“You have given them something they wouldn’t have otherwise and that’s their lives.  That’s worth something.”

Erin nodded, Shrin was right. 

There was a heavy thundering,  followed by the sound of splitting wood. Alarms screamed in warning as a computer voice broke over the din, “Warning: lifesuport containment compromised.   Field failure in three minutes.”

Erin glanced at Shrin and the two women ran to the control panel flashing in red. Erin’s fingers danced over the controls panel.  “I think the building has collapsed over the top off us and has damaged the power generator for the lifesuport system.”

Shrin didn’t look up from her side of the terminal as she pulled up report after report.  “Damaged, but not destroyed.   That’s why we have partial functionality,  but it won’t last long before the whole generator goes down.”

“Yeah, just over two minutes,  but we don’t have parts for this. What are we going to do?”

“What if you tapped into the colonists power grid,” a nearby colonist suggested.

“We had considered it, but thought an independent generator would be more reliable,” Erin replied. “But, it’s worth a shot.  You think it’s still working?”

“Yeah, I do,” the colonist responded. “The power grid was my responsibility here.”

He climbed to his feet and walked to metal panel recessed into the concrete wall.  After a quick examination he removed one of the lead.  With the help of the two Starfleet officers they stretched out an ODN cable and connected one end to the power main and the other into a terminal on the back of the lifesupport generator. 

“The power is not compatible,” Erin said running through the menus.   “We’ll have to write an adaptive subroutine.”

“How long is that going to take?” Shrin asked.

“Under normal circumstances,  I would give myself an hour.”

“Ma’am not to put too fine of a point on it, but in just over a minute that force field is coming down and ionized atmosphere is going to enter this space.”

“I know!” Erin replied as she frantically worked the controls.   “I am using a program similar to one used previously.   Hopefully I can jusr adjust the parameters and make it work by sheer brute force.”

Shrin nodded and scanned the energy source.   “The imput energy is at 75 hertz, 2,000 volts, and 750 amps.”

“That’s too much voltage,” Erin responded.  As she worked to increase the input resistance.

“Warning lifesupport failure in fifty seconds,” the computer announced unhelpfully. 

“Voltage is good,” ma’am Shrin announced.

“Warning lifesupport failure in thirty seconds.”

“If I don’t get the amps tuned it will blow everything out,” Erin said desperately entertaining commands into the system.   The seconds ticked away. 

“Warning lifesupport failure in 10…9…8…”

There was no more time. Erin brought up the wall power and overrode the warnings with quick efficiency. 

“7…6…5…4… Power restored.   Lifesupport system is stable.”

Erin sucked in a lung full of air that she didn’t even know she had been holding as the occupants of the shelter cheered in relief.

Erin woke on the fourth day to silence.   Or at least it seemed like silence.  The gale-force winds no longer roared overhead.   She lay still in her bed roll waiting for the ever-present thunder that never came

Erin sat up and rubbed the sleep from her eyes and looked around.   All around her the survivors had expressions of cautious optimism.

“Garza to Hayden,” her combadge crackled to life for the first time in four days.

“Go ahead Diego,” Erin said with a grin.

“It’s good to hear your voice Commander,” the security chief said.

“And yours as well.   How are your people doing?”

“We survived the storm all right.  A little cramped and a bad case of cabin fever.”

“Same here,” Erin replied.  “Have you gotten through to the ship?”

“Not yet. I think there’s still too much ionization in the atmosphere.   I put on an EV suit to look around.   The buildings above you and Team 5 have collapsed,  but like you, they survived.”

“We almost didn’t.  It damaged the power generator,” Erin replied.   “But, once we establish communications with the ship we’re just a transporter beam away from rescue.”

“It’s pretty bad out there ma’am. The colony is pretty much destroyed, and the air is toxic.”

“That’s not our concern, ” she replied, “I feel bad for them, but it isn’t our job to help them rebuild.   Only get them to safety.  There was a communications array in the governor’s mansion.   If it’s safe to do so, see if you can use it to contact the ship.”

* * *

Lieutenant Diego Garza shifted the weight of the EV suit he was wearing back to a more central position after jumping over a fallen tree blocking the road.

The whole settlement was in ruins. A tornado had cut a path through the town leveling everything in its way.  Buildings that weren’t directly in the path had their roofs ripped off and windows shattered.  There was an overturned anti-grav freight shuttle. The trailer had split open spilling its contents all over the road and strewn into the dying grass of a nearby park.

He rounded an intersection where the sign marking Elm Street and 2nd Avenue lay bent over on the concrete sidewalk.   The red and white stop sign was bent around the post.

Diego made his way halfway up that block and stood outside the Governor’s Mansion.   Constructed of white marble, sandstone, and concrete it was one of the few structures on the colony still standing more or less unscathed.  The roof even seemed intact,  but the glass-less windows stared back empty like the eye sockets of a skull.

“That’s an ominous thought,” Diego said to himself resisting the urge to cross himself.

He pushed open the front gate and the hinges squealed in protest.   He noted with interest that the wrought iron was laden with a thick layer of rust.  He doubted that a residence like this would allow such neglect.  That would mean that the gate had rusted in the last few days.  He knew the atmosphere was now a corrosive poison, but to be confronted with that reality was something entirely different, and the only thing keeping him safe was a few centimeters of special nylon cloth and a polymer helmet.

He shook off that particular disconcerting thought and made his way up the walkway.  The front door was unlocked,  not that that would have stopped him.  The phaser on his belt would have made quick work of entry.  The main entryway was strewn with papers and hastily packed items.

The communications array was going to be in the upper stories and Diego stomped up the staircase.  He found the comm room at the end of the hallway.  Pushing open the door he entered the windowless room and was relieved that it looked completely untouched from the storm.   The comm station was even blinking patiently in stand-by. 

Finally, something on this mission was going right,  Diego thought as he slid into the chair behind the console.  He entered several commands and after a tense few seconds the Vulcan Chief Medical Officer,  T’lar, was staring back at him.  The picture wasn’t perfect as there was considerable interference,  but two-way communications were now possible.

“I am pleased to see that you are unharmed Lieutenant. How are Commander Hayden and the others?” T’lar asked.

“They have survived the storm.  Unfortunately, she, Lieutenant Shrin, and Ensign Hargrove are trapped under a collapsed building.”

“Are they in any immediate danger?”

“I don’t think so.  Commander Hayden did say they had lost their power generator so I assume they are tied into the colony’s power grid.  That seems stable for now. “

“Understood.  We are working on a way to cut through the ionization.  Right now the plan is to send down some shuttles with transporter enhancers. Be patient with us. Lieutenant Washington is modifying several shuttles to withstand the atmosphere, but this is going to take a little time. In the meantime return to your shelter. “

“Understood Doc,” Diego nodded.

“See you shortly Lieutenant.  Crazy Horse out. “

Diego slumped when the screen switched to black.  He felt like a weight had been removed from his shoulders.  He had spoken with the ship. It had survived,  and they would be rescued eventually,  and it sounded like sooner than later.  There was finally a light at the end of the tunnel.

Diego returned the station to standby, stood, and trudged out of the comm room heading back to his shelter eager to relay the good news of the impending rescue.

It had been nearly two weeks since Erin had spent a stressful four nights sheltering in the basement of some building on Glaina Prime.  The Crazy Horse had settled in to a routine of  shuttling survivors around and providing aide to stranded ships in the wake of the century storm.

Nothing had compared to their first mission and seeing the utter destruction of an entire colony.   But, they had saved almost everyone, and that was something.   Seeing relieved smiles of reunited loved ones made the hardships worthwhile.

They were returning to Starbase Bravo with the USS Shōkaku, a Sovereign-class starship in tow.  Not exactly the most auspicious homecoming for a ship of her stature,  but it was better than being left stranded out there in the black.

“Captain Tanaka thanks us for the tow and says they have it from here,” Diego Garza announced from the tactical station.

“Very well,” Erin stated, “release tractor beam.”

“Commander we are being hailed by Bravo Fleet Command,” Operations announced.

Erin stood from the center captain’s chair, “I’ll take it in the ready room.” She was in the captain’s ready room for only ten minutes or so before she came striding out, “Senior staff to the observation lounge.”

There was a mermer of concern as the gathered officers followed the acting captain into the observation lounge, and took their seats around the table.  

Erin slid into the captain’s chair at the head of the table and waited for Doctor T’lar and Marcus to make it up from the lower decks.  When they too had finally joined the staff Erin entered commands into the computer and the holo-emitters embedded into the table showing six starships.   “Ladies and Gentlemen Bravo Fleet has several starships missing in action including the USS Challenger  and USS Herecles.  Fleet Command is dispatching us to search for the Herecles and the Zebulon Pike who were both on the edge of the storm doing research on the rifts created by the storm.”

Erin entered commands and all of the missing ships except for two fell away.  An Argonaut-class and a considerably smaller Raven-class ship slowly spun on the Y-axis.

“The Herecles is under the command of the Trill Captain Vausees Vax.  The Zebulon Pike is under the command of Commander Ethan Talon.”

“Any indication as to what happened to those ships?” Lieutenant Marcus Washington asked.

“Long range scans conducted by the USS Gettysburg of the area have no indication of a matter/antimatter explosion nor debris,” Erin replied.  “Nor were there any distress calls made by either ship.”

“I served under Vax several years ago,” Lieutenant Diego Garza responded.  “She’s a good officer.  It would have had to be a sudden event for her not to send out something.”

Erin nodded and brought up a star chart of the last known positions of the two ships, only half a light year apart. “We will proceed to their last known coordinates and conduct a full survey.   Hopefully we can get some positive answers… or just answers in general.  Doctor T’lar I would prepare for survivors, but since we aren’t picking up any beacons from escape pods I don’t expect we will find any.”

“A reasonable assumption,” the Vulcan replied.

“All right people let’s get to work. Dismissed.”