Three years earlier…

Smoke billowed up from the burning carcasses of buildings, vehicles, and the ground itself. The sounds of phaser and disruptor fire echoed about the ruined streets and buildings as a battle continued. Qalith Norrh Milita, alongside an away team from the USS Heracles, who had answered a distress call from them, stood atop the ruins of a nearly destroyed building.

As the Federation and the Militia stood their ground atop the semi-burnt-out building, chaos and terror rained down on them from the courtyard below as the Hunters of D’Ghor, a rogue Klingon house, proceeded to hunt the survivors on Archanis IV.

A woman dressed in a red uniform lay prone on a balcony, her body cloaked within the dark shadows, her eye in the scope of a sniper rifle picking off some of the less fortunate hunters that happened to catch her attention as they bounded from cover to cover. Phaser bolts rained into their hunters’ ranks all night long.

Later that night, as the excitement of the battle slowly wound down, an explosion rocked the ruined building as an orbital bombardment from a D’Ghor Bird-of-Prey had locked on the position that the Federation and militia were using. Screams of pain and anger echoed from atop the building as the woman dressed in red, now with a bandage about her midsection, cursed down at a particular Klingon renegade. Behind her, a body lay prone and covered in a white sheet.

Early the next morning, the woman dressed in the red uniform stood with the rest of the Federation away team, minus a single member, as the leader of this D’Ghor Strike Force surrendered.

Archanis Sector – Federation/Klingon border

Deep within Federation space, near the Klingon Empire’s borders, a planet, Archanis, floats in the inky blackness, illuminated by the system’s sun. The purple marble was once a contested planet and, at one point, a target for the Hunters of D’Ghor, a renegade house of Klingons. With the Hunters destroyed, the planet returned to its former glory, but the memories remained.

Suddenly, a disturbance away from the planet

A brilliant flash of light and a rift in time and space occurred. Out of the light, a sleek ship emerged. Its matte gray hull was illuminated by both the system’s sun and the glow of its warp nacelles. It stood silent and predatory against the darkness of space as it moved slowly toward the planet in front of it. The ship’s saucer section bore the designation USS Akira NCC-62497.

On the bridge, Vausees sat in the command seat. Her pale blue eyes gazed at the main viewscreen, taking in the majesty of Archanis IV. It had been three years since she had laid eyes on this purple planet, and yet the memories, having resurfaced, were as fresh as the day that they happened.

A hand came to rest on her shoulder as Debrah looked at her wife. She hadn’t been a part of this battle, but she knew of it. She knew the monster that had poked its hideous face up to torment Vausees. With a reassuring squeeze, she relayed all the love that she had for this woman.

Swallowing hard, Vax nodded and cleared her throat of a lump that had started to gather there.

“Trever, take us in,” she ordered.

Her Flight Control Officer nodded. Like her, he had been at the battle and knew what she felt, even without sensing it with his abilities as a Betazoid. After all, he had lost the only person that mattered to him on that night, his sister, Trance. Without a second’s hesitation, his hands and fingers flew over the controls, and the impulse engines engaged, driving the Akira forward. He plotted a course for the purple planet’s largest city, Qalith Norrh.

As they headed towards the planet, two craft exited out of the atmosphere on an intercepting course. The main viewscreen changed from Archanis IV to a male pilot of one of the fighters.

“State your business here?” the man asked as he looked at Vax.

She stood up from her seat and took a step toward the viewscreen. “I am Vausees Vax. A friend of Sara Brooke.”

At the mention of Sara and hearing the name of Vax, the pilot issued an order to halt their progress toward the planet. “Hold your position.”

The viewscreen returned to the image of Archanis IV as the pilot ended the communication.

Vax looked at Trever, who looked back at her. She then turned her head to Debrah. Something felt off, but she didn’t know what it was. Maybe it was just her nerves being so close to this planet once more. Closing her eyes, she focused on the reason for her return.
“You’ve got this, Vax,” she thought to herself as she stood there, with her eyes closed, waiting for some sort of clearance to the planet.

Moments later the viewscreen once more changed; however, this time, a woman stood looking at the crew of the Akira.
“Vausees?” the woman asked as she looked at Vax as she stood near the screen.
“It’s been a while, Sara,” Vausees replied as she looked up at the woman on the viewscreen.
“Indeed, it has been nearly three years.” Sara acknowledged, “Though for some of us, the pain of that day has never truly left. Has it.”

Vax looked down for a moment as the memory of that terrible night briefly rose to the forefront of her thoughts. Tears threatened to spill from her eyes, but she held them back before looking back up at Sara.
“I’m here to pay my respects to Trance,” Vax stated as she looked at Sara.
With a nod, she replied, “I have been waiting for you to return, Vax.”
“I know. I have been avoiding this,” Vax confessed as she looked from Sara to Trever. Vax was aware that this situation affected Trever just as much as it did her.
“Will you be coming down to pay your respects?” Sara asked.
Vausees nodded as she looked at Trever, who shook his head, ‘no,’ knowing what she was looking at him for.
“I will meet you on the surface,” Sara stated as the transmission disconnected.

Vax looked at her crew, her eyes stopping on Trever, who had his head down, focused on the task at hand: keeping the ship in orbit. She guessed from his actions that he had already moved forward with the death of his sister.

Turning her head, Vax looked at Debrah. “The ship is yours, Commander,” she stated as she moved to the turbolift and headed for the transporter room.

Archanis IV – Planet Side

Sara Brooke, the former leader of the rebellion during the attack on Archanis IV nearly three years ago, stood near the transport pads as the distinctive light blue glow of the Federation transporter emanated, and Vausees Vax appeared out of the data stream, materialized.

Vausees gazed at Sara, her eyes brimming with pain and anger as the memories pressed closer to the surface. Sara reached a hand out and took Vax’s in hers. She hoped that a familiar touch from an old friend would help ease the emotions she saw in Vax’s eyes.
“Come with me,” Sara said as she led Vausees away from the center of town to the outskirts.

Soon, the scenery changed from the hustle and bustle of the city to the more green and open space of the countryside. The atmosphere became more peaceful as the two women walked out of the city.

Soon, they both stood before a black stone pillar that had white markings that surrounded a single name: Trance. As Vax looked closer at the pillar, she realized that the white markings were, in fact, the names of the fallen. She looked at Sara and then motioned with her head.
“This monument was constructed a couple of years ago to memorialize Trance and those that had fallen that night,” Sara said as she released Vax’s hand. She then placed her hand on the pillar and closed her eyes for a moment before she looked at Vax. “I’ll give you space.” With that, she kissed Vax on the cheek and left her alone.

Vausees looked at the pillar, and the tears that she had been holding back came forth and streaked down her cheeks, staining her skin.
“I am sorry,” Vax stated, pain registered deep in her voice, “for taking so long to come back to you, my love,” she said as her index finger traced the lettering of Trance’s name.
“It should have been me,” she continued as she looked at Trance’s name.

Archanis IV – USS Akira

Trever sat in the observation lounge, a drink on a side table next to him as he looked out over the planet that filled the window. The sound of a hiss caught his attention, and he looked to find Debrah walking in.
“Commander,” Trever said as he reached for a glass and the bottle of synth-ale.
Debrah took the glass and looked at Trever. “I take it that you haven’t moved on like both Vax and I originally assumed that you had.” She said as she looked at the window to the purple planet below.
“I guess I didn’t hide it as well as I thought I had.” He confessed as he took a sip from the drink. His eyes looked at a cloud bank near the equator of the planet, near where Qalith Norrh sat.

As they continued to talk about the events of that night, a chime echoed into the lounge, and a female voice spoke, “Commander, a weird signal appeared and disappeared on the sensors.”

Debrah looked at Trever for a moment. “Send it to the observation lounge.” A moment later, Debrah was looking over the data with a confused look on her face.
“Bridge, this is Commander Fergouson-Vax. Do we still have a signal lock on Commander Vax?” she asked. A moment later, a woman from the bridge stated that they had lost her signal exactly when they had lost the weird signal.

Debrah set her drink aside and headed for the bridge; Trever followed. As the doors to the bridge hissed open, the two officers headed to their posts. Trever brought up the data from the sensor logs and was scowling over them as Debrah tried to re-establish connection with Vausees.
“Commander Vax,” she said as her fingers flew over the arm console, trying different frequencies.
The only thing to return her answer was the static space and the silence. Debrah started to become worried as the silence continued, no matter what frequency she tuned into.

Turning to Trever, “Lieutenant?” she said. Trever looked up from his console and shook his head. “I can’t even find Qalith Norrh’s locator beacon either, Commander.” This troubled Debrah as she looked at the viewscreen. “If we can’t find Vausees or the city’s beacon, which suddenly disappeared, then where are they, and what has happened?” she said softly out loud.