USS Culver City and USS Blythe were underway from Starbase 420 at warp 7, racing for the Tholian/Shelliak border region from which a distress call had been received.  On the bridge of the Culver City, Lieutenant Varyn K’lev studied his chair’s armrest display, rereading the data on the Shuswap and her distress call, and trying to hide his rising nerves.  “Ari?  How long until we’re with her?” he asked.

“Less than 30 minutes, at this speed,” Ensign Phillips replied as they consulted the navigational chart.

K’lev nodded.  “Okay,” he replied simply, then opened an intercom channel.  “Bridge to sickbay.  Hilava, we’re nearly there.  You ready?”

“As ready as we can be,” the young Ferengi CMO responded; in the background, K’lev heard Chief Nurse Vobarik giving final instructions to the ship’s three embarked medtechs.  “Could use more some extra help just in case, but I know we don’t have anyone to spare.”

“Just do your best, and I’ll see if anyone can be freed up to help you once we’ve arrived.  Bridge out.”  He closed the channel, then looked back to Ensign Tyrisa sh’Livo at the tactical station.  “Let’s go to yellow alert, Tyrisa; if whoever attacked the Shuswap is still out there, I’d like us to at least have our shields up when they find us.”  Though it won’t help much if we have to evacuate her, he finished in his head, the memories of Palix Bravo rising unbidden.  We’d still have to lower our shields to beam, then we’d be asking for it.  But K’lev kept those thoughts to himself.

The young Andorian nodded, pressing a series of controls on her console; yellow lights started flashing on the walls and the ship’s shields raised, though weapons were kept offline.  From ops, Chief Bong nodded approvingly; it was a prudent course, whereas some young officers may have been inclined to come in either at full red alert and ready for battle, or completely unprepared.

As the minutes ticked by and Culver City and Blythe closed in on Shuswap’s last known position, the young crew of Culver City began to tense as the reality of their situation truly set in.  This wasn’t like their previous mission to Lothix IV, a low-stakes colonial upgrade job, or even the surprise situation they’d encountered en route from Starbase 86 to Starbase 400 for final fitting-out, worrying for a moment but nothing a few words couldn’t fix; this was real.  It was serious, life-and-death serious.  Another Starfleet ship – one far more capable than Culver City, with a far more experienced crew – drifted somewhere out there ahead of them, disabled and alone and quite possibly dying in the dark, her crew relying on an under-manned California-class ship full of comparative children for their salvation.

“We’re coming up on Shuswap’s last known position,” Ensign Phillips said, their words causing K’lev’s heart to jump into his throat.  He swallowed hard.

“Take us out of warp.  Ophelia, let’s see if we can find her.  And Chief, please make sure the Work Bees are ready to launch,” K’lev said, hoping his voice hadn’t cracked as he spoke; if truth be told, his heart was hammering in his ears loudly enough he couldn’t quite hear his own voice clearly.

After around 20 tense minutes of searching, Lotharys cheered.  “I found her!”  Five heads whipped around, and she blushed in embarrassment.  “Sorry….  Um, I’ve picked up the Shuswap; she’s at 119 mark 77, around 1.5 million kilometers away, drifting at 70 meters per second.  And Varyn,” she looked up, eyes shining with joy, “I’m detecting life signs!  Some are very weak, but there are 83 people aboard!”

The young bridge crew of the Culver City all beamed at each other for a moment, before K’lev snapped himself out of it.  “Then let’s not keep them waiting!  Ari, get us there, full impulse!  Chief, please hail them; let’s let them know they’re no longer alone.  And let Blythe know we’ve got her.”

Chief Bong hailed the Shuswap, and in short order her commanding officer – or, more accurately, her senior surviving officer – appeared on the Culver City’s viewscreen.

(Blythe Bridge)

As K’lev and Tyler had discussed a few hours before, the Blythe cruised out ahead of the Culver City and the Shuswap, screening them, at a range of about 0.2 AU. The Blythe positioning itself in-between the border and the other 2 vessels.

‘The Culver City has rendezvoused with the Shuswap sir. They are reporting survivors.”

A glimmer of optimism swept over the bridge for a moment as Ingram relayed the news.

The XO was standing behind the HCO console at the front of the bridfe “Everyone stay sharp. I want constant sensor sweeps of the border ahead of us. Let’s not get suprised like the Shuswap did.”

(Culver City Bridge)

The senior surviving officer of the Shuswap was a half-Barzan, half-Betazoid lieutenant, wearing a sciences uniform; on the viewscreen of the Culver City, his image and voice cut in and out, a result of the damage Shuswap had taken.  “Thi… ant Syranna… ear me?”  From the background, it appeared as though the lieutenant was speaking from a rigged console or PADD, not from the bridge.

“Can we clean up the signal any?” K’lev asked Chief Bong.  “And let’s tie in the Blythe as well.”

The chief nodded, working his console, and the signal cleared somewhat; it still wasn’t perfect, but was clearer.  “Lieutenant Syranna, this is L…  Captain Varyn K’lev of the Culver City.  We’re here to get you all home; how is your crew, and what’s your status?”

Lieutenant Syranna sighed in relief.  “You have no idea how glad we are that you’re here.  We’re in a bad way; Shuswap’s down to emergency power, and that’s not going to last much longer.  All our survivors are on the life deck; we’ve got several who are critical, and no way to help them.”  He took a quavering breath.  “We’re all scared, Captain; please help us.”

“We’ll do all we can, Lieutenant, starting by beaming your crew aboard, then we’ll see if we can save the Shuswap.”  K’lev offered what he hoped was a reassuring smile.  “Have your people get ready for transport.”

(Blythe Bridge)

A few moments later Ingram said “Captain, I’ve got a Tholian vessel on long ranger sensors. They’re on their side of the border, but…they are on an approach vector sir.’

Tyler balked for a second. They were at yellow alert already. He scanned his memories for the proper course of action innthis scenario. “Can you identify the type of Tholian vessel Lt?”

“Red Alert! All hands to battlestations” the XO Wong interjected. This is one of the moments that Tyler had been referring to several weeks ago, about ‘doing whats right for the ship’. Wong didnt think the CO was wrong to ask for an ID. But in this scenario going to Red alert should have been automatic.

Ingram, being a steady hand, complied with both orders at the same time engaging Red alert status with one hand and focusing the sensor with his other hand. “Tholian cruiser sir…its showing down now sir…it appears to be halting at the treaty border sir.”

“Contact the Culver City and inform them of the situation. Ask how much longer until they can begin towing the Shuswap.  Options, Commander?” Tyler said to Wong.

“We can either launch our 2 runabouts like we discussed and go to meet the threat. Or we can stay with our mission orders and cover the CC as she tows Shuswap back to 420.”

Tyler nodded. “We stay with the mission. Launch our runabouts though. Have them shadow the Tholian cruiser from our side of the border.”

“Aye sir.”

“Hi yie mes amis. Hlaunching hthe hready hrunabouts, ser” Lasalle said from the HCO console.

(Culver City Bridge)

A alert sounded from the ops station, causing Chief Bong to interrupt the conversation between K’lev and Syranna.  “Sir, Blythe reports that she’s picked up a Tholian ship on the border, and is asking how long until we’ll have the tow set up.”

K’lev nodded, rubbing his face with one hand.  “Tell Captain Tyler that Shuswap reports their life support is failing; we’ll have to evacuate the survivors before we tow.  Stand the Work Bees down for now; we won’t be attempting any repairs here.”  He then activated the intercom from his chair.  “Bridge to transporter chief.  We need to get the Shuswap’s survivors off, now; use whatever transporters you need, including the cargo transporters, just get it done fast.”

Next, K’lev turned to Ensign sh’Livo: “Lower the shields so we can beam; raise them again the moment we have Shuswap’s crew aboard.”  He then faced forward.  “Ari, put us in position to tow, and engage tractor beams; she’s hurt bad, so try to avoid overstressing her frame.  And extend the warp field to include Shuswap, so we can tow at warp.”

The bridge jumped into action.  In a matter of minutes, Shuswap’s crew had been evacuated to Culver City, and the California-class ship moved into a towing attitude.  Her tractor beams locked onto the damaged vessel, and she began expanding her warp field to encompass the Reliant-class ship, though that would take several minutes more to complete before she could go to warp.

EPILOGUE

After another 15 minutes, Blythe, Culver City, and the crippled Shuswap were on their way back to Starbase 420. After reviewing their sensors logs on the return trip, the Blythe crew noticed that their runabout had been able to detect phantom signatures indicating that there were more Tholian vessels behind the single one they had initially observed.

On Culver City, the ship’s short-handed medical staff did all they could for the survivors of the Shuswap.  It was touch-and-go for 7 of the 83 survivors that had been rescued, but CMO Hilava and her team were able to save them all, though not without long-lasting medical consequences for some.  K’lev and Chief Engineer Pelix began developing a repair plan for the Reliant-class ship, and even led teams aboard to begin stabilizing her systems in advance of a more fulsome repair, but in truth she needed more work than could be achieved in the field; it would be some 3-4 months after her return to Starbase 420 before Shuswap was fully repaired and ready to return to service.

As news poured in about the incident Starfleet decided to keep the whole thing quiet; no state of emergency was declared, and no major units were mobilized, just a few ships were diverted from other missions to investigate the incident. The Farragut, with a veteran diplomat named Aloran in charge, was going to be the lead ship in the response effort, which for now would consist of increased patrols and diplomatic outreach.

The Tholian Ambassador to the Federation claimed that the Starfleet patrol was destroyed because it had crossed into Tholian space.  The ambassador then refused to comment on the incident further, yet was willing to discuss and negotiate a myriad of other issues in a meeting with high-level Federation diplomats the same day the Culver City returned to Starbase 420.

Even on the nightly FNN news, the incident had barely merited a single line…’a ship was lost near in sector 50125, Starfleet said they are investigating the matter’ was all that was said about any of it. The crippled Shuswap that had lost over half her crew received no mention at all. Both the public and the Federation’s leaders were war-weary considering the events of the last year, and FNN wasn’t going to push their luck or risk losing their access to Starfleet’s operations just to get a scoop quicker then the Ferengi tabloids.