The bridge was more or so back to normal, officers rushing around getting work done and making sure the ship was ready for whatever awaited them when they arrived at the Meronia Cluster. Lieutenant Commander Odan was working at the ops station when the computer beeped, his eyes widened before speaking up.

“Commander, we are receiving a distress call coming from a medical convoy that was en route to the Cluster the USS Hope an Olympic-class starship,” Odan replied taking a brief pause with worry in his face, he tried to keep it out of his voice but he failed.

“They are under attack by a pair of Klingon Bird-of-Prey sir, they are requesting assistance.” Odan replied looking at the Commander, “location?” Tajir replied looking back at the Commander. “For a normal ship they are twenty minutes away, but with the Vesta, we can get there in ten minutes sir.” He replied back as he double-checked his findings.

“Red Alert,” Tajir replied as he looked at Airje as she already had anticipated what his orders were going to be. “Course laid in sir,” she replied as he gave the order to alter course and go to maximum warp.

“Bring weapons systems online and ready,” Tajir replied as Makayla walked out onto the bridge once the Red Alert claxon started to go off.

“Report,” Adams ordered as Tajir stood up from the Captain’s chair. “We received a distress call from the USS Hope one of our medical convoys. They are under attack by the Hunters of D’Ghor, we are the closest ship that can get there quickly.” Tajir replied as Adams sat down in her seat and nodded.

“We will arrive in ten minutes,” Airje replied confirming the calculations. “Battle stations,” came his reply over a shipwide channel. The crew raced as they prepared to engage the Klingons to protect the ship. They just hoped they were not too late, it would be a huge blow if they lost that ship.

The bridge was quiet, anticipating their arrival to where the USS Hope was under attack. They had come within sensor range, “sir their shields are failing, multiple hull breaches. I don’t know how much more they can handle sir,” Odan replied looking up from his console.

“We have arrived,” Airje replied looking back at the Captain. “Drop us out of warp Lieutenant,” she ordered as the Vesta dropped out of warp on top of the Hope, “open fire!” Adams ordered as Dazra tapped a few buttons and began to open fire on the Klingon Vessels. The ship moved at impulse engines to take the fire off of the medical ship. The ship rocked as the Klingons started opening fire on the Vesta, “Shields holding at ninety-five percent sir.” Odan replied, “attack pattern beta.” Adams ordered as the ship started to turn as fire concentrating their attack on their warp drive.

Dedre was scanning those Bird-of-Prey ships and noticed an exploit, “sir those are older Bird’s of Prey, from my history lesson they have one exploit if I modify our deflector dish we can cause them to cloak and when they start cloaking we can fire as their shields will disengage.” Dedre replied looking at the Captain, she looked at her for a moment.

“Do you think that they fixed that exploit?” Adams asked looking at Dedre, “I am not sure but there is only one way to find out.” She replied looking at her, “do it, Lieutenant.” Adams ordered as the ship shook violently this time, sparks flying from the consoles.

“Shields down to eighty-five percent sir, reading some hull breaches on decks four and five forcefields are holding.” Odan replied as Dedre began to modify their deflector dish, “it’s ready sir.” Dedre replied as the Captain nodded as the deflector dish gave out an ionized pulse towards the Klingon ship which caused it to start to cloak.

“Fire!” Adams ordered as Dazra pressed a button and the ship fired on the cloaking ship.

“Direct hit sir..” Dedre replied as a few moments later the ship exploded, “Sir the other ship is cloaking and seems to be leaving the area do you want to pursue?” Airje replied looking at the Captain. “No, take us back to the USS Hope.” She ordered looking at Airje who nodded and the ship began to turn back around and head back towards the USS Hope.

As they approached, stopping within feet of the ship, “sir we are being hailed by the Hope sir.” Odan replied looking at the Captain who nodded, “on screen.” Adams replied as the screen changed from the stars to the face of the Captain. “Thank you for assisting, I am Captain Hugh Bellmore.” He introduced himself, “Captain Makayla Adams of the USS Vesta, could you share the damage report?” Adams asked looking at the Captain.

“We were hit hard and out of nowhere while we were en route to the Meronia Cluster, we have several hull breaches, our warp core is offline, shields are down to twenty percent. EPS relays have been shot, and the list goes on and on,” Bellmore replied looking at Adams.

Makayla nodded as the repairs would be extensive, “what is your estimation on repairs?” She asked looking at him, “a couple of days by our calculations though would be faster if we were back at Starbase 27.” He replied with a sigh, thinking before Odan muted the comms and spoke up.

“Sir I can strengthen our tractor beam and we can tow them back to Starbase 27. We just can’t leave them out here like a sitting target in case those Klingons decided to come back and finish them off.” Odan replied looking at the Captain, that would put them behind in getting to the Cluster but Odan was right they couldn’t just leave them there.

She nodded to Odan to unmute the channel, “We will tow you back to Starbase 27 we can’t leave you here as a sitting duck.” Adams replied as Bellmore thought for a moment then nodded.

“That would be great,” He replied.

After the comms ended Odan got to work on reconfiguring the tractor beam, “sir the configurations have been completed and we are ready to take the Hope into tow.” Odan replied as Adams nodded.

A few seconds later tractor beam was attached to the Hope, “helm set course for Starbase 27 at warp five.” She replied as Airje nodded tapping her controls, “course and speed laid in sir.” Airje replied looking at the Captain who nodded, “engage.” She replied as the Vesta went to warp five with the USS Hope in tow.

“Monitor the Hope, if things go wrong or their systems start to fail bring us out of warp.” She replied as Odan nodded, “So far they are holding and the tractor beam is holding at our current speed. But I don’t advise us to go any faster, we should arrive at Starbase 27 within the hour. “Odan added looking at the Captain, “roger.” She replied as she sat in her chair as they traveled.

An hour had passed by to what seemed like an eternity, “sir we have reached Starbase 27.” Airje replied as they slowly came out of warp the USS Hope with the help of the tractor beam came in slow as well. “Send a message to the Starbase that we have the USS Hope who needs tractored inside the Starbase for repairs.” She ordered as Odan sent the message.

They were now close enough to where they had disengaged their tractor beam and a few moments later the Starbase’s tractor beam engaged and started to pull the USS Hope inside. Looking at Airje who already knew what she was going to say, “course and speed already laid in sir.” She replied with a smile as Adams nodded with a slight smile, they were already beginning to work together and already able to anticipate what they wanted.

“Engage,” Adams replied sitting back down as the ship moved away from the Starbase again and began to move towards the Meronia Cluster at maximum warp. They were already behind schedule but she felt she made the right decision and was going to stick by that. Once they were on their way she stood up looking over at Derohl, “you have the bridge.” She replied as she stood up and headed for her ready room, she had to file a report on the incident that happened to explain their delay.

Tajir nodded as he stood up and took the Captain’s chair, “let us hope we don’t get sidelined again.” Tajir replied to no one in particular while everyone on the bridge just seemed to nod in agreement as they went back to work, engineering teams were working on the repairs that the Vesta had sustained in the fight but at least they were on their way.