The view screen comes up with a Romulan commander sitting in what looks to be his ready room onboard a ship. “Commander Nijeer, counselors and Captain. I am here to represent the Romulan Republic and offer a place amongst the Republic for the people of Alth’Ndor IV. I have been granted full diplomatic authority on behalf of the Republic.”

Kr’Antren sat upright in his chair, fixed his uniform tunic making sure it was in place and gave Commander Nijeer a nod. “I am Captain Kr’Antren of the federation vessel Rhyndacus, pleased to meet you sir. The counselors and I were just discussing their ideas on the future. If I may present, Councilmen N’Tash, Councilwoman Sienna, Guardian Commander Vexiesh and Councilmen Naes’ ‘ each nodded as he introduced them. “If I may ask how did you know that a federation vessel was here?”

“Captain Kr’Antren I was given your information as the federation representative as you were on a mission to help the people of Alth’Ndor IV. I’ve sent you the packet from the Fourth Fleet command and Bravo Fleet command, it has my credentials so that you may present them to the councilors. The packet also includes the full offer from the Republic to the people of Alth’Ndor IV and also includes several key assurances on their protection, trade rights, legal rights and governmental representation from both sides. I understand that this is a lot to go through and there will be questions. Please read through the packet and we can begin discussions at any time.”

Kr’Antrem checked his console, after reading something for a few minutes he nodded and passed PADDS to each of the council members. “Everything is as the Commander stated, I’ve checked and verified the credentials are legitimate. As this is a new piece of information, one that is between the Republic and yourselves, I have been instructed to act as a third party as long as you feel I am needed. Commander the table is yours.” The council members turned to face the view screen while holding their PADDS and started to look through aspects of the offer from the Romulan Republic as the Commander read through it item by item. 

After several hours of continued discussions it was decided to call it a day and to start the discussions the next morning. Having escorted  the councilmen off of the Rhyndacus and having eaten, Kr’Antren called a meeting with the command crew to go over the days events and discuss plans for the next day.

“First I would like to say thank you and give you all kudo’s for doing a good job today with the events that happened yesterday. As a crew we have stepped up and not let that stop us from completing our mission and helping the people of Alth’Ndor IV. I just received word that services will be held tomorrow morning to honor those that fell and bury those that will hold places of honor in the Remembrance Monolith,  this will include Nurse Mathew’s and crewmen Jones. The services will be at sunrise, I hoped to see many of you there. Dress uniforms will be worn for the service.

Second, as many of you have heard by now, the people of Alth’Ndor IV have been offered membership into the Romulan Republic. Those negotiations are currently ongoing and are being hosted by Rhyndacus for the time being.

Before we go around the table, I would like volunteers for pallbearers for Nurse Mathew’s and crewman Jones. I will be one for Nurse Mathew’s.”

Lt. Talibah, Ensigns Tazzeth and Yivliv, Chiefs Kaha and Ruz raised their hands. 

“Sir, I had previously talked to petty officer Stimeck; he also would like to volunteer” Chief Ruz added.

“Captain, the other two security crewmen will do the honors of escorting their fallen crewmen, and I will lead their escort as you will lead Nurse Mathew’s.” Added number one.

“Ok, that fills all of those slots. Ceremony is set for sunrise, so we will meet in cargo bay two at 0500 to prepare and be ready when the ceremony starts.”

He looked around the table receiving nodded heads in the affirmative.

“Unless heard otherwise the meeting will reconvene tomorrow morning here in the Ready Room. Number one I wanted you to join us, if you are free. We are just a third party to the talks, this is between the Republic  and the people of Alth’Ndor IV. If we are asked we will give an opinion based on our experience and personal thoughts.”

Number one looked over at Kr’Antren and nodded “ Would be happy to sir. What way do you think the councilmen are leaning?”

“At this point it is hard to say, there is a lot for them to look at, think on and be discussed amongst themselves and the people. I know I would have a hard time making the decision because there are lots of good things the Republic has offered. I’ve sent you all copies of the packet to look over, let me know if anything catches your eye as suspicious or may need to be brought up.”

He looked around and the others nodded in response. He looked down at his console and started to go through the daily reports with the command staff. 

“Having looked at these it looks like we are on schedule if not ahead of schedule. Number one or Ensign Tazzeth what’s  this I see about Dilithium samples?”

“Yes sir,“ Ensign Tazzeth looked at number one and received a nod to continue “The mining facilities designated alpha four and hotel two have done some preliminary core sampling of what they think maybe new Dilithium fields, having scanned the samples myself and having talked to the facility scientists we are drawing the same conclusion that these would be new fields and not branches of the current ones. Since they no longer have the Star Empires facilities to send their samples too for further research and proofing they have asked us to deliver the samples to Star Fleet for further testing and research. Not knowing how long the negotiations will take I believe this would be the best path for them before they make any plans on further developing those possible fields.”

“I think that pretty much summed it up Captain, Ensign Tazzeth has been doing an excellent job in helping the mining research teams and scientist teams. When they overthrew the Star Empire they lost their only connection to the outside. This was one of the areas that was carefully watched and controlled  under the old regime and if they were caught trying to send requests out during the blockade it would often lead to repercussions being dealt by the blockade ships upon the planet.”

Kr’Antren nodded “ok, makes sense. However this brings me to the next bit of news. When we depart Alth’Ndor IV we will be heading to our new home Deep Space 47 and Task Force 47. Ensign Tazzeth, make sure the scientists understand this. We will do everything we can to make sure that the samples reach the right people if DS47 can not handle this type of research at this time. I do not know at this time what our next mission will be or if the crew will be changed out. If anyone has any requests as far as staying with us or possible moves please send them to my PADD and we will meet and discuss, pass this onto your teams also. Questions?”

He looked around the table to see if anyone had any.

“I want to be able to depart within four hours or sooner when notified by the council that they feel they can finish the talks with the Romulan Republic. Start pulling in your teams and finishing up or getting the projects to a point that the Alth’Ndor IV teams feel they can take over and finish on their own. Helm start plotting a course for Deep Space 47, I would like to avoid the Badlands if at all possible. Number one contact DS9, DS47 and Task Force 47 for any information we may need on the current situations and intelligence on the areas we will be passing through, don’t want to run into any surprises if we can help it. Questions? Dr. M’Gok please stay behind. We are in the home stretch, folks. Dismissed.”

As everyone leaves the ready room he sat next to Dr. M’Gok and looks his chief medical officer over, noticing the deep furrows around her eyes and the sunken features. “ Doc, look at me and tell me the truth. How are you doing? That was not an easy thing to go through yesterday. Having looked at you and watched you over the day I can tell you are not doing good.”

Ske looked up at the captain, held her head up and straightened out her neck and back.“ Sir, I’m fine and I’ll be even better if everyone will stop asking. Let me handle this, I’ll work through it by doing my job and saving as many as I can. I have to make her death mean something, no that’s not right. Her death has to mean something it cannot and will not be because she stood up when she should have stayed down. She stood up to watch me, to check on me and that’s what got her killed.I got her killed sir and I have to live with that. I run  it over and over in my head. Thinking of everything I could have done differently and it always comes to the same conclusion.  Damn it sir, why could she not stay down?”  She looks at him with her head slightly tilted to the side.

“Doc, we may never know. But what I can say is that she did what she thought she had to do at the time. It might have been her that stopped you from going through with that killing blow or it might not have been, we will never know. What I do know is that event, the entire event probably saved untold amounts of lives. What do you think would have happened if she had killed you right away, nothing was stopping her from beaming into this ship and doing what she wanted. She saved lives Doc and in some ways I believe in that moment of time she saved yours. If you would have took a second longer to respond  or to have arrived at that place at that moment of time it would have been you. Have you thought of it that way? “

“No sir I hadn’t and I guess deep down I know you are right but it is hard to let it out. It is hard to grieve when you know that in some ways it is your fault.”

“No doc, like I just pointed out it is not your fault and nobody on this crew will ever think that I promise you. Doc we need you to be 100%, understand me. I do not know what tomorrow holds or what it may bring but I feel better if we have to face it as a crew with you being the chief medical officer. What we don’t need is you working yourself to exhaustion and not being at 100% when we need you. So I see this going one of two ways. Option 1, You go to your quarters, eat, shower and get a good night’s sleep. Option 2, I call in a few of the crewmen and we administer a hypo spray to make you go to sleep. So what’s it going to be Doc?”

She hanged her head and took a deep breath and let it out. “Sir, I have to make it mean something. It has to, I have to.”

“I understand that Doc and how you do that is by taking care of yourself and helping as many as you can. It may not be today or tomorrow but it will add up. I promise you and Doc you do mean something to all of us. Now what’s it going to be?”

She stood up, looked at the Captain, looked out the portals and let out another deep sobbing breath.” Sir, I will go to my quarters to eat“ sniffs herself and wrinkles her face “,definitely take a shower and try to go to sleep.”

“Doc, I hoped you would see it that way. One more thing Doc, grieve. We all need to do it in our own way but you need to let it out.”

She nodded as she made her way out of the ready room.

“Captain, number one. We just received a message from the council. They have asked the Romulan commander to attend tomorrow’s meeting in person and have decided to change the venue to the council meeting room in the city hall.”

“Thank you number one, let them know we will be there.”

He looks around the ready room and back out the portal out on the landing area. “We’ll, I guess that’s a good sign.”