Their orders were clear to expand their borders, by force if necessary. Planets of interest were those that contained this mysterious blood dilithium, to use against the Brenari. Kelic was sitting in the office of his warship that was well within Devore territory, waiting on word from Nashka about their latest mission.

There had been reports that the Federation was within the quadrant that was also looking at the mysterious phenomenon. This was a cause for concern that they would also interfere with their plans.

A short time later the comm channel went off, “sir Nashka is requesting to see you. She says it’s urgent,” came the voice of an officer on the bridge.

Raising an eyebrow wondering why they were even here, they should be back at Miri dealing with the Moneans. Something must have gone wrong for her to request a meeting, “send her in.” Kelic replied as he sat straight in his chair as the doors opened to his office to reveal the female Devore commander.

“Please have a seat,” Kelic replied gesturing towards the chair that was located directly in front of his desk.

Nashka took a seat, one could see that she was a bit nervous and unsure of what would happen once she delivered the news she came here with. One could tell she was a young and inexperienced commander compared to the experience of the much older Kelic sitting in front of her.

“Report,” Kelic said as he could tell there was something wrong just by her body language.

Taking a deep breath letting the silence lingerie for a minute before she responded, though she was trying to think of how to tell him without him getting angry. “We ran into a slight problem,” Nashka said with nervousness in her voice.

“What do you mean a slight problem?” Kelic asked as he leaned forward a bit.

“Everything was going as planned until we arrived at Miri,” Nashka began explaining what had transpired. “There was a Federation ship there, from the looks of it they were assisting them.” She added before things went silent again.

“Interesting,” Kelic replied before leaning back in his chair. “Did you make them leave?” He asked looking at her.

“Um, no sir.” Nashka replied as she began to sweat, “we tried to but they were stronger than we were and had the help of the Monean ships. We had sustained heavy damage to both of our ships,” she finished as she handed him the padd with the damage report. If looks could kill she’d probably be dead right now with the way that Kelic looked at her before taking the padd out of her hands.

“How can you sustain this much damage from a Federation ship?” Kelic said with irritation in his voice.

“It was a large ship sir, and had stronger firepower than our scout ships,” Nashka replied.

Sitting there looking at the young women for a moment before asking the next question. “Who fired the first shot?” Kelic wondered which caused Nashka to become even more nervous.

“Um…I did sir,” she replied with an audible gulp.

“Did you at least attempt to contact them, to tell them to not meddle in affairs that don’t concern them?” Kelic asked as he took a deep breath while looking her in the eyes.

“No sir,” she responded as she looked down.

“Did they try to contact you?” Kelic interrogated her as he was getting a bit more irritated by the second.

“Yes sir,” she said.

“Let me guess you didn’t respond?” Kelic’s anger was now showing.

“No sir,” she replied still looking down.

Placing his head in the palms of his hands he shook his head, “have you learned anything? That was probably your dumbest move,” he yelled looking back up at her and waving his hands in dismissal at the stupid mistake that she had made.

“Never mind that,” he said as he stood up from his chair walking over to the window to look out. He began to think of what their next move would be since the officer under his command screwed up.

Nashka knew she messed up as she looked in the direction of Kelic, “should we proceed with the next step?” She asked looking at him.

“No,” he said waving his hand as to dismiss what she said. “We will stick with what we originally planned,” he began before turning to face her. “If they are there assisting with evacuations then we will let them, we will leave tomorrow morning towards Miri and claim our prize,” Kelic replied with a now calm demeanor as he looked at her.

“That will give us enough time to begin repairs,” she said.

“Oh you will begin repairs,” Kelic began. “Though you will not be coming with us, you will wait here for reassignment,” Kelic replied as she wasn’t going to get away with her mistake and there would be consequences for her actions.

Nashka was about to protest but decided against it as it would be in vain and probably cause more problems than she already was facing. “Aye sir,” she replied as she stood up from the chair she was sitting at.

“Dismissed,” Kelic replied as he turned around to face the window.

Nodding she walked out of the office and headed for the transporter room to head back to her ship. She was upset at herself for her stupid mistake, though she would just have to learn and not repeat it.

After Nashka left he walked back over to his chair to finish up his reports before turning in for the night. They would be leaving for Miri first thing in the morning, giving enough time for the Moneans to leave. Kelic also placed a reprimand on Nashka’s file for her poor decision, she was lucky that he didn’t demote her or remove her from command. Though that would be the next step if she messed up again. After finishing what he was working on he turned in for the night as tomorrow would be a busy day.

The morning had come quicker than expected, Kelic had arrived on the bridge a short time later. Everyone was at their stations preparing the ship to depart towards Miri in a short while. Everyone had stopped what they were doing to look at Kelic as he entered, nodding to the officers as he took his seat.

“Status report,” Kelic ordered.

“Everything is clear, we are ready to depart.” Came the reply from an officer at what would be the engineering station.

Kelic nodded as he turned to the helm, “set course for Miri.” Kelic ordered.

“Course set,” the helmsman replied.

“Engage,” he replied as the ship began to move towards its destination which would arrive within thirty minutes as they were deeper within their territory. Silence filled the bridge as they traveled, Kelic took a sip of his drink.

As time went on and they got within scanning range of the planet, “scan for any ships in the area.” Kelic ordered as he adjusted in his seat.

“I am not detecting any ships at Miri, it looks like they have all left.” An officer replied looking at the commander.

“Good,” he replied.

After a few more minutes had passed the ship came to a stop in orbit of Miri, Kelic stood up from his chair to look at the planet below before looking back over to his operations officer. “Begin scanning the planet below to find out which islands the dilithium is located on,” Kelic ordered as the officer nodded and began his scans.

The officer got quiet as he ran the scan three more times before he nervously looked at Kelic. Taking a huge gulp, “um sir there is a huge problem.” He said looking at him.

“What do you mean there is a huge problem?” Kelic asked.

“There is no dilithium down on the planet,” the officer replied with another gulp.

“How is that possible?” Kelic said raising his voice, “how can dilithium just disappear?” he asked getting a bit angry.

“Not sure, I am running a deeper scan to see.” The officer replied as he began to run a more in-depth scan of the areas that they were located in. A few minutes had passed by and the scans of the areas have completed, the officer raised an eyebrow double checking what he was seeing.

“Sir, it looks like the Federation ship might have beamed all of it up to their ship as they were assisting the Moneans.” He replied looking up at Kelic again.

Now he was getting angry, wondering why they would take what was theirs. “Can you track them?” Kelic asked as he planned on getting back what was stolen, it was one thing to assist the planet’s inhabitants in leaving now they were stealing what wasn’t theirs, to begin with.

Nodding the officer began to scan for the ship in question, “sir we picked up what could be their warp signature, they are about eight hours ahead of us.” The officer replied.

“Hunt them down, we will get back what is ours,” Kelic replied as the ship began to move in the direction of the Saratoga at maximum warp. “I’ll be in my office, don’t bother me until we get sight of that ship!” Kelic exclaimed as he walked off the bridge into his office.

“How dare they!” Kelic said to himself as now he had to send a report back with their current setback. Sitting down at his desk he slammed his fist onto the desk in anger, after a few minutes he calmed down enough to begin filing his report to send off back to his commander about the current situation.