“How badly could it have gone?”  Crawford stood on the deck of the Jolla Colony ship as the science team continued to examine the vessel from stem to stern.  The science chief had a PADD in her hand.

“We’ve finished the latest device scans and ran some simulations….”

Her commanding officer raised a hand and forcefully asked her, “How bad?”

Her mouth dropped open for a moment in shock.  He hadn’t used that tone with her before.  Sadie answered quickly, “At the setting the Vorta was working on…it could have easily cracked the planet,” she handed over the PADD.  It had startled her as it was now shocking Captain Crawford.

“You mean,” he scrolled through the report and shook his head in horror, “…you mean what you say.  The force of the damage to the fault lines would have accelerated by orders of magnitude as the device continued to run, increasing its effect through each fault line like a volume control…but also pushing the power through to the rest of the planet’s fault lines…shaking the planet apart.”  He let the PADD drop to his side as Fowler picked up where he had left off.

“It would have taken several hours for the device to have its full intended impact – the earthquakes would have been devastating – the simulations redlined the Richter Scale.  The ground wouldn’t have stopped shaking…,” she swallowed what she had imagined and pushed on, “….and anyone who had survived would witness the ground opening up before them and the planet itself cracking into pieces.  It would have been an extinction event for this system…the massive sections of the planet would have drifted, upsetting the orbit of the nearby suns, moons, and other planets.  Within two days, there would be nothing left alive.  And it would have spread beyond this sector.”

Peter let out the breath he had been holding, “Goddamn Dominion.  We’re sure he didn’t transmit the system diagram to anyone?”  He had fought this battle before. He had seen the Vorta’s resourcefulness.  It had taken friends from him.

Fowler wrestled with the tears at the edge of her eyes and found her control. “We’ve examined every single system, sir.  He was alone in his mission.  Catari thinks he’s a runt of the Vorta litter – they gave him an impossible mission because he hadn’t met their standard or something.”

Crawford grumbled, “An impossible mission he nearly completed.  How many lives were in the balance?”  He wasn’t sure he wanted to know, but a victory with no loss of life was something he desperately needed.

Fowler sniffled, a feeling of joy rumbling in her heart, “In the inner system, 2.3 million, sir.  In the outer rim, just under 700,000.”  She put her hand over her mouth as she cried with happiness, realizing that meant, “We saved three million people.”

Peter walked to her side, placing his hand on her shoulder, “You and the team did something incredible, Lieutenant Fowler.  We were able to put some points back on the board.”  She wiped away the tears with her uniform arms.  “I’m going to send Director Hoyt up here to work with you to ensure this thing can’t harm anyone.  Let’s do some good.”

“Your efforts will be an official part of my reports and logs.  You did a damn fine job.  Our Hazard Team wanted to you on the spot, Ms. Harris.”  Harris, McKee, and Reid were back on the small bridge of the SS Ambrose.  Crawford spoke to them from the bridge of the Olympic, a look of pride set on his face.  “We’ve received word of an impending attack on Farpoint Station from Dominion, and Breen forces a kind of last stand.  We’re being held back and away from the station to assist in search, rescue, and repair once the battle ends.”

There was a silence in the air as he sat back in his chair.  Natalie asked the question that needed asking, “Can we win, Captain Crawford?”  Reid and McKee wondered what the answer was going to be.

Pete stared at the ground, searching for an answer that would make sense…or sound the right tone.  It was a hard place to be in the center chair – everything you said mattered.  How you said it, when you said it…and how much or how little you said…it all mattered.  He looked up, “There’s an old book by an old guy about an old land with a bunch of old creatures…there’s a monologue from one of the characters…it’s been on my mind.”  He closed his eyes and recited it from memory, “It’s like in the great stories Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were, and sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy. How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad happened. But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something. Even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. Because they were holding on to something.”*  He opened his eyes, the words bringing his bridge to a quiet halt as the officers listened.

Reid felt the tears start to form as she recognized the passage he was reading from memory.  Ambrose had shared his favorite moment from the Lord of the Rings with her on the Erigone just a year ago. She spoke through tears, “Frodo asks Sam what we’re holding onto…and Sam replies, ‘That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it’s worth fighting for.’”  She smiled through the melancholy of the moment, “Ambrose and I shared a love of Tolkien, Captain Crawford.”

Pete felt his throat waver with his feelings.  He let the moment’s emotion breathe in the silence before he spoke softly, “The stories of old can have such a deep meaning across time and space.”  His memories of friends past and gone flitted in his memory.  He returned to the present, “I am thankful we met each other, Ms. Harris, Ms. McKee, and Doctor Reid.  Without you…well, things would be very different.  Thank you for helping us make a difference… I hope we will meet again soon.”

McKee replied from the center chair, “Thank you, Captain Crawford. Until next time.”  The screen blinked off.  They watched as the medical ship dashed off to warp.  She turned to the gathered, “We’ve got the crew from the Tallahassee…do we think we can lend a hand at Farpoint?”

Reid blinked away her tears, “We’d have to fly fast and hard.”

Natalie said, “The captain from the Tal – his pilot ratings are through the roof.  You put him on the helm, I’ll handle engineering…they had a science lady…and Jord can hold down sickbay with their medical guy.”

McKee noted dryly, “Such technical terms, Nat.”  Harris shrugged, her smile wide.  “Then let’s get moving.”

****

Passage taken from Tolkien, J. R. R. The Lord of the Rings. HarperCollins, 1991.