Takes Place following the events of Valhalla Squadron:

• (11) Light the Signal Fires – https://bravofleet.com/story/81595 
• (15) Ragnarök – https://bravofleet.com/story/81937 
• (16) Asgard’s call – https://bravofleet.com/story/83157 
• (18) Lif and Lifthrasir – https://bravofleet.com/story/82883 

Captain’s Quarters – 22:15

Kirin stood staring out the viewport in her quarters at the lights of the warp bubble that surrounded the Sojourner. The quarters around her were an uncommon mess with several items of cloths, including today’s, tossed onto the sofa while PADDs littered the table. Trying to ignore the ache in her back and the growing headache she brought the mug of peppermint tea to her lips and took a sip of the steaming liquid as her mind wandered over the events of the last couple of days. She glanced back at the doorway to the barely used bedroom as it called to her and her desk. With a sigh, she turned and made her way to the desk, “Best to get this down while it is fresh.”

Sitting down she looked over the small collection of pictures on her wall and adjusted the one of her parents that had been knocked askew. “Computer start recording, audio only,” she said.

Personal Log – Commander Kirin Tarken; USS Sojourner 

Kirin paused for a moment as she forgot the date, “Computer enter today’s date with the log please”.

‘Affirmative,’ came the reply from the computer and Kirin continued.

Where to begin? I guess at the beginning of all of this.

 

Since we arrived at Farpoint and received our new orders we have not had what could be described as an uneventful few days, to say the least. Following the detour to meet with Órlaith on the USS Intrepid and the USS Valhaha over Arkan II and successful efforts to drive off the Dominion fleet we made the best speed towards the border or front line, I guess you could say.

 

Upon arriving near the border we spent 24 hours reviewing patrol patterns as best we could using the Sojourner’s advanced long-range sensors and information from several Federation vessels which had passed through the area recently. The most beneficial support came from the Cardassian vessel, the Radava, a refitted Keldon class cruiser which was patrolling the area against Dominion intrusion. 

 

Their Captain, Gul Daamic, was interesting, to say the least. Her hatred of the Dominion was palpable, which was completely understandable given the atrocities at the end of the war. I was surprised she had not taken her ship over the line looking for a fight. 

 

Due to the frequent number of patrols within the region, we struggled to find an opening that would allow the Sojourner to slip through. Taking a risk I approached Gul Daamic for assistance and she agreed to use the Radava as a distraction. 

“Computer Pause,” Kirin let out a sigh as she thought back to the border crossing and took another long sip of her tea. Setting down the mug she pulled out her PADD and made a small note to highlight the efforts of Gul Daamic to the federation and the Cardassian government. Turning back to the screen she continued.

The Daamic and her crew seemed eager as they crossed the border at high warp and intercepted one of the Dominion patrols. We already knew that not all of the Jem’Hadar ships had been upgraded and their quarter-of-a-century lag in tech showed. Though the Radava was over 25 years old herself, she had been upgraded; within moments two Jem’Hadar fighters were destroyed and the remaining Breen patrol ship and Jem’Hadar fighters began to return fire. 

 

I will admit that I wasn’t sure if Gul Daamic would pull back as planned and would instead try to destroy the entire patrol. I worried for no reason as a minute after the engagement started the Radava disengaged, feigning damage to their power distribution systems, and jumped to warp. 

 

In short, it worked. The remaining three ships in the patrol alone with the next nearest Dominion patrol, a little over half a light year away adjusted course and gave chase. We had our gap in their patrol. The Sojourner was able to slip through without incident at max warp.

 

Due to the nature of the mission we have not been able to contact the Radava. I do hope they made it through.

Kirin reach out and tapped the pause icon on the recording and stood up from her desk unsure of how to phrase the next part. Looking around her quarters she shook her head and muttered, “I need to get this stowed away.” She spent the next couple of minutes reorganizing the room. She picked up the shattered clothes, tossed them into the cleaning unit and gathered up the PADDs staking them onto her shelf for sorting later before returning to the desk.

We found ourselves exactly where we planned; several light years into Dominion-occupied space and with the sensors onboard the Sojourner we were able to readily collect information on fleet moments while being beyond most of their sensors. 

 

This is when our problems began. Thanen, my XO and Chief Engineer first reported a minor imbalance within our warp plasma. This did not have any impact on the function of any systems but over a period of twenty-four hours, the imbalance grew which prevented us from achieving a speed beyond impulse and led to the nacelles leaking trace amounts into the surrounding space.

 

This enabled one of the patrols to detect our presence giving them a trail of breadcrumbs to follow right to us. Though the Sojourner is very capable I am not sure how she would do against a dozen enemy vessels. I came close to ordering our return to Federation space which…

Kirin paused for a moment leading back in her chair and clicked her tongue against her teeth several times as she thought.

…which would have been unfortunate.

 

We got lucky in many regards, the Dominion ships giving chase seemed content to follow but seemed reluctant to engage which was both curious and troubling. The break came when our Assistant Chief Anahis Sanin found the cause. A microscopic device had been planned along one of the secondary flow regulators which caused the imbalance to develop over a period of days. The design of the device is advanced, unlikely anything we have seen but one thing is for certain it was deliberately placed and at some point since Farpoint. I can only come to one conclusion, we have a saboteur aboard. The question is now who and why?

 

With the removal of the device, the engineering team quickly fixed the issue but not before Thanen suggested we replicate the leak and warp signature on our Waverider class runabout, the Wavecrest. Once this was in place I orded by Chief of Operations Belania to pilot it back towards federation space before correcting the ‘leak’ and returning. She should be back in the next few hours if all went well.

 

If it hadn’t been for Anahis’ systematic screening of the entry system, something she does every couple of months it would have been missed. 

 

I am not sure if I am doing the right thing but my past experiences tell me this knowledge will do more harm to the wider crew than good at the moment. As such, I have chosen to inform only my senior staff and the assistant chief.

 

As I am unable to send a secure message to the fleet I have to trust I am doing the right thing while we hunt down the saboteur and continue our mission. I have offically recorded all information in my Captain’s log and report to Starfleet but I needed to get this down for myself. 

 

Only time will tell if I have made the right decision.

“Computer end recording.”