[Hahana III Colony]

Handing out another set of blankets Ensign William Hume glanced at the line that still snaked around what was left of this city block. If it had not been that the Anaheim’s crew was working in shifts they would have been overwhelmed with need from the colonial survivors. Even as it was there were long lines each morning and working all through the day barely put a dent In them. Soon the Anaheim would go, and while they would leave some of the makeshift infrastructure in place, including the industrial replicators that they had been using, there was no sign that the local government could get people to coalesce in a way that was going to make this possible afterwards.

Chief Medical Officer Doctor Michelle Mueller was running a medical tricorder along a young woman’s arm in the line, working to triage potential incoming patients for the medical team in the tents behind them. They had been doing much the same thing since moving from active disaster relief to clean up. Now that they were no longer picking through rubble, they were on to keeping the living… well living basically.

Hume smiled at a young boy as he handed a blanket over and sent the kid on his way. There was not much more to be done at this point, food, water, and shelter was what people needed and what the USS Anaheim and its crew was providing. 

Doctor Mueller walked over to Hume, who was the ranking Security Officer on site and gestured to the sky,  “What’s that?”

She had gestured to a big spot of nothing. Hume narrowed his eyes and squinted into the sky, “I don’t see… wait… oh…”

[USS Anaheim – Ready Room]

Captain Nathan Hawthorne was putting the final touches on his latest report to Starfleet. It was a lot of the same thing that he wrote every time. The crew was doing well, picking up the pieces of a disaster and a medical emergency was hard on the crew and yet he felt that a week on Starbase 72 to unwind after this mission was entirely appropriate. They were an emergency medial team sent to areas that nobody wanted to go to, his teams deserved a break. Though he did not put it in the report he knew that they were near breaking already. This mission was different than the others, so much heavier. The fact that they had held it together for this long was surprising to him.

He yawned, he needed to sleep. Yet it felt like the least he could do since he was not going to the surface was be on the bridge, or near it, as long as he had teams down there. Granted it was a weeks’ long deployment and they were running twenty-four hours a day so he did have to grab some sleep. 

Sending off his report had rubbed the stubble on his face and stood, heading for the door and out onto the bridge.

“I’m off to my quarters,” he told the bridge crew who was on shift, mostly made up or people he did not know that well, a shift he rarely overlapped with. 

“Sir,” a fresh faced Ensign said from Ops, “The São Paulo has raised her shields.”

Hawthorne paused, “Do a sensor sweep. Hail them.”

”Not answering,” a young Ensign the communications equipment said.

”We have six warp signatures entering sensor range. Not Starfleet,” tactical said.

”Shields up, red alert,” Hawthorne said, “Hold position.”

”The São Paulo is moving to intercept,” tactical said.

In a fight the medical California Class was not that useful. A Galaxy Class ship however, like the São Paulo, could handle all six with no problem. The craft were small, but fast and while they posed no real threat to the much larger Galaxy Class ship, if any of them broke away, they’d be in trouble. Klaxxons sounded as the lights dimmed a reddish hue.

”Four of the ships are engaging with the São Paulo, two are headed towards Hahana III and the Aneheim,” was the report.

”Bring us around,“ Hawthorne said, this was going to be tricky.

[USS Anaheim – Nine Forward Lounge]

”You don’t date humans? That seems spiciest,” Vanessa Constable said in an accusatory tone of voice.

Kan Th’kaotross sighed, “I said I had never dated a human, not that I don’t.”

“You lived in San Francisco, you went to the Academy,“ she pointed out.

”No I didn’t, I did go to the Academy on Andor, not Earth,” the security officer said, “I’ve never been to Earth.“

This caused Constable to rethink her line of attack, “Well then.. I stand corrected.”

”I’m the Chief of Security, on a mostly human ship, it’s not built for long term dating here for me,” Th’kaotross said.

”You went out with the Doctor,” Constable pointed out.

”It went poorly. We annoyed each other,” he said.

”That can work.”

He shook his head, “It didn’t. Look I appreciate you asking me out, but no.“

”I’m going to win you over,” Constable said.

”No you won’t you’re not my type,” he answered.

”I’m everyone’s type. I dated a Horta at my last post,” Constable said.

”Did you?” 

“No but I could have, you don’t know,” she said.

The already dim light in the lounge dimmed again, and went red. SIrens sounded indicating the ship had gone on red alert. It was a state that neither of them had seen on the USS Anaheim outside drills. Th’kaotross stood he had to get to the bridge and presumable the Assistant Chief Engineer had to show up now in Engineering.

Something rocked the ship.

”That’s a phaser hit,” Th’kaotross said swaying with the ground beneath his feet.

Constable was already crossing the the door to the lounge. It was time to get to work.

[Chief Counselor’s Quarters]

Lieutenant Junior Grade Yuhiro Kolem was thrown across her bedroom. She bounced, or at least it felt like she bounced, on the ground. Rolling to a stop she rose to her hands and knees. Having hit her nose at some point she wondered that was going on. She had a spot on the bridge but with her empathic powers gone temporarily she wondered what point she had to go there. Telling the Captain not to be fired on seemed pointless.

Still she had a job to do. Having taken off her uniform she struggled to get it on with the ship boncing about. Inertial dampeners were not that useful against attacks to the shield, and each time they got hit she lost her footing and fell to the floor. Finally dressed she headed to the bridge.

[USS Anaheim – Bridge]

”One of the two ships is firing on the planet. Photon torpedoes. Another is engaging us,” tactical said as the Bridge’s doors slid open and the Chief of Security joined them taking over from the junior officer.

“The other four are pinning down the São Paulo,” Th’kaotross reported getting up to speed on the situation as quickly as possible. Against one they had a chance, against two, well that was stretching it. The colony and their people on the ground, well they had little to no chance. He did not say it but they all understood that what happened next was up to the São Paulo getting to them as quickly as possible.

”Target the nearest ship, with everything we have,” Captain Hawthorne said, not that there was any other option. They could die, or die fighting.