Aftermath

Posted on Sun Feb 14th, 2016 @ 10:08pm by Major David Lorenz & Marine Captain Quentin Harrison

LORENZ'S READY ROOM

Major Lorenz sat at his desk, his hands steepled together. He had been considering their fight with the Borg and extreme luck at getting away unscathed. The ship's stardrive section had been destroyed by the Borg attack and the resulting warp core breach explosion. The risks in getting Sakkath's body back had been moderate until the appearance of the Cube. There had been absolutely no time to mount an adequate defense before the Borg had eviscerated his ship with one well-placed shot.

He sighed and poured himself another drink from the bottle Quentin had left him. The loss of Captain Franklin was a bitter pill to swallow, but had it not been for the courageous albino XO, it was entirely possible that nobody would have survived. Franklin's last action had been to safety the M/ARA assembly before the loss of coolant breach. The toxic coolant had vaporized Franklin and the skeleton engineering crew instantly upon its release. David typed in a note to recommend Franklin for a posthumous Medal Of Honor.

Loss is part of the game, Dave, he told himself. Nobody gets to live forever, not even the smart-ass El-Aurians. Dealing with the loss of people under his command had never been easy, but dave was a solid officer capable of putting losses into perspective.

=/\=Incoming transmission from Starbase 900, Colonel Harris=/\=

"On viewer," Dave ordered, sitting up straighter.

=/\= You look like hell, David,=/\= Harris said by way of greeting.

"I have had better days, colonel, sir." Lorenz answered evenly.

=/\=I bet. Tell me what happened. =/\= Harris ordered, listening to Lorenz's explanation intently. David left out nothing as he gave a report on the planetary operation, the loss of Sakkath, and the subsequent pursuit and battle with the Borg. When David finished his report, Harris simply nodded his head. =/\=You're goddamned lucky you and your crew aren't drones, major. But, I can't fault you for attempting to rescue a fallen comrade. I also can't see where a court-martial would be warranted in this case as there was no way to predict a Cube would appear and take the transport with them, so I am going to recommend to General Thompson that this matter be put to rest. Given the same set of circumstances I would have done the same thing, as would any Marine officer.=/\=

"Thank you, sir." Lorenz said, exhaling the breath he had been holding.

=/\=Don't thank me yet, major. I have been talking with General Thompson about you, and I believe that this situation has revealed gaps in our defensive and offensive capabilities. We need a rapid response force for Borg incursions and I believe that between you and your friend Jim Holbridge we can come up with some kind of defensive system that could keep the Borg at bay.=/\=

"Begging your pardon, sir, but that is not possible. Even with Jim’s help it would be an impossible task. The cube we encountered knew where to hit us and hit us hard..."

=/\= Hard enough to cripple your ship, but not destroy it,=/\= Harris pointed out, cutting Lorenz off. =/\= You said one of your troops was assimilated by a spider, called Ignatius...?=/\=

"The pet of Commander Zeferino, and her name is Iggy. Yes, Iggy was assimilated and injected Corporal Thomas, who was recovered and is currently in stasis aboard the Hammond." David smiled in spite of himself.

=/\=If I were you, major, I would begin there. Our own information on the Borg has been greatly expanded with the cooperation of a former drone brought back by Voyager. I am sure Corporal Thomas would be more that willing to assist in this operation. Harris stared hard at Lorenz through the video monitor.

"It's a good place to start, colonel. I'll get Captain Harrison to..."

=/\= What happened to Franklin?=/\= It was well known that Tom Franklin was a favorite of Colonel Harris.

"He died in the former stardrive section of this ship, sir."

=/\=You promoted Quentin Harrison to take his place? Good choice! I like his style, and he seems to have mellowed a bit since coming into the Corps.=/\=

David smiled again. "The Marines fit him well, colonel. He's happier than I have seen him in awhile."

=/\=Good deal, major. I will meet you when you return to the station, and we'll have an informal inquiry about the ship and let you get on with your new assignment. I want you and your friend Holbridge to come up with a way to disable the Borg's defensive systems long enough to mount an offense against them. I'll get the general's permission for this, and then you two can get to work. Harrison can handle day-to-day stuff for the detachment while you and Holbridge are occupied. I am assigning Corporal Thomas to this project as well as Holbridge's son, JD I believe he is called. Incidentally, how did the boy perform?"

"He got klonked on the head during the initial attack and dented the ship's helm console!" Lorenz grinned.

=/\=Article 15 him for destruction of Corps property then pat him on the head for me! I will author up commendations for you all. Carry on, major! Harris out!=/\=

David cut the link and sat back in his chair. Well, that's one question answered, Lorenz put away the bottle and then grabbed a padd and began outlining a plan of action. He was secretly pleased he would get to work with Jim again. It had been too long.

The doors to the ready room hissed open and Captain Harrison came in, tossing a padd on Lorenz's desk. "The crew of the Atlantis has shored up all our load-bearing member deficiencies and put an atmospheric force-field around the ship. We had a few holes in atmosphere processing, but they are fixed up as well. Another six hours and we can get underway."

"What's the holdup?"

"There's some irregularities with the tractor beam, meaning it would have crumpled our hull, but thanks to our resident whiz-kid, JD, the force field emitters will now act as a backup structural field so that the Atlantis can safely tow us at Warp 5." Harrison looked ready to drop on his feet from exhaustion.

"Smart kid," David smiled. "I have some news for you." David briefly explained the colonel's idea. "Pending General Thompson's approval, you will be running the day-to-day of the unit while Jim, JD, Corporal Thomas, and I work on a way to make some Borg-B-Gone tech."

"Nothin' like a lil challenge on me first day back, eh?" Quentin reached for the bottle, pouring himself and Dave a double. "Here's mud in yer eye!"

"Down the hatch!" Both men gunned down the liquor in unison.

***********************
Major David Lorenz
Tired Chief

&

Captain Quentin Harrison
Happy Injun