Home For The Hammond

Posted on Thu Feb 18th, 2016 @ 1:50am by Admiral Lucius Hawke & Jackson Banning V & Admiral Ricky Wegener & Lieutenant Hope Beckman

Mission: Further Challenges
Location: Docking Bay - Hammond

* * Deck 6 - Wegener’s Office * *

He wasn’t looking forward to this. Not one bit. Command & Control had notified Rick that the Hammond was soon to be back at the station and, despite knowing it was going to happen, he still got a chill that ran through him. It happened each time he received a crew or an away team that had taken heavy casualties. But he was their commanding officer and he had to be there.

“Admiral,” Hope said, standing in front of his desk, “they’re ten minutes out.”

He’d had his feet up on the desk, his eyes closed, thinking about Sakkath, Li and those on the Hammond. How would the next few days or weeks go? How would it actually affect Li? Would he or Lucius be able to help her move on? Hell, would anyone?

Not hearing Hope come in, he opened his eyes and turned to her. “Well, kiddo, I don’t guess you’d mind accompanying me, would you?”

She shook her head. “I don’t mind. I don’t know if I can help anyone with this, but I’d like to try.”

Moments later the two were in a turbolift. It was a long ride, and a quiet one. The Hammond was docking down near the middle of the station, around deck 1400 or so. Since she was a permanently attached ship, Rick thought she, along with the Takei, should have their own permanent berths. The other airlock access points were for visiting ships.

Hope must have known how Rick was feeling about this whole ordeal. Despite their relationship, she wasn’t one to break rank while on duty, but when she reached up and patted Rick’s back gently, he smiled. Losing a member of your crew, no matter who they were or what function they performed on the ship or starbase, was a major loss. They were a friend, a child, a sibling, a parent or any number of things to someone or several someones, and they would be missed.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the lift began to slow, signalling that they were close to their destination. When the doors parted, Rick was surprised to see quite a crowd waiting at the airlock. They weren’t there for the morbid curiosity of what it must be like to have someone die on the mission. No, they were there to be an immediate support group for everyone who had been on the Hammond, and it made Rick smile.

Lucius emerged from the second turbolift and joined Rick. His expression was reserved as they approached the airlock and the crowd parted. He nodded to the crowd, then stopped and looked to Rick. “Shall we go in?”

Rick only nodded, but as they waded through the crowd he made sure to let them all know that he was glad that they could come to show support. He shook hands and thanked many of them for giving of their own time, civilians and Starfleet personnel alike.

The crowd had left plenty of room at the airlock door, leaving a spot for Hope and the Admirals to stand. “I hate that this happened,” Rick said, leaning in to Lucius to do so. “It doesn’t matter who it was, even though this instance is a bit closer to home, but this is the worst part of being in Starfleet, I believe.”

“Agreed.” Lucius looked around for a moment and then took a deep breath. “I keep feeling as if Li should be here and yet I know why she can’t be. They all grieve for her.” He took a moment to compose himself and pressed the panel once the signal came that the umbilical had been attached. “It’s time.”

Rick unconsciously straightened his uniform jacket. It’s not like he’d not seen any of these people before, but for him, and for those on the ship, this was a special occasion that should be met with the utmost respect. It wouldn’t do for their CO to arrive unshaven and unkempt.

“You look fine, sir,” Hope said quietly. “Stop fidgeting.”

He sighed and gave a quick nod. Soon after they could hear the doors winding up to open after the air had been stabilized in the walkway. He stood up straight.

Those who emerged first were the general crew who’d seen to the running of the ship. The last of this group was Dr. Mi, who stopped to greet them. “Commander Banning has my report sirs, and can answer any questions. I must get to Sickbay. We have transported all the crew there - the rescuers and the assimilated ones - save Ignatius who was sent to Science.”

“Thank you, Doctor,” Rick replied as he waited for more of the crew to disembark. He had more questions for her, but he assumed any questions he had Jackson would be able to answer.

As the trio watched the crew leave the ship there was very little banter amongst them. Almost everyone on the station knew and respected Sakkath and it was obvious that his loss was on their minds. Sometimes it was a mission like this one that made one think about their own mortality and how quickly it might be taken from them.

Lucius greeted them as they passed and finally, Jackson emerged, the last of them and alone. He looked like hell and his usual affable mood was nowhere to be seen. He reached the admirals and Hope finally and stopped. “We need to talk.” He looked around a moment, then back. “Where is Li?”

Lucius cleared his throat and shook his head. “The last I heard, she was on Archadia. Darwin sent word but Li’s not in contact you might say.”

“The news deeply affected her, as you can imagine,” Rick added then looked around. “There’s an office over there we can use,” he said, pointing off to his left. “You can give us the short version then we can get the official version later, upstairs.”

Leading the way, Rick led the group over the office, which was sparse and unused, but it had enough chairs for everyone to sit.

Lucius did sit but Jackson was clearly too wound up to be still. He paced the width of the office as he related the events, first within the cube to rescue the assimilated crew, then Sakkath and Gilroy’s trip out to get Iggy and the death of Sakkath.

“He and Gil were determined to get her after the rest of them had been transported to the Hammond. The drone got a lucky shot and that was it. There was nothing Gil coulda done. Another drone apparently swiped his body, beamed to the transport they had assimilated and took off. It was a madhouse on the planet’s surface.”

“Are we certain that he died?” Rick asked. “It may be an obvious question, but if there’s even the slimmest chance that he could be alive then I need to know.”

Jackson nodded. “Yeah. We had the ship scan that ship and the planet for lifesigns and nothing Vulcan that was alive. When we got the call from Darwin about Li, that was just adding certainty to what we already knew. The Marines were in pursuit of the transport. Have they reported in yet?”

“They were unsuccessful in their attempt to retrieve his body,” Rick replied. “They also seem to have lost a man or two along with the transport.”

Jackson was silent for a moment as he rubbed his eyes. “I don’t know what to say. No...I do, but there’s a lady present, so I won’t.” He nodded to Hope, then looked at Lucius. “I’m so sorry. I ordered the crew not to report his death back because I didn’t want Li hearin’ it so impersonally over the channel. I intended to tell her in person but I forgot she’d know almost immediately. I wanted to be here and...yeah…”

Lucius nodded. “I understand and I know she will too. I know, also, that she’ll want to see you and do what she can for Oz but not till she gets everything sorted out, at least a little.” He sensed Jackson’s next question and shook his head. “No, Darwin’s sticking close to her side so she’s not alone at least.”

“How are Oralia and the rest of those who were assimilated? Was Doctor Mi able to do anything for them on the trip back?” Rick had already lost Sakkath and he didn’t want to lose any more people, not to the Borg.

“No, since it was only two days back and they need the full capabilities of Piper to do it. The good news is that given the short time they were under, they should all come out fine with no remaining tech at all, not even the nanites. She said that unlike Six, the hardware hadn’t had time to really fuse with their systems, to use layman’s terms.” Jackson smiled for the first time. “Granted, it’ll take a little while to get it all done, an’ for them to get past all this but there shouldn’t be any lingering traces physically. The other good news is that Iggy wasn’t truly assimilated. Somethin’ ta do with her not havin’ one central brain or somethin’ like that.”

Rick chuckled briefly. “Something about that doesn’t surprise me at all. I don’t think Iggy does anything that she doesn’t want to, including being assimilated.” He stood, which prompted Hope to stand as well. “I should head up to sickbay to check on our injured crew. Jackson, prepare a full and detailed report for review and I’ll make sure to get one from the Marine crew as well. Once you’ve finished that, if you feel like trying to find Li, that’s your call, but Lucius and I have resigned ourselves to waiting for her to come back to us when she feels the time is right.”

Jackson looked from Rick to Lucius and shook his head. “I know better’n anyone that if that woman doesn’t want to be found, she won’t be. Darwin won’t let anything happen, so at least there’s that. But I’ll get her soon enough. I’m headin’ ta Sickbay now. I wanna be there while they work on Oz but I can start on this report there. I’ll be doin’ a whole lotta waitin’. I’ll tell you this though, Admiral Hawke. If we don’t hear from her in a week, I’ll go track ‘em down.”

Lucius smiled briefly. “Thank you. And welcome home. Despite the loss, you did what you set out to do. Now go to Sickbay and let me know as soon as you hear anything. Oz is one of my girls after all.”

“Aye sir.” Jackson turned and left the small conference room and was soon out of sight.

Lucius checked the time, then turned to Rick. “Which way are you headed?”

“I’m going to stop by and check up on El’Shar then head to Piper.” Turning to Hope he added, “You can head on back to the office. Thanks for coming down with me.”

She shrugged. “It was the least I could do.”

“I likely won’t get to Piper tonight. I am meeting the transport from Betazed in an hour to pick up Aia and Saye.” Lucius paused until Hope had departed, closing the door behind her. “I am sure there will be questions.”

“Oh, Aia. Damn, I had forgotten all about that.” He added, “Yikes.”

“More stress and more things to deal with,” Lucius agreed. “To be honest Rick, I’m worried as hell about Li, more than I am the other situation at the moment. I’d truly expected her to hole up in her office and try and lock out the world, not run away.”

“She’s tough, Lucius,” Rick replied, putting a hand on his shoulder. “You raised her right. Of course, I’d like to say that I had a small hand in it, but we both know that’s not true. As for Aia, I guess there’s nothing left but to just lay it all out there and go with it. It’ll be tough, and I don’t envy you at all, but it’s happening and it has to be dealt with, one way or another.” He smacked his hand on Lucius’ shoulder for emphasis. “You’re a tough one as well, you know.”

Lucius smiled and nodded. “She does get some of it from you. Still, the crew in Piper and Li are my priorities at the moment so if I am needed, send word. Otherwise, I’ll be at the main docking bay, then my quarters, assuming Aia doesn’t shoot me out an airlock.”

“If you wind up needing a place a go and lick your wounds, my door is always open. My couch is actually pretty comfortable.” Rick smiled as they walked out of the office.

****************
Lt. Hope Beckman
Moral Support

Admiral Ricky Wegener
Solemn Commander

Admiral Lucius Hawke
Worried Father

Jackson Banning V
Exhausted Commander