“The
Reject’s Table: Past Indiscretions”
By
Cory Parker
“Well, what a nice place this is,”
mused Halloway as he donned his designer sunglasses and walked down the crowded
street.
“Beats Romulus,” commented Halvox.
“You’ve been there?”
“That’s classified.” Halloway shrugged and continued
walking. The city of Krillan was
located on the planet Benek IV, whose local government had asked Halloway to
help settle a dispute between them and their neighbors on Benek III. After five long days of negotiations, a
peace had finally been met. The
official ceremony was scheduled to occur in 3 hours, so he and Halvox, who had
acted as a diplomatic advisor on the trip, were killing time. The street was filled with vendors of every
type, from used shuttlecraft to the latest trends in planetary fashion. Halvox ducked into a weapons shop for a
moment, leaving Halloway alone on the street.
Glancing around, an intriguing sign caught the eye of the captain of the
Haymaker.
“Kerry, I’m going across the street
for a moment,” he hollered over the sound of weapons fire.
“I’m not your mother,” was Halvox’s
response as she tested another pulse rifle.
Halloway sighed and pushed his way through the crowd. The crew’s stay in Sector 66-F was going on
a year and a half now, and Bobby was beginning to wonder if Crane would ever
let them get back to Federation space.
Approaching the door, he pulled out his pocket Benekian dictionary and
translated the words engraved in the wooden sign.
“‘The Captain’s Table’, eh? Sounds just right for me,” said Halloway to
no one in particular. Placing his hand
on the door, he pushed and passed through the entrance. Upon entering, he was struck by the
eccentricity of the place and the diversity of its clientele. Aliens of all description were seated at
the numerous tables, each with a drink in their hand, or whatever similar appendage
they might possess.
“Hello, Captain Halloway, nice to
finally meet you.” Halloway turned to
see the bartender smiling at him. He
appeared to be a middle-aged human, with gray hair and an infectious smile, but
as Sector 66-F frequently showed, appearances were often deceiving. Halloway strode up to the bar, and hopped
on a stool.
“What do you mean by finally? And how do you know my name?”
“It’s all over the news. The peace talks,” responded the bartender,
motioning towards a computer screen.
“Oh. I’d forgotten. Of
course.” The bartender extended a
hand, which Bobby grasped firmly.
“Call me Cap. Everybody else does.”
“Call me Bobby. Not everybody does.” Cap chuckled and motioned to the wall
behind him, which was filled with all sorts of exotic liquids. “Drink?”
“I’d better not. I have a peace ceremony to oversee in three
hours…” Plopping a glass filled with a blue liquid in front of Bobby, Cap
smiled and turned to clean a beer mug.
“Oh, what the hell…” Taking a sip, Bobby grinned and looked at Cap. “Romulan ale? Quite hard to come by.”
“Not in Sector 66-F, it isn’t.”
“Good point.” Taking another drink, Halloway turned and
took a more detailed look around the place.
He had never seen such an assortment of different species in one place before. Jyinion, Klingon, Cardassian, even a few
Romulans were seen laughing and drinking in the crowded bar. Suddenly, a face caught Halloway’s eye. “Oh, sh*t.”
“Drink not to your liking?” inquired
Cap.
“No, the drink’s fine. What the hell is Crane doing here?” asked
Bobby in a near panic. “I thought he
was sitting comfortably in his office on Earth.” Cap grinned and leaned on the bar.
“He is.”
“Then, who the hell is that?”
“Captain Jack Crane, of the USS
Renegade.” Halloway looked at Cap with
a look of confusion.
“How the hell does THAT work?” he
stammered out after a moment.
“My advice on temporal mechanics is:
don’t even try to understand it.”
Halloway shrugged and began digging in his pockets for some
currency.
“This place is freaking me out. How much do I owe you for the drink?” Cap smiled and placed his hand on
Halloway’s.
“Drinks here are paid for by a
story, not money. Tell a tale, your
tab is clean.”
“That’s all?”
“Yep.”
“Man, these temporal anomalies sure
are cheap.” Halloway motioned for Cap
to top off his ale. “You want a tale,
I got one for ya. It involves me, the
esteemed Captain Crane over there, and a certain young admiral’s daughter whom
I got to know a little too well…”
Let me start for the beginning. When the Dominion entered into an alliance
with Cardassia, I was just a lowly lieutenant who ran the graveyard shift on
board the Galaxy-class starship USS Renegade.
Only three years out of the Academy, I had worked my way up the ranks
through a series of rather unfortunate events that I won’t get into right
now. Let’s just say I was in the right
place at the right time, a lot of the time.
Anyway, the Renegade was stationed at Starbase 57, near the far end of
the DMZ. Our job was to protect
wounded ships while they underwent repairs at the starbase.
“Status report,” I had called out
for the fifth time that night.
Starfleet Command had ordered all ships to maintain yellow alert, and
constant status reports were an annoying fact we all had to live with. The Gamma shift was a rather tight-knit
group, we had to be. Everybody else on
the damn ship was asleep, so we had to get along.
“Same as it was fifteen minutes
ago,” responded Ensign Samantha Davis from Ops. Now Sam, she was quite a young woman. It was her first year out of the Academy, and she had already
found a steady post on board a ship.
The fact that we were losing a lot of people to the war also factored in
to her good fortune, but never mind that.
She and I had dated off and on ever since she came on board the
Renegade. Sam does this thing with her
tongue, it’s absolutely incred…never mind.
She’s a great officer, let’s leave it at that for now.
“Humor me,” I said with a
smile.
“Still no activity on long-range
sensors. 57 reports all is well, and
the Odyssey and the Truman are safe and sound, undergoing repairs.”
“Glad to hear it. How are we doing?”
“T’Pac down in Engineering reports a
slight fluctuation in the plasma flow; he has a team on it now,” Sam reported,
clearly bored with repeating information.
“Thank you, Miss Davis. Lucky, why don’t you run through a few
maneuvers?” I asked. The conn officer,
Lt. ‘Lucky’ Lindy Kellar, grinned and cracked his knuckles.
“With pleasure, boss.” I sat back and watched the acrobatics. Lucky was like every other pilot I have
ever met. He liked to impress the
ladies, and he fancied himself a better pilot that the Alpha conn officer, a
strait-laced Andorian named Belia. Of
this fact he frequently reminded the rest of us, especially tactical officer
Ensign Kristina Morrison, a lovely little redhead who Lucky tried in vain to
enter into a relationship with. She
was not impressed by his flyboy attitude, and her cold demeanor only served to
drive Lucky on. Which now, I admit,
was probably her plan all along. Yes
sir, the Gamma shift of the USS Renegade was a tight unit, all right. A fact I reflected on as I glanced over at
Sam. Her blonde hair had a way of
getting in her face, and she would spend half her shift fixing it, a habit I
later observed on a certain first officer of mine. I had a meeting with the captain at the end of my shift that
day, and I remember being quite excited.
The executive officer of the Renegade had been promoted and moved on to
her own command, leaving Beta shift without a head officer and the ship without
an XO. My name had filtered its way up
to the captain, and hearing nothing but good from the Gamma crew (considering I
let them do whatever they wanted to, no wonder they liked me), he wanted to
have a meeting with me.
“Has anybody checked the time
lately?” I asked suddenly, feeling the passage of time catch up with me. Sam glanced at her station's
chronometer.
“Shift’s up in two minutes,” she
reported in a relieved tone. Just
then, the turbolift doors hissed open, and in walked the Alpha shift. Actually, just the captain and the first
officer. We all stood and saluted, a
practice I was quickly tiring of, but the captain insisted on it.
“At ease, Gamma.” That was another thing. He always referred to all of us by our
shift. A fact that Ensign Morrison
used to complain about all the time at our daily shift dinners. “Mr. Halloway, a moment of your time,” he
called, entering his ready room. I
nodded and followed, leaving my crew (funny that I thought of my shift that
way) in the hands of the one man they respected the least on the entire
ship. Commander Thaddeus Montgomery,
what a hard-ass. He must have
graduated from the Travis Dillion School of Command. Sam gave me a pleading, ‘help me’ look as I walked towards the
ready room. I could only shrug and
give my condolences silently. Upon
entering the captain’s ‘inner sanctum’, as it were, I waited until he offered
me a seat. “You may sit down,
Lieutenant.”
“Thank you, Captain.” There I was, sitting face-to-face with
Captain Jack Crane. He was a good
captain, fair, authoritative, a bit old-fashioned in his command style, but a
good man nonetheless. He had gained his
fifteen minutes of fame a few weeks previous when the Renegade had found
(stumbled upon is a better phrase) a small Cardassian convoy sneaking weapons
and supplies to Jem’Hadar troops on the border. We had successfully captured two of the ships and destroyed a
third. Cardassians can be so
predictable sometimes. Then again,
they can bite you in the ass when you least expect it. Anyway, there were whispers that when the
war was over, he would be offered an admiralty because of the
happenstance. A fact I could care less
about at the present moment, as Crane leaned back in his chair and gazed out
his window at the stars.
“As you no doubt heard, our XO has
left us for bigger and better things.
There’s a spot open for command of the Beta shift, and your name on the
candidate list.”
“I’m honored, sir.”
“Lieutenant Yamato is up for the
post, too.” Charles Yamato was the Ops
officer in Beta shift. His best friend
was Commander Montgomery, so that should tell you a little something about his personality. “Quite frankly, Lt. Halloway, I’ve heard
better comments about you than him.
But he’s been in the fleet longer, has more experience. So you can see the dilemma before me.”
‘No, I can’t’, ‘ I thought with a
smile. ‘That jackass has the
personality of a rock, and the intelligence of one, too.’ Wisely, I kept these comments to
myself.
“So, Halloway, how would you run
Beta shift, if I chose you over Mr. Yamato?”
“I would run it like Gamma,
sir. With authority and
efficiency.” Crane smiled over that
comment. It was the sort of crap that
Montgomery spewed out all the time, and Crane ate it up. So I played the captain. So what.
“Good answer, Halloway. How would you adjust to the new crew under
you?”
“I would form my command to
accentuate each of their strengths, and to work on their weaknesses. Plus, I’d get to know them better.”
“Really?”
“Of course. When one has a good personal relationship
with someone, their professional relationship tends to run a little more smoothly.” Sam immediately came to mind, but I wasn’t
planning on getting THAT involved with Beta shift.
“Interesting philosophy,” commented
Crane as he stared out his window. I
knew it was in direct opposite to Crane’s own, but who cares? I was just speaking truthfully (for the
most part), and if he didn’t like it, then I could always transfer to another
post if I wanted advancement. The
captain thought for a moment, then turned back to face me with a soft
smile. “Well, Mr. Halloway, I believe
I’ve found my man. Congratulations,
Lieutenant Commander. The Beta shift
will be yours starting tomorrow, as will be the official promotion ceremony.” He stood up and offered his hand. I grasped it firmly and smiled. Grinned like a mad idiot is more
accurate. Only three years out of the
Academy, and already I was a lieutenant commander. It was almost too much.
Almost. We walked out of his
ready room together onto the bridge.
The rest of the Alpha shift had arrived, which meant my crew was down in
the mess hall, beginning their daily gripe session. I nodded to Montgomery with a slight grin. He looked at me for a moment, not
understanding the silent message I was sending him. Suddenly, he understood.
As the turbolift doors closed, I saw him lean close to Crane and began
talking rapidly. I chuckled
softly. Montgomery was going to HATE
that I was the new XO and not Yamato.
Come to think of it, I probably wasn’t going to be on the top of
Yamato’s list, either. Entering the
mess hall, I headed for the table where the Gamma shift sat.
“So, what happened between you and
Crane?” asked Sam as I sat down next to her, a replicated bowl of pasta in my
hand.
“Oh, you know, the usual. ‘Hey, How’s it going, How ‘bout a promotion?’ The usual chit-chat,” I said calmly,
placing a forkful of pasta in my mouth.
All jaws dropped, except for T’Pac, the Vulcan head of Engineering
during Gamma shift. He merely raised
an eyebrow and continued eating his plomeek soup. Sam hugged me tightly and kissed me on the cheek.
“Good job, buddy,” said Lucky with a
smile.
“We’re going to miss you, Bobby,”
added Kristina with a sad smile.
“It’ll be okay, baby…” offered Lucky
as he placed his hand on her thigh.
Without turning her head, Kristina brought back her fist and landed a
solid strike on Lucky’s solar plexus, knocking the wind out of him.
“It’s not going to be the same
without you,” continued Kristina as Lucky coughed violently.
“Did he mention who would be
replacing you?” asked Sam. I thought
for a moment, running the current command structure through my head. Unless specially appointed, the lead
position for Gamma shift would be…
“Oh, no,” I uttered out loud, not
realizing it. “Yamato.”
“I thought you beat him out for the
command of Beta shift,” said Kristina.
“He did,” answered T’Pac. “Logic suggests that Lt. Yamato will move
into the spot formally held by Halloway.”
“He’s right,” I said. “Yamato gets my command spot in Gamma
shift.”
“Oh, sh*t…” muttered Sam.
“You can say that again,” said
Kristina, as the blood drained from her face.
“Oh, sh*t.” A moral dilemma immediately arose within
me. On one hand, I was being promoted,
just another step closer to command.
On the other, these were my friends I was leaving behind. So they weren’t the best bridge crew in the
fleet. What they lacked in experience
they made up with in heart. Or some
other sentimental crap like that.
Anyway, I did the only thing I could morally do at that moment.
“Man, you guys are in trouble,” I
said before I had a chance to think about it.
Sam snapped her head around and glared at me. That’s when I realized that I had done something very
stupid. Pissing her off meant no sex
for AT LEAST a week, and that’s if I was lucky. “Sorry,” I tried feebly.
She continued frowning and looked away.
“I don’t think Yamato’s going to let
me continue my naps anymore,” said Kristina in a sad tone.
“Say goodbye to my midnight
maneuvers!” yelled Lucky.
“No more games of Stratego with the
computer,” sighed Sam.
“Logic suggests that my interaction
with Lt. Yamato will be quite limited,” said T’Pac calmly. The rest of the table glared at the
Vulcan. He merely raised an eyebrow
and returned to his soup.
“Now just hold on a minute,” I said,
trying to calm them down. “The captain
might pick one of you to lead Gamma shift.”
“Logic suggests that the captain
will give Yamato the job because he is most qualified to be in a command
position,” said T’Pac.
“SHUT UP, T’PAC!!!” yelled the rest
of Gamma shift. He promptly went back
to his soup. Not knowing what to do, I
stood up, and excused myself. Sam and
I shared another look. I was checking
to see if she was still mad. She
was. On my way to my quarters, I
couldn’t stop thinking about their predicament. It seemed that they were doomed to spend the rest of the war
under the command of an officer who didn’t know (in my humble opinion), the
true meaning of command. As time would
tell, my crew would be getting a reprieve.
By this time, a small group of
captains had gathered around Halloway, listening intently to the story. “So did you and Sam ever have sex again?”
asked a human dressed in a white captain’s uniform, complete with hat and brass
buttons.
“Bobby, this is Captain Stubing of
the Pacific Princess,” introduced Cap.
“Pleased to meet you,” greeted
Stubing. The rest of the captains
chuckled and suddenly burst into song.
“THE LOOOOOOVE BOAT! SOON WILL BE MAKING ANOTHER RUUUUUN!” they
sang at once, horribly out of tune.
Stubing frowned and tried to ignore his comrades.
“They’re just jealous,” he muttered
to Halloway as he grabbed his drink and sat down on a nearby stool.
“Nice shorts, Stubby!” yelled a
nearby Romulan.
“That’s Stubing, dammit!” he yelled
back, clearly annoyed. The crowd
laughed as Halloway grinned and took another drink from his ale.
“Continue with your story, Bobby,”
said Cap softly. The group of captains
calmed down and looked at Halloway.
“Where was I? Ah, yes.
It was a few weeks later that fate dealt me a interesting hand…”
As the war raged on, more and more
ships came through the starbase. We
remained there, intent on protecting one of the only safe havens for
light-years for wounded ships. I
quickly made friends with Beta shift, as they had warmed up to my command style
very rapidly. It seems that between
the former XO’s departure and my promotion, Yamato had been calling the shots
during the shift, and I soon discovered that the rest of Beta didn’t miss him
much. Even though things were going
well for me professionally, my personal life was taking a turn for the worse. Since I was going to bed when Sam was
getting up for work, we didn’t see much of each other. Our relationship was quickly deteriorating,
and there seemed no easy fix. In
addition, my crew from Gamma seemed more and more depressed on those rare
occasions when I saw them. Even T’Pac
seemed more stoic than usual. Yamato
needed to be dealt with, if only for the single reason that my libido needed
exercising, and having Sam on a different shift didn’t help matters,
either. One day, I had been asked to
join the Alpha staff meeting for a special briefing on new orders from
Starfleet Command. I really didn’t
like staff meetings, only because Yamato was there too, and he and Montgomery
always sat by one another, talking quietly and glancing my way every so often. I ignored their childish behavior the best
I could.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we have new
orders. Starfleet Intelligence has
intercepted a Dominion communiqué that contains, among other things, a plan to
raid Sirrus V. As you are aware,
Sirrus V is only a light-year away from Starbase 57. If the Dominion establish a base there, an attack on the starbase
is inevitable,” explained Crane, pointing to a star chart that was on the main
display screen. “Starfleet wants us to
hide there and ambush the Dominion fleet.”
“By ourselves?” asked Montgomery.
“No, of course not. The Odyssey, the Truman, and the Challenger
are going to be there with us.”
“But aren’t they damaged?” inquired
Yamato.
“Not as badly as anybody who might
be intercepting our transmissions might think,” answered Crane.
“How many ships will the Dominion
have?”
“Eleven, Mr. Montgomery.” The room became filled with
conversation. “I know that seems like
a mismatched fight, but we’ll have surprise on our side. Our fleet will leave at 1600 hours. Mr. Halloway?”
“Yes, Captain?”
“You’re in charge of letting the
other ships know what we’ll be doing.”
“Aye, sir.” As Crane relegated other duties, I felt
good. The captain had called on me to
perform one of the most important duties having to do with our mission. If all went well, I may just get promoted
again. The meeting soon concluded, and
as I stood to leave, Montgomery called my name. I walked over to him and Yamato, preparing to do verbal battle
with Tweedledee and Tweedledum.
“Something I can do for you, Commander?”
“Lt. Yamato has brought something to
my attention,” he said in that superior tone of voice he had. I smiled and looked blankly at Yamato.
“Yes, Lieutenant Yamato?” I asked,
including the ‘lieutenant’ part just to get a rise out of him. It didn’t work.
“Mr. Halloway…” he started.
“That’s Lieutenant Commander
Halloway, Yamato,” I said, pointing to the extra pip on my collar. “Not ‘mister’.” Yamato bit his lip and looked at Montgomery.
“Lt. Yamato has some concerns about
Gamma shift.”
“Oh, really?”
“They are entirely unprofessional!”
spat out Yamato, unable to hold back any longer. “Just last week, I caught Lt. Kellar performing unscheduled and
unsafe maneuvers with the ship!”
“He does that,” I said calmly, folding
my arms.
“Did he do them with you in
command?”
“Yes.”
“And you let him!?!”
“Sure, why not. It’s good practice. I’d rather have a pilot who is completely
familiar with his ship than one who is afraid to break a few regs to save his
ass.” Both officers looked
shocked. “Don’t like it, Yamato? Then find another place on the ship to
be. Or better yet, another ship.”
“If you didn’t outrank me,
Halloway…” growled Yamato.
“Tut tut, young man. That’s Lieutenant Commander Halloway, remember? Do that again, and I’ll write you up for
insubordination. I happen to outrank
you, you know,” I said, waving a finger.
“And I outrank you, Halloway,” said
Montgomery. I slowly turned to the
commander and smiled slightly.
“Not for long,” I said,
grinning.
“You’d better watch yourself,
Halloway, or you might find yourself stuck between a rock and a hard place,
understand?” warned Montgomery.
“Are we through?” I asked, finally
having enough of this nonsense. After
a moment, Montgomery nodded. I smiled
politely to both of them and made my exit.
I wasn’t afraid of those two fools, and the incident soon left my mind
as I went about coordinating the fleet.
“What does this have to do with
Sam?” asked Stubing.
“Absolutely nothing,” I
answered. “It makes for good
storytelling, though. Say, nobody here
has ever seen either of those two in here, have you?” The crowd was silent for a moment, then erupted with laughter.
“I don’t believe they are patrons
here,” said Cap finally, wiping tears of laughter from his eyes. Halloway smiled.
“Oh, that’s good.”
1600 hours came and gone. Our fleet had taken a rather roundabout way
to get to Sirrus V, as not to attract attention, but we had finally made
it. It was 20 minutes until the
Dominion forces came, and our tiny fleet was hidden behind the planet’s large
twin moons. We waited in silence as
the minutes slowly ticked by. They
would arrive right in the middle of the Gamma rotation, but the Alpha crew was
there instead, and myself, as I was in charge of coordinating the fleet. Crane and the rest of the bridge crew
seemed cool as cucumbers, except for Montgomery, who was constantly drumming on
his armrests with his fingers. He had
acted like this when we had stumbled across the small Cardassian fleet weeks
ago. Hard-ass that he was, he wasn’t
the bravest person on the ship.
“Long-range sensors have just picked
up eleven ships, heading our way,” reported the Alpha tactical officer, Lt.
Comm. Jackson.
“Halloway, tell the other ships to
prepare for attack, pattern Tango-Alpha-6,” ordered Crane, never once taking
his eyes off the viewscreen. I
promptly did so, and waited as the ships signaled their responses.
“The fleet is ready on your command,
Captain,” I said.
“The Dominion fleet has just dropped
out of warp,” reported Jackson. Time
seemed to stand still. On the
viewscreen, the fleet crept closer and closer.
“Mr. Belia, prepare to engage the
enemy on my mark. 3…2…1…mark!” The Andorian nodded with his blue head, and
punched the ship to full impulse. I
quickly relayed this to the other three ships, and the battle had begun. All four Starfleet vessels flew from hiding
and launched a full volley of weapons fire on the enemy.
“One Jem’Hadar fighter destroyed,
two severely damaged, minimal damage to the rest,” reported Jackson. The Renegade shuddered for a moment as the
Dominion fleet fired.
“Evasive pattern Delta-2!” yelled
Crane. Our fleet flew in for different
directions, causing the enemy to break into smaller groups to hunt us
down. “Halloway, tell the Odyssey and
the Challenger to head towards the lead Dominion carrier vessel and target
their weapons systems!” I relayed the
message, and the two ships did as they were told.
“They have disabled the lead ship’s
weapons!” I yelled as one of the panels next to me exploded. I shielded my eyes from the shower of
sparks, and stayed at my post. The
ship shook again as three Jem’Hadar fighters began to fire upon us.
“Time for phase two, everyone,”
called the captain. The bridge crew
nodded, and snapped into action. I
stood “Montgomery, get down to the
battle bridge and prepare for saucer separation.” The first officer stood and headed for the turbolift. Suddenly, the ship shook again, and the
tactical panel exploded. Jackson was
knocked back, as was Montgomery. The
medic stationed on the bridge hurried over to the two officers, and waved a medical
tricorder over both of them. Crane
turned his head and looked on. “Status?”
he asked the medic.
“Jackson’s gone sir, and Montgomery
will join him if I don’t get him to Sickbay.”
Crane nodded, and the medic activated the emergency transporter and
beamed the three to Sickbay.
“Halloway, get down to the battle
bridge. Take command there,” ordered Crane.
“But the fleet…?” I started.
“Would you rather Yamato take
control?” I shook my head. “I didn’t think so. The fleet will be fine. Now get your ass down there!”
“Aye, sir!” I responded, running for
the turbolift. As the lift headed for
its destination, my mind was racing.
The Beta shift had already happened that day, and they would be
exhausted. “Computer, send orders to
Gamma bridge crew to report to the battle bridge immediately,” I said. The computer beeped in reply, and not even
a minute after I had arrived at my destination, they were all there. Unfortunately, that included Yamato. “Separate the ship,” I ordered, kicking
Yamato out of my chair.
“Yes, sir!” responded Lucky as he
quickly ran through the procedure.
Once the ship had separated, the saucer section moved away, and I was
faced with ten Dominion vessels directly ahead.
“Kristina, make a path for Lucky to
fly through,” I asked calmly. The
redheaded ensign grinned and released a volley of torpedoes. Yamato approached me, a frown on his
face.
“Halloway, what do you think you’re doing? You’re going to get us all killed with a
move like that!”
“No I’m not.
Now go do something productive, and get the hell away from me! And try to remember that it’s Lieutenant
Commander Halloway. You have a big
problem with that.” He hurried off,
sulking. Yamato was about as brave as
his best friend Montgomery was. Lucky
pushed the ship into high impulse heading straight for the other fleet. The ship (our half of it) shook as we took
a few hits. Just as we were about to
hit the fighter closest to us, it exploded in a ball of fire. Yamato ducked for cover as we passed right
through the blaze, relatively unharmed.
Kristina let loose another weapons salvo, and another ship was
destroyed.
“Eight ships left!” reported Sam
from Ops. “The saucer section’s
shields are holding, the Challenger has a small hull breach, and the Odyssey’s
lost warp drive. The Truman is defending
her, but she’s taking heavy damage in the process.” My mind raced. If only
we had another ship, we could bring this fight to a close. I suddenly had an idea.
“Sam, launch all the shuttles we
have, rig their cores to blow, and have them haul ass towards that fleet,” I
yelled as the engineering station blew apart.
“But why would you want to do that?”
she asked. I turned around and
grinned. She suddenly understood. Her hands were a blur across the Ops
panel. I tapped my comm badge.
“Halloway to T’Pac.”
“T’Pac here, Lt. Commander. It is agreeable to hear you back in command
again,” came the Vulcan’s voice from Main Engineering.
“Thank you, T’Pac. Get to the shuttle bay, and rig all five
shuttle cores to overload.”
“On my way. T’Pac out.”
“You can’t do that, Halloway! That’s willful destruction of Federation
property! I can’t allow this!” shouted
Yamato as he charged across the battle bridge. Boy, did he have delusions of granger. I stood up and sidestepped his punch, then grabbed his collar
and landed my fist in his face. He
went down like a sack of Klingon potatoes.
“That’s Lieutenant Commander
Halloway, asshole,” I muttered to his unconscious body. My comm badge beeped and I answered it as I
was dragging Yamato out of the way.
“T’Pac to Halloway. The cores are ready.”
“Thank you, T’Pac.
Good work. Halloway out.” Reclaiming my chair, I watched as the five
shuttles made their way towards the Dominion fleet. “Sam, direct three of those shuttles towards the lead carrier,
and the other two towards those clusters of ships. Kristina, I need you to watch over them, make sure they hit
their targets. Lucky,” I said with a grin. “show Mr. Belia a few of your moves.” He grinned, and sent the ship into an
insane barrel roll, using the thrusters to increase our rotation speed. Remarkably, Kristina was able to keep her
bearings and keep the shuttles from being destroyed too soon.
“Shuttles One through Three just
crossed through the carrier’s shields!” yelled Sam.
“Lucky, if you wouldn’t mind getting
us to a safe distance…” I asked. The
ship made an immediate backflip and turn, changing our direction 180 degrees
while the computer complained about exceeding structural integrity limits. As the first three shuttles exploded, the
lead carrier’s warp core blew, taking several nearby ships with it.
“Only five ships remaining,”
reported Sam with a hint of glee in her voice. “Detonating Shuttles Four and Five.” The remaining ships soon joined the rest of the convoy in
oblivion as they exploded, sending parts of their hull spiraling in every
direction. The entire bridge erupted
into cheers, and I stood and smiled as Lucky headed for the saucer section. Sam ran to me and jumped in the air, wrapping
her legs around me and gave me one of the most passionate kisses I had ever had
in my life. And believe me, I’ve had
plenty. Even Kristina gave Lucky a
small pat on the cheek, we were so excited.
After the Renegade’s two halves rejoined, we all headed up to the bridge
to check how our side fared in the battle.
As we exited the turbolift, Crane greeted us, a frown plastered on his
face.
“Mr. Halloway, do you mind
explaining what that was you just did there?” he asked, his eyes boring into my
head. I was shocked. I thought that I had done well. After all, we had saved the day.
“It was what I had to do to beat
them, sir,” I finally replied. Crane’s
frown instantaneously changed into a grin.
“Excellent work, Lt. Commander
Halloway. Hell of a job.” Then he started clapping. The entire bridge crew joined in as we, the
lowly Gamma shift bridge crew, and I, a new XO and leader of Beta shift, smiled
and accepted our applause with dignity and grace. All four Federation ships had survived, and there were only 7
fatalities. We had done it. The Dominion never tried again to occupy
Sirrus V, and as we limped back to Starbase 57 for a much-deserved rest and
repair, we felt a sense of pride. In
our own small way, we had won a victory over the Dominion. Outgunned, outnumbered, we managed to pull
through. I still can’t believe
it. Lt. Yamato soon transferred, as
did his buddy, Commander Montgomery, to postings back on Earth. I guess they must have decided that the war
was more than they bargained for.
Kristina and Lucky actually started dating soon after that, and Sam and
I had one of those talks, and we both realized that we were better off as
friends, but not before we had sex a couple of more times. I became Crane’s first officer, and when
the war ended, he was promoted to admiral (as I guessed he would be), and he
promoted me to captain and gave me command of the USS Haymaker. So there you have it. That’s my story. Hope you all enjoyed it.
As Halloway finished his tale and
his drink, the crowd of captains around him were silent. Feeling a bit confused, Halloway looked at
Cap. “Was that story not good enough?”
he asked.
“No, it was great, Bobby. We were just wondering…um…”
“We were wondering what that had to
do with Crane’s daughter,” piped up Captain Stubing. The rest of the captains nodded in agreement.
“Oh, that’s right. I did mention here at the beginning, didn’t
I? Silly me. The reason why Crane and I aren’t on the best of terms is that
he caught his daughter in a rather compromising situation with a young
officer.”
“Who was the officer?” asked
Stubing. Halloway coughed and shifted
uncomfortably on his stool.
“That would be me,” he
admitted. The captains all erupted
into laughter, and soon, Halloway joined them. “Yeah, I guess it wasn’t the brightest move ever. I chalk it up to captain’s prerogative.”
“Good excuse as any,” smiled
Stubing. Halloway chuckled and turned,
raising his glass to Captain Crane, who was deep in a story of his own across
the bar.
“To Captain Jack Crane, without
whom, I would not be where I am today.
Literally.”
“To Captain Crane,” echoed the
others, clinking their glasses together and downing their respective
drinks. Now Halloway stood and smiled
to his new friends.
“I’ll be seeing you around, Cap,”
said Halloway as he shook the bartender’s hand.
“I’m sure of it.” Giving a crisp salute to the rest of the
captains assembled at the bar, Halloway turned and headed for the exit. Before he left, he took one last look at
Crane. For a moment, Halloway actually
regretted the distance that had grown between them. Crane was a good man deep down, and it would do Halloway good to
make peace with him. Suddenly, his
thoughts switched gears as the man that Crane had been in such deep
conversation with for all this time laughed and looked off to the side for a
moment.
“It can’t be…” stammered Halloway as
he recognized the aged face he saw across the room. Clad in a captain’s uniform not yet used by the Federation,
Captain Blake Bannon chuckled and took a sip from his glass while continuing to
listen to Crane speak. Halloway shook
his head rapidly and pushed open the door, as he rejoined the crowded street,
leaving ‘The Captain’s Table’ and his past behind him.