12 hours before Zero Hour

Gab leaned over the terminal, scanning the screen as he reviewed the fragmented data. Security feeds continued to dominate the command center’s terminals, as the Vaadwaur spread out across decks 14 through 17. Outside, the station was getting hammered. For every ship they defeated, two more appeared from the breach. Cut off from reinforcements, morale was at an all-time low, and Gab knew it.

Okafor approached the Captain quietly, asking, “When’s the last time you slept, Captain?”

Gab didn’t answer. His eyes remained fixed on an incoming feed from an empty corridor, the image was very distorted. He wasn’t sure what he was looking for, something, nothing, anything?

Okafor studied the Captain for a moment before speaking. “They’ll need you when this falls apart. Not before. Not after, but when.”

“It won’t fall, not as long as,” Gab stopped. Looking at Okafor, he sighed. “They’re putting up a good fight, Doctor, but they can only do so much.” He pointed to the ships outside the nearby window, “They can only do so much. But, they have to keep fighting until help arrives.” He couldn’t bring himself to admit that help wasn’t arriving.

Meanwhile, in a corridor lit only by emergency portable holo-displays, T’Kara gathered what remained of her team. Their objective was the nearby Auxiliary Control. It was one of the few redundant systems capable of overriding the compromised command systems. It wouldn’t give them much, but anything was better than nothing.

“We retake the area. We reroute power and regain at least partial control,” she demanded. Her voice was firm. She was a Vulcan, yet there was something else in her eyes. Even a stoic Vulcan couldn’t hide the fact that this was a losing battle. With one final nod, the teams departed.

The entrance was quiet. Too quiet. T’Kara carefully led her team through the access corridor, weapons ready, eyes sweeping every access point.

Suddenly, the lights lit up to full intensity. Bulkhead doors slammed shut behind them. From the ceiling and walls, automated sentry drones activated. Vaadwaur troopers descended from ceiling panels, armed with neural suppressors that paralyzed most of the team before they could react.

Comms were cut the second the Vaadwaur made their move. From Ops, Gab could only watch as one by one their vital signs dropped. All he could do was sit there as the entire team fell. Without warning, Dovral’s face appeared on the screen.  Gab couldn’t help but react, he was on the station.  How?

Dovral was calm and expressionless. His teams had hacked their internal comms again. Behind Dovral, bound and bloodied, sat T’Kara.

“This is the price of resistance, Captain!” Dovral said. “You knew the risk, but she paid it.”

T’Kara raised her head almost as if she was trying to lock eyes with the Captain, “Live long, and prosper, Sir.”

A single flash. Then nothing.

In the back of Ops, someone could be heard vomiting as another Officer gasped. Ensign Henderson punched a console, cracking the screen. However, Gab hadn’t moved. He just stood there, his fist balled up. He knew they couldn’t take much more.

Meanwhile, aboard the Yeager

The tactical display shifted as the USS Yeager continued to fight, damaged but still in the game. Even with several systems offline, it continued to counter the Vaadwaur fire aimed at Eos’s exposed side. Alarms sounded. A second Vaadwaur wave decloaked.

AJ shouted over the chaos. “Take care of those fighters, Krev. We fall, Eos falls.”

“Romulan reinforcements arriving, Captain,” Krev sounded surprised, “they are firing on the Vaadwaur.”

AJ wanted to react, but he didn’t have the time.

“Romulans, now?” Liz exclaimed.

From station Ops, Gab watched helplessly. “They’ve lost shields. Core temp rising. Why haven’t they pulled back? Rempeck,” Gab muttered as the Romulans came into view.

“They’re covering our blind spot,” Okafor responded.

Gab opened a channel. Tindal appeared, blood on his temple, “Don’t tell me to retreat, Harris. Romulans be damned,” Tindal stated before the channel went dead.

For a moment, the Yeager stopped. It was almost as if the little ship was sizing up her opponent. Then she surged forward, phasers firing at close range. It collided with a Vaadwaur battleship, energy arcs engulfed both ships. A final burst of white light.

Gab hadn’t even noticed the escape pods; his mind was too fixed on the Yeager. He slammed his fist into the nearby wall. “Damnit,” he cursed.

“The Yeager is gone, sir,” someone said quietly.

Harris whispered, “no shit.” He folded his hands over his face, uncertain of what to do next.

“You’re shutting down,” Okafor said.

Gab turned slowly. “He’s not just breaking us down. He’s unraveling us, and I’m letting him.”

Okafor said nothing. He just stood beside him, silent.

“We can’t win this,” Gab finally admitted. “We’re not fighting for Eos at this point. We’re just trying to survive.” He needed a moment to think. Retreating to his Ready Room, he walked over to a nearby window.

“Private log. Not for the record. Just for me. If there’s still a me left worth talking to,” Gab started.

“I’ve stopped trying to fix it. He’s coming, and that doesn’t scare me as much as what follows. Eos was never perfect, but it was ours. Now she will be his,” he paused, “T’Kara’s gone. She didn’t scream. Didn’t even flinch. Just looked right through me, past all the fire and static, straight through me. She knew. Somehow, she knew .”

“I should’ve pulled her back. Should’ve stopped her,” he stated, “but I didn’t. That moment will haunt me. Her face. Calm. Then gone. No warning. The Yeager went down an hour later. Tindal didn’t even ask for permission. Just opened a channel long enough to say goodbye.”

Gab rubbed his temples. “My crew now looks to me. My crew, what’s left of them, are not looking for orders, not really. They know it’s over.  They look to see if I’ll break first.”

“I tried to send a message to Elena. Just a note. I couldn’t write more than her name. I don’t know what to say. Do I tell her I failed? I’ve been ‘Mr. Fix-It’ all my life. The guy who pulled the plug before the core breach. The guy who patched the comms. The one who found the shortcuts for just about everything.”

“But there’s no fix for this,” he slumped down in a nearby chair, “T’Kara’s gone. The Yeager is gone. We are not winning. We are surviving an assault. And, I can’t admit it’s over. Not yet.

“Maybe that’s what command is, no speeches, tactics, or simulations. Just showing up and doing that damn job. That’s gotta mean something. Doesn’t it? End log.” He turned and headed out to main Ops.

“This isn’t over, not until every last one of us falls,” he said, looking to Okafor.