U.S.S. Coronado, NCC-97901

/||\ -----------------------------------------
/ || \ Starfleet Command, Second Fleet
/ || \ U.S.S. Coronado, NCC-63100
.-/ || \-. Captain Brian Aldur, Commanding
./ || \. -----------------------------------------
.-_-. || .-_-. Simulation Teaser
.-_ \||/ _-.

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Captain's Log, Stardate 51362.4:

After confirming the destruction of Admiral Ackbar's fleet by
Imperial forces, the Coronado rushed to the Deneb system to
assist in the rescue of Rebel forces in that system.

Again, we arrived too late. The Imperial fleet, bouyed by
their success with Ackbar's task force, had all but driven the
Rebels from the system and destroyed many vessels, including
all of the Rebellion's Calamarian cruisers and the Corellian
freighter Millenium Falcon (apparently long a sore spot to the
Empire)...

Coro arrived in time to drive the weakened Imperials off, but
by that time, the heaviest Rebel ships were a pair of corvettes
and a handful of light transport ships. I fear the Rebellion
has been crushed.

"Computer, pause recording."

Captain Brian Aldur stood, and began pacing his Ready Room. Any
of his crew who had witnessed it would have been surprised: the
Captain was by nature a calm, almost emotionless man, but now was
clearly agitated.

"All because of me," he muttered.

The Rebellion was destroyed, the Coronado was trapped forever in
the D7 galaxy, and two platoons of Marines had been killed when
the Fire Lance grazed the lower DEM, destroying it, to say
nothing of the dozen Coro crew members killed in the battle near
B'moth Starbase. At the Captain's request, Commander Sirius had
estimated the casualties at something over 22,000 Rebel lives,
plus their own 52 lost.

"All because of me," Aldur muttered again.

He stopped pacing and stood in the middle of the Ready Room,
looking this way and that, when his eyes fell on the silver blade
hanging on the aft wall. The sword of Sir Jacob Arnath, one of
the Paladins of Charlemange... it was more than 1500 years old.
He crossed to it and pulled it from the decorative holder,
holding it upwards before him... staring at the blade... both
hands gripping the hilt, all the while, getting angrier and
angrier and angrier... Finally, he spoke again, and when he did,
his voice was cold, his fury barely contained.

"It's not going to happen that way. Computer!" He waited for
the characteristic tone. "Erase log. Then, erase all official
and personal logs after Stardate..." He thought about it a bit.
"Stardate 51348.0. Authorization Aldur-delta-2-1-7... ENABLE."
The tone sounded again as the computer got to work on this.

Still holding the sword, Aldur left his Ready Room, marching
through the Bridge, ignoring the shocked and concerned looks he
received on the way to the turbolift. "Captain..." Lt. Commander
Lehman started to say, then stopped, hesitant, when she saw the
look in his eyes. Lt. Commander DuLac also saw the Captain's
eyes as he passed... and recognized the look he saw there.
Smiling slightly to himself, DuLac turned back to his work on
breaking Imperial deflector systems... he was almost there.

Aldur entered the turbolift without speaking to anyone.
"Engineering!" he said firmly. Moments later, he arrived.

Holding the blade before him, he moved with firm steps into
Engineering until he found Lieutenant Cyrax, who at that moment
was finishing work on one of the Coronado's warp plasma coolant
leaks. "Mr. Cyrax!" he called.

Cyrax turned in a swift motion. If he was surprised by the sword
in Aldur's hand, it didn't show in his reptilian eyes. It DID
show in the faces of the Engineering techs surrounding him,
though, who stopped to watch Aldur address the young Viashino.

"Mr. Cyrax, I have been extremely impressed with the reports I've
seen of your performance during this... unusual mission. As of
this moment, you are Chief Engineer of the Coronado, with a
promotion to Lieutenant Commander. We'll handle the celebrations
later," he said, forestalling the looks of surprised delight that
crossed the faces of several technicians.

"Yes, Captain," Cyrax said nodding, then started to turn.

"One moment, Commander," Aldur said. "Am I correct in assuming
that the moment warp drive was repaired, we regained the
potential to bring the Jaunt drive back on-line?"

This time, Cyrax DID show surprise. "Yes, Captain, but I'm not
sure why..."

Aldur cut him off. "Let me worry about that. I want this ship
Jaunt-capable in two hours. Get on it." Without waiting for an
answer, the Captain turned and headed back for the turbolift.
On the way, he slapped his commbadge. "Aldur to Sirius."

"Sirius here!" The Commander's voice was calm but somewhat
hesitant. Apparently, he'd also seen the look on Aldur's face.

"Commander, until we return to Federation space, you are acting
Executive Officer. Assemble the senior staff minus Cyrax in the
Conference Room in 30 minutes." Aldur entered the turbolift, and
keyed his destination manually. "Oh, and find Commanders Nouveau
and Toran, and tell them I'd like to see them in my Ready Room as
soon as possible." The door hissed shut and the turbolift
launched itself toward the Bridge.

"Yes... aye, sir!" Sirius said and got on it.

Still gripping the sword, Aldur again held it up to regard the
blade that had survived 1500 years to reach this moment. When he
spoke, it was in a cold voice that echoed in the empty 'lift.

"It's not going to happen that way."

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Ross Glenn aka Jester
Captain Brian Aldur, U.S.S. Coronado, NCC-63100
http://www.ussrenegade.com/coro2400/