Making New Enemies

Posted on Fri Oct 9th, 2020 @ 6:57am by Captain Torilla Yamaguchi & Lieutenant Xalanth

1,506 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Episode 107 – Recovery
Location: Starbase 400. Secured zone.
Timeline: After the battle.

Xalanth let out a sigh as he collapsed into the chair dropping his flak vest on the back of the chair. Another sector of the starbase had been cleared and after fifteen hours on duty even he was starting to feel tired.

As his men were writing reports on the security stations wall and the slowly growing pile of padds it was clear engineering still hadn't gotten the computer system back online.

Pouring himself a coffee he leaned back and breathed in deeply. It would still be many days before they had the whole station secured. Picking up one of the padds he began to pour through it just as the door opened.

In walked a tall but large-framed woman with a full head of grey hair, she looked around as she located her quarry. "El-Tee, a moment please?" she asked of the reptilian being as she produced a PADD. "Since all of your guys were tied down in handling issues and I felt like going for a walk. I was asked to hand-deliver this to you."

"Thank you." the lizard said as he gestured to the chair. " You won't believe the amount of damage the pacts left behind and that's before we find their stay-behind forces. No casualties on my side at least. Still what's on the pad."

"Mostly paperwork for the six hundred phaser rifles I'm delivering to your cause." Yamaguchi answered. "Oh... I'm Captain Torilla Yamaguchi." she did not offer her hand in the human style as she was not human, she clenched one fist and pressed it against the palm of her other hand, with her other hand facing straight up. She then slightly bowed to him. "Rachael asked me to inform you that she sent off your letter..." she added.

"Nice to meet you Captain Yamaguchi and thanks for the phasers. Still got a long way to go before this place can be declared safe." Xalanth responded giving his own peoples greeting of clutching his fist over his chest over his primary heart.

Yamaguchi regarded him, a certain malevolence in her eyes. "That's easy to fix... But you won't like my thought on the matter..." she explained evenly as she pointed tot he replicator, a tall glass appeared with a black liquid in it, which gently fizzed and bobbles began popping at the top of the container.

The drink seemed to lift off of its own volition and then flew into Captain Yamaguichi's hand. Yamaguchi then drank a mouthful. "Humanity makes interesting drinks. My husband introduced me to something called Pepsi... I prefer coke-cola myself." she commented, in an effort to not speak of how to secure the station.

"Impressive," Xalanth commented. "My own people could supposedly move things with there minds before our religious nutters killed them all."

Yamaguchi frowned, what sort of people did this being come from. "Do I dare ask?" she paused. "On second thought, No... I do not want to know." as she lifted the glass fo her lips and proceeded to drink the entire contents in one go. "How goes the efforts to clean out the station of the trash?"

" Slowly but surely. " The lizard replied as he pointed to the diagram of the station pinned on the wall. " We have almost all of the upper station swept, but moving around is taking a while with us having to lock down the Jeffries tubes and large amounts of the systems being down. We've captured at least twelve pact stay behind troopers and got them into the brig of the fleet. None of them are saying anything. Hopefully tomorrow we'll be able to push down and clear the area around main engineering. "

Yamaguchi nodded. "Okay... Why not isolate the areas we don't control and then shut off the gravity... They will reveal themselves..." she commented with a gentle smile. Torilla paused as she decided to simply say it all. "turn off the life support in areas we don't hold and then vent those areas into space."
then she'll add. "Wait thirty minutes, seal those places back up and then flood than with liquid nitrogen" that'll clean the place out good," Yamaguchi explained. "It will deal with the Houdini mines... they are only cloaked.. it'll freeze them solid.". Yamaguchi paused for breathe. "Then you can melt the nitrogen, vent it overboard, round up the trash and the bodies... and then dispose of all of it in one go. and we can reclaim all the base in one go..."

" A rather drastic idea captain one that the fleet wouldn't approve off. What if the pact has put federation POW's in those sections. We still don't have the main sensors back online. Besides most of the pact stay behind troopers are in the best Eva suits they have. A vacuum and a bath in liquid nitrogen won't stop them." Xalanth responded calmly.

Yamaguchi raised an eyebrow as she regarded the being before her in silence. "Perhaps... But even liquid nitrogen will flush them out." she commented. "As for the prisoners, we have a large fleet here, their sensors are working just fine."

The lizard clicked his tongue to the side of his mouth as he thought it through. " I'd need to clear it with the command and engineering and we'd need to make sure main engineering is up and running. "

"By all means," Yamaguchi answered in a flat tone of voice. "If there is nothing else, I will leave you to it." she added.

Xalanth knew the sad tone and the look on her face. True it was from another time and it was his species that bore the look. "Captain if you don’t mind me asking are you holding up. This war’s taking a toll on everyone."

Yamaguchi regarded him in silence for a moment. "I am not sure I have words to speak..." she paused. "My grandchildren are dead, my daughter in law is dead and nobody has seen my son in months... He's probably dead too..." she explained. "One of my daughters very nearly lost her husband... It was close but he should be alright physically, mentally... That's a whole different matter..." she paused. "My line is ended... and I want revenge for what they did to me and mine..."

The lizard paused as he thought through his reply. " I can understand that anger. I have four daughters myself and if anyone touched any of them I'd want to rip them apart."

Yamaguchi regarded the being before her, with a cool look in her eye. "Can you?" she asked. "Can you truly appreciate my situation... All of my grandchildren are dead... my line... is ended."

" You don't think I worry about my daughters. That I don't wake up worrying about them and what would happen if I wasn't there to protect them." Xalanth replied. "Seventy-five percent of my clan was wiped out in the war with the Yor and my clan was one of the lucky ones. I held my own little sister in my arms as the light died in her eyes."

Yamaguchi was not interested in a comparison of who had suffered the most losses or who had lost what, yet the response angered her, her eyes seemed to almost light up as she turned to regard him. "The War Left Its Scars On All Of Us." she let out a long sigh that sounded like a wheeze. "Sometimes its hard being the one who survives..." she answered, there was something dark and ominous in her tone.

Suddenly a light fixture popped, with a bright flash and a loud bang. "I have seen death... But do not compare your losses to mine..." Yamaguchi commented in a light tone of voice, but there was no mistaking her hatred. "All I have left in this existence is the destruction of our enemies, kindly do not get in my way while I go about bringing ruin..."

Yamaguchi found she was thirsty, so she went over to the replicator and ordered herself a drink, the conversation was tiresome and she was exhausted.
She missed the company of her husband and her remaining children.

" I will get in the way if you put the personnel of this station at risk. As is my duty as a Starfleet security chief. " Came Xalanths calm reply. Before Yamaguchi could reply the lizards combadge buzzed into life as if the universe wanted this awkward conversation cut off. " Boss we have two pact stay behind troopers on levels forty-five. One ensign down due to friendly fire."

Great now the repair crews are getting trigger happy the lizard thought as he grabbed his phaser and flak jacket. " Apologies captain, but duty calls." He said as he headed for the exit.

Before he got there, however. Torilla regarded him, with cold contempt in her eyes. "I do not like your tone Lieutenant. I will do as I must and neither you nor anyone else will stop me." before she turned her back on him, the hint was clear as she thought little of him.

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