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The Storms Moving In

The lights on the Chimaera returned to full strength, her engines throbbed with their deep sound, and -- then all was dark again. La Forge swore loudly in basic from the auxilliary bridge. The Chimaera had now failed to restart three times. The techs and supplies that the Nemesis had delivered had helped, but were apparently not enough. He opened communications to Wedge aboard the Nemesis.

"Admiral Wedge here, go ahead, Captain."

"This isn't working." La Forge was clearly frustrated.

"I know. We'll have to go to Plan B, I'm afraid."

"We've got partial sublight power in the emergency engines now. It's a start. But they won't last long. Enough to move in system a bit."

"Better than nothing, Captain. I do have some news for you, however."

"It can only be good news. There couldn't possibly be more bad news... unless this is Admiral Fel's doing..."

Wedge laughed a little. "This is good news. Iota's been temporarily assigned Daled Squadron TIE Interceptors."

"Really?" La Forge smiled a bit.

"Yes. And it was Admiral Fel's doing, even."

La Forge pondered rethinking his opinion of the Vice Admiral...

"...and so, sir, I cannot at this time continue as Gimel leader... I must resign effective immediately." Lieutenant Daltin handed Captain Wedge the datapad with a hard copy of what she had just said.

Wedge accepted it and looked it over. "Ms. Daltin, I'm sad to see you go... You can catch a shuttle in the Yaga Minor system when we arrive, I am sure. But one last thing before you go... Can you give me a status report on Gimel?"

"Certainly, sir. We had all pilots return save one -- Ensign Seppen did not make it back with us."

Wedge made a note of it. "Thank you, Lieutenant, that's all. I hope that you enjoy civilian life."

Daltin smiled. "Thanks, sir." She turned and left the room.

Jagged Fel tried the commlink again. "No word from the Warhammer, General. They're probably on their way back, though."

"It's just as well," General Jansen replied.

"Why is that, sir?"

"Over on the next moon, we've detected unusual heat signatures."

"Rebels?" Jagged asked.

"I say we find out. Tell the troops to grab some rations, and we'll head over in two hours."

"The troops will be eager to get out of this system, sir. It's been a long time since we got here."

General Jansen frowned. "As far as I know no other places are habitable here, so I can't imagine us staying any longer..."

"Great news, sir. I'll get Mitchell to round everyone up." Jagged used his commlink to ask Mitchell to do so. "Here's the report on the facilities you asked for, General," he added.

Jansen read through the report. "Why is output so low?"

"The Rebels tried to torch the plants before we took hold of them. They're going to need repairs before the output capacity is anything decent."

Jansen sighed. Rebels.

Admiral Fel took the datapad from Laithlis's outstretched hand. "I see Wedge has got two promotions in mind already."

"So he does, admiral."

"This works well -- we don't have fighters for Alpha to fly right now, and he's just told me Gimel is in need of a new squad leader."

"Wedge always likes killing two or more Rebels with one laser."

Fel laughed. "That he does. You can tell him that I've approved the promotions of Stark and Tornado."

He signed the datapad and handed it back to the Nemesis's first officer. He pulled out an additional datapad from the stack on his desk. "I've also received word that Mr. MAR will be rejoining us at Yaga Minor."

"Thanks, Admiral. I'll go back up to the bridge and tell him now." Laithlis took back the datapad that he gave to Fel in the beginning, plus the extra he'd just received.

"Good good." Fel smiled as Laith left the spacious office, leaving Fel to return to the pile of paperwork sitting on his desk.

La Forge stood on the bridge as the vessel dropped from hyperspace. He opened his mouth to say "Report", but Wedge beat him to it by a fraction of a second. La Forge remembered this wasn't his bridge, but the bridge of the Nemesis.

A crewman from the pit reported that the Nemesis had no problems dropping from hyperspace, and that the Chimaera, in tow, had arrived safely as well.

La Forge let out a sigh of relief. The flagship was in fragile condition already. If it had been further damaged in hyperspace travel, its superstructure might have collapsed entirely.

The Nemesis was greeted by the Warhammer as soon as it arrived on station. "Welcome back, Wedge!" Vortagh's voice came through the comm loudly.

La Forge didn't stay to chat with Vortagh. He gathered Iota Squadron and flew with them over to the Chimaera.

The Chimaera fired the sublight engine it had remaining for as long as possible, and let inertia carry it to the platform as the Nemesis moved out to meet the Warhammer in mid-patrol.

La Forge pulled up a panel on the auxilliary bridge. He had a new holonet message that had escaped his notice. He pulled it up - it was from Admiral Fel. He must have put it directly into the Chimaera systems, beneath La Forge's nose. He opened it. It read:

"La Forge, one of the techs brought me this. Calder's office wasn't badly damaged in the firefight, but the doors were jammed open, and some of the datapads were strewn all about. This one, however, managed to make it to the hallway."

La Forge read further down. It was a promotion request for him to the rank of Wing Commander, dated before Calder's leave departure. He continued reading.

"It was no doubt lost in the shuffle before he left. But no reason we shouldn't take care of it now, eh?"

La Forge almost laughed out loud. No matter how far the Admiral got from his homeworld, that "Eh" crept in every so often. He finished reading:

"Thought you might enjoy the raise in spirits."

"Impressive handling of the scenario last time, Captain," Wedge said.

The holo representation of Vortagh smiled. "You know how we are. Zeta's got a good record so far."

"That they do. Unfortunately I don't think that was the main Rebel fleet."

"No, I didn't think so either. It looked to be a strike fleet rather than a full assault fleet," Vortagh said. "Too bad you guys are staying here. We'd like to finish off the Rebels, if they're crazy enough to come after us."

"I think they'll try. But they're in for a bit of a surprise, since we're here now."

"They got quite the surprise last time. I don't know if they'll be so easily taken this time."

"We'll find out soon, Captain. In the meantime, you are free to go about your normal assignment... whatever that is."

"Blowing up stuff. What were you expecting?"

"Right. Safe journey. Wedge out."

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