Fourteen Years Ago - Mars

April 5, 2385

A century-old starship rested in a parking orbit above Marinta VI, her sleek lines and small saucer cutting a stunning profile against the planet’s red-and-blue continents and emerald atmosphere. Within the ship, the work of Starfleet went on - scientists and operations officers monitoring the status of the five planetary probes the ship had launched, gathering data about the unique form of radiation that filled its atmosphere and seemed to rise limitlessly from the stones themselves. It had been four days’ work to get a probe on the ground and communicating through that haze, and the radiation would eat its way through the armor and destroy the delicate scientific equipment within in hours. Time was very distinctly of the essence, and Captain T’Vrell of the USS Dreadnought NCC-2010 watched avidly as her staff worked.

Lieutenant Commander Suzanne Garcia sat in place at her console, following along with readouts and reports from the various teams on the ship. She was sitting with one leg tucked under the other, staring rather intently at the display in front of her, before a higher-priority message appeared in her peripheral vision. Putting the readouts aside, she looked at the message, then to T’Vrell.

“Captain,” Garcia’s voice called out, all professional, very little sign of the affection she held for the Captain audible to anyone but T’Vrell herself. “We’re receiving a priority communication from Starfleet Command. Captain’s eyes only.”

T’Vrell gave the data scrolling by on the main viewer a longing look, then nodded. “Patch it to my ready room. I will take it there. Garcia, you have the conn.” She rose to her feet, walking briskly from the bridge to her office off to the side.

It was five minutes later when T’Vrell’s voice came through the bridge speakers. “Commander Garcia, to the ready room.” The sound of it was clipped, even - the way she sounded when she aped the mannerisms of her parents, of the community where she grew up. The Surakians.

At the sound of T’Vrell’s tone, a look of concern flashed over Garcia’s face - for a moment, she had stopped being the respected bridge officer and started being Sue, worrying after her beloved. Then, she nodded, standing. “Take over the conn, please, Lieutenant,” she called over her shoulder to one of the other officers, before walking, as composed as she could manage, into the ready room.

Once the door slid shut, Sue looked to T’Vrell, worry all over her face. “T’Vrell?”

There were tears in the Vulcan’s eyes - something that, even with her rejection of Surak’s teachings, T’Vrell rarely let even Sue see and never anyone else. She rose from her place behind her desk, crossed the room, and pulled her fiancee to her, closing her eyes once she had the younger woman in her arms.

Sue’s arms wrapped around her beloved, keeping her close, eyes turning upward to meet T’Vrell’s. “T’Vrell...Beloved...What happened?” Her voice was soft, concerned. Anything that had shaken T’Vrell like this must have been bad. Unconsciously, her arms tightened.

“Technically, this is still classified Delta 3 and above, but that classification will drop in ten minutes even if it does not break publicly,” T’Vrell murmured. “Which is will. It likely is now, on Earth.” She drew a breath, forcing herself to stop stalling. “The synthetic workers on Mars rebelled. The entire staff at Utopia Planetia and the Mars Orbital Facility were killed. They destroyed the Romulan evacuation fleet, and used starships undergoing maintenance to bombard the planet, igniting the volatile gases left in the upper atmosphere by the terraforming process. It is expected there were no survivors.” She kept her lover close. “Even if there are, shuttles, transporters, and sensors can’t penetrate the fire, and they would not survive long enough to find a solution.” Another breath. “Every living thing on Mars is dead or will be shortly.”

As T’Vrell spoke, Sue’s breathing became slower and slower, as she tried to hold back the natural reaction welling up in her chest. As she finished speaking, tears were rolling down the younger woman’s cheeks, and she was staring with disbelief into her beloved’s eyes, body trembling. “That...can’t be right. The entire planet...I can’t-” At that, she was cut off by a sob, and her tears began to flow freely. “They rebelled? That can’t be right, it can’t be. They can’t have killed everyone, T’Vrell.”

“There is an investigation ongoing,” T’Vrell murmured. “The how. The why. But… the transmission was from Admiral Clancy. She confirmed the data personally. I…” She opened her eyes, gazing down at her beloved. “Soon, either the classification status of the attack will end or someone somewhere on the ship will get a message from a family member on Earth, then the crew will know. I will have to go back to the bridge and be their captain… stand strong for them, so they know the entire galaxy has not come unmoored. But for these few minutes, may I simply be a frightened woman, alone with her lover?”

Sue’s voice was soft, punctuated by shaky breaths. “Of course you can, T’Vrell. We both can be.” Her arms tightened again, keeping T’Vrell close to her. And, as a frightened woman alone with her lover, she began, more fully, to cry as she held T’Vrell.

A joint post by
Tia, AKA Rear Admiral T'Vrell of Dreadnought
and
Peridot, AKA Captain Sue Garcia