The Captain Faces the Firing Squad

Posted on 26 Oct 2023 @ 9:36pm by Captain Bane Plase & Lieutenant JG Lisald Vaat
Edited on on 28 Oct 2023 @ 8:05pm

2,147 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Outbreak

ON:

Bane stepped into the turbolift and spoke. "Deck 28," he said, not even turning around. His head hung low. He could only look at his boots.

The turbolift dutifully obeyed his command and set off towards the destination. A moment later, the turbolift came to a halt. Bane barely felt it. On the Sentinel, he would not have felt it at all, but the Cygnus was an aging spaceframe, and there were to be minor inconveniences like this from time to time, no matter how good his Chief Engineer was.

Of course, there would be the occasional major failure too. It so happened one occurred during First Contact, probably the very worst time for something to break down catastrophically. He could not think of another time in the last two hundred years where something went so badly during First Contact with a new space-faring civilization. Of course, he thought, it would be on his watch, and so close to the end of his career. He knew that he would be remembered, not for being one of the first Bajorans in Starfleet, not for saving his crew countless times, not for making new and exciting discoveries, not for his service during the Dominion War, and not for all the other small details that made up his career. No, he would be remembered for this mission, and nearly wiping out an entire civilization. Because of mechanical and technological failure. He sighed heavily, not even registering the turbolift doors closed, and it carried on its way.

"Are you okay, Captain?"

The voice startled Bane greatly, his head jerking up rapidly. There stood Lieutenant Lisald, one of the newer Bajorans in Starfleet. "Hm? Oh, yes, I am fine, Lieutenant, thank you for asking."

Lisald sensed something was wrong, the telltale sign of his Captain not holding his gaze, but looking back down at his boots. "Are you sure, sir? You can talk to me..."

"No, I am truly fine, Lieutenant Lisald. Thank you," Bane said. His tone was sharp, but volume was soft.

It was an odd and unusual dichotomy from the Captain, but Lisald knew better than to press. After another moment, the turbolift came to a halt, the doors opening. "I hope you feel better, sir. We all care about you and respect you. Have a good day." Lisald waited a beat longer than normal. When he didn't get a response, he mentally shrugged his shoulders and exited the turbolift. From his perspective, he had just done all he could for his commander.

The Captain continued his ride down to the very transporter that was used to get him on board and transported back to the capital city of Antioch III, Lieutenant Lisald forgotten for the time being.

Materializing, he lifted his head long enough to get his bearings, taking note that there were far fewer Antiocians in the corridors. This made him incredibly sad. He had caused this. He did note they still covered their ears from the whine of the transporter beams. It had been explained that the sound wave range of the transporter beam caused intensely high-pitched sound in their ears that was not heard by any other race, that he was aware of. Even Terran Canines didn't react the same way.

Getting his bearings, he made his way, not with purpose, but almost like he was doing everything he could to hold back from getting to the Tashi's office, doing everything he could to prolong her ignorance. He wondered what her reaction would be. He desperately did not want to find out. He wished he were anywhere else right now, other than here. He'd even face down the Borg. At least with that, he had some measure of control, first in combat, then if that failed, blowing up the ship to prevent its technology and her people being used to assimilate other unsuspecting species.

And as he thought this, he passed through the security checkpoint. Normally staffed with more than a dozen highly trained and skilled security officers, only three were there, and one was an officer from his ship, augmenting their forces as best they could. Everywhere he looked smacked of the extreme damage the Cygnus had done to this society, to this planet. He hoped Drs. Elodin and Winters could find a way to cure these poor people before they reached extinction levels, the sooner the better.

Quicker than he wished, he arrived at the Tashi's door to her office. When they first arrived, her Aide would announce the visitors presence, his presence, with a bit of pomp and circumstance afforded to her office. She was dead now, as were several other aides that had taken the position before the needs of the planet outweighed the needs of the Tashi. He stepped up to the plain wooden door, and knocked.

Inside, Tashi Oromani poured over report after report. Society had almost all but broken down. There was open looting in the bazaars and open markets. There were Food Gangs stealing food from homes that had lost all of their inhabitants. Death tolls were approaching 30% average across the planet. In some pockets, the death toll had reached 90%, others still had been spared completely this epidemic. Whatever this disease was, it was powerful, and fast-acting. Tashi had heard it being called The Great Mortality. It was fitting.

At the knock at the door, she put down the reports and looked up. "Come," she said, crisply, unknowingly sounding like a rather famous Starfleet Admiral that she had no idea existed. Plase opened the door and stepped in, closing the door slowly and quietly behind him. Realizing he didn't need to do this anymore, he shrugged it off and approached the Tashi. "I am very glad to see you, Captain Bane. I missed our breakfast together. With all this going on," she said, motioning out the window to the world beyond, "It was one of the precious few moments of my day I truly look forward to. I trust everything is well with your mighty ship above us?"

Plase nodded, looking at her, his eyes so sad, so very sad. He could feel his insides hollowed out, the grief and pain he had, that he had inflicted on this innocent and beautiful planet and people. He tried to speak, but his voice failed him. He couldn't hold her gaze, and so he looked down at his boots.

The Tashi didn't pretend to know the philosophies and mannerisms of the dozens of new advanced species she had encountered over the last several weeks, almost a month now. She didn't always understand Bane, but she did get to know him pretty well in the time they had spent together, and could tell something was grievously wrong. "Captain, what is wrong, tell me." It sounded like an order, but she meant it as a request. Bane was, after all, her friend. One of the very few that she had anymore, first with rising to Tashi, and now with the Great Mortality (which is what the Medical Guild called it). Her inner circle was no longer a circle but nearly a dot now, or so it seemed.

It took Bane a moment, and several gulps, to find his voice again. "Tashi, the information I am about to tell you pains me greatly," he managed.

She nodded and leaned forward, her elbows on the mess of reports, forgotten. "Go on, please. Let me help you." Her voice was soft and caring, with a hint of concern. She was genuine, and Bane knew it and felt it.

Bane shook his head and looked down again, but immediately lifted his gaze to match hers. He could not not look at her when he told her this. This was his penance, his responsibility, his duty, and he would need to forever have this memory seared into his brain. "Tashi, this epidemic. I caused it. I am so sorry."

The Tashi lifted her elbows from the table and sat back in her chair. "What do you mean you caused it?" There was a new tilt to her voice, her mannerisms, her demeanor.

The words stung Bane greatly. "This disease ravaging your planet, it is not native to this world. We brought it here."

The Tashi scrunched her eyebrows together, failing to understand what it was he was saying to her. Her head cocked to the left a little, then a little more as the information grinded away in her mind. "Surely a species as advanced as yours has eliminated disease."

Bane lifted his eyebrows as he said, "I wish."

"Tell me, how did you not think this could be a possibility? I am not sure how it was on your world, but on this one, we used to have a sub-species of Antiocians that lived exclusively on the third largest island in the Grothgrain Island Chain in the southern hemisphere. Almost 500 years ago, my ancestors visited that island and ended up giving them a sickness they had no immunity to. It wiped them out to the very last person. We've known something like this could happen for that long. How could you, Oh Advanced One, not know the same?"

Plase took the tongue-lashing. It was warranted, and deserved. "Truth is, we do know this could happen. We have technology that is supposed to keep this from happening, in biomedical and technological. We obviously had a lot of failures, and only recently discovered it. Tashi, I don't know if you can believe this, but this is an accident, a mistake."

The Tashi stood suddenly, her chair pushed back a bit before coming to a rolling stop. "By the Great Sachmo, you know this is a mistake, Captain. A fine mistake. A mistake on a global scale! How in the hell am I supposed to explain this to the people that remain? 'Our new friends got us sick, but don't worry, it was a mistake and they're sorry.'" She paced. "What am I to do here, Captain?" It was a rhetorical question.

"I know, Tashi. All I can say is I am so sorry. We are working on a cure, though. Thankfully, this sickness is a well-known one in the Federation. We have vaccinations for all the species in the Federation. It's just a matter of time before we can synthesize one for your unique physiology."

The Tashi kept pacing, her mind racing, her eyes never leaving Bane. Should she round up every single one of these aliens and put them in prison for crimes against the population? What crimes would they be? Genocide? Crimes against Antiocians? Should she boot them right off the planet, and hope the Great Mortality would fizzle out? What if it didn't? Was this really a natural thing, an accident, or did this powerfully advanced species engineer the whole thing to take over their planet? She stopped and looked at him hard. "I ought to have every one of you lined up against a wall and shot, and commandeer your vessel," she spat.

Bane, startled, was silent for a moment, but responded with a soft voice, patient and exact. "Tashi, we mean you and your people no harm. We are taking responsibility for this. If you need to make someone responsible, then it will be me. My crew, they were following my orders. The ship, and all her systems, are ultimately my responsibility. To that end, I am wholly responsible for this entire fiasco. I want nothing more than to try and make this as right as possible for you and your people. Once we have this under control, I will gladly turn myself over to your authorities, should you wish it."

The Tashi was startled in turn. Her features softened, and her voice went back to how she used it with him prior to this conversation. "I didn't expect you to say that. I expected you to disappear the way you and your people do in the Loud Shimmer. I expected you to balk at me. I expected you to make excuses."

Plase nodded. He was making headway. "No excuses, Tashi."

"Good," she said, pulling her chair back to its normal spot and sitting down. "If you had tried, it would have ended this relationship. Now, tell me about this disease. Did it come from Bajor, where you are from?"

Bane shook his head. "No. It came from Earth. Its unofficial name is called 'The Common Cold.' A minor annoyance to those that catch it."

A single laugh escaped the Tashi. "A minor inconvenience indeed." They were silent for several moments, before she spoke again. "Someone will be held responsible for this, Captain. That someone will not be me."

The Bajoran Captain sighed and looked down. "Yes, I know."


OFF

A short little JP by

Lieutenant jg Lisald Vaat

Tashi Oromani

Captain Bane Plase

 

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