Chapter Text
Stardate 78924.6
“Hey, guys. Sorry I’m late,” Mariner apologized as she entered the conference room.
“Actually, you’re right on time!” Tendi replied.
“Yeah, we were just about to start without you,” Boimler added.
Tendi, Rutherford, and Boimler were already seated. A fourth, empty chair was waiting for Mariner herself. Seated opposite them was a woman that Mariner didn’t recognize, who stood as Mariner approached.
“You must be Melissa Pendleton,” Mariner said as she stopped in front of the empty chair, offering her hand to the journalist.
“I’m glad you could make it, commander,” Pendleton said as she shook Mariner’s hand and the two of them took their seats. “Captain Boimler said this story just wouldn’t be the same without you here to help tell it.”
“I do have a pretty big role at the end,” Mariner smiled.
“I meant that it wouldn’t be the same without your snarky comments,” Boimler deadpanned.
“Oh, you’re right. Those add some nice flavor,” Mariner snarked.
“Why don’t we get started?” Pendleton asked rhetorically, as she tapped some buttons on her PADD. “Computer, begin recording. This is Section 31 aftermath interview number seven. Participants are Captain D’Vana Tendi, Commander Beckett Mariner, Lieutenant Commander Samanthan Rutherford, and Captain Bradward Boimler, along with myself.”
Pendleton waited for the computer to bleep affirmatively before continuing. “First, thank you all for agreeing to sit down with me. I know most of you must be quite busy with the upcoming launch.”
“No problem,” Rutherford said. “It’ll be nice to finally put the whole story on the record.”
“Most people know how your investigation into Section 31 ended,” Pendleton began. “Mass arrests of thousands of Starfleet officers, including dozens of admirals, on charges of treason. The resulting court martials lasted for years. But you’ve never discussed how your investigation started.”
“Well, technically, the investigation began on stardate 58354.2,” Rutherford explained. “But if you really want to understand what happened, we have to go back a lot further…”
Stardate 44002.3
Sam looked out the window of the quarters he shared with his parents, with the red alert klaxon blaring behind him. The battle unfolding on the other side of the window was terrifying to watch, but he found himself unable to look away.
Another beam lanced out from the massive Borg cube, detonating the warp core of an Excelsior-class ship trapped in a tractor beam. The Starfleet armada had entered the fight with 40 ships. By his count, at least half were now destroyed. And the cube looked like it didn’t even have a scratch on it.
“The battle of Wolf 359,” Rutherford explained. “My parents were both Starfleet officers, serving on the Endeavour. I was fifteen years old.”
“The Endeavour was the only ship to survive that battle,” Pendleton recalled.
“Yeah,” Rutherford quietly confirmed. “Barely.”
The ship banked hard, trying to avoid the debris from the explosion, but wasn’t fast enough. A hard impact knocked him backwards and he landed on the deck with a painful thud.
The computer bleeped an alarm tone. “Warning: deck six structural integrity compromised. Evacuate immediately. Hull breach in sixty seconds.”
Oh crap!
He struggled to his feet. Another explosion buffeted the ship as he reached the door, which failed to open.
Shit!
Adrenaline flowed through his veins as he pried off the control panel and reached inside for the manual lever.
The computer bleeped again. “Warning: deck six structural integrity compromised. Hull breach in forty-five seconds.”
He pulled the lever a few times to force the door open, then made his way out into the corridor. The lights were flickering and there was debris everywhere. Numerous other people were exiting their quarters just as he was. Several were wounded and bleeding profusely.
“Everybody out! The turbolifts are down. Use the maintenance access!”
His heart slowed down slightly at the sound of his mother’s voice. He could see her moving down the corridor towards him as she tried to coordinate the evacuation.
“Mom!”
She heaved a sigh of relief at seeing him uninjured. She rushed over and briefly hugged him. “Sam! You’re okay!”
“What’s happening?” he asked in a terrified tone.
“No time to explain,” she replied firmly. “Get to the maintenance access. I’ll be right behind you.”
He nodded and began stumbling towards the access, while she continued past him, further down the corridor. Another explosion rocked the ship, knocking him off his feet again. He heard a loud crash behind him and smoke began to fill the corridor. He coughed as he got back on his feet and turned to look behind him.
His eyes widened and his heart leapt into his throat. “Mom!” She was trapped under a pile of debris, struggling to get out.
The computer bleeped again. “Warning: deck six structural integrity compromised. Hull breach in thirty seconds.”
He ran over to her and was quickly joined by a lieutenant whose name he couldn’t remember, as other civilians continued to flee to the safety of the maintenance access. The two of them were able to quickly shift some of the debris, which revealed that his mother was pinned to the deck by a heavy beam.
Without a word, he and the lieutenant took positions next to the beam, preparing to lift it. “On three,” the lieutenant ordered. “One… two… three!”
The two of them strained with all their might to move the beam. It barely budged.
“Again!” the lieutenant panted. “One… two… three!”
Their second attempt similarly failed to free his mother.
The computer bleeped again. “Warning: deck six structural integrity compromised. Hull breach in fifteen seconds.”
“There’s no time,” his mother said frantically. “Bartlett, take Sam and get out of here!”
“Aye, sir,” the lieutenant solemnly acknowledged.
“What? No! We can’t just leave her!” he protested.
“We can’t help her,” Bartlett replied. “If we stay here, we’ll all be killed!”
Bartlett grabbed him around the waist and began dragging him towards the maintenance access. He struggled against the lieutenant. “Dammit, let me go!”
The computer bleeped again. “Warning: deck six structural integrity compromised. Hull breach in five, four…”
“Sam! I love you!” his mother shouted as tears streamed down her face.
“…three, two…”
“MOM!”
Bartlett threw him across the threshold of the maintenance access before diving inside and slapping the door control to seal the door behind them.
“…one.”
The door slammed shut as another explosion rocked the ship.
The computer bleeped again. “Warning: hull breach on deck six, sections fourteen through thirty-five. Emergency forcefields inoperative.”
He lay there on the deck, frozen in place, staring at the door, as his mind struggled to comprehend what had just happened. After a few seconds, Bartlett stood, still panting from the exertion, and turned towards him.
“Come on,” Bartlett said in a defeated tone. “We need to get to the cargo bay.”
The words snapped him out of the trance he was in. He got to his feet, balling his fists as he angrily rounded on the lieutenant.
“Why the hell did you do that?!” he demanded angrily. “We could have saved her!”
Bartlett wearily stumbled past him towards the Jefferies tube. “After this, we’ll be lucky if we can save ourselves. Hold on to that anger, kid. Pretty soon, that might be the only thing keeping you alive.”
“I didn’t know it at the time, but my dad was already dead. Killed by an explosion in engineering,” Rutherford concluded solemnly.
“That’s… certainly a dark beginning to this story,” Pendleton observed. “Especially Lieutenant Bartlett’s words. It seems like odd advice to give a teenager who just watched his mother die.”
“It might sound odd now,” Rutherford replied. “But that’s only because the Borg were eventually defeated. At the time, we’d just thrown everything we had at them and didn’t even make a dent. The senior officers tried to keep morale up, but everyone expected the Borg to win and the Federation to collapse. We all thought we were going to be on the run for our lives within the next few days, and probably dead soon after that.”
“I’ll admit, I’m not sure how I was expecting this story to open, but that wasn’t it,” Pendleton said.
“Yeah, well, don’t let all this doom and gloom fool you,” Mariner interjected. “In the end, this story is a love story.”
“A… love story,” Pendleton repeated incredulously. “That begins with a Borg massacre.”
“Yeah, well, the path to true love doesn’t run smooth,” Mariner quipped.
“Evidently not,” Pendleton breathed. “So, what happened next?”