SD 241510.29 || Vanguard Log, Vokar || "Songs too sweet and wild."

Posted on 241510.29 @ 10:48pm by Captain Vokar

Mission: Agua Mala [BQ Plot]
Location: En-route to Apsha, Stenellis Homeworld

“Some birds are not meant to be caged, that's all. Their feathers are too bright, their songs too sweet and wild. So you let them go, or when you open the cage to feed them they somehow fly out past you. And the part of you that knows it was wrong to imprison them in the first place rejoices, but still, the place where you live is that much more drab and empty for their departure.” - Stephen King, Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption: A Story from Different Seasons

The Pendragon was at full power for a change, no pretence needed, she and her squadron were truly free for the first time in a long time, the Vanguard were hailed as saviours by the majority of the Vulcan people and their actions were, unofficially, sanctioned by the Vulcan government. His actions during the battle to free his home planet had earnt Vokar the respect of his people, his crews loyalty had never been stronger and now the Pendragon and it's two escorts were flying through Klingon space with the blessing of the Chancellor himself.

His ready room had become his own little fortress of solitude, the Vulcan was reclining in his chair with his feet on the desk, he was buried in a piece of classic literature from Earth when the door slid open and broke him from the prison that he had voluntarily entered, “We're entering the Ul-Kimari expanse region of space, Vokar,” his Tellarite right hand stated, his squat form holding the door to the bridge open, the sounds beginning to flood back in, “We'll be at Stenellis within the day at full power, I have to admit, being able to run hot is making things so much simpler.”

“Tell me about it.” Vokar replied as he placed the padd down on his chest and turned his attention to the man before him, “Long range sensor readings?” he asked, knowing that they would be the next thing to be bought up.

“The Vindicator and Enterprise are still present, but there's something else, we briefly detected something distinctly Romulan.” the Tellarite barked back with a slight chuckle stifled by his speech, he knew the Vulcan had been keeping an eye on things.

This news bought clarity and focus to the look of the Vulcan, the padd was deposited on the desk and his legs were swung down to the floor quickly, “Romulan?” he spoke the word with distaste, the bastardised kin of his race was a topic that some Vulcans embraced and some sought to bury as deep as possible, reunification had been attempted in the past but they were now too distinct in their outlooks and methods to ever be combined. “What would... scratch that, I know what the Romulans would want from the Stenellis.”

A quick nod was all the agreement he was going to get from the Tellarite.

“Have we managed to intercept anything to indicate the Federation council's real intentions regarding the Stenellis? I have my own assumptions and they're probably right, but I'd like confirmation.” Vokar questioned as he forced himself to his feet and reached for his cane, the limp was troubling him and he was beginning to think that he might have to take the good doctor's advice.

“We have,” the Tellarite replied with a grin that revealed rows of sharp, pointed teeth, “Membership, that's why there is a flag officer present, as well as the Enterprise, no-one can deny that the name carries much weight with it, despite the rather... inexperienced nature of it's commanding officer,” he produced a padd from one of his pockets and offered it to the advancing Vulcan.

“Interesting,” Vokar replied as he stepped around the Tellarite and moved to the centre of the bridge, hooking his cane on the back of the command chair and taking his seat, his hand found the console in the arm and thumbed the communications open, “Engineering, we need to run hotter, push everything you can into the warp engines, we'll be running emergency for as long as we can.” he stated.

“Sir, we can't maintain maximum output for more than 3 hours, we'll burn out the systems,” came the protests from the Chief Engineer, a man who knew the ship almost as well as Vokar knew it, “Given our current course, I can shave... maybe two or three hours off the time, but we will have to drop into low power mode when we arrive.”

“Give me everything you've got, we'll need it,” Vokar replied before shutting off the communications link and turning to his first officer, who had taken his seat.

“Expecting trouble?” the Tellarite asked as the grin faded from his face, the seriousness taking over as one hand instinctively went to his hip to check his weapon was still there.

“Always do when there are Romulans present.” Vokar replied as he handed the padd back and tapped a finger on one line, “It would appear that the Romulans have the same intentions, they will use trickery and underhand tactics to win this battle, our forces won't, they're Starfleet, they have rules.”

“And we don't.” the man replied with a knowing nod as he turned to look at the viewscreen.

“Exactly.”Vokar responded, it was not a veiled threat, the word carried with it a promise, as it always did, the Vanguard were going into battle again, “Signal our escorts, they're to go dark and increase speed, monitor until our arrival.”

(To Be Continued...)

Vokar
Commanding Officer
VCD Pendragon & Vanguard Commander