Without Warning, Part II: Aftermath

Posted on Sat Jun 6th, 2026 @ 1:14pm by Captain Inara Valérian & Lieutenant Keira Heartly & Commander Narell Teya & Lieutenant Commander Shae Tyler & Lieutenant Larissa Baylor & Lieutenant JG Aliénor Sault

1,016 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Ashes of Unity

It had barely been twenty five minutes since the Endeavour had been attacked and crippled. Immediately after the Endeavour had lost main power, the three unknown ships had vanished back into the Badlands. Inara had ensured that the Endeavour was out of immediate danger before calling for an emergency briefing. She paced the length of the view port in the conference lounge, unable to calmly understand what had happened without creating more questions.

Teya stepped into the briefing lounge with a serious look on her face. She knew that the condition of the Endeavour was dire, but the overall situation was even worse. No one just simply attacked a Federation star ship without warning and run away, not without cause, anyway. And she hadn't recognized the ships, a fact that worried her as she knew of most, if not all, of the groups that operated in the region. The only piece of halfway good news was that the attackers had left the Endeavour crippled after their attack, which raised questions as well. Teya noticed the captain pacing and moved to her chair, sitting down quietly.

Following the first officer, Larissa entered the conference room and went straight to her usual seat. She wrestled with the emotions that filtered through her, from confusion to anger. There had been no reason for the three ships to attack the Endeavour, but they hadn't pressed their advantage when the Endeavour had been disabled either. To make matters worse, the Endeavour's single attack had only damaged one ship, and there was no way to tell how effective that attack had been. She turned to watch the captain, wondering what their next move would be.

Lieutenant Commander Shae Tyler strode in from the corridor, soot streaked across his engineering uniform. He appeared otherwise calm, even likable. “Captain, whatever they hit us with just burned through most of the EPS relays like they were paper. We’ve got cascading failures across half the secondary grid.”

Keira stepped into the lounge in time to hear the chief engineer speak. She was covered in soot and smelled of burned circuitry. "Captain, the primary and secondary power grids are both offline. Right now, we're operating off of two of the auxiliary generators, but that only gives us basic systems for right now."

Aliénor entered the conference room and instantly felt out of place. This was usually reserved for senior staff, but she had suddenly found herself as the ranking officer in medical and so it had fallen to her to represent medical. She quickly found a seat and waited.

Inara finally stopped pacing and sat down. "Alright," she said, taking a deep breath. "How long until primary power and systems are back online?"

Shae shrugged as he sat down. "Two to four hours to get basic systems back online, but getting power to them is going to take longer. The weapon type that our attackers used overloaded our power grid, burning out and blowing our EPS systems. The warp core and impulse drives we can get back online in a couple of hours, along with basic life support and supporting systems such as communications and sensors. But to get the ship back to standard operating standards is going to take a few days without support."

Keira nodded her grim agreement to the engineer's report. "Captain, I have to agree. We took a lot more damage than we probably even suspect."

Inara turned towards Baylor, knowing that the answer to the question she was about to ask was most likely going to be within the realm of the unknown. "Do we even know what type of weapons those ships used?"

Larissa shook her head. "It was nothing like I've ever seen before," she replied. "But they cut through our shields almost like they weren't even there."

"How is that even possible?" Teya asked, a frown forming across her face.

"They did take several minutes before they attacked," Keira said. "Maybe they scanned our shields and matched their weapon frequency harmonics before they attacked?"

"There's also the fact that they only used energy weapons," Larissa said. "Beam weapons don't usually retain full emitter strength when passing through energy shields. Plus, the beam weapons they used weren't like anything else I've ever seen. One hit seemed to disrupt our power systems in the area that was targeted and hit. That's not like anything else I've ever seen."

"So we're facing a new enemy with new weaponry," Teya said, clearly unhappy about the words that she was speaking. "That's just what this region needs, a new balance of power."

Inara nodded silently, understanding her first officer's reasons for being upset. A new power along the Demilitarized Zone would be bad enough, but for them to possess the type of ships and weapons they seemed to have would only cause more problems. She finally turned towards Lieutenant Sault. "What news from medical?" she asked.

Aliénor shifted uncomfortably in her seat. "Sickbay currently has one hundred twenty patients. We've lost thirty nine crew to injuries, and there are another ten or twelve who we've had to place in a medical induced coma until we can transfer them to a medical facility."

Inara nodded, a shadow crossing her face as she listened to the casualty report. The Endeavour was her first command, and she had already lost people. She paused, took another deep breath, then nodded a second time. "Alright," she said. "We're twenty light years from Starbase 621. As soon as the warp drive is back online, we'll set a course and proceed there at best safe speed. Repairs and treating our wounded come first. Dismissed."

Watching the officers as they stood and filed out of the conference lounge, Inara sighed and rubbed her forehead. She had hoped for a simple first assignment for her first command, instead she had found herself facing what had been jokingly called the 'Endeavour's Curse'. Finally, she stood and pushed those thoughts aside. She was determined to break the so called curse, and make the Endeavour a star ship to be taken seriously once again.

 

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