The senior officers gathered around the table in the conference room. Ulmek attempted to guard his eyes from the light of the room. Unlike on the bridge, there were no dark corners for him to hide in. It had become used more as a war room of late, some failing to hide the relief that this meeting wouldn't start with the latest casualty report. Even so, the moment the captain walked in with a serious face, they knew it couldn't be good news. He took a seat at the head of the table, his officers eagerly looking to him for news. He scanned his officers with his eyes, noticing an empty seat. It didn't take him too long to figure out who was missing.
"Where is Semesh?" He asked sternly, addressing no one in particular. His officers exchanged a few furtive glances.
"I believe he was helping outfit the Phaser cannons, Captain." His first officer replied. Vaaerul was a short, dark skinned Vulcan with long black hair. She had served with Hugh on more than one star ship, was even a first officer before he became captain.
As if on queue the doors opened and a tall, tank-like Gorn walked into the room. Unlike the others he wasn't wearing a standard Starfleet uniform. His torso was bare save for shoulder pads and a sash across his chest. Most Federation ships wouldn't let a Gorn walk around outside a brig, let alone promote them to a Commander. Semesh was part of a diplomatic exchange program set up before the war, but had stayed allied with the Federation once the war broke out. As he spoke the Universal translator translated his language, but the hissing could be heard over it.
"Apologies, Captain, there were complications in the cannon upgrades" Semesh said, taking his seat, one which had been modified to handle his size.
Hugh nodded solemnly, before turning his attention back to his other officers.
"I know most of you were hoping for some good news today. As you know we have been scanning for the whereabouts of the U.S.S. Dijkstra since entering the system." He surveyed his officers who grimly awaited the news. "At 0800 hours this morning our sensors picked up a large area of debris in the system. Further scans confirmed that it was the U.S.S. Dijkstra." Few faces dropped, they'd gotten used to bad news, and even expected it, but Hugh never thought this would shock them. "Worse than that, the damage is consistent with Federation phaser fire."
The table was alive now, people conversing with furtive glances, not willing to be the first to speak up. It was a while before Crem, a tall Bolian and chief Engineer, spoke up.
"If we could scan for warp signatures we'd be able to find where they went, maybe even what class of ship it was." He announced at last, Hugh nodded.
"There are no warp trails in and out of the system save for the Dijkstra and a few Tholian ships, but there are no tholian weapons signatures on the debris, or sign of any Tetryon weapon fire. Whoever did this, it was one of ours"
The table fell silent. Everyone was either lost in thought, or just lost. There weren't many leads to follow based on the facts, and they knew it. There seemed to only be one option, but he didn't want to rule out any other ideas. The silence was chilling. The very thought that a Federation ship had turned against another was enough to put everyone on edge. Semesh tapped his claws against the table impatiently. Hugh glared at him, but never even expected it to make a difference. He was a fine officer, but could be rash and emotional at times, almost a polar opposite of Vaaerul.
"It could be a defiant class, cloaked ship." T'Plong suggested, breaking the silence. She was a tall, Bajoran woman with sort, red hair. The Chief of Security. "No cloak is perfect, it's bound to give off some kind of radiation."
Hugh nodded, about to dismiss his officers, but he stalled.
"I know it's not the best situation to be in, but we have to keep our heads. This isn't necessarily a Federation crew who went Rogue. It could be that the Klingons have gotten hold of one of our ships, or even the Tholians. We can't work on any assumption other than the fact that there's a ship out here that took down one of ours, and we need to find them." He pulled himself up from his seat. "Dismissed." He said finally, allowing his officers leave. He stayed behind, gazing out of the conference room window into space.
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