"Step By Step"

[FredM 0]

"I am able to follow my own death step by step.

Now I move softly towards the end." - Pope John XXIII

 

It had been a little over a day since the message had come in. It was a message that Meve, nor Ayers, were allowed to discuss or even acknowledge in public. It had been a series of words that had the potential to change the future of them all. It was a future the Andorian Captain was not planning to allow.

 

Aegis itself was still a complete mess. Only one pylon currently had a remote chance of surviving an attack for any length of time. This was in stark contrast to the Midway and Second Pylon, the later which still had a hull breach spanning thirty decks. Even after close to twelve hours of exploration, one-third was still inaccessible to rescue and engineering teams. Meanwhile, the Midway remained a ghost town. Almost all civilians had left the station, with the shops...except Drankum's of course...closed. The docking pylons, all twelve, remained crippled.

 

The station had been brought to it's knees by a single ship, a civilian freighter outfitted with an odd weapon. It was a weapon Meve feared they would find standard on their attacker's primary ships. Regretfully, no one had yet found a way to even slow it down. The worst part was the fact their new enemy could be less than two days away and no one even had a clue how many of "them" there were.

 

For reasons Meve could not completely comprehend, the government of Cardassia Prime had decided against informing the general public about the situation. While they knew an enemy race was attacking Cardassian space, information as to their projected course was not known outside of senior military commanders. In reality, the decision might have been a smart one. After all, it would be impossible to even contemplate another planetary evacuation. The last one had taken close to two months. They would all quite possibly be dead in two days.

 

Meanwhile, repairs on the station continued. For some reason though, many seemed to believe their efforts were futile. Given what encounters there had been, it seemed their Federation phasers, Romulan disrupters and Klingon/Federation torpedoes would be no match for their aggressors. The crew of Aegis fell into three categories. There were those who saw hope, those who believed they would be dead within the next several days and those who just didn't care one way or the other.

 

Standing on the still dimly illuminated Control Tower, Meve glanced at the forward display screens. Two of the three had been repaired, now displaying a damage report and a sensor scan of the system. The third viewer, the one which had unleashed it's shrapnel into the Captain's face, was still shattered. The deck plating groaned, as if the station itself was screaming in pain. The sound passed after a few moments and all work continued on.

 

The Captain questioned if the station itself had decided which category it fell into. He smiled slightly, shaking his head and reading over some of the information on the large screens. Meve had accepted what the future held for him, it was a decision he was content with. The end of this story would come soon enough, one way or another.

 

For his part, Frederic Meve just wished it would come.