"Rock and a Hard Place"

[Col. C.E. Harper 0]

“Rock and a Hard Place”

Harper Log 04.19.06

June 24, 2397

On course to Starbase 11

 

Well, the ship was still in one piece – and would be remaining that way until they could un-break the MVAM – and their errant evacuees were tucked safely in the brig, which was now bursting at the seams. And Harper had a new appreciation for just how many common expressions involved violent destruction.

 

And Starfleet wanted to debrief them – wouldn’t that be fun?

 

In the end, Harper decided, the most embarassing point was the simplicity of the solution. Over and over she found herself thinking, “Why didn’t we do that an hour ago?” Starfleet would no doubt do the same. The answer, of course, was ‘because we expected to blow up if we did,’ but Harper didn’t relish the thought of trying to explain that to a bunch of brass who hadn’t done field time in an age and a half and saw every crisis with the clarity of hindsight.

 

Hopefully the number of prisoners would placate them. She imagined someone in Intelligence must be salivating over the chance to question so many people connected to the Tal Shiar. (Like Commander Pahren, Harper believed that was the source of their sleepy friends in the brig. To imagine another group of disgruntled Romulans with the resources to pull this off was it induce paranoia.) The Klingons in particular would be interesting – the Tal Shiar tended to despise Klingons more than your average Romulan, and the feeling was entirely mutual. Assuming, of course, that the prisoners survived.

 

She remembered without guilt her momentary concern that the combination of sound and drug would do worse than disable some of the hijackers. She hadn’t heard the casualty reports yet, but she knew she wouldn’t shed tears if it had. And it might be a blessing to them, anyway; the survivors would not be pleased to find themselves prisoners. She would have to remember to order a suicide watch placed on them.

 

For now, there was the long cleanup looming ahead of them, with only the upcoming debriefing to look forward to. Which meant she’d be spending the next week talking to angry brass and angry engineers. Can we have the Romulans back, please? she thought ruefully. I’m allowed to shoot them.