Resolution

[Sorehl 0]

In uniform despite his reserve status, former-Captain Sorehl rubbed his hands as he walked briskly through a well-lit corridor of Starfleet Command. Still pondering the significance of his encounter with Admiral Saylek, he noted the gleaming newness of this particular hall, a contrast to other venerable sections in this edifice to Federation ideals and military might. As he recalled, this wing had suffered significant damage during the Breen assault on San Francisco near the close of the Dominion War. Saylek had chosen to place his flag in that rebuilt section in honor of the fallen superior whose duties he’d been elevated to assume.

 

It was in this office where Sorehl had been asked a direct question from his Vulcan kinsman and mentor. “I would be remiss,” Saylek stated, “if I did not ask outright your reason for leaving Starfleet.”

 

The answer had not been straightforward. In fact, responding to the admiral had forced him to reconsider the chain of events that had forged into the resolution which now bound him. Where it pulled, he was as yet uncertain, but it was easy to trace back along its links.

 

He should not have lived through the Battle of the Wormhole, as textbooks now called it. Having drawn the dangerous assignment of defending the Marine landing on the wormhole collar, he had calculated the odds of his personal survival at being less than 1 in 4.23. But the Scorpiad had been successfully misdirected. The sturdy Andor-class missile cruiser Thala'And had proven its worth with a virtuoso performance that had prevented the loss of a single Marine transport. And although they’d been forced to abandon ship, he’d somehow survived the boarding action that had secured the collar and allowed the fleet at Bajor to come through.

 

In the months that followed, he’d watched diplomatic talents build a tenuous truce amongst the Gamma Quadrant powers. Sensing a less militant means of contributing, Sorehl made his own efforts to extract a pledge of non-violence from the Hundred. Semil had relented, committing to limit their continued strife with the Dominion to merely a competition for the allegiance of worlds – a modern variant of the Organian Peace Treaty. As these negotiations began to bear fruit, however, all three Alpha powers – Romulan, Klingon, and Federation – began to pull back their respective fleets. To Sorehl, this was a clear signal of their unwillingness to be caught in the next round of crossfire, a fact he had noted in his reports to Starfleet Command. Although these objections had gone unanswered, he had also raised them to Ambassador Joy Seven, the ranking diplomat who had been dispatched to Camelot to oversee Federation dialogue with all three Gamma powers.

 

Had it been the dialogue with Joy Seven that had shaped his determination? Or had it merely crystallized his perception that lasting peace would require a fundamental change in the nature of the Dominion and its competitors?

 

The Admiralty had seen fit to question every command decision made during the wormhole closure. With Excalibur missing, Sorehl had found himself in the unenviable position of joining Admiral Day in a detailed rehearsal of each one. Surprisingly, he had been praised for his rescue of Ambassador T’Salik from the Scorpiad, despite his own assertion that it was an unwarranted risk of ship and crew. He had found himself both criticized and commended for insisting Corizon develop alternatives to violating the treaty ban on subspace weapons. Yet his own inquiries on the nature of the the Council’s authorization to use “any means necessary” to prevent invasion of the Alpha Quadrant were passed on dismissively.

 

Amongst this virtual inquisition, there had been the fruitless months aboard the Scorpiad wormhole collar, trying to duplicate the effect observed at Excalibur’s disappearance. With each failure, it seemed increasingly illogical to continue, but Admiral Day had continued offering them time and resources. Although Ramson had run countless transits through the wormhole and Blair continued his sensor analysis, they had been unable to locate the missing ship. It had been this roadblock that had led to their attempt to contact the wormhole aliens themselves.

 

Sorehl paused outside the turbolift as the doors opened. His experience in the wormhole, although it had confirmed Excalibur had not been destroyed, had proven to be a far more personal encounter than expected. It had clearly influenced his decision to return to Vulcan and undergo the clan ordeal, which had ramifications of its own.

 

He rubbed his hand again. He had yet to understand the meaning of what Admiral Saylek had revealed in the unexpected touch transfer at the conclusion of their meeting. Certainly, it had been the reason for his being summoned in person.

 

Just where would this new link take him?

Edited December 31, 2007 by Sorehl