Tabor's Report to Lt. Angel

[Tabor Nansk 0]

Tabor sat and stared at his PADD as though it were a foreign object. Angel had asked for a full report and Tabor was struggling to even get started. He’d keyed in an entry, stopped, erased it and started again several times already. Actually, he’d lost count. There wasn’t any way of sugarcoating it: these people, this ship shouldn’t be here. They died. It blew up. End of report. Of course, that would not be acceptable to Angel. So, with a heavy sigh, he tried again.

 

 

Duty Log

 

Lt. Tabor Nansk

 

USS Reaent [stifled choke]

 

Recording….

 

 

“Ship’s fighter component was launched at 1420 hours zulu. A-wing was first out of the bay, followed by B-wing. Upon clearing the launch tube, we were in an immediate firefight. I observed the attack formation of four Romulan warbirds, the crippled hulk of the Reaent, and the scattered debris of much of A-wing. They never even had a chance to fully deploy. B-wing was already under fire and taking heavy…damage. [He couldn’t bring himself to use the word “casualties”] Specifically, Lt. Tomlinson’s fighter was struck by a torpedo and destroyed.”

 

 

“Apparently orders had been given to abandon ship on the Reaent as multiple escape pods were ejected. The last order that came over the comm was to focus on protecting the pods. It was a hopeless effort. My fighter was hit by a disruptor, knocking out propulsion, life support and communications. I was tumbling dead in space. As I spun away from the action I observed most of the pods destroyed by disruptor fire. When the few remaining pods were beyond the immediate field of battle, I saw Lt. Angel’s fighter turn and make a suicide run into the bridge of one of the warbirds. Shortly thereafter, the Reaent exploded, though whether from Romulan fire or the self-destruct sequence I can’t say.”

 

 

“With the fighting over, the Romulans began mopping up operations. The fleeing escape pods were run down and tractored one by one into various Romulan ships. I believe I escaped a similar fate simply because I looked like a floating piece of wreckage.”

 

 

“The exact time frame of these and later events are estimates, as my ship’s chronometer was damaged in the fight and my suit’s back up broken as I was thrashed about during the initial tumbling after being hit by the disruptor. Approximately thirty minutes later the wormhole exhibited a disturbance and a Federation task force emerged – including the Reaent. With superior numbers and firepower, the Romulan warbirds were destroyed. Fighters were launched to search the debris and I was successful in manually signaling one to my position. It was Lt. Will Tomlinson. Lt. Tomlinson transported me back to the Reaent – with what was left of my fighter in tow – where I was relieved of flight duty and confined to Medical pending an examination.”

 

 

Tabor felt drained. He didn’t know how many minutes went by before he snapped out of his reverie. “Computer, end log.” His hold on sanity was hanging on the outcome of Will’s wild idea of what happened. At least their investigation kept him going each day.