Failure

[Travis Kroells 0]

“Failure”…Kroells’s logs (Log 44)

 

“3...2...1.” Travis winced in failure as he heard Sivuk’s count down.  The massive piece of moon that had been blown off by the explosion of the base had now hit New Rigel.  Travis stood from the main science station, a station usually occupied by lieutenant Sivuk himself, however when the Vulcan had returned to the bridge, he aloud Travis to remain at the station.

 

“Mr. Kroells, status of New Rigel?”  Travis turned and sat back down at the station to answer his superior request.  Travis looked down at the scans and his stomach twisted and convulsed in sickness.

 

“Sir the moon fragment hit the surface of New Rigel.  The blast was approximately two thousand mega tons, the colony and every thing in the vicinity of the blast has already been destroyed.”

 

“What the?”  Charles said in confusion across the bridge.  The newly posted ensign not able to believe that his plan had not worked.  Travis felt like he was talking to a store house full of walls when it came to the possibility of: blowing it to pieces, using the tractor beam, and finally using the torpedoes to move the moon fragment away from the planet.  Travis couldn’t possibly think why any one thought blowing the moon fragment apart would help, whether or not it came down in 8 pieces it’d still hit with the same force as it had if it was in one large piece.

 

Travis couldn’t know if Sivuk had heard his remark about that before, but he at least knew that Spencer not only understood him, but agreed with him.  The Trill officer was just about the closest thing to a best friend that Travis had on the ship, and it meant a lot to him.  He mentally made a note to thank him latter for the support on the bridge.

 

“Lt. Kroells, did my torpedoes have any affect?”  Travis turned to the ensign ready to rip his head off for his stupidity, as if the damage report he just stated about New Rigel wasn’t enough to show him that it hadn’t work.

 

“No.”  Travis simply stated.  He turned away from Charles before he could see a reaction; he got up and left the bridge.  Fred had already entered the ready room, and the sensor readings of New Rigel were getting fainter by the second. In a few minutes they’d be out of range, hence forth Travis couldn’t find a reason to stay on the bridge.

 

He slowly entered the turbo lift and sent it down to deck six, the deck where his quarters were located.  The doors whooshed open and he walked out of the turbo lift and into his quarters.

 

He groaned when he got a look at the mess that was now his quarters.  He quickly cleaned up what he could; some of the stuff he had destroyed in his fit of rage was irreplaceable.  He sat down on the couch finally allowing the facts sink in about the future of New Rigel.  It sickened him to think that all Fred was concerned with was getting that information, like that was all the mattered to him.  This entire mission was drenched in blood, over two hundred people had died on the Cairo, and now at least another ten onboard that moon colony.  Travis also couldn’t get over the fact that New Rigel would most likely be a frozen tundra, going through the throws of an ice age, for thousands of years.

 

And Fred didn’t even seem to care.  How were they supposed to tell the nearly one thousand plus people that had been transported to the Reaent, that their homes had just been obliterated?  

 

Travis sighed and dug his hand into one of the pockets on his uniform and pulled out a small ring, the same ring that had been with him on the Cairo.  He muttered to himself, “What would she do if she was here?  What’d she say to make it better?”

 

He honestly didn’t know what she’d have said, the thought made him frown, the fact that he couldn’t remember her pep talks, the ones that always got him out of bed, ready to face another day.  

 

Travis slowly got up and paced around, resurfaced thoughts of Kayla on his mind.  He didn’t want to go to the bridge, or any where else.  He just wanted to lie down, and watch the stars fly by.  Remorse in his failure, the fact that he didn’t do any thing to save that planet, or do any thing helpful in the rescue of the colonists, sure he designed that fancy shuttle, and monitored the transports, but what was that compared to Ridire beaming over to the moon fragment, trying to find info on the people who did this, all while the it crept closer and closer to New Rigel.

 

Travis honestly didn’t know what to do any more, his life in a stand still.  So for once he decided not to worry, at least not right now.  And so he watched the stars go by, and let O’Connor run around his quarters making a mess.  He let go of all his worry, and smiled to him self and thought, “This is what she would have told me to do…”