"00D0"

[FredM 0]

"00D0"

Captain's Log                                                              Captain Frederic Meve

Sky Harbor Aegis - 0401.23

 

 

It had been a set of protocols Meve was certain no one had ever actually accessed before. This was even more true when it came to life aboard a Federation starbase. Such events just didn't happen. Yet, with the sound of phaser fire in the background, several different screens passed in front of the Andorian Captain as he quickly entered in commands.

 

Their encounter with this new enemy had been rather...different from what anyone expected. Of course it didn't change much, but there was something to be said for the fact these were not the same aliens who had successfully captured the Cardassian system months earlier. In addition, their level of technology seemed shockingly simplistic in it's application and design. Yet again, that didn't change the fact it was quite successful...especially against an already crippled starbase.

 

Frederic's thoughts drifted to the communique he had received several days earlier, the classified one only Nicholas had seen. The contents had been quite simple...the order more of a suggestion than anything else. "While this is a decision that no one can make except you, should you find yourself in a situation where it is clear Aegis will not be able to repel enemy forces...you are granted authorization to seek a surrender. This would be in the hopes of preventing catastrophic damage to civilian assets within the system...," the Admiral had written.

 

As the human expression went, like hell.

 

These thoughts were interrupted by a blue screen showing the logo of the Federation. It was indeed the one Meve had been attempting to boot. A loud explosion occurred down the corridor, causing the Andorian to glance slightly. It was served only as a reminder of what he already knew. "Computer, set auto-destruct sequence. Authorization one-alpha-two-beta," the Captain said in the calmest voice he could muster.

 

It was now up to Ayers to complete the next stage of the process. Meve glanced down and looked at the El-Aurian...who seemed to be preoccupied. Finally, the Andorian motioned to the terminal in such a way someone might have thought he had an important subspace message on hold. That was all it took. "Computer, confirm auto-destruct sequence. Authorization two-alpha-nine-omega," Ayers stated.

 

The computer terminal's display changed, now showing a field with the background a schematic of the station. "Destruct sequence confirmed and engaged. Awaiting final code," the female voice replied. This had been part of the routine self termination program for several hundred years within Starfleet. Yet, in most cases this question was no longer asked aboard starships unless another command was entered early on. The simple fact was, most people weren't interested in causing an uncontrolled energy release which would vaporize everything nearby. Made escape pods somewhat useless...and would have a nasty effect on any friendly ships. No, these days it would be assumed the Captain desired to only keep his or her ship out of enemy hands. However, on a starbase the situation was quite different.

 

"Let's take their entire damn fleet with us...," Meve said under his breath. Glancing at the computer he momentarily tuned out everything else that was going on. "Computer, destruct sequence zero-zero-zero-destruct-one. Execute," he said in a calm voice. It was somewhat surprising given the circumstances. After all, he had just given a command that had only been uttered somewhere near twenty times throughout the history of Starfleet. The self destruction of an asset...and everything else near it. Should the "00D0" command be given aboard a starship, it would create a massive warp core breach that would vaporize most nearby. Given aboard a starbase, with reactors normally tens of times more powerful...you were going to witness a solid ten or twenty percent of the Cardassian system have turbulence.

 

"Attention! Auto-destruct sequence has been initiated! This facility will self destruct in ten minutes," the computer proclaimed over the speakers. The terminal in front of Meve changed to one a Captain hoped they'd never see...a countdown. With the intruders slowly beating back security forces, and the Pandora's Box now out of the system, it was clear that Meve had indeed sealed their fate. Privately, the Andorian questioned how many of them would still be alive by the time the station exploded.