Douglas, Connor Edward: Captain, USS
Saratoga NCC-31191-A
Born-2341
Birthplace- New Sucia Island on Izar
(Epsilon Bootis 3)
Attended Starfleet Academy from 2360 to
2365
First assigned to the Excelsior-class
USS Scott Carpenter, Ensign Douglas was tasked to ferry a
Klingon delegate across Federation space in a long range shuttle to
their consulate located in Shackleton Station in orbit above the
planet Amaknak. While in route, Douglas' shuttle was attacked by
Orion pirates and due to battle damage had to crash land on a
nearby uninhabited planet. While on the planet's surface, Douglas and
the Klingon, Grig of the House of K'pon, were able to at first evade
then capture the ten Orion pirates still intent on killing them.
After the Orions were taken prisoner, Douglas was able to hack into
the communications systems on their ship. Douglas quickly learned
that Grig's uncle hired the pirates to assassinate his nephew in
an attempt to cover up his own involvement in the smuggling of
illegal substances into the Klingon Empire.
Douglas and Grig formulated a plan to
expose the conspiracy, but it required them to take the Orion's ship
and fly to the Klingon world of Khitomer. After arrival there, the
two sneaked onto the estate grounds of Grig's uncle and captured both
the records and several personnel involved in the smuggling
operation. Once exposed, Grig killed his uncle and turned over the
leadership of the House of K'pon to his father.
Grig's father quickly petitioned the
Klingon Chancellor to recognized his assumption of leadership of the
House of K'pon to prevent any usurpers from coming forward. The
Chancellor not only recognized the change in the K'pon hierarchy but
had it join his governing coalition. In a show of appreciation not
only did Douglas personally receive an award from the Chancellor but
Grig's father honorary adopted the human as a second son.
The Federation ambassador to the
Klingon Empire, not quite sure what to make of this entire event,
pulled some strings and had Ensign Douglas transferred back to his
homeworld of Izar where he was assigned to the Saratoga, then
being built in orbit around the planet. Further complicating the
matter, when the Chancellor learned of Douglas' fate he threw a fit
over what he perceived was a dishonor shown to the young human. This
caused Admiral Sponer, Third Fleet commander, where the new Saratoga
would be assigned, to promote Douglas from ensign to lieutenant jg
–far ahead of usual practices-to smooth things over.
Since Douglas' major at the Academy was
warp field dynamics he was naturally assigned to Engineering helping
to finish construction on the ship. As chance would have it, four of
Douglas' friends from his Academy class joined him on the new
Saratoga: Ubiad Sallem, Mya Farias, Zhao Shih, and Pujit
Kothari.
During the rush to get Saratoga
launched, Douglas and Farias developed a relationship and became
engaged. The actual marriage had to be postponed when positions of
the new Freedom-class starship, USS Justice opened up
for Farias and Sallem. Later events during the Dominion War caused
Douglas and Farias to end their relationship.
Shih, Zhao: Lieutenant Commander
Chief Engineer and acting first officer
of the USS Saratoga
Born-2340
Birthplace- Anhui Province, Federal
Republic of China, United Earth
Attended Starfleet Academy from 2360 to
2364
Zhao Shih comes from a family with a
long history in space exploration that predates the establishment of
Starfleet. One of Zhao's ancestors was the first person from the old
nation-state of People's Republic of China to walk on Earth's moon.
In fact, one branch of the Shih family was part of the first group of
colonists to take up residence on that planet. Later members of the
Shih family served with distinction in the Earth/Romulan War and the
Four-Years War against the Klingons.
All this history contributed to Zhao at
first rejecting any notion of applying to Starfleet Academy. A
certified prodigy in multidimensional temporal physics, Zhoa
graduated from Beijing University five years early with hopes of
securing a slot at the physics research center in orbit around the
planet-less star, LP944-020. Zhao's talents alone guaranteed his
application to Starfleet Academy was immediately accepted.
As before at Beijing University, Zhao
graduated the Academy early and had a short posting on the USS
Enterprise (NCC-1701-D), before it was destroyed.
Sallem, Ubiad: Captain, USS Justice
NCC-81445
Born-2341
Birthplace- State of Palestine, Greater
Levant Confederation, United Earth
Attended Starfleet Academy from 2360 to
2365
Always a bit of a restless spirit,
Ubiad applied to Starfleet Academy to escape the boredom some
associate with life on Earth in the 24th century. Having
majored in studies of exobiology, Ubiad spent his first few years on
the USS Charles Darwin surveying
prospective colony worlds. The crisis years leading up to the
Dominion War forced the Darwin
back to Federation space with Ubiad jumping at the chance to serve
with his best friend, Connor Douglas on the Saratoga.
Ubiad was assigned to security while there but was soon transferred
to the USS Justice and
became one of that ship's tactical officers.
Like
many others, including Douglas, combat losses at the start of the
Dominion War turned into quick promotions for those with the luck and
skills. Within six months after being transferred, Ubiad became the
first officer on the starship Justice and later its
captain after Robert Wingo became the commanding officer on the USS
Lexington. Mya Farias was also reassigned to the Justice
as the same time as Ubiad and the two became involved during the
course of the war.
Farias, Mya: Lieutenant Commander,
Second officer and chief ship
operations officer on the USS Justice
Born-2340
Birthplace-
Rosario, Republic of Argentina, United Earth
Attended Starfleet
Academy from 2360 to 2364
While born in the
Argentine city of Rosario, her family moved to the asteroid colony of
Asteria in orbit beyond Mars when she was six years old. Both of her
parents had received their post-graduate degrees in life support
systems management and the asteroid colony governments were always
eager to recruit residents to replace those leaving the Sol system.
Mya
attended the first two years of Starfleet Academy at the satellite
campus on Asteria before transferring down to San Francisco.
Graduating with a major in linguistics, Mya was initially assigned to
Izar to assist the resettlement of Bolian refugees who were forced
off their colony world due to massive volcanic eruptions. As the
buildup to the Dominion War proceeded, she was transferred to the
Saratoga where she
became involved with Connor Douglas. The two became engaged a few
weeks before positions opened up on the USS Justice with her and
Sallem who were strongly urged by Starfleet to transfer over due to
personnel shortages.
With the transfer
to the starship Justice, Mya became entered a relationship
with Ubiad Sallem.
*****
Captain's Log, USS
Saratoga
Connor Douglas in
command
Stardate: 53269.6
We are still four hours away from
reaching the Mandith system. Renegade Cardassian forces have already
arrived and in far greater strength than was reported. The Federation
starships stationed in the system have engaged the enemy and as of
our last communications are still operational but will not last much
longer. They are pursuing a highly modified form of guerrilla warfare
of attacking the larger ships then jumping to warp before they can be
pinned down. Once clear, they turn around an attack another group
before repeating the process yet again.
The static system defenses on both
the various civilian habitats and drydocks have so far not allowed
any enemy forces to gain a foothold. Klingon warriors and Federation
Marines along with Cardassian locals are standing ready to repel
borders once they beam over.
“Connor, you
still with us?” LCDR Zhao Shih asked softly while looking at his
friend and now captain.
“Yes, I'm still
here,” Connor said turning himself in the command chair slightly to
right to look at his first officer still growing accustom to the idea
he was now the captain.
Connor didn't say
anything else for a moment choosing to look around at everyone on the
bridge performing their duties. The Saratoga's bridge now had more in
common with that of its younger Sovereign-class sister ships.
The only difference being that all the duty stations were now seated
positions that included the automatic safety belts that were tied
into the inertial dampers. Connor's thoughts were a jumble of
different subjects but he couldn't help but wonder why in the hell it
had taken Starfleet so damn long to include those features.
“Zhao,” Connor
finally said, “be ready to head down to engineering if Lieutenant
Axor needs help once we go into battle. He's a good kid but I'm not
sure he is ready to head up your department while we're engaged in
combat.”
“Aye sir,” Zhao
responded not quite ready to remind Connor that the very same things
had been said about each and everyone one of them at some point.
Deaths during the Dominion War had caused untold thousands of
Starfleet personnel to be promoted far ahead of schedule. Zhao had to
admit that while the Bolian, Wren Axor was a genius with the ship's
systems he had much to learn about how to handle those under his
command.
With the return of
combat the bridge fell silent again as all the personnel retreated
into their duties. While first officer Connor kept busy making sure
everyone stayed alert and ready to respond when the proverbial hammer
fell. Now as captain, his private thoughts and memories kept him
hostage.
***
Delta Acuben 4,
Starbase 738
Stardate: 51251.2
Earth date-May 10,
2373
Seven months after
the start of the Dominion War
The view from the
window of the damaged laboratory showed a motley collection of battle
damaged Starfleet vessels surrounded by a swarm of manned repair pods
that looked like Terran bees. Several of the massive support and
maintenance ships hovered nearby all with their various landing bays
open allowing what amounted to continuous operations.
Lieutenant Connor
Douglas' repair team were under orders to ignore the lab itself and
just repair the optical data conduits that ran behind the bulkheads
as quickly as possible. The recent engagement against a Dominion
cruiser and its escort gunboats and was a success but the ship had
still taken some heavy blows. While the Saratoga wouldn't need
any outside support for repairs Captain Boone wanted the ship ready
to join the task force being assembled to try and take the occupied
Kotin system.
It was while his
team was replacing one of the six junction assemblies that Connor saw
the starship Justice from the window. The immature part of him
immediately wanted to run to the nearest communications terminal and
try and contact Mya. But he knew his duty would not allow such a
distraction given the current situation with the Federation engaged
in a battle for its very existence. With any luck, Connor thought to
himself, Admiral Carter would call for a captain's conference before
the various starships left the system allowing to have a few off duty
hours.
Eleven hours later
that is just what happened and as luck would have it the starships
Saratoga and Justice ended up in nearby parallel orbits
that permitted transporter operations. Connor easily got permission
from the duty officers from both ships to beam over to the Justice.
The interior of the
USS Justice had the same general appearance and layout of the
much larger Galaxy-class vessels and he stepped out of that ship's
starboard transporter room knowing the location of his fiancee
quarters. Part of Connor's mind knew it was probably a bad idea to
beam over without talking with Mya directly beforehand but time was
critical and the saying, “fortune favors the bold” was running
through Starfleet like a bad case of Rigelian flu.
The software that
automatically opens the doors on the Justice immediately
recognized Connor and allowed him entrance without even announcing
his presence to occupants inside the quarters. That was when he saw
both Mya and Ubiad on the bed with the sheets chaotically twisted and
them caught in the act. For a long second the three friends looked at
each other in the same sort shock and disbelief that had heralded the
end of uncounted relationships from the beginning of humankind.
Connor just calmly
smiled and shook his head before turning around and leaving. Ubiad
quickly followed saying something but Connor didn't hear a word of
it. When Ubiad came within range though Connor quickly turn and
punched his former best friend in the chest just above the heart. The
blow was one of those special maneuvers taught at the Academy that
gave human a chance against stronger species. Ubiad immediately fell
to floor unconscious with Connor only taking enough time to make sure
the man wasn't dead. By that time Mya had come out of her quarters
with one of the sheets wrapped around her body, the sweat of her and
Ubiad's lovemaking still gleaming on her body.
“You could have
told me it was over,” was all Connor said before returning to the
transporter room and beaming back to his ship.
*****
“All hands,”
Connor said returning to the present, “this is the captain, we are
fifteen minutes from dropping out of warp. Go to red alert and battle
stations, sick bay and damage control teams be ready to respond
because this is going to be messy.”
All told Starfleet
had dispatched seventeen capital ships to help relieve the defending
forces. The Klingons had sent ten as well but Admiral Cartwright's
original idea was to hold them in reserve. The fact that the
renegades had attacked with over fifteen ships instead of the six
that intelligence said would appear throw that plan out. All the
allied vessels would be engaged with everyone just hoping the
Cardassian IFF (Identification Friend or Foe) systems on the static
defenses mounted on the habitats and drydocks had been updated. While
it was a certainty that the newly reactivated defense systems were
updated for the Starfleet vessels already in the system if the
Cardassian computers didn't recognize types of ships entering the
area the renegades were going to be happily surprised at their good
luck.
As the minutes
ticked down with the flagship, USS Destiny, started
transmitting real-time tactical updates and assignments for the other
ships of the emergency relief force. Saratoga was tasked with
repelling two renegade heavy cruisers that were attempting breach the
defenses of a cluster of drydocks holding six deactivated Cardassian
warships of similar size.
“Here we go
people,” Connor called out, “tactical, open up with phaser
strikes on the enemy ships but hold the photon torpedoes until we're
five-thousand kilometers out. And tactical, set the torpedo pattern
for sierra-six, that should confuse them both. Once the photons are
fired, swing the ship around and put us on a course of 331 mark 061
at full impulse. Then I want all power to shields and forward
phasers.”
The helmsman on
duty was the young Ensign Reid who had long frustrated Connor Douglas
with his silly but bloody gung-ho attitude. “But Captain Douglas,”
Reid said while laying in the maneuver, “that will bring us under
the two renegade ships.”
“Exactly Ensign,”
Connor said, “you wished for a glorious space battle before the
war ended and you're finally getting your wish. They're aren't any
civilian habitats nearby and I rather blow those enemy ships away
before they have a chance to reposition.”
For the entire
voyage to the Mandith system Connor and Zhao had kept the tactical
display on the main viewscreen at the front of the bridge. Connor
switched it to a live forward view barely five seconds before
dropping out of warp. As the warp field evaporated and space returned
to normal there were the two renegade ships trading fire with massive
drydock facilities. Hampered by the fact that the renegade forced
actually wanted to limit the damage to the unmanned ships and other
facilities they could only direct their fire to weapons systems and
power conduits, both heavily protected by shields.
At precisely the
programmed moment the phasers on the Saratoga hit the renegade ships
at their weakest points. For one renegade ship that was an already damaged
shield generator protecting a power conduit leading to a energy
weapons array. The tactical officer, had already instructed the
computer to take advantage of any new vulnerabilities and after the
first phaser hit the shield generator again concentrated fire on that
point. Before the Saratoga passed by that part of the renegade
ship's shield collapsed allowing another volley to penetrate the
hull. The resulting explosion ruptured containment on one of the
secondary fusion reactors killing over a hundred Cardassians on five
decks effectively knocking it out of combat.
The second renegade
ship fared far better than its partner. Saratoga's phaser
strikes didn't affect its shields beyond causing a significant drain
of their available power. By that time Saratoga was beyond
effective phaser range but hadn't yet reached the point where the
photon torpedoes would be launched. The Gul
of the renegade ship ordered his helmsman to pursue the Saratoga
and open fire with all weapons.
“Hits on port
nacelle and strut, shields down to 85 percent” tactical officer
Lieutenant Kinyor said from her station after the ship shuttered.
Just as soon as those words were out her mouth the aft photon
launcher spit out six torpedoes set at maximum charge.
The first two
torpedoes detonated on the renegade ship's forward shields sending a
surge of power back through the emitters the buffers were only barely
able to absorb. The third torpedo overloaded the buffers and the
forth and fifth exploded on the hull thirty meters from the enemy
bridge. The sixth torpedo wasn't targeted for the ship trying to
pursue the Saratoga but the one they had already knocked out. That
torpedo detonated over the bridge causing another hull rupture and
the ship to explode in a fireball that bathed the other ship in hard
radiation frying numerous systems including weapons and life support.
The Saratoga
was still maneuvering around for its second pass when the first
renegade ship exploded. “Massive systems failure on the second
renegade, Captain Douglas,” LT. Kinyor said as her hands danced
over her console.
“Doesn't matter,”
Connor said, “execute the maneuver and lets take it completely out
of the equation. But limit the strikes to its power conduits and
weapons, I'm done with killing but I want that ship barely holding on
with just life support.”
The second pass did
the job with Connor having the Saratoga linger in place just
long enough to make sure it wouldn't be able to return to battle.
“Captain,” Zhao
said looking up from the small terminal attached to his chair, “the
USS Gorkon
is in trouble. She's been jumped by two renegade battleships and all
the other ships including the Klingons are engaged.”
“Helm, get us to
the Gorkon as quickly as possible,” Connor said.
With the arrival of
the relief force in time to prevent the renegades from making off
with the deactivated ships the battle was essentially over. The only
question remaining to be answered would be how suicidal were the
renegades.
The Gorkon
had gotten in trouble getting between two battleships and one of the
civilian habitats. The shields on the habitat had collapsed and the
several hundred renegades had beamed over and were attempting to take
control. Tactical communications told the story of Klingon warriors
and Federation Marines battling the growing number of renegade
troops. The starship Gorkon, one of the more recent
Excelsior-class vessels was prevented from bringing it weapons
up to full power because any damage to the renegade ships would
probably impact the civilian habitat that was housing over fifteen
thousand individuals.
“Get the Saratoga
between those battleships and the Gorkon,” Connor said to
the helmsman. “Tactical, try and target the weapons systems and
warp drives on the renegades. Zhao, try and raise the Gorkon,
see if they can get any distance, we're all too close for comfort
here.” Connor finished hoping it would be enough to save the
damaged Starfleet vessel and the civilians.
Squeezing in
between the opposing ships worked, but the Saratoga was being rocked by heavy weapons fire from the two renegades with no real way to
respond. Things got so tight that the shields from the different
ships started flaring from contact with each other. Despite the
flaring shields and continued weapons fire the Gorkon was able to
limp away from the area, its starboard nacelle growing red from the
plasma fires raging in the warp coils but still engaging one of
the renegade battleships with phaser fire.
“Captain,
receiving a message from the civilian habitat,” Zhao said, “it's
the Klingon general, Kartan, he says that the renegades reached the
habitat's self destruct system and activated it.”
“Captain
Douglas,” the new science officer, Lieutenant Sovan said from his
corner of the bridge. “This civilian habitat is powered by four 500
terawatt helium-3 reactors. Given its position, the resulting
explosion will not only vaporize it but at least twenty others like
it, as well as most of the drydocks and unmanned ships. The renegades
knew what they were doing when the assaulted this facility.”
“Alright,”
Connor said, “tactical you're going to need to prevent the
battleship we're engaged with from moving. Forget the weapons systems
and start blasting anything that has to do with its warp drive or
sub-light propulsion. This has become nothing but a slugfest.”
“Sovan,” Connor
called out, “how long do we have before self-destruct?”
“Ten minutes,
thirty-two seconds,” he said.
“Tactical, give
me an update,” Connor said as the ship was rocked from the energy
volleys being fired at it.
“Shields holding
at 45 percent and I've been able to disable its sub-light engines but
I'm still working on the warp drive.” Lieutenant Kinyor said from
her station.
By this time many
of the surviving renegade ships had heard about the impending
explosion of the civilian habitat and began trying to escape. Admiral
Cartwright sent many of the Starfleet and Klingon ships to hunt them
down. Even the renegade battleship still duking it out with the
Gorkon decided it was time to leave.
“Captain
Douglas,” the ship's intercom blared out, “this is Lieutenant
Axor down in engineering. What the fighom
are you doing to my ship. I'm rerouting systems to keep you
people going but even I can't keep this pace up for much longer.”
Both Connor and Zhao looked at each other after noticing the
arrogance of the Bolian's voice.
“No promises
Axor,” Connor said, “if we don't disable the enemy ship we're
engaged with in a little over nine minutes the Saratoga and everyone
inside her will become super-heated plasma.”
“Captain,”
Kinyor called out, “our combatant is trying to engage warp. I think
its gul wants to save his or her skin.”
“Put a tractor
beam on it and keep firing on its warp engines,” Connor said.
“Eight minutes,
ten second before the habitat detonates,” Sovan said to everyone.
“Sovan,” Connor
said, “look up the name and commanding officer of that ship. Connor
said with an idea struggling to take shape in his head.
“Captain, that
ship is named the Enduring Revenge and before the end of the
war it was commanded by Gul Toohas.”
“Zhao, hail our
friend, Toohas.” Connor said to his first officer.
“Channel open,”
Zhao said.
“Gul Toohas, this
Captain Connor Douglas of the Federation starship Saratoga,
please be advised that you and I are going nowhere. I am the adopted
son of the Klingon House of K'pon and today is a good day to die. I'm
willing to hold your sorry ass right next the civilian habitat your
soldiers have set to detonate. Somehow I don't think you want to die
today, Toohas. Call your people and have them stop the countdown.”
There was no
response from the Enduring Revenge, but two minutes later a
call came out from General Kartan saying the Cardassian troopers had
surrendered after deactivating the self-destruct.
“Now Toohas,”
Connor said over the still open communications link, “power your
ship down completely and prepare to be boarded.”
Captain's Log, USS
Saratoga
Connor Douglas in
command
Stardate: 53292.8
(Two weeks after
the Battle of the Mandith System)
The aftermath of the battle had the
ships of the task force either securing renegade ships or rescuing
the crews of the three original ships assigned occupation duty in the
Mandith system. Personally lucky for me the crew of the Enduring
Revenge killed Gul Toohas after realizing what he had
ordered the soldiers to set the civilian habitat to self-destruct.
Once the members
of the Cardassian provisional government in the Mandith system took
control of the Enduring Revenge I was able to move the
Saratoga over to the location of the starship Justice.
While Sallem and his crew totally exceeded
expectations on keeping the renegades at bay until the relief force
arrived, by the time I laid eyes on the ship it was pretty much a dead
hulk with rescue personnel looking for survivors. Happily to my
surprise, many of the crew had survive in harden section of the ship.
This situation now forces me to do something I should have done a
long time ago.
The deck-five,
section green treatment bay of the hospital ship USS Anna Comnena
held twenty patients all about to be released. The bio-bed display
screens above the patient's head only gave the most basic of
information to the various nurses and technicians on duty. Connor
Douglas walked in looking for one person in particular and found her
on the far end next the bulkhead. After seeing that the patient in
the bed was still asleep he engaged the privacy screen and pulled out
the small chair placed next the bed and began his wait. Two hours
later she woke up quite surprised.
“Oh my god,
Connor I can't believe it you.” Mya Farias said not quite sure what
to make of her ex-fiance sitting next her bed.
“When I found out
you had survived I knew I had to see you...one last time.” Connor
said looking at the woman he once thought he would spend the rest of
his life with.
Mya was puzzled
about what he meant, until she had a terrible thought. “It's Ubiad
isn't it, he died.” Mya said with tears beginning to form on her
face.
“No,” Connor
said, “Ubiad survived as well but in far worse condition. He's
still in the bio-tank and before he gets out will have a two new arms
and a new leg. He was badly burned but his brain was intact and the
doctors say with a couple of years of rehab he will at least be
physically good as new.”
“Connor, I am so
sorry Ubiad and I didn't contact you when our relationship turned
into something more than friendship. I know we hurt you and that
there is nothing I can do to make it better.” Mya said with the
tears now flowing for a different reason.
“That's why I'm
here Mya,” Connor said after gently grabbing her hand. “I was the
one who was wrong, I never should have shown up like that. You're
going to have to tell Ubiad when he gets out of the tank I'm sorry
for sucker punching him in the corridor. For a second or two, I
actually wanted Ubiad dead but when I saw him on the floor, I was
terrified I killed my best friend.”
“Why can't you
tell him? I'm sure he would love to see you again.” Mya asked
wiping her face with a cloth Connor handed her.
“Mya, I'm the
captain of the Saratoga now and I've requested a deep space
mission. Given how my crew and I stopped the Enduring Revenge
and essentially saved the civilian population of the Mandith system
my reward is a seven year exploration mission into the uncharted
regions of the Beta Quadrant. Making matters more interesting it will
take the Saratoga a year to reach the red line marking the end of
charted space. And I'm not including the time my ship will be in
orbit around Mars in drydock getting refitted for the mission. I'm
looking at ten to eleven years before I'll see any of the stars of
home again.”
With nothing left
to say two old friends whispered their goodbyes to each other and
parted ways.
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