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Sisters...
I'd like to confirm the Romulan theory that a ship takes on the attribute of it's name holds on yet another of our ships. USS Aurora, wild, free, and beautiful. USS Hawking, named after a wheelchair bound scientist, a science ship, investigating puzzles, and limping home for a refit after every mission. USS Deliverance, an outcast ship, seeking a way out of the wilderness, a way to regain a place of honor she may never have had. USS Defiant, legs shoulder width apart, closed fists on hips, and shouting her name to the galaxy.
By now you likely heard that the Klingons tried and failed to take the Bajorn homeworld. If the rumors continue to spread, you will have heard that the sudden appearance of the DS9 task force drove them off. This is not entirely true. The Klingons were in retreat before reinforcements arrived. They were turned by the Defiant alone. Well, we were almost alone. We found a little itsy bitsy moon with us, with warp drive and a cannon. So, yes, OK, it was a very big moon with warp drive and a very big cannon.
I am beginning to feel like the only Joy that can't hold down a job. I can't help but compare myself to Seven and Eleven, who can hold down both Ops and Helm on Aurora and Hawking. I lasted a week on Deliverance as assistant security, a day as Tac, and another day as Science before being court marshalled. My post on Defiant is double, Computer Specialist and Stellar Cartographer. As the battle started, I ran diagnostics on the computer, and confirmed that Bajorn's star was in the correct place. I then tried to say very quiet, and hoped Commodore Jats wouldn't notice me.
Unfortunately, half the bridge crew was away flying the moon. One of Jat's first moves was to launch fighters, so half of the remaining half of the bridge crew left for fighter bay. As a result, if the Bajorn star had started to move, no one would have been watching it. I was a very busy doing a whirlwind tour of Defiant's bridge.
Three minutes at science analyzing Klingon formation and offensive capability. Two minutes at Ops supervising fighter launch. One minute at Tac destroying two of the lead battle cruisers. An eternity back at Ops, trying to transport a pilot out of his disintegrating fighter. Ten seconds back at Science, planning a colony for 5,000,000 Bajorn refugees that came with our moon. Five seconds supervising Defiant's power load. (For once we had too much power. Defiant is built to sustain warp 9.9 plus, and the battle was in normal space. I actually had to cut back power production! Defiant has a third power source, in addition to M/AM and fusion, but I wasn't tempted in the slightest.) Another eternity was spent handling the tractor beams, nursing a wounded fighter back aboard. Then I had another 25 nanoseconds to finish planning the new Bajorn colony, as the moon's life support systems went down.
Normally time is so slow? One must always be polite, and not let the biologicals realize how much time they waste? Somewhere half way through the battle I felt trapped in a relativistic time warp, with organics travelling quickly on the run, and phaser beams slowly catching up with quantum torpedoes. I remember the Commodore ordering me to finish the colony planning, but being so involved with fighter supervision that colony planning effort had been entirely swapped out of memory. I have a vivid image of my first phaser strike bringing an old D7's shields to the point of failure, with a full spread of torpedoes inbound.
And I think, my sisters, that we are going to become legend on Bajor. We just set down five million people in a dead hurry as a saboteur on the moon was trying to kill them. We dropped them all in the southern hemisphere, and hopefully can get them seeds and farming tools before growing season gets far underway. As Bajor is much in ruins from the recent fighting, the shelter is going to be poor or worse. In the hurry of transport, we may have scattered families all over a continent, separating husband from wife from child.
The first few years of Bajorn restored will be messy indeed. And I am sure, in time, that everyone will come to know that their colony was planned by an Ensign, in ten minutes, while fighting a Klingon battle fleet, and having one hand tied behind her back. Note, my sisters, if you are offered shore leave on Bajorn, you may wish to politely decline.
But for the moment, the people are Home. Alive, home, and on the Planet of the Prophets. This was unlikely to them, not long ago. Our security chief had been mistaken for one of the Prophets. They are now sure she is something far greater, to have so neatly fulfilled a prophecy of return. I hope Jats doesn't leave her behind to be worshipped, and to guide the five millions into their new millennium.
For now, we are bound back to DS9. I note Aurora did not arrive with the relief fleet, and assume she is now based elsewhere. I hope this note finds you all well.
Until assimilation
Ten