Status Report
A Thursday Prompt story
© 2020 by Walter Reimer


Prompt: exclamation


Varan was overseeing the repairs when she noticed Captain k’Jen entering the damaged compartment. “Gartabin,” she said, her tail gesturing the salute she was too preoccupied to make.

K’Jen gestured acknowledgement while looking aside to avoid the glare of a welding torch. “How bad is the damage?”

The vir huffed a breath through her nose and glanced at her padd. “The outer hull is damaged through four sections, with some penetration of the inner hull. Structurally, the ship is intact. Hyperfield emitters in the damaged sections are inoperable, and there are crews outside setting up temporary emitters. They’re using hull plating salvaged from the Terran ship – “

“Are the alloys compatible?” the kam asked.

“The Engineer assures me that the plates will hold until we can get to a repair facility.” She didn’t have to tell him about the dead and injured; knowing k’Jen, he’d gone directly to the Infirmary as soon as the battle was over.

The Terran ship, a heavy cruiser, had come out of hyperspace and charged directly at the formation that the Kith was part of, with all of its weapons firing. The crew of the Confed ship had screamed the name of their vessel as a battle cry over all communication channels as it slashed its way toward the division’s flagship.

It never reached the inner screen.

While Varan might have wanted to ask someone aboard the Terran ship what possessed them to undertake such a suicidal charge – the ship had attacked alone – none of the crew had survived as the ship had been reduced to drifting fragments. The vir shrugged mentally and returned to the business at hand while Captain k’Jen left the area to see how repairs were going in the rest of the ship.

After another half-cycle, the repaired Imperial cruiser picked its way through the remains of the TCS Leeroy Jenkins, headed for the nearest Support station.