Lt. K'Lara had never seen a planet destroyed in such a way. In fact, she had never seen a planet destroyed period. She was shocked, but she didn't let that phase her when she heard the order for evasive maneuvers. She pushed the ship to its limits until she heard Captain Maruu give the order to slow the ship. Then she let herself be taken aback by what she saw.
By Kahless! K'Lara gasped as she thought of how those people died. She couldn't comprehend it. She didn't even know why.
"Status report," came the captain's voice.
"Minor damage on decks one through five. Three deaths so far. One of them is Ensign Crell." Lt. Lataro announced, nodding toward the station that the ensign had occupied. "There's some minimal damage in Engineering and Deck Ten. Two more people were just beamed to Sickbay."
Captain Maruu nodded solemnly. "I want all my senior officers in the Briefing Room in ten minutes."
The crew watched as Maruu left the Bridge. K'Lara caught Lataro's eye and she saw what he was thinking. The captain was going to be taking this hard. It was his first crew and his first mission. They were all going to be growing up fast.
K'Lara turned back around to the view screen and watched as the stars sparkled before her. They didn't seem so beautiful now as she thought about the deaths of those inhabitants. Life meant nothing out here, and she learned that the hard way. Even Klingons valued life, but not to these enemies.
[This is Captain Maruu,] Maruu's voice came over the com system. [There will be a brief memorial service for the dead Federation officers and Jeorri citizens in the Mess Hall at 1600 hours tomorrow. I hope all of you will be there.]
K'Lara turned back around and stared at the station where Crell used to be. She barely knew him, yet she felt her eyes water up with tears. The sudden unexpected tragedy upset her. She angrily shook the tears away. She jumped when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked up and saw Lataro standing before her.
"It's all right," he whispered, "I don't think any of us knew Crell that well."
K'Lara knew it wasn't a good idea, but she had to anyway. She wrapped her arms around Lataro's neck and hugged him. She knew there would be several more crewmembers comforting each other this way before the week was out.