Playing The Waiting Game

Ensign McMillan was sitting in the cockpit of the Mustang class runabout Devastator II, familiarising herself with the controls. All around her, a battle was going on and there was nothing that she could do to help. Captain Devore had given her a specific task. Get as well acquainted with the Devastator II as possible.

"When the time comes, you will be flying down to the surface of Limerius IX to rescue my crew." He had said.

The Mustang class vessel was slightly larger in size to a Danube class runabout. It had been specifically designed to be used on large warships like the Akira class. The vessel was equipped with regenerative shield, three quantum torpedo launchers mounted in a weapons pod above the hull, phaser cannons and ablative armour. In short, it had been designed to enter a war zones and survive. Earlier, Tricia had been introduced to Lieutenant MacLeod, a Jem'Hadar who was also the Senior Operations officer. He had come down with Ensign Joka, the security officer who had originally greeted her when she came onboard the Leviathan.

Tricia had been temporarily assigned to the Leviathan when the Ronin's shuttlepod (Which she had been flying at the time.) had been forced come onboard to make repairs. The Aldrin had been patched up, almost like new and was ready to return to the Ronin. MacLeod had seemed quite civilised, which was something that had surprised Tricia. She thought that she would instinctively hate any Jem'Hadar, Vorta or Founder that she met.

Tricia had been too young to remember most of the Dominion war. But both her parents had been killed during a Dominion attack on Starbase 130. Her father was the Helm officer aboard the USS Starchaser and her mother was a shuttle pilot on the Starbase. The Starchaser had been destroyed defending the Starbase and it was a tragic accident that her mother had been onboard at the time. Tricia's mother had just brought across fresh supplies from the Starbase and was prevented from leaving by the attack. Tricia had only been eight years old at the time, living on Earth and since losing her parents had been passed between various relatives before arriving at her mother's recently retired parents, when she was around sixteen.

MacLeod had been assigned to lead a landing party to find and recover the lost crew of the Ohio (Renamed the Devastator by the Marines that had been onboard.). What an Operations officer was doing leading a landing party was anyone's guess, But the Captain had assigned him, so he must have had his reasons.

It was Tricia's job to get the Devastator II onto the surface of the planet and return with the landing party and the rescued officers, not to second-guess why the Captain had made such an unusual decision. Over the ship's intercom, the Captain made an announcement.

"To all members of the crew, we have with the help of the Nuan Ambassador defeated the section of the Barien fleet that was blocking our path to Limerius IX. However, we have paid a heavy price for this victory. We have lost around seventeen crew onboard ship and the crew of the runabout Nile. At present, we have no word on the number of casualties taken by either the Ronin or the Hellcat. We are currently taking onboard a number of Nuan fighters. All available engineering crews report to the main shuttlebay to make any necessary repairs. Devore out."

*I wonder how the Ronin is doing ?* Tricia thought, after all the Ronin was her assigned ship.*Would there be a Ronin to go back to after all this ?. Could be one of the shortest commissions in Starfleet history.* Trish joked to herself.