Chapter 37 - Teaser! (Patreon)

The next chapter is nearly done, my friends!  It needs some more TLC, but I should have it up sometime tomorrow.

I also wanted to apologize and beg the forgiveness of many of you.  My goal has always been to respond to all comments and posts within a day or two, but I'm way behind at the moment.  I started a new job this month, in an entirely new practice area, and it has been sucking up all my time, attention, and energy, as I worked 60 plus hour weeks.  Hopefully that will get better as time goes on.

In the meantime, enjoy the teaser!! :-)

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Main Bridge. USS Cairo. On route to Kessik IV.

“We will be dropping out of warp in 90 seconds, Captain,” the Benzite helmsman of the USS Cairo reported.

“All crew to duty stations, prepare for combat operations,” the human first officer named Leslie Wong ordered.

“Shields at full, all weapons, ready,” the tactical officer reported.

Captain Edward Jellico’s gaze was locked on the viewscreen, taking in the constant chatter and information sharing his well-oiled crew were engaging in prior to battling the Hur’q. He was both determined and excited to protect a Federation world from the depredations of the alien race that had wreaked havoc across so much of the alpha quadrant.

The sector the Cairo had been ordered to patrol was relatively out of the way and of little strategic importance in normal terms, so the ship and crew had had no contact or reason to engage the Hur’q since their invasion of this galaxy and universe had begun. That, of course, hadn’t stopped the ship and her crew from hearing about the many horrors the Hur’q had perpetrated on the many worlds that they attacked, with little to no regard for what race called the world home. To the Hur’q, they were all enemies, all food and they didn’t seem to care how many enemies they made in the process. This alien way of thinking and waging war was frightening on a very visceral level.

The insectoid race was a mystery and how they ultimately chose their targets was still unknown to them all. What was known was that they gave no quarter and made no distinction between military personnel and civilians. They even killed and ate children, and not always in that order. It disgusted him. He had come to hate the Cardassians during the Federation’s war with them, for their casual brutality and the way they devalued their enemies, in fact he had made a name for himself during that war and had given as good as he got in many engagements with the wily race. Compared to the Hur’q, though, the Cardassians seemed almost like gentlemen.