The Vaadwaur Supremacy did not return the following day nor the day after or even the subsequent days that followed; and with each sunrise it brought new hope, hope that the fight here at least, was over.  But at what cost to the people of Samson III and the many hundreds who had come to visit this place for a holiday; sampling its simplistic beauty or immersing themselves in the challenges of rural life from a bygone age.

The death toll had been horrific; and yet even five days after the disaster that had claimed so many, miracles still happened.  Survivors were still being pulled from the wreckage of the collapsed buildings.  Despite this though; the lines of graves grew bigger by the hour.

Nurse Folland was one of those tasked with collecting samples from those individuals who had yet to be identified.  The woman she was dealing with at that moment looked so peaceful, just lying there, sleeping.  But like so many here, it was a sleep from which they’d never awake.  Sarah tried to brush aside the fact that this woman reminded her so much of her own mother.  May be this woman was a mother; definitely a wife, the ring was proof of that.  Had her husband survived?  Would he be laying flowers at her grave; like so many others had already done?

She logged the sample on her Padd and placed it into a small refrigerated box along with five others she’d collected. Selling the box, she pasted it on to one of the ships orderlies, who would see to its safe storage, until such time this woman’s identity could be established.

Folland heard a sort of clopping noise on the road just outside the tent she was working in.  Pocking her head through the flap, she spotted a man leading two large horses.  “Are those your horses?”  She asked him.

“No miss, I was here on vacation.” He replied.  “The guy who owned these didn’t make it; my names Peter, Peter Lycetts.”  He held out a hand whilst keeping hold of the reins with the other.  Remembering the horrible way in which Jack Timmins, the horse’s owner and local farmer; had met his end.

“Nurse Folland, just call me Sarah though.” She shook his hand. “They look beautiful.”

“That they are.” Peter mused. “It took me a bit of time to track them down, but Boxer and Tyson here, hadn’t gone too far at least.”

“What will happen to them?” Sarah gave the closest horse a gentle pad.

“I honestly don’t know.” Peter lowered his head in reflection.  “I guess we’ve formed a bit of a bond working together shifting supplies around.”

Boxer nudged him with the side of its head; a sort of reassuring nudge, that conveyed an understanding of how the man felt.  What these two beasts understood of the world around them was hard to tell; but they could sense the mood of the young man who now cared for them.  Their previous own was no longer a part of their lives; that much they did seem to know.

**********

Lieutenant Alara Ley was sitting on top of an old brick wall; at least it was meant to look old, just like those you’d find dividing up the fields in a typical English countryside scene.  Alara had been to one of those places whilst on a break from Cadet training.  Yorkshire was what they’d called it.  This reminded her of that time.

‘Beautiful, isn’t it?” The voice of her late husband curtesy of the symbiont he’d once carried and was now part of her.  She felt a sense of calm; not like the rage that had welled up inside her, when the news of the explosions had reached her.  It had been such a senseless loss of life, and what for?  Alara looked across the fields to the planets sun, slowly rising; its light dancing and casting shadows amongst the trees on the ridge.  How many sun rises across how many worlds had Ley’s various hosts witnessed?  How many more would she get to share? ‘Yes it’s beautiful.’

**********

Lieutenant Devron was supervising one of the working parties.  The building they were working on, had been a church.  The bell tower had survived the blast and had been made safe with several support beams.  Crew from the Grus had been joined civilians in an effort to clear the rubble.  Every once on a while they’d all stop and listen is one of them thought they heard something, and Ensign periodically scanned each section of the collapsed building.

It was during one such scan of the site that he held up a hand; his tricorder had picked something up.  Everyone else stopped as he adjusted the focus of the devices scan.  “Quick, I’ve got a heartbeat!”

Jason moved closer, as four of those working on the church moved towards the location the Caitian was indicating.  It had been over 36 hours since the last living person had been pulled from this building.  Swiftly yet carefully, they started to move the stone rubble; some of the pieces were that big and heavy, it took all of them to move them out of the way.  As they went deeper, they could just make out a figure; no in fact it was two.  A man and a woman, both in their early twenties; both wearing simple clothing typical of the farming community on this planet.  Neither of them moved, huddled together in one final eternal embrace; they’d died protecting one life that meant more to them than their own, a small boy of no more than 3 or 4 months of age.

As the baby was carefully carried across the shattered structure to a waiting nurse; Jason tapped C’Rren on the shoulder. “You did well.”

“You humans have such small families.” The Caitian contemplated. “I have brothers, sister, cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents.  So may that would care for me it I’d lost my parents.  They’ve always been there, every step of the way.”

“I know it’s hard.” Jason replied. “But today you saved a life.”

C’Rren gave a little smile; amongst all the chaos and destruction he had witnessed on this planet, he would hold on to the memory of this moment.  Then he took the tricorder in both hands and started scanning another section of the building.

**********

Ensign Hayley Green was surrounded by wires and various pieces of electronic equipment.  As a Maintenance Engineer, she was used to taking things apart and putting them back together, in an effort to get them working again.  Someone had saved her the trouble of the first part, having clearly removed the front panel and just yanked the innards out.  This had been and hopefully soon would be again, the environmental control system. The weather on Samson III wasn’t too extreme, so not having the thing working for the past few days wasn’t a huge problem.  Which was why it hadn’t been high on her ‘to do list’, the fact that it was her list and not one assigned to her by Chief Engineer Yolanda was another telling issue.

Ensign Gofan  the Arbazan computer expect, stood to one side, examining a small component.  “I didn’t realise they used the series four actuators on this thing.”  It was part of the assembly that enabled the dish to keep locked on its orbiting satellite.

“Can you stop fiddling with stuff and moving it?” Green looked at him. “You can play with this thing and do all your programming wizardry when I’ve got it back together.”

Gofan put the actuator back down, roughly but not entirely in the right place.  “Oh, a ZT-27 Tracking Hub.” His hand moved towards what basically just look like a black box.

“Leave it.” She waved a finger in his direction, without turning to face the Arbazan. “Go find some software to update.”  She wasn’t annoyed with him as such, they both got on rather well, their rolls often meant they worked together; but he did get bored easily if his mind wasn’t focused on something, and right now, he had nothing to focus on.

“Ok, I know when I’m not wanted.” Gofan smiled, he knew when he was starting to become a pain.  He started to walk away. “Have fun.”

‘Now who’s going to pass me the other adjustable spanner?’  Hayley thought to herself as she realised that passing her the required tools had been the main reason Ensign Gofan had been there in the first place.  ‘Slipped up there didn’t you?’

**********

In the Captains Ready Room aboard the USS Grus; both her captain and the captain of the USS da Vinci sat discussing the mission and how things had unfolded.  On the one hand the removal of the Vaadwaur threat was a positive aspect, yet the gaining of valuable information about them and their intentions have failed.  They both hoped other divisions and ships captain’s had met with greater success.

Having the help of the Orion’s had certainly been an unexpected twist; either of their ships would have fared to well, without Navaar Orci; but as always she and her band of pirates, had an ulterior motive.  Navaar now possessed Vaadwaur technology; and thanks to following the USS Grus here, an escape route.

The Vaadwaur Supremacy had come looking for something; it hadn’t been on this plant.  Lieutenant Agusta in Astrometrics, was currently searching for the answer of where to look.

The com system bleeped and was followed by the voice of Ensign Cho. “Bridge to Captain.”

“Go ahead Ensign.” Vought replied.

“I’m picked up a number of Starfleet communications.” The Korean informed him.

“Thank you, I’ll be right there.” Vought stood up from his chair. “Well it looks like we’re no longer alone.”

“I just hope its good news and not the surrender order.” Anacostia-Bolling commented.

“When do we ever surrender?” Chance smiled back, heading to the door.  “Coming?”