The Aftermath of Wolf 359

Chapter 7

Sisko had been traveling on a very crowded shuttle for nearly three days now, heading for the nearest Starbase, in the Lalandel system, which was ten days away at the shuttle's top speed. As they'd been traveling three days now, they had another week to go. They had been trying to keep energy use to a minimum, as the Lalandel system would be on the far end of the shuttle's range, and had been broadcasting a distress call hoping to get picked up first.

Sisko's arms and calves hurt from spending so much time with his son Jake on his lap, who was too big to be held that way these days, but he didn't care. He wanted to be that close to his son as much as his son wanted to be that close to him, and there was barely enough space for anyone to sit comfortably. Jake had been coughing up black mucus and wheezing most of the trip, and Sisko wanted to make him as comfortable as possible, even if that meant keeping him on his lap. Jake had been complaining he was cold, as they'd had to reduce life support to minimum safe levels to conserve power, so Sisko found a coat from emergency supplies to put on him, which is what he was wearing now. While they had enough triox in the med kit to keep Jake's condition from deteriorating critically, he desperately needed a doctor.

The Bolian Lt. tapped Siskos shoulder to get his attention. "There's a Bird of Prey hailing us, approaching at high warp."

"Klingons?" Sisko asked, half awake.

"Yes Sir." He answered.

"Put them on screen." Sisko answered, waking up.

"This Captain Vograth, of Ben'Toth. Are you in need of assistance?"

"Yes." Sisko answered.

A few minutes later, the comms said, "We're dropping out of warp so you can dock with us."

Captain Vograth headed to the shuttle bay to meet the human p'tak who fled the field of battle, he was surprised to see most of the people who exited the shuttle in civilian clothing, dirty and injured, many of the children of different ages, with adults, mostly civilian women, carrying the smallest children. While there were three science and medical officers in blue, including one with their wrist wrapped up in a makeshift splint, there was only one officer in red, and he was carrying an injured child in his arms, from the resemblance, almost certainly his son, and one Bolian in yellow. While Vograth couldn't think of many things that would convince him to leave the field of battle, carrying his injured child out of harm's way would be on the top of the list, and Bolians had even less courage than humans, so it was not surprising the Bolian ran from battle. It was clear most of these people were not warriors. Given how few of these people were in Starfleet uniforms, he wondered if they had come from a combat ship at all, or a civilian transport caught in the crossfire. "Welcome to the Ben'Toth."

"Thankyou." Sisko answered.

"Are you from a combat ship?" Vograth asked. Sisko nodded. "Then where are the rest of your officers?" It being clear that if most of their evacuation vehicles had a similar ratio of civilians, most of the ship's officers were in Sto'vo'kor. Sisko shook his head concerned, confirming Vograth's assumption.

"We got the civilians out first." Sisko answered hesitantly.

"So most of the crew died honorably in battle?" He asked, almost surprised by realization.

"So they did." Sisko replied.

"Then come, we must drink and feast to honor the brave warriors fallen in battle. We may not have much in the way of human food, but we'll eat what we have. Do you like meat?"

Jake stirred in Sisko's arms as he followed Vograth out of the shuttle bay, clearly woken by the motion. He started coughing hysterically as he woke. Once he stopped coughing, he realized they were in a strange small room, not in the shuttlecraft anymore. He looked up at his father, "Dad, where are we?"