A mission in progress

There in the crowd, weather beaten and craggy with the days of brutal sun, were the faces of her fathers. At first, they didn't recognize her. Adlai held his hand up to his forehead to shield his eyes as he squinted at her.

Tal'Ara approached T'Pren, "All prisoners accounted for. Lets start beaming them up immediately and get the hell out of here. I need to contact the Captain."

She stepped away and hit her commbadge, "Captain Rai, this is Commander Tal'Ara. The prisoners have been secured. You will need to drop out of cloak on my signal to receive them."

She turned back to T'Pren with a firm smile, "Good work, Lieutenant."

Was breathing a thing that was supposed to happen? T'Pren couldn't quite recall the mechanics of it, much less make it occur. She wasn't even sure if that was the reason she was suddenly nauseated and lightheaded or if it was something else entirely. Maybe she'd been shot and hadn't even noticed. She was glancing down at her body to check for injuries...but also to avoid her fathers' eyes and/or make them disappear in case it was just a hallucination...when Tal'Ara approached.

"There was a casualty," she replied softly to the Commander. "Ensign Loran is dead." She cleared her throat and glanced down at the beacon. "Ready when you are."

If she was lucky, maybe she could avoid being recognized by Adlai and Muroc until they were on the ship.

"I lost one as well. Didn't know his name," she said distantly.

She shook her head. "These things happen. Be sure to make note of it in your report. Lets get this over with."

Tal'Ara called the attention of the crowd, "Alright, people. This is very simple. Please form an orderly line. We will be beaming people out in groups of 10. All Starfleet personel are to remain on guard at the perimeter until all of the prisoners have been evacuated."

She began herding the prisoners in a line towards the beacon.

She tapped the comm again, "Captain, we are ready to begin beam out."

Rai heaved a sigh of relief at the completion of the mission. "Good to hear your voice, Commander. Stand by for transport."
Off in the transporter pad, they began to beam the prisoners aboard.

Adlai continued to squint at Lt. Inabnet as he shuffled forward in line.
"Don't I know you?" he asked. "You seem familiar."

Tal'Ara stood there in the wind, cleaning the Cardassian blood off the butt of her rifle, as the prisoners began to evacuate.

This was a good victory. But she knew she would have a lot to answer for. Her unrestrained use of lethal force was bound to ruffle quite a few Starfleet feathers.

She shrugged it off, thinking of returning back to DS15, where she would finally be able to spend some time with Falten.

T'Pren glanced at Tal'Ara in surprise at the admission that she didn't know her dead subordinate's name and carefully tried to remind herself that maybe that was just a Romulan thing. But she didn't have much time to think about it because suddenly her dad's voice -- older, rougher, but still his -- was addressing her.

She flushed a green that was practically tropical from her shoulders up to the tips of her exposed ears and frowned with concentration down at the beacon, like she was doing work on it. Even though she clearly wasn't. Her hands started trembling against her sides.

"We'll talk on the ship," she murmured to Adlai without making eye contact. She was suddenly very, very aware of Tal'Ara's presence.

"Pren?" he asked, and in the midst of Adlai's confusion, he was beamed aboard the Hippolyta with Muroc.

T'Pren sucked in a sharp, audible breath, almost like the beginning of a sob when Adlai said her name. If he or Muroc had stayed even a moment longer, she might not have been able to hold it together. As it was, she clenched her hands into fists and tried to hide the quivering of her muscles and the verdancy of her face. All she wanted was to get the prisoners on the ship and then fly the lead shuttle back up so that she could see them. Really see them. Hold them. Touch them. Smell them. Or not. Maybe she just wanted to take the shuttle and fly as far and as quickly away as she possibly could.

She chanced a look at the remainder of the line to see just how much longer she'd need to keep herself together.

The line of refugees was dwindling now, as the transporter crew worked quickly. Finally, only Pren and Tal'Ara remained.
Rai's voice could be heard over their comm badges. "You ready to get out of there?"

"Yes sir," T'Pren blurted a little too quickly. When there was no beaming left to do, she knelt on the boulder to start taking apart the equipment. Because keeping her concentration and her attention on that was the only way to keep from turning green and falling all over herself trying to get back to the ship.

"Do you want the lead shuttle or would you rather follow?" she asked Tal'Ara without looking up.

"I'll follow," she said calmly.

As the senior officer, it was her job to stay to the end.

Tal'Ara got in the second shuttle and prepared for takeoff.

It took T'Pren a few minutes more to get everything disassembled and packed away. She hefted the equipment using both hands, though her Vulcan strength didn't actually require her to do so. But this way she didn't have one hand shaking uncontrollably. She steadied herself as she walked, carefully breathing in and out and resisting the urge to do anything besides her duty.

Get to the shuttle. Fly it back. They'll be there when you get there. They'll be there when you get there. They'll...

Despite her best efforts, a tear or two streaked wet down her T'Pren's cheeks. She took one last look out at the compound and closed the shuttle door. She had it powered up and in gear within a minute of sitting at the controls. "Ready?" she asked Tal'Ara over the comm.

"Yup," said Tal'Ara, who's mind was dwelling on the tongue lashing she was sure to receive from the Captain.

She fired up the engines and got ready to take off.

Everybody loves a good tongue lashing from Captain Rai!

T'Pren threw her impulse engines into action and gratefully put her whole attention into navigating the turbulent atmosphere. And then not leaving Tal'Ara too too far behind when she hit orbit and cranked up the speed.

Tal'Ara was not a particularly gifted pilot, but she managed to keep up with T'Pren on the bumpy ride all the way back to the ship.