Old Ways Die Hard - Part 1

Posted on Wed Mar 11th, 2026 @ 8:06pm by Captain Daegan Baas & Lieutenant Darius Korveth & Lieutenant Niami Troga & Lieutenant JG Ryan Kellerman

1,430 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: What was Lost is Found
Location: Planet Kril'Es
Timeline: MD 6 - 2100

[Kurul's home]

Returning home he placed the bottle of Kali-fal on the table as his wife came in from the back with a steaming cup of tea. Taking a seat at the table she placed the cup in front of him as she sat next to him. "Thank you."

She watched as he sipped his tea. He closed his eyes as he relaxed his shoulders. "What was it like?"

"Amazing. So much has changed since the time I was in the service of the Romulan Empire. But there are also many things that have changed only a little."

"Like what?" Sipping her own tea.

"There is technology beyond anything I could have imagined. "When I served ships had to store food items and resupply as needed. Now...they there are devices that can create anything will a simple command and yet they set larges areas aside to grow food and even have a green space with full grown trees.

"They can travel at speeds faster than anything that existed before, but still take the time to relax. It was incredible. There are even Klingons serving aboard a Federation ship."

The surprise was clear, "The Klingons were enemies of the Federation?"

"Apparently that is no longer true."

"Well Jasmine will be bringing the children by tomorrow after breakfast. They want to hear all about the starship. They were here waiting for you return. You should have seen the disappointment on their faces when she told them they had to go home."

Kurul's smile was broad and he looked forward to seeing his grand daughter and her children. "Well I will have to make it up to them tomorrow with an exciting story about the gleaming starship."

The pair rose and turned in for the night as he fielded more questions about his adventure.


Elsewhere...

The room had learned him by heart over the years.

Dareem stood within it as though he had found himself inside of a diagram: clean angles, bare surfaces, and nothing left to chance. The bed was narrow and made as perfectly as a first-year naval cadet might prepare it for inspection. A table sat opposite it, sized for two but hadn't ever been used that way. The kitchen alcove had only what was required to sustain a body and nothing there to comfort it.

Above the table, a glass case caught in the dim light. Inside it was the weight of his entire life: rows of medals and commendations. They were dulled by time but their meaning remained as sharp as ever. He lifted the case from its bracket and held it in both hands. He was always fooled by how heavy it felt whenever he did. It always was.

He could remember the screams of plasma along the hull at Grisheldris Prime. He remembered what it felt like to be left for dead after the Battle of Nelvana Rift, drifting among wreckage while orders took days to arrive, and how discipline had been the only thing to keep them from unraveling. And he remembered kneeling before the sigil of the Empire, swearing an oath that required no witness because it required no mercy.

The Valkyrie had stirred all of this. Its corridors open and spacious. Its systems anticipating every need before ever being spoken. It was a vessel that coddled its crew. It felt very much like it trusted them to remain loyal without fear. And that offended Dareem.

He set the case down with care and crossed to the bed. The drawer in the bedside table slid open silently. From within, he pulled out a photograph which had been creased and worn soft at the edges.

Anastasya Cherkezishvili.

Her hair had been going grey even then, stubborn strands that always seemed on the verge of breaking loose. Her eyes--cobalt blue and unguarded--looked directly at him. Freckles dusted her nose and forehead. She was smiling.

Ana had lived life in a way that frightened Dareem. She wasn't reckless. Earnest. She'd spoken to him as if he were not a weapon--as if he weren't a soldier whose base instinct was violence. She had asked questions that had no tactical value. She looked at him and always waited.

Dareem had been the last of their crew to take a mate. It had been years since they'd been on the planet and he'd still been alone. But Ana had captured his heart, finding a small seam in his armour. Their courtship had been short but those weeks were some of the best of his life.

When the Federation's water purifier had failed, he'd stood watch outside the infirmary. Three lay inside, burning with fever. Only one did not rise to their feet again. The Federation had offered him Ana, and then in an almost split-second, took her away. He had felt something open in him with her--wide and completely unmanageable--and he had closed it again with the only tool he ever trusted.

Duty.

He touched the photograph once, careful not to wear it further. It was over a hundred years old. Then he returned it to the drawer and sealed it away.

The pain didn't lessen. It never did. But it did organize itself.

He stood, already certain. The Valkyrie would be taken.

Dareem stepped out of the dim light beyond his door and raised his voice in the most calm and resolute way he could muster.

"Gather the bloc."

The man patrolling the settlement didn't react, save for the slightest of nods, or change his pace as he went about his rounds. As he went about his duties he knocked at certain doors with a specific pattern before moving onto the next, then the next until all the members had been notified. Had he bothered to look behind him he would have seen hooded figures slip into the night.

Akir checked around him one last time as approached Dareem's place. Satisfied he was not seen he knocked appropriately before entering. After closing the door behind him he lifted his hands and removed his hood. "I was wondering if you were going to call us together."

Dareem didn't invite Akir to sit.

"Akir," he said, crossing the small room to where a small footlocker sat in a lonely corner. "I do not summon the bloc for wondering. This we must do out of necessity."

Coming to rest on one knee, he pulled the locker toward him and flipped open its squeaky lid, revealing a metallic sash with the insignia of their blessed Empire. He lifted it carefully, each of its links clanking as it ascended into the low light of the room.

Sokah entered removing his hood, seeing Dareem holding out the old remnant of the past. He had hoped the arrival of the ship and the aid they seemed to have given freely would strengthen their ties to the human but apparently not. He wondered what had happened up on the starship, but he would wait until the others arrived and they heard what took place.

Akir's hand touched the metal, his fingers tracing the emblem. He looked to Dareem, "What happened on their ship?"

"What happened aboard their ship is that I was reminded of who they are."

Dareem watched as Akir stroked the emblem of the Empire.

"They live in abundance, Akir," Dareem continued. "They surround themselves with softness. Their corridors are wide and accommodating. Their computer systems create sustenance to quell hunger, boredom, loneliness. They have no discipline."

He rose slowly and sighed. "They believe this makes them strong. It does not."

Akir moved away, looking to the others, before taking a seat. "The whole settlement is buzzing about the ship, the upgrade they made to our communication, the power their engineers have restored. Word is that tomorrow they will be starting to make sure the dispensary, the council chamber will have power run to them and them they intend to start getting power to homes."

Running his fingers through the flame of the candle. "While you were up their getting fed and offended, we were down here watching them get their hand dirty doing whatever needed to be done. They might live well up there...but they didn't look week to me."

Sokah could feel the pressure in the room. Glancing from Posrum and back to Akir and Dareem. "Dareem would not have summoned us unless he had something important. A report on what was observed could have been passed like any other message. Dareem, why are we here?"


TBC...

 

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