Cal's War Pt 6: Little Wonders
Posted on Tue Aug 11th, 2026 @ 3:46pm by Lieutenant Callum Cowan
6,423 words; about a 32 minute read
Mission:
Flashbacks
Location: Kappa Colony
Timeline: Early 2381
Cal and Emily arrived in the briefing room together, each carrying a mug of coffee. The previous couple of days had passed with an almost unfamiliar sense of calm. No emergency launches, no frantic recalls to the flight deck and, perhaps most remarkably, no unexpected encounters with the Borg. For a little while Wayfarer had settled back into the steady rhythm of maintenance, routine patrols and the quiet anticipation that came with knowing the next call for help could arrive at any moment.
The entire squadron had been summoned before breakfast, but nobody appeared particularly surprised. If anything, the call felt overdue. Pilots filtered into their usual seats, conversation staying low as coffee mugs found tabletops and flight jackets were draped over chair backs. Across the room Owen was already quietly debating shuttle availability with one of the maintenance chiefs, whilst a pair of younger pilots compared notes on the previous afternoon's flight schedules. Around them, the briefing room carried the familiar murmur of people settling into another working day.
Commander Hayes waited until the room had settled before activating the display behind him. A blue-green world slowly rotated into view, surrounded by orbital overlays and highlighted population centres.
"Kappa Colony."
He let the image remain for a moment before continuing.
"At 0314 this morning we received a transmission from Squadron Twelve. They were responsible for evacuating the colony before continuing operations further spinward. According to their report the initial evacuation proceeded successfully."
His expression remained unreadable.
"Their final transmission contained only two additional words."
Hayes glanced briefly at the PADD in his hand, more out of habit than necessity.
"Evacuation incomplete."
The display shifted again, this time highlighting the colony's estimated population.
"We've received no further communications from the surface. Long-range sensors remain inconclusive, but based on the colony census it's estimated there may still be approximately thirty thousand civilians planetside."
Nobody spoke.
Cal found himself looking first towards Emily, then across to Mateo a few seats further along the table. Thirty thousand people. The number sat heavily in the room, impossible to ignore. Around him the usual pre-mission restlessness had disappeared entirely, replaced by the quiet focus that always came before a difficult job.
Hayes stepped away from the display and folded his hands behind his back.
"The nearest confirmed Borg activity is currently two sectors away. That gives us a window, but not one we can afford to waste."
His eyes settled briefly on Alpha Flight.
"You launch immediately. Find out exactly what we're dealing with."
He looked across the rest of the assembled squadron.
"The remainder of you begin preparing for sustained evacuation operations. I want every shuttle that's capable of flying made ready. Engineering, keep them serviceable. Medical, prepare for continuous casualty intake. Flight crews, assume you'll be rotating through rescue operations until further notice."
Nobody needed telling what that meant. If thirty thousand people really had been left behind, Wayfarer alone wouldn't clear the colony in a single day. They'd fly until they physically couldn't anymore, grab a few hours' sleep wherever they found space, then launch again.
Hayes allowed the room to sit with that thought before speaking one final time.
"Nobody else is coming."
For a moment the only sound in the room was the quiet hum of the briefing room's environmental systems.
Then chairs scraped back almost as one.
Coffee mugs were abandoned where they sat. Flight jackets were shrugged on in practiced motions, conversations beginning immediately as Alpha Flight moved instinctively towards the launch bay while the rest of the squadron dispersed to prepare every shuttle Wayfarer possessed.
The briefing had lasted barely five minutes.
It had been enough.
By the time Alpha Flight reached the launch bay, their two assigned shuttles were already in the final stages of preparation.
The deck was alive with organised chaos. Engineers moved briskly from one craft to another, sealing access panels, topping off consumable stores and signing off maintenance checks with hurried nods before moving on to the next waiting shuttle. Elsewhere, flight crews were busy preparing the remainder of Wayfarer's eclectic collection of small craft, every available vessel being made ready in anticipation of what might become the largest evacuation operation any of them had ever undertaken.
Pilots from across the squadron filtered steadily onto the flight deck, many already dressed in flight jackets despite having no immediate launch orders. Nobody wanted to be the one still getting ready when the call eventually came.
"Cal, take Emily. Sam's with me."
Mateo hardly broke stride as he crossed the deck, pulling the zip of his flight jacket closed with one hand whilst checking a PADD in the other.
"We'd cover more ground flying separately," Cal observed, looking from their assigned shuttle to the second one already being prepared.
Emily answered before Mateo could.
"No."
Cal looked at her.
She folded her arms.
"You heard what happened to Delta Flight."
Mateo nodded in agreement.
"We don't know what we're flying into yet. Once we've seen what's down there and know what we're dealing with, we'll split up if it makes sense."
He rested a hand briefly against the hull of his shuttle.
"Until then..."
"...nobody flies alone."
Cal considered arguing the point for perhaps half a second before deciding against it.
"...Fair enough."
Emily's expression immediately softened into a grin.
"I'll bring the snacks."
She punctuated the declaration with a light punch to his shoulder before jogging up the boarding ramp.
Cal watched her disappear into the shuttle before shaking his head to himself with an amused smile.
"I don't think you actually brought any snacks."
"I'll find some."
"You definitely won't."
"We'll see."
Laughing quietly to himself, Cal followed her aboard.
A short while later the two Starfleet shuttles slipped away from Wayfarer, accelerating smoothly into warp. They travelled in loose formation, sensor arrays sweeping constantly ahead as they closed on Kappa Colony.
None of them knew quite what they expected to find.
Only that whatever Squadron Twelve had left behind...
...they were about to meet it first.
Both shuttles dropped smoothly out of warp some distance short of Kappa Colony, their sensor arrays immediately coming alive as they began sweeping the world below.
At first glance, nothing appeared unusual.
The planet turned peacefully beneath them, its blue oceans and green continents almost inviting after weeks spent staring into the darkness of space. There were no signs of orbital combat, no burning settlements and no debris fields drifting silently overhead. If Cal hadn't known better, he might have believed the colony had simply been overlooked by the war entirely.
Emily leaned over her console, adjusting the sensitivity of their sensor sweep.
"I'm not seeing much down there," she admitted. "Plenty of life signs, but it's difficult to separate colonists from wildlife at this altitude. There isn't much activity around the settlements."
She frowned slightly.
"They could've taken shelter while they waited."
"Possibly," Sam's voice replied over the open comm channel. "But our readings don't really support that either. I'd expect more concentrated life signs if everyone had gathered together."
Cal studied the slowly growing world ahead through the canopy.
"I suppose there's only one way to find out."
His hand eased the throttle forward.
The two Starfleet shuttles accelerated together, maintaining a loose formation as they began their descent.
The weather over Kappa Colony was almost idyllic.
A handful of scattered clouds jostled the shuttles briefly as they entered the atmosphere before giving way to bright skies and calm air. Visibility stretched for miles in every direction, revealing patchwork farmland surrounding a modest settlement that looked every bit the peaceful frontier community it had once been built to be.
Cal deliberately kept their approach offset from the town itself, allowing the shuttles to descend several miles away before curving gently back towards the settlement. The familiar crack of atmospheric entry echoed harmlessly across open countryside rather than directly over people's homes.
"It always feels rude," Emily remarked.
"What does?"
"Arriving like that."
Cal smiled.
"I've never really thought about it."
"I have."
She looked out across the fields below.
"If there are people down there, they've probably had enough loud noises for one lifetime."
Before long the first buildings crested the horizon.
Kappa had clearly been designed as a model agricultural colony. Most of the buildings rose no more than two storeys above the ground, interspersed with wide streets, community spaces and neat rows of homes that gave the settlement an unexpectedly welcoming appearance from the air.
It also made searching remarkably easy.
Cal guided their shuttle into a slow pass over the town.
Nothing.
No pedestrians.
No vehicles.
No children.
No movement whatsoever.
His eyes flicked between the streets below and the sensor display mounted beside his seat.
"I'm not seeing anything."
His voice had grown noticeably quieter.
"No movement."
Sam answered almost immediately.
"Nothing on sensors either."
A brief pause.
"Not in the town."
Emily adjusted her tricorder's remote scan one final time before something finally caught her attention.
"Hang on..."
She leaned closer to the display.
"I've got something."
Cal glanced across.
"What is it?"
"Human life signs."
She zoomed the display in.
"A mile or so beyond the eastern edge of the settlement."
She looked back up.
"I think it's a farm."
Mateo's shuttle banked gently alongside theirs before turning towards the town once more.
"Alright," he said. "Sam and I will set down in the square and see if we can work out what's happened here."
His tone remained calm.
Professional.
"You two investigate those life signs."
"Understood."
Cal acknowledged the instruction before beginning a gentle turn away from the settlement.
Almost without thinking, he keyed the comm again.
"Be careful."
There was the briefest pause.
"You too," Sam and Mateo answered in perfect unison.
Cal couldn't help smiling.
Emily laughed beside him.
Mateo sighed theatrically.
"And keep the comm line open."
The two shuttles separated, one continuing towards the silent town while the other headed for the isolated farmhouse beyond its edge.
Cal eased the shuttle towards the farmhouse, reducing their speed almost to a hover before finally settling onto the edge of an open field. The life signs Emily had detected remained unchanged, but they still couldn't tell who—or what—they belonged to. Beyond a handful of scattered outbuildings and gently swaying rows of corn, the sensors had little more to offer.
For now, they would have to do things the old-fashioned way.
Before lowering the boarding ramp, Cal reached up to the emergency weapons locker mounted behind the cockpit seats. It opened with a quiet hiss, revealing the pair of Type-2 phasers that every rescue shuttle carried more out of regulation than expectation.
He removed both.
Without a word, he offered one to Emily.
She stared at it for a moment before looking back at him.
"...What exactly am I supposed to do with that?"
Cal already knew what she meant.
Neither of them had joined Starfleet to shoot people.
"I don't know what we're walking into."
Emily accepted the phaser reluctantly, turning it over once in her hand.
"I'm not shooting anybody."
"Neither am I."
Cal clipped his own weapon onto his belt before looking back towards her.
"...Ideally."
Emily raised an eyebrow.
"Ideally?"
"I mean..." Cal shrugged. "If a Borg drone suddenly jumps out of nowhere and grabs you..."
He nodded towards the phaser.
"...I'm absolutely shooting it."
Emily laughed.
The sort of laugh that somehow made every situation feel a little less frightening.
"Can the Borg jump?"
Cal considered the question for a moment.
"...I really hope we don't find out."
Still smiling, Emily finally clipped the phaser into the holster at her hip.
"Happy?"
"I'll let you know."
With that, Cal thumbed the boarding controls.
The ramp lowered slowly towards the ground.
Warm air rolled immediately into the shuttle.
It carried with it the unmistakable smell of late summer—sun-warmed earth, bruised sweetcorn and freshly cut grass. A light breeze wandered lazily across the fields, taking just enough of the heat away to make the afternoon pleasantly comfortable rather than oppressive.
Emily immediately peeled her arms from the sleeves of her well-worn green flight suit, tying them loosely around her waist and leaving only the grey Starfleet undershirt beneath.
"I always forget how nice planets smell," she said quietly.
Cal smiled to himself as he stepped onto the dirt.
His boots sank ever so slightly into the soft ground with a satisfying squelch.
Ahead of them the farmhouse sat peacefully beneath the midday sun. The weathered barn stood just beyond it, surrounded by smaller outbuildings that looked as though they'd been built whenever the need arose rather than according to any grand design.
Everything looked...
Normal.
Too normal.
"I don't see anything," Cal called back over his shoulder.
Emily hadn't moved from the top of the ramp.
Instead she was staring towards the barn.
"Cal."
He continued studying the upstairs windows.
"House looks clear."
"Cal."
There was a little more urgency this time.
"I'm not seeing—"
"Cal!"
He turned.
Emily's arm was fully extended now, pointing towards the edge of the cornfield.
The crop was moving.
Fast.
Something was tearing directly towards them through the shoulder-high stalks.
Cal instinctively stepped backwards onto the boarding ramp, one hand already drawing his phaser.
Emily fumbled for hers almost simultaneously.
The movement grew closer.
Closer.
The corn burst apart—
—and a black-and-white blur came charging out across the field.
Barking.
Loudly.
Very loudly.
Cal blinked.
Emily lowered her phaser first.
"...Oh."
The Border Collie skidded to a halt a few metres away, barked enthusiastically once more before dropping into a playful bow and, apparently deciding these newcomers were entirely trustworthy, promptly rolled onto his back in the dirt with all four paws in the air.
Emily burst into laughter.
Cal holstered his phaser and crouched beside their unexpected welcoming committee, obliging him with an enthusiastic belly rub.
The dog's tail immediately began wagging with such enthusiasm that his entire back half seemed to join in.
"I think," Emily managed between laughs, "that if he'd wanted to assimilate us..."
"...we'd know by now."
Cal scratched behind the dog's ears.
"If he wanted to assimilate us..."
He grinned.
"...I'd probably let him."
The dog responded by licking his hand.
Cal looked up at Emily.
"...Yeah."
"I definitely would've let him."
A sharp whistle cut cleanly through the warm afternoon air.
"Rusty! Come on, boy. Inside."
The Border Collie immediately stopped wriggling beneath Cal's hand, ears standing upright as he turned towards the farmhouse. The voice had come from the porch where a woman now stood framed in the doorway, one hand resting lightly against the weathered wood. She wasn't shouting, nor did she sound frightened by the unexpected arrival of two Starfleet shuttles.
If anything, her voice carried only exhaustion.
It was the kind that came after too many sleepless nights, too much worry and too little hope.
Rusty looked back towards Cal for a moment before springing to his feet. Rather than running immediately to the house, he bounded excitedly around the pilot, nudging insistently against the back of his knee with his nose before dropping into a textbook herding crouch a few feet behind them.
One sharp bark echoed across the yard.
It was less a greeting than an instruction.
Cal blinked.
"I think..." he said, glancing over his shoulder towards Emily, "...I think we're being herded."
Emily smiled.
"I think we are too."
The dog barked once more before taking a few paces towards the farmhouse, stopping only to check they were following before continuing again. Apparently satisfied that his work was being taken seriously, Rusty trotted happily ahead, pausing every so often to encourage the pair onward.
Emily's attention, however, remained fixed on the woman waiting on the porch.
Even from across the yard there was something about her expression that gave Emily pause. Relief was certainly there, but it sat beneath something far heavier. Worry. Fatigue. A quiet sadness that seemed to have settled into every line of her face.
Raising a hand in greeting, Emily called out across the field.
"Hello! You missed the evacuation. We're here to collect you."
For the first time the woman's expression changed. Surprise flickered across her face before she slowly shook her head.
"Oh..."
Her reply was almost apologetic.
"No. You needn't have."
Cal and Emily exchanged a brief glance as they continued walking towards the house.
"You understand what'll probably happen if you stay?" Emily asked gently. "Your home's lovely, but..."
Sarah shook her head before Emily had finished.
"No... we know."
She looked back through the open doorway for just a moment before returning her attention to the approaching pilots.
"We just can't leave right now."
There was no defiance in her voice.
Only certainty.
By the time Cal and Emily reached the foot of the porch steps, Rusty had already slipped back inside as though his responsibility had been fulfilled. Sarah remained standing where she was, hands loosely clasped together, studying the two young officers with an expression that seemed to apologise simply for existing.
Cal took a slow breath.
"If you can't leave," he said carefully, "is there anything we can do before we have to go?"
Sarah opened her mouth to answer, hesitated, then fell silent.
Before she could find the words another voice drifted from somewhere inside the farmhouse.
"Who is it, love? I didn't think there'd be anyone left."
Heavy footsteps crossed old wooden floorboards before the front door swung open wider. A broad-shouldered man emerged onto the porch, wiping his hands on a faded work shirt before stopping abruptly as he caught sight of the Starfleet uniforms waiting outside.
"Oh..."
A tired smile found its way onto his face.
"Hello."
Cal returned it immediately.
"Hi. I'm Ensign Callum Cowan."
He gestured towards Emily.
"This is Ensign Emily Aitken."
Emily offered a small wave.
"Emily's fine."
The man descended the steps, extending a calloused hand first towards Cal and then Emily.
"Tom Grady."
He glanced back over his shoulder towards the house.
"My wife, Sarah."
Then, with just the faintest hint of a smile, he nodded towards the doorway where Rusty's tail was now just visible disappearing around a corner.
"And I see you've already met Rusty."
"I think he likes us," Cal said.
Tom chuckled softly.
"He generally likes everyone."
For a moment nobody spoke.
The silence wasn't uncomfortable, merely tired.
Eventually Cal asked the question that had been sitting at the front of his mind since they had first seen the farmhouse.
"Tom..."
"...why are you still here?"
Tom's smile lingered for another second before fading. He looked back towards the house, exhaled quietly, then stepped aside, holding the front door open.
"Why don't you both come in?"
His voice remained warm despite everything.
"I'll put the kettle on."
He looked between the two pilots.
"And then..."
"...I'll explain everything."
The kitchen was warm in the comfortable way only a family kitchen ever seemed capable of being. Sunlight poured through the window over the sink, catching motes of dust that drifted lazily through the air whilst somewhere outside Rusty could be heard barking happily at something that apparently required immediate investigation.
Cal and Emily took seats at the well-worn wooden table as Sarah quietly busied herself with the kettle. Four mugs appeared almost by instinct, followed by a well-used teapot whose paint had long since begun to fade around the handle.
Tom settled opposite them with an apologetic smile that never quite reached his eyes.
"I'm terribly sorry you've made the journey."
Emily looked up from the tea Sarah had just placed in front of her.
"It isn't a wasted journey."
She smiled gently.
"It's exactly why we're here."
Cal nodded in agreement before lifting his own mug. The tea wasn't quite the standard T'Rel would've approved of, but somehow it tasted better for where he was drinking it. After weeks aboard Wayfarer, sitting around a kitchen table on a peaceful colony world felt strangely luxurious.
"We just want to make sure everybody's safe."
Sarah finally sat beside Tom, wrapping both hands around her mug as though welcoming the warmth.
"That's what the others said."
Tom nodded.
"They were very kind."
His expression drifted towards the staircase leading upstairs.
"They understood."
Emily frowned slightly.
"...Understood what?"
For a moment neither Tom nor Sarah answered.
Eventually Sarah spoke.
"My father."
Her voice was almost little more than a whisper.
"He's upstairs."
Tom rested a reassuring hand over hers before continuing.
"He'd had a stroke a few days before the others arrived."
Sarah took a slow breath.
"He was getting worse."
"We couldn't move him safely."
The room fell quiet.
Neither Cal nor Emily interrupted.
"The evacuation crews did everything they could," Tom continued. "One of their doctors stabilised him as best they were able. They showed us how to keep him comfortable, left us medication and promised they'd report we were still here."
His smile returned briefly.
"They were good people."
"It wasn't enough time," Sarah said softly.
"They had thousands of other people waiting."
Emily lowered her mug.
"They... left you?"
Cal glanced across at her.
"Squadron Twelve wouldn't have had the resources we do."
His voice carried no criticism.
Only understanding.
Emily sighed quietly.
"Which isn't saying much."
Tom gave a tired nod.
"I've been into town for more medication when we needed it."
"We've followed every instruction they left us."
He looked towards the ceiling.
"But neither of us is a doctor."
"We just kept hoping..." Sarah said.
"...if we could keep Dad comfortable..."
"...someone would come back."
Silence settled over the kitchen once more.
Cal looked from Tom...
...to Sarah...
...then towards the staircase.
He finished the last of his tea before gently placing the mug back onto the table.
"Let me make a call."
Sarah immediately stood.
"Oh, honestly..."
She looked genuinely embarrassed.
"...we don't want to be a burden."
Cal shook his head before she could continue.
"You're not."
There was a quiet certainty in his voice that stopped any further protest.
"I think we can help."
Tom looked at him for a long moment.
The hope that had been carefully hidden ever since the two Starfleet shuttles had landed finally crept into his expression.
"...How?"
Cal smiled.
"I've got friends."
Emily couldn't help grinning.
"He always finds a way."
She looked between Tom and Sarah.
"It's sort of what he does."
Cal stepped back aboard the shuttle, grateful for the relative quiet of the cockpit. The farmhouse kitchen had felt warm and welcoming, but there were some conversations that were easier to have over a proper communications console than a handheld combadge.
He settled into the pilot's seat and keyed the already open Alpha Flight frequency.
"Mateo, you copy?"
"We're here," came the almost immediate reply.
Cal smiled faintly.
"Did you get all of that?"
There was a brief pause before Mateo answered.
"Most of it."
His voice carried a weariness that hadn't been there earlier that morning.
"We've finished searching the town."
"And?"
"Nothing."
Sam took over.
"The place was evacuated in a hurry, but not in a panic."
Cal frowned slightly.
"What do you mean?"
"You can almost follow the evacuation street by street," she explained. "Front doors are unlocked. Breakfast's still on kitchen tables. Laundry's hanging outside. It looks like people were simply told to leave immediately and did exactly that."
"They didn't have time to come back," Mateo added quietly.
Cal found himself looking back towards the farmhouse through the shuttle's canopy.
"I suppose Squadron Twelve did a pretty thorough job."
"They did what they had to do," Mateo replied.
There was no criticism in his voice.
Only understanding.
"They got almost an entire colony off-world."
A thoughtful silence settled over the comm channel.
Eventually Cal spoke.
"I can't imagine having to leave people behind."
Neither Mateo nor Sam answered immediately.
When Mateo finally did, his voice had become noticeably softer.
"No."
"I don't think I could either."
Another moment passed before he drew the conversation back to the task at hand.
"Call Wayfarer, Cal."
His tone returned to its usual calm professionalism.
"Tell Hayes what happened."
"We'll need a medical evacuation."
Cal nodded, almost forgetting for a moment that nobody could see him.
"Understood."
"We'll finish up here and head your way."
"Okay."
Cal smiled to himself.
"See you soon."
The channel closed with a quiet click.
For a moment he remained where he was, hands resting lightly on the controls as he looked back towards the Grady farmhouse.
One family.
Five lives, if Rusty counted.
He suspected Rusty probably did.
With a quiet breath, Cal reached for the long-range communications controls and opened a channel back to Wayfarer.
By the time Cal returned to the farmhouse, it seemed the family had grown by one.
Sitting comfortably in the chair Cal had vacated was a boy of about nine who looked up the moment the front door opened. His face lit up immediately.
"Hello!"
Cal couldn't help smiling as he returned the enthusiastic wave.
"Hi."
Tom looked between them with quiet amusement.
"This is our son, Ben. He's been helping keep the place running, haven't you?"
"Yep!" Ben replied proudly. "It's been really busy since everybody else left and Grandad got sick."
"I bet it has," Cal said, taking his seat once more. "Sounds like you've been doing an important job."
Ben shook his head earnestly.
"It was Dad mostly."
He looked across at Tom.
"I just did all the errands when Dad had other things to do."
Emily smiled warmly.
"That's still important."
Ben looked pleased with himself for a moment before his attention was immediately caught by the green flight suit Cal still wore.
"Are you a pilot?"
"Yep."
"That's so cool!"
Cal chuckled.
"It feels a little less cool than it used to."
Emily caught his eye across the table and smiled knowingly. She understood exactly what he meant.
Sarah, meanwhile, had been quietly watching the exchange from the kitchen counter. Whatever relief she'd felt at Starfleet's arrival seemed unable to overcome the guilt she'd been carrying ever since the evacuation fleet had departed.
"I'm really sorry," she said suddenly. "I just..."
Cal shook his head gently before she could continue.
"You've nothing to apologise for."
He set his mug down on the table.
"I've spoken to our command."
The room became noticeably quieter.
"They're dispatching a medical evacuation shuttle along with a medical team. They'll collect your father safely..."
He smiled.
"...and then we'll all leave together."
For a long moment Sarah simply stared at him.
"I..."
She struggled to find the words.
Tom reached across the table, resting a reassuring hand over hers.
"...Thank you."
The silence that followed lasted only a few seconds before Rusty trotted happily back through the kitchen doorway, tail wagging enthusiastically as though announcing someone's arrival.
A moment later came the slow, unmistakable sound of footsteps from somewhere deeper inside the house.
"What's all the commotion?"
Sarah was out of her chair almost instantly.
"Dad!"
She hurried towards the doorway.
"We told you to stay in bed."
"Nonsense."
The elderly man who shuffled into view looked every bit as stubborn as his daughter had described. One hand rested against the wall for balance, his movements slow and careful, but there was still a spark of mischief in his eyes that illness clearly hadn't managed to extinguish.
"Either the stroke gets me..."
He waved a dismissive hand.
"...or those robot things do."
A grin crept across his weathered face.
"Doesn't seem much point worrying about either."
Tom stepped forward instinctively to steady him.
"Mister Hartwell..."
"Don't you start, Grady."
Elias brushed him away with surprising determination.
"I've managed perfectly well so far."
Only then did he properly notice the two unfamiliar Starfleet uniforms sitting around his kitchen table.
He looked first at Cal.
Then Emily.
"Well..."
"Who're you two then?"
Cal stood.
"Ensign Callum Cowan."
He gestured towards Emily.
"And this is Ensign Emily Aitken."
Emily gave a small wave.
"Emily's fine."
"We've come to take you somewhere safer."
Elias snorted.
"They already tried all that."
He glanced out of the kitchen window towards the fields beyond.
"I'm too old to be starting over."
His eyes drifted across the farm.
"I built half this place, don't you know."
Emily looked around the cosy farmhouse.
"It shows."
Elias' chest puffed out just a little.
"Doesn't it?"
Sarah folded her arms.
"Dad..."
"I told these three to leave."
He gestured vaguely towards Tom, Sarah and Ben.
"They've got their whole lives ahead of them."
Then, with a shrug that somehow carried equal parts acceptance and resignation, he added,
"I've already had mine."
"We're not leaving you behind."
Sarah's reply came without hesitation.
"'Course you could."
Elias seemed genuinely puzzled by their refusal.
"You'd have been better off."
"I nearly lost you last week," Tom replied quietly.
"You almost did."
Elias nodded matter-of-factly.
"Which would've solved everybody's problem."
The room fell silent.
Cal studied the old farmer for a moment before speaking.
"Maybe."
Every eye turned towards him.
"Maybe they could've left."
He nodded slowly.
"Homes can be rebuilt."
"Crops can be replanted."
Elias looked at him carefully.
"It wouldn't be the same."
"No."
Cal smiled.
"It wouldn't."
Another pause settled over the kitchen before he continued.
"But maybe..."
"...what matters to them..."
"...is that you're there to see whatever comes next."
For the first time since entering the room, Elias said nothing.
"My heart..."
Emily answered softly before Cal could.
"...is treatable."
Cal nodded.
"And the medical team is already on its way."
"They'll be here within the hour."
Sarah looked from Cal to Emily, scarcely believing what she'd heard.
"They are?"
"Yes."
Neither Cal nor Elias broke eye contact.
For several long seconds the old farmer simply stared at the young rescue pilot standing opposite him.
Then, with an exaggerated sigh, his face softened into a reluctant grin.
"Oh..."
"...fine."
He threw both hands into the air.
"You win."
As if perfectly on cue, the distant rumble of another shuttle settling onto the farm carried faintly through the kitchen windows.
Cal smiled.
"I think that's them now."
Sam and Mateo had arrived.
Sam and Mateo's introductions to the family were mercifully brief.
Sarah immediately offered tea, but the pair politely declined. There would be time for tea another day, Mateo promised with a smile. Right now there was work to be done.
Once everyone had settled back around the kitchen, he gently laid out the plan.
"We pack everything you can't leave without," he explained. "Family photographs, medication, clothes... whatever matters most."
He glanced towards Cal before continuing.
"We can divide your belongings between the two shuttles we already have here."
Finally his attention settled on Elias.
"Lieutenant Lamb is on her way aboard Sepik with Doctor Solek and a full medical team. They'll begin treating you as soon as they arrive."
He smiled.
"Once you're comfortable aboard the runabout..."
"...we all leave together."
Sarah closed her eyes for a moment before exhaling slowly.
"That sounds..."
She smiled through the emotion that still threatened to overwhelm her.
"...wonderful."
Cal understood.
Only half an hour earlier she'd resigned herself to waiting for the inevitable. Now strangers in green flight suits were calmly discussing loading furniture into shuttles.
Hope had arrived awfully quickly.
Mateo followed her gaze towards the fields outside.
"If the Borg reach Kappa Colony..."
He shrugged gently.
"...hopefully they'll find the place abandoned and simply move on."
"The crops will be gone by then," Sam added quietly.
Tom looked through the kitchen window towards the surrounding farmland.
"They will."
He smiled for what felt like the first time all afternoon.
"But crops grow back."
Nobody disagreed.
Across the room Ben had somehow manoeuvred Emily into answering what felt like the fiftieth question about Starfleet shuttles. Every answer only seemed to generate three more.
"So what's the fastest you've ever flown?"
"Can they fly underwater?"
"Have you ever landed upside down?"
Emily was doing her best to answer each one with complete seriousness.
Rusty, meanwhile, had decided Cal clearly wasn't busy enough.
The Border Collie wandered proudly into the kitchen carrying an old tennis ball before depositing it squarely at Cal's boots.
Cal looked down.
Rusty looked up.
The expectation in his eyes was unmistakable.
Elias watched the scene unfold before quietly sighing.
"Sarah..."
His daughter looked towards him.
"I'm sorry."
She frowned.
"Dad..."
"If it wasn't for all..."
He gestured vaguely towards himself.
"...you'd have been somewhere safe days ago."
Sarah was beside him almost immediately, wrapping her arms gently around his shoulders.
"We couldn't leave you."
"It wasn't even a decision," Tom added quietly as he rested a reassuring hand against his wife's back.
Cal looked over from where Rusty was now nudging the tennis ball insistently against his boot.
"Well..."
He bent to pick it up.
"...now you don't have to."
He tossed the ball out through the open back door.
Rusty launched after it with extraordinary enthusiasm.
Elias watched the dog disappear before looking back towards Cal.
"We appreciate what you've done, son."
There wasn't a hint of humour in his voice now.
"You've gone to an awful lot of trouble for an old man."
Cal smiled.
"It honestly hasn't been any trouble."
Before he could say anything more Rusty reappeared carrying...
...an entirely different toy.
The Border Collie proudly deposited the battered rubber ring at Cal's feet.
Cal stared at it.
"You cheated."
Rusty wagged furiously.
"I definitely threw a ball."
The dog's expression remained one of complete innocence.
Shaking his head with a laugh, Cal picked up the new toy and threw that as well.
"We should probably start packing," Tom murmured.
Sarah nodded, wiping discreetly at the corner of one eye before disappearing upstairs with him.
Sam rose from her chair.
"We'll help."
She looked towards Elias.
"And once Lieutenant Lamb arrives..."
"...it'll mostly be a matter of getting you comfortable aboard Sepik."
Elias grumbled theatrically.
"Fine."
He looked towards Cal.
"But I'm blaming you if they start fussing over me."
"I suspect that's unavoidable."
Before Elias could think of a suitable reply, Ben appeared beside Cal's chair.
"Can I have a go at flying?"
Cal smiled.
"Maybe."
Ben's eyes lit up.
"Really?"
Cal nodded towards the waiting shuttle outside.
"Once we're in space."
Ben practically bounced on the spot.
Emily laughed.
"I think you've just made his entire year."
Cal watched from the farmhouse porch as the Danube-class runabout Sepik descended steadily towards the field below. Fresh from finally having her torpedo launcher removed, she looked a little more like the rescue craft she'd always been intended to be, settling gracefully onto the flattened grass between the two waiting shuttles.
The rear ramp had barely begun to lower before Lieutenant Natalie Lamb appeared, stepping confidently onto the field as the medical team followed behind with equipment cases and an anti-grav stretcher.
Mateo met her halfway across the field.
"Natalie."
She smiled warmly.
"Mateo."
Her eyes drifted briefly across the farm before settling on the two parked shuttles.
"I'm still trying to work out how you managed to reduce an evacuation of thirty thousand people..."
She looked back towards him with an amused shake of her head.
"...to fewer than ten."
Mateo grinned.
"You can blame him."
He nodded towards Cal as the younger pilot approached.
Natalie laughed.
"I should've guessed."
"Hi, Lieutenant."
"Hello, Cal."
She folded her arms.
"So..."
"...collecting people again?"
Cal smiled sheepishly.
"It wasn't quite as straightforward as we'd hoped."
"So I gathered."
Before the conversation could continue another figure descended the ramp.
The Vulcan officer carried a compact medical scanner beneath one arm, his expression composed as his eyes moved methodically across the gathered group.
"Lieutenant Commander Solek."
He inclined his head politely.
"Chief Medical Officer."
His attention settled immediately on Cal.
"Where may I find the patient?"
Cal pointed towards the farmhouse.
"First room through the front door."
"The kitchen."
Solek acknowledged the direction with a small nod before glancing briefly towards the anti-grav stretcher waiting behind him.
"I understand the patient left his bed."
"He did."
Cal couldn't help smiling.
"I don't think anyone was going to convince him otherwise."
Solek regarded him for a moment.
"It was..."
A barely perceptible pause.
"...medically inadvisable."
"I think he knew that."
Cal shrugged.
"He just wasn't particularly interested."
For the briefest of moments one of Solek's eyebrows lifted.
Then he simply turned towards the waiting medical team.
"Bring the stretcher."
Without another word they made their way towards the farmhouse.
It took surprisingly little time to prepare for departure.
The Gradys packed only what truly mattered. A handful of family photographs, several changes of clothes, medication, important documents and a few treasured keepsakes disappeared into neatly labelled storage cases before being loaded aboard the waiting shuttles. The farm itself remained much as it had that morning, as though the family had merely stepped out for the afternoon and fully intended to return before nightfall.
Perhaps one day they would.
By the time Lieutenant Commander Solek was satisfied that Elias could be moved safely, the afternoon had begun to soften into evening. Long shadows stretched across the fields as the last of the luggage disappeared aboard Sepik, Ben enthusiastically helping the medical technicians wherever they would let him while Rusty wandered happily between all three spacecraft convinced the entire operation existed solely for his entertainment.
One by one the small craft lifted gently from the field.
Cal's shuttle rose first, followed by Mateo and Sam a few moments later before Sepik, carrying the Hartwell and Grady family, eased gracefully into the air behind them.
The three vessels formed up above the farmhouse before climbing steadily through Kappa Colony's clear afternoon sky. Beneath them, the patchwork of fields gradually gave way to the curve of the planet itself before the last traces of atmosphere slipped silently away into the darkness of space.
Ahead, RF Wayfarer waited patiently.
A tired rescue freighter.
A handful of well-worn shuttles.
One Vulcan doctor.
One dedicated medical team.
Four grateful civilians.
One remarkably energetic Border Collie.
And five more lives coming home.
In these small hours
These little wonders
These twists and turns of fate
Time falls away
But these small hours
These small hours
Still remain
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