[2369 ch'Havran: Qatar provincial space facility]
"He will not be pleased to see us Ulani" Morok turned as he took the ISD from the technician and signed it before entering the small transport shuttle but Ulani was already at the controls, eager as she was to see their wayward son again.
Morok simply shook his head with a smile and quickly took his place next to his e'lev. "You 'know' he's not going to be pleased to see us Ulani. Do you not remember what happened the last time"
She smiled one of her smiles at him "I remember, but I dont care. He is our son and has neglected us for far too long. The explosion was an accident not of his making. As for the last time.....well. People can change e'lev"
Morok, despite his feelings of skepticism, could not help but smile at the enthusiasm and optimism displayed by his wife. He took her hand and kissed it lightly.
"You speak as if our son were any ordinary romulan. I dont even believe the Nausicaan's to be as belligerant than our son. We should be proud" His grin was matched only by the humoured look of Ulani.
"Shuttle 317. You are cleared to launch"
With the ease of age and experience, Morok and Ulani worked in perfect unison to bring the ship off the ground before clearing the docking moors.
As they quickly escaped the last vestiges of their home planet, the glowing green emerald world of Romulus lay before them.
Morok kept his eyes on the console. "Five minutes and we shall be there"
Ulani turned to her husband "Regardless. It is too late to turn back now. I know you believe us to be nothing more than a distraction to our son and perhaps he is even ashamed of us but he still has a duty to his parents. We saw him neither after the accident, nor when he was released from Tal'Shiar custody. We can only assume that his allowed contacts would be few and that his shame to face his parents would be great"
Morok looked up at the view of romulus "There was nothing I loved more than my home" He turned and touched Ulani's cheek gently "Until I met you e'lev"
As she smiled and kissed the hand that stroked her cheek he spoke softly "You are right. To hell with our son, it has been to long"
As the console emitted a short sharp warning sound the broke their embrace. Ulani was the first to speak.
"Picking up....a spatial disturbance? Bearing mark.....12....."
Straight ahead
The viewscreen showed nothing but empty space tinged with the green glow of ch'Rihan in full sunlight.
The console beeped once more.
"Closing, 200,000 kilometers" Morok cursed, nothing. not even a sign of a ship
The shuttle lurched as though it had collided with something, despite the inertial dampners both passengers almost fell from their seats. The low grating sound of the hull pressing against something under enormous pressure suddenly rose in crescendo to a high pitched squeak.
As Morok regained his footing and quickly activated the veiwscreen, all they could see was a kaeleidoscope of dizzying colours rapidly changing before complete and utter blackness.
Morok activated the external lighting, his mouth hung open at what he saw. The ship was huge, obviously a imperial romulan warbird, but much much more advanced than anything he'd seen or imagined.
Ulani's voice alerted him to the immediate danger of collision "Ship conforms to no known design. Cloaking systems unknown. Weapon systems detected in all quadrants. Chroniton particles are intefering with scans� it appears we are inside some sort of advanced cloaking field."
The lights and systems began to flicker.
"We are losing power and warp field containment. Our shields are down!"
"Morok!!" Ulani screamed and clutched her husband as they gazed in horror as the warbird's majesty took a turn for the sinister, only a split second after it locked weapons on the small shuttle it fired.
The last thing they saw was the streak of a green disruptor beam striking the ship and then nothing.
The unknown Warbird simply continued onwards as if oblivious to the vessel it had just destroyed.
Very little of the ship remained. As the Warbird Seleya was diverted to the explosion it picked up only chroniton particle traces and anti-protons. It was quite clear that the vessel had suffered a weapons malfunction and nothing more. Scans of the wreckage showed an overload and disruption in the warp field due to increased chroniton particles causing the ships own weapons systems to ignite from the inside out.
No survivors were found. The shuttle was identified as 317 and spaceport authorities notified of its destruction and that all aboard had been killed.
[Aboard the unknown warbird]
The commander watched as the object on the holographic map flickered once brightly and faded.
"Vessel destroyed" The only sound the broke the silence was the hollow uncaring tone of the computer as it confirmed the kill.
"Leave orbit of Romulus and lay in a course for the eisn star. Maximum impulse"
Unknown to all, the silent destroyer moved away from the sight of the disaster and headed straight to the brightness at the heart of the empire.
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