The Romulan War_ Beneath the Raptor's Wing (Book 1) - Michael A. Martin [226]
At least the Romulans have lost another beachhead smack inside Coalition space.
His door chime sounded. “Come,” Archer said.
The hatchway opened, admitting T’Pol. Once the aperture had sealed behind her, she said, “I have compiled a detailed after-action report, including the initial reports of the MACO officers on the ground.” She walked to his desk, and he accepted the datapadd she handed him.
Archer tossed it onto the desk, procrastinating. Although he had yet to compute the cost of today’s victory, he knew the figure would be high. A total of thirty-three Coalition vessels had undertaken the liberation of Deneva, with the Starfleet contingent comprising eleven ships, including Enterprise. Of that total, Starfleet’s losses had amounted to a total of three Daedalus-class vessels—Adirondack, Kearsarge, and Shepard—all three destroyed with all hands. The MACO forces had sustained fatalities in the hundreds, with dozens more gravely wounded.
But the Andorian and Tellarite ships had taken the worst beating, with half of their combined forces either crippled or destroyed. Shran and much of his crew had survived, though the Weytahn wouldn’t be going anywhere under her own power for at least a week. Archer wasn’t certain whether his debt to the general had just diminished or increased.
And what the MACOs had discovered about the fate of the thousands of human settlers who’d found themselves trapped on Deneva after the initial Romulan invasion last October was too terrible to contemplate. It seemed that while the Romulans did indeed place some value in the taking of captives, they also believed in keeping them no longer than it took to torture them either into useful submission or to death.
“I’ll read all the details in the morning,” Archer said at length. The last thing he needed right now was a microscopic recap of the pageant of woe that had enabled today’s victory. “But there’s one detail I’d like now: Did the Romulans pick up after themselves at Deneva as thoroughly as they did at Berengaria and Altair?”
The Vulcan nodded. “Apparently. They left behind no significant Romulan technology, nor bodies. And no Denevan colonists were left alive.”
“I see,” he said, sickened, although he already knew about the Denevan massacre. “Thank you, Commander, you’re dismissed.”
Archer closed his eyes, nearly succumbing to his weariness, wondereding how many more “victories” Starfleet could afford. Without the enormous payment in blood made by Andoria and Tellar, the math of today’s battle would have worked out far less favorably.
Opening his eyes, he saw that T’Pol was still standing near the ready room entrance.
“Is there anything else in your report you’d like to call to my attention, Commander?” he said.
T’Pol looked uncharacteristically anxious. “No, sir. Yes. One thing.”
“Some new consequence of the battle that we’re going to have to deal with sooner rather than later?”
She paused thoughtfully before answering. “In a way, yes. But it has nothing to do with my analysis of the after-action reports.”
“What is it, then?” he asked, frowning.
“As your executive officer, it is part of my job to stay current on issues of crew morale.”
Archer had to wonder if anyone on Vulcan was content just to put in the required eight daily hours of work and then go home afterward. “You just got back from Vulcan after spending months there, T’Pol. Then you went straight into a combat situation. I don’t expect you to be on top of every last crew evaluation just yet.”
“And I’m not, I assure you. However, I did take the liberty of glancing at the crew files while we were still approaching