Forging the path for your people

Posted on Thu Aug 13th, 2026 @ 2:36am by Commander Thomas Johnson & Lieutenant Commander Jasad Yuvek
Edited on on Thu Aug 13th, 2026 @ 2:40am

1,661 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Flight Of The Valkyries
Location: Ready room
Timeline: Before I scratched your ship

Thomas sat in the centre seat, it had been a full day since they left the area of space that held the debris of the herald base. Ship was still scanning for any signs of pursuit, but as of right now it was picking up nothing. Tal was back in their quarters, he remained in the ready room. His first real command. Sure he was still the XO officially, and he would go back to that when he Captain returned.

Several things crossed his mind. The Akagis loss, the loss of so many fighters, as well as the crew of this ship, and those of the others. As a fleet, he was in command. He didn't really know how to go about determining how it went. Sure he knew there wre some mistakes, and if things didn't happen the way it did would he have thrown another ship into the station. He honestly didn't know.

With a lot of stuff in his mind going off like a broken wire hissing on the ground. He decided to take his mind off things, and with nothing really happening, he turned to the helm station.

"Lt, follow me to my ready room please." He replied standing. He still had yet to visit medical. His face was swollen, eye swollen shut. Something was definitely going on with his jar. His cheek was still deeply cut. However, he refused medical help, opting just for pain killers and something to stop the bleeding.

Lieutenant Yuvek looked up from the helm console at Commander Thomas' invitation, the movement pulling at something in his side that hadn't stopped complaining since the battle. He'd declined Ensign Kamikita's follow-up request to report to sickbay twice now, both times with the same reasoning — the Tokyo wasn't home yet and the helm didn't fly itself.

He stood carefully, handing off to the relief officer with a quiet word about the slight variance in the port thruster response that was still throwing the ship a fraction off true heading every few minutes.

"Aye, Sir," he said simply, falling into step behind the Commander toward the ready room.

He caught himself noting the state of Thomas' face as they walked — the swollen eye, the jaw that wasn't sitting quite right.

Damn...he looks worse than I feel. Jasad thought to himself.

Thomas made his way to the seat behind the desk. "I would offer you a drink, however the replicators still ain't online." He replied as he winced as he sat down. Definitely some broken ribs. "Your thoughts Commander?"

Jasad settled into the chair across from Commander Thomas, ignoring his wince with the practiced discretion of someone who'd spent the last day pretending his own injuries weren't there.

If I had been battered as bad as him I'd probably be calling people the wrong rank, too Jasad thought.

"I appreciate the offer anyways." The Cardassian said, wishing he did have a drink that could help him actually relax. "But what thoughts are you looking for?" The Helmsman asked, seeking clarification before he gives the wrong opinion on the wrong subject.

"The mission as a whole, there was a lot of things that didn't go as planned including the largest diamond anyone's ever seen. If I would have known there was a large diamond. I would not have gotten you to perform the Tokyo Drift."

Jasad's jaw tightened, just slightly, before he answered.

"Hindsight is 20/20, as you humans say." He shifted forward, ribs be damned. "The diamond would've caught anybody off-guard, sir. There wasn't a scan pattern or a briefing that gets us ready for a rock like that sitting in the middle of an asteroid belt. Nobody could've predicted it." He paused, choosing the next part deliberately.

"The station's a different matter, because nobody's gone up against a Herald base before. We didn't know how much fire power that damn thing had until we were literally staring down the barrel of its cannon." He added.

"I feel like it was a valuable lesson, but an expensive one when you factor in the loss of the Akagi and the other Fighters." He said in the closest thing that pass for somber in a Cardassian.

"The mission depended on your flight skills and your communicating to the other ships to make sure our ships were in sync. That was quite a show of your abilities." Thomas replied as he reached for the small box in the corner of the desk. "Therefore as of todays date and time. You are hereby promoted to the rank of Lt Commander and all the privileges and responsibilities that come with."

Jasad went still for a moment, the weight of it settling somewhere behind his sternum before he trusted himself to respond.

"Lieutenant Commander." He said it once, quietly, like he was testing whether the rank fit better out loud than it did in his head. "Thank you, sir. I don't take this lightly." He said calmly.

"Although, I'm certain there are others within Starfleet who won't be too happy to see a Cardassian carrying such a rank." He added. He straightened, the discomfort of the chair forgotten for the moment.

"If there are, they can take it up with me. I am sure Captain would be right behind, followed by half the crew. You have earned it Commander." Thomas replied as he slid the box over. "I've also put a commendation in your file for your actions."

He picked the pip back up. "The commendation I'll accept, though Connor and the Graf Zeppelin's crew that came over to fight off the Heralds deserve recognition ahead of me."

Jasad paused for a bit.

"But the rank — thank you, Commander. I mean that."

"If they have an issue with you they would have an issue with Worf, not long ago, Klingons were our enemies. I believe you like Worf, are creating a path, for others of your people to follow. Sometimes the hardest part is the first step. You have taken it, and you are making the most of it. First by being chief helm on this ship, second. The rise through the ranks."

Lieutenant Yuvek looked at the box for a moment before reaching across and opening it. The pip sat there, small and unremarkable and carrying more weight than anything that size had a right to.

He picked it up, turned it once in his fingers.

Worf. The comparison landed with good intentions behind it, and he appreciated that. But Worf had grown up human in everything but blood — raised by a human family, shaped by human institutions from childhood. Starfleet hadn't been a choice Worf made so much as the world he'd always lived in.

Lieutenant Yuvek had grown up Cardassian. Had been formed by Cardassian values, Cardassian suspicion of the Federation, Cardassian instincts that still surfaced sometimes when he least expected them. The uniform hadn't come naturally.

"Everyone coming back from this mission is getting a commendation. Don't you worry." Thomas replied as he leaned back. "Something on your mind commander."

Lieutenant Yuvek set the pip down on the desk.

"Sir, how much of what happened out there was skill and how much was luck." It wasn't a question, just a statement he laid out plainly. "The fighter making it inside the station. The extraction window holding. The Graf absorbing that pounding without losing shields at the wrong moment. Pull any one of those threads and the mission turns out completely different." he responded.

"We destroyed one installation. We hurt them, but have we changed anything strategically?" He asked.

"Call it skill or call it luck..." Thomas replied. "The only thing that matters is we were able to show everyone that they can be defeated. That I believe is the morale boost everyone needed. We have lost so much. This win, can be the turning point, give people hope that it isn't a war we cannot win. Some people called the war with the Dominion, the Klingons, even the Eugenic wars on Earth, hopeless endeavors. At one point or another, we all were told that we probably were on the wrong side. We proved them wrong. This battle may be a minor battle but its implications will have a resounding effect. Not just for the Federation, but the Klingons, the Cardassians, and all those who fight against the Iconians."

Lieutenant Yuvek listened to all of it, and found he couldn't argue with the logic, even if something in him remained unconvinced.

One installation. One battle. The Iconians still have their gateways, still have their Heralds. He turned that over once, then set it aside.

Thomas wasn't wrong about morale. A fleet that believed it couldn't win wouldn't fight like it could. That much was simple psychology, and Cardassians understood the value of perception in warfare as well as anyone.

"You're right, sir," he said, and meant it as far as it went. "A victory is a victory. The fleet needed to see that."

He reached up and pressed the new pip into place alongside the others, feeling the slight resistance of the magnetic seal catching. He looked down at it once, briefly, then back at the Commander.

"I'll take my post, sir, if there's nothing else." He stood, straightening his uniform. "We still have a ship to get home."

"Get to sickbay get yourself patched up Commander, then come back up. Your first command rotation starts in one hr."

Lieutenant Yuvek had already taken a step toward the door when the last part registered.

He stopped.

"Command—" He turned back, something in his expression that rarely surfaced catching him visibly off guard. "Command rotation, sir?" He recovered quickly, the composure settling back into place a half-second later, but not before it had slipped. "Understood." A pause. "Sickbay first. Aye, Commander."

Posting by:

Commander Thomas Johnson
Acting Commanding Officer
USS Tokyo

Lieutenant Commander Jasad Yuvek
Chief Helm Officer
USS Tokyo

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