Another Contact
Posted on 30 Apr 2018 @ 7:53pm by Captain Akio Tachibana & Commander Juan Zamora (Dec [CDO]-Jan 2389 - TRSNFR to Gorn Dip.) & Commander S’chqenr T’Jedf Tolkath (Jan 2389 - TRNSFR After Gorn War) & Lieutenant Amiri Aldana 365, D.V.M., M.D. & Lieutenant Commander Rafe Cassidy (Jan 2389 - TRNSFR After Gorn War) & Lieutenant Deeli Kosu (Dec-Jan 2389 - TRNSFR After Gorn War) & Lieutenant Jake Winchester (Jan 2389 - TRNSFR, XFY) & Lieutenant Junior Grade Eira Cortez & Ensign Arthur Jones, Son of Ruk (Jan 2389 TRNSFR After Second Battle of XFY) & Lieutenant Harry Stevens
Mission:
Ne Me'e Laua Na Paio - Heroes & Villains
Location: Bridge - Deck 1
Timeline: 0800, 3 Jan 2389
Tags: Sombra, 3CW4YMF696F
Soundtrack
ON:
[Bridge]
The senior staff had just disappeared into the conference room with the Wyoming senior staff when the Operations officer turned to Zamora.
“Sir! New contact bearing 025 at distance of half a parsec and closing, emitting Federation signatures. No confirmation yet.”
Juan sat bolt upright in the command chair, he hadn’t heard anything about any new Federation vessels in the area and given the recent concern that the Wyoming was a false flag operation, there could be huge cause for concern.
Aldana 365 was at the SCI I station with Sombra at hir feet. S/he overheard the announcement and brought up the scan data to try and help analyze it. S/he pinged the contact again. “Confirmed, it appears to be following a parallel course, however they seem to be gaining.”
“Alright,” Juan began issuing commands rapid fire. “Mr. Ruk, What is the Wyoming doing? Aldana, I want every sensor reading on the new contact that you can give me. Helm maintain our relative distance. Comms, get me a channel to the Wyoming’s bridge, let me know when you have a connection.” Now he pressed one of the controls on his armrest, “Bridge to Knight One.”
[Near space]
“Knight 01 to Bridge,” Jenny Replied Crisply. “What Can I do for you?”
“We’ve Detected a new sensor contact” Juan Responded, “I am directing you to approach that contact at a safe distance and relay your sensor information back to the ship.”
“Roger Bridge” Jenny Affirmed.
[Bridge]
“Wyoming is trying to confirm the contact and has gone to red alert, sir.” Ruk replied.
Aldana peered through the scope, s/he tried to get more, but the ship was still too far out of range. “Sir, it’s at the outer most edge of our sensor range, I’m not even sure it IS a Federation signature.” S/he tapped hir commbadge. “Science to Knight One. Can you patch your sensor data through to my station please?”
“Roger Science.” Jenny affirmed and keyed the commands into her sensor controls, directing the flight’s data back to the ship as they began their approach.
“Attempting a Quantum scan. At this range, not sure if it’ll work.” Aldana’s digits passed over the controls for a moment or two. S/he then returned to the scope again. “From here, so far scans indicate the ship is of this universe. Maybe we should hail them?”
Meanwhile Sombra picked up on something from Alpha, he tried to put his head into hir lap.
~I’m alright, love. ~
Out in space Jenny was passing as close as she dared to the unknown ship, close enough to capture a high-quality image of the approaching vessel. Closely examining a magnified version in her display, she saw something decidedly unexpected. “Attention Hawaii, the unknown vessel is emitting a Federation signature, but visual assessment does not match any known Federation or Gorn design. I see a ship with two saucer sections connecting to a single body, prominent markings include an orange triangle, but no known Federation insignia are visible.”
Then Aldana got an alert from hir sensors. “Sir, I’m getting energy readings and spikes from the contact bearing 025 consistent with raising shields and arming weapons.” S/he announced, aiming hir remarks to the occupant in the center seat.
“Go to Red Alert!” Juan ordered, “Helm, open up some distance between us. Tactical, be ready to fire a spread of warning torpedoes if the contact comes within (2x maximum weapons range) of us. Ops inform the crew to prepare for evasive maneuvers. Comms attempt to hail the unidentified vessel.” Juan kept his voice level as he issued these commands, but, he gripped the armrests of the command chair with white knuckle force, as beads of perspiration accumulated on his forehead.
“No Response from the Wyoming sir” the comms officer announced. “The alien vessel is totally unresponsive as well.”
The Wyoming Senior Staff burst out of the conference room and piled into a turbolift, headed towards their shuttle.
Cortez had followed Carson and the rest of his crew and was about to step into the turbolift with them when she was pulled aside by Winchester and held with her hands behind her back.
Carson saw the interaction and pursed his lips as the turbolift doors closed.
Harry stood next to Jake as he took hold of Cortez in case Jake had to leave in a hurry, Harry said “I have her Sir”
"Good", Winchester said gruffly. "Keep your eyes peeled, I don't like this at all, understood?"
The rest of the Hawaii Senior Staff emerged later with Akio in tow.
Akio sullenly looked at Cortez.
“What do you want us to do with her, boss?” Darren asked quietly.
“Security, please escort Ms. Cortez to the brig,” Akio ordered.
Harry knew this was going to be difficult as he placed the hand restraints upon her wrists, as he looked at Winchester, as if to say that he could handle it.
Cassidy looked like he might object, but then he glanced up at the blaring red lights, tightened his jaw, and said nothing.
Running in, Winchester ran to his station and shoved the person manning it aside. His eyes running across the status board, Winchester quickly pressed a few buttons and said out loud, “Shields and Weapons are online, waiting on orders.”
Apologizing tersely as he ran his eyes over his console, Winchester said, "Sorry about that Mr. Ruk".
Satisfied that all Tactical systems were online, as well as the backups, Winchester said, " Captain, all Offensive and defensive systems are online, as are the the backups sir".
"Very well," Akio said briefly, noticing the scuffle at the Tactical station, before his attention was averted to the Vulcan science officer.
Tolkath stepped over to Tachibana. “Captain, Captain Carson and his officers are in one of the turbolifts. It could be disabled and sealed…” He raised an eyebrow in question.
Akio was almost surprised by the suggestion from the Vulcan, yet if the Wyoming was indeed he enemy, it would be the practical and prudent thing to do.
“And leave the Wyoming without their senior staff on board in a possible combat scenario?” Both of Cassidy’s eyebrows raised in disapproval. “Let them go, what’re they going to do once they’re off the ship, demand a Sovereign-class surrender to a Steamrunner-class with harsh language?”
“As tempting as it may be, I agree with Mr. Cassidy. I think we should let bygones be bygones at the moment,” Akio said while getting his bearings about all the activity on the bridge.
Tolkath was not sure Carson pulling weapons on fellow officers was just bygones. But he could see how Tachibana might want to let the matter drop, for now. “Very well sir, l trust there will be a report to Captain Ramsey in due course.” He nodded, left the center of the Bridge and headed for the science station.
Some systems’ greenlight go on as a voice came from behind Tachibana. “The systems are full capacity, Commander,” Deeli said to Akio, looking back at the CO as she stood at the side panel lowering her hand after she gave the release.
Deeli looked a bit with a smirk “By the way, my commands could be overridden, but the systems that I took down need to be activated or ‘overridden’ every system one by one. That is how these systems work and I made an overall command to deactivate it manually.”
Akio smiled at the astute Engineer.
Cassidy moved to the helm controls and leaned over the officer at the post, dropping his voice to get the quick briefing before he ushered them away and too the console.
Tolkath crossed to Aldana at the science panel. “Report Lieutenant”
Lieutenant Aldana felt like this wasn’t really the time to be distracted away from a key moment like this, but hir training and professional attitude shone through despite hir feelings. S/he stood, should hir Dept. C.O. require hir station. S/he made hir report, keeping hir voice low and leaning closer to Tolkath so hir report wouldn’t disrupt the information flowing in from all over.
As soon as his charge – better known as Aldana – was up, Sombra was up and at attention too.
“We have an unidentified Federation contact at 025. It has set a parallel course at the very edge of our maximum sensor range. Knight-1 has been dispatched to scout it out and has established a sensor relay to help give us a boost,” Aldana whispered. S/he paused to give hir commander a chance to ask questions.
“Another Federation ship? Very well, continue to monitor.“ Tolkath responded to the information he was given, which did not seem to be of relevance to the reason for the Red Alert. Why were they at alert, if it was a Federation vessel he wondered and went over to an auxiliary position to find out for himself.
Aldana had just taken another breath to continue hir report and to answer Tolkath's question when s/he watched him walk away for no reason. "Sir, I wasn't finished, I have more information for you."
"The reason for the Red Alert l trust?" Tolkath asked.
Aldana nodded, “I detected energy spikes indicative of weapons and shields activation picked-up from the unidentified Federation contact.”
Tolkath wondered why that had not been the first thing mentioned but since they could be shortly entering combat he had little time to educate the Lieutenant on the importance of prioritizing information.
“Mr. Zamora, status report, please,” Akio asked.
“Sir,” Juan began, “we detected an unknown vessel with a Federation signature, I attempted to confirm if it was indeed friendly after initial scans were inconclusive. I dispatched the fighters to aid in identification, sensor readings continued to indicate a Federation vessel, but the pilots reported seeing a ship with unknown markings and configuration. Shortly afterwards, sensors indicated that they had raised shields and begun charging their weapons, so I ordered a red alert.”
“Very well, I have the bridge,” Akio commanded.
“Of course, captain” Juan gratefully rose out of the captain’s chair and transferred himself to the relative comfort of the secondary seat, off to the side.
On the viewscreen, the unknown vessel crept closer to the Wyoming and Hawai’i.
“What is the Wyoming doing?” Darren asked as the Wyoming appeared to be accelerating towards the ship.
“Sir, should we follow the Wyoming’s lead?” Hunter asked from the Ops station.
“Negative. Mr. Winchester, fire warning torpedoes at the vessel, consistent with previous orders,” Akio commanded.
Tapping a button on the upper left of his console, Winchester sent 3 torpedoes sailing 2 kilometers to port and 3 more to aft of the enemy ship in an attempt to dissuade it from it's present course of action.
“Sir! Incoming fire!!!” Hunter’s voice shouted.
Before Akio could issue further commands the ship started to rock and the bridge exploded in a shower of sparks.
As Akio steadied himself in his seat, he saw that Hunter was on the ground with a bad burn to his chest. He looked around the bridge as time seemed to stop.
Cassidy reeled back from the helm controls as sparks erupted from Ops to his left, his arm thrown up to protect his face. “Dust!” he swore, reverting to old spacers’ oaths as he saw Hunter go down, but bit his lip and dragged himself back to the helm controls. He could see the twitch on the fingers of his left hand, the singed skin and sleeve, but with adrenaline and focus pushed it to one side, regaining control of the ship to try to veer away from the next bout of incoming fire.
The ship rocked again although this time, the damage did not seem as severe; Cassidy’s maneuver was enough to avoid the worst of the impact but too slow to avoid a blast entirely.
Tolkath gripped the arms of his chair as the ship heaved and rocked from the impacts. His panel flashed warning signs as systems went into shut down.
Sombra saw the man in yellow go down and his training was to go to Hunter and guard him until help arrived, licking his mouth and face to try and revive him or keep him awake.
Hunter was unresponsive.
“Damage report!!!” Akio shouted as he scanned the bridge for a yellow shirt.
Locking eyes on Ruk, Akio pointed at the Ops station, “Mr. Jones, take the Ops station!!”
Holding back his normal comment about his name, Arthur ran over and took Ops like he was born doing it. “We’ve got damage everywhere. Hull breaches on the lower decks sealed with forcefields.” His hands flew over the console, though there was a hint of fear in his voice, it was never shown on his face.
Hir medical training being more ingrained and intuitive, Doctor Aldana went to Hunter’s side, =/ \=Medical emergency on the bridge! Emergency teams respond! =/ \= To take his pulse, s/he looked at Sombra, “That’s my good bouy, go seek cover.” Finding a pulse, s/he called out to the Xenexian, “Lieutenant Hunter, can you hear me?”
Hunter was still unresponsive.
“Blast, I don’t have any medical supplies,” Aldana said
Sombra having noticed it before, and now that he was back under the SCI I workstation grabbed the emergency med kit on the underside of the desk and freed it from its place of concealment. He headed over to ‘Alpha’ with it and handed it to hir.
Aldana accepted it thankfully and went to work tending to Hunter.
Akio looked back at the viewscreen as the Wyoming continued heading in, yet it was taking the brunt of the damage, a foolish move.
“Mr. Winchester, fire at will. Helm get us out of here, maximum warp,” Akio said, reluctantly. Cassidy’s head shot around at the instruction, his own reluctance mixed with fear visible on his face.
“Sir, we’re just going to leave the Wyoming?” Darren asked.
Before Akio could answer, the Hawai’i shook violently again.
“Science and Engineering figure out how that ship is firing through our shields!!” Akio shouted.
“Already on it damn it,” Deeli cursed as she taps on the scanner to see if she could get any readings regarding the torpedoes hitting them.
Aldana looked between Hunter, and SCI I, and back again and again. S/he felt torn. S/he wasn’t sure what to do. Hunter wasn’t quite stabilized enough for transport, and no one from sickbay had come. S/he stood up and erect like a beanpole. “Captain respectfully request to tend to Mister Hunter?”
“Granted, Doctor. Find out what’s going on in Sickbay,” Akio told the Lieutenant.
With the auxiliary panel down. Tolkath moved to the science station vacated by Aldana and began gathering sensor readings on the incoming weapons.
“As cruel as it sounds I need more of those torpedoes to make a precision scan to know what the hell we are dealing with,” Deeli said, “They are somehow regulating towards the frequency of our shields and seem to be able to pass it…I need this data Commander…for Hammerhead.” She knew she could use this information for her project and Akio knew what she was talking about. Deeli slid her fingers over the console and started a specific scan on the enemy vessel.
Akio was not aware what information Deeli was specifically referring to, yet he understood her project. “Lieutenant, if it makes them stop damaging this ship, do it!”
When Akio turned back to his XO, he saw that Darren had been knocked out of his seat, hitting his head on something as there was a gash. Akio leaned down to assist.
Seeing a red-shirt down this time, Sombra went to him, and this time lay on top of him this time and taking a defensive posture. He wasn’t going to let ANYone near without teal on. ‘Alpha’ had explained previously the importance of these red-shirts, and he knew that s/he was busy with the yellow-shirted man apparently designated ‘Hunter.’ He began trying to silently wake-up the downed red-shirt too.
=/\= Dr. Sthilg, we have casualties on the bridge! =/\= Akio transmitted.
There was silence.
=/\= Sickbay, please find Dr. Sthilg and send medical teams to the bridge. =/\= Akio repeated.
Akio stood back up and turned to Zamora, “You are now the Acting XO. I need you to supervise damage control.”
“Of course, sir.” Juan answered automatically, momentarily stunned by the scope of the devastation coming from such a short exchange of fire. It was only with a great effort of will that he was able to pull himself together and rise from his seat. In a few quick strides he had crossed to an open ops station and pulled up a readout of the ship’s condition. “Mr. Ruk” He directed, voice level, “I need an assessment. Is there any damage to priority areas or systems?” With his fingers flying across the controls, he opened up comm lines down to engineering and the CIC.
“Maneuvering us to an escape trajectory,” Cassidy reported amid all the chaos, “but the best bet is to put the Wyoming between us and them before we jump to warp, sir!” To jump to warp meant long, critical seconds with minimal evasion beforehand, which meant escaping or shielding against the worst of weapons impact, or not being the target. It was a cold suggestion, and bitter on his tongue.
Tolkath turned from his panel at hearing Cassidy announce they were going to warp. “Captain, we are damaged, but still combat effective. We have a duty to support the Wyoming, for her crew….” He left if not for her Captain unsaid. He had taken Tachibana to be an honorable Officer.
Cassidy also looked back, poised over the controls, gaze on Tachibana a mixture of fearful and expectant; he wasn’t going to leave the Wyoming without confirmation of that order.
Akio paused as time again seemed to stop amid the bridge sparking. Tolkath was right. The ship had a duty, yet if they entered combat and were destroyed, their whole mission would be jeopardized. What was Carson doing? They were on an intelligence patrol. The prudent action was to run and report their findings.
“Got it!” Deeli confirmed the information gathering in from the last hit upon the Hawaii “At this stage I can’t stop the torpedoes Commander, I need time to analyze the information…I might be brilliant to SCE, but not that quick in processing the information,” Deeli shrugs at finally giving the SCE some credit.
The Wyoming did not have time and neither did the Hawaii. As if on cue, the ship rocked violently again.
On the viewscreen, the Wyoming continued towards the battlecruiser.
Akio suddenly stood up… Why would Carson–
The Wyoming suddenly exploded into flames and hull breaches could be seen as it contacted the battlecruiser.
Juan blanched as the most recent strike painted his diagram with a swath of red. Simultaneous reports began blasting out of the console from Main Engineering, and the CIC, drowning each other out. He felt adrift in the storm of information, everything was happening far too quickly. Stiffly he continued working, lives depended on this, so he forged ahead. Grimly he watched as the crews down below set to their tasks and the red began, slowly to retreat. He stared at the screen in front of him trying vainly to will everything to be alright.
Unconsciously or not, Akio’s eyes met Tolkath’s. Akio was not sure if the calls he made were right or even the best, yet he made the decisions he had to.
Tolkath held Tachibana’s look for a moment then turned to his panel, his face as stoic as ever. Not looking back, he said “The enemy torpedoes appear to have an onboard forcefield generator, with adjustable polarities and frequencies. There is a charged sheath around the weapon. When it contacts our shields it somehow manages to cause a breach that enables the torpedo to pass through. Further analysis is needed to better understand and defend against it.”
Tolkath’s mind raced, part focused on the problem in hand; another part thought through the last few minutes and the Captain’s decision to abandon the Wyoming to her fate.
“How long for analysis?” Akio asked, amazed the Gorn possessed such technology.
“Unknown at this time Captain” Tolkath responded “I am unfamiliar with the technology and it is not in the tactical memory bank”
“CONN continue warp preparations,” Akio said, resigned to the only course of action he thought prudent. He sat back down as his jaw tightened.
“Mister Cassidy, I’m sure the Fighter pilots would appreciate it if you share our warp coordinates before we depart” Tolkath said quietly to the young helmsman. Since it appeared the ship’s squadron had been forgotten in the battle and the Valkyries could only make Warp 2.
Akio noted the astuteness of the Vulcan and again appreciated his calm, methodical presence amidst crisis.
"It's getting done," came Cassidy's terse response; with evasion of enemy fire and the shattered Wyoming, their destination was dependent upon something as simple as the direction they faced once clear, hardly carved in stone. "If I say we're ready, it means the fighters are confirmed too."
Akio's face showed no emotion, yet again he thanked the experience of the crew and felt almost ashamed at such hesitation of command.
[Near space]
"Come on Hawai'i give me something I can work with here!" Jenny shouted at the overwhelmed CIC officer on the other end of the line. "Can't you do any better than just a heading, I can get that off my own instruments! Why am I even wasting my time talking to you then!" She fought the impulse to beat her fist against the canopy, she did not want to put her flight through emergency rendezvous protocols unless she absolutely had to.
The officer in the CIC dithered for a moment before re-formulating the same excuse he'd given her before =/\="I'm sorry Knight-01 we just don't have any information from flight control. I promise you'll get the coordinates as soon as we do."=/\=
"Fat lot of good that'll do us when you're light-years away!" Jenny sniped back. "You're a combat information center that doesn't have any information! I swear if you leave us stranded out here I'm going to hunt you down and..."
=/\="Hold on, we're getting an update, relaying warp coordinates now."=/\=
"Well fiiiiinally!" she growled back. "Look alive Knights, time to form up" she addressed her squadron as she started running through her warp preparations. Off to her sides, the other valkyries settled smoothly into formation. together they streaked across the void, dashing to reach the jumping-off point. One-by-one the navigational indicators lit up in green. "Okay guys, ready on my mark, 3...2...1...Hold on to your hats!"
[Bridge]
Cassidy’s breath caught before he nodded. “Aye, sir,” he said, hands already moving to finish their maneuvers while the debris of the Wyoming could offer some shielding. “Ready on your mark, but it’s going to be a bumpy escape.”
“Hopefully not as bumpy as this; engage!” Akio gave the command.
Cassidy allowed himself a last, split-second check of the coordinates in front of him; the confirmation from Flight CIC of the fighters checking in receipt of their destination, the state of the Hawaii's flight status itself. Then he punched the command and gripped tight to the console at the lurch to warp, even if holding on was more to soothe his subconscious than strictly necessary.
And the shuddering of weapons fire ceased.
The comm system chirped “Bridge! This is Damage Control Party Six, we heard the Captain calling for Doctor Slithig. We’re in Transporter Room Two. We found the Transporter Technician, she was unconscious, got beat up pretty bad. We thought it was from the attack but when she came around, she said the Doctor attacked her and then beamed off the ship, just before we went to Red Alert”
Akio’s heart sank to his stomach. Was Carson, right?
“Security, once we are out of this mess, I want you to investigate the Doctor’s actions,” Akio requested angrily.
"Yes sir", Winchester said wiping soot off his face . Clearing his throat he asked, in a tone laced with anger and sadness, "Sir when I locate the Doctor permission to place him under arrest?"
"I would expect nothing less," Akio replied.
Juan numbly digested the news, for now it was just one more unfolding crisis, and he had bigger fish to fry. Mentally he filed the revelation away, he had an inkling that it would be taking up most of his attention in due course.
Aldana didn't have time to be confused or intrigued, s/he stood and crossed to Sombra and Lieutenant Commander Marian, ~good bouy, stand down, I've got this, you can go be with Hunter, alert me if he wakes up.~
Sombra did as he was told.
Aldana took some primary readings on Commander Marian, and found there was nothing s/he could do for him up here. Already given hir command to find out what was going on down in sickbay, s/he tapped hir commbadge. "Computer, emergency transport, three plus one canidae to sickbay."
The transporters shimmered Aldana, Sombra, and the wounded away.
Akio Tachibana, CDR, SF
CO
Juan "JJ" Zamora, LCDR, SF
2XO/CDO
Tolkath, LCDR, SF
CSO
Rafe Cassidy, LT, SF
CONN
Deeli Kosu, LT, SF
CHENG
Eira Cortez, LTJG, SF
INT
Jake Winchester, LTJG, SF
TACSEC
Amiri Aldana 365, D.V.M., M.D., LT, SF
ACSO
Harry Stevens, ENS, SF
ATACSEC
Arthur Jones, Son of Ruk, ENS, SF
SEC
