Not Your Average Shakedown Part 2

Posted on Sun Feb 21st, 2021 @ 1:32pm by Commander Namia Grian & Lieutenant Kah'lyn Chiara-Rivers

1,650 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Episode 109 - The Dust Settles
Location: USS Buccaneer
Timeline: MD3

Last time aboard the USS Buccaneer...

"Way may not have the chance Captain," Grayson replied. "Sensors are picking up four vessels heading our way, unknown origin and it appears the first pair is being pursued by the second pair which explains the weapons fire. " Grayson added.

"Oh perfect. Red alert, raise our shields. " Grian ordered. The bridge lights darkened and the alert lights went to red with the familiar klaxon. "Grayson, hail the ships, tell them we are not involved in their dispute and here by accident. " Grian ordered.

"I am unable to raise them, captain, they are presently jamming all comms frequencies, probably to prevent the ships they are perusing to ask us or anyone else for help. It also means we can't communicate with SB400 and they will have lost us on sensors as it is affecting our location transponder. But whether or not they knew were here before that is unknown. " Grayson advised.

Grian sighed. "I guess we have company. "

And now the continuation....

We see the four ships rapidly approaching the stationary, but now on high alert, USS Buccaneer.

"Captain we are receiving a transmission from one of the lead ships. Looks like they broke through the jamming somehow as we still can't reach SB400. "Lieutenant Grayson announced.

"On screen."

The viewscreen switched from a view of the alien vessels to one of a weary face with blood coming from a cut to his forehead. His background was dark, with flickering consols and plenty of smoke.

"Please help us. We only did what we had to do to survive, we..." He was suddenly cut off. The screen went back to the previous view just as the lead ship of the fleeing pair was destroyed, with its counterpart shortly after. The viewscreen flashed on again with a different face but clearly the same species.

"You are not welcome here. Leave now. You won't be asked twice." The screen went back to normal view.

"Charming. Helm, turn us about and take us away from here, full impulse for now, till we get the navigation system sorted."

"Aye sir" Helm replied.

"I am sending you some corrections from the main sensors so you can get us away from this area," Grayson advised the helmsman.

Buccaneer turned away from the two alien vessels and once she had completed her turn she headed off back towards the nearest Federation outpost, Deep Space 14, at full impulse.

Grian tapped the console on her chair arm. =^=Grian to engineering, get a team to work on the navigation systems ASAP. Until the problem is found and corrected, we simply dare not use slipstream. Get it sorted. Grian out. =^=

Kah’lyn had stepped out of the turbolift moments before Grian had ordered them away from the dispute between the ships. She had been down in engineering for the first part of the journey now she’d come up to the bridge to man the auxiliary engineering station whilst trying to sort the navigation problem and anything else that might crop up.

“Are we just going to leave them to their fate Commander?” She looked at Grian. “Isn’t there anything we can do to help?”

"Their fate was sealed Lieutenant when their ships were destroyed by the two others pursuing them. The other two ships don't want us here so we are doing as requested and leaving. Probably not as fast as they would like. " Grian replied. The viewscreen flashed on again.

"You are still in our space, leave now." The man on the screen uttered in a disgruntled tone.

"With respect sir" Grian began. "We ended up in your space due to a navigation system error and we are attempting to correct the problem. Until then, we can not use faster than light. " Grian added.

"You have one hour," he replied and the viewscreen resumed to the view of space ahead.

"I will repeat what I said early....charming. " Grian said openly to those on the bridge. She turned to Lieutenant JG Chiara at the Engineering console.

"Sorry Lieutenant, but we have an hour. What happens after that, if we are still here, I hate to think. I don't want a conflict. " Grian advised.

Kah’lyn turned to look at Grian, “Your engineers are working as fast as possible Commander, the navigation error is something of a mystery. The engineering crew are busy going over the slipstream drive with a fine-tooth comb as we speak, I’m going to go over the navigation systems to see if there’s a problem there.”

"Very good, keep me posted on your progress," Grian replied.

“Yes Ma’am” Kah’lyn nodded and got to work, moving round to the helm she took over from the ensign there to give the station a thorough diagnostic.

Grian picked up a padd with the data from all the finished systems checks that were done en-route to their current predicament. All looked pretty good. The one thing they had not yet tested was the cloaking device. Doing so now, whilst being watched by people who clearly did not want them there, would be a bad idea.

Kah’lyn frowned as she looked at her readouts. “Commander my basic checks are coming up empty, all my readouts are green.” She sighed. “Helm isn’t the problem, which takes us back to square one.”

Looking over the top of the pad she was reading, "Sounds to me like we have an issue with the navigational array itself." Grian commented.

Looking over the top of the pad she was reading, "Sounds to me like we have an issue with the navigational array itself." Grian commented. She turned to her XO Lieutenant Grayson. "Is there any way we can bi-pass the navigational array and feed the helm with a temporary set of coordinates so we can at least get out of this area and back into Federation space? " she asked.

"Possibly, I will work on it, but that hour limit is not helping. " Grayson replied.

She nodded in agreement. Turning to the coms station "Open a channel to the lead ship. Let's see if I can get us more time."

"Aye captain, channel open." the officer replied.

=^= This is Commander Namia Grian of the Federation Starship Buccaneer. Our situation is more problematic and to be honest your hour time limit does not help. Can we discuss this? =^=

The same face from before appeared on the viewscreen.


=^= Commander Grian, this is Commander Lewnren of the Valdoraan Battleship Vendel. Your problems are not our concern. You are not welcome in this area.=^=

=^= So you have said and under normal circumstances, we would not have been here if our systems had not malfunctioned. =^=

=^=As you did not intentionally invade our space, Commander, I will consider giving you more time. How much do you need? =^= The Commander asked.

Grian glanced over to her XO who gestured another hour at most.

=^= Another hour at most. =^= Grian replied.

=^= Very well. You now have 1 hour and 40 minutes. =^= The commander replied. The viewscreen went back to a normal view of stars.

Grian turned to Kah’lyn. "Work with the XO to get us a quick fix so we can leave and then we can fully fix the navigational array later. "

Kah’lyn nodded. “Yes, Ma’am” She let the helm officer retake the helm and walked over to the First Officer. “I’m hoping whatever the problem with the array is it’ll be an easy fix, it’s just finding the problem to start with.”

"I hope so too Lieutenant. In the meantime, we need to somehow get the correct coordinates for DS14 to the helm by-passing the problem so we can at least get somewhere more welcoming. " Grayson replied.

Kah’lyn nodded. “If we check the star charts for known phenomena then we could roughly triangulate our position using that. It would give us something to go on as to where we are.”

"Exactly. Before we can attempt to engage slipstream, we need to get a more accurate fix on our present position. We are not in Federation space, that we do know and we are roughly 15 light-years from our nearest Federation outpost, Deep Space 14. So, if we can get an accurate fix on our position we should be able to get to DS14." Grayson replied.

Kah’lyn nodded. “I’ll see if I can get anything up on the charts that’ll help us triangulate.”

The viewscreen had been put on a split-screen mode. The upper half was ahead while the lower half was aft with the two alien vessels following them to ensure that they left their space. Grian kept a watchful eye on both the alien vessels and the clock at the bottom of the screen.

"We have less than 50 minutes, people. Are we any closer to getting away from here?" Grian asked.

“Possibly Commander” Kah’lyn nodded as she motioned the CO and XO across to where she sat. “The Last readings we had before the system went haywire put us here ..” she pointed to the chart on her screen. “If we could backtrack so-to-speak, to that point then we’d be away from the fringes of this system.”

"Fantastic. Can you extrapolate the co-ordinates and get them to the helm station so we can get moving?" Grian asked.

“Doing it ... now.” Kah’lyn looked towards the Officer on the helm.

"I have the co-ordinates Captian. All plotted and ready" Helm advised.

"OK everyone, cross your fingers and toes," Grian advised all on the bridge.

"Helm, engage the slipstream drive and get us out of here," Grian ordered.

"Gladly Captain." the helmsman replied. He taps the console.

We see the Buccaneers nacelles tilt to their slipstream position and with a brief surge of dazzling brightness, the Buccaneer lurched forward at great speed, disappearing in a distance blue flash.


OFF

To Be Continued.....

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