Kearsarge and Avenger - getting away

Posted on Wed May 8th, 2013 @ 6:21am by Commodore Andrew Clifford & Commander Jonathan Coleman & Captain R'nard Lokran & Captain Torilla Yamaguchi & Commander Tressa Brislan & Lieutenant Commander Holly Gillo & Lieutenant Saith i-Ki Baratan & Sergeant Maal son of Torg

2,398 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Mission 82 - The Aggressor
Location: Cestus III
Timeline: Mission plus 46 hours

Turning to face Maxwell he smiled grimly, then got up from his chair again, "Have them report to the bridge, and arm the forward torpedoes. I want a full spread set for minimum yield. Helm get us over to the Avenger, bring us to a halt 100km from them. "

Tressa and the team were on the bridge moments later.
“Captain Clifford, how can I assist you?” she asked.
Andrew smiled, "Just being back on board is fine for the moment, Tressa. What was it like over, there?"

"It was strange; most of the crew we found were killed while doing everyday tasks at their stations or in their quarters. One tragic tableau after the next, Captain. They were clearly ambushed," she replied. "Was anything missing from the computer's files? Lieutenant Quan was unable to access much of the data storage from the bridge, we were hoping you had more luck accessing it remotely."

"Lt Commander Yamaguchi managed to download some of the logs, but I think a lot of it was corrupted. We'll need the science team to work on the data to see the detail, though. That will probably have to wait until we get back to Starbase 400."

Even with the inertial stablisers on he felt the suptle shift as the ship went to warp, heading towards the Avenger.

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Avenger

Saith knew that Captain Greenwood liked to do things properly, the way some academic laid them out. She could tell he was a little upset at her, and she supposed she couldn’t blame him. Still, he had approved their plan to contact the Kearsage and try to pull in the power that was jamming their communications and possibly hiding a ship in the nearby sector.

The Engineering officer had explained it was a little like wrangling lightening. The idea was to pull the energy into the ship, harness it, and put it back into the systems. It would either work like a charm . . . or fry the system. In either case, the young man didn’t think we would blow up. Saith smirked, she had heard Greenwood did not like to take risks, but he had reluctantly let them try. She contacted Maal to let the Beta team know what was happening. “ . . . it is going to get real hot, work, or kill everything and we will be getting real cold, real fast.” She told Maal.

Maal stood there in engineering ready:"We are ready down here in engineering."

The Communications officer had coordinated with the Engineering officer and knew there would be just a small window to get a message out, no matter the outcome. He moved off to get the message ready. While that was going on, Saith’s Security officer, Jaybeth, was working on getting the navigational lights ready to flash out an old earth code by someone named Morse. So they would have two messages going simultaneously. Hopefully.

Saith stood on the bridge behind the Captain’s chair. She was a nervous wreck inside, but had to maintain a calm exterior. If this blew up in their face it was 100 percent, completely, totally, her fault and everyone knew it. She took a deep breath, held it, and exhaled slowly.

“The Kearsage has changed course,” Ops reported. Jaybeth nodded and added, “they seemed to have turned toward us sir.” She looked at Saith. Saith looked to the center chair. Captain Greenwood looked at her with a bemused look on his face and nodded. “Okay, here we go. Whenever you’re ready” she looked at the young man at the Engineering station; he was sweating, but nodded. His hands moved toward his controls.

When the Engineering officer on the bridge began to move his hands and work the console, Commander Coleman was waiting in Engineering and began to work on his console when he saw that it had begun. He did his best to make sure everything worked to plan, but seeing how far they'd come and nothing bad was happening, he was hoping that it would continue. When the power levels started to rise, Coleman slowly put them to the essential places that needed it, like life support, sensors, turbolift cars, ect. He was just hoping it wasn't going too quick for the systems to handle.

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Kearsage

The ship shot towards the Avenger. At warp it only took a few minutes to cover the whole of the Cestus system. the helm officer stabbed a control on his panel and the Kearsage dropped back into normal space. Still at high impulse he slowed the ship down and brought it to a halt 100km from the Avenger.
Andrew looked around the bridge, "Eyes sharp everyone! Shields up!. Weapons aim for a point 10km below the Avenger, one torpedo ready to fire."

Everyone around him, returned acknowledgments. Maxwell on ops was first to speak, "Orders Sir?"

Andrew held up his hand, "Wait. Comms keep trying to contact the Avenger. Everyone else standby"

"Comm is open sir," Tressa said. The silence on the bridge was broken by soft, almost rhythmic static. The doctor cocked her head for a moment, then pulled up a graph of the sound.

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Avenger

Saith smiled, her plan was working . . . sort of. They now had critical systems, but with a shake of his head the young Engineer indicated that was all they could do. “There isn’t enough power for everything we need,” he looked at her apologetic. She smiled encouragement, "at least we didn't fry anything."

Saith however, was buoyed by the relative success. She hit her com badge as Jaybeth indicated the navigational lights were beating out Morse code message, and Communications indicated they couldn’t get a message through but she was using the same staccato messaging system with the communication static. “Commander Coleman, Ensign i-ki Baratan. We seem to have taken in all the power we can, is this also your assessment?” Saith turned, as a shout came from Ops, “IT WORKED! We used up their power,” came the excited voice, “There’s a ship! It’s slinking away!”

There was nothing she could do about it and their situation was number one priority. “can you tell who it is?” she asked and the officer shook his head, “Record what you can, we will have to analyze it later and see if we can figure out who it is. Did you and Sgt. Maal catch that Commander?” Saith asked returning to her conversation with Commander Coleman. “Are we going to be able to limp home, or will we need a tow? We can try to let Kearsage know?” She nodded at Communications and Security since they were working on the messaging, “let the Kearsage know we may need a lift.” Saith breathed a sigh of relief, the ships systems didn’t seem to be damaged, the battery was just drained, so to speak.

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Kearsarge

Maxwell on ops called from the tactical station, "Sir! The Avenger is doing something..... They seem to be draining the static field around them, they are gradually powering up. There is a cloaked ship becoming visible 20km from the Avenger and it is now moving away, towards Cestus III".

Andrew leaned forward in his chair, "Well done, Avenger. Weapons. One torpedo minimum yield, target the ship and fire. I don't want damage I want their attention." He looked over at comms and saw that Lt Commander Brislan had taken over the station. He made a mental note - an officer of many talents. Was medical too limiting for her?. "Tressa, open a channel to the ship trying to leave the area."

The weapons officer locked and fired the torpedo. Everyone on
the bridge heard the torpedo fire. On screen the torpedo was seen streaking away from the ship to explode in space. The fleeing ship suddenly fully appeared as it's cloaking device overloaded under the energy of the torpedo. It hung there in space.

Tressa watched the pattern changing on the screen; three brief dips in the power output, three long, three brief. She turned back to the main screen and saw the same pattern flashing from the Avenger... the navigation lights were pulsing simultaneously.

"Captain, the Avenger is signaling, they are in distress," she said.

"This is Captain Clifford of the Star Ship Kearsarge to the formerly cloaked vessel. By now we will have your attention. Do not attempt to leave the area, and any attempt to raise shields or arm your weapons, and I will blow your stupid little ship into the next galaxy".

He motioned to comms to cut the connection, "Weapons lock everything onto that ship. Bring the torpedoes up to full yield. Mr Lokran take over tactical, please. Scan that ship from top to bottom. See if they have any of the Buraq survivors on board." He looked over to Tressa, "Open a channel to the Avenger. See what we can do to help. If they don't reply beam over to them and report back."

"Aye sir, channel is open and we are hailing."

R'nard was at Tactical, having finished his scan of the enemy ship. He sadly shook his head. "No surrvivors." he said.

Andrew nodded, "Understood Commander. Keep an eye on the enemy ship and any signs of them raising shields, arming weapons, or trying to leave, you have my authority to open fire". He smiled, "But only to scare them into compliance. I really don't want to have to explain why we destroyed a ship because it moved."

He looked back at the main screen.

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Avenger

Holly was at operations on the Avenger when she saw a flash on the console. She looked at Captain Greenwood and reported, "The Kearsarge is requesting a status report to see if need assistance and if we have any Buraq survivors on board."

Saith looked over and caught a glance between the Communications officer and Jaybeth at Security. She followed the gaze and saw Jaybeth snicker quietly. Deciding to approach the more serious Com Officer Saith walked up to her and quietly asked what was going on.

“I can’t get an audible message through so I am using the static, like the lights, to send out an S.O.S.” she replied as Saith nodded. She noticed another glance towards the Security station, “And Jaybeth?” Saith asked.

The officer looked in Jaybeth’s direction third time and Saith knew something was up. She kept her gaze on the Communications officer, who finally sighed and said very quietly, “she is using the navigational lights to tell them we are ‘up s#@! Creek; no paddles’.”

The woman almost laughed aloud at Saith’s confused look. “It is an old Earth saying, but not really in the books.” Saith nodded “I see,” she said, but she was thinking [Great. I suppose that will be my fault also].

Saith looked to the Security console and Jaybeth glanced at her grinning from ear to ear. "They will understand. I did not want everyone in the quadrant to know," she said. Saith considered that wasn't the point and realized this was what dealing with her must be like. She rolled her eyes and sighed.

Tag
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Kearsarge

Andrew saw the pattern of the navigation lights change, and looked at Lt Commander Brislan on comms. "What are they saying now, Tressa?"

"Ah, I need to slow it down.... 'eek, no paddle, repeat we are up'...oh!" she said, startled. "Ahem, they are 'up the creek without a paddle,' Captain," she said, blushing.

Andrew laughed, well that makes our lives a lot easier. Helm move the ship into position for close tractor beam. We're heading back to StarBase 400.

The ship moved towards the Avenger and took up station just ahead and above of the stricken starship. The tractor beam locked on and the Kearsarge started to tow the Avenger out of the area, back to Starbase 400.

Andrew looked around the bridge, "Well done everybody, lets get back to base. Tressa open a channel to the Saratoga please, and signal to the other ship they can go. R'nard record everything you can about that ship, please. This is a new Gorn ship and I want to make sure we have it on record.
Tressa also signal Major Crespin to bring her flight back on board. Helm as soon as they have all docked best speed back to Starbase 400".

"Yes, Captain," Tressa said.

As his officers started executing his orders, Andrew leaned back in the centre seat. He hadn't been overly impressed with the Intrepid class, but then again his crew had more than made up for any short comings in the ship.

R'nard did as he was ordered. He wished he was on board there to investigate it personally, but he did the scans and checked out the ship. It confirmed everything he knew about the Gorn. He had met a few on his travels, and knew what they did.

There was even one in Starfleet, but on another ship, A Gorn named Karrak, who was a direct descendant of the commander that Kirk had encountered. He had met him once, and was quite impressed with him. He wished he could recruit that one for Special Forces.

He continued recording as he went along.

Lt Commander Brislan had closed the channel between the captain and Colonel Hurd. The Saratoga was to leave a few hours behind the Kearsarge and meet up as all three ships arrived back at Starbase 400.

Andrew got up from the centre seat, "Commander Lokran, you have the conn. If you need me I'll be in my ready room." With that he walked off the bridge to his ready room.

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Avenger

The Com Officer informed Saith of the Kearsage's intentions, and she in turn informed Captain Greenwood. Then Saith hit her comm badge and let everyone she could think of know that they were hitching a ride with the Kearsage. She was glad to be going back in one piece, but was concerned about the Captains report. She had seriously overstepped her authority. Once again she thought it was too late to do anything about it now. She definitely needed to talk to Couselor Dallas about her rushing into things . . .

Her thoughts came back into focus at the ship jerked slightly with the initial pull of the Kearsage's tractor beam. "We are headed home."

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Thanks everybody - Dave aka Clifford

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