Following the Shuttle (Lexington)

Posted on Sun Jun 23rd, 2013 @ 4:14am by Fleet Admiral Mike K`Wor Bremer & First Ramata`tar & Captain Ryan Greenwood & Lieutenant Anandra Delair & Ensign Anthony La Baron & Lieutenant JG Aidan Murphy

2,211 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Mission 83 - Recovery
Location: USS Lexington
Timeline: Following 'Boarding the Shuttle (Lexington)', concurrent with 'Approaching Gamma Crateris'

ON:

Mike watched the Romulan shuttle turn toward Gamma Crateris, and he knew everyone was aboard and the mission was a go.

"Mister Murphy, keep us at least five-hundred-thousand kilometers behind the Romulan shuttle and match their course and speed."

"With pleasure, sir!" Aidan responded with an eager smile, his fingers deftly working the controls.

"Mister Talan, Mister La Baron, keep an eye our for Romulan patrols."

"Aye, Admiral," Talan replied flatly. "Continuing passive scans."

"All clear so far Sir." Anthony reported.

Anthony felt a certain tension growing within. He hardly had the mettle for clandestine operations, and if they ran into the Romulans he knew that his mettle would be shaken to the foundation.

Mike then glanced over at Greenwood, "We need to come up with a 'Plan B', in case the Teams are discovered. I have no intention of leaving anyone behind...but we don't need to start a war either."

Ryan agreed with the Admiral. Full on confrontation with the Romulans would start a War the Federation does not need. "Admiral, if we are discovered maybe using the deflector to cover our escape by emitting a wide band tachyon pulse. This should scramble their sensors and ours if we don't reverse the shield polarity." Ryan paused for a moment noting an error in the idea. "In order to do this it would require some time to charge the deflector. Not the kind of time we would have."

Mike then glanced at Delair, "I must be going soft...ten years ago I'd of been hoping for a confrontation, but now I'm hoping to avoid one."

Delair took a moment to ponder his words. It was no surprise that he'd want to avoid confrontation now - he'd suffered some big losses recently - but she wasn't going to turn this into a psychological analysis. "I don't think that means you're getting softer, sir; I think it means you're getting wiser." She offered a reassuring smile.

Mike smirked, “Maybe so.”

Talan had been keeping a watchful eye on his tactical display. It had been quiet for what seemed a very long time until it suddenly exploded with activity. The shuttle and Lexington were nearing their destination. "Admiral, I'm detecting several enemy ships and a tactical target in the vicinity of Gamma Crateris. Passive scans are still not detecting any possible cloaked ships."

Ramata’tar had remained quiet, sitting at the Strategic Operations station. When the panels beeped, he very calmly spoke up, “I'm detecting the R&D facility, construction yard, half a dozen shuttles, and a ship sitting in the construction dock. That vessel is similar to a Valdor type Warbird however it possesses additional shielding, modified engines, and additional housing under the wings for the thalaron weapon.”

Mike looked at the Jem Ha’dar for a moment, then gave out new orders. “Talan, keep an eye on those shuttles and ships. La Baron, keep an eye out for Talaron radiation signatures aboard that ship, it’ll give us an idea how close they are to launching. Murphy, once we’re in system, keep us out of the path of that traffic, but close enough so we can monitor the Teams’ progress. Ryan, let’s get that backup plan ironed out.”

"Acknowledged, Admiral." Aidan responded at the conn, readying his systems to meet the demands.

Anthony rescanned the area. A blip on his console began to flash, Anthony knew what that meant. "Admiral, thalaron radiation levels are significantly higher than background radiation levels in the system. If they plan on using it, they'll be using it soon."

Mike knew from his Chief Science Officer's report, that the Infiltration Teams didn't have much time...

A few minutes passed and Mike watched as the Romulan shuttle the Teams were aboard decloak, then land inside a bay at the Romulan base.

“They’re in...look sharp everyone.”

He stood and walked over to Tactical, looking over Talan’s shoulder at the Borg...as the Warrant Officer scanned the Romulan assault ship again. Mike’s eyes widened as he read off the readings, Defiantly thalaron capable. I’m also picking up an active Quantum Slipstream Drive installed. It’s armed with twelve type-7 plasma torpedo launchers, seventeen type-18 disruptor banks, and...I’ll be damned, it’s armed with Son’a Isolytic charges too.”

Talan scrutinized the prototype ship's weaponry. They were unmatched in their level of destructive power. "Admiral, if that ship was currently operational it would provide the Romulans with a significant tactical advantage."

Bremer looked at Greenwood, then over to La Baron before saying aloud to no one particular, “This just gets better and better.”

"Famous last words, Admiral." Anthony's sardonic response had a tinge of anxiety to it. Although he wasn't normally one to be superstitious, in the back of his mind he was already waiting for the klaxons after the Admiral uttered those deviously magic words.

Mike walked across the Bridge and stood on Anthony's left. He looked over the sensor readings of the planet, Gamma Crateris itself, and had an idea. "This planet has an unusually strong magnetic field, especially at the poles...it should be enough to hide a ship for a few seconds if necessary...Ryan, take us above the Northern pole, low orbit. Anthony I need you to keep a close look out for anything that could spot us, if we had to decloak. All we'd need is ten seconds."

Anandra watched as the Admiral crossed the bridge, then her gaze landed on Anthony as she pondered whether or not that was indeed anxiety she detected coming from him. She looked around at the others on the bridge, each of them clearly doing just as the admiral had said - looking sharp. If things went sour, she was confident that all aboard the Lexington would be fine. The away team on the other hand.. She turned her gaze back to the view screen, hoping the best for them.

Anan's glance didn't go unoticed to Anthony. He assumed she was picking up on his anxiety. He gave her a reassuring smile in an attempt to mask his worries. The smile faded once a blip appeared on his console.

"Admiral," Said Anthony as he read over the information. "There is a surge in power on the Romulan base. I believe they are conducting a sensor sweep of the sector. If they scan over the shuttle and detect any other lifeforms aboard besides Romulans, they'll have no qualms about vaporizing it."

Mike nodded, "Is there anyway we can knock that scanner out from here, without giving away our position?"

"If we can find out what frequency the station's sensor array is scanning on, we should be able to send the station false readings via subspace on the same frequency. If they are really thorough in their scans, there would be a chance that they'd realize it's a false reading, but considering the altnernative I'd reccomend we do it."

Mike nodded, “Do it.” Granted, it wasn’t that easy, trying to isolate the frequency the Romulans were using, nor was there time to attempt one of the Team members to find the information.

Talan agreed with La Baron's plan. "Admiral, if we tap into Commander Matthews' shuttle, we should be able to remotely access its database in order to identify standard Romulan sensor frequencies. Being so deep in Romulan territory, there should be no logical reason why their frequencies deviate from standard protocol."

Mike smirked, ‘Borg ingenuity’ he thought. “Set up the link, be ready to sever it at a moment’s notice.

Mike then looked over at Ryan, “Be ready to move the ship, slowly, to the planet’s southern pole, just in case the Romulans pick up the datalink.”

Mike then checked the time again, he was a little surprised the shuttle hadn’t lifted off yet and hoped it was a matter of locating the Remans, and not that the Teams had run into trouble.

Talan established a link to the shuttle. A direct database download would easily be detected, so he transferred his readout the the science station where Ensign La Baron would be able to sift through the data. "Ensign, I have identified a number of commonly used sensor frequencies. You should be able to decipher the correct one."

Before him was a daunting list of numbers. It would have been nearly impossible without his Borg associate's refinemnt to the plan. Anthony felt the pressure as he quickly sifted through the numbers. Over and over again he played the scenario out in his mind if he failed. That was not an option. Eventually he narrowed down the choices to two possible frequencies. Realizing there was no time to make a reasonable choice, he did what all La Baron men did in times of duress, he went with his intuition.

"The false data has been uploaded." Anthony closed his eyes and waited for the results of his plan.

Talan performed a new passive scan of the station. All signs indicated that the ruse was successful and the enemy's scans were sufficiently confused. "The Romulans are reducing their scanning power, Admiral. Their tactics are consistent with the perfoming of a Level 1 diagnostic." He turned to Ensign La Baron. "What did you tell their computers they were seeing?"

"Your standard crop of Green-blooded Romulans." Anthony responded with a sigh of relief.

An alert appeared on Talan's console which was cause for alarm. He honed his passive scans on a specific location. "Admiral, I'm detecting energy signatures consistent with Romulan disruptor fire in the center of the complex. One of the Valdore-class ships has altered its heading. It's possible they've detected the same readings."

Mike walked back over and looked at the readings too. "Stand fast everyone." Mike said as he played out in his mind what could of happened and why there would be weapons fire.

Before he could give an order, the Valdore type ship changed course and recloaked. It was possible Matthews did have enough pull to order the Romulans to stand down, or it could of been something totally unrelated to the Teams.

"Mister Talan, do you still have a datalink with the shuttle?"

"Yes, sir. Our link has not been traced," Talan noted.

Mike looked at the panel, one of the teams had called for a beam out, but no one was aboard the shuttle to transport them. "Activate the shuttles transporter and beam that Team aboard."

"Aye, sir," Talan paused as he accessed the shuttle's scanners and transporters. "I have a lock on to Away Team #1 and the Reman lifesigns. Initiating emergency beam out."

"Who's aboard?" Mike asked a few moments later.

"I have Away Team #1 and a compliment of Remans, sir."

Mike nodded. He wondered where Pike, Harrison, Coleman, Lokran, Matthews, and K'Temoc were, hopefully they were on their way to the Shuttle too.

Several tense and seemingly endless minutes passed...

"Reading additional lifesigns aboard the shuttle, everyone is aboard except Captain K'Temoc." Ramata'tar reported.

Mike looked around the Bridge at everyone, "Where is he?"

"The Romulan ship's Computer Core Access." Came the reply.

"He's still aboard that ship?" Mike said aloud, but to no one particular. A second later, the Romulan attack ship started to move out of it's drydock.

"The shuttle has a transport in progress, it is the Captain and a Romulan."

Mike nodded, "Mister Murphy, set course to follow the shuttle back to the Chaltok system, low impulse until we clear the area then punch it to warp eight.

"Aye sir, plotting a course." Aidan Murphy said as he punched buttons on the console. "Warp eight, that's what I like to hear." That last part was directed at no one in particular - spoken 'under his breath' - and punctuated with a grin.

They watched the Romulan ship move off and jump to slipstream, and they knew they wouldn't be able to pursue.

Aidan turned in his chair to face the Admiral, a brow pricked at these new developments. "Still want that warp eight, sir?"

He didn't like it, but the Lexington wasn't equipped with a Slipstream drive, besides he hoped the codes Coleman came up with had been uploaded and would work. "Yes," Mike sat back in the Captain's Chair, "Follow the shuttle."


Little over an hour later, the armrest panel on the Captain's Chair beeped. It was a secure message from Starfleet Command.

"Okay everyone, listen up."Mike started. "Starfleet is reporting that a Romulan vessel crossed into Federation space near Bolarus. It appeared to drop from Slipstream, decloak, and then explode moments later. The Starships Warrior, Galaxy, and Clemson responded, but there appears to be no survivors. Scans suggest the ship suffered from a catastrophic malfunction in it's Quantum Slipstream Drive." He read aloud to everyone.

It was too peculiar for Anthony's liking. Ships don't just break interstellar treaty just to explode unceremoniously. "Was there any thalaron radiation in the area?"

"None reported." Mike replied. He paused a moment before adding, "Initial scans suggest the Romulan Slipstream Core was unstable before the explosion. It's possible the vessel simply wasn't ready and their tech wasn't perfected." Of course he couldn't tell them that it was sabotage...and it was better that they didn't know anyway...

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