Surveying the Asteroid Field (Part 4)

Posted on Thu Jun 28th, 2018 @ 3:51am by Captain John Theisman & Sevena t'Dhvael & Ael'isha T'vek & Lieutenant Commander Mira Jayde & Lieutenant Commander Jason Smoak & Lieutenant Commander Velah & Lieutenant JG Élan Val & Chief Petty Officer Wendi Maberu & Lieutenant Tristan Balor & Lieutenant Zhara Rynn & Lieutenant JG Iona Csira & Ensign Leslie Gallant III & Warrant Officer Kaiyo & Master Chief Petty Officer Liang Shao
Edited on on Thu Jun 28th, 2018 @ 3:52am

1,963 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Ghost of a Chance

OLD

"Go ahead and seal the secondary lockers and hide their locations. That will limit the Romulans to trying to access just the main armory. If any security or senior officer can get away, they'll be able to access the secondary lockers. Otherwise, the pirates may not be able to find them," John said. Turning to Csira, he nodded. "Erase all computer data on Val, her team and the Helios. That way they may be able to escape and get help."

CONTINUED

-- On Board the Helios --

Élan sat at the helm console of the Helios and smiled happily as she drummed her fingers on the side panel of the console while the runabout drifted lazily along the edge of the asteroid field. The Hyperion was a rapidly dwindling dot of light that would soon be completely out of sight, and for a few hours, possibly even days, she wouldn't have to worry about anything other than a simple charting mission. Beside her, Kaiyo sat in the co-pilot seat, while Commander Velah and Master Chief Petty Officer Liang sat behind them. Leaning back in her seat, Élan tugged at the collar of her uniform undershirt and watched through the view-port as the Helios continued on its way.

Liang was taking the opportunity to meditate. She wasn't sure if she would have time for such things later, and she had little to do at the moment. It was nice to feel the peace on the runabout.

Having nothing else to do at the moment, Élan leaned back in her seat and unzipped her uniform jacket before she relaxed just a little. The auto-pilot could handle simple maneuvers, and there wasn't much to do while the Helios circled the asteroid field. "Kaiyo, have you detected anything on the sensors?" Élan asked, mostly just to find something to break the silence for a little while.

Kaiyo shook her head. "Nothing as of yet" she said as she attempted to reach the higher buttons, she looked weird as she had brought a large cushion so she could sit higher in the chair. She looked like a small chair with fluffy ears and tails in a car booster seat.

Élan raised her eyebrows as she watched Kaiyo, trying, and failing, to hide a smile as she watched the tiny science specialist. She resisted an urge from Val to reach out and scratch the warrant officer on her ears, and that was only because Élan wasn't quite sure how Kaiyo would react. After a moment, she suppressed a chuckle and smiled widely. "You know, we might have a few manuals or service books somewhere on board if that will help," the Trill said jokingly.

Velah was sitting quietly; she worried about her daughter of course; a wild teenager alone with mother out on a survey. "I wonder if My daughter will have a party while I am gone?" She mused. "Sassy is a good girl but a teenager and half of my gene pool in her. There will be a party if she thinks she can get away with it?" She mused.

"All children need to spread their wings," Liang said, sitting down next to Velah. "Better to have her try something on a starship where there is a measure of safety."

Kaiyo looked over at Liang. "I was unaware that Human children possess wings...." she pondered for a few seconds. "Does that mean they will lose them upon reaching a mature state? Glacet cubs do not have wings..."

Élan had reached for an insulated mug that she had placed on the corner of the pilot's console that was filled with her usual tea and had started taking a drink when Kaiyo had spoken. Her first reaction was to laugh, something made more difficult while taking a drink. Turning, she managed to finish drinking without making a mess or coughing, but she also quickly put the mug back and shook her head with a smile.

"It is a figurative expression," Liang said. "It means they need to go out and learn new things, to experience life."

"I understand" Kaiyo replied. "Glacet cubs learn very fast. By the time a cub reaches four of your Earth years they have matured." She explained. "Our brains allow us to.... assimilate information much faster than what I have observed from Humans. By my calculations, one year of education for a Human a Glacet cub of three years could establish that in roughly 12 days" she explained.

Suddenly Kaiyo's console began to beep. "I seem to have lost the communication link with the Starship Hyperion" she told Val.

"Why?" Liang asked.

"The communications link can only be lost due to a few reasons," Élan said as she started a quick diagnostic. "Either they distance between the Hyperion and the Helios is too great to maintain the signal, which it's not; one of the ships deactivated the communications sub-channel, or one of the ships has been attacked."

"Unlike before, I do not believe this is due to a malfunction," Liang said. "It would be prudent to keep out of site and find out what is going on."

"I agree, until we know what is going on we should keep a safe place to observ ; maybe get a good scan angle on the ship, use the asteroids horizon to partly cover our approach?"

"Either way, I'm not taking any chances," Élan said as she typed in a series of commands. Instantly, the Helios slowed and darkened as the majority of the runabout's systems went offline. "I'm securing and deactivating our transponder and deactivating all systems that can be used to detect or track us. Until we know more, I want to err on the side of caution."

Liang nodded. "A wise course of action."

Kaiyos ears pricked up. "I can navigate us back to the ship" she said. "Glacets have a natural instinct to remember their tracks" she explained. "I need no usage of navigational sensors" her tiny fingers ran over the console. "Course plotted"

Élan frowned as she checked the course that Kaiyo had plotted before she reached out and entered several commands. "I don't want to take us directly back to the ship," she said as the runabout banked about and started through the leading edge of the asteroid field. "If they've encountered any trouble, it's best that we don't go barging back in towards the Hyperion. I want to get an idea of the situation, if there is one, first," Glancing over her shoulder towards Liang, the Trill nodded solemnly. "It might be best is we open up the weapons locker and start handing out personal sidearms," she suggested.

"I will wait until there is a need," Liang said. "But it will not take long with so few of us."

Élan nodded and turned back to carefully flying the Helios through the asteroid field. She made sure to be very careful she the runabout made its way towards the Hyperion. With the craft powered down to the bare minimum, with basic life support and impulse thrusters only working and taking in the runabout's small size, the Helios would be a hard target to detect, at least in theory. To break the silence, the Trill finally spoke as she piloted. "Who wants to place a bet on why we've lost communications? I say Engineering lost the pod again."

Liang shook her head. "I think not. I feel uneasy about this, but I do not know why."

[USS Hyperion]

Jayde changed into a simple black jumpsuit and replicated a set of tools for computers and power relays. Then she strapped a utility tool and a balt knife to the belt, added black work boots and carefully concealed anything of interest in her quarters behind panels in case her room was searched. Then she locked her room and headed for Intel to "work" on the computers and set up the worm for transmission through the distress call.

She half wished Jason were there with her, but she was also glad he was on the bridge in case she got in trouble. She carefully damaged part of a power conduit so that it would look like it was not working while still allowing her to do what she needed to. Then, seh began to work, carefully tooling the worm to be recognized by Liang.

[Helios]

Ten minutes later, Liang picked up a distress call with an odd echo. "Lieutenant, give me a moment. I believe there is a message for us as well." She was not as adept at computer programs as Jayde, but she did know how to excise one. She carefully recorded the distress call, then put it through a filter Jayde had used on several occasions. "Yes. A message. And a request for assistance."

Élan paused for just a brief moment before she turned towards Liang. There had been something in the non-commissioned officer's voice that the Trill didn't like, and she was concerned. "What does the message say?" she asked, fairly certain that what-ever it was, it wasn't good.

"The ship is under attack by a rogue Romulan ship. We have been sent a program and instructions to piggyback it onto a comm signal or passive scans to infiltrate the Romulan computer." She turned to Val. "It has been successful in the past."

"How successful do you think it will be and will it place us in any immediate danger?" Élan asked as her brain raced, a plan already formulating.

"If we can successfully piggyback it on a signal that is received by the Romulan vessel, the success rate will be high. The difficulty is in the delivery," Liang said.

"How long will it affect the Romulan ship, and what exactly will the program do?" Élan asked with a thoughtful frown. "If we can disrupt their sensors long enough, we can beam over to the ship, hopefully to upset the Romulan's plans."

"It depends on how it is programmed," Liang said. She looked at the information and smiled. "It will let us gain information from the Romulan ship's computer. What we do with that information will be up to us."

Élan frowned. "Not much in our current situation, other than possibly hack into their communications channels and track them on the Hyperion. I'm thinking that we should split the team in half. Two of us could beam to the Hyperion while the other two remain on the Helios. Master Chief, this is your area of expertise. I'd appreciate any of your advice," she said as she banked slowly around an asteroid and the Hyperion and a Romulan war-bird came into view. Élan had never seen a war-bird of that design, but it was clear that it was a deadly and lethal opponent. The Hyperion looked partially disabled, the sensors detecting power fluctuations throughout the entire ship. "What the hell did they hit the Hyperion with?" the Trill muttered out loud.

"I think we should stay together," Liang said. "It will be much easier for us to do something if we do. If they can do that type of damage, they might notice the transport and then we would have no chance at all."

Élan nodded, then froze and glanced towards Commander Velah. Technically, now that the situation had changed and they were no longer conducting a science mission, the Orion medical officer was the senior officer and thus the one who command authority had passed to. "Ma'am, the science mission has pretty much ended, so that means that you're technically in command at this point," the Trill said.

TO BE CONTINUED



Captain John Theisman
Commanding Officer

Chief Petty Officer Wendi Maberu
Chief Engineer

Lieutenant Commander Mira Jayde
Executive Officer

Sevena t'Dhvael
Romulan Ambassador

Lieutenant JG Iona Czira
Communications Officer

Ael'isha T'vek
Romulan Commander

 

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