Post 113: It's Quiet... too Quiet (The Away Mission)
Posted on Wed Oct 23rd, 2024 @ 4:05pm by Lieutenant JG Celine Quinn & Commander Jordan Haines & Lieutenant Commander Michael McMahon & Lieutenant Jude Haines & Lieutenant Marty Stokes & Lieutenant T'Shas Cruz & Lieutenant V'Lar & Major Charlotte Thrace & Captain Joel Haines
Edited on on Wed Oct 23rd, 2024 @ 4:06pm
2,355 words; about a 12 minute read
Mission: Obsidian
On:
Jordan materialized on the Calvary and looked around. He saw Jude and Mike a few feet away and called out.
“Where is everyone!” He growled. “They can’t even stay put.” He knew it was behind their control but still he growled.
While Charlotte had been colliding with the Calvary's outer hull, the same transporter issue had thrown V'Lar into what appeared to be the ships main engineering section. "Oh come on." V'Lar said tapping her combadge and getting static, before pulling out her tricorder, at least something was working as she picked up biosigns belonging to the away team. Looking around visually she sighed, emergency lighting was evident that meant the Calvary was likely running out of power reserves, not necessarily a bad thing but could be depending on other factors. However the immediate problem was that the area she was in appeared to be locked down. "And the hits just keep on coming."
T'Shas materialized in what looked like the Science Department, but the lights were flickering and most of the consoles were out. It appeared that she was alone in the area and that it was locked down. She whispered to herself, "This is just great."
Celine materialized and at first was confused. Expecting the transporter room onboard the USS Calvary, she instead was faced with a grassy hill, outside, with no one around and no ship in sight.
"What the hell," she whispered to herself? Her tricorder was acting up, and so she put it away in frustration, choosing to instead walk slowly up the large hill, hoping to see something to guide her once she reached the top.
Mike looked around. "Well, I'm sure they are around somewhere. We should start going through what's left of the ships computers that we actually have access to, and then go looking for them. With the ship on power reserves - we won't have a lot of time."
Charlotte was glad she had such a nerdy sister as she hotwired open an airlock and got inside the ship, still feeling her body from the impact with the outer hull. Drawing her pistol her brain clicked into search and clear mode as she looked around the corridor this wasn't good, the dim lighting the flickering computer screens in places, sparking consoles... Stepping around the corner she saw movement out of the corner of her eye, pivoting around it was gone before she got eyes on it but that told her enough, they weren't alone aboard ship. Moving on she rounded another corner and found herself in the ships sickbay, not the worst place for her to be as she knew the basics of first aid, But then as she took another step inside the emergency doors started to close, some might have been caught by that trap but Charlotte had her reflex's, her agility and her combat training so she was able to tuck and roll under the door as it came down and get back out into the corridor. Getting up she moved on again and around a few more corners, so there was someone down here but they were hiding because they didn't want to be found or because there was something on the ship that they didn't want them to find?
Marty looked around once she’d materialized and frowned. “What the hell,” she said aloud as she moved slowly through the darkened engineering section. Tapping her combadge, she started to speak when a hand was placed over her mouth.
After what seemed like hours, but in reality probably was only fifteen to twenty minutes, Celine crested another hill, and spotted the ship in the clearing below.
"Thank God," she muttered with relief, and although she did not see any of the crew, or the Arcadia crew for that matter, she knew she had to get onboard and find some answers. She needed to get with Marty so that they could reach out to the planet leadership and see what bridges could be made there.
"Shhhh" V'Lar whispered in Marty's ear, she waited a few seconds before removing her hand "There's something on this ship with us, it sounds like whatever or whoever it is, is moving around the ship and probably has some control of the systems." she walked over to the warp core's console and looked at it "Ok so not a warp core breach... curiouser and curiouser." she looked at the emergency door that had them sealed in the section "Let's see if we can get this thing open."
Jordan had materilized on the ship alone. Not being able to reach the others he headed out and was relieved to see Mike headed his way, he grinned at him. “Have you seen any of the others?” He saw Jude was with him. “I’m glad I found you to now where do you suppose the others are?”
Mike shrugged. "I'm honestly not sure. They could be anywhere here. But I suggest we get what we can from the ship as this appears to be on emergency power and it won't last. I can pull the data from their database."
“Let’s download the data.” Jordan said quickly. “Then we can start looking for the others.” He hoped it didn’t take too long because he wanted to find the crew.
“I will keep a look out for the others.” Jude said as he took a stand near the doorway. It was blocked by some wreckage but they would be able to move it to get out of there.
Celine had managed to locate the Calvary, and find an access hatch that had been left ajar. Although that was worrisome, she cared more about getting inside and finding the others. The ship was mostly dark, and the damage was clearly visible throughout. She resisted the urge to call out, but instead listened for sounds. She thought she heard someone giving orders ahead, and the voice sounded familiar. Within a few seconds she was sure of it- it was Jordan.
"Commander Haines, is that you," she called?
“Yes!” Jordan headed towards her voice. “Come with us, Mike’s downloading their ships data in hopes we can take it back and find out what happened here.” Celine nodded, glad to see some familiar faces.
"What happened? Why did we get separated?"
“I think there is something on this ship.” Jude spoke up. “Possibly in the atmosphere that is messing with the transporter. We will have to be careful going back.” Frowning, Celine nodded.
"I hope the others are okay."
V'Lar was glad she'd done her fair share of undercover work at this point as she'd pried the door panel off of the wall and was now in the process of hotwiring the door, they were fortunate that the emergency power meant there was still juice in the systems it just needed redirecting. Though why it needed redirecting was another interesting question considering the condition of the ship. It took her a few minutes and a little bit of Vulcan and some Romulan swearing but she eventually got the door open "All right let's see if we can find people." V'Lar said
Charlotte was still on her own wandering the ship pistol and flashlight out as a precaution, she knew they weren't alone down here and she didn't like it, for multiple reasons. She was also wondering why she wasn't seeing the bodies of any of the crew, given that this ship had reportedly been in a firefight, to the point where it had crash landed on the planet, she'd have expected to have seen some evidence of fatalities but none were present. Stepping around a corner she found something she didn't expect to see a female Cardassian unconscious on the deck, crouching down Charlotte felt for and found a pulse. "Well at least we've got a witness to whatever the hell happened here." she said to the empty corridor as a jeffries tube hatch nearby was kicked open and out climbed first V'Lar and then Marty "What took you so long?"
Celine watched as Jordan and Mike worked, worrying silently to herself. There were so many unanswered questions, and they needed answers. Where was everyone? She needed to find a comms station and try to contact the government, and hopefully that would give them some answers. So far, though, there wasn't enough power to make that happen.
Mike kicked the console. "Work you stupid thing." He moved power resources around to get enough for life support and to help with the data transfer which causes the lights to flash on and off. "It's ok. I'm playing... and..." Mike hit the console again. "I've got it. Download in progress."
“I would suggest stunning it.” Jordan grinned. “But it would have defeated the purpose.” He looked around. “You know what is odd? Look at the stations.” He had noticed that the ones that had no damage weren’t lit up. “It looks as if they weren’t using their consoles when the ship was attacked.”
Carrying the Cardassian between them V'Lar and Charlotte along with Marty had made their way through the ship, Charlotte actually let out a sigh of relief when her flashlight hit a Starfleet uniform "Commander Haines is that you?" Charlotte said as they quite clunkily moved forwards.
“Yes.” Jordan said with a nod. He was relieved everyone had been found except Cruz. Jordan looked at the Cardassian. “Where did you find her.”
It had taken T'shas a few tries to jury rig the door to the Science Department open enough for her to get out. She tried to use her tricorder to get her bearings, finding out that they did not work. She started moving thru the corridors, using her enhanced hearing to find where the others were.
“Engineering,” Marty replied to Jordan’s question. “Somehow that’s where I ended up after we were transported. What the hell is going on?”
Mike finished getting the data. "I'm hoping there is a reason why non damaged stations aren't even on. I'm wondering if there was a power issue or something. When we go through the data I'll have more." Celine moved over to the station next to where Mike was working. She had noticed it flickering, and hoped she could get it running. With a few curses and a little luck, it powered on after a few moments... but she was unable to get a signal.
"It looks as though the comms of the Calvary are jammed as well," she said in frustration.
“I know we want to find out as much as we can.” Jude spoke up. “I don’t believe this ship is safe or stable enough for us to stay. We need to get off here as soon as you are done here.”
"Agreed," Charlotte said, the Cardassian answered one question but only the one, the more important ones were still vexing "Are the transporter buffers doing anything? As we haven't seen any crew we may to confirm whether they're using an old Scotty trick before we leave."
“Let’s head there as a team.” Jordan replied. “We are staying together. I don’t want anyone left behind.”
“Agreed,” Marty said with a nod. “This place gives me the creeps.”
"Ok." Charlotte said looking at Jude "I got point you take the tail?"
“Yes.” Jude murmured. He was all business just as Thrace was. The crew was their priority.
Mike packed the data padds into his carrier and put a secure lock on it. Taking out his phaser he got in line to follow the others out.
As the group departed, Celine noticed Lieutenant Cruz coming up from behind them, making their party complete. She flashed a quick smile at the woman, and then focused on the task at hand. As they slowly made their way down the corridors, she wondered what had truly happened to land the Calvary here, of all places.
"I think we are almost there," someone said, and it was quickly confirmed. The group entered the transporter room, and Lieutenant Commander McMahon headed for the console as they all waited.
Jordan waited for the word from Mike. He hoped they would get good news from him. They needed to get off this ship.
Mike took a look at the transporter panel. "Everyone on the pads." First He routed power from the rest of the ship to the transporter controls. He checked to make sure no one was in the pattern buffers so they weren't killing anyone when they left. When that was clear he put pattern enhancers in because he did not want anyone sent to space really. He set the transport to delay 5 seconds so he himself could get on the pads. "Here goes nothing." He began the transport and hopped on the pads as they all materialized off the Calvary. His eyes closed he reopened them and looked around to see everyone standing next to him that was on the Calvary on the transporter pads for the Arcadia. He let out a sigh of relief.
Jordan materialized in the transporter room back in their ship and looked around, relieved to see that everyone was present. “Take the Cardassian to medical.” He looked to Jude. “You are on guard duty until we arrive back at the station.” He looked at the others. “To your stations.”
Charlotte felt her side as the Cardassian was carried out of the transporter room, they may not have the answers they had hoped to find but maybe they had a means of finding them out. Waiting for the room to clear a little she looked at Jordan "I'll be on the bridge, just don't do anything questionable without talking to me there's a reason I got the nickname 'Jordan's conscience'" she said "But seriously one court martial between us is more than enough."
Jordan grinned at her. “I’m going to assist Mike with the data, you have the bridge.” He wasn’t promising anything, if something bad had happened to fellow Starfleet officers he would do what he had to to get them back.
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