Foreseeable future – Guide your future
by HoD Ro' Matlh & Soghla' Marie St. Helene

Post Details

Title		Guide your future
Mission		Foreseeable future
Author(s)		HoD Ro' Matlh & Soghla' Marie St. Helene
Posted		Fri Oct 19, 2012 @ 11:36am
Location		Helm
Timeline		Varied

Marie was finding the controls difficult. The helm was trying to adapt to her technique, just as she was trying to adjust to it. The ship was far more responsive than she had ever remembered it. It was probably the reason they were still alive at all.

The Cardassian ship was already destroyed and the Federation Nebula class was gripped by the Borg tractor beam, but it had not yet deployed it's cutting beam.

Ro' waved the smoke from in front of his face trying to focus on the screen, "Target that weapon cluster and take us for another run. Marla, I need that cloak!"

There was a sudden shudder and the helm console exploded in a plume of smoke and flames. Marie was spun off her chair and onto the floor. An alarm was sounding and she struggled, still half blinded back into the helm.

Something was wrong. She placed her hands on the console, but the feel was different. Blinking away the smoke induced tears she saw that the console had changed. In fact, she thought glancing around, she appeared to be on a completely different ship, much closer in design to a federation Runabout. There were three other people on the bridge with her; A Romulan and Human both in Starfleet blue, and a Vulcan in white robes.

The Romulan glanced at her, "Shields are at 34%, Professor. If we don't get to minimum safe distance our shields will not protect us."

Professor? Was that me he was talking to?

“Don't you think I know that!” she answered. “The helm isn't responding like it should.” And nor am I, she added to herself. She looked at her hands. They were burnt but that was to be expected. Worse than that, they were lined and had liver spots on them. And small wonder. Her body felt different. It ached.

Casting a quick eye over her body, she noticed she was no longer in what passed for a uniform on the FHew. Now she was wearing some sort of loose cover all.

Marie struggled to adjust but it wasn't easy. It had been hard enough to learn the foibles of the new helm on the FHew. She had just started getting a handle on that and now this got thrown at her; a completely new and different system. Throw in the fact that she had aged appreciably and her sense of self was all askew too.

To make matters worse, the guidance systems seemed to be a mix of styles. Plotting was Romulan or Vulcan, the sub-light drive was Klingon and navigation was closer to Cardassian. Yet they were all linked to a matrix that was Federation in layout and controls.

The sensors were telling her she was outside some sort of space station and one arm of the station was leaking radiation madly. They appeared to be heading away from it at high impulse, but there was no actual course laid in.

The Human got to his feet, "I will check out the back to see if any of the faculty were hurt."

"Wait! Where are we headed?" She tried to inject a sense of desperation into her voice. Surely a professor would not be the heroic type. Given her current state it was not difficult.

The Romulan looked at her in surprise, "You're on the Helm. You tell us."

The Vulcan spoke quietly from the back at some sort of communications station, "I am getting a message from the station. Apparently the Station Captain needs to see Professor St Helene urgently."

OK, that's me. I wonder what I'm a professor of. Maybe I can keep the degree when I get back to theFHew. If I get back.... She thrust that thought aside.

"How bad is that radiation?" she called out. "Can we get back into the station? Will our shields protect us?" Then a new thought occurred to her. "Do we still have shields?"

The Romulan checked his controls, "Shields holding. Radiation seems only to be affecting Section 5. There are auxiliary shuttle bays over in Section 3. We could land there."

After a moment's hesitancy on Marie's part the Romulan pointed with his finger.

The human returned, "The faculty are all fine. Professor Finneas is moaning about his arm but he will recover. How are you going? Professor?"

Marie shook herself out of pointless reverie. She'd been wondering what she was supposed to be a professor of.

“I'm bringing the ship round to Section 3. And you,” she added, giving the Romulan a surly gaze, “can put your finger down. I know where it is.”

Actually, she didn't but the station was ostensibly Federation in design. However, like the helm, there were other elements. Much of the reinforcing had the curve of Cardassia and there were plating shields similar to Klingon design. Thankfully, the Romulan had shown her roughly where to head: any hesitation while looking could be put down to poor response from the helm.

There were other shuttles jockeying for position and re-docking but their ship was given a priority run. The ship touched down smoothly for which small mercy Marie was grateful. The other three locked their stations and left the cabin with Marie in tow.

The group joined a flow of people, most of whom were wearing outfits similar to Marie's. They all exited the side of the shuttle single file, but as soon as Marie stepped out an elderly Ferengi rushed up to her.

"Marie!" She said flinging her arms around the waist of the human, "I am so pleased. When the escape pod left without you aboard I feared the worst. I should have known you would find a way to survive."

If she tries to kiss me, I think I'll freak. Marie thought. With those razor sharp Ferengi fangs, it would be like being kissed by a vampire.

"Come quickly, the Captain is looking for you." The Ferengi grabbed her by the arm and dragged her to a nearby turbo lift.

Marie allowed herself to be lead along. After all, this direction was as good as any and this woman seemed to know where she was going; which was more than Marie could say for her situation at the moment.

"These are still working," the Ferengi was saying, "though they are down in other sections. Any idea why he wants to see you?"

Good question, Marie thought. Unfortunately, I don't have a good answer. She just shrugged.

As they stepped into the lift the Ferengi said, "Opperations."

Marie turned and as the doors were closing noticed the sign at the back of the Hanger:

Welcome to Prometheus II and Iapetus Colony
Home to the Happy Hun...

She didn't catch the rest.

As soon as the door was closed the Ferengi turned to her, "Alright, Marie. What is going on?"

Prevarication. Obfuscation, Nothing seemed appropriate. In that situation, stick with the truth, no matter how bizarre. “I don't know,” she said.

"We have known each other too long for this. You haven't spoken a word since you got off the shuttle. That is not like you, even when you are scheming, so spill. What is going on?"

“I don't know. That's the honest truth. I'm as much in the dark as you are and as intrigued to hear what the captain has to say,”

There was a noise as the turbo lift came to rest and opened onto a wide operations area; a large open plan operations room. There were images of the starbase. The architecture of the place was a little hard to pick. There were distinctive hard lines of the Klingons, but most of the consoles were of federation make. There were also some Cardassian beams supporting the ceiling.

To Be Continued...