IKC FHew 7C6110
Bug Hunt – Flight of the moth
by HoD Ro' Matlh & Sogh Germite Ephilom & Soghla' HIchop Matlh & Soghla' Terri (Tell) Hope & Soghla' Jared & Soghla' Marie St. Helene & Beq Marcus Quexana
Post Details
The ship lurched sideways as it lifted off the ground and Ro' had to hold on to his chair's arm to keep from being thrown around. 'Iw'a'na' fought with the controls.
"Wind's too strong," he yelled, "I can't keep her steady."
"Just keep us after that thing," Ro' allowed, "We will worry about bumps and scrapes later. Jared?"
"The ship seems to be at least partially biomechanical, although it's hard to be sure. It has some of the most impressive stealth technology I've seen - it doesn't seem to have a coherent life or energy signature of any kind. It doesn't even read as having mass. Our sensors can't actually tell where it is..."
Ro opened his mouth, but Jared wasn't finished.
"...but for now, I can tell you where it ISN'T, and that's almost as good. Our atmospheric pressure sensors can track the turbulence and disruption in the atmosphere around us, and that thing is showing up as a blank spot in that pattern. As long as it's in the atmosphere and not too far away, we can track it."
"Then we need to get it while it is still in the air," Ro' asserted.
"Still working on using that to lock on a Photon Torpedo," Jared added. "Torpedos don't have much in the way of pressure sensors built in, so I'll have to hot-feed targeting information from the ship's sensors mid-flight."
The door at the back of the bridge opened and the command crew arrived. Ro' nodded to them and started calling assignments, "Tell, stay on the bridge, run engineering from here. get us as much stability as you can in this weather."
"Aye HoD" Tell replied walking over to the engineering panel. "Hmm. Someone hasn't been taking care of my engine while I've been gone. You turn your back for a few nano seconds..." Tell grumbled as she made a few adjustments, diverting power from one panel to another. "Ok that might work. You'll all start to feel a little light but what the hell. Some of us could do with losing a little weight."
Tell was suddenly thrown to one side of the engineering station. She pulled herself upright ignoring the pain in her ribs. Ro' glared at her wanting an explanation. "I said 'might'! Your lucky I'm a damned decent engineer because That could have been a lot worse."
"HoS stay at tactical. Jared get us a target lock. HIchop, get down to the infirmary and help Germite with Marie, she's in a bad way."
"If she's in a really bad way, there's always the Borg upgraded medical system," Jared called out without looking up from the science station. "I've had a look at it, and I'm pretty sure it's set up purely for medical aid, with no assimilation protocols."
"I'm pretty sure."
"May'bel, glad to see you are still with us, help at navigation. This wind is throwing us around and we need to track that ship."
May'Bel strode towards navigation, pausing a moment by Jared's station as he went and placing a hand on the TiQ's shoulder.
"Jared, that creature didn't register a single blip on our tricorder. But you could sure smell it when it got close!"
Jared looked thoughtful for a moment.
"Atmospheric contaminants. Good idea! That might just help."
May'bel moved to navigation with a nod.
Germite grabbed the infirmary table as the FHew lurched. He ran a scanner over Marie. She looked gray. He tightened the straps holding her to the table. The FHew lurched again. He looked at HIchop, "There's not much we can do until we have a stable operating platform."
Germite turned and looked at an instrument that was similar to a dermal regenerator. He picked it up, "I don't remember seeing this before."
The FHew rocked. Germite fell across the table, while simultaneously pushing the button on the instrument. There was a hum and a faint glow surrounded Marie. Germite set the instrument back down. He picked up a scanner.
"That's odd, her vitals are stabilising."
Back on the bridge the ship was spinning in a tight corkscrew motion. Ro was clinging on tightly.
"Lock!" Jared yelled suddenly. HoS did not wait to be given the order. He was already at Tactical after all. Disruptors fired into the air. There was a faint shimmer of read as they impacted on the shield, disrupting the cloak slightly. For an instant it appeared on the sensors.
"Minimal damage to shields," HoS supplied. "No obs..."
There was a sudden blinding purple light. It lanced form the surface of the planet across the sky ad clipped the enemy ship, tearing away a large section of ship's hull which fell away and back towards the planet.
"Whoa!" Jared exclaimed - looking not at the monitors, but at his sensor displays, which were emitting curious new sounds.
"What, in the name of Khaless' Honour, was that?" Ro' bellowed.
"And how cam we equip the F'Hew with one?" May'Bel added.
"I'm not sure you can!" Jared replied incredulously. "I'm reading antimeson scatter from that discharge. I'm not aware of any race or culture that's used antimeson weaponry for a VERY long time."
"Wouldn't we be great then, with an antiquated ship and super weaponry. I can see the battles now. No one would stand a chance against us. Wonder if I could build one?" Tell mused
The ship they were chasing changed suddenly when it was hit it sped upwards at a much sharper angle dipping and weaving madly. It was obvious that it was terrified of the purple light. Now that it was damaged it was spewing material, possibly some sort of drive plasma, from one side.
With an sudden decrease in the shaking as they rose above the cloud cover and out of the atmosphere. Ahead they could still detect the faint trail of material heading off into space.
HoS called out, "I am detecting a second vessel. Looks like a simple Federation trade vessel."
"Don't shoot that one," May'Bel advised. He'd spent a few days now getting to know how the big tactical officer thought.
HoS glowered at the Marine but did remove his hand from the button he was about to press. The Alien ship had no such hesitation. A stream of light lanced out at the trader ship as the near cloaked vessel passed. Two things stood out. First, that the cloak did not drop while it happened. Second, that the craft's weapons, while adequate to disable a simple trader, probably weren't powerful enough to seriously threaten a B'rel.
However, now a new problem presented itself.
"The Trader vessel is hit. Series damage to its EPS. I am reading internal explosions and failure of life support. They are sending out a distress call. I am reading three... two life signs."
Ro' watched the glimmer of the alien ship on the screen and ground his teeth, "Jared. Have you got enough information to track them if they go to Warp?"
Jared looked at his station with a bewildered look.
"Uhh... assuming it uses conventional warp technology, it should run pretty dirty with damage like that - the anti-meson residue alone would carve metaphorical gouges through subspace. But I have no idea what kind of faster-than-light travel that ship uses. It could create it's own wormholes for all I can tell with that cloak still active!"
Ro' gritted his teeth, "Then we don't have time for a salvage mission. We'll grab who we can as we go past. Infirmary? Is Marie able to take her station?
Germtite looked at Marie and ran another scan on her. "Her vital signs have returned to normal, but she's still recovering."
"Then get down to the transporter. Get anyone you can off that traders as we pass. There is no time to stop for repairs. Germite, get Marie of the bio bed incase we have more injured."
Germite nodded, "Aye, Captain." He started to prod Marie, "Wake up!!! Your ship has need of you."
Marie felt herself spinning, tumbling. A hand reached out to her. She looked beyond the hand but the body it belonged to was blurred, indistinct.
She gave away the effort but she did grab the hand. It was cold but it held her tightly. It offered stability so she returned the grip.
She could hear the murmur of many voices. There was something soothing about them even though she could not make out what they were saying.
She felt herself drift off. When she came to again she could see a face: female; pallid, grey skin; bald. The woman smiled and told her to sleep. Marie did so.
The female was with Marie again. Marie could see a long curved tube extending towards her arm. The woman assured Marie that it would not hurt; that soon her pain would be gone. Marie believed her.
Wake up!!! Your ship has need of you.
Marie heard a new voice calling. She vaguely recognised it. It was insistent, demanding to be acknowledged.
The woman kindly advised Marie to ignore it. She said it only wanted to harm Marie. Marie heard a chorus of voices urging her to defy this intruder into her peace. Marie was ready to comply, to go with these kind people.
Germite shook Marie again. "Marie, snap out of it."
Marie groaned. She had recognised the voice and didn’t particularly like what that meant. It meant sharp reality instead of this warm, fuzzy dream; it meant people yelling at her instead of these wonderfully soothing voices; it meant.... It meant she had responsibilities and people depending on her instead of just being one of a larger whole.
She shook herself and groaned again. She ached. Pain stabbed at her joints. Her head felt like she’d been on a bender for a month.
She opened her eyes. Bad move. She closed them again.
“Where...?” she asked. Her mouth felt dry. She ran her tongue over her lips. They were cracked.
A shiver ran the length of her body as she remembered a loathsome beast and a brutal blow.
Germite handed her a bottle of water. "Drink this. There's no time to explain. Ro' needs you at your station."
The further the dream slipped away, the more enticing it became. She longed for it to return; longed with every fibre of her being. It was to no avail. It was gone and the real world was enveloping her in all its grimy misery.
Yet there was something. Deep in the recesses of her mind she could feel an echo of the dream as if it was merely dormant, waiting for the moment to surface. She put that aside. Ro’ would not brook delay and would rail against nonsense like fanciful dreams.
She dragged herself up and walked, unsteadily, towards the bridge.
Transporter bay
Hichop headed for transporter. He wondered how many people could be transported off. Then he wondered how many could be transported off at one time and perhaps directly to the cargo hold. When he got to the Transporter he quickly saw the problem. The normal two man teleporter had been replaced by an industrial Transporter at Marie's request. It could transport up to eight people at the same time, or do a heavy load of cargo. Not, unfortunately both. And it was a Klingon Transporter without the many redundancies and security features of Federation or Cardassian versions. That meant he would be manually targeting life signs on the fly because he didn't trust the autolock feature on these models.
Now that they had left the atmosphere the Fhew was flying relatively straight. The stricken freighter, however, was pinwheeling. He managed to get a fragile lock on the two remaining life signs and activated the transporter. A pair of red glows appeared on the pad Faded, strengthened again, faded till they were almost gone, then one came back. HIchop checked the buffer but the lock was corrupted and the data stream was not stable. He would have to send the second person back and try again.
He split the streams, dumped the corrupt buffer and materialized the single signal which resolved into a human, who collapsed onto the pad. HIchop set the transporter to reset itself and dragged the moaning human off the pad. When he returned however, there was no sign of the other life sign. In fact there was nothing in the area of the freighter except expanding debris.
Marcus groaned rolling to his knees. He wasn't fond of transporters at the best of times and this one had seemed to be a particularly rough ride. Not to mention the likely concussion he had received when the debris hit his head on Free Enterprise. Instinctively, he reached behind his back to check that his gladius, a cherished family heirloom, was there. A finger-brush against the familiar pommel, sculpted in a relief representation of his homeworld and set with tiny gems showing his family's holdings, reassured him.
"Where...where am I...?" he said, beginning to rise. Then, albeit belatedly, he remembered his manners and added, "T-thank you for rescuing me."
Before HIchop could respond, Marcus was struck with a sudden pain in his head and a flash of uncontrollable nausea. The room seemed to spin and he dropped to his knees again, vomiting violently onto the deck.
Germite had just walked into the transporter room when he saw Marcus fall to the floor. He instantly stepped forward and pulled him up, "Come along to sick bay and we'll get you fixed up."
"Uhhhggg...thank you....sorry..." Marcus mumbled, trying to clear his head, "My shipmates...any word...?"
Germite shook his head, "You're the only one we managed to save."
HIchop reported to Ro', "We saved one and the cargo ship is now space dust with no more life signs."
Ro' heard HIchop's report and pressed the comm on his chair, "Acknowledged. Secure our guest and get back to the Bridge. There is no chance he knows how to fly a ship, is there?"
Ro' glowered at the poor beq 'Iw'a'na' who was struggling to follow the faintest of trails Jared was picking out for him.
Hichop helped Germite get Marcus to th infirmary and ran back to the bridge.
by HoD Ro' Matlh & Sogh Germite Ephilom & Soghla' HIchop Matlh & Soghla' Terri (Tell) Hope & Soghla' Jared & Soghla' Marie St. Helene & Beq Marcus Quexana
Post Details
| Title | Flight of the moth | |
| Mission | Bug Hunt | |
| Author(s) | HoD Ro' Matlh & Sogh Germite Ephilom & Soghla' HIchop Matlh & Soghla' Terri (Tell) Hope & Soghla' Jared & Soghla' Marie St. Helene & Beq Marcus Quexana | |
| Posted | Fri Apr 19, 2013 @ 11:40am | |
| Location | IKC FHew Bridge | |
| Timeline | Moments after away team boarding |
"Wind's too strong," he yelled, "I can't keep her steady."
"Just keep us after that thing," Ro' allowed, "We will worry about bumps and scrapes later. Jared?"
"The ship seems to be at least partially biomechanical, although it's hard to be sure. It has some of the most impressive stealth technology I've seen - it doesn't seem to have a coherent life or energy signature of any kind. It doesn't even read as having mass. Our sensors can't actually tell where it is..."
Ro opened his mouth, but Jared wasn't finished.
"...but for now, I can tell you where it ISN'T, and that's almost as good. Our atmospheric pressure sensors can track the turbulence and disruption in the atmosphere around us, and that thing is showing up as a blank spot in that pattern. As long as it's in the atmosphere and not too far away, we can track it."
"Then we need to get it while it is still in the air," Ro' asserted.
"Still working on using that to lock on a Photon Torpedo," Jared added. "Torpedos don't have much in the way of pressure sensors built in, so I'll have to hot-feed targeting information from the ship's sensors mid-flight."
The door at the back of the bridge opened and the command crew arrived. Ro' nodded to them and started calling assignments, "Tell, stay on the bridge, run engineering from here. get us as much stability as you can in this weather."
"Aye HoD" Tell replied walking over to the engineering panel. "Hmm. Someone hasn't been taking care of my engine while I've been gone. You turn your back for a few nano seconds..." Tell grumbled as she made a few adjustments, diverting power from one panel to another. "Ok that might work. You'll all start to feel a little light but what the hell. Some of us could do with losing a little weight."
Tell was suddenly thrown to one side of the engineering station. She pulled herself upright ignoring the pain in her ribs. Ro' glared at her wanting an explanation. "I said 'might'! Your lucky I'm a damned decent engineer because That could have been a lot worse."
"HoS stay at tactical. Jared get us a target lock. HIchop, get down to the infirmary and help Germite with Marie, she's in a bad way."
"If she's in a really bad way, there's always the Borg upgraded medical system," Jared called out without looking up from the science station. "I've had a look at it, and I'm pretty sure it's set up purely for medical aid, with no assimilation protocols."
"I'm pretty sure."
"May'bel, glad to see you are still with us, help at navigation. This wind is throwing us around and we need to track that ship."
May'Bel strode towards navigation, pausing a moment by Jared's station as he went and placing a hand on the TiQ's shoulder.
"Jared, that creature didn't register a single blip on our tricorder. But you could sure smell it when it got close!"
Jared looked thoughtful for a moment.
"Atmospheric contaminants. Good idea! That might just help."
May'bel moved to navigation with a nod.
Germite grabbed the infirmary table as the FHew lurched. He ran a scanner over Marie. She looked gray. He tightened the straps holding her to the table. The FHew lurched again. He looked at HIchop, "There's not much we can do until we have a stable operating platform."
Germite turned and looked at an instrument that was similar to a dermal regenerator. He picked it up, "I don't remember seeing this before."
The FHew rocked. Germite fell across the table, while simultaneously pushing the button on the instrument. There was a hum and a faint glow surrounded Marie. Germite set the instrument back down. He picked up a scanner.
"That's odd, her vitals are stabilising."
Back on the bridge the ship was spinning in a tight corkscrew motion. Ro was clinging on tightly.
"Lock!" Jared yelled suddenly. HoS did not wait to be given the order. He was already at Tactical after all. Disruptors fired into the air. There was a faint shimmer of read as they impacted on the shield, disrupting the cloak slightly. For an instant it appeared on the sensors.
"Minimal damage to shields," HoS supplied. "No obs..."
There was a sudden blinding purple light. It lanced form the surface of the planet across the sky ad clipped the enemy ship, tearing away a large section of ship's hull which fell away and back towards the planet.
"Whoa!" Jared exclaimed - looking not at the monitors, but at his sensor displays, which were emitting curious new sounds.
"What, in the name of Khaless' Honour, was that?" Ro' bellowed.
"And how cam we equip the F'Hew with one?" May'Bel added.
"I'm not sure you can!" Jared replied incredulously. "I'm reading antimeson scatter from that discharge. I'm not aware of any race or culture that's used antimeson weaponry for a VERY long time."
"Wouldn't we be great then, with an antiquated ship and super weaponry. I can see the battles now. No one would stand a chance against us. Wonder if I could build one?" Tell mused
The ship they were chasing changed suddenly when it was hit it sped upwards at a much sharper angle dipping and weaving madly. It was obvious that it was terrified of the purple light. Now that it was damaged it was spewing material, possibly some sort of drive plasma, from one side.
With an sudden decrease in the shaking as they rose above the cloud cover and out of the atmosphere. Ahead they could still detect the faint trail of material heading off into space.
HoS called out, "I am detecting a second vessel. Looks like a simple Federation trade vessel."
"Don't shoot that one," May'Bel advised. He'd spent a few days now getting to know how the big tactical officer thought.
HoS glowered at the Marine but did remove his hand from the button he was about to press. The Alien ship had no such hesitation. A stream of light lanced out at the trader ship as the near cloaked vessel passed. Two things stood out. First, that the cloak did not drop while it happened. Second, that the craft's weapons, while adequate to disable a simple trader, probably weren't powerful enough to seriously threaten a B'rel.
However, now a new problem presented itself.
"The Trader vessel is hit. Series damage to its EPS. I am reading internal explosions and failure of life support. They are sending out a distress call. I am reading three... two life signs."
Ro' watched the glimmer of the alien ship on the screen and ground his teeth, "Jared. Have you got enough information to track them if they go to Warp?"
Jared looked at his station with a bewildered look.
"Uhh... assuming it uses conventional warp technology, it should run pretty dirty with damage like that - the anti-meson residue alone would carve metaphorical gouges through subspace. But I have no idea what kind of faster-than-light travel that ship uses. It could create it's own wormholes for all I can tell with that cloak still active!"
Ro' gritted his teeth, "Then we don't have time for a salvage mission. We'll grab who we can as we go past. Infirmary? Is Marie able to take her station?
Germtite looked at Marie and ran another scan on her. "Her vital signs have returned to normal, but she's still recovering."
"Then get down to the transporter. Get anyone you can off that traders as we pass. There is no time to stop for repairs. Germite, get Marie of the bio bed incase we have more injured."
Germite nodded, "Aye, Captain." He started to prod Marie, "Wake up!!! Your ship has need of you."
Marie felt herself spinning, tumbling. A hand reached out to her. She looked beyond the hand but the body it belonged to was blurred, indistinct.
She gave away the effort but she did grab the hand. It was cold but it held her tightly. It offered stability so she returned the grip.
She could hear the murmur of many voices. There was something soothing about them even though she could not make out what they were saying.
She felt herself drift off. When she came to again she could see a face: female; pallid, grey skin; bald. The woman smiled and told her to sleep. Marie did so.
The female was with Marie again. Marie could see a long curved tube extending towards her arm. The woman assured Marie that it would not hurt; that soon her pain would be gone. Marie believed her.
Wake up!!! Your ship has need of you.
Marie heard a new voice calling. She vaguely recognised it. It was insistent, demanding to be acknowledged.
The woman kindly advised Marie to ignore it. She said it only wanted to harm Marie. Marie heard a chorus of voices urging her to defy this intruder into her peace. Marie was ready to comply, to go with these kind people.
Germite shook Marie again. "Marie, snap out of it."
Marie groaned. She had recognised the voice and didn’t particularly like what that meant. It meant sharp reality instead of this warm, fuzzy dream; it meant people yelling at her instead of these wonderfully soothing voices; it meant.... It meant she had responsibilities and people depending on her instead of just being one of a larger whole.
She shook herself and groaned again. She ached. Pain stabbed at her joints. Her head felt like she’d been on a bender for a month.
She opened her eyes. Bad move. She closed them again.
“Where...?” she asked. Her mouth felt dry. She ran her tongue over her lips. They were cracked.
A shiver ran the length of her body as she remembered a loathsome beast and a brutal blow.
Germite handed her a bottle of water. "Drink this. There's no time to explain. Ro' needs you at your station."
The further the dream slipped away, the more enticing it became. She longed for it to return; longed with every fibre of her being. It was to no avail. It was gone and the real world was enveloping her in all its grimy misery.
Yet there was something. Deep in the recesses of her mind she could feel an echo of the dream as if it was merely dormant, waiting for the moment to surface. She put that aside. Ro’ would not brook delay and would rail against nonsense like fanciful dreams.
She dragged herself up and walked, unsteadily, towards the bridge.
Transporter bay
Hichop headed for transporter. He wondered how many people could be transported off. Then he wondered how many could be transported off at one time and perhaps directly to the cargo hold. When he got to the Transporter he quickly saw the problem. The normal two man teleporter had been replaced by an industrial Transporter at Marie's request. It could transport up to eight people at the same time, or do a heavy load of cargo. Not, unfortunately both. And it was a Klingon Transporter without the many redundancies and security features of Federation or Cardassian versions. That meant he would be manually targeting life signs on the fly because he didn't trust the autolock feature on these models.
Now that they had left the atmosphere the Fhew was flying relatively straight. The stricken freighter, however, was pinwheeling. He managed to get a fragile lock on the two remaining life signs and activated the transporter. A pair of red glows appeared on the pad Faded, strengthened again, faded till they were almost gone, then one came back. HIchop checked the buffer but the lock was corrupted and the data stream was not stable. He would have to send the second person back and try again.
He split the streams, dumped the corrupt buffer and materialized the single signal which resolved into a human, who collapsed onto the pad. HIchop set the transporter to reset itself and dragged the moaning human off the pad. When he returned however, there was no sign of the other life sign. In fact there was nothing in the area of the freighter except expanding debris.
Marcus groaned rolling to his knees. He wasn't fond of transporters at the best of times and this one had seemed to be a particularly rough ride. Not to mention the likely concussion he had received when the debris hit his head on Free Enterprise. Instinctively, he reached behind his back to check that his gladius, a cherished family heirloom, was there. A finger-brush against the familiar pommel, sculpted in a relief representation of his homeworld and set with tiny gems showing his family's holdings, reassured him.
"Where...where am I...?" he said, beginning to rise. Then, albeit belatedly, he remembered his manners and added, "T-thank you for rescuing me."
Before HIchop could respond, Marcus was struck with a sudden pain in his head and a flash of uncontrollable nausea. The room seemed to spin and he dropped to his knees again, vomiting violently onto the deck.
Germite had just walked into the transporter room when he saw Marcus fall to the floor. He instantly stepped forward and pulled him up, "Come along to sick bay and we'll get you fixed up."
"Uhhhggg...thank you....sorry..." Marcus mumbled, trying to clear his head, "My shipmates...any word...?"
Germite shook his head, "You're the only one we managed to save."
HIchop reported to Ro', "We saved one and the cargo ship is now space dust with no more life signs."
Ro' heard HIchop's report and pressed the comm on his chair, "Acknowledged. Secure our guest and get back to the Bridge. There is no chance he knows how to fly a ship, is there?"
Ro' glowered at the poor beq 'Iw'a'na' who was struggling to follow the faintest of trails Jared was picking out for him.
Hichop helped Germite get Marcus to th infirmary and ran back to the bridge.