STF

USS Calypso, 2394- When Things Go Awry

Posted May 31, 2021, 5:40 p.m. by Lieutenant Robert Mason (Chief Engineer) (Joe P)

Posted by Commander Dira Myqian (Executive Officer) in USS Calypso, 2394- When Things Go Awry

Posted by Lieutenant Robert Mason (Chief Engineer) in USS Calypso, 2394- When Things Go Awry

Posted by Commander Dira Myqian (Executive Officer) in USS Calypso, 2394- When Things Go Awry
Posted by… suppressed (2) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)

The whole energy he was radiating made Dira mentally inhale. Put up the wall, she told herself. Outwardly, she gave a tight smile. “Well, we’ll have to be extraordinarily cautious but at the same time we’ve only got so much time. I’m sure we’ll find them,” se said, at least trying to match his optimism even if they had different subjects in mind.

~Lt. Cmdr Myqian, CNS

“I’m-“

Whatever tediously creepy thing that Bill was in the middle of saying was thankfully interrupted by the parting of the turbolift doors. The large double doors to the shuttle bay were also just down the hall and already open, as people were streaming in and out. The bay door alarm could be heard even from their cramped little turbolift car, and it seemed to re-focus Commander Franks on what he was supposed to actually be doing. He walked out of the lift promptly.

In the shuttle bay, the Type-9 shuttle Denise had its rear hatch open, and the exterior lights were also on. Indeed, people were already inside the ship; a Bolian nurse was checking equipment in the passenger section, and up front a human Engineer was seated at the co-pilot’s position, running down the pre-flight checklist. This seemed to somehow unsettle Bill; it was almost as if he was expecting things to be in a different state when he had arrived, and was confused by the activity taking place.

“Report,” he ordered.

“Yes, Commander,” the man at the co-pilot’s position acknowledged as he swivled around in the chair. “Lieutenant Mason, sir. I was already working on the shuttle when I was ordered by Lieutenant Guinness to report to you, sir…”
“Doing what?”
“Avionics upgrade.”
“We need a shuttle in space now, son, is this one going to work?”

“Son?” Bob derisively thought without saying it. You’re like, five years older than I am, buddy…

Dira managed to keep a passive expression, but inwardly her brows rose. This is going to be all kinds of fun. She allowed the unhelpful thought only because she knew that William would try her patience at every turn if she let him and it was too important for this rescue mission that they stay focused and working together.

“The upgrade is already complete, Commander. Power On Self Tests were nominal. I’ve already started the pre-flight checklist, if you’d like to review it.”
“No, I’ll cross-check it myself. I’ll be our pilot today.”
“Yes, sir.”

The Commander immediately sat in the pilots seat, and started the pre-flight checklist from the top again. Bob thought nothing of it; he had flown enough shuttle missions with different pilots to know that many of them saw themselves as ultimately responsible for everything that happened on the shuttle, and therefore saw it as a necessity to run through the checklist themselves. What he didn’t know was that Bill was merely trying to look and act important. Franks began pressing buttons on the terminal in a slow fashion that could have been mistaken as meticulous to anyone who didn’t know the Commander well.

Bob looked past Bill to see Dira, whom he had not yet met. He nodded politely in greeting.

– Lieutenant (j.g.) Robert Mason, Engineer

The CNS gave Bob a greeting. “Hi, I’m Dira Myqian,” she said in greeting. While she had at least a passing familiarity of most of the crew, she herself had not met each one of them. Then again it wasn’t exactly a tiny crew and she did have an assistant to help her out.

“Hi,” Bob said. “Bob Mason.”

Dira checked with the nurse, Ensign Lanara, that they were ready and the two women took seats on the benches behind the forward section. “Supplies secured,” the ensign called up to the first officer.

“Acknowledged,” Franks said as he kept pressing buttons slowly.

Meanwhile, Bob kept running down the pre-flight checklist where he had left things off, if only to have something useful to do. He also obtained an update from the ship’s sensors on the asteroid’s position.

=/\=Bridge to Shuttle Denise, you are cleared for departure. Good luck. =/\=

~Lt. Cmdr Myqian, CNS

=/\= Thank you, =/\= Franks replied. He then turned to Bob.

“Look, uh, Manson…”
“Mason, sir.”
“Uhh… right, sorry. Mason. I actually need Commander Myqian to sit up here.”
“Uh, okay…”
“Telepathy thing.”
“Oh, okay.”

Bob had no idea what that actually meant, but he knew that it could have meant any number of perfectly legitimate things. He pressed a few buttons on the console and then got out of the chair to reach the aft section.

“Ma’am,” he said politely as he took a seat.

– Lieutenant (j.g.) Robert Mason, Engineer

Dira gave him an apologetic look. It wasn’t really necessary for her to be right up front since the distance for her was negligible, but Franks also knew her well enough that she wouldn’t make a scene in front of the other crew. Still, Mason’s confusion was understandable as he hadn’t been on the bridge and as the away team commander, the Xo should have at least walked everyone through the situation. “Our sensors aren’t able to pinpoint the exact location of the of surviving mining team. In fact we couldn’t even get the life signs from the bridge, but I’m able to pick up their distress, so I know there are survivors down there. The hope is that it’ll act like a homing beacon for me and I can direct us where we need to go. But time is of the essence and we have a finite amount of it.”

Settling into the chair beside William, Dira adopted the most professional demeanour she could muster (not that it was that hard) and waited for them to take off.

~Lt. Cmdr Myqian, CNS

Well, that makes sense, Bob thought. Still, this was going to be a high speed intercept. He didn’t know Commander Myquan’s role in this mission but he did at least get some updated telemetry from the Bridge right before everyone showed up. This was looking like it was going to be a hard mission.

“Do we know how many people we’re potentially needing to rescue, Commander?” he asked Dira.

Less than a minute later, the shuttle lifted itself off of the deck, and then through the blue forcefield that lay between the protective embrace of the Calypso and the vacuum of outer space.

=/\= Denise away =/\= Franks said from the pilot’s seat. He looked over at Dira for a moment, his glance lingering a moment too long, as anyone paying attention would notice.

“Ok, here we go,” the first officer said, and suddenly opened the throttle on the impulse engines all the way. Dira would be able to see on the instruments that the distance between the shuttle and the asteroid was closing as the shuttle started reaching the nigh-relativistic speeds that were only possible at full impulse power.

– Lieutenant (j.g.) Robert Mason, Engineer and Creepy William the Calypso XO


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