Posted by Kvasir (Story Teller) in Main Sim [Bridge]: Belly of the Beast

Posted by Captain Rende Asam (Captain) in Main Sim [Bridge]: Belly of the Beast

Posted by Kvasir (Story Teller) in Main Sim [Bridge]: Belly of the Beast
Posted by… suppressed (6) by the Post Ghost! 👻

—[SNIP]—

=/\=Rende to Bridge. Flip this boat around and go pick up that alien ship!=/\=

Five minute later Rende stepped off the turbolift and onto the bridge. In a voice that had conveyed orders across countless battle fields, without the unfortunate result of passingout from lack of air, Rende barked across the bridge, “Yorba! Where are we?” What was also amazing was the volume control. The bridge was small and her voice filled the space, but it didn’t cause ears to ring or officers to wince. It always amazed Yorba.

Yorba stood up from the center chair. “We’ve changed direction. The alien ship is moving under inertia so it hasn’t gone too far, we’ll catch it in five hours at maximum warp.”

Rende shook her head, she wanted it sooner but she couldn’t change how fast the ship could travel, “I want to have it under tractor beam as soon as we are there.”

Yorba nodded, “Helm increase to maximum warp.”

“Aye, sir,” the helmsman replied. Fingers flew across the controls, and the hum of the ship increased as the cascade of stars all around them lengthened. “Current velocity is Warp Eight. We will reach the alien vessel in five hours seven minutes, present speed.”

There were people who needed to be updated. Rende pulled up the current departmental reports and started making calls across the ship. The first was to the man in charge of ship’s safety and security. If there was an invader on board he needed to know. Kohr’s tracking program was still running and told her that Sigmundsson was with Forgrave so he would hear this as well. =/\=Rende to Forgrave. I thought I would pass along that between our science, medical, and engineering teams we can track these motes to a certain extent. They can exist in both normal space and subspace. So if you can get a scan of a mote the ship’s sensors can track it, until it slips into subspace. But once it returns we can track it again.=/\=

=/\=Also Lt, I’ve just spoken with Cmdr Kohr. He’s woken up and apparently his encounter was quite insightful. He says that Hab’rabi intends to commandeer our ship and these motes are part of that. So until science and engineering have a way to imprison them. Shoot first, ask questions later. Understood?=/\= This might be a first contact situation but Rende had no intention of sacrificing crew or ship to play diplomat so some stranger could run rough shod over them. And as far as she was concerned if the motes were the souls of the dead, well they were dead already.

Rende stared at the view screen that was currently set to display the stars in front of them. She tapped her fingers rapidly, sounding like a horse running, while she read the reports coming across her access panel on her chair. She paused to read the report from Woods and the current theory they were working on. Then slapped her combadge, =/\=Rende to Woods. We’ll be tractoring in our guest’s ship in five hours. We’ll come to an all stop. Be ready to go with the static warp field then. Once we have the motes controlled here, we’ll send a team to the other ship. You’ll need a shuttle since transporters are still down.=/\=

Yorba leaned closer to Rende’s shoulder and offered his PaDD. “Repair teams are currently working on the problem, sir. Early estimates suggest we’ll be operational again by the time we reach our destination. Modifications required for the static field could delay our efforts, but we’ll be ready.”

Rende looked over the PaDD and nodded. “Thank you Yorba. When we finally catch that ship, is there any way to get the sensors to filter out the radiation that’s giving us problems so we can get a clearer picture of what’s going on?”

“We may be able to filter out some of the background radiation flux with some modification to the sensors,” he mused. “But that’s only going to do so much to cut through the ionic interference from their reactor leak. Readings from the drive section will be foggy at best until it can be fixed, but there are plenty of places in the forward section we can set the away team down. There’s what looks to be a docking ring amidship; that’ll be the easiest way to get in, just like before.”

Rende nodded silently considering. She’d ask El, but he was busy fixing their own ship. And then their were this fey-cursed motes. What would they do to her crew?

=/\=Rende to Eldorin. We’ll be coming to an all stop in about five hours to tractor the alien ship and to initiate a static warp field. You have that long to make sure the ship is ready for it. Then we’ll be visiting the alien ship again.=/\=

Meanwhile Rende kept reading the reports and monitoring ship’s comms keeping aware of the goings on. A medic stationed to the bridge ran the hourly medical checks and so far the bridge staff was free of influence. Sitting. Waiting. Listening. Contemplating. Rende spent the time looking over the data dump from the alien ship trying to learn more about Hab’rabi and his people.

Five hours later, “Captain, we’re coming up on the alien ship, slowing to towing speeds.”

Amidst the swirling diamond mist of warp speed, a small grey dot slipped into view. Even at this distance, the size of Hab’rabi’s vessel was impressive. The warp field snapped away, streaks of starlight retreating to pinpricks against the velvet curtain of space. The massive colony ship stretched out before them, reminding Rende of some ancient sea creature lurking in the gelid waters of the deep. The mottled hull rippled in the faint light of a nearby sun, and Rende could almost imagine any of the bulbous protrusions along its length yawning open to reveal rows of jagged teeth. It seemed dangerous now even as it slumbered in its low-power state, waiting to strike at the slightest provocation.

Lieutenant Pearson gave her console a stern look. “She’s just like we left her, sir. No life signs, no distinct energy readings beyond where the away team encountered the alien. She’s still derelict.”

Rende nodded looking up, “Tactical as soon as we are within range lock on tractor beam.” The officer only nodded watching the distance count down and then with one quick beep the tractor beam engaged. “Tractor beam locked on and secure Captain.”

“Helm come to all stop.”

The Viking‘s low hum fell languidly away as she answered the command of her captain. Perhaps it was a trick of the imagination, but Rende could almost feel a subtle pull from the behemoth colony ship as it came to rest in the grip of their tractor beam.

=/\=Rende to Woods and Eldorin. We’ve got the alien ship and come to an all stop. You’re clear to begin.=/\=

Rende, CO

Rende stared at the kraken taunting her from the depths. She was perched on the edge of her seat, elbows on knees, leaned forward staring at ship in front of her on the screen. Yorba could almost see the captain playing out ways to take down the massive monster in front of her and discarding each one by one. Under his breath he muttered, “He’s a grand, ungodly, god-like man, Captain Ahab; doesn’t speak much; but, when he does speak, then you may well listen. Mark ye, be forewarned; Ahab’s above the common; Ahab’s been in colleges, as well as ‘mong the cannibals; been used to deeper wonders than the waves; fixed his fiery lance in mightier, stranger foes than whales.” (- Herman Melville, ‘Moby Dick’.)

Rende’s face took on a strange look, “Oh aye, Yorba, and this beastie will be next.”

Rende, CO

After quiet moments, “Yorba, how bad is the radiation? Are the repair crews going to need protective suits? Or could we send in some repair bots to fix the reactor leak first? Then send in the teams?”

Rende, CO

Looking over the sensor readings, he rubbed his chin in thought. “I’d wager long-term exposure would be hazardous, but we could inoculate the away team against it for a while. It might give them an opportunity to assess the damage; for all we know, someone just left the containment door open and it’s a quick fix.”

“You know many many hundreds of years ago we had these special badges we had to wear, Yorba, that would turn from green to red when we were exposed to dangerous levels of radiation. Now we rely on the ship’s computer to tell us or a tricorder after the fact. It’s backwards.” Rende got up from her chair and moved over to one of the auxiliary work stations and sat down. She read over the data dump from the ship again, especially the information about the remnants and the hab and the set. Then, “Computer establish a connection with the computer on the alien ship. Continuous security threat scans. I want anything in the ship’s computer and logs about the remnants and mentions of them becoming defiant, dangerous, criminal, harming each other, the hab, or the set, or anyone else. Mentions of ones that are defiant.”

Rende, CO