Posted April 10, 2022, 2:35 p.m. by Commander Kohr (Executive Officer) (Jason Wolfe)
“Status.”
Kohr nearly glared through the view screen at the massive colony ship stretched out before them. According to the astrogational readings, the Muninn was halfway to its destination and already the Valh’kaeri‘s bow tickled the edge of his view. The Klingon scanned for any sign of movement from the alien vessel, but it remained as motionless as it was dark. Light from the distant stars played along the rises and vales of the ship’s constructive landscape, and its scintillating material seemed to breath slowly as they drew closer. No matter how he tried to think of it, the Valh’kaeri was still a slumbering behemoth to him waiting to wake and consume them. Kohr grit his teeth and focused on piloting the runabout; his apprehension of Hab’rabi and the lord’s intent had dwindled with distance and time, but his instincts still rattled against his skull as keenly as they had on the bridge.
“Electromagnetic signatures are still negative,” Watanabe replied pensively from the science station. “Radiation has permeated seven decks of the drive section, but our countermeasures should allow us to navigate them safely enough to effect repairs. There’s still enough ionic interference where direct transport isn’t advisable. Life support and gravity have completely failed ship-wide. There are only a few locations where I can even detect power output. She’s dead in the water, sir.”
Ensign Linch turned from her display, frowning. “Stasis pods seem to be holding, but I can already tell the power drain is putting strain on the remaining crew. I’d say we have less than an hour before we lose at least one of the aliens. We’ll have to move fast to either restore power or get them to the Viking.”
Kohr gave a curt nod and swung the Muninn to parallel the colony ship’s dorsal axis. “Understood. Options?”
Baker’s hands flew across his console, his foot tapping thoughtfully as he worked. “Divide and conquer. We can drop someone at the same point where the original away team set down, give them a portable generator to stabilize the pods and buy us time to make repairs. Lieutenant Commander Sigmundsson’s been there before, so he’d know the lay of the land. The chief could tag along for backup in case there’s any more of those things out there, yeah?”
“There’s what looks like a maintenance hatch on the drive section, ventral aft starboard,” Baker continued, flicking a holodisplay into the air between them for clarity. “It’ll put us two decks from their warp core, which means less time in that ionic soup. We can park the Muninn nearby in case we need to scoot; transporters might not be able to get us in, but with the EVA’s transponders I’d wager it could yank us out.”
Baker turned to regard both Sigmundsson and Forgrave with a soft smile, the fingers of his free hand twitching excitedly. “Unless, of course, you two have a better plan.”
—Kohr, Executive Officer—
© 1991-2024 STF. Terms of Service
Version 1.15.11
RSS Feed