STF

Main Sim - Bridge - Setting Out

Posted Sept. 18, 2020, 8:50 p.m. by Gamemaster CockRoach (Gamemaster) (Robert Archer)

[snip]

“In that case we should leave for the next system,” said Glen. “We are getting closer, but they still have a two week lead on us if we want to catch them up. Helm, st a course!”

With the orders given again the NE at helm angled the Merrimack out of the system and once more went to warp. “..ETA to the next system about a day and 3 hours at Warp 5 sir..” he said.

As the Merrimack traveled following the much slower warp trail they were able to pick up better details in the mystery ship’s travel rate. The warp field and as a result likely the core that ran it was quite primitive. More so then even probably Cochrane’s warp 1 engine on Earth that originally made contact with the Vulcans. The field and trail showed clear signs of instability this time. Probably due to poor understandings of intermix formula and subspace harmonics. More evidence clear that whoever this race was and/or were on this ship they had barely understood or broken the warp barrier and the theory behind it.

Judging by the power levels science and engineering could report that the ship probably wasn’t very big. Maybe 2-3 decks, 5 tops. The crew size as a result probably couldn’t top more then 30 souls assuming the ship went along the same lines as Starfleet’s crewing setup. Obviously no signs of weapons, shielding or the like could be gleamed from this information but if their technology level of their warp understanding was anything to judge if they were armed and/or shielded they couldn’t be a threat to the Merrimack.

As the day passed in this analysis they soon came within range of the third system, and sensors were quick to pick up details of the system ahead. Like the other two they had a class m world, and mineral rich planets and moons ripe for harvest and mining and colonization. No signs of any settlements were present within the eight planet system. Five of them were gas and mineral rich moons with another inner planet being a largely oceanic island hopping class m world. Dilthium deposits on the inner most planet which was a dead airless world barely bigger then Mercury was also picked up.

The path of their mystery alien ship went into the system, obviously doing another survey for some days, indeed they picked up two more of the alien probes like before scanning a moon and the class-m world. Neither of which gave the Merrimack a glance much less the time of day so primitive was their programming tasks. The mystery ship’s impulse trail was actually fairly fresh, less then four days old in fact. It looped around the system twice barely breaking quarter impulse on their charts before heading out the far end of the system.

As they cleared the solar body of the system they found on its far end beyond what passed for the system’s outer most edges their mystery ship! Lights were flickering a little on the ship and it was drifting in a slow lazy circle about 100,000 km beyond the system’s boundaries effectively in the depths of space. Lower power readings showed they had it seems tried to go to warp again within the past day but something had gone wrong and effectively set the ship adrift in the emptiness of space!

Scans showed their warp drive was offline, as was their impulse mode of engines likely the ship was running on some kind of battery support. Sure enough life scans showed about 28 souls aboard. Humanoid it seemed and unlike the Bolay they were air breathers. The air in question would be a little warmer then most among the crew would prefer barring any Vulcans but otherwise it was breathable and life sustaining for the time being.

Comms would pick up a weak sublight radio broadcast which probably wouldn’t reach anyone any time soon, much less in the next months or years ahead. Looking at its pulse frequency harmonic comms could likely assume it was a primitive distress call. The language also matched the earlier and older subspace radio message they had on record before. Obviously more input and programming would be needed to translate this new language by the UT but they at least had a workable frequency to do some hailing and comms if they wanted.

Tactical analysis of the ship came back nil on a threat. The ship had primitive deflector screens for avoiding asteroid impacts, but no sign of formal shielding beyond this. Not even older hull polarization was in evidence. Weapons seemed to be even more of a joke made up of four turret mounted dual laser projection systems. Likely again for asteroid mining, or avoidance then any real combat use. So in short even with their shields down the lasers would barely make a scorch mark on their Rodium armor.

GM CockRoach

Inola looked up suddenly, hearing a slight change in the background noise of the universe. She tried to narrow it down, and once she could hear it, she realized what it was. “Captain, they’re sending out a distress call!”
-Inola, Comms

So, it has become a rescue mission, thought Glen, and little chance of us observing them before contact now, as we will need to act urgently.

“When we reply to them, they are going to freak out!” replied Glen. “It is obvious they have no idea about intelligent life beyond their own world. We are going to have to rescue them and there are at least 28 of them. I can’t have them free to walk all over the ship, so we need to prepare some kind of receiving space for them. And quick! I’m open to suggestions? it needs to make them feel comfortable and at home, and not anxious. One of the Cargo Bays repurposed, maybe? I wish we knew more about them. We can’t even replicate furniture because we don’t know their size.”

“Standby with the reply, Inola,” Glen told her. “I need to get the tone of this right. Open to suggestions on that too!”

-Glen, CO

“The cargo bays are the best fit. I would suggest perhaps primary hold 4 if there are any security precautions.” He was no tactical expert but it seemed like the best place “My environmental readings show temperatures slightly above Human standard, I can give you a more detailed anthropological estimate after first contact, I suggest that we clear the bay and prepare rudimentary seating arrangements and go from there.”

CSO

Another option once they got in contact could be that the damage whatever was done was not making the ship a total loss, it could be in fact they might be able to repair the ship’s drive system assuming the alien Captain was agreeable and proper communication could be established.

GM CockRoach


Posts on USS Merrimack

In topic

Posted since


© 1991-2024 STF. Terms of Service

Version 1.15.9