The Dutchman of Denebola

[Deleted]

S'reena listened intently as TJ explained to her what was going on. "So we're looking for this Dutchman?" she queried, as they walked back onto the bridge. TJ seemed to nod, but his mind seemed to be completely elsewhere. "Not thinking about your wife are you?" the Romulan whispered, "she'll be safe on Conqueror, unless she snuck aboard without you knowing it."

Seeing the shock on her CO's face, she cast him a rueful smile. "I know better than that captain, she's a changed woman. And I've entrusted my children to her while Michael is at work. She dotes on them, she really does. And I quite like her, you've really gotten yourself a marvelous woman with that one." She motioned back to the readyroom. "Why don't you send her a message? She'll appreciate hearing from you. I'll hold the ford up here till you're back."

TJ had just disappeared into his office when a new arrival reported in. "Seems you arrived in the nick of time cadet," S'reena smiled, "I got here less than an hour too, and already we're on the brink of danger. Who are you and what will you be training in?"

The Romulan caught K'Ratak's glare, and echoed one right back at him, silencing him with just a single glance. She had no issues with the Klingon, but it was rather obvious to her that the Klingon had issues with her. "K'ratak, please instruct your cadet in the usage of our defensive systems. As she seems intent on transferring to your department, you might as well teach her something before approval or rejection comes through."

She tapped her combadge. "Engineering, we're about to enter dangerous space, where we might or might not get shaken about a little. I want you to put as much as you can in the ship's stabilisation systems when it comes to that."

[kratak]

He couldn't help but glare at the there Romulan commander when she exited the captains ready room. She caught him and glared right back the type of warning do your job. He wouldn't give her any excuse to remind him to do his job not by her anyway. When she spoke up he was a little shocked to find out Cadet Grebs wanted to transfer to tactical.

"K'ratak, please instruct your cadet in the usage of our defensive systems. As she seems intent on transferring to your department, you might as well teach her something before approval or rejection comes through."

Looking back at her and as calm as he could be he smiled showing all his teeth. " I will make sure she is up to speed as much as possible Commander. I will start transfering data on the cluster to your chair."

Looking back at his cadet it seemed he was going to be teaching this mission, he didn't mind he liked to teach he was tired of war. Still his issue's with there xo was something he couldn't look past. He was going to have to keep working on that but it was the Romans who killed his mother and sister and it wasn't easy to just let that go. It didn't matter if commander hope wasn't the romulan responsible for it he blamed there whole race.

" Cadet Grebs since you have requested the transfer and unit its confirmed you are my student. I expect nothing less then your total ability, I know from our last mission that you are very adept so my standards for you shall be very high."

Pausing for a moment " Since you still have training in science I want you to start using that to figure out where we might find a ship in this mess. Its import an to be more then what the job requires this way your enemy's will never know until its to late what you are capable of. I also want you to start studying the lay out of this station. This ship has more weapons then the last one but also has more draw backs as well. I want you to know what those are so you are prepared in case something happens."

" Also I want you to report your findings" Trying to control his anger " I want you to report what you find to commander Hope as soon as it appears. Do not react to quickly let the commander make the call"<Tag Grebes>

[Deleted]

~~~~~~~ Ten Forward and Deck 34 ~~~~~~~

As John was walking down the corridor from Ten Forward towards the turbolift, his comm. badge beeped. Ahhhh that will be the Doc getting back to me now…

“Well John you could go to Sickbay but I am heading down to Deck 34 to sort out some of your engineers that just saw why being near a overloading conduit is a bad idea”

Simon’s voice was harsh and abrupt but it was understandable. John decided that the message needed no reply, and darted into the Turbolift and to Deck 34. Arriving at Deck 34, John found that the Doctor had already been and the burn victims were transported to sickbay. Turning to the senior officer on the scene a Lieutenant in a gold uniform, John raged:

“What the hell happened? I am the Chief Engineer and I should be notified of any accidents or injuries. Either do your job properly Lieutenant or I will find someone who will.”

John had been harsh, but he could not abide fools and finding out from another department head that his own engineers were involved in an accident was unacceptable. The young Lieutenant was in a high pressure situation, but that did not excuse it.

“I’m sorry Sir, it wont happen again.” He answered.

~~~~~~~ Deck 34 and SickBay ~~~~~~~

John was staring at the overloaded conduit, “Hmmms, It best not Lieutenant…” John looked at some of the charred remains from the scene, then tapped his comm. badge:

=^= Main Engineering, This is Commander McFarland. I want a repair team on deck 34 immediately, we have an overloaded conduit up here. I want to know the cause before it gets repaired, its not effecting any key systems. =^=

=^= Aknowledged Commander. =^= Came the reply.

John turned on his heel and sped out of the corridor to head for Sickbay, leaving the Lieutenant to stew for a little longer for his incompetence. Arriving at Sickbay it was a nightmare, he saw both Harry and Simon hurriedly tending to the Engineers. One of them looked to be in a bad state, under a quarantine field and with burns over almost all his body. John was stopped by a duty Nurse.

“Sorry sir, you cannot come in here. There is too much going on for the Doctor to be disturbed.” She instructed, guiding John out.

“Okay I understand, but can you have the Doc notify me when they regain consciousness. I’m their Chief and I need to know that they are okay and what happened to them.” John answered in a sympathetic tone, the nurse just nodded and watched as John left Sickbay.

~~~~~~~ Main Engineering ~~~~~~~

John raced to Main Engineering, he wanted to know who the crewmen were on Deck 34 who had been injured and the problem they were tending too. This shouldn’t have happened John thought, as he rushed in Cadet Cooper had returned, he had heard the news from Sickbay and was downhearted as all the Engineers were, they were worried about the fate of their colleagues and friends.

John’s comm. badge beeped again, this time with Commander Hope’s voice from the Bridge.
"Engineering, we're about to enter dangerous space, where we might or might not get shaken about a little. I want you to put as much as you can in the ship's stabilisation systems when it comes to that."

John tapped his badge, =^= Engineering to Bridge, I’ve just lost 2 engineers on Deck 34 who are in Sickbay and have an investigation team discovering the cause and carrying out repairs on that deck. We are stretched pretty thin, with your permission I need the next shift to start early or else we’re going to end up with a backlog down here.=^=

(Tag S’reena)

John turned to Cooper and the other Engineers who had overheard the comm. from the bridge. John called all the Engineers in Engineering around, this was going to be a big task and given morale he needed everyone’s mind on the task at hand.

“I need everyone working on the stabilisers, the Hepta is enter a dangerous nebula system and the XO is concerned that the ship may take a pounding. We need to optimise the stabilisers, I want you all working on that and I want a team of you to work on the shields. We may need ‘em.”

John finished speaking and his engineers pulled their collective chin up and got set about the task at hand, John was pleased they were keeping to their job. No-one liked knowing a team mate was injured or hurt and that’s what being an Engineer was about being a part of a team.

(Tag Cooper)

(OOC – Sorry for the mammoth post but a lot has gone on and I needed to do some catching up Also, I have split it into 3 chunks so its easier to read...)

[anthonyan]

As An waited outside the captain’s ready room, he decided to take in the environment on the bridge. Everyone seemed worried or distracted about something, talking quietly to each other. Every so often An heard the phrases “Denebola Cluster,” “ghost ship,” and “Dutchman.”

“Maybe the Dutchman was lost near the Denebola Cluster, or maybe people claim that its haunted,” An thought to himself. He noticed the exchanging glares between Commander Hope and Commander K'ratak. An expected as much knowing the tensions between the Klingons and the Romulans. He never would have guessed he would be serving with one of each, on the same ship.

On the view screen, An noticed the stars streaking by. He walked over to the helm and read that they were traveling at Warp 8.
“Maybe the Dutchman is in trouble and we have to help,” but An dismissed that idea seeing that they were not on Red Alert.

An walked back to the ready room and watched the stars through the portal at the top of the bridge. “Yeah, I’m definitely going to be transported to a cargo ship.”
Finally, An could not take it anymore, he had to find something to do. First An was going to ask Commander Hope, but he thought against it since she seemed deep in thought and did not want to distract her.

He walked up the ramp to tactical. An never talked to a Klingon before but heard they always seemed moody. K’ratak turned abruptly toward An, causing him to hesitate.
“Excuse me, Commander K’ratak, I’m Cadet Anthony An. I have just arrived and would like to train as a security officer.” An offered his hand for the Commander to shake.

[loni]

Loni glanced from Commander Hope to Commander K'ratak as they conversed but turned her full attention to Commander K'ratak when he turned to her to speak. "Cadet Grebs since you have requested the transfer and unit its confirmed you are my student. I expect nothing less then your total ability, I know from our last mission that you are very adept so my standards for you shall be very high." She nodded. "I understand Sir." she said when he paused.

"Since you still have training in science I want you to start using that to figure out where we might find a ship in this mess. Its import an to be more then what the job requires this way your enemy's will never know until its to late what you are capable of. I also want you to start studying the lay out of this station. This ship has more weapons then the last one but also has more draw backs as well. I want you to know what those are so you are prepared in case something happens." Her fingers ran over the console as she mentally went through what she'd learned from her last adventure. "Yes sir." her fingers continuing their dance over the console as she tweaked the controls.

When he again spoke she paused in her journey and looked again from him to Commander Hope. "I want you to report what you find to commander Hope as soon as it appears. Do not react to quickly let the commander make the call" She nodded and smiled meekly at him. "I understand Sir." She immediately knew not to cross the Exec. Officer and turned back to her station and her work.

[kratak]

Looking up at cadet An and wondering why he was late " First of all cadet your late which I hope is a one time event, Secound and most importanly" Lowering his vocie so not everybody on the bridge heard. " Cadet listen it is custom to report to the captain or the first officer when you first come aboard no me. The xo is commander hope she may look busy but trust me she'll take the time needed to welcome you aboard. Not to mention it wont be pleasent if you go straight to work with out asking permission to come aboard. Report to Commander hope then come back to me and I'll bring you up to speed on things" <Tag An>

Looking back over at cadet Grebs " Well cadet looks like I'll have two of you to train, what are you getting from the senors reading anything out of wack. I was thinking maybe you should compare our senor logs to those of the vulcan ship, what do you think cadet Grebs" <Tag Grebs>

Waiting for a reply he looked up to see Cadet An reporting to Commander Hope. He kept a close eye just in case she came down to hard on him. Thinking he could run interfernce for hims if it got to bad.

[Deleted]

Moving quietly through the big, black expanse of space, the SS Flying Dutchman could hardly be distinguished from its background. The hull was painted a uniform black of the deepest hue imaginable. Looking out of a viewport, the ship would only seem a slight disturbance of subspace and with its phase shields, the ship was only detectable by the most zealous of sensor technicians. All this was exactly as Captain Fokke required it to be. It helped in his endless mission between the stars.

The Captain's stateroom was dimly lit. Captain Fokke sipped his coffee, looking grimly out of the window. Sinatra was playing softly in the background. Fokke was not a cheerful man. He wasn't exactly unhappy, but he had seen more of life than most people.

Bernard Fokke was in his mid fourties, strong of body and sharp-minded. An onlooker wouldn't have noticed him in a crowd of people. A man, with a common face. Handsome, but not overly so. A streak of grey in his hair gave his appearance a certain dignity. The only truly remarkable features were his eyes. Fokke had deep, dark-brown eyes which sometimes appeared to be pitch-black. They radiated intelligence and betrayed that this was a man to be reckoned with, a man who could be merciless when the situation required it.

The bleep of a comm link jerked Fokke back to the present. He answered with a tap. #Captain here, go ahead# He took another sip of his coffee as they Bridge officer answered. #Jones here Captain. We've got a ship entering the Denebola Cluster. It's Galaxy class sir.# Fokke's heart began to pump slightly faster. Galaxy class vessels were rare in this part of space and with a crew of 1012, they would make an excellent prey. #Stay on them Lieutenant, track them but make no move as yet. I'll be right up.#

The XO saluted as Fokke entered the Bridge. Commander Grisham was lean, tall and strong. He was an experienced officer of 25 years of service. Grisham had served with Fokke for 20 of those 25 years and he was absolutely loyal to his Captain. So was the reast of the crew, which had been hand-picked by Fokke and Grisham when they set out on this longest of all missions. Fokke returned the salute. It was only a public ritual. In private, the men were good friends, closer than brothers. Still, on duty there were formalities to adhere to. "Mr Grisham, are we still tracking the Galaxy class?" Grisham nodded. "Yes Captain. We've managed to trace the ship. It's the USS Hepta, Captain TJ Edwards commanding. It's an Academy ship." The information seemed to please Fokke. He sat down in his Captain's chair, smiling lightly to himself. "Very well then. Battle stations. Prepare to disengage phase drive."

The ship de-phased, pitch-black in the blackness of space. The tension rose on the Bridge as Captain Fokke gave the order to fire. The Flying Dutchman accelerated and made a high-speed strafing run on the Hepta, all guns blazing. The thirteen Type X phasers fired simultaneously, while a spread of quantum torpedoes fired across the Hepta's bough prevented the Hepta from making a run for it. In a few seconds, the Dutchman had reduced the Hepta's aft shields to zero and the mid and forward shields were beginning to become unstable.

On the Bridge, Fokke looked pleased. "Mr Grisham, broad-beam as many of the crew out as you can. The ship's too big to transport all of her crew at once, we'll do this one in phases." "Aye aye sir", came the grim voice of Commander Grisham as he activated his transporters. In the Flying Dutchman's enormous cargo bays, which had been converted to top-security cell blocks, 250 new arrivals materialised out of thin air. They would make a fine addition to the other workers in the Colony.

"We've captured 250 in one go Captain." Grisham nodded. "Good work everyone. Engage phase-drive. Get us out of here." The Flying Dutchman disappeared as suddenly as it had appeared, leaving the Hepta with 250 MIAs.

[Deleted]

With his request for more crew in Engineering being accepted by Commander Hope the next shift of Engineers filed in. John had split his crews into groups, one was investigating the scene of the accident on Deck 34, one working on the optimisation of the stabilisers, one manning engineering and one group working on the shield generators – John had taken command of the shields. He figured that any Engineer could deal with stabilisers and wanted to see how Cooper would cope in charge of Main engineering…

John looked at Cooper: “You have main engineering kid, I’m off to work on the shield generators.”

(Cooper)

As John and his team went from generator to generator, the Galaxy class had 12 generators on board to cover the whole hull of the ship. As John arrived at the aft shield generator the Hepta shook violently. What the hell was that…? he thought reading the sensor screen next to the shield generator he noted the loss of the engines, they were offline. Someone or something was attacking the Hepta, it all happened in slow motion for John he ran for the shield generator, trying to ensure maximum output.

He repeatedly smashed the console, overriding safety procedure. Whatever was happening the Hepta was taking one hell of a beating. The Hull creaked as blasts from the weapons began to penetrate the shields, whatever was out there had caught the Hepta from behind and left her all but defenceless. Suddenly the pounding stopped… the shield generator next to him was fused, maybe he pushed it too far but the power conduits had sparked. As John turned around he spoke to his team of Engineers…

“What the hell is happening? We’ve lost shields.” John stated with anger kicking the console.

“Sir, I think we have a bigger problem…” replied a young Ensign hesitantly…

Turning around to face the Ensign, John’s jaw dropped as he realised 6 of his engineers had disappeared. A team of 8 was now 2. John shared a glance with the Ensign who was just as bewildered…

“They were beamed out…”

“What?” John roared, tapping his comm. badge

=^= McFarland to Bridge, What the hell is happening? Six of my Engineers were just beamed off the ship right under my nose! =^= John had cursed in his comm. to the bridge but he was in shock.

(Tag Bridge/All)

[anthonyan]

An retracted his unshaken hand, “yes, sir, it was only a one time event and I won’t be late again.”
An was about to explain why he was late, but figured this was neither the time nor place; he did not want make excuses for himself and wanted to make the best first impression he could, in wake of his tardiness.

An caught a glimpse of Cadet Grebs as he walked back down the ramp to the captain’s chair. He listened to their conversation to see if Commander K’ratak’s tone would change with Cadet Grebs. K’ratak maintained his same tenor, “least it doesn’t seem like I upset him.” An hoped he would get to know Grebs better seeing that she was a more experienced cadet. When An started down the ramp toward Hope, he remembered that he wanted to tell K’ratak, “nuqneH, qaleghneS.”

As An turned toward the command chair and he noticed Commander Hope starring into him. He barely knew anything about Klingons, let alone Romulans. An tried to stand a little straighter and fixed his uniform. He felt other people watching him, maybe even K’ratak.
“I wonder if she’s as xenophobic as other Romulans,” An thought to himself, “but she wouldn’t be; she’s a Starfleet officer. Would she share the same opinion, as most Romulans, about slavery?”

Then An remembered that before the Khitomer Massacre, the Romulans and Klingons were allies. Hopefully both commanders will focus on the peace they once shared with each other and not the war.

“Excuse me, Ma’am, I’m Cadet Anthony An. I arrived late and would like to train as a security officer with Commander K’ratak.” An offered his rejected hand again, but this time for Commander Hope’s greeting, “Jolan Tru.”

[Deleted]

S'reena coldly looked the latecomer over, the dismissed him with a wave of her hand. "I'm sure Commander K'ratak will have something to do for you," she told him. She wasn't being consciously rude, but she was trying to concentrate on the readings she seeing on the main screen. She noticed the cadet still stood waiting, standing awkwardly at attention. "I believe I dismissed you to your duties Cadet An," she spoke irritably, "and I don't appreciate being addressed in Romulan. It is impolite as the majority here do not speak Romulan."

Now, she did ignore him, trying to refocus on the main screen. There was something out there, and she was intent on finding it before the science chief might. She bolted upright when McFarland's voice cried over the intercom.

=^= McFarland to Bridge, What the hell is happening? Six of my Engineers were just beamed off the ship right under my nose! =^=

"What!" the Romulan echoed the chief engineer's earlier response. She wheeled around and turned on the security chief and his two cadets. "Grebs, get your person down to engineering stat and find out who is missing and where they went! Turn the place inside out if you have to but don't you dare coming back without something to report!"

She pointed at An. "And you start scanning long range and short range. I want to know which ships are out there, either cloaked or visible. The signatures for cloaked Romulan, Klingon AND Federation vessels are on file. Same argument as for Grebs, don't you dare reporting nothing at all." Then she pointed at K'ratak. "And you make sure they follow orders. And get to red alert!"

S'reena gave TJ no time to respond to the situation, being too used to reacting as she was while serving on the Hanson. "Counselor Uhlani, report to engineering, see what you can do for the crewmen who lost their collegues. Löhnen, work with K'ratak and his cadets. Find me whoever got our engineers! And see who else is missing, Im sure this is not confined just to engineering.I want reports, and I want them yesterday people! Stop gawking at me, get moving!"

She glared at TJ, who still hadn't said a word. She dared him to rescind her orders with that single glare, before settling back down in her seat.

[lohnen]

The ship shuddered wildly as the Red Alert sirens wailed. "Aft shields completely down Captain, forward shields weakening. What the hell are they throwing at us?" Danny yelled, trying to make himself heard above the noise of the sirens. Behind him, one of the Science consoles exploded in a cloud of sparks and smoke. Danny was nearly thrown off his chair as the Hepta dived in emergency evasive manoeuvres. Danny struggled his way back into his chair. "Looks like inertial dampers have taken a blow," he yelled to no-one in particular.

Danny manicly switched between sensors. Every time he thought he had something, the blip disappeared from screens. "Löhnen, how long before your status report," the XO yelled in his ear. "Working on it Commander." A sudden blast rocked the ship again. "BLAST! We're chasing ghosts out here Commander, I can't pinpoint the bloody thing!" Danny yelled as the Bridge lights above him gave way and tumbled down on him.

The attack was over as suddenly as it had begun. One moment they were being fired upon, the other moment everything was quiet. Danny pushed the debris from his console and started every scan he could think of. Nothing showed up on the sensors. It was as if the attacking ship really had been a ghost. Running trhough the crew manifest, Danny turned around to bring the bad news. "Commander Hope, Captain, I can't find anything on sensors. It's like the ship just wasn't there. I'm still working on it, but I'm going to need time and inter-Departmental cooperation with Tactical, Science and Engineering if we've got any hope of finding out something about our attacker. And this was only the good news. The bad news is that we're currently missing 250 crew members and that our aft shields have been shot to shreds. Repair crews are on their way. Mid and forward shields are slowly coming back online. That's all I can tell you at this point."

<TAG: CO/XO, Tactical, Science, Engineering>

[simonbarnes]

Simon had one thing he hated more than spiders was when he was on a ship under attack, Simon quickly ran out of his office to prepare for any casualties when he looked over to the patients in the quarantine field, “Nurse where the hell did those two go to” Simon turned to see only one nurse in Sickbay, “I ahh, doctor I, they where all there then they were not. I can’t explain it” just as she finished a few officers came though the door, most with not critical injuries, but he needed more staff to deal with them all. Hitting his comm. badge he started the first of two announcements =/\=All of duty medical personnel are to report to sickbay immediately=/\= finishing the first he redirected his anger at the bridge =/\= Bridge this is sickbay, we have a few minor causalities coming in, but more worrying is that some of my staff have disappeared and with them the two critical patients who where in sickbay with burns have also disappeared. What the hell happened? =/\= Simon could think of no better way to ask but to go direct.
<Tag Bridge>

Simon looked around to see that a few more nurses had arrived, calling them all together he began “right people, I need triage to be set up, I want critical patients sent to me or Cadet Schmidt on the biobeds, serious non critical patients will get a bio bed if there is one available. Minor injuries get treated if there is time and then are sent on their way. Got that everyone, well get to work then and someone please get a casualty number for the XO and send it to her before she decides to take her rage out on us” As if this was a signal to work everyone got onto what they did best, dealing with the wounded. <Tag Harry>

[kratak]

The Attack was over just as quickly as it had happened, who ever hit them knew how and where which was not a good thing. The events that followed after wards were not something he was prepared for. Damage reports were coming along with missing crewman then Commander hope.

His blood was boiling she not only was rude to his cadet for no reason but started barking orders at them. It wasn't so much the orders that he hated he knew they were sound orders and one's he would give him self. It was the way she did it by passing him and just giving them out in front of his cadets like he was a nobody. He slammed his fist on the console trying to control his anger at what she had done. There was little he could do she was the xo as long as she lived, he put that thought out of his mind he was a star fleet officer now for the moment any way, not a Klingon captain anymore.

While his cadets were getting ready to do the assigned jobs he grabbed them both before letting them start. Making sure Commander hope could hear with those dam ears of hers, he knew how to play the game with in the Rules " Cadet An " Speaking a little louder " Permission to come aboard granted. Get started on your assigned task and by the way your greeting in both Klingon and Romulan were perfect. Some officer may find it rude others take it as a mark of a good officer being able to adapt to any situation. Make sure you report your findings to Commander hope first be as detailed as you can" <Tag An>

Looking over Cadet Grebs " You have a tough assignment but I know you can do it, there's the advantage to you having some science training in you use it don't just think like a security officer you might pick up on something that we would miss. I also want you to report to commander hope and give her a detailed report"<Tag Grebs>

Looking at both his cadets and dropping his voice " I hope you know what I mean by details leave nothing out, You are both capable officer if you weren't you wouldn't be hear now, Get moving before the battle " Pausing for a moment " Before Commander hope starts using her inside voice again"

Walking over to Commander Lohnen " It would appear that are ghost are flesh and blood, my gut tells me that they are as smart as they are stupid which is a deadly combination. They are smart enough to attack this ship and hit us where it hurts but dumb enough too take prisoners from a federation ship. There not thinking of the repercussions this could have on this area of space."

" I will start having section heads take account ability of there personal. To help figure out if it was a centralized beam out or wide spread. This way might be able to figure out a way to stop it from happening again" <Tag Lohnen>

Walking back to his station the red alert alarm was still going off. He switched off and switched it back on this drew a look from Commander Hope " Sorry commander you did say take us to red alert I just thought you might not have heard it the first time and carried out your orders. I'm sure you are aware the minute the ship was hit the computer sounds the alarm. Although you might have missed it when you were talking to my cadet"

Looking back down at his screen reports were coming about the missing crewman and where they were when it happened. He started to break them down by sections and location to forward to Commander Lohnen.

[anthonyan]

It took a second to recover from the chill Hope sent through him. An was going to counter with, “with all due respect, I was addressing you, Ma’am, and not the majority,” but he held his tongue. The verse, “if any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain,” echoed through his head.

“Yes, Ma’am, thank you, Ma’am,” he replied. He expected as much from the Commander, but he secretly hoped that she would act more humane. Either way, so far so good, no cargo ship.

=^= McFarland to Bridge, What the hell is happening? Six of my Engineers were just beamed off the ship right under my nose! =^=

Six engineers beamed off the ship? How could this happen? In total shock, An turned and ran up the ramp to report to Commander K’ratak. Hope pointed at An, “and you start scanning long range and short range. I want to know which ships are out there, either cloaked or visible. The signatures for cloaked Romulan, Klingon AND Federation vessels are on file…”

“Yes, ma’am, acknowledged,” An replied, but was not sure if she heard him. He caught her glaring toward the Captain. “What was that about,” he wondered, “Romulans.”

As An ran pass Commander K’ratak and Cadet Grebs, Kratak grabbed them both.
“Cadet An,” Commander K’ratak said, speaking a little louder, “permission to come aboard, granted. Get started on your assigned task. And by the way, your greeting in both Klingon and Romulan were perfect. Some officer may find it rude, others take it as a mark of a good officer being able to adapt to any situation. Make sure you report your findings to Commander Hope first. Be as detailed as you can.”

“Yes, sir, thank you, sir,” said An. Feeling better from the callous wave received from Commander Hope, he flooded the cluster with antiproton beams to detect any Romulan ships. He wanted to do more than one scan at once, but decided against it, not wanting to overlook something important. Next, An did a long-range tachyon scan, knowing that Klingon ships have been found by this method. Still negative, both scans revealed nothing. An repeated the scans and adjusted the frequency incase the kidnappers tried to block his attempt.

“Maybe the ship warped out of here,” An muttered to himself. He started scanning for any subspace variances and tetryon particles. As he scanned the cluster he heard fellow crew members behind him, running their own scans and tossing ideas.
“Who is doing this? Why would they take 250 of our people? Okay, stop, snap out of it. Worrying don’t help, I best just try to find them.”

An’s scans began to reveal something, he hit his combadge immediately.
“Cadet An to Commander Hope, I found chroniton particles all over the cluster, but I don’t see any pattern to establish predictability. It just seems to be scattered all over the place. Do you have any idea what else I could look for?”

Inspired by recent glares exchanged between Commanders Hope and K’ratak, An thought of setting up a tachyon detection grid. During the Klingon Civil War, when Starfleet set up a blockade of the Klingon-Romulan border, it was used to stop a Romulan supply convoy from sending aid.
“Wait, you need more than one ship to pull that off,” An said to himself, “I got it.”
An turned to the Commander, “Commander K’ratak, if we find other ships out here, maybe we could set up a tachyon detection grid.”

An asked himself, “what if we can’t find them or it happens again and I’m the only one left? What if I’m next?” An started praying for them to return safe and muttered, “the God of my rock; in him will I trust: he is my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower, and my refuge, my saviour; thou savest me from violence.”

[loni]

Loni listened quietly while Cmdr. K'ratak spoke to Cadet An but also concentrated on her work, looking over the sensor scans of the area. At his mention of the Vulcan ship she quickly tapped in a a couple of commands and read over the information before replying. "Yes sir. I agree." She tapped the console and forwarded the information she had found to his console so eh too could see it.

Suddenly the ship shook as it was fired upon. She had to grab her console to remain on her feet. "What the...." was about all she could get out. She was about to start scanning the area looking for anything, something had fired upon them and it was invisible, at least it looked that way but Cmdr. Hope spoke up first.

"Grebs, get your person down to engineering stat and find out who is missing and where they went! Turn the place inside out if you have to but don't you dare coming back without something to report!" Loni bit her tongue to keep from replying, she knew it wasn't her place and even though her words stung in tone she kept her thoughts to herself. "Yes Ma'am, right away." she started to turn and head immediately for engineering, knowing speed was necessary but Cmdr. K'ratak grabbed her arm before she could get too far.

<off: more to come>

[matioruhlani]

Sitting across from his cadet, Mati wasn't paying much attention to anything except the PADD in front of him, when the whole ship was violently shaken, throwing him to the ground.

<What was that!?!>, Mati thought to himself. As he picked himself up, he realized that he wasn't in 10 forward anymore.

<Where am I?>

As he looked around, Mati realized that he wasn't the only one there. There were people all around him. But everyone was in a cell of some sort, one that he had never before seen the likes of. It didn't look like there were any walls, only the floor and the roof, with a square of tiles around the group on the floor. No one he saw was anyone that he recognized. Looking around, he noticed that there were no other instructors or cadets in his sight. There were though, some people from every part of the ship; Enginering, Medical, Science, Tactical, all were represented.

There suddenly came a noise from one side of the room. A door was opening. Two men walked into the room, with sly smiles on their faces. One took a step forward and said loudly, "Welcome to the Flying Dutchman. You are all now my prisoners. There is only two rules here. One; You will work or you will die. Two; If you can escape, no one will stop you. No one has ever escaped. But it is fun to see you try." With that the two men walked out.

The room was dead silent. Suddenly one of the men from the cell next to Mati's ran toward the door. As he crossed the square border of the cell, the man was propelled back across the cell as if he had just ran into a force field. Mati didn't even see the energy react to the impact. One of the medics in the cell bent over the man. Looking up straight at Mati, the medic said,"He is dead, sir."

<How do we get out of this one? What is their plan for us? I hope the others figure something out.> Mati solumnly thought to himself.

(OOC: I hope this puts a new twist to the thread.)

[Deleted]

John raced along the corridor, he had to get to main engineering and survey the damage. He knew that at least 3 shield generators must have been fused for the shields to fail and allow their mysterious foe to attack and steal his engineers. John ran past several crew members who were bewildered. As he ran to the turbolift he realised that the personnel being beamed off the ship was not unique to engineering, it seemed as though many crewmembers John passed, had lost colleagues, partners and even children…

Stepping into the turbolift John tapped his comm. badge,

=^= McFarland to Löhnen =^= Before the Major could reply John continued…

=^= Danny, I need you to find any civilians aboard with any Engineering experience even from the Academy and get them to report in to Main Engineering as soon as possible. I know you must be busy up there, but if we’re going to get shields back and find a solution. I need more Engineers, I’ve lost too many! =^= John hoped the Major would not be too busy to answer his call for aid.

(Danny)

While waiting for Major Löhnen’s reply, John tapped his badge again this time to Tactical.

=^=McFarland to Tactical, I need all your information on the shields just before they went down in particular the frequency and power of the enemy weaponary. Perhaps I can remodulate the shields, forward the information to the Science Department too please. =^=

(Tactical/K’ratak)

John knew that the departments would be swamped with requests but their hunter could be back at any second to strike again. John could only assume that whatever was out there was looking for prisoners or slaves. It was in no way a ghost, the mere suggestion was just foolish – a ghost would have finished the job and why not capture everyone or destroy the ship? John finally arrived at Main Engineering, things were a mess – the warp core was stable but only 4 Engineers were present including Cooper.

John and Cooper exchanged a quick look, John had all but forgotten about his young apprentice but he was pleased that he was okay.

“Its worse than I feared Cooper, how many Engineers did we lose down here?”

(Cooper)

Before Cooper got the opportunity to respond John’s comm. badge beeped, signalling an incoming comm.

[Deleted]

hope said:

S'reena glared at TJ, who still hadn't said a word. She dared him to rescind her orders with that single glare, before settling back down in her seat.

TJ was torn betwixt two. That part of him, deep inside, that was still a cadet watched in admiring approval at how S’reena grasped the situation so quickly – and even more impressed with how she had almost instantly organized her response. It’s a small wonder she commanded his respect during those long-ago days on the Hanson. He was not about to make an attempt to rescind her orders to the crew. They were good ones, and stand they would. Still, he would need to speak with her, lest she should move over into actually usurping authority. For now, however, the orders she had given were the correct ones.

Only one thing further, though. He pressed a switch on the arm of his chair.

"Edwards t' all department heads not on th' Bridge," He began. "Report on casualties. I want a breakdown of all missin' personnel on th' Hepta."

lohnen said:

The ship shuddered wildly as … Danny maniacally switched between sensors. ...

"We're chasing ghosts out here Commander, I can't pinpoint the bloody thing!"

When the report finally came through Danny’s station of the 250 missing crewmembers, TJ’s stomach wrenched sickeningly. He recalled his meeting with Admiral Drew, the legends of the Flying Dutchman and the Bermuda Triangle. Yet they could not go back now. Two hundred fifty missing from the Hepta! With this, the mission of the ship turned now to search and rescue. They could NOT go back without their crewmates!

"Continue scans, Major; give me anything ye come up with out of th’ ordinary. Weapons, prepare t' fire on me command. Target engines of any ship that shows itself.

"If it’s a fight they’re wantin’, we’ll show ‘em just how obligin’ an Irishman – an’ a Romulan – can be!" This he added when he saw S’reena’s glaring response to his commands.

TJ’s visage darkened. It would appear that they were about to suffer the same fate as the Vulcan ship, yet they now could not go back.

[Deleted]

The catch had been good. 250 on the first attack run was an admirable number. 250 down, rougly 800 to go. Three more attack runs should suffice before the Flying Dutchman could move on to fresh targets.

Fokke straightened his uniform and stood up from his chair on the Bridge. He looked at the Tactical officer. "Lieutenant King, you have the Bridge. XO, you're with me." Fokke walked swiftly to the turbolift, closely followed by his XO. The men were silent on the turbolift ride. The had worked together for so long that they hardly needed speech between them anymore. On look could say more than a thousand words could ever do.

The door to the prison block opened. Grisham raised his voice and shouted "ATTENTION ON DECK! My name is Commander Grisham." Pointing at Fokke, he continued, "This here, is Captain Fokke. Welcome to the Flying Dutchman ladies and gentlemen." He stepped back and Fokke took over.

matioruhlani said:

"Welcome to the Flying Dutchman. You are all now my prisoners. There is only two rules here. One; You will work or you will die. Two; If you can escape, no one will stop you. No one has ever escaped. But it is fun to see you try."

The prisoners were too stunned to move. Unsure of what they would answer, they kept silent. Fokke continued. "We are en route to a forced labour camp. The location will remain a secret. Once there, you Starfleet types are going to make yourself useful for a change. You will be joined by your crew mates shortly. I shall be hard, but I shall be fair. Work well and you will be treated well. Be lazy and you will suffer the consequences. Your easy-does-it lives in Starfleet are over now, your new career begins here. In time, you will learn to appreciate me and perhaps one day, you will be granted the honour of serving aboard my beloved Flying Dutchman. That is all for now. Food and drink will arrive soon. Good day to you."

With that, the Captain and XO turned around and left the prisoners to their thoughts.

[lohnen]

johnmcfarland said:

Stepping into the turbolift John tapped his comm. badge,

=^= McFarland to Löhnen =^= Before the Major could reply John continued…

=^= Danny, I need you to find any civilians aboard with any Engineering experience even from the Academy and get them to report in to Main Engineering as soon as possible. I know you must be busy up there, but if we’re going to get shields back and find a solution. I need more Engineers, I’ve lost too many! =^= John hoped the Major would not be too busy to answer his call for aid.

(Danny)

The Bridge was a mess. Cleaning crews were already on it, but smoke still billowed from one of the shattered consoles behind Danny. It didn't improve his concentration. MacFarland's call came in and did wonders for Danny's mood. It deteriorated beyond points Danny hadn't even thought possible.

The fact that the Hepta was missing so many crew members was bad. It was even worse that they virtually had no shields and hardly any Engineers to repair the damage. They were basically sitting ducks now.

=^=Understood Commander, I'm on it. You'll here from me asap.=^=

In response to MacFarland's request, Danny started running through the crew manifest. There were a few Cadets who good vaguely be supposed to distinguish a warp core from a screw driver, but not much on that front. Still, better something than nothing. The civillian sector contained more successful candidates. After searching the ship's databases unsuccessfully for a few more minutes, Danny tapped his comm badge.

=^=Cadets Anderson, Rochester, Barnes and Little, Mr O'Hara, Kanellos, Kirszner and Mandell, this is Major Löhnen. Report to Commander MacFarland in Engineering on the double. Your skills are needed there.=^=

Danny relaid the message to Commander MacFarland, hoping it would suffice. Then he turned around to the Captain and XO. "Sir, Ma'am, continueing scans on all frequencies. The sensors have been tied in with Tactical. Request permission to leave the Bridge and help Commander MacFarland restore the shields in Engineering."

<TAG: Captain, Commander Hope>

Note: The Cadets and civilians I have sent to Engineering are all NPCs. It's OK if something happens to them and they can be controlled by anyone working in Engineering. Cadet Cooper, you're part of the regular crew, so you are allowed to boss the NPCs around as well.

Ship status thread has been updated. An overview of recent events and the current status of the ship can be found there.

[kratak]

Hearing Mcfarland Request, he started to send the data from the attack to Enigeering. Looking back down at the senor logs, He could tell it wasn't a Romulan or Klingon cloak that was for sure. Although he was sure his cadets were arleady 2 steps ahead of him on that.

Looking at the roster of missiong crewman it was as he feared spread out. Which meant it was going to be hard to stop them from beaming people off when they wanted. He wasn't even sure if he put up transport blockers if that would work. Still he was getting a idea and it would have any results at first but if they got the ship moving and there was another beam out then it could bare fruit.

Tapping his console "Bridge to Doctor Barnes" Pausing for a secound figureing out the best way to explain his idea. " Doctor Barnes is there anything you can inject the crew with that wont show up on standard scans if your not looking for it. Something that be detected on long range scans but wont harm the crew. Somthing you and your cadet could cook up and start injecting the crew, dont tell them what it is I dont want it to slip if they are taken" <Tag Barnes>

Looking over at Lohnen he could tell that he knew where he was going with it. " Its just a idea right now but if they do snatch more crew then we might have a way of tracking them, at the very least a way of finding them when the decloak"

[loni]

Loni listened to Commander K'ratak as he spoke. She knew it was important to do the best she could and it was obvious from the Execs voice she HAD to find something. "You have a tough assignment but I know you can do it, there's the advantage to you having some science training in you use it don't just think like a security officer you might pick up on something that we would miss. I also want you to report to commander hope and give her a detailed report" He'd said before she left the bridge heading for Engineering almost at a run.

As the turbolift dropped towards her goal she had time to think about what had happened so far since they left the starbase. What could she possibly add to what they already knew, which wasn't much. Her first objective though was to find out who was missing, next was to find out where they went. Several minutes later she stepped off the lift and ran down the corridor towards Engineering and stepped through the doors, the place in chaos.

<tag anyone in engineering>

[anthonyan]

An studied his scans. “All I’m catching are these chroniton particles,” An thought to himself, “chronitons wouldn’t exist naturally in a cluster, they must be coming from the ship.” An did another scan of the cluster, “didn’t Romulan cloaking devices generate chroniton particles? Maybe this Dutchman is a Romulan ship.”

While checking the computer records on detecting Romulan ships, An found that chroniton particles have the capability to affect the systems in a starship following prolonged exposure. “Maybe this Dutchman will has some system failure and it will decloak for us,” An said to himself again, “hopefully we won’t be affected by these things.”

While looking at the scans, An found himself wondering about Cadet Grebbs. “How can you think about some girl at a time like this? You have 250 of your fellow crewman missing! Pay attention to the display, no girls allowed; you need to find these guys.”

An coaxed his thoughts back to his readings. “This is interesting,” An whispered as he reviewed some new material, “Romulans played around with some experimental cloaking technology in 2368. Ships exposed to the an ‘interphase generator’ would be ‘phased’ and cloaked.” An kept reading silently to himself, sitting on the edge of his seat, “this thing would make a ship undetectable to sensors and out of phase with normal matter!?! If it’s out of phase with normal matter, it would be able to pass right through anything.”

An wondered how it could be, “out of phase.” What does this mean? After further reading, An found that this experimental technology of the 2360s allows objects to phase out of our universe into parallel space. Turns out, there was an interphase generator installed on the USS Pegasus as early as 2358, violating the Algeron Treaty. Some scientists believe the object may not phase to a parallel dimension, but to subspace, or somewhere else they do not know of as yet.

After reading more, An found that the USS Enterprise used an anyon emitter to send anyon particles to neutralize the effects of the interphase generator. The anyon emittions bring phased matter back into phase with normal space.

In excitement, An jumped up, slapped his combadge and spoke too fast, “Cadet An to Commander Hope, the Dutchman might be phase-cloaked from an interphase generator. If we perform an anyon sweep and hit the Dutchman, we could return the Dutchman to normal space. The anyon particles neutralize the effects of the generator. All we need is Engineering to build an anyon emitter.”

[simonbarnes]

Simon was finishing with a patient who had hit his head during the attack, “you will be fine, just do not to anything taxing, should you feel dizziness or weak, please return to sickbay immediately” As the science officer left Simon’s comm. badge beeped =/\=Bridge to Doctor Barnes=/\= Simon hit his com badge =/\=Go ahead=/\= Simon wondered what this was about =/\=Doctor Barnes is there anything you can inject the crew with that wont show up on standard scans if your not looking for it. Something that is detected on long range scans but wont harm the crew. Something you and your cadet could cook up and start injecting the crew, don’t tell them what it is I don’t want it to slip if they are taken=/\= Simon thought for a few moments then replied =/\=Well if you are thinking of tracking them after capture then injections will not work, most things I could give that would not pick up on a normal scan but be picked up non the less would either be in their systems a hour two tops. Or they would be harmful to the patient. There might be a way round it, but I will need an engineer to implement it. There are a few things I could use that can be added to the life support so that when they are taken the timer will start, it is the best that I can do=/\=

<Tag K’ratak>

=/\= well me and Cadet Schmidt will get to work on it, I will get a engineer up here when we are ready=/\= Simon cut the comm. before the Klingon had a chance to respond “Ok Harry could you come into my office we have some work to do” Simon went on to explain his plan to Harry, “I want you to begin the production of this and then hand it to Cadet Cooper when he arrives” Turning away from Harry to let him work Simon hit his comm. badge =/\=Commander McFarland, I need to borrow your cadet for a while, I need him to place something in the life-support system for me=/\= <Tag John/Cooper>

Simon walked out of his office to check on Sickbay which was finally emptying, most of the people in were minor bumps and cuts. Finishing a report he had been working on while treating patients on the status in Sickbay he sent it to Danny and S’reena so that both were aware of the number of medical staff lost and that everyone who had come to sickbay will be ok and were returning to duty.

[kratak]

Listening to Doctor Barnes report, He started to think his idea was a waste of time. Until the doctor gave him hope that he might be able to pull it off still. He was being cut short he knew it, but it didn't make him mad. He understood the medical staff was busy not to mention he just added to the work load. So he let it go besides he didn't mind being cut short if the Doctor and cadets pulled off what he asked for.

Walking over to Lohnen " The Doc thinks he might be able to give us something to scan for if they snatch more crew members. Not sure how it will work but it might be something, I was also thinking of something else I want to run by you first. Its a idea but I don't want to sound stupid in front of Commander hope. Its apparent that they have painted there ship black as space, Which makes it harder to track and we don't have the time to paint our selves the same color. So what if we Paints some probes black and set them up to spray a mist of paint. If we leave them in a stand by mode they wont power up until they detect a another ship. We could just have them power up enough to release the mist and hope what ever it is flys through it. We wont be able to follow them if their cloaked not right now any way. But it could give us something to work with when there not cloaked." <Tag Lohnen>

He was admitting to himself it sound like a bad idea, but you never know it could work because it was so simple. He waited like Lohnen was thinking about it, looking over at the captain and the Romulan. He started to wonder when she was going to let him have it, He knew that technically he hadn't done anything wrong but , he was sure she wasn't going to let what he did go unchecked either.