Mission: Blackout!

[cptjeff]

Jeff walked aboard his new command: it was 0300, and the only crew member he had encountered so far was an ensign at the airlock. That had been a brief encounter. The turbolift was there waiting for him; he directed it to the bridge. His quarters could wait.

"Captain on the Bridge." The Lt. on watch called out just as the door opened. Jeff involuntarily looked for the Captain. then he remembered.

"As you were. Ship status?"

"Everything is running at full efficiency right now, except for the Impulse Engines.'

"Why are those offline Lieutenant...."

"Robins Sir. I'm the night shift watch."

"Lieutenant Robins. Thank you. so why are the Impulse engines offline?"

"They're being upgraded. They're going to be finished by 1000 hours."

"How do you know that? Spacedock is always running late."

"They were supposed to be done an hour ago. I factored in the delay."

Thank you. I'll be in my ready room.
--------
The ready room was empty save for a desk and chair.

I'll fix that in the morning he thought.

Sitting at his desk, he typed a message into the terminal for all the senior officers.
To all senior officers: there is a mission briefing scheduled for 0900 hours in the conference room. All departments are to beat full readiness by 0930. We will depart as soon as possible after that.

-Captain Jeffery Pudlo, now of the USS Hope.

"Computer send." ordered Jeff. he eased back in his chair and decided to get some rest. If the mission plan was accurate, he would need it.

OOC: could somebody please pin this?

[Deleted]

BEE – DE – DE – BEEP

Jon rolled over in bed, pulling the covers tighter over his head and pressing his ear down into the pillow trying to block out the noise. He tried to remember what he had been dreaming about, it had been a good dream, but thanks to that alarm, it had gone.

BEE – DE – DE – BEEP

Such a good dream. There had been sun, beaches, things he hadn’t seen for ages. Curse this ship and her rotating commanding officers, he never get any leave.

BEE – DE – DE – BEEP

Exasperated, he threw the covers away. There was no chance of getting back to sleep now. He sat up and swung his legs off the side of his bed.

BEE – DE – DE – BEEP

“I’m awake already, you stupid machine.” He grunted and walked sleepily across the room to the computer screen and deactivated the alarm. It was the only way he could actually wake up in the morning. Back when he had joined the academy, he had the standard voice controlled alarm. However, he had soon found that he would just lie in bed, deactivate the alarm, and go back to sleep. Hence this thing that drilled into his brain until he turned it off. Not literally, of course.

“Computer, today’s schedule?” He asked as he made his way to the sonic shower.
“0600 – Breakfast with Joanne
0700 – Shift starts
0800 – Surgery
0900 – CLASH – Department Meeting
0900 – CLASH – Senior Staff Meeting
1-”
“Computer, verify 0900, Senior Staff Meeting?”
“Verified. By order of Captain Jeff Pudlo.”

The human sighed and let his shoulder’s drop. Another new one, and another different schedule. At least this time it was later, not making him wake up early. But then, this meant he would have to reschedule his department meetings for the next few weeks. And the only direction they could go would be earlier. Damn.

[Deleted]

Commander Merit thought to herself when she got the message about the meeting. 'Why do we have to have these stupid things, why cant they just send the missions like this?' But it was not her place to argue so she just decided to get on with it instead.

She was the first one to arrive apart from the new Captain.

"Sir." she said.

[Deleted]

Wood streaked through his quarters, in straight lines between the sonic shower, his wardrobe and the replicator. While drinking coffee while putting on his uniform went surprisingly well, the real problems arose when he tried to eat his cheese sandwich. Appearantly Wood's motor system wasn't capable of simultaneosly eating and putting on pants while standing, and he had to grab the table to prevent a forceful encounter with the deck plating.
It was during this interesting sequence of events that Wood realized that his life as a instructor back on Mars had caused some laziness, he wasn't used to getting up so early anymore. Especially not when he expected to have the afternoon shift, forgetting to pay attention to the time when he was on the holodeck the night before. The computer woke him up earlier than expected due to the staff meeting, leading to him being sleepy and above all, late.

"Computer, time?" Wood asked, while swallowing away the remainder of his breakfast.
"The time is 0845 hours."

Wood immediately calmed down at hearing that, noting that he had more than enough time than he had expected. Ordering another cup of coffee, Wood zipped up his uniform jacket, straightened his combadge, noted that he really had to put some sort of decoration on the grey and very dull bulkheads, burned his tongue on the coffee and stepped through the doors into the hallway.

It was a good thing that his quarters were near the turbolift, or Wood had probably gotten lost. Despite the fact that Wood had seen the interiors of many different classes of ships, he had never been on an Nebula class, so he had to get used to the internal structure. Luckily, he found the turbolift without much trouble and proceeded to deck 1. He stepped, via the bridge, into the conference lounge, nodding to the crewmembers he encountered on the way.

Inside the lounge were two people, the captain and a Commander wearing a yellow undershirt. Appearently he was still right on time, so he sat down, slightly relieved, and nodded while saying: "Good morning".

[cptjeff]

'Good morning." Jeff looked up as merit came into the room. "Commander Merit I presume?"

<merit>

"Nice to meet you. I'm Commander- sorry, Captain- Jeff Pudlo."

<Merit>

A minute later, The door opened again, and this time a Commander 1st class walked in. command red. "I suppose you must be John Wood. I'm Jeff Pudlo, your Captain."

<Wood>

"right. as soon as everybody else gets here, we'll start the briefing."

[Deleted]

'Good morning." Jeff looked up as merit came into the room. "Commander Merit I presume?"

"Aye sir. at your disposal."

"Nice to meet you. I'm Commander- sorry, Captain- Jeff Pudlo."

"You better be sure about what you are when the rest get here. Their like sharks!" She giggled slightly at the thought.

[Deleted]

Realising that he was late, Shris pulled on his uniform quickly and rushed out of his quarters. He jogged the distance between himself and the observation lounge, meaning that when he finally arrived he was only a couple of minutes late, rather than the 5 or 6 he would have been at a walk. He took his seat, nodding an apology to the others sat around the table.

He glanced up to see who the new command pairing were, but didn't recognise them. He hadn't had time to read up on them this mission, everything had seemed to pile up on him at the same time, resulting in a severe lack of time. But then, such was the life of a starfleet officer. He caught his breath while the commanding officer brought up an image on the viewer screen.

"Now that you are all here..."

[cptjeff]

OOC: If you haven't posted yet, we;re going to presume you're in the briefing.
"Now that you're here, I would like to introduce myself. I'm captain Jeffery Pudlo, but call me Jeff when we're off duty. But we have to get to this mission."

He stepped aside and took out a laser pointer.

"This is our destination." he began, pointing to a area on the fringe of explored space. "we haven't bee able to get past it and it fluctuates, so we haven't been able to explore that area much. That is sector 342, which is also known as the blackout zone due to communications difficulties near it. sensors have malfunctioned as well. The most recent survey was done by a probe launched 70 years ago."

<tag reactions>

"Starfleet has since sent a Ship, the Arrow, to investigate. Command lost communication with it 2 days ago. We have bee ordered to investigate and rescue the vessel, or what's left of it. The Arrow was Excelsior class, so Starfleet seems to feel that we'll have a better chance. We are ordered to rescue the Arrow if possible, and gather any data about the3 region of space that we can. The only information we have on the disruptions are from the probe, which reported abnormal wave patterns that most closely resembled protomatter-But it was not an exact match. Questions?"

<tag ALL>

[Deleted]

A minute later, The door opened again, and this time a Commander 1st class walked in. command red. "I suppose you must be John Wood. I'm Jeff Pudlo, your Captain."

"Indeed I am. Nice to meet you." Wood smiled and shook hands. He turned to the Commander sitting across the table. "If I remember the crew bios correctly, I believe you are Commander Merit, right?"

<Tag Merit>

The introductions continued each time someone entered the conference lounge, until the captain took out a laser pointer and started the briefing.

"Starfleet has since sent a Ship, the Arrow, to investigate. Command lost communication with it 2 days ago. We have bee ordered to investigate and rescue the vessel, or what's left of it. The Arrow was Excelsior class, so Starfleet seems to feel that we'll have a better chance. We are ordered to rescue the Arrow if possible, and gather any data about the3 region of space that we can. The only information we have on the disruptions are from the probe, which reported abnormal wave patterns that most closely resembled protomatter-But it was not an exact match. Questions?"

The briefing room fell silent for a moment as everyone pondered about the situation, until Wood raised his hand, and asked the first thing that sprang to mind.

"Do we have any indication of how far the Arrow could have gotten into this... anomaly? Any clue on their position?"

<Tag Pudlo>

[Deleted]

Jon listened to the mission with interest. Although there wasn’t much of a medical angle, indeed it seemed that he would be having a quiet mission with little to do, it still sounded like a mission of intrigue. He stayed silent as the maps were brought up, zoomed in on and the pointer slid back and forth across it, pointing out areas of interest, danger and relevance.

When they came to the danger, and the fact that whatever was there no caused to the Arrow to be lost, Williams nodded slightly to himself. He would have to prepare sickbay for the possibility of casualties, set up triage, short stay beds, and change the duty rotas so that in an emergency more people would be fresh. Maybe if he shortened the shifts slightly. He focused back into the briefing as Captain Pudlo asked everyone if they had any questions. Once Wood had asked his question and Pudlo dealt with it, they were dismissed.

After a short conversation with Kuragh, Williams made his way back down to sickbay, where he was greeted by two officer’s who had got into a fight, but were now propping each other up waiting for treatment, and a crewmember seeking fertility treatment. ‘Oh the thrill of the job!’ He thought with a chuckle, and went in search of his magic bone repairer.

[Deleted]

"If I remember the crew bios correctly, I believe you are Commander Merit, right?"

"Indeed I am sir. Please to make your acquiantance." She went a bit red that he remembered her, flattered.

When the briefing finished she went out to he console on the bridge again and sat down, ready to start running more detailed scans on the disruptions that they detected.

[cptjeff]

"Do we have any indication of how far the Arrow could have gotten into this... anomaly? Any clue on their position?"

"Very little. the log buoy they sent out lost most of it's data, but we presume it's dangerous- other then a few personnel files, all we really know is that sickbay was unusually active when they were in there- that should give you something to worry about Doctor- and some minor routine ship files- engineering power rates and such. All files are in the ship's library in case we need them. With that, Let's get going."

Jeff motioned to the bridge and followed his senior staff onto the bridge. He leaned on the captain's Chair.

"Take her out helm, full thrusters."
He sat down.

[Deleted]

"Captain sir if I'm reading this right then I may have found part of the reason for the Arrow being drawn off course. As you said the reading are very sketchy so there is no way of making sure, but it would seem that there could be some sort of lifeform present, microbiotic most likely."

<tag pudlo>

"I agree, we need to be careful when we get there. I'll send the details to Shris to alter the shields."

<tag Shris>

[cptjeff]

"Captain sir if I'm reading this right then I may have found part of the reason for the Arrow being drawn off course. As you said the reading are very sketchy so there is no way of making sure, but it would seem that there could be some sort of lifeform present, microbiotic most likely."

"Perhaps. it could certainly explain a few things, but I'm not sure yet. Compile your data, and get me a report. In the me4antime, we should proceed with caution. If you could find a way to alter the shield to stop their influence- but I don't want any of their normal power sacrificed- I want that to be done."

"I agree, we need to be careful when we get there. I'll send the details to Shris to alter the shields."
--------
Jeff walked back to the ready room. He had furnished it with a small bookshelf stuffed with classical literature and an easy chair. He also had a painting called "The Wave" done by Aivazovsky, an old piece of earth art that one of his ancestors- whose namesake he bore- had acquired when a museum was forced to shut down in one of Earth's old wars. It was stunningly large and took up most all of the wall opposite his desk, at 505 cm wide and 303 high. That made Jeff like it even more. It made him feel as if that painting from 1889 was a backdrop for his life- almost. His ship had stayed afloat...

He was started out of his reprieve by a chime from his computer. Somebody was calling him on subspace. H touched the call confirm button and the screen slid up to reveal the face of a blacked out person.

"This message will only be sent once, captain. I will not tell you who I am or who I work for. But I do give you fair warning. that region of space you are headed for will get you more then you ever bargained for."

The screen went dead.

[Deleted]

Shris was in the middle of making adjustments to the shiled harmonics when the commanding officer walked back out onto the bridge, his face as white as his sheets after they had just come back from laundry. He didn't like to contemplate the colour of them before they went to laundry, and it wasn't relevant as it was not the colour Captain Pudlo was right now.

"Sir are you alright?"

"We have received a warning. A.. well.. someone just told us not to progress any further into the area. He didn't say what would happen if we did, but he made it more than adequately clear that if we did we could expect bad things to happen."

Shris stifled a laugh. "With all respect sir, we can't just be turned back whenever some loony appears on screen telling us to go away."

From the operations console, Joanne piped in with a different tone of reply. "The Arrow disappeared there, how do we know that we won't too?" The horror was easily recognisable in her voice.

"Don't be stupid," Shris hit back immediately. "We are a far better equipped vessel than the Arrow, and can hold our own. Captain, I advise no change to our current heading."

[Deleted]

Shris was in the middle of making adjustments to the shiled harmonics when the commanding officer walked back out onto the bridge, his face as white as his sheets after they had just come back from laundry. He didn't like to contemplate the colour of them before they went to laundry, and it wasn't relevant as it was not the colour Captain Pudlo was right now.

"Sir are you alright?"

"We have received a warning. A.. well.. someone just told us not to progress any further into the area. He didn't say what would happen if we did, but he made it more than adequately clear that if we did we could expect bad things to happen."

Shris stifled a laugh. "With all respect sir, we can't just be turned back whenever some loony appears on screen telling us to go away."

From the operations console, Joanne piped in with a different tone of reply. "The Arrow disappeared there, how do we know that we won't too?" The horror was easily recognisable in her voice.

"Don't be stupid," Shris hit back immediately. "We are a far better equipped vessel than the Arrow, and can hold our own. Captain, I advise no change to our current heading."

"Me? Your been stupid, taking us into somewhere that we have just been warned will be bad for us. Captain, I advise that we stop here and at least request back up from Command, if not recommend that it is a lost cause."

[Deleted]

Me? Your been stupid, taking us into somewhere that we have just been warned will be bad for us. Captain, I advise that we stop here and at least request back up from Command, if not recommend that it is a lost cause."

Suddenly Wood, who had been immersed in status reports and duty rosters, spoke up. "We should obviously inform Starfleet of our progress... With any luck, the... whoever it was that contacted you, Captain, would be led to believe we are paying attention to his warning. However, since we obviously cannot abandon the Arrow, we could proceed to slightly out of range of this phenomenon, where we can safely analyse the transmission..." Wood looked around, suddenly noticing he was the center of attention, launching new ideas like this. As operations officer, he was usually used to executing orders, not making them. Curious as to the response to this outburst of ideas, he looked around..

<Tag all>

[cptjeff]

"Good idea Mr. wood, please send the message." Jeff presed a button on his chair. "As of this point I'm ordering yellow alert. If you have any reservations about this mission, tell me now. A loose bolt, a malfunctioning sensor. If you have any misfgivings at all, I would like to hear them."

<anyone>

"Good. please increase our speed to warp 7.5 then. It's doubtful that we can't avoid them, we just wont give them time to bother us."

[Deleted]

"Good idea Mr. wood, please send the message." Jeff presed a button on his chair. "As of this point I'm ordering yellow alert. If you have any reservations about this mission, tell me now. A loose bolt, a malfunctioning sensor. If you have any misfgivings at all, I would like to hear them."

"While I don't agree with us proceeding, you are the Captain, so I will respect your decision sir."

"Good. please increase our speed to warp 7.5 then. It's doubtful that we can't avoid them, we just wont give them time to bother us."

[cptjeff]

OOC: gonna get this moving again...

"nearing the nebula." A voice came from the helm.

"Very good. Shilds up, and Red alert please Shris. Lieutenat Kuragh, take us into the zone slowly."

<Shris, Kuragh>

all of a sudden, a green energy bolt started their way.
"Evasive!" Jeff ordered quickly, and the ship swung to miss it.

"What was that thing?" jeff said in a low voice. and be ready for more. Proceed Mr Kuragh. shilds on full."

<all>

[Deleted]

"Very good. Shields up, and red alert please Shris. Lieutenant Kuragh, take us into the zone slowly."

The captain barked out his orders. At his tactical console, Zaksh'riszehn ran his hands rapidly across the controls, slapping the red alert button which plunged the room from its full lighting down to the dull red that signified red alert. As was usual for the alert status, the shields automatically reinforced themselves to full defence levels. As it turned out it wasn’t a moment too soon as a slow energy bolt seemed to break the laws of physics as it approached them at sub-light speeds, giving the ship time to evade it.

"What was that thing?" The captain whispered. “And be ready for more. Proceed Mr Kuragh. Shields on full.”

Shris looked up from his console in confusion. “Shields are at full, sir.”

As he spoke another bolt appeared out of the blue. It arced gracefully through space and hit them square on. Braced for impact, Shris was shocked when nothing happened. However, seconds later alarms started sounding and when he looked down at his console he was stunned momentarily.

“Sir, whatever that thing was, it’s draining out shields fast. Its like its locked onto them and leeching all the power out of them.”

[Deleted]

As the second bolt hit, Joanne was thrown from her seat by the resulting explosions and impact. She hit the ground with a thud, and felt her head bleeding. Feeling faint she tapped her commbadge.

=^= Medic to the bridge. =^=

[cptjeff]

the bridge was thrown into chos by the secongd bolt.

“Sir, whatever that thing was, it’s draining out shields fast. Its like its locked onto them and leeching all the power out of them.” Shris reported.

"alright then, shut down all power outputs. internal power only for life support."

several heads turned at that one.
<all>

"yes, cut all power but life support. call it a huch, but I think it might just stop whatever that is."

"and if it does? then we'll be stuck hrere." someone challenged, but Jeff couldn't tell who in the dark.

"Then we use reaction thrusters. not an efficant system, but I've done it before on The Jefferson. We can also launch a shuttle or wo to search or to tow us out."

<any and all>