Mission 17: Beacon Home

[Andae Blakus]

Blakus watched Ensign Warren take his seat at the helm, excusing the junior crewman already there. The XO smiled, he got a feeling that the Raven was in good hands with this new crewmember.

There was a beeping from the tactical console, before Blakus could ask what it was Jamison spoke, "Sir. The pursuing vessels have closed the gap between us. I 've been keeping an eye on them. It seems that about every 30 minutes, they will move in almost 20,000 kilometers and then returned to matching our speed. If they continue, they will catch up to us about 1 and 1/2 hours before we reach the Lycarr system."

"Thank you Commander, keep analysing those ships..." Blakus trailed off. Jamison didn't need to be told what to do. Blakus supposed that it was just his lack of ability to trust others with a job that kept him reminding people about their jobs. He knew that it was a flaw he would have to overcome, and quickly, if he wished to advance his career.

Captain Torek had entered the bridge during the time in which Jamison had made his report. He faced the viewscreen and ordered for a tactical representation of the surrounding space to be brought up on it. Upon sight of the tactical overlay Blakus immediately started thinking. The ships would be upon them soon enough, just as Jamison had predicted. He debated whether or not ninety minutes from Lycarr was a good position to be intercepted by this group of ships. As long as they keep that closing rate...

"What do you think Andae ?"

Blakus glanced briefly at Torek, trying to hide his surprise at the latter's voice, he had not seen the Captain approach him. The XO continued to look forward at the viewscreen for a few seconds and then made up his mind.

"I suggest we maintain course and speed, ninety minutes out of Lycarr should be enough to keep the inhabitants from panicking." Blakus sensed his Captain shift his stance in thought. He turned to look at him, "We can always speed up or down if those ships decide to change tactics," he said, ever so slightly lowering his voice.


<Tag Carl>

[Deleted]

Traks stood looking at himself in the mirror; it had been a long time since he had worn fleet rank or Medical teal’s. Lt. Commander 1sc not that different from Lt Colonel 1sc; but that was ok as Doc was the only reference he needed now. With that Traks headed for Sick Bay.

Entering sick bay he headed for the isolation ward and checked on his ill college. Walking over to the EMH control panel James inserted a new program. “Run EMH mark 4 program.”

A very stern looking woman appeared and turned to face Traks. “What is the nature of the Medical emergency?”

Traks turned to face the holographic Nurse “The patient is the former CMO of this ship and he has contracted an unknown illness. I need you to keep him monitored and above all isolated from the rest of the crew. You may shut yourself off to run processing of medical tests but he is your patient until we can transfer him to a Star Base medical facility. I want a progress report every morning to my in box, and to be notified immediately of any change in his condition. No one may enter this room with out my approval until further notice, understood?”

“Yes Doctor Traks.” The Nurse turned and picked up a tricorder to begin her duties.

[Deleted]

As the captain and Andae left the bridge Daniel looked around and noted that he was now in charge, something he hated. Moving over from his seat Daniel hovered over the centre seat about to take it when he decided against it and began to talk to one of the bridge officers about the tactical display she was looking at. Daniel could not read the screen to well, but she explained the basics and pointed out that unless something changed it was very likely that the ships following them would not catch up before they arrived at their destination. Daniel sat down in the captain’s chair and continued to listen to the young Lieutenant but before he could get comfortable both the captain and Andae arrived onto the bridge. Quickly moving from the centre chair back to his own, Daniel watched as Andae moved down and took the centre seat while Carl went into his ready room.

Daniel turned to the young XO, even though they were only a few years apart Daniel could feel Andae feeling quite clearly. “Commander ...” Leaning in closer to speak quietly “... Andae, do not feel pressured, you are doing a good job, and Carl would not have let you have the bridge if he did not think you could handle yourself” Daniel smiled at Andae before he heard a voice speak from the other side of the bridge "hello Captain, new acting Chief Navigation Officer Lewis Warren reporting for duty". Daniel smiled as h backed up to look at the ensign, he was not to surprised that he had made the error about the XO, he could not have seen his rank from where he was, and the captain was a commander anyway. "Welcome aboard Ensign," he said. "I'm afraid the Captain is in his ready room at the moment, I am the First officer, Commander Blakus." With that the XO stood, and leaned over the tactical station rail to shake the Ensign's hand. Warren came down to the command arena. The XO turned back to the new CNO. "Would you like to take the helm Ensign?" Daniel noted the nervous look on the ensign, Daniel knew how it felt when u first get assigned to a ship, but Daniel could swear he had not seen the ensign’s name on the roster when he checked for new arrivals the over day. As the ensign took his seat on the helm Will spoke that the ships were closing now, and they would catch them long before they arrived. Daniel watched as the captain returned to the bridge and began to look for options, "What do you think Andae ?" Daniel watched as the XO thought, he noted a little surprise in his eyes but he seemed to want to suppress it from the rest of his body “I suggest we maintain course and speed, ninety minutes out of Lycarr should be enough to keep the inhabitants from panicking." Blakus sensed his Captain shift his stance in thought. He turned to look at him, "We can always speed up or down if those ships decide to change tactics," he said, ever so slightly lowering his voice. Daniel could not see any problem in his idea, but he felt they were forgetting that they could try talking to them, but he was sure they would try that as they got closer.

Daniel felt useless again, whenever the ship got into trouble it was always Daniel that would be of no help to the rest of the crew, Medical were always tending the injured, Tactical and security were fighting to protect their ship and crew mates, Science was trying to give them places to hit to bring victory, navigation was always keeping them from being blown up, but what could he do. Daniel always disliked this feeling, he hoped this mission would be simple, or that if something had to go wrong that he would be able to help. Daniel almost felt like leaving the bridge to spare them thinking he was trying to analysing them, but he knew he was meant to be on the bridge for at least another hour before he could leave and he would do his job. Silently watching as the Captain began giving his orders Daniel did not even really listen to the words as he considered his place both on the raven and in Starfleet as a whole.

[Deleted]

"Sir! They've closed another 20,000 kilometers." Jamison called out. The pursuing fleet had now closed within 30 minutes of catching the Raven. "That puts them 30 minutes out. I have shields and weapons on standby awaiting your orders. And all of my people have been placed on alert."

"Shall we try hailing them, sir?" asked the communications officer.

[Carl Torek]

"What do you think Andae ?"

"I suggest we maintain course and speed, ninety minutes out of Lycarr should be enough to keep the inhabitants from panicking."

"I'm inclined to agree." Carl said.

"We can always increase or decrease speed if those ships decide to change tactics." the Exec' continued.

"Shall we try hailing them Sir ?" the Comm Officer asked.

"Hold off on that for now. Let's see what they are up to first." Torek said.

Commander Jamison informed them that the ships had closed another twenty thousand kilometers, that placed them only thirty minutes away. Andae and Carl both weighed up the possibilities, but decided to wait the marauders out for the time being. But that was about to change ...

"Sir. One of those ships have broken formation. It's increased speed and is closing fast."

"On screen." Blakus said.

They could see the ship catching them. it was a configuration neither man had seen before, but they were more concerned with the fact it was coming their way, while the other four seemed to be holding off their approach.

The small ship was going to pass on the Raven's starboard side.

"Raise shields."

The ship passed them at speed, releasing a volley of phaser-fire as it did so. The impact on the Raven's shields was minimal, the shields didn't even register a drop in strength. They watched as the ship continued away from them before making a tight turn, surprising both Torek and Blakus with it's apparent agility. They had another surprise as the ship passed a second time. The first shot must have simply been to test the shields, because the second volley was much more intense. The Raven rocked as the phaser fire impacted with the shields. Ensign Warren was almost thrown from his seat at the Helm ..

"Three percent drop in starboard shields Captain !" Jamison said.

Torek tapped his Comm badge ..

=^= Bridge to Engineering =^=

=^= Engineering .. McLean =^=

=^= Scott .. Keep an eye on our shields .. Looks like our friends have a bigger bite than first thought =^=

=^= On it Captain =^=

"It's making another turn." Marcus said.

"Bring the phasers on-line. Target their drive system. Open fire as she passes." Blakus ordered.

"Mister Warren. Stand by to move us away if necessary." Carl said, watching the ship approach again.

"Fire." Andae ordered ..........

[Deleted]

Daniel did not like how this was going, one ship breaking off from the others like that, either this was some sort of strategy or there was something very wrong. As the ship pasted them Daniel braced himself for the shock that usually came from weapons fire, but when it did not Daniel looked around the bridge to confirm they were actually under attack. Daniel watched the view screen as the enemy ship quickly turned around to attach again, this time the shock happened but Daniel was not prepared for it and almost found himself on the floor, but it had not been because of the impact, but because of the sudden scenes of their emotions that had almost sent Daniel into a nose dive. Daniel was getting use to the whole empathy thing but the strange coming and going feeling was a little distracting. As the captain seemed busy giving orders Daniel turned to Andae to give him the little he was getting “Commander, i am getting feeling from the other ship, only for a moment as they pass but i can tell you they are not angry, or enjoying this, they are desperate for some reason, it is the only thing they are feeling while passing us. I do not think it helps but it may help you to understand the...m...” Daniel struggled to finish his sentence as the ship rocked again.

<Tag Andae/All>

Daniel felt standing would not be a good idea anymore and quickly retreated to his seat before anything more happened, he was sure in a instance like this had he carried a phasser he would have had his hand on it. Daniel was happy to find that there was not one, nor would he want one anytime soon.

[Andae Blakus]

The Raven lashed out with it's ventral saucer-section phaser array. The orange beam impacted the smaller ship's shields and managed to pierce them, a white glow burst from the ship's hull as the phasers cut deep into its engine section.

Blakus felt like shouting out with the immense satisfaction that he suddenly felt, but he restrained himself. He looked through the forward viewscreen at the now partially drifting ship.. a triumphant gleam in his eyes. However, all was not as good as Blakus had thought: from Ops, Lieutenant Marcus reported that their assailant had restored partial power to their damaged drive, but that it was barely operating. With anger and near disbelief, Blakus watched as the smaller vessel clumsily, almost drunkenly turned around, seemingly lining up another pass on the Raven.

Habitually, Blakus thought they were just being stupid, but the reason within his head told him that there had to be rational explanation for the enemy's behaviour. Something told him that this attack would be even stronger than the previous ones, "Brace for impact," he instructed sharply.

“Commander, i am getting feeling from the other ship,"

Blakus looked behind him and saw that it was Biers who had addressed him. The XO had been so caught up with the enemy that he had forgot about the Counsellor. His gaze at Biers told him to elaborate, "Only for a moment as they pass but i can tell you they are not angry, or enjoying this, they are desperate for some reason, it is the only thing they are feeling while passing us. I do not think it helps but it may help you to understand the...m...”

Biers half-collapsed into his seat, holding his head in one of his palms and seemingly struggling with some ailment. Priorities first.. Blakus thought. "Desperate?" he murmured to Torek as he stepped up beside him, "Trying to stop us from reaching somewhere perhaps?" Something else occurred to him, and he was saying it immediately, almost quicker than the words could form in his brain, "And perhaps the reason for their incremental increase in attack strength is because they only want to turn us back, not destroy us.

"I advise we try and make contact Captain." <Tag>

Before Torek could respond though the enemy ship passed them once again, and indeed this time, its attack was stronger than any before. Despite the Raven bracing for impact, Blakus was actually thrown to the floor. He got up quickly, and was sure that one of his teeth had been shaken loose.

"Damn it!" the XO yelled, and swallowed the blood that was now oozing from his gums inside his mouth. Why did he get knocked to the floor like that? That was it, these infidels would pay... He swung around to the Tactical station, "Jamison," he spoke to the CTSO, who was just recovering his stance at the Tactical console. "Target their stern, moderate phasers, let's not destroy them even though we may want to." What Blakus had actually meant by that was: even though he may want to.

"Ensign Warren," he addressed the helm, "Bring us around so we can get a better shot with our primary arrays.."

<Tag Jamison, Warren>

As the two officers enacted on his orders, Blakus went over to Counsellor Biers who still seemed to be in pain, or at least distress. "Are you alright Counsellor?" he asked tentatively.

<Tag Biers>

[Deleted]

"Damn it! Jamison, Target their stern, moderate phasers, let's not destroy them even though we may want to."

Will sat about getting the phasers ready.

"Ensign Warren, Bring us around so we can get a better shot with our primary arrays.."

As soon as he had the lock, he fired. To his utter disbelief, the phasers pierced the other vessels shields and struck the ship. A split second later, the entire ship exploded.

The XO spun with the quickness of a cat.

"I said moderate phasers. What the hell are you doing, Commander?" he yelled at Jamison

"Sir! Those were moderate phasers. And I hit exactly where you told me to target. It shouldn't have exploded like that." Will responded.

"Double check your settings, Commander." was the XOs response.

"Aye, sir."

As Will verified that he did not set the phasers incorrectly, he got a warning signal from his console.

"Two more of the vessels are breaking off and heading our way, Sir."

[Scott McLean]

“Scott keep an eye on our shields.”

“Roger that Captain.” McLean replied.

The Chief Engineer had been down in Main Engineering all but five minutes when the first shots were fired, and upon arrival he had been briefed about the tail they had, but this one was different than any of the others, this time they established a hostile stance.

“Interesting.” McLean said to himself.

“What is it Chief?” An engineer asked as he peered over from his console.

“Our sensors have detected a repulse from their last shot.”

“What do you mean by repulse?”

“I mean they are testing our shields, possibly for strength, but more than likely they are probing for our frequency.” McLean tapped his COM badge quickly, “McLean to Captain Torek.”

“Go ahead Scott.”

“I’ve got some interesting information for Tactical, I’m sending it your way now.” McLean said as he worked at his console to send the information to Tactical station.

“Anything we should be worried about?”

“Possibly,” McLean answer was unintentionally cryptic so he clarified, “I would suggest the initiation of our Borg shield modulation. It appears their weapons have the ability to probe and possibly read our shield frequencies.”

[Carl Torek]

"I advise we try and make contact Captain."

Before Torek could respond though the enemy ship passed them once again, and indeed this time, its attack was stronger than any before.

Carl was as shocked as everyone else on the Bridge when the small ship disintegrated before their eyes. But they didn't have time to dwell on the incident, as Jamison informed them that two more ships were heading toward them.

=^= McLean to Captain =^=

Leaving the Exec' to handle the incoming threat, Torek answered his Chief Engineer.

=^= What is it Chief ? =^=

Carl listened to his Engineer then spoke ..

"Bring the Borg shield modulation protocol on-line."

"Aye Sir."

"Target both incoming vessels. We can't risk being damaged beyond our capability to continue to Lycarr seven."

"Sir ... There seems to be some sort of 'rift' opening up ahead." Will said.

"Rift ?" Carl said, as Andae gave the order to open fire.

The lead ship didn't even respond to the firing, it simply dove straight at the Raven. The impact on the shields must have been immeasurable, but the ship skimmed away, allowing the second ship to fire through the damaged area in the seconds before one hundred percent shields were restored. The beam pierced six decks of the saucer section before the modulation adapted itself.

"The other two ships are now heading toward us Captain." Jamison said, glancing from the Exec' to the Captain as if awaiting orders.

The massive Galaxy Class ship suddenly veered to port, with such ferocity that the inertial dampers only just managed to cope.

"What the hell ! ....." Torek began.

"Sorry Sir, but that rift is growing exponentially. I needed to get us from the event horizon or we could have been dragged in ourselves." Ensign Warren said.

=^= Bridge ... Whatever impacted with our shields .. They won't withstand more than two or three more of the same =^= McLean warned before closing the Comm quickly.

"Second ship on a Kamikaze run Captain !" Jake Marcus said.

"We need to turn toward the anomaly if we want to avoid a collision." Carl said.

"Helm .. Do it !" Andae said, watching the screen closely.

The Raven again stood on her starboard side as she began a turn that no ship her size should be able to even consider. But the enemy ship smashed into the underside of the Raven, almost destroying herself in the process, but causing enough drain on the shields to allow a second shot to pierce the hull. But that was going to prove the least of their problems, as the Raven suddenly seemed to be caught in an iron grip !

The enemy ships seemed to be thrown at the minuscule rip in the fabric of space, but the Raven was much bigger, and wasn't as easily controlled ..

Carl yelled through the deafening noise of the ships' superstructure straining.

"Maximum WARP ... Get us out of here !"

But even Scott couldn't coax enough power to defy what had them. They were falling into the unknown, and no-one knew if there was going to be anywhere, or anything, to fall too ..........

[Scott McLean]

“More power to the internal dampeners!” McLean yelled as he was feeling the strain from the gravity from the anomaly pull against the sliding Galaxy Class starship.

It was standard procedure for all Starfleet personnel to go through intense positive and negative G training, but that normally was a undergraduate course at the Academy, and for most of the Engineers as with the rest of the crew it had been years since they had to practice their anti-G maneuvers.

The blood raced from McLean head as he felt his body being pulled one way while the Raven tried to maneuver the other, “More power! We need more power!” Somebody screamed from the back of Engineering.

“Maximum WARP…get us out of here!” McLean heard Torek shout over the COM.

McLean’s sweaty hands couldn’t hold on much longer but he eyed the power settings, warp field, and velocity of the Raven. In those few brief seconds he was astonished to find that the Raven was apparently traveling at warp 9.9, engine output was over 130% power, far beyond the safety limits for these engines, and yet the Raven was still being pulled into the rift.

With the last few seconds before McLean’s grip was about to give way he say something he thought he would never see on a starship, weightless objects. The Raven was traveling so fast and pull of the rift was so strong that natural forces had overridden the artificial gravity that normally kept all personnel firmly locked to the deck. In those few brief moments of weightlessness McLean had slipped and let go of his console, his body suspended in mid air. Then before he could make an adjustment or grab back a hold of his console he felt the pull of gravity behind him and without warning him body fell across main engineering like a ball falling off a table.

As McLean felt his body pressed up against the bulkhead he could only imagine the Raven falling through the sudden rift in space. He found himself praying for the first time in his life, If there is a God...please make this quick.

[Carl Torek]

"Maximum WARP ... Get us out of here !"

It was almost the last coherent thought Carl had as he was flung from the Command area and smashed against the view-screen. he could see Bridge crew being thrown like so many rag dolls as the ship accelerated beyond her design limits ..

Hitting the screen almost caused him to loose consciousness, but the saving grace was the fact he missed the deck. He found himself weightless as the ship plummeted toward the rift.

He was facing the screen as the first of the rebel vessels disappeared into the blacker than black rip in the fabric of space. The last readings showed the rift being less than twenty meters wide, some one hundred and eighty meters narrower than the Raven.

Suddenly, the artificial gravity got the upper hand .. Carl's mind had just enough time to realize the ship was about to disintegrate, killing all on board, before he slammed into the Ops console and thankfully lost consciousness ..

~~~~~~~~~~

"Captain .........."

"Captain ......"

"Captain Torek ....." ..... Carl suddenly realized that someone was speaking to him. He tried to sit up, but had no feeling in his limbs. In fact, it was slowly dawning on him that he couldn't feel anything ..

"Wha ..... What's happened .... Where's the Exec' ...."

"Lie still Captain. Doctor Traks is on his way from Sick-bay."

"Tra ....."

"Yes Sir." Ensign Warren said, trying to keep the Captain still, "It may be nothing Captain, but you took the full force of the Ops console against your spine. I'm no medic, but you need help."

Carl tried to look round the Bridge of his ship. He had less than a panoramic view, which was just as well, because what he could see was injured crew, and when his eye's focused on the turbo-lift doors, knew instantly that the young woman who was leaning against them was dead ...

He could hear Andae, that was a good sign. Torek knew he was hurt, but hoped the Doctor would do something to get him on his feet. Or at the very least, get him in his seat and stable. But that thought too vanished, along with his tentative grasp on consciousness he was grasping too.

Carl slipped into a deep sleep ..........

[Deleted]

As soon as Will started the program, it seem as if all hell broke loose.

"Sir ... There seems to be some sort of 'rift' opening up ahead." Will said.

Next thing he knew all of his sensors were sounding off.


"The other two ships are now heading toward us Captain." Jamison said.

Suddenly, the ship veered off course and Will was thrown to the side. As he began climbing to his feet, he could her the others.

"Sorry Sir, but that rift is growing exponentially. I needed to get us from the event horizon or we could have been dragged in ourselves." Ensign Warren said.

=^= Bridge ... Whatever impacted with our shields .. They won't withstand more than two or three more of the same =^= McLean warned before closing the Comm quickly.

"Second ship on a Kamikaze run Captain !" Jake Marcus said.

"We need to turn toward the anomaly if we want to avoid a collision." Carl said.

"Helm .. Do it !" the XO said.

A split second later, Will watch in disbelief as the CO was rocket toward the viewscreen and he was trying to get a grip on his console so as not to float away.

"Capt....." Will began to shout but the gravity came back on almost as quick as it had left and he was dropping rabidly to the deck.

Every bone in his body ached and he wondered if he had broken anything. He did a quick mental check and was satisfied that he was okay. If not, the doctor could fix him up later. As he made his way to his feet once again, he noticed Ensign Warren was attending to teh captain. Will was almost tempted to look for the XO but he instead started checking his sensors. No matter who eneded up in charge for the time being, they were gonna want to know where the hell they were and what was around them. While doing his scans, Will couldn't help but to remember their last mission. "What is it with this ship and rifts?" he thought to himself. "Didn't we just get back out of one of those damn things?"

[Andae Blakus]

For a few seconds, six decks of the Raven were alight with fire from the raiders' ship. What remained when the ship finally adapted itself with the borg modulation were glowing embers, they highlighted the remains of the twisted, spindly superstructure that made up part of those six decks.

The atmosphere on the bridge was tense, and it was eerily quiet. Andae was speechless, stunned into silence by what had just occurred. Beneath his feet, he felt as if the ship was starting to shake itself apart. "Uhh.." he began to say.

"The other two ships are now heading toward us Captain," Jamison said, leaning on the tactical console and looking up at Torek and then Blakus, and back again. Neither CO nor XO said anything for the next few seconds, and they didn't get a chance to anyway as the Raven suddenly lurched hard to port. The action nearly made Blakus lose his footing, again. Ensign Warren explained himself, and what he had said was made perfectly clear when Blakus looked at the viewscreen. At first everything looked normal, but then as Blakus kept watching, the stars started to simply disappear, blotted out as if they had never existed. The rift was utterly black, just a hole in space, Blakus realised. The only way to see it was not to look at it, and instead to look at how everything else vanished.

In the background, Blakus could hear the bridge crew start to talk more and more frantically. Before he could ask what was happening another of the small ships impacted on the Raven's shields, this time on the underside. Despite the immensity of the vessel, Blakus and the rest of the bridge crew felt the thump of the impact as it drove itself through the spine of the ship, making them all jump a centimetre or two. They are madmen... Blakus decided. "Damage report!" The XO found himself yelling the words because the ship was too busy making noise of its own. "What's going on?" he asked. It may as well have been a rhetorical question, because not many knew the answer.

The XO let himself be thrown into his seat by the shuddering of the ship and he checked the status of the Raven on the seat's side-panel. His eye's widened, the ship was being pulled into the rift... Blakus heard Torek shout something, but he was preoccupied with trying to prevent his bones from shattering, at least that's what he felt was going to happen if he kept bracing himself against the chair...

In the end, it turned out to be the right thing to do.

The shock of acceleration, an instant, just a snap of speed. The USS Raven had reached the event horizon of the rift, as Ensign Warren had aptly named the boundary for it, and the Galaxy class vessel compressed and then leapt forward in an instant, propelled forwards like a spring released from tension. Being a former Chief Engineer Blakus knew that the ship was not designed for this, the absence of any kind of warp bubble made predicting what would happen in this situation too scary to even contemplate. The energies involved were astronomical... he smiled through gritted teeth at the irony of his thought, and braced himself against the chair even harder. For a moment Blakus begged for some sort of grace, but at the same time found himself fascinated by what was occurring. Whether or not they survived, the crew of the Raven had treaded new ground in practical warp theory; whether in life or death, they were pioneers.

Blakus was sure his entire skeleton resonated with the shaking of the ship, and before long, the pain of it made him lose consciousness. The last thing he saw was Captain Torek suspended in mid-air...

* * * *

The XO awoke twenty seconds later and after figuring out where he was and what had happened, felt for the expected sound of the ship tearing itself apart. But there was nothing, absolutely no sensation; and apart from an aching back, the XO himself was fine.
Climbing out of his chair (that had been partially ripped out of its fitting) Blakus took a slow look around the bridge. About half of the personnel were on the floor, some of them being tended to, some of them slowly starting to move and regain their feet; the rest were motionless.

Captain Torek was sprawled out on the floor by the helm and the Ops console. The XO went over to the Captain and seeing that he was unconscious, tapped his own commbadge: =/\=Sickbay, XO. Commander Traks to the bridge, Captain Torek is unconscious=/\= Blakus tried to wake his CO, =/\= and unresponsive=/\= he added.

<Tag Traks>

Reassured that the CMO was on his way Blakus looked for the next senior staff member on the bridge, his eyes found Jamison and Marcus. "Commander, Lieutenant, start scanning this region. We need to find out about this place, wherever the hell we are... and I need a status report, what systems do we have?" Blakus hoped for warp power but inexplicably, when he looked out of the battered viewscreen to the darkness beyond, something told him it would make no difference.

Then on the viewscreen, something flickered. Blakus watched intently as it came into view from the left of the screen. It was a patch of light, permeating through the black all around it, and slowly beginning to meander back and forth across the screen. It was getting closer to the Raven. "What is that?" Blakus asked quietly.

<Tag Jamison, Marcus... & All>

[Deleted]

"Commander, Lieutenant, start scanning this region. We need to find out about this place, wherever the hell we are... and I need a status report, what systems do we have?"

"Sir. All my systems are reading as operative but..."

"But what Mr Jamison?" asked the XO

"But they're not reading anything, sir. Absolutely nothing. According to these readings we are nowhere." said Will as he watched the XO turn to face the view screen. Will looked up and saw a streak of light running across the view screen and appearing to get closer to the ship.

"They're not even reading that, sir." he added

[Carl Torek]

The carriage rose slowly ... The clicking and clanking of the rickety wooden frame adding to the anticipation .. Beside him, Vanessa was clutching his arm with such force that he was certain she would draw blood.

All they could see was sky now, as the carriage crested the peak. It slowly began to rotate through almost two hundred degrees before accelerating. The speed of the downward fall was great enough that both he and Vanessa were weightless for almost a full minute, before they were pushed deep into their seats when the carriage began to level off.

They had barely managed to get a full breath of air into their lungs, when they were sent in a mad corkscrew at almost one hundred and fifty miles per hour. It it hadn't been for the ergonomically designed seats, they would have been crushed to death in seconds. But the seats did their job excellently, giving them a ride they would never forget ..

Carl's eyes flicked rapidly from side to side as he dreamed. Traks, seeing this, knew it was a good sign, but he was still worried that he couldn't bring the Captain back to consciousness.

Frowning he picked out a hypo-spray and carefully adjusted the settings. Placing it against Carl's neck he injected the medication.

The screaming was almost deafening now, as the train on carriages plummeted yet again. This time, into a seemingly bottomless pit of darkness. Carl frowned suddenly, as if, distracted by something .. 'Something is not right' he thought, but he had no time to dwell on the feeling as both he and Vanessa were caught in the negative 'G' caused by them being flung, upside down, round the outside of yet another massive loop ..........

< tag : Doctor / All >

[Scott McLean]

This can’t keep happening, McLean thought as his body was pressed against one of the many nondescript walls in Main Engineering. His thoughts turned to his daughter, Vanessa, and how scared she must be at this moment and then inexplicably he began to laugh. Not a comical laugh, but one that comes with internal growth, as if he suddenly found his old feelings on the subject of death comical.

As McLean found himself pinned to the wall, with more weight pressing against him with each passing second, his thoughts turned selfless and he began to bargain with God or whoever controls the universe to take him but let his daughter live. He knew Carl would make a good father, and the more his brain thought about what appeared to be the inevitable he was more at peace with his plan.

Then it happened. Mid thought McLean felt the blood full drain from his head as he blacked out.

“Check that one!”

“Over here!”

“Help me!”

“I’m okay.”

“Check Scott!”

McLean heard familiar voices calling out in the darkness. He wasn’t quite near consciousness yet, but he could feel that something was wrong, very wrong.

“Chief. Chief can you hear me?” Whose voice is that? McLean thought. It familiar but it wasn’t registering in his mind, “He’s not breathing.” The voice called out.

“I’m not getting a pulse.” Another voice called out, this one a female one.

“Make a hole, medic coming through!”

“Here.”

“Thanks,” The sounds of a tricorder filled McLean’s ever fading hearing, “His heart has stopped. We don’t have much time. Charging…clear!”

Electricity surged through McLean’s body, causing his body to jump. Beeps on the monitor indicated that the Raven’s Chief Engineer had come back from the dead.

“Daddy?”

Vanessa?

“Hey Chief, how about you back away from the light.” The sarcastic tones couldn’t be missed even in McLean’s condition.

McLean let out a grumble before the coughing began. The engineers around him took it as a good sign, “Hey Roberts I really hate it when you cut into my nap time.” McLean joked with a weak sounding voice.

“Good to have you back Chief, you gave us a little scare.”

“It’s good to be back.”

The medic continued to examine the Chief Engineer and as McLean tried to rise to his feet the medic put him back down onto the ground, “Not yet.” The medic was bold and to the point.

“How long was I out?”

“Long enough.” Roberts replied with a smile. Behind him he could see the smile and accompanied tears of a familiar face.

“Hey pumpkin. Got a hug for daddy?”

Vanessa shook her head yes which caused the tears to race down her cheeks. Two of the other engineers helped McLean so he could sit up against the wall. Once he was propped up Vanessa raced in and wrapped her arms around her father.

“They told me…”

”I know.” McLean broke in.

“I ran down here as fast as I could and…”

“I know baby, but I’m okay. All right? All right.”

”I know you are.”

“Good,” McLean embraced her with more strength but he did turn to the medic, “So what’s word ‘Doc’.”

“Everything checks out. You might be sore for a few days but if you swing by Sickbay we can take care of that, but be sure to try and take it easy.”

“I’ll do my best ‘Doc’.”

The crowd had long since fanned out since McLean had come back around. It seemed to the engineer that he had been the most interesting medical case since the Raven’s ‘fall from grace’.

“What’s our situation?” McLean asked as he was helped to his feet.

“Not sure yet. We haven’t heard anything from the bridge. I was just about to send a runner.”

“I’ll go.” McLean cut in.

[Andae Blakus]

Frustrated, Andae moved around to look at the Tactical console with Commander Jamison. When he looked at the data or lack there of, on the CTSO's screen, he slammed the palm of his hand into the wooden rail. How could they not be reading anything?

The XO personally looked at all of the science stations, the Mission Ops and the Operations stations, unwilling to trust the completely trustworthy people manning them. Nothing again. Where was the USS Raven? Blakus turned his attention back to the viewscreen, where the dash of light was continuing to grow larger and larger on the utterly black background. Blakus ordered for a full sensor sweep of the... 'light thing', as well as a long range sensor scan in order to try and pick something up.. to pickanything up.

Blakus looked towards one of the turbolifts, the very one that Captain Torek and Doctor Traks had boarded when the Raven's CO had been taken to sickbay. Blakus sighed and sat in the centre chair. Sitting back, he rested one elbow on the chair-arm and rubbed the stubble growing on his chin. Blakus was feeling in an odd mood; restless, bothered and tired would be the best words to describe it.

Almost as soon as Blakus had turned away from the turbolift, it had opened and Commander McLean had stepped off. Blakus had to look at him twice, just to confirm for himself that it was indeed the Raven's Chief Engineer. The XO had not got to know the faces of the senior staff as well as he should have, he'd spent more time viewing their personnel files than he had their pretty portraits. "Welcome to the bridge, Commander." Blakus said. His words were not entirely clear, a mixture of annoyance and tiredness affected their understandability. He did not look around either, his eyes transfixed by the near-hypnotic light source hovering gracefully on the viewscreen.

McLean walked down to the Command arena, and asked for a report of what was going on. Blakus sat up a little, "The Captain is in sickbay, Commander," he said and then felt that he had to stand. "The ship is fine, in spite of the extreme torsional stresses her structure has just undergone. All major systems functioning as far as we are aware, with a few problems here and there from the crossover to.. wherever we are now. It seems we're not able to read anything in this region."

In direct contradiction to what Blakus had just told McLean, a piercing beep-sound started from the tactical console. "What's that?" Blakus asked Jamison as he twirled around to face him. Jamison checked his console and then looked up at Blakus.

"Two of the remaining enemy ships," he replied.

As the CTSO reported, two of the raiders' ships (that Blakus had nearly forgotten about), were on an intercept course for the Raven. Surprisingly, they were over twenty minutes away.

The question of how they had been scattered that far would have to wait however, because at that point the torn pinprick of light that had inexorably been drawing closer to the Raven made contact on the ship's forward hull. At least, that's what it felt like to the crew. For the light-source had all of a sudden appeared to leap at the Raven, as if being rapidly tractored towards it down some child's slide of warped space. Every light on the bridge died at that point, and not even the emergency lighting came on. For over ten seconds the Raven had no power feeding into any of its systems and when the bridge was illuminated once again, Blakus was wishing he could have a glimpse of outside of the ship. "Report," he said, it was more of a desperate plea to the crew that he was not in fact insane, more than anything else.

It turned out that in the instant that the ship had lost power, the sensors had begun to register stellar objects, but they had faded from that point and had disappeared completely by the time power had reestablished itself. The raider ships were still closing in. Feeling awash in a world of madness and very confused, Blakus turned to McLean, "Commander, how is Engineering?" he asked him, trying to find a firm footing in reality again.

<Tag McLean & all - OOC: be imaginative people - 'twill make this fun!>

[Deleted]

As the two enemy vessels approached, they split so as to go down each side of the Raven.

"Both vessels are preparing to fire sir." Will called out. "I've input orders to raise shields but with the system acting like it is, I don't know."

A second later the port side of the Raven was struck in the shields by ineffective phaser fire.

"Shields seem to be holding." Will said with a sigh of relief. But it was too soon. Just than the starboard side vessel fired and it struck the Raven.

"What the hell?" Will asked confused. The systems read full shields but it seemed as if only HALF the shields were raised.

"Sir. It would seem that only our port side shields are working." he informed the XO. "And with there being two vessels, if they keep splitting that way, there isn't much chance of keeping our shielded side toward them. Unless we remove one." he added.

[Deleted]

A brief moment later, Jamison mentally slapped himself in the back of the head.

"Damn." he said as he ran his fingers over his console.

"Commander?" the XO asked quizzically.

"The Borg shield modulation." Will stated as he looked up. "We were bringing it online just before we went through the fissure."

"Okay?"

"So what if the shields are working fine, sir. And the ship that got through the shields was one of the original vessels that attacked us trying to figure out our shield frequency like Commander McLean said? If that's the case, he's sending those numbers to his buddy as we speak. Sir." Will added at the last minute.

[Deleted]

For the first time in a long while Traks had only minor planing to do before a battle. Getting a sick bay ready for receiving wounded in a combat situation was a 90% automatic operation the other 10% being the prep of the staff. The past CMO had prepared them fairly well.

"OK people it looks like we may be getting wounded soon. They could be our friends or others if you feel you are too attached to someone and need to switch let me know. We also could be called on to treat the enemy or the people attacking us. I expect you to do your best and we will get through all that the universe can throw at us. Ok now that I've gotten that out of the way, and for the record I will not give that speech again. If you have any questions I will be in the CMO's office trying to catch up on paper work."

Traks walked into the office and sat down wondering why they still called it paper work when everything was on the computer or on pads. Reaching below the desk Traks removed the phaser one and put it in the small of his back next to his survival knife. As his old Co Admiral Arok had always said even Doctors need to be prepared to fight to save their patients.

Traks sat in his office watching the tactical situation on his screen; the first impact of the attacking ship did not even make a ripple in the glass of water on Traks desk, but the second almost dumped it all. Picking up the glass and draining it Traks walked into sick bay.


" Ok people; everyone to support stations; triage teams get ready to receive wounded." Traks turned to monitor any requests for medical assistance.


*The ship lurched up and to the side. The gravity flickered off and on; but Traks was sitting at his desk and only traveled as far as the bottom of the desk before baeing pushed back into his chair.*

"Bridge to sick bay we have wounded here the Captain is unconscious."

Traks: "Traks here on my way." *Grabbing his med kit.* " Alpha team to the bridge; Computer emergency transport to bridge Traks 1 zed alpha."

*Traks appeared at the back of the bridge and made his way to the Captains side. As Traks scanned the Captain and applied a neurogenic stimulator, Torek began to stir.*

Traks: "Sir lie still you have a concussion."* Traks looked up to see the Alpha team enter with a gurney.*" Get the Co to sick bay he has a concussion and I would rather not transport him."

*The alpha team loaded the Co onto the gurney and headed for sick bay with Traks in tow all way keeping one eye on the tricorder readout. As they entered sick bay Torek's vital signs evened out and Traks replaced the stimulator with a Cortical monitor.*

Traks:" Keep an eye on the Co." *Traks moved into his office to contact the bridge.* "Traks to the Xo; it looks as if you are in command for a little while;<tag xo>; that is up to the Co; There is no medical reason why he shouldn't be awake now. I have repaired the concussion and treated his other wounds; from the looks of his EEG I would say he is having one dousie of a dream or nightmare and his brain refuses to let him out of it until it deals with what ever is bothering him. Right now the best thing for him is to let him come around on his own."

<tag all>

[Scott McLean]

"Commander, how is Engineering?"

“Engineering is fine.” McLean replied. His tone didn’t convey the confidence he had hoped for. In reality Main Engineer was fine, but the Chief Engineer was anything but.

This, he asserted to himself, was the reason why children and non Starfleet personnel were not allowed on the Intrepid Class version of the Raven. His mind had raced and thought nothing of his duty, but of the safety of one individual.

Just beyond McLean the Raven’s Tactical officer perked up. He and the new Executive officer spoke quickly before the Raven took another phaser blast. It began quickly apparent that the shield modulations were not working as McLean had hoped. He wasn’t sure just yet if it was the technology of the attackers or from the rift, but if McLean was a betting man he would have went all in on the rift being the main reason for the problem.

“Modulate the shields manually.” McLean piped in as he watched the enemy craft coming in for another attack run.

<Tag Jamison>

[Carl Torek]

They had been up almost an hour, and he'd let her good-heartedly bully him into going down to the beach.

She had a school project to complete and he had promised to help her collect the shells she needed for the collage. It was still only zero eight hundred hours, but already the beach was beginning to get visitors.

"What about these Carl ?" Vanessa said, holding up several brightly colored item's for him to inspect.

"They're nice." Carl said, his mind wondering to Vanessa's father, still missing since the explosion ... He frowned suddenly ... 'What explosion' he thought to himself, Scott was on a conference, he'd not been involved in any kind of explosion, so why would Torek have thought he had ..

"This ones nice .... Carl ...."

"Sorry sweetheart." Carl said, snapping back to the beach, "That could be the centerpiece of your display I think."

Vanessa grinned then, placing the shell carefully in her bag, ran ahead to look for more. Torek followed, enjoying the sand as it eased between his toes, and pleased that the sun was already beginning to exert her heat on the sand.

"Who's that man Carl ?"

Carl looked in the direction she was pointing, and noticed a man in Star fleet medical blue approaching. Without speaking he placed a hypo-spray against Carl's neck and injected something .. The beach began to fade from his vision, but then began to reassert itself. The man, seemingly satisfied, was suddenly nowhere to be seen. Shrugging the two continued their walk along Bondi beach ...

"How's the Captain doing ?" Traks asked the younger Doctor.

"There's no sign of the concussion now. I just administered a light sedative to allow more recovery time. We can of course bring him round when necessary."

Traks passed a medical tricorder over Torek then nodded.

"Let's let him rest. He'll wake up of his own accord within a few hours. Just keep an eye on him.

Handing the tricorder to the Doctor, Traks went to his office.

As they walked, they noticed Scott, he was holding three large tumblers of drinks. But that wasn't what stood out ..

"Daddy ... Where did you get those shorts ?" Vanessa asked between fits of laughter.

Scott feigned sadness as he looked down at the most brightly colored pair of shorts Carl had ever seen ..........

[Andae Blakus]

The Raven rocked again with weapons fire from the enemy vessels. Blakus didn't know how much more of this continuous punishment she could take. On the bridge, he was in discussion with the tactical officer.

"So what if the shields are working fine, sir. And the ship that got throught the shields was one of the original vessels that attacked us trying to figure out our shield frequency like Commander McLean said? If that's the case, he's sending those numbers to his buddy as we speak. Sir."

"Good theory Commander and thank you." Blakus added the thank you in response to Jamison's adding of the 'Sir' part. He was not going to let any of the crew forget that one. "Either way we've got to take these things out... Actually Commander, try hailing them, we did not get a chance to prior to being pulled into this damned rift.."

<Tag Jamison>

There was no initial response to their hails, Blakus told Jamison to keep trying. His more immediate concern was the shields. McLean suggested to the tactical officer that he should try modulating them manually, to keep out the weapons of the raiders' vessels. The aforementioned came around for another pass. Blakus watched their approach on the viewscreen. He had all but had it with these infernal ships, snapping at the Raven like piranhas engulfing a whale.

Once again, they passed down the sides of the Raven and took a few shots. For an instant, they both broke through the shields of the Raven. It had been as Jamison had predicted, one had informed the other of the shield frequencies. The tactical officer worked quickly though, and continually modulated the shields per Commander McLean's advice. Hard work, no doubt, but the CTSO looked up to it, Blakus thought. The ships scythed past the Raven, finishing their ineffective attacks and speeding off into the deep, starless night.

"Good work, Mister Jamison." Blakus grunted in congratulations, it was unusual for him to hand out praise but he supposed it was due. "Now, if we cannot communicate with these damn things, let us destroy them." <Tag after hailing - OOC: I leave it up to you whether hailing works or not Will>

=/\= Traks to the Xo; it looks as if you are in command for a little while; =/\=

The sudden communicae, never mind its contents, took Blakus offguard. Command.. an intimidating word. Blakus would have to adapt soon. This would be test, was he up for this job..? He was sure he was, he could command an entire department.. what was an entire ship? Perhaps he was out of his comfort zone on the bridge, he was used to engineering, but that was the only difference.

=/\=Copy that Commander Traks, how is the Captain? When do you expect him to be fit for duty?=/\=

=/\= that is up to the Co; There is no medical reason why he shouldn't be awake now... Right now the best thing for him is to let him come around on his own. =/\=

Blakus sighed. It was only just hearable on the bridge, but imperceptible through the comm system.
=/\=Copy that.=/\=

Blakus looked around at the faces of those on the bridge, suddenly they were all looking at him. "You have your orders people," he said, slightly on his quiet, aggravated side. He made his way back to the centre of the command arena and turned around to face the viewscreen again. One who did not have orders was the helmsman, for the lack of stellar objects or any sort of matter at all made navigation difficult. Even with engines on full power, with no point of reference, were they really moving at all?

"Helm," Blakus said, "Try moving us forward, quarter impulse. Let us see what happens before those ships come 'round again. Mister Jamison, prepare to fire again if necessary."

<Tag Warren / Jamison>

[Deleted]

"Good theory Commander and thank you. Either way we've got to take these things out... Actually Commander, try hailing them, we did not get a chance to prior to being pulled into this damned rift."

Jamison tried all hailing frequencies but got responses from either vessel. Instead, he saw that the 2 renegade ships were coming around for another pass. He quickly began modulating the shields manually in an attempt to keep the phaser fire from reaching the Raven. It took several seconds, in which the Raven took several more shots, to get the shields to cycle correctly.

"Good work, Mister Jamison. Now, if we cannot communicate with these damn things, let us destroy them."

Will returned to his hailing attempts as the XO called to check on the status of Captain Torek. He also began doing scans of the enemy vessels. There was a part of him that wanted to know why the last one exploded with such a nonlethal shot. He did have the satisfaction of knowing that if he had to destroy them, it would not be a problem. During his scans, a thought occurred to him.

"Helm, try moving us forward, quarter impulse. Let us see what happens before those ships come 'round again. Mister Jamison, prepare to fire again if necessary."

"Aye, sir." came both responses. However, Jamison added, "Sir. If you're looking for another option besides out right destroying them, I believe we can penetrate their shields with our tractor beam and possibly transport the pilots to our brig. It may help us get some answers as to why they attacked us in the first place."