Mission 17: Beacon Home

[Deleted]

The Raven cruised at warp 9 for a while before the silence was finally broken by the XO.

"You have the bridge Will. Call me at the first sign of any trouble."

"Aye, sir." Will said as he looked around the bridge. He had had the training for bridge command and had actually done it a few times before but he had always preferred to stay at his station. Nodding to his replacement, he made his way down the bridge ramp and slowly lowered himself into the center seat.

Not too bad. he thought. It's not like there's something going on where I am needed at Tactical.

He began to relax a little and get comfortable.

Will cast a glace over at the COs ready room. He began wondering what was going on in there. What had happened to the captain to make him so down? Thinking back, Will remembered that it all began as soon as they came out of their last "Rift jump". What had been different about that one?

Before Will could give it any more thought, the XO returned to the bridge.

"Nothing amiss, Commander?"

"No, sir." Jamison said as he shook his head and moved to stand from the command chair.

"No need to get up Will, I shall turn the bridge over to you while the Captain is still in his ready room, and shall retire to my quarters for now."

"Aye, sir." Jamison nodded and flickered a smile as he lowered himself back into the Center Chair. "Good night, Commander." he added.

With nothing but time on his hands now, Will thought back to the last "jump". Thought about how he felt and what he had seen. It had all seemed so real. But he knew it couldn't have been. He had never been on a mission where he had lost an entire squad of security men. His men. But it had to have been, what? A dream? An hallucination. Caused by what? The "jump". He didn't recall having one during the other jumps. And was he the only one to have them? He glance once again at the door to the ready room. Could that be what had affected the captain. Did he too have a "vision" of something gone terribly wrong?

Will rose from his seat and walked up behind the helm officer. Placing one hand on the console and the other on the back of the ensigns chair, he ever so slightly bent down and whispered, "Mr. Warren? During our last rift jump, did you...see or ....hear anything?"

The young man turned to look at Will and try as he may to keep a brave face as he asked, "Sir?", Will could see it in his eyes that he too had seen something that had bothered him.

"Never mind, Ensign." Will replied as he straightened and began walking around the bridge. As he past the other bridge crew members, all of their eyes gave it away. It made Will think of an old Earth saying his mother use to tell him. "The eyes are the windows to the soul." If that was the case, Will could "see" a lot of pain in these souls.

And add to that, 2 months travel time to return home. Man are we gonna have some troubled souls on this ship. And our counselor couldn't have picked a better time to go bonkers on us. Some of these kids are gonna need help. he thought as he finally returned to his seat.

[Carl Torek]

The Raven and her crew were now six weeks into their perilous journey to the Dua Ceti system. It had been six weeks of hell for most of the people on board.

Torek had endured several more 'visions' but non as bad as the first, and for that he was thankful. But others too had suffered. From almost trifling things like one crewman finding her feet encased in syrup, preventing her from walking, she had to be carried to her work station, to one of the crew seeing Venorian scorpions, the two foot long jet black arachnid was deadly with one puncture from it's telson would kill instantly. The crewman had taken a phaser and begun running through the corridors shooting every 'scorpion' he could see. He was finally restrained by one of the Vulcan crew employing the nerve pinch.

By far, the most serious, and disturbing event was Lieutenant Dawson. He, along with his wife and twin daughters, managed to access the transporter system. He calmly walked his family onto the pads, along with several bags, and beamed them all into open space. A note, later found in Dawson's' quarters, instructed his sister to feed the cats while they were on holiday...

Carl had everyone and anyone looking into their situation .. One theory was it was the region of space they were passing through. Another was environmental problems. But the one theory that stood out, was that this was being done to them by a sentient life-form !

The Science department had been following up on this avenue and were confident that the 'cloud' they had seemingly passed through over a month ago, was in fact still with the ship, either on the outer hull, traveling alongside on a parallel course, or even inside the Raven herself. But so far, all attempts at communication had failed miserably ..

There 'HAD' to be a way .. Carl could not, would not, allow any more senseless deaths on the ship ..........



< tag : ALL >

[Deleted]

After about two weeks into their journey, Will had had a "vision" that had sealed it for him. It left no doubt in his mind that they were not real. In this vision, his step father was the most loving and caring man in the world. Joe and Wills mother were happily married and Joe and Will actually got along. Yeah. Right. Will knew Joe for the jerk that he really was. No way was it real now.

Will had decided to keep himself busy by going to the gym to work out or to the holodeck to run battle simulations. He had actually found this to work rather well and had implemented different emergency scenarios over the last few weeks to keep his security people busy and hopefully to keep their minds clear and off of the visions that everyone seemed to be having.

After the incident with Lieutenant Dawson and his family, he had decided(with the COs and XOs permission) to include others in the drills. This had helped them keep a some what clear mind as well. But just to err on the side of caution, Will had also placed security men at each transporter on the ship.

Currently, Will was in the gym giving a mok'bara class. This had, so far, been the release if you will, that had helped the most. Knowing how hard things had been on the captain, Will had invited him to join on several occasions but he had yet to show to a class.

When the lesson was over, Will made his way back to his quarters and grabbed a shower. He had to be on duty in an hour and he wanted to grab a bite and go to his office and check the incident logs.

Placing his comm badge on his new fresh uniform, he decided on killing two birds with one stone. Will made his way to his office and upon arriving, ordered breakfast from the replicator. He than sat at his desk and read the logs as he ate. He seen where there had been a few minor incidents and that over all, things were good. The doctors were still running tests on some of the crew to see if they could figure out what was causing the visions and the junior counselors had there hands full trying to help those that were still having them pretty regularly.

The Captain had held a Senior staff meeting a few days ago and voiced his opinion of another life form inflicting the issue on the crew. The Science department had been following up on this avenue and were confident that the 'cloud' they had seemingly passed through over a month ago, was in fact still with the ship, either on the outer hull, traveling alongside on a parallel course, or even inside the Raven herself. But so far, all attempts at communication had failed miserably. Try as they may, if there was a cloud out there, nothing was showing up on the sensors. Will incorporated this theory into his drills and nothing was ever found aboard the ship, either. It made Will nervous at times to think that some one else could be doing this. He hated not having an enemy he could see and fight.

Finishing his breakfast and reading, Will made his way to the bridge. When the lift doors parted, he saw that neither the CO nor the XO had arrived yet. Stepping down to the command chair, he spoke to the young Andorian LT that was running Delta shift.

"Morning, LT. Krymerik. How was your shift?" Will asked.

"Quite as usual, sir." answered the Lt as he stood.

"What a shocker." Will replied with a smile. "Well, Lt. I relieve you."

"I stand relieved." said Krymerik.

Will sat down and watched as Alpha shift began trickling in and taking their places on the bridge. It wouldn't be too much longer before one of the two top honchos showed.

[Andae Blakus]

Blakus was in Ten Forward, sitting alone at a table next to one of the large window ports, the familiar streak of pearly points made their way across the blackness, just like they had been doing the past three weeks (with the occasional break). The first officer took another sip of his coffee and then reached for a piece of his toast. Ten Forward was quiet, only half a dozen in the whole place, Blakus deduced after a quick count. And one of those was mess hall staff.

Everyone was still trying to live with their visions all by themselves, not yet having figured out that they had each other to turn to. Blakus had had no problems with his visions, at least, not in the normal sense. He did not react to his troubles with hysterics like so many were doing, instead the subject of the visions induced in him feelings of emptiness, meaninglessness.

He still got them occasionally. The visions. Every time it served to reaffirm the feeling of 'nothing' in his mind. He thought of this as he swallowed the last bite of toast. He picked up the plate and near-empty mug of cold coffee and put it in the replicator. He made his way for the exit, nodding to the bartender who was solely manning Ten Forward. "I'll be in same time tomorrow..," he said to the bartender with a grin, ".. As usual," he added dryly. He'd been doing the same thing the whole week.

The XO stopped by Lieutenant Moore's quarters. The engineer was on a leave of absence, having not yet recovered properly from.. whatever it was that was wrong with him. Blakus hoped that this visit would go more smoothly than the one yesterday; the poor engineer had been in the middle of a vision, Blakus had had to use his command codes to get in, and then had to calm the 'flipping out' engineer from his hysterics. This time he cautiously chimed the door.

"Come in," he heard the muffled voice of Lieutenant Moore from inside. "It's open.."

Blakus took a second and shrugged. He pressed the button to open the door.

It was dark inside, no lighting whatsoever.. but then Blakus was used to that particular quirk of Moore's new mental state. The 'only' illumination was the soft red glow from a wall panel, indicating that the Lieutenant had messages on his personal console. It provided just enough light so that the XO could see Moore's face. He was sitting, slumped in one of the low, comfortable lounge chairs in the corner near to the source of the red light, it lit up half of his face in its gentle yet piercing redness. "Commander, you're later than usual," mumbled the Lieutenant.

Blakus considered his response. "Well. Why don't we turn on the lights so I can check the chronometer?" he said. Moore took a moment to think but then nodded. Blakus did it himself, "Computer, raise light level to half maximum." Instantly, the darkness of the room was replaced by the light of the hidden, white ceiling lights. The room was restored to its normal, a neutral grey, the colour made so by the furniture. "That's better. How are you feeling Lieutenant?" the XO asked Moore, who was likewise now revealed to him. He did not look well, sprawled flat in his seat and barely sitting in it.

"Not good," Moore said, there was a slight hint of a shaky tremor in his voice.

"Still getting them?" said Blakus. Moore nodded. "Less potent yet?"

"Nope." Suddenly, as if he felt he was making a bad impression, Moore jumped up from his seat. He made his way across his quarters looking apparently quite healthy, into the bedroom section and to the replicator. "Can I get you anything?" he called over to the XO, starting to move around, organising a few of his posessions. The place was a bit of a mess, Blakus had to admit.

"No. Thankyou." A surprised Blakus replied. He recalled for the thousandth time his visit to Moore when he'd still been in sickbay, three weeks ago now. The Lieutenant had been unconscious when Blakus had arrived. Traks had explained that he needed to sleep for at least another half hour. Blakus had remained there, waiting for the time when the Doctor woke Moore up with his stimulant. It had seemed important to Blakus that he stay. Moore had come around slowly, his eyes had looked seized with fear, even more so when he saw Blakus standing over him, looking over his tortured body. The XO had knelt down beside him, and started to - slowly and understandingly - quiz the stricken engineer on what he had seen. "It was alive." That was what Moore had kept on repeating, over and over, but in amongst other bits of disjointed information that Blakus had used to piece the vision together. A massive - not dimensionally but mentally - creature was what he ascertained Moore had seen. For some reason, Blakus had thought of Cthulhu.

---

Blakus continued his visits, until nearly three more weeks had passed. That was when the Captain had called the senior staff meeting. Finally, Blakus had thought. The Captain had spent most of the time in his quarters, or in his ready room. He had maintained his solitude from the crew, keeping his thoughts to himself. Now he was at last breaking his seclusion, and in the staff meeting he stated everything that they knew was happening, and then put an idea to everyone, and that was that the thing causing their visions was a sentient life form. Blakus agreed with him. But the fact that they could not detect this.. 'cloud' led the XO to a different conclusion, one that he was still formulating and continued to formulate over the next three days, because it seemed so vague.

It was the end of the sixth week of their trip, and Blakus arrived on the bridge for his morning shift. Usually, he would have taken over from the Captain, but, as had been the case more often than not, he found himself taking over from the night-shift officer. "Have you pulled a double shift again, Harvey?" Blakus asked her, stepping into the command arena with an amused expression on his face.

"Yes, sir," said the tired looking Commander, rubbing her eyes as she got up from the command chair.

Blakus tutted. "Don't let the Captain do this to you," he said playfully, slotting himself into the centre chair. Commander Harvey waved a hand, shrugging off the XO, and made her way to the turbolift. "Good morning, Will," Blakus said, shifting around to look up over the tactical rail at the CTSO, "Up bright and early today, I see. And I'm early." He was feeling in an unusually good mood today given the circumstances.

"You're late sir," Jamison replied, "By two minutes."

"What?!" Blakus asked, already sighing in self-annoyance as he checked the chronometer. "Where's that duty roster I asked for?" he asked out-loud to the bridge. An Ensign came over and handed him the PADD, and then returned to her station. "Ahh thank you," he said, taking it and reading non-interestedly through it.

"Everyone," he said rising from his seat and getting the unbusy crew of the bridge to all turn around, stop what they were doing and look at him. "Everyone," Blakus said again, "Let's get started on our usual scans, try and pick up anything of this 'cloud'. I know, if it was possible to see it, then we would probably have found it by now. But it's better to do something than just to give up."

Just then, and quite unexpectedly, Captain Torek arrived on the bridge, and it looked as if he planned on sitting in his seat. Blakus returned to the command panel, this time in the first officer's chair. Torek took his own seat. The ensuing silence on the bridge as everyone started renewed meticulous scans, hopelessly looking for the cloud, was eventually broken by Blakus. "Captain," he said quietly, leaning over to his CO, "May I have a word in your ready room?"

<Tag Torek>

[Carl Torek]

Over the following two weeks, the 'influence' exerted on the members of the Raven crew lessened noticeably. Oh people still had the visions, or waking dreams as one Officer had told Commander Traks.

The Doctor, thankfully, had managed to develop a neural suppressor that prevented the full force of the attacks. Torek had suffered as much as others, but the content of his 'dreams' was upsetting to the point where he almost broke down completely.

He had made several trips down to engineering, where Commander McLean had worked miracles in keeping the ship at almost maximum warp for such a long period of time, and it was obvious that the ship would need some serious service time when they eventually reached the Sol system.

Vanessa too had suffered the dreams forced on her young mind. She had watched both her Father and Carl killed in accidents, each more horrific than the last. It was upsetting her on every level, and her teacher, along with a member of Commander Biers' staff had been speaking to her. Scott was needed in engineering almost constantly now, and had been sleeping in his office on several occasions. Vanessa had taken to sleeping with the light on and wouldn't even enter her bedroom without her Father. During a major overhaul of the propulsion systems, Carl had been asked if he could take Vanessa, which he agreed to instantly. The screams coming from his guest room, now designated Vanessa's room, on the first night of her stay almost caused him to have a heart attack. He dove into the darkened room to see the ten year old drenched in sweat, her eyes showing the terror that must have been coursing through her mind. From that night on, Carl slept on a small settee he had moved into her room. The illumination, needless to say, never fell below eighty percent.

Almost a week ago, Scott had been forced to hand over engineering to his deputy, as sheer exhaustion had taken hold. Vanessa had gone back to their quarters to 'look after' her Daddy, but promised to look in on Carl on a daily basis, which she had done religiously, sometimes making her 'house-call' twice in the same day.

Today, Vanessa had made her usual visit, and was surprised and pleased to see Carl in his full uniform ..

"Wow ... You look great. Are you going to go to the Bridge today ?" she asked, stepping forward and tugging down on his tunic before brushing off some imaginary fluff like a mother hen.

"Yes." Carl said, leaning forward so she could reach the non-existent fluff on his shoulder, "I think it's about time we became a star ship again .. Don't you ?"

Dabbing the sleeve of her jumper on her tongue, she pulled Carl forward and brushed the four gold pips on his collar. Scrutinizing them with a critical eye for a moment, she nodded approval.

"Good ... I'll come as far as the turbo-lift, then I need to get Daddy some soup ... He's going to go to tinker with the engines later today."

"I know." Carl said, a wry grin forming.

At the turbo-lift Vanessa pulled Carl down, kissing him sweetly on the cheek.

"Take care Carl, don't do too muck OK. I'm sure Commander Blakus can look after things." she said, showing much more wisdom than her ten short years could muster.

"I will Sweetheart." Carl said as the doors closed.

~~~~~~~~~~

He'd been sat in his ready room working on status reports for almost two hours. He was thinking about Vanessa's comments ..

Leaving his office, he entered the Bridge. going off the expressions, or efforts to 'have' no expression, on the Bridge staff, it was obvious he wasn't expected ..

He wasn't in any hurry to reach his seat, and glanced at the view-screen as well as the Opps station before moving toward the Command area. Blakus had already rose in anticipation of his Commanding Officers requirement to have his seat, and as Torek sat, Blakus did likewise in his own seat.

Carl grinned at the 'keeping busy' attitude of the Bridge staff, until Andae leaned toward him.

"Captain .. May I have a word in your ready room ?"

Torek glanced at his office door, then turned to Blakus.

"After you Commander." he replied, a smile forming.

"Sirs." Ensign Warren said, "We're on the outer edge of the Dua Ceti star system. I'm getting a faint but distinct signal from our outermost beacons."

"Take us into the system and try to get a lock on that beacon." Blakus said as Carl waited for his Exec' to continue toward his office.

Entering the ready room, Carl motioned for his Executive Officer to take a seat then moved to the replicator ..

"What can I get you Andae ?" Carl asked ..........


< tag: Andae / All >


OOC : Come on everyone, we're almost home. Let's see a little posting.

[Scott McLean]

McLean’s eyes felt as if they were bulging from their sockets. The normal whites of his eyes were now red from lack of sleep. He wished it was because he was being a good engineer, but in reality it was because every time he closed his eyes he saw things he didn’t want to see. He saw the faces of the dead engineers that he had worked with through out the years. The ones that died either on away mission he should have taken, or during engineering accidents, or worst yet during times of conflict.

The screams were the hardest to deal with, for they somehow were able to pierce his soul more completely than the images did. Having Vanessa come by from time to time helped the now scruffy and disheveled engineer cope with what was happening, but more than anything else it was work. Work was the only thing he had to keep his mind awake, but now that was failing him.

Under orders McLean had been forced to hand over Main Engineering to a younger, and less experienced Assistant Chief Engineer. He didn’t know the officer as well as he should but he knew this man, a Vulcan, had nearly raced his way through the ranks. He had made full Lieutenant two years before he should have. It was a slight fact that McLean had personally resented due to the length at which he had been serving and the rank he currently occupied.

It was when he got to his quarters that the darkest dreams started. McLean wasn’t two steps inside his quarters when he heard the power shut down, the entire ship went black and seals began to break loose. Pressure began to make seals in his quarters pop, and pressurized air rushed into the room, which confused his technical mind due to the vacuum of space. In that instant of coherent thought the seal gave way and water began rushing at him, crushing him against his wall.

“Daddy?” Vanessa spoke loudly into her father’s ear.

McLean rose with a jolt, gasping for air as his face came off his desk.

“Are you all right?” Her small voice asked.

McLean’s heart was racing as he looked around frantically to make sure what he was seeing was real. His eyes found the influence for his dream, a spilt glass of water had caused water to run along the table and settle against his face.

“I’m fine,” McLean tried to force himself to believe his own words. He then wiped the water from his face, “I’m fine.”

[Deleted]

Will was at his station, when Ensign Warren made his announcement.

"Sirs. We're on the outer edge of the Dua Ceti star system. I'm getting a faint but distinct signal from our outermost beacons."

"Take us into the system and try to get a lock on that beacon."

Will watched as the CO and XO made their way into the captains ready room. He knew he now had command of the bridge but he didn't wanna leave his station. He wanted to model the faint but steady beacon signal.

=^=Jamison to Engineering. We're picking up a faint beacon signal from the outermost region of the Dua Ceti star system. Is there anything we can do to boost our pick up?=^=

=^=Negative, sir.=^= came the response. =^=We did everything we could to improve things on the Raven about 5 weeks ago. We have everything on the ship running at top performance right now, sir.=^=

=^=Very well. Jamison out=^=

After satisfying himself that all sensors and scanners were functioning properly, Will nodded to his replacement and moved down to the command chair.

"Mr. Warren? Anything else besides the beacon?" Will asked the helmsman.

<Tag Mr Warren>

"Sir?" began the young officer that had replaced Will at Tactical. "What about sending a hail? Someone else may pick it up and we could let them know what happened. Plus it would be good to hear some one elses voice."

"Not yet, Ensign." Will said. "First. Let's reach the system and be sure it's our system this time."

[Andae Blakus]

The door shut behind the two command officers, and Blakus prepared to say what he had planned. Torek, seeming in a good mood, had other ideas. He went to the replicator first.

"What can I get you Andae ?" he asked.

Blakus took the profferred seat and for a second thought about what he could order. One did not waste an offer for a drink from the Captain, even if it was just a simple trip to the replicator just off to the side in his ready room. "Coffee. Milk, no sugar please," he decided on. Torek nodded, smiling, and made the order. Blakus didn't intend to be in the ready room for all that long, but he reckoned he could drink it fast enough, besides he needed to reenergise his day.. it had been going well until he'd found out he was late. That little problem had set him worrying over everything he had currently been thinking about, including the subject he was about to bring up.

Torek brought the drinks over and sat in his chair. Andae took a sip of the coffee and did a good job of hiding the grimace. It was not hot enough for some reason. Well at least he'd be able to drink it faster.. He realised Torek was looking at him, expectantly waiting for his XO to bring up the matter he wanted to discuss.

Andae put the coffee down on the table, licking his lips. "Captain," he started, "The last staff briefing a couple of days ago, you told us what you thought about the nature of this life-form that's been assailing us."

The Captain nodded and reached for his drink happily, seemingly he wasn't going to let any subject dampen the good day he was clearly attempting to have.

Blakus hated to disappoint him, but this needed to be reasoned out before they passed back into recognisable territory. It may turn out to be more important than perhaps some of the crew realised. Blakus tapped his hand on the edge of the desk and continued, "The behaviour of the crew over the last weeks has been influenced by this thing. Not many of them more so than Lieutenant Moore, the original engineer who we thought we'd lost?" Torek nodded again. "I've visited him several times over the course of this journey. I've talked to him about the rifts we've been through.. About what he saw. It was difficult to get any proper information, but from what I've gathered he's seen something, some creature, something alive. A lot of the crew talk along similar lines."

Despite its abstract nature, Blakus made his best effort to describe to his Captain the 'lifeform' some members of the crew had described to him. The impossibility of actually seeing it for himself (therefore giving an effective description) made it difficult. But from his words, he could see a reaction in Carl Torek, a reaction of familiarity. Something he'd said had stirred the CO's memory or perhaps some sixth sense of perception. Blakus got the impression that if he and the Captain had been standing in a desert, with sand dunes spread all around, then Torek would have looked off to the far distance, seeing something that Blakus could not see. Because that was the type of look he then cast over Blakus's shoulder; a pensive stare, searching out a darkness in his mind with a feeling of dread. Eventually he looked back to his XO, asking silently 'Your point?'

"My point, Captain, I think that this 'creature' or whatever it may be is not detectable by any scans we run, at least not in real-space. This creature was only revealed to some of us when we passed through the rift, no one has seen it since then. I think it exists in some layer of subspace that permeates all realspace, but perhaps is only accessible through one of those rifts."

Torek nodded, taking Andae's idea on board, and both of the officers stood. Torek watched as Blakus returned his coffee mug to the replicator. He looked outside the window to the stars outside, the rapidly approaching Dua Ceti star was visible from his vantage point, its white light a true beacon for the homesick USS Raven. They were nearly there now, back to recognisable space, assuming this was the correct reality. The visions amongst the crew had lessened in frequency and potency, the sentient lifeform tailing them (whether from without or within) flagging in its influence over the Galaxy class ship.

"Whatever this thing is," Blakus said solemnly, still watching the Dua Ceti star, "I don't think Starfleet ought to return here soon. What we don't understand we fear, and for sure we cannot understand this. Not yet anyway."

He suddenly realised he'd been standing there too long, having all but forgotten that the Captain was standing behind him. "The bridge, sir?" he asked, seeing that Torek was standing near the ready room exit. They went back to the bridge.

"What do we have?" Blakus said as soon as he left the ready room. He looked at the viewscreen, the Dua Ceti system filled it. "Mister Jamison, do we know if this is our reality yet?" he asked it as if it was a normal thing to say, as he sat in the XO's seat.

<Tag Torek/Jamison - All>

[Carl Torek]

Carl had listened to his Exec's argument on the 'life-form' they had encountered. it was true that it's influence over the Ravens crew had diminished greatly as the ship had neared Dua Ceti. It was possible the system itself prevented the rifts opening ..

Maybe it was the very nature of Dua Ceti, a trinary star system, containing two red dwarf stars, Calisti A and Calisti B, along with a yellow dwarf, named Dulisti .. The system was still unexplored by the Federation and it wasn't known if Dulisti was actually gravitationally connected to the other two. One thing was certain, due to the chaotic nature of the three stars orbits, any planets had either suffered catastrophic collisions, or had been flung into deep space millennia ago. It was this 'erratic' gravity that could cause problems for the Raven.

Both men left the ready room, taking their respective seats on the Bridge ..

"What do we have ..." Blakus asked, looking at the view-screen, the Dua Ceti system filled it. "... Mister Jamison, do we know if this is our reality yet ?" he asked casually, as if it was a normal thing to say.

"Well our records are incomplete as no-one has ventured to 'this' side of the system before ..." Will said, checking his readings carefully, "But I would say this is our Dua Ceti."

"Mister Warren." Torek said, "Plot a course that will keep us as far away from those three stars as possible, without adding TOO much time for us to traverse the system. Get us a heading to the Sol system and decrease speed to warp five."

The reduction in speed shocked everyone on the Bridge, but all remained silent. It was dawning on all the crew that their nightmares had all but ceased, and maybe the Captain knew why.

"Will .. I want a warning buoy set on the edge of the system. Let's ensure that when they begin the exploration of Dua, they don't end up meeting our friend without prior knowledge.

Lewis scanned the three suns. To say their orbits were eccentric was an understatement. The two red dwarfs were almost trying to pull each other apart as they danced around the yellow sun. Gravitational forces were pushing and pulling the Raven, but he managed to get a fairly stable course through Dua.

"Bouy away Captain." Jamison said. and Jake activated the Comm so they could hear the warning to all ship's regarding the rift.

"Reducing to warp five Captain." Lewis said, "We'll be making some course changes to allow for those sun's, but we shouldn't be too delayed. I have a heading for the outer markers."

"Very well." Carl said, watching the three sun's seemingly stationary on screen, but traveling at almost four hundred kilometers per second, trying hard to avoid, or collide with each other. Carl couldn't help thinking about Vanessa and the ships crew, 'Have we seen the last of our dreams ?' he thought to himself, hoping they indeed had passed the worst and could head home safely ..........

[Carl Torek]

The Raven's journey through the Dua Ceti System had been arduous. She and her crew had suffered more than Carl had liked, but eventually they were heading for the Sol system, and home ...

~~~~~~~~~~

Two day's later, and thankfully, with not a single report of dreams, nightmares, horrors, they entered the Sol system. It was for everyone, the most welcome sight in a long, long, time.

"Captain ... I have Star base forty seven. She is asking if we need assistance."

"Tell them we are capable of reaching home under our own power mister Warren."

The ship had suffered damage to her warp core during the passage through Dua Ceti, and as a result, could only make a maximum speed of warp two point six. But it was more than enough to get them home, and the last thing Torek wanted was to be towed into space-dock ... Dropping to impulse, the Raven approached her home.

"Dock master is ready for our arrival Captain." Marcus said from Opps, "He will move us directly into space dock rather than place us in parking orbit."

"Very well." Torek replied, nodding to his Exec' ..

"Helm. Maneuvering thrusters only." Blakus ordered.

"Sir. Dock master is ready to engage tractors."

"Confirm that we acknowlege. Cut all power. Let them bring us in." Blakus said.

The Raven-B was caressed by tractor beams from Star base forty seven, and guided gently, almost lovingly, into a docking port. She edged forward, seemingly touching the massive plexiglass windows running the full length of the dock. Umbilicals automatically extended, along with walkways, and then the Raven came to a full stop. She floated free inside the enormous space of the dock, then station-keeping tractors engaged, locking the ship in position.

=^= USS Raven .. Welcome home =^=

=^= Thank you Dock master .. We're glad to be home =^= Torek said.

=^= You are now on external power .. Have engineering shut down your warp core =^=

Seconds later, McLean replied ..

=^= Warp core off-line .. Raven now on external power =^=

Carl finally let out a sigh. It was heard by everyone on the Bridge, and every single one of them echoed the sentiment. they were home, safe and well. They would morn the losses to their 'family' but would also be ready and willing to set out again when the word came.

"The Bridge is yours Commander." Carl said to Andae, touching his shoulder for a second and smiling, "I'll be in my ready room. I have a letter to write."

Blakus watched the Captain go. He knew the letter he was referring to, and dreaded the moment 'he' needed to write one. it was one, if not the hardest thing a Commanding Officer had to face. The death of one of the crew was never justified ..

Andae began to make sure the Raven was secure, then got down to the arduous task of assigning shore-leave. Everyone would get it, but due to the repair schedule, it wouldn't be on a first come first served basis ..

Carl sat at his desk, head resting in his hands ... After a moment he lifted his head and sighed.

"Computer .. Begin recording ......" Carl said, then thought better of his need to send this particular communication, "Computer .. Cancel recording .. Access the file of Lieutenant Michael Dawson."

Reading the file, he found what he was looking for .. Leaving his ready room he entered the Bridge.

"Andae I'm going over to the base ... There's someone I need to ... Talk to."

Without waiting for a reply from his Exec' Carl entered the turbo-lift. Moments later, he was leaving the Raven ... He entered one of the many turbo-lifts on the station and stated his destination.

As the lift rose, he tried to think of what he would say to Michael's parents ..........

[Carl Torek]

OK everyone ... Mission 17 is now officially concluded.

I would like to thank everyone for their commitment and input on this mission. I personally have enjoyed it very much and I hope you have too.

A special thanks must go to Commander Blakus. He has excelled himself as my Executive Officer ensuring continuity and excitement along with more than a little enthusiasm for the mission, ship and crew.


Well done everyone and I look forward to our next outing.


A Shore leave thread will be set up on Star base forty seven, so please feel free to post there until we head out again.

Best regards

Carl Torek
Commanding Officer