Mission 05: Reacquisition

[Deleted]

The trip via shuttle was a long one from Deep Space Nine, luckily James was not alone. On board was a navigation officer an Ensign named Kendral Macie. The shuttle fell out of warp just between the secondary hull and another portion of the ship. He looked around before turning to his ensign companion, "Ensign Macie what the hell happened here?"

The ensign shook his head before beginning to use the sensors to sweep the sector, and with his readings he managed to figure out a bit of the puzzle, "Sir, it appears that the portion of the hull is dead in space. There is little power output from it, the other portion seems to be in working order."

James nodded, before turning his attention to the portion of the ship that seemed to still be operational and opened a communications channel, "This is shuttlecraft Omega Two Seven to USS Olympia."

Slowly the screen was filled with the bridge of the ship, and someone responded, "Shuttlecraft Omega Two Seven, this is Lieutenant Jenkins, yes we seem to have ran into a slight amount of trouble. It's a long complicated story that we don't even know all the details to."

James smiled, "I am Lieutenant James Fire your new chief engineering officer I was supposed to check on board, but I see you seem to be having some trouble. I do have some gear on board I can attempt to beam to the secondary portion of the ship and see if I can be of any assistance?" He spoke gently and would await a response for a moment.

<tag Remar/Smith>

[Deleted]

"Sir, a starfleet shuttle has just come up on sensors, closing at warp 3" the Tactical officer reported.

Lt. Jenkins looked over his shoulder. "A shuttle? Now? We're in the middle of potential combat." Jenkins shook his head. "All right, go to red alert, and prepare to extend shield in case Olympia primary does something. Remar, hold position here."

The Vulcan brought the Olympia secondary hull to a start as the shuttle approached. The comm chime beeped and a voice said "This is shuttlecraft Omega Two Seven to USS Olympia."

Slowly the screen was filled with the bridge of the ship, and someone responded, "Shuttlecraft Omega Two Seven, this is Lieutenant Jenkins, yes we seem to have ran into a slight amount of trouble. It's a long complicated story that we don't even know all the details to."

James smiled, "I am Lieutenant James Fire your new chief engineering officer I was supposed to check on board, but I see you seem to be having some trouble. I do have some gear on board I can attempt to beam to the secondary portion of the ship and see if I can be of any assistance?" He spoke gently and would await a response for a moment.

"Yes lieutenant, bring your shuttle in as quickly as possible. Tactical, bring shield 2 offline long enough for the shuttle to get to Bay 3." Commands were entered and the shuttlecraft swiftly docked inside the docking bay of the Olympia secondary hull.

Almost immediately after the shuttle docked, the tactical officer exclaimed "Power build up from Olympia primary hull. Not sure what she's doing." The ship then shuddered violently and alarms started going off from a number of systems throughout the bridge. "They're trying to lock on with a tractor beam!"

Lt. Jenkins slammed his fist onto the arm of his command chair. "They must have monitored the comm traffic between us and the shuttle and figured out where we were. Divert power to the shields. Remar see if you can get us out of range. Power up phasers and prepare to fire. If they lock on, Olympia primary will drag us down onto the planet with them."

<Anyone>

[David Tan]

The aide vanished instantly. His atoms scattered on the sub-atomic level ... Gal turned to face the view-screen, a grin forming.

=^= Now .. Commander .. Would you like to test my resolve further ? =^=

David was speechless. He looked at the cold-blooded murderer with revulsion. There must be some way to stop this lunatic.

=^= I thought not .. Now if you will excuse me I have repairs to tend to and an appointment to keep =^=

"How long before we reach Pelgram ?" Tan asked as the Comm closed.

"At this speed, six hours forty one minutes." the Helm Officer said.

"But they will have their warp core back on-line in just under two hours. So we need to prevent that happening." Sandra said.

~~~~~~~~~~

"Still no contact with the Commodore ?" Tan said on his return to the Bridge.

"No Sir. Comms are still being blocked ..... Sir, the, Klingon ship is hailing us."

"On-screen." Tan said as he took his seat.

=^= Commander .. I thought I would inform you that we will be going to warp in two minutes .. You might want to move aside .. I would hate the need to convince you of my intentions yet again =^=

=^= Where is Ambassador Freeman ? =^=

=^= Oh he's here safe and well .. Albeit dependent on your actions during the next few moments .. We both know that you are not going to fire on a Senior Federation Envoy so I think we should dispense with this charade and you move your ship .... Commander I ord ...... =^=

Gal slammed the phaser against Freemans' temple as he tried to interrupt. then turned to Tan once again.

=^= You have one hour Commander .. At that time I will execute the Ambassador .. Please don't misinterpret my commitment =^= the Comm closed.

Mike Carron was frowning at Tactical. He replayed the last portion of the conversation then spoke to Tan.

"Commander, you need to see this."

He put the conversation on the screen and waited to see if anyone picked up what he had spotted .. They didn't.

"What are we looking at ?" Tan asked.

"The Ambassador Sir." Carron replied, magnifying the area in question, "Watch the Ambassador ..."

Everyone watched the replay, then watched it again .... There. Right in front of his captor, freeman was giving him a distinct order, as over and over the man was silently mouthing the words.

'DESTROY US NOW' over and over !

"The order is clearly visible Commander." Carron said.

"I know ... How long before they have warp ?"

"They are bringing the core on-line now. They will have full warp capability in three minutes." Zal'Nar said as David watched the screen for anything, even divine intervention, but none was forthcoming.

"Arm photon torpedoes. Increase our distance to one hundred thousand kilometers."

"You're going to fire ?" Sandra said, but Tan ignored the question.

"Open a channel." he ordered and received a nod of confirmation.

=^= Gal .. I want you to power down all systems now .. Failure to comply immediately with this request will leave me with no choice but to open fire .. You will not be asked again =^=

=^= Oh I don't think so =^= Gal said, pulling Freeman into view.

"Mister Carron ...." Tan said, seeing the slightest nod from Freeman, "Stand-by to fire."

"FIRE !" Tan ordered.

Gal watched as the two twenty five isoton torpedoes cleared the Olympia and bridged the gap between the two ships, his eyes widening with incredulity knowing his gambit had failed.

=^= Thank you Commander ...... =^= Ambassador Freeman said.

The screen reacted instantly as the matter anti-matter explosion caused by the torpedoes hitting the Klingon ship. Within seconds nothing but stray atoms remained of the aged craft, and sadly, it's occupants. There was no need to scan the area, as there was nothing to scan for ...

Minutes of silence passed on the Tertiary Section before Tan finally spoke.

"Helm, bring us about. Set course for the Pelgram System. As soon as we are able, contact the Commodore ... I'll be in my quarters. Lieutenant Bewick you have the Con."

"Aye Sir." the Helm officer said as David got up and silently left the Bridge ...........

[Deleted]

Steve pretty much fell through the turbolift doors onto the bridge of the secondary hull as it shuddered under the impact of something against them. He was about to ask what was going on, but upon approaching his now-empty command chair, he could see that they were being held in a tractor beam.

As he sat down, he had a sense that this confrontation would be ending soon. A group of people stealing a section of a starship versus Starfleet personnel who actually serve on said starship....It was only going to end one way, and Steve was going to make sure it was as quick as possible.

"Target the source of their tractor beam and fire a feedback pulse back along the beam. With any luck, that SHOULD break us free. When it does, take out the shield generators, along with weapons and propulsion...in that order." He was not going to let them get away again.

[Deleted]

Remar didn't even look up as the Commodore stumbled onto the bridge, evicted Lt. Jenkins from the command chair and sat down. Smith examined the situation on the monitors, then issued a string of orders to get them out of the tractor beam.

The navigation officer struggled with his controls as he tried to move the secondary section away from the primary that was trapped in the gravity well of the fifth planet, but the tractor beams were locked and the ship wouldn't move. He could hear the chatter of the rest of the bridge crew as they followed Smiths' orders. Finally, the tactical officer said "Feedback pulse ready sir. Weapons locked on."

"Fire" Smith snarled.

Remar looked at the main screen, which was filled with the swirling gases of the fifth planet. The primary hull was barely visible through the various filters that had been added to the sensors. He saw the orange discharge of the feedback pulse follow the line of the tractor beams back to the primary hull, then wash over it like a wave. The secondary hull shuddered as the tractor beam released and Remar entered a series of commands to move the ship into optimum firing position. The tactical officer activated the phasers and the secondary hull fired a series of shots, striking the primary hull in numerous locations. The primary hull immediately appeared to lose power, lights went out and the ship started to descend faster into the atmosphere of the fifth planet.

"Sir, shields, weapons and propulsion have been disable on the primary hull. The navigational thrusters have also been damaged. Primary hull starting to fall towards the planet" tactical report.

The commodore banged his fist on the armrest. "Remar, bring us into range of the tractor beams. Lock on and see if the hull can be pulled out."

Remar entered the new course, verified that Ops was ready to go and they got the ship moving. The secondary hull gracefully manuvered in grabbed the primary hull. "Sir, we don't have enough power. The primary hull is pulling us down" Lt. Jenkins said.

"Put her to the wall mister!" Smith insisted, and the lieutenant joined the engineering officer at his console to assist.

"Antimatter reactor at 115% capacity. Shifting power to engines and tractor beams. Reinforcing integrity fields" the engineering officer said.

Remar glanced at his instruments and saw that they were still descending. "Sir, we're still falling towards the planet. Although at this rate we'll burn out the warp core before we ever impact the surface."

"Thank you lieutenant" Smith said. "We have a new engineering officer aboard. I hope that he is in engineering." Smith tapped his comm badge. "Lt. Fire, I need more power out of the ship. See what you can do. Now would be excellent."

<James Fire>

[elianabetor]

E’Liana pottered around her patient as the scan progressed and she found herself pacing back and forth muttering to herself. Glancing at her patient she decided it probably wasn’t the most helpful thing she could be doing as she was unsure how good Rose’s hearing was. The Doctor backed away from the biobed and carried on monitoring the scan.

After what felt like an age (and she could only imagine what it must have felt like to be the one being scanned) the scan finally finished. Not looking at the monitor yet, E’Liana went over to her patient. She released Rose from the restraints, about to speak. She looked at Rose and noticed that her eyes were closed. Marvelling at the other woman’s calm, the Klingon decided to giver Rose some space and a moments quiet to get over the scan.

Silently she made her way to the computer to analyse the findings. E’Liana stared at the computer screen. ~This isn’t good~ she thought to herself, infinitely glad that her patient wasn’t a telepath. The Doctor could feel her back tensing up with stress: ~How am I supposed to tell her about this…?~ She wondered.

"Forgive me” said Rose, from behind E’Liana, who flinched. She hadn’t realised Rose was behind her. ~Kahless!~ “I was a science officer before I was an FO and..." Rose pointed at the display "That chemical, it's not natural is it? Someone bioengineered it"

E’Liana turned around to face her patient. Rose had the look of someone who really wished she hadn’t looked at the screen, and E’Liana couldn’t blame her.

The Doctor inhaled slowly and tried to maintain eye contact. “Yes, I’m afraid you’re right. This is some sort of biochemical weapon. Luckily you are not in any danger because of the scan and because we got to you in time, you didn’t inhale a vast amount. What we need to worry about is whether or not you were a guinea pig…and if its effectiveness has been fine tuned.” She smiled weakly at Rose. “You will need to stay in Sickbay for a couple of hours whilst we check your lungs over to make sure there is nothing left. It’s better to be safe than sorry.”

E’Liana motioned to the Nurse (who had been surreptitiously eavesdropping) to come and take over the care of Rose. “I will be back shortly. First of all, I need to talk to the Captain and show him our results…this amounts to chemical warfare...and they have a Federation vessel…” E’Liana looked very grim as she downloaded the information onto a PADD and made her way to the Bridge.

<TAG Rose/Smith>

[Deleted]

James stood in the center of engineering his things had been left inside his office until he could get them in his quarters that he'd been assigned. His new staff had been abuzz with activity and though he didn't know any of them they seemed to be working their best. Then his commbadge suddenly started to activate and a voice on the other end spoke.

"Lt. Fire, I need more power out of the ship. See what you can do. Now would be excellent."

James tapped his commbadge, "Yes sir I'm working on it." He said approaching the warp core. "Ensign Matthews bring the warp coolant down to ninety percent."

"Done sir."

James smiled, "Alright dump auxilary power and what we just took from the warp coolant into the thrusters. Bring them to one hundred fifty percent power. But, monitor them make sure we don't burn out the thrusters!"

"Um..aye sir...Done."

James smiled and nodded, "Push the reverse thrusters just a little higher. Then, put more power into the tractor beam. Take all power from weapons and dump it into the integrity fields. Leave full power on shields this may get a little bumpy."

"Yes sir." Ensign Matthews shifted his fingers quickly over the controls, "Power to tractor beam at one hundred twenty percent. Power to integrity field at one hundred fifteen percent, but I don't know how long that will last sir."

James nodded and tapped his commbadge, "Our integrity field is dangerously high Commodore, and I don't know how long I can keep her together, but I promise you minimal damage. Engineering out!"

<tag bridge>

"Sir one of the thrusters is starting to buckle."

James sighed, "Shut it down and transfer power to the other thrusters switch the forward thrusters to reverse."

"Aye sir."

The young Lieutenant was beginning to feel some sweat on his brow, but that was quickly becoming the least of his worries.

(I'll post as much as I can guys I'm a little busy here as of late)

[David Tan]

"Helm, bring us about. Set course for the Pelgram System. As soon as we are able, contact the Commodore ... I'll be in my quarters. Lieutenant Bewick you have the Con."

"Aye Sir." the Helm officer said as David got up and silently left the Bridge, but David had been in his quarters for lees then an hour when he was contacted.

=^= Sir .. Lieutenant Zal'Nar .. We're loosing warp drive .. Engineering has been isolated .. We have no access to the systems from up here =^=

=^= Who is in Engineering ? =^= Tan asked, already heading out of his quarters.

=^= One life-sign .. Captain .. It is showing as Besak Gal but he was killed on the Klingon ship =^=

Davin knew what had happened instantly and skidded to a halt. Gal had beamed to the tertiary section somehow and was now trying to sabotage their arrival at Pelgram ... He couldn't understand it, the man would want to remain hidden wouldn't he, so why 'slow' the ship ?

=^= Lieutenant .. Listen to me .. You too Mister Carron ...... =^=

~~~~~~~~~~

After informing Zal'Nar of what he wanted, he headed to engineering. Not surprisingly, the doors opened at his approach. He entered cautiously, looking left and right as the doors closed, then audibly sealed behind him.

"Gal ..... I know you are in here." Tan said, trying to scan every inch of the department with his eyes. The impact, when it came caught him totally by surprise ... The two meter long tri-cobalt de-coupler rod, almost two centimeters in diameter penetrated his upper chest, passing out of his back between his right collar bone and his spine. The force slammed him into the bulkhead as the rod embedded itself there. The pain was excruciating and he almost lost consciousness. But his pain-blurred vision picked up someone approaching him.

"We meet again ..... Commander." Besak said, tapping the rod impaling Tan to the wall and causing a wave of nausea to rise, "I told you, did I not, that i had an appointment to keep. Well it seems you, or rather this ship, will be taking me to make that meeting." Gal said, noticing Tan looking at the device at his feet.

"Wha ......" David managed, but Gal was more than eager to oblige his curiosity.

"This ? ...... Well this is an anti-matter implosion device. Detonated in Pelgrams upper atmosphere, it will reduce the planet to a lifeless husk." Gal said, almost caressing the device.

"Wh ... Why ?" David managed, but again Gal was ahead of him.

"Why slow you down .... Well thats a matter of timing, nothing else." Gal said with a shrug, "By the time we arrive, the secondary section of your ship will have been destroyed, and we will be free to accomplish our goal. There is nothing you can do to prevent this happening Commander, so please don't risk loosing your life over a squabble that doesn't concern you."

David was going to pass out, and he needed to act before that happened.

"Give it up Gal." David gasped, coughing blood.

The Rebel leader grabbed the end of the rod impaling Tan, then slowly, deliberately, raised the end slowly. The resulting pain was almost unbearable when all Tan's weight was taken by the shaft as it lifted his feet off the ground.

"You basta ......" Tan began, but another wave of nausea gripped him, almost overwhelming his need to remain conscious, "I'll kill yu ... The SECOND i ca ..."

"No Commander, just admit you have lost and I will even allow your medical staff to come in here to treat you ... You 'ARE' loosing a lot of blood, and my medical knowledge is sadly inadequate."

"My staff will do wha ... What they can for me." David said, fighting with all his will to remain conscious against the pain, "But you ... You are leaving ...... !"

Gal smiled, then began to laugh. But he was watching Tan, and the man had the wrong expression on his face. It dawned on him that he had been out-witted as the tell-tale grasp of a transporter beam took hold ... Forty thousand kilometers off the port quarter, Gal, along with his device, materialized. He didn't have time to succumb to the vacuum of space as the ships' main phasers reduced him to atoms ...

As Gal was beamed away, David felt relief, and the pain subsided somewhat, but only for a second as the adrenilin ran it's course, then, as he heard the engineers trying to open the doors behind him, the agony reached an unbearable crescendo and his mind and body gave up the fight ..........

[David Tan]

"Slowly .... Don't let him slip ...."

"At least two ribs fractured ...."

"Scapula shattered ...."

"Blood loss .... Substantial ...."

David was swimming in and out of consciousness, but knew that he was in a bad way. He'd fully expected to die impaled against the bulkhead, but obviously they had managed to get to him in time.

"Pa ... Painnn." he managed to gasp and felt something cold against his neck. Thankfully whatever they gave him did the trick and he slipped into a grateful, painless sleep ..

~~~~~~~~~~

"Lieutenant, he's waking up."

David opened his eyes, the brightness hurting for a second or two before he grew accustomed.

"Don't try to move Commander." Sandra said, resting a hand gently against his chest well away from the injured area, "We thought we'd lost you there for a while."

"How ... How bad ... ?"

"OK, you first ... You took a beating. The de-coupler rod tore your pectoral muscle. Two ribs are broken. The rod exited through your scapula. It was broken into three sections. We've done all we can Commander, but you need surgical help that we simply can't give."

"Feel weak ..." Tan said, almost a whisper.

"You lost a lot of blood ... Hell of a lot. The only thing that saved you was the fact you were held upright by that bloody rod. I'm pretty sure that if you had fallen to the floor you would have bled out well before we could have reached you." Carron said.

"Who ... Who is on the ... Brid ......"

"No-one Commander." Sandra said almost apologetically, "We're dead in the water. Roughly thirty seconds after we beamed Gal off the ship, we lost all power. We managed to get life support and gravity back, then came down here for you. Zal'Nar is trying to figure out what the man did."

Tan tried to sit up. The pain was excruciating, but thankfully Sandra managed to get to him before he fell off the bio-bed. "Lay down Commander, you are not going to get up anytime soon."

"Have you contacted the Olympia ?" he asked.

"We don't know." Mike Carron answered, "We sent the message, but all this happened before we could get a reply ... It's possible the Comm didn't reach the ship."

Tan winced as a lightening bolt of pain coursed through his shoulder and chest. Sandra placed a hypo-spray against his neck and injected pain-killer and a sedative. Tan felt himself slipping thankfully from consciousness.

"Get some rest. We'll get to work on th ......"

He didn't hear the rest of the sentence as he fell into a drug-induced sleep ..........

[Deleted]

Remar continued to monitor his instruments as the Olympia's Secondary section laboured mightily to pull the primary section up from the gravity well of the planet. They had been losing ground, but whatever Lt. Fire had done in Engineering was helping, although the number of red lights on his console was quite alarming. "Sir, we're picking up some altitude. We've gained about 500 metres in the last 30 seconds" he said over his shoulder.

"Our present speed is 60 kilometers per hour?" Commodore Smith said incredulously. I've ridden anti-grav scooters faster than that!"

"Yes sir. Even with the extra power that Engineering has given us, it's only really giving us enough to hold our own. We'll burn out the power conduits or warp core shortly. It just can't sustain the output for long. I suggest that we beam away teams to the primary section, neutralize the hijackers and then get the primary section working again so that it can leave the gravity well of this planet under its' own power" Remar said to Commodore Smith.

[Deleted]

.:.Bridge.:.

Ensign T'Pal a vulcan woman sitting at the engineering console was busily monitoring the situation. And, listening to the conversations between Lieutenant Remar and Commodore Smith.

"Yes sir. Even with the extra power that Engineering has given us, it's only really giving us enough to hold our own. We'll burn out the power conduits or warp core shortly. It just can't sustain the output for long. I suggest that we beam away teams to the primary section, neutralize the hijackers and then get the primary section working again so that it can leave the gravity well of this planet under its' own power"

Ensign T'Pal looked towards the Lieutenant, "Sir a team of engineers could possibly get the engines back up in an hour. But, for it to work we will need to act fast."

<Tag Remar/Commodore Smith>

.:.Main Engineering.:.

Lieutenant James Fire continued to struggle to keep the ship together. They were down one thruster, and another had started to buckle on and off. Luckily the core wasn't in too bad of shape. The integrity field was beginning to have difficulties as well. He thought that he'd fixed that problem earlier, but the fix was only a temporary one. He tapped his commbadge...

"Lieutenant James Fire to Bridge I don't know how much longer I can keep this thing together maybe two hours at the most. I've put as much juice into the integrity field, shields, and engines. But, I don't know how much longer it'll hold up."

<Tag Remar/Smith>

[Crystal Rose]

Yes, I’m afraid you’re right. This is some sort of biochemical weapon. Luckily you are not in any danger because of the scan and because we got to you in time, you didn’t inhale a vast amount. What we need to worry about is whether or not you were a guinea pig…and if its effectiveness has been fine tuned.” Crystal winced internally, at least she hoped it was internal, the watery smile on the doctor's face suggested that they were thinking very similar things.

“You will need to stay in Sickbay for a couple of hours whilst we check your lungs over to make sure there is nothing left. It’s better to be safe than sorry.” Now that Crystal agreed with. As much as she wanted to get back on duty, she didn't want to keel over and die as soon as she got there.

“I will be back shortly. First of all, I need to talk to the Captain and show him our results…this amounts to chemical warfare...and they have a Federation vessel…” Crystal was left under the care of one of the nurses as Doctor BeTor left sickbay. She hopped up on to her recently vacated biobed and perched there swinging her feet and trying not to look at the chemical readouts still displayed on the screen beside her left shoulder. She hoped that they'd let her out of here soon.

[Deleted]

"Lieutenant James Fire to Bridge I don't know how much longer I can keep this thing together maybe two hours at the most. I've put as much juice into the integrity field, shields, and engines. But, I don't know how much longer it'll hold up."

"Acknowledged, Lieutenant" Smith said into the comm, then put his head into one of his hands as he sat in the Captain's chair. "I take it that my entire bridge crew is recommending that I send away teams to recover the primary hull?"

Remar sat and waited. He had already expressed his opinion on the subject, and there were no dissenting voices raised as the Commodore waited. "All right then" the Commodore sighed. "Are we within transporter range?"

Remar checked his instruments. "No sir. We would be at within transporter range under normal circumstances, but interference from the planets magnetic field and atmosphere will require us to close to within 10 kilometres."

"All right, close to within 10 kilometres" Smith ordered. Remar glanced over at the ops officer, who nodded that he was ready. The navigation officer entered the commands into his console and the Olympia secondary hull slowly started to move deeper into the dusty atmosphere. "Course plotted and engaged sir" Remar reported. "Due to the excessive amounts of power the ship is consuming right now, there isn't much left for the engines. We will be within range of the transporter in approximately 5 minutes."

Smith nodded in acknowledgement, then tapped his comm. "Security, I'm going to need some assault teams. We're going to retake the Olympia primary hull with boarding parties. Start getting things organized. You have 5 minutes." Smith closed the channel and turned to Ensign T'Pal, who was manning the Engineering console on the bridge. "Ensign, it seems that I need some engineering teams to get the Olympia primary repaired. Head down and take over from Lt. Fire, and tell him to get together whatever he needs to get the primary hull moving again. Keep the ship together until we can get away from this mudhole." The vulcan woman nodded and immediately left the bridge and her spot was taken over by a human male that Remar hadn't been introduced to yet. Commander Smith was back on comm. "Lt. Fire, I'm sending Ensign T'Pal to relieve you in Engineering. Get some engineering teams together and report to transporter room 3. Be prepared to beam over to Olympia primary and get the ship moving."

<Lt. Fire>

Lt. Remar kept a careful eye on his instruments as preparations for the assault got moving. The secondary hull was operating well past it's limits and any mistakes right now could turn fatal quickly.

[Deleted]

.:.Main Engineering.:.

James continued to watch as more and more systems began to flash warning lights. The core had even started to buckle slightly under the stress being placed. Now the ship suddenly began to move forward, but before he could see why his commbadge ignited. Over the buzz of his engineering staff he heard Commodore Smith's voice..

"Lt. Fire, I'm sending Ensign T'Pal to relieve you in Engineering. Get some engineering teams together and report to transporter room 3. Be prepared to beam over to Olympia primary and get the ship moving."

"Understood." He replied just in time to see the vulcan ensign walk into engineering. He then turned his attention to his other staff members. "Alright Lieutenant Davis and Lieutenant Matthews stand over here. Ensign Bradshaw and Ensign Akita make your way towards transporter room three with the Lieutenant's. Crewman Bent and Petty Officer Lewis come with me."

He turned his attention to the ensign and smiled, "Ensign T'Pal she's all yours."

"Understood sir." T'Pal replied and watched as the team made their way out of engineering...

.:.Transporter Room Three.:.

James and the two that were with him entered the transporter in time to see the other four engineers gathered around. So he approached them with the PADD of the primary hull's layout. "Alright Commander Rose cut out power to their engines and weapons among some other key systems. Our primary goal is to bring the engines back up to speed, and improve the life support systems."

"We will be divided into three teams Lieutenant Davis, Ensign Bradshaw, and Petty Officer Lewis you three will make your way to the engineering decks and begin work on bringing the engines back online. The rest of you will make your way towards the bridge in order to bring power into the navigation controls. Lieutenant Matthews will lead the other team. Myself and Ensign Akita will take power from auxilary to primary then head towards engineering to help with the engines. They are the primary goal in this mission."

<Whenever your ready Remar>

[David Tan]

"So when am I going to be allowed to get back to the Bridge ?" Tan asked, exasperatedly.

"Well I wouldn't like you to ret ....." Carron began, but David interrupted him.

"How long before we reach Pelgram ?"

"We're coming up on the system now." the tactical Officer said, then resigned himself to the fact they needed Tan on the Bridge, "OK ... OK Commander, in my 'professional' opinion, you are fit to return to duty." Mike sighed.

~~~~~~~~~~

"I've scanned the whole system Commander. There's no signs of out two missing sections." Carron said.

"But their last report said they were here. Have you made a thorough scan, including the moons ?" Tan asked.

"Yes." Mike replied, "But I'll run the scan again."

David watched the screen as the tertiary section of the Olympia entered the Pelgram system. The governing senate had it's base on Pelgram four. It was the logical place to start ... Tan had a small problem though. He wasn't sure who else could be here. True, he couldn't locate the other two sections of the ship. This could mean that Commodore Smith has gone after the primary section.

"Sir ...." Carron said, a puzzled look forming on his face, "I'm picking up readings from Pelgram four. Or rather from the lower atmosphere, stratospheric level. It's almost as if ...."

"What ?" David said.

"I'm picking up two contrails. Low in the atmosphere, and getting lower. From what I can make out the objects are of a duranium-tritanium composite. Approximately one hundred kilometers apart, but the higher section is falling toward the lower one ... Going off size and mass, I'd say we have found our missing sections."

"What the hell are they doing ?" Tan said, glaring at the screen as if it would give him the answers he sought, "Try contacting them !"

Sandra tried every frequency she could, without reply. It was possible the atmosphere was preventing any Comms. She informed Tan no luck ..

"Zal'Nar ... I want everything you can give me. Get me over the Olympia. Sandra, keep trying to make contact. Ensign Carron, scan the system, if there is anything bigger than a suitcase heading our way I want to know about it and have a weapons lock."

A chorus of 'Ayes' and everyone jumped into action.

On the Secondary Section:

Remar checked his instruments.

"No sir. We would be at within transporter range under normal circumstances, but interference from the planets magnetic field and atmosphere will require us to close to within ten kilometers."

"All right, close to ten kilometers" Smith ordered.

"Due to the excessive amounts of power the ship is consuming right now, there isn't much left for the engines. We will be within range of the transporter in approximately five minutes."

Remar kept a careful eye on his instruments as preparations for the assault got moving. The secondary hull was operating well past it's limits and any mistakes right now could turn fatal quickly. It was then he noticed the Comm indicator. He ignored it. It was flashing on several panels as well as his own, and he was too busy flying ............

[Deleted]

Location: Bridge

Lt. Remar

Remar was walking a fine line with the person who was manning Olympia's operations console. The secondary hull was well beyond its' maximums as far as power production and utilization went, so any change required a careful rebalancing of power from other systems. It was difficult to control the ship as most systems were on manual override. The computer would have shut down most systems as a safety precaution as everything was severely stressed. "We don't have enough power for all of the transporters. We could try beaming the assault teams over in stages." the man said.

"Not acceptable" Commodore Smith said. "Boarding parties have to go in all at once. Delays will allow them to respond."

Remar pulled up the power utilization window on his console as he piloted the ship towards the primary section. Every bar was up in the red zone. "We could steal the energy from the shields."

"That would leave us defenceless. We can't do that!" the tactical officer protested.

"We will have to lower the shields anyway so that we can transport away teams" Remar replied, his logic inexorable. "By redirecting the power into the arrays, we will be able to transport all away teams at once."

Smith closed his eyes. "The weapons on the primary hull have been disabled. The threat that we may face from them is minimal, assuming they haven't fixed them. Lower shields early and redirect the energy to the transporter matrix array through the ventral relay."

The officer checked his instruments. "Ventral relay is already at 117 percent capacity. It's being used to cycle power to the tractor beams. If we try to use that, we'll blow every plasma conduit on Decks 17 to 24. They're nearly there now."

"Starboard secondary relay?" Remar suggested.

The ops officer shook his head. "104 per cent capacity. It's carrying power for shields, life support and the inertial dampers."

"Is there anything on the ship that isn't being used past capacity?" Smith asked with exasperation.

The officer studied his monitors. "The primary relay in the mess hall is only at 7 per cent"

Smith and Remar stared at the officer in surprise, then the commodore chuckled. "Well, I guess that it's the mess halls turn to save the day. Do it."

As the Ops officer started redistributing power, Remar noticed that the comm light was flashing on his board. It seemed that every light was flashing at him, so he had no idea how long someone had been trying to contact them. "Sir, I have an incoming transmission."

Smith looked over at Tactical. "Where did that come from?"

"No idea sir" the tactical officer replied. "Sensor power has been cut back to support other systems. We only have a range of about 50 kilometers. I can tell you it's not the Olympia primary hull trying to talk to us."

Smith scowled. "I hope that they're friendly. Continue with assault operation and open a channel."

<Incoming comm>

Location: Transporter Room 3

Lt. Commander Kyle Dobson

AS the ranking officer that had been present when the Commodores' assault order came down, Lt. Commander Dobson's life had gone from relatively quiet to completely overturned in seconds. The possibility of an assault on Olympia primary had been discussed already. The reports from Commander Rose had been analyzed and some preliminary thoughts pulled together, but organizing an attack in a few minutes was generally not recommended.

Dobson shrugged inwardly as he readjusted the strap of his phaser rifle. The reality was that everyone had been expecting this call and getting the teams together had only take a few minutes. His squad of heavily armed men were standing in transporter room 3, ready to beam aboard once the all clear was received from the bridge.

Two groups back, he could see the Chief Engineering officer, Lt. Fire and his engineering team getting ready to go. Dobson and his team would be transporting into main engineering, to be followed immediately by the next security team. It would be up to them to secure engineering. Once the area had been cleared of whatever hostiles could be found, the engineering team would transport over and begin effecting repairs to the ship.

A number of other security teams were ready across the Olympia secondary hull, ready to secure the most vital sections of the ship. There were teams going onto the bridge, auxilliary control, main security, computer core and a few others. All with the same orders, neutralize any hostiles and take control of the primary hull. Dobson had read Commander Rose's reports and felt that her assessment that of 30 hostiles aboard the primary hull was probably correct.

Dobson nodded and his team tramped onto the transporter pad. He looked back at the transporter chief, who was watching his console carefully. "30 seconds till we're in range" he reported.

Dobson nodded and looked back at the Engineering team. "Lt. Fire" he said "don't beam over till you get the all clear. Be ready for anything when you get there. My understanding is that those who took Olympia primary used some type of biological weapon on Commander Rose. If you see anything odd, get into your biohazard gear or transport away."

<Lt. Fire>

Dobson gave what he was hoping was a confident smile to the Chief Engineering Officer and got his platoon onto the transporter pad. They assumed a standard transport assault formation, with their backs to one another and weapons facing outward. Dobson took the opportunity for one last comment. "They're sure to know we're coming. Shoot first and ask questions later."

"Within transporter range" the transport officer said.

"Energize" Dobson replied, and took a deep breath. It could be the last one that he would take.

<Anyone>

[Deleted]

.:.Transporter Room Three.:.

"Lt. Fire" he said "don't beam over till you get the all clear. Be ready for anything when you get there. My understanding is that those who took Olympia primary used some type of biological weapon on Commander Rose. If you see anything odd, get into your biohazard gear or transport away."

James nodded, "Understood." He looked at his engineering staff each one was carrying with them some engineering equipment and a phaser strapped to their hips. James trusted that the security teams that were going in before him would get engineering cleared. He turned his attention to his people, "Change of plans get the computer core and engines up first then we will make our way to the bridge." He said and led them to the transporter pad.

It would be a moment, but eventually a crackling voice would come over his commbadge being Lieutenant Commander Dobson,

"This is...Dobson..cleared..go when..."

James tapped his commbadge and replied, "Understood Commander." He turned and nodded to the transporter chief, "Engergize!"...

.:.Bridge.:.

The Petty Officer sitting at the engineering station watched as the transporter room reported that all teams were on the other ship. "Commodore all crewmembers are on board the primary hull."

<Smith>

.:.Engineering/Primary Hull.:.

James and his team materialized in a darkened engineering wing of the primary hull. The air inside was stale, and before anybody had the chance to relax he began making orders. "Lieutenant Davis and Lieutenant Matthews begin repairs on the engines. Ensign Akita bring power to the internal sensors so that the others aren't blind. I also want internal communications." He stepped towards the life support system and opened his kit and began to troubleshoot it. The damage was limited and it only took him a moment or two to fix it.

"Sir, we have internal sensors and communications."

James turned and looked towards the ensign and smiled nodding before tapping his commbadge, "Lieutenant Fire to Commander Dobson, we have power to the internal sensors, life support, and internal communications." He said walking towards the screen that shown where all intruders and friendlies were located. The intruders were marked with red dots. And, starfleet personnel were lit up in blue, "Sir the bridge is heavily guarded with at least eight of them. They are everywhere throughout the ship, but that is the most guarded location." He said.

"And, I am unable to restore power to the turbolift to the bridge its jammed. The computer core is partially inactive the only location with control is engineering to keep the bridge out of it."

<tag dobson>

[Deleted]

Location: Olympia Primary Hull. Deck 14.

Lt. Commander Dobson stuck his phaser rifle around the corner that he was sheltering behind and fired several blind shots down the corridor. There were some satisfying explosions, but the main point of the action was to allow one of his men to cross the open corridor to the other side. The man did so, leaping across the gap to take cover behind the opposite corner. Dobson glanced at the man, Ensign Fisher, who nodded that he was OK. Fisher then unslung his rifle, took a breath, leaned around the corner and squeezed off some more fire down the corridor at whoever it was they were fighting. Dobson did them same, forcing his opponents into shelter. Whoever they were, the opposition seemed content to allow a stalemate to develop. Too bad for them Dobson and Fisher were just a diversion. Abruptly, two bodies flew across the corridor and into the opposite wall. A hand came cautiously around the corner and waved an all clear sign. Dobson and Fisher left their position and jogged up as the man who had waved checked the two hijackers. "Report" Dobson ordered.

"These two are stunned and won't be waking up for a while. Flanking maneuver went very well. The starboard access crawlway was open" the lieutenant reported. "We caught these two completely by surprise. No casualties."

"Good" Dobson grunted. Then his comm badge chirped and he listened to Lt. Fires' report.

"Good work Chief" Dobson said. "Keep it up. My squad has just cleared out Deck 14, so you now have access to Auxilliary Control. I'll leave some men here to guard it just in case. I took a quick look inside Auxilliary Control. It looks like the hijackers spent a fair bit of time in there trying to get the ship to work. They did a fair bit of damage."

<James Fire>

"Alright, my next target is deflector control on Deck 7. I guess that we'll have to start climbing. I'll keep you posted on my progress." Dobson hesitated for a moment, then said "We've been taking some casualties and the Olympia secondary doesn't have the power to beam them over right now. Do you think that you can find some way to get some care to the injured?"

<James Fire>

"All right. Our casualties are being taken to Holodeck 7 on Deck 22. We've been sending prisoners there too. Dobson out."

The commander pulled out his tricorder and tapped into the internal sensors. The small screen quickly showed the closest red dots on Deck 9, in and around the main security office and armory. Dobson smiled grimly and got his men moving towards the nearest Jeffries Tube for the climb up. He could see them, but they couldn't see him. Today was going to be a bad day to be a hijacker.

As his squad moved, Dobson tapped his comm badge. "Dobson to Olympia secondary. I have a sit rep. We have assumed control of the primary hulls engineering section, auxilliary control, along with Decks 39 to 14. Lt. Fire has restored life support, internal sensors and communications. Attacks proceeding on deflector control, bridge and other sections. We have taken some casualties. I have 2 dead and about 7 injured. We have taken out about 20 hijackers. Still about 20 to go. Any orders?"

<Olympia Secondary Bridge>

[David Tan]

Tertiary Section ...


Tan sat forward in the Command seat as the Tertiary section arrowed toward Pelgram four. The screen showed the blue green planet getting closer and closer, but would there be anything left to rush toward ?

"Sensors ?"

"Nothing yet." Mike said.

"How long before we attain orbit ?"

"Fourteen minutes .... If you want us directly above the other sections ?" Lieutenant Beswick said from the Helm.

~~~~~~~~~~

Those fourteen minutes seemed like hours as they approached the planet. David watched as on-screen the two sections of the Olympia battled to save themselves from total destruction. Readings showed the secondary section trying to lock a tractor beam onto the primary hull. But both sections were struggling to maintain power. David had no idea how he could help them and his frustration was growing.

"Is there any chance we could lock onto both sections ?" Tan asked, already knowing it would not be possible.

"We do not have the power reserves required for such a task." Zal'Nar replied, "It could, possibly hinder their own efforts. We simply do not have the mass to effectively pull them out."

"Orbit in three minutes Commander." Sandra said.

Mike Carron was frowning. He had been scanning both sections constantly, and now the distance had closed, his reading were beginning to improve. 'If I didn't know better, I would have swore that is weapons fire' he thought, adjusting the scanners minutely.

"Commander ... I can't be one hundred percent sure, but I think there's firing on the primary section."

"What ?" David asked, turning to face the Tactical Officer.

Carron shrugged.

"Like I said, I can't be sure as the readings are sporadic, but I think there may be some sort of fire-fight going on down there."

"Put us in a geo-synchronous orbit above the Olympia sections. Mike, see if you can get anything more out of those sensors. I want a Comm link as soon as possible to Commodore Smith."

"What the hell is going on down there !" Tan said ..........

[elianabetor]

Watching the Nurse fuss over Rose, E’Liana went into her office and paced up and down. She really didn’t want to have to do this; she had a patient to care for. Deciding that her moaning wasn’t very constructive, E’Liana forced herself to download all the information she had onto a PADD and get a grip.

E’Liana made her way to see the Captain, dreading what she had to say. She tapped the PADD nervously as she stood in the lift, wishing she didn’t have to do things like this. But this is what it meant to be the Chief Medical Officer.

She arrived and sought out Smith. “Sir” she said, deciding to be overly-professional in the hope that he would realise the seriousness of the situation and of the information of the dreaded PADD in her hand.

Smith turned to face her, an inquisitive eyebrow in the air. She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t say what she needed to say, so taking the cowards way out, E’Liana wordlessly handed Smith the PADD and waited for his reaction.

<TAG Smith>

[Deleted]

Lt. Remar was developing a massive headache from the constant demands of their present situation. The main computer had been moved to a secondary control stance as the automatic safeguards would probably have shut the entire ship down due to the excessive demands being placed on the Olympia Secondary hull. That being true, the crew was using manual controls to keep the ship functioning. It was becoming a lost cause as systems aboard ship became overly stressed and malfunctions started to occur. That shifted more and more load onto less and less systems, which caused the remaining systems to shut down faster. The end result would be both ships spiralling to their doom on the surface of Pelgram 4.

Remar took a fast glance around the Bridge. Every console was manned by personel attempting to avert catastrophe, with Commodore Smith trying to coordinate everyone and making sure that their efforts were contradicting or interfering with one another. "Sir, inverse power coupling on Deck 17 has shut down due to excessive thermal buildup. Switching to backup!

"NO!" the Commodore exclaimed. "Engineering is using that backup already to augment power transfer to life support, inertial dampers and a number of secondary systems. Use the auxilliary coupling on deck 3."

"Yes sir, the Ops officer said. Remar had learned that the man's name was Lt. Fernan and he was one of Commander Tan's subordinates in Operations. He seemed to be very good at his job, but everyone on the bridge was becoming exhausted.

As the ship wasn`t really moving that much and navigation wasn`t really required, Remar had been handed responsibility for sensors, ship auxilliary systems, transporters and tractor beams. It was all being routed through his console, and there were so many flashing red and orange lights the Vulcan barely knew where to look most times.

He saw that the plasma conduits on Deck 12 were well past their pressure limits and was trying to reroute when he saw an unexpected anomaly on the small window he had committed to the sensors. He finished the reroute, then said "Commordore, I have picked up that sensor anomaly again. I have a weak signal, range 35 kilometers in orbit above us."

Smith shook his head. "I wish they would help us or go away. Try to raise them again Remar."

"Yes sir"

Remar bled off as much power as he could from Life Support, dumped it into the communication system and opened a general subscpace comm channel. "This is the USS Olympia to the unknown ship orbiting Pelgram 4. Please identify yourself."

[David Tan]

"This is t ..... SS Olym ..... to the unknown ship ..... iting Pe ..... ram 4 ..... lease iden ....."

"We're receiving a transmission Commander. I'm trying to clean it up." Mike Carron said, working hard.

"How low are they now ?" David asked.

"Entering Pelgrams thermosphere. Sixteen hundred kilometers."

"Can we get below them ... Maybe use the tertiary section to 'nudge' the two sections higher. There's every chance they will make orbit if we can push them." Tan said, more an idea than an actual question, but Zal'Nar answered.

"If we drop below five hundred kilometers with the weight of the other two sections, approximately one point one million tonnes combined, we will suffer the same fate as those two if continuing on their present fall."

"Take us into the atmosphere .. Try to contact the secondary section and inform them of our plan."

After dropping behind the falling sections, Tan watched as the outer hull began to glow a dull orange, then brightened to a brilliant white as the temperature climbed. The view-screen showed them nothing, so the Helm Officer was going off the sporadic sensor readings on her panel.

The two sections were some eight hundred kilometers ahead, and almost one thousand below the falling tertiary section. Inertial dampers strained as the arrow-head shaped section tore a hole through the dense atmosphere. It took less than two minutes to reach the height of their targets, and another to close the distance to less than one hundred kilometers. 'It is now or never' Tan thought as he tried to make out the ship sections on the disrupted view-screen.

The tertiary section slipped below her sister sections and Tan asked for a dorsal view. They could see the primary hull now. Scarred from both atmospheric friction, and what was obviously weapons fire.

"OK ......" Tan said, trying to keep the nervousness from his voice, "Put as much power as possible into the dorsal shields. Helm, begin to bring us up toward the hull."

'COLLISION ALERT ... COLLISION ALERT'

The computer began to repeat, before Carron muted the voice. The ship shook violently as the shields made contact. Every fiber of Tans body was telling him this was wrong, but he had committed himself, the crew, and the section to this course of action. If it failed it could mean the total destruction of the Olympia.

"We're still falling Commander. Ten meters per minute."

"Increase our relative rate of climb." he ordered, doing the mental arithmetic to tell him how long before he would reach the point of no return ..........



< tag : Secondary & Primary Sections >

[Deleted]

<Lt. Commander Kyle Dobson aboard USS Olympia Primary Hull>

Dobson watched as his chronometer counted down. Just before it reached zero, he nodded at Ensign Fisher and the two of them, along with the rest of the platoon, flattened themselves against the wall of the access corridor that was against the starboard bulkhead of the Olympia bridge. The bulkhead here was thin, with no bridge consoles in front of it, which allowed them to use the fusion cutter they had picked up from stores.

When Dobson nodded, Fisher typed commands into his tricorder and the device activated. The fusion cutter created a fusion beam in a rectangular shape and was normally used for mining or rescue operations. The cutter immediately and quickly cut a large, rectagular hole in the bulkhead. Several of Dobson's team rushed the opening. Simultaneously, the doors to the non-functioning turbolifts were forced as well by Starfleet away teams. Dobson waited, but there was no firing. He cautiously stuck his head around the corner, On the bridge, there were 4 hijackers with their hands up who had finally decided that discretion was the better part of valour. "Get them down to the holding area" Dobson said wearily, and the hijackers were bound and escorted off the bridge.

Dobson sat down in the Captains chair and glanced around the bridge. Consoles had been pulled apart and worked on, conduit was torn out and rerouted and there were instruments and tools everywhere. The hijackers had obviously been working to try to get around Commander Roses' lockouts, and not very successfully. The bridge was a mess. He looked at his men. "Take a console and see if you can get the ship to move", then tapped his communicator.

"Lt. Commander Dobson to Olympia. We have retaken the primary section of the Olympia. All hijackers are dead, wounded or captured. It is imperative that you transport Commander Rose to the primary hull so she enter her command codes which will allow us to take control of the ship and get it out of here. Dobson out."

<Olympia Primary>

[David Tan]

'SHIELD CONTACT ... HULL STRESS EXCEEDING DESIGN SPECIFICATIONS'

"Knock the computer warnings off." David said, watching the Bridge beginning to shake itself, and them, into oblivion, "Increase our relative rate of climb."

"We are twenty two percent above our maximum safe power output Commander." Zal'Nar said.

"Rate of fall is slowing ..." the duty Helm Officer said, "... Less than one meter per minute ... Leveled off ... We're beginning to climb ..."

"How long can we sustain this rate of climb ?" David asked, breathing a sigh of relief, though knowing they were not quite out of the proverbial woods yet.

"Less than seven minutes." the Engineer said, checking his readings, "That is not adequate time to attain a sustainable orbit for all three sections."

"Any way we can contact either section ..... They must know we are trying to help them back into orbit !"

"Electromagnetic interference from the shield contact is making comms impossible." Sandra said.

There was nothing else he could do. The tertiary section would exhaust the bulk of her remaining power pushing over twice her weight through the thick, clinging atmosphere of Pelgram four. When their power reserves reached ten percent, David would have to make a choice ... Continue to push until the engines simply ran out of fuel, falling the thousands of kilometers to the surface, and certain death, or ... Drop away from the primary and secondary sections. Increase speed and once ahead he would continue to rise until he reached the safety of open space. The only saving grace was the fact the smashed view-screen prevented him having to watch the remainder of the Olympia plummet into the ground at six times the speed of sound ! ..... He looked up. Picturing the one point one million tonnes trying to crush through the shields. He hoped with every fiber in his body that someone would restore power to the primary section before he had to make his decision.

"Time before we need to drop away ?"

"...... Five minutes forty five seconds." Carron replied.

"Give me a minute count." Tan said, leaning forward in his seat, "Helm ... On my command drop five hundred meters then punch us out of the atmosphere ... Understood."

Everyone on the Bridge fully understood the order .. At zero they would leave the rest of the Olympia to her fate ...

"Five minutes ....."

The Bridge remained devoid of talk as the minutes began to count down ..........




< tag : All ..... 5 mins & counting >

[Deleted]

Lt. Remar was nearly out of options for rerouting power aboard the Olympia. There was little else to do besides watch the sensor screen as the mystery blip slowly approached. Finally, the scans beeped. "Sir, it's the Olympia tertiary section. They are on an intercept course" the Vulcan reported to Commodore Smith.

"Well, that's good" Smith muttered as he fiddled with the command panel on the arm of his chair. Remar couldn't tell what he was doing from where he was.

The the comm panel beeped at him again and he looked down. "Sir, incoming message from Olympia primary. It's Commander Dobson. He's requesting that Commander Rose be beamed over to enter her codes so that they can take command of the primary section."

"Belay that" Smith said, then started tapping more quickly on his chair. Because his station was controlling communications right now, Remar could see that Smith was implementing a direct routing command to the Olympia Primary hull main computer and entering his personal command codes to unlock the primary's main computer, then he said. "This is commodore Smith. Transfer command functions of Olympia Primary Hull to Lt. Commander Dobson."

"Affirmative" the computer aboard Olympia primary replied.

Smith opened a channel to the primary hull. "Commander, you have access to all primary hull functions, and I see from our sensors that the tertiary hull is here as well. Let's see if the three of us can get out of this mess."

"Aye sir" Dobson replied.

Startled, Remar looked back at his sensors. He was paying too much attention to what Smith was doing and not enough to what he was supposed to be doing. "Sir, Olympia tertiary has moved aft of us and is closing slowly. It appears that they are going to try to nudge us up out of Pelgram 4's atmosphere."

Smith shrugged. "That's as good a plan as any." He closed his eyes, then opened them and said "Engines, shields and inertial dampers have full priority. Shut down everything else, keep life support at minimum. If we can't get away from this planet now, we never will. All power to engines and shields. Contact Commander Dobson and tell him what's going on. You should warn this ship as well."

"Aye sir" Remar replied, then contacted Commander Dobson and filled him in on the plan. Once complete, he turned his attention back to his console. "Sir, Olympia tertiary is closing. Range 1000 meters. I'm shutting down the collision warnings now."

"Thank you lieutenant" Smith said. "I've heard far too many warning klaxons today." Smith opened the main intercom. "Olympia Secondary hull, this is Commodore Smith. All sections, brace for impact."

Remar kept his eyes on the sensors. "100 meters...50 meters...20 meters". Remar grabbed his console and held on. The Olympia secondary hull shuddered as the tertiary hull nudged it.

"Impulse engines to full" Smith ordered. "Let's get out of here."

U.S.S. Olympia - Tertiary Hull Bridge

Lt. Commander Dobson couldn't really believe what he was seeing on scanners. One starship physically pushing another was well beyond his experience. Certainly nothing that had ever been covered at Starfleet Academy. He shrugged inwardly. There was nothing to do but help out. Now that he had the ships command codes, he could actually get this ship moving.

"Lt. Fisher, run the core up to full, transfer energy to engines, shields and tractor beams. With the primary hull assisting, we should have enough to do something" he ordered.

"Yes sir" Fisher replied, and started entering commands. "The primary section is taking about 30 percent of the load off of us. We'll have enough to get into a standard orbit."