Carl Torek
Command Staff ..
Site Executive Officer Ranks Officer
Fleet Admiral
"UTRINQUE PARATUS"
Registered: Jun 17, 2006 22:34:35 GMT
Posts: 6,163
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Post by Carl Torek on Aug 12, 2017 0:50:52 GMT
Stardate : 2403.01.0812 - 06:30 hrs USS Raven-C Spacedock ... Carl walked into the Observation Lounge, eyeing the assembled Officers as he took his seat ... It had been a long road but they were finally going to be venturing out. "Good morning everyone ...." he said, accepting the cup of coffee from his yeoman before she left the Command Staff to their meeting, "I trust you all had a peaceful nights' sleep and are well rested." everyone commented in reply, some in the negative but with grins all round. Satisfied he began the meeting: "As you are all aware, we have some new faces among us. I have made an exception to our normal protocol of having only Department Heads in here, basically due to the obvious fact that we, as well as the other surviving vessels, have lost people, therefore, those present will be de-facto Department Heads until such time as we can fill the position or appoint those Officers to their respective roles in their own right. For those new to this, I'll go around the table so we all know who is who ... I'll just go around the table, as good a way as any." he read the list off: Commander 1st Class Andae Blakus | | Acting Executive Officer
| Ensign Anna Fields | npc | Pilot / Helm Officer |
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| Commander 1st Class Andae Blakus | | Chief Engineering Officer | Commander Harry Wedlerson | npc | Chief Operations Officer | Lt Commander Lysia T'Seng | npc | Chief Tactical / Security Officer |
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| Ensign Flynn Donat | | Chief Medical Officer | Lieutenant Jor Svensson | npc | Chief Science Officer | Lt Commander Miral Grel | npc | Ships Councillor |
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| Colonel Lew Burwell | npc | Senior Marine Officer |
"Make no mistake. I have every faith in your abilities and I know some of you are a little shocked, possibly surprised, to suddenly find yourself in charge of a Department on a Starship. Commander Blakus and I will obviously be around should you need help in any way, not that I'm expecting a queue at my door." he said, soliciting a chorus of laughs, "OK, introductions over. I believe the Enzio is due to depart at zero eight hundred hours, barring any complications we shall be directly behind her. We will be heading for a cluster of stars in a region designated Alpha Circinus Zero One One. Both vessels will stay in formation for the first few hours, both covering the other as we go through a series of checks and scans. Once Section Admiral Gheskori, Admiral Tetsutaro, and Myself are satisfied, we shall look at entering the region one our own headings, ensuring communications are maintained with both each other and the Starbase." Ensign Fields tentatively held up a hand. "Ensign, there's no need to wait for permission to speak in here." Carl said as a couple of the old hands suppressed wry grins, "I run, what was commonly known in old Earth Military jargon as a 'Chinese Parliament' which stems from a branch of the Military, the Parachute Regiment to be precise ... Basically, it means everyone around the table has an equal right to speak up should they have something to add or a question asked. That's not to say I'm not in charge, but I much prefer my Officers to be able to speak freely regardless of rank, so if you have something on your mind then feel free to share." "Erm, yes Sir ..." the young woman said, now more self-conscious that everyone around the table was waiting on her, "I was just curious if we had any time-frame Sir." "This is essentially a recon' outing." the Executive Officer explained, "So we're looking at two maybe three days, depending on what we find. Both or either ship could extend that if they feel the need, we'll just see how it goes." "Was there somewhere you needed to be Ensign ?" Calli asked, noticing Torek's frown in the corner of her eye as she looked at the newest member of the Command Staff. "No I erm ...." Fields began. "Relax Anna. I was joking." Calli said with a grin, happy the woman accepted her comment and visibly relaxed. "Right, we have an hour or so, let's make sure there's no unexpected issues before departure. I'd hate to get stuck in the new space-doors." Carl said, getting up, the others following suit, apart from the Helm Officer, who seemed to be imagining the consequences of trapping Sovereign Class Starship in the doors until Calli leaned in and whispered something in her ear. Carl was satisfied he'd made the right decision of a replacement Helm Officer. there was no way of knowing if their Gyniod, Marionette, would be able to return to duty, if at all. her injuries, despite being an Android, were extensive. They had lost their fair share, as had the other ships, but nothing in comparison to the tens of thousands the Starbase herself lost, but they would prevail, he was sure of that much ! "Anything else ?" he asked ..........
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Carl Torek
Command Staff ..
Site Executive Officer Ranks Officer
Fleet Admiral
"UTRINQUE PARATUS"
Registered: Jun 17, 2006 22:34:35 GMT
Posts: 6,163
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Post by Carl Torek on Aug 15, 2017 19:35:47 GMT
Glancing up at the chronometer above the large viewscreen Carl could see that it was three minutes to eight ... Both the Raven and the Enzio were due to depart at zero eight hundred ..... "All umbilicus separated Admiral, we are floating free. Thrusters at station-keeping." "Thank you Ensign." he said to the Acting Navigation Officer, "Keep your eye on the Enzio, she'll be going out first with us following. Once we reach ten thousand kilometers from the Starbase we'll come alongside and make final checks." he looked around the Bridge at the faces of his Senior Staff, some had been with him for a long time, others were new, at least new to the Raven. This was going to be a learning curve in every sense of the word, not only for them, but for the seasoned Officers and the USS Raven-C herself. This was truly going into the unknown for everyone, and where they once had the comfort of of the Federation to watch over them, they no longer had that luxury. They were four Starships, four in trillions upon trillions of cubic kilometers of space never before ventured into. Even the fastest probes, launched twenty years ago would still take over eighty years to even reach this area of the Galaxy. "Sir, Command is signalling we are clear to depart." the communications Officer informed him. "Understood, relay our readiness and inform them we are waiting on the Enzio." Carl ordered. The layout of the Sovereign Class Bridge differed from the Galaxy and he glanced to his right to see Commander Blakus, his Chief Engineer and importantly his Executive Officer sitting watching his own screens, the seat to his left, normally reserved for the Ships Councillor was empty. He glanced at the screen and could see the Enzio still in position, Admiral Gheskori would be doing as he was, checking everything was in readiness, thinking on their upcoming assignment, ensuring safety came first and foremost for both ships. "Sir. Communication from Command ... Admiral Tetsutaro." "On screen Lieutenant." the viewscreen changed, showing a view of the Starbase Command Center and the Bridge of the USS Enzio: =^= Admirals .. I wished you safe journey .. Following engine and system checks at the designated distance you will head in formation for Alpha Circinus Zero One One .. A minor cluster approximately fifteen Light Years distant as arranged .. Once you are satisfied there is no open danger you will investigate the cluster at your discretion Gentlemen .. Remember .. We Gentlemen must collect every piece of information for our Science and Research Divisions =^= =^= Understood =^= Carl replied, eyes flicking to the Section Admiral as he too confirmed the pre-arranged instructions. =^= Then we shall delay you no longer .. .. Command Center .. Out =^= They both knew that it was vital that the Starbase get every byte of information be retained for further study on the Starbase itself ...... The comm closed and the view of the interior of the enormous Dome returned, Carl could see the warning lights surrounding the massive Space-doors flashing as they slowly parted. All four Starships had been through those doors, or the opening that remained before they were restored, numerous times, but this time would be different, this time they would be moving further away from their home since the disaster. The El Salvador and the newly commissioned Maracanda would be remaining with the Starbase. Long-range sensor sweeps had shown that they were to only object in the quadrant, but that could change and the two remaining vessels would need to defend the Starbase should the need arise ... When the Raven and Enzio return, the El Salvador and possibly the Maracanda would venture forth to begin their own explorations. It had been decided that initial mission duration would be seven to ten days, depending on what was found, so at least none of the ships would be away too long ... "Admiral, the Enzio is moving towards the Space-doors." Ensign fields informed him from the Conn. "Very well ... Manoeuvring thrusters ... Drop us in behind them then once clear move up to one thousand meters off their Port Aft Quarter Helm." "Aye Sir." As he watched the four hundred fifteen meter Prometheus Class Enzio glide past the Raven, two hundred seventy meters longer than her companion vessel, he couldn't help wonder what they would find out there .......... OOC : Feel free to reply on your mission thread regarding the aforementioned pre-launch communications with the Command Center Admiral ... Regards.
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Calli Valente
Starfleet Intelligence
"Don't get in my way."
Registered: Aug 4, 2010 21:19:10 GMT
Posts: 534
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Post by Calli Valente on Aug 19, 2017 23:07:31 GMT
* Backpost *Stardate: 2403.01.0811 ... After duties divided her between both the Raven and the Starbase, Calli had finally got back to the ship. She was in her quarters enjoying a glass of wine, the first she had managed since the disaster which had struck them so long ago it seemed. She had been coordinating the disposal of the tens of thousands of deceased that had been stored in the central core of the four kilometer tall Starbase. It hadn't been an easy task and had taken delicacy and a amount of sensitivity to those lost ... The surviving relatives, if any, had all attended services throughout the length and breadth of the 'base saying their private goodbyes then the bodies had been sealed in a styroplast coating before being joined in groups of one thousand. Only then were they released through the lowermost section of the 'base to drift downwards in perpetuity, their descent into the abyss would be slow, less than one kilometer per day. An automated marker buoy was set in place ten kilometers below the Starbase, it's repeating message a dedication to those lost ... It was hoped that one day the deceased would be recovered and returned to their home planets to be interred by loved ones.
She checked the time, even though she held no 'official' position on the Raven she was due to report to the Bridge at zero six hundred hours and prior to their getting underway. it was still early, at least early for her, so breaking with her routine of one glass of wine to help her sleep, she decided on a second, she had earned it in her humble opinion, she went to the cabinet and took the bottle out, pouring a refill. Back on the settee she picked up one of the numerous PADD's and began to skim through the information. Five minutes later she was asleep ... * Current *Stardate: 2403.01.0812 - 05:47 hrs ... Showered and dressed Calli ate breakfast, just toast and juice, then left her quarters. She made her way to the Bridge, looking pristine despite the turmoil of the last months. She sat in her seat. the seat normally reserved for the Ships Councillor, but given Commander Grel had made it perfectly clear to everyone, whether they listened or not, she wasn't a Bridge Officer and had better things to do than watch those qualified do their jobs. She was qualified in her chosen profession and didn't expect, nor did she desire, for the Bridge Staff to sit in on her appointments. She remembered Carl's expression and grinned, it wasn't often that anyone stood up to the Fleet Admiral despite his being approachable. "Morning Commander. You're early ... Trying to impress the Boss are we ?" Harry Wedlerson said suppressing a playful snigger. "Says the man who was here when I arrived, your [word deleted] only 'officially' begins at zero eight hundred hours you know." she replied, trying and failing to kick the Operations Officer in the shin as he passed her seat. "Did you get a chance to look over the proposals I sent you Commander ?" Harry asked. "Hmm, so formal ...." Calli said, then adopted her serious tone, "I did actually, there are some good points in there, I've always thought Starfleet put too much emphasis on reports detailing reports and so-forth, I think your idea of one detailed report for the Exec' could cut down on people spending time at terminals when they could be working, and given our clear lack of personnel we need them doing their jobs. I've sent your idea's to Commander Blakus for review, see what he thinks and then we'll let the Admiral take a look." "Commander Blakus has read them, he said sent them to you actually." Harry said. she couldn't tell if he was joking or not. "What's our status ?" she asked, changing the subject. "All ready to go." he replied as Carl and Andae stepped off the turbo-lift ..........
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Andae Blakus
Moderator ..
Commander 1C
Registered: Oct 17, 2007 22:48:27 GMT
Posts: 1,452
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Post by Andae Blakus on Aug 24, 2017 15:00:08 GMT
Blakus walked onto the bridge and took his Executive Officer's seat, unable to get used to the high back and annoying head-rest. Usually when he was called upon to act in his capacity as first officer on duty, he was sitting in the central chair which didn't have the same aggravating contours, or he was on the bridge of the USS Raven-B, now unfortunately several megatonnes of scrap at a fleet yard - he was still to adapt to the C.
A couple of hours went by and the time to departure neared, then arrived and the two starships left their moorings and made for the exit. Once outside the space doors, the Raven moved to slot in alongside the Enzio.
Blakus had moved to the engineering console and was running a last diagnostic on the warp core system before they activated it for an anticipated 'relatively' (not in the Einsteinian sense) low speed supralight journey. He ordered simulations run for whatever speed Torek may consider best suited for their recon, including the warp 9.995 max rated (the best available with the temporary absence of transwarp capability) should it be seen as in their best interest.
As part of a mutually agreed program to improve their reaction speeds and multi-tasking capability, Blakus played a casual - though rapid - chess game with Milyanov while the two were also exchanging data on the impulse manifolds and antimatter containment quality. "D3 to H7," he mumbled.
Milyanov looked at him in horror and the screen blacked out. A few seconds later, Blakus began receiving text only responses through his console, the manner in which the rest of the ad-hoc diagnostic would apparently be conducted.
Antimatter containment was at about 96% of optimum efficiency, with the magnetic field strength fluctuating slightly at one pole; Blakus ordered a new batch of 4-D solenoidic particularates from ship's stores, having been pleased with the results of the new technology on a previous occasion - he saw it as having the potential to remagnetise the weak pole. If they delayed the installation and the ship was kind enough not to blow itself up in the meantime during warp flight, he would supervise that installation himself, all the same appointing Taylor to begin seeing to it immediately.
The impulse driver coils were a slightly different story, operating perfectly at full impulse but exposing strange deficiencies at 'tick over', such that - if the drive was engaged during the error that occurred every half hour - 175% of the normally required energy would be needed to accelerate the ship to quarter impulse, like a carburetor motor that occasionally needed a kick start. There was a significant drain somewhere in the system.
He made a note to himself to read up on the recondite area of research that discussed dividing 4-D particularates into modified deuterium atoms and - what was at current - an unfortunately large number of gamma rays. This might allow these prospectively very useful solenoids to be used in the impulse drive, where the impossibility of the solenoids being perturbed by the energy draining effect would play to their advantage, if only Blakus could find another subspace layer to send the unwanted gamma rays into.
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Carl Torek
Command Staff ..
Site Executive Officer Ranks Officer
Fleet Admiral
"UTRINQUE PARATUS"
Registered: Jun 17, 2006 22:34:35 GMT
Posts: 6,163
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Post by Carl Torek on Aug 26, 2017 0:06:22 GMT
Moving in behind the Enzio, the Raven followed her through the doors and into open space for their first 'official' recon' missions ... travelling at only one quarter impulse, the two massive Starships edged away from their home until they reached the prearranged location, then both came to a halt, each of their crews checking and double-checking systems before venturing out. Carl was on the Bridge when the Comms Officer informed him that the Enzio was contacting them: =^= I'll take North and you take South .. .. =^= the conversation ended and they watched as the Enzio turned to Port, moving away and off screen, Carl nodded to the Helm Officer: "That way then Ensign ..." he said, pointing in the relative opposite direction the Enzio had taken, "Warp four please." The USS Raven-C jumped into the nether-realm of warp velocity ..... ~~~~~~~~~~ They had selected a distance of two Parsec's as the furthest point from the Starbase, which in reality still covered an enormous amount of space, fifty Parsecs or a tad over one hundred thirty three Light Years in total area, should they wish to explore the two Parsec radius as a sphere. "Anything on long-range sensors ?" he asked after an hour. "Several systems, non that have any M Class planets so far." "Anything worth taking a look at ?" he asked, trying to hide the combination of boredom and impatience, "Never mind ... continue long-range scanning." he said, getting out of his seat and moving to the replicator, a luxury the Galaxy Class Raven had never had. he requested coffee, black, hot then eyed the viewscreen while he waited. He knew he was being unreasonable with himself, he had learned long ago that patience was paramount in exploration, a new speciaes, of new element, new form of power, didn't just land in your lap after the first hour, far from it ..... Day Two: SD 2403.01.0813 - 06:19 hrs ...Carl was asleep when the comm chirped to life, Chloe moaned in her sleep as he answered: =^= Torek .. .. =^= =^= Admiral .. Wedlerson Sir .. We have picked up anomalous readings on long-range sensors .. .. We have designated the system: R-001 .. .. =^= =^= What have you found commander ? =^= Carl asked, already dressing. =^= Unsure yet Sir .. Nothing biological but it looks like some of the readings show manufactured materials .. Could be an abandoned world =^= =^= Change course .. Contact the Starbase and send all our information to them .. Send it to the Enzio too .. I'm on my way =^= He leaned over and kissed Chloe on her head before leaving their quarters. Bridge :: "Sir, the system is unremarkable but we are picking up heavy metals." Harry said as Carl approached. "Why are you at Science Harry ?" "I'm assisting Lieutenant Svensson, he's on Science One ......" Wedlerson said, before falling silent. "OK." Carl said forgetting for a moment that the layout was unlike the Raven-B, realising he should have known as he walked over to Science One. "We are concentrating scans on this System, RS-001 and the fourth Star, designation RS-001-S4- ..." "Who came up with these designations for heavens sake ?" Carl asked. "They are temporary Admiral." Harry informed him nodding to the Science Officer to continue: "Erm ... Fourteen planets, two with something approaching breathable atmosphere, the problem is, both appear to be somewhere pre-neolithic, if we use the Earth as a comparison that is, yet there are signs of heavy scarring on both planets, could be naturally formed due to severe weather conditions millions of years ago, but ... These readings here, and here ..." Svensson said, pointing to his screens, "I'd say there were anything but natural phenomena." "It's possible some space-faring race used the planets as a dumping ground ?" Harry suggested. "..... And the chances of these 'dumpers' returning unexpectedly ?" Carl asked, eyebrows raised as Calli entered the Bridge. Harry could only shrug. "Find something interesting ?" Calli asked. "Do you really need to be so cheerful first thing in the morning ?" Wedlerson asked her jokingly, "It's annoying ..." she punched him in the arm and turned to the screens. "Send our findings to Enzio and the Starbase. Increase speed to Warp six." Carl said, moving away from Science before dropping into the Center Seat ..........
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Andae Blakus
Moderator ..
Commander 1C
Registered: Oct 17, 2007 22:48:27 GMT
Posts: 1,452
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Post by Andae Blakus on Aug 31, 2017 3:44:54 GMT
Blakus had been joined at the engineering console by Milyanov and two junior officers, helping him study in concert with the science officer the strange scarring effect observed on two of the planets in the system they'd just visited.
Between them, they were keeping up a running commentary on their efforts, with interjections now and then of unrelated nature from Blakus, who began to hold forth on chess and astronomy problems before he was curtailed by one of the junior officers, interrupting in order to prevent Milyanov from joining in and causing the work to become unproductive.
The thing which had immediately occurred to Blakus was that the scar tissue wrapped about segments of the two worlds was the result of heavy weapons fire - orbital bombardment. He suspected he'd assumed the worst, or the best, despite the consternation the knowledge of such a bombardment would bring.
Geological action taking place over billions of years, or during a specific historical epoch, he concurred was a likely cause of the deep ravines and blasted plateaux, but the objections that it didn't appear natural - far too symmetric - were valid as well, and lent weight to the possibility of an orbital bombardment. Planets on which life existed or may have existed millions of years ago had been known to man since the dawn of the space age, with the first studies of Mars and its - at that time - curious surface of dry river beds and eroded mountain ranges.
The symbols of inhabitability found on Mars had however been entirely random in distribution - what the crew of the Raven found here was close enough to being symmetric to leave them slightly exasperated that they could find nothing else.
"Ah, what's this..." Milyanov muttered, displaying a topographical map at the Mission Ops station he was now manning, behind Blakus's forward facing console. The image showed a mesa system, four mountain ranges cutting in to form a rough lattice work, graphics overlaid picking out the peaks as well as the deepest ravines, "The data is showing a strong twin tachyon source emanating from the northwestern peak and the western ravine system. I'd say it's a decayed beacon, perhaps something used for a distress signal, or even an old cloaking device, that operated say..." he ran over some calculations on the console, "3.2 million years ago."
"No sign of activity anywhere else on the planet, if you discount the regular system of planetwide ravines and other features," Svensson spoke from the science station.
"Sir, detecting an object in our path, 0.3 lightyears distant," Wedlerson reported, "A comet... No, an asteroid, it's largely immobile with respect to galactic rotation and has little or no tail." This seemed mundane.
"What's notable about this particular asteroid, Commander?"
Wedlerson turned in his chair to Torek, "It's 6,000 km across, sir. It's literally in our path."
Blakus became aware of the exchange and chipped in, "That sounds more like planetary debris, a fragment of a world, at that size. Then again, rogue asteroids aren't that uncommon." The immobile asteroid appeared on the viewscreen; it was something they could easily steer around, Blakus thought, and nothing of interest was detected on the object itself, at least by Svensson's initial reports.
Studying that dim metal-grey object, glinting with the faint light of a very distant star that layered its illumination over sharp surface relief, Blakus mused on where such a thing could've come from. Perhaps from that relatively nearby red giant star? The remnant of a fractured old planet made brittle by the proximity of the expanded giant, this fragment cast into interstellar space? He shrugged and looked back to the engineering console; as he did so a jarring voice resonated in his mind, combined in his mind's eye with a silhouette walking out of an infinite distance, eclipsing something bright, this was overlaid on the after-image of the ancient planet remnant/asteroid; the humanoid outline faded and the voice pronounced its words again in his mind, Now I shall speak of terror as none has spoken of it before.
Blakus's eyes darted about furiously, he furrowed his brow, studied the back of his hands, tapped the console with his fists, shook and gnawed at his subconscious; the voice was gone. Dare he say something, would they think he'd had something of an episode? Yet say if something had possibly been triggered by, or something had communicated with him from the asteroid out there. Would it put the Starbase at risk if he didn't say something? He decided to keep quiet until a possible recurrence.
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Carl Torek
Command Staff ..
Site Executive Officer Ranks Officer
Fleet Admiral
"UTRINQUE PARATUS"
Registered: Jun 17, 2006 22:34:35 GMT
Posts: 6,163
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Post by Carl Torek on Sept 2, 2017 0:36:43 GMT
Recon Day Two - 17:50 hrs :: They had been out for three days now but maintained contact with the Enzio and the Starbase itself every twelve hours for progress reports ... "What's notable about this particular asteroid, Commander ?" Carl asked, thankful of the distraction. Wedlerson turned in his chair to face Torek: "It is six thousand kilometers across, Sir, and it's literally in our path." "That sounds more like planetary debris, a fragment of a world, at that size. Then again, rogue asteroids aren't that uncommon." Blakus mused. Carl wasn't sure why, but he had the distinct feeling that simply bypassing this asteroid might not be the wisest thing. He sat watching the object, essentially a massive rock in space, still millions of kilometers ahead of them and still stubbornly in their way. "Do we have any more on the anomalous readings from the System ahead ?" he asked. "Not much more Sir, we'll need to be much closer to confirm our hypothesise." Wedlerson answered. "OK, drop us from warp. Let's take a look at that asteroid, least we could do while it's taken the trouble of getting in our way. Bring us to a complete stop fifty thousand kilometers from it." he ordered ... The Raven dropped back to sub-light speed and cruised towards their goal at full impulse. Ensign fields watched her console, making sure she did as instructed, and as required the distance approached she began to slow the massive vessel, until finally coming to a complete stop. "We are at fifty thousand kilometers Admiral." she confirmed. "Begin scans." Torek ordered, "Looks like almost every other asteroid to me." he said, a wry grin on his face. They were in no real hurry, so devoting an hour or so to the rock ahead wasn't going to hurt them in any way, and the information gathered would come in useful for other mission profiles. He got up and requested a coffee from the replicator before returning to his seat. "That's the third cup today." Calli whispered. "I didn't realise anyone was counting." he said, the cup slowing as he brought it up to take a drink. "Touchy." she said with a snigger as Harry spoke: "From the configuration of the asteroid I'm inclined to agree with Commander Blakus, you can see the stress fractures along the left side, moving diagonally upwards, if it's the same around the back it's highly likely that it was blasted away from a planetary object, possibly as a result of explosive disintegration following massive tectonic movement, an earthquake type event but far surpassing anything Earth suffered, maybe in the region of a Level Ten or higher on the old Richter Scale, causing uncontrollable break-up of the body. We should send a shuttle to investigate ......" "Andae ?" Carl said, turning to his Exec' "Can't hurt to take a look." his Chief Engineer and Executive Officer replied, making Torek look at him for a long moment before someone got his attention. "Hmm, OK then, Andae, I think Commander T'Seng can handle this one, you or Lieutenant Milyanov should go, oh, that Geologist, what's her name, Bonnute too, she'll have a field day over there." Torek ordered. < Tag : Andae / Milyanov >"Let's continue scanning the System ahead ...." Carl said, "Helm ... Move the ship laterally until we can focus sensor array's on the system ahead, but keep the asteroid in view on screen. Harry, if there are any signs of trouble I want that shuttle back in the bay inside three minutes, understood." "Yes Sir." Wedlerson confirmed, "I'll keep a remote lock on the shuttle." "Are there any other signs on our current trajectory that a planet-sized object suffered catastrophic break-up ?" Carl asked. "Nothing within range of our sensors Admiral." Lysia T'Seng said, "Though it is possible the Enzio could pick up something relevant to our current investigations." It was a long-shot and he knew it, the asteroid could have been travelling through space for millennia for all he knew, but if that were so, how would they explain the 'convenient' suppression of it's headlong flight into the unknown to place it directly in their path ... He wasn't a great believer in 'coincidence' and seldom accepted things on face value, it wasn't a trait of Starfleet Officers otherwise they would never have left the Sol System in his opinion. Of course, it could have collided with another celestial body and been brought to a relative halt by pure happenstance, the secondary object being flung into the blackness on it's own adventure, he couldn't rule that out completely. he thought back to a few moments earlier, and his glance at his long-time friend, he couldn't quite shake off the sensation that something was amiss ..........
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Andae Blakus
Moderator ..
Commander 1C
Registered: Oct 17, 2007 22:48:27 GMT
Posts: 1,452
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Post by Andae Blakus on Sept 9, 2017 22:48:14 GMT
"Hmm, OK then, Andae, I think Commander T'Seng can handle this one, you or Lieutenant Milyanov should go, oh, that Geologist, what's her name, Bonnute too, she'll have a field day over there." Torek ordered.
Blakus nodded and turned to pat Milyanov on the shoulder, gesturing to T'Seng who'd also board the shuttle, "This one's for you, Lieutenant." He then spoke to Carl,
"Admiral, I feel it's best... that I remain here - I can work with Svensson to resolve more of the anomalous readings of the two worlds' unusual and regular topographical features."
Still shaken from the strange experience - could it've been an hallucination of unprecedented intensity, moreso than those he'd experienced with those extreme migraines when still in Italy, before he'd joined Starfleet? The thought of any recurrence terrified him, remembering well those tortuous travails - ... still shaken from the 'vision', he began analysing with Svensson the curious system of mesas on the world with the higher incidence of scarring features.
Keeping the asteroid/planet fragment on its right, the Raven moved so as to face the large star system; the many planets splayed out before them on the viewscreen, orbiting the parent star in their ellipses that were drawn primarily around two axes of rotation (more than one was unusual for any system regardless of number of worlds). Blakus felt ready to make his report to the Admiral,
"Lieutenants Svensson and Milyanov's initial survey has now been confirmed, sir. There are two very old tachyon sources on one of the two 'scarred' planets, likely forming a beacon, whose age we approximate as 3.2 million lightyears. Either a civilisation once inhabited the world - perhaps both of them going by the scarring in the crust - or possibly a ship was stranded here and sent a distress call. Whoever was here - society or crew of a ship - they're surely dead and gone. Perhaps the USS Enzio's survey will complete this picture, if they find similar signs of old habitation."
He was beginning to gain the impression - considering also the enigmatic asteroid/fragment - that this whole region of space could be an ancient battleground of sorts... As the idea drifted out of his mind, the impression came to him of a sharp razor edge, or a point, a tip of a knife, pressed against his temple, accompanied with a shrieking noise - all in his mind's eye... He forced himself to focus on the viewscreen and its hypnotic dance of planets.
Shuttle Agruvium
They banked towards the imposing fragment, its jagged contours catching distant starlight and giving the impression of a piece of shrapnel or a torn twisted girder. Milyanov did as instructed by T'Seng - commander of the shuttle expedition - and began scans of the 'dark side' of the asteroid, that which faced away from the Raven and which may reveal the phenomenon's exact nature...
He raised his eyebrows, "Preliminary scans seem to show the same stress fractures we saw from the Raven, indicative of this mass having been sheared away from a planetary body some time in the distant past."
"How distant?" Bonnute asked from the tertiary console (equipped with science functions).
"Too far out to tell," Milyanov shook his head, "Perhaps a few hundred thousand years. Looking at this, though, I'd say that rather than any tectonic disturbance per se being responsible for the fracture, it's more the result of a collision... a world struck a world, sent this section of one of them spiralling into space." Yet how did it come to a halt?
They slipped out of sight of the Raven, passing behind the planetary fragment and observing the roughly conical protrusion that when still part of its jigsaw would've been deep in that planetary body (which must've been mainly rock; no magma, no molten core or perhaps one of small volume).
Gliding close to the surface now, Bonnute, who'd been peering fascinatedly out the viewscreen announced, "I'd like to land and take some samples."
T'Seng shook her head, "That's not in our mission profile." She hesitated and added, "I'd have to call the CO."
<Tag Torek>
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Carl Torek
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Post by Carl Torek on Sept 10, 2017 10:50:46 GMT
"..... perhaps both of them going by the scarring in the crust ... Or possibly a ship was stranded here and sent a distress call. Whoever was here, Society or crew of a ship, they're surely dead and gone. Perhaps the USS Enzio's survey will complete this picture, if they find similar signs of old habitation." Carl nodded, agreeing with Andae's summation of the readings at hand. He looked back at the viewscreen, the asteroid or planetary fragment to the right of the screen as the Raven realigned herself to be able to have 'line of sight' of both objects under investigation. He was tempted to call the El Salvador to assist, but knew he shouldn't preempt ... If this 'was' the result of some unfathomable war that left both combatants decimated or having to flee, they may find something useful. he was well aware of the fact that if they were right, whomever was involved my have reestablished a home relatively close to the Starbase, in Galactic terms obviously. They needed to find a way home, that would mean possible interaction with new Races, it was a given that not all would welcome the Federation with open arms, but that was for later ... He was about to consider moving closer to the secondary point of interest when the Comms Officer spoke: "Sir, shuttle on Comms." she said, Carl nodded. "On screen Lieutenant." =^= Commander =^= he said as the face of Lysia T'Seng appeared. =^= Admiral .. We have completed initial scans and are about to go around the back side of the Asteroid .. Lieutenant Bonnute feels we should to land to gather physical samples =^= Carl looked at Andae, still at Science Station Two. "There's nothing on long-range scans apart from the Enzio. It's stable, can't hurt to have some samples." he said. Carl returned his attention to the viewscreen: =^= You don't think it worth taking a look around the far side before making any landings Commander ? =^= Carl asked. =^= We could make one circumnavigation to conduct scans but I don't envisage any problems Admiral =^= Bonnute interrupted. =^= You cannot know that Lieutenant .. I know you are keen to get to work but we have protocols in place and need to follow them .. The rock isn't going anywhere .. Is it ? =^= =^= No Admiral .. My apologies .. .. .. =^= =^= OK .. Make a couple of orbits if there are no issues you can take the shuttle to the surface on this side .. Ensign Fields will send you suitable landing co-ordinates .. I want to have you in sight at all times .. Permission for Lieutenant Bonnute to 'EVA' .. Lieutenant Milyanov you will accompany the geologist .. Listen .. First signs that anything is amiss you get off the surface .. Understood ? =^= =^= Understood Admiral .. Beginning descent now .. T'Seng out =^= ..... Shuttle Agruvium ::Lysia surrendered control to Jan Milyanov who was better suited to Pilot the shuttle to a landing, she turned to Elise Bonnute.
"Get suited up Lieutenant, you have your walk on the Asteroid. Twenty minutes maximum then we're out of here, no arguments."
"OK." the woman said, climbing out of her seat and going to the back of the shuttle where she began donning an environmental suit. Milyanov would do likewise once they were down, but first they needed to make two orbits ... Scans showed nothing remarkable and they were cleared by the Raven for a landing.
Milyanov checked the co-ordinates supplied and nodded. He could see the patch ahead and to their Port, it was uneven but would allow the Agruvium to touch down without too much trouble. There was an outcrop of rock on the left side and he angled the shuttle to come in way right, allowing the micro-gravity to pull the shuttle downwards balancing the decent with thrusters. At thirty meters he pitched the shuttle five degrees to Port and watched as it yawed sideways complimenting the forward momentum .... At two meters he checked the ground scan, satisfied there was solid ground beneath them and decreased thruster power slightly, the shuttle touched down with barely a shudder. Milyanov retained thruster power for several seconds then disengaged. Agruvium pitched two degrees nose-down then settled ... Jan got up, T'seng immediately taking his seat as the Engineer moved to the back and began suiting up.
=^= Comms check =^= Milyanof said.
=^= Comms green .. Lieutenant ? =^= Lysia said, looking at the geologist.
=^= Comms working =^= she confirmed. Lysia activated the force-field separating the rear cabin from the rest of the shuttle.
=^= Stay within thirty meters of the shuttle .. .. =^= she ordered, lowering the rear assess door ..........
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Andae Blakus
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Post by Andae Blakus on Sept 11, 2017 15:20:31 GMT
Andae looked over Svensson's shoulder as the man continued scans of the mysterious world that lay a few billion kilometres ahead of them, a hand braced on the support strut as he studied the topographic map Svensson had reestablished. "This would seem to indicate habitation as little as 2.95 million years ago," Svensson said, "The rock sediment shows a layer that might correspond to an ancient city, sir, approximately 11 square kilometres in size."
The CEO turned, "Admiral - " he began, but the words died in his throat - he didn't want to alert Carl until they were sure what they were dealing with.
Signs of a very old society having been present on the world was a breakthrough, yes, much more significant than they'd thought previously (where there'd just the possible suggestion of old inhabitation, or even just a single ship once stranded here millennia ago), but they didn't have enough evidence yet to form any sort of report.
"What else do we have? And why didn't we see this before?" he asked the science officer.
"The settlement was buried under a particular type of sediment that'd encased within it quartz-like filaments of an uncommon type, of a refractive index that's also receptive of tetryonic particles." Svensson turned around, waving a pointed finger back and forth over the highlighted area of the screen showing the old settlement, "Subspace interference, any type of interference at all - communications, choppiness in the waveforms constitutive of the main manifold subset - could've been responsible for interacting with the quartz in such a way that it masked our sensors. And..."
Blakus had stopped listening, the words pouring past his mind that was seeing images behind the retina, things exploding onto his vision in asteroidal and primal form; Blakus focussed on Svensson's arm, started to hunch over, chatter his teeth, lift one foot and then the other; again he focussed on the arm and thought he might like to use the ulna as an implement, something to cook his tea with, or rather kill his tea and then use the bone stir the meal in a boar skin-covered cauldron.
He snapped out of it and collapsed in his seat, feeling exhausted and unsure of his location; after-images of the silhouette in his mind, eclipsing the unknown object, flickered in his internal vision, in tandem with the echo of the silhouette's voice, resurrection regeneration resurrection regeneration.
"Commander?" Svensson called.
"I'm... I'm fine, I'm fine," he shook his head and rose again.
Shuttle Agruvium
"That's 30 metres, Lieutenant," Milyanov called, seeing his fellow EVA-suited officer making off across the splintered grey landscape in the opposite direction to him, the other side of the shuttle, though just in sight. He saw Lysia T'Seng's outline in the window of the craft, looking over her controls and doubtless nervously glancing up at the two asteroid explorers to check they were still within range.
"Aye," Bonnute radioed back, and bounded back towards the shuttle some way, having been about to cross the threshold.
Milyanov approached a rocky outcrop in the shadow of a cliff - the shadow being very faint, this face of the cliff in darkness due to the distant light of a red giant star. He stooped and collected his last sample, a glittering quartz-like object of a type he'd never seen before this landing. Now he'd observed half a dozen and had collected them, too. They seemed endemic about this landing area, which had been chosen so they could analyse the rupture point where the planetary fragment was thought to have parted with its 'parent planet' and where, hopefully, the best clues would be offered for how the cataclysmic event had taken place.
"These quartz samples are odd," he radioed to both, "Given their molecular structure, I'd say they weren't native to this rock, or to the wider planet they came from. They could well have been deposited by the astronomical body - whether planet, moon, asteroid - that made contact with the planet."
There was a build-up of pressure beneath them, and before they could alert one another - though all knew of it - three geysers releasing compressed gas exploded in their vicinity, one of them only three metres from Milyanov. He yelped and bounded away, his sense wanting to carry him towards Agruvium but in his momentary panic he being carried in whatever direction afforded the best avenue for escape. "Bonnute! Back to the shuttle!" he called as he stumbled and fell in the dust; the geysers jetted unremittingly, the ground shook, the very thin atmosphere carried the sound as a distant hiss.
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Carl Torek
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Post by Carl Torek on Sept 12, 2017 17:11:13 GMT
Sat on the Bridge he watched proceedings ... His Officers were doing their jobs, reviewing their findings and discussing the information gleaned from the myriad of sensors the Raven possessed ...He listened as they spoke about the possible City seemingly buried thousands of years previously, but why, it kept coming back to the same options: A war, natural disaster, voluntary mass evacuation ? "The settlement was buried under a particular type of sediment that'd encased within it quartz-like filaments of an uncommon type, of a refractive index that's also receptive of tetryonic particles." Svensson turned around, waving a pointed finger back and forth over the highlighted area of the screen showing the old settlement, "Subspace interference, any type of interference at all .... The Science Officer stopped speaking and had turned to look directly at Blakus, who hunched over, appearing to be almost in trance-like state. Carl got out of his seat and approached his Exec' slapping his comm badge to order Medical Staff to the Bridge immediately. Andae, as suddenly as he had entered his bewildered condition suddenly snapped out of it again. Svensson spoke to him a second time. "Commander ?" "I ..... I'm fine, I'm fine." Blakus shook his head and rose again as Doctor Donat accompanied by a Medic entered the Bridge. Andae pushed the Medic aside insisting he was OK but the Chief Medical Officer insisted he stand still, or go to Sickbay. Reluctantly Blakus ceded. "Slight sign of hypoglycemia, nothing we can't remedy." the Medic said placing a hypo against his patients' neck and activating it. "Not been eating lately Commander ?" Donat asked. "I'm eating just fine, thank you." he said, glancing at Torek before returning his gaze to the Medic, "Are we done now Crewman ?" the Medic looked at his CO, Flynn nodded. "You are perfectly fine now, but I will want to run complete tests once time allows." the Doctor said, making it clear to Blakus that the comment was more order than suggestion. "Could it be something to do with the region of space we're in Doctor ?" Carl asked. "I don't think so, bio-sensors would have picked up ant foreign particulates in the ships atmosphere, but we'll run tests to be sure. I'd like one of the Science Department to do likewise, just to be sure though." Andae turned to Svensson and instructed him to set someone to do the checks from one of the Labs on Deck Seventeen. "I'm OK Admiral." Blakus said quietly to Carl before returning to Science Station II ... Carl accompanied his Executive Officer, not to keep watch over him but to see what information was coming in regarding the System ahead, and from the Asteroid below them. He could see the System far in the distance, the planet they were concentrating on was third from the Star. It occurred to him that it would have been an almost unthinkable war to force whole races to abandon their home Systems. Again they still had no proof of any war taking place, but something had devastated the System ... Shuttle Agruvium ::Lysia sat in the Pilot's seat watching the two outside. She had set a perimeter of thirty meters and was watching the Geologist as she moved away from the shuttle and heard Milyanov warn her she was at the limit. Bonnute turned then waved back at the shuttle before dropping to one knee. She un-clipped the shoulder pack and began taking out an small array of tools. Milyanov was scanning approximately ten meter to her left as she began taking small samples and packing them into containers.
She was still working at trying to dislodge a stuborn sliver of glass-like shard from the surface, one hand on the clamp the other bracing herself on the floor when she thought she felt a tremor. She stopped immediately and settled herself, glancing first at Milyanov, who was walking towards a small outcrop from the steep and jagged rock face, then the shuttle.
=^= These quartz samples are odd .. .. Given their molecular structure .. I would say they weren't native to this rock or to the wider planet they came from .. They could well have been deposited by the astronomi .. .. =^=
Again the surface beneath their feet began to shake, much more violently this time, and before either could react the ground exploded around them !
=^= Bonnute ! .. Back to the shuttle ! =^= Milyanov shouted as he slammed into the crystalline surface. Elise too had been thrown off her feet but further from the shuttle than Milyanov. She turned onto her stomach and placed her gloved hands on the surface to push herself up as the alarm sounded:
* WARNING - SUIT INTEGRITY COMPROMISED - LOOSING ATMOSPHERE - NINE MINUTES THIRTY SECONDS REMAINING *
* WARNING - SUIT INTEGRITY COMPROMISED - LOOSING ATMOSPHERE - NINE MINUTES THIRTY SECONDS REMAINING *
Lysia had been thrown out of the Pilots seat when the geysers had erupted. She quickly got to her feet and ran forward, trying to locate the two outside in the dust-strewn landscape but could see nothing. She could see a shadowy outline of the closest geyser and worried one or both had been injured, she opened a Comm:
=^= Shuttle to Milyanov .. Bonnute .. Come in Away Team .. .. .. =^=
The shuttle lurched to Starboard suddenly and she was forced to grab hold of something or be flung back yet again. It lurched sideways, tilting at almost fifteen degrees, warnings began to emanate from the shuttles' computer, she manually silenced the warnings and tried to contact her companions again but with no luck.
"Computer ... Lock onto away team and transport immediately !"
* Unable to establish lock * the shuttles' computer informed her calmly.
"What is the structural integrity of the Asteroid at this point ?"
* Fracture expanding .. Estimate six minutes to complete failure *
She opened a comm to the Raven but was greeted with static ... She looked through the windows at the swirling maelstrom outside, Bonnute was out there loosing atmosphere from her suit, Milyanov was not responding to her comms. She realised that she had little option but to try to get them back. She ran to the back of the Agruvium and quickly began suiting up. She requested co-ordinates of both Officers on the surface, Milyanov was closer, but as far as the shuttle's systems could tell his life-signs were strong, so it was possible he had just lost comms, Bonnute was her priority, the Geologist had less than ten minutes of air left and would suffocate if not helped immediately.
clicking the helmet into place she secured a second suit puncture kit to her thigh and decompressed the shuttle. As she stepped into the swirling cloying dust her forearm screen activated showing the locations of Milyanov and Bonnute. Milyanov had moved since the first geyser had erupted and seemed to be heading in the general direction of where he last saw Elise, that was good because he was still alive and not severely injured. She instructed the shuttle to activate all exterior lights 'Maybe we can at least use them as a beacon to get back if all else failed' she thought.
Bonnute was twenty one meters away to her left, she moved away from the shuttle until she had 'line of sight' then turned until the line indicated the woman was directly ahead. The second line indicated Milyanov was less than ten meters away but may as well have been a thousand in the swirling dust.
She took her first step and felt the ground beneath her boot subside a fraction ..........
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Andae Blakus
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Post by Andae Blakus on Sept 13, 2017 19:03:45 GMT
A red triangle appeared in his helmet - the indicator for Bonnute - showing that her suit had been compromised. The dust clouds had become so thick - kicked up by the jets that continued to eject and erupt all round them - that he was completely blinded, and he blundered right into the low cliff face he'd encountered earlier. Something came loose.
A minute later, a third indicator (added to his own and Bonnute's) lit up in his helmet - T'Seng had made egress. He took a few uncertain steps then shook his head, activating his radio, =/\=T'Seng, this is Milyanov. I'm unsighted. Bonnute's got a suit puncture... Commander? Commander T'Seng?=/\= It took a moment for him to realise his suit comms were offline; he espied now through the storm his severed comm array lying in the dust at the foot of the cliff, torn free when he'd impacted with the rock. Now he was brought to a complete standstill as the suspended dust particles and gas were lit up brightly, reducing visibility to a few centimetres. "What the...?" He swung to the source of the light that'd diffused throughout the airborne particles and eventually found it: the Agruvium's floodlights had been lit; while he no longer could make his way through the storm to Bonnute, and perhaps T'Seng if she'd chosen to see to Elise's puncture, he at least had a point of reference in the form of the shuttle.
He made his way there, having no other option in this effective isolation. He was about to board the slanted craft when there was a lull in the geyser streams, and in the temporary absence of gaseous matter cutting a hole in the view he espied T'Seng bounding her way as if in slow motion towards Bonnute's position, now just reaching the geologist.
He would've joined them, but the shuttle would need to be prepared should the conditions round here get any worse. Boarding, ensuring the quartz-like rock samples were stowed, and accessing the helm, the computer chimed unexpectedly, ~ Three minutes to failure of planetoid's structural integrity ~
"What?!" Milyanov tore off his EVA helmet and bashed the console.
~ Three minutes to failure of planetoid's structural integrity ~
"Partial..." he murmured, running over the geological survey results collated by the Agruvium and Raven's combined sensors. One segment - the one on which they were on - would soon break away along a hairline fracture from the rest of the fragment. His eyes shot to the external sensor display, showing the dots of the other away team members, =/\=Milyanov to T'Seng and Bonnute, make it quick please -=/\=
His helm seat was torn from its fitting, tossed back across the cockpit with the wheeling Milyanov taking flight with it, =/\=Aarrghhhhhh!=/\= he inadvertently screamed over the still open comm; he was catapulted out of the seat onto the aft central ceiling then crashed to the floor. He rose and yelled again in agony - his wrist was broken, at a horrible angle. A more alarming angle caught his attention now, the new surge of adrenaline quelling the pain in his wrist: in addition to slanting starboard the shuttle was now tilting back at 40 degrees; he was up against the starboard aft wall corner. He called the Raven to no avail; hopefully the ship would notice them.
"Computer... What would be your evaluation..." he scrambled upwards to the co-pilot's still attached chair, "Of the stability of the ground beneath the shuttle?"
~ The ground beneath the shuttle Agruvium is unstable. Liquid state transition metals and diverse pyrophorics are thinning the crust of the planetoid beneath the shuttle and in 73 other locations within a 100 km radius ~ Sat pinned in the co-pilot's chair, feeling the centre of gravity shifting backwards all the time, he asked the computer if there was anything to be done. ~ Recommend immediate evacuation ~ It was almost as if the computer preempted his next question, ~ Probability of crust beneath shuttle remaining intact during activation of main engines: 29% ~
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Carl Torek
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Post by Carl Torek on Sept 14, 2017 22:12:11 GMT
Away mission elapsed time : 85 minutes :: "Sir, I'm picking up minor fluctuations in the core temperature of the asteroid." "It's a chunk of rock Lieutenant, how can it suddenly be changing ?" Carl asked Svensson. "Unknown Admiral, but the internal temp 'is' increasing." "Are the away team in any danger ?" Calli asked as Blakus went over to Science II to look at the readings. "Unknown Admiral." Svensson admitted. "OK, keep a close eye on the surface, and the core. If there is any chance the away team may encounter difficulties, I want them off that rock." Carl said, standing then moving closer to the massive viewscreen as if he could see more by doing so. Alas moving made no difference. Are we still receiving telemetry from the shuttle ?" "Yes Sir, but it's showing minor tremors on the surface, nothing the away team could feel through their feet, but there nevertheless Admiral." Tor confirmed. "Contact them, get them back up here." Torek ordered. "Sir, I'm picking up ionisation that wasn't there before." Lieutenant Gerelo said from Tactical, "It's building up exponentially now." The first geyser erupted before Gerelo could continue. The Bridge Staff watched as it lanced into space, knowing they had people on the surface, "The readings are flashing through the electromagnetic spectrum, Sir, there is no way this asteroid could generate these readings. If I didn't know better I wou ....." "Admiral. There are seventeen geysers erupting along the axis of the asteroid, it's almost as if it's trying to split into two." Svensson said. "This was an completely inert chunk of rock two hours ago unless I've not been listening. So how the hell can it suddenly begin ripping itself into two ... Anyone ?" Carl asked, the question obviously rhetoric as he continued to speak, "Get my crew off that rock, do it now, before we have our first casualties in this region." "Sir, transporters cannot get a lock and comms have failed. Our sensors are showing that the area the shuttle landed is undergoing catastrophic sheering forces. We have the shuttle and the away team personnel on sensors. Two on the surface making their way back to the shuttle ... Sir, we are picking up data from the shuttle, it has slid almost twelve meter to Starboard and is resting at eighteen degrees to the plain. Data is sporadic but it looks like whoever is in the shuttle is trying to get off the surface." "It can't be Bonnute." Andae said, moving from the Engineering II and Science II stations quickly. "So either Milyanov or T'Seng are trying to get off the surface before the shuttle drops into a ravine. Can we see where everyone is ?" Carl asked calmly. "Commander T'Seng is outside the shuttle, as is Lieutenant Bonnute. Lieutenant Milyanov is currently in the shuttle." Gerelo confirmed. Carl punched the arm of his seat: "You are telling me that one of the most sophisticated vessels in the Federation can't pluck three people off a rock that is less than fifty kilometers away !" he said, making a decision, "Helm, move us as close as necessary to get our people off that rock before it splits in two. I don't care if you need to scratch the paintwork, but get us in there, understood." "Sir ... I ....." Ensign fields said, clearly out of her depth in the situation having only graduated a month prior to being assigned to the Raven as part of the Navigation Staff, and a week before the catastrophe that brought them here. "Commander Blakus. Take Helm. get us close enough so we can open a door and let them walk in." Torek ordered. Andae looked at his Commanding Officer for a fraction of a second then dropped into the vacated seat, Anna fields stood next to her console felling anything but proud of herself. She watched as the Exec' entered instructions on the panel, eyes flicking between that and the viewscreen. "Commander ..... Please." she said, turning to Torek, "Admiral, I can do this." Carl looked at Andae who was already getting up. "Very well Ensign." Carl said. "The asteroids gravity will begin to affect us as we close the distance." Blakus said offering her a snippet of advice. The massive USS Raven began to close the distance between herself and the planetary fragment which was about to claim the lives of three of it's crew if things went array ..........
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Andae Blakus
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Post by Andae Blakus on Sept 17, 2017 17:35:27 GMT
"Commander Blakus." Blakus realised belatedly he was being addressed, having been concentrating on the science and engineering stations to the degree that they'd absorbed the entirety of his consciousness. He was identical with the figures relating to the constituents of the gradually heating asteroid. "Take Helm."
He froze, aware that given the immensity of the situation duty required him to attend to the navigation console, but sharply aware of his shortcomings in piloting, "Sir, I -"
"Get us close enough so we can open a door and let them walk in."
"Aye, sir." He took the seat but thankfully Fields was willing and able to resume the post, shame overcoming any hesitancy she might feel at having to execute such a risky manoeuvre on her first space assignment. Blakus's rise from the seat was all too prompt; he returned to the forward facing, port-side engineering station, sure that should the Raven's manoeuvre fail Milyanov would know what calculations were necessary to give the shuttle the best chance of escaping from the developing ravine - and not falling into it with activation of the engines - when he made the attempt to leave the surface.
His eyes glazed over briefly, again seized by whatever it was that was inducing the trance-like states, yet not being aware that this was happening... - what was this asteroid/planetary fragment really? He did - he thought in his primate brain - believe it to be an asteroid; there were many tools one could find on such a rock, minerals for cutting, minerals for jewellery to give to the local warlord, or in past times to decorate the hovel formed at the wide base of the tree one might like to frequent.
The Raven slotted into a loose orbit allowed by the asteroid's weak gravitational field. "It's possible, sir," Blakus said as, mesmerised, he watched the asteroid undergoing tortuous revolutions, the albeit individually weak pressure of the released gases applying to the object elements of angular momentum, "That the landing of the shuttle could've upset the fragment's equilibrium... A foreign object inserted into a system causing unexpected changes in the climate, geologic processes, anything... Yes, it looks - or did look - like an inert rock, floating for aeons in space, but the complexity of such..."
He trailed off as the Raven began approaching close to the surface. On the viewscreen: the shuttle's landing area selected and magnified; Andae was able to make out details of the general area, though they were obscured significantly by the veritable dust-storm - particles kicked up by the still jetting geysers (some of which rose roughly 3km high, spewing material into space upon reaching escape velocity).
"The asteroid's body is splitting along a hairline fracture," he confirmed as they grazed closer and closer to the grey landscape, it shooting by on the viewscreen as a series of blurred lines, "Estimated time... 95 seconds until the pressures within cause a definite break." By his reckoning, the two resultant fragments would represent 70% and 30% of the unified mass.
"Slow us down, Ensign," the CO ordered calmly.
Fields wiped her brow and complied; the Raven arrested her velocity and simultaneously turned, the chassis - even with the reduction in speed - groaning slightly at the sudden stresses. On the surface, Milyanov in the cockpit of the Agruvium looked up in wonder...
Well, they might try... he thought. He'd tried once to get this thing off the surface; failed, had nearly plunged it into the depths, the forward thrusters firing uselessly into a widening chasm and actually disturbing the rocks inside, having the craft slip further into the disintegrating object's clutches. He entertained an odd thought: even if the shuttle fell into the depths, and even though the fracture along which the asteroid was to split was not to be identified with the chasm beneath the shuttle, still the Agruvium may emerge from somewhere near the core of the separated asteroid somewhat intact. Was it possible? Almost certainly not.
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Carl Torek
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Post by Carl Torek on Sept 18, 2017 16:47:12 GMT
Carl sat in silence as the exchange between his Executive Officer and the Navigation Officer proceeded, he was quietly satisfied when they exchanged places ... The Raven began to move toward the increasingly unstable asteroid ... On the viewscreen they could see the dust-strewn area where the shuttle had landed, he asked for a tactical view and they could see the shuttle resting along a rapidly expanding fracture line. "Ninety five seconds until the pressures within cause a definite break." Blakus said from beside Svensson. The asteroid was filling the whole screen now and looking decidedly too close for comfort. Torek ordered Ensign Fields to slow their approach, they could all hear the moaning of the almost six hundred ninety meter long Raven. "All stop." Carl ordered checking the tactical readouts on the lower right of the viewscreen. It showed that the asteroid was less than two hundred meters away now, yet still the Transporter Room couldn't establish a adequate lock to pull the away team out before the rock disintegrated. Frustration was beginning to build now but he remained outwardly calm, "Is there any way we could try to stabilise the area where the shuttle is situated, tractor beams maybe ? "I believe it would do more harm than good Admiral." Lieutenant Gerelo, covering Tactical said. Carl nodded, knowing it was a bad idea at best. "What are those ?" Wedlerson asked, pointing at the two flashing indicators that had suddenly appeared on the screen. "I've been making minute frequency changes to the tactical scans to see it I could pick up the away team." Gerelo explained, "It will work at this range but we'll loose them if we move away." "Still no comms ?" Blakus asked, receiving a negative response from Lieutenant Lee at Communications. "If we can get whoever is in the shuttle 'out' of it could we snatch them before the rock goes ?" "Sir, without pattern enhancers to boost the transporter signal, we would have less than seventy percent lock, if we try they could end up, well, it may not work Sir." Harry said, Even if we drop down close enough to slap the hull they would be in danger .... There's one other way that might give them more chance of survival ... If we can get the other two into the shuttle then as the asteroid breaks up we put a tractor on it, we 'might' be able to shield the shuttle enough to prevent it's destruction. It's risky Admiral because it will leave us practically no room, we would need to bring the shields as tight as possible, and hope they throw us clear rather than the, erm, alternative." "We still have the problem of how to get everyone into the shuttle in, forty fiv ..... WAIT !" Carl said suddenly thinking of something. he stood and walked to the viewscreen, Can we remotely activate the shuttles' systems ?" "Well, yes, but they would have the same issues as ....." Wedlerson began. "Andae !" Carl said quickly, "Take control of the shuttle from there, use it's transporter to lock onto the two outside. I 'know' it's risky but it's this or watch them perish, and I'm not about to do that !" "Sir, if we can't beam them off that roc ...." Harry began as Blakus worked. "We'e not beaming them off the rock, snatch them Commander, if you can't re-materialise inside the shuttle within safety parameters, then hold them in the pattern buffers. The second the asteroid splits the interference will lessen. Get every tractor beam we have on the shuttle and pull it towards us, don't worry about being tactful, Once inside our shields turn us away and jump to warp." Carl said, eyeing the countdown timer at the left corner of the viewscreen. They had seconds to act because the catastrophic break-up was beginning ! ..... Shuttle Agruvium :: Lysia crawled over to where the Geologist was lay, she could see that her left leg was fractured and at an angle that, for some odd reason, made her wonder why her suit hadn't ruptured. She tried several times to contact her then realised their comms must be malfunctioning, she thought quickly, remembering something from flight training she thought was completely useless at the time, but now ... She placed her helmet against Elise's and shouted:
"Are you OK .... ?" Bonnute didn't reply, the grimace on her face confirming the pain she was in, "I am going to try to drag you closer to the shuttle, this rock is about to destroy itself with us on it."
"NO !" the Geologist shouted through the still together visors, "Get back, you need to go, NOW !"
"I'm not leaving you here. Are you bleeding ?" T'Seng shouted, before moving her helmet away to look along the length of Bonutte's own, then placing it back to continue, "I can't see anything from here." Elise lay in silence for a long moment as rock shards as sharp as knives flew around them, then she nodded, pointing down to her leg. Lysia nodded then unceremoniously turned the Geologist onto her back. she managed to get to her knees, steadying herself with one hand on the seemingly liquid rock, then to her feet, she took hold of the two attachment points on the woman's shoulders and pulled backwards. She couldn't hear the scream, but felt Bonnute shake as if electrocuted. Knowing it was the only way she pulled again as something slammed into the back of her suit almost knocking her off her feet. Shouting with frustration she pulled once again, hoping with all her will that the shuttle was behind her and she was going in the right direction. With luck, if Milyanov saw them he might be able to come and help. Almost exhausted with the effort of trying to remain on her feet and drag the semi-conscious Geologist, she tugged gain and then again. Taking a deep breath, she was about to make one more effort when the tell-tale caress of a transport took hold. She closed her eyes ..... < Tag : Milyanov >Bridge - USS Raven-C ::"Well !" Carl demanded, watching his Officers work. "I don't know Admiral." Blakus said quietly. "SIRS ...!" They both spun to see the asteroid slit spectacularly into two massive sections. "I've got the shuttle, raising shie ....." There was no time for him to finish the sentence as the smaller of the two segments approached and smashed into the ship ! Everything went black as they were thrown like proverbial rag dolls around the Bridge ... Shields had snapped into place but only a fraction of a second before the trillions of tonnes of asteroid impacted. Had they been any more delay the Raven would have disintegrated on impact, killing everyone. Inertial dampers strained, trying to prevent everyone being turned into so much soup ..........
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Andae Blakus
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Post by Andae Blakus on Sept 20, 2017 19:16:59 GMT
The dust storm increased in intensity, its constituents propelled by the still-ejecting geysers. Despite the opacity of the dust, Milyanov was able to pick out the dull white forms of T'Seng and Bonnute making their way back to the shuttle, one dragging the other; he watched a moment longer before they were lost in the chaotic swirl. He would use the transporter, if he could but reach the console without falling to the aft of the cockpit - the shuttle was now tilted at 60 degrees. Lamenting this impossibility, a grey torus-shaped object shot up in front of him outside the shuttle and shattered the transparent aluminium of the forward viewer. Then in slow motion the fragmented screen exploded outwards.
A distant howling accompanied the deep freeze Milyanov felt pass over his body (he no longer wore the helmet, and under his warmed suit he felt the chill), as in an instant the air was drained from the craft. The depressurisation would have taken him out of his seat, but this was accomplished instead by another sharp rock, destroying what was left of the viewer and striking him in the right shoulder. He was spun out of his chair, clockwise to the port-side bulkhead, falling now down the steep incline and thudding against the aft bulkhead of the craft. Gasping for air and surprised to have retained consciousness, he reached round for his helmet; luckily he'd stowed it on a hook nearby. Where I hang my hat, he thought, able whilst struggling for survival to summon this wry thought, saying, or whatever it might be. He donned it, locking the mechanism into place just as he felt he was breathing his last, the tenuous atmosphere of the planet fragment far too thin to sustain humanoid life.
As he breathed deeply of the oxygen-rich air of his suit, lying prone on his side at this aft end of the shuttle (which now tilted alarmingly at 70 or more degrees from the horizontal, pivoting gently back and forth) with his wrist smashed, he observed two pearlescent columns forming beside him.
"A rescue party...? About time." He soon had to correct his interpretation; the columns materialised as two Starfleet officers in dust-covered EVA suits. Bewildered, he glanced about the rest of the shuttle (the other two did the same though for a different reason, wondering why they were looking 'up' at the forward viewing port). He found an explanation for their arrival in the tertiary console that controlled the transporters, it was flashing with green light. "Of course," he commed futilely, surprised then to gain a response; perhaps the magnetic field interference had lessened.
"Seems like remote activation," Commander T'Seng radioed to confirm.
"The Raven... ingenious. It's fortunate you were wearing helmets..." he began, gesturing to the windowless forward viewer, but now the shuddering started anew: the craft was dragged up from the widening crevice, pale magenta-blue tractors locked onto its prow. Overhead, the stars were eclipsed by the ventral surface of the Raven - tractor beams emanating from half a dozen places on the stardrive section - moving at first slowly above them and then accelerating as the Agruvium too was impelled forward, having imparted upon it an element of the Raven's inertia - Milyanov recognised what was being attempted: they were being brought within a close-fitting shield grid. The implications were upon him, vacuum, high velocity, no 'windshield', "We better hold on tight."
OOC: Blakus perspective coming in edit or new post very shortly; he's going to have amnesia so whatever happened is open if Blakus's part is to be merely an edit, or obviously open if it will be a new post (as a Torek or Valente post may be in between)
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Andae Blakus
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Post by Andae Blakus on Sept 21, 2017 0:18:26 GMT
OOC: Sorry for double posting in the end. I had an idea. edit: I've only just got it that this was the damage to be incurred. If anything needs changing regarding damage I can edit "I've got the shuttle, raising shie ....." There was no time for him to finish the sentence as the smaller of the two segments approached and smashed into the ship !
"The fragment is being heated by ions surging through its structure."
That was what Blakus had been reporting when the impact occurred. It was his last memory before coming to seventeen minutes later (or so he was told by a medical staff member, one of several who'd arrived on the bridge and spread throughout the ship). The impact had been colossal, and the Raven - barely able to jump to warp, able to use the bowshock from the combined force of separation of the two fragments to ride it as if it were surf, carrying them to near warp speed which thus required little extra in the way of energy to achieve, charging the warp coils and generating the bubble) - ... the Raven was now 1.3 lightyears away, observing the fallout from the asteroid separation and evaluating the collision. The explosion of the whole asteroid was subdued, it was more a separation at just above escape velocity, with some slight strange readings detected within; the real problem had arisen when one of the sections had collided with the Raven. Blakus was in sickbay. Most of the rest of the bridge staff had not suffered as serious injuries and were on active duty on the bridge or elsewhere, though some did need treatment. The attendant doctor had him think back to the moment of the collision, but he could recall nothing. He now saw Donat in his office, who'd given the duty to see to the XO to his assistant (Donat had a good many casualties to see to, thankfully most not fatal). Blakus had been informed - at his own insistence - on a gurney en route to sickbay that, shortly after his blackout, the shields had undergone near total collapse and the structural integrity had weakened to critical levels; if they'd slipped any further the strain on the tritanium/duranium hull would've been too much to bear - the ship would've torn itself apart like papier mache. Donat eventually saw him, suggesting unhappily that Blakus would have permanent amnesia as to the rest of the event. The rest of the event (about 45 minutes ago)...
Blakus gripped his console, knuckles white, a rattle went up through his arms... He thought he'd better let go. He tried to report what he was seeing on his screen, though both it and he were shaking as the ship tried to recover from the effective hammer blow, "Agruvium within our shield grid... confirmed, sir... And, it seems they're open to space. All three are aboard." He had no idea if anyone could hear him over the sound of straining duranium, screams, and flying Starfleet officers. "They're... I think they're secluding themselves... in the rear compartment. Pressurising it, perhaps..." They had Comms attempt contacting Agruvium; no joy.
"Emergency warp, now!!" he heard the CO shout. Blakus knew they'd pre-planned to go to warp shortly after recovery of Agruvium, but they hadn't accounted for the possibility of one of the separating fragments actually colliding with them. This warp would be any speed, any direction (preferably fast and somewhere far away, Blakus thought in his despair).
He was somehow still seated at his console, "Carl..." Medics and others were arriving, others were leaving the bridge to see to other critical areas of the ship. "That fragment only hit at a velocity of about 2 km per second. But..."
"Ensure warp bubble extends round the Agruvium. Don't worry about pulling them into the bay yet, let's just get them clear..." an officer was advising a junior engineer and Lieutenant Gerelo.
"But the colliding fragment was larger than the moon Titan, Admiral," Blakus finished. He could hardly believe with the impact they hadn't been disintegrated instantly, but then the smaller fragment's slow velocity (just enough to reach escape velocity from the larger conical fragment of which it'd been a part) was a contributory factor, for the upgraded Sovereign's shields were amongst the most powerful in the fleet.
"And I think they have the rock samples they wanted." Blakus could speak no longer; he was one of the few left at their station, but now he was shaken from his seat, propelled to the ceiling, landed face down on the thin metallic tactical rail and acquired an impressive centimetre deep cut in his forehead extending temple to temple, flipped onto his back and momentarily became comatose.
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Carl Torek
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Post by Carl Torek on Sept 29, 2017 14:05:10 GMT
"I've got the shuttle, raising shie ....." There was no time for him to finish the sentence as the smaller of the two segments approached and smashed into the ship ! He barely had time to order maximum warp when the colossal segment of the asteroid slammed into their shields. Had it not been for the fact that the Sovereign Class Starship was transitioning to warp it would have been pulverised instantly, shields or no ..... The ship, initially being pushed ahead of the careering fragment had finally been able to slip beyond it's grasp but at full warp it had taken the Bridge Staff almost three minutes to gather themselves and drop from warp. Carl looked at the screen and the vaporised particulates of the asteroid fragment now forming an enormous 'tail' behind it's host. A new comet had been born today, one that would undoubtedly traverse the far reaches f space for the foreseeable future, barring a collision with another body. He was brought out of his thoughts by Harry: "Admiral, are you alright ?" he said, helping his Commanding Officer back into the center seat. "I'm OK Harry, thank you." Carl replied, looking around the Bridge, the flickering lighting making for an eerie scene as ghostly figures moved around, "Get the lights on Harry." he finished, getting to his feet. "Sir, Shuttle-bay reports they have the Agruvium. Battered and bruised but safe." the Comms Officer informed him. "Get the away team to Sickbay immediately." Calli ordered. "What do we have Andae ?" Carl asked his Exec' "That fragment only hit at a velocity of about 2 km per second. But it was larger than the moon Titan." he said, rising to his feet before falling face-first into the carpeted deck ! "MEDICS !" Torek shouted as the unconscious Blakus bled, he was unceremoniously pushed aside as two Marine Medics took charge, Carl turned back to the viewscreen, the tail of the new comet already thousands of kilometers long as it trailed behind the fragment, "Where's the other segment ?" "It was sent off on a trajectory that will take it into the dark matter cloud in due course, no danger to the Starbase. We somehow managed to get substantial readings as the asteroid disintegrated, plenty for our geologists to be going through anyway ... We have all systems up and running though I would restrict warp to three or four until our nacelles can be checked out." He was still reporting when Lieutenant Tinsley, one of the Engineering Officers entered the Bridge and walked up to them. "Admiral, we have massive structural failures around the warp core. I don't know how it held together to be honest. It will need taking off-line until we can make temporary repairs." "We have impulse ?" "Yes Sir." the woman replied. "Helm, set course for our previous position, full impulse." Torek ordered, then turned back to the Engineer, "How long for repairs Lieutenant ?" "Sir, the damage is beyond what we can do without Starbase facilities. We'll be lucky to retain confinement if we bring the core back on-line, let alone go to warp." Carl was frustrated, but he knew his Engineers were doing all they could as quickly as they could. He would never consider ignoring the information or recommendations they provided. He looked down at Blakus, who was being loaded onto an anti-grav stretcher and took from the Bridge. Tinsley's report hadn't gone un-noticed on the Bridge and it was clear that even at full impulse, which was approximately one quarter light speed, that everyone was now contemplating a four year journey back to the Starbase. "We need the core up and running Lieutenant. Commander Milyanov is in Sickbay getting checked out, he will join you once cleared by the 'CMO' ... Do what you can Lieutenant." ~~~~~~~~~~With Blakus out of Sickbay he had joined Milyanov and the other Engineers trying to get the warp core repaired enough to risk bringing it back on-line ... They had contacted the Starbase along with the Enzio to appraise them of their situation. It had been decided that they would return with all due haste and undergo complete repairs before venturing out once more. In the mean time all information pertaining to their recon mission was being reviewed by Commodore Savot. It was highly likely that they would be required to take over from the Raven in exploring their assigned Sector. Carl entered Engineering, the initial shock of the condition of the Department still in his mind. Temporary rigging had been erected to strengthen and support the warp core. It looked like something from an old Frankenstein movie his Daughters, Bethan and Vanessa, had forced him to sit through once while on leave at Earth. he couldn't help but shake his head at the scene of the once pristine Engineering Department, but it could, and would, be cleaned up and returned to it's former efficient state. He could see Blakus and Milyanov in conversation, hands gesturing this way and that as if directing rush-hour traffic ... 'I have got to stop watching those old films' he thought wryly. "How are we doing Andae ?"
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Andae Blakus
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Post by Andae Blakus on Oct 3, 2017 16:32:44 GMT
Blakus stood by the new miniature pool table that he was still to get used to. He was sporting an impressive scar that ran horizontally from temple to temple, the autosuture not sufficient in 15 minutes of use to fully heal the wound.
Fortunately, the impact on the metal rail had only penetrated a couple millimetres into his brain matter, at least that was the depth to which it'd caused some haemorrhaging, the rest of the metal that'd broken the epidermis had sliced in and out cleanly. Even more fortunately, or unfortunately from a certain point of view, the CMO's for instance, no brain damage had resulted.
"How are we doing Andae ?"
He and Milyanov had been waving their arms about, one facing towards the core, the other towards the doors beyond the pool table, occasionally glancing at one another and realising that their actions gave the impression more of a synchronised dance routine than necessary orders to save a ship's warp core.
"We should have warp power within 7.5 hours," he reported to Torek, "Antimatter injectors and lower magnetic constrictors are heavily compromised. Leaks at segments Beta 2 and 4-16. We've put a support structure in place with its own inertial dampeners - isolated from the ship's power systems - to cushion the core system and nullify any unexpected movements."
"The top of the core above the matter injectors was shaken loose from its magnetic suspension fixings and then became fused with the stardrive's chassis," Milyanov added, "Every vibration suffered by the ship passed through to the core unmediated as we briefly went supraluminal... that was when most of the damage was caused. The new support structure compensates for the loss of natural magnetic shock absorbers."
Blakus nodded and leant against the pool table. He was grateful for it, even if it wasn't the same, nowhere near the same as its equivalent on the B; he experienced a moment of faintness, wiped his brow, conscious of the scar as his fingers ran across it. "Give me a moment..." In addition to the warp core's state (and the repairs that would allow them to return to the Starbase in decent time), he was interested in what'd become of the two fragments: one on course for the dark matter nebula, the other, a comet-like section, now on a very wide orbit round a distant red giant star (rather than the less massive star which was parent to the two planets which had potentially been inhabited 3.2 million years ago).
"Andae?"
"I'm ok," he shook himself off. For once it wasn't the strange effect induced by the asteroid (possibly?) that was causing him difficulty, rather the cut in his forehead. "I had a theory about the asteroid... The unified fragment was roughly conical in shape, right? A section of a planet carved out. Now we've seen yet another separation take place, 30% of the unified fragment propelled away to become a comet. I'd be interested in following the fragment, or rather, perhaps, that duty would pass on to the USS El Salvador, or another ship. Something tells me... that perhaps that comet will undergo a fragmentation itself, and perhaps soon."
The time between separation of planet from red giant star and separation of conical unified fragment from planet, was thought to be much larger than the time between separation of unified fragment from planet and fragmentation of the unified fragment itself. This was surmised from readings gathered from the surface and early results from the quartz-like samples recovered. Perhaps the time periods would shorten exponentially, until fragmentations of smaller and smaller sections of comet would cause total disintegration within a set time, it whittled down to nothing. A simple usage of calculus might be able to predict when that disintegration would take place, but they did only have two confirmed time periods to go on.
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Carl Torek
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Post by Carl Torek on Oct 3, 2017 19:12:14 GMT
Carl was listening to the reports from his Engineering Staff when Lysia T'Seng, cleared by the Chief Medical Officer to return to duty, entered the department, she approached the group, tentatively stepping over the rubble and detritus.
"Admiral ..." she said, looking around the room, "We have received a communication from the Starbase, they are preparing to dispatch a warp Tug to rendezvous with us. They registered the destruction of the asteroid and have been trying to contact us for the last two hours."
"They must think we're more damaged than we are." Milyanov speculated.
"Well they're not far from wrong." Carl said wryly, "What did you tell them ?"
"To stand by." Lysia said.
"Andae, how confident are you that we'l have full warp capability ?" Blakus shrugged looking at Milyanov, who realised he was expected to answer:
"We never said we would have full warp available, as to what we'll manage, I'd say a conservative estimate would be warp three, and then only in short duration's, any further stress will be absorbed by the precautions we have in place, but they won't last indefinitely." he looked at Andae but the Executive Officer remained silent, Carl had the feeling he was putting the prospective Chief Engineer on the spot, Jan took a breath then continued, "We should be able to sustain warp three but the core will need work, possibly complete replacement when we get back to the Starbase."
They began discussing the options when Milyanov spoke again.
"Sir, I would recommend we request the Tug to meet us en-route. If we can get back under our own power all well and good, no harm in having an alternate on hand though." He knew full well he was practically saying they needed help, "Maybe with Commander Blakus down here with us we can get home without assistance."
"You're doing a good job Lieutenant." Carl said, placing a hand on the Engineers' shoulder for a second, "I am sure Commander Blakus will be only too happy to offer his assistance. As for the Tug, I concur, no harm in having it come out to meet us, we've been damaged, had this been in Federation territory, well, I'd be the last to want to be piggy-backed into Dock. But we're not, and we need to preserve every iota of equipment, we can't simply put in a requisition for a new warp core, and until the Starbase is capable of producing what we need everything is on the 'keep it working' list .... Lysia, return to the Bridge, contact the Starbase, have them sent the shuttle to our co-ordinates. If nothing else it gives us a little more leeway."
Carl thought back to what Andae was saying earlier:
"I had a theory about the asteroid ... The unified fragment was roughly conical in shape, right ? ... A section of a planet carved out. Now we've seen yet another separation take place, thirty percent of the unified fragment propelled away to become a comet ...."
"What you were saying about the asteroid Andae, you think there's possibly more to the break-up ?" Torek asked.
"I wouldn't like to say at this point Sir."
"But it's worth further investigation in your opinion ?" Carl persisted, Blakus nodded.
"We have the rock and core samples the away team managed to gather before the break-up." Lieutenant Tinsley interjected, "We might get something from them."
"Have Geology and Astrophysics take a look." Carl said, turning to take in the damage, "Let's get the deck cleared before someone breaks their neck tripping over something. I'll be on the Bridge, keep me apprised every hour Lieutenant."
..........
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Post by Andae Blakus on Oct 8, 2017 13:26:55 GMT
Deciding that he was due a rest after working continuously for twenty hours, Blakus left the bridge. He'd been mending the warp core system (which as it'd turned out had required a deal longer than the original '7.5 hours' he'd forecast), taking turns in bridge shift duty, splitting his time between the watch and the engineering station, and - given the sudden shortage in areas created by various injuries sustained during their collision with the moon-sized fragment - seeing to personnel reassignments between departments.
He entered his quarters and immediately upon drifting out of consciousness was assailed by nightmarish visions, as if dream spectres had been hovering about his bed waiting for him to be lulled into their trap.
The images and sounds were the similar to those of before: asteroid fragments, a silhouette against a bright unseen light source, words echoing through his skull as if spoken in his ear, prophecies of doom, a sense of dread... The objects were curiously vivid as if he were awake, and were therefore not at all what one might call the phenomena of lucid dreaming, in fact the opposite.
There came a moment where he lost all awareness, but it was not sweet surrender of sleep that took him, but the implicit invasion of dreamlike objects, unseen and only hinted at. Unaware, he rolled onto his front, pounding the pillows and making guttural primate sounds, gnashing at the silver fabric and attempting to gorge on the synthetic feathers that exploded out.
He regained awareness and yelping threw himself off the bed, finding himself witness to the final terminus, the cosmic conflagration, the apocalypse - now behind his eyes, now overlaid on the surroundings: thousands of creatures roaming a plain, bipedal in form, screaming, frothing and mad with pain, waving limbs at the sky, jumping up and down on boulders, cliff faces, one eclipsing the red giant that loomed large and bloated in the cream sky. The rays of the stellar mass cooked the unprotected world to a crisp - no magnetic field - and the last quasi-intelligent species perished.
The lightheadedness passed and the same warning resonated through his mind, resurrection regeneration resurrection regeneration... tunnelling off to infinity. He realised, the asteroid was a harbinger, carrying some sort of message. Then he wasn't having one of his... episodes (if so, it was of particularly extended duration), but rather the asteroid - when it'd first come into visual range - had imparted something to him and was plaguing him with it still.
He returned to the bridge, smoothing down his hair and trusting he didn't appear too dishevelled (a matter of importance couldn't be delayed for all the pleasures that a sonic shower may bring), and asked to speak to the Admiral.
Entering the ready room, he spoke as soon as the door was closed, "I can't claim all the credit for my intuition about the asteroid," he quipped. "It told me itself. I keep having... visions, strange episodes relating in some way to the fragments." He went onto relate what he'd seen in his mind when the asteroid had for the first time appeared on the viewscreen.
"Resurrection, regeneration?" Carl asked, perplexed.
He nodded, "And other words I don't remember. I didn't say at the time because frankly I was worried that I might be going cr- ..." He coughed.
They discussed some implications. He was still experiencing the visions, therefore it was possible the message had been fully implanted into his skull, an imprint left which didn't require the original object and source of the information to still be intact. Or perhaps the source of the transmission to his cortex had been localised on one of the two fragments (the comet round the red giant, or the larger fragment on course for the dark matter cloud) and didn't encompass the unified mass as a whole. Therefore this source could conceivably not have been destroyed in the fragmentation and its info was still being transmitted to him as a 'live feed'.
He answered Torek's following question, "Aye, warp three until further notice, sir. Our latest estimate is that, during any tug operations to take us the rest of the way 'home', we would be able to effect repairs to give us warp 5.3 maximum by the time we reach base."
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Carl Torek
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Post by Carl Torek on Oct 8, 2017 22:35:46 GMT
SD: 2403.01.1007 - 04:15 hrs :: Like Andae and several of the Senior Staff, he had been working around the clock trying to make repairs, however temporary, to get the Raven back to Starbase Forty Seven, each having taken time away to rest, freshen up, and in some cases a change of uniform. He was sat in his ready room making final amendments to yet another lengthy report when his Executive Officer entered .... "I can't claim all the credit for my intuition about the asteroid," he quipped as soon as the door closed, "It told me itself. I keep having ... visions, strange episodes relating in some way to the fragments." Carl told him to take a seat and headed over to the replicator where he requested two strong coffee, black, then returned to his desk setting one in front of his Exec' then listened intently to what his friend had to say. Truth be told, Carl would have liked to think that he was in some way, even subconsciously, aware that Andae had the odd 'insight' into things, but he couldn't ... Was he disappointed at this, well, no, but it did raise a couple of points that he would have to voice at some point, and given their current situation there seemed no time like the present: "These, visions, images, episodes ..... Is it something that has happened before, I mean, are you hearing voices on a regular basis ?" Carl asked, trying to hide the grin and failing miserably. "Har, har." Blakus said, sipping his coffee. Again they discussed, neither wanting to put too must stead in the phenomenon but nevertheless concerned, each to their own degree. Carl suggested that he be tested once time permitted, that maybe he had latent telepathic abilities that could come in useful, but Andae dismissed the suggestion out of hand, almost laughing it off as illogical at best. But it was there now, albeit spoken about jovially. It was possible of course that something physical had left a message that would be received by a susceptible mind or consciousness, so in Carl's eyes it could have been anyone among the Raven crew, even him. "Joking aside Andae, do you think this, rock, consciousness, targeted you or just passed the messa .... Never mind, the how's and why's don't matter at this point, but it is something that will need investigating ... how are we doing on the warp core, any chance of having it up and running in the foreseeable future ?" he said, seeing Andae got the 'future' comment and grinned. "The work has been done, the reinforcements are in place and going off our tests, 'should' hold, but there are no guarantees Carl. We'll have to take it steadily." "So we can go to warp ?" "Aye, warp three until further notice. Our latest estimate is that, during any tug operations to take us the rest of the way 'home', we would be able to effect repairs to give us warp five point three maximum by the time we reach base." "OK ....." he tapped the comm on his desk: =^= Bridge =^= =^= Commander Wedlerson Admiral =^= =^= Set course to intercept the tug .. Go to warp three .. .. =^= =^= Understood Admiral .. .. =^= there was a slight delay and both men saw the stars shift as the Raven jumped into the nether-realm of warp drive, =^= Holding warp three Admiral .. Rendezvous with the warp tug in fifty one hours =^= "Another ?" Carl asked as he closed the comm and motioned to the empty coffee cup. "No, thanks, I think I need to try to get some sleep, I'll be no use to anyone at this rate." Blakus said getting up and heading for the door, "Goodnight Admiral." he said as he left the room. "Night." Carl said the the closed door ... He sat for a moment going over their conversation then got up, he needed sleep and soon. Stepping onto the Bridge he handed Conn to Commander Wedlerson and then went to his quarters. Undressing he could feel the heaviness of his eyes and the aching of every muscle. He gently slipped into bed beside Chloe, trying not to disturb her, and was asleep in seconds ...... ~~~~~~~~~~ The vibrations woke him instantly ..... his eyes shot open and he threw himself out of bed, scrabbling for clothing as his Daughters entered their room. "Daddy, what's happe ...." "Stay with you mother girls, I ..." he could see that the ship had dropped from warp and was, rotating on her axis. he left their quarters as the comm chirped to life, in less than a minute he was on the Bridge ! "Report." "Sir." harry said, turning to face his Commanding Officer, "We began feeling vibrations in the superstructure, the core was becoming unstable quickly. Lieutenant Tinsley was on duty in Engineering and had sent for Commander Milyanov, but before he got there the structural integrity of the core began to fail. I made a decision Admiral, I ejected the core, it exploded only twelve hundred meters behind us as we dropped from warp. Admiral, we had a breach in Engineering, six lost through decompression." Carl looked at the viewscreen ... The ship was still travelling forward but was rotating on its center of gravity. Ensign fields, back at Helm, was using the ships thrusters to quell the rotation and finally did so. It was clear they had suffered a lot of damage, Engineering was sealed off completely, emergency force fields had snapped into being to seal the hull breach, but the section still needed an atmosphere. He was informed that Milyanov and Commander Blakus were outside Engineering awaiting access, but there was little they could do in reality other than prepare the department for the Starbase Engineers. Had this been in Federation Space they would have utilised their spare warp core, but that had gone months earlier, so they were at the mercy of their impulse drive. Carl looked around the Bridge at the people waiting. The atoms of their warp core already millions of kilometer behind them,they had no means to return home apart from the warp tug. he opened a ship-wide comm: =^= This is the Captain .. .. As you will be aware .. We have suffered an explosive decompression as a result of our warp core failure .. There is a warp tug en-route to rendezvous with us and should be here in two days .. In the mean time we will affect repairs as best we can .. We are in no danger so all Personnel will continue their duty shifts unless required elsewhere .. Torek out =^= ~~~~The crippled ship limped toward her help, the warp tug had increased speed to meet up as early as possible. On arrival, they were shocked by the sixty meter diameter hole in the underside of the Engineering Section of the Raven. force-fields crackled as they struggled to maintain atmosphere within the Section. Within an hour the ship was ready to be towed and the Tug began to increase speed up to full impulse. On the Bridge of the Raven the Comms Officer informed Torek that the Tug's CO wanted to speak to him. Carl nodded, seeing the image of the young Officer appear on screen: =^= Admiral .. We are ready to jump to warp .. We will go to warp one for fifteen minutes then if there are no issues increase through warp two to three then four =^= =^= Understood Commander =^= =^= Sir .. It would be prudent to allow access to your ships systems .. We can regulate shields and structural integrity fields better from here =^= Carl nodded to Harry who sent the codes to the Tug, =^= Thank you Admiral .. Hope we give you a smooth ride .. Stand by to go to warp .. .. .. =^= =^= Understood =^= Carl closed the comm and instructed the Communications Officer to seen the ships loge pertaining to their current assignment, to Section Admiral Gheskori aboard the USS Enzio, Starbase Forty Seven, and Commodore Savot aboard the USS El Salvador, it was likely that the El Salvador would need to continue the Ravens' exploratory investigations. Carl sat back, they were in someone else's hands now ..........
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Andae Blakus
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Commander 1C
Registered: Oct 17, 2007 22:48:27 GMT
Posts: 1,452
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Post by Andae Blakus on Oct 12, 2017 18:10:44 GMT
He approached the core, an officer standing to attention, "Lieutenant Hajk-zhili, sir. We're pleased you could accompany us on this voyage."
"Lieutenant," he nodded and strode to the console beside the Master display station. The Batavi's warp core had been operating at peak efficiency until 7.5 hours ago, when the termini of the magnetic constrictors had become fused to the surrounding chassis, at that point vibrating in tandem with the rest of the starship.
Everything seemed in order with the core. A support structure had been put in place, cushioning the core with its own inbuilt inertial dampeners with power cells independent from the rest of the vessel (this was where he'd learnt the procedure). Nothing of note was taking place, so he - in effect - switched off until the time equivalent with the failure of the Raven's warp core.
The moment passed and nothing happened. "Hajk-zhili, any fluctuations in matter or anti-matter flow... Inconsistencies in the decay rate of the dilithium crystals?"
"Negative, sir," the lieutenant responded, somewhat surprised. "You are worried about core instability, I see... Everything is within normal parameters, Commander, I will update you if anything changes." The Benzite took a fresh breath of liquid from his chest-mounted unit.
Blakus slammed the edge of the console. "Computer, freeze program." The gold and black dressed officers and technicians streaming about engineering came to a halt, frozen in their movements; the warp core's pulsations were suspended, light from the constrictors' coolant panels hovering with the illusion of cessation of entropic processes. The year was 2371; this was the Sovereign class test vessel - never commissioned, a shell of a vessel run alongside the Sovereign herself in a twin shakedown operation (a test control, if one willed) - USS Batavi NX-77014. During its flight, the Batavi had suffered a failure very similar to that which the USS Raven had during its collision with the asteroid fragment: the warp core had jammed against the ship's structure and disaster had nearly occurred.
Upon research into the test flight, Blakus and Milyanov had put into place the same fully successful measures used by the engineering team of the USS Batavi. Up to a point, the Raven's team had reproduced that success, until the dilithium chamber had experienced a loss of stability part way to their rendezvous with the tug.
Having finally made it back into Raven's engineering (though not wishing to stay for long considering forcefields were all that held in restored atmosphere - the Raven's power distribution system was currently sketchy at best), Milyanov and co had identified the problem. An imbalance in the matter-antimatter admixture had created an excess of anti-deuterium, which, if it'd been allowed to flow in too great a volume and density into the main power transfer conduit to the nacelles, could've destroyed the conduit, blown off the nacelles and likely obliterated the entire stardrive section. Only the actions of Wedlerson on the bridge had saved the ship from destruction - the Ops officer no less, and not one of the engineers, much to Blakus's chagrin (who now felt badly about his department's performance against Ops) and Milyanov's unhappiness (who felt he'd let the department down in Blakus's absence).
Why had the Batavi's measures to save its core worked (resulting in the USS Sovereign's commission a month ahead of schedule), while the Raven's had failed woefully? Much more research was needed before they could offer an explanation.
In the meantime, Blakus thought, there were new concerns on where to find a new warp core. He believed several of the crippled vessels at the Starbase had cores that could be adapted to fit the Raven, though none of those cores were undamaged and only one had a functioning dilithium crystal matrix - not an easy object to replace, nor was an entire warp core. The station's energy reserves may need to be plundered for the requisite materials, and arranged to the stringent configuration template for a Sovereign-type warp core system; a replication process would take a fair amount of time.
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Carl Torek
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"UTRINQUE PARATUS"
Registered: Jun 17, 2006 22:34:35 GMT
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Post by Carl Torek on Oct 13, 2017 23:36:48 GMT
SD: 2403.01.1012 - 18:30 hrs :: The crippled Raven had been limping back home at warp three for almost a week. It was a matter of pride, not only for himself, but for his Engineering Officers, more than anything else, that he instructed the tugs' Commander to get into position behind and to Port of the enormous Starship ... Once all preparations were made he beamed back to the tug and drawn ahead, initiating the tractor beams, two given the size differential and the fact that he didn't want the Raven breaking free. ~~~~~~~~~~Truth be told, he was in some bizarre way grateful for the time ..... He had spent time with his Family, relaxed somewhat, caught up on his reading, but mostly got some of his energy back. The last months had taken their toll on everyone, not only him, and he cherished the time he could spend with Chloe and the girls. Not that he was neglecting his duties ... Repairs had been on-going throughout the ship and in Engineering, where he found himself on his daily walk around the ship, a gaping maw remained where the seven story warp core once sat. He looked over the rail into the depths of the ship still wishing there had been something, anything they could have done, but there wasn't. Had the core not been ejected there would be nothing left of the Raven but atoms drifting through the hostile emptiness ..... "Admiral, can I help you ?" one of the Engineering Staff asked, Carl turned to face her: "No, thank you Lieutenant I was just doing my rounds." he said then spoke again as the woman returned to her duties, "Lieutenant, where is Commander Milyanov ?" "He and Commander Blakus are in Holosuite One, they are running simulations from the original sister ship." "Thank you." he replied, turning to leave as the Executive Officer and Acting Chief Engineer entered, "Any luck ?" he asked, but neither seemed as if they had any good news. "Anything from the Starbase on a usable core Admiral ?" Jan asked. "There isn't any ... There are over a dozen ships in all within the dome, six of them starship's, all but two are damaged beyond what we can do out here, at least for the time being, though I doubt we'll be constructing shipyards anytime soon. The El Alamein is about a week away from completion and I know the Section Admiral is looking into the viability of getting the least damaged ship space-worthy. That alas leaves us two complete warp cores down." "I don't suppose we could share." Milyanov said, half jokingly, he knew full well that they couldn't simply switch out cores among the working vessels, the logistics aloe would require weeks in dock to complete. "It's a thought." Carl said with a wry laugh as the three toured Engineering. "We'll have to scavenge what we can and try to get a fully working core, can't have the Raven beached." Jan Milyanov said as he took a PADD off one of his Staff, reading before signing it off and handing it back ...... SD: 2403.01.1013 - 20:00 hrs :: "Admiral, the Tug Commander wishes to speak to you." Lieutenant Ny Lee, the Communications Officer informed him. "On screen Lieutenant." Torek said, turning to face the large viewscreen: =^= Commander .. .. =^= =^= Admiral ..I am going to release the tractor beams and move out of your path .. Given the structural damage to your Engineering Section I feel allowing you to drop from warp naturally would be best =^= Carl looked at Andae, who remained silent, though his expression did change for a fraction of a second before he shrugged. =^= The damage isn't that bad =^= Blakus said neutrally. =^= You can't slow us down Commander ? =^= Carl asked, already knowing the man would be doing so if he could. =^= It's a matter of mass Admiral .. While I can grab you and drag you along behind me given enough time for acceleration .. But slowing you is a different matter entirely .. .. If I tried to put pressure on you your ship would simply push me along ahead of you or worst case run right over me .. I'll bring us to warp one point two then release the tractors .. You should reduce velocity enough to drop into normal space within a minute .. Once done I'll move back into position ahead of you .. Snatch hold and guide you into the Starbase =^= =^= As you wish Commander .. .. Is there anything you need from us ? =^= =^= Do you have enough reserve power to use your thrusters to assist slowing ? =^= Carl looked to his right at Milyanov who was at Engineering One. "Barely Admiral, but as long as there are no complications in getting into the dome and on external power, we should be OK." Carl returned his attention to the Commander. "We have some spare." Carl said, sounding as if he was replying to a neighbour who was asking to borrow a cup of sugar. =^= OK .. I am slowing us now .. On my mark I will disengage tractors and move aside .. You activate thrusters simultaneously .. When I see you dropping from warp I will do likewise .. Good luck Raven .. .. .. Three .. Two .. One .. .. Mark =^= the comm closed before Carl could reply. "We need luck ?" Calli asked. "Helm ... Reverse thrusters." they sat in silence as the enormous vessel slowed then sprang into normal space as the fell below the warp threshold. The tug reappeared ahead and engaged the tractors. They continued their journey at full impulse until an hour later the Starbase came into view ahead. The tug gradually slowed their velocity until they were making one quarter impulse. Two other tugs were at station keeping one hundred kilometers from the 'Base, they would come alongside to assist if the Sovereign Class vessel began to drift and could not correct herself. Carl watched the proceedings on the viewscreen. It was hardly a dignified homecoming, but they were home, that was what counted ..........
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Carl Torek
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"UTRINQUE PARATUS"
Registered: Jun 17, 2006 22:34:35 GMT
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Post by Carl Torek on Oct 20, 2017 23:40:35 GMT
SD: 2403.01.1020 - 21:10 hrs Starbase Forty Seven :: At five hundred thousand kilometers the Towing Tug, USS Cavot had dropped from warp and released her tractor beams allowing the enormous Sovereign Class Starship to continue forward under her own momentum. The Cavot moved to Port of the Raven but remained in a position that would allow her to quickly reestablish her hold if needed ... In the ten days it had taken to return at warp three, the Raven had completed as much of the repairs needed, but there was much to do, most significantly, repairs to the massive maw in the underside of the Drive Section where the warp core in mid self-destruction, had exited the ship and fallen behind them. They would need a replacement core, and given their circumstances, there was no snapping one off the proverbial shelf here, it would need to be constructed almost from scratch using whatever was available on the damaged vessels, or she Starbase itself. The Comms Officer informed Torek that the Cavot was requesting a status update. "Tell them we are bringing Impulse on-line to slow us down then it will be disengaged, we'll enter the Dome using our inertia and thrusters." Carl instructed, he looked down at the Navigation Officer, Ensign Anna Fields, who following the almost complete destruction of their Android Helm Officer, had found herself thrown in at the deep end. Even from here he could see her shoulders stiffen for a second as he had replied to the Comms Officer. He stood and moved down to stand next to the Helm, "Ensign .... It's not as daunting as you think. We'll allow the computer to align our approach with the rotation of the access doors. Once we have slowed below one quarter impulse all you will need to do is 'nudge' us when required." "Yes, Admiral." the young woman replied, locking her gaze on her console. Smiling he took the center seat and nodded to his Executive Officer. Blakus contacted Engineering to bring the impulse engines on-line. It was going to be close as their reserve power was at a minimum and any problems slowing would need the Tug Cavot to intervene ... The reduction in velocity was gradual, slowing the massive vessel until she was travelling at only one hundred meters per second, this would allow them plenty time to make any adjustments required as they approached the Dome doors. "Helm, slow us to twenty meters per second please." Carl said calmly watching the approaching Starbase, the massive doors still unseen as the rotation brought them hopefully in-line as the Raven reached zero distance, "If it will help Ensign feel free to put a tactical plot on the viewscreen." Without replying Fields did as suggested, quickly enough to make both Carl and Andae thing she had already set it up and was waiting for the word to use it without having to ask. Blakus could see that the green square, signifying ideal track, was dropping very slightly below the red box which indicated the slowly approaching space door. "Helm, adjust angle of approach by one degree positive." Fields activated the thrusters and the green indicator moved up until it was locked inside the red, "Thank you Ensign. Prepare to slow further." The Command Staff of the Raven watched in silence as the two squares continued to move, not too much, but enough to risk the Raven colliding with one or more sides of the opening if not corrected. Fields didn't need further encouragement as she continually allowed for the gravitational pull of the four kilometer high Starbase upon the ship and ten minutes later she removed the tactical plot, choosing to concentrate on her readings and visuals. They eventually passed through the space doors thirty centimeters high and twenty one to the right of the center lines ... 'Not bad going for a novice Pilot' Carl thought. Rather than being directed to one of the main docking areas, once through the doors the ship was instructed to drop below the main level and dock closer to the Heavy Engineering Area, usually reserved for such things as nacelle replacement of fitting, fair enough they were moved out of the main area given the work they needed, no point in taking up one of the primary docking berths. They dropped below the USS El Salvador, ready to depart and hopefully continue their initial investigative recon, and to their Port the USS El Alamein, still undergoing significant repairs. Carl was pleased with how his Navigation Officer had handled the docking and the two-way communications from the Dock-Master throughout ... Finally, the external umbilicus were connected and the ship tasted newly acquired power for the first time in almost three weeks. Lighting rose to standard, airflow throughout the ship began circulating newly processed oxygen atmosphere, gradually removing the staleness in the air. The dock-Master contacted the ship: =^= USS Raven .. Welcome back .. You are on external power all umbilicus secure =^= =^= Thank you Dock-Master .. Good to be back .. Where's our new core ? .. .. =^= Blakus replied with a wry grin .......... Mission 31 - Y01: Learning Curve (Recon)
Concluded
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