Charge of the Light Brigade (pt 2)

Posted on 22 Dec 2024 @ 2:52pm by Captain Bane Plase & Captain Erik Larsen & Lieutenant Commander Stovek & Lieutenant T'Lara Ahmad & Lieutenant Maralen Seitha & Lieutenant Liala Ziyal & Lieutenant Commander Raviran Dattek-Winters & Lieutenant JG Benjamen Kensington MD & Lieutenant JG Thalla zh'Ennev MD & Ensign Emilie D'Astous

5,632 words; about a 28 minute read

Mission: Stranded
Location: Various
Timeline: Immediately after pt 1

ON

U.S.S. Cygnus

The Captain tapped off his commbadge, and without saying another word, stepped over to the starboard bulkhead where the Bridge Armory was located. He tapped the control panel, but it buzzed at him. He tapped it again, harder, and was rewarded with a chirp sound, followed by the locking mechanism disengaging, causing the panel to swing open. He pulled out a Type IV phaser rifle and handed it to Ensign D'Astous, and then grabbed two type IX phaser pistols, one for him and one for Commander Stovek. "Set them to stun level 3," he ordered. Stun level three would drop a Syrinx from Abraxis IX, an extremely formidable and dangerous apex predator. "Ensign, you are our base of fire. Anything that comes through either of those doors," he said, pointing at both the Starboard and Port turbolift shafts, "That does not have a Starfleet uniform on, shoot it. We will ask questions later. Commander," he said, turning to the Vulcan, "You are our six. I will be in support, covering you both. Take your positions," he commanded.

Emilie nodded, but nonetheless she took a second to glance at the console. "Three minutes away," she said. "Presumptive hostile coming in bearing 216 mark 17. Presumptive Starfleet, 146 mark 12. They'll be here within seconds of each other."

She got up from the Science station and crouched near the Tactical station, which afforded her with a clear view of both turbolift doors - assuming any presumptive hostiles chose to use the turbolifts, and not beam in directly on the Bridge. The Cygnus's shields were completely fried, anyone could beam anywhere.

Deck 5, USS Cygnus

Maralen had been forced to pry the doors open to get into the Communications Array Control Room. Now that he was in, however, he wanted to growl. The place was a shambles, though he had truthfully expected no less. It was another case of that dangerous thing called hope.

He would not be able to do anything to fix the communications any more than they were, but he could use one of the terminals to coordinate using internal-- Sshrral! No, he couldn't do that either. Internal sensors were down. He would just have to pray that his people could hold their own against whatever was coming.

Not knowing what it was annoyed him. The Realm had taught him to be a strategist, but how could he strategize against an unknown? And with his people scattered over the ship with no way for him to coordinate them, any strategy he could come up with would be rendered pointless.

Futility.

Well, you've been there before, Mar, his mind taunted him. Powerless, helpless.

But he was not helpless. He was powerless to a point, but not helpless. Oh, no! Anything that accosted him was going to find out just how not helpless he was!

He checked his Phaser and set it on high stun. He could wait here and watch, but this was not his post. Here was not where he belonged. On the bridge was where he belonged.

Turning from the useless panels and equipment, he exited the control room and made his way back to the lift. By now, Blake had searched the quarters on this deck. "Sorry, sir," he told his boss. "Nobody home."

"Good. Meet up with the two on the next deck up. I'm heading to the bridge." He called the lift as he spoke.

Blake nodded. "We'll make it, sir."

Maralen wasn't sure who Blake was reassuring, himself or Maralen. It didn't matter, though. It was good to hear someone besides him say it, even if he was only repeating it mentally to convince himself that it was true.

The lift car arrived, and they pried the doors open once more to get inside. Coaxing the car to move up one deck, Blake gave Maralen a last nod before disembarking the lift. Maralen returned the gesture and subjugated the lift into taking him to the bridge.

Knowing the bridge was on high alert, he stood off to the side of the doors so that he wouldn't get accidentally shot as it opened. When it did open, he spoke loudly enough for those on the bridge to hear. "Captain, Lieutenant Seitha reporting." Then he waited confirmation before exiting.

Emilie could feel her heart pounding in her chest as the turbolift doors opened. She knew it couldn’t be... whoever it was that was coming for them, they were still a good forty-five seconds away. But she could feel the rush of adrenaline, and it was making her trigger finger twitch. She pointed her phaser at the ceiling, just to be on the safe side.

“Clear,” she called out.

Maralen relaxed just a hair. His tail still remained tightly coiled around his waist, but everything else in his demeanor seemed calm. Once again, he was actually grateful for some of the Realm's Lessons. Exiting the lift, he held his arms away from his sides just to be safe until she could fully see him.

Clearing the lift, he dropped his arms to his sides, one still holding the smaller weapon. "Where would you like me, Sir?" His eyes were focused on the captain even as he moved toward the weapons locker on the bridge and replaced his small weapon with one of the Type IX Phase Pistols, setting it to heavy stun.

The Captain was extremely thankful that his Chief of Security had reappeared. It had been many hours since he had last seen him. While it had only been moments since the Security Chief had responded to his ship-wide call letting him know he had acknowledged, it was still good to see him. "I am thankful you are back," the Captain stated, meaning it. "You are a much better security agent than I am. Take charge deploying the personnel we have on the bridge. This section cannot be lost. Neither can Main Engineering, so you will have to coordinate with your people throughout the ship as well."

“Captain,” Émilie spoke up. “I’d like to see if we can use the thrusters to move the ship. At least make an effort at evasive action.”

Maralen nodded to the captain. It was nice to be appreciated, but that could wait for later to be responded to. For now, he frowning slightly. "Are comms running well enough for full coordination?" he asked. His eyes then flicked to D'Astous then back to Bane. "That is not a bad idea. Even a small bit of maneuverability would be useful."

Plase looked to Emilie and nodded. "Take your station, Ensign. We will cover you," then to Maralen, "I hope so. It was Lieutenant Ziyal that got them working, I think. She should be back here any moment."

Maralen nodded to Bane. "Then when she arrives, I'll ask her. For now, I will focus here. He moved to D'Astous. "We should trade weapons. The rifle will be large enough to hinder your work," he said, giving his reasons for the switch as he held out the Type IX.

"Thank you," she said, glad to be relieved of the bulky rifle. The thing was almost bigger than she was. She clipped the Type IX to her hip, and rushed over to what was left of the helm. She quickly assessed the current state of the maneuvering thrusters - or what was left of them. Obviously most of those on the port side of the saucer had been obliterated, and little remained of those on the secondary hull. She worried that activating the starboard thrusters might send them into an uncontrollable spin. But there were three functioning thrusters on the port side that might be able to counter the spin. Would that be enough to evade whatever was coming their way?

Maralen took the rifle and positioned himself where D'Astous had previously been crouched. She had picked a strategically sound spot... if the enemy came at them through the lifts. It was unlikely, but better safe than sorry. And if they simply beamed in, this was a relatively centralized location from which to mount a defense. And he should be the one out in front so to speak. The others being behind him could, however, be bad if someone beamed in behind him. But then, they'd get caught between the defenders. No, this configuration was fine for now. So now he waited, both for Ziyal and for whatever was coming toward them out there.

---------------
USS Cygnus - Sickbay

zh'Ennev listened to the Captain's call to arms on the comm even as she scanned the recently-arrived Lieutenant Commander Bast with her tricorder. They had just moved him to one of the newly-repaired biobeds, and she was working on her assessment of the patient, taking over for Ravi, who was now making rounds in Sickbay. The internal injuries were stable, and did not seem to require surgery - at least at this time. She administered a mild sedative to the First Officer, and activated a restraining field to keep him steady as she turned to Nurse Rath.

"You heard the Captain," she said. "Arm yourself."

She walked over to the weapons locker, and got a phaser for herself.

Ravi was attending to a badly injured young Lab Technician who Matt had brought back to get them into a bio-bed for urgent treatment. The CMO had been tending to Bast and Temerant at the time but she had been obliged to hand him over to th'Ennev for intense supervision once he had become stable.

Looking at Matt's work with putting the Technician's wrist back together, Ravi was impressed and said so. "Good work Lieutenant" she said, is there something else going on though? Perhaps?" Ben looked surprised and rechecked the patient's stats. "He has a much higher metabolism than normal but I had assumed that was to do with the shock of the explosion and the injury itself.

"Just if you could run me an infra-red scan on his whole body so I can feel sure there's nothing else sneaking about inside him. Ravi suggested and Ben had started this process when the alert to arm and defend and they both rolled their eyes. "Great, kick a ship when she's down?" Ravi muttered feeling even more exhausted as more trouble seemed to erupt.

Matt looked at the results streaming across the screen behind the biobed and looked very puzzled. "I can't really tell what this means...." he began.

"Is it life threatening?" Ravi asked over her shoulder as she was unlocking the cabinet closest to their end of the Main Sick Bay and retrieving two IX pistols then resealing the remaining arms inside.

"No, but it's curious..." Matt answered.

Ravi gave a few seconds thought and then concluded: "If we're about to get into a battle here, whatever it is will have to wait. Put him into a medical coma and take this gun to defend yourself and the patients.
Hopefully , that way, nothing can progress nor cause any deterioration in his overall condition whatever happens to delay the next treatment he might need. We're all going be very distracted for a while now"

"Understood" Matt agreed and began to set up the biobed as instructed.

Ravi set the gun in her hand to 'Maximum Stun' and shivered at the thought of having to use it and then again at the thought of whatever was about to arrive that would be unpleasant and dangerous enough to make her.

---------------
Pakled salvage hauler Kogar

Cherbegrod drummed his fingers on the left armrest of his chair. These last few moments seemed to be taking forever. He was ready to drop out of streaking speed and to regular speed so they could secure the derelict vessel and get out of there before any pesky Starfleet vessel came to investigate. Starfleet always was pesky, and somehow they were everywhere. They had to have as many as five (!) ships out there. That was higher than Cherbergrod could count, and he was very smart. "Now," he asked, for at least the fifth time.

Vernabob counted down the seconds. When he got to lower than one, he pushed the button that would take them out of streaking, and stopped all the engines. On the main screen, they saw a Starfleet ship. A badly broken Starfleet ship. That one was so broken that Vernabob didn't think there was anything left to salvage. But he wasn't the First. That was Cherbegrod.

"We're here," he called out uselessly. "The Starfleet ship is there. I think we should spread our bubble around them to make sure they don't get away."

“Good idea,” said Garipog. He flipped several control knobs, then had to backtrack and redo everything because he did not execute the sequence correctly. The other two on the bridge had no idea how difficult starship operations could be! “Our screens are now encompassing the Starfleet vessel.”

Cherbegrod lept out of his chair and danced in a little circle, clapping his hands and laughing with glee. Once he was done celebrating, he looked to Garipog. "Deploy our towing light beam. I want that ship," he said, voice dripping in greed.


---------------

U.S.S. Goddard

Now less than one minute from the Cygnus, Erik Larsen was starting to see that the Pakled vessel was taking a much more aggressive posture than expected. He needed more information, and fast.

“Mister ch’Marr,” said Larsen to the Andorian chan manning the tactical station. “Analysis of the Pakled vessel.”

“The vessel is armed with type 8 disruptor cannons,” said the blue-skinned Lieutenant. “Substantially inferior to our phasers and photon torpedoes. But their shielding is roughly on a par with our own.”

“Open a channel,” said Larsen.

“Open, Captain.”

“Attention Pakled vessel. This is Captain Larsen of the USS Goddard. You are attempting to seize Starfleet property and illegally detain Federation citizens. Cease your operations at once and depart this area. This is your only warning. Repeat, Pakled vessel…you will cease and desist at once.”

Several long seconds passed, with no response.

“Very well then,” said Larsen as he took his seat. “Red alert. Regradnisdrek, take us out of warp as close as possible to the Cygnus and prepare to extend our shields around them.”

---------------

U.S.S. Cygnus

Émilie looked up from her console in alarm. "Pakled ship, bearing 106 mark 4," she reported. "Distance 2000 meters."

Bane looked up at the ceiling, not so much seeing the damage there, but willing himself to look through the hull to where the ship was. He couldn't see the ship there, but based on where Emilie stated they were, they were nearly abeam of them, and slightly aft of directly starboard. Still, he looked up, because what rational being wouldn't do so when looking for an enemy ship. "They are right on top of us."

When Liala had popped her head out onto the bridge she noticed what looked like a very heavily armed force. She hated violence, resisted the use of phasers and everything. However, she was not stupid or ignorant enough to think they weren't useful when push came to shove. "What are we looking at?" she asked as most heads seemed to snap in her direction. This caused her to recoil a touch, but some began to relax when they saw her dirty looking face and knew she wasn't someone they wanted to fire a weapon at.

Lisald peered out from behind her, his eyes wide at the tonal change and feel of the Bridge. "Whoa," he said, surprised.

Maralen relaxed his stance. "Clear," he informed so that the two knew they could disembark the lift.

"The Pakleds have extended their shields around us," reported Émilie. "They're trying to lock on with a tractor beam."

Starfleet ships had no trouble grabbing a moving object with their tractor beams - something which came in handy when trying to grab hold of something that was out of control, like a shuttle falling out of the sky or an asteroid threatening to crash into a planet. But would Pakled systems be as effective? Given what she knew of the species, Émilie doubted they were smart enough to anticipate this scenario.

She activated the starboard thrusters, sending the Cygnus into a spin, in an attempt to prevent the Pakled tractor beam from obtaining a lock.

Sshrral! Maralen mentally hissed. "You two," he indicated Lisald and Ziyal -- he now had no time to ask her anything -- "get a weapon from the locker and take up positions there and there." He indicated positions to the 'left' and 'right' of the bridge while his position was more centralized and the captain and D'Astous remained behind him.

Lisald did not have to be told twice, certainly not by the feline species that was their Chief of Security. Lisald had always been a bit afraid of Lieutenant Seitha. Not because of anything the Ledaran had done, no. It was the way it kept it's tail wrapped around it's waist. It was unnerving and unnatural, like it was spring loaded somehow to lance out and strike deadly like the Urbhat Providence Sand Snakes on Bajor. To that end, Lisald needed no convincing to move, and now. Getting the phaser rifle from the opened armory, he took position at the closest of the two spots indicated by his superior.

Liala merely followed suit, listening to the orders of Lieutenant Seitha. They were far better at organising them being security chief than her trying to find her own way. She followed Lisald and grabbed a phaser, it felt heavy in her hands. Liala was never a fan of violence, sadly the galaxy didn't feel the same.

---------------
Pakled salvage hauler Kogar

"Garipog, aim your weapons and fire at that Starfleet ship," the commander of the Pakled freighter Kogar demanded. "This is our salvage operation, not theirs. Trying to pretend there are people alive over there, hah," he laughed. "I am smarter than that. Can't they see all the garbage and junk floating here? There is no way anyone could survive this. Not even Starfleet. Fire, I said, fire!! And why don't we have them in our towing light beam on our new ship?"

Vernabob let out a deep sigh. Now Cherbegrod was just getting on his nerves.

"Tell them tom hold still," he said. "I can't grab them if they keep moving."

Cherbegrod could not understand, for the life of him, why the derelict ship they were trying to take was moving at all. It was, for certain, dead in space. However, those thoughts were soon pushed out of his head when he saw the deep red lance of the phaser beam they had acquired from The Syndicate a year ago reach out and hit the new Starfleet vessel that came in to steal their booty, the light blue halo of their shields coming to view as it struck home true and straight. A moment later, three tiny orbs, disruptor-style torpedoes, stolen from Anaxamandar Prime only last month, struck the new ship, causing a massive fireball, a spectacle that caused all of them to shield their eyes from the intense light it produced. Cherbegrod squealed again in delight, sounding eerily similar to a Terran pig being tortured.

---------------

U.S.S. Cygnus

Bane looked over to Seitha and Stovek. "Why is that Pakled vessel protecting us? Can we fire anything to help escape? That Starfleet vessel cannot mount a rescue operation for us while the Pakleds have us in their shield bubble!" He then looked over to Ziyal and Lisald. "Can either of you think of anything that could disrupt their shield bubble?"

Maralen hated the feeling of being trapped. It was akin to the feeling of being in a small, enclosed space, and he really hated that! Still, the captain's question bore answering. "Strategically, sir, I don't think they're so much protecting us as they are their salvage, or what they see as theirs," he answered. "As to what we can throw at them," he looked over at the security station which was in a shambles, likely not salvageable. "I would need to patch the security systems into another console to know."

And that brought him back to comms. "Lieutenant Ziyal, are comms functional enough for me to coordinate with my security teams, or what remains of them?" he asked even as he moved to find an at least semi-functional console he could work with, or try to.

---------------

USS Goddard

The atmosphere on the Goddard bridge was tense. Larsen only had about two thirds of his crew aboard for what was supposed to be a final trial run of the Slipstream Drive. Although the test had been successful and the crew had not killed each other, they were untested and most of them inexperienced. Still, they were performing admirably.

“We can’t extend our shields around the Cygnus,” said Lieutenant Ross from the Ops station. “The Pakled have already done so.”

“Perfect,” muttered Larsen under his breath. “March the Cygnus emitter frequency. Be ready to extend our shields at a moments notice.”

“Aye sir.”

“Energy buildup in the Pakled ship,” interjected ch’Marr from the Tactical station. “They’re…”

The ship shuddered slightly, then pitched wildly starboard a moment later. Larsen was knocked from his seat, but otherwise okay.

“We need to find a way to disrupt that tractor beam,” said Erik. “If only we could create a large explosion. If Cygnus could eject their warp core, we could remote detonate it and get our shields around them just in time. Try hailing them one last time, short range. Maybe we can reach a comm badge. Tell them to eject their warp core.”

---------------

U.S.S. Cygnus

Émilie listened to the ship groaning under the strain of the Pakled tractor beam. Her efforts had paid off, somewhat - it had taken much longer for the dim-witted space scavengers to get a lock, at least long enough for the USS Goddard to arrive at the scene. But now, the Pakleds had them in their grip, and had extended their shields around the critically wounded Cygnus.

"Structural integrity at fifteen percent," she called out, checking her board. "I'm also getting alerts from the matter-antimatter reaction chamber, containment field integrity is down to thirty percent."

Maralen had found one of the rear science stations still semi-functional and had tried to reroute Security through it. He had gotten one phaser bank, and that was all. And that one was weak to say the least. He growled softly under his breath and opened his mouth to tell the captain this but was cut off by Stovek.

“Shhh!” said Stovek, perhaps a bit more harshly than he intended. His communicator badge was making a furious chirping noise. He took the emblem from his uniform and cupped the device in his hand to amplify the sound. He tapped the arrowhead-shaped device.

“…can receive this transmission, eject your warp core,” said a mildly accented voice. “Repeat, this is the Goddard hailing the Cygnus on a low-band channel. If you are receiving this, eject your warp core.”

Stovek looked directly at Captain Bane, who simply nodded once.

“Computer,” said Stovek crisply. “Eject the warp core. Authorization Stovek, six two Gamma Charlie.”

Émilie looked at the sensor readings on her board, and the Pakled garbage scow sitting less than two thousand meters off their port stern, ready to take them away to parts unknown. They were locked into their tractor beam, but still had some margin for movement. She heard Commander Stovek's call to eject the core, and instinctively, punched the controls that would order the thrusters to position the ship so that the Pakled hauler would be directly in the path of the ejected Warp core.

In space, the scarred port in the underbelly of Cygnus retracted its hexagonal inner and outer hull hatches designed as the entry and exit point to the powerful matter/anti-matter reactor. Within a matter of seconds, the vessel's full warp core assembly was forcefully ejected out into open space.

There was a shudder that ran through the ship, shaking loose panels and surprising crew members with structural ‘confetti’ that indiscriminately rained from above as the core was ejected out of Cygnus. The lighting flickered erratically as the ship switched from the power from the core to the impulse reactors.

”Warp core ejection complete.”

While the computer was cheerily informing the bridge staff that the main power source of their damaged vessel that was now tumbling in the vacuum of space, the USS Goddard took note of the ejection of the multi-storied glowing tube now free from its tethers, still pulsing with blue and purple hues while the matter and anti-matter injectors still pumped their remaining fuel into the primary reaction chamber.

The Goddard, meanwhile, deftly moved into position to lock onto the large, cylindrical chamber that was a primed mini supernova. The shimmering blue light of the tractor beam enclosed about the matter-antimatter reactor and altered its friction-less trajectory, steering it towards the Pakled vessel that had taken up a predatory stance over the heavily damaged Cygnus. The timing had to be impeccable. The core had to be ignited, releasing immense energy against the Pakled ship, all the while extending the Goddard’s shields around the ailing Cygnus in order for it to have any chance of surviving the matter-antimatter annihilation.

A little glowing blue ball of light exited from one of the primed torpedo tubes of Goddard and made its way in a seemingly slow space, although it was traveling at tremendous speed to cover the distance towards the still tumbling tube barely controlled energy. It made contact, and for a second it seemed that nothing would happen, but the containment fields had been destroyed from the torpedo’s yield and when the two sets of matter-antimatter molecules collided, the subsequent explosion was a truly unique physical phenomenon of a potentiating annihilation of mass and energy that produced a silent, yet blindingly bright detonation, releasing a shock wave of energies that the Pakled ship was grossly unprepared to weather.

The matter/anti-matter shock wave rapidly expanded in the depths of space and its leading edge slammed into the aft section of the Pakled ship, tearing through its shielding, then hull plating, peeling the vessel open like a tin can before igniting the atmosphere in the vessel like a stick of dynamite causing the conflagration to pour through the corridors and decks destroying everything in its path.

The shimmering shielding faltered and failed as the source of it's power was obliterated. With impeccable timing, borne from a knowing there would not be a second chance to make this work, the exemplary pilots of the Goddard swooped in, raising shields and enveloping the crippled Cygnus in the nick of time.

As lights fluctuated, so did the panel Maralen was using, now as more of a communications terminal than anything else -- he had managed to reroute some communications functionality through it so that he could coordinate what remained of Security. Several teams had reported in, but there were still many missing. If they survived this insanity, he would need to do a complete head count. But for now, his teams were as ready as they could be for whatever or whomever might board the Cygnus.

---------------------
USS Goddard

Erik Larsen could not help but to feel an almost perverse satisfaction as he observed the destruction of the Pakled salvage vessel. Loss of life and property did not please him, not in the slightest; but the people of the Cygnus were his family, so that was reason enough. Larsen tapped his communicator badge.

“Medical teams Alpha through Epsilon, begin boarding and triage,” he said. “Engineering teams, begin structural assessments. And medical team Zeta, you’re with me in Transporter Room One. I’m going aboard.” he gave the arrowhead shaped chevron another tap, closing the channel to the emergency teams. “XO, you have the bridge…get on the horn with Starfleet and get us someone out here that can tow something this size. We’ll need a heavy cruiser at least. Oh, and prepare accommodations for our guests. ch’Marr?”

Larsen gestured for the Andorian security officer to accompany him. Both officers made their way to the smaller transporter pad behind the bridge on deck one. Several more blue-uniformed medical staff joined them.

“Take us to the Cygnus bridge,” said the tall Danish man as he positioned himself on the transporter pad. “Energize.”

As the two officers from the Goddard shimmered into existence on the Bridge of the Cygnus, as well as one of the medical teams that accompanied them, an audible gasp and a tangible relief overcame those that were on the bridge. Relief filled everyone, but none more than Captain Bane. "Erik! Thank the prophets you are here," he said, surprised, then looked over to Lieutenant Commander Stovek. "Commander, secure us from red alert. Assist our new friends here." Then he looked back to Commander Larsen. "It is a relief to see you, Commander. You absolutely were not someone I expected to come to our rescue, but I am glad it is you. We need our dead and wounded attended to. And we need food and water. It's been a few days," he explained.

The Vulcan Operations Officer simply nodded, and with a smoothly practiced motion reduced the Cygnus from maximum alert (red) to alert level five (standard operations). He then joined the Captain in talking to the new arrivals.

“The Goddard and her crew stand ready to assist,” said Larsen coolly. “We have signaled for a larger vessel to assist with towing. And, just for the record, it’s Captain now, Sir.” Erik realized now that they were technically equals, he was not required by regulations to address his former as CO Sir any longer. Bane Plase had years of command seniority, however, so Larsen defaulted to Sir out of respect.

The senior Captain bowed his head slightly. He was thrilled, of course, but the last several days had weighed heavily on him. He would absolutely celebrate later with his friend and form Executive Officer. For now, "My apologies, Captain." He then went back to business. "This ship is in a critical state. My officer," he stated, referencing Ensign D'Astous, "has only just informed me the structural integrity is down to just 15%, and we are now without main power. Perhaps it would be prudent to evacuate the Cygnus once the dead and wounded have been attended to. Does the Goddard have the room and facilities to care for the compliment of this ship?" It was a request that dug deep at Plase, but now that the ship was no longer in danger of attack, he needed to see to his people.

“Goddard can accommodate up to one thousand evacuees,” said Larsen. “Plus, the Galaxy Class Shenandoah is en route to assist with towing. Any overflow can go to them. We will set up transport pattern enhancers on each deck and beam survivors to the triage hub in Shuttle Bay One. We can extend our structural integrity field to augment your own.” Larsen paused for a long moment. “Evacuation can begin on your order, Captain Bane.”

Captain Bane nodded in understanding, relieved that everything was, and had, happened for the best, despite their heavy losses. The crew had performed nothing short of a miracle keeping them alive, and keeping the ship together in the most difficult of circumstances. Space had thrown everything at them to kill them, and they had survived. He smiled, not in happiness, but in pride for the crew that he had assembled here, including Captain Larsen. Bane looked from Captain Larsen to Lieutenant Commander Stovek, then to Ensign D'Astous, followed by Lieutenant Ziyal, and finally Lieutenant Lisald and the medical crew from the Goddard, thankful for each of them in turn for their own contributions, efforts, strengths and resilence. This had been a particularly difficult and emotionally heavy mission, and they had made it through.

Plase tapped his commbadge. "All hands, this is Captain Bane. An old friend has come to our rescue. We will all be evacuated to the U.S.S. Goddard starting with our hurt and wounded, followed by those that have fallen this day, and finally everyone else. There will be food and water, and sonic showers available to all, as well as fresh uniforms," Bane said, looking to Larsen, who nodded. "I am extremely proud of each of you. We have been put through the Fire Caves, through Gre'Thor, through Hell, and have persevered. Your Captain owes each and every one of you the deepest debt for your hard work and effort. Captain Bane, out." Bane then nodded to Larsen. "Thank you so much for coming, Captain Larsen, " Plase said, referring to his friend by proper rank, a small, but important acknowledgement of his rank and position. "We are ready to begin beamout."


OFF

END MISSION

A Mass JP by almost everyone

 

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