Strange Reception

Posted on Thu Apr 6th, 2023 @ 6:18pm by Lieutenant Sky Jansen-Carey

Mission: Starship Side Quest
Location: Various

(ON)

Sky had tossed and turned for what seemed like forever in the small bed at the rear of the shuttle, being away from the Resolution, away from Xavier’s protection, made her feel more vulnerable than she’d ever felt before. She’d finally managed to get some sleep, but more out of exhaustion than anything else. When she finally . got up to run a brush through her hair, and straighten out her clothing.

Pulling out a drink and a snack she made her way forward to check in with Soran, hoping he’d at least managed a nap.

Soran's eyes snapped open when he heard Sky moving, he stretched before put his seat back upright. "We'll dropout of warp in about twenty minutes."

Sky yawned and nodded. “For what it’s worth, I’m glad I’m with you Ren. I hate feeling vulnerable, and this far from the ship that’s exactly how I feel. So why are they meeting us out here? Couldn’t they have picked us up at the Starbase?”

"The Fleet doesn't want to advertise their involvement with this," Soran explained

Sky nodded. “I guess that makes sense.”

"From these readings, I don't think we can count on the subspace relay system to transmit any messages reliably." Soran said. 

He retrieved a tool bag from a cabinet. "I'll see if I can rig something to amplify the transponder. They always run salvage operations in out of the way sectors."

“Anything I can do to assist? I trained in Ops at the Academy, I’m a little rusty but I know my way around the systems.” Sky smiled.

"It's going to look pretty," Soran chuckled. "I'm going to reroute the auxiliary power banks to the COMM. to boost the signal."

Sky grinned. “Pretty indeed. You think that’ll work to get a signal out if we need it?”

"It will help," Soran said. "I'll set the computer to repeat any distress message we send."

“Distress?” Sky looked a little perturbed. “Are you expecting trouble? Or are we just being extra cautious?”

"I always expect trouble," Soran laughed. "That's the mark of a good security officer."

Sky grinned. “I guess you’re right there! In that case you’d best hurry up we’re down to ten minutes.”

"I guess I have to do a hack job and engineering and ops will have to put it back together." Soran smirked. "Here let me see your combadge.”

Pulling off her badge Sky handed it to Soran. “You’re not sure whether or not we’re walking into a trap, are you?”

"Of course not!" Soran said. "I wouldn't have brought you, orders or not if I thought that. These salvage outfits are often by unsavory types, they don't necessarily follow Federation safety regulations. I'm just trying to keep us as safe as possible."

Sky nodded. “I’m sorry it was a silly question, I know you wouldn’t put me at risk.” She smiled warmly. “I’m just a little nervous, which isn’t like me at all.”

"That's normal, your pregnancy makes you vulnerable and this is an uncertain situation," Soran sighed. "Don't give me that look you know it's true."

“I know that” Sky nodded. “It’s a scary thought knowing your body is growing two lives inside of it that depend on you, especially having had a miscarriage before.” She sighed. “Anyway you’re the one whose throwing himself into work to avoid thinking about what you might be facing.”

"There are worse things I could be doing." He said as side under the console. "Is the blue light on the comm flashing?"

Sky turned to look. “Yes, it’s flashing.”

"Good," he said climbing out from under the console. "We're all set keep your COMM. Badge in your pocket. If you press it twice and hold it, it will sent a repeating emergency signal to the nearest subspace relay."

Sky nodded. “Thank you I’ll do that if it’s needed.” She gave a somewhat nervous smile before the proximity sensors alerted them to the arrival they were waiting for. “Looks like we’ve arrived.”

Soran took his seat in the cockpit, they'd dropped out of warp a cautious distance from their destination. He ran sensor sweep over the station before hailing them. "This is the shuttle Arcudi, requesting permission to dock."

=#= Standy by Arcudi, we're waiting for the tractor bean to come online. =#=

Sky made herself comfortable ready for being tractored into the station. “Why can’t we just fly ourselves in? Surely there’s enough room for this shuttle.”

"Depends on the layout of the shuttle bay, I'm getting really high radiation readings." Soran explained. "They must be harvesting engine waste. Nothing to be concerned about, but their not going to risk our engines setting something off."

=#= Disengage your impulse engines and will bring you in. =#=

A gruff voice said.

“He sounds like a bundle of joy doesn’t he?” Sky offered a brief smile. “This place gives me the creeps.”

"So far everything is going as I expected," Soran said. "These people aren't known for their hospitality."

(OFF)