Rescue Run, Part 4

Posted on Sat May 20th, 2023 @ 8:32pm by Lieutenant Commander Diane Doctrine & Lieutenant Commander Aalis Rinne & Lieutenant Etan tar-Lexros & 1st Lieutenant Kayleigh London

Mission: Starship Side Quest
Location: USS Eldritch
Timeline: current

Previously on Star Trek Resolution...

"I have the pattern ready." Milton informed after making some adjustments; the computer doing millions of calculations to bring the projected pattern to the best percentile. "Leave the pattern in the buffer for twelve seconds. then re-transport to Sick Bay Operating room One."

=^= Confirmed sir.=^=

Milton watched he transporter sparkle and then moved to the Operating facility.

and now the adventure continues in the Eldritch's sickbay....

Now that Ellie was on her way, Captain Olivaw and 'Commander Doctrine headed to Sickbay to check on the rescued crew from Toshi Station...

The captain stayed out of the doctor's way until Milton was ready to give an update. Diane stood at his side watching Rutherford work his medical magic.

Annie sat in waiting for her friend to come out of surgery, her bright purple jumpsuit seemed out of place in the busy medbay. The Kepek was busy with their mission, so it was up to her to make sure there was a familiar face when she woke up.

“It’s gonna be all right,” Diane came up next to Annie, “I happen to know for a fact this doctor is one of the best.”

Annie cocked her head, smiled, and made a clicking noise. “Thanks, Mitha is like my sister, she was wounded protecting me.”

Now Diane saw an opening to possibly learn more about Kepek and his crew. “So, how long have you known each other? If you don’t mind me asking?”

“I’ve known her since I was young, we worked at the hospital in the capital city until the great fires. She care for me until Chief found us and brought on the Marvhil.” Annie explained.

“If memory serves, that’s from the Talsion War. Two battleships crashed into the capital city on Roth IV. The resulting fires burned for weeks.” Diane explained. “That must have been hellish.”

“We survived,” Annie looked down, “It was Angosian civilians that came and put the fires out and gave aid to our wounded. Kip was with them, he helped us. Kip is a good man, he doesn't like it when I tell him that. I don't understand why.”

"Men don't like to have traits attached to themselves, good or bad," Tale eavesdropped. She flitted between patients. "Arthur would be unwieldy and call me a menace when I called him a sweetheart."

Diane nodded. “True that,” she quietly added a verbal confirmation. She’d come across very few men without such insecurities.

"Angosian men are very strange. Kip gave oxygen to the survivor, but was angry when Mitha risked herself giving blood to a crash victim a few months ago." Annie looked genuinely confused, "aren't they the same thing?"

Tale busied herself with a hypospray. "Speaking of the oxygen deprived, he needs this." She handed it to Annie. "He's not going to want to keep up on it, you seem like he'll begrudgingly listen to you. Back around to your point -- Men don't like to listen to women because it would be admitting they're wrong. And sing it with me ladies. Men are never wrong."

Tale added an eye roll for emphasis before disappearing into the office to make notes on treatment.

“I’ll use a gray lie, I’ll tell him Mitha prescribed it.’’ Annie grinned and made a clicking sound. “When he doesn’t take care of himself she says she’ll ‘restrict access.’ I’m not sure what that means, but they both get really grumpy and stop talking to each other when she does that.”

"I bet that makes for a fun ride," Diane quipped with a sly grin appearing on her face.

"Not really, it's better when they get along." Annie smiled. "Mitha just says; 'It's when they're not arguing, there's a more serious problem.' I don't understand, but it seems to work for them."

Diane grinned, "Different strokes for different folks is what they say back home."

“I think I know what you mean,” Annie head cocking her head. “Different people, do things their own way? Unless you're talking about swimming?”

Diane chuckled, "No, not talking about swimming."

A call came from the bridge, [Vam'wa to Olivaw, come in, you should come to the bridge.]

Daneel tapped his badge, "We're on the way." He gave a curt nod to Diane inviting her to go with him.

Diane returned the nod and followed him out.


==Bridge==

Vam'wa piloted the ship expertly knowing it's strengths and limitations. She leered over at the Resolution's operations officer. "Fine job tracking down our prey's trail."

Etan nodded as he monitored the main transport buffer, triggering it exactly when Dr. Rutherford signaled. He looked over at Vam'wa with a very tight smile - one Diane would recognize as him actually expressing himself while working. The Klingon woman had the conn, so he respected her as Captain for the time being. "Thank you. You've done an excellent job in the chase, sir. Suggestion, turn to four-four-five, mark eight. Speed is perfect - as expected."

He knew that it wasn't much of a suggestion as he'd laid it out in navigation, but it pushed them back to a working relationship. It was rare for him to work as a navigator with a helmsman of equal skill, but it was obvious that the two would fall into the 'Bridge-Forward' dance; he led with a course, she followed with the best way to hit it. Some people had seen it in a romantic light, or even equated it sexually, but to Etan, it was natural. His job was to ensure the proper operation of a starship - in a sense, that didn't matter whether he was aboard this 'ghost ship', or the Resolution, his job remained the same. Part of the proper operation was that she headed the right way - and thus, navigation was a core element of his role. The transport delay, and a few near-whispered commands to the engineering crew, were just a part of what he did, as he looked to the Science 1 & 2 boards, requesting their datastreams wordlessly. He tapped a few commands, and sent the information as needed.

His voice was soft to the Bridge, even though it came across clearly to the Sickbay. "Doctor Rutherford, please confirm transport resolution before I clear buffers."

The Klingon woman straightened up in her seat. She realized this operations officer liked to keep it business only on the bridge. Vam'wa respected that. She made the appropriate course correction even though it was already in the system as she side-eyed him with her own tight, but gleeful smile. She decided to get to know him better when duty allowed.

TBC...

==Bridge==

"We need to drop out of warp," Vam'wa announced, "We're coming up on an asteroid field. The warp trail ends here."

Etan nodded to Vam'wa and started scanning for either the ship or signs of heat dissipation that might indicate it. He thought for a moment before responding. "I believe the vessel entered the field at impulse. Working to identify any meaningful destination. Movements of the satellites are too erratic to identify a disturbance pattern. I'm running heat scans now."

Etan, Michael is going to give us a description of the facility we’re after, the sensors will pick it up and we can zero in on it. You two can work this out.

Aalis was still hanging out on the bridge watching and observing the goings on. There was far too much at stake now for them to possibly lose the trail and she felt a pang of worry.

The distress call lit up the comms board like an old Earth Christmas tree. Considering that Etan had already ordered the ship's considerable sensor array to scan for any signs of habitation, the location was quickly identified. Before he spoke, he'd already punched in the destination and sent it to the Helm with a preliminary course, which he was updating as he projected the movements of the various space rocks around them. "I have a base, sir. Distress signal issued in Angosian and other languages. Sensors are locked in, I can put the target on screen. If you'll authorize defensive tractor repulsors, we can get there with a straight-line course. Transport may be difficult, as it's multiple hulls and patched shields. We'll have to get close and sync shield frequency to a section of the facility. Should I put the distress call on speakers?"

Aalis' interest was piqued plagued with concern as she heard Angosian being part of the distress call. "Put it on speaker," she ordered. After all, their people were most likely there.

At the request from Aalis, Etan nodded and with a few swift keystrokes, put the distress signal about the cave-in across the Bridge speakers.

Daneel and Diane entered the bridge from the turbo-lift shaft. "Report," the Eldritch's captain ordered.

Vam'wa took the lead, "We've recorded an explosion on an asteroid bearing one, three, mark, one seven. We're also receiving a distress call from that asteroid. Initial scans show a mining facility not used in a very long time.

Daneel nodded and looked at Diane, "What are the chances your friend is responsible for that explosion?"

Diane nodded, "Pretty good if everything he's told me about himself is true. He served in Angosian special forces before coming to Starfleet. I'm sure he's trying to escape or at least let someone know where he is."

Daneel sat in his command chair, "Head there. Keep us cloaked for now. Let me know when we're in transporter range. We're going in."

Meanwhile....

__

Kay was checking her armor, helmet and all of her weapons for the second time. During a mission was not when you wanted a weapons failure. Or a communications failure either. It would be hard enough to work as a unit with so many people she did not know. Even the major was still mostly a stranger and they had not had time to even practice together. It made her nervous but she was still determined to get Ren and Sky back safely.

"Making ready for war, I see." Kepek said as he entered the room.

"If need be. I will go to hell and back to get them." She said with a grim look on her face.

Kip gave Kay a cold look. “Careful, do not speak of places you’ve never been and things you don’t know. I appreciate your tenacity, where I come from it’s bad form to speak of hell with those who’ve experienced it.”

"You think I have had it easy because I am a girl? You know nothing about me and my past." Kay said much more serious than she normally was.

“I tried to be polite,” Kip stated. “Your gender has nothing to do with it and the fact that you came to such an ignorant conclusion says more about insecurities than anything I give a flying fuck about. I know you’ve never fought beside me. I see neither fire nor ice in your eyes. I am your elder in every sense of that word. So again I say careful how you speak to me.”

"Is everything okay in here?" Alisa asked, helmet under her arm. Her black hair was done in a tight braid. Helmet wearing made some wisps run free. While she hadn't heard the gust of the conversation, the emotions were high on the Betazed's radar.

"Ma'am." Kay came to attention cursing the man for bringing her to the attention of the major. "No ma'am." But giving Kip a look that said they were not finished.

Kip turned to address the woman. “Major, the evidence suggested we’ll be facing Angosian soldiers, it seems my expertise will be needed seeing as some of your personnel know little of our ways. First off if you insist on taking prisoners you need to adjust your stun settings."

The Angosian handed her a PADD, “These will work better, but it will take more than a single shot. Set the phasers to kill if want to lower your chance of casualties.”

"That's not allowed under federation law, or are you saying the kill setting won't actually kill them?" Kay was all business now.

Kip continued addressing the Major, "It's interesting your people don't know the difference between Starfleet Regulation and Federation Law. According to regulation; Rules of Engagement: 1012 section B the standard setting should be used in hostel in counters, If this proves ineffective it's left up to the officer's discretion."

The Angosian took a step as he spoke so his back was facing Kay. "I am a recognized expert on the Angosian Military and I'm telling you your stun setting will be ineffective."

Alisa had taken the PADD and listened to the discourse as well. "We will go with the heavier stun settings as suggested. As for putting the settings on kill, while that would reduce the number of casualties, the Lieutenant is correct, we cannot engage in combat under those conditions; we can however change our settings higher at mine or the Commander's discretion."

Kip's crewmate Fran walked in and stood next to him, "I hope for all our sakes your commander will know when to take the child gloves off."

"My friend means kid gloves," Kip chuckled.

Kay had to grin at that despite herself. Earlier she had really liked Kepek but now he was proving himself to be a total ass. If he was not going to speak to her anymore, well she would have no problem with that.

Tale hustled into the armory. She actively ignored everyone around her. She had noticed during their little excursion that the phase variations in her type one was off slightly. It didn't register properly on her tricorder as a phaser. Tale popped it into the armory repair tool and let it whir until it dinged. The marines scuttled around her annoyed that she was occupying their space. "Better safe than sorry," she said as she exited back towards Sickbay. Her break was soon to be over and she knew that she didn't have much more time before RJ wanted reports.

“Hello Chief, Mitha says you’ll need this,” Annie said as she walked into the room holding a hypospray. 

“Mitha is awake?” Kip couldn’t keep the emotion out of his voice.

“Yes,” Annie made a clicking noise. “Don’t worry I’ll here with her, if the Colonel takes the Marvhil out Starfleet officers will help. He told me to stay here and bake cookies… Only I don’t think they have a kitchen…”

“He was joking Kiddo,” Kip smiled. “Cael is an asshole”

Annie still look confused as she injected Kip, “the Colonel doesn’t want us to get hurt.”

“True, stay with Mitha make her stay in bed,” Kip said.

“Course Kip" Annie smiled.

Kip turned and looked at the others as if daring them to comment.

A quirked eyebrow was all that Alisa was going to give for the conversation as it was going on. Her gear was ready to go as was she. While she never had a bountiful interaction with the Chief, it was more principle of the matter that they get him back. She was more than ready to get this done.

TBC...