Rescue Operations

Posted on Tue Sep 26th, 2023 @ 9:45am by Lieutenant JG Nerinath zh'Rhilror [Lalor] & Commodore Phoenix Lalor-Richardson & Lieutenant Myne Redal & Lieutenant Tedrum Savat & Teevs Dosivi & Kerilia Dosivi

Mission: Season 6: Episode 3: Far From Home
Location: Various
Timeline: MD 3 - 14h00
2044 words - 4.1 OF Standard Post Measure

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The Elysium was standing distant to the ship graveyard. The bridge was quiet as they watched the screens for any signs of danger to their 4 away teams.

Outside the ship, the Group Commander's cap was in full effect.

Nerinath was watching her scopes. There was several chunks of debris she was monitoring. One however was ... "Lieutenant Redal? Can you check out sector 15 please. There is a weird reading on my scope." She said to the Operations officer.

Myne snapped back to attention with a flicker of her eyes, turning her gaze from the main screen and down to her console. "Aye aye. Give me a moment." Her mind quickly returned to the task at hand as it had been all too occupied with the scene before them. Ship graveyards always spooked her for some reason, no matter the host they triggered something in Redal that held her hair on edge. "I am getting something yeah. One second."

[[ Tema Spheia Vokasi. Sova jeakaint! Aporven soa! Aporven soa! Lokant hema Spheia! Aporven soa! ]]

The message came through the speaker on the deck as Myne let it run for the Captain and the rest of the deck crew to hear. You never knew after all, Myne always believed it was best to share the raw beforehand, just in case. "Sounds like nothing I ever heard. Actually, that's not true, but also not relevant. Running it through my translation routines. It is going to take a while, sorry."

=== Teevs' ship ===

The Spheia creaked and groaned from the gravity as it slowly slipped toward the planet. Teevs had activated the propulsion to slow down the fall, but with the debris lodged in the side of the ship, it was only so effective. He held his daughter's hand a little tighter as he hoped the distress call would go through. He repeated the message a couple more times while trying to keep his panic in check. Fear had a tight grip on his throat, threatening to choke him.

A small sniffle came from Kerilia as she watched the ship-killing planet get closer. She had to be brave for her dad, and she tried, but this was her second time being so close to the face of death. Something above them exploded from the stress, making her flinch from the sound and feel sparks rain down on her.

===Elysium Bridge===

"Captain!" Myne called out as she finished a few more taps on her console with one hand and with the other put back an earpiece she had snuck into her ear some time ago. "The translation is finished. It is a distress call."

"Lets hear it Lieutenant" Phoenix spoke from her chair.

Another tap on the console and the distress call starts to sound through the bridge's speak system.

[[ Calls Spheia vessel. Caught planetweight's us. Assist you please! Assist you please! Hold us child Spheia! Assist you please! ]]

Myne frowned and looked at Phoenix. "Captain, whatever language that is, neither my translator or the ship's can make proper sense of it. We need to get whoever's on the other side talking a bit more to properly understand the language."

The commodore frowned and hit the external comm. "Lieutenant Savat, this is Elysium actual. We are sending your team coordinates of a possible rescue mission. Proceed to sector 15."

===Fighter Squadron===

Tedrum was where he called home. The cockpit of his fighter. There were some who might say he was too old for this if they knew his age. To an El-Aurian it was just a drop in the bucket. They were flying routine patrols around the Elysium keeping an eye out for anything that might be odd or less than friendly.

He heard the message from the commodore. "This is Nocturne to Elysium. Affirmative, alpha squadron inbound." He queued the channel to the other fighters. "Flight leader to squadron. Come around to heading one three five mark two. Possible assist with rescue mission. No further details. Weapons hot, but do not fire unless fired upon. I repeat do not fire unless fired upon."

He thought for a moment then queued comms again. "Nocturne to hangar. Prepare bravo squadron on alert five. I want them ready in case things go south on us out here."

===Elysium Bridge===

Then Phoenix looked at Myne. "Respond to their call. See if we can get that translation to clear up."

"Yes ma'am!" Myne nods and taps on her console preparing to reply to the call. "Spheia. This is the Federation vessel the USS Elysium. How many people do you have aboard? Is it safe to approach your ship?" Turning back to Phoenix, Myne gave an apologetic I-am-not-good-at-people-stuff look.

There was a pause long enough to question if the response even went through. Perhaps they were trying to understand the equally confusing translation. Eventually, a response came through:

[[ N'gaielnt havas, Vessel. Seli your call joales. ]]

Following the response came a request for visual.

"Ma'am, they're requesting a visual. The translators are throwing a hillbilly fit with this language." Myne sighed with some exasperation. "That part there, I think they're calling for our sight?"

"Do it" Came the reply. "Lets see who we are dealing with."

As the viewscreen came to life, an older man's face appeared. He looked like he took a tumble: some locks of his dark brown hair were out of place, his jacket was disheveled, and he had a couple smudge marks on his face. From what the viewscreen could reveal, he looked unharmed. Next to his seat was a smaller figure, presumably watching something out of sight, but she was younger, likely the child in the original distress call.

Upon seeing the foreign faces appear on his screen, Teevs cleared his throat. The translation of their message was jumbled, some of the words not making any sense and even sounding made up. He ran it through his own translator and could piece together that they were trying to ask for more information. But without more of their language, what they wanted to know would be difficult to guess, which is why he asked for visual. Charades was universal, right?

[[ There is kevu mori caught Spheia. ]] As Teevs spoke, he gently freed his hand from Kerilia's and used it to mimic the ship, and a finger from his other hand to imitate the debris, and brought his finger to the 'ship' to indicate a collision. [[ The vessel is fekai, n'zevant with dekaria. ]] He then attempted to mimic motion of the 'ship' but shook his head at the same time.

With fingers tapping frantically on her console and aiding the ship's universal translator with her own and cross-referencing the results from both, Myne nodded and spoke up. "Ma'am, it is getting better. This is what we have so far, translators operating at a 90% certainty." With a last tap the speakers relayed the translation of the alien on the screen.

[["There is debris orbit caught Spheia. Vessel is stable, no move-us with power."]]

Phoenix frowned. "Nocturne, Elysium Actual. The ship we are looking for is unable to move. Civilians aboard. Do a sweep and do you have grapples onboard?"

===Fighter Squadron===
The flight was on their way inbound to the co-ordinates relayed to them by the Elysium. They got close enough to pick up the transponder for the distress signal but it was in a frequency unknown to him. At least it wasn't a frequency used by any of the current civilizations they had on file.

He hit the comm channel to the other fighters in the flight. "Flight leader to flight. When we are in visual range squawk FOF and see if we get a response. I'm going to take a ring around the vessel." The fighters had limited sensors but he turned his on as he made his way around the craft. He scratched his head as the readings were not making sense. He shrugged and cataloged the entries. He'd have time to go through them once he was back on the Elysium.

Just as he was thinking of the ship his comms came on and he heard the commodore. He checked the loadouts of the fighters that were with him. "Nocturne to Elysium affirmative. Myself and elements three and five have grapples. However, if you are wanting us to tow the ship in...that is going to be slow going trying to break this ship out of the gravitational pull of the planet. Advise that either Bravo squadron be outfitted with grapples and sent to assist or if the Elysium can assist with tractor beam on minimal setting. That should be enough for us to get it back without any danger to structural integrity."

=Elysium Bridge =

Nerinath considered things while the Group Commander spoke to the Commodore. She turned and said "Ma'am, based on the gravitational pull and the trajectories of the debris... the Elysium could go in a few more Kilometres to assist. Our tractor beams can reach well from there."

Phoenix nodded. 'Do it." She ordered and replied to the Group Commander. "Elysium is right behind you Lieutenant. Be careful."

Tag Savat

'Lieutenant Redal prepare the tractor beam"

With the computer doing most of the heavy lifting of the calculations involved, Myne was free to focus on the optimal angles for the beam. "Tractor beam locked in ma'am and waiting your command."

Phoenix thanked her.

"Helm, take us in. Carefully. "

Neri nodded and began to plot the course. If she screwed this up, Miraj would kill her for doing more damage to the Ely.

=== Spheia ===

While Teevs was talking to the aliens on the viewer, Kerilia had turned her attention from the scanners to herself. Now that the initial surge of adrenaline from the impact was beginning to ease up, her left arm hurt. A lot. The dark green sleeve had a dark spot and was torn, and when she carefully pulled it up, there was a deep gash. "D-dad..."

The concerned tone of Kerilia's voice pulled Teevs' attention away from trying to decipher the other ship's language. Glancing down at her, he saw the blood before reaching over to grab the cargo ship's medkit. "It's alright," he assured. Since they weren't safe just yet, he opted for a quick fix, and wrapped a sterile bandage around the injury. While his experience in space expanded his knowledge of providing medical aid, he still wasn't a doctor and defaulted to his basic medical training. They usually also weren't so far from civilization. "How's that?"

"Better." The pressure of the bandage helped some, but it still hurt and Kerilia wiped the tears that were trying to sting her eyes. Then, something flew past the window fast, nearly spooking her. "What was that??"

Looking first to the window, then to the scanners when he saw nothing, Teevs identified a few smaller ships that were seemingly flying around them. His console beeped, and he read the new translation as he gestured for Kerilia to sit in the chair next to him. "They're talking to someone else at the same time," he said, eyes glancing up when another vessel briefly flew into view through the window. "I believe these are there vessels." The new translation was better, so he decided to have the computer build off of it. Looking back to the image of the aliens, he hoped the translation was better as he asked, "question: the vessels around us are yours?"

The reply came back "Yes, they are here to assist."

Teevs nodded, partly to the response and partly because the translation was probably as good as it was going to get, given the circumstances. An angry beep came from his console, drawing his attention, then a tremor shook the cargo ship, causing both of them to sway. "Our remaining engine just failed. The gravity is too much." Outside, the stationary debris appeared to drift, initially too slow to observe but now gradually speeding up.

Gravity was pulling them toward the planet.

=== Elysium ===

The fighters launched their grapples and a tractor beam from the Elysium enveloped the smaller craft. Slowly the fighters with the help of the Elysium pulled the ship free pf the gravity well.

["Shuttle we will pull you into our shuttlebay"]

OFF