USS Elysium Bridge JP

Posted on Tue Mar 26th, 2024 @ 8:43pm by Lieutenant Sapphire Morgan [Lalor] & Avalon [ADMIN NPC] & Commodore Phoenix Lalor-Richardson & Commander Kyle Reece & Lieutenant Commander S'hib & Lieutenant Thor Magnus & Ensign Maxine Mckull Ms. & Lieutenant Athena Magnus

Mission: Season 6: Episode 4: Memory Lane
1703 words - 3.4 OF Standard Post Measure

Phoenix was pacing in the small well on the bridge in front of the Command Chairs. The away Team was on its way into utter danger and she was watching the scopes as best she could without gnawing on the manicured nails that she had just had done.

"Anything?" she asked for like the hundredth time.

"nothing" came the reply from Operations. Sapphire was acting chief of Operations, and she was just hoping Baeryn got better.

Lt. Athena Magnus who was off of maternity leave was working on the bridge now. She replied earnestly looking at her screen, “Anything? If you are talking about…” she pauses for a moment. “Picking up some kind of tachyon trail. Tactical and security, check your scanners off of the port side. Maybe nothing but who knows.”

S'hib looked up briefly, still getting his bearings now that he was serving on the bridge. "It's just background emissions, Lieutenant... nothing to worry about." Looking back at his console he gently swiped two hoofed digits over the surface, pausing for a moment as a frown formed.

"Though saying that," he added, his tone implying he had more to say as he brought his other hand over and narrowed the sensor readings.

A few more taps on his screen and he muttered something about sand under his breath. "I'm tracking multiple Tachyon readings off our port heading away from us into grid two four five, Commodore I think we just narrowly avoided a Tachyon sweep..."

S'hib looked up, concern written all over his face. "But It looks automated, I don't think they're looking for us specifically."

Phoenix frowned. "I hope so. Ensign McKull, keep our position fluid. And keep the engines prepped. I want us to be able to jump in if needed."

From the X-O's seat, Kyle was busy splitting his attention between what was happening on the bridge and what was taking place below. "All Marine and Security teams are in position, Commodore. If those slavers try anything, we're as ready as we can be."

“It could be a trap,” Thor answered from engineering. “Someone might do a scan giving themselves a way. I have seen it happen before.”

Max sat at the helm station, monitoring their position closely. She had to admit... she felt better. She was unhappy about having to sleep, but surprisingly, or perhaps not so, nothing happened in her dreams. While she was not quite at full capacity, she was doing better than she had been.

Tapping at her console, Max nodded. "Understood. The engines are ready should we be required to go anywhere, but I am keeping us away from the readings."

She paused a moment, then peered over her shoulder. "If we could track the source I might be able to plot a grid we can use to better avoid potentially being detected, Commodore."

“We have to be careful on the scanning,” Athena responded, “I do sense something out there but then I am only three fourths Betazoid.”

"Work with S'hib and Ensign McKull, Lieutenant Magnus." Phoenix said calmly. "Plot the course together".

“Will do Commodore,” Athena answered.

"It's weird... whatever's performing this tachyon sweep," S'hib began, hunching over his consoles. "-They're leaving a lot of residual radiation behind, It's like they're just brute forcing an entire sector..."

Brute force. He thought to himself as an idea started to form. Why don't we do that too.

"Lieutenant..." He began, looking up somewhat. "If we were to use an extremely low yield tachyon burst, could we time a trailing scan to look for spikes in emissions?"

Athena speaking from the Engineering console, “Brilliant idea. Engineering is standing by.”

"Make sure your scans are perfectly timed, Mister S'hib," Kyle commented from the XO's position. While any exterior scans would normally be handled by the Tactical Department (as the usually combined security/tactical departments, found on other starships, was split on the Elysium, due to her size), with Kyle filling in for Captain Taylor, and Commander Starr, Kyle's ADH, was also out sick, Kyle had asked S'hib to pull double duty, as the rest of Kyle's team was inexperienced junior officers. And right now, the Commodore needed experienced officers on her bridge. Kyle did have a young officer, Ensign Rachael Monroe, manning the tactical console. She would take her orders from either Kyle or the Commodore.

S'hibs ears flicked over to the sound of his name, quickly followed by his eyes peering from under his brow. "Your confidence in our abilities are duly noted, Commander." He quipped sarcastically before licking away a grin and returning his attention to the console beneath him.

"Fire the tachyon burst on my mark," His voice shifted from whimsical to assertive at that moment, already focusing his gaze on Athena.

He raised his left hand, his four digits curling in for every number he called out until he had balled a fist. "four, three, two, one... mark!"

Athena fired the tachyon bursts on his mark. After she complied, she replied with a firm voice. “Done.”

S'hib by then had already turned, looking at the screens behind him as the slow influx of data steadily increased with the expanding tachyon burst.

"I got good and bad news." He shouted to nobody in particular as he scrutinised one of the smaller screens.

"Which one do you want first?"

“I vote go bad news,” Athena responded out of knee jerk reaction.

Phoenix merely waved her hand "Speak already, Commander."

Kyle looked back over at where S'hib was standing, waiting to hear the bad news."

"Well, the bad news is that this is more than likely not the only tachyon sweep they're running, that and they could be doing them all across their territory and we won't know until we stumble into one." He paused, taking a few moments to breathe. "Like we just did,"

"The good news, however," He began, looking back at his console in an attempt to ignore all the eyes on him. "Is they're cutting a lot of corners... scanning every other grid like a checkerboard."

Athena cocked her head a bit. “So they might be underbudgetted.”

"Or they are laying traps." Phoenix said calmly.

=====Main Engineering=====
In Engineering, Thor said to his crew, “Engineering. If you are not equip with a weapon, grab one. Security who are assigned to us will give us one if you do not have. Prepare for the worst, Hope for the best. “

======Bridge======

Kyle stood and moved over to stand on Phoenix's left side. In a slightly lowered voice, he spoke. "I think you're right, Commodore. With all their slaves and their precious arena, they'd be fools not to have some sort of trap, or traps, in place."

Phoenix nodded. "Mr S'hib, are they creating a safe path through their scans? or is it forming into a funnel."

His brow furrowed at this "It's hard to say, everything around us is fairly uniform."

Another moment passed as he brought up a complete map of the brief scan they had made on the view screen. "Commodore, without using long-range sensors this is all we got."

He paused to let everyone take in everything on the screen, a checkerboard of red sensor pings in every direction around the Elysium.

"It's enough to keep us hidden, but... their space is vast and they may very well be doing what you suggested."

Looking at the space that was pinged, Kyle considered their possible actions. "If the away team gets in trouble and needs an immediate rescue, the Thaih'ea will see us before we even get the engines warmed up." He thought some more. "Perhaps..." he mused briefly, then finished the thought. "What if we used decoys. Think of it as a reverse hunt. Instead of the hunter using the decoys to draw out its prey, the prey will use em to draw out the hunters."

S’hib raised an eyebrow at the usage of the term prey. “We could modify a number of class eight probes to give off false warp signatures… on their end it would look like the Elysium is in a dozen different places at once.”

Kyle nodded. "My thoughts exactly, Mister S'hib. However, we still need to be cautious. If we launch them right before we go to warp, the Thaih'ea might still figure out our location." He moved over to his tactical station and typed in several commands. Looking back up at the screen, he overlaid his idea on top of the scanned grid. "If we do a slow launch of each probe, powered down, using only some compressed air, we could, in theory, move the probes into several positions without them being detected. Then, when we fire up Ely's engines, we would fire them up at the same time, launching them on different vectors. Hopefully, by the time the Thaih'ea get wise, we could be a few systems away." He looked over at Phoenix to get her take.

"Do it. Take as many people as you need. Mr Reece, notify our starfighters to be ready to launch just in case."

“Your shell game is an excellent idea,” Athena said as she was listening as well as watching her monitor, “While they are led on a wild goose chase, we will be long go. In case someone asks, I am not sensing anything close. I can see why Thor asked me to be on the bridge while he holds down the fort in Engineering.”

"Aye, Ma'am." Kyle responded as he reached up and tapped his commbadge as he headed towards the turbolift. "All available starfighter pilots and crew, this is Commander Reece. Report to your briefing room immediately." The lift doors slid shut and he was gone.

"Ops, start moving civilians to the shelters. "

Sapphire nodded. "Yes Sir."

"Ensign McKull, keep us in the clear zone for now but keep our distance as best you can."

Once S’hib had shut down his station he stood there for a moment, just absorbing everything that was going on around him. “Commodore, I will have to make the adjustments in person, with your permission id like to leave the bridge.”

"Given. Go for it Commander S'hib," Phoenix said calmly.

OFF - TBC