Shuttle 1: Arcadia

Posted on Sat Jun 8th, 2019 @ 5:28pm by Lieutenant Danica Kovitz & Avalon [ADMIN NPC]

Mission: Episode 1: Hell is a four letter word
Location: Type 9 Shuttle Code named Arcadia
Timeline: MD4 11h00
1813 words - 3.6 OF Standard Post Measure

IC

The five shuttles exited the Shuttle bay, and after momentary paused, jumped to warp along their proposed courses.

Jason sat at his station not quite understanding the Commodores plan, yes its understandable to search for the Captain's shuttle but to risk the crew like this and to removed the majority of the senior officers still left aboard. Something just didn't sit right with Jason. "Avalon ETA to our search grid?"

The Ships AI's voice came through. "Your ETA is 2 hours. Enjoy the trip. Lieutenant JG Waters has you in safe hands."

"2 hours, fun." Jason continued to look straight ahead out of the viewport. 'At-least I get to look at a hot guy. That should take some of the pain away.' He stopped for a second and then looked at the other passenger in the shuttle. A Lieutenant he hadn't meet as far as he was aware, but a Lieutenant non the less, he need to figure out something quick. "Lieutenant I think we should find out who is in command here. It will be pretty bad if we both start giving orders at the same time." He said looking over to her.

Danica had been somewhat drifting off as she gazed out at the stars, lost in thought. His comment brought her back. Honestly, she wanted nothing to do with giving the orders. That sounded like a lot of pressure and she certainly didn’t feel qualified. But just backing out wouldn’t look great either. So...what was her excuse? “Uh...I think it makes sense for you to take lead. Your tactical training is probably a better approach to take here. If things start getting all sciencey, then I’ll start giving orders. But until then, I’ll report to you.” It was a half decent cover.

"Okay, we can cross that bridge if it comes to it, when we get to our search area, ill need you to start running scans to search for the shuttle. JG we will do a basic zig-zag, but both of you keep on your toes, what happened to the Captain's shuttle will not happen to us."Jason said out loud.

"Heading to local grid one," River announced. He double checked the computer's projections for their arrival and the execution of the subsequent search pattern. "This is going to be a long day."

===2 hours later===

Two hours later, give or take Shuttle Arcadia dropped out of warp.

The area they arrived in was clear of all stellar bodies but was obviously well used as a dumping ground for old ships, or was this a battle site uncharted by the federation? Federation Starships, Klingon Vessels, Cardassian ships, all dead and floating in the void.

"Anyone know what we are looking at?" Jason said looking at all the ships.

River worked his board. "I'm not getting any readings from any of them. No power signatures. No definitive lifesigns." He twisted his head to one side, trying to get a better angle on the ships floating beyond the viewport. "Without an active system out there for us to talk to -- and with so many different materials floating around in close proximity -- it's hard for me to tell what's out there, let alone our missing shuttle. I could fly us deeper in for close range scans?"

"Take us in then, maybe the Captains shuttle is in there somewhere." Jason said as he looked over towards Danica. "Find me something please."

"Bringing us in," River affirmed. He was only a moment in entering their new course when a warning buzzed at him. Reaching over to his right, he tapped at a nearby screen. His brow furrowed. "That's funny..."

Jason turned to his console to raise the shields. "What is it." he said in a rush.

River started a moment, then shook his head. "I -- nothing? Something." He tapped his screen once more. His hand moved slowly away. "It's like I'm getting a life sign of some kind. Very faint. But it keeps flickering in and out." He looked back at his senior officers. "Either someone just died, or they don't want us to know that they're here."

"Danica, I need to know what it is. River take us close to a some hulks if it is someone I want them to think we put the shields up to not get hit by anything." Jason said looking from one person to the other .

"Bringing us in," River confirmed. Somehow he managed to keep his voice steady. Truthfully, he was terrified that whatever had gotten the Captain and the others might be out here, ready to pounce on them. He kept his eyes on his sensor readings, all available escape paths at the forefront of his mind.

"I'm definitely seeing something. Can't tell what though..." Danica said, tapping in a few commands. For a few seconds, her screen remained dark. And then suddenly, the screen pinged again before fading. "There. Got it again. On vector 0213. It certainly looked like a life sign. But the damn thing keeps fading before I can get a clear reading."

"Taking us in on that vector," River announced. He keyed the engines and the stars beyond the viewport swirled wildly as he adjusted their course. Almost immediately after they settled into fine points of light they shifted once more, this time with a violent shake of the shuttle and a blaring alarm. "We're being attacked!" He tapped at his board, shaking his head. "I don't know how they're doing it, but the computer can't figure out the point of origin of their attacks. I'm not going to be able to plot an effective evasion course without better data."

"Don't then, take cover behind the hulks, put one on our right if they keep hitting us then on the left, we can keep moving until we get a fix on there spot."Jason said scanning his console trying to find there location."Keep us moving erratically as possible, try to get a general distress signal off quickly before we get jammed."

River nodded sharply and began keying in their purposefully erratic flight plan. "When Commander Qwyyn reviews these flight logs, she's going to think I was drunk."

Engaging the sequence, the shuttle lurched hard to the left, nearly avoiding one of the dead ships ahead of them. Just as Morris had anticipated, the constant barrage of their unseen attacker was interrupted. Unfortunately, as soon as they cleared their cover, the attacks began again, tossing their shuttle about. River immediately set them on a course for another flotilla of dead ships to take cover in. "Any luck getting a distress signal out?" he called over his shoulder.

"Avalon, transmit a general distress all frequency, shuttle Arcadia under attack by a clocked vessel." Jason said as he continued to scan his console, "River try and take us in a circle of the attacker so we can get a possible location of the enemy. If we can narrow there location we can fight back." Hitting commands on his console Jason starts the computer collecting information of the enemies location.

The message was sent. The AI appeared in miniature. "I would suggest you get back to barn as soon as possible."

River hesitated at the AI's suggestion, his fingers frozen for a moment over his controls. "I think she's right, sir. We don't know what's out there. If it's anything with real power behind it, we won't stand a chance."

"If we can out run it then do it, if not we need to cripple it."Jason called out, retreat would be the smart move but we could be in real trouble if something bad happens, Jason thought.

Danica hadn’t been of much use during the initial fire fight, but something she’d just spotted have her an idea. “I think I might have something on the crippling idea.” She punched a few commands and sent coordinates to their readouts. “One of the old derelicts is leaking plasma. It’s slow and steady. A vague area but not a dense cloud. It might have been dispersing for months. But that’s perfect for us. We can fly through the plasma field without igniting it, then use a modulated phased beam to try and kick start a burn. It might not work, but it can’t hurt!”

"Your right it can't, River take us to it, and make it good, we may only have one chance." Jason said as he started to modulate the phaser.

River nodded, a smile splitting his face. "With pleasure."

The shuttle spun about, recentering itself on a new course for the coordinates that Danica had locked in. Doing his best to keep them within cover of the dead space craft, River started them toward the plasma leak.

Every so often they would cross a small section of space where there were no drifting vessels to protect them, and they would be hit again by their attacker. Shields were holding, but not much for much longer. Just a little further...

His alarm sounded and River looked down at his readings to see that they were being directly pursued now. The cat and mouse games had come to an end, and he could see they were being chased by a light-class Romulan fighter. Still too much for them to handle on their own. But, then, they didn't know about Danica's plan.

"Coming up on the plasma cloud now, sir," River acknowledged. His voice betrayed the mix and nerves and excitement he was feeling. "In five. Four. Three. Two..."

Danica had been waiting for their approach, scouring the barely noticeable plasma field for somewhere dense enough to start their little chain reaction. It didn't have to be much, but the plasma was relatively looslely distributed. She typed in another command, sending her final target. "There!"

Jason fired the phaser hoping the plasma did its job, if not he was sure they were in bigger trouble then he had prepared for.

Dani watched as the energy was absorbed into the plasma patch. For a brief moment, she genuinely thought it had failed, as she watched the energy disperse over a wider area than expect. But thankfully, her calculations had been right. After a brief hesitation, the area of the initial phaser blast suddenly blossomed into an energy cascade, surging outword in every direction. Within moments, the effect was visible, an explosion radiating outward. "That did it! Now I wouldn't recommend we slow down."

River could not wipe the smile from his face. Not only had they dealt with their attacker, but their shuttle had amassed a wealth of sensor data for the Elysium to analyze. If there were any clues as to the fate of their crew, it was only a matter of time before they found them. "You got it, sir. Bringing us home."

OFF