Shuttle 5:Scythe

Posted on Sun Jun 9th, 2019 @ 8:10pm by Avalon [ADMIN NPC] & Lieutenant Carter Smith & Lieutenant Commander S'hib & Petty Officer 1st Class Kaywin-Li Fray

Mission: Episode 1: Hell is a four letter word
Location: Type 9 Shuttle Code named Scythe
Timeline: MD4 11h00
1268 words - 2.5 OF Standard Post Measure

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

Sitting in the auxiliary seat, Kaylee was keeping herself busy by conducting some low level diagnostics on the shuttle's systems. It wasn’t enough to disrupt anything important, but it kept her mind on mission rather than worrying about the Elysium.

"Please tell me the replicator is working," S'hib whined as he trailed his hoofed digits over the helm controls, ignoring a slight ache in his stomach.

Carter nodded. "They are ensign. Would you like me to relieve you at the helm so you can get something to eat?"
While he waited for an answer, he thought to himself that at least he had PO Fray to talk to and look at.

Sensing Carter’s thoughts, Kaylee smiled a little but said nothing. Her skills here still underdeveloped and she’s only recently begun to use them ever since the incident. “Actually Lieutenant, could i trouble you for a Coffee?”

"I'll get something in a bit, no point switching out so soon." S'hib said mostly to himself, watching the sensor readouts blinking on a screen beside him.

"One coffee, coming up." He went to the replicator and the coffee appeared. Picking it up, he brought it over to Kaylee. "Here you go."

"So are you both also confused by all this?" S'hib interjected, turning around in his seat to look back into the small shuttle. "Like, do you think it's a training exercise?" He added, turning back around and looking at the sensors again, two large hoofed digits pressed up against his bottom lip, a loud snort jutting from his nostrils as he watched it continue to display nothing of much interest.

Carter shrugged. "Seems a bit overkill for a training exercise."

====2 hours later====

Arriving at the co-ordinates for their search grid, Shuttle Scythe dropped out of warp.

And the Alarms started blaring [[PROXIMITY ALERT! PROXIMITY ALERT! PROXIMITY ALERT!]]

There, off the starboard bow was a large beaten up ship, venting atmosphere.

[[PROXIMITY ALERT! PROXIMITY ALERT! PROXIMITY ALERT!]]

"What is the point in having sensors if they can't detect a ship in front of us!" S'hib snorted loudly as his hands shot to the control panels, knocking a freshly replicated drink over as he wrestled with the impulse engines. "Raise the shields!" He growled to nobody in particular as small chunks of debris clattered against the hull, bulkheads groaning in protest as he slowed the shuttle to a crawl. "How in the hell did we not see this on sensors." S'hib said leaning forward as he turned the shuttle to face the other vessel. "

"Shields are up." Carter looked at the readouts. "I'm trying to scan the ship...my scans are being absorbed by that ship. That's why the sensors didn't catch it....they couldn't see it. I'm going to try and hail them."

The shuttles sensors were still scanning but through the comm came nothing but static.

"See if you can hail the Elysium, I'm going to take us closer." S'hib said as he leaned back into his chair, running his hands over the controls and slowly moving the shuttle towards the unknown vessel, small shield impacts from debris gently lighting up the exterior of the ship with a ghostly blue hue.

"Also one of you see if you can detect any other warp trails beside ours." S'hib added as he brought the exterior lights on the shuttle online, illuminating the full extent of the damage.

Carter looked at Fray. "Petty officer, see if you can raise the Elysium. I'll check for any warp trails." Carter looked up at the window. "S'hib. See if you can find a docking port."

"I'm sure it has one but if not, It's got plenty of holes in it." S'hib quipped as he slowly brought the shuttle around the slender pike nosed vessel "It's probably at the back right?" He added quietly, mostly to himself.

Carter heard him speak. "if it's anything like our ships, it'll have docking ports all over. We have one near the bridge, don't we?"

"Honestly sir, I haven't flown one of these since the academy," S'hib said, leaving an awkward silence as he shuffled around in his seat to look at Carter. "I don't really know where you park these things." He added before quickly turning back around to the controls. "Plus, I doubt they have the doors left open."

"If there's no landing bay, look for a round hatch.....that might be the way in...but with all that damage, we can probably transport over." Carter replied.

"Probably the safest option, any luck getting hold of the Elysium?" S'hib replied as he brought the shuttle closer to the hull of the stricken vessel.

There was an open square along the bottom hull. A shuttle bay. An alert appeared on the shuttle screen. [["Erisian vessel. Do not approach. Do not approach"]]

Carter looked up. "An automated message. Not detecting any life signs. Probably the ship's computer activated the message." Carter looked at the others. "Let's land in that shuttle bay and have a look around."

The message repeated itself over and over again. There was scoring on the side of the vessel. The shuttle's scanners were registering Romulan weapon signatures. And 300klicks past the vessel, there was biological matter registering in that sector. Human/betazoid DNA.

"S'hib, put some distance between us and the ship. I want to run some scans." said Carter.

After working away at the controls for a few moments, Kaylee gave a sigh, "I can't seem to contact the Elysium. there must be a dampening field in place. perhaps that ship has a form of ECM installed"

"Could also be the result of the weapons fire in the area." Carter started the scans as the shuttle moved away from the derelict.

The computer beeped and the bio signal grew. The Computer spoke "Biological matter in 150 kilometers."

Carter kept an eye on the scanner, but said to S'hib, "Another 150 kilometers."

after scanning the communication frequencies, Kaylee finally got through, "I've got the Elysium, though it's not very strong. no visual and only partial audio"

[["This is th... Ely...um. Repo..rt"]]

"I think I see something up ahead." S'hib spoke as he squinted out the cockpit. "What is that?" he added more to himself than the other crew.

The computer got a lock on the item and a message flashed [[do you wish to beam this item aboard?]]

"transferring reserve power to the transporter systems. why don't we make sure that works" Kaylee reported

"I'm reading two bio signs....one I think is human..the other seems to be.....Betazoid. Establishing a force field around the transporter." Once the field was in place.."energizing."

The item beamed in. it was two severed arms. Both wrapped in a starfleet uniform. And now that it was clear in the shuttle, the scans fixed themselves. Human/Betazoid DNA.

Carter looked at the arms. "Damn." He dropped the force field, picked up the arms and moved them to the back. When he returned, "S'hib, plot a course ack to the Elysium...maximum warp. We have to get those arms back to the ship and report to the captain."

"Arms?" S'hib blinked, before looking back at the controls. "Kinda happy we didn't beam over now." He added as the shuttle turned and the stars streaked past the viewscreen into warp.

Carter ignored the snide comment from S'hib. "Yes ensign, "arms." They came from somewhere, belonged to someone. They were Starfleet officers. We owe them to find out what happened."

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