Sharpening the Blade

Posted on Wed Jun 28th, 2023 @ 10:59pm by Captain Aven LaCroix & Lieutenant Commander Aria Winters & Lieutenant Ikuyo Kita & Lieutenant JG Hank Solomon & Lieutenant JG Adrianna Baciami & Lieutenant JG Karri & Ensign Ethan O'Donnaghue & Ensign Bek'a ir Az

1,642 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Mission 1: House of The Dying Sun
Location: USS Eclipse

Captain's Quarters

The voyage from the starbase to Klingon space had been what Aven's former First Officer, and dear friend would have referred to as being a 'milk run' because it was relatively easy and nothing eventful had occurred. Generally speaking, milk was pleasant and enjoyed by many and a quick run to the store for milk was a childhood occurrence long ago in the small towns of Earth by children, but milk spoils and if one was lactose intolerant, milk could wage a war in the body and make one's stomach churn.

When the USS Eclipse suddenly began to shake and plates began to fall from the their display cases in the Captain's Quarters while he sat there eating some buttered toast with his mug of coffee, he did not stand and shout Opa! Instead, he took one last sip of coffee to washdown the bite of toast that was lingering in his mouth and gingerly walked his way over to the doorway of his quarters. So much for a nice calm milk run thought Captain Aven LaCroix.


Bridge

As soon as Aven set foot on the bridge, the starship took a hit that caused a power surge, and lighting was down briefly, a brown out. Whatever was being levied out there was not the orthodox disrupter shot or volley of photon torpedoes that he was accustom to. Whatever it was had a sort of pulsation to it of an electromagnetic nature, but shields were taking the brunt of it, at least they would continue to until they buckled which hopefully would not be any time soon. "Status report, Lieutenant Baciami," groaned the Captain as he stumbled forward and grabbed onto the edge of a console.

Adriana looked up and sighed. It wasn't good news. "They're draining our shields. It's really making our power distribution go strange. Not uncommon, I suppose- to be expected. We are detecting some tetryon partials, but that's not my concern," she paused a moment, finding the words, "the cruiser, it's heavily armed, but not with Klingon technology."

"On screen, Kita, and see what you can do about rerouting power," instructed Aven wanting to get a better look at what the hell was going on out there. Two Klingon vessels occupied part of the viewscreen while a disabled Federation starship sat to the left of the viewscreen venting plasma. They were damaged, and badly.

Kita nodded as she tapped at the operations console. She rerouted some power to the shields, but the Nova class wasn't exactly the most powerful ship in the fleet. "On screen now" she said in response as the viewscreen flickered on.

"Mister O'Donoghue, evasive maneuvers. Whatever you have up your sleeve, use it" directed Captain LaCroix as he made his way down the few steps and into the command pit. His Chief Science Officer, serving as his Acting First Officer was in command of the starship while Aven was in his quarters.

Ethan fet the rumble of the attack and he was flung forward over his console "Aye Captain" He said as he pushed his hair out of his face. His brain searched for an answer. His training kicking in from the academy "Taking Manual Control of Helm Captain Stand by for Evasive maneuvers" he was far better at taking the reigns then letting the computers do the work, after all he was trained to do so "Evasive Pattern Delta 5 Stand by" He pushed the impulse button and manually pitched and yawed the eclipse into delta maneuver 5 bringing them into a wider birth of the "Hot zone" Keeping his hands trained on the impulse engines.

"What the hell have we just gotten ourselves into, Commander?" he said looking over at Aria Winters who had surrendered the Captain's chair and took the First Officer's seat. It was evident that this was not something they started, but even more concerning was a Federation starship in a critical state and two Klingon attack cruisers whipping around, but Aven could see flashes of light and arcs of weapons exchange between the two Klingon cruisers. Not on the same side of this disagreement he thought.

"That would appear to be the million dollar question, Sir," Lt Commander Winters conceded, her voice sounding calm despite the obvious threat. "We altered course after picking up a fragmented distress signal, we were only minutes away. As soon as we dropped out of warp, however, we ended up in the middle of this.

Fortunately, we had shields raised before we dropped out of warp or we wouldn't be in a position to help ourselves, let alone anyone else. Even so, engineering will be busy for some time. Neither ship are responding to hails. They seem too intent on trying to destroy each other. We are attempting to shield the Quebec as much as possible but that ship is packing quite the punch. We need to get help to them soon."

Aven mapped everything out in his head as though it were a chessboard. There was no way the Eclipse could take much more of a beating from the unconventional weaponry on the Klingon vessel.

The Quebec was crippled and had been torn bow to stern, venting plasma and with evident hull breaches. "Then that's what we do" quipped Captain LaCroix. He was in full agreement with his Chief Science Officer.


Engineering

-/\- "Yes Lt Kita, we're on it. You should have at least 80-percent back in... 3..2..1..." Bek'A smiled as the surge was strong and the ship settled down almost immediately. "We're working on the last damaged conduit but that may be a repair for later. Lt Solomon is trying to reroute that one too and we'll get it ready as quickly as possible."-/\-

"They damage the ship, and want it back to full power in a snap of the fingers," Hank moaned while crouching to get access to a box covered by an unscrewed panel.

"You like damage control, huh?" he asked the colleague. "...and wait till they ask you to fix the ship without the tools or the material, as if we could get this thing to fly using toothpaste and sticks" he grinned running a quick diagnostic to see if he could safely operate on the EPS grid in that location. An electrocuted engineer is not a useful engineer.

"Sounds good" he whispered to himself flipping off one of the nodes and re-connecting on the secondary.

"Don't forget gum and duct tape," Bek'a intoned as her eyes flitted across the panel display.

"How's that reading there?" he asked Bek'A "any power coming in? or did I bypassed the wrong line?"

"All in the green Chief. They're not hailing us from the bridge so we must be doing something right..." Bek'a smiled, ever so slightly, almost a grimace though and hovered in between.

Hank nodded "Sounds good." He stood up and cleaned his hands on the uniform. A shake in the superstructure, softened by the inertial dampeners, made him shook his head.

"I wonder what they're doing up there?"

Bek'a shook her head. "Me no know Chief... what's next?"

Hank breathed deeply "I guess we'll just follow the list" with a sad smile on his face.
"On to the sensors'" he shrugged and took a new relays bank before heading for the area inwhich the malfunction had been spotted by the internal diagnostics.

Bridge

"Ensign O'Donnaghue, bring us in towards the wreckage of the Quebec and keep your wits about you, Ensign. Watch out for debris. We'll use the Quebec for cover.

EJ pushed his hands over the console "Understood Captain" He said as he took the controls and steered the ship so that it was in line with the Quebec "Compansaiting now captain we will be in line in a couple of minutes" he said as his hands pushed over his console and brought the ship round tighter than he had expected "Sorry for the tight hair pin corner not used to taking them in such a versatile ship" He said laughing as he punched the impulse engines to maximum.

Aven used the control panel at his seat to open a channel to Engineering. "Bridge to Engineering. Have damage crews on standby. We may be in for a beating."


Engineering

K’ner acknowledged the directive and signaled for another crewman to take her position at the console. Heading across the deck she gave her hazard team compatriots a signal to meet and gear up for potential critical repairs. Once suited up she signaled Hank that they were ready to deploy and in there quick-response stations. . .


Bridge

"Lieutenant Baciami, concentrate on shield harmonics. Weapons can fall to the wayside. We're not punching our way out of this one. We're going to tuck ourselves nice and close to the Quebec and extend our shielding around what's left if her."

"Trying, sir," Adrianna quickly responded whilst tapping on her console.

Sickbay

The ship shook and the caitian doctor suddenly found herself on the floor, so it didnt take long for her to figure out that the Eclipse just flew into a party. "Prepare for patients. Ours and whoever is getting shot at out there." the caitian said.

"Karri to bridge. Already getting teams together, Captain. Sickbay being prepped for potential casualties"

Captain LaCroix was grateful that his Chief Medical Officer was alert and tentative to what was going on. "Doctor, I love when you call ready and prepared" said Aven with a smile. "Activate the EMH if you need more hands down there. Spill over to the Mess Hall and Cargobays for the non-critical."

"You got it, Captain" the caitian said.

CONCLUSION for PART 1

 

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