Panko Breadcrumbs (Part 1 of 10)

Posted on 22 Oct 2016 @ 2:23am by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Commander Langdale Wiggins & Commander Luke Wyatt & Lieutenant Min Zhao & Lieutenant JG Natalya Kirilova & Lieutenant JG Noah Khoroushi & Lieutenant JG Lenaris Marika & Lieutenant JG Rahl Tyton Ph.D. & Lieutenant JG Braxton MacKenzie & Lieutenant JG Jonas Flynn PsyD & Ensign Miraj Derani & Ensign Mimi & Lieutenant Commander Ryan Alexander
Edited on on 22 Oct 2016 @ 2:30am

3,338 words; about a 17 minute read

Mission: Episode 12 - Recluse
Location: USS Galileo/Paulson Nebula
Timeline: MD 02 - 2330 hrs

Previously, on Paulson Nebula Investigation...

Miraj did a quick calculation. 4 million kilometers was nothing at even a fraction of impulse speeds. Even at quarter impulse it would be a few minutes at most. On thrusters it would take an eternity. But at impulse, if there was anything out there, they would go splat like a bug if they hit it. She checked sensors. Everything looked clear and the admiral had said best possible speed. She bit her lip. She had flown nebulas before, but this one was particularly tricky, since they couldn't really see where they were going and a clear sensor ping wasn't worth spit. She checked her internal sense of Galileo. Her skin itched uncomfortably, and she patted the helm gently to reassure him.

"Setting course, one half impulse, arrival in ninety seconds." It was probably far too fast, but the admiral had said best possible speed. She just had to hope the deflectors would make sure anything that hit them bounced.

And Now, the Continuation...

[ON]

Galileo pushed rapidly through the bulbous and hazy cloud layers within the expanse. The Paulson Nebula was becoming thicker and more turbulent by the second it seemed, and the view on the bridge's main display was a mixture of purplish-blue haze accompanied by intermittent static. Lirha's chair rocked slightly from side to side and was occasionally bumped from the bottom with a severe jolt as turbulence began to build up the faster her starship went.

Mimi's light frame was nearly jolted from her seat from the last jolt of turbulence, she wrapped her tail around the back of the chair anchoring herself down, she kept her eye on the hull integrity as the ship was taking quite a buffetting. "There is a lot of stress on the hull, we need some more power to structural integrity."

"Routing more auxiliary power to the generators." Natalya said, once it became clear that the turbulence was becoming a problem. She was hesitant to keep feeding more power in though. Soon generators would start overloading, or failing for any number of other reasons. That would put them in an even worse spot. She hoped they would find what they were looking for soon.

It didn't take long before the tiny Nova-class reached her destination at the end of the ionized road. The journey had been swift yet efficient, and even though none of the Galileo crew could visually see the freighter in the distance, it's shiny metallic hull reflected the hazy starlight for any non-corporeal being in the vicinity to take notice of.

At her navigational marker, Miraj hauled on the metaphorical reins, cutting the warp engines, deploying all power to cancel the forward thrust that had come from the nacelles. It was smooth, and took only seconds. "Full stop, admiral." She tapped a button and the external inertial damper engaged, holding them in position. They were exactly on target. If the ship was at the end of its trail, then it couldn't be more than a couple of kilometers in any direction.

Rahl waited for a moment after the full stop was called. He looked at the readings on his console. The chromium and gravitational interference were still wreaking havoc with the sensors. His fingers danced along the console. "Setting satellite probes for echolocation towards the center of the circle in a thirty-kilometer diameter. Filtering out any objects not large enough to be the Recluse. Setting secondary sensors to hunt for the known engine signature of the Recluse as well as all federation alloys and constructs not native to the nebula." He turned and looked to the ensign. "Mr. Alexander, as these are your creations you should have the honor of sending them off on their first engagement. Deploy when ready ensign."

Braxton smiled. He knew that Ryan was hoping for that one phrase. "Indeed Ensign Alexander. Release the Krakens." He chuckled as his hands worked the science console.

Ryan smiled and nodded as Rahl and Braxton had helped the Krakens. "Releasing the Krakens...now." He said bemused at the name. A torpedo like object sailed from the Galileo before braking apart. Dozens of small objects gently floated away from the casing before lighting off their very small impulse drives, and moved to Rahl's programmed position. "Launch looks optimal, all 73 Krakens are Green and reporting back, we should be getting information and telemetry in a few moments." He said aloud as he monitored there deployment, checking all the power levels and making sure there micro force fields were all in place. He smiled knowing that his little creations were all operating nominally. "Just as a reminder the Kraken's are not as powerful as our usual probes and are a bit more limited in sensor range, but if the ship is out there, they will find it." He said with pride.

Ryan watched as the data streamed back from his creations. He was elated that the Krakens where working as intended. For several heartbeats the data was fairly sparse, with no readings of any significant metallic objects. After a few moments one of the Krakens returned a reading, followed by several more. He waited a few more moments for the readings to stabilize. "I have a bearing and range. Looks like Two Seven Three mark two, range approximately 5 kilometers." He said triumphantly, he sent the approximate coordinates to Ensign Derani.

Miraj checked the readings, tried to call up a visual confirmation, but all the cameras picked up were pink cloud, the fog too dense to be penetrated, scattering light everywhere. She had to trust to the sensors. "Bearings laid in, two seven three mark two, distance 5 kilometers. Ready to fire thrusters."

The navigational data was now streaming into Lirha's console and she, too, could see the general outline of a large duranium-plated hull on the main sensors. "Damage assessment. Life signs?" she queried. The hails she had sent out had not been answered so far, and now at close range, she wondered if anyone was alive or present aboard the freighter to respond

Noah's gaze went to the readouts playing across his screen. "The hull still appears to be intact," he reported, futilely attempting to sort through the space chatter that was degrading his readings. "Some degradation, though I can't determine the extent. I'm sorry I can't get much more than that, what with the debris interference."

Marika shrugged and spoke still staring at her screen. "I got nothing. Must be all this interference."

"What is the status of their warp reactor? Do they have life support or environmental control of any kind?" Lirha then asked, now rubbing her chin in deep thought. Her first goal was to determine whether this would be a rescue or recovery mission.

"Judging by the faint heat blooms coming from the engineering section and other parts of the ship, I'd say there is some reactor activity. I can't say for sure what systems are functioning, but there is power flowing through that ship." Natalya tried not to sound in disbelief. Could the Recluse still be active after all those years? Or was there something else going on?

Jonas felt his heart catch in his throat. Though he had been able to follow most of the technical aspects of their search, the fact that there was power meant that there could possibly be survivors. Until that moment he had hoped but hadn't really considered it a possibility. He kept his arms folded tightly in front of his chest and waited to see how the Admiral would proceed.

Thoughts of the Kobayashi Maru entered the Orion's mind. A single starship distressed and possibly disabled in the midst of nowhere, with only the wits and best judgement of the crew to figure out how best to help them. She quickly shook that lingering thought from her mind and attempted to focus on the present, no matter how ambiguous it was presenting itself. "Helm, bring us alongside Recluse, one kilometer, and align docking port two with the freighter."

The hybrid touched the helm delicately, and the starboard thrusters fired a burst to push them towards the freighter, then again to bring them full stop, nuding up and left as needed until there was only a kilometer, according to the sensors. She could imagine the tickle on her skin was the brush from the clouds as they moved around the missing vessel.

"All stop. We are in position," Miraj announced. From here it would take a puff of thrusters to bring the docking ports together. All she was waiting on was the Admiral's command.

The time had come for the Galilean crew to put forth their best course of action. Planned versus precipitated was all relative when dealing with situations such as this, the rear admiral thought to herself, but she wanted to go with the most prepared option possible.

"Mister Wiggins, prepare our search and rescue team," she ordered, giving him a nod to join the group and have them assemble at the airlock.

Wiggins nodded, and began locking down his station so he could go and do that.

Lirha then looked over back towards the Ops console and gave the yellow-collared officers further instructions. "Transmit another message to Recluse on all frequencies," she said as she began to prepare a standard rescue hail. The sensor degradation within the nebula had made it difficult to ascertain the status of the freighter which worried her, but she also knew the longer they lingered at their current position, the less answers they would obtain and the more potential for risk would increase.

As the admiral was asking for another transmission, Min was already trying to find a workable frequency. Something or someone was jamming all frequencies. "Admiral. I can't get a clear channel to transmit. All outgoing frequencies are jammed up it looks like. Source unknown."

Wiggins stopped before leaving the bridge and turned back to look towards the Ops station. His intuition told him this was bad.

A confused frown quickly crossed Lirha's brow which was soon followed by a series of heightened heartbeats within her chest. "Source?" she quickly asked.

Mimi retasked a few sensors and tried to search for the source after a few seconds she cocked her head to the side. "I can't track it down, it appears to be coming from several directions at once."

All of Lirha's senses were now on high alert and she inhaled sharply. Multi-directional jamming ruled out any form of natural interference from the nebula. The only other possible cause of such a targeted blockade would be...

"Red alert!" she quickly called out. Time seemed to slow as the bridge suddenly became bathed in dark, pulsing red combat lighting per her audible instructions to the ship's computer. It would take the shields and weapon systems over thirty seconds to fully power up which seemed to be an eternity for her.

"Incoming hail," Noah announced, his hands moving over the controls to transfer from console to main screen, anticipating the Rear Admiral's next order.

"On screen," came Lirha's agitated and curt reply. Her eyes drifted toward the massive viewscreen occupying the forward half of the bridge's bulkhead and watched as the flickering view of space suddenly blinked and was replaced by a large, white-haired and ridged-forehead man clad in elaborate imperial armor. The sight of a veteran Klingon general was one Lirha could never forget, and it sent shivers down her spine. The fact that he appeared to be sitting on the bridge of an old Federation freighter made the sight even more unnerving

"Admiral Saalm," the man began, his voice distorted and yet powerful enough that the bass in his vocal cords reverberated throughout the entirety of Galileo internal communications channels. "I am General Ko'raH of the House of G'Iogh. I seek audience with you...and to negotiate your vessel's surrender." He waved a distorted hand in front of the screen before continuing. "Power down your weapons and shields and prepare to be boarded." His instructions were presented with nonchalance and an eerie aura of confidence which disturbed her even further.

Mimi turned from her console when she heard the unmistakable gravelly voice of a Klingon, looking at the screen she saw she was right and hissed loudly. Ever since the Klingons had wiped her colony out she'd wanted to get her claws into one and now if things went the way things tended to go with Klingons she might get a chance.

"Fat chance." Ryan said under his breathe as he worked his console. He was a little concerned that his Krakens hadn't picked up the incoming ship before the hail. He checked the direction of the incoming hail. Behind us? He thought to himself. "Oh no." He said a loud, punching in a command, and transmitting it to his Krakens. Almost instantly, they spread out, limiting the reliability of incoming data, but increasing the effective range and area they could cover. Within moments he received returns. "Sir, I am detecting three large metallic objects, approximately five kilometers, evenly spaced, along the major X-axis, density is consistent Klingon designs, and they look to be smaller, relatively speaking. It appears they are still cloaked, I am not getting any active EM readings that would indicate a drop in cloak. Also it looks like the initial signal is coming from behind us sir, unknown distance." He reported.

Rahl raised an eyebrow again as his fingers danced along the console. He tightened the sensor scans to try to dig out as much interference as he could. He didn't like the results that came back. "Admiral three ships coming up from the rear. Shape and size seem to be in configuration with two B'Rel class bird of preys and one D8 class battle cruiser."

The Orion listened to the reports coming in from across her bridge and looked down at her console's tactical display to see the encroaching vessels with her own eyes. Though the most prudent course of action was always measured and thoughtful in the face of danger, Lirha was now furious. She quickly stood -- as quickly as a pregnant Orion could -- from her command chair and stepped forward closer to the viewscreen. "What is the meaning of this?!" she demanded. "Your presence is not authorized in Federation space nor have you any right--"

She was quickly cut off by the general on the other side of the static-filled screen. "You will comply, admiral," he replied with a heavy dose of misogyny mixed perhaps with historical Klingon-Orion disdain.

"I will do no such thing," she retorted, grinding her teeth and trying to do her best to maintain both a healthy dose of fear and outright anger at what was now happening within her own government's borders. "You presence here is violating the Khitomer Accords as was reestablished in 2372, and furtherm---"

The transmission suddenly ceased and the viewscreen went black.

Miraj looked at her panel. The information from the probes showed the birds of prey shifting around. She'd seen that manoeuvre in simulations. "Er, Klingons are maneuvering. Attack positions." The Klingon were maneuvering to get the little ship in a cross fire."

Luke's console began to alarm as the Kligons ships targeting systems began to ping the Galileo which was now giving them the information required to track and target the Galileo "The Klingons are beginning to target our subsystems" He said his hand flying across the console "There weapons are powering up but the nebula is effecting them as it is us" his console finally gave the devastating news "Admiral they have weapons lock I suggest defensive countermeasures and evasive manoeuvres immediately"

Min's immediate reaction was one of dismay and fear for her daughter's, and her unborn's safety. This damn ship seemed to run into one disaster after another it seemed, she muttered to herself inside her head. Lian and the, she stopped herself. Lian was safely on earth with family, and the twins were in the afterlife so safe from whatever happened here. That brought some measure of comfort and Min's fear turned into one of resolve. She would be damned if she was going to let another enemy board and take this ship. Once the comm closed, Min spoke, out of turn and most likely violating some unwritten rules. "They want a fight Admiral, I suggest we give it to them. Bring it on."

The blaring audible tones of weapons lock on her starship combined with flashing warnings across her LCARS console put Lirha in hesitant agreement with the Caitian Operations chief. "...Duly noted...." she disgruntally replied as she took a seat back down into her chair.

An idea formulated in Rahl's mind. "Admiral I have a suggestion. We already have the probes out there. If we make a run for it I can program the probes to give off fake sensor readings like shadows of the Galileo. We are outclassed in firepower but we may be able to outclass them in speed for a short time. At the best, the D8 can get up to warp eight maximum. The B'rel bird of preys can also match warp eight. However, if Ensign Miraj can plot a course around the center of the nebula we can use it to slingshot us out of the nebula at high speed. We can outrun them heading to the nearest starbase. Once we are outside of their jamming range we can send out a fleet wide alert for the sector announcing the presence and general location of the Klingon force."

"Mister Rahl," Lirha began to reply with agitation, "Begin to plot a--" The captain's instructions were suddenly cut off by the heavy urgency of another bridge officer's report.

Four red spots appeared on the ships scanners and we're heading quickly towards the Galileo "Reaper Reaper Reaper" Luke shouted. an old habit used aboard marine vessels to indicate a sudden missile or torpedoes attack from a unknown source "Four torpedoes inbound, they appears from no where. Scanning for cloaked ships" the pause was only a few seconds but seemed a lifetime "I can't get an exact location but ambient energy signatures indicate a cloaked D-4 vessel. "Attempting countermeasure now" he said as the space outside of the Galileo light up, the nebula was messing with target thing systems and the jolts of phaser dissipated harmlessly into space. Luckily however 2 torpedoes had been hit.

"Helm , evasive maneuvers! Pattern Saalm-one-zero-five, execute now!" Lirha yelled as she clutched her chair's armrests. "Bring us about to..." she looked down at her tactical display and took quick notice of the heavy interference, "zero-eight-one, mark zero five. Smartly!" she said. It was now clear to her and most on the bridge that a Federation ship out-gunned and maneuvered would soon be lost. And Lirha had no intention of fulfilling that assumption.

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

RADM Lirha Saalm
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo

General Ko'raH
Klingon Commander
SS Recluse
[PNPC Saalm]

Ensign Miraj Derani
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant JG Noah Khoroushi
Assistant Chief Operations Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant Commander Luke Wyatt
Chief Strategic Operations Officer
USS Galileo

Cmdr Allyndra illm Warraquim
Chief Medical and Second Officer
PO2 T'Lin
(PNPCP)
USS Galileo

Lieutenant JG Jonas Flynn
Chief Counselor
USS Galileo

Ensign Mimi
Operations Officer
USS Galileo

Ensign Ryan Alexander
Operations Officer
USS Galileo

Commander Langdale Wiggins
First Officer
USS Galileo

LTJG Natalya Kirilova
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

Lt. JG Braxton MacKenzie
Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

Petty Officer Eviess (PNPC)
Medical Officer
USS Galileo
(PNPC played by Braxton MacKenzie)

Lieutenant Junior Grade Lenaris Marika
Archaeologist/Anthropologist
USS Galileo

Lieutenant Min Zhao
Chief of Operations
USS Galileo

and other Galileans...

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