Spaceworthy (Part 2 of 2)

Posted on 03 Feb 2020 @ 4:09pm by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Commander Scarlet Blake & Commander Marisa Wyatt & Lieutenant JG Tris Shizn & Petty Officer 1st Class T'Lin
Edited on on 03 Feb 2020 @ 4:09pm

2,044 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Episode 17 - Crystal of Life
Location: Latari B III Orbit
Timeline: MD 04, 1619 hrs

Previously, on Spaceworthy (Part 1)...

“Aye Sir,” responded Lt. Shizn as he brought the power up to 50%, activating inertial dampeners and anti-grav thrusters. The shuttle rose slightly off the deck. With no apparent issues yet, a hesitant smile crossed Tris’ face.

"Mr. Shizn, take us up," Marisa said when they were all ready.

And Now, the Conclusion...

[ON]

With all indicators in ‘the green’, anti-grav and repulsar systems were activated. Error lights began to flash across his flight console. “Tan-schnar-zin”, Shizn said under his breath in Andorian. He quickly verified at all indicators were for low priority, and he chose to ignore them for a few more seconds. The landing gear was retracted and the Waverider slowly slid out of the large enclosure into the evening sky of darkening blue.

With no additional issues, Shizn then accelerated the shuttle up and away from the ground. Once above the tree line, he leveled the shuttle out for a bit to further check the systems and their response. The shuttle began to vibrate and hesitate in flight. This caused the shuttle to bounce a bit as it flew over the tree tops. After a few more modifications and adjustments to the repulsar system, the shuttle’s flight evened out and Tris sighed in relief.

“I have all good indications on the shuttle’s systems,” Shizn explained. “Taking her up now.”

"Carefully," T'Lin admonished. "The colonists did a good job, but hull integrity is just above acceptable for orbital insertion."

Shizn turned to T’Lin and gave a confirming nod. Focusing on the controls and display readouts before him, Shizn began to increase the shuttle’s velocity, angling up toward the thinner atmosphere. Soon the stars were visible for all to see.

As soon as they were far enough from the planet, Marisa ran another check of communications. She had to made a couple of adjustments on the fly, but she finally had a strong enough signal and sent a message to the Galileo.

While she waited for a reply, she prepared a report on the status of the colony.

T'Lin switched to the external sensors for a moment as they got off the planet and into near orbit. She did a quick scan and shook her head, "The sensors are not picking up the Galileo. The ship is no longer in orbit."

Tris felt that this whole thing was silly, he thought Of course they are up here.. The Andorian pilot then switched his 2nd display console to external sensors, looking for warp field variances and residual impulse emissions. Shizn leaned back in his chair a bit frustrated. “Sir. I can confirm that there are no Starfleet vessels in orbit.”

"Still no response to comms, either," Sandoval added. They couldn't get far in the Waverider, but they couldn't stay on the colony, either. "We might be able to send a probe toward the other colony."

"That makes logical sense; shall I prepare one?" T'Lin asked.

"Yes," Marisa said. "It won't hurt, and it might give us some answers."

T'Lin turned and asked, "Should we inform the colony that we have lost contact with the ship? They may have to prepare to survive for longer than planned."

"Not yet. Let's be sure first. It might just be a matter of getting further away from the planet."

"Yes lieutenant," T'Lin replied.

Lt. Shizn listened intently to the exchange taking place behind him. He then asked, “Your orders Sir?”

"Let's get far enough from the planet to be sure there's no interference and launch a probe," Marisa said. "Hopefully that will give us more information to go on."

T'Lin nodded but went ahead and prepared a probe. "Probe is ready for launch. We will get only one away as the rest were too damaged and removed. I have yellow mostly on the launch tube as well, thus probability would be we might not get another out. Are you ready Lieutenant Sandoval for any data reading? The probe may not function for long if it gets damaged during the launch."

"I'm ready. Launch the probe." Sandoval slid a data crystal into the console to copy the data, just in case the system crashed.

Lt. Shizn reported, “Going to half impulse, setting heading to zero-one-eight mark forty-two, and leaving orbit.”

The delta-winged Waverider shuttlecraft rolled slightly to the right then yawed to begin a slow turn under acceleration. The nose slowly came around, albeit with a few shudders from the hull as it pulled multiple Gs. Inertial dampers appeared to be holding albeit at reduced levels. In preparation for the microprobe launch, a small hatch on the nose of the aircraft retracted. The instrumental device was mechanically loaded into launcher and set, then the electromagnetic firing rails powered up. In space, a small flash emanated from the silver shuttle then a cosmic dust trail sped off into the distance.

"The probe is safely away." Sandoval watched the controls. "Two minutes to arrival at Latari A III."

"It appears that the probe is operating at ninety five percent efficiency. There might be slight damage to some of the sensors but should operate long enough to obtain required data," T'Lin noted as she read the feed back. It was actually higher than she had expected, what humans would call lucky but as a Vulcan she did not believe in such things as luck.

The Starfleet microprobe sped across space at sub-light speed and traversed tens of AUs on its way to the other solar system within the trinary star system. After two minutes of travel, new planets and satellites came into sensor range and information started to transmit back to Vincenzo.

Marisa watched the data come in and eagerly looked through it, hoping for good news. But even as the analysis came up on the screen, she knew what it would say. "The colony on Latari A has been destroyed. The surface shows magma and...proto-Tholians. I'm reading multiple signatures."

T'Lin switched the panel over to a more science based function rather than keeping track of engineering function that she had been doing though that was in the corner and could alert her if anything suddenly cropped up.

"Sirs," she said in general to the senior officers on board. "Telemetry of the area indicates what appears to be...three, no four Tholian style frigates. One is barely reading and thus must be heavily damaged. I am also detecting the Trial with minimal energy readings and leaking atmosphere and plasma, but something is interfering with the readings, some sort of field is around the ship. I would speculate that with Tholians, it is the web that they sometimes use on disabled ships."

"Oh, dear." Marisa turned to T'Lin. "Any life signs on the Trial? And what of the Galileo?"

"The dampening field which I would speculate is a Tholian web makes readings difficult, but I am not picking up anything currently. There is no sign of the Galileo, but I do detect an additional warp trail leading away and will speculate that that ship must have left the area." T'Lin wondered how long it would be for the Tholians to detect the probe or if they were pre-occupied with the Trial. She turned to the senior officer and said in that flat manner of fact way, "There will be no evacuation of the colonists here then for the foreseeable future with hostile forces in the area. I suggest, before the Tholians detect the probe, we alter its course for the last known position of the task force broadcasting a distress signal."

Blake nodded firmly, motioning with a hand in her direction. "Do it," she replied shortly, not wanting to share her thoughts for the moment. Of how the Galileo's disappearance and the Tholian appearance did not bode well for them or the Colony. She didn't like to speculate without more information, but it was hard not to.

"We need to keep the frigate from getting the probe," Marisa said. "T'Lin, if you can take care of that, I'll encrypt the message." While there was still the possibility of tracking the probe back to the planet, she hoped encrypting the message would keep the ship from looking for the surviving colonists.

T'Lin changed the course of the probe. There was no way that the probe was going to be able to outrun a starship. However, there might be a way to loose it on the sensors. "I am going to alter course into a sling shot around the star. It will give it a bit of speed and perhaps the electromagnetic turbulence will confuse the tracking systems." She tapped on the panel a bit more and then just announced dryly, "Maneuvering now."

A sleek Tholian dart accelerated to high impulse to pursue the tiny probe, then maneuvered into its rear quarter for a weapons shot. Three blue tetryon bursts consecutively streaked from the front of the ship towards the Starfleet object. The first two missed wide, but the third impacted the side of the probe and disintegrated its propulsion system, sending it into an uncontrolled spin.

T'Lin twisted and turned the probe as the sensors indicated that a Tholian ship was chasing it. She tried to head for the coronasphere hoping for the high energy there to help mask the probe but it was to no avail. "I have lost the propulsion on the probe." The statement could have been as dry as a Vulcan desert.

Sandoval assessed their options and decided their best course of action was to send out a distress call. The dart would come looking for them at any time and they had no chance of getting back to the colony in time. She looked at the others. "Activating the distress signal."

"Destroy it," Blake replied shortly, her chest tight with the words and her expression cool despite the tension coiling in her. "Destroy the probe."

Marisa looked at Blake for a moment, then set the probe to self-destruct. "Probe destroyed," she said a moment later.

"I believe the probe engine signal was sufficiently distorted to make it difficult to track but I am unfamiliar with Tholian technology. Considering the state of this craft, we either land or suggest we make for the star and try to hide in the electromagnetic distortions if the Tholian comes looking for the source of the probe." T'Lin had turned in her chair looking to the senior officer and giving her suggestion.

"With the state of the shuttle, it might be better to find a place to land," Marisa suggested. "If there is one in close proximity."

"Agreed," Blake nodded with a slight tilt of her head towards Marisa; while the colonists had done better than expected with the shuttle, it still felt a little like they were being held together by tape and tacks. "Let's find somewhere we can lay low..." she started to pull up the scans of their surroundings. "A moon would be a good option, maybe even an asteroid..." it was the worst kind of scenario for someone like Scarlet; sitting and hoping for the best. But with a group of colony survivors vulnerable on a smouldering planet and the space around them swarming with Tholians, they had no other choice.

Marisa switched the sensors to scan for possible landing sites for the shuttle. "There's something over there," she said, focusing the scans. "T'Lin, have a look."

T'Lin did not comment any further but switched back over the engineering readings. "Just go slow, engines and hull are still good but will not take very much strain."

In space, the Waverider came about and headed toward one of the planet's tidal-locked moons. If the shuttle could stay at low impulse and come around the backside of the rocky satellite, perhaps there was a chance that their presence would go undetected. But for how long, no one could be certain.

[OFF]

---

CDR Scarlet Blake
First Officer
USS Galileo-A

Lt. Tris Shizn
Conn Officer
USS Galileo-A

PO2 T'Lin
Science Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Warraquim]

LT Marisa Sandoval
Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo-A

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