Enus Station (Part 2 of 2)

Posted on 17 Aug 2025 @ 3:22pm by Commander Morgan Tarin & Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Lieutenant JG Serran & Lieutenant JG Sofie Ullswater & Lieutenant JG Nusien & Ensign Mimi & Ensign S'Ers-a M'Lyr'Zor & Ensign Amanda Turell & Petty Officer 3rd Class Warren Sims

2,742 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: Episode 21 - Helix
Location: USS Galileo-A - Deck 1, Bridge; Deck 2, Transporter Room 1
Timeline: MD 07, 0955 hrs

Previously, on Enus Station (Part 1)...

Galileo's single large impulse engine came to life and its crimson glow audibly punctuated the atmosphere with a crackle of power while shimmering heat dispersal and red-hot deuterium burn highlighted its raw propulsion capabilities. The Nova-class vessel subtly jolted forward due to the new additional thrust, then continued to ascend through the remaining layers of Enus V's thick atmosphere. The flames obscuring the forward image on the main viewscreen began to dissipate and within less than a minute, the blackness of space filled the screen.

"Re-entering orbit," reported Darius who then started a slow deceleration of the starship.

And Now, the Conclusion...

[ON]

Allyndra actually welcomed for once the appearance of the stars. "Stand down from blue alert. Damage reports and anything from the probe?" She paused and nodded toward Darius. "Excellent piloting, Chief."

Unfortunate. Her first outing with this 'blue alert,' ended up as a non-starter. Sera's eyes scanned over the readouts from her engineering station in order to answer Warraquim's inquiry regarding ship status.

"No significant damage, commander, other than, perhaps..." Her voice trailed off as she raised her up swept brow to convey incredulity. "There are reports of free-range poultry on Deck 2."

From the science station Ullswater found herself questioning the value of that little excursion. Had they achieved anything? Scouring main sensors didn't reveal anything new: The Federation base remained hidden, silent, stoic in the face of their aerial acrobatics. No, the most interesting question the adventure seemed to have raised was one posed by what the chief engineer had just said "Ensign Sera, what's the nature of this poultry?"

A reasonable question, to be sure. "I am...uncertain. These are Terran animals; I am no subject matter expert, howev--" Sera's reply, non-additive as it was, was suddenly halted by the Chief Science Officer's interruption. The Vulcan engineer turned her attention fully to the CSO in the moment. She was a small, but bossy little female, wasn't she?

"Sorry, ensign." Sofie raised a hand, cutting Sera off before she could finish. "The probe is picking something up." The birds could wait.

There was silence, the whole room in anticipation of what clue the brave little probe had found.

After a few seconds Ullswater spoke up again. "It has detected a transmission coming from the station. It's a Starfleet signal but it is an encryption our computer isn't familiar with. The signal is broadcasting on a low frequency wavelength." She turned from her display to the commander at the centre of the bridge. "That's the sort of signal, commander, that one might traditionally use to communicate with something underwater, say a submarine."

The information was interesting. "A submarine? Interesting." Allyndra frowned. "As if they are trying to contact an underwater vessel. Anything else?"

Ullswater turned back to her station and began looking over the signal once again. "We can't get through the encryption to know the contents of the transmission but..." There was a pause as she began sifting through the various flags on the message, trying to see if any of them could be interpreted as useful. "The signal might be being transmitted with transporter coordinates in the additional data. It is standard Starfleet procedure in cases of undersea exploration to keep a constantly updating transporter signal for use in an emergency. I can isolate those coordinates."

"Those should be in the area of the facility. Please verify."

"Confirmed." The science officer responded "We now know where their transporter room is at the very least."

"Very good. Ops send that down to the transporter room. Serran, Ullswater you are with me. Until the Captain gets back up here, Ensign Mimi you have the conn." Allyndra used her comm link. "Doctor Nusien, report to Transporter Room One."

Fear bubbled up inside Ullswater. It fermented in her stomach and climbed up her throat threatening to spill out as words of protestation. What would they find down there? More mangled bodies and flayed men? She took a second to scrunch shut her eyes, to focus on the sensation of pain in her hands and to let it galvanise her out of terror. "Aye sir." She didn't let the fear show in her voice. She stood up with practiced perfection. Precise gestures indicated to Illialhlae what functions he should take over and then she followed after Warraquim to whatever fate it was that she might be leading them to.

Serran didn't smile. He might have under different circumstances. He didn't have a lot of opportunities to go on Away Missions. But these were not ordinary circumstances. The situation they were going into was dangerous. And he was dealing with another issue. One he had not yet shared with anyone The loss of his father had hit him hard, but he could deal with that later.

Logic and duty dictated there were some things more important than individual concerns.

"Aye," he said as he moved toward the turbolift.

Mimi's ears practically shot upright when Allyndra told her to take the bridge, she glanced over at the center chair that the Akkadian was quickly vacating. She'd never even sat in it as a joke when no one was around. "Aye Sir." She said, sending a message over the comm system for Petty officer Sims to come and take over the Ops console she waited for Allyndra and the rest of the away team to leave the bridge before gingerly stepped over to the central chair and sittig down.

Nusien had been in Sick Bay during the blue alert. Now that it seemed that the ship had settled he made the rounds to check on his patients. It was often that in situations such as this patients in Sick Bay turned up injured. His work however, was interrupted by the summons of the First Officer. Nusien tapped his comm badge. "Yes Commander I am on my way." He turned over the Sick Bay duties to one of the other doctors and proceeded without haste to the transporter. He stopped only to retrieve a medical kit.

Allyndra would've picked Chief Darius, but technically Mimi was ranking and besides Allyndra thought, she deserves the chance. As she headed toward the transporter room she hit her comm badge. It worried her that not much had been said about the creature or rather part of the creature that had been beamed on. "Allyndra to Commander Tarin. Update, sir, we successfully managed to get a probe and hide it with the blue alert. The probe picked up a signal that we have confirmed is transporter coordinates to an underwater facility. If you can spare Turell, we could use a security officer."

A short delay propagated an ensuing silence before the distinctive dry female voice belonging to Galileo's captain finally came through the channel in reply. "Understood, Number One. We've had an...incident, in the science lab. The specimen we recovered...was inadvertently destroyed. Turell is decontaminating herself and once she's done, I'll send her to join you. I'll be there as well, momentarily."

"Very good, captain. I'll standby as the away team preps." Allyndra shook her head. "Incident. There has to be a story in there."


Deck 2, Transporter Room 1

Allyndra arrived after gathering a phaser, and medical tricorder and bag. She knew Nusien would have everything and she would try not to step on toes, but she couldn't quite forget the position she had held for so long.

Nusien stepped into the transporter room med kit on his shoulder. He nodded toward the Commander by way of greeting. "I take it we do not know if there are injured down there."

Allyndra turned as Nusien entered. "Not at the moment. We barely have coordinates. I want you to stay to the rearmost position until we have time to assess the situation when we arrive."

Lurking closely behind the two doctors Lieutenant Ullswater greedily eyed the phaser at Warraquim's side. She was still waiting, pending psychological assessment, to return to full weapon toting privileges and given that they were potentially beaming into another nightmare she longed for the certainty of lethal force at her side. "Sensors have no idea what we are beaming into. Could be the transporter pad or it could be a fish tank. We need to be ready for anything." She pulled out the decidedly non-lethal tricorder at her side and performed last minute calibrations. Not that they were needed, just force of habit, nerves and something to keep her hands moving.

Serran's expression was its usual neutral, unreadable self. His blond hair tied back in a long braid. He had come ready for anything. At least he thought so. He had an engineering tricorder on his right side, a phaser 1 on his left, and he was holding a phaser rifle. He didn't want to have to resort to either weapon and he wasn't security, but he wasn't taking any chances.

He had just caught the tail end of the conversation. "Whatever it is," he said, "We will handle it."

Wishing she could have spent the entire rest of the day in the decon room Amanda came through the door to the transporter room. Redressed and rearmed with a fresh phaser she headed for the transporter pad. Despite the decon, sanitising her mouth and a strong cup of coffee she couldn't get the taste of the creatures blood out of her mouth.

The single-door entrance to the small transporter room swished open and Tarin's familiar tall figure appeared. Her loosely-curled brown hair was slightly disheveled with multiple stray locks clinging to her cheeks. Sweat and some form of foreign green substance served as the adhesive which also graced her usually-pristine red-collared uniform. Her steps were heavy as she entered then came to a halt in front of the assembled away team. "Commander," she acknowledged the winged Akkadian followed by a curt nod to the rest of the officers present. "Good work getting transporter coordinates for the facility. Consider this a search and rescue mission - get down there, treat and recover any casualties, and diagnose the base's status. Make contact with Lieutenant Commander Downing, he's the base commander, and figure out their situation. From what we witnessed here in orbit, they've already lost one crew member and we have a second of theirs critically wounded in our sickbay. Galileo will maintain geostationary orbit above the station. Comms check-ins will be every hour. If you miss more than two, I'll assume the worst and come get you all. Questions?"

"Who approved phaser rifle deployment?" Amanda asked noting the type IV rifle Serran was holding. The weren't standard away team equipment, as the highest ranked security officer the request should have been routed through her and if anyone should be carrying one it should be her.

Phasers hadn't helped last time. Ullswater felt sure she wouldn't be the only person in the room thinking that. Another science outpost gone quiet and once again they were going in expecting there to be something left to rescue. "It can't help to be prepared." With a grim nod she repeated what she had said just before the captain entered "Ready for anything."

"I would say that considering if we encounter anything like last time with our unexpected guest then a little addition wouldn't be beyound our need. Unless the captain has an objection, I'm approving the use." Allyndra eyed the security officer. "That reminds me, since this will be underwater and while it would appear the beam in coordinates are fine, we should have emergency oxygen extractors with us. Hopefully there are no breaches of the facility."

The loose bickering between away team members eroded what little patience remained inside of Tarin. It was barely 1000 hrs and the day had already been off to a tumultuous start. Her anger at the recent botched first contact attempt within the science lab bubbled over and now manifested in a cold, verbal display. "Give your rifle to Turell," she sharply ordered the operations manager with an accompanying flick of her eyes. "There's been enough death already today and she's more qualified than you to use it." Tarin's arms then folded across her chest while scrutinizing each of the five Galileans preparing to depart. "I said this is a search and rescue mission, nothing more. Make contact, render aid, then report back immediately. Number One, I'll get your O2 extractors replicated and prepare them for transport once you assess the situation. Now, get down there and bring me back some good news."

Allyndra made a curt nod. "Very good, captain. Everyone, let's get this done." She moved to the transporter pad and then turned.

Nusien stepped onto the pad next Allyndra. He adjusted his med kit and nodded in the direction of the XO. "I am ready."

Serran hadn't meant to create a controversy by bringing the rifle, he was just trying to be prepared. In fact, he had debated within himself whether he should have brought it. He was more of a pacifist at heart than most Starfleet officers, so it had gone against his nature. He'd told himself, it was logical that such a weapon be brought, and that he was the most logical one to carry it, but he suspected, though he would never admit, that his reasoning was clouded by his internal struggles.

"I am ready now."

Amanda took the rifle from Serran and quickly checked it over, she'd have preferred her own personalised one but the standard issue one would have to suffice, hopefully it wouldn't be needed. She quickly resumed her place on the transporter pad.

Taking her place on the pad next to Turell, Sofie made a mental note to stick by the Ensign. She had the largest gun and that counts for a lot when beaming into danger.

Tarin moved away from the brightly-lit platform and maneuvered herself behind the sole transporter console within the room. "Standby..." she cautioned while her fingers danced across the control interface to lock in the arrival coordinates. "Transporting now." Four of her fingers positioned themselves across the bottom of patter buffer controls then simultaneously slid upward. The phase transition coils illuminated when they activated and the five personnel were soon engulfed by shimmering particles of molecular disassembly.

Suddenly, the beam-out cycle faltered and the fading Galilean's transporter signatures started to re-materialize back into existence on the pad. A warning klaxon sounded from Tarin's LCARS terminal which demanded her immediate attention. Her hand rapidly slapped her commbadge. "Bridge, transporter room, there's too much interference between our position and the facility's coordinates...divert additional power to the targeting scanners and matter stream transmission to compensate."

"Understood." Mimi called back then turned to address Petty Officer Sims who had arrived only a few minutes earlier, certainly surprised to see his shift boss occupying the center seat. "You heard her Petty Officer."

Sims nodded but didn't look away from the console, his hands quickly dancing across its controls "Aye Sir, rerouting power to the transporters."

The LCARS crosshairs displayed on the console beneath Tarin's fingers continued to scatter from the intended destination. She held the away team's bio-signatures within the pattern buffer for a long moment while they continued to phase in and out of reality, then finally the targeting scanners achieved a solidified coordinate lock. The captain brought the pattern buffer sliders back up to re-initialize transport then glanced forward toward their sparkling silhouettes. The transport sequence recycled, and this time - within mere seconds - the five officers fully dematerialized from within the starship. The lingering coil whine and latent glittering particles were their only temporary remnants aboard Galileo which quickly faded from reality. Where they were going, where they'd been sent - only they could now tell the story. If they managed to return.

[OFF]

--

CMDR Morgan Tarin
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo-A

LTJG Sofie Ullswater
Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo-A

LTJG Nusien
Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo-A

Ensign S'Ers-a M'Lyr'Zor
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Galileo-A

CMDR Allyndra illm Warraquim
First Officer
USS Galileo-A

Ensign Mimi
Deputy Operations Manager
USS Galileo-A

Ensign Amanda Turell
Security officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Mimi]

LTJG Serran
Operations Manager
USS Galileo-A

PO3 Warren Sims
Operations Officer
USS Galileo-A
[NPC Mimi]

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