To the Ferengi

Posted on Sun Feb 20th, 2022 @ 9:18pm by Commander Jennifer Baldric & Commander Finchley Kerr & Commander Savar cha'Salik hei-Surak Talek-sen-deen & Commander Dean House & Lieutenant Commander Sandra "Phantom" Risa & Lieutenant Commander Thriss Kla'ren & Lieutenant Commander Aurora Vali & Lieutenant Niali Korial MD & Lieutenant Commander Bonnie "Bon-Bon" Durnell

Mission: Paranoia Nebula
Location: Bridge

With the crews attention occupied elsewhere as the Sunfire moved towards the stricken Ferengi vessels, commander Jennifer Baldric sat in the centre chair on the bridge, guiding the Akira class starship towards those who needed their help. All of a sudden, the distress call distorted for a few moments, then ceased.

"Senior officers report to the bridge" Baldric announced as the situation changed.

Hearing Baldric's call, Savar headed for the bridge. Stepping into the nearest lift, he made the short ride to the bridge. As the lift doors opened, he strode purposely to the center seat currently occupied by Commander Baldric, "Report Commander."

Niali made her way to the bridge still smarting from her meeting with Commanders Finchley and House. It seemed to her that even though her position was that of the ships CMO because she was just a Lieutenant she was excluded from the ‘club’. She exited the lift and breathed an inward sigh of relief to see Commander Saver. “Reporting as ordered Sir” she exclaimed and smiled her thanks.

"Very good Doctor. We will wait for the others to arrive so Commander Baldric can give her report only once." Savar replied.

A couple of minures later the turbolift doors opened onto the bridge. Inside, Finchley was finishing up the conversation he was having with his assistant "...and make sure a copy of that report goes to him."

"Aye Sir" Karadis replied.

Finchley nodded and stepped out the turbolift onto the bridge. The doors closed, taking Karadis back to her office. Finchley walked across the bridge towards his station, passing the officers already assembled. As he did he nodded towards them saying "Commander, Commander, Lieutenant."

Reaching his station, he logged himself in, turned and waited for the rest of the Senior Staff to arrive so the report from Commander Baldric could be given.

Aurora was next onto the bridge having been to check on Sidak, she nodded and smiled to everyone as she made her way across to her seat.

Thriss entered the bridge swiftly and went straight to his engineering station. Since he recently got his cast off, he needed to pick up the work he was behind on many of his projects, including the transwarp drive, which was at it's point of final tweaks before testing. It would have been tested already, if it hadn't been for his incident at DS9 and other problems and setbacks. Given the fact that both him and Risa were present, he had left Ensign Ford in charge of Main Engineering while he was on the bridge. Once he got to his station and pulled up his present configuration, he acknowledged everyone there by nodding.

Jenn waited until all the senior officers had arrived before advising them of the recent change in situation.

" I was monitoring the Ferengi distress call over the last few hours, however a few minutes ago it shifted and distorted, and then a minute later ceased entirely." She advised, bringing up the tiny spec on the long range scan that was the Ferengi ships.

"ETA is still an hour, we should send the fighter squadron ahead to scout ahead and see what they can find. "She advised.

“Commander I will alert sickbay and prepare for possible away team medical and possible Ferengi casualties.” Niali said.

Sandra slid quietly onto the bridge stopping just short of the helm. At least her fighters were on the ready line and ready to go.

"Good work, we'll need all the help we can get if we have two ships full of casualties. Our first priority is to keep ourselves safe though, we don't want to end up in whatever situation they have gotten themselves into. Hence I think the fighters going ahead is a good idea. Risa? Assemble your best pilots" Balric continued, once again toeing the line between mission advisor and something more.

"They are already on the line ready to go, sir" Sandra said quickly. Just as she finished, Dean appeared.

Dean finally got back up there a moment and to hear the last part that Balric said. Giving a glance. "Well I was about to come up here but I guess I'm going back to the fighter. You're up, Risa. Commander Balric, you've got my spot till we are back. Also. Lets get more extensive reading on whatever that damn anomoly is. We're gonna need the information while out there." Glancing to Risa again, "You still have lead."

"But of course I have lead. My department, my pilots, and my family...." Sandra quipped.

"Commander Baldric, I'll take over now. Thank you." Savar commented. He looked at Dean, "Take your fighter, scan the Ferengi ships and the surrounding area in case our scanners have missed something, relay your findings back to the ship."

"With all due respect, I will fly on his wing. I will not allow a lone fighter into an unknown situation. My second in command can fly the rest of the formation," Sandra added.

"May I suggest that we go to Yellow Alert as we're approaching an unknown situation Sir" Finchley added "We don't know what's caused the Ferengi ships the trouble they've encountered, so caution ought to be obsereved on our part."

"I would not expect a lone fighter to proceed by itself. By all means Commander accompany Mr. House." Savar then turned to Kerr. "Take us to yellow alert Mr. Kerr."

"Aye Sir, yellow alert" Finchley replied, setting the order in motion. As he did so, the klaxxon sounded and he opened the ship wide intercom "Commander Kerr to the crew, Yellow Alert, all crew to Ready stations, repeat, all crew to Ready stations, await further orders."

Turning to Savar he said "Yellow Alert initiated Captain, all crew are now at Ready Stand By stations."

"Very good Mr. Kerr. Let us proceed." Savar replied, "Sensors at maximum. Let us get as much information as we can before we reach the Ferengi ships."

Looking at House, "After you sir," hoping that Dean would get the drift. Tapping her comlink, "All pilots prepare for deployment. Squadrons 2 and 3 will fly CAP while Cmdr House and I recon," Sandra said motioning for the commander to go first.

Jennifer watched on as the crew swung into action, a smile gracing her face as she did so. They worked so well together, it would be intriguing to see how they handled the Ferengi situation. She settled back into the Advisors position on the bridge and drew several feeds up on her monitor, watching everything.

Aurora had followed everyone out onto the bridge, making her way around to her seat she settled down ready for whatever they were about to face.

Finchley had continued to track all readings coming out of the area the Ferengi ships were in, and something he saw quickly raised concerns for him "Captain, I'm reading a massive increase in EM readings in the vicinity around the Ferengi ships."

Savar turned in the center seat to look at Kerr, "Are you able to pinpoint the location of the EM readings Mr. Kerr. In addition are we able to proceed without danger to the ship and it's systems?"

Finchley was double checking the information on his screen, as it wasn't quite making sense.

"The readings are...odd, to say the least Sir" Finchley replied "they can't be pinpointed exactly as it's like a wave effect. They build and increase massively, then decrease slightly, then build and increase massively, and then decrease slightly. It's a definite pattern, and the closer it gets to being around those Ferengi vessels, the higher the EM increase is. To answer your question regarding endangering our ship and systems, if we have shields up full and deflectors on maximum, I think we'll be fine, however, I'm not so sure how the fighters will cope if they go in. Their shields arent as powerful as the Sunfires obviously, and that concerns me greatly, they may not be able to cope and I'd hate to think we're putting any pilots at risk."

"Reduce our ship, keep our shields up. Continue to scan the area and relay all findings to the fighters so they are aware of just what they could possibly deal with. Advise them to proceed with extreme caution." Savar replied.

"Aye Sir, right away" Finchley replied, carrying out the orders the Captain had given him.

"Helm, shields up, deflectors to full, bring us to warp two" he said.

The Lieutenant at Helm did as he was ordered, saying "Shields up, deflectors at full, dropping us to warp two aye Sir."

"Very good" Finchley replied back.

Opening a link to the fighter wing he said "Commander Kerr to Commander Risa. EM readings from the area around the Ferengi ships has increased, though readings show that it's coming in waves so can be a little difficult to predict when it's at it's strongest. It's advisable that you approach the area with shields at maximum. Please keep us informed of you're progress, Kerr out."

"Understood. Will keep eyes open and shields ready. Thanks for the heads up. Risa out", Sandra said.

TBC