Bridge crew pt 9
Posted on Fri Aug 26th, 2022 @ 4:13am by Captain Rhenora Kaylen & Commander Dean House & Ensign Kitiuas Thenis & Lieutenant Commander Bonnie "Bon-Bon" Durnell
Mission:
New Harrington
Location: Bridge
"They are ready." Dean made sure even as he said it. "Might I suggest we give it a little more umph though." The other part of his crazy, since she'd already thought of the first part. "We make it more like a controlled sling shot. It has the extra force into it, without the extra effort and strain. I wish Bonnie were here for the last part. Being able to asynchronously control when to let go so the momentum will let the planets gravity naturally take over to put it back into to the stations original orbit."
"Continue trying to establish communications, we can't wait to act though" Kaylen's gut twisted again as they attempted to lock a tractor beam onto the out of control station.
"Commander House, hold the station in the tractor beam until we can get the calcs confirmed for this slingshot maneuver."
"Yes, ma'am. We might be able to get some kind of signal out also through the tractor beam. Maybe.." Maybe? Maybe not. Even he wasn't sure if that would work that way. So he focused on the beam. Someone heard the idea, so they could try it.
Ensign Thenis turned her attention away from the planet and turned the sensors on to the radiation around the main orbital weather station. As she began to examine the radiation, she noticed something peculiar, the radiation was under the station and it seemed to her that the station was gaining altitude slowly, about fifty feet per second and it was not by the tractor beam. She had heard the comment about sending a message through the tractor beam and knew it could be done in a one-way fashion, they could send a message but not receive a message. "Commander House, a one-way message may be sent from us to the weather station, it involves an old Earth Morse code. The tractor beam sends a serious of dots and dashes that pulse against the hull. Everyone on the ship will fell the pulses. The question is will anybody understand the message?"
As Thenis replied the Sunfire made contact with the away team on the weather platform, the voice of Aurora echoed around the bridge.
"Is that you Captain"
"Indeed it is Aurora, could you give us an upgrade as to your team? We're still having some issues with the sensors"
A short time later as the away team advised, the repair teams were beamed aboard the Sunfire, directly to sickbay to ensure their swift and effective treatment. The conversation continued regarding keeping the AI contained as the Sunfire worked with the away team to return the weather station to its correct orbit.
Sometime later, after Remal and Sarah had returned to the shop and had a meeting with Rhenora, a Romulan vessel decloaked and attempted to hail the planet.
"Ensign, see if you can tap into that communication without tipping our hand" The Captain ordered from the centre chair, flanked by Dr Wilson and Remal. There had been musings of natural resources being exploited, and it would appear their suspicions were correct.
"Yes ma'am, I'll try." The young ensign punched some buttons then replied, "It's encoded but I think I can get you audio only." She didn't wait, eager to make her Captain happy. The comms clicked on.
"Ah Damon Opec, you're early. We weren't expecting you until tomorrow." Came the voice of a nervous man. "What can I do for you?"
"You can relax Lil'High. We are on a secure channel. We received a distress call and wanted to ensure our assets were still going to be profitable. So, what are the hewmans doing here? I trust you're not trying to undercut our deal."
"I assure you sir, Gaston B. Lil'Hihg is a man of his word. The Federation is here because someone sabotaged the planetary weather control system " his voice was sounding more bold now. "You wouldn't happen to know anything about that now, would you?"
"That weather control system is as solid as the junker I bought it off of. If you're having issues with it, let me remind you that your warranty has already expired. But you've been a good customer so I can offer replacement parts if you need, at only a fraction above cost."
"I think we'll stick with our original bargain thank you." Lil'High sounded disgusted by his turn of fortune. "100 barrels, 100 strips, as requested. Say, can I ask, what do you do with this crud anyway?"
"Oh we have people who bathe in the stuff. It's also highly flammable, good for ore processing. We even have someone made of the stuff, on Vargas II. Right evil piece of work, pays well though."
The Captain of the Sunfire watched carefully, confident that they hadn't been noticed eavesdropping on the conversation. So Lil'High was selling the oil that Remal and Sarah had discovered the pumping station for. She wondered who else was aware of this. She regarded his clothing, noting the Government insignia on the breast of his tunic. So he worked for the Government - sanctioned or unsanctioned though?
The conversation continued as Rhenora made her mind up about their next move. To contact the Governor and ask him directly if he knew anything about it.
With the addition of the Warbird, Dean keep a particular eye on it. Surely the Romulans were just here to take a look, nothing else. There was no telling though then came the conversation. Listening closely, shaking his head. What else is coming next? Borg?
The young ensign piped up from the back, "Sirs, I ran a scan on the Warbird. There are no Romulans on board. Only .. only Ferengi. Almost fifty or so but they are clearly Ferengi on that ship."
"Fifty? That's it? How are they even running that ship effectively. Unless they've got most of it automated." Dean said.
Ensign Thenis had been quiet as she listened to the conversation. She was going through some possibilities in her mind to hamper the Ferengi and the Warbird. She smiled recalling a weakness this particular style of Warbird. “Captain I have one or two suggestions in how we may be able to stop the Warbird and Ferengi. One Lieutenant Durnell could design a computer virus and send it along the same wavelength we used to ease drop on them, and have it shut down the singularity drive, effectively killing all power to the ship. Two we could transfer our friend “the virus” using a teleporter over to the Warbird. Or, we could do both. The first option is most likely the safest, and I do not believe the Ferengi have the engineering know how to repair the Singularity Drive or to get rid of the virus. The second and third options pose the risk of allowing the strange virus run rampant and cause unknown trouble.”
" I'd rather not tip our hand unless we are forced too, that includes letting a computer virus lose onto their ship." The Captain smiled warmly " Good suggestions though - we'll keep them in mind should we need to. Hopefully diplomacy will be all we need"
The conversation continued, "Same arrangment as usual. We'll have your shipment ready at the following coordinates and I will meet with you for payment at our usual place in say, one hour?"
"Fine, but do not keep us waiting any more than necessary. Nosey Federation is likely to put their lobes where they don't belong. And I trust you'll find your saboteur before they strike again?" Damon Opec insisted.
"We have the situation we'll in hand. We currently suspect a certain delegate and his Vulcan hacker friend are to blame. If my hunch is current the Federation ship should be discovering that nugget of evidence soon. Lil'High, out." The channel closed leaving those on the bridge wondering just what they were getting themselves involved in.
With the situation on the weather station now stable, or as stable as could be, she decided it was time to take a little trip to the planet.
TBC
