GENESIS

Posted on Wed Oct 5th, 2022 @ 10:48pm by Captain Rhenora Kaylen

Mission: Planet of the Dinosaurs
Location: Sunfire

The USS Sunfire settled into Warp 5, moving fast enough to get where they needed to go without delay, but not fast enough to stress any of the ship’s systems or personnel. They’d left New Harrington as the colony was democratically electing their next Governor, a process that brought a smile to Captain Kaylen Rhenora’s face as they left orbit. The previous Governor, a small weaselly man by the name of Lil’High had tried to plunder the planet’s natural resources and sell them to the highest bidder, a Ferengi of course who had made the mistake of bartering with him at an inopportune time.

Lil’High, being the weasel that he was, had requested political asylum at the last minute, literally as the citizens of New Harrington were in the process of tarring and feathering him, a lit match made him reconsider his future plans there entirely. The man now sat absconded in one of the Sunfire’s guest quarters, under guard, until Rhenora could offload him at the nearest starbase.

Hence the mighty Sunfire sat comfortably at warp, heading towards Cardassia of all places where Commander Savar was to stand trial for the murder of Gul Macet, an indicent that occured over a year ago whilst Kaylen captained the USS Liberty. Macet had tried to lure her to a planet on the pretence of a peace negotiation, then attempted to murder her in revenge for the death of his brother during the Occupation of Bajor.

Savar had been enduring the Vulcan Blood Fever or Pon Farr during that time and had killed Macet just as the Cardassian had tried to kill her. His goons had obviously fabricated a story that he’d been murdered in cold blood, and thus the Cardassian Union had organised a trial, for which they were heading for now. Rhenora was confident in the abilities of Commodore S’Thenosis, a talented and tenacious JAG officer and diplomat, and that the facts would speak for themselves. Still there was a tinge of guilt, a tinge of fear and a heady dose of concern if things didn’t go well.

Meanwhile in Engineering a crewman with a specific agenda swung into action, a handful of isolinear chips in his pocket and a dark mission in his mind. This plan had been in the works for months, he had been requested to stand up for his leaders, his Gods, and it was now down to him.

“Captain, we’re nearing the Robana system, 3 planets, one M-class, two J-class. The M-class was surveyed several years ago and is currently in the Jurassic phase of evolution. Large mammals, plenty of flora and fauna, no intelligent species. There is a low intensity ion storm also approaching, it shouldn’t cause any dramas.” The science station intoned as they neared the next star system, obviously nothing of galactic importance there at the moment. Nothing they could use to delay the impending trial anyway.

“Very good Ensign,” the Captain smiled at the junior officer who was logging some bridge hours towards his career advancement.

Rhenora relaxed in the command chair, a mug of steaming coffee just delivered by Ronson accompanied by a light sandwich with some unusual filling she hadn’t seen before. Trusting his judgment she sampled it, a tentative bite followed by a short period of analysis as she contemplated the flavour. It was mostly pleasant in both texture and flavour combinations and she decided that she liked it, heading back for another bite.

“Ma’am, Crewman Patin’s survival training has exceeded its time in holodeck two. The security detail are waiting to conduct combat scenarios.” Ops announced, a flicker of amusement in the voice.

“ Why oh why am I not surprised.” Kaylen shook her head and contemplated her options. Patin had taken to running survival courses quicker and easier than Rhenora gave the ex-resistance fighter credit for. The skills she was teaching were a refreshing twist on the standard Starfleet survival courses that all officers and crew had to take whilst at the Academy.

“Ops - patch the visual sensors of holodeck two through to my personal monitor.” Rhenora requested, and was rewarded with a brief nod, a ‘Yes Ma’am’, and the feed patched through.
It was late afternoon on the holodeck judging by the slowly receding lighting, they were in a large clearing at the base of an impressive ice formation. At Patin’s feet lay a large open box of what looked to be explosives, or ‘boom sticks’ as Patin so eloquently called them. In her hand was a lit fuse, and the motion of her arm indicated she was in the process of throwing it. Rhenora’s heart stopped, surely it was a holographic explosive, surely the safeties were on. Surely… Just as she reached for the comm-system, all hell broke loose.

“Ma’am ion storm intensity is increasing!” The science officer announced before she hit the deck hard as the ship lurched.

The deck shuddered with a fierce intensity, the bridge lights went out, replaced a moment later by the hazy red of emergency lighting, and the ship’s nose tilted towards the planetary system they had been passing.

“ Report!” The Captain shouted as all thoughts of berating Patin were instantly replaced with an intense need to find out what was going on. The deck pitched forward as the warp engines went offline, the streaking stars rapidly slowing to reveal the murky depths of the system they were close to.

“Warp Engines offline, Impulse at 20%, helm is sluggish,” the helmsman shouted over the chaos that had erupted. “I’m reading multiple explosions, main computer is offline, attempting to switch to backup, main power is down,” Ops added a second later.

They needed to get to safety, and quickly lest they be picked off by some alien species with a grudge.

“Helm, take us into the Robana system, find some cover until we work out what the hell is going on.” Rhenora ordered, her hands gripping the armrests of her command chair in case the deck decided to take a dip again, or the artificial gravity decided to fail.

“Aye Ma’am, adjusting course, she’s fighting me Captain,” Helm replied, the tension on the young pilot’s face showing how belligerent the Sunfire had suddenly become. The viewscreen followed the pilot’s course change, showing a yellow star at the center of the system and three planetoids in a fairly regular orbit.

“I can’t raise Engineering, Captain, internship communications are down.” Ops reported again, rattling off information as it came to hand.

“Send someone down there and get an update on the double.” Rhenora ordered as the deck pitched again, this time to port, threatening to throw everyone off their feet and another series of explosions could be heard. “Just hold it together a little longer,” she whispered to the ship as they entered the system, limping as though a wounded beast attempting to find shelter.

“Medical isn’t responding Ma’am, weapons are down, shields too, all critical systems offline.” Ops continued.

“We’ve gotta get those shields up,” Rhenora muttered to herself, heading up to the secondary Engineering console at the back of the bridge and getting to work. The ship pitched, sending her to the deck along with most of the other bridge crew. After a moment of blackness the red emergency lighting returned and most of the crew returned to their stations.

“Losing Impulse power Ma’am, switching to thrusters, we might just be able to achieve orbit of the M-class planet.” The helm struggled with the loss of systems but pointed the nose of the mighty ship in the right direction. Robana II loomed before them, its blue and green surface capped at either end by great swaths of white ice.

Gravity would soon have them in its grasp if they couldn’t regain power. The shuddering would begin and then… well she had been there before and was determined against the odds, not to go back.

Forcing her mind away from what appeared to be the inevitable and the circumstances that may have led them here. The Captain focused her efforts on getting the shields up as they headed towards the planet, uncontrolled but not by choice.

First, Shields, then more power to thrusters to level out their descent, or at least attempt to control it. She stole power from wherever she could, even life support in some areas. Let’s face it, a cooling ship and the oxygen already on board would last them a few hours and if the ship went down without shields, they wouldn’t live that long anyway. It was a brutal choice but one that had to be made.

Cobbling together enough power and shunting it through whatever she had to, she got the shields back up to 30%. She checked the ablative armour and was relieved to see a green indicator against that system. Thank goodness for small mercies. It would take energy to activate that system but if they were going down, it would help.

“Helm - how are we doing?” She shouted over the din the bridge had become. Those who were able were continually calling out system reports as things either crashed or came back online. “Life support failing on lower decks!” came a concerned call from Ops.

“Yeah that was me, if we crash this tub we won’t be needing life support.” Rhenora replied sagely, to the somewhat shocked look from several of the junior officers.

“Thrusters are responding, I have altitude and lateral control, we’re too far in to achieve orbit - gravity is pulling us in.” The helm responded, the strain evident in her voice as the Sunfire fought to stay in the air.

Rhenora took a breath, she couldn’t even warn the crew that they were going down, with what seemed like certainty now. The comm systems were down, she was stealing power from the air that kept the crew alive to power the shields so they didn’t fry like hotcakes on the way down.

Could Ops send a message to all consoles if the intraship audio comm network was down? At least some crew would be aware of what was going on. Time slipped by too quickly, anyone close to a viewport would be very well aware of their impending fate.

From cruising comfortably to crash landing in the space of 5 minutes - funny how one’s day could shift so incredibly quickly. The irony of the thought was lost as the surface of the planet sped towards them, an orange hue illuminating the viewscreen as the forward shields tried to siphon off the heat from their entry into the upper atmosphere. She reduced the shields at the rear of the ship, redirecting the energy towards the forward and lower sections, a meager attempt but it may save some lives.

“Impact in 2 minutes, anywhere you’d like to park it? Last chance,” Helm announced as they descended, the orange glow now almost overtaking the surface beneath them.

Rhenore pulled up a view of the globe, their current trajectory already highlighted, it would be an instant decision, away from the mountains, close to the ocean, the rest was a small win. “Shift heading, 294 mark 5,” she replied, spying what she hoped was a large grassland area with a river nearby and was close to their current projected point of impact.

“Trying!” the nose of the Sunfire drifted just slightly, a minor correction to their descent that would hopefully land them closer to the area the Captain had pointed out.

“Impact in 30 seconds, trying to level her out and shave off speed, reverse thrusters firing.” It was as though she were on an old fashioned jet aeroplane where the pilots reversed the engines to land, or ‘control the crash’ as some pilots used to jovially refer to it as. Getting something from the air to the ground in one piece was almost a science, thankfully all pilots of starships drilled emergency landings during their training, most would never have to use that skillset.

Rhen could see the trees, make out the small rise and fall of the land and the sparkle of the nearby river as they careened towards the ground, the thrusters making a godawful noise as they attempted to prevent or at least ease the inevitable.

Explosions echoed everywhere, the smell of fire and smoke choking them as the rear of the ship hit the ground first, the impact tossing them like ragdolls. There were screams, not of fear but of pain as the stern hit next, the whine of the thrusters replaced with the screeching of the hull being ripped apart from the speed of their impact.

A deep groove marked their wake as friction reduced their speed, anything in their path instantly flattened. It seemed like an eternity that they skidded along the ground until a small rise loomed ahead. The Sunfire struck it and pitched upwards on an angle, coming to a stop on top of it. Finally they were down - but who was still alive?