Message in a bottle

Posted on Fri Apr 7th, 2023 @ 2:51am by Senior Chief Petty Officer Ronson Mitchell & Lieutenant Commander Thriss Kla'ren & Ensign Kitiuas Thenis & Lieutenant Thomas Haldeman & Lieutenant Commander Bonnie "Bon-Bon" Durnell

Mission: Planet of the Dinosaurs
Location: Sunfire
Timeline: On the 8th day

The USS Botany Bay slid into orbit with the grace of a dancer. They had confirmed the distress beacon as the USS Sunfire which had now been missing for nearly 8 days. Sensor scans revealed a small number of life signs on board ship, with several hundred in an encampment several kilometres away. Large predators roamed the region. They had yet to establish communications.

"Ops, try hailing the Sunfire, all standard channels and frequencies... let's hope their communications array wasn't completely destroyed" Captain Morselles ordered as the viewscreen changed perspective. "USS Sunfire, this is Captain Morselles of the Botany Bay, do you read?"

There it was again, the noise Kitiuas had heard. It was coming from the OPS station, faint but there. She hurried over and did her best to bring more life to the fractured and damaged OPS station. She finally gave up and turned and went to the science station which had faired better than the OPS station, switching the functions over to the Science station she suddenly got a surprise; the emergency distress beacon had picked up a Federation starship and there was a hail.

=^= Unknown Federation vessel, this is the USS Sunfire, NCC-3935-B the ship has crash landed planet side. We are in critical need of assistance.=^= “Lieutenant Durnell I could really use your assistance, I think there is a Federation vessel in orbit and they are trying to communicate with us, tried sending a hail and I am unsure if they received it.” Said Kit in a very excited voice.

Ronson's head jerked up at the change of tone. "Are you saying someone's found us on this goodness forsaken rock?" He asked, not daring to believe it himself.

Bonnie entered the bridge and walked over to where Kit was sitting. After eight long days and nights, hearing a new voice was a welcome thing. The mood alone on ship had grown, well, grumpy to say the least. "Play it again, maybe see if you can triangulate the origin. I'll boost the relay and adjust the transponder to match." She said as she sat down at an adjoining station. They couldn't do much with the main computer still offline but maybe they could at least communicate.

Ensign Thenis looked at both Lieutenant Durnell and Chief Ronson “I am not a communication expert nor an engineer. I do know of a way to bust a signal, in theory, by using the ships sensors. Problem is; one I have never done the procedure, and two the signal is a tight beam signal. Any suggestions from you two as to what we can do?”

Ronson huddled around the work station, as though it would work better just by his willing it to do so.

=^= "USS Sunfire, your message is unreadable, please try again. " =^= The voice on the other end of the comm-call said earnestly.

Bonnie understood as she slid unceremoniously over, colliding with Kit, in an effort to get up close and personal with the console. She began pressing buttons, hoping she could coax the communication relay to link with the orbital satelite they had launched somewhere back on day whatever it was. A minute later she pressed one last button and took a deep breath. =^= "Botany Bay, this is, um, Lieutenant Durnell on board the Sunfire, transmitting our coordinates via transponder coding, do you copy?" =^= And then she released.

There was a pause, several bursts of static and the line went dead for a minute before spring back to life with much better clarity.

=^= "Lt Durnell, this is the Botany Bay, can you read us clearly now? Please respond." =^= The voice of Captain Morselles echoed around the room, crystal clear this time.

Tom came in, "We have contact with a Federation ship?" He asked trying but not succeeding entirely of keeping the excitement out of his voice.

"In a manner of speaking, it would appear to be the USS Botany Bay; Lieutenant Durnell is working on cleaning up the communications." replied Kitiuas with a slight smile.

" We're getting outta here!" Ronson couldn't help but let out a whoop of happiness. " Oh wait, Bon... they're talking to you, we better answer"

She too had been celebrating but with Ronnie's reality check, she somehow pulled herself back together. "Right, right." She tapped a few buttons and then talked again. =^= "Reading you loud and clear Botany Bay. Transmitting logs and coordinates, now." =^= She pressed one final button then turned slightly to look at Tom. "The Captain will want to know." Her eyes were wide with happiness.

=^= "It's good to hear your voice Sunfire. We haven't had a chance to read your logs yet. I'm assuming that given you are answering the comm, that your Captain is dead?. Could you give us the short version of events whilst we prepare aid to be sent down to you" =^= Captain Morselles sounded thankful as they made definitive communications with the crew on the ship. She was concerned about what state the crew were in after having crash landed and organize medical aid to be the first contingent to beam down, along with a selection of others.

Bonnie looked to the others to see if any one of them would rather speak, to give details. She knew she wasn't the best, but then she at least could operate the communication relay to keep it in focus. "Stand by Captain." she said into the comms before turning towards the rag tag bunch. "Um, do we need to verify who he says he is or do we care at this point?" They were after all, mostly defenseless against someone who could take advantage of their situation.

"She...Ronson gently corrected before thinking what needed to be said next. "We need to tell her the Captain is still alive, and that most of the crew are living in the camp" He finally suggested.

"Ronson's right Bonnie." Tom said. "Give them as much information as you can in case we lose contact with them." Tom pointed out. "I don't think it matters right now Bonnie. They know we're here." He concluded.

Kit, using only her left arm pulled up what data she could on the science console she was sharing with Bonnie. “USS Botany Bay research vessel, six-month research mission in the Coridan system. Her captain is Captain Morselles. I believe we can safely assume they are who they claim they are.” She smiled and looked at Bonnie and nudged her "Go ahead and give them the information."

Ronson stepped back, allowing room near the console and giving Bonnie and encouraging smile. "Go on Bon, then we can call the Captain and tell her the good news. Except that we've drunk most of her food supply of coffee, I may break that one to her gently." He laughed.

Bonnie couldn't hide her own smile. She instead turned to the science console and began telling the Botany Bay how they crashed and what had caused the crew to separate in the first place. She then recounted the work they had accomplished in the course of their eight day stint on this dinosaur infested rock. And as if she hadn't said it enough, =^= "Be careful if, I mean when you come down, there was a DNA altering sickness and Cretaceous period dinos roaming around. So, be careful." =^=

"It seems that you've had quite the ordeal. I'm relieved to hear the majority of your crew survived the impact, that is a credit to them. "Morselles' voice echoed through the comm channel. "I'll start sending down teams shortly to provide aid, I take it you've found a way to deal with the illness?"

=^=This is Ensign Kitiuas Thenis, Sir. As far as we know they may have. I can assure you though the insect life down here is more deadly than the Dinosaurs. Have your teams use proper insect repellents, tell medical level six or above should suffice.=^= Kit suddenly realized she had over spoke Lieutenant Durnell, whispering she stated to her “Sorry, didn’t mean to speak over you.”

=^="Understood, we'll make sure we are adequately protected. Do you require more engineers for the repair work? It sounds like you could use a break"=^= Morselles continued, making the appropriate notes to break the incoming away teams.

Tom tapped Bonnie's shoulder gently to get her attention, he nodded yes at the Botany Bay captain's statement. The more help they could get, the quicker they could get the Sunfire back into space where she belonged.

Grateful for everyone's encouragement and not bothered that Kit had interrupted, Bonnie responded to Morselles, =^= "Sorry Captain, ma'am, yes of course. Please, send every available engineer. We're close but tired and would welcome all of the help you can spare." =^=

=^="I'll set a rotating roster to give you as many as we can for the time we are here. I'll send word back to Command about your situation as well, so that a proper rescue effort can be co-ordinated."=^= Morselles' continued, composing a brief message to Starfleet as she spoke. =^=" Stand by to receive our engineers, I'll beam medical teams and everyone else into to the village.=^=

=^="Thank you Captain. We welcome you with open arms."=^= Bonnie replied and then closed the channel. She then turned toward her fellow team members and let out a giggly squeal before proclaiming, "Wessa goin' home!" Mocking a silly quote she had heard a long, long time ago.

Kit smiled “Well, guess I am going to be able to finally break down and have the doc’s look at my shoulder and arm. By the Thousand I am not looking forward to it though. Upside, shower.”

"Dr Wilson generally saves the lectures for the Captain" Ronson laughed, feeling the tension from the last few days easing almost instantly. Help was coming, and soon they would be off this goodness forsaken rock.

TBC