Forward we Go
Posted on Sat Aug 26th, 2023 @ 8:58am by Lieutenant Sarah Wilson & Senior Chief Petty Officer Ronson Mitchell & Commander Dean House & Lieutenant Commander Thriss Kla'ren & Lieutenant JG S’Ers-a Kelek t’LyrZor, Maa t'Lyr'Zor & 1st Lieutenant Kate Score & Lieutenant JG Blake Leone & Lieutenant Thomas Haldeman & Lieutenant Commander Bonnie "Bon-Bon" Durnell & Lieutenant Alison Haldeman
Mission:
Repairs and Retribution
Location: Sunfire
The next morning Chief Mitchell arrived on the bridge early. They had hidden after retrieving Patin to make sure they avoided any further Cardassians investigating the small vessel, and now felt confident they could resume their journey towards Kunar.
" Orders Captain?" He asked as Commander House strode onto the bridge. Tom manned his station, as did the other officers on the bridge, itching to get back into the hunt.
Kate was currently standing near by ready for orders.
"Get us into those trade routes since we should have no problem blending in now. Keep the systems for our ruse a main priority," Dean reached up to rub his still sore nose. Having decided to leave the cut across the bridge of said nose to heal naturally instead of by dermal regenerator.
"Yes Sir, sending coordinates to the helm" Ronson reported as he swivelled in his chair to plot the most inconspicuous shipping route he could to their destination. 3 days had passed since the Captain, XO and counsellor had been kidnapped. He just hoped they were still alive.
"Coordinates sent Sir, if we match speed with the rest of the ships in the lane, we should be there in another 14 hours"
"Unfortunately that's not going to do us. We need a solution to get there in two. Yes, I said two. Our max warp willing anyway. Until we come up with that, get us in the lane and push it a little faster. We know and they should, that ships are not going to all go the same speed. Some are on time limits, they have to go faster." Dean commented.
Ronson's eyes widened at the expectation and he directed several requested to engineering and tactical to get more power for the warp drive and for navigation. "It's not going to be two hours Sir...but we'll do the best we can"
"What is it going to be then?"
8....7 if we max the engines and drop into someone else's slipstream" Ronson admitted sagely as he ran the maths again.
Dean shook his head, "That's not good enough and we know it. Pull everything, increase the plasma flow to 120%. Throw everything at it. And..fly her apart then."
"Sir, we're no good to them if we don't make it there in one piece" Ronson said carefully. "I will get the chief to make what modifications he can"
"We're no good to them late either, Ronson."
"Excuse me Commander House." Tom spoke calmly, respectfully. "We, all share your desire to rescue the Captain and the others. However, flying the ship apart and it not being in shape to fight or even escape with the kidnapped officers. Is foolhardy. If they are indeed on Kunar, the Cardassians are going to torture them, make them suffer. Drag this out. They went through much effort just to quickly kill them. Let's get there in fighting shape and able to help those taken."
"We all owe them in one way or another," Dean stood up. 'Accidently' hitting the ship wide comm."This is the crew of the USS Sunfire. We've beaten more than this and so has this ship. She'll hold up and so will we. So recommendation noted. Now get to work."
Tom nodded and replied, "Yes sir." and returned to his duties. He just hoped that Rhenora and the others could hold on until they arrived.
Bonnie bit her lip to keep from adding her voice into the mix. Nerves were on high as it was. She was already allowing her worry to win over her mind and now Dean was a acting as though he were coming unraveled at the seems. That is, if she didn't know him and the type of man he could be. If allowed to act unfettered, unchained, he could easily be a loose cannon. Like Patin, but different, while she was unpredictable, his actions made calculatable sense.
Thriss was rattling around engineering trying to prevent everything from falling apart. With the Commander's order he too didn't think it was the safest idea especially with trying to save their people. He then got the message from Ronson. But before he could do anything he realized something. The transwarp drive. Granted it had been damaged and still had yet to be completely repaired but he had an idea.
"Kla'ren to bridge" Thriss said tapping his communicator.
Dean glanced upwards at the voice, "Go ahead, Kla'ren."
"Commander, I may have an idea to get us there much faster but it may have some risk to it. What if we used the transwarp drive? I would need time to get it up and running as it hasn't been repaired completely since our crash landing however" the Andorian reported.
"What are the difference in numbers, Lieutenant? Continuing with pushing the normal warp engine and the ship to the limit and then past it, or take the same gamble with the Transwarp drive. It's your call."
"It will takes some time to get things together. But then there is the risk we would be taking of testing on the fly since any tests were done before our crash landing. But once I get the drive together and hooked up we will get there much faster, provided the transwarp drive works" Thriss began.'
Sera stepped out of the turbolift and took note of the conversation as she walked over to the security station and quietly relieved the officer on duty. None of this had gone the way she expected; but here she was. She sat down in the unfamiliar seat and looked at the expansive console that was now hers. How better to familiarize oneself than by 'fire.'
"So I say that we should use it. In addition, if we push normal warp speeds too hard getting to our destination, we may not have a capable warp drive of getting us home safely without being caught up to by Cardassians. In other words if we use the transwarp drive to get there we could take some strain off of the normal warp core, allowing us to use the full power of our warp drive to get home" he added as he tapped a few buttons on his console. "I can get the drive in some sort of working state in 2 hours. But I can't guarantee that it will work first try since its not in an idea condition to begin with. I recommend that we should continue on at a safe high warp speed until the drive is online, that way we can cover some ground" he said before taking a breath.
"Make it 45 minutes. Bridge out." Looking to Helm, "Drop our speed to 6."
Bonnie stood, "I'll go see if he needs help. We built it once, should be easy enough to put her back together." As she crossed the bridge she gave a small wave to Alison having not seen her in some time. She then entered the lift not a minute after Sera had stepped out and called for "Engineering."
Alison returned to the bridge after taking some time to rest given the advanced stage of her pregnancy, she looked at her husband offering a smile as she took a seat.
"Welcome back, Mrs. Haldeman."
“Thank you Sir” Alison smiled politely at Dean. “For what it’s worth Sir, pushing for repairs to done on a short schedule could lead to disaster. If I was able to go crawling through access crawl spaces I’d happily do whatever I could to help speed things up, but as it is..” She shrugged her shoulders. “I understand the urgency but I’d advise giving the Lieutenant the time he needs.”
Tom smiled at his wife. "Don't do anything to endanger you or the baby Alison." He cautioned.
Alison offered her husband a smile. “Don’t worry Tom, I have no plans to do anything I shouldn’t.”
Tom nodded, "I know Alison. Just doing my nervous dad bit." He said with a smile.
Alison nodded. “That is what makes you such a wonderful husband and father.”
"Aw. Thanks Alison, Our children are lucky to have a wonderful mother like you."
"Fine..fine.." Dean sighed and leaned back in the command chair. Hitting the comm button on the arm of the chair with his elbow, "House to Kal'ren. Fair enough, just please try to get it done as quickly as possible."
At this point he had already enlisted the help of a group of his engineers to work on getting the drive operation. In fact, by the time Dean had called down to Engineering again he was already beginning to examine the current state of the drive and what needed to be fixed. He couldn't make it look nice, he just needed to ensure that it worked. Thriss tapped his badge to respond. "Aye Commander. I'll have my team work as fast as possible."
Meanwhile down in Sickbay Sarah had just finished patching up Patin and had released her back into whatever role she was currently doing aboard the ship. Captain's advisor was it? Who knew! Either way if there was someone to go down to rescue their three missing officers, Patin would be it. Gutsy, determined, and a monumental chip on her shoulder.
'Thanks Doc. Sorry for the extra work, but men like him, who think they can talk to people anyway they want without recourse, deserve to be put in their place once in a while, ya know?" She circled her shoulder to exercise her full range of motion. "Feels better than it did before I got shot, nice."
Sarah smiled at the compliment, having a respect for this woman who took no prisoners and was a law into herself. "I needed to get you in ship shape for when we need to rescue the Captain and the rest of the missing officers. You're the only one who would know what they're likely to be going through and how to bust them out"
"Well, thanks. I took three of them bastards out before I was shot up. I look forward to going in and getting my friends back in one piece. If Commander control freak doesn't get us killed first. Think he has any idea what we're going to be up against?" She questioned knowing the Cardassians were stubborn, often defiant fools who are over protective of what they have left to call their own. The war had taken a toll, on everyone.
Sarah chose her words carefully, not wanting to disrespect the acting captain but also wanting to support Patin.
"I'm sure Commander House will do his best to ensure we get them bag safely. What he could use though is your insight and experience when it comes to Cardassian prisons, and shape we can expect our people to be in, if they're still alive" the last words were quiet and almost whispered.
TBC
