Day 4, final stop

Posted on Thu Oct 10th, 2024 @ 2:16pm by Commander Jenna Ramthorne & Lieutenant Commander Bonnie "Bon-Bon" Durnell & Commander Savar cha'Salik hei-Surak Talek-sen-deen & Commander Dean House & Lieutenant Commander Thriss Kla'ren & Lieutenant Commander Aurora Vali & 1st Lieutenant Freya Score & Ensign Kitiuas Thenis & 2nd Lieutenant Connor McQueen & Commander Jennifer Baldric

Mission: Lost in Space
Location: On the outer edge of Borg space
Timeline: Current

Commander Jennifer Baldric rose from her short sleep. Experience had taught her that some was better than none, and 5 hours could get her though a whole day if necessary. Padding over to the bathroom she refreshed herself in the sonic shower, the noise rattling her brain awake. A solid black coffee and change into uniform and she was as good as she was going to get.

5 minutes later she strode onto the bridge, a picture of professionalism bar for the dark smudges beginning to appear under her eyes.

"Report" she requested as she settled into the vacant command chair.

"The whales have slowed 75 percent, based on our previous trips I would say they are sniffing for a food stop" Ops advised.

Seeing Baldric, Savar rose from the center seat and took his customary XO chair. "We have been on course and without incident." Savar informed Baldric. "No evidence of Borg pursuit. It has been a rather smooth and uneventful ride." He added.

The lift doors parted once more and Jenna stepped trough the opening, wide eyed and refreshed. She spotted Jennifer in the Command seat and Savar to her right. It was difficult to tell if he had gotten any sleep yet, being Vulcan, he did not show fatigue like a human would. Still, she had her duty, "Commander Savar, I'm here to relieve you as the schedule dictates." She offered as formally as possible for his benefit more than anything.

Savar looked at her, "Quite unnecessary Commander Ramthorne. I do not require sleep at this time." He replied as he looked between Baldric and Ramthorne.

Dean made it up to the Bridge finally, having been put in quarantine because of...fancy that..actually getting sick. Which yes can still happen regardless, it just takes a lot. He had essentially been in a medically induced coma for the most part. He still looked slightly pale but he was allowed back on duty. Stepping past the Turbolift doors.

Jenna side-eyed Baldric, "By my calculations you've been awake over 28 hours." Jenna tilted her head and talked quieter, "Do I need to tell your wife on you?" She then smiled a slightly devious smile. She noticed Mr. House enter the bridge looking pale like a ghost and wondered how he was fairing. They hadn't yet had the privilege of working together let alone meeting.

Baldric couldn't help but grin. "I sure Commamder Savar will get some sleep before his fatigue levels become a problem" it was a light jibe but one she knew he could handle.

Turning her attention to Dean she raised her eyebrows at him. "Are you okay Commander House?"

He gave a look around the Bridge a moment, nodding to them. Dean's attention going to Baldric. "I had a wee bout, Commander."

"I see" Jennifer replied not looking convinced but thinking he was old enough to look after himself if he needed to do so. "Where's our next stop projected to be?" She asked, turning her attention back to the matter at hand "and how do we get ourselves out of this whale?"

Giving a nod he relieved the officer at his station. Dean then stepped over, logged in and started to catch himself up.

Savar cast a look at Ramthorne. "Your calculations do you credit Commander Ramthorne. "However, to be precise, I have been awake 29 hours, 47 minutes and 36 seconds. Commander Baldric is also correct. I will avail myself of sleep before any fatigue proves bothersome."

Jenna moved to take her place at the helm, despite still being in standby. She quipped, "Well I for one would not want to be on the wrong side of a regulations debate with the resident JAG officer." She turned back, "I've heard from first hand experience that she can be quite, formidable." Jenna said recalling a specific trial instance over a cloaking device and a shuttle.

"A prudent course of action." Savar quipped from his XO's chair. "Highly commendable."

"They're slowing further, I'm reading a feeding ground that they should find tasty in 100,000km. We're still inside Borg space, but only just" Ops announced, turning the conversation back to the matter at hand.

Baldric had a mental image of the Sunfire either being spat out like a soggy ball or projectile vomitted like a sick child. She grimaced and waited.

It was the sensors that went wild first, as the readings changed. The dark depths of the Matriarch were slowly being exposed to outside space. "Computer is reading the maw of the Matriarch is opening." Jenna reported. She hurriedly activated her controls and prepared the ship for maneuvering.

The lift doors parted and Bonnie spilled onto the bridge, rushing to her seat. She barely looked anyone in the eye as she crossed the back of bridge, behind Dean, and slipped into her seat as quickly and quietly as she could muster, almost 10 minutes late for her duty shift. As soon as she signed into her console, she caught a reflection in the glass and quickly turned around.

"Where the hell have you been?" She angrily whispered to Dean. "I thought you'd been assimilated. You're pale like it too."

Jennifer's head whipped around at the comment, the movement of the ship and the images on the screen making her stomach turn slightly.

"Sickbay only reported one assimilation...Commander Kla'ren" she was perplexed. "But were...did they....?" Words seemed her fail her.

Ahead of them, the maw opened wide as the momentum of the whale stopped, her inertia carried the Sunfire forward. There was something on the main viewer which slid slowly down from the top across the screen to the bottom. They watched as it slid down slowly, leaving behind it a blurry liquid like image.

Jenna swallowed the bile that had built up in her own throat. "Sensors have been, gummed up?" She announced. "But it appears we are free and clear to maneuver."

"Eww" Baldric grimaced as the slobber she had envisioned was indeed covering the Sunfire. 'Better that than bring assimilated by the Borg' she mused to herself.

"Bring us into some clear space while they feed" She ordered "But as we are still in Borg space, yellow alert and find a way to clear the sensors from the gooba"

"Most unappealing." Savar remarked. "It is to our advantage that there are no other Starfleet vessels to see our appearance." He glanced at Jenna, "Could the whale drool act as a cloak or barrier from Borg sensors? Where they mistake us for one of the whales?"

Jennifer turned green at the idea "If it's messing with ours it's messing with theirs. Ugh....keep the drool"

Backing Baldric up, Bonnie chimed in, "Kit would know for sure, but it is reasonable the saliva has created a type of an organic barrier between us and the surrounding space. I can't verify how we look to other species but if I scanned our ship and saw the state we are in, I would not want to board."

Jenna moved the ship through the nebula just far enough away so as not to disturb the whales. As the nose parted the Orange / Yellow gases they began to thin and finally clear. In the distance a star, blurry but visible. Surrounding that star, large black geometric shapes in the forms of cubes, diamonds and spheres. A clear grid of octagon portals were capturing energy for possible use to power trans-warp conduits. She quickly reacted by stopping the ships' forward movement.

"Is that a Borg Transwarp Hub?" Baldric turned her attention from the drool covering the ship to the massive gateway system before them. If it was, the opportunity to deal a blow to the Borg was tremendous.

Savar studied the distant hub, it looked like a Borg transwarp Hub but wasn't sure. "It appears to be Commander." He replied his gaze on the distant structure. As well as the smaller objects clustered around it.

Dean finally leaned back to Bonnie, "I caught something. Wasn't allowed on duty." Having been focused on reviewing some readings. "It'd be basically like covering yourself in T-Rex pee. All the other predators will smell it and get out of dodge. They don't want to deal with something bigger than they are and the apex predator."

Bonnie turned back to her screen, "Eww." She had a vivid image and a throw back memory to when they were on the dinosaur planet. She recalled that Dean had an unusual smell when they got back to the ship and at the time she had just thought it was something he had gotten into. Now she was thinking he had actually coated himself in dino-urine.

Now also, Dean checked the readings and nodded, "Definitely a Hub and.. those are probably Probe ships, possibly some Spheres."

The decision weighed heavily on the ship's acting captain. There was an opportunity to deal a massive blow to the Borg, but they were also wildly outnumbered. Even with the whale goop smothering their sensors, a direct attack on any Borg assets would blow their cover and their escape home.

"Options?' She called to the bridge crew, eager foe their opinions.

Bonnie didn't want to fight the Borg but she also didn't want to sound cowardly and so kept her mouth shut.

Jenna on the other hand was more daring, "We could take a pair of shuttle, run a silent incursion. There's a chance we can take out some control nodes and destroy it from the inside. It's risky, and we would have to leave the whale pod behind, but it might be worth it in the end."

Jennifer mused for a few moments. "We could rig a couple of probes with explosives and remote detonate them on our way out. The flip side is that the Borg leave the whales alone, so do we really want to poke the proverbial bear and risk retaliation against the whales?"

"I do not advocate a fight with the Borg. Not in the condition we are in." Savar said evenly. "However, I also believe this is an opportunity we should not pass on. Shuttles or runabout could be coated with the whale drool and proceed to the hub to lay charges and then return to the Sunfire. I also think we should inform the pod if our decision is to attack." He concluded.

"As much as want to go with, we need to leave, Savar is right. Though.. I may have a different idea." Dean grinned, it was one of those grins.

The whales were grazing nearby, oblivious to the proximity of the Borg network. "I'm all ears Commander" she turned to face Dean.

Everyone was listening closely to see what Dean would offer up, even as a security alert started beeping. A small group of Borg ships had taken notice of the whale pod and were moving to 'inspect' them. Their equivalent of a threat analysis.

"Well we could," glancing down at the alert. Dean sighed, "Well that's great. There are a few Probes that are interested in the pod now. So my idea is going to have to wait."

"Everybody play dead, initiate grey mode and let us drift closer to the nearest whale" Baldric ordered, rising from her chair as though she could understand the situation better by doing so.

Dean shook his head, "We tried that already Commander and it didn't work last time. We need to get back in one of their mouths. Being we do part of that order. Grey mode, but they have to gobble us up, else the Borg will detect our impulse signature."

"Let us drift. Our drift will carry us into the pod where the matriarch or one of the other whales can again swallow us." Savar answered.

" last time we weren't covered in whale goop" Baldric mused but was content to follow the original plan of letting them drift closer back to the whales. "Alert the Matriarch that we have company and may need a lift"

Jenna aknowledged the boss's orders and gave the Sunfire a gentle nudge with the thrusters in the direction of the whales, then shut everything else down that she could from her station.

Bonnie did the same, sending the computer CORE the sleep codes and messaging Engineering to do the same. By the time everything 'shut down' the Sunfire would appear dead in space with the exception of the human life signs on board. Something they could do little about except hope.

By the time the Borg got close the Sunfire was next to the Matriarch's head and ready to be concealed if necessary. The rest of the pod were on alert and no longer grazing.

Silence, tense as always charged the bridge. A dozen held breaths as the Borg scanned the area before leaving.

From his seat Savar watched the Borg cubes move closer to the pod and the pod on alert to the Borg scanned the area for what seemed an eternity but was only a few seconds.

Aurora had arrived on the bridge just before the drop in power levels, quietly exiting onto the bridge she sat down watching events unfold.

The Borg loomed closer, running their scans on the pod of whales and the ship within it, still covered in drool. After a few minutes they left, leaving the crew unsure if they would return or not.

"Maybe it worked?" Baldric asked rhetorically as she headed back to thebcentre seat. "Stay close to the Matriqch and as soon as they are ready, let's hitch a lift and get back home'

Seeing Aurora on the bridge, Savar nodded at her, his face expressionless but his eyes smiled at her. After Baldric made her statement, he added, "A wise and prudent course of action Commander."

The Whales continued to feed, having their fill with little care foe the Borg that were hovering so close by. Jennifer dared not move the ship, allowing it to gently come to a stop as it bumped into the Matriach.

After some time they regrouped into their travelling formation. Baldric waited to see if the Sunfire would be travelling as slobber again or within the pod.

"Engineering reports the core is online and we are ready to enter the slip-bridge on your command." Jenna offered from the pilots seat. "Controls are sluggish, but once were in the whale fold, we should be fine." She finished, one last jump and they would arrive at their destination, covered in goop and battered from the Borg fight, but alive and ready for the next adventure.

The Matriarch turned and opened her jowls again, enveloping the Sunfire without asking if they needed a lift.

"Looks like we'll be arriving back home as Whale slobber" Baldric turned slightly green again. "Stand down all systems and kick back until we get back to DS9. I'm sure our arrival will make quite a stir"

"I feel we will be the subject of the unwanted, invasive and prying attention from the federation News Service." Savar replied as the Sunfire once again rode inside the Matriarch's mouth as they headed for home.

The pod encircled one another and without much build up in anticipation, they were gone once more, leaving Borg space long behind them. It would be only a short couple of hours until Federation space, the wormhole and the familiar sight of Deep Space Nine were visible on the viewer. In fact they were nearing communications range.

Other than some goop upon the hull, they had discovered a new space fairing species and a new way to travel faster than normal Warp speeds. They had encountered the Borg and survived with only a few casualties and one partially assimilated Andorian Engineer. In the end, being lost in space had given the crew of the USS Sunfire something to write home about.