Away Team...Away

Posted on Sun Oct 1st, 2023 @ 3:21pm by Commander Naois Mercy MD & Captain Lukas Fredricks & Lieutenant Kod'ar & Lieutenant Chexor Vonn & Lieutenant Amara Naidoo

1,080 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Mission 1: To Catch a Thief
Location: Shuttlecraft

ON

Amara emerged down the ramp at the rear of the shuttle, less than enthusiastic at the defensive systems, even less so about the offensive systems. If they were caught in a fire fight their only option would be to run. She had however already stowed away a number of hand held weapons, one for each of the away team, on board the shuttle.

As she descended the ramp, signing off on the weapons and passing the PADD back to a crewman who quickly scuttled away as she approached the other team members. "Lets just hope we don't end up in a fire fight!"

"Indeed not," Naois answered as he approached with an armful of equipment, not knowing Amara had well beat him to it. "I would prefer not to split us up as we investigate," he added while walking up the ramp. "Shuttles are not made for fighting but at least we will have an expert pilot at the controls."

Kod'ar didn't acknowledge the compliment, either because he didn't hear it while he was focusing on pre-flight checks, or that the comment never registered with him as being out of the ordinary. He continued to input commands into his console, located at the left front of the shuttle. With a final few taps and a twist in his chair he spoke to the Executive Officer,

"Commander, the shuttle is ready to depart. And I would note that while the craft is not designed for combat, it is not without the ability to inflict some damage." He turned the chair back to face out the viewport.

Lieutenant Vonn was the final member of the team to arrive inside the shuttlecraft. It wasn't exactly on purpose, but at the same time, it wasn't as if he'd made it a point to be quick about it. Every aspect of this mission made him feel uneasy. Having caught the last bit of the conversation that had taken place, Chex sincerely hoped that their excursion into the proverbial graveyard would be straightforward even though he knew deep down that it would be anything but.

"Let's not go out there looking for trouble..." he offered, more as a warning than anything else.

Naois nodded in agreement. "Take us out," he ordered the helmsman. "Set course for that ship."

Amara took her seat, manning what was laughingly called the weapons systems. She had to agree, the shuttle could do some damage but it would be negligible against anything other than another shuttle.

The Helmsman swooped his hands over the flight controls, they responded to his touch with an audible beep. A few moments later the view from the front of the shuttles canopy raised in parallel to their craft raising off the shuttle bay floor. "We will clear the shuttle bay in 15 seconds."

"ETA to the ghostship?" The Vulcan asked as he settled himself in the co-pilots seat. He was visibly uncomfortable at being in the front of the small craft and he looked anywhere but out the front window.

"We will reach our destination in 14 minutes and 37 seconds, Commander." the Helmsman spoke in a clear matter of fact tone.

The shuttle passed through the outer force field of the shuttlebay and entered into the vacuum of space immediately behind the Britannic's saucer. With a twitch of his hands on the control panel, he made a quick course correction that brought the shuttle in a close course around the superstructure that connected the ship's Medical Pod to the main hull.

The shuttle made the short flight towards the target vessel.

"Dock us with the nearest available port," the XO ordered, "we will suit up before entering the ship. Noone is to set off alone stick to pairs. Report anything out of the ordinary, any missing technology, any evidence of tampering "

Whilst the shuttlecraft travelled, Chex started to examine the sensor readouts that were coming up on his display regarding their destination. "Excelsior-class..." he spoke softly, before announcing more loudly, "... the U.S.S. Impetuous, NCC-41832. I'm detecting several breaches in its outer hull. Power is offline."

"Can you restore power?" Naois asked as he watched the approach to one of the docking ports. "Can you determine as well, why this ship was... abandoned?" He was already in the process of suiting up, an anxious expression on his face as he was visibly not thrilled at being locked in a confined space (such as a spacesuit).

"Not from here. Uh... for either of your requests," the Bolian said in answer to both questions. He then elaborated, "The Impetuous has sustained significant weapons damage to several vital sections and whilst that is likely the reason for its abandonment, I would suggest we interface with the ship's systems to be certain."

The shuttle swooped over the secondary hull between what was left of the Excelsior classes warp nacelles. With a slight pitch to starboard the small craft made and approach for aperture on the side of the vessel.

"Lieutenant," the pilot addressed the Chief Operations Officer, "If the Impetuous has no power, who left the welcome light on for us?" The Vulcan spoke in a near mono-tone voice, as the vessel passed one of the ship's many windows.

The Bolian bit his lower lip softly at the revelation. He double-checked the readings on his display. There were no power readings present. Either the shuttle's sensors were wrong, or something else was going on aboard the Excelsior-class starship. "I'll perform a diagnostic to rule out any potential false readings on our end," Chex said aloud.

"Automatic docking is offline. I will require assistance to manually dock while I align the rear of the shuttle with the docking port." He turned the pilot's chair to the passengers in the rear, while the vessel itself turned in a counter clockwise direction to align itself against the target.

Amara saw that none of the others moved to help the pilot so felt compelled to be the one to offer. In truth it would give her a chance to look over the scan data so she could evaluate the tactical situation. With a swift motion she moved from the tactical position and into the copilot's seat. "I'll follow your lead Lieutenant!"

Naois cast his old friend a grateful smile as she moved into the co-pilot seat. He would've done it himself if necessary but the images of his crash against a starbase hull were still very vivid in his mind. "Proceed," he ordered.

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