Beg, Steal or Borrow – Searches (Part 2)
by Commander Richard Dunham & Lieutenant Vincent Tan & Lieutenant Commander Greo Tovon
Post Details
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Dunham and the rest of the senior staff Stood on the bridge of the Uss Leda. The small oberth class vessle was still in space dock on board Deep space five. This class of vessel housed thirteen decks and was only a hundred fifty meters long. Her crew compliment was fourteen officers and fifty six enlisted personnel. As she was a garrison vessel the crew were made up of staff from Deep space Five who were rotated to the on call starship. This made Dunham, Tovon and Hudnall the senior staff onboard. Dunham eyed the captains chair. "Ok who wants to take her out?"
Tovon looked around the faces of these new colleagues, possibly his future friends. He had only met Dunham once before and that had been over comms. He realised that he didn't know them and could not be sure of their capabilities or talents. Looking across the room at Dunham he felt that maybe a hot shot fighter pilot might not be the best choice of bridge commander and the two of them were of highest rank. He stepped forward slightly and cleared his throat.
"I understand that none of you really know me and might be a bit concerned about the new lieutenant taking the chair, but this is a scientific survey as far as I can tell and I think I'm the most senior 'blue shirt'." He smiled at Dunham having used the pilot's own phrase. "I won't take it personally if you'd all prefer lieutenant Dunham in charge and I don't want to start off on the wrong foot so to speak, but I am ready to go and this is only taking the old bird out the airlock doors really." He looked round the gathered bridge crew, trying to figure their feelings from their facial expressions.
"Ok Mr Tovon you have the con. I will take helm. Lets get out there and make sure there are no more nasty suprises waiting for us."
"Very well." Tovon turned to a waiting ensign. "Ensign Cadwell, if you could take ops then we can head out." He sat slowly in the captain's chair, something he had never done before. The action seemed strange, it being his first mission at his new posting. Even though the ship was well passed its years and the chair was of an older style the moment was not lost on him. Pride filled him as he swiveled the armrest computer console round. He switched his comms to the DS5 channel. "Mr Tan, this is the Leda are we cleared to leave spacedock?"
"Sensors indicate that worker bees have cleared the area. There is no local incoming or outgoing traffic, USS Leda," Vincent said over the communications channel. "You are clear to undock."
"Thank you Lieutenant." Greo turned in his chair briefly taking in the moment. He turned back to face the viewscreen. "Well Lieutenant Dunham, take us out when your ready. Thrusters till we clear spacedock if you please."
"Have you never wanted to go at impulse out of a space dock sir?" said Dunham turning around in his chair at the helm to wink at the Science officer.
Greo nearly laughed aloud at the boyish excitement of the lieutenant, but held his straight face. He had expected as much from a fighter pilot, but felt that this special occasion might warrant a bit of fun.
"Very well Mister Dunham, proceed at your own discretion." He returned the man's wink and sat back in his chair. Just don't crash the ship he thought.
"Aye half impulse." said Dunham with a smile on his face pressing the different controls on his helm console. "Release docking clamps. Clear all moorings. Going to impulse." The Oberth class starship small and dwarfed by the Deep space five main hanger bay slowly headed out into the black star void of space. "We have cleared the station.....Sir."
"No need for formalities Dunham, we'll only be a short time out here I think." Greo tapped on the panels lining his chair armrests, routing various scientific controls and readouts to them. "Please lay in a course so that we can survey the debris from z minus 5 km. I have a feeling that the aspect may give us a better view of what's going on in there."
"Ok. Moving to Z minus 5 km" Dumhan shifted the Leda into its position then brought it to a full stop. The whole thing only took a matter of a minutes. "Ok ready to start scan. Mr Tan please keep an eye on this next bit"
Greo tapped excitedly at his armrest controls, bringing sensors online, both the lateral and main arrays focused in on the debris field. Slowly information began to gather on the screen, forming a sketchy image of the debris above the ship. Something didn't seem to be working correctly however.
"There seems to be some interference even from here. Tan, Dunham is this the same problem as before?"
"last time I got no reading at all Mr Tovon. " said Dunham. "Mr Tan what you got on your end?"
"You are within 2 kilometers of the target area. My sensors can not pick up smaller debris, so you'll have to increase power to your sensors or launch a probe, Mr. Tovon," Vincent said.
"An excellent suggestion Mr Tan." Greo tapped at his control panel, bringing up the probe manifest and control sub-routine. "Launching a Class-4 Probe, now. I'll re-route the telemetry to your station also Mr Tan." He watched the viewscreen as the probe shot forth from the vessel. As he watched the confused telemetry start to come in a thought came to him. He turned to the other lieutenant. "Dunham, I've had an idea. How familiar are you with tractor beams?"
"I'm not bad. Spent my Academy service year on the orbital platforms around Mars. Spent a lot of time using tractor beams there moving parts and cargo around the space dock. What did you have in mind?"
"Well Richard, sounds like you'll be ideal." Greo moved over to the helm station next to Dunham. He pointed at the viewscreen and then down at the sensor readout on the Lieutenant's console. The probe was heading toward the debris field, but its signal was degrading already. The debris was still fairly closely packed. "Could we use the tractor beam to buffer some of this debris aside, maybe thin it out a bit from a distance? That way the probe gets a better look and we might get some warning if anything decides to explode on us."
Dunham scratched his beard in thought. "Yeah no probs. I can set up a buffer field with the tractor beam around the the area. Creating a clear zone. But won't the tractor beam disrupt the sensor scans?"
"That is a point. However I think that knowing the interference pattern of the tractor beam I should be able to clean that signal out of the sensor readings." He scratched at his ear for a moment. "Maybe if you project short pulses at a low setting it could just spread the debris about, we don't need a totally clear zone." He tapped the communication channel. "Anything you can suggest from there Mr Tan?"
"I'm dispatching two worker drones to your area for close support," Vincent said, giving the necessary commands to the computer. "Probably best if they checked out anything suspicious first. They have enough mass to set off proximity fuses and are much more expendable than the Leda. They might also be able to help with the heavier debris fragments."
Thats nice of him. Thought Dunham to himself in a chirpy in monologue. He smiled. "Appreciate the help Mr Tan"
Greo paced across the bridge to the science station. This debris field was a puzzle and he needed to see all the pieces before he could put the picture together. He tapped a few buttons, bringing up the Leda sensor data, the probes scans and data piped over from Deep Space 5.
Slowly a highly detailed three dimensional image formed on his computer screen. Different sections displayed various qualities. There were strange IR spikes, which he put down to fragmentary energy systems still dotted through some of the larger sections. He put those to the back of his thoughts. He was looking for... something cropped up on the screen. Two objects seem to have drifted up on the underside of a shattered expanse of grav plating, perhaps what was once laid in the flooring of a deck.
As he focused the sensors on the two objects one seemed familiar the other actually seemed to be bolted to the plating. The first was a pod, perhaps just large enough to hold a person. It was black in colour, but resisted all other scanning. The second was displaying a low energy signature, isolinear readings and three layers of tritanium housing. He brought the view up on screen.
"Good news and bad news I'm afraid gentlemen." He said patching in Mr Tan. "Good news, I think I found the ships reinforced computer core. Bad news, it looks like there's another one of those bombs."
Dunham turned his chair to face Tovon. "So some how we gonna get to the computer core without setting off this device? What about going EVA and defusing the bombe?" said Dunhum thinking out loud.
"It seems typical of the Romulans to leave a "gift" like this behind?" Vincent mused absentmindedly. He did not voice his suspicion that someone on the base may have had a hand in ensuring it. "Funny why they took their destruction into account, isn't it?"
Greo looked at Lieutenant Dunham. The prospect of EVA didn't appeal to him and the idea of defusing bombs appealed even less. He moved back to the central chair and sat down.
"Maybe we don't need to go that far Rich. Mr Tan, could we redirect a few worker bees to nudge the deck plating that computer core is attached to? Maybe we could push it away, clear of the bomb? Or see if we can move the bomb itself?"
"Done," Vincent said, giving the necessary commands. "But the drones don't have sensors sophisticated enough to detect a trap let alone the severity of it. Mr. Dunham, you will have to get the Leda the out of Dodge quite quickly if something happens."
Dunham gave a cocky 'of course I can get her out of dodge' smile. He then frowned always being a little slow to catch up on conversation what Tan had said taking their destruction into account seemed odd to him. "Tan what did you mean by that last bit. "what did you mean about taking their destruction into account?"
"A self destruct mechanism is one thing, but booby trapped wreckage is taking it a step too far, don't you think? It's almost as if these fellows knew that their mission was going to fail..." Vincent explained.
Greo smiled to himself. He had a good feeling about these people, it would make a change from the Churchill. "Mr Dunham if you could just be ready for any explosions or emissions that would be great."
He walked across to the science station again in time to see three worker bees move across to the large piece of grav plating. With a short command they simultaneously pushed. Slowly the computer core was being moved away from the strange pod. As he watched the sensors picked up the beginning of a power build up in the black pod. Greo turned to look out the viewscreen.
"Mr Tan! Reposition the worker bees to cover the blast and shield the computer core. Mr Dunham she's all yours...."
"Drones are not fighters, Dunham! I'm doing my best but they can't move that quickly!"
"Hells Bells" Dunham's fingers became a blur of speed across the helm control. The USS Leda banked sharply to the port side then began a steep pirouetting recline. She then straightened out raising the shields Dunham then pulled the ship into a three sixty to face the out skirts of any blast.
A power surge darted aross the sensors as the probe crackled with a blue energy. Greo jumped into the captain's chair as Dunham performed his impressive piloting.
"It's gonna blow!"
His words were followed by a large explosion, a blue shockwave spreading out from the pod in all directions. The worker bees were battered by the force and exploded into a shower of pieces, blocking view of the computer core. The decking it was bolted to acted like a sail and was pushed along by the explosion. The sensors picked up the shockwave rushing outward towards the Leda, but dissipating so much that only a brief crackle rippled across the ship's shields. Greo wiped his brow.
"Good flying Lieutenant!"
"Of course it was good flying." said Dunham with calm and matter-of-fact tone while patting himself down around his pockets looking for some chewing gum.
Greo walked over to the science station again. There was a very different picture forming on the screen. Much of the debris had been disturbed or destroyed by the explosion, spreading it even further around. The isolinear signature of the computer core blipped on the screen now seperate from the grav plating a kilometre or so from it's original position.
"Mr Dunham, from my readings it seems the core sustained only minimal damage although it was dislodged from the decking. It seems that anything else has been pretty much ruined in the debris field. Maybe we could retrieve it and head back now the bomb has gone off?" He asked looking over at the lieutenant at the helm.
"We could transport it straight into the ships hold. If you think its all clear to go?" said Dunham rubbing the stubble on his chin in thought.
"Good idea. I'll erect a level 5 forcefield in cargo bay 3 and beam it in. I guess we could use the ship's or the station's phasers to clear the rest of the rubble." Greo moved over to the science station, initiated the containment field and locked the transporter onto the computer core. Low level radiation was interfering with the signal, but after tinkering with the annular confinement beam he managed to beam the core aboard. He turned back to Dunham.
"Whenever you're ready to head back Mr Dunham please take us in to dock."
"Aye aye." said Dunham. "Mr Tan please prepare for arrival so we can take a look at this computer core in a secure science lab. May be worth contacting our security chief as well just in case."
"You have a clear path back to base, USS Leda. Head for docking bay 7 near the aft. Let's keep this thing away from prying civilian eyes," Tan said with a chuckle. "You never what sort of mouth those eyes might share a face with and to whom that mouth might speak."
"Thank you Mr Tan." Greo responded from the captain's chair. "Take us in Mr Dunham and prepare to beam the computer core into science lab one, I'll take a look at it there. Mr Tan if you could arrange for security to be posted outside the lab I would be grateful." He rubbed his hands together at the prospect of getting to examine a romulan warbird's computer core. It was turning out to be quite a first day on the job!
Off
Lt Richard Dunham
Squadron Leader
Lt Greo Tovon
Science Officer
Lt JG Vincent Tan
Chief Strategic Operations Officer
by Commander Richard Dunham & Lieutenant Vincent Tan & Lieutenant Commander Greo Tovon
Post Details
| Title | Searches (Part 2) | |
| Mission | Beg, Steal or Borrow | |
| Author(s) | Commander Richard Dunham & Lieutenant Vincent Tan & Lieutenant Commander Greo Tovon | |
| Posted | Thu Aug 06, 2009 @ 1:43pm | |
| Location | USS Leda | |
| Timeline | Current |
Dunham and the rest of the senior staff Stood on the bridge of the Uss Leda. The small oberth class vessle was still in space dock on board Deep space five. This class of vessel housed thirteen decks and was only a hundred fifty meters long. Her crew compliment was fourteen officers and fifty six enlisted personnel. As she was a garrison vessel the crew were made up of staff from Deep space Five who were rotated to the on call starship. This made Dunham, Tovon and Hudnall the senior staff onboard. Dunham eyed the captains chair. "Ok who wants to take her out?"
Tovon looked around the faces of these new colleagues, possibly his future friends. He had only met Dunham once before and that had been over comms. He realised that he didn't know them and could not be sure of their capabilities or talents. Looking across the room at Dunham he felt that maybe a hot shot fighter pilot might not be the best choice of bridge commander and the two of them were of highest rank. He stepped forward slightly and cleared his throat.
"I understand that none of you really know me and might be a bit concerned about the new lieutenant taking the chair, but this is a scientific survey as far as I can tell and I think I'm the most senior 'blue shirt'." He smiled at Dunham having used the pilot's own phrase. "I won't take it personally if you'd all prefer lieutenant Dunham in charge and I don't want to start off on the wrong foot so to speak, but I am ready to go and this is only taking the old bird out the airlock doors really." He looked round the gathered bridge crew, trying to figure their feelings from their facial expressions.
"Ok Mr Tovon you have the con. I will take helm. Lets get out there and make sure there are no more nasty suprises waiting for us."
"Very well." Tovon turned to a waiting ensign. "Ensign Cadwell, if you could take ops then we can head out." He sat slowly in the captain's chair, something he had never done before. The action seemed strange, it being his first mission at his new posting. Even though the ship was well passed its years and the chair was of an older style the moment was not lost on him. Pride filled him as he swiveled the armrest computer console round. He switched his comms to the DS5 channel. "Mr Tan, this is the Leda are we cleared to leave spacedock?"
"Sensors indicate that worker bees have cleared the area. There is no local incoming or outgoing traffic, USS Leda," Vincent said over the communications channel. "You are clear to undock."
"Thank you Lieutenant." Greo turned in his chair briefly taking in the moment. He turned back to face the viewscreen. "Well Lieutenant Dunham, take us out when your ready. Thrusters till we clear spacedock if you please."
"Have you never wanted to go at impulse out of a space dock sir?" said Dunham turning around in his chair at the helm to wink at the Science officer.
Greo nearly laughed aloud at the boyish excitement of the lieutenant, but held his straight face. He had expected as much from a fighter pilot, but felt that this special occasion might warrant a bit of fun.
"Very well Mister Dunham, proceed at your own discretion." He returned the man's wink and sat back in his chair. Just don't crash the ship he thought.
"Aye half impulse." said Dunham with a smile on his face pressing the different controls on his helm console. "Release docking clamps. Clear all moorings. Going to impulse." The Oberth class starship small and dwarfed by the Deep space five main hanger bay slowly headed out into the black star void of space. "We have cleared the station.....Sir."
"No need for formalities Dunham, we'll only be a short time out here I think." Greo tapped on the panels lining his chair armrests, routing various scientific controls and readouts to them. "Please lay in a course so that we can survey the debris from z minus 5 km. I have a feeling that the aspect may give us a better view of what's going on in there."
"Ok. Moving to Z minus 5 km" Dumhan shifted the Leda into its position then brought it to a full stop. The whole thing only took a matter of a minutes. "Ok ready to start scan. Mr Tan please keep an eye on this next bit"
Greo tapped excitedly at his armrest controls, bringing sensors online, both the lateral and main arrays focused in on the debris field. Slowly information began to gather on the screen, forming a sketchy image of the debris above the ship. Something didn't seem to be working correctly however.
"There seems to be some interference even from here. Tan, Dunham is this the same problem as before?"
"last time I got no reading at all Mr Tovon. " said Dunham. "Mr Tan what you got on your end?"
"You are within 2 kilometers of the target area. My sensors can not pick up smaller debris, so you'll have to increase power to your sensors or launch a probe, Mr. Tovon," Vincent said.
"An excellent suggestion Mr Tan." Greo tapped at his control panel, bringing up the probe manifest and control sub-routine. "Launching a Class-4 Probe, now. I'll re-route the telemetry to your station also Mr Tan." He watched the viewscreen as the probe shot forth from the vessel. As he watched the confused telemetry start to come in a thought came to him. He turned to the other lieutenant. "Dunham, I've had an idea. How familiar are you with tractor beams?"
"I'm not bad. Spent my Academy service year on the orbital platforms around Mars. Spent a lot of time using tractor beams there moving parts and cargo around the space dock. What did you have in mind?"
"Well Richard, sounds like you'll be ideal." Greo moved over to the helm station next to Dunham. He pointed at the viewscreen and then down at the sensor readout on the Lieutenant's console. The probe was heading toward the debris field, but its signal was degrading already. The debris was still fairly closely packed. "Could we use the tractor beam to buffer some of this debris aside, maybe thin it out a bit from a distance? That way the probe gets a better look and we might get some warning if anything decides to explode on us."
Dunham scratched his beard in thought. "Yeah no probs. I can set up a buffer field with the tractor beam around the the area. Creating a clear zone. But won't the tractor beam disrupt the sensor scans?"
"That is a point. However I think that knowing the interference pattern of the tractor beam I should be able to clean that signal out of the sensor readings." He scratched at his ear for a moment. "Maybe if you project short pulses at a low setting it could just spread the debris about, we don't need a totally clear zone." He tapped the communication channel. "Anything you can suggest from there Mr Tan?"
"I'm dispatching two worker drones to your area for close support," Vincent said, giving the necessary commands to the computer. "Probably best if they checked out anything suspicious first. They have enough mass to set off proximity fuses and are much more expendable than the Leda. They might also be able to help with the heavier debris fragments."
Thats nice of him. Thought Dunham to himself in a chirpy in monologue. He smiled. "Appreciate the help Mr Tan"
Greo paced across the bridge to the science station. This debris field was a puzzle and he needed to see all the pieces before he could put the picture together. He tapped a few buttons, bringing up the Leda sensor data, the probes scans and data piped over from Deep Space 5.
Slowly a highly detailed three dimensional image formed on his computer screen. Different sections displayed various qualities. There were strange IR spikes, which he put down to fragmentary energy systems still dotted through some of the larger sections. He put those to the back of his thoughts. He was looking for... something cropped up on the screen. Two objects seem to have drifted up on the underside of a shattered expanse of grav plating, perhaps what was once laid in the flooring of a deck.
As he focused the sensors on the two objects one seemed familiar the other actually seemed to be bolted to the plating. The first was a pod, perhaps just large enough to hold a person. It was black in colour, but resisted all other scanning. The second was displaying a low energy signature, isolinear readings and three layers of tritanium housing. He brought the view up on screen.
"Good news and bad news I'm afraid gentlemen." He said patching in Mr Tan. "Good news, I think I found the ships reinforced computer core. Bad news, it looks like there's another one of those bombs."
Dunham turned his chair to face Tovon. "So some how we gonna get to the computer core without setting off this device? What about going EVA and defusing the bombe?" said Dunhum thinking out loud.
"It seems typical of the Romulans to leave a "gift" like this behind?" Vincent mused absentmindedly. He did not voice his suspicion that someone on the base may have had a hand in ensuring it. "Funny why they took their destruction into account, isn't it?"
Greo looked at Lieutenant Dunham. The prospect of EVA didn't appeal to him and the idea of defusing bombs appealed even less. He moved back to the central chair and sat down.
"Maybe we don't need to go that far Rich. Mr Tan, could we redirect a few worker bees to nudge the deck plating that computer core is attached to? Maybe we could push it away, clear of the bomb? Or see if we can move the bomb itself?"
"Done," Vincent said, giving the necessary commands. "But the drones don't have sensors sophisticated enough to detect a trap let alone the severity of it. Mr. Dunham, you will have to get the Leda the out of Dodge quite quickly if something happens."
Dunham gave a cocky 'of course I can get her out of dodge' smile. He then frowned always being a little slow to catch up on conversation what Tan had said taking their destruction into account seemed odd to him. "Tan what did you mean by that last bit. "what did you mean about taking their destruction into account?"
"A self destruct mechanism is one thing, but booby trapped wreckage is taking it a step too far, don't you think? It's almost as if these fellows knew that their mission was going to fail..." Vincent explained.
Greo smiled to himself. He had a good feeling about these people, it would make a change from the Churchill. "Mr Dunham if you could just be ready for any explosions or emissions that would be great."
He walked across to the science station again in time to see three worker bees move across to the large piece of grav plating. With a short command they simultaneously pushed. Slowly the computer core was being moved away from the strange pod. As he watched the sensors picked up the beginning of a power build up in the black pod. Greo turned to look out the viewscreen.
"Mr Tan! Reposition the worker bees to cover the blast and shield the computer core. Mr Dunham she's all yours...."
"Drones are not fighters, Dunham! I'm doing my best but they can't move that quickly!"
"Hells Bells" Dunham's fingers became a blur of speed across the helm control. The USS Leda banked sharply to the port side then began a steep pirouetting recline. She then straightened out raising the shields Dunham then pulled the ship into a three sixty to face the out skirts of any blast.
A power surge darted aross the sensors as the probe crackled with a blue energy. Greo jumped into the captain's chair as Dunham performed his impressive piloting.
"It's gonna blow!"
His words were followed by a large explosion, a blue shockwave spreading out from the pod in all directions. The worker bees were battered by the force and exploded into a shower of pieces, blocking view of the computer core. The decking it was bolted to acted like a sail and was pushed along by the explosion. The sensors picked up the shockwave rushing outward towards the Leda, but dissipating so much that only a brief crackle rippled across the ship's shields. Greo wiped his brow.
"Good flying Lieutenant!"
"Of course it was good flying." said Dunham with calm and matter-of-fact tone while patting himself down around his pockets looking for some chewing gum.
Greo walked over to the science station again. There was a very different picture forming on the screen. Much of the debris had been disturbed or destroyed by the explosion, spreading it even further around. The isolinear signature of the computer core blipped on the screen now seperate from the grav plating a kilometre or so from it's original position.
"Mr Dunham, from my readings it seems the core sustained only minimal damage although it was dislodged from the decking. It seems that anything else has been pretty much ruined in the debris field. Maybe we could retrieve it and head back now the bomb has gone off?" He asked looking over at the lieutenant at the helm.
"We could transport it straight into the ships hold. If you think its all clear to go?" said Dunham rubbing the stubble on his chin in thought.
"Good idea. I'll erect a level 5 forcefield in cargo bay 3 and beam it in. I guess we could use the ship's or the station's phasers to clear the rest of the rubble." Greo moved over to the science station, initiated the containment field and locked the transporter onto the computer core. Low level radiation was interfering with the signal, but after tinkering with the annular confinement beam he managed to beam the core aboard. He turned back to Dunham.
"Whenever you're ready to head back Mr Dunham please take us in to dock."
"Aye aye." said Dunham. "Mr Tan please prepare for arrival so we can take a look at this computer core in a secure science lab. May be worth contacting our security chief as well just in case."
"You have a clear path back to base, USS Leda. Head for docking bay 7 near the aft. Let's keep this thing away from prying civilian eyes," Tan said with a chuckle. "You never what sort of mouth those eyes might share a face with and to whom that mouth might speak."
"Thank you Mr Tan." Greo responded from the captain's chair. "Take us in Mr Dunham and prepare to beam the computer core into science lab one, I'll take a look at it there. Mr Tan if you could arrange for security to be posted outside the lab I would be grateful." He rubbed his hands together at the prospect of getting to examine a romulan warbird's computer core. It was turning out to be quite a first day on the job!
Off
Lt Richard Dunham
Squadron Leader
Lt Greo Tovon
Science Officer
Lt JG Vincent Tan
Chief Strategic Operations Officer