Search and Rescue
Posted on Wed Sep 7th, 2016 @ 11:01pm by Lieutenant JG Allison Price & Lieutenant Colonel Edward Maxwell & Lieutenant JG Erica De'Havean
Mission:
The Art of Survival
Location: Bridge, USS Jackal
Erica sat at the helm of the USS Jackel. Hopping from star to star on each side of the flight path that would be handy for a wounded craft to land on. They just entered the sector of space that reputed for the Smugglers to use as it was equal distance from SB332 and Cestus Starbase Fleet Sector HQ. She just dropped the Jackel from Warp 7 at the edge of the Star TPSF- 4655.3 on the Starcharts. An unnamed system except for the Designator given by the Pegasus Fleet Astro-Cartographers and Science Department. She brought up the Star system specs as she was also Operations Officer and Helm. Unless of course during battle, that job of operations fell to Science or Captain to deal with as needed.
It had 3 planets, 1 was a Class M world with very little in Sentient Life Forms which was usually ships landing there for what ever purpose.
Ed sat in the Jackal's ready room, talking to his sister on the comm. It was something he rarely got to do, instead having to rely on leaving each other messages. They'd spent the call catching up on events in each others lives, talking about Ryan, and Ed trying somewhat unsuccessfully to avoid answering his sister's questions about him and Lynsi. He was relieved when he felt the ship drop out of warp.
"Sorry baby sister, but we just dropped out of warp. Time for me to go back to work." He said with a wry grin on his face.
"This conversation isn't over Ed. You aren't getting out of it that easy."
"Yeah yeah. Talk to you later. Love ya Ash."
"You too Ed. Be careful out there." She said with a smile as she closed the link.
Ed secured his console before standing and afjusting his jacket back into the proper position as he crossed the ready room and stepped back out onto the bridge.
"Talk to me ladies. Where are we and what's around us?" He said to the two Lieutenants on the bridge. Last time they'd been out on a mission he'd promoted both of them from Ensign to Lieutenant jg's.
Allison Price had turned the engineering station into the search station, using the Jackal's sensors to look for any signs of the captain's shuttle. "We're on the edge of the TPSF- 4655.3 system, a relatively uninteresting system. But Captain Von's flight plan took them near this system, so we need to check it out. There are three planets in this system. The third planet is a gas giant. The first is a lifeless rock with no atmosphere, but the second planet is Class M. If they did have to make a landing in this system, that's where they would have had to go."
"Let's keep in mind they may have been forced down by hostile parties." Ed reminded her. "Miss De'Havean, take us in to the planet. Price, I want maximum range on the sensors, looking for another ship, signs of a cloaked ship, debris on the planet, lifesigns the whole works. Until we have proof otherwise we'll operate under the assumption they were forced down by a hostile force. Better to be safe than sorry." He concluded before he gave his next order. "Yellow alert."
Erica already was diving the Jackal into the system, giving the Gas Giant a wide berth as she flew to the middle planet that was the Class M. She approach it at a good rate of speed, and at angle to give the scanners time to do their things. Then settled in a pole to pole orbit slowly shifting the route around the planet not to miss any thing. Also to catch any ships unaware if they were parked in the polar area in orbit.
"I've adjusted sensors to look for any signs of a cloaked ship, Colonel. I've also expanded the search to include any ionization effects due to weapons fire," Price announced from the engineering station. "So far, nothing. The planet appears to be uninhabited, and I'm not picking up anything that looks like a crashed ship."
"One more lap and we'll be done with the search pattern." Erica announced as the Jackal started it final lap. It would be done in a matter of minutes. With her chosen path, scans would overlapped the previous scanned area and the last lap would get the area missed plus a double scanning on each side of the search area. This way there would be no doubt or catch what was missed do to the angle.
"Looks like a dry hole." Ed commented. "Miss De'Havean, find us the next closest system with planets that could support humanoid life. Then send it to Price. Miss Price, once you've got it and this lap is complete don't bother waiting, just take us to our next destination. Time is one commodity we can't waste. The brass already did that for us when they waited three days to tell us the Skipper and CAG never showed up to the conference."
"Aye, Colonel," Allie acknowledged. "We should be done with this pass in just a moment. Then we can move on to the next one."
Erica was already looking at the next system and plotting the course as the Jackel finished up the last lap. She maneuvered the Jackel away from the planet towards deep space and to the next star system. As the Jackel zipped outward, Erica finished up plotting the course and laid it in as the ship left the system behind at high impulse. Then made the jump into warp at warp-7 to the next system which course of the Starbase Captain and CAG would have to by-pass enroute to their destination. "On course to TPSF - 4673.6. Anything of note about the system. 4 planets. 3rd planet is a gas Giant with several planetoids that been terra formed, but left to develop on its own."
"How many planetoids that can support the Skipper and CAG are we talking about?" Ed asked, almost worried about what the answer might be.
Erica tapped in commands and looked over the information, "Two. Looking at the size of Sol-3's Moon. Both have artificial heating systems to keep the planets warm till there is enough air to hold the heat in when the Planetiods pass into the Gas Giant shadow. Which will last 4 months of darkness when temperatures drop into the negative -40 C's degrees." She looked over the data skimming for the important facts. "-73.6.2 Demois will be passing into it's winter cycle in 4 days. -73.6.5 Hermes still has two months to go before it heads into its winter cycle. -73.6.9 Zeus which has the widest orbit, just in its Spring Phase. Coming into the Gas Giants sunny side. Temperatures drop as low as 5 C's degrees. hottest it gets is 10 C's."
Erica began new set of calculations. "We should be able to catch Demois on its last day before it falls into the Gas Giants shadow." Erica glanced back at Colonel Maxwell. "I've made my first point is Demois for our first search option. Leaving Zeus for last." She glanced at Lieutenant Price. "Unless there is any indicators pointing to the others that would dictate our change in course."
Price shook her head. "No, I don't see anything that would suggest anything..." She paused as her sensors indicated another find. "Wait, we are picking up a warp trail. It's faint, but it could be a match for the captain's shuttle. It dissipates as it enters the system, suggesting that a ship had dropped out of warp."
"That's the first bit of encouraging news we've had yet." Ed said, slightly relieved by what he heard. It didn't necessarily mean the Skipper and the CAG were alive, but at least it was a sign they may have been through, or were still in the region. "Continue with our present course and keep an eye out for anything else that might point to the Captain having been in the area."
Erica felt heartened at the news and it showed through many small things. A flick of her tail. Perking of her ears. Deft movements to adjust the course of the Jackal to cut down on travel time to Demois for the first search. Soon the Jackal arrived at Demois and began the search pattern to cover ground as quickly as possible. There was frost showing in the high resolution of the surface of Demois as it was in its late fall, early winter phase. Even the lighting on the surface showed a twilight ambience.
"Estimated time to complete the search pattern here?" Ed asked as the ship settled into orbit and began the search once more.
"3 hours for the standard basic search pattern. Then it is off to Hermes. It's larger, taking 5 hours for the basic search pattern. Then Zues which is the smallest taking 2 hours. Sir." Erica responded as the ship zipped around the planet at a moderated speed that allowed the scanners to do their job.
Ed thought about that a moment as he sat in the 'big chair'. Ten hours to run the search patterns, plus travel times between the planets. That put them at the better part of a day in this system alone. If it came up empty then it was off to the next one. It would be so much easier if they could just call the Captain and ask where the hell she was... On the other hand, who said they couldn't? If the shuttle's comms were still operational, or they had a functioning commbadge between the two of them. They wouldn't know if someone were looking for them, they would assume so, but it was a big galaxy and they were just two people. It would take time to work through the systems to them, so it wasn't likely they'd be trying to call for help.
"Indulge me a moment ladies," Ed said with a slight smirk at the potential misunderstandings those words could cause. "What's the effective range of the shuttle's comms, provided they're still in working order? Or the Captains commbadge for that matter. If we were close enough, and the damned thing still worked, wouldn't it speed things up if we could get in contact? I know it's a shot in the dark, but what have we got to lose?"
Allie considered the question for a moment. "The effective range of a commbadge is not much further than a standard orbit, at least not without a ship or some other transmitter to boost the signal. The shuttle's would be considerably longer since it has a subspace transmitter. The issue is more with signal delay than it is with range. But subspace relays usually eliminate that issue. If there is an active signal, I may be able to find it. It's a bit of a long shot, but it might be doable."
Erica listened to the exchange between the two. "Never hurts to send out an inquiry signal to see if there is any response from their shuttle. Easier to triangulate. Shuttles communication systems usually has auto-response program till passengers.. if not incapacitated... responds to the incoming signal." She glanced over her shoulders at Allison, "Isn't there some override code to the shuttle that would allows us to take a peek at the ship's data and inside the craft?"
"Maybe, if the code hasn't been changed, and assuming that the shuttle hasn't completely lost power. Or hasn't been destroyed." Allison paused a moment at the thought of that last one, but tried to shake it from her thoughts. "Still, we might get lucky. I'm going to configure the sensors to look out for any kind of comm signal, not just a Starfleet signal. Anything is a better lead than nothing."
Price got to work on the sensors, tuning the communication arrays to look for not just open broadcasts, but any passive signal that could indicate some sort of communication device. Active signals were always the easiest to find, but attentiveness could lead to a passive signal, some sort of communication device that was searching for or awaiting an incoming message. They were more difficult to find, but could be more valuable if whatever they were searching for was playing hard to get.
After a while, Price got a hit. "Colonel, I've found something on sensors. It's certainly not a Starfleet signal, or at least not anything that I recognize. But it's some sort of passive signal. Maybe a small shuttle? It's coming from Zeus."
Erica quickly maneuvered the USS Jackal and was heading towards Zeus, knowing every second counted in rescuing those stranded. She hated to leave Demois unfinished in the search. But a solid lead was too good to pass up. A quick check and zip back to Demois from Zeus. She did the calculation the round trip would take. It would be pushing the limits on the search of Demois and survivability if this turned out to be a false lead.
The Jackal roared towards the small moon under De'Havean's control, moving into a standard search pattern. Allie continued to monitor the situation. Two alerts sounded from her console. One was encouraging, the other concerning. "Colonel, I've got something. Do you want the good news or the bad news first?"
"Ruin my day first. Then you can make up for it." Ed observed, keeping his face impassive. Generally when you got that as your opener, the news was bad indeed.
"I've lost the communication signal, but I found a warp trail leading away from the planet. Whoever it was just left in a hurry."
"Okay'" Ed replied with a nod. "if that's the extent of the bad news, what's the good news?"
"The good news is that I've picked up another warp trailing leading towards the planet. It's Starfleet in origin, and not inconsistent with the type of shuttle Captain Von and Colonel S'er'in'e were flying."
"That's a start," Ed said with a small smile, slightly relieved at the news. "Do we know where they are down there?"
Price gave a noncommittal shrug. "Unfortunately, no. The warp trail gives out as they neared the planet. Wait..." Another alert grabbed her attention. "I am picking up a sign of wreckage. It looks like it could be their shuttle. I'm expanding the search area, refining the search for trill and caitian lifesigns." After what felt like an excruciatingly long pause to Price, she found something. "Sir, two lifesigns, both getting faint. There's some interference, but I think I can get them both with the transporter. Energizing now."
Lt. Colonel Edward Maxwell
Commanding Officer
USS Jackal
Lieutenant JG Erica De'Havean (P: Akiashiro)
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Jackal
Lieutenant JG Allison Price (P: Von)
Chief Engineer
USS Jackal
