New Orders

Posted on Fri Mar 17th, 2023 @ 12:50am by Lieutenant JG Allison Price & Lieutenant Commander Thalia Katsaros & Lieutenant JG Erica De'Havean
Edited on on Thu Apr 6th, 2023 @ 2:54am

Mission: Crossing the Line
Location: Main Bridge, USS Jackal
Timeline: Mission Day TBD, 1145 hours

The bridge was quiet. All that was visible on the forward viewscreen were the streaks of light that were typically seen while traveling at warp. Every so often, one of the consoles would chirp or someone would clear their throat, but otherwise folks seemed to be keeping to themselves.

For the past several days, the Jackal had been on extended duty, escorting a supply convoy near the Badlands until it was safely within Federation space. The cargo they carried was intended for colonies further to the Galactic South and would be redistributed once they got to the station. It was a pretty straightforward assignment, all things considered. Given the present state of relations with the Tzenkethi, however, Starfleet continued to require these convoys be escorted while passing near Tzenkethi space to ensure their safety.

Thankfully, the trip so far had been rather uneventful. No major incidents. Just a few propulsion issues on one of the transports that were in the process of being resolved.

Katsaros looked up from the PADD she’d been reading. Her eyes scanned the room, noting that little had changed since her last survey. The three others who shared the watch with her were pretty well engaged in their own work (or at least, they appeared to be). She could feel herself starting to get restless again, though, so she stood up and began to make a slow lap around.

Allie heard some stirring behind her, and turned to see Katsaros taking another lap. She tried to look busy, but there were only so many diagnostics that she could run on the engines. The tiny ship may have been a tiger in combat, but right now, her engines were purring like a kitten. Though as she thought to herself, she realized that a cat simile was probably not appropriate for a ship named Jackal. Price rolled her eyes at her dumb thought, and went back to monitoring ship systems.

Eyelids open to the barest slits, just enough to see console before her to keep the Jackal on course at the assigned location to keep the entire convoy on the scope. Her hands rested on the console and her tail making a slow sweep behind her. Erica softly purred, liking the adjustment of her pilots chair that had a comfortable slot for her tail. One ear swiveled following the footsteps Katsaros till it reached maxed position, then the other ear would swivel to resume following audio sound of the foot falls of Katsaros.

"How are we doing," Katsaros asked as she came to the engineering station.

Lieutenant Price nodded in the direction of Katsaros. "All systems operating normally, sir. I've noticed some minor fluctuations in the grav plating on Deck 3, but nothing that will cause any significant concerns. I already have someone on their way to check it out."

Erica chuffed lightly, remember during one of her combat maneuvers, blowing out a few grav plating's. It seamed that section was always the troublesome spot now on the engineering report. "Moving the Jackal to a new spot." She purred as her finger pads moved gracefully over the controls.

Allie grimaced. It wasn't that she didn't respect Erica and her flying abilities, but the thought of what she was doing to her poor engines made her a bit conflicted at times. "Go a little easy on that port thruster. I don't want it to blow out again before we need it."

Erica gave a tail tip flick of acknowledgement as she eased up on the output flow to the port thruster. Eyes narrowed as she realized she wasn't flying a Caitian ship which needed a heavy paw to maneuver it. "Base engineering failed to upgrade the thrusters again?" Erica hissed with displeasure. She knew that Allie did her best to keep Jackal in fine shape, yet there was still stuff that required Dry Dock to handle. "Do I need to put the claws to them?" Glancing over at Allie with eyes narrowed, a bit of fang showing, with a tinge of respect for the human engineer that was part of the crew.

Allie shook her head. "I put the request in again. Apparently resources were already allocated to another ship. You'd think since we we're down to two garrison ships, it would be easier to get priority." Allie's voice trailed off as soon as she said it. Thoughts of the Carthage flitted through her head. "I'm sorry. That was probably insensitive of me. I had some friends on the Carthage. I'd gladly give up a few upgrades to have them back."

Erica nodded with a slight wilting of the ears. "It is understandable. It is now up to us to honor those that have past on by doing our best so their fate does not befall us. Even though our life will be poorer without them to enlighten us with their insights and companionship."

The half-Caitian's words lay heavy upon the room. They'd all lost friends, or at least colleagues, when the Carthage was destroyed. Even being as new to the station as she was, Katsaros had still known a couple of folks who'd been serving aboard that ship. It was never an easy thing. Yet, she did her best not to say something right away, lest her response ended up making things even more awkward. Instead, she let a few moments pass in silence. She was just about to speak again when a chirp sounded from the communications console.

The officer on tactical was pulled away from his moment of silence from the incoming communication. "Sir, we have message incoming from the station. It's Captain Von."

"Onscreen."

The viewscreen shifted from the streaks of light to an image of Captain Von. The Trill woman appeared to be sitting at her desk, her eyes skimming over a PADD in front of her. She lifted her eyes up from the console to face the woman in charge of the Jackal on what would have been the console on her desk. "Commander Katsaros. Forgive me for the interruption, but we have just received a message from fleet command. I have a new assignment for you."

Katsaros was surprised. Although the station commander technically held authority over all of the attached garrison vessels, including the Jackal, she hadn't used it all that often to change orders midway through an assignment like this. The fact that she was even calling was enough to make one wonder. "Captain, if I may," Katsaros said, "We...uhh...haven't finished our escort."

Von nodded on the other end of the viewscreen. "Understood, Commander. I'm dispatching the Montreal to intercept the convoy. The crux of the matter is that a number of Tzenkethi ships are en route to Deep Space K-17. Since you're in the area, we've been asked to assist."

Erica ears perked up as her console chirped with the incoming information. Her paw-like hands flew over the console, bringing up the encrypted coordinates. She tapped in her authorization code to watch as the coordinates become unencrypted. She hit the response button to acknowledge the receipt of the new destination coordinates. "Coordinates received" in her audible voice to be heard by all, yet not to interfere the ongoing conversation between Captain Von and Commander Katsaros. She quickly dropped the Jackal from warp taking a reading as she inputted the coordinates into the navigational computer, working up a less hazard free route.

"When you arrive at DS K-17, you're to report to Captain Dalgaard and support as necessary. He'll be able to brief you further on the situation. Any questions, Commander?"

"No, ma'am."

"Coordinates inputted and route planned. ETA 4 hours, unless you want to use a higher speeds." Erica looked back at Katsaros. Still speaking in her soft, yet clear voice as before.

There was silence for a moment as Katsaros considered it. "Let's proceed for now," she said, hoping that it would not be necessary for them to change that plan, "Engage."

Erica soon had the Jackal streaking away into warp towards the new destination. Ears and posture more alert with something new that broke the routine up of being an escort ship to lumbering freighters with an occasional shift in position amongst the group of ships.