An Historic Reunion

Posted on Tue May 24th, 2011 @ 11:44am by Captain Alexander Gunning & Lieutenant Commander Morgan Kelly & Senior Chief Petty Officer Gilbert Bones [PNPC] & Commander Dietrich Reinhart & Captain Liarra Von & Lieutenant Commander Nilani Prax & Lieutenant JG Kili Dell & Lieutenant JG Allison Price & Lieutenant Commander Melissa Daniels M.D.

Mission: In Defiance Of Orders
Location: Nebula Phenomenon
Timeline: May 6th 2291

Previously...

"Red alert!" Gunning shouted, clipping his underused seatbelt into place as the Jackal's floor began to tremble. "We're going in! All hands! Brace for impact!"

[ON]

The gleaming hull of the Jackal drifted slowly through the space which, just an hour before, the Thaden had inhabited. The engines were still powered down but the force of the anomaly's drag continued to propel the ship forward.

The Captain of the vessel looked around the bridge. Whoever had decided to fit these seatbelts was a genius and deserved some kind of medal. No-one seemed to be unduly hurt but the main power seemed to be down. The pulsing auxiliary lights made ascertaining any damage very difficult. Had they been knocked unconscious? Where the hell were they?

"Engineering to bridge." The voice of CPO Gilbert Bones had never sounded so sweet. "All systems seem to be reinitializing. From what I can ascertain, there's no major damage to ship's systems."

"Acknowledged, Chief." The CO replied, surprised that the comm system still seemed to be online. He looked at Reinhart and Dell who both seemed to have the same look of complete bemusement of their faces. "Any idea where we are?"

"Sensors are still coming back online, Sir," Dell responded, her eyes scanning the console with an annoyed scowl on her features. Someone definitely needed to answer if an important system like that would take so long to come back up to full power. They were effectively blind in a situation where an enemy ship could be closing in for attack.

Dietrich gripped his console to get off the ground. His kneecap throbbed in pain from the collision with the bulkhead, but there was nothing he could do about that now. Phaser burns, aircraft-related injuries, surgeries, a bruised leg was minor. He grimaced as he stood and took his place again at his chair in the aft end of the bridge. His role was truly to monitor all systems, but he did not know enough about engineering, science or operations controls to understand what the more experienced, junior officers were doing. Reinhart shot a glance at Gunning.

The lights on the bridge suddenly flickered back into life. The consoles came alive. It was as though nothing had happened. For all they really knew, nothing had happened.

"Commodore," he called, taking a look at the flashing communications sensors. "We're getting a hail from the Thaden. I have a similar signature on sensors. I'm patching it through to the main display," the Executive Officer called.

The screen flickered into life, displaying a bridge that looked like it had seen better days. The usually pristine face of Liarra Von appeared shortly afterwards, resuming her place in the Captain's chair.

"Good to see you alive, Liarra." The Commodore said, his voice filled with genuine affection. "What's the situation."

Liarra smiled at the sight of the Commodore. "It's good to see you too, Alex, although I wish it was under different circumstances. We've taken pretty heavy damage. We're on auxiliary power only. Sensors are operational, communication system is short range only. We are on thrusters only, our defenses are disabled. If the Ritorians had decided to attack, we'd be sitting ducks."

"There's something else," Prax spoke up from the rear of the bridge, one arm resting on her console. "Starbase 332 isn't showing on any of our sensors. It isn't there."

Gunning stared at the two women on the screen. Prax looked as though she had taken quite a blow to the head. He hoped that wasn't influencing the information she was giving him. "What do you mean the Starbase isn't there?" He asked, motioning towards Reinhart to check himself.

"Just that, Alex," Nilani responded. "Or at least, it isn't there yet. Matsumoto & I have recorded the plots of the stars that can be seen from this position, and compared them to our databanks. If the computer has run its calculations right on their current positions... the current date is somewhere within the 2290s."

Gunning's reply couldn't have been much more curt. "Oh."

Melissa noticed the wound on Prax's head. "Lieutenant, do you need me to look at that?"

Prax shook her head as she held up her hand. "I'm alright for now," she told the doctor. "Sickbay is minor over here, but I'm not getting a headache anymore. Perhaps when we have some spare time around trying to figure this mess out."

They had been gone for only a few minutes. High speed sub-light transit was normal operations for a Defiant-class, and nothing was out of the ordinary. Except for everything, the acting Flight Control Officer thought to himself. The position in the system was indeed correct. They were operating in proximity to the Archanis star system and had reads on the correct planet and positioning. The difference was the navigation system's confusion with the star charts. None of the referential points on the LIDAR matched up. Neither did the galactic drift coefficients. A few test controls to the system's impulse and auto-pilot confirmed - the navigational computer had absolutely no idea where they were, even though they all knew where they were. "Commodore. Navigational Computer is out of whack," with his typical south-western drawl. "Imma going to try and reset it."

Knowing that he wasn't exactly called on to speak on his own situation, Shinji stepped forward in front of his console and appeared on the viewscreen as well. Now wasn't the time for his personal problems and shyness when dealing with officers who outranked him. His training kicked in for certain types of things, almost as if programmed like an android. "Commodore, we need to immediately invoke the Temporal Prime Directive."

"Agreed, Lieutenant." Gunning said. "We need to get you all aboard. The Thaden looks like she's seen better days. We'll have a better chance of getting back if we scuttle her."

No-one liked to have to destroy a ship but in this instance, it didn't seem like there was a lot of choice. They all knew they would have more chance in one ship rather than two.

The Intelligence Chief was relieved to hear that his Commanding Officer would be respecting the Temporal Prime Directive; however the next idea that was spoken drove Shinji to have doubts and grave concerns about their situation. The Lieutenant absolutely hated having to be the voice of opposition on a crew that was supposed to be working well together, but it just couldn't be avoided, at least not from his perspective. "Commodore, I'm afraid that's not a good option at this point in time. Depending on where we are in the timeline, as well as if history has taught us anything, it's that those people whom we may come into contact with will do anything for a tactical advantage, most notably including taking our technology by force. I believe, Sir, that we'll be better off having two ships to defend our futuristic technologies against those that would break the natural timeline."

"You have a point Lieutenant but the Thaden is more of a liability than an asset at the moment. We'll leave her so that she's unsalvageable. Just another load of space flotsam." Gunning replied in an effort to reassure the Intelligence officer.

Dell had a bit of a frown on her features. The Thaden was a good ship, but she knew that it needed to be done. Her eyes lifted to seek the Commodore's gaze before she spoke, rather quietly, from her spot at the tactical console. "Target locked, Sir. Ready to fire on your command."

"Get yourselves beamed aboard the Jackal, right now." Gunning ordered.

"Aye, Commodore. Just don't fire too early. Thaden out." The viewscreen in front of Liarra switched back to show the Jackal. She took a look around the bridge. "She was a good ship, though we hardly knew her." The Lt. Commander pressed activated the internal comm system. "All hands, prepare for emergency transport."

Kelly made his way towards the aft hatch. "So much for the USS Thaden. Who knew she wouldn't withstand time travel?" He asked sarcastically.

If only people's perceptions were microscopic, because if they were a sneer could be seen forming on Shinji's face with ever so slight crinkles of skin in an attempt to show that he was angry. However, the Lieutenant's training disallowed him from sharing such obvious facial expressions, and so he was forced into carrying out the Commodore's orders, but not before retrieving his belongings and bonzai tree from the cargo space that he'd used before. There was no way, Starfleet regulations or not, that he'd abandon his tools needed to perform his job. Afterwards, Shinji made his way to the transporter pad with the others for beamout.

[Five Minutes Later - All Hands Have Beamed Aboard USS Jackal.]

The security officer waited until everyone was transported on board, and even then waited for confirmation that there were no remaining life signs on the Thaden. When that was confirmed, she looked up toward the viewscreen as she announced, "Firing forward phaser cannons." She wasn't happy that the first real live ship that she would destroy was a Starfleet vessel, but it had to be done.

On the viewscreen, the Thaden was struck by a volley from all four cannons, exploding into tiny bits and pieces a moment later. The trill's gaze lowered toward the floor in front of her, a loud sigh coming from her lips before she said out loud as if there was a need to do so, "Target destroyed, Sir."

"All right." Gunning replied, checking his readout to make sure that there was nothing salvageable amongst the wreckage.

Nilani walked onto the bridge with the other senior officers that had been aboard the Thaden. "I recommend we do our best to make sure we completely destroy the ship, sir," she said, as she looked at the debris on the viewscreen. "At the very least any identifying marks, computer components, and so forth. Even the slightest indication that this debris came from the future could significantly affect the timeline here."

The Chief of Intelligence looked at his fellow officer and nodded his head in agreement. For a crew of officers he'd barely had the chance to meet, his impressions of them thus far were mixed due to both horrible and excellent ideas being passed around the proverbial table. "I concur with Lieutenant Prax on this..." His reaction towards the actual destruction of the Thaden was that of apathy.

"I can take care of that, sir." Liarra added. She was itching to get back to her tactical station. "If you don't mind, Ensign, I'll take my seat back."

Kili Dell gave a curt nod. She wasn't exactly going to complain about being relieved from the tactical console. She was first and foremost a security officer after all.

Now back in her seat at the tactical station, Von checked her displays. "Sir, I think a couple of high yield quantum torpedoes set for a wide dispersal pattern should take care of the debris. There won't be anything left to identify."

"Make it happen." He ordered.

"Aye, Sir." She pressed a few commands, and the blue glow of two torpedoes lit up the viewscreen. They detonated with a wide shockwave, vaporizing the smaller bits of debris, and completely ripping apart the larger pieces. "That should satisfy the Lieutenant's concerns."

[OFF]

Commodore Alex Gunning
Commanding Officer

Commander Dietrich Reinhart
Executive Officer

Lieutenant Commander Liarra Von
Commanding Officer - USS Thaden

Lieutenant Commander Melissa Daniels
Chief Medical Officer

Lieutenant Nilani Prax
Chief Science Officer

Lieutenant (JG) Shinji Matsumoto
Chief Intelligence Officer

Ensign Kili Dell
Chief of Security - Starbase 332