What Lies Ahead

Posted on Thu Feb 2nd, 2012 @ 6:59am by Lieutenant Commander Nilani Prax & Lieutenant Commander Sean O'Connell & Captain Alexander Gunning & Lieutenant JG Sorik

Mission: The Invasion of Thane
Location: Main Bridge - USS Metis
Timeline: MD01 - Launch + 10.5

[ON]

Lieutenant (JG) Reade's eye was caught by the Estimated Time of Arrival indicator in the far right portion of the Metis' CONN. The last few hours of flight had been little more than making sure the warp engines were able to punch at their maximum output. "We are two minutes from the assigned scanning coordinates, Captain."

The Trill nodded. "Drop us down to impulse speeds," she instructed, watching as the streams of light slowly morphed back into the forms of pinpoints of singular stars. "Mister O'Connell, make sure to keep us ready, just in case we have a surprise heading our way."

"Raising shield and ready to power up phasers and arm torpedoes at your command, commander." Sean was operating mostly on trained instinct. "I have transferred my reserves to the sensors. Will start tactical scan in two minutes, I could use an extra hand on science, ma'am" O'Connell said as he activated the Science station.

Knowing that time was of the essence to retrieve this scan before they could be detected, and the low number of crew that had been rapidly assigned to the Metis who knew the systems well, Nilani herself stood from the command chair and moved over towards the science console. "Activating scanning arrays now. Mister Sorik, corroborate readings from the ship's standard and scientific sensors. Let's see what's out there."

"Affirmative, ma'am." Sorik replied dryly. His hands moved across the power assignment controls, dropping power to everything but engines to give them a clearer look at what awaited them. He moved to the sensor panel. Not enough power to get a clear picture but there were a lot of them.

The Vulcan turned to his Trill Commander who was bent double over its console. "Ma'am, I'm going to try overpowering the forward sensor arrays. Hopefully it should give us an indication of the numbers and classes of their vessels- provided they are in the Federation database."

"How long do you need?" Prax asked, returning to her place at the centre of the bridge, but not yet returning to her seat, instead standing a meter or so in front of it, looking at the viewscreen, as if simply studying the stars would indicate to her before the sensors of any incoming vessels. She knew that by putting so much power into the sensor arrays, it would cause the ship to show up like a beacon to any other vessels in the region, for however long the array remained powered.

"Twenty nine seconds." Sorik replied, his calculation of how long the scan would take was dead accurate. When it came to reassigning power to the other systems, he couldn't be sure. He was just hopeful that they weren't located before he could bring the shields back to full power. "Scan complete- correlating and uploading details to your screen, Commander."

Returning back to the science station, Nilani accessed the scan results whilst still standing over the console. Leaning down closer to the screen, her brow furrowed in confusion, followed quickly by shock. She was showing multiple power readings, all likely hostile - but only one of which was Ritorian. There was also a Cardassian power signature, and at least one Klingon signature; but there were also three Federation signatures - old vessels, Miranda class and Excelsior class, but still powerful ships in their own right. A quick comparison of their power signatures showed that the only ships that they could be should be stored away safely within one of the local salvage yards. She watched as two of the energy readings began to turn in their direction.

"Helm, get us the hell out of here!" she called, as she turned from the station and returned to the centre of the bridge. Turning her head towards one of the officers stationed at the side of the bridge, she ordered "Get me the Antietam!"


Sean looked around and nodded it would have been suicidal too engage the small flotilla, but how did federation ships leave a secured salvage yard. He looked around and then realised that OPS wasn't working fast enough. He quickly bumped Exeter(NPC) away from the secondary console

Exeter was just stunned as he looked at the viewscreen. He then felt a painful nudge as O'Connell shoved him away from his post.

"I have a opened a secure channel to the Antietam, Captain" he said as he hailed the Antietam on a secure comm channel. "Also if those ships are Starfleet vessels I would suggest getting the prefix codes from Gunning, Ma'am"

"Agreed," Prax said, before turning towards the viewscreen.

"What've they got, Nilani?" Gunning said, as he rose from his seat on the other end of the channel.

"Not what we were expecting, Alex."

[OFF]

CONTINUED IN "ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN IN THE NEXT HALF HOUR"

----------------------------

Lt. Commander Nilani Prax
Commanding Officer

Lt. Sean O'Connell
CTSO


Lt. (JG) Sorik
COO

Lt. (JG) Reade
CFCO
USS Metis

Lt.JG John Exeter
FCO & Comm
USS Metis