T-Minus 72 Hours

Posted on Sun Feb 13, 2022 @ 3:51pm by Fleet Captain Rhea Kennit & Commander Cullen Walker & Lieutenant Penelope Naroot & Lieutenant JG Aergad Halvor & Lieutenant JG Ardal King

1,738 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: We Will Take Care of You
Location: USS Victory, Space Dock DQ8

Due to the distance between Admiral Bratton’s location and where Victory was currently located at DQ8, it was going to take several hours for the data she’d requested in regards to the approaching ship from Planet Mudd to arrive. As such, the Captain had opted to go to bed and get some rest.

She had a feeling she was going to need it.

The data stream from Admiral Bratton arrived during the late hours of the night, and was there on the comm screen at her desk. An annoying, blinking amber light announcing the waiting data packet to be de-crypted once the correct authorizations were entered into the system. First things first however.

Coffee, and breakfast for the kitten.

Not necessarily in that order.

With the kitten purring softly as she ate, the Captain got a mug of coffee from the replicator and then carried it with her to the desk where she entered the authorization codes to decrypt and access the data files which had been sent from Admiral Bratton’s staff.

She didn’t even know who Bratton was. Nor did she particularly care to be honest. There was still no response to her queries regarding the sudden return of John Logan from the dead, a fact which bothered her deeply. Odds were, there hadn’t been a reply yet because they didn’t know what was going on any more than she did..

Sipping her coffee, she pulled up the data and began to review what Bratton had sent. There wasn’t much to go on, but then, with Starfleet there never was.

The android vessel was good-sized, comparable to the Galaxy Class. Scans indicated a highly powerful engine, possibly superior to Federation power generation. (Not that that meant all that much, in her opinion; the Borg had superior power systems to Federation.)

The ship had weapons and shield systems, though exactly the amount of offensive and defensive power the vessels was capable of was undetermined as neither system had been powered up and online at the time of the scans. Preliminary analysis indicated that their firepower was possibly comparable to a Prometheus-class starship. The androids registered as lifesigns, with the scan indicating approximately four hundred on board before they began blocking Federation scans. Their power systems seems to be entirely channeled into the engines, with little for life support or anything else, but then again what do androids need with life support? There were no anomalous energy readings, no weapons scanned other than the ship’s weapons systems and best the scans could tell, no payload detected which could be a weapon of some kind.

Also nothing to indicate why, in all the galaxy, the androids were heading for her.

The thought drifted through her mind, first Logan...now this.

But Logan wasn’t an android. That much she was certain of. She’d scanned his bio-readings when the question first popped to mind. He was human.

Thoughts of Logan drew her mood down, and she stared at the data on the screen for a moment then entered a series of commands to transfer the data from the computer onto a PaDD. If Commander Logan wanted to spend time on her ship, he was going to discover the Victory was not a luxury deep space cruise vessel. It was a working starship, and he was going to work.

[Bridge - USS Victory]

Stepping out of the turbolift, the Captain began to walk across the bridge with coffee in hand, a data PaDD tucked under her arm. “Good morning XO.” She said in greetings upon seeing Walker on the Bridge ahead of her. “Status report? How close are we to having the last details of the refit complete? When can we depart the dock and resume active status?”

Walker nodded, "It is morning. Our crew and Station Crew are on doubles again. We were ahead of schedule, then we had a safety railing give way and a conduit blow. One broken arm and a concussion. One with two types of burns up his arm. We are currently on schedule instead of ahead."

“Do what you can to get us cleared, signed off and back to full operational status as soon as possible. Preferably in the next 48 hours. We have guests inbound ETA 3 days. I don’t want to be sitting here still secured in the dock when they arrive.” Kennit said. “And have someone order Commander Logan to see me on the Bridge.” She added.

Walker tapped his comm, "Walker to Commander Logan. You are needed on the bridge. Double time." He looked at her, "We're on schedule. We will be ahead of schedule again soon."

Logan had seen the quartermaster and unpacked his gear. He wasn't about to be in a wrinkled uniform. A private communication had come across his S31 issued padd. He entered his code and biometric signature and reviewed the news. It was brief. "They're here". He stowed his padd in the safe in his quarters and exited his assigned cube. Heading to the bridge, he received a call to report to the bridge, stat. Ironically, the lift doors opened and he walked out, no time to respond. Heading to the center chair, Logan stopped and stood. He hadn't been assigned a bridge station, which wasn't uncommon for an intel officer. After all, he had no bridge function.

The moment the turbolift admitted Commander Logan onto the bridge, the Captain was very aware of his arrival though she gave no readily discernible indication as he walked across the bridge toward the raised platform where the command level was located.

She was still speaking to the XO as he approached, saying “Have security investigate why the safety railing gave way and what caused the conduit to blow in a section where work was completed and signed off two weeks ago. Why were work crews back in that area and who was responsible for verifying that all safety equipment was in place and properly rigged? Check that proper tag outs were in place prior to whatever they were doing to cause the conduit to blow and also have whatever equipment they were using inspected. You may want to speak with Cmdr. Torres and get him involved, he should know what was going on and why work crew’s were back in that section after it was cleared and signed off.”

Walker nodded, "Already been ordered." He sent a text text message to Torres, "Done. The Commander has been requested to participate in the investigation."

“Keep me posted..” she told him as she nodded in brief dismissal then turned toward Commander Logan as he reached where they’d been speaking. Her gaze locked on him as she said, “Commander Logan, I have a task which I believe as an Intelligence Officer you are uniquely suited for. Late last night we received a message from Admiral Bratton at Starbase DQ1. Apparently, a contingent from Planet Mudd in the Alpha Quadrant has made its way here and is enroute to our location. Admiral Bratton has advised me that the command of this ship have insisted on speaking with me, though no reason was provided. They claim to be a peace delegation, which is illogical as my expertise and experience are decidedly not in diplomacy. This data PaDD,” she said as she handed it to him. “contains sensor logs and scans of the Mudd Android’s ship.”

Her voice was soft spoken, calm. But her eyes, her eyes burned straight through him and there was a subtle quality to her voice, ice cold and unyielding which hinted at something else.

She paused. “DQ8 has civilians aboard. This far out, there are no other ships with the capabilities to match ours, or that of this ship on its way. I want you to write up a tactical analysis of the android vessel. Analyze its hull design and power systems and find weakness and flaws which can be exploited should they prove to have hostile intent. The Victory will depart space dock as soon as possible, I do not intend to allow that ship to reach DQ8 without having first made contact and determined their intentions. I need your analysis sooner rather than later. You have full access to our long range sensors, and are authorized to pull whatever personnel you may require from the ships tactical department to support your assignment.”

On the data PaDD were the sensor readings detailing what they knew about the inbound starship.

Length: 657 m
Beam: 468 m
Height: 148 m
Decks (estimated): 42

Mass: 4, 987,000 metric ton

Scans further indicated a powerful engine, possibly superior to Federation power generation.

The ship had weapons and shield systems, though exactly the amount of offensive and defensive power the vessels was capable of was undetermined as neither system had been powered up and online at the time of the scans. Preliminary analysis indicated that their firepower was possibly comparable to a Prometheus-class starship.

The androids registered as lifesigns, with scans indicating approximately four hundred on board before they began blocking Federation scans. Their power systems seems to be entirely channeled into the engines, with little for life support or anything else. There were no anomalous energy readings, no weapons scanned other than the starship’s onboard systems which had been partially detected and best the scans could tell, no other payload detected which could be a weapon of some kind.


Logan received the PADD from Kennit and reviewed it. "Aye Captain", he replied, noting the gaze she gave him. "I'll attend to it immediately". He read through the details and had a fleeting memory of the ship and its capabilities. The ship was impressive and it would out perform anything in the Federation. He remembered the Victory encounter did not end well; mostly because Kennit was so untrusting. He needed to be the first contact in this to steer the events in the direction that would achieve the desired outcome at the desired time. It really didn't matter to the timeline whether or not in the end, the Mudd ship survived or what their true intentions were. What mattered was the survival of the Victory and more specifically, her Captain.

Two of Walker's three children were on board the station, they would be going back to their mother tomorrow. He clenched his fist and the knuckles popped. He started to regulate his breathing and work on his calm.

 

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