The Devil's Due

Posted on Sun Sep 9th, 2018 @ 7:54am by Captain Remas McDonald & Lieutenant Commander Shadi Zatra

2,943 words; about a 15 minute read

Mission: S1:3: Myriad Problems
Location: Bridge
Timeline: MD 61 01.20

Getting to the bridge had been more fun than it really should have been.

Emergency lights were on everywhere, and whilst computer display panes were up and running they were displaying a timeout error message and assuring all that 'Operations Are Working To Rectify This Outage'. Door's had sealed shut, running on the disaster prevention programming built into their ROM's. And even the short turbolift ride to the bridge had turned into a crawling nightmare through Jefferies tubes and a lift shaft.

But arrive they did, and soon all wished they had not.

The duty shift on the bridge was doing their best to keep everything under control, with it was clear major difficulties were in the offing. Computer inquires were slow or unresponsive, and a few operation stations were dark and lifeless. But the view screen was online, and the yellow sandy light of the class L moon the Traveller orbited shone in.

It was a perfect background to highlight the unfolding disaster happening beyond the hull.

The colony barge Acheron was slowly spinning away from the Traveller towards the desert moon, it's aft end a glowing mass of cooling metal and sparking conduits where once an impulse drive had been. A cloud of debris and atmosphere trailed behind it, and flickering jets of RCS exhaust could be seen flittering across the barges hull as the crew aboard tried to halt their planetfall.

"Captain!" Beck said, looking haggard and distraught as the senior staff arrived. "I don't know what happened! We experienced a massive computer issue about five minutes ago, and...and then the ship performed an unscheduled orbital manoeuvre and fired on the Acheron with the bow cannons! Point blank, and...and they were already in low orbit so..."

"What of the Myriad ship?" Remas asked.

"We...I don't know, Sir all the ships systems are acting like their made of molasses," Beck said, still sounding stunned.

"Don't worry, you did good keeping it together till now," Remas said reassuringly. "Jolani take the helm, set in an intercept course with the barge. She'll already be hitting the upper atmosphere so plan for turbulence."

The moment that Jolani took the helm, a small, satisfied smile crossed her face. Even her tone took on a different form. There was emotion and confidence behind it. What was that emotion? Fire? Determination? Whatever it was, Jolani called back, "Ay, Captain. Computers are out. I am switching to manual. We're going to have a bumpy ride but I can get us there. Calculating now."

"I can't breathe!" Shadi began hyperventilating. Even routine bridge duty filled her with anxiety, but in a dire situation like this where everything was broken and people were going to die, it was an utter nightmare. "I can't breathe!"

"Mister Renyold's, make sure all of our weapon systems are safed and under our control! I want the assurance that when we spit venom at Abborax it'll hit its target," Remas snarled that one. A base betrayal was one thing, but to turn the ship that was the home to his family into a weapon was something quite beyond the pale.

"Yes sir." Vic responded as he rushed to his station , the person he relieved showing clear signs of joy from having the responsibility being taken from him. He began to work the console and as stated previously, the ship was responding sluggishly. This was going to be harder than he thought.

"Science Officer T'raa, find me a Myriad ship to have words with." Remas settled into the centre seat and turned his attention to Dr Kal. "Reckon the Acheron's people will need our help after all of this is said and done. Suppose all goes well, think of a team you could leave with them to supervise and support their medical staff. Trauma, cryo specialists. You know what they'll need."

"Yes, sir." Rena turned and took about two steps before the possible interpretation of his words hit, making her stop. What did he mean by leave? The knot that started to form in her stomach wanted her to believe anything else. Backing up those two steps, she addressed Remas. "Sir, when you asked for a team to leave with them, did you mean permanently?"

"I mean for us to save the colony barge and then go after Abborax," Remas explained from his chair. "And I dont see us having the time to preform curb side service."

That sounded an awful lot like a yes to her. With what was going on, Rena knew it would be a conversation for later, so decided to can it for that time. "Yes, sir," she said, giving him a look that expressed her displeasure at the idea, paired with the 'we will talk later about this' sideways glance before she left the bridge.

As Shadi lessened the clawing at her throat, the flashing computer alerts finally registered in her reptile brain. Vital systems were indeed down. Life support included. Shadi ran a quick check in the system to confirm her worst fear.

"Life support is down! No wonder it smells like a carcass in here!" she screamed even louder than before. With Ari sleeping with the enemy, this was a task left only for her. "Leave it to me," she said no to one in particular.

Shadi snagged an emergency kit from the wall and slapped its breathe-mask over her face. Her nostrils flicked with ecstasy at the rush of oxygen.

"Oh, yesss..."

Her next target was the nearest auxiliary wall console. After four hard tugs, it finally wrenched free. The hole was less than a meter wide, but Shadi slithered through it with ease. Large patches of her uniform were left behind in the jagged teeth of the bulkhead.

=/\="Shadi to Captain Remasss,"=/\= her hissing voice said through his communicator after a moment. =/\="I'm halfway to EV Control to initiate a manual restart. On my mark, turn life support off and then on again. Not too soon, or I'll have to flip the switch again, and I don't know how long my breathe-mask will last."=/\= A loud, shrieking hiss filled the comm channel as she gasped through her mask. =/\="Did you get all that?"=/\=

=/\="I did wonder as to why my air was beginning to foul,"=/\= Remas admitted from. =/\=Keep us in the loop on repairs."=/\=

=/\="Aye, Captain, sssir!"=/\=

"You heard the Saurian, the air's curdling but we have plenty of oxygen to play with. Push through it, people are counting on us," the armrest console beside Remas lit up with an internal comm request. He tapped it, opening the line as a ragged panting sound came through. At first, he thought it was Shadi again, but a human voice came over the intercom.

=/\="This is Lieutenant Jenkins on Deck 8-!" =/\=

"Ah, yes the main computer. Status report," Remas coughed.

=/\="It's gone Sir!"=/\= Jenkin's panicked voice buzzed from the intercom. =/\="I'm standing on the main passageway on deck 8 and there is a massive spherical hole cut into the middle of the ship right where the main computer core should be! We have cut through bulkheads, deck heads, support beams! Backups are okay, I've sent runners to look in on them, but we do not have a main computer anymore! Its like...its like someone just scooped out the ship's heart with a transporter!"=/\=

That was an unwelcomed wrinkle, but at least it would stop everyone waiting for the computer to be repaired.

"Okay, well we can't fix that now. Just try and get the secondary systems running at a similar pace," Remas shook his head. "Just keep the lights on and we'll call it even."

=/\="Yes Captain. I also can't seem to be able to raise Chief Zhuri, and no one in Sickbay's seen him-"=/\=

"Chief Zhuri is...occupied, at the moment. You're running the show for now Jenkins." Remas said, and cut off the comm line. Ahead through the viewscreen, the Colony Barge Acheron could be seen continuing its spin, the faintest hints of smoke beginning to rise from its edges as atmospheric friction cooked it.

"Lieutenant Kohnar, you are rated for atmospheric flight if I recall?" Remas thought aloud as the barest hints of a plan arose in his mind.

"Of course I am," Jolani replied, offense and pride lining her answer and also sensing the plan. "Do we have an idea of the composition of the atmosphere?"

"Class L/M, barely. Humanoid rated oxygen content in the atmosphere, but what there is is pretty thin going. But it's better than breathing vacuum," Remas said. He stood up from his chair and staggered to the helm station, the deck rolling under his feet as the first tenuous slap of atmosphere hit the Traveller. "Bring us directly over the top of the barge, close as you can. We'll lock on it with the mooring tractor beams and then turn an uncontrolled reentry into a controlled descent."

He looked out at the golden horizon of the desert moon. Inviting it was not, but better than death. He tapped his comm-badge.

=/\="All hands this is the captain. Prepare for planetfall, seal all airtight hatches. And if any of you believe in something larger than yourselves, call in a favour or two."=/\=

He turned to look at Victor.

"Moment Jolani is over the Barge, put all power to the forward shields. We'll do this the old fashion way and use friction on the shields to slow us down," he coughed. =/\="Shadi, I need you back on the bridge sharpish. If life support's shot we'll crack open a vent in about ten minutes to replenish our air supply."=/\=

Jolani didn't hesitate. She sent the Traveller down towards the colony barge at a breakneck speed, using solely visual clues to direct the ship. She shouted out, rare excitement in her voice - something no crewmember but Remas had heard before, "We're going to need those shields now! It is a thin atmosphere but that does not mean that it won't burn us up like a camp fire embers!"

++++

Skirting the edge of the atmosphere the Acheron shuddered. What attempts had been made to right her attitude whilst in zero gravity had been next to useless, but now aerodynamics were on her side. Blocky in shape, the large flat brick of a ship was designed around the crew rated habitable sections, with its power core built into that armoured nexus. The stardrive section had always been designed to be detachable, intended to be put into orbit as the power core nucelus of a nascent space station. So the disaster had only meant a somewhat rushed timetable on landing if one was using a microscope to find the microscopic silver lining. To aid in landing each corner of the brick was fitted with independent landing thrusters, but given they were pointed 'down' towards where the ground would be they were useless.

Until now.

The four-engine nacelles lit up, their ragged orange glow pushing back the growing plasma shell of reentry. Air handling surfaces roses along the sides of the hull, grabbing at the air to make steady a terrible fall. At the control the pilot of the barge fought a white-knuckled battle against fate, inventing whole new curses with each passing hundred meters. And then a shadow crossed over their hand, and with a glance up through the hyper diamond canopy of the bridge, they saw the angular prow of the Traveller.

The barges pilot threw one-fingered salute up towards the approaching Starfleet ship. This momentarily cathartic action caused the Acheron to buck up slightly, and the two ship's bumped into each other. From a distant, the bump looked minor, but the Traveller's space frame sang like a struck bell.

++++

"Victor!" Remas shouted over the grinding of metal as his ship shook from atmospheric buffering and the impact. "Shields up now!"

Victor has begun the process early accounting for the sluggish systems until secondaries were online so his response wasn't too delayed, "Shields are up sir! They're at 56% and falling rapidly but I'm managing to keep them up!"

"Spread them as wide as you can ahead of us," Remas said. He staggered to the mooring controls, which of course were on manual. With quick hands, he turned a half dozen spots on the Barge's hull into load-bearing structures. They were not such a thing, but they only had to hold together for ten minutes and change.

"Okay, Jolani...Full reverse now!" Remas barked, gripping the console nearest him.

Jolani, adrenaline coursing through her shouted out, "Hold on! If it isn't buckled down, it is flying!" She chuckled, cackled, and hit the commands to immediately stop and reverse the Traveller. Everything loose flew to the opposite side of the ship and clattered. A stylus lodged itself in a panel just from sheer inertia as Traveller followed Jolani's bidding. "How's that Captain?" she asked with emotion that nobody on Traveller save the Captain had seen prior to Fell's death.

=/\="Starving Famine!"=/\= Shadi shouted through the open comm channel. Bumps and bouncing could be heard. =/\="Captain Remas, you can restart life support now."=/\=

"Holy crap!" Vic exclaimed as a wall panel barely missed his head, "Shields at 30%, they're not falling as rapidly as they were. I'm attempting to push some extra power into the inertial dampers!" he shouted as the rumbling of the atmosphere on the ship became louder.

"That's exactly what I wanted!" Remas grinned wildly, taking in a deep lung filling breath of fresh air. The view from the main screen was changing. Gone was the fiery glare of reentry, but with it, the stars in the sky had begun to blink out. They were replaced steadily by a thickening atmosphere that was turning a deeper shade of pale blue.

He looked down at the control's once more, his mind taking in a snapshot the full details of the barges plight. With a tap of his finger, the mooring tractor's disengaged, and the Barge fell away on its landing thrusters. For now, it was all they could do.

"Jolani full power to the impulse drives, take us back into orbit. Victor, keep the shields up and route as much power to them as we can muster," Remas grinned at his bridge crew. "Bloody well done the lot of you. They'll be in for a harsh landing, but they'll walk away from it. Dr Kal, when you have your team ready, have them report to the port side, deck 4 lifeboat bay. With the main computer offline I'd not trust a transporter to put together a jigsaw puzzle, let alone a person."

Obediently, Jolani eased the Traveller into orbit over the foreign planet. The day having been saved, a genuine smile was on her face and she exhaled a sigh of satisfaction. "Still got it," she muttered to nobody." As soon as the stars started to reappear, and the Captain ordered Kal to have the crew report to the lifeboats, she asked, "Do you want me to take control of one of the lifeboats or stay up here guiding the Traveller?"

"You don't lame a horse when you are in need of it for a chase," Remas said, gripping the console with tense fingers. "A man of Myriad means has that which does not belong to him. I mean to make a mess of his plans."

At that moment, Shadi slithered free from the hole in the wall she'd made earlier. Standing up, the Saurian struck a pose of pure comical wrath. Her clothing had been rent save for tattered shards of her sleeves, and she was missing a boot. "Tell me more of these plans," she seethed. "I want Abborax's head on a platter. For dinner. And maybe his heart, if the starving son of a mammal has one."

"Well now, we all heard the lady. An eloquent and well-reasoned request," Remas said through gritted teeth. "Abborax spoke of the Myriad using some mode of instantaneous transportation from star to star. Reckon we saw him appearing from the one at the centre of this system, he'd scuttle back that way. That gives us some time."

"Victor I want the Myriad shuttle locked down and secured in case Abborax left us a time bomb to play with, as well as a crashed colony ship. Then roll out every weapon we have, I want the Traveller bristling with righteous fury."

"Aye sir, I'll meet the team in the shuttle bay. Raynolds to Security Team Charlie, meet me in the shuttle bay forthwith." he added as he entered the jeffries tube to descend the decks .

"Jolani, set us on an intercept course for the sun at maximum impulse as soon as the Bay 3 lifeboat is away with the medical team. If you can lock onto the Myriad ship, and somehow close the gap on them all's the better. A stern chase usually gives the pursuer the advantage, but we're running into Abborax's home turf so I'd not be surprised at finding mischief in our way."

"Intercept course set. When we can trust our sensors, I'll have them looking for anything out of the norm, whatever that may be out here."

"Shadi, T'raa, you're coming with me. The Myriad wanted to strike a bargain all in their favour, and in finding no succour took what they wanted. I think its time we struck our own bargain with someone else, and I'll need both your help to implement it."

"Upon your word, Captain." Shadi bounded to Remas' side like a gecko in a hurricane.

 

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