Out In The Open

Posted on Fri Jan 11th, 2019 @ 12:56am by Captain Remas McDonald & Lieutenant Commander Shadi Zatra & Lieutenant Dinui Locke (loch)

1,089 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: S1:4: A Murder Of Crows
Location: Map Room
Timeline: MD 62 10.00AM

The Traveller floated above the map room table, a rainbow of colour’s and damage code’s painting the wireframe model. Her nacelles glowed orange, edging to red’s at the pylon’s that connected them to the main hull. Her saucer section was tinted orange, the major join lines of her hull plating glowing darker where solar radiation had begun to melt and warp them.

Even the two phaser cannon’s, hidden in their under slung mountings at the bow showed red’s and oranges, from where their delicate focusing arrays had been exposed to fire ineffectually at Abborax’s ship. The image floating before them all showed the physical damage inflicted on the ship, but the gap at the table showed where the real damage lay.

No Chief Engineer.

“We are hurting,” Remas said gravely, looking at everyone around the map room’s large holotable. He made a gesture to the projection, and the colourful Traveller shrunk away to be replaced by a roughly spherical sea of stars. Two stars began to blink: one was at the edge of the sphere, marked as Carpathia, whilst the other was deeper inside the sphere of stars. Remas reached out with two hands, and zoomed the holo in onto the quadrant of Messier 4 they were in.

“We travelled nearly 15 light years using a ancient technology that closely resembles a scaled down Phase Space Accelerator. Given we have no means to access it again, and the only one we know of nearby is in the heart of the star of that Myriad ship grave, we can’t return to study it,” he eyed the collection of stars, and the computer laid out a ‘best fit course back to Carpathia. “We’re restricted to low warp, so a direct course back to Carpathia will take months. We need to find a place to lay low, and repair our computer and warp coils to a point we can make a high speed dash. Is there anything else I’m missing?”

"There's been a handful of containment failures in the cryopods," Shadi said. "At first I thought it was due to the power surge caused by the temperature differential of the Whisper Gate, as Clee'san calls it, or even due to the space ghost's integration. But there's been another unexpected failure just this morning, and it's been smooth flying for the past 24 hours." She hissed in frustration. "I'd say there was a ghost in the machine, but that's the only way we're still oprrational." She cast a silent aspersion toward Arivek's empty seat.

Dinui shook her head, "Ahm sorry I had his signature with the aliens tha' sent to Sickbay, Ah Donna know why he didna beam back wi' them." She was going over the transport logs trying to find where their CEO had ended up but she had no trace of him though his signature had been confirmed intact when the beaming had gone through.

"He's in a cage," Shadi hissed. "One of his own making, right, Captain Remas?"

"Lieutenant Zhuri was beamed back alongside the computer core. Miss Lock you did nothing wrong, and the survivors from Abborax's ship were beamed to sickbay successfully. The reason Ari did not accompany them is...because he's not corporeal. He's holographic in nature, but not a traditional AI," Remas said heavily, before holding up his hands. "The nature of our engineer's existence is not the topic of discussion at hand. We are discussing a repair schedule for the main computer and warp engines. And for that, we need to find what my people would call a Cove. Ideally, a planetary system littered with debris clouds or mineral-rich asteroid belts we can tap into for resources. The Traveller has the facilities to refine and forge new components on the fly if we just feed her right."

"What if we tune the sensors to look for pockets of radiation and metallic compounds Captain? That could indicate what was once a planet and ultimately an asteroid field. " Vic had suggested. He had security officers posted at every vital location of the ship in case things went south again, not to mention sickbay was a blockade all on it's own.

"I like the idea. Something to sniff out the wheat from the chaff," Remas mused. "Which...brings us to a sticking point. We need to reintegrate the main computer with Clee'san's neural lacework. And for that, Shadi, we will need Ari's aid."

"Not that I personally care," Jolani uttered from her brooding silence, "but I believe that would be as wise as allowing a fox in a henhouse." She heaved a sigh and continued, "I doubt that I would be as effective as a know-it-all-traitorous hologram, but I could assist. I already started piecing together the navigational system. It would not be a far jump for me to do more work."

"Then that is what we will do, for the time being. But given the fact we are all alone out here, and as long as I am captain of this ship we will not resort to throwing away resources that are fundamental to the survival of this crew," Remas said guardedly. "I'll say this once, but the next person to speak a dispersion against Arivek Zhuri will be helming the work crews replacing the hull plates on the nacelle pylons."

"Oh, my favorite!" Shadi squealed in delight. "Only if I knew what a dispersion was..." After scratching her chin in thought, she looked back to Remas with excitement. "Can I still lead that project, Captain Remas? Can I?"

Jolani could not understand the Captain's attitude regarding Arivek but she was not about to argue. She had survived much worse fates than replacing hull plates.

"You can lead the project Shadi, bring in those you need. Jolani, I'm sure is willing to volunteer her time to it as well," Remas said with a tired sigh. He looked over at Victor. "Work with Miss Locke to retune the sensors, find us a cove nearby to lay low.

He stepped back from the table.

"We have work to do. Let's be about it, unless we have more questions?"

Shadi hopped to her feet and clapped her arm against her bony chest. "I won't let you down, Captain Remas! Those will be the most tasty nacelle hull plates you've ever seen!"

Jolani shook her head, indicating the negative. She would just have to continue on. What else was there to do?

"Excellent. Let's get to it."

 

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