Stellar Derby

Posted on Sun Jun 16th, 2019 @ 7:43pm by Captain Remas McDonald & Lieutenant Commander Shadi Zatra & Lieutenant Dinui Locke (loch)

2,277 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: S1:4: A Murder Of Crows
Location: Beacon Star System, Debris Cloud
Timeline: MD63 17.15PM

They were ready, or as ready as was practically possible in the time allotted.

Dented, bent, shattered, and repaired, the Traveller began to drift slowly from the debris cloud it had been using for cover. A fine coating of red dust had adhered to the hull, giving the usually sterile Starfleet grey swirls and striations of red. For a moment the Ronin class heavy cruiser looked like the warrior it was, wounded for sure but still in the fight.

"Mr Reynolds...shields up," Remas commanded from the centre seat. "Commander Zatra keep the EPS grid from shorting out on us. All we need to do is clear the gravity well of the red giant at the edge of the system, and we should be clear to go to warp."

He pressed a stud on the arm of his chair.

"Bridge to Engineering: Ari, I've made an assurance we will have warp speed once we clear the gravity well. How much of a liar have I made myself to be?" he asked over the intercom.

Jolani sat neutrally at her console waiting to point and click. Leaving Tsabina behind was a necessity but now there had been two traitors, one still on board. She wondered when the next pin would drop.

"Main power isss fluctuating!" Shadi yelled from her Ops station. "Tell that space ghost down in Engineering to get his holographic ass in gear!"

"Tell him yourself," Ari said as he materialized out of nowhere in the middle of the Bridge. He turned to Remas and nodded, "Warp drive is ready to go when you need it," he said as he moved towards the Primary Engineering console, forcing an Ensign to move aside as he took the seat.

"Alright then...Jolani take us to full impulse, shortest time course to the edge of the gravity well," Remas commanded. As if hearing his command, fate decided to throw the bone's against them. Ahead of them in the misty expanse of the Beacon star system, a trio of contacts appeared ahead of them. Three of the Reka carrier craft, who were now hurriedly dumping as much of their velocity as possible to make a crushing turn towards them.

"Patrol fleet," Remas hissed. Their course wouldn't just take them past them, but straight through the middle of the formation. "Jolani, straight in their teeth. Shadi re-route as much power the shields as the generators can stand. Victor, when we're in range give them everything we've got."

He turned to look at Locke.

Dinui looked over the readings from the sensor scans, it showed diectly ahead three large reactor signatures: similar in scope to the Reka carrier craft that attacked them before.

After another wider scan and reading over, she swallowed. There were nearly 20 more reactor signatures to their aft, at least. A small blessing they were not completely boxed in yet.

By her readings the Reka had a sizeable fleet out there, combing the star system for them. All of it was in the process of focusing on the Traveller,

If they remained lucky they would only have to get through the three ahead in the path of escape.

"Scan them, find me the weakest of the three of those things. Maybe we can blind them with the power of our sensor."

"The'e three in front have power flux alon', starboard side the twenty on our aft have no problems that Ahm seein'." Dinui said quickly frowning as she tried to pinpoint something more concrete to give them an actual fighting chance.

"Suicide mission?" Jolani asked curiously. Given how she felt about her second loss of Fell, she was in no position to argue. She had nothing to lose. She set the course right at the patrol ships and ramped the power to full impulse. "Course set, Captain. Straight into their teeth."

"Suicide? Hardly Jolani, I mean to show these Reka no quarter and then show them our tail feathers right 'fore we leave'em to this kingdom of autumn they have here," Remas said.

The flight officer did not respond. It did not matter to her. Right now, her job was to do what the Captain asked. If she died, perhaps her pain would finally end or she would be reunited with Fell. Either way, little mattered.

"All available power redirected to the forward deflector," Shadi announced.

And not a moment too soon. The most reckless of the three carrier craft had made the turn, bringing its forward weapons array to bear on the rapidly approaching Traveller. Bolts of sizzling plasma rained past them, followed by arcing lances of star fire that tried to pin down the nimble heavy cruiser. One such lance struck the ship a glancing blow, rocking the deck mightily.

"Mr Renyold's, provide them with our counter argument!"

"Aim for, the area jus' starboard o' their weapons array it should shake them enough t' leave off." If it did what she thought after checking the readings it would slow if not stop them in their pursuit. Dinui retorted fast.

"Shadi, focus the shields all forward. Strip our aft until we're passing them," Remas was out of his seat, standing over Jolani's shoulder. Ahead of them, the three Reka' carriers were disgorging fighter crafts, angry hives whose soldier's were coming out to fight. "Give me a ramming course on the starboard carrier. If its already taken a hit in battle, then it'll be our weakest fence post to push against."

"Aye, Captain," Shadi said with a hint of reluctance. "But won't that leave our tail vulnerable to those fighters?"

"I'll take care of that, Shadi," Ari said. "No ones blowing us out of the sky on my watch."

"That's the spirit!" Remas said with a savage grin on his face. At that moment he could have been any commander from any time. He could have been in the long blue great coats of the British Navy, salt sea air tossing his hair as he ran the Dover Channel against a trio of French Frigates. There was an energy on the verge of madness, between talent and risk, where some people just took possession of fate and made it there own.

The Travellers compliment of weapons fired full ahead. Her phaser arrays went to continuous barrage fire, pounding into the lead Reka carrier as more of the fighters swarmed out. These were taken apart by the hurriedly thrown volleys of torpedo fire that began to fly. But the Reka were not spectators in this fight, and more of the hellish lances took glancing blows off of the Starfleet's ships hardened shields.

And then they were past! The Reka carrier was slewing to one side, burning atmosphere trailing behind it. That one wasn't making a turn to purse them, but its two partners were. But that had been the plan, knowing the carrier craft were fast on the straights but cornered like a trolly overloaded with Costco branded savings.

"Jolani set our course-"

The Proximity alert went off a moment before the impact. The Traveller shook, heaving like a wounded animal as its space frame made a sound no one wanted to hear. There was the stressing cry of tortured metal, followed by a grinding crunch of structural supports breaking. But the lights didn't go out, and the air stayed on, and no one was dead yet.

"Jolani set our course for Carpathia," Remas said, gripping his chair arms. He looked over at Shadi and Ari. "What was that?"

"Direct hit!" Shadi screeched. "At least I think so. The entire sensor suite went offline and is rebooting!"

Arivek's hands flew over his console as he pulled up multiple status reports. "Sir I uh..." his voice trailed off. Suddenly the man stood and his body shimmered as he disappeared.

A few moments passed, filled with confusion, before the Chief Engineer rematerialized on the Bridge. "Captain, the sensor pod was hit. It's been sheered off the hull," he said as he took his seat. "I had to see for myself to believe it. We're going to be a bit crippled in this area but we should tractor it into the cargo bay before we leave."

Jolani did as she was told but hearing the holographic Engineer make his statement, Jolani chimed in, "That would mean lowering the shields. Timing would have to be perfect and we would have to pray not to be hit again."

The viewscreen turned split screen for a second, revealing the now severed Sensor Pod. The V-shaped pod was spinning slowly, revealing the tattered and ruined connecting pylon that was still a glow. It then vanished in a flash of exotic particles as one of the Reka's plasma lances vaporised it, a shot meant to take out the Traveller soaked up by the wreckage.

"Well that ends that discussion. Shadi all shields aft. Ari keep the structural integrity field running," Remas commanded. He didn't know what a massive hole in the hull was going to do to their warp bubble when they went superluminal. But either way the Traveller was turning into starlight. "Jolani, take us to warp. Take us up to full speed slowly, give Ari time to make sure we're not going to fly apart."

Shadi snarled at the less than cooperative console. Operator error, her tail! "Okay, aft shields are holding. Jussst try not to hit anything..."

"Warp 1, Captain...." She paused as she started to call out for the next level as she flew as slowly as she dared. "Warp 2...." After another several seconds, "Warp 3...."

Ahead of them on the view screen the stars seemed to crowd in at the centre, glowing blue as the ship accelerated fast into the interstellar hail of cosmic radiation. Around them the ship shuddered, shaking every bolt and panel loose it seemed. But Remas didn't seem to mind the shaking, or the gut-deep groan of metal slowly bending. The Traveller had gotten them this far, had taken them further than any ship ever had a right to. It would not fail them now.

And then the rattling slowed, the groaning stopped, and the ship settled into a steady rhythm of cruise mode. They had escaped.

"Mr Renyolds, show us the aft sensor feed," Remas asked. The view screen flickered, replaced by the false colour sensor feed from tactical. Behind them, the orange ball of the Beacon System was receding rapidly. But then a bright blue flare appeared on the screen, followed by another, and another. After a minute of silence, eight of the flares were now centred on the screen.

"Warp signatures," Victor commented bitterly. "We're being perused by those Reka carrier's and their cohorts. Good news, they're not catching up with us. Bad news, they're right on our tail."

"Too bad we don't have a big explosive ordnance to leave in our wake," Shadi said with a big, heaving sigh. "That would be fitting end to this verse of the Song of the Traveller."

"Warp 4..." Jolani continued her repeating of the displays on the computer console. "5.... I don't know how much more she can take, given our damage, Captain."

“Victor, are they gaining on us at Warp 5?” Remas asked. The Betazoid tactical officer eyed his controls and then shook his head. “Then we keep her at Warp 5. Any slower and we’ll fall into weapons range. Any faster and we’ll fly apart.”

He looked over to Shadi and Ari.

“Put your heads together. Can we make it back to Carpathia at a constant warp 5 without more of the ship falling off?” He asked, and then frowned. “In fact...Ari what if something large did fall off? Say a solar sail equipped probe with a cross section at least six kilometres across? What would something like that do to a ship flying into it at five times the speed of light?”

"It would fuck that ship up worse than Arivek's personal honour!" Shadi eagerly concluded.

"Let's leave honour out of this," Remas said with a telling glance at Shadi. "At warp five we have two days of time to use to our advantage. We'll arrive in Carpathia, and then we'll be in a fight. I want our Mass Mine's thrown out behind us as we exit Warp. Any ship transiting into the system behind us will have enough disturbance from the transition to miss something in their path. Even at fractional light speed, a collision will be...significant."

He looked around the bridge.

"Until that point, we have repairs to make. We'll be in for a fight when we reach Carpathia, but we at least have knowledge of that system. We choose the battlefield, and we'll have the day," Remas didn't add about willing God's tipping the scales also being a handed bonus. "Until then, we have work to do. Jolani get back down to sickbay and get your foot fully healed, I want you at 100% for when we reach home. Shadi, make us ready for what we have to face. Help Ari, as I have no doubt having a sunroof on the aft deck is playing merry havoc with our systems. And Victor-"

"Get ready to fire everything and damn the consequences?" the Betazoid said with a grin.

"I think the consequences will be a heavy matter for us all to consider," Remas said with a shake of his head. "But I'd rather they weigh heavier on our enemies heads than ours. Make sure we can give a good accounting of ourselves."

Because a wounded starship, verse a host of similarly armed attackers...they were not odd's one would take lightly.

 

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