All In A Day's Work

Posted on Mon Sep 5th, 2016 @ 11:07pm by Captain Charybdis MacGregor & Commander Fiona McCray & Lieutenant Commander Selune
Edited on on Mon Sep 5th, 2016 @ 11:07pm

0 words; about a 1 minute read

Mission: Taking Chances
Location: USS Bonne Chance, Deck One, the Bridge
Timeline: 2265

"Lieutenant Charybdis?"

The call on the bridge in this particular case was coming from Ensign Sato at the Science Station. He had been covering a great number of shifts for Charybdis of late, and she was coincidentally just considering how to reward him appropriately while reviewing his personnel file when he called her name.

"Yes, Ensign?" she replied, swiveling the command chair to face him. She had to admit, while the burden of command was not completely welcome to her... she did like the chair. The chair was very, very neat. This was the one part she definitely enjoyed... all of these buttons and commands at her fingertips, parked in the center of the bridge to get every good view and overlooking everyone... she liked it. She liked it rather a lot, she had decided.

And she definitely did not plan to tell Patrick that part. Well, maybe...

"Lieutenant, long range scanners are showing five ships closing on our position."

The eyebrow raised of its own accord. "Can you identify them, Ensign?"

"Yes ma'am. It appears to be four Nausicaan raider vessels and a beta wing class freighter, approaching from Orion space. Estimated time of contact at current speed is two minutes fourteen seconds."

There was a soft sigh from Selune at the announcement as she drank in the apprehension; somehow she knew that this was going to be another long day. For a brief moment she considered simply intercepting them just to get it over with but common sense, or Starfleet training, brought that train of thought up short.

Plenty of time for thorough scans and plans. Definitely no getting caught by surprise this time, the curvaceous commander reasoned. "Yellow alert, raise shields, charge phasers. Ensign, I need to know these vessels- capacities, weapons, crew, potential hazards... we have a minute and a half until they are within range and in that time I want all of the information that you can give me."

Hiro Sato gulped... when the Vulcan Chief Science Officer asked for thorough scans, she would know every single possible scan he hadn't run and call him on it. His hands were moving and fingers working even as he called over his shoulder "Yes ma'am... right away."

"Mister Rebian, can you get me firing resolutions as soon as they are within weapons range?" the commander asked as the chair swiveled slightly to port.

"Fura... ahem... hmm... Mistress Charybdis? Did I get that right? In any case preemari, do you want them blown out of empty vacuum space, disabled or just really neatly wounded?" Rebian asked quite focused on his console, enough to give her an idea that he wasn't trying to be funny or jovial on purpose.

Mistress? This just kept getting better. Charybdis idly wondered if Patrick would twist the man's head off his neck or just assign him to paint the outside of the ship in a leaky spacesuit. "Lieutenant. And let's take disabled for the moment, since you're so generously giving me the option this afternoon, Mister Rebian. Miss Selune, we may need to take evasive action, stand by."

The Caitian rolled her eyes as her hands moved themselves across her console, "And I thought it was supposed to be a quiet day," she muttered.

"There are no quiet days, furanda," Reb smiled towards Selune.

"Sorry Lieutenant, but I don't get to order the universe, just the bridge. Chief McCray, I need for you to monitor and report the power outputs from the engine room from your station, please." In this case they both knew that was simply untrue... but the acting commander did not want the engineer going anywhere, and it would at least give her something to do on the bridge. There was an engineering station there for a reason, after all.

Fiona had manage to pull herself into a stiffly upright position and was contemplating the distance to the lift when Charybdis gave the order. Her eyes narrowed at the back of her friend's sleek dark brown head and she contemplating sticking her tongue out but there were too many others around. She dropped back into her seat with a soft grunt and said a positively meek. "Aye Aye." Char knew her friend well enough to hear the unspoken 'Captain Bligh' .

She turned her attention to the monitor and scooped her unruly mass of curls back. She didn't have her normal assortment of tiebacks handy so she settled for wadding the mess into a ball and sticking a stylus through it. "Energy readings arrr' within normal ranges," she said with a sigh.

"Lieutenant Charybdis? I have those scans, ma'am." Forty two seconds... very nice, she thought to herself. "Proceed, Mister Sato."

"The four marauder vessels are ion drive engines, no warp capability. Two man craft, each currently fully crewed by Nausicaans. Small scale class two disruptors, two forward, two rear mounted, without sufficient discharge possibility to penetrate our shields, though were they to focus on a single location over time they could wear us down and penetrate the shields with continuous fire. By contrast these vessels have minimal shielding of their own, and I believe our phasers would overload and bypass them after one hit of 75% strength. Impressive for vessels this size, but clearly no match for the Bonne Chance."

Rebian was contemplating the report on the enemy vessels while thinking of how to proceed. "As I said before preemari, we could either blast them out of the sky, it won't take long, our phasers are up to it. Would take a blink of eye for each. But if you want them disabled I could aim at their engines, though it would either disable them, or blow them up, it is an equal chance. Or I could try to pinpoint another area to shoot at to disable them. Your call." he said, again in a contemplating tone, as he held his chin in his hand looking nowhere with an empty gaze, giving the impression of a person who is visualizing everything in his mind.

"Duly noted Mister Rebian, let's collect our data first. Mister Sato?"

"The freighter seems to be a converted captured vessel; it is crewed by one Nausicaan with rather poor lifesigns. Sensors indicate that the reactor which is powering the impulse drive is leaky, and is poisoning the interior atmosphere of the vessel. I cannot determine whether the pilot is aware of this or not, but it seems suicidal. Again, minimal shielding, and the freighter is actually unarmed. However..." his voice drifted off, and Charybdis stifled the urge to rush him. He was doing remarkably well, and if he needed another few seconds to analyze then he should have it.

"I cannot detect any particular data on potential cargo it may be hauling ma'am, but judging from the energy wavelength patterns I am seeing it appears as though it may be building toward a forced chamber explosion in the matter/antimatter magnetic bottle."

"Hmmmmm," Charybdis replied. "All right folks... thoughts, opinions? This looks too easy to me somehow."

"Looks like a suicide run," the engineer piped in with her professional opinion.

"Not an unlikely scenario. As the sons and daughters of Vulcan might say: It does seem to be a logical conclusion. If not, either way we would be doing that freighter pilot a favor by putting him out of his misery." Rebian concluded more focused now, with his attention turned back to his panel.

"In the Academy they advised against ramming things with the shields, but we could try it and see how sturdy that freighter is?" Selune offered.

Steepling her fingers Charybdis took a few seconds to contemplate the possibilities before deciding on a plan of action.

"Excellent work Ensign Sato, I think you may just deserve a raise. Ensign Rondborstig, open hailing frequencies." She stood up and assumed the 'stony Vulcan face'- it seemed to work well, so why abandon it, she reasoned. "This is Lieutenant Charybdis of the Federation starship USS Bonne Chance. Please identify yourselves and state your intentions."

Rebian leaned in towards Selune and whispered. "Our intentions are to see you go into an explosion of fireworks, Lieutenant. Either that or dinner on the asteroid to the left." he smiled at her winking. "This will be an interesting exchange of pleasantries."

There was a stifled laugh before Selune got herself under control, throwing a glare at Rebian that mimicked the one she imaged was about to be aimed at her.

The video screen lit up with a Nausicaan face in front of a dingy green background haze. "This is... uh... Captain Nerglev of... my ship. You will surrender because we have... hostages. Hyoo-mon hostages. You surrender or they die."

There was a moment on the bridge where it seemed everyone paused, looked at one another and shrugged collectively. Charybdis stepped forward slightly.

"If you mean to ram us, I am afraid we're not going to allow it. And if your friends don't stop moving to flank us, I am afraid we are going to have to go on the offensive and defend ourselves. Veer off and clear this sector of space- we desire no hostilities with you." Seemed reasonable enough to Char... not too confrontational and no pointing out the obvious.

"We have hostages! Federation hostages!" the mercenary barked back.

"On board your vessel?" the Lieutenant inquired with a slightly raised eyebrow.

"Y-yes!" replied Captain Nerglev, and she sighed.

"Can we ask if they have any proof? With no proof they could be claiming to have the President himself in there." Rebian stated while looking back at Charybdis with an eyebrow raised inquisitively.

"Report from the Science station covered that, Navigator, do keep up," she whispered. "Now target his engines and let's see if we can disable him without blowing him to Hades. Fire phasers at your discretion Mister Rebian."

"Was proposing to try and mess with his head. I was curious at his potential answer..." sighed looking back at his console. Like a piano player his fingers moved on the panel elegantly, but only for a few seconds, he had been prepared for this. "Aaand done." he said with one final press of the finger on the panel.

"I honestly think he really is that dumb," Char replied under her breath as the phasers lanced out with remarkable precision, slicing through his aft thrusters. "Nice shot, Mister... ooh."

The view onscreen went from the interior cabin of the freighter to the front view of the Bonne Chance, as the freighter was rocked by a few small explosions and then exploded, illuminating the blackness of space momentarily. It seemed the instability of his core had left the vehicle too fragile for even a disabling hit. The Bonne Chance shuddered slightly from the shockwave, but there was no apparent damage.

"Och... shuid have given the thing full thrusters and all tried to hit at once," the engineer shook her head. "Not terribly bright are they?"

"Half expected this to happen. How sad, was hoping for more of a verbal duel between you and him, Mistress," Rebian sighed with a truly sad tone. "Not a big fan of violence, I honestly preferred you tried and mess with his head..."

"Lieutenant. And duly noted, Mister Rebian... unfortunately for you the safety of this vessel and its crew come before your personal entertainment. What are the rest of the marauders doing, attacking or retreating?"

There was a snort from the engineering station " You might no be fond o' violence but ya do seem ta hae a talent for eet."

"Hm. Perhaps they really are this stupid... all right. Mister Rebian, please target their weapons systems with 80% phaser power and fire. Ensign Sato, lock on to the life signs of the Nausicaans if you will. Chief McCray, please send that sensor telemetry to the transporter room and kindly express my compliments to Transporter Chief Fingerman and ask him if he is up for a challenge. Ensign Rondborstig, please alert Security to bring a heavily armed detachment to Transporter Room Two to prepare to receive eight hostile prisoners, in waves. Then open a channel for me to the Nausicaans."

"Wake oop Fingerman, herself has a wee challenge fer ye" the chief relayed the telemetry " try no to scramble them tae mooch laddie boot...maybe bring em in a foot or two off the platform" Fi turned to look at her friend " whut?! they scuffed me ship! I'm no going to serve em tea an dumplings...and biscuits are reet oot!"

"Hailing frequencies open, sir," Ensign Rondborstig called from the comm station, and Charybdis nodded. "Nausicaan vessels, we have no desire to engage you. You are outgunned and you cannot effectively penetrate our shields. Should you attack us this will in fact go quite poorly for you. Assuming that you were attached to Admiral Thog's command, it and he are no more... and attempts at vengeance will serve no purpose. I strongly advise you to return to your point of origin and give up this..."

At that, the screen flared as disruptor fire flared as the raiders opened fire on the bridge. "Hm... they know where we are... curious and curioser. Just as the asteroid carrier base knew where to target our weapons systems... this bears further investigation."

Easing into the command chair, Lieutenant Charybdis gave the order. "Mister Rebian, open fire, targeting as previously instructed. Miss Selune, bring us about to one one seven point four, one quarter impulse power... let's be quite positive which side of the border we are on here, I would prefer for this not to cause a diplomatic incident. Chief McCray, shields?"

"Shields are at full Lieutenant"

"Ensign Sato, as their shields drop please transmit the telemetry to Chief Fingerman for transport, and let's relocate these stubborn souls to a safer locale than space, as they obviously are not equipped to handle it. While I see no use in capturing their empty vessels there is no reason to leave them cluttering the spaceways. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how we could go about collecting them and bringing them into the shuttlecraft bays?"

"Could beam em in there.... try scoopin them op like we did the asteroid bits... of course there's something to be said for reducing the badly damaged one ta space dust...." Fiona tapped her fingers against the station then turned. "Could be information to be gathered from their logs, might make fer a nice little trojan horse in the future too....boot honestly if I ware a raider captain I'd set me ship to destruct if I didna give eet the reet command at regular intervals. Keeps it from being too tempting ta mutiny an makes fer a nasty shock fer potential captors."

"Good point. Mister Rebian, change targeting to engines. Chief McCray, please tractor the remaining marauders into the shuttle bay and have some engineering crews standing by to inspect them for failsafes and confirm that they are safe to keep contained."

"Excellent work today, people. You're making Starfleet proud!"

There may yet be more to be learned from the Nausicaans, but for now she had rather a full brig awaiting the Captain upon his return as well as a couple of captured raiders.

All in all, not a bad day's work, Charybdis thought to herself with a smile.

 

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