Not A Scratch

Posted on Mon Jul 18th, 2016 @ 3:09am by Captain Charybdis MacGregor & Commander Fiona McCray & Lieutenant Commander Selune
Edited on on Mon Jul 18th, 2016 @ 12:12pm

0 words; about a 1 minute read

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

Captain's Log, USS Bonaventure: Stardate: -56902, Lieutenant Charybdis, acting commander

Captain O'Conner has led an away team with Commander Ak'Ahar, Lieutenant Celes, Doctor McKenzie and Lieutenant Junior Grade Andurean to investigate Falchion Depot, under the suspicion that the hijacked freighter may have been taken there for the purposes of offloading and selling her cargo, selling the crew into slavery and incorporating the ship into a raider fleet.

In the meanwhile I have been left in temporary command of the Bonne Chance, and been charged with locating the Nausicaan raider base within the asteroid belt. Currently we are closing in on the position that I suspect will be the exact location of said base. Ideally this should be a simple exercise, as the small-scale raider vessels conventionally associated with such activities should prove to be no match for a vessel the size of the Bonne Chance.



With that, Charybdis snapped off the recording device on the arm of the Captain's chair and returned to her Science station. She still needed to keep an eye on her scanners, so there was no reason for her to actually occupy the coveted command chair.

Besides, superstition somehow made her not want to take Patrick's seat, for fear that he might not return. The last captain she had sat in for was still MIA, after all.

The scanners had definitely narrowed down the trails of plasma exhaust and ion streams to this precise region of space, and she was confident that soon they would attract attention from some of the raiders. She was debating declaring yellow alert, but she did not wish to seem premature. Watching the scanners and the viewscreen alternatively she casting a glance across at the helm as the new pilot guided them easily through the tumbling rubble, and she weighed her options.

The Caitian's head bobbed as she hummed a nameless tune - well, probably not a nameless tune but one that no one would recognize after she filled in the bits she'd forgotten with random noise. Her tail swished idly as she cheerfully argued with the navigation computer's course corrections, enveloped in the blind indifference of one who is completely oblivious to their immediate surroundings and utterly engrossed in their task.

The Science Officer's contemplation was interrupted by the whooshing of the doors and the enticing scent of bacon mingling with charred beef. Lieutenant Fiona McCray strolled onto the bridge whistling merrily, tray in hand and galley cat weaving in and out through her legs as she walked.

The engineer paused to appreciate the view. "Now there's a sight," she said to no one in particular then grinned at the Vulcan. "Permission to come onto the bridge... I bring bribes" she chuckled and lifted the tray slightly. "It came to my attention that you hadn't stopped fer lunch and you're still recovering....a growing science officer needs to eat."

The blue-clad officer tried to argue with the red shirt, but her stomach was taking rather a strong vote of its own... she hadn't eaten anything since breakfast yesterday, and she had left that behind back in Sickbay last night. Nerves had kept her sharp, but the reminder that she was still vulnerable to the same weaknesses as all living things was making its point. She made a bit of a face at the diminutive engineer. "I'm not supposed to be eating on the bridge, Lieutenant..."

The redhead grinned. "I brought some fresh cookies as hush money for the rest of the crew....and might I point out that you can make a command decision to allow for a relaxation of protocol, Acting Commander Lady Sir. You won't do tha ship any favors by ending up laid out on the floor from a blood sugar crash, woman," she reasoned. "A grilled bacon cheeseburger with cheddar an smoked provolone, applewood bacon... red onion picked this marnin an butter lettuce. Went and got them m'self!" The engineer was not above using temptation as leverage.

"Weeeellll... " Charybdis wanted to do the right thing, but her stomach definitely won this round with a rather audible gurgle. "Okay, cookies for hush money and nobody tells the Captain, right?" She looked around the bridge for confirmation, and no one seemed particularly opposed.

Selune spent the next several seconds trying to decide if it would be prudent to inform everyone in earshot that Caitians do not share the feline love of milk. It would be a lie, but some things should just not be allowed into common knowledge. Then again, she mused, maybe the deep philosophical debates could wait until after large rocks stopped trying to hand out hugs. With luck she could get through her first shift without completely destroying the paint job.

The Vulcan vixen eased herself into her seat and gratefully accepted the plate from the engineer. "Thanks Fi... you're right, I would have just pressed through up here, but I really should eat something. Thanks for looking out for me." She smiled at the Scot warmly, then moved in on the delicious-smelling offering of the galley.

The next moment was something sentient beings should not behold and was spoken of only in hushed whispers ever more by those present, as the Vulcan versus the Cheeseburger was a short and violent battle in which the cheeseburger stood no chance... no chance at all.

The engineer chuckled as she passed out the still slightly warm cookies to any who wanted them with containers of milk. Oatmeal raisin with chunks of dark chocolate and dried cherries definitely met with the bridge crew's approval.

"Glad to see you approve of the fare," she said drily as she came back to lean on the boards and watch the stars for a moment while she waited for Char to finish up, which took surprisingly little time at all.

"Mmmmm... no, s'good fank oo tho muh," she mumbled out from behind her hand. With an effort she swallowed... apparently chewing was also something Vulcans were not big believers in, or at least this one wasn't. Then she indicated her viewer and waved the Chief Engineer over.

"Since you're here, take a look at these readings. I've got plasma exhaust and ion trails and I think that is even some leaky warp manifold trickling in as well, but the trajectories are throwing me off. Would you mind giving a second opinion from an engineer's standpoint?" she asked as she wiped the detritus from her hands with a napkin.

That pulled the engineer's attention off the view immediately and she popped up on her toes in order to peer down into the viewer.

She muttered under her breath and nodded. "Aye... there have been ships through here recently... more than one... no... maybe not," she frowned. "Damned confusing. I would say a large ship an' multiple small ones, perhaps."

"A carrier perhaps, launching smaller fighters?" Charybdis proposed.

"Aye...but not one I'm familiar with" Fiona allowed with a frown.

"Nor myself. Thus I am wondering just what we may be dealing with..."

The engineer straightened and looked at her friend solemnly. "If I had to estimate... I would say thet they're our size or close to it and I would estimate about 20 smaller fighters, smaller than shuttlecraft size"

Before that could be discussed further, an indicator light on the console blinked and Charybdis flipped a switch and leaned into her viewer. "Now that's unusual... I think we've located their asteroid base but it has some of the most unusual energy readings." She looked up at the viewscreen. "Helm, keep us a thousand kilometers distant from that asteroid... I've fed the coordinates through to your station."

"No problem," Selune replied as she casually made a minor course correction to avoid a particularly obtrusive rock, "err.. ma'am," she amended as the new coordinates spooled into her flight plan.

"Comm, are you picking up any subspace chatter out there?"

"No ma'am... if anything there's a suspicious lack of chatter out there," the comm officer replied, shifting her earpiece and adjusting her controls.

The Lieutenant considered her options... she did not want to be an alarmist, but it was her responsibility to not endanger the lives of the crew or the security of the ship.

"Go to yellow alert."

The yellow light flashed in the ship's status indicator, though no klaxon sounded... that signal was reserved for red alert, and they were not yet in the kind of danger. This would simply alert the crew to be ready for a ship-wide state of increased preparedness for possible crisis situations... because there was no crisis yet. At this point she was just being overly cautious.

Why did I promise him to bring his ship back without a scratch?!? Be calm, Char, they just have little scout and fighter craft... only the advanced empires of the galaxy can field something that is a danger to a vessel this size. It is just an asteroid the size of a very small moon, that's all... The scanners would give her the answers she needed, she was confident, so she returned to studying them intently. Give me your secrets, Nausicaans... you cannot hide from me...

"Holding at 1000 klicks relative velocity," Selune cheerfully informed the bridge, her head tilting slightly as she attentively studied the surrounding debris field for potential hazards.

Fiona frowned. "Char....scan that big asteroid," she said suspiciously as she tapped the image that she wanted scanned. "It's... toooooooo... it doesn't fit in here"

The canny engineer shook her head. "It's got battle scarring on it."

That made no sense whatsoever... who would shoot an an asteroid? As target practice options went there were literally thousands of options in this field that would blow apart with great satisfaction. So why would anyone take shots at one of the bigger asteroids? But as she scanned it over, sure enough, there was scoring as if from weapons fire, as well as something else.. .what almost looked like ion scoring from thrusters.

There was something nagging at Selune as she continued to examine the surrounding bodies. She told the computer to recalculate the estimated trajectories of the largest asteroids in the area, shaking her head in mute frustration before turning to her acting captain.

"Erm, Lieutenant..." she paused trying desperately to recall the officer's name before drawing a blank and giving up, "That asteroid... doesn't belong here. None of the trajectories of the nearby objects make any sense for a body of that size. It looks like it just bulldozed its way in and stopped dead in space right there. It doesn't even have a tumble orbit- it is literally just sitting there."

"Hmmm... Lieutenant Selune, bring us around. Maintain distance, but I want to see this thing from another angle... something definitely isn't right here."

Turning back to her console Selune began to plot a new flight path. "I've got a baaad feeling about this," she muttered to herself as she guided the Bonaventure to begin a stately arc around the mysterious space rock.

Fiona's eyes widened and she tugged insistently on the science officer's sleeve. "Thas nae moon... broaden yer scans... search tha bitch fer vitals!" she ground out hoping she was wrong.

"I am, I'm scanning for a dozen different things, but there's so much interference from all of the micrometeors in this field it's almost like being in a nebula, they're turning my scanners to..."

As the Bonne Chance came about, the asteroid was revealed just as a number of things happened all at once.



The hidden face of the asteroid was, in fact, bristling with a veritable junkyard of weapons, likely scavenged from dozens of different vessels and mounted in a ragtag array across a small area of the surface surrounding what appeared to be a flight deck built into the heart of the asteroid itself. There were cables and conduits snaking all over the surface of this facing which led to a number of installations... but the ones that concerned Charybdis were the ones lighting up as they fired.

"SONNAVA..." Fiona shouted as she grabbed railing.

"They're opening fire! Red alert, evasive maneuvers, raise shields!" Charybdis ordered, knowing even as she said the words that she was too late, and that they were definitely going to take the hits.

Not a scratch, I promised him... flashed through Charybdis' mind.

 

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