New Kids on the Block

Posted on Sat Nov 20th, 2021 @ 6:55pm by Captain Luzol Targaryen & Willian Targaryen & Minister Zehoi D'ian & Captain Ryan Walsh & Commander Ash Randall & Commander Nathan Hawkins & Commander Jasmine Haynes & Lieutenant Commander Patton O'Sullivan & Lieutenant Commander Bella Knowles & Lieutenant Dylan Blake & Lieutenant Bissiv th'Zaanaq & Lieutenant Cyrus Marner & Warrant Officer Harris Zim

3,470 words; about a 17 minute read

Mission: When They Come for Me
Location: Bridge, Starfleet One
Timeline: 0000-00-63, 08:00

Captain's Log, Stardate Unknown:

It has been three weeks since our escape from Cold Station 12 and during that period of time the ship has undergone a renaissance. While we are still low on several critical resources, through the actions of Lieutenant Commander Knowles and Lieutenant Zehoi we have been able to implement multiple upgrades to Enterprise to bring it on par with the vessels of the era. The incorporation of the Intellimetal, Programmable Matter, whatever they want to call it these days has taken us a long way toward being a capable defender of Federation ideals once more. Now though we are all excited to see the next innovation that the future has brought us...

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A survivor of Cold Station 12, Orion Lieutenant Zehoi was amazed by the progress that they had made in such a short space of time. The programmable matter that they had in storage aboard Cold Station 12 was a perfect addition to the systems of the ship, easily complementing and integrating with their systems. When she first saw Starfleet One out of the porthole aboard the Galileo she never imagined that it would be able to be refitted, but here it was only three weeks later and the ship was already comparable to the rest of the galaxy. Unfortunately, they were unable to implement the enhancements to the systems interface, propulsion, or docking interlocks between the main sections of the ship, but who knew what the future held for them. Now, since the hard part was done, she had the distinct honor of introducing the crew to the next piece of technology they would be using. Once she noticed that everyone had joined them on the Bridge of Starfleet One she was able to get the show started.

"Thank you all for joining us," Zehoi said in greeting to the Senior Staff of the ship. "I know how busy you all are with the Captain wanting to get us moving again, but we wanted to get everyone acquainted with another upgrade that we will be bringing into play."

Reaching toward her communicator badge she did a gentle flourish, "Everyone, meet your new communicator badge. We have been able to replicate them using data we recovered from Cold Station 12 shortly before its destruction. These new communicators are known as a TriCOMM and combine the functions of a communicator, PADD, Tricorder, and a transporter into one package."

"About time we got some decent tech around here " Biss commented as he gave his collar a small yank. He was still adjusting to wearing the Starfleet uniform.

"Impressive for such a small thing," Hawkins commented. "How does it work?" he asked.

"Glad that you asked," the Orion woman answered. "There are a couple different functions that you can use."

Lieutenant Zehoi modeled the different functions. First, she made a fist and then followed with upward open palm to activate the holoPADD. After showing she tapped her badge to deactivate the holoPADD. Then, she engaged the tricorder functions by squeezing and pulling her hand away to activate the tricorder. After a moment she reversed the movements to shut-down the tricorder. Wanting to show, but not beam herself away, she tapped her badge once to activate the transporter. A holographic coordinate system appeared, allowing the user the chance to type in their destination. She spoke at the end, "You would then tap your badge to engage the transporter. You can also setup a default location by double-tapping the badge."

Jasmine was not very fond of integrating futuristic technologies in with the Enterprise. "Do not get to attached, once we return to our time line. Department of Temporal Investigations is going to confiscate all this technologies. I would suggest that we limit integration as much as possible. The temporal prime directive does seem to apply in our situation." Jasmine pointed out to the Captain and the rest of the officers. For the moment she was a Commander, but once they returned home, she would be the chief of staff again for President Grundy. And she knew what DTI would do.

"You think you'll be able to get back?" Biss questioned curiously.

Zim simply grunted at the sight of the new tech. He did not feel that they needed such toys. However, his superiors ordered his presence and here he was.

Ash had watched, quietly, while Lieutenant Zehoi demonstrated the functionality of the TRICOMM and, barely, stifled a laugh at the announcement of Commander Haynes and the response from Biss. "DTI, if it still existed beyond our current point in time would have already corrected our temporal incursion, so, we can safely assume DTI, ceased to exist as an enforcement entity, when the Burn happened. DTI in our time period might be aware of our incursion and hasn't been able, or possibly, willing to send a time ship to herd us back to the 25th century." Ash observed, quietly.

"Regardless if DTI come for us or not we still need every advantage as possible against the Emerald Chain," Hawkins added. "These new badges are just the start."

Dressed in a casual tunic, Fleet Admiral Luzol Targaryen stepped through the side door and back onto the Bridge for the first time in months. Her arrival was fortuitous as she had arrived just in time to observe the display of the new TriComm badge of the era, but also a discussion regarding their arrival. She was somewhat gratified to have avoided the earlier challenges, but was not surprised that there was still some strife about their situation.

"Let's go," Her husband was holding her arm to help her enter the bridge, the muscle stimulators helping to overcome the malaise of her months in a coma.

Willian called out to the Bridge crew, "Admiral on the Bridge."

"I don't know much but time travel is completely banned, everything to do with it was destroyed. Something to do with the temporal wars a couple of centuries ago." Biss explained. "I suppose this ship being here is a violation of those laws "

Zim listened intently to what had been said. He thought it best at least for the time being to let the officers do the talking. However, he did not think that they could be held accountable for breaking a law that they did not even know existed. When the call came that the Admiral had joined them on the bridge Zim stopped what he was doing and came to rigid perfect attention. His eyes focused on the viewscreen. We would remain in this position until told to do otherwise.

Ash came to attention, her eyes coming to rest on Admiral Luzol and just the hint of a smile on her face and wondered what their newest crew members would make of the, newly, awakened fleet officer.

At the announcement Hawkins stiffen and half turned to greet the long absent Admiral Luzol. It was apparent she required additional rehab as Targaryen guided her closer but it was wonderful to see her back on her feet regardless.

Patton had been listening to the conversation at hand and understood their need to get home. Deep down, he wanted the same thing but he had resolved himself to living in this timeline until such time as they returned home. Otherwise he would drive himself crazy with overthinking. His main focus was on the safety of the ship and crew.

He turned immediately at the sound of new arrivals and went to attention at the arrival of the Admiral. Though he could see she wasn't at one hundred percent, Patton felt it was good to have her presence there.

The Deltan Flag Officer looked around the Bridge at the crewmembers that had gathered there. Some she quickly recognized while others she was unfamiliar with. Some she felt like she knew, but she could not identify their names. They were there, hovering in the distance like the traces of a dream. The challenges of the anomalies that had impacted her from the surgery.

"As you were," she released them as she was led to the center seat. "It is good to see all of you. I know that it had been a long while since we were last together; some of us have never been together before. I am certain that there are many stories that I have missed and I look forward to hearing them all. For now we need to prepare ourselves for the rest of our mission."

She looked around, carefully considering her crew, "Willian has briefed me on the gist of what is going on. With the upgrades that you executed we have some unanticipated advantages we did not have prior; however, we need to continue our efforts to reconnect with Starfleet and the rest of the Federation." She looked at Jasmine Haynes in her restored Starfleet uniform then to the newcomers, "I know that we all have a desire to go home, back to our time, and we will do what we can to ensure that fate for us. For now, we need to keep moving forward and continue to find new allies," she looked at the Andorian knowing he had not been on the ship prior.

"As I am still healing, however, I must face reality: I cannot effectively lead you as your Commanding Officer. I am restoring Captain Targaryen's command for that reason and I will serve in an advisory capacity until we reconnect with the rest of the fleet. I am not convinced that the Federation is gone and we will do whatever it takes to ensure that the Federation lives. We will find our people whatever it takes. We are a family and so to is the Federation. Now, who is ready to move forward?"

Jasmine did not agree with the crews decision to give up so quickly. She was still eager to get home, and just because the DTI did not step in, did not prove their hopeful dreams. Most of them were excited to stay. But deep down, non of them belonged here, this was not their timeline. They all had families back home. Jasmine had heard the former admiral's message. She was a little surprised by this move. This was not the plan. Was he giving up on going home?

Zim manned his station in silence. He continued to perform his duties while the Admiral spoke. The Cappellan was not one for long speeches and felt the Admiral was posturing at the moment. However, he was surprised to hear that they would not continue to pursue a way home. He would have liked to have been given the choice. But the officers made decisions for the enlisted and this was not something that they should be allowed to decide for the whole ship. Harris decided that come hell or high water he would make sure that everyone knew his displeasure and that he would make it back to Capella IV, his Capella IV, in his time.

"We may have a lead on just that," Captain Targaryen identified as he typed on the console built into the Executive Officer's Chair. A holographic display appeared in the center of the Bridge replicating the sector and their updated sensor findings. Willian approached it, "We have intercepted a transmission coming from a nearby sector - a news broadcast from Emerald Chain territory. I thought that we should pay some attention to it." He reached up and tapped the star, the computer playing the message.

"... Admiral Yasin Elria was arrested for violating the borders of the Emerald Chain while on a mission to support dissidents on Weytahn. The Starfleet official, who commanded the Vulcan Sector, is being transferred through the Exchange on Svaian II to the Svaian Asteroid Penal Colony where she will serve her life sentence."

Willian tapped the floating control, "We're going to launch a rescue mission."

Jasmine was not surprised by the news, but were they really up to the task of launching a rescue. They were at a technical disadvantage. Their technology was out of date, and they would be facing superior firepower. Tactically this was not a good call, or so her training told her. For the moment, she remained silent.

It was a momentous occasion for the Admiral to have come out of her coma, and Cyrus felt a great amount of relief and a weight lifted off from his shoulders. He even was very relieved for Willian. The three weeks between that disaster at that cold station and catching up on duties, getting medical up to better specifications, had weighed heavily on Cyrus. There was still more work to be done but they were definitely making a lot of progress. He caught up to the present in his thoughts, as the words from Captain Targaryen rang loudly in his ears.

"A rescue mission, whom will we be rescuing? Admiral Elria?" Cyrus needing to get more of a clarification.

"Indeed, Doctor," the Captain confirmed. "This Admiral Elria could be our key to reconnecting with the Federation and, perhaps, our ticket home."

"It's a good plan." Patton spoke up. "And I also, would like to return home but at the same time, I believe we need to move forward and make a life here in the meantime." His eyes were steady and his voice strong. "There is a good chance we may not be able to go back. We don't give up trying but I agree that we need to search for our Federation family and aid where we can." He looked at the Captain. "Let's rescue this Admiral, Sir."

Cyrus cleared his throat. "Would this mission be needing a doctor to help infiltrate inside? A doctor may be helpful unless they find me a good commodity to acquire." giving a bit of a shrug.

While his colleagues began to chip in Hawkins had remained silent and thoughtful. Rescuing the Admiral would be highly beneficial in terms of creating allies in this new time line, however given their technological disadvantages this idea was extremely high risk. "Forgive my blunt question - but how do you plan to achieve this? Our upgrades aren't enough to repel the heavy fist of the Emerald Chain, we'd be an easy target."

"We will be working out the rescue plan as we travel. With the size of Starfleet One we are going to be limited in our ability to approach using our ship, but we have an alternative in mind already." He motioned in the air and the holograms responded, placing a replica of the ship that Biss used in their midst. "We will be using Mister Biss' ship to infiltrate the area."

Commander Randall blinked a few times at that statement but didn't comment.

Zehoi interrupted from the Mission Operations console, "I have been able to access the library computer files that we downloaded from CS12 before it was destroyed and found some updated information about Svian II. At last report it is a Class O world with the surface covered completely by water. It has a Nitrogen/Oxygen atmosphere, standard gravity, and no moons. In the 26th Century the Andorians established an artificial outpost on the surface. It has continued to be used ever since. It was converted into an Exchange shortly after the establishment of the Emerald Chain."

She paused and looked at the screen, horrified by what she read, "The Emerald Chain maintains a full Embassy on the planet. They converted the former Federation Embassy into a junkyard. The Exchange is directly parallel to the docking center."

Bella was satisfied with the response their improvements had earned and she turned her attention to the task at hand. "Do we plan to rescue her before she's sent to the prison? That seems the most logical course of action considering the level of security they are sure to have. Do we have anything we can use to confirm her appearance?"

It was a good question. Ash didn't suppose the Captain would make the proposal of a rescue without knowing what their rescue target looked like. Then, again, it might not matter.

"Not to sound like the downer of this idea. How are we going to pull off a rescue in a ship that is outdated, and without having a clear idea how things work during this time period?" Jasmine asked, as she looked over to the captain. She then went on. "I don't mind falling on my sword, as it were sir. I feel that we need a plan, especially since we are walking into an unknown situation with inadequate technologies." Jasmine pointed out.

Zim finished the scans that he had been running and with nothing further to do at the moment he stood with his hands behind his back and listened. He thought that all this talk and no action would delay what could be the worst. The easiest plan as he saw it was to create a small team, armed with weapons of the period. In and out, the old snatch and grab. There were moments like this when Harris just didn't understand the full appeal of serving in the fleet.

"You raise some good points," the Captain explained as he looked around the group, "all of you have raised good points. We have been able to obtain an image of Admiral Elria from the records downloaded from Cold Station 12. While it is not a recent image, the Station lost contact with Starfleet and received no additional updates about a decade ago, we believe it to be enough to go off of. That's the good news."

He continued, glancing at the Andorian that had been an enemy a short while ago, "We have been able to repair and reactivate the ship that Mister Biss had used when we first encountered him. It is Andorian in design, used by their courier network, and would be an ideal vessel to help us infiltrate the planet. Once the Admiral is recovered, the rescue team will get back to SF1 so that we can jump out of here."

"I won't deny that we are not experts on this time period as Commissioner Haynes has identified, which is all the more reason we need to try to rescue the Admiral and reconnect with Starfleet," his attention ended with Commissioner Haynes.

It was Luzol who spoke next, "When we reconnect with Starfleet we will then discuss our options for the future. Our ideal will be returning to our time period - after an extensive defit where we return current Federation resources to them and undergo engram resequencing to forget about what we have seen here."

Hearing Luzol explain what may happen should they return sounded almost and bad as staying here, almost but not quite Hawkins concluded.

"Any other thoughts?"

"It's a risk, but I don't see that we have any other choice sir." Jasmine said, in support of her captain. She was ready to assist the away team if needed, and if must. Fall on her sword. She hoped that would not be necessary. She rather enjoyed her life, and wanted to live to be an old lady.

The Andorian helmsman had no idea that his ship had been repaired. He would have offered to help in its rebuild. He suddenly became sheepish when he remembered his holographic crew was probably still in the ships memory.

"Thank you, sir. I'm happy to use my ship to help out anyway I can."

Cyrus didn't have any problem with the plan, he hoped that it would work. And he wanted to be there to be of something of a help to.

I am on board with the rescue." Patton spoke up. "And willing to do what you need me to, Sir."

Zim knew his place in situations like this. That place was to keep his mouth shut and follow the orders given. However, he could not help but feel like staying in this time period and assisting was the most ridiculous plan he had ever heard. Seeing as he could not say that aloud, he simply stood there quietly with his eyes front. Harris believed that if he remained quiet that would be his protest of these orders.

Ash listened to the conversations on the bridge and stared a hole in the Captain for a few seconds before turning her attention back her engineering station. The Chief Engineer had nothing she could add to the conversation that would be appropriate for the situation or be welcome so was going to keep her thoughts, such as they were, to herself.

After saying his piece, Patton waited to see what instructions would be given further. He was feeling good that they were doing this...moving forward in this timeline, until they could find a way home.

Willian nodded, "Alright then. Set course for the Oort Cloud of the Svian System. Warp 2."

 

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