Well, I guess its time for the next story. I hope this assortment of thoughts through words is well recieved.
Proud to present: Second Chances II: The Long, Dusty Trail: Captain’s Log, stardate 11606.2:
It has been almost two months since
Cerberus started her conversion, and I am very pleased to say that, after extensive trials and tests, we are more than ready to begin on our journey into the great unknown. Our first stop is the remote Trellious System, which hasn’t been visited by Starfleet for almost one hundred years.
Cerberus’s new sensor suite will greatly aid in charting this little known system.
All of the personnel that were injured during our encounter with the ‘Masters’ have finally fully recovered, the last of them being Security Chief Lieutenant O’Kelly. He’s finally adjusted his newly constructed arm, and was eager to return to duty.
There is a tension aboard ship, but I am fairly certain it is just the crew’s eagerness to return to space. It could also be the fear of the unknown we are about to explore. Time will tell.
End entry.
“You can call it the ‘Elevator Evacuator’,” Lieutenant Perkins said, exiting the turbo lift. McDougal looked over his shoulder and watched as Perkins and the helm officer, Lieutenant Michaels, walked onto the bridge and to the forward stations.
“It did clear them all out in a hurry,” Michaels replied, a playful smile on his lips. He sat at his station and briefly perused the readouts. Perkins sat at the port auxiliary console, and set it up for sciences.
“Do either of you care to elaborate?” McDougal asked them. He could feel the eyes of Lieutenant T’Sala and Lieutenant Commander McCloud, at their tactical and engineering stations respectively, gazing curiously at the pair in the forward part of the bridge.
“I spent some time at one of the Klingon food kiosks last night,” Michaels began, turning to face his commanding officer, “and it has had an adverse effect on my, uh, internals, sir.”
McDougal and McCloud nodded in understanding, while T’Sala stood in silent contemplation. “And this elevator…?” McCloud queried.
Before either one of them could respond, the lift door swooshed open, depositing Lieutenant Commander Jones and Doc Johnson onto the bridge. “Someone needs to go to sickbay and have a complete intestinal exam,” Doc started. “I just hope it wasn’t one of ours.” McDougal turned to the new voice and smiled as the pair walked towards him. “One of the lift cars on the station reeked of flatulence,” Doc explained to him. “‘Montezuma’s Revenge’ hardly does it justice.”
McDougal fought hard to return to a straight face, and added, “I’m sure whoever it was didn’t do it on purpose.”
“Nor would this person have intentionally done so to clear the elevator of starbase personnel so they could get where they were going faster,” Perkins added.
Yeah I did Michaels thought to himself, smiling ear to ear and keeping his face turned from Doc.
“I’m also certain,” McCloud added, “if this person was on the bridge, he or she would be able to contain themselves.” She shot the Vulcan beside her a sideways glance to allay suspicion.
The turbo lift door parted once more, allowing O’Kelly onto the bridge. Those already on the bridge turned and watched as he silently went to the starboard replicator, ordered himself a coffee, black, and walked to the starboard aux console, setting it up as a security station.
“I’m sure,” Doc continued the bantering, “if this unhealthy soul were on the bridge, he or she would know to head to sickbay as soon as possible.”
“Message from
Hyperion,” T’Sala said, changing the subject. “We are clear to undock as soon as we are able. They also add that a combat readiness drill is about to occur, our participation is not required, but we are invited.”
“Who is attacking the station in this simulation?” McDougal questioned her, not taking his gaze off of the view screen. The massive doors leading them to the freedom of space opened slowly, the pin points of starlight began to shine through as the opening grew.
“Starfleet Assault Squadron Seventeen,
Rolling Thunder, sir,” T’Sala replied.
“I’d assume that the local defense force is all that the station has?”
“Aye, sir, along with a small handful of ‘non-locals’, the station has sixteen defenders.”
Perkins added his part, “Sensor feed from
Hyperion, sir.
New Jersey class U.S.S.
City of Corpus Christi and
Excelsior class U.S.S.
Repulse have dropped from warp fifty thousand kilometers from the station, bearing two-six-five mark zero.”
McDougal watched as the doors finally opened wide enough to allow them egress from the station. A Klingon C-7 battle cruiser that had shared the bay with them for the last two weeks slowly began the crawl to open space. As the station rotated around its axis, it allowed them a view of the newcomers. “Clear all moorings and service umbilicals. T’Sala, signal the station, tell them we’ll play on their team, and go to red alert, but do not charge weapons or raise shields. Helm; take us out as soon as we are underway. Perkins, give me a tactical readout on screen, lower left corner.”
A series of ‘Ayes’ swept the bridge and
Cerberus fell in line behind the cruiser before them. Main lighting about the ship dimmed, replaced by red flashers and solid red lighting, accompanied by the shrill barking of the alert klaxon. Crewmen swiftly went to their battle stations, their travels hastened by the fear of the unknown reason for a red alert in space dock. Quietly, the two ships exited the station into space. “Computer,” Jones ordered from beside her CO, “set all combat systems to simulation mode, and run combat damage simulation program.”
The computer chirruped and beeped, and finally acknowledged her with its friendly female voice, “Combat systems set to simulation mode. Damage control set to simulation mode.”
“Klingon see-seven
Deposer has raised shields and is engaging
Repulse,” Perkins read from his console. “New contacts warping in, bearing one-one-four mark zero, it’s the rest of the squadron, sir.”
“Confirmed, sir,” T’Sala added. “Communications being jammed, Hydran Paladin H.M.S.
Hand of Fate closing on
Repulse. All ships maintaining combat impulse speeds.”
“Helm, set course zero-zero-nine mark zero-one-zero, all ahead standard. T’Sala, raise shields and charge the phaser capacitors.”
“Aye, sir; phasers charging, shields up.” Two armed security guards entered the bridge and took station at the lift door.
“New telemetry from attack force,” Perkins interrupted.
“Keep it simple, Mister Perkins,” McDougal replied. He could see the blips on the screen, each of the attacking and defending vessels were labeled on the smallish tactical display on the main screen; both with class and name.
“Three frigates, two destroyers, two heavy cruisers, one scout and one command cruiser, all are new technology variants. Range to station forty-five thousand kilometers and closing, range to us fifty-two thousand and opening.”
Cerberus closed on the two battle cruisers. Both had exchanged long range photon fire with the station, and were beginning to exchange phaser fire with the Hydran and Klingon ships.
“Clearing defensive minefield now,” Michaels added to the battle chatter after a few moments.
“All defender ships are clear of the mines,” T’Sala added. “There is a high probability that the station will ‘simulate’ activating them; it would be prudent to not head back that way.”
“Very well, then.” McDougal watched as the smaller
Cerberus closed in on the photon laden battle cruiser. Low power phaser fire shot out from the
Corpus Christi and licked the
Deposer’s shields. “Helm, change course to two-nine-eight mark three-five-zero, all ahead flank. T’Sala, fast load all torpedoes as full overloads. At a range of eight thousand, open fire with all phasers in arc.”
“Sir,” Perkins interjected. “
Repulse is moving away from
Corpus Christi and is changing course towards us.” McDougal watched the screen as the massive
Excelsior changed her course, pulling out from her counterparts starboard side and crossing in front, closing the shrinking gap between her and
Cerberus. Both vessels fired simulated photon torpedoes into the downed aft shield of
Deposer, but the ship continued its own turn to port, unshaken by the ‘damage’; firing simulated phasers into
Repulse’s undamaged starboard aft shield. The shots were followed up by the Hydran vessel, who had managed to close in to point blank range on the now weakened shield, despite the wicked onslaught of the two Starfleet ships. If
Repulse would take a lesson away from this, it would be ‘never let a Hydran get that close.’
Fate unleashed simulated hell into
Repulse, collapsing the shield and causing severe simulated damage.
The commander of
Corpus Christi was no fool. He knew that
Cerberus would soon have a fair shot at her relatively weaker rear shields. The massive ship turned to face the smaller vessel, to take the brunt of the attack on her still intact front shield. McDougal knew he’d only get one good and safe shot as the battle cruiser’s weapons recycled. “Helm, change course to two-two-four mark three-five-zero, stand by to go to warp two. McCloud, reinforce shield three and eight with all available power; T’Sala, fire all weapons as we cross arcs, same range as before.”
“New energy reading from
Hyperion, Tholian defense web rings two and three activated,” Perkins said. “Dreadnought
Agamemnon simulated destroyed. She finished off two of the attacking cruisers when she blew, the combined simulated explosion crippled the command cruiser and a Tholian cruiser that got too close.
Repulse is crippled but still in the fight,
Corpus Christi is charging weapons, we will not clear their forward arc in time to avoid a direct hit.”
“Understood,” McDougal replied. “O’Kelly, send a hit and run team to transporter room two, target
Corpus Christi’s main bridge. Tell them to tell her skipper that I send my regards.”
“Aye, sir,” the man said, and with a smile on his face he set about coordinating his security teams.
“Range eight thousand, firing phasers one through four.” Four beams of low power phaser energy set out and found their mark upon the battle cruiser’s front shield. Despite the assault, it remained up, though damaged. One of
Cerberus’s enhancements for traveling through the dangers of unknown frontier space was an increased phaser and photon suite. The added section of hull added four new phasers, two primary and two defensive gatlings, and while one of
Cerberus’s original photon tubes had been removed, two more were added to her belly with a wider arc than the two originals. The ship’s two missile racks had been removed as ‘obsolete equipment,’ but she retained her impressive anti-missile defense systems, which had been augmented with increased capacity.
“Firing phasers seven through eleven,” T’Sala continued. Two simulated main phasers and twelve simulated gatling bursts impacted the battle cruiser’s already battered shield, slamming it down. “Firing all four torpedoes.”
Cerberus continued her turn down and to port as the four simulated overloaded torpedoes impacted.
Corpus Christi’s lights flickered, indicating that she had taken simulated damage.
Cerberus’s turn to port and down took the belly mounted phasers out of arc, but let her last upper two come to bear.
“Hold fire,” Jones called. McDougal eyed her, but didn’t question the counter to his order. No need for the weapons to inadvertently strike down the soon to be deployed raiding party.
“Shield two lowered, transport away,” O’Kelly said. They all waited a tense moment, hoping that the attack team would come back before the ships changed shield arcs. “Boarding party returned. Captain Tenaga sends his regards, and is simulated dead, sir, along with most of the bridge crew. Two of our men are likewise simulated dead, the others injured.”
“Guess that’s my cue,” Doc said, turning to the bridge’s only exit.
“
Corpus Christi weapons recycled!” Perkins shouted.
“Helm, warp speed!” McDougal shouted back.
Cerberus would have shook as the phasers impacted the starboard aft and dorsal shields, but instead shook slightly and almost unnoticeably as she jumped to warp.
“Shield three down to ninety six percent,” McCloud said from her engineering panel. “Shield seven is down to sixteen percent. Going to warp robbed them of reinforcement.”
“Helm, set new course, one-two-three mark zero-four-two, all ahead two thirds.”
Cerberus dropped from warp speed underneath the
Deposer and began turning as the two ships passed in opposite directions.
Fate had managed to turn around behind
Repulse, bringing the deadly Hydran weapons back to bear on the stricken vessel.
“
Hyperion is signaling all ships to stand down,” T’Sala reported. “They also report
Rolling Thunder has signaled that they are withdrawing.”
“Stand down from red alert.” McDougal paused, and pressed his ‘1MC’ button. “All hands, good job in the simulated battle. We are now standing down and continuing with our mission.” McDougal closed the circuit and stood. “Computer, secure from combat simulation, restore all systems to normal.”
“All systems returned to normal,” the computer responded to him after a brief series of chirrups and beeps. The ships lighting returned to normal and all the red lights turned off. “Congratulations, people, we damaged one of Starfleet’s best. A couple more rounds out here with the help of our Klingon and Hydran friends, we’d have had both ships.” He walked over to the starboard replicator unit and manually input the order to create one long, brown cigar, match, and ash tray. He had to sacrifice one ‘VICTORY’ and one ‘DEFEAT’ to get the computer to make them right, but it was a good sacrifice.
He removed the recreated items from the unit, and looked back at all the eyes on him. “Simulated victory, simulated cigar,” he said. “Helm, lay in a course for Trellious system, warp six.”
Michaels turned back to the helm and input the destination and speed on the navigation console. “Trellious, warp six, aye, sir,” he said while he and the computer worked. A brief moment passed as the navigation computer fed the helm the course and all the corrections that would have to be made en route to avoid stellar phenomena and other bodies. “Course laid in, sir.”
“Execute,” he said to Michaels. With a burst of disrupted subspace, the stars on the screen blurred from normal to mottled tunnel to streaks as the ship leapt to warp.
Jones smiled at her CO, and he returned the smile. “You want one?” he asked, gesturing to the replicator.
“No,” she replied. “But I’ll take some of yours, if you don’t mind.” McDougal placed the stogie to between lips and was about to strike the match when O’Kelly interrupted him.
“Sir,” he started, “I don’t know why we didn’t see this before, but internal sensors indicate we have a stowaway.”
“Oh?” he replied, sharing the look of surprise with the rest of the bridge crew.
Czar "+1 Karma for any 'Lurker' that leaves a comment" Mohab, who adds, with jest, "SLACKERS!" 
*Edited posting icon to "thumbs up" to maintain continuity between stories*
Topic: Second Chances II: The Long, Dusty Trail. (Read 17844 times)