#23. Who rescued who?

Posted on Thu Feb 16th, 2023 @ 5:25pm by Captain Shauna Callaghan & Captain Deke Rivers & Lieutenant Commander David Wallace & Lieutenant Bob Covenant & Lieutenant Yama Ito Dr

Mission: Mission 9 Deal with the Devil
Location: Various
Timeline: After Hidden Danger

On:

--USS Charlottetown--

Jarred stood up "What happened?"

The science officer spoke "The Nova two has struck some form of gravitic mine, Their comms appear to be down, they have sustained significant damage."

"Best speed possible, direct intercept course." The Commodore called too his helm officer, "Engineering get this bucket of bolts moving!"

--USS Nova 2--

David was kneeling next too an access panel that had come off during the explosions, "Wallace to command, I think I've bypassed some damaged circuits in the lateral sensor array, can you confirm?" if they got even a shadow signal of the Gagarin class ship he'd be happy right now.

On the battle bridge everyone was getting settled at their stations. Shauna tapped her comm badge, “Checking now Lieutenant” She looked at Covenant for confirmation.”

" We have full power to sensors Commander. Lt Poole should have a full short range spectrum.

“Thank you Lieutenant” Looking towards Shamarra, “Lieutenant Poole what are sensors picking up?”

She listened as Poole read off what sensors were showing. “A cloaking device?” Shauna sighed. “So we ran into a shielded trap? Great, that’s just what we need. Where there’s one trap, there’s likely to be more.”

--Aboard the Charlottetown--

The Commodore was pacing, his anger and anxiety were beyond visible too the bridge crew, the silence was broken by the helmsman "Sir we're forty-five seconds out."

"About time, drop to impulse, and start scanning full spectrum." Jarred barked out too the bridge staff.

The tactical officer officer spoke next "No other devices detectable on most bands, sensors show various levels of hull damage, several system failures, I think their short ranges comms might be offline, but if they have any sensors they should be able too see us."

"Send a message in the open, that we are in range and able to assist."

--Nova 2--

David was on the floor trying to catch his breath, he looked out a view port from a blown door to someone's quarters, "Bridge Gagarin class ship my side of the ship." David stumbled too his feet. ~Damn he showed up.~

Deke met up with the others in the auxillary bridge just as they received the message.

" Those usually decloak at a certain perimeter. Message the Charlottetown that we hit a cloaked mine." Deke ordered.

--Charlottetown--

"Message from Nova, they his a cloaked mine." the ops officer said.

Jarred paused "Cloaked?" then "All STOP!"

The ship came too a stop as quick as possible, "Set up for a Tachyon pulse sweep lets see if we can find them." he shifted too his first officer "Commander soon as we have a clue on what is going on get us in transporter range."

After a few minutes of scanning the ops officer spoke "One other device about three thousand kilometers at three two zero mark eleven."

"Move us in, slow." The Commodore ordered.

--Nova 2--

Shauna was glad to have Deke back on the bridge. “We’re lucky Sir, the damage could have been so much worse.”

" I agree. Coms to engineering are out but they are on top of things there. Hail Charlottetown and unform them we will need a tow." Deke replied.

David crawled out of the Jefferies tube opening on the bridge, "Lieutenant Wallace reporting in."

" Kind of you to join us Lieutenant. It would seem we are to be rescued by the Charlottetown." Deke replied.

David didn't know if he should laugh "Considering who was supposed to rescue who this could be called Ironic." He looked at the display as the Gagarin class ship came into full view, David was the first too react as transporter beams glowed on the bridge, David saw one figure and felt his stomach turn too knots.

Commodore Wallace along with a damage control party and a medic appeared on the bridge of the Nova, He walked forward too the group in the middle of the bridge "Captain Rivers we're here too assist." taking a half step forward extending a hand with several visible burn scars.

Deke extended his hand to shake the Commodores.
" We hit a cloaked gravitic mine There are more I am sure. A tractor beam would be good if yours is working?" Deke replied.

"My chief engineer managed to get some of our engine troubles remedied and we have a functional tractor beam so we can give you a tow, but we are going too need to find the remaining mines." Jarred replied.

" Our sensors have a bead on one other cloaked mine. I will send the location." Deke added.

"We had pings from three, one was of concern, I'll let my tactical officer know about this contact," Jarred noticed David in the back of the gathering "We can move your injured too the Charlottetown, my engineering teams can provide back up for you."

An alarm sounded in the background "Deck five is back on auxiliary power again, I'll meet with the damage control team at the junction." David said as he excused himself.

" Thank you Lieutenant Wallace," Deke said while still eyeing the Commodore.

Shauna smiled as she approached Deke and the Commodore. “Repairs are proceeding as expected Sir.”

" Our main bridge is off line Commodore but we should be stable in a couple of hours . Is the Charlottetown able to tow us to Mercury?" Deke asked.

Jarred looked around and saw a thumbs up from his damage control team "We'll need about forty five minutes to get in position and ensure the engine problems are minimal for us, my chief engineer is certain we can tow you at low warp for sure." he paused "I want to run another cycle of Tachyon scans before we depart so we don't have too do any complicated maneuvers to get underway." he looked over too the open Jefferies tube access, "I've never seen a gravitic mine do this kind of damage though, I'll send a request too sector command for a ship to help clear them or disable them."

Deke swallowed as that meant more than it sounded as someone had gone to a great deal of trouble to put mines there.

“So was this a trap for us, or just whoever they could get?” Shauna looked at Deke concernedly.

" We need to get a sample. My guess is that is was to snare us. The Charlottetown was too close and too big for them to show themselves." Deke replied.

"If these are cloaked like the wormhole mines from the dominion war a Tachyon pulse scan should make them detectable, the problem is when we did this was we only found two more." he said "I think the Charlottetown was the target, my engineers found some intentionally sabotaged components when they were making repairs too the systems that didn't require a dry dock to repair."

" And we hit the trap first. Commodore who might want to have blown up your ship?" Deke asked.

"We were on our way to finalize a trade deal with the Essarry when this all started, we have been warned more than once that this trade deal with them was strongly opposed by factions within their government and holdings in general." Jarred shifted and resumed "Most of the factions didn't feel represented in the current deals language, and the delegation was to modify the deal with support of the government to balance out the deal for all of the colonies who were part of it, but clearly someone is still resistant and willing to stall the deal in order to kill it off."

" When you get to Mercury perhaps Commodore Sureth can help. For a Vulcan he has an Irishmans tongue.” Deke replied.

Commodore Wallace smirked "We'll need all the help we can get, in the meantime my damage control team will coordinate with you and we can move any injured crew to the Charlottetown's sickbay and we can get into a safe port in the interim."

Shauna nodded and looked to Deke. “With your permission Sir I’ll help organise the injured. The sooner we get underway the better.”

Dr Ito texted from sickbay that triage was open and soon medics were also rounding up the dead and wounded.

{OFF}