#10 Comet Away Team

Posted on Thu Feb 1st, 2024 @ 11:53am by Lieutenant Commander Billi & Lieutenant JG Griffon Resch "Nazgul" & Lieutenant Bob Covenant

Mission: https://starbasem69.myrpg.space/index.php/sim/missions/id/19
Location: Delta Flyer
Timeline: current

ON:

Upon boarding the Delta Flyer, Billi, Resch and Covenant began to get the ship ready for departure. They had one medical officer with them, Lieutenant Ito. He went to the aft section and began to set up the lone biobed in case it would be needed as Billi took the pilot's seat down in the nose cone of the craft, with Resch sitting up and behind her in the tactical seat. Three more stations were available for use.

"We set?" Billi asked.

"All good, Number One," stated Resch, running a quick diagnostic of the ship's systems, seeing they were all in the green. Gotta love Ejo, he thought, always on the ball.

Billi, hearing all was in the green, lifted off and spun the Delta around to face the opening shuttle bay doors. Out on the deck a flight control officer held the glow rods in the position of waiting. Once the doors were fully open and the way clear for departure, he signaled with the rods that the Delta was free to clear the bay. Billi gave a silly salute-wave through the window and accelerated, shooting out the aft of the Nazgul and into free space. Swinging around to their starboard, along Nazgul's port side, they all could now see the tail of the comet as its melting ice and debris broke away due to the heat of the star it was passing near to.

"Buckle in, people," Billi ordered. "This could get bumpy on the way in. Mister Resch, reduce life support 25% and shunt that power to shields and maneuvering thrusters."

"You got it, Commander." Griffon said, tapping keys and setting the vessels capabilities as the XO had directed.

"Mister Covenant," Billi said. "I need you to man the sensors. Give me a steady feed of up-to-the-minute changes in debris density. I'll have a screen dedicated to that data, to better steer through it all to reach the ship."

" Aye Aye. " Covenant replied as this excitement fueled his adrenaline. Scanning the debris frield Bob's eyes widened.
" Scanning the debris."

Using fly-by-sight, Billi was already threading her way through the outer debris, the smaller bits and pieces and the mist of ice crystals breaking away in the heat. She kept glancing to the screen, seeing that Covenant was spot on with his feed.

" Adjusting subspace Deflector. Port turn in 6 seconds." Covenant warned.

Billi acknowledged that, then counted down in her mind; 6-5-4-3-2-1. As directed she saw the larger piece of debris Covenant had referred to. Since the comet was moving through the Unre system at quite a distance from the sun, the cometary breakdown was maintaining its current decay. "Thanks, Cuv. That coulda been bad. But, we're already approaching the ship so I'll get us in closer."

" Scanning the ship shows it has lost main power. 5 seconds to transporter range." Bob added.

Resch then chimed in. "Number One, we're getting a comm signal from the vessel. They have enough power to open their aft cargo hold," he pressed the earpiece into his ear to make sure he heard it all over the interference. "They say it's practically empty and we should fit inside nicely."

"Mister Covenant," Billi said, still focused on slowing their speed and getting in closer to the ship. "Is that aft cargo bay suitable?"

"Commander, that's a Boslic freighter," Griffon stated. "Pretty common, and used by various species other than the Boslics. They sell them regularly to outsiders."

" Yes sir." Bob replied.

"Excellent," Billi said, mimicking the Captain and one of his favorite expressions. "Means we won't need to space walk to get inside. Moving in for dock." She turned through another hail of smaller pieces, the forward shields at maximum as they disintegrated the flotsam impacting them.

" Sir scanning humanoid bio signs." Covenant added.

Resch backed up Covenant. "He's right, Commander. Sensors show not only humanoid, but Human. The freighter has minimal defenses and hard points, and they are inert."

As Billi flew in along the starboard side of the freighter she saw the aft cargo bay door open, revealing a space more than large enough for the Delta to land. So, doing as they were invited to do, Billi slid inside the bay, the doors closing down as soon as they were inside, with Billi getting the ship settled on the landing struts.

"I say set weapons to stun, Sirs." Resch said. "We were invited inside, and until they show bad intentions we should at least act like we're friendly too."

" It is odd to have a human ship this far out so I agree." Bob added as he felt like one of the big kids.

They all went into the back, seeing Doctor Ito with his small biobed/medical area all set up. Billi strapped an equipment belt around her waist, buckling down the tactical holster same as Resch was doing, making sure a tricorder and its holster were also included. As the boys were finishing their away gear she went over and instead of hitting the control for the singular door in the middle of the aft bulkhead for the Delta, she slapped the release for the ramp access. The entire aft bulkhead folded down and out to form a solid ramp for egress.

Resch had his gear set, stepping in quickly to pass Number One and be the first to descend from the Delta to the cargo deck of the freighter. His eyes went all around the compartment, seeing nothing immediately threatening. Looking back at Billi he gave a nod to show he was satisfied that there were not any surprises waiting for them.

Across the bay, along the inner bulkhead, the personnel door opened and in walked three beings. It took Griffon's brain a moment to register what he was seeing. Two males and a female, the female in the middle of the triangle now approaching. All three wore garb similar to Earth 18th century. Riding pants, knee-high riding boots with all terrain soles, and white poet shirts. Over the shirts they wore vests very similar to an engineer's vest in Starfleet, with portions of devices and tools sticking out from pouches and pockets. But, the most surprising aspect was that they were children, not one of them taller than four and a half feet. Their stature was not like the little people of Earth, with the stunted limbs and other physical traits. These beings were perfectly whole like any other Human, except that they were just shorter. All three wore blades on their hips that Resch found akin to the Roman gladius, along with knives of various lengths and purpose. However, all three did wear a sidearm in holsters high on the hip, as if it were not the first weapon they chose to use.

The female was fair haired, the two males with darker locks, but all three had eyes that were slightly larger for their face than your typical Human, and that told Resch that they were not Human but something else. Perhaps, like the Capellans, these folks were very close to in physiology to that of Humans, so much so that medical treatment would be a simple process of adjusting for minor differences. The female had her hair bound back in a long French braid bound and held by a tied leather thong, not some kind of scrunchy. All their clothing and equipment appeared to be hand sewn from organic materials such as metals, leather, and various woven cloth.

The woman came forth quickly, granting a bow from the neck, her stance denoting anxiety. The two males followed along beside her but they kept leaning back to speak to each other in whispers behind the female's head, with quick glances towards the strangers.

"Hallo." The female said. "I am Janel, Master of this vessel. This is Tommo," she introduced the one to her left. "And, this is Sammo." The one to her right.

By this time Billi had stepped down the ramp to stand beside Griffon.

Resch could hear that this Janel was well-versed in Federation Standard (English). "A pleasure to meet you, Janel. And, you, gentlemen. I am Ensign Griffon Resch and this is Lieutenant Commander Billi."

Tommo and Sammo did the lean back and chat behind Janel's head again. "His name is Griffon." Tommo whispered, seemingly excited by that, to which Sammo replied. "A mighty beast! I bet half my breakfast he is a mighty warrior!"

Janel smacked both of them on their upper arms. "Stop!" The two jumped at being struck, even rubbing the spots where she had slapped them. Janel turned back to the Starfleet people. "Apologies. They don't get out much. Do you have healers?" The query was asked with urgency.

Billi looked to the small woman. "We do have healers, Captain Janel." Covenant had come down the ramp to stand with them. "This is Lieutenant Bob Covenant, he is someone versed in engineering systems and sciences. We Doctor, or healer as you say, on board."

"Thank the Maker," Janel sighed out with relief. "Our Engineer is ill due to our warp core overheating and nearly breaching. He got it under control but had to shut it down. Since then he has suffered radiation sickness and is not doing well."

Tom and Sam had stepped a few paces away, still whispering between themselves with grins aplenty. As they did this they kept looking over at Covenant before going back to conferring with each other quietly.

Resch, still a bit confused by all this, decided to ask a question. "Where are your parents?"

Billi, standing to his left, tried to keep it to herself but spoke very lightly out loud. "Oh, shit."

Griffon's head turned to look at her, but then his eyes came back to Janel as she spoke, placing her hands on her hips in a pose of defiance.

"My parents? My Parents? They are back on Durana, where else would they be." Janel asked. "I am quite old enough to command this ship, Ensign Resch, without parental oversite."

As Resch went to respond, his mouth opening slightly, he felt a hand on his forearm. When he glanced over Billi shook her head at him before turning her eyes to the smaller woman. "Captain Janel, please forgive the insult. Mister Resch has never met your kind before, nor probably ever heard of you." She then turned her attention to the Ensign. "Griffon, they are a smaller race. Most never get above four and a half feet. I myself have never met them personally, but the Orion Syndicate does run into them on occasion."

Resch blushed, embarrassed at having made the comment he did. "Apologies, Janel. It was not my intention to insult you or your people."

Tommo suddenly laughed as he was still talking with Sammo. "I told you it would happen. Come on! You owe me a coin!" He laughed some more as the coin was handed over. A coin that looked to be gold-pressed latinum, similar in function as a latinum strip, but done up in a coin form.

Sammo looked at Resch. "You, Sir, are bad luck." He snickered. "As for height, I am four feet, five inches tall, as is Tom. Janel, though, is four feet six. Taller than everyone on board." He beamed a smile at them.

Janel gave an exasperated sigh. "As I said, they don't get out much. Can you help my engineer, or not?"

"We can," Billi said. "However, if he is irradiated to a higher level than is safe he will have to be transported in stasis. Our healers can inoculate the rest of us, but the afflicted nay require more time and care."

"Good, good," Janel said, the relief plain in her tone. "Do you have a transporter tag of some kind? Something I can place on his body so you can beam him to this stasis thingy of yours?"

"How many serve aboard your ship, Janel?" Resch asked.

Janel answered quickly but casually, seemingly recovering from her anxiety over those under her command. "Seven."

Hearing that, Resch had to control himself a tad. He wanted to grin at the number stated, the old Seven Dwarves tale coming to mind. It was bad enough that these beings from Durana looked and acted in a similar fashion to the Hobbits of Tolkien's Middle Earth. He wondered if there was a Q out there mucking with them since they flew around on a Nazgul, and had now met the people of the Durana shire. "We can pack you aboard the Delta Flyer and get you free from here. After you're safe and you're engineer has been seen to by Sickbay, then we can always return to recover and repair your ship." He realized he may have been overstepping, so looked over at Billi. "Right, Commander?"

Billi nodded along. "Ensign Resch is correct. We can get you to safety with the ship we have now. Once our mother ship, the USS Nazgul, returns we can then come in and see to getting your vessel free of the comet and make repairs. Better a loss of a ship than the loss of your lives, wouldn't you agree?"

Janel could not argue that point. "I do. Tom, Sam, gather the others and tell them to activate all the automation systems for structural integrity." Janel looked to Billi. "And the transporter tag?"

Resch dug into a pocket on his web gear, handing over a small badge. Billi then handed it to Janel. "Put this on your injured man. Contact us and we'll beam him into the biobed for stasis. Doctor Ito is one of our best healers."

"I suggest you hurry, Captain Janel." Resch said. "The quicker we get what we need done, the quicker we can return and see to your ship."

"Very well," Janel responded. She hurried away to get things done.

Within half an hour all were aboard the Delta. Billi piloted the small craft out of the bay, which Janel closed through a command signal once they had departed. After a jaunt through the cometary debris the Delta Flyer was once again in clear space. Billi contacted the Nazgul, giving a quick rundown of what had transpired, and designating an intercept/rendezvous point to meet up with the Nazgul. Once all was confirmed the small vessel jumped to warp.

OFF: