So Much For the Little Training Cruise

Posted on Mon Feb 24th, 2020 @ 1:03am by Division Admiral Thomas Lasky & Fleet Captain Torilla Yamaguchi & Commodore Siaxx "Bluemoon" Dvald-Vaxx MD

Mission: Mission 8: Hope Found and then Lost
Location: Various Locations - USS Yorktown
Timeline: 1430Hrs - April 18th, 2389

The Yorktown danced around the simulated weapons fire from the ‘enemy’ ships and delivered real hits on her targets. One was adrift, another damaged, and the third was trying to run on thrusters only due to damage it too had suffered.

K’Temoc looked over sensor readings and was about to call out another strafing run on one of the damaged ships when the subspace comm beeped. Lieutenant Gardner, who’d spent most of the mission ill and in his quarters was before this final test spoke up.

“Captain, we have an incoming priority one distress call coming from the civilian transport ship Em’kool, an Antares class transport. They say they've suffered engine trouble and are adrift, they also say there’s a level three ion storm approaching their position and will arrive in less than an hour.” The Intelligence Officer reported.

K’Temoc’s attention broke from the simulated battle as he focused on the real emergency. A level three ion storm could destroy a ship like the Em'kool, killing everyone aboard. “What’s the closest ship?”

Yamaguchi also turned into the ongoing conversation as she split her attention between her evasive maneuver sequence she was performing at the conn and the conversation, however she did not inquire about what was going on.

“The closest ship is the USS Haven, but it’ll take her about six hours to arrive at the Em’kool’s position...we could be there in about forty-five minutes using Slipstream.” Gardner replied.

“Any other Slipstream equipped ships in range?” K’Temoc asked.

“No sir.” Gardner replied.

The Captain took a quick breath, glanced at the main viewer again, then leaned back in the chair. “Commander, take us out of the Range. Natia, signal the Range’s Operations Center we are disengaging from our test and will be leaving the area, have them clear our flight path, then signal the Em’kool we’re in route. Gillo, work with Engineering to ensure we have proper power flow to the Slipstream systems, as well as the ship’s structural integrity field, and also keep an eye on the ship’s computer systems and core relays for anymore spikes in activity not related to required ship’s functions for slipstream flight. Takabe, pull up anything you can on the Em’kool. How many passengers, crew, and anything else that’ll be priority when we arrive.”

Yamaguchi nodded, her orders was clear. "Aye Captain. Taking us out of the range." she responded as the flaming hulk of the ship they had been trading fire with suddenly pin wheeled off of the screen as Yamaguchi turned the ship about.

Takabe studied her display. "Captain, not much on the Em'kool. It is owned by a Tellarite trading company. It has a crew of twelve and according to the flight manifest has eighty seven passengers. The ship's only defense is a weak deflector shield." Nuala informed K'Temoc.

Holly's hands flew across her panel and she spoke as she moved, "Aye sir. Engineering and Operations will be like semis twins till otherwise noted, sir." Her attempt to use human terms to vocalize her thoughts. She was still working on it but did her best to let the Captain know operations and engineering were going to work as one till otherwise noted by him.

Once everyone had their assignments and the Yorktown was moving out of the Range, K’Temoc hit the intercom button, “Chief Branson to the Bridge.” He then stood from his chair, “Commander, once the Chief is here meet me in my Ready Room.”

Yamaguchi nodded her head. "Aye sir." she said evenly as she proceeded at full impulse out of the range area, a minute or so later she felt a touch on her left should, she smiled at Branson. "Thanks Chief." and with that she quickly vacated the chair as she walked off of the bridge, her long legs eating up the distance to her destination quickly.

K’Temoc then left the Bridge through the starboard egress, and a moment later was in the cramped Captain’s Ready Room of the Defiant class ship. He’d rarely used the his Ready Room on the Yorktown-D, or the Falcon during the Dominion War. He found the office to be too small really, preferring to be in his Quarters to read and write reports or to privately communicate with Starfleet or whomever he needed too. However, in this case, still officially being a training mission, he thought it would be more professional to hold a meeting with his XO in the Ready Room.

While waiting, he pulled up the Yorktown’s flight path to the Em’kool, as well as the flight path of the approaching ion storm. The Yorktown would only have fifteen minutes or so to either evacuate everyone off the Em’kool, or repair the transport’s engines so she could move away from the storm...and neither idea carried a guarantee of success.

Once Yamaguchi walked in, K’Temoc motioned for her to take a seat. “Looks like this training flight has turned into a real mission now.” He couldn’t help but to think about other famous ships that left dock on a simple training flight and ended up going on official duty…the Enterprise under Admiral Kirk’s command in 2282 and the Enterprise-B commanded by Captain Harriman in 2293 to name a few. He just hoped this mission wouldn’t end up with the death of a member of his crew as those had.

Yamaguchi nodded her head. "Indeed sir, may we have better luck." she responded as she regarded him before pushing her bangs out of her eyes before she caught a glimpse of her reflection, she realized how tired she looked.

"Have a seat." K'Temoc said as he handed Yamaguchi a PADD. I've sent word to Starbase 400 that we're moving to assist the Em'kool. Once we arrive on scene, I want you to lead a small Away Team over to her. Assess the situation...very their status and start beaming over their passengers and crew. There's ninety-nine aboard, so we won't have much time."

Yamaguchi nodded her head, his orders were quite clear but she knew who she was going to take along with her, she wanted Lieutenants Gillo, Lasky and Dvald with her but as she planned out her response, she found herself coming back to the incident on the USS Halfgan when she was but a young Ensign shaking her down. There had been an incident nearby and so the USS Halfgan had needed to go on active duty to stop an impounded smuggler from escaping with several thousand pounds of contraband, there had been a shootout and two personnel from the Halfgan plus the smuggler himself had all been killed.

"I'd like Lieutenants Dvald, Lasky and Gillo as part of the main away team. Also... I'd like to organize a couple of search and damage control parties just in case of structural damage or other hazards that we don't know about yet, just in case." she added.

K’Temoc nodded, “Fine, keep the initial away team small. I don’t want to send too many of our personnel over there, while we’re trying to beam their complement over. I’ll have Chief Blackthorne standing by with a damage control team if we determine the damage isn’t too bad and can be quickly repaired. We’ll arrive only fifteen minutes before the ion storm.”

"Well... I don't want to provoke an incident with the freighters captain, he might decide to try and save his ship instead of just cut and run."

“I don’t foresee that happening.” K’Temoc replied, their ship can’t run at all right now, so he’ll be relying on us. Our priority is to save lives, saving his ship and cargo is secondary. That said, keep the Captain close to you at all times. If he does become a problem, we’ll beam him over and set him in the Brig to cool off.”

Yamaguchi nodded in understanding. "Yessir." she commented, she knew the time allotted was not the issue, it was the speed of the rescue that would be of concern. "Hopefully they will be ready for when we arrive." she commented. "My previous experiences with civilian ships is less then good.."
she raised an eyebrow. "I'll have Lieutenant Lasky look at their engines with Gillo assisting him, Lieutenant Dvald will look at the crew, assisting with wounded and ensuring they are prepared to come over to the Yorktown. I'll talk to their Captain." she paused. "if all of that is okay with you sir."

K'Temoc nodded. "Very good. Take the aft station on the Bridge, get familiar with the Em'kool's layout."

K'Temoc stood and the two headed back for the Bridge.