Baited Breath
Posted on Wed Dec 11th, 2019 @ 10:14pm by Commodore Tyler Malbrooke & Lieutenant Paul Michael & Lieutenant Junior Grade Mira Jayde & Corporal Tyrigus Fry & Captain Ir'dama
Edited on on Thu Dec 12th, 2019 @ 1:47am
2,504 words; about a 13 minute read
Mission:
Episode 8 - The Silence
Location: Bridge - Deck 1 - USS Pioneer
Timeline: MD004 1245 hrs
They were about an hour into the mission and there was no contact from any of the teams. This made Tyler a little bit fussy. He hated being in the dark. "Mr Michael anything from our teams on the surface or the station." He made sure to modulate his voice, he did not want to let the tension get to his junior officers.
"No sir." replied Michael. "The frequency is open, but we haven't been contacted yet."
Khalon sat at the helm following the simple instructions that had been laid out to him from Ingrid, who he was still extremely upset with. He'd kept his mind on other things as the Bridge remained quiet, but perked up as he heard the Captain's voice.
"Ensign keep us within striking distance of the Hawkeye and The Cure. I want to be able to pick them up at a moment's notice if everything goes south." Tyler said with a smile to the young man at the helm. He realized in the moment that he had gotten used to seeing Ingrid there, well more acurately a woman at that post. The sight of Price struck the Captain as odd for a moment.
"Aye, sir" Khalon said, smiling slightly as the Captain gave him a chance to do some actual flying. With a movement of his hands, he broke the Pioneer from it's orbit around the alien planet and closed the distance between her and the Hawkeye.
Clarissa was sitting at the engineering station. It felt strange for her to be on the bridge. She was not even the assistant chief of anything. She was just a junior officer. She monitored all the vital stats coming from engineering. She mind her own business, feeling a little uncomfortable.
Tyler began to walk the bridge, this was an affectation that he had when he was well bored. He remembered Zano telling him that it made people nervous. But he just could not help himself. Tyler Malbrooke prided himself on his ability to read people's body language. At the moment it seemed that Ensgin Rockwell was a little out of sorts. He leaned up against the bulkhead just behind the engineering station. "Everything ok Clarissa?" he said with a broad smile.
"Yes sir, all systems operating at peak efficiency, the engine is purring like a kitten." Clarissa said, wondering what she did to draw the attention of the Captain. And how to get rid of him. She was a little nervous, having him hovering over her position.
"Ensign I have a project for you. I need you to look into the sensor issue that occurred when we arrived. I want to know if the problem is with us or if there is a false sensor image. If it is the latter I need to know what our teams are dealing with." Tyler said in a hushed tone. He wondered what was going on in her head, as he could see that she was nervous. However, if she did not want to talk about it then he could not force her to.
"Aye Captain." Clarissa said, as she started to gather up all the sensor data, so she could start reviewing the data. She did not want to let the Captain down.
This was the part of command that Tyler hated. He hated watching, and waiting it always made him feel itchy. He rubbed his neck as he fished for something to do. "Ms Jayde anything out there? Corporal any news from your friends out there?"
Jayde was patiently monitoring security for any problems. So far, it was quiet. She raised an eyebrow as the captain began to pace and hid a smile. Things would liven up if anything happened, or if teams began returning to the ship. When Malbrooke addressed her the smile disappeared and she glanced up. "At the moment, all is quiet, sir." She almost added a sorry. Waiting was seldom fun.
Gus was used to standing to as Corporal of the Guard. He'd pulled that duty a majority of his tour aboard Pioneer.
He just wasn't used to doing that on the bridge. The quiet was nerve wracking and with away teams out and the Cure on what was supposed to have been a training Operation, he felt sort of useless.
At the Captain's question, he glanced again at the mission console and said, "Looks like the Op is in drawdown, Captain. The Hawkeye is on a return to base counter and the rest of the Cure is nearly into that mode as well." Gus looked about the bridge and then, not having anything else to add remained silent.
"What about those sensor glitches that Vaebn detected before he went on mission. Have we been able to clear those up? What do we have down there?" Tyler addressed his questions to everyone on the bridge, he was reaching and wanted to get something to do.
Gus had to blink twice when the Ops console flashed and the secure comms suite opened. "Captain," he said, plugging in the day key which began the first part of the decryption. "Routing a RUMOR from Captain Tremble to your console." RUM/OR stood for Restricted Use Marine/Orphan fRequency, which had come with the MARVEL-EAS suits giving the Marines and a direct to Command high security comm's system.
Tyler cocked his eyebrow he knew Niel, and the Marine CO would not use a coded frequency unless he thought it important. "Route it to the command chair." He said a briskly went to his station. After decoding the message he read the following: "Red Team Lead to Pioneer. Training mission has encountered signs of battle, some dating back 20+ years including Cardassian, Dominion, and Federation wreckage. Debris field being tagged. Cardassian signal detected along SAR route and HAWKEYE vectoring in as well. More to follow. End." He ran his hand through his hair. "Computer return the following message to Captain Tremble encode for his eyes only. Red Lead, Pioneer acknowledges your sitrep. Proceed to investigate with caution. Will recall all Red assets if emergency arises. End."
Tyler leaned back in the chair and stared at the view-screen, which showed all the Pioneer assets and what they were doing. This mission was putting them deeper into the suck. "Right it seems we have something to do now. Lieutenant Michael get me General Sobel on a secure channel. Corporal Fry I need an exit strategy and you're my guy. I want a plan where we can get the Cure and the Hawkeye back on this ship in a matter of seconds...." Tyler's voice trailed off as he realized that he could not simply bark orders to these people he had to clue them in. "Ladies and Gentlemen it seems that Captain Tremble has found evidence of a major battle that occurred somewhere around 20 years ago. We need to get as much information as possible. Ensign Rockwell I need to know what is happening with the Away Teams. Can you clear those sensor images up?"
Paul tried to break through the interference and contact their people. He overrode some commands and bypassed others, but the interference remained. He used some of the backup power to try one burst message to the station.
To his surprise, the message managed to get through. "Sir! I was able to generate a burst message to the station. Someone is answering!"
Twenty years ago? That put this near the end of the Dominion War. Jayde was curious and used part of security's sensor access to get an idea of what ships were out there and from where. There was a significant amount of interference.
"On screen Lieutenant Michael." Tyler said with a head nod. The image of a Vulcan woman wearing the uniform of a Starfleet Marine appeared on the screen. "Captain Ir'dama I expected General Sobel, but I am glad to see you. It seems that it has been a problem getting in touch with Empok Nor. What news?"
The vulcan stood calmly, her image distorting occasional as she spoke, "Good to hear from you, Captain. The General is currently answering a distress call with the Jury. I believe the term he used was that 'the Balloon was going to go up sometime soon, we're just not sure where.'"
She made a slight disapproving frown then continued, "The Brigade is stretched thin so suspicions are that the station may seem some action. I'm not surprised that you haven't heard anything about this. The Cardassians have been rather tight lipped about your mission when the General asked and queried about returning Pioneer sooner than later.."
This news was not something Tyler wanted to hear, he wanted to help but he had to finish the mission at hand. "We are surprised at the lack of communication coming from Cardassia as well. We have had a lot of new developments here, suffice to say I cannot touch on them here. However, I had a question for the General and perhaps you can answer it. What information does the Corps have on a battle occurring at Wren IX during the Dominion War?"
The Vulcan's eyebrow arched and she reached for the display in front of her. Seconds later she shook her head. "Nothing official in the Battalion database. Or Fleet, for that matter. It's recorded nearly as being in Cardassian territory. The Vulcan seemed to hesitate for a moment, then touched her console and the transmission took on a reddish hue. "We are now encrypted. Records obtained from the Cardassian's despite their intentions were obtained but appear sealed. The brief accompanying the redacted files indicate that the Cardassians have sent three expeditions, one with Dominion accompaniment, all of which were never heard from again. The last line indicates that it was labeled a Cardassian problem."
The Cardassians. Jayde wasn't surprised. She didn't trust them. Granted, she'd grown up on Bajor during the occupation, but ever since then she'd seen nothing to improve her opinion.
Tyler's face looked grim this mission just went from bad to worse. He sighed heavily. "Thank you Captain. Keep a light on and a berth open for us we will be coming back shortly. Pioneer out." Tyler stood and faced everyone on the bridge. "Alright, I think enough is enough. It is time for our Cardassian friends to give us some answers. But first let's get our people home. Paul, Mira work on getting our teams an exit strategy. Clarissa I need to know what we are dealing with down there. Fry get the Hawkeye and Captain Tremble. Inform him that Operation OMAHA has officially been rescinded, we need them back on the double. Khalon stand by to engage a course back to Empok Nor maximum warp."
"Captain, there is to much interference coming from the planets surface, our sensors can not confirm if that is really a city down there, or a power signature, projecting a city. It's like we are being jammed." Clarissa pointed out to Tyler, as she kept working on clearing the source of the sensor jam.
Paul looked at Mira. "You have any suggestions?"
"If we can find the source of the jamming signal, we can cut it off," Jayde suggested. "If not, we might be able to have the Hawkeye set up a couple of signal boosters to cut through the noise--or go in close enough to contact the ground team."
Paul agreed. "Sounds like the best option. Let's try the Hawkeye idea first, then if we have to, try to get in closer."
Jayde nodded. "What can I do to help?"
"See if you can figure a way to get a clear signal, please." Paul responded.
Jayde nodded. Her sister was better at this sort of thing than she was, but she remembered a few Maquis tricks.
"Ensign Rockwell can you get a source of the jamming signal?" Tyler replied Clarissa's information was definitely a step in the right direction.
Clarissa continued her scans, and started to triangulate the source. Until she got a fix, it was coming from the planet below. "It's coming from the planet below, Captain. We are being targeted. Trying to cut through the interference." She said, wishing she had a few more computer programming skills, her main focus was warp propulsion. She knew enough information to carry out the task.
"Good work Ensign, keep it up. If you found the source, then you should have the jamming frequency. Remodulate our comm signal to match the jammer. Then send a surge through the link that should overload their equipment and at the very least allow us to get a message through to our teams. Once you are through send a message recalling our people forth-width. The shorter the better." Tyler responded, he sat straight in the center chair with his eyes front. This was the time that his people shined and he knew it.
Clarissa wished it was as easy, as Tyler made it sound. It took her a few minutes to cut through the interference. "Captain the message sent, but I can not guarantee that our people got the message, need at least another 5 minutes to cut through the interference." Clarissa pointed out to him.
"Acknowledged Ensign. I am sure you have done what you could." Tyler said with a smile and a turn to the Engineering station. "Ms Jayde please sound red alert throughout the ship and lower our shields. I want the shields down so that we can get our teams in here." Tyler hated being in a potential hostile situation with shields down, but there was nothing for it. He wished at the moment that Quinn was here, the XO always had a tactical mind.
"Aye, sir," Jayde said. She activated the red alert, then overrode the safeties to lower the shields.
Tyler stared at the viewscreen on it were the planet and the station in the upper corner. He had no idea what his crew, his family that were at those locations were going through. However, he hoped that whoever led them here did not harm his crew. Woe to them if they did...
A Joint Post By
Captain Tyler Malbrooke
Commanding Officer, USS Pioneer
Corporal Tyrigus Fry
Rifleman RFT 1, USS Pioneer
Captain Ir'Dama
Aide De Camp, 258th Starfleet Marine Expeditionary Brigade
Empok Nor
Lieutenant JG Mira Jayde
Assistant Chief Security/Tactical Officer, USS Pioneer
Ensign Clarissa Rockwell
Engineering Officer, USS Pioneer
Lieutenant Junior Grade Paul Michael
Assistant Chief Operations Officer, USS Pioneer
Ensign Khalon Price
Assistant Chief Flight Control Officer, USS Pioneer
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