Log Mundy, 2219-2237

[Adele Mundy]

Personal Log, Lt.Cmdr. Adele Mundy, TSN Sabre, 2nd Space Fleet, 4th Lt.Div.
Stardate: 2219-2237

Act.Ens. Stefan Yamamoto died in MedBay. Dammit. The injuries he sustained during the firefight as the Marines were trying to extract him and the other DamCons from Ulikai base D-76 were too severe. The Fleet Captain promoted him posthumously to full Ensign. Add another name to the list of letters we’re going to have to send to family members, if and when we get back.

It looks like the other three crew members are going to make it, which is some consolation: Chief Olasugun and Act. Ens. Yazzie are recovering well, as their injuries were minor; DC 1st Class Karol Petrov is still being treated for radiation exposure, but prognosis is good.

And the four of them did more than one could reasonably expect, performing repairs on Sabre while at the same time managing to keep many critical systems from appearing functional: so, with our engineers swarming all over Sabre since we recovered her, she is going to be fit for action sooner than we dared hope.

The Hjorden crews are not faring so well, it appears: Patrach Kal described the situation as “merely a precaution, in anticipation of a longer stay in this System”, but reported that the Hjorden personnel are experiencing some kind of micro-nutrient deficiency, which is probably connected to the denabite instability, as the replicators are not functioning entirely according to specs. While the Hjorden engineers are conducting diagnostics on the organic replicators across the shipyard, “it seems prudent to restrict supplies of Hjorden ale and Hjocoa to Hjorden personnel only, as they are our only remaining sources of these nutrients”, as Patrach Kal put it. I am not enthused at the news, as you may well deduce, Computer; but since my survival doesn’t actually depend on regular supplies of Hjocoa, I’ll have to make do without. But I’m not going to pretend not to mind, dammit.

Because of personnel reassignments to deal with our current requirements, Ens. Raiden has found a new berth as Helm officer on Viper; and Cmdr. Matsiyan, in his copious spare time (that was a joke, Computer), decided to be a good example to all junior officers, and take the Helm station exam, which of course he passed with a Gold pin. No smart remarks from you, Computer, if you please.

Because of those same personnel reassignments, both Sabre and Viper find themselves in need of a permanent Engineering officer. Of course, Lt.Sr. Graybeard and Lt.Sr. Vimes step in when and where needed, but they may be needed on more than one ship at any time, and though they are superb officers, I don’t think either of them has mastered the skill of bilocation.

As Chief Edwards reported on the progress made on Necessity, we took a training sim to test our own familiarity with her systems and capability, with Lt.Cmdr. Hall in CIC; and just to make life interesting, we took on N’tani ships as our opponents. Even more interesting (yes, Computer, “interesting” as in “oh god we’re going to die”, well recognised) was the fact that Sabre was short of bridge officers, so the Fleet Captain took SciCom, Lt.Sr. Graybeard, naturally, took Engineering, and Lt. Doyle took Helm, which left me on Tactical; and my lack of recent practice was lamentably obvious, as I was slow, slow, slow. Dammit.

And on to the mission: Chief Edwards had reported on finding some components for a slingshot array on the base, and we had since been speculating on where the Skaraans might be holding additional material to complete the launch array. According to the Chief, the array lacks the calibration and power feeds that would allow it to open up a jump point into another system, but it could be adapted for an intra-system jump point. It seemed clear that there are hostile movements between Ulikai and Skaraans, and highly probable that the Skaraans intended to use the slingshot array as part of their troop movements in the system. If we could complete the array, we could then use it to bypass dense traffic and highly guarded areas, and move within the system more easily as we continue to look for a jump point. So, we needed to find information on where the Skaraans might be storing this material, and a Skaraan security station seemed a good place to start.

Also relevant to the mission was the fact that the indefatigable Chief Edwards, and his crews (who should all get some kind of McGuyver ribbon when we get back to Command, even if the Brass have to invent one), have continued the process of replacing the degraded denabite with the properly refined stuff. Since it was Viper’s turn to be taken out of active duty while the engineers proceed with denabite replacement, we took Sabre, Horizon, and Necessity. And though she is still showing her scars from the battle, Sabre had been overhauled and declared fit to fly, because she was offline for long enough that her denabite supply wasn’t as damaged as the other ships’. And it was a pleasure to be back on board.

[pats the warped panel on the bulkhead by the desk]

We’ll get her shipshape again.

Back to the mission: we had the Fleet Captain in command, of course, with Donovan on the Science console, and ready to fly the shuttle; Graybeard in Engineering; Doyle on Helm; and Agoom on Tactical. I took Comms and a backup Science console while the shuttle was out. On Horizon, Aramond took command, Nhaima Helm, Slate Science, Yooey Tactical, and Wilcon Engineering and the shuttle pilot post. On Necessity, Matsiyan took command, Vaj SciCom and the shuttle, Reynolds Engineering, Raiden Helm, and Cdt. Blury tactical. I’ve barely seen Cdt. Blury — it’s amazing the talent these youngsters have for not being visible to Senior Officers…

From our (formerly Skaraan) base in Sector 20 we travelled Rimward into Sector 25, engaging Skaraan ships and trying to lead them towards the Ulikai fleets who were approaching in force in what appeared to be a concerted attempt to retake the sector. It seems we arrived as Ulikai and Skaraans were about to have at each other, and we wanted to encourage them to pay attention to their intended opponents, and not to us… Still, we did attract some attention when we started launching shuttles to deposit our Marines on Skaraan bases. At first they were looking for the information about where to find the remaining slingshot array materials or equipment; once we had that, we sent them to actually liberate [slight cough] the stuff. Necessity led enemies away from the shuttles and bases; we engaged some of the single Skaraans, but had to avoid the large fleets, or we’d have been overwhelmed. As it was, Proteus was destroyed because we hadn’t led the enemy ships far enough from the base. That led to moments of tension until we read the presence of the lifepod on the screen, and recovered it.

Still, the Marines were eventually successful in their boarding actions, and recovered the materials Chief Edwards required for the array, so it was back to waiting while the engineering crews started their work. We also recovered a data core from one of the Skaraan base, so there was work enough for linguists and cartographers.

It didn’t actually take too long to decipher the data core, and yes, we found out that there is a gate in Sector 2, somewhere beyond the dead planet in Sector 3. That was the good news. The slightly less good news was the report that the Ulikai had started conducting increasingly frequent sensor sweeps at the edge of Sector 20: so, it would be prudent to expect closer examination, whether by probes or scout ships, and possible outright attacks.

While we waited for the engineering work and the information work to be completed, we took part in a simulation. I… well, I don’t think I’ve commanded Sabre that badly in a while; but letting a damn ensign talk all over everyone, including sending private conversations to Horizon countermanding my orders and Cmdr. Aramond’s orders, is not something I want to forget. Though I do want to forget it. I know you don’t understand what I mean, Computer. Humans are quite capable of wanting one thing and its opposite at the same time, we’re weird like that.

Then it was time for the next part of our preparations to set up the slingshot. Chief Edwards confirmed that Sabre was still doing well, and that Lancer had been refitted with the high quality denabite; Cmdr. Aramond confirmed the presence of a Gate in Sector 2; so what the Chief needed now in order to jump across the system was a sensor array that could be used to calibrate with the station. Therefore, we needed to deploy three arrays, at 20k from the station and equididstant from each other. And we had to do it before the Ulikai who had been prowling around the edge of the sector came to stop us.

While the engineering teams on the station set up scuttling charges and made other preparations to disable all systems once we were ready to depart the station, so that the Ulikai couldn’t copy or adapt our technology, Sabre, Lancer, Horizon and Necessity set out, each with one array aboard — the fourth one was in case anything went wrong with a deployment. Lt. Nhaima came to run the Weapons console on Sabre while Ens. Agoom returned to his customary post on Horizon, and I think we had much the better part of the exchange.

We had started deploying the arrays when the Skaraans and Ulikai fleets arrived. We had to make sure the arrays weren’t damaged, so there was a lot of dancing with fleets, one ship leading them off while another attacked the formation from astern; and then changing dancing partners. In all of this, the Comms officers ensured that the enraged alien commanders weren’t needlessly distracted by new insults. Even though one array was destroyed, we were able to deploy the spare, and to make sure no enemies could flee to report on our doings.

So, as we returned to the station and checked on the transmissions, determined that the telemetry data we were receiving would enable us to calibrate our systems, and Chief Edwards and his teams started to bring the recently scavanged, I mean liberated, components online, we prepared to move out of the station, disabling everything we couldn’t bring with us.

So, here we are, Computer. Ready to jump?

[end log]

[Author]

Posts