LtCmdr Azura Ada - skipping a stone

0 views

Skip to first unread message

Lazuli Davis

unread,

Oct 27, 2025, 4:01:08 PM (2 days ago) Oct 27

to sb118-c...@googlegroups.com

(( Corridor outside the Bridge, Derelict Vulcan Ship ))

Ada: It used me? Tricked me to release it?

A different klaxon sounded, and the ship shuddered, as orange-red bits of debris and thin atmosphere licked the viewscreen. Azura felt lost in that moment, and useless. Her left hand throbbed with pain.

Xiron: We need to get the thrusters back online. Maybe the deflector, hell a cargo bay to vent to space anything to push the ship higher.

V’Nille: You work on that. I am going to try to get in touch with the ship.

Grallator: I’ll see what I can coax out of the thrusters, though right now they’re about as responsive as a Vulcan at a surprise party. If the deflector’s still wired in, I might be able to reroute enough juice to give us a polite shove upward—assuming the ship doesn’t decide to reinterpret that as modern dance. And for the record, if this thing did trick Commander Ada into setting it free, I’d like to officially state that I signed up to fix warp manifolds, not midwife ancient starships with trust issues.

V’Nille: =/\= V’Nille to Chin’toka. Can you hear me? =/\=

Callahan: =/\= Chin’toka. This is Callahan. Go ahead, Commander. =/\=

V’Nille: =/\= Wonderful. It looks like our communications were restored. Where’s the Captain? =/\=

Callahan: =/\= She’s gone planetside, Commander, to lead the rescue operations. =/\=

V’Nille: =/\= I see…. Are you tracking the object that the derelict ship just ejected? It looks like it’s going to hit where that weird signal we were tracking is coming from. My team will continue to try to get this ship to not hit the planet, so… let the Captain know. Good luck! =/\=

Callahan: =/\= Confirmed, Commander. We’re on it. =/\=

V’Nille: Not to be the one to state the obvious here, but this ship is going to hit the planet with us on it if we don’t do something about it. Tell me we have good news.

Grallator: Good news, Commander? Well, the EPS grid is still technically a grid, the ODN relays haven’t burst into interpretive dance yet, and my tricorder insists we’re only mostly doomed. I can try to reroute auxiliary power through the secondary plasma manifolds, but that’s a bit like asking a candle to impersonate a warp core.

Xiron: Good job, Ensign. Commander, a quarter of the dorsal thrusters are still operational but the power margin is pretty narrow. We are locked out of the navigation systems. Without them it will be a blind burn that may hurt us as much as help.

Ada: I'll, uh...

Maybe she shouldn't do anything, given her recent judgement. Instead, she paced the bridge, inspecting the various stations and consoles to look for anything that might be helpful.

V’Nille: That’s not good news, but sure, anything helps. There has to be a way to override this lockout.

Grallator: Override the lockout? Aye, I can try a Level‑Three bypass on the isolinear circuits. Of course, given their age, they’ll either cooperate or explode in a way that makes future archeologists very cross. Still, if I can trick the command subroutines into thinking we’re a maintenance crew instead of trespassers, we might just get helm control back.

Xiron: Ensign, select the tab on the console mark nen-patorayek rompotauya and then execute. It will place the computer into a maintenance cycle.

V’Nille: Go for it. Worst case scenario, we need this ship to avoid any population centers because I have the feeling our host was not gracious enough to include that possibility in its calculations.

Azura paused at that remark, considering the ramifications. Had she doomed them all? Doomed people below? Why had the ship fooled her? What was possibly so important, or what hurt did it so deeply harbor that it didn't care about the mass death? It was thinking, feeling, trying. She thought they had a rapport, and trust. She was determined to help the ship--how could it take advantage of her like that?

Grallator: Understood, Commander. I’ll attempt a manual EPS shunt to the RCS thrusters. If the relays hold, we can nudge the ship’s vector away from anything resembling a population center. If they don’t hold, well… we’ll be providing the planet with a very large, very ancient lawn ornament.

Xiron: I am reading power to the thrusters. They are not in standby condition; inertial dampeners are online but badly out of calibration. This will be a rough ride, Commander.

V’Nille: Response

Azura pointed to the seats.

Ada: At least this ship is old enough to have seatbelts. Looks like we'll need them.

Grallator: Commander, I am reasonably—well, let’s say optimistically—certain we can nudge ourselves… I mean, the ship… back into a stable orbit. ::he squinted at the console, which immediately began blinking at him in a tone he did not appreciate; one firm smack and it thought better of it:: There. Controls are responding again. We’ve got just enough fuel reserves to make the burn, but it’s a one‑shot deal. If it works, we’re heroes. If it doesn’t, we’ll be atmospheric confetti. No pressure.

Xiron: Once we do the burn we will have no control over where the ship impacts on the surface. We could do a shorter burn and impact in their

Azura deferred to V'Nille. She'd done enough...

V’Nille: Response

Grallator: Well, the console isn’t working. In fact, it’s doing the opposite of working, which is plotting. And I don’t like the way it’s blinking at me.

Xiron: Mine too, Commander. We lost it. We lost everything.

Ada: What? No, no no! We can't--we have to fix this. I... What if we get back to main engineering and try to fire the thrusters from there. Or we could vent drive plasma to make a crude jet. Or...

Grallator/ V’Nille: Response

Xiron: It has to be an interface issue. It was working. Grallator, check your PADD what was the last scan of the console? Maybe we can use your PADD as a replacement for the controls. Bypass the controls systems like earlier except now we are plugging the PADD in.

Grallator/ V’Nille: Response

Azura looked at the viewscreen again, and the orange licking at the edges had gotten brighter and looked more like a flame. Tiny bits of the hull streamed past, looking like embers. The ship began to shutter as the atmospheric drag pulled at the ship, further reducing its orbital velocity.