JP: Captain Karrod Niac, Commander Toryn Raga, Lt. Commander Marty Tucker, Lt. Commander Ian O’Connor, Ensign Jino Esot, and Lt. Commander V’Len Kel - Doubt thou the stars are fire Part 2 of 2
Martin Tucker
Her fingers danced once more across the console, eliciting a cacophony of beeps and trills from the computer as she redirected the sensor array. While she had only come aboard the Ronin this morning and did not share their history, the registry of the ship tumbling out of the storm returned as something impossible.
Esot: It's the USS Kurosawa, sir. But that makes no sense - they were heading the opposite direction and should be halfway across the quadrant by now. They're heading right for us.
O'Connor: Yeah, and closing fast. :: under his breath:: What the heck is going on?
V’Len gave Esot an incredulous look and then turned back to the main viewer. She returned the look, stonefaced.
Kel: Magnify.
Tucker: Finetuning the signal now sir…
Marty shot out of his seat and stood behind O'Connor to the right. He retapped a couple of commands, and the screen seemed to respond. Though Marty wasn’t sure what he was looking at, there was still severe static interfering with the communications array, and most likely that storm out there was adding to it.
While Tucker moved to adjust the signal, Jino had a hunch and started a deeper scan of the Kurosawa. Unfortunately, because she had to use the short range sensors, it was going to take longer - unless, of course, the Kurosawa drew even closer to them.
He looked up again at the main view screen after watching the reports that were coming through Ian’s station.
Tucker: ::raised eyebrows:: Just what is going on here?
Ian squinted at his panel.
O’Connor: Damn good question.
Esot: They're trying to raise us on comms.
The viewscreen popped to life, shifting from the external view of the storm to show the cockpit of the Kurosawa, the usual pristine brightness of the Starfleet construction was a scene of chaos as the walls showed char marks. A haze of smoke hung in the air around the Trill and Al-Leyan, the latter of whom looked as though a plasma conduit had ruptured next to the left side of his face.
Niac: =/\= Ronin…an…hear….try…modulat… =/\=
Raga: =/\= Boosting…sig*** as best *** can. Ronin… ::static:: hear us? =/\=
The command deck of the Kurosawa was burning. The air handlers had long since given up trying to make anything breathable out of the toxic soup filling the compartment. A heavy, burning cloud of melted composite and ruptured conduit was rapidly filling the cabin. They’d barely survived the jump. And all that came before. They had to warn them…before it was too late.
Niac: =/\= Ronin….absolutely critical….do not…580…=/\=
His throat caught on the fumes and his lungs felt like fire. Barely moving in the seat across from him, Toryn had gone deathly pale.
V’Len could hardly believe what he was seeing and in a mixture of panic and anger he whirled to face young Cardassian at Ops.
Kel: Lock on to them, beam them to sickbay. Ian, boost the signal. Get that channel cleaned up.
O’Connor: Working on it.
Ian’s hands flew across his console but nothing he tried seemed to cut through things any better. Jino wasn't having much better luck with the transporters.
Esot: ::jaw taut:: As I expected, the storm is interfering with the transporter system. Trying to compensate.
Tucker: Try refining the angular confinement beam.
V’Len frantically pressed the LCARs on his command chair.
Kel: =/\= Captain this is the Ronin. Repeat your last message. =/\=
Toryn coughed violently on the viewscreen spraying the console with black blood before he managed to control it. He could feel his lungs burning from the smoke inhalation.
Raga: =/\=..iv..ting..ower to…..comms. Fed…on….troyed….dead.=/\=
With what he knew would be his final breath, Karrod shouted the critical words and begged an uncaring universe to carry them clearly.
Niac: =/\= 580 is the key to everything, you must…=/\=
Between the intense burns on half of his body and the acrid smoke that filled his lungs the Al-Leyan struggled to keep moving his digits across the cracked LCARs of the helm console. Toryn felt it when one of his lungs collapsed, that sharp, pinch in his chest like a collapsing balloon.
Raga: =/\= ..Avoi…r..ember….Ronin…trong..=/\=
Alarms began screaming from the engineering station, warning of the imminent core breach he always knew would be the end of this journey. He looked to Toryn’s lifeless eyes and slapped at the emergency comm control, the all critical databurst transiting through the subspace transceiver. A blinding light filled the cabin for a millisecond as the core breached, consuming the Kurosawa and its occupants.
The viewscreen crackled and seemed to freeze for several seconds on this image of Karrod and Toryn’s bodies as they were consumed in the plasma fires before it kicked to an external view when the signal failed. The Kurosawa started to drift on her axis slightly, a plume of plasma trailed behind her from one of the nacelles. The fire in the cockpit burned brightly through the windows before the entire yacht buckled and tore itself apart from the explosion that blasted the Kurosawa apart and left a small cloud of debris behind.
V’Len had been standing but now slumped back into his seat as if he’d just been punched. His brain was still trying to make sense of it. He’d just seen his mentor and friend annihilated along with the Ronin’s first officer. But where had they come from? The pair should have been in the Sol system and yet they’d appeared here, with no warning.
Marty watched as V’Len slumped back in his seat; on the other hand, he stood and stared at the view screen with a twenty-thousand-yard stare. It was like his brain just wasn’t wanting to process what he’d just witnessed. Kel was going to want answers, so Marty went into work mode.
Ian somehow found himself standing staring at the viewscreen in shock.
Jino squinted at the viewscreen, momentarily blinded by the explosion. Raising a hand to dig her thumb and forefinger into her eyes, it only took a moment for her vision to clear and she was able to focus on her console again.
Kel: What the hell did we just see?
Tucker: I don’t know, Skipper, if I say what I saw, it would make it all the more real?
Marty pinched the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger, squeezing his eyes shut, in the hopes it might stop the headache brewing just behind his eyes.
Ian shook his head and turned to Kel and Tuck
O’Connor: That can’t have…we didn’t…there’s got to be another…
He shook his head again and went back to work at his console. There had to be…something.
Jino's console chirruped again, the scans she had initiated finally complete.
Esot: I'll be damned. Sir, I was able to get a much more reliable scan once the Kurosawa had come within short range sensor range. The yacht was trailing chronitons - a rather high yield, in fact, higher than I've seen even theoretically.
V’Len rubbed his chin trying to make sense of it all.
Kel: Chronitons? Are you sure?
Marty was still standing and turned to the science station, looking for answers. He walked over to the science station to his right, looking over the Ensign's shoulder, hands clasped behind his back.
Tucker: Aye, sir, and it’s not just a trace captain. I’m no scientist, but this is pretty much a chroniton eddy we’re witnessing.
O’Connor: Ok, ok. Then that gives us something to work with.
She nodded her agreement, brows raising slowly.
Esot: That would be an accurate characterization of what we just witnessed, yes.
She cast her eyes on the storm again.
Esot: I suspect the origin of that storm lies paradoxically in the imminent, if not immediate, future.
V’Len had limited experience with temporal phenomena. It was not something he wished to repeat.
Kel: Take us to yellow alert. Martin, begin a recovery operation. We need to analyze whatever is left of the Kurosawa. ::quietly:: This better not be another one or Rox’s parlor tricks.
oO One of Rox’s parlor tricks? There would be some questions later… Oo
Tucker: Yellow alert, aye, skipper.
There were a couple of ways they could recover the wreckage of the Kurosawa: either start beaming the pieces aboard or start a salvage operation with Runabouts.
Tucker: ::tapping his combage:: =/\= Commander Tucker to Major Singh, I’m going to need some deck space for what’s left of the Kurosawa. Can you manage?
Ishani took a full second to digest the implications of the ask before responding.
Singh: =/\= Understood Commander, aft flight deck is clear, I’ll advise the deck crews to prepare for…recovery operations. =/\=
Tucker: =/\= Owe ya one Major, thanks =/\= ::he double tapped his combadge::=/\= Tucker to transporter room one, please start beaming what you can from the debris field and put it on the flight deck, aft end, Thanks, Tucker out.. =/\=
O’Connor: Bringing us into a recovery range.
V’Len rose once more and gazed at the tumbling patch of debris just beyond the bridge.
Kel: Thrusters at station keeping. =/\= Lieutenant Kessler to the bridge. =/\=
Jino leaned forward, studying the readings from the Kurosawa intently. Her brow creased with dissatisfaction as she muttered to herself.
Esot: Why? How?
Tucker: ::turning to Kel:: Do you want me down there working the recovery efforts, or do you want me to coordinate from the bridge?
Kel: ::fully turning to Marty:: Get down to the shuttle bay and start going through the ::beat:: wreckage. We need to know how they got here and anything about what they experienced on the way.
Esot: I would recommend caution, Commander Tucker - even the remains of the Kurosawa are still kicking off a lot of chroniton radiation and I can't say what effect it might have on living tissue.
She paused, considered it for a moment, then brightened.
Esot: I changed my mind, actually. While caution is prudent, I am quite curious to see how the radiation affects the environment around it.
O’Connor: We’ll figure this out.
V’Len stepped forward to give Ian a pat on the shoulder. He was trying to seem confident but his antennae were no doubt betraying him with their writhing. Had Niac and Raga truly traveled through time to give them a warning? The message had been so choppy V’Len was unsure what to make of it. So much for a quiet survey mission.
===============================
Fleet Captain Karrod Niac
(Former) Commanding Officer
USS Ronin - NCC-34523
V239509GT0
&
Lieutenant Commander Marty Tucker
Chief Of Engineering/Acting Executive Officer
USS Ronin NCC-34523
Capt. Karrod Niac Commanding
D240008MT1
&
Lieutenant Commander V'Len Kel
Acting-Captain
Chief Science Officer/Second Officer
USS Ronin NCC-34523
T239811VK2
He/Him (player/character)
&
Ensign Jino Esot (PNPC)
Science Officer
USS Ronin NCC-34523
A238810SA0
As written by Quentin Beck
&
Lieutenant Commander Ian O’Connor
HCO
USS Ronin NCC-34523
R240009IO4
&
Commander Toryn Raga
First Officer
USS Ronin - NCC-34523
Writer ID: A239410TR0
https://wiki.starbase118.net/wiki/index.php?title=Toryn_Raga