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Escape from Artan Orbital Station

Posted on Wed Oct 18th, 2017 @ 6:54pm by Captain Enalia Telvan & Lieutenant Mona Gonadie & Petty Officer 2nd Class Ila Dedjoy & Maica III 47 & Aewia Larani & Baroness 2nd Class Schwein von Alcott & Commander Mal Xustos & Lieutenant Commander T'Pral Jordan & Lieutenant Commander Eneas Clio & Lieutenant Commander Thex sh'Zoarhi & Lieutenant Nathanial Summers DSci & Lieutenant Cassiopeia Yale Md & Warrant Officer Cato West & Akira Zhuri & Chief Warrant Officer Daytona Ral & Staff Warrant Officer Nexi
Edited on on Wed Oct 25th, 2017 @ 10:31am

Mission: When Iconians Deserve to Die
Location: USS Hera Bridge
Timeline: Current

The bridge of the Hera was bustling with activity as Enalia looked over three PaDDs a crewman had handed her. Giving a thumbprint to all three, she handed them back and smiled at Crewman Jaxx as he nodded and went about his business. This new bridge module was finally feeling like a part of the Hera. Holographic viewscreen, haptic touchscreens, and privacy features on everything made the whole bridge seem rather foreboding at first, but now... Now it felt right.

Finding the raised nubbin on her left touch screen for the ship-wide comms, Enalia pressed it and a small whistle sounded preceding her words to catch the crew's attention. “Now hear this. We've had some difficult times and hopefully we've all gotten a good rest. It's now time to get back to it and face a few more of those difficult times and save the galaxy again. We launch in the next five minutes.”

Enalia then began firing orders as fast as she could, almost as if she just wanted to be gone as fast as she could. “Commander Xustos, please confirm that all crew have returned from the Artan Orbital Fortress. Akira, disconnect the computer mains from the Artan Orbital Fortress. Helm, prepare to clear all moorings and obtain launch clearance from the Artan Orbital Fortress. All stations, perform final checks. Engines to standby.”

Mal quickly checked in with the Chief of the Boat, who confirmed for him that everyone was accounted for.

"All crew have reported aboard, Captain," Mal said.

Akira stood at Ops monitoring the connection with the Artan Orbital Fortress' computer, ensuring that all aspects of her program as well as Maica III's program were safely aboard the ship before terminating their connection. "Connection Terminated," Akira reported, then reported on the final checks for her department. "All Artan repair personnel have returned to the station. The Hera is supplied and ready to depart."

Final departure checks. Whoever had decided that had to be a thing clearly had never served on a starship. Departure checks only took up time that could be better spent actually departing. Also, whoever had invented the department check definitely hadn't worked in any Intelligence department that Clio had ever been a part of, let alone the one she ran. When Intelligence wasn't ready, people could die. She'd long since made it a personal policy that her department would always be ready, departure check or not. She glanced at her incoming alerts just long enough to know that her people were checking in. "Intelligence stands ready." Her tone was ever so slightly shy of annoyed with the process, just professional enough to avoid any reprimanding.

Lieutenant Nathanial Summers was at his station running through a quick diagnostic to ensure that all sensors were functioning at optimal efficiency. Upon seeing that they were, he announced, "All sensor systems are green across the board, Captain."

Ensign Gonadie jumped into action as she began clearance calls and preparations to get underway, her delicate fingers flying across the helm controls.

The Baroness Schwein Von Alcott was on the bridge as well, standing to the right of Enalia in her dress uniform. “Prinzessin...” was all she got out before Enalia interrupted her.

“You will address me as Captain aboard my ship,” Enalia said, cutting off what Schwein was about to say a bit harshly.

“Of course, Captain,” Schwein corrected with a nod. “I just wanted to point out that Captain Magnus is doing his best to delay your mother's arrival at the Orbital Fortress as we speak. We also have the local port authority inspecting her ship. She's not going to be here for another three hours.”

Enalia didn't even blink at Schwein's words. Instead, she tapped a few controls on the arm of her command chair. “She's already been cleared by the port authority and Magnus can't delay her much more than he already has. Thank you Baroness, but she has more connections than we do, it seems.”

That's when Ensign Gonadie spoke up. “Captain, we finally have launch clearance. Someone apparently put a hold on us that I had to use yours and the Baroness's clearance codes to override. We can launch any time now.”

That damned mother of hers... Enalia would have to ask Gonadie how she got both of their clearance codes like that later, but for now, she just wanted out of here. “Launch immediately. As soon as we're clear of the fortress, go into complete radio silence mode and activate stealth plating. Our intel operation begins immediately.”

“Aye, Captain. Launching now.” Ensign Gonadie nodded and tapped a few controls, releasing the docking gangways and firing thrusters. “Now clearing the fortress in ten seconds...”

On the viewscreen, the fortress pulled away from the nose of the ship as the Hera pulled back from it. Gonadie then began rotating the ship away expertly to begin their final maneuvers away from it. “Stealth plating on. Comms cut. We are clear. Impulse and warp ready at your command.”

“Set course for Tortuga station, warp nine.” Enalia checked one more thing on her terminals before giving the final order but brushed it off. “Engage.”

As the starlines streaked across the holographic viewscreen, Enalia and the Baroness both visibly relaxed and may have given a slight sigh together.

Mal looked over at T'Pral.

"Commander Jordan," Mal asked. "Is there any sign of pursuit?"

T'Pral brought up the tactical sensor display on her console. "I'm showing two vessels powering up their warp engines..." she reported, pausing for a moment as she studied the display. "They have gone to Warp on a pursuit course."

"Akira, our stealth plating is on and our warp trail is such that it's virtually untraceable... how are they tracking us?" Enalia demanded, stiffening in her chair at the news. If someone had planted a tracker or sabotaged her ship...

"I- I don't know, Captain," Akira replied, somewhat flustered. "We're not emitting any detectable signals, there's no space dust or radiation to create a wake or disrupt the functionality of the stealth plating, it makes no sense!"

"Have you tried turning it off and turning it back on again?" Mal said.

Since Mal couldn't see her where she sat at the rear of the bridge, Clio rolled her eyes and also started looking for any way the two ships could be tracking them. She didn't find anything either, but her sensor access confirmed what T'Pral had said. They were being followed. It didn't make sense, since they should be functionally invisible. Unless... well the alternative didn't make much sense either, but she had to ask. "Is it possible they've got a telepath on board?"

"Quick!" Mal said. "Everyone stop thinking!"

Enalia rolled her eyes and tapped a few commands on her chair's console. "A telepath on board is unlikely but possible. Let's hold gassing the entire crew and handing control over to Akira to a last resort. For now, Akira, do a hot reboot on the stealth plating and fire up the main sensors. Scan every inch for excess Van Allen radiation particles embedded in it. The deflector was powered down for two weeks and I'm not sure the Fortress was properly configured to filter it out for the ship. If so, we're going to have to polarize each plate one at a time to get rid of it."

"Aye Captain," Akira replied and did as instructed, shutting off the stealth plating to reboot it. As she activated the main sensors in the sensor pod, she did find the radiation so she began the process of re-polarizing the stealth plates, but she also detected something else. "Reboot complete, now repolarizing the stealth plating. However, I am now detecting unauthorized access to the plates from the holo-emitters; whatever program is running is creating a detectable resonance with the radiation present in the plates, that's got to be how we're being tracked." So they had been bugged, in a sense. "I recommend a shut down of all holo-emitters," she recommended, even though it would mean taking her offline momentarily.

"Do it," Mal said. "But make sure your program and Maica's are secure before you do. Doctor Summers, you're going to have to try and remember everything they taught you about computers back in the academy. While the holoemitters are shut down, I want you to isolate whatever program is running and shut it down. Miss Akira, inform us when you are ready."

"Yes sir," Akira replied, then sent a message to Maica regarding the emergency shut down, as well as sending a message to Sickbay. Once Maica was securely shut down, Akira gestured to a relief Officer to take her station to continue the repolarizing of the stealth plates while she shut herself down. "Maica is offline, medical has been informed that the EMH will be offline; I am ready as well, going offline now." And Akira promptly vanished as she shut herself down.

"Doctor Summers," Mal said. "You're on. Don't let us down."

"Well, Commander, it looks as though everything is working properly. There are no discrepancies in the computer protocols. Wait! I see something. There's a non-Starfleet protocol embedded in the code!" Nate was caught off-guard by this. He never expected something besides Starfleet coding on a Starfleet ship; and on a Starfleet Intelligence ship in particular. "Captain, we need to purge the computer buffer now! This is how they're tracking us."

"Make sure it's not part of my wife or Akira and proceed," Enalia ordered. She knew neither of them would leave data hanging out like that, but better to be safe than sorry. "Odds are it's one of my mother's tracking programs..." she muttered as she glanced over her command chair displays.

"I'm on it as we speak, Captain," he said then turned back to his console to begin the purge. "Your wife and Akira are clear. It appears to be a simple tracking program." Nate said as he continued scanning for the tracking protocol. He was becoming perturbed at this tracker and cursed verbally at it. Realizing what he had done, he blushed at his outburst but turned back to his search. "AHA! I found you. The program was slipped into our secondary computer core. But I have it now."

Lieutenant Summers went back to his purging and announced, "I have it in a protected block of the computer core. I'd like permission to study our little 'passenger'. Do we have a computer specialist on board?"

"Most of one," Enalia replied cryptically as she typed in a few commands on her command chair terminals. "Transfer it to Intel for now. Commander Eneas, store it in your isolated computer core and make sure it's secure. I'd like Aewia to take a look at it as well."

"OK done Captain,"Nate said.

"It can be friends with my own tracking programs. Maybe it can teach them a thing or three." Clio didn't comment on the response of having 'most' of a computer specialist. She didn't advertise her own skills in the area, didn't want people to start asking her to fix computer problems around the ship. "There are no traces of it left in our systems. We should change course for a while, let them chase our original path while we circle around them."

Enalia nodded. "Agreed. Helm, make it so. Your discretion at course corrections, just so long as we get to the same destination."

Ensign Gonadie grinned ear to ear. Literally. "Aye, Captain. Switching to manual." It was barely imperceptible, but the ship almost seemed to lurch a bit as the colorful Miradonian helm officer reengaged the stealth systems and took over manual helm control from the computer and started flying in seemingly random patterns. Her multi irised eyes belied that she was in complete control though and within mere moments they had lost their pursuers. "Captain, I am pleased to report that our stalkers are now trailing a Devaronian garbage scow and we are back on course for Tortuga Station. However, with your permission, I'd like to keep helm on manual for a while longer, just in case."

"Permission granted, Ensign. Best possible speed, if you please." Enalia ordered, only slightly relaxing at the news that they had slipped their spotters. She expected at least two more attempts, but hopefully that was the last one for a while at least. Glancing over her shoulder at Schwein, she noted that the Baroness had remained calm and collected throughout the ordeal. Had she known about this or expected it? Had she been in on it? She'd have to have Clio look into it just to make sure. She trusted Schwein, but she didn't trust her mother and if she had planted some sort of programming in one of her oldest and best friends... But that was something to take care of another day. For now they seemed to be in the clear and that's what mattered.

Checking her status displays one more time, Enalia punched in the green alert command. "Stand down from alert status. stealth mode and full comm silence continues until further notice. ETA to Tortuga station should be around two days so normal duty rotations apply." Then another thought struck her. "And someone bring the holo-systems back online and reactivate Akira and my wife." The last thing she needed was a lecture on being forgotten like that.

"On it, Captain," Nate said with a smile on his face. He then went about the task of reactivating the Captain's wife and Akira. He was happy to see Akira when she showed back up on the bridge. "Welcome back, Akira."

Akira blinked as she came back online, quickly regaining her bearings and nodding to the relief Ops Officer so she could resume her position at the Ops terminal. "Glad to be back," Akira replied with a cheery smile as she checked on the status of the reploarization of the stealth plating. "Captain, the stealth plating is repolarized and ready to come back online," she reported, unaware of the order already given to reactivate stealth mode.

Enalia grinned knowingly. "Excellent. Akira, we already bought it online so please confirm that the stealth plating is currently all online and operational just in case. I'd rather not have any more nasty surprises."

"Ah yes, apologies, Captain," Akira stated as she checked the stealth plating. "Stealth plating is active and operating within optimal parameters; we should now be undetectable."

"Excellent." Enalia checked her readouts one more time before settling into her command chair for the long haul. They seemed to be clear for now at least.

 

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