BEPI 113

Posted on Tue May 16th, 2017 @ 9:29pm by Commander Mal Xustos & Captain Enalia Telvan & Lieutenant Commander Eneas Clio & Lieutenant Commander Thex sh'Zoarhi & Lieutenant Commander T'Pral Jordan & Akira Zhuri & Lieutenant Mona Gonadie & Petty Officer 2nd Class Ila Dedjoy & Emergency Medical Hologram (Adam Power) Mk X & Alden Engstrom XIII & Maica III 47

Mission: Death is in the Details
Location: [REDACTED]
Timeline: 2394 to 2160

Enalia tapped on her command chair consoles, looking over the status of anything that might distract her from their upcoming time jump. Slingshot maneuvers were outlawed for a reason and for the Hera to be about to make one now was not only insane, but problematic. They had taken on a supply of dilithium and antimatter a week prior that could have resupplied an entire solar system, but they'd need to burn almost every scrap of both for this jump as well as the return trip. The calculations to open a time-space rift big enough for the Hera herself was logistically unsound and though the calculations were complete for the return trip, they'd have to begin reverification based on conditions in the target year once they arrived.

Thus, they were approaching the small orange sun, lining up for their first run when the officer at the helm spoke up. "Now at three thousand kilometers from flight plan position alpha."

"All stop," Enalia commanded, keying the intercom. "All hands, this is your Captain speaking. In the next few minutes we will begin the slingshot maneuver. You've all been briefed on potential side effects and mission parameters as needed, but as a reminder, for the duration, there will be a complete communications blackout other than tightbeam comms to away teams. Also, keep in mind that it is most likely that everyone will be knocked unconscious because of the mechanics of how this works. Secure yourselves and all equipment and check in with your departments. Telvan out." clicking the intercom off, Enalia stared at the monitor for a moment, the orange orb dominating the screen. "All departments, check in when ready."

Her hands flying over the console for the warp core Thex opened her comms. " Everything looks fine down here captain. Warp cores purring away down here. " She said her eyes beaming at the humming engines.

"Thank you, Lieutenant," Mal said from his chair. "Are you ready for this, Ensign Gonadie? If you're not, this is going to be a very short trip."

"Sorry sir, but things being what they are, most of this trip will be piloted by the computer," Gonadie replied with a hint of a smile. "I will have my fingers on manual adjustments though, just in case there's a massive solar ejection."

T'Pral stood at her station, checking the ship's weapons and defensive systems. "Weapons and shields are operating normally. All security stations report ready status."

"Aknowledged, Lieutenant T'Pral," Mal said. He turned to Chief Paire. "Ree, how do things stand with Damage Control?"

"Teams are distributed throughout the ship," Chief Ree Paire replied. "Fire control teams are standing by as are hull breach sealing teams."

Though she was always game for dressing up to go undercover, Clio was no fan of the slingshot maneuver. Having already secured the intelligence areas before reporting to her bridge station, she took the extra precaution of sending notifications to both Nexi and West, warning them to strap in and hold on. "I'm not sure I'll ever actually be ready to go slingshotting around a star..."

"The mechanics are not that complicated; perhaps if it was better explained then you would be more prepared?" Akira offered from the Ops station, not really understanding what Clio was so apprehensive about.

"I know the mechanics of the maneuver. Believe me, it doesn't help." Clio knew Akira just well enough to know that she wouldn't understand the emotion behind any such feelings just yet. "Maybe I'll explain it to you later."

Enalia turned to Akira to address her. "Anything that can knock out my entire crew with one exception is worth being wary of. Akira, you'll be the only one awake during the actual jump itself and you'll have to make sure the ship isn't detected and everything is safe while we all wake back up."

Enalia then turned back to the viewscreen and confirmed final checks were done across the ship on her own readouts. "Ensign Gonadie, please engage our programmed course at your leisure."

"Aye, Captain. Engaging course now." As Gonadie tapped a single control, several consoles across the bridge lit up with life and the ship started moving, quickly building up to full impulse and diving seemingly right into the sun before them. Soon, the impulse was at max and the star was pulling them in, the RCS thrusters and metaphasic shielding at max output to keep the behemoth ship on course and less than toasty. "Point nine light speed. Point nine three. Point nine five... Nine seven... Nine nine. Now at one point one light speed. Warp engines engaging."

The starlines and sheer shock and strain of being thrown through time was a great strain on the hull, but a greater strain yet on her crew. As expected, everyone was knocked unconscious, but soon would wake.

Akira monitored their trajectory as the Hera performed the slingshot maneuver; she was no pilot, but she had enough information about this maneuver to monitor their progress and keep them on course as they rocketed through time. As soon as the Hera was thrust out of the sun's gravitational pull, she found the nearest stellar body, an asteroid, and put the Hera in it's shadow so that they wouldn't be detected by any nearby sensors, then proceeded to calculate the stardate to confirm they had arrived at the appointed time. She then blinked herself into main engineering to check on the dilithium and antimatter chambers; as expected, the crystals were ruined, but thankfully they had enough antimatter reserves to rebuild the crystals and get them back home. So, she set the warp drive and generators on idle to cool down and recover from the massive power drain, then began the process of rebuilding the dilithium crystals. That process would take several days, but it was nothing they weren't prepared for. With the computer now working on that, all that was left was to monitor the condition of the crew; Akira returned to the bridge and monitored passive medical scans of all the life forms on the ship, watching and waiting for someone to wake.

Clio wasn't exactly sure how much G-force was generated during the slingshot maneuver, and she didn't care to ask. It was, however, obvious it was significant. She blinked a few times as she slowly came to her senses, otherwise not moving until she'd taken stock of her situation. Recognizing the tingle of the inertial dampener field built into her station, she gingerly sat up in her chair and looked around.

"Move slowly until you adjust," Akira said from her station as she watched Clio slowly stir. "I've set the EMH to make rounds throughout the ship until the medical staff can wake and help out, and he cautioned me that the crew may experience some disorientation or even nausea."

Well the EMH was right about that. If she hadn't known that the dampener kept her firmly in her chair, Clio would have sworn she'd hit her head really hard. "I don't suppose he left you any drugs to fix any of that."

"Not exactly," Akira said with a curious tilt of her head. "But he did upload a replicator pattern to all available replicators. Would you like me to replicate a hypospray for you?"

"Unless you want me to puke all over you, that would be a really good idea." Normally Clio would just do it herself, but she wasn't sure she could stand up just yet.

For the Bridge, the nearest available replicator was in the Captain's Ready Room, so that's where Akira went to replicate a hypospray and a number of extra vials for the rest of the Bridge crew, then returned in a swift manner to administer a dose into Clio's arm. Though she wasn't rough, Akira was definitely lacking in any polite bedside manner, but then again she was still developing her social interaction skills.

"We're starting to get responses from all over the ship, the crew is waking," Akira reported once she returned to her station to monitor their progress.

"Ow," Clio said under her breath, rubbing her arm as Akira went to monitor the rest of the crew again. She didn't feel much better, but the immediate need to vomit went away. That was something.

Mal's horns hurt. That was the level of headache he was experiencing. And the room wouldn't stop moving. And his stomach didn't feel good.

"Akira," he said. "I think I heard, over the pounding in my head, something about an anti-nausea hypospray? Would you be so kind as to bring me one as well? Thank you."

"Yes sir," Akira replied, taking the hypospray and making her way around the stations to the Command platform to give Mal a dose. "Everything seems to have gone as intended; Stardate calculations indicated that we are within the expected time range, and I have have made sure we remained unseen. Also, the maneuver tapped our power reserves, so I've set the ship to operate on minimal power with the focus being on life support and the repair of our dilithium crystals until the generators can cool off," she reported.

"Acknowledged," Mal replied. "As soon as there is enough power to run our poor man's cloaking device, turn it on. I'd like to be running silent as soon as possible."

T'Pral pushed through the disorientation at first when she woke, blinking several times and taking in a slow deep breath. She looked down at her console and ran an internal scan. "The crew appears to be coming around, Captain," she reported, studying the life sign readings aboard the ship. Switching to external sensors, she initiated a passive scan on the area. "No vessels in the immediate sector."

"As we hoped would happen," Mal said. "Everyone assigned to an away team will now call for relief personnel to man their stations if at a primary station. Take some time, gather your wits, and be ready to depart in thirty minutes."