Warp 9 Joyride

Posted on Wed Dec 3rd, 2014 @ 1:49pm by Captain Enalia Telvan & Petty Officer 2nd Class Amelia Takethen & Lieutenant Ventarus Nosplet & Staff Warrant Officer Nexi

Mission: Devotion of Time
Location: Wandering Star

Amelia and Ven had finished their maintenance and were waiting for Nexi to show up for the test flight. While they were waiting, Amelia had changed into civilian attire - a nice blue and black shiny angular outfit with white trim. She was once again heading up the Star's ramp.

"Wow!" Ven said when he looked up from his tricorder at the sound of Amelia walking in. "Um...should I go change?" He asked looking at his messy dirty uniform.

Sauntering past Ven, Amelia sat in one of the shuttle seats, grinning happily. "Well, this isn't a Starfleet ship so if we're going out in it, it might be best to not wear a uniform."

"Huh." Ven thought for a moment. He only had his uniform and never had a need for anything more. He shrugged and pulled his duty jacket off and set it on a control panel. He held his arms out with just he yellow under shirt on.

"How about no." Amelia said. "No Starfleet tools, no Starfleet undershirts, no Starfleet pants." Then a thought hit Amelia. "Lose the underpants too. I bet they have a Starfleet logo."

Ven sighed and grabbed his coat on the way out. He made his way across the bay wondering what he would wear.

Nexi stopped him before he could go very far. "Where do you think you're going?" Nexi said sternly as she entered the bay.

"Amelia said I needed to change before we went out." Ven said to Nexi kind of sheepishly.

"She ain't wrong," Nexi said, shoving him back towards the Wandering Star. "But I ain't waiting around for you to get changed, so get in there."

Ven stumbled back into the shuttle. "No time..." He said to Amelia and took a seat across from her.

Amelia shook her head. "Fine, you can be our captive if anything happens." Looking to Nexi, she continued. "If we need to assault him, I get dibs."

"My ship, my rules," Nexi said as she sat at the helm. "He's mine, but I will take bribes for dibs," she added as she worked through the start up sequence. she closed the hatch and sent the flight notice to the shuttle bay crew to open the doors.

Ven kind of wilted a little in his seat as he waited for the lift off to be over with.

"I'm not sure what I have that you might want but if it comes to it, it's yours." Amelia said with a smirk.

"I have been known to accept favors," Nexi said with a grin. The Wandering Star lifted off the deck and shot through permeable forcefield protecting the atmosphere in the bay. She didn't even wait until she had cleared the Hera's tactical pod, she jumped straight to warp. Her little ship could move!

Once they were at warp Ven went to the core and started scanning it. "Why would either of you want to hurt me?" He mumbled more to himself then anything. "What warp are we at right now?"

"Approaching warp 5," Nexi said as she ran through some high speed maneuvers to see how that thruster control Ven fixed was handling. "And I don't wanna hurt you, I just claim the right to do it if we have to hurt you, keep up."

Looking over the power readouts, Amelia nodded. "Power levels are good and rising smoothly. I might want to hurt you anyway. Just for fun, you know. Any other time I'd be charged with assaulting an officer."

"Good times..." Nexi said. "Alright, time for the real test: accelerating to warp 7.5"

Nexi's ship remained smooth, no hint of the shudder she usually felt. Nexi grinned. Seemed like these 'Fleeters knew their stuff!

"The strut is secure and holding well." Ven reported. He leaned into the compartment to scan the rear of the strut.

"It looks like when we hit warp 9 we'll have a brief bout of turbulence. It should smooth back out after a moment." Amelia said.

Nexi punched it to warp 9, and she wasn't flying a straight path, she was banking hard to and fro to test the limits of the inertial dampeners, but if there had been any turbulence in all that she hadn't felt it. "That's my girl!" Nexi said proudly as she came to an abrupt stop, letting the aft of her ship swing out to come about, then she jumped to warp 9 again, this time flying on a straight course back to Hera.

"She's an amazing ship." Ven commented as he shut his tricorder and took his seat.

"That she is." Amelia said, monitoring the power levels closely. "Well Ven, it looks like you won the bonus for the bet as well. When do you want your winnings?"

"What bet?" Nexi said, looking over her shoulder at the two of them.

"Oh Amelia and I were betting on if I could get you to take us on a trip in your shuttle." Ven said triumphantly.

"The bonus was to get it tonight." Amelia added with a smirk.

"Oh I see..." Nexi said with a grin. So that's why Ven seemed so pressed to get her into her shuttle tonight! "Well, I get a share of the winnings."

"Well it was a massage from Amelia...so..." Ven shrugged. "How about a new stabilization strut?" Ven offered. "You need to run a test on the cloaking device since we had to disconnect and reconnect it."

"All I gotta do to get the strut is is put in a repair request on Hera, I'm getting me a massage, dammit!" Nexi said teasingly, but she was glad Ven reminded her about the cloaking device, she had almost forgotten about that. "Engaging cloak," she said. The internal lights dimmed to indicate that the cloaking device was engaged and functioning.

"Exactly. We can't barter or bet with ship repairs so I'll have to give her a massage too." Tapping a few controls, Amelia studied the power monitors for a moment. "There's a chance someone can pick up your power signature over about warp 4. Other than that it looks like it's working perfectly as long as the warp trail is in specs."

"Yep," Nexi said. She knew that she wasn't being all the stealthy barreling through space at warp 9, but she wasn't trying to be. Although she did slow to warp 4 so she could sneak up on the Hera. "I'm a naughty naughty girl..." she said with a grin.

Ven chuckled at the banter, while scanning the cloaking device. "It looks like everything is functioning perfectly." He snapped the tricorder shut and replaced the panel.

"Good..." Nexi said as her ship closed in on the Hera. Her grin grew wider as she prepared to drop her cloak. "Either of you ever done a flyby at warp?" she asked.

"Once, in a Sydney class past a moon." Amelia tore her eyes away from the monitors to look out the window. "It was the best our colony had."

"Nope!" Ven said with a wide grin. He moved so he could see out the window.

Nexi dropped her cloak and zoomed right over the Hera. She was tempted to come about and make a second pass, but once was good enough to shake things up on the ship. Already she was getting hailed, but she ignored it and instead came about to line up with the shuttle bay so she could dock, dropping all thrusters to coast in that final length. "Ah, that was fun..."

Amelia was certainly impressed. Checking the power readouts, she sighed. Everything looked perfectly fine to her. Except for one thing... "I'm picking up unusually high tachyon radiation levels trailing the Hera's port nacelle. I'm pretty sure that's not normal."

"Tachyon radiation?" Ven glanced over Amelia shoulder.

"Normal indications of a faulty Klingon cloak," Nexi said as her ship slid into the shuttle bay. Then she looked at Amelia. "Wait, didn't you fix my cloaking device?"

"Yeah and we're nowhere near that location so we couldn't be generating it. It's either the nacelle, or..." Amelia trailed off, wondering what else it could be.

Nexi's expression darkened as she landed her ship. "You two need to report in to your Commanding Officer. There's another cloaked ship out there."

"Someone needs to tell the captain." Ven said "Rain check on that massage. "

"I'll let you tell her. I'll back you up though. I just don't want to be the one to wake her up if she's asleep." Amelia said as she got up and prepared to head out.

"You want me to tag along?" Nexi asked as she shut down her ship's power and lowered the ramp for them to exit.

"Sure," Ven said on the move. "I want to run a few scans first before we go waking anyone up."

"If I remember power systems procedures and the tint of the sensor array pod, we're likely only scanning long range." Amelia offered. "I could be wrong though I'm pretty sure the short range sensors were at low power. They weren't glowing."

Nexi followed Amelia and Ven out of her ship and locked up. "Why would you only scan at long range?" Nexi asked.

"The EPS conduits in the pod that power the long range sensors can overpower the short range sensors. It's like using an air horn and not hearing the ice crack under your feet." Amelia explained.

"I don't know about you, but that sounds like a design flaw to me," Nexi murmured.

"Something I have been complaining about for years now," Ven said stepping into a turbolift. "Bridge." He said.

"It's inherent to the role the Nebula class was built for. Long range scientific surveys and picket support needs sensors like that. I do disagree with protocol though. No point counting clouds when you're on thin ice." Amelia said as she leaned against a turbolift wall.

Once the lift stopped and opened up the the bride Ven led the ladies over to a work station along the back wall. He didn't want to disturb the late night bridge crew if it was nothing. He liked in and brought up the sensor controls and stared using the short range sensors. "There's the tachyons..." Ven muttered as his finger danced over the controls.

"Yeah, that's definitely not from my cloaking device," Nexi confirmed as she looked over the readings. "You tell your Captain, I'm going to try to do things on my end to contact whoever is out there."

"This is way over my rank..." Amelia muttered as she looked over the readings too. "I'll keep an eye on this for now. If anything happens, I'll call immediately."

Nexi nodded and quickly exited the bridge to return to her shuttle to try to ferret out this cloaked ship that seemed intent on following them.

Ven hated this part. He reluctantly pressed his com badge.

=/\= "Nosplet to Captain Telvan."

=/\= "Telvan here. What is it?" Enalia said from her quarters. She had just curled up with a good book.

=/\= "Captain, I'm going to need to ask you to come to the bridge. We might have a major problem you need to be aware of." Ven said to her.

=/\= "Someone please tell me why everyone has to tell me bad news in person? I'll be there shortly." Enalia grumbled as she got up and headed out of her quarters.

Ven knew that even if he had told her over the com that she would want to see the scans herself so he let the question drop and closed the line. "Get ready to go to your station." He warned Amelia.

Amelia nodded, shifting her stance. "Good thing I'm dressed more for combat..."

A moment later Enalia walked out onto the bridge. a bit of a scowl on her face as she headed towards Ven. "What is it chief?"

"It's a cloaked ship off our port nacelle." Ven said confidently. "Or at lest was. Amelia here found the tachyon radiation and I confirmed it." Ven stepped to the side so the Captain could see his scans.

Looking the scans over, Enalia shook her head. "Any idea who it could be or why they're following us? I'd like to assume it's our pirate friends on the Raptor but in this area we're likely the only ones without a cloak."

"The only thing we know, thanks to Nexi, is that tachyon radiation like this is caused by a Klingon cloaking devices failing to cloak." Ven explained. " We have yet to raise any suspicions that we know yet other then running the short range senors. I would like to point out; again, that if they had been running this would have been detected right away. As it is, we are lucky Nexi needed to take a quick spin in her shuttle, it was on her shuttle that Amelia first noticed the tachyon radiation."

"That makes sense. Keep an eye on it and set up a transporter redirect for anything beamed to the ship just in case." Enalia turned around, looking across the bridge. "And let me know if anything happens. For now we'll monitor them and let them make the first move."

"Captain, if I could have a moment with you privately I have something else I would like to talk with you about." Ven said.

"We can talk in my ready room." Enalia motioned towards her ready room door as she headed towards it. Entering, she sat behind her desk and motioned towards the open chair.

But Ven didn't sit, instead he set a tricorder on the captains desk. "I know that the nature of Nexi being on this ship is not something I'm privy to, nor is any information you might have on her. So I took the liberty of completely scanning her engine including her cloaking device. All the data is in this tricorder for you to do with as you see fit."

"Thank you." Enalia picked up the tricorder and looked it over. "I don't think we need to worry about her. Her exact relationship with us may not be classified, but it is somewhat personal. If she feels like telling anyone, it's up to her but she's free to come and go as she pleases."

"Of course captain, it was done as merely a precaution. You can never have to much information...right?" Ven said shifting on his feet. "She's nice...in a...gruff way. I get the feeling she's lonely." Ven was getting lost in his thoughts.

Enalia thought about that a moment before tucking the tricorder into her desk. "Not surprising, what with all that's happened lately in her life. As far as I'm concerned, she's a member of our family now so please treat her as such, ok? She needs friends."

Ven looked to the captain and nodded his head in his jerky way. "Certainly Captain. Amel...er Crewman Takethen did some work on her shuttle for her." He explained.

"Yeah, I hand picked her for the main maintenance for Nexi's shuttle." Enalia sighed and leaned back in her chair. "Looking over her records, I'm pretty sure she's got something she's running from as well."

"Well I'll keep my sensors alert. Speaking of, I should get back to my station..." Ven said shifting on his feet again.

"I'd get some rest. It's probably going to be a long day tomorrow." Enalia said as she stood and headed to the door. "That is, if you do sleep."

"Yes Ma'am. I'm owed a massage, maybe that will help me fall asleep." Ven said stepping aside to let the Captain exit first then followed her back onto the bridge.

Hearing the comment, Amelia's head snapped up from the console she was at, looking towards Ven and the Captain in surprise. She hadn't expected Ven to tell anyone about it, let alone the Captain.

Enalia didn't miss that look and it told her who owed Ven that massage. With a grin, she glanced back at Ven. "If you need anything, let sickbay know. I've heard Andorians can get a bit rough with their massages."

"Uh oh..." Ven said. Then shrugged it off and walked over to the station he had been working at to log off. Ven then looked over to Amelia. "Ready?"

"I am," Amelia said, suddenly unsure of herself. Whether it was because they were on the bridge or because the Captain knew about it, she was nervous talking about personal matters all of a sudden. "I take it you want your massage tonight then?"

Ven could see the sudden change in her. He cooked his head to the side and looked her for a moment. "I'll walk you home, we can talk about it on the way." Had he done something to make her uncomfortable?

Hooking her arm into Ven's, Amelia looked around the bridge a bit nervously. "As long as we're off the bridge," she mumbled, leading him to the turbolift.