Star Trek: Nereid {IC}

[Niobaran]

Kovacs

Waiting it to be his turn to be treated by the EMH, he tries to realize what has happened here, and seek for a logical explanation for his observations before the event, and the sensor readings thereafter.

Spoiler: OOC

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Not quite sure who the captain was referring to with "do what you can to get us back on our feet". Was it Kovacs?

So, Kovacs tries to understand how it would be possible to actually skip such a distance, or rather which kind of physical laws would have to be broken to do so. He has a focus in Astronavigation, which I believe would be quite fitting here. Not quite sure which combination makes sense. I would assume that he tries to use his knowledge in navigation and drive systems, but it could also be science.

If it's reason + conn, we are looking at 8+5 = 13, if it's reason + science, it's 8+2 = 10. I'll just roll using my focus, you let me know how it works out. Deal? :)

(2d20)[4][10](14) against TN 13 or 10 + focus.

[Tycho42]

The EMH moves between Delix and Kovacs, applying treatment. About midway through, he flickers slightly and takes a look at the holoemitter.

“I don’t think it was that. Something feels a little...off. Nevermind. Both of you should be fine.”

He takes a step back and pushes up the sleeves of his uniform, rolling them slightly as he moves towards the next crewman.

[Lentrax]

Delix arrives in Engineering to find the entire department in chaos.

Several crewmembers are dead, their bodies pulled away from damaged consoles.

There are several others who are busy attempting to extinguish plasma fires, their extinguishers adding a smell of ozone to the air.

“-to the nacelles! If we can’t get that warp plasma vented, we could lose the entire containment field!”

“Rerouting more power to the venting systems, pressure is still at 212 megapascals and rising! 213. 215. Pressure is stabilizing. Holding at 217 megapascals. Pressure is dropping. The ventilation system is online! 207 megapascals and dropping!”

“Good! Ensign Tilva! Once the pressure drops below 195, we are going to try and restart the M/AM reaction. Get the injectors ready, and wait for my command!”

“Aye, sir!”

Delix finds a place in with the engineering crew, and begins working. From what you can see, the engineering crew has scavenged a lot of the consoles in engineering to rig several of the diagnostic terminals and stations back to a semblance of working order.

“Jennings! Get in the tertiary junction and give Nila a hand getting the main EPS relay bypassed! We need to get partial main power restored!”

A young human woman jumps onto a shattered console and uses it to leap up and grab hold of the floor above, pulling herself up. Delix wonders why she doesn’t use a lift or ladder, but a glance at where the plasma fires are still raging answers that question satisfactorily.

Turning his attention back to working, Delix begins bypassing damaged circuits.

Fortunately, it looks like most of the damaged systems are things they can replicate themselves. And if those astrological coordinates were correct, it looks like it would quite fortuitous indeed.

* * *

Sickbay to Bridge, this is Crewman Nell. Things aren’t looking good down here. It looks like almost the entire med staff is dead. We are doing what we can, and the EMH has been treating the most critically wounded people, but we are overflowing with injuries. Nurse Price is doing what she can to assist.

I heard the EMH say he is running simultaneously on thirteen decks, but he is complaining about lacking the processing power to maintain that level of support for much longer.

In the meanwhile, Kovacs has been going over everything he could think of. Every kind of spatial anomaly, energy source, and theoretical phenomena he had ever heard about. But unless they were inside a star as if went supernova, or a wormhole had spontaneously coalesced, there was no possible way for them to travel so far, in as little as an hour or a day.

The timeframe he was guessing on since they were able to awaken with injuries as severe as he has seen so far without death by blood loss.

[Tycho42]

The EMH on the bridge nods, hearing the report, folding his arms across his chest.

“That is true, I am complaining about that. In four different locations, actually. And it seems as though I should be one of your top priorities, if you want anyone alive when all this is done. I’m going to deactivate here and go to Sickbay. Well...spawn in sickbay. I’m a doctor, not a linguist.”

The EMH disables himself on the bridge, which attentive Engineering minded people should know to be impossible.

In sickbay, he chooses to spawn a version of himself or reintegrate with a current fork and makes a beeline for the nurse in charge, grabbing a tricorder to focus on the wounded, talking over them to the nurse.

“Nurse Price, what is our situation? How did it get so bad here?”

[rogue_alchemist]

Delix reports "Engineering to Bridge, this is Delix. Things seem to be stabilizing here. We are working to get everything back online, it would seem we can replicate most of what we need. It'll take some time, but we can recover from this, and nothing is critical." He finishes helping with what he can and then assigns a crewman to start replicating needed parts before returning to the bridge and getting the consoles there working again.

Spoiler: OOC

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You said this scene is pretty well done, so I am just having Delix finish and be back with everyone else so we can move forward. If there is something more he can do in Engineering to help speed up recovery, and we are about to do a time jump, then he will spend that time helping, but otherwise he will go back to the bridge.

[Lentrax]

Captain's Log: Supplemental.

We have begun repairs to the Nereid. It will take time, but the damage was mostly to the power systems, and by extension the computer. It appears that most of the computer failures we experienced where due to the bio-neural gelpacks being burnt out by overloaded EPS conduits. We are going to have to find a way of shielding them from further damage. The gelpacks are much more difficult for us to replicate now that we have confirmed our location.

The Delta quadrant. Seventy-six thousand two hundred and thirteen light years away from what we can even reasonably call familiar space.

I can only hope that Captain Janeway and her ship has been spared this kind of fate.

The briefing room door opens, and the captain enters. "We have quite a predicament ahead of ourselves. We can plot a course straight for the Alpha Quadrant, running into who knows what. Or we can try and make a run for the Bajoran Wormhole. But that course would run us into Dominion space eventually, and they have made their intentions about intrusions into their space well known.

"Thoughts? Suggestions?"

[Niobaran]

Kovacs

He gives the captain a nod as she enters the meeting room, and listens carefully to her words. He waits for a moment if someone else wants to speak first, as no one does, he addresses the ensemble:

"I think we generally have three options -- which could possibly be combined.

The first option is to stay where we are and try to investigate the phenomenon that has brought us here in the first place. I am not familiar with any similar precedents, and getting to the bottom of this might not only bring us home but also provide valuable insight for future endeavours. However, we run the risk of not finding anything, and waste precious time that could be used to follow one of the remaining two options.

One of which, as you mentioned and what I am sure goes through all of our heads, is to try to get home as soon as possible. Given that our information about the delta quadrant are sparse, we cannot say which of the routes is optimal, but we can make educated guesses to get into communication range with federation space ASAP. The downside of traveling in haste brings me to option 3:

As tragic as our fate may appear, and as many losses it has cost (he shortly pauses, a sign of respect to the fallen), I believe that we are given a chance here. While it may mean that our voyage may exceed some of our lifespans, we could... take our time with our return and follow through with starfleet's scientific mission, exploring new worlds and making first contact with cultures we are not aware of so far. I am aware that this option would present a gamble as the others, if we take too long, we might run out of spare parts before we reach fed space."

[jolinaxas]

Zija listened to the suggestions with a look that she hoped conveyed measured consideration, rather than abject panic.

"With option two - I only took the necessary Engineering reqs, but won't we run out of spare parts going that way, too? I'm used to doing with less, but I don't think we can stretch dilithium crystals and the energy to run Life Support the way we stretched palukoo legs."

[Lentrax]

The captain listens to the options, and the objection.

“Parts may be a problem, but only insofar as finding resources on planets along our way, considering we have one replicator in the main cargo bay that can support the creation of almost everything on our ship.

And I doubt we can pilot just a straight line. I am sure we will have to make detours to avoid people’s who might be nervous about us flying through their space.”

The captain looks at each of you, and those of you who have been with Captain Vess before know that she is about to make her decision.

“We will set a course directly to Federation space. I will address the crew in one hour. Is there anything else I should be made aware of?”

[Archemist]

"Captain, I concur. The crew will need some time to process this, and to grieve. They'll want to hear that we are heading home directly with some kind of plan. And I think this is the best one. I'm still coming to terms with it myself, though. We're all still in shock just from the wave's impact." Alea says this somewhat resignedly. She is obviously feeling the distress on the ship acutely.

"The wormhole might be most direct - how many... years(?)..." she sighs, "years would that save us?"

[Lentrax]

"The wormhole might save us a few years. Maybe ten or twelve, depending on how strain we can put on the warp drive. But the Dominion puts a very different spin on making the attempt. They have already admitted to destroying colonies that have settled near the wormhole, and I do not believe they would look kindly on a Federation ship coming at them from the other direction."

[Tycho42]

The EMH, having been briefed on the medical situation and now representing the senior medical officer, was in attendance at the meeting and he leans forward.

“Commander Alea is right. We are going to have a lot of human problems on board the ship. We don’t have the capacity to handle counseling on such a large scale, given that some of you may not survive the trip home, even considering natural causes.”

[Niobaran]

Kovacs

He nods as the captain proclaims her decision. He believes in strong leadership and the arguments were rational. In a way, Kovacs feels that a chance on collecting important knowledge is forfeited, but he also understands that this decision was neither his to make nor to take the responsibility for it.

Hearing the EMH quite bluntly talk about the elephant in the room, and noting on how it says "you" and not "us", he swallows down a snide remark, and instead addresses the wormhole issue.

"I agree that we should not go for the wormhole. As it stands, a war with the dominion must be prevented, and if impossible, the federation needs allies to call on. Our own well being or an increased chance of returning home cannot justify the risk to ruin possibly year long diplomatic negotiations by provocation in form of the unexpected arrival of a starfleet vessel in dominion space."

"I would thus suggest the foundation of a task force to develop an adaptive routing and navigation algorithm that takes into account ongoing learnings to plot the fastest way into fed space."

[Lentrax]

The captain nods at the mention of the toll this journey will take on her crew.

"I do not know how effective a ship's counselor you may turn out to be, but perhaps you could assist some of the crew in designing appropriate programs to help us in that regard."

Captain Vess listens to the suggestion of researching possible alternate methods of navigation, and then nods her head in assent.

"I agree. We will look into everything we can to shorten our trip as much as possible. As soon as the entire ship is in operational readiness, we can begin looking into dedicating crewmen to the task."

The Captain looks about her senior staff.

"Very good. Get us ready to depart in one hour. Dismissed."

* * *

One hour later, Captain Vess enters the bridge form her Ready Room. She signals to Zika, and the security officer opens all the communications circuits on the ship. The familiar traditional three toned Botswain signal calls all hands to attention.

"All hands. This is the Captain. We have a difficult journey ahead of us. We are alone in the Delta Quadrant, stranded tens of thousands of light years from home. Even if we strained our engines to the maximum they can handle, pushed our warp drive for every ounce of warp energy we can muster, it would take us more than 65 years to reach home. We have no idea if this same phenomena is what swept up Voyager. If we can find her on our travels, so much the better. But even without the aid of another Federation ship, I have every confidence in my crew, and our ship to make the journey.

"And that is not all. Despite the danger, we have another mission to uphold. The mission that drives the very core of Starfleet. To seek out new life, and explore the galaxy around us. We will need new training routines. Any species we encounter will be a First Contact mission. And those who wish to put themselves in the position of Ship's diplomat should enquire with Commander Hobb."

The captain moves over to stand in the center of the bridge, looking over each of her crew's faces as she continues.

"The journey will be long. It will be difficult. The old American space agencies had a saying that they used for some of their programs, 'Per aspera ad astra.' Through difficulties to the stars. To which I say, "Ad domum per aspera.' To home, through difficulties. And with that said," the captain takes her seat, and taps her console to life.

"Mister Kovacs. Set course Bearing 030, Mark 346, Warp 7."

"Course laid in, Captain."

"Take us home."

[rogue_alchemist]

Delix is silent during the briefing and takes the decision with equanimity. He didn't have a whole lot to add, as they knew the engineering status and lack of resources as well as he did. After the meeting, Delix returns to his station and when the captain makes her ship-wide announcement, Delix's face softens at the mention of first-contact. He has a talent for cultural flexibility and has focused on cultural studies and empathy during his training and upbringing. As such, he would greatly enjoy being on any away teams that did make first contact, though with is relatively low command aptitude, realizes that leading it may not be his forte.

After his shift finishes, he approaches commander Hobb to remind her of his skills and tell her he would be interested in participating on the team, and offer to lead it only if no one else more qualified can be found.

Spoiler: ship named areas

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Do we have a name for the "ten forward" area of our ship (like the enterprise). Where do the crew go to relax and share camaraderie when off shift? That is where Delix will approach Hobbs.

[Archemist]

After his shift finishes, he approaches commander Hobb to remind her of his skills and tell her he would be interested in participating on the team, and offer to lead it only if no one else more qualified can be found.

Delix finds Alea in her usual spot, up in the Pod by the sensor bank viewports. "I thought I was the only one who knew I liked coming up here," Alea jokes, as it is probably common knowledge, and one could always just have asked the Computer where she was. "Usually, I like to look out over the saucer, feel the vibes of the crew contentedly going about their day, and contemplate about being up in the spot that houses both our sensors for exploration and our aft torpedoes. You can even see into the bridge skylights if you look closely. And it's way less crowded than Seven-Forward."

Upon hearing what Delix has to say about the Diplomacy Team, Alea says, "Look, you helped make first contact with the Malians and that went just fine. This may not be the Enterprise, but if a people's first introduction to Starfleet is you, Starfleet can certainly be proud. You're both socially and scientifically perceptive, so if we beam down somewhere, I'd love to have you along."

[Lentrax]

Captain's Log, Stardate 48354.32

We have finished repairs to major systems, and I am pleased to record in my log that our ship is fully operational again.

For these past two weeks, the crew has had that duty to focus on. And they performed to the standards any Captain would be proud of. But now that the repairs are finished, I am concerned that we may settle into a routine. I am sure that at our first encounter, we will shatter that complacency, but for now, it is a concern. Any lapse in reaction time could spell our end.

But I put my trust in my crew, and our ability to adapt to our situation and survive.

I must.

But that leads me to another point. The separation of a Captain and her crew. But I will save my thoughts on that for my personal log...

End log.

Captain Vess exits her ready room, and steps out onto the bridge.

"Lieutenant Mathas, I have the Conn."

Lt. Mathas, a human male, stands form the command chair. "Captain has the Conn, aye. Third watch ends, 0600. Our course is Bearing 029, mark 364. Sensors recorded three planets orbiting a nearby K-class star. but high radiation levels from the system prevented us form getting accurate scans on the planets. All systems report as nominal."

Report finished, he takes two steps back from the chair. The captain takes two steps forward to stand in front of the chair.

"First watch begins, 0601." At these words, the bridge lighting returns to its normal levels. And then the Captain takes her seat. She is still sitting in her chair as you all report in for your shift changes. As you take your positions on the bridge, a midshipman comes in through the turbolift, and hands a PADD to the captain. Captain Vess reads the PADD, signs off on the daily status reports, and hands the PADD back to the midshipman, dismissing the young (looking) Vulcan male.

As Commander Alea Hobb takes her seat next to the captain, the Captain speaks. "Well, XO? Anything interesting to report today?"

[rogue_alchemist]

Delix finds Alea in her usual spot, up in the Pod by the sensor bank viewports. "I thought I was the only one who knew I liked coming up here," Alea jokes, as it is probably common knowledge, and one could always just have asked the Computer where she was. "Usually, I like to look out over the saucer, feel the vibes of the crew contentedly going about their day, and contemplate about being up in the spot that houses both our sensors for exploration and our aft torpedoes. You can even see into the bridge skylights if you look closely. And it's way less crowded than Seven-Forward."

Upon hearing what Delix has to say about the Diplomacy Team, Alea says, "Look, you helped make first contact with the Malians and that went just fine. This may not be the Enterprise, but if a people's first introduction to Starfleet is you, Starfleet can certainly be proud. You're both socially and scientifically perceptive, so if we beam down somewhere, I'd love to have you along."

Pleased with her assessment and pleased to be remembered among all the crew on the ship, Delix responds "Yes, maam! I will be sure to conduct myself as becoming of an officer of Starfleet. I welcome the opportunity and appreciate the consideration. I will return to regular duty for now, but I stand ready whenever we make contact." Having responded in his official capacity, he softens and smiles at Commander Hobbs, sharing a few thoughts about the nice view and the situation that they now find themselves in.

[Tycho42]

Acting Chief Medical Officer Lew’s Log...

I have begun to put situations right in sickbay, but there are problems beyond what my programming is scaled for. For one, the CMO, my predecessor, is dead and I have the largest array of knowledge qualifying me for the position.

I have already begun to establish rotations for crew members to come see me for counseling sessions to help with the trauma they have all suffered, knowing they are potentially a generation away from friends and loved ones. I have a nominal staff at hand, but of the handful with counseling experience, no one but me is capable of operating around the clock. There are numerous patients to work through.

I have already begun to work on my plans for efficiency, considering I am the CMO now. For one, I have put in a request to Engineering to harden the photonic emitters on all levels; I need to be everywhere and at any time. If it were not a terrible draw on power, I would insist on running iterations of myself constantly within the ship. Imagine how much I...we...could accomplish?

Speaking of changing programs, I should add that during the catastrophe that struck the ship, there has been “bleed” from other computer files, notably some historical and holodeck references. It is too early to tell all of the aspects that my program absorbed, but I am...changed by the experience.

Perhaps, physician, you need to heal yourself.

End of log.

[Archemist]

As Commander Alea Hobb takes her seat next to the captain, the Captain speaks. "Well, XO? Anything interesting to report today?"

Spoiler: AAAaaaaghhh

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Sorry folks, I totally missed this cue on first read, and it'd had me in bold and everything. My bad.

Commander Alea answers, "Mister Delix has volunteered to be part of the First Contact team, for which I'm glad. Otherwise, we're still moving faster than light towards home. Lieutenant Kell mentioned the long-range scanners were already full of interesting stellar phenomena coming up along our way, already. What do you think of these three planets? Should we take a closer peek? I'm in favor of investigating, but you know me, perfectly happy poking among ancient ruins in the dust. But I also think the crew could use something new to talk about for a while, too."

[Lentrax]

“I don’t think so, XO. The radiation from the K-class star would make it impossible for us to land a party. And even staying in orbit for scans would be too risky.”

The captain sits back in her chair.

“We will stay on course for now. I believe our astrometric instruments reported several other star systems a few light-years ahead. We will see if any of them bear some more approachable fruit. Stay the course, Mister Kovacs.”

The first hour of shift passes uneventfully, with crew members bringing reports of the various departments and systems to the bridge for the Captain’s review.

Until...

“Captain, I am picking up a... something.”

The captain turns in her chair to look back toward Zika.

“You’re going to have to be more specific than ‘something,’ I’m afraid.”

“It’s a communication of some kind, Captain. Flooding all sub space channels. The source is unknown.”

“Put it on, then.”

Zika nods and suddenly the bridge is bombarded with a blaring klaxon of extremely high pitch, and loud enough to be almost painful.

And then a voice can be heard, shouting in an alien language.

The captain motions to Zika, and she cuts the volume down.

“Sorry, Captain. The universal translator circuit is working on language detection, Give me a moment...”

“-tine. I repeat. This is the High Chancellor of Relyth. Our planet is now under quarantine. The Phage has spread to over ninety percent of the population in a matter of days, including myself. The healthy citizens have revolted, and many of my security teams are awaiting transplants. We will not survive. Stay away from Relyth. The planet is quarantined.”

[Lentrax]

The Phage

The captain sat straight in her chair as she listened to the message.

“Can we track down where that transmission came from?”

A moment later, Zika answers.

“A binary star system, 15 light years away. Sensors reporting three planets within the habitable zone.”

“Change course. Take us to that system. Open a channel, and increase scans to maximum.”

Moments later, the ship is on a new course and Zika has opened a comm frequency.

“High Chancellor. This is Captain Shanna Vess of the Federation Starship Nereid. Can we offer any assistance?”

“No response, Captain.”

Spoiler: Task

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I need a sensors task from Zika, difficulty 2.

[Archemist]

The First Officer takes stock. "Captain, we're only barely on our own feet - it's hard to see what help we could be to an entire planet that's been quarantined. And of course they may not be much help to us, either. It'll be good to say hello, though, and I suppose we'll be able to get a sense of the state of the Delta Quadrant based on how it has treated these unfortunate people."

[Lentrax]

"I don't either, XO. But if we can make a good impression, we might be able to get more information on what lies ahead."

"Captain!" Zija calls out from tactical. "I have two ships closing at high warp on an intercept course!"

"Hail them."

Zija taps interfaces. "No response. Sensors picking up torpedo lauches! I am raising the shields!"

The weapon impacts against the shields, and the ship shudders underfoot, not enough to cause injury to anyone, but the ship reacts immediately, main lighting cutting out and being replaced by the flashing red lights and klaxon of the Red Alert.

The captain stands up from her chair, and urns her head just enough to speak to Zija. "Open a channel."

"Channel open."

"This is Shanna Vess, Captain of the Federation Starship Nereid. Why have you fired upon us?"

"No response, Captain. They are firing again."

"Evasive Maneuvers, Mister Kovacs! Engineering, get us more power to the shields!"

[rogue_alchemist]

Delix does what he can to assist Engineering in redirecting power. He tries to make sure that critical systems are running as best they can.

Spoiler: rolls

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(2d20)[11][1](12)Reason+Engineering = 11+4 = 15 with a focus on computers and physics