Distress Call [✱4]

Posted on Mon Oct 20th, 2025 @ 1:41pm by Lieutenant Commander Alph & Doctor Ori Enu'Tha ScD, QSsD, FZMI & Lieutenant Commander S'Lace & Ensign Mana'i & Lieutenant Commander Raul Saez & Major Victoria, Daughter of Kalath & Lieutenant Akaar Zuul & Lieutenant Valerie Gordon
Edited on on Tue Oct 21st, 2025 @ 11:18am

1,917 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: UnderMind [4]
Location: USS Hercules - Approaching Distress Call
Timeline: Afternoon - MD03

“We should be within a lightyear of the broadcast destination in 30 seconds.” Dr Enu’tha announced from the science station, despite knowing full well that was the Navigator’s job. He hadn’t said anything in a while, he’d been too busy sorting through scans of the area in the hopes of finding something to help him predict what they could expect out there. To his frustration, he’d found nothing. His face was expressionless, but his antennae jittered nervously every now and then, which he would attribute to sensitivities to slipstream speeds, if questioned.

The bridge staff for the rescue mission had been thrown together at haste and from those not otherwise assigned elsewhere, resulting in an unusual lineup. S'Lace was in command, the Marine XO Major Kalath had been brought along as First Officer, Commander Saez was at the helm. Dr Enu'tha had not yet grown too comfortable at the science station, and Lieutenant Zuul was handling Security and Tactical. Alph had Ops. Ensign Mana'i too had joined them at one of the auxiliary bridge science stations, as much for her edification as anything else. The Klingon Choq, assigned to Security, had joined them for no other reason than that he was an active member of the KDF, however lowly ranked.

S'Lace nodded. Vulcans experienced emotions, albeit not in the same way as most humanoid sentients. They simply did not wear them on their sleeves, as the illogical humans still said, "Mister Zuul, yellow alert."

"Aye," Akaar replied, and the bridge became bathed in a soft yellow hue along with the yellow lighting around the room lit up. "Shields on standby," he reported.

She turned to her XO, "Major Kalath, I would not be at all insulted if you offered whatever advice you feel may be best received in terms of assuring the vessel's safety and the success of the mission. I am a Vulcan: I have no ego to bruise."

"No problem at all, Commander." Kalath said with a nod. She wasn't at her most comfortable sitting there waiting for something to happen. "I'd suggest launching fighters as soon as we drop out of slipstream." She suggested.

"Fighters prepared for launch, Commander." Three of Five announced through her comm-link to the bridge when she heard Major Kalath's suggestion. She was already in the cockpit of her Valkyrie, one of only two on board. If shuttlebay regulations allowed it, she would already have her core active and superluminal speeds just a light touch of the control yoke away. Because they did not, she complied.

S'Lace's eyebrows raised slightly. That was...presumptuous. Or...perhaps it was not. She said aloud, "Once we exit slip stream have the fighters launch. But I would like a relatively close deployment to start; until we have a better idea of what befell the Klingons it would be imprudent to allow our forces to stray too far apart."

"Dropping from slipstream to warp in 3, 2, 1..." Saez announced as a gentle bump rumbled the ship at the moment of deceleration, their vision shifted from the blue plasmic tubular slipstream space to the streaking stars of warp travel. "Dropping to impulse." Saez announced a moment later, and they dropped from superluminal speed to around 250 km/h, and slowing. "We have arrived at destination, Commander." He gave the fighters the green light for launch at his terminal.

Captain Three and her wing-partner both launched their Valkyrie fighters as the light changed, beginning immediate sensor sweeps to feed back to the Hercules as they emerged in precise parallel, looping around their mothership acrobatically.

"Klingon ship detected approximately 1.3 AU away, bearing on-screen. Most of her systems are offline, but they've still got life support. There's too much ambient delta radiation to get a stable reading on lifesigns. As few as zero, and as many as a hundred. Maybe. Radiation source unknown." Enu'Tha announced as he got the data. The approximated image showed it was facing away from them, they would approach it's rear. The supposed damage to the fore section was not visible.

Saez began to consider the approach routes. He didn't want to pre-empt the Commander, but he wanted to know what the best and quickest times should look like, in case they're requested. The computer gave him results almost instantly, a careful approach could still have them within beaming range inside three minutes, all things being optimum.

Akaar conducted hostiles sensor sweep of the area and announced. "No other ships in the area." He tapped his badge. "Zuul to Valkyries, confirm no hostiles at long range?"

"No additional contacts on scopes." Three responded.

"Recommend we let the fighters take a closer look before we get closer, ma'am." Kalath told S'Lace as they awaited Captain Three's assessment.

"Attempt to hail the Klingon vessel first," S'Lace replied, "The fighters' approach might be seen as a hostile action and if someone over there has incomplete sensor readings they may fire upon allies. If they fail to respond to the hail allow the fighters to approach more closely so that we might be able to get a more definitive scan; not knowing the source of the radiation is...troubling."

S'Lace slowly paced across the bridge, "Have all rescue teams inoculated with Hyronalin to prevent potential radiation poisoning.

"No response so far, ma'am." Cadet Iplik said from the far side of the room at the comms terminal after medical confirmed S'Lace's order. "No, wait, we're getting a response. Audio only." A chime sounded as the channel opened.

"Federation. Federation! You must help us, we cannot die like this!" A Klingon's voice, a young man, less than 16. There was a sound of ruckus in the background, several Klingons in close proximity. There was a loud bang, like something heavy into something solid, but the young male voice continued, "They have taken the bridge, the Captain!" There was another loud bang, more distinctly an explosion as cries were heard in the background. "They are coming, they are coming! Qap-!" The Klingon cried and the channel closed.

"Not getting any further response, Commander." Iplik said after enough failed hails to call it.

"Fighters, move in, best possible speed. Begin assessment sweep from safe distance." Kalath ordered, the first idea having yielded all the success it could.

"Fighters moving in." Three of Five confirmed, as both flashed away at warp 3, aiming to cross 50% of the distance at warp 3, the next 25% at warp 1, and the last 25% at full impulse.

A few moments later, pages of technical data came flooding in from the initial scans by the fighters.

“Their shields are down Commander, perhaps a boarding party and a security team?” Akaar suggested from Tactical. He hoped he’d get to be in the boarding party since he wasn’t in security anymore he wasn’t supposed to lead or be part of a security team but realistically he knew security would follow his lead when needed.

S'Lace tapped her comm badge, "Sickbay, this is-" she was about to say 'the captain' but that sounded...absurd, "-S'Lace. send someone to transporter room one with plenty of Hyronalin to inoculate a large away team," using imprecise terminology such as 'plenty' and 'large' was anathema to S'Lace's Vulcan sensibilities but she pressed on, "That person will be joining the away team; someone with combat experience would be preferable."

She turned to Major Kalath, "Quickly assemble a team. We will need to choose a place on board that ship that would be safest to beam over to. I assume this initial mission will be intelligence gathering and not an attempt to retake the ship?"

"Will do, ma'am. That'd be my suggestion. We need to know what they're running away from before we can do anything about it. Kalath said as she stood. "Kalath to Engineering, I need someone for an away team." She hadn't had time to review who was currently assigned.

"I know just the gal!" Gordon responded, deciding immediately that she would go.

"Commander Alph, Lieutenant Zuul, Beq Choq, Dr Enu'Tha, with me." The Major told the four men.

"Whoah, hey. Sorry, but no way, Major ma'am, sir. I'm the fifth-biggest brain in the Federation, not some redshirt for the meatgrinder. Why not take the robot? She seems to know which end of a tricorder to hold. I heard she handled herself in the CIC when those snakeheads took over. And, you know, she's made of metal. I'm made of skin. Flimsy blue skin." Enu'Tha gestured to Mana'i.

S'Lace cocked an eyebrow at Dr. Enu'Tha but refrained from speaking. A maxim of command even she knew was that you did not give an order you knew would be refused. She allowed the Major to continue assembling the away team.

"Yes Major," Akaar replied with a smile but stopped when Enu'Tha spoke up, the Doctor was speaking some weird stuff. He eyed him like he'd grown a second head.

"Well Ensign, will you join us? There is no shame in declining, there may be great peril." Kalath asked Mana'i, fully prepared in the event that she declined, in which case she could always just drag Enu'Tha by his antenna and remind him of the responsibilities of his uniform along the way.

"I'd be pleased to." The Toa of Ice responded with a smile. "Though I'm sure my colleague would also benefit from the experiences offered."

"I am so fine where I am, you almost wouldn't believe it." Enu'Tha declined Mana'i's offer, remaining firmly in his seat.

"We'll be in transporter range in 30 seconds." Saez announced from Navigation while the Klingon ship grew on the screen, new scans showing greater resolution. The head of it looked to be missing, like the entire 'prong' of the front weapons pod had been sheared away.

"Cadet Iplik, you too. The more familiar foreheads we have the better. Grab a communications backpack on your way to the transporter room." Kalath instructed the half-Klingon cadet at comms, who nodded with a deer in the headlights look before obeying.

"Plans shared by the Empire show the best place to drop you all is probably here, in the middle of the storage compartment in the rear dorsal tactical platform." Enu'Tha suggested, showing a scan of a large room. "We can't confirm organic inhabitants, but it's clear enough of objects to beam a team in."

"Thank you, Doctor," S'Lace replied, her voice containing a tinge of irony. She turned to her XO, "Major, this seems a good fall back position for your team in the event the radiation prevents us from beaming you out from another part of the ship. Is there anything you feel you may require, such as further personnel to ensure the storage compartment remains secure?"

"Probably best to make our judgements once we've got boots on the deck, ma'am. We'll have the most options if we can have security and marine squads ready to beam over when called." Kalath advised, the plan already laid out in her head. "We'll take enough equipment to cut through any disruption once we're over there. But for all we know we might want to head right back."

S'Lace gave a single nod, "Very well, Major. It will be as you say. I shall arrange the necessary personnel to be on call should you require them." She stepped back, a sign that the planning was finished, that she would stay out of her XO's way while she did her job. She hesitated, then said, "Good luck."

It seemed to be the thing to say, under those circumstances...

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