Icebreaker

Posted on Mon Sep 16th, 2024 @ 8:33am by Lieutenant Atna & Doctor Intharia T'Zor & Lieutenant Commander Alex Flynn & Lieutenant Rune 'Row' Thul & Lieutenant Alph & Lieutenant JG Grace Douglas & Ensign Abra Akzhouri & Ensign P'Lar & Warrant Officer Bart Cage & Warrant Officer Seth & Navigator Korusca & SubLieutenant Attania Viren

1,646 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: DownTime [1]
Location: 22nd moon of Dreizhen V
Timeline: 1320 Hours - MD02

The three runabouts penetrated the 22nd moon's thin envelope of atmosphere, coming to a gentle stop fifty meters above the thick crust of ice that enclosed its planetary sea. The orange glow of Dreizhen V filled the sky above them.

"Hou Yi, prepare for simultaneous low-intensity phaser fire, we're going to cut a circle 25 metres in diameter through the ice. Gascoyne, prepare to raise the ice we cut with a tractor beam." Alex ordered, bringing up the tactical controls on her console.

P'Lar prepared a firing solution for the single ventral phaser array, matching the pattern and timing to that of the Cupid. "Hou Yi is armed and ready." She affirmed.

"Fire." Alex ordered, and the Cupid and Hou Yi simultaneously traced and retraced a perfectly round ring with their phasers. Steam hissed from the carved circle. "I think we're through. Gascoyne, get it up."

"Okay Warrant Officers Seth, engage the tractor, and Cage take us up when locked on," Rune ordered. "Lieutenant Douglas, set coordinates for us to put this ice block."

"Aye, sir. Tractor beam locked on the ice-disc's center of mass. Activating." Seth told the others, having expected them and brought up the appropriate systems. The diaphanous blue beam emerged from the emitter with a soft, bassy hum, causing the separated disc of ice to rise slightly as the beam surrounded it with progressive gravitons.

Once the lock was confirmed, the shuttle began to rise. "Up fifty meters, sir." Cage confirmed once it was reached. The disc shed snow but remained intact.

"Uploading a proposed dropsite to shared display." Douglas said, after tapping with restrained fury at her console, to have it done right, quickly.

"Ready to drop at your command." Cage told Lieutenant Thul.

The Gascoyne flew over to the coordinates Douglas picked and once above the site, Rune smiled. "Drop," he ordered. "Nice work everyone." He said.

The disc was gently released, stopping heavily once it reached the surface.

"Everyone listen up. Since only the Delta-class runabouts can go under, Gascoyne will be resuming the survey mission, but try to focus intently on what's nearby and don't get too far away. Mr Thul, I'd like you to join Lieutenant Atna on the Hou Yi." Alex explained succinctly to all once everything else had settled.

"Aye Commander," Rune replied and nodded to Douglas. "Looks like you're back in command, Lieutenant," he smiled. He stood and nodded to them all. "Stay safe, keep a tractor lock on us okay," he said, and walked over to the transporter pad. "Energise," he requested.

"Energising." Seth responded, and beamed him over smoothly to the other Delta Flyer.

"Good luck sir, stay dry." Chau told him just as the transporter beam disassembled him completely.

Rune materialised and called. "Lieutenant, permission to come aboard," he said and chuckled.

"Your service is appreciated, Lieutenant Thul. I believe it would be prudent for you to take the tactical station. Ensign P'Lar, please supervise the engineering station in the rear, keep your focus on life support and structural integrity." Atna ordered.

"Yes Lieutenant," Rune smiled and slid into the tactical station's chair and quickly did a systems check for his own piece of mind.

"Alright teams, let's get going. Ms Viren, double the power allotment to structural integrity fields. Take us down, Ms Akzhouri. Navigation lights on." Alex ordered. The two Delta Flyers flew briefly up then back down, diving nose-first into the frozen ocean. The darkness was impenetrable, even with the heavy-duty search and rescue lights of the runabouts glaring into it.

"You probably cannot see them, but there are fish. Fish-like entities, anyway." Alph announced, his sharp android eyes piercing the darkness.

"Scan some for me, would you Alph?" Abra asked him from Cupid's helm.

"Of course, Ensign." Alph responded with a convincing imitation of happiness.

Thari T'Zor wasn't that taken by the view, but she was relishing the experience of serving alongside the crew.

"Any life larger than the Hou Yi, Lieutenant Alph?" Rune asked, concerned that they could become something's dinner.

"Nothing on sensors." Alph said. "Conditions are such that any lifeforms here will most likely be quite small."

As they got deeper, another light, blue and bright, seemed to shine from the bottom of the ocean. As they got closer, it became apparent that it was the bubble of an active forcefield. "Oh, dip." Alex said as she realised what it was.

"That's the source of our nadions, I'll wager." The Romulan Engineer Viren offered.

"They're using the weapons systems to power the shields?" Rune turned back to look at the Romulan Viren.

"Nadion particles are emitted by a handful of variant shield generator systems Starfleet deployed in the 23rd century. It was not a power efficient system, but more effective for the hit-and-run combat that characterised the era." Atna explained, appreciating the incongruity.

"My thoughts exactly. A number of Romulan systems still incorporate those design principles." Sublieutenant Viren elaborated.

"Interesting," Rune said, musing about it all.

Within the protective outer energy shell of the shield, a familiar frame lay listing on the seafloor. It was unmistakably a Constitution-class starship, pre-refit. Alex couldn't quite make out the name, but the registry was visible. "NCC-1664." Alex read out loud. "Someone run a registry check." Flynn ordered, not wanting to take her eyes off the strange sunken ship. It looked perfectly intact, not a scratch on it.

Rune wondered about that registry and could have sworn it was for the USS Excalibur, or at least one of the Excaliburs since there has been many across the years. He, too, couldn't take his eyes off the intact old Constitution, several other questions hit his mind. What is it doing here? When did it get here? How did it get here? Did Starfleet log the Excalibur's disappearance? He was so caught up in his musings that he forgot to actually voice it.

"Ya salaam!" Abra Akzhouri said at the Cupid's helm with enough surprise to revert to her mothertongue. "That's the USS Excalibur. One of the original 12 constitution class ships. Officially, it was scrapped after wargames went bad with the Enterprise in the 2260s and most of its vitals were destroyed. The M5 incident." She didn't have to look any of that up, she had holos of the class in the holographic dockyard visible where one would expect to see the ceiling of her quarters. To say she was an aficionado would be an understatement.

Sublieutenant Viren sneezed again.

"How remarkable." Navigator Korusca said in his ethereal synthetic voice from Hou Yi's helm.

"Are we able to pass through the shield?" Rune suggested, he looked between at Viren and Atna.

"I would theorise that if we could match the shield frequency of the Excalibur with that of our runabouts, we could pass into their screens without letting a drop of water in." Atna suggested suddenly, the plan already fully formed.

"Cupid, move to a position exactly opposite and commence level-5 multiphasic scan. If the scan itself cannot derive the information we need, the resonance of the opposing sensors should make it apparent." Atna began the scanning process on the Hou Yi.

"Moving into position." Akzhouri explained as Cupid repositioned itself, before long it was opposite the other runabout, with the fullness of the shield bubble and the Excalibur between them.

"Beginning level-5 multiphasic scan." Intharia said as she brought it up, still amazed at the simplicity and user-friendliness of their systems.

Both shuttles watched for a minute or so as the converging scans caused a low rumble around them. "The resonance coefficient across the shield's surface is 773.5." Atna announced as the sensors told her the fact. "Applying Sitak's equation, that should give us the shield frequency I am sending now to your displays. I recommend we enter with thrusters only, we may need to realign the shields."

"Good luck, Hou Yi. Take us in, Ensign, thrusters only." Alex ordered. Slowly the two runabouts began forwards, the three sets of shields met without incident, and in a moment the runabouts were both through.

The runabouts dropped slightly as they lost their buoyancy once they moved out of the liquid atmosphere into the empty air around the ship, they were quickly caught by their flight systems.

"We're only detecting a single lifesign aboard, and the sensors can't figure out where. Life support is operative, we're detecting a breathable atmosphere in every room. Damn peculiar that she looks to be in perfect condition." Alex mused.

"We're going to link up with the executive docking port on deck 3 at the rear of the saucer. I recommend you start with the shuttlebay." Alex instructed the other team, it was time for them to operate independently once again.

Viren couldn't believe what the sensors were telling her. It was like the ship had just rolled off the production line and fallen straight in the ocean.

Once through the shield, Rune became aware he was sensing the lifesign, but not sure what he was picking up from them. He reached out with his mind to gently tap the lifesign's awareness as if knocking on a door. He kept his own presence passive and warm to let them know he meant no harm.

Furthermore, he borrowed the sensors and scanned the shield's integrity as he awaited the lifesign's response. The scan finished several moments later and Rune smiled as it showed that the shield was at full, which he was glad for but suspicious about. He was concerned that he didn't get any reaction from their quarry, as the moments passed by. Maybe he'd get more when they were closer, he wondered.

"Mr Korusca, take us within ten meters of the shuttlebay outer doors." Atna said, standing from her seat, once she had confirmed the readings that showed the shuttlebay was safe. "Mr Alph, Mr Thul, equip yourselves for an away mission, we beam over in five minutes."

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