A Mystery, Part 3: Act on the Message

Posted on Wednesday July 8th, 2020 @ 3:00pm by Commodore Gregory Paladin & Captain Franklin Johnson & Lieutenant Lazarus Kord & Commander Kanaka Shakura & Lieutenant Commander Karn Karn & Lieutenant Commander Freya Mannerheim & Lieutenant Hibiki Zh'kallas & Lieutenant Shalmira Heddan & Lieutenant Commander T'Pri & Lieutenant Damian Kane & Gunnery Sergeant Maximilian Pfaffenheim & Master Chief Petty Officer Charles Payne

7,067 words; about a 35 minute read

Mission: S1-A1-Ep. 1: Spectrophobia
Location: Various - USS Poseidon location near the Bright Nebula (Nebula 82247-B)
Timeline: A few weeks into 2394

"In critical moments, men sometimes see exactly what they wish to see." Mr. Spock, in "The Tholian Web"

[START]

"Ms. Mannerhiem, may I see you in my Ready Room?" Franklin asked as he passed into the bridge and through the Foyer. All too quickly he arrived to his Ready Room. To his relief, he noted that his Chief Diplomatic Officer had successfully transferred all the necessary information when he managed to look at his computer there. His mind went into overdrive as he began to think, hard and fast. In his mind, there were far too many variables involved. It was a tense few moments as he waited for his helmsman to arrive.

Freya frowned as the Captain addressed her in this strange manner, but waved one of the junior bridge officers over to monitor the helm and followed Franklin to his ready room. Things had been fairly uneventful since the Poseidon had finally jumped to warp, and Freya had settled herself into a good routine once again. She took off her glasses and wiped them on the hem of her uniform jacket, before putting them back on and pressing the ready room buzzer with a gloved hand. Her Terran uniform was still a stark contrast to the regular uniforms worn by the rest of the crew, but everyone seemed to have gotten used to what she was wearing.

When the Captain admitted her, Freya strode into the room and smartly stood to attention. "You requested my presence, sir? How may I be of service?"

Franklin was standing by the viewscreen panel on the side of the ready room, placed adjacent to his Captain's Desk which was constructed only a few feet away on the other side of the Ready Room. On it was a view of the rear of the ship. Stars flew by in the typical fashion, but Franklin didn't appear to be gazing at stars. He didn't appear to be in thought, either. His eyes were focused on something.

"My apologies for my rudeness, Lieutenant," Franklin said when he turned to glance her way. "I do have a need though. We're being followed, either directly or indirectly, but I don't want what I employ to counter this to tip them off. I need opinions on that, and no better than from my helms officer."

Freya's eyes narrowed. "Followed? Are you certain? And by whom?" This was a lot to process. "And, how do we know?" She shook her head. "Sorry, sir, you have me at a disadvantage."

Franklin nodded, explaining, "Our very astute Chief Diplomatic Officer and Chief Intelligence Officer took note of some very strange signals. Along with Lieutenant T'se, our Assistant Chief for Engineering, they were able to decipher a coded message nearly too low for ships sensors to detect."

"The message itself is very straightforward," Franklin continued, "if a bit cryptic. What I do know is for the last couple dozen lightyears we've been followed. I also know that due to a last message sent a few lightyears ago, we're near some trap point. Have you ever come across this situation?"

Freya paused for a moment. Although she was not familiar with this exact situation, her training at the Terran Imperial Academy had prepared her well for ambushes. She had completed the infamous Kobayashi Maru test three times, in three different positions - helm, command, and communications.

Finally, she nodded. "While I am not familiar with this particular situation, I have studied, and been in, a number of them. You say they are tracking us with a message, sir? Can I have a look at it? I spent some time hunting pirates and smugglers, as comms officer on the Cromwell, I might be able to see something you haven't."

The Commander nodded, walking over to his desk and motioning for Freya to approach. He swiveled the computer monitor towards her, letting her view the Elder Futhark translated - roughly - into the words previously decrypted by T'se, Ronan, and the rest. Franklin's eyes watched hers.

Freya looked over the runes. It had been years since she had last seen the Elder Futhark, but she was still fluently able to read it. She smirked. "Not a bad translation, but 'proving grounds' would be more accurate than 'testing grounds'."

She turned to Franklin. "The religious texts of the colony where I grew up are written in the Elder Futhark, I can read it fluently. The way this is written indicates that whoever transmitted this knows it well, too. It's too fluent to be computer-translated. Do we have any indication where the messages are being sent from?"

"From what the computer can postulate, from behind us," Franklin replied. "The computer still isn't sure it's real, it even stated that. The only reason we have this is because of all the crew who worked on the translation. With their data, the ship's computer was able to, again, postulate it was originating from behind us. With all the hypotheticals aside, what's your opinion?"

Freya frowned. "Behind us? As in, outside the ship? How far away?"

"Unknown, but close," Franklin said. "Ships sensors don't see anything. I guessed Romulans at first, but this...."

He mentioned the computer screen nonchalantly, leaving the visual to speak the rest of the words.

"What the," Freya muttered, as she looked at the screen. "What am I looking at?" She shook her head. A mystery such as this was rare. "Sir, maybe we should drop out of warp and investigate this more closely."

"That was my first call, but I have my reservations, and why I wanted your opinion," Franklin said. "The honest truth is, I'm second-guessing that decision because right now we have an advantage. They don't know - at least I assume - that they're compromised in some way, whomever they may be. If we hint we're aware, maybe we'll lose the chance to discover who they are."

He rubbed his chin. "In your experience, if we dropped out of warp and deployed a workerbee to enact a fake repair, do you think that would be odd or out of place?"

Freya shook her head. "With some trickery, I can overheat one of the warp nacelles. All it will need is some time to cool down, but it will throw us out of warp and not look suspicious. Mirandas are known for their slightly problematic cooling."

The Commander looked toward the viewscreen, deep in thought for the moment. He then nodded, "Alright, make it happen."

"Yes, sir." Freya nodded, smartly turned on the spot, and returned to her station.

---------------------------------- ON THE BRIDGE ------------------------------------

Franklin made his way on the bridge from the Ready Room, trailing behind his Chief Flight Control Officer. Quickly sitting in his chair, he glanced around the bridge. Everyone seemed to be running their routines, admittedly with more professionalism due to their time adjusting to their schedules and roles. He was proud of them.

"Alright crew, in just a few moments we'll be dropping warp to perform some routine check-ups on the system," Franklin said addressing the bridge as a whole. "Everyone, continue your stations. Lieutenant Mannerheim? At your discretion."

Freya nodded, and entered a few commands into the helm console. Moments later, the ship shuddered, and dropped out of warp. "Captain," the Lieutenant reported, turning in her chair to face Johnson. "Beg to report, sir, our port nacelle is overheating. We have dropped out of warp. Shouldn't take longer than an hour or two for it to cool down."

"Figured there'd be a few issues to address," Franklin said. "Let's hold position, helm. Contact maintenance and have them dispatch one of our worker bee teams to fix the issue."

Master Chief Petty Officer Payne, the Chief of the Boat walked over to the command chair. He said in a very soft tone, "Everything Okay? What are you orders Sir?" He asked

"I'm having a hunch, Master Chief," Franklin said as he eyed the viewscreen briefly, "Just be ready for anything."

"Aye Sir." He said.

The Commander then looked to his Chief of Security after speaking briefly to the Master Chief. "Mr. Karn, can you contact Lieutenant Shannon and have her ready her wing for a scouting run? I'll contact them directly from my Ready Room when they're off."

"Yes Captain!", replied Karn smartly as he tapped a few keys at his workstation.

"All fighters, prepare for launch."

With that, he stood and looked to Kanaka. "You have the bridge, Commander," he said as he departed for his ready room.

---------------------------------- Flight Deck ------------------------------------

"Amelia let's rock and roll kiddo, we got work to do," Neteri shouted to her. Tapping the comm system for the pilots, "All pilots man your fighters for a scouting mission, this is no drill!" she said as she watched her people scramble.

"Kiddo!?" Amelia's veritable squawk of discontent drew laughter from those closest by, each of whom found themselves busy with scramble preparation before she could identify the source of the laughter. It was probably for the better, as she was already at full sprint, hauling herself into her fighter even as service bowsers were quickly topping off ready-tanks. Ordnance crews were fixing phaser packs to their wing's outriggers, the rest receiving a fairly standard mix of "Wild Weasel" ECM/ECCM packages, anti-fighter and anti-ship warp-independent drones, and her own, with a master suite of communications and enhanced sensor equipment.

Moving quickly towards her fighter, Neteri tapped her com badge, =/\= Neteri to Captain, all fighters ready to launch. Awaiting your orders Sir=/\= she said as she closed the canopy and quickly did pre flight checks. Looking at Amelia's fighter, she gave the thumbs up signal as all 8 fighters started their engines.

Sitting in his chair in the Ready Room, the Commander pressed the communications button nearby. Opening a channel, he took a gentle breath in before he began his briefing.

"Lieutenant Shannon, your orders are to launch your wing and begin your scouting run. I have my suspicions that we are being tailed by some unknown entity or party. Presently, as you may be aware, we have a workerbee team enacting repairs on the ship. Order your scouting run to give off a fake impression of providing protection. Your real mission is to carefully manuever so as to observe our rear. Listen, look, but do not actively scan. Passive scans are acceptable. Anticipate a possible cloaked vessel. If you see anything suspicious, report anything right away,. Understood?"

Neteri piped back, " Understood" Changing the com channel she relayed the instructions given to her by the captain.

"Tally Ho! All fighters launch and form up on me!" Neteri barked and took off.

---------------------------------- Outside the Poseidon ------------------------------------

As the fighters launched, the pilots would first note the trail of venting plasma from the port-side nacelle. There, a workerbee unit was already in the process of "fixing" the leak, which in reality was simply Engineering manufacturing a problem. For all visual perspectives, however, it really did appear to be a genuine issue. Because of this, and the mock-repair and need for the realism, the Poseidon was all but dead in space. There was a gentle nebula in the distance that gave a background to the scene, but overall the blackness of space dominated their vision.

There was, however, a slight distortion in that field of vision. At first it would be more pronounced to the acute observer. An edge of distortion just visible next to the outline of the faraway nebula, then sliding more to the right of it to hide amongst the field of stars. It was probably some fifty thousand kilometers away, close in terms of astronomical distances, but still far enough away that - perhaps - it went unnoticed.

Neteri, had started her passive scans, watching carefully, then picked up her visual scanning as she looked out into the blackness of space. She knew that cloaked ships would have a distortion around them so that is what she was looking for visually. Each of her people knew their orders and so far everything was hunky dory.

=/\=Ikran 1 to Ikran 2, Amelia let's extend out towards the nebula. Got a hunch....=/\= she said and brought Ikran 1 around and headed for the nebula still using her passive scanners but also looking for that tell tale distortion.

"Right behind ya boss," piped Amelia, banking she followed Neteri.

The distortion seemed to react to the fighters changing course, if only briefly. As they closed the gap, the distortion - as barely as it could be seen - seemed to simmer if only briefly. Beside it was another, although this one probably was far too disguised to have any tell. They seemed to be slowly, ever so slowly, moving out of the way of the projected course of the fighters.

Neteri was visually scanning and she suddenly sensed a strong presence coming from one of the distortions. It definitely was a ship and she felt the mind behind it. Turning her head, she felt another presence which sent a chill up her spine, Captain, Shannon here, there are two definite cloaked ships out here. I can see the distortions and can sense their minds. How do you want us to proceed? she asked.

---------------------------------- Back on the Bridge ------------------------------------

Franklin heard the message coming from his command chair, noticing some of the gazes from the bridge crew around him. He had a hunch, but somewhere deep in his gut he wasn't really prepared for it to be a reality. He felt the stones in his gut slowly gain weight as the reality of the situation hit him. They had two ships of unknown origin and intent tailing them. What's worse, they were no where near Romulan Space.

Quickly he gave the order to one of the bridge staff to bring the workerbee back in. It would be a senseless loss should blows come to terms shortly. As the order was given and carried out, he slowly pressed the comms button to reply.

"Lieutenant Shannon, this is the Captain. I'm bringing back in the workerbee unit, but the time you hear this they should be in. I'm about to tell the Chief Eng-"

And that was when the whole ship shook violently, cutting the Commander off. Sparks began to fly as the the bridge flickered into darkness then back on again. Clear and audible hull impacts heard afterward from phaser fire. When the shaking stopped, only briefly, Franklin was on the floor in a somewhat bloody mess from a rather nasty head impact. He stood to his feet, the bridge now blackened by console eruptions and one part of the upper bulkhead seemingly slacked.

"Red alert, Battlestations!" Franklin cried, but he feared he was too late. As if to emphasize his failure, as the Commander glanced beside him, near the corner of the command chair, he took note of the body of Staff Sergeant Kendall Williams. Bloody underneath a heavy piece of the ceiling. "Medic to the bridge!" he yelled.

---------------------------------- Outside the Poseidon ------------------------------------

Almost as if listening into the conversation between the fighters and the mothership, the two shimmering forms became less distorted as their cloaking fields began to dissipate. It would be surprising, then, that the ships left very clear to view were of the Starfleet Saber class of scouting vessels. The clear names of the USS Cain on one and USS Abel on the other. Not leaving a second for the possibly confused fighter pilots to get their bearings, the USS Abel darted forward and began to fire her phasers and a single photon torpedo.

It was a brutal attack, surprise and guile winning the day as the scout vessel zoomed towards the currently helpless Miranda-class - which should in any event be able to stand its own against a Sabre-class. Unfortunately, with the ruse the Commander of the vessel had decided to pull, it meant the Poseidon was not prepared nor shielded to defend against the attacks. The resulting explosion bore witness to a hole in the portside of the starship, with tiny dots being expelled before the shields could take effect.

The photon torpedo lanced close by the wing of fighters, the two large warships angling in separate directions as the USS Abel continued its trajectory and full concentration on the Poseidon. Meanwhile, the USS Cain angled towards the two fighters, shooting out a phaser at the two...

"Ikran 2 break, holy shit, let's get this bastard. Rally ho-ho" Neteri barked as she banked taking Ikran 1, 180 degrees left. At the same time she saw her fighters on their way out of the shutes, "All fighters protect Mother Hen", she barked. Neteri was no slouch when it came to dog fighting. Knowing the Saber class specs like she did, she knew just where the blind spots were. Coming up from underneath her starboard side, she turned loose her phases on the nacelle pylon at its weakest point. The intent was to remove the nacelle from the ship thus disabling it. Coming around again she hit the same spot with her tetryon pulse cannon adding more damage to it. Her Gryphon was fast and accurate in its fire and now she finished it off with a photon torpedoes and watched the pylon disengage from the ship in a shower of sparks. Now the Cain was leaking drive plasma and that would end the fight for her, at least for now. Turning her attention to the Able she went hell bent for leather to the Posideon bringing Ikran 2 with her.

And that was when the game changed...

---------------------------------- USS Poseidon ------------------------------------

At the Poseidon, Freya immediately took action and used the emergency thrusters to put the Poseidon in an evasive pattern, even before the Commander could give the order, when a message came through on the ship-wide communication channel from a young cadet. "All stations, immediate medical team to the transporter room! It's Chief McColm, one of the consoles blew up and-" Suddenly, the voice was cut off.

Sparks flew on the bridge as the red alert chimed in hard and true. Franklin panted as he wiped a clear sheen of blood from his forehead, dust and particles staining his uniform and intermixing with the blood to cake it. He noticed his bridge crew had mostly regained their footing, also taking note of his Chief Flight Control Officer as she guided the Poseidon sharply away from a second incoming Photon torpedo, one likely to be a killing blow if not avoided just then.

"Damage report!" he barked over a few more sparks flying. "Weapons, return fire!"

Karn gave out a loud curse in such tones that the computer didn't immediately translate it.

"Locking on! Firing phasers! Load forward torpedo tubes! They'll rue the day they crossed this fine ship!"

As Shalmira entered the bridge the deckplating seemed to buckle underfoot, she grabbed the edge of the nearest station as she made her way to the auxiliary science station. The Red Alert flaxon reverberated around the Bridge as she flicked through scans from the aft sensor array. Checking the sensor feedback it was clear to her that whatever was attacking the Poseidon they weren't Romulan due to the residue feedback of Tetryon particles, something that cloaked Romulan vessels had countered since the Dominion war.

"Phaser damage to port nacell... Rerouting power from the overload in the main transporter system... transporters will be out for some time" Shalmira reported as she checked the incoming reports from all over the Poseidon. She tried to keep her voice calm despite her feelings.

As Lieutenant Heddan made her report, Franklin watched as Lieutenant Karn had already progressed to engaging the enemy. Hefting a piece of the ceiling off of his command chair with the brief help of a nearby ensign, Franklin sat back into it and sat patiently as a nurse tended to his head wound. It was a quick stitching with the modern medical devices, the flow of blood quickly stemming off as the Nurse ran to attend to other patients, some of whom were laying on the bridge.

On the viewscreen, Lieutenant Karn had fired a triple volley of photon torpedoes in return. Thankfully, the first strike from the enemy had been on the side of the ship, nearest the port, the same area with massive and extensive damage that Lieutenant Heddan had reported. It had not damaged the Poseidon's capacity to fire weapons. Franklin watched as two of the three torpedoes hit, briefly flickering the enemy Saber's shields before it, too, returned a retort with phaser fire.

"AGAIN! Load torps, target the Cain's port impulse engines!"

The Poseidon shook violently, but this time the floors didn't buckle, nor did the ship feel like it was falling to pieces. Instead, it was the familiar feeling of shields taking the brunt of the damage.

"Shields at 75%!" reported Karn from his station. "They got us good from that stinking sneak attack, but don't you worry Mon Capitan! She'll hold! TORPEDOES AWAY!"

"Keep at it Lieutenant and fire at all!" Franklin shouted above the hum of the Poseidon's return phaser fire.

The Communications station sparked and exploded. The officer manning it fell back unconscious. Seeing this,. Master Chief Payne ran to a science station, and quickly configured it for communications. " We now have both internal and external communications back up." He said taking control of the comm station.

"Damn fine job, Master Chief!" shouted Franklin over the noise of damaged bulkheads and consoles. "Stay focused everyone! We'll get through this!"

---------------------------------- Deck 7, Security ------------------------------------

Lt T'Pri was thrown to the ground, something had hit the ship hard. She grabbed a phaser set her equipment to record everything and then headed out moving towards security.

On hearing the battlestations, Lieutenant Zh'Kallas has scrambled the security teams. With the ship entering battle, it was essential that the security officers protected vital areas of the ship in case they were boarded.

She knew that Lieutenant Karn would be busy on the bridge engaging the enemy at Tactical, so it was up to her to ensure that ships security was maintained. As the ship rocked and shook, she held onto the console in the ships security center. The blue skinned Andorian, grasped her own phaser as she heard noise from the corridor outside.

Without warning, the doors of the security center burst open, followed by several random shots of orange phaser fire. Luckily she managed to dodge it, and ducked for cover under a nearby console.

"Zh'Kallas to bridge, intruder alert, deck seven, security complex!" she reported tapping her comm badge. Was wasn't sure if it was falling on death ears however with everything that was going on.

Her fingers found her phaser. Setting it to heavy stun, she peeked out from her cover spot. She was spotted, she didn't exactly blend in being bright blue, white haired with antenna. She couldn't get a decent shot, and aiming blindly was never a good idea. She couldn't even tell who was shooting at her.

One of the phaser beams struck the console she was behind, causing it to overload and explode in spectactular fashion. Hibiki was knocked away from it. The room was spinning, it was like a flashbang had gone off next to her. The noise from the explosion echoed through her ears. Everything was slightly blurry and oddly silent. She could make out people moving into the room, they moved to the main console. Seemed to be agitated about something as they accessed the ships tactical systems.

"I need to... stop them..." she said as she found her phaser again. She was about to raise it, however one of them pointed to something across the room and they scurried away. "What were they doing? Whats happening?" she thought to herself as she scanned the room. She was alone again.

Slowly she crawled over to the console, her hearing coming back gradually, from the silence to dull sounds. After what seemed like ages, but actually only a few seconds she managed to pull herself up and access the console.

Hibiki's eyes opened wide, she swore in Andorian. "Zh'Kallas to Captain..." she managed to say. It was evident from her voice that she wasn't quite fully recovered yet from the experience. "There were people in here... they've accessed our weapons Captain..." she reported. There was an audible pause as she tried to find the words.

T'Pri Saw several of the intruders fight there way into the armory, set her phaser for heavy stun and fired. several of the intruders went down several more got away.

"Sorry Captain. I think I'm in shock from the explosion down here... Captain..." she paused again. "They've armed... every single torpedo... in our magazine..." she could feel her grip on the console slipping.

All at once, the sounds of heavy phaser fire echoed into the hallway. One of the boarders could be clearly seen the doorway starting to topple over, before being tackle and thrown out of view by the form of a large Gorn. Lieutenant Lazarus Kord turned a corner, huffing as he entered the same room as Hibiki. His eyes met hers as she spoke her words, his eyes widened. He checked the corner as before noting two other Security Officers pass by, giving the thumbs up. Relaxing, only slightly, Lazarus holstered his phaser and started toward the Assistant Chief Engineering Officer.

"I think we got most of them," Lazarus said as he approached. "I was on deck with the repairs to the transporters systems, it's gotten bad on the port side of the ship. What's wrong here?"

"Torpedoes" Hibiki managed to say. "Need disarming"

Lazarus nodded at once. Back in the Empire, he had familiarity with sabotage procedures, or at the very least had been indoctrinated in those procedures in his enslavement - though illegally. It had been done by a fellow slave, whose very name he still bore on his arm in memory. That human had taught him much. He gently pushed Hibiki off to the side with a clawed hand, being gentle as he said, "let me see" and proceeded to tack at the console with his claws.

The oddity of the situation, the very fact that another universe used the same procedures as his home universe, was not lost to the Gorn. In truth, he knew that brutality and subterfuge were not a thing unique to any particular reality. This time, however, a tinge of familiarity was seen here. The wannabe-saboteurs had used some sort of brute force attack on the console and clearly changed the dialect. A dialect that he was all too familiar with, and the programming of which was absolutely familiar due to the ease of use of it and objective it held.

It was Terran. There was no doubt about it. Lazarus growled as his claws tacked faster. In recent months he had been gaining instruction on how to best proceed with modern programming, having only known how to fix something instead of use coding to tell it what to do or repurposed it properly. This brute force program? It was a simple attack, one not anticipated to be countered due to the language barrier, but also easy to shut down with the right commands. Commands which he knew, thanks to James. Growling as he stopped all motion to think and close his eyes, he remembered the method to end the program.

Then his fingers flew across the console, and suddenly the program was defeated, given the command to cancel the objective that was necessary for boarding operatives in certain situations. As James had said, it was originally intended as a ruse program. He grunted, gazing at Hibiki sidelong.

"We've been boarded by Terrans," he hissed, his expression a mixture of surprise and supreme anger.

"How is that... possible?!" Hibiki asked from the floor. The room had started to stop spinning, she was slowly coming back to her usual self. She managed to pull herself back up from the floor. "Whats the damage...?" she asked.

"I've managed to disable the program, it's a stupidly simple brute force application with a cancel command. But they won't be so nice in the future," Lazarus said. "Come on, we need to go and clear the rest of the deck."

As he said this, he gave Hibiki a kind nod, then upholstered his phaser and headed out.

---------------------------------- Deck 8 ------------------------------------

Phaser fire lit up the corridor as Bravo Squad moved towards the enemy position, one fireteam providing covering fire while the other closed the distance. Maximillian Pfaffenheim pressed himself into a corner for cover. His tactical display suggested that the enemy had beamed soldiers into the main computer core room.

He tapped his comm unit. "Charlie Squad, what's your status?" The voice of Charlie's sergeant came through a few seconds later. "Almost done. Finishing off an enemy fireteam right now." Pfaffenheim replied affirmative and closed the connection to focus on the battle at hand.

"Flash out!", one of the marines yelled as he hurled a small object down the corridor, at the enemy. Some managed to look away in time as the flashbang grenade went off, but even they were disorientated by its loud 'bang'. The lead fireteam charged forward into close combat, cutting down the defenders outside the door.

"Area clear!", the squad's sergeant responded. Pfaffenheim nodded. "Good." He then gestured for the squad to set up in breaching formation. The soldiers soon gave the 'Ready' hand signal.

"Computer, open door." Nothing. "Computer, open door. Tactical override code Pfaffenheim SD392." Still, the door didn't move. "They probably fried the circuitry, would be my guess.", one of the marines suggested. The Staff Sergeant sighed. "Alright, looks like we're doing this the old fashioned way. Connors, Reuter, with me. Everyone else stand back."

Pfaffenheim and the two other marines moved to the middle of the corridor, aiming their Type 3 phaser rifles squarely at the door. One of the others readied a flashbang. "Set to maximum. Standby for breach in 3. 2. 1." The three men fired their phasers at the door and its frame, disintegrating much of it. At the same time, the flashbang was thrown through the opening, detonating inside.

The squad immediately charged through the opening into the room where several of the intruders had seemingly attempted to access the consoles. The first man to enter was hit with two shots, causing him to stumble to the side as his shield absorbed the fire while the other marines filed in and quickly dispatched the enemy. After a few seconds, the leading marine, again, gave the 'All clear' signal.

Pfaffenheim surveyed the room. "Secure the area. Find out if they managed to access anything." He tapped his comm unit. "Pfaffenheim to Platoon, status report!" Several short replies came in. The squads had each managed to accomplish their objectives, repelling the boarders and assisting Security. Some of the Marines had been wounded, but protective armor and personal shields had prevented any deaths.

The Staff Sergeant tapped his comm unit once again. "Pfaffenheim to Captain. Enemy boarders attempted to access computer core but have been repelled. Security and us are mopping up the rest right now."

---------------------------------- Deck 6 ------------------------------------

Oscar Vladinchi finished off the last of the boarders, grunting as he called back to his fellow Vulcan security officer that the area was clear. About now his superior was reporting to Karn that the deck was clear, and that the boarders had been repelled completely by Marines on deck 8. They had infiltrated moments after the first attack from their ship had struck, using the confusion to gain entry. There were reports that an Engineering Officer had diffused a malicious program near the torpedo stores. Now the ship was safe, but as he felt it rock violently from an attack, he knew the battle was far from over.

"Let's go help the wounded," he said as he turned to his Vulcan counterpart. The fellow security officer nodded, then headed out to help with wounded.

Just then, they notice Damian Kane with a med kit helping the wounded. "Are you guys going to just stand there, or are you going to help me save this man's life?" He asked as he skillfully tended to the injured. "Those 2 over there, need surgery NOW. This one stands a chance. After I stabilize her I'm going over there to see if the ones you were shooting at need medical attention." He looked at the security officers staring at him. "That was NOT a suggestion. GET DOWN HERE!" He ordered.

Oscar had but a moment to share a glance with his counterpart before both were spurn into action. There were no words of protest as the two Security Officers quickly called in the injuries, then asked for assistance as they finally began hefting the most injured but capable to be moved on the way to medbay. Behind them three more security personnel came running down to assist, followed by two nurses.

When Kane saw the nurses arriving, he stood up and spoke to them. "These people are stable for now. Tend to them." And he proceeded to walk towards the wounded enemy with his medkit. He came across a wounded enemy, and knelt to assist. The man was semi contentious. Kane talked to him and comforted him as he tended to his wounds. "I'ts alright. I'm here to help. Nobody is going to hurt you further." Kane then noticed the man's weapon was close. Kane took it, and slid it away so nobody could grab it....including him.

The enemy that had survived was clad in an odd suit of armor, standard Marine apparel for heavily armored infiltration and assault in comparitive Federation terms. His visor hid his face, but it focused on Kane for the brieftest of moments. There were human eyes behind it, though they squinted at the brightness of the lights through a crack in the visor. Just as quickly, however, the enemy assaulters head slumped over as he finally gave into unconsciousness.

Kane removed the helmet. He was not even sure of the race the attacker was. But Kane scanned the soldier, who was in bad need of medical attention. Kane took out a hypospray and injected in in the neck of the soldier. The substance managed to stabilize the alien. "This will hold you till we can get you to sickbay." He said as he moved to the next fallen attacker. The next attacker was just laying there. Kane removed the attackers helmet. Then scanned using his medical tricorder. looking at the face of the attacker, Kane feared the worst. Open eyes. open dead eyes. The tricorder confirmed it. No signs of life. Kane took a brief second and stared into those lifeless eyes. Then, with his hand, Kane closed the eyes of the enemy combatant. Then silently prayed over his corps for a second or two before moving on to find someone he might actually be able to help.

Meanwhile, in the Chief Counsellor's Office...

Kana's ears were ringing, her head pounding. A sharp pain ran through her sinuses as sight and sound returned to her in a haze. The next thing that hit her a few moments later was the intense feeling of adrenaline and panic running throughout the ship, followed by intense physical and emotional pain. The first thing that came into focus was the print of her office carpet, as she seemed to be sprawled on the floor.

Last she could recall, she was filing reports at the Commander's request, while also reviewing her patient files. The next thing she knew there was an alarm, and then an explosion...clearly whatever had rocked the ship had caused her to fly head-first into her desk. Slowly making her way back to her feet, the XO felt the back of her head and was met with a slight damp patch, which upon observing her fingers revealed itself to be blood. Gritting her teeth, she took a moment to get her bearings. It was then that she noticed the shadow of a human figure being cast onto the carpet. Confusion was immediately replaced with a sinking feeling, as she slowly turned her head to look out of the viewports.

There she saw Sydney Allen, the Quartermaster, her screaming face frozen in the void of space, the Nebula burning brightly and uncaring behind her. The light also highlighted the outlines of other humanoid remains floating in the distance. Kana's bottom lip quivered for a moment, before she steeled herself. Whatever was going on, she needed to fulfil her duty and get to the bottom of it.

Stepping out of the office, she immediately noticed her young Aide, Daisy Stainer, huddled beneath her desk unsure of what to do. Checking to make sure she was okay, Kana then willed her to come out and join her in assisting the rest of the crew on deck. As they went out together, they saw the number of injured crewmen strewn around, and immediately set to work. Kana could sense both Oscar and Damian not far from them probably doing the same.

Once both she and Daisy had taken care of the crewmen closest to them, Kana willed her to go and find the Chief Medical Officer and assist him, while she herself had to head to the Bridge...

---------------------------------- Outside the Poseidon ------------------------------------

All at once, the battle shifted following the heroic efforts of the Group Commander and her fighter squadron disabling the USS Cain's warp nacelle. It wasn't a totally crippling blow, but it did provide enough room for Lieutenant Karn to get some seriously severe blows on the ship. By the end of the exchange, the Poseidon had plenty of holes and battle marks in her, but the Cain was almost entirely a wreck. That said, the USS Abel was still on the Poseidon, looking half the wreck that her sister ship was.

And then another ship warped in. It was an old Akula-class starship, apparently still in service. The registration would come across as the USS Pitchfork. Almost as soon as it entered the battlespace, it began to fire. Not at the Poseidon, but instead at the USS Cain. A volley of torpedoes lashed out, striking home within seconds and causing a chain reaction that destroyed the Cain. Phasers lanced out, lashing distantly at the retreating Abel, which shortly warped out of the area.

In an instant, the battle was won.

---------------------------------- Bridge of the Poseidon ------------------------------------

Franklin had witnessed the expert marksmanship of the new arrivals weapons officer, whomever it was, in action. In the span of little more than thirty seconds, the battle was over. Thinking quickly he stood, motioning to Karn as he ordered for the fighters to return. Having them out this long was already a stretch on their resources. After the order was relayed, the call from Communications that a transmission was incoming came in.

"On screen," Franklin ordered.

The viewscreen ahead of him, cracked in some places, still displayed clearly the image of a man unfamiliar to the Commander. The bridge of the Akula seemed cramped in comparison to his, but the officers behind the man seemed to busy about their business. He looked like any aged Starfleet officer, appropriate uniform with a grim expression. When he spoke, it was with a tinge of surprise, though the hint of....something else was not lost Franklin. Almost as if he was intentionally squinting about something.

"Thank you for assistance," Franklin said. "We had a little bit of a situation there."

"Not a problem, Poseidon," the man replied. "I'm Captain Simlar. The Pitchfork was in the area on long-range patrol. Our sensors detected weapons exchanges in this area and by the time we neared we got a good picture of the situation."

Behind the man, the Captain Franklin corrected himself as he noted the pips, walked a figure - briefly - in viewing range. If he had any sense he could have sworn he saw Gregory there, but he knew his eyes were playing tricks on him. The battle had been intense. He shook the observation off.

"Your timely intervention is appreciated," Franklin replied with a smile. "Commander Franklin Johnson. I'm not sure of the extent of our damage, but we could probably use some assistance."

"I'll send a shuttle over with some engineers and medical personnel. We can't tally long, though. Our mission takes priority.

---------------------------------- AFTERMATH ------------------------------------

For the next hour the Pitchfork stayed nearby as overwatch as their supplied personnel assisted those of the Poseidon with repairs. Surprisingly the old girl had held up well, despite several hull breaches along decks 6 and 7 on the port side which - by some miracle - had not damaged anything critical. There was, however, an extensive list of casualties to sort though. In short order the repairs to make the Poseidon at the very least warp capable had been completed and, with a short farewell between the Commanding Officers of both vessels, the old Akula warped away.

With their warp capabilities back online, Poseidon made its way back towards its course for Starbase 47. The new year was upon them, and what looked like some more time in drydock.

[END]

----------

Commander Franklin Johnson
Commanding Officer
USS Poseidon

&

Commodore Gregory Paladin
USS Poseidon

&

Commander Kanaka "Kana" Shakura
XO and Chief Counsellor
USS Poseidon

&

Lieutenant Lazarus Kord
Engineering Officer
USS Poseidon

&

Lieutenant Oscar Vladinchi
Security Officer
USS Poseidon

&

Lt. Cmdr. Neteri "Ikran" Shannon
CAG
USS Poseidon

&

Lieutenant Freya Svanirsdottir Mannerheim
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Poseidon

&

Lieutenant Amelia Forsyth-Coyle
Wing Commander
USS Poseidon

&

Staff Sergeant Maximillian Pfaffenheim
First Sergeant, Marine Detachment
USS Poseidon

&

Lt Shalmira Heddan
Chief Science Officer
USS Poseidon

&

Lt Damian Kane
Ship's Chaplain
USS Poseidon

&

Master Chief Petty Officer Charles Ermey Payne
Chief of the Boat
USS Poseidon

&

Lt T'Pri
Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Poseidon

&

Lieutenant Hibiki Zh'kallas
Assistant Chief Security/Tactical Officer

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