Emergence
Posted on Thu Apr 23, 2015 @ 2:16am by Captain Isha t'Vaurek & Commander Caden Aldrex & Lieutenant Commander Steven Wyman & Commander Caleb Ryan & Commander Amia Telamon M.D. & Lieutenant Saria Rex & Lieutenant Mikaela Locke & Lieutenant Kyle "Loki" Carter & Captain Maritza Soran & Ensign Jessica Mayhew & Civilian Aleczandra Naqiis-Ryan
Edited on on Thu Apr 23, 2015 @ 4:03am
5,649 words; about a 28 minute read
Mission:
Eye of the Beholder
Location: Ops and Various
Timeline: MD 3/1300
[Command Level Operations]
“Captain, there’s been a marked increase in the verteron surges we’ve been reading. They’re becoming more focused in an area bearing 040, mark 29 … approximately 420,000 kilometers away,” Lieutenant Alison Bennet reported from the strategic ops station.
“On screen,” Isha said. This was far from usual.
At first the screen showed the smooth velvet of space, distant pinhole stars punctuating the expanse. As the next surge peaked, the dark expanse became mottled and stretched as though something was trying to push its way through the taut surface of a fully inflated balloon.
“Red alert,” Isha said.
"What the...?" Saria gasped. "Captain, I'm reading massive gravitational forces at the same location, and it's only getting stronger. Something... big is coming right at us!" she shouted from her science station.
Aldrex gazed in awe at the spectacle outside the observation ports. Then, snapping out of it, he pulled himself up the ladder to the upper level consoles and called up the holographic table plot. "It's pulling on us," he reported, trying to remain calm. "Firing thrusters to compensate."
"Scrambling fighters," Soran announced calmly. She was watching the strategic ops read outs over the shoulder of her subordinate. Verterons could have been a super massive ship, a space dock, or Dyson sphere, something capable of mounting an attack. There was nothing scheduled for DS5 space and she wanted independent eyes and ears in the air to supplement their own sensors and, if necessary, retreat and sound a warning.
Central as it was, Ops was beginning to vibrate. Was it worse beyond? "Engineering, report!" Isha barked.
[Engineering: Stabilizing Engines and Maneuvering Thruster Control]
"We're rerouting auxiliary power to the inertial dampeners and structural integrity! I don't know what's going on out there, but the verteron surge is causing massive gravitational stress on the hull. I can try to give you more power to the thrusters to get us out of the way, but there's no way I can make the station handle like a Defiant!" Wyman's voice blared out over the cacophony of alarms going off in engineering. Though the Ops staff couldn't see, it was pretty clear he was running between several different stations.
"Give us everything you can, Commander Wyman, whatever is out there is big," Isha said, her eyes still on the pulsating screen.
[Fighter Hanger 1: 237A- VF-1 Chrome Squadron]
Kyle and a full squadron of pilots started cramming themselves into star fighters. "This is the CAG to fighter control. Re-deploy the CAP to a defensive position between the station and whatever is out there. We'll be on their wing in ninety seconds." He was waving maintenance personnel to get off the deck and out of the way of the fighters preparing to launch. "Loki to Ops, CAP is redeploying to cover the station. Alert Razor fighters are already off the deck and we're preparing to launch the rest of the Valkyries right now."
"Acknowledged, Chrome One-Zero-Zero. Report in when you're on station."
About sixty seconds later Kyle called back over the comm. "Loki to Ops, we're coming up on the CAP's six." He noticed the fighter's flight path's being affected by the gravitational anomaly. "This is the CAG to all pilots, stay back from the anomaly. I repeat stay back from the anomaly, but remain ready to engage if we encounter hostiles."
[Fight Hanger 5: 237B- VFA-1 Oak Squadron ]
Munroe had just landed after a patrol and was walking around his ship doing his post-flight checks when the all-wing scramble alert sounded. "What the hell! Barnes! Get back here!" he called to his REO and started forward to the cockpit.
Barnes ran back and clambered in. "I hope this isn't some new drill Loki concocted. I really need to take a leak!"
"Well, cross your legs and we'll find out!” Munroe replied, strapping himself in. "Watch your head, canopy coming down!"
Munroe pulled on his helmet, restarted the engines, and looked around for a yellow-clad flight deck fighter-handler. A moment later, one of the fighter-handler team jogged up and signaled for Munroe to follow him. Pushing the power up, he lifted the fighter to a hover and followed the crewman to the launch line, pulling in behind two other Valkyries. He tapped his comm control. “Control, Oak Lead, what's the flight path?”
“Oak Lead, take your birds out on Flight Path Three. Form up there and hold for instructions,” the flight controller replied.
“Oak Lead copies!” Munroe relayed the instructions to his squadron “All Oak elements, this is Snake-Eyes. As soon as you're launched, take Path Three and form up on me, Formation Delta! I say again, Formation Delta!”
Looking up, Munroe saw he was next to launch. The handler gave him signal and he swept his stick to all four corners and cycled his rudder to show the launch crew he had free and clear controls. On the other side a red-clad armaments crewman checked the fighter's torpedoes were secure. Then the handler gave him a thumbs up and passed him on to the shooter. The launch officer gave him the two fingers V-sign for full power.
Munroe activated the grav-brakes and rammed his throttles to the max, looked down to give his control panel a final check, then looked back at the shooter and snapped off a salute. The shooter pumped his fist once, dropped to one knee, and pointed to the open hanger door. Munroe released the brakes and the Valkyrie screamed forward at full power launch.
Clearing the hanger door Munroe eased the stick over and guided the craft onto Flight Path Three to take them clear of the station's busy docking area. A few minutes later he lowered the power levels and joined up with four other Oak squadron fighters, waiting for the rest of the squadron to arrive.
[Command Level Operations]
The turbolift opened and Wyman darted out across Ops. "We're more or less stable, Captain. I figured I could do more good if I could actually get a decent look at whatever it is that's trying to tear the sta... tion... apart..." He trailed off at the end, his mouth going agape when he got a look at the view screen. Blinking in shock, he finally said, "We're gonna need a bigger boat..."
Cade Aldrex grabbed his attention while tapping commands into the console. "Steve, Saria, scan for triquantum waves or any subspace disruption that might suggest a transwarp corridor. We need to know if the Borg are about to come pouring out of that thing." At first glance the phenomenon didn't appear to have Borg characteristics, but better safe than sorry.
Snapping back to reality, Wyman ran over to the engineering station. "Computer, reroute engineering control functions to Ops." The computer bleeped in acknowledgment and the normally inactive console came to life. He immediately set to work bringing up sensor telemetry and cross-referencing it with the main database. "This doesn't look like anything we have on Borg transwarp conduits, either the type encountered by the Enterprise or Voyager. In fact, it doesn't match any type of known Borg associated phenomenon."
"Of course, that doesn't mean they haven't learned a new trick..." Wyman tacked on, trailing off ominously.
"I can confirm that," Saria hastily added. "Our database has no idea what it is or where it's coming from." She paused for a moments as her station consoles began beeping after each other. Saria quickly tapped on a few consoles and looked up. "But what I can tell is,” she said as she looked at the view screen, "that whatever is coming out of there has some enormous mass, equivalent of that of a planet." She looked around Ops. "We've got to get the station away from here, because that thing is about to get a hold on us! The structural integrity of the station won't be strong enough to keep us together for long."
Maritza looked at Saria for a moment. The joined Trill's description jogged a memory. She snapped her fingers trying to remember. Then it came. "Meridian! The vanishing planet in the Gamma Quadrant. Could this be similar?" She glanced to Wyman, then the captain and Aldrex. "And if it is, can we get out the way in time?"
"Meridian?" Isha asked not familiar with the event described. "There is no note of any planetary system in this vicinity."
"Meridian was a planet in the Gamma Quadrant, visited by the USS Defiant in 2371, which shifted in and out of other dimensions once in every while," Saria added.
Aldrex remembered vaguely hearing about Meridian, but the details were hazy. "Alright, call up the Defiant's old sensor logs and see if there are any similarities between the two phenomena." He stole another glance out the observation windows.
The mention of a disappearing planet stirred an old, vague memory in the chief engineer. "Someone pull up the Enterprise's logs! From... crap, it'd be almost thirty years ago! The planet hidden behind a cloaking device. The inhabitants kidnapped a bunch of children from the Enterprise because the cloak rendered them sterile. ALDEA! That's what it was!"
As soon as it dawned on him, his fingers started dancing across the console, calling up the twenty-eight year old sensor logs from the Enterprise-D's chance discovery of the mythical planet Aldea in the Epsilon Mynos system and cross-referencing them with the data currently being observed. "Blast...not even close. If this is a cloaked planet, then it isn't anything like any cloak we've ever seen. Rex might be on the right track with that Meridian deal."
[Promenade]
“Jessica, you’re in charge down here,” Caleb said as he shoved his phaser into the holster at his hip. “Call in all off-duty personnel. Tell them ta report in here. We’ll distribute them as needed.” The station shook, throwing him against the ensign’s desk.
The pretty young blonde swallowed and nodded.
“Sidearm?”
“No, sir,” Jessica said.
“Get to the armory,” Caleb said. “Ya need anythin’, call me,” he told her before turning to the security team already assembled. “McDaniels, sensitive areas secure?” he asked.
“Yes, sir. Standard details all reported in,” the lieutenant said.
“Good. We’re gonna head up ta the Promenade,” he told them. “There’s a lot of decks ta cover, an’ the Marshals are gonna be hard pressed. We’re gonna lend ‘em a hand. Start calmly usherin’ civilians out, get ‘em safely back ta quarters. Everyone should be locked down tight. We don’t need panicked civilians or lootin’ goin’ on.”
Caleb took a breath. He hoped Aleczandra would be smart enough to get home and stay put. He didn’t have time to check on her just yet.
“If yer on the Promenade, take yer cue from the Marshals,” Caleb told his men. “Ah’ll be up in Ops. Call me if ya need ta. Now let’s go.”
Caleb watched as his security officers trooped out. He gave Jessica a reassuring look, and the young woman smiled, already strapping on her sidearm. Then he headed for the turbolift.
[Command Level Operations]
The docking harbor view screen showed all ships firmly moored at their berths except one. A lone Rhaandarite freighter had been departing when the rattling started. The ship's master had ordered all-stop until station ops gave them further instructions. Now the vessel was motionless just short of the space doors, effectively blocking them.
"Will somebody get that freighter back to its moorings?" Aldrex asked.
Caleb walked into Operations and took in the scene. He nodded to his security personnel stationed at the turbolift and then headed for the sec/tac console. “On it,” Caleb called to Aldrex as he flipped open the channel. “Security ta harbor operations. Secure all vessels until further notified,” he ordered them. “Lock down the space doors.”
“Harbor operations acknowledges,” came the quick reply.
Caleb looked up. “That should give us a bit more structural integrity,” he told the others. “Ah’ve got Security helpin’ the Marshals lock down civilians,” he reported.
Already at work, Wyman was calmly, yet frantically, working at the engineering station. "Captain, if we reduce life support to minimum and outright cut it in the unoccupied sections I can redirect that power to the thrusters and maybe give us enough kick to get out of the way of... whatever that is."
"For that matter...blast! How did they make it easier to move Deep Space 9 when Captain Sisko discovered the wormhole? I know I read Chief O'Brian's report on it, but I can't remember how they did it."
Caleb frowned. “What unoccupied sections?” he asked. “If we need ta do some mass evacuations, it’ll probably take more time than it looks like we have,” he said, looking out at the distortion on the screen. “How long does life support need ta be out?”
"What if we reroute power from the weapon arrays?" Saria suggested. "We already have the fighters and several support craft in place, if that thing engages us."
"Do it," Aldrex ordered. It was a gamble, but Wyman needed the power from somewhere. He moved back to the console he had been working on a few minutes prior. It was still opened to the USS Defiant's sensor logs from Meridian, so it wasn't too hard to navigate from there to the logs of Miles O'Brien. "If I remember correctly, the DS9 crew moved the station by using a subspace field to lower the mass of the station, but hell if I know exactly how they accomplished that." He was no engineering officer.
"Subspace field... subspace field..." By this point Steve was muttering under his breath like a mental patient. But he was really trying to work out how one would generate a subspace field of any significant size on a starbase, which, by definition, didn't have a warp drive or nacelles. But when it hit him, it did so like a truck. "Oh! OHH! I think I know how they did it! Which means I think I can get us moving, but I'm going to have to break stuff to do it!"
Not even waiting for any acknowledgment, he was already bounding toward the turbolift. "Ops to Senior Chief Wyman. Get a team and meet me in deflector control!"
[Sickbay]
Amia's staff all snapped to their places and tasks as soon as the red alert claxons sounded and lights started to flash. Secretly the CMO was proud that a team so recently pulled together was performing so smoothly under pressure. The casualties began to drift in, only a few at first, and then as if a flood gate had opened the first rocking and disturbances brought an exponential amount of physical trauma. Broken bones, bruises, cuts, abrasions, twisted ankles, crushed and battered fingers and heads. It wasn't anything they couldn't handle in ones and twos, but now they were being stretched to deal with dozens.
Keeping as many frightened children as calm as possible seemed important. Stressed and feeling pain from their bumps and injuries, the young were more easily overwhelmed than their adults, but only all the time the injuries stayed minor. If anything major kicked off, Amia knew the pressure would really be on and she drew up all the available shifts to cover the growing number of patients now streaming in.
[School]
Alexzandra knelt down next to Miss Salazar, pressing two fingers to the pulse point in her neck. The teacher’s chest was rising and falling, so she was breathing. There was a nasty cut on her head where it had hit the edge of the desk, and there was a lot of blood. Zandra pushed her rainbow hair out of her blue eyes and looked around the classroom at the students that were beginning to panic as the station shook.
Pathetic Part of Aleczandra thought. That was probably Juheni. It’s just a little shaking. Zandra had been through worse. She felt her mother’s calming presence. This was nothing, at least so far. But if someone didn’t regain control, this could get much uglier.
“HEY!” Zandra stood up, shouting. “Shut up and listen!” She gave a loud, piercing whistle and the room went quiet. “Everyone calm down! Vera, I need the medkit. Miss Salazar is bleeding. It’s a lot of blood, but the wound isn’t serious. We just need to get pressure on it.” She would let Medical worry about a concussion. The blood was what was going to freak people out. “Aldpol,” Zandra said, looking at a Bolian classmate, who seemed calmer than most, “see if you can find another teacher. Let them know Miss Salazar is hurt. The rest of you, calm the fuck down! We’re going to be okay. This is a big station. Nothing’s going to happen. It’s just a bit of gravitational disturbance.”
Aleczandra didn’t know what the hell it was, but if it could make a station of this size shake, it had to be big. She figured some of the kids likely knew that already. They weren’t dumb, but it needed to be said.
“Who put you in charge?”
Zandra leveled a glare at the boy. “The fact that I grew a pair, Malcolm, and didn’t nearly lose my lunch at the sight of a little blood like you did. So shut up and sit down.” She cast her blue eyes over the others. “Security will come by and tell us what they need us to do. Until then the worst thing we could do is leave here and get in their way.”
Zandra looked to another student. “Nyony, you got your social?” she asked. When the Andorian nodded, pulling out the small device, Zandra smiled. “Good. Hook it in.” She picked up Miss Salazar’s dropped PADD and punched at the screen to connect it to Nyony’s social. Bolian pop music started blaring out of the speakers. “Might as well have some fun while we wait. Thanks, Vera,” she said, putting the PADD back on the lectern and taking the emergency medkit from the other girl. “Can you help me?”
Vera nodded and they knelt next to the teacher. Zandra opened the kit. It was rather Spartan, but it would do. What she needed was the dermal regenerator.
"What's happening?" The teacher had been out of the classroom when it began to rumble. Argellian and some of the others had run from the room trying to find what was happening. After being thrown to the floor by a lurch, Argellian found himself in one of the classes for older kids.
Aleczandra looked up at the teacher. “Miss Salazar fell and hit her head on the podium,” she said, nodding to the stand the teacher used for her lecture notes, the blood and hair evident. “She might have a concussion, but I’ve gotten the bleeding stopped. I need a tricorder.” She sensed Ranel’s memories pushing to the fore. His medical knowledge was two hundred years out of date, but basic medicine hadn’t changed much.
Mrs. Stobbs, in pursuit of the running children, stopped short. The girl must have taken a first aid course, she thought. "That's good. Argellian! Peter!" she called to the boys. "Come here! We'll get her to sickbay as soon as we can," Mrs. Stobbs continued. They would be overwhelmed and the station locked down. "Are there any other first aiders in your class?"
Aleczandra gave a dismissive look around her class. “Most of them can barely understand quantum mechanics,” she said, with Juheni’s typical arrogance. Of course, Zandra was ahead of her class after years of home schooling and the memories of previous hosts. “No one has stepped up, anyway,” she said, more conciliatory. “I’ve been giving instructions as I can. Just trying to keep them all here and not panicking.” She turned down the music she’d had Nyony put on. “Miss Salazar was the only one hurt seriously. The rest is just bumps and bruises and scrapes.”
[FMS Precinct]
Steiner and his team had taken a break from the murder investigation discussion when the alarms started and there was an ominous rumble through the deck plating. "What the hell was that?" He asked rhetorically. Tevlet disappeared into his technician’s workshop and activated his comm system, bringing up the stations command channel.
Steiner and Tu-Selok followed him in and listened for a few moments. "A planet? How does a plaent just appear?" Steiner muttered. "Alright, well let’s get up to the Promenade and start shutting it down before people beginning panicking."
He led the other two to the transporter room and they beamed themselves up to the main concourse.
[Promenade]
The Marshals re-materialized into a scene of chaos. The main concourse was the center of the Promenade. It had a ten deck tall atrium and was surrounded on all sides by balconies, stairways, and four glass-fronted turbolifts that overlooked the park and ornamental pond in the middle. Alarm klaxons were blaring and hundreds of civilians were milling around, unsure of what to do or where to go. The whole place shook and trembled alarmingly.
"Tevlet get up to Promenade control, shut those damn klaxons off, open the shelters, and start locking everything else down," Steiner ordered. The Andorain nodded and started off running. "Walk! Don't run!" Steiner called. "Don't want to start a panic!"
Tevlet waved his hand and slowed down, walking quickly down the corridor.
"Alright, crowd control time." Steiner turned to Tu-Selok. "There's just you and me for the moment, so we act calm and they will too, alright?" He gave a grim smile as he realized the irony of telling a Vulcan to be calm.
Tu-Selok nodded. "Understood, Chief."
A minute later the klaxons shut of and there was a moment of silence as the crowd of people looked around. Steiner clambered up on to a bench and tapped his comm badge, changing it over to the public address channel.
“Folks, I'm Chief Marshal Steiner,” he said, his voice amplified and repeated over the Promenade's speaker system. “We have an alert situation, and as a precaution we're going to be shutting down the Promenade. We're opening the public shelters and I need everyone to start heading in to those.”
Tevlet must have been monitoring him, as right on cue a number of wall panels slid upwards and the doors to the emergency shelters swung open.
“Okay, let's start moving into the shelters,” Steiner repeated, and Tu-Selok began ushering people towards the doors.
There was a moment of indecision and then the crowd of people started slowly moving. The rumbling continued and there was particularly violent shake, which motivated some of the undecided ones, and pretty soon there was a steady flow going into the shelters.
A few minutes later a squad of Starfleet Security arrived, led by Ensign Mayhew. Steiner nodded to her. "Good to see you. We've opened the public shelters. We need to get everyone in those. Then we can lock down the stores and businesses."
Jessica nodded. “I have teams moving to the civilian residential decks, as well,” she told Steiner. “They’re going to secure civilians in those shelters, and in their quarters.”
"That works," Steiner agreed. "Would probably help if we knew just was the alert was about."
Further discussion was cut off as there was another violent shake and a sound of wrenching metal. Seconds later a massive fixture of glass, colored crystal, and chrome broke loose from the ceiling ten decks above and started on its way down. The fixture slammed into a stairway, broke apart in a shower of glittering shrapnel, and with a tremendous crash slammed into the deck thirty yards away.
A huge chunk of chrome flattened a food cart. Whoever owned it was now called "S -inks Go - lactic - F - art". Another piece landed in the pond and a mini tidal wave rolled up onto the surrounding park grass, washing away tables and chairs and leaving some stranded fish flapping in its wake.
"Get down!" Steiner yelled, then turned his back and ducked as a hail storm of glass fragments rained down. There were a number of impacts on his back and something sharp nicked his left ear.
There were screams behind him and half a dozen civilians went down.
Jessica gave a un-Security-like shriek, turning and ducking to protect her head as her team scattered. Pain lanced through her side and something warm filled her uniform top.
Steiner saw the Security officer catch a piece of flying glass. It looked painful, but not life threatening. Then he looked over to Tu-Selok. She had taken cover behind a bench and stood up, nodded to him, and brushed off some fragments. "I am uninjured," she said.
There were moans and cries from the people closer to the impact area. Steiner slapped his comm badge. “Steiner to Medical! We've got casualties in the Promenade atrium. Get a team down here!”
Steiner? Amia wasn't sure she knew who that was. “Lieutenant Commander Telamon here. We know where the casualties are, thank you, Mr. Steiner, and we're responding. A team is already on its way. Please keep the channel clear.”
Keep the channel clear!? Who was this idiot? Steiner wondered =^= Just get a team down here lady, before people start dying! Steiner out! =^=
“Abrams!” Jessica yelled to one of her team. He had one of the medical kit they’d taken from Security. “Triage!” She put a hand to her side. Her uniform was ripped and there was a lot of blood. She hissed as she probed the wound. Deep, and bleeding a lot, but not serious.
“How can we help?” a smooth, sultry voice spoke, and Jessica smelled jasmine and honeysuckle. She looked over to see Tianys Dalav’ni, the Rowa’ni proprietor of The Lotus Lounge, approaching with several of her green-skinned, floral-scented people. Her long, rose red hair flowed out behind her with the diaphanous pale blue gown that left little to the imagination as it clung to the generous, naked curves beneath. The other Rowa’ni were dressed similarly, the females in the loose, form-draping thin dresses in bright colors, the men in loose pants and the occasional vest, but bare-chested and handsome. For a moment Jessica could only stare, the presence of so many of the seductive, arousing aliens’ scent washing over her.
The pain in her side brought Jessica back to focus, clearing her head a bit. “Uhm, we need help with any injured,” she told the alien woman.
“I have some skill with healing,” Tianys nodded.
Two medical teams of six medics materialized as the CMO was speaking to Steiner and set to work. Amia and two more medics weren't far behind and she moved gently across to Jessica, raising an eyebrow a second time as she saw the strange attire of the civilians, but concentrated on Jessica and dealing with her wounds as her teams adeptly treated the adjacent casualties, putting in the standard template for prioritizing and sending back the most serious cases direct to Sickbay by EMT, to the staff waiting there to treat them.
“It’s not as bad as it looks,” Jessica tried to demure. But it did hurt a lot, and she just wanted to curl up and whimper. She had her Security training, but she’d been on desk duty since she graduated the Academy, never in the field. It wasn’t Lieutenant Commander Ryan’s fault he didn’t know her well enough not to put her in charge! But Jessica was determined not to be the weak link in this emergency.
[Deflector Control]
"Steve, what the hell is going on around here?" Welshy demanded as she and the engineering team at her heel nearly crashed into the department head as they all reached the doorway to the deflector control room.
"Long story short, we need to reconfigure the main deflector to generate a low level subspace field around the station, just enough to lower the mass of the station long enough for the thrusters to get us out of the way," Wyman explained hurriedly, grabbing a toolkit from one of the assembled petty officers.
Welshy looked at him like he had lost his mind. "How are we supposed to do that? Nothing like this has ever been tried!"
By this point the seven of them were squeezed into the small chamber. "On the contrary. Chief O'Brien and Lieutenant Dax did it with Deep Space 9. But they had hours to figure it out. We have about ten minutes. And if we don't, those verteron pulses will rip the station into fun size pieces."
Already pulling out a rack of isolinear chips and setting to work, his wife gave him a dirty look. "No pressure though..."
[Command Level Operations]
"Oh." Maritza looked at the readouts Lt. Bennett was showing her. Verteron and gravimetric radiation was starting to spike further away, some 170 million kilometers, barely an astronomical unit. She knew the spikes for what they were, the bouncing of little pebbles before the avalanche hit. And then other readings started picking up, electromagnetic radiation across the entire spectrum, alpha, beta, gamma, visible light. The temperature of that part of space was starting to rise too. Five Kelvins. Ten. Twenty, climbing steadily. "That's not good." If the readings were right, something even bigger than a planet was coming.
She touched the control panel, opening comms to nearby vessels. "All fighters, all vessels, this is DS5. Evacuate the area bearing zero three five to zero fifty, mark forty, to mark three five five, origin on us, to a distance of three AU. Mr. Carter, you are to keep that space clear. Anyone goes in, drag them out if you can."
"Aye, Commander," Kyle answered back. "Loki to all starfighters. Fall back and secure a perimeter around the coordinates DS5 gave us. Do not let the civilian ships anywhere near this thing. And if any of you dare inch in towards the distance Commander Soran put out you'll be scrubbing the launch deck on your knees for a month."
Isha had a choice to make, to begin an evacuation or to allow them to try and move Deep Space Five. She had scanned the report of Meridian, skimmed the report of how Deep Space Nine was moved to the mouth of the Bajoran wormhole. This phenomenon, if it was a planet, would be a great discovery, one that would draw attention from powers across the quadrants Deep Space Five was close enough to stake a claim, but not if it were abandoned.
"Can we move the station a sufficient distance to establish a synchronous orbit and resist the gravitational pull?" she asked.
Aldrex tapped his comm badge to get an answer for the captain. "Ops to Wyman. Report when ready. We don't have much time."
“We have civilian casualties on the Promenade,” Caleb reported. “Security and Marshals are dealing.”
Aldrex thought briefly of his wife and nodded. "If our civil defense protocols work the way they're supposed to, then medical help should be en route already."
Caleb nodded. “Medical is on the scene,” he confirmed. Zandra, stay put. You know what to do, Caleb thought. His daughter had been brought up on starships and so would be familiar with Starfleet emergency protocols. He just hoped she would obey them. Of course, it wouldn’t matter if they couldn’t get this station moved.
Caleb swiped the Security alert off his screen to focus on the tactical. “Can we find a gravimetric eddy to ride in?” Caleb asked. “Or create one? It might ease the stress on the SIF.”
"Try whatever you can, but begin evacuation," Isha said.
“Yes, sir,” Caleb said. “Operations to Security,” Caleb opened up a channel. “Begin preparing civilians for evacuation. Escort civilians to any ship still in dock, carefully and calmly.”
Caleb waited a minute for his Security people to begin to process the order and then opened up the public alert system, giving the general evacuation alarm.
“Hanger operations, no ship leaves dock until it is fully loaded with civilians,” he instructed. “To capacity and beyond, if possible.”
Caleb looked over to Maritza at Strategic Operations. “What ships are in the area?” he asked. “We should get them here and start beaming civilians off. And perhaps, if they have tractor beams, they might make it easier on this subspace field we’re going to try creating.”
Soran gave him a look that promised dire retribution for telling her how to do her job. "Forty two ships have been rerouted to a holding pattern at One-eighty one-eighty at 50 km. They were breifed to expect evacuees the moment the Captain ordered the evacuation." She turned back to Bennet and got on with the one sensible part of Caleb's comment. "Run the manifests and find out how many have proper graviton tractors, nothing more primitive."
Whether or not it would provide an any help, she couldn't say. It may have come too late.
Wyman's two minutes were up...
Captain Isha t'Vaurek
Lieutenant Alison Bennet (NPC)
Argellian t'Vaurek (NPC)
Mrs Stobbs (NPC)
by Louise
CDM W Steiner
FMS
DT Tevlet [NPC]
FMS
Ltjg Ed Snake Eyes Munroe [NPC]
Oak Squadron
By G.
Lt. Saria Rex
Chief Science Officer
Lt. Cmdr. Maritza Soran
2XO/Chief Strategic Ops Officer
Lt. Cmdr. Amia Telamon
Chief Medical Officer
Lt. Kyle "Loki" Carter
CAG
Lt. Cmdr. Caden Aldrex
Executive Officer
Lt. Cmdr. Caleb Ryan
Aleczandra Naqiis-Ryan [Civilian NPC]
Ens. Jessica Mayhew [Security NPC]
Tianys Dalav’ni [Civilian NPC]
By Matthew
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