Emergence - Part 6

Posted on Fri Jun 5, 2015 @ 11:55pm by Captain Maritza Soran & Commander Caden Aldrex & Lieutenant Commander Steven Wyman & Commander Caleb Ryan & Commander Amia Telamon M.D. & Lieutenant Saria Rex & Captain Tam "Demon" Haican & Lieutenant Kyle "Loki" Carter & Sebina Haican

2,848 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: Eye of the Beholder
Location: Various
Timeline: MD 3/1545

[Command Level Operations]

Back at his station, Caleb worked the tractor beam, pushing large asteroids aside as best he could, usually just edging them out to conserve power. “Tricobalts ready as soon as we get sensors,” he announced.

Ensign Jessica Mayhew walked out of the captain’s ready room into the chaos of Ops in the middle of a crisis. She grabbed the medical kit off the wall and pulled out the dermal regenerator before going to the Tactical station.

“Sir, how can I help?” she asked Caleb.

“Mayhew?” Caleb said with surprise. “Why haven’t you evacuated?”

Jessica shrugged. “Had to reunite some kids with their mother,” she said, and then realized that might sound calloused. “I’m sorry, sir,” she murmured. “Your daughter…”

“Will be just fine,” Caleb said a bit too quickly. “She’s been trained in what to do. I need you to help me with the tractor beams,” he told her, watching as she quickly stopped her bleeding side with the dermal regenerator and then tossed it and the medkit to the floor and stepped up to the secondary tactical console.

"Course laid in," Maritza announced. "We just need the power. Mr. Wyman?"

Steve didn't know where he was going to find the power. Everything was pushed to maximum and the emergency power cells were tapped. But it fell to the chief engineer to be a miracle worker. "Uh...one second..." What he was doing was trying to buy himself time as he cut power to nearly everything on the station. "You'll all find that you're a tad lighter. I just halved power to the grav plates. Increasing reactor output to one hundred and ten percent... Oh, this is going to hurt in the morning..." Alarm klaxons sounded as the reactor went past design specifications.

Wyman's eyes rolled as he disabled the warning. "Okay, punch it. We'll just be on reserve power for a bit once we burn out the reactor."


[Prowler 115]

Mitchell Graham, known as "Crackers" to his squadron mates, had his head down in the back seat of his Valkyrie. He was tweaking the sensors as best he could, but was only getting a faint return on their target. He shook his head. "I can barely see him against the interference. You got a visual yet, Shoni?"

Ensign Shoni Muuhi, the Betelgeusian pilot up front, replied tersely, "Not yet. Whoever this idiot is I hope he's worth it." Even with shields at full the fighter rattled nonstop from micrometeoroid impacts. It was like being pelted with a thousand ball peen hammers. Shoni simultaneously jinked and weaved around the larger rocks, many of which were plenty big enough to kill them if they weren't careful.

Careful, Crackers thought sourly as he tried to refocus the forward sensor array. They had separated from the main group to chase after a straggler, a chartered survey ship called the Sunesis. Now with the call to return they were racing to carry out this task quickly.

The Sunesis had been hired by a civilian research institute to do an imaging survey of some of the nearby systems. Deep Space Five had been her most recent port of call. When the evacuation order came the researchers aboard headed away from the station, but then decided that a trans-dimensional planet was something they just couldn't afford to not study. So while the station and everyone else was trying to get a safe distance away from it the Sunesis had steered a course to get closer. It didn't take long for the crew of the tiny vessel to understand what a bad idea that was, and so they declared an emergency. Muuhi and Graham were going to tractor them out.


[Deep Space Five]

The thrusters fired and DS5 rose from the gravity well of the new planet like leviathan from the depths, chunks of space debris passing meters from hangers, from living quarters, from cargo decks. The altimeter rose, 200,000 kilometers above whatever passed for sea level down there. Anything less than four hundred thousand kilometers and the orbital decay would bring them back down eventually. Two-fifty. Three hundred. Three-fifty. The station inched higher, shedding plating and sensors dishes and other detritus.

The safe point was coming, above the stream of rock and gravel, just one point to get through before then. Or rather, one point was going to go through them.

On the viewing screen, magnified more times than was necessary, they could all see the incoming agent of destruction. It was the shape of an arrow head, and obliviously a chunk of planetary surface, striations for lithosphere, crust and upper mantle clearly visible. It tumbled towards them, end over end, inevitable.

Eyes bulging as he saw the agent of their demise hurtling toward the station, Wyman felt his throat go suddenly dry. His face went an ashen white, and a cold sweat beaded on his brow. He looked up at the viewer and mouthed the words, "I'm sorry Gwen... Daddy's going to be late..."

"Rotate Z plus ninety degrees," Aldrex said tersely, keeping his eyes fixed on the main viewer. It was a desperation move. He had nothing left. With any luck maybe they could rotate the station in time to let that rock slide right past them. He didn't have to do the math, however, to know that they wouldn't make it. Something with this much mass could only move so fast. He wondered if Amia would get off in time.

Caleb wasn’t a religious man particularly, not like his parents. But he instinctively fell back and quickly crossed himself. Caleb didn’t pray for himself, that he would live, or die quickly. He prayed that Aleczandra, his -- daughter and what remained of his wife – had escaped this. With that brief concession to humanity, Caleb returned to his work.

Ensign Mayhew beside him, blonde hair in disarray, sweat and blood on her face, glanced at him and then mimicked him.

Caleb had a choice to make. “Cut power to the tractor beams,” he told Jessica, shutting down the system completely. They couldn’t push something that large out of the way in time. They might as well give that power to the thrusters.

Soran watched the plot of the station’s trajectory and the oncoming rock and bit her lip. It occurred to her that the vaunted Vulcan logic vis-a-vis the good of the many was horribly unfair on the few.

As the chunk of planet tumbled past the hundred meter mark she shut her eyes.

As the fragment reached nearly fifty meters of the hull, it suddenly exploded into a cloud of finer particles that bounced harmlessly off the station's hull. Through the cloud, a Starfleet Raptor class starfighter shot through and banked hard to starboard to avoid colliding into the station itself. From the OPS comm station, a signal started to come in, filled with static at first, but clearing as it went. “SSSSCRRREEETTTCCH FIVE, CAN YOSSSSSSCHSSS...! I SAY AGAISSSSSHHH, DEEP SPACE FIVE, CAN YOU HEAR ME?”

Aldrex let out a deep breath and opened the channel himself. "Thanks, pilot. You just made a lot of new friends down here." He looked at the other faces around him.

Soran looked up from her panel. "We have geosynchronous orbit with the planet. Kill the thrusters."

Caleb slumped a bit, but Jessica gave a shriek of delight and hugged her new boss tightly. “Ohmygod!”

“Ensign…” Caleb warned. “It’s not over. Bring tractors back online.” His fingers danced quickly over the controls again.

Jessica nodded, taking a breath and pushing her disheveled blonde hair from her face. “Tractors back online,” she said, starting to target the larger chunks of debris again.

“Sensors are clearing up, Captain,” Caleb announced. “I can start getting better target locks.”


[Bravo Leader]

Tam sighed a quick breath of relief when he heard the voice on the other end of the comms. Through the static it sounded a lot like the station's Executive Officer. "XO! Is that you? This is Captain Haican! Glad to hear that you guys are alright! Now, where do you need me, sir?" As he spoke, Tam was still flying around at full attack speed, blasting any rocks that he can get a bead on, dodging others that try to claim him as a target.


[OPS]

"We're pretty close to blind here," Aldrex said to Tam. "The rest of the fighter wing is scattered about, trying to assist the civilian vessels. Help wherever you can or wait for orders from CAG."

“Roger that, Ops,”Tam's voice came in over the hidden speakers in Ops. “I'll make myself useful as best I can. Demon out.”

“Careful, Mayhew,” Caleb warned as the ensign locked her tractor beam onto another asteroid to push it clear. It was a strain just to keep up with the debris, to choose the right targets.

“Oh, no!” Jessica gasped, struggling with her controls. “It’s breaking apart! I’m losing beam coherence on this asteroid!”

“Switch!” Caleb said, pushing her aside. His fingers danced over the controls, trying to corral the asteroid that was crumbling beneath the force of the tractor beam. But the chunk of rock was too fragile. It broke up into large pieces that scattered chaotically.

Kyle saw the tractor beam release the asteroid as it broke up and sent pieces flying every which way, with one of the larger ones headed right at him. Not having enough time to avoid the asteroid he quickly fired a volley of micro-torpedoes at the center, blasting it into smaller pieces, and flew right through it with bits and pieces bouncing off his fighter. "I feel like I'm piloting the golf ball collector at the driving range," he joked over the comm to anyone that was still listening. Right as he finished his sentence a larger piece impacted the side of the fighter's canopy, causing a series of cracks to splinter through the reinforced window. "HOLY SHIT!" he shouted in surprise, still on the comm channel. "That one was a lot bigger than a golf ball."

Kyle had his neck craned back to get a look at the hunk that just hit him. His emergency proximity alert blared in his cockpit, causing him to snap his head back around to see what he was coming up on. There was another piece of the fragmented asteroid coming right at him from head on and more on his right coming from the anomaly with the station on the left. "Firing torpedoes." He pulled the trigger but nothing happened. "Firing torpedoes." He repeated, but his torpedo banks were empty. He knew the phasers wouldn't have a chance to stop a rock that big. He ripped the stick back and tried to pull up to escape the enclosing rocks around him. Once the fighter's belly was parallel with the asteroid he hit the thrusters and raced up to get out of the way. As he saw the edge of the large fragment he breathed an audible sigh of relief. "That was too cl-" Out of nowhere an asteroid about half the size of a runabout collided with the nose of his fighter, shearing the front half right off and sending the rest of it into a spin. The starfighter's emergency autoeject engaged and shot Kyle away from the wreckage off into space.


[327th Wing]

Out of the combined wings’ one hundred and eight fighters Munroe had forty seven of them lined up alongside him. Every one that had some kind of munitions loaded aboard had formed up on the Oak Squadron Leader. Many hundreds of thousands of tons of ice and rock bore down on the stationary line of fighters. Munroe had realized that with limited shots the fighters would have time their salvo perfectly to have any effect. Too soon and there was a good chance many rounds would miss; too late and the impacts would not cause enough of a deflection in the oncoming meteor storm to stop it slamming into the crowd of ships and escape modules that were fleeing in its path. Every second he delayed giving the firing order the meteor storm came closer, but it also allowed the ships behind more time to get out of the way.

"Snake,” came Dingo's hesitant voice in his helmet, "that stuff's getting mighty close, man. I got solid locks, whenever you’re ready." Munroe's REO was not the nervous type, but he sounded a little spooked today.

"Few more seconds, Ding," Munroe replied. "We only get one shot at this."

The meteor storm rose up before the line of tiny fighters like a massive wave that would sweep all before it.

Munroe hit the wing channel. "Lock targets! But hold...hold...hold." He heard Dingo catch his breath beside him as the windscreen filled with tumbling churning meteors. “Hold… And… Fire! Fire! Fire!”

Forty seven fighters released two hundred and sixty-five missiles and torpedoes in six and half seconds. Dozens of warheads surged forward to meet the storm head on.

"Break! Break! Break!" Munroe called. "Get outa here! Odd flights climb, even flights dive! Break! Break! Break!”

The line of fighters powered up, just over half climbed rapidly, pulling turnouts to reverse course away from the meteors, while the rest dove down and flipped inverse to achieve the same maneuver.

Checking his rearview scope Munroe saw the first torpedoes impact and explode amongst the ragged jumble of rocks. Within seconds the meteors were torn apart as explosion after explosion tore through the storm. As a big one was shattered it threw off rocky shrapnel that slammed into other meteors, setting up chain reactions that split the force of the storm and soon the incoming fury was broken, the massive storm reduced to much smaller chunks that flashed and flared off the shields of the ships and fighters, but did little damage.

Munroe concentrated on jinking his fighter away from the bigger bits when Dingo interrupted him. "Snake... Loki got clipped by a big one! He had to punch out!"


[OPS]

The ejection beacon lit up strat ops with a red flash. The momentary elation Maritza had felt at not dying was crushed. "No, no, no," she muttered. The ejection had sent Kyle spinning into space, moving fast, too fast to get a lock on. She frowned, adjusting the beam controls as fast as she could, guessing at where he'd be rather than waiting for the lock. It was that or let him freeze to death.

She swiped the fingers of her right hand down the panel, resisting the urge to cross the fingers of the left. For a moment the read out fluttered, and then the buffer reported full. She had him, nice and safe, and off to sickbay. She smiled grimly, relieved. "You don't get out of it that easily, Mr. Carter."

Aldrex looked on as Caleb and his deputy worked, trying not to look as nervous as he felt. All over Ops it was the same story with everyone else, excited chatter from people doing their jobs. Organized chaos was the term that came to mind. He reached up to tap his comm badge, intending to ask medical for a status report. Then he thought better of it. No, Amia was probably busy at the moment. Helping people as she always did. His lip curled into a tired smile as he pictured her working. He would go see her when this all blew over.

“Oh, God, I’m so sorry!” Jessica said, tears tracking down her cheeks. “Is he—“

Caleb gripped her shoulder and gave her a stern look. “Later,” he scolded her. “Focus.” He pushed her back to her station beside him. He would be the hard ass now and comfort her later, once the crisis had passed.

The M-class planet and its sun were by now almost fully emerged from their subspace rifts. A vast meteor shower was visible on the night side of the planet. To those who could see, it was almost like a fireworks display. Gradually the sensor disruptions began to subside. Other planets began to emerge at varying distances from the new sun, each with their own unique characteristics. They couldn't all be seen yet, but could be detected by their gravimetric wakes.

"Our space is clear, Commander." Soran turned to Aldrex. "Bring everyone home?"

Aldrex nodded wearily. "All hands stand down from red alert. Department heads report your status and casualty count when you are able. Let's get this place cleaned up."

::OFF::

Lt. Cmdr. Caleb Ryan
Chief Security/Tactical Officer

Ens. Jessica Mayhew
Security Officer
NPC Caleb Ryan

Lt. Kyle "Loki" Carter
CAG

Cpt. Tam "Demon" Haican
Bravo Assault Wing Commander

Ltjg. Edward Snake Eyes Munroe
Oak Squadron Leader

COP Adam Dingo Barnes
REO Oak Squadron

Lt. Cmdr. Steve Wyman
Chief Engineering Officer

 

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