Gathering at Gabriel

Posted on Wed Sep 21st, 2022 @ 6:10pm by Captain Devin Hadenbeer & Lieutenant Commander Dorian Sheppard & Lieutenant Commander Rayek trLhoell & Lieutenant Commander Klarth & Lieutenant JG Alia Fitzgerald

3,697 words; about a 18 minute read

Mission: Into The Void
Location: Rumpleteazer, Gabriel Station, Lionheart

Captain's Log, supplemental: It has been four hours since our arrival at Gabriel Station. The senior staff are either dead or in critical condition. Doctor Klarth and the medical staff of both the station and Lionheart are working at insuring there are no more fatalities, while Commander Arkyn in the interest of security is insuring anyone who beams aboard is whom they claim to be. Considering the deceptions we have been exposed to this is prudent behavior. This means Doctor Klarth has had to remain largely on board Gabriel Station, employing its facilities.

We have lowered shields at random intervals to beam over personnel to reduce our vulnerability. There has been no sign of our attackers or the ship that assaulted Gabriel Station. There are two possibilities. The first is both ships have fled.

The other is both ships will be attacking simultaneously and it is only a matter of time before the fun starts. In the mean time I have ordered Sheppard to do what he can with the damaged databases on Gabriel Station to see if it is as all possible the scientists here had learned something new. Speaking of scientists it seemed the attackers had an agenda; outside of an intern and two nurses any Starfleet personnel wearing blue was killed in the attack. That leaves just one scientist alive: lieutenant H'orri.

* * *

LIONHEART

"Sir, it's been four hours," Junix noted.

"...And?" Hadenbeer replied absently as she examined the local terrestrial bodies on the Operations screen. There was not much around to hide behind. But if you had a cloak...and remained still...

"Perhaps you would like a break?"

"A lie down, Commander? A nap? Thank you, no." she glanced up at the main screen and the Commander, "How goes it over there?"

"Just finishing cataloging the dead," Junix replied with a grimace, "Morbid work."

"Yes," Hadenbeer replied with a sigh, "I wonder if it would be better to abandon the station and mark it a tomb..."


RUMPLETEAZER

The Rumpleteazer had been tracking the Klingon vessel for an hour, returning in quicker time than when she had left. As the small vessel came within "sight" of Lionheart S'Lace murmured, "There is a second ship, cloaked."

She pointed to the screen, "And it has been keeping Gabriel Station between it and Lionheart..."

The Romulan assessed the scene tactically and it did not look good. "They won't wait long to attack, now that they have the advantage of numbers. If you have a means of sending an encrypted message, I would recommend you disregard your earlier promise to me and send the sensor adjustments I provided you as an executable program to your ship.... then prepare to engage in battle."

"It...would be a decided tactical advantage," S'Lace conceded as she studied the plot and realized that Lionheart would be caught in a pincer maneuver. Even with Lionheart's superior tactical abilities the two Klingon vessels could pose a decided threat. Without a word, displaying an impulsiveness not normally seen in a Vulcan, she sent the transmission.

She had the good grace to look abashed as she glanced at Fitzgerald...

Alia nodded, not unhappy with sharing the information. "A transmission could give us a chance to send valuable misinformation." She pointed at the screen. "This reminds me of the games me and her sisters would play... mostly cards. Our favorite was bridge where every bid and every card could send information to your partner or deceive your opponents. Let's send a message that will cause them to hesitate, even for a bit."

Despite her calm demeanor, a waver entered her voice that she savagely suppressed. "Send the following message on open channels and, if you happen to know an old code that has already been cracked, you can use that instead." She closed her eyes and recorded herself, "Captain Fitzgerald returning with both the scientist and the weapons engineer. Did not have a chance to test the disruptor inversion weapon but have full confidence it will work. More information once we dock."

The Romulan quirked an eyebrow at hearing 'Captain' Fitzgerald's message.

GABRIEL STATION

Klarth and the other medical staff had been very busy for several hours but now all the most critical patients were in stable condition and it was just a waiting game to see if they were strong enough to pull through.

There were still several minor injuries to deal with though. Broken bones and stitches, things Klarth could practically do in his sleep and so while doing these things Klarth couldnt help but also think about the Void and the research this station had been doing. Research that got the station raided and many of the crew butchered.

"This may hurt a little," said Klarth about to reset the shoulder of an Ensign "on three, one, two" Klarth reset it and the the Ensign screamed. "What's that Commander?" He asked Sheppard, who he was talking to over coms. "I couldn't hear you over my patient's screams, have you been able to recover any of the research they were doing on the Void?"

“I said the book is missing. Gone,” Sheppard comms. “I’m analyzing the system’s records, building a timeline from the timestamps of when specific systems went down,” he explains. “I can trace the invader’s from boarding, to when they acquired the book, and back out again. Biometric scans aren’t my strong suit though,” he admits.

“If I relay my data to sickbay, can you maybe determine who the Romulan’s were that did this?” he asks, tapping the screen again to refresh a column of numbers. “I’ve got their attack pattern, locations and precision of phaser fire, but there’s no audio at all, and any video recorded is virtually illegible. They must have be using signal jammers, but I’m not familiar with the type,” he says. “I’ll work on analyzing that with Security, but I’m sure your combat training would greatly help,” Sheppard says.

“As far as reclaiming any research on The Void, the Romulans did a fine job at decimating those systems,” he adds. “I’m piecing together what I can, but it’s tedious and inaccurate. Imagine working on a thousand piece jigsaw puzzle of the Dante Nebula under strobe lights,” he says, then wonders… “Do Klingons do jigsaw puzzles?”

"I'd be happy to look at the combat data and offer whatever insights I have" says Klarth. Klarth already has a different patient, he is now using a dermal regenerator on a the patient's face. "Hold still," he says to the crewman, "if you flinch this thing might give you a second mouth."...Returning to his conversation with Sheppard, Klarth said, "I think that most Klingons would find jigsaw puzzles to be tedious work. After a while the pieces would be flung off the table and disintegrated with a phaser in frustration, so I appreciate the hard work you are doing."

Compiling data into a structured array, he transmits it to sickbay, then comms Lt. Commander Ull Arkyn. “Commander,” he begins. “I’ve been able to assemble a datafile cataloging as much of the invader’s attack as possible. I’ve got their movements in and out, as well as their targeting, details of their approach, timing of entry, and kill patterns. I’m hoping that between you and Klarth, we can get some idea of who the Romulans are or at least where they trained. Anything we can learn should help us be able to trace them. I’ll send everything as soon as possible. Maybe we can recreate the assault using the holodeck,” he suggests.

LIONHEART

"Ensign Jun here, Commander," the young tactical officer replied, "Commander Arkin stepped out a moment. If you would like to send over the data now I can-"

He paused, "Commander, I'll call you back," and cut the connection, "Captain, encrypted file from the Rumpleteazer, it looks like some sort of...tactical software packet? And now I am receiving a transmission from a..." his eyebrows rose slightly, "...captain Fitzgerald."

Devin motioned for Jun to put the transmission on. After hearing it she said, "Download that encrypted file, ensign," then she tapped her comm badge, "Captain, this is Hadenbeer. Understood, Captain. Be advised Gabriel Station has been compromised. Once you arrive in system I believe you will have an opportunity to conduct a live fire exercise with the Dee Eye Double You. Hadenbeer out."

She turned to Jun, "Well?"

"It is an enhanced sensor packet," Jun explained, "Apparently to improve our chances on spotting cloaked vessels. It's rather elegant, actually," he admitted.

And Fitzgerald wrote that out there? Hadenbeer thought. Was the young lieutenant that clever? Or had they found someone who was? "Implement it, ensign. Then do another sweep."

RUMPLETEAZER

Back on Rumpleteazer S'Lace heard the response. She glanced at the others and noted, "Maintaining the secrecy of our..." she glanced at Rayek, "...means of non-detection is of paramount importance. Not only for our survival but also Starfleet would not be happy we allowed anyone to take note of it."

The Romulan met the Vulcan's glance with a slight smirk. "Is that a request for me to keep my mouth shut? Or your Vulcan attempt at a warning should I not?" he asked, but his questions were rhetorical and he continued on speaking to assure his hosts of his discretion. "Don't worry - in appreciation for your responding to my pod's emergency beacon first and providing medical aid rather than stunning me - I will keep your secret."

"Our secret, don't you think? If they know we can detect their cloaking, they will spare nothing to kill all of us. Plus it reduces the value of the technique to begin with. At any rate, trust that I value my skin as much as the next human or Romulan!"

From his position behind Lieutenant S'Lace, the Romulan peered at the navigation screen. "Given the fact you desire to keep the shuttle's special feature unnoticed, you might consider locating a concealed place in which to 'break cover' so the Klingons don't discover your secret once the battle starts." Unfortunately there was very little in the way of anything to obscure their 'uncloaking'.

Fitzgerald murmured, "Now that we are back within range of our ship, I don't want to interfere with the real Captain's strategy. If we have to act on our own, we will."

S'lace nodded at both statements, "This region has very little in the way of hiding places. Perhaps if we warp out of sensor range and come back in with our 'secret' technology switched off. Or if we shut down all systems, go 'dark', as they say, then when we power up these other vessels might assume we had always been here."

Her expression was grim, "Whatever we do I do suggest we not allow Rumpleteazer to come to harm; I am under the impression the captain holds some irrational affection for it."

"While I might be irrational at times myself, I'd rather face her wrath than a fusillade of disruptor shots."

The Romulan's eyebrow rose seeing the almost emotional expression on the Vulcan's face. He momentarily thought he'd never seen such an emotional Vulcan before but then had a momentary recollection of sharing ceremonial tea with one who was smiling. But as Romulan turned his attention to the memory it slipped away leaving him with only a sense of loss. He shook his head to shake off the feeling and turned his attention to what the two women were commenting about.

That both Federation officers seemed willing to leave their main ship to fend for itself, rather than risk the scoutship or themselves, didn't sit right with the Romulan. All fondness aside, even with his faulty memory, the Romulan was rather certain any Captain or Commander would put priority to the ship and mission over a mere shuttle.

"If you say so. The decision of what do you is, of course, yours. I am merely a guest." He replied to the two women before leaning back in his seat, rather mockingly casual as if he didn't have a care in the world. "Maybe it's a Romulan trait... being willing to risk it all for the good of the mission and ship."

The overall tone of his mocking was lessened however when the Romulan found it necessary to adjust his medical gown downward immediately afterwards since it had ridden up his thigh a bit too much for his sense of modesty.

S'Lace turned in her seat and was about to say something acerbic, when she saw her patient adjusting her gown. A slight smile reluctantly tugged at her lips.

"Our secret has potential long term tactical uses that could affect all of Starfleet," she pointed out, "And our scout vessel's firepower is comparatively minimal...although I do admit an attack on a cloaked, shielded vessel could net a powerful result, especially since we are aware of the class."

She turned to Fitzgerald, "So a plan of action that satisfies both requirements seems to be in order."

"We might surprise them, once, but beyond that not much. Our second best weapon is still that they don't know we know they are there. Unfortunately, it can only be used once." She grinned before they could ask the obvious. "Our best weapon is that quitting isn't in our vocabulary."

GABRIEL STATION

The data came through and Klarth noticed right away not a single 'Klingon' know how to handle a bath'leth. The knife work was also all wrong. The attackers had an obvious plan an executed it but they did not move like experienced soldiers, more like brawlers, thugs.

Klarth commed Sheppard and said "They certainly arent Klingons their blade work is all wrong and they aren't Romulan military either because they are too sloppy more like common thugs or pirates. But they did seem to have goals in mind like the attack was planned not random."

Klarth says to Sheppard, "I have a theory, that these Romulans have somehow discovered the secret to navigating in the Void and are willing to kill to protect that secret. If we meet the ship, given their temperament it would probably be in battle, could we tell just from scans what kind of modifications they made to travel in the Void?"

“Well,” Sheppard ponders the suggestion. “Subspace sensors picked up neutrino emissions that we can run through multi-spectral analysts to reverse engineer warp core alterations,” he says, thinking out loud.

“And if I can recalibrate a subspace differential pulse through a series of k to the n minus 1 iterations…” he says, pausing, deep in thought.

“Then repeat barrage a magneton flash scan to pick up the intermittent differentials, I can compare the proximity resonance with ship’s memory schematics to extrapolate variants,” he says, successfully.

“But that’s all strictly theoretical,” he explains, sheepishly. “I’m going to need to get a broadband sensor matrix of the actual vessel in order to filter out recursional anomalies based on the hyperpolarized redundancies. Without a turboencapsulator, we’re just guessing, at a . . . nineteen point seven percent margin of failure at best,” he calculates. “I mean, it’s good. But not perfect.”

Klarth says in a light-hearted manner "Since this is comms, I will tell you that I am smiling and nodding and pretending I understood any of that," Klarth voice gets more serious and he says, "if we don't want the Lionheart to end a graveyard like this station, you need to do all that so we can bring the fight to these *multiple Klingon expletives deleted* who are all cowards with no honor and who *Klingon expletive deleted* their own mothers."

Klarth turns around and realizes his next patient is a young boy with multiple abrasions and his arm in a sling. At first Klarth is embarrassed by his language a second ago, but then he just smiles and says "Come here let's look at that arm, you've probably heard even worse language from your school chums haven't you?"

“Sheppard out,” the Chief Engineer comms. He retrieves whatever compiled data he can from the remains of the station computer, before getting beamed back to the Lionheart.

LIONHEART

"Sir!" Jun stated excitedly, "We have sensor contact on a cloaked vessel!"

"On screen tactical," Hadenbeer replied. She studied the plot a moment and murmured, "One vessel. If we are dealing with two..." she let the question hang in the air.

"Then..." Jun replied hesitantly, "The other is on the other side of the station opposite us. And based on this one's course...they could be preparing a pincer movement!"

Devin nodded without looking away, "Now scan for a ship employing refractive shielding and add it to the plot...Ah! Right behind the cloaked ship."

She thought a moment, then said, "Jun, launch a half dozen probes in a hundred and eighty degree arc-it doesn't matter what kind for most of them-with that vessel at the lower edge of said arc. Get a class one probe flying very close to it. And then when the probe gets within several kilometers blow it up."

She turned to Jaxur, "Ensign, I am going to be dropping shields for ten seconds, I need every person remaining on that station beamed off. Can you do it?"

"Everyone is located in three areas," the ensign replied, his expression tense, "I can do it."

"Good. Open up the shuttle bay doors and prepare for Rumpleteazer's arrival. Once she is in raise shields. Then Jun, do not wait for my signal; go right to red alert," at the young man's terse nod Devin took took station beside the helm, "Right. Toeleau, once we have confirmation everyone is aboard-and that includes the Rumpleteazer-I am going to order you to fly at high impulse around the station," she held out her palm and turned it over, "flipping us over. I want as close a pass as you feel comfortable with," she smiled, "I want our other guest terrified at our approach and passing. Then once we are pointed more or less in the direction of the Federation you are to jump to warp one, understood?"

"Understood," the young woman replied, her expression sober.

Devin nodded. She considered giving a speech but it seemed condescending. She took a breath, then said, "Jun...launch the probes..."

RUMPLETEAZER

S'Lace pointed to the readout, "Lionheart just six probes of...odd, they are of different classes, as if they were chosen at random. One is approaching our Klingon vessel..."

The comm chirped, "Captain Fitzgerald, we might be having that firing exercise a bit sooner than we thought. Stand by for our signal."

It was then that the probe detonated mere kilometers away from the Klingon vessels, eroding sensor effectiveness. But if it was that bad on Rumpleteazer one could imagine the Klingon vessel was experiencing far, far worse...!

"That's our sign!" She punched in a short warp-hop to put them right next to the Lionheart, just outside of shield range and drove in on impulse counting on the shield to drop at the right time...

The Romulan almost chuckled at hearing the Vulcan report out that their ship had launched multiple probes - especially that one was headed towards the nearby cloaked Bird of Prey. Clearly the others probes were a misdirection. His guess was proven right with the probe's detonation. He agreed with the Commander that it was indeed their signal.. but her choice of action was certainly not what he would have doe. Rather than take advantage of the enemy ship's downed sensors to attack unseen while the cloaked ship was without shields, the Commander instead chose to make a run for her own ship. Only Starfleet officers could be so dense to turn away from such an advantageous scenario - and leaving their ship open for retaliation by two enemy vessels - because the misbegotten protocol of not firing the first shot.

He felt a stir of bitterness - as if he personally had suffered because of such a philosophy.

S'Lace was about to object, when she belatedly realized firing first would have been against regulations, especially when all this while they had assumed these were their enemies. If they were in fact not and they fired first...

The political implications would have been...unpleasant.

LIONHEART

Jaxur dropped shields, and Fitzgerald saw the shuttle bay door was already open and waiting for them. The tractor beam took hold and it seemed milliseconds before Lionheart moved. Anyone looked out the closing doors would have seen the twisting of stars as the ship flipped over, her saucer now facing the surface of the large asteroid. The ship whipped around and Devin felt a moment of dread when she saw the B'rel class come out of cloak and flash by a mere two kilometers below them. If Toelau took notice she said nothing, she just sent the ship off into warp.

Devin took a breath, then took a step back to regard the three young officers.

"That was fine work," she remarked. To Toelau she stated, "That was a nice bit of piloting."

Toelau smiled, "Thank-"

"You made it look so easy you looked like you could have done it in your sleep."

Toelau's eyes narrowed, "-you. Sir."

Everyone who had been on board Gabriel Station now unexpectedly discovered they had been beamed onto deck eight, filling up the diplomatic facilities and multi-purpose rooms which remained largely vacant. There were cries of alarm as the red alert lights flashed. Then the Captain's voice came over the comm:

"This is the Captain. We are all right. We have extricated ourselves from a potential ambush with all hands and survivors. As to whether or not there is an impending fight that depends on how lucky our two 'friends' feel at this moment, considering they have lost the element of surprise. Once we are settled down and report to Starfleet we will assess our next step. I would like all senior officers to meet me in the conference room in fifteen minutes. Hadenbeer out."

Devin allowed herself a moment to relax. But only a moment; now was not a time to indulge...

 

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