S1E3 United We Stand

[LK Reede]

[Gul Vanar - Bridge]

Glancing around, seeing what appeared to be a normal bridge on a normal star ship, LK moved off to the left. She stopped at what seemed to be a tactical console. A female Cardassian sat slumped over the keyboard. Using her medical tricorder which was originally meant to scan humans, she moved it over the woman.

Dr. Reede  let her mind move over the past few hours as she worked. Dr. Vaughn had set the shuttle's computer to whisk them back to the shuttle in 24 hours. They had that long to find out what was happening. Reede determined that this Cardassian was simply knocked out. She could stay that way until they knew more of what was going on here. After all, Reede reasoned, the woman had no serious injury, only a slight head wound. Probably caused by being thrown against the paneling.

Stepped around the chair, Reede moved on to a man bleeding from a deep cut on his arm.

"Just what DID happen here?" she muttered.

[Lek]

[Gul Vanar - Engineering]

Lek only received blank stares to his declaration and that was enough to decide things for him as the sound of the warp core grated on his ears so much that he knew there wasn't time for protocol. It was time to act if this ship was going to avoid becoming rapidly cooling plasma.

"Crewman Jackson, find the core ejection system and stand by. If I cannot get control in the next ten minutes, you are to eject the core regardless of anything anyone else says from this point. Use your phaser to stun anyone that tries to stop you!"

Lek then moved to the plasma manifold in an attempt to shut it down and to regain control of the dilithium matrix. Knowing that if he didn't act fast, an emergency beam out was in the away team's immediate future.

As he worked frantically with his flux coupler to stabilize the warp core he was struck by several things that made no sense at all. Why was a Galor-Class cruiser calling itself a 'science' vessel? If this was an Obsidian Order vessel, why was the engineering staff so incompetent? However, the most obvious question caused him to mutter unconsciously.

"Just what DID happen here?"

[Lizzie Vaughan]

[Gul Vanar - Bridge]

Glancing around, seeing what appeared to be a normal bridge on a normal star ship, LK moved off to the left. She stopped at what seemed to be a tactical console. A female Cardassian sat slumped over the keyboard. Using her medical tricorder which was originally meant to scan humans, she moved it over the woman.

Dr. Reede  let her mind move over the past few hours as she worked. Dr. Vaughn had set the shuttle's computer to whisk them back to the shuttle in 24 hours. They had that long to find out what was happening. Reede determined that this Cardassian was simply knocked out. She could stay that way until they knew more of what was going on here. After all, Reede reasoned, the woman had no serious injury, only a slight head wound. Probably caused by being thrown against the paneling.

Stepped around the chair, Reede moved on to a man bleeding from a deep cut on his arm.

"Just what DID happen here?" she muttered.

Gul Vanar - Bridge

Lizzie scanned the figure that was slumped over at the command station. Unconscious. She couldn't tell from what, only that his vitals were stable. There was a minor burn on his right hand, nothing to be worried about.

She quickly moved on to the helm. The Cardassian female then was also just unconscious, with no visible wounds. She raised her tricorder and began to run a tox analysis of the air. Nothing out of the ordinary. She tapped her com-badge.

=/\=Vaughan to Jyur. We are at the Bridge. All the crew here are alive but unconscious. I can find no explanation for their condition. She reported.

While she waited for a reply, she went over to what looked like an Ops console. Pulling a PADD out of her pack, she interfaced with the console, allowing the translation matrix to decipher what they. It immediately showed something interesting. There was alot of power being drawn to what appeared to be a cargo bay.

[Kirok]

"Let's hit their lead vessel first. That way if the other two aren't too keen on staying disabled we'll still have their leader." Rhymus called out. The crewman set to work at his station, awaiting the best moment to hit the hardest.

[Bridge]

"Got it" Zex replied.  She glided the ship into place.  The lead ship came into view.

"Targeting weapons first" she added.  Her hand was steady on the controls.  "Three, two, one" the Deltan called out.

[Martin Jackson]

[Gul Vanar - Engineering]

"Crewman Jackson, find the core ejection system and stand by. If I cannot get control in the next ten minutes, you are to eject the core regardless of anything anyone else says from this point. Use your phaser to stun anyone that tries to stop you!"

"Yes, sir!"  Finding the panel for it was not difficult; after all, warp ships aren't usually that different from each other, in principle.  While Martin had a strange feeling about the way all this was going, he tried not to show it on his still-smiling face.  It was an exciting situation, either way, though he felt a bit guilty for thinking so.  He hoped he wouldn't have to use his phaser.

After finding the necessary control board and locating the correct sequence for ejection, and preparing it, Martin looked first at Lek and then the Cardassians.  There was something off, other than just the "science vessel" stuff, and he knew it.  It felt like there was something bigger going on... these people didn't seem like the Cardassians he had always heard of.  Cold, calculating, competent... like Vulcans, in a way, though one would be unwise to say such to either race.

The engineering crew didn't seem to know what they were doing.  In fact, they were outright panicking when Lek and himself had reached the room.  Like... like they didn't know the engine very well?  Like... it was not their own...?

Martin had read a few records of Federation operations before, including bits where one race, by surgery or natural talent, would make themselves look like another.  He tried to tell himself that he was making up a fanciful tale around a more simple event, but the thought persisted.  Martin knew he was the romantic type; there was no way that idea was correct.  Still, out of the corner of his eyes he watched the Cardassian engineers very carefully, looking for signs of other oddities.

[Rhymus Cleroux]

[Bridge]

"Got it" Zex replied.  She glided the ship into place.  The lead ship came into view.

"Targeting weapons first" she added.  Her hand was steady on the controls.  "Three, two, one" the Deltan called out.

Every available phaser array opened fire on the lead Jem'Hadar vessel, bombarding their shields and eventually weapon subsystems with a stream of fire from the aging Federation warship.

"That's got it!" the Tactical crewman called out upon seeing a severe drop in enemy power to weapons. "Moving to target engines now!" The barrage of fire slacked only long enough to find their new target at the rear of the ship and did not stop until the ship of First Malika'tiz was quietly drifting through space, dead in the water.

"Lead vessel is disabled, Sir! Weapons and Engines are offline and should remain that way for some time. My compliments to Flight Control. Now targeting next nearest Jem'Hadar vessel."

[Dylan Torngate]

[Bridge]

Dylan had manned an engineering station out of habit, and was coordinating damage control with engineering. "Good work, everyone." He said, as he braced for another strike that blasted their shields.

"Number six shield on the port rear quarter is overloading. Helm, keep that away from them." He said, as he walked over to Tactical. "Good shooting, crewman." He said, as he looked at the power readings. "Remember, we're using older weapons. Short busts are gonna be more effective than sustained fire." He told the crewman before moving on. "How's she handling, Ensign?"

[Kirok]

[Bridge]

Dylan had manned an engineering station out of habit, and was coordinating damage control with engineering. "Good work, everyone." He said, as he braced for another strike that blasted their shields.

"Number six shield on the port rear quarter is overloading. Helm, keep that away from them." He said, as he walked over to Tactical. "Good shooting, crewman." He said, as he looked at the power readings. "Remember, we're using older weapons. Short busts are gonna be more effective than sustained fire." He told the crewman before moving on. "How's she handling, Ensign?"

[Bridge]

"Aye, Sir" Zex replied.  She turned the control.  The ship responded.

"Port side is protected now.  Starboard side presented.  Holding course until further instruction" she called out.

[LK Reede]

Gul Vanar - Bridge

Lizzie scanned the figure that was slumped over at the command station. Unconscious. She couldn't tell from what, only that his vitals were stable. There was a minor burn on his right hand, nothing to be worried about.

She quickly moved on to the helm. The Cardassian female then was also just unconscious, with no visible wounds. She raised her tricorder and began to run a tox analysis of the air. Nothing out of the ordinary. She tapped her com-badge.

=/\=Vaughan to Jyur. We are at the Bridge. All the crew here are alive but unconscious. I can find no explanation for their condition. She reported.

While she waited for a reply, she went over to what looked like an Ops console. Pulling a PADD out of her pack, she interfaced with the console, allowing the translation matrix to decipher what they. It immediately showed something interesting. There was alot of power being drawn to what appeared to be a cargo bay.

Lt. Reede walked over to stand behind and slightly to the right of Dr. Vaughn. LK was able to get a good view of the read out on the console. She gasped as she read a number of people -beings- were being held in the cargo bay. Bay number two. She looked directly at the CMO and asked, "Shall we check that out?"

[Lizzie Vaughan]

Lt. Reede walked over to stand behind and slightly to the right of Dr. Vaughn. LK was able to get a good view of the read out on the console. She gasped as she read a number of people -beings- were being held in the cargo bay. Bay number two. She looked directly at the CMO and asked, "Shall we check that out?"

Gul Vanar - Bridge

Lizzie turned and looked at Reede.

"It certainly needs looking into, but we need to co-ordinate with the others. Let's check the rest of the deck." She said.

She then added a remote interface to the console so she could stay connected and they headed towards the door a the back.

[Jettis Jyur]

=/\=Vaughan to Jyur. We are at the Bridge. All the crew here are alive but unconscious. I can find no explanation for their condition. She reported.

[Gul Vanar]

Quickly navigating the hallways, Jettis tapped his commbadge to reply to the Doctor.
"Acknowledged. Continuing looking around to see if you can find a cause - looking at sensor logs may help. At first I thought that the Cardassians were going to be our biggest problem, but I think there's something wrong here, and even the Captain isn't sure of what."=/\=

Closing that commlink, he opened another to Martin and Lek. "How is your progress going? How long does the ship have left?"=/\=

Waiting for a reply from the Engineering officers, he waited until their conversation was finished, before contacting his fellow science officer. "Sevoc - have you found anything of interest? If you aren't urgently busy, I'd like you to meet me somewhere, I think there's something we ought to look at."=/\=

[Rhymus Cleroux]

[Bridge]

Dylan had manned an engineering station out of habit, and was coordinating damage control with engineering. "Good work, everyone." He said, as he braced for another strike that blasted their shields.

"Number six shield on the port rear quarter is overloading. Helm, keep that away from them." He said, as he walked over to Tactical. "Good shooting, crewman." He said, as he looked at the power readings. "Remember, we're using older weapons. Short busts are gonna be more effective than sustained fire." He told the crewman before moving on. "How's she handling, Ensign?"

"Leave it to Utopia Planitia to update a 23rd Century cruiser, spend ages combining her computers together, and then fail to update her phaser arrays..." Rhymus muttered to himself. Tapping away at the Tactical Console, an idea suddenly formed.

"Sir!" The crewman called out as the Captain moved away. "With the lead vessel out of action, we may be able to take some risks with the other vessels. Low yield photon torpedos, aimed correctly, may be able to disable the other ships much more effectively than our phasers can, however, they are photon torpedos. The risk of destruction is..." He thought for a moment. "Possibly significant. Your choice, Sir."

[Kirok]

"Leave it to Utopia Planitia to update a 23rd Century cruiser, spend ages combining her computers together, and then fail to update her phaser arrays..." Rhymus muttered to himself. Tapping away at the Tactical Console, an idea suddenly formed.

"Sir!" The crewman called out as the Captain moved away. "With the lead vessel out of action, we may be able to take some risks with the other vessels. Low yield photon torpedos, aimed correctly, may be able to disable the other ships much more effectively than our phasers can, however, they are photon torpedos. The risk of destruction is..." He thought for a moment. "Possibly significant. Your choice, Sir."

[Bridge]

Zex circled the area.  She continued to keep the port side protected.  As she had been instructed to do.

But with the lead ship down, perhaps the other ships would flee.  She would not put money on it.  But she could hope.

[Lek]

[Gul Vanar Engineering]

Lek swore viciously as he saw dilithium matrix begin to depole.

"Blessed Exchequer! Jackson! The core has taken too much damage! I can't shut it down, but maybe we can save the ship! Eject the core NOW!!"

Lek began entering commands into the computer as fast as his fingers could enter the keystrokes to disengage the primary and backup plasma injectors as the first step of core ejection. If the plasma wasn't shut down, the core clamps wouldn't disengage if there was any risk of flooding the compartment.

"Like a warp core breech is somehow better than fourth degree plasma burns! If the core will separate, we'll be sublight only, but it's better than the other option."

As he watched the plasma flow slow, he realized no one outside of engineering knew what was going on leading him to tap his commbadge.

"Lek to away team, we have lost core confinement! We are attempting to eject the warp core, if you do not hear another transmission from me within the next two minutes, immediately beam out and go to warp! Lek out."

He willed the flow to stop faster, but all he could do now was watch and hope that Jackson knew his profession.

[Sevoc]

[Gul Vanar]

Quickly navigating the hallways, Jettis tapped his commbadge to reply to the Doctor.
"Acknowledged. Continuing looking around to see if you can find a cause - looking at sensor logs may help. At first I thought that the Cardassians were going to be our biggest problem, but I think there's something wrong here, and even the Captain isn't sure of what."=/\=

Closing that commlink, he opened another to Martin and Lek. "How is your progress going? How long does the ship have left?"=/\=

Waiting for a reply from the Engineering officers, he waited until their conversation was finished, before contacting his fellow science officer. "Sevoc - have you found anything of interest? If you aren't urgently busy, I'd like you to meet me somewhere, I think there's something we ought to look at."=/\=

{Gul Vanar}

Sevoc was looking things over. He hadn't seen much in the way of "interesting," but reported all he had.

=/\=There is not a whole lot here, sir, just shoddy construction to make it appear that this is the type of vessel they originally claimed,=/\= he replied. =/\=I am willing to meet you where you would like.

He made his way to a turbolift in preparation for meeting with the XO.