The Minefield Part 1

Posted on Sun Jan 31st, 2021 @ 9:28pm by Dixoho Saa (*) & Executive Officer Jake Ford & Chief Engineer Michael Burnstein & Jinx Jorasco & Chief Helmsman Eden Bowers

Mission: Mission 12 - Railway
Location: Bridge
Timeline: MD04 09:00
1580 words - 3.2 OF Standard Post Measure

As Gregnol left the bridge it was left to the people still there staring at the vastness of space in front of them. Dixoho was really frowning. She did not like the strangeness of what had just happened at all. It did not bode well for this, but she needed to get her head in the game for this. “I am ready when you are. Are the Rangers ready? Is Engineering ready?” Dixoho demanded softly, listening for their response. It was nice to be working with the Rangers. It was different to be working outside of the usual people, but it was so worrying when they could kick-off due to something strange that had affected the majority of the senior crew. They really needed to work out that issue soon.

"Ready on our end," Taev replied for the Rangers.

Down in Engineering, Burnie nodded at Cassie to respond, since he couldn't with her voice.

“We are more than ready. Just keep us from going boom.” She said sounding remarkably like Burnie. She nodded back, there was no way to avoid it all now.

"You may proceed," Kaylin responded from the Thrai.

The ship slowly started to move forward with pretty much everyone holding their breath as they inched slowly into the field. How the refugee ship had drifted into there was a feat of luck and stupidity. Luck for how they were potentially unharmed just drifting, but stupidity for allowing themselves to lose engines.

Liha held Jake's breath, sending a quiet wish/prayer to the universe for them and for the refugees. She was at the engineering station rather than Jake's usual post since she was the one with the most experience in dealing with cloaked mines. The sensory scans and plotting had them appear in ghostly outline on the helm and main viewscreens, but she constantly rechecked the indicators for any that might have been missed or might drift in due to their passage.

“Five degrees to your left, Eden,” Dixoho called out as a minefield became visible as they passed within its range. It was old and easy to see that they were failing from the way they blinked on and off. “Getting old. More dangerous as they die, as they don’t maintain their orbit and drift.” It would mean her calculations were useless.

“So far the projected corridor is holding,” Jinx reassured from the Science station. “We might be able to nudge things to keep them away with the tractor beam if they’re this degraded. Or we could polarize the hull. If we’re very careful, we could keep them from bumping into each other.”

“Risky. I like it,” Danica spoke from the Ranger’s ship. “Might cause some close detonations, but if we pull the shields in very tight we might only get a bit of rocky turbulence rather than a hull breach.”

"You always like risky," Taev remarked dryly. "Personally, I'll take slow, steady, and safe."

“YOLO,” Danica said with a grin.

“No,” Indigo commented before anyone else could as she tried to concentrate. “We are not attempting it, and as I’m driver, we definitely are not,” she added with a hiss as the mine revealed was far too close for comfort.

"The reason we brought them here was because they are able to do what we cannot," Kaylin reminded them. "Hold relative position on their stern. With luck, the Mary Rose will shield us from any of the more damaging mines."

"Man hands," Eden complained. "Makes my piloting substandard," she replied grumpily. Which was quite unusual. Eden was generally pretty chipper about everything.

"You are doing so well," Dixoho soothed softly. She was finding it a bit different from Cami's body, but it had to be tough when Gregnol was just so big.

“Hold on, Rangers!” Jinx warned. She activated the tractor beam controls to latch onto the mine that had spooked Indigo, easing it gently away from proximity to the Fenris Ranger’s hull. “Got it. You’re clear,” Avalon’s voice said.

Indigo said nothing as she concentrated on listening to her captain and the other ship. It was far easier than she had anticipated getting into the zone of trying to weave in and out of a potential mine's path. "It is like playing a big old game of battleship," she whispered to herself.

"Romulan chess," Taev corrected, vulcanoid hearing having picked up on the remark. "The version where all the pawns and knights are cloaked."

"Games are for children," Kaylin retorted, remaining in almost military seriousness for this part of their mission. "Focus on not being obliterated by this minefield, and keep scanning for the Wanderer."

"I am," Indigo snarked back as she rolled her eyes. She had her mind on the minefield. For once she was trying to be serious, trying to keep them all alive despite the minefield wanting the opposite.

“I might have something,” Danica said, squinting at her screen. “Maybe residual traces of their ion trail.”

“Someone check that if you think you have,” Dixoho said from the other vessel before muting the call as she watched Eden intently. She had never seen Gregnol look so intent or even at the helm console before; it was amusing. If it had been any other situation she would have spoken up and teased, but Eden did not need it.

“Double checking,” Jinx said. “Definitely could be a ship trail.” She marked it up on the viewscreen.

"Ooooo, can we follow it?" Eden replied, almost eager to do loop de loops on the way there just for something interesting to do and to distract her from their current predicament.

Gregnol came back on the bridge just to hear Eden say something that sounded so out of character for himself he looked around and found everyone else looking just as flummoxed as he did. "Follow what?" he demanded, stuffing the gauntlet he had from Michael into his pocket so no one else would see or comment on it. He needed everyone focused on saving people instead of the man lying in sickbay. He always had such good timing to throw things into disarray.

"We may have found the refugee ship's trail," Liha said by way of report, but tried to make it sound more like Jake filling in his girlfriend. "I think we should be able to enhance what we have.” She tapped the comm. "Burnie, can you get Cassie to tune the sensor range to key on the readings I'm sending?"

There was a brief pause as Burnie reset the necessary parameters and boosted power to the array. "All set," he answered in Cassie's voice, grateful Liha had provided that option. "Burnie says enhancing that any further will require pulling power from the shields."

Gregnol looked at Eden, expecting her to speak up to organise the mess. “I am guessing we will not be doing that, Captain?” he wondered.

"No, no, this is good enough. I can follow a trail with my nose," Eden said, teasing Gregnol a little bit. She was in a much better mood now that she was behind the controls.

Gregnol stared back and shrugged. “Go then,” he said, hoping Dixoho could adjust quickly enough as she announced to the rangers that they were going to follow the trail, as it was the best lead so far.

"We follow your lead, Mary Rose," came the response from the Thrai. "So long as we all live, of course."

"Yay!" Eden said enthusiastically and started hitting controls with wild abandon. The ship lurched forward and away they went.

“They seem to have found a thinner patch,” Jinx reported. “The mines here are more stable, and farther apart. Even a few places where maybe something detonated a few. That would definitely be where I would head if I found myself in a minefield.”

The captain looked at the screen watching as some space debris slid by them out of sight. "Let's just hope it was not the ship that detonated them," Gregnol said, wishing Eden would not say things like “Yay!” in his body. He looked ridiculous saying it, and he was sure he was never going to shake the image of it out of his head.

"I'm not reading ship debris, at least not of size to indicate they've been compromised," Liha reported. "No distress signals, though that may just be because they're afraid of drawing something worse than mines out here. Thrai, can you hail them?"

"Active scans are running. No answer to hails at the moment, but we might have something on the fringe of our range. Could be a larger object, worth investigating," the Rangers responded.

Danica confirmed. “All debris here is old. Looks like the remains of whatever initially blew the mines, and probably caromed into a few others, not our ship. I am definitely getting readings indicating that large object is a ship, parked right in the open safe space. Safe for now.”

“I have it too. It’s an hour away at this rate but I have it.” Dixoho confirmed to the rangers as the object appeared on her scan. “I have that area in our map. Eden I’m sending it to you.” She said feeling elated that they might have found the ship. Time would tell now it seemed.

"Okie Dokie," Eden replied happily in her element for the first time in a while.