Goodbye Temperance MISSION END

Posted on Mon Mar 2nd, 2020 @ 3:42pm by Captain Rueben Gregnol & Executive Officer Valiyi Uhin & Fordyce Kirschler PhD & Chief Engineer Michael Burnstein & Chief Helmsman Eden Bowers & Executive Officer Jake Ford

Mission: Mission 10 - Temperance
Location: Deck 1 - Main Bridge
Timeline: MD14 03:00
1679 words - 3.4 OF Standard Post Measure

It was not often that Gregnol was pulled from sleep to the point he was knocked out of bed and the lighting going automatically to emergency lighting but there he lay for a few seconds trying to figure out what was happening.

“They are stealing the ship.” A voice yelled through his quarters making the man dive up from the floor grabbing some trousers as Jeassaho moved at the same speed and was chucking on a coverall as the worried voice sounded through his quarters. “You are never going to believe what has just happened here, sir.” The male voice said concerned as alarms sound through the comms system. Gregnol was sure that he was not going to believe and he still did not as he arrived on the bridge and saw the damage on the screen for himself.

“They just pulled the ship away destroying the evacuation corridors Sir.” The woman stood at the operations console confirmed as a large piece floated past the view screen confirming more than words ever could.

“Who is still on the ship?” Gregnol asked a sinking feeling creeping up from his stomach that the people they had discovered were pulling the greatest move they could. He had made sure that the ship had security onboard at all times. So what had gone so badly wrong and where was the crew that had been onboard Temperance

"No there are four stationary biosignatures just outside the corridor airlocks." He turned as several of the senior crew finally arrived having stumbled from sleep just like he had.

Valiyi shuffled in, having just enough time to throw on her typical garments, save for a pair of fuzzy purple slippers, brow knit in concern. She thought the worst, that all three ships were about to get sent down a space-time vortex and they would find themselves in yet another reality-bending mishap. But her fears of that were assuaged when she caught the end of the report. "I believe the last count of our crew was that everyone was present and accounted for."

Dr. Kirschler showed up looking like the walking equivalent of the evacuation corridors. By custom, he'd had a bit to drink the night prior and anticipated another four hours of sleep to let his body deal with it. Interrupting the process had some unpleasant side effects, namely looking like shit and having a low tolerance for loud noises and bright lights.

"I knew we shoulda shot 'em when we had the chance," muttered Ford as he took the Ops station. Totally ignoring the fact that he benefitted from just that, he further opined, "You can't trust strangers in space."

"Preaching to the choir," Jake added, nodding at the sentiment. "I left a couple of guys by the airlock last night. I thought they were supposed to be watching our friends over there..." He scowled a little; maybe next time he'd have gotten Leidden or Ryder to take that job instead of some of the less 'competent' people.

"Bring up the airlock camera," Gregnol growled at anyone who would listen and do as requested. The viewscreen changed to that of four people lying unconscious on the floor piled on top of each other. "Thet drugged them." He hissed seeing the group obviously drugged.

"I knew I should have rigged remote detonate into that warp core..." Burnie growled under his breath as he took the engineering station. "And probably planted something on that shuttle."

Eden, who had been sound asleep when everything started, reported to the bridge mostly dressed and she was pulling her hair up as she sat down at the conn. She was listening to everything as she came in. So the other people hadn't been that nice after all.

"Get me a communication connection to that ship." Gregnol was less than impressed and even with sleep deprivation, he was going through processes in his mind. "Ona what do you think you are doing?" He said calming.

"Taking what's rightfully ours," Ona said simply, just as calmly. "Don't worry about it too much. Your men will awaken, it's not much loss to you."

"It is not yours. You were sneaky in what you have done whilst we have been working away." Gregnol countered feeling his temper rising at the woman's sheer outrageous that would consider doing that when he had been more than willing to come to a better agreement.

"It was, you just didn't know it. This has been planned for some time, you happened to get in the way. Honestly, it worked out better this way as it's running better than ever."

"...yep, shoulda added a trigger to eject the warp cores..." Burnie muttered, mentally designing a deadman switch based on proximity for any such future situations.

Gregnol moved over to the communication console and cut the connection himself. He did not have the patience to listen to the woman anymore.

"What are the odds they fixed the prefix code?" Jake asked aloud. He knew that Gregnol at least had some Starfleet connections still. Was a long shot, but a possibility.

Valiyi quietly watched on, expression calm as ever. She rested a hand on Reuben's shoulder, leaning over to whisper into his ear. "This might be a little bigger than us. Should this be something we want to get in the middle of?"

"We need that ship. This one's backbone is only one bad accident from breaking." Gregnol said softly feeling the righteous anger in him only rising as he looked at Uhin whispering back at her. "Find out the odds Jake." The Captain moved away from his first mate.

Jake tapped at the tactical panel for a few seconds, drawing up the relevant connections. "Well, I can link into their main computer, but I don't have the prefix code for a ship like that; and ours definitely won't have a record. So unless anyone here is hiding some more recent Starfleet codes they're not telling us about..." he sighed. "We're stuck."

Dr. Kirschler stood still and tried not to look too conspicuous. He might have had some codes on the Couronne's computer, but he doubted they'd have helped. Plus, he didn't want to make himself a more suspicious figure than he probably already was at the moment. It was bad enough he'd shown up when he did; having some command codes sitting around would have made it significantly worse. Too many coincidences in too short a time span drew too much attention.

"Have they raised their shields?" asked Ford. He thought the XO had a good point about minding their own business, but the less scrupulous part of himself saw a nicer bed and the promise of more lucrative contracts flying away. "We can always shoot to disable."

"A century-old cruiser against a twenty-year-old one?" Jake replied. "It's a nice idea, but we're not exactly top-of-the-line here. If they decided to shoot back..." He made a motion across his throat to indicate how badly that would turn out for them.

"Not necessarily," Burnie put in. "I mean, give me some credit - I brought over all the torpedoes and power packs from the phasers. Not that there was much left. That ship went down fighting, using everything she had."

Gregnol wanted to say something like atta boy but it would not come out of his lips as the USS Temperance started to move. Gregnol turned and looked at the Flight Control console and barked out a quick "Follow it." But nothing happened, the ship stayed silently. "Why aren't we moving?"

"Helm's not responding. I know what it is," Eden looked as if she fell out of her chair but was only opening the side panel to work on it quickly. It didn't seem to work however and she stood up and kicked it in frustration. The console exploded, sending her flying backwards. She fell like dead weight, hitting her head on the seat behind her and didn't move.

"Eden!" Jake leapt from his post without even thinking about it, grabbing hold of her before she fell out of her seat. "Someone call a medic! Get Doc Sarratt up here or something!"

Burnie dashed toward the helm too, but his concern was the console. Grabbing an extinguisher, he put out the last flames and knelt down to assess the damage. "Not as bad as it looks," he pronounced, reaching in to bypass the fried circuit.

There was a brief hum, then ...nothing.

Frowning, Burnie re-examined the connection. "Something beyond this is wrong. The engines should be engaging."

As if the other ship knew they were not going to follow them the Temperance engaged warp and the ship was rocked for a moment from the close proximity of it happening.

Gregnol surveyed the scene that had just exploded out of nowhere in front of him and frown, several curse words escaping his lips. They would have meant nothing to people around him unless they understood Russian. "Burnie... Kirschler sort it out." He said through gritted teeth as a few Medical personnel appeared to sort out Eden.

Ford started to ask what the hell he wanted him to do about it, but he remembered his new position before he opened his mouth. His first theory was that this flying junk heap had finally stopped working. Maybe the warp core just couldn't take it anymore. Maybe the power distribution systems were tired. Or maybe someone somewhere didn't do their job. (Hopefully, it wasn't him.)

"Reckon we oughta head down to engineering then," said Ford, casting a look to Burnie at what was left of the conn.

"Yes." Burnie puffed a frustrated breath. "Nothing more we can do here anyway."

OFF::

Michael Burnstein
Chief Engineer
SS Mary Rose

Rueben Gregnol
Captain
SS Mary Rose

Eden Bowers
Chief Helmsman
SS Mary Rose

Jake Ford
Chief Armoury Officer
SS Mary Rose

Valiyi Uhin
First Mate
SS Mary Rose

Dr. Fordyce Kirschler
Chief of Operations
SS Mary Rose