Lost In The Mine Field MISSION START

Posted on Sat Aug 15th, 2020 @ 5:07pm by Captain Rueben Gregnol & Executive Officer Jake Ford & Chief Engineer Michael Burnstein

Mission: Mission 12 - Railway
Location: Kilhranen mine field
Timeline: MD -01 16:00
1242 words - 2.5 OF Standard Post Measure

Light blue, long wavy hair hangs over a handsome, cheerful face. Glinting aquamarine eyes, set handsomely within their sockets, watched warmly over the console that she was meant to be watching. Soft skin gorgeously compliments her eyes and mouth and leaves many people wondering what she was doing one Fenris Ranger ship among people that were so different from herself. But as her mother had always told her, you go where you can make a difference and as a stellar cartographer, she was a boon to any ship at the moment with shifting mine fields and things just not where they were meant to be anymore.

“Nothing is coming up on any of our sensors for the Eiyyaenen'vnu Commander. No ships are out there.” Indigo murmured into the gloomy silence.

Kaylin Jaal was poised and calm, her posture perfect and graceful as she glared at the viewscreen and almost dared it to conceal their quarry. Her dark hair, once short and cropped to meet Galae standards, now cascaded over her shoulders. She moved a hand to push it out of her eyeline.

"Ships do not just disappear." On the contrary, she thought to herself, where the Tal Shiar was concerned, ships very much could disappear. And would. That was her gravest concern. "Find them."

Taev Mhirrok's hands glided over the sensor array. If they'd received the Thrai's signal, there was no reason for them to be cloaked - or so he devoutly hoped. A cloaked Tal'Shiar lying in wait here would make things ...challenging. However, a finer scan for traces of a cloak, and more specifically the absence of any trace that a cloaked snakehead created, leaving a blackhole in stellar background noise, was nowhere to be seen.

Looking at the level brought up another possibility though. "I'm detecting evidence of an ion storm roughly 16 hours ago. It seems to have displaced some of the mines, and there are remnants of a propulsion trail," he frowned looking at viewscreen showing seemingly empty space, "about 300 k'vahru past the border of the mine field."

Indigo frowned and brought up the star mapping system on her own console, her blue eyes looking over it all as she tried to calculate it all. "They really have got blown off course if they are that far." The woman muttered as she tried to see where Eiyyaenen'vnu could have gone. "You don't suppose they got confused in the ion storm and went in there do you?"

"Few would do so on purpose," Kaylin responded. "Eiyyaenen'vnu is barely a low-warp hauler. Their navigational systems were likely considerably substandard compared to what we are used to." She leaned back in her center chair. "If they have gone in there, for whatever reason, then we may need assistance in tracking them down."

"Agreed," Taev said. "A second sensory array would help with cross plotting, but once we locate them," providing they're in one piece, he thought to himself, "if the ship is damaged, which seems likely, we're going to need a larger one to help take on survivors."

"Yeah I am not sharing my bed any more than I need to," Indigo said with a smirk as she just stared at the star mapping system. Who would be able to help them this far from the main Federation worlds? It was not like they had cared previously when everything had gone wrong and they refused to help. "Anyone have any friends in low places this far from anywhere with some class?"

"Not many," Kaylin answered. "The rest of the Rangers are too spread out to help - not that any of them are remotely equipped for this." Which left the Federation - almost certainly not going to happen - or an independent. And not many had a cruiser-sized ship... "t'Ehhelih?" she wondered aloud. "Taev - didn't you say you had an old Galae friend running around on an old human ship out this way?"

"Hmm...," Taev smiled a little. Liha might or might not be feeling friendly, but he wouldn't mind an excuse to find out. And he was sure she would want to help refugees. "Yeah, she's on a merchant vessel, Mary Rose. I can see if they're in the area, and if she can get the Captain to agree."

"I've heard rumours about that ship." Indigo piped up knowing they did not care about rumours but she hated the strained silence that descended if she did not keep a conversation going. The rest of the crew did not keep up with the gossip that passed through ships when they docked together or when they got home to Freecloud.

"Liha hasn't been there very long, and she's not the chatty type," Taev said. "So I haven't heard any. Last note I got from her was warning to keep an eye out for Sons of Charon because they'd heisted a salvage Starfleet ship job right out from under her crew."

Indigo said nothing on the Sons of Charon. She knew who they were far to well and why she had ended up helping the Fenris Rangers with her memory instead of them. "Are any of you surprised they did that?" She wondered before shrugging. "How far are they out from us?" She wondered thoughtfully thinking on what the ship would be doing out here in the middle of nowhere.

Taev brought up a listing of ships within range, and then expanded it slightly. After moment he nodded and pointed to a marker. "There - SS Mary Rose and depending on what warp the old girl had handle, she could be here within a day, two at most."

"Make the call," Kaylin shrugged. "We have brothers and sisters out there at great risk, and I don't want them lost because we were too slow to get them help, Human or no."

"Nothing wrong with a little human boss." Indigo piped up with a roll of her eyes. Not all of them were bad, just like any other species. Some were out there fighting the good fight where and when they could.

Taev moved to the comm station. It didn't afford much in the way of privacy, but this was a business call after all. "Taev Mhirrok of the Thrai to Liha Itheil on Mary Rose, please acknowledge."

He waited for two beats, three... the silence stretched longer than subspace delay could account for. "Liha, this is business, please respond."

++ "You might have said that to begin with. And I haven't use Itheil since I left - ours comms was confused where to route you. Now, what is it?" ++

There were a couple snickers at that less-than-thrilled reply, but Taev smiled at the tone - just as he remembered her. "We were supposed to make a pick up, but the ship seems to have gotten blown into the Kilhranen mine field by an ion storm. Can you assist in recovery?"

Two beats, during which he sincerely hoped she was getting an nod from her CO rather planning a hijack, but the reply was firm. ++ Yes. Send your coordinates. We'll make best time. ++

"Sending now. Khnai'ra, Liha. Y'hhau," Taev replied, closing the comm. "They'll come, though judging by her tone, even she isn't sure what 'best time' that ship can manage," he told the others, silently praying that the age of the ship was the only issue.


OOC-Becca: Perfect ending there.