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Topic: Day 26 [0930 hrs.] A Freighter Alone (Read 8984 times) previous topic - next topic
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Re: Day 26 [0930 hrs.] A Freighter Alone

Reply #25 –
Lt Tyreke Okafor| Space | Freighter | Epsilon Mynos System ] Attn: @Nero
Tyreke hit his communicator. He scanned with his tricoder one more time before setting the download sequence. The remainder of the engineering team was scattered across the ship. "LT, there are still a half dozen engineers around this ship. They're moving to you. I'm working on completing the downloading of the data core. Every second will give Theurgy much needed intelligence. Keep a transporter lock on me. While this is downloading, I'll try to find the core ejection system, if there is one."

Tyreke realized that he was risking his life for perhaps nothing crucial to Theurgy, but his recent conversations with the engineering teams made him cautious when it came to the power distribution issues aboard the multi-vectored ship. The stabliization of that problem was the gateway to so many potential technologies that Theurgy could explore, to say nothing about the shield harmonics research he'd already conducted. It might be the difference between survival and the hull being crushed. Tyreke thought to risk it.

As the power in the main reactor core continued to rise, Tyreke hit his combadge again. "LT. I think I've found the reactor ejection system. Do I have time to engage it? My tricoder's badwidth is being expended in the full download of the core... I can't get a good reading."

Re: Day 26 [0930 hrs.] A Freighter Alone

Reply #26 –
[Lt. JG Logan Hale, callsign "Wraith"| Cockpit | Shuttle Type-11 | Epsilon Mynos System ] Attn: @Elaurianpaladin
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Logan cursed loudly. There were still at least six people aboard the freighter. That meant it would take them longer than he thought. They wouldn't make it to the airlock in time. He looked at the scientist next to him who was in charge of transporting the people. But he just shook his head.
"Damn it!" he repeated.

The pilot was running out of ideas. Ejecting the core was a good way to buy some time, but the wave of destruction would still take a heavy toll on the freighter. Logan thought. Seconds suddenly felt like minutes, and each additional moment was half a lifetime to his perception.
"How much longer?" he asked his new co-pilot.
"About one-thirty."
"Okay. Eject, Tyreke. I've got an idea."

Logan put his hands on the controls of the Type 11 shuttle. He directed it slightly away from the freighter. His readouts told him the core was on its way. That would only buy a few seconds, maybe, but every bit helped now.
"We may be able to scan and beam through the hull now, but still the cloak is strong enough to cause interference and slow down the detection of life signs."
He asked his passengers to fasten their seat belts.
"I'm going to fly an attack on the freighter. The more we can remove from the hull, the easier we should be able to detect our people. At least in theory. Also, I'll try to buy us some more time by using the shuttle's tractor beam to capture the core and move it farther away from the freighter."

He did not wait for confirmation, but immediately began his approach. Logan armed the weapons. Now it was all a matter of his reflexes. He steered the shuttle, which was sluggish compared to his Valravn, past the freighter in a tight pass, carefully trying not to hit vital areas of the ship. The orange-red lances of phaser fire streaked across the cloaked transporter's hull surface, melting the outer hull wherever it was hit.
"It's working!" he heard someone on the away team call out. "I'm picking up the signals more clearly now. Don't stop, Lieutenant."
Logan didn't think about it, but ordered the tractor beam ready and triggered it on his command. He adjusted his flight vector and left the lower hull behind at the same moment the core exited the ship. From the rear of the Type-11, Logan heard two more members of the away team materialize.

"Now!" he yelled. A powerful jolt went through the shuttle and shortly thereafter he heard confirmation that the core had been captured and was now suspended in the tractor beam. The two newly arrived scientists, however, searched in vain for a foothold and were thrown to the ground. However, they quickly managed to pick themselves up and let the pilot do his work. Logan regulated the shuttle's thrust to full and set course for the outer limit of this pocket in the asteroid field. He felt the engines working and felt the resulting vibrations throughout his body.
"Keep it up. Tyreke, I'll buy you as much time as I can."
A quick glance at the clock told him that wasn't much now. Just a few more seconds, and the core would collapse. They had to throw it out of the tractor beam now, or they would perish with it.

Logan ordered the beam to be cut, and his plan seemed to work. The shuttle had accelerated the core and thrown it toward the asteroids. With each passing moment, the distance to the freighter increased. Destroying the core would still catch and destroy the ship, but they had gained valuable time. Logan brought the shuttle back closer to the freighter and positioned it so they could use the freighter as cover.
"Tyreke, tell me you've completed the download."

Re: Day 26 [0930 hrs.] A Freighter Alone

Reply #27 –
Lt Tyreke Okafor| Space | Freighter | Epsilon Mynos System ] Attn: @Nero

“I’ve got it!” Tyreke shouted as he started rushing for the opening. He leapt over a fallen bulkhead as the freighter began to rattle with secondary explosions. “Get me last, Lieutenant! The other techs are scattered on the starboard side. I’ll head to the singularity core and see if I can buy you some time.”

Engineering wasn’t Tyreke’s specialty, but he’d dabbled in it some for the past few months. Enough to know his way around warp harmonics and dilithium resonances. The singularity core was something else entirely though.

As he made it to the engineering consoles he started scanning through the various menus and frequencies. The Romulan design had one absolute flaw: once the core was active, it could not be shut down conventionally. A warp core ejection module was unnecessary... and ultimately futile.

There... the power relays again. Their design let massive amounts of energy slip through. The structural integrity on the ship was rudimentary, but altering the harmonics would allow that energy to cascade into the hull, hopefully giving them just a few more minutes.

“Lt, I hope you’re good with that transporter, I managed to reinforce the structural integrity fields with the energy from the main drive and the cloak, but that won’t buy us much time. This ship is coming down in the next four minutes!”

Re: Day 26 [0930 hrs.] A Freighter Alone

Reply #28 –
[Lt. JG Logan Hale, callsign "Wraith"| Cockpit | Shuttle Type-11 | Epsilon Mynos System ] Attn: @Elaurianpaladin
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He exhaled in relief when he heard from Tyreke that he was able to recover the data and shook his fist briefly. They were not out of danger yet, however. Logan flew the next attack to scrape off more of the paint so his passengers would have an easier time locating the signals from the troops remaining on the freighter's starboard side.
"Sir, we need to strafe this section! I'm picking up several signals, but I can't pinpoint them."
"Copy that.", Logan acknowledged the scientist's request and opened fire as instructed. The phaser beams streaked across the freighter's hull, scraping away a portion of the outer hull that was interfering with the detection of the signals emitted by the Combadges.
"How's it looking?"
"Better, lieutenant. I'm going to start beaming. Please hold position until I'm done."
"Okay, hurry up."
Logan looked over at the station from which the transporter was operated. The scientist there, was drenched in sweat and time was hanging on his neck. At any moment, the freighter could be destroyed, and they would all be affected.
The first people materialized in the back of the shuttle and made way for the next. Logan looked at the clock, which was a little more kind to the guys and gals on board thanks to Tyreke's recent communication. Still, there wasn't much time left. They beamed them out one by one. Some showed injuries caused by secondary explosions or had been buried by other debris. In all, Logan counted eight injured people who needed medical attention as soon as possible.
"Time's up, Tyreke. We've got everybody else on board." declared Logan, who wanted to leave the center of the action as quickly as possible. "We're getting you out now. Stand by to beam up."

Re: Day 26 [0930 hrs.] A Freighter Alone

Reply #29 –
Lt Tyreke Okafor| Space | Freighter | Epsilon Mynos System ] Attn: @Nero
Tyreke cursed as he rushed his way out towards the door way. He attempted to put some distance betweeen himself and the engine systems which could interfere with a beam out. "I'm clear Lieutenant, the data has been successfully downloaded. Please get me the hell out of here." He said with a slight nervous laugh in his voice.

The hum of the transporter swirled around Tyreke. He let out a breath he'd been holding when he LT. told him that the rest of the team had made it out successfully. It was his real concern that he'd lose them. The Science Officer lost people before. On Bajor, on Deep Space Nine. It was never easy, and he had mostly been able to move past seeing their faces every night before he went to sleep. Mostly. That was the price of command, and why he wasn't upset to stay in the science division. The nightmares that the command staff would have to endure for every wrong decision... it might have been too much. Maybe someday, but not today.

As he materialized in the Shuttle, he pulled his helmet off and took a seat. "Lt. Logan, I presume?" he said with a small chuckle. "I believe I owe you a drink, my friend."

Re: Day 26 [0930 hrs.] A Freighter Alone

Reply #30 –
[Lt. JG Logan Hale, callsign "Wraith"| Cockpit | Shuttle Type-11 | Epsilon Mynos System ] Attn: @Elaurianpaladin
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When the scientist next to him confirmed that the beam operation was complete and Tyreke was aboard the shuttle, the pilot wasted no time. He steered the shuttle on a direct path out of the asteroid belt, hoping not to get caught in the blast wave of the explosion. Logan tried to avoid the stony chunks as best he could, and the shuttle would allow. He had to adjust course hard and fast a couple of times, which caused his passengers to quickly find a place to buckle up. Logan couldn't take them into consideration. At least not if he wanted them all to make it out of this precarious situation alive.
They were just diving into the shadows of a larger rock when the computer registered a violent explosion that sent out a devastating blast wave. Only a few microseconds later, however, the shock wave changed direction and rolled back to its origin. The core of the freighter, whose propulsion system was a singularity, imploded. A suction effect was created, and Logan was now forced to dodge the rocks in another dimension. He relied on his instincts. The movements came smoothly from his hand and after a few really hairy moments he managed to maneuver the Type-11 shuttle out of the asteroid field in one piece. Logan laughed in relief.
On the monitors, his passengers could watch as the once-mighty freighter collapsed into the singularity. Entire sections of the ship were folded over like paper under almost unimaginable pressure and compressed further and further. The suction attracted the surrounding boulders, which simply broke apart in the black hole's sphere of influence and ground into dust that also crossed the event horizon. Within moments, the entire spectacle had ended and the singularity itself had disintegrated.
Logan made sure the shuttle and its crew were out of danger when Tyreke Okafor approached him and guessed correctly who he was looking at. Logan nodded.
"Correct, my friend. I'm looking forward to the cold blonde."
He smiled. "Glad to see you're all doing well. I hope the trip was worth it."
Without waiting for a reply, he programmed a course back to the Theurgy. He surely needed some rest and a good, cold beer now.

--FIN--
 
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