Enter Starbase 616

Posted on Wed Jan 19th, 2022 @ 2:04pm by Lieutenant Commander Lochlan Noir [GM] & Lieutenant Nikolai Andropov [Adoptable] & Lieutenant JG Corus Sprint [GM] & Lieutenant JG Jem Lockley [GM] & Ensign Qaylan Furlong [Adoptable][GM] & Game Master & Lieutenant JG Ralph Furlong [Adoptable] & Ensign Anastasia Targus [Adoptable]
Edited on on Fri Jul 5th, 2024 @ 4:07pm

3,078 words; about a 15 minute read

Mission: Interdimensional Archives
Location: Where Starbase 219 Should Be, 1 Lightyear From Beta Circini
Timeline: After "A Day In The Life..."

on

USS Righteous Bridge

They were about 5 minutes away from Starbase 219 when Lieutenant JG Ralph Furlong, helmsman at the time murmured loud enough that everyone heard. "What the hell!" He then tapped at the helm in practiced combinations. He seemed to get more confused after every cycle that he had the sequence. "That's not right," he said finally.

Lieutenant Commander Lochlan Noir sighed at the Captain's chair, stood, then walked over to the helm. "Problem Lieutenant?"

"Starbase 219's navigational beacon is no longer broadcasting sir and we are about 3.5 minutes away from where the last time I had been able to ping it." Ralph explained his confusion but now he was a little apprehensive. Though he had the common sense to immediately activate a timer on his console.

The several reasons why a starbase's beacon wouldn't be continuously transmitting are; it got turned off, it is being blocked, the starbase has lost power or it has been destroyed and each was worse then the one before it. Lochlan looked at the timer and the sensor log Ralph had open in one of the display's windows. Indeed the beacon vanished and the words signal lost continued to flash afterwards.

"Orders sir?" Ralph asked then glanced up to his superior.

"Continue as planned, we will investigate." Lock stated and watched the stars fly passed on the viewscreen.

Nik came to his side. "We have a number of personnel from Starbase 219, they may start to panic."

"They are Starfleet officers." Lock said firmly, it is something that he has begun to say which most Starfleet officers know means that they will be professionals at all times and not give into fear. "See if you can hail them."

After an 'aye' came from Nikolai, he went to Ops and ordered for a few discreet hails to be sent to Starbase 219.

It just hit Lochlan that Ralph's son Qaylan was at the Operations console and a half smile appeared on his face. Qaylan however had a frown on his face as he glanced back at Nikolai. "No response sir," the Boatswain reported, "though sensors do say that something is there but a lot of chroniton," he said a little too loud in surprise then quickly continued. "Interference is messing with deeper scans."

"Chronitons," Lock echoed softly and he frowned more. That was not good.

"Dropping out of warp in 4... 3... 2... 1..." Ralph announced and the starfield went back into a starscape with what should be Starbase 219 sitting in the middle of the viewscreen but it wasn't.

Lochlan couldn't make out many details. "Magnify," he called.

"Aye," Qaylan answered and the viewscreen narrowed and pulled what was there closer. It definitely looked like it was Starfleet but it was an older design, Lochlan suddenly noticed the battle damage and several hull breaches. Though he could see there were forcefields shimmering behind the breaches.

"Looks like they were attacked, hard, though breaches are only on this side of the station." Corus Sprint announced, he could tell he had scared just about everyone as there had been a silence before he'd spoken.

Lochlan then realised he was Betazoid and opened his senses up to the station to see if he could get a read on anyone onboard. While there were a few, and he'd nearly overlooked them, they must be in Stasis but no others. Strange, Loahlan mused. "Alright everyone, thoughts, recommendations?" He called.

Dae came off the turbolift in a rush. Once he'd been assigned to the Righteous as the acting security chief, he made sure to implement a system where alerts were sent to his PaDD. It was a function designed to keep him informed of important events since he preferred to allow others to work the Bridge tactical shifts. Which is how he was informed about the strange occurrence where Starbase 219 failed to respond to standard hails.

"What's going on?" he asked Corus as he made his way to the tactical station, but his eyes were drawn to the viewscreen and the old style station displayed there.

The Kobliad Master-at-arms turned to Dae, he frowned. "That isn't Starbase 219, it's gone, as far as sensors can tell." Corus explained which carried to the rest on the bridge.

"It seems that the chroniton readings are still present but diminishing rapidly and I mean fast." This statement came from another Betazoid, science officer Lieutenant JG Jem Lockley.

"Is there anything coming from the station?" Lock asked as Corus vacated the tactical station so Dae can man it.

Jem was tapping at her console with slow nodding but then called out. "No, it seems the chronitons are only surrounding the station. I'm not detecting any signs of active systems apart from the tiny amount dedicated to life support and..." she trailed off as she confirmed the readings. "There are many in stasis Captain," Jem finished.

"Thank you Lieutenant, it seems like the only thing to do is dock and explore." Lock declared as he turned around to return to his chair. "Thoughts, comments?" He asked as he approached the command chair, turned around than sat down.

“Well, i can tell you that’s a watchtower class station and further, they’re decommissioned. Out of service. Have been for some time,” Dae said as he ran the tactical panel. “Twenty five-ish years ago, when I was just wee gleam of a security recruit, one of my first assignments was on one of the last stations to be put out of service. I got pretty familiar with - what in the unholy fish slap?”

He stared at his display for a few moments before looking up. “Sorry, Captain, but I’ve just ran a quantum scan, because of all the chroniton particles. That station is active. Powered up, but most systems are...inaccessible. Weapons are off line, life support active but minimal, no active life signs. Computer is locked down so I can’t access the core or database on it. Most internal systems read passive. But there are security fields all over the place but they seem to be blocking off everything but the stasis pods and…” he checked his readings again, just to be sure. “And it’s from another universe. Quantum signature confirms that it’s not from our universe.”

Dae stared at the station on the screen. “I recommend extreme caution, Captain.”

"From another universe you say," Lock said excited, now he had to go and explore the interior. He stood and went over to Ops, weapons indeed are offline and life support at minimal levels as Qaylon confirmed both with a nod when Lochlan asked not that he didn't trust Dae's report. Chronitons were famous for screwing with sensor readings and perhaps giving other universal information instead of what should be in their universe and or timeline.

So if they approached and docked, they wouldn't be attacked as far as they could tell and they can't just leave those aboard in stasis. Lochlan just registered a particular thing Dae said as he replayed the Acting Chief of Security's report, "unholy fish slap," he repeated with a glance over at tactical with one eyebrow raised.

"A most humiliating form of punishment and dishonor, Captain," Dae said. "It's a little known fact that the Breen wear their helmets because their leader was once slapped by a Kaerdallian trout. He was so humiliated that he could never show his face again."

Dae kept an entirely serious and straight face. "Suffice to say, piss off an old Finnish grandmother and you start a centuries long galactic incident." He continued running scans and, anticipating Noir's orders, began alerting Beta to report for duty while waking Gamma to go on standby.

That went in a completely strange direction Lochlan mused as he simply stared at Dae. "You are joking right? About the Breen I mean."

"That's the story my Finnish grandmother told me," Dae said with a shit eating grin, "and after a story like that, I wasn't about to risk angering her."

"Noted, indeed it is never a good idea to anger one's grandmother." Lock replied and being a Betazoid, considering their culture and society was matriarchically lead, that held more weight for Lochlan and any other male Betazoid.

With that odd exchange over and the decision made Lochlan walked back to the center of the bridge. =/\="Attention all hands, we have arrived, unfortunately Starbase 219 is not here. I'm sorry to all those aboard who were hoping to return to or had other travel plans involving 219. We have however found a Watchtower class station from another universe in Starbase 219's place. It seems in lockdown mode and no active life signs, we will dock and Alpha shift to come aboard with me, we may need a quick escape so Beta shift keep the ship on standby. Noir out."=/\= Lock announced and turned around the bridge. "Extreme caution people, Ops send our basic emergency docking codes, if they are anything like our Watchtowers the computer should recognize the emergency part of it. Security, have all Alpha shift geared up with standard away team equipment. Helm take us in once it opens the space doors and dock at whichever bay it assigns us. =/\=Bridge to Sickbay, there are people in stasis, please bring equipment for them ready to go.=/\="

=/\="Sickbay here, understood Captain, Quint out."=/\= A gruntish sigh was cut off from the channel being closed.

Lochlan smiled, Doctor Thaddeus Quint was always a grumpy man even at the best of times. He wasn't sure why he was like this, Lochlan hoped one day Thaddeus would open up about it. Maybe he has told Biraka? The two seem to be friends.

"Captain, the station's computer accepted the codes," Qaylan announced with excitement and surprise as if he didn't think it would work. "The doors facing us are opening."

A sound of surprise came from Ralph. "Captain, the station's computer has also provided a flight path to bay 4, I'm reading another ship inside. Constitution-class according to our database, it too seems in lockdown and only minimal power... What the... It's shields are up but docked." The helmsman reported as he got the Righteous moving on impulse into the docking area.

"Captain, are we disregarding General Order Fifteen?" Dae asked, sounding as if he were giving a perfunctory greeting.

"I'm not a flag officer, I'm not even ranked Captain." Lock replied, "so fifteen doesn't apply here." He grinned then turned back and walked over to the Helm. "A Constitution docked with its shields up?"

"Sprint, with me, " Dae said as he required the station for a Beta shift operator to take over. "And the GO 15 applies to anyone in command of a starship," he muttered to himself under his breath. It would be a hill he'd stand to defend in other circumstances and see if he could raise his total score of enforcing General Order 15 to away team happy commanding officers. So far his score, if he calculated it correctly would be about a billion to two. Not in his favor. But they were going inside the station, into a docking bay, so it seemed a bit redundant to argue safety in this case.

Corus smiled as he, like the Captain, wanted to explore the station. "Aye sir," he replied and wondered what they'd find over there. It would take a little time to dock, with extreme caution, so it wasn't any point heading down to the airlock yet.

"Yes sir, the Constitution is docked but its shields are active." Ralph confirmed as he piloted the Righteous through the door and on half impulse followed the flight path to Bay 4. It was on the other side of the closest bay, that meant one of the large terminal structures would be between them and their entrance. Should the door close, they'd been trapped.

Lochlan had to take a moment to consider how that was possible, maybe a part of the docking umbilical can have a shield through it? Starfleet hasn't had the need to have shields up on a docked ship before so this was all new to them. "Is there anyone onboard the ship?" Lock asked Qaylan.

"I can't penetrate their shields, it has scattering properties to it as far as I can tell." Qaylan sounded annoyed with the situation. Lochlan shared it but first things first.

"A problem for later, let's dock, explore and see about those in stasis then we can figure out what to do about the Constitution. Can you determine its name?" Lock asked.

Qaylan was surprised that they piece of information could be received through the scattering field. "Yes sir, it is the USS Intrepid NCC - 1631. Clearly this station is from an alternate universe as the Intrepid was destroyed in our universe in 2268," the younger Furlong reported after a quick database check.

"It does seem more advanced considering the scattering field and that it is a refit version of the old Constitution as the nacelles don't have the spinning buzzard collectors." Ralph jumped in as he turned the Righteous to line up with the docking terminal's ports. "Another 2 minutes at max Captain."

"Steady as we go Lieutenant." Lock replied understanding that maneuvering a starship is delicate process. "Yes that does seem to be the case. Okay sorry Ensign since you aren't part of Alpha shift you'll have to stay," Lochlan saw the young man sigh in disappointment but he remained facing the viewscreen.

The Righteous shook a little as it was locked into place and the station's umbilicals connected to their airlocks. Nothing bad happened immediately like Lochlan expected, he imagined the station's computer would shut down the ship's systems and lock them out.

=/\="Alpha shift to the airlocks, be prepare for anything."=/\= Lock announced as he called out for Ralph, Jem and Dae to join him.

"Captain permission to come along?" Nik asked from the secondary operations console, he was already on his way to the turbolift.

"But who will stay here in command?" Lock asked back though could tell that the Acting Executive Officer had a plan.

"I asked Lieutenant Commander Macklin Cain, stationed on 219 as Assistant Chief Science Officer, he was helping in the survey." Nik replied and as if on queue Cain exited the turbolift on the other side of the bridge. "Captain, Lieutenant, I'm here at your request to command the ship while you and alpha shift explore. I do wish to go with you but sadly I am not part of your crew. Though I somehow get the feeling that unless we figure out this situation I may be joining your crew." He said when he was standing at Lochlan's side.

Lochlan nodded. "Thank you Commander, we'll figure it out, the bridge is yours. No parties," he chuckled as the Alpha shift officers got onto the turbolift that just arrived. He saw Cain sigh but half smiled as the doors closed. "Airlock 2." Nik called and the lift sped off to the secondary hull where the terminal's umbilicals lined up with their airlocks.

"He's totally going to invite "a few friends over" and it's going to get out of hand and before you know it, when we get back, there'll be bologna slices stuck to the upper bulkhead of the Bridge." Dae muttered.

Lochlan chuckled, "I get the feeling that will be the least of our worries," he then recalled their chat about General Order 15. "Lieutenant I am not actually going alone like fifteen states, all of Alpha shift across the ship is boarding as well from all departments. Would you and a security team like to go aboard first?" He asked Dae with a grin.

"You are offering to let us go first into an unknown, potentially dangerous situation as is our job?" Dae asked, placing a hand on his chest across his heart. "Do we have time for me to pop by my quarters and change into a red shirt?" But just then the turbolift stopped and the doors opened. "Guess not, but I'll say this. I'm not cleaning bologna from the ceiling."

Petty Officer Garber and several other security officers met the turbolift. Garber carried a pulse phaser rifle for both Sprint and Dae, as well as hand phasers in holsters. "The rest are staged at the airlock, ready to make entry," he said primarily to Dae but also noticed the ship's captain and XO with them.

"Thank you," Lock said as he accepted a hand pistol, maybe tricorders will be at the airlock. He lead those from the bridge towards the airlock. Once they arrived, everyone received a tricorder and Lochlan could see both doctors, nurses and engineers with kits along with anti-grav gurneys and other equipment as requested. He moved to the airlock door, "okay everyone, Security will secure the immediate area and then we will follow. Be careful, do not pass any Security personnel. Contact a senior officer before touching anything, or progressing any further then Security. Operations, please check out the jefferies tubes to see if you can find any hard connections to hack after security checks."

Those assembled seemed to understand so Lochlan turned to Dae. "After you Lieutenant Dae."

"I'm telling Nan that you made me a regular officer," the Master Warrant said with a conspiratorial wink. "She hates it when people misrank others." Though, turning serious he turned to the assembled. "Garber and Sprint with me. Teams Beta and Delta will remain behind to cover the ship and those remaining on board. Alpha, you got roundup and Gamma you're running escort." He shook his head at the slight groans from Gamma shift. "Once we clear the docking bay, some of you smart techy people see if you can gain us access to the station's systems." He noted the security fields were still active and still seemed to be funneling all paths to the one area. "We're going room by room and anybody that doesn't answer directly to me, and the CO and XO, will wait in secured areas until they're given the clear signal to go forward. Anybody not following these procedures, I know how to replicate Kardellian trout."

Lochlan chuckled. "Who knows I may have to make some battlefield commissions," he threatened with a smile. "Let's go." He called out and they began the trek through the umbilical walkway, Dae leading his security teams while Lochlan lead the rest of Alpha shift.

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