Posted by Gamemaster Creeping Dread (GM) in Bridge - Readying the Ship for Departure

Posted by Lieutenant Paige Garrison (Chief Engineer) in Bridge - Readying the Ship for Departure

Posted by Lieutenant Helena Laursen (Helm/Navigation Officer) in Bridge - Readying the Ship for Departure
Posted by… suppressed (42) by the Post Ghost! 👻
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Posted by… suppressed (7) by the Post Ghost! 👻
Heather grumbled as she made her way back to the bridge. She had just been about to head down to Earth when the message came through from command, all crew leaves were cancelled and crew were to return to the ship immediately.

<snip>
Everything had seemed to have stopped in this conversation where nobody was listening but everyone was listening. Fiona felt bad for the commander. One of her good friends had died in a workplace accident. She, a lawyer previously, saw the system fail her friend - and herself! That had seen the fiery Irish woman walk away from law and to Starfleet. She hoped for the commander that it was just that and nothing that would be worse than a recovery.

=^=Thank you for letting me know. I’ll be ready once the shuttle arrives.=^=

=^=Understood Ma’am. Please contact me if there is anything else the Admiral can assist with in the meantime.=^=

With a small chirp the comm ended, leaving her sitting there still stunned, it was her dad. There were still so many questions, but they would have to wait till she got back down to Earth. Standing up, she tucked the communicator back in her pocket.

“Chief,” she said looking over at Cleare, “find out which shuttlepod that is coming and give them priority clearance to land. I’ll meet them in bay shortly.

“Of course, Commander,” she said, turning to the console. It was not hard to find for the only one in space that was flagged as Fleet Priority stood out from the rest in a bright yellow. [o] Commander, Shuttle Ganges is en route with an ETA of 22 minutes. I have reserved shuttle pod hatch 1 for it. [c] The others can queue up. The Captain was not yet aboard and nobody was moving before the crew was there.

“Ensign,” she said looking over at Aiden. “Keep trying to get a hold of the Captain. Let him know what’s going on, and please pass along my apologies for the sudden departure. In the meantime, you have the conn.”

Without waiting any longer she headed straight for the lift. There should be just enough time to grab a few things from her quarters before the shuttlepod would arrive.

Cmdr. Grace - XO / CSO

“Aye, ma’am. Best of luck,” Aiden agreed, not moving to take the now vacant seat. Rather, he stayed put at Comms, watching messages filter in and waiting for some word from the missing senior staff and CO.

Ensign Aiden Conlon
Linguist/Comms Officer

CPO Cleary, Eng

OOC: Bump for any and all DHs/Command staff who are returning from leave or boarding! Send Aiden a message and say hello! :)

Ensign Aiden Conlon
Linguist/Comms Officer

With the Armory officers set into a good schedule and prepared for the new mission, Stewart wandered out of the turbolift onto the bridge to take over the Armory station, he nodded to Conlon who was at Communications and moved over to take over the Armory station from the Ensign manning it.
“Ensign Conlon, tisn’t it?” Stewart asked in his Scottish brogue as he recognized the Ensign from his service jacket. Sojourner was not a large ship so he had a good chance to skim all the jackets to try and get to know the crew. “Lieutenant Commanderr Alexanderr Stewarrt, CAO. What’s the news?”

~Lt. Commander Alexander Stewart CAO

“Captain Marceau, Lieutenant Laursen, and our new Chief Engineer and XO are still en route. Eighty-seven percent of the crew has boarded,” Aiden reported. “I’ve yet to hear from the Captain and Lieutenant Laursen directly, although Fleet Command has assured me they’ll be along shortly.”

Ensign Aiden Conlon
Linguist/Comms Officer

“Excellent, the Arrmorry is shipshape and rready for deparrturre.” Alex said as he keyed up the Armory logs and quickly went through them. His security team was good and the logs were in order. Nothing out of the ordinary to report. The torpedos and plasma cannons had all had recent maintenance so the ordinance was all in readiness.

~Lt. Commander Alexander Stewart CAO

Helena made one stop on Deck C along with the captain to drop their bags in their respective quarters. As soon as the lift door opened she stepped across the bridge to her station. She slipped into the pilot’s seat. The captain would be busy briefing the senior officers, in the meantime she could prepare. “Conlon, we are supposed to be getting coordinates from Command. Have they arrived?” Helena couldn’t plot a course until she knew where they were going.

Lt. Laursen, Helm/Navigation Officer

Marceau stepped onto the bridge and took his seat. “As Laursen said - we are to obtain coordinates from command. Where is Commander Grace?”

~ Capt Renault

Stewart stood at the Armory station and ran diagnostics as he listened to the chatter around him. He would let the duty officer respond as he had no idea of the whereabouts of the Commander.

~Lt. Commander Alexander Stewart CAO

Nobody seemed to be speaking up. CPO Cleary rolled her eyes then turned around in her chair to face the screen and the Captain. “Sir, the details are thin. Commander Grace’s father is in very serious condition in Fleet hospital. Starfleet messaged her and dispatched a priority shuttle to pick her up. Your shuttles may have crossed paths.” What she did not say was that as they had sent a new XO along so rapidly that this new XO was either permanent or temporary, but the rapidity of the new arrival suggested an urgent mission ahead.
CPO Cleary, Eng

“That’s about it, Captain,” Aiden confirmed. “She left the bridge rather quickly, only pausing to leave me the conn until your arrival and orders to inform you. I have the coordinates right here,” he indicated his console, “as soon as our replacement XO and Chief Engineer are onboard. Theirs is the last shuttle in the lineup.”

Ensign Aiden Conlon
Linguist/Comms Officer

Natalia had been in her quarters on Earth when she was called on the comm by Commodore Waite. Apparently the Sojourner had just had a high turnover of XOs in the last few minutes and a replacement was needed urgently as the ship was due to depart on a mission of utmost importance. Having been on the waiting list for a Command position for years Natalia had jumped at the opportunity. She had taken with her most of her belongings, the ones that she could easily fit on a cramped ship and had boarded the first shuttle pod available. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect. The divorce had just been finalised and it was like a new life was just beginning. The split had hurt her deeply and she cursed his name whenever she thought about him. That’s why she sat in the shuttlepod and had music blasting in her ears.She shut her eyes as the shuttlepod departed for the SS Sojourner, Stevie Ray Vaughn blasting in her eyes.

Once was a sweet thing , baby
We held that love in our hands
And now I reach to kiss your lips
It just don’t mean a thing

She opened her eyes as the chorus played and looked out seeing the stars and smiled.

That’s a cold shot baby,
Yeah, that’s a drag.......

The song continued and she bobbed her head and mimed when the solo kicked in. The journey to the Sojourner took a while and the song ended and continued to Tin Pan Alley. She mimed along to that one too. The pilot turned around and gave her a quizzical look, shook his head and then continued on the trajectory to dock with the Sojourner.

Went down to Tin Pan alley,
See what’s goin’ on.....

She hummed as she peered over the pilot’s shoulder to look at the docking. The pilot coughed awkwardly as he tapped in the commands to dock after being granted permission to do so. A small bump later and the clamps were in place.
“Here we are.” The pilot said to Natalia. Who rubbed her hands together excitedly and beamed at the Ensign.
“Thank you.” She picked up her two bags and a guitar case and headed through the doors but turned at the threshold.
“It’s Stevie Ray Vaughn.” The pilot frowned and looked puzzled.
“That’s who I was listening to if you didn’t know.” She stated with the grin. The pilot shook his head as the doors closed and Natalia headed to the decontamination to wait to board the ship properly.

Bump to put back on the board.

~Lt. Commander Alexander Stewart CAO

Bump again

~Lt. Commander Alexander Stewart CAO

Taking the coordinates from Conlon, Helena moved to the back of the bridge and pulled up the navigational charts. The quickest way was a straight line, but there were things to avoid in space. She also pulled up the cargo ship’s route as well.

Lt. Laursen, Helm/Navigation Officer

“The last shuttle has landed, sir,” Aiden reported. “Once our course is plotted we are clear to depart.”

Ensign Aiden Conlon
Linguist/Comms Officer

Stewart listened to the updates as he studied the area they were being sent too. It was a well populated route and scrolling through the space chatter over the last time period that covered the time that the freighters had gone missing he could see no obvious reason as to why they may have done so.

~Lt. Commander Alexander Stewart CAO

What was curiously absent from the logs were the lack of any Vulcan cargo vessels plying the same route.

~Creeping Dread

“Helena, plot the course. Then, allons-y,” he said, using his native french for the word, let’s go.

~ Capt Renault

Stewart noted the lack of Vulcan cargo vessels and pondered what that might signify. What did the Vulcans know that they did not?
“Captain, I find it puzzling that the Vulcan carrgo vessels are not using this rroute as they usually do. Do the Vulcans have anything to do with our rrescue of the merrchant vessels?”

~Lt. Commander Alexander Stewart CAO

OOC: I’m guessing for the moment there are no obvious obstacles along our course.... will pay for that later I’m sure.

IC: “Aye Captain.” Helena finished charting the course and sent the coordinates to the helm. She took her seat, locked their first point, then opened the comms. =/\=Sojourner to Space Dock Alpha, requesting clearance to depart.=/\=

After receiving clearance and ensuring all the docking clamps were released, the maneuvering thruster slowly pushed the Sojourner out of the embrace of the large claw like structure. The exit was smooth with plenty of clearance. Helena had done this so many times she could probably do it blind, though she wouldn’t.

Once clear the impulse engines fired moving them out of Earth’s orbit. “Course locked in and ready for warp, Captain,” she called back.over her shoulder.

Lt. Laursen, Helm/Navigation Officer

OOC: Bumping back onto the boards.

~Lt. Commander Alexander Stewart CAO

[O]Engine Room to Bridge. We are looking good down here, all systems reporting ready.[O]

Lt. Paige Garrison - CE

Naomi sighed and settled back into her station. Her fingers pulled up the system as she glanced over a few files she had procrastinated on. Irritation lurked in the back of her mind over having her leave be cancel. All her planning for nothing. Upon hearing the mention of the absence of the Vulcan cargo ships, Naomi frowned and braced for warp.

-Lt. Naomi D. Locke, Sci

There were no obstacles to the Sojourner traversing the system outwards. What diabolical galactic machination trips up the adventure at the beginning?

~Creeping Dread

“Allons-y,” Marceau said again, “Take us to our coordinates, ‘Elena.” He shook his head, “The Vulcans refused to assist with this rescue.” He said.

~ Capt Renault

“Aye, Sir. Engaging warp at 3.8.” Helena keyed the controls and the engines hummed to life and the ship streaked into the blackness of soace.

Lt. Laursen, Helm/Navigation Officer

“If they be rrefusing to help that may explain theirr absence but Ah get a sense that they may know something we do not, sirr.” Stewart commented as he focused his scans on the area of space they were moving into so he would be ready for any eventuality.

~Lt. Commander Alexander Stewart CAO

Fiona Cleare, the ginger CPO Engineer was in the requisite engineering chair. Once the ship was underway and the various and sundry power systems and others, you know, inertial dampers and such were all showing green across the board she turned to listen to the chatter. What ‘did’ one do on the bridge when one left spacedock when all the work was being performed belowdecks? Her knee bounced as she looked about the bridge. Vulcans not in the area. Vulcans not wanting to take part in a rescue. The obvious conclusion to her was that the Vulcans were wanting these mere humans to put their foot into something so they would go scampering back to earth with their tails between their legs. Why else wouldn’t they tell them about something potentially dangerous? Fiona had been a lawyer before walking away from that and coming to Starfleet. But her lawyer senses smelled a gross negligence case against the Vulcans in case anything bad happened to the freighters and crew.

It also sparked a concern to her about potential danger ahead. She turned and brought up the region of space along that trade route the freighters had taken and checked to see whether there were any logged spatial anomalies or oddities reported along that stretch. She included history of stellar investigations from telescopes, survey vessels and such in her hunt including a tag of anecdotal stories about that region of space that might have crept into dark corners of the computer records. They were a ways away yet so she’d find what she could before sending down what she knew to engineering. Forewarned was forearmed after all, both in legal clerking and engineering. At least her foot wasn’t tapping with something to do.
- CPO Fiona Cleare

The route the merchant vessels had been traveling was one that was established after much extensive investigation by Starfleet and what data the Vulcans were willing to share. Historically it was about the safest route between Earth and Vulcan that has been charted at this point, with the Vulcan’s own trade ships plying the same course, but space was never meant for the faint at heart. With all of that being said crews had recently reported that phantom sensor readings were popping up along the route but nothing as yet suggested a more frequent location.

Fiona frowned. Sensor ghosts. She knew their sensors were not up to snuff with say the Vulcans so it seemed to be, to her, a factor that it was something that the Vulcans could tell when they couldn’t and they weren’t telling. Typical. Perhaps they could do something sneaky to reveal their ghosts. Normal freighters didn’t have sensors as robust as theirs, but that was still less than the Vulcans. But the ghosts, if that was a trailing ship or something on the edge of their sensors knew what their range was. But did they know the range of the Sojo? An idea popped into her head for that .. but first she detailed those findings and distributed them to the senior staff.
Fiona Cleare, CPO Eng

OOC: As we just rocked two months ahead there no sense in shredding timelines in this thread with further discussion .. Gene

“Are we expecting the merchant vessels to be capable of communication, sir?” Aiden asked. “Or should I assume all I’ll probably pick up is distress calls?”

Ensign Aiden Conlon
Linguist/Comms Officer

OOC: Bump .. Gene

Stewart kept scanning the area ahead of them. Hopefully they would have some warning before they ran into anything. He also watched to see what ships were currently using the route.

~Lt. Commander Alexander Stewart CAO

There were the usual Earth based vessels within range but as the Sojo continued outbound the signatures decreased until at last it was just them. The usual well mapped phenomena were present and accounted for but thus far no other signs of ships.

“I was not given that information, Conlon. Keep an ear open for whatever may be out there.” Marceau said.

~ Capt Renault

“Aye, captain,” Aiden chirped, turning back to watching his screen.

OOC: Considering how slow the ship is and with how sparsely occupied space is, I’m going to time jump us until the Sojo reaches the first coordinate.

It had been about two months since the Sojourner left Earth orbit and rushed its way along the established trading route to Vulcan. In that time they’d overtaken and passed two merchant ships which upon query didn’t have any information that was useful. A handful of new anomalies but nothing that would jeopardize a ship plying the trade route. The ship was nearing the first coordinate however and was a couple days away.

~Creeping Dread

Ensign Aiden Conlon
Linguist/Comms Officer

Helena sat at her station on the bridge, watching the stars zip by. We’ll more watching the readings on the Helm. It had been a long two months with not much going on, but a lot of stress over what they would find. Checking their position she turned her head slightly to Renault in the chair behind her. “Captain, we will reach the first coordinates in roughly 48 hours.”

Lt. Laursen, Helm/Navigation Officer

“Stewart, scan for signatures or anomalies, Conlon, search for signals and hails and try a general hail, anything that someone might pick up.” Marceau said, and then used the comm system to page engineering: =/\= “Bridge to engineering, I need a power status. Is there any way we can move faster?” =/\=

~ Capt Renault

“Scanning, sirr.” Stewart said as he had already been scanning and watching for anything out of the normal.

~Lt. Commander Alexander Stewart CAO

Sickbay sent confirmation to the Comms station that Rachel and her small staff were ready to receive any potential injured as well as read to head away at a moments notice.

Dr Grey- CMO

[O]Faster Captain? I’m an engineer Captain, not a miracle worker. We’ve already got one of the fastest ships in the fleet. How much faster are you wanting us to go?[O]

Lt. Paige Garrison - CE

“Aye, Captain,” Aiden replied. “Sickbay reports full mission readiness.” He set the system for a wide-band transmission. “Civilian Vessels, this is the Starship Sojourner. Please Respond.”

Ensign Aiden Conlon
Linguist/Comms Officer

“I want to reach the first coordinates quickly. We don’t know how many supplies the ship had left.” Renault said into the comms. He nodded to Conlon’s notification.

~ Capt Renault

OOC: I read back .. we are doing our max cruising speed of 3.8. Can do 3.9 for up to 12 hours and 4.0 for 3 hours. We’ve not been upgraded yet to post Xindi upgrade. Gene

Natalia was humming quietly to herself at the Science station as she listened and waited.

Commander Natalia Petrenkov, XO/CSO

OOC: thanks, Gene.

IC:

“Helena, bring us to warp 3.9, try to cover some more ground.” Marceau said.

~ Capt Renault

“Aye, Sir.” Her hand moved over to the throttle, slowly bringing the ship up to 3.9. The hum of the engines increased, Helena could feel it in her hands on the controls and through the soles of her feet. She loved the feel of how smoothly the Sojo responded to the controls.

Lt. Laursen, Helm/Navigation Officer

[O]Bridge, Engineering here. You’ve got about…12 hours before our systems start to over heat and shut down. Then we are definitely going have slow down Captain.[O]

Lt. Paige Garrison - CE

No one answered the hails and no anomalies were within sensor range. The Sojourner had been at maximum warp for almost nine of the twelve hour shut off time. It was beginning to look like they’d need to slow down and vent the engines soon. But… a faint transmission was received though it was full of static.

~Creeping Dread

“Transmission coming in, Captain. Trying to clarify.”

Ensign Aiden Conlon
Linguist/Comms Officer