Posted by Lieutenant Robert Mason (Chief Engineer) in USS Calypso, 2394- When Things Go Awry

Posted by Commander Dira Myqian (Executive Officer) in USS Calypso, 2394- When Things Go Awry

(snip)

“It’s definitely shifted. It seems to new trajectory that would cause it to collide with the sixth planet, a gas giant,” Soto reported. Glancing at the XO briefly, he actually reported to Siterra. “Captain, while our scans are not as accurate as we’d like in this instance, it does seem that there was an explosion on the asteroid. That is what has shifted it out of its orbit.”

“They need help now,” Myqian tossed out there, though it was likely obvious.

Elise nodded slowly. “How long till it reaches the gas giant? Can we navigate the asteroid belt?”

~Lt. Cmdr Myqian, CNS and Calypso crew

Ensign Nurell kept talking from the conn: “Approximately… two hours? I’m reading a potentially relativistic velocity…” In other words, it was traveling far faster than any natural object besides light had any business traveling. She pushed the console forward and swiveled in her chair to face the Captain.

“The belt is too thick for us to navigate at the required velocity for intercept, Captain. We’d need to go at Full Impulse to catch up with it, and if we were to collide with an asteroid at that speed…”

“Well, why don’t we just meet it when it comes out on the other end?” Bill asked.
“It’s accelerating as it approaches the planet,” Nurell immediately answered. “We’ll have less than thirty minutes for a rescue if we wait that long.”
“Let’s decelerate it with the tractor beam when it gets there,” Bill offered.
“It’s too massive.”
“Can’t we do that gravitational constant… thing?”
“Sir?”
“You know… the thing…”

No, she didn’t know ‘the thing’, but if she did, she would know that would at best have only bought them a small amount of time before burning out the tractor assembly…

– Commander William Franks, Calypso XO

Dira shook her head in slight frustration. “We’re wasting time,” she said evenly. “We can just take a shuttle. It can navigate more deftly and can land on the asteroid safely.”

“We still don’t know where everyone exactly is at the facility,” Siterra pointed out. And it was a valid concern. Without the ability to pinpoint where people were, they risked an away team being on the asteroid too long and everyone going down.

“I’ll go,” Myqian said simply. It seemed the most obvious answer.

“But-” Soto began.

Dira cut him off. “I’m a telepath. The closer we get, the stronger the emotions and the stronger I can feel individuals. If I’m down on that asteroid I can pin point where conscious people are, much like a homing signal.”

Siterra gazed intently at Dira for a moment and then nodded. “Okay.” She turned to Franks. “Commander, form a rescue team. Take all precautions and see if you can find survivors.”

~Lt. Cmdr Myqian, CNS & Crew