Posted by Captain John Tiberius Glen (Captain) in Main Sim - Bridge - Setting Out
[snip]

Lance had the worrying thought that he was probably meant to seek permission from the captain before crashing on to the bridge “Err Yes Sir and thank you.” He said keeping one eye on the sensor readings. “And yes sir NE Collins left me some comprehensive notes on what we’re looking at or not looking at as the case may be.” Lance paused he wasn’t used to the formality of full Star Fleet bridge, a research post had a lot less structure and people did whatever they wanted rather than checking if they should or it was okay. He was really drawing on things he’d done during his cadet cruises.

“I had wondered if it was a life form myself Sir, but what if it was like some of the deep water lifeform and this nebula is like some giant ink cloud like squids on earth use.” Space dwelling lifeforms were pretty much Lance’s personal unicorn, the one thing he would most want to see ever, the Pinnacle of Xenobiology.

This gave Captain Glen an idea. If there was a Risan ship out there, or the USS Trudoguard, or some mysterious cloaked vessel, then he might be able to raise them with a call. What he did not want to do, was to enter into some kind of ship graveyard and get stranded there themselves.

Glen told the Communications Officer, “Open a channel. Hailing frequencies.” =/\= To unidentified vessel. This is John T Glen of the USS Merrimack. We are on a peaceful mission. We mean no harm to you or any life-forms. Please communicate with us. We come seeking only friendship and to demonstrate goodwill. We have no wish to trespass. =/\= “Well, that has to be worth a try!”

‘’I guess so ‘’ Cross chirped in ‘’Couldn’t have done it more notable myself ‘’ .
The CMO was on the bridge more out of curiosity then anything else ,though now she felt on edge more then ever.

Max had a line open with the speaking which was going on with the crew on the bridge. He was curious of what was going to happen with the request of the captain. He believed it was the right direction but was still a little nervous about what might come from it. He had his hands over the shields if anything was needed or to keep track of what was going on. He also had his sensors on full alert in engineering to keep an eye out on everything. He was always prepared for the worst.

“What do you think Commander?” Captain Glen asked his new Number One, now standing at his side. It was a pity the Merrimack didn’t have a seat for the XO. It explained why his old XO, Kord, had spent years standing on the Bridge. maybe he would ask Max Mullins to retrofit an XO’s Chair.

Attempts to clean up the signal were mostly fruitless, the transmitter where ever it lay ahead was just to low powered to put out much other then static. They could confirm it was for sure Risan in origin, it matched curiously with only those transmitters used by sublight in-system support ships for Risan colonies, and they could confirm it was of a currently used frequency band used for distress calls. So it wasn’t something say from the past or future etc, nor did it seem to be something alien or disguised, unless some foreign entity got their hands on such a transmitter, not impossible but odd such would be used in this way.

When Glen would finish his transmission there was silence in response to it. After two minutes though the comms NE spoke up, “..Sir? No response to your hailing on any frequency. However, I did notice a brief pause then resend of the Risan signal which may indicate if there is a ship in distress it can hear us but cant respond normally or adjust the distress transmitter oher then off/on likely indicating low power and/or damage to it..” he said.

“We’ll work upon that assumption,” Glen replied.

Then just as the NE spoke out of one of the thicker nebula clouds nearby a shape slowly drifted tumbling into view, it was the rear port quarter chunk of a Federation styled nacelle housing with a small fragment of a warp coil still flickering! Scans would quickly ID it as a match for the Trudograd and further reinforced by the last bit of the NCC number matching it with 37.

“Damn!” Glen exclaimed. “What in Hell!”

Cross raised a hand over her mouth muttering something in her native language then turned to Glen ‘’Captain the crew ‘’ it was not a question but rather a remark of the events, concerning the scenario analysis dissection............ the words simple came out .

“Lieutenant Malone, I want you to scan for lifeforms and transport them directly to Sickbay,” Glen instructed. “Miriam, please organise them accordingly for triage.”

“Bloody hell!” Was Lance’s exclamation at all that was left, but then he remembered where he was “Aye Sir scanning and will transport any, will also expand the scan outwards in case any other ship parts are out there.” He said scanning the nacelle and the areas around it.

Lance also scanned the nacelle for any types of radiation that might indicate if it was weapons or something else that had caused the damage.

There was in fact only one life sign on a small rear most area of the nacelle fragment, a spot normally used likely for in dockyard maintenance and not normally really accessible nor given life support. The signs were fading fast however, given what they could seem likely the person in question had gotten into an EVA suit and made it into the housing and were near failure of the suits oxygen

=/\= Chief Medical officer you are needed in sickbay .A male from the Trudograd has just materialized in sickbay, he’s condition is critical ,in his hand we found a computer chip, I.D and DNA samples . A technician is on his way to bridge with it ..Cross acknowledge =/\= .

=/\= On my way Cross out =/\= as she ran towards the lift the doctor told Glen ‘’Captain I shall keep you informed ‘’ as the lift door opened, a crew man walked out and headed straight to the Captain ‘’Sir ‘’ the technician gave him what the man from the destroyed ship had been clutching in his hand .

“Lieutenant Pokorski, does that nacelle present any danger to the Merrimack?” Glen asked. “If so, take emergency maneuvers to avoid a collision. Otherwise, I’d like a dead stop again!”

As for the small fragment hitting the Merrimack there was no such threat given their normal deflector emissions would gently push it aside from any impact given its very slow rate of speed.

With Pokorski’s direction the Merrimack came to another full stop. A moment further later the NE chief in the transporter room would send a comm signal =/\= Transporter room 1 to bridge, we got human crew member with ID’s from the Trodugrad in an EVA suit. Life support on it was critical, but they’ve been transported over to sickbay. Looking at the suit they were no more then 5 or so minutes out from full suffocating to death. The suit had put them into a conversing mode to prolong their oxygen likely all that’s kept them alive all these days…=/\= He remarked.

Once Cross found his identity which was given to her by a nurse ,the CMO made contact with bridge =/\= Captain the man’s identity from our DNA sample is Junior Lieutenant Engineer Carol Machs .He’s condition at the moment is critical we are working on stabilizing him ..Cross out =/\=.

=/\= Acknowledged =/\= Glen replied.

=/\= MABEL 2.0 =/\= Glen asked the ship, =/\= Is there any pertinent records concerning Lt. Carol Machs in the library, including the supplementary library, authorisation Glen-6-0-9-Delta-1-9. =/\= Glen was aware that this was the second time he had accessed the supplementary library within an hour. He had once promised himself that he would never ever do that, so it was concerning, but these were special circumstances. After all, in the Prime Timeline, the Merrimack survives for another few hundred years, so he must preserve that at any cost.

During the short travel, Max did notice the disruption on the warp nacelle and needed to correct it. He had set it to automatically do it but he just wanted to check to make sure. He hit some buttons on his station to confirm the polarization had made the change automatically based on his calculations. He did not notice any failures and the automation seems to have corrected the problem. he was unsure how many of those could actually happen before something negative happened but he felt the ship come to a stop so he had hoped it would stop for a while.

Jaris visibly upset leaned forward in his chair “Yes sir, I think we need to raise shields, go to yellow alert, sensors on full, and keep us out of this cloud.”

“It turns out unsurprisingly, that the earlier briefing was correct: our shields won’t work here, but Max has worked wonders by polarising the hull plating. And as I just told Miriam before she left, I’m not very keen on blaring alarms and flashing lights, but take us to yellow status if you wish. The crew do need to be aware of exactly how dire this situation is. Lance is scanning the region right now; it looks like he has increased both the range and field intensity that he is scanning too. And Dariusz was following your plotted course to avoid both the gaseous anomalies and subspace eddies, while avoiding random debris along the way, but I think that a hold at this position is now more advisable.” Glen thought he had everything covered as he ticked them off, but he had always seen the role of his XO as one to question his actions and query his every decision, keeping him on his toes, so he had no problems with Jaris doing just that, and in his opinion, there were no stupid questions that could be asked here.

Max heard this communication after the Commander had requested the shields to go up. Max knew putting the shields up could potentially cause major issues and the polarization was an ideal alternative to help protect the ship and hopefully not cause any issues which turning the shields. If the captain had not said something about the shields, he would have said something. Max kept an eye on the polarization to verify it was up as expected and verified nothing had alerted with the polarization and the environment they were in while continuing to listen to the bridge.

“Sir I’m scanning to see if this has been some catastrophic failure or deliberate attack.” Lance added as he realised he’d gone off doing his own thing, he’d have to remind himself that’s not how he did things anymore. He was also watching the energy drain like a hawk if this was related to the nebula he didn’t want to be next.

“Thank you Lieutenant. You’re doing fine. Let me know of any signs of trouble,” said Jaris.

“Lieutenant,” added the Captain, “Initiative is doing the right things without having to be told first! And a leader is not just someone who knows the way, but goes the way too! Please continue with whatever additional scans you can think of.”

• Glen, CO

Lt. Mullins
Chief Engineer