The North Star Situation

Posted on Sun Jan 9th, 2011 @ 6:40pm by Captain Nathan Cowell MD & Lieutenant Commander Jonathan Mantell & Darek Halsey & Lieutenant Colonel Anastasia DeVries

Mission: Hippocratic Hijacking
Location: Various
Timeline: 1 Day, 7 hours after 'Getting Underway'

A day slipped by for the crew of the USS Arizona as they traveled at high warp across the sector that separated them from their objective and their point of origin. The Prometheus Class vessel held up well under the circumstances, as it had been the first time she had been called upon to travel that fast for that long a duration since her launch from the dry dock not even two weeks prior. As the Arizona reached the outer edge of the Braken system, she slowed to one quarter impulse as was standard practice and began the short glide through the more 'populated' portion of their route. In a short few minutes, the ship happened upon the SS North Star, which was floating in a derelict fashion just beyond the natural debris field along the outer edge of the solar system. When the Arizona was within range to allow for ship-to-ship transport, she came to a relative stop along side her target.

=Bridge, USS Arizona=

Captain Nathan Cowell had been summoned to the bridge shortly before the Arizona had managed to arrive in the star system by his own request. He sat upon the chair that was designated for his personal use while in said compartment, glancing idly back and forth between his small access consoles embedded in the armrests of his chair and the larger display of the main viewer. When his ship came to a stop, he began barking orders.

"Somebody scan that ship and tell me what the hell is wrong with her..." Nathan snapped. The console normally reserved for the Tactical Officer had been vacant, as his Chief of Security most likely had taken to making her department nice and orderly according to her own personal designs. He turned first toward Lt. Marion and was about to issue her the order before remembering something and swiveling around instead to his First Officer.

"You used to be an engineer, you scan the thing," he delegated as if it were a whimsical choice.

The boy who used to be an engineer sat staring, his eyes fixed on the slowly-rotating hull depicted on the view-screen. The sight of a ship taking that much abuse made his heart wrench. The port thruster's probably out, that's why she's spinning so badly. His thoughts consumed the boy's mind, and it wasn't until a few seconds after Cowell's order that Jack realized it had been directed at him.

"Huh?" The boy's blue eyes blinked in confusion for a moment before he nodded curtly to himself, "Oh, right." Leaning into his left armrest, he called up the functions on the panel reserved for the Executive Officer. A quick scan confirmed what the Miran boy had guessed at before, the ship's primary propulsion was offline and the secondary port thrusters were malfunctioning. The lack of residual weapon particles on the hull told Jack that the damage had come from the interior. Adjusting his scans to fixate on the ship's internal damage, the boy announced the scan's results to the whole bridge.

"Their primary drives are offline, and secondary propulsion systems are intermittently malfunctioning. Their structural integrity field took one hell of a wallop, even a couple bulkheads have collapsed and some areas of the ship are without gravity plating." Jack winced at the thought. Under normal circumstances, the lack of gravity would be a delightful enjoyment to the Miran, but the boy knew that the first priority was going to be getting the ship's systems back in working order. Engineering in no gravity was going to be a royal pain in the- "Oh yeah, and it looks like their comm systems are down, too."

Turning to look at the older man in the bridge's center seat, the blond-haired Executive Officer quipped, "I guess we won't be ringing their doorbell, then, huh? Wanna knock?"

"Don't be stupid," Cowell retorted, "We'd rip them to shreds like tissue paper."

He turned back toward the ship and regarded it for a moment before letting out a huff of a sigh, "I figure we have two options. We beam over and deal with some likely angry people or we shuttle over and take the less direct and unintentionally hostile approach. Anyone got any other bright ideas?"

"I might!" Stace S. DeVries announced as she made her way out of the turbolift and onto the bridge floor. "Sorry I'm late... had some business to attend to... besides, this way at least you all are aware of me being here." The Major took a pause as she reached her station and glanced over a few things before forwarding her attention to the viewscreen. "Busted engine eh? Never a good thing. Anyone bother to check for life signs?"

Life signs? Of course! The thought hadn't even occurred to the centuries-old youth. As an Engineer, his mind had been hardwired to look for technical problems, for fixes that involved stem bolts and bulkheads. The concept of looking out for the well-being of something more than a conglomeration of EPS conduits, deckplates and structural integrity fields was still an idea the boy wasn't used to. With the truth of his error brought to attention, he could feel his cheeks redden in embarrassment.

Cowell looked over to Jack for a moment, not sure if the boy had even thought of that or not before turning his attention back to the woman who'd just arrived, "Would you care to do the honors, Ms. DeVries?"

"Don't mind if I do Captain," the red head returned as she entered a few buttons on the console. "If the sensors are correct, which I'm hoping they are, we're reading twenty five possible life signs. However, according to the registry for the North Star their total complement was listed at near forty... so we're definitely dealing with casualties."

"Any suggestions on how we can get in touch with them since their communication systems are down?" Cowell asked.

Suggestions? Sure, Jack was full of them. He could suggest they use a form of timed visual codes, like Morse Code, via the running lights, deflector pulses, anything. The North Star had windows, the boy was sure that someone had noticed their arrival by now. That idea, however, assumed someone was looking out the window. It doubly assumed that someone knew the code, even most Starfleet Officers weren't familiar with the antiquated simple lingual code from Earth. Another idea was to simply beam over a communications device and hail the ship that way. No doubt, though, after whatever trauma the crew of the North Star had endured, a potential bomb scare was not going to be beneficial. There were a half-dozen more just like that, each valid answers.

"I-" Jack opened his mouth to suggest something, but before he could speak he was cut off.

"Why don't we just beam over a combadge and talk that way?" Lieutenant Marion piped up from the Operations console, her chair facing the rear of the bridge in order to address Cowell's open question.

The Miran was certain that Lieutenant Marion wasn't telepathic. Even so, she had stolen his idea, as if off of his own tongue. Anger swelled inside him, but Jack shrugged it away. He was the ship's XO, right? When he had offered ideas in the past, it had usually been the job of the Executive Officer to validate them before bringing it to the Captain. Now it was his turn. If he had thought of the very same thing, the least he could was validate it for the Captain's benefit. "I think that's a good idea, sir. Much less intrusive than beaming over ourselves," the boy said, peering at Cowell before turning to Ops, keeping his face neutral as he spoke, "Good thinking, Lieutenant."

"Also, it would be a good idea to tag a small camera of sorts to the comm-badge, see who were really dealing with..." Darek announced as he took his place at the secondary tactical and intelligence station. "I'd rather see who were talking to as well as hear them, ya know get to know our new friends a little better..."

"Yes," Cowell said as he considered the suggestions, "Unfortunately, we don't have a lot of time to go concocting things. Marion, make your idea happen."

Cowell turned toward Maj. DeVries after saying that, "Once she beams that communicator over, I want to you hail it and see who we get."

Lt. Marion nodded and made preparations to accomplish her Captain's orders, which wasn't overly difficult given that it was only a commbadge. Nathan leaned back in his chair and waited for the woman to report that it had been done as he had ordered. Elizabeth tapped at a few commands, paused a moment, then tapped a few more before speaking up once again.

"Transport complete, Captain. Whenever you're ready," Lt. Marion said.

"Excellent job," Nathan said before looking back toward Maj. DeVries, "Time to work your magic."

Stace nodded as she once again returned to her console and quickly mashed a few buttons. "SS North Star this is Major DeVries of the USS Arizona - we are currently within range of your vessel and are here to offer aid - please respond."

"Hello? Hello! Federation ship, we have injured... our thrusters are down... life support..." a voice called back before the sound of a scuffle could be heard and a new voice came over the comm, "Hoo-mons... are you here to help or not?"

Drawing back from the console, Stace felt her head drop and a long sigh escape her lips. "Just what I wanted..." she mumbled before resuming conversation. "I believe that is what I had previously mentioned before you stole the comm from the last individual I was speaking with. What is the current status of your life support systems and are there hostile onboard?"

"Everything is broke and no one who I don't have on payroll," the Ferengi huffed impatiently.

Stace struggled not to find a way to shove herself through the comm link in order to strangle the obnoxious little twerp. "Let me guess... your payroll doesn't include engineers who might be skilled enough to restore basic functions. How... unfortunate. Lucky for you, here we are. If you don't mind giving us a moment to work out some logistics of our own, I'm sure we'll find a sufficient way to fix your mess."

"Don't take too long... Grixx out."

"Friendly little bastard..." Cowell said, having listen to the entire exchange with a smirk on his face at how Stace had handled him. He turned to regard the First Officer, "Jack, take a team and beam over there and start effecting repairs and maybe even start an investigation into the who and how of this attack."

Nodding, the Miran rose from his chair to Cowell's right. The boy looked up at the Tactical station as he strode past. When the ramp afforded him enough height to see over, Jack tipped his head at the green-shirted woman working the console. "Care to come along, Major?" the boy inquired, curious how the woman would react to the Ferengi crew up close. He wondered if she would display the same amusing antics they had just heard played out over the comm. That wasn't how he explained it, however. "Investigations are in your line of work, I believe."

Before reaching the turbolift, Jack turned around, "Want to come with, too, Commander Halsey?" With a grin, the boy added, "You can see what these guys look like up close and personal."

"Take him," Cowell cut the First Officer off, "He can start the investigation on sight with Major DeVries. Find out what you can and report back to me in an hour. And somebody make sure to slap that Ferengi upside his fool head."