Aftermath; Damage Control

Posted on Mon Jul 11th, 2011 @ 7:57pm by Captain Nathan Cowell MD

Mission: Too Close for Comfort...
Location: Various
Timeline: Following 'Waltz On In and Surprise the Bad Guys.'

=Runabout Phoenix, Space=

Commodore Nathan Cowell and the rest of the team, minus their Chief Flight Control Officer, found themselves sitting in the cockpit area of the runabout that had saved them from the clutches of the Archadians. It was a bittersweet event, to be sure. Nerves were frayed, at least one of them was injured fairly badly... all in all, it had been a shit storm from the word go.

"Well... that went well..." Nathan said aloud as he made his way to the forward console where he flopped down in the OPS seat, "I'm going to go out on a limb and say they won't be inviting us back any time soon for tea and treats..."

"What gave you that impression, old man?" Lieutenant Colonel Stace M. DeVries inquired as she moved to the forward area of the runabout and took over Flight Control from the main computer of the craft.

"Oh, just a hunch," the Commodore said sarcastically before looking back at the group for a head count. The only body he was missing was Harrington, which bothered him a good deal.

"What the hell was your pilot up to while you were busting us out?" the old man asked, all the while bringing up the sensor grid to see if he could find the other runabout.

"I thought he was waiting with the other shuttle..." Stace said with a frown.

Nathan just grunted in reply as he made a search of the space around Archadia III as well as the surface. At first, his rustiness at the controls impeded his progress, but the longer he tried, the faster he began to find what he was hunting for, much to his dismay. Nathan sank back in his chair and let out a sigh. This caught many of the gathered individuals in the cockpit's attention, spurring questioning glances from all of them.

"Looks like they blew the runabout to hell..." Nathan said in a low tone. That was enough to cast an even darker cloud on an already bad day...

=Twenty Minutes Later, Shuttle Bay, USS Arizona=

The shuttle settled on the bulkhead of the bay and the crew began to file out. Nathan had ordered everyone to their quarters, himself included and Lt. Idrani excluded as she needed to pay sickbay a visit, prior to their landing. Whether any of them wanted it or not, they all needed some decompression time to reflect on what had happened. For his part, Nathan needed time to sort out everything he'd learned and find out what the Colonel knew about the situation from her end so he could formulate a plan of action... if there even was one.

But that would have to wait... he needed rest... and a lot of it... before he could even begin to tackle what was happening on Archadia III.