Rendezvous

Posted on Sun May 13th, 2012 @ 2:03am by Walter Jones & Hank Tasco & Charlotte Ashcroft & Jan Valentine & Bruce Air (PNPC)

2,598 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Session 6: Take 5
Location: Reclamation yards

Jones entered the bridge of the the old girl again and brushed away a few cobwebs. "Mr. Tasco, welcome to the bridge of the Warden, finest vessel this side of the trade lanes!" Walt went over and started fiddling with some of the switches and actuators. "Are you familiar with any of these systems? I know this might not be your expertise but anything might help"

"A few of these." Hank said as he went through the list of the Warden's systems. "Shouldn't be too hard to get a general understanding of the ones I'm not sure off.

Taking a seat as he stared at the screen, Hank thought back to his Starfleet days. "I remember this."

"Yeah it isn't so bad, we've cobbled together enough gear to make it so everyone can be confused." Walt smiled as he started up the external sensors and communications. "Nothing has blown up yet."

Meanwhile in engineering....

Suddenly all the lights in engineering went out, plunging the three into total darkness.

"Uh...Whoops." Jan said. "That wasn't supposed to happen..."

Lottie was about to give Jan a generous serve of her opinion when she felt a sharp stab in her abdomen. Instinctively she struck out but Morgan had been expecting that had was already ducking when her blind strike whistled past his ear.

"All done," he said backing away quickly.

As he passed Jan he said, "Have you considered some Bio-luminescence? A few strips along corridors or containers in each room would mean that if the power ever does give out we still have enough lighting to move around. We used them as night lights for our children, back home."

"I'll consider it, though I can see in total darkness now regardless." Jan said.

Flipping a switch, both the lights and auxiliary generator fired up, a low hum filling the room.

"There we go, auxiliary power is online." Jan said.

Lottie shot Pass a lethal look before turning her attention back to Jan: "How long do you think before we can move out?"

"Lemme check." Jan said, walking over to the main console.

"Hmm, looks to be about 45 minutes for warp drive, I'll have to bypass a few things in the starboard nacelle, though the port one looks to be mostly okay, just have to inspect the power couplings. Impulse should be fully functional, at least according to the board here. Gonna start the warm-up cycle on the impulse reactors. The main reactor's gonna take some doin' though...I don't know if I have a spare injector manifold on hand, so I might have to try repairing the existing one or fabricating a temporary solution until we can get some decent parts." Jan said, flipping through the status checks.

"I'll make sure Jones has that as top priority," Lottie said still rubbing the injection site through her clothing.

Bridge...
Bruce Air came up to the bridge chuckling. "Shuttles untouched. we had some Packleds do a search but I painted a box of spare parts gold, and they took that instead of stripping the shuttle."

He looked around the flight consoles, "Strike me Pink, this is a bit raw. This lot looks like it has seen a performance of the Royal Emu Ballet."

He dropped into the flight seat and gave the controls an experimental tweak, but they were unresponsive at the moment.

"Bruce? Don't bother with the navigation console right now, I have to replace the power coupling in it. I'm starting up the impulse reactors, you can monitor it on the engineering station, you can also tweak the settings if you need to." Jan said, over the intercom.

Bruce sighed and moved over the the empty console. The display flickered and sputtered on and off.

"Yeah, I'm here. Kick it over."

:Engineering:

"Okay, let's start the impulse reactor cycle up...." Jan said to himself, flipping several switches and adjusting dials..

Lottie looked around breilfy before turning back to Jan with a questioning gaze.

"Aaannd....Nothing's happening...why is nothing happening?" Jan said, trying again.

Despite his efforts, the reactors still refused to start.

"Hmm...maybe if I try..." Jan started, then slammed his fist into the console.

A few sparks shot out of the back of the console, and a loud whirring started in the bowels of the ship.

"There ya go...Just needed a bit of rousing...." Jan said to the console, which started indicating the reactors were warming up..

"Sounds famailar," she scoffed before departing.

:Bridge:

Air watched the dials and frowned, "The tanks are stirring, but it is sluggish. Can we do a purge on the EPS that carry the drive system. I don't want to choke mid manoeuvrer."

He looked over his shoulder, "If you guys have something to do this could take 30-40 minutes."

Walt flipped on the switch for some of the internal lights in the meeting room. "While we are waiting, I guess I can go over some of the particulars of this job, if ya'll care to join me.

Walt moved down the ladder from the bridge into the small meeting, dining area that they've had their meetings before. It still needed a good cleaning but everything seemed like it was coming up.

Morgan arrived and moved to the small kitchen. He began pouring drinks of what looked like apple juice for everyone, handing them out to people as they arrived.

As Air came in he waved the glass away, "None for me, thanks mate."

Morgan was insistent, "I really feel it would be in your best interests, Mr Air, if you were to drink the solution. Not doing so will not kill you, but it will mean a prolonged stay in the sick room under my close scrutiny."

Air looked a bit frightened and took the offered glass.

"Sounds like my kind of drink," Lottie said arriving behind the men in time to hear Pass' remark and held her hand out for a glass of the strange rocket fuel.

As the sarcastic and snide comments settled down Jones started, "I've already received some of our payment up front from our benefactor. The main fare is Senator S'Tokkr Rehu and his family, a few of his aides and a small contingent of his personal bodyguard, they are being limited to one side arm each. We are going to be transporting some of their personal belongings as well. While we are there, I figured we could cram some people who are willing to pay in some of the lower containers. Make a little side profit."

"I've always got on well with the Romulans," Bruce offered to anyone who would listen, "even when in Starfleet. Annoyed the beejeebers out of my dad."

"You think the senator's going to be pissed when he finds out he's sharing his transport with a bunch of the common rabble?" Hank asked as he drank what ever the doctor had handed him.

"Maybe, we'll keep them separated, we are going to give the senator and his family a state room. As soon as we are get the systems back in order I've got a few spare holo-emitters I'm going to try and rig into the power grid to turn one of the bigger cargo holds into a plush apartment. Hank, you got any contacts out that way that can give us an idea of the chaos?"

Behind Lottie blew out a lungfull of air, "Oh yes, out of trouble and into the firepit. Jones, I thought this was suppose to be a simply run not another one of your crazy ideas."

"It isn't that crazy I don't think, besides we need to set up a college fund for your little bun in the oven there love. I've never been one to turn down a few extra bars of latinum." Walt looked around at the rest of the crew

"I'll ask around and see if I can find anything out for you." Hank said making some mental notes of his contacts.

"Jan do you think the grid will take that?" Walt smiled at his engineer.

"We can do that, wouldn't recommend going into a battle though, we'll be at the absolute upper limit of the grid's tolerances. As for the 'economy' class passengers, I think there's some musty old blankets in one of the storage compartments in the forward hold." Jan said, downing the doctor's mysterious brew.

"Geez what's in this shit Doc? Tastes worse than a bottle of snake bile vodka." Jan said.

Morgan nodded slightly, "There is a similarity I grant you. It is Robinca Juice, very high in ascorbic acid, as well as a few other additives. You will be pleased to know it is roughly 45% proof. I find it hides the taste of the additives. Can't have you dying of scurvy."

Or anything else more sinister Morgan thought to himself checking the vials were still sealed in his special pocket.


From inside the small bridge the proximity alarms for the ship starting blaring, something was scanning them from the outside.

"Someone get up there and turn off those alarms." Walt looked around at everyone and headed up there himself.

Air scrambled to the Con. It was still dead, but he was getting lights from the auxiliaries, like tractor beam control and IDF/SIF reserve power displays. The comms were also working so he tripped the alarm and flipped the Vox.

"This is adjunct Vilardi of reclamation yard pi delta, power down that bucket and prepare to be boarded." A steely voice blared across the internal speakers of the ship.

Air glanced over at Walter, "You did pay the reclaim on this didn't you... why am I even asking that question? All right, I have Starboard drives, Tractor control and an intermittent Navigation deflector. I can get you Full impulse if you want to go in circles, or quarter impulse if you don't mind cork screwing and burning heaps of fuel. Jan is still at least six minutes from having Warp up and..."

There was a loud bang and blue smoke appeared behind the damage control console.

"Make that eight minutes," Air groaned.

"Alright, well, lets try and stall, Lottie.... Lottie!" Jones yelled back towards where he had just come. "Let's get some weapons up in case it starts to get messy, Hank you good with a gun?" Walt moved over to the hatch and looked back as Lottie appeared.

"Fantastic," Lottie sighed having arrived in time to hear the boarding announcement followed by another failure to the Warden's outdated system. Perhaps she'd been better off ignoring Jones message it would certainly have been more peaceful. "We'll down on fire power since we left, the armoury is empty in comparison. If we have to fight I wont be pretty.

Pass fingered the vials in his pocket thoughtfully, "Does this ship have a quarantine beacon, Captain Jones? If I were to release the formula I have been working on it would not be safe for any living thing to enter the ship for at least three days."

"But we'll be immune right? Or did you just stab me for fun?" Lottie turned sharply to Pass.

Morgan glowered, "I do not enjoy my work, Ms Ashcroft. I am just very good at it. But, yes, the crew will not be affected by the mixture... provided you drank the liquid I gave out."

Walt looked at the Vial he hadn't drank and downed it one gulp. "Yeah we can send out a quarantine beacon, might clear out the rats or whatever the hell it was that attacked us." he reached for his side arm. "Get it queued up, that can be an option if we need it, if Jan can't get the engines up faster. Is it going to hurt the baby?" He pointed at Lottie.

Pass shook his head, "Despite her best efforts to put herself and the fetus at risk, I was able to take the appropriate samples. At great personal risk. She has drunk the solution and in another," he checked his watch, "13 minutes the normal blood exchange will have protected the baby."

Lottie just shook her head in frustration: "While you're sensitivity is touching it doesn't help much right now."

:Engineering:

"Why can't anything on this ship ever be easy?" Jan said, crawling into the starboard nacelle's access tunnel.

The nacelle was mostly intact, though several EPS relays were fused.

"Switch some iso-rods around....Hit that thing.....Turn the anachronistic giant valve wheel....and..There!" Jan muttered, frantically bypassing the damaged components and restarting the flow of plasma into the nacelle.

"Hope this piece of crap holds together, otherwise it's gonna spew plasma everywhere...." Jan said, running back to the main console.

"Bruce! Use the engineering station to navigate, Warp drive will be online in 2 minutes." Jan said.

:Bridge:

Bruce shook his head, "Mad bastard."

He flicked on teh flight beacons, pumped up the forward Navigational Deflector, IDS and SIF fields to minimal power, and ran plasma through the Nacelles to check the flow capacity while the RCS began to push the nose of the old giant towards a clear path into space.

"Jan, I am still getting restricted flow in Starboard. I can't get us above Warp 2 at this rate. A Type 6 Shuttle will outpace us!"

"I can't open the flow any wider, I've bypassed about half of the conduits in there. I can dump more power into the port nacelle, but it'll make flying in a straight line a bitch." Jan said.

Never the less the metal monster began to move. It creaked in protest. Air called out, "I can't see how far away Vilardi is. How much room have I got?"

"Not much" Jones watched as the shuttle was damn near on top of them.

Air thought, "Too close. He'll be on top of us... Oh YES!"

With a turn of the controls the Warden continued its spin until it was facing towards Vilardi's shuttle. He then began to key the throttle and the old girl moved forward faster and faster.

"Blow us up now, you bastard. All you'll get is a face full of smouldering wreck. And if you think this baby is moving out of the way for you, forget it."

*Shuttle*

"Sir! They are coming right at us!" The helmsman behind the shuttles controls barked. "They are going to ram us!"

"Evasive maneuvers evasive maneuvers!" The shuttle quickly moved to port, scraping its port nacelle against the Warden as it sped past. The shuttle spun out of control for a few moments, before slamming into an ancient looking freighter in worse condition than the Warden.

Picking himself off the floor the dockmaster scowled. "Blow up that damn ship!"

"Sir, we are barely alive here, we don't have the power to keep life support going."

"Fine, abandon ship, we'll catch up with them later."

*Warden*

"Good job everyone. Jan great job on getting her moving" Walt smiled as he talked into the comm channel. "When can we get to Romulus"

"It'll take me a few hours to get the starboard nacelle fixed, and I found a spare plasma injector manifold in the storage inventory, we'll have main power online soon." Jan said, grabbing his tools and some spare parts.

There was a soft sound of broken glass. all eyes turned to Dr Pass who simply said, "Oops," before turning and heading casually back to medical.

"Alright, best speed until we get out to the warp lanes. I'll be in my bunk making sure everything is still there." Jones turned and looked at everyone before heading of to his room.

 

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