The Balloon is going up

Posted on 20 Mar 2009 @ 11:30am by Commodore Da`nal of the House of Varal

1,495 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: M1: Prepare for Battle
Location: Main Briefing room
Timeline: 1343 hrs

Silonez and Janis entered the briefing room and sat on opposite sides of Lieutenant Rodriguez, both of them looked a little frazzled from what they saw. "Should I start or should you Ms. Cortice?"

Janis just shook her head "I think you should go, boss."

[On the bridge]

Everything was semi-organized chaos. Technicians were scrambling to complete their tasks and get out of the way. None of them wanted to be around to get pressed into service if the ship was called into action.

A petty officer was manning the Ops station after a particularly cute technician had finished up. She was snapped back to reality when a station-wide hail came through. Calling out to their task master, stopping her in the middle of what she was doing, the petty officer said, "Ma'am! We are getting a station-wide hail from station operation!"

"Mierda," Mari cursed under her breath as she moved at nearly a jog toward the conference room, "Send it in here!" The woman had known she would be winging it in this assignment since she was fresh out of the academy and command training but this was ridiculous!

"Aye - routing to the conference room display."

Da`nal's features filled the screen as the connection was made, his face showed the cool determination of an experienced warrior. "...mmander Davies has ordered all vessels currently docked within the station to remain where they are. No ships will be allowed in or out. At present, 4 Romulan Warbirds are in position to strike the station." Recalling his conversation with the Romulan Ambassador, he added, "Be on the lookout for suspicious activity, and if you have had recent repair or construction on your key systems, inspect them for possible sabotage. All Federation Starships are to continue whatever preparations are currently under way. Link tactical to the station's Strategic Operations via secure channels and stand ready for emergency action. That is all."

Closing the channel, Da'nal knew that he had given orders that Davies hadn't cleared, but better to have starships ready and waiting than sitting there with cold systems when they might be needed.

"Mierda! Puta de madre...!" Mari cursed again before she stormed back out onto the bridge. Spotting an officer she hadn't yet met but whom she thought she recognized as the chief of security, she called, "You there! Security chief, correct? Link us to the station's Strat Ops. Make sure you use a secure channel. Everyone else, stand by..."

T'Pal had just walked onto the bridge when she heard the woman, who had to be Lt Rodriguez, addressing her. Without answering, but lifting an eyebrow in acknowledgment, she crossed the bridge to the tactical station. Her fingers tapped in her authorization code and she linked the secure channel to DS5 ops as ordered. "Channel established," she said simply while she customized the station and checking the weapons systems.

"Thank you," Mar nearly spat, her tone clearly frustrated and annoyed, not sounding grateful at all but her venom wasn't at all directed towards the security chief, merely at the situation in general.

=="Ericson to Rodriguez"==

=="Rodriguez here."==

=="I'll be in engineering with Warrant officer Cortice. Hopefully we'll get out of this one in one piece"==

=="And if not that we go out in a very QUICK blaze of glory..."== the first officer added in a tone that was dripping with sarcasm although it truly was her hope for them if they were not to get out of the situation alive. She had no desire to find out first hand what a slow and painful demise was like.

"Lieutenant Rodriguez." said DeHavilland, spinning around in the chair behind the conn station.

"Tell me something good, Lieutenant," Mari requested with what sounded more like a demand.

"I have minimal flight systems online. It's going to take some time to get the systems completely aligned and calibrated, those techs left a bit of a mess. We won't be navigating any asteroid fields, but I can get us out of here in a hurry if needs be." he said. "I'll keep you updated."

"Have to take the good with the bad, so I guess I'll take it," Mari responded, "I hope you're as good as your profile boasts."

"We're both about to find out ma'am." he replied.

"I think you're right about that," Mari stated, turning back to the command console.

==="This is Silonez in engineering. Main power is about to come online. I've sent someone up to finish the realignment on the navigational systems. We have main phasers ready. The torpedo bay should be online in 10 minutes and the shields are on standby. Also, this bird has ablative armor, we're in business!"==

=="Excellent! Now THAT is good news! Great work, Lieutenant. Keep me informed." ==

=="Cortice to bridge, I need a test firing solution from the torpedo controls to finish the torpedo calibration"==

Looking at T'Pal, Mari asked, "Can you do that for me, Lieutenant?"

Running through the system, T'Pal nodded. "I'll need the targeting system to come online," she said.

Before Mari could response, another message was received over the comm system:

=="Engineering to tactical. Targeting system is now available on targeting heads-up display."==

"There you go, Lieutenant," Mari stated, directing her words toward T'Pal, "Have at it."

=="Torpedo room to bridge, we need to try that again, the guidance control didn't like something."==

=="I can see that here== T'Pal said, rerunning through the controls. ==It seems that the commands are not reaching the torpedo's. Retrying,"==

"DeHavilland, what do we have on the nav systems so far?" Mari asked, turning to the conn officer, expectantly awaiting his answer.

"Nav systems are online and functioning ma'am. Flight control is also online, but I'm still calibrating." he said over his shoulder. "I'll need more time to get Flight control properly aligned."

"How *much* time?" Rodriguez demanded.

"Don't worry, I've got the conn; you're in good hands." DeHavilland replied.

"Let me know when you have Flight Control aligned." Mari said, not acknowledging his not so comforting statement.

=="Ericson to bridge, we have a malfunction....Cloaking device is not available, also could someone tell astrometrics to shut down we need the sensor bandwidth right now!"==

Sighing, Mari said, ===Astrometrics, did you hear that? Shut down, NOW!===


=="Torpedo room to bridge, secondary fire control is set to manual, secondary fire control is non-functional, it wasn't even installed!"==

This was more than Mari could take. =="What do you MEAN it wasn't even installed?!"==

=="Silonez to bridge this is as good as it gets!"==

"Por el amor de dios," Mari muttered under her breath before tapping her com once more, =="It damn well better be good enough, then!"==

"That leaves us with phasers only," T'Pal said dryly after swearing under her breath in Klingon.

=="Lieutenant Elek to Bridge."==

=="Go."== Was Mari's only response.

=="Diplomatic Office is functional and standing by. I have no staff, but that's a small issue, considering everything else."== The bridge crew could hear the smile in the El-Aurian's voice. =="Chief Diplomatic Officer is as ready as he'll ever be. As is the ship's Counselor. If anybody needs a session, my diary is wide open."==

=="Excellent"== Mari stated, and then continued, her voice dripping with sarcasm, =="I'll keep that in mind when I have an anxiety attack after the Romulans attack and we STILL have no CO"==

Elek briefly considered replying, but wisely decided against it. Instead, he left his office and headed for the bridge, figuring that an extra hand might be needed. If not, he could at least be in the center of the action.

"Five minutes to Flight Control alignment. Two minutes if you can get Engineering to share some extra power." DeHavilland announced over his shoulder. "With that done we're all clear for flight ops."

=="Engineering, mind sharing some of your power supply with nav to get them fully operational?"== Mari asked over her com.

=="Bridge this is Silonez, main power is available, back-up systems are on standby, all sensor systems show green, stand by for main power switch over in 3...2...1...."=== As if it was planned the ship willingly came to life and lights began to come on everywhere. =="The ship is on full internal power, we have a green board!"==

==Way to go, People. Good job working together. Let's stay on the alert, ready for anything, and hopefully we'll be set.== Mari said both to those present on the bridge as well as to those who were communicating with her via comm, ==For now our status will be a yellow alert until you are all advised otherwise. ==

Elek stepped out of the rear turbolift and looked around the bridge. Although it was his second visit there, it was his first chance to properly see it working. He hovered near the back of the bridge, determined not to get in anyone's way, but ... observe.

END

Lt Silonez Eircson
WO3 Janis Coritce
(played by Andy)

Lt JG CJ DeHavilland

Lt Mariposa Hernandez Rodriguez

Lt. Cmdr Da`nal

Lt T'Pal

 

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