Next Stop - The Badlands (Part 1)

Posted on Fri Jul 14th, 2023 @ 7:04pm by Captain Mikoto Misaka & Lieutenant Commander Peter Carter Jr & Lieutenant Commander Lurath, Son of Grogori & Lieutenant Commander Sonak & Commander Eila Juutilainen 'Illu' & Lieutenant James Henderson & Lieutenant Felicie Giehl & Lieutenant Shandro
Edited on on Fri Jul 14th, 2023 @ 7:12pm

1,333 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: The Search
Location: Bridge

For the last twenty-four hours, the Ermiana had been docked at Deep Space Nine's upper pylons. During that time the ship had taken on supplies from the station as well as additional crew during the rotations. Captain Misaka entered the bridge from the forward turbolift, adjusting her collar slightly as she made her way towards the command centre.

She glanced at the chronometer above the viewscreen, the ship was due to depart any minute now. She took a few steps up to where the three command chairs were and stood in the centre.

"All hands, this is the Captain. Prepare for departure" she said with a quick tap to her comm badge on her chest.

Eila waited for Mikoto to sit down in the centre chair before speaking.

"Captain, sensor probes have been loaded and crew rotations have been completed." She reported. "The manifests are waiting on your desk in the ready room for you to read over at your leisure."

Mikoto nodded, she would deal with that once they were en route.

=/\="Sickbay reporting in Captain. We've received our requested supplies, and we're ready to go."=/\= Felicie reported in from Sickbay.

"Thank you doctor" Mikoto replied. She tapped a control button on her armchair. "Bridge to Engineering, are we all good to go down there?"

Engineering reported ready to depart.

"Acknowledged chief. Prepare to depart" Mikoto replied.

"Commander." She said turning back to look at Lurath. "Has our guest reported aboard and are our tactical and security systems reading green?" Mikoto knew that it was likely they would be involved in some sort of skirmish during their upcoming mission, the last thing she wanted was to be caught with their pants down.

Lurath looked down to his console and tapped on the controls, bringing up the display for the current status of the weapons and shields. "They are showing green, Captain." He replied before bringing up a different display. "I have confirmed, from Lieutenant Shandro, that his...." The Klingon seemed to pause as a soft growl formed in his throat. "Friend is aboard."

"Very well. Have him report to the bridge once we've arrived in the badlands." she turned her attention to the forward consoles of the bridge.

"Helm. Clear our departure with Deep Space Nine traffic control. Secure their airlock and disengage docking clamps when ready" Misaka ordered as she lowered herself down into her chair.

"DS9 traffic has cleared us for departure Captain. All moorings and umbilicals are released, the airlock is retracted, secured, and locked, and docking clamps are disengaged." James decided that after his slightly hair-raising docking, the undocking would go a little more by the book.

"Port thrusters engaged, all others at station keeping." The Ermiana slowly slid away from the pylon that had been its home for the last 24 hours.

"Port thrusters at station keeping, ventral thrusters now engaged." This time the Ermiana slowly raised itself above the station until it was out of the proximity of all 3 upper pylons

"Ventral thrusters disengaged, all thrusters now at station keeping. Undocking procedure complete," James turned in his chair, his eyes asking if that was better. "Course Captain?"

"Nice work Lieutenant," Mikoto said, there was no fancy flying this time. "Set a course for the Badlands, warp seven. Engage when ready"

"Aye Captain, course laid in for sector 04-70, speed warp seven." With that, he tapped the large engage button on the top right of his console and the large ship swung about. If you were on the promenade of Deep Space and just so happened to look out of a window you would have seen a flash of blue from the nacelles and the ship elongating as it entered warp

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Scene: Sickbay
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Now that they had received their extra inventory of items that they had requested for their trip, Felicie was working on the new rotation assignments for their shifts as she preferred not to work the way most medical professionals worked in twenty-four-hour gambits. Starfleet at least had allowed them to go through and work towards more twelve-hour shifts, and she preferred to let her staff pick which shifts they wanted, three twelves, four tens or five eights. Allowing people to pick their shifts allowed them to have the work-life balance that was precarious at best while serving aboard a ship on a mission. It worked though and the morale in her department should improve with the options provided. She signed the inventory of the items they had received and sent it to the Captain's terminal for review.

[Bridge]

The Ermiana dropped out of warp on the very edge of the Badlands. Luckily the area they were assigned to wasn't prone to the huge plasma storms and was less turbulent, however it still posed a navigation hazard. Slowly the Galaxy Class starship pushed forward entering the gingery-orange space.

"We should set up a standard search pattern starting from the last known coordinates of the Bismarck" Mikoto suggested.

"100,000km Victor Sierra Search Pattern laid in Captain. How long would you like the legs to be?" Lieutenant Henderson asked from the CONN

"Let's be thorough in our search" Mikoto replied simply. "We've got a large area to search, so your best judgement Lieutenant."

"Aye Captain, 2500km legs and turns programmed in." James looked over at the Trill sitting at the Ops station next to him "Xatoo, let's rock," as James presses the Execute button on his panel.

Xatoo at ops nodded.

Misaka sat back in her chair for a brief moment. "We should be expecting our guest any moment now, along with Lieutenant Shandro..." she muttered to herself.

The tactical console behind Mikoto started to beep. Suddenly a Cardassian Galor class cruiser dropped out of warp and positioned itself in front of the Ermiana.

"All stop." Mikoto quickly ordered.

"All Stop, Aye" Henderson quickly hits the red button on his console and feels the starship drift to a halt

"Hail them," she added once the ship had been brought to a halt.

"Opening hailing frequencies" Xatoo at Ops replied as his fingers tapped on the console.

"This is Captain Mikoto Misaka of the Federation starship Ermiana." Mikoto began. "Please state your presence here," she added quickly. The Cardassian ship seemed to be stationed in a classic defensive position, with its main phaser emitter facing the Galaxy Class Starship.

Felicie just happened to walk onto the Bridge at the time that they came to a full stop and she looked out the view screen at the Cardassian ship sitting there. She knew that the comms were open, so she didn't say anything other than stand at the back of the Bridge for now, her Sickbay status report in her hands that she was going to hand over to the Captain. It was something that could wait.

The main view screen switched to a view of a Cardassian Gul onboard the Galor ship. He stood up and walked towards the screen, his figure growing in stature as he approached. "Federation Vessel. I am Gul Dorvon of the Cadrassian Central Command. Our presence is the capture or destruction of a rogue Starfleet Vessel that has taken the lives of innocent Cardassian Officers and their families. You are hereby ordered to remove yourselves from this section of space or be treated as a coconspirator."

Mikoto crossed her arms, clearly not amused at what the Cardassian was saying to her. "How strange. We're also looking for that ship. It is Our ship that has been stolen after all. We're on a mission to recover the vessel, its crew and apprehend the Maquis."

As the Captain spoke, Shandro walked off the turbolift, looking inside for a moment as he gestured for someone to hold their position.

"Captain, Cardassian people were killed in these attacks. You have no authority here." The Gul replied as he raised his tone. "We demand justice. Cardassian justice for those who have died! We will not be denied this!"

To be continued...

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