From: Justin Owens (teddy276_at_yahoo.com)
Date: Mon Jan 14 2008 - 00:51:30 PST
“Explosive Decisions of Unknowing Answers”
( Continued from Margie’s “Hidden Secrets” & Kim’s “ Keeping Busy” )
Location: USS STONEHENGE
Scene: Main Science Labs
Stardate: [2.7]0113.2212
With the rest of the crew having set out to search for Aerdan, Thomas was charged with the still remaining task of destroying the looming danger that slowly approaching the planet. By now the meteor had reached the edge of the STONEHENGE ’s sensor range, and Thomas was ever aware of the fact. Inside the ship numerous science officers scrambled to prepare and study the data to try and determine the best way to destroy the space object.
“Report,” Thomas shouted as he walked into the science labs causing a pause in the motion for a moment.
Walking up quickly an ensign almost threw a padd into his hand, “Sir, preliminary scans indicate that the meteors size is comparable to that of the Mars’ moon, Deimos in the Sol system.”
Thomas stopped dead in his tracks looking at the ensign before looking around at everyone else, “Listen to me everyone. We have a moon sized meteor heading for a planet that is currently occupied. If the meteor strikes that planet, we’ll see a reenactment of the dinosaurs from Earth.”
All motion and sound inside the science labs seemed to stop as Thomas looked at everyone. Most were hoping that he wasn’t serious, but he was. In all truth Thomas had left out that the size of the meteor is larger than that of which was thought to have stricken Earth while the Dinosaurs roamed the land.
Time Index: One Hour Later
By now Thomas had his whole team engulfed within the study to try and destroy this rock before it ever arrived to NOCTURIA. It wasn’t like something special had to be done, but the truth of the matter is that with the meteor’s size tractor beams were out.
The whole science department had been working in overdrive it seemed as they were burning themselves out one by one trying to figure out the best way stop the meteor. In true form all the scientists were all over thinking the solution to this job, as each broke down the meteor into its primal elements to determine answers to what if scenarios. No one had even noticed that Sylvia had wandered into the lab looking around at everyone a bit perplexed.
Walking past everyone until reaching Thomas she smiled softly before stretching out her hand touching his shoulder, “If you guys thought any harder we’d have to begin fire procedures.”
Jerking lightly, Thomas turned and smiled softly before nodding, “We are just a bit distracted.”
“I can see that… must be why you didn’t answer you Comm link the, oh, four times engineering tried to page you.”
The CsciO turned, blinking at her. “Why is Engineering trying to call me?” His brow furrowed as he tried to remember back through all the orders he had given in the last few hours.
“Remember when you and Kiros were throwing ideas back and forth and you called up to bounce ideas off of us? You wanted to know if we could prepare explosive charges? Well, we prepared all of your explosive charges.” She had her hands on her hips, with an expression of mixed exasperation and amusement.
Thomas let his brow furrow a bit, looking back at the young woman. “I don’t even know if we will use that option.”
“Lieutenant, in all due respect, if engineers waited until scientists to make up their minds about things, nothing would ever be built,” she smiled slightly, “If you want that option, it’s ready.”
Nodding softly Thomas shook his head as to remove the urge to sleep, “It may be our only option from the way things are going. Nothing so far shows any way to destroy the meteor other than that.”
“Then it looks like you’ve made your choice then doesn’t it,” Sylvia said softly looking at Thomas trying to be supportive in any decision he had to make.
Looking around Thomas sighed and began making preparations, “Ensign Torak, begin calculations to determine the exact points where the explosives will need to be placed in order to break it apart. Lieutenant Thompson, send the necessary information to flight operations to obtain the shuttle or shuttles we will need. We will need to make modifications to use them to either deploy the explosives while moving or beam down.”
Thompson nodded and slowly turned as information came pouring out onto his viewscreen. “Sir… from these readings we are going the have a very thin margin of error. We need to shuttle in, transport the charges into place, and shuttle out in under a half hour.”
Lt. Varn perked a brow in a almost Vulcan manner. “Then contact Lynette Ryan, and have the best pilots she can spare be on ready. “
“Aye Sir.” He gave a nod and went back to work. Syliva looked over, her face furrowed into an expression of worry. “I’m coming with you.” She resolved, evenly.
Thomas shook his head. “It’s too dangerous. If we don’t get the charges places and get out of there in time, the shuttle will be caught in the explosion.”
“But you need somebody to set the charges correctly.” She countered.
“Any qualified engineer could set the charges, Sylvia…” Thomas felt like he was groping for reasons that were slipping away.
Ensign Warren shook her head. “Not if something goes wrong. I built them, Thomas. I built them, and I want to help you see this to it’s conclusion.”
He thought about it for a few long, hard seconds and finally nodded. “Alright. Get all the charges on board the shuttle SALISBURY.” Looking to Thompson, he added, “I want everyone ready in fifteen minutes.”
“Aye sir.”
Scene: Shuttlebay 2
Time Index: Fifteen Minutes Later
Thomas looked around at the team as they slowly gathered around the shuttle. Nodding once, he motioned for them to all load and be prepared, for anything. The STONEHENGE would stay behind and deploy a few shuttles to make sure that if any stellar fragments came towards the planet would be destroyed.
By now Thomas had already given Pol’Gra the information needed for Kiros to begin construction on the shields generators that would help fortify the caverns. As the shuttle began its procedures for departure Thomas breathed in.
Location: SPACE
Scene: USS STONENGE SHUTTLE SALISBURY
“Were approaching the first drop point,” the pilot said as the shuttle rotated on its axis before shooting a concentrated phaser shot somewhat drilling a hole into the asteroids surface.
Sylvia slowly moved over activating the first explosive before it was consumed by the blue light of a transporter.
“Head to location four.” Thomas said, rechecking the sensor readouts. “There should be a natural fissure in the meteor, and I want to exploit any weak points we possibly can.”
The pilot nodded, smoothly steering the shuttlecraft to the location. The next ten minutes
were filled with the routine motions of setting charges and beaming them into place. It looked like everything would go exactly to plan, when there was a flash of one of the scanners, followed by a rumble and an explosion in the meteor.
There was a sharp crack and the shuttlecraft pitched backwards in space, smashing the small crew inside against the port bulkhead as the clung on to their seats. As the shockwave cleared they all started to clamber back into their stations.
“what the hell was that?!” Thomas snapped, getting to his feet and looking around.
“One of the charges went off prematurely!” Sylvia grumbled, hands flying across the control panel.
Thomas was about to say something on the engineer’s attention to detail (or lack thereof) when his eyes caught something on the sensor display. “The charge opened up another fault line.” His brow furrowed deeply and he turned towards the pilot. “Howmuch time do we have left?”
“Less than ten minutes, sir.”
“Can we maneuver into position here,” he indicated the area with a finger, “in enough time to set and detonate safely?”
“It is possible, sir…” the pilot started in a less than confident tone.
“Then do so… now!” Thomas replied sternly. “The more charges we can pack into that fault line, the better chance we have of breaking this meteor into pieces small enough to burn up in the atmosphere.
“Yes sir.” The pilot merely nodded, setting inthe course.
Thomas turned to Ensign Warren. “Get ready, Sylvia, we need to set these as fast as we can.”
“I’m on it, Lieutenant.” Was all she replied.
Moving to a console and beginning to input the coordinates for each explosive inside the fissure Thomas took a deep breath. Scanning the fissure quickly he smiled as the fissure actually did reach into the inner reaches of the meteor itself. The yield of the charges inside the meteor should be sufficient to propel many pieces away from the planet.
Time Index: Three Minutes Later
With all the charges set Thomas and the crew on the shuttle looked around before breathing a sigh of relief as Thomas said, “Set a course for the STONEHENGE.”
As the shuttle streaked away from the meteor Thomas continued to scan the object. Looking at the scans he shook his head at the data, “Something isn’t right here.”
Within seconds the sensors on the shuttle began reading internal detonations from the meteor. Slowly the rock began to break up, but it was too soon, the other explosives on the surface hadn’t detonated.
Quickly moving over to her console Sylvia began to detonate the charges on the surface breaking the rock up into pieces. Quickly pieces of debris began flying by the shuttle, some gently striking the hull. As the ship rocked slightly the pilot began to raise the shields of the shuttle.
Before the shields could raise, a large chunk of debris flew in hitting the starboard side of the shuttle. The shuttle violently rocked back and forth throwing everyone from their seats into the floor.
“What’s going on?” Sylvia shouted.
“I don’t know but the good pilot is out,” Thomas said crawling up to the helm and taking a seat.
“Do you know how to fly this thing,” Sylvia asked sitting down beside him.
Quickly Thomas’ fingers flew across the console trying to compensate for the sudden tail spin the shuttle had been thrown into. Finally stabilizing the shuttle Thomas engaged the thrusters causing the small ship to move away quickly. Going to warp Thomas turned back to Sylvia and smiled, “Any questions?”
“Yeah, is the STONEHENGE out of the way of the premature explosions?” She returned.
Hitting the comm. signal, the speakers in the shuttle sputtered to life. “Lieutenant Ryan, have you been monitoring our progress?” Thomas asked.
[We saw the breakup of the meteor as it happened? Are you guys ok?”]
“Ensign Zabert is unconscious, he hit his head on the console when the ship lurched, and Lieutenant Varn and I are alright.” Ensign Warren filled in, kneeling by the pilot’s side.
[We’re reading the meteor split into over a dozen fragments.] Pol’Gra’s voice came over the channel.
“How big is the largest one?” The words came gritted through Thomas’ teeth as the shuttle pitched again and he tried to compensate without sending the passengers flying.
As Pol’Gra rattled off the measurements, Lieutenant Varn felt his face furrow into a frown. “At that size it won’t burn up in the atmosphere.”
“But it isn’t at a catastrophic size, either.” Syliva replied, pulling up the sensor readouts. “Similar to the size of the strike that created Earth’s Crater lake”
“I would rather we prevent any strike at all.” The CsciO replied.
“Are you going back?” Sylvia’s eyes were creased in worry.
Thomas thought for a moment before dropping the shuttle out of warp, and turning to face the meteor chunk that was coming towards NOCTURIA. As the shuttle moved at high impulse it didn’t take long before the large chunk, which unknowingly to Thomas contained an explosive that hadn’t detonated along with a pocket of explosive gas. As the device sparked from being damaged from the other explosions the pressurized gas, which was now escaping ignited taking the charge with it.
A shockwave lurched from the explosion moving quickly towards the shuttle. Unable to react in time Thomas tried his best to turn into the wave front, but it was too late. Like a small toy the shuttle was tossed and thrown backwards to NOCTURIA.
Location: USS STONEHENGE
Scene: Sickbay
Time Index: One Hour Later
Slowly Thomas blinked as he awoke in sickbay aboard the Stonehenge looking around a bit confused and disoriented. Trying his best to sit up Thomas was met with the forceful hand of a nurse who was standing beside him, and the sarcastic tone of Dr. Cade Foster.
“Just had to play the hero, didn’t we?” the civilian doctors asked, waggling his brows.
“Sylvia…?” Lieutenant Varn’s words felt dry and fuzzy in his mouth.
“Is fine. So is the pilot. Better than you at the moment, so lay down.” Cade returned. B’Gunda stood over the winged man, as if she was a manifestation of Cade’s will.
Despite the big Klingon nurse’s presence, Thomas tried to prop himself up on his elbows again. “The meteor?”
Cade turned and shot him a stern look. “Lay down.”
“But the meteor…” Thomas protested lightly. Slowly he realized that the cranky older man wasn’t going to tell him anything until he followed Doctor’s orders. Slowly he lowered himself back onto the biobed.
“Has already entered the atmosphere. The STONEHENGE used its phasers to break apart any fissures they could target. That snotty new Cadet thinks he can use the NOCTURIAN technology to shield anything that comes through.” Dr. Foster filled in as
Lieutenant Varn lay back.
“So what is there that is left?” he murmured.
“You can lay there for another hour and then once I release you; you can get up to the bridge. Pol’Gra says that the fleet is trying to contact you.”
The winged man turned, fixing Cade with a confused look. “Why would the fleet be trying to contact me?” he asked.
Foster waggled his brows at the younger man. “How should I know… I’m retired! They don’t tell me these things anymore.” He made a quick look over the sickbay and then turned back to Thomas. “Now lay down!”
“Yes Mommy…” Thomas rolled his eyes putting his head back on the pillow.
“I heard that.” Cade muttered heading back for the CMO’s office.
Scene: Thomas Quarters
Time Index: One Hour Later
Standing there Thomas’ eyes were shifting from color to color, not really knowing what emotion to feel. He knew that this would actually be part of the job description upon signing on but he didn’t know that it would be this quickly. Picking up the padd that contained the information he would need Thomas sighed softly before turning around looking.
Slowly he walked to a crate and began undoing the process of unpacking that he had not even been able to finish on the STONEHENGE. Slowly and silently the room became sterile in Thomas terms, as there was nothing to show someone of interest ever lived here.
It wasn’t long before the door chimed went off and Thomas stood up stretching, “Come in.”
The door opened with a silent shift, and Thomas could feel eyes lingering at the threshold. Finally when the voice spoke it was soft and sweet. “So… it’s true?”
“Rumors get around quickly, don’t they?” Thomas didn’t want to turn around, because he didn’t want to see the hurt he could hear in her voice.
“But why… it’s all so sudden?” Sylvia Warren stepped into his room, blinking back tears.
Slowly Lieutenant Varn shrugged. “I don’t know, Sylvia. But those are the orders.”
Balling her hands up into fists and bit her bottom lip. “It doesn’t make any sense that you should be transferred, just like this, without warning!”
This time Thomas did turn around, and his face soften to see her eyes. “There is a war going on, Sylvia…” He stretched out a hand and touched her cheek. “It’s not a bad thing to be transferred. I’m not going away forever. It’s just what the fleet thinks they need right now.”
She wiped her eyes a little and looked up to his face. “Will you miss the STONEHENGE?” she asked.
Thomas tried to keep any emotions he had held within, “You know I will. The second the VANGUARD arrives I’ll probably think about disobeying orders, but I wont.”
Without warning, she stepped forward and lightly wrapped her arms around the young CsciO’s shoulders. “I’ll miss you.” Leaning back, she added, “And I expect to see you on that station, mister!”
Location: USS VANGUARD
Scene: Transporter Room
Time Index: Thirty Minutes Later
As the battle scared ship came to a full stop beside the USS STONEHENGE, very little chatter was communicated between either ships bridge. As the transporter pad slowly illuminated as the familiar blue hue formed and slowly shaped itself into the form of Thomas, the transporter chief could swear the science officer was shouting at someone. After fully materializing, Thomas stepped down and shook his head before approaching the officer sent to greet him.
“Are you alright Lieutenant Varn,” the security officer asked making sure to tread gently on any subject that may offend the unknown scientist.
Looking at the security officer Thomas’ eyes changed to a hue of red-orange, before slowly changing back to hues of blue and green, “Yes, Lieutenant I am fine. Just the final last antics of a rambling old fool of a doctor who is too love sick to admit it.”
The Andorian officer looked at Thomas curiously, “Excuse me?”
Leaving the transporter room with the officer, Thomas shook his head, “A civilian doctor who was and still is in love, even though he won’t admit it, with the former chief medical officer of my ship tried to jump on the transporter with me before I left. Then when he was escorted out of the room he was shouting colorful metaphors to the fact that I was going some where that he needed to be.”
“Just where would that be Mr. Varn?” the security officer asked as they entered a turbolift.
“Evidently he wishes to go to the station where I’ve been assigned,” Thomas said shrugging gently still unaware of whom exactly it was that he would now be serving under.
Location: USS BENNINGTON
Scene: Quarters
Time Index: Five Days Later
It had been three days since the VANGUARD came and retrieved Thomas. After what he had read about the emergency call for aid to GATEWAY, he didn’t object to this sudden and swift transfer. Now aboard the BENNINGTON, he had the rare opportunity to relax, while ignoring the banter and whispers of his unusual uniform and body shape.
[[Bridge to Lieutenant Varn, we are approaching Gateway station. You best get yourself ready son, this is going to be something of a work out,]]
Thomas just shook his head smiling momentarily at the elderly voice of the captain of the BENNINGTON. Within what seemed like seconds, but was in reality minutes the BENNIGTON had begun docking procedures and its cargo and supplies were being off loaded.
Location: GS2
Scene: Turbolift à Command Deck à Daisy’s Ready Room
Time Index: Twenty Minutes Later
Riding up the lift that luckily for him was functioning at the time Thomas began to digest the sight of the battered station around him. The orders given to him by Starfleet were to report straight to the commanding officer once on station, to receive his further orders.
“Now the fun part, getting to know a whole new crew that will be full of questions,” he spoke softly to himself as the lift slowly came to a halt.
As the doors opened, and paused for a moment then continued Thomas cautiously stepped out. The command deck was for lack of words, beaten like the rest of the station. They prepared you for all sorts of things at the academy, but such destruction was something you were never prepared for. It wasn’t long before the crews that were working to rebuild the command deck began to notice a new face walking across the floors. Thomas only ignored them, to make his way to the ready room door.
The chime only rang once before a voice said loudly, “Come in.”
Taking a deep breath Thomas stepped through the portal and into the gaze of his new commanding officer, who was staring right back at him, “Daisy?!”
NRPG:
STOHENGE CREW: Thanks for all the fun guys; I wish you all the best of luck with your missions. Don’t forget me quickly J
GS2/PATRIOT CREWS: If I missed anyone in the mailing list please let me know and I will add them for future reference.
Kim: I’M HERE! TAG! Oh and I didn’t know what to put as Thomas’ position as I don’t think we determined that yet.
SORRY FOR POSTING TWICE LEFT SOME PEOPLE OUT OF THE LIST...
A Joint effort brought to you by the creative stylings of
Jamie LeBlanc
Lieutenant Aerdan Jos
Chief Medical Officer
USS STONEHENGE
&
Justin Owens
Lieutenant Jg. Thomas Varn
Starfleet Officer
GATEWAY STATION
---------------------------------
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Mon Oct 13 2008 - 03:10:26 PDT