Villanueva Villanueva its no longer here
Posted on 25 Jul 2021 @ 1:42am by Commander Amelia Fox & Captain Jonathan Reynolds & Lieutenant Commander Aidan Datari & Lieutenant Xu Chang Lau & Lieutenant JG Rosaline Belikov & Lieutenant C'Tora Kuroka & Ensign Adam Morgan & Ensign Vince Stryfe & Ensign Gwen Leighton & Lieutenant JG Harper Matthews
Mission:
Picking up the pieces
Location: Area of space where Villanueva used to be
Timeline: MD1 1600
2421 words - 4.8 OF Standard Post Measure
ON:
Jon looked over at Trues seat once more as if she was going to magically appear again and things never had changed. His heart pinged as again it was empty.
"Report," he asked again. "Have we any idea what's happened yet?"
Adam Morgan watched the viewscreen closely just as he was taking the next leap over the nearest chunk of rock. If he didnt, that chunk would have hit the Andromeda's port side, so he placed in the turns with the manoeuvering thrusters while the impulse engines were active. Morgan looked at his readings again on his board and looked at the screen replying on instinct to the captain's question,
"An unbelievable sight for sure. It's rough trying to navigate the asteroid field now as we fly deeper into the area."
"Thank the heavens for our deflector dish," Gwen commented, "There are no words for what we're seeing."
"It's hard to believe this was ever a planet," Aidan said as he turned away from his console. A look of sadness crossed his face as he watched the viewscreen. "This planet was uninhabited, wasn't it? Otherwise....all those lives needlessly lost... whatever culture lived here, lost..."
The turbolift doors opened and Amelia entered the bridge. Coming over to John she sat down, now noticing the image on the viewscreen. "My God! There's supposed to be a planet here. What the hell happened?"
"Port side, seven hundred meters Adam!" Xu interjected as her hands flew over the operations console, supporting the Conn Officer by keeping an eye on the sensors and relaying any possible impact threats to him.
Morgan looked at the operations station just for a split second to acknowledge the data and he danced his fingers on the console before him at incredible speed to counter the asteroids that were along the port side of the ship. The ship shook a little with no impact except for the ship moving away from the port side of any asteroid impact.
Hawkins came up to the bridge and his jaw hit the floor, the loss of a planet. What happened here? "What sort of force could have done this unless..." he shook his head, "Perish the thought."
The viewscreen was a sight to behold. Not one of beauty but instead of sheer destruction and violence. "Deflectors are keeping the smaller debris from damaging our ship Captain." Harper reported from up on The Hill as she'd decided to call it. Naturally, she did not feel the need to say to avoid the larger chunks as helm had it well under control at this moment in time.
"Excellent. Well, I don't see much point in continuing in further. I think let's do some scans and get some samples. See if that gives us any indication of how this could have happened. "Commander Datari if you can coordinate."
Gwen watched, from her Security spot near the turbolift, as the others did their dance around the bridge. In the back of her mind she thought this might be an appropriate time to bring them all a comforting scone or muffin. That thought was quickly replaced with danishes as stress levels rose.
"Yes sir," the Trill answered, eyes now fixed on his controls. They had a harshness to them that they rarely showed, the usually soft spoken officer inwardly seething at the monstrosity that had occurred here. "Designating science teams to collect samples. Dispatching probes as well to help gather data."
"When the away team went down to planet there were some medical personnel - Orions I believe number one?"
"I'm not sure if they were medical personnel or just scavengers Captain." Amelia replied, her eyes still fixed on the viewscreen.
"Is there any indication of any life signs. Did anyone survive or get out of whatever happened?" Jon asked.
"I am not detecting anything Captain. Whatever did this has left a blanket of ionising radiation in the area and is making detailed scans problematic!" Xu offered from the Operations console, her attention split between the conversation and helping Ensign Morgan dodge moon sized chucks of planetoid.
"Sensors are not detecting lifesigns, but we are keeping an eye out," Aidan offered quietly, without looking up. "As soon as someone detects anything we'll have it transported directly to sickbay."
"Scan all communication frequencies. Lets see if anyone or anything is out there," Jon said
From her station at the rear of the bridge, Rose was looking through the sensor data the other officers had been collecting looking for deeper patterns that might shed some light on what happened. At the order from the Captain, she brought up the com channels on her screen and started scanning, “hmm, I might have something sir, but I’m not sure. The radiation field is causing more than a little interference”
Morgan looked over his scans as he looked past the area on the viewscreen to maybe confirm but he spoke anyway, "Captain, I have picked up some sort of engine emissions that have dispersed in different parts of the system."
"Can you track a path?"
"Aye sir. I can try to navigate around the field as much as I can, but in order to reach them, the manoeuvring may require some inspirational thinking as the chunks are larger the further we go in," replied Morgan after his commanding officer ordered for an intercept to a possibly dead ship.
"Perhaps there's someone still alive out there. Keep scanning on all frequencies see if we can pick anything up. Maybe there's a distress call and the radiation and rest of everything that happened is interfering. Inspirational thinking Ensign I know you have that in spades when it comes to flying," Jon said confident.
Morgan smirked as he kept his eyes on his console and spoke, "Thank you sir. Haven't heard any complaints," he stated as he sort of laughed under his breath hoping his over confidence didn't give him away.
C'Tora stepped off the turbolift with a hypospray in hand and spotted Amelia and moved to her side. He spoke softly to her. " You missed your weekly vitamin hypo for the baby, So I've brought it to you....." His eyes wandered to the view screen, astonished at what he saw he spoke barely above a whisper. " Weren't we going to a planet? This is just an asteroid field we've encountered along the way, right? "
Aidan shook his head, casting the feline CMO a sad look. "No doctor, that was a planet...we just don't know what happened here."
C'Tora's ears and tail stood out straight and his eyes as wide as they could possibly be. " Was there a planetary distress call? " he asked. " By the maker!! How did this happen and how big was the population? " C'Tora looked down at his hands and saw he still had the hypospray to administer, he gently placed it on Amelia's neck as the hypo made a soft hissing sound. " Please let me know if there is anything that the medical staff can do. " he turned to the turbolift doors with his ears low and tail drooping.
Michael watched as C'Tora headed towards the turbolift, he too felt saddened about the planet being gone as well. He turned his attention back towards the view screen as Morgan maneuverer the Andromeda. He also was gritting his teeth as well. He didn't want anything to happen to the Drommie.
“Thanks Doc.” Amelia called out, rubbing her neck with one hand. She had intended to go down to sickbay that afternoon. “Well it doesn’t fit the MO of a planet killer. All this debris would have been consumed for fuel.”
"Captain, I'm picking up a very weak signal in the delta band frequencies... I cannot pin point its location due to the ionising radiation". Xu announced from the Ops console, briefly allowing her attention to drift away from the shattered planetary fragments. "Aidan... I mean Commander, may I route the data to you to see if you can work your magic?"
The Trill nodded. "Of course lieutenant, perhaps the two of us can compile sensor data and triangulate the source of the signal." he waited for Xu to send him her data, then cross referenced with sensor data. "Sending coordinates to helm," he announced after a few minutes. "it's very faint but it seems to be coming central from the debris field."
"Are we able to navigate the debris field or would it be safer to send a shuttle?" Gwen asked.
"I think a shuttle would be safer from here," Jon said. "Ensign Morgan, take Lieutenant Harper and go investigate if that's a distress signal. Take Lieutenant Hawkins as well. Make sure that you do your magic so we have less trouble communicating. Additional beacons whatever you need."
Gwen did her best to hide the frumpy face at the current orders. She wanted to go play in the shuttle. The annoyance was fleeting, as she wasn't in a place to even request such a thing. Instead she adjusted her attitude and set her sights instead on what she could do to fill the gap while those three were gone. It was a team after all.
Michael stood up, "Very well, Captain, we'll get this sorted out." giving a nod. He looked towards the others who would be with him, already going through items he needed and most definitely an EVA suit to place the beacons and amplifiers where needed.
Tapping a couple commands in the console making sure the ship didn't come apart with the asteroids, Morgan acknowledged the order as well as he stood from his chair, "Yes sir. I can get a class 2 ready for departure within 10 minutes," Morgan stated as he headed towards the turbolift with the others for the away team.
Vince felt the ship shake slightly, an odd thing considering the charts for this section of space, but decided to just ignore it and continue on his way to get some food. As he neared his destination, the ship shook again, more noticeable this time, now he was sure there was something wrong so he decided to head to the nearest turbolift, justified in his thought as his comm badge came alive.
"Ensign Stryfe, report to the bridge immediately" The voice seemed stressed, concerned almost about something.
Now he sped up, jumping into the lift and heading to the bridge. This is what he was here for, he knew something was going on, and he'd probably be getting his hands on the ship for the first time since joining the crew, and no matter the situation, he was ready for it. As the doors to the lift opened, he was greeted by Morgan, who gestured to the the helm. Vince ran past noticing the view screen, and promptly took over the controls, a test of his skills already, and such big rocks to test them with.
Harper did not want to mention that her surname was Matthews, not Harper, but this wasn't the first time someone had mixed themselves up and in this type of situation with many moving parts she let it go and moved from her console. She signalled to Gwen to take her place as she logged out. "I would suggest caution on approach to the signal. I know this planet is in bits but I'd like to keep us in one fairly solid piece." she said moving into the turbolift with the others.
"Aye," Gwen says to her Chief, "I'll keep the big ship safe. We'll be on stand-bye to bring you back as needed."
Once everyone was in the lift, Michael gave the order for the appropriate deck and the turbolift was well on its way. It settled gently on the deck and Michael stepped out, and to one side, he had sent out a message to one of his engineers requesting the appropriate gear. When he arrived at the shuttle bay, Ames was there to hand him his gear.
"Ames, your keep things together right?" he said to the ginger-haired man who had greeted him.
Rolling his eyes slightly, Ames nodded, "Right, like usual. You had better come back in one piece."
Michael nodded, "No problem, it will just be a cake walk." giving a grin.
Ames just shook his head, and got out of the way for the others. "The shuttle's ready to go!"
Michael walked over, the shuttle doors were open and he got inside taking a seat to wait for the others, plus checking over his gear one more time.
Morgan loaded his own gear up and started towards the cockpit of the shuttle. The type 2 shuttles were always cramped, but it was only a scout mission anyways. He looked over his controls as he took the helm and noted that Ames didn't leave him much to do but to take off. The engines were primed up and the systems were all ready to go. He settled back in his chair as he waited for the others to strap in.
Harper took a seat to the side, and activated the console for the shuttles defensive and offensive capabilities. She did not think she'd have to use them but she always wanted to be ready for anything. "Ready to go when you all are." She chirped.
"Let's get going then." Hawkins stated, giving a quick smile. "This way we can solve this mystery."
“No unnecessary risks,” Jon called after them. “Who knows what else might be floating out there.”
Back on the bridge, Amelia shifted uncomfortably in her chair. She lent over to Jon and whispered in a low voice "I don't like it. We've got limited sensor range with all this debris floating around and we won't be able to engage the warp drive till we're clear. Sounds like an ideal place for an ambush if you ask me."
"If anyone's planning on ambushing us number one they are up against the same conditions," Jon quipped. "Would it make you feel a bit better if we were at yellow alert?" he asked with a small grin."
Gwen’s ears perked, "Yellow alert as a comfort." She mumbled to herself with a chuckle.
Amelia nodded then called over her shoulder to tactical "Yellow alert!"
OFF:
Lieutenant Michael Hawkins
Chief Engineer
Ensign Harper Matthews
Chief Tactical/Security Officer
Ensign Gwen Leighton
Security Officer
Captain Jonathan Reynolds
CO, USS Andromeda
Commander Amelia Fox
XO, USS Andromeda
Lt. Commander Aidan Datari
Chief Science Officer
Lieutenant Xu Chang-Lau
Chief Operations Officer
LTJG C'Tora Kuroka
Chief Medical Officer
