Hopeful news out of nowhere and now the Helicon and its crew have to once again face the prospect of returning to danger. Will they be ready?
"Personal Log, Nishikino Maki: The Helicon has been repaired to the satisfaction of the Captain and Starfleet, if not the Chief Engineer and we are en route to rescue the away team, the urgency increased by the message received from the planet. I am still worried that the crew's recovery lags behind the ship. The deaths of 28 crewmembers, including Captain Camisa, is a weight we all bear. Everyone is dealing in their own way. Hoshizora is trying to find out why it happened, Lieutenant Yazawa is doubling her Tactical team's training hours, which seems to only invigorate them. She has also suggested through Senior Chief Petty Officer Thetora that a mutual education program be developed for medical and tactical officers…" Maki paused, remembering how surprised she was when the Tellarite NCO showed up at sickbay, arguing that both healers and warriors could understand each other better...right now, Maki would like a key to navigating conversations with Lieutenant Commander Yazawa and a way to ensure that the Captain didn't take on the weight of the entire galaxy. "Captain Sonoda continues to push herself physically, I can barely get her to take a half shift for rest. My medical team is efficient and continues to provide excellent emotional and physical support to their fellow crewmembers. I'm very proud of them, to have this team for my first command is a gift. Thank you, Captain Camisa. End personal log entry."
Maki was restless and not due for a shift for several hours. Maybe now was a good time to test out the changes she'd made in her favorite holosuite program.
###
Eli looked at the readouts and graphs. There was a pattern here, she was certain, but it was eluding her. Her. It was infuriating. Illogical.
An exasperated sigh escaped her lips. Eli froze. Such a display of emotion was not proper.
"Those sub-space transmission harmonics giving you trouble?" Nozomi asked, leaning over Eli's shoulder.
"Excuse me?" Eli replied, trying to ignore the light touch of Nozomi's body on her shoulder.
"Here." Nozomi pointed at a point in the EPS flow graphs, "The transmission vector is all wrong. You need to tune it to within 2.35 cycles for it to hold a stable carrier wave."
"But this is an EPS flow." Eli objected.
"Oh? Looks like sub-space harmonics to me."
Eli looked again at the graphs. Transmission harmonics? But these were the readings from the EPS flow sensors, she was sure of it. Mislabelling data was not something that happened. So… how? "Lieutenant, would you mind telling me how this looks like sub-space transmission harmonics?" Eli asked, stiffly looking forward as she sensed Tojo's green eyes regarding her.
"I'd thought you'd never ask." Came the reply, the voice slightly modulated. Tojo's hands came into Eli's frame of view, indicating various points in the flow graph, while her voice melodically spoke close to her ear, making it at times hard to focus when the harmonics hit specific notes. But the conclusion was clear, the EPS relays were communicating, though very simplistically, with each other in order to change the way the should operate, apparently with each carrying different though similar parameters. The result was that during the heightened power requirements of combat, in human terms, they want haywire, causing systems to overload while protecting their own operation.
It was ingenious and brought some very disturbing possibilities to the surface. Sabotage, but at the basic level, something that could only be accomplished during construction and likely only be detected in the final tests and maybe, if they hadn't been able to separate the ship and thereby redistributing the power flow, be destroyed.
"You listenin'?" Tojo's voice brought her out of her thoughts.
"Yes, sorry. I am concerned with what this would mean. You spotted this very quickly."
"Hard not to care, when you hear that sigh, and this just happens to be my field. Even wrote a paper about it at the academy."
Impressive. I have to read it, it could provide insight, Eli realized.
"I… will endeavour to read it at the earliest opportunity. I have to inform the Chief Engineer about this. We cannot be caught out like this again. Thank you, Lieutenant." Eli turned her head towards Tojo and almost bumped her nose with the communication officers'. Nozomi flashed her a big smile.
"You're most welcome, miss Eli."
Eli decided to let the lack of protocol slide. She tapped a control on the console. "Chief Engineer."
"Rin, nya."
"Lieutenant Commander, we will talk about how to address a senior officer at some point in time. I have some very… disturbing findings regarding our EPS grid. I will meet you in engineering to discuss this."
"You're fast."
"Lieutenant Tojo assisted me. Have your team ready." she stood up.
"Sonoda to Ayase." Eli's combadge pinged.
"Yes, Captain?"
"Have you assembled your away team yet?"
Away team, Eli thought frantically, forcing her mind away from the puzzle of the EPS flow and Lieutenant Tojo's insights. Rescue mission. "Not yet, Captain. I was on my way to engineering regarding the EPS..."
"The away team is your first priority." Umi's voice snapped with authority, "Please hand off all other tasks to Science and Engineering in the meantime. I'm on my way to the bridge to relieve you."
"Aye, Captain." Eli could feel Lieutenant Tojo watching her. And the rest of the bridge. Her first real act as Executive Officer, leading an away team on a rescue mission.
"Lieutenant Commander Yazawa would probably appreciate being consulted on the team makeup." Nozomi said carefully, "Shall I get her on comms?"
Relieved to have a place to start, Eli shook her head, "Computer, please locate Lieutenant Commander Yazawa?"
"Lieutenant Commander Yazawa is in the Null-G gymnasium, Deck 16."
"Lieutenant Tojo, you have the conn until Captain Sonoda arrives. Then please report your findings to the chief engineer."
###
"Let's go, raise that number!" Nico shouted at the crewman standing in front of a holoprojected tally of kilograms. "Tactical's taken the lead. Good job, Kwon."
Lieutenant Kwon dropped the weights, the clang of metal plates ringing through the gym. Throwing his arms up, he stepped back, cheers from his teammates loud as 230 kilograms were added to their tally.
"What'd you got?" He snarled at his competition.
The Security Team huddled for a minute and then with a booming laugh, Lieutenant K'doga Pennyworth stepped forward, "Puny." The half Klingon flexed, dialed up the weight, and dropped into a squat, hands gripping the bar. "300."
The door slid open as the Security officer raised the bar to her shoulders, Commander Ayase entering to a dozen grunting, jumping security crewman chanting "majQa'" as Pennyworth powered the bar overhead, the Security numbers rising.
"Top that." Pennyworth said to Nico with a wink. Nico rolled her eyes.
"Lieutenant Commander Yazawa." Eli called out as the cacophony quieted. "May I have a word?"
"Nico has to save the day." Nico turned, glancing at the spectators, spotting her Senior Chief half asleep, "Yo, Chief, help Nico out."
Thetora lumbered to his feet, stretching his hands out with a huge crack of knuckles. The sturdy Tellarite took his place with a grin, leaving K'doga's weight in place. Lifting that would put Tactical 10 kg ahead.
"Lieutenant Commander." Eli tapped Nico's shoulder.
"Coward." Pennyworth roared.
"Just a minute," Nico said to Eli over her shoulder, stomping up to the Lieutenant, hands on hips. "Do you dare face me?"
Fierce glares. A silent, tensed gym. Then Pennyworth stepped back with a booming laugh, "Only over Chech'tluth."
"You heard about Nico's stash."
Pennyworth shrugged.
"We'll talk." Nico clapped Pennyworth on the shoulder then spun to face an impatient Eli, who jumped back. "What do you need, Commander Ayase?"
"To discuss the away team?"
"Right. Let's head to Nico's office." Nico trotted to the door, waving at both teams, Eli following at a slower pace.
When the door slid closed behind them, Eli spoke up, "Was that a training exercise? It seemed very...emotional."
Nico stopped, staring at the Science Officer for several seconds. Nico had realized in their limited interactions that Commander Ayase drew much from her Vulcan heritage. As much as Klingon culture had influenced her, Nico was sympathetic, but Vulcan detachment seemed cold in an officer in charge of a sizeable percentage of the crew.
"How's the science department doing?
"What do you mean? All of our experiments and studies are proceeding 3.8% ahead of schedule, in the aggregate."
"Computer, open briefing room door." And then Eli found herself being shoved into the little used Space Wing briefing room. Lieutenant Shidou had placed several models on the table of the ships they might see in their launch bay, but otherwise, it was a pristine space.
"Lieutenant Commander."
"Sit." Nico pointed at a chair; Eli sat, crossing her legs as she leaned back, aggressively glaring at the Tactical chief.
"You lost two specialists and had seven injured, right?"
"How do you know that?
"Nico knows everything." Nico sat at the head of the table, "Plus, Captain Camisa's death. For us in Tac/Sec, Lieutenant Corwyn-Thaler is very popular so everyone seeing them in so much pain was...hard. For everyone." Nico glanced out the viewport, Eli relaxing as the ruby laser scrutiny turned in another direction, "As their immediate commander, Nico knew they needed a morale boost. And daily workouts are required and can get repetitive so…" with a grin, Nico turned back, "Nico made an event they could get excited about."
Surprised, Eli leaned forward, "That is…"
"Nico is a genius. Nico knows. But you need to check in on your people, Commander."
As Executive Officer, Eli should have been thinking of this, instead of just arranging the memorial service with the view that it would put an end date on grief. The dead and injured crew members would be with the Helicon, in their friends' and co-workers' thoughts, as an ongoing process.
After giving Eli a minute to process, Nico prodded, "Who else is on your away team?"
"Are you aware that we received a message from Lieutenant Kosaka's team?"
Nico nodded, "Captain Sonoda let me know we would be returning to the Neutral Zone. I've been discussing some stealth modifications with Engineering."
"We will need security officers and a medical representative in case a member of the away team is injured."
"Should be a medical corpsman with combat experience. High chance of hostile encounter with the Romulans. We can't be caught on that planet. Break out your covert ops jumpsuit. Nico will stop by the armory."
"We?"
Nico raised an eyebrow, "You'll want a Tactical officer, Tactical will want a look at any Romulan tech...did you want someone other than Nico?"
Nico talked faster than anyone Eli had ever met. She was beginning to long for the sound of Lieutenant Tojo's easy drawl dissecting EPS waves. Time to add another voice to this conversation.
Eli tapped her combadge, "Ayase to Doctor Nishikino."
"Doctor Nishikino is currently not available."
Eli could almost feel Nico's ears perk up. "This is urgent, right?"
"Yes. Captain Sonoda ordered me to prioritize the creation of an away team."
Nico's grin glowed like a starburst. "Computer, locate Lieutenant Commander Nishikino. Security override Lieutenant Commander Yazawa Nico, Tango Delta Nine."
"Lieutenant Commander Nishikino is in Holosuite A."
"Let's go." And Nico was out the door.
###
Outside the holosuite, Nico was about to speak the override code when Eli caught up and pulled her back.
"We are not invading Doctor Nishikino's privacy."
"She just barged right into Nico's…"
"Lieutenant Commander, I have no interest in the personal situation between you and Doctor Nishikino…"
"Whadda you mean, there is no…"
Eli glared, feeling tall as Nico shrunk slightly, "We will allow the doctor's private recreations to remain private. Is that understood, Lieutenant Commander?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"Computer, please inform Doctor Nishikino that Lieutenant Commander Yazawa and Commander Ayase need to speak to her."
The door slid open almost instantly, the waiting officers catching a glimpse of darkness, a central spotlight drawing attention as Maki spoke, angrily. "Computer end program. What did Lieutenant Commander Yazawa do this time?"
Eli clenched her jaw on a hiss of irritation, "I need you both to focus on our duty."
Maki frowned at Nico, before replying to Eli, "My apologies, Commander. How can I assist you?"
"First, we move this conversation to the Briefing Room."
###
Maki and Nico had positioned themselves diagonally as far away from each other as possible in the Helicon's small briefing room. The prickly energy bouncing between them had dissipated. Both had PADDs out, alertly waiting for Eli's command. The XO relaxed a little, more in her environment here, in this quiet space, with an attentive and respectful audience.
"Lieutenant Commander Yazawa has suggested we include a medical corpsman with combat experience on the team and I agree. We will be infiltrating Romulan facilities."
"I'll be going." Maki said matter-of-factly.
Eli had gotten one sentence out before the conversation exploded again. Yazawa kept her tone neutral, but she was obviously not pleased with Maki's suggestion.
"Does the doctor have any experience in a combat situation?"
Maki glared and tapped the table, Nico seemed to understand what she meant.
"Yes, we recently survived combat." Nico looked to Eli, "What I meant was does the doctor have any combat experience outside sickbay."
"I'll be going." Maki repeated.
Nico took another tack, "Have you passed your six month hand to hand combat test."
"Not due yet."
Nico looked to Eli, "That's not an answer."
Eli raised a hand, "If Doctor Nishikino thinks she is the best medical team for this job, I accept her assessment. It will be the job of the tactical and security members to ensure her safety."
Nico muttered. Maki was about to speak but Eli shook her head, not finished yet.
"Is that a task your skills are up to, Lieutenant Commander Yazawa?"
Nico was obviously swallowing a multitude of Klingon curses by the contortions of her face, but she met Eli's glance and spoke clearly, "Yes, ma'am."
"Then please assemble what you need. Doctor Nishikino, we will need to impersonate Romulans." Eli touched her ears, "I will be fine, but if you could create temporary prosthetics…."
"Certainly."
"Good. Let me know when you both have what you need assembled."
"Yes ma'am." in unison.
"Dismissed."
Nico let Maki leave first, seemed poised to say something else, but then nodded and followed.
Eli let herself breathe a single sigh of relief.
###
Maki glanced up. Lieutenant Commander Yazawa was standing in the doorway of her office, dressed in a form fitting black jumpsuit, boots to match, and a hood clumped up at her neck. Nico marched in, dropped a pile of black on Maki's desk. "Nico included a backpack. Do you need a phaser?"
"We use other tools here."
Nico rolled her eyes, not even considering Maki's snide tone a provocation. The Doctor might have to learn some things fast and Nico just wanted to make sure Nishikino and the rest of the away team returned to the Helicon. "Romulans can't see us so pack light."
"Romulans can't see us?"
Nico grimaced, "There can be no official Starfleet presence. No insignia." Nico pointed to her collar, "We go down, we rescue the team, we beam out, leaving nothing behind."
"Noted." Maki was starting to feel nervous, but she kept her hands steady as she reached for the backpack.
Nico, ruby eyes sharp, nodded once, "Just trust Nico."
"I...the prosthetics are almost prepared, do you want…"
"Bring them to the transporter room. Nico has to make a stop."
With a wave, Nico was out the door, as fleeting and insubstantial as a lithe shadow. Maki, suddenly feeling the weight of what they were about to undertake, began to make a list of essential medical supplies.
"Lieutenant Tojo, give me ship wide." Umi said.
"Shipwide." Nozomi acknowledged.
Throughout the ship a whistle played, signalling attention.
"All hands, this is the captain" Umi addressed the crew, "We are about to return to the place that cost us all friends and colleagues. Through the engineering crews' efforts, we return better than before , but I will not lie to you: It will be dangerous.
Trust in yourself, trust in your colleagues and in your duty and I ask you to put your trust in me.
We're going to get our friends home.
All hands to your stations.
Sonoda out."
"All sections acknowledging Captain." Eli said looking at her status display.
"Thank you, Eli. Sonoda to Engineering: Miss Hoshizora, are my engines purring?"
"Absolutnya"
"And Yazawa's modifications?"
"Online. The sensors that make us will think us to be Romulan at first glance."
"Excellent. Bridge out."
Umi sat down in the captain's chair. It felt strange, but at the same time familiar. She had sat in it before, when she had watch on the bridge, but then always temporary. Now it was her chair. She was the centre. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a second.
She was in a place where space, time, future and past were one. A voice, light as air, flew into her consciousness.
Umi-chan.
Umi's eyes shot open.
"Helm, set course for the coordinates of the planet, maximum safe warp."
Helmsman Wakefield acknowledged, "Course laid in. At set speed it should take us 36 minutes."
"Very good. Ensign Murakami?"
"Yes, Captain?" the young ensign replied from the science station.
"Be ready for a full sensor sweep the moment we come out of warp."
"Aye, Captain."
Umi took another deep breath.
"Helm… Execute!"
Wakefield pressed a series of controls. A chirp acknowledging the commands. In space, the nacelles began to glow, the ship seemed to haunch, ready to strike, the next second it was gone, a faint glimmer professing its jump to warp.
The countdown on the main viewer tallied the minutes steadily decreasing. When fifteen minutes remained, Umi turned to Eli.
"Miss Ayase, assemble your away team and get ready, after the sweep we'll probably have a small window in which to beam you down before we have to run silent."
"
It will be done Captain." She tapped her communicator, "Doctor Nishikino, report to transporter room three and bring the prosthetics. Lieutenant Yazawa and Ensign J'kins, transporter room three."
Eli nodded to Umi, then left her post, stepping into the turbolift. As the doors closed, Umi said:
"May fortune walk with you."
-
"Hold still, Ensign." Maki said, bonding a prosthetic to J'kins upper left ear.
"But aren't we going in stealth?"
"We are." Nico nodded, "This is a precaution. Might make the Romulans hesitate that vital second we need."
Her ears already sported the pointed tips.
Eli turned to the transported chief.
"Chief, what's our ETA?"
"We should be dropping out of warp in four minutes."
Maki bonded the last section to J'kins ear, "Done."
Eli looked at her team. They looked more than a gang of special operatives instead of starfleet officers. Even their communicators looked like commercial models.
"Alright, assemble on the pad." she said took a step towards the platform.
The transporter room doors suddenly opened, a slightly rushed Hoshizora entered with a suitcase in one hand.
"Chief Engineer?" Eli asked, her foot already on the step up to the transporter platform.
Rin held up the suitcase.
"Here, an enhanced sub-space transmitter. I didn't have time to make it more portable, sorry."
Eli took the case. It was on the limit of being too heavy.
"We know the Romulans love their dampening fields, this will cut through them like butter, nya! Oh, and on that note… Chief?" Rin addressed the transporter chief, "we need a set of three pattern enhancers."
"Got it." the chief turned and retrieved the rods from a storage compartment behind the master control.
"Pattern enhancers?" Maki asked.
"Just in case, nya!"
The away team took one of the rods each and secured them to their backs, Yazawa making sure she could still pull her weapons.
"Oh, before I forget." Rin pointed at the case, "It amplifies your local signals too, but the power draw is crazy."
"30 seconds." the transporter chief called.
"Use it sparingly."
"20 seconds."
"Ayase to Captain Sonoda."
"Sonoda."
"Standing by to transport."
"Tojo to Ayase."
"Lieutenant?"
"Be safe."
"I endeavour to keep us all safe."
"10 seconds."
They waited.
"We're out of warp. Scanning… there got the data from science and there is the beacon."
"Away team, ready phasers."
"Transporting…" and the team dematerialized.
"Lieutenant!" the chief explained, "There is some kind of layered dampening field. I'm loosing the beam."
Hoshizora was immediately next to him, fingers dancing over the controls.
"This is new… wait…" she pressed a few controls, "They're still in the pattern buffer?"
"Yes, but… we need to rematerialize… "
"I got this nya." fingers danced over the control surface and Rin cycled the beam-out protocol.
Four indicators appeared on the target display.
"This will be a problem on the way up." Rin said to the nodding transported chief, "Keep the adjustments in the command buffer, nya."
"Got it."
Rin tapped her com-badge.
"Hoshizora to Captain. We have a problem, nya."
