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Star Trek Enterprise
Here We Stand
The Enterprise Incident PT 1
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(A Brief note I do not own Star Trek or its associated products. Also please forgive any grammar and spelling errors I am Dyslexic and even with a spell checker it is difficult for me to see them.)
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As the now unveiled Romulan Spy was carted away sans a few teeth their corresponding suicide pills and an implant in his ear that would also kill him once engaged Horatio turned to the delegation of Vulcans. It was a sobering moment for the Vulcan Officials and one of potential embarrassment as a spectre of their forgotten past had somehow returned to haunt them again.
"Admiral Forest." Spoke Soval "What has happened here today is an embarrassment to my people."
"The actions of the High Command over the past half century now have a much starker reality to them." said one of the Ministers.
"The Romulans are an offshoot of the Vulcan people." Said Horatio "the ones who rejected the path of Surak and Logic in favour of keeping their martial traditions and emotional temperaments."
"there were legends of those shielded under The Raptors Wings feeling into exile." Said another "but we thought them long dead." He said he was emotionally detached as any Vulcan, but his eyes gave away some of his unease. "I must thank you Humans for unveiling this viper in our midst."
"but now we must act." Said Soval "We must launch an investigation to find out if they were working alone or if there are more Romulans in our midst waiting to strike."
"I'll leave that to you gentlemen." Horatio bowed stiffly from the waist "I've got to get this ship back to Vulcan." He turned to the Doctor "Keep me apprised of the Captain's condition Doctor." He tapped his com as the doors closed behind him.
"Horatio to main engineering."
"Tucker here what's up Horatio."
"I need an engineering team to the main deflector room."
"I can't spare anyone right now we're purging the main computer I need all hands on deck to keep the core from going critical."
"Can you send a runner with some equipment?"
"I can do that." He replied, "What are you doing anyway."
"I need to make some adjustments so that we can hit Warp 1 without a time dilation field affecting us."
"Without the warp engines?"
"We can do it with the impulse drive, but it will take some small adjustments to not blow the whole system."
"I'll Have Jones send up the tools you need."
"Thanks, Trip." He said as he tapped the device again cutting the signal, he waited a moment then tapped it again. "This is Commander Smith to Lt Reed I need your help in main deflector control."
"on my way sir."
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The Main Deflector control was on E-Deck and a short walk from the Sick Bay. Still, it was long enough for Horatio to consider how he could repair the Enterprise and what would be needed and estimate the overall cost to Star Fleet Operations.
He worried that command would simply scrap the ship if the overall cost was too large or even if the repairs would take too long but given how popular the ship was with humanity, they may decide to transfer the name to the Columbia and start afresh with her.
Horatio had modified a hand scanner to do an in-depth metallurgical analysis of the framework the cracks were serious, and the ship's dampeners had done their best to stop them from getting worse Command may be justified in scrapping the ship.
Unless he could come up with a miracle.
He sighed to himself as he got to the bulkhead door then something occurred to him maybe he could work a miracle.
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Dangling upside down is an uncomfortable feeling at the best of times but doing so while elbows deep in a very important system that had a very large amount of power running through it. Now you may ask yourselves why wouldn't they turn it off so they could work on it.
The answer to that is micro meteors, space was full of them, and they move fast enough and are mean enough that if they hit in the correct place the ship could have an unfortunate and explosive end. So, here he was elbows deep in danger with nothing but a harness and a high-strung Englishman to keep him safe. Joy.
"Mal, I swear to god if you jiggle the harness again, I will have you cleaning the ship's waist recyclers with your toothbrush." He shouted angrily as his hand was shocked for the second time. He turned to his left to see Malcolm in a similar harness working from the top of the machine.
Mal didn't like working with high-powered machinery while they were still functioning, he always had fears that he would tap a power cable and get fried which was on his list as one of his top five worst ways to die right after asphyxiation but before exsanguination.
"it's not my fault" he shouted, "I'm not used to being a trapeze artist." He said releasing the other man's harness rope he had gotten tangled with for the second time.
The two were working on components at different levels that couldn't be reached with the ladder usually in operations like this they would shut the gravity off and use zero-g suits that had a small bottle of compressed air that could be used as a flight harness.
But with the damage the ship had sustained messing around with the Gravity plating could have consequences that they couldn't foresee. Ideally, an engineering crew wouldn't go near the main deflector like this but in this case, it was the best one of the ways to go about it with the limitations they had.
"Just hold me steady Mal." He ordered, "Once we make these adjustments we'll be headed back to Vulcan."
"Will they work Sir?"
"Yes, but they have to be monitored closely in case we burn out the impulse manifold and detonate the drive." He made one final adjustment and pulled himself out of the high-powered machine. "Done." She shouted to Malcolm.
"Good" he replied, "Now you can help me." Horatio smiled shaking his head before he moved himself away far enough to right himself, he then began to climb back up the rope.
"Don't Worry Mal?" he said with a small chuckle "I'm on my way."
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There was one thing that irked Travis Mayweather it was doing nothing, he had to do something most of the time whether it was reading or even target practice he hated being still and having nothing to do. It was something that he had picked up from his father Boomers would go months without leaving the ships sometimes years depending on the distance.
So, having something to do was a must, puzzles and board games were commonplace videogames as well so as he was sitting at his station, he opened his chest pocket and pulled out a small device that his father had given him.
It looked like a small metal playing card it was less than two inches tall and just over an inch long made with two different metals and it would move side to side following the rail grooves and have a satisfying click as the magnet caught its twin.
It would calm him and stop him from fidgeting at his station when he had nothing to do which admittedly was rare given his responsibilities but when it did happen it would drag on seemingly forever.
He was at around his fifth or sixth click when there was a loud buzz and the tell-tale ping as the PA activated.
"Now here this." Horatio's voice echoed slightly over the slightly worse-for-wear PA system "We're going to attempt to get to Warp 1 using the impulse drives, I want everything battened down, secure all stations we are moving to condition yellow I repeat Yellow Alert." The buzz returned and the PA closed but the ship lights began to shift, and several yellow lights activated.
Travis then got a buzz at his station notifying him of an incoming communication.
"Mayweather here."
"Travis set course for Vulcan at Maximum impulse I'm on my way up and keep an eye on the impulse manifold."
"yes sir." There was a second buzz as the comm line closed. He input the command and pushed the throttle to fully open, this was not recommended in the design manual, but he knew the Commander had his reasons.
But before he could contemplate on them any longer the turbo lift opened, and a very oily and sweaty duo walked onto the bridge and assumed their stations. Curiously to Malcolm, the Commander had not taken the captain's chair but assumed his operations station.
"we're pushing the Warp 1 barrier, sir." He said the ship began shuddering again but not as badly Travis not taking his eyes off the impulse systems readouts, "We'll breach in 5." The seconds ticked by before he called out "Warp 1 and holding steady." There was another buzz as the PA system turned on "We'll hit Vulcan in sixteen hours."
"Barring complications, an act of god or our luck holding out you mean ensign." said Malcolm, ever the pessimistic realist. "weapons are on standby."
"I doubt that it will take that long for Commander Tucker to get the computers sorted out." He said to the crew. "my main worry is the ship this may force the fleet to scrap her."
There was a silence as they took in the Commander's words the journey would be a quiet and long one.
but unbeknownst to the crew they were being hunted by something that their sensors couldn't see.
