Arrival In System

Posted on Tue Aug 15th, 2023 @ 10:15pm by Captain Ethan De Havilland & Commander Mark Bawden & Lieutenant Commander Ferrand Beaulieu & Lieutenant Sheela Swiftpaws & Lieutenant Cassian Massy

1,246 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Ethics, Morals & The Prime Directive.
Location: U.S.S. Dreadnought.
Timeline: Current

Sheela glanced at her watch, smiled as it showed arrival in a few minutes. Just enough time to get to the Bridge. She slowly entered the Bridge and moved to the Helm control station. She watched her the team of pilots busy at helm, prepping for the exit of warp speeds back into normal space.

"Five minutes and counting down." Senior pilot spoke up to alert those on the bridge.

=^= "Captain De'Havilland. Lieutenant Swiftpaws. Five minutes till exiting warp at Destination." =^= She moved near the helm's console and leaned against it. Letting the current senior pilot to oversee the maneuver. "Doing an excellent job." She spoke to the team of pilots at the helm.

As she leaned against the console, she began to work on her report she needed to finish up for Senior command team. She smiled as there wasn't much change from the previous reports. She added in the current status of her shuttles, Dreadnought, itself. Minor changes in her sections duty roster.

Even putting in a request to open Flight Instruction on how to operate the various shuttles aboard the Dreadnought to those that were interested to become pilots with the priority on Fleet Personnel, and then space available to general civilian population.

=^= Very Well, I'm on my way. =^= Ethan replied tapping his badge. It was good to be finally arriving where all the mystery was taking place but also to make effort to try and solve it. He had hoped that the few days of transit gave his crew enough time to settle in, to get used a new lay of the land that for many would become home.

Walking out of his office he moved to the centre chair and seated himself. =^= Commander Beaulieu, prepare to deploy the fighter wing, searching pattern just as discussed. =^=

Ferrand was in the main hanger bay awaiting this very order, his pilots and craft were each prepared for the expanding search net for the missing ship and any sign of what was going on. =^= Aye Captain, we are ready. =^= His thick French accent coming through on the comms as he spoke.

"Lieutenant Massy, prepare the escorts for departure. Full crew compliments." Ethan spoke looking at the man at his station.

"Aye sir." Cassian had been running tests and diagnostics on the escorts for the last several hours making sure they were fit for duty. From what he could tell the two smaller vessels didn't move much since the ship entered Earth orbit so with that in mind Cassian wanted to ensure everything was trim and proper before they were called to action stations.

"Commander Bawden, assign security details to both." Ethan knew this would add more crew to the ships beyond the norm but with missing ships and a lot of unanswered questions, he was not about to take any chances.

Mark had already prepared for this based of the initial meeting with the Captain prior to departing Earth orbit, all he need do was give the word and his hand picked teams would be heading towards the pair of escorts housed in the stern of the ship. "Security is on the way, 3 minutes." Considering they were still 5 minutes out it gave the teams time to arrive and establish themselves on board.

"Miss Swiftpaws, once we drop out of warp set a course for a geosynchronous orbit of the colony. If something is wrong, I want to be in a position to respond to it." Ethan requested.

"Squeak!" Sheela softly exclaimed in acknowledgment, turning to the on duty, helm team. "Once outta warp proceed to a geosynchronous orbit at 1/2 impulse speeds to give the bridge crew time to give the area a good scan."

That was the plan of action, now all that remained was the action itself. As soon as the large vessel exited warp speed on the edge of the system it cruised at a leisurely pace towards the colony at the centre of the issues. "Commander Bawden, command one of the escorts, perform a search pattern to starboard. Lt.Swiftpaws, the other. Search pattern to port, secure communications only, passive sensors. Who ever is out here won't miss me but in doing so they you two may go unnoticed." Just as the vessel exited warp, things seem

=^= Bridge to Commander Beaulieu, deploy the wing, wide net search pattern in conjunction with the escorts, passive sensors and secure communications only. =^=

"Aye Sir, Struts up in 2." Ferrand spoke already walking to his fighter with helmet in hand and watching the canopy slide back for his entry. He snapped his fingers at another pilot not moving fast enough for the frenchman's liking.

Hearing the Captain's orders Mark left the Bridge. Due to the size some areas of the ship used site to site transporters instead of a long turbolift tube going from the Bridge, along the length of the nearly 2.5km long vessel to its destination which in Mark's case was the hanger bay at the very stern of the ship that housed one of the two Defiant class escorts.

Ethan sat observing the officers and rating that manned the many stations on the Bridge before turning his gaze forward. "Open a channel to the colony, Administrator Ardon Jiddan's office." Ethan spoke as he tried to die down the remnant thoughts about his former First Officer. It took a moment but soon a link was established and the Administrator appeared.

"This is Administrator Jiddan, to whom and I speaking?"

"I am Captain Ethan De Havillan of the Federation Starship Dreadnought." Ethan began. "We are here to resupply any general supplies you might need as well as investigate some strange readings that have been detected recently."

"Strange readings?" Ardon spoke. "Oh, you must mean our orbital atmospheric satellites, they are used in the atmospheric terraforming process." Ardon brought up an image of one of the devices. "We have 19 in orbit."

Ethan looked at the device on the side of the holographic viewscreen, he also noticed the map under the viewscreen display the fighter wing launch and the two escorts. His search net was deploying. "Administrator Jiddan, we are also here to enquire about the status of the work you do here, there have been some irregularities in your update reports and check ins. My vessel will be in orbit shortly, my aim is to beam down, meet with yourself and perhaps an inspection of your facility would put to rest any unease the reports may have stirred."

"Captain we are very busy people down here conducting time-sensitive projects and experiments. I can't have starfleet personnel roaming the facility causing disruptions." Ardon replied, clearly flustered about the idea of having 'guests' at his facility.

"While I respect the sensitive elements of your work Administrator, I should remind you that your work is funded by Starfleet and it's only reasonable for Starfleet to review how that work is going. I promise, my staff will keep to themselves during their inspection while you and I talk about the reports." Ethan spoke, a sense told him something was wrong, he'd worked with difficult people before and evasive ones but Ardon seemed even more so than he would have expected.

Surprisingly Ardon sighed and closed the link knowing it was futile to argue, it was going to happen one way or another. He had other worries to contend with and though he knew it, his hand was not the only one being played here and his....was not a strong one.

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