Launch
Posted on Tue Nov 29th, 2022 @ 8:05pm by Captain William Maddox & Commander Ayanja Tusalo & Lieutenant Commander Javiylah MacArthur & Lieutenant Commander Aarix Teral & Lieutenant Commander TaijanSuda ch'Thulhu & Lieutenant Jayla Kij MD & Lieutenant JG Fox Jasper
2,430 words; about a 12 minute read
Mission:
The Song Of Silver Wings
Location: Starbase 14, Alpha Tucanne System
Timeline: Launch Day!
"First stage flux tuner... active"
"Pre-stage flux tuner.... online"
Intercooler Matrix... station keeping
Matter/antimatter... station keeping
Deflector array..."
As Ayanja circled the bridge she listened in on the crew rattle off their various checklists in preparation for launch. Nodding as she toured the bridge everyone was on their game. Officers across divisions were ready, but more than that they seemed eager. Even without using her abilities she could feel the energy of the bridge. Excitement, determination, fear... it all blended together into that nervous, but eager jitters.
There was always something about launching a ship for the first time, it was special. It was a milestone, especially for a ship like Daedalus. Their mission might have been a somber one, full of danger and the unknown, but that's what made it worth it. One way or another they would find the Icarus, bring her home. Hopefully prove this new engine design viable for the Federation.
"You keep circling the bridge like that Commander, we'll need to install a jogging path," Maddox said with a chuckle. "Starbase 14 has cleared our departure lane and sectioned off a cubic light second of the Alpha Tucanne star system for us to...well not warp out. Twist? Jump?"
He shrugged.
"And I have it on good authority our engines won't rip off the side of the Daedalus and go on their merry way without us," Maddox said, speaking to the department heads at their stations.
"I'll bet this half pip they stay on," Aarix joked, flicking his collar. He stood near the back of the bridge, unsure of why his presence was required for a departure. On the monitor behind him was a readout from engineering, so he could still at least pretend do his job. He'd much rather be in engineering, however, because watching the core light up for the first time was like watching a baby take its first steps. The readout gave him the same information, but it just wasn't the same.
"We have a half pip from our Chief Engineer that he knows which part of a torque wrench works best," Maddox said, his hands idly flicking through the holographic data pane on his arm rest. "Any other takers?"
A short huff of air out of Aarix's nose indicated his amusement before he turned his attention to the readout of engineering. The engines were purring as expected, efficiency looked great after Sara helped solve the problem... the true test would be once they cleared the dock.
Aya shook her head with a chuckle as she continued to circle the bridge making sure everything was in order. With an experimental ship like theirs and considering their mission was to rescue their sister ship she would much rather wear a hole in the deck than miss and issue. Coming back to the Command Pit she gave a last look at Maddox before reaching over to her chair and activating the waiting comm channel.
"Spacedock this is Daedalus, requesting permission to depart."
"This is Spacedock, Daedalus, permission to depart granted. Safe travels."
"Understood Spacedock, keep the porch light on for us." Another quick press of the buttons Aya closed the channel, and took her seat next to the Captain. "Spacedock has cleared us all stations and systems ready.
"Helm," Maddox said, looking at Fox at the right-side control terminal. "Tap the thrusters and get us moving, let's not give the dock master reason to fine us for scuffing the dry dock. Once we're clear of the scaffold make our course for the navigation beacons designated for our outbound transit...still not loving call it a Transit."
"Aye aye Captain!" chimed Fox happily, his fingers dancing lightly over the console with curious impatience as they had been for the last few minutes. He was itching to get moving now, after all the waiting and the wondering and there was zero concern from his point of view with regards the engines going AWOL. If they did do that, now was the best time and place for the nightmare.
As fingertips touched key points on the sensitive screen, the pilot noted an distinct lag to the motion/response ratios. She was reticent, it seemed, unwilling to leap straight into the unknown. "Hey, girl," Fox whispered fondly, as if encouraging a small child or a timid lover. "You and me, we're gonna be alright. I'll look after ya, promise, but you gotta trust me, k." The firm but gentle surety of his touch caught up with the systems connecting helmsman to thrusters and as Fox played the controls with a lightly gifted confidence, the ship responded awkwardly, wallowing in sub-systems and delaying their exit from the berth.
There was a slight lurch to starboard, then an overcorrect to port that levelled them back out, and, finally, with a coercion both physical touch and verbal cwtching, Fox and the Daedalus fell into a sync that allowed the shiny new ship to stagger from scaffolded docking gate to open space. A clean, undamaged exit, if not a particularly pretty one.
"Headed for the nav beacons, Captain!" Jasper sang out, the pace evening out with each forward leap as he compensated and recalibrated enroute.
"Weapons systems read green," Suda announced. Not that they would be needed for the launch, but if they weren't operational, it was best to announce that before the point of no return.
"I hope you take this the right way Suda, but I sincerely hope that your time on Daedalus is boring as hell. A nice exploratory mission, with additional roadside repairs for wayward travellers," Maddox commented. "But I'll admit, knowing we have a big stick or two in our corner is heartening."
At first Suda took the captain's words in strides. All captains got speechy and preachy at the outset of missions. But then the talk of a "big stick or two" made the nub of his missing antenna itch. Suda narrowed his eyes at Maddox and said nothing.
"Sometimes one really good stick is all you need," Fox chimed in, no snark evident in his expression or tone.
Aarix slightly tensed when the ship initially lurched to a side before correcting, the sensation in his gut analogous to dropping something very fragile and important. The helm better not damage anything before their adventure had even started. "Engineering reports all systems green," he reported to Maddox.
Although it was unusual for the chief of medical to be on the bridge at all, a launch was certainly the time for it- and Jayla had needed a reason to be out of Sick Bay for awhile. So she had delivered her last minute report to the captain in person and then found herself an out of the way corner in which to stand. The fact that this corner also happened to be near the best-looking crewman was a plus. Even though Jayla wasn’t looking, it didn’t mean she could enjoy the eye Candy. “Sick Bay was good when I left it, anyway,” she commented almost as an aside, grin tugging at one corner of her mouth.
"You're also a department chief I hope is bored as hell in this mission," Maddox said, looking out from his centre seat. "Okay...I think we're ready to fly. Fox when we reach the nav marker let us know. Commander Tusalo, power up the Proteus Drive. As far as I know, it's a simple on-off thing, which is either terribly convenient or utterly terrifying."
"Will do, boss," Fox confirmed, forgetting protocol for a moment as he and the ship figured out a few personal disagreements on the calibration timings. Took him back a few years to before he'd had the luxury of flying Starfleet's well-maintained craft, but every new ship was different right out of the gate.
Having overcome her usual reluctance to be on the Bridge, all for the sake of supporting her wife during a very important milestone in her career, Javi stood at the Operations console. Most of her attention was on watching the silent feed from a Cargo Bay, where a rather exasperated Chief Petty Officer Harkness was overseeing the securing of equipment containers that had broken loose. Hearing the Captain’s command, she looked up in time to catch Aya’s eyes and gave her a proud look. “Operations is status green, Captain,” Javi reported, more for formality’s sake than anything else given the readouts the CO had access to.
"Green's a good colour, unless its a bruise," Maddox commented dryly. "From all accounts the Proteus Drive doesn't impart Newtonian Motion on the object it transports, so we shouldn't experience any noticeable turbulence. On that note the Drive should place us at the exact starting point the Icarus departed from, a Lagrange point naturally forming between two brown dwarfs in the Reef Stars. From there we should be able to pick up the log beacons, and then we follow breadcrumbs."
He chuckled.
"Sounds almost simple."
'Commander Tusalo, power up the Proteus Drive' Fox grinned at those words, and the ones that followed them. They were almost underway. Do or die and all that, new tech could be entertaining, but everyone else seemed to be chiming in saying their departments were good and green, so why worry, right? Besides, he and the Daedalus had been through their frustrating but rewarding initial back and forth, pushed back, forward up and down and successfully found their accord, at least for the moment, so by the time he called out - "At the nav marker, boss!" Fox had a sense of deeper confidence in their pretty shiny new ship. "Initial calibrations all complete, systems optimal." Time to follow in his father's footsteps.
"Confirmation from Engineering monitoring and Proteus Control, systems in the green. We're ready to jump." Aya reported, her palms a little more sweaty now that the ship was ready to make it's first long distance transition since testing.
Aarix turned back to his engineering readout when the Proteus Drive turned on. What he would do to watch the show from engineering right now. Thanks to last-minute modifications, everything was working way better than what the models predicted. It nearly gave him goosebumps. "Not to steal words from your mouth, Captain, but let's see what this baby can do," he said with a grin. He felt giddy, a rush of adrenaline coursing through him like he was about to cliff dive into the massive expanse that made up Valles Marineris. He was definitely hosting a round of drinks with the engineering teams later if this goes smoothly.
"You're about to get your chance," Maddox said and nodded towards the view screen. A patch of the starscape ahead of them was distorting, turning dull red colour flecked with spiralling blue sparks throughout. With a press of a button on his armrest, the view screen split in two, one side showing the forward angle with the other showing the stern. Another patch of space was beginning to twist and warp. With another press of a button on his armchair, the overhead speakers clicked on.
"Attention all hands," Maddox's voice said in an odd microsecond delay echo across the ship. "Brace for transition."
"Wow...." noted Fox on a slow, quiet exhale. His next words were less than a whisper. "Hold tight, Icarus... we're coming..."
The warping bubble grew steadily until it surrounded the USS Daedalus. The rudy hue of the bubble only grew darker, the energetic particles brighter, as though whatever device was twisting the laws of physics was riling them up on purpose. And then with a flash, the blue actinic streaks vanished, evaporating into exotic particles that soon realised three-dimensional space was not for them. The bubble remained but had lost some of its luster. Like a grape drying in the sun, it grew tight, and wrinkled, before breaking apart like burning flash paper...
Rear Admiral Tordon watched the camera feed from his office on Starbase 13 as the bubble broke apart. According to the sensors stationed around the system something poorly understood but utterly traumatic to space-time had possibly occurred. The fact that a Starfleet exploration vessel had vanished within that anomaly was beside the point. He closed the viewing pane and sat at his desk, fingers tapping on the desk.
"Don't torment yourself with the moral calculus. Do you really think Maddox and his crew would have gone on this mission if they knew the whole story? They are brave, but they are not suicidal."
Tordon looked across his desk to a man in a formal grey suit, his hair black, accent and diction that of high refinement. Cold dark eyes set in a hawkish face, he was a marked contrast to the warn features of the Admiral. Tordon gave him a smirk and tapped a button on his terminal.
"Trouble... the strange readings began... we got... hit hard... came at... night... whispers in the dark... sitting duck... still don't know who hit us... what... force of nature... phenomena... Please don't come for us. We weren't ready for what we found... meant to know... help us... home...will die."
A few key strokes had neutered the message delivered to Maddox and his crew, taking from the dire tone and clues that perhaps could be of use. There was a reason for the subterfuge, Tordon was a student of Machiavelli like his guest, and knew that had Maddox a more urgent scene of danger to his old friends on the Icarus he would run to them with haste and not an explorers caution.
"You underestimate them. If we'd gone to them with this, they'd have volunteered to a single soul to go regardless of the risk," Tordon groused.
"I just have a low opinion of your choice in captains, he's a moralist, the sort of man who is willing to sacrifice a great deal on the alter of ideals," the man in the suit said with a cold smile. "I've always abided by the idea that results are results."
"The Ingram family creed?" Tordon asked.
"The fact that I am here when others are not, would say I was correct. We'll talk again soon Rear Admiral Tordon. Keep me up to date on a mission, as per our arrangement," Benjamin Ingram smiled from across the table, made a gesture in the air, and his holographic presence began to fade. "After all, the results of our partnership are already bearing fruit."
Tordon waited a moment for the holo presence call to end.
"Said the snake in the apple tree."
RSS Feed