Flying Blind ACT 1

Stronin wrote:Part 1
Captain John McIntyre’s Log: “The U.S.S. Andromeda, after having been restocked at Serenity Station is en route to the rendezvous point with the U.S.S. Harrison, no contact so far has been forthcoming, a point that worries me a little, but hopefully everything is alright. We will reach her within the hour.”

50 minutes later…

“Captain we have reached the rendezvous point.” Lt. Mark Ipsen reported from the helm.

“Alright.” John sighed, and muttered, “Now, where is she”

“Scan for the Harrison, Tomutsu.” The Captain was growing anxious; these were dangerous times after all.

“I have a faint signature captain, 100 million meters off our port bow. I believe it’s the Harrison, but it’s on minimal life support, and main power appears to be completely shut down.”

“Try to hail them, Ensign.” The Captain looked over at Ensign T’Mena.

“The channel is open Captain.” She replied.

“Captain Rhode, please respond, what is your ships condition?”
John looked out the view screen at the Harrison, only the navigational lights still shown, the rest of the ship appeared dead.

“Cap-n! Plea—close this co—ection now! Y—are exposing yourself to a vi---.”

At this point a sudden shrill sound quickly rose in pitch till everyone on the bridge was groaning and covering their ears.

The ship finally cut the transmission.

“What the heck went wrong? Ops?”

“Uncertain Captain, there may be something wrong with the Harrison’s communications. It is possible that their low power caused a..”
T’Mena was interrupted by a hailstorm of beeps and chimes from every station on the bridge simultaneously.

“Warning, primary command and control systems have been corrupted, switching to secondary protocols.” The computer explained in her typical neutral tone.

“What is going on people? Talk to me!” John felt like what had started as a relatively good day was suddenly turning into the likes of which he hadn’t experienced since the Dominion War.

T’Mena spoke up. “It seems Captain that something has been downloaded into the computer core, through the communication we had with the Harrison.”

John sighed, “Don’t we have protections against that? How did it get into the computer core?”

“We have many protections against such threats…” T’Mena placidly explained. “AI controlled threat detection, Multiple Redundant Firewalls, and of course, a one trillion digit numerically and alphabetically based security code, unique to each ship, to name a few.” She said, borrowing a somewhat earth based piece of slang.

“However, it will take time to trace the point of entry. “ She said the last bit with some discernable annoyance in her voice. She was not pleased with having to admit she didn’t know, and vowed to never be caught in the situation again.

John nodded, “Do it. Until then we’re at red ale...”

The chorus of beeps went off again.

“Warning secondary protocols have been corrupted. Switching to Emergency backup systems.”

“Whatever you do Ensign, find it fast! Tactical, Engineering, Coordinate with Ops, we have got to shut this thing down, whatever it may be, before we end up in the same boat as the Harrison!” John sternly spoke.

As if to illustrate the point, all the lights suddenly went out.

Stronin wrote:Part 2

Mark, the helmsman spoke up. "Captain is it possible we could take a shuttle to the Harrison? See if they have any information that might be of use?

John nodded. "That's an excellent idea Lt. I certainly wouldn't trust transporters right now. However getting into the Harrison's shuttle bay might be hard.
You may have to try and dock at one of their ports, or...carve a hole in their shuttle bay doors." He paused. "Try the first option, I don't think my friend Adam Rhode would appreciate his ship being carved up. Once your in, check to make sure they're not in immediate danger, and then see if they have anything of use that could save time for the both of us. Take who you need but try to spare as many as possible, we are trying to keep ourselves afloat as well, after all."

Mark went down to the shuttle bay along side 2 engineering staff, and a medic.

As the shuttle left it could be seen as a white smudge on the viewscreen. Much functionality had been lost due to systems failures.

"Well then," John sighed, "Back to work people, we need engines, sensors, and a clean computer core before we're going anywhere."

The Chief Engineer, Les’Non, an Andorian, was working with OPS.
“I’m going to try and rebuild basic engine control subroutines Captain, they may be archaic, but they should give us impulse, and possibly even Warp 1. Thankfully the deflector is on a separate system. “

John smiled; his crew was the kind of quality you expect out of Starfleet personnel, quick to action, and always ready to find a solution to any problem.
“Thank you Les’ keep working on it.”
The Captain could see the smudge of the shuttle merging with the larger grey of the Harrison. The worst part was he wouldn’t know what was happening until they were back.

“Captain,” T’Mena spoke suddenly. “There is what I believe to be another vessel on sensors.”

John's eyes widened momentarily. "What can you give me on it? Can we tell if its friendly?"

T'Mena shook her head. "Sensor's are at 15% efficency, all I can tell you is that a ship is certainly out there Captain, and it is not the shuttle."

She glanced on her console and then up at the screen. “It should be coming on screen momentarily.”

As she spoke a dark brown object crossed from the left side of the main viewer. Bleeding red smears marked the ships hull at intervals.

John frowned, this did not look good. As the vessel passed it seemed to be headed towards the Harrison. It did so almost like a predator stalking it’s prey. It’s movements were slow, and it seemed to circle around the ship, as if sizing it up.
“Do you recognise that hull configuration?” John asked, not to anyone specifically.

T'mena frowned, her Vulcan brow twisting upward at it’s corners, “Captain…this ship is from the Gorn.”

Stronin wrote:Part 3
The last thing Mark had expected after forcing open the docking port doors was disruptor fire.

Just as they had reached the bridge, weapons could be heard coming down from the adjacent hallway, it missed their heads by a few feet. The group of 4, Mark the helmsman, the 2 engineers, and the medic had sealed the doors as best they could.

The bridge itself was strangely deserted...

"Well this is a great plan, however what happens when they blast open that door Howard?" Mark sighed as the sound of footsteps rang outside the entryway.

Howard, one of the engineers, shrugged. "Uh.."

"Lieutenant!" The medic a younger female Bolian, was hovering over a bridge console. "The ship still has functioning internal sensors, and from what I can tell there are about 20 life signs on board. However none of them are human, from what I can gather they must be Gorn."

Mark frowned, "So where’s the crew?"

Li'ana got an irritated look, "They're not on board Sir, this ship is deserted!"

Howard's voice quivering slightly, popped in. "So what are we doing on board, we should leave, if there's no one on board then the only people that need saving are us!"

Mark glared, "With all due respect Ensign, even if there isn't any one on board, we should still make sure this vessel does not fall into the wrong hands!" Mark glanced at Lt. Davis, the other Engineer. "Loren, is there any way we can initiate the ships self destruct system, despite the main computer being down?"

Davis looked like he was thinking for a moment, but when he spoke, he spoke firmly. "Yes, but I'll need a few minutes to access the secondary command controls."

Mark nodded we'll give you what we can, but hurry.
-"Li'ana, train your phaser on the door, anyone comes through I need you to slow them down." The blue faced woman nodded and got cover behind the helm station.
-"Howard, this is a New Orleans Class vessel, do you know if they store anything better than hand phasers on the bridge?"

Howard nodded quickly and ran over to a side panel, exposing 1 Compression rifle, and 5 type six phaser rifles.

"Give me the compression rifle, and give everyone else, and yourself a phaser rifle. We're going to have to fight our way out of here." Mark grabbed the rifle and slung it over his shoulder.

The pounding on the door was increasing. A massive dent formed in the right panel. "I hate to rush you Loren..." Mark pleaded.

"Just...one more second. There got it!" Due to the crippled state of the main computer, no warning was announced, but on Loren's screen a count down suddenly appeared. "I gave us 10 minutes. if we can't make it to the shuttle by then we may be dead anyway.."

Mark nodded, "Lets get out of here." He popped open the bridges Jefferies tube access and let everyone crawl in before crawling in himself. He sealed the door with his phaser, just as a loud popping sound announced the Gorn's presence on the bridge...