Star Trek: Starbase 777

“Mayday, mayday! This is Tycho Brahe Station in the Eta Cassiopeiae system! We’ve been hit with a catastrophic coronal mass ejection and our orbital stabilizers have been knocked offline- We are falling into the star we’re orbiting! Mayday, mayday! We need help!”

At high warp, Eventide was moving through space at a breakneck speed. The distress call from Tycho Brahe Station had been received this morning, and from there, a rescue mission was scrambled together. 777 became a cacophony of officers moving throughout the halls and getting everything they needed before getting aboard Eventide and shipping off toward Eta Cassiopeiae. All the crew of the Eventide had been told about the rescue operation so far was that there was only one other ship waiting for them at Tycho Brahe Station.

Calm as he worked, Vara'l stood at the Tactical console. He'd arrived there swiftly once called, calm and with his go bag clutched in one hand. The bag deposited where he usually secreted it before he'd swiftly arrived at the bridge. Once there, Vara'l proceeded to set about doing all that was needed to ensure the tactical systems were ready for departure. Did so as his world reduced to checklists of check after check for system after tactical system. Given what they were headed too, he didn't expect they'd end up being fired upon, but that didn't excuse him from this. Something not checked might be a issue missed. He wanted to ensure nothing was missed.

Shane found himself once more on the bridge of the Eventide. This time not the ranking officer, part of his was relieved, part of him was annoyed he didn't get another shot at the chair. He placed himself at one of the tactical stations keeping an eye on shields, he also pulled up a science feed and let it take up a quarter of his station so he could keep an eye on solar activity.

This was going to be quite the rescue to coordinate. Falling into a star...he had no idea how they'd be able to get everybody off of that station in time. The stellar radiation alone...he cleared his throat. He wasn't going to be pessimistic about this.

This was probably the most focused Paco had ever been on an away mission, his focus trained on his end of the science console to monitor the current situation on both the ship and the solar activity. His hands trembled a bit, but he kept them as steady as he could

Stepping onto the Eventide, Captain Rai the bread took his seat. Dressed in the Republic uniform, he looked confident and ready for action. He was looking forward to seeing who would be joining the mission.

Silver eyes flicked to the ACTO as the CTO noted what they were doing. Did so and nodded as he idly proceeded to tap the console, the checks he'd started to conduct relating to the shields passed to Lawsons console. Personally gladdened for the presence of the other tactical officer, Vara'l nodded briefly to them. Did so before he turned back to his own work.

Stepping into the bridge, wearing his ever so pristine red uniform, Tarsek quickly eyed all of the personnel present. Plenty of the seniors he had worked with. tr’Hara, Lawson, Maxson. The figure seated at the captain chair was only superficially known. Rai tr’Torre’vnau. It would be the first time he had the chance to work with the Romulan captain. “Riov tr’Torre’vnau, jolan tru.” He addressed, approaching the man. The captain was dressed in the republic fashion, so Tarsek thought he might appreciate the use of that rank and salute.

1

It wasn't as if there was anything about this mission that warranted her expertise. A space station, falling into a sun? Not something a trainee lawyer could help with. Yet Natasha found herself entering the bridge of the Eventide anyway, quiet steps bringing her to the nearest available console while deft hands pulled up all the available information once she was seated. Her gaze drifted over to the other officers present on the Bridge once she finished skimming through the mission brief. All higher ranked, unfamiliar faces. The moment she spotted a Commander entering the Bridge, however, her head ducked down, and her focus returned to the screen in front of her, an attempt to avoid drawing any attention to herself.

Vara'ls posture stiffened and assumed a deeper depth of formality then, as Tarsek entered the room. This done as he continued to work, their glance his way not reacted too. The checks needed his attention. Well, the checks he'd not passed onto the ACTO, someone he trusted to handle those without his input. No, the ones he'd elected to work on himself were the ones that continued to hold his attention. Doing so even as he briefly half glanced to Shane and nodded slightly. Nodded, the presence of an ensign on the bridge noted and filed away for later consideration, if consideration was needed. Not a problem for now, not as it happened, his problem at all he reckoned. That looked like a Command division uniform.

People Paco remembered from being kidnapped by the Tal'Shiar with are here. He had partially anticipated this and knew exactly what to do. He glanced over to them, nodded respectfully as is what one is supposed to do when a superior officer enters the bridge, and slowly turn back to work. Their presence does bring some comfort in a way, but avoidance for the time being seems advisable.

Eventide dropped out of warp, and on the view screen, the star Archid loomed before the bridge crew. Shimmering ribbons of gold stretched out into space from the star, enveloping Tycho Brahe Station which was clearly drifting toward the star’s surface. Nearby, and slightly out of the orbit of the star, a Hermes-class ship hovered. Multiple shuttles were flying back and forth to the station from the Hermes-class. When Eventide arrived, a hail from the other ship was received. (edited)

Vara'l looked down to his console then. Did so as he noted the incoming communications. "Incoming hail." He reported then as he assessed the input from the tactical scanners. Did so and frowned very briefly, concerned with what he'd noted. Concerned in the sense that he reckoned he could imagine how things happened to be on the station right now. Given the fact it'd started to slip out of orbit. Hopefully they'd manage to ensure that everyone was safely rescued from it. "Tactical scans confirm rescue operations in progress, station Tycho Brahe's orbit is deteriorating steadily."

Seeing as this was an emergency situation, Shane simply opened the hail and put it on the viewer. It's not like the bosses would object that he answered a phone call besides this felt more like his bridge then the rest of the senior officers, except Rai he supposed.

Appearing on the viewscreen is an Andorian woman seated in the captain’s seat aboard the ship. She looked a big harried. “Eventide- Very glad to see you. Captain Jirli Zh’kelthik of the USS Fort Lauderdale. We’ve been trying to hold the fort, but it’s slow goings. The residual radiation is preventing the transporters from getting a lock, so…shuttles. It’s risky, but we gotta,” She took in a breath, “We’re holding the line, and could use some help. Starfleet Command dispatched the Heliosphere, but it’ll take a while to get here. It’s an Excelsior designed to study solar anomalies, has a lot of solar protection all over its hull, so- Hey! Perfect ship…if it were here…” (edited)

Purely out of curiosity, Paco quietly inquired to the computer on what the Heliosphere was, and more importantly, where is it and how far will it take for it to get to their location.

The USS Heliosphere is an Excelsior-class science vessel designed to study solar anomalies up close. The hull has been triple-plated in experimental solar protection. It will take the ship five hours to reach Tycho Brahe Station.

"The Heliosphere will reach Tycho Brahe Station in 5 hours." Paco reported to the other higher ranking officers in the room as he looked around the room.

As Paco proceeded to make that report, Vara'l first glanced to the captain and then looked to his console. He then swiftly tapped out a query on the consoles keyboard and tasked Tactical sensors to assess the declining orbit of station Tycho Brahe. Did they have Five hours, he wondered? If they didn't, it seemed like they needed to address that decline, but either way well. It was something that they needed to know.

No transporters? Only shuttles? Well, ain't that some bad news right off the bat. During the time it would take for the Heliosphere to get here, there was no doubt they—both the Fort Lauderdale and Eventide—would have to do whatever they could to help with the evacuation. She nodded absentmindedly when another officer called out the Heliosphere's ETA, brows furrowed in thought. While Natasha only had basic training regarding shuttle operations, she was sure most of them weren't designed to withstand solar radiation for any significant amount of time. Speaking of which, just how many shuttles did the Eventide have? A quick inquiry was sent to the ship's computer.

Rai had greeted the station XO earlier and now was faced towards the viewscreen. "Oh I see, thank you Lieutenant Paco," Rai responded to Paco's report and nodded his head. "We probably should not wait five hours, I think we should check with our engineering team if there's a chance we could withstand such radiation and for how long.."

Riov Rai was the captain Maya worked with while in the U.S.S. Rapture. Rai likes bread. Paco too likes bread. This is a connection they can bond over later. Paco simply nodded with a smile before he returned to watching the rest of the bridge crew.

Vara'l, while he still waited for the answer to his other query yes, twitched at the Captains comment. Did so as he opened up another query panel and copied it to ACTO Lawsons console. He wanted Shane clued in on his thinking. He then proceeded to queue up another query with the ships computer as to if shields could be modulated to bolster them against Solar radiation. He wanted to see what the ship knew and what of this could be addressed from a Tactical perspective and what he needed to pester Paco or the engineering people about. That is, if Riov tr'Torre'vnau happened to greenlight that perstering..

The USS Eventide has six shuttlecraft.

The Andorian captain took in another breath, “I’ve been keeping Lauderdale outside of Archid’s orbit to prevent us from getting a full dose of radiation. It’s been helping so far, but my engineers have been working overtime to keep us in the sky. We need to move fast,” She leaned back in her chair, “We’ve got…50 or so people off the station. There’s about 200 still there.”

16:20

Shield modulation would be able to withstand the stellar radiation outside. However, it will require active manual input. Tycho Brahe Station has about three hours before it hits Archid. The safety this guarantees for the civilians aboard, however, is minimal. Systems throughout the station will fail the closer they get to the star, including artificial gravity and life support.

(edited)

"Scan assessment is that the Station at present rate of decline has at the most three hours before destruction." The xB informed the Riov then as he considered his console. Double checked what he found before he voiced the next element of the assessment. "Sirs, that's three hours before it hits though." He clarified before he continued on to say. "The occupants likely have less, they'll be facing systemic system failures as the decline continues." A fact he frowned at then. "Artificial gravity and life support may well not last that long, it'll become exponentially more dangerous for the stations remaining personnel as time progresses." He then glanced to Shane then. "If we modulate the shields, they'll be able to withstand the rads enough to get us closer." The CTO proceeded to tap on his console then as he copied his findings to the XO and the Captains console. Showed them just how close he meant. "Past the red line sirs, it'd require active manual input modulating the shields to help to ensure crew safety."

On the shield comment Shane spoke up after Vara'l. "I can probably set it to modulate to get us a bit close, but a stars a star. Even if it wasn't mid solar storm the stellar winds will cook us alive as heat builds up outside the Shields. They keep a lot of the heat out but, this close 'a lot' is pretty relative." Shane realised he was rambling a bit too much. "To put it succinctly, we're gonna cook like lobsters after a while. Absolutely less than the three hours the stations got."

Vara'l nodded at that from Vara'l. "We might be able to compensate for the heat for a time." He observed then before he continued. Continued as he tapped on his console and queried with the computer the heat tolerance of the Eventide. Tasked it to assess just how much heat the ship could handle before things got dangerous for the crew. "But no matter what we do, the build up of heat will be the thing that dictates how long we've got." He informed them then. "But well, the stations crew don't have five hours." Did that as he landed on another thing to query and asked his console for a sensor assessment on the viability of using a tractor beam to slow the stations orbital decline.

A tractor beam would be able to slow the descent, but the lingering radiation will take its toll regardless.

Six shuttlecrafts. The Lauderdale arrived before Eventide did for who-knew-how-long, and they only managed to transport 50 souls abroad. Even if they could fly the Eventide closer, if transporters remain knocked out, rescuing via shuttle still didn't seem to be fast enough. However, since she couldn't come up with any alternate idea for the rescue, Natasha ended up querying computer about the space station's own shuttles instead. What if they could send engineers over to the station, help modify their shuttles so that they could withstand radiation, and add more shuttles to the count of 6 the Eventide already have?

"Captain, If I may." *Magdalena stood as stiff as a Starfleet board and spoke with the clarity allotted to calmness in the fave of calamity. "I would like to take a fresh shuttle into the fight, get some of those people out of there."

Tycho Brahe Station had a small collection of eight runabouts, most of which were already in the process of aiding in the evacuation alongside the Fort Lauderdale’s shuttlecraft.

Vara'l looked over his console once more and proceeded to say. "In theory, we don't have to get too close though, not with the eventide at least sirs." The CTO stated then. "Just close enough to give the shuttles a clear run there and back again and reduce their shields time exposed to heat and stellar radiation." He then glanced to the Lieutenant commander and back to the captain. "Sirs, this'll likely need the full compliment of shuttles." Vara'l stated then before he added. "We can probably slow the stations orbital decline slightly with a tractor beam but, the radiation damage to the station remains a factor either way." Silver eyes then glanced to the console. "If there was a way to get transporters to work, with enhancers, the shuttles we could augment our shuttles evacuation capacity too, if needed." He mused then, deep in thought as he considered options. Considered them with a mind that latched upon and dissected each idea that rumbled its way through his skull.

“We need to get shuttles moving regardless,” The ACOS said from his console, “We’re running out of time.”

"In theory yes, we can probably hang there for a while. I'll do what I can with shields but when we max out on heat build up we'll need to back off or we will cook. And that's a bad way to go. It'll also take a good long time to cool off, heat likes to stick around in vacuum." Shane chimed in after Vara'l as he kept an eye on the shields and the star from his console. (edited)

"With life support off we have some time before we run out air on a shuttle, we can boost the shield a little more on the approach to the base. Same with gravity." She made the statement boldly. "I have flown without these things before, and we need to move."

Vara'l nodded slightly and arrived at a decision as he considered his console. Did so before with a twitch, he noted the com message and stated. "Alight, lets get moving, not too much closer." With that stated he then looked to Shane. "If you can keep on top of the Modulation, do what you can to give us as much time as possible." Then to the Lieutenant Commander from Command. "Lets get the shuttles going, we'll give you all the time we can." Did so before, with the commanders statement, he turned to her and stated. "I'd say redirect weapons and non-essential system power to the shields before you do life support, commander." He paused then. "Good luck out there, Commander and elements go with you."

"We could get as close as we safely could and extend the Eventide's shields as far as they could go." Paco proposed, with some amount of uncertainty on if it will fly with the others, but no bad ideas in brainstorming, right? "It would allow the shuttles to have a longer safe corridor between the Eventide and the station. We would be able to move more people safely that way."

"Naturally." She responded to the tr'Hara, "Life support is last resort." She turned about and all briskly walked off the bridge, the walk became a run in the corridor.

Shane nodded to Vara'l when he asked him to keep on top of the shields, he'd keep an eye on them. "Got is commander I'll keep us from cooking." Shane gave Magdalena a quizzical look when she suggested turning off life support and gravity on the shuttles, that was just plain reckless and against around sixty safety regulations. It didn't inspire confidence in the new officer in his mind.

"Good." Was the only response the Lieutenant commander received then. Received as his view of her ratcheted downward, what with her first statement considered. Life support coming up first? That concerned him. Vara'l glanced to Shane then once the officer was elsewhere. Did so as he stated simply. "Sounds good, Commander." Even as he briefly glanced the way the commander went and considered things. Considered and tapped his combadge. Responded on that before he continued to speak. "Let me know when things are headed toward being dangerous." He then looked to Paco. "That would reduce the amount of time we've got on station." The xB mused then before he added. "Can you put the computer on an assessment of it, Lieutenant?" The question followed by a statement of. "Its an option."

"No." Paco promptly said to himself in response to the proposal to shut off shuttle life support and gravity. Probably too late anyway, Magdalena was already off to the corridor when he said it. Anyways back to work as he turned back to Vara'l. "Aye sir, checking in with the computer now." He said as assessed his idea with the computer.

Vara'l nodded once to Paco and then turned to Lawson. "If you're okay with working alongside engineering, Commander." He started. "I want you to alert me the moment the heat gets beyond crew safety tolerances." He then looked to his console. "I'm going to try and assess the possibility of locking a tractor beam on the station, slowing that orbital deterioration somewhat." The xB informed them then as he tapped on the console and started to do that. Tasked tractor beam targeting sensors to try and get a lock. "All the time we can buy means lives saved." Vara'l then glanced to Paco. "Lieutenant Umali, any thoughts on the viability of a transport enhancer reinforced lock?" The Romulan asked then. "I'm conscious that with all the radiation about the transporters haven't been viable but well." He paused. "I wonder if we can try and break past that mess."

*Piercing a shield corridor through the stellar radiation and winds would be quite the feat, but the potential is there if they managed to get a clean tractor beam lock on the station. Unfortunately, everything was hinging on if*.

17:30

Tractor sensors couldn’t manage to get a lock from here, too much interference from the CME. The Eventide would either need to get closer, or the Fort Lauderdale would need to compensate.

Vara'l swiftly tapped to open hailing frequencies. "Eventide to Fort Lauderdale, we're moving to try and slow the deterioration of the stations orbit, trying a tractor beam to slow it." He informed the others then. "Are you able to link in with us to help cut through the interference so we can get a lock?" The Romulan inquired then.

It was Diahjir, here to man the medical console on the Bridge, since that seemed like something important that needed doing. "Sorry I am a little late, I was helping get everything together in Medbay," he announced his presence with a sheepish smile -- despite the dire circumstances.

"It will be more viable if we get closer to the station." Paco answered Vara'l as he read off the results from his console. "Either that, or we need to merge tractor beams with the Lauderdale in order to compensate for the stellar radiation and get a cleaner tractor beam on the station. Could also give us more power on shields for added protection as well."

Shane nodded to Vara'l and got to work keeping the shields from collapsing, he moved his stool so he was between a tactical and science station so he could use both at once, science to keep an eye on the stellar wind and to generate adjustments, tactical to modulate the shields.

The captain of the Lauderdale’s face contorted into consideration, “…I’ll be honest with you, Eventide, Lauderdale is only a Hermes. We’ve got one nacelle, and I don’t know if I’ll be able to safely get into range without risking my crew and being unable to get out of the orbit of the star.”

Suun made her way through the corridors, before finally emerging at the bridge, quickly and wordlessly taking her station while she tried to take in what exactly was going on at this end of things.

"...if two ships merged shields, they are usually fixed in place together until it's undone right?" Paco both asked himself whilst he also inquired to the computer the same question. "Hi." Paco simply said when Shane moved over to monitor the science console, ready to help him with what he needed from that end.

Merging shields could be the answer, but it would require even more modulation from both engineering crews.

Vara'l mused over what was said by the captain of the other vessel and stated. "Understood, Fort Lauderdale" Started to speak then but instead turned to Paco. Stopped speaking as he listened to quite the good idea. Listened to it then looked to the screen. "Did you hear the Lieutenant, Fort Lauderdale?" He inquired then before he looked to Paco. "It's potentially viable, it'd help things." The Romulan looked to Paco. "What's the computer saying assessment wise, Lieutenant?" Vara'l asked then. (edited)

"Merging shields could be possible to keep Lauderdale safe while getting close to the station." Paco readily answered as the result came in. "Both engineering crews need to work overtime on manually modulating shields."

"Hi Paco." Shane said as he slid over now straddled between both consoles. "Not to detract. Merging shields here might not even work with the sheer amount of ambient radiation. It's worth running the numbers but we run the risk of loosing the shields in the process, which, wouldn't be ideal." Shane said turning to Vara'l as he did the math in his head. It was possible in theory but was it worth the risk of destroying both ships.

Vara'l looked thoughtful at what Shane said then, thoughtful as he nodded once. He'd arrived at the same assessment as he'd double checked things. "You're correct." He stated simply then before he added. "While its worth running the numbers, we need other options." Silver eyes looked to the console then. "Fort Lauderdale, query for you, by your science personnel's assessment do you concur that they've about three hours before station destruction?" He inquired then before he launched into a further statement. "Also, do you have any indication from those your teams as to the stations current system status?" His jaw worked a bit. "We're trying to assess how much time we've got."

The Captain tapped at her console and brought up a Science officer on screen, a young Ocampan, “Hi- Yes! Hello! Lt. Cdr. Lillia! As far as we calculated, three hours before they hit the star. We’ve been trying to see if we can’t get the orbital stabilizers back online, but the radiation has kinda knackered that…um- We have a few shuttles who haven’t reported back just yet. There’s still rescue personnel aboard.”

At the sound of the message, her head shot up, brows furrowed. The stabilizers being offline made everything more difficult, and three hours really felt more like a ticking time bomb than a proper estimate. She cursed under her breath, triple-checking the systems about the Eventide absently as she wracked her brain for anything that could work as a quick fix.

Thanks to the engineers downstairs, Eventide was still managing to stay afloat. Occasionally, the solar winds would cause the ship to rock back and forth, but nothing that couldn’t be compensated for. Their shuttles had only just arrived aboard the station.

Vara'l considered what they said carefully and then proceeded to say. "If we can get through to our personnel, I'll ask if they've made contact." He stated then before he added then. "If you've got anything your engineers think may be of use to our personnel, I can pass it to the teams." He then looked to the science officer again. "Would you concur that at least, if the stablisers are non-functional, we're in need of identifying a solution regarding slowing the deterioration of the stations orbit?" He asked the science officer before, as he completed his most recent assessment, he frowned and stated. "It still looks like, if we can get through the sensor distortion somehow, a tractor beam might be the best thing on that regard." He looked to the Ocampan again. "Beyond the stabilizers, do you have anything further on the stations present operational status?" He asked then before he added. "If we can map the decline to a degree, we can get a full timeline of what we're working with identified." At the com message, Vara'l proceeded to tap on his console as he tapped his combage. As he did so, Vara'l confirmed what they'd stated and proceeded to ask his question over comms.

“If your people can get the comm beacon in the docking bay up and running again, we’ll have a lot less trouble keeping in contact,” The CSO pursed her lips together, “We can try and get some predictive models up and running, but Lauderdale is working with a skeleton crew of scientists and engineers right now. A majority of us are…well, y’know, trying to keep us in the air…” The Captain cleared her throat, “Commander. Your ACTO said that we’d risk ripping both of our shields apart if we were to merge them, yes? With your engineers implementing my engineering team’s solution to the heating problem, we may be able to handle it for a little while. A little while. I still don’t like the risk, but if we could hold the tractor beam for that time, it could buy our rescue personnel more time.” (edited)

"Even if it's for a little while, it may be our best shot to getting more people off the station." Paco said in agreement with the captain and CSO. He paused for a bit, then another idea popped into mind. "I know this may sound risky, and probably not possible at all... but would it be possible for us to send our people to augment the Lauderdale's crew, and lighten the load a bit?" Paco proposed, mostly to Vara'l, Tarsek, or whoever may be on the more commanding position at the moment, sure that idea would be downed as realistically unsafe, but he did have to try to ask

”Please specify what would a little while be, Captain.” The Vulcan decided to ask. The effort could be worth it, but was that a matter of seconds, minutes or hours?

Suun hummed in thought, considering Paco’s suggestion. “Chances are, they’re spread thinner than they should be.” She replied, “I think that’s a good idea, if we can orchestrate it.”

“45 minutes, but that’s the maximum,” The Captain reported to Tarsek.

Shane made an exaggerated arms out shrugging motion at the notion of forty five minutes under the one shield bubble in these conditions. "If we handle shield corrections from one command centre we can probably last in that region of time. If we survive the two shield bubbles merging. We'd be better off being the active participant. I'll need the Lauderdale's prefix code to take over her shield control."

The Captain took in a breath and nodded, the prefix appearing on Shane’s console, “Helm, bring us parallel with Eventide.”

”Captain we have engineering personnel that could be spared to help your team.” Tarsek addressed the other. “However as the situation is, we would need time to transport them via shuttles. With the shield merging, would it be possible to get our transporters to work between the two ships?” The question was aimed at Shane who now handled the procedure. The idea to merge now seemed the best one so far. “We must save all the time we can.” (edited)

"Preferably negative twenty metres away from the Eventide on your Z Axis. It'll give us the best shield geometry." Shane said to the Captain as he plugged in the prefix code, taking control of the other ship's shields. He waited to make any changes until they were in position. He then turned his head toward Tarsek. "I don't see why transporters shouldn't work when we're inside the same shield bubble, worst case you could get into spacesuits and transfer directly. The radiation probably wouldn't be great but it's better than exploding."

Outside of the viewscreen, the Lauderdale began to move, veering around and coming up to the exact coordinates that Shane reported. It was now or never. “We’d have transporters operational through the shield bubble, yes, but be fair warned they may get stuck over here until we’re done.”

"Well, at least we know there's a quick and safe way of getting our engineers over there." Paco responded, relieved that tranporters were on the table as an option, even if it's a one way trip for the time being. "Hopefully it would be enough to better our chances..."

“We’ll get them back after all of this. We can stand to lose a few engineers for the time being.” She nodded, “How are we going about the transport?”

“Lauderdale is prepped and ready!” The captain leaned back in her chair and prepared herself for this. It was going to be quite the show.

"Alright, I'd hold onto something." He said to the room and the Lauderdale. Shane began the process of merging the two shield bubbles. Several dozen safety warnings and alarms began to blare on his console, the ops console and the engineering console as the ship realised what he was going and went 'Stop that it's a terrible idea!'. Undeterred Shane continued matching the harmonics between the two ships and calling up more power from the warp core to extend the Eventides shields to make contact with the Fort Lauderdale. With some luck, and Shanes surprising knowledge of particle physics for a pilot the shields hopefully merged.

5

Grasping her console tightly, she grimaced at the warnings, cursing under her breath. “Good job.” She huffed, “I’d like to never have to do this again.”

Diahjir gave a single exhale of laughter from his position at the Medical Console, having been monitoring it the whole time.

Both ships wobbled in the middle of space as the shield bubbles slammed against each other before merging, a somewhat violent shockwave passing across both vessels before everything settled. Captain Zh’kelthik stood up from her chair and began to pace through her bridge, “Start the clock. 45 minutes. Fire up the tractor beam!”

Paco and the Science Console seem unphased and unsurprised by a Redshirt overriding safety protocols. At the same time, it was for good reason so hopefully the ship could understand after a couple minutes

Whoever is keeping track of the Heliosphere would see a report come in: Warp speed limit has been lifted for this emergency. The Heliosphere is BOOKING IT!

"The Heliosphere is coming in hot! Warp speed limit's been lifted for them." Paco reported to the bridge as he looked into the report to see if there was a new ETA on their arrival. "Didn't know that was still implemented... who did we send over to the Lauderdale anyway?" Paco asked Shane, who was the nearest person to him.

”Lt. Cdr. Umali, Sogh Morof and Ensign Castelo were the volunteers beamed over.” Tarsek informed the lieutenant, his voice coming next to the chair. He had approached when Shane begun the merging procedure, wishing to look at the readings as he did.

"...oh fuck..." Paco said to himself. He rarely cusses when he is fully fluid, aware, and conscious, and not thrown into a Solitary PaConfinement box somewhere in enemy territory.

5

4

If it hadn't already been done Shane fired up the Eventides tractor beam aiming it at the station. He also nodded slightly to tarsek, not really shocked he'd come to observe the shield merger.

Eventide was shaking as it and Lauderdale held up the weight of Tycho Brahe Station. It was a tug-of-war with a star, and they couldn’t risk losing.

Vara'ls fingers danced over his console as he worked. His entire focus on the task at hand, the tractor beam primarily. Shane trusted to handle the shields, Vara'l worked to ensure he took some of the load, worked to help where he could. He too glanced briefly to the XO as they headed over to Shane. He didn't not though, time only spared for the glance before he turned back to his work.

The timer was ticking down. The two ships could safely stay shielded together for only 20 more minutes!

Ten more minutes of shield safety!

"We've got ten minutes before the shields fail, we'd need about a minute to get clear so we've got nine minutes to get clear." Shane said to Tarsek, assuming he was hovering still. He began to suck up any more power he could to give them a few more seconds, everything short of life support and gravity.

Even though on the outside the Vulcan appeared perfectly composed, a deep feeling of worry started to form in his guts. Tarsek worked towards suppressing it. They still had shuttles and people to arrive. “Do we have any signs of shuttles incoming aside from the one just arrived?”

With only five minutes left on the clock, a giant warp signature appeared on screen, and just above the Eventide and Lauderdale loomed…THE USS HELIOSPHERE! The Excelsior-class quickly enveloped the two ships in their own shield bubble, and a Romulan Starfleet officer appeared on the viewscreen! “Eventide, Lauderdale, this is Captain Lor’ket tr’Paalinen of the USS Heliosphere. We’ll take it from here.”

4

”Understood Captain.” The commander moved towards the center of the room to look at them properly. “You arrived just in time.” The feeling became undone.

"Thank God Shane said as he leaned slightly into his chair." Saved at the eleventh hour the Starfleet way. "Heliosphere this is Eventide I'm transferring shield controls to you."

Captain tr’Paalinen gave a little nod to his fellow officers, “It was tight, but we managed. From the looks of things, life signs are clearing out from Tycho Brahe Station. We’ll be ready to let the station go in a few moments.”

As soon as everyone was clear from the station, tractor beams were shut down, and Tycho Brahe Station was allowed to sink, as it would pose more danger as a hulk. With no more resistance, the gravity of Archid was quick to grab the station and pull it closer and closer. In one bright, brilliant explosion, Tycho Brahe Station collided with the surface of the star alongside its debris field, and it was no more…

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"Have fun with the paperwork for the shuttles commander." Shane said looking to Tarsek. Normal shuttles weren't his wheelhouse and he was glad in this moment.

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She let out a deep breath through her teeth, resisting the urge to slam her head against the console. Thank the gods this was over. She would spend the rest of the week doing busywork.

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The commander in question gave Shane the most perfect example of a Vulcan eyebrow arch. "It shall be done most certainly. I expect a full report on the shields modulation process you executed as soon as possible Commander Lawson, I am sure it will be a more than fascinating read to be done between the extensive shuttle paperwork." Did Shane get enough about Tarsek's "vibes" to understand the Vulcan had taken the human humor with not offense? And that he had returned in kind with those last few words?

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Tarsek managed to get a chuckle from Shane. "Oh don't you worry sir, you'll get a report and a signed copy of the paper when I submit it to the Federation Journal of Applied Physics." He had in fact understood that Tarsek was making a joke.

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"I shall look forward to it then." An interesting officer indeed, someone who had understood the importance of diversifying one's craft and whose abilities and knowledge in astrophysics had allowed them to save hundreds of lives today. Tarsek would not forget to mention such in his own report.

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Vara'l watched what was going on for a time, the conversation between the XO and the ACTO listened in on. Having deamed it something he didn't need to input on and smiled at the joke, Vara'l elected to put brief distance between himself and the person who intimidated him. Things were fine, he reckoned he could briefly leave his console so well. He departed from it, Shane trusted to handle it as he moved toward a certain ensign. Once there, he coughed slightly and asked simply. "How are you holding up after that, ensign?" As he looked over the command ensign.

Now that the situation was mostly resolved Shane stood from the console he was at and made his way to one of the engineering consoles to check on power distribution, he wanted to see if he'd broken anything important when he merged the shields. As he walked across the room, he silently eyed the captains chair and recalled the Borg incident. He remembered the pressure, the fear and most of all the weight of responsibility for the souls onboard. It was a throne any sane man would fear, one the uninformed coveted. Shane was certainly far from uninformed, and as far as he knew he was sane. Why, he then wondered. Why did he want to sit on that chair again more than anything..

6

Things were calming now. The divisions were focused on damage control, both in terms of infrastructure and in terms of helping the rescued injured, and the Eventide was making it's way back to 777. Tarsek eyed the bridge and its crew again. This was familiar. This had been the prior two decades of his life, seated along Cpt. Neto and the rest of his old crew, journeying to wherever Starfleet Command judged necessary. He had stood next to the captain's chair uncountable times, sat on it on some occasions. This mission, it seemed, would be a topic to be reviewed in his next meditation session. As his eyes travelled, blue met one of his seniors, who also seemed to eye the chair quite intensely. He briefly wondered what was on Shane's mind as he did so.

Shane didn't mean to meet Tarsek's eyes as he looked at the chair. The Vulcans piercing gaze meeting his own sent ice down his spine as if he was doing something he shouldn't. In effect he was, coveting a captain's chair that wasn't his, by rights it was Rai's and he had only kept it warm. Yet he still felt connected to it. Tarsek's gaze brought him. Back to reality and he almost too quickly averted his eyes and went back to the engineering station. He was coming around to Tarsek but the Vulcan was still enigmatic, as most Vulcans were.

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