Shuttle Meets Blackhole

Posted on Fri Dec 4, 2020 @ 6:05pm by Commander Ajani Carter & Lieutenant JG Sanok

Mission: Episode 1: On Stranger Tides
Location: Accretion disk
Timeline: MD - 03
2502 words - 5 OF Standard Post Measure

The type 9 shuttlecraft, Artemis was guided out of the port hanger door with the gentle touch of the deck chief; from the safety of the bay control room. From the outside the shuttle looked no different than it had done when it arrived aboard the Eagle three weeks ago but on the inside of the tiny ship there was hardly any room remaining. The Eagles gallant crew had bolted extra power sources to feed the overly powered SIF, wielded a very strong yet light set of cross bracing from hull to hull and then filled the entire cabin with crash foam. The idea there being that it would help the SIF keep integrity for longer if it had to work less to start with.

Once the Artemis has cleared the hanger doors it sped away, banking to port to circle the ship and point towards the black hole. Improvements to the warp field had been made which would allow it to jump to low warp and approach without tearing itself apart in a spectacular yet somewhat fatal way the moment it cross into the 'bumpy' subspace domain of the singularity. Even so it would only be at warp for a few minutes, the Eagle only needed it to be a few million miles closer in order to get the readings they would need.

From the bridge of the Eagle Carter watched as the type 9 stretched and then breached the warp barrier, they were close enough and their sensors good enough that they watched the shuttle through warp and then drop back to 'normal' space. Although normal wasn't the right word for it, space was distorted so much that they were experiencing a telemetry delay already; less than a second but it could be enough for a mission failure if something went wrong quickly.

Carter glanced around at the science Station, Lise was down in Astrometrics for this, in fact most of her senior staff were either there or in engineering monitoring the shuttle in some way. So at sciences was a junior officer who had gotten the short straw of bridge duty. From her station she nodded, "We're getting the readings we expected, and you are not going to believe this!"

Ajani was intrigued, joining the science officer she looked of the younger women shoulder. Ajani knew what those readings meant the moment she saw them, but "Are those life forms?" she asked checking. "Yes ma'am, hundreds of them. It seems they are moving around the Accretion disk as though there wasn't a powerful gravity field. Lise is gonna love this" she said grinning.

Carter moved back to her chair, with a up gesture of her hand she activated the holo console where she tapped into the science computer. It was already starting to interrupt the readings into something she could understand better. Interrupted footage was being rendered as she watched, it promoted a grin. The creatures looked a lot like earth squid, a large body, which was being estimated at around a mile long with 14 tentacle like appendages below, each ranging from a few miles long to a pair which measured about 4 and a half miles.

It was amazing to see, there were smaller creatures 'swimming' around, a small cluster surrounding a larger one. A family pod maybe? She did wonder, one of the most hostile places in the galaxy and it was teeming with life. As the sensors got more data more of the image became clearer, she could now see what Starfleet had nicknamed 'Star Jellies' were also moving within the larger school of squids. And there were hints of other creatures as well, Starfleet is going to want to sent a science ship out here, something more able to run sensor sweeps from a distance.

There was something else, a ship. A normal ship was following very closely to one of the largest squids, it was hard to tell if it was doing anything to harm it, or if it was just studying the creature up close. But even with the poor sensor resolution of the ship right now something about it was familiar.

The only member of his bridge crew which had remained on the bridge was Sanok, her chief tactical officer. She plucked the unknown ship, and the squid it was following, out of the holo screen and 'throw' it to the bridge view screen where it expanded and started to slowly turn. Closing her console down Ajani went to stand next to Sanok.

"I know it is a bad image, but can you run the readings through database and see if there are any matched?"

It was agreeable to Sanok that he was back where he belonged, back on the bridge of a starship, serving at the tactical station. He had never been on a Saber class, his first ship was an Intrepid, so he had studied all the specs before coming on board. Now, he was in view of the most awe-inspiring thing he had ever seen in his short career. A black hole, a dark monster that devoured anything that got too close. As if that wasn't enough, they had also discovered space-borne life forms living near the singularity, but not so close as to be pulled in by its powerful gravitational force.

Though there was interference, sensors detected another ship. Scanning, he gave his report to the captain.

"As best as I can tell through the interference, the ship is a Cardassian Hideki class. They've been out of service for approximately twenty-six years, but their weapons systems are still noteworthy; five disruptors and one torpedo tube. Normal cruise speed is warp five."

Carter grabbed the holo of the craft and throw it at the main screen. As it appeared there it pushed the 3D image of the creatures to one side before enlarging. It started to spin now with a lattice of orange overlaying the patchy and blurring image the sensors were gathering.

"How is a 50 year old design able to withstand the tidal forces when a brand new state of the art Light Cruiser can't get closer than 2 light years?" the question was of course meant for Sanok but she wasn't really addressing anyone. Ajani crossed the bridge to get closer, using the Ops station to manipulate the image. "Sanok" she said turning to look at him "Prepare a Class 7 Probe. Its shields should keep it alive long enough to get us another view point."

"Speculating, I would say the Hideki is withstanding the tidal forces by the same means our shuttle is," said Sanok. "They have stengthened their shields and structural integrity field. Logic dictates, that whoever is on that vessel, has been operating in this area for some time, thus the need to upgrade the ship."

Sanok tapped his tactical console. "Class seven probe ready to launch on your order."

It was a sound theory, as good as any she had right now. "Fire the probe, Lieutenant."

"Probe is away."

Behind the holo images, on the view screen Carter watched their small probe jump to warp. The Class 7 was designed for hostile environments, but she knew it would be expendable. Even so, as the seconds passed the blurry image of the small Cardassian ship resolved into a much finer detail. They even got a few internal scans to the mix. "Well it seems you might be right there Sanok, looks like they upgraded their warp core and impulse reactors." She walked back to the image of the ship and she pulled her hands apart and zoomed into the ships image more. "There," she pointed. "That reactor is a Galor, and there" she pointed at a large power signature "That looks like an old D7 warp core" she frowned "Old, but more output than the ship should have."

There were reports of pirate activity in the area, so it was logical the Hideki was indeed a pirate ship. Pirates would also be the most likely to jury-rig their ships with whatever parts and equipment they could acquire.

"Scan results from the probe confirm output and signatures from a Galor reactor and D7 warp core," said Sanok. With that mystery solved, the next question was what they were doing following the space-borne life forms. Without a possible explanation to offer, Sanok remained silent.

Carter was about to ask if they could get a communication through the probe when a number of things happened simultaneously. The probe was torn apart in a spectacular manner, not exploding as such, more like a spaghettification. Next almost to the last the heard of creatures turned and started to make their way out of the deep gravity well and lastly the small Cardassian made ship use the blackhole as a slingshot to reach the Eagles position.

Slowly walking backwards, keep her eye on the screen and said "Mr Sanok, please raise the shields and prepare to return fire."

The Hideki made a surprise slingshot move, bringing it near the Eagle. Sanok was already raising the shields and preparing the weapons when the captain ordered him to do so.

"The Hideki vessel has shields up and disruptors armed," said Sanok. "Our tactical systems are at 100% and are armed and ready." He felt the stirring of an emotion inside, but quickly suppressed it. This was his first possible combat situation since returning to duty, so he had to be ready.

Ajani nodded as she sat down in her chair. It was always good for a captain to appear to be calm, regardless of if she was as well. Using her controls from her chair Carter closed all the information that was now useless clutter and focused on the approaching ship. "Ops, hail them" she really didn't expect a civil response, but that ship was too small and under powered, even with the larger warp core, to pose a threat to the Eagle.

"All hands to battle stations" she said aloud after opening a ship wide channel. "No response" said the young officer at the operations station. "No, didn't expect one" she said even as Sanok's station started beeping.

"Unknown vessel is firing phasers," said Sanok.

"Brace for impact" Ajani called and then pressed the only button she had yet to test. From the shoulders and arm rests of her chair sprung the restraints and would now hold her snug in place. The First shots splashed across the fore shields doing now harm, the beam that struck out from the Hideki punched into the underside of the Eagle's shields lifting them all up a few feet. A console exploded at the back of the bridge, Carter swung around and was thankful that no one had been manning that station.

"Shields to 94%," said Sanok.

"Attack pattern Beta Carter two" she said scrolling through her screens "Target engines, shields and weapons, in that order" Just as the attacking vessel fired a trio of... "Really" she said focusing on the incoming fire "Micro Torpedoes?" she glanced back at Sanok frowning. "Please disable them!"

Sanok fired three, quick shots at the Hideki, one at each spot the captain ordered. Assessing the damage, he fired three more. "Hideki warp drive offline, shields at 38%, and their main phaser array is down." He fired again. "They're disabled, sir."

Carter got up and went to the tactical station. Looking at the scans she pointed to a spot on the upper hull where there was some energy bleed through. "There, narrow the beam to 12 millimetres and reduce the output to 10 percent. 1 second burst."

Sanok configured the beam and fired the burst.

"Good" she had hoped that they would be able to disable their main power without destroying the entire ship. The risk had played out and the ship now drifted away from the blackhole. "Use the tractor beams to arrest its movement."

Sanok tapped the console. "Hideki is in the tractor beam. I've moved it away from any potential gravitational pull from the singularity."

"Well done, Mr. Sanok" Ajani said with a genuine smile. It was the first time she had taken the ship into combat and they had done very well. "If that ship is a pirate vessel they might have information we can use." She would send in one of the fire teams first to subdue the crew, and then she would allow a more specialized team to beam aboard.

"Report the action to Fleet Command and make a request for the USS Devils Brew to come and pick this ship up" The Devils Brew was a Dominion Era Akira Class. The Captain had been in command of the ship since it left space dock around 20 years before. She was a combat veteran. They would be the Eagle's back up if and when they found a pirate base.

Sanok composed a communique. "Message sent, sir."

With the Devils Brew on their way Carter could now deal with the Cardassian built ship which was nestled within their tractor beams a few meters away. She considered the streaming incoming data as the Eagle's powerful tactical sensors swept the alien vessel, it had taken a fair amount of damage from their attacks but there were still no life sign readings. Well, nothing humanoid sized anyway, plenty of biological matter but nothing concentrated. She swept through the readings until she came to the radiation scans, it was putting out a fair amount of subspace radio, and getting a lot back. There was no clear source, only a general direction and that was pointing deeper into Cardassian space.

It was a problem that the Devils Brew, with her more powerful sensors could help them with, but for now she would have the tactical teams do a sweep of the Hideki and make sure that there were not any places that could be hiding hostile pirates. Once they had finished and the ship declared safe a second team would go over and pull it apart looking for anything that could prove to be a clue.

"Mr. Sanok, please take Fire Teams Alpha and Bravo and sweep that ship, its a small vessel so there shouldn't be that much to search, but i'd rather not take the chance." she pointed at the ships life signs scans, "We are not picking up any humanoid life and that intrigues me. Please find out why there is no life on a ship that was just attacking us!"

"Yes, sir," said Sanok. He stood up and nodded for the back up tactical officer to relieve him.

"Go now, Lieutenant, Go now and go safe. Arm up as you see fit."

Sanok moved to the turbolift, a plan already formulating. He was back in the action again.

Ajani watched the data continue to stream in. The shuttle was still intact, the probe was long dead but it had proven worth the lose. They had managed to get a lot of information about the creatures, who had returned to their position and feeding grounds at the event horizon. She pondered them for what seemed to be a long time.