A Little Pick Me Up

 Episode Name:  A Little Pick Me Up

   Written By:  Fortunae

         Cast:  Caeli, Claness, Fortunae, Havaris, Idrani, Lao and Poole.

  Produced By:  Starfleet

  Directed By:  Fortunae

     Aired On:  Sat Mar 29 04:11:21 2003

     Stardate:  53102.4

Time: Sat Mar 29 00:13:28 2003

Stardate: 53102

The Thomas Paine hovers stationary in space near the "Triangle" were Federation, Romulan, and Klingon space meet. Long range sensors, and then lateral sensors have been tracking the approach approach of a vessel with a UNA transponder whose name when translated from Nausicaan into Federation Standard seems to be UNS Toxic Waste Barge Number Seven. This is the vehicle selected to transport the great Fleet Captain of the once proud House Kang 327th wing, Krotar To'Ghelj of House Kang. This vessel with no weapons. This vessel flying under a signal of neutrality and truce. This vessel that lateral sensors have picked up on imaging as having in huge letters down the sides of it's cargo bays the words in the three languages of the Great Powers "UNARMED TRANSPORT VESSEL", likely added shortly before departure.

As it approaches the point where it is no longer flying in the Klingon / Romulan Neutral zone and into Federation space -- two larger vessels decloak, also with UNA transponders, turn on their axis and return towards Nausicaan space, vanishing into cloaked protection moments later. A courtesy to show they had been there perhaps.

The Nausicaan vessel proceeds toward the Thomas Paine with an almost casual angle of approach, at it nears, the "Ko'ch-Runng'Nopa-rooo" hails the Federation vessel.

"Operations... Answer them. Onscreen," Poole orders, moving to stand just in front of the command chair.

Havaris wears a sour expression as the Nausicaan craft decloak and withdraw. "That would have been good to know beforehand. Never a good sign." Havaris eyes the hail on his terminal for a moment, nodding his head to the affirmative at Poole's command. "Aye, Sir. On screen." He taps at the communications panel, turning in his seat to catch a glimpse of the conversation.

On the large view screen appears the face of a "human" male with a stubbly shaved head and a pinched expression. On the view screen behind his left shoulder can be seen part of a large body in a UNA uniform. The "Human's" is also wearing the UNA uniform colors, but his certainly has a less "dashing" (by Ferrengi standards anyway) cut to it then has been typically seen. Perhaps he hasn't made it to the tailor yet. The "human" speaks up with a dry voice, long since damaged by harsh liquer or bad atmospheric processors. "Hello Starfleet. This is the UNS Ko'ch-Runng'Nopa-rooo, I'm captain Chuck Martin contracted to helm out this trip. We are currently bound for Station 419-Upsilon under a diplomatic flag of truce to deliver cargo to the Federation Ambassador in residence there."

"Greetings Captain. This is the Federation Starship Thomas Paine. I am Lieutenant Poole. We are ready to get underway immediately," Poole says, all business, before looking to Havaris. "Bring us about and prepare to engage a course and speed matching the UNS vessel... Sciences, Tactical, keep an eye out for vessels approaching us and our flightpath. I want to know about them well before they are within range."

Havaris closes out the hail with a tap to his terminal and settles back in his seat to await orders.

Idrani inclines her head slightly, the irony of the transport vessel not lost upon her. Nor is she surprised at the cloaked escort ships. She keeps an eye on the sensors, looking for uninvited guests, but occasionally looks up at the screen.

Caeli plays his sensors briefly over the patch of space where the cloaked escorts were, and then begins to poke around the vastness of space with his electronic eyes to see what he can see.

Lao is just watching from the Engineering station, occasionally looking down at his readouts.

Claness can't help but quirk a brow as the UNS Toxic Waste Barge Number Seven comes into visual range. But his attention doesn't stay there for long, as the big Andorian watches the UNA warships decloak and then depart. As communications are established, the ADF officer turns his attention back to his station. He nods in respones to Poole's directive and prepares the Thomas Paine to match course and speed.

GAME: Idrani spends a courage point.

<CONTEST> Idrani (claiming advantage) contests her Shipboard Systems (Sensors) skill vs a difficulty of Challenging and Succeeds!

GAME: Caeli spends a courage point.

<CONTEST> Caeli contests his Shipboard Systems (Sensors) skill vs a difficulty of Challenging and Fails!

<CONTEST> Idrani contests her Starship Tactics (Naval) skill vs a difficulty of Moderate and Succeeds!

"Helm... once the Ko'ch-Runng'Nopa-rooo goes to warp, engage," Poole instructs the helm before she looks to the other stations. No further orders for Tactical or Sciences yet, it would seem. "Keep the damage control teams on their toes, Mr. Lao... Lieutenant Havaris, signal 419 that we have rendevoused with the Nausicaan ship and are headed back their way."

<CONTEST> Caeli (claiming advantage) contests his Shipboard Systems (Sensors) skill vs a difficulty of Challenging and Fails!

GAME: Havaris spends a courage point.

<CONTEST> Havaris (claiming advantage) contests his Shipboard Systems (Communications) skill vs a difficulty of Challenging and Succeeds!

GAME: Poole spends a courage point.

<CONTEST> Poole (claiming advantage) contests her Command (Starship) skill vs a difficulty of Difficult and Succeeds!

<CONTEST> Poole (claiming advantage) contests her Command (Starship) skill vs a difficulty of Impossible and Fails!

Havaris shifts a bit in his seat, nodding his understanding of his orders. He sends off the message easily enough, pausing to check his comm signals to make certain of reception. He'd been about to report success, but gets sidetracked. He taps at his terminal rapidly for a moment, then less so, then rather precisely. Finally, his expression sours and he turns about in his chair. "Message sent, Sir... But. I'm detecting a faint cyclic signal... Disguised as background noise, Sir. Normally this sort of distortion would be washed out by the Anomaly. Which means 419's blind to it. But we're... receiving. Someone's got a signal out in near-space, Sir. I'd proceed with caution. And I'll try to triangulate the source."

Idrani speaks up, "Sir, I've picked up a disturbance... a ripple, if you would, at 600K au. It might be the wake effect caused by a group of cloaked ships, making a hard turn at impulse. Sometimes that tachyon disturbance can indicate an attack run, by cloaked ships."

Caeli looks up briefly from his console, perturbed at his own inability to see what Idrani saw, then realizing he was looking the other way in space. "Maybe raising the shields wouldn't be a terrible idea?" Always the meathead in practice, that one. His eyes are diverted back down to his console with all due expediency, trying to aid in whatever manner he can to find the... mystery ripple.

Lao says, "Sir, we have a slight problem. We're getting a yellow light on one of the emergency power fusion reactors. I'm sending a damage team down to investigate right now. Looks like a breakdown in the EPS conduits."

"Aye, sir." Claness says as he begins to work on Poole's command. His fingers start dancing over the warp controls...until he hears talk of a possible attack run by cloaked ships. His hands slide calmly down to hover over the impulse controls, his eyes moving from his readouts to the viewscreen and back again. He waits for orders.

"Mr. Lao, I want that cleared up /yesterday/," Poole orders, taking a seat in the Big Chair. With a "Signal the Nausicaan transport... let them know what we might have on our hands. Then signal s419. We may need help in a hurry." Looking to Caeli, she nods, "Go to yellow alert and raise shields.... if they know that we know they are there, it might deter them." Her last look is to Idrani, "Keep an eye on that disturbance, Idrani... We need to know for sure what they are." For now: take precautions.

<CONTEST> Havaris (claiming advantage) contests his Shipboard Systems (Communications) skill vs a difficulty of Challenging and Dramatically Fails!

<CONTEST> Idrani (claiming advantage) contests her Shipboard Systems (Sensors) skill vs a difficulty of Difficult and Succeeds!

Havaris pokes at his terminal in an attempt to triangulate the source before boldly declaring, "/Got it/!" This, shortly before a patriotic anthem from the Romulan Star Empire hums from his terminal. Havaris is nothing short of confused for a moment or two before grumbling and poking the terminal to cut the feed. "Or not. Trying to recalibrate."

Idrani hits buttons on her console rapidly, brow furrowed. After a moment, she calls out. "Got them. Sir, I've pinpointed the cloaking fields of two to four vessels about the same size as the Thomas Paine... maybe Klingon B'rels by the looks of them. If so, it's an attack formation. They are 400K au and closing. Will be within long weapons' range soon."

Caeli brings up the alerts control panel, tapping the "yellow" key with his index finger and confirming it with his pinky. He keys the intership comm, holding down the PTT button while he speaks down towards the console, "All hands, yellow alert. Standby." His finger lifts from the key as he finishes, glancing up once at the viewscreen, across to Poole, and then back down to his pretty flashing buttons. "Sir, not to jump the gun, but permission to go weapons hot?"

<CONTEST> Lao (claiming advantage) contests his Propulsion Engineering (Impulse) skill vs a difficulty of Moderate and Fails!

Lao hands dance across the panels. "Attempting to reroute power into secondary EPS conduits, and..." Bleep! He frowns. "No dice. Still working. Advise avoiding too many simultaneous systems being used for the next few minutes, sir."

<CONTEST> Claness (claiming advantage) contests his Shipboard Systems (Flight Control) skill vs a difficulty of Moderate and Succeeds!

Blue antennae can't help but swivel towards the direction of Ops as music starts to play. Luckily, the rest of the Helm officer is keeping on task as Claness brings helm control to life. "Sir, I have preset a course that will place us inbetween the approaching wake and the Nausicaan vessel, at an aspect that allows maximum weapons fire. Awaiting orders."

"Excellent work, Mr. Claness. Engage that course," Poole says determinedly as she looks to Lao. "Ensign. We could be going into combat in a minute. I want that power plant /green/." She turns her head to look over Havaris. "Get those messages out... and then attempt to signal the cloaked vessels." The rest of the orders are rapid fire, "Good job keeping an eye on them so far... continue. Charge phasers. Torpedos offline...."

<CONTEST> Havaris (claiming advantage) contests his Shipboard Systems (Communications) skill vs a difficulty of Challenging and Succeeds!

"Right, right. Messages sent, they're acknowledging our message and speeding to Warp, Sir, making for 419. Looks like they're running for it. Those craft on our tail can likely outpace the Nausicaan Vessel, suggest requesting backup, Sir." Havaris then returns to his work on triangulation, for all that it's a moot point. The signal, after all, seems to have gone through. His eyes widen once his work is done and he pivots at his console, "Sir, the source of that signal is 150 kilometers ventral and aft of our current position. It's stationary at present, I'll keep an eye on it to see if it's another cloaked vessel. Might want to point our eyes out that way. Also, Sir, until that power issue is resolved, we're running on a poor power supply. We can keep shields up, but weapons and sensors are going to be taxed."

. o O Claness thinks "Oy."

<CONTEST> Idrani (claiming advantage) contests her Shipboard Systems (Sensors) skill vs a difficulty of Moderate and Succeeds!

Havaris ammends, "Navigation, too. If we power our weapons to full, we're going to lose our track on that Cloaked flight, and most of our navigational control."

Idrani comments from her station, "Tracking the cloaked ships, sir. They have closed another 200 k. If this is an attack run, they should be decloaking soon and firing."

Caeli's fingers go from Russian stepdancing to a nice Catalonian tango as he floods the phaser banks to the halfway mark, mindful of Havaris' warning. "Phasers charged to fifty percent capacity. Left you some power to work with, there, but if push comes to shove I'd like to have all the juice I can get. How's it coming over there, Pete?"

<CONTEST> Lao (claiming advantage) contests his Propulsion Engineering (Impulse) skill vs a difficulty of Moderate and Succeeds!

Lao hands fly across the board. "We are green on power!" he announces. "And I'm rewiring this ship when we get home, sir!"

Lao amends, "Make that, we -will- be green on power. In...two minutes."

Caeli says in Bolian, "Thank the Bird."

"Aye, sir." Chakev Claness taps his console and his pre-programmed course comes do be. A frown forms, though, as the lack of overall power causes the maneuver to be executed a bit on the sluggish side. "Course underway, Lieutenant. Compenating for the power drain."

Exterior view of the Thomas Paine, it moves into a new position in regard to the Nausicaan ship and rolls slightly to address the space the direction of the Triangle with it's most favorable angles for weapons discharge. As it does so there are three ripples in space and from those ripples appear three sleek green B'rel class starships. Their formation opens up liked pinched fingers expanding into an open palm to avoid narrowly the Thomas Paine, as as they clear her sides they pinch back together. Discharges of disrupter energy lance from them and pepper down the Nausicaan ship, one a fraction of time behind the other two in discharging -- the shields of the Nausicaan ship become visisble as they are assailed and then buckle. As the B'rel's sweep past the slower moving craft thier aft torpedo launchers each spit forth one brilliant ball of energy toward the staggered vessel, and with pin-point precision they blow the nacelles of the cargo vessel causing huge fragments of debris to tumble back toward the Thomas Paine.

"Helm, evasive manuevers!" Poole orders.

<CONTEST> Claness (claiming advantage) contests his Shipboard Systems (Flight Control) skill vs a difficulty of Challenging and Succeeds!

Claness barks out "Aye!" in a very loud, very military fashion. Cuddly-bear Claness is gone, replaced with the trained officer. Claness stabs at his controls, bringing the Thomas Paine into a sharp dive combined with a burst of speed. Sliding around the wreckage more than actually dodging it, Claness turns the Thomas Paine, arching it back over the Nausicaan ship so that her dorsal surface is now facing the dorsal surface of the the B'rels. This puts the Starfleet vessel into a good firing position at the aft end of the attacking ships.

"Tactical, fire at will, but watch your power consumption," Poole orders, gripping her armrests tightly during the helm manuevering. "Mr. Lao... I need that power /now/.... Operations, Sciences, I need a coordinated effort here... I want a scan of the Nausicaan ship. Life signs. We're going to make a close pass and beam them out. Then we're going to run like hell. Helm, be ready to go to maximum warp when I give the word."

<CONTEST> Idrani (claiming advantage) contests her Shipboard Systems (Sensors) skill vs a difficulty of Moderate and Succeeds!

"Sir, those are /Allied Craft/! We haven't even hailed them yet! They are B'Rel from the House of Kang according to the Transponder beacons. I'm downloading that data to our registry now." Havaris taps rapidly at his terminal before noting further, "And that signal source I'm tracking is moving on intercept of those B'rel, Sir. If that thing has weapons, they're going to be point-blank on the rear of their flight. I think we've got ourselves a regular ambuscade, here." Shaking his head at Poole's following orders, Havaris begins tapping at his console, "I'll try freeing up some power, here. Dropping all non-essential systems. Replicators and non-primary terminals coming off-line..."

GAME: Caeli spends a courage point.

Idrani keeps tapping away at her console. "Sir, picking up one human, twelve Nausicaans." Brief pause. "No Klingons. Maybe they already beamed off the Fleet Captain before they attacked." Another brief pause, "Sir, the Empire currently has IKDF forces positioned along the boarder specifically ordered to prevent any House fleets from adventuring beyond the boarder. The IKDF has orders to destroy any House ships that cross the boarder without authorization."

Idrani continues, "The Nausicaan ship has lost its nacelles. They still have environmental support, impulse thrusters and manuever control. There is a fire on the bridge and another in a ventral cargo area of the ship."

Caeli nods, the gesture lost on the unreceptive lack of eyes in Poole's back. "Aye, sir. Firing a warning shot across the lead vessel's bow, twenty percent power." He lets the rest of the phaser banks flood with whatever energy he can glean from the reactors, stabbing down a finger to lance bright orange light out through the blackened void as the sleek grey of the Paine arcs through it like some spectre out of a child's nightmare. Klingon children have no such nightmares, though, their only realities are the harshness of battle, and death. Caeli clears his mind, calling out to Poole more informally than usual, as he is distraught watching the phaser banks fill again much more slowly than they should. "Gwen, when they fired, I picked up some transporter activity around the Nausicaan ship. Not sure what direction it was, but something went somewhere."

<CONTEST> Lao (claiming advantage) contests his Command (Combat) skill vs a difficulty of Moderate and Fails!

Lao's hands fly across the terminal, and then he says, "Nothing doing on the power, sir, one minute, fifteen seconds to full is the best we can manage. If I'm to transport before then, we'll have to conserve some power!"

Claness keeps his course steady, maintaining a suitable proximity to the Nausicaan vessel to allow for transport. "Prepared to go to warp on your command, Sir." he offers to Poole.

GAME: Poole spends a courage point.

<CONTEST> Poole (claiming advantage) contests her Shipboard Systems (Command) skill vs a difficulty of Routine and Succeeds!

"Tactical, disarm weapons... Helm, bring us in a course past the transport... Kusto, beam all you can off. We'll make a second pass if we have to," Poole orders, that fire of hers coming to the fore... she's in such a zone that she ignores Caeli's informality. "Jaylas... Find the Captain." And then she's at her miniconsole, bringing up communications, "This is the USS Thomas Paine hailing all available KDF ships in the area... three ships from the House of Kang have decloaked in Federation space and engaged a vessel under flag of Truce from Nausicaa. We need your assistance. Please respond."

<CONTEST> Idrani (claiming advantage) contests her Shipboard Systems (Sensors) skill vs a difficulty of Impossible and Fails!

<CONTEST> Havaris (claiming advantage) contests his Shipboard Systems (Transporter) skill vs a difficulty of Moderate and Succeeds!

"This is going to... this is going to take some time." Havaris cedes his communications controls to Poole and shuts down that section of his terminal to conserve that much more power, switching over to the transporter controls. "It's going to take us two minutes, Sir, two passes at least. I've got my locks and I'm energizing." Havaris' hands slide up the terminal, his eyes never leaving the signal strength monitors. "They're aboard, Sir. Twelve aboard." Havaris barks across the bridge, "I'll need Security down in the Transporter rooms yesterday!" Back to the terminal, "Cycling the buffers, recharging..."

Idrani's fingers fly on the console, trying to lock onto one specific Klingon signature among the many Klingons on all three ships before they decloak. Her brow furrows. "Didn't find him, sir." She adds, as an afterthought, "But the B'rels are crewed by Klingons." Little paranoid there, Jaylas?

Caeli would bristle, if he wasn't bald. Reluctantly, he takes the ship's weapons offline, glancing towards Lao with concern, hoping against hope that the young engineer can power up his guns /fast/ if he needs 'em. "Weapons safe, sir. All torpedoes still accounted for in storage." He hits the PTT key again and matches Havaris bark for bark as he yells at his own underlings... repsonsibility rolls downhill. "Security teams alpha through gamma, to the transporter rooms, on the double, whatever arms you're carrying. Epsilon, cover them in the corridor, type IIs and IIIs. MOVE!" He releases the key and looks up at Havaris, grim satisfaction crossing his face.

Lao looks down. "We are green on power, across the board!" He looks up to Idrani and calls, "Try scanning for the transporter signature! It should still be present. We can at least narrow it down to which ship got 'im!" His fingers fly across his board as he pulls up the signature profile for a Klingon transporter, and feeds it to Idrani's terminal, saving her a bit of time.

Claness does as he is ordered, slowing the speed of the Thomas Paine down enough to give Havaris the maximum amount of time to work the transporters. "Executing a turn around for a second tight pass, Lt. Hava..." Big green Andorian eyes spring wide open as a thought occurs to Claness. "The unknown ship is going to fire upon the vessel holding the fleet captain!" Without orders, Claness stops his tight turn and moves to a flanking position behind the B'rel's, his eyes alert for the upcoming attack.

Against the backdrop of space is motion and orderly chaos... the Nausicaan ship, it's legs cut off continues to drift along it's previous heading, and now with most of it's crew gone it begins to tumble a bit as the attitude manauever thrusters are not being guided. Swooping away from the carnage of the Nausicaan vessel shielded now by the Thomas Paine as it begins a tight turn then aborts it in a steep switch back dive to come up at the attitude to flank the B'rels, the Kang trio contines to contract thier ranks and begin to shimmer into thier cloaking fields.

Unfortunately for them, another much larger craft finishes it's exit from cloak and unleashes hell thier direction. The Vor'cha dwarfs the other vessels present and it vomits huge amounts of heavy disrupter fire into all three ships just as they reach the point of shield trading for stealth. On the heels of the disrupter blasts, weaving and twisting in thier courses light swamplight phantoms, come the volleys of torpedoes. There are explosions and pieces blasting off all three vessels, all of which slip into evasive actions with the skill revealing thier veteran status from the Dominion War -- and right into a cross fire created by the emergence of two other B'rels that seemed to be waiting for just those manuevers. The dark is filled with light and terrible silence as the Klingons tear into each other...

Caeli bows his head for a moment, murmuring quietly, He says in Bolian, "May the Great Bird of the Galaxy receive your souls with kindness and expediency."

Poole grits her teeth, "Damn it...." Leaning forward, she says, "Since we're /here/ now, helm, bring us into transporter range. Havaris, Idrani, if you can find the Fleet Captain. We still have to get him to S419." The human captain of the transport vessel will apparently have to wait as she initiates another com call, beseeching the Vor'cha and it's two stooge B'rel's, "KDF forces, cease fire... they have taken someone off of the transport in violation of the Truce. Shoot to disable, repeat, shoot to disable."

Havaris goes about rerouting power over at Operations, shoving every spare joule he can summon into the Sensor Arrays. Once the Sensors are reading green, he calls across the bridge to Idrani, "Full power to Sensors, Sciences, make it count. I'm robbing the bank to pay back my loan, here." Havaris' attention returns to his power display, a cause of no small amount of annoyance to the Bajoran.

<CONTEST> Idrani (claiming advantage) contests her Shipboard Systems (Sensors) skill vs a difficulty of Difficult and Fails!

<CONTEST> Caeli contests his Shipboard Systems (Tactical) skill vs a difficulty of Moderate and Fails!

<CONTEST> Idrani (claiming advantage) contests her Shipboard Systems (Sensors) skill vs a difficulty of Challenging and Succeeds!

GAME: Caeli spends a courage point.

<CONTEST> Caeli contests his Shipboard Systems (Tactical) skill vs a difficulty of Moderate and Succeeds!

Idrani keeps working diligently at her console. She receives Lao's data on the transporter signature and the power boost from Havaris, murmurs "Thanks!" to them as she keeps working. An instant later she calls out, "Sir, found him. He's aboard the Vor'cha."

Lao looks up from his board, now and then, as he keeps an eye on the status of the damage control teams, and the patch-job on the emergency power. He grins as Idrani finds the Klingon they're looking for.

Caeli had kept his eyes glued to the viewscreen until his console started bleeping at him. Near. Far. Near. Far. Ah, there we go. The Bolian's fingers play over the IFF transponder panel, as he murmurs to himself, "Hello every-bod-eeeee...". Stopping only to confirm the identities of the ships, he looks up and calls out to whoever is listening or cares, "One ship-of-the-line, Vor'cha class, coming up as the IKS Marba'DUK, and two B'rel scout craft showing up as the IKS Hel'qlk and the IKS Tro'GMAR. Trying to lock onto the Nausicaan craft with aft tractors." A few more frantic buttons pushed, rerouting power from the shields facing away from the combat zone to the aft tractor emitters, and sending the blue cylinder of gravity towards their charge, to stop the drift. "I have the Nausicaan ship in tow, sir. Drift corrected. You can beam out the rest of the survivors at your leisure." His hands now move to hover above the weapons controls... if they wubba him, he's going to wubba them riiight back.

<CONTEST> Claness (claiming advantage) contests his Shipboard Systems (Flight Control) skill vs a difficulty of Difficult and Fails!

Claness furrows his brow as the sudden drag of the towed freighter throws off his attempts at nimble maneuvering. Instead of dodging and weaving, the TP finds itself continuing in a wobbly straight line. "Damn..."

Outside in the vaccuum the Klingon battle wraps towards termination as suddenly as it commenced as the third B'rel from the Kang House has it's wing clipped and it spirals until the secondary explosions break it into five pieces of flaming metal and icy death. The Vor'cha banks at a slow and less then graceful angle and begins to shimmer into cloak, it's wingmates following suit.

Poole continues into her com, pleading now, "You are /killing/ an innocent, KDF vessels." Abandoning that effort, she offers more orders. "Idrani, scans,... any survivors? Havaris, beam them aboard immediately. And beam Captain Martin off that transport." Looking to Lao, she asks, "Status report." And to Caeli, "Shields down. Remain at yellow alert." Pause. "Helm, bring us in slow and close. I want as full a scan for survivors as we can get.... prepare a course for S419 as well." And then she's back on the com sys, calling up the Station and informing them of what has conspired so far.

"Dammit, Tactical...", Havaris mutters from Operations, "That power comes from somewhere, you know, and that came /right/ out of our Shields." Havaris curses bitterly in Bajoran as he prods at the controls for his terminal, sucking energy away from the lowering shields in an attempt to compensate for the sudden drain of the tractor lock. Any further annoyance at the Bolian's actions are saved for later at the orders incoming from Poole. He nods his head succinctly, bringing the transporters back on-line to gather up whatever survivors may be floating out there in the void -- in addition to Captain Martin. "Looks like the Klingons weren't to interested in getting the Fleet Captain back over the Diplomatic Table. Color me shocked."

<CONTEST> Idrani (claiming advantage) contests her Shipboard Systems (Sensors) skill vs a difficulty of Moderate and Succeeds!

Idrani immediately beings trying to track the Vor'cha as it leaves and cloaks. Where is it think its going with the Fleet Captain? When ordered to begin scanning for survivors from the House Kang B'rels, she does so. "Neat." she murmurs softly, in her native tongue. "A very neat trick." She raises her voice a little as her scans come back. "I have six Klingon survivors, sir, spread across two of the larger chunks of wreckage."

Caeli looks down at his console in silence, killing power to the defensive systems even as he doublechecks his tractor lock. His mind races, turning over itself in circles as the events of the last hour play through his head. So many lives... so many people... so many children who would never look on their fathers' faces again. Granted, the children would sing the praises of their parents and join them someday in Sto'vo'kor... but Bolians and Klingons maintain different views on the journey of a dead man's soul. As his eyes return again to the floating hulk of a Nausicaan freighter on the viewscreen, it becomes apparent to Caeli just how close he came to being one of those souls.

Lao looks down at his console for a moment, and then looks up. "We're reading green across the board, sir. The EPS conduits around our emergency fusion reactors are going to need some work when we get back, but there's no damage, as such."

Claness eases back on the throttle and brings the Thomas Paine into the thick of the debris nice and easy. He moves the vessel here and there, allowing for optimal scans and transport of survivors, but his white brow remains furrowed as he plays the events over and over in his head. Finally, an "Ahh." escapes from his formerly pressed-together lips. "A prisoner no longer, a martyr no more..." he murmurs to himself.

And so with quiet professionalism the crew of the Thomas Paine finish the rescue of Captain Martin, and then collect 6 survivors of the crews from the Kang B'rels. The Nausicaan vessel towed behind them with thier tractor beam is a symbol of more than just itself. Old, over-used, now limping, possibly crippled. Even systems well loved with fierce loyalty can reach a state where it might be better to start completely new then to try another clever bypass or workaround.

Once it's work is done the Thomas Paine drops a salvage recovery beacon on the location to mark it for Merchant Marine recovery vehicles and to dissuade the Ferrengi from moving in on the area then it ramps up to warp speed and is gone.

That it will be back seems a foregone conclusion.