Night Shift Interrupted
Posted on Mon May 30th, 2022 @ 6:50pm by Captain Etan Kaz & Lieutenant JG Sel PsyD & Lieutenant Sabine St. James & Lieutenant Skot Ryder & Lieutenant Tequila Dreik
Mission:
01-Crossing the Line
Location: Station Ops
Timeline: MD1-0030Hours
Lieutenant Sel was tasked with commanding the night shift on this particular night, and he tended to take that responsibility rather seriously.
The night crew always dreaded the nights he worked, because he insisted on following procedure to the t. Meaning they were stuck at their stations, and forced to give reports on all the nothing that was happening.
Sometimes they would get lucky and some system would malfunction, giving them something to focus on for a bit. Otherwise, the silence was monotonous and mind-numbing.
Sel, with his hands firmly held behind his back, walked from station to station in Ops. "Status report." He commanded, stopping at the station of Lieutenant Grundmanis, a tactical officer.
With a roll of her eyes, Grundmanis reponded in her usual manner without looking at her console."Nothing on sensors, as usual."
"Is that so, Lieutenant?" Sel looked past Grundmanis and the readout on her station. "According to this, it appears that an objects has entered our sensor range."
Grundamanis looked down at the readout and then back to Sel. "Probably just some debris." She said, as she examined the data on the antiquated console.
Sel looked like the picture of Vulcan impatience as he observed her work. "Lieutenant?" He spoke, clearly waiting for her further analysis.
"Sir," She began, her eyes narrowed at the display."There are a number of small vessels en route for the station. Probably origin point is Ab-Tzenketh." She looked at Sel with a look of worry.
"Is it an invasion force?" asked the Doosodarian Ensign who had made his way over to the station to see what was happening.
Sel's face stayed even and stoic. "Can sensors confirm the hull configuration as Tzenkethi?"
Grundmanis nodded and set to work on the Vulcan's request. "Confirmed, Shuk-din class configuration. Cross-referenced against last known intelligence."
Sel released his hands from behind his back. "Bring us to Red Alert." He commanded before tapping his combadge. "Senior Staff to Ops."
Skot came running into Ops still throwing on his uniform before sliding into the tactical station and tapping Grundmanis on the shoulder, "I've got it from here Grundy," using the nickname the entire department had come up with.
Sabine made her way in as well and found an unoccupied station to take. Then another because the first was missing components. All of them. She called up the information as well and then began calling up latest updates from Starfleet Command.
Tiki walked into the station's Op's center, one glance at her appearance showed that clearly this red alert had come at an inopportune time. Taking a seat at an unused console, she tossed her jacket over the console and dropped her boots on the floor in front of her before she stood up, wearing the jeans and black midriff top she'd sported to the lounge the previous night. Heading for the replicator, she ordered herself a coffee before padding bare foot back to the console she had made herself at home at.
The Captain was the last to arrive. He moved to Lieutenant Sel first. "Report."
Sel stood ramrod straight. "Sir, we have an indeterminate number of incoming Tzenkethi vessels on course for the station."
Kaz nodded his understanding. "How many?" He asked, looking to Ryder and St. James.
Skot's fingers flew across the panel, "Enough to make this an extremely interesting night."
Sabine took longer to respond, reading over the information before turning her chair, "To be less vague, sir, this is exceptionally unusual. Starfleet has only registered minor standoffs with the Tzenkethi, typically claims their border is what their maps show, not everyone else's. But their civilians use specified lanes of travel - Tzenkethi society is extremely organized. And their military prefer numerical superiority."
"In short, Captain, this is neither. And if it is a prelude to something bigger, I'd suggest deciding now who gets a phaser and who gets a blunt instrument or sharp utensil." Sabine concluded with a straight face. Because the truth was just that.
"Well, this type of thing certainly wakes a person up." Etan's eye were a bit fuzzy. He rubbed them. "Charge Deflectors...erm...if we can." He looked a for an unoccupied, and operational, station. He crossed to where Skot was seated and leaned over his shoulder. "Do we have shields or weapons?"
TAG Skot (We probably have some operational weapons. They are antiquated versions of course. Some goes for the shields, they are probably not fully offline, but they're older as well.)
"Is there any chance this is going to be a peaceful invasion?" Tiki asked hopefully, still half dressed, sipping her coffee. "Or should I be preparing sickbay for casualties and chaos?"
Kaz shot a look of concern in Tiki's direction. "I think thats exactly what you should do." He looked around, "Mister Sel can help you."
The Vulcan man nodded and moved to stand by Tiki's side.
Shoving her feet unceremoniously into her boots and not bothering to lace them, Tiki stood up and grabbed her jacket, slinging it over her shoulder. "Well, Mr Vulcan, looks like it's you and me!" she chirped as she started across the ops center toward the turbolift.
"...but...invasions by their very nature aren't...peaceful..." Sabine protested, more to herself than anything with the juxtaposition.
"Sir, protocol in this situation does require establishing contact as well. As I said, this is highly unusual. We should also probably not wait until we are left holding out with glitter bombs and sporks before contacting Starfleet." Sabine continued to Kaz.
Kaz looked to the archaic sensor readout. “The ships won’t be in communications range for an hour or so.” He confirmed. “In the meantime let’s see if we can’t get some shields and weapons in working order.” He rubbed his spotted temple. “Im going to get on the horn to Admiral Devane, see if she can’t send some folks our way.”
