Allegiances 4 – Wayward child
by HoD Ro' Matlh & Sogh Thor'nan Mal'Kor & Soghla' Marie St. Helene & Soghla' HIchop Matlh & Soghla' Terri (Tell) Hope & Soghla' Jared & Sogh Marla Varquis & Ensign Jason Hawk

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Title   Wayward child
Mission   Allegiances 4
Author(s)   HoD Ro' Matlh & Sogh Thor'nan Mal'Kor & Soghla' Marie St. Helene & Soghla' HIchop Matlh & Soghla' Terri (Tell) Hope & Soghla' Jared & Sogh Marla Varquis & Ensign Jason Hawk
Posted   Thu Aug 25, 2011 @ 4:54am
Location   Red Army supply yards
Timeline   Shortly after Tell's arrival
"We are approaching the beacon now," Jared reported.

Ro' moved to the front of the bridge, "Bring us out of warp."

"Aye sir." Jason moved his hands across the helm and soon had the FHew back under impulse power.

Ro' glanced at Marla, "What is the status of our Cloak?"

"In tact and working, sir."

"Do you see the Morgothi Trader?"

"Another ship off her starboard quarter, sir. It's a Nausicaan Light Cruiser, Jo'har Class." said Thor'nan

"On screen!" Ro' barked, returning to his chair.

The screen changed to show the pathetic trade craft dwarfed by the Nausican vessel. Both sat in space, without weapons or shields powered. Indeed it looked almost as if the Nausicans were somehow unaware of the Trader.

"When we come into transporter range of the Trader, bring us to full stop. HIchop, get down to the transporter room and be ready to pull Tell off that veQDuj [Garbage Scow]."

Marie frowned, trying to work out an anomaly. "We are being hailed," she said, from her new position at Comms.

Ro' flashed a look at her. "They are using our specific frequency," Marie confirmed.

Ro' glared at Marla, "You said the Cloak was intact."

Marla ran to the cloak. "It's still intact!"

Ro's eyes narrowed, "So they know we are here, but they may not know where. Sounds like we were expected. Put the message on screen, but do not reply. We will not give away our position just yet."

I knew something was wrong, Marie thought. Why does the Klingon keep on throwing me into jobs I have no expertise in. First pilot duties, now Comms. If I'd had some basic training I might have picked up on that anomaly earlier. I knew something was wrong but....

YIghegh, next to her on the Navigation station noticed her frustration. All Klingons were expected to be able to man any station on a ship this small, but humans were specialists. He leaned across and twisted a control then pointed to another switch for her. When she switched the button he gave a nod and returned to his station.

The face of a Nausican appeared on screen. He seemed excited.

"I know you can hear me Ro' Matlh, but my message isn't for you. My employer paid me a lot of money to give this message before destroying your ship. The message is as follows; Time to Honour your promises."

"So, now is the moment of truth," Marie said. "Now I know what the hell that was all about. Well CoQ, you're well named. In my language it has a different meaning and not a particularly nice one. Let's see you do your best."

Jason looked over at Marie and saw her tense up and shake her head. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah. Just remembering a certain little conversation I had recently."

"Arming weapons, sir," said Thor'nan. He had an uneasy feeling. This was obviously CoQ's doing, but this didn't feel right. He was starting to regret agreeing to CoQ's request. Still; he had given his word. He tapped a command into his console. The ship's cloak suddenly dropped.

"HIchop, get Tell out of there!" Ro' bellowed.

"I think..." Jared began, but he never finished. The orange glow of a transporter surrounded him and he was gone.

"I have her,' HIchop reported.

The ship was rocked by a sudden volley of fire.

"Get those shields up!" Ro' roared. "Helm, put us on the other side of that trader."

"Aye sir." Jasons' hands deftly moved across the helm station. Under his guidance the FHew flew above the Nausican trader angled down and flipped around and was behind the Nausicans.

Marie waited, expecting the worst. When no damage report came she looked around. No-one was at damage control. She raced over. "Damage on Deck 4, port side aft. Some systems down on Decks 4 and 5. Looks like...life support is dropping in the Cargo Bay." She dragged up recollections of what she'd stored there. "There's nothing living in the bay. Automatic repairs have kicked in. Shields holding but don't expect them to do so for long."

Tell was in the engine room. Her beloved engine was running hot she hadn't expected to take them into battle. As she repaired on unit another sparked and cut out. Lights dimmed in the ship as Tell rerouted power from one relay to another. She would hold for now with the adjustments she had put in but only just.

"Tell to bridge"

"Report!" Ro's voice barked back.

"I'm putting life support on minimum and redirecting power to weapons and shields. If we are going to have another attack like that we might loose life support altogether. If your going to do something make it quick and then we can get out of here."

,'.Jason to Tell, take the inertial dampers to half power and reroute the extra power to the engines.,'.

Tell mumbled a few profanities in Klingon as she worked to keep the engine going for the sake of them all. "Already off, Ensign, or haven't you noticed."

,'. No because you haven't routed the displays up to me yet,'. Jason snapped

Ro' yelled, "New course, 280 mark 5. Get the Morgathi Trader between us and them."

There was a shower of sparks from the Navigation panel and YIghegh flew backwards, hitting the deck hard.

Ro' either didn't notice, or didn't care. "Marla, ready the tractor beam."

"Aye" Jason hit a few buttons and the FHew started moving slower than it should have even with the IDF lowered. He kept her moving but checked his small power distribution screen and saw that the port RCS thrusters were not working.

The next volley of fire form the Nausican ship, saw one of the two Klingons helping in the engine room, thrown from one side of the wall to the other. He hit with such a force that Tell knew he wouldn't survive it. He lay slumped on the floor. A sudden pulsating warning told her that the warp core was about to go lethal.

"Warp core is off line" She told them "I'll try to get it back as soon as I can."

"Shields are holding...for the moment," Marie reported. "There's a plasma leak on Deck 3. Life support is approaching critical in parts of Deck 5. Recommend evacuation of areas at risk."

The sound of twisting metal could be heard throughout the ship. At this rate they would loose the Cargo bay door and vent half the ship's atmosphere.

"Someone get down there and SEAL the Cargo bay inner hatches!" Ro' yelled.

I'm not of any use here, Marie thought, and no-one knows the cargo bay better than I do. She ran across the bridge to the starboard door behind which was a ladder down to the deck5. What I wouldn't give for a turbolift now!

The lower section of the boom was quite cramped, but she was able to move without worrying about running into anyone else. Arriving at the far end she crawled through into the Hold. She climbed past the Nephalim and noticed that for the first time in ages, the light in the hold was actually on. She could hear a whistling coming from the large rear airlock. The seal was already broken, it was only a matter of time.


Cargo Bay

Something had bashed against the control for the pressure door, rendering it inoperable. The heavy wheel handle wasn't much better. It looked fine but it refused to budge. She knew she had to work quickly. Already the forcefield holding back against the vacuum of space outside was flickering dangerously.

Marie cursed and bashed the wheel. Still nothing. Then a thought sprang into her head. Jared's gloves! She hadn't put them on; frankly, she hadn't had time. One moment she'd been discussing them with Jared, the next she'd been racing towards the bridge to handle an incoming message. She pulled them out of an inner pocket and put them on. Now she tried again. She still had to work hard but.... Yes! It's moving. She got it to lock into place, sealing the door.

Sweat clung to her but only now did she realise how cold it was and how much difficulty she had in breathing. Energy to the forcefield must have been diverted elsewhere. Thanks, everyone. Nice one. She considered donning an EVA but she didn't know if the gloves would work through the thick, cumbersome layers of the suit. And Jared isn't here to ask. Damn!

She raced over to the other side of the cargo bay door to seal the second door. It was easier this time but she prayed she'd get the job done before the gloves ran out of charge. Jared had been a bit unclear about that minor detail.

Slowly pressure built up in the cargo bay as the seals all slid into place. She could breathe again.

,^,St. Helene to Ro'. The cargo bay doors are sealed. Pressure is equalising again.,^,


Bridge

"Bring us around, we are taking to much heat on the rear shields and all of our guns face forwards!"

Jason turned and looked back at the captain "You may want to hold on this will get rough. I guess today is as good a day as any to die."

Just then a massive blast rocked the ship and sparks flew and smoke rolled. After taking 3 more massive hits the FHew managed to drop in behind the traders ship. The Nausicans were unable to fire through the Morgathi traders, but that didn't stop them from trying.

"Marla, Tractor beam the Morgathi vessel."

"Tell, give me all power to the Impulse engines and tractor beam. Take it from everywhere but forward shields."

After a few silent moments in which Ro' wondered if the engineer was still there she replied."You have it Captain but its all we have."

"Thor'nan, ready a full photon spread on my mark!"

"Spread ready, sir! We have weapons lock! " Thor'nan yelled over the alarms.

"Helm, Ahead Full. Ramming vector!"

"No sir, we don't have full impulse available to much damage. If we attack the Nausicans directly we can momentarily drop their shields if we focus the disrupter blasts and as soon as they drop beam a photon torpedo to their bridge then watch the fireworks."

In two steps Ro' was by Jason's side. the Human took a breath to speak again but found himself suddenly sailing through the air, his breath knocked form his lung. He landed and slid, coming to a stop next to Marla. He made to rise again, but Marla put her foot on his chest and gave a short shake of her head. Now was not the time to stand.

Ro' returned to his chair, "May'bel. Ahead full, ramming vector."

May'Bel leapt forward, laying an an approach course - leading to Port, and then veering starboard at the last minute - anticipating the enemy would try to evade.

"This will of course cripple the F'Hew," he said with an odd smile. "Prevent her fighting as she should. But duty AND honour demand no less!"

There was something slightly perverse about his grin.

Ro' watched the screen intently. The Nausicans were adjusting their vector to match the intercept course. Nausicans NEVER flinched in a game of chicken. If these Nausicans had accepted money to come after him, then they were braver than most. If you knew that, you knew how to play the game. The Cruiser filled the whole screen now which was beginning to static with repeated hits to the shield.

"Fire Photons! Helm, new course, 20 mark 330. Engage at double Impulse. Marla, release the tractor beam, NOW!"

The FHew pushed to face the starboard side, its RCS being slightly stronger on that side and tiled up. It leapt away at half the speed of light for a short hop. Behind, it the Nausicans were momentarily blinded by the Photon hit. When the could see theFhew was gone. The Morgathis ship, still unable to get it's engines back on line, was now driffting at ramming speed into the turning Nausicans. The two ships collided with force that tore the trader to pieces and ripped the Nausican ship in half.

On board the FHew however things were going badly. The leap to Above rating Impulse speeds was more than the power relays were able to take. Plasma conduits ruptured all over the ship and Tell nearly lost her head when bolts and plates began to rip of the manifold and crowd the room.

On Deck 4 Marie watched through the sealed door as the Cargo bay door twisted and pulled open venting the atmosphere and anything not properly secured into vacuum.

The bridge was filling with smoke and the damage control station was, ironically enough, on fire.

"Status?" Ro' called above the confusion.

Marla reconfigured her station to damage control, and instantly regretted it. There was no good news. Multiple hull breaches, no life support, reserve power only (not enough for weapons shield or Cloak).

May'bel was struggling to keep the ship stable, "There is a M class planet just within range."

Ro' ground his teeth, then stood and grabbed a fire suppression kit. "All hands to repair stations. May'bel, wake the Human up and get him to find us a safe landing place."