Then We Watch The Plan Fall Apart

Posted on Wed Apr 8th, 2020 @ 7:58pm by Lieutenant JG Shaille Levine & Lieutenant Farizah Alani & Commander Ichiko Gail

Carissa was not the sort that could patiently wait for anything. She was a now sort of individual which was rather ironic that when she became part of Starfleet, she ended up in the department that she did. She was now cool nor calm under pressure, and the waiting game was one she would almost certainly lose. What she was good at though was getting people to talk.

As she paced back and forth, her anxiety and impatience increasing, she was undoubtedly starting to wear and wither down the patience of the others. For a brief moment her pacing stopped, but was only replaced with her humming some long forgotten tune. "What do you think about changing my hair?" she said aloud. Carissa was blonde, but unnaturally so. It was the color she had when she arrived and one she had for about as long as she had been in Starfleet. "I'm contemplating red or maybe even going back to being a brunette of sorts" she added.

Shaille had been sitting cross legged on the floor in front of what would have been the shipmaster's chair, her fingers twirling absently through one of her own blonde curls as she waited. Much like Carissa, patience was not a virtue, at least not one of hers, but now, sitting here on the Ts'Usugi ship, waiting, patience was even less of a virtue.

She wanted to know what was going on outside. Had Intelligence arrived yet? Was everyone on the Astraea okay? Was Koh okay?

It was sorely tempting to open a communication channel to Commander Gail again and find out how to activate the view screen so they could at least see, but if Starfleet Intelligence was there then it would be an unnecessary risk.

"Why not blue?" Shaille asked, turning her attention to Carissa. "A bright, peacock type blue. It'd make you stand out," she added with a grin.

"Blue?" That was enough to get Carissa to stop passing. Why didn't I even think of that? she thought to herself. "I do not know, Shai" replied the blonde with a smile as she decided to forego formalities of rank and such, and even dropped some syllables from the other woman's name.

Carissa pondered it for a moment. Herself and blue hair entered her mind. "You do not think the new Security Chief would mind? I mean she is working that blueness in a whole other way. I do not want to steal her thunder" teased Carissa.

"Well, you know, you could go bright pink, or even go multi-coloured. Have you seen the chic down in the bar? I don't know her name, everyone calls her Rainbow Brite." Shaille shrugged. "But I think a really vibrant turquoise blue would suit you, it'd make your eyes pop, and I don't think the Security Chief will mind... just, you know, don't tell her it was my idea. I need someone to sign me back onto active duty... that is, if I still have a job after this." She grimaced and pulled her knees up in front of her. "What do you think is happening on the other ship?"

"Hard to guess, but I think we can rule out a warp core breech" replied Carissa. "Unless we've died and this the afterlife in which case I desperately want to speak to the supervisor because this boredom is going to be the second death of me" she added with a small bit of laughter. "I don't know that chic's name either, but 'Rainbow Brite' sounds suitable" she added. Pink might not be a bad idea she thought to herself.

"I thought about going red... but what can I say, blondes have more fun," Shaille replied with a grin. Shiny, that's what Koh calls it... She sighed and rubbed her fingers against her temples. "Damn it I wish..."

Her thought remained unspoken as the ship lurched suddenly around them, the three of them being thrown off their feet.

Already being seated on the ground proved to be Shaille's saving grace. Though she was thrown sideways, hitting the deck hard, a yelp of pain escaping as she put a hand out to steady herself in case they were thrown again.

The minimal lighting that had illuminated the bridge was suddenly gone, replaced by strobing red lights and the sound of an explosion in the distance, while a string of Ts'usugi words began spewing forth from what was likely their ships computer.

Carissa had lunged forward and her instinct unfortunately was to try and prevent impact with her hands out. This was not the smartest idea, but a natural one nonetheless. She was lucky she didn't roll her wrist, sprain or break them; however, she was not entirely without injury.

Another moment, another heartbeat, a litany of foreign words none of them understood.

The flashing lights stopped almost as suddenly as they started. The klaxons ceased and lighting returned to normal, but still the words kept coming. Through them there was one or two that Shaille could understand, but as a whole whatever the ship was trying to say was lost on her.

She started resting on her knees and looking around uncertainly. "Are you both okay?" she asked tentatively.

"Shit!" shouted Carissa with a groan to follow. "Yeah yeah, I'm fine, but I broke a damn nail" she reported. She examined her right hand and surely enough her index finger's nail and broken. "Don't reckon there's a manicurist on Astraea do you?"

The casual nature of the conversation was broken by one of the displays on the bridge making a beeping noise, and showing something that looked like a little green dot quickly approaching the blue dot in the center of the display. When it got to within... were those even numbers? Yes, with it got about that close, the little green dot stopped moving.

The next moments got interesting. The computer said something, though the one person on the bridge who knew any of the language of the Ts'usu could only pick up one or two works. "Command", "Authorized", and "Override" among them.

A few moments after that, was when the five figures beamed in. The effect was very pretty, a swirling of blue with a hint of a dark purple undertone. It was also a lot quieter than the cacophony of a Federation transport beam.

The end result was five figures dressed in black uniforms, grey hexagons detailing them. Four of them pointed obvious weapons at the three ladies, single handed weapons that were probably phaser parallels. The fifth one, rather than point a weapon, simply removed their helmet, revealing the grey-furred face of a male Ts'usugi beneath it. He said a few words, to no effect. Then he shifted to another language, again with no recognition.

"Stand down. You'll be treated fairly. Do you understand me?" he asked, a third time.

From her position on the floor, Shaille stood up slowly, holding one hand up toward Cam and Carissa in a 'stop' symbol, the other held toward the newcomers she now recognised as being Ts'usugi.

Her words, though falteringly spoken and greatly mispronounced, when roughly translated into Ts'usugi became "We come in safe threat." She paused for a moment, glancing between them before her eyes settled on the one she felt was most likely to be their leader. "My name is Shaille Levine," she said quietly. "My code..." she glanced at the other two to see if they were okay. "I have a Ts'usugi access code... it's... uhhh..." she stammered, suddenly feeling all knowledge rushing out of her head.

There was a pause among the Ts'usugi troops, and then one of them broke rank with a stifled chuckle. Then another. It spread, contagious as any plague, until the five of them were trapped in a gut-busting gafaw. It took a few seconds for them to compose themselves, some of them muttering the phrase Shaille said again and then the laughter starting up again.

The leader, the grey-furred Ts'usugi who spoke before, recovered first. "You're Shaille Levine alright." for a Son of Ts'usu, his Federation standard was terrifyingly smooth. There was even a hint of a Martian accent in there. "My name is Kassim. You're no threat to us, we're no threat to you. Unless one of those changes." he paused, and motioned to the others to lower their weapons, which they did.

"How did you come to stand on this bridge, and why did your other ship attack this one?" he asked.

"I don't know why the other ship attacked, but I think that was probably the intel ship that sent the Astraea here to find this ship," Shaille said as she glanced around at the Ts'usugi, not entirely sure if she should be offended by their laughter or not. She paused for a moment. "The ship was abandoned when we found it, I think I heard Commander Gail say it was probably a dark drive malfunction? The Romulans were coming, Captain Laurens thought there would be trouble because everyone was going to be fighting for this ship... so we," she paused, motioning to Carissa and Cam as well. "We transported over. We stabilized the power and raised the shields so the ship wouldn't sustain major damage and then we came up here so that if things got really bad we could move the ship away from everyone."

"A Dark Drive malfunction." This seemed to concern Kassim. When one of the others expressed curiosity, he explained to them in their native tongue, and then the concern spread. The grey furred rabbit then turned back to Shaille and the others. "Then, they are gone. Truly, a sad moment. We can mourn their loss later once we are out of danger."

"It's discouraging that so much strife would happen over such a thing as a starship. I'm certain that the attack was simply a weapon malfunction, and that no malice was actually intended. Otherwise, I'd have to make a report to my superiors, and then there'd be inquiries, sanctions, and things that many higher ups wouldn't want to have to admit to." He paused, perhaps to let the notion sit in, "Have any of you served on the bridge of a starship before? We will need to move this ship, and perhaps arm it for self-defense while the shield systems are seen to." he motioned to the side, and one of the Ts'usugi he brought with him gave a nod, and headed out towards one of the access hatches.

Shaille half raised her hand. "I'm a tactical officer, I've worked the bridge and weaponry, but, only on a Federation ship. Sorry, when I was on the Ts'usugi ship coming back here I wasn't allowed to see or do anything."

"These are interesting times." Kassim mentioned as he moved towards the shipmaster chair. "I'll need you at Tactical then. It's that station there." he motioned to one of the other stations. "And your two friends? What are their specialties?" he inquired.

"I'll need someone at the helm, the controls are very intuitive while in local space." he assured. He gave a quick command to the other Ts'usugi, who took up the more technical stations. The more sensitive stations. Engineering and what would pass for Operations.

"Miss Levine. Arming and target selection is on your left, munitions are on your right. Starting from the top, there's the charged pulse cannons, the negatron torpedos, and then the Hunter Seeker missiles, though those are reserved mostly for enemy fighters." he chuckled, "The last option on the list is locked, as Science must allow for its launch. They're probes, and I doubt we'll need them in this skirmish."

The charged pulse cannons had a readout next to them, possibly indicating power bank reserves. The physical munitions had a counter next to them for stock indication. "If it comes to a combat, Miss Levine, and you feel uncomfortable just ask. You'll be relieved with no shame."

"I'll do my best," Shaille said in a vain attempt to be reassuring. "Carissa should take helm, she's had some flight control experience, at least, she didn't crash the shuttle anyway, that's a good thing right?" She glanced at Carissa and grinned.

"Oh of course" Carissa replied with a smile. "I have no problem being the shuttle pilot. My successful landing and docking record is pretty successful. I've only scratched or dented a shuttle on a few occassions, but one of those was not my fault. That Pakled had it coming."

Before the Ts'usugi had a chance to respond, there was a strange sound and the familiar face of Captain Laurens appeared in front of them.

"Shipmaster," she said warmly, lowering her head slightly out of respect. "I am Captain Abigail Laurens, Commanding Officer of the USS Astraea."