[Arvg]

Mission: OUTBOUND FLIGHT

Involved Ship(s)

USS ZODIAC, NX-73515, Captain A. VonGrippen (ARVG)

DECLASSIFIED

The recordings and logs of the Outbound Flight Survey Mission of the Alpha Quadrant's Zenas Expanse.

[Arvg]

The Zodiac, the name held so many connotations, the map of the stars, a life guard, of heroism and of valour. Yet to an old man, standing staring through the ♥♥♥♥pit window of the shuttle pod approaching her laying in drydock, it was a second chance, for both of them.

His hands rested on a stout cane, as creased eyes took in every inch of her. He observed, with his fingers wrapped around the carved brass of the cane handle, the Class-A dress uniform heavy on his shoulders, looking for anything out of place, anything that was amiss. The ship, under Dock-Master Tosan's care, was flawless, ready for action.

He was coming aboard the traditional way, by shuttle. The Captain's gig sweeping up to lock itself squarely into its moorings with a steady bump, as the new Master and Commander prepared himself to step aboard his ship for the first time as her Captain.

Under his arm was tucked his duty orders, signed and dated by the Admiralty, requesting and requiring him to assume command of the small exploration ship. The recent assault on the regional assets had the fleet higher ups concerned, and every available resource that could fly was being pushed into the air. That meant the Zodiac was leaving ahead of schedule, there was no time for drama, or theatrics.

He turned as the hatch slid open behind him, squaring his shoulders and walking out onto the flight deck of the vessel, looking at the assembled crew. Drafted from where-ever and whatever the fleet could spare, it was hardly the hand picked Daystrom sanctioned crew he had been preparing for. It was the best of what was left, and he would make do.

The ships first officer, Commander Paveł Byk, stood looking severe, the round faced Polish Commander had been selected from the Commodore's staff to provide an experienced hand to the newly minted Captain. His dark eyes weighed his new commanding officer, as if considering what he made of the wizened old man that had stepped onto the ship.

"Commander Byk, our orders," the elder held out the required documentation.

Paveł took them and stepped back into line, "Captain, welcome aboard the USS Zodiac, I stand relieved."

VonGrippen nodded his head looking over the ranks of officers, "We don't have time for pearly speeches, we are needed on the line, and that means learning who we are out there."

He noted the wild haired Professor Inyert, his pick for Science officer, and the painfully shy Doctor Yinol, who was trying his best to stay firm outside of his sick bay. Both seasoned veterans, both of them had worked with him on the USS Odin, at least he wasn't completely without his own team.

"We have a duty to do, and we will do it. Commander Byk, departure stations." He glanced at the first officer, who nodded his head, as the bosun piped the whistle. The crew shuffling out, and heading for the turbolifts that would whisk them off to their stations.

Inyert, as usual, hung back to walk with the new Captain.

"You look too damn pleased with yourself Alex," Inyert intoned a half smile on his face. "Finally managed to shake off the stigma of that minor Earth Orbital incident and here we are on the ship of the dead..."

VG shot the professor a dark look, "we don't mention that." There was a note of finality in his voice.

Inyert wasn't phased by his new Captain's warning. "It's surprising they let you drag this heap out of the mothballs and agreed to let you wash the blood out of the carpet."

VG ignored his old friend as he entered the turbolift, and set towards the bridge. The doors sweeping open on the gleaming white, crisp and clean bridge of the starship. A mass of lights, activity, and bustle as crewmen and officers prepped stations for departure.

"Captain on the Bridge!" the Chief of the Boat called, as everyone paused and rose at their stations for the Captain to enter.

VG rested on his cane a moment, looking over the bridge, at each of them, before moving forward to the Command chair. Resting a hand on the back of the reinforced bucket seat that had been set to overlook the circle of stations, consoles and displays.

"As you were," he said, the accent in his voice slurring the s sound and drawing the r.

"Aren't you going to try it out for size?" Inyert joked as he took the science station, reviewing the ships sensor displays.

Commander Byk was standing off to one side, watching and waiting silently, his eyes still judging as he did so.

The old man took the chair, resting on his cane as he stared towards the helm. "Contact station and request departure clearance."

"Departure clearance, granted, sir." one of the Ensigns operating communications reported.

"Detach umbilical, and retract mooring clamps.' Commander Byk issued a series of orders, stepping forward.

"Aye sir, we are clear..."

"Take us out," VG ordered, settling back in his seat and watching the screen as the Nova class starship slipped her moorings, her thrusters engaging as she curved away from the station. Her crew rushing to prep her for what was to come.

"Helm, set a course for the main task force, warp five... go."

The ship slipped in pseudo-motion before it jumped away at warp, rushing towards the final frontier.

[Arvg]

~~*~~
USS Zodiac - Enroute to Special Task Force - Warp V

His spectacles were perched on the end of his nose as he typed on the small computer that sat on the edge of the desk in his ready room. A large number of padds spread about him that beeped and chirruped with a stunning amount of data that he was working through. Maintaining a ship and still trying to provide logistical support to the fleet's science department was going to be difficult, at least until a replacement could be found to take over those duties for him.

As it was, he was knee deep in writing a report concerning a detailed analysis of a Breen radiation cloud that had been dumped around Starbase 314 in an effort to monitor and track Federation ships. A rather futile gesture, but one that had the Captain perplexed as he studied and restudied the data.

Breen did everything with careful deliberation, even the Rakar-Than.

The door trilling caused him to glance up, "come." he acknowledged.

Lieutenant Junior Grade Galadriel entered the room, his chief of Communications, she wore her hair back, her punjabi heritage evident in he light as she stood in the door holding a PADD and looking towards her new Captain.

"Sir, we have new orders from the Odin. We're to alter course and investigate an attack on a settlement in the Rikan System." She spoke evenly, despite her youth, a well trained professional.

He smiled at her tightly, "relay the orders to Commander Byk, and have him increase to Warp Eight."

She nodded, tapping on her PADD, complying with his orders.

A deliberate pause that had him glance at her.

'Yes Lieutenant?" he asked, giving her a level stare over the rims of his glasses.

"You probably don't remember me, but I took your class," she said, a bright smile on her face, "it was..."

"I remember," VonGrippen said, returning to his typing. "You scored well, and impressed me. Rare accomplishment, but you had atrocious spelling for a Communications Officer."

She looked at him a moment, working her jaw...

"Oh ignore him," Inyert remarked slipping past her in the door way to the ready room, holding a couple of mugs of coffee, "he's just crabby that no one thought to give him a donut pillow for that chair of his."

The Professor walked to the Captain's desk and irreverently slammed a mug down, "there, and the next time you want coffee, get a damn yoeman..."

VG glanced up at his friend, as he took the mug in his hand, "Thank you Lieutenant, that will be all..."

Galadriel scampered from the Ready Room as fast as she could.

Inyert had helped himself to a seat, unzipping his tunic and sighing as he sipped his drink. "Well my sensor suit is a refit of nightmares at best, and don't get me started on the half assed job done rigging the long range array... and where the hell is our Chief Engineer?"

VG smiled, "Lieutenant Hartley will get to it when he is able, but right now I think he's got his hands full keeping the lights on. We are rigging a lot of this as we go, and Captain Vempati's weapons upgrades are still being integrated into the ships design... we're going to need them in the next few days."

"Listen Al, we're a Science Expedition, why the hell are we rushing to reinforce anything? I am sure they could have spared us something bigger for this great Outbound Navigation Expedition of yours..." the Professor seemed annoyed.

"Right now we're a starfleet asset in a time of conflict," VG clarified. "You know why I chose this ship over others, there was nothing larger on hand, and since she's been refit to Rhode-Island specs, we have both the range, armaments and speed to do what's needed..."

"And the fact that you wanted to resurrect Boudreau's legacy had nothing to do with it?" Inyert offered.

VG picked up his mug and looked towards the fish tank in the corner of the room, "We've been redirected to investigate a possible Breen Attack on a local system. I need to get ready for that..."

"Not even a day out of dry dock and you've girded on your sword," Inyert replied. "You're a scientist, not a soldier."

VG stood from behind his chair, tugging down on the maroon uniform, before collecting his cane, "we will see." he responded moving towards the door. "And Leo... we're on a starship," he said pausing just shy of the door. "Don't take too many liberties on our friendship."

Leo waved him off, "Oh, pshaw, what I say in private and what you see on the bridge are two separate things, just don't go getting us all shot full of holes..."

VG watched the doors slide open on his bridge as he stepped out, returning to his command chair, pausing as a pair of feet sticking out of a console suddenly kicked and a lot of swearing could be heard from inside the panel. A moment or two later, Lt. Hartley stuck his head back out of the panel, cursing a few more times and shaking his head.

"Problem chief?" VG inquired, stepping over the feet carefully.

"Yeah, you could say that," the chief replied, standing up. "I have only a third the staff I actually need, and a ship that is still three weeks away from actually being ready... you want me to list the problems, or should I just sum it up as 'Borked' and get back to 'Un-Borking' it for you?"

He wore a modified vest uniform, with lots of pockets stuffed full of tools, his ginger hair in total disarray, and a surly look on his twenty-something face. It didn't help that he had a cigarette tucked behind his ear... one of Delta's newest and brightest...

VG arched an eyebrow at him.

The Chief shifted a little uncomfortably, "De-bork-i-fying it is... sir..."

VG glanced over at Commander Byk who was standing by the Command Chair, still silently judging.

[Arvg]

~~*~~
USS Zodiac - Rikan System

The Zodiac blew out of warp into a firestorm, the burning wrecks of numerous intra-system transports drifted around them, spouting fires and explosions as they convulsed in their death throes. The Zodiac skating around the immolated wrecks as her helmsman pulled a tight evasive maneuver to avoid collision.

On the bridge the alarm Klaxons blared.

"Debris to starboard, ahead, and to port," Inyert was reciting leaning over his board, the old professor staring in shock at the destruction that had been wrought.

"Keep us away from the bulk of it," Commander Byk hand his hand on the back of the helmsman's chair, staring over the console, lending an extra set of eyes to the chaos that lay ahead of them.

"Sir, numerous distress calls, and emergency beacons," Lt. Galadriel reported, "it's flooding the airwaves, there appears to be no co-ordinated defense, we're too late... all that's left is civilian traffic."

"And the Breen?" VonGrippen intoned darkly, the old man resting his chin on his cane, as he stared ahead, like a lost knight meditating on his sword. His eyes searching through the wreckage and debris for a sign that the enemy were out there.

"I am not reading any Breen signatures," Inyert replied, continuing to search his boards. "Careful, we have a ship going critical off the starboard beam..."

There was a ripple, the hull of the derelict Lekaari vessel convulsing as rivets and seams popped and buckled along its length, followed moments later by a conflagration of fire and death as the vessel exploded. The Zodiac's shields flaring as it took the brunt of the explosion. The screen polarizing as the bright flash cased them all to shield their eyes.

"We need to get clear of this field,' Lt. Hartley stated the obvious, pulling down on his teeshirt as he dug around for a tool out of his vest pocket, returning to work on a station. "I don't know how long I can keep our deflector working at this kind of output."

"We're working on it," Byk stated, the tenseness in his voice showing through even the thick accent.

"Work faster," Hartley replied, continuing to work his own particular magic on the console.

The Zodiac pulled ahead, swinging her bow about as she curled under another dying freighter, pulling free of the debris field and out into clear space. The Nova at last, allowed to prowl freely. And like a jungle cat, she coiled herself into readiness, her officers already surging towards battle stations, as the ship changed from meek survival to a fierce predator.

"Captain, I am receiving numerous distress calls from the Lekaari colonies on Rikan." Galadriel rested her hand on her earpiece. Mostly secondary transmission sources but they are warning about Breen in the system.

VG remained stoic, his eyes on the screen as the overlays showed numerous escape pods and evac suits. They needed to be performing rescue operations, he needed to dispatch SAR shuttles from the flight deck and help those people. But the moment he dropped his shields, wherever the Breen were, they would fall upon the Zodiac like rabid hounds upon their prey.

He wasn't about to be driven.

"Commander Byk, take tactical," VG stated quietly, "I want those Breen ships located. I don't like flying blind."

The Commander nodded tersely, slipping into the tactical station without complaint, a consummate professional. He quickly brought the ships weapon systems online.

"Get the SAR shuttles up on deck," VG ordered to Galadriel, "we're going to launch them, and cover them with the ship while they operate. If the Breen pick this moment to attack, we will draw them away from the relief effort."

Galadriel wasted no time, quickly dispatching orders to the runabouts as she co-ordinated the flight space around the Zodiac, using her boards and two Ensigns under her to juggle Tactical and Navigational communications.

Byk nodded as he dropped the shields, allowing the shuttles to dust off the deck, the ships rapidly spreading out and rushing for the relative safety of the debris field to commence their work. As behind them, the Zodiac came about again, her shields snapping back up, ready to do battle.

[Arvg]

~~*~~
USS Zodiac - Rikan System

Hartley stood before the main reactor, rubbing his temples as he uttered a curse and forcibly kicked the panel.

“You blasted pile of crap!” He swore as he reached out for the communicator, his hand dropping as he realized that without power the thing was useless.

“What happened?” Galadriel asked sliding down a ladder with a plunk to the deckplates, straightening up as she turned her round face to stare at the warp core that was proving to be most uncooperative at that moment.

“Zodiac has picked this moment to decide to be a complete bitch!” Hartley snarled as he walked over to a breaker panel and looked at the fused penny stuffed into the matrix that had jerry-rigged the powerflow. “It was only a matter of time until she gave up the ghost, but I was hoping we’d have enough time complete our mission or something.”

“What happened?” Byk demanded as he came down the same ladder that Galadriel had just descended.

“What, am I directory farkin’ inquiries? I don’t farkin know!” Hartley snapped. “This farkin ship has been shot up, crashed into, farked up, farked down… and the refit monkeys… did I mention the supreme idiots of the universe got loose onboard ship and turned us into a flying express elevator by screwing up a transwarp drive? Which, I might add, was not my farking idea…” he stopped suddenly and quickly added. “Sir.”

“Colourful expressions aside,” Galadriel said, fighting the urge not to grin and the baleful glare Byk was shooting his Chief Engineer. “Can you fix it?”

“Fix it?” Hartley asked as a shower of sparks exploded through one of the circuit breakers, causing all three officers to duck instinctively. “No I can’t farking fix it! It’s farked! Completely farked up! You want my professional opinion? Get another farking professional, cause I quit!”

“You can’t quit,” Galadriel placated, tapping Hartley’s arm as the Engineer simmered on a slow boil, glaring at his ruined engine room. “You just need a cup of tea, eh? Maybe a bagel?”

“I don’t need a farking bagel!” Hartley snapped. “I need a dry dock and maybe six months with a full technical team. Even then I can’t guarantee much, Zodiac’s had it. I’m sorry but it is time to take her out back behind the shed and get the gun, ‘cause ol’yellar needs t’be put outta her misery!”

Byk ran a hand through his hair as he stared at the diagnostic panels that were being powered by battery power. “We have to restore power, what about the impulse reactors,” he suggested. “we can use the secondary drive system to reinitialize the warp….”

“They’re not much better off,” Hartley stated. “Whatever the pint-sized Andorian in dry dock did to them, we’re not going anywhere fast. We’ve been using them to supplement the main drive since launch, so when our power-grid overloaded, it nearly took those down as well. We had to link the ships functions just to get this far.”

“Shields?” Byk asked, turning.

“They take power, and let’s face it, I can give you shields, I can give you guns, or I can give you maneuvering… I just can’t give you all three…” Hartley shook his head.

Galadriel winced, the warp drive had failed almost as soon as the SAR flight had launched, and right now the Captain was on the bridge doing his damnedest with Commander Inyert to make the ship look like it was still fully powered. They were, at best, a Paper Tiger.

“Distress call?” Galadriel suggested.

“To who?” Byk asked.

“The USS Henry’s Hammer or the USS Shadow Slayer are supposedly in the vicinity,” Galadriel suggested. “They might be able to swing by and give us some help.”

“Can we send out a distress call?” Byk asked.

“We’ll figure something out,” Galadriel said firmly, yanking Hartley away from the ruin. Leaving Byk to stare in frustration at what was left of his ship.

[Arvg]

~~*~~
USS Zodiac - Rikan System

A plate of donuts and bagels sat in the middle of the table next to a plate of chocolate chip cookies. Galadriel cradled a cup of hot chocolate in her hands as she watched Byk toss back what had to be his fourth cup of black coffee in the last hour. I can’t believe he can sit still with all that caffeine running though his system, she thought.

Byk set his coffee cup on the table. He was tired; due to warp core failure and the SAR emergency, the meeting had been called in session earlier than it had been scheduled. Byk had been awakened in his quarters by the communicator chirping, and, after talking to VonGrippen on the other end, had rushed out the door. He wasn’t sure he was glad he had arrived on time: it was a sombre group that sat around the situation table.

Hartley sat on one side, glowering at the Captain and holding his coffee mug so tightly it was amazing it hadn’t shattered. The annoyed Engineer relinquished his death grip on his mug to grab a bagel, which he sawed at vigorously with a bread knife, tossing crumbs across the table in the process. Yinol was fiddling with the holo-projector; it was on the fritz, apparently because it had been doused in orange soda at the party in the cafeteria the night before. And on top of that, instead of discussing the wrap-up of the rescue mission, they were talking about Breen.

“Ah ha!” Yinol announced triumphantly. Light flickered in the middle of the conference table, before finally coalescing into the Rakin system, flickering lights indicating he debris, the planets, and the burning colonies.

“So. What’s left of the system… if there are Breen hiding here, and we’re defenceless, why haven’t they attacked,” Byk asked, “Why?”

“Damn! Chocolate chip! I thought it was cinnamon raisin!” Hartley said around a mouthful of bagel.

Byk glared.

“What?” Hartley asked, shrugging.

“Ahem. To get back to the subject at hand…” VG said sternly. Hartley studied his coffee intently. The Captain continued, “We know that there is at least one Breen ship in the system, and a heavily armed one. What we don’t know is why they are still here, and what it is they are after. From all indications, it isn’t for a direct conflict with us.” The Captain met Galadriel’s eyes and they both shared a small smile.

“Do we at least know why they hit this place to begin with?”Byk inquired, staring through the image of the shattered colony, as if trying to glean some kind of secret from it. “Could they be harvesting slave labour?”

“Not really,” Yinol said, “I’ve been talking to some of the survivors of the Breen attack, they speed of it and the ferocity, they weren’t looking to disable ships, they tore this system apart. Captain, I’d almost suggest they did it to send a message.”

“To who?” Byk countered.

“To us,” the Captain suddenly looked tired, as he lifted his glasses to rub his eyes, reaching out and pouring himself a mug of coffee. “They are making sure we know that they can do this, and the Federation can’t stop them. We simply don’t have the firepower, or the concentration of ships to counter this kind of assault. And the Lekaari themselves are… well…” he nodded to the burning wrecks.

Byk sighed loudly and leaned back in his chair. There’s always some psychotic nut trying to wreck the galaxy, he thought. “Do we have any idea where they are or might go?”

“Yeah,” Galadriel said, her voice quieter than usual, “So they’re watching us.”

“Why?” Byk demanded.

“Because they are biding their time,” Professor Inyert stated walking into the conference room, the merry old professor taking a seat and gleefully helping himself to some breakfast. “The Breen know we are stuck here helping these people for the next however long it takes… and the more time it takes the more spread out our relief effort, and the more strung out and tired our people will become… they’ll attack when they think they have the advantage… Which means they have one ship out there… possibly with a couple of smaller support frigates.”

Byk glanced at the hologram projected on the table before him and decided he didn’t like the look of the Rakin system.

“So we shoot them before they get close, big deal,” Byk said, rubbing his jawline.

“The advantage we currently hold is that they don’t know the situation with our Warp Core,” the Captain explained, “They’re still playing a game with their prey, stalking and looking for opportunity, if they get wind of how bad we are, they will come guns blazing.”

Byk turned on Galadriel. “Any idea why the rest of the fleet hasn’t turned up yet?” he asked accusingly.

“I don’t know,” she replied honestly. “There are a lot of operations, the ships could be under orders to other systems… not even the Odin is replying to our hails… we’re on our own.”

“Wonderful…” Byk grumbled as he slammed his mug down.

“Byk. Calm down,” Captain VonGrippen said. It wasn’t a suggestion.

Byk reluctantly settled back in his chair and took a few deep breaths. For her part, Galadriel looked composed, though her deep brown eyes were icy.

“Even if the any of our ships do respond, it’s going to take them time to get here,” Galadriel said; her voice was steady. Byk waited for her to elaborate, but instead she looked up at the photo on the wall, seemingly lost in thought.

Inyert looked at the petulant look the first officer was giving, the glowering Hartley, and the distant Comms officer, and he shrugged. “Hey I don’t know about you lot, but there is only a finite number of places a Chel Grett can hide. And if we can figure out where they are, maybe we can scare them off… Breen don’t like it when you take away their advantage.”

VG nodded, playing with the tip of his cane as he looked at the Professor, “Where?”

Inyert nibbled on his bagel as he looked over the system map, “Asteroid belt… gas giant… it could be in the lee of the main planet itself… but I am sure we’d detect something if it were in any of those spots.” He looked again over the scene, and focused on a patch of dense debris, all that remained of the Lekaari defense forces.

The Captain followed his gaze, and nodded, a number of wrecks that created a field of intense sensor distortion, enough to hide in. The two men shared a mutual nod. They’d found their Breen.


“That’s settled, then,” Captain VonGrippen said, jumping in before Byk could continue. He stood up, leaning on his cane. “Now, need to get this ship in fighting form...”

CRASH!

“Damn it!” Hartley cursed as his coffee mug toppled over, spilling its scalding contents across the table and onto the holoprojector, which fizzled ominously.

Everyone leapt to their feet to avoid being burned by the coffee. VonGrippen slowly closed his eyes and shook his head as Hartley scrambled to clean up the mess with a wad of paper towels. Over the table the image of the system flickered and then disappeared as the projector gave up its life to the coffee’s onslaught.

“Great. That will have to be replaced,” Byk growled. He gathered up padds that weren’t soaked in coffee and walked out, grumbling.