Not Again
Posted on Sat Jun 21st, 2025 @ 1:58am by Lieutenant Commander Frasier Greene & Commander Rylen Lyo & Lieutenant Commander Odren Xall & Lieutenant S'Tera & Lieutenant Aurora House of Kor & Captain Sandy "Fanthom" Risa & Captain Lorut Vila & Lieutenant Wara Tête & Lieutenant Callan Armidale
Edited on on Sat Jun 21st, 2025 @ 4:05pm
2,735 words; about a 14 minute read
Mission:
Yesterday’s Enterprise
Location: USS Intrepid
Timeline: MD2: 2200 hours
Rylen was sat in the center chair on the bridge of the Intrepid as her Executive Officer, officially, for the second evening. The ship was still en route to the Kriosian pass, a safe passage for Starfleet starships for nearly a hundred years now. Unfortunately, with the change in great powers of the region, it could be the only safe passage for Starfleet starships. Another problem was that is that is required traveling through multiple sectors of space from Station 210.
Lieutenant Callan Armidale was sat at Operations, for Beta Shift, requested by Commander Lyo himself. He was developing a report for his relief officer. His attention was focused on that task, which was why he missed the weak radio signal on his update board.
Radio signals in space weren’t unusual, some were so old that one could tune into ancient Earth radio stations and an entire historical sort of archaeology had been built around those radio and television signals. These signals were often overlooked, but marked for historians.
Callan opened the channel and looked over the text translation. The signal was poor and the translation was probably worse. The oddity was that the signal appeared active, moving and repeating. Callan worked on the message, and clearing it up, by redirecting resources to the radio antenna and boosting the signal through additional subspace relays.
He was shocked when he had enough of it decoded. He swiveled his chair to look at the XO. “Commander. I’m detecting a radio signal that can only be a distress call.”
Lyo sighed. The humans had a term for this type of situation. They called it deja vu, an experience that resembled something seen before - typically in a dream. Intrepid’s first mission had been a response to a distress call in the Beta Quadrant.
In her quarters, Vila sat cross-legged in the chair, typing away at the computer. These stupid reports took too much time. You'd think that in this modern age, you could just speak them into the void and they'd arrive at their intended recipient, like some sort of intergalactic carrier pigeon, but alas, here she was.
Lyo's comm caught her attention. Praise the Prophets for small miracles. She clicked the button.
=/\=What do you have for me, Commander? =/\= She hoped her tone wasn't too joyous.
Lyo opened a voice channel only. “Captain Lorut, please contact the bridge. We’re receiving a distress signal sent over short wave radio.” Lyo had used the voice request in case the captain was not dressed appropriately or he had caught her asleep.
"Thank you," she sighed. She glanced at the bedroom behind her. Fraiser had fallen asleep a bit ago, but she'd had to finish these reports and had planned on joining him soon. Too late. She stood up, scribbled a quick note for him, and then clicked over to the viewscreen. Her pajama shirt was a plain white t-shirt, so she wasn't worried about being inappropriately dressed.
"What's going on?" She asked, wearily. "Let me put my uniform back on, and I'll come out there. Five minutes," she said. She sighed, clicked off, and then dressed quickly. Sure enough, five minutes found her back on the bridge.
"What did you find? What kind of distress signal?" she asked Lyo.
Lyo stood and left the center seat. Moving forward to Ops, he looked over Callan’s shoulder. “So far, we’ve only just received a radio signal, but it’s hard to clear up.
“Even with power boosted to the radio receiver, we aren’t getting much more than a ship in distress. We do have a heading though,” Lyo informed the Captain. “Mister Armidale just triangulated the source.”
Lorut shut her eyes. "Alright," she said. "Thank you, gentlemen. Set a course for the direction of the signal. When we get close enough to read more, we can readjust as necessary," she said.
"Lyo?" She asked him. "Any input to that plan?" She did rely on him a bit - he was far more "by the book" than she was, and knew more about engineering and operations, while she could handle the science and medical parts like an old hat. She would lean into everyone's strengths.
“Not until we can identify the source, Captain,” Lyo responded.
She nodded once. "Alright. That's the plan, then. Helm, set course. Everyone else-back to work, please. Thanks," she said. She stood there, arms crossed, watching the data as it scrolled across the screen.
Resuming his place in the center chair, Commander Lyo looked at the forward officers. “Lieutenant Verhoeven, set heading,” he paused and verified the coordinates briefly, “one one seven mark two one nine. Maximum warp.”
“Heading set, maximum warp,” Will responded, his fingers danced over the controls on the console before him.
“Lieutenant Armidale, I’d really like to know what kind of situation we’re heading into, so I want a fully prepped probe available to launch as soon as we drop out of warp,” Lyo ordered.
“Yes sir,” Callan answered, realizing his shift had just gotten longer.
Cal was relieved when Lieutenant Stovek and Lieutenant Commander Nisim entered from the starboard turbolift. Maybe his shift wouldn’t last all night.
Commander Lyo nodded to the two, new, department heads and senior officers. They were definitely being driven from their beds at this time of night, he was sure.
“Lieutenant Tête, take the ship to yellow alert. Shields at maximum.” Lyo tapped a few more commands, summoning senior staff back to their positions quietly.
“Yellow alert. Shields to maximum, Commander,” the Bolian at Tactical responded coolly. Since Lyo had things covered, Vila excused herself to the Ready Room for more coffee and a quick call to HQ.
Aurora decided to take a swim to relax her mind, which for some reason did not want to rest this night.
"LA loon es marslet. (Hello my dear ones,)" Aurora cooed softly, stroking the whales, who whistled back, rubbing against Aurora affectionately.
Rena barely slept anymore; the trauma of losing Max, Scott, and the rest of the crew in a fast swoop and her inability to stop it was haunting her - she was working through it with her own counselor, but the pain of the others was a lot sometimes. The Betazoid woman carried too much; she knew this, a personality flaw she was also trying to unlearn, but for now, it was what it was.
Which is why the Captain's sudden shift in mood, this close to the bridge, was concerning. Rena was sitting, cross legged, near the Ops console, working on her PADD but the bridge was brighter lit than the sickbay at night. S'tera was sleeping, and Rena had been until about forty minutes ago - when she'd woken up and couldn't get back to sleep. So she'd decided to get up and work on the crew's psych eval updates. They were all doing fine, all things considered, so mostly it was just filing the damned things.
Lyo had seen Rena sitting quietly on the bridge when she should have been off duty. He could tell she was struggling under the weight of so many losses to the ship. Probably Maxwell most, but he couldn’t reassure her that Max was alive because he wasn’t sure. He just had THAT feeling that Max was still alive…somewhere.
He sent her a feeling of reassurance before looking to the warped star field onscreen. “Commander Nisim, take us out of warp. Drop to one quarter impulse.”
Rubbing the sleep from his eyes Doctor Greene dressed after being woken by Lyo's summons. He noted Vila's side of the bed hadn't been disturbed and he wondered how long he'd been asleep.
Stifling a yawn he moved to leave the Captain's rather luxurious quarters to report to sickbay and paused at the sight of her hurried note. He smiled wearily and rubbed a thumb over her scrawling text with fondness before shaking himself out of the stupor.
Lyo looked up as the doors of the turbolift opened, depositing Captain Lorut and Lieutenant S’tera on the bridge just as they had closed in on the radio signal.
He exited the center seat and moved to the right of the captain’s chair; her literal right hand man. “Captain, we’ve just dropped out of warp and I’ve set us on a cautious quarter impulse approach.
She nodded. "Thank you," she said, as she stepped forward towards the Chair, and settled in. She put her coffee mug down in front of her.
“Science has a full probe available for launch. Mister Armidale was kind enough to prep that for us.” He nodded to her, only sitting after she did.
“Medical has not yet been alerted to prepare for possible patients, however, Captain. I thought it prudent to confirm lifesigns before we had them go too far,” he finished.
"That's a good idea," she said, thinking about Fraiser sleeping. She sighed lightly. "Science, launch the probe. Route the data to my viewscreen," she said. "Commander, alert Doctor Greene to be on standby," she said.
"Aye captain. Launching probe now!" with that it was off. "Routing to your screen." s'tera said.
"Thank you!" Lorut replied. She had a really good idea of what they could expect, but she was hoping that it was just what she expected-the usual scene of a hopping five-planet system-mostly just space junk, with the occasional shuttle or special craft passing them by as they moved from planet to planet. She didn't expect any anomalies.
Lyo touched the commands into the computer console before him, alerting the CMO to return to his active duty station. Of all of them, Doctor Greene was most likely the easiest to rouse, after all, being on-call was the duty of any physician - Starfleet or not. The computer would alert him quietly though, rather than have Lyo’s voice cut into his sleep and startle him from bed.
“Nisin, can you bring us into visual range, please?” Lyo asked, sensing a bit of tension on the bridge. They were still in Federation space, but this near to the former Neutral Zone, strange anomalies tended to go unnoticed. “Remain ready to implement evasive action, Commander.”
“Lieutenant Stovek, please alert Engineering that we’ll need power to both shields and impulse engines in case things heat up
Aurora felt the shift in the ship.
"Careke me safalet. [Gotta see what's up]" Aurora rubbed the whales, dried off, and headed up to the bridge.
"Is all well, Captain?" Aurora asked quietly.
Vila flicked her gaze at the Aquadian. "Yes," she said. "For now, at least," she said. She didn't believe in hiding things from the crew. "Please see if Lieutenant S'tera needs assistance. If not, cover the probes, please," Vila said.
"Aye, Captain," Aurora nodded before slipping down to the controls.
"Thank you," Vila replied, as Aurora stepped away. "Hold the line, everyone," she said. "You all did well on our simulation. You'll do fine now," she said.
"Commander, make sure the pilots are prepped, in case we need to engage them," Vila instructed.
"Understood. They are ready and standing at Ready Five, suited up and lounging in their cockpits. All I need is for you think 'go' and we are gone to fly the CAP around the ship," Sandy said. "I will be flying with my crew as well," she added.
"Science, release the probes. Please wire the data to my viewscreen," she said.
"Aye, Captain. Wiring data to your viewscreen," Aurora felt something slither down her spine, but she shoved it away. Battle jitters were NOT going to help her right now!
"Thank you," she said. Her eyes averted to the viewscreen.
"Looks okay so far, don't you think, Commander?" She murmured at Lyo.
“No aggressive activity so far is good,” Lyo answered, though he felt something was off.
Odren stood in front of the master systems display, his blue eyes tracking the fluctuating harmonics of the Intrepid's dilithium crystal matrix when the alert from the bridge came through. He wiped his hands on a rag and tapped the comm panel. Pulling his attention away from the MSD, he tapped the comm panel with his free hand.
=/\= Xall here. Understood, Commander. Diverting auxiliary power to shields and impulse engines now. We’ll keep the core stable in case we need a quick getaway. =/\=
He turned to his engineering team, his voice calm but firm. "Alright, listen up! Bridge is prepping for possible trouble. I want all hands at their stations. Check the shield emitters and reinforce the EPS grid. If we end up tangling with something out here, I don’t want a single flicker in power."
One of the junior engineers hesitated. "Sir, do we know what we’re dealing with?"
The Trill shot him a wry grin. "Not yet. But if Starfleet’s taught me anything, it’s that distress signals rarely come with a full explanation. Stay sharp."
As the team scrambled to their posts, Odren tapped his commbadge again.
=/\= Bridge, Engineering is standing by. Let me know if you need more from us. =/\=
“Acknowledged and be prepared. We have no idea what we’re walking into just yet,” Lyo responded, trying to sound confident but erring on the side of caution. We may need power to shields and weapons ASAP.”
Aurora's senses were on hyper alert. SOMETHING had gotten the Intrepid's attention, and Aurora wasn't about to slack off!
From her seat, Vila raised her head. "Ops, move us to red alert," she said. "Engineering, prep the ship for cloaking maneuvers," she said. "Lyo, prep a team, just in case," she said. She let out a soft sigh. It was always something.
“Commander Nisin, Lieutenant Stovek, you’ll be with me. Currently standard away team protocol, as well as a small security team, until otherwise informed. Meet me in transporter room two in ten minutes.”
Tapping his combadge, Lyo alerted engineering. “Commander Xall, assemble a small team and meet me in transporter room two in ten minutes. Make it a small team until we can board and determine what the situation is.”
Sandy didn't need orders. She sensed it and immediately launched the ready 5 fighters and then she went flying from the bridge and was already flying out the chute in to space barking orders.
"Calco cree ares!" Aurora swore softly, still unable to see what had spooked the Intrepid...which vexed her exponentially.
"Thank you, people," she said. "Keep her steady. Proceed at five knots," she advised. "Scan for any incoming cloaked weapons and life signs, please," she said.
"Aye captain. Scanning now!" S'tera said as she started. If there was anything to find she was determined to find it.
"Thank you, S'tera," she said. "So far, it looks good, right?! Alert me or the Commander if anything changes," she said. Just as she'd suspected-space junk.
"Captain, I have an ID. It's the USS Enterprise, NCC-1701-B! That means some sort of temporal disturbance. The Enterprise-B was destroyed decades ago!" S'tera said
"WHISTLE Nasrela mota! [That's a ship!]" Aurora whistled appreciatively.
Vila's head popped up. Had she heard that correctly?! She cast a look at Lyo. "Please bring it up on the viewscreen," Vila instructed. "Let's see what we have." What was happening?!
“If I recall correctly, the Enterprise-B self-isolated their ship after some kind of virus was contracted,” Lyo rambled aloud. His Starfleet history was so-so, but no one - absolutely no one - didn’t know the Enterprise lineage. S’tera had barely been Starfleet for just about two years and even she knew the basics.
“Scan for chronitons or anything that might indicate a temporal event has happened,” Lyo ordered.
Meanwhile, the visual of the starship came up on the viewscreen. The basic shape was there. It certainly appeared to be an ancient and battered Excelsior class starship that had suffered major damage over near on one hundred and twenty years.
“Well shit,” Lyo cursed quietly to himself. “Doctor Green, I’ll need you to meet me in transporter room two with a small team and in full EV gear. We may be facing some type of virus we haven’t encountered yet.”
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