Lovelace Lost
Posted on Fri Sep 6th, 2024 @ 9:06pm by Lieutenant JG William Verhoeven & Lieutenant JG Kaydren Aukai & Ensign Aaron Soong & Fleet Captain Maxwell Culver & Commander Clay McEntyre III & Ensign Ross Clarke & Crewman Recruit Candice Kayne & Ensign Jedda Khadja-Chata
3,606 words; about a 18 minute read
Mission:
Silver Rain
Location: USS Lovelace
Timeline: MD3: 1225 hours
Max had sat back at an aft auxiliary station, quietly watching as the ship stuttered then leapt into a smooth tunnel of swirling blue. Occasionally, he would turn around and watch the cloned version of the helm, but mostly he just sat there. He wasn’t sure why, but he thought he would be more impressed by Starfleet’s new vision of speed machine, but it was no more exciting than being on the Intrepid, except that it was exceptionally faster.
Next to him, Lieutenant Verhoeven studied his own cloned version of the helm, occasionally making theoretical changes to their flight path and checking for any course corrections that might make their trip faster.
Lieutenant Aukai and Ensign Soong decided that their best place would be Astrometrics, the best place to study the planetary logistics and determine if their was any habitation that was not android-like.
Of course, much to their annoyance, the Astrometrics lab had gone offline as soon as they entered the quantum slipstream. Whatever data they collected had been the hour before the ship left the Intrepid days behind and it had been sparse, to say the least.
While Culver may not have been impressed on the bridge observing the way the Lovelace performed in slipstream, Ensign Clarke was drinking it all in down in engineering. Just like the more traditional warp drive the quantum slipstream needed close monitoring and adjustment to stay within a safe limit.
Down in the Officer's Lounge, Candy had managed to shake off the large Caitian, and was now sat, ON the table, surrounded by a group of men. She was chatting animatedly, deciding which one she'd go home with that evening. The cat-man had things to do, she knew, and she was also pretty good at smooth talking her way out of situations.
It wasn’t long before the deck seemed to shudder and rumble with the huge footfalls of something massive. Coming through the door of the mess hall, the hulking Caitian with a scowl on his face, hand on his phaser locked in its holster and his eyes glaring at the blonde reporter sitting on the table.
“Attention on the deck! All you now, stand away!” Clay ordered the men surrounding the reporter, using his booming authoritative tone.
Candy looked up and rolled her eyes. "It's not necessary to use a phaser, cat man. I am here. Let's go," she said, hopping off the table like nothing had happened. "I heard we're needed at the Bridge, and you're late," she said.
"Listen here, Lil' Darlin. First, It is Commander . Second, the only reason WE are late, is because I had to track you down!" Clay replied, his accent thick. He looks around at the group of enlisted and officers gathered around Candy, glaring at them all.
"What is all this gawkin' at?! All y'all, back to your posts!" Clay ordered, and as quickly as they had all gathered around the pretty lady, they scatted like rats at the booming voice of the Caitian Commander.
"Anyone with a brain cell would know where I was," she said, snidely. "Let's go," she said.
"This cat is smarter than you think. May look like a dumb cat, but hold Two Masters in Military History and Defense and Strategic Studies; But yes, Bridge, now with the both of us," Clay retorted as he escorted the reporter to the Bridge, keeping a close eye on her...this time.
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“Dropping out of slipstream in three, two, one,” the helmsman announced as the Lovelace returned to ‘normal’ space. The blue tunnel dropped away to stars at warp and then they slowed to impulse.
“We’re at full impulse, Captain. Entering the outer solar system now,” she added.
Max felt that Captain Inex maybe gave her too much leeway in conducting their course, he certainly wasn’t going to say anything. He adjusted his screen to look at the data streaming in from science and astrometrics.
“ETA to orbit?” Captain Inex asked brusquely.
’The entire crew takes themselves too seriously,’ Max thought as their crew seemed to work like a precision clock. ’They’re way too militaristic.’ He didn’t particularly care for the command style, but this wasn’t his ship to make comment about. They might also be a bit more on their toes just because of his rank.
“ETA to orbit of ‘Xavier’s’ planet is five minutes,” the Ops officer responded, sounding a bit less rigid.
“Continue to a high orbit, preferably over these factories,” Captain Inex pointed out the objects of her interest. “These three seem to be the largest on this side of the planet,” she added.
“Captain, the other side of the planet does not appear to be affected by the android population. There is a curious delineation of forty six point three percent of the unaffected portion of the planet. I find this most…curious”
Max almost stood up, but Will must have sensed his intention and simply grabbed Max’s arm. Max gave Will a dirty look, but quickly backed off that feeling. “Sorry,” Max said quickly. It was a force of habit to have control of the bridge.
“Are you able to determine if there is any humanoid life left on this planet?” Ibex asked, her demeanor quite calm, though she did look over at Max for a moment.
’I’m a distraction, Max thought immediately. ’I shouldn’t be here.’
“Sensors are unable to penetrate some sort of shield system, sir,” the Vulcan woman answered. “Also quite curious.”
“Entering high orbit above the android side of the planet. The main factories are directly below the Lovelace, Captain.”
“Take the ship to yellow alert,” Inex said. “Put the largest factory on screen,” she asked. Squinting at the building, she added, “Magnify the view. What is it doing to the atmosphere?” Ibex wondered.
“They appear to be launching nanites into the atmosphere, Captain.”
Max hadn’t heard who the response came from before the bridge rocked and the Triexian captain was gone. A slight suction down occurred, followed by a stronger suction upward before containment fields formed automatically.
Commander Laney stared in shock for a moment before ordering, “Red alert. All crew to battle stations. We are under attack. I repeat, we are under attack!”
“We’re now at red alert, Commander,” came the response from the tactical station.
As before with Captain Inex, Johnathan Laney was plucked from the ship almost immediately after his command was issued and acknowledged. Before Max could issue any warning, the helmsman - and the station - along with the Chief Tactical Officer were swept away, replaced with force fields.
“No ranks!” Max shouted on the now panicky bridge. “That’s how they’re picking us off. “Get to know names quickly. Or just do your jobs as I call out orders.
“Will, take us out of orbit,” Max ordered.
Will looked at his station. “We’ve got no power to helm,” Will paused before almost painfully adding, “Max.”
’Of course!’ Max realized the androids were somehow behind this. He settled into the last open command chair and silently added his command and his codes to be recognized as ship’s CO. “See what you can do about that,” Max looked at the Ops lieutenant.
“Brielle,” she told him.
Max nodddd. “See about power, Brielle. Will, be on standby for power to come back online.” Touching the large screen before him, Max opened a shipwide channel for his announcement.
“Attention crew of the Lovelace, this is Max. We are not using ranks. That’s how they’re picking targets. Learn each other’s names and for the crew of the Intrepid, get your asses to the bridge…five minutes ago!”
The Vulcan, Max had looked up each person assigned to each station so he knew their names, was called T’Via. “T’Via, tell me we can find a weakness to exploit.”
“We have not even gotten a complete scan, Maxwell,” she answered, clearly having followed his logical reasoning to place a name to each station.
§ Forward Gymnasium §
“That’s me,” Jedda said to the limber lady next to him when the call from his captain came over the comms. She was showing him some interesting yoga poses he had never seen before. It would be a very long time before he could even dream of that degree of flexibility, though it had been fun to watch and stretch next to her. “Uhhh,” he stood upright and brought his uniform undershirt over his defined muscles. He did not have his jacket with him, so the captain would have to accept his appearance under short notice. “How do I get to the bridge?”
“I’ll show you,” she lilted with a deep brogue. With the red alert sounding, her position was on the bridge anyway. In the turbolift, she took the chance to dab at the streaks of sweat (on both herself and Jedda) with her jacket before she donned it... bathing in his pheromones a while longer.
The lift deposited the duo on the bridge and they separated – her heading to the science station, and him going to stand at the vacant tactical station. The display was unlike anything he had seen before and found the commands to return the configuration the familiar layout used by the Intrepid. At that point, he really didn't like what he saw. "Weapon systems are all offline," Khadja-Chata reported. He tried to fix that, but the computers were not responding as they should.
In engineering the call not use to ranks had come a little late. Three crewmen had vanished along with two stations. There was a sense of panic among the crew as the senior most persons were not MIA and Culver appeared was now in Command. Clarke felt conflicted, though he knew very little about the Lovelace, her layout and capabilities he knew he could still be useful, yet the Captain had ordered him to the bridge where they were facing their own drama it seemed.
Bravely he touched the comm: "Engineering to bridge," he begun. "Ca- I mean Max," That sounded and felt very wrong to Ross. "It's pandemonium down here, crew and equipment have vanished. I should stay here and help."
Max heard the stuttered rank and almost reflexively reacted, but the moment abated. “That’s a negative, Ross. On the bridge, on the double!” he responded, a little too reactive than relieved. The frenetic pace of things had the bridge buzzing with comings and goings.
“T’Via or…Brielle, tell me what we have?” Max asked again.
Against her training, T’Via answered, “Sensors have determined these are the newest X models, Max,” she could feel his name coming out of her mouth as almost a delayed word that shouldn’t be said.
“X models sixteen,” Brielle clarified for the de facto captain.
“I think Xavier has been away longer than his processors told him,” Max thought aloud.
Max turned as Clay and Candy entered the bridge. He wasn’t quite sure what was going on between the two, and he didn’t have time to care.
“Clay, man the tactical station, fire anything we have power for.” ’Which is nothing,’ Max thought behind a heavy telepathic wall he’d created to keep his doomsday predictions from broadcasting to other telepathic individuals on the ship. He needed to show his command face first and foremost.
Khadja-Chata stepped to the side, allowing plenty of space for the Chief of Tactical to take over. He gripped a nearby handrail while the ship's floor tried to force a dismount.
On a screen that appeared to be an analog radar, he could see the X-16 models swarming, preparing for a death strike against the Lovelace. He hated not being able to separate the saucer wedge from the primary hull for planetary descent.
Looking at the uselessly spastic reporter specifically, Max ordered, “Everyone, buckle up and brace for impact. If anyone can, abandon ship! I repeat, abandon ship! We’ve lost the Lovelace…”
Oh shit. This wasn't fun and games anymore. Candy took cover, ducking under a desk. What were these people DOING?! She was going to die. How...unprofessional!
The ship rocked with the power of a thousand X-16 androids cutting through her hull like tissue paper, separating the primary hull from the secondary saucer. No impulse drive, no warp drive. Barely power for the RCS thrusters.
Despite the inertial dampers being on an independent power source, the saucer section pitched forward steeply. It would enter the atmosphere like an arrowhead shot into a bullseye if they couldn’t keep the bow upwards on the z axis.
"Oh crap," the voice of Ross Clarke was lost in the madness that was going on. He'd made to the bridge barely in time to see it go to hell thanks for the brutal attack that cleaved this ship like hot knife through butter. Certainly not the day he was expecting to have - how would the Intrepid fare out here? They needed to be aware.
“We’re caught in the planetary gravity well, Max,” Brielle explained the obvious from her forward station. “All of the launched escape pods are being picked up the X-16’s,” she added somberly.
“Destroyed?” Max asked pointedly.
“No, redirected,” Brielle answered.
That seemed odd to Max. “Fine. We can’t do anything about it right now. We’re in danger of imminent destruction. He wondered why the X-16’s were leaving the saucer to be destroyed while preserving the escape pods? It was a thought he didn’t have time to dwell on at the moment.
“All power to the thrusters, even life support.”
“Without life support, I can assure you we will die,” T’Via responded coldly.
“Without thrusters, we won’t be able to get the bow of the saucer to a level that may allow us to live,” Will shouted with a bit of heat in his tone.
T’Via sat at her station and activated the emergency restraints. “Your point is well taken.”
The USS Lovelace was truly lost, possibly with all hands. Max activated one last independent system, the quarantine buoys. They would warn the Intrepid and any other ship’s not to approach Xavier’s home world, P whatever J. It was no wonder now why the Romulans hadn’t approached the planet, unless they had.
“Evacuate all crew to the upper decks, move towards the stern of the ship!” Max could only hope that order would be heard at this point. He could feel the weight of the planet pulling on him. As he searched for a station, he moved forward towards the front of the bridge, near to Brielle, to reduce the amount of momentum his body would carry forward.
Candy, for her part, realized that something was happening. She jumped to her feet, and flew into the corridors. She began knocking on doors. "Evacuate to the top decks," she cried out as she ran for a Turbolift. Where was her camera?! People would LOVE this.
“Close the blast doors!” Max shouted as the roar of the atmosphere began to act on the exterior hull.
"Which one is that?" Candy yelled. She had no idea what was even happening. She wanted to go home!
The roaring sound of reentry into the atmosphere dulled to a low rumbling. He looked at the panicky reporter and moved slowly up the inclined deck to grab her by the shoulders and shove her into the mission advisor’s seat. He touched a button on the armrest.
“I told you to buckle up!” Max raised his voice to be heard.
Looking around, he realized there was nowhere left for him to sit. ’The captain goes down with someone else’s ship,’ he thought grimly.
“Max, we are approaching something that appears to shield this portion of the planet,” T’Via noted, pointing to the dysfunctional screen. The analogue screen showed a series of dashes and the dots that represented the X-16’s were stopped just barely beyond it.
Max had a theory, but he couldn’t test it. As suddenly as the dashes appeared, the Lovelace crashed into the force field, nose first. Momentum sent Max flying forward and he knew with as much force as he would hit the forward wall, he wasn’t going to survive.
A blur flashed past him in the moment and Max could barely make out the details of Aaron Soong. The Synth grabbed Max, cradling him from the full force of crashing.
They hit the wall together and Max wasn’t sure whose bones had broken, his or Aaron’s, as they both slammed against the forward wall, breaking the viewscreen.
Aaron was the first to his feet. Max looked up to see the young human/android Synth’s blue eyes and blond hair. He reached out a hand, but Max found he couldn’t move his arm. The sound of broken bones were clearly his.
Doctor Graham flared to life, adopting the combadge turned mobile emitter from Aaron’s chest. Her visual scans showed a fractured left clavicle, bruised ribs and a tibia/fibula fracture.
Christine moved to grab the med kit out of a compartment not yet entirely destroyed and applied a hypospray of Triox compound - to help his lungs and protect his bruised ribs from causing exertion pain - then she swapped out the compound for an analgesic and a strong pain reliever.
Her last decision was harder, but she applied the osteogen on his clavicle. The captain would be of no use to them all with one functional arm. Besides, the tib/fib fracture could be easily supported later.
’Get to the top decks, move aft!’ Max shouted out to the crew desperately from his mind.
The ship seemed to move in slow motion as the stern slowly came crashing down on the same force field that had just crushed the forward sections of the starship. IF they were able to walk away from the crash, it would be a miracle.
“We need to keep forward momentum!” Max said, his voice sounding too loud against the ringing in his ears. He rolled onto his back and allowed Aaron and Christine to help him up.
The nose of the Lovelace shifted again as the force field began to give way. The inertial dampers were blown out, so the bridge dipped slightly forward.
Max was painfully, suddenly lifted and heaved over Aaron’s shoulder, placed in the chair that the Synth had vacated and locked in by a seatbelt that had little care for his broken clavicle or the osteogen that was affixed their to repair the broken bone.
Max grit his teeth and as a sense of darkness threatened, he activated the Rings of El Auria, two silver bracelets that were always hanging on his left wrist. The metal disappeared into his body and stabilized his clavicle by wrapping around it. If he had inherited all four, he would have stabilized the other fracture, but two were lost to time and the Borg invasion that destroyed El-Auria.
Hearing their captain’s last order, Will pressed the RCS thrusters to maximum. The ship groaned as it dropped forward again, dipping into the atmosphere as the force field collapsed under the weight of the starship atop it.
Brielle was working with nothing now. She had only the lighting left to pull power from, so the ship fell into darkness. Tertiary systems lit only small indicators that led to escape pods. The helm was the only station that provided light to the bridge. The rest of their power was diverted to the RCS thrusters.
“Come on you fat bitch,” Will swore at the helm station. If they didn’t drop into the atmosphere, they would die of asphyxiation in space. If they did enter the atmosphere, Will didn’t know what was next. Crashing without any way to slow their descent meant they would all die anyway.
Suddenly the ship lurched forward and slid into the atmosphere. The USS Lovelace was now in an uncontrolled descent to the planet’s surface.
The helm station powered down. The bridge was absolutely destroyed as darkness fell on the doomed crew. A dead saucer section falling wildly out of control and full of people.
As they plummeted towards land, Candy knew that her time left was limited. Quickly, she turned on her camera. ‘This is FNN reporter, Candy Kayne, aboard the USS Lovelace, in deep space. We took a hit from an unknown entity. If you find this, please alert Commander Lorut Vila of the USS Intrepid, the ship I was embedded on. Tell my mom I love her, and the kids to be good. Thanks for everything. She pressed a button to release the message into the relay system, and then closed her eyes to embrace for impact. At least she'd had fun, right?!
Clay stumbled with his footing. Running to get to Candy, grabbing her and bracing them both, blocking her from falling debris and sparks with his massive form.
“Brace for impact!” He yelled out, boots pressed hard into the deck, ducking them both close to the floor.
Death was assured, unless a miracle happened.
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