Communication Breakthrough
Posted on Thu Dec 19th, 2024 @ 12:53am by Captain Maxwell Culver & Captain Lorut Vila
1,796 words; about a 9 minute read
Mission:
Silver Rain
Location: Various
Timeline: MD 6: 0930
Max had been working on the communications relays with Odren throughout the early morning until the relays all aligned for communication with the Intrepid. When the Trill had given the thumbs up, Max climbed down from the top of the pyramidal module.
“Have you gotten it operable yet,” Rylen asked, back from the morning watch of the force field and the surrounding area that the two camps called home. Barrol’s men were helpful in augmenting their small security team, most of whom were taken before the Lovelace had crashed.
“Only just,” Max answered, smiling at his love. He had found comfort from the instant presence of Rylen on the planet, and then, back amongst his crew. “Let’s go see how we can get Vila into helping us get off this planet before we end up some new type of ‘Borg’.” Max put air quotes around the word Borg, because this wasn’t exactly the same type of assimilation.
Max and Rylen disappeared into the escape pod they shared with four other people. Fortunately no one was sleeping, so they wouldn’t be inconveniencing anyone’s sleep schedule. It was bad enough sharing the pod without being awoken by a command committee.
Max tapped the center console and subconsciously held his breath.
Vila was in the Ready Room, across from Fraiser, who was there really only for HER support, and was studying his PADD intently. She had NO idea what he was doing, and she didn't want to ask. SHE was busy trying to rejig duty rosters to fit the missing team members. They had enough crew to fill in, but she was doing triple duty, AND also trying to not micromanage the science department since the CetOps fiasco.
She looked up as her Comms beeped. She looked to her boyfriend, then reached out for it. It wasn't from the Bridge-that was channel two. This was the general channel.
=/\=Lorut.=/\= She said, her voice gravelly from the lack of sleep and the constant supply of coffee she was relying on lately.
“Switch to visual, Captain,” Max answered with some amusement. He could hear the exhaustion in her voice without being there to see how thinly she was stretching herself. “I’m hoping you’ll be happy to see me,” he added quickly, not really knowing how she would feel.
Rylen put a reassuring hand on Max’s back, well off the pod’s visual projector’s ability to detect. ’She’s going to be relieved. Once you’re back aboard, she’ll be back to XO, which will be a huge relief for her. Besides, now she knows she isn’t alone in her command decisions.’
Max could feel both the reassuring touch and feeling radiating from Rylen. He relaxed only a little in the seconds before Vila responded.
Vila sighed, but clicked over to the view screen. She was sure she looked a mess; she was tired from everything, plus late nights with Fraiser, AND her own neuroses. =/\= Captain! =/\= She said, the relief in her voice palpable.
Max looked at Lorut, seeing the strain of command weighing heavily on her. But she was in command. He gave her a short, but sympathetic, smile. “Captain Lorut. Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated. Now, what do you have as far as solutions to getting us off this planet?”
"For once, I am glad to hear that someone fucked up," she said. "Of course," she said. "I can dispatch a shuttle in a few minutes," she said. "What's the situation like?" She asked.
Max shook his head at the thought of shutting two hundred people back to the Intrepid, through assassin androids. “I don’t think a shuttle will suffice, Captain. The x series of androids down here will destroy the Intrepid as fast as they tore through the Lovelace and we still don’t know what happened to the majority of that crew.
“If it’s true that humanoids are being salvaged and turned into android replicants, then we have to assume that we would become as big of targets as Lovelace’s crew was. Worse, we could be pitted against that crew, and they would have extensive knowledge of Intrepid, its crew and its operations,” Max concluded.
Vila sighed, but nodded. "We'll cloak the ship," she said. "Trust me, you KNOW I'll blow this planet to bits if they fight back," she said. She was just waiting for someone to try her-and NOW she had the full force of the Fleet behind her.
“There was a conversation about adjusting shield harmonics of the Intrepid to match the shield barrier here. Lieutenant Xall, the Chief Engineer of the Lovelace thinks we could rig the harmonics of this shield to match Intrepid’s shields. You could match them to the last rotation before I left the ship.
“Bring Intrepid in for a single flyby and beam all of us up off the surface in one go,” Lyo suggested. The sooner he was off the planet, the sooner he would be away from this “camping out” nightmare. He remembered now why he hated survival courses at the Academy.
Vila nodded. "I'll get Engineering and Ops on it now," she said. "Send me what you have," she said, standing up. "Going to the Bridge; I'll need to wake up Chet. He's going to LOVE that," she said.
“Commander Lyo, would you excuse Captain Lorut and I for a moment?” Max asked, pointedly. His gaze met Rylen’s steely gaze for a moment.
Lyo stood, adjusted his tactical vest with a tug at the hem and moved to leave the pod. Whatever Max was thinking, he was clouding it too much for Rylen to breakdown. He dipped his head respectfully. “Captain,” he said coolly.
Once they were alone, Max returned his gaze to Vila. He felt guilty, because his plan would deceive both Vila and Rylen. “The only way you’re getting the crew off the planet is with a distraction. I have an idea about that.”
Vila looked up and then nodded. "Hold on," she said. She motioned for Fraiser to step out. He did, and she returned. "Sorry, Dr. Greene just stepped out," she said. "What's the top secret idea that Lyo can't hear?" She said, quietly.
Max made a sour face. “There is a thing about this planet…a secret. A god-being attacked me for it in our first hours here. I CAN NOT die. I’ll take only one other of the crew - if he sees fit to volunteer - Ensign Soong. He is already a synth, and I suspect they might want him most as the trap springs.
“Three of the biggest EMPs we can build, at three of the biggest sites these X androids have near us. Blow out their plants with the EMPs, trigger a massive shutdown of their core systems while Intrepid uses that distraction to transport the entire crew to safety.
“You can catch Aaron and I on the uptick out of orbit if there’s time. I imagine the X androids will be in shambles at that point, so there should be time.” Max concluded his plan.
Vila sighed. "You say that like it's easy," she said. Still, she nodded. "Okay. It might take a bit of time," she said. "Thank GOD you're okay," she said. "Albion is already talking about promotions and stuff," she made a face. "He will be pissed that he can't torment me further," she finished.
“We are safe for the moment. We have shelter, food and water for weeks. All hands that can be accounted for are accounted for,” Max assured Vila. He paused as something Rylen mentioned popped into his brain. “You were able to retrieve Lieutenants Jones and Aurora, right?” It would weigh on his conscience if either had been killed in the rescue attempt.
"Yes, Aurora and Jones are okay," she said. "There were minor injuries to Lieutenant Aurora and the whales, and Doctor Gocx, but everyone is healing. There were jellyfish outfitted with attack sensors," she explained, "Luckily, Gocx, being an older Klingon, has thick skin and was mostly fine. Aurora and the whales got more hurt but Doctor Greene was able to save them all," she shared. Admittedly, she had reacted way too fast; it would've been better to wait but now it was done.
“We also have local allies and a massive shield system between us and the androids,” Max told Vila. He laughed a bit at Barrol, his co-Chieftain.
Vila nodded. "Good!" She said. "I will get with Lyo for the shield codes now and we can figure something out. I'll figure out a fib," she said.
“Then it’s set. I’ll have Rylen come in now. We’ll run the triple coding system per Starfleet general order 13-Beta. All conversations will be held using that standard going forward. Understood?” Max asked, relating the code back to pre-Federation guidelines, meaning all code would now come via Morse code and over standard radio, not subspace. He hoped the androids would be looking to the subspace chatter for shield frequencies while missing the simple broadband radio signal. It was hardly the Enigma coding of World War II, but it would be easily missed by an advanced civilization.
Vila nodded. "Understood," she said. They had used ancient Earth Morse code sometimes in the Militia - to send messages that they didn't want the Cardassians to intercept - because they knew that other forms of communication were bugged or otherwise monitored.
Max nodded and dipped off screen. “Commander Lyo,” Max said, noting Rylen was stood just outside. “Code 13-Beta triple encoded with Captain Lorut. She’ll need your shield rotation at the time of your departure from the Intrepid if we’re to have any chance of escape.”
Rylen took the steps at a clipped pace, setting down in front of the screen. He took a moment to type out the numbers and letters and select Morse code, triple encoding to piggy back as soon as he reopened the channel. Everything else would be unencrypted for the androids to see, hear and expect plans. Hopefully, they would take the path laid out before them.
Lyo unpaused the communication and saw Lorut’s face. She seemed calm, in command. So would he have to be. “Let’s get down to business, Captain,” he started to unravel his game of lies immediately, though the code had already been sent.
Intrepid would sweep in and save them all. Rylen was certain of that.
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