AT/D02 - Bridge

[GM-02]

As the bridge crew monitored the qoH, the core output began to drop swiftly. Then, on the side of the freighter nearest the Artemis, there was a quick buildup on a loop of conduits. Before anything more than just seeing it could happen, however, it exploded and vented its plasma directly towards the Artemis.

The ship rocked and shook, klaxons ringing, as the helm fought against Maxas-Darl's control, and the tractor beam immediately fizzled.

"Steady helm!" called out Jolann. "Damage reports!"

==Maybe this will get us out of the doldrums up here?==

[Omdor Jaein]

==Has it really been a month? Damn... Sorry guys!==

If his report made Captain Crawford nervous, she hid it remarkably well.  "I've found that desperation doesn’t really lead to rational decision," she said, before addressing the helm. A call from the chief of security painted a picture from inside the freighter that, while not grim, was about as crazy as most combat missions usually were. Jaein shook his head, remembering far too many boarding missions against smugglers when he worked system patrol before the Mars incident had brought him into Starfleet proper.

He continued monitoring the energy output, noting the levels continuing their slow build as the minutes ticked by. His vigil was interrupted, however, when the science officer spoke up.  “Captain, getting strange dimensional readings from the qoH," she was saying. "Half a dozen containers shielded against sensors in the cargo bay and something running the length of the vessel about 2 decks high and 4 meters across." 

She spoke for a moment more, before he noticed the scans pop up on his own console.  “Commander Jaein, have sent you the current sensor readings from the qoH. If you have any insights?”

He looked at it, seeing the empty space between the outer hull and the main habitable area of the ship. "Definitely a smuggling compartment," he said to her and the room at large, reflecting again on that career a lifetime ago. "I don't know what they're carrying, but that's an awful big space if all they wanted to move was something like drugs or alcohol."

Unfortunately, he didn't get any more of a chance to respond. He saw the core suddenly power down. "They got it!" he called out, just as the sensors began to show that this wasn't necessarily the unalloyed good thing he wanted. "What--"

That was all he got out. A series of conduits on the side of the freighter overloaded and blew, expelling a significant fraction of the core's power directly at them in a fairly focused jet. Prophets protect us, he thought quickly as he clung to his console desperately. Klaxons drummed into his head through his ear, and he tasted a bit of blood in his mouth - he had bit his cheek in the tumble.

"Steady helm!" called out the first officer. "Damage reports!"

Fortunately for Jaein, he kept the damage report screen easily accessible at all times while on the bridge, much less while they were in action. He pulled it up and consulted it to relay the information to the command team.

==Tag Devereaux==
==Oh GM, please forgive my inattentiveness; what damage have we sustained?==

[Hallowette Maxas-Darl]

The chatter on the bridge had softened to a low murmur as the crew diligently worked at their assignments. Hally had always anticipated that these moments of waiting, not knowing, and expecting the unexpected would be anxiety laden, in fact she had been taught as much during her command class elective on mental wellness and emotional toll. What she didn't expect was just how sharply it would manifest.

It's the not knowing that is the worst part. When you are aware of a situation you can act, prepare and respond. Starfleet prepares its Command and Bridge Officers to be proactive; to anticipate moves ahead. When that is removed, well, Ambassador Spock said it best, “Insufficient facts always invite danger."

The Trill/Bajoran hybrids attention moved from the Viewscreen to her console and back several times. She could only check her readings so many times before the routine hung precariously on becoming mundane, something she couldn't allow to happen. She thought for a moment about sending a message to Lt. Grant's console gently reminding him that she could read and speak Klingon fluently, if there was a need, but then decided against it. She was the helmsman. Her job was to fly the ship, to keep it safe....not to...

Wait, what's that? Power flucua...

"Captain, I'm seeing..." she had just begun to announce as the qoH's conduits ruptured into a brilliant blast of jagged light.

The wave of superheated plasma bathed the Artemis instantly, wrapping violent tendrils of angered energy around glowing shields, pushing and pulling it like a childs toy. The ferocity of the impact tossed Hallowette from her seat, and she landed hard on the deck to her side. Luckily the emergency drills she had run so many times at the Academy took over and the small lanky curly headed Midshipman was  back in her seat before the action even registered in her mind.

"Steady helm!" called out the Denobulan FO "Damage reports!"

Slender pale fingers danced around the console in an effort to right the ship, Artemis' computers suggesting corrections which the young Officer accepted and denied instinctually. Again, her training took over, though the sudden roughness of the explosion was distinctly more jarring than any simulation.

"Yes..Sir..." Maxas-Darl said as she worked. 

=GM Input: Hally works to steady the ship as ordered. Is she successful? Any injuries sustained from her (very Trekish) tumble from her seat?==

[Tyra Crawford]

There was chatter about the contents of the vessel as Devereaux reported the cargo contents and the areas shielded from sensors. It seemed the indicators for smuggling had been correct.

"I don't know what they're carrying, but that's an awful big space if all they wanted to move was something like drugs or alcohol," Omdor commented, causing a slight frown to furrow Tyra's brow.

"I've got a couple guesses and none of them are good," she muttered, having pushed herself out of her seat as a bout of restlessness shifted through her muscles.

"They got it!" Omdor reported emphatically. "What--"

If he finished his statement, Tyra was none the wiser as the deck below her feet rocked and sent her forward. She managed to not crash into helms and tactical only because her hand locked onto the nearest railing but it still took her to her knee with a painful thud. She gritted her teeth as she pulled herself up, the tiniest bit of relief blooming as she assessed little damage to her knee.

"Report! What the **** was that?" She demanded as she shifted back to her chair. "What's the status of the freighter?"

As she waited for those answers, her fingers restlessly moved over her console. "Artemis to Calleja. What is your status and do you need evac? We've taken damage and are assessing."

== Tag everyone! ==

[GM-02]

==Omdor==

The damage was highly localized. The plasma jet speared Artemis under the saucer (which, due to the Vesta-class design, consisted of most of the ship) damaging deck 13 and 14 in addition to taking out the tractor beam. EPS relays around the Security complex were blown out and through several of the recreation areas, combined with a plasma fire in an unoccupied guest suite, which was all bad, but - except for the fire - wasn't anything particularly critical. Other decks were reporting minor damage, but nothing requiring engineering's attention.

==Maxas-Darl==

As she climbed back to her seat, she felt a twinge in the wrist of her off hand, but continued to push through. Her hand was working, and the pain was manageable for the moment. With the angle and location where the explosion had hit, it had thrown Artemis as if hit by a gust of wind; Hallowette was able to get the ship back under control and in position fairly easily.

The new problem was, since the freighter was unpowered at the moment, it also began to drift away, deeper into the nebula.

[Mara Calleja]

[Negative on evac.] Calleja sounded a touch out of breath but she replied quickly. [We’ve taken the cargo hold. 2 officers down, confirmin’ extent of their injuries in a sec. There’s a concealed tunnel here but it’s locked. If our Chief Engineer knows anyone good with locks, now is their time to shine before we break out the explosives. We also got a stowaway. Human male, fought with us. I’m gonna get an ID for you to check. Stand by please.]

[Hallowette Maxas-Darl]

"Report! What the **** was that?" 

The mood on the bridge shifted from a low level tense anticipation to full on engagement - the need to understand, respond and act overtaking all else.

"What's the status of the freighter?" the Captain asked evenly as she sat down in her center chair.

Maxas-Darl had just managed to settle the ship as the Captain demanded answers. Hally plugged away at her console, doing what she could to provide some insight for her CO, running diagnostics, checking for damage, ensuring that...

Owww... Ok, jai-stallaz, that smarts! A quick jolt of pain ran up her arm as she worked the console, and she realized the fall from her chair and subsequent recovery may not have been as graceful as she had thought. She flicked her wrist quickly up and down, a gesture born of a need to clear the pain, to answer it with something. She allowed a quick moment to massage it before she hit a particularly sensitive spot. Deciding that she was as likely to injure it further as to make it any better, she pushed the pain from her mind as best she could and went back to work.

In the meantime, CSO Calleja reported in, stating that the hard fought boarding action had finally cooled, though surprisingly, an unknown stowaway had been discovered. As shocking as that was, Hally's concern was with the reported injured among the security teams. They had won, but it sounded like at quite a cost. 

Just do your job Hals. They crew needs that more than your sympathy.

She recentered her attention on the situation of the Artemis. She had managed to settle the ship, that was primary. It was when she laid in the course to come back up alongside the qoH, that she realized her calculations were off. 

Wait. What? Something has changed...

She ran a query on the area surrounding the two ships, then the relative velocities of them both. The Artemis was virtually still, while the qoH was....not.

"Uhm...Captain, if I may..." she said, her voice harboring a slight hesitation. "The Artemis' propulsion took no damage, and flight ops is fully capable. However, It appears the explosion may have served to pushed the qoH away from us. Initial inertia scans show it moving away from us at a velocity of approximately 476 kph, though stellar winds within the nebula may begin to alter that."

Pale slender fingers (and a swelling wrist) danced over the console.

She further advised. "I've laid in a course to keep pace as needed, and will advise if local scanners detect anything within the qoH's immediate path."

==Tagarinos==

[Mara Calleja]

[Calleja to Artemis. Newcomer has ID’d himself as Nathan Ramius of Star Fleet Security. Says he has intel that he needs to share direct with the CO. Says you’ll know him. Your call boss.]

The chime indicated that the Security Chief was broadcasting from her suit camera. There was a faint pinkish tinge from where Klingon blood had been wiped off the lens, but anyone viewing the feed would get a clear view of the man claiming to be Nathan Ramius.

[Cassandra Givens]

[Givens to Artemis. Good news: the bridge is secured. Bad news: I need immediate transport to Sickbay for Ostberg, Loren, Mortimer and Pearson. I also am injured but I can remain until the situation is more stable,] Givens sounded pained and a little short of breath as she spoke.

[Tyra Crawford]

== Gonna move some stuff around for the sake of flow and pacing… ==

As Tyra waited for answers, she, once again, acknowledged that tingling sensation prickling the back of her neck. Something was wrong but frankly, something had been wrong since the moment her feet had left Earth. The roiling in her gut hadn't subsided upon her return to Artemis and while maybe it would have with enough time, the two sensations were combining to set her on edge, a restless energy surging through her that merely came out through the tapping of her fingers on her knee.

"Uhm...Captain, if I may..." Maxas-Darl reported, causing Tyra's fingers to pause mid-pattern. "The Artemis' propulsion took no damage, and flight ops is fully capable. However, It appears the explosion may have served to pushed the qoH away from us. Initial inertia scans show it moving away from us at a velocity of approximately 476 kph, though stellar winds within the nebula may begin to alter that."

She considered that for a moment before she turned to look at Omdor. "Do we have the tractor beam online to pull the qoH back in? If so, we need it tethered again."

"Midshipman, keep pace with it until we figure this out," she requested before her attention was drawn back to the freighter itself.

[Negative on evac.] Calleja sounded a touch out of breath but she replied quickly. [We’ve taken the cargo hold. 2 officers down, confirmin’ extent of their injuries in a sec. There’s a concealed tunnel here but it’s locked. If our Chief Engineer knows anyone good with locks, now is their time to shine before we break out the explosives. We also got a stowaway. Human male, fought with us. I’m gonna get an ID for you to check. Stand by please.]

Tyra's lips pressed together as she took the moment to pull the report apart piece by piece. "I know we're known for our affinity for destroying things but let's hold off on forcibly breaching the tunnel before we've exhausting all other means. Based on your stowaway, it sounds like, maybe, they're moving people but there's been reports of unstable weapons being transported and we don't wanna blow ourselves up over this bucket of bolts. Just get me an ID for your friend ASAP; none of this makes sense and we didn't Human on board when we engaged."

If the back of her neck had been tingling earlier, the hairs were fully standing up now as she worked to process this newest development. It was possible this Human male was merely one of the people being smuggled and had somehow exited the shielded area but that just didn't seem likely. No, something wasn't right and it certainly wasn't adding up.

"Grant, run a diagnostic on the sensors. How the Hell did we miss a Human life sign on that ship prior to engagement? Omdor?" she added, pointing the question belatedly at her Chief Engineer as well.

As luck would have it though, the punches just kept coming as Givens chimed into the current mess.
[Givens to Artemis. Good news: the bridge is secured. Bad news: I need immediate transport to Sickbay for Ostberg, Loren, Mortimer and Pearson. I also am injured but I can remain until the situation is more stable.]

"Are we within transporter range?" she asked no one in particular, knowing that she'd been laying orders out for the last few minutes without much break. She was losing track of who was currently investigating what and this seemed to just be getting messier and messier.

"Artemis here. Understood. Stand by regarding the transport; the Commander or I can relieve you, if needed, depending on how everything shakes up," she answered, casting a glance towards her first officer with an almost apologetic shrug as she began to meander back towards her chair.

She tried to muffle the sigh that escaped as she reached it and picked up her coffee. The coffee tasted cold and a little stale on her tongue but it was better nothing. She was just beginning to swallow the last mouthful, the one that had just a little bit of coffee grounds in it, when Calleja came back with further information.

[Calleja to Artemis. Newcomer has ID’d himself as Nathan Ramius of Star Fleet --]

The rest of Calleja's message was lost to Tyra over her own coughing as she tried not to choke and die on her coffee. Her free hand hit her chest in an attempt to dislodge the liquid from her windpipe even as she tried to wrap her head around the words she'd heard.

For a second, she was standing with her nose almost pressed to a forcefield as she stared hopelessly at her broken former Chief Engineer, two warm hands anchoring her by her shoulders to keep her from tipping forward with her regrets. The next, she was curled up in a chair in one of Cera's hidey holes, a cool glass of whiskey anchoring her in place as she recounted a tale of foolishness and good intentions to Nathan in a hushed, broken tone. And then, she was staring at what could have been a very worn, rugged and scruffy Nathan Ramius through a slightly pink tinged lens.

Except he wasn't suppose to be here.

He was supposed to be with Colso. That's where she had been assured he was when she'd tried to track him down after the Damian fiasco what seemed like ages ago but truly only a short time earlier.

As much as she would have liked him by her side with everything going on, she had conceded that the Crusader was the better place for him. Colso was by the book and Tyra trusted him to keep Nathan out of trouble, which was what he needed to do to survive this fall out. And yet…

There were two options: this either was Nathan Ramius and he clearly had let Ben have custody of their jointly shared brain cell, which was possible, or this was some sort of rouse. But it looked like Nathan…

And it looked like Torkav… trust your gut.

"Artemis here. Pass your earpiece to Lieutenant Ramius, please and keep the camera on for a second." Tyra waited until she saw the exchange occur before she spoke again. "The last time I saw you face to face, who did I tell you to contact and what did I ask you to say?"

== Tag pretty much everyone! ==

[Omdor Jaein]

Fortunately, the readouts gave him a quick rundown, and it wasn't as bad as they'd feared. He was about to call out the report, but events seemed to have overtaken him. The qoH appeared to have started drifting when the tractor beam shorted, as the helmswoman noticed. Crawford looked back at him, asking "Do we have the tractor beam online to pull the qoH back in? If so, we need it tethered again."

"Negative, Captain," he said. "Tractor beam is out of commission at the moment." He considered whether to append the rest of the damage report, and went for it, whether she heard or not. "Damage on 13 and 14," he called. "Security complex took the brunt, but I'm dispatching damage teams there now." He sent a quick message down to engineering as he talked, highlighting the issue though he was fairly certain they were already watching. "Got a plasma fire in one of the VIP quarters, unoccupied. Suppression seems active, but another team going there now." 

And as he had expected, he was interrupted by a new message from the away team. Evidently the Klingons were under control, but they had found a new person aboard, a human, who had helped them fight the Klingons. That was... surprising, to say the least, to everyone. The captain asked him how they could've missed it, but he didn't really get a chance to ask before the hits kept coming. Most of the bridge team was injured, and needed evac.

"We're still in transporter range, Captain," he reported - it would take a lot more than 450 kph to make that a problem, especially when they had been in tractor range just moments ago. "Signaling the med bay about their new patients." He hit his commbadge. "Bridge to medical: four to five more injured on the freighter's bridge. Transporters are available and ready whenever you guys are."

He heard the bridge comm click on with a new message while he talked, but then heard a sound he hadn't expected - Crawford choking on her coffee. He turned quickly, but she had already recovered, and he tried to pick up on what was going on, but couldn't tell. He could tell she was shaken, however, and her next order to the away team was very quiet, very still.

Deciding that it wasn't for his ears, he instead hit his own comm again. "Omdor to Han. Looks like you got it taken care of over there. Good work; do you need any assistance?"

==Tags==

[Nathan Ramius]

Nathan's voice was smooth, and tone matter-of-factly, as he gave his response.

[I was to reach out to Logan. The message wasn’t important, but I had to use the word Icarus.]

== tag Tyra ==

[Robin Mayfair]

The CMO's soft southern accent came as reply moments after.

[Understood, Bridge. Beam them over immediately.]

[Tyra Crawford]

There was the tiniest of noises as an infinitesimal amount of air was pushed between the hard line of Tyra's lips at Ramius' response but her expression remained readable in the aftermath. In fact, it was hard to tell if she'd even blinked in the wake of his confirmation.

"You have until my boots hit the deck over there to come up with a good reason for why you and that one brain cell of yours are on a Klingon ship in the middle of this **** show of a nebula. And it better be the best ******* story I have ever heard," the redhead ground out, her cold inflection only rising on the last demand. And then, she added, "And tell Lieutenant Calleja that it is in her best interest to can whatever argument she feels inclined to spin up."

The channel was closed with a jab of her finger on her console, certainly with more force than was needed. She was already moving away from her chair with all the tension and control of a prowling tiger before she directed her gaze back towards her Denobulan first officer.

"You have the bridge. I'm going to go handle this and relieve Captain Givens. Update me if things continue to deteriorate," she ordered, her tone just as cold and controlled as it had been for most of her rather one sided conversation with Nathan.

She didn't wait for the commander's answer before she stalked towards the turbolift, clearly not wanting anyone's opinion on the issue. As the doors of the turbolift closed behind her, those closest to the lift would catch the opening lines of a very frustrated mumble before it disappeared into the lift. "I should have shot him when---"

>> Transporter Room 1 >>

[Lucy Devereaux]

The plasma venting from the qoH was a shock, but not in hindsight all that surprising. Power had to go somewhere and it had to be the path of least resistance. Klingon smugglers transporting whatever didn’t seem inclined to finesse in engineering. The plasma had knocked out the tractor beam and started them drifting.

The discovery of the unexpected Starfleet officer was a puzzling record scratch. Tyra had that scary authority thing. Justifiably and the appearance of Nathan Ramius reminded Lucy how fundamentally frightening it was. She was glad that she wasn’t the current focus of it. That the Captain was willing to go over to the qoH to have a face to face was intense.

Lucy ran a diagnostic on the tractor beam. If they could safely re-engage that would be good, but it would doubtless require power to be redirected. That brought Deck 16 to mind. The EPS system was hinky down there. Not enough to be a direct problem, but working around it needed a delicate touch.

The damage on 13 and 14 made Lucy wonder if she should say something. She decided that she’d wait for the results of the diagnostic as she wasn’t intending to act without giving Commander Omdor results from the diagnostic. She was concerned that finding their way out of the nebula was going to be complicated by the current trajectory of the qoH.

== GM input request, what is the result of the diagnostic on the tractor beam? ==

[Hallowette Maxas-Darl]

Trailing the qoH had proved a fairly simple task outside of simple course corrections or minor adjustments caused by the Klingon vessels disruption of the nebula's high energy particles or occasional pocketed gas. While the drifting freighter had started off at a leisurely .5k kilometers per hour (Sol-3 standard time), it had begun to drift slightly faster and faster as the moments ticked by. The Artemis was perfectly capable of maintaining a pursuit position, and while the young hybrid Midshipman wasn't yet alarmed, she did take note that as the qoH's current drift integer increased, eventually the ships limited sensor's would no longer provide a safe enough cushion to see what they might be drifting into, at least in time to react proactively on behalf of the stricken qoH.

This train of thought, of course, was taking place as the Captain seemed to have a seething emotional outburst that seemed almost Bajoran like in it's intensity. Almost...

The junior officer knew better than to turn her head to watch. She wanted to, certainly, but despite Hallowette's many flaws, she leveraged what smarts her duel heritage had gifted her with, and just faced forward, her eyes on the viewscreen. She was especially glad she had stayed small and out of any errant lines of fire when she caught the last snippet of Crawford's rage...

"I should have shot him when..."

Kosst, she seems PISSED.

It took her a moment to register that the Captain's soothing presence, the same quality that had given Hally calm and confidence earlier, had quickly become something much darker - and that had caused the young officer to hold her breath without her realizing it, a sudden resurfacing of anxiety that she had thought securely stowed. Maxas-Darl took a moment to force herself to breathe again, even using the pounding sharp ache in her wrist to ground her in the here and now. Her thoughts eventually relented and moved from the Captain and whomever this mysterious stowaway was, (who was about to bear the brunt of...whatever had set her off) to again the problem at hand.

She glanced around the bridge, her curly auburn locks bouncing slightly as she turned her head. Grant had his hands full coordinating with Engineering (which also ruled out the...oh cool, the Chief Engineer is a Bajoran, I'll have to say hi when this is over...), and the Denobulan First Officer was occupied with taking over the Bridge. Finally her teal eyes settled on someone she figured could give her the insight she needed.

Hally had met Lucy, err, Lt. Devereux not long after she had come aboard during a chance meeting in the officers lounge. She hadn't gotten to know her well, but she felt comfortable enough in asking the science officer about their predicament. "Uhm, Lt. Devereaux, I'm trying to get a handle on how long we have in escort with the qoH before the ships drift outpaces our diminished sensor capabilities. I know you and Aeryn...err, Commander Miller were working on boosting them with the probes, but I don't have a good handle on what our capabilities are at the moment. If I send over the drift characteristics, can you cross reference them with your info, just in case?" Her pale cheeks blushed slightly at the sound of her voice, but she continued, "I figure we have a good amount of time before it becomes an issue, but I just want to be ready...if we can be...."

==Tags: Lucy, obviously. All others also==

==GM: I've inferred a bit from your other post that the drifting might increase. If this isn't so, feel free to correct. If so though, can you give a bit more specific info on how quickly the speed is increasing? Is Hallowette right to be a bit concerned about the situation in regards to the sensor issues?==

[Omdor Jaein]

The young ensign's voice came through his commbadge fairly swiftly.  [Han to Chief, they messed up their engines by rerouting their baffles and so we had a fun explosion but so far so good,] she said. [I have the engine shut down now, and while we’re spinning, it seems to be stable enough. I’m looking for anything that could tell us what the Klingon were doing to need that much power. They’re lucky they didn’t blow themselves up before we got here.]

He nodded, chuckling to himself despite the seriousness of the situation. "That's the truth," he told her. "You'd be amazed at some of the patch jobs I've seen attempted, particularly when they're Klingons and untrained." For a moment he almost started relating the story of a Klingon ship he serviced during the last bit of the Dominion War that had just barely made it back to port with a pair of torpedo casings doing duty as a plasma manifold and the interlocks completely disengaged, but he decided against it at the last moment. He could still hear the curses Chief O'Brien spat echoing through his ears today. "Just make sure that life support is still functioning, even if it's on batteries, and everything else is shut off. Then I'd report in to Lieutenant Calleja. Somehow I doubt we're going to get that thing up and running again anytime soon. Keep in touch, and if you need assistance, just call back." He tapped his badge and closed the channel.

For his part, with the diagnostic having reported the tractor beam being out of commission, Jaein started trying to think of some backup options. The first and easiest, as far as he could tell, would be to launch some shuttles to help hold it in position. He turned to the helm and the FO. "Do we have any shuttles on standby? If we could launch a couple, they could likely get a grip on it between them and help stabilize the freighter for us."

==Tags to all involved==
==GM Input on the shuttles? We have options, maybe?==

[GM-02]

Jolann settled into the command chair, trying not to let his discomfort show. He had been left in command before, of course, but he hated it when it happened, and having only been on Artemis for days he was even less sure than usual. However, he listened to the crew, and was pleased with their initiative. Not that he could let that show, either, and he kept his habitual frown on his face.

He was uncomfortable with the captain's display as she left, as well. She hadn't exactly left any doubt as to her feelings, only with what those feelings would mean for the ship. And he hated not knowing things like that. For a moment, he considered trying to get an explanation from her when she returned, but discarded that idea as well. He'd find out in time, of course. It was just a question of whether it would be before the crew did. He vowed to be prepared either way.

The helmswoman was talking with the science station, and he left them to that. When the chief engineer turned, however, he felt compelled to answer. "According to standing orders," he replied in tones implying the Bajoran should have been aware of this, "the shuttlebay has crews and shuttles on standby during any alert situation." He hit a control on the arm of the command chair. "Bridge to shuttlebay. Launch two shuttles. Their orders are to use their tractors to keep the Klingon freighter in position relative to Artemis until further notice." The shuttlebay acknowledged, and within five minutes the shuttles were in place and locking on.

==Maxas-Darl & Devereaux==

Unpowered, the qoH was simply drifting. Artemis, having been deftly piloted to match course and speed, was hanging alongside relatively motionless, though the pair of them were heading further into the nebula than either wanted.

A result of their drift, however, was that a gap was opening between the Artemis' sensor range and that of the probes. They were still within comm range, which let the Artemis see the probe's sensor feeds, but there was unreadable space between the edge of their zone and what Artemis was able to see. Moving Artemis back wouldn't be difficult, but would require coordination with the shuttles now holding the qoH.

==Devereaux alone==

The tractor beam was shot. The energy feedback had blown out several circuits within the device, and it was going to take at least several hours for a damage team to fix.

[Hallowette Maxas-Darl]

Time. No matter what, it always comes down to time. Too much and we are idle; too little and we are lost. The great challenge of life is, and always will be, time.

Hallowette sat quietly as the Commander spoke with Chief Omdor, the lingering discomfort left by the Captain's outburst settling uncomfortably in the pit of her stomach. Waiting on Lucy's calculations only served to heighten the feeling, the lack of time and knowledge of what might lie before the pair of errant vessels another layer of discomfort.

Hally knew something had to be done, and while she had every confidence in Devereaux's ability to give her a good answer, and if for some reason it was unclear to them, she was certain that Aeryn would help. The luxury of TIME though, that was where her confidence diminished.

The last few hours of her first bridge shift had been nothing like she had imagined. She had failed almost immediately, then managed to recover with the help of her training and the kind words of Lt. Grant. She had performed well enough since, but she cursed her inexperience, just as she cursed the rapidly throbbing pain in her wrist. She spared a glance to see her fair skin already beginning to bruise, though everything still seemed functional enough - but as she sat idly by awaiting the answer to her question, the pain ate at her, and mixed with the feeling in the pit of her stomach she felt helpless, especially as she watched the freighter tumble slowly over and over, drifting uncontrolled at the side of the Artemis.

"I've gotta get them stopped." she said under her breath. Her rank though, the fact that her overconfidence had already caused her embarrassment threatened her ability to act. She thought about looking to Grant, but decided against it.

She was the ship's helmsman. She had to act. The time to act was now.

"Shuttle team, this is Artemis flight control. I'm going to coordinate with you to get the qoH' slowed, then back to a position that is a bit more tenable." Hally knew the shuttle pilots well enough, in fact she had taken several alert standby shifts herself. If things had gone even slightly differently, it's likely it would have been her flying one of those shuttles, but today, she was in charge of the big ship, which meant she called the shots on how this would go down.

Hally quickly worked out a plan as the shuttles launched, vectoring the two north/south, and placing the Artemis in a way that the ships auxiliary deflector would clear any small debris and gas from their path and allow the shuttles to work unimpeded by the nebula's more abrasive characteristics. 

"Shuttle team, once the area fore of the drift is clear, you are free to slow the qoH' and bring her to a stop. Artemis will match speed and orientation. Once complete, maintain tractor lock and we will return to the following coordinates within the probe field."

==GM Input: Hally is trying to coordinate the operation to get the qoH' back into a more tenable position. Is she successful? Is the use of the ships lower powered deflector useful for mitigating any immediate hazards the composition of the nebula might pose?==

[Aeryn Miller]

An alert beeped, informing Deveraux that she had an incoming message from her Chief.


[Miller to Devereaux, report in, anything we can assist with?]


== Tag Lucy ==