YE/D01 - Bridge

[Peter Jensen]

Once he found out that the time had gotten even shorter, Peter only barely managed to stop himself cursing out loud, as he took a deep breath before tapping his badge again:

"Jensen to Cargo Bay. Strike that, you now have less than 10 minutes before our unwelcome visitors appear. Get it done in 8", he ordered, then tapped again:

"Jensen to Braggins. Captain, the Cardassians have picked up speed. They'll be here in less than 10 minutes. I've told Cargo Bay to get a move on. What's the delay on your end?", he asked, maybe a bit too brusquely, but time was running out.


Finally he looked around at the bridge crew.

"We're going to operate under the assumption that the Cardassians will get here before we can finish, just to plan for the worst, though we still hope for the best. I'm going to try to talk them down. If I can't do that, and they decide to throw their weight around, I want options that don't involve ramming them. Because that option is on the table as the very last resort.
I'm not going to let this ship, and even more importantly: It's crew, get captured by the Cardassians. So. Tactical options.", he announced as coolly as he could, feeling his heart racing.

[T'Lari]

Ramming?

T'Lari was puzzled for a moment, unsure of whether Jensen was joking. Humans sometimes picked the oddest times to make light of a situation. But this wasn't one of those times, and the Commander was serious about not letting the ship fall into Cardassian hands. Given their treatment of prisoners that was probably wise. She'd read the reports of the survivors of the Callisto that the Philly had managed to save.

The half-Vulcan considered. The Os'rusa was fast at warp, but that didn't necessarily translate to impulse speed. Or at least, if it did, they might still be able to pull off a surprise.

"Sir, we could move to the other side of the planet, serve as a distraction while the away team finishes their preparations. Use the planet's mass to shield the Franklin from detection. Given Cardassian psychology they will most likely go after the obvious threat, the Federation starship, and not the derelict ship operating on minimal power, assuming they even detect it at all. Maintain a fast orbit that will take us back into transporter range."

She considered for a moment. "If you can keep them talking long enough to get back around we can beam the away team and survivors aboard and jump to slipstream before they can react. Perhaps we can make a show of scanning the other side of the planet as if searching for something. I believe that it is best to mix in some truth with lies. We are, after all, here to rescue survivors. We don't have to tell them we've already found what we're looking for."

T'Lari's rough early upbringing on a Romulan mining colony did give her an advantage over most Vulcans. She understood deception well, not just as an intellectual puzzle but how to use it. The Romulans were masters of it, and although she had been young when she and her mother had escaped some had rubbed off on her. Give the Cardassians some bait. Behave as they expected, at least until it was time to (as the humans put it) "run like hell."

== GM Input: What level of warp speed is the Os'rusa showing? And can T'Lari determine anything about the other ship? Speed, course, anything like that? ==

[Theresa Black]

Entering into the lower orbit, the Yeager aligned with the Franklin, and observing the modifications that T'Lari was making to the shields, Black began the extension of the bubble around the significantly older ship.

A new bleeping sound caused her to look away from her task to now see that the Cardassians had accelerated and were now only ten minutes out.

The Commander began reissuing orders across the ship to update the rest of the crew of the ever shortening timeline they were facing. She glanced back at the status for the slipstream system. It was still compiling its diagnosis as to whether it was ready to be engaged or not yet. She willed it to go faster.

T'Lari spoke next. Her plan to put themselves on the opposite side of the planet had merit. But she also suspected that since the Cardassians were heading straight for them, and if we'd ween them, they had obviously seen us first, and if they're only ten out, they would have seen the Franklin too.

To abandon the DY-150 and play naive of it might have worked if they weren't already on top of it, or an hour ago. Options were slim.

An idea hit her. It was as ever a risky one, but if it worked, and things somehow went better than they already were currently going, and somehow they made it out of this situation alive...

Black turned to Jensen. “Sir, assuming that this ship was heading for this planet to begin with, Right? Even though they're in stasis, they obviously planned to get down to the surface somehow.”

She paused to give him a chance to offer his thoughts before she continued with her hair brained idea.

“Instead of trying to pull the Franklin to a higher orbit, hows about we takes them down to the surface? If the hull breaches out here everyone on its dead. But if we throws and much power as we can into our shields, and gets them onto the surface, when their power fails or the hull cracks, at least they'll still have air and a planet. Once we do that, then we can come back up here and play nicely with them fucking Cardassians.” Then she added as she realised her mouth had out run her brain. “Sorry.”


== Tags all around, and remember. This weeks crazy idea was brought to you by the letters L & T, and colour of desperation... ==

[Jennifer Braggins]

==CO-GM==

[Braggins to Yeager. Beam the Away Team and every cryopod to the Cargo Bay, now! Have Security and Medical on standby.]

An alert on the Ops console indicated that whoever was operating the transporters had already begun the sequence, and that Captain Braggins was one of the first to materialise.

[Kal-Geal Beinn]

A call came in from the cargo bay,

[Beinn to Bridge. If we go into battle, I would recommend switching the cargo bay's power grid supply to the auxiliary fusion generator on deck six to reduce the chances of an EPS power surge taking out the delicate power distribution grid we've set up. That should free up more warp power, and reduce harmonic interference in the power governors that are attached to the cryopods.]

[Jennifer Braggins]

The doors to the Bridge opened with a hiss and Jenny stepped purposefully out into the Yeager's command area, still wearing the gear she had taken to the Franklin and with the respirator mask still dangling round her neck. Though she doubted the mask would be needed, if they were unable to escape the Os'rusa in time, the holstered Phaser and knife would be crucial for fending off any Cardassians who tried to storm the Bridge.

"Theresa, prepare to break orbit. Take us around the planet so we're on the opposite side when the Os'rusa arrives. T'Lari, I want options for scuttling the Franklin quickly but without letting the Cardassians know we're here. If Lieutenant Hydish's modifications are still holding up we might be able to bluff our way out, and I'd like us to maintain that facade for as long as we can."

Pulling the mask off over her head and tossing it onto the bench next to her seat, Jenny dropped heavily into it and consulted the console between her chair and Jensen's. Quickly updating herself on what the Yeager had discovered, her eyes narrowed. Intelligence had suspected the Cardassians were building something big, but they hadn't been able to get verifiable proof. It seemed that by mere chance, Jensen and the Yeager crew had discovered it while Jenny was playing historian.

"Peter, have you forwarded these readings to Starfleet Intelligence?"

As Jenny kept scrolling, her eyes continued to narrow.

"Whatever that thing is, it's bigger than anything I've seen in Cardassian service. And I bet our rapidly approaching friend doesn't want us getting an even better look."