Crossing the Border

Posted on Wed Nov 14th, 2012 @ 11:30pm by Commander Gaius Ra-Xialii & Captain Benjamin Byrne & Lieutenant JG Ethan Kessel & Lieutenant JG Patok Malroon
Edited on on Thu Nov 15th, 2012 @ 8:42am

Mission: Klingons on the Starboard Bow
Location: USS Endeavour - Bridge

The bridge had been noticeably growing quieter and quieter as they reached the point where they would cross the Federation border and into the disputed region of space. By the time the moment came, the bridge had lost almost all of its ambient noise other than the consoles chirping their confirmations of commands they were given, until the Captain broke the spell by issuing the order they all knew was coming.

"All hands, this is the Captain," he said, activating the ship-wide intercom. "We have now crossed the border into neutral space. All hands go to yellow alert."

"Shields up. Tactical, start active scans of the surrounding area, notify command if there is any anomalous reading. Secure for combat operations. Helm, bring up heading and course on the main viewer," Gaius said, looking to the relevant officers as he issued the orders he knew the Captain would want.

"Aye Sir," the Italian lieutenant at tactical responded, tapping the appropriate pre-loaded commands to power up the shield emitters located all over the ship and bring the defensive shielding up; though stopping short of raising them to full power, as such a power level was normally reserved for red alert or direct order only. "No Klingon or Gorn ships within the immediate vicinity, captain."

The helmsman similarly carried out his own orders, bringing up the commands to activate an overlay on the main viewer. Whilst most of the screen still displayed the streaked starfield of warp travel, the upper right quadrant now displayed an overview of the region, displaying the ship's route through the disputed space. It made almost a direct line first to Negar, and then on to Anir, before curving around to reverse course, following a reverse route closer to the Gorn border. A three-month round trip, assuming a constant velocity of warp 6.

Gaius assessed the images up on the main viewer. He had not thought that this mission was going to take this long. That took him aback. He brought up the latest intelligence regarding the Gorn military, looking into the incredible information gathered by the Titan. The information about the different caste types, the unrest between the warrior caste and the political caste. This had caused several of the skirmishes on the border. The Klingons on the other hand had several houses all contesting territories. In fighting on both sides, spilling over between the two.

"Now the patience game," Gaius said, mostly to himself, but loud enough for the captain to hear.

"Perhaps," the captain responded, thinking back to the PADD of classified mission data he had been given at their last rendezvous with a Federation ship before crossing the border. "Helm," he said. "Adjust course; bearing three-two-eight, mark zero-seven. Ops; I want you to monitor all communications frequencies along our new course, and notify me and the commander if you detect anything." He had already talked to his First Officer about the report of the downed Norway class starship in the sector that Starfleet had requested they look for, though the orders and the exact nature of the classified mission data meant that he couldn't share the ship's mission objective, nor was he allowed to discuss the extra assignment with the rest of the crew as of yet.

“There is a definite signal coming through on a federation frequency, Captain,” Patok said, “and there are energy readings on the long range scans. All are too faint to distinguish at this distance. One suspects that on our current heading, we will draw closer to the source.”

"Lieutenant," Byrne said, looking over towards Ethan at the engineering console, and beckoning him over towards himself and the first officer. Once he had come over, Byrne spoke in a tone that only he, the engineer and the first officer could hear the orders. "I want you to configure the engineering console to scan for any non-natural metals along our course, for as large a range as you are able to without detracting from our current scans. Specifically, I want you on the look out for potential hull materials."

Ethan nodded. "Will do Captain." He said, and went to the console. He was unused to serving on the bridge, but found it a pleasant change to his normal duties. He punched in the console commands and waited for the results.

"Captain!" Kessel called. "I have something. There is definatly something out there. I don't have any specifics, but its large, and with density like that its not natural. I'd say there is a ship - or whats left of it out there, but as for who or what it is is anyone's guess - Its far to faint to get any clearer readings. It's not cloaked, I'm waiting on more precise scans, but that will need a little time."

Nodding his acceptance of the information, Byrne looked forwards to the ops and helm stations again. "Helm, keep us on the course dictated by the readings of lieutenants Kessel and Malroon, and maintain speed," he ordered, hoping that they might eventually find something of the ship Starfleet had tasked them to investigate during the course of their larger mission. "Tactical, alert me if you detect any signs of Klingon or Gorn vessels," the captain continued, standing from his chair and giving his uniform jacket a slight tug to relieve it of the wrinkles it had gathered whilst he sat. "Commander, you have the bridge," he concluded, before making his way to the starboard side of the bridge and his ready room.

"Aye sir, the XO has the conn," Gaius said taking the center seat. He swallowed down the urge to give the customary order, 'Steady as she goes.' He instead decided on bringing up tactical reports of usual enemy formations and battle orders. Then putting the ones most relevant to Endeavour's situation into a file for later simulation.

He looked at the ready room's closed door, and his brow furrowed. He didnt like the idea of keeping only some officers in the loop, it wasn't teamwork in his mind. But it was the Captain's decision to make. Gaius lamented that he would have to learn to trust his CO. He let out a small growl.