Magpies, Time Travel and Hovering Boxes
Posted on Fri Jan 6th, 2023 @ 10:22pm by Captain Freya Mannerheim & Lieutenant T'Ango
1,687 words; about a 8 minute read
Mission:
Chapter VII: Into the Storm
Location: Main Hangar, Ourainavassa
Timeline: 238704.24
Three hours had passed since the meeting, and Captain Mannerheim had been busy. She had made sure that one of Amelia's two spore drive-equipped Class-F shuttlecraft was fully fuelled up and stocked with rations and medical supplies - after all, she had no idea how long the operation to extract Arnason would actually take. Although the shuttlecraft had a torpedo tube, it could only carry a single torpedo, and Mannerheim had the photon torpedo the craft usually carried replaced with a more powerful quantum torpedo, in case it turned out to be necessary to defend the craft.
The shuttle, of course, had never been intended to operate independently in this time period or universe. Just like Amelia, it was nearly black, with some gold striping and the emblem of the Terran starfleet - a dagger impaling the Earth on an inverted arrowhead - above its registration: NCC-1939-F-1. The name "Magpie" was written in small, elegant script underneath the shuttle's cockpit.
Mannerheim briefly smiled to herself as she sat down in the pilot's seat and launched the craft out of Amelia's hangar, circling the Möbius-class destroyer as well as Ourainavassa, before coming to a halt just outside the warbird's main hangar.
She opened a comm channel with Ourainavassa. "Shuttlecraft Magpie, NCC-1939-F-1, requesting permission to dock. I'm expected."
A moment later, Miles Lynn's voice came through the comm. "Captain Mannerheim, good evening. Clear to dock in main hangar."
As soon as Mannerheim had landed, she took out an Ourainavassa combadge, which she had requested from Mila Lynn, as the Terrans could not monitor its communications, and called T'Ango. "Lieutenant T'Ango, this is Captain Mannerheim. Could you meet me in Ourainavassa's main hangar bay as soon as possible, please?"
"Is this soon enough?" T'Ango asked, emerging from the control room. Not that she'd been waiting, but she had. Temporal extraction might get Gunnar out before the Tal'Shiar ever laid eyes on him, but right now, in this timeframe he might be in custody, holding on against torture and looking for a way to end his life before he broke. "I am ready." She gestured to the Dosadi battle armor she wore. "Let's get the rest and do this."
Freya held up her hand. "I know you are worried about Mr Arnason, but this is going to be an extremely delicate operation. We need to be absolutely sure we get this right. So before we do anything, we need a plan that's more detailed than 'we go back in time and get him out'. Please, come aboard the shuttle. First of all, we need to make sure I've got the right temporal and spatial coordinates set. Like I said before, we only get one trip."
T'Ango nodded. "Okay. Before we started smuggling Romulans, I was a Raider - an Dosadi Imperial Marine. I still am. So I understand planning ops," she said as she entered the shuttle. "Show me the details you need confirmed and then let's discuss back-ups in case this is a normal op and things don't go exactly to plan."
The Captain couldn't help but chuckle. "No plan survives first contact with the enemy, you're right." She sat down in the pilot seat and switched on the holographic displays, all of which were somewhat less bright than the displays on Ourainavassa. "Terrans are more sensitive to bright light," she explained. "Only biological difference that's been discovered so far." She brought up a map. "Here we have our destination planet. I've set our arrival time for ten minutes before the last communication with Mr Arnason, to allow us to get into position. I will keep the shuttlecraft in orbit, cloaked, while you and the others beam to the surface and extract him, before beaming back up for our jump to the present." She pointed at the date, time and location. "Please verify for me that these are correct."
Sharp Dosadi eyes studied the map, then T'Ango brought up the notes on her wrist PaDD and double checked to information. "Yes. Time and date are exact. Location should be correct to within 2 klicks based on his last known and the path he'd planned to take. We'll have to be careful to time contact for after he separates from the refugees. First, because if they see him getting extracted, they may panic and not head to the ship, thinking the whole thing is a set up. Second, because I know that stubborn human - he won't leave if he thinks it might endanger any of them getting out."
Freya nodded. "I'll leave the details of the ground side operation to you. Were there any potentially enemy ships in orbit while you were there, as far as you noticed? This shuttle may have a few centuries of technological advantage, but it still doesn't have that much firepower."
"None that I detected." One ear flipped back as the other cocked. "Of course, we didn't do more than cursory check for cloaked ships as a serious scan runs the risk of them picking up on us."
"Of course." Mannerheim casually took of her glasses and wiped them on her uniform sleeve, before putting them back on. "As for resistance on the ground, again, that's your part of the operation. Should you, at any point, require an emergency beamout, I will be standing by. The shuttle carries a pretty well-equipped emergency medical kit, as well as rations to last ten people about a week. Terran rations, so don't even think about their flavour. But if, for any reason, we need to make the return journey in real time, we are prepared. There are also some personal weapons on board, but I think it's best if everyone brings their own kit for that."
"I can't imagine any of this team could be convinced to not bring their own kit," T'Ango chuckled. "As to beaming out, be ready to hit it as soon as you have us. We have Romulans walk to the ship because half the time Tal'Shiar will pick up a transport signal, and the larger the group the more likely they can trace it. Going down, we'll split the party into three groups of two and drop them each a few meters apart. That'll minimize the shuttle's exposure, and ours, but you should plan evasive maneuvers to confuse any attempt at point of origin trace."
At this, the Captain smirked. "Let me show you something." She tapped her badge twice, and disappeared, immediately reappearing in front of the shuttlecraft. As soon as she tapped the badge again, she reappeared on board. "Transporter technology has advanced significantly, or will, from your point of view, by the time this shuttle is built. Transporters in this time still take a little bit of time to complete the process, but as you've just seen, the transporters this shuttle is equipped with do it nearly instantly, making it a lot more difficult to track their origin. Provided they have a beacon to lock onto, that is, which is why I have asked everyone to bring the badges made by Lieutenant Lynn. I will link those badges into the transporter system of the shuttle, meaning that we will have a constant transporter lock. We will bring an extra one for Mr Arnason, too. The Tal Shiar are good, but they don't quite have the resources to counter technologies from 400 years in the future."
"Nice." T'Ango clicked her teeth. "That would've been a trick to have a couple days ago. But now it'll be one less thing to worry about. Provided these aren't the Tal'Shiar working with your group from the future, though I can't imagine why they'd go to the trouble of coming after Gunnar."
"That would be an inconvenience, I agree. But intelligence suggests the Zhat Vash are limiting their direct involvement to whatever they're doing at Hobus. They wouldn't concern themselves with operations like yours. Ours, even. But even if they show up, we will be able to deal with them." Freya looked around the shuttlecraft. "Oh, before we leave for the mission, I will need to arrange storage for those two boxes in the back. I don't think I'll be able to keep the message declaring me a traitor secret from Commander Rogers much longer, so I've packed all my personal effects. I'll be staying in this time period, in this universe."
"Here, I'll help," T'Ango said, going to the back and hoisting one of the boxes. It was nearly as long as she was tall, making for a somewhat comical image, but but Dosadi were strong and she had an assist from her armor. "You can keep them on my ship for now, if you want. Least I can do with all the help you're giving us."
Freya smiled and tapped a control panel on one of the boxes, causing it to slightly hover, before pulling out an extending handle. "Future technology," she said with a smirk. "Thank you for the offer. I'll sort out where to put the stuff more long-term once we get back. I don't know if the others are ready to depart yet, but we should call them all and get going as soon as possible then."
"That's cheating," T'Ango laughed, but put hers down and copied Freya's moves to convert it to hover. Then she tapped a quick sequence on her comm. "There. They've been signaled to pack their gear and get down here." Taking the handle of the hover trunk, she cast a grin at the Terran. "Someday this is all going to make a fine ballad."
Laughing, the Captain began chanting a few phrases in Norse. "When a brave warrior was taken, his friends came to his rescue, but not before safely storing their personal possessions!" She shook her head. "Yeah, I never was and never will be a skald. Right then, let's get going."
RSS Feed