Where Oh Where Has the Captain Gone? (Part I)

Posted on Mon Feb 5th, 2024 @ 10:29am by Lieutenant JG Peri Valeri & Lieutenant Commander Anahera Chernova & Lieutenant Commander Yivliph Ra-Gruvloveii & Lieutenant Haruna Mizuhara & Lieutenant Zero & Lieutenant Amanda Rose & Lieutenant Percival Bálor Ph.D

1,443 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: The Bandits of Black Rain

ON

It had been three hours since the return of Amanda Rose and Haruna Mizuhara. There was still no sign of the pirate ship, but they knew they were getting close. The ion trail they'd been following was more cohesive, making it easier to follow.

Shifting uneasily in the Captain's chair, Yiv glanced about before getting to his feet and pacing the space in the center well of the ship. The Efrosian was becoming impatient with their chase.

He turned to Valeri, 'can you estimate from the decay in the ion trail how far ahead of us they are?'

"We're about an hour and a half behind them," Peri said, checking the data. "We're slowly decreasing the distance."

Amanda Rose was pleased to finally be back on the ship. She was fairly certain that she might need counseling, not necessarily from being kidnapped, but having had to deal with Haruna for several straight days on her own. The childish engineer might be brilliant at her job but she resisted all logic and attempts at maturing.

Eager to get back into work, she stepped on the bridge and rather than seeing that Captain, she saw Yiv in the chair. She looked at Yiv and noticed that he had not been promoted, so something was wrong, and more than that fact that he preferred Percy to her. She inquired, "I know that I have been off the ship for a bit and I'm grateful to be back, but where is the Captain?"

Turning, Yiv's eyebrows arched in surprise. 'I suppose no-one's filled you in,' he responded eventually. 'The Captain has been abducted by pirates. We're in pursuit now,' he concluded matter-of-factly.

The Efrosian advanced across the space separating them, indicating a free station to her, 'please take a seat Counselor. How are you feeling, considering?'

The Counselor mirrored the Efrosian's eyebrows being raised as she sat down. "What do you mean abducted? She did not sacrifice herself to save us, did she? And I'm mostly fine. I endured the situation as best as could be done under the circumstances."

'She was beamed over from the Bridge,' Yiv replied gravely, 'other than that, I don't know. We should know more when we catch up with them. You're OK to resume duties?' He opened his mouth to ask more questions, but swallowed them. Mission first, he thought.

"I'm fine," Amanda answered simply. "I was not terribly mistreated. The pirates that I was with were more interested in information and not particularly us. We were just pawns. It was merely a long time out," she informed Yiv.

He tugged at his moustache as he looked at her, considering her words for a moment. Then he nodded at her, 'we could certainly use your experience with the pirates - we don't know much about them to be honest.'

"I wish that I could tell you more than I have." She started thinking more about her time with the pirates to recall if there was anything useful she learned from the time she spent in captivity.

'I'm sure what you know is more than enough,' he patted her on the shoulder gently as he got back to his full height, and walked over to Valeri. 'You said gaining slowly, can we go any faster?'

Once upon a time, Amanda would have melted into Yiv's pat. However, now, she subconsciously stepped back as he did so.

"That would be a question for Lieutenant Mizuhara," Peri said. "She can squeeze a bit more power out of the engines."

Yiv hit his commbadge, 'Lieutenant Mizuhara. Can you give us any more juice for the engines?'

"Is that even supposed to be a question?!" Haruna's voice replied over the comm. "Of course I can, just don't look at the 'recommended settings' or anything..." she added. It was clear that the Chief Engineer was more than ready to push the engines past their limits if she had to.

Amanda warned Yiv, "Be careful with what you ask of her. She has a tendency to go to extremes and limits are important for her to understand. Don't give them and she might accidentally fly the ship apart."

That was a valid point. "Yes. There should be very clear stipulations. I don't recommend we get there only to be stranded and at the mercy of the pirates."

'Noted,' Yiv replied with a smirk as he hit his commbadge again, 'Mizuhara, give the engines everything they can safely take - we need to arrive in enough shape to take on an enemy ship.'

Percy was happy to have Mizuhara back, and even happy that Amanda Rose was safe. There was no point in losing her to pirates, but the fact that this had all gone south and resulted in their current predicament with Grace being abducted brought him no comfort as the half-Tellarite science officer exited the lift and emptied himself out onto the bridge.

Catching the last bit of Yiv's orders, Percy did not mince words "And I hope unorthodox tactics are not off the table" he added. He could get very passionate to the point of being overly emotional, and one look at Amanda Rose was enough to make him let out a soft snort.

"I'm sorry I didn't throw you a homecoming party," he commented swiftly. "I was wallowing broken hearted without your banter though, I assure you."

'Percy, now's hardly the time,' Yiv gently chided. 'Normal service can be resumed once our people are back. Hopefully without anything too unorthodox, but we're going in blind right now, so ...' he shrugged. 'We may need to even the odds somewhat.'

Anahera listened to the banter amongst the crew, but her mind was on rescue plans.

"Nervous habits, coping mechanism, yadda yadda, enough about me, let's get focus on getting Grace back," stated Percy. As much as he enjoyed being the center of attention, he didn't want to be examined.

"If you guys have stopped yibber yabbering over the comm. I've given you pretty much every bit of spare power we have. You want zoom zooms, well you've got them!" Haruna's voice said from their comm badges.

The Counselor sighed. Haruna has the professionalism of a skunk. And Percy, well, he's no treat either.

Zero stepped out of the turbolift and walked with a certain determination to Yiv. He made no attempt to acknowledge the others, because he thought what he had discovered was important. Upon reaching Yiv, the former Borg immediately placed his hands behind his back and spoke quickly. "Sir, I feel I have uncovered important information that would be relevant to our current dilemma. If I can have a moment of your time to unveil it you can decide on the proper course of action."

Perfect timing thought Percy. He waited on Yiv to respond, but Percy was barely containing a squeal.

'Lieutenant Zero, good to see you up and about,' Yiv nodded, 'we have a moment to listen to your information, naturally.'

Percy looked at Yiv. "Perhaps the two of you would prefer some privacy?" offered the Chief Science Officer with a nudging jerk of his head towards the Captain's Ready Room.

Zero looked over to Percy before replying in his usual quick tone. "I have prepared some visual aids to help explain my process. However, should the Acting Captain prefer, I may explain my results without them."

All Percy cared about right now was getting Commander Vetur back. Doing so by conventional means would obviously be what Grace would want, and Percy wanted to honor that, but he also was more than willing to bend rules to get the result he desperately wanted, her safe return. Whatever Zero had in mind, Percy trusted both men to do what was necessary.

'Visual aids?' asked Yiv with a flash of a smile. 'By all means,' he said with brisk confidence, 'use them.' Motioning towards the Ready Room he said, 'might be better in there. Percy, attend.'

As he stalked off towards the Ready Room, whiskers twitching purposefully he waved at Rose, 'you have the Bridge a moment, Counselor. Don't let them drive us into a star.'

(To be continued...)

Lieutenant Yivliph Ra-Gruvloveii
Executive Officer
USS Ontario

Lieutenant JG Peri Valier
Assistant Chief Operations Officer
USS Ontario

Lieutenant Amanda Rose
Chief Counselor
USS Ontario

Lieutenant Percival Bálor
Chief Science Officer
USS Ontario

Lieutenant Haruna Mizuhara
Chief Engineer
USS Ontario

Lieutenant Commander Anahera Chernova
Chief Security/Tactical Officer
USS Ontario

Lieutenant Zero
Chief Operations Officer
USS Ontario

 

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