Up To Their Skivvies

Posted on Thu 18th Dec, 2025 @ 12:58pm by Captain Gordon Francis & Commander Heriah Rex & Commander Paul Graves PsyD & Commander Geraldine "Geri" Severide & Lieutenant Victor Delling MD & Commander Entaaro Nasz & Lieutenant JG Kellian Michaels

2,107 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: From The Ashes
Location: Central Ops
Timeline: Current, Alpha Shift, 0800

-Start-

It was 0750 hours when Captain Francis emerged from the turbolift into the large room that made up Central Operations. A Yeoman approached and gave him the PADD containing the reports of the previous shift. Francis nodded to the Gamma Shift officers preparing their consoles and reports for Alpha Shift, which began in ten minutes. Francis would use that time to scan through the morning's reports while getting a cup of coffee. As he disappeared into his Ready Room, the other members of Alpha Shift began to arrive.

As he stepped in, Commander Paul Graves was behind the desk, probably finishing up the report, Francis thought. He smiled at the Counselor and third in Command. The two of them hadn't seen each other much, but they had developed a nice rapport. Francis stopped in front of the desk.

"Commander, I relieve you," Francis said. "Please tell me there aren't any fires to put out."

Paul shot Francis a smile back. "Only some small fireballs and a lava flow," he said, "nothing you can't handle, sir." He stood up from the desk and handed Francis the PADD containing his formal report. "The Celestial Minnow departed around midnight, and Symphony of the Galaxy has docked in its place. One of the Minnow's passengers didn't make it back to the ship in time and had to be beamed over to the Minnow before it went to warp. A refugee transport, the Sherpa, has arrived for refueling, restocking, minor repairs, and taking on passengers to Acamar and other locations. I anticipate it will be here for about a day. No safety incidents have been reported in the Harbor, though I hear there was a small dust-up on Deck 611 in the Promenade--some kids on skateboards weaving among shoppers and causing general chaos. Promenade Security handled it."

Francis gave the PADD a glance. "Sounds like a regular day on the farm." He authorized the report and set it on his desk.

Entaaro called out, "Fourteen to Nine, Ravens Final!" As soon as he did, a few crew stood to walk nearby other station and an exchange of hands occurred as Francis and Graves emerged from the Ready Room.

"Good for them!" Francis said. He then addressed the crew. "Listen up, folks. It is imperative you obey the following order: I missed the fight last night but I have the recording. Anyone who gives me spoilers will be flogged in the middle of the Promenade and thrown in the stockade."

Heriah entered. Her uniform top was undone and she was in the middle of setting it aright while flexing and stretching her neck. "Did anyone else catch the fight last night; Gul Staleek vs N'Varth of New Romulus? They called it the Bruisin' in the Briar Patch. I really thought Staleek had a chance until he sprained his wrist in Round 3. Found himself drooling on the mat nearing the end of Round 6."

She ventured to the replicator for her usual morning tea before moving to her work station.

Officers glanced back and forth at Rex and Francis. The silence was deafening.

Heriah had her tea in hand. The clear glass with the UFP emblem etched into it provided view of the reddish tea with a few black lilac pedals floating and spinning about in the hot liquid. She sipped at it carefully.

"Oh, and," Heriah spoke up as she logged into her terminal. She stopped her words and looked around at everyone silently looking back and forth between her and Gordon.

The silence was certainly deafening. She felt a twitch in her gut as Rex squirmed uncomfortable-like.

'Not sure what this is, but we are going to have to fight our way out of it. Calling forth Refkin's and Davmorda's combat training. Oh yeah, let's knock some heads. Ready!'

Heriah gulped through a dry throat, readied herself to throw her steaming glass at the Klingon, then gouge at the throat of the next nearest individual. Scenes played out quickly in her head.

"Erm..., " she finally said. "Did I miss something?"

Francis fumed, but controlled himself. "No, Rex. I did," he said simply.

An alert appeared on the center "pool table" console, as well as Entaaro's screen.

It was at that moment that the stations new Chief of Operations entered the room. She waddled over towards the main operations console. Politely she relieved the officer attending it and lowered herself into the seat. She looked tired, like she hasn't slept, but that was to be expected. Afterall making new life is hard.

Entaaro intoned solemnly across the room, “Reports of weapons exchange on Long range scans. 44X by 62Y -21z at 244.7. Sporadic fire reported, from reports, it sounds like a Ferengi light cruiser is evading a raider ambush.”

"I can shunt power to the long-range sensors. With a little luck we could see what's going on?" Azusa suggested.

The Captain nodded. "Hop to it, Azusa. And if you can, scan the surrounding area for crafts similar to the Ferengi's assailant, and any Starfleet ships close enough to assist. Mr. Nasz, can you identify the type of ship attacking the Ferengi cruiser? If you can, I want the skivvy on activity if any by similar ships in the area."

Entaaro struggled with the far off resolution, "Inconclusive, hold on thank you Commander Nakano... Sensors are resolving information discrepancies... Confirmation on pursuit vessel, transponder ID says "Zelux Pal," a Taminare-class freighter. They are staying ahead of their pursuers, whose make is unknown. likely composite frigate, scrapyard junkers.... three of them."

They had enough for a map on screen showing the Zelux Pal was staying ahead of their pursuers, and only forty minutes from a traders' outpost called "Drebom."

Since he had been looking at it longest his guess came first, Entaaro simply said, "They'll make it, that ship's designed for this, a lock-box with a warp core."

"Zelux Pal," repeated Heriah with a hint of familiarity. "Get a message to the Ferengi. Use morse code if you have to. Tell them to set a collision course with the Zelux Pal. They expect evasive maneuvers and predictively send phaser fire where they think the Ferengi will evade to. Once they miss a few times and see the Ferengi heading straight for them, they will move. That will scatter them long enough for the Ferengi to get ahead of them and make a break for it.

Entaaro opened the channel, but closed it immediately as he saw something else, "Captain, Zelux Pal is engaging high warp away from us, they are pulling away from their pursuers but no signal will reach them at this range, they will travel faster than it. Unless the long range array can be reconfigured for subspace transmission to the relay ahead of them... but I am uncertain how in the time we have to do so. Station Drebom is now forty minutes at their present course and speed."

"Alert Drebom," Francis said. "They don't have enough time to get a ship out there, but their defenses will be adequate if the raiders are stupid enough to engage, assuming the freighter somehow makes it." He turned to Entaaro. "Mr. Nasz, find some way that we can identify the raider ships. If they try something again, I want their keisters kicked."

There was a four-minute path from them to the Drebom relay and back to Zelux Pal. Entaaro saw that Drebom was only thrity seconds, a subspace relay nearby was able to receive messaging faster, which gave him the idea to use the sensor data as a mirror to a laser.

"Commander Azusa, I will require your assistance. I'm attempting a cat's cradle to reflect signal back from the Drebom adjacent Relay, we can ping against ourselves, and..."

With new data pouring in, the area map now showed the pursuers had matched and exceeded speed, taking shots and passing by like wolves nipping at the Bison as it trudged in snow. Heriah knew those junkyard raiders wouldn't stand up to any real fight, but with the rate of damage it was dubious if the freighter would make safe harbor. Turning and fighting was very much the correct answer here, giving them time to get to the station before the enemy could make a new plan.

"Lordy Moses, that freighter better have a good pilot," Francis said as the raiders caught up. The raiders began firing, and for a moment it looked bad for the freighter. But the raiders' fire was erratic, and most shots were missing.

Francis laughed. "We may have overestimated these guys. All their gunners have their eyes crossed! That freighter could reduce speed to impulse and they'd still make Drebom with hardly a scratch!"

"Imperial stormtroopers, do you think?" Paul asked. He had moved to the Second Officer's console. Supper and bedtime could wait.

Heriah straightened. "If we could get a signal through to them in time, we could tell the Ferengi to slow down, give the Raiders more of a chance to feel good about themselves." She looked back at the screen, the readouts. Every second the raiders continued to miss, the more likely they were going to have to break contact. As their time was running out, their desperation increased, their rate of miss increased, the chances for success decreased.

At Heriah's suggestion, Francis looked back to Entaaro. "Well, Mr. Nasz?"

"I'd bet on their being directed. Shots seem to miss but force evasion along a fairly reliable heading, vectors of the ship are straight lines instead of long arcs. They are being driven at angles from Drebom, adding time to the journey and... if these are the harry, the trap is ahead. They must turn about or face ambush ahead!"

Paul ran the math through his computer. "That seems likely,, Cmdr. Nasz," he said, studying the results. "The trap could be as simple as the freighter having too little power to reach Drebom safely."

They were watching through a telescope helpless to interact. Entaaro saw the reply from Drebom hit the buffer and pulled it directly, "Captain, Drebom has replied, on screen."

Francis stood erect. "This is Captain Gordon Francis of the United Starbase One-oh-Nine. To whom am I speaking, please?"

This is Administrator Gallikai of Drebom Outpost speaking. To what do I owe the pleasure, Captain Francis? You're a far piece away from us."

"Indeed we are, Administrator," Francis replied, putting on his best smile. "Our long-range sensors have detected a raid on a Ferengi freighter which is headed in your direction without any defenses. They'll be knocking on your door in about ten minutes. We were wondering if you could grant them asylum and scare away the raiders, who won't be any match for you. Consider it a favor we would be happy to return."

Victor had been standing quietly in the corner of ops, and sent a notice to Vivienne to prepare for casualties in case the raiders caused injury to the ship in question.

Yeah, we've been watching them, too Gallikai replied. Looks to us like they're trying to get the Ferengis right where they want them. We've hailed the Ferengi ship; haven't heard back. You're right, though; if we're to help them, we'd better do it now. He turned to face someone else in his Ops room. "Hey, Dean! Scramble the Rabble Rousers and tell them we've got some incoming rabble to rouse. These coordinates. Tell 'em to lead that Ferengi freighter back here if those attackers don't finish them off, first. I expect our guys to finish off the raiders. Understood?"

Gallikai turned back to the screen. On it, Captain Francis. We'll send you a SITREP once it's resolved.

Francis smiled. "Thanks a lot, Administrator! We owe you one. 109 out."

Entaaro was fast, "2 strips they divert, and a ship decloaks to chase them, against?"

Francis shook his head and replied, "taH pagh, taHbe." Francis' comment was more for Entaaro's benefit than anything else. To be, or, not to be.

The Ferengi on board made a decision and shunted power to engines and shields, and from the command center many light years away several people held their breath. Suddenly, a fourth vessel joined the display board, but the Zelux Pel had avoided the trap. Their flight was directly to Drebom, and their pursuers were too far behind.

"TAH-Be!" Entaaro shouted, before remembering nobody took his bet.

A few laughs went around the room. Captain Francis smiled and shook his head. "Alright Rex. What's next on the docket?"

-End-

 

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