Ride-Along: A Bird in Hand

Posted on 22 Apr 2023 @ 7:00pm by Chief Petty Officer Ozanna Isuri
Edited on on 06 Feb 2024 @ 8:17pm

Mission: M3 - Into the Deep
Location: USS Wasp- Loki System, Ort Cloud
Timeline: Immediately Following The Hard Way
1787 words - 3.6 OF Standard Post Measure

“I guess it’s too much to figure now that we’ve taken care of the fighters we can just blow this rock, go home and have margaritas, huh?” Boltri asked as the Wasp approached the asteroid station, still hanging in the dark void of space.

“Does that seem like a question worth answering to you, Dave?” Stillwell asked.

“No,” Boltri replied. “Probably not.”

“The composition of the asteroid is still making it difficult for our signals to get through,” Sikan said from the science station. He looked at Isuri. “I propose we send an away team to approach and assess the base. I volunteer to lead the away team, Captain.”

“How is anybody going to get over there?” Boltri asked. “This little bug doesn’t have a shuttle, and the transporter needs to be able to get a signal through to send us.”

“We do all have compliments of space suits,” Sikan replied. “If there’s a self-destruct on the base, it would be best not to fly too close and put the entire ship at risk.”

Boltri whistled and shook his head. “Just the people floating towards it. Yikes.”

Stillwell glanced back at Isuri, and then Sikan. “You think there’s anybody still on that rock?”

“It is impossible to know for certain unless we ascertain that information for ourselves personally.” He looked at Ozzie. “I’d like to take along Tann, Roth and Stillwell. Somebody piloted that asteroid here, and Mr. Tann might be able to shed some light on that question. Is that acceptable, Captain?”

Ozzie scratched her eyebrow with the back of her thumbnail. It was weird having a Commander ask her permission to do anything. Much less space walk on a potential bomb. She was starting to get the impression both Sikan and Tann were thrill seekers under all that chill demeanor.

"Yes, uh, granted." She said.Stillwell was gonna hate her for approving the idea. She knew he knew she knew what he was thinking and there were looks exchanged as he pushed out of his chair and lumbered towards the back of the bridge.

Roth started tucking his pant legs into his boots before leaving his chair. Ozzie knew the medic was particular about them not bunching up inside his EVA suit.

Sikan nodded and stood up, stripping off his duty jacket as he walked towards the back of the bridge, where he could go down to the armory at EVA suit storage. “We will be back before long, Captain,” he said.

“We’ll leave a light on for ya,” Boltri muttered softly, giving Roth a wave as he passed by.

"Oswalt, young man," Braedyn said. "Do avoid crashing before I get back and take the helm. If you screw the pooch out here, it's going to mean a very long float home for the Away Team. I've got complete faith in you, of course. Fly well."

"Yes , sir, of course!" Oswalt shuffled into the helm and Ozzie thought he looked more attentive than she'd seen him ever before apart from actual battle. "Zero screwing of any pooches!"

Nearly half an hour later, four men were crossing the inky blackness of space in their own EVA suits. Each one was outfitted with a small propulsion device to move them through the void. They were each armed with hand phasers and rifles, all magnetically attached to their suits. Stillwell grunted, stretching his arms. “They never make these things big enough,” he said over the comms.

“I don’t think they make ‘em big enough for you, Rich,” Roth replied.

“Funny,” Stillwell shot back, as the asteroid grew larger and larger before them. This close, now, they could see the bay doors where the fighters had entered and exited. There were no other apparent hatches or entryways. “If all they had were fighters, there might not be anybody at home,” Stillwell said.

“That is a possibility. It is also a possibility they shuttled people in using the fighters, and they are awaiting our arrival.”

“You have nothing but good news,” Stillwell said.

“Mr. Tann,” Sikan said, as he adjusted his thrusters to to reorient him for the bay doors and the security panel he saw set into the rock of the asteroid. “I noticed your interest in mentoring Mr. Oswalt.” Sikan approached the security panel, his thrusters stopping him just at the panel. He reached into a storage compartment in his suit and came out with a datapick and set of tools. He placed the pick on the panel, and it started flashing as it went through a series of scans to read for security countermeasures and access codes to allow them to open the door. “Considering Chief Isuri has a vested interest in maintaining the members of her crew as they are, would it be fair to ask you continue to teach Mr. Oswalt the finer points of piloting?”

"Of course, sir," Braedyn replied. "I was planning on it."

“Excellent,” Sikan said, continuing his work on the security panel. “I am
sure under your tutelage, he will prove a most capable pilot.” The panel flashed red at them, and Sikan opened the panel with one of his tools, and a moment later the fighters’ hatchway opened up. “I believe we should get inside rather quickly.”

“It’s pretty chilly out here,” Roth said, as they fired their thrusters inside. The fighter port was made up of a series of small docking stations and walkways leading to each spot where the fighters had been docked. Each station was empty, with only one fighter left.

“It looks like they scrambled just about everything they had at us,” Stillwell mused.

“A logical strategy. It was unlikely such a small base could field many more fighters than the ones we dispatched, so it would be illogical to save a few in reserve.”

“Pirates aren’t always logical,” Roth pointed out.

“True. But these particular pirates are certainly not fools.”

“So why is that one still here?” Stillwell asked. “Is it damaged? Disabled? Or is the pilot still on base.”

“Mr. Tann,” Sikan said. “Would you do me the courtesy of ascertaining the condition of that fighter? Be careful. It may very well be a trap.”

"Copy that, Commander," Braedyn replied.

Braedyn approached the fighter cautiously, using a tricorder and a sharp eye to look for any physical, laser, or sensor, trip "wires", or any other signs of boobytraps. Seeing none, Braedyn walked around the fighter doing the same as when he approached it. Satisfied that there was nothing preventing him from approaching the craft, Braedyn began a cautious but detailed external examination of the fighter.

"Upon external examination, this appears to be is a much higher quality craft than the ones we encountered outside," he said in an almost clinical tone of voice. "If not newer, definitely sleeker and better taken care of, though from the outside it does appear to be top or near top of the line. If this belongs to a privateer, mercenary, or pirate, they'd either have to be very well off or perhaps they lucked out and stole it. Commander, I'm feeding the details to your PaDD now. After I'm done looking this over inside and out, you'll have enough information to do a search for sightings of similar craft and for stolen craft, even stolen components that might be related to this craft. Note that the other craft were armed mostly with phasers or disruptors. Most of the phasers were the older, cheaper banks, not modern arrays. Only a few had pulse phasers. This one has what appear to be high end 360 degree, high output dorsal and ventral phaser arrays, as well as forward phaser pulse cannons. Military grade, probably Federation. They could be Orion knock offs, I suppose, but if they are, they're really good knock offs."

Braedyn aimed the tricorder at the engines. "Engine design is also high end. Not factory, either. Heavily modified, capable of long range flight. Sending you the specs now. This is good work. If Starfleet captured anything similar, it should be in the database. I've also got a contacts in the RIgel system that might yield some helpful information. It doesn't look booby trapped. Going inside." Braedyn opened the cockpit and began looking around.

"Very sophisticated system in here. And it's a two seater. Both positions seem like they can do everything so it can be flown solo. But it looks like the intended set up is pilot and tactical systems operator or pilot and electronic warfare officer. Okay, yeah, there's a set up in here for the rear seat to function as Command and Control for a squadron. This could definitely function as a command fighter. In fact, the way those guys were flying... I'd say their usual set up is for whoever flies this to direct operations. Probably why they fell for all the tricks we pulled on them out there. Their commander didn't fly out with them."

Braedyn turned to Sikan. "Sir, given this things cost, speed, and range, there's no reason not to have escaped in this once we won out there. It's not boobytrapped, not rigged to blow up. So why is it here? I suppose they could have left in something else, maybe if they needed to take something to big to fit in the cargo section of this craft. Honestly, in a Hornet, even I would have had a hard time stopping this thing from zipping past us and going to warp before we could get a lock on it or a fix on where it was going. So why leave it behind? If I were a gambling person, I'd be willing to lay down good money that we're not alone here." Braedyn jumped down from the fighter to the deck. "I'll leave you to hack the logs, Commander. Not my area of expertise."

Both Stillwell and Roth charged their phasers and kept them in hand, as Tann's running evaluation lent more and more to the idea that there was some pilot of this unmanned craft yet unaccounted for. And maybe a co-pilot as well... Stillwell moved to the next door and checked his sensor readings on the heads up in his helmet, the system reading his eye movements for commands. The bulkheads were scrambling any readings further in. "Looks like they like their privacy here."

Roth moved to the other side of the panel and checked the latch. "They forgot to lock this one," he said.

"Or it's a trap." Stillwell said. "Let's just not tempt fate until the Commander is good and ready."

They both watched the door to the inner corridor while Tann and Sikan investigated the craft.