Duck Hunting
Posted on Sat Apr 25th, 2015 @ 4:32am by Commodore Samantha York & Lieutenant Arnon Barak MD, PsyD & Lieutenant Verdeath Newmark & Lieutenant JG Maryam Syed & 1st Lieutenant Leroy Mangalia & Sergeant Amarylis Beckinsale
1,245 words; about a 6 minute read
Mission: Deadly Diplomacy
ON
Sam walked onto the bridge and nodded to Munich.
"Ma'am." Munich acknowledged the Commanding Officer. "Ve appear to be recovering a bit , gaining orbit and ready for your orders." Munich was a bit more glad to have York back on the Bridge.
She'd been listening to the pilots from her ready room. The news of another ship was not good. "Stay on Yellow alert. I want a full scan of this system. If there are any other ships out here, I want to know about them."
She tapped the comm panel. "York to Mangalia. Return, reload and go back out. I want you and your fighters to check this system for more ships that don't belong here."
"You heard the nice lady, everyone refuel and refit. And someone drag the Delta with the busted thruster out for Phoenix. Once on solid ship I'll assign scouting teams."
"Thanks, give me the broken thruster," she groused. But she was glad he didn't just ground her until she could get another fighter so, broken thruster or no, she'd accept the Delta.
[Bridge]
"Hans, we have another player in this game. I want to know who he is and what he wants."
Munich went to the communications console, he began running through the bandwidths, the planet was pretty much in his sights as far as communications are concerned. He filtered through the latent 'chatter from the fighters and other support craft; discounting certain transmissions out of the scan width. The frequency waves and transmissions were like pulling string by string to untangle the massive amounts of transceiver activity coming off a planet. The Subspace relay was the major direction of the transmission subspace and the staic in the background was a little more than subtle.
That is when he noted a subspace transmission, it had some strength to it as it pointed in the wrong direction of the subspace relay, it was heading out of system; Munich checked the known Subspace Relays and this directional 'burst' transmission was not heading in that direction.
"Commodore." Munich called. "I have a strong Coded transmission going from planet to a point at seven six four mark two. It is a powerful subspace transmission..." He turned to the Commanding Officer. "There are No relays in that direction and this transmission was powerful and unidirectional." He shrugged. "It has to go somewhere and it is not to a known relay. I vonder vhat is waiting dat transmission?"
"Mangalia," Sam said after hearing what Munich had to report. "We have an outbound signal from the planet at seven six four mark two. Go out there and see what you can find. Be careful as I doubt they're friendlies."
[Fighter Bay]
"Oh, she doubts they're friendly. I wonder what ever would have given her that idea," Leroy said darkly as he landed. He would give the crews five minutes to refuel and refit his fighter before he went to check it out personally. "Mathers, you'll be with me. Phoenix, give the men their marching orders."
"Yes, sir," Phoenix said. She hopped out of Leroy's fighter and headed for the Delta Flyer to put her through her preflight paces.
[Bridge]
"Good work, Hans. See if you can decipher the transmission. Use Intel if you need help."
Right avay." Munich said as he dove into the piano like control style of making the mathematical codes to begin the long process of breaking down the code ; a burst transmission puts all the information through in a relatively short computer clock time, a vast amount of information in a small transmission. Add to that the code cipher that is required; a series of computer language to tell the receiving unit the proper coding to read the data.
"Dis might take a while." He sigh to himself.
Maryam strided onto the bridge, hoping she had not missed much. " Ah, sir, I hope I'm not late."
Sam turned to the woman. She didn't recognize her. "No, you're not late." She paused for a moment. "Forgive my bluntness, but who are you?"
" Assistant Chief of Ops, Lt. JG Syed, sir." Maryam replied briefly, taking her place by the comms station.
Sam wondered when she came aboard, but that was something she would need to deal with after the current crisis. For now she nodded to the woman. Later, when the crisis was over, she would have to figure out where she came from. "Scan the sector. See if you can find any other ships that don't belong here."
"I have Communications covered." The Chief Communications Officer Munich interjected from the Comm station. "The decoding is progressing and I should have the transmission traced both directions momentarily."
TAG MARYAM
Arnon entered the bridge and took the customary counselor's seat in the command area. He usually avoided the bridge. He felt he was just in the way. He'd been meaning to come up regardless, though, and this seemed a good a time as any.
Sam nodded to Arnon. "Welcome, Lieutenant. Things are just beginning to get interesting."
"I could tell," Arnon replied. "If anyone has a sudden emotional crisis I stand ready to deal with it! I suppose I could also provide that advice that they pay me to give you as well."
"Anyone pays you to give me advice and you comply, I'll throw you both in the brig," Sam replied, only half joking.
"Commodore." said one of the bridge officers. "There is an incoming vessel. We are being hailed."
Sam nodded. "On screen."
"Greetings Commodore. My name is Ladislav Shtalenkov and I wish to surrender myself to you. It is I who am responsible for causing this conflict between Panerians and Octarians. I also fire weapon on your ship."
"Then why are you surrendering?" she asked.
"I would rather not discuss this over open comm channel. I simply wish to surrender myself." Ladislav replied. His voice echoed of concern and fear. The normally calm, arrogant Russian was in no way in control of the situation. All signs pointed to his predicament being anything but favourable.
Sam signaled for the channel to be closed momentarily. "Hans, can you confirm that he is the recipient of the transmission?"
A light flurry of fingers across the Communications console had his answer. "Da, the transmssion is coming from the recieving end of the burst transmission ma'am." Munich confirmed.
Sam nodded. "Thank you."
The communication opened again. "What do you expect from us?" she asked.
"Fair treatment." Ladislav replied.
"I can give you that, but if you are responsible for attacking our ship, there will be consequences," Sam stated.
"I understand this and I am ready to face whatever your federation has planned for me." He replied once again spouting words he did not wish to utter. His eyes gave way to this fact.
Sam paused for a moment. "My fighters will escort you in. When you arrive, we'll talk."
Ladislav nodded before the screen went dark.
Leroy and his wingman were already on their way, tapped in to the main communications going on. "Cap, I've got the target in sight. Permission to follow it in. Weapons hot."
"Granted. I don't trust him. Keep your eyes open for any surprises. York out."
____
OFF
Commodore Samantha York
Commanding Officer
Lieutenant Hans Munich
Chief Operations Officer
Staff Sergeant Leroy Mangalia
Flight Leader
Ensign Talia "Phoenix" Richards
Fighter Pilot
Lieutenant Arnon Barak
Chief Counselor
Lieutenant JG Maryam Syed
Assistant Chief Operations Officer
Ladislav Shtalenkov
NPCd by Amarylis Beckinsale
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