Better Late Than Never?

Posted on Thu Feb 20th, 2020 @ 3:45pm by Captain Michelle Bartlett & Lieutenant JG Sandra Garcia & Ensign Laro Adel & Commander Rostra Tang & Lieutenant Commander Shaille Levine

Mission: Present In The Past
Location: Nebula 6-UC-1
Timeline: 240 Years after No Escape

The more some things change, the more it would seem some things stay the same. 240 years have now passed since the Starship Nelson, believed having been destroyed during the Earth-Romulan War years before the Federation's founding, fatefully entered a nebula in the Delta Quadrant. The expectation that there would be rescue was perhaps a misplaced one on Captain Hawthorne's part. There were enough ships blowing up that nobody noticed the Nelson breaking off to pursue a Romulan ship and suddenly vanishing in a quantum singularity that sent them to the Delta Quadrant years before Admiral Janeway had encountered the Caretaker's Array.

But now a larger, much more powerful Federation ship found itself in a similar battle against mercenaries that also didn't exist 240 years ago...

[Bridge]

"Evasive pattern Gamma 5!" Michelle called out. "Nice of the Cho'Tegra came out to play!" she said a bit sarcastically to Rostra.

"It's the third day of their third month, it's practically their holy day." Rostra gave her retort to Michelle, "If you read the report you'd recall they practically worship things that..."

"... come in threes. Avoid any phaser or shield modulation evenly divisible by three." she advised, her twin picking up where her initial speaking form left off. "We just need numerical advantage and they'll scatter."

At the tactical console, Shaille bit down on her bottom lip as she worked, fingers flying from one side of the console to the other as she reprogrammed the modulations for both shields and phasers. "Alright, seventeen it is then," she quipped, entering the final command and looking up at the view screen just in time to see the barely visible ripple of the shields around the ship. "Come in spinner."

"I think one of them have slowed down." Garcia said.

"Keep firing! Disable them only unless it's unavoidable." Michelle replied.

"Captain, I've got a few more. They're starting to outnumber us."

"I'm not normally one to tuck tail and run, but I'd kind of like to keep my tail where it is," Shaille called from the Tactical station. "Captain, I strongly suggest we get the hell out of here!"

"You wont get any arguments from me. Ensign Laro, anywhere we can hide?"

Lieutenant Garcia intervened before Adel could speak. "I've got a nebula nearby... Might be a good place to start."

The ship rocked as Garcia made her report. "I can get us there in 5 minutes."

"Do it!" Michelle said.

The ship jumped to warp and and set course into the nebula. The Cho'Tegra trio set course, but was unable to keep up.

"Ms. Garcia, did they follow?"

"Negative, Captain." Garcia replied. "They cant seem to detect us."

"Take us in a little further, Ensign. 1/4 impulse." Michelle ordered.

"Aye, Captain." The Bajoran at the helm acknowledged,,

"Damage reports are coming in, Captain. Mostly minor but annoying." Garcia said.

Michelle pulled up the report from her console and turned to Rostra. "Send this to engineering and get the damage control teams deployed. Not like we don't have time."

One of the twin forms of the familiar Dalacari took the report on a PaDD, while her twin began to convey it down to Engineering. "Sending now. Never knew the Cho'Tegra to pack such a punch. Upgrades for their holy days? I hope not..."

"Captain..." Shaille's voice was almost hesitant as she spoke up. "We're receiving a distress call. It's audio only... but...." She shook her head. "It seems to be Federation in origin, but it's on a different frequency than I would normally expect to see, and it's broken." She tapped the console, playing the audio so the rest of the bridge could hear it. "I'll see if I can clear it up..."

"Do we have any visual?" Michelle asked.

"Been trying to get that but sensors are a little glitchy from the interference. I'm adjusting to compensate" Garcia replied.

"This is the United Starship Nelson... sustained damage...unknown ship...To any Earth Starfleet vessel.... Please assist." The audio came through.

United Starship? Earth Starfleet? Michelle recalled these terms from her Pre-Federation history class, but she wasnt entirely convinced. United Earth never made it to the Delta Quadrant. There had been no mention of a Federation vessel ending up here before USS Voyager discovered the Ocampa array. And maybe briefly into Borg space when Q introduced the Enterprise-D to the Borg.

"Can we clean that up any further?" Michelle asked.

"Working on it Captain," Shaille replied quickly as she worked at the console. "There, that should be better."

"This is the United Starship Nelson, Captain Geoffrey Hawthorne in command. We have sustained damage and are experiencing multiple critical system failures. We were attacked by an unknown vessel. To any Earth Starfleet vessel in the vicinity, we beg you to please assist."

"Captain, I have visual now but it can't be correct. Sensors say it's an Intrepid class vessel, but visual looks nothing like one."

"On screen." Michelle said.

The screen switched to display something Michelle had only seen in history books. It certainly wasn't an Intrepid class ship like Lieutenant Garcia would have been familiar with. But... so many questions were running through her head. The first question might have slipped out of her mouth....

"How in the hell did that ship get all the way out here?" Michelle asked. "That ship predates the founding of the Federation."

"No way...." Shaille breathed as she saw the image appear on the screen. "Is this some kind of joke?"

"I'm not entirely sure." Michelle said as she resumed her seat. "Ms. Garcia... This might be strange, but... scan for any signs of life and try and get a status report on that vessel."

"Aye, sir." Garcia replied. "It looks like whatever got them wiped out their shields. I've got substantial damage where power relays are located. There seems to still be some pockets of life support operating but otherwise the ship is entirely drained."

Pockets? Michelle raised her eyebrow at the oddity of that. "Is there any power at all? And what about signs of life?"

"I can't determine that, ma'am. Sensors are showing something but I can't offer an explanation. Although... why would there be pockets of life support around the ship if nobody was alive down there. As far as power goes, there's some running, but.... The way it's routed is just incredibly bizarre. I can't give more information than that, I'm afraid."

"We'll have to explore, then." Michelle said, before turning to Rostra. "At the most, that ship is nearly 250 years old. But they were scrapped in this form by the early 2210s. How on earth did a ship that old get out here without Starfleet ever knowing about it? I want you to get some oxygen suits and take an away team to check the ship out. Start from the bridge down. I'll see if Engineering can arrange a power transfer to get some kind of power back online but if the power routings are way off... We might need to address that first."

Rostra gave a pair of nods. "Rogue wormhole, gravity event, engine malfunction... the means by which they arrived here are as plentiful as they are fantastic. As for the away team, I'll get..."

"... right on it. I'll have the engineering team brush up on their ancient history." she giggled, her own personal chorus. "You know, it might do them well to know that their dream lived." she offered. "Starfleet."

"Captain!" Shaille spoke up quickly. "Permission to join the away team Ma'am?" The opportunity to see a ship like this up close and personal was definitely too good to pass up.

"Of course! Feel free to take a small detail as well. Just in case someone decided to loot and is still aboard. Not that I imagine they'd last long. Deploy as soon as you're ready. I need to report that we've found an ancient wreck where there really shouldn't be one. Lieutenant Garcia, you have the bridge."

=/\= END TRANSMISSION =/\=

Captain Michelle Bartlett
Commanding Officer
USS Wellington

Commander Rostra Tang
Executive Officer
USS Wellington

Lieutenant Shaille Levine
Chief of Security
USS Wellington

Lieutenant JG Sandra Garcia
Operations Officer
USS Wellington

Ensign Laro Adel
Flight Control Officer
USS Wellington