Time To Go Home
Posted on Wed Feb 13th, 2013 @ 5:22pm by Admiral Ricky Wegener & Captain Li Hawke & Commander Anthony Davis & Commander Sakkath & Commander Patrick Leroy & Lieutenant Ito Tsuki & Lieutenant Norval Tigan & Lieutenant Commander Michael Darwin & Lieutenant Riley Sukotav & Ensign Reva Madhava & Ensign Ian Bren & Suresh
Mission:
The Struggle Within
Location: SB900 Alternate Universe
Timeline: Current
Ito sighed a breath of relief as the viewscreen, where just seconds ago had been displaying a rather energetic amount of static, cleared to display the stars ahead of them. Crisp, clear, and unblinking. Just like they were supposed to be. She could also see, off in the upper left quadrant, what looked to be SB900. Didn't look any different from the one they had just left behind. She was even more pleased that the buffering the ship had gone through had stopped.
She then took a look at the panel in front of her. They were drifting just a bit until she keyed in the station keeping thrusters. "Warp drive is offline. Impulse power at 20 percent." She turned to look at the Captain.
"We can move, albeit not with much speed, Sir. Shall I make for the base?"
"Make it so, try and hail the Admiral." Anthony said with a sigh of relief.
"Commander!" The voice of the crewman manning the sensor arrays rang out through C&C, capturing Sakkath's attention just as Ricky stepped back through the doors. "Er, and Admiral, Lieutenant," he added, addressing both Ricky and Darwin. "Sensors are picking up a disturbance, just by the entrance to the wormhole. Chroniton readings in the area are spiraling off the charts. It's my guess that a --"
He stopped, his mouth hanging open as he watched the screen before him. A Starfleet ship had just materialized out of nowhere.
Darwin hurried to a console and opened up the readings on the ship. At the same time, he looked over at Sakkath and asked, "Hail the ship, sir?"
Sakkath nodded, raising a questioning brow at the Admiral as he entered. "Open a channel," he stated, turning to face the main viewer.
"Channel open," Darwin said, cuing Sakkath to begin a introduction. Meanwhile, he directed a chroniton scan and comparison of the surprise ship.
"This is Commander Sakkath, in command of Starbase 900 to the vessel emerging near the wormhole. Identify yourself."
Rick leaned close to Li and muttered, "I sure hope it's one of ours."
"So do I," she answered as she looked to the main viewer.
Beside her Suresh stood watching as well. He reached up to rest his hand at the small of her back, hoping to reassure her, just in case it wasn't. For his part, a 'real' Starfleet ship wasn't what he wanted to see just yet.
"I suppose we'll know soon enough," was his reply.
"Aye, Sir." Ito smoothly brought the impulse drive up to ten percent. Responding to her commands the ship turned and accelerated toward the base. "Arrival in 9.7 minutes, Captain."
Beside him, Li tensed as she watched the ship approaching. As it drew closer she could see it was the Hammond. "Oh, gods....it's--"
"--the Hammond," Ricky finished for her.
Hearing them, Darwin answered, "And its signature matches us; it's from our universe. Looks like our ride is here."
With a relieved sigh, Rick's normally stone face slowly broke out into a large smile. He turned to Li and hugged her gently, mindful of her still fresh injury. As he did, his elation turned to anger as he felt Suresh's hand leave her back. He had to keep his composure in front of everyone, but he still had a duty and he was still a Starfleet Admiral, even one from another universe.
"Lieutenant Darwin," he said with a deep growl, "place this man in restraints. He is to remain under guard until we are safely back on our own station." Rick waved a few other security officers over and they stood guard. "Coordinate with security on the Hammond. I want you to personally escort him to the brig on 900 to await trial for his crimes."
"Yessir," Darwin nodded and moved to secure Suresh's hands behind his back.
Suresh stood watching Ricky, then slowly smiled. "Do you really think this will stop me?"
It took every ounce of his energy not to pummel the man again. If he hadn't had Darwin secure him, that's exactly what he would have done.
With a hard jab of his elbow to Suresh's kidney, Darwin knocked Suresh to his knees then muttered, "Oh! So sorry, Surie, lost my balance there. Didn't mean to knock you down. C'mon, stand up." He hauled the man up and shoved him against the back wall. As he did so, he glanced at the Admiral.
Rick ignored the glance. While he certainly didn't care at all that Darwin had taken some liberty that Rick had done on more than one occasion, he couldn't be seen condoning it. However, the lieutenant just gained a few bonus points. "I know of one thing that will stop you, Suresh," he said as he felt of the razor still in his pocket. "But I am above your ilk. As much as I would love to see your rotting corpse, I'm afraid that I won't give you the satisfaction of knowing that I killed you in cold blood."
"Thought a setup where I could legally snuff your ass wouldn't make me miss a wink of sleep," he thought, which got a wide-eyed glare for him from Li.
A voice over the comm interrupted Rick and Suresh, however. =^= This is Lt. Shea, comms officer of the USS Hammond, attached to Starbase 900. =^= There was a slight pause before the man's voice continued. =^= The other 900. We've come to retrieve our missing crew, and a civilian. Requesting permission to dock. =^=
"Permission granted, Hammond," Sakkath replied, turning once more to regard Rick and the others. "I trust this will be a swift transfer. We have your four people here in Command and Control."
=^= Aye sir, that is our hope as well. If there is any assistance we can render while here, we'll do our best. Also, our exit plan is being transmitted to you now. Shea out =^=
Hearing Lt. Shea's words almost overwhelmed Li. She reached for Ricky's hand, squeezing it tight. "Home," she whispered. Her one word drew Suresh's attention and his gaze remained on Li, though he was silent.
Sakkath regarded his terminal as the Hammond's plan was transmitted. Small lines began to tug at the corners of his mouth as he fought against a frown, even after only giving it the most cursory examination. "Get my Chief Engineer up here," he said to a passing crewman, "and inform the fleet that they should remain on standby in the sector until further notice. Admiral, Commander," he continued, walking down to stand with Rick and Li, "I am certain you are eager to see your people, but I'd like to limit contact between your crew and mine, given the nature of our disparate universes. Perhaps we can convene a meeting on your vessel in two hours' time?"
With a nod, Rick agreed. "If I may?" he asked, gesturing to the comm system. "Hammond, this is Vice Admiral Wegener, your Wegener. Once you've docked no personnel are to disembark for any reason. Due to the circumstances that we've all found ourselves in, it would be best if we didn't intermingle. Commander Hawke, Lieutenant Darwin and I, plus one prisoner, will proceed to the docking area momentarily. Wegener out."
He turned to Sakkath. "Commander, I will see you in two hours. I have one that I would like to see personally placed in the brig."
"Quite," Sakkath replied, glancing at Suresh with distaste. He had this far avoided eye contact with Li. "I may require personnel from your ship to send you home, in addition to my own physical resources," he added, reducing everything and everyone to a simple mechanical factor in his complex calculus of power requirements, "but we can discuss that further in two hours."
Back on the Hammond, Riley did one last check on the readouts and nodded. "Everything looks fine, Ensign Madhava. While we're stopped, run a check on the chroniton beam and make sure it's ready for one more go." He talled his comm badge then. "Sukotav to Bren. Start on the prep for the return trip and I will join you shortly. I need to get our passenger ready to go, then I'll join you shortly. Sukotav out." He took a few minutes to search for something on the ship's computer that related to this 900 and frowned. "I'll return soon. Call if you need me." Then he was out the door and on his way to see Aleksa.
--------------------------------
Vice Admiral Ricky Wegener
Commander Li Hawke
Commander Anthony Davis
Commander Sakkath
Lt. Commander Patrick Leroy
Lieutenant Ito Tsuki
Lieutenant Norval Tigan
Lieutenant Michael Darwin
Lieutenant Riley Sukotav
Ensign Reva Madhava
Ensign Ian Bren
Suresh
