The Return Of The Hammond

Posted on Mon Mar 4th, 2013 @ 8:22pm by Admiral Ricky Wegener & Commander Anthony Davis & Lieutenant Ito Tsuki & Lieutenant Norval Tigan & Lieutenant Riley Sukotav & Ensign Reva Madhava & Ensign Ian Bren

Mission: The Struggle Within
Location: USS Hammond
Timeline: Current

** USS Hammond - Bridge - Alternate Universe **

The meeting with Sakkath and the Hammond’s personnel had gone off without a hitch. With the extra ships now near this 900 it would be fairly easy to recreate the conditions in which the Hammond arrived so that they could get back to their own universe. Sakkath had returned to his own Command & Control to oversee the operation which was set to begin in ten minutes’ time.

On the bridge of the Hammond were her crew and commanding officer, Commander Davis, along with Rick, Li and Lt. Darwin. There was a buzz of activity as the bridge crew began setting the ship up for the same event that they had performed just five hours earlier. From what Rick had understood at the meeting, it was extremely dangerous but the crew of his 900 had bent over backwards to find the safest way possible for this insane maneuver, and the voluntarily crewed Hammond personnel were just crazy enough to pull it off. For that, he vowed to repay them all in some way. Hard to do for a ship with a full crew of 120, but he’d find a way--assuming they made it back okay.

“Commander Davis,” Rick asked, “did all of your crew volunteer for this mission?”

“Volunteer is a strong word, Admiral,” Anthony said with a nod and a smirk, “would you expect me to require anyone to do this? The only one required was myself and that was by my own standards.”

“Actually, Commander, volunteer is the exact word since a mission of this undertaking cannot be forced upon anyone,” Rick said, a bit confusedly. “I was trying to be polite and compliment your crew. But still, thanks for coming to get us.” He raised his eyebrows as he tried to figure out what that comment was about and decided to forget about it. He turned and walked away, occupying himself with what the rest of the bridge crew were doing.

Riley’s voice came over the bridge comm several minutes later.

=^= Admiral Wegener, Commander Davis, this is Lt. Sukotav. I’m down in Engineering and everything’s ready to go for us. Ensign Bren has Science covered and we’ll be ready when you give the word. Ensign Madhava will have an update in just a few minutes. Sukotav out. =^=

The update was more than a 'few minutes' in coming, but come it did: the Hammond would be ready for the return trip in just a few hours' time.

* * * * *

Ito's hands moved confidently across the helm as she set up the return trip back through the wormhole bridge to her own universe. She couldn't say whether or not if it bothered her to be out of her home space time continuum. After she had gotten the Hammond docked with the station she had thought that she might have been able to spend an hour or so shopping on the starbase. She had to admit her curiosity was up when she wondered what sort of thing was "in" these days in the way of fashion.

Those thoughts had come to a screeching halt when Security had clamped a lockdown on the ship. Only a very small few had authorization to debark, and she wasn't one of them. All communications had been similarly blocked, with only mission critical channels open between the ship and the station.

So, with the Captain's permission she had called up her relief and had gone to her cabin to catch some sleep. She had gotten in a good three hour nap and a shower and felt almost human again.

With a final glance at her console she turned to face the Captain. "Helm and Navigation ready at your command, Sir."

The past three hours had come and gone in a flurry of frantic work. The trip over had shorted out more consoles than Reva had bothered to count. The energy requirements for creating the portal had also drained one crystal and badly damaged another. Fortunately, Reva's small team of volunteers worked quickly and had the Hammond put to rights while Riley and Bren coordinated with the 'locals' - the fleet of Starfleet vessels that had come to SB900's rescue - on the teamwork they'd need from all of them to reopen the portal.

The time had come and, upon Davis' command, the alternate reality Starfleet vessels and this version of 900 projected the beam required to open the portal that led to their version of reality. The crew of the Hammond had been busy sending operational details to the other ships and collaborating with their crews to ensure that this went off without a hitch. They also made sure to pass along what had happened to the USS Nakhimov's crystals while on their way here. Hopefully the ships here would be able to compensate and work around any similar issues.

Several moments later, the portal was large enough for the Hammond to pass through. It was now or never.

"We're good to go, Helm!", came Reva's voice from Engineering, giving Ito the go-ahead to take them through the portal.

"Nice and steady," Riley added. "Power levels at full."

Rick paced the bridge as the Hammond made her way toward the portal. It didn't come as a shock to anyone that had made the trip through the first time when the ship began to shudder, regardless of the inertial dampeners being at full. Apparently it was simply the act of piercing the membrane between one universe and another that made the ship act this way.

The amount of chatter on the bridge, however, was rather limited. It was, after all of the calculations, a simple maneuver. Create the portal, fly the ship through the portal, make it home for breakfast. The few that had high stress levels at this time were probably Lieutenants Tsuki, Sukotav and Tigan along with Ensign Madhava. Everyone else was just riding the wave, so to speak.

As the Hammond finally reached the portal and punched through, there was almost an audible sound from everyone as they held their breaths--just for a moment, as they made sure they weren't blown to bits by some minor miscalculation. But, as it did before, the Hammond slid through the portal and mere moments later was on the other side.

=^= USS Hammond, this is Starbase 900 control. We are sending an authorization code to ensure that you are in the right place. Please respond. =^=

Rick had been briefed that, upon their return, their 900 and the Hammond had collaborated on a code that would prove to both of them that they had returned to the correct universe instead of yet another alternate universe.

A young jaygee turned and announced that the codes matched. Cheers rang out through the bridge as they celebrated their arrival back to their own base with the 'precious cargo' they had been after.

With a grin, Rick thumbed a console to hail the station. "900, this is Vice Admiral Wegener. Break out the bubbly and get Sakkath out of my chair. We're coming home."

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Vice Admiral Ricky Wegener

Commander Anthony Davis

Lieutenant Ito Tsuki

Lieutenant Norval Tigan

Lieutenant Riley Sukotav

Ensign Reva Madhava

Ensign Ian Bren