Task Force: Gamma

Davynn Qech · Graphics Chief Joined: 16 Jun 2009 Posts: 809

"Jim, I need you get any power you can to the transporters. We need to beam the four of us to the remaining pod. Take it from everything, Life Support, the SIF, anywhere you can squeeze it from take it. We're leaving."

Davynn's heart sunk in her chest. Paolo was gone, whether he was alive or not. For the first time since she'd put on a Cadet's uniform Qech found herself regretting her decision to join Starfleet. The loss she had suffered over the years had reached its breaking point. In her grief, she said nothing. She simply held her son close to her and fell silent.

Despite the pain she was feeling the Captain understood why the Admiral had made such a call. She'd known herself that there was no hope for a rescue for Paolo, but that hadn't stopped her from wishing. It was the only way to get Taj off of the ship, and she would not sacrifice the chance to save him. Paolo would understand... But that would not stop her from feeling guilty for leaving him.

"Yes Admiral. Ready to initiate transport on your order."

Qech held her breath and waited, looking away from the others as the tears slowly began to roll down her cheeks.
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Captain David Brennon · Posted: Thu May 13, 2010 7:21 pm Post subject:

*

Locations: Main Bridge, USS Hartington-A; Escape Pod, Azure Nebula

"Ready to initiate transport on your order."

It was time to say goodbye to the Hartington. Well past time in fact. With out a moment's hesitation -- though in his heart he was full of hesitation -- Admiral Brennon gave the order.

"Energize."

Moments passed, suddenly the four people were no longer standing on the dark bridge of a dead starship but rather inside a Starfleet escape pod. The computer blinked to life the moment it sensed the crewmen enter the pod and began a pre-launch checklist. The subsequent moments were a daze, the computer giving query, one of the Officers answering. The sudden yet expected lurch of the pod being ejected from the hull of the Hartington. Brennon couldn't bring himself to look out the window at the drifting husk of that was their former home. It was likely for the best. Moments later, for the second time under the command of David Brennon, a starship bearing the name Hartington was destroyed by enemy fire.
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Antonio Coelho · Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 10:23 am Post subject:

Location: Escape Pod 24, Temporarily Christened "Mote"

The pod wasn't rated for this many people, but Pod 25 had been destroyed in the attack, and Coelho wasn't willing to leave anyone behind. "Everyone, just breath slowly, try to keep your talking to a minimum and relax. We don't want to over do it on the life support. Standing room isn't fun, so brace each other so no one falls on any of the injured if we get any shakes..."

Every sentence was careful, deliberate, his voice keeping a calm that could not match his emotions, but luckily there were no empaths in this pod, so maybe, it could keep everyone from panicking too much. Antonio kept his eyes focused through the crowd, his few gestures towards the wounded, focusing everyone's attention on their crewmates. He wanted to look out the viewscreen, desperately, but if he did everyone else would too, and many of them might not handle it well enough. Only the pilot had to witness the battle as anything but flashes in the corner of their eyes, and that should not be envied.

Coelho looked at the console to his side, briefly, without stopping his careful distracting monologue. He had all their attention, and couldn't afford to loose it. Life support tolerances were exceeded, barely. There were very few ways to deal with this, and only one of them humane. "Could someone hand me the medical kit?" he asked. A few moments later he had prepared a hypo.

"This can save us all. The pod isn't rated to handle so many of us active, nervous. I've prepared a sedative that'll put you in a near-coma. If everyone without strong medical training is willing to ride this out asleep, we can all make it out alive. I'm sorry, but I need a few volunteers." It reminded Antonio why he had faith in people when he had them.
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Science has two purposes, to enhance life and to protect it. I embrace the former, what do you choose?

Davynn Qech · Graphics Chief Joined: 16 Jun 2009 Posts: 809

Qech couldn't help but look out the window where the Hartington hovered, broken and beaten behind them. Her face looked pale, her tears already dry on her cheeks. She sat in silent shock, watching as the Borg finished off what was left of the ship.

Taj quietly watched his mother, his head on her shoulder, knowing that something bad had happened but not fully understanding any of it. At four years of age, he didn't understand death, or realize that it was irreversible.

With a tiny hand he reached out and hit Qech's combadge, yelling into it. "Powow! Powow!" The innocent attempt to call Paolo jolted Qech back to reality and she gently grabbed his hand.

"No sweetie, no." Her voice broke as she spoke. "That's not going to work this time."

He gestured again to the combadge, as if it were the problem. "Jim can fix it!" He pointed at Calodan. He then looked at Brennon, still gesturing to his mother's combadge. "Cappin, Jim can fix it!"
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ArjimCalodan · Posted: Sat May 15, 2010 1:46 am Post subject:

Calodan was distraught, staring out the window at the devastation the Borg had wrought. Before him was the largest fleet of starships he had ever seen..well, the remains of that fleet anyway. The Borg had just blasted on through, shoving starships aside with brute force. All things considered, the Hartington had faired well..surviving long enough for most of the crew to escape. The pod's sensors had already located many other beacons.

"Jim can fix it! Cappin, Jim can fix it!"

The voice of a young boy snapped him out of his thoughts. He looked over to see Taj pointing at his mother's commbadge. Having not paid any attention, he wasn't sure what he was to fix..but he knew no matter his expertise he wasn't going to be able to. "I'm sorry..uh...Taj...but I don't think I can fix it this time."
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Captain David Brennon · Posted: Sun May 16, 2010 9:55 pm Post subject:

Both Lieutenants Calodan and Lioy experience a moment of faintness and a brilliant flash of light in the moments before opening their eyes as if having blinked for a long while...

***

"...nd I think this may be the root cause of the propulsion issues we're facing. Slipstream technology has shown time and time again over the past several years that it is simply more reliable than any other form of post-warp technology and the Professor's support of the opposing school of thought is not only reckless it is dangerous. We cannot rely on stolen technology any longer. The inginuity of our own people will carry us forward into the 25th century, not looking wishfully down the paths taken by others. Thank you."

Arjim Calodan was seated on stage next to the dais where the speaker was wrapping up his speech. Needless to say this was quite the shift but he could be thankful in that he recognized a few of the faces near him, first and foremost amongst them was a Tellarite known to every member of the Hartington crew, Ghan. He was the one speaking and as he finished he stepped down and took his seat next to Jim. With a grunt he nodded and looked to the Trill for a critique as the applause from the crowd died down and another speaker stepped up to the dais.

"Well?"

The Tellarite looked older, his brown hair gone gray-white and considerably thinner -- that is his hair was thinner. In fact, the portly porcine had become even more robust in size with age. His figure had ballooned outwards and he now seemed to weigh upwards of 160 kilos. His face still held the same hostility that it held the first time Calodan had set eyes on the man, and was not engendering any friendship now. Jim certainly had his work cut out for him.

***

Aria Lioy appeared in a warzone.

"...nd I don't think that you're really in any position to tell me how I should be living my own life!"

"Not in any position? I'm your brother for crying out loud, I think that puts me in a perfect position to tell you when you're stepping too far over the line. I'm not trying --"

"No, you're not trying and that's the problem!"

"If you'd let me finish --"

"I've been waiting my whole life for this kind of an opportunity, I can't just throw it all away because you think it's dangerous!"

"Oh god Richard, it's a mining operation, not some glorious Starfleet adventure, you're not going to be seeing 'strange new worlds and new life' you're going to be digging ultridium out of a dead star."

"You see, Counselor, this is what I'm talking about. He belittles everything about me, especially my line of work. Just because I'm not some big shot Starfleet Officer doesn't make my life any littler than his!"

Without any frame of reference, the counselor would have to do the best she could with what little resources she had if she was going to make it out of this one alive and find out just what the hell was going on with her.

(OOC: Everyone will be getting something in their PM boxes soon telling them what is going on for their character. If you don't receive something from me by this time tomorrow then please PM me and I'll either fix the problem or tell you what is going on)
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Aria · Posted: Sun May 16, 2010 10:50 pm Post subject:

((OOC: That's okay. At the moment my character doesn't know what's going on either...so I'll be very in character. Smile

))

Aria stared in gawked in surprise at the two men in front of her. She didn't recognize either of them, nor had she any idea what they were arguing about. Worse yet, a moment ago she had been staring in horror as the wreck of the Hartington was vaporized by a Borg cube. While this strange new setting was certainly less apalling, it made for an unsettling transition.

Luckily, neither of the men noticed her confusion. They were too busy glaring at each other. The argument was in full swing. Though she had no idea of its particulars, her training took over as she opened her mouth to speak.

"Let's calm down for a moment," she said, pleased to note her voice sounded serene and unruffled. "Shouting at each other won't accomplish anything." She was tempted to say more, but without knowledge of the situation there were too many pit traps to step into.

Gently, she reached out with her telepathy, attempting to read the men's minds. While she regretted the breach of privacy, it was the fastest way for her to aprise herself of the situation. Hopefully, anyhow. Telepathy was not the information manual that many people believed it was. Thoughts were chaotic, jumbled affairs which didn't always make sense to an outside observer. Especially when the subjects being 'read' were as agitated as these two.

She wondered as she did so if she were back in her own time. While she hoped so, she rather doubted it. One of the men was apparently not in Star Fleet, so this couldn't be aboard the Hartington. Her Hartington, she corrected herself, her mind flashing to the burning wreck she'd seen moments before.

But if she wasn't, then she had no notion at all of where she could be.
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Davynn Qech · Graphics Chief Joined: 16 Jun 2009 Posts: 809

Qech checked the time, wondering if Aria's session was still in progress. The patients she was working with were overshooting their time by quite a bit, and she was sure the Betazoid counselor could use some lunch... and maybe a lifeline. The argument could be heard from down the hall.

She smiled to herself, knowing that she would certainly be grateful for an interruption at this point if she had been listening to nothing but bickering all morning. Making her decision she made her way to Lioy's office and, after a hasty knock, opened the door. Her sudden presence, as expected, shut the bickering brothers off like a light switch.

She had her medical smock flung over one arm, as if to make a show of the fact that she 'was off-the-clock', and her clothes could only be described as 'professionally casual'; a far cry from the Starfleet uniform Lioy had been used to. She looked older, but a much more graceful coming of age than Aria had seen aboard the stress-wrought Hartington A. Laugh lines took the place of stress lines, but her smile was just as familiar as it had always been.

"I'm sorry to interrupt Counselor, but you asked me if I could remind you when the appointment was up. It's lunchtime."
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Antonio Coelho · Posted: Tue May 18, 2010 6:07 pm Post subject:

Dr. Coelho finished his notes as Ghan stepped off the stage, hitting a quick routine set into his PADD to check for necessary references beyond the engineer's own work in case any of the references to new power control systems was re-usable on a smaller scale as well. While it was unlikely to turn out overly useful to his medical bionics (or any of the side projects he gave consulting to for Eden), Antonio always enjoyed a chance to see old friends share their newest work and debate before the symposium.

There were no more major medical talks today, and yesterday's speech had gone so well that Antonio couldn't help but flash a smile and applaud a bit louder than necessary for the Tellarite - Ghan would probably hate it, but he couldn't really smile anyway. As the next speaker got to the podium, Antonio glanced at the time for just a moment. He'd have to catch Calodan quickly after this or the Hartington reunion party would never work out.

{Edit: Continuity error redacted.}
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Science has two purposes, to enhance life and to protect it. I embrace the former, what do you choose?

Aria · Posted: Tue May 18, 2010 9:40 pm Post subject:

Aria looked up as Qech entered. Several facts flitted across her mind. One, this clearly was still the future, as Qech was older. Two, this either was before the Borg incident, or far after it, since the other woman didn't seem stressed or unhappy. And Three, she wasn't going to have to fish for vague clues (or listen to more arguing) because a friend had arrived whom she could just ask.

Blessed relief.

"Uh...so it is." Aria replied as Qech gave her the perfect excuse. "I'm sorry, gentlemen, but we'll have to pick this up again next time." She stood up and strode over to Qech. Giving the mystery men a vague smile she took Qech's arm and hurried her out the door.

"Thank goodness," Aria breathed once the two were alone in the hall. Qech looked amused. Before she could say much, however, Aria turned to her. "I need to talk to you Comm...Capt...Davynn. Something very strange, and very disturbing, is going on."
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Davynn Qech · Graphics Chief Joined: 16 Jun 2009 Posts: 809

The smile fell from Qech's face at her friend's concern as she allowed herself to be pulled further from the patients' earshot.

"I need to talk to you Comm...Capt...Davynn. Something very strange, and very disturbing, is going on."

"I would say so. It only took you three tries to get my name right. What's the matter?"
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Aria · Posted: Tue May 18, 2010 10:20 pm Post subject:

Aria bit her lip. She wasn't sure how to go about explaining.

"Well, that depends," she said. "Do you remember a conversation Calodan and I had with you about us bouncing around through time?"
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Davynn Qech · Graphics Chief Joined: 16 Jun 2009 Posts: 809

Qech cocked an eyebrow.

"I beg your pardon?... No. I think I'd remember that one."
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ArjimCalodan · Posted: Wed May 19, 2010 1:55 am Post subject:

"Well?"

Calodan faltered. Ghan looked much older and larger then when he had last seen him. The last thing he remembered was Taj in the escape pod after the battle...the battle!

"I'm sorry...I'm a little confused Lieutenant...I mean Mr. Ghan. Your finishing points were very stirring. If you'll excuse me, I need to go."

Luckily he was saved as the next speaker moved to the podium. A man he didn't recognize stood up and started speaking. He tried to listen, hoping this would give him an excuse not to answer Ghan and figure out what is going on. "Our next speaker has made great strides in the application of Slipstream propulsion theory over the last decade. If you could please welcome to the podium, Arjim Calodan." Wait...what? Oh boy.

OOC: Quantum Leap reference for the win!
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