S:5 E:6 - Signals

[Ian Galloway]

As Don and Ruth walked deep in the caverns, Don noticed the smooth walls of the miners. "This remarkable and complicated. Nothing I have not seen before. A puzzle, perhaps? They had played with it. Which means less luckily it blow up," he said. "Unless I am very unlucky."

"I might as well look as the Oblesik as the main power. Like a hyperdrive," he muttered to himself and Ruth. Then he went to the walls to look at the controls. Then he turned to look at the Oblestic in the middle. Then he was trying to see the symbols and see anything with some pattern or likeness on the controls. No. They might have tried that. "I am going to try to make the least choice." Don was trying to find an access panel and could not find one. "Ruth, I am just going to blind test something..." which Don did. Don would have used the images which be opposite of glyph. For example, he would use the sun symbol to the moon If they had an appearance like that. Or something like one versus ten. The lesser to the greater. He was going for what the opposite of the group here.

[OOC - sorry for the delay in writing and short response without quotes... week of migraines and feeling like ... ugh!]

[Cave with Obelisk, Seku VI]

Ruth followed Don but kept tight lipped.  She decided that she didn't like Ero but the feeling was probably mutual.  She'd offered a viable solution to a problem, and unless Ero was a Scientist himself there was no way without explaining or dumbing it down that he would have understood that she wasn't trying to interfere with something.

Sighing and shrugging at his comment about cutting her tongue out she secretly smiled to herself that there was more than one method of communication but got on with the job in hand and after making sure that Jael got somewhere to sit, and glad that Blackfeather would be there to protect the counsellor, so she could rest, Ruth took time to look at the Obelisk with Don.

"Make it look like we are just discussing the markings so that it covers that I'm trying to contact Rasher, and talk me through these symbols.  I saw something similar once that was Iconian, but sorting that out was luck more than design and just colour coded." she whispered.

"Interesting design..." she said in a more normal tone...  =/\=Sigurdsdottir to Mjolnir... are you receiving, Rasher are you there???

[Underground Alien Facility]

Don's random pushing of buttons initially had no effect, but after a bit of trial and error, mostly by blind luck, the signal shut off. While this was useful, doing so caused the blue light within the obelisk to momentarily fade out. Moments after the lights faded out, they came back up and some began blinking in an indecipherable pattern. The flashing slowly increased in speed.

Don risked a quick scan with his tricorder and found that the obelisk and an area deep beneath the chamber was experiencing a rapid power build-up. In addition, it looked like the power build up would catastrophically overload in just over six minutes!

Ruth's attempt to communicate with the Mjolnir failed to work, when the alien signal shut down and the power was seemingly rerouted to initiate the overload, she was rewarded by the voice of Doctor Rasher.

"Commander, it is good to hear from you. Greenway is stable, what is your condition?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Bridge - USS Challenger]

After a few minutes of configuring, Randall spoke up.

"We are ready here Sir."

"Very well, initiate pulse."

As the deflector dish began to send out 'pings' the sensors quickly mapped out 29 returns. Discounting the one they'd run into, thirty seemed like a reasonable number and the odds pointed that they'd found them all.

"T'Kel, please remove this hazard ta navigation. Helm, as soon as the path is clear, best speed ta Seku VI."

[Kylindra]

[Bridge - USS Challenger]

After a few minutes of configuring, Randall spoke up.

"We are ready here Sir."

"Very well, initiate pulse."

As the deflector dish began to send out 'pings' the sensors quickly mapped out 29 returns. Discounting the one they'd run into, thirty seemed like a reasonable number and the odds pointed that they'd found them all.

"T'Kel, please remove this hazard ta navigation. Helm, as soon as the path is clear, best speed ta Seku VI."

Kirani was busy performing some checks on the main computer on reboot. There were always a few, some of them in memory access, some in the systems that were spiked by the EPS - and was acting as a coordinator for the engineering damage crews. Then she frowned. Something was off with the navigation systems. All destinations appeared to be off by some value - and there was an oddity about the warp field generators. But ..still, she needed to get this working, and resolving the more critical issue first.

"Sir, we're experiencing some issues with the navigation systems - some persistent computer issues and damage to the RCS Thrusters. I'm working on fixing it now, but we may need to go to manual control in inputting the destination. I've routed some damage control teams there, so we should get it up and running soon. " Kirani returned to the task of getting the junk data purged from the computers and reinitialized.

[Ian Galloway]

Kirani was busy performing some checks on the main computer on reboot. There were always a few, some of them in memory access, some in the systems that were spiked by the EPS - and was acting as a coordinator for the engineering damage crews. Then she frowned. Something was off with the navigation systems. All destinations appeared to be off by some value - and there was an oddity about the warp field generators. But ..still, she needed to get this working, and resolving the more critical issue first.

"Sir, we're experiencing some issues with the navigation systems - some persistent computer issues and damage to the RCS Thrusters. I'm working on fixing it now, but we may need to go to manual control in inputting the destination. I've routed some damage control teams there, so we should get it up and running soon. " Kirani returned to the task of getting the junk data purged from the computers and reinitialized.

[Bridge - USS Challenger]

Ian watched as T'Kel systematically, and with typical Vulcan precision, destroy the remaining 29 mines that were almost certainly left by the Khranu. However, before he could give the order to set course for Seku Vi, the new Caitian engineer reported of the lingering issues from the computer reboot.

"Very well Ensign, switch ta manual input Helm. I have no doubt that, by now, the away team is in desperate straits. As soon as you've got a course, engage."

Ian watched Ricky begin the old-fashioned course plotting and went to the command chair. There, he brought up the display built into the arm of the chair and began to input a course himself. Not that he lacked faith in Lieutenant Litt, but it had been a long time since he'd done such a task and wanted to make certain he was still proficient enough to do so.

[Don Damien Addams]

[Underground Alien Facility]
"See, easy?" Don complimented his work as the light show had stopped. Not a second, the blue light faded out and started to blink in a very unpredictable pattern. "No, and this is bad," he spoke Ruth.
He pulled out the tricorder and scanned it. The Commander's eyes were bigger than normal size. "We need to stop it, and a miracle will be great," he exclaimed. Then he went back trying.

[Encampment miners location]

A man came over to the female Cardassian. Jael could notice the human's brown eyes were a little scared. She might not know that this was the first time he saw a Cardassian. She was asking for a place where she could rest her head. "I am far from being a doctor. And your bleeding. Here let me clean it," he told her. He moved over to where there were metal containers. He took a metal flask and made his way back to her. "Lean aside, where I can pour this on your head," he told her. He held a clean white cloth. "This most likely will sting, and you might swing at me. Try to miss me, please," he said.

[Jael Sherem]

[Encampment miners location]

A man came over to the female Cardassian. Jael could notice the human's brown eyes were a little scared. She might not know that this was the first time he saw a Cardassian. She was asking for a place where she could rest her head. "I am far from being a doctor. And your bleeding. Here let me clean it," he told her. He moved over to where there were metal containers. He took a metal flask and made his way back to her. "Lean aside, where I can pour this on your head," he told her. He held a clean white cloth. "This most likely will sting, and you might swing at me. Try to miss me, please," he said.

[Ensign Jael Sherem | Encampment | Seku IV]

The fact that she was greeted with silence made Jael wonder a moment if she had inadvertently sounded demanding, despite her efforts to sound otherwise. Finally, a man approached. Jael could see from his eyes that he was scared. She wondered a moment if this was somebody who was told stories of Cardassians from war veterans and was frightened by them; she had seen them as frequently as the persecuting attitudes she experienced at the Academy. Though his mentioning she was bleeding made her reach up to her wound, and sure enough, it still was. Probably not as frequently as before, but it still was. At least it wasn't pouring like her entire staggering journey to get to the encampment.

"I'd appreciate it, thank you," she said. She sat down at the containers she followed him to. She awaited to be administered to and followed his instructions. She leaned aside as he told her and readied herself for the sting. Of course, she only smiled at his words when he spoke and a thought occurred to her...

"You've never met a Cardassian before, have you?" she said with a smile, letting out a slight giggle as she spoke. "We're not that bad-tempered, let alone having such reflexes on pain. Nonetheless, I'm ready."

She felt the cloth and it certainly stung. She grabbed her pants and gripped them tightly. Any tighter and she would potentially rip some cloth. But she certainly was feeling more better after that.

"Thank you," she replied gratefully. "I owe you one, mister...?"

[ShranLahr ch'Verret]

PO2 Grelek
[USS Challenger - Deck 1 - Bridge - Secondary Ops]

[Bridge - USS Challenger]

After a few minutes of configuring, Randall spoke up.

"We are ready here Sir."

"Very well, initiate pulse."

As the deflector dish began to send out 'pings' the sensors quickly mapped out 29 returns. Discounting the one they'd run into, thirty seemed like a reasonable number and the odds pointed that they'd found them all.

"T'Kel, please remove this hazard ta navigation. Helm, as soon as the path is clear, best speed ta Seku VI."

Kirani was busy performing some checks on the main computer on reboot. There were always a few, some of them in memory access, some in the systems that were spiked by the EPS - and was acting as a coordinator for the engineering damage crews. Then she frowned. Something was off with the navigation systems. All destinations appeared to be off by some value - and there was an oddity about the warp field generators. But ..still, she needed to get this working, and resolving the more critical issue first.

"Sir, we're experiencing some issues with the navigation systems - some persistent computer issues and damage to the RCS Thrusters. I'm working on fixing it now, but we may need to go to manual control in inputting the destination. I've routed some damage control teams there, so we should get it up and running soon. " Kirani returned to the task of getting the junk data purged from the computers and reinitialized.

[Bridge - USS Challenger]

Ian watched as T'Kel systematically, and with typical Vulcan precision, destroy the remaining 29 mines that were almost certainly left by the Khranu. However, before he could give the order to set course for Seku Vi, the new Caitian engineer reported of the lingering issues from the computer reboot.

"Very well Ensign, switch ta manual input Helm. I have no doubt that, by now, the away team is in desperate straits. As soon as you've got a course, engage."

Ian watched Ricky begin the old-fashioned course plotting and went to the command chair. There, he brought up the display built into the arm of the chair and began to input a course himself. Not that he lacked faith in Lieutenant Litt, but it had been a long time since he'd done such a task and wanted to make certain he was still proficient enough to do so.

Grelek took note of where the mine pings were and then applied an algorithm to track back their path accounting for drift.   What he noted was troubling.

"Captain, the mines appear to be dispersed along a route that aligns with our own.  That is to say the ship that laid the mines was also on a heading to the Seku system."

PO1 ShranLahr ch'Verret
[USS Challenger - Deck 1 - Bridge - Auxiliary station]

Lahr hearing Grelek frowned and did a systems check on the probe left in orbit of the planet.  He'd programmed the probe to forward on any messages it received to Challenger, but as yet it hadn't sent anything.  The Captain was of course right.  Ruth would have contacted them long before now if she were able.   Something must be wrong!  How had he not realized this before now?!

The Andorian's antenna telegraphed his  concern.

[Ruth Sigurdsdottir]

[Underground Alien Facility]

Don's random pushing of buttons initially had no effect, but after a bit of trial and error, mostly by blind luck, the signal shut off. While this was useful, doing so caused the blue light within the obelisk to momentarily fade out. Moments after the lights faded out, they came back up and some began blinking in an indecipherable pattern. The flashing slowly increased in speed.

Don risked a quick scan with his tricorder and found that the obelisk and an area deep beneath the chamber was experiencing a rapid power build-up. In addition, it looked like the power build up would catastrophically overload in just over six minutes!

Ruth's attempt to communicate with the Mjolnir failed to work, when the alien signal shut down and the power was seemingly rerouted to initiate the overload, she was rewarded by the voice of Doctor Rasher.

"Commander, it is good to hear from you. Greenway is stable, what is your condition?"

[Underground Cavern - Seku VI]

Thank Loki you're fine. Really good to hear you. Good news and bad news.  We lost Lowe, he's gone, dead.  He has his commbadge with him so that should be able to be located so... you know.  Sorry... I'm trying to be quick here...   Ruth eyed the obelisk with concern.

The rest of us are... ok, ish... Fatigue, in the case of the Counsellor a severe concussion I insist that she gets properly checked out when she's back on the Challenger.  If you can get any comms working to the Challenger please let them know our situation, we are in the settlement at the moment...

The Commander looked around at Don, looking specifically for Ero before she went on.  Not seeing him or anyone but the XO she said  We're not prisoners, but I can't see us getting out of here easily as we've been tasked with something rather... difficult.  If I don't make it out of here, tell Lahr I love him, oh and walk the dog!

Turning to Don she said "Tell me that didn't just speed up on the flashing... I'm no engineer as you know but that... don't look healthy!  What did you do to shut it down before? Can you replicate that?  I'm going to look for some kind of power source... "

[Ian Galloway]

PO2 Grelek
[USS Challenger - Deck 1 - Bridge - Secondary Ops]

Grelek took note of where the mine pings were and then applied an algorithm to track back their path accounting for drift.   What he noted was troubling.

"Captain, the mines appear to be dispersed along a route that aligns with our own.  That is to say the ship that laid the mines was also on a heading to the Seku system."

PO1 ShranLahr ch'Verret
[USS Challenger - Deck 1 - Bridge - Auxiliary station]

Lahr hearing Grelek frowned and did a systems check on the probe left in orbit of the planet.  He'd programmed the probe to forward on any messages it received to Challenger, but as yet it hadn't sent anything.  The Captain was of course right.  Ruth would have contacted them long before now if she were able.   Something must be wrong!  How had he not realized this before now?!

The Andorian's antenna telegraphed his  concern.

[Bridge - USS Challenger]

Ian took in the information from Grelek and frowned deeply as he replied.

"Yellow alert. Raise shields. I doubt a cloak will work in this nebula, but you never bloody know with that wanker Thelal. Helm, push her as hard as you can. If'n the Romulans are headin' for Seku, we need ta get there as quick as we can."

Ian then turned to face the Engineering station.

"Ensign Dalsirath, coordinate with Commander Tharn ta prioritize repairs ta the torpedoes. If'n the Khranu shows up, we can't beat her with just phasers."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Underground Alien Facility]
"See, easy?" Don complimented his work as the light show had stopped. Not a second, the blue light faded out and started to blink in a very unpredictable pattern. "No, and this is bad," he spoke Ruth.
He pulled out the tricorder and scanned it. The Commander's eyes were bigger than normal size. "We need to stop it, and a miracle will be great," he exclaimed. Then he went back trying.

[Underground Cavern - Seku VI]

Thank Loki you're fine. Really good to hear you. Good news and bad news.  We lost Lowe, he's gone, dead.  He has his commbadge with him so that should be able to be located so... you know.  Sorry... I'm trying to be quick here...   Ruth eyed the obelisk with concern.

The rest of us are... ok, ish... Fatigue, in the case of the Counsellor a severe concussion I insist that she gets properly checked out when she's back on the Challenger.  If you can get any comms working to the Challenger please let them know our situation, we are in the settlement at the moment...

The Commander looked around at Don, looking specifically for Ero before she went on.  Not seeing him or anyone but the XO she said  We're not prisoners, but I can't see us getting out of here easily as we've been tasked with something rather... difficult.  If I don't make it out of here, tell Lahr I love him, oh and walk the dog!

Turning to Don she said "Tell me that didn't just speed up on the flashing... I'm no engineer as you know but that... don't look healthy!  What did you do to shut it down before? Can you replicate that?  I'm going to look for some kind of power source... "

[Underground Alien Facility]

As Don began tapping buttons, there was a piercing sound that began to warble in a way that made it emphatically clear that whatever was happening, there wasn't much time to stop it, if any.

Don and Ruth now faced an existential decision, try and stop the overload of a system they didn't understand or to give up and run. If they tried to stop it and failed, they'd be incinerated in the destruction of the facility. If they ran, they had to go now to get far enough away to have any chance of survival.

[Richard James Litt]

{ooc: so sorry about being late"¦}

[USS Challenger · Bridge · Helm]

Litt had a little smile on his face as he guided the ship to the destination that had been passed by the captain, they were heading to Seku VI, to bring back their companions. He really missed being back at the helm of the Challenger"¦ Until the first explosions, he certainly didn't miss that. The expression on his face changed from a smile to a serious and alert expression, waiting for the worst of the situation, "œDamn"¦ Who said it would be easy to be in the fleet?" He thought as he tried to hold on to the chair so he wouldn't be thrown away when the first impact hit the ship. "œWell"¦ No one said that"¦" he completed the thought as he returned to his seat, waiting for a damage report on the flight system.

As soon as he listened to the damage report he noticed his own readings seeing that they had momentarily lost their flight systems. Soon after came the news that they had been hit by a mine"¦ Or hit a mine"¦ Anyway, Litt blamed himself for that, he should have noticed and dodged it. But there was no time for blame, he needed to act, which he did immediately when he heard the order to cast Onizuka. "œYes sir!" he replied to the captain and then immediately tapped his communicator, trying to speak to one of his men. "œLieutenant Espada, I need you with the Onizuka, 500 kilometers alongside the ship, aiming for the hull gap, you will fire torpedoes there if necessary!" The order was simple and Litt heard the reply back: "I'm on my way, sir!" Soon after, he turned his attention to the captain indicating that the ship was leaving.

Shortly after the computer restarted and most systems were back online, including fire suppression, Litt tapped his communicator once more. "Espada, come back to Challenger, we won't need to open the ship anymore". The order was clear and the lieutenant once again complied, returning as quickly as he could to the ship. Unfortunately the navigation system was still having problems, that's when Ian gave the order for Litt to plot the course manually, that wasn't something new, he had already flown blind and all the training sessions on the holodeck, with the tiger program flyers, surely had prepared him even more for that moment. As he plotted the best course he heard that the mines lined up with the route to Seku VI, and listened carefully to Ian's next order to push the ship as best he could, and so he finished preparing the best route he could so he could follow. the way. "œSir"¦ I have a route mapped out"¦". He informed Ian and then followed up with the captain's order, putting every effort into the ship to get past the mines and head to their destination.

[ShranLahr ch'Verret]

PO2 Grelek
[USS Challenger - Deck 1 - Bridge >> on route Deck 9]

[Bridge - USS Challenger]

Ian took in the information from Grelek and frowned deeply as he replied.

"Yellow alert. Raise shields. I doubt a cloak will work in this nebula, but you never bloody know with that wanker Thelal. Helm, push her as hard as you can. If'n the Romulans are headin' for Seku, we need ta get there as quick as we can."

Ian then turned to face the Engineering station.

"Ensign Dalsirath, coordinate with Commander Tharn ta prioritize repairs ta the torpedoes. If'n the Khranu shows up, we can't beat her with just phasers."

With the ship no longer making its way through a minefield, Grelek returned Ops to ch'Verret whose shift it actually was then made his way down to Deck 9 to assist the damage control teams with the repairs to the Torpedo Bay Control Room.  One of the Vulcan's last tasks at Ops had been to set up the forcefield over the hull breach on Deck 9 and to pressurize the Control Room now that the plasma fire was out.

PO1 ShranLahr ch'Verret
[USS Challenger - Deck 1 - Bridge]

While CatalÁ¡n moved to worked from the Mission Operations station closest to the Engineering station along the right-hand sidewall, Lahr was glad to be once more up front - alongside Helm..  The Andorian looked over to Litt.   He'd heard that the Human was back.  Lahr would even be happy about it, offering to celebrate with music except for the Captain's earlier comment had the Andorian really worried about Ruth.  Music and merriment was the last thing on the Andorian's mind.   It was a bit sad that Hyperion's first time on the Bridge had been interrupted by disaster.

Thinking of the AI, Lahr glanced about.  Where was Hyperion anyways?

[Kylindra]

[Bridge - USS Challenger]

Ian took in the information from Grelek and frowned deeply as he replied.

"Yellow alert. Raise shields. I doubt a cloak will work in this nebula, but you never bloody know with that wanker Thelal. Helm, push her as hard as you can. If'n the Romulans are headin' for Seku, we need ta get there as quick as we can."

Ian then turned to face the Engineering station.

"Ensign Dalsirath, coordinate with Commander Tharn ta prioritize repairs ta the torpedoes. If'n the Khranu shows up, we can't beat her with just phasers."

"Aye, sir." Kirani tapped one final command, and this time the diagnostics on computer systems came up all-green. She moved on to the next task, then, to get the torpedo systems up. There was the normal way, which was to bring everything up by repairing the redundant systems, then the primaries. Normal, in that this was usually quicker when doing emergency repairs. That said, she was looking at one of the estimates for getting the bay up, and routed more crews to the EPS lines and clearing debris from the launchers. They might have to do manual firing from the control bay, rather than from the bridge. Which, would still work.

She nodded, then tapped out the suggestion to the commander while overseeing repairs from the hit.

[Don Damien Addams]

"Crap!" Don yelped. "For crying out loud." He gone off saying the F-Bombin his frustration. These people were counting on Don to fix it, and the opposite, and he made it worse!

"We gotta get out," he gulped. He had to take a last glance at the doomed he had created. It was so much like when the flaming meteors fell from the sky, coming down striking the city of Sodom. There was no falling fire in this scene, but the artifact inside the cave was about to blow up. My first mission as First Officer bad, bad, bad. (f-bomb word) me! We are lucky to survive!

Don waved Ruth to go first. The funny part Ruth could not tell her one of the Norse stories. Who knows sailing on a tempest storm on the sea, in a rowing Viking ship as the sea serpent raises its head and shoots flames from its jaw. She was setting the sails on fire. The heroic move by Ruth is grabbing her throwing ax from her boots, and she throws them at the serpent. She was slamming the axes clean into the eyes of the serpent, blinding it. Forces the creature to dive back into the ocean. Maybe that would be over the top.

As they got to the opening, he held his hands up, kicking dirt up as he slid across the dusty ground. "RUN! RUN! RUN!"

---------

The miner gave a small smile when Jael asked he had never seen a Cardassian. "No," he replied. He inclined his head, with his eyes looking under the hood of his eyelids. "Even not in a Starfleet uniform."

Then he softly tapped the white cloth on her forehead. "You should try to talk. I think you can slip into a coma. I am far from being a doctor. My name is Malcolm Lincoln. No need to owe me. It will be my pleasure," he said with a Northern American deep south slang.

[Jael Sherem]

The miner gave a small smile when Jael asked he had never seen a Cardassian. "No," he replied. He inclined his head, with his eyes looking under the hood of his eyelids. "Even not in a Starfleet uniform."

Then he softly tapped the white cloth on her forehead. "You should try to talk. I think you can slip into a coma. I am far from being a doctor. My name is Malcolm Lincoln. No need to owe me. It will be my pleasure," he said with a Northern American deep south slang.

[Ensign Jael Sherem | Encampment | Seku IV]

Jael shrugged, not surprised that he never saw a Cardassian in a Starfleet uniform in particular. She always got the surprised reactions ever since she and Gid graduated Starfleet Academy. People had never seen a Cardassian in a Starfleet uniform upon first glance, and so it always came as a surprise when Jael showed up. Of course, sometimes under the surprise, she'd see loathing eyes, like that it wasn't a uniform she was supposed to wear, that no Cardassian deserves being in such a uniform.

Then Malcolm Lincoln raised a point that she should keep talking or she'll slip into a coma. She instantly remembered the amount of staggering she did when she was walking and lagging behind the Prophets know how many kilometers behind the away team. And she recalled some wooziness, but trying to keep herself awake...was it possible that the concussion was that bad to keep her not only from thinking straight, like causing her following Addams out of the trench and inadvertently disobeying his orders, but could bring her to a coma?

"Yeah, I'd appreciate it," she said. "I had been feeling woozy myself. Prophets know that I'm likely to have potential brain damage from this...yeah, of course I say Prophets, I'm an actual convert of the Bajoran religion. Me and my mother. I was mostly tagging along, whilst she, on the other hand, converted mainly to annoy my father, her husband. Oh, and my name is Jael. Jael Sherem. And my parents are two Gul Sherems. One, my father, was former head of the Cardassian Intelligence Bureau, but he's been on the run since the end of the Dominion War. The other's my mother and she defected when Cardassia joined the Dominion, taking me and my adopted brother, a Bajoran, along. And as for the uniform...well, I might as well be among the first Cardassians in Starfleet, people are always so surprised to see me, a Cardassian, in a uniform..."

[Ruth Sigurdsdottir]

[Underground Alien Facility]

As Don began tapping buttons, there was a piercing sound that began to warble in a way that made it emphatically clear that whatever was happening, there wasn't much time to stop it, if any.

Don and Ruth now faced an existential decision, try and stop the overload of a system they didn't understand or to give up and run. If they tried to stop it and failed, they'd be incinerated in the destruction of the facility. If they ran, they had to go now to get far enough away to have any chance of survival.

[Underground Facility - Seku VI]

"Um... Don..." Ruth began when the obelisk started warbling. "That's not any language I care to try to translate...."

"Crap!" Don yelped. "For crying out loud." He gone off saying the F-Bombin his frustration. These people were counting on Don to fix it, and the opposite, and he made it worse!

"We gotta get out," he gulped. He had to take a last glance at the doomed he had created. It was so much like when the flaming meteors fell from the sky, coming down striking the city of Sodom. There was no falling fire in this scene, but the artifact inside the cave was about to blow up. My first mission as First Officer bad, bad, bad. (f-bomb word) me! We are lucky to survive!

Don waved Ruth to go first. The funny part Ruth could not tell her one of the Norse stories. Who knows sailing on a tempest storm on the sea, in a rowing Viking ship as the sea serpent raises its head and shoots flames from its jaw. She was setting the sails on fire. The heroic move by Ruth is grabbing her throwing ax from her boots, and she throws them at the serpent. She was slamming the axes clean into the eyes of the serpent, blinding it. Forces the creature to dive back into the ocean. Maybe that would be over the top.

As they got to the opening, he held his hands up, kicking dirt up as he slid across the dusty ground. "RUN! RUN! RUN!"

-----------------------

The miner gave a small smile when Jael asked he had never seen a Cardassian. "No," he replied. He inclined his head, with his eyes looking under the hood of his eyelids. "Even not in a Starfleet uniform."

Then he softly tapped the white cloth on her forehead. "You should try to talk. I think you can slip into a coma. I am far from being a doctor. My name is Malcolm Lincoln. No need to owe me. It will be my pleasure," he said with a Northern American deep south slang.

"For once not even gonna argue..." Ruth said following him out and gesturing wildly at bystanders to get clear.  As she got level with Jael she nodded to the miner who had been with her and said simply, "We gotta move, NOW!  That things going to blow.  On the plus side if it blows up, it might actually stop working! Grab Jael's other side please to help her along"

They got far enough away and found some shelter to hide behind, Ruth looking for Don.  "I think the First Officer made the right call there..." she said to the Counsellor, "...otherwise you'd be treating a rather morose, very droopy antennae'd Andorian by the name of Lahr for grief counselling... and possibly anger management aimed at Commander Addams for allowing me to die and himself for not being here to protect and save me."

[Ian Galloway]

"Crap!" Don yelped. "For crying out loud." He gone off saying the F-Bombin his frustration. These people were counting on Don to fix it, and the opposite, and he made it worse!

"We gotta get out," he gulped. He had to take a last glance at the doomed he had created. It was so much like when the flaming meteors fell from the sky, coming down striking the city of Sodom. There was no falling fire in this scene, but the artifact inside the cave was about to blow up. My first mission as First Officer bad, bad, bad. (f-bomb word) me! We are lucky to survive!

Don waved Ruth to go first. The funny part Ruth could not tell her one of the Norse stories. Who knows sailing on a tempest storm on the sea, in a rowing Viking ship as the sea serpent raises its head and shoots flames from its jaw. She was setting the sails on fire. The heroic move by Ruth is grabbing her throwing ax from her boots, and she throws them at the serpent. She was slamming the axes clean into the eyes of the serpent, blinding it. Forces the creature to dive back into the ocean. Maybe that would be over the top.

As they got to the opening, he held his hands up, kicking dirt up as he slid across the dusty ground. "RUN! RUN! RUN!"

[Underground Facility - Seku VI]

"Um... Don..." Ruth began when the obelisk started warbling. "That's not any language I care to try to translate...."

"For once not even gonna argue..." Ruth said following him out and gesturing wildly at bystanders to get clear.  As she got level with Jael she nodded to the miner who had been with her and said simply, "We gotta move, NOW!  That things going to blow.  On the plus side if it blows up, it might actually stop working! Grab Jael's other side please to help her along"

They got far enough away and found some shelter to hide behind, Ruth looking for Don.  "I think the First Officer made the right call there..." she said to the Counsellor, "...otherwise you'd be treating a rather morose, very droopy antennae'd Andorian by the name of Lahr for grief counselling... and possibly anger management aimed at Commander Addams for allowing me to die and himself for not being here to protect and save me."

[Underground Facility - Seku VI]

Even running a full, side stitching speed, Ruth and Don only just made it out of the cave in time, diving to one side as a huge gout of flame spurted from the mouth of the tunnel. On the surface, the explosion wasn't as powerful as Ruth and Don imagined it to be, it seemed like the density of the composition of the hills containing the facility was sufficient to contain the bulk of the explosion.

Once the dust settled and they scrambled to their feet, almost immediately the away team realized the interference that had so severely impaired their equipment was gone. Apparently, in addition to the signal, and the planetary defense grid, the facility had created a dampening field. Now that the facility was destroyed, tricorders, and more importantly, communications began to work. Which immediately translated into the Morse Code signal that Ruth had sent hours ago, finally reached the probe that had left in orbit and was retransmitted to the Challenger.

[Planetside - Seku VI]

Ruth suddenly smiled.  "I think I might have one idea, something that my friend Hrafn Falleg-Tekin uses in emergencies but it might work here. I need to reconfigure my commbadge tho as normally I'd be doing this from a console..."

She pulled a pin from her hair and prised open the back of her badge and pulled out a couple of wires then wound them around pegs in the 'bowels' of her tricorder.

"I know this is old school but here goes nothing.  I know Petty Officer ch'Verret knows morse code and also he knows of this frequency... if nothing else they'll get our position.  Basically, I'm going to use the old Bajoran Resistance frequency.  Hrafn told us that some people, trusted people still monitor it.  I'm hoping that Lahr still does."

She was effectively using her commbadge like the key on the radio apparatus of World War II kits and the tricorder as an amplifier to transmit the message.

-.-. .... .- .-.. .-.. . -. --. . .-. / - .... .. ... / .. ... / ... .. --. --. -.-- .-.-.- / -- .--- --- .-.. -. .. .-. / -.. --- .-- -. .-.-.- / .. -. .--- ..- .-. .. . ... .-.-.- / -.. .-. .-.-.- / .-- .. - .... / -- .--- --- .-.. -. .. .-. .-.-.- / .-. . --.- ..- . ... - / -... .- -.-. -.- / ..- .--. .-.-.- / .... . .- -.. .. -. --. / ..-. --- .-. / ... --- ..- .-. -.-. . / --- ..-. / -.-. --- -- -- -... .- -.. --. . / ... .. --. -. .- .-.. ... / .- -. -.. / ... -- --- -.- . .-.-.- / ... ..- ... --.- ..- . .... .- -. -. .- / .-- .-. . -.-. -.- ..--.. ..--.. / --- ..- - .-.-.- ¹

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[Bridge - USS Challenger]

Using Lieutenant Litt's new course and pushing as hard he could through the chaos of the nebula, the Challenger was still four hours away from Seku VI. Repairs teams were working feverishly to restore damaged systems and while the breach on Deck 9 had been repaired along with the residual issues caused by the reboot of the main computer, the damage to the Forward Torpedo Bay Control bay were much more extensive than initially believed. Forward torpedoes were available, but they had to be manually fired and targeted, which greatly impaired their rate of fire and accuracy.

During the confusion of hitting the mine and the near catastrophic fire, Hyperion had been overlooked and had moved back to an inobtrusive corner of the bridge and was observing the actions of the crew in crisis as a means of better understanding humans for the first time as a self-aware being. He remained silent as his vast ability to calculate and extrapolate ran at a speed that was high, even for his complex neural network.

"Captain, I am picking up a signal from the probe we left in orbit of Seku VI." Commander Catalan said and looked confused. "But it isn't visual or audio in any format I am familiar with."

"Put it on." Ian replied.

There was a burst of static and then an unmistakable series of beeps that Ian immediately recognized and he smiled.

"That, Commander is an ancient form of communication known as Morse Code. As a history buff with an emphasis on mid-20th Century atmospheric fightin' craft, several members of the crew have been exposed ta a holoprogram of mind set durin' the Second World War. As a result, when communications are compromised or damaged, those individuals resort ta Morse Code in an effort ta get a message out. Both Commander Sigurdsdottir and Addams are well versed in the technique.

"I can read the message as it's presented, you will probably have ta run that series of beeps through the computer ta translate it, but I do suggest you put in the effort ta learn Morse. It may save lives one day, your own might be one of them. Short translation, as expected, the away team is in trouble with the Mjolnir damaged. Unfortunately, we're already runnin' as hard as we can, we push any harder and we're likely ta hit summat even worse than I mine."

Ian stepped next to Catalan and added.

"Send this via Morse. Message received. Susquehanna and crew recovered in nebula. Your source of smoke unknown. En route your location at best speed, but still four hours out. Advise caution."

"Aye Sir."

As Catalan sent the message, Ian dropped back into the command chair.

"Hang in there Lads and Lasses, the bloody cavalry is on the way."