S4:E12 - Trapped in Amber

[Hanir Seph]

Noticing a teal uniformed woman enter and just 'Take' a rifle seemed off putting.  "Give me that rifle." Silver said taking the rifle from her.  "You are not supposed to be here.  Security teams not medical.  You want to help out grab a med kit and follow one of the other teams incase they need attention.  I'll even assign you a team to protect you.  But unless your wearing the correct uniform you are in the wrong section of the ship, Petty Officer." Silver said as he turned to the woman who just inserted herself without even being polite enough to tell him who she was and what she wanted, let alone why she was there.

[USS Challenger-A | Armory]

Hanir narrowed her eyes as she looked up... And up... And up. "I'm not Medical, I'm Counselling. My name's Hanir Seph, if you didn't hear me clearly enough." She took another step closer towards him (canting her head backwards even more): "Check my service jacket, as well as my additional duties portion. I've been rated as Marksman level for phaser training and provisional qualify in hand to hand combat. If there's an extra need, I can be called up for security duty." She raised an eyebrow. "Security isn't just about the running around with phasers blazing, it's about knowing when to use the application of force in the best and most effective manner."

[Derek Rodwell]

[Aboard the Natalie Chatham]

Derek stood by and watched the formalities unfold. Part of him was impatient and thought they were wasting time but he knew things needed to be planned out. You couldn't just rush in. Especially in situations like the one they currently found themselves in. Once they finished, some of the others began moving off. Derek turned his attention to the Engineering officer that had been introduced as Navar Glagh.

"While the head honchos talk details, would it be possible to get a look at your systems? Maybe we could come up with something." he asked.

[Silverback]

[USS Challenger-A | Armory]

Hanir narrowed her eyes as she looked up... And up... And up. "I'm not Medical, I'm Counselling. My name's Hanir Seph, if you didn't hear me clearly enough." She took another step closer towards him (canting her head backwards even more): "Check my service jacket, as well as my additional duties portion. I've been rated as Marksman level for phaser training and provisional qualify in hand to hand combat. If there's an extra need, I can be called up for security duty." She raised an eyebrow. "Security isn't just about the running around with phasers blazing, it's about knowing when to use the application of force in the best and most effective manner."

Deck 9 - Armory

"Very well, Counselor.  Your still a medical professional.  You just work the mind not the body.  That is the only difference.  But fine, I will entertain your request." Silver said as he went over to a console and looked her up.  "Well, I see your not lying but that does not give you the right to come in here and just 'take' a rifle like you own the place.  You get in line and wait to be given a weapon by either the master at arms or another officer.  In this case, me.  I might have just finished the academy but I know how protocol works and since your just a volunteer I will let you off with this bit of education and hope someone of your degree intelligence can remember proper protocol for security distribution of weapons.  As for the duties of a security officer.  Its boring, its more waiting and using phasers as a last resort.  So unless you want to join the marines which I doubt at this point.  Learn from others by listening and watching.  Now step forward." Silver said as he took the rifle checked it to make sure it worked and handed it back.  "You will be with me.  I can at least try to keep you out of harms way.  But keep in mind if they want a boarding party, we are it and you might have to provide medical aid since your being what your tribe calls a 'Jack of all trades.'

'This tribe is very strange.  But looking out for others who are of a different tribe with different customs is even more strange.' he thought to himself.

[Hanir Seph]

Deck 9 - Armory

"Very well, Counselor.  Your still a medical professional.  You just work the mind not the body.  That is the only difference.  But fine, I will entertain your request." Silver said as he went over to a console and looked her up.  "Well, I see your not lying but that does not give you the right to come in here and just 'take' a rifle like you own the place.  You get in line and wait to be given a weapon by either the master at arms or another officer.  In this case, me.  I might have just finished the academy but I know how protocol works and since your just a volunteer I will let you off with this bit of education and hope someone of your degree intelligence can remember proper protocol for security distribution of weapons.  As for the duties of a security officer.  Its boring, its more waiting and using phasers as a last resort.  So unless you want to join the marines which I doubt at this point.  Learn from others by listening and watching.  Now step forward." Silver said as he took the rifle checked it to make sure it worked and handed it back.  "You will be with me.  I can at least try to keep you out of harms way.  But keep in mind if they want a boarding party, we are it and you might have to provide medical aid since your being what your tribe calls a 'Jack of all trades.'

'This tribe is very strange.  But looking out for others who are of a different tribe with different customs is even more strange.' he thought to himself.

[USS Challenger-A | Sickbay]

"I do apologize, sir. As someone who hasn't been to the Academy, my education is not as extensive as yours." Hanir replied smoothly but sincerely, accepting the rifle back. Ensuring the safeties were engaged and also preset to stun, she nodded as she slung the rifle over her shoulder. "I would be honoured to watch your back, sir."

[Ruth Sigurdsdottir]

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

Lahr sighed when he noted Ruth mouthing something to him.  Hadn't she figured out yet that he wasn't good at reading lips?  The Andorian played along and nodded back.  He listened then as she talked about Huxley.  Then about Trondheim and planes after Lahr accepted the Captain's offer to return to the Flying Tigers program.   She mouthed something again - he couldn't figure it out.   But she'd sounded a bit wistful earlier...

"Ain't my program, but maybe it's something you'd like to try yourself... Commander?"  Lahr had to remember to tack on her rank and not 'babe' at the end of his question.

Later, as the away team prepped to depart, Lahr sent them the most recent scans of the incoming ion storm and wished them well.

[Bridge - Earlier]

Ruth let out a chuckle.  "Flying Tigers?  I think I have done that program before.  Heck I think even Hrafn gave it a go and that surprised the Captain.  Mind that woman has more fire in her than people think!  Sometime when I'm not so busy, I'll have to show you how I fly!"

[USS Challenger-A | Sickbay]

"Uh, sure?"

Hanir had exited her little office, somehow as always managing to gravitate into Sickbay unintentionally. Her lips twitched slightly at the coincidence, having spent a fair bit of the last mission in Sickbay. She smiled a little shyly at Lisa (though the tips of her ears burned slightly). The redheaded XO was looking straight at her, causing Hanir to gape. "Um... XO, I'm sorry, I- You caught me by surprise a little. Is there something they teach you in Command School, how you can just sling your problems over your shoulder and get back to work?" She blurted before she could stop herself.

"You can address me any way you wish. I answer to all of the above, plus Honey Sip." She blinked slightly, still awkwardly standing there at a distance, her body language telegraphing discomfort. She realized that they were treating her as an equal, but she was also very painfully aware that both were much higher in rank and the food chain than she was.

[Sickbay]

Ruth blinked deeply twice and gave Hanir a look of incredulous disbelief.

"Counsellor, I've seen several different methods of counsel over the years I've served but not one of my counsellors has ever said 'shrug and get on with it'.  Certainly there is a degree of that involved in becoming qualified to command, but generally it's for the purposes of being able to deal with the situation at hand, at the time... not when you have the leisure of processing the situation afterwards.  I have found that the more I repress, then the more unstable the person becomes.  And no, they don't teach us it at 'Command School' as you put it.  It comes with experience, and I can guarantee that for all you'll hear Captain Galloway letting out curses in Gaelic and calling people like the Romulan we encountered recently, Thelal some erm... choice epithets, he will have moments of self-doubt, moments he just wonders 'why me'.  Different people deal with things in different ways, and recently my method of dealing with things has been a combination of pushing it down deep inside me or going onto the Holodeck and killing things with extreme prejudice!"

She omitted to say since Lisa was standing right there that she'd overridden the safety protocols.  It surprised her in the back of her brain that she was more worried about what Lisa would say than this new counsellor who by the sound of things wouldn't say boo to a goose.

"Oh and since we're on the subject of address, Counsellor..." she stressed it because it had annoyed her slightly that it seemed that the counsellor wanted her to just take an attitude of 'suck it up, Buttercup!'  "...you do not address me as 'XO' but as Commander, Ma'am or when given permission to, Ruth."

"I have specifically taken an hour of personal time, and the Captain graciously gave me leave to come and discuss things with you, the least you could do is you job.  I have a couple of things to say to Dr. Belmont, but I'll give you 5 minutes to prepare, I'll take a Ratkajino and see you there soon."

She thought she'd give the young woman time to compose herself after the dressing down she'd just given her and a chance to redeem herself.

[Sickbay - USS Challenger]

Just a soon as she Derek left and she had her monitor set up, Ruth was entering and requesting her attention. She didn't have to answer her first question, as the counselor was already there. Funny, she hadn't seen her come in. But she had been distracted, and her new friend always seemed to be where she was needed. Her body language revealed her shyness, and the seasoned doctor suddenly felt a maternal instinct to comfort her. Instead, Lisa waited to see what Ruth needed her for and listened patiently as she and Hanir were acquainted.

When they were finished, she smiled with fondness at the mention of Kyle. Ruth was one of the only people who would bring up the subject of her and Kyle's relationship. The only other person could be Lahr, but that would likely be in a less formal setting if it ever happened. But Ruth, Kyle, and her were all good friends. Ruth would listen to her, and understand better than anyone. If they ever found enough time in their schedules to talk off-duty, that is.

"I've heard from him sometimes, though they've been few and far between. I know he's probably fine, but at least we both have friends to help us out on the hard days," her face went dark for just a moment, but then she focused on what Ruth had to say next. She was grateful that the XO knew not to dwell on the sad thoughts, and that she always had plenty to say to distract from them. At mention of a meeting, she perked up again.

"Unless Gemma had something for her, she's free in my book," she stated, giving Hanir a questioning look.

"Dinner, with himself, whenever you're free?  We'll catch up, and there's also the thing I need to chat to you or Gemma about but I'd prefer it was you since well... it's something I'd rather keep close.  We'll see if we can't chat to a certain XO of Katra while you're there!"

[USS Challenger-A | Sickbay]

"My shift is still ongoing, but I have no visitors. They prefer not to think of themselves as patients." Hanir replied with a look at Lisa, her lips twitching. The two of them were forming a good dynamic, though Hanir still couldn't quite get her head around the fact Lisa treated her as an equal. "I was doing some studying, but please, my mind is full right now. I'm all... Whoever needs me can have me." She bowed theatrically at the two professionals.

Ruth relented and gave a sigh.  "Sorry Hanir, I let my professional side slide a bit before, but see that's one of the reasons I need you.  Well consider me a visitor.  Shall we go into your office.  If you get that coffee, I'll take the chance to have one while I can!" 

She gave a smile and turned to Lisa.  "I'll chat to the Counsellor first then come find you or make an appointment to see you as the other thing is probably going to take longer than a 5 mins quick chat but... so you can do some digging, prep whatever you want to call it all I'll say is Andorians, humans... children..."

[Bridge - USS Challenger]

As is typical in deep space, everything was fine, until it wasn't. One minute the Heidi Schwebach was cruising along side her escort as she was supposed to do, the next, she sheered off course sharply and emitted an inverse graviton burst through her main deflector. The Challenger staggered as the graviton burst disrupted her warp field and dropped out of warp. Fortunately, although strained to their maximum capacity, the inertia dampeners prevented serious casualties at the ship lurched back into Einsteinian space.

Throughout the Challenger, alarms sounded on the bridge, but especially in engineering. Lieutenant Tharn was one of those thrown to the deck by the sudden deceleration and was spewing invectives like only a Tellerite could as she lurched to her feet barking orders.

Ian burst out of his ready room and growled.

"Report!"

Ruth had followed Hanir into her office and started chatting, they'd cleared up a few things and agreed to meet again at a later date to continue the discussion when the alarms started blaring.

[USS Challenger-A | Sickbay]

"Not again?!"

Hanir found herself sprawled against an empty biobed when the impact occurred. The bruise on her sternum had just healed and she felt a twinge of deja vu. Fortunately, Ruth and Lisa, both being a bit more experienced appeared to be a little shaken. The crew that reported in were all walking wounded, none of them serious. Hanir squeezed Lisa's shoulder. "I'll get out of your way. Keep your chin up." To the XO, she bowed a little formally. "I think duty calls, you're more than welcome to return when it's a bit quieter, Commander."

Retreating quietly to her small office, which was her duty station in an alert situation. There, to her surprise was the security callup. The wording from T'Kel hadn't been specific and was a general callup, asking for all security trained personnel to be made available...

Ruth felt a little sorry for the Counsellor even if privately thinking she was a bit of a wet blanket.

"It does indeed.  I shall return!"

"Lisa, will have to take a raincheck on that chat, and before you think it, no, I'm not!.." she said running to the nearest Turbolift and realising her cryptic message before Lisa might think she was pregnant!  Chuckling to herself she thought, 'Yes, Hanir... we can put out brave faces on and get on with it... sometimes... but eventually they'll snap.'

[Bridge]

"What gives?" she said, barely out of breath, almost at the same time as Ian got out of the Ready Room.

Challenger - Bridge

Silver ran checks on the security system of the ship ensuring the sudden jolt out of the warp field wasnt caused on his end as he recovered from the sudden deceleration.  He was just thankful his size, endurance, and strength lessened the whip lash that others might be feeling and prevention of being through if he were any smaller.  He checked every system he had access to, as he knew from training and his earlier life that being trapped out in the middle of no where, unable to move and fend for himself was a death sentence.

"Nothing coming up on security checks, not even a possible saboteur.  Wish me to increase security threat level just incase?" Silver called out waiting for someone to answer to tell him what to do.

Ruth looked and blinked at the fact that there appeared to be a Mugato on the Bridge... shaking her head and walking to the command island.  Well she didn't want to argue with him and preferred he was on their side in a fight!

[Bridge - USS Challenger]

Ian's head whipped toward the first voice that had spoken and frowned. An ensign, he hadn't met before, but based on the fact the voice belonged to a Mugato, it could only be Ensign Silverback. Normally, he would have said something, but, knowing T'Kel as well as he did, he knew he didn't have to say anything. She would handle an exuberant ensign speaking out of turn. As Ian was working through those thoughts, T'Kel rose from the command chair to move to tactical, which in turn had Chief Blackfeather shift to the console Silverback was manning with an unspoken look that said it was time for the ensign to yield the station to the NCO. As this was going on, T'Kel spoke in her usual measured tone.

"Captain, we've been attacked by the Heidi Schwebach-"

"We were attacked by a freighter?" Ian interrupted, which didn't throw T'Kel off in the slightest, she simply continuing from where she left off."

"-with an inverse graviton burst. This action did not result in damage, but it did destabilize our warp field and drop us to sublight. Lieutenant Tharn in is the process of recalibrating the engines and says it will be another one minute and seventeen point six seconds before we can go to warp."

Ian processed this as he moved to the command seat.

"What the hell is going on over there? Even with a head start, that freighter has no hope of outrunnin' the Challenger. Are they answerin' hails?"

"No response Sir. They are moving at their emergency speed on a course of 147 mark 29. Only thing on sensors in that direction is a small asteroid field, not even large enough to conceal a ship of that size."

"Very well Lieutenant. Bring us to yellow alert have the transporter room ready to beam over a security team and prepare the tractors."

Ian turned back to face the viewscreen showing the rapidly shrinking freighter.

"Helm, make your course 147 mark 29 and take us to warp eight as soon as engineering says you can."

Ian only half listened to the 'Aye Sir' responses as he stared at the retreating Schwebach.

"What in the bloody hell is goin' on over there?"

He murmured and continued to stare.

T'Kel turned at her station to face Silverback, and while no emotions showed on her face, which was no surprise for a Vulcan. Going by how firmly her lips were pressed together, it was clear she was not pleased.

"Ensign. Report to the armory on deck nine."

[Sickbay - USS Challenger]

While the ship's inertia dampeners had done an amazing job of preventing serious injuries, it hadn't prevented all injuries. Shortly after the sudden deceleration, nearly a dozen crew entered sickbay. Mostly cuts and bruises, but there were also a few sprains and at least three broken bones. Nothing the medical staff couldn't handle, but it was work that needed immediate attention.

Ruth was grateful she'd left the Sickbay when she did, and that she had particularly good balance even so the jolt that the Challenger had received, but she'd still had to hold on.

Sitting in her chair she turned to Ian.  "Never a dull moment, eh?!" she said pulling a face and rolling her eyes.  "Who's the culprit this time?"

[ShranLahr ch'Verret]

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

[Bridge - Earlier]

Ruth let out a chuckle.  "Flying Tigers?  I think I have done that program before.  Heck I think even Hrafn gave it a go and that surprised the Captain.  Mind that woman has more fire in her than people think!  Sometime when I'm not so busy, I'll have to show you how I fly!"

Lahr's antenna flicked back in surprise in learning that Ruth had done the Flying Tiger program before.   Had she ever mentioned that to him before?  Lahr didn't think so... he'd have remembered, right?

He wondered why she'd never joined in then previous when he'd been going regularly.  It conveniently slipped his mind that he'd started the program back when she was on the Discovery.. and that he'd dropped off from the holoprogram not long after she returned to Challenger.  To Lahr the time when she was Captain, blended almost seamlessly to the present.   His mind skipped over the depressing time when he'd been without her on the ship.

"I'll hold you to that." Lahr called out as Ruth was heading off to her counselor visit.  While he didn't trust the shrinks not to mess him up more, he hoped that what ever was bothering her would be helped by her talking it out with them.

[....]

[Bridge - USS Challenger]

As is typical in deep space, everything was fine, until it wasn't. One minute the Heidi Schwebach was cruising along side her escort as she was supposed to do, the next, she sheered off course sharply and emitted an inverse graviton burst through her main deflector. The Challenger staggered as the graviton burst disrupted her warp field and dropped out of warp. Fortunately, although strained to their maximum capacity, the inertia dampeners prevented serious casualties at the ship lurched back into Einsteinian space.

Throughout the Challenger, alarms sounded on the bridge, but especially in engineering. Lieutenant Tharn was one of those thrown to the deck by the sudden deceleration and was spewing invectives like only a Tellerite could as she lurched to her feet barking orders.

Ian burst out of his ready room and growled.

"Report!"

Lahr, belted into his seat as standard practice, wasn't throw to the floor as he might otherwise been.  His appreciation for Lek's engineering team that had installed them a year or so ago came to mind briefly before he turned his attention to his console to answer the Captain.

"Nothing coming up on security checks, not even a possible saboteur.  Wish me to increase security threat level just incase?" Silver called out waiting for someone to answer to tell him what to do.

The Andorian's antenna swivelled towards the first voice to speak.  The new sec/tac officer - a Mugato of all species.  The guy (?) seemed on the ball if a little over eager speaking out when his role had been noted as to just observe and not do anything unless directed.

[Bridge - USS Challenger]

Ian's head whipped toward the first voice that had spoken and frowned. An ensign, he hadn't met before, but based on the fact the voice belonged to a Mugato, it could only be Ensign Silverback. Normally, he would have said something, but, knowing T'Kel as well as he did, he knew he didn't have to say anything. She would handle an exuberant ensign speaking out of turn. As Ian was working through those thoughts, T'Kel rose from the command chair to move to tactical, which in turn had Chief Blackfeather shift to the console Silverback was manning with an unspoken look that said it was time for the ensign to yield the station to the NCO. As this was going on, T'Kel spoke in her usual measured tone.

"Captain, we've been attacked by the Heidi Schwebach-"

"We were attacked by a freighter?" Ian interrupted, which didn't throw T'Kel off in the slightest, she simply continuing from where she left off."

"-with an inverse graviton burst. This action did not result in damage, but it did destabilize our warp field and drop us to sublight. Lieutenant Tharn in is the process of recalibrating the engines and says it will be another one minute and seventeen point six seconds before we can go to warp."

Ian processed this as he moved to the command seat.

"What the hell is going on over there? Even with a head start, that freighter has no hope of outrunnin' the Challenger. Are they answerin' hails?"

"No response Sir. They are moving at their emergency speed on a course of 147 mark 29. Only thing on sensors in that direction is a small asteroid field, not even large enough to conceal a ship of that size."

"Very well Lieutenant. Bring us to yellow alert have the transporter room ready to beam over a security team and prepare the tractors."

Ian turned back to face the viewscreen showing the rapidly shrinking freighter.

"Helm, make your course 147 mark 29 and take us to warp eight as soon as engineering says you can."

Ian only half listened to the 'Aye Sir' responses as he stared at the retreating Schwebach.

"What in the bloody hell is goin' on over there?"

He murmured and continued to stare.

T'Kel turned at her station to face Silverback, and while no emotions showed on her face, which was no surprise for a Vulcan. Going by how firmly her lips were pressed together, it was clear she was not pleased.

"Ensign. Report to the armory on deck nine."

Lahr's station received the same sensor feeds as T'Kel's but as typical the Vulcan was quicker at mentally processing what she read to report it out.   Lahr's antenna twitched in annoyance.  He tried to sift through the data to see if there was anything the Sec/Tac officer might of have missed reporting out that could be of interest to the Captain, but the Vulcan was thorough.   Giving up on the external sensors, Lahr turned his attention to the internal now to be sure there was no aftereffect on the power systems.

Sit and watch.  It seemed that was all he was good for these days.  For brief moment the Andorian missed the activity of Sec/Tac.   Then an image of M'lenda in her last moments, pouncing on the fighter pilot protecting him while she took the brunt of a grenade flashed into his mind.   No.  There was a reason why he'd left that department.

[Bridge]

"What gives?" she said, barely out of breath, almost at the same time as Ian got out of the Ready Room.

Ruth looked and blinked at the fact that there appeared to be a Mugato on the Bridge... shaking her head and walking to the command island.  Well she didn't want to argue with him and preferred he was on their side in a fight!

Ruth was grateful she'd left the Sickbay when she did, and that she had particularly good balance even so the jolt that the Challenger had received, but she'd still had to hold on.

Sitting in her chair she turned to Ian.  "Never a dull moment, eh?!" she said pulling a face and rolling her eyes.  "Who's the culprit this time?"

Lahr's thoughts of his fallen friend were interrupted as Ruth arrived on the Bridge and took her seat.   Lahr glanced back towards the commander officer that had helped convince him not to quit the Fleet two years prior.   He wondered if she could pull off the same miracle again and if he even wanted her to.

Setting aside his discontent, Lahr tried to answer Ruth before the Vulcan could.  "It seems to be the Heidi Schwebach, ma'am". Lahr repeated the information T'Kel had reported out moments before.   Lahr had nothing new to add.

[Ian Galloway]

[Bridge]

"What gives?" she said, barely out of breath, almost at the same time as Ian got out of the Ready Room.

Ruth looked and blinked at the fact that there appeared to be a Mugato on the Bridge... shaking her head and walking to the command island.  Well she didn't want to argue with him and preferred he was on their side in a fight!

Ruth was grateful she'd left the Sickbay when she did, and that she had particularly good balance even so the jolt that the Challenger had received, but she'd still had to hold on.

Sitting in her chair she turned to Ian.  "Never a dull moment, eh?!" she said pulling a face and rolling her eyes.  "Who's the culprit this time?"

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

Lahr's antenna flicked back in surprise in learning that Ruth had done the Flying Tiger program before.   Had she ever mentioned that to him before?  Lahr didn't think so... he'd have remembered, right?

He wondered why she'd never joined in then previous when he'd been going regularly.  It conveniently slipped his mind that he'd started the program back when she was on the Discovery.. and that he'd dropped off from the holoprogram not long after she returned to Challenger.  To Lahr the time when she was Captain, blended almost seamlessly to the present.   His mind skipped over the depressing time when he'd been without her on the ship.

"I'll hold you to that." Lahr called out as Ruth was heading off to her counselor visit.  While he didn't trust the shrinks not to mess him up more, he hoped that what ever was bothering her would be helped by her talking it out with them.

[....]

Lahr, belted into his seat as standard practice, wasn't throw to the floor as he might otherwise been.  His appreciation for Lek's engineering team that had installed them a year or so ago came to mind briefly before he turned his attention to his console to answer the Captain.

The Andorian's antenna swivelled towards the first voice to speak.  The new sec/tac officer - a Mugato of all species.  The guy (?) seemed on the ball if a little over eager speaking out when his role had been noted as to just observe and not do anything unless directed.

Lahr's station received the same sensor feeds as T'Kel's but as typical the Vulcan was quicker at mentally processing what she read to report it out.   Lahr's antenna twitched in annoyance.  He tried to sift through the data to see if there was anything the Sec/Tac officer might of have missed reporting out that could be of interest to the Captain, but the Vulcan was thorough.   Giving up on the external sensors, Lahr turned his attention to the internal now to be sure there was no aftereffect on the power systems.

Sit and watch.  It seemed that was all he was good for these days.  For brief moment the Andorian missed the activity of Sec/Tac.   Then an image of M'lenda in her last moments, pouncing on the fighter pilot protecting him while she took the brunt of a grenade flashed into his mind.   No.  There was a reason why he'd left that department.

Lahr's thoughts of his fallen friend were interrupted as Ruth arrived on the Bridge and took her seat.   Lahr glanced back towards the commander officer that had helped convince him not to quit the Fleet two years prior.   He wondered if she could pull off the same miracle again and if he even wanted her to.

Setting aside his discontent, Lahr tried to answer Ruth before the Vulcan could.  "It seems to be the Heidi Schwebach, ma'am". Lahr repeated the information T'Kel had reported out moments before.   Lahr had nothing new to add.

[Bridge - USS Challenger]

As Ruth returned to the bridge and Lahr responded, it gave Ian time to gather his thoughts before he replied.

"Bugger all if'n I ken Commander, the freighter we were escortin' decided ta hit us with an inverse graviton pulse that knocked out of warp then made a run for it. Why? No one knows as they are nae respondin' ta hails."

"Excuse me Captain, but engineering reports we have warp capability again."

T'Kal reported.

"Very good Lieutenant. Helm, as stated, your course is 147 mark 29, warp eight."

The Challenger gathered herself and left Einsteinian space behind to pursue the fleeing Heidi Schwebach. As the freighter's maximum speed was warp seven, a speed she could only hold for six hours, it wasn't a question of catching the errant vessel, it was figuring out what caused her to take the actions she had taken.

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

[Aboard the Natalie Chatham]

Derek stood by and watched the formalities unfold. Part of him was impatient and thought they were wasting time but he knew things needed to be planned out. You couldn't just rush in. Especially in situations like the one they currently found themselves in. Once they finished, some of the others began moving off. Derek turned his attention to the Engineering officer that had been introduced as Navar Glagh.

"While the head honchos talk details, would it be possible to get a look at your systems? Maybe we could come up with something." he asked.

[Bridge - SS Natalie Chatham]

The Tellerite female chief engineer eyed Derek with suspicion as most engineers, and any Tellerite, would do.

"Exactly what do you intend to 'come up with?'"

[Jettis Jyur]

[Bridge - SS Natalie Chatham]

The Liberty-Class was an old design that most Starfleet officers, except for a few of the longest serving, had never seen, so the large bridge was a surprise to the away team. Usually, the bridge on a freighter was a small, cramped thing as most civilian ships put every ton of design possible into payload, the crew's comfort was rarely a consideration. The Chatham's bridge was large enough that it wasn't cramped at all and was very reminiscent of one of the early classes of Starfleet ships.

Captain Rybeck was a friendly sort speaking highly of his time aboard the ship and how the disappearance of the Planitia Deriedi was so unusual. When informed of Jettis' findings that the collier was visible inside the ion storm, but somehow trapped, he was even more intrigued.

"Engines running a full speed, but unable to move? Almost sounds like an insect trapped in amber. Clearly we won't be able to enter the storm or we risk getting stuck ourselves. The owners won't like the delay in transit, but they'd like us getting trapped or losing their cargo even less, so we wait this thing out. My question to you Lieutenant is, if you only have four hours, what are you going to do to get them out. I have the luxury of waiting, you don't."

[Natalie Chatham - Bridge]

Jettis nodded, pausing at the man's statement. It wasn't anything remarkable, it was actually a very reasonable question from the Captain. But Jettis found himself at a humiliating loss, like a deer caught in the headlights. He was a science guy - he had been relegated to a Lieutenant rank for a reason.  The whole leader thing was... strange to him. He was quiet, reserved and observant. He thought about his ideas for a long time before he finally voiced them - he didn't just throw out snippets of a plan like he'd seen most Commanders do. Because in the moment you don't always get the luxury of having a plan, you just have to jump.

That tight knot of fear that kept resurfacing gripped him again, as he was thankfully interrupted by the away team members each requesting some sort of information to work with. He gave a tert nod, waiting for the Captain's answer, doubt seeping into his thoughts. He panicked, feeling like the judgemental eyes of the whole crew was on him, grimacing at all his flaws and incapabilities.

I guess I'm starting to doubt myself.

Jettis felt a pang of deja vu hit him, searching his brain for why the feeling suddenly flooded him. A feminine voice rang in his ears, recollection washing over him.

Bonnie looked at Jettis, letting out a small sigh and going pink in the face. "Well, maybe I am... I- I guess I'm starting to doubt myself." She paused for a moment, taking a deep breath. "Maybe it's just me, but I'm starting to think that people are doubting me in the department. I've heard mumbles about it... I just don't really know what to do about it." To a degree, Bonnie was probably paranoid. She could hear one thing and perceive everything else as the first thing she heard which could make it seem worse. However, Bonnie had definitely heard things about it, and she just wasn't exactly sure what it was about .

Jettis shot the officer a gentle smile. "First of all, don't ever let doubt stop you. I don't know you very well, but you seem very capable to me, and if anyone is worthy of the position it's you." He shot her an encouraging smile, or at least that was the attempt. Unsteepling his fingers, he leaned his arms against the table, intense gaze meeting hers.

"Even if they are questioning if, give them a reason not to. And it's easier said than done, I know, but actions speak louder than words." He leaned back in his chair, averting his eyes. "If you can prove that you have good judgement, nobody would be able to take that away from you." Shooting her another encouraging smile, he gave a side glance towards Theresa. Even if this peptalk didn't help Bonnie at all, he taught his daughter a valuable lesson. Should she ever decide to join Starfleet, he knew she'd have to face the same doubts at some point. Maybe his words would make a difference.

Theresa, before had been blatantly listening in on the conversation, but at getting caught, glanced back down with a flushed face.

"And, say, worst case scenario the rumors are true, and you aren't fit for your position. You can always improve, whether you're an ensign or a commander. If maybe now you're not ready, in a year you will be, and this position will have been a learning experience." He paused, smirking and shooting a wink. "But we both know that isn't true, because the Captain is always right, huh?"

Jettis felt a lot of emotion, recalling his conversation with his fellow science officer. Memories he'd for the most part, tried to forget. It only left him with bittersweetness, about the end of that friendship. How she'd doubted herself, despite proving her capabilities again and again. He remembered how bad he'd felt, that she somehow still felt she wasn't living up to her duties. Maybe Jettis needed to take his own advice, and stop being frozen in fear.
Taking a deep breath, he tried to recenter himself, barely hearing the conversation even going on outside of his head. The Captain's always right.

Turning back to Captain Rybeck, there was a bit more confidence now in his eyes. Perhaps it was feigned - perhaps not. Regardless, he focused back on the situation at hand, and the question that had sparked his introspection.
"Well.. The first order of operations is discovering how close we can get to the phenomenon." He started with a hesitance, but spoke more confidently with each word. The pieces of a plan floated around in his head, as he scrambled to organize his thoughts coherently. "It's unlikely we'd be able use a tractor beam to retrieve the ship, but we could get much more accurate scans if we could take our Shuttle closer to the Deriedi."

Turning, he paused, prepping to address the Engineering officers. He paused, shooting a glance between Derek and Glagh, sensing some tension. The last thing he wanted was any sort of friction between the two crews, but he would allow it to play out for a moment before jumping to intervene. He turned to T'roth.

"The Mjolnir has a small armament of torpedos. How quickly could three be fitted with a tracking device, and fired into the ion storm?" Either officer was free to answer, but it needed to be something easily performed. "If we could have some way to establish communication with the collier, we could also find a way to evacuate them."

[Lagar]

[Bridge - SS Natalie Chatham]

Rybeck, blinked in surprise at Lagar's synthesized voice and stared mouth open for a moment, but closing his mouth and licking his lips. With his head canted to the right, he replied slowly as if uncertain of himself.

"I... uh... I can't say as I have ever heard of whatever you are... uh..." He paused and noted Lagar's rank. "Uh... Lieutenant, but I don't have the manifest for the Deriedi. We're just two ships moving on roughly the same course for protection, of sorts. One ship can get ambushed fairly easily, but it's much harder to do the same to two. I gives both of us a better chance of getting out a distress call than if we travel alone. I can get you our manifest if you still want it, but we don't have any injured."

Lieutenant jg Lagar
[Bridge - SS Natalie Chatham]

"You don't have any injured yet, Sir." the robotic voice clarified, as the Phylosian moved forward to a computer station, four legs each shifting and twisting in their usual bending fashion. It might be a bit startling to see the thing move with a swiftness one didn't typically attribute to"¦ trees. "I misunderstood the relationship between the two vessels, thank you for correcting my mistake." Lagar moved to download and briefly review the manifest data,  all part of being prepared, in his mind. He also sought out and downloaded information on the ship's available medical equipment, and the ships' emergency medical procedures including a location to move casualties and perform triage. Some ships were lax about updating this kind of information, but he had no reason yet to expect Captain Rybeck was a lax captain.

[Bridge - SS Natalie Chatham]

Turning to face Koroz, it was clear Rybeck was more comfortable with Klingons than trees that could talk. He waved to get the attention of one of his crew.

"Certainly. Phillips here will help you establish the link. It's a bit tricky getting duotronics to talk to isolinear systems."

NPC Petty Officer Koroz
[Bridge - SS Natalie Chatham]

Koroz found himself needing to stifle a feeling of jealousy as Lagar received the reaction Koroz expected for himself. He followed this Phil Lips, and cooperated with them to make the communications link. It was indeed a bit of a challenge, as Captain Rybeck had suggested, but Koroz was no slouch in this department. With a little help from his tricorder and some fiddling with older code, Koroz created the link he desired. His away team should be able to communicate with the Mjolnir's on-board computer, and send stronger signals back to the Challenger. His work to link the two systems may even make it possible to try to communicate with the en-stormed collier, but first, a test was necessary. Koroz worked to send back an away team update to the Challenger, as was procedure.

"Petty Officer Koroz of the away team on the Natalie Chatham, calling the Challenger. We've are on the freighter, and are beginning our work. All is well on our side, confirm that you read us"¦" He halted. He had missed throwing in a customary "˜please' into the sentence somewhere. A little politeness in the Federation went a long way, he had been taught.  "Please."

[Hanir Seph]

[Sickbay]

Ruth blinked deeply twice and gave Hanir a look of incredulous disbelief.

"Counsellor, I've seen several different methods of counsel over the years I've served but not one of my counsellors has ever said 'shrug and get on with it'.  Certainly there is a degree of that involved in becoming qualified to command, but generally it's for the purposes of being able to deal with the situation at hand, at the time... not when you have the leisure of processing the situation afterwards.  I have found that the more I repress, then the more unstable the person becomes.  And no, they don't teach us it at 'Command School' as you put it.  It comes with experience, and I can guarantee that for all you'll hear Captain Galloway letting out curses in Gaelic and calling people like the Romulan we encountered recently, Thelal some erm... choice epithets, he will have moments of self-doubt, moments he just wonders 'why me'.  Different people deal with things in different ways, and recently my method of dealing with things has been a combination of pushing it down deep inside me or going onto the Holodeck and killing things with extreme prejudice!"

She omitted to say since Lisa was standing right there that she'd overridden the safety protocols.  It surprised her in the back of her brain that she was more worried about what Lisa would say than this new counsellor who by the sound of things wouldn't say boo to a goose.

"Oh and since we're on the subject of address, Counsellor..." she stressed it because it had annoyed her slightly that it seemed that the counsellor wanted her to just take an attitude of 'suck it up, Buttercup!'  "...you do not address me as 'XO' but as Commander, Ma'am or when given permission to, Ruth."

"I have specifically taken an hour of personal time, and the Captain graciously gave me leave to come and discuss things with you, the least you could do is you job.  I have a couple of things to say to Dr. Belmont, but I'll give you 5 minutes to prepare, I'll take a Ratkajino and see you there soon."

She thought she'd give the young woman time to compose herself after the dressing down she'd just given her and a chance to redeem herself.

"Dinner, with himself, whenever you're free?  We'll catch up, and there's also the thing I need to chat to you or Gemma about but I'd prefer it was you since well... it's something I'd rather keep close.  We'll see if we can't chat to a certain XO of Katra while you're there!"

Ruth relented and gave a sigh.  "Sorry Hanir, I let my professional side slide a bit before, but see that's one of the reasons I need you.  Well consider me a visitor.  Shall we go into your office.  If you get that coffee, I'll take the chance to have one while I can!" 

She gave a smile and turned to Lisa.  "I'll chat to the Counsellor first then come find you or make an appointment to see you as the other thing is probably going to take longer than a 5 mins quick chat but... so you can do some digging, prep whatever you want to call it all I'll say is Andorians, humans... children..."

Ruth had followed Hanir into her office and started chatting, they'd cleared up a few things and agreed to meet again at a later date to continue the discussion when the alarms started blaring.

Ruth felt a little sorry for the Counsellor even if privately thinking she was a bit of a wet blanket.

"It does indeed.  I shall return!"

"Lisa, will have to take a raincheck on that chat, and before you think it, no, I'm not!.." she said running to the nearest Turbolift and realising her cryptic message before Lisa might think she was pregnant!  Chuckling to herself she thought, 'Yes, Hanir... we can put out brave faces on and get on with it... sometimes... but eventually they'll snap.'

[USS Challenger-A | Sickbay retroactively posting to be just before leaving Sickbay for Armory]

"Um..."

Hanir stood there, quietly aware of the dressing down Commander Sigurdsdottir was giving her. It was not the first, nor the last time that she had been lectured and she stood there stoically, like a rock withstanding a torrent of water in a river. Having earned the First Officer's ire. No, The Commander's ire, she resigned herself to extra duty scrubbing decks with a toothbrush. As Enlisted personnel, she couldn't resign, but she was also quite aware that fitness reports were constantly being written and prepared herself to also be transferred to the far end of the quadrant.

Eventually retreating into her office, Hanir could only woodenly start every sentence with well, Commander... She wasn't sure what they spoke about, only that The Commander seemed apparently somewhat mollified, though she kept talking for most of the session. Hanir barely registered it, having effectively shrunk in on herself psychologically as a defence mechanism, much as a turtle retreating into its shell. Eventually (and gratefully), the hour was over and The Commander left as duty called.

[Ian Galloway]

[Natalie Chatham - Bridge]

Jettis nodded, pausing at the man's statement. It wasn't anything remarkable, it was actually a very reasonable question from the Captain. But Jettis found himself at a humiliating loss, like a deer caught in the headlights. He was a science guy - he had been relegated to a Lieutenant rank for a reason.  The whole leader thing was... strange to him. He was quiet, reserved and observant. He thought about his ideas for a long time before he finally voiced them - he didn't just throw out snippets of a plan like he'd seen most Commanders do. Because in the moment you don't always get the luxury of having a plan, you just have to jump.

That tight knot of fear that kept resurfacing gripped him again, as he was thankfully interrupted by the away team members each requesting some sort of information to work with. He gave a tert nod, waiting for the Captain's answer, doubt seeping into his thoughts. He panicked, feeling like the judgemental eyes of the whole crew was on him, grimacing at all his flaws and incapabilities.

I guess I'm starting to doubt myself.

Jettis felt a pang of deja vu hit him, searching his brain for why the feeling suddenly flooded him. A feminine voice rang in his ears, recollection washing over him.

Bonnie looked at Jettis, letting out a small sigh and going pink in the face. "Well, maybe I am... I- I guess I'm starting to doubt myself." She paused for a moment, taking a deep breath. "Maybe it's just me, but I'm starting to think that people are doubting me in the department. I've heard mumbles about it... I just don't really know what to do about it." To a degree, Bonnie was probably paranoid. She could hear one thing and perceive everything else as the first thing she heard which could make it seem worse. However, Bonnie had definitely heard things about it, and she just wasn't exactly sure what it was about .

Jettis shot the officer a gentle smile. "First of all, don't ever let doubt stop you. I don't know you very well, but you seem very capable to me, and if anyone is worthy of the position it's you." He shot her an encouraging smile, or at least that was the attempt. Unsteepling his fingers, he leaned his arms against the table, intense gaze meeting hers.

"Even if they are questioning if, give them a reason not to. And it's easier said than done, I know, but actions speak louder than words." He leaned back in his chair, averting his eyes. "If you can prove that you have good judgement, nobody would be able to take that away from you." Shooting her another encouraging smile, he gave a side glance towards Theresa. Even if this peptalk didn't help Bonnie at all, he taught his daughter a valuable lesson. Should she ever decide to join Starfleet, he knew she'd have to face the same doubts at some point. Maybe his words would make a difference.

Theresa, before had been blatantly listening in on the conversation, but at getting caught, glanced back down with a flushed face.

"And, say, worst case scenario the rumors are true, and you aren't fit for your position. You can always improve, whether you're an ensign or a commander. If maybe now you're not ready, in a year you will be, and this position will have been a learning experience." He paused, smirking and shooting a wink. "But we both know that isn't true, because the Captain is always right, huh?"

Jettis felt a lot of emotion, recalling his conversation with his fellow science officer. Memories he'd for the most part, tried to forget. It only left him with bittersweetness, about the end of that friendship. How she'd doubted herself, despite proving her capabilities again and again. He remembered how bad he'd felt, that she somehow still felt she wasn't living up to her duties. Maybe Jettis needed to take his own advice, and stop being frozen in fear.
Taking a deep breath, he tried to recenter himself, barely hearing the conversation even going on outside of his head. The Captain's always right.

Turning back to Captain Rybeck, there was a bit more confidence now in his eyes. Perhaps it was feigned - perhaps not. Regardless, he focused back on the situation at hand, and the question that had sparked his introspection.
"Well.. The first order of operations is discovering how close we can get to the phenomenon." He started with a hesitance, but spoke more confidently with each word. The pieces of a plan floated around in his head, as he scrambled to organize his thoughts coherently. "It's unlikely we'd be able use a tractor beam to retrieve the ship, but we could get much more accurate scans if we could take our Shuttle closer to the Deriedi."

Turning, he paused, prepping to address the Engineering officers. He paused, shooting a glance between Derek and Glagh, sensing some tension. The last thing he wanted was any sort of friction between the two crews, but he would allow it to play out for a moment before jumping to intervene. He turned to T'roth.

"The Mjolnir has a small armament of torpedos. How quickly could three be fitted with a tracking device, and fired into the ion storm?" Either officer was free to answer, but it needed to be something easily performed. "If we could have some way to establish communication with the collier, we could also find a way to evacuate them."

[Bridge - SS Natalie Chatham]

T'Roth with typical infuriating Vulcan precision replied without hesitation.

"17.8 minutes per torpedo Sir, plus a small variance to switch between weapons and set up for a total of 21.3 minutes each for one person. Given the small area within the Mjolnir's weapon bay, no more than two people could work at one time. With two people, total time would 17.8 minutes for the first two, with the third requiring an additional 10.65 minutes."

Lieutenant jg Lagar
[Bridge - SS Natalie Chatham]

"You don't have any injured yet, Sir." the robotic voice clarified, as the Phylosian moved forward to a computer station, four legs each shifting and twisting in their usual bending fashion. It might be a bit startling to see the thing move with a swiftness one didn't typically attribute to"¦ trees. "I misunderstood the relationship between the two vessels, thank you for correcting my mistake." Lagar moved to download and briefly review the manifest data,  all part of being prepared, in his mind. He also sought out and downloaded information on the ship's available medical equipment, and the ships' emergency medical procedures including a location to move casualties and perform triage. Some ships were lax about updating this kind of information, but he had no reason yet to expect Captain Rybeck was a lax captain.

NPC Petty Officer Koroz
[Bridge - SS Natalie Chatham]

Koroz found himself needing to stifle a feeling of jealousy as Lagar received the reaction Koroz expected for himself. He followed this Phil Lips, and cooperated with them to make the communications link. It was indeed a bit of a challenge, as Captain Rybeck had suggested, but Koroz was no slouch in this department. With a little help from his tricorder and some fiddling with older code, Koroz created the link he desired. His away team should be able to communicate with the Mjolnir's on-board computer, and send stronger signals back to the Challenger. His work to link the two systems may even make it possible to try to communicate with the en-stormed collier, but first, a test was necessary. Koroz worked to send back an away team update to the Challenger, as was procedure.

"Petty Officer Koroz of the away team on the Natalie Chatham, calling the Challenger. We've are on the freighter, and are beginning our work. All is well on our side, confirm that you read us"¦" He halted. He had missed throwing in a customary "˜please' into the sentence somewhere. A little politeness in the Federation went a long way, he had been taught.  "Please."

[Bridge - SS Natalie Chatham]

There was a pause as the link between the two divergent technologies established connection before Koroz was rewarded by the always neutral tones of Lieutenant T'Kel.

"SS Natalie Chatham, this is USS Challenger. We confirm acceptable communication link. Understand you have rendezvoused with the freighter and are engaged in assisting them. Report when you have provided the necessary requirements of their distress call."

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

[Bridge - USS Challenger]

Although it was a foregone conclusion that the Challenger would catch the Schwebach, the freighter simplified matters by dropping out of warp and entered the asteroid field previously detected on her course. Despite the fact that the field was too small to hide the ship, it was quickly discovered that a large portion of the asteroids had a significant quantity of Jakmantite, a rare radioactive mineral that scattered sensors. This new bit of information meant that while the field wasn't physically large enough to hide the freighter, the composition of the field was doing a surprising good job of concealing her.

"Full stop."

Ian ordered on hearing T'Kel's report on the ineffectiveness of the sensors. He took a deep breath and frowned. He scanned the bridge and asked.

"Whoever is responsible for what appears ta be a hijackin', they are clever buggers and have us lookin' like right proper horse's arses. Options?"

[Vasilisa Belmont]

[USS Challenger-A | Sickbay]

"My shift is still ongoing, but I have no visitors. They prefer not to think of themselves as patients." Hanir replied with a look at Lisa, her lips twitching. The two of them were forming a good dynamic, though Hanir still couldn't quite get her head around the fact Lisa treated her as an equal. "I was doing some studying, but please, my mind is full right now. I'm all... Whoever needs me can have me." She bowed theatrically at the two professionals.

[Quote by Ian Galloway]

[Bridge - USS Challenger]

As is typical in deep space, everything was fine, until it wasn't. One minute the Heidi Schwebach was cruising along side her escort as she was supposed to do, the next, she sheered off course sharply and emitted an inverse graviton burst through her main deflector. The Challenger staggered as the graviton burst disrupted her warp field and dropped out of warp. Fortunately, although strained to their maximum capacity, the inertia dampeners prevented serious casualties at the ship lurched back into Einsteinian space.

Throughout the Challenger, alarms sounded on the bridge, but especially in engineering. Lieutenant Tharn was one of those thrown to the deck by the sudden deceleration and was spewing invectives like only a Tellerite could as she lurched to her feet barking orders.

Ian burst out of his ready room and growled.

"Report!"

[Bridge - Earlier]

Ruth let out a chuckle.  "Flying Tigers?  I think I have done that program before.  Heck I think even Hrafn gave it a go and that surprised the Captain.  Mind that woman has more fire in her than people think!  Sometime when I'm not so busy, I'll have to show you how I fly!"

[Sickbay]

Ruth blinked deeply twice and gave Hanir a look of incredulous disbelief.

"Counsellor, I've seen several different methods of counsel over the years I've served but not one of my counsellors has ever said 'shrug and get on with it'.  Certainly there is a degree of that involved in becoming qualified to command, but generally it's for the purposes of being able to deal with the situation at hand, at the time... not when you have the leisure of processing the situation afterwards.  I have found that the more I repress, then the more unstable the person becomes.  And no, they don't teach us it at 'Command School' as you put it.  It comes with experience, and I can guarantee that for all you'll hear Captain Galloway letting out curses in Gaelic and calling people like the Romulan we encountered recently, Thelal some erm... choice epithets, he will have moments of self-doubt, moments he just wonders 'why me'.  Different people deal with things in different ways, and recently my method of dealing with things has been a combination of pushing it down deep inside me or going onto the Holodeck and killing things with extreme prejudice!"

She omitted to say since Lisa was standing right there that she'd overridden the safety protocols.  It surprised her in the back of her brain that she was more worried about what Lisa would say than this new counsellor who by the sound of things wouldn't say boo to a goose.

"Oh and since we're on the subject of address, Counsellor..." she stressed it because it had annoyed her slightly that it seemed that the counsellor wanted her to just take an attitude of 'suck it up, Buttercup!'  "...you do not address me as 'XO' but as Commander, Ma'am or when given permission to, Ruth."

"I have specifically taken an hour of personal time, and the Captain graciously gave me leave to come and discuss things with you, the least you could do is you job.  I have a couple of things to say to Dr. Belmont, but I'll give you 5 minutes to prepare, I'll take a Ratkajino and see you there soon."

She thought she'd give the young woman time to compose herself after the dressing down she'd just given her and a chance to redeem herself.

"Dinner, with himself, whenever you're free?  We'll catch up, and there's also the thing I need to chat to you or Gemma about but I'd prefer it was you since well... it's something I'd rather keep close.  We'll see if we can't chat to a certain XO of Katra while you're there!"

Ruth relented and gave a sigh.  "Sorry Hanir, I let my professional side slide a bit before, but see that's one of the reasons I need you.  Well consider me a visitor.  Shall we go into your office.  If you get that coffee, I'll take the chance to have one while I can!" 

She gave a smile and turned to Lisa.  "I'll chat to the Counsellor first then come find you or make an appointment to see you as the other thing is probably going to take longer than a 5 mins quick chat but... so you can do some digging, prep whatever you want to call it all I'll say is Andorians, humans... children..."

Ruth had followed Hanir into her office and started chatting, they'd cleared up a few things and agreed to meet again at a later date to continue the discussion when the alarms started blaring.

Ruth felt a little sorry for the Counsellor even if privately thinking she was a bit of a wet blanket.

"It does indeed.  I shall return!"

"Lisa, will have to take a raincheck on that chat, and before you think it, no, I'm not!.." she said running to the nearest Turbolift and realising her cryptic message before Lisa might think she was pregnant!  Chuckling to herself she thought, 'Yes, Hanir... we can put out brave faces on and get on with it... sometimes... but eventually they'll snap.'

[Bridge]

"What gives?" she said, barely out of breath, almost at the same time as Ian got out of the Ready Room.

Ruth looked and blinked at the fact that there appeared to be a Mugato on the Bridge... shaking her head and walking to the command island.  Well she didn't want to argue with him and preferred he was on their side in a fight!

Ruth was grateful she'd left the Sickbay when she did, and that she had particularly good balance even so the jolt that the Challenger had received, but she'd still had to hold on.

Sitting in her chair she turned to Ian.  "Never a dull moment, eh?!" she said pulling a face and rolling her eyes.  "Who's the culprit this time?"

[Sickbay - USS Challenger]

Lisa cringed a little as there seemed to be a difference in either personality or general job experience between Hanir and Ruth. She knew the counselor hadn't intended to offend, and she probably didn't want to have such a grand discussion as Ruth was having. She also knew the XO certainly didn't intend to make Hanir feel bad. When the uncomfortable conversation had ended, she broke out of her thoughts and cleared her throat to join in.

"We can definitely chat! Over dinner, coffee, with or without Kyle or Gemma, anytime," she said eagerly. "Bring Lahr around if you think it'll help," she offered. Ruth had the luxury of having her significant other close by, so any problems they could possibly have can be discussed easily. Not that she and Kyle were having problems, but she still wished he were closer. She contemplated this as Ruth apologized to Hanir, then listened again as she was addressed once more. Her mouth almost dropped at the concluding remark, but she kept her cool. She suddenly felt that her suggestion of having Lahr join her in a session was a very good one.

Minutes later, the ship was rocked. Her fall certainly wasn't graceful, but she had managed to do it without hurting herself. Much like the captain, she asked her team to report and she was immediately notified of all the cases where people had worse luck than she did in their fall. Ruth left hurriedly with a rather cryptic message, and Lisa raised an eyebrow before jumping in to preparing for an onslaught of patients. They really needed to have a talk soon. If the ship would stop getting into trouble, that is.

The various breaks and bruises were swiftly taken care of, and the ship was on yellow alert. Just another day on the Challenger. The CMO waited until the action had died down, then she went back to keeping an eye on how everyone else was faring. She noticed Hanir had left to join a security detail and was again surprised at how multi-talented her friends were. She wasn't jealous...well maybe a little.

[Derek Rodwell]

[Bridge - SS Natalie Chatham]

The Tellerite female chief engineer eyed Derek with suspicion as most engineers, and any Tellerite, would do.

"Exactly what do you intend to 'come up with?'"

Derek felt the tension from the Tellerite engineer. He got it. Understood. He would fell the same if someone tried coming into his space. But now wasn't the time to see who had the bigger.......engine room.

"Easy there, Jefe." he replied. "I'm not sure what we could come up with. That's why I recommended tackling it togetherrrrr." he added.

[Jettis Jyur]

[Bridge - SS Natalie Chatham]

T'Roth with typical infuriating Vulcan precision replied without hesitation.

"17.8 minutes per torpedo Sir, plus a small variance to switch between weapons and set up for a total of 21.3 minutes each for one person. Given the small area within the Mjolnir's weapon bay, no more than two people could work at one time. With two people, total time would 17.8 minutes for the first two, with the third requiring an additional 10.65 minutes."

[Natalie Chatham - Bridge]

Jettis nodded as the officer responded with a calculated ease. "Then I want them done. We'll comb the area and then bring the Mjolnir in. By our scans the collier was close to 50,000 kilometers in. We need to disrupt the gravity strength enough the Deriedi can pull itself far enough away, and get a tow."

"Lieutenant Rodwell, assist T'Roth in fitting the torpedos, I'll monitor the scans from here. Then we'll enter the storm and try to hail the ship again."

[ShranLahr ch'Verret]

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

[Bridge - USS Challenger]

As Ruth returned to the bridge and Lahr responded, it gave Ian time to gather his thoughts before he replied.

"Bugger all if'n I ken Commander, the freighter we were escortin' decided ta hit us with an inverse graviton pulse that knocked out of warp then made a run for it. Why? No one knows as they are nae respondin' ta hails."

"Excuse me Captain, but engineering reports we have warp capability again."

T'Kal reported.

"Very good Lieutenant. Helm, as stated, your course is 147 mark 29, warp eight."

The Challenger gathered herself and left Einsteinian space behind to pursue the fleeing Heidi Schwebach. As the freighter's maximum speed was warp seven, a speed she could only hold for six hours, it wasn't a question of catching the errant vessel, it was figuring out what caused her to take the actions she had taken.

NPC Petty Officer Koroz
[Bridge - SS Natalie Chatham]

Koroz found himself needing to stifle a feeling of jealousy as Lagar received the reaction Koroz expected for himself. He followed this Phil Lips, and cooperated with them to make the communications link. It was indeed a bit of a challenge, as Captain Rybeck had suggested, but Koroz was no slouch in this department. With a little help from his tricorder and some fiddling with older code, Koroz created the link he desired. His away team should be able to communicate with the Mjolnir's on-board computer, and send stronger signals back to the Challenger. His work to link the two systems may even make it possible to try to communicate with the en-stormed collier, but first, a test was necessary. Koroz worked to send back an away team update to the Challenger, as was procedure.

"Petty Officer Koroz of the away team on the Natalie Chatham, calling the Challenger. We've are on the freighter, and are beginning our work. All is well on our side, confirm that you read us"¦" He halted. He had missed throwing in a customary "˜please' into the sentence somewhere. A little politeness in the Federation went a long way, he had been taught.  "Please."

When the call came in from the Natalie Chatham, Lahr's hand automatically moved to connect the call, but he managed to stop himself, recalling that it was T'Kel who was covering comms of late.

[Bridge - SS Natalie Chatham]

There was a pause as the link between the two divergent technologies established connection before Koroz was rewarded by the always neutral tones of Lieutenant T'Kel.

"SS Natalie Chatham, this is USS Challenger. We confirm acceptable communication link. Understand you have rendezvoused with the freighter and are engaged in assisting them. Report when you have provided the necessary requirements of their distress call."

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

[Bridge - USS Challenger]

Although it was a foregone conclusion that the Challenger would catch the Schwebach, the freighter simplified matters by dropping out of warp and entered the asteroid field previously detected on her course. Despite the fact that the field was too small to hide the ship, it was quickly discovered that a large portion of the asteroids had a significant quantity of Jakmantite, a rare radioactive mineral that scattered sensors. This new bit of information meant that while the field wasn't physically large enough to hide the freighter, the composition of the field was doing a surprising good job of concealing her.

"Full stop."

Ian ordered on hearing T'Kel's report on the ineffectiveness of the sensors. He took a deep breath and frowned. He scanned the bridge and asked.

"Whoever is responsible for what appears ta be a hijackin', they are clever buggers and have us lookin' like right proper horse's arses. Options?"

When the Captain asked for options on how to deal with radioactive mineral that was scattering their sensor readings, Lahr figured that when technology failed you had to go back to basics.   If they couldn't find the ship in the asteroid field then they had to make the asteroid field an inhospitable place to be.

"Maybe we can use the tractor beam to shove some of the large asteroids around more erratically.. stir things up and make it a little less comfortable in there for them to hide." he suggested.