Blindsided

Posted on 03 Jun 2024 @ 10:51am by Commodore Harvey Geisler & Commander Terry Walsh & Commander John Reynolds & Lieutenant Commander Joey Geisler & Lieutenant Commander Camila Di Pasquale & Lieutenant Commander Theodore Marsh III & Lieutenant T’Mari Rael

2,742 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: Shattered Unity
Location: USS Black Hawk
Timeline: June 19, 2390 || 0310 hours

The turbolift doors opened, depositing the Captain and Chief Intelligence Officer on the bridge. The viewscreen, though projecting the familiar swirl of the warp field, also displayed a countdown timer. By its estimation, twenty minutes remained before the Black Hawk would reach Unity's perimeter.

"Captain," said the officer of the watch, a Xehean Lieutenant. He quickly stood up from the command chair and stepped off to the side. "Long range sensors are having trouble picking up anything from Unity and its perimeter. Looks like the area has been flooded with the same radiation that was left around the Gaittithe."

"Well," Harvey said, approaching the center platform, but choosing not to sit, "that's not going to force us to drop out of warp at the outer perimeter. We're not stopping until we're within weapons range of Unity. Play that distress call for me."

"Yes sir," the lieutenant said, pressing a button at the auxiliary station set up behind the command chair.

A crackle filled the bridge's speakers. "This is Starbase Unity," declared Captain Malia Corbin. "We are un... tac... nyone within range... Please hel..." Static overtook the recording for a second before it cut off entirely.

"That's all of it, Captain," said the Xahean. "Jammed at the source."

Harvey frowned, and looked over at Auxiliary I, the station now programmed for Task Group Belvedere's operations. "The Valcour and the Perseus should have heard the distress call too. Have them meet us there, but if they don't hear from us in thirty minutes, then they need to high-tail it to Teplan and regroup. And send word to Gamma Command. Inform them of the situation and our status."

The siren wail of Red Alert rang through Ensign Karn's quarters and he jumped from his bed, reaching for his unform shirt. Serve as the acting Chief of theBlack Hawkexperience he thought as he wrested the uniform over his head and his arms into the sleeves. He shoved his feet into his boots, still stomping as he left his quarters.

Upon reaching the bridge, he saw the Captain and headed over to take over Tactical and pulled up the situation report to see what had gone down. After reading it, he checked the weapons readiness and saw they were already primed and ready to go.

Joey settled at the Intelligence station as she listened to current events. What waited for them was not going to be good. She felt that deep in the pit of her stomach, but hoped that feeling was wrong. And just like moments ago, so many questions plagued her mind. Questions she knew weren't likely to be answered for some time.

T’Mari was sleeping like a baby when the alert awoke her, for a moment she thought she was dreaming before the reality of the moment set in. Getting up she quickly dressed and brushed her hair, putting it into a neat ponytail. Leaving her quarters it wasn’t long before she was stepping out onto the bridge wondering what she’d missed, no doubt she’d find out soon enough.

"Composing the messages now," said the Xahean.

Harvey nodded to the Lieutenant, then took note of T'Mari's arrival. "Counselor," Harvey greeted. "I don't suppose you are familiar with the Gaittithe's survivors? If they're not occupying a bed in sickbay, they all need to be put to work."

“The survivors, Yes Sir” T’Mari nodded. “In total we recovered 198 from the Gaittithe, more than 30 of those are in a critical, life-threatening condition. That still leaves us with plenty of able bodied crew.”

"Great," Harvey replied. Truthfully, it really wasn't great as there was not much one could do aboard a ship in moments like this. But doing something would be better than feeling helpless. "Run through that manifest. Anyone listed as security, have them report to Ensign Karn for assignment. Anyone else, find a place for them."

“Understood Captain” T’Mari nodded. “Are we looking for them to fill temporary positions, or are we offering them a home? I’ll need to be able to tell them one way or another.”

"For now it's temporary," Harvey replied. "As much as I want to promise them a home, the situation is a bit beyond my control at the moment."

“Of course Captain” T’Mari smiled and nodded. “I’ll fit people where we need them for now.”

The Captain nodded. "Good," he said. "Crises like these are good at bonding crewmates and uniforms together. I'm sorry that it has to be for multiple events so close together."

John had been very happy to finally get some sleep. He'd spent the first few hours before bed making a temporary spot for Mojo to sleep. The chimp seemed content with it and had fallen asleep fast. But the klaxon had eventually woken him from his deep sleep, followed by the orders. John rolled out of bed and put on a uniform before heading to the Bridge.

Upon entering, he saw that he wasn't one of the ones to arrive early. He brushed it off to the side and took his place at the Captain's side while listening to exchange he'd walked in on.

The Captain nodded to the XO, saying, "Distress call from Unity, under attack by something." Harvey then turned to Ensign Karn. "We'll drop out in weapons range of Unity. I have no idea what we're up against, but we need to be ready."

"Torpedo bays are loaded and phasers are online, Captain," Karn reported. "Shields at maximum."

"Commander Geisler," Harvey said, calling from the center seat, "Do we have any friendlies at Unity? I know we can't scan ahead, but there should be information in the database."

Joey pulled up the database on her console. "We do, Captain. California class USS Oakland, California class USS Irvine, Parliament class USS Bamaass and Steamrunner class USS Holtrame," she answered. "No information on whether those ships have a full roster, but I'm assuming that they are."

"Doesn't matter if they have a full roster or not," Harvey said, looking to Reynolds. "If Unity's putting out a distress call, that means they're overpowering the support ships too, especially since those ships aren't really cut out for defense."
He shook his head and added, "This can't be pirates, this is too big. All that's left out here is Dominion. But that can't be right."

"Way too big for pirate ships," said John. "Just because we haven't heard anything from the Dominion doesn't mean they can't be pulling the strings behind the scenes. Wouldn't be the first time."


* * *

Twenty minutes seemed to pass by slowly. Every hail the Black Hawk attempted went unanswered. Sensors remained to be ineffective against the radiation that had quickly flooded Unity's perimeter. The best any of the bridge crew could tell, however, communications were working again. Well, at least they were working if attempting to transmit behind the Black Hawk. Anything ahead of the Akira-class vessel, however, did not respond.

At last, the helmsman announced that they were just about at their destination. Harvey shifted in his seat and leaned forward. This was it. Time to find out what happened. "All hands, standby. Get ready to report sensor data. Helm, take us out of warp. Let's go full impulse."

"Aye, Captain."

Sparks flew from multiple locations throughout the bridge as the floor dropped out from underneath the crew. Collision alarms sounded from every speaker. "Evasive maneuvers!" shouted the Captain, doing his best to hold onto the chair. His eyes maintained their forward fixation on the viewscreen. The familiar warp trails were gone.

A field of debris is what replaced them. And no signs that a battle was still in progress.

T’Mari gasped aloud as the floor dropped out beneath her feet, counting her blessings that the shields were in place to protect not just herself but the entire bridge crew. She looked up at the viewscreen seeing the field of debris, exchanging glances with Geisler. “I’m not sensing anyone close by.”

Karn looked at the destruction on the screen in front of him, feeling the blood running from his face right before his feet left the deck. He landed hard and grabbed the console and launched a active sensor scan on the base's remains and the system, hoping that the Counselor was wrong. "Scanning for survivors, Captain." His voice sounded uncertain despite his efforts to keep it neutral.

"Check first for targets," Harvey ordered to Karn as the floor stabilized He hated hearing the possibility that there were no survivors just as much as he hated looking for them first thing. But he could not risk the lives aboard the Black Hawk in case the attacker was still close by. "Joey, status on the support vessels? And someone get me a damage report!"

“I can’t sense anyone in the area of the debris Captain” T’Mari gave Harvey a neutral look. “I could try and be more precise about the base, but emotions aboard ship are running high right now.”

Joey was too busy staring at the debris field on the viewscreen that it didn't immediately register that Harvey had asked her a question. She swallowed and looked to her console once more, moving her fingers over the display. "The support vessels are present, Captain," she said as a wave of nausea hit her. Who could have pulled something like this off? "They're part of what we see before us."

Harvey was forced to use what little energy he had to keep himself from sinking into his chair. "My god..." he muttered. It was not a reaction to Joey's comment, even though he did hear it and register it. His eyes had locked onto the asteroid and the installation built upon it.

At least, what was left of the base.

"Mister Karn, are there any hostiles out there?" Harvey asked again, phrasing the question differently. His eyes shifted, noting part of a saucer section that flew by. It was scarred, pitted, broken... and bore part of the registry belonging to the USS Holtrame. "Sensor contacts?" he asked the bridge. "Anyone? Anywhere?"

T’Mari closed her eyes focussing everything she had on getting past the heightened emotions of the crew, trying to get a sense of any life left on the base. “Yes! Captain! There’s life on the station I can feel it!”

Karn did an active scan again. "I'm not picking up anything on long range sensors, Captain," he said. "I'm getting life signs in various places of the station. Should I prepare a SAR team, Sir?"

"Dammit," Harvey hissed the moment Karn reported no hostiles. He'd already suspected as much, but he'd really wanted to be wrong about that. "Yes," he then confirmed to Karn. "Whatever resources you need to make that happen. Get anything with a heartbeat over here quickly."

"Right away, Captain," Karn said as he turned the station over to another young Ensign and bolted for the turbolift, calling for Security and Tactical SAR trained officers to the shuttlebay.

"Mister Marsh," Harvey said, looking to the Chief Operations Officer. "Looks like we'll need to find more room. But first, send word to the Valcour and the Perseus. Apprise them of the situation. I want the Perseus to deploy a sensor network. The Valcour will assist with personnel recovery."

"'More room,'" Marsh repeated, taking a deep breath. A composed a message for the other ships, including relevant files and logs, and dispatched it before tapping out a quick note to the quartermaster about the additional guests.

"Bridge to sickbay," Harvey called out. "Doctor, we're going to have more wounded. Standby to receive." He did not wait for a response and quickly closed the channel.

"Commander Reynolds," Harvey said, now turning to the XO. "I need you, Joey, and T'Mari to work together on a thorough scan of the area. See if you can find any more lifesigns, but more importantly, we need to figure out who's behind these attacks. Anything you can find."

T’Mari nodded as she looked towards Harvey. “Aye Sir.”

"Understood, Captain," said John. Damn, what a surprise that had been to see on the screen. A whole station, gone. The ships, the debris... "We'll chase down whatever leads we can."

Joey wasn't sure what she could add to Commander Reynolds statement, so instead she nodded her head. If there were any leads out there, they would find them, and they would do their parts to bring those responsible to justice. "Yes, Captain."

And there was now just one last call to make. "Bridge to Commander Walsh. I assume you've been monitoring?"

"Roger that, Cap. Loud and clear and eyes open," answered Terry. "No idea what the hell happened here, but we'll start by establishing a security perimeter. First two waves of fighters will create a sensor net. Second wave will be combat patrol. Third wave will start up-close-and-personal search operations within the debris field."

"Captain," the young Tactical officer that had replaced Karn said. "There's a heavily modified runabout coming in. It's registering as...Flotsam and has an unusual modification to its nacelles."

Any other day and Harvey would have grinned. Now wasn't the time to correct the tactical officer, but he did say, "Good news at last. Hail the Flotsam and have it dock immediately." He paused and turned to the tactical officer. "Scratch that. Tell the Flotsam that SAR is top priority."

"Aye, Sir," he said and relayed the orders to the Flotsam.

On screen, the Flotsam veered off and headed for the wreckage of the station.

Joey looked up from her console and turned her attention toward Harvey. "Captain, I'm picking up a Jem'hadar ship."

Harvey straightened in his seat. It wasn't the first time in recent months that he'd heard of the Jem'hadar. It was the Gamma Quadrant after all, and it was supposedly infested with them. He was thankful in all three years of his service in the quadrant that he'd only seen them once, and that was at the embassy at Gamma Command.

With his eyes fixed on the forward viewscreen, he ordered, "Put it on screen."

The screen flickered, changing to a view of the Jem'hadar cruiser. Or at least, what was left of it. One of its recognizable nacelles was not to be found, and the other clearly smashed. It was obvious that the fighter had participated in the fight, and Harvey was tempted to assign the blame to them. However, the Jem'hadar had a tendency to not leave their dead behind. Aside from that, if they were here to retake the sector, the Black Hawk would have been met with an opposing force.

"Lifesigns?" the captain asked, rising to his feet.

T’Mari shrugged her shoulders, “I’d say not right now, but we’re talking Jem’hadar I’m not even sure if I can sense them.”

Harvey eyed the viewscreen closely. He didn't see any signs of life on the Jem'hadar ship, at least no attempts to stop the listing vessel. "it is the most intact of all of the vessels," he remarked, though the comment was really just to himself.

"Commander Reynolds," he said, abruptly turning to face his XO. "Assemble an away team. Take Lieutenant T'Mari with you. Hopefully the Vorta is still alive, and she can help find him. If nothing else, their computer banks might be intact. Take Lieutenant Kemm for that."

"Copy that, Captain," said John. He tapped his combadge, "Commander Reynolds to Lieutenant Kemm, meet me in Transporter Room One. Reynolds out." He turned to the Liueutenant, "Rael, with me."

“T’Mari nodded to Reynolds as she got up from her seat ready to accompany him and the rest of the away team.

Harvey returned to his chair. It took everything to resist the urge to bury his face in his hands and let himself feel the moment. This was not the first time he'd been around such wanton death and destruction. But at least that had purpose, not that one could call war purpose.

No. This was something else entirely. And he would not rest until the answers were found.

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