For Want Of A Magnet

Posted on 03 Mar 2025 @ 5:13pm by Commodore Harvey Geisler & Lieutenant Commander Joey Geisler & Lieutenant Commander Kennedy Monroe M.D. & Lieutenant Ranul Frex & Lieutenant T’Mari Rael & Master Chief Petty Officer Mila Rasputin

1,998 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Bait and Switch
Location: Auxiliary Control
Timeline: June 30, 2390 || 1500 hours

It did not take long to discover that Lieutenant Ryler's and Frex's modifications to the sensors were both a blessing and a curse. G90B did not just contain birythium in its hull plating and composition, but also various amounts of duranium, dolamide, and viterium. Unfortunately, the nebula had various quantities of each of those materials. Whenever the sensors had locked onto a high concentration of the materials, the Black Hawk would arrive to find either raw materials or some kind of wreckage.

And having been at this for more than a couple of hours, Harvey was beginning to lose hope. The ship was en route to a concentration of birythium and dolamide, but nothing yet registered with anything close to G90B's size.

"Status report," Harvey called out from the command chair.

"Nothing on sensors yet. Ryler and I are working on extending them a bit further to try and get a clearer picture," Ranul said from Science II, where he had tied into the Engineering console from across the bridge.

"How about the probes or the squadron?" Harvey asked aloud. As he awaited a response, the Commodore shifted in his seat and tugged on his uniform jacket to straighten it out.

T'Mari offered an air of calm as she sat next to Harvey, she understood his frustration at not being able to locate the G90B. She had offered to try and use her own senses to try and locate the ship, perhaps now was the time to put her offer to fruition. She centered herself before opening her mind focussing on any sense of life, other than those on the ship, within the nebula. Gettng up from her seat she took a stroll around the bridge as she focussed, putting a little space between herself and anyone that was close to her to help focus her mind. "Commodore!" she turned to look at Harvey as she paused by the viewscreen. "I'm sensing something in the Nebula, it could be the ship you're after."

Mila looked up from the console she had occupied at the back of the cramped secondary bridge. "All ships are reporting same as we are getting, Commodore," she reported. "Every time they are getting positive lock, it is turning out to be negative."

Harvey's four right fingers tapped on the armrest in a percussive manner as he considered all of the possibilities. If T'Mari was right and she did sense something, it would be the first legitimate lead they had in hours. And if she was wrong, well, what did that matter? Then there was the fact that he was starting to get annoyed and borderline desperate. Something had to break, and it had to break soon. "Counselor," he asked at last, "do you have a direction for us?

T’Mari looked towards Harvey offering a nod of her head. “It feels...” She paused. “Sorry Captain, it’s not an exact science, but...I’m getting a sense directly below us if that makes any kind of sense. When we get closer I’ll be able to focus in better.”

The Commodore's gaze met the Counselor's. Harvey didn't speak, but continued to drum his fingers on the armrest as he considered the best way to approach this. "Mister Walsh," he called out to the squadron commander, hoping he was listening. "Have the fighters take a look," he ordered. "Helm, go ahead and turn us downward. Everyone keep an eye on sensors. Let me know the moment you see something. Anything."

Ranul was working on the sensors with Ryder, trying to make it where they could find the aliens finally. But, it was almost like a slime devil, where the moment you picked it up, it slipped away. Ranul knew that G90B was there somewhere and he hoped they could find them soon.

From sickbay, Kennedy watched the bridge video feed in anticipation. In times like this, she was grateful to have even regular mundane tasks to attend to, but that didn’t mean she could afford to be out of the loop with what was happening on the bridge. She was grateful for the nurse who happened to be walking by and noticed the counselor standing and making her way around the Bridge. At first, Kennedy was alerted because it was unclear whether there Was something wrong, But Kennedy increased the volume on the monitor Just in time for her to hear, they may have finally found a lead. “Good for you, Counselor,“ Kennedy offered softly with a chuckle.

Monroe waited with bated breath. She had no idea whether this would lead to something significant, but she knew she had to be prepared for anything.

T'Mari was focussing hard, she was the one everyone was hanging on now she just hoped she didn't lead them on a wild goose chase. She turned to look at Harvey. "I think we're getting closer...I can sense..." she paused. "Sorry Captain, filtering out our own crew is proving difficult."

Ranul turned back for a brief moment, watching everything unfold on the bridge. He could feel himself holding his breath for one brief moment as T'Mari worked her magic.

Shay turned her attention to the Commodore from her station. "Sir, I have an idea," she said, but instead of waiting for him to ask what it was, she jumped into it. "We can use the warheads off of the torpedoes as depth charges. If we scatter them around the nebula at random, and detonate them remotely, then maybe we can flush them out."

"Aren't we carrying those probes too? Could we do a probe along with the warheads to maybe get a better scan of everything within the nebula, since our sensors aren't worth a darn right now," Ranul said as he listened to Shay's suggestion about the warheads.

Like the other suggestions before, Harvey considered both options carefully before officially stating, "Do it."

"I'm on it, Commodore," Shay said, calling for another Security officer to replace her at her console before she left auxiliary control to get the process started.

"I'll get the probes ready and ready to drop immediately, Commodore," Frex replied himself as he got someone to replace him at his own station. He went down to where the probes were being stored and started working on them to help with finding G90B.

While the torpedoes and probes were being prepared, Harvey turned his attention back to the viewscreen. Though it was flickering due to static from the sensors, Harvey could see the ship's pitch change as it dived deeper into the nebula. His eyes widened, spotting a foreign object amidst the static and gases. The object was clearly a spacecraft, though it was not the size of the ship they were pursuing. The small craft looked like it had been through hell. As the Black Hawk drew closer, it was clear that the burn marks on the hull were caused by weapons fire.

Joey cocked her head as she studied the viewscreen. "What is that?"

"Can sensors get a lock on that?" Harvey asked. In his mind, he was likely thinking what everyone else was thinking, and that was whether or not this spacecraft was remotely connected with G90B. "Lifesigns?"

“There’s definitely life onboard Sir” T’Mari looked towards Harvey.

Harvey nodded to the Counselor then looked to Lieutenant Mitchell. "Then let's open a channel."

Joey knew the Commodore had much on his mind, so it was quite likely that he'd missed Mitchell leave only seconds ago. Rather than correct him, and since the security officer meant to relieve the acting Security Chief hadn't arrived yet, she made her way to the console and moved her fingers over the display. "Channel is open, Commodore."

The Commodore shifted in his seat and tugged down on his jacket. "This is Commodore Harvey Geisler of the USS Black Hawk. Do you require assistance?" He sat for a moment as no response came over the room's speakers. A frown formed on his face, and for a moment, Harvey swore that this was going to leave a wrinkle. "Transport vessel, respond please. Do you require assistance?"

Still, no response came from the vessel. Harvey frowned, not liking the options set before him. He could not ignore a sworn duty to provide aid and assistance in an emergency, nor could he let G90B continue to swim in the nebula. Yet, if there were a possibility that this craft survived an encounter with G90B, he couldn't pass up the opportunity to learn what they knew.

Harvey asked aloud to anyone who could hear him, "How close would we have to get to that vessel to confirm that there aren't any explosives aboard?"

"I've got like 2-3 of the probes ready for launch. We can launch one and get that close enough to get a better scan of it before we move in any further," Frex replied, looking between his station and Harvey.

“Do it,” Harvey ordered without hesitation.

Without even thinking, Frex turned back to his station and input a few commands before launching one of the probes that they had been working on. It quickly made its way into position before stopping close to the ship. Frex put a few more commands into his station and he was getting readings back from the probes. Looking back at the Commodore, Frex said, "It looks like it's online and transmitting data back to us. Not only that, but I've made sure that it can help carry our comms signal through it as well. Just in case we weren't making it through the interference."

Taking the opportunity to speak to the unknown ship again, Harvey rose from his seat and walked over to Frex's station to look over his shoulder. "Unknown vessel, this is Commodore Harvey Geisler commanding the Federation starship Black Hawk. We are looking for the vessel that attacked you. Do you require assistance?"

This time, static filled the channel, undoubtedly amplified by the probe and the nebulae gases. But there was still no actual response from someone on the other vessel.

Since Harvey was standing right next to him, Frex looked at the sensors once more and said, "I'm still having trouble getting anything from the sensors, sir. I think I can get a tractor lock on that ship, but that's assuming it doesn't take off on us between now and then. What would you like us to do?"

Harvey shook his head and frowned. "Secure that vessel in the launch bay. Let's get security, medical, and engineering teams down there. Let's make sure that vessel won't be a threat, and let's see if we can find out if G90B's behind this. Joey, lead the teams."

"Yes, Commodore," Joey said as she began to make her way out of auxiliary control, giving her combadge a tap. Per Harvey's orders, she called for Doctor Monroe, Frex and Mitchell to join her at the shuttle. If they were unavailable, then she would rely on them to send someone else in their place. She wasn't sure what they would find, but hopefully, it would offer up some clues.

Frex got an officer to relieve him at the station he was working at to follow Joey out of auxiliary control. He wanted to see this ship just as much as anyone else, as well as to get a detailed view of it to see how it was able to evade their sensors for so long. He grabbed one of the engineering kits from the nearby engineering console and ran over to the turbolift and said, "Coming, ma'am."

Harvey remained at the Engineering station, still looking at the scan reports. Deep in his gut, he knew this was an awful risk that he was taking. What was the saying? Desperate times, desperate measures? He could only hope that this would not backfire on him, much less the crew.

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