A Lead At Last

Posted on 05 Jun 2025 @ 5:09am by Commodore Harvey Geisler & Commander John Reynolds & Lieutenant Commander Joey Geisler & Lieutenant Commander Camila Di Pasquale & Lieutenant Commander Kennedy Monroe M.D. & Lieutenant Ranul Frex & Lieutenant T’Mari Rael & Ensign (Provisional) Bertrim Wysocki

2,236 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Bait and Switch
Location: Various
Timeline: June 30, 2390 || 1730 Hours

Lieutenant Commander Geisler's search of the alien spacecraft had borne some fruit, fuzzy recordings of G90B located deep within the nebula. Harvey, having recently visited the alien craft they brought aboard, had taken this intelligence to the flight deck's squadron command center and shared it with Commander Walsh and Lieutenant Commander Carter. With them dispatched deeper into the nebula now to scout ahead, it was time for Commodore Geisler to return to the temporary bridge.

As the corridor doors parted and Harvey stepped out into the small room, he stood in the threshold and admired his surroundings for a moment. It was a novel idea, using an alternate command center deeper into the belly of the ship. For fleeting second, he found himself wondering if any sort of recommendation to permanently move the bridge module deeper into the hull was worth making to Starfleet Command. G90B's assault on Federation spacecraft was not the first time a bridge had been so easily targeted. One would wonder if it was time to stop capitalizing on such a major design flaw.

Harvey collected himself and moved over to the command chair. He inserted an isolinear chip into the armrest and tapped a couple of buttons to add an image to the viewscreen. "Our friends below recorded this during their encounter with our target," he said, gesturing to the wounded G90B ship still smoking from its collision with the Valcour. Smaller craft circled the vessel, likely protective and repair craft. "She's found a place to hide, and she's licking her wounds. Best estimates puts them several thousand kilometers ahead of us bearing zero-one-five mark zero-one-one. The squadron's been deployed to flank either side of the craft, and we'll move up the middle. Helm, lay in an intercept course and engage at one-quarter impulse."

"Intercept course laid," Socks continued, "engaging one-quarter impulse speed."

Ranul was sitting over at the Engineering station and he watched the information that the Commodore got about G90B. Now that they were underway, Ranul looked at the status of the shields, just in case the G90B decided to try and attack the ship again. Ranul wanted to be ready before they made contact and he looked back and said, "Sir, I've got the shields back to about 95% nominal. It's not 100%, but it should protect us in case we need to fight."

As he was still standing, Harvey crossed Auxiliary Control to take a look over the engineer's shoulder. It was fascinating how the engineer had managed to get the shields functional inside the nebula, even to this extra degree. Perhaps the modifications to defend against the polaron weapons had helped the ship's defensive capabilities. "I would imagine they'll be needed soon enough," the Commodore remarked.

Frex chuckled a little bit and replied, "Just try and make sure we don't get too knocked around out here. Mix the nebula with whatever the G90B are throwing at us and it can make for a fun time trying to keep the shields intact."

A curt response was delivered to the Chief Engineer, "No promises. In fact, I you can count on the knocking around, especially once we are engaged.

Frex just chuckled and said as he turned back to his station, "As long as you try, that's all an engineer can ask for."

John was at his post, nervously tapping his fingers. "I get the feeling you can always count on that in the Gamma Quadrant. Being knocked around, that is."

The Commodore turned around to face the Executive Officer. "True words, Commander," Harvey said with a faint smirk. "Sometimes you get knocked, but then there are times you get to knock around others. I think it's about time that those tables get to turn, don't you think?"

Oh, John had a lot of things that he thought about that, but he kept most of them to himself. As he had for several years. "The Gamma Quadrant is the frontier, in my opinion. And sometimes, when it's needed, a little frontier justice just might help." Starfleet had grown so passive and talkative over the years. Sometimes, the best diplomat was fully loaded torpedo tubes.

Ensign Karn was at the Security/Tactical station, feeling very nervous about the events and being on the auxiliary bridge in the position of Security. He had been on Gamma Shift since Lieutenant Mitchell had put him on report and Commander DiPasquale had gotten done berating him. Now he was filling in for the very person that had turned him in.

Walking onto the bridge T'Mari could feel the tension in the air, it would have been palpable even without her Betazoid senses. She offered a polite smile and a nod of her head as she took a seat.


* * *

Joey stood within the spacecraft and wiped sweat from her brow. The launch bay was quiet, but that suited her just fine. In fact, she preferred it this way when the task at hand required her to be laser focused. It certainly paid off in a big way, too. Her hand moved to her combadge and gave it a tap. “Commodore Geisler, you're needed in the launch bay.”


* * *

Without tapping his badge, he looked up from the console screen he was looking at and said, "On my way." The Commodore turned and left the bridge, nodding to Commander Reynolds on the way out.

John have a quick nod in return and then briefly looked at the monitor. "Stay alert."

With just a few minutes to go from their ultimate destination, the deck shook. If the alert lights weren't already shining red, they would have kicked on. Instead, alarms sounded from multiple stations and displays began to flicker. Metallic groaning and humming could be heard throughout the room as main power evaporated.

From the forward viewscreen, small remnants of an explosion could be seen as pieces of the Black Hawk's forward access door scattered into the nebula. In the midst of that debris was the damaged and wounded spacecraft that the ship had recovered just over an hour before, the same one that the Commodore and Intel Chief were aboard.

T'Mari practically leapt up from her seat. "What just happened? Are the Commodore and Commander Geisler out there!?"

John pinched the bridge of his nose. Dammit. "That's what we need to find out," he said. "Status report. And for the record, I can see that main power is offline. Do we have enough auxiliary power to get a tractor beam on that craft?"

Holding his head with one hand and using his other to help him back up to his station, Frex looked at his station. Thankfully, it lit up and began reading out everything that was wrong with the ship and that required attention. However, the auxiliary power was starting to kick in and allowed for the ship to get a tractor beam. Looking at John, Frex replied, "We've got enough for a tractor beam. Working on getting other systems back online as we speak."

Joey pressed a shaky hand against the console, willing herself to stay upright as she tapped her combadge. The dim emergency lights flickered overhead, barely illuminating the scorched metal where she had fought to seal the breach. "Bridge—this is Joey," she said, her voice steady despite the ache in her ribs. "We're alive, but injured. The hull breach is patched, but the forcefield is running on auxiliary power—barely holding." She stole a glance at Commodore Geisler, laying on the floor unconscious. "We need medical. We're not walking out of here without help." The comlink crackled before going silent.

Karn tapped the display in front of him. "If we transfer what power we have, we can reinforce the forcefield down there," he said before he tapped his combadge. "Karn to all Security. Report to Flight Deck immediately. Search and Rescue protocol on the breach!"

"I'm rerouting additional power to structural integrity, life support, and forcefield control down there. But, until we can get repair crews down there, I can't guarantee how long they'll hold out," Frex replied, his fingers flowing across his engineering console. He was working with his crews in Main Engineering to make sure all three systems were top priority.

On the viewscreen, the alien spacecraft disappeared into the nebula as it turned into a dense pocket of gas and dust, ultimately disappearing from the ship's sensors. As it did, the mighty Black Hawk was left behind flightless and without power.

While Frex was working on the forcefields and making sure that structural integrity didn't go out down in the hanger bay, his console sparked from an overload that nearly caught him. Frex looked around, inputting some commands into his console before saying, "I'm good, but telling those security forces to take it easy down there. We just blew two EPS conduits around the hanger and I don't know if they'll blow anymore."

T’Mari headed for the turbolift. “I’m heading down there to see if I can help.”

Ensign Karn looked at the Counselor in disbelief. "Counselor, I object,": he said. "I have specialist Search and Rescue on the way now and you would not be an asset." If he was going to get put on report, he was, but he wasn't going to save her, too.

T’Mari paused looking back at Karn. “I wasn’t planning on getting in the way of the search and rescue team Ensign, if that’s what you’re worried about. I don’t like sitting around twiddling my fingers either.” She sighed and returned to a seat.


* * *

In the bay where the explosion had taken place, a half a dozen SAR trained Security personnel set up emergency generators to enforce the shields and give auxiliary power some relief. They made their way through the chaos and debris, moving carefully and working in tandem to get to the Captain and Chief of Intelligence.

"Captain! Commander Geisler!" The lead SAR Ensign, a gruff and rough looking Tellurite called as he made his way forward, his arm light leading the way through the dust.

The Commodore did not respond, as he laid unconscious beside Joey. A gash on the forehead was a clear indicator of blunt force trauma. Harvey was certainly far from dead, but he would require treatment to stop the bleeding.

Joey’s hands trembled as she did her best to press her uniform jacket against Harvey’s forehead, the fabric darker from his blood. She barely registered the sting of her own wounds, the sharp ache in her ribs, the throbbing in her temples. She willed herself to stay awake, to keep applying pressure, to do what she could to stop the bleeding. Her vision swam, darkness tugging at the edges of her consciousness, but she clenched her teeth against the pull. "Over here," she managed, hoping it was loud enough for someone to hear.

A light cut through the dust and darkness, followed by a creak of metal and the sound of a phaser cutting through something.

"We'll be right there!" A female voice called as more Security personnel began to move the rubble aside carefully. "Are you in medical need?"

It hurt to talk. It hurt to breathe. "Yes," Joey managed to answer before she joined her Commodore husband in the land of unconsciousness.

It took another minute before Security broke through the mess carefully and the medically trained officer checked their injuries with a tricorder and administered stabilizing medications based on their needs and a dose of painkillers. "Security to Sickbay, two injured to beam directly to Sickbay!"


* * *

Lieutenant JG Harleigh Kane had been running all over Sickbay, just trying to keep things from falling apart too bad. When the call came in for an emergency medical transport, she stopped what she was doing and headed directly into the main room. Tapping her combadge, she answered, "Understood. Sickbay to transporter room, emergency medical beam-out of two injured personnel from the launch bay to my location."

When she saw that it was the Captain and his wife... "Oh my god. Come on people, let's move! You, start a scan on the Commander, I'll take care of the Captain." Harleigh grabbed a medical tricorder and began. "Remind me to thank SAR for their battlefield triage."

“Never a dull moment around these parts,” Kennedy greeted, her words meant to be light but her tone clearly reflecting the seriousness of the situation. As usual, things in sickbay had gone from still but tense to an adrenaline dump in what seemed like a nanosecond. Not wanting to get in the way of the medical team’s progress, Kennedy simply offered, “ What do you have, Lieutenant Kane?“

"The Captain and his wife," she said, tossing the Doctor a tricorder.


* * *

On the bridge, John had been monitoring everything the best he could. Some days it didn't pay to get out of bed. And this seemed like it was one of those days. "Dammit," he muttered.

All around the Commander, alarms continued to sound as if the ship herself were warning the Executive Officer that she could not continue on this damned fool's errand. The only option now was simple; it was time to recall the squadron and vacate the nebula, abandoning any chance of claiming G90B as its prize.

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