An Explosive Farewell

Posted on 13 Sep 2016 @ 4:48pm by Commodore Harvey Geisler & Commander Thiago Teixeira & Commander Terry Walsh & Lieutenant Commander Temerant Bast & Commander Jayla Kij & Lieutenant Commander Adam Casey & Lieutenant Jonathan Kilmartin & Lieutenant Commander Camila Di Pasquale & Lieutenant Commander Joey Geisler & Vorian Sulvai & Lieutenant Avery Stuart Ph.D. & Lieutenant Jarith Roshe & Lieutenant JG Samantha Lopez & Lieutenant JG Felix Langston & Lieutenant JG Catherine Cooper

2,033 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Click Three Times
Location: Various
Timeline: MD 7 || 1800 hours

Harvey stepped into the Lab that had been converted into the office of the ship's Strategic Operations Officer, and then converted again into a temporary bridge. Warp drive had been restored less than an hour ago, as was all of Main Power. Several systems were still spotty, including replicators, but at least life seemed to have the ability to return to normal.

At least as normal as life would allow.

There wasn't enough room for everyone on the temporary bridge, but at least the critical crewmembers would be there. "All stations, report," he requested, taking a stand up on the raised platform. He didn't have a Captain's chair in the room, but he did have a dedicated station that he'd have to himself while both his Executive Officer and Second Officer were on the Cochrane.

Camila tapped her console. =^=Di Pasquale to Tactical and Security. Report=^=

Cooper was in the tactical shouted reports flying to and fro, "The Shields are fixed right?!...Supposed to be...Well there's this weird fluctuation in the secondary matrix...." And on it went as the team tried to make sure all would at a 100% when called. Cooper coordinated from her position at the main console handling the inflow of data well, too much input wasn't often a problem for her.

=^="Cooper to Lt. Di Pasquale. Tactical reports..." A final green light appeared on her board, "full readiness".

=^=Acknowledeged, Lieutenant Cooper. Standby=^= Camila said.

In Security, Joey turned her attention from the personnel she was currently addressing when the call for reports came through. =^=Corwin to Di Pasquale. Security is ready.=^=

=^=Acknowledged,=^= Camila told Joey, then turned her attention to the Captain. "Security and Tactical report ready, Sir," she said. She could use a bit more downtime, but duty called and she answered. The sandwich and coffee she had had earlier boosted her system and she was looking forward to everything on the ship getting back to what passed for normal.

Lieutenant JG Eric Burke examined the new Operations console that was displayed on one of the wall panels in the converted Strategic Operations lab, and shook his head in disbelief. His transfer from the Chimera had been abrupt, and less than eight hours later, he was on duty on the ship that had tried to destroy his own. He was almost suffering from whiplash. He understood the circumstances, but that didn't mean he didn't find them jarring or that his head wasn't spinning. And now he understood what was about to happen - his old ship, his home, was about to be destroyed.

But he had a new home now, he reminded himself. Granted, he had to share quarters with another junior officer, but at least he had survived the last week. Which was more than he could say for some of his colleagues.

He checked the board on the console. "Operations show green, Captain," he informed his new Commanding Officer.

"Flight Control is online and standing by," Felix said to the captain, still trying to adjust to flying from a lab.

Adam looked at the console that had been designated as the Science Station, "I've got all Science systems running through here, we're ready to go." Adam said.

"Geisler to Engineering, Sickbay and Flight Deck. Status Reports please."

"Sickbay reports ready," came Jayla's prompt reply. "Most patients have been sent back to duty or to their quarters to rest and all personnel are moderately well rested."

"Counseling reports ready," Avery chimed in. "Let's take care of all of this so the complete healing can begin," she added. Although counseling was not a department typically focused on when it came to readiness before combat or more tactically oriented operations, given what they've been through and considering all of the losses they suffered, Stuart felt it important to chime in and let people know they would be given an opportunity to rest and address their psychological wounds when all of this was over.

Terry tapped his commbadge when the call from the Captain came in. "Walsh here, Flight Deck is good to go Captain. Two of the birds are repaired and the other two are having parts looked at in the Machine Shop. As far as what we have, we're ready to rock. Walsh out."

Lieutenant Roshe was standing in the back of what served as the bridge. As one of the Diplomatic Officers, it was his place to be there although no one expected to meet an unknown quantity out here, it was always good to be prepared. He was out of coffee and chocolate bars to offer anyone, but was pleased his offer and private stash was accepted. He could sense the tension in the room which was palpable even without his Betazoid senses. He could also sense the nervousness on the ship, but did not inform the Captain who was busy.

Vorian was once more hunched over a console trying to get up to date reports on the state of the ship. Tapping his combadge he replied. =^="Lt. Sulvai from Engineering reporting in. Shield should be working at this point, but I do not recommend stressing them too much. The fixes were rushed due to time constraints and I cannot anticipate when they will fail. The warp drive is functional and despite the damage taken to the power grid, we have power across all decks. Holodecks and other non-essential systems are still either offline or marginally working. Intra ship and ship to ship communications are online and functioning as well. Overall the ship is in working condition but I would recommend against entering combat anytime soon as the structural integrity of the ship has been damaged beyond our capabilities to repair it."=^=

"No promises, Lieutenant," Harvey called back over the comm channel before closing it. He didn't expect any encountered between here and Unity, but he knew just as well he couldn't promise anything. "Open a channel to the Cochrane," Harvey told Lieutenant Di Pasquale. "Request status report."

"Aye, Sir," Camila said before opened a channel to the Cochrane. "Black Hawk to Cochrane. What is your status?"

"We're as ready as we're going to be, Captain," Thiago answered from his seat on the bridge of the Cochrane. "We can keep up with you, at least."

"Acknowledged, Cochrane. Stand by for warp power, and keep the channel open." Harvey then looked over to the helmsman. "Mister Langston, based on our current position in the nebula, how long before we return to unfiltered space at full impulse power?"

"Let's see," Felix said as he punched a few commands into his console. "Based on our current trajectory and if we're traveling at full impulse, we should exit the nebula in about an hour."

"An hour it is then," Harvey said, turning back to his console. At least it would give Engineering some extra time to secure the ship before going to warp. He did a final check on his console, and though he was satisfied with the result, he wasn't any less anxious.

He tapped a button to open a ship wide channel. "All hands, this is the Captain. I know the last few days have been trying to us all. Thank you for not just staying with it, but your impressive ability to get the Black Hawk on its feet so quickly. To those of you who have joined us from the Chimera... even though the Consortium turned us against each other, we are grateful you can join our family here. I know we all wish the circumstances were different."

He sighed. "We are now preparing to leave. As we depart, we want to say our farewells to a ship that served Starfleet with dignity for the last sixteen years. The USS Chimera deserved a better ending, one that would have seen her decommissioned in drydock. Thanks to the Consortium, that became an impossibility."

Harvey pressed a button on his console to send what was on the temporary bridge's viewscreen to every viewing screen aboard. "If you will now turn your attention to a nearby monitor, we will be saying goodbye to the Chimera.. Mister Langston, ahead one-half impulse." The order was meant to put some distance between the Chimera and the two ships before the explosion. The last thing Harvey needed was to lick additional wounds.

Burke looked at the image of what used to be his home, and stood at rigid attention. He tried not to think of the good times he'd had there, and instead tried to view it as simply an empty hull, made of support struts, duranium alloy, and circuit boards. But still he felt a lump in his throat. He breathed a silent goodbye to the friends who hadn't made it, until they met again.

"Ahead one-half impulse, aye," Felix said as he entered the commands. Even in the makeshift bridge, he could still feel the ship move under his control. "Increasing distance from the Chimera, Captain."


===[Cochrane Bridge]===

Teixeira looked around the bridge. The Cochrane's crew had done a commendable job in getting the ship ready. Now he was sitting in the big chair, Bast by his side.

"Commander Bast, let's prepare to get underway," he said, calmly. Maybe it was his considerable experience as an Executive Officer, but Thiago liked the tradition of the captain giving orders to the XO, and the XO seeing them through. Some captains liked to be be more hands on, issue orders directly to the department heads. He wasn't against that method, and saw it as very useful in some situations. But channeling directives through the Exec allowed the person in that position to gain more experience with command, hopefully resulting in a good Commanding Officer in the future.

"Yes, Sir," acknowledged Bast. He checked his monitor. "All stations have reported in. Ready as we'll ever be, under the circumstances." He stretched his neck, and looked at the helm, raising his voice. "Lieutenant Marley, match course and speed with the Black Hawk. Keep us within one thousand meters."

He entered commands into his panel, and every viewscreen on the ship activated to show the final moments of the Chimera.


===[Black Hawk]===

"Lieutenant Di Pasquale," Harvey said, watching the Chimera shrink on the viewscreen. "Now."

Camila targeted the USS Chimera and hoped she would never have to target another Federation starship again or partake in the willing destruction of one. "Photon torpedoes away, Sir," she said as she activated the launchers to coincide with the remote detonation sequence with a three second delay. A volley of the deadly torpedoes launched from the ship and sped their way across the intervening space to impact with the Intrepid class ship at the same time the self destruct of the USS Chimera activated.

The USS Chimera morphed into a brilliant ball of light as destruct packages and photon torpedoes detonated in a single reaction, disintegrating the Intrepid-class starship. Within seconds, the light disappeared, and with it all evidence of their sister ship.

"Thank you, everyone," Harvey told his crew. "Gamma shift will be on reduced duty tonight. Department Heads, please arrange for downtime for your personnel. Geisler out."


===[Flight Deck]==

Having heard the announcement from the Captain, Sam turned to Walsh. "So that's my flight on shift tonight. I'm happy to take 2 other pilots with me on standby and take the shift in stints, make sure everyone gets some rest?" She asked, highlighting two pilots on the duty roster.

Terry looked at the duty roster in Sam's hand and nodded. "Okay, that works," he said. "We'll get this information out to the squadron so they know what's going on. I'm sure they'll appreciate the rest or at least relaxation."

"Rest and relaxation," Kilmartin smirked as he looked out of a small porthole towards the Chimera. "Some of our people have forgotten what rest and relaxation is..."

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