A cry in the dark
Posted on Sat Aug 8th, 2026 @ 11:06am by Captain Daegan Baas & Lieutenant M'Tala "Hobbes" Clan Hrasi & Lieutenant JG Aziz Yilmaz & Commander Jerome Hunt Jr. & Lieutenant Commander Magdalena Doyl & Lieutenant Darius Korveth & Lieutenant Edruj Daughter of Thrawn & Lieutenant Urushi Yaotome & Lieutenant Niami Troga & Lieutenant Ayumu Tanaka & Lieutenant JG Jason Mallory & Lieutenant JG Ryan Kellerman
2,229 words; about a 11 minute read
Mission:
Monsters are real
Location: Bridge
Timeline: MD 4 - 1345
[Ready Room]
Daegan had finished up a late lunch and had moved from his office to the observation lounge to finish his sweet tea as he reviewed the last reports.
Their exploration was proceeding, giving stellar and planetary science plenty to catalog. One system they had passed had a trinary star system. Given the delicate gravitational balance at play, there were only remnants of planetary debris in the form of an asteroid belt that, according to estimates, would be destroyed within the next 50 or so years. The only surviving planet orbiting the star was a gas giant that had an extreme, but decaying orbit. Projections showed that eventually the planet would be ejected if orbital projections were correct.
Setting that padd aside, he paused for a moment, sipping his tea as he looked out over the bow of the Valkyrie as they jumped back to warp and on to the next system along their course.
[Bridge]
Exploration. Exciting for sciences and stellar cartography, for operations though, it meant routine. A chance to get things and people back to normal after their last life-endangering crises. On the bridge, Jason was almost bored enough to wish for something new to break the monotony.
And the Universe provided. A signal coming in not part of the usual cosmic mess. It took the computer a few moments to analyze, and then the notice of 'Distress Signal' as the category came though loud and clear. Transferring it to a PADD, Jason walked it over and pressed the chime on the Ready Room door.
[Observation Lounge]
Looking back into his ready room at the chime, calling out, "Enter."
"Captain, picking up a distress signal. Brought the details in. Looks like a station suffered a collision with another ship, causing the station's orbit to decay towards the gas supergiant. Their maneuvering thrusters are inoperable, so they're asking for help." Jason reached out with the PADD, handing the contents over.
Baas took the padd with the information he had just relayed. "Well, a distress call needs a response. The situation must be grave if they sent out a recorded message and didn't wait for a reply."
Tapping his commbadge. "Baas to the Bridge. Jerome, take the ship to yellow alert, alter course to 281 mark zero 37, and summon the senior staff. Have them join Mr. Mallory and myself in the conference room."
"Aye Sir," Hunt replied. "Yellow alert and helm set course to 281 mark zero 37, warp seven. Bridge to senior staff, report to the conference room ASAP."
The ship's ascent illumination had shifted to yellow the moment the alert status had been ordered. Baas sat in his usual spot with Mallory as they waited on the other officers to assemble.
Darius had taken the bare minimum of science classes when he was at the Academy. It wasn't that he didn't believe in it; he did, and he saw the importance of it. It just held little personal interest for him. He was curious, however, so he had read the report over twice on the way to the bridge.
He was going over possible scenarios and challenges and forming strategies in his mind as he stepped into the Ready Room.
"Good afternoon," he said as he stepped toward the replicator.
Magdalena had a lot on her mind as she walked into the conference room, a PADD in her hand. She quickly scanned the room, noting those already in attendance and mentally matching the people to their images on the computer. Then she noddeda greeting and took her seat.
Urushi entered the conference room next; she was looking down at a PADD in her hand. As the Chief Science Officer, she had a lot on her plate, especially since they had discovered the trinary star system with strange gravitational balances. She found it all fascinating and had been running intense analyses for the last few days. She only wished they could have stuck around longer so she could have gotten some extra detailed scans.
Not far behind her was Doctor Tanaka, whom himself was preoccupied with the contents of his PADD; the last few days had been relatively slow-going, so he'd finally had some free time to sift through a growing backlog of lab tests, and even schedule a few appointments (nothing out of the ordinary, of course, just a few routine physicals that he hadn't had time to schedule up until recently). Addressing Captain Baas with a curt nod, he grabbed a coffee from the replicator and proceeded to draw up a seat alongside Urushi.
Ryan arrived with a smile on his face, with Niami a half-stride behind him. He enjoyed the counselor's company and had found their conversations enlightening and her presence calming. They took their seats as Ryan's gaze caught Darius's. He gave him a wink and a smile as he made himself comfortable.
Darius noticed Ryan's gaze and his wink. As surreptitiously as possible, he returned them before his expression became impassive. He did manage a quick nod in Ryan's direction.
Edruj stepped into the conference room without a word. She took her seat, and waited for the information. She saw meetings as a necessary evil. She had to attend them, but there were definitely better things that she could be doing.
A quick glance around, Niami had a slight smile, when she walked in. She took a seat, noting the body language of those there. Her demeanor changed to one of observation. There was definitely something in the air.
The door opened as he entered the conference after being relieved from the bridge. Looking around he was definitely curious regarding the course change. Reaching the table, Jerome took his seat to the right of the Captain.
Once everyone had arrived, Baas tapped his padd on the table to get everyone's attention. "Afternoon, everyone." Gesturing to the newest face in the room. "Before we get started, some of you may have noticed, even met, our new Chief of Security, Lieutenant Commander Doyl. When you get the chance, please be sure to introduce yourselves and welcome her aboard. Unfortunately, now is not the time."
Briefly glancing to Mallory, "We've intercepted an automated distress call from a salvage station. A ship, with another in tow, crashed into the station. The crash has destabilized its position so it has begun a fall towards the class S planet it's been orbiting. There isn't much to go on, and there has been no reply. We are assuming that the damage from the crash is interfering with communication."
Urushi was first to speak up. "We might be able to stabilize its orbit with the use of tractor beams. If it's too big for that, we could use our warp field to essentially tow to a stable position." She suggested.
Looking from the Urushi and Edruj. "Since we don't know what we will be dealing with when we arrive, we need to be ready for multiple contingencies. Be it extending the warp field to lighten the station, thruster modules, centralizing survivors into a single location and cutting it away, etc.. Once we know what kind of mass and the numbers of people, and how much time we have to need to be ready to act."
The Trill science officer nodded in response. "Once we're in range, I'll conduct some indepth scans of the station. Hopefully I can determine its center of gravity making it easier to manipulate its orbit." She replied.
"Adjusting the tractor and repulsor beams, as well as the deflector dish to move the station will be no problem at all. But extending the warp field for something that large would take a minor restructure of the warp field systems. Something like that could take a couple of hours." Edruj added.
Baas nodded. "Plan for multiple courses of actions. We don't know how big this station is so let's assume 20 million metric ton, about the size of Star Base 375. Make the necessary preparations."
"Yes sir. Permission to leave the bridge sir. I am going to have to get to Engineering to make the modifications" Edruj stood and when permission was granted she left the bridge. The amount of calculations that were ahead of her was astounding.
"Have there been any casualties reported?" Lieutenant Tanaka was next to inquire. "If so, I may want to see about getting a triage ready."
"No numbers were provided in the message but in a situation like this casualties will be inevitable. If we can stabilize the station, hopefully their medical facilities are intact, and online. If offline," glancing back to Edruj, "we will need to get them back online. But we also need to be ready to triage and treat everyone on the Valkyrie."
"Understood, Sir," Doctor Tanaka nodded in affirmation. "I'll begin coordinating a triage setup with the medical staff as soon as we're dismissed."
Edruj nodded in reply to the order about the stations medical facilities. Her mind already set to the task on how her and her staff could begin a monumental task. "This will involve getting a team aboard the station which could upset the numbers as it were."
"Depending on the time between the collision, the call for help, and our arrival, we may also be looking at initiating S&R and evacuation protocols," Maggie said. "We'll know more if communications are repaired. Another question to consider is, are there any ships nearby that may give us more information on the situation? Did one of them send out the call for help? Knowing what sort of crises we may be facing will help focus our preparations."
[Meanwhile...on the Bridge]
Having relieved Mallory before the Captain had had had the XO take the ship to yellow alert, Aziz sat at Ops monitoring the ship while it continued at warp towards the source of the distress signal. There hadn't been any reply from the station so he had moved to other tasks.
Moments later his console chirped. Casually glancing over the distress call had ended and a fraction of a second later was replaced by a quarantine beacon.
[Conference Room]
Looking to his Exec. "Lets be ready for the worst case. Multiple search & rescue, medical, & engineering teams..."
== Bridge to Captain Baas. ==
After being cut off by the hail over the comm, "Baas here."
== Captain the distress signal from the station stopped and was replaced by a quarantine beacon. ==
Baas was silent for a moment as he glanced back to Jerome. "Understood. Any additional information?"
== No sir. No longer a recorded message, just an automated beacon. ==
"Understood, Baas out."
"We're on a rescue mission," Darius said quietly, "but that distress call was automated, which means others with less altruistic ideas may have also heard it."
"I'm not suggesting we approach with paranoia, but our sensors should be looking for something more than anomalies, and we should be wary of any potential opportunists."
The Executive Officer made a humming noise as he thought briefly. "I'm more concerned about the sudden quarantine beacon. Don't want to throw our people into such a situation without more detail."
Baas nodded slightly as he shared Jerome's concern. "Let's operate on what we know. We know there is a station in distress, we know that station's orbit is failing due to an impact, and we know that, for some reason, that distress call has now been replaced by a quarantine."
Gesturing to Darius, "Could this change be the result of someone looking to raid the station? Anything is possible, but that's speculation.... But let's err on the side of caution. As soon as we are onsite, I want full scans of the station as well as the surrounding system. Lt. Kellerman, if any are still functional, I want you to access, hack into, the station's internal sensors so we can see what's going on inside."
Ryan kept his eyes focused on Captain Baas. "You've got it, Captain."
"In the meantime, we will stay at yellow alert and continue rescue preparations. However, with the quarantine warning, Lt. Edruj, stabilizing the station's orbit will be your priority so that, if need be, we can keep any survivors on the station."
Looking to his helmsman. "Hobbes, what our ETA?"
Having anticipated the question his padd was showing that as the timeframe continued to countdown. Glancing down to get the current information. "One hour 47 minutes, mark."
"Very good. Let's get to it. Dismissed."
As everyone filed out, Hunt inquired, "How many personnel are involved in this incident?" Hunt inquired.
Baas looked to the door as Sizia came in as the last of the staff left. Looking back to Jerome, "Well, we won't know how many teams will be needed until we know what we are dealing with. And if we can't stabilize the station... " Stopping himself. "Well, let's not make problems we know exist yet."
"Excellent point," Hunt conceded.
Captain Daegan Baas
CO
Commander Jerome Hunt
Executive Officer
USS Valkyrie
Lieutenant JG Ryan Kellerman
Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Valkyrie
Lieutenant Commander Magdalena Doyl
Chief Security Officer
USS Valkyrie
Lieutenant Darius Korveth
Chief Strategic Operations Officer
USS Valkyrie
Lieutenant Edruj Daughter of Thrawn
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Valkyrie
Lieutenant Urushi Yaotome
Chief Science Officer
USS Valkyrie
Lieutenant Niami Troga
Counselor
Lieutenant Ayumu Tanaka
Chief Medical Officer
Lieutenant JG Jason Mallory
Chief Operations Officer
Lieutenant M'Tala "Hobbes" Clan Hrasi
Chief Flight Control Officer - NPC
Lieutenant JG Aziz Yilmaz
Operation - NPC
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