((Irrawaddy, Cockpit))

The plan was relatively simple. The CC and SM would take up station in low planetary orbit about 2 miles apart, 65 miles above their crippled sister ship. They would each lock onto the port and starboard sections of the Blythe with their tractor beams and provide the ‘heavy lifting’ for the mission. The April, and Irrawaddy, both being capable of atmospheric operations would lock onto the aft and fore sections of the ship respectively, and stabilize the ship as the 2 Cali‘s tugged her back into orbit.

The two Cali‘s would then start moving laterally at roughly 1/8th impulse power when the hulk of the Blythe had been lifted above the Derganixian Karman line (roughly 59 miles above the mean surface of the planet). This would provide the Blythe with enough momentum that she would remain in a semi stable orbit for a few hours unassisted, giving more then enough time for the Cali‘s to reposition themselves and re-engage their tractor beams to finished pulling the ship into a high geosynchronous orbit.

From there, it would be a simple task for the Santa Monica to begin towing the ship towards the outer solar system, and eventually enter warp and haul her back to Framheim station. She would then be delivered to the main Starfleet base of operations at the mouth of the transwarp conduit. Once out of the path of any immediate danger from the rash of crisises and combat that had been occurring at various locations throughout the Shackleton Expanse, a long range fleet tug would finish towing the lifeless, battered, but sturdy and dependable old ship back to Starbase Bravo for extensive repairs.

“Signal the Culver City that we’re ready to begin.” Ingram said pilots station.

“Signal sent, and acknowledged sahib.” Singh said from the left hand auxiliary station.

“Tractor emitters on standby to engage.” Chief O’Doyle, the Engineering/Demolition specialist from Fields’ team said from the co-pilots station next to Ingram.

((April, Bridge))

The command center of the Shran-class ship was a slightly enlarged version of the bridge on the preceding class of escorts, the Defiant class. The only notable difference was that instead of single seat HCO station in front of the Captains chair, the Shrans had a 2 seated, joint Helm and Operations console, with lowrider, lay-z-boy beige coloured Galaxy-class-style bucket seats. The chairs were a product of Commodore Gomez and Commodore LaForge’s feedback on the ergonomics and layout of the bridge of the new class of ships. The only other difference on the April was a 7.5 foot wide, 4 foot deep, round pool that had been installed in the rearmost nook of the bridge, in between the 2 main entrances to the bridge.

With Mee IH and the other cetaceans now utilizing their flipper mounted repulsors for non aquatic mobility, Tesa had informed the CO of the quick fix idea. They just installed a little pool with a nose and flipper friendly waterproof set of inward facing consoles for Mee IH or another cetacean to use while on the bridge.

“The Culver City is signalling we are a go to engage our tractor beam at the scheduled time sir.” Fields said from the Operations console, having been asked to cover the station since Ingram was commanding the Irrawaddy for this part of the mission.

Wong checked his armrest consoles chronometer. “Acknowledge receipt Commander. Proceed as planned. Lt. Lasage, call the ball please.”

“Hi eye Capitan. Hengage track tore hin fife, fower, tree, tu, h’won.”

((USS Culver City, Bridge))

Lieutenant Commander K’lev stood behind his command chair, hands resting on its back.  “April and Irrawaddy both report ready to proceed with the lift,” Lieutenant (jg) Tiza said from Ops.

K’lev nodded.  “Please confirm our readiness to the Santa Monica, and coordinate your tractor beam engagement to coincide with theirs.  And advise everyone to be careful; Blythe‘s frame is badly stressed from her impact with the planet, so if we start lifting unevenly we could tear her apart.”

Tiza nodded, sending the message along.  “Santa Monica acknowledges,” he relayed.

K’lev then turned to Lieutenant Lotharys at sciences.  “We’ll need your eyes on this, too, Lia; keep a close eye on Blythe‘s structural integrity, and let us know if we’re pulling too hard or unevenly.”

Lotharys nodded.  “I’ll keep my eyes peeled,” she replied.

“Then let’s go fishing; confirm to all ships that Culver City is ready to lift.  Tiza, she’s all yours for this part.”  With that, K’lev took his seat, handing over the conn for this effort to his operations officer.

Tiza opened a channel to the rest of the little Starfleet grouping.  “All ships, this is Culver City.  Stand by to engage tractor beams.  Engaging in five… four… three… two… one… mark; tractor beams engaged.”

As Tiza finished his countdown, he pressed a control on his console, and Culver City engaged her heavy tractor beam emitters in concert with those of the Santa Monica, the two Californias taking their fallen sister in joint tow and beginning to lift