Tactical Officer’s log, supplemental.

 

Ulysses has arrived in the Opra system slightly ahead of schedule, which has apparently caused jitters among the population of the planet as we have been ‘escorted’ to a holding pattern above the planet’s fifth continent. We’ve been here for nearly sixteen hours, yet we’ve had no official communication with the planet, or our diplomatic representatives. Only Mister Kasik, who has accompanied us from Kunhri, has been permitted to converse with the planet, and in doing so, he has been permitted to lead a three man away team to the surface at a confidential set of co-ordinates. Against my better judgement, the Captain and our first officer have joined him. Mister Mora has been tasked with maintaining a transporter lock and, given our tactical situation, I have been placed in acting command of the Ulysses.

 

Whilst we wait for word from our away team, I have used the opportunity to take in some of the ship. To many, the Galaxy was the pinnacle of starship design, the perfect blend of mission parameters in one space frame. Even now, some decades after her construction, the Ulysses stands the test of time and performs admirably. I’ve never stepped aboard her, or a member of her class, before, yet something feels… familiar. Perhaps our time on the Santa Fe has prepared us for our service here? It’s like we all know exactly where everything is, how it works, and even where the light switches are.

 

Dare I say she even feels like… home?

It would be more than possible for the proverbial pin drop to be heard on the bridge of the Ulysses as the crew awaited news from their visitor or the planet’s surface. Their wait had allowed the crew that had joined from the Temeraire to get used to the ship’s systems. Whilst that had been useful, most of the crew would admit to wanting the situation resolved as quickly as possible. They were already uncomfortably deep into Romulan space, but throw in the fact that they were incommunicado with their allies, the crew were desperate to move on.

Everyone watched and waited with bated breath. To have their Captain and the XO off the ship for any duration mid-mission was disconcerting at the best of times, but to be without them so deep into Romulan territory had upped the tension levels significantly. Especially for Lieutenant Noli who had, for the first time, been left in command of the ship in the absence of the command team. Whilst Mora, Okan and even Zinn were more senior in rank, the situation the crew found themselves in warranted a different approach. Or so the XO thought, anyway.

She was in the midst of typing her first duty log as acting commanding officer, talking about the similarities between their beautiful new behemoth and their older contemporary, the Santa Fe, when a voice from the front of the bridge drew her attention.

“Errrr… Lieutenant?” Henry Mitchell called out somewhat anxiously from the CONN, turning in his seat ever so slightly to look towards the Blonde Bombshell who was now commanding the great Galaxy-class ship. “Are you seeing this?”

Looking up from her data PADD, the other bridge crew there present joining her, she instantly saw the commotion that had drawn the young helmsman’s attention to the main viewer. A collection of Romulan freighters, the very same ones they had come to escort to Kunhri, were on the move. And they weren’t just moving in any particular manner. No, they were coordinated and moving into formation.

“We’re receiving a transmission,” the Bolian at Ops called out, almost instantly placing a familiar figure on the screen.

“Captain,” Noli smiled, a wave of relief flooding over her at the first glimpse of the Captain in some time.

“Lieutenant Noli,” the Captain grinned in return, “we’ve had a breakthrough in the negotiations. Move the Ulysses to the center of the convoy and take the ship to yellow alert. You’ll be limited to warp three due to the engines on the transports. We’ll be beaming aboard before you move out of transporter range, but we’ve a few loose ends to tie up here first,” the Andorian instructed. 

Noli looked down at the CONN and gave a nod to the Lieutenant, granting him permission to commence the operation as directed by the Captain. “Are you sure you can’t tie up your loose ends from aboard ship, Captain?” the Bajoran asked, her attention back on the blue-skinned commander of the Ulysses. “We’d all feel much better with you and the XO back aboard.”

Tharia shook her head on the view screen. “No, Lieutenant. Part of these negotiations rely on us being here. We’ll be in touch when the time is right. sh’Elas out.”

With the viewscreen having faded to reflect the starscape beyond the ship’s hull, the convoy taking the place of the Captain’s face, the Bajoran slumped into the command chair. They were finally commencing their operation, negotiations seemingly having been successful, but the Lieutenant couldn’t shake a growing feeling of unease.

[Convoy on approach to Velorum Nebula -ETA 4 Hours]

“Ulysses remains on station at the heart of the convoy, some two hours after our mission commenced. Lieutenant Noli and I have been working on adapting a variation of the tachyon sensor platforms in the hopes of assisting in detection of cloaked vessels.”

Sitting at the head of the table in the briefing room, Captain sh’Elas listened to the report from her Operations Chief, and nodded along in all the right places until the Bolian concluded. “How is that going?” she queried of the two gold uniformed officers.

“We’re facing the real prospect of getting there,” Noli nodded, sitting forward at the table to draw the attention to her, hands clasped together on the surface, “we won’t have a clue if it actually works until we detect a vessel of course, but if we don’t we’re in no worse shape than we are presently,” she shrugged, then sat back in her chair.

“Lieutenant Mitchell?”

Henry nodded and rose to his feet, making his way to the wall mounted display, the eyes of everyone present trained on his slender, Terran frame. He reached out and activated the screen. “We’re roughly four hours from the Velorum Nebula. Part of the negotiations centered on the security of the convoy due to its restricted speed. As such, the representatives on Opra decreed that we must escort the convoy through the Nebula as it provides the best hiding places, and the least likely place of attack by hostile forces,” he drew their attention to the nebula by expanding the image and the internal structure of the nebula. “Traversing the Nebula will be easy for the convoy due to their maneuverability at sublight speeds. We, however, will find this quite a bumpy ride.”

He began walking towards the table again whilst Lieutenant Okan continued the briefing. “We’ll need to draw reserve power to the shields and structural integrity field throughout, but the biggest issue will be sensors. They’ll be limited to less than ten thousand meters in all directions until we clear the nebula,” the Risian told her crewmates.

“Which means, even if we can detect cloaked vessels, it will be at very limited range,” Commander Gor stated, as more of a question than anything else.

“Basically, not until it is too late,” Noli shrugged looking at Linn Mora in a muted form of frustration at, what seemed to be, a wasted endeavour.

Never one to miss a cue from one of her staff, let alone one she had known for sometime, the Captain quickly chipped in to assuage the tactician’s concerns. “Any advantage is a positive,” Tharia reminded her, “no matter how slim. Tell them why, Akaria,” the Captain turned her focus back to the science officer.

“For the duration of the journey through the nebula, we’ll have no communications with anything outside the ship,” the scientist told the senior staff, to a chorus of groans and resignation. “Now, therein lies the problem. We need a means of communicating if anyone has any ideas?”

[Convoy on approach to Velorum Nebula -ETA 2 Hours]

“Captain! We’ve got an idea,” Lieutenant Okan grinned, waving a data PADD as she approached the desk in the ready room, where the Andorian was sat writing her up to date duty log. Accompanied by her companion from Ops, the two Lieutenant’s had done some research and come up with an idea that would solve their communication issues with the rest of the convoy.

“Alright, let’s hear it?” Tharia relaxed as she sat back in her chair, her antenna dipping, preparing to hear the latest scientific marvel that her people could come up with. She gestured to the chairs opposite her desk and gave them her full attention.

“It’s an old code, but the idea checks out,” Akaria started, pulling out one of the chairs and taking a seat. “Essentially, we’re using an updated version of something called morse code, or signal lamps. Using line of sight, tight beam communications, we’ll use a small set of universally accepted codes to pass messages to each ship. We’ll have to have an officer dedicated to keeping watch, but its a system that can be adapted on all of the ships in the short amount of time we have,” Okan revealed, sliding a data PADD across the desk to the Andorian.

“Tried and tested methods of the past,” Tharia smirked, “they never let us down.”

“With your permission, we can get the plans passed around the convoy ASAP and make the modifications we need here,” Linn Mora told hopefully, looking to his commanding officer with a smile and raised eyebrows of optimism.

“You’re sure this won’t let us down inside the nebula?” the Captain queried of her team.

“As sure as we can be, but you can never be one hundred percent in a situation like this,” Akaria shrugged, “until we try, we won’t know.”

Without so much as a glance at the data, the Captain slid it back across the table. She believed in her people, and their plans, and would trust them to solve her problem.

“Do it,” she nodded in acknowledgement of their idea, dismissing them in the process.

Rising from their seats in silence, the two Lieutenant’s shared a look of congratulations and swiftly exited the ready room in order to put their plan into place. With less than two hours left until they reached the nebula, they would need to act quickly.

[Convoy about to enter Velorum Nebula -ETA 5 Minutes]

Accompanied by the trademark ‘swish’ of the ready room door, Captain sh’Elas appeared on the bridge for the first time in a number of hours, and instantly made a beeline for her command chair, where Commander Gor had gotten more than a little comfy. Rising to his feet, the diminutive Tellarite ceded command back to the Andorian and began his report.

“We’re on final approach to the nebula, Captain. All ships have dropped from warp and are at full impulse,” he reported, gruff voice relaying the status of the convoy.

Nodding graciously to the XO, and then nodding in greeting to the Counsellor sat in the third chair of the command ‘pit’ as she referred to it, Tharia slipped effortlessly into her command chair. “Where are we at with the modifications for communications?” she pondered, looking first at Mora, then across to the port side bulkhead and the science officer sat there.

“All modifications are complete,” Akaria confirmed with a nod, “we’ve completed some test messages between all vessels, and we stand ready. Ensign Valesa will be monitoring communications closely,” the Risian concluded, much to the satisfaction, and appreciation of the commanding officer, who now turned her attention to the forward stations again.

“Lieutenant Mitchell?”

“Yes?” the helmsman answered somewhat absentmindedly before quickly realising what he had said, and what the Captain was asking of him. Spinning in his chair, he gave the woman his undivided attention in order to avoid such a cockup again. “Oh! Yes, ma’am. I’ve worked with Lieutenant Okan to plan the safest, most efficient route possible through the nebula. If we get through without any hitches, it should take us roughly twelve hours to get to the other side,” he revealed.

Vasoch raised an eyebrow and inched forward in his seat to the right of the Captain. “Twelve hours?! That seems like an inordinate amount of time to cross a single nebula,” the Tellarite remarked, glancing at the helmsman and science chief in turn.

“Normally, we could do it in somewhere between four and six,” Henry nodded slowly, “but it’s the freighters. If they go anything above one quarter impulse inside, their manifolds will collapse and we’ll lose them. Since our fate is tied to theirs, we obviously need to stick to them like glue,” the Terran explained, drawing a nod of thanks from the snout-nosed being.

“Our advanced computer systems will be able to adapt and plot new routes as we go, far quicker than any of the Romulan ships,” Mora chipped in from Ops, “we’ll use Valesa to relay changes to the convoy, which should be able to adapt within seconds.”

“Noli?”

“We’ll remain at yellow alert throughout our trip through the nebula Captain,” the Bajoran blonde told, safe in the knowledge that the Andorian would defer to her better judgement in this situation. “Shields have been adapted for the nebula, and we’re as prepared as we can be from that perspective. It’ll be up to fly boy to minimise the dents on my shield grid though,” she smiled at the younger man playfully before carrying on, “and the sensor adaptations for the tachyon grid are complete. Much like Akaria though, we won’t know how effective or useful it is until we are required to use it.”

Rubbing her hands together in glee, the Captain slid back into her chair and crossed her right knee over her left leg. “I do love when a plan comes together,” she smiled at Vasoch, who simply nodded and turned back to his own controls. “Counsellor,” she turned to Vittoria finally, “how are the crew holding up?”

Shifting in her seat to look at the captain more closely, Vittoria smiled. “As to be expected, they’re responding with diligence and an abundance of caution. They know we cannot afford any mistakes in this matter. They’re to be commended, really. It can’t be easy to have such a drastic change of command staff foisted upon them, and then have the fate of dozens of Romulans placed on their shoulders,” she concluded.

“I’ll be sure to note that in my log when we get through this,” Tharia smiled appreciatively, then turned her attention to the main viewer. “Alright people – let’s rock and roll. Nebula on the main viewer. Lieutenant Mitchell… take us in.”

Surrounded by her protectorates, the Ulysses gradually inched towards the leading edge of the swirling clouds of dust, gas and radiation that made up the Velorum Nebula. Their mission was a go.