Captain's Log - Stardate 0303.06

[FredM 0]

Captain's Log

Stardate 0303.06

Captain Fred Michaels

 

 

      Pacing. It was a human characteristic which had seemingly spread amongst many cultures. Through no words or actions, an individual could show a variety of feelings simply by walking back and forth. If one was to really think about it, the practice was quite amazing. One could show annoyance, anger, impatience, patience and even contemplation simply by moving from one place to another.....over and over again. It was something Captain Michaels was in the mood to practice.

 

      The Ambassador Class vessel had only been out of spacedock for about ten minutes when it happened. A shockwave, seeming to follow an energy spike from the U.S.S. Cairo, slammed into the hull of the Reaent. The force of the wave had momentarily tossed the ship on it's side, though automated systems quickly recentered the vessel...if such a thing could be said in the vacuum of space. The result had been a crew which was seemingly unprepared, something Fred did not fault them for. It wasn't every day that a ship left a starbase and was then hit by a powerful shockwave minutes later.

 

      Attempts to asses the situation by Michaels had been temporarily curtailed by news the Cairo was transmitting a distress call. Attempts to respond had failed and resulted in the Reaent moving at full impulse to render aid. Instead of answers, the Captain only found more questions when looking at preliminary sensor readings of the Intrepid class ship.

 

      In many respects, Fred already knew what hadn't caused the severe damage the Reaent was detecting. Michaels had served at the Starfleet Development Project on Pluto for over three years. Here, engineers took uncommissioned ships and installed experimental technology to test their viability in the field. Implementation of the such things as the "roaming EMH" systems to recent upgrades in lateral sensor targeting had come out of the facility. At the end of the Dominion War, the vessel then Lieutenant Commander Fred Michaels had been commanding in the fleet of testbed ships was scheduled to be commissioned into the regular fleet. After the transfer, he would continue to serve aboard the now dedicated U.S.S. Valkyrie as her Chief Engineer for a year. He would leave the Intrepid Class vessel for a brief hiatus from active service and a reassignment as a Team Coordinator at the Starfleet Corp. of Engineer's center in Houston on Earth. Now Commander Fred Michaels would only remain on Earth several months before being promoted to Captain and assigned to the Reaent.

 

      Yet his experience aboard the S.D.P. Vessel 291, NX-789001, later named the U.S.S. Valkyrie, for over four years had given him a unique insight about the Intrepid Class. With that in mind he knew several things simply from the damage reports....the ship hadn't sufferred a core breach or a failed core ejection. In fact, he almost wanted to say some of the damage was from internal explosions. It was a theory he would not be able to confirm until they entered visual range.

 

      That event seemed to take forever. Eventually, the Ensign at the Reaent's helm tapped on his console and turned in his chair, "Sir, arriving at the Cairo." Ordered to move next to the clearly crippled vessel, the viewscreen came to life and showed a sight Michael's hadn't seen since the Dominion War.

 

      For lack of a better description, the aft 1/6th of the ship appeared to be nothing but a mangled pile of metal. The Cairo itself was adrift, now slowly drifting backwards and every so slowly to the right. Most of the port warp nacelle of the ship appeared disjointed, with the hull which held the warp coils in place splintered upwards as if the coils themselves had exploded. The underbelly of the engineering section appeared, as the Captain had theorized, as if the hull had exploded from internal damage. In fact, over half the damage Michaels could see seemed to fit that description. With plasma venting from both warp nacelles, both of the Cairo's impulse engines practically blown off the ship and at least five other areas where gases were pouring into space made the vessel an ugly sight to behold.

 

      Shaking his head from the shock of it all, Fred turned to Ridire and cleared his throat. "Two teams....as we discussed. Have Lieutenant McLean lead the team heading to engineering. Stabilize the ship, stabilize the crew and then we have to find out what the hell caused that!", the Captain said pointing to the screen. The human standing in front of him, though slightly taller, nodded and went to work.

 

      As the Captain looked back at the viewscreen all he could do his shake his head. He knew that external damage was only half the story. Most times the damage inside would be worse. And here you'd find not only technology destroyed, but lives as well. Attempting to stare the answer out of the image on the viewscreen, Fred had only one question on his mind. What had happened to the Cairo?