Mission Start
Posted on 2025, Tue Mar 25th, @ 10:27am by Colonel Kane & Lieutenant Commander Jim Karry & Lieutenant Commander Grace Johnsen & Lieutenant La'an Hanes & Lieutenant JG Jack Sparrow & Chief Petty Officer Jake Palstine & Commodore Emily Janeway & Commander Yadira Tristan & Commander Cormac Situs & Lieutenant Neteri "Ikran" Shannon & Senior Chief Petty Officer Larry Lamontagne
Edited on on 2025, Mon Apr 21st, @ 8:40am
4,045 words; about a 20 minute read
Mission:
E1 "Shadows of the Empire"
Location: E/r to Star Base 117 to Meet with USS Melborne A
Timeline: After Meeting Breif
Tags: Voyager Crew, E1 "Shadows of the Empire", E1 Shadow of the Past, Season 2 Missions
The bridge crew of Voyager-A buzzed with anticipation as they geared up for their mission, the viewscreen alive with the stunning spectacle of stars streaking past in a cosmic ballet. Palstine, focused and determined, informed Commodore Janeway that their course for Star Base 113 was locked in, while a secondary trajectory was set to the mysterious Krai' JIH'NA Nebula. With the vessel rocketing through space at maximum warp, and the autopilot taking the helm, they were poised to embark on another extraordinary journey through the vast wonders of the galaxy.
Commodore Janeway's voice filled the bridge with a sense of calm authority as she sat poised in the command chair. "Palstine, acknowledged," she stated clearly. "We'll proceed with caution, under yellow alert mode, given the uncertainties that lie ahead." Her gaze swept the bridge, meeting the eyes of her crew as she continued, "Our mission briefings have outlined the possibilities: directives from Fleet Command regarding our meeting with Star Base 113, and our rendezvous with the USS Melbourne-A. Let's ensure we're prepared for any eventuality." Her voice was steady and reassuring, conveying a sense of confidence and trust in her crew. The stars streaking past the viewscreen like diamonds on velvet seemed to underscore the sense of adventure that lay ahead.
La'an Noonien-Singh and Sparrow were engaged in a focused weapons training session on the Holodeck within the Security deck. The simulation they had chosen mirrored a tactical assault scenario on a barren alien terrain, complete with towering rock formations and narrow canyons for cover.
La'an, with her precise and calculated movements, demonstrated techniques for efficiently neutralizing simulated threats, her phaser rifle steady and her stance unwavering. Sparrow, though younger and less experienced, matched her determination, firing with growing confidence under La'an's guidance.
"Remember, precision over speed," La'an instructed, her voice calm but firm as a holographic drone zipped overhead. "You don’t need to take every shot—just the right one."
Sparrow nodded, his brow furrowed in concentration, and adjusted his aim, managing to take down a moving target at 200 meters. "Got it!" he exclaimed, his excitement barely contained.
The Holodeck's environmental settings shifted as La'an activated a new wave of adversaries. "Don't celebrate too soon," she said with a smirk. "Let's see how you handle a surprise ambush."
The training intensified, each move testing their reflexes and teamwork. Their camaraderie shone as they adapted to the challenges, La'an's mentoring bringing out the best in Sparrow.
Karry wanted to talk to the newly Promoted senior enlisted in engineering.
"Larry! Congrats on the Promotion, I also heard there's something else added, But its been sealed under orders of Admiral Harlow, Could you explain?"
Larry just shook his head, then spoke. "Well, there is the old tale of ancient business practice where you are promoted to your level of incompetence. Whereas for me, I think it was just a case of being in the wrong place with the right skill set. Yes I have lots of skills, but at this rank, I will mostly be managing people. Unless there is some alternate task someone has especially for me. But at this stage, who knows."
Larry thought for a second then said, "Well, there is a very old saying that goes something about the best-laid plans of mice and men... I had a few plans this summer, well so to speak, not that we have seasons here. I had an interesting theory about the crab nebula, I wanted to explore it with a science shuttlecraft. But alas, I will not have time for anything remotely close to fun. " Larry handed two P.a.d.d's over, then said. "I...this is our new workload. I get to schedule everyone's playtime. Playtime is currently scheduled for three weeks from the day after tomorrow. We are Moving up all schedules, and we need all Equipment installations finished within..."' Larry looked up at the Engineering Chromometer, shook his head, and sighed. "29 hours and 13 minutes," Larry said. " First Padd is all the shipyard tiger teams that you will be supervising, They are pretty much adults, so you will only have to run interference with other departments. The Lockout/Tagout process will be assisted by the computer, so you will spend most of your time as a gopher...If you get any feedback or grief from other Departments, refer them to me, and I'll tell them to help or get out of the way. Your first team will be onboard in..." Larry looked at his big tablet, " Fifteen minutes, so meet them in the shuttle bay, good news is that they are bringing there own labor force to haul the supplies and equipment with them...So off you go..... remember to stay hydrated... you are going to be running around a lot..." Larry made shoeing motions with his hands, then said "Off you go ... Don't make them Wait on you! Do you think your job sucks, want Mine? I will be supervising 155 system installs, and some of the teams from the Starfleet Corps of Engineering will be deploying with us...Don't be surprised if you end up with a roommate for a couple of weeks!" Larry had to phisycally get Karry moving, due to the young Engineer being in a small state of shock. Larry was not looking forwards to the next several weeks.
Karry just nodded and left he was gonna be really stressed out when this is done. Now to get that message out to the Admiral, Plan B is in motion. "Understood Petty officer, see you later"
Larry looked at his small collection of tablets, P.A.D.D.'s, and blueprints he had on his desk. No matter how hard he tried, they kept multiplying. He pulled the latest batch out and sorted them by their hierarchal rank, as determined by
their system importance, when the Starfleet Corps of Engineering would be overhauling them, and the amount of materials they required. The Main Engineering Replicator now had a backlog of 4 days. Engineers had started sneaking into other departments to squeeze in where they could. Larry expected to hear about this from other senior enlisted any second. Alas, the problems of a society that no longer worried about producing things....Except when people wanted things now...
Karry had just finished his message to the Admiral when he got a new one. He had to try to disable the Voyager, They were already on Their way, but wanted them disabled before they enter Klingon Space. Karry sent understood back and went back to Engineering and noticed Larry was still there. "Larry! I thought I told you to head to the bridge and check all those systems?" Lying through his teeth wasn't his best, but he needed Larry gone.
Larry looked up in surprise, then grabbed the pile of P.A.D.D's that were in the Operations Department. Looking under Command and Control, he saw that most of the bridge stations were getting upgrades or major overhauls. The repair teams were not yet to them, but pulling everything out of the way so the repair teams from Starfleet Corps of Engineers could do their thing was going to take a while. Moving over to the center console, he pulled up the Engineering roster seeing that 7 of his team were currently located on the mess decks, he sent them a message.
[Meet me on the bridge to start disassembling everything in 17 minutes...Larry]
That would give them ten minutes to devour everything on their plates. Five minutes to brag about it, and two minuets to get to the bridge. Larry turned and yelled to the three watchstanders. "You three... take four standard Engineering repair kits, six advanced tool packs, and yourselves to the bridge. I will meet you there." Hitting the intercom button for the lower decks, he said, "Lower deck watchstanders, one of you is now the upper decks watch, get up here and assist the big boss! Don't make him wait.!"
Larry ran to his locker to pull out his Engineering Coveralls. Getting in them took less than ten seconds. Then larry started to stuff his various pockets with tools. First was his overpowered engineering Phaser and tricorder. They were nice, He had spent 9 weeks looking at Starfleet's Corps of Engineers designs for various tools. His phaser more resembled a really ancient Swiss army knife than a phaser. It even had an advanced control system to sinc with his tricorder and a heads-up holo display. Which any Engineer worth his salt could turn into a holo-projector. After shoving all the advanced tools that he rarely needed into all of his pockets, he grabbed a fashioned wide-bottomed titanium thirty-two cubic centimeter hot cocoa cup, with slip-resistant coating on the bottom, and a spill-proof lid. Walking over to the Replicator, he put the hot coco cup in the slot, then told the computer, " Larry hot cocoa recipe number 4 in the titanium cup please."
As the computer filled his coco cup, he observed the watch coming over to the Chief Engineer. Turning to Kary, Larry said, " Ok, boss I am off to destroy the bridge... so to speak.. but this will take several hours... yell if you need me!"
Grabbing several Starfleet rations packs, and stuffing them into a not-yet-filled pocket in his coveralls, Larry then grabbed his two oversized and over-stuffed Engineering tool bags, swung them over his shoulder, grabbed his now filled hot coco cup, and trotted out the door.... buy was it nice to get back to working with his hands, the last 8 hours doing paperwork was enough to last a lifetime, "but there would be more tomorrow." as he hit the turbolift, he didn't even realize he has spoken the last bit out loud.
Larry strowed onto the Bridge, walked to the Center Command chair, and set down his tool bags. Larry looked around and saw the watch standers doing their job, observing the computer system monitor the ship's systems. Occasionally a routine check would trigger a pre-programmed response, or the Operations watch stander would do a check on a system. But there was really nothing important going on right now.
Going over to the Officer of the Deck, Larry said, "Good news, we're upgrading the bridge console's, and installing the hot tub!"
The Ensign from Operations looked startled for a second, then started laughing, then after a few seconds said, " I did not put in that ship alteration request in the Captains Inbox, and I most definitely did not bribe the Captains yeoman to put it in the middle of the biggest pile. But I did enjoy the Chief Engineers' scowl at the officer's Mess breakfast when the Chief Engineer read it. He stopped flipped it over, looked at it again, then looked over to the Captain and said really a hot tub on the bridge... Whichever Ensign that pulled that trick off will be famous forever..."
Larry smiled for a second then said, "Yea, I heard about it, I would never try anything that bold. Since we are about to disassemble most of the consoles here, you might want consider a move to the battle-bridge. If you want to call a watch-relief shift-change and have them man the Battle-Bridge. Then you can either assume the watch down there or supervise up here... but I would like a few Operations types to be here to help/ oversee their equipment, the more eyes we have, the faster we get this refit over with.
The Officer of the Deck called for the Watch Relief to man the Battle-Bridge. At about this time, Larry's Engineering team arrived. Larry said, "Set your tools here at the Captain's chair, and start pulling the deck plats from the back to the front of the Bridge. By the time we get those pulled, the Watch will have shifted to the Battle-Bridge."
Larry watched his team start removing the hundreds of titanium screws holding the deck plates down so they would have access to all the cables running under the false floor. Oh how he missed the days of no responsibility. Just go fix things.
Clunking and thumbing alerted him to the group of three engineers dragging all the kits and tool bags from the turbo-lift access. Larry said, "Put the tool bag and kits by the Captain's chair; and repair parts by the back wall."
Larry sipped from his hot coco cup. He stood back watching everything carefully, because it only took seconds for an uncontrolled action to backfire turning an accident into a comedy of errors and Murphy always made sure that it would be not only memorable but record-making as well.
Within a few minutes of Karry sending a message to Janeway, Larry got one too. "Hey Larry, got an issue with the Sensor suite on Deck 4, Could you check it out? Im on my way up to meet with the Commodore"
Larry was hip-deep into the bridge refit,.. Literally, the false floor had been removed, and he was standing in the channel that was 3 feet deep, pulling new cables through the conduit runs. Then he had to pass them up to the Engineering tech, who was waiting to connect them to the new upgraded console. This would not be quite at 25% efficiency upgrade. By adding more data runs, it allowed more data to be transferred to the console. This allowed the now-improved bridge console, to have more data to process. It was all about numbers, bigger was better! The Downside was, It was back-breaking work. He had the teams swapping people out every ten to fifteen minutes. This would keep the number of people showing up at medical tomorrow mourning, needing analgesics and time in holodeck hot tubs.
Larry got the call to meet the Chief Engineer halfway through the upgrade process. He turned to the Leading Petty Officer, then said, "Keep swapping everyone out so we don't end up with half of the Engineering teams at medical sick call tomorrow mourning." Larry grabbed his hot coco cup, his tool bag, and pulled a ration bar out of his cover-all pockets. As he exited the bridge for deck four, he wondered what could cause a problem with the one system they had not touched yet. "Oh well" he said, "That was why they had highly trained technicians, who basically worked for free to fix stuff."
Karry replied with a beep knowing he had been sent to the item.
The Science Station received alarming and unusual readings from Star Base 113 concerning the USS Halos. It appeared as though the ship had vanished without a trace. The USS Halos was expected to arrive at Star Base 113 for routine updates and resupply, but their anticipated journey was interrupted, and they never reached their destination. The sudden disappearance raised concerns and sparked an immediate investigation into the circumstances surrounding their last known location and communications. Everyone aboard the Science Station was on high alert, trying to make sense of the strange data and determine the fate of the USS Halos. So now the Science and Command Department at SB 113 is asking Voyager to Be e/r to help find the Voyager"
"I said ''check", again" Situs said under his teeth. The officer at the science station repeated the movements one more time, the result was the same, he turned towards Situs with the same tired expression. At the sight of the numbers on the screen Situs could feel his blood boiling. It was as if they had no sensors at all, or if the exiting sensors simultaneously lost all of their calibrations, effectively useless. "Listen to me very carefully, Ensign, I am not about to walk to the Captain and tell her we are blind, not without an alternative. Get down to the shuttlebay and find me a craft with working sensors, call me if anyone stops you" He motioned the ensign to hurry and took over his post at the science station. And he tapped his comdadge.
"Situs to flight control, I'm sending Ensign Daniels to you. We need a craft with working sensors. Please advise"
A Beeped sounded from the inner ship comms, and Lt. Colonel Kane began to speak to the entire ship.
=/\= Attention all hands, this is Lt. Colonel Kane. Prepare for immediate departure and set a course to the designated sector. Our mission is crucial: we are leading the search and rescue operations for our task force flagship, the USS Halo. Any questions or concerns must be directed to your department heads, who will forward them to me. Additionally, I expect all department heads in the Ready Room in 15 minutes. We must strategize effectively and ensure total alignment in our efforts. Kane out. =/\=
Janeway’s office is nice quiet area for herself to work on her desk work while she’s working on studying the project statuses report for herself to complete for the mission reports of her head commanding officers to Starfleet. Subsequently since her vessel crew roster did not include any actual personnel to be assigned as commanding officer’s Yeomen. However the Commodore must do her best to keeping herself in line with certain requirements of being in charge of her own vessel.
Karry, the Chief Engineer of the starship, composed a message to Captain Janeway, requesting an opportunity to speak with her about an important matter.
Commodore looked over from desk to see what the matter was about. Looking down at the notebook message “ I don’t know what it’s going to be.” Says Janeway who is still seated in her office chair.
Karry walked into the room, a deep sense of worry etched on her face. "Ma'am, have you received the news? Starfleet has just issued a widespread alert to assemble a Search and Rescue Fleet. The USS Halo has gone missing under mysterious circumstances, and we have been ordered to take immediate action. The Voyager is the Flag ship for the Search and Rescue, We have been ordered to the Rekag-Seroina Sector the Halos Last Known Location "
Janeway’s expression of seemingly neutral “ well I guess it’s time to show Voyager. It takes to get to the actual job done correctly, and prove the admirals that I’m still in command, despite my physical illness us, I guess that changes our plans now now that my ships the flag ship how about we change course now and we will willingly go ahead and find them again.” She said with a straight face without any distractions from focus on the-task at hand as she keeps her hands and away from the bandages on her chest.
As she wrapped up her statement, Lt. Colonel Kane entered the room with an authoritative stride, his demeanor unmistakably assertive. "Janeway, we are launching our mission immediately," he declared, his voice leaving no room for doubt. "The USS Halo is missing under troubling circumstances, and Starfleet demands its recovery as an absolute priority. I am already issuing orders to the Voyager to guarantee we are ready for an instant departure."
He paused briefly, ensuring his message resonated. "We are operating on a strict timeline, and delays are not an option. The longer we wait, the more complex this situation will become."
Kane firmly tapped his comm badge, activating the ship-wide communication system to ensure every member of the crew heard his command.
=/\= Attention all hands, this is Lt. Colonel Kane. Prepare for immediate departure and set a course to the designated sector. Our mission is crucial: we are leading the search and rescue operations for our task force flagship, the USS Halo. Any questions or concerns must be directed to your department heads, who will forward them to me. Additionally, I expect all department heads in the Ready Room in 15 minutes. We must strategize effectively and ensure total alignment in our efforts. Kane out. =/\=
With that, he concluded the announcement, his resolve clear as he prepared the crew for the challenges that lay ahead in their urgent mission to locate the missing vessel.
Janeway rose from her chair with purposeful determination, masking any trace of discomfort as she faced him. “Colonel Kane,” she began, her tone steady and infused with unwavering resolve, “I know exactly what’s at stake. The crew of the Halo is depending on us, and Voyager is ready to lead this fleet—timeline be damned. My crew has proven time and again that they get the job done.”
She stepped closer, her gaze unwavering and fierce. “But if I’m taking command as flagship, I need details—immediately. I want the Halo’s last transmission, its course through the Rekag-Seroina Sector, and any sensor anomalies we’ve detected. I won’t lead us blindly, and I refuse to waste time on guesswork. You have my crew ready within 24 hours, and I expect you to ensure they’re properly prepared. We’re going on yellow alert and maintaining it until we’re ready. We cannot afford to become a target, especially since we have no idea what we might face.”
Janeway gestured decisively to Karry, her voice sharp with authority. “Chief, get to Engineering—double-check the warp core and sensors. We’re not going into this half-prepared.” Turning back to Kane, she added, “When the department heads convene in 15 minutes, I expect a briefing that’s concise and actionable. The longer the Halo goes without our assistance, the more difficult our mission becomes.”
She tapped her comm badge, her voice clear and commanding over the comms. =/= Janeway to all hands: You heard the Colonel—prepare for immediate launch. We’re the flagship for this rescue, and I expect every station to be razor-sharp. Rekag-Seroina Sector is our target. Let’s move. Janeway out. =/=
Janeway met Kane’s eyes once more, a defiant spark gleaming in her expression despite any injuries she concealed. “Voyager is mine to command, Colonel, and I will demonstrate that I am not going to let anyone dare to threaten to destroy any of our fellow fleet members of the most important thing is that I’m ready to focus on the current situation of to Starfleet and to our team. Let’s find that ship.”
"Understood" Kane then walked to the Bridge.
He walked away from Janeway without another word of his own words or explanation. Once the doors were close Janeway walked away from entrance towards her desk to take a look at the message from the halo to try to start planning the rescue planning strategy.
Yadira turned and followed Janeway into her office. "Well Janeway here we are so fill me in", she said laughing.
Janeway glanced up from the desk, her eyes glinting like polished quartz under the dim office light, the Halo’s message pulsing faintly on the screen like a heartbeat trapped in static. She straightened, her frame rising with a quiet, deliberate grace, hands settling on the desk’s edge, fingers tracing the worn grain as if grounding herself. “Fill you in?” she said, her voice a steady hum, threaded with a faint, dry chuckle that danced alongside Yadira’s laugh, though it carried the echo of long nights and longer odds. “We’re stepping into the deep end—the Halo’s gone dark somewhere out there, and Command’s tapped me to lead this fleet to fish it out, ready or not.”
She moved forward, her boots tapping a calm, measured cadence against the deck, her breath a slow release as she tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear, the gesture casual yet tinged with the weight of habit under pressure. “The crew’s looking to me to chart the course—every call I make lands heavy, every hour we lose presses harder, but we’ve pulled off tougher jobs than this. So, here we are, stitching a rescue plan from scraps and grit, and I’ll see it through ‘til that ship’s back where it belongs.” Her gaze met Yadira’s, a spark of warmth softening the steel in her expression, her resolve a steady flame tempered by the quiet strain of leadership.
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