Bonded In Time
Posted on Thu Oct 4th, 2018 @ 11:15pm by Commodore Tyler Malbrooke & Makeba Brown
Edited on on Thu Oct 4th, 2018 @ 11:25pm
4,440 words; about a 22 minute read
Mission:
Episode 4 - The Sum of Our Parts
Location: Breyet Nor Ops & USS Juno Bridge
Timeline: MD003 1000 hrs
"The answer to your first question is absolutely. It has happened before, and will happen again. The problem is figuring out who and where they are. What do they hope to accomplish? Well conquest or the taking of resources." Tyler paused to take a huge swig of his cider. Not my normal table manners, but when in Rome he thought. "Before you ask why I think that. The answer is simple, it is what I would do."
"The question I have is, what was the USS Falco. doing that caused this anomaly, the sensor logs are still being decrypted." Said Elloma, as she was curious why her husband would say, its something he would do. She tried to brush it off. As she took a few more bites of her food.
"That is a great question and as soon as those logs are available we will know. It is pointless to speculate as you never know with the Federation. Let me know when that information is available. For now, we should prep the crew for anything." Tyler did his very best to answer Essu as any Maquis would. Deep within his head he hoped that she bought it.
May 30 2394 1000 hrs (relative time)
Ops Breyet Nor Maquis Base - Badlands
Tyler had spent the last few hours doing all he could to learn all he could. The horrible thing was there was not much to learn. Well at least not much that would be helpful to correct the timeline. What was worse was that he believed that the Elloma of this timeline suspected something. He had to make sure that she did not find out. To that end he took what information he could get and shared it with Elloma. He played his part the Maquis rebel commander.
As of now he stood in Ops with Elloma, deep in thought. He had some Intel that would save this station. The question he was wrestling with was did he want to. He grit his teeth and squared his jaw as he turned toward her. "Elloma the boys down in Intel have got a doozy. They have received word from one of their undercover contacts that the USS Juno is on the way here. Anderson's orders are to take me into custody and destroy the station. We need to plan a counter attack, what is worse is we do not know how long we have."
"The station defenses are not upgraded yet, probably why they are choosing now to attack us." Said Elloma, thinking to herself that the captain of the USS Juno, is a playing it safe. She was trying to strategize ways of using this to her advantage. And ultimately to the advantage of Tyler.
Tyler nodded "You are most likely correct. Get Engineering teams and Ops teams to get as much of it upgraded as possible. Tell Goose and Maverick on the flight deck to be ready to scramble the fighters on a moments notice. In fact have them launch the advance attack squad." There were two voices in Tyler's head at this point. The one who spoke and the one who wanted to go home. Tyler had no idea who these people were that he mentioned, but he did all at the same time."
"Luckily our new cascade virus program is up and running so we do not have to worry about Captain Anderson and his thugs getting their hands on our most classified data." She said, walking over to a science station, and started to prepare the cascade virus program.
"Excellent put it on stand by...." Tyler's voice trailed off as he received a report that the Juno was actually at their doorstep. "Blast that QSD." He whispered just load enough for Elloma to hear it.
"Do you want me to hail them, Captain?" Asked Elloma, curious to see what Tyler was going to do. Are they are going to talk their way out of this, or they going to fight. As it stood the USS Juno had the superior fire power, the refit was not complete yet. And Starfleet Intelligence probably knew that.
A devilish almost evil grin crawled across Tyler's face as he spoke. "No my darling the time for talking has passed. Launch Alert Fighters." He knew that was the same mistake that Ayala made against him, and he hoped that Anderson would be sharp. For in the chaos to follow Tyler would get out of there. However, there was a small pang of regret for possible destroying this timeline and this version of himself.
Elloma smiled as she glad to hear he was looking for a fight. They wanted the station, they would have to fight for it. And she was not going to make it easy on them. She started rerouted power to the weapons system. Luckily they were only targeting one vessel, they could not destroy it, but they could slow it down.
"50 fighters have launched, all fighters on deck, we are launching the reserve unit." Elloma said, as another 25 fighters launched, taking up defense positions around the ship.
"Captain all fighters are locking on their targets. The stations weapons are locked on the Juno, but Captain, I am reading two more ships on long range sensors the USS Pioneer and the USS Ottawa. Looks like they called for re-enforcement when they saw our fighters. Good!"
Elloma ordered the fighters target the warp nacells, the Juno was not going to escape. They would pay for taking the station. They're plan was to cause as much damage as they could.
"Elloma prepare boarding parties. If the fighters do their job we will have a Vesta class in no time. Also send word to the Pioneer and the Ottawa that if they engage they will be destroyed. The launch the transponder echo buoys, that will muck up their sensors enough that they might believe that they will be destroyed." Tyler called out as he stood at the command desk in the center of Ops he watched the battle unfold. He was blissfully unaware of the battle that was raging on in his subconscious.
USS Juno
Bervag sat on the bridge of the USS Juno, gazing out at the Nor class station, trying to put his mind into the Maquis facing them. Get into their shoes. In his mind it was like an old western. Who'd draw first.
"Tactical, How's their defenses looking." Bervag asked.
Makeba Brown manned her post and had placed everything the Juno had on standby as soon as the ship had gone to Red Alert. "It looks like they are in the process of a weapons upgrade. Some of their phaser banks are ready and others are not. However, their shields have been augmented almost triple the normal strength for a station of this type." Her report ended abruptly as she checked her console. "Sir we have incoming, fifty Talon class fighters. ETA to intercept 3 minutes."
"They are not protecting the station?" Asked Harry, wondering what Captain Malbrooke was thinking. "Helm continue on course but slow our speed down to 1/4 impulse, Miss Brown prepare for short burst patterns, we want to disable those fighters before we began our initial attack on the station." Said Harry, trying to avoid any attacks.
"Sir, it seems that the station has launched fifty fighters for intercept, and another twenty five that are now on patrol protecting the station. Targets aquired and weapons set for burst pattern Anderson-2, at your command." Makeba replied as she programmed the ship's systems. Her thoughts wandered briefly to the plan that the Maquis may have. To confirm her thoughts she began to evaluate the incoming fighters.
"Commander Bers, keep an eye of the reserve unit, we will have our hands full with these 50 fighters." Said Harry. He knew that the Tyler was trying to disable his QSD and warp drive system. He assumed Tyler was going to board the Juno if he can get the shields down on the Juno.
"Aye, Captain." Bervag said, punching commands into his seat. He nodded.
"Captain, it seems that the fighters have slowed their intercept course. Looks like they are trying to lure us in. The Maquis may have an intention on trying to take the ship. Shall I alert the Marines and Security Teams to stand by for possible boarding actions." Makeba called out, and as she did her hand rose to her temples. Her head throbbed for a moment, and a small amount of vertigo had set it. It passed as quickly as it came, she was not about to leave her post now. However, somewhere in the back of her head she sympathized with these Maquis, and she did not know why.
"Yes, Alert them Id say." Bervag replied, looking up from his station. "I wouldn't put it past them."
"Aye sir. Transporter rooms are being secured, and the Marine barracks report ready for action." Just as she finished her report Makeba Brown stumbled into the console behind her. It seemed that the vertigo was not totally gone. When she regained herself a soft voice, that was her own yet not her own spoke up in her head. Destroy this ship... she told herself.
Harry walked over to the tactical station, "I want you to focus on their shield generators. This Captain Malbrooke, is a crafty man. I want to be one step ahead of him." Ordered Harry, as he looked to Makeba.
"Aye sir. Forward Phaser banks and torpedo launchers are locked on target. However, we lack the firepower to eliminate all of the shield generators. We will only be able to poke a hole in their shield grid. Something that they may be able to repair quickly. Weapons ready to fire at your command." Makeba reported, she was itching for a fight.
Breyet Nor Operations
"Captain the Juno, seems to be anticipating our surprise attack, if we are going to attempt seizure of their vessel, we should proceed now." Said Elloma, as she looked to Tyler for a moment, and then over at her station.
Tyler was not sure if he could go through with it, and he was second guessing himself. One part of his mind did ponder if his command codes worked in this universe. If they did it would stop a good number of deaths. Elloma's suggestion snapped him out of his thoughts. "Quite right Elloma, give the go ahead. I want the Juno taken in tact. Also see if you can get one of our hackers started on hacking the Juno's mainframe. I have an idea that might end this fight before it starts."
"Standing by Captain." Said Elloma, eager to get this fight over with. She wanted the Juno. It would make for an excellent trophy. She eagerly waited for the Captain's response.
"I need access to the Juno's command protocol. I am going to attempt to take the ship over remotely using it's own transponder. Show everyone why things work on a Starship. I need computer access NOW" His brow furrowed as the viewscreen showed the outlay of the battle he was losing. The Juno was making relative short work of the Maquis fighters.
"I would suggest working quickly Captain. We need the Juno before the Pioneer and Ottawa arrive." Said Elloma, pointing out the obvious to Tyler. She did not want to die on this station. She had big plans for the two of them.
Tyler smiled broadly. "Right darlin you get the transporters on standby on my mark transport, yourself, a boarding party of your choosing, and myself to the Juno. I want the boarding party in or around Engineering. You and I to the bridge. I will take care of Anderson personally."
Tyler cracked his knuckles and went to work. The Maquis hacker that Elloma put on the job knew their stuff, and he had access to the Juno's main computer. He worked his way through the system until he got to the Juno's command systems. Here is where it would become do or die. Tyler gritted his teeth and used his command codes from his universe to make the Juno believe it had a new Captain. Through some miracle it worked, however, Tyler knew that Anderson and his crew were not slouches. This would only work for moments. "Elloma Now!" he ordered.
Elloma started to initiate transport, "Strike Team Alpha will watching our six, will be beaming over with the wave." Said Elloma, as she prepared for transport. A few minutes had passed. "Standby for transport Captain." She said, as they dematerialized and re materialized on the USS Juno. Elloma immediately started to look for someone to shoot. The bridge area was pretty secure, it appeared to be abandoned.
"I am attempting to access the location of Captain Anderson." Elloma said, as she walked over to the tactical station. But the controls were locked out. "Captain, can you unlock this station?" She asked, hoping Tyler's prefix codes were still good.
Tyler's eyes darted around the bridge, as the Juno shook from the fighter's attacks. He did not like the look of this, it was unlike Anderson to abandon his bridge in battle. Well, unlike the Anderson that he knew.
At the tactical station Tyler put his codes into the console and they worked, still... these codes should have been made inactive. I do not like this. "Well now my dear we are committed and it seems Anderson did not even want to fight." Tyler said as he sat in the center chair of the Vesta Class starship. He tried his best to keep his voice from betraying his true feelings. "What do you have Elloma?"
"Something does not feel right here." Said Elloma, wondering if they were lead into a trap. Why would the bridge be empty. And why would Harry leave the bridge? What was his angle? She had a bad feeling, as she walked over to the console and started checking.
Elloma heard a loud chiming sound starting to build up on the console. Elloma immediately looked to Tyler. "It's a bomb." She said, as she lounged towards Tyler. Knocking him over, and shielding him. The console exploded. Luckly no one was hurt, but the distraction, did allow Harry's team, to pour out of the turbolift's. A fire fight broke out.
The fire fight lasted a few minutes. But eventually the numbers game was on the side of Tyler and Elloma. She was able to access another station, "Captain, looks like Harry established a beach head in engineering. He has locked out the warp corps." Elloma said with an annoyed tone, in her voice.
Tyler got up and dusted himself off. He was unsure of how he was going to get out of here. However, he was in for a penny in for a pound. "Very well take the ship to Breyet Nor under impulse. We can have the engineers at the station deconstruct whatever Anderson did."
Captain, they are re routing helm control over to engineering, everytime I lock them out, they counter act that lockout." Said Elloma, with a lot of frustration in her voice. She knew that Harry was not going to let them take the USS Juno. Without a fight, and he was putting one up.
"Captain we need to secure engineering and hold the bridge, we need more troops on the Juno, to make that happen." She said, wanting control over this vessel. She knew Harry was trying to stall, allowing the Ottawa and Pioneer time to catch up.
Tyler grabbed a phaser rifle "Right let's move. Lock and load. He gives us the vessel or we kill him and take it from him."
Elloma grabbed her rifle and walked over to Tyler, "Let's get this coward." She said, with a twisted grin on her face. She walked over with her rifle in her hand, and set to heavy stun. Sadly they needed that coward alive.
Main Engineering - USS Juno
Tyler and Elloma arrived at Engineering with little to no resistance. This shocked Tyler as he expected the crew to put up more of a fight. However, this might all be part of Anderson's plan. So it was no shock when they walked in and found Harry with his senior officers standing around the Quantum Slipstream Drive. Tyler shouldered his weapon and spoke to the man that in any other normal circumstance he would be proud to call friend. "All of you step away from the drive or your beloved Captain becomes atoms. As for you Anderson you will order them to stand down or I will simply kill you and then them one at a time. It will not take us too much work to get full command of this vessel with you out of the way."
Harry laughed, "not sure how you got my codes, but your not taking the Juno, we all swore an oath to protect her. And did you really think I am going to allow you to take the Juno?" Asked Harry, as he went on after taking a short breath. "I would rather blow her up, then let her fall into the hands of the Maquis."
"Your bluffing coward, look at him cling to his rifle. Men of the Juno, look at your captain fear and whine about protecting the Juno. He is willing to sacrifice you all in order to keep her away from us, under us you have a chance at life. Stay by him, and he will kill you all. Not us, but him. The choice is yours? Die by the hands of a coward, or live with the Maquis?" Asked Elloma, as she kept her finger near the trigger. She was not ready to shoot yet, but she ready.
"A coward, I am not the one boarding another man's ship, and trying to take something that does not belong to him? A coward does that, this is our home. We would rather see it go up in flames, before allowing the Maquis to have it." Said Harry, as he kept his fingers on the trigger. If talks failed, he knew he would have to shoot quickly.
Tyler was about to respond when a fury came over him, he did not know why or where this was coming from. "You speak of homes. The Federation took homes and for what... To make peace with the Gorram Cardies. A peace that lasted for all of a millisecond before they went running to the Dominion. So you took their homes and on their behalf I will take yours. Now I am giving you the next five seconds to decide if you and your crew will live or die. We are prepared to die for our cause, the question is are you. ONE..."
Makeba Brown had been aboard the Juno since Captain Anderson got the command. One did not serve under a Captain for that long and not be able to anticipate their actions. She knew what he intended to do, she also knew that Malbrooke was not going to back down. Especially with Essu at his side. She handed her rifle to her assistant and ducked down while Tyler was shouting. While in a crouch she made her way to the LCARS Command access console which was right behind the Captain. Makeba used the shouting match as cover as she input the command for a self destruct of the QSD. It was in standby at this point and needed only the Captain's authorization to execute. This task she knew would be her last, as if the Captain gave the order the USS Juno would explode in three seconds. Malbrooke just asked if they were prepared to die. In the case of Makeba Brown she was.
Elloma noticed a few moments to late, that Makeba had managed to reach a console. She was accessing the console, when Elloma opened fire at the console. "Stop what your doing." Demanded Elloma, as she reset her phaser rifle to full. "I will kill you, if I need too."
Makeba took a step in front of Captain Anderson and as she did her look spoke volumes. She managed to convey the message that everything awaited his go ahead. "THIS SHIP SAILS AS HER CAPTAIN COMMANDS!" Makeba screamed at Elloma with anger and fury that none of her crew mates had seen before. It even threw the two personalities in her head for loop. One Maquis, the other Federation and both were exceptionally proud of this moment.
"TWO!..." Tyler shouted in response. "Elloma find the nearest member of Anderson's crew and see what their atoms look like." The facade of the strong Maquis officer was there and it was holding for the time being. But for how much longer Tyler was not sure of. Please Harry, if you could ever call me friend in this or any other universe. Don't make me do this. He thought, but of course Tyler knew that Harry would call the bluff or he would blow the ship. That would be what Tyler would do if the roles were reversed.
"Found my first target." Said Elloma, as she had Makeba in her crosshairs with her weapon. Her eyes enraged with hatred and annoyance. How dare the Federation interfere with their mission. If they would have been willing to share there technology, they would have not needed to take the Juno. The Federation seems to share their technology with anyone they can spread their proproganda machine. But a simple group of refugees was not good enough.
Elloma truly felt, there was an injustice. The Federation turned their back on the Maquis, way before the Maquis did. Now they were going to pay for that betrayal. She kept Makeba in her sights as she adjusted her shot to hit her in the shoulder. She watched Makeba hit the floor. She was a traitor in the eyes of Elloma, she betrayed people.
"Makeba." Harry cried out as he started to chase down Makeba, as she struck the ground. Harry looked at Tyler and then at Elloma, and repositioned himself and took a shot at the the QSD engine, a sudden bright light flashed by him and Makeba .
The Juno, started to shake violently. They were not instantly killed, like Harry thought they would be. Instead he saw a special rift forming in engineering, he also noticed that the QSD was building an overload. Harry ran over to the console. "It appears to be a dimensional rift." Called out Harry, not sure who he was really communicating with. Maybe he was trying to make sense of this in his own mind.
Elloma was unconsciousness on the floor, and Tyler was hovering over her. the impact of the explosion rendering her out cold.
Tyler checked the vitals on Elloma and found that she was alive, but barely. He had to act and act quickly. The damage was done, to the timeline that is and now it was time to come clean and get home. "Harry, I am Tyler Malbrooke but not the Tyler that you know. I am here from an alternate universe. One where you are in command of the Juno and I the USS Pioneer. I do not know how or why I am here. In our universe we are more than colleagues, we are friends. I ask you here as I did there to trust me." Tyler tossed his rifle to the ground and extended his hands as a sign of supplication.
"I am suppose to trust you?" Asked Harry not sure, what to think. He knew the ship was going to blow up, but it was a strange request.
"Whether or not you trust me is entirely up to you. But know this if you let me go, and I manage to return to my universe there is a high percentage chance that none of this will happen. Harry I know you are familiar with the multiverse theory. We are in that now. Think about it why would a Vesta class be sent to destroy a small group of Maquis. Nothing seems to be right." Tyler took a few tentative steps toward Anderson and he was going to open his mouth to speak again when Harry interrupted him.
"Go before I change my mind Captain." Said Harry, he decided he was not going to flea. this was his universe. And this was his ship, this was the only place, he needed to be. "Good luck Captain." Said Harry, as he stood tall, and waited for the end to come to him and the USS Juno.
Tyler gave this Harry a smile and reminded himself to give his Harry a hearty handshake and perhaps a hug. He turned and started to run toward the door he had to get to a shuttle. He never made it to the door. The first thing that hit Tyler Malbrooke was a deafening sound as the QSD detonated. The next thing that hit him was a wash of flames and heat, and all went black for him. The last thought that ran through his head oddly enough it was not about himself, or his ship and crew. It was about Kat and Elloma, the beginnings of his family.
Tyler thought he was dead when the next thing he saw was the viewscreen of his bridge and the face of his helmsman, Jomaus Miex. She was informing him that they were arriving at the rendezvous coordinates. The question now was is this the right Pioneer, or yet another timeline.
A Joint Post By
Captain Tyler Malbrooke
Commanding Officer, USS Pioneer
Ensign Elloma Essu
Assistant Chief Security/Tactical Officer, USS Pioneer
Captain Harold Anderson
Commanding Officer, USS Juno
PNPC Essu
Lieutenant Commander Bervag Bers
Executive Officer, USS Juno
PNPC Myles
Makeba Brown
Maquis Tactical Officer
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