Broken Echoes

Posted on Mon Mar 21st, 2022 @ 3:28pm by Captain Akeno Misaki & Lieutenant Ileah & Lieutenant Rosaleen O'Donnell & Lieutenant Commander Raelyn Mckenzie & Lieutenant Rania Bhatti & Lieutenant Justin Specter & Ensign Magnum Rhodes

Mission: Arista
Location: Bridge

After several days at high warp, the Wayfarer dropped out of warp just outside of System J75-X. The nacelles slowly descended back into their horizontal position as the ship slowed to sublight speeds.

Captain Misaki rose from her command chair to get a better look at the viewscreen. There in front of them were several planets in the distance, orbiting a yellow star, similar to the Sol Star. "Kinda reminds me of home" she said out loud.

"Anything on long range scans? Any sign of those radio waves?" she asked turning back to look at the Operations Console.

"Analysis in progress" Rosaleen applied various filters and algorithms to the...well, mess. "O'Donnell to Wilson." She had an idea, but it would need to be implemented down in Ops.

"Wilson here."

"I need you to decrease the power to the Comm Array by twenty percent, and tune the receiver units to a negative point zero two one offset." She waited as the order was carried out. Slowly the audio became clearer, finally to the point of legibility. Rosaleen listened for a moment before speaking. "Captain...it appears to be an older Starfleet protocol. And...well, the phase shift is off."

"Put it on speakers" Akeno said simply.

The signal was very garbled and broken up. There was a lot of interference and bad electronic static throughout the message.

"This is....Captain.... Arista.... Crashed.... Fourth.... Assistance....."

That was all that could be made out from the badly damaged signal. After it ended the entire bridge fell silent.

"All stop" Akeno ordered.

Ensign Rhodes ran his hand through his hair as he tapped at his console to bring the Wayfarer to a full stop. "Aye Captain, bringing us to a full stop now."

"I want a detailed scan of the system. Locate the source of that transmission" Akeno ordered.

"Uh...no can do, sir." Rosaleen replied. "Atmospheric conditions are refracting any signals going in or out. It's some type of electromagnetic scatter. Going to play hell with shuttle operations, but it is doable. I wouldn't recommend transporters though, until we have a better handle on what exactly it is and can compensate for it."

"Ok. Old fashioned way then" Akeno replied. She turned back to look at her officers. "It seems that we're not the first Starfleet vessel out here. Someone is asking for help, we have a duty to find them and assist where we can"

She turned and looked back to the viewscreen. "Helm take us in. Standard search pattern, anywhere a starship can crash".

"Taking us in now ma'am" he reported while he flew the Wayfarer to her designated coordinates.

Rania had quietly exited the lift and carefully made her way around the bridge as she listened to the exchange of dialogue and dispensing of orders. The Counsellor mad her way to the Captain's chair, flanking her from the side and placing a reassuring light pressure on the woman's shoulder.

"I came to see if I may be of assistance, Captain," the Counsellor said taking her hand off the Captain's shoulder. "We're searching for a crashed starship?"

"It would appear so" Akeno replied with a sigh. "We knew there were radio waves from this system, but we were under the impression that no other Federation Starship had visited here before us" she told her. "But, after the war we've just been through, we could be dealing with a ship that's disappeared from Starfleet scopes, or fled here to evade the enemy. Basically, we don't know what we're getting into"

"Captain, would you like me to set the Wayfarer on yellow alert?" the Security Chief inquired.

Akeno nodded. "Yes. Best to be ready. Set ship status to Yellow" she replied simply.

"Bridge to Lieutenant Specter. We've received a distress call from system J75-X. We're routing it through to you now" she held up a hand towards the Operatons officer to indicate for her to route it through. "I need you to do some digging, see what you can find"

Unseen by the Bridge crew Specter's fingers danced over the keys at a speed to have screens flashing on the monitor as he blinked with each changed screen.

"Lieutenant Ileah. Make a note in the ships log. We have picked up what seems to be a Starfleet Distress call and are moving in to investigate" Akeno said turning to the yeoman.

Ileah put the notation in the log and looked back up afterward to keep observations on the crew and events transpiring.

=^= I have a report of a vessel in this quadrant but not specific to the system in question. =^= He seemed to speed read the report. =^=Miranda Class Starship... =^= He lean closer to the screen.

=^=USS Arista... reported lost Stardate Blah Blah blah...2395. =^= He added. The reports from that era could use some Spell Checks...Seems a long way off the survey course projected. =^= Seeming to slow his reading. Commanded by... Captain Sistine Fibel... subsequent search of projected area revealed no trace of the Arista... that ends reports of ships within two quadrants listed as missing Captain. =^=

"Play the message again..." Akeno said looking over to Ops. The message began to play again over the bridge speakers.

"This is....Captain.... Arista.... Crashed.... Fourth.... Assistance....."

The bridge fell silent. "Well it seems that we've picked up a distress call from the Starship Arista" Akeno said. "If they're using low frequency radio waves, their subspace transmitter must be damaged..." she pondered.

She turned back to the command chairs. "Fourth..." she pondered. "Fourth planet maybe..." she snapped her fingers. "Set course for the Fourth planet. Full impulse"

Magnum once again worked swiftly at his console to fly the Wayfarer at full impulse to the Fourth planet in the system. "Course is laid in and engaged."

The Wayfarers impulse engines glowed a bright shade of Scarlet as the small starship accelerate ld across the cold void of space into the star system. The ship now venturing into the unknown and her crew had no idea of what they may find, all they knew is that one if their own needed help, and this little ship would render it.

To be continued...