Arrival

Posted on Monday November 30th, 2020 @ 9:07pm by Niyahra Riohn & Timothy Bennett & Milinda Frost Malley & Cleo Ortega & Wraet tr'Melanth
Edited on on Monday November 30th, 2020 @ 9:08pm

Mission: Marauder's Map
Location: Abandoned Starfleet Shipyards, Loki Starsystem
Timeline: MD04 - 1500 hours
1993 words - 4 OF Standard Post Measure

The shuttle was stuffed with everyone on there, Niyahra was joined by Ty and Milinda as well as a hand full of Latinum guard. The secondary vessel was going to approach from another sector, under supervision of both Wraet and Tevek, the former of whom had brought along a physician as well. It was an interesting combination and hopefully they could keep their shit together until they got to the vessel at least.

"How much longer until we get there?" Niyahra was feeling anxious, so far they hadn't encountered any Dominion forces, but they were heading into a salvage rich sector and the Dominion were always in need of new metals and other stuff that these abandoned battlefields were littered with, even 25 years later.

Sitting at her Pilot's console she adjusted the shuttle trajectory. "You would think someone as cautious as yourself would apprechate the duck and weave to keep us from detection?" Frost did not even look up from her control systems. "Quarter hour if I cut a few corners." She was noting the beginning of the field just entering the sensors and dropped out of warp. "WE are at the edge of the Salvage field." She decided they could have some idea of what is going on. "We are not warping through there and if no major obstructions we should be on the coordinates you desired on time.

Niyahra opened a secure channel to Wreat, "We're fifteen minutes out, how are things on your end?"

"No contacts. Reading some minor scattered life signs. Probably small time scavengers, but keep your eyes open," Wraet advised, his sharp eyes shifting constantly between long range and short range data. Though he kept his voice cool and steady, he was a Romulan and he hadn't survived as long as he had - in his profession especially - by not being paranoid. No obvious Dominion presence did not mean no danger, even if they could out run a patrol if one showed up. "Sometimes the ones looking for the least scrap are the most dangerous."

Frost had see this all her life in a manner of speaking and especially her time after escaping. Battle grounds were not different no matter where she went; silent hulks of tattered metal slowly floating about, an occasional soft collision and reactive bounce. The smaller bits littering like dust in a room all about as the shuttle moved through. Dancing it seemed around and between hulks towards the destination.

"Remember our deal, I get enough of this salvage to make it worth the trip?" Frost mentioned as she glanced about the wrecks. "This is a Gold Mine of parts and pieces." She mentioned.

"Get the ship up and running and you can take the rest," Niyahra could understand that there were people that needed to think about themselves first and foremost. It was not something the Riohn symbiote had had to deal with before '75 and it had taken two hosts to adjust to the new status quo, "Everybody get ready to board." She called into the back of the shuttle, they didn't expect to find anyone on the ship, but that didn't mean they wouldn't be careful.

Weaving through the field that caught Frost's attention; she had been through many battle grounds and had a 'feel' for them. The spot to port on the negative Zenith seemed a bit 'full' with a more condensed sphere of garbae and tattered bits around it. The key was the more 'Spherical' aspect. Frost did not ask permission to adjust nor did she need guidance as if thee was a ship hidden this was pretty good way to get it done, the Graveyard of ships version of 'burying' the ship and letting it rest.

The fact they had a shuttle rather than a star ship made navigating the field much easier; they persons who did this had done one heck of a job making it a sensor block with all the smaller stuff clouding the sensory wave reflections. Frost nimbly brough the shuttle through into an open area like a cave surrounding a Very Big dream...

"I think we have found your target..." Frost was awe struck as the Hull of a star ship loomed before her in tact and no burn marks or battle pitting. "SHe is- stunning." Frost said as the tears were burning her eyes, she never dreamed of touching an untainted Star Ship. "Screw that deal." Frost wiped the first tears. "You let me put that Lady right and I am yours." She muttered quietly.

Maneuvering the shuttle to an airlock on the side of the hull Frost touched her baby gently into the docking collar.

Ty felt a deeply sore lump fill his throat as the grey hull panelling passed by the viewport; the last time he had been this close to a Federation starship hull, he had been rocketing away from it. His eyes closed in an absent effort to control the nausea welling up inside him, and he couldn't help but see in his memory the buckling hull of his second command as her dead Centaur Class spaceframe, alive only with the scorches and fires of Dominion weapon hits, rolled into an equally decimated Nebula Class starship. Joining momentarily in a fingertip grasp of cracking metals, the two separated as they spun slowly away from eachother, small explosions blowing out randomly from both. Flashing past his viewport, the portside hull of the - he jumped as the docking collar latched to the shuttle and he looked to Riohn expectantly.

Frost had copnnected to dead ships a lot; this one no exception, the first thing she did was used the connection of the shuttle power to at least power the control panel of the Airlock. Fingers' dancing over her control systems she found only the passive communication system accepting any signals. She did not know the Federation Fleet codes but she was aware of the coding from the repairs she had been forced to do as a child and there are certain Power-Up signals that she could use to activate the Emergency Systems for a 'Salvage Crew to enter and evaluate the hull.

"I am patching through commands for salvage crew commonly use to check over hulks." Frost reported as she had taken time to put on her Space suit and shoulder rig, the tank and rebreather in the thick frame of the Pilot's chair and easy to connect. "I am hoping to get the Lady to at least give us less than a cold shoulder." Glancing over her shoulder. "If you have any code it might help, but if there is power anywhere in batteries or a jump start for repair it should kick on."

Ty opened his mouth to speak; he was about to volunteer to use a command prefix, but then that would blow his identity. His past life. Looking at Rhion, it was clear that she had the same thought; this ship was hidden at around the same time that Ty was still Captain Timothy Bennett, and it stood to reason that part of the reason he was here to was to help activate the systems, and fool the ship into thinking a Starfleet crew had boarded.

Listening through the subspace feed, Wraet waited a beat or two - it was possible one of the group might supply the information - then he looked over at Cleo. The Pacifica had dated from this era, though by the time she was old enough to work as crew the codes might have been altered several times. Still, it might be worth trying. "Do you recall any codes that might be useful?"

"I managed to use and old Salvage / Recovery I got from a couple of Star Ships the Dominion converted and I have power starting but to get access above minimal Battery reserves is going to take a Command or a prefix code to open that airlock." Frost said as she had on her gloves and reach for her helmet. "I have our side closed so if the door opens and no atmosphere you all will not get sucked into this Vessel we are connected to." Informing the people and hoping not to need the helmet and tank but ready in case.

Cleo wracked her brain for anything that might be of use. It was difficult, as she'd been young at the time, and she sadly had little in the way of technical expertise. There was one thing that came to mind though. "There was one time Dominion forces were able to inexplicably gain entry to the ship during a skirmish. It was later discovered that they had used an emergency ingress code left in the system, probably by the ship's original design team. Apparently one of them had a thing for history and base 16 code schemes. Thankfully that person they got the code from neglected to tell them it would still trigger a general alarm..." Cleo paused, realizing she was starting to ramble. She wasn't used to speaking so much or willingly sharing information. That alarm was the only reason the crew had been able to respond to the intruders in time. Looking back, she realized that had more or less been the beginning of the end for the Pacifica. They'd lost a lot of crew that day. Crew that could not be replaced. After that, too many jobs went undone.

"Anyway. That code was removed on the Pacifica, but it might work here. This ship looks exactly the same. I'm not really good with Hexadecimal, but I think I can remember the history bit... Terran Age of Discovery, first European naval captain to visit California. Castillo? No... Cabrillo? Translate that into Hex and see if it works?" Cleo was trying to be useful, but the uncertainty in her voice was almost palpable. The fact that she spoke like a hologram, using words she barely understood, probably didn't help.

"It is worth trying." Wraet said with a nod, and activated his comm. "There is a possible emergency ingress code, but if it works it may trigger an onboard alarm." It wasn't likely to be detected beyond the ship, but he ran an extra sensor sweep before supplying it. "The code is: 43 61 62 72 69 6c 6c 6f. Repeat, 43 61 62 72 69 6c 6c 6f."

"No time like the present," Niyahra encouraged Milinda to open the airlock separating the shuttle crew from the empty hull of the California-class vessel. She anxiously shuffled back to stand next to Ty, "if there's an alarm, you and me make a bee-line for the bridge," she looked at him for a moment to get a confirmation on that, she then turned to the comms, "we're opening the airlock now, please stand by."

Frost had her helmet in place and connected to the life support equipment, was out of her seat securing the Utility belt around her waist and reaching for the took sttchel when the announcement of Airlock opening came.

"I am heading to Engineering; if there is any juice in the batteries I will get Life support going and some lights ." She announced. "Best case is I can kick-start the Fusion reactors and get minimal operating power before checking the Crystals of the Warp Core. You can find me in Engineering during the foreseeable future.

Cleo listened in as the others gained entry to the ship. She couldn't believe that the code had worked, that no one had been around or bothered to change it. How long ago had that been? Ten years. The thought of how much time had really passed since then disturbed her more than she was willing to admit. What else had happened since then? Very little around this part of space, it seemed. A whole ship for the taking. Cleo listened to the others in silence, wondering how many other abandoned Starfleet ships were out there, and if there were still crewed ones, somehow laying low.