The end, and a new beginning.

Posted on Wednesday April 27th, 2022 @ 11:34pm by Lieutenant Finchley Kerr

Mission: EPISODE 1: SHAKEDOWN
Location: USS Missouri/DS3/USS Oberon
Timeline: MD05 0900

Finchley was thrown violently onto the floor, and as he landed with a 'thump', he cried out "WHAT THE HELL!!!!!!!!!!!"

Klaxons were sounding loudly and the red alert flashed in his quarters. Almost instantaneously, a mechanised voice came across the COMM channel "Red alert, all officers and crew to battle stations, repeat, all officers and crew to battle stati……..." and the voice just stopped.

Seeing his COMM badge on the floor, Finchley grabbed it and hit it "Kerr to the bridge what's happened?", but there was no reply. He hit the COMM badge again and repeated his question a second time, but again, there was no reply. Grabbing his uniform, he got out his night clothes and into uniform in seconds, and started to make his way across his quarters to the Security locker on his wall. As he neared it, the ship shook violently, forcing him onto his knees and then onto the floor.

"Bloody hell, what's going on???" he shouted as he managed to get to his feet again and reach the Security locker. He tapped in his authorisation code and with a click, the locker opened. Reaching inside, Finchley grabbed a phaser and shut the locker again. Setting the phaser to stun, he turned towards the doors of his quarters just in time to feel the ship rock violently for a third time, once again causing him to stumble and fall. As he got up, he managed to reach the doors to his quarters and open them. Crew members ran back and forth, some in uniform, some half dressed, but ALL in a hurry to get to their posts.

Finchley made his way along the corridor as a fourth and then a fifth jolt shook the ship in quick succession, but this time he remained on his feet. He tried his COMM badge again, still nothing. As he reached the nearby turbolift, he saw that the panel was dead so there was no use in hoping to use it. He looked around and saw an access panel to a Jeffries tube, and lurched across to it as the next jolt shook the ship. Grabbing the sides, he took the panel off and threw it to the side and climbed inside. He knew it was two decks down to the Security Offices, so he set off down the rungs of the ladder, holding on for dear life as he went.

Further jolts shook the ship, and each time Finchley clung on to the ladder sides desperately hard so he wouldn't fall. Eventually he got down the two levels and kicked off the panel that allowed him access to the corridor. As he climbed out, there were more crew running back and forth, carrying out fire fighting, maintenance to systems as best they could, and medical staff seeing to the injured. Finally, reaching the Security Office, Finchley ran inside and shouted "What the hells going on, who's firing at us???"

"Sir, we have two unknown ships attacking us, they came out of nowhere, no warning.....just de-cloaked and began firing before we could raise out shields" the duty crewman replied "We've lost contact with the bridge, however, we do know we're still manoeuvring and firing back with phasers, but that's ALL we know!"

"Right, I want a relay teams set up so we can get information from the bridge, and Main Engineering!" Finchley called out.

"Sir, do you know how many people we'll need, it's eight decks up to the bridge and five levels down to Main Engineering" the crewman called back.

"Damn your eyes man, do as you're ordered and less of the back chat otherwise I'll see to it you have an eternally long time in the brig to think over your complaining!!!" Finchley shouted, grabbing the man by the collar and drawing him in so he was face to face with Finchley "If we don't re-establish contact with the bridge, how the hell are we going to be able to find out what's happening, now get to it!" he ended, literally throwing the man away from himself.

He watched as the crewman stumbled further into Security to round up as many of the Security staff as he could to follow the orders he'd just been issued.

Finchley made his way out of Security an back the way he'd come. Climbing back inside he made his way up the eight interminable decks to the bridge. Opening the access panel he climbed out into what looked like Dante's inferno. A number of small fires were alight, consoles sparked and and those of the bridge crew still alive were trying their best to cope with the situation.

Trying his best to see through the smoke he called out "Captain!", but no reply came back, "CAPTAIN!!" he shouted again, still nothing.

"The Captain's dead and the Executive Officers badly injured Sir!" a young Ensign shouted out.

"Who's in charge then???" Finchley shouted back.

"You are Sir, you're the most Senior Officer on the bridge now" the Ensign replied.

"What's happening who's attacking?" Finchley asked.

"We don't know Sir, two ships just appeared and attacked us" the Ensign said.

"Do we still have shields and can we return fire?" Finchley asked.

"Yes Sir" the Ensign replied and then stumbled back to the Helm control. He began scanning to find where the ships had gone, but couldn't find anything.

"Sir, it appears the ships have disappeared" the Ensign said.

"We can't worry about where they've gone right now, the fact is they have and that gives us a chance" Finchley said. He looked round at the access panel he'd come out of and saw that one of the Security team had arrived to act as part of the relay team he'd ordered.

"You!" Finchley said, pointing to her "Get word down to the Medical bay we need teams up here now, and get an Engineering team up here as well!"

"Aye Sir, right away" the Security officer replied shouting the orders down to an unseen crew member below them.

Turning back to the Ensign at Helm he said "Can we still manoeuvre?"

"Yes Sir, but we're going to be sluggish, one of our nacelles has been damaged" the Ensign replied.

"Just so long as we can move, that's all that matters, we need to get away from here and to somewhere safe" Finchley replied. He made his way to the centre seat. As he got there he could see the Captain and XO lying on the ground, neither of them moving. As heartless as it seemed, he couldn't worry about them right now, the ships safety came first. He saw that the panel on the Command chair was still working, so he punched in the ships co-ordinates and looked for a safe haven. Seeing that DS3 was the closest shelter he ordered the ship there.

It took them 2 days, but the ship finally limped to the station and docked. Finchley put in his report, and waited on what would happen next. To his surprise, he found he'd been re-assigned to the USS Oberon, a Luna Class ship, as her new Executive Officer. She was departing within days so it didn't give him much time to get the ball rolling on getting there.

2 days later, having been transported by a deep space shuttle, he stepped off the transporter Pad and down onto the deck of the USS Oberon, and a new beginning. The transporter Chief checked his credentials for transferring onto the ship, then gave him the location of his questers and added that his belongings would follow shortly.

Thanking the Chief, Finchley was guided to his new quarters and once inside, he flopped down onto the bed. A few minutes later his belongings arrived and he thanked the crew member who brought them. He'd wait till he'd reported into the Captain before he unpacked and instead, fetched cup of hot coffee from the replicator and sat down at his desk. 10 minutes later, he stood up, gathered the PADD with his transfer orders and headed out to report to his new CO.