XO’s Quarters

Danny slumped onto his couch in his quarters. They had arrived at the rendevous point near Rhontaka B. 6 ships in total to oppose a force of roughly 20-30 Tholian ships, they were having a tough time getting accurate readings due to the immense gravimetric distortions being thrown out by the massive pulsar on the Tholian side of the border. More ships kept arriving on the Tholian side, of that they were sure, the sensor bouy net had spotted the warp signatures entering the system at oblique angles, and had been confirmed by the Intel fusion center on Farragut.

But for now he was off duty and he popped on one of his favourite tabloid holo-journalists, Lizzy McNizzy. She had been a former senior FNN correspondent before being firing after airing a segment that was severely critical of Starfleet Command and the Federation Council during the start of the Blackout. Since then she had joined Star Crossed as a contributor and also started her own weekly tabloid news show. Wong had the most recent episode from 2 days prior loaded up. Wong noted how the video had only been viewed by a paltry 980k viewers. Back at FNN Lizzy would get 10 times that many in the first day on all her stories. Either she was going off the deep end and losing viewers over it, or she was maybe being censored or throttled on the back end of the holo-programs. Regardless, Wong was down for it, he needed a distraction from the stress and strain of this new mission they were on.

Transcript of ‘The McNizzit Nugget Ep 17″ holocast

Greeting McNizzits, have we got a great show for you today. Your girl Lizzy is at Starbase 420, and boy do I have stories for yall.

For starters did yall here about a Starfleet patrol getting ambushed and 1 ship getting destroyed and another being crippled a few weeks ago? No? Me neither! And what about the story of the 2 little Cali class ships that destroyed a Tholian meshweaver and arrested a smuggling frieghter at the border just 4 days ago. Apparently they stared down a big bad Tholian cruiser and forced it to retreat? Oh yall didnt here about that either? Me too. Strange ain’t it, almost like they’re hiding something from us. Pffft! And I havent told you about the Rhode Island class scout ship that literally flew into a freakin pulsar to get intel about Tholian Fleet. Stay tuned after this word from our sponsors Siv Targo’s Imaginarium and Protostar BodyBuilding Supplements for more juicy Nizzy Nuggets…

Wongs jaw dropped before he closed the feed and decided that that was enough holonet tabloid news for him “Holy Kirkin shit, who is she getting these leaks from, that’s too close to be a guess…”

Bridge, Blythe

All that had occurred between the Tholians and the Federation in the last day was a quick and cryptic series of messages between the 2 flagships. The Farragut had sent out a comm stating “To the Tholian Commander, we are a Starfleet unit conducting operational maneuvers in this system, in accordance with interstellar law on our side of border, please state your intentions?”

To which the Tholians had replied “Starfleet Commander, we are conducting scientific research and routine training on our side of the negotiated border, please steer clear.”

That was nearly 6 hours ago now. To replace the ships now rallied in Rhontaka, Starbase 420 had sent out a bomber squadron and a flight of Arrow class runabouts to plug the holes in the line. Split into mini groups with 4 bombers and 1 runabout in each, they would patrol the areas that the vessels had vacated to respond to the Farragut’s call.

The Steadfast and Cutlass were joined by an Ambassador and an another Cali class vessel and formed into another ad hoc “provisional” unit and given responsibility for the Shelliak portion of the border. This would allow Aloran and his 6 Ships to focus on the Tholian front if open hostilities were to break out.

Captain Tyler, with his tunic fully unzipped exposing the blue undershirt, ran a hand across his face. He was rubbing in vain trying to remove the weariness from his eyes. He needed a nap, he had been up for over 24 hours now, he wasn’t at his best, and he knew it.

“Vaughn, you got the bridge. I’ll be in my Ready room.” He rose and sighed before slowly walking to the door to his office. If anything major happened he’d be asleep on the couch only about 8 metres away.

Ingram smiled, he had to give the Cap credit, unlike many COs he had stayed on the bridge preparing the ship for combat on the ride in to Rhontaka. Luckily it didnt appear as though the Tholians were invading after all. They were just clustered around A small station orbits Rhontaka A, shrouded by the massive gravitational distortions.

Ingram was fresh though  and had only started his ship 7 hours before. As third officer it was more then appropriate to leave the bridge to him, and to be honest he kind of liked being in charge. Currently the 6 ships we simply sitting in a long geosync orbit around Rhontaka B, essentially acting as a ‘Fleet in being’. If the Tholians crossed the border they’d catch them in the act now.

“Of course sir. I have the conn.” Vaughn replied.