A Change in Plans

Posted on Fri May 13th, 2011 @ 8:17am by Vice Admiral Quinn Androski

Mission: Episode 2.2 - "Resistance"
Location: Bridge, USS Orlando
Timeline: MD-03, 1043 hours

ON: [[Bridge, USS Orlando, MD-03, 1043 hours]]

The Orlando had been cruising steadily at high warp on course for the Romulan Neutral Zone ever since they had departed the San Francisco Fleet Yards. Seated in the center chair, Tobias surveyed those working around him as they each continued the process of familiarizing themselves with their new home. Vice Admiral Androski had been quite busy dealing with the situation along the Romulan border during the past few days and it had been up to Tobias, as the Orlando's executive officer, to maintain supervision of the day-to-day operations. Overall, it was a task that seemed to be progressing quite smoothly for the time being.

Trace sighed heavily. He was not in a good mood, the only real friend that he had and pretty much the only one really left in his department had been transferred off the Orlando. He resisted the urge to look completely sullen and checked the tactical systems again. So far, Lt. Alana's work seem to have been paying off. Nothing major was broken on the tactical array.

Yehonathan sat at an auxiliary communications station that he'd recently sat up for himself on the bridge so that he could be close to the V. Admiral Androski if he were ever needed. He tapped a few icons on the station and scanned all the frequencies again for any chatter that he could find.

So far it had been disturbingly quiet. Some freighter chatter every once in a while but otherwise quiet, too quiet to suit him. He thought about it for a moment though and realized that there was probably a good portion of the spook just re-emerging and there was probably nothing to get too excited about.

Stepping from the turbolift Greg read the PADD in his hand as he sipped his coffee cup. So far the training had been going well, but he wanted to speak with the Admiral about possibly allowing his Marines a chance to train with one of the ground based garrisons on their patrol route.

Caleb Noventum spent the morning on the bridge before moving to his office later in the afternoon. He felt better being around people even though he wasn't very good in interacting with them. He was going over the latest reports from the Romulan border where they would be moving into.

The doors to the ready room swished open and Quinn briskly walked out onto the bridge. It was fairly obvious that he was flustered, as he began giving orders. "Ensign Richards (NPC), set course three-one-two mark three-two and engage at maximum warp. Commander Naros, take us to yellow alert. Ensign Vosh, begin setting all handheld and ship-mounted weapons to modulating frequencies."

The sudden entrance of Vice Admiral Androski drew the attention of nearly everyone on the bridge, including Tobias, who turned slightly in the center chair so that he was facing the admiral's ready room. He had barely begun to raise himself out of the chair before the admiral had issued a rapid succession of orders that caused the El-Aurian to pause for the briefest of moments.

It was immediately apparent to Tobias that something must have happened that would necessitate such a drastic change in the Orlando's present status. Firstly, the heading that had just been given to Ensign Richards would take them away from their intended arrival point along the Romulan Neutral Zone. Secondly, the fact that he had been asked to place the Orlando on yellow alert indicated that some threat to the safety of either themselves, another vessel, or another installation had been detected. What's more, the order to adjust all weapons to modulating frequencies was one not expressly stated except for in the rarest of circumstances.

"Modulating," Greg asked raising an eye, "Why do I get the feeling your going to tell me something I don't want to know?"

Trace raised an eyebrow at that statement. Generally speaking the only time that he had ever heard that order given was when they thought that they might be going up against the Borg. He sent a message to one of the few ensigns that he actually still had on staff. He would have to worry about getting the handheld weapons tuned while Trace took care of the ship mounted ones.

"Modulating phaser frequencies," Trace said. "Should be complete in another 15 minutes."

Quinn looked from Greg to Trace. "Inform me when you're done, Ensign." he said, then turned back to Greg before addressing the bridge as a whole. "Ladies and Gentlemen, one hour ago the USS Pandora detected a Borg transponder signal. We're the closest ship to them, so we will be diverting to assist them in investigating the signal."

The Borg. A single phrase which managed to strike fear into the hearts of trillions of individuals across the known galaxy. Up until relatively recently, the Borg had been a consistent threat to both the Federation and her allies, but a good majority of the population believed that the Borg threat had been ended with the return of the USS Voyager almost ten years prior. Although the Federation's last engagement with the Borg had been over a decade ago, it was not as distant in Tobias' memory as it may have been in the memory of others.

Caleb pulled up the latest location of the Pandora. They had set out to the spatial void near DS5 a few days ago. He correlated that with previous reports of previous Borg sightings. There was nothing.

"Admiral no report of previous Borg activity in that sector," Ens. Noventum reported. "Since its only a single transponder reporting, the chances are they set it out as a beacon. Somehow I don't think our luck is going to hold out that is the case, though."

"It would be the Borg," Greg said with a sigh as he rubbed his forehead, "How long until we join up with Pandora?"

Mike (NPC) checked his sensors and turned around to face Greg and the rest of the bridge crew. "We're still a ways out, but the computer estimates we'll arrive at the Pandora's location in just over five hours."

Trace turned back to his station and began pulling up all the tactical data that he could on the Borg. Starfleet and her allies numerous encounters with them over the years and as such had amassed a fairly large database. Hopefully, some of it would be helpful if they were to come into contact with them.

Yehonathan leaned back in the seat at his communications auxiliary station. His services would be limited if they were indeed about to come upon the Borg. Diplomacy was a non-factor when referring to the Borg collective. At least he could still be of some use since he was manning a communications station.

Zekk had felt the momentary shift in the vibration of the engines the minute that the Orlando kicked it into high gear. He made sure that engineering was secure before heading up to the bridge. Stepping onto it he could almost feel the tension...something very odd and probably bad was going on. He walked over to the engineering station and brought it to life, taking note that the tactical systems were being worked on, someone was changing all the arrays to a modulating setting.

"The Borg," Zekk said, more to himself then anyone else. "Alana to Logan, run a diagnostic on all tactical and defensive systems. Bring the battery systems online, priorities tactical, shields, and SIF. Let's see what kind of boost we can get."

"Aye sir, batteries coming online now."

Zekk switched to the master system display view, looking at the various subsystems. The batteries came online and he could see the increase right away.

"Admiral, the batteries have increased the phaser yeild by 15%, the efficiency of our shields by 20%, and out SIF output by 10%."

Quinn nodded. "Thank you, Lieutenant. Hopefully we won't need the improvements, but it's nice to know that they are there."

"Now would someone kindly tell me whats going on around here? I have a feeling that it has to do with our friends of the cybernetic variety."

"We're hoping not." Quinn responded. "But preparing for the worst."

OFF:

A Post by

V. Admiral Quinn Androski
CO, USS Orlando

Commander Tobias Naros
XO, USS Orlando

Lieutenant Zekk Alana
CEO/2XO, USS Orlando

1st Lieutenant Greg Jackson
MCO, USS Orlando

Lieutenant (JG) Caleb Noventum
CIO, USS Orlando

Ensign Yehonathan Aharonov
CDO, USS Orlando

Ensign Trace Vosh
CS/TO, USS Orlando