Figuring Things Out
Posted on Wed Oct 7th, 2026 @ 1:47pm by Lieutenant Ronan D'Sai DSc. & Captain Erik Norsgaard & Lieutenant Bartholomew Hale & Lieutenant Daegan Baas & Lieutenant Juliette Barnes & Lieutenant Sylar & Lieutenant JG Caitlyn MacRae
2,886 words; about a 14 minute read
Mission:
The Invisible Hand
Location: Various | USS Thunderbird
Timeline: MD005 - 1000
The prototype had slammed into Thunderbird's unprotected side nose first and would have been venting atmosphere into space if an engineer hadn't rigged a forcefield effectively cutting the ship in half. A crew, dressed in EVA suits, was already outside, working on cutting away the rear section in preparation for the work needed to restore the hull's integrity, if only until they could get back to Starbase 12 for repairs. Norsgaard moved through the rubble, moving pieces aside, stopping to check on crew members as he passed, his destination clear. Once he reached the cockpit he saw someone in medical blue hunched over a the form of a young woman.
There had been two seats, only one occupied, and although the craft was unknown to him, it seemed that it was meant to be flown by a pair. That was a disturbing thought. He turned toward Caitlyn and said, "Get Hale down here to assess what's left of the craft. See what he thinks. And Barnes too. I'd like her assessment on the damage to the ship as well as what we're looking at here."
It was almost physically painful to see another ship piercing the Thunderbird’s hull. As they had drew closer the signs of damage had intensified and she had to remind herself this could have been so much worse. “On it,” she answered, stepping away to make a call to both officer, sure the chief engineer was already dealing with more than enough at present.
And while one was empty, the other seat was taken; a young woman was slumped over the console. He turned his attention toward the individual in medical blue crouched beside her, his face not readily visible in the flickering lights within the smaller craft, and asked, "Alive?"
Sylar had directed the turbolift casualties from Deck 5 to Sickbay and, given that he was equipped as if taking part in an away mission, had simply continued on to this latest incident. His initial scans complete he turned to his captain and offered a slight shake of the head.
"And our crew," Norsgaard asked, his deep voice softened. "How bad was it?"
Sylar immediately responded. "Thirteen confirmed injuries in Sickbay. Eight with minor blunt-force trauma, two with lacerations, three with burns. At present, the burns patients are the only casualties whose injuries indicate a credible risk to life."
Returning to the remains of the small craft, Caitlyn glanced towards the young woman. What had brought her to the point where she thought this course of action was her way forward? She looked so young…. “Was anyone found with her?” She queried, carefully navigating around the broken shell of the craft towards the other side of the cockpit. There was extensive damage, the frame of the smaller ship contorted and fragments had entirely shattered. Using some of the debris to her advantage she managed to get a slightly better vantage point, yet the interior was as messed up as the exterior.
Baas looked up as he finished his scans. Standing, "No and when we finally go through the wreckage to get to this shuttle the hatch was open. Now it could it have popped as a result of the crash, maybe...but I highly doubt it. There's DNA other than the deceased but no telling if it was left by someone that was aboard before or after the crash. Captain, with the open hatch I'd like to error on the side of caution and consider that we might have an intruder on board."
"Cross-check with medical," Norsgaard ordered his Chief of Security as he gestured toward the cockpit. "And I think we need to do a sweep of the ship to be sure. And since we can't count on the sensors, at least not until we have the damage assessed, let's do a manual sweep, deck by deck."
"There's more Captain, Baas said. "It seems this attack was meant to do much more damage than occurred. The amount of undetonated explosive, Cardassian military grade explosive too, would have a good portion of the saucer section. Including the conference area. From the looks of things the crash itself did more damage to the devices themselves. We were lucky. My people are dismantling the last of the explosives and securing them in the armory. I wonder what the Ambassador will have to say about that."
There was way too much going wrong and Juliette was starting to get a headache. First, there was the sabotage of the shuttle and now this. She was going to have to make every engineer on the ship do double shifts for the next week at least. “I’m not going to jinx this by asking the question I know we’re all thinking,” she said, “but, I promise, when I find out who jinxed us by using the Q word, I’ll pummel them.”
Sylar, who had yet to really get to know the Chief Engineer, turned from the prone young woman who was being prepared for transportation to the morgue and raised an eyebrow at the aggression. The passion and anger, voiced in Barnes' elegant English accent, was remarkable to Sylar.
"Do you have a status on the ship yet, Chief," Norsgaard asked as he watched his Chief Engineer enter. "I mean our ship ... though I'd like your thoughts on this one as well."
“There’s major damage on decks four through seven, and minor damage on decks four, eight, and nine,” Julie reported. “We’ve lost primary sensors completely, and worst of all, the warp core has started fluctuating. So far, we’re staying on top of it, but it’s going to be rough for awhile.”
"ETA on repairs," Norsgaard asked as he crouched down to get a better look at the mangled console.
“Well enough to get us to the nearest Starbase?” replied Julie. “Couple of days on the outside. But probably sooner.”
"Post guards in the sensitive areas as well," Norsgaard ordered. "At least until we're sure that we don't have an intruder aboard." He turned toward Caitlyn. "Find Dragos. See if there's any chatter."
"Roger that." Baas sketched a quick salute before heading off.
“Will do,” MacRae answered, all the while wondering if Tatiana was okay and her office still in one piece. She was about to find out. But not before she hastily added “Captain.” After all keeping things professional was the deal they had made. Leaving them to work she set off in search of Tatiana.
[Computer Core]
Elias found the console without much trouble and got to work. He'd worked Intel for years which made him a jack-of-all-trades. Between his own experience and the studying he'd done to prepare for this mission, he knew what to do. How to download the program that would change everything.
[Shuttle Crash Site]
Hale was thrust out of the Jefferies tube and onto the deck. Smoke hung in the air, and the varying degrees of urgency among the officers only added to the chaos. Some were rushing around with firefighting equipment, others were still being attended to by medical teams, and others milled about waiting for orders. Planting a boot on the deck, he pushed aside the burnt, jagged rubble that was strewn about the place as if it'd been broadcast by a farmer from biblical times.
Hale was sweaty and dirty. Clambering up and down the ship wasn't on the menu after a heavy breakfast. Making his way up the corridor, the helmsman caught the eye of a squared-away security officer. "Everything alright, sir?"
"Yes, yes, just heading down to see this shuttle."
"Do you need an escort?"
"No-no," Hale forced a smile, gesturing up the corridor, "I think I'll be fine following the trail of destruction."
Rounding the corridor, Hale dodged a fallen girder and saw the senior staff gathered where the vessel had pierced the Thunderbird's side. Joining them, he knelt by a piece of debris, its metallurgy different to the Thunderbird's. His gaze moved toward the twisted melding of shuttle and starship. He tried to contain his horror, questions and theories whirring around his head. "Was anyone in here?"
"One deceased," Norsgaard answered. "Female. As yet unidentified. However, there was an open hatch so we're not entirely sure that there wasn't another individual on board."
"I see." Hale nodded and stepped forward slowly, cautiously poking his head into the hatch to see the woman's body still at the controls. He pursed his lips and rounded the craft. He took a scrutinising look at what was visible of the nose of the vessel. Examining a seam between the vessel's main hull and the forward tip where the material changed, he turned to Barnes. "A very clean cut through our hull, wouldn't you agree, Lieutenant Barnes?"
“Suspiciously so,” answered Julie, eyeing the offending hole as if it had personally insulted her mother. “I’d like to know what this shuttle is made of. Or if it used a weapon at the same time it struck us. Otherwise, I can work out why there’s not bits of stuff hanging out all over. “
"Captain, if an auxiliary craft of any type collided with a starship, it would make a mess of both vessels. This is highly irregular." Hale went back to the craft for a moment and dug around in the wreckage, "I saw something similar to this when I was on the Lantree. Toward the end of the Galen Border Conflicts, the Talarians were fond of smash-and-grab ramraids. They'd reinforce the leading edge of their ships specifically for penetration. It was unusual and risky."
"Pirates used it occasionally as well," Norsgaard said thoughtfully. "When we finally saw them, they were aimed directly at the Ambassadors." And that of course, prompted a whole new round of questions, chief among them, in his mind, was just how exactly did they know where the Ambassadors would be. "We turned hard at the last minute which is how they ended up here."
Hale put his hands on his hips. The lights in the corridor dipped for a moment. He raised an eyebrow. A moment later, they flickered back to life. "I have some suspicions about the vessel's composition and abilities, but I'd need Lieutenant Barnes' and her teams' assistance to confirm my theories. First, we'd need to get this thorn out of our side and into a shuttlebay. That would be a bit of a job. That said, I can't imagine we'd be able to generate a warp field with this thing sticking out of us."
"Agreed," Norsgaard said. "Can you tow it out using a pair of workbees?" He turned toward the Chief Engineer and added, "and how long would you need before they could make an attempt?"
“Maybe an hour,” answered Julie. “Maybe two, if absolutely everything goes wrong. And given our recent record…. Never mind, let’s not jinx it. We’ll say an hour.”
"We'd need a moment to fit the heavy-duty tractor emitters to the workbees, but otherwise it shouldn't be a problem," Hale said. "Lieutenant Dunne and I can take care of it once the hull is reinforced and secured."
“I’ll get a crew on it at once,” Julie told him.
[Elsewhere]
Following the Captains orders Daegan had dispatch security teams throughout the ship to secure the bridge, engineering, sickbay, computer core, and other critical areas as well as begin a deck by deck search of the ship. His team was standing by as he tapped his badge. "Baas to Captain. I have teams moving to secure critical area and begin a deck by deck search. I recommend locking down key systems until we've cleared the ship."
"Agreed," Norsgaard said. "Captain to Bridge. Lock down transporters and the flight deck. Restrict computer access to senior personnel and notify security of any unauthorized attempts to access our computers, armory, engineering, and medical."
"Aye, Sir," Reeves, the operations officer on duty, said at once. "Bridge out."
[Computer Core]
A six member team entered the core on deck 7 and Williams directed his people. Samantha, you and T'san head up and secure the control area on 6. Lator, you and Steve take 8."
He heard them coming, who wouldn't? The computer, running a security bypass protocol that Elias had brought with him, left the Maquis operative room to manuever. Elias worked quickly setting up a broad band transmission that would disseminate a wealth of information on both the Federation and the Cardassians over an unsecured channel where a whole lot of people were already waiting to receive.
Samantha was in the lift heading up to the next level as T'san took the nearby ladder well. He was had actually beaten the slow lift but paused a hand came out to caution her as he drew his phaser. His eyes didn't see anyone but his hearing told him differently. "Someone is here."
Pulling her phaser she she looked about. "I don't see..."
"There are other senses that one's vision." T'san swept the area letting his hearing guide him. As he did his eyes caught the display, it was compiling data for transmission. Changing to a relaxed stance he straightened, his thumb altering the patten on his phaser. "Perhaps I was mistaken."
Feigning a turn he fired his phaser, now set on a wide dispersal pattern struck not only the intruder, who fell to the deck, becoming visible as he did, but his partner as well. Moving quickly to the console he cancelled the the active transmission instructions and reinitiated the computer's security protocols.
Kneeling, he removed the arm band from the intruder and he tapped he commbadge. "Ens. T'san to Baas. Lieutenant, we have the intruder. He had accessed the computer core console on deck 6 and was compiling data for transmission."
Williams and the others, having heard the shot converged on the console and holstered their phaser seeing that they had missed the action.
Baas listened to the report. == Great work T'san. Take him to the brig so we can question him.==
The rest of the security team was already dragging the man that had already attacked their ship to his feet and to the brig as instructed.
T'san moved to Samantha as he began to stir and he helped her sit up.
Propping herself up as her head clear she cocked her head towards him "You shot me."
[Deck 4]
In the chaos caused by the explosion Tasat had been grabbed and stashed in some kind of compartment near the meeting area. By whom, he had no idea. He didn't know where his guard had gone or if they were even still alive. It had to have been someone from the ship. Banging again on the hatch he hoped to get someone's attention and out of this compartment. One thing was for sure he was going to hold the Federation responsible for this incident.
Ronan flattened on the deck, crawled beneath the structural support barring exit from the lab, and made his way out into the corridor. Flicking lights, structural damage, and people moving purposefully, trying to get fellow crew members to safety or, like himself, doing it on their own. He moved away from the lab, uncertain where he should be heading, and trying to remember the disaster drills they'd learned back at the Academy, when he heard a banging sound. He moved closer to investigate. "Someone in there," he called out.
Bagging on the hatch again Tasat bellowed, "Get me out of here!"
"Working on it," Ronan said. He wiped a trickle of blood off of his brow and tried to manually open the doors. He wasn't particularly strong but the door gave under pressure and opened, gradually, inch by inch.
[Deck 15]
Each step had carried MacRae further away from the impact site and the devastation caused by the impact. Her trip to deck 15 had involved no turbolift whatsoever, because she wasn’t quite willing to risk it until the engineers checked them out. Speaking of engineers… stepping aside she watched another repair team hurry by, heading to deal with the next priority.
They definitely had their work cut out for them.
After they had passed by she hurried towards the Intel department, soon reaching Tatiana’s office. “Are you okay?” She asked as she entered. “The captain asked me to head down to see if there was any chatter around whatever the hell is going on.”
[Deck 3]
Baas had been with a set of teams after they had linked up and were clearing the ship when the call had come in. After receiving the update he hailed the Captain. "Baas to Captain Norsgaard. We have him. The intruder is being taken to the brig. He had managed to access the computer core terminal on deck 6. I'm heading there now to see how he managed to bypass the lockdown."
Captain Erik Norsgaard
Commanding Officer
USS Thunderbird
Elias Renn
Maquis Operative
(written by Captain Erik Norsgaard)
Lieutenant Ronan D'Sai, D.Sc.
Language Specialist
USS Thunderbird
Lieutenant JG Caitlyn MacCrae
Second Officer
USS Thunderbird
Lieutenant Daegan Baas
Chief of Security
USS Thunderbird
Lieutenant Bartholomew Hale
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Thunderbird
Lieutenant Sylar
Chief Medical Officer
USS Thunderbird
Lieutenant Juliette Barnes
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Thunderbird
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