Pulling the Thorn
Posted on Tue Oct 27th, 2026 @ 9:07pm by Lieutenant JG Vesper Dunne & Lieutenant Bartholomew Hale & Lieutenant Juliette Barnes
1,407 words; about a 7 minute read
Mission:
The Invisible Hand
Location: USS Thunderbird, Flight Operations
Timeline: Mission Day 5, 1200 Hours
"Lieutenant, the Workbee tractor beam emitters are fitted. We're flight checking them now," Chief Bilz reported, joining the pair of pilots at the flight operations table. The grizzled Napean non-com folded his arms and took a look at the display that Hale and Dunne were crowded around. "Looks like a pretty routine plan."
"Mmm. Besides the risk of explosive decompression." Hale looked to Dunne. "Are you still comfortable with the plan?"
"Yes, Sir," Dunne replied. "I'm thinking Engineering can prevent the whole blasting everyone into space scenario." She cocked her head slightly to one side, the tiniest of grins on her face. "As least I devoutly hope so."
Before Hale could respond, a column of light from the hallway pierced the dimly lit control room as the vessel's Chief Engineer entered. "Ah, Lieutenant Barnes, welcome."
“Wotcher,” greeted Julie a bit darkly. She and her team had been busy adding temporary support beams and taking careful measurements to ensure nothing else went wrong with the ship while they pulled the offending vessel out of their own.
"How have your efforts to reinforce Deck 4 come along?" Hale enquired.
“Better than expected,” she answered. “I don’t want to jinx it- The Great Bird knows we don’t need any more of that- but I’m optimistic.” She took a deep breath as she surveyed the area. “Well. Are we ready to do this?”
"There's no time like the present," Hale replied. He tapped a few commands into the pool table-like display in Flight Operations, calling up a diagram of Deck 4 and the location of the crash. A comprehensive array of scans by Barnes' technicians had provided plenty of data for Hale's simulations and salvage plan. "Lieutenant Dunne and I will park our Workbees at a distance of ten metres from the hull. With your team having secured the site to reduce the impact of debris or hull fusing between the Thunderbird and the Maquis vessel, we'll bring the tractor beams up to one hundred kilonewtons to ensure the reinforcements will hold."
Hale's diagram showed the Workbees activating their tractor beams as he continued. "We'll increase the load from there. We believe that 500 kilonewtons will be the maximum requirement to safely remove the vessel, however we'll need you to keep an eye on the structural integrity field percentage. What's your cut off?"
“I’d prefer if it didn’t get below 60,” replied Julie. “But we can push it to 50 if we need to. If we hit 60, we can see how much more we need and go from there.”
"Very well. If we hit that number we'll abort and adjust our approach. Once the craft is clear and the breach containment forcefields are safely online, we'll bring it into the shuttle maintenance bay for analysis." Hale looked between the officers. "Any last minute concerns?"
Julie just shook her head. They were as ready as they would ever be.
"No, Sir," Dunne said. "If its alright, I'll head down to the Hangar Deck and give the Workbees a final check before we get started."
"I'll accompany you, Dunne." Hale nodded. He turned his attention to the ship's engineer. "Lieutenant Barnes, we'll let you know when we're in position. After that, we're ready to go when you are."
Julie took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Nerves of steel” she muttered to nobody in particular. “Let’s do it.”
|USS Thunderbird, Exterior
|Mission Day 5, 1330 Hours
The pair of canary yellow Workbees sat off the starboard side of the Thunderbird, their worklights illuminating the ship's scarred surface. The Thunderbird's mangled exterior, all jagged duranium and torn conduits, looked even worse from the outside than within. Hale glanced across to Dunne's vessel. "All looking good, Dunne?"
"All good," Dunne replied, her gaze skimming over the panel. "Just waiting on the order."
"Grand," Hale replied. He opened a channel to the Chief Engineer. "Lieutenant Barnes, we're in position and ready to go on your mark."
“I’m ready,” answered Julie. “In 3, 2, 1, mark!” She held her breath. The first few seconds would tell them if her engineers had done their jobs correctly.
"Let's do this, Lieutenants. Activating tractor beams." From his craft, glowing blue fingers reached out, latching onto the craft. He glanced across to his sensor display and noted he was slightly further back than he should've been. An old habit born of caution. He nudged his vessel toward the Thunderbird. "I've got good contact. How about you, Dunne?"
Setting up the tractor beam wasn't hard and as soon as the Chief Engineer mentioned being ready, Dunne started configuring the beam's intensity and spread. She checked her position, angled to maintain her side of the vessel, and waited. When she heard the Chief via comms, she answered at once. "Good contact on my side, Sir," she answered. "Just say the word."
"Alright, let's see what we can do, Lieutenant Dunne. Increase tractor strength to 100 kilonewtons. Let's ease backward on reverse thrusters, no faster than ten kilometers per hour." Hale toggled his engines, the thrusters firing on his Workbee. From the quiet creaking he could hear in the cockpit from his craft, he knew the vessels were now in a tug of war. He checked his display. "A bit more, Lieutenant. One-fifty kilonewtons."
As the Workbees dragged on the craft, the vessel finally gave a clunk and began to break free. Hale's Workbee jolted back. He brought his tiny ship back into alignment with a deft touch of his controls. Shards of metal broke away and drifted past the Workbee cockpits from where the Maquis shuttle and the Thunderbird were joined. "Lieutenant Barnes, we've got separation. How is that field looking?"
Dunne kept the workbee in alignment, watching the panel indicators even as she felt the cockpit shudder on the pull. As the craft broke free, shards of metal tumbled away from the ship; a few bounced off the wide viewport in the area of where her nose would be and she found herself wishing the workbee had its own phaser array. Now that, she thought, would be fun. No damage to the viewport and the readouts looked good though there was that one red indicator that kept flickering on and off; she gave it a good thump and it settled right down.
“Dropped a bit at first, but it’s holding at 78% now,” Julie replied. “Keep up just like you are and we’ll be golden.”
"Slow and steady," Dunne murmured, as she maintained her share of the pull on the Maquis ship which was now floating free of the Thunderbird, a few feet away from her damaged hull. "We moving it to the rear for towing, Lieutenant?"
"Let's move it to the main hangar, Dunne," Hale replied, easing the Workbee back at a careful pace. On his aft sensor display, he noticed the Ocett had pulled around for a look. The implications began to run through his head. Not one made him want to hang around. "Thanks for your help, Lieutenant Barnes. We'll leave you to your repairs. I'll see you in the shuttlebay later for our analysis."
"Okay, Dunne, once we're clear we can be a little less delicate," Hale said. "We'll push the shuttle around at forty kilometers an hour. Just keep an eye on your tractor shear. We want to keep her intact."
"Aye, Sir," Dunne answered. "Smooth and steady."
The pair of Workbees pulled the Maquis shuttle free. The floodlights of the Bees cast beams that were finally unobstructed by debris, illuminating the scorched surface. Hale surveyed the craft, including the rupture through which he'd seen the dead woman, now crudely patched to avoid a devastating explosive decompression.
The Workbees brought the Maquis shuttle about and pushed her with a feathered touch, guiding the tethered trio around to the doors of the docking bay. The shuttlebay doors opened, admitting the Maquis shuttle into the Thunderbird without the violence that had caused this mess that had accompanied its first arrival. And soon enough, she had touched down. The shuttle crews and techs rushed in, securing the vessel and preparing her to be studied and dissected like a parasite that had been cast from its host.
Watching the engineers begin their work, Hale knew he had to have a look.
Lieutenant Bartholomew Hale
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Thunderbird
Lieutenant Juliette Barnes
Chief Engineer
USS Thunderbird
Lieutenant JG Vesper Dunne
Support Craft Pilot
USS Thunderbird
(Played by Captain Erik Norsgaard)
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