Starting Over Again

Posted on Wed Oct 14th, 2026 @ 1:39pm by Commander Zhora zh'Roothi & Commander Ash Randall & Lieutenant Commander Sora Bernadotte & Lieutenant (J.G.) Oakham Khen Ziren & Chief Petty Officer Kiera Targaryen & Enterprise Officer NPC

2,569 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: 11. Recess
Location: Bridge, U.S.S. Enterprise
Timeline: 2439-10-21, 11:00

The crisp chime of the Turbolift doors sliding open cut through the steady, LCARS-driven hum of the Bridge.

Lieutenant Narri Gloreon didn't turn around immediately, maintaining his rigid, hands-clasped stance behind the forward workstations. "Security, report the arrival," he commanded smoothly, his Cardassian cadence precise and unhurried.

"It's Commander zh'Roothi's team, Lieutenant," Ensign Talyn reported from her post, her dark eyes scanning the returning personnel as her Klingon-Romulan features relaxed slightly. "All five members have returned aboard."

At the Helm, Lieutenant 1001 spun around in his chair, his metallic eye-implant gleaming under the primary lighting. "Welcome back to the floating sanctuary of mathematical perfection! I see you've brought all your limbs with you. Always a positive outcome for a planetside excursion."

"Speak for yourself, 1001," Lieutenant B'ree Thairtu called out from Engineering, leaning back from her LCARS console with a bright, relieved Orion grin. "From the tactical telemetry we were picking up off the John Kelly's atmospheric grid, I was half-expecting everyone to beam back aboard with a dozen security guards chasing behind them."

Beside 1001 at Operations, the silent Bynar 0110 tapped a rapid string of binary into his console before stating in a flat, monotone cadence: "Combadge telemetry restored. Localized dampening field influence: zero percent."

From the Science station, Lieutenant Zomuul jav Ghul let out a low, guttural Tellarite huff. "A street brawl with a Zakdorn's security detail on the promenade? Bah! Unimpressive. A proper Tellarite debate would have dismantled their jurisdictional claims in three sentences!"

Still irked by their encounter on the surface Commander zh'Roothi bit back a sarcastic reply at the conversation. She was also surprised to see Wilkam was absent.

Gloreon turned slowly, his dark eyes sweeping across the upper deck. "I am pleased to note your return," he said, adjusting his tunic with an air of absolute discipline. "However, Captain Tazari's initial communications were... highly irregular. Furthermore, Commodore Targaryen descended to the administrative hub via runabout forty minutes ago to address the situation directly with Captain Tazari."

0110 tapped his console without looking up. "We're still trying to overcome the interference caused by the John Kelly."

"Maintain our active tracking posture over the John Kelly," Gloreon ordered, stepping toward the away team. "The moment the Commodore returns aboard, we will require a complete log of all tactical threats issued planet side before Captain Tazari attempts to spin his web to Starfleet Command." He looked at Commander zh'Roothi, "Commander, I return command of the Enterprise to you until the Commodore returns."

Ash lightly nudged Zhora with her elbow. "Well, that explains why my ace couldn't help. The Commodore wasn't here to ask." She said, quietly.

"So it seems," the Andorian nodded to the engineer. "Take your station Ash. I suspect the Commodore will be back shortly to reveal the secrets the John Kelly is trying to hide." She then turned toe Lieutenant Gloreon: "Thank you Narri. Are you still tracking the rest of our crew? I assume they've been contacted by members from the John Kelly?"

Gloreon nodded once, his neck ridges setting into a firm, precise line. "Affirmative, Commander. While the John Kelly continues to degrade subspace communication, our primary sensors show our shore teams remain active in their respective sectors. Localized security details from the Kelly appear to be shadowing them, but no physical hostilities have been logged."

As Commander zh'Roothi stepped forward to assume the Bridge, the Turbolift doors hissed open again, framing the towering eight-foot silhouette of Lieutenant Rrawran. The Rorworr took his place behind the Tactical console, his massive paws hovering over the LCARS interface, "Relieving Tactical Station. Sensor lock maintained on the John Kelly."

Following right behind Rrawran was Lieutenant Commander Bernadotte. She had taken a brief moment on her way to the bridge to pop into her quarters to change back into an unmodified uniform, and dropped off her dagger. Her earlier anger replaced by cold, calculated determination, she made her way to the Operations console. "You are relieved. Full status report, please.”

0110 didn't look up from the console, his fingers completing a rapid sequence of binary entry before he stood up to vacate the Operations station. "Relieved," 0110 stated in his flat, monotone cadence. "Telemetry remains active under passive sensor tracking. John Kelly atmospheric array continuing localized carrier suppression at 68% efficiency. Primary hull-to-hull sensor lock on John Kelly stable at 0.04 variance. Systems nominal."

Kiera had followed everyone else to the bridge, the matter between herself and Ziren on the surface would no doubt need clarification. She moved across the bridge taking a seat at the medical station.

Ziren followed Kiera, having remained close on her heels until they reached the bridge. Without saying a word, she walked over to one of the auxiliary security stations and activated it.

Tracking each of the members of her party as they reported to their duty stations zh'Roothi could feel they bought that same heavy, uncomfortable tension with them from the surface. It crackled with a different type of energy - a burning desire to resolve the mystery that they found themselves wrapped in.

Ash manned the primary Engineering station. the small Tuansee spending a few seconds adjusting the console and chair to suit her, diminutive, stature. While the Chief Engineer was, officially, 5'1" tall, that height was measured to the tips of her ears instead of the top of her head which, by that measure, would make her 4'8" tall, with a tail, at least that long. "When we have a moment, Lt Rrawren, I'd like you to try out the, self contained, translation module I've developed for you." She announced.

Rrawran turned toward Ash at Engineering, his neck collar emitting its characteristic flat, synthesized chime, "Acknowledged, Commander. I will report to Engineering upon completion of my shift." Before anyone else could say more, a rapid beep came from the Tactical console.

"Priority transmission incoming," Rrawran's neck collar chimed in its flat, robotic tone, his glowing pale eyes fixing on the encrypted stream. "Direct flag-channel routing from the runabout Hurutam. Commodore Targaryen. On screen."

The Viewscreen flickered, replacing the orbital view of the John Kelly with the visual feed from the Hurutam's cockpit. Wilkan appeared on screen sitting behind the flight controls, the reflection of light from the console playing over his features as he multi-tasked piloting the shuttle and speaking with his crew.

"Commander," Wilkan’s deep, resonant voice filled the Bridge, steady as grinding iron. "I'm returning to the ship now. Override any localized interference from the Kelly using active scanning and bring all planetside personnel directly back aboard the Enterprise as soon as possible. Once they're aboard, assemble the Senior Staff in the Executive Conference Room. I'll brief you all about what comes next then. Targaryen out."

The viewscreen cut back to the orbital display and the Miranda IV Class John Kelly hovering.

Sora raised an eyebrow as the message ended just as she finished adjusting the Operations console to her usual settings. "He sounded pissed off. That really just confirms what we thought when we were dealing with that arrogant prick of a Lieutenant, right? This whole thing was not done with the Commodore's consent, or even with him knowing in advance." She shook her head as her hands flew across the console. "Lying bastards. Ready to break up the interference and bring our people back on your order, Commander."

"Bah! You speak of Captain Tazari as if he were some grand mastermind orchestrating a flawless victory," jav Ghul growled, his dark eyes flashing with arrogant disdain as he slammed a broad hand flat against the LCARS terminal. "A Zakdorn does not yield, yes, but he certainly miscalculated! He built a multi-layered interdiction grid, hid behind an illegal dampening array, and believed he had constructed an inescapable diplomatic cage. Yet he failed to calculate for basic operational resolve! Tazari relied on administrative proxies, off-the-record orders from Vice Admiral Targaryen, and the assumption that our Commodore would sit idly in high orbit. The moment Commodore Targaryen descended to that concourse, Tazari's leverage dissolved into pure bureaucratic posturing! Had I been on that promenade, I would have dismantled his entire jurisdictional claim in three sentences before he ever thought to activate that atmospheric array!"

"Your argument rests on the assumption you know there is a jurisdictional claim being made for you to dismantle in 3 sentences and then have the means to and, the authority, implied or otherwise, to counter that jurisdictional claim." Ash stated, quietly. "It is, what it is and is a foot note in history compared to what is to come." The Chief Engineer, further observed without looking the direction of Jav Ghul.

"We are not debating theoretical rhetoric, Lieutenant jav Ghul," Lieutenant Gloreon cut in smoothly. "Our objective is verifying our away teams' safety and executing the Commodore's directive." Before he could say more, a rapid alarm played out from the Communications console. Typing on the screen, "A priority tactical transmission has been intercepted from John Kelly on the encrypted channel. Seems to be directed toward all planetside security details, but I'm having trouble getting access."

Before anyone else could say anything, Rrawran triggered a Red Alert. His neck collar emitted its flat, synthesized chime: "Sensors detecting energy discharges in the primary clinic. It matches Starfleet Phasers logged at stun output."

"Phaser fire inside a civilian hospital?" B'ree Thairtu gasped from Engineering, her Orion eyes widening as she redirected power. "Are they out of their minds?"

Kiera shook her head. “That’s not good, it’ll give them just what they need to hold what’s left of our people!”

"Time to show them we're not playing ball any longer," zh'Roothi announced. "As soon as the Hurutam is aboard scramble that damned interference signal and bring our people back starting with those at the clinic first."

"We have a problem, Commander!" B'ree Thairtu called out from Engineering, her Orion hands sweeping across the auxiliary power controls. "The Hurutam just set down in Shuttlebay One, but the John Kelly is actively sweeping our hull with a heavy carrier-jamming pulse. It's completely washing out our primary targeting sensors!"

Gloreon stepped up to the Ops railing, his Cardassian posture rigid as his eyes scanned the incoming telemetry. "They are anticipating our extraction attempt, Commander. Captain Tazari is actively attempting to lock down our transporter buffers from high orbit."

"Of course they are," the XO sighed and sunk into the Command seat. "Then we're improvise. Helm," she called. "Take us down into the atmosphere, put some distance between the Kelly and ourselves. Keep working on blocking them out - I want our people back before this escalates any further."

"Trying to break through," Ziren called out, "but it's a hell of a nut to crack...I'll keep trying."

Kiera moved around to Ziren to take a look she wasn’t a tactical specialist, but the experience of her years was starting to show through. “Why don’t we try focusing on circumventing the system...if you can’t attack it from head on go around via a lesser protected system. Once you’re through that you can attack from within.” She smiled a wry smile. “All we need is to put their ship’s systems into maintenance, or power down mode it’ll cut the power for long enough to get us through.”

Commander Randall followed along with what Ziren was doing and smiled at the suggestions from Kiera as they were, very, sensible but would take time. "I suggest matching the interference signal, amplify it ten fold, and feed it back into their emitters to overload them. They'll have to drop the field." Ash suggested.

"Matching the interference signal and overloading their emitters is mathematically sound," 1001 interjected from Helm, his cybernetic implant whirring as he locked in the descent vector toward the upper atmospheric deck. "Descending into atmosphere increases our sensor resolution by forty percent; coupling that with Ash's feedback loop will fry their carrier array in under twelve seconds!"

Sora's hands flew across the Ops console. "I can make that quicker," she coldly stated. "In fact, I can probably force their entire power grid to overload. They'd be completely dead in the water. Back in my universe, I was a traitor, part of a rebellious group trying to overthrow the Empire. We had to deal with suppression fields quite a lot, since while Starfleet wanted us all dead, they did want their ships back. Commander Randall's suggestion of feeding back their interference signal is half the equation. It'll work, but only very briefly. Yes, the carrier array would be fried very quickly, but not quickly enough before the backup systems can take over." She shook her head. "However, if we couple the interference signal with a concentrated energy burst from our shield, it will not just take out the signal emitters. We will cause a cascading power surge through their primary EPS grid. Automated safety systems will then shut down main power to prevent a core overload."

The prospect of damaging a fellow vessel gnarled at zh'Roohti's core but the actions of the John Kelly had crossed the line.

"Whatever we plan we need to do it fast," Ziren called out, "phaser settings have changed... and not for the better."

Rrawran’s massive hands blurred across the tactical board as he adjusted auxiliary power distribution to compensate for the shifting atmospheric density. His neck collar emitted its flat, synthesized chime: "Warning. John Kelly emitter output surging by forty percent. Shield harmonic deviation detected."

"They are attempting to lock down the primary atmospheric envelope before our feedback loop achieves resonance," Rrawran's translator synthesized in its steady monotone. His glowing pale eyes fixed firmly on the tactical display. "Routing secondary shield harmonics into the forward deflector array now. Preparing to puncture their carrier grid on your mark, Commander."

"Do it," zh'Roothi instructed firmly as the Enterprise continued to descend. "End the madness and bring our people back."

"So much for first impressions." Ash commented, quietly. "And, the madness is just getting started." The Chief Engineer added, with a glance the direction of the XO. "There is a real possibility the John Kelly will fire on us." She finished.

“Let’s hope they’re not that stupid” Kiera added from where she’d returned to her seat.

Sora nodded firmly as she entered a few more commands into her console. "Shield output surging, matching and amplifying suppression waveform. Here. We. Go." She chuckled coldly as she entered the final command. The lights on the bridge flickered for a split second under the sudden strain of the immense power drain, before everything went quiet. "Operation successful. Tactical, if you would please confirm my readings, but it looks to me as if the USS John Kelly just went dark. Interference is gone, I'm locking on to our people and bringing them back now."

At Tactical, Rrawran’s massive hands moved across the console with practiced efficiency as he monitored the cascading energy signatures rolling off the John Kelly. His neck collar emitted its characteristic flat, synthesized chime: "Away team personnel safely brought aboard."

"Good," zh'Roothi nodded and stood. "Helm maintain position, tactical keep a weather eye on the John Kelly and alert me when their status changes. Have the senior staff report to the conference room, inform the Commodore I will be along shortly." She turned towards the crew members from her away team: "Ziren, Kiera in the Ready Room please. Lieutenant Gloreon you have the bridge."

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