Season 1, Mission 1: Portal Jumper

Get our human life signatures off and then take us out of here, full emergency warp." Josh looked at his Klingon Flight Control officer with a hard face. "The safety of our crew depends on your flying of our ship these next few minutes. I don't envy your job, Mr. Darco." Josh sat back in his seat. "Prep for initiation. All hands, battle stations. Prepare for evasive maneuvers."

Darco moved quickly with a nod to his normal station, the man there knew that if Darco came down like that to just get up and move away and that it wasn't a criticism of his own flying ability but just... Well, just putting the best card on the table. While a Straight was good you used the Straight Flush if you had it.

As the order was about to be given, Darco took the helm controls and prepared to evade. "They won't even get a shot off before we're evading." He had always had a soft spot for the Picard maneuver... He entered the parameters into his console quickly, fingers fluttering across the smooth surface like butterfly wings, delicate, elegant, with purpose. The console showed green.

"With permission sir..." Darco paused for a moment, "Engineering, prepare to execute the Picard maneuver the moment we are free. That should give them 2 targets, by the time they choose which one, hopefully we'll have our people back on board."

Then the order was given... Darco had a finger hovering over the key to engage.

USS Invincible
Main Sickbay
---------------

Dr Waterhouse's hands were slick with blood, the young marine lay on the table before him with a mask covering his face. Nurse Carmial monitored the flow of oxygen via the console set in the side of the biobed, Dr Monroe was using both of his hands to hold steady the mechanical heart and Dallen watched the life signs with unblinking attention. John was filled with a rising sense of fear, the man's own heart had stopped beating about 20 seconds ago and the new mechanical one... "More Suction Angie!" a blonde nurse in a surgical smock used a small device to remove the blood obscuring his vision and adjusted the angle of the sterile field to prevent more blood entering the cavity. "Monroe on my mark I want you to start the heart as I finish this suture." John passed the auto suture probe over the man's left coronary artery for what seemed like the hundredth time. "Mark!"

The Red Alert Klaxon blared and the whole ship shuddered with rapid movement and the rhythmic thumps of torpedoes leaving their tubes. Monroe stabbed his finger down on the control panel beside him and the heart hummed to life. The Medical staff all talked over each other "Life signs stabilising" "Aye Lad" "Pulse is back" "Oxygen update increasing". John straightened up and addressed the roof, "Computer, signs of infection by unknown pathogen?" the computer's reply was swift, "Negative". John allowed a smile to cross his face, the man would live. "Thank you everyone, best report to your alert stations, Monroe could you give me the osteoregenerator and a dermalpatcher." The two doctors worked in silence to close the up the Marine's chest.

Josh watched the phasers and torpedoes streak out from the weakened but not beaten Excelsior class. The impact was a satisfying one; on the viewscreen appeared a good portion of the enemy vessel. The cloak remained partially intact but the ship was mostly visible. "Mr. Cousland, take down their primary reactor!"

The continued phaser strikes shot out, following the initial attack quickly and efficiently. Josh took no two seconds for granted. He watched his status screen for the green light on power, and finally saw their sensor suite respond and engines return to normality. "Lieutenant Darco, full impulse! Transporter rooms, prepare to take on the Captain and Commander!"

Josh felt the Invincible pull forward; the sheer movement of the vessel alone gave him a feeling of success in the pit of his stomach. As the Invincible sped within transporter range of the enemy Josh finally noticed the odd design of the ship. "Science, take down notes on the vessel for later us-" Seetar was cut off as the ship rocked, obviously hit by some kind of retaliation. "Cousland, report? Shield status!"

With blood pumping through Josh's veins he anticipated and prepared for the next phase of the mission.

(Tag everyone)

"Mr. Cousland, take down their primary reactor!"

Jeffery's hands danced across his panel, adjusting the ship's weapons to Seetar's order. He then let loose another volley of phaser fire and torpedoes.

"Lieutenant Darco, full impulse! Transporter rooms, prepare to take on the Captain and Commander!"

The ship rocked, the sudden roll of the deck putting Jeffery off-balance and into the wall behind him. His head bounced off the panel, a sharp, needle like pain making itself prominent.

"Cousland, report? Shield status!"

Jeffery pushed himself off the wall and back into his position. Bringing back up the shield display next to the weapon status, he could see that the impact had weakened the shield modulation that they had setup.

"Shield strength is at thirty-two percent!" Jeffery shouted out,"Modulation is also weakened. Whatever that was, I wouldn't want to get hit with it again!"

((Tag))

Major Somers
Marine CO
Holodeck One

Jasmine was practicing with Alpha Unit when the holodeck fluctuated and the ship shook.

"Computer freeze program" She said then tapped her Commbadge =/\= Major Somers to Lieutenant Seetar =/\=

((Tag =/\=Seetar=/\=))

=/\= Whats going on up there Captain? =/\= She said becoming formal.

((Tag =/\=Seetar=/\=))

=/\= Hmm, if you can get us into transporter range without causing too much damage to the ship, I will take Alpha Unit and beam in and extract the Captain and First Officer =/\= She said and waited for the Acting Captain to respond.

((Tag =/\=Seetar=/\=))

The Invincible twisted and rolled, and Josh could see Darco frantically but coordinately maneuvering the ship. Josh gripped the sides of the command chair, his knuckles white from the clenching. He received the comm from Jasmine and responded slightly irritatedly. "Major, prepare your Marines in the case of a boarding party if our shields go down, but a manual extraction would be suicide. Get your men around the ship."

With that Josh abruptly cut the communication, focusing back on the bridge. As the kilometers closed down Seetar watched as the transporter range turned to green. "Transporter room one, lock onto those human signatures! Mr Cousland, take those shields down for as short a period as you can for the transport to go out. Helm, prepare a Kirk omicron defensive manuever; if we're hit with our shields down we're obliterated."

Josh watched the seconds tick by, which felt like an eternity, before the transporter room controller commed up. "Sir, it appears like only one human life sign onboard the vessel!"

Josh stopped, stunned. It had never occurred to him that either if not both could have been killed. "Get whoever we can off of that fracking ship!"

(Tag Jeff and Darco)

"Energize!" Josh watched as the shield activity signature flashed off, and then right back on. "Mr. Darco, emergency warp, initiate!"

The Excelsior class banked and turned, it's powerful engine spurring it forward. With a light heave the stars stretched and breath whooshed from Josh's clenched mouth. "Medical, prepare to receive priority one injuries."

(Tag Waterhouse)

Josh stood, his weary limbs slightly shaky. "Jeff... hail Delta Quadrant command and let them know of our status. Darco, take us an hour out of here at emergency warp and then revert to cruise speed."

Josh knew he it was his duty to check on the rescued members of the crew. He honestly could not guess who was still alive, but he prayed it was the Captain. "Lieuteuant Darco, you have the bridge." Seetar left the bridge, drawing on his last ounces of strength to send him forward to Medical.

(TAG ALL)

Darco aborted his idea for the Picard Maneuver when he was given the order for full impulse. As the ships exchanged fire he put all his skills at the helm out for all to see, it was almost like being a pianist and playing a concerto when the sheet music kept changing.

Always keeping in mind an avenue for escape, on the secondary navigational plot he kept a course lock on the best way to warp out the situatuation, concentrating on his job and only hearing the orders to him he was in the heat of battle, fighting with his crew for victory, what Klingon could ask for more.

The order to escape was given, he switched to the secondary plot and engaged... The ship surged forward just slightly as the sudden change in course could not completely be compensated for by the dampeners... They were gone...

"Course steady sir, maximum warp."

Josh stopped, stunned. It had never occurred to him that either if not both could have been killed. "Get whoever we can off of that fracking ship!"

Jeffery continued firing on the unknown vessel, the projected shield grid on his targeting interface showing continued weakening from the constant barrage of weapons fire. It took another few seconds before he managed to punch a hole through their shields.

"They've got a hole in their shields, sir." Jeffery stated, a twinge of excitement in his voice despite his efforts to stay calm,"Don't know for how long."

((Tag))

USS Invincible
Main Sickbay
-----------------
"Medical, prepare to receive priority one injuries."

The call from the bridge revitalised the medical staff. After the recovering Marine had been moved from the ICU bed and begun breathing on his own again John had been dealing with a steady trickle of minor injuries. Various ship's people knocked about by impacts or hurt by overloading systems. The staff were moving about Dallen and Monroe patching up a burned engineer unluckily caught by an overloaded EPS junction and Carmial and Waterhouse together slapping dermal patches and quick shots of painkillers or multi spectrum antigens into the handful of crewmen and women who had presented to sickbay rather than the local medical teams around the ship. At the call from the Bridge Dr Waterhouse straightened up and walked to the centre medical bed, "I'll handle the Captain personally" he stated more calmly than he felt. The whole team felt the surge as the Invincible slammed to maximum warp.

Dr Adam and Nurse T'Hal burst into sickbay alongside two orderlies controlling a gravsled stretcher.

"Sir, one casualty unconsciousness since arrival, multiple minor injuries, dehydration, probable minor infections and that leg looks bad." Adam rapidly ran down a list of vital stats for the Captain prone on the stretcher slightly curled in a defensive posture. "On to the bed James, where's the Exec?" John spoke as he reached over and with the help of the orderlies shifted the prone body of his commanding officer onto the main diagnostic bed.

"Lt Commander Clarke was not retrieved from the alien vessel." T'Hal's precise delivery did nothing to lessen the blow, Monroe looked up from the now sedated engineer; "Lass, yea dinnae mean we left her there?" John's face echo'd his doctor's question but he was busy with the injured Commander.

"T'Hal get some fluids and wide spectrum into him, Carmial give me that medical probe." Taking the offered probe from the nurse John peeled back the filthy uniform trouser leg and examined the wound, the rapid patch up that Waterhouse had performed an age ago on the runabout had re-opened and the blood both dry and flowing was all over the captain's thigh. T'Hal emptied two hyposprays of drugs into Matt's neck and he began to relax slightly onto the bed, she continued "The Transporter Chief indicated that there was only one life sign, Ms Clarke was already dead." John wiped the blood away and began to clean the wound; as he did so Carmial finished cutting off the captains uniform and began dressing the minor injuries, mostly knocks, scuffs and bruises. Monroe having completed his work on the engineer came to stand behind his chief, "Sir, what dae you need?". "Tissue generator, type 2 then dermal patches, two large and an auto suture." John replied; he was pretty sure he could see bone in the wound but it appeared clean and neat if deep. "Also better run some blood work and see if we have another infection case." Dr Adam drew some blood from Matt's left arm and sliding the vial into the computer let it run it's tests. All of the medics put the thought of the young Sarah Clarke lying dead on an alien spaceship as far out of their minds as they could and continued to work.

As the immediate rush fell away after a few minutes Matt began to come round, moaning slightly. Dr Adam straightened from the bench and shook his head, "We are in the clear." John allowed a small smile to come to his face, it would never do to have the Commander die on the first time out but with the leg wound properly dealt with and the hypospray'd drugs doing their work it would all be fine in the end. The nurses stepped back to a discrete distance and John leaned over Matt, now clad in a sickbay gown, "Captain? Can you hear me? I told you to come for a check up, this is singularly the most dramatic way of ducking a physical I have ever seen." The CMO stood up just as Mr Seetar entered the room, looking like he might have run some of the way from the bridge.

"He'll live." John tried to forestall the Engineer's obvious question.

<Tag, Matt, Josh>

Major Somers
Marine CO
Holodeck One - Back Sim

=/\=Major, prepare your Marines in the case of a boarding party if our shields go down, but a manual extraction would be suicide. Get your men around the ship. =/\=

Jasmine was about to respond, when the line went dead.

"Okay Marines, mission is scrubbed, report to the armoury and draw out standard weapons, work with Ships Security to prevent any possible boarding parties. Go go go" She said as the Marines left the Holodeck.

"Computer, end program" She said and the familiar black and yellow Grid returned.

With that she took her own directions on kit loadout and left the Holodeck.