Coming In For a Landing

Posted on Thu Dec 17th, 2020 @ 11:10pm by Captain Tobias Bach & Commander Ayda Muldowney & Lieutenant Kiam Aax & Lieutenant Commander Timo Schaefer & Lieutenant Charlie Caspian & Lieutenant JG Tobias Jackson-Sanders & Lieutenant JG Ovrora Sh'rholok & Ensign Kevin Ibanez & Ensign Sturnack

Mission: 28 Days
Location: Starbase 15: L2 LaGrange Point of Denobula
Timeline: Mission Day 8 at 0600

Denobula was a small blue and green orb the size of a tennis ball in an endless sea of pinpricked black. With the haptic vibration of the Ulysses dropping out of warp a moment ago, the free-floating mushroom shape of Starbase 15 caught errant rays of Denobula's three stars. "Captain Bach, to the Bridge," Commander Ayda Muldowney requested, finger tagging one of the control switches on the command chair. The blue-eyed, fair-skinned woman turned first to Operations. "Lieutenant Sanders, give me a shipwide channel please." Then she turned to the young man ahead of her.

Over the past few weeks, Ayda had gotten used to the Human's bristly black hair and smaller frame compared to the hulking Hippotine that was Lieutenant Rosk. "Ibanez. Bring us in, one-half impulse power."

His hands moving quickly across the console in front of him, Toby turned to briefly face the XO, "Channel open, Commander."

"Aye, Commander," Ibanez replied, his eyes dropping from the viewscreen down to the flight controls as he put his fingers on the impulse leveler and dragged it down to half speed.

"Thank you," Ayda acknowledged as a waifish Yeoman approached her with a PADD report. She tapped at it, eyes glancing at the data before she signed off. "On your way Finn." She instructed. "Bridge to all stations. Prepare for docking at Starbase 15."

"Captain on the Bridge," someone stated behind them, near the Science station. The receding white-haired of Captain Bach nodded at the speaker- again the young Yeoman passing into the hallway he had just rounded out of. One of Bach's brows rose, thin lips pursing at the vantage on the screen.

Bach stepped up to his chair and made a soft buzzing sound with a chuckle, gesturing Ayda off. She too chuckled and evacuated his chair with a spin that brought her momentum toward the seat and console behind the Captain. "Situation report. All stations."

"Helm and Navigation at the ready, Captain," Ibanez reported, his eyes focused on the readouts on his console. "On approach to Starbase 15 at half impulse, slowing down to one-quarter in thirty seconds.

"Engines are nominal at this time," Ensign Sturnack reported from his station. A wireframe depiction of the Ulysses graced the screen in front of him, the ship's systems reporting nothing out of the ordinary. Nimble Vulcan fingers manipulated various switches and keys, bringing up a variety of different readouts. "Warp power is currently on standby. Impulse engines are freely available, Captain," Sturnack noted.

Since Commander Schaefer's engineering team had made good on their promise the previous week to resolve the timing delay on the forward dorsal phaser array, all of Ullysses' offensive and defensive systems had continued to operate flawlessly. Lieutenant Caspian cleared her throat and answered the captain in a clear, clipped tone. "Tactical standing by, sir. All systems showing green across the board."

Ovrora leaned over to Caspian as she reported in, whispering to her as the tactical officer continued to review her console. "As soon as we're docked we're getting a drink. I've heard there's a lovely little hole in the wall bar on the station."

Seamlessly cutting off her whisper she swiveled back to her own station, chiming in with only the shortest break between Caspian's update. "Science team at your disposal, sir." There wasn't much for a science officer to do upon docking, but Ovrora never missed the view as they came into the station if she could help it.

Bach has used the time of his staff reporting in to settle into his chair. "Thank you," he said with his routine ennui. He pushed back into his chair with a sigh, eyeing the familiar lines of the Vanguard-class of starbases. It resembled a giant shiitake in space to him. "Saunders, open a channel."

"Channel Open, Captain," Toby called.

Bach nodded, chin ushering his attention back to the screen, "Starbase 15 Yardmaster, this is the Ulysses. Requesting permission to dock." There was only a brief pause as, on the screen, an Antares-class freighter with the Earth Cargo Service emblem on it's dorsal passed through the main viewer's arc.

"Ulysses, permission to dock at slip four, granted.". The voice was the rich multi-tonal of an Andorian- something that raised Bach's patrician eyebrow.

"You heard the man. Slip four, Helm. Take us in."

"Aye, sir," Ibanez nodded. "Switching to thrusters." The nice thing about serving on a smaller ship meant docking maneuvers were a little easier, and oddly enough, it was something he enjoyed. There was something very satisfying about executing a series of minute thruster adjustments to get the ship in just the right position before the starbase took over to finalize the docking procedure.

Ayda cleared her throat, "Remember folks, our stay here is short. We're here to pick up some crew, a few reporters from the Federation New Network, and a few supplies. Keep your shore-leave on the short side." She smiled in a matronly way, "I know we were all hoping for some downtime on B'Saar, but after this mission, we'll make sure we get it."

The Captain and looked casually over his shoulder at his XO, silently amused that she's taken the initiative. "Make sure your people know, officers. By short, we mean we're out of here in eight hours. Use whatever time you've got wisely." He raised an eyebrow, "I suggest the Pink Pagoda in the Kaybin District."

Ops chirped at Tobias Sanders, signaling Starbase was hailing.

Quietly chuckling at the conversation that had started to consume the bridge, the incoming transmission had somewhat startled the Operations officer who had to take a second to regather himself before figuring out what was happening, "The station is hailing us. Opening a channel" Those were quickly becoming words he was growing tired of.

"Ulysses, cut your engines... we have it from here." And with that, the ship's main view exploded in the bright azure rays of the starbase's docking tractor beams. It began to draw them toward the H-shaped latch as floating umbilicals began to hove, like determined and rigid worms, toward the small Malachowski-class.

"Relinquishing docking control to starbase," Ibanez commented as he cut the thrusters and tapped the command on his console that handed maneuvering control over to the starbase.

In the minutes that followed, the blue-bathed screen filled with the cool grays of the Federation starbase until, with the telltale knocking, haptic vibration, and beeping, moors reached and lamprey'ed on to the small Malachowski-class. Gangs extended and then, stirrings of movement from the base signaled that inspector work bees and impulse shuttles were ready to swarm the ship.

"Alright people," Bach spoke up, "Eight hours, no more. Pass it on."

From his station, Ensign Sturnack eyed Ovrora across the way. She had not expressly indicated such as of yet but the Vulcan knew the Andorian woman well. Logic presumed that she would attempt to goad him into accompanying her to a drinking establishment of ill repute. He hoped, however, that the eight-hour limitation might dissuade the fiery Andorian from causing too much harm on such a visit. Nodding to the Captain, the engineer handed his station over to a relief officer and stepped off the Bridge.

With the Ulysses firmly docked to the starbase, there wasn't much left for Kevin to do on the bridge and his thoughts immediately wandered off to what kind of distractions might be on offer. Eight hours wasn't much, but the young ensign was sure he could make the most of it as he logged off his console and followed the rest of the shift off the bridge.

Ovrora tapped a few key things on her console, locking everything in place. Science wouldn't need to be manned while they were docked, so it was more a matter of formality to keep anyone from accidentally bumping into the station and messing up the settings. She grinned winningly at Caspian, waving the other woman after her as she stood up.

"Sturnack is going to come with us," she said, no doubt at all in her voice although she hadn't expressly asked the Vulcan if he wanted to join them.

"Oh great," Caspian replied with obvious sarcasm. "I do enjoy having my every action closely observed and analyzed..." She shook her head in dismay as she transferred the tactical sensors to ops and assigned the tactical override codes to the command duty officer who would have responsibility for Ulysses whilst she was docked at the starbase.

Bach and Muldowney waited until the crew had cleared. From her station, Ayda tapped at the controls. The lights powered down, then the consoles. Only the faint blinking screens displaying Condition Gray highlighted the room.

"Plans, Commander?" Tobia asked from the light of the corridor heading to his Ready Room.

"I'm going to find a good hideaway hole and read a book." Ayda confirmed. "And you?"

Bach paused, "Head home," he breathed with a smirk, meaning his quarters.