USS Penumbra Sim Narrative, SD 202106.25 Introduction: . An Away Team consisting of Col. Travis Patterson, LtCmdr. Bevin MacArdry, LtCmdr. Tabeshk Tibris, LtCmdr. T'Lin, Lt. Katarina Hawke, and SSgt. Will Davies, along with Miss Misty Mane in the Canteen, went down to a rural planet within the Breen Confederacy to do some covert reconnaissance. Everyone but Misty jumped out the rear hatch of the Canteen and made a "hard landing" in tall grass. . Misty's last "instructions" from Patterson were to rendezvous with the Penumbra, only the Penumbra was currently using their MIRAGE system to be virtually undectable somewhere in a high orbit. Misty wouldn't be able to find her. . Just before jumping from the Canteen, Davies was forced to "take out" a farmer that was shooting at the Canteen with a long rifle. Since the weapon Davies used was the Type 3 disruptor mounted in the wrist of his Breen biosuit, there wasn't much left of the farmer. . The drop to the ground was around 20 feet and the Canteen was moving at a speed a bit faster than a trot in order to remain airborne. The landing caused a few minor injuries and some equipment damage. The Penumbra: Note: For this sim, the focus was on the Away Team. The *Penumbra's part of the story was deliberately minimal.* . In Sickbay, LtCmdr. Dr. Shadow K'Trevala had been making sure Sickbay would be ready just in case. Once satisfied, he left Sickbay and headed to the Bridge so he could listen in directly to the Away Team and anything else going on. . On the Bridge, Cdre. Zak Taylor was in the Command Seat. He spoke, "Keep our ears open and eyes on those ships. There's a Heavy Cruiser out there somewhere, cloaked. Relok, you said you could see it?"
. "Aye, sir," Cmdr. Relok, the Vulcan Chief of Sciences, currently serving as the Acting Executive Officer while Patterson was on the Away Team, answered. "We can see the distortion in the background as it moves, but ... if it takes a stable orbit, we may lose that ability." . LtCmdr. Denovan Hawke, their ex-Borg Chief of Security and Tactical Operations, asked, "Shouldn't that be particularly easy to calculate, if we can notice where it starts the orbit?" . Relok didn't answer because SgtMaj. Derek Hines at the Reconnaissance Station interrupted, "Commodore, I've lost the commlink with Patterson, but ... I'm seeing an unusual message coming from the nearby asteroid belt, binary code." His fingers moved across his console and then he added, "Commodore, it's the 10101 again. FRAGO code." . Zak turned to Hines and asked, "Is it Patterson? Wait ... you said it was from the asteroid belt? Is it the Canteen?" . Hines checked the Recon sensors as he scanned the asteroid belt more carefully. "I'm fairly confident, sir." . Den also checked his Tactical sensors and agreed, "I guess it could be. But why would they be in the asteroid field?" . Hines turned his chair and said, "Maybe she figured it was a good place to hide so we can come pick her up?" . Den considered a moment then said, "I suppose it's possible." ==/\== . Zak turned his chair to look at Den and Hines, then turned back to the front. "Carter, break orbit and head towards the asteroid belt." . Carter responded, "Aye, sir. Ahead 3/4 impulse and starboard 15 degrees." He entered the course adjustments and the Penumbra broke orbit headed for the asteroid field. . Zak turned back to Den and Hines, "Let's try to signal the Canteen back without spoiling our cover." . Hines gave a nod and turned back to his console. "Attempting to do so, Commodore." He entered the same FRAGO code on the same frequency.
. A moment later, Hines turned again and said, "Commodore, I've got an encrypted signal coming from the planet surface on the lower bandwidth channels." . "Let's hear it, Hines," Zak said. . The signal was filled with static and Hines asked the Reconnaissance Artificial Intelligence known as MAX to clear it up. A second later the broken message played, "Fly ... Nest ... Copy?" . Hines shook his head and said, "Filler, I need more power to the lower bandwith." . Ens. Proximus Filler, the replacement Operations Officer while LtCmdr. Tibris was on the Away Team, responded, "The ... lower ... bandwidth? Uh, sure, Sergeant." He pressed a few buttons on the Operations panel to transfer the power. . Hines and MAX also worked on the signal at his station. After a moment, he said, "Again, MAX." . The message played, a bit clearer but still broken, "Fly to Nest. ... you Copy?" This time they could recognize Patterson's voice. . Hines made a few more adjustments and announced, "I've got solid comms now, sir. Lower frequencies are open." . "MAX, Hines, respond," Zak said, "Nest listening. What's the Fly seeing from the wall?" . The response was still broken and somewhat garbled as the Penumbra grew further and further away, headed into the asteroid belt. Patterson was saying, "... had a hard drop ... Canteen. Took fire ... farmer ... now KIA, but ... got a few scrapes ... bruises ... lost gear." . Zak scowled at the report but before he could respond, Carter reported, "We're in the outer ring of the asteroid belt." He'd matched the orbital trajectory of several medium-sized chunks of rock, scanning as they moved. Then he said, "I've got thermal residue off the port side, ventral 10." It was the Canteen of Sparkles. Away Team:
. The Away Team, minus Misty Mane who'd remained to pilot her ship, the Canteen of Sparkles, had leaped from the rear hatch of the freighter to fall 20 feet or so into tall grass while moving across the field at the speed of a nice trot. . LtCmdr. T'Lin had been first out. She hit and rolled with finesse, tumbling several times until she came to a stop, crouched low in the tall grass. She felt a sharp throbbing in one foot, but chose to ignore it as she assessed her surroundings. The tall grass they'd jumped off into turned out to be rows of some kind of grain crop. From within the field, they could clearly make out the rows, and looking along the row they could clearly see all the way down it to the farmhouse, which meant there wasn't much cover from that direction. . Behind her came LtCmdr. Tabeshk Tibris and his fiancée, LtCmdr. Bevin MacArdry. Tabby tucked and rolled as well, his half-Klingon physiology helping him out with dense bone structure. When he came to a stop, all he could complain about was a sore bottom. Bevin tumbled like an expert gymnast, bleeding off speed and momentum with grace until she came to a stop no worse for wear. . Behind them was SSgt. Will Davies, who'd grabbed Lt. Katarina Hawke as they leaped from the hatch. As they hit the ground, a loud pop was heard as Davies' left shoulder came out of socket. They tumbled some way until they came to a stop. "Thanks," Kat said, acknowledging the Marine's self-sacrifice to keep her safe. . Davies smiled at her, "You're welcome, and ... I think my shoulder is dislocated." Fortunately, the Breen helmet hid the grimace on his face. . And lastly came Col. Travis Patterson, who crashed hard into the ground, rolling off his left shoulder for several revolutions before finally coming to a stop, losing his Breen-style helmet and the wrist-mounted weapon in the process. As he finally skidded to a stop, he twisted his ankle and let out a "Gah!" gripping the offending foot with one hand.
. Kat rushed over to Patterson, forgetting for the moment Davies' injury. She took a quick look at Patterson's foot and announced, "You didn't break anything but you've got a sprained ankle, Colonel." . Patterson waved her off and back to Davies. He didn't have to remind her that his nanites would repair that minor damage fairly quickly. Kat's slight blush was hidden by her Breen mask as she headed back to Davies. ==/\== . Once Kat had left him, Patterson leaned forward to check his ankle. He saw it was slightly swollen, but otherwise nothing major, his nanites would take care of it fairly quickly, especially with all the adrenaline in his system at the moment. Then he realized his helmet was gone. And then he noticed the broken attachment where the weapon should have been. "Damnit!" he cursed, and then stripped off the rest of the Breen uniform, since he knew his cover was blown anyway without the helmet. . Bevin hurried back at a low crouch to where the others had ended up, looking to see if she could repair any damaged gear, especially the Breen helmets that were their disguises. She threw a couple instances of the magical FORCE (that is, duct tape) to shore up what she could, but ... Patterson's helmet was lost, who knew where. . Kat felt around Davies' shoulder and then said, "That's an easy fix, hang on. I'm going to brace your arm and push it back into its socket." . Davies grunted back, "Yeah, but it's not going to be 100% now." He readied himself for the sharp pain and gave her a nod. "Go ahead." . "You're right, it's not." With no warning she yanked and shoved, fitting the shoulder back into its socket, then continued like nothing had happened, "But, it'll be fine until we get you back to Sickbay." . It didn't matter if he was a soldier or not, that still hurt. Davies gave a grunt of pain then steeled himself. "Thank you," he managed, wriggling the arm. ==/\==
. Meanwhile, on the now nearly empty Canteen, Misty turned almost completely vertical and made a beeline for space. She'd almost made it to orbit when she realized the Penumbra would be using that MIRAGE cloak and she wouldn't be able to find it. . Thinking on the fly, she reasoned that the best place to hide would be in the asteroid belt between the two inhabited planets. She found a good-sized rock on the outer edge of the field and maneuvered the Canteen into its shadow. One thing she'd learned in her smuggling days was how to hide. . Then, she had to come up with some way to contact the Penumbra without blowing their cover. She wracked her brain and then remembered that weird binary signal Patterson had sent when they were on that pirate station. . "Craaap," she said to herself, "What was the damn code again? Uhh ... 1010101? Or was it just 10101?" . She pulled up her ship's log and dug through the records. After a few minutes she found it. "Ah! Okay, there it is." But, now that she knew the code, she asked herself, "How the heck do I hail the Penumbra without revealing them?" . She pondered her problem for a moment before simply shrugging, deciding to send just the short burst of binary digits on the same frequency Patterson had used before. She accessed the comm system and transmitted the simple binary, "10101." . A couple of tense moments later, a return signal came in on the same frequency. It was the same sequence of binary digits, "10101". She knew it had to be the Penumbra, right? . All she could do now was wait, and the waiting was horrible. She checked over her ship to confirm the farmer's rifle shot hadn't damaged anything but the paint job (which needed redoing anyway). . But the longer she sat there, alone, seemingly abandoned and forgotten, she began to worry. Then she began to think she'd failed, leaving her new friends down there all alone and with no way off the planet.
. Finally, when she'd almost decided to just go back down there and try to find them, she saw a hole in space just ... open up! Through it she saw the interior of the Penumbra's Hangar Bay! . With a giggle and wide grin, she pushed her beat-up old freighter off the asteroid she was shadowing and slipped into the Penumbra's Hangar and as the doors closed, they all disappeared into the MIRAGE. ==/\== . In the field, T'Lin had ended up a half-dozen yards or so from the smoking ruin that was once the farmer that Davies shot. She drew her knife and crouch-sprinted over to it. There was no need to confirm it was dead as the residue that was left after a Type 3 disruptor had done its thing could not have been viable. She called back in a whisper, "We must move before the rest of the village realized. Right now, they have remained calm, but ... it will not be long." . Patterson glanced around the make visual with the rest of the team. He whispered, "We need to move north and regroup. Topography showed a low berm in that direction." . They each checked in, with Davies signaling first, "Ready." . Tabby was next, "I am ready as well." . Bevin gave a silent nod as Kat nodded and said, "Ready." . T'Lin gave a nod back and carefully stepped into the remains of the farmer, smothering the embers under her boot. Suddenly, she tensed and snapped her head to one side and moved stealthily across the rows. . Tabby tensed at almost the same moment, muttering, "What was that?" He also stealthily followed T'Lin. . Davies was crouched behind Kat guarding the rear of the group. Bevin, the strongest telepath in the group (though T'Lin was a powerful empath and Tabby was still learning his own psionic abilities), was listening carefully to the whole area to determine if there were friendlies, or hostiles, nearby.
. Patterson watched T'Lin's and Tabby's behavior and moved cautiously to recover the farmer's rifle, lying unattended on the ground near the stain that was once the unfortunate farmer. . Kat moved closer to Patterson. She wasn't a fighter, she was a medic, and she chose to stay where it was safe, and felt the safest spot would be close to the Colonel. She whispered to him, "So, are you the slave now? Or should we just forget the disguises?" . Patterson just shook his head then whispered, "This could've gone a lot better." He moved carefully to follow T'Lin and Tabby. . T'Lin crept towards a body lying on its belly on the ground between two rows. As she watched it a moment, she noticed the back rise a bit as it took a slow breath. She held a hand up behind her to signal Patterson to stop moving, then gave a downward motion to indicate they should crouch. . Following quietly behind Patterson, Kat quickly stopped and crouched at T'Lin's signal. Behind her, Davies was keeping an eye out to their rear and flanks. He thought to himself that those Breen wrist weapons were nice and convenient, but ... what he wouldn't give for a phaser rifle with a scope! . Moving cautiously, T'Lin approached the form, her knife in one hand. Just behind her crept Tabby, his daq'tagh in his hand. . Suddenly, the body quickly turned and lunged at T'Lin with some kind of sharpened piece of metal in one hand. It wasn't exactly a knife, but even a sharp shank could kill! Fortunately for T'Lin, the lunge was weak and barely even closed the distance between them, much less cause any harm. . The man was clearly a Klingon, only ... "scrawny" was the best word to describe him. He was stick-thin and obviously weakened. He appeared half-starved and even crazed looking. . But when the Klingon lunged at T'Lin, Tabby's reflexes kicked in. The half-Klingon, half-Romulan dove onto the Klingon and quickly had him in a headlock, with the edge of his daq'tagh at his throat.
. Patterson raised his recovered Breen rifle and spoke in Klingon, "juppu' malegh! juppu' malegh!" This meant "We're friends!" . Kat chimed in, "Ok, I don't think he's going to belive we're friends if he's being held like that." . Davies said, "Even if he doesn't, he's out numbered. Not going to end well." He wanted to raise his wrist weapon, but everyone was too clustered for him to have a clear shot. . Tabby also spoke in Klingon, "qaD! pe'vIl rap, maghwI'!" This exchange meant "Do not resist! Your life is forfeit, traitor!" . The frail-looking Klingon responded, "yInwIj ru'wI''e'. choQoylaH!" Which is to say, "My life is already forfeit. Kill me if you can!" And as he said that, he lunged forward with his shank at Tabby's kidney! . Tabby rolled with the Klingon in the headlock, smashing him into one of the stalks of the crop. As he did, Bevin stepped forward and kicked the Klingon's wrist, knocking his shank free and sending it up the row out of reach. . Davies did a quick sweep to make sure there was no-one else around. . Patterson moved forward, placing a hand on Tabby's shoulder. "tam! juppu' malegh!" Which meant "Silence! We're friends!" Then he continued in Federation Standard English, "Relax, Klingon, we are not your enemy." . The Klingon, underneath Tabby with his face partly in the dirt, finally noticed the one member of the group NOT wearing a Breen helmet. "A human?" he asked. . As Tabby relaxed his grip, T'Lin reached for her telescoping spear, extending it and putting the business end of it near the Klingon's neck. "Enough," she added to Patterson's plea. . "Weapons away," Patterson waved, "that's an order." . Tabby grumbled as he put away his daq'tagh, "I had no intention to kill him. My life was in danger when he pulled his weapon out."
. Patterson gave Tabby a look for a second, then nodded. "It was in danger the moment we showed up." . Finally, they got a good look at the Klingon, still lying on the ground, on his back now. He wore shabby rags. His hair was matted and he had a couple of broken teeth. There was a strange collar around his neck. And, he was barefooted, and missing the big toe off both feet. . Bevin reached in a pouch and produced a handful of ration bars, reaching towards the Klingon with them, "Here, maybe this would help show we're friends." Then she added in a heavily accented Klingon, "mu'mey latlh wanI'vam tuH, ghotpu' SuvwI' suyIn." She told him, "It is worse than shameful, the way they abused a warrior such as yourself." . T'Lin watched the Klingon a second longer, making sure he wasn't a threat before withdrawing her spear and collapsing it back into a short rod which she slipped into a leg pocket. . The Klingon pulled himself to a sitting position on the ground and looked up at all of them. Kat wanted to check the Klingon over medically, but wasn't sure she could get close enough to him, since he'd been waving around that knife, or whatever it was. She just waited for now. . Patterson addressed the Klingon again, speaking English, "There are others in binds like you, prisoners of the Breen ... where are they?" . The Klingon spat out, "Prisoners? Ha!" He apparently could understand and speak English just fine. He continued, "Not prisoners, slaves. We are no more than petahq to be worked until dead. Then we'll probably be slaughtered and fed to the other slaves." . Tabby looked over towards Patterson and asked, "Is there a way to free this Klingon? Perhaps he may assist, if he chooses. If his life is forfeit, let him die with some honor. A warrior should not be a slave, it is wrong."
. The Klingon replied, "I have escaped before, but there is no way off the planet. I am always found and forced back into slavery." He gestured at his mangled feet, "It is hard to run with half-feet." Then he rubbed his shriveled stomach, "And hard to live on an empty belly." . "Aye," Bevin added in her strong Brogue, "I daidnae braing me kait fer naethin." She pulled out a set of bolt-cutters and a strip of cloth to place between the neck ring and the Klingon's skin. . Kat still had a lot of trouble deciphering Bevin's Brogue, so she had no idea what the other woman had said. But she pulled her medical tricorder from her own pouch and moved close enough to take some decent scans of the Klingon. . Davies agreed with Kat's actions and commented, "Can one of you get him to let Kat look at him?" . But, as Bevin approached with her cutter, the Klingon flinched and cried out, "NO! You can't cut it!" . Patterson raised a hand to stop Bevin. "The Breen are sinister," he said. "It's probably rigged to explode if tampered with." . Tabby scowled, "Makes sense they would do that." . Bevin raised her hands, "Ailraight, sairry." Instead, she reached for a few more ration bars and handed them over. The Klingon greedily grabbed them, quickly unwrapped one and scarfed it down. . T'Lin squatted. "Let me see it." She raised her hands at the Klingon's defensive flinch and said, "I will not touch it, I just want to examine it." . The Klingon relaxed slightly and looked up at Patterson. "If it only exploded I'd let her cut it. I should be dead and in Stovokor already. This thing ...," he tapped the collar, "does something to the wearer's mind. Pain I can stand, but ...," he gave a shudder as he trailed off. . Patterson nodded at the Klingon, then turned to Davies. "Davies, give me your comm." He felt they had been too long in one place. . "Sir," Davies said as he handed over the communication device.
. As the Klingon began unwrapping another bar, Tabby placed a hand on his shoulder in a sign of friendship and said, "Eat slowly, you'll make yourself sick. A sick warrior cannot fight for his honor. Even if you die, don't succumb." . Kat finished her medical scan and reported, "Despite whatever work they put him through, he's starving, malnourished. And there are several old scars. I don't think they are from battles though." . Patterson accessed Davies comm unit and rigged it into the PADD-like device integrated into his living arm. He used the highly secret and advanced technology that helped regulate the nanites in his bloodstream (and other things) in an attempt to encrypt the signal to one of the lower bandwidths. As he adjusted it, he stepped off a bit and spoke quietly, "Fly to Nest, do you copy?" . Bevin spoke in Klingon again, "lel naDev, 'uQ SoH neH Stovokor ghal meH wejwa'!" Which meant "We get out here, and I'll make you a feast that will make those feasting in Stovokor jealous for the flavors!" . But as she said this, they all heard a humming sound off in the distance. When they looked up, searching for the source of the sound, they could see a hovercar or small shuttle headed in their direction. It was still some ways out, but would likely be over their heads in less than 5 minutes. . Tabby grunted, "Duck and hide! In the crops! You too," he nudged the Klingon to move as well. . T'Lin called, "Time to move, now!" . "Well, great," Davies groaned. "Probably a search pattern. The crops will give cover, we just need to stop and stay still if they get too close." . Patterson spun to face the Klingon, "You've escaped before. Where's a good hiding spot near here?" . The Klingon answered, "If we can make it to the lake, there's a cave in a hill on the southwest corner of the lake. Tight entrance, but I think we could all fit comfortably inside. But ... they'll find us eventually, once they start looking for who shot Yugal."
. Patterson lowered his gaze a moment and said, "That was a Type 3 Disruptor. They won't find Yugal's body, and I've got his rifle." . Kat glanced around and asked, "Should we use the crops then as cover to get there, or no?" . Bevin asked the Klingon, and everybody else in their group, "Kin ye swaim?" She was obviously thinking crossing the lake might be easier than going around it. . "Which way?" T'Lin asked, and without waiting for an answer, or permission, she grabbed the Klingon and flung him over one shoulder and started moving southwesterly between the rows of grain. This was a good visual reminder that Vulcans are generally stronger than people tend to remember, and this Vulcan was a highly trained elite D'Vir on top of that. . Tabby gasped at T'Lin's audacity to simply haul a Klingon warrior up bodily and carry him off like that, but he said nothing and turned to follow. . Davies shook his head, knowing the Klingon was not going to be happy being carried like that. . Kat gave a nod, deciding not to add to his indignity by helping T'Lin, since she seemed to have him well in hand. But, she did stay with the group. . But the Klingon only grumbled slightly at the indignity of his position, then said, "There are more slaves, but they won't say anything. The farmer's sons might be around somewhere, but they've taken to hiding in the barn during the heat of the day, we should be good for an hour or so." . Patterson made sure they were all headed the same direction, the one the Klingon indicated was toward the lake and the cave. Then he heard garbled static on the comm and stopped, giving a nod to Davies. . The comm sounded like the Commodore, mostly. He heard, "N(est?) listen(ing?) ... what's Fly ... wall?"
. Patterson activated the comm and reported, "We had a hard drop from the Canteen. Took fire from a farmer who is now KIA. We've got a few scrapes and bruises, and a couple pieces of lost gear." He hoped all that got through to the Penumbra. . Bevin followed T'Lin with the Klingon along with the rest of the team, but her mind kept going back to that slave collar. She seethed at not being able to get it off that Klingon ... and putting it around some Breen's neck instead! . As they made their way down the row of grain single file towards the lake, the patrol craft flew over the farm. As it passed overhead, they all ducked into the tall grains for cover and remained still and the patrol continued on for a ways. But then, it slowed, banked, and came back, eventually coming to a hover over where the remains of the farmer were. . The team held their breath for several seconds, but the patrol craft eventually turned aside and continued its previous course. The team resumed their push for the lake. . Suddenly, there was a loud pop and T'Lin stumbled to one knee, dumping the Klingon she was carrying to the ground. The ankle injury she'd been ignoring and suppressing finally gave out after carrying the scrawny Klingon over fairly rough terrain for over a hundred yards. . Apparently, it was time for a break anyway, right?