The Archanis Campaign: USS Gibraltar

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• briwhyte Member

  March 2021 edited March 2021

  Commander Joryn Tarvos stepped back onto the bridge of the U.S.S. Gibraltar, the ready room doors quietly sliding shut behind him. It wasn’t familiar yet, and neither were the faces that looked towards him. There hadn’t been time. The Gibraltar was fresh out of her refit at the Devron Fleet Yards and he’d been given command whilst she was put through space trials. Those hadn’t been completed yet, and he was behind on reviewing and approving the status reports that had accumulated from every department. When the call from Captain Dex had come through, he had silently reprimanded himself for that. She was bound to be looking for an update and it wouldn’t look good if he had to flip through reports to answer her questions.

  The call had been about something else entirely but hadn’t been much of a reprieve. Ready or not, the Gibraltar was being summoned to Starbase 27 along with the rest of Task Force 93 to deal with an unfolding crisis in the Archanis sector. Whatever testing remained would need to be done en-route or whenever was possible. Any problems they’d have to fix themselves or make do without that system. The content of those unread reports was now a lot more important.

  “What’s our status?” he asked, looking towards Lieutenant Commander Keller.

  “We’re en route to Starbase 27 at warp 9. Our ETA is 28 hours,” she replied.

  She had everything under control, as she always did, but the expectant expression on her face reminded him that the crew was still unaware of the reasons behind the sudden change in orders.

  “Thank you, Commander,” Tarvos said, then gestured towards the door to the conference room. As she turned and headed for the door, he followed her and tapped his comm badge. “Senior officers report to the conference room.”

  The conference room looked much like any other in the fleet but had an eerie untouched feeling as there hadn’t been a need to use it since it was completely replaced in the refit. Keller was standing over the chair on the right-hand side of the one at the head of the table. Knowing that she wanted a heads-up before the rest of the crew, Tarvos sent a copy of the situation report from his PADD to hers as he made his way to the replicator.

  “As you may have guessed, there’s a crisis unfolding and we’ve been summoned to help. I’ve sent a report of the situation to your PADD.” She was already reading it as she maneuvered herself into the chair. “Raktajino, double sweet,” he commanded of the replicator. 

  Tarvos carried the steaming cup to the head of the table at the far side of the room, where Keller was sat, still engrossed in the situation report. The senior officers from the bridge began to file into the room, having been relieved of their stations, leaving only the heads of the Science, Medical, and Engineering departments still en route.

  Lieutenant Tren of Operations took the seat to the left of Tarvos, his scaled Coridanite face smiling an acknowledgment at the Captain as he sat. Lieutenant Torun, the tactical officer, took the seat beside Keller. Lieutenant Hudson was the last to arrive from the bridge and seated himself beside Tren. A few moments passed before the rest of the senior staff arrived and took the next two seats on each side of the table. Lieutenant Sakkith from Sickbay, a Vulcan with long white hair, Lieutenant Brax, a Betazoid counselor, Lieutenant Deagan, a Trill from the Science lab, and finally Lieutenant Tural, the Bajoran Chief Engineer.

  “I’m sorry to pull you all away from your duties, but we’ve been called upon to assist in a crisis that is unfolding in the Archanis sector” Tarvos began.

  He tapped a few buttons on the table to summon a holographic representation of the Meronia Cluster.

  “The colonies of the Meronia Cluster have been dealing with an agricultural crisis for a few months now. Many of their crops have been lost to a new fungal disease.” Tarvos paused and took a sip of coffee. “Complicating the situation is a rogue faction of Klingons known as the D’Ghor Hunters. They’ve been attacking the colonies and raiding any transports that were attempting to supply them.”

  Lieutenant Torun was the first to speak. “Do we have any information on the size or disposition of these hunters?”

  “Not really,” Tarvos replied. “That’s part of the problem. They appear in small groups, attack, and disappear again. We’ve lost comm relays and with transports not getting through reliably, the information we have is already old by the time we get it. We do suspect that they have a base somewhere in the Archanis Nebula.”  

  “Is the Klingon Empire doing anything about these rogues?” The question came from Lt. Tren

  “We know that House D’Ghor was disgraced and has lost all standing within the Empire. They’ll have lost all of their lands and assets that they couldn’t hide. I’m afraid that’ll have only made them desperate. Some of their warriors will have sought a glorious death in battle against their rivals, others seem to have opted for hiding and picking battles they think they can win. Apparently, they think Federation colonies are a soft target but there will be wide-ranging consequences if the Empire begins to view us as weak.”

  Commander Tarvos paused and looked around the room. No-one seemed about to ask any further questions. “We’re en route to Starbase 27 where the response efforts are being coordinated from. In the meantime I want you all to continue testing the ship’s systems within your departments, at least the ones you can do whilst we’re underway. Prioritize the emergency systems, I don’t want to get caught out if we’re in a pinch.” 

  Tarvos turned to the Andorian who had seated himself next to Lt. Cmdr. Keller. “Lieutenant Torun, I want Security to begin training simulations for combat against Klingon opponents.”

  “Aye Sir,”  Torun acknowledged. He seemed to perk up at the prospect of combat.

  “Lieutenant Deagan,” Tarvos was now looking at the young Trill in the blue uniform. “We’ve been sent a copy of the research that has been carried out on the fungus to date. I want you to bring your team up to speed on that. It’s still an underlying problem even if we manage to secure the cluster.”

  “Aye Sir,” she nodded.

  “Well I think that covers everything,” Tarvos concluded. “Let me know immediately if any of you hit any snags with the new systems. Dismissed.”  

  The officers filed out of the room until only Keller remained.

  “I can see why they’ve pulled us away from space trials,” she said as she rested her PADD on the table. “They don’t really know the extent of the problem.”

  “Yes,” Tarvos agreed. “They seem to be preparing for the worst, and so should we.”

  “Should we do combat simulations with the bridge crew?” she asked.

  “I think so,” Tarvos replied as he shut down the holographic displays in the room. “Will you arrange those and supervise the simulations for the beta, gamma, and delta shift crews?”

  “I’ll get right on it,” Keller responded before picking up her PADD and heading back towards the bridge.

  Now that the senior staff had been informed, Tarvos could get back to catching up on those reports. He decided to load them onto a PADD and read them on the bridge, to allow Keller to focus on setting up the combat scenarios. Another coffee was in order too.

  The bridge was quiet, save for the familiar pings and beeps from the consoles as they alerted their operators to events and requests. Two hours had passed since he briefed the senior officers and Commander Tarvos was now on the last report that needed his review and approval. There had been no major problems, only minor issues that had already been resolved. “A good sign,” he thought to himself. He was more than a little uncomfortable about heading into this situation whilst still shaking down the new ship.

  “Sir, we’re dropping out of warp,”  Lieutenant Hudson reported with a concerned tone. A harsh warning sound from his console accompanied the report.

  Before Tarvos could say anything, the lighting flickered and then failed over to the emergency lighting. 

  “Reports of power failures coming in from … all over the ship,” Lieutenant Tren said, his fingers still flicking through the Ops controls. “We still have life support, structural integrity fields are holding, inertial dampeners are online and we haven’t lost any critical systems.”

  Tarvos let out a sigh of relief. “Bridge to Engineering. Report.”

  “Lieutenant Tural here Sir,” the stress evident in his voice. “We had power fluctuations and then lost some relays. The warp core was destabilizing and, I’m sorry Captain, I’ve had to take it offline.”

  “Acknowledged,” Tarvos said tersely. “How long until we can get underway again?”

  “We’re still assessing the damage, Sir,” came the reply. “I’ll update you as soon as I have an estimate.”

  It had been too much to hope for but at least they could work out the issue before they were in hostile territory or under fire. He decided to head down there himself.

  “Notify Starbase 27 that we’ll be delayed whilst we conduct repairs,” Tarvos ordered as he strode across to the turbolift. “Commander Keller, you have the bridge.”