FIC: Dauntless: Forgotten Heroes (5/?)

[Shadow <Shadowlander1@xxxxxxx>]

Title: Dauntless: Forgotten Heroes (5/?)
Author: Shadowlander
Email: Shadowlander1@xxxxxxx
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters commonly associated with
Buffy: The Vampire Slayer; X-Men or any of their sister teams; or Star
Trek: The Next Generation, they belong to others and are used without
permission. No copyright infringement is intended.
Rating: PG
Pairing: suggestions on which you would like to see pair up are
welcome. :)
Archive: The usual places all others please ask first.
Summary: The journey begins as the Dauntless searches for answers, but
first they have to get supplies. ::insert evil grin here::

DAUNTLESS: FORGOTTEN HEROES (5/?)

Starbase 344
Two weeks later ?

?Do you believe this Whistler creature?? Captain Jean-Luc Picard asked
his long time friend, as the two Senior Officers set down at a table in
the station?s nearly deserted main lounge.

?Honestly... I don?t know what to believe,? Erik Lensherr replied
honestly, with a tired sign, ?I do know that my Operations Officer has
been in Sickbay twelve times in the last week alone being treated for
headaches.?

?Headaches?? Picard questioned, with a raised eyebrow.

?A side-effect of her visions apparently,? the mutant replied, ?if that
wasn?t bad enough... she nearly broke her neck falling off a ladder in
Engineering when a vision strike her.?

?Was she hurt badly?? Picard found himself asking, recalling the few
psychics he had known in his long distinguished career, many of which
suffered from painful headaches as a direct result of their visions.

?Minor bumps and bruisers mostly... she landed on the Assistant Chief
Engineer,? Lensherr replied with a small grin, ?he got a sprained wrist
out of it. However, some good came out if it... we were able to warn
you about the fault in your plasma injector.? He added, referring to
the emergency message to the Enterprise, the flagship of the fleet, to
power down immediately because their warp core was about to explode and
take all sixteen hundred souls with it. Good thing his old friend had
trusted him enough to power down the main engine, Lensherr didn?t want
to mourn the loss of any more friends.

?True,? Picard acknowledged with a nod, not wanting to think of the
consequences if he had not listened to his friend. Dying in a huge
fiery ball was not the way Jean-Luc Picard wanted to die. As it was he
had trusted his friend and ordered emergency power brought on line while
engineering began the long repair process to the faulty plasma
injector. ?So what are your plans?? he asked, trying to change the
subject, as he cast a quick look at his ship sitting serenely alongside
Lensherr?s own ship the Dauntless.

?Starfleet Command agrees that the situation should be looked into, as
of now the Dauntless will be on detached duty... we are to investigate
Whistler?s claim and determine if it is another one of Q?s games or
not.? Lensherr replied, taking a drink. ?In preparation, we are
refitting and restocking our supplies,? he finished somewhat dryly still
not seeing the need to have called the Dauntless to Starbase 344 when
there were about fourteen closer bases they could have stopped off at on
their journey to the Turkana System, sometimes Starfleet Command made
very little sense to him.

?Refit?? Picard asked in disbelief, the Dauntless wasn?t all that old a
vessel barely four years in commission, the ship shouldn?t being getting
refit for another sixteen years at the least, unless it suffered major
hull damage. And as far as Picard knew there were no reports of any
Federation ships getting hit by small stray planets to warrant such an
order.

?Starfleet Command decided I needed a new bridge module,? Lensherr
commented, his expression conveying his dislike of that particular
modification on his ship. ?It seems, and I quote ?my bridge was geared
toward exploration alone and not toward independent multi-task functions
a vessel operating without support for long periods of time will be
forced to endure on a mission such as this? end quote.?

************************
USS Dauntless
Deck 2 ?

?Commander... main power and pressurization has been restored to the
bridge module, routing turbo lift traffic to include that sector now.?
Acting-Lieutenant Willow Rosenberg reported, as she stepped into the
small auxiliary control room that was located under the main bridge that
acted as a fail safe in case they ever lost both the bridge and battle
bridge in some freak accident. Although why Auxiliary Control was
placed directly under the bridge module was a complete mystery to her,
if something took out deck 1, chances were deck 2 was going to be
damaged too, even if it had been specially reinforced to handle the
docking of the module in the first place.

?Thanks Willow,? Commander Yar replied, raising her head briefly to
acknowledge the young Lieutenant before returning her attention to the
readout in front of her. ?Doug... have those medical supplies arrived
yet?? she asked the young blonde cadet working nearby.

?Almost Commander... waiting for two hundred advanced trauma kits,? Doug
Ramsey replied, ?Why do we need two hundred trauma kits??

?Because there is a bloody lunatic in change of Logistics,? the Security
Chief growled, as he pulled himself out of the access panel he had been
working in. ?All right Yar, it should work now... and if it doesn?t I
suggest we rip it out and send it back to that pillock at Utopia
Planitia.? He said giving the little power relay he had been fighting
with for the last six hours a dirty look. He just knew that Brahms
woman at the Fleet Yards put it in the access panel to annoy him.

?Something isn?t right about this,? Ramsey said, his attention still
focused on the supply manifest in front of him, ?half this stuff is
useless to us... what are we going to do with a pulse cannon??

?Pulse cannon?? three voices questioned in disbelief exchanging confused
looks.

?Yeah... four of them in fact, two thousand phaser chargers, - both
handheld and rifle ? heavy body armour, additional torpedoes, probes and
deacons ? that nearly triple our current stock. Enough spare parts to
rebuild our entire shuttle fleet.... twice and eighty-four water
purifiers to name just a few things that are on this list.? Doug said,
reading off some of the more interesting items.

?Okay... we?re either going to be taking over a small planet or
Starfleet Command knows something we don?t,? Willow said after a moment,
before being interrupted by the main computer informing her that turbo
lift access to the bridge had been restored. ?Well lets go see what our
new bridge looks like,? she said with a grin.

************************
Deck 1: Main Bridge ?

Stepping off the small maintenance lift from deck 2, Doug Ramsey was the
first to see the new bridge. ?All right.... they gave us the cool
bridge!? he crowed merrily his eyes almost dancing as he took in his new
surroundings.

?What do you mean it?s the ?cool bridge? it looks the same as the old
one,? Willow demanded, popping him on the back of the head with her
hand. ?Well almost,? she amended.

?Well yeah... but look, new raised platform for the Captain?s chair. No
more horseshoe tactical thingie to get in your way while you?re jumping
to the lower level. Built in Science and Mission Operations Stations,?
he indicated, pointing to the two stations across from one another
flanking the Captain?s chair on opposite walls. ?And oh look... helm
and operations.... nice comfy looking chairs to sit in.?

?Doug... you?re drooling.?

End Part Five.

Note: According to the Star Trek Technical Guide the bridge is really
supposed to be one big module you just plug into the ship, depending on
its mission purpose --- that explains why no two bridges ever looked
alike. So I figured what the hell... I?ll change the bridge module.
::shrugs: I know I know, no writing when I?m bored and sleepy. :)


--
Shadow -
Dir. of Pub. Safety of the SECLGA and Chief Dungeon Keeper.
Vampire Teddy Bear and Flying Fox {Fruit Bat} of the Woods Outback. The
Big Bad and Little Comma. Mistress of Mischief... Corrupter of the
Innocent. Torment of Quindolyn. Founding Member of the Get Willow and
Buffy Naked Society. GWBNS - a way of life. Dark Mistress of Weird...
be afraid, be very afraid.