WTF IS OSO? (part 1)

Posted on Sat 9th Aug, 2014 @ 7:03am by Lieutenant JG Jerika Cheetal & Colonel Marcus DeSalle & Lieutenant Donald Corsino & Commander Geraldine "Geri" Severide & Captain Eee-eee-rie--eeee-eek Nightingale D.Sc & William Lev

1,132 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: http://sb109.sim-station.net/index.php/sim/missions/id/6
Location: Approaching Shuttle

ON

"What's wrong, William?" Nightingale asked, as the shuttle fell in to a holding pattern. She'd been gone for just over a year, on classified scientific research. Her husband had happily flown a shuttle to go pick her up.

Well. Husband. Ish. They weren't officially married yet.

He glowered at the controls of the shuttle.

"We're in a holding pattern. Starbase comms are down. There's an odd ship on the screen, and I don't have the faintest clue how to signal that we need to dock." Lev said, absentmindedly.

"Not surprising. The entire place was in shambles, and Colonel Drake wasn't really prioritizing modernization." Nightingale replied.

"There's another problem." Lev replied.

"What's that?" Nightingale asked.

"You're fine. You've got an EV generator. But the shuttle took a micrometeorite upon entering the system. Hit a canister of medical gasses we're bringing to the base in the cargo hold. The ship is holding atmosphere, but in so doing, it's administering a potent anesthetic." Lev noted, casually. "I don't know how long I'll have before the air filters can't keep up."

"I sincerely hope you've got a distress signal out." Nightingale replied.

"Fat lot of good it's doing." He said, with a shrug. "Half the shuttles can't hold any more people, and the other half don't have comms working."

"Oh." Nightingale said.

"Ugh... I don't feel so-" Lev paused.

Then passed out.

Nightingale desperately hit the comm panel, trying to let out every energy pulse she could think of in an S.O.S. frequency, while running her comms. "This is Doctor Nightingale aboard the shuttlecraft Plato. We've suffered a medical emergency. Any ship in range. Please assist." She said, as she broke formation, and flew much closer to the starbase.

She desperately hit a tachyon pulse at the docking bay doors. Long. Long. Long. Short. Short. Short. Long. Long. Long. "Come on. Please. Open. The. Doors."

[Command Center]

Jerika heard something odd over the almost-useless comms. "Sir," she said, turning to DeSalle, "Listen to this. I could swear it was old-Earth Morse Code."

"Morse Code? Try tying in the computer banks to translate that." Marcus said.

"Aye, sir, but it's a universal call for help. That's one of the few things they teach us about Morse Code in the Academy," Jerika said. She fed the signal through the computer and a moment later received confirmation. "It's O.S.O. I think they meant S.O.S., the universal call for help."

"The realization hit him. "They're trying to land! Lower shields, go to yellow alert, and open the bay doors!"

"I can lower shields, but I can't contact the CAG, sir. Communications are still down."

An Ensign stood. "I'm on it, sir," and ran out the door.

[Plato]

"Wait." Nightingale muttered. "That isn't right." She muttered. Quickly, she reversed the pattern. "Lev will never let me hear the end of this if he hears about it."

The doors began to open, and then she came across another problem: no assigned docking space. Privately she hoped someone would just throw a tractor beam on the shuttle so she didn't have to land.

[Sliver]

"L.T. It appears communications to the station are down. There's another shuttle trying to communicate what looks like morse code, but their doing it backwards." Pratt reported from the pilots seat.

"What's the message?" Severide asked placing her hand on Pratt's seat.

"O S O." Pratt replied.

"Sounds like they need some help." Geri replied as a smile crossed her face.

"L.T..." Bauer said worriedly knowing by the tone of her voice Geri was up to something no good. Geraldine Severide did not help anyone unless it benefitted her.

"Stuff it Bauer. Petty Officer Pratt, are the shields currently raised?"

Pratt tapped his console scanning the star base. "Ummmm, no ma'am." he stammered wondering what the shields had to do with helping this other shuttle.

"Great! Lock on photon torpedoes and open the doors for us." she ordered.

"L.T! Have you lost your mind?" Bauer exclaimed. "We want to become part of the crew not start a war with them."

"If you don't shut up, I'll launch you out of the tube next. Besides the station could be in trouble and we need to do everything in our power to help. Fire on the doors. The emergency force fields will engage and allow the bay to re-compress. Now unless you want to also become a projectile, FIRE."

Pratt nodded his head acknowledgingly drawing the shuttle closer before firing upon the shuttle doors. The torpedo whipped towards the star base crashing into the doors shredding through the plating and giving entry to the waiting shuttles.

"Sliver to shuttlecraft. You are cleared for docking in shuttle bay....the open shuttle bay please proceed forward and welcome to Starbase Protector." Geri said to the adjacent shuttlecraft via channel. She turned to face Edward Bauer whom had his arms crossed with a disapproving look. "You really need to work on your entrances L.T."

"And if I had to list the things you needed to work on I would age ten years. Petty Officer Pratt proceed on course into the shuttle bay." Geri stated giving Bauer a smirk before taking a seat in the rear of the cockpit.

[Plato]

"THE HELL? SOMEONE IS SHOOTING AT US. WAKE UP LEV. BATTLE STATIONS."

Predictably the unconscious 60 year old man did not reply.

"Attention Starbase control, this is the Plato. We're taking fire. Commencing emergency landing procedures." Nightingale yelled in to the comm.

Donald stumble onto the bridge. "What the hesmana is going on. Are we taking fire?"

[Command Center]

"Sir, one of the shuttles fired on the station." He checked carefully. "On the shuttle bay doors, to be precise."

[Plato]

It was about 100 meters from the landing bay floor that Nightingale realized two very important facts.

One, she was a Marine, and two, she was a scientist, and neither of those two training systems taught a person how to land a shuttlecraft manually. Fighters? Yes. troop Transports? Yes.

Shuttlecraft? Not so commonly-

"Proximity alert. Vessel is going too fast." The computer noted. Nightingale was concerned by the fact that the computer almost sounded sarcastic.

"How close do we have to be to set off a Proximity alert?" Nightingale asked.

"Five meters above ground-" The computer stopped.

Namely because the shuttle's tail end impacted with the landing deck, causing the shuttle to flip.

(To be continued...)

Captain Eee-eee-rie--eeee-eek Nightingale D.Sc
Chief Science Officer

William Lev
Spouse of Nightingale

Lieutenant JG Jerika Cheetal
Communications Officer

Colonel Marcus DeSalle
Commanding Officer

Lieutenant Geraldine "Geri" Severide
Chief Intelligence Officer

Ensign Stewart

Lieutenant JG Edward Bauer
Assistant Chief Intelligence Officer

Petty Officer Pratt
Intelligence Officer

Lieutenant Donald Corsino
Chief Tactical/Strategic Operations Officer

 

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