Bridge Training: Diabolus Ex Spatio Lacrimae (Part III)

Posted on Wed Jun 4th, 2025 @ 7:59am by Cadet Senior Grade Meghan Stefani & Cadet Senior Grade Daniel Weaver & Cadet Senior Grade Finn Walsh & Cadet Junior Grade Emma Mendez & Cadet Junior Grade Shafin Todenhöfer
Edited on on Wed Jun 4th, 2025 @ 8:01am

1,431 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: The Cadet Cruise

[PREVIOUSLY]

As the doors closed, Daniel looked around and walked over to the command chair before giving Shafin a look. He couldn't help but think that genetically predisposed comment was directed toward he and the Commodore. Of all the people tired of dealing with this situation, Daniel was at the very top of the list. They were dealing with this only recently. Daniel has dealt with it his whole life and his every attempt to shoot it down was thwarted. At this point, he might as well leave Starfleet and go join another the Bajoran Militia like his mother. At least his father’s reach couldn't go that far.

[CONTINUED]

As he sat down, Daniel let out a slight sigh, before looking around the bridge again. "And now... we wait."

Meghan hated waiting. Well, she hated waiting to see what kerfuffle the commodore threw them into next. She didn't know what--if anything--she could do. She was pretty sure that if Daniel's father had his way, she'd be forced to sit and watch the others so she couldn't help Daniel. Therefore, she was going to stay under the radar for now. At least until this new training exercise got underway.

The ops console chirped, prompting the Ops Cadet to take a look at it. "Distress call coming in, Sir." He said firmly as he tapped on the console to bring up more. "Should I put it through?"

"No, tell them to leave a message. We stepped out for some pizza." Daniel replied, before standing up with a slight groan. "Just kidding. Put it through."

"Putting it through, now." Ops replied.

"For anyone out there. We are the Fulgrin. Our world is under attack and we are in need of assistance. Please help us. My people are dying. Our cities are burning and in ruin. We've no place to go. Please... help us."

Daniel's demeanor shifted when he heard the message. No matter what he was feeling he had to move forward with this test. "Ops. If you can, reply that Starfleet is on its way. Helm, set course for the planet."

"Yes, Sir. Sending the coordinates of the distress call to Helm." Ops replied with a smile. "Confirm you've got them, Helm."

The Cadet at the Helm looked down at the console and nodded their head. "Got them." He said as he tapped away to set the course. "Setting Course, Sir."

Daniel looked briefly to Shafin before walking back to the command chair. "Engineering, give helm everything you've got. I want this ship traveling at warp 8.... 9 if possible. Let's not keep the Fulgrin waiting for help."

"Working on it, uh, sir," came the reply from Engineering.

"Emma, weapons on stand-by. Shields raised." Daniel said, sitting down in the command chair. "I want us at yellow alert."

Emma tapped away at the tactical console. "Weapons ready Captain. Shields are at full strength." She reported quickly as the ship went to Yellow Alert, the screens changing behind her to reflect the alert status.

Daniel sat there quietly, thinking about anything else he should get ready. After a few seconds, he stood up and looked at Walsh. "Finn, prepare your sickbay for casualties. Setup triage in a cargo bay if you have to. I want to be able to treat these people once we get the chance."

Finn Walsh was relieved that he would get to be down in sickbay once again instead of the bridge. He gave a quick nod to Weaver and said, "aye sir." Before he turned to leave, he looked at Shafin and offered a small smile and then turned on his heel and headed to the turbolift.

"Lucky," muttered Shafin as he watched Finn proceed to the turbolift. That would leave Shafin on the bridge with the rest. That was not exactly ideal for the Vulcanoid. He had noticed the look Weaver had shot at him.

Shafin turned at the station he was at. "Your compassion is..." He searched for an appropriate word. "Understandable. We are presently taking an acceptable course of humanitarian action. A distress call merits a swift response, but I caution being too hasty."

He knew that he was not the Executive Officer for this little training mission, but he was studying to become a counselor. That did carry some weight in advising the Captain. "It may be illogical to accept circumstances at face value. Nevertheless, I support responding to these people though I would increase security presence in Sickbay and your makeshift triage area."

Daniel looked over to Shafin, for a moment and then turned back to face the main view screen, intent to respond until something caught his eyes. An odd mass appeared in front of them. It looked like a thunder cloud in space, complete with flashes of energy coming from inside, only adding to the mystery of what it was and how it seemed to just appeared in front of them. He rose from his eyes, starring oddly at it, watching it grow in front of them. Was it getting bigger on its own or was it the jump approaching it that made it appeared to get larger?

The beanstalk of a cadet looked towards Weaver for a response, a few moments of silence had caused Shafin to move his bangs from his eyes, sweeping it aside. He snapped his fingers and cleared his throat. "Cap-" Oh enough of this he thought to himself. The frivolous training charade. "Daniel!"

It took a while for it to register that someone was calling his name. It took another few seconds to realize it was Shafin. As he turned to the tall Cadet, he raised a brow at him, forgetting the conversation completely. "What?!"

Shafin just gestured to the main view screen as if to remind Daniel he was in command. This was on him to react.

Daniel looked back to the main view screen, before looking back to Shafin, with an odd look on his face. He might know what it was. He had to know what it was. Right? "What is that?" Daniel asked softly as he gestured to the mass on the screen itself. "Have you seen something like that before, Shafin?"

Shafin rolled his eyes and pouted at the station. "Oh sure. In my great lived experience of twenty some earth cycles, I've seen that before" prefaced the Vulcanoid with sarcasm. "No, Daniel. I mostly study alien behavior and health studies. That is not my area. Meghan?"

"Meghan? Scan that thing? See if you can get anything from it." Daniel said, looking over to her briefly, before turning to face the view screen again. "Helm, all stop."

Helm tapped at the console to ease the ship to a stop, bringing down the warp engines and using the primary thrusts to slow the ship down. Upon second viewing of the readings, he noticed the ship was confirming they were slowing, but the anomaly ahead of them seemed to be approaching them regardless.

"Helm confirms we are coming to a stop... but." The helm Cadet began as they turned in their chair to face the Acting Captain.

"But what?"

"But that thing seems to be coming towards us." Helm replied.

"I'm not getting anything conclusive," Meghan said. "I can't scan whatever that cloud is. I've tried modulating the sensors, but I can't get past the surface and what I am getting isn't giving me anything helpful. We could try sending in a probe, but I don't know if that would give us more. It's almost like the sensors are bouncing off it."

Shafin looked up at the main viewer. "We are about to become a probe ourselves if we just wait here" noted Shafin regarding the helm Cadet stating it was moving towards them. "Hold our ground or reverse course..."

"Reverse course." Daniel said firmly as he walked back over to the command chair. This was starting off as an interesting training exercise. His father seemed to enjoying throwing things at them, but even more so, this was the second time they came across an anomaly that was difficult to scan. If he learned anything from the last one, going in there would probably be dangerous, so pulling back would at least by them time.

(To be continued...)

Cadet Senior Grade Daniel Weaver
Acting Commanding Officer

Cadet Senior Grade Meghan Stefani
Acting Chief Science Officer

Cadet Junior Grade Emma Mendez
Acting Chief Security Officer

Cadet Senior Grade Finn Walsh
Acting Chief Medical Officer

Cadet Junior Grade Shafin Todenhöfer
Acting Chief Counselor

 

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