Gatlin

Posted on Fri Jun 12th, 2026 @ 8:06pm by Lieutenant Varkl Brukh & Captain Maddox Greene & Lieutenant Jane Belanger Dr

1,040 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Lines in the Vacuum
Location: Transport Gatlin

Captain Maddox sat in the pilot seat as he guided the shuttle pod out of the Frontier's shuttle bay. Accompanying him were Belanger, Brukh, and several others from their respective departments. Looking over his shoulder, he faced the Chief Engineer. "Science reports some atmospheric concerns with the planet below, which could cause issues with the shuttle if we get too close. No clue what that's all about. But it might be worth looking into after this is all said and done."

"While we're passing by, we may as well take a look then." Brukh reached forward to direct the sensors to focus on the nearby planet. As the data started flowing in he scoffed, "Concern is a mild way to put it Captain. It's composed of 60% Chloromethane, 20% Nitrogen, 15% Oxygen, and trace elements of other gases. Surface temperature is 500 Centigrade." He paused as the readout continued, "There are deposits of Dolomide near the surface, if we can refine that it can becomes Duritanium which Starfleet could use for building ships, there's also deeper deposits of Trellium."

"A possible new source of fuel, if we could actually get to it," Maddox mentioned. "Guess we should focus on one problem at a time." Navigating the shuttle, he pulled up to where the Gatlin's hatch was located. With a light thump, the shuttle locked, and both hatches were sealed.

Brukh stepped to the hatch while Maddox powered down the shuttlpod. "Reading normal atmospheric pressure on the other side." He commented after looking at the display to the side of the door. Reaching for the manual control he pulled the handle to open it. A sudden loud HISS was heard as the pressure equalized revealing a short corridor beyond, "the airlock hasn't been sealed from inside, and pressure suits are still present..." He looked back at the Captain "who do you want to take point?"

"Wait a moment."

A few seconds later, a voice came over the comm. "Shuttle pod. We're ready for you to come aboard."

The Captain nodded to the Tellarite. "Go ahead and taken point Lieutenant."

Jane and Medic Brown got in gear to follow through, medkits strapped around them.

Brukh hefted his toolkit to his shoulder and pulled out a scanner before stepping through the hatch and looking at the corridor. "Looks like an upgraded Y-class, the cockpit will be forward," he indicated toward the left "most of the life signs are there, with 2 aft in the engineering compartment." Moving to the junction and looking both directions, the Tellarite turned left and led the team onward.

Greene followed right behind the Chief Engineer, which led them to the ship's captain, along with two other personnel. The corridor had signs of damage, clearly from the Nausicaans attack. Taking on Starfleet directly would have been stupid. But attacking cargo and transport ships was their way of disrupting things. Upon returning to the station, Maddox would have to speak with Starfleet Command about increasing patrols in this area.

"Captain Greene," the cargo Captain greeted. "Thank you for your assistance. I'm Gerald Hall. This is my Head Engineer Alura Winters, and Doctor Spencer Lane."

"It's no problem at all. This is my Chief Engineer Lieutenant Varkl Brukh, and Chief Medical Officer Jane Belanger. Guess were lucky that the Nausicaans called off their attack. Not sure if the Frontier would have made it before they caused more damage."

Hall simply shrugged with a confused look on his face. "One minute, we were running with them shooting, and closing in. Then they bastards just ceased their attack and quickly pulled away. I couldn't begin to explain why."

Jane turned to Doctor Spencer Lane. "Your message mentioned injured crew. Do you need my assistance?" she offered.

Taking a cue from the doctors, Brukh approached the Gatlin's engineer "I have damage teams waiting to beam over, what are your repair priorities?"

"We took a direct hit on the port nacelle which forced us to go sublight, so I expect some of the coils are damaged. Some power relays blew out, and I have some of my people working on it, but our internal sensors are down so I can't tell if we took any other damage." Alura ran off her mental list.

"I didn't notice any atmospheric venting on our approach, so structurally you should be sound. I can have my team do a survey to make sure while we work on the rest," Brukh rambled, "the nacelle should be priority one so you're not a sitting target." He turned to interrupt the discussion between captains, "Sorry to break in, but we'll need two of the Frontier's repair teams, permission to beam them in?"

"That would be a problem, being that we're so close to the orbit of the planet," Captain Hall brought up. "This atmosphere is messing with transporters. And with our sensors down, we can't even really see what's down on the surface."

"Odd..." Brukh mused, "on our way over we didn't detect anything that should be blocking transporters..." he stroked his hairy chin while in thought, "if I had to guess it was something disrupting the matter stream. Captain Greene, can you have the Frontier scan for excess ionization of the planet's atmosphere, or gravitational anomalies?"

"I'll have them get on it," Maddox responded.

"We redirected our sensors to other areas," Hall continued. "But they're not as advanced as what Starfleet vessels have, so it wouldn't have done us much good." Turning his attention to Brukh. "But you are correct about it disrupting the matter stream. Never seen anything natural like it in my life."

"Your chief and I can try to tie the shuttlepod's sensors into your grid, that would let us get a better idea of the damage needing to be repaired." Brukh suggested, "meanwhile can we get the other team sent over using the other pod?"

Pulling out is communicator, the commanding officer called up the Frontier. "Maddox to Frontier, send over that other that other shuttle pod with the additional staff. Also, go ahead and check the planet for access ionization of the planet's atmosphere, or possible anomalies."

TAG
Captain Maddox Greene
Commanding Officer
Sentinel Station

Lt. Varkl Brukh
Chief Engineer
Sentinel Station

Lt Jane Belanger, MD
CMO
Sentinel Station

 

RSS Feed