USS San Diego, Deck 11

 Lt. Commander Victor Massaquoi swore and jerked his hand away as the open panel in the shield generator arced with blue energy.

“Dammit, we just put the ship back together.”, Massaquoi grumbled to himself as he went back to his task with noticeably more caution.

“Sir?”, the crewman assisting him asked.

“Nothing, crewman….actually no, hand me a stabilizer.”

“Yes, sir.”, the young Human crewman nervously handed the tool to the chief engineer.

The explosive sacrifice of the Bardan’s Folly wasn’t without cost to the San Diego, with two shield generators knocked out amongst a litany of other damage. Being an engineering subvariant of the California-class meant the San Diego was built a bit tougher, with reinforcement allowing the ship to tow heavy loads and go into more hostile environments for rescue operations, but the Sandy needed a break and time at a proper yard.

Massaquoi suddenly grinned at the crewman, “First posting?”

“Y-y-yes, sir.”, the crewman stammered out, his face showing an expression of surprise that the chief engineer was asking him a personal question.

“Didn’t cover this situation at the tech academy on Mars I assume?”, Massaquoi chuckled.

“N-not exactly, sir.”, the crewman flashed a quick, nervous smile under his shock of blonde hair.

“Don’t feel bad, they didn’t really cover this scenario in San Francisco either.”, the dark skinned engineer chuckled. 

“Orex to Massaquoi.”, Captain Orex’s voice came over the comm.

Massaquoi sighed and slapped his combadge, “Massaquoi here.”

“You’re not going to like me for this, commander.”, Orex stated, “We’re probably headed for another fight. We have another contact and we need those shield generators back up.

“Working on it now, Captain.”, Massaquoi replied, suddenly grim at the news.

“How long?”

“Ten minutes for this generator, I believe they’re just about finished with the other. That one wasn’t as bad off.”

“Not sure we have ten minutes, commander.”, Orex replied, deadly serious.

Massaquoi closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them and replied.

“I’ll do my best, sir.”, Massaquoi replied.

“All I can ask, commander.”

“Sir?”, the young crewman looked scared, having heard everything.

Massaquoi yanked out a fried isolinear chip, inspected it and then handed it to the crewman.

“Find us replacement, crewman. Run.”, Massaquoi’s voice was quiet.

USS Neptune, Bridge

Ryder had been watching the movement of the Vaadwuar ships and noticed a change and pointed to the group of ships splitting from the main group. He looked at Kra’vaak “What’s going on there?”

The Klingon looked at the scene unfolding and thought for a moment “It could be they picked up a ship nearby.”

Ryder thought for a moment “Do you think we could follow without being detected?” he asked as he looked at the helmsman, who gave him a look of hesitancy before slowly shrugging. 

“Honestly, Captain, we’re in such unprecedented times that I cannot say what would happen.” the helmsman said with a tinge of sarcasm in his voice. 

Ryder stared at the man for a moment and decided to let the sarcasm slide given the situation of things. He looked at the crew “Do not run any systems except what’s needed for us to follow the Vaadwuar ships. Pass the word and follow the group.”

The crew quickly complied with the Captains orders even if it seemed like a batshit crazy idea. The possibility of them being detected by the Vaadwuar was too high to properly count, but it was also possible they could make it as well. 

The Neptune had also contacted its escort and ordered them to follow in the same manner. The issue was the ships were flying essentially blind only using the Vaadwuar as a reference point. It was only a short time before the Neptune stopped to see a battle taking place in the viewscreen, but the problem was they could not render assistance without revealing themselves. It was best at this time to be a silent observer.

Ryder looked intently seeing a California class in the mix. “Can we zoom in on the ship’s name?”

In mere moments the screen zoomed in showing the name of the ship San Diego. Ryder wasn’t familiar with the ship, but it was a Starfleet ship and that’s what mattered. She looked beaten up and on her last leg. Ryder’s view was fixed on the ship until a brilliant flash occurred on screen. 

Adams looked at the captain “That was a warp core breach. Was that the Starfleet ship?” She asked the crew who were trying to fumble with the limited range of things to determine if it was. 

“No, Commander, it looks like it was a different ship, but that’s all the information I can gain from the little ability I have.” Kennedy answered.

Ryder nodded and looked to see the Vaadwuar ships turned to dust; it looked like the San Diego was still present. He looked at the helmsman, “Get us within range of the ship’s sensors so they can identify us and we can render assistance as needed.”

USS San Diego, Bridge

“Mr. T’Prenn?”, Orex asked, his gravelly voice tense.

“One moment, Captain.”, the Vulcan’s hands danced over her controls.

Abercrombie also worked at his operations station, aiding T’Prenn in identifying the contact.

“I don’t believe it’s a Vaadwaur ship, sir.”, Abercrombie said suddenly, looking over at T’Prenn for confirmation, “she’s pretty damned big though.”

T’Prenn nodded slightly, “I concur.”, T’Prenn paused and then looked up sharply, “Sir, signal matches a Vesta-class starship….it’s the Neptune, sir. There’s another ship as well, I can not identify it, but it is not Vaadwaur.”

Orex leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes in relief. Real hope. Finally.

Opening his eyes, Orex spoke with firm authority as he stood up, straightening his uniform.

“Mr. T’Prenn, tell the convoy all is well and open hailing frequencies, please.”

“Understood, sir. Frequencies open, Captain.”, The tactical/security officer confirmed.

“Neptune, this is Captain Orex of the San Diego.”, Orex’s voice was tired yet bright, “You are the best sight we’ve seen in almost two weeks.”

Orex had never spoken a truer statement in his life.

“Captain, we’re being hailed.” Ruvok answered, looking in the Captain’s direction. Ryder nodded and ordered for the message to be played. Once he heard the information he ordered hailing frequencies to be opened.

“This is Captain Ryder of the Neptune, we noticed you were in a predicament, though it looks like it has been resolved. Your ship however looks pretty beaten up. Is there anything we can do to help?” 

Ryder was sure there was assistance to be rendered, but he never was one to try and assume anything, especially on ships that were not under his command. 

“I think we have things on the San Diego well in hand,” Captain Orex replied, “and we have some engineering and medical teams beaming out to aid the convoy. We are spread a bit wide, though, and any engineers and medical staff you could spare for the convoy would be very welcome. We’ve had an….eventful….past several days.”

There was a sort of tired wryness in Orex’s tone as he said the last.

Ryder looked at his crew and chuckled internally. It was the same for them, and from what he could see, things weren’t looking to change anytime soon.

“Well, we are here to assist in any way that we possibly can. We saw the Vaadwuar around and in truth, with the trip we have back to our home port, the trip has many unknown variables, especially if we can’t see what’s ahead.”

“We’ve come up with a system. It’s far from perfect, but it has saved us several times.”, Orex replied, “We’ve managed to modify some probes to act as an early warning net. As I’ve said, not perfect but better than nothing.”

Orex’s cat-like pupils contracted thoughtfully as he continued, “The Neptune is out of Mirage Station is that correct?”

Ryder rose an eyebrow wondering how Orex knew that. No matter could have just looked up information. “Correct, so isn’t our sister ship the Hydra. The plan is to head back in its general direction. The only problem is we don’t know what’s on the way. We will assist you as much as we can to make sure we all successfully make it back home.”

Ryder knew that for this to be successful it would take an immense amount of teamwork and communication.

On the bridge of the San Diego, Orex nodded gravely  and spoke over his shoulder to his Vulcan tactical/security officer.

“Mr. T’Prenn, inform the convoy captains that….we have a change of plans.”