The Battle of Lazzaro: The Space Campaign (Part 2)
Posted on Thu Aug 28th, 2025 @ 2:19am by Captain Patricia Cooke & Lieutenant Charlotte E. "Charlie" Yeager & I-400 & Commander Katrina Chance & Lieutenant Commander Andrew Star
Edited on on Thu Aug 28th, 2025 @ 2:20am
1,060 words; about a 5 minute read
Mission:
Impending Midnight
Location: Romulan Neutral Zone
Timeline: After Part 1
Previously, on Star Trek: Missouri:
“Captain…” he said, quieter now but deadly serious. “If we don’t pull her back from the brink, Icarus is going to break in half.”
"How much time does she have left?" Patricia asked. If this transfer wasn't going to be possible, they needed to break off ASAP.
Another "Captain" cropped up, coming from the Science cubby. Something the CO probably started to hate to hear every time a problem showed its ugly bald head. "I can reconfigure the tractor beam into a cannon... Shoot our Chief Engineer to Icarus." He stated, saving the story of shooting 91-year-old Laura out of a tractor beam at ¼ impulse at another starship back in 2330 for a more important time... Like dinner.
And now, the continuation:
"Do we know if a Ventari would survive being 'shot' out of a makeshift transporter 'cannon'?" Patricia responded. The risks of something so reckless needed to be properly weighed. "He won't be useful to the crew of Icarus if he's dead on arrival."
"Not a clue," Andrew said, shaking his head and with a grin like an evil scientist whose experiment worked. "Never shot a bug before!" He exclaimed in childlike joy. "As long as he keeps his arms inside, he'd feel like he just went on a rollercoaster with lots of loop-de-loops!"
Patricia sat and contemplated for a second. This would definitely be too dangerous, given how it was unproven. However, time was of the essence.
"Do it." Patricia finally ordered, tapping her chair's control interface: "Cooke to Ventari: The transport over to the Icarus might be a rough ride."
Andrew jumped straight out of his seat, pressed the combadge on his upper chest, and spoke directly. "Andrew to Engineering, I'm assuming full control, standby for orders." By this point, he had strolled over to the turbolift next to the tactical station, he entered and was wisked away to the lower decks.
A junior officer wearing a crisp teal uniform took Andrew's place in the science cubby. Ens Debbra Redhorse, a Human girl with sleek black hair tied using a snake hairclip, gave a small smile to those looking at her, hoping it hid her anxiety before spinning around and rearranging the LCARS display to something more akin to her easy-going nature.
Joe stared at the science alcove for a beat longer than he should have. “He’s going to cannon-launch Ventari…” he muttered under his breath, already reconfiguring the ops panel in anticipation of the chaos this stunt might bring.
He exhaled sharply through his nose, muttering, “Of course he is.”
Then, louder, for the bridge: “Adjusting navigational sensors to track Ventari’s trajectory. I’ll have a tractor lock primed and standing by in case something—anything—goes sideways. Helm, keep us stable. We twitch mid-shot, and Ventari’s going to decorate the hull of the Icarus.”
Joe’s fingers blurred across the console. “Shield vectoring recalibrated along the launch arc—don’t want our own fields frying him mid-flight. I’ve also tagged Ventari’s biosignature to the emergency transporter buffer, just in case this brilliant idea ends with us scraping him off the bulkhead.”
He tapped his combadge. “Ops to Ventari. Just so you know, Andrew is literally shooting you across open space. No heroics once you're on the Icarus—find the core, fix the power, and don’t touch anything that's glowing green and humming.”
Then, as if remembering, he turned to the junior science officer now occupying Andrew’s post. His voice softened for a fraction of a second. “Ensign Redhorse… keep a tight lock on any atmospheric readings coming off the Icarus. If her systems dip below survivable threshold, I want to know before the Chief even sets foot inside.”
He gave her a nod—quiet but affirming—then turned his eyes back to the console as the countdown to insanity began.
“Launching engineers from cannons,” Joe muttered again with a headshake, “and they wonder why I drink coffee like it’s plasma coolant…”
"Uh... Captain:" Charlie spoke up. "Readings are indicating an energy buildup in the Icarus' engineering section."
Patricia didn't need long to know what a reading like that meant:
"Get us clear, Yeager!" She ordered immediately. "Cooke to Star: Abort, abort, abort!"
A child strolled into engineering. He wasn't a lost child in the supermarket, for his name was Andrew Star, and this child knew what he was doing. The turbolift doors swooshed open, and Andrew called out, walking over the metal grated floors, heading straight towards the inner engineering, lit by the warp core. "ACTING CHIEF ON DECK!"
Pointing at an Andorian in an engineering suit, Andrew's skinny index finger singling him out. "You, disconnect the Molecular Transition Dampener, transfer coolant 3-3A through to the Radiation Control Grid. With the index finger on his left, he pointed at someone who was the spitting image of Agnetha Fältskog. "Lead ALL transporter & structural specialists to tractor beam control, disband the Trevor Kletz protocols, and increase the strength of the beam to 800% and flood with O2 and CO2"
Nobody batted an eyelid at him and instead followed his directive, looks like a Deputy Chief Engineer was re-assigned too, and wasn't replaced. By the time he had walked over to the master control console, the Captain's message reached him.
=/\= "Cmdr Star to Bridge. Preparations are underway, ma'am... We can shoot him into an airlock on their command deck, it'll be super duper tricky! But if their quick on opening the airlock, he'll be fineeee" =/\=
"That's a negative, Star:" Patricia responded as the Missouri took another blast. "The Icarus is already breaking apart: You send Ventari out there, you send him to his death, and it'll be you facing court martial."
Mr Star didn't open the comms channel, but he respected orders, and so he complied, ordering the engineering department he annexed from Lieutenant Pharos Ventari. Though he still thought, if MO Chief fixer was over there, then they'd have a fighting chance.
"Icarus' antimatter containment is failing!" Joe reported.
"Are we clear of the blast radius?" Patricia asked.
"Aye, sir." Charlie responded.
On the viewscreen, the USS Icarus suffered a warp core breach as the mighty Vesta class ship's back was broken. The explosion appeared to damage some cubes within close proximity.
To be continued...
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