A Phantom in the night

Posted on Wed Nov 22nd, 2017 @ 12:09am by Lieutenant Reno “Reno-gade” Van Straten
Edited on on Wed Nov 22nd, 2017 @ 4:11pm

Mission: Mission 0: Everybody Has A Story
Location: Deep space
Timeline: 4 Days Ago

[ON]

[USS Phantom]

Reno rematerialized on a transporter pad. He deftly caught his backward fall with his hands, as he'd been sitting in a Runabout copilots seat when transported.

"Sonofabitch!" He got to his feet and looked around. There was an unknown human transporter tech at the panel and next to him was a face he recognized. Master Chief Petty Officer Dynt Sharja.

"Sharja! What the hell is going on?" He stepped down off the pad and crossed to her. Behind him his luggage appeared.

"Hello eL Tee" The Bajoran Tactical Officer came forward with a smile. "Welcome aboard the USS Phantom!" She said. "This is the ship we trained to fly"

“Phantom? We went through the list of the Defiant’s in-service during testing, there wasn’t one called Phantom! What is this, a ghost ship?” Reno asked skeptically.

“Kind of” Dynt agreed “It’s been high modified and technically it doesn’t actually exist, hence the name”

“I knew it! It’s a Section 31 ship! The rumors are true!” Reno concluded

“Nooo , we’re not Section 31” Dynt rolled her eyes

“Those Temporal Investigations guys then?” Reno tried

“Nope, we don’t do time travel…well not yet” She laughed cryptically

“Is this thing even legal?” Reno asked, not sure what he had landed himself in now.

“That would depend on who you asked…” She hedged “But since we don’t officially exist, it doesn’t really matter”

“Ok I give up” Reno sighed “What did I let myself in for?”

“All in good time eL Tee, you’ll get a full briefing when we get back home to Tartarus. Let me show you the ship”

“Home to Tartarus? Isn’t that like hell in Greek mythology?” Reno asked, still suspicious of what was going on.

“Yeah, but it’s just a nickname” Dynt smiled at his confusion. “Ok, so this is Deck Two,” She led him down the corridor “Mostly your standard Defiant layout; Crew Quarters, Mess Hall, Infirmary, Upper Engineering and upper Computer Core, For’ard phaser array and aft torpedo launcher.”

They went down through Deck 3, where Reno got his first surprise.

“Quantum slipstream drive? Damn!” He stared up at internal structures of the massive engines that filled the lower Engineering space. “Now I know why they had us studying slipstream theory manuals. Just how fast does this thing go?”

“We’re not sure, she’s kinda new and we‘ve never had her up to full speed, yet” Dynt smiled, knowing Reno was just itching to get his hands on the controls now.

“C’mon there’s more”

They went down to Deck 4, where Dynt led him up to a heavily armored cargo door.

“The is The Vault” She rapped her knuckles on the bulkhead “Double thickness, reinforced, polarized plating, backed up with high output structural integrity fields and an encrypted locking system, this is our secure storage bay”

“Storage for what?” Reno asked

“Lots of things: She replied, still giving nothing away. “And down here…” She went aft, to another impressive looking door “Is the Deep Freeze, cryogenics storage”

Reno nodded, there was a layer of frost around the door seal. “What’s in there? A couple of Breen?”

“No, not this time” Dynt laughed again “Alright, I saved the best for last. I’ll show you the Bridge"

Up on Deck 1 they entered the Bridge through the port side door, at first it appeared like a normal Defiant design. Then Reno began noticing the changes.

Just forward of the entryway were the Engineering station, with a slipstream drive panel and then the primary Tactical station. On the starboard side was a Science station and secondary Tactical station. There was also an auxiliary panel, which monitored the two storage bays.

In the center of the bridge was the single Captain's chair, currently unoccupied, on it’s raised platform. It had the customary control panels on each side. But there were also two other command team chairs next to it.

Forward of the command position was the integrated flight control and operations station. The seat looked like it had come out of a starfighter and there were additional panels for the slipstream drive and a third tactical panel.

He also noticed that the deflector system appeared to have been upgraded, as well as the navigation and sensor packages. The conn had clearly been designed for maximum speed and efficiency. It gave the pilot access to every important propulsion, defensive and offensive system on the ship, allowing the Phantom to be flown almost like a fighter instead of a much larger vessel.

Finally, at the rear of the Bridge was the cloaking device. It’d didn’t look like a Romulan design to Reno, not that he was especially familiar with such things. But undoubtedly it had been part of the ship’s enhancements.

There were just two crew on the Bridge, a Chief Petty Officer at the helm and a Lieutenant at the Engineering station. They both nodded politely to Reno and he had the feeling they knew exactly who he was.

“There’s a lot of specialized automation” Dynt explained “If need be, just one person can manage the ship from here”

“So where was she built?” He asked “How come she’s not on the Class list?”

“Originally they built around sixty Defiants during and after the Dominion War.” Dynt explained

“The prototype was destroyed by the Breen. There were other combat loses and there are now less than fifty left. But the original production run was for two hundred. When they ended early, after building sixty, there were some hulls and various components left over. Some were scrapped, others mothballed to provide spares.

It was arranged for another complete ship to be assembled from those parts, with a few special modifications. Like I said, she doesn’t officially exist. Even the name’s not the one we use when operating with other Starfleet ships.”

Reno had more questions but the Master Chief cut him off. “I’m sorry eL Tee, all your questions will have to wait until you get the full briefing. That will be once we get back to Theta”

“First Tartarus and now Theta?” Reno pounced on the term “Who or what is Theta and better yet where is Theta?'

“The who is…complicated.” Dynt replied “The where is easier….The Badlands”

“The Badlands…. Of course, where else would you find somewhere called Tartarus!” Reno muttered wishing he’d not asked. “And we’re going there now?”

“Yep, will take about three days”

“Can I try her out on the way?” Reno asked trying not to sound like a kid with a brand new toy, which was exactly how he felt.

Dynt looked to the Engineer. He nodded “Yes, Lieutenant Van Straten you can, once you read the flight manuals and I check you out. There’s some PaDDs waiting in your cabin.”

Reno rolled his eyes “Oh great, more tests. And to think I volunteered for this”

To be continued…

[OFF]