((USS Culver City, Bridge))

The Culver City cruised along the patrol route assigned to herself and the Blythe.  However, her transit was not passive; Command had tasked the two California-class ships to deploy a series of sensor buoys, so that Starbase 420 could keep a regular eye on the border region even when ships were not available to patrol.  Very few extra buoys were available at the starbase, though, so K’lev and Chief Engineer Pelix had designed a basic buoy using some of the remaining repair materials that Culver City had carried from her handoff with the Bounty, plus some components she was able to fabricate using her industrial replicators and her few embarked probes.  This initial, impromptu network would not be large, but would offer serviceable coverage of the border region, at least until a more comprehensive network could be established.

Sitting in his command chair on the bridge of the Culver City, Lieutenant K’lev tapped opened an intercom channel.  “Bridge to Shuttlebay 3.  How’s the deployment going down there, Ensign Tiza?”

Ensign Ri Mali Sa No Tiza, the ship’s new Xahean quartermaster/loadmaster – one of 9 recent transfers from the survivors of the Shuswap – answered quickly.  “We just released number 5; got 8 more still to go.  So far, so good!”

“Great news, Tiza; let me know if anything comes up.  Bridge out.”  With that, K’lev closed the channel, then turned to face Ensign Lotharys.  “How are they looking?”

She consulted her console.  “So far, so good!  The first four are all powered and networked, and the fifth seems to be powering up nicely.”

K’lev smiled.  “Excellent!”  He turned back around to face forward, now addressing Chief Bong.  “Chief, would you please let Blythe know that our improvised buoys are working out so far?  And tell them how many we were able to make, in case they have any repair materials we could use to make a few more.”

“Aye aye sir.” Bong said cheerfully, noting the young Lt’s keen instincts through their day-long run from 420 back to the border after rescuing the Shuswap. The Blythe was on a parallel course along the border 20 light years ‘above’ the Culver City on the z-axis.

((Blythe Bridge))

It was Alpha shift on the Blythe and Wong had the conn when the call from the Culver City, asking about extra construction materials to build more of the kit bashed sensor buoys that the CC’s crew had come up with.

“Well, have to give it the young CO of the Culver City, he’s got ingenuity and pluck” Wong stood from the chair and faced Ingram at the Tactical console. “Tell em we got something better for them. Have them rendevous with us after we finish laying this string of bouys.”

“Roger that sir. Message sent…and they acknowledge…if you dont mind my asking sir, what have you got in mind?” Ingram said.

Wong walked around the railing and over to Ingram’s station. “Well, I was thinking we would transfer a crate of battery packs and a dozen of our spare sensor probes over to them.” He grinned widely again.

“Copy that sir, I thought those might come in handy when I saw them on the manifest.” Ingram replied, smiling himself.

((Culver City, Bridge))

“Message from the Blythe, sir,” Chief Bong said.  “They advise a rendezvous at the end of this string, sir. They say they have some of the supplies we requested.”

K’lev nodded.  “Acknowledge with our gratitude, please,” he replied; while he was a commanding officer himself, he was still junior to Captain Tyler, after all.

Ensign Lotharys spoke up from Sciences.  “Do you think these buoys will work?  Not from a technical sense, but as an alert system?”  She seemed like she was still a little unsettled by the fate of the Shuswap and remembering what Culver City had been through at Palix Bravo.

K’lev – who was equally unsettled, for the same reason – nodded after a moment.  “I think so, even if it’s just a few minutes’ warning.”

“We just need to see them coming. Make sure we have someones eyeballs on our long range sensors.” Bong offered.

Some time later, after Culver City had launched her last improvised buoy and confirmed they all worked – one needed recalibration, but that was quickly done by remote – K’lev turned to Ensign Phillips at the helm.  “Ari, put a marker in the navigational chart for the end of our current string, then set a rendezvous course for the Blythe.  Chief, please let Captain Tyler know we’re coming to pick up the supplies they offered.”  Culver City moved off, picking up speed as she bore towards her sister.

The two vessels were approaching their rendevous near a second generation stellar nursery nebula, most of which was on the Tholian side of the border. It was an area known for star formations/ignitions and starfleet had studied it periodically since the Federation had developed scientific monitoring capabilities for the area in the early 2200s. It was also known as a staging ground for several Tholian incursions into Federation space over the centuries, though the most recent had been nearly 5 decades prior at this stage.

The two Cali class ships both picked up the distress call and spotted a vessel emerging from a dense section of the nebula at about the same time. The nebula had an arm-like section of it that jutted into Federation space. The vessel was a small J9 class frieghter with a Federation transponder code. Several seconds later a second vessel appeared on sensors. It was a Tholian meshweaver class vessel. And it was firing on the freighter.