Tough Little Ship (Part 2 of 3)

Posted on 13 Jul 2012 @ 7:48pm by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Captain Jonathan Holliday & Lieutenant Commander Chauncey Remington III (KIA) & Lieutenant Commander Dea Mialin & Lieutenant JG Kestra Orexil & Lieutenant Commander Pola Ni Dhuinn M.D. & Lieutenant JG Delainey Carlisle & Lieutenant Commander Evelyn Coleman & Lieutenant Theron Rhodes & Lieutenant Aria Rice & Lieutenant Kiri Cho & Commander Andreus Kohl & Commander Scarlet Blake & Command Master Chief Markum Quinn & Lieutenant Lilou Zaren & Chief Petty Officer Lucalin Mrina Ph.D. & Ensign Im'er Mor'an & Chief Warrant Officer 2 Arthur Willis & EMH Mark X-C "Shirley" & Rachel Hardaway Ph.D. & Anthony Hardaway Ph.D. & Justice Abernathy Ph.D. (MIA) & Eric Anderson & Emma Kennedy (MIA) & Captain (HoD) K'nara of the House of Torath (KIA) & Lieutenant JG Brayden White Ph.D.

4,039 words; about a 20 minute read

Mission: Episode 01 - Project Sienna
Location: USS Galileo - Bridge, Various
Timeline: MD 07 - 2130 hrs

Previously...

Brayden dropped down to one knee next to the woman, sliding his kit off his shoulder and beginning a scan. "Hey, there, I'm Brayden," he said quietly. "I'm a doctor and I'm going to look after you. Can you tell me your name?" he asked her gently, with only a quick glance at the man holding her hand tightly. She was holding back, her knuckles white with the grip. Good. She knew him, had a hold of him. Good signs all round.

Justice looked between the doctor and Emma, holding onto her hands. "Her name is Emma," he said quietly. "She was just standing here, and then the ship threw her-"

As she lay in Justice's arms, Emma's eyes suddenly rolled into the back of her head and her body went limp in his arms.

And Now, the Continuation...

[ON]

Engineering

The ship lurched violently and Ens. Rhodes found himself on the deck sliding forward. One of the Engineers helped him up. "Thanks." He looked right and left, "Is anyone else hurt?"

Markum growled, "No, I'm fine. Let's get everyone back on their feet"

"All right then." Ens. Rhodes replied. At that moment from behind him the panel exploded showering parks everywhere. If he had been still standing there as before, there was no doubt he would have been severely injured.

Theron hesitated what to do. He could help the injured, but he had to also be ready for possible intruders. That is why he was in Engineering. Yet, he had had extensive first-aid training. He had to help. After a breath Ens. Rhodes ran to a console and grabbed a med-kit and went to the first crewman on the deck.

Ens. Rhodes glanced around Engineering to see which of the Security team was still in place. Two were left uninjured, and they too were helping those that had fallen. Such a fine line it was between duty and compassion.


Bridge

The captain focused her attention back on the engagement, and heard Kestra's request for permission to fire. Lirha had to admit, she was shocked that the Klingon captain was firing torpedoes, since a single well-timed hit could cripple or potentially damage the precious technology or personnel they seeked. They must know our plan, she thought, and most likely wanted to end the battle now, while they had the advantage. Reckless, she thought angrily to herself. With the sudden change in tactics, Lirha now felt the need to deter them, since Galileo couldn't withstand many more torpedo strikes, even with reinforced shields. With a reluctant nod to Kestra, she agreed, then glanced at her XO. Perhaps his earlier decision to return fire had been the correct one, after all. "Very well." she said.

"The EM pulse will drain the power going to shields and engines," Remington reminded them.

Kestra glanced towards Remington and double checked the readouts on her console. Her own calculations had shown the shield strength dropping to forty percent and the engines unaffected by the use of an EMP. It was part of why she'd elected the EMP as opposed to another form of attack, and the EMP would be more likely to debilitate the Bird of Prey than a traditional retaliation. She tapped her com badge, "T'Paaru, double check coordinates and energy usage on the narrow band EM pulse now."

With the ship being launched from side to side, John relished the opportunity to be back in a combat situation, it had been too long since he had felt the adrenalin pumping and the need to defend his shipmates so strongly. The use of EM pulses as a defensive technique had been around for a while now, indeed many Federation records showed them being used for a variety of reasons, but here, when shield strength was at a premium, John was a little less willing to let it happen.

"No!" He called out across the noise of an exploding Bridge, aimed at both his tactical officer and also towards his captain.

"Now you get to see why I was a tactical instructor, time to take a leaf out of Admiral Janeway's book." He mentioned quietly to Saalm as he headed towards the side of the railings that stood between him and the Betazoid at tactical.

"Realign the targeting scanners to a parametric frequency - that way we might be able to take out their torpedo launchers before they fire. No need to sacrifice our shield strength that way."

It was a risky move, Kestra thought. There were ways to economize the power of the ship to maintain shield strength even with the use of the EM pulse. 'Might' wasn't a word she liked to hear in a fire-fight. Not when she knew the pulse would do the job, and potentially even recombine and remit the field on the other two ships immediately following it. Still, she knew her place on the bridge. She turned to the captain. "On your word, Captain. What will you?" she asked, a treble of energy in her voice denoting the decision needed to be made and made quickly.

"Do it." Lirha answered with a nod and a bit of urgency to her voice. This time, there was no hesitation to her order. Her ship was starting to take damage and her primal defense instincts kicked in, as well as her Starfleet training.

Kestra realigned the targeting scanners and fired the EM pulse. She watched the energy readings in the screen as it swept over and through the closest Bird of Prey. "Direct hit; all systems down. Scans show impulse drives are incapacitated," Kestra reported. "Bird of Prey is dropping out of warp. One down."

Doctor Hardaway took the distraction as an opportunity. He went to the back of the bridge, somewhere out of Kestra's line of sight. She might be as average as the rest, but she was more dangerous and he did not want to deal with a security officer. They were always more stubborn than the rest. He gave a sigh, ignoring the explosions. Oh, the trials of a genius. Already he was reworking his project to account for the lost information. He stopped beside one of the auxiliary consoles and studied the readouts it displayed.

Aria moved to him, her features set in pure anger. She jumped up, grabbing his ear before pulling him by it. "The Hell you do," she hissed and pulled him with her. "One more word from you and I swear I will stun you. Now get off this bloody bridge!" she pulled him to the turbolift and pushed him inside, breathing hard from the strain of it all.

"I can walk without your aid," Doctor Hardaway snapped, not appreciating the girl's attitude, nor the fact that she dared try to touch him in such a manner. He grabbed her wrist, ignoring the pain to his ear as he forced her arm away. But all the same, he followed her to the turbolift. As the door closed, his cold eyes watched the bridge and its crew, and then they were out of sight.

Kiri trusted the tactical officers to do their jobs to keep the ship safe, everyone else had combat duties. Holstering her phaser she turned back to her position, in a normal battle it was important not so much now, there wasn't a whole lot she could do. They were at warp, shields were up and weapons were firing, something had to give and most of the long range sensor were it, lessening the drain on the ships batteries. In the space they were in, didn't make much difference. Having focused most of the arrays not used in weapons targeting in front of the ship, she was shinning a torchlight. With the ship shaking and juddering, her eyes caught something. Having spend tens of hours studying sensor readings in the company of the Klingon ships before, she saw it. A very slight variance in hydrogen refraction, after a few checks it was getting closer. Her heart was already thumping as she tried to treat this like all the simulations she'd trained on, she wanted to run away. Her panic voiced itself as she called out over the battle, struggling to make her voice heard, "Cloaked ship zero twelve, mark fifteen, five megametres and closing!" It was coming from in front of them, between the ship and the nebula.

Hearing the report of an additional cloaked vessel, the captain cursed under her breath in her native Orion tongue, then quickly looked down at the center situational awareness display on her chair's arm console. As if the situation needed to get worse, the signature was indeed coming from in front of them and was currently on an intercept course. Probably a scout ship, she thought to herself, sent ahead of the larger task force to patrol the area, and now returning to assist in combat. "Helm, what's our ETA to the nebula?" she asked. Another wave of disruptor fire slammed into the rear of the ship, causing her to jolt uncomfortably from side to side in her chair.

Dea was doing her best not to be thrown out of her seat every time Galileo was hit with another blast of weapons. "ETA five minutes," she made her report just in time because it wasn't long before Mialin ended up landing unceremoniously on the floor next to her console. Dea quickly assessed herself to she if she was injured as she carefully got up off the floor.

A familiar audible chirp began to sound from the operations console to her right, and Lirha looked over expectantly at her chief operations officer.

"It's the Na'vi," Remington confirmed, catching Lirha's look and confirming it with a solemn nod.

Lirha rubbed her forehead in frustration. The last thing she wanted to do right now was speak to the arrogant Klingon captain, yet she knew that it would probably be wise to at least find out what the Klingon captain wanted. Although, she was fairly certain she already knew the answer. And, at least, time spent talking would hopefully give her the opportunity for stall tactics, and a chance to escape into the nearby nebula. "On screen." she said, then looked towards the large viewscreen as it blinked and suddenly displayed the image of a rather annoyed-looking Klingon woman.

K'Nara was relatively relaxed regarding the battle before her. It was barely even a scrap, the science vessel was barely armed, the resistance was a pleasant surprise. As the channel was answered she made sure to recline slightly in her captain's chair, casting the appearance of annoyance rather than rage. Planing her moves though in her head, victory was already certain however that wasn't all she wanted. The Na'vi was still gaining on the silver ship below her, bringing them closer. Her voice gruff and strong she didn't quite bark, "End this. Stop your ship and surrender, give me Sienna and you might yet live." Whatever they did death was likely, K'Nara couldn't really say she cared either way. What she wanted was to protect the Empire from this threat, to advance her house. Still this gesture might convince those cowards give her what she wanted, their situation was hopeless.

Lirha glared back at K'Nara with a scowl and piercing green eyes. She was one to rarely show her anger or displeasure, but she was beyond angry at the Klingon captain and her actions. How dare she attack her vessel inside of Federation territory and put her crew at risk. "You have broken the Khitomer Accords... and fired on a Federation ship inside Federation territory!" she declared, "Stop your attack at once! This is an act of war!" she continued, her face flushed deep green and fists clenched in anger. "What gives you the right--?!" she demanded as Galileo lurched again under the impact of disruptor fire.

It was good that her opponent was angry, that would lead to mistakes, the problem was that might not get what she wanted. But this woman didn't even understand the violation that had been carried out by her own commanders. That make her a poor soldier. K'Nara' fist slammed against the arm rest as she sat up, "No! You develop a weapon to attack any target at will," Thrusting her first towards the screen, "Give me Sienna and all its research, if you are our allies then share, enemies we will take." The captains index finger extended. She was leaving this confrontation with what she wanted one way or another.

A weapon?! she thought incredulously, then gave a strong shake of her head to dismiss such a notion. "That's absurd, there is no weapon being developed, and certainly not on board my ship!" she replied angrily. "If you had wanted to share technology, you should have made your request through the proper diplomat channels, not attack and harass Federation starships." she added, neglecting to reference Sienna directly or admit to carrying the technology aboard.

"Liar!" K'Nara thrust her first forward again, this time standing up, "A tactical advantage is a weapon! A Federations banner shall never flutter over Qo'noS!" This was going nowhere, she would end it the old fashioned way, the way it should be. The Federation would never have admitted to building this weapon until the proof was in the open, as it soon would be. Looking hard into the view screen, her face cold as was her voice, "batlh bIHeghjaj," Cutting the channel. There would be no more talk, no more deals. K'Nara knew exactly where Sienna was once she had it, the power of the galaxy would be rebalanced.

Turning to her weapons officer the Klingon let a small smile creep onto her face, "Full power to weapons, disable their engines."

Quinn shook his head and finished typing on his PADD. Smiling he tapped his combadge. =^=Quinn to Bridge, I have an idea that may buy us some time. If we were to vent a combination of plasma and high charged anti-protons at a concentrated mix of two-point-seven to one-point-two percent and let it stream. We would in effect have created a combustible trail that, when ignited, will produce enough energy to blind any sensors within a four-hundred plus Kilometer area, and would leave the exposed out of the area for at least at least another one hundred kilometers dazzled for a few seconds. We could ignite it with a micro burst Warp jump at Warp one.=^=

Lirha listened to the engineering chief's proposal through the comm system. It seemed like a well-formulated plan, albeit a bit risky, yet she didn't feel that they had much time for alternative options. Her was sold on the idea almost as soon as it had left the chief's mouth. The captain tapped her commbadge to reply. "Begin your preparations, Chief, let me know as soon as you've calibrated the--"

"Second torpedo incoming!" Kestra interjected. "Aimed at aft shield bay again. Captain!"

Hearing the lieutenant's warning, Lirha's heart raced faster than ever as her mind jumped into action. There were only seconds before the next torpedo hit, and she doubted that the shields would hold again. Hastily, she tapped a quick command on her console and opened the intra-ship comm channel. "All hands, brace for impact!" she warned, then gripped her chair's armrests with a steel grip in preparation.

Having been preoccupied for the past few minutes by the myriad of damage reports that were streaming into his console, John had to admit that he hadn't been giving his full attention to the state of affairs around him. For now the Klingons had them outgunned and were doing a pretty good job of out-maneuvering them as well.

Hearing the call to brace, John grabbed the arms of his chair and waited...

Clearing her mind of the pain form her fall, Mor'an had by now regained her seat. Calm as a the cool waters of the Lake of Ach'thur'uss, she positioned her legs to take the impact of the hit and gripped her chair with all her might.

Evelyn shut her eyes tight, lowing her head, hands gripping the side of her console, bracing herself for the incoming impact.

Lilou swallowed a frisson of panic and dropped to her knees, hugging the engineering console.


Engineering

Ensign Rhodes looked around at the status of the injured when the Captain's call came out. He looked to the Engineering staff, continuing to do their duty through it all. He yelled out to everyone, "Hold on to something !!!"

Quinn grabbed onto the MSD console as the engineering section rocked from the torpedo impact. "Willis, reinforce the Warp Core's forcefie........"

Willis had just reached the console to the core's primary control as he was jarred from the massive impact.

The torpedo streaked through space at high warp, twinkling and twisting in a bright display of orange and red colors before it violently slammed into Galileo's aft shields. A bright blue flash erupted from the shields, rippling outward from the rear of the ship. Already weakened from the previous strike, the aft shield grid was unable to hold against the second torpedo. The rear of the protective energy bubble which surrounded the ship fizzled and vanished, as tendrils of escaped energy cascaded across the Nova Class' hull. The shield emitters were overwhelmed as they attempted to absorb the shock of the warhead, and several power conduits throughout the ship exploded. Inside the previously-damaged nacelle, power surges overloaded several warp coils as a violent surge rocked the ship.

The torpedo hit as hard as anything John had experienced before in his life, throwing the entire ship around as the sound of relays overloading and systems failing threatened to deafen the entire Bridge crew. The little science ship simply wasn't built to put up with this kind of punishment no matter how much the XO would like to think otherwise.


Sickbay

Pushing a gold-collared patient on an anti-grav gurney, Andreus Kohl was somewhat more prepared when the torpedo hit. As he felt the deck dropping out from beneath him, Kohl stamped down his footing and he tightened his grips on the gurney and the patient. Otherwise, he let all the tension melt away from his body. He let his body move with the rocking of the starship, rather than fighting against it. He certainly felt the ache of several of his tendons being overexerted, but he stayed up on his feet -- possibly only because of the anti-gravity properties of the gurney. As the rocking of the starship subsided, Kohl kept on pushing the gurney towards biobed two.

Having listened to the computer's reports, and quickly skimmed over the visual reports on her terminal, Pola found herself thrown out of her seat when the second attack hit. Cursing and gritting against the pain in her ankle, she manoeuvred herself to her knees, giving herself a moment as she recognised the pain was just from having the ankle jerked in the fall. Moving to her feet, she yelled at the computer again, "Damn it...Computer updated report on injuries."

"Critical injuries reported in Main Cargobay, Main Engineering, the Bridge, decks 4, 6 and 8 displaying minor casualty lists. No fatalities reported at present." The computer replied in it's typical calm manner, the only "person" aboard the ship who managed to feel absolutely nothing as the ship around them was being blown to bits.

"Warning. Radiation leak detected on deck 3 sections 1 to 16. Medical intervention recommended"

Coming to a stop, Pola had a sudden moment where she hadn't got a clue what to do. Looking around her instinct cut in as she raised her hand to her comm badge.

=^=Sickbay to Bridge; Evacuate and seal off deck 3, sections 1 to 16 now, there's a radiation leak. We need lockdown before the leak reaches the cargobays. I am sending down the EMH to help injured.=^=

=^=Understood Doctor, keep me apprised, Holliday out =^=

Looking around, Pola pointed at the EMH and than Eda and Izred, "EMH I want you down to deck 3 now. Help with the evacuation and get the injured treated and if necessary, transported up here. Ensure you bring a supply of Hyronalin, if you need backup, I'll go down to you but I'd prefer right now to limit exposure. Eda and Izred I need you moving to decks 5 through to 8 now." Turning she found Blake, Kohl and Lin, "Kohl listen into communications, let me know anything which goes wrong. Lin get replication radiation drugs. Blake get down to engineering." Realising it was her and two nurses left, Pola realised she didn't have the people to spare to cover the bridge. She couldn't split the teams as if something happened to the other they needed back up, she'd already taken a risk with sending Blake on her own.

Scarlet took just a brief moment to blink with surprise at the order, taking a deep breath. She nodded all the same though, straightening. "Aye-aye, Ma'am," she gave a brisk, sharp nod before getting hold of a larger kit to hang over her shoulder and across her body, already on her way out.

=^=Sickbay to bridge; Computer lists criticals on the bridge, can you get them beamed to sickbay?=^=

"Negative - primary power to transporter rooms one and two is offline." The computer replied, seemingly knowing the answer to the doctor's question before she could even finish it herself, saving the Bridge valuable seconds in reply.

The EMH sighed for a moment as he realised he was about to be redeployed into the field.

"I'm a doctor not a rescue worker.....but very well. Computer transfer the EMH to Deck 3 along with Starfleet Medical Kit Alpha 12"

The hologram replied before dissolving into nothing but photons as the computer transferred his program to the additional holoprojectors located throughout the Galileo.

While Nurse Lin approached the replicator, Ensign Kohl pushed the anti-grav gurney until it was close enough under a medical sensor cluster. The Operations crewman on the gurney had taken a tumble in Engineering, and landed on his head, and then his neck, and then his back. The gurney was immobilizing his neck until a thorough medical scan could be done on his spinal column. Kohl set the medical scanners to work, and sprinted over to a freestanding LCARS console to respond to the communiques coming in to Sickbay.

Still having the bridge to cover, Pola addressed the computer once again, "How many injuries and to what degree on the bridge computer?"

"Unknown - internal sensors are offline on decks 1 and 2. Damage to secondary data subprocessors must be repaired before accurate readings can be obtained. Based on previous information repors there are no life threatening injuries currently reported on the Bridge."

Rubbing her hand across her forehead, Pola made an executive decision based on the information she had at hand. The bridge would be full of senior officers all trained in basic first aid so they would be able to treat minor injuries. If there was no life threatening injuries then the injured needing attention from a Doctor would be able to get here on their own. When she weighted everything up, including her lack of manpower it was obvious it would be time wasted sending anyone to the bridge right now. Set on that knowledge, she headed towards the injured pouring in, metaphorically rolling up her sleeves as she prepared to get busy.

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

All Player Characters
All Positions
USS Galileo

LTJG Brayden White
Counselor
USS Galileo
NPC'd by Kestra Orexil

EMH Mark-X
Emergency Medical Officer
USS Galileo
NPC'd by John Holliday

Rachel Hardaway, Ph.D.
Lead Scientist
Project Sienna
NPC'd by Tarishiana Barel

Anthony Hardaway, Ph.D.
Lead Scientist
Project Sienna
NPC'd by Chauncey Remington III

Justice Abernathy Ph.D.
Scientist
Project Sienna
NPC'd by Lilou Peers

Eric Anderson
Scientist
Project Sienna
NPC'd by Pola Ni Dhuinn

Emma Kennedy
Dr. Hardaway's Secretary
Project Sienna
NPC'd by Pola Ni Dhuinn

CAPT K'Nara
Commanding Officer
IKS Na'vi
NPC'd by Kiri Cho

RSS Feed