Retreat (Part 4 of 5)

Posted on 31 Aug 2019 @ 12:22pm by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Commander Luke Wyatt & Lieutenant Amaranai Franklin & Lieutenant Lake ir-Llantrisant & Lieutenant Commander Ryan Alexander & Ensign Callin Mastrel & Lieutenant JG Sofie Ullswater
Edited on on 31 Aug 2019 @ 12:27pm

2,792 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: Episode 17 - Crystal of Life
Location: Latari System Outskirts, Task Group Staging Area
Timeline: MD 01, 0629 hrs

Previously, on Retreat (Part 3)...

The Orion captain pulled her Type-2 phaser free from its holster then unexpectedly flipped it around in her palm to present the grip to yellow-collared lieutenant commander. She stared up into Luke's hard eyes then shoved her weapon forcefully into his hand. "This is what you want? Then take it. If anything happens to our away teams or the Trial..." she pulled her commbadge from her chest and tossed it angrily into the captain's chair, "...their blood is on your hands."

With that, Captain Saalm informally relinquished her own command and angrily pushed past Wyatt toward the bridge's side exit. She stopped just as the door to the Deck 1 corridor opened and turned back to look at her bridge crew one last time.

"You are not ready for the chair yet," Lirha admonished the now-acting-captain. "You don't have the strength to make tough decisions." She then disappeared down the corridor and the door hissed shut behind her.

And Now, the Continuation...

[ON]

The small Nova II-class USS Galileo decelerated from impulse and approached the remainder of the Starfleet convoy moments after Saalm left. The damage to the science vessel was isolated yet extensive along the starboard RCS thruster quad housing. She was in no condition to return to combat before structural repairs were performed, not counting the additional time needed for medical treatment of the wounded crew.

The chaos on the bridge was not over, and instead of friction between the command staff, the bridge crew was now left with hesitation and uncertainty. A subspace comm chirp sounded from the now-vacant operations console indicating an incoming transmission coded on a Starfleet frequency from the Lagrange.

Ryan had stopped momentarily on Wyatt's order. While Ryan didn't agree with either Lake or Wyatt and was nearly ready to follow the captain, when console flashed. He typed in a command on the console as he turned to read the report. "I have an incoming message from the Lagrange. They are asking for a SITREP and casualty report." Ryan called out to the bridge.

Putting his mind fully to the task at hand and getting the ship and its crew fighting fit as quickly as possible. "Put it up on the viewscreen please," Luke ordered now sitting in the XOs chair, mainly because he knew the captain's chair wasn't his and didn't want to disrespect the captain anymore than he did, he turned his face to the large screen center of the bridge and waited.

Amaranai stood there, dumbfounded. She had just stood there and hoped that Lirha or Luke would make the right decision instead of arguing. She didn't know what to do. Her inaction would certainly drive a wedge between her lover and her as well as her Chief. Things were happening around her and yet, Amaranai still stood there by the captain's chair - unsure of anything else at the moment.

Ryan nodded and sent the requested information to the Lagrange. Part of Ryan wanted to include the bit of what happened on the bridge, but he thought better of it; knowing that it would only harm Lirha than do her any good. "Message sent," Ryan said as he waited for a confirmation of receipt, "and we have confirmation of receipt."

In space, Galileo slowed to maneuvering speed and slowly descended below and aft of the two large heavy cruisers. The tiny science vessel then came about with some difficulty due to its missing starboard RCS thrusters, but managed to slot into its position in the formation somewhat wobbly.

It took longer than expected for Allyndra to make her way to the bridge. She had to stop a couple of times to handle a couple of calls but she finally came stalking through the doors onto the bridge. Her focus was only on one person only and she picked him out easily.

"Lieutenant Ir-Llantrisant!" Her voice carried clear but with that force of using the air from the organs that allowed flight. "You were not released from sickbay. You will report there RIGHT now. Is that clear?" Her tone brooked no comment from him.

In stark contrast, Lake ir-Llantrisant was motionless, his arms hanging by his sides. He spoke softly and ever... so... slowly. "Commander Allyndra," he said, "I was released from Sickbay by Doctor Lovegood. She treated my concussion."

Allyndra regarded him for a moment and then just nodded, "Very well. I do want you to get some rest though as soon as possible."

Nodding back at Allyndra, Lake held no grudge for Allyndra's sharp concern. "Yes, Doctor," Lake replied and he stepped back.

It took a moment and she realized how she had just blown in like a storm off the sea. "Pardon captain," she said turning to the chair and then looked puzzled. "Just where is Captain Saalm? Is she injured?"

Luke was going over some of the engineer reports which turned out grimmer than they initially thought. If they had gone back to the fight it would have meant certain death. When Allyndra came onto the bridge Luke stood up out of the XOs chair and straightened himself, "Commander, Captain Saalm voluntarily and temporarily removed herself from the Bridge after myself and the ranking medical officer on the bridge suggested she was emotionally unfit to make a rational decision." He then thought for a moment then added. "I am unsure where she has gone though I had hoped medical, though if you did not pass her on your way here then she is likely in her quarters."

Allyndra looked at Wyatt as thought studying an interesting problem. The information did not seem to match. She knew the Orion, heck for that matter most Orions, were a very passionate people when they wanted to be.

"I see," she said finally. "Well," it was obvious that Wyatt was in command so she just sighed and continued, "then with your permission commander, I would like to check on her and the rest of the casualties, unless you need me here."

Luke looked around and saw a few injuries but no one was dying any time soon. "Most of our casualties have been stabilized or already on there way if anything comes up ill call for one of the others to come help. In the meantime make finding Captain Lirha a priority, I'd like to see her back on the bridge where she belongs more than anyone." He gave the lieutenant commander a polite and reassuring smile.

"Yes captain," Allyndra replied. Something was not quite right but right now was not the time to figure it out. She had patients and if the captain felt like talking then she might get more insight. She made a nod and then took her leave of the bridge.

"Got it!" came a muffled reaction from within the bowels of Science II. The screens flickered to life reluctantly as Callin pulled himself out of the smokey innards. Covered in blood and singed now in places from a few close brushes with live wiring, he looked a bit wild. Or maybe that was from everything that had just happened. Partial functionality of his station was restored now, even if the resolution was poor and the displays flickered every few seconds. It was enough for him to type out a message and send it over to the other Science station, and he looked up to stare across the distance at Sofie.

Are you okay? You really weren't joking when you called the Captain a maverick.

It all seemed oddly serene to the other science officer. There was an unsettling absurdity to how everyone was quickly moving back into their roles after what had happened. A voice insider her was telling Sofie that as an office that was what she needed to be doing as well but she really had no idea how. A chirping from her console broke her out of the dark reverie as a message from Callin popped up. She rubbed the palm of her hand on her forehead and tried to focus herself.

She glanced over to her college on the other side of the room with a pleading expression as if to say Just get me off the bridge but she couldn't bring herself to make any real response yet. She briefly closed her eyes as she turned back to the terminal in front of her and tried to find a bit of that serenity the other officers seemed to be channelling before attempting to get back to something at least approximating her job.

On the screen in front of her were still sensor results and analyses of the Tholian shields that the captain had asked her to look at minutes before the bridge had totally turned to chaos. Thankfully even if Sofie was rather shell shocked the computer had suffered none of that and had run its own computations on the data. "Capt- Commander," she called out from her post, grimacing at her mistake as she sent the data over to the XO's chair "I've got the analyses from our sensor data on the Tholian's defences, I'm sending it over now. I don't think there was anything we could have done sir." It wasn't strictly necessary information for the commander, but Sofie hoped that maybe it might assure him that he'd made the right call.

"Thank you Ensign" Luke replied now reading the information. It was decided, regardless of the outrages show he and Lirha put on by butting heads the information he was reading affirmed he had made the right decision. Looking over the read out presented to him even a well-considered attack by the Galileo fresh out of dry dock and a full arsenal would have meant destruction, he was relieved to know he had saved the lives of everyone on board, even if everyone hated him for doing it.

"Send the information to the Lagrange and see if there's anything we can exploit, have a detailed synopsis ready for debriefing." Of course, it was unlikely they would find something to use to their advantage, not in the Galileo current state but Luke needed a break and maybe just maybe they'd strike lucky.

"Will do sir." The ensign nodded a response and started to prepare a package for transmission to the Lagrange, feeling reassured by having something concrete to do.

Amaranai finally heard voices around her and her brain started working rapidly in an attempt to catch up to whatever she had been missing. She would have to put her feelings for Lirha aside for the time being.

"Commander," she said after a moment. "What about using EMP torpedoes as an effort to disable to Tholian warships?" She paused. "Theoretically, all energy would be drained and the ships would become shells."

The idea lingered like a breath of air on an ice-cold morning, "That" Luke thought about it for a moment longer, "That could work, see if you can work with the science department and have a prototype up running as soon as possible. If needs be co-ordinate our efforts with the fleet."

Slowly, Amaranai made her way to her console and started to calculate the information. As she worked, she heard Callin speak up. The brunette was still concerned about Lirha and wished that she could have supported her captain's decision but the ship is not in good condition. Even the EMP torpedo could leave the Galileo a sitting duck.

EMP torpedoes? Callin lit up with a sudden smile, though it hurt a bit, as he started thinking, "That sounds like fun." It was easier to focus on the job rather than the panic he had felt. Maybe he could freak out a bit later if they made it through this, and making an actual EMP device really did seem fun. He'd always wanted to try this, a big flashy display of some really great science.

"We'll want NNEMPs," Callin just spoke his thought process aloud rapidly. "Nuclear devices would be too easy to detect and target. Electrostatic discharge wouldn't work with interference from the Tholian's Web. Explosively pumped flux compression generator?" He looked around the bridge, beaming at the thought of building the bomb. What he had in mind would definitely be flashy! For science, of course.

From the other side of the room the dour faced Ensign Ullswater remained skeptical. She trusted Callin but she couldn't bring herself to be caught up in his excitement. Even if they managed to get such a device to work the ship would need to be close enough to set it off and the last thing she wanted to do right now was to get close to the Tholians again.

Ryan furrowed his brow in thought for a moment. Using an EMP to knock out a Tholian ship, or any ship for that matter, isn't as easy as rigging a device to do it. Typically shields would need to be down, and the amount of energy needed to be released for the desired effect would have to be fairly substantial, typically more than a torpedo could generate. We could use a shuttles warp core though, get it close cause a breach, and then warp away just as it goes critical? Theoretically that should release enough energy to get the desired effect. Ryan thought to himself. Though that did lead to another idea that formed in Ryan's mind.

He turned to face the commander. "The star of this system gives us a unique opportunity in terms of magnetic instability as well as cover. If we could get the Tholian ships to get closer to the star, and on the right trajectory, we could fire the EM devices at an area of magnetic instability to trigger a Solar Plasma Ejection, kind of like destroying a dam and letting the water rush out all at once. Since we know where and when, it should be relatively easy to lay in a best course. Again, we would need the Tholians to get closer to the sun, whether through chasing us, something. The Tholians should detect the ejection but by then it would be too late to warp to safety. Bare minimum they would be disabled, at max they would be destroyed." Ryan offered.

Following the flow of conversation Luke couldn't help but smile before feeling a pang of guilt, this is where Lirha should be. "They'll follow us because we'll be a juicy enough target, we've all ready alluded them once and we're contaminated in their minds. If we have shuttles armed within the sun's orbit by the time we get there and they launch their devices the Tholians won't even know what hit them. I want everyone to have a plan by the debrief, work together and delegate someone to present the idea in front of Captain Saalm." Despite his objections and the current situation he still believed in his captain.

Ullswater, mouth agape, looked over to the Conn officer incredulously "You can't be serious." She turned to the commander and glanced round the other bridge officers "Releasing that sort of energy in that way - yes it would be destructive, but could we control it? We'd be as vulnerable as they were. Not to mention the interference with our sensors from the star would make this impossible to do accurately." She could see excitement and determination on the faces of her fellow officers - she felt guilty for trying to take that away but right now the one thing on her mind was that she didn't want to die here and laying a complicated trap for a dangerous warship seemed to be a step in that direction.

Ryan turned to face Ullswater. “I am very serious and we don’t need control. We also don’t need accuracy…” Ryan started to say before he noticed a warning indication appear on his console. Ryan turn backed to face the helm and typed in a quick sequence. “The shuttle bay doors are opening. I can't stop it from here, there is a command lockout.” Ryan called out to the bridge.

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

LCDR Luke Wyatt
First Officer
USS Galileo-A

LT Amaranai Franklin
Deputy Security Officer
USS Galileo-A

ENS Ryan Alexander
Deputy Operations Manager
USS Galileo-A

CMDR Allyndra Warraquim
CMO/2XO
USS Galileo-A

LT Lake ir-Llantrisant
Chief Counselor
USS Galileo-A

ENS Callin Mastrel
Science Officer
USS Galileo-A

ENS Sofie Ullswater
Science Officer
USS Galileo-A

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