The upshot of the thing is... Pt2

Posted on Tue Jan 14th, 2025 @ 7:57pm by Lieutenant Commander Shoniara T'ghann-Dex. Doctor & Commodore Finchley Kerr & Lieutenant Commander Kevin Kilbane & Commander Shr'Nesh Karadis
Edited on on Tue Jan 14th, 2025 @ 7:58pm

2,441 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: The 'Eagle continues.
Location: Holodeck USS Blackeagle
Timeline: Current.

[Previously]

"There's no other Federation vessels in the immediate area Sir, the nearest vessel is the USS Pearson, she's a science vessel but she's three hours away at her maximum warp" Con replied.

"Con look for places we might be able to hide whilst we make immediate repairs?"

"Tactical hail the lead warbird! I want to know why they are doing this? maybe give us some time?"

[Now]

"Computer, pause programme!" Karadis said loudly.

==^==Programme paused==^== the computer answered.

Karadis walked over to where Shon was standing, "Ok, so far you've actually done quite well, but what's the one thing you've forgotten?" she asked.

"The XO?" Shon asked. He might be down but he's not out. Ask advice?"

Karadis pointed her hand, index finger and thumb in a mock gun configuration, "Exxxxaaaactly!" she replied, "As you say, he's down but not out so they are technically still in charge. However, you have done well with what you've said so far, you've checked with engineering on the ships status, weapons, thought about how to get more power to the shields...though you could have told them to divert life support as well because even though it gets shut down, there's enough air on the ship for a few hours without it actually running. You've had scans made for any other Federation vessels in the area and you've had someone contact the Warbird to ask why they're attacking the ship. So, I'm going to restart the programme again from this point, carry on."

"Computer, carry on with the programme" she said.

There was a bleep and the programme unfroze.

The ship rocked once more from the Romulan attack as Shon made her way quickly to the. XO. How are you feeling?" she asked as she scanned him once again. his injuries were not getting any worse. "I need advice on how to proceed Sir, I believe you have heard what is the continuing situation?"

"You've done well so far...Lieutenant" she replied, "but have engineering shut down life support and divert the power to the shields. Scan the immediate vicinity for any planets or asteroids big enough for us to hide behind. If there's a planet close, have engineering give you as much power as they can to the remaining working nacelle and head for it, take us down into the atmosphere, hopefully the Warbirds won't follow. If there's only the asteroids, again, have engineering give you as much power to the nacelle as they can and head for it. Drop the photon torpedo's, don't fire them, like mines with time delays, about fifteen seconds should be enough, the Warbirds are more than likely to follow you towards the asteroids and when they do, the torpedo's will be small enough not to be detected till it's to late."

"Aye sir, thank you. "If we shut down life support how long will we have until it becomes critical she asked herself. She hit the comm panel on the chair, "All crew to report to deck eight. We will be shutting down life support to all areas apart from there and the bridge. We will get through this people."

"Sir there is an L class planet in this system. the planet is toxic to human life but the atmosphere is Barianic gas."

Shon nodded. somewhere in her mind she remembered something about Barainic gas. she snapped her fingers. "engineering we are heading for an L class planet with an atmosphere of Barianic gas. Could this help hide the ship from the Romulans?"

"It can Sir, though it's a double edged sword, the Barainic gas could also effect the power output to our engines" the reply came back, "but, we could try reversing the filtering system of the damaged nacelle so it slow down the intake of the gas thus limiting the effect of the gas on the engines."

"Okay, do it." Helm set a course for the planet." Shon stood for a moment and breathed deeply trying to centre herself. "Shut down life support in three minutes to all areas apart from engineering and the bridge." The wounded ship began to limp towards the planet, the warbirds were now behind them. "Divert all shield strength to the stern of the ship. When we are about to enter the atmosphere explode two photon torpedoes astern."

"Con prepare a message buoy with our logs and navigational position for Starfleet. Launch just after the topedoes detonate."

Shon became calm and focused. "Helm take us in."

"Computer, pause programme" Karadis said.

==^==Programme paused==^==

"Again, you're doing well, you've taken onboard what the XO said and put your plan into place" she said to Shon, "however, there's two Warbirds so two torpedoes likely won't be enough to delay or damage them. A spread of torpedoes over a larger area would probably give you a better chance of damaging one if not both Warbirds."

"Computer, begin programme again" she commanded.

==^==Programme running==^== the computer replied.

The scene once again came to life. "Weapons, belay that last order and launch six torpedoes from our stern the minute we enter the atmosphere." The helpless ship moved slowly towards the planet despite the barrage of weapons fire from the Warbirds. "How are our shields?" she asked.

"Forty two percent and dropping Sir" the officer at Tactical reported, "torpedoes launched, timers for fifteen seconds."

"Twenty seconds to planets upper atmosphere Sir" Con reported, "but we're slowing down."

"BRIDGE, THIS IS ENGINEERING, POWERS DOWN TO SIXTY ONE PERCENT, WE'LL LOSE MORE UNLESS YOU CAN GET US TO THE PLANETS LOWER ATMOSPHERE NOW!!" came a blaring report through the ships Comm system."

"Lieutenant..." the XO whispered from where she lay, "all system shut down except engineering, we need to close the gap between the torpedoes exploding and entering the upper atmosphere. If we make it we can re-initialise, if we don't we're dead. Save the shhhhh...", and she was gone.

Wanting to rush over to try to save the XO Shon realised her priority. "Shut down all systems apart from engineering we must close the gap between the torpedos exploding and entering the upper atmosphere."

"Upper atmosphere in fifteen seconds Sir."

"Speed increasing." Torpedoes away on my order." Shon mentally began to count down.

"Ten seconds,"

"Five seconds"

Another salvo from the warbirds hit the ship. 4,3,2,1, Shon counted. "TORPEDOES AWAY." The ship shuddered slightly as the torpedoes left the ship. The ship entered the atmosphere just as the torpedoes exploded in multiple flashes of light. The debris from one warbird span into space as the ship cruised into the upper atmosphere of the planet. Shon breathed a sigh of relief and ran to the side of the XO.

"Leave her!" Karadis shouted, "you're now acting Captain, if you want someone to look at her, delegate, your job is to save the ship and it's crew!"

"Bridge, engineering, the filters working but we're at sixty percent power, whatever it is you're doing up there, make it work before we go into a spiral and can't get back out again" came through the Comm.

Shon nodded at Karadis but the life saver gene was hard to ignore. Back on track she looked around the bridge at the people looking back at her. "Ensign take the medical tricorder and assess the XO." She looked at Karadis and nodded.

"Con can we see what the Warbird is doing?" she asked.

"Yes sir, it's right behind us." Helm called.

How long before we hit the lower atmosphere?" Shon asked.

"Twelve seconds to lower atmosphere, the Warbirds ten seconds behind us and she's gaining" helm answered.

"Engineering I want as much speed as you can give me."

"Put her in a nose dive, the ships weight will add to the speed" Engineering replied.

"Helm put the ship in a nose dive an when I give the order level off and I want a hard aport."

"Tactical I want two torpedoes to detonate off the Warbirds starboard bow when I order."

"Yes Sir" Tactical replied.

"Helm begin twelve second countdown aloud."

"Countdown started....four, three, two, one"

The ship began to pick up speed...one....

“Helm level off, hard aport,

Tactical deploy torpedos!"

Shon had, by now forgotten that this was a simulation. She was soaking wet and her hair had come down. She looked up but in that second the torpedos detonated obscuring the view of the Warbird. They were already caught as the gravity of the lower atmosphere as it took them down. A couple of seconds later the Warbird exploded.

"Helm take us up out of here. Medical to the bridge, engineering, everyone good job."

Shon went and sat in the chair shaking.

"The ships not responding Sir, we can't pull out of the dive we're in, we're still heading down towards planet surface" Helm replied.

Surak will this hell never end! She thought. “Engineering we need something to ‘push us up’ would a warp plasma discharge detonated say about two hundred meters below us allow us to pull out of the dive we are in?”

"It would help us Sir, perhaps not pull us out but definitely allow us to attempt to level off" Engineering replied, "but all plasma drives and conduit systems were taken offline to give us more power to the shields...but...we could deploy a quantum torpedo and explode it below us, the torpedo's use plasma warheads you see. That could be enough to nudge us out of the dive we're in and level us out."

“Thank you Engineering, how low does the detonation have to be ?” “Helm as soon as the detonation happens level us out slowly.”

“Aye Sir” helm acknowledged.

"We can't make it to near to the ship for fear of damage to the hull, but we can't make it to far away as the plasma 'nudge' will dissipate to early" Engineering replied, "So about three hundred and fifty meters should be safe for us. We'll only get one try at this Sir as we're to close to the surface to launch and detonate a second quantum torpedo."

“Engineering how about three hundred meters?”

"That's a very fine margin Sir, I wouldn't recommend it, but it's your call" Engineering replied.

Shon’s heart missed a beat, her idea, if it worked it would mean the ship would have enough lift to leave the atmosphere but, should she go on the recommendations of the expert…..sometimes you must have to go for it! What was the human saying oh yes, fortune favours the bold, She thought.

“We will detonate at three hundred meters.” Shon said.

There was a slight pause from Engineering and then the reply, “very well Sir three hundred meters.”

“Loose torpedo,” she said feeling that everyone was holding their breath.

"Torpedo launched" Tactical reported, "detonation in four, three, two, one....now!"

There was nothing...then all hell broke loose. The ship bucked and buffeted from side to side, console's blew, crew were thrown from their seats and those who were standing found themselves pinballs, knocked here and there.

Shon was thrown from the chair.

“Damage reports coming in from all over the ship sir.”

“Helm pull NOW” Shon noticed the helm officer was on the floor so she stood and raced over. She had done this before so her fingers danced as she nursed the ship upwards. For a moment it did not look like it was going to work then the ship lurched upwards the ride becoming smoother as they progressed through the atmosphere back into normal space.
She helped the helm officer back into her seat.

“Bridge to engineering we are out.”

“Helm make best course and speed to Starbase Nineteen. Medical team to the bridge.”

Shon looked at Karadis silently pleading for it to end.

"Computer, end programme" Karadis said.

There was a chirrup and the scene around her and Shon cleared and was replaced by the simple holodeck surroundings.

Karadis looked at Shon, "Well, how do you think you did Lieutenant?"

Shon bent over and vomited, standing up she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. She looked awful, her hair usually beautifully quaffed hung down limply. Her uniform stuck to her in unbecoming wet patches. looking at Karadis she said, “if I have learnt anything from this Commander it is to listen to those members of the team who know better, but I got us through with everyone else working as a team. How do YOU think I did?” She asked.

"You didn't pick an XO" was Karadis simple reply.

"I don't understand Commander?" Shon said and she truly did not understand the remark.

"What would have happened if you'd become incapacitated at any point during the situations that happened with the Warbirds?" Karadis asked. "There would have been total confusion on the bridge, leading to delays in decisions, crucial seconds lost, seconds that could have given the Warbirds the time they needed to catch up with the ship and destroy it. Look, I'm not denying you coped very well, but as the Second Officer you 'must' be able to have an all round capacity to keep order and see to it things are in place to have a Command structure for every eventuality. Does that make sense to you?"

"Ah, that is something I did not think about but it makes perfect sense. I suppose you have to know your crew then, would you choose someone with rank?"

"That's where there's a grey area" Karadis replied, "technically speaking yes, the next most senior ranking officer is automatically the temporary 2XO or XO, however, you have to think about what's best for the ship, crew and the situation you find yourself in. You can field promote someone you trust to do the job instantly if it means they're of the same rank as someone who would automatically assume the role, but you don't trust to do it well."

"Thank you for your input Commander. Are we finished here?" I need a shower.

"So you think that's it, one scenario and you're done?" Karadis asked rhetorically, "very well, go and get showered and resume your duties. I'll report back to the Commodore on what I've seen here and he can then decide whether or not you need further mentoring."

She turned round and walked towards the doors of the holodeck which parted, allowing her to leave.

Shon stood there for a full minute in the glorious silence of the empty holodeck. The last thing she wanted was to see or talk to anyone until she had showered and meditated. Checking that sickbay could manage she finally left the holodeck for peace and quiet.

 

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