It's Time... Part 2

Posted on Tue Nov 21st, 2023 @ 2:20pm by Lieutenant Commander Jaal Jaxom & Commodore Finchley Kerr & Lieutenant Kell Asaa Dr & Lieutenant T'Lira Sh'Karra & Lieutenant Commander Isabelle Savette & Lieutenant Commander Kevin Kilbane & Commander Shr'Nesh Karadis
Edited on on Sat Dec 9th, 2023 @ 12:56am

2,657 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Investigate the Chintoka Shipyard Buildup
Location: USS Blackeagle
Timeline: current

==USS Blackeagle, Bridge==

Kilbane turned towards Isabelle “It’ll need to be quick Lieutenant” he said, gesturing towards the Captain’s Ready Room.

Isabelle nodded, heading to the Ready Room she stepped inside waiting for the door to close behind them. “I’ll get straight to the point, are you ready for this? For Command? You were totally unsure of yourself out there, if you need a sounding board, someone to talk to, that’s what I’m here for.” She offered an understanding smile.

“To be honest, no I’m not” Kilbane replied “As I said out there, I’m an analyst and soldier, not a bridge officer. As you’re aware, each person reacts to their situation with the tools they have at hand. I don’t have the ‘making the right bridge Commanding Officer decision’ tool, so having a sounding board would be helpful, I appreciate that. At the same time Lieutenant, when I make a decision, I expect it to be followed and not questioned.”

“Of course Commander” Isabelle nodded. “I wouldn’t question your authority in front of the crew. May I ask what you intend to do regarding the behavior Chief Karadis showed out there?”

“You won’t question my authority at all Lieutenant, in front of the crew or in private” Kilbane replied “I appreciate you offering to help me. I may not have bridge nuance, but all officers who serve there have to start somewhere, including you. Let’s just say my tutorial is just beginning and I intend to be an astute fast learning student. The Captain placed his trust in me, I won’t let him down. As for CWO, I’ll deal with her in my own way, and believe me, humiliation and humble pie will be served up to her in buckets.”

“Understood Sir” Isabelle nodded. “In that case let’s get back to work.” She smiled warmly.

Kilbane was about to reply when his COMM badge chirruped “McCrudden to the bridge, the shit’s about to hit the fan, the cloaks failing, it’ll be down in thirty seconds!!”

“What about our other systems?” Kilbane asked, his eyes widening as he looked at Isabelle.

“For now, nothing else is affected” McCrudden replied.

Kilbane looked a little lost “Suggestions Lieutenant?”

Isabelle gave it a moment's thought. “Are there any asteroids within close proximity that we can use as cover until we sort this sort out?”

Kilbane ran out into the bridge and over to the nearest console. Bringing up the star map of the local area, he said “No asteroids, but there’s a Berion cloud, but the problem with that is it could affect our shields. The plus side is that if any of the Keldon class ships follow us in, their shields will be affected too.”

He looked around the bridge “Ok, how would we, as an Akira class stack up in a dog fight against a Keldon class…anyone?”

Jaal strode onto the bridge just in time to hear the question, "From what I've been able to gather, Keldon's concentrate their firepower in their forward an aft weapons arrays. If we can come at them amidships and avoid being in the fore and aft array's firing arcs, we should be able to get out relatively unscathed..." He took his seat at the operations console calling up the most recent data on the Blackeagle's status, "Also, two shuttles are prepped and ready to head to SFIHQ with the data on the time ship as ordered Captain."

“Get the shuttles launched,” Kilbane said “Make sure they have trackers on them though, because if we come through this, I’ll want to know if either of them make it through.”

Jaal's hands did their dance along the console inputting the specifications Kilbane requested. "Shuttles away Captain. They go to warp in sixty seconds."

“Very good Mr. Jaxom” Kilbane replied “Let’s hope one of them makes it.”

“McCrudden to bridge, the cloaks failed, we’re visible now, so if you have a plan to save us, now would be the time to get it done!”

“Eh, right…” Kilbane began falteringly, “Let’s make for the Berion cloud, see if both ships follow us or if they split up.”

Jaal did his best to recall what he knew about Berion. There had to be some advantage they could take to aid their escape. "Berion..." he whispered to himself, "berion... berion? ... BERION!"

Kilbane waited to see if there was a follow-up on Jaal’s thinking.

"Captain," Jaal turned in his chair to face Kilbane, "I have to suggest closing off our bussard scoops. We don't want Berion getting into our own systems. It's a hydrogen derivative that will shut down our impulse and warp drive."

“I’d rather be referred to as Commander, we already have a Captain,” Kilbane said “and I’m perfectly happy for you to do that Lieutenant, just make sure we get into it before the Cardassians have us sighted!”

Isabelle sat quietly watching the goings on, her senses would come in handy once they were inside the cloud.

Tapping his COMM Kilbane said “Kilbane to McCrudden, there’s a Berion cloud not far away, with the cloak failing we’re heading into it.”

In Main Engineering, Chief Engineer Jock McCrudden looked up in horror, “Is he fucking kidding me!!!”

Smacking his COMM badge he said “If you do that, our engines will be useless as will our shields. We’ll have no power for phasers or photon torpedoes, what bloody good is that you moron!”

Back on the bridge, Kilbane took a breath and then replied “Yes, we all know that, thank you. However, it will even up the odds if any ship follows us in…just do your best to protect the ship as you can. Be ready for any additional orders, Kilbane out.”

It was at that point that the Blackeagle’s cloak gave out.

“Report!” Kilbane demanded.

Replying calmly, considering the circumstances, Jaal answered, "Cloak is down, we are forty-five seconds to entering the Berion cloud, both Cardassian ships are following us so far, at their present course and speed will intercept us in one minute thirty seconds. Sensors indicate they're charging their forward weapon arrays. We won't be in their weapon's range until we're inside the cloud."

“What about the launch of the shuttles, aren’t any of the Cardassian ships going after them?” Kilbane asked.

Jaal consulted his console while tapping a few keys. His brow knits in concentration, "The Berion is beginning to interfere with our sensors... The two Cardassian ships we detected are still on course to intercept us..." He looked back at Kilbane, "The shuttles went to warp, right now I can't tell if anything is following them. If we get out of the cloud, I might be able to detect an impulse trail or a warp signature that would indicate if they were followed by another ship. I'm afraid that's the best I can do at the moment."

“Once we’re inside the cloud, what then, how do know the Cardassians won’t just send one ship in and leave one outside its boundary?” Kilbane asked.

“We have to ensure both of their ships come in after us, but how?”

Knowing what he knew about tactics, Jaal thought there were two possibilities. One, both enemy ships would come after the bigger target figuring both shuttles were decoys or... Two, one would come after Blackeagle and one would go after the shuttles. Cardassians were not stupid but they did have large egos. It was entirely possible both Cardassian captains were vying for the bragging rights of capturing an enemy ship this far inside their territory.

It was a serious gamble and there was only one way to know for sure.

"We either stay in the cloud or we have to go back out and let the sensors get a look," Jaal stated.

Kilbane was thinking fast, trying to use his skills as an analyst to think of the best solution. The main engines would go offline, yes, but there would possibly still be a way to move the ship, albeit excruciatingly slowly.

Hitting his COMM badge he said, “Kilbane to McCrudden, cut our speed so that we enter the Berion cloud just out of range of the Cardassian's weapon range. Once inside, try as best you can to guide us in an arc that’ll bring us round and back towards open space. Don’t worry if we can’t make the perimeter, just so long as you can get us around.”

In Main Engineering, McCrudden threw his arms up in the air at the order, but didn’t question it, he simply replied, “Aye Sir…”

Turning to his charges he said “Right, you heard the man, let’s get this big bastard to try and turn. Once we hit the cloud, drop the port side landing strut and open the aft vents as well, let’s hope it’ll be enough to make us turn.”

Back on the bridge, Kilbane said “This will take careful timing, I need a countdown on the maximum firing range of those Keldons against us slowing down on the approach to the cloud’s perimeter. ‘If’ we can time it right and ‘if’ our Chief Engineer can get us turned, we can manually use firing thrusters to move back out of the cloud. By the time the Cardassians figure out we’re no longer in there, it’ll be too late for them. Once we get main power back online, we can fire into the cloud, igniting it and taking those ships out.”

He looked around the bridge for affirmation that his suggestion at least had merit.

“So we’re sneaking out of the cloud as they’re going in, “ Jaal surmised. Not exactly the way he would have done it, but it would work. He began entering a request on his console. In the lower left-hand corner of the main viewer a countdown clock appeared, “There’s our countdown Commander, provided our friends haven’t changed their course or speed. Sensors are really spotty now until we’re back outside the cloud.”

Kilbane turned to Jaal, anger beginning to show “You think we’re sneaking out of the cloud Lieutenant???”

Jaal turned in his chair to face Kilbane, holding his ground in a professional manner he answered, "Sir, tactically speaking, it would be prudent to not give away our position just yet. Until we get more sensor data, we can only conclude we're outnumbered at the moment."

“We know there are two ships” Kilbane began his reply, “Chances are they’re a patrol group, we’re not going to give our position away, that’s already been taken care of by the damned cloak giving out on us. They’ll have picked us up on sensors the moment we decloaked, and my guess is that as has been mentioned, one or both of their Captain will want to capture us. That’s why we’re trying to lure them into the cloud. We can’t hope to defeat them in combat, they’re just too powerful, but we can…”

Snapping his fingers he said, “Lieutenant Savette, are you able to get a reading on either of the ships, any kind of feelings as to how they’re reacting?”

Isabelle nodded. “I’m sensing them loud and clear Sir, they’re not going anywhere anytime soon. It wouldn’t surprise me if further reinforcements arrive to join them.

“Which means we’ll have to entice them to come after us” Kilbane replied.

He tapped his COMM badge, “Chief McCrudden, full stop, now!”

In Main Engineering, Jock McCrudden didn’t even question the order, he’d long since given up trying to interpret what was happening on the bridge, “Aye Sir, full stop being initiated.”

The Blackeagle came to a slow halt, merely kilometers from the cloud boundary.

Kilbane looked at those on the bridge around him “I don’t expect any of you to agree with this, but we don’t have time for debate. If those two Keldon ships hold their position and wait for reinforcements, we’re done. It’ll take them a moment or two to try and decide why we’ve stopped, but I’m willing to bet that it’ll be too much of a temptation for both of their Captains to think they can capture us now that we have. We’re going to give them the opportunity to get within phaser range a fire a volley at us. True, when inside the cloud, our shields will be useless, but we’re still outside it. I firmly believe our shields will hold, even if both of their ships fire on us. Once they’ve fired their volley, we’ll move slowly into the cloud and follow our original plan to get back out. Lieutenant Jaxom, see if you can squeeze any more power from non-essential systems and divert it to our shields. Lieutenant Asia, set up a triage here on the bridge, and coordinate with your staff to set up similar in all essential departments. Lieutenant Savette, try and keep checking on the Cardassians, I want a read on their reactions at all times, let me know if they start having doubts about what we’re doing, we can use that. Lieutenant Sh’Karra, have Security posted to all essential areas, they may try and force us away from the cloud and board us.”

He turned finally to Karadis. Raising his arm back the way, he backhanded her across her face “And you, don’t ever question my orders on the bridge again, next time I’ll kill you…understand!”

Karadis eyes widened and her head snapped back. She slowly began growling and wiped the smeared blood from her broken nose away with her hand. Baring her teeth, she replied “Yes…Sir, never on the bridge again.”

She took a step back and said “Just remember, we won’t always be on the bridge…”

Jaal's lips made a small 'o' as he heard the slap reverberate across the bridge. He kept his gaze to his control board. Sure, Karadis could have been more diplomatic and professional when telling Kilbane about her concerns. In turn, Kilbane could have handled that differently as well. 'Here we go,' he thought to himself while his hands glided over his console redirecting power all over the ship to fortify their shields and also making ready to direct that power to Blackeagle's offensive systems when needed.

When his display showed the results of his efforts he reported, "Shields at one hundred twenty-one percent Sir."

Isabelle was surprised by the slap, she couldn’t say she agreed with Kilbane’s way of handling the situation, but she wasn’t going to confront him about it here. She would, however, talk to him in private about it when time allowed.

[ Medical Bay ]

Kell cleaned up and sent a report to the acting captain, advising all treatments were complete and all hands were available. She followed up with her department, preparing for rough seas...


[Keldon Class, T’vAR]

“Gul, the Federation vessel has come to a full stop,” the Glinn said.

Gul Sar switched on his viewing glass and saw that their prey had indeed come to a halt. ~What are they doing?~ he thought to himself, ~they’re within reach of the Berion cloud, why stop?~

“Status of their weapons?” Sar demanded.

“They haven’t charged their phasers or armed their photon torpedoes Gul” the Glinn replied.

“How long till the battle group arrives?” Sar asked.

“Four time periods Gul” the answer came back.

“Too long, too long…” Sar said softly.

“Send to Gul T’Oll. We are attacking the Federation ship, they can’t be allowed to enter the Berion cloud. Follow us in attack pattern Jatus.”

TBC...

 

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