It's Time... part 3

Posted on Tue Nov 21st, 2023 @ 2:22pm 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

1,978 words; about a 10 minute read

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

“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.”

==Blackeagle Bridge==

The Blackeagle’s sensor array picked up the change in local space. That information was relayed to the operations console, which in turn, beeped for attention. Jaal studied the readout deciphering the information that was now displayed. “Commander, they’re coming after us.”

Knowing Kilbane was an analyst, he added a small tactical display in the lower right-hand corner of the main view screen which enabled anyone looking to see the course, speed, weapons range, and time to intercept the two enemy targets along with their own weapons range.

Kilbane was glad to see the tactical display Jaal had put up onscreen, and turning to him mouthed ‘thank you’ and gave a quick single thumb up.

Turning back to the screen, he tried not to think of this as an upcoming fight with the Cardassians, but more of an analysis of how one would avoid capture, and at the same time, utilise the surroundings to gain the upper hand. He mentally calculated the time difference of the firing threshold between both parties, the shielding they had against the Cardassian's phaser capability and the distance the Blackeagle had to cover to get into the cloud.

“Reverse engines, half impulse power, NOW!” he said to Jaal.

Jaal blew out the breath he'd been holding as his hands did their dance on the console. The inertial dampeners held but he swore he felt the ship move suddenly backwards.

[T’vAR]

To his complete astonishment, Gul Sar watched on through his viewing glass as the Federation ship began coming back towards the Cardassian ships.

“What are they doing?” he asked out loud, not comprehending why they weren’t trying to outrun his ship.

“Lock phasers and fire!” he yelled.

“We can’t yet Gul, they’re out of range” the Glinn replied, “Recalculating firing point now.”

[Blackeagle Bridge]

“Full impulse on my mark…” Kilbane said, holding his arm up. This would be close, he hoped he had calculated it right, “…mark!!”

Jaal inhaled sharply as the Blackeagle obeyed his commands. He was ready to route power to offensive systems as now he thought he had an idea of what Kilbane was planning.

[T’vAR]

“Have you locked phasers yet???” Sar shouted at the Glinn.

“Not yet Gul, they’ve increased their speed to full impulse, recalculating again!” the Glinn replied hastily.

[Blackeagle Bridge]

If Kilbane was right, they had closed the gap between themselves and the lead Keldon ship to within their own ship’s firing range.

“Lock phaser on that lead ship, fire phasers, and launch a photon torpedo spread…”

"Aye Commander," with a practiced flourish Jaal routed power to the targeting sensors, phaser banks, and torpedo launchers. Powerful orange lances leapt and struck the Cardassian vessel followed by Kilbane's requested torpedo spread.

Kilbane watched as the lead Keldon ship took the full force of their attack, its shields collapsed and the photon torpedoes slammed their hull, causing horrendous damage.

“Let’s get out of here and into that cloud, the second Keldon ship won’t make the same mistake as the first!”

"Aye," he answered again as once more, his hands worked their magic on the console. Jaal took the Blackeagle into the cloud following a course that made it difficult for the other ship to target them.

As the Blackeagle got to the fringe of the cloud, Kilbane tapped his COMM badge “Kilbane to McCrudden, we’re about to enter the cloud, follow the plan we had before, Kilbane out.”

[Main Engineering]

Jock looked at his engineers “Ok, you lot, as usual, it’s up to us to get the ship out of the shit. Once the engines cut, drop the port side landing strut and open the aft vents…let’s get to it!” he finished, clapping his hands quickly and shooing them on.

[Bridge]

Kevin Kilbane wasn’t a believer in any deity, but there were times when he wished he did, and this was one of those times.

~If you exist, God, get us through this, I’ll do whatever penance you want…~ he thought to himself.

The Blackeagle entered the Berion cloud, and within seconds, lights began flickering, readout panels shut down and the main viewer went blank. Now it was down to McCrudden and his engineers.

[2nd Keldon ship bridge]

Gul, the Federation ship is entering the cloud boundary” the Glinn reported.

“Follow them in!” Gul T’Oll replied.

“Gul, if we go in after them, our shields and weapons will be useless and our engines will be affected,” the Glinn said.

“FOLLOW…THEM…IN, THAT’S AN ORDER GLINN!!!” T’Oll shouted.

“Yes Gul” the Glinn replied, following the same course as the Federation ship.

[Blackeagle]

Suddenly the engines died, and there seemed an eerie silence as everything went dark. A couple of seconds later, emergency lighting from the ship’s battery reserve came on. Kilbane has calculated it would take them about two minutes to complete the arc round and use the maneuvering thrusters to get back out.

It seemed like an eternity, but finally, lights began flickering on consoles again, and the main lights came back on.

“Well done McCrudden you crusty old electrician!” Kilbane said out loud, fist thumping the arm of the Captain’s chair.

“Right, aft torpedoes, fire them into the cloud!” Kilbane said.

Jaal let out another held breath as he touched one button on his board. “Torpedos away Sir,” he called out loud.This is going really well… or it’s going to turn to shit, he thought to himself. “I think we should brace ourselves…”

Kilbane watched as the torpedoes sped on their way.

“Let’s get the hell out of here, we need to find the Capta…” he began to say, then the ship stopped dead.

“What the fuck…” he said, hitting his COMM badge.

“McCrudden, what the hell’s happening, get the engines going damn it!” he shouted.

The sound of a lot of shouting, orders, replies, and more shouting came back. Then McCrudden's voice came through “It’s residual matter from the Berion cloud Commander, it’s affected the engines, we’re dead in the water, and the engines need purging. All main systems are affected, engines, weapons, and shields!”

Kilbane looked around. The main viewer was working again and it was tracking the photon torpedoes as they entered the cloud.

With no engines to get them out of the way, and no shields to protect them, they were helpless.

“Oh…my…God…” he said, then there was a blinding flash as the Berion cloud ignited…

This is gonna hurt, “ Jaal thought silently as the shockwave hit the ship.

Almost every alarm on the operations panel lit up as the Blackeagle was pushed forward and seemingly up the Z axis. Jaal struggled to keep the ship from falling into a spin as best he could with only maneuvering thrusters which wasn’t much considering the power of the blast. Through the rocking and shaking going on, he offered the report, “IF the inertial dampeners don’t fail, they’d probably be all right if a little singed in the aft. I’m trying to ride the shockwave.”

Even though he tried holding onto the middle chair for dear life, Kilbane was thrown bodily across the bridge, colliding with the chair at the science station. It knocked the wind out of him and he struggled to catch his breath. Managing to get up, he was about to speak when the ship bucked again, throwing him backward into the science station console. As he collided with it, sparks flew as the console overloaded, he had no chance of getting out of the way. He screamed as the electrical surge entered his body, and then threw him back onto the deck.

Karadis, who was nearest him, managed to crawl over and ascertain how he was, but she couldn’t find a pulse.

She smacked her COMM badge “Karadis to Sickbay, Kilbanes been badly injured, he’s not breathing, get some up here now!”

Karadis looked round at those on the bridge, who was going to step up…

[ Main Sickbay ]

Kell finished dispatching the third team, knowing they couldn't accommodate the myriad of injuries that would otherwise come pouring in. The sickbay comm agent would direct anyone calling to their nearest EMS location. The teams were already en route to the Emergency Medical Supply kits.

=/\= "Asaa to the bridge. I've dispatched my teams out, I'm headed to the bridge myself."=/\= She kept the other comments running through her head, knowing they wouldn't be constructive, but she would enjoy venting later...


[ Bridge ]

Kell strong-armed the turbo-lift doors open, at least enough to get her and her EMS pack through. It didn't take much to locate Kilbane. There were others obviously nursing injuries, but none seemed serious as she did the triage in her head and continued towards the acting captain.

"Give me some room. Who's driving this thing?" She could see movement in her peripheral but she focused mostly on her patient and her probe results. She looked around, letting the scowl on her face indicate the results weren't great to anyone watching. Her eyes narrowed as she took note of the empty chair in the middle, her hands continuing to work.

"The commander will be down for a bit, but not totally critical. I need some time to knit some bones and we'll be testing Kilbane's pain threshold before it's done. Are we in the clear?" Kell knew she didn't wanna hear the answer... She read the occasional report from the other medical stations as she worked, but she needed to plan...

"Al... most... got it," Jaal's strained voice came from the operations console near the front of the bridge. The main viewscreen showed a swirling of stars and gas as the Blackeagle slowly regained control and a level flight path. The Trill forced himself to remember 'don't watch the screen, watch your console' to keep from making himself ill with vertigo.

"We're almost leveled off... once we're out of the cloud we should be able to engage the impulse drive once McCrudden gives us the all-clear. I hope he's not having too bad of a time down there."

Karadis was glad to see that Commander Kilbane was breathing again.

“When you say ‘not truly critical’ Lieutenant” Karadis said to Kell “how bad is he?”

Kell sighed, running her probe again. "He'll be unconscious for at least... 3 hours... Then it'll be up to him. If he can handle it, I have a couple of options, depending on whether he's planning to resume command, or only be semi-functional so he heals faster. I'll be frank, he was on a threshold just now, but he was lucky, and I was fast enough. I need some time with my equipment in sickbay to repair some internal damage that I can't do with this mobile kit, but he's out of danger... assuming we keep the sharp turns to a minimum." She half-smiles over her shoulder at Jaal.

[Main Engineering]

Having been tossed about like a raggedy doll, Jock McCrudden picked his bruised and sore body off the deck and called out “Did the engine purge cycle complete it’s run?”

“Aye Sir, cycle complete, looks like we’ve managed to get the Berion residue cleaned out, we’re restarting the engines now” his Second in Command replied.

A few seconds later, the dilithium chamber began humming and the azure blue haze of the engine matrix came online. A smile appeared on Jocks lips, his baby was back.

“McCrudden to the bridge, engines are back online, all systems should be working again, but we’ll run diagnostics as we go, out.”

TBC...

 

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