Mirror, signal, warp drive! (Part 2/2)

Posted on 26 May 2012 @ 8:42am by Captain Jonathan Holliday & Lieutenant Kiri Cho

2,161 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Episode 01 - Project Sienna
Location: USS Galileo - Holodeck 1
Timeline: MD 06 - 0030hrs

[Continued...]

"A little wobble but nothing to be concerned about if this was the real thing....warp field theory isn't the easiest thing to master on a ship that you've only just taken the helm of....I'm sure you can iron out those few glitches with a little more practice.....how does it feel sat behind that console to you Ensign?"

John suddenly realised that although he had made sure to acknowledge her capabilities, and also to ensure that he made both positive and negative comments on them where necessary, he had not yet found out if the young Ensign was even comfortable being sat where she was. Some people blossomed when put behind the wheel of a starship so to speak, whilst others found it the worst moments of their Starfleet careers.

Kiri turned her head, she gave the first officer a small smile, "It feels fine sir, I enjoy it." While that wasn't quite true, it was hard and the pressure was getting to her a little. Still she told herself that she should feel that way, that it was right. And it wasn't really unpleasant, failing was but the action itself was fine.

"Seems you might have a knack for piloting starships after all...now...would you feel comfortable with a little more...intensity...to your training? I have a few ideas up my sleeve, if you think now would be a good time to test out your piloting skills under fire..."

John smirked with a half nervous, and half mischevious glint in his eye. He knew that tactical piloting situations were always ones to be the most cautious about. Several times in the line of duty he had been forced to take the helm in a combat situation in order to replace an injured comrade, and every time he felt just as nervous and just as anxious as he had the first time. Part of him was considering completing the lesson here and turning in for the night, to let them both get some sleep, and pick it up again at another time, but the XO felt that this time at least, he would allow his student the choice.

There was no way Kiri would squander any time offered from the ships first officer, if he was willing she was. She didn't know if she was ready for it but if he thought so, then she would without question. Looking shyly up at him she nodded, "If you think I am ready sir," The ship would require a crew to do so, it would be more crowded in here. There were a lot of things to worry about relating to that, still she would do her best. She wanted to learn, improve her skills and impress the man behind her.

"Very well....we'll start off easily....just you, me, and the computer...granted the real thing would have half a dozen other officers on the Bridge....but I want you to be able to focus on what you're doing more than what the people around you are....."

Moving away from the helm, John quickly made his way to the central chair and sat down. For the sake of authenticity, he was going to "command" this mission himself.

"Computer....adjust program to reflect a standard combat scenario. In addition to the Galileo, add in two Jem'Hadar fighters in standard formation, approximately 500 million kilometres astern."

The computer bleeped dutifully, and suddenly the holoprogram shifted entirely, the previously calm and light Bridge becoming bathed in the deep red lights of a starship in combat, whilst the sensors suddenly replaced their earlier image of a region of space devoid of almost anything, to one suddenly inhabited by two hostile vessels.

"Very well Miss Cho, your mission is simple - keep us alive...you'll have a few seconds before the enemy come into weapons range....but luckily for you, you have an expert at tactical - me!"

Looking towards the holographic command terminal to the side of his chair, John quickly tapped a few controls to convert it from the stnadard interface to that of the tactical station, noting that weapons were fully charged and shields were at maximum, just as he had instructed the computer to do.

"Remember, don't panic, this is only a simulation...albeit a very real one...don't panic if things start going wrong...we're in no real danger....Computer. Begin program."

In her head Kiri ran quickly though the situation. They were not out gunned but outnumbered, the enemy were faster than they were at impulse. The attackers had stronger beam weapons but also couldn't fire on the broadside. Since the enemy could both move faster than them and were more manoeuvrable, she couldn't run away. That only left one option. In the scale of this battle, she was piloting the cruiser, they the nimble fighters. She had to close distance on them before they could separate. Ignoring the shield controls and weapons she just put her mind on piloting. As the range started to close, just before the enemy ships came into range she swung about to starboard. Pulling through the manoeuvre just as they had done before, she rolled the ship at the same time, only in reverse. Rather than bank away, she banked towards the enemy. It made the saucer section a bigger target, but almost all of the phaser banks would be open to fire. Her hope was that the dorsal shields would hold until she could turn away. If it was a fight to the death then she had to use all the power the little ship had.

Oddly she wasn't scared, or even that worried. She had been presented with a problem to solve, so far she had come up with a solution and started to implement it. But then she wasn't being fired at yet.

John had to admit, for an ensign fresh from the Academy, the young woman ahead of him wasn't doing too badly. He had deliberately made the scenario a little more difficult that originally intended, but he was all about pushing his students to their limits, and this certainly headed towards that end of the ball park. Watching the targeting sensors ahead of him, the XO saw the barrel roll taking place, a risky move, but it had made it perfect for a tactical officer, in this case, him, to get a full spread of weapons fire onto the enemy position.

Tapping a few commands, Holliday ordered the holographic Galileo to unleash it's fury, streaks of phaser energy followed by a spread of torpedoes from the forward launchers shot out into space. The more adaptable Jem'Hadar fighter managed to evade a couple of the phaser volleys, but he estimated at least 75% of his shots had hit their target, the smaller ship being all but obliterated as the sequence of quantum torpedoes finally caught up with them, and one target removed itsellf from his sensors.

"Not bad Ensign...one down one to go....I'd be careful though, they're getting pretty close to our aft."

As soon as John had finished his sentence, he watched as the small fighter managed to find it's way into weapons range, opening fire with its beam weapons almost instantaneously, shots smashing into the Nova-class shields, sending sparks flying from various consoles around the Bridge as the damage was registered on their sensors.

"Aft shields down to 78%....told you they were getting close"

That was one down, that was all she needed. Now she could evenly match if not out match the remaining fighter. All she had to do was stop it focusing on one area of the shields. It was getting harder to focus though, she was damaging the ship by her actions. Even if it wasn't real, she was responsible. She had to do better. Adjusting the structural integrity to the extremities to the ship to maximum she took another gamble. Firing all forward ventral thrusters and all rear dorsal thrusters. Pivoting the nose of the ship upwards as fast as possible. The action forced her down tight into her seat as she left the inertial dampeners as standard. The entire idea though was to bring more weapons to bare on the target. With a struggle to move her fingers now she also started to thrust to starboard at the rear, to bring the aft section away from weapons fire. She was also starting to lose control though, so many actions at once. The ship was also starting to strain, she couldn't keep it up for long.

The Galileo, even in holographic form, was managing to impress the relatively silent XO, he had no idea how quickly these little Nova class starships were capable of moving, that said when you had substantially weaker offensive and defensive systems to the majority of the fleet, you had to have an advantage coming from somewhere. The quick moving of their vessel however was not making John's life easy. Trying to get a weapons lock was becoming almost impossible at times as the phaser arcs moved in and out of range, evidenced from the half a dozen phaser volleys that seemed to disappear to the aft of the starship and hit nothing but stellar dust.
In fact, the rate of movement was making John a little apprehensive, he had a good idea what kind of strain the little starship would be under, and he knew that if they weren't careful, someone was going to make a mistake eventually.

"Slow it down Ensign....it's not a race...we wanna survive without being splattered against the bulkhead by a sudden acceleration....we need to get behind that last vessel.....try pulling straight up....we can loop behind them and I can get them with phasers....just watch our pitch, move too sharply and you'll tear the nacelles right off!"

Kiri knew she was pushing it, but she thought it was okay, it wasn't beyond possible limits. With what she was doing though Kiri was already ahead of the XOs orders. She had brought the ship upright already, firing the reverse manoeuvring thrusters on her previous move she slowed the turn down. It would be a few seconds more before she would have slowed enough to push the ship properly into the loop. In her head she was telling herself she had gone too far, next time she had to be less panicked. It didn't feel like she was going to lose this right now. Even with the damage they had taken.

Watching the sensor readouts, John could see that it might not have been the most perfect loop ever executed by a starship pilot, but for an ensign in the science department, it was still more than suitable. In fact it had resulted in pretty much the perfect situation, the Jem'Hadar vessel, having moved at full impulse, had managed to shoot straight underneath the Galileo and end up a few thousand kilometres ahead - all the room that John needed.

Locking on with the speed that only a seasoned officer could achieve, he deftly pressed down on the firing controls, watching as streams of orange phaser energy burst forth from the forward emitters, condemning the small fighter to nothing more than dust.

"Nicely done....a little bit of lateral drift but that's just something that practice irons out.....I think for a first lesson, that's more than sufficient....anyway I know I could at least do with getting some downtime before morning - staff briefings are more tiring than you might think.....ready to call it a night Ensign?"

Kiri took that as a rather big hint, she had done well and he wasn't scolding her. She was happy, it wasn't as bad as she thought, she needed to practice though. Plotting her scheduled she had started to build up a little holodeck time to use. It would be a good use of it, turning she spoke softly, "Very well sir, thank you for your time. I will make sure to practice before our next lesson." Still sitting down she looked to him, looking for any final recognition.

" I look forward to the next one - you know where to find me Ensign. Computer, end program" John smiled to his younger colleague, watching around him as the holographic starship dissolved back into the yellow striped of the Federation Holodeck.

Kiri stood up as the chair under her started to disappear, with a contented smile she nodded her head, "Yes sir." Standing almost to attention until he left she let out a deep breath when the door closed after him. She had done well, very well, better than she thought she would. Feeling happier than she had in a while she checked her uniform before heading back to her room. A late night but one well spent.

[OFF]
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ENS Kiri Cho
Science Officer/Sensor Specialist
USS Galileo

Lt Cmdr John Holliday
Executive Officer
USS Galileo

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