Kobayashi Maru (Part 2 of 5)

Posted on 17 Feb 2015 @ 6:11pm by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Commander Norvi Stace & Lieutenant Olsam Mott & Lieutenant Asahi Kita & Ensign Jaana Voutilainen
Edited on on 19 Feb 2015 @ 4:15pm

2,506 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Episode 07 - Sojourn
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 5, Holodeck 1
Timeline: MD 43 - 1030 hrs

[CONTINUED]

"We're approaching the Gamma Hydra system, sir," Olsam said, referring to the display that gave the position of the ship relative to their destination.

"Drop out of warp, Lieutenant."

"Right... Drop out of warp," Olsam said, eyeing the console like it was his worst enemy. It definitely wasn't the 'eject warp core' button. Hadn't it been somewhere on the left? Disengage warp engines, disengage warp engines...must be around here some-...ah, there it is. He kept an eye on the main display on the navigation console and disengaged the warp engines to drop the ship well within the system's outer asteroid belt but just short of its first major planet.

As the exaggerated movement of stars dropped off the viewscreen, the outermost planet came into view along with the system's Class G star, which at this distance looked like a tiny bright orb. Olsam double-checked the ship's sensor data against the navigational computer to make sure they were, in fact, inside the Gamma Hydra system and not somewhere far distant. Astrometrics were by no means his strong suit but it appeared they were where they thought they were relative to where they had been. Mostly.

Sipping her hot chocolate while casually watching the crew's inputs on their controls, Lirha tapped a few keystrokes into her console to queue up the next event in the simulation. So far they had managed to make it to their destination in one piece, thankfully, which was a good start. And an accidental warp core ejection had been averted, which was also a relief.

From the Ops station on the bridge, a loud repeating chirp suddenly began to sound from the console signalling an incoming priority communique.

"Captain," T'Vanna suddenly announced, while interrupting the chirp, "we are receiving a priority one message."

As soon as the trilling communique resounded about the bridge, Norvi's heart started. She awaited the ensign's call and then cleared her throat. "Let's hear it, Ensign Murray."

"It's heavily distorted ma'am," T'Vanna said as she worked to clear it up. "It's from the Kobayashi Maru, they're under attack."

"Open a channel, Ensign. Kobayashi Maru, this is Captain Norvi Stace of the USS Antares. We are here to assist you." Turning to face the helm, Stace looked over to Mott. "Plot an intercept course, Lieutenant. ETA?"

Olsam frowned and plotted in the intercept course, which was a lot simpler than he ever assumed it would be. He programmed the computer to engage the engines, made sure it had followed his command, then turned his chair around to object. "But, No-...er... Captain. The Kobayashi Maru is in the Federation-Klingon Neutral Zone; crossing the border puts us in direct violation of the Treaty of Organia. Shouldn't we attempt to notify Starfleet, or the Klingon High Command?"

"Maintain course and heading, Mr. Mott." Stace, through her previous host Janel had sent his crew into danger numerous times. And it never got any easier. She knew, in her heart of hearts, that she had to save the twenty souls on that civilian vessel. Or at least attempt to. They didn't sign up for conflict with the Klingons and so every effort, to her mind, should be taken to assist.

Suddenly, as if slipping back into an old pair of cozy slippers that she hadn't worn throughout the summer, Stace began to bark orders as if it were second nature. "Ensign Murray, ready the transporters to get them out as soon as we're in range. Ensign Voutilainen, continuous scans of any Klingon activity. And Lieutenant Kita, pull up all known data on the vessel."

Jaana did as requested and actually felt good when she noticed that the last hours she spent on learning for this test actually worked. "Scanning area for Klingon activity,"Her confidence slowly got better as the scan was running.

Brow raising at the console, Asahi frowned. "Ma'am, it's a class-3 neutronic fuel carrier... that's..." He trailed off, concentrating on the readings in front of him.

"No Klingon activity present" Jaana said as the initial details came in on her console. At least running scans had some similarity with her normal work.

"Ensign Murray, how much fuel is on board?"

"Fuel ma'am?" T'Vanna queried curiously then recomposed herself. "They have one thousand cubic tons of fuel on board, and they have multiple hull breaches."

"Damn," Stace muttered under her breath as the blinking dot on her command console slowly moved closer. "Ensign Murray, increase power to the engines! I want to get in, get them out and back into Federation space before we get caught on the wrong side of the border.

T'Vanna floundered for a moment but quickly went to work. "Power re-distribution complete," she reported, "I have taken power from non-essential areas and have rerouted them towards engineering.

"Maintain course and and increase speed to maximum, Mr. Mott."

"Captain, we should, uh...I mean, would you like me to notify Sickbay to prepare for incoming casualties?" Olsam asked, flicking his eyes from Norvi to the observation booth and back. He was supposed to be manning the helm, he knew, but it was hard to just switch off the doctor inside of him. With life support failing on board the Kobayashi Maru and possible contamination from neutronic fuel there would be specific steps the sickbay staff would need to make to treat the injuries they were likely to face, and the difference between being prepared and unprepared to do so would likely cost/save lives.

"Absolutely," Stace called out, tapping hapless into her readout. "And notify all three transporter rooms that we have incoming casualties and possible contamination. I want all three manned and working their damned hardest to get them out of there!"

"Message relayed," T'Vanna reported stoically.

The bridge fell silent for a moment, and Norvi felt her belly lurch. It was odd. Sitting in the captain's chair but with new eyes. No longer a seasoned commander, she was fresh with new ideals and new values, but with the added experiences and collective thoughts of those that had lived before her. Some mistakes were worth making again, and some one had to hold on fast to as a universal truths, unchanging across the Symbiont's generations. Whether this was a simulation or not, the memory of doing this for real was tightly attached to her mind, like a forgotten dream that ripped you from your slumber. She took in a breath and then gripped the armrests.

Asahi stole a moment to glance over at the others in the simulation. They were all clearly out of their element, except Norvi potentially. It may have only been a simulation, but the engineer could feel the nervousness in the room. He didn't need to be an empath to detect that.

T'Vanna stood stiffly at OPS, obviously not really in her element. She felt nervous, and she didn't like that particular feeling.

Meanwhile in the observation booth, Lirha was busy monitoring several displays at once while jotting down notes on two different PADDs. It was easy for her to simply replay the scenario and get a detailed debrief, but her specific thoughts and opinions of the crew's actions at the exact time they were occurring was even more important to her and warranted its own special attention.

She glanced over at her situational awareness display and noticed the Antares had just entered the Neutral Zone -- well, 'violated' was perhaps the more correct term, and it was now time for the most difficult portion of the simulation. Lirha tapped a few commands into her main terminal to begin the next sequence.

A loud warning klaxon began to sound from the Tactical console, this time signaling a much more grave situation.

As a first reaction, the Vulcan woman clapped her hands over her sensitive ears, then muted the alarm. "Captain!" she called out, "we have crossed into the Neutral Zone!"

The alert from the tactical console brought Olsam's attention to the viewscreen out of instinct. When something was going wrong you wanted to see the situation yourself, not necessarily view it through sensor readings. It took him only a moment to satisfy his curiosity - the tell-tale signs of a ship dropping cloak appeared before them, slowly revealing a Klingon ship like a far-distant mirage.

"Klingon K'tinga-class battlecruiser decloaking off the starboa-...no, wait...port... Three Klingon battlecruisers at port, fore and starboard!" Olsam practically screeched. In his excitement, he'd shouted over the officer at tactical to relay the information being produced by his console.

Jaana shot him a look that could have killed him. "Just shut up will you," she yelled at him. "Three Klingon K'Tinga battlecruisers deloaking." She tabbed the console to get a more detailed view on the ships. "They're assuming attack formation."

The agile ships quickly moved to assume an attack position, prompting the Bolian to call up the navigation menu's pre-programmed list of evasive maneuvers and also plot an escape course while speaking to Norvi over his shoulder. He'd heard Ensign Voutilainen, of course, and recognized on some level that it was her responsibility to call out the tactical information in the scenario but with the combination of excitement and too many holodeck programs where he was the center of attention, Mott just couldn't help himself. "They're charging weapons, captain!"

Stace gripped the armrest in anxious anticipation, her finger nails embedding themselves into the leather upholstery. She swallowed hard and then shot a glance over to Murray. "Ensign, divert power from the engines to the shields and get them up!" At the this moment, a dark realisation entered her mind: Protect your crew at all costs. She looked over to the Antares icon on her small console as Murray worked. She knew that raising the shields was deemed as an offensive and defensive action but she admitted that she had no choice. Above those of the freighter, the lives of her crew were her priority.

"Power diverted ma'am, shields are at maximum."

"We're being fired on, ma'am," Jaana said while keeping her eyes fixed on the console in front of her. "Both energy and projectile," she summed up what was going their direction.

Between the explosions on the bridge, Norvi ducked and shielded her face from the fiery sparks. She leaned forward and bellowed her orders to Mott. "Evasive manoeuvres, Olsam. Keep us on course for the Kobayashi Maru!"

Olsam worried his console was going to explode and kill him. That always seemed to happen at the helm. How many helmsman had he pronounced dead on arrival? Five? Ten? So many he'd lost count. It was just a simulation, he reminded himself, but he still didn't want to die from a console explosion. He should die in glorious hand-to-hand combat, struck down by a Klingon warrior while trying to protect his captain and fake-wife.

"Aye, aye, sir," the Bolian helmsman replied, sounding a little too chipper given the ongoing situation. Luckily, he'd brought up the pre-programmed evasive maneuvers as soon as the Klingons decloaked, so he could very easily select from among them to steer the ship in a general course toward the Kobayashi Maru while trying to avoid disruptor fire and torpedoes.

Apparently the computer needed a little more information, though, like something from tactical. He wrinkled his nose up at the beeping request, glanced at all of his PADDs of reference information that had fallen on the floor, then did his best to work from memory to set up an information relay from the tactical to navigation systems. The computer was likely to do a far superior job than him in calculating the likely trajectory of torpedoes, where the next burst of disruptor fire was going to be, and how to avoid both.

"Once we're approaching the ship, Mr. Mott, turn us starboard one hundred degrees." Stace glared forward as the visage of the freighter loomed closer on the viewscreen. It seemed so far away from their perspective but she'd committed the decision and trundled forward. "As soon as we get within forty thousand kilometers of the ship, turn and drop port-aft shields." Turning to Asahi, despite him being on the Science console, she added, "Kita, can we transport through partial shielding whilst protecting ourselves from the Klingons?"

Naturally, Asahi switched gears from Science and right into a more Engineering mindset. "Theoretically we could, but there's a chance we could lose a few survivors. They could collide into the shielding and it'll just get messy."

"A chance?" Stace muttered to herself. She blew air through her cheeks and then wiped her smudged brow with the back of her hand. "There's a certainty that none of them will make it if we don't. Murray, try it!"

Face a mask of concentration, T'Vanna worked the unfamiliar controls. "Modulating shielding to allow for transport," she said after a few seconds, "ready for transport on your command. Security and medical have been dispatched to direct survivors to a safer location."

"Initiate a site to site transport, Ensign! Jaana, I want you to return fire on the Klingons to take the heat off the freighter while we try this! Give them everything we've got!"

"On it ma'am," she said and returned fire. She was glad there was something practical she could do.

From the external cameras in the holographic simulation, Lirha sipped her hot chocolate while continuing to record notes and watch the view of the Miranda-class as it engaged the Klingon battlecruisers. The poor lone Federation ship was no match for them, but it was putting up a good fight so far. It was at that moment when she noticed one of the battlecruisers perform a standard hook maneuver and come about on the stern of the Antares. The Klingon warship quickly let off a concentrated volley of disruptor fire that pelted the Miranda's aft shields, and then was followed by a salvo of incoming photon torpedoes.

Lirha quickly typed a command into one of her consoles and transmitted it to the helm station. It read 'PLAY DEAD' and was set to flash on Mott's display as soon the torpedoes impacted the ship, and would hopefully coincide with his holographic console exploding to simulate a real casualty.

"All hands!" Stace called out, slapping the intercom with her flat, open hand. "Brace for impact!"

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

CDRE Lirha Saalm
Mission Advisor
USS Galileo

Lieutenant Olsam Mott, M.D.
Assistant Chief Medical Officer / Helmsman
USS Galileo / USS Antares

Ensign Jaana Voutilainen
Stellar Cartographer / Tactical Officer
USS Galileo / USS Antares

Lieutenant Asahi Kita
Chief Medical Officer / Science Officer
USS Galileo / USS Antares

Ensign T'Vanna Murray
Assistant Chief Intelligence Officer / Operations Officer
USS Galileo / USS Antares

Lieutenant Commander Norvi Stace
Chief Science Officer / Commanding Officer
USS Galileo / USS Antares

RSS Feed