Kobayashi Maru (Part 3 of 5)

Posted on 17 Feb 2015 @ 6:12pm by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Commander Norvi Stace & Lieutenant Olsam Mott & Lieutenant Asahi Kita & Ensign Jaana Voutilainen
Edited on on 19 Feb 2015 @ 4:14pm

2,581 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Episode 07 - Sojourn
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 5, Holodeck 1
Timeline: MD 43 - 1105 hrs

[CONTINUED]

The spread of photon torpedoes ripped into the ship's hull, shredding bulkheads and overloading systems through the sheer force of the attending explosions. One such overload made its way through the Antaeres systems to the helm, destroying the console in a shower of shrapnel and fire. Olsam just sat in his seat for a moment in stunned silence; he'd never seen a holographic explosion up close like that before, and there was an odd sort of disconnect in his brain - it looked very real but then he hadn't felt it at all. The Admiral's flashing message displayed itself on the remnants of the console and upon seeing it Olsam nodded his head.

"Oh. Play dead. Hmm."

Standing up calmly from his station, Olsam turned around and placed the back of his hand to his forehead. "Friends! Colleagues! My wounds are fatal... Shrapnel from the helm has lacerated my liver and kidneys and nicked my femoral artery, leading to shock and massive internal hemorrhaging. No thrombic modulator can save me - I am not long for this world! But rest assured my spirit shall live on in each of you." The Bolian took a stumbling step forward, reaching out for Norvi. "My beloved... Promise me...you'll...never marry again...."

With one more stumble, Olsam finally fell to the deck with arms and legs akimbo. He cracked an eye to make sure Norvi shed at least one tear but also to keep an eye on the action as it evolved around him. Based on the last bit of information he'd gleaned from the console, things weren't going well for them. His own approach was very much influenced by the flexible view of death on Bolarus - sometimes sacrifices had to be made, in this case the people on the freighter, for the "greater good." Staying in the neutral zone in a firefight that was going to end in the ship's destruction seemed like it would only fan the flames of hostility between the Federation and the Klingon Empire, leading to the loss of far more lives than just the crews of the Antaeres and the Kobyashi Maru.

But then again, he was dead. So what did his opinion matter?

T'Vanna froze for a moment, staring at the mayhem at the front of the bridge. "Shields are down, emergency bulkheads are holding" she reported, less calm than she appeared to be. "Medical has been called to the bridge. Rerouting helm to my console and initiating evasive maneuvers." Not that she knew how to fly a ship...

"Belay that!" Stace called out, taking over the helm console by her command readout and overriding T'Vanna. "Concentrate on keeping our shields up and transporting the survivors. I'll take the helm from here."

Her fingers worked on the console as she put the Miranda class ship through another set of evasive maneuvers and she attempted to veer away from the fire but within range of the transporters. "Cycle one more transporter sweep through all of the transporter rooms. I'm going to have to take her our of range and back to the Federation side otherwise none of us will make it."

The Vulcan woman nodded, transferring helm quickly to the captain's console. "Final pass," she announced, then looked up. "Main transporters are damaged, switching to cargo transporters. Shields down to thirty-two percent, forward shields are down."

Stace shot a glance to Mott's prone body as she worked the engines as fast as she could. "Coming about!" she called out as the circular ship began to slowly and, as they all knew, pointlessly make their way back to the other side of the Neutral Zone. "Transfer all power from non-essential systems to the engines and shields!"

Asahi had decided, during the moment of Mott's theatrical 'death,' that he did not and never truly wished to remain on the bridge for longer than a fleeting moment ever again. Despite the fact that the whole thing was a holographic representation, it felt all too real, which was a testament to the engineering quality, if at nothing else. As he sat there, bracing for any and all impacts in front of him, he gave Olsam's... absolutely preposterous words a few thoughts, before squinting and leaning over toward the 'dead' Bolian, whispering as low as he could. "You two got married?"

Back in the observation booth, Lirha now watched the final stages of the battle. Stace's ship had fought well but there was ultimately little they could do to extend the life of the battle. The Klingon battlecruiser behind them had diverted all its shield power forward making them nearly impenetrable, and now let off another concentrated burst of weapons fire.

Disruptor bolts targeted one of the Miranda-class' nacelles and shredded it from its support pylon causing a cascading power feedback loop which blew out most of the ship's primary systems. Consoles on the bridge -- those that weren't already destroyed -- erupted once again and bulkheads began to collapse from the ceiling. Lirha sent another transmission to both the tactical and ops stations in a similar manner as she had Motts, indicating for them to assume the dead position when their terminals exploded.

From time to time, Olsam moved his head around to get a better view of the action. The bridge was an absolute wreck - whole portions of paneling had blown out, exposing conduits and the inner workings of the ship. The majority of those seemed to be on fire in some form or another, flames ranging from bright orange to a frightening green. The air was thick with the acrid smell of burning plastics and metals and the entire superframe of the ship seemed to shake with every fresh round of disruptor fire. He was no cowering Ferengi, ready to surrender at the first sign of trouble, but he knew a hopeless situation when he saw one.

"I know I'm supposed to be dead," Olsam whispered, twisting his mouth so that his voice drifted in Norvi's direction, "but maybe we should abandon ship?"

"Maybe you should shut your mouth!" Stace replied through gritted teeth. She flicked her gaze about the bridge with a wild stare in her eyes, her crew now dead and dispatched, as she gripped the armrest and sent out a distress signal from her console. She tapped in a few more commands as what was left of the main bulkheads continued to flash red. "All hands abandon ship! I repeat, all hands abandon ship! Secure a pod and make for the Federation side of the border."

She knew at this point of the simulation there was precious little she could do to save the ship, her crew or the civilians but she trundled the Miranda class as close to the Federation border as she could before the simulation gave out.

As her terminal exploded, T'Vanna instinctively reacted by covering her eyes and stumble backwards out of the way. When she collided with the control station behind her, she let herself fall to the deck.

When Jaana saw her collegue falling to the deck in response to the explosion she took a deep breath of irritation and slid of her seat as well. Leaning with her back to the console's base she closed her eyes. She hated acting...

As blase as Asahi seemed to be about the whole experience, he wasn't about to throw out the seriousness of the situation. "Ma'am, I'm not about one to play heroics, but if it's all the same to you, if I'm gonna go, it's because you're coming with me."

"Hell," Stace shouted about above the din of crashing bulkheads and exploding consoles, "I was never fond of that old adage, anyway." She turned and looked to the fallen 'dead' and considered for a moment attempting to drag the bodies of her friends to the holographic turbolift. But she knew that, despite their somewhat disconcerting animation, in a real scenario she would'n't. "Let's go!"

The moment Stace was up, the tiny engineer hopped up and followed after her, paying his respects to the 'dead' with a tiny nod and two finger salute. "Dad always said it was rude to leave without the Captain of the ship."

From the back of the bridge, Lirha saw that the inevitable had finally occurred and decided to put a stop to it. There was little else she could evaluate the crew on at this point considering most of them were dead, and she had already taken plenty of notes and observations needed to make an informed decision.

"Computer, pause simulation," she said as she stepped out of the rear room and moseyed over the animatedly-suspended flaming debris and pools of fake blood in the bridge. She surveyed the scene for herself and let her eyes travel up to Norvi's.

"Well, commander? What happened?" she plainly asked without judgement.

Stace stood, and then shot a sideways glance to Asahi, them both now in voluntary suspended animation and the only two left standing and facing the commodore. She paused, took a breath and then stood to her full height, walking the few steps over to Lirha. She quickly cleared her throat and then relaxed into an awkward smile. "I violated the treaty to rescue the wayward freighter. In doing so, I risked the lives of my crew but attempted to salvage both scenarios. I - uh - I couldn't leave an unanswered distress call, Commodore."

"Yes, I noticed," replied Saalm in a light voice. "And...what do you think the larger repercussions of violating a treaty with the Klingon Empire would result in? Of course, your ship has been destroyed and most of your crew are dead, but how do you think your actions would impact the rest of Starfleet?"

Stace took in a breath and held it in her lungs until they began to burn, keeping her eyes dead on the commodore. "I suppose..." Stace began nervously, wiping away again the smudge that now stained her forehead, "that some situations require immediate action, where as other, hopefully, can be diplomatically dealt with at a later date." She paused, but then decided to stand by her decision with the conviction of a Starfleet captain and her tone took on a decidedly confident air. "Sometimes you have to go against the odds, against the better judgement to do what's compassionate. We didn't know the Klingons would materialise on the other side of the border and attack, despite our best technologies. And out here in space, we're not always ideally equipped for the situations we're dealt. The freighter needed help, we could offer it and whatever developed in front of us, I knew that we had the best team to try and get us through. I did the best with what we all had. And it didn't work."

Lirha listened and studied the taller woman's features for a long moment before posing another question for her. "And what if your attempt to rescue the freighter and violating the established neutral zone resulted in the Klingon Empire declaring war on the Federation? Would you be prepared to accept the responsibility for all the lives that would be lost in such an ensuing conflict? All for the sake of saving the lives of twenty or so people aboard the Kobayashi Maru?"

"I can't predict hypotheticals, Commodore," Stace replied as her face solemnly returned to neutral. "I can only assess what happens before me and take the consequences fully on my shoulders for any fall-out. I would try my damned hardest to minimise the result of my actions, but sometimes not being able to see passed the end of ones nose isn't always a bad thing. You may not get out of bed in the morning if you did. And no Starfleet captain can live like that. Or officer. All I can do is have faith in my decisions as I make them. And allow my crew to trust in that faith. I did what I believed was right. And, maybe it's a sign of madness attempting the same situation but expecting different results, but I would do it all again."

Once again Lirha listened. She understood what the Trill was attempting to say, but also disagreed with some of the sentiment. "I understand your passion, commander. I do. But as commanding officers, we are not only responsible for our crews and starships, but also responsible for our actions and any consequences they might have. As you said, we cannot predict a hypothetical consequence, but it is our duty to attempt to and to consider every consequence that our actions might result in -- for better or for worse. After all, the decisions we make often have lasting and permanent effects. That being said... I cannot fault you for attempting to answer a distress call. Our humanitarian mission our here in space is of the utmost importance, and is at the core of Federation values."

"I did what I thought was right, Commodore," Stace said quietly.

Lirha paused and unclipped a PADD from her belt and handed it to Stace. "Here are my official notes and evaluation of your performance which will be entered into your service record. Overall, not a bad result. At least you got close enough to rescue most of the crew before your hull gave out," she teased, then motioned towards the rest of the bridge crew for them to come forward and also receive their evaluation PADDS.

Stace took the PADD and glanced quickly over it, not taking any of it in but returning her gesture with a smile. "Thank you, Commodore. I appreciate your feedback."

Asahi gave a quiet nod, stepping over to take his own PADD. There was a good possibility the words 'too quiet' were going to be listed upon them, but he had little training on the bridge... Though, that was the point, he supposed.

Olsam shuffled along behind Asahi and took his PADD from the Commodore. He stayed in place for a moment, scrolling down through all the nonsense commentary, until he reached the end and looked dismayed. He glanced up at the commodore, wrinkled his nose a bit, and then shuffled off behind Asahi, mumbling to himself, "There's nothing in here about my death performance. Not even one word."

Once Lirha had finished doling out her performance reviews, she clasped her hands lightly behind her back then addressed the motley crew one last time before sending them on their way. "I was pleased with most of your actions during the scenario," she complimented. "There were some operational and technical mistakes here and there, but considering most of you have never had bridge experience before, it was to be expected. Please continue to study your training materials and we can run another simulation once we return from our next deployment. Dismissed."

[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

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