Terran Crucible (Part 2 of 8)

Posted on 15 Oct 2015 @ 1:41am by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Captain Jonathan Holliday & Commander Norvi Stace & Commander Andreus Kohl & Lieutenant Min Zhao & Commander Luke Wyatt & Lieutenant Benice Gyce Ph.D. & Ensign K'os Beaumont & Fleet General Jack Holliday
Edited on on 15 Oct 2015 @ 1:47am

2,367 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Episode 09 - Empires
Location: USS Galileo - Main Bridge
Timeline: MD 06 - 2115 hrs

Previously, on Terran Crucible (Part 1)...

"Mister Wyatt?" she asked, a bit shocked at his sudden appearance on the bridge. "Are you...feeling better?" was the only thing she could think of to ask at first. It was no doubt great to see him again and looking fully recovered.

Luke smiled, he knew that he should probably continue recovering though the damage wasn't as sever as the doctors had thought though the memory loss will keep biting at his ass "Enough to return to duty, I'm also quiet aware of the current change in the department order, however I request to take position on the bridge Admiral" He replied formally. He was disappointed that Gyce had taken over but at the time Luke had taken his injury it was touch and go, at least that's what Tuula implied.

"If you are feeling better, please," nodded Lirha. Her green eyes flicked over towards one of the vacant mission operations station behind the captain's chair. "And not a touch too late, either." With the data now coming in from the sensor arrays lining Galileo hull, the rear admiral was on edge and a bit apprehensive. Having an extra security/tactical officer on the bridge was a bit of a reassurance.

Luke nodded and left that at that, eyeing Gyce he smiled before turning half left and heading towards the closest spare consoles changing the configuration to that of a security layout and a few extra tweaks he liked to monitor, it was actually easier with the different size screen.

And Now, the Continuation...

[ON]

Kohl glanced back over his shoulder, looking in the direction of the Tactical console. He looked back at his own console, and then he looked back at Tactical again, and then back at his own console. "Lieutenant Benice, are you seeing that?" Kohl asked in a raised voice. "Three times now, the computer focused the sensors on specific areas of space between the asteroids. It should only be doing that if it identified... anything. Something. Something of interesting. But there's nothing. There's nothing in those spots."

"Maybe we should go to condition yellow just in case?" Gyce shrugged. "I only suggest it because I'm not sure if all the sensor arrays are still being worked on."

Kohl bobbed his head from side to side, silently weighing out the possibilities. "With the kind of damage we sustained," Kohl said, "I wouldn't entirely trust our sensor data until we've had the sensor pallets calibrated in the sterility of a starbase. ...But our level of caution is your purview."

Luke sat by quietly watching now at his own station, he wanted to suggest that they could use the shuttles sensors as they might not be as badly damaged but probably more reliable. Sitting back to observe longer before saying anything, he was treading water and wasn't sure just yet how to swim.

"Would it be possible to send out science probes running on minimal power?" Gyce asked to Kohl. "We need to be able to see in front of us without giving away our position."

As he shook his head in the negative, Kohl swiveled his chair to regard the security chief. "I don't imagine that will be necessary," Kohl replied. "Our engineering team have done sterling work on the sensor repairs." --Kohl tossed a smirk across the bridge to where K'os was sat at the Engineering console-- "Truly sterling. You should find the targeting sensors working optimally. I think it's the interface... behaving... quirky..." And he trailed off to consider his console once again, as another quirk blinked across his sensor controls.

K’os nodded back in thanks. “Our team has physically repaired the hardware on the secondary deflector dish and the navigational sensor suites. It could be a glitch--” K’os cocked his head and made a click sound with his mouth that indicated he wasn’t convinced. “But after reading the reports from the recon away team they too picked up unusual EM readings in areas near the asteroid, and even from the asteroid itself. It’s reasonable to assume, since the shuttles sensors are working properly, that we’re not seeing a glitch.” K’os unwrapped his hands and turned back towards his engineering panel. “I mean these readings look awfully familiar, in some way.”

"All the more reason not to use active scans," Gyce pointed out. If they were indeed where they were, the only thing in Galileo's favor, was the element of surprise. "Recommend we go to minimum power and wait it out."

Luke too was reading the same readings but either his head was still somewhat suffering or he couldn't recall where he had seen them "So what is it? Are our sensors working from the Stirling job you've done or is it glitch?" He asked now frustrated at the on going debate "Either the sensors are working and are reliable or they are not" He added looking to Gyce now knowing she was in charge of the security aboard the ship "Your suggestion about yellow alert is a prudent course, you're the security chief now and you can make that decision. I also believe that a science probe with a masked signature or a shuttle running on minimum power to stay under the scope is also something we should not dismiss on the premise that our sensors may or may not be working at 100% for all we know we have a Klingon Bird of Pray or hell a Borg cube on top off us."

"They're working." K'os reaffirmed confidently from across the bridge. "And I agree in prudency. I'm saying they look familiar because I think we've seen them before recently. During the war games when we were hunting down cloaked ships. I'm not going to agree or disagree with tactical considerations." K'os nodded his head toward the command team sitting in the middle of the bridge. "I'm just a mechanic, and will do what you recommend. I would point out though that the reconnaissance team has already scanned these unusual EM disturbances, and now we're scanning them. If the disturbances are the same as what we detected during the war games then we've already given our position away just by landing on the asteroid. Maybe we can match the gravimetric and EM readings from the war games against these new readings to at least rule out anything cloaked before we start launching anything again?" K'os' voice was even, and without a hint of antagonistic tones. With a passive look, he had simply and calmly stated what he needed to as Acting CEO.

"If we're against a cloaked ship or ships, as Mister Beaumont says, then we should match our transponder codes with theirs ASAP. And then launch a science probe matching our current transponder signal," Gyce suggested to the command staff. "We don't know what we're up against, so if they have spotted us already, we still have time to cut and run or test their strength. But we shouldn't do anything active or aggressive without making them reveal themselves to a decoy, first."

"Can't we use the shuttle's sensors and feed them to the Galileo?" Tyrion asked, "we can probably have engineering rig them up, can't we?"

"We are in hostile territory, if we are indeed in the Mirror Universe. We don't know who is out there, and we don't know how many of them," Gyce reminded the ensign. "The last thing we want to do is draw more attention to ourselves. And sending out shuttles would do that very thing. So our best option is to use a decoy to run and hide until we can figure out how to return to our prime."

"Enough about shuttles and sensors!" Stace snapped, keeping an eye on the readings herself but without looking to any of the crew sat on the bridge. "Beaumont has assured us that the repairs are complete. We'll trust those as they are." She shook her head a little at the conjecture still babbling about them. Turning her head to Holliday, she lowered her voice. "If we raise shields through going to Yellow Alert and whatever those EM signals are haven't yet noticed us, then they sure will once we're done. But if this is what we think it is, then our shields are the best option. We both know what's out here."

Holliday pursed his lips as he thought of the options available to him. He was well aware that the mirror universe had access to cloaking technology that had come from their own universe originally, but that was the extent of their understanding.

"Very well...take us to yellow alert...standby to..."

"Kosst," Gyce swore then quickly elaborated, "We have multiple ships decloaking."

In space above the asteroid, several shimmering energy fields suddenly appeared, moving from nothing more than a ripple in space to reveal the detailed hulls of Starfleet-looking vessels. Two Akira class vessels, a pair of Defiant class and in the centre, an all too familiar looking vessel, albeit on a completely different scale. Bristling with weapons and with a hull size that made Galileo look like a flea on the back of a great beast, this vessel outclassed the smaller Nova class even without it's escort fleet.

"I would expect that middle ship to be akin to the Rhode Island prototype," Gyce pointed out to Holiday.

"Incoming Hail on a Starfleet frequency. Signal is a bit rough, trying to clean it up." Min ran her fingers over the comm's panel. It was a starfleet channel, and Starfleet transmission characteristics but the carrier wave was not as refined, almost like a bad copy of a Starfleet comm's array.

"Put them up." John replied, sitting back in his chair and waiting for the enemy commander to appear on the screen ahead of him. As the image formed on the view screen, he could do nothing but gasp in shock.

The face on the screen looking back at him was his own, albeit with a very different uniform below it. Sat in a central chair flanked by two burly looking men carrying phaser rifles, he stared down at his Prime Universe version with utter contempt.

"I am General Holliday of the ISS Galileo. You will lower your shields and surrender to me immediately....or I will destroy you."

And with that the comm channel closed, leaving the view screen empty, and the crew to consider their position.

"Isn't that like looking into a mirror," Tyrion murmured, his hands already flying over his controls. "Captain...permission to...crack their computer?" He wanted to hack into it to get all possible information, but not without his CO's authorisation.

Stace, shaking her head emphatically, widened her eyes to Tyrion in an almost bewildered expression. "They've just threatened to destroy us and you want to tinker about with password algorithms? It's their powered torpedoes that I'm concerned with. Not their cultural database! Benice," she then called out, turning to face her, "full tactical analysis of the... the Galileo" There wasn't any real need for it. To Stace's mind, the fleet that had just emerged could destroy them with a look. "We don't have the luxury of photonic cannons and torpedoes here, Captain. And we're without the Atlas and such. We're a sitting duck."

"Yeah...." Gyce agreed as she bravely elaborated with, "18 Type-X phaser arrays, all of which primed on us. And their 8 burst-fire warhead launchers can fire sixteen rounds per half second. They are, however, close enough that we can set the ship to blow on silent countdown and take them out with us - If needs be."

From over Gyce's right shoulder K'os stood by the Engineering wall panel. He glanced once over his shoulder as others were conversing but gave Gyce's back a scrunched up look of horror and dismay. Blow the ship up? The fact that she would so casually suggest ending the lives of every single one on board simply in the hopes it might take out a part of the behemoth of a ship threatening them was beyond conscionable in his mind. "Ridiculous!" K'os rose his voice for the first time on the bridge and immediately regretted his short outburst. "Instead of giving in to our disadvantages we can use our advantages till there are no other options. Captain, the experimental secondary deflector is online and waiting for use. Scans indicated not just their weapons platform but that they do not have the same advanced EM warfare components we do. Advanced weapons or not, we have the capability to jam their systems at the very least. I vehemently disagree with the notion of self destruct as an option." Where before K'os' calm demeanour was steadfast, he stood their with his chest rising and falling, and his expression hard set for the first time while on duty. K'os would not go silently into death with such a cowardly action.

[OFF]

--

RADM Lirha Saalm
Mission Advisor
USS Galileo

CAPT Jonathan Holliday
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo

ENS Tyrion Faye
Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Galileo

Lt JG Luke Wyatt
Asst. Chief of Secuirty
USS Galileo

Crewman Abbey Wyatt pNPC by Luke Wyatt
Scientist Mate
USS Galileo

Ensign Cyrin Xanth
Astrophysicist
USS Galileo

PO1 Taliesin Cynwrig
Master-At-Arms
USS Galileo
[PNPC Xanth]

LCmdr Allyndra illm Warraquim
Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant Olsam Mott
Assistant Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant Commander Andreus Kohl
Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

Lt JG Nizan Rydit
Security Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant Min Nicholas (née Zhao)
Chief Operations Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant JG Benice Gyce
Chief Security/Tactical Officer
USS Galileo

CPO Keval Zh'Erinov
PNPC Jared Nicholas
USSGalileo

Ensign K'os Beaumont
Acting Chief Engineer
USS Galileo

Crewman Ezra Koenig
Security Crewman
PNPC K'o Beaumont
USS Galileo

Lieutenant JG Jynn
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Galileo

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