Thread the Needle (Part 6 of 7)

Posted on 25 Mar 2017 @ 7:16pm by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Commander Aren Ban & Lieutenant Amaranai Franklin & Ensign Miraj Derani & Ensign Mimi & Ambassador Soral Varro & Sub-commander S'anara Valdran
Edited on on 25 Mar 2017 @ 7:20pm

2,436 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Episode 14 - Statecraft
Location: IKS DuJa'Q, Beta Tauri System
Timeline: MD 06 - 0524 hrs

Previously, on Thread the Needle (Part 5)...

The minutes slowly counted down to their arrival at the slingshot maneuver's IP. The Orion general kept a close eye on their progress through the star system, and when they were thirty seconds out, she began final preparations. The twin binary stars now shone large and brilliantly through the main viewscreen, casting the bridge in blue and melon hues.

And Now, the Continuation...

[ON]

"Commander," she started, turning to Ban, "we're going to need to reinforce both the structural integrity field and the inertial damping field if we expect to make it through this," she explained. The gravitational forces of the two stars were more than enough to rip the ship apart under normal circumstances, and the IDF would have to be boosted to prevent the entire crew from experiencing 50+ G's on the backside of the warp burn. "We also need our shields at maximum...this battlecruiser doesn't have metaphasic shielding and we're all going to be bombarded heavy doses of stellar radiation in a few moments." That part she'd neglected to mention until it became pertinent, but she knew that Commander Warraquim was a competent doctor and could treat the crew for any exposure they suffered.

Aren nodded. "Yes sir." He turned his attention back to crew. "Engineering, this is the bridge. Please have every joule of energy you can scrounge and have it available for operations. Make sure Damage control teams are standing by to repair any power shunts and relays. But more importantly, keep the warp drives and engines operational." He turned his attention to Mimi.

"Ensign Mimi. Engineering should soon be be providing you with as much power as they have available. Prioritize shields and inertial dampeners, and structural integrity." He said, before taking a breath. "Reroute power to reinforce those systems, as needed. Pull from auxiliary systems if you have too."

Aren tapped is combadge. =/\= Bridge to Medical, be advised: we are about to be entering an area of intense radiation. We don't have the shielding to protect all the crew from the dose of rads. Please have teams standing by to administer anti-radiation medication. =/\=

IKS DuJa'Q was now as prepared as it could possibly be for the impending maneuver. A quick glance at the countdown timer on the Orion's console revealed they were now ten seconds away from their entry point. "All hands standby to go to warp," Saalm said after activating the ship-wide broadcast system. "Secure yourselves for high-G maneuvers and prepare for possible temporal distortions." There was not only the element of time dilation that they would encounter when they approached the gravitational apex, but also the prospect of achieving a warp speed high enough to give rise to temporal anomalies.

Satisfied that her mixed crew of Klingons and Starfleet personnel were ready, Lirha waited until the countdown on her display read five seconds. "Helm, on my command, go to warp and execute the maneuver," she said.

"Oh, yeah." Miraj linked her fingers, turned them inside out, and cracked her knuckles with relish. Then she pulled the leg of her pants up to press the bare flesh of her ankle against the helm supporting-strut. She was moving a little in her seat, dancing to music only she could hear. Let's get this party started! "Helm is so ready."

"Five, four, three," Lirha counted down out-loud, "two, one...engage!" she commanded when the chronometer on her console flashed bright red with Klingon glyphs to indicate the expiration of the navigational timer.

Miraj ran her thumb up the warp gauge, felt the impulse engines drowned out by the rumble of the Warp core running in, felt the tingle of space being stretched around them, "Warp One." The rumble picked up, fizzing across the sensitive flesh of her bare feet. "Warp Two."

There was excitement in her tone, anticipation, glee. "Warp Three." She'd been wanting to pull something like this since she was twelve years old. In an ideal world, there'd be a time jump at the end of it. But Hell, even Hikaru Sulu had never slingshotted a binary star. "Warp Four!"

The rumble from the warp core turned into a growl she could feel all the way up her legs, the beast was coming alive now. "Warp Five!" The glare of the twin suns almost impossibly bright, filling the view screens faster and faster. "Warp Six." Almost to the point of no return. Almost! So close! Come on, you metal bitch! Is this the best you can do? You're supposed to be a warrior! "Warp Seven!"

The Klingon battlecruiser was now streaking through the intermediary of the two stars. A faint gray blur against the backdrop of two massive solar coronas, DuJa'Q was both accelerating on its escape vector as well as toward the closest and largest sun. The gravitational forces had increased with speed and proximity, causing the starship to begin to violently shake.

Lirha once again gripped her chair's armrests to help alleviate the bouncing sensation while also keeping an eye on one of her displays which indicated the ship's systems status. The SIF was beginning to redline and the shields were struggling to deflect the intense solar heat bombarding their vessel. An electrical conduit suddenly exploded directly above Lirha's head and began to fall toward her, carrying with it several megawatts of electrical energy.

The general looked up and tried her best to jump from her seat at the last second. Diving head-first onto the cold, hard deck plating, her chair exploded with sparks and cascading energy surges just as her boot came clear of the chair. The side of her face hit hard against the floor and momentarily sent sparkles through her vision. Warning sirens began to blare across the bridge from different stations.

The Ops console blurted out alerts every few seconds. "Structural integrity is down to 20%. At this rate we have 30 seconds until failure."

Miraj only had eyes for her speed and bearing. "We'll be fine."

S'anara glanced at Miraj and then back to her console, ''Inertial Dampening Field failure in 20 seconds!" she shouted.

"Plenty of time," Miraj reassured the Romulan.

Though this was something that Amaranai had never experienced, she was not worried. She trusted that Miraj was the best pilot to attempt this trick and that she would get them to safety.

Having rerouted more power to the shields, the tactical officer had hoped to alleviate some of the areas in the vessel. It seemed that her hard work had almost paid off.

"Shields failing!" She shouted over the din. "We have about ten seconds left."

Alright, that might be pushing it. But only a little. "Still fine." Miraj said.

Aren's fingers danced over the console as he typed in commands. A quick glanced over the readings told him all he needed to know. "Divert emergency power to affected systems, prioritize shields and warp drive!" He shouted, as he dashed over to Lirha's command chair, to see if she was alright.

"You already have all the power we can spare Sir." Mimi replied. She had already shut down everything she dared to, if they wanted anymore they were going to have to get drastic.

"Warp Eight!" Here we go, here we go!. The ship was starting to feel the drag of the larger stars gravity. "No you bloody don't," she muttered as she added in a correcting factor, keeping them dead on the line. "Eight point five." Her speedometer kept climbing. Only a few seconds to the tipping point. She could feel the stresses in the ship as it shook and wobbled and fought at the forces working on it and against it. And she didn't give a monkey's chuff what the admiral said, she knew, deep in her bones, when the best moment was, and she'd take it. But it wasn't yet. "Warp Nine!" Yes yes yes! So close, so close! "Nine point One!"

The G forces affecting the battlecruiser were now extreme, and Lirha was pinned to the side of her chair with no hope of being able to access the terminal to the right of her. She could still see the display, though, and saw a critical warning displaying a pending loss of shield power.

"Shields are critical General. The ship cannot take much more of this." Mimi called out. Her console screaming out warnings.

Lirha had to make the critical decision -- lose shields and suffer a hull collapse, or divert the necessary resources to keeping the crew alive for a few more seconds until they completed their maneuver. "Engineering, divert all power from life support and environmental systems to the shields!" she yelled over the cacophony of warning sirens. Without those two crucial systems online, it would only be a matter of minutes before the crew suffocated and froze to death, but she hoped they would be free of the star's gravity by then.

Varro had a momentary thought of What the hell is she thinking? but he knew what he was trying to do. The shimmy, shakes and forces were not easy to ignore. He reached for the little compartment that held the chips he needed to pull to manually divert the power she needed. Red, then the Blue, switch them and then pull the gold with the blue and switch those... "Varro here. It's done...but we only have minutes!"

Redirecting the last dregs of power helped reinforce the shields a little but only enough to keep then from failing. "Shields are holding but still critical." Mimi said, she was struggling to keep a grip on the ops console and had resorted to digging one set of claws into the console.

It was a perfect moment. The ship was being sucked into the pull of the alpha star's gravity well, still accelerating The radiation from the beta star was tickling at the shields, which were just holding. It was time. Serene, Miraj flicked at the helm, sent power to right thrusters to start the turn. They hit the edge of the gravity well on the other side of the main star, and gravity yanked the ship back. The angle of the turn was perfect and they zipped between the two stars, perfectly balanced between them.

"Warp nine point three," Miraj called out. Duja'Q had never been meant to go this fast, but she was holding together. "Nine point four." The forces on the ship were making her head spin, and she gripped at the helm, trying to stay with it. She could feel the strain on the bulkhead through her bare feet, could hear the groaning of the metal even over the rushing of blood in her ears. She had lost the top of her field of vision and everything else was blurring, but she could just about make out the symbols she was hoping to see. "Nine point five!"

On the outskirts of Beta Tauri's largest twin star, IKS DuJa'Q came around the bend and accelerated past its maximum warp rating. A trail of ionized hydrogen and helium flowed brilliantly behind the battlecruiser whose hull could barely withstand the gravitational stress factors. With the SIF, IDF, and shields failing, the hope of completing the maneuver in time now seemed close to impossible.

On the bridge, the severe hull vibrations threatened to tear the ship apart. Lirha bounced around in her chair, unable to move from being pinned to her position by the extreme G forces. She could only turn her head slightly to observe the countdown on her console which showed eight seconds left until they cleared the star's gravity well. The blood in her body was now rushing from her head into her lower body which was causing shades of black to seep into the edges of her vision. She knew she'd black out any moment now, and issued her final set of orders. "...Maintain...course...!" she struggled, her breath labored by the lack of oxygen. Then her eyes closed and her body went limp.

Amaranai was being pushed against her console from the intense gravity the ship was experiencing. It felt like her body was at the bottom of a stack of metal. She tried to look at her console but her vision was getting blurry - it was the lack of oxygen that was starting to cloud her eyes.

In engineering Varro felt like a pancake on a grill. He felt the ship shake and shudder. He used all his strength to stay in his chair and monitor. He waited for Lirha's command to reactivate the vital systems.

On the bridge, Aren struggled to keep breath in his lungs as he was pressed against the secondary tactical console next to Amaranai. Each inhale felt like a giant was pushing on his chest.

IKD DuJa'Q completed its maneuver and burst free of the star's gravity at Warp 9.5, several factors above its maximum rated speed. Be it the spirits that'd watched over the hybrid crew or some divine Q intervention, the battlecruiser was still fully intact and its systems began to stabilize.

"Woo!" Miraj shouted. "That was awesome. Lets do that again!" Miraj straightened up from where she had been pinned into a slump, shaking her head to clear her vision, and panting like she'd run a marathon. The navigation system showed them streaking along towards the Klingon Neutral Zone at a steady pace. She coughed and tried to assume a more sober and professional demeanour. "Slingshot complete. Course and speed holding steady; we can reach the Neutral Zone in five days if we can sustain it."

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

GEN Lirha Saalm
Commanding Officer
IKS DuJa'Q

Ensign Miraj Derani
Chief Flight Control Officer
IKS DuJa'Q

SCPO Martin Caine
Chief of the Boat (CoB)
IKS DuJa'Q

Ambassador Soral Varro
Chief Diplomatic Officer
IKS DuJa'Q

Lt. JG Eelim Galan
Security/Tactical Officer
IKS DuJa'Q
[PNPC Varro]

Petty Officer Eviess
Medical Officer
IKS DuJa'Q
[PNPC Varro]

Cmdr Allyndra illm Warraquim
Chief Medical and Second Officer
IKS Duja'Q

Lieutenant JG Marisa Sandoval
Counselor
IKS Duja'Q

Petra Varelli
Forensic Anthropologist
IKS Duja'Q
[PNPC Sandoval]

Lieutenant JG Amaranai Franklin
Assistant Chief Security / Tactical
IKS Duja'Q

Commander Aren Ban
Executive Officer
IKS Duja'Q

ENS Mimi
Operations Officer
IKS DuJa'Q

LT Min Zhao
Operations Officer
IKS DuJa'Q

LTJG Stephanie Fraiser
Chief Research Officer
IKS DuJa'Q

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