Survival Instinct (Part 2 of 2)

Posted on 04 Oct 2012 @ 9:42am by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Captain Jonathan Holliday & Lieutenant Commander Dea Mialin & Lieutenant Theron Rhodes & Lieutenant Aria Rice & Lieutenant Kiri Cho & Command Master Chief Markum Quinn & Amril & Rachel Hardaway Ph.D. & Lieutenant JG Delainey Carlisle & Lieutenant Lilou Zaren & Lieutenant Commander Pola Ni Dhuinn M.D. & Commander Andreus Kohl & Commander Scarlet Blake & Anthony Hardaway Ph.D.
Edited on on 05 Oct 2012 @ 1:15am

3,040 words; about a 15 minute read

Mission: Episode 01 - Project Sienna
Location: USS Galileo - Main Bridge, Various
Timeline: MD 11 - 1240 hrs

Previously, on Survival instinct...

With a hiss of the turbolift doors, Lirha stepped onto Galileo's bridge. She paused only several paces from the door and looked around, taking in the familiar sight of her home away from home. It looked different for some reason... perhaps it was the absence of the fallen crew, such as Lieutenant Commander Remington, or casualties amongst the others like Lieutenant Orexil... but more likely than not, it was simply her first time back in command of her new ship in four days.

"All hands, this is the captain." she began, her voice echoing throughout the ship. "As many of you may know, we are trapped inside this nebula with no way to escape. The Klingons surround the perimeter and will track us down if we attempt to flee at warp. In addition, their warships have begun launching thermolytic charges near our position in an attempt to flush us out. If we stay here, we will die."

Ensign Rhodes watched the sensor display before him closely as the nebula about them began to thin allowing sensors and shield began to function more properly. He took a second to synchronize the settings, now that they were clear of the nebula. His panel beeped and he looked down and reported, "Captain, Klingon ship on intercept course, bearing 295 mark 2." With accurate sensor readings, the computer library had identified the vessel. Rhodes looked up from the display and toward the captain, "Sir, it is a Vor'cha class battlecruiser." It was unfortunate a sense of fear was obviously in his voice.

Hearing the announcement of the arrival of Klingon warships, exactly as they had expected the moment they tried to flee, the XO leapt to his feet.

"Red Alert - all hands to battle stations - auxiliary power to shields and standby weapons."

And now, the continuation...

[ON]

From her position at her assigned science station, her full focus was on the information being fed back on Sienna. Rachel was aware of the danger happening with the Klingons, but right now she didn't care. Sienna was all that mattered... making Sienna work.

The Orion captain craned her head around towards the science alcove. "We're only going to get one shot at this." she warned, "I want Sienna standing by and ready to activate on my command." she instructed.

Kiri was ready. From her position she was ready to correct any errors in her programs or the course of the drive as they occurred. There wasn't anything else for her to do right now other than sit with her hands hovering over the console.

Sitting prepared, Rachel's eyes never moved from the display on her console. She felt her heart aching with Anthony's absence but she knew she had to keep her focus, this had to work... they were out of options.

With a tap of her commbadge, the captain opened up a channel to main engineering. "Miss Peers, are we ready?" she asked, hoping that Anthony was being cooperative and everything was in place.

Ready wasn't the word Lilou would have used, but she rechecked the monitors for the thousandth time. "We are standing by, all systems at acceptable levels." If the math was right, if they'd made the right decisions, if there had been no mistakes in the implementation of Sienna... "Clear for go at your word, sir."

"Sienna will work." The voice of Anthony Hardaway was confident, as always, but harder than usual, an assuredness that even he did not have most time.

The tactical display beeped again, Ensign Rhodes looked at the readings, but it did not make sense. "Captain," he called out. "the Klingon battlecruiser has fired, but they are not heading toward us, but in front of us."

Strange, the captain thought as she wondered what her opponent was doing. Patiently, she waited for more information.

Rhodes looked at the sensor readings again, "Nothing conclusive. They could be setting a mine field or a defensive net of some kind."

"Adjust our heading to avoid their weapons fire." Lirha called out promptly.

Dea was already carrying out the Captain's order as she acknowledged it, "Course adjusted. I'll keep compensating as necessary to keep us out of their line of fire."
She watched the data coming up on her console carefully.

Galileo swiftly changed course and emerged from the nebula with a puff of celestial remnants, then streaked out into open space. The nearby Vor'Cha battlecruiser followed suit, and came about on an intercept course towards the Nova Class. Lirha watched her tactical display as the Klingon vessel made to cut them off, and the trailing warships exited the nebula in hot pursuit. Quickly, the captain issued orders. "Mister Rhodes, open fire on the closing battlecruiser... try to keep them at a safe distance while we activate Sienna."

"Yes Sir." Rhodes replied and activated the weapons system. A volley of four photon torpedoes were launched from the rear of the ship. "Torpedoes away." He then targeted the Vor'Cha with phasers and waited for their move.

As the Vor'Cha tried to evade the explosions, "Firing phasers." Rhodes called out. A succession of six phaser bursts fired.

The large green cruiser initiated evasive maneuvers and skillfully evaded the salvo of torpedoes, except for a trailing one which impacted the port shields with a bright green splash. Galileo unleashed a full burst of phaser fire from her arrays which slammed into the Vor'Cha's damaged shield grid and caused it to fizzle away.

Rhodes - "One torpedo has hit, strong hit by phasers, their shields are at 80% and damage to their communications array. I am not picking up any comm signals from the Vor'Cha."

The Klingon battlecruiser returned fire with torpedoes of their own, and sent a burst of disruptor pulses along with them. On the bridge of the Nova Class, Lirha's eyes went wide as bolts of disruptor fire streaked right in front of the viewscreen, illuminating the bridge in a bright green flash.

So far, Holliday had been content to remain silent and allow Saalm to command this engagement, it was her ship after all. However there wasn't time for chain of command right now. Watching as his captain stared out at the green bolts of energy heading towards them, John gripped the arms of his chair and bellowed at the top of his voice to be heard.

"Helm evasive pattern Delta Two! Get us out of their weapons range!"

Flying evasively to keep the ship moving so it couldn't be hit as easily, Dea responded, "Delta Two." While all Starfleet pilots were trained in such maneuvers, using them in battle put their skills to a real test.

Galileo completed a series of quick course adjustments, changing pitch, roll and yaw as best she could to avoid the incoming fire and stay on course. But a well timed shot from the Klingon tactical officer sent a volley right into the tiny ship's rear shields, collapsing them and causing a power surge.

The Galileo shook violently. Ensign Rhodes held the console tightly. "Aft shield are down." he called out. Working quickly, "Re-routing power to aft shields . . only 35%." He looked to the Captain, "Shall I return fire?"

"Mr Rhodes! Take power from all non-essential systems and dump it into the shields - take power from the torpedo launchers too and shut them off, we aren't going to win this battle by firepower alone!"

"Yes, Captain." Rhodes replied, and hastily did as the Captain had instructed, dropping all non-essential power. 65% was not good enough if they hit home again. He took down the forward phasers and extended the port and starboard shields back as much as he could. Coverage area was now, "80% rear shields Sir."


Sickbay

Moving out of her office, grabbing the door to keep her balance, Pola suddenly had a sense of deja vu. "Ok guys get ready, injuries are sure to start pouring in soon. Everyone know what they are doing?"

"Not dancing," Kohl said, from beside the surgical biobed. He had intended for it to be wryly amusing, but it only came out as grim. He patted his hip, once again, to make sure his medical tricorder was still there, even though he had checked it only a minute earlier.

Scarlet gave a single, serious nod as she held onto the side of the biobed to keep herself steady. "Aye. Patching it up."

With only the three of them, Pola was concerned. She knew that she had the EMH to fall back on, aslong as something didn't happen to the power but they were still down man power. Closing her eyes, she started to pray to whatever gods might be out there that this time, there would be no more loss of life.


Bridge

Quinn emerged onto the bridge from the smoking turbolift. "Sorry on my tardiness, Skipper. I was....lending a hand....and was waiting for it to be returned." Quinn took a moment to look over the incoming damage reports via the MSD. "If we don't get the hell out of here soon, the entire matter/antimatter containment field will blow."

On the bridge, several overhead conduits burst and sent showers of sparks and electrical debris across the room, singing anyone unfortunate enough to be in their path. Lirha ducked her head as such a burst nearly caught the top of her hair, then continued to issue orders. There wasn't much time left and Galileo wouldn't last long in a fight against such a powerful Klingon cruiser. "Doctors Hardaway, now would be as good a time as ever." she called out loudly after tapping her commbadge and contacting engineering.

Nodding in reply to his captain's order, Holliday reached over and thumped the internal comms with his hand, he didn't have time for a delicate manipulation of the controls, most of which had been smashed in their recent string of battles.

=^= All hands this is Commander Holliday - stand by for Sienna activation sequence - secure all stations and move away from the outer hull, be prepared for wide scale damage response if necessary. =^=

Closing the channel again, he looked back at his captain for a moment before speaking.

"Well...no chance to back out now..."

Anthony's voice came over the intercom again. He sounded slightly annoyed. =/\=Captain, it will take some time to reach the energy threshold for the jump. We've begun the power sequence. It would help if the ship's power systems were not damaged...=/\=

Hearing Anthony's voice, Rachel moved her hand towards a console, typing in a message before initiating an upload of equations they had been working on with Kiri and Holiday. Sienna needed a kick start or they would all die.

Lilou kept an eagle eye on the Hardaway's activities, while also monitoring the energy fluctuations throughout the ship. They'd shut down every non-essential system on the Galileo, leaving just enough power to successfully operate the recalibrated Sienna, but if even one tiny calculation had been off...

For Kiri even breathing seemed to be something she had to remind herself to do right now. The battle wasn't anything to do with her, there was nothing she could do to effect it other than help them escape. It helped a lot that mathematics was one of the most comforting things in the world for her, numbers never caused her problems that couldn't be solved.

"Ah, captain," Amril said with a politeness that didn't seem to fit the situation as he picked his way through the debris and standing over Lirha, "I do believe they are trying to pen us in... if we are too close to the Klingon ships when you activate the jump, it would be most unfortunate..."

Lirha gritted her teeth as he ship began to fall apart again. Simply put, a Nova Class was never designed to deal with this much punishment, especially from swarms of Klingon vessels. Outgunned and out-matched, Sienna was their only hope for survival. With a mild look of disdain, the captain looked at the Vorta as he non-chalantly analyzed the situation. "Yes... I was thinking the same thing." she commented dryly.

Her next command was the most important of her career, of her life, and everyone who currently served with her. "Activate Sienna!" she called out loudly as more disruptor fire hammered their rear shields.

Feeling sick in the pit of her stomach, Rachel found herself hesitating for a brief moment before she slammed her hand down on the console, activating Sienna as her eyes concentrated forward on the view screen. She felt an emptiness that Anthony wasn't there but at the same time she felt a great hope...their lives work was finally being given life.

The captain waited a long moment. Several long moments, in fact. At first, nothing happened, and Klingon weapons fire continued to berate the tiny vessel. Suddenly, there was a blinding flash of blue light which consumed Galileo, then promptly disappeared. The room went silent, and Lirha blinked and craned her head to look around, noticing the stunned expressions on the bridge crew's faces. A green photon torpedo streaked by the viewscreen and signified that they had not moved. A failure, Lirha thought with sadness as she realized her only escape plan had not come to fruition.

Quinn slammed his fist down onto the MSD console. "C'mon you sonofabitch....WORK!"

Suddenly, Galileo began to tremble violently, with vibrations strongly increasing every second until the captain was certain her ship would shake apart. With her fingers dug into the armrests of her chair, all she could do was brace herself.

The sensor readings before Ensign Rhodes were off the chart. There was a massive build up of energy about the ship. He continued to hold on to the console and said a quick prayer, "May the blessed fathers of the Basque watch over us."

Klingons to the left of them, oblivion to the right, Holliday gritted his teeth and focused all of his hatred into the arm of his chair. Either they would gind themselves free from the tyranny of Klingon weapons fire, or their names would join the list of lost souls that had paid the ultimate price for the Federation. He said nothing, but simply closed his eyes.

Kiri didn't have time to brace, she didn't have time to breath. Every ounce of mental capacity she could muster was given over to the drive, the instant the ship flashed the readings started. They'd hit the threshold, they hadn't gained quite enough energy to pass though it. Already the sensor readings were coming in and there was something else, something more problematic. She was realising that space they were folding, wasn't flat to begin with. Fingers flitted so fast that a few times they tripped over each other, without word or thought she opened up a link with Rachel's terminal, letting her check her work. The streams of corrections that Kiri was entering to compensate for the discovery which she couldn't revel in.

Staying in her seat, Rachel's eyes were still focused on the view laid out infront of her eyes. The vibrations and shaking seemed to almost go unnoticed as her focus was pivoted on what was rolling out infront of them.


Sickbay

As the floors and walls around them vibrated, Pola suddenly realised what was happening. "Everyone, brace yourself! Get the injured to the floors now!" Rush forward, she started to help move the patients, the floor being the best place if something should happen causing the contents of the room to be thrown around the place.

Moving to Pola's side, Kohl stretched one arm around the shoulders of an Operations crewman with a bleeding head wound. As they crouched down to the deckplates, Kohl snatched up a dermal regeneration. Without a word, he started to work on the worst of the crewman's bleeding.

"You heard her," Scarlet said casually as she gripped her patient around the waist, hitching him off the bed and down onto the floor. "Sit tight," she said firmly, glancing around with a frown.


Bridge

Quinn grabbed hold with his left hand a railing and gritted his teeth. "I suggest everyone holds onto something sturdy!"

In space, Galileo's propulsion systems went offline. Her large red impulse engine faded to black, and the nacelles and bussard collectors powered down and went silent as the moment of truth arrived. A bluish-white ball of gravitation fields began to form around the ship, expanding and twisting around the vessel in an awesome display of pure energy. The stars began to bend as space folded in on itself, then the energy field reached critical mass and collapsed, producing an enormous flare of light which consumed Galileo and sent an energy wave blistering through space on all radials. The trailing Klingon warships broke off their pursuit, uncertain what was happening, but the shockwave emanated with incredible speed and sliced through their hulls like a hot knife through butter, destroying them instantly. As the shockwave expanded and dissipated, Galileo was suddenly nowhere to be seen, and all that remained was a cloud of shredded and flaming Klingon debris.

[OFF - END OF EPISODE 01]

--

CMDR Lirha Saalm
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo

Lt Cmdr Jonathan Holliday
Executive Officer
USS Galileo

Lt(JG) Dea Mialin
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Galileo

Ensign Andreus Kohl
Nurse
USS Galileo

Lieutenant JG Pola Ni Dhuinn
Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant JG Delainey Carlisle, M.D., Ph.D.
Chief Counselor
USS Galileo

Ensign Kiri Cho
Assistant Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

Ensign Theron Rhodes
Security/Tactical
USS Galileo

Amril
Vorta Defector
USS Galileo

Chief Warrant Officer Markum Quinn
Chief Engineer
USS Galileo

Rachel Hardaway
Lead Scientist
Project Sienna
NPC'd by Pola Ni Dhuinn

Anthony Hardaway Ph.D.
Lead Scientist
NPC'd by Amril
Project Sienna

Ensign Aria Rice
Security
USS Galileo

MWO Lilou Peers
Assistant Chief Engineer
USS Galileo

Ensign Scarlet Blake
Counsellor
USS Galileo

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