You do remember how to fire phasers?

Posted on Wednesday 27 July 2016 @ 22:51 by Captain John "Apollo" Barstow, M.D. & Commander Cale Llewellyn DSci & Captain Melody Jones & Lieutenant JG Velin Ikiri & Lieutenant Commander David Tan & Commander Caroline Miller & Lieutenant JG Zitla

Mission: Old, New Ship
Location: Bridge, Engineering, Medical
3759 words - 7.5 OF Standard Post Measure

ON:


As he surveyed the bridge, Tamlin noted everyone who was on duty was at their posts working on their own thing. But he also knew there were other things that needed to be done. Looking at his display, he noted that there was coming in from Engineering. He tapped the com-panel and said, "Engineering this is the bridge. What do you got for me?"

With his chief out of action Assistant chief Bal tapped his comm badge, "Sir this is LT Bal, we have a phase discrimination appearing in the force field generators for the ship. Its nothing major yet but... were tracking it down now. Ill keep you informed."

"Jones, Tan. It's your show. Let's get this test over with, please," Tamlin said from the XO post.

"Aye Sir" Jones replied from the helm "Taking us to the first target." A small asteroid appeared on the view screen.

Tamlin sat back in the XO's chair and began wondering how he had gotten wrangled into this job. When their first XO, Lieutenant Commander Gregory Alein, had been pulled from duty, Apollo came to him and asked him to be the Officer of the Deck until he had someone to take over the job full time. Thus far Barstow had not come up with a replacement, at least not to Tamlin's knowledge. But he had heard some scuttlebutt. The same time the thought formed in his mind, he pushed it from there thinking that he had no business repeating rumors and conjecture.

... Following the order that David proceed with the original drills, he was thankful that he had brought with him the data for his 'Drills' and the information regarding the 'fake' viral infection, from his time on the Galapagos. He casually placed the Isolinear chip in the reader at his station in front of the Center Seat, and uploaded the data. He knew that the two vessels were different in layout and capacity, but he was confident that he could scare the hell out of everyone, including the Commanding Officer, should he be required to do so ..... At the Academy, he had researched the Kobayashi Maru Scenario test countless times, realising that in it's current incarnation it could not be beaten, for obvious reasons given it was a test of character, not of how to defeat an enemy. So he set out to devise an alternative .....

If an Officer had the option, would he save his ship and the personnel aboard, or risk possible destruction ?

Accessing the data-chip, he entered the program and assigned controls to activate said program, then he sat back wondering who to target first.

Commander Barstow had put two restrictions on his drills .. He was not to include, in anyway, shape or form, two Departments, those being: Engineering and Medical.

'OK ......' he thought wryly '..... so they are the area's I need to target should my initial attack fail' ...

He knew that Doctor Miller was completely unaware of his intentions regarding the drills, nor was the dCSTO ... Having been explicitly instructed by the CO to stay clear of the Departments, it was a given that he would need to attack them directly. In his opinion, what was the point of having a drill if the Senior Staff had prior knowledge of the act ? ... Absolutely None ! .....


Tamlin stood at that moment when he realized that Tan had his hands full with science and coordinating the drill. So he decided to assume Tactical for the time being. "Firing phasers at our target...now!" he said. Pushing the button on the Tactical station. And when that phaser blast his its target dead on Jesus was pleased. "Jones, take us to our second target, please. We'll be testing the torpedo systems next, I believe."

Apollo nodded to himself as he watched his bridge crew work, intentionally not having said very much. This was in part just to observe how they all interacted together and in part to see how Tamlin handled being in the lead. That was something he was going to do as they rotated through officers who would be OOD and effectively be in command when the command officers were not on the Bridge. Barstow felt his job wasn't to just bark orders, anyone with a half a brain could do that much, it was also to help get the next generation of command officers ready for that challenge and to help them cultivate those skills. As he looked forward he watched both Tan and Jones work. Both had been showing themselves good officer and the times he'd had Jones take up lead positions she had more than risen to the occasion. John made a mental note, after tests were done he'd need to speak with her, he had a surprise for her. There was another officer he'd been making sure to allow to take lead on a few things, including a lot of the planning with all departments for this test run, and had watched impressed. The officer in question, his chief science officer, was also going to have a surprise coming once he had recovered from sickbay, "helm, let's make mister Tamlins job a little harder. Corkscrew maneuver followed by a full one eighty, see if you can get us to fishtail, Tan, adjust the inertial dampeners," he said with a grin and looked back at tactical, "annihilate that target."


... David entered the required commands into his console to bring up the inertial dampers situated throughout the Merlin. While the ships computers would normally undertake any modifications to setting throughout a vessels normal working life, it was sometimes a requirement to adjust them manually if there was warning of rapid acceleration, deceleration, or if the ship needed to carry out sudden or aggressive changes of direction ... He accessed the settings data and increased the operating level to one hundred ten percent. Any more and even a vessel of this size would begin to suffer stress fractures due to the twisting motion from the Bow to Stern, especially during a manoeuvre such as the Helm Officer was about to carry out. He enter the revised settings with a second to spare as the ship suddenly rotated around her longitudinal axis .....


Melody smiled "Ah, you want some fancy flying. Yes sir, I think I can handle that." she said as her hands danced over the controls "just like trying to hit a bullet with a smaller bullet while riding a horse."

The immense ship took a dramatic turn and began a very complex maneuverer, Melody watching all the time not to get too far from the target, or to run into any other of the asteroids.

"Doctor, we have bad news from the bridge. The marines are returning from the proving grounds and there's a biohazard. Transferring the initial data from the bridge now.

Caroline and her head nurse leant their heads over the console as the records flooded in. "It's airborne and possibly viral. It looks like something familiar, let's run it through the database."

"While its doing that get me the bridge," Caroline stated.


... He began to appreciate the skill of the Chief Flight Officer as she deftly manoeuvred the almost nine hundred meter vessel. Several times he needed to recalculate the inertial dampers as both internal and external stresses began to reach their design limits, even surpassing them on one occasion as the ships warp nacelles supplied most of the turning thrust, the saucer section was always going to be a fraction of a fraction of a second behind any rapid course change. He increased the ships artificial gravity in the outer area's as they were technically rotating faster than the core area's. He hoped that at one hundred and five percent of Earth's gravity, no-one would suddenly find themselves being thrown off their feet, or stumbling into each other .....


Melody's attention was drawn to something on her sensors "Ah, we have a rouge asteroid at bearing 210 mark 135 on a collision course. Impact in 30 seconds. Tactical, you think you can take care of that please? The Captain did say he didn't want the paint work scratched!"

"Sickbay to bridge. Under no circumstances let that shuttle back onboard the ship. I need to take a medical team out there immediately. It needs to be quarantined and any people onboard."

"Copy, Doctor, we...." John paused as he looked at his displays next to the command chair, "Doctor, bio-hazard warnings going off off on deck fourteen," the CO called as he felt his stomach turn and his body get pushed further into his chair from the maneuvers he ordered, ah, missed that feeling, he thought to himself.

"You've got it, Jones. Firing quantum torpedoes...now!" and a brace of torpedoes shot out of the forward tube and sailed towards their intended targets. One of the torpedoes missed but the other hit it nearly dead on. "There you go, Lieutenant. How'd ya like them apples?"

"Nicely done, thank you."

"You are most welcome, ma'am," the Brazilian lieutenant. "I'm going to like this ship."

... The Merlin continued her rolling trajectory, effectively side-stepping the rogue asteroid effectively. As the Flight Officer eased off he too began to relax his modifications to the inertial dampers, albeit keeping one hand close to the controls should she once again throw the ship into a series of acrobatics. He was surprised at the fact the the nacelle struts had taken such a pounding, experiencing almost twenty five percent above their design threshold on no less than two occasions. He decided to temporarily increase structural integrity fields around the nacelles and the pylon around the area directly beneath the shuttle-bay doors which was the narrowest point effectively connecting the nacelles to the Saucer Section ... He received a Comm from Security regarding the 'Drills' and instructed the Deputy Security Chief, Ben Yates, to confine the intruders to Decks Eight and Fourteen. The Bio-hazard Drill was going to plan as far as he could tell from the Comm traffic, the Chief Medical Officer possibly handling the situation as expected ..... On his panel he could see the asteroid, almost half the size of Earths Moon, which the Marine contingent had landed on, coming into range. He wondered if they would make a pass then continue with the exercise, before returning to pick up their Marines, or if the CO would call it ... He was monitoring numerous systems, including the sensor array's so hopefully their excursion would go as planned .....

"Helm, bring us around, zero nine zero mark four five, right between those two asteroids there," Apollo said, sending the details to the conn of two asteroids about to collide, "ops, as we fly through, tractors to repel them, get them to dead stop," he ordered, "and have a security officer bring Lieutenant Zitla through the lockdown to the Bridge."

Melody's hands danced across the controls "Aye Sir. Coming around to zero nine zero mark four five, increasing speed to two thirds impulse."

... David brought the tractor emitters on-line and watched intently as the Flight Officer began a sharp turn, seemingly avoiding a garage-sized asteroid by centimeters. Tapping his Comm badge he contacted Security and instructed them to accompany Lieutenant Zitla through the designated shields encompassing access to the Bridge, then returned his attention to the task at hand. He scanned the area ahead and locked onto the two asteroids the Commander had signified. He realised that yet another rogue boulder was heading towards them, nothing that could cause significant damage, but worrisome nonetheless. He passed the information to the Tactical Officer for him to deal with. As the ship levelled her flight, he activated duel tractor beams, which lanced from the underside of the saucer section and caressed the two wildly rotating orbs ... As he confirmed the locks he increased power intentionally using the tractors to 'push' rather than capture. eventually bringing them to a dead stop relative to the Merlin. He double-checked the distance between them, realising they were less than the three hundred fifty six meters width of the ship, but as one was almost one hundred meters above the other in relation to the ship, they would pass between them without incident. Taking the tractor array emitters off-line he reported that the task was complete to Commander Barstow .....


Caroline and the nurses shared a confused and worried glance. "Bridge quarantine it all off now. I'm initiating a level 5 scan and Myself and a team are heading there now in full bioharzard gear. Engineering can you get me a biohazard sample container brought up to sickbay stat,"

< Sickbay >

After having been declared fit for duty, Cale found himself caught up in the drills the bridge was running; Only he didn't know they were drills. All he knew was there was a biohazard on board and that only senior officers were allowed in the corridors. Making his way to one of the science labs to procure something he needed (an isolinear chip), he moved stealthily until he ran into a rather attractive Bolian female who was likewise roaming the corridors alone. Walking up to her, he said, "The corridors are off limits to junior officers, Lieutenant?"

"Is that so!?" Zitla replied with a lilt of surprise - there went her plans for the rest of the day, "I guess I'd better head back into the lab," she added. What a shame, she'd just set a process that would take an hour or so to run and had time booked on the holodeck - she was that keen to get her feet wet. "I don't mean to sound glib, Lieutenant," she added with a grin, aware that her jovial tone could be interpreted that way.

"Lieutenant Cale Llewellyn, Chief Science Officer of the USS Merlin. And you are, Lieutenant?

She extended her hand, palm down in the Bolian style, "Zitla. I've been so tied up on a project we've not even met. I'm your assistant chief."

"Assistant? I didn't know I was getting one. Well, Lieutenant, what praytell is your specialty? Just so I know where to allocate resources. Let's get to the bridge and meet the captain."

The Bolian felt a pang of guilt - it was so rare for her take time out to indulge her own projects - it had seemed like such a good idea at the time but she'd left her department head unaware of her existence and even worse not even begun to engage with the rest of the crew.

"Its my fault. I should have taken the time to introduce myself," she explained, "I just thought with us being underway, and nothing urgent happening that i could continue with some analysis I set aside a few years ago. I'm sorry," she apologized again, "I'm rambling and I've totally ignored your question." Zitla paused to draw a breath, "I majored in Geology and Bio-chemistry - it might sound an odd combination but I was fascinated by the existence of the Horta as a child and it sort of grew from there."

Zitla stopped again, just in case Cale wanted to get a word in edgeways, "Sorry," she said again, "I have been told I talk a lot."

"That's quite alright, Mister Zitla. Sometimes that's a rather charming trait," Cale smiled at the Bolian female. "That is a quite odd specialty. I majored in stellar sciences at the Academy, a rather overused major for our day and age, don't you think?"

She felt a wave of relief cool her skin - she hadn't messed up entirely. Zitla smiled back, "I don't know about overused, can you imagine trying to explore space if there weren't several experts on hand? I could see that ending up in a catastrophe! Did you know that Bolarus and Earth have some features that are indistinguishable from one another? Yet both planets have produced such different sentient life, I guess that's something that fascinated me early on too. When we first saw Bolarus it was a lot like returning to Earth which had been our home. My sisters think I'm a bit potty about it but they're all of an artistic mindset."

"You don't say? I didn't know that about our homeworlds, he said already regretting telling her that her chatting was a charming trait.

"Lieutenant Zitla, the Bridge asked me to bring you up," a young security Petty Officer said as he walked behind the two officers, "sir, I should escort you as well if you're heading up, the Bridge is on lockdown."

Zitla looked from Cale to the security officer then back again. Why was she wanted on the bridge? There was really only one way to find out. "It will make a change of scene from the lab. I've been so tied up since i arrived I've not had a chance to see any of the ship," she said. Aware that she was clearly not up to speed with what was going on he asked, "What's the situation? Is it really something I can help with?"

"Calm down, Lieutenant. I'm sure there is a reason for this security officer for wanting to get us to the bridge. Let's go with him. Lead the way, Petty Officer," Cale instructed. And the two science officers followed the young ensign to the bridge.

"Understood, Doctor, Tan, seal up the infected decks as best you can, allow medical overrides," Barstow said as the two science officers entered the Bridge. The Commander looked over, "welcome back Llewellyn. Lieutenant Zitla, since your our geologist I need you at science, full sensor scans, give me a mineral breakdown of the asteroids we just stopped. Llewellyn, I'd like you to sit here," he added, motioning to the XO seat, having already told Tamlin he was going to bring Cale over towards the end of the test, "I need you to keep track of security and medical reports and keep me posted."

Well that was a relief! She was here because she had the right knowledge. Zitla knew she could work with that. "Understood Captain," she said with a smiling salute before she retreated to take the science station.

"Yes Sir," Cale sat down and said a little confused.

... "Sir." David replied, turning to his panel and checking on the progress of the Intruder Drill. It was going relatively well considering the Commanders restrictions, but the program was designed to be adaptable, and it was doing just that .. He informed all Personnel on Decks eight, fifteen, thirty six, and thirty seven to evacuate all corridors immediately, then informed Security that internal scans had picked up insurgents on those decks and they were to bring down emergency bulkheads to seal off the intruders immediately. He made sure to remind them that Medical Personnel were conducting Bio-hazard Drills in conjunction with their so they were to allow access were required. Once the four decks were completely sealed off he refreshed his memory regarding the deck layout and decided that one more curve-ball couldn't hurt. He sounded an alarm which would require Security to act immediately.

"Intruders have reached Deck Two !" he said, a wry grin forming ...

"Aye Captain," Cale said sitting in the XO's spot. He called up the security and medical information, looked from his screen and back to Barstow. "Captain, Security reports the intruders are making their way to the bridge!"

... "Commander, I've disabled turbo-lift access to the Bridge and sealed all Jeffries tubes. Security are en-route ... They should reach Deck Two in fifteen seconds. I don't see any issue with the intruders reaching the Bridge." David said, happy they had reacted to the un-scheduled incursion only one deck below them. His Comm badge chirped to life:

=^= Security to Tan .. We're on Deck Three .. Intruders holding us off .. we're unable to gain access to Deck Two =^=

=^= Lieutenant .. Hold position on Deck Three .. Seal off any escape via lower decks .. I intend to flood the level with Anesthizine gas to incapacitate them =^=

=^= Holding on Deck Three =^= the man replied. David simulated release of the fast-acting airborne sedative through the environmental systems, then purged the Deck. He tapped his comm badge once again:

=^= Lieutenant .. Move up to Deck Two .. Intruders should be incapacitated .. Secure and ferry to the Brig .. Tan out =^= He turned to the Commander:

"Simulated incursion to Deck Two completed Commander." he said ...

John stood up and nodded with a grin, patting Tans shoulder, "good work, Lieutenant, go ahead and wrap things up and get me a performance evaluation on security," the CO said, happy with the crews performance then turned, "Lieutenant Zitla, once you have those scans let me know and check them against what we have in the database for this area. Jones and Llewellyn, I need a word in my Ready Room," he said and started towards the ready room door at the back of the bridge, "Tamlin, you have the conn."

Melody raised an eyebrow, glanced at Cale to see if he knew what was going on then rose from the helm and followed the Captain in the ready room.

Cale just looked mortified an followed Melody into the Captain's inner sanctum.

Tamlin moved from Tactical to the front of the command area. 'Boy, this is getting confusing,' Jesus thought.

The history of the field was fascinating, Zitla noted as she skim read the basic details and began to program the details for the scan - all the result of a literal clash between planets that neither had won. With the size of some of the 'fragments' a term that to her mind was absurd for such a large body of rock it was entirely feasible that with the aid of a dome or some such a party of pirates could camp out there. To the best of her knowledge that had never been investigated or proven and most likely would be a waste of time - the are had been used to test complex manouvres for decades and more.

The Bolian turned her attention back to the matter in hand - "I expect the first results in about ten minutes," she said, "High level analysis - it will be longer before we have the full breakdown." It was going to take some time.




OFF:

Commander John "Apollo" Barstow
Commanding Officer

Lieutenant jg Melody Jones
Chief flight control officer / Second officer
USS Merlin

Lieutenant, jg Cale Llewellyn
Chief Science Officer
USS Merlin

Dr Caroline Miller
Chief Medical Officer
USS Merlin

Lieutenant JG Zitla
Assistant Chief Science Officer

Lieutenant JG Davina Lidox
Chief Strategic Operations Officer

Lieutenant JG David Tan
Chief Operations Officer