LtJG Jovenan – Playing with plasma because fire isn’t hot enough
Jovenan
((Bridge, USS Artemis))
MacKenzie: Jovenan, let’s see if we can further confuse their sensors. Is there a way we can manipulate the natural phenomenon in the nebula to mask our presence without drawing attention to ourselves?
It was not an easy question. She knew a decent amount about nebulas, plasma currents and interstellar medium, and something about sensors and spaceship operations, but her tactical sense wasn’t as developed. She could list them interesting facts about the Paulson Nebula and its composition, but how to use it in a battle? With time, she might be able to develop such methods, but to state them quickly and without considering all the circumstances, it was awful.
Jovenan: ::nervous:: I, uh, I don’t really… We could… Uh… The gasses of the nebula… but uh… In theory, we could… We could generate a graviton pulse that could create a temporary gravitational hotspot around us. With the small mass of the gas around us, we could form a thicker cloud of sensor blocking particles around us. We might have even collected some to our tanks, so we could emit them through the Bussard collectors. But I don’t know about not drawing attention… A probe could…
The Captain thought her proposition for a moment before turning to Lt Silveira. Jovenan was relieved she hadn’t asked further questions, because she was still trying to figure out if it worked at all as she expected.
MacKenzie: Any chance that might put us at a tactical advantage, Mr. Silveira? The Berlin is out there and I want to make sure we’re not caught with our pants down while we attempt to neutralize the threat from within…
Silveira : We have Tactical control, unless Commander Dakora can torture the codes out of me, Commander Yalu and yourself, Captain. ::He turned to Nan.:: Now Lieutenant Jovenan, wouldn’t the graviton pulse also block our scans?
Jovenan: Yes, it would hinder our sensor abilities as well. An antigraviton pulse would clear the cloud afterwards, or we could just fly out of it, but until that, I don’t think they would see us, and probably vice versa.
Silveira: Right. So, I know it didn’t work the first time, but why don’t we keep hitting the same key?
The one that made a plasma current spew intensely hot matter at them? How about no?
MacKenzie: …because it didn’t work?
Jovenan: We did hit the Berlin. If we hadn’t happened to also hit a plasma pocket, we might have succeeded.
Kader: Response
Silveira: We have trouble fixing a lock on the Berlin. Who in return also hadn’t targeted us, the best they did was beam in a boarding party, instead of unloading phasers and torpedoes to shred us, right?
Jovenan realised Lt Silveira wasn’t going to try and reason his earlier decisions. He had a new idea, built on what he had earlier done.
Silveira: Let’s go for it again. As that old portuguese expression goes “lost by a hundred, lost by a thousand”. We get a mapping of the plasma streams around us, see if we can safely avoid a backfire like before and fire another salvo. It was the only time we did hit them.
Okay, it wasn’t actually a new idea, just the previous idea with more consideration. Might a working solution, might result to them just wasting their torpedoes, might still manage to kill them all somehow anyway.
MacKenzie: Use the gases to our advantage…
Jovenan raised an eyebrow. She wasn’t exactly understanding the plan yet.
Kader: Response
Silveira: OK, so how about this. We try the graviton pulse, using gravity to clutter our position with any blocking particles, and then scan for plasma streams we can fire on so they suffer the same way we did. I mean, if we are relying on direct fire we won’t get a shot. Unless we are able to really have a proper reading on them. For all we know they might just be… ::he raised his hand and pointed to the floor right below his seat.:: Right there. We keep the initiative and keep pushing. They already have hands on us, not sure who, but I would guess Commander Dakora, Lieutenant Osuna and either Lieutenant Jones or Ensign Lorana. I don’t see Commander Adea letting Lieutenant Yellir go from his side. Keeping them on the run will at least force their hand. We just have to consider the recoil from last time.
So, risking it with the environment. The weapons and other systems are on a drill mode and can’t harm them, but the environment isn’t and definitely can injure anyone or kill them all. And despite it all, we’re sticking pins to sockets here.
MacKenzie: Alright, Mr. Silveira. Let’s consider this your moment of redemption… if it works.
Silveira: Not to self praise myself, but I think I am pretty good at that.
Randomly shooting plasma felt like irresponsible thing to do. Better say something.
Jovenan: Uh, sir, we better have a good idea of the plasma torch we might want to disrupt before acting.
Kader: Response
Jovenan looking at her direction, the Captain stood from her central chair and walked over to her. Examining the readings on her interface, the Captain came close to Jovenan, looking essentially over her shoulder. Jovenan tried not to disturb or even look at her commanding officer, attempting to focus solely to her own work as the Captain was breathing to her neck.
MacKenzie: Mr. Kader, move us to these coordinates, but be careful not to attract any attention. Creep if you have to. No doubt the Berlin is watching.
Kader: Response
MacKenzie: Jovenan, as we move, let’s see if we can get a better idea of the landscape… I want to know how just how much ground these plasma pockets might cover if they’re detonated. Vitor, we’ll need your best projections on which pocket to target.
Jovenan: Aye, sir.
Silveira: On it Captain.
Redirecting the secondary sensors and what remained functional of the primary sensors to study the close-by plasma pockets and currents. She didn’t fully approve of the unnecessarily risky operation, but it had been the Captain’s call and she knew better not to question an order. Hence, since they were going to disturb some of the most lethal forces in vicinity, they better do it correctly. And much of that depended on her performance.
They moved across the area, creeping slowly to a better position.
MacKenzie: Good work, Mr. Kader. Hold here for now. If the plasma pockets ignite in a way we don’t anticipate, we’ll have to move quickly to get out of the line of fire. Don’t wait for my order if it looks like we’re in trouble, just get us out of the way. I trust you.
Kader: Response
MacKenzie: Alright, Lieutenants. Jovenan, have we got a better picture of the plasma pockets in the vicinity?
Not enough to her liking, but their survival probability was sufficient considering the circumstances.
Jovenan: I’m transferring everything we have to you, sir.
MacKenzie: Good work. Mr. Silveira, I assume this gives you a better idea of which pocket would be best to target that might inflict the most damage over the widest radius while also not damaging the Artemis?
Silveira: Yes Captain. Now it will be different.
MacKenzie: Then, Lieutenants, prepare to fire at your discretion.
Lt Silveira was powering up weapons systems. They had planned to release the graviton pulse in order to obscure themselves with the particle cloud, but Jovenan began to consider how it might affect the torpedoes and the released plasma.
Silveira: Powering up weapons. Targeting pockets.
Jovenan: The graviton pulse is online, sir. If we want to go with it, we better release it before or after firing at the plasma, but not concurrently, or we might affect the torpedoes or pull the plasma towards us.
Kader: Response
Silveira: Lieutenant Jovenan, can you confirm that contact?
Jovenan turned her face quickly from the graviton pulse controls to the other part of her console to see what Lt Silveira was talking about. A contact. That… that did look like the Berlin. But it was very obscure.
Jovenan: Uh, yes, we are detecting a vessel running long-range scans. Their impulse wake doesn’t perfectly align with what a ship of Berlin’s size should leave, but that could just be because of interference or damage to the sensors.
Had they found the Berlin by accident? Or had the Berlin also detected them?
Silveira: I have them… But…
MacKenzie/Kader: Response
Jovenan: Sir, the plasma currents are very fluid! If we don’t disturb them now, we need to do a new scan on them!
The plasma or the Berlin. Sometimes shooting something was better than waiting.
Silveira: I don't know… I am not sure… I…
MacKenzie/Kader: Response
Silveira: I would fire everything. At the plasma, at the contact. Let’s set the world on fire.
Ookayy… Maybe don’t set the world on fire. Just a match. Not the world.
MacKenzie/Kader: Response
Jovenan: Ready, sir!
Silveira: Response
Jovenan kept looking at the sensor readings of the Berlin. Why did the scanning beam seem so much stronger further to another direction than near the Berlin? After all, the beam would emit from the Berlin’s sensor array, the most of it would scatter from there. Unless…
MacKenzie/Kader/Silveira: Response
TAG/TBC
----
Lieutenant JG Jovenan
Science officer
USS Artemis-A
E239911J11