LtCmdr Jovenan – Wishful thoughts can only make thoughtful wishes
Jovenan
((Bridge, USS Artemis))
Jovenan straightened her skant uniform. No matter how many times she ran her hands over the fabric, it wouldn’t become entirely free of creases and wrinkles. Truthfully, her intention hadn’t been to somehow iron her outfit with bare hands, her actions were more connected to her attempts to contain her anxiety. The Artemis was mere minutes away from the moon where her friends and colleagues were held captive. That’s where she had ordered them to intercept the Orion destroyer, roughly equal to them in destructive capabilities. Captain MacKenzie would have known how to solve this, Talos and Genkos might have too, but now Jovenan had to command the ship herself, to persuade the Orions somehow or to start a battle that in terms of number of casualties wouldn’t make a significant footnote to the Kydon war history, but which might see higher destructive capability and power than what the system had seen since the birth of its sun.
The moon nor the destroyer appeared yet in the main screen. Jovenan turned to her bridge crew. Maybe they knew how to lean towards the option that didn’t require her to sacrifice their ship nor the away team.
Jovenan: I take it that we can’t contact or beam the away team up. Is there something we can do to counter their jamming?
Tho’Bi: ::at Jovenan:: Down on the planet, I used the Giant Trees ::beat:: Overwhelmed the jamming from all sides ::beat:: If we get close enough to the base ::beat:: maybe use the SubSpace Transceivers, across Artemis’ hull ::beat:: do the same.
Cole: That might work, since we don’t appear to have a tree handy. ::said with a coy smile::
Gnai: This presumes a fully-equipped Starfleet ship should be at least a little better than a tree…
Jovenan thought of the option. The suggestion wasn’t in any way outrageous, instead it was rather neat method of electronic warfare against a (probably) technologically inferior opponent. However, the requirement of getting sufficiently close to the base might have proven inconvenient: it didn’t seem likely the Orion destroyer would allow them to approach their (or their ally’s) base uninterrupted. She kept the option in mind and quickly resumed seeking other alternatives before they’d reach their targets.
Jovenan: The Orion vessel is in contact with the base. Would we be able to determine what method they are using and replicate it?
Tho’Bi: ::quietly to himself:: Transporter Protocol ::to Jovenan and louder:: Transporter Protocol ::beat:: Transporters achieve frequency lock at 162.9 GHz ::beat:: well within the frequency spectrum of CMBR ::beat:: matter transmission takes way too much energy to hide in CMBR, but ::beat:: Transporter Protocol is just a data package, from one Transporter system to another ::beat:: it takes very little energy to transmit ::beat:: What if the Orions are using Transporter Protocol, to transmit communications?
Furrowing her brows, Jovenan tried to figure out how much of the suggestion was a proven theory and how much was a guess. From what she remembered from her Academy years, the technical details sounded right – she had no reason to question the Engineer’s expertise in his own field – but she didn’t quite follow the line of deduction that the Orions were using transporter protocol for communications. Perhaps she didn’t need to, either, and just evaluate how much she trusted the officer who had reported the finding.
Cole: I have an idea that might help. In spite of the Destroyer's armament and defenses being more than ours, we might be able to use the fact that they are older to our advantage. ::realizing everyone was looking at her:: If we use our shields as kind of a battering ram we could get theirs to buckle. That would open them up for us to better disable them. They’d likely be forced to pull power from their weapons to restore their shields.
Gnai: That… could work, but it would drain the Artemis’ shields as well. Or, if by some chance the shields are both in the same frequency ::beat, trying to recall why this is dangerous:: if they’re the same harmonic, the Artemis’ shields wouldn’t do a thing, and the hull of the ship would collide head-on with the brunt of their shields. That does not favor the Artemis, as it is the smaller ship. This recommends caution before trying that, and ensuring that the shields are on very different frequencies.
Jovenan had indeed turned to look at the Ensign. The red-headed human (?) had been with the Captain during the negotiations with the representatives of the two warring nations, but Jovenan didn’t yet know her. Of her current bridge crew, Jovenan trusted Gnai the most, and with just a brief opportunity to know Tho’Bi, she had formed a vague idea how reliable he was. Meanwhile, her evaluation of Ensign Cole’s idea was based almost solely on if Vitor would suggest anything remotely so reckless had he been there… He might have. There was definitely a non-zero probability he would have.
What had happened to her so that “What would Vitor do?” had become her guideline?
Jovenan: I’ll consider your suggestion, Ensign Cole. Thank you. ::to Tho’Bi:: Ensign Tho’Bi, what would it requite to tap into their communications?
Tho’Bi: ::turns side on with console:: From here, I can rig one of the Cargo Bay Transporters, to act as an receiver ::turns back to Jovenan:: the good and bad news is ::beat:: Transporter Protocol encodes location as standard ::beat:: we should be able to locate every receiver on their network, good news ::beat:: but, the Orions will know it's us, the moment we connect ::beat:: bad news.
So they could listen to the communications for almost as long as it took to stop talking when you saw someone standing next to you and hearing every word of it. The destroyer and the base would simply order comms silence as soon as they did so. Jovenan avoided her sigh becoming audible. They couldn’t make the Orions spill out their secrets in an open channel. But there was more to a conversation than just listening.
Jovenan: They would cease communications. Can we use it to transmit instead?
Tho’Bi: ::to Jovenan:: Yes, we can transmit, but ::tilts head to one side:: our Combadges work via Subspace ::beat:: there's no way for Transporter Protocol to interface with it ::tilts head other way:: If the Away Team had access to the Orion systems ::shrugs:: or, at least, see them ::beat:: maybe we could get a message through ::beat:: maybe.
And they had no way of knowing if the away team had access to any of those.
Cole: What if we piggy back on the Orians signal and force an automatic response, something like ::beat:: morse code. It would have to be a simple message, and we’d have to hope they see it. That or I can attempt to get surgical with the ship's phasers, just remember I skipped med school for Security.
Gnai: This isn’t exactly certain how one would force an automatic response?
Indeed. Jovenan looked at each of the junior officers for explanation or ideas for improvement of the plan.
Tho’Bi: Piggybacking Transporter Protocol is ::tilts head and nods:: outside the box ::works console in front of him:: All our Transporters are locked to the position of this ship ::reaches for a side console:: If I replace that with sensor tracking of the Orion ship ::back to console in front:: There’ll be a roundtrip delay of ::blue fingers tap screen:: point five millisecond ::beat:: but, it might fool the Orions ::beat:: that’s the good ::to Jovenan:: This is the bad ::beat:: If we get a lock on our team ::shakes head, quiet voice:: we can’t beam them back ::beat:: Because we’d be beaming them to the Orion ship ::beat:: And here’s the ugly ::beat:: with the point five millisecond delay ::beat:: they’ll end up in a bulkhead ::beat:: halfway through the deck ::shrugs:: or worse. ::beat:: We’d also need to drop the shields ::beat:: not for long, but…
Jovenan: Well, that’s out of the question. ::pause:: But resume with the plan to plug into their communications. Maybe we can make a connection with the away team.
Tho’Bi: ::quietly:: Aye, Aye, Lieutenant Commander.
Gnai: This will keep an eye on the sensors, in case their ship reacts to anything the Artemis does.
Jovenan: Good thinking, Lieutenant. Ensign Cole… If it comes to that, what would you need to execute the shield ramming?
Jovenan preferred not to consider the goldshirt’s suggestion, but she had to admit that the Orions were not necessarily going to give up their schemes just by words. Although Jovenan wasn’t going to first the first shot, she wanted to have options in case the opposition turned violent, and destroying the enemy shields and incapacitating their weapons and engines in just a few moves was far more appealing to her than a full-on space battle.
Cole: Response
Before Jovenan could give further instructions, Lieutenant Gnai alerted them.
Gnai: Sir… it looks like the Orion ship has ::beat, still mildly stupefied:: powered down its shields momentarily? Maybe to use transporters to get to the base. ::looking again at its console, still confused:: But they’re nowhere near close enough to Moric to beam anything down or up… No transporter has that range!
Hastily turning on the Captain’s seat – her seat, for now – Jovenan looked out through the main screen. The Orion destroyer was finally visible, but besides it, there was nothing they’d be beaming to. Unless there were cloaked vessels – did transporters work through cloak again? – the only places to beam into were the Artemis and the deadly space around them. The Artemis had its shields up, there were better methods of delivering an explosive than beaming it to the space somewhere near, and Jovenan doubted the Orions were surrendering to them already.
Tho’Bi: ::Quietly:: Oh no. ::looks across at Jovenan:: The Orions are trying to back channel our Transporter protocol ::beat:: use it to beam aboard ::shakes head:: but it’s not going to work ::beat:: our fake locator is just going to bounce them back ::beat:: but with the roundtrip delay ::beat:: We have to warn them!
It took several seconds for Jovenan to realise what the Ensign was saying. The Orions were trying to board them, but would end up just like what Ensign Tho’Bi had remarked of if they were attempting to beam up the away team. Alarmed, she jumped from the central seat and issued commands that real ship commanders would have stated in a much more gracious manner.
Jovenan: Hail them! =/\= Orion destroyer, do not attempt to board us! Your men will be bounced back into the space! Repeat, do not attempt boarding! =/\=
Gnai/Cole: Response
For a moment, Jovenan could see her believing that the Orions would hear her call and take it under advisement. She turned between the main screen and Ensign Tho’Bi, but then he turned to her, without a word. Her lips were pressed into a thin line when she finally faced the main viewer again. She resisted the urge to identify which spots between the two ships had once been people.
She fell back to the central seat, her eyes still raised to the once empty space behind the screen. It was far from the first time she had seen death, but there was a personal element to seeing the destruction caused by oneself. She had shot people, sensible, intelligent people, but never with an intention to kill. There were likely some Borg drones she had killed, personally, and even if her aim had not been entirely accurate, some of the Suliban pirates might have perished after she had opened fire during the surprise attack two years ago. Now, there was no doubt. Even if she had at no point hold a weapon against these people or pulled the trigger, not hold a knife against their throat or thrust a sword through their chests, she had no doubt that her orders had killed these people. Slouching back on the seat, she covered part of her face with her hands, and yellow alert lights coloured the bridge.
Tho’Bi: ::dry swallow:: We got what we needed.
It took a brief moment longer, not much more than it took to exhale, but Jovenan lowered her hands and straightened her back again. She was needed.
Jovenan: Visualisation to the main viewer.
The image of the destroyer and the remnants of its assault team was covered by the representation of the system, with many bright, interconnected spots webbing across the surface of the inhabited world.
Tho’Bi: Looks like they have receivers all over Galaris IV ::looks at Jovenan:: could be for Ensign Imril’s Transmitters ::tilts his head one way:: Could be for Ensign Bancroft’s Nano Virus ::tilts head over way:: could be both.
Jovenan: As in, the receiver that caused the particles on the Grunder soldier’s body to move? ::pause:: They have indeed been monitoring the entire war.
Gnai/Cole: Response
Tho’Bi: ::to Jovenan:: Lieutenant Commander ::beat:: If we get close enough ::beat:: I can use the SubSpace Transceivers embedded into ship’s’ hull ::beat:: to work around the jamming ::beat:: and contact our people on the Moonbase…
Jovenan turned her head to the goldshirt Ensign. He had brought up an earlier suggestion again, but from what Jovenan had understood, there were some drawbacks to the plan…
Tho’Bi: ::continues:: But ::beat:: it means maintaining ::dry mouth:: a geo-stationary orbit ::beat:: directly above the moonbase ::beat:: at less than two thousand meters ::beat:: If the Orions decide to attack ::beat:: we’d be sitting dogs.
Jovenan: ::shakes head:: Absolutely not, Ensign. The Orions just tried to board us, and they lost their team in the process. We are not going to lower our shields. ::pause:: What’s the status of the destroyer? Are they preparing for an attack?
Gnai/Cole/Tho’Bi: Response
Jovenan breathed in and out, attempting to calm her racing heart and to give herself a few seconds to think. As she had learnt before, at times like this, there were very few opportunities for thinking things through, and it only got worse for the one occupying the central seat, who had to consider everything, see and hear everything. At the back of her mind, a voice had kept repeating to her that if she waited just a moment longer, Captain MacKenzie or Vitor or Doctor Sadar or someone, absolutely anyone, would solve the problem for her. Now, she had to abandon that wishful thought.
Jovenan: Ensign Tho’Bi, Lieutenant Gnai. Try to establish communications with the away team with the transporter protocol or whichever similar method works. Try to ascertain their status. Maybe we can do something for them without putting ourselves in danger. I’ll try to buy you time.
Gnai/Tho’Bi: Response
Jovenan: Ensign Cole. We… We might be going into a battle. Open fire only when I order you to, and to disable, not to destroy. Try to disable first their weapons, then their engines. If and only if I say so, we will try to ram their shields as you suggested. Prepare for that possibility.
Cole: Response
Standing up from the Captain’s seat, Jovenan stepped closer to the main viewscreen and crossed her arms behind her back. She breathed in and out, announcing her orders as calmly as she could.
Jovenan: Red alert. Battle stations.
The klaxon and the bright, blinking lights engulfed the bridge.
Jovenan: Hail the destroyer and the base, try all the methods we have available. =/\= Orion destroyer and the Moric Base. This is the Federation starship Artemis. You are in possession of Starfleet officers. We demand their immediate release and the cease of all hostilities against us. The one of you in charge, please respond. =/\=
Gnai/Tho’Bi/Cole: Response
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Lieutenant Commander Jovenan
Chief Science Officer
USS Artemis-A
E239911J11