Commander Addison MacKenzie - Let's End This

[Addison MacKenzie]

(( Bridge, Deck 1, USS Artemis — A couple minutes later ))

Jovenan: Phasers ready, sir!

MacKenzie: Now!

Jovenan’s finger pressed the control, sending two bright pulses of energy began to circle around the round saucer section before meeting in the middle, and there, a ray of orange departed them, split the space in half, finding its way to the Suliban ship.

Addison nodded slightly. It wasn’t a great shot, but it landed, and was hopefully enough to draw attention toward the Artemis and away from the Berlin.

Sadar: =/\= We need life support controls to get the crew back on their feet. If it’s not possible to restore Bridge functions, can you reroute remote control to Sickbay? =/\=

Howe: =/\= ::pause:: We- ::static:: -ook ::static:: it. =/\=

The comm went dead.

MacKenzie: Another round, Lieutenant!

And again. Now, with both the primary frontal phasers and the upper phasers simultaneously. Yalu, expert at the helm he was, managed to keep them out of the line of fire.

Jovenan: The Berlin is firing as well! The enemy shields are weakening!

Sadar: The Berlin is readying photon torpedoes, Captain! Recommend we divert power from phasers temporarily to boost shields, in case there’s feedback from the nebula.

 

MacKenzie: Agreed. Do it, Ensign.

 

Sadar: Yes sir. Standing by to boost shields.

 

Jovenan: Powering down phasers.

Addison watched as several torpedoes left the Berlin and streaked across the milky purple haze of the nebula. One of them hit their target - a gas cloud sending up multiple plasma flares. The other struck one of its phaser arrays. A stray nebula flare made contact with the Artemis shields, but the reinforcement was enough to keep it from doing serious damage.

 

Sadar: Shields holding, sir. Suliban shields down to 31%.

There was a brief pause.

Sadar: The Suliban ship has ceased hostilities, Sir. Returning shields to nominal power levels.

 

MacKenzie: Do we have external comms yet?

Jovenan: Minimally, sir. Not enough to hail either ship.

Yalu: ::shakes head, mutters:: Aw, crumbs.

She rolled her eyes and threw up her hands in a display of exasperation.

MacKenzie: Do we have anything working? Ensign, if we don’t have life support control, get your teams dispatched as soon as they’re ready.

Sadar: Yes sir.

MacKenzie: Is there a way to get a message to the Suliban ship? I’d prefer to not blow them out of the sky if we don’t have to, but something a bit more efficient than Morse code would be preferable…

Sadar: Deployment team dispatched, Sir. ETA to deck 13 in twenty minutes.

 

Jovenan: We could launch a couple of probes to boost our signal, but there’s nothing preventing the Suliban from destr… Wait.

 

Addison’s eyes shifted slightly, waiting to see why they were waiting…

 

MacKenzie: Let’s have it, Lieutenant…

Jovenan: An energy build-up within the enemy ship, a chain reaction of some kind. They’re severely damaged, the ship’s warp core might breach if they can’t stabilise it.

They didn’t have time to deal with the gravity of what the new information entailed. Another ping from the sensors, and another more critical report from their medical officer.

Sadar: S-Sensors are picking up transporter activity from the Suliban ship.

Yalu, with eyebrow raised, turned to face Sadar. The look on his face said everything she was thinking. As she feared, they were likely to have a new host of problems.

Jovenan: I’m not detecting new intruders onboard. Either they managed to slip in or they’re on the Berlin.

Partially good news, partially not so good news…

Sadar: Sensors are reading weapon discharges aboard the Berlin. Nebula interference is interfering with accurate accounts of lifesigns, so I can't tell how many Suliban are over there.

Yalu: I’m attempting to access the Suliban ship’s computer core. If it’s going to blow, we should try to get whatever data we can. ::beat:: The ship has an expired registration with authorities on Beta Antares IV, under the name Sarna. The registry shows a crew complement of 31, but the schematics on file don’t match what our sensors are telling us. It’s clear this old boat has been extensively modified. Off the record.

 

Yo-ho a pirate’s life for thee…

 

MacKenzie: Well that’s certainly interesting but not relevant in the immediate. What’s their status, and are we able to mount a rescue? Move us closer, Yogan – neither us or the Berlin have enough shield strength if that ship goes critical…

Jovenan: response

Sadar: Maybe we could try and… Use our own transporters? Maybe beam some physical method of communication on board? It would also be a way for us to check if the transporters function properly in case we need them for evacuations.

Yalu: I’m equalizing our shield harmonics with Berlin’s. We’ll both be stronger if we share.

 

MacKenzie: And let’s see if we can beam the intruders on the Berlin directly to the brig… Re-route non-essential power to the forcefields.

Jovenan: response

Yalu: Force field emitters are at full strength. Sealing off all of Deck 8.

MacKenzie: Can we get a lock on the Suliban on the Artemis while we’re at it?

Jovenan / Sadar: response

Yalu: ::shakes head:: Internal sensors are still going haywire. I’d just beam the whole lot to the brig if I could get a lock on them. They’ll just have to apprehend them the old fashioned way.

Addison shook her head.

MacKenzie: No doubt Dakora and Silveira are on it…

Jovenan / Sadar: response

Yogan grinned. Moving Artemis into such close proximity with Berlin also solved a secondary problem, if only temporarily.

Yalu: Captain, we’re close enough to Berlin’s bridge that you should just be able to use your combadge’s built-in transceiver to contact someone over there.

She blinked several times before finally shrugging.

MacKenzie: =/\= MacKenzie to Berlin… =/\=

The channel was open, but the only response was the sound of weapons fire. Her eyebrows immediately raised – not only had the Suliban boarded the Berlin, they were on the bridge.

MacKenzie: Lieutenant, can we boost power enough to get the Suliban off the Berlin and into our brig?

Jovenan: response

MacKenzie: What is the status of your teams, Doctor Sadar?

Sadar: Response

She took a deep breath and nodded her head slowly.

MacKenzie: Let’s end this. Commander, coordinate whatever security teams are still available and reinforce the area around the brig. Lieutenant, whenever you have enough power, start locking onto Suliban lifesigns and get them off the Berlin.

 

Yogan/Jovenan/Sadar: Response

 

 

 

 

Tag, and TBC!

  

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Commander Addison MacKenzie, M.D., Ph.D., FASFS
Commanding Officer
USS Artemis-A

Captains Council Magistrate

V239601AM0