Capt. Lia Rouiancet: On the Run

[Tony Colella]

(( Bridge, Deck 1, USS Octavia E. Butler )) 

Rouiancet: =/\= Captain Ives, what's happening over there? =/\=

And by "over there," Lia didn't just mean on the Sweet Charlotte. No, Ives might not be in charge of all the ships they'd detected, but there were big differences between allies and enemies. What were those other signals?

Katsim: The ship is within weapons range.

Oh, damnation. The window of opportunity, both to do something more with the unexpectedly productive dialogue with Captain Ives, and to do anything at all, was rapidly closing. And, to make things worse, the comms channel abruptly cut out. Ives and the Sweet Charlotte's command post disappeared, and the viewscreen snapped back to their view of the system with the pulse overlay.

OOC I cut the Ives tags after Marge's OOC message, and I've assumed the bridge can't speak with Ives throughout this sim.

Forsyth: Great, I don’t know if I’ll be able to get a target lock on it…..

Katsim: Captain.

When Lia looked over to Peri, she didn't expect Peri to direct her attention up to the viewscreen. She saw, or thought she saw, exactly what Peri wanted her to see.

Rouiancet: Magnify.

bim Brirr: Aye, Captain.

So the rest of the bridge saw it, too. The magnification jumped into an inset, and there -- yes, it was clear that the ship on approach wasn't on a direct approach, but was slewing away. Lia didn't dare to hope, but -- maybe this wasn't anything more than a feint? A game of chicken? Once the smugglers knew the Butler could see through the cloak, they'd tried something else, except their would-be attacker was blinking first?

A lot of speculation, all things considered. But it was true that the ship was curving away.

Rouiancet: Hm. What do we make of that?

Again she looked to Peri first, but Peri had, per usual, her fingers in twelve different pies. 

Katsim: The Black Kris. It Started in the Alpha Quadrant as a part of an Orion cartel cell. It’s evidently come into its own and has firmly established itself in the Gamma Quadrant. (beat) There’s mention of them having some sort of interaction with the Consortium… 

Forsyth: Why does that name sound familiar… 

Rouiancet: (marveling) So the Black Kris are a little like a smugglers' Starfleet (beat) at least inasmuch as they've expanded out of the Alpha Quadrant. Which I realize is an ironic description given that (to Forsyth) the Consortium, from what little I've been aware of, would very much like Starfleet out of the Gamma Quadrant.

But apparently they had no trouble with the presence of other Alpha and Beta Quadrant powers pushing in. Interesting.

Forsyth: Right, I’m vaguely familiar with them.

Peri continued what Lia assumed was a whispered explanation to Forsyth, while Lia directed her attention back to the imminent threat. Or perhaps not so imminent threat? The cloaked ship on approach was a threat, there was no question, and given that it seemed to be acting in opposition to (or, at least, independent of) the Sweet Charlotte, it was a safe bet that they weren't going to help the Butler in their mission.

Forsyth: Ma’am, permission to ready weapons? 

Katsim: Still on course toward us, though at an angle.

Rouiancet: I would rather not fire on them (beat) but we'll make it clear that we could. Lieutenant, arm weapons systems and target that vessel. Make the target lock very obvious. But don't fire unless they fire first. 

Even if the ship had trouble with its sensors because of the cloak, the magnetar, or both, she wanted to be clear that the Butler was painting a big, bright target on its cloaked hull.

Katsim: Sir…I think they’re going to…

Double deep damnation. 

Rouiancet: Return fire. Aim to incapacitate them, if you can.

If that was possible. It would be difficult enough on a visible vessel, especially one with an unknown configuration. But this was potentially unknown, since it hadn't matched any of the mass silhouettes in the computer, as well as cloaked. Forsyth would be firing blind.

Forsyth: Response 

Katsim: They’re coming around again, Captain. 

Forsyth: Response 

And then, to Lia's horror, it was all over. The Butler's weapons fire struck home, directly into what looked like empty space, and from that an explosion bloomed. Not a small explosion, from the violent release of an airlock, but the sort of eruption of a matter-antimatter system that represented the destruction of a warp engine and, in the fractions of seconds afterward, destroyed an entire ship.

Rouiancet: We didn't hit them that hard! Any life signs?

She was sure of that, even as she looked to Forsyth for confirmation.

Katsim/Forsyth: Responses

Rouiancet: Right, that should not have resulted in an engine collapse, even if we were firing on a shuttle. Something else was going on. (to Forsyth) That wasn't your fault.

Katsim/Forsyth: Responses

However, there was rarely any rest for the wicked.

Irari: Captain, the Sweet Charlotte just jumped to warp. Vector is indeterminate, but the new cone of probability includes the Argratha system.

Lia made a split-second decision. There were no life signs after the destruction of the attacking vessel, and Captain Ives was the only person who had seemed like she was willing to talk to the Butler among the smugglers (and their Black Kris masters?). She certainly hadn't joined in the attack -- but now she was running. 

Outside of the system, the Butler wouldn't be able to track the Sweet Charlotte, but if they were heading for Argratha...

Rouiancet: Lay in a pursuit course that tracks them as directly as possible and engage at matching speed.

Irari: Aye, Captain

Katsim/Forsyth: Responses

Tags! and END SCENE/ACT for Rouiancet!

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Captain Lia Rouiancet

Commanding Officer 

USS Octavia E. Butler

V238208LV0
she/her/hers (this character)