PO2 Lohkina: The Ol' Merge & Merge

[Tony Colella]

[HOLODECK]

(( Bridge, Deck 2, USS Tiburon ))

Lohkina: (grim) What about tactical systems? Could we fire on them? 

Not that she suspected that would do anything except, for a moment, make her feel better, but she wanted to know. Whether in a simulation or not, Lohkina wouldn't fire upon a Starfleet vessel unless it had been severely compromised and there were no other options. But, unfortunately, that was why she wanted to know, because it seemed like there was no guarantee that there would be other options for the Bedfordshire.

T’Korva: If we had subspace charges at the ready, it might be enough to diffuse those eddies, but it would take at least 15 minutes to configure the charges and another ten to align them to a frequency that matches the eddies. 

That was too long. Lohkina shook her head again.

T’Korva: We could use the Tiburon as a shield of sorts?

Johnson: Us? A shield? Wouldn’t that…well damage if not destroy our ship? 

Lohkina: Yes, that seems like a distinct possibility. How do you mean, Commander? 

T’Korva: The eddies are moving, and we can’t necessarily move the Bedfordshire — at least it doesn't appear we can at the moment. (beat) We put ourselves in the path of the Bedfordshire, max out our shields and activate any warp field stabilizers not already online. We may stand a chance of breaking through the eddies before they impact the Bedforshire? 

Johnson: Oh. Okay, I can see the possibility. 

As could Lohkina. T'Korva wanted to use the Tiburon as a shield for the Bedfordshire from the eddies, and though they'd need to run some quick spec checks, Lohkina was reasonably certain that a workhorse like the California-class could serve that role well. But that was only one problem solved, and they were rapidly running out of time.

Lohkina: I wonder if there's a way to combine the suggestions...

The beginnings of an idea were taking shape, but she didn't have time for that. She needed the idea, fully formed, now.

T’Korva: Captain (turning towards her) You’re the engineer, I make this suggestion from witnessing it before, but not from implementing it. (beat) Of course I mean if you see it as a viable option and could help us implement it.

Johnson: Well…to be a viable option, we would have to be really careful in how we do it. 

Lohkina: I'm no engineer, Commander, but thank you for the vote of confidence. Although that does make me think--

Ah! There it was! The idea coalesced and, before it had time to pop, Lohkina was babbling out what might be nonsense, but seemed as though it might have some real merit.

Lohkina: A combination may work. Joining our warp bubbles, shifting shields around just a part of the Bedfordshire, and evacuating its crew.

But could they do it quickly enough, even if they could pull off the maneuver? And had that even made sense? Lohkina wasn't sure, especially in the brief silence that followed as the officers -- well, acting officers, in Johnson's case, though of course that was true of Lohkina as well -- tried to parse the idea.

T’Korva: Response

Johnson: (nodding) Two ships. One can’t stop. Eddies aren’t just flowing, they are changing their path, and intercepting our path. T’Korva, you said you’d witnessed it before? Can you tell us how they did it? 

T’Korva: Response

Johnson: So…what if we take T’Korva’s idea and modulate it a little bit. Kinda use my earlier idea, and sort of combine them into something that may or may not work, but hopefully won’t kill everyone. (beat) Okay, we’re about ten…maybe fifteen minutes before we reach the eddies, or they reach us. If we match the speed of the Bedfordshire, we can merge the warp fields, and we should be able to access their systems and draw power to boost the shields. Because we’ll be in such close proximity, the shields from both ships will actually just extend to each other, and strengthen each other.

Lohkina: Yes! Yes, exactly!

Johnson had found just the right words to express the half-idea Lohkina had babbled out and turned it into something that they could actually do.

Johnson/T’Korva: Responses

Lohkina: Yes, and immediately. Bring us up to the Bedfordshire, Johnson, and merge fields. T'Korva, as soon as we're merged, signal the transporter rooms to start beaming crew off, and then I want you working on how to achieve Johnson's idea for the combined shield strength.

The Bedfordshire crew, even if they couldn't access comms, would surely have some idea that a rescue was in progress, even before the Tiburon started beaming them over. Wouldn't they?

Johnson/T’Korva: Responses

Lohkina: Very good point. So our timeline is even shorter than it appears.

Johnson/T’Korva: Responses

Tag! and TBC!

--

Petty Officer Second Class (PO2) Lohkina

Diplomatic Aide

USS Octavia E. Butler

V238208LV0

she/her/hers (this character)