Lt. Commander Anath G'Renn - Red Alert (Columbia) (Part 2)

[Anath G'Renn]

((Main Bridge - Deck 1, USS Columbia))

 

::When the Red Alert sounded, Aanth expected to feel the ship rock from a weapons hit. But no turbulence came. The deck plate her chair was attached to did not shake. A false alarm? She glanced back at Lieutenant Colquhoun for an explanation. Perhaps he had pushed the wrong button by accident. She’d made mistakes like that before.::

 

Colquhoun: Sir, the Ya-Grhan ship has pinged within one million kilometers of us.  They’re still out of variance with us. ::beat:: But I don’t think that’ll last.

 

Duyzer: Well, I’m glad we could detect them. ::he smiled thankfully to lieutenant Owens:: Alright, people. Stay alert.

 

G’Renn: Have we made any progress with the communications jamming?  oO Assuming that’s what it is. Oo

 

::Anath glanced over to Ensign Kano. It still seemed the only rational explanation to assume that the Ya-Grhan had jammed their comms.::

 

Kano: Sir, although I've not found the source of the jamming signal its definitely not coming from the planet. It's got to be from the Ya-Grhan ship.

 

Any: ?

 

Duyzer: Any sign of a response from the Ya-Grhan already?

 

Horn: No sir.  Nothing to indicate they are sending anything out on any band.

 

::Not entirely unexpected.::

 

Duyzer: Is there even a way to confirm they got our message, then?

 

Any: ?

 

Duyzer: ?

 

Kano: I still cant get communications with the planet. ::She looked back at the console.:: the jamming signal is definitely coming from the Ya-Grhan ship. ::pausing:: it looks like as they phase closer to normal space, the jamming signal is getting stronger.

 

Colquhoun: It appears they’ve started some sort of phase shift, they might be decloaking if I’m reading this right.  Let’s stay ready.

 

::Anath braced herself in her chair and waited for the inevitable. The Ya-Grhan were there. Everyone knew that everyone else knew. All of the cloak and dagger sneaking around and trying not to let each other know that you knew the other was there fell to the side. Now it was just waiting to see when they would make the first move.::

 

Colquhoun: Sir, we’ve officially got company.

 

Duyzer: ?

 

::The first attack came suddenly, with the Ya-Grhan ship opening fire. As soon as the weapons fire traversed the distance between them, Columbia shook with the impact to the shields. While it was nowhere near as severe, the first impact brought back uncomfortable memories of her earlier Starfleet career, from the USS Blackwell’s lethal encounter with a minefield. She had been in the middle of a counseling session when it happened.::

 

 

((Flashback - Counseling Suite - Deck 19, USS Blackwell - 239407.29))

 

G’Renn: I suppose…

 

::That was when Anath felt the sudden pull of inertia as she flew out of her chair, nearly colliding with Lieutenant Avran before coming to a very forceful stop when she hit the floor. For a few moments she just sat there, allowing the room to stop spinning before even trying to sit up. Once she was more or less upright, she placed her fingers to the side of her head where she had first made contact with the floor. When she pulled her hand back, she was grateful to see that she was not bleeding. Looking to her side, she saw that Avran was similarly getting her bearings and trying to stand back up.:

 

Avran: Are you okay? :: She rose completely and moved towards the doctor, to offer a helping hand. ::

 

G’Renn: I’m fine, what about you? Are you hurt?

 

Avran: No, no- I’m fine. What was that?!

 

G’Renn: I don’t know, but I think we should probably bring this session to a close for now. Our services may be needed elsewhere on the ship!

 

::Rushing out of the office and into the main part of the counseling suite, she quickly saw that it seemed as if everyone in the room had just recently been thrown about. Immediately she was worried as to who had been hurt. Anath wished she had brought a medkit with her to help anybody in the room who was wounded, but of course did not think to bring her medkit to a counseling appointment. Why would she? Still, Anath went into doctor mode and began surveying the site and planning how best to move anyone in need of treatment to the primary sickbay.::

 

G’Renn: ::Looking around:: Lieutenant, see if anyone is injured.

 

((End Flashback))

 

::That impact with the mine had set off possibly the worst day of her Starfleet career. She had spent the aftermath of the explosion crawling through jeffries tubes filled with smoke and retrieving what survivors of Deck 11 were left live. Ever since, space battle made her nervous. She never wanted to see the morgue so full as she did after that day.::

 

Duyzer: ?

 

Colquhoun: Outer shields holding at 70%.  Looks like disruptor pulse fire.

 

Horn: Inner shields weren't touched.  If they act as expected, it'll be enough to keep us from being boarded.  :: He didn't want to raise any hopes, but Ryan was fairly certain he was closing in on the phase they'd decloaked from. :: 

 

::Good enough for the moment.::

 

Kano: The Ya-Grhan have attacked us.

 

G’Renn: Are they in range for visual contact yet?

 

Colquhoun: They’re within viewing range, sir.

 

Duyzer: ?

 

Colquhoun: Aye aye, sir.  ::his fingers flicked across the console::

 

::The alien ship appeared on the viewscreen. It was fairly close to what the Losarian intelligence had described. Through her own eyes and not a second-hand description, the ship was quite intimidating. It had no shortage of weapon encampments on its surface. The large drill on one end of the ship was what worried her more.::

 

Kano: By the prophets that's…

 

::Another volley of disruptor fire rocked the ship. Anath felt herself tossed in one direction in her chair. She planted her feet and tried to keep the chair from spinning with the next weapon fire. She knew that it had to be coming.::

 

Colquhoun: Outer shields at 50%... based on the data they’re not firing a full volley.  Might be testing our defenses. They’re within weapons range.

 

Duyzer: ?

 

Horn: Compensating on shields.  Repair crews are en route. 

 

Colquhoun: I’d suggest we prepare for boarders, sir.  The way this goes, shields aren’t going to hold much longer.

 

::Anath silently nodded in agreement. She was tempted to start giving orders to prepare security and fire back. Unfortunately it wasn’t her call and she didn’t need to remind Commander Duyzer about that.::

 

Duyzer/Any: ?

 

Colquhoun: Aye aye, sir.  Firing forward phasers.

 

::A brilliant golden beam of phaser energy shot out at the enemy ship and managed to at least make contact on the viewscreen. But Anath didn’t need their tactical officer to tell her what had happened. The enemy’s shields had held.::

 

Colquhoun: Enemy’s shields are holding, I’m unable to assess how much damage that did.

 

Duyzer: ?

 

Horn: Sensors are showing.. wait.. What…

 

Any: ?

 

Colquhoun: Good luck, ensign.

 

Colquhoun: Sir, that volley was a bit more powerful.  Outer shields down to 20%. The uplink to the torpedo bays has been fried. ::he paused, noticing Una:: Petty Officer, get me that uplink back.

 

::Torpedoes were down for the moment. Not a good sign so early in the battle. At least Anath had to assume that. The truth was she didn’t know what was or wasn’t a good sign in battle.::

 

Qualunque: ?

 

Duyzer: ?

 

Any: ?

 

Horn: Sir.  It looks like their disruptors are aligned to their phase variance systems.  I think if we start firing the "chaff", it'll reduce the effectiveness of their weapons.

 

Duyzer: ? 

 

Horn: Actually we do now sir.  In order to jam comms, they had to send a signal from the variance they were at to us.  Sending the specific variance used to all consoles. I'd expect that everything within 0.2 variance of that is going to be far more effective.  

 

Duyzer: ?   

 

G’Renn: How might we take advantage of having that variance?

 

::Her entire presence on the bridge was feeling increasingly useless. Anath didn’t understand the engineering and tactics of space battle as much as the other officers. While she did have a mind for science, she was all book smarts. She could hold her own in hand-to-hand combat and could apply her medical science knowledge. Instead she had to rely on the other experts around her.:: 

 

Horn: Optimally, if we could fire a torpedo, phased at their original variance, behind them.. and then detonated it?  I would expect it would prevent them from cloaking for a time, and likely do far more damage than normal. :: He shook his head:: But that would take time to setup.  

 

Duyzer: ?   

 

Any: ? 

 

Horn: Inner shields are configured and holding to keep out any boarders, but as soon as they notice.. they are going to drop them quickly as well.  Not sure what the right choice is, but we don't have a lot of time to make it..

 

Any: ?

 

::The torpedo idea still seemed like a decent enough plan. And the only downside they had was “time to setup.” How much time? If it were a few minutes, that could be worth making an attempt. If it were an hour? Maybe not so much.:: 

 

G’Renn: How long would it take to configure a torpedo to fire it at the proper phase variance?

 

Horn: ?

 

Any: ?

 

::Anath looked at the Denobulan acting CO.::

 

G’Renn: I believe it might be worth a shot, sir.

 

Duyzer: ?

 

Any: ?

 

::The ship shook as the Ya-Grhan ship let out another series of disruptor shots. Half a second later, there was another impact. But something very specific caught Anath’s attention. Despite Junu doing his best to carry out evasive maneuvers, the shaking of the ship seemed to originate from the same spot both times.::

 

G’Renn: It seems like they are focusing fire on a particular section. ::She glanced back at the tactical officer.:: Are they trying to bring down a section of shielding?

 

Colquhoun/Horn/Duyzer: ?

 

Any: ?

 

 

Lieutenant Commander Anath G'Renn

Chief Medical Officer/Second Officer, USS Columbia

A239402AG0