Vice Admiral Quinn Reynolds - All Around Me Are Familiar Faces
Quinn Reynolds
((Bridge, USS Gorkon))
Quinn stared at the ships on the viewscreen. Four of them: a D’deridex-class warbird, flanked on either side by two Birds of Prey, a Keldon-class lurking in the rear. Their hulls were a patchwork of different shades; likely the results of scavenging hull plating from wrecks. Patches of the hull were dark, where internal power cast the rooms in shadows. The uneven glow of nacelles, where coils hadn’t been replaced where needed. Sensors telling her that the life sign count wasn’t anywhere close to a full roster, and barely enough to fly the ships at all.
Impulse engines flared on the four ships, moving into an attack formation on the Cube. Quinn looked down at her console, but there was no sign of any hails from the strange alliance of Cardassian, Romulan, and Klingon ships. All business, and evidently that business was Borg hunting. And to that end—
Reynolds: They’ve sent us a data burst. It looks like... almost like an EMP for drones, using our electroplasma system to temporarily knock them out. ::She shook her head in disbelief.:: It looks legitimate to me, how quickly could we implement it?
Sevo: Seems legit. It’ll take a few minutes to implement the plans. It’ll be quick and dirty and we may blow some EPS lines along the way. Engineering should be able to make a more long-term solution from this, eventually.
Stoyer: Sounds like a plan.
Marshall: Response
Ayiana worked at her console, and Quinn could see the outline of Stoyer’s cheeks curve as he smiled to himself. What had tickled him, she wasn’t sure, but she wouldn’t complain if someone found a private moment of light-heartedness in the middle of a crisis. Such were the things that let people keep their heads screwed on straight.
On the viewscreen, the formation of ships unleashed a blistering array of firepower. Torpedoes, phasers, disruptors—several of which certainly didn’t belong in the ship’s usual arsenal. Was that choice, or necessity, she wondered?
Sevo: There’s more info in the data packet: targeting solutions and weak points. Sending to Tactical.
Reynolds: Stoyer, bring us about. Rahkmar, as soon as you have those dialled in, open fire with full salvos.
The stars on the viewscreen shifted, veering to the side as the Gorkon banked to face the Borg cube. Quinn heard Rakhmar’s console confirming each release of energy fire and torpedoes, watching as their weaponry carved across space and scored across the Cube’s hull. She caught her breath, forcing herself to breathe as regularly as she could, not wanting to indulge in too much hope that they might be out of trouble.
Stoyer: Nice to have some help, not sure of the cost we will have to pay.
Marshall / Rahkmar: Response
Sevo: The EMP burst is ready. I’m not sure how clean this’ll be; it might knock out some of our electronics as well. Best to warn the crew.
Stoyer: OK, I am ready.
Reynolds: Sevo, send the warning and then activate the EMP. Marshall, get ready to compensate for any loss of power or ship’s functions it might cause.
Marshall /Rahkmar: Response
A warning blared through the ship, though Quinn didn’t know if it would have the desired effect. There reached a point when people tuned out alerts and alarms, having heard so many. And at first, it seemed as though nothing at all was happening. Then a faint ringing pinched at her ears; barely audible above the rest of the bridge’s noise, neither loud nor painful. No doubt their Vulcan, Romulan, and Ferengi contingent could hear it very well, but Quinn’s human hearing struggled.
Sevo: *Something’s* happening, anyway.
Stoyer: The “Help” have redoubled their fire on the Cube. Detonations all over the hull and certain areas.
Reynolds: What about the drones aboard the Gorkon?
Marshall / Rahkmar: Response
On the screen, she watched as the ragtag ships tore into the Cube, beams of ruby and emerald drilling into past the dark hull and into the more vulnerable parts below. The Cube’s returning salvos grew lethargic and scattered; shots fired too slow, their firing solutions inaccurate.
Stoyer: The friendlies must have hardened their ships against the EMP pulse.
Reynolds: It’s not a true EMP pulse, ::she shook her head, that description was simply one which had come to mind on seeing the predicted effects.:: It’s a localised pulse on the Gorkon, designed to disrupt Borg cybernetics. What’s happening to that Cube is entirely down to our new allies.
Marshall / Sevo / Rahkmar: Response
Stoyer: Incoming fire has stopped from the Cube and the friendlies are still firing into it.
That’s when it happened. Tiny sparks of green spitting from the hull. But the sparks became small eruptions. Small eruptions which became surges of fire. In a matter of seconds, the Cube went from a solid metal monstrosity to nothing but flame and fury, the Gorkon shuddering as the energy front of the Cube’s destruction washed over the shields.
For a few moments, there was only the sound of her own heartbeat in her ears. And then the polite whistle of an incoming hail. Their new allies were finally ready to talk, it seemed.
Reynolds: Put them on screen.
The hail came from the D’deridex, Quinn could tell that from the moment the image appeared. Romulan design and architecture were distinctive, and she’d seen those bridges before. A little more surprising was that the captain didn’t match the interior. A Trill looked back at her, broad and tall, with kind but weary brown eyes. His greying hair was an untidy mop of curls atop his head, a beard of several days' untended growth on his jaw.
He had gentle hands. A caring heart. A wicked sense of humour, when he let it out. Not things you could tell from the communication, but Quinn knew. She knew.
Her throat went dry. Her heart hammered against her chest in a valiant attempt at escape, and the usually composed captain sputtered out a disbelieving greeting.
Reynolds: =/\= Kael? =/\=
Tam: =/\= Huh. ::He paused, cracked a small smile, and shook his head.:: I was told you might know me, but I didn’t quite believe it. =/\=
Marshall / Sevo / Stoyer: Response
Tam: =/\= I know you all have a lot of questions, but this isn’t the time or place to answer them. More Cubes will be here soon. =/\=
His voice hadn’t changed; he spoke with the same gentle, easy confidence she remembered. It had served him well as Chief Nurse, and evidently it served him just as well as captain of a starship—or whatever else he was in this timeline. She looked wordlessly to Jo, trying to mend the broken shards of her composure, and pull her thoughts back into some form of order.
Marshall / Sevo / Stoyer: Response
Tam: =/\= We’re going to transmit a course to you, and you need to follow it exactly. It should keep them from following you. =/\=
Marshall / Sevo / Stoyer: Response
Commanding Officer
USS Gorkon
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