[sb118-khitomer] Lieutenant (JG) Ezra Zerva - Brunch At Work
BC Cooper
(( Bridge, Deck 1, USS Khitomer ))
Semara: 'Fore I forget, welcome aboard, Ensign. :: A pleasant smile. :: Lieutenant Amelia Semara, at your service.
Semara did what she always did when meeting someone new. She courtesied. It was a polite gesture. He remembered her first day on board the Khitomer. She came prepared with a basket of goodies and he could have sworn she was trying to get Captain Shayne to promote her on day one.
Ezra gave a nod to the new ensign in response.
Zerva: ::nodding:: Security Officer Lieutenant Jg. Zerva. Nice to meet you Ensign.
Semara: Alright, s'pose we'd best be gettin' to work. :: Beat :: Let's get a tactical display on the main viewer.
The picture wasn't any different from the one Naxell presented. Just bigger on the viewer.
Morda: ::Muttering:: Quite a hot mess.
Zerva: That’s one way to describe it.
Ezra eyed Semara strolling to a small cubby replicator. Food? Drinks? Ezra could use some. Yes please. It's never good to work on an empty stomach.
Semara: From what I know, my best theory's this: The nebula stops subspace bubbles and waves - like warp and Sencha - from formin', but ain't capable of stoppin' 'em fully formed. So the first attack failed cuz they waited to fire until they were already inside the nebula, where their emitters prolly failed on them like our warp drive did. These Alliance ships are configurin' their Sencha bursts for long range so their emitters can reach full power, and they've likely realized by now they can chip away at the nebula like that. :: Beat :: Anyone else hungry?
Morda: Long range, chipping away. Sounds like field artillery. ::Pausing:: Unless you’ve baked another pie, no, not hungry. But I’ll take a coffee, black, piping hot.
Zerva: Yes please. I’ll take some black tea, two sugars but make it half as hot as Morda’s coffee ::quickly thinking:: And half a ham sandwich with cheese, pickles, lettuce and mayo please.
Semara placed everyone’s order as the conversation continued.
Semara: Any reason we gotta fight 'em? :: Beat :: I mean... S'pose we can stabilize the nebula boundary. If their weapons look like they ain't workin', wouldn't they eventually just get... Bored? Give up?
Ezra watched as the replicator made Semara some bean chili. Not a bad idea. Now all she needed was some cornbread and she’d be all set. Maybe he should have gotten that instead of the sandwich?
Morda: I defer to Counselor th’Vrosa on the psychological front, or you and Lieutenant Zerva based on our past field experience. But it occurs to me that another reaction to their big weapons not having the desired effect is frustration and even more shooting.
Ezra took a sip of his tea as it was handed to him by Semara and placed his sandwich on his lap. The tea was good. Not as good as the real thing mind you, no that would be back home on earth sipping tea at his dojo with his Sensei.
th’Vrosa: ::Starts, with a short nod:: Our unhappy friends outside the cloud are disinclined to simply take their big guns and go home.
Zerva: They sure do love shooting at us until they hit something. I can tell you from experience they don’t give up without a fight.
Morda: But as for any reason we hafta fight them? No, we don’t seem to be there yet. I do wonder whether there’d be a way to make them think they’re efforts are having a desired effect when they’re not. But despite Lieutenant Michaels’ threats, I’m no engineer and have no idea how we’d even manifest something like that. ::Taking a proffered mug:: Thanks. ::Sipping:: Kriffing-- yep, that’s hot.
The look of surprise on Morda’s face as he drank that really hot cup of coffee, almost made him spit up his tea.
Semara: :: A look of surprise. :: Oh! Sorry! It's hot.
Ezra moved to help placing his tea down, but Semara was already there with the assist. Once things with the security officers' coffee temperature was dealt with, Semara came up with an idea.
Semara: The tractor beam! :: A long beam. :: We set the tractor beam to the lowest tractor factor, longest range, and widest angle a' projection. We oughta be able to move enough a' the nebula around to make the nebula retreat - albeit sloppily...
Zerva: ::thinking it over:: Would that even work?
Semara: Well, Ensign Morda, seein' as you're so sick a' Engineerin', kindly take tactical, and start workin' out a way to make it happen, please. Zerva, I know you've been studyin' those science book I gave ya, so take Science station One. Patch the scanners into tactical, then keep an eye out. I wanna first sign we're hurtin' the nebula or if there's other trouble. Sooner we get movin', the more a' the nebula we save.
oO I guess we’re about to find out. Oo
Morda: Aye, Lieutenant.
Zerva: ::beat:: Yes Ma’am.
Ezra quickly took his place at the science console. The last time he was here, he was in for a literal shock and a bit of temporary blindness. Thankfully Semara was able to pull him away to safety in sickbay where he got some medical attention before retiring to his room to rest with additional help from Lieutenant Michaels. Has it been that long already? It was the end of their first of two missions in the same nebula. And now here they were in yet another nebula, dealing with yet more Lattice Alliance ships.
Seeing it wasn’t a good idea to have liquids near the science station, he quickly downed his remaining tea and then took a big bite of his sandwich.
Semara eyed the center chair. Was she thinking about sitting in it? Ezra began the patching the sensors liked she asked. Looking up she was holding a bean filled chili spoon at the newest ensign. His mind flashed with the thought of her in the Captains chair eating chili in the middle of a dog fight with the Alliance. Truth be told, he’d be okay with it. A captain like that would need a security officer willing to eat her home made cooking. Especially cooking as good as hers.
Semara: Right. It ain't nothin' but buyin' time, but it's a start. :: Beat :: Counselor th'Vrosa, we all need a more permanent solution. I'd like one that says "get off my lawn" stronger than the ships they already lost... :: A thoughtful beat. :: What are the odds the Alliance ain't got a clue there's someone in this nebula, and they just think it's the phenomena that destroyed their ships?
They would need something a lot stronger than an angry old man to scare away the Alliance. Semara shoved the spoonful of chili in her mouth. Ezra followed suit, taking another bite of his sandwich as he continued his work.
th’Vrosa: I don’t have enough information at this junction to say. If I was in their shoes, however, I’d assume this was a destructive cloud with nary a soul inside. ::He gestures to the collective:: Our present company being a strange enough surprise to prompt a scurry. Perhaps even a scamper.
Morda: ::muttering, shaking his head:: Kriff. ::Louder:: Lieutenant? Good news, iffy news. Here’s the good news: I’m fairly certain a wide channel tractor can pull in large tranches. Power won’t be great, but the nebula is low-mass and not otherwise accelerating so it should be fine. Low power will also help conceal any indication of an artificial graviton source being used.
Zerva: Nice work Morda. And working on low power we won’t be taking up too much power away from the rest of the ship.
th’Vrosa: It’s hard to say if artificial graviton source indications would help or hurt us, really.
Semara: And the iffy news?
Let’s hope it’s not that bad. Ezra listened in as he took a third and final bite of his half sandwich.
Morda: Right, so, the puzzles. First: I don’t know how sencha weapons, or anything that messes around in a subspace domain or something more exotic, will affect the tractor beam’s efficacy. But also: I’m worried the nebula itself will diminish our ability to read their target sensor focus. And without that, we might not be able to aim our own tractor beam to that right area. Projectile weapons can give us a vector if we can’t read their sensor focus, but we don’t know what kind of timer or proximity apparatus they have to blow. I doubt they’d use direct-energy weapons because they’re not area-of-effect systems -- I hope they agree, because ascertaining their targets would be even more vexing.
Semara: Alright... They ain't usin' anything other than Sencha weapons at the moment, prolly cuz even high-yield torpedoes ain't gonna beat back the nebula quick enough for their tastes. It's also the the largest risk to the nebula as a whole. Let's go with the assumption they'll stick to Sencha, and I'll take the odds of the tractor beam workin' well enough. :: Beat :: Is there a pattern to fire we can predict?
Semara cast an eye to Ezra at the science station.
Zerva: Sensors have been configured and ready to go. I’ll begin calculations on fire patterns using the sensors.
Morda: If we could intercept or read their targeting sensor focus, that might help. But I doubt we have any kind of way of probing that. ::Looking at the clump of slumbering spaghetti intruder:: That kind of infiltration would be a great objective to develop and harness that kind of nanofilament tech ourselves.
Now if only they could hack their way into the Alliance sensor logs, that would be great!
Tags/TBC
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Lieutenant (JG) Ezra Zerva
Security Officer
USS Khitomer (NCC-62400)
A240101EZ2