Lieutenant Amelia Semara - Resistance Isn't So Futile

[Max]

(( Bridge, Deck 1, USS Khitomer, Ceram Archipelago ))

Shuttles were one thing, but starships were another, as Amelia was learning.  Up to today, she'd been vaguely aware of the Khitomer's high impulse output to mass ratio: a byproduct of upgraded reactors and manifolds when the smaller New Orleans spaceframe was refitted.  Now, she felt it as she adjusted her inputs to be much more gingerly.  Still, the helm controls were fussier and more responsive than she was used to, making it harder to come around to angle the lateral array on the enemy forces outside of the nebula.

The image was starting to clear up again, bit by bit, as the Khitomer floated through the nebula and the computers churned through the noisy data.  Fuzz still rained on the screen, but the edges of an enormous vessel could just be made out under color-enhanced magnification.

Semara: Got the Leviathan back.  Ain't far from a firin' position on our location.  :: to Zerva. :: We deep enough in the nebula that it'll cover us?

Zerva: It’s gonna be close, another filament mass or two between us wouldn’t hurt.

That was her cue to hunt for another pocket deeper in on the navigational plot, in case Naxell wanted one.

Naxell: Anything we can do in our current state to increase our odds?

Amelia's eyes flicked to the side and aft.  The imprint of fire and blood and fighting to survive was undeniably etched into the Captain, the current of his feelings following the pathways it carved into his psyche underneath the words.  Someone who'd seen combat in the center chair certainly bettered their odds.

Morda: Shield performance will be hampered by the nebula, and their interaction with the nebular gasses will light us up for the Lattice targeting scanners. And I’m not sure how having the shields raised will affect our ability to receive information via the filaments.

Morda's frustration with the information he had - or lack thereof - had its own kind of vibration.

Zerva: My best guess in this nebula? The more power engineering can give us, the better the sensors will work, especially if the shields are operating.

Semara: We ain't gonna last in a prolonged fight with that Leviathan with or without shields.  Intimidation's our best chance.  If we gotta, move hard and fast to send the message they ain't welcome to fire Sencha into the nebula.

More or less the same thing you did if you were surprised by one of the big cats that prowled the mountains back home.  Convince them whatever they were doing wasn't worth it.  Forcefully, if needed.

Naxell: =/\= Bridge to Engineering. My kingdom for some good news, Number One. =/\=

Dewitt: =/\= Engineering here, Captain. ::beat:: Torpedo is close. Warhead is out, inner plating is seated, casing reinforcement is finishing now. We are about to load the masses. Vidya is leading our approach. ::pause:: The probe modulation is ready. ::pause:: I wont take your kingdom if you give us a little more time. =/\=

A cautious input at the helm nudged the Khitomer to keep it in the pocket.

Naxell: =/\= The timing is not up to me, Commander, I'd give you days if I had them. We can turtle in our armor for a time, but I don't know how long. =/\=

If they could, Amelia's ears would have turned like a cat's to listen in.  She wondered: should she have pressed Connor on his original timeline?  It was too late to think about it now.  Besides, she wasn't the Captain.  It was the way of things for Captains to manifest the impossible from their crew by pure demand.  That was how she remembered Shayne, too.

Dewitt: =/\= Yes, Sir. We are working as fast as we can without breaking anything that we need. The moment the probe modulation passes a clear cycle, I will send the controls to you and load the probe to forward torpedo tube Alpha-Two. The masses will go into Alpha-Three. =/\=

Morda: =/\= Alpha Two and Alpha Three, confirmed. =/\= 

Everyone's way of thinking felt a little different to Amelia.  Some churned their thoughts like butter.  Others sang them in aria.  The Captain's brooding felt like the brick-and-concrete of a congested city, and the sweat of a cyclist learning every alley and shortcut by rote.

Dewitt: =/\= Engineering out. =/\= 

Apparently Connor had said what he needed, because the line cut.  It was Naxell's show now.

Naxell: If we power down the armor, do we have enough for a counter-blast from the SDA?

All roads kept leading back to that experimental piece of tech in the Khitomer's belly.

Zerva: ::checking the sensor data:: Yes, but we’ll need to draw power from all nonessential sources. ::to Morda:: What about our shields? Our sensors would work better without them, but even with the nebula as cover, we don’t want to be defenseless. Can we risk it?

Morda: At this point, sir, I recommend shifting the resources to glean greater situational awareness and put it toward the sensors. Power transfer circuits are working well enough that if we need to go shields-up in a pinch, we can manage.

Amelia's lips twisted thoughtfully.

Semara: Or pull power from impulse.  :: Beat :: Commander Dewitt advised against goin' over half-impulse with filaments still in our hull, so there's power to spare.  :: A half-turn from the console. :: Only... an SDA pulse meetin' a Sencha wave-front inside the nebula is gonna be bad news.  We'd want speed to fly out, pulse, and tuck back in.

Assuming Amelia was even capable of such a maneuver.  She'd try it, though, if it meant eliminating the risk of an anomaly that wanted to eat away at the rough edges of reality and causality itself.  It was the captain's call.

Naxell: Response

She half-smirked, wondering if her moniker for the anomaly had slipped into Naxell's briefs before boarding.

Zerva: ::nodding:: Right. Adjusting power to the sensors now.

Semara: Puttin' sensor field-of-view on screen.

Finally finding a good current to drift in, Amelia allowed herself to look up to the screen.  The sensors finally had enough power and the computers processing them managed to reconstruct more of the data beyond their little neighborhood of the nebula.  Between that, and an evolving understanding...

A hard return came back.  The phased arrays automatically re-tuned and re-swept, and the shape and dimensions started to resolve.  Something was out there.

Naxell: Response

Zerva: Captain, the Alliance have been concentrating their fire on one area of the nebula in particular. We’ve been trying to figure out what it is they are looking for. Long range sensors have just come through on that spot. ::beat:: They are detecting a floating structure. About 23 meters in length!

Morda: Increased gain on the passive arrays, too, Captain. Confirmed that the Tholians are using overlapping scans to probe closer to us in the nebula. Closest their scanners has come is about 10,000 kilometers.

Amelia studied the nebula on the screen for a moment, slowly zooming the view out so the Khitomer, the Alliance battlegroup, and the object all fit on the screen along with as much of the nebula's structure as the sensors could make sense of.

Semara: The Alliance ain't got the best scanners.  We prolly got another couple sweeps 'fore they pin us down.

Naxell: Response

Zerva: Yes sir, trying to clear it up :::double checking the sensors:: We’re having some interference at this range ::glancing up:: I could use a boost in power.

Morda: Drawing down reserve power from one of the after engineering phaser arrays. That should give a boost.

A silent nudge at the controls gave a slight shift in course again so the Khitomer's sensors could try to get a better sense of the object's motion, if any.

Naxell: Response

Zerva: That’ll do it. ::beat:: Got it! We’re detecting the same readings on it as the Jorogumo’s hull. Shall I bring it on the viewscreen sir?

Of course it should go on screen.  Amelia was quick to hit the button, even if it presupposed that Naxell was making a hand gesture to do so behind her.

Semara: Whatever it is, the Alliance was irradiatin' the nebula most heavily on the object's vector.  The nebula's a lot cooler in that darker-colored bit.  Nebula probably took a beatin', but no clue 'bout the object itself.

Thermal output was the best proxy they could get for how energetic the harmonics the filaments passed to each other at range.  In false color, the deeper purples even looked appropriately bruise-like.  They swirled like an animated impressionist painting.

Semara: :: Voice far-off :: It almost looks like the nebula's tryin' to cover it, or pull it in deeper...

Naxell: Response

Someone was thinking again.  Quite loudly, too, refining their thoughts by grinding them against each other like rocks in a tumbler.  She had to smile a little when Morda spoke up.

Morda: Is it possible the Lattice ship isn’t just arbitrarily attacking the nebula -- that instead it’s trying to hollow out a path to recover that object?

Semara: With Sencha Radiation?  :: Beat :: But that doesn't make sense, unless you're real sure you ain't gonna rip what you want apart with Sencha when you get deep enough...

Her voice trailed off, one tangential thought pinging off of another as Morda's question brought it all into view.

Semara: That's it!  They gotta know their weapons didn't work last time.  Now they wanna know why.  If the Velithari structure is resistant...

Sencha radiation was poorly understood at best.  One only needed to bear witness to the Khitomer's own disaster with the SDA to know that.  To find something or someone naturally resistant?  It would be a massive boon to research on whichever side came to understand it first.

Naxell / Zerva: Response

Morda: If that’s the case, then the Tholian ships aren’t waiting to run interference for an attack from the nebula: they’re positioned to go in and secure it. And alerting that Leviathan’s to our presence means we're a potential poacher for their objective.

Amelia ran back through the sensor logs.  They'd managed to capture the last time the Leviathan fired, and it would tell them how long they had.

Semara: Judgin' from nebula die-off after their last barrage, it might only take another shot at full power - maybe two - to have a safe lane.  There's already radiation bleed-through to the object.

Naxell / Zerva: Response

She shook her head, working as quickly as she could.  Charting a course - to the edge, to the object, to anywhere in the nebula - was complicated and slower than she'd like.  This really wasn't her brightest move to sit here.

Semara: It'll take a coupl'a minutes to get there at half impulse.  More, if we have any problems with the thicker patches a' nebula in our way.  The spinners could make it in less than half that, if they had a clear path.

There was no doubt a properly trained helmsman could do better, but this is where she was now.

Naxell / Zerva / Morda: Response

Semara: Earlier, we were thinkin' a usin' the tractor beam to move bits a' nebula around.  Maybe we could push some into the lane?  Encourage re-growth, slow 'em...  :: Interrupted by an alarm from the console. :: Energy build-up in the Leviathan's weapons array!

It was too fast for the Alliance battlegroup to have a solid weapons lock if Morda's last readout was 10,000 kilometers off.  Then again, they weren't shy about blind-firing...

Naxell / Zerva / Morda: Response

Tag / TBC...

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Lieutenant Amelia Magnolia Semara

Intelligence Officer

USS Khitomer - NCC-62400

A239710MA0