Lieutenant Amelia Semara - If the Mountain Won't Come to Muhammad

[Max]

(( Bridge, Deck 1, USS Khitomer ))

As Amelia nestled into the pleasantly overstuffed center seat, she had the distinct feeling of being back on one of her many ecological surveys: watching some animal behavior out in the wild from a blind off in the distance, trying to puzzle out how a particular species carved out an evolutionary niche for itself.  Only she couldn't work out why the Alliance was so insistent on this particular patch of space, or what got the idea of unleashing their Sencha emitters at the nebula into their head.

The tension between taking action and committing to a course she couldn't reverse from weighed on her.  In the end, instinct won out - something telling her to attack without knowing more would be more costly than allowing the Alliance to take a couple more nibbles out of the massive nebula.

Semara: Alright, cap'n said to warm up the band.  Let's get to know the players.  :: Beat, turning to the counselor. :: 'Fore we engage, full tactical report and behavioral assessment.

She couldn't delay forever.  There could very well be a critical mass of radiation that might cause a large portion of the nebula to undergo some sort of ecological collapse.  Was that what the Alliance ships were attempting to make happen?

th'Vrosa / Morda: Response

Zerva: Are you sure about those two smaller craft?

Her eyes stayed fixed on the screen.

Back before Starfleet, she'd written her capstone undergraduate research project on the wolves of Nantahala.  Not many still lived in the remote Upper Veil, making simply finding them in the rugged territory a challenge all to itself.  And because that wasn't enough, Amelia had decided to track and study her pack in winter - a time of year where even the most modern technology couldn't make the upper reaches of her valley especially safe to travel through.  That made her one of very few people to have studied the animal so closely.

Watching the Alliance ships now through the sensor-fuzz on the screen, the two smaller vessels lazily posturing around the flanks in submission to the Leviathan, there was an eerie, albeit distant similarity to her pack.  Every single one of those ships was dangerous.

Semara: Are they keepin' to a standard patrol pattern, or are they mappin' the nebula?

Morda / th'Vrosa: Response

Zerva: What about the Jorogumo? Didn’t the Captain say he was going to talk with Captain Rana about an assist from them? Should we wait or jump right in until they hopefully arrive to help us out?

Hard to say how long it would take for the Jorogumo to be ready for battle outside the nebula - if ever.  And that was assuming Rana could even come around to listening to Naxell's warnings and bring herself to fight side-by-side with a man.  It may be up to the officers on the bridge right now to prove they meant what they said with their actions.

Semara: He did, but I ain't expectin' much 'til we hear for certain.  :: Beat :: I don't wanna just let them keep damagin' the nebula, but there's somethin' here we ain't seein'...  :: Beat. :: How are we holdin' up?

Amelia turned to the panel on the arm rest, and logged in to get a glance at the ship systems.  Among other things, another message warning about the SDA.  Connor was nervous about it.  She understood why.

Morda / th'Vrosa: Response

Zevra: ::nodding:: Yes Ma’am I understand. ::checking the sensors:: The doppler harmonics are working at full capacity.

According to an engineering report, the ship was still struggling to hold together with all the filaments lodged in various systems, and the hull was going to be a tricky bit of business.  She looked up from the panel.

Semara: Good.  Slow to one-eighth impulse; ease us along the inside a' the nebula towards the group.  :: Beat :: Have our scans cleared up at all?

Zerva / Morda / th'Vrosa: Response

Maybe Amelia would never escape her scientist past.  Maybe she didn't want to.  Maybe remembering the wolves of Casperia was coloring the way she saw the small pack of ships working together too much, giving them too much significance, too much of that nobility of the natural world working in mysteriously beautiful and terrible ways.

Semara: Try filterin' optical scans on the same frequencies as the :: checking notes :: "laser lightshow."  Composite that with thermal and infrared sensors and look for resonances in the same bands as the frequencies we're playin', as well as upper and lower harmonics.  Focus on the regions a' the nebula the Alliance is bombardin'.  Overlay on screen.

Zerva / Morda / th'Vrosa: Response

The screen shifted, and Amelia waited for her eyes to adjust to the new and intensely colorful display of computer-enhanced imaging of the nebula.  It certainly was something.  The tangled mess of fractal structures and sub-structures drifting together and apart were probably clusters of the very filaments they had on board lying in wait, but without a better understanding of the nebula's biology both on a micro- and macro scale, it was a glut of unprocessed data.  One thing was certain: the more she saw, the more uneasy she was about activating the SDA.  And without that, they needed a better final act of their plan.

Maybe one of the others saw a pattern she didn't yet see.  Or the Alliance...

She watched as the group repositioned itself for another barrage, carefully avoiding the outstretched fingers of the nebula's fringe.  If an Alliance commander mis-calculated only by a small margin, the filaments would start to take the ship, infiltrating all the systems, digesting them and scanning them...

Semara: :: Quietly :: What are they up to?  :: To the bridge :: Mister Morda - I believe you mentioned wantin' a look inside one a' their ships...  :: Turning. :: What would happen if we replaced a torpedo warhead with a filament cluster in a containment pod rigged to keep the harmonics just right in-flight?  Would the filaments survive, and could we - or the Jorogumo - get data back?

If the Alliance wouldn't enter the nebula, she'd bring the nebula to them.  She was doubtful if one filament cluster would be enough to cause major damage the way the original strike group suffered, but if it did...

Her eyes swept from officer to officer, hoping someone had a better idea.

Zerva / Morda / th'Vrosa: Response

Tag / TBC...

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Lieutenant Amelia Magnolia Semara

Intelligence Officer

USS Khitomer - NCC-62400

A239710MA0