Ensign Talon Morda: One mooring until the beach, dear friends ... or whatever
Eston Melton
(Bridge, Deck 1, USS Khitomer))
th’Vrosa: There remains the alternative solution, directing their weapons fire towards the spots we’d want.
Morda looked at the counselor, then over at Lieutenant Zerva. His first thought: oO Sure glad I’m sitting here instead of that science console. Oo Second: oO Wait, what’d th’Vrosa suggest? Oo
Zerva: ::looking up from the science console:: Could you explain further ensign? How would you recommend we proceed with your suggestion?
th’Vrosa: Assuming, ::There was a rather long pause as he trailed off into his own head before continuing:: Creatively, if we send out various probes we can give something else for our friends on the outside to focus and worry about. Would that be viable?
Morda considered, and called up the ship’s probe inventory on a side panel. Last mission, they’d relied on a series of probes’ stealth to garner better insight into Lattice behavior. Ensign th’Vrosa was now proposing using the ship’s probes to influence that behavior.
Semara: :: Swallowing, then dabbing her lips. :: The last probe we launched into this nebula malfunctioned in seconds.
Zerva: ::to Semara:: Then we would need a way to be able to keep said probe from malfunctioning. Not sure how we’d do that without assistance from the Velithari.
Morda: They didn’t seem too despondent when the captain blew the lid on our gender ruse. Receptive, even, to the idea of a collaboration.
th’Vrosa: Alternatively, we can always rig some shuttlecraft to broadcast some distress signals. Let fear do the convincing for us. Rig them up for some remote piloting so we don’t lose them to the abyss.
Semara: The nebula's been messin' with comms too. Even if we make it work for us, ain't a guarantee the Alliance'll see it... :: Beat, a strange smirk :: 'Sides, ain't sure I wanna be the one who explains how we've lost another shuttle.
Zerva: ::smirks:: Wouldn’t be the first time a Federation ship has lost more than one shuttle. I hear tell in Voyager’s run through the Delta Quadrant, they lost more shuttles than they had when they left space dock.
Morda: There’d be real peril for a crewed shuttle drawing fire. But a shuttle has more power to broadcast a signal and garner attention. Better gain, too, to receive any in-flight remote control adjustments.
All eyes turned to Lieutenant Semara. She might’ve been a faux captain before, but she was about to make some real critical calls.
th’Vrosa: What’s the play?
oO Dang, I know I know him from somewhere! Oo Was it the voice? Had th’Vrosa been at that blindfolded power hour, the “Anbo-jyutsu of Alcohol Affrontery”? No, he’d seen pictures later and there hadn’t been any Andorians. It’d come to him…
Semara: =/\= Semara to Commander Dewitt. =/\=
Dewitt: =/\= Response =/\=
Semara: =/\= Question: How's our impulse drive and tactical systems? =/\=
Dewitt: =/\= Response =/\=
Semara: =/\= I only need torpedoes for the moment, long as we can move. :: Beat :: Oh, and - is the SDA still charged? =/\=
Despite some distracting thoughts, Morda was astute enough to remember he was at the tactical console. The computer reported all systems online. A peripheral log report from one of the damage control parties also indicated a few of the tendrils near the fore and aft torpedo launchers had been neutralized, with no indications of damage to magazine, load mechanisms, or firing mechanisms.
Dewitt: =/\= Response =/\=
Semara: =/\= Excellent. Thank you, Commander. Semara out. =/\=
Morda thought she looked about ready to fell a kuracks. So that was inspiring-and-or-frightening.
Semara: Ensign Morda, 'member what you said about projectile weapons givin' a vector? That's the play - only we're givin' the vector. They ain't able to see us in the nebula, unless we fire torpedoes. So that's what we do. Only when they return fire, we ain't gonna be there anymore, and we'll be draggin' a chunk a' the nebula with us.
Zerva: So we’re using the nebula as a cover? Makes sense with the Alliance ship out there exposed. It would give us an advantage and we’d get the drop of surprise on them all at once.
Morda: Aye, Lieutenant. I can adjust the photorph initial velocity to give us a bit more time to maneuver, then kick it ‘em up to full speed before they read on the Lattice monitors.
th'Vrosa: Response
Morda paused for a moment before calling up the projectiles’ engine controls in case Semara or one of the other crew wanted him to waive off. But, as she instead shifted focus to the counselor, he called up the subsystem and made the necessary adjustments.
Semara: Counselor, we're gonna need to coordinate with the Velithari to make the other piece a' your plan work. A sufficiently dramatic reveal a' the size and power output a' their ship oughta make the Alliance panic the way you wanted, don't you think? :: Beat :: We can cover 'em with our Sencha Deflector Array, but it ain't gonna be enough. We gotta buy time for Doctor Ohnari and her team to get an inoculation workin'.
Indeed, the deflector could only do so much.
Zerva: ::beat:: Then we’d better hurry. Sensors show the Leviathan class vessel has begun to accelerate its impulse speed. It would appear they’ve gotten even more erratic and impulsive with their efforts trying to locate us or the Jorogumo at the very least. Fortunately their indiscriminate attacks haven’t hit much beyond parts of the nebula. If this thing is indeed alive, I can’t imagine the nebula likes it very much.
Morda: Torpedoes ready, Lieutenant.
th'Vrosa: Response
Semara: Once we make our first attack, that'll force 'em to be more tactical with their assault and work to our timin'. We'll make our best impression of General Chang, and keep 'em guessin' with when and where we'll be next. :: Beat :: The more tense we get 'em, the better our grand reveal will be. :: Beat :: 'Fore I call the Cap'n, can we make it work?
Morda didn’t understand the reference. Captain Chang -- not general -- was a longtime Starfleet trainer, in charge of the Training, Advising, and Counseling cadre at the Academy. Maybe Semara and Zerva had been at the Academy together and had some anecdote about the instructor?
Zerva: We would need to be close enough to the nebula's border to make this work. Firing too deep from inside the nebula means we have to take into account the filaments and possibility of injuring a potential life form.
Morda: If you can feed me an approximate range, I’ll see if I can tweak the torp engines a bit to give us that lead time between firing and them being detected.
He eyeballed the console, waiting for it to populate with the calculations from the science station and its distinctly gold-uniformed driver.
th'Vrosa / Semara: Response
Zerva: Harmonics? Good idea. If we use the same harmonics like we did on the bridge and transporter room two, but on a much larger scale, we can use it to direct a path to navigate through the filaments. It would allow us to get close enough without having to leave the clouds cover and make the helmsman’s work a lot easier.
th'Vrosa / Semara: Response
Zerva: It’s worth a shot ::looking over to Morda:: Ensign Morda, if you would bring up the collective data we’ve got on the filaments and how it reacts to the harmonics please?
Morda: One moment … on screen in a moment.
He pooled the process he’d instantiated at the security console, pulled up Commander Valeris’s own processes from Zerva’s own console, the computer’s ongoing logs of various neutralization processes around the ship, and the running duty log updates from DC and other crews following up on the filaments throughout the vessel. The computer helpfully took his pedestrian input and flung summary data and recommendations on the main viewer.
th'Vrosa / Semara: Response
Zerva: I know the engineering team is currently working on the problem of removing the filaments from inside the Khitty. All we have to do is figure out how to make this work on the filaments that live in the nebula outside the Khitmore once they do. I don’t think Gunnery Sargent Martz’s speakers will do the trick.
Morda: Tenuous as it is, there is a medium in this nebula. It can convey pressure waves of a sort to affect the filaments.
th'Vrosa / Semara: Response
Tags/TBC