Lt. Cmdr. Kirsty Carpenter - Daylight Wall Stands Forever! No Other Walls Stands Against It!
Justin Partridge
Niac: Take five, Commander, that's an order. ::He pitched his voice down as she drew closer:: You feeling post combat fatigue or is there something else?
Once more Kirsty had to marvel at the care and candor of her new CO. Even as she all but thrummed with the inaction and the elongated sense of dire anticipation that wracked through the battered Bridge.
After going through years of her career where most commanding officers and operational heads had no idea even what her name was, the feeling of being really "seen" at first was mighty unnerving to the marine. And it had branched beyond her own tightening conduct and unexpected new emotional attachment to the ship and her compliment. Karrod Niac just seemed like a genuinely good person.
Kirsty would have had a few chosen, slightly barbed words for the Niac that had now cursed them with the S-Wave weapons, but by her estimation and by his constant expressions of self beyond the trappings of rank, Karrod had and would always try to do right by his peers and support staff.
As such, Kirsty momentarily softened her own expression, hoping to try and temper some of the unease she was feeling with self-deprecation. A skill she still hadn't the best entire handle on, but one what was starting to get somewhat of a workout between shifts. Try as she might, she couldn't be an implacable surface forever.
Carpenter: I'm good, Captain. Just...Beck's kinda my good luck charm. ::she gives a smirk:: He goes on, sure, but he's damn useful. Mister O'Connor too. You always play better from a full deck, right?
As if on cue, the tell-tale SHUNK of a new panel display being slotted into it's housing broke up the amicable tension of the alcove. She turned to the game and now provenly talented new Ensign, giving him a genuinely appreciative nod as power and information finally, FINALLY started to spool once more across the haptics.
Niac: Of course. For the moment though, everyone is where they need to be. Besides, I can feel the grooves in this seat from Mr. O'Connor's posterior - probably good the young man got a chance to get up and stretch his legs.
Kirsty nodded once more, this time warmly and with the understanding that The Captain cared enough about her and her state of being enough to try and placate her. She started to wonder momentarily where he had been all her career.
A few more sounds of hand taps called her attentions back to the alcove as Sims started the terminal into its final power cycle. The last access panel was closed and the alcove once more hummed with an energy Kirsty very much appreciated.
She crossed a step, but then stopped. Wanting to defer to both of the Engineers.
Sims: Tactical Console 2 is online and ready for use, commander.
She stepped back into the alcove with a tight second head nod to the fantastic technicians. And better still, it wasn't even entirely crap news now coming across the data-stream of the terminal. Still more kinetic weapons than beam arrays, but not entirely as toothless as Kirsty expected them to be. Heaven knew how, but the shields were still mostly still up too.
But none of that was going to matter much if they didn't get moving. Kirsty eyed the still listing, but looming ever still "Gun-Ship". It wasn't going to be still much longer. The old itch returned to the top of her skin. Marty had been taking a call down to the engine room. She couldn't tell the gist of it, but he turned back to them and Their Captain as it finished up.
Tucker: Got it, Rach. Tucker out. ::to Niac:: Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the warp core is toast, microfractures to the antimatter injection bay. We even look at the warp core funny and could have a breach.
A new pallor settled over the Bridge. Kirsty didn't know much, but she knew enough to get a brand new chill hearing "microfractures" in conjunction with antimatter. She crossed her arms tightly about her chest, listening intently to the new reports. But that didn't keep her from seeing Captain Niac crossing carefully up into the helm control station, laying a heavy hand across the prow of the control terminal.
Once more Kirsty's skin chilled, but this time the chill reached her heart.
Sims: Between a rock and a hard place. Keep the core here, and the first jostle to main engineering will blow us to bits. Eject it, and we can’t get out of the blast radius and are likely blown to bits.
Karrod Niac turned slightly "upstage" into the helm station. Gravely considering everything that was happening around him.
Niac: Understood Chief. I wouldn't eject it even if we could...the Khitomer is somewhere nearby and the station isn't far behind...I don't want to add to the damage they've already sustained. No...I think the only reasonable thing to do is share what's left of the core with the Alliance. A five hundred thousand isoton parting gift.
Carpenter: What about evasive? Do we have a "speed limit" now, do y'all think?
Sims: I would suggest minimal use of impulse power, sir, and only if absolutely necessary. We’re barely holding together as it is – if we put any more strain on the ship’s hull, I’m worried she might break apart at the seams or the microfractures in the warp core will expand and blow the entire ship apart.
Marty consulted his own console, hammering his hands quickly and precisely across the haptics and then peering carefully over the top of the terminal with the barest hint of a smile on his lips. She wondered what he was up to and wondered just a well afterward if she would even understand it. Cap was talking as if they would have to throw out their core and Kirsty didn't know many ships that survived much longer after that...
Maybe Marty had another idea...
Tucker: I’ve raised the structural integrity field to seventy-five percent. And I can give you a fifteen-second burst of the impulse engines before the generators turn molten slag.
Well that wasn't...nothing. But at a brief break in the conference came a break in the inaction of their enemy. Kirsty wished she would have been shocked. But the jeweled twin "eyes" of the phaser energy (identified completely now thanks to the reactivated terminal at her hands) was a story she was expecting to hear anyway.
The debate of battle was to start once more and she was almost vibrating with the anticipation of it. It was still a shameful feeling, but she knew she would have to ride it out. The L.A. would give her little other choice.
Carpenter: So it DOES have normal guns...S'like seein'a teacher outside of school. Total letdown.
Sims: If the teacher had a plasma rifle aimed at our head and a full suit of body armor, maybe.
Kirsty snorted deeply. She was starting to like this Sims more and more. The Captain too seemed to get a kick out of it, giving them a look with a laugh of his own.
Niac: I've got some questions about where you went to school, Mr. Sims.
Tucker:
Is there something you’re not telling us, Ensign?
Carpenter: I think we can take a few shots, but we need to get movin' sooner rather than later. Can anybody drive stick?
Even fifteen seconds would put them in a better firing position...
Sims: I think we might be able to get a little more juice to the shields if we deactivate all the emergency force fields, life support, and environmental controls on the abandoned decks. It wouldn’t be a lot, but it would give us a little more power to the shields. Maybe give us a little more time before…
The Captain's hands thrummed across the Helm control, sending a fresh aftershock of movement through the whole of the ship. Kirsty found herself unexpectedly welled up by the feeling. Was this the end of the Ronin? Just when...
oO It felt like home? So soon? Oo But she tamped all that down with a savage force. Her real focus needed to be on the still incoming combat. That was the only way she would get through the day. oO If at all...Oo she thought just as quickly.
She blinked hard, clamping her hands in a grounding motion across the edges of her newish console.
Nodding as the course plot finally lined up, Karrod keyed the impulse ignition sequence into the helm console and felt the whole of the ship rattle violently around them.
Niac: Do it Ensign. And then I want you to accompany the rest of the senior staff to the nearest escape pod.
oO There it is...Oo
Tucker: You want to do what skipper?
Carpenter: You mean...evac?
The new Ensign turned, likely wishing they had picked another day to transfer. Kirsty could relate somewhat. The chill that had crept across her skin at the mention of the microfractures had turned into a full on storm of icy dawning sadness, clutching deeply and quickly at her very soul. She tried her best to keep it from her face and maybe a year before she might have been able to. A year before she didn't feel these sort of things and this backward, frustrating, and immensely challenging ship had reawakened all that and much more.
Now she would likely lose it.
But it didn't seem like she would be feeling the loss alone.
Sims: Sir?
Their Captain keeps their gaze genuinely and mournfully, his usually animated features and expressions clearly darkened with his own efforts to work through what was happening in the moment. Kirsty could see more than just the choice he just made happening behind his shining eyes. Her pulse started to quicken. She could take losing the ship. She wasn't sure she could take losing Karrod Niac.
But before she could raise up her voice, The Captain started his own explanation in an even and impressively calm tone.
Niac: You heard me, Ensign. Commander Carpenter, I'm putting you in charge of the evacuation. Get as many people off the ship in the next five minutes as you can. Try to make your way to the station...failing that, get as far from the combat area as possible and deeper into Federation territory. The beating the Alliance has taken today will slow them down...you should be able to get to safety.
Kirsty had finally found her voice to protest...and then Quentin Beck, Patron Saint of Horrid Frakking Timing, cut her off once more. But Kirsty would have been lying if she didn't breath just a slight easier knowing her favorite medic was finally within shouting distance.
Beck: =/\= Doctor Beck to Bridge. =/\=
Tucker: =/\= Hey doc, not a good time… =/\=
Carpenter: No s%&*.
Sims: RESPONSE
Beck: =/\= Ian and I are stuck between decks in the turbolift pod we took from the Bridge. We just got back power but I had to MacGuyver a way to reach out to you guys. Could we get a little help here? =/\=
Tucker: =/\= You’re what now ? =/\=
Kirsty called her voice up and across her terminal.
Carpenter: =/\= Captain just started general evacuation protocols. Our warp core is fracturing. But you sit tight, Q. We'll get you out. =/\=
Beck: =/\= . . . did you just say abandon ship??? What the hell are you doing up there? =/\=
Tucker: =/\= You heard right, buddy, I’m working on trying to get your turbolift going again. And to answer your question, I'm not sure what’s on the Captain's mind. =/\=
Marty, God love him, instantly started to work the problem, but Kirsty started to grapple completely with the existential ramifications of evacuation. Teryn, Cheesecake, hell, Tetra down in the Science Labs! She stepped out of her alcove.
She had never before disobeyed an order from a superior. Even bad orders, orders that made her teeth itch, orders that had gotten her first unit killed, she had never questioned them. That wasn't the job. Before Phobos, she was more than okay with that part of herself. She was the tool. The tool didn't question the job it was doing. That was for AFTER the job. But she was thinking about what it might be like to disobey this one. Or at the very least, express some sort of discontent about it.
She had already made her reservations known about Chief Alieth and her away team (their whereabouts and status still, at the moment, unknown). She had felt just fine about that. She wondered how she would feel about this.
The Captain, however, seemed to have expected this. Turning himself fully toward them all with a bladed, upturned hand.
Niac: I respect your bravery and your commitment, but you've already sacrificed enough...now I want you to live. Abandon ship...that's an order. I'm going to stay a few minutes and make sure the Alliance receives our...parting gift.
In response to The Captain, the Bridge around them plunged into a cool, off-putting blue. Shuddering the ship once more, but followed quickly after by the general call for evacuation. Her heart suddenly panged for Teryn. He had to be terrified.
But she turned burning eyes back to her Captain as the death-ship in the Main Viewer continued to gather its strength.
Tucker: ::assertive::I hate to disobey a direct order, but I’m not going anywhere, sir.
A dam seemed to burst in Kirsty.
Carpenter: I'm with Marty, sir! We can't do anything for the station without a ship!
Sims: RESPONSE
Niac: The automatic helm controls are fried and besides...I don't want...::The short range sensors began shrieking and Karrod Niac turned in surprise. Almost in concert with Kirsty's own terminal pinging the new contact.:: Looks like the Alliance called in reinforcements...I guess we should be flattered.
The Main Viewer fuzzed and spackled with the new energy ribbon filling through the space in front of them. Their battered scopes told of a ship contact. A rather big one and Kirsty gritted her teeth the possibility that there might be TWO of those hellish "Gun-Ships" out there in the universe.
But through the transwarp corridor...a miracle.
Niac: It's the Excalibur!
The beautiful, regally powerful Vesta Class ship cut through the space like a grand ancient ironside. Even better, it seemed to be moving into a more defensive position between the "Gun-Ship" and the embattled Federation assets. Kirsty could feel the air around them shift.
Could that be the odds themselves shifting?
Tucker: The Excalibur is getting between us and the Alliance ship!
Niac: RESPONSE
The terminal under her hands screamed cheerily, throwing Kirsty's own face into a near-feral upward turn.
Carpenter: She's weapons hot, Captain.
Sims: RESPONSE
A general comm squirt crackled through the still azure Bridge. One that almost made Kirsty want to marry the owner of the steely and stalwart voice immediately.
Tucker: Enemy frigate breaking off, bearing three-three-one mark four-seven. And from the readings I’m getting, she’s all kinds of angry.
Niac: RESPONSE
A quick batch of sensor scans answered their question, but Kirsty didn't like the answer.
Carpenter: The "Gun-Ship" is targeting the Khitomer now. They might be readin' our warp core problems. But that other frigate is lookin' froggy. ::she points to the Main Viewer from her station.::
Sims: RESPONSE
The brutalist support craft turned fully toward them now, baring down like a brick thrown through the void with targeting data and solutions screeching through the terminal under her to match. Was this...panic? Did Sheliak panic? Was she seeing something tactically unprecedented right now? Or was this a last ditch bombing run trying to take them off the board?
oO Only one way to find out...Oo
Kirsty gripped her console, freeing another hand to key in hasty attack spreads and lining up their forward rapid-fire tubes...which this moronic ship crew was about to fly directly into. But the velocity of the ship was something of a concern, even from Kirsty's position toward the back of the Bridge.
Tucker: Sir, that ship is picking up speed!
As it dashed forward, it finally lashed out. Opening up it's beam arrays and kinetic payloads across their already battened down and supported-to-all-hell deflectors. She only needed a few more seconds for a decisive volley, but also became keenly RE-aware of the boiling warp core. Thankfully their stillness seemed to keep the worst of the structural tremors down for now.
But if the Sheliak continued to press the attack forward, it was only a matter of time until the core blew entirely. They were fighting in the shadow of a ticking bomb.
But the good news was...the frigate was now smack dab in the middle of the range of the rapid-fire tubes. She hovered her clenched fist over the replaced firing mechanism, now a heavy chunking button instead of the smooth press-screens of the usual haptics. The result of a battlefield repair, but satisfyingly analogue all the same.
The ship barreled further into the kill zone.
Niac: RESPONSE
She brought her hand down heavily.
Carpenter: Forward tubes away!
An even 60 microfire torpedoes blazed from the front of the down, but not out Ronin and directly into the front prow and bottom superstructure of the arrogantly fast Sheliak frigate. Being micro and beaded in such a way that the warheads of the projectiles were particularly deadly to ships in flight, had something to do with traveling shield harmonics Kirsty half-remembered, the torpedoes shredded up and through the ship. Turning it's bombing run into a flight through a sort of razor wire.
Kirsty hammered her fists across the edges of her console in triumph. They were still in this fight. They were still in this fight! And better still, the Excal's clock was still running. A fact that seemed to be taken seriously by the "Gun-Ship" as it broke off it's own still percolating attack run.
Sims: RESPONSE
She left her station momentarily, snapping up a prybar left by one of Marty's people in their last sweep through the Bridge. They still had precious little time. Between the fracture warp core and the looming forces outside, they would have minutes, not hours. But that still didn't keep her from crossing toward the "Secondary" turbolift, the one that Beck and Ian had disappeared down what felt like ages ago.
She rose and swung the prybar evenly and surely, clunking it deftly into the slot of the door that would usually part with an automatic mechanism. She was pleasantly and not-unkindly reminded of her very first mission on the Ronin, where she had done this very thing, just on a much, much larger scale outside on the Launch Deck. But the turbolift door gave way much easier, just with a lot more groaning noise in the opening.
She turned to slightly shocked looks.
Tucker: RESPONSE
Carpenter: I'm makin' it easier for Beck and O'Connor. Then...::she pointed toward the main viewer and the looming L.A. forces still itching for the full conflict to erupt once more:: I plan on bein' around long enough to bring those buzzards down.
But another violent shudder echoing through the Bridge dampened her confidence.
But only slightly...And they could do a lot with a little daylight. She turned animatedly toward the engineers.
Carpenter: How'd we make sure that happens?
Tucker/Sims: RESPONSE
Niac/Beck/O'Connor: RESPONSE