Lieutenant Luxa Lorana - A Web of Mystery
Luxa Lorana
((Stellar Cartography, Science Lab Complex, Decks 10-11, USS Ronin, Outside the J-0922A System))
The room was awash with the red glare from the alert status, adding to the tension that Luxa felt. Somehow it had become all too common for the Ronin to be ready for an attack. The scientist in her frustrated against it, however the part of her that rushed to danger revelled in it, almost longed for it.
Her heart raced in anticipation of what would come, the blood rushed through her pumping adrenaline around her body and her tail jerked in anxious exhilaration.
This was better than the pull of sadness that she had spent so much time trying to avoid.
So much better.
Raedai: Unless they don't mind or the station can take advantage of them in some way.
Luxa nodded, this seemed likely. She was no strategist but she had learnt that the LA didn’t make a move without having a plan or a reason to do so.
Alieth: Elaborate on what you have found, Lieutenant.
The Romulan kept looking at the console and examining for as much data as he could, not only from the Ronin itself, but also from the chain of probes that communicated with the interior of the subspace field.
Raedai: On the one hand, that thing is huge because given the differences in the two species they may have to basically duplicate everything. It's two stations in one. But given its size, it's more than likely to have a huge reactor that generates a lot of power. With that much power, the station could possibly control or harness the problems of its own technology. Something that is more difficult to implement in something that requires the mobility of a starship.
Lorana: That’s certainly in line with what we know of the previous superstructure. Although this station isn’t emitting the same levels of energy output we saw with that station?
Alieth: Leave passive sensors out, switch to active sensors. Lieutenant Raedai, use whatever means you need to give us as much information as possible about what is happening inside the cloaked area. That formation is not something we have previously encountered, nor are those radiation bursts.
Raedai: The Tholian ship has released the most damaged ship. I think they're overloading their weaponry by creating one last pulse of Sencha radiation before exploding.
oO that’s suicidal? Oo
Lorana: If they do that they’ll destroy themselves, their shielding won’t be able to cope with the -
All the laboratory consoles began to resonate, while in the Holotank the damaged frigate acquired a bright yellow hue that approached white.
Alieth: Brace for impact!
Luxa could only watch in horror as the vessel exploded into millions of crystalline pieces. Thousands of LA lives lost in a matter of seconds. She shook her head in disgust, this was entirely avoidable.
Then the sensation of the blast came for them. Her hair raised, and a tinny ringing echoed around her and she almost doubled over when a bout of nausea struck.
The ship rocked fiercely. Luxa managed to maintain her balance against it, and the new Stellar Cartography held up with no visible damage other than one blinking monitor.
The impact was not only from the radiation, the enemy ship had exploded, overloading its weapons to make the explosion even bigger. This caused some minor overloading of the EPS conduits.
Raedai: the explosion has broken the connection with the probes, it has been bigger than expected, trying to recover it.
He said as he typed as fast as he could. The computer had recorded the entire explosion, the entire overload of the Sheliak ship, but it was not yet time to review it.
Lorana: The Ronin took most of the impact, structural integrity is at 65%. Reduced power to our forward scanners, pulling power from redundancies :: to Raedai :: This should help re-establish our link with the probes.
Raedai: Regaining control of the probes, repositioning them to re-acquire data from within the subspace field. And trying to compensate for the distortion caused by Sencha radiation.
Lorana: Marking the points with less radiation for the probes.
Alieth: Response
The big screen showed the Ronin trying to get into formation with the Khitomer to continue the fight.
Raedai: One question, I don't know all the data from previous encounters against Lattice Alliance ships, have you tried using a temporal shield or a subspace field with a phase discriminator to diminish the effects of Sencha radiation?
Both had been used to avoid problems with temporal displacement and with considerable success. It was likely that the subspace field and radiation could cause a quantum rift, but it was better to take advantage of his Lower Deck status and have his idea rejected, rather than have a possible solution never tested.
Lorana: We were able to adapt the shielding of the Rhine :: trying not to break temporal law :: using temporal shielding with help from Lieutenant Tucker, although this is only effective if there is a quantum fissure. Which is an unpredictable side effect of the Sencha Wave that only occurs when it is combined with chronitons - otherwise the temporal shielding is unnecessary. This combination can create a volatile, unstable vortex.
Alieth/Raedai: response
Luxa listened to the other ideas, she nodded.
Lorana: That could work, if we adapt the temporal shielding with a rotating phase variance, linked up to the deflector. The only thing is we’d need to manually input the frequency of the phase discriminator before each impact?
Alieth/Raedai: response
Lorana: This is all highly theoretical :: there was a chime from the console nearby which drew her attention :: Looks like we’re getting new telemetry from the probes… Oh no, they’ve deployed fighters.
On the holotank, the remaining LA frigate vessels moved into a hexagonal formation, seemingly to protect the listening outpost. Luxa recognised it instantly. A Tholian web, except made via ships.
Each of the 6 frigates emitted a beam of light that eventually meant they created the distinctive web. The stern of each of the ship appeared to illuminate.
Lorana: Oh, of course they are … They’re using the web to charge the generators, which means they have a faster recharge rate … not to mention 6 times the energy blast.
Alieth/Raedai: response
The ship rocked as the fighters engaged the Ronin. Luxa held on to the lip of her console to steady herself.
Lorana: :: noticed a section of space and points to it on the holotank :: You see that?
Alieth/Raedai: response
A small portion of blank space. Except it wasn’t. Another cloaked section beyond the border.
Lorana: Why would they cloak this grid?
Alieth/Raedai: response
[TAGS/TBC]
