Lieutenant Luxa Lorana - We Meet Again
Luxa Lorana
((Stellar Cartography, Science Lab Complex, Decks 10-11, USS Ronin, Outside the J-0922A System))
To say Luxa was the happiest she was able to be for a long time was nothing short of an understatement. From the moment she had stood in the refitted Stellar Cartography the pain of grief that she had been carrying inside of her heart seemed to ease off just a little.
She had something else to focus on. A new place for her to lose herself in, to devote to her research and she had spent much of her time split between this location and Tetra - who'd become somewhat of a rebellious teenager.
Tucker had managed with his limited space and resources to create this space, and she found him tolerable now - slightly. Luxa was currently standing on the lower level on Deck 11, displayed within the holotank as a perfectly constructed representation of the surrounding space, with key systems and locations highlighted.
Above her was the short Commander who was seated on the top floor of Stellar Cartography, in front of a console, cloistered between railings.
Behind Luxa was the main lab; she had been accompanied by newly promoted Lt. Raedai, whom she'd had little dealings with until this point. Another Romulan, who's very presence in Stellar Cartography seemed to make the Vulcan who was looking down on them, nothing short of aggrieved.
She had now become accustomed to the CSOs ways, the subtle tells in which her inner emotions, reluctantly, would show themselves. Caitians communicated extensively in micro movements; a flick of the tail could have thousands of different meanings to another Caitian. A glance, something that a humanoid would do without thought, held much significance to a Caitian.
Warning: never hold a stare with a Caitian unless you want to start something.
Alieth: Any change, Miss Lorana?
Lorana : :: looks to the holotank :: Changing, yes.
The question was so simple. Change? Space was an ever evolving, constantly changing spectrum of radiation, dust and readings of gamma waves, subspace and quantum distortions and thousands of subtle spatial variances. Her Caitian eyes could pick out hundreds of changes all at once.
Lorana: Anything from the Lattice Alliance? No. Sencha radiation fluctuations from the occlusion field generator at the LA border are within normal ranges. No indication that they are even aware of our presence. No scans, no ships. But we still can't see beyond the border due to the cloaking devices.
The corner of one of the Vulcan's sloping eyebrows twitched slightly, but the slight disturbance in her mood did not translate into her voice.
Alieth: Watch for markers on the Sencha cloaking devices, and the emergence of space-time fracture ribbons.
Lorana : Absolutely sir :: her fur that ran across her spine raised as she remembered the pain of molecular destabilisation :: This would not be a good time to be displaced in time.
Alieth nodded slightly to the Caitian, before she rose to her feet and peered over the railing to her left to gaze at Alidar's broad back.
Alieth: Lieutenant Raedai, any update on the status and readiness of the exploration probes?
Raedai : Not yet, we have to wait for better positioning of the probes. More radiation is needed to hide the ion traces of the probes.
The answer obviously failed to please her either, and even less so when she noticed the expression on that face that should have none.
Alieth: Look for alternatives, Lieutenant, we may need them soon.
Raedai : Not at the moment, unless you want to bust our trap.
Luxa looked to the Romulan, and then to the Vulcan who's eyes creased and her cheeks flushed a little green shade? Her face switched from quizzical to suspicious as she too took a moment to review the Romulan.
She knew very little of them, except that it was said you never could trust them. She always thought that that may have been a little prejudiced and she tried to not let that cloud her judgement. After all, Zoyara had spoken highly of Vomek; a former Romulan crew member.
Even before their homeworld was destroyed they were known as a deceptive, treacherous species who excelled in betrayal and subterfuge. And for some reason this Romulan seemed more aligned to that perception. At least he seemed to make great pains to appear so.
Alieth: That's not what I -
She never finished the sentence, as the room's loudspeakers let out an upbeat beep, followed shortly after by the gruff voice of their Commanding Officer.
Niac: =/\= Bridge to Stellar Cartography...what's your status, Lt. Cmdr. Alieth? =/\=
Alieth: =/\= Unchanged from the last half hour, Sencha radiation fluctuations are still consistent with the occlusion field generator we found in Olidra system, but we have not detected any Sencha radiation surges or radiation derived from the use of the Alliance's weapons. We will need to go past the cloacking threshold in order to gather more information, sir. =/\=
Niac: =/\= Once we get inside the system, we'll need you to build up a picture of priority targets as quickly as you can, especially any S-Wave generators. The faster you can pass that information up to us, the quicker we can be in and out of the system. =/\=
Alieth: =/\= We are ready for it, sir, my terminal is directly connected to the main screen, to the tactical console and to the one in your chair. You will receive real-time feedback as soon as we have something to report. =/\=
Niac: =/\= Very well. Mr. Raedai is there to coordinate any sudden resource needs or probe operations, and I believe he'll have a good eye for finding the things we want to eliminate. Give his insights weight, Commander. =/\=
The diminutive Commander took more time to answer than she usually would, long enough to cross her arms behind her back and stiffen her posture even more.
Alieth: =/\= I will take your suggestion into account, Captain. =/\=
Niac: =/\= Very well, standby. I suspect it'll be any time now. Niac out. =/\=
The console let out a discouraged whistle that signalled the disconnection of the comms with the bridge. Alieth leaned over to address the other two officers present.
Alieth: You have heard the captain, we are in standby, but keep your attention on the passive scans.
Raedai : Yes, Commander.
Luxa nodded towards her superior, her tail swayed as a sign of acknowledgement. No words were needed.
Luxa moved to a console, where she began to review the data from the scans and compare them with the information they had gathered from the LA superstructure. She remembered the vast scale of that station and the enormous levels of energy that outpoured from it, threatening to not only destabilise the system but the entire fabric of space that occupied it.
Spinning on her console to the left of the holotank the structure itself spun around. An overlay of the varying radiation waves emitted from it.
She then reviewed the screen below it, which displayed the current space at the border. Her eye keenly scanned for any Sencha Wave markers, which would be the first indication of an attack. Nothing unusual presented itself to her.
Until it did.
A series of blips flashed on her screen. Vessels.
She turned and moved towards the holotank, and the data funnelled through onto the projection. Luxa manipulated the screen to highlight the section. Two frigates, ungainly and brutal looking vessels, an amalgamation of Sheliak and Tholian design. All function and aggression with sections of great intricate beauty, mashed together with a soulless pragmatism.
It told a story of two different cultures, at odds with one another yet somehow their hatred for the Federation and single-minded desire to conquer had forged this dangerous alliance.
Alieth: Analyse the ships, search for signs of Sencha Radiation Generators.
The dim light in the lab suddenly switched to red, and the consoles all veered their hues to the same tones. Luxa worked fast, she was prepared for this. On the holotank the radiation indicators around the ships flashed in varying colours, showing like a glow emitting from it. A light orange hue was the Sencha Wave indicator, it covered each vessel, similar to what they had seen on the border..
Lorana: No change as yet. Detecting normal levels of the Sencha radiation from the frigates. A strong indicator that the weapon is onboard. We can't scan them directly until the bridge gives the order.
Raedai : The escape pods have been launched, I put the probes in position.
Alieth: How are the probes' status? Have we been able to penetrate inside the system?
Raedai: not yet, Until the escape pods explode, I can't hide the probes trail.
Lorana: The frigates are approaching the escape pods :: to Raedai :: Get ready. :: reading from the bridge communication stream :: Carpenter has activated the detonation sequence … 3 … 2 … 1.
A second went past, Luxa looked to the projection within the holotank and the images of the escape pods blast glowed against her dark fur, almost the same shade as her amber eyes.
The frigates moved against the blast. Amongst the burning flames against the hull she observed debris and pieces of equipment float into the space between the Ronin and the ships.
A buried, instinctive drive was awoken as she smiled. For a moment it was the Persecutor, and Wrath that had taken that blow. For now, that was a promise that one day Luxa hoped to deliver.
Raedai: moving the probes into the subspace field.
Taking advantage of the explosion, the probes made a strong impulse that should bring them closer to the cloaking field.
Lorana: No indication that they detected the probes :: To Raedai:: Great work. Data should start to come in once the resynchronization completes.
Perhaps having a ‘sneaky’ Romulan around was incredibly useful. She didn't think her chief would agree with that.
The probes were placed where the ops officer had calculated, just to have them in that position and receive data would give them possibilities to better circumvent that type of technology later. But that's not what they needed at that moment, they had to see how many ships they were up against.
Raedai: first data arrives...:: Alidar was silent for a moment and reviewed the data coming into the console, did a quick check of the probe systems before saying anything. :: This doesn't make sense... or we have a huge problem.
Luxa observed the orange glow around one of the frigates; there was a surge of Sencha radiation that darkened and deepened. But more than that, the data began to coarse through from the probes.
Her felinoid neck strained to take in the image that now dominated the holotank.
It was a superstructure. Not exactly the same as the one they had encountered previously, it was in a more bulky, cuboid shape, and appeared to be erected with various communication pylons that protruded from it, making it resemble a pin cushion. It didn't have the same level of emissions that they had witnessed from the Ronin's shakedown mission.
It was a communications relay. A problem and a huge advantage for them.
Surrounding it were several more frigates. Weapons readied.
Lorana: They do like their stations big I see. Commander, that's a listening post. Perhaps that's how the LA has been keeping one step ahead of movements in this region.
Alieth/Raedai: Responses
Lorana: The frigates appear to be pulling back towards the border? They have charged the Sencha weapons and locked the Ronin… I'm not sure why they haven't used them…?
Alieth/Raedai : Response
Luxa observed the new data that was coming in, she could see the line of the border, marked by the cloaking devices. Suddenly she turned to Alieth, practically yelling to her on the mezzanine above.
Lorana: :: smiles :: We're too close to the border … :: turns to Alieth :: Remember what happened when the Sencha radiation interacted with the chronitons from the cloaking technology? :: in a science tangent :: It created quantum fissures, some of these fissures then resulted in wells that absorbed all the objects around them. They don't want to risk their valuable listening post being pulled into a fissure?
She looked to Raedai, and then back to Alieth. She couldn't mention the time wells, or the displaced, as that was under a temporal affairs gag order.
Alieth/Raedai: Response
Tags/TBC
