Arriving on Platform 1

Posted on Fri Feb 17th, 2017 @ 1:04am by Commander Bertrand Cuprum & Captain Elijah Michaels & Commander Cor Cordale & Lieutenant Ishan Satele & Lieutenant Sara'draphia T'eseri & Lieutenant JG Elliot Keller

Mission: All the Kings Men: Wargames
Location: Undisclosed space

The Warp engine shut down and the Warp Bubble folded, dropping the Smithsonian into real space once more. The area around it was unremarkable, no stars or signs of long term habitation except for a single large rogue asteroid. which had escaped a solar system untold millennia ago.

Lights around the bridge died down to minimal. Smith leaned forward, "Report?"

Tarlee piped in from Ops. "We are down to minimal power after the Jump." The Bolian Lieutenant then examined his instruments. "Scans don't detect anything."

Elijah turned from the XO seat. "Define anything for us."

"No Stars, no Planets or Spacial Anomalies." He pressed his console. "Just that Asteroid."

"Impulse and Warp drive are out, all I've got are thrusters" Satele reported from her station, "and right now most of them are being used to keep us just out of orbit of that asteroid"

Standing by one of the auxiliary science stations, Sara gave a sigh of relief, "no injuries reported, it would seem that life support is unaffected"

"We're dead in the water, proverbially speaking, for a few more minutes." Cordale reported, almost with a smirk. "Guess whoever invented this Whoa Damn drive never took hostile environs into account. One for the suggestion box." though the Thux quickly went back to business. "Seven minutes of no power remaining. Minimal power grid across the board but emergency and backup power supplies are still available."

"We're out here in the literal middle of nowhere. Just us, a rock, and deep space. I'd recommend we just make like a hole in space for the next seven minutes, passive scan the hell out of this place, and wait for main power to kick back."

Elijah sat back in the XO seat. "I'd agree with that recommendation, less likely to draw attention from passive scans."

"Stay calm, people," Smith said quietly. "We knew we were going to be exposed when we arrived. When we get power up we will easily be a match for the Admiral's Galaxy class."

Karadis laughed inwardly. Smith was 'trying' to reassure some of the most experienced crew from the Victory, as if they were greenhorns. Still, it was his barge, so he wanted to act all calm and cool, Mr Ice.

"We'll risk some of the reserve power to give us a better look around, Smith said. "Ops, more power to sensors, please."

As her console fired up again, Karadis swiftly began a scan of the area around them and the asteroid, and sure enough, she picked up signs of vessels.

"Sir" she said, trying to keep a straight face as she reported to Smith "I've picked up three vessels around the asteroid, a Galaxy class, an Ambassador class and a Miranda class. It looks like....wait, the Galaxy class ship is scanning us..."

Elijah turned. "Helm adjust our heading to get us out of scanning range." The Captain turned to the others and awaited Smith to decide their next course of action.

"To late" Karadis said "the other ship's are moving in towards us on an intercept course!"

"Alright than, lets use some physics" Satele said, changing the thrusters to direct the ship towards the Asteriod. Gradually, the ship began to pick up speed.

"How long till main power, Mr Cordale?" SMith asked.

"Six minutes." Cordale replied, "I got a few more suggestions for the suggestion box if we make it out of here." from the tone of the Thux's voice, those suggestions didn't exactly sound pleasant. "We're on auxiliary and reserves still at the moment, and those won't last forever."

Smith took a deep breath, "Take whatever you need except from drive systems."

Elijah as the XO looked around at the Crew of the Smithsonian and the impending storm that was in the shape of these Ships. "Tarlee see what you can do to help out Cor with power."

"Aye Sir." The Bolian then went to assist the Thux.

"Satele begin Evasive Manouvers, Pattern Sigma One." He said relaying the info to Satele.

Satele sighed, "Until I get impulse back, this is going to be the slowest evasive manoeuvre I've ever done," she said, doing what she could with the thrusters. Thought now that the Asteroid's gravity had them that didn't count for much.

Smith grinned, "Oh, I think I can help their. Trevor, initialize the Subspace displacement field."

There was a strange whir and the ship leapt sharply. Suddenly under Satele's fingers the ship spand and danced like a shuttle rather than the giant she was.

Smith glanced at the Captain, "Science tells me it is to do with folding mass through subspace, but I am pretty sure they are just making stuff up and it runs by magic."

The Ambassador was first to close to weapons range but, rather than phaser fire, a concentrated beam leapt out at the space the Smithsonian had occupied a fraction of a second ago.

Down in the Engineering bay, things went from controlled chaos to managed anarchy quickly. Cordale was using every trick he could to get this ten minute cool-down over in eight minutes. One of the engineers down in the bay asked him, "Sir, why so frantic now?"

"Because, he's going to overload the inertial dampeners, or just vent us into someplace we don't want to be." Cor slowed down to explain, "That was a Four G turn, which a ship this big couldn't pull off in its wildest dreams. He's shunting most of the Smithsonian's mass into subspace, and for the life of me I don't know how!"

"Shunting mass, sir?" the engineer was confused, "Yes, and that's dangerously close to Ts'usugi tech. I've read papers about their tech, I've attended engineering shows where we touch upon what their fighters can do, and hell I serve aboard the Victory... with a Ts'usugi mind you... and their tech sometimes sounds like space magic sometimes."

"Can they really do something like this, though?" the engineer motioned to their modified reactor, with pride.

"Wouldn't surprise me. Everyone in the galaxy generates a warp field the same way, right? Matter and Antimatter. Not them." he paused, "But I do know this, regardless of how this tub flies, if we lose power during one of those tight turns, and the inertial dampener system loses power, we're going to sheer the ship in half. We need that core up and humming now."

It was then that the streak of weapons fire barely missed the Smithsonian, and Cor's fur stood on end. Almost comically. "Ummm, sir?" the engineer motioned to the puffball that Cordale was quickly becoming.

"That's not phaser fire..." the Thux mused, before grounding himself of the extra static and then getting back to work.

"Are you kidding me?" Tarlee said as he examined the Ops Console. "If this is reading correctly then they've made significant modifications to their Weapons array." The Bolian Lieutenant pointed to one of the Intel Officers to take over for him whilst he moved to something else. "They're optimized so that they can disrupt our power and shields."

Elijah checked the XO Console. "Take out our systems and leave the Ship intact." The Captain examined the energy output. "Karadis focus your fire on their lateral power relay, use pattern Epilson four for best effect."

Kardis followed the order.

Keller sat at Communications and monitored the traffic between the three large Federation Ships. "Sir, the Tazmania is coming round for another pass on the Port Bow, Cosmos has told them to use significant force to disable us."

Elijah shook his head. "Not wanting to get your hands dirty this time Admiral?"

"Keep us out of that weapons arc!" Smith ordered. "They are shepherding us away from the asteroid where the archive is stored."

"The Miranda Class is powering up to fire!" Karadis called out as she tried to make head or tails of the readings she was getting on her console. But they were confusing as they didn't match any kind of Starfleet configuration she'd ever seen, in fact, they were more like one's she'd seen recently, but from...

"Sir, they're not conventional weapons, it's more like....." Karadis called out to Smith, but that's as far as she got.

There was a sudden judder in the ship and the lights blinked off and then back.

"Direct hit on Starboard Plating. Reserves are down by 20%."

"The Undaunted is trying to get a tractor lock on us."

"Engineering," Smith called, "How long to main power?"

"Three minutes." Cor replied, "Two and a half if I start banging rocks together to warm up the reactor." whoever thought it was a good idea to jump into a hostile region needed their head examined.

Elijah clutched the XO Station. "Keep our portside on the Undaunted and initiate defensive pattern Sigma four zero, let's draw the Tasmania into a cross fire."

Satele frowned, "I'm doing my best captain, she's handling like a drunken Gorn" she said, double checking her harness that was holding her into the seat before attempting another series of evasive maneuvers.

Sara had left the bridge and was now hurrying around the ship treating any minor injuries she could with what little resources she had on hand.

Karadis looked at her almost useless console and said "Till we get main power back online Sir, we can't fully defend ourselves. I can rig a low frequency energy pulse which we can 'fire' from the deflector array, but at best that may only give us a few seconds respite, and really that's all. Photon launchers are useless without power and I don't have to tell you anything about main phasers. I've looked for a way to shut down any non essential systems so we can re-route enough power for either torpedoes or main phasers, but we just can't get enough to use either."

"Just do what you can Ensign." Elijah said with a nod to Karadis. "Anything is better than nothing right now." He said as he got up from the XO seat to go and check the Aft Stations.

There was another jolt and sparks erupted from one side of the Con.

"They have a tractor beam lock, sir. Subspace folding is off line. Energy reserves at 17%"

Smith grimaced, counting down in his head, "Kardis. Is the deflector ready?"

"Nearly there Sir" Karadis replied, her hands flying over the console "just...a...couple...of....moments" she continued, her concentration and focus totally tunnel visioned now.

"Right, were there Sir!" she called out.

"Fire when ready."

"Firing, aye" Karadis called out, her thumb stabbing at the button to fire the pulse. The Smithsonian's deflector dish emitted the pulse towards the Miranda class vessel. A couple of seconds later, there was another jolt as the tractor lock was broken.

"We've broken their tractor beam Sir" Karadis called out "but I don't know for how long, they may try re-establishing it again. If they do, it's going to take us longer to get the next pulse ready to fire."

"Main power, thirty seconds!" Cordale's voice came through like a beacon.

There was another juddering crash and the panels began to falter.

"Direct hit. We are at 1% reserve power. No power for thrusters, defences, or anything. We are going to loose life support."

Smith lowered his head and muttered "Kobiashi."

"The Undaunted has locked weapons. They are preparing to fire!"

Everyone knew that without power even a single photon volley would tear the ship apart.

OOC: To be continued...