Dip dive into oblivion
Posted on Mon Nov 9th, 2020 @ 1:37pm by Lieutenant Bonnie "Bon-Bon" Durnell & Captain Rhenora Kaylen
Mission:
Diplomatic Masquerade
Location: Orias III
Timeline: Current
"Captain to bridge...what the heck is going on?" She started, already half on her feet and heading for the door.
Bonnie freaked internally while pressing the comm button. "Captain? Can't talk right now." She said calmly and then closed the channel.
"Can't talk my ass" Rhenora grumbled as she made her escape, not particularly caring if anyone could hear her. She was going to find out who was running the show and defying the order she'd given about setting a course to Vulcan.
Remal watched her leave and snickered to himself. What a phrase, 'can't talk my ass but can you talk out of your ass', now that was a trick.
The Captain entered the bridge to find a calm and focused environment with a most unlikely individual in the command chair.
She knew better than to interfere in a delicate situation. Any word or sudden movement could shatter the concentration at a most inopportune time. Instead she simply stood at the back of the bridge and observed. Hoping to blend in with the rest of the highly focused crew she moved to the rear tactical station but didn't activate it. Observations would be key if this situation were to resolve itself without them either crashing or blowing the Cardassians up. She could take control and make herself known if necessary, but at the moment it wasn't. It could be the moments that made the young Lieutenants career, a few minutes that defined the rest of her life. What gave the Captain the right to take that from her?
"Radion burst ready."
"Helm ready."
"Tactical ready."
"Alright. Go. Um.. Engage." She stammered for the right catch-phrase to set everything in motion.
From the Liberty's deflector array emerged a brilliant flash of radion energy engulfing the Cardassian warships and blanking out their sensors. A split second later the Liberty turned downward towards the planet in a steep dive. As soon as the mighty ship struck the upper atmosphere she began shaking. Her heat and atmospheric shielding taking the brunt of the heat and upper level radiation.
Bonnie remained collected in the Command seat. "Watch that entry angle helm. Give me an ETA to target."
"45 seconds to target range. Atmosphere turbulence increasing to 30 pascals per square meter. Shields are holding."
Before them lie a super charged ionic storm filled with purple and blue-white lightning. It was very pretty to look at but not something one wanted to fly through. "How far into that storm do we have to be to pick up the shuttle?"
".5 kilometers."
"Any movement from our friends upstairs?" Bonnie asked, referencing the Cardassians.
Quietly the Captain watched the performance unfold before her. The difference between the green but eager computer tech and the woman now manhandling the Liberty like a seasoned professional were chalk and cheese.
Realising that Bonnie was requesting information that still hadn’t been offered she activated the auxiliary tactical station she was sitting at and found the latest position of the Cardassian.
“Negative, they’ve maintained a high orbit and are not pursuing, their engines aren’t capable of handling the atmospheric turbulence” She reported, feeling very much like her junior days. Truth be said the Liberty wouldn’t be great in such atmospheric turbulence but right at this moment she wasn’t in charge.
Was that the Captain? When did she get here? Oh god! The Captain was on the bridge. Bonnie stood slowly, turned around slowly and blinked. “Captain. When… would you like to take command?” She shyly offered the command chair.
"Why would I do that, you seem to have things perfectly in hand" The Captain smiled encouragingly before redirecting her attention back to the tactical display.
"The Cardassian shuttle is still stranded, ETA 15 seconds" the Captain advised, holding on as the Liberty started to shake with earnest. Somewhere to the left of her an EPS conduit exploded "hull temperature 3000 degrees and rising. Whatever you're gonna do, I suggest you do it soon"
Sure, if she wasn’t nervous before, which she was, now she was going to feel twice like a bundle of rattled nerves. She slunk back into the chair. The shuttle, right, “Divert shields to ventral and forward. Keep our nose down and take us into that storm and do not spare the horses.”
The helmsman deftly manipulated the controls, fighting with the mighty starship to keep her on course. "No horses left Ma'am, what you've got is what you've got" he winced at the cliche.
Powerful lightning engulfed the ship, illuminating her shields. Most of which was absorbed, but what didn’t get absorbed passed into the hull. They were a bird in flight, a highly electrical bird with no ground. Like a giant metal rod, if their shields failed they would be fried to a crisp. “I need a target on that shuttle.” Bonnie asked of the bridge crew.
"Shields down to thirty percent" Rhenora advised, wincing as the lightning struck her ship. Inanimate object or not she always considered her starship as extended family. "Target now visible" she put the image of the downed shuttle being hammered by the rain on the viewscreen.
"Time to target 5 seconds"
“Ready on that tractor beam. We’re going to grab and go, understood?” She knew the faster they got to the otherside of the storm the better off they would be. It was getting to that point that would be a rough ride, for everyone. She counted backward from 5.
“Within range ma’am.”
“Engage tractor beam, and get us the hell out of here.”
"Tractor beam engaged, we have the shuttle in tow" the Captain deftly manipulated the controls. The mighty Liberty shook like a leaf in a storm as she rose from the quagmire.
Bonnie gripped the arms of the command chair tightly. “As we get through the storm, transfer what’s left of the shields to aft.”
“Ma’am, that will leave us exposed to the Cardassians.”
“I know.” She had faith in the fact the warships wouldn't fire on the Liberty causing another war they could not win. If they wanted to fire, they would have done so by now and with members of their crew trapped in the shuttle, she hoped they wouldn’t risk the bloodshed. “Eta until we’re clear of the storm?” She asked as another conduit blew behind her causing the ship to rock violently to the left.
TBC
