When Things Go Elliptical Part II

Posted on Mon Oct 9, 2017 @ 12:35am by Commodore Michael Aravan & Lieutenant JG Zander Devereaux & Lieutenant Marisa Cheshire & Lieutenant Martha Cusack & Lieutenant JG Jacob Hartley & Lieutenant JG Logan Hunter & Master Chief Petty Officer Thomas Barnes & Lieutenant Xylia Lischka

Mission: Strange Matter
Location: Battle Bridge
Timeline: MD 29 || 0930 Hours

Michael looked around the much smaller bridge of the 'battle bridge' that was deeper in the bowels of the Triumphant and activated the holographic external viewscreen. He saw the saucer section of the ship pulling away from the stardrive section, the impulse engines pushing the civilians and noncombatants to safety. He thought briefly of his wife and children and hoped they'd be safe and that he'd be able to meet up with them again soon, then put his mind to ordering the remaining crew of what to do.

He toyed with an idea, then decided to go for it. =^=Cheshire, launch the squadron and engage all of your deflectors to send out bursts of electrons=^= he ordered over the com. =^=It'll be seat of the pants flying, so send only your best.=^=

=^=We just did an emergency combat landing, it will be 10 minutes until we can deploy at full strength.=^= Marisa replied, still sitting in her cockpit on the taxiway. =^=I'll have the alert fighters deploy now though, hopefully that will buy some time, Cheshire out.=^=

=^=Alice to Alert squadron, prepare to deploy. Command would like you to come out with your deflector arrays configured to fire an electron beam at the dark matter objects. It will be five minutes before the rest of the wing can redeploy, you'll have to hold out until then. Launch when ready.=^=

Logan sat in his Valkyrie reviewing the telemetry data being uploaded to his navigational systems. His eyes went wide as he thought he was about to launch into the equivalent of a planetside hurricane in the void. He donned his face mask and muttered. "I think I am about to find out what that Chinese curse 'May you live in interesting times' truly means."

The catapult officer gave the Logan's Valkyrie the hand and arm signals to launch. He gave a nod and salute as he shoved the throttle to the firewall. G-Forces slammed him back hard into his seat as the fighter went from 0 to 500kph in under a half second. He cleared the hanger, blasting out into open space as the inertial dampners finally compensated for the incredible acceleration. His Valkyrie quickly formed up with other launched craft and vectored towards their dark matter targets.

Logan fought the impulse to look over his shoulder at his back seater Ensign Devon Windsor. "Kamikaze, Zorro. Charge up the deflector systems and prepare to initiate the electron pulse on my mark. "Four, three, two, one, Mark!" The electron pulse emitted from the deflector array as Logan fought to stabalize their flight path against the gravametric shearing forces attempting to shatter his craft into oblivion.

"Master Chief, configure the deflector array to emit electrons at the ellipse while we help the fighters."

"Aye, sir," Tom answered. His fingers set to work, beginning to retune the deflector from a repulsor field to a electron cannon. He did his best to angle the dish to send a five-meter wide electron pulse. "Commodore," he said, "the electron pulse is engaged, but I'm seeing a quicker drain on our available power."

The electron cannon's pulse leapt the distance between the ship and the dark matter asteroid and the sensors went wild with the bursts of electromagnetic radiation that was being released from it, but a definite effect was showing as parts of it began to break off the outer edges.

In turn, the graviton ellipse seemed to speed up as well as if eager to consume the radiation coming from the dark matter asteroid. The sensors spiked before the computer issued a warning on the levels.

"Keep it up, Master Chief," Michael said as he tapped his combadge again. =^=Engineering, we need more power.=^=

=^=Keep your pips on, Commodore,=^= a growly male voice responded. =^=You want everything powered down, then powered back up again. Make up my mind! The ChEng buggered off somewhere and Gefel is on the saucer section. More power coming in thirty seconds.=^=

Michael made a note to find out who was in Engineering, but he couldn't take the time to admonish the person now. He watched the readouts on the master display as the power began to climb again, but each gain seemed to take an eternity.

"Lieutenant Cusack, target full phasers and quantum torpedoes on the asteroid, but avoid the fighters," the Commodore ordered.

Martha powered up the phasers and torpedo launchers. With the phasers charged to maximum and torpedo bays fully loaded she got a lock on the asteroid. It wasn't exactly a target which was hard to miss - but she knew the resultant debris could still do some serious damage.

"Target locked Commodore" Martha reported.

"Lieutenant Lischka, make sure that all stations are reporting. Lieutenant Hartley, get any information you can pull from the database on graviton ellipses. Helm, keep us steady and away from the flight paths of the fighters and away from the ellipse."

Xylia nodded her head once. "All stations report."

Logan was spending most of his time trying to compensate for gravimetric shearing forces while his TSO continued modulating the electron pulses towards the dark matter asteroid. The other alert fighters deployed were undergoing the same stresses as they sent electron pulses as well.

Tag everyone

"Not exactly my area of expertise, but according to the records we have...it's a stable pocket of normal space which is being moved by a surrounding elliptical gravimetric distortion perimeter which measures millions of terajoules of subspace energy. Apparently they travel through subspace." Jacob replied, with a frown. "Apparently they only come into normal space when they pass near anything that emits electromagnetic energy, something we do emit, as do Dark Matter asteroids. Very rare though, and the only ship to survive an encounter with one is the USS Voyager" Jacob replied, as he began to access the logs that he could.

He then smiled briefly. "According to Voyager, if we cut down power and reverse the polarity of the deflector shields, it should stop the anomaly from being attracted to the ship. Turns out that's a Borg solution, but one of Voyager's crew, Seven of Nine, was able to share it with them. After a few hours, it should vanish back into subspace."

"We already tried that, Hartley," Michael said. "Decrypt the Romulan database and see what you can find. You're back on duty."

"Understood sir. I'll head to the Intel Office and be back as quick as I can." He said.

The helmsman, a Bolian female brought the ship through a series of tight turns and maneuvers but didn't really know what to be dodging since radiation couldn't be dodged, then she noticed something. "Sir, the ellipse seems to be veering off towards the saucer section!"

"Open a channel to the saucer section," Michael ordered. When the science officer confirmed it, he spoke again. "Commander Weisz, the graviton ellipse is changing course for the saucer section. We're working on the dark matter asteroid, but the effects are minimal and they seem to be attracted to the ellipse, too. Evade until we can catch up to you."

"We are well aware of our present predicament, Commodore," Maddy stated on screen.

"Keep me informed," Michael said.

With the channel still open to the Commodore, Maddy spoke. "Commodore... we have just beamed the probe into space. The ellipse has altered its course toward it."

"If it's what had to be done, it's what had to be done," Michael said. "I hope that Medical and Science were able to learn something from it."

"That remains to be seen, but considering what could have happened had the probe not been beamed out, I'd say the right call was made," the Commander said.

"Prepare to rejoin the stardrive section," Michael ordered before he looked at the Master Chief.

"What's the status of the asteroid, Master Chief?" he asked.

"I don't believe it," Tom muttered, watching the sensors. "It's veering off and heading straight for the ellipse."

"Thank you, Chief," Michael said. "Helm, take up on an intercept course for the saucer section. Lieutenant Cusack, keep the weapons hot."

"Aye, Sir." The Vulcan at the helm brought the stardrive section around and headed towards the asteroid field at a quarter impulse.

Martha nodded and ensured the weapons were still fully charged before responding.

"Weapons standing by Commodore" Martha responded.

=^=Mother Goose to Cheshire. Keep the fighters clear and check the area around the asteroid belt for unwanted ships=^= Michael ordered.

=^=Roger that Mother Goose=^= Marisa replied, her fight only just having been lowered back to the launch deck. =^=All fighters, Alice. Maintain 10 kilometers from the Triumphant and the saucer section. Advise status.=^=

Logan breathed a sigh of relief when the order came to pull back and form up for a BARCAP outside the gravity well. He pulled into his assigned position and activated his communications system. =^=Alice, Zorro. In position and awaiting further orders.=^=

=^=Zorro, Pixie. I'll pass on the message.=^= Marisa's TSO said over the coms.

He didn't have to wait too long after that. =^=Alert Fighters, Alice. You'll be taking over patrol duties. I'll be uploading routes to your navi-comps in a few minutes, but until then flight leads have discretion. We've got a few boulders out there causing blind spots so start covering them.=^=

"Commodore, as soon as you're ready, we can begin rejoining the two sections." Commander Weize responded on screen.

"We're on the way, Commander," Michael responded.

"Power levels are normalizing," Tom reported, checking his console. "And the docking latches control board shows green. We should be able to reconnect without issue."

"Impulse engines are are full power," Devereaux reported.

TBC