Star Trek: Chimera
The U.S.S. Chimera floated listlessly in space around Dugway IV, her power systems fluctuating and her crew desperate to control the precarious situation that was unfolding onboard. On the bridge, a young woman in a red command uniform was standing uneasily next to an empty captain's chair, her dark eyes shifting all around the chaos that had gripped the bridge crew. The man at the helm was struggling to keep the ship under control as power fluctuations fired thrusters randomly, making the hulk before them drift and spin from the center of the viewscreen, which was also intermittently flashing between images of open space and a dull bulkhead. The deckplates were rattling and tools rolled from consoles as the ship shuttered and shook. The air was filled with the zealous voices of the men and woman running from console to console, providing a constant roar in lieu of the standard computer alarm warning of their heightened status.
It was an ominous fate for a ship barely eight months out of the shipyard.
In a sea of blue and gold uniforms, the woman in red glanced to the man at the helm, the only other person wearing the same color. It was obvious they both had the same disposition about the status of their ship, though neither of them was as vocal as the others around them. As her counterpart continued to keep the ship oriented, the woman glanced over at a tall man pounding his fingers across a console, his eyes wild as his mind worked nearly as quickly as his mouth to bark orders at the others working around him.
She made no attempt to hide her disdain. "Commander?" she asked.
No response.
"Commander Blake, what's our status?" she asked again, this time raising her voice to try and pierce the flurry of engineering jargon and technical lingo being thrown about.
The man did not look up. "Working on it," he said gruffly, continuing to manipulate the data in front of him. Inwardly, he was distracted by her interruptions and wished for her to accept the beauty of the moment. They were both in their element. She was standing around trying to find something to throw an order at and he was staring into a technical console trying to resolve a problem.
It was as close to heaven as he could hope for.
"I suggest we abort. I don't think…" she began but was interrupted by him.
"It'll work. She's a little stubborn this morning, that's all," he claimed, which brought a frown on her face.
Lieutenant Commander Lyahhna Bestra was not satisfied with her assignment. Truthfully, she was deeply resentful of it. Many times she had envisioned what it would be like to command a starship or even serve as First Officer, yet her expectations were destroyed by her current assignment. The Chimera was not an officially commissioned starship, but rather an experimental test-bed for advanced Starfleet technology. She carried an 'X' designation and she did not have a captain, but rather was commanded by the man who was currently drawing the XO's ire.
Commander Donovan Blake was an engineer and showed no interest in commanding a starship. The Chimera was his toy. He oversaw her construction at Antares Shipyard, though her construction was as unorthodox as her commander. An amalgam of several unfinished construction projects, she was put together using sections of several other ships of the Akira, Olso and Zephyr classes, and she did not conform to any official class of ship. She also did not have the finish of a new starship, but rather a dull sheen from her untreated hull. Many of the crew referred to her as "the big, ugly Runabout" but Blake loved her like the wife he never had. Contrary to her appearance, she had some of the most advanced technology available to the Federation, to assess their capabilities and eventual integration into the future fleet. Sometimes, this occurred at the expense of some standard systems present on any other starship, such as a defensive shield system or phaser arrays.
Her most distinguishing feature was a pair of large phaser cannons roughly integrated to her dorsal hull, presenting a lethal profile to the otherwise strange ship. They were also the system that caused the most amount of irritation among the crew.
"No, no, no…shut it down, Ensign," Blake groaned suddenly, pounding his hand across the console as he watched the readings spiral out of control. A young Bolian ensign at another console nodded and quickly disengaged the current protocol, causing the two large cannons to power down and the readings to fall back into normal range. Hanging his head, Blake rubbed his eyes and cursed their luck. He was intentionally ignoring his Executive Officer.
"Commander?" Bestra asked, relieved the rattling floor had stopped making her feet numb.
The Commander winced, but stood straight and faced the woman, his face showing obvious annoyance. "She's just a little stubborn today. We need to realign the power converters and bypass some of the auxiliary systems to try again," he said, though seemed like he was talking more to himself than to her.
Bestra continued to frown. "This is the third time this week we've aborted a test. I believe they're still cleaning up Deck 12 from the last time. I'd say she's being more than just 'a little stubborn,'" she responded sharply.
"This isn't point and shoot," he growled back and began tapping notes into a pad from his console, deliberately keeping his eyes from her, "The problems are similar to when we were developing the Defiant. The cannons are routed through the warp core and if we don't regulate the power levels correctly…"
"You blow the ship up," she finished, recalling the many times he had tried to explain it to her. By now, his explanations had become simplified and condescending, which only made her despise him even more.
Blake sighed loudly and leaned on the console, giving her his full attention. "I realize how excited you are to be here spying on our testing so the Admirals' table has something to feed the Federation Council, but developing these systems isn't something that happens overnight. Some of the technology here isn't even from this time period, so unless Starfleet Command wants all of their shiny new ships blowing up as soon as they turn their lights on, they need to give us the time we need to get these systems mature," he snarled, unaware of the silence from the bridge crew around them.
Bestra was keenly aware of the crew watching their exchange and felt flushed, reaffirming her suspicions that he did not have qualifications to command a ship. "Commander, I suggest we continue this conversation in private," she hissed.
Blake sighed and hung his head again, wishing for the life of a simple engineer once more. While he had been overjoyed at getting his commission and the opportunity to head up the Chimera Project, he found many aspects of command a burden and would have been overjoyed to let her command the ship, if it had been a normal starship. "Ensign Proulx, make the necessary adjustments and let's try again in two hours," he called over to the Bolian officer, who excitedly nodded and began to use his console furiously. Blake heaved a glance over to Bestra and curled his pad through the air as he walked towards the captain's ready room, "Come on then. Let's go chat about Starfleet protocols," he sighed.
Bestra was appalled at his behavior but before she could object, a young officer in a blue uniform called after the commander in a bit of a panic, "Commander! We'd have to take the sensors offline to perform this bypass. The science department was already…"
"Whatever it takes to get the test ready, Ensign," Blake responded without even looking, and then disappeared from the bridge.
Ensign Lei Kami stood with her mouth open in mid-sentence. It was not the first time the science officers on the ship were put at a lower priority than the engineers and she was well aware it would not be the last. A common joke on the ship was the reason it did not have the finish of a new ship was that not enough gold paint had been requisitioned at the commander's request, for Blake had very little consideration for any of the crew that did not have the same color of uniform. While everyone respected his technical expertise, they all felt that it was Lieutenant Commander Bestra that made the ship work on a daily basis.
"Yes, sir," she whimpered and turned back to her console as she grumbled to herself, "Goodbye three hours of scanning the nebula. He didn't even want to hear about communications going down."
"Ensign, inform Tooele Station of our status and that we will be black on communications until the bypass is complete," Bestra called to her, obviously keen to the status of the ship and her bridge officers. Her tolerance for the lack of protocol was boiling up in her and she could barely imagine a more irresponsible commander than Blake. More than anything, she loathed the fact she was stuck there. "Lieutenant Reezon, you have the bridge," she called to the man at the helm, who nodded as if it were standard procedure aboard the unusual starship, and then she quickly stomped after the commander into the adjacent room.
The captain's chair remained empty.
For nearly two hours, nobody saw the two senior officers of the Chimera. The crew had become used to it and went about their business, getting the ship ready to try and fire the main cannons once more. The ship's already fragmented systems were spliced and rerouted to try and get the magic formula that would make the weapons come to life, leaving the decks littered with conduits and exposed panels that would have horrified any other crew aboard a starship. Sensors and communications were still offline, as were most other primary systems besides life support, gravity control and navigation. The Chimera was always in a state of flux, but no more than her commanding officers.
"Listen Bestra, had I used the last two hours to get this system working instead of listen to you groan about the fact you're stationed here, maybe I could have done both of us a favor and bought you your transfer out of Dugway," Blake sneered, leaning back heavily and staring at his XO in a very uninterested manner.
That only infuriated her more. "That's what I'm talking about, Commander! Your blatant disregard for conduct undermines your legitimacy as commanding officer. I'm sorry to say I've become accustomed to your abrasive nature, but you simply should not discuss things like that in front of the crew," she seethed at him, her palms planted firmly on the desk.
Blake sighed heavily and rubbed his eyes, far beyond tired of arguing with her. He could spend hours on end looking at schematics and fiddling with couplings, but mere minutes arguing with her exhausted him. Inwardly, he suspected there was a galactic joke in making her his Executive Officer. "Look, I don't think you're a bad officer. You do a good job keeping the ship running and like I told you the day you arrived, as long as you didn't try your Betazoid mind beam on me, I wouldn't hold that against you," he said, watching the utter outrage build at his mention of her heritage, which caused him to raise a hand at her, "Whatever squabble you have with Admiral Zane is your problem and I think you already know I had nothing to do with your duty assignment, but you have to realize that this ship is not a commissioned starship and doesn't run like the Enterprise."
"With all due respect, this ship doesn't run like a real Starfleet ship because of the shortcomings of her commander," she snarled back, though instantly realized she might have gone too far and felt regret well up in her.
Despite this, she did not back down.
Blake felt his neck burn and slowly stood up, leaning forward into her face and letting the indignation burn in his blue eyes. "I don't need to be lectured by a short-hemmed cadet who has never been more than ten minutes away from Spacedock. I was on the Saratoga at Wolf 359 and earned these pins, Lieutenant Commander," he growled at her with all of the indignation raging across his face.
Bestra felt intimidated by him, yet her stubborn side did not allow her to back away and she stared back at him with her dark eyes. Even with her impressive control, she felt overwhelmed by his emotions at mentioning Wolf 359 and she had always made it a point to never address it with him, but she had come to her wit's end with his dismissive command style and the way he let her handle all of the daily functions on the ship but never afforded her the respect that came with it. Her own emotions were boiling at the mention of a certain admiral that made it a point to suppress her career at the mercy of her Betazoid heritage, with the suspicion and persecution she had suffered because of it, but she fought to keep control over her emotions, as lashing out at him would prove that she did not have the command abilities she desperately believed she did and that the mistrust in her was somehow justified.
She struggled to live up to her conviction that a Betazoid could make a fine Starfleet officer, even if they were not a counselor or a doctor.
"Commander Blake?" a voice suddenly broke the tension between them and both of them seemed relieved.
"Go ahead, Lieutenant," he responded to the communicator.
"Ensign Proulx reports modifications are complete and Ensign Kami says communications and sensors are back online. We're ready to proceed," said the voice.
"We're on our way," Blake said and stood straight, pulling his uniform tight and gesturing tiredly to his XO, "Another of our wonderful discussions cut short. Let's go try again."
Bestra mirrored him and snorted lightly, then turned and exited the ready room followed closely by Blake. As they exited, the bridge was unusually quiet and seemed concerned, which caught the attention of Bestra even as Blake casually went over to the engineering console to check the systems. "Status, Lieutenant?" she asked as she slid her hand absentmindedly onto the armrest of the captain's chair.
"We're getting strange readings from Tooele Station," the man at the helm responded.
"What kind of strange readings?" she asked, glancing over at Ensign Kami at the sensor console.
"Difficult to say at this range, sir. We'd need to go closer," she answered.
That drew a dry glance from Blake, who obviously did not want to interrupt his test after reworking the systems. "It's probably nothing. It could be interference from the nebula," he said dismissively and dove into the status of the power systems on his console.
Bestra was not as convinced and looked back to Lieutenant Reezon at the helm. "Hail them," she ordered. The man nodded and addressed his console for a moment, but soon shook his head and winced.
"No response," he said.
"Try the Bonneville," she said, shooting Blake a much more concerned look. He was now also distracted from his console, but silent.
"I can't raise the Bonneville either, sir," Reezon said and the bridge became thick with tension.
Bestra felt her heartbeat increase and she crossed her arms with her hand clamped on her lips. Communications with the main research station did sporadically go out with the proximity to the Erda Nebula, but the security vessel attached to the system was always used as a relay when communications were compromised. The system was frighteningly silent and no one spoke for several moments.
"I'm sure it's just the nebula," Blake began and watched his XO turn in objection, but he was already diffusing her, "but let's go check on Tooele, Lieutenant. Let's be sure everything is okay."
For once, Bestra felt relieved by his orders and turned back to the screen, only to find that before the helmsman could execute that order, a massive dark warship was de-cloaking right in front of the Chimera. "Commander!" she cried, but it was the last sound of a peaceful bridge.
Time stood still as everyone tried to register the shock, but the warship was already spraying the test ship with a barrage of weapon's fire, tearing apart her dull hull and racking the ship with explosions and decompression. On the bridge, bodies were thrown everywhere and nearly every system went dark. Only a few seconds of attack crippled the ship and her crew and personnel struggled to register their reality, with Bestra clinging to the captain's chair and trying to focus. A thousand orders came to mind and horror filled her as she looked at the broken face of Lieutenant Reezon as he lay dead before her. The viewscreen flickered on and off with the image of a massive warship, one that she recognized from her files on the war. It was a Dominion Battle Cruiser and it was so deep in Federation space that she nearly believed it was an illusion, especially with the Dominion War over for several years. She could also distinctly remember it using a cloaking device, yet that was never in the intelligence reports. All she knew was its presence defied convention and she felt fear unlike anything she had felt before.
A thousand words filled her mind, but not one escaped her gasping lips. She only watched in terror as the ship opened fire on them once more.
Despite her expectations, the weapons from the battleship did little more than rattle Chimera lightly. Bestra was still clinging to the chair when she heard Blake yelling from behind his console. "Ablative Generators online and holding. We've only got about 30% power to primary systems, but we can probably get into the debris field before they overwhelm the armor. Bestra, take the helm," he yelled, almost too busy controlling the ship's systems to notice her frozen in place. When he did look, he was rightfully distressed, "Commander!"
She did not respond.
With his XO disabled, he snarled down to his console and continued to keep the defensive systems online, though he desperately needed someone to man the helm. His wish came true when Ensign Kami vaulted the debris and slid into the helm, furiously tapping into the system as if she knew the station all her life. "I have it, Commander," she cried confidently.
Blake smiled a bit and continued in his console. "Get us into the debris field, Ensign. With any luck, they won't be stupid enough to follow," he said.
"Aye, sir!" she responded and began to budge the listing ship, "Like steering a starbase around a nav buoy."
With fleeting agility, the Chimera burst from her position in the crosshairs of the battleship and made a run for the expanse of debris and target ships that lingered nearer to the nebula. No one had ever imagined that they would have to use the same derelict ships used as targets to hide from an invading warship, but the cover was well received. While the warship continued to fire upon the fleeing Chimera, the advanced armor protected her from any further damage and she disappeared into the cluster of snarled bulkheads and drifting hulls. Larger and slower, the battleship could not pursue her and came to a halt near the edge of the field, despite firing its weapons into the debris to try and clear a path.
For the moment, the Chimera was safe.
After penetrating burying itself in the debris and amidst the chaos on the ship, efforts were made to stabilize the damaged systems and injured crewmen were shuffled around the cluttered decks in an effort to help them. The ship's medical facilities were Spartan and never stocked to support anything more than the burns or bruises common with working with an engineering crew. Despite this, bodies of wounded crewmen were shuffled into the cluttered sickbay where critical wounds were treated with bandages and painkillers. The ship itself was equally tattered, though having a crew of engineers allowed her to be stabilized far quicker than her unfortunate complement.
For almost an hour as she drifted in the debris field, the Chimera licked her wounds and tried to grasp her bedlam caused by the attack stressed the capacity of the crew and minutes felt like hours, but even more so for what could barely be called the senior officers, who now sat solemnly in the staff room trying to report on the status of the ship. "We have 47 confirmed casualties, including Lieutenant Reezon, and we can expect more unless we can get to better medical facilities," Ensign Kami reported in a shaky voice, padding her bloody fingers across a pad and desperately trying to compose herself. While she had been designated as the ship's doctor, she had been as prepared for triage as the medical facilities were. Only a few emergency medical courses stood between her and the rest of the crew, so being taken out of her element of running scans and reviewing data had shaken her visibly, a fact not lost on Commander Blake.
"Do what you can, Lei," he said calmly, watching her struggle with her new responsibilities.
"Yes…yes, sir," she whispered and pressed the back of her wrist to her lips to hide her thrashing emotions.
Blake glanced over at Bestra as she sat in a trance. Since the attack, she had been frozen and barely responsive enough to sit in her seat, which was a real cause for concern to the commander, though his first real concern was the status of his ship. Looking to the other member of his improvised command staff, he felt noticeably more at ease asking him for the next status, "Ensign Proulx, how is the Chimera?"
The Bolian did not even look up from the pad he had spliced into the local console in order to have the same level of engineering access as any panel on the bridge. "Primary systems are back to 45%. Warp core is stabilized and communications and sensors have been brought back online. Ablative Generators are available and the main cannons are functional," he reported in a quick, animated voice.
Blake quirked a brow at the young man. "Looking for a fight, Ensign?"
Looking up from his pad, the Bolian appeared confused by the remark. "Sir?"
"The Chimera isn't a warship, Ensign. We have no real weapons and no shields. We aren't preparing to go fight that battleship," he replied and the young man seemed shaken.
"Yes, sir. I was merely reporting the status of the ship. I wasn't suggesting that we…" he began, but broke his own conversation as he looked over to Bestra for some kind of support.
Blake followed his eyes to the woman and pressed his lips, realizing he had to address her silence at some point, especially in light of the volatile situation. "What's the status of the enemy ship, Commander?" he asked, though the woman continued to stare forward blankly, as if she was not part of the conversation. The two ensigns at the table were visibly unnerved by her behavior and it caused Blake to be unusually animate as he slapped his hand down on the table. "Commander!"
Bestra flinched and pulled herself from her trance, stuttering her first words before shakily picking up a pad before her. "Uhm, the ship has re-cloaked," she said, unusually simple for a complex situation.
"What are your recommendations?" Blake pressed.
Bestra finally looked to him and her eyes were filled with doubt and fear. It was obvious she was greatly disturbed by their situation. "I don't know, sir," she replied simply once more.
"That's not good enough, Commander. I need options and opinions from my tactical officer in order to protect this ship from the enemy," Blake snarled at her.
Emotion overwhelmed the young woman. "Tactical officer? I'm not a tactical officer! This isn't what's supposed to happen!" she cried in despair.
"Stow that, Commander! You're a command officer on a Starfleet vessel, so start acting like one," Blake yelled and it was like a slap to her face. Everyone in the room was on edge and he could see the discord gripping the few responsible for navigating their emergency; something he could not let happen. "Ensign Kami is not a doctor or a pilot, but right now she's flying this ship and taking care of wounded. Ensign Proulx is no chief engineer, but he's keeping this ship together."
Bestra was still unstable. "And you're no captain," she said with a weak, poisonous voice.
Blake sat back in his chair amidst the audible gasp of the others. While he did not necessarily deny her that, there was no time for two battles and the fight against the battleship was arguably the nobler of the two. Instead, he was uncharacteristically gentle. "But right now I'm commanding this ship and I need a first officer I can count on," he said.
The words shook Bestra more than any attack from the warship and she felt something she had never experienced in her career as a Starfleet officer. Responsibility. Real responsibility. For years and years, she had lived from the Starfleet handbook and projected herself as the model officer, doing everything according to regulations and living the law of Officer's Conduct handbook. She had constantly felt victimized and persecuted because of her heritage and the actions of her superiors, but never trusted to do her best at what she had been trained for, and when her time came when she faced the reality of her career, she failed and acted like a scared child.
It was a horrific revelation.
Now she sat across from a man she had secretly admired for his actions and experiences at Wolf 359 and feeling the first glow of trust from any of her superiors. It had the effect of carving away her doubts and making even the most terrible situation not seem hopeless and, for the first time in her career, she understood what the word "Command" meant – taught to her by a man who had adamantly never put on the red uniform.
"I…I will do my best, sir," she said and her release broke the tension in the room. Blake let out a sigh of relief and nodded to her, but let the room relax a moment before getting to the matter a hand.
"Commander?" he continued.
"The enemy ship has re-cloaked, but I think we can assume it's still out there," she said as she looked over her pad.
"You don't think they're giving up on finding us?" Proulx asked.
Bestra shook her head and looked to Blake. "That ship could have destroyed us in the first volley. They were trying to disable us. It's possible they're trying to steal the technology on this ship," she said.
Kami was confused by that. "Why would the Jem'Hadar want to steal our technology? Isn't the war over?"
"I don't think there are Jem'Hadar on that ship, Ensign. I've never heard of them using a cloaking device or doing anything other than attacking their enemies head on. I suspect someone else is using that ship to hide their involvement in this attack," she responded, giving Blake a grave look.
"Romulans?" Proulx chipped in.
Bestra quirked her brow slightly and did not hide her disbelief in that suggestion. "One of the more likely candidates, but it could be anyone," she responded.
"Regardless of who is actually on that ship, we can't just hand over the Chimera. The security of the Federation is at stake," Blake said, though everyone knew it as doctrine. Not only would the enemy gain the extraordinary weapons and defensive systems installed on the ship, they would get access to the computer files that contained detailed Research and Development projects for the past twenty years. It would be a crippling blow to Starfleet, which still already struggling to rebuild its defenses after the war with the Dominion and incursions from the Borg.
"Can't we just warp out until we get close enough to signal Magna Station or Starbase 24?" Kami suggested.
Blake shook his head. "The warp core has been configured to power the cannons and other experiments. Our best speed right now is about warp 6," he said.
"That ship would catch us before we left the system," Bestra added, then shot a glance over to Blake, "We could fight our way out using the cannons."
"The cannons would theoretically poke holes through that battleship, there's no way to tell if they would even work. Plus, it takes time to spin up the necessary power to fire them and that ship would vaporize us before we got a shot off," he responded.
"What about the Ablative Generators? They didn't hit us before when we used them," Proulx suggested excitedly.
Once more, Blake shook his head. "The generators can't be active at the same time as the weapons. You either shoot or shield, but not both. Without shields, we don't have enough time to fire the cannons," he replied. The others were distraught by the lack of their options, which gave Blake the leeway he needed to suggest his true desire. "I think we can agree that Tooele Station and the Bonneville were the first targets as they entered the system, so we have no help there. It might be best to stay here until someone comes to look for us. We stand virtually no chance against that battleship and I don't think they'll risk entering the debris field after us."
Bestra was instantly inflamed. "We can't just sit around while that ship roams around Federation space! If they know about Dugway, it's reasonable to assume they know of other testing sites and will just move on to attack them. Who knows how many other people will die?"
"We also have many wounded who need more medical attention than I can give onboard, sir!" Kami chimed in loudly.
"We can't allow the enemy to get the ship. That is our top priority. With rations and careful power control, we can last here until Starfleet investigates why Tooele Station is not communicating. It may take a week, but we'll survive," he replied candidly.
"That's irresponsible and morally wrong! You cannot let these people die just to preserve your precious ship!" Bestra yelled, reminiscent of her previous behavior towards her commander. Blake was obviously torn by the decision, but felt confident he was doing what was right, even if his invigorated XO disagreed. That complacency infuriated Bestra even more and she struggled to remain calm in her pleas, "You want me to act like a first officer? The job of a first officer is to tell the captain when he's wrong and you, Commander, are wrong. I know this ship is important to you and that you've dedicated your life to developing technology to protect the Federation, but the Federation is its people! How can you sacrifice the people to save the technology?"
The words were particularly potent and Blake pressed his hands against the bridge of his nose. It was true he could not bear the thought of losing his precious ship, the ship he designed, constructed and lived for. His single purpose since his encounter with the Borg was to provide the means to protect the men and women of the Federation and he had given years of his life in solitude for it.
It would be difficult to lose her.
"Sir, staying here is not an option anyway," Kami said quietly, "The Erda Nebula emits radiation that makes this part of the system dangerous, especially to an unshielded ship. I predict we could only stay here a day at the most before the crew is irradiated beyond our capacity to save them."
Bestra looked to Blake with renewed vigor, as if the decision could not be any clearer, "We have to fight."
Commander Blake clenched his jaw and stared at her. In simulations, a commanding officer would deal with this situation with a clear head and obvious morals. Those dreaded courses were always designed to exemplify the standards of a Starfleet command officer, but none of them were emotional and drew the same doubt in Blake's heart as he felt on his broken ship. Darkly, he imagined watching the crew die slowly as they sat in the debris field so that Starfleet could later recover the ship and the technology, with a significant part of him feeling justified in that. It was even obvious that the lives of his crew was more important than a lifeless ship, but his heart denied that logic and held tightly to the idea of the irreverent survival of the Chimera.
The powerful eyes of his XO dispelled his emotional sacrifice and convinced him of their path. "How do we destroy that battleship?" he asked.
The question was met with silence. It was almost comical that a ship with some of the most powerful weapons in the fleet was so helpless to use them. No planner at Starfleet could have predicted that an enemy ship would appear in one of the most isolated and secure facilities in the Federation, so there was very little in the form of practical tactics to deal with the situation. Coupled with an atypical crew, the situation could very easily turn into a tragedy.
Trying times were often the birthing points of brilliance.
"We use the cannons," Proulx repeated, which drew a dry stare from the others. "Both of them, at the same time…continuously," he added with a bit of a grimace. It was the absurdity of the situation that made the suggestion seem more plausible the third time it was suggested, but Bestra remained dutiful in her assessment.
"But you said…" she began but was cut off by a calculating Blake.
"Wait, that might actually work. Both cannons may allow enough power to bleed off from the warp core to keep the feedback within limits," he pondered with an impressed look to his junior engineer.
Bestra appeared confused. "Then why haven't you tried this before?"
"Our chances of the warp core building up feedback and exploding drop by eighty percent, but the chances of the cannons themselves exploding rise by two-hundred percent," Proulx responded as he began typing furiously into his pad and running dozens of calculations.
Bestra showed her skepticism and Blake diffused it. "The cannons aren't designed to fire at the same time, or for more than a few seconds of burst. The energy is too much for them, but nothing short of that will take down that battleship before it can pepper us again," he explained, "It's the only way to be sure they don't fire back."
The young woman did not like atypical solutions, but theirs was an atypical situation. It was hard enough to believe the cannons would work in the first place, but doubling their chance of exploding did not make her feel at ease. "So that's it? You just point and shoot, after all?" she said with a smirk.
"No, sir, it's not that easy. We'll have to channel all of the ship's systems to control the discharge, including sensors and navigation. At best, we'll have thrusters to control the ship while firing and no computer fire-control," Proulx continued as simulations flashed before his eyes.
"Which means, we don't point at all. They have to come to us," Bestra said and dropped her head into her hands, "You want a cloaked battleship to fly right in front of us and wait while we hope our cannons destroy them before we blow ourselves up?"
"Engineers provide simple solutions to complex problems, Commander," Blake said and looked to Kami with a spark of confidence, "Ensign, where is the battleship now?"
"Approximately twelve kilometers from the edge of the debris field and holding position between us and the station," she replied, looking to her console.
Blake reveled in Bestra's shocked expression a moment and nodded, "So she's waiting for us to come out and play. There's one of your concerns resolved, Commander."
"How…" she asked incredulously.
"Ensign Kami noticed the battleship emits a faint signature through her cloak. Apparently, whoever is on that ship had a bit of trouble adapting the cloak. So at least we know where it is," Blake explained as Kami beamed with pride.
Bestra gave the young ensign a slight smile and nodded, then felt more and more confidence coming to her about their chances. "Okay, so we can track them, and more importantly is they don't know we can track them. How are you going to bait them long enough to be nice and still right in front of us?"
It was yet another issue and silence grew from the question. "The PODS, sir," Proulx suggested as he looked up from his pad.
"You mean the Commander's little experiment?" Bestra asked, "How are three little drones going to help our chances against a battleship?"
"If you're thinking what I'm thinking, Ensign, it might work. I'll have a lot of configuration to do. How soon to get everything else ready?" Blake said and stood up from his chair, obviously engaged by this silent plan enough to ignore his XO's confused expression.
"About eight hours, sir," Proulx responded, standing quickly as well.
"Do it in six," he responded, which shocked Bestra even more, but the young ensign was already headed out the door with his pad, which prompted Kami to stand as well. It was not unnoticed by Blake. "Do what you can to help the crew, Lei, but I'll need you at the helm in six hours, so try and get some rest."
"Aye, sir," she responded and disappeared out the door, leaving just Blake and Bestra in the room.
The commander slowly looked down to find a great smirk on her face, which he found odd and unusual, but somehow expected. He sat as she showed her irritation at suddenly being in the dark about the impossible plan to destroy the battleship. "I see you're finally ready to act the part, Captain. Care to fill me in?" she remarked, borrowing some of his terrible conduct and disregard for protocol.
The remark brought smile to his face. "You might make a good First Officer after all, Bestra. Proulx makes a good engineer and Kami makes a good pilot. We're all finding our true callings," he responded.
"Atmospheric shuttles," Bestra said.
The words made him lose pace, "What?"
"Kami flies atmospheric shuttles as a hobby," she replied, watching the blank look on his face with a smile, "It's in her file."
Blake nodded in understanding and took a good look at his XO, ultimately glad she had the disposition that had so often ground the skin from his back. "You know, today is the first day you've said 'sir' to me since the first day you arrived," he recalled, remembering the preceding months of her service with mixed feelings.
"Is it? Well, today is the first day since I arrived that you've called me 'Commander,' sir," she said with a soft smile that had not surfaced in many months. It was essential to the summary of their relationship until that point and the duty that lay before them. Clearer than any ambition or purpose, they knew that they had to rely on each other to succeed in their task of saving the ship and her crew, but also any innocent victims that might fall before this invader to their peace.
"Well then, Commander, let me tell you how we're going to beat that battleship."
Beyond the edge of the debris field, the Chimera crept along in a cautious manner, heading roughly towards the silent station and making very little effort to conceal herself. In the face of a lethal enemy, it seemed poor judgment to expose the ship, especially with a leak from one of her nacelles that was venting gases into space in a spectacular emerald trail. She made a prime target for her hunter and the Battle Cruiser de-cloaked, looming over the limping ship in a spectacular manner. The Chimera responded by fleeing nimbly from the beast as a rain of energy fire sprayed at her, though much to the surprise of the beast, most shots sailed clear of her and did little to disable the ship. A tractor beam also seemingly slipped from the armored hull of the ship as she maneuvered away, with phaser fire bursting from her and harmlessly impacting the shields of the battleship. The battleship found its prey to be far more evasive than before, though it continued to pursue and fire all of its terrible weapons.
The Chimera was darting and swerving to avoid the fire and was effectively untouched by the beast's fangs, though her own phasers stood no chance of damaging the massive battleship and her flight was merely postponing her fate, which caught up to her when one of volleys rocked the ship and made her shudder in pain, then caused the entire right nacelle, pylon and secondary hull disappear in a flash. The ship lingered in space like a horrific corpse, but with no atmosphere or explosions signaling her death throes.
A small drone was drifting from the rest of the ship, its hardened shell damaged and projector system no longer functional. The ruse had been discovered as the ship was nothing more than a projection from three small drones launched from the real Chimera, which lingered within the debris field just beyond the battleship, with her cannons bearing down on the huge ship.
On the bridge, the crew worked frantically to spool up the cannons and keep the power systems balanced while Ensign Kami desperately used only thrusters to bring the battleship into the static firing circle painted across the viewscreen. "Just a few more seconds!" she cried as the circle crept closer and closer to the target. Ensign Proulx was wildly adjusting the power systems as the cannons primed, calling power levels and variances while the ship rattled around them. From the tactical station, Commander Bestra was ready to fire the weapons, but eagerly awaiting the order from Blake, who was perched tensely in the captain's chair and watching the ship move closer to the fated circle.
"Commander?" she yelled.
"Power levels at eighty-seven percent, sir!" Proulx cried.
Blake continued to glare at the screen. "Get them in the circle, Ensign," he said, both to his pilot and himself. As the battleship had come short of expected target zone before knocking out one of the drones, it was taking more time before they could shoot, and the beast was now aware of the ruse and turning to bring its own weapons on the exposed prey.
"This is as fast as she'll turn, sir!" Kami yelled and tried all she could to coax the ship around.
"Power levels at ninety-eight percent!" Proulx screamed.
"It's now or never, Commander!" Bestra added, though her voice was nearly drawn out by the thunderous shaking of the charged ship.
Despite the fact the battle ship was only at the edge of the circle, Blake hollered the order to fire and Bestra pounded the key on her console. The port cannon erupted with energy only a moment before the starboard and both streams of highly destructive energy flew through open space and impacted the shields of the battleship. This only lasted for a moment before the beams tore through the shields and into the hull of the dark ship, tearing it open as the beams slowly sliced across the battleship and bore deep into its innards. The Chimera was rocked by internal explosions and power loss from holding the cannons alight, even after the starboard cannon exploded across the hull and reduced the attack in half, but the damage had already been done and the remaining cannon drove its way into the very heart of the battleship and ruptured its core. It fragmented in a spectacular explosion that swept any nearby debris away, including the poised Starfleet ship, sending her toppling into the debris field as her remaining cannon gave away.
On board the Chimera, panels and conduit were thrown about as systems burst all around and the viewscreen was filled with nothing but debris. The ship was no longer shaking and the throes subsided, leaving the crew to slowly come to terms with their survival and the sensory input of the destroyed ship. Ensign Kami forced herself upright at the helm and gained control over the ship while Ensign Proulx fought to placate the power systems. Commander Bestra was busy assessing the damage on the bridge and the ship before she noticed the commander's motionless form at the captain's chair, something that sent a shiver down her spine.
Cautiously approaching, she peeked around to find his eyes staring into the debris and a great sigh of relief escaping his lips, reciprocated by her own sigh at seeing him unhurt. "Commander, we did it," she said, almost breathlessly.
Commander Blake did not look to her, but tried emphatically to release the panicked grip he had on the armrest of the chair, stifling the emotions he felt at their survival. It was a strange thing that he experienced such a different feeling that Wolf 359, even though he had felt the same fear and urgency as that terrible day.
The sturdiness of the captain's chair had saved them from certain fatality.
"Status?" he whispered while the chaos subsided around him.
Bestra stifled a relieved laugh and wiped her face, sensationally overwhelmed by the feelings of the crew around them. "We made it, sir," she replied and put her hand across his arm.
Commander Blake slowly turned his eyes to her and suppressed the sensations of the ship and cries of the assessments. He pushed away his concerns for repairs and number of systems compromised to look at the face of his emotional first officer and slowly released the tension in his chest.
"Thank you, Commander. Thank you."