Discontinuity: Indefatigable
by chaos_eternus
"We need to buy time," Osiris mused, "but how?"
The Jaffa around her stayed respectfully and more then a little fearfully quiet, knowing better then to disturb their God when she was thinking.
"It would be better if they were distracted, but the other local groups seem to have noted how the enemies of the past now work together and seem to be wary of waking the beasts. Our agents work to separate them, but that will take time and may well fail. We need to distract them now…."
"Milady," Osiris shot her current First Prime a deathly glare, "there is a tactic beloved of the Tau'ri which might apply here…"
"One more day of loneliness…" Captain Tu'pel looked up at the dry comment, one eyebrow rising as he watched his human XO walk onto the Command Deck, the turbolift door closing with a mildly irritating wheeze behind her.
"Hardly," he noted, "we have seven ships scheduled to dock today."
"Almost a record," she noted, "any of them Starfleet?"
"Three," he stated, rising swiftly from his seat, "the Icarus, inbound for resupply, Grissom of the Corp of Engineers, doing a crew changeover before proceeding to Edonia, and the Apache, which is to be our new support ship."
"What happened to the Repulse? " the Commander noted as she took over the Command chair.
"Unknown, but I would surmise ongoing events have forced her to be diverted,"
"Probably true," grimacing, she tapped at the screens then sighed, "a Cheyenne class? Well it's better then nothing I…"
She broke of abruptly as the station rocked. It was slight, almost imperceptible, but to someone who had served aboard the massive if somewhat aging Starbase for six years, it was very definitely there.
Whipping her head around to face the ops console, she barked, "report!"
"Unknown, some sort of special anomaly," came the swift, startled reply, "computer is identifying it as a Hyperspace Portal but it's a type I've not come across before."
"Shields!" There was a voice screaming, Tu'pel would have been surprised and a little ashamed to realize it was his.
He didn't get the chance however.
"There were almost seven thousand people aboard that station," Picard noted hoarsely.
Ewing just nodded; his image pixalating for a moment as the ships computers struggled with the connection between the two disparate technologies, "it is not unexpected. The Goa'uld do like to destroy what they can not control and fear, the different drive system makes it very difficult for you to track them once they have struck and it damages Starfleet, forcing you to divert resources. It's almost logically, cruelly so."
"Still…"
"This is a race that has no difficulty with depopulating entire worlds," he replied, "an orbital station would appeal on some many levels as a valid target. Like it or not, you're vulnerable to this kind of raid using hyperspace drives."
"That we just learnt," Picard replied, "we need a defence against this."
"We have some ability to detect ships in hyperspace but it is not perfect. I can have my engineers talk to yours about modifying Starfleet sensors but that will mean both of us getting a look at the others sensors technologies."
He got a grimace in response, "I don't see that we have much choice."
The Indefatigable Captain nodded in response, "our best option would be to simply destroy Osiris's remaining ships, but therein lays the rub."
"Finding them. Then, the Rel'tec ." Picard didn't say any more, he didn't need too.
"Can your ships fire at warp?" Ewing replied after a few moments.
"Yes," this was considered for a moment, "if you are talking about firing upon Goa'uld ships at sub-light whilst a warp, effectively strafing them, its possible though tricky. You would need a good crew to do significant damage."
"What about beaming?"
"Crew or objects?"
"Both, either!" he noted with a grimace, "we can beam when STL but FTL… forget it. Dangerous and currently impractical."
"It's been done," Picard admitted, "beaming ship to ship whilst at warp requires matched or very nearly matched velocities. Beaming from a ship at warp to a ship that's not… if it's been done I've not heard of it. The closest would be dropping out of warp just long enough to beam then… I believe the Tau'ri venicular would be 'legging it'."
Ewing smiled at this, "quite… and depending on the reaction time of the target, you may well be able to get away with it."
"If you know where your target is and where to place the crew or 'object' you're beaming," he mused, "if your targets shields are down and you have an object capable of being beamed."
"Capable?"
"Anti-matter," Picard replied swiftly, "you lose containment whilst beaming…"
He got a wince in response to that, "it is a thought though. If we can catch the enemy off-guard, particularly that Ha'tak, maybe cobble together some more nukes."
" Intrepids carry Tri-cobalt devices," Picard mused, "as do several other of the newer classes and they can be beamed."
" Enterprise ? "
He shook his head, "I had ours exchanged for more Phase-plasma torpedoes."
"What I might suggest," Ewing shook his head, "is that an order goes out that shields are to go up the instant a hyperspace portal is detected."
"Agreed, but that might well be sticking a finger in the dyke. If it's the Rel'tec Osiris is using for her raids…"
"If its not, then it may well be enough to save some lives if not aboard the station or base itself, among the ships in the area that might get extra time to flee," he countered, " Apache may have caught the afterglow of the hyperspace portal on her sensors but that's not enough to tell us what ship class caused it. Doubly so with the interference caused by the destruction of Starbase 21."
"I'll make the suggestion certainly," Picard noted, "but our fundamental issue remains, finding the enemy."
"True," Ewing noted, "but even if we do find them, we have to be able to keep track of Osiris long enough to amass a strong enough assault force. The fact we you also have to consider internal defence against these raids doesn't help either."
"As always, the issue is not enough ships, not enough crews."
"Something we Tau'ri are all too familiar with," came the dry reply.