Development Phase

Posted on Fri Apr 20, 2018 @ 12:15pm by Captain Maritza Soran & Lieutenant Alanna Wells

1,239 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Victory Conditions
Location: DS5 Main OPS
Timeline: MD06 1100

::ON::

The actions of First Lieutenant Blue had put Commander Janus' nose out of joint and that was no mistake. He had made it quite clear that DS5 Crew were to go nowhere near the Svikiri whilst he finished his weapon test. She had to satisfy herself with watching from OPS.

The Promethean class was targeting some of the planet debris out in the debris field that hung between the station and the edge of the new Solar System. It occurred to her that they still hadn't named the sun. They had named the planet. They should name the sun. She put it on her list of something to put out crew wide. See what they came up with. Technically naming rights went to those who first discovered or charted it, if it didn't have any indigenous cultures to name it. But she didn't thing having a solar body barge unexpectedly through a dimensional rift counted as discovery, so rights were up for grabs.

She realised she was letting her thoughts drift away from the weapons test. Understandable. It was quite the chilling display. Every few minutes a chunk of dead planet would just vanish. Sensors would pick up the energy surge of a weapons going hot, and what a surge it was. like all phaser bank charging at once, and then all that energy was focused on a single point. One second it would register a million metric tonnes of rock, and the next, nothing.

She turned over to the ops officers. "Anything interesting coming from the Cardassians?"

"Everything's encrypted, ma'am, but they're definitely paying attention. We're streaming everything to Intel, just in case they can crack it." Dell replied

Soran nodded. "Very Good. Are the readings going down to Doctor Wells?"

"Yes Ma'am."

Soran nodded and then drummed her fingers on the main ops council. There was nothing more to do but watch. "Claude, could you-" before she could finish, the turbolift door opened, and Admiral T'Vel stepped out.

"Admiral on the bridge," barked the Officer of the Watch, coming to attention as the Vulcan walked past him. The rest of the OPS crew, including Maritza, stood up.

"At ease," T'Vel replied, moving to Soran. "Good morning, commander."

"Good morning, Admiral. Apologies, but we weren't expecting you, I thought you were going to be onboard the Venture or even theSvikiri."

"I have been, but with my test crews otherwise engaged, I thought now would be a good time to see what progress your people have made on the other matter?"

Soran thought of the files discovered by Dr Wells. "We've managed to pull some material from their computer. We want to verify that its genuine and not a decoy before claiming victory."

The Vulcan woman expressed no feelings either way. "Very good. "And their security protocols?"

Maritza hesitated. "They've not been tested. But my Head of security is confident that when operational, they'll be stretched."

The view screen glowed with another shot from the promethean vessel, and the asteroid chunk it hit vanished. "I would like your crew to be part of the battle sim.

That caught Maritza by surprise. "Are you sure, Ma'am. After Liutenant Blue's actions?"

"It was not part of the intended plan, but I had no issue with it."

"Commander Janus-" Martiza began

"Commander Janus has invested a lot in this technology. I do not believe he is maintaining the required objectivity. " T'Vel replied. "Therefore I am happy for for your people to continue to take part. I would like your garrison vessel to be part of the test."

"They'll be ready Ma'am." Soran said quickly. She could imagine the marine would be champing at the bit to make his point again.

"But in deference to my junior officer, the Ararat will be assigned to the Svikiri's Squadron." finished T'Vel.

Ah. That would be different. Hard to poke at the ship when you were on its side. "Doesn't that defeat the purpose of our security testing, if they see us as ally, rather than enemy?"

"You still have to get on board, and the element of surprise will expose gaps better. No battle ever goes to plan, and a surprise tactic will make a good test. A foolish commander is one who relies too entirely on their armament."

Well that was true. They turned back to the screen, watching as the Svikiri obliterated another space rock. The science station bleeped, registering spikes in radiation and gravimetric disturbance.

"Commander," Brianthe said from science. "I'm getting some unusual readings." Each of the attacks from the Svikiri seemed to be increasing. Not that the attacks were stronger, but the micro black holes were lasting longer, the ripple effect widening. An asteroid near the one that was hit shimmered and collapsed, then exploded. The effect wasn't enough to cause alarm in and of itself, but the fact that it was bigger than the earlier explosions showed a level of instability that was enough to concern the science officer. Another relatively small chunk of rock spontaneously imploded. "Make that unusual readings and instability in the damage radius."

Maritza frowned, and the vulcan admiral raised an eyebrow. "Unstable damage? How unstable." The Svikiri wasn't that far out. "Potential danger to DS5?"

"I don't think so," Brianthe said. "To any rocks too close, yes. To a ship, only if it gets within the event horizon--if you want to call it that." She pulled up a diagram to give a visual example. "Each attack seems to build on the one before and destabilizes the space around the target. So, it is reasonable to assume that if this pattern continues, something will get sucked in that shouldn't, the resulting explosion will be too big, and we'll have a problem."

It was a fleet killer. A smaller, harder to hit ship, that could divide into three and provide its own fire support. And its superweapon could conceivably take out more than one ship at once. It was a level of destruction unheard of in Starfleet history.

Soran glanced at T'Vel, who didn't seem particularly alarmed. Was that typical Vulcan sang froid? Or did she already know?

"Continue to monitor, let me know if that analysis changes." Maritza told Brianthe. She wanted to add a whole bunch of instructions: like tell me how long before it will endanger DS5? Can you model number of shots before even engaging at distance is going to kill both Svikiri and any ship out there? Does this thing contravene any standing arms conventions? But didn't dare ask in front of a superior officer. She would have to have this conversation somewhere more private.

"Yes, ma'am," Brianthe said. "Do you think we should inform them of our readings? Or do they already know what they're doing?"

Martiza wasn't sure any more. Three days ago she would have been confident that Starfleet wouldn't have permitted this level of testing if there were issues that still needed fixing. Like an out of control area of effect. But you can't argue with facts.

She didn't want to say anything in front of Admiral T'Vel. "I'll get back to you on that." she replied quietly.

Whatever was going on with the Svikiri, it was getting stranger by the minute.
____
OFF

Commander Maritza Soran
Commanding OFficer
DS5

Ensign Brianthe Oaxaca
Botanist/Assistant Chief Science Officer
Deep Space Five

 

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