A Defensive Stance
Posted on Mon Jan 17th, 2011 @ 11:14am by Captain Elsie Halliwell & Lieutenant Cedric Shepherd
1,055 words; about a 5 minute read
Mission:
Looking for the Future in all the Wrong Places
Location: Bridge, Deck 1, USS Ranger
Timeline: Current
ON:
Captain Halliwell had had a tough day. She knew the moment she signed the orders to assume command of a starship that sleepless nights, tension headaches and stress would now be apart of her life for the duration. She sat in her ready room, a cooling teacup of amber liquid to her right hand side and a castle of data PaDDs surrounding her small frame like a fort. Sensor logs, intelligence reports, tactical analyses! The amount of information just never seemed to end.
Tapping her combadge, Elsie summoned her Chief of Security to her office for a more personal and human slant on the matter at hand.
"Yes, sir?" Shepherd said calmly as he entered the room. He was a big man--just a touch smaller physically than Drake, but where the Commander carried himself like a warrior, predatory instincts visibly active, the air about Shepherd was more stable. Safe. Comfortable.
"Mr. Shepherd," she began, offering the vacant chair across from her, "with so much information to absorb concerning this mission, I thought it best to elicit your own opinion on how best to proceed. The shield modifications are going to offer little protection against their Dominion weapon and, quite frankly, along with the other two captains, I'm concerned about my ship."
Shepherd nodded. "I agree that it's a concern." he sat back on the chair and got comfortable. "We can hope for the nebula to hamper their targeting, but clinging to hope isn't sound strategic thinking," he smiled slightly.
“I would never suggest that it is,†Halliwell replied, matching his disposition.
"Theoretically, we can avoid their power-dissipating weapon by adjusting our energy signature. But the QAR appear to have found a workaround to that trick, and here's where we have to start guessing. If that workaround involves manually scanning a target and adjusting the weapon to match the signature, I wonder if engineering could or should investigate several different adjustments and rotate them, maybe in a randomized sequence. At least that way our engines'll be a moving target," he shrugged.
Halliwell sighed, listening but silent. She paused for a moment, considered what her security specialist had just theorised and agreed. “The issue is,†she contended, shifting her weight in her chair to gain further comfort, “do we have enough information from the Archimedes’ attack to formulate a cast-iron defence? Altering and rotating our energy signature might work, I agree, and to tell you the truth the only option we have to pursue, but we’d only have the one chance to test the theory. With what’s at stake, we can’t afford to end up on the receiving end of that weapon.â€
Elsie smiled uncharacteristically wide and heaved her small frame back into the support of her office chair. “What about our shields? Surely they must offer some resistance to the effects.â€
"Some, certainly," Shepherd replied. "But we know it's not total protection against this kind of attack. We've only seen it once, but in conference one of my people wondered if the weapon actually might need shields to work. That is to say, the weapon's pulse relies on interaction with shields in order to drain a ship's power. It's purely theory," he held up a hand, "and I'm not suggesting we engage a hostile ship with our shields down, but it's a thought I've heard put forward."
Elsie’s featured narrowed into a concerned yet amenable expression that betrayed her instant dislike at the mere suggestion whilst tying to it the consideration that everything should be at least be attempted, if not tested. She drew in a breath, steadied her steely features and then said, “And what if our friends over on the QAR vessel decide to unload a torrent of torpedoes into the side of our hull? We have no way of ascertaining what other weaponry they posses, but it is an avenue to consider.â€
"Of course, sir," Shepherd nodded. "Another thought put forward to me is a shuttle screen. In essence, that would involve putting some or all of our shuttles out ahead of us to draw fire. Of course, if I were the QAR, I'd just torpedo shuttles and save the power-drainer for a real target, so I don't know that shuttles are going to help. At least not that way."
She raised an eyebrow – her left – and then asked, “You have an ulterior design for them?â€
"Ultimately," continued Shepherd with a sigh, "and unfortunately, what we've concluded in security is that dodging or blocking the hit probably isn't going to work. That leaves absorbing the blow, which is dicey, but about the only thing we can proactively prep."
“And how,†she continued, probing his theory, “does that involve the shuttles, Lieutenant?â€
"We're thinking we could use a shuttle, or a few," said Shepherd, "but decoupled from Ranger until we get hit. When we get hit and have our power drained, we can use the shuttles to jumpstart power recovery. We could even maglock shuttles to the deck above the impulse engines and manually connect them as needed. They'd be inside our shields, but not actually part of the ship's power matrix until after we'd been hit."
She paused; a loaded response. But a twinkle, something genuinely exciting, began to burn behind her eyes. She didn’t smile, however, the edges of her eyes pulled into a gleeful and optimistic reply. “Have you discussed the proposal with Engineering?â€
"No, sir," replied Shepherd. "It's the sort of seat-of-your-pants idea that no self-respecting engineer would entertain without a command prompt."
“Then I suggest that you begin to draw up a complete proposition for them and see if, indeed, it would actually work. But, I think that you may have something. Not wanting to count our chickens before they hatch, Lieutenant, but this is the first bit of promising news I have heard since we got into this mess.â€
"Thank you, sir," Shepherd nodded once, acknowledging the compliment. "I'll talk to Reynaldi first chance I get."
OFF:
Elsie Halliwell,
Commanding Officer, USS Ranger
AND
Cedric Shepherd,
Chief Security/Tactical Officer, USS Ranger
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