SD 241507.15: Joint Log : Chief Tactical Officer & Chief Helm
Posted on Sat Aug 15th, 2015 @ 9:17pm by Lieutenant Commander Akira-Ri Sato & Ensign Elanawen Valenar & Lieutenant JG Daniel Holland
2,137 words; about a 11 minute read
Mission: Midnight on the Firing Line
====
"Lieutenant Sato," Holland said approaching the Chief Tactical Officer as they left the briefing, "Ma'am, I'd like to get together with you to go over the sensor data as well when I get it from Science. I can spot navigational hazards and probably find some cool places to spring a few manoeuvring surprise on the Klingons, but I'm no tactical officer. Your advice and input would be invaluable when it comes to spotting places the Klingons may decide to jump us from or locations we can turn the tables."
Akira stopped and turned towards the chief helm officer as he spoke. She hadn’t spent any time getting acquainted with any of the crew on the Endeavour since she had boarded at Deep Space Five, but she had figured that she would have quite a bit of time to do that.
“Actually, I was going to head down to stellar cartography myself to take a look at the star system. A piece of advice my tactics instructor at the Academy always gave me was to know as much about the battlefield as possible and this is the best time to do it,” Akira said.
"That is a brilliant idea," Holland said with a smile, "Would you mind if I joined you, ma'am? Perhaps we can ask somebody from Science to join us as well so they can plug in the sensor data?"
“There should be someone from Science already in Stellar Cartography, since it’s normally a manned post on exploration cruisers,” Akira said as she stepped towards the turbo-lift. Pressing the call button, she waited until the doors opened, then stepped inside and waited for Holland to join her before she ordered the computer to direct the turbo-lift to Deck Eight. The trip took barely ten minutes before they walked into Stellar Cartography. A young, purple haired woman was sitting at the control console as Akira and Holland stepped through the doors.
Holland had not had much time to explore the Endeavour and this was his first time in Stellar Cartography and he tried hard not to look like a kid in a toy store. He settled for having a silly grin on his face as they approached the Science officer on duty.
“Oh! Excuse me,” Elanawen exclaimed as she noticed the two officers standing beside her. Standing up, she smiled.
“What can I do to help you?” she asked.
"Plenty, we hope," Holland said with a smile as he extended a hand, "We haven't met. I'm Daniel Holland."
“Elanawen Valenar,” Elanawen said as she quickly shook the Lieutenant’s hand. She hadn’t met him before, but since she had spent most of her time in the science labs and the lounge when she wasn’t in her quarters studying, she hadn’t met most of the crew. Since he was the junior of the two officers, she raised an eyebrow as she glanced towards Lieutenant Sato.
“So, what brings you guys down here?” she asked, addressing both officers as she spoke.
Holland glanced at Lieutenant Sato to check if she would take the lead and when she didn't he turned back to the science officer, "We're headed back to Lambda Hydraea and the CO mentioned that the last time the ship was there we took some detailed sensor scans of the system. We'd like to use Stellar Cartography to analyse those records and see if there is anything we can use to perhaps predict enemy actions or create advantages for the Endeavour if we are called to fight. Do you think you can help us get set up?"
“Absolutely!” Elanawen said in a cheery manner as she turned back towards the control console. Tapping in a series of commands, she brought up the latest sensor data on the specific system. Due to the jamming, the live uplink from the Federation stellar cartography network was unavailable, but the sensor data was fresh enough that very little would have changed. Activating the main screen, Elanawen brought up the data and engaged the three dimensional view.
"Coool," Holland said and grinned at the science officer, "I get to the fly the big starships, but you guys get the coolest toys."
“Well, the Endeavour is an exploration cruiser, so it’s only understandable that the science department would get some of the better toys,” Elanawen said with a smile.
Akira stepped forward and took a look at the image. There wasn’t much that could be used for a tactical advantage that would give the Endeavour a clear edge in any form of battle. She had been afraid of that, although there were a few things she noticed that could be used.
“It looks like the inner system is open space and a few planetoids, but the outer system has several gas giants and an asteroid field,” Akira said thoughtfully as she stared at the screen.
"Agreed, ma'am," Holland said with a nod as the Tactical officer called his attention back to their primary purpose, "We don't have cloaking technology like the klingons, so that limits what we can do to hide. Perhaps our focus should be on making it difficult for them to use their cloak effectively?" He pointed out a gas giant with multi-layered rings, "If they're following us, we could drop out of warp close to the rings of that gas giant." He glanced at the science officer, "What do you think, Miss Valenar? Even a cloaked ship would leave signs if it came close to those rings, wouldn't it?"
“The basic function of a cloaking device is that it deflects light around the ship, causing it to appear invisible. In open space, there’s nothing to give the position of a cloaked ship away unless you know the frequency of the cloaking field and can scan for that spectrum, but in an atmosphere or the rings of a planet, you can scan for disruptions in the normal patterns of movement and triangulate a cloaked ship’s position,” Elanawen said thoughtfully as she tapped a finger to her lips. After a moment, she smiled.
“You could also try to get them to fly through the rings. The sensors would detect the shimmer as the dust particles in the rings interfered with the cloak,” she added.
"Perhaps," Holland said thoughtfully, "If I were them though, I wouldn't come near it. Yes, they risk losing sensor lock, but those rings aren't nearly thick enough for us to evade them. They could just wait until we come out, which we'd have to at some point. They may even be able to track us moving through it. Maybe not as smart an option as I'd thought." He shook his head and, "Can we get a better look at that asteroid field?"
“Sure,” Elanawen said as she tapped in another command. The screen shifted and zoomed in closer to show a close up view of the asteroid field. It wasn’t as dense as most usually were, there were several large asteroids and countless small ones, but there weren’t any large enough to have their own gravity fields.
“Could you maneuver the Endeavour through the field without difficulty?” Akira asked Holland as she studied the image carefully.
"Certainly," Holland said as he studied the asteroid belt with disappointment, "But I was really hoping for some significant belt objects that we could use to hide behind. We have to break line of sight somehow or we'll never gain any advantage. Maybe we could lure them into the asteroid field after us. It is pretty dense, so they'd have to follow us," Holland shrugged, "They can manoeuvre as well as we can though, so I'm not sure getting them to follow will achieve much."
“Just as a suggestion, you could also think about using the atmosphere of the gas giants. According to our records, all three are either Class J or Class S. I’m not sure how long the Endeavour could remain in the atmosphere, or how far into the gravity well you could go, but I’m sure that it could be done,” Elanawen suggested.
"Perhaps," Holland said looking at the stats of the gas giants, "I'll be honest, unless the enemy ships are significantly larger than we are, I'd hate to be playing 'Hide-and-seek' inside the atmosphere of those monsters."
“The Klingons may not be using just Bird of Prey attack ships, and if that’s the case we’ll have the advantage in either the asteroid field or the gas giants. A Vor’cha, Negh’var, or any of the D series doesn’t have much in the way of maneuverability, but they can outgun us. Birds of Prey aren’t a major concern, unless we’re facing forty of them at the same time, and even then I wouldn’t be too worried,” Akira said.
"The primary issue is how to make them fight when we choose rather than when they choose," Holland said grinning at the Chief Tactical officer's bravado. He liked her fighting spirit and if they ever did go into battle, he felt a whole lot better knowing she's be handling the guns while he handled the ship. "Maybe we can lure them into the asteroid field and then disrupt it somehow? I'm willing to bet we can catch them by surprise, maybe even take out one or some of them."
“We have sixty quantum torpedoes on board the Endeavour. We can use them to blow up an asteroid when the Klingons get close. It’s an old tactic, but still effective when used properly. The only trick is timing. We have to be at a safe distance so the blast doesn’t damage us but close enough to launch the torpedoes so that the Klingons don’t have time to avoid the blast,” Akira said as she thought over any number of ways to use the asteroid field to their advantage.
"If they follow us in under cloak, we have them right where we want them," Holland said with a nod, "If they don't, the disruption of the asteroid field will at least allow us to break contact, maybe turn the tables. Looking at the composition of those asteroids, mostly metal and ice, significant radiation readings, if we get things moving and melting it will definitely mess with their sensors, targeting systems and even perhaps their cloaks."
“Yes, but it could also scramble our sensors as well,” Akira said as she stared at the composition of the asteroids. Some of the radiation readings were higher than she would like, but the readings were still within the standard allowable limits.
“I can set the sensors to automatically adjust for any sudden changes due to explosions or radiation surges. The would be a slight time lag as the computer adjusted to the sudden change, but it should be more than twenty seconds at most,” Elanawen said as she studied the readout on the computer screen.
"If we take them by surprise, that should allow us to shoot first, at the very least," Holland nodded and glanced at the Chief Tactical Officer, "Even if things don't go our way, we'll have the advantage to run or hide, depending on the tactical situation. This plan gives us a lot of options." Holland allowed himself a smile and asked, "What do you think, ma'am? Is this starting to shape into something that resembles a battle plan we can take to the Captain?"
“It’s definitely a better plan than I had originally thought we would be able to put together,” Akira said with a smile. Indeed, the solar system had more and better options than she had at first thought possible. And there were countless possibilities that even her and Holland hadn’t thought of so far.
“Lieutenant, would you be willing to present this to the Commander?” she asked.
"I can do that, ma'am," Holland replied with a nod, "As long as you are present as well. I'm sure the CO has questions and I'm not really qualified to advise him on anything beyond navigational issues."
“Well, let’s go hunt down the Commanding Officer, then,” Akira said with a smile.
“Miss Valenar, thank you for your assistance,” Akira said, offering the young provisional Ensign a thankful nod of her head.
"Indeed, Ensign," Holland added with a smile, "I doubt it would have gone as well or as quickly without your assistance."
“You’re welcome. If there’s anything else I can do to help, just let me know,” Elanawen said with a smile.
"Count on it," Holland assured her with a wink as he turned to follow Lieutenant Sato to the exit
Lieutenant Akira-Ri Sato
Chief of Security and Tactical
&
Lieutenant J.G. Daniel Holland
Chief Helm Officer
&
Acting Ensign Elanawen Valenar (N.P.C.)
RSS Feed