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"The Only Option"
(Previous Post: "The Bad News")
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Setting: USS BASTET, Bridge
Stardate: 32306.0815
Captain Iverson stared at the image displayed on the main view screen. The second cruiser of the race known as the Masters appearing as lifeless as the first, the last of the cast-out bodies of the race of giants having vanished through the dimensional vortex from which the ship had emerged earlier. The Lokustaar were ruthless and meticulous, there was no denying this, but what was more terrifying was the fact that they were clearly looking to take control of the means to travel as they wished through the countless dimensions of the multi-verse.
The situation was bad in countless way. Selene could only guess that their first attempt to secure a working Dimensional-Drive forced them to attack that second ship to bring it here where it could be emptied of its crew and studied for its technology. Learning from their previous mistake meant that the race of walking shadows would have much greater odds to achieving their objective this time around. Should they fail, the Lokustaar would not have far to go to try again, this time setting their sights on the USS BASTET.
As long as the Lokustaar were busy with their current affairs, the powered-down Federation vessel would remain safe, but it was foolish for anyone to believe that this situation would last forcing the crew into a figurative corner that they needed to escape from as quickly as possible.
"Captain," Commander Valentine said as she stood next to the Commanding Officer. "We need to get out of here. There is no telling how long the Lokustaar will take to do whatever it is they are doing out there. Once they are done, the odds of them noticing us here will only increase. We need to take the initiative and leave while we can."
"As much as I agree with Commander Valentine, as the Chief Science Officer I feel the need to point something out to you," Lieutenant Mitshiba added as she joined the unofficial exchange of opinion. "When we were in the past and witnessed the battle in orbit of CAIT, sensors were able to pick up something disturbing about the ships that we believe belonged to the Lokustaar. A quick review of the data showed that many of these shadow ships were able to vanish and reappear hinting that they possess some sort of cloaking technology."
"So how ever bad we think this situation may be, you are saying that it could be worse?" Counsellor Lopez let out.
"Counsellor!" Sarena snapped, having spun on her heels to glares at the woman. "You three should not be on the bridge at this time. We appreciate the information you have brought to our attention, but now the rest is up to us. Please take your patient back to Sickbay."
"With all due respect *Commander*," Doctor Bruxa fired back. It was easy to see that the friction between the Chief Medical officer and First officer had only increased since that first head-to-head confrontation about how to address the condition of the rescued Yxiddi. "Adriana and I are members of the senior staff and as such our opinion needs to be heard."
"Doctor," Selene signed. This was neither the time nor place for such a discussion. "As much as I value all of your input, this situation is not like that of an away mission. We are faced with a dangerous and potentially critical situation for not only ourselves but the whole of the Federation. Imagine what we would have to deal with if the Lokustaar gained the ability to travel to our dimension as they pleased. I am by no means saying that you do not have a voice in the matter, but right now the BASTET is in need of having its Chief Medical Officer and Counsellor in Sickbay in preparation for what may come to pass."
"The Captain is right Satella," Adriana whispered to her friend. "This is a tactical situation, one that I strongly doubt that either one of us has any real contribution to offer in. We did our part, now we have to let them do theirs."
Had it been anyone else, Doctor Bruxa might have lashed out, but Counsellor Lopez had proven to be a good friend on more than one occasion and Satella had long ago learned to respect the opinion and perspective of the woman whom had confined in her the secret of the visions of her twin sister.
"Fine," Satella huffed. "You know where we will be when you need us."
The Captain and First Officer watched as the Chief Medical officer, Coulsellor and their Yxidii patient left the bridge to board the turbolift, vanishing behind the closing doors. "Commander," Selene began after turning her attention back onto Sarena. "Personnel issues are your responsibilities and I will not stick my nose into that dossier unless I absolutely have to, but may I suggest that you try to smooth things over with our Doctor?"
"Sorry Captain," Sarena nodded. "I will speak with her privately, that is as soon as we find a way out of this predicament we are currently in."
"I might have a solution," Commander Janeel said, having waited for the right opportunity to jump into the conversation.
"Go ahead Commander," Captain Iverson said, inviting the woman to speak her mind.
"We cannot afford to remain on the defensive," Janeel quickly explained. "The more time elapses, the more we find ourselves at a disadvantage. Even if there are cloaked Lokustaar vessels around us, they are likely all preoccupied with whatever is happening on board that second cruiser. We need to act and make sure that we can safely escape this dimension and return to our own to report our findings."
"Sounds like you have more than a simple suggestion in mind Commander," Sarena said, looking at the Missions Specialist and Intelligence Liaison Officer in a quizzical manner.
"I do," Janeel confirmed handing over a PADD to the Captain.
The next several seconds passed in complete silence as Selene read the details of the suggested course of action handed over by Janeel. "You are not holding back any punches," the Captain noted, handing over the PADD to her First Officer so that she too could review the plan offered by the Intel Officer.
"That would leave us completely unable to defend ourselves," Sarena quickly pointed out, that being the one flaw in the suggested plan she could not ignore.
"I realize this, but the odds of our being able to successfully leave this dimension while at the same time insuring that the Lokustaar fail in their current attempts to secure a Dimensional-Drive are at their calculated best," Janeel stated. "There is no sure win scenario here Captain," the Intel Officer continued, looking directly at Iverson. "This plan does have risks; as any other would, but at least this one gives us the greatest possibility of achieve all of the objectives that we should be aiming for."
"I agree," Captain Iverson said, knowing that time was against them and a decision needed to be made right away. "How long go get everything in place?"
"With the help of the rest of the senior officers, we should be ready in 15 minutes."
"Captain," Sarena interjected. "Are you certain of this? A single mistake and we would be literally handing both the Dimensional and Temporal drives to the Lokustaar."
"There is one additional thing that I would like for you to be responsible for in addition to what Commander Janeel has suggested," the Captain said. "I believe that this will address your concerns in regards to insuring that the technology on board the BASTET remains out of the hands of the Lokustaar should this plan fail."
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Setting: USS BASTET, Sickbay
Stardate: 32306.0830
"The Captain wants us to inoculate the entire crew in less than 10 minutes?" Doctor Bruxa growled, reading as many hypospray dosages as she could with the help of Counsellor Lopez.
"Well, you did want to be more involved in whatever they were planning," Adriana dryly chuckled.
"This is not what I had in mind," Satella huffed as she closed the carrying case to hand it over to one of the waiting nurses. "This one is for Main Engineering. The next one will be for the Bridge. Adriana, can you take care of that one? I still need to make sure that all of the off-duty personnel are inoculated and time is running out."
"I will take care of the Bridge, no worries," the Counsellor reassured, waiting for the dosages to be readied for her to take up.
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Setting: USS BASTET, Bridge
Stardate: 32306.0835
"Bridge to Transporter Room 3, I am unable to get any sort of transporter lock from your system," Janeel announced, visibly upset. "I need you to run a full diagnostic; we need you to be operational in 4 minutes."
"Sounds like you are having a few problems," Adriana said as she pulled an inoculation dosage out and inserted it into the hypospray in her hand before pressing it against the neck of the Intelligence Liaison Officer.
"Trying to link every transporter system together, including the emergency and cargo ones is proving to be a little more time demanding than I had expected," Janeel admitted. "Still, we will have everything ready in time."
"I truly hope so Commander," Captain Iverson chimed in as the Counsellor approached with another inoculation shot ready to be injected, this time in the Commanding Officer herself. "Are we sure that this will be sufficient?" Selene asked.
"Satella did all of the calculations and prepared all of the dosage herself," Adriana replied. "She did not want to take any chances with that aspect of the plan. One thing she did point out time and time again though was that this inoculation will only work if we are not exposed for too long."
"No worries about that Counsellor," the Captain offered. "If we someone end up being exposed for longer than planned, the crew not being properly protected will be the least of our concerns."
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Setting: USS BASTET, Main Engineering
Stardate: 32306.0838
"All remaining available power has been diverted to the Dimensional-Drive," Lieutenant Mitshiba reported, the Chief Science Officer and First Officer having both come down to the Engineering department to take care of the energy needs for their plan."
"I still would like to get *some* power to the shields," Sarena noted with a hint of nervousness.
"If it was only a question of using every transporter on board at the same time, I am sure that we would be able to divert auxiliary power to the shields, but that power is going to be required by the Dimensional-drive, and even then we are going to have to cut all of the auxiliary systems and even some of the primary ones to insure that we have enough power to make it all happen."
"That is why you both need to be inoculated," the nurse stated as she pressed the hypospray against the neck of the First Officer before reloading and moving to do the same to the Chief Science Officer.
"Main Engineering to Bridge. Valentine here, we have everything ready and will be diverting all power from auxiliary systems in 30 seconds," the First Officer announced.
=/\= Perfect. Be ready to trigger plan B on my command. =/\=
"Understood," Sarena acknowledged drawing a quizzical glared from Misaki.
"Plan B?"
"We cannot allow the BASTET and all of its technology to fall into the hands of the Lokustaar should Plan A fail," Sarena vaguely explained, shooting a quick glance in the direction f the warp core. It did not require a genius to understand what this 'Plan B' was all about. If the ship failed to return to its own dimension, this one would become the final resting place of the crew, this after the warp core of the BASTET would be send into a catastrophic manual overload.
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Setting: USS BASTET, Bridge
Stardate: 32306.0840
Captain Iverson sat in her chair, contemplating the last seconds before they initiated this mad plan to see not only the BASTET leave this dimension but to do so in a way that would set back the Lokustaar in their efforts to secure a Dimensional-Drive.
"Commander Valentine?"
=/\= We are ready down here Captain. =/\=
"Helm, move us to a safe distance away from the cruiser. Stand-by to engage all transporters."
"Sensors are not showing any signs of activity," Janeel reported. "At least not yet. We will be at a safe distance in 30 seconds."
"A great many things can happen in 30 seconds," Selene quietly noted, her experience in such matters supporting the claim made countless times.
"CAPTAIN!" The Intelligence Liaison Officer exclaimed. "Lokustaar ship de-cloaking on the other side of the second cruiser and moving in to intercept."
"No going back now," the Captain said. "Engage all port-side transporters, hopefully this will give us enough time to get far enough away from the first cruiser."
"Engaging port-side transporters!" Janeel said before the lights throughout the bridge, as well as through the rest of the ship, dimmed to show the extent of the power drain.
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Setting: SPACE, near the second Cruiser
Stardate: 32306.0842
The hull of the ships built by the Masters were impervious to transporter beams and sensors, but thanks to the damage caused by the Lokustaar to the outer hull, the BASTET was able to reach far deeper into the ships than they would have normally been able to.
Dozens of photon torpedoes simultaneously materialized through the cruiser, some directly in front of shadowing aliens as they searched for their intended prize. Seconds later the exploded causing an internal shock-wave that ripped the ship apart. At the same time, several other torpedoes appeared in the emptiness of space exploding all around the cruiser taking the Lokustaar vessel by surprise. Although the explosions did not appear to damage the ship in any way, the showy ship was thrown off course by the force of the blasts.
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Setting: USS BASTET, Bridge
Stardate: 32306.0843
"Sensors show the second cruiser has been nearly completely destroyed," Janeel reported. "I doubt that they will be able to find anything useful in what is left." The Intelligence Liaison Officer paused for a moment as she confirmed the sensor data. "The Lokustaar vessel is quickly regaining control and appears to be powering some sort of energy weapon. The power readouts are off the scale."
"Engage starboard transporters and target the Lokustaar ship with our little surprise," the Captain Ordered. "Helm! As soon as the transport is completed, get us out of her and engage the D-Drive."
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Setting: SPACE, near the first Cruiser
Stardate: 32306.0843
The explosions had not been strong enough to cause any damage to the Lokustaar vessel, and the few seconds they gained from the unexpected display of their limited firepower would not save them from the fate that the Terrans had summoned upon themselves.
As the shadow vessel was ready to fire upon the BASTET, another dozen or so torpedoes were beamed onto the first cruiser and exploded, destroying that ship as well. Simultaneously, a large number of similar explosive devices appeared all around the Lokustaar ship, these ones appearing to be of a much high yield than those used to destroy the two cruisers.
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Setting: USS BASTET, Bridge
Stardate: 32306.0844
"Quantum torpedoes detonating now!" Janeel announced, the flash of light filling the view screen followed a few seconds later by the shock-wave that rocked the BASTET.
"Radiation within expected levels," the Intel Operative reported. "The inoculation should be enough to ward off any effects."
"Now all we need is for us to actually get out of here," the Captain noted. "Engage Dimensional-Drive. Take us home!"
---
Setting: SPACE
Stardate: 32306.0844
Although the process was a relatively slow one, the BASTET was able to create a dimensional opening back to its point of origin while the Lokustaar vessel tried its best to recuperate from being at the center of a explosive storm created by a dozen or so quantum torpedoes made to detonate all around it.
As daring as the move might have been, the Terran had once again proven that their unpredictability was the one weapon the Lokustaar were ill equipped to deal again. Not only had the BASTET slipped through their shadowy grasp, but they had managed to destroy both cruisers as well as whatever had been inside of them.
In time, the Terrans and all of those small races who called that dimension home would be made to pay for this affront. If anything the Lokustaar were as determined as they were patient and they would get what they had been after for countless centuries. This was not a question of if, but when, and after today the when would come to be much sooner than the others might have wished it to be,
---
Jessica Solarik
Commanding Officer
USS BASTET
&
Chief Science Officer
USS ANUBIS
"To see the world in a grain of sand,
and a heaven in a wild flower.
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
and eternity in an hour."
- William Blake (British, 1757-1827)