Posted by Captain Dante Knight (Commanding Officer) in Main Sim - Bridge

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Nicholas Foster (Chief of Security) in Main Sim - Bridge

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Teller Graham (Chief Science Officer) in Main Sim - Bridge
Posted by… suppressed (8) by the Post Ghost! 👻

<snip>

A moment later, the cruiser connected, and the view screen filled with the face of a male Cardassian, potentially in his 40’s to 50’s. He had high cheekbones and a strong jawline, sharp nose and a widow’s peak hairline. “Greetings, Captain. I understand you want the data from the black box. Well, so do we. Unfortunately for you, we’re under no obligation to identify ourselves. It seems there’s been some rather unfortunate business in this area. We were looking into it when to our surprise we discovered a hidden outpost on one of the planets in this system. It seems the B’hari may have perished for stumbling onto this very situation. Surely the black box would contain all the necessary data to ascertain what happened. We wouldn’t want it to go to waste, would we?” As he finished, he almost purred with a slimy used car salesman smile.

Rei

“I thought the Cardassians were an endangered species…” Nicholas mumbled to himself as the man spoke. LtJG Foster thought maybe he’d want to barter for the black box, since surely even a Cardassian knew the odds were 50/50. Though, Nick felt it could be somewhat helpful if they teamed up with the Cardassian if they weren’t the culprit afterall.

Foster
COS

They are about to be the thought ran through Dante’s mind before he had the chance to stop it, but outwardly his face didn’t change until he spoke.

“To be honest the data on the black box is only a secondary concern,” Dante shrugged. “The B’hari was destroyed by weapons fire matching your class of vessel and you already committed an act of war by firing on and destroying our probes. The next step you take that is not in co-operation with us will result in relations becoming much less friendly than they are right now. So lets take a moment and not do something you will regret, yes?” The last sentence from Dante matched the tone and smile that the Cardassian had used. “Can you expand more on this hidden outpost and why you suspect the B’hari perished because of it? I’d be interested in knowing more about this unfortunate business you speak of.”

Tapping out a command on his console, he sent a brief message to the Helm station, reading very simply, Picard Maneuver, ready. That would bring them face to face with the opposing vessel and hopefully, the warp field appearing so close would disrupt the Cardassian transporter beam if they attempted to beam the black box on board.

Knight, CO

Jensen thought the Captain had forgotten who was piloting the ship. Thankfully, this maneuver was so well known a civilian could probably pull it off.

Cadet Turhart
Helm

“The longer we’re out here, the lower our shields are going to get,” Foster reminded the CO through his panel. There was no telling how long they’d live if the shields were to fall.

Foster
COS

Foster’s voice was a reminder of the dire situation they could potentially face. Jhalae glanced at the shield status display, witnessing the gradual but not yet significant decline in real-time. “I will optimize our shield systems, fine-tune their efficiency and explore any options that could bolster their strength. We can’t afford any weaknesses.” She said eying the view screen.

Ynuchausti, CE

“What about shunting power from nonessentials to the shields?” Foster asked, not knowing if that was already done before he had come to the Bridge.

Foster
COS

“Negative,” Graham responded. “This isn’t a power issue. It’s like a static charge on the body, but its growing. The shields won’t decrease the charge. In fact ll the shilds are doing are cycling the charge about the ship. We need more outside the box.”

((This isn’t an exactly more power = better result situation. The shields are experiencing a build-up of charged particles. In this case it’s high-energy particles that are rotating around the flow of gravitons at high speed. Some are, of course, flying back off into space. But this is like… static cling on an old CRT monitor. Or you could think of it like sand swirling around inside of a vacuum cleaner. Dropping the shields scatters/releases the particles. The hull itself is pretty good at keeping the particles and waves out. The other thing you can do is polarize the shields and get the charges to repel away from each other and/or the shields. You might get some discharges (like touching a doorknob and getting a small zap) but it’s nothing like getting hit by a phaser blast… yet. The more the charge builds the worse the ZAP will be, but there are multiple ways to prevent that. Or … it’s a flow of charged particles. An ionized cloud… a plasma. Which… there are things a ship’s crew could do with that.

Meanwhile, I need to consult with some folks. Also apologies for the delays folks.

Sam H. ))

Jhalae considered Foster’s suggestion and nodded, acknowledging its potential effectiveness. “Shunting power from nonessentials to the shields is a viable option. It could help to reinforce the shields and mitigate the buildup of charged particles. We haven’t tried it yet, but it’s worth a shot.”

She swiftly accessed the ship’s power distribution controls on her console and began rerouting power from non-critical systems. “I’m redirecting power from auxiliary systems like non-essential lighting, environmental controls in unoccupied areas, and low-priority subsystems. This should provide an additional energy boost to the shield generators.”

As Jhalae made the adjustments, she listened for the hum of the ship’s systems, to indicate the redistribution of power. A trick she’d been taught in the Academy. “While this temporary power redistribution buys us some time, we need a more sustainable approach,” Jhalae explained, her gaze fixed on the view screen. “I believe we should focus on polarizing the shields. If we can get the charged particles to repel each other and the shields themselves, it will help prevent the buildup from becoming too critical.”

She accessed the shield control interface, searching for the necessary commands to initiate the polarization process. “Polarization should create a repulsive force, forcing the charged particles away from the ship. It might result in some discharges, but it’s a preferable outcome compared to a catastrophic shield failure. We’ll need to monitor the shield integrity closely during the process.”

Jhalae’s fingers danced across the console, inputting the required commands. “We’ll need to maintain this state and monitor for any unforeseen complications.”

Ynuchausti, CE

CSO

Nicholas groaned internally. He wasn’t sure having a showdown with an out of touch Cardassian was a good idea with their current situation, and Nick was thinking they’d have to rely on more tactical options if diplomacy didn’t budge in their direction.

Foster
COS

Cmdr. Colter had been in his quarters when the Saracen’s red alert sounded. Having recently returned from the dead and reporting back as the ship’s XO/CIO, he had barely enough time to unpack. Never a dull moment, he thought, as he left for the Bridge.

=======================

Exiting the turbolift, the XO’s gravelly voice commanded, “Somebody give me a sitrep, the short version.”

His gladiator sized body moved gracefully across the bridge to take his seat to the captain’s right. Looking at the viewscreen, he added, “That’s a Cardassian Keldon-class cruiser. Do we have an ID on it yet?”

Colter (XO/CIO)

Teller nodded at the XO as the man crossed the bridge in several short steps taking his seat next to the captain.

Teller CSO

As he sat, Colter acknowledged the CSO’s presence. “Lt. Cmdr. Graham, it’s good to see you again.”

“Indeed Sir,” Teller replied to the greeting.

“We haven’t been able to establish a positive identification on the Cardassian Keldon-class cruiser yet,” Jhalae replied nervously, her eyes fixed on his console. “I am attempting to decipher their transponder codes It’s possible they’re blocking us from reading them. I am not sure.”
Her attention still focused on the controls she continued to provide the XO with more information. “We’ve initiated temporary power redistribution to reinforce the shields, Commander. Additionally, I’m in the process of polarizing the shields to repel the charged particles and prevent critical buildup. We’re monitoring the shield integrity closely.”

Ynuchausti,CE

“Continue to do so, ensign,” the XO replied.

He accessed the control panel on his chair and reviewed the message received from the Cardassian CO. Leaving the man’s image on his screen, he began to run a facial recognition program from his intel database. The Obsidian Order was good, but DaVinci had faith that his personal database could give him a match. With a match of the CO, he should then be able to get an ID on the ship.

“Mr. Graham, can you run a scan and try to find this ‘hidden outpost’ the Cardassian mentioned?”

Colter (XO/CIO)

“Yes Commander,” Teller replied, initiating long-range and short-range scans of the area, looking for what Colter requested. Instead of going through the normal parameters, however, Teller also added a biological parameter to the search criteria. In space, there was a lot of metal and ore. Someone clever enough to create a hideout using minimal power and indigenous materials of say an asteroid instead of metal for the structure. What they could not hide was water which was essential for life and nonexistent in space without having been artificially placed there.

Teller CSO

Foster assisted the CSO in the search since two pairs of eyes were better than one. They needed time to be on their side today, since their shielding wouldn’t hold forever.

Foster
COS

“Welcome back to the big seats, Daniel.” Dante glanced at Colter and grinned for just a moment before turning to look at both Teller and Ynuchausti with a question before the Cardassian Captain would reply.

“So the particles are like a static clinging to our shields?” Dante bit his lip slightly as he thought, his mind going back to his childhood when he would electrcute his brother by touching him after rubbing his hand on carpet and the like.

“With static, you can discharge what you’ve built up by touching someone. How close would we need to be to that ship,” he pointed at the viewscreen and the Cardassian cruiser, “to give them a zap? Would that work and overload their systems? Shields, sensors, transporters? If we used the Picard move to get extra close to them so our shields were close enough, could that charge disable them without us needing to fire? I assume they are building up their own charge though, so what if we blipped in not quite as close to them and then reversed our shield polarity, sending an extra load of particles their way?”

Dante Knight, CO

“So we’re going to be a bug zapper?” Nicholas questioned somewhat curious to see how that would play out. “I’m sure they’d see that as offensive, even if they were pesty at the moment.” The COS laughed at his corny joke, but played the scenario out in his head. If the Cardassians were to get a shot off at the Saracen, that would lower the shields… but if they were to disable the Cardassians then they’d have leverage.

Foster
COS