A cry in the Darkness - Part 3

Posted on 27 Apr 2020 @ 12:10pm by Captain Jonathan Reynolds & Commander Amelia Fox & Lieutenant Mitchell Graham & Lieutenant Commander Aidan Datari & Lieutenant Commander True Keading & Lieutenant JG Lilura Karakalakss & Lieutenant JG Rosaline Belikov & Ensign Gwen Leighton

Mission: Mission 4 - Race against the machine
Location: Main Bringing
Timeline: MD1 0500
1431 words - 2.9 OF Standard Post Measure

ON:

Previously on A Cry in the Darkness Part 2:

In front of the Andromeda suddenly started to glow like the fire of hell and slowly it began to move.

And now the continuation ….


Amelia was just in the middle of answering Graham's question "I'm not sure you're going to like how they destroyed the last one. They had to blow up a starship inside of....." Her voice trailed off as she saw on the viewscreen. "Helm! Back us off. Quickly!"

To her surprise, instead of turning toward the Andromeda, the Planet Killer started to move towards another planet that was nearby. Luckily, this one was uninhabited.

She frowned as she turned back to The Captain. "That's not typical behavior of one of those things. We were close enough to be a threat, it should have come after us."

Jon stiffened, this was certainly not usual behaviour. "It should have tried to destroy the Andromeda and use it as fuel. Yet its headed …. well where ever its headed we need to follow it and work out a way to stop it. I fear this is too big a task, theres too many unknowns and its far too dangerous for us to attempt by ourselves. Ensign Leighton send out a general hail to any ship in range. We need assistance. Give them the details.

Tag Gwen

He turned to Mitchell, "Follow that thing. If it indicates a sudden change back off. 5000 km should hopefully be sufficient. I sincerely hope to the goddesses."

Graham nodded. "Aye, Captain. Ahead one-half impulse. Maintaining five thousand kilometers separation." With his fingers he advanced the throttles, ready to escape at warp at a moment's notice.

"Intel, science and engineering get me everything we know on that device. I don't care what you have to do to get it. Borrow, steal, kill ….. anything …. well lets try avoid killing," Jon stated.

"I'll try to get into Starfleet's archives and see what Kirk's team found on it," Aidan said, "though I'll probably have to get to my office to do that."

Lilura's cocked her head as she immediately began thinking about what and where for how that mechanism might work. She replied, "I will coordinate with sciences sensor scans as well as what they find in the archives.. and formulate what I can, Sir."

Rose nodded, "if the federation or anyone else has information on these planet killers, we shall have it"

"I don't really want to have to blow up a starship, which I believe as Fox mentioned was the only successful strategy against it. Topedos and phasers are useless. Engineering you got to try find me something," Jon stated.

Lilura swallowed as her mind began working through that Torpedoes and Phasers were ineffective. Then again, though, those were phasers and torpedoes from Kirks time, the Andromeda's weaponry was greatly improved. "I'll work on it, Captain, give me a few minutes."

"Hawkins, try and find a way to get sensors to penetrate that thing. And find out where its headed," Jon ordered,


"Aye Captain." almost saluting Jon, as Michael would, while on the deck of his uncles tall ship.

Hawkins ran diagnostics upon the surface of the Planet Killer, feeling his heart rate rise. No sensor readings at all, much like the one that had been reported by Captain Kirk. He decided to figure out the possible destination, with the planet killer's position the way it was facing. His face paled, as he looked at the possible results.

"Captain, I can't get any sensor readings from it, but I am not pleased to report, with several stops on the way, it might be heading in the direction of Baku. "

Lilura had at first been trying to find something out via sensor scans, but those showed nothing, meaning the hull was made of a very dense material. However, a very dense material meant there was a chance of their advanced weaponry hurting it. Also, a high kinetic punch could have a chance of penetration. Finalizing what she could she now called out, "Captain, I have a couple of possible ways to penetrate that hull and cause damage."

"I would love to hear that," Jon smiled at the idea.

Lilura brought up three different tactics on her mockup panel. "Note, that hull is very dense, could be an ancient metal, could be neutronium. Just, we can't get through with our scans. So, three possible ways to get through, from easiest configuration to hardest to pull off. First: Our phasers are very much more powerful than the old constitution class. Probably not enough for that hull, but if we overcharge the phasers by 33%, factor in a multiple modulation shift frequencies according to feedback along the phaser streams, and tune into those with the most interchange damage, we should be able to cut through any material, should."

Lilura continued, "Second, if phasers don't work, our photons are again more powerful than the old Enterprises. If we overcharge and up the yield in the Photons by 50% to 75%, and then target the same weakened spot we used the phasers on, again, we should get through. If nothing else, hopefully make a big dent and knock out some internal systems."

Lilura finished with, "Third, we use a tractor slingshot maneuver to throw a large asteroid into that hull. We approach at low warp speed towing as large as an asteroid we can tractor, then perform a high intensity turn to speed up the asteroid and release it at the end of the whip maneuver to speed it up to translate to a slight wormhole effect that is now targeted on the density of that hull. When the asteroid impacts the hull, it may not penetrate, but that big of a release of kinetic to potential energy into that hull could stress fracture, maybe penetrate, but try and knock things around to hopefully take that planet killer off line."

"in relation to Torpedoes, I've heard that the Klingon Navy have been working on a new type of torpedo in response to the federation's use of quantum torpedos. They call it the Hargh'peng torpedo and it may have the punch we need, but if the specks I've been sent are accurate, it still wont be able to penetrate the planet killers hull but we could throw it down the throat of that thing" Rose reported.

Jon nodded. "Do you think you can get a hold of any specs?" He asked her. "Work with Lieutenant Karakalakss, if you can and see if we can go anywhere with that. And Lieutenant Karakalakss, get ready to brief the crew of the Merlin and anyone else who responds on your ideas. Hone them, do some simulations and work out what to try first."

Lilura responds to Jon first. "Will do Captain, I will get a procedure and checklist going for all three and verify with simulations." She turned towards Rose, "Lt. Belikov, those torpedoes sound very interesting. Any specs, heck, even theorems you can get me would help go a long way in reproducing them. Want to meet after lunch with what you find?"

Rose nodded, “sure, I’ll give you what I can”

Amelia had sat down in her chair and was monitoring long-range communications. She saw something that made her smile briefly before reporting to Reynolds. "Captain! We're receiving a message from the USS Merlin. Melody.... I mean Commander Jones sends her compliments. Apparently, they hear the same distress call we did and are en route to lend assistance. They're about 5 hours away. I'll update them on the situation."

"Great," Jon nodded. "Well all we can do now is chase that thing and wait."

OFF:

●● Lieutenant Amelia Fox
Executive Officer
USS Andromeda


●● Lieutenant Aidan Datari
Chief Science Officer/2nd Officer
USS Andromeda

●○ Lieutenant JG Lilura Siana Karakalakss
Assistant Chief Engineering Officer
USS Andromeda

●○ Lieutenant JG Rosaline Belikov
Chief Intelligence officer
USS Andromeda

●● Lieutenant True Keading
Chief Counselor
USS Andromeda


● Ensign Michael Hawkins
Chief Operations Officer
USS Andromeda

●●●● Captain Jonathan Reynolds
Captain
USS Andromeda


●○ Lieutenant JG Rosaline Belikov
Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Andromeda

● Ensign Gwen Leighton
Apprentice Chief Security / Tactical Officer
USS Andromeda

●● Lieutenant Mitchell Graham
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Andromeda