S6 - E3 - Tripwire

[Alexander Wu]

[Bridge | USS Challenger NCC-40117-A]

"Of course." Aarwendil said, while following Wu. The Betazoid had no idea of what the human had in mind, but he was prepared to help in any way that he could. He went after the other man until they reached a group of people wearing blue uniforms. The Lieutenant recognized some of them.

"Hello, Lieutenant Jyur." Aarwendil greeted the man, before Wu started to explain his idea. It was good and made sense. However, anything that they could plan to use against the Kinyasha would depend on the information provided by the Klingons. He hoped that their observations would be enough to give some light in their weakness.

"I'll see if the Klingons had made exams with blood and tissue. Maybe they found something useful." Aarwendil said, prepared to look at the information that they had at their disposal. It was a shame that he couldn't make exams with blood and tissue.

-----Previously-----

[USS Challenger - Bridge]

"Okay, you'll take lead on that then. Collaborate with Science to try and discover any potential weaknesses which we can exploit, and we'll figure a way to make it deployable on a larger scale." Alex looked over at the Command group sitting by the conn. "If you can find something that works, we can bring it up to the Captain for dissemination throughout the squadron. Maybe we can even tie in with the other science dets, Jettis, I'm sure there'll be plenty of brainstorming on the other ships as well. May as well consolidate all your great minds to work on the problem together."

"Hey, could I get the most recent scans of the area? This place is pretty easy to get lost in, if you ask me. I want to be ready if someone comes from one of the nebulae." she asked to whoever was running the scanners or computers.

-----Currently-----

[USS Challenger - Bridge]

This wasn't Alex's first foray into combat, and with some perverse irony, he hoped it wouldn't be his last. Every prior experience had seared into his mind before being buried, though there were details which he could never fully forget. For many of the juniors and cadets privileged to be on the bridge watching the Klingons already engaged, it was their first real battle, and some couldn't help but stare at the viewscreen, their assigned work forgotten. Three hours away, there was nothing they could do but watch on long range sensors. Space combat always looked so clinical when afar, with ships appearing as just dots on the viewscreen, or tiny silver moving specks on a background of bedazzled black. A ballroom full of dancers, spinning, twirling, trading partners, putting on the show of their lives. Thin arcing lines occasionally reaching out to touch one another, and little flowery plumes when contact was made. Benign, silent, beautiful even.

Not for those who'd been there before though. Alex could almost smell the acrid smoke from burning conduits, taste that metallic tang from vaporized blood which overwhelmed the air filters. Hear the screams of his shipmates and friends, trapped, helpless, passengers onboard a ship slowly being pummeled into nothing more than it's base components. Systems failing one at a time, console commands which did nothing or worse, something you didn't want it to do. Chaos, darkness, desperate orders ringing out that could no longer be followed, by flesh or machine. And the entire time hoping that your opponents were in a worse state than yourself, that they would die first, then maybe you would survive. It was always beautiful from afar, but no-one ever forgets their first dance.

"Active scans running, Ardyn, patching anomalies into your navigational computer." Alex broke the silence, keeping his macabre thoughts to himself. The tension was already thick enough to cut with a knife, their newbies didn't need to see how worried the older staff were. "I'm keeping an eye on it, if there's anything unusual I'll send it to Zhuk as well."

[Ardyn Jaeger - Wu]

"This is Rainier, We have visual contact with the enemy. Repeat, We have visual contact. Point seven three two.  Three ships so far, maybe others. "

"Right. We see it too. Red Alert!"

Galahad to Rainier , Prepare to move in and hold the line! Fire at will!"

"Roger that!  Full shields!

"There's more of them coming! Evasive maneuvers!"

[Bridge]
" Good call, thanks," said Ardyn to Alex as she got the readings transmitted to the Helm station; Her stomach sank as she saw one by one, easily a dozen enemy ships coming out from the clouds of the nebula, the first wave of who knew how many ships? They weren't part of the spearhead attack, not yet, but it was only a matter of time before they'd be called in.

She was pretty sure they were fairly cloaked by the nebula they were in for now, but when the boss said to go into the fray, she was ready.

She caught a  glimpse of Alex's thoughts. It was neither of their first fights, nor their first fight together,  but it was the one with the most to lose. "I see them. " she said, giving him a mental reassurance.  Whatever happened this night, the things they'd have to face tonight, good or bad, she was glad they were going to do it together.

She cracked her knuckles to look at Schultz, the other pilot at the navigation terminal. She could tell the young pilot was internally shaking. All of the newbies were. She didn't blame them.  The comms chatter was only a taste of what they'd expect.

"There's more of them! They just keep on coming!"

"Bring us in! Fire!

"We've got missiles on our Starbo - Aah!

"Schultz, set the course to point seven three two. It's not sounding good out there, boss, prepare for a strafing run?" 

[ShranLahr ch'Verret]

CPO ShranLahr ch'Verret
[USS Challenger-A - Deck Twelve >> Deck Two] (days later...)

[Bridge - USS Challenger]

At one light year from the border, even at warp 9.8, it would take Challenger and the rest of the Federation contingent three point eight hours to reach the FEBA or Forward Edge of Battle Area. Nonetheless, Captain Soro of the Galahad gave the order to advance, with General Membok giving the same order "Close on the enemy, prepare to engage."

The ship was at battlestations. All weapons were charged. Shields were up. Security teams were assigned to critical areas and a contingent was ready to perform a boarding action. He could do nothing else to prepare the ship or himself. All that was left was to see if his years of preparation had truly prepared him for what was to come.

When the ship was brought to battlestations, Lahr left his tertiary flow monitoring station to head to the meet up point for Damage Control Team One (DCT1).  In doing so, the Andorian realized instead of being panicked or frozen in fear, he was eager to show that he could be actually useful.

Unaware of the timeline of their travel to the battlefield, Lahr waited alertly for the first impact and the first call to patch the ship.

After the first half hour, his alertness began to waver and he entertained himself by putting on some good rockin' tunes - that only he could hear thanks to the ear buds that he'd been gifted by Nira when he was was given his Chief Petty officer promotion.

By the end of the first hour, he'd had found himself a spot at a booth where he could lounge and watch the stars flash by as the ship traveled at high warp.  The only evidence, in profile, that he wasn't asleep was the rhythmic tapping of one of his booted feet and the silent mouthing of what one could assume to be song lyrics.

Mid-way into the third hour, Lahr's willpower caved and he pulled out his PADD. Then when he thought the others on the DCT1 weren't looking, he used Ruth's Command Officer authorization code to access the ship's security camera system, so that he could 'peek in' on the Bridge and see what was going on.  He'd done this sort of thing many times in the past but not since Frontier Day.

Little did the Andorian realize that this time, his unauthorized use of Ruth's authorization code - who was now officially listed as MIA - triggered an alert to the Sec/Tac console.

[Kyan Mackenzie]

[Commander Kyan Mackenzie | Bridge, USS Challenger]

Finally! Kyan thought as the com traffic began, indicating the beginning of the fighting. After weeks of waiting that seemed to him like an eternity, the enemy was upon them. It'd been excruciating, like waiting for your birthday. Well, if Kyan knew when his birthday was anyway. He knew what year he was born, but not the month or day. But if he did, he imagined waiting for combat would be something like that. Or Yule. Either way, the waiting sucked. But it was over now. Thanks be ta da Powers!

(USS Ranier) "Ranier to Galahad, our shields are at twenty two percent. The Tarhe has lost her lower port nacelle."

The forward viewscreen showed a tactical layout of the space where the battle was taking place. The Galahad, Ranier, and Tarhe had encountered a wave of Kinshaya ships before reaching the Klingon position. When they made contact with the Starfleet ships, the nine Kinshaya were deployed in a wedge formation. The Galahad's hails went unanswered as the icons indicating the enemy vessels broke formation and attacked the three starships simultaneously. Ignoring the com chatter, Kyan focused on the manuevers each ship was making. The Kinshaya first moved to draw the Starfleet ships apart. When this had been accomplished, the Ranier and Tarhe were boxed in. The three ships that had engaged the Galahad were less successful in trapping the Akira Class vessel but had managed to position themselves between her and the rest of the task force.

The tactics were basic at first glance. As he watched, Kyan saw that once they'd gotten their target between the three attacking ships, the Kinshaya were manuevering in a circular pattern, essentially "orbiting" the enemy. As they did so, they moved to shrink the circle, and prevented the starships from helping one another.

(USS Tarhe) "Captain, main batteries are out... switching to secondary." "Sir, we just lost the lateral phaser array."

[USS Galahad] "Soro to Galloway, three Kinshaya got behind us, change course to intercept them.

(USS Ranier) "Zorn to Soro, they have us boxed in. They're manuevering us away from your position."

Hearing Soro's order, Kyan looked at the display again. "They're after makin a hole in our line." He thought aloud. Then to Ian, "If da Barnard and the Hungary go an help the Tarhe, an we go after da ones what got the Ranier boxed in, then the others can hold the line behind us. The ones she's talkin about ain't after breakin through, they'll try an box her in like the other two."

(USS Tarhe) "Richards to Soro, our shileds are about to go. We need assistance NOW!"

[Ian Galloway]

[Commander Kyan Mackenzie | Bridge, USS Challenger]

Finally! Kyan thought as the com traffic began, indicating the beginning of the fighting. After weeks of waiting that seemed to him like an eternity, the enemy was upon them. It'd been excruciating, like waiting for your birthday. Well, if Kyan knew when his birthday was anyway. He knew what year he was born, but not the month or day. But if he did, he imagined waiting for combat would be something like that. Or Yule. Either way, the waiting sucked. But it was over now. Thanks be ta da Powers!

The forward viewscreen showed a tactical layout of the space where the battle was taking place. The Galahad, Ranier, and Tarhe had encountered a wave of Kinshaya ships before reaching the Klingon position. When they made contact with the Starfleet ships, the nine Kinshaya were deployed in a wedge formation. The Galahad's hails went unanswered as the icons indicating the enemy vessels broke formation and attacked the three starships simultaneously. Ignoring the com chatter, Kyan focused on the manuevers each ship was making. The Kinshaya first moved to draw the Starfleet ships apart. When this had been accomplished, the Ranier and Tarhe were boxed in. The three ships that had engaged the Galahad were less successful in trapping the Akira Class vessel but had managed to position themselves between her and the rest of the task force.

The tactics were basic at first glance. As he watched, Kyan saw that once they'd gotten their target between the three attacking ships, the Kinshaya were manuevering in a circular pattern, essentially "orbiting" the enemy. As they did so, they moved to shrink the circle, and prevented the starships from helping one another.

Hearing Soro's order, Kyan looked at the display again. "They're after makin a hole in our line." He thought aloud. Then to Ian, "If da Barnard and the Hungary go an help the Tarhe, an we go after da ones what got the Ranier boxed in, then the others can hold the line behind us. The ones she's talkin about ain't after breakin through, they'll try an box her in like the other two."

[Bridge - USS Challenger]

Ian listened to Commodore Soro's attempt to contact the Kinshaya as per regulations, despite the Klingon's history with them, this was a first contact for the Federation with the Kinshaya. All that Soro's attempt to communication had accomplish was the three ships in her squadron drawing the immediate fire of the Kinshaya on the Galahad, Rainier, and Tarhe.

Soro's actions saved the other ships, Challenger included, from having to talk, the Kinshaya attack had opened the path for an immediate response with all weapons. Given the Kinshaya globe ships were spherical in shape, it made sense that their tactics would be formed around that shape and would use encirclement against their targets. Orbiting them and hammering them from all sides until destroyed, which was what was happening to the Tarhe. Ian heard Kyan's suggestion and as time was critical, he began issuing orders.

"Wu, signal the Barnard, Moldova, and the Hungary ta assist the Tarhe. Tell them ta nae let themselves get pinned down. Just pick a single globe and blast a hole for the Tarhe ta slip through. Once you do that, transfer half the power from the secondary core ta the shields and the other have ta the structural integrity field.

"Jaeger, take us in ta the Rainier hot. Full impulse. Standby ta do summat the ship is nae designed ta do.

"Zhuk. Target the closest globe, hit it early, hit it often, smack them so hard their Mama cries about it!"

The New Orleans, Ararat, Urals, Towaka, and Finland held the line to keep the Kinshaya from breaking through. As the Challenger and the others raced in weapons blazing to help the Tarhe and the Rainier, Commodore Soro schooled the Kinshaya on why no one messed with an Akira. With a staggering 15 torpedo tubes, the Galahad fired nine of the aft and side bearing torpedoes all at once. But not at a target, instead, she fired them as maximum yield proximity fused photons. this made the warheads detonate almost immediately and spread a wide hash of electromagnetic noise. This field disrupted the Kinshaya torpedoes long enough for all of them to miss the Galahad completely. Regardless of this fearsome display of firepower, the Galahad was not finished, she still had six launchers and Soro had these loaded with quantum torpedoes. Unloading her entire Alpha Strike on one of the Kinshaya globes, she left it a burning hulk and blasting her own way out of the Kinshaya encirclement.

It was at this moment that Ian realized he'd forgotten something. Something very important.

"Ops, broadcast Scotland the Brave on all channels."

The Challenger roared her defiance, just as she always did when going to battle and this made Ian smile.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqeYKf8tdsU

[Zhukdrashar Mrekrerhas]

[Bridge - USS Challenger]

Kyan was in the command chair when it happened. One minute, things were tense, but quiet. The next minute, subspace burst to life with a cacophony of frantic messages from the battlecruisers patrolling the border with the Kinshaya. There were so many transmissions that the channel was nearly unintelligible, but despite the confusion, one message was clear, the Kinshaya were coming.

Ian had been in his ready room when the storm broke and by the time he had traded places with Kyan, he had reassessed his thinking. What was happening was far too powerful and intense for a mere storm, it was more like a supernova had occurred. At one light year from the border, even at warp 9.8, it would take Challenger and the rest of the Federation contingent three point eight hours to reach the FEBA or Forward Edge of Battle Area. Nonetheless, Captain Soro of the Galahad gave the order to advance, with General Membok giving the same order "Close on the enemy, prepare to engage."

As the main fleet advanced, the sensors were focused on the battle between the Kinshaya globe ships and the D7s of the Klingon Defense Force. Ian watched with absolute awe as the nearly antique K't'ingas fought. They died, but Maker how they fought.

"There will be many warriors that have earned their place in Sto-Vo-Kor this day."

Ian said softly

Ian had never been in a large fleet battle. Sure he'd fought in several multi-ship engagements, but never in one with dozens of ships. He knew the tactics. He knew how to use unexpected maneuvers learned from his Flying Tiger simulation, but to have nearly four hours to think about what could happen was outside his experience. The other battles had happened quickly with little time to reflect. This one was giving him an unwanted eternity to reflect far more than he needed. The ship was at battlestations. All weapons were charged. Shields were up. Security teams were assigned to critical areas and a contingent was ready to perform a boarding action. He could do nothing else to prepare the ship or himself. All that was left was to see if his years of preparation had truly prepared him for what was to come.

[Lieutenant Commander Zhukdra'shar Mrekrerhas | Bridge | Deck One | USS Challenger NCC-40117-A | Klingon/Kinshaya Border]

Zhukdra'shar was both glad and mortified, that his decision to focus on the Tactical console, momentarily eschewing his personal relationships, had been the right one. A flood of calls came bursting in within the Bridge, with Zhuk overwhelmed as he tried to make sense of what they meant, his ears pivoting constantly for a few seconds. This left him with a slight, momentary headache, though he managed to discern the message within those frantic words in subspace.

The Kinshaya were here and engaging the Klingon. Unfortunately, the USS Challenger and the rest of the Federation vessels would still require 228 minutes to reach the FEBA. It left, unfortunately, the K't'inga-class vessels of the Klingon on their own, which meant their destruction at the hands of the globe ships.

Captain Galloway's comment was something Zhuk could agree with, yet he wondered if it had been an unnecessary set of 'glorious' deaths. Perhaps, if they had been closer, they would have been able to support the Klingon better, and while some destruction would have certainly followed, it would not have been so pointless. Perhaps, the Klingon's actions would soften up the globe ships, though. He was not certain of it from what the sensors displayed, however.

Nonetheless, Zhuk had prepared both weaponry and shields in advance, thus they were swiftly loaded and readied with a few taps on the screen. He pushed on his comm-badge to issue orders to his Security detail,

"Greetings, gentlemen and ladies. Be advised, that we are approximately 224 minutes away from the Forward Edge of Battle Area. Be ready to engage, and proceed with Battle Plan Gamma-Phi-Zeta, as we have thoroughly practiced these last few days. Prepare thyselves for a boarding action."

-----Currently-----

[USS Challenger - Bridge]

This wasn't Alex's first foray into combat, and with some perverse irony, he hoped it wouldn't be his last. Every prior experience had seared into his mind before being buried, though there were details which he could never fully forget. For many of the juniors and cadets privileged to be on the bridge watching the Klingons already engaged, it was their first real battle, and some couldn't help but stare at the viewscreen, their assigned work forgotten. Three hours away, there was nothing they could do but watch on long range sensors. Space combat always looked so clinical when afar, with ships appearing as just dots on the viewscreen, or tiny silver moving specks on a background of bedazzled black. A ballroom full of dancers, spinning, twirling, trading partners, putting on the show of their lives. Thin arcing lines occasionally reaching out to touch one another, and little flowery plumes when contact was made. Benign, silent, beautiful even.

Not for those who'd been there before though. Alex could almost smell the acrid smoke from burning conduits, taste that metallic tang from vaporized blood which overwhelmed the air filters. Hear the screams of his shipmates and friends, trapped, helpless, passengers onboard a ship slowly being pummeled into nothing more than it's base components. Systems failing one at a time, console commands which did nothing or worse, something you didn't want it to do. Chaos, darkness, desperate orders ringing out that could no longer be followed, by flesh or machine. And the entire time hoping that your opponents were in a worse state than yourself, that they would die first, then maybe you would survive. It was always beautiful from afar, but no-one ever forgets their first dance.

"Active scans running, Ardyn, patching anomalies into your navigational computer." Alex broke the silence, keeping his macabre thoughts to himself. The tension was already thick enough to cut with a knife, their newbies didn't need to see how worried the older staff were. "I'm keeping an eye on it, if there's anything unusual I'll send it to Zhuk as well."

Zhukdra'shar nodded towards Alex Wu, one of his ears shifting in his direction, "Quite appreciated, Lieutenant."

Everything was working as it should be. Like a well-oiled machine, the gears were turning with swiftness and effectiveness. Zhuk had great expectations, both for his fellow Bridge crew, and for the men and women under his command, and thus far, he had been greatly pleased with their reactions. All were professional and serious, which only served to further motivate him. Indeed, his fear slowly turned into the same excitement he felt when he had battled the Romulans or the Jem'Hadar in past instances. His tail lightly swished from side to side, the only evidence of this eagerness and lust for battle that he could only mildly suppress.

CPO ShranLahr ch'Verret
[USS Challenger-A - Deck Twelve >> Deck Two] (days later...)

When the ship was brought to battlestations, Lahr left his tertiary flow monitoring station to head to the meet up point for Damage Control Team One (DCT1).  In doing so, the Andorian realized instead of being panicked or frozen in fear, he was eager to show that he could be actually useful.

Unaware of the timeline of their travel to the battlefield, Lahr waited alertly for the first impact and the first call to patch the ship.

After the first half hour, his alertness began to waver and he entertained himself by putting on some good rockin' tunes - that only he could hear thanks to the ear buds that he'd been gifted by Nira when he was was given his Chief Petty officer promotion.

By the end of the first hour, he'd had found himself a spot at a booth where he could lounge and watch the stars flash by as the ship traveled at high warp.  The only evidence, in profile, that he wasn't asleep was the rhythmic tapping of one of his booted feet and the silent mouthing of what one could assume to be song lyrics.

Mid-way into the third hour, Lahr's willpower caved and he pulled out his PADD. Then when he thought the others on the DCT1 weren't looking, he used Ruth's Command Officer authorization code to access the ship's security camera system, so that he could 'peek in' on the Bridge and see what was going on.  He'd done this sort of thing many times in the past but not since Frontier Day.

Little did the Andorian realize that this time, his unauthorized use of Ruth's authorization code - who was now officially listed as MIA - triggered an alert to the Sec/Tac console.

Of course, the most unexpected happenstance broke his concentration. An alert on the side of the screen, of someone accessing the Challenger's security camera system. By employing the code of the previous, and currently absent Chief Science Officer of the USS Challenger, Ruth Sigurdsdottir. Almost immediately, Zhuk's mind began to race, wondering if a vulnerability was being exploited by the Kinshaya. If they were being hacked in, spied upon. He decided against telling the Captain, however, instead deciding to take a moment to investigate who had accessed the cameras, and from where.

A quick search led him to a culprit in Deck Twelve, and the P.A.D.D. it was being accessed from. Zhuk let out a soft chuckle, but did not send a warning to his friend. Instead, he quickly prepared a message for him, and then deleted the alert from the console. The Caitian was relieved that the Kinshaya were not behind this. Of course, he was slightly miffed due to the scare, but all in all, if Lahr wished to see the battle first hand, he would not deny him the opportunity.

"I see you. Do not worry. Carry on."

[Bridge - USS Challenger]

Ian listened to Commodore Soro's attempt to contact the Kinshaya as per regulations, despite the Klingon's history with them, this was a first contact for the Federation with the Kinshaya. All that Soro's attempt to communication had accomplish was the three ships in her squadron drawing the immediate fire of the Kinshaya on the Galahad, Rainier, and Tarhe.

Soro's actions saved the other ships, Challenger included, from having to talk, the Kinshaya attack had opened the path for an immediate response with all weapons. Given the Kinshaya globe ships were spherical in shape, it made sense that their tactics would be formed around that shape and would use encirclement against their targets. Orbiting them and hammering them from all sides until destroyed, which was what was happening to the Tarhe. Ian heard Kyan's suggestion and as time was critical, he began issuing orders.

"Wu, signal the Barnard, Moldova, and the Hungary ta assist the Tarhe. Tell them ta nae let themselves get pinned down. Just pick a single globe and blast a hole for the Tarhe ta slip through. Once you do that, transfer half the power from the secondary core ta the shields and the other have ta the structural integrity field.

"Jaeger, take us in ta the Rainier hot. Full impulse. Standby ta do summat the ship is nae designed ta do.

"Zhuk. Target the closest globe, hit it early, hit it often, smack them so hard their Mama cries about it!"

The New Orleans, Ararat, Urals, Towaka, and Finland held the line to keep the Kinshaya from breaking through. As the Challenger and the others raced in weapons blazing to help the Tarhe and the Rainier, Commodore Soro schooled the Kinshaya on why no one messed with an Akira. With a staggering 15 torpedo tubes, the Galahad fired nine of the aft and side bearing torpedoes all at once. But not at a target, instead, she fired them as maximum yield proximity fused photons. this made the warheads detonate almost immediately and spread a wide hash of electromagnetic noise. This field disrupted the Kinshaya torpedoes long enough for all of them to miss the Galahad completely. Regardless of this fearsome display of firepower, the Galahad was not finished, she still had six launchers and Soro had these loaded with quantum torpedoes. Unloading her entire Alpha Strike on one of the Kinshaya globes, she left it a burning hulk and blasting her own way out of the Kinshaya encirclement.

It was at this moment that Ian realized he'd forgotten something. Something very important.

"Ops, broadcast Scotland the Brave on all channels."

The Challenger roared her defiance, just as she always did when going to battle and this made Ian smile.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqeYKf8tdsU

After that small distraction, the Lieutenant Commander returned to the task at hand: fighting the Kinshaya. It took them another half an hour or so to arrive at the FEBA. Three ships were sent in by Commodore Soro to engage First Contact. As per simulations, however, the ships were rapidly surrounded and attacked by the hostile alien race. Captain Galloway gave instructions for the Barnard, Moldova, and the Hungary to assist one of the Federation vessels that had been caught within a circle of Kinshaya ships, and was currently being pummeled by the hostile's armament. The Challenger moved in closer to engage the Kinshaya facing the Rainier, and Zhuk was given a rather simple task: to fire everything at the closest globe ship.

The Caitian counted down as Ardy brought them into range, though first they were regaled with a spectacular display of the Akira-class, the Gallahad and her armament, which obliterated one of the Kinshaya globe ships.

Inspired by this display, Zhukdra'shar fired the armament of the Challenger, as the delightful 'Scotland the Brave' blasted through the comms. A smirk came into his face as he began the barrage against his target by sending two photon torpedoes from the aft launchers, complimenting them with another two quantum torpedoes from the forward launchers. Then, he followed it by firing both the phaser banks and arrays at the forward, starboard, and port side against the globe ship. He prepared to load another salvo of torpedoes, hoping that Ardy would manage to strafe from the Kinshaya's retribution long enough for him to counterattack. Hopefully, the damage dealt would at worst disable the ship, and at best, leave it as spacial debris, though.

[Ardyn Jaeger - Wu]

[Bridge]

"Roger that. Moving in!" she barked to the rest of the bridge "You want fancy flying? You got it!"

Her fingers flew across the console with the grace of a piano player as the Challenger entered the fray, weaving through the misty haze of the nebula and out into the wide open. Game time.

The ship danced through the fray, shearing past one of the spheres to give Zhuk a chance to hit it hard and give the Rainier a chance to breathe from the onslaught.

"Nice shot!" she crowed to Zhuk as she veered the Challenger around for another chance to fire.

"Let me know if you see any weakness in their ships," she said to the bridge as she dodged and weaved through showers of enemy fire.

[Meanwhile]

[As medical cadet Oyari Sedaya]

[Near the science labs]

Sedaya jumped in surprise as the ship's lights flashed the red alert, mostly from nerves, to be honest, but then, who wasn't scared out of their minds? She'd never been in a real red alert situation before, beyond the simulations she was in, and now the action was upon her for real, she had to get doing something. Anything.  She wasn't supposed to be out here at all, really. They had shipped out her graduating class early from the Academy and told them to finish up their classes in the field due to the Borg attack. She had no idea that she'd be in a battle situation on her first-ever assignment!

Stumbling into the science labs, the young Bajoran cadet gave a nervous grin. Maybe she could help them? She wasn't at all sure what they were up to, or what she could do to help, but it was better than doing nothing and panicking.

"Do you guys have anything for me to do?" she asked around. Prophets, she probably seemed like an ignoramus asking that in the middle of a war. She knew that she'd be called down to medical soon enough, but if what the Klingons said was true, there was a chance they'd be boarded and they'd need as much help as they could before the real casualties came.

[Aarwendil Cheizex]

-----Previously-----

[USS Challenger - Bridge]

"Okay, you'll take lead on that then. Collaborate with Science to try and discover any potential weaknesses which we can exploit, and we'll figure a way to make it deployable on a larger scale." Alex looked over at the Command group sitting by the conn. "If you can find something that works, we can bring it up to the Captain for dissemination throughout the squadron. Maybe we can even tie in with the other science dets, Jettis, I'm sure there'll be plenty of brainstorming on the other ships as well. May as well consolidate all your great minds to work on the problem together."

-----Currently-----

[USS Challenger - Bridge]

This wasn't Alex's first foray into combat, and with some perverse irony, he hoped it wouldn't be his last. Every prior experience had seared into his mind before being buried, though there were details which he could never fully forget. For many of the juniors and cadets privileged to be on the bridge watching the Klingons already engaged, it was their first real battle, and some couldn't help but stare at the viewscreen, their assigned work forgotten. Three hours away, there was nothing they could do but watch on long range sensors. Space combat always looked so clinical when afar, with ships appearing as just dots on the viewscreen, or tiny silver moving specks on a background of bedazzled black. A ballroom full of dancers, spinning, twirling, trading partners, putting on the show of their lives. Thin arcing lines occasionally reaching out to touch one another, and little flowery plumes when contact was made. Benign, silent, beautiful even.

Not for those who'd been there before though. Alex could almost smell the acrid smoke from burning conduits, taste that metallic tang from vaporized blood which overwhelmed the air filters. Hear the screams of his shipmates and friends, trapped, helpless, passengers onboard a ship slowly being pummeled into nothing more than it's base components. Systems failing one at a time, console commands which did nothing or worse, something you didn't want it to do. Chaos, darkness, desperate orders ringing out that could no longer be followed, by flesh or machine. And the entire time hoping that your opponents were in a worse state than yourself, that they would die first, then maybe you would survive. It was always beautiful from afar, but no-one ever forgets their first dance.

"Active scans running, Ardyn, patching anomalies into your navigational computer." Alex broke the silence, keeping his macabre thoughts to himself. The tension was already thick enough to cut with a knife, their newbies didn't need to see how worried the older staff were. "I'm keeping an eye on it, if there's anything unusual I'll send it to Zhuk as well."

[Bridge | USS Challenger NCC-40117-A]

"I'll start to work on that immediately."  Aarwendil said to Wu, before preparing to leave the bridge. He looked briefly at Lieutenant Jyur, expecting that the man would also go to the laboratories and start the search. The two working together could find a solution faster than if they worked alone. If that last thought, the young Betazoid walked away.

-----------------------------

[Later in the Science Labs | USS Challenger NCC-40117-A]

He went to the labs and started to work. Aarwendil was a bit disappointed with the data that the Klingons had given to them. It wasn't as complete as he had hoped, being more observations about possible weaknesses that the Kinyasha could have. It was something expected for a warrior culture, but suited their situation.

It was only disappointing because the Betazoid's curiosity about the Kinyasha wasn't going completely satiated.

When the ship's light started to flash red, Aarwendil had discovered that the Klingon's had observed that the Kinyasha had sensible auditory organs and this information could be useful during the combat. He immediately sent the message about this discovery to Wu. Now he could turn his attention to the possibility of them being boarded.

Then, a Bajoran cadet entered the laboratory at this moment asking if she could help. "Hi! Maybe you could help me see if there is more information that we can use against the Kinyasha in the files sent by the Klingons?"

[Tora Zalos]

[Bridge | USS Challenger NCC-40117-A]

"I'll start to work on that immediately."  Aarwendil said to Wu, before preparing to leave the bridge. He looked briefly at Lieutenant Jyur, expecting that the man would also go to the laboratories and start the search. The two working together could find a solution faster than if they worked alone. If that last thought, the young Betazoid walked away.

-----------------------------

[Later in the Science Labs | USS Challenger NCC-40117-A]

He went to the labs and started to work. Aarwendil was a bit disappointed with the data that the Klingons had given to them. It wasn't as complete as he had hoped, being more observations about possible weaknesses that the Kinyasha could have. It was something expected for a warrior culture, but suited their situation.

It was only disappointing because the Betazoid's curiosity about the Kinyasha wasn't going completely satiated.

When the ship's light started to flash red, Aarwendil had discovered that the Klingon's had observed that the Kinyasha had sensible auditory organs and this information could be useful during the combat. He immediately sent the message about this discovery to Wu. Now he could turn his attention to the possibility of them being boarded.

Then, a Bajoran cadet entered the laboratory at this moment asking if she could help. "Hi! Maybe you could help me see if there is more information that we can use against the Kinyasha in the files sent by the Klingons?"

[Ensign Tora Zalos|Science Lab|USS Challenger]

It broke Tora's heart to see the young Bajoran cadet standing in the middle of the lab, unsure of what to do and presumably scared, too. That young girl probably hadn't asked to sign up with Starfleet, just to encounter a situation like this where she might just join the Prophets in their wormhole before she'd gotten the chance to actually earn her first pip.

That meant she had a duty to make the time she spent here meaningful - as meaningful as possible barring the unpleasant, of course.

"The help is appreciated, cadet. Join me over here please?" Tora smiled warmly and let the cadet approach her on her own. She didn't know how she felt about her people - there were some new Bajorans born after the Occupation, after all -but it was always respectful to let people approach and cross (or not) those boundaries on their own. "There's not a lot in here, really. The Klingons' old encounters with the Kinshaya are mostly in combat. What we know so far is that the Kinshaya think of them as demons - and that they're highly, highly religious." It was then she realized that, maybe, just maybe, they were cutting it a bit too close to what'd just happened between their peoples only so long ago. "I'll pass you the datafiles-"

"I have something." Tora's eyes turned to the Gorn ensign that stomped out of one of the other labs and through the door - she held a PADD in her hands while glancing around the room with mournful yellow eyes. "Go on, Ss'tiva, what've you got?" Tora asked. "Sorry for the intrusion. We've found a plant compound that soaks into the skin and targets the muscles directly, resulting in spasms and loss of motor function for up to seventy-two hours..." A long, hissing sigh escaped her jaws. "We aren't going to need something of this scale until push comes to shove, right?" The Gorn added mournfully.

[Ian Galloway]

[Bridge - USS Challenger]

Ian gripped the arms of the command chair tightly as the ship rocked yet again from Kinshaya fire. The Starfleet ships had acquitted themselves well against the globe ships having disabled a half dozen at the cost of the Tarhe and the Rainier limping away badly damaged by the initial encircling attack of the Kinshaya. Once the Federation ships recognized the tactic, Commodore Soro came up with the simple counter of just maintaining a line and never allowing any of the ships under her command to be isolated long enough to be encircled again.

Now, the bulk of the fighting was almost like sailing ships of the line trading broadsides which had resulted in a stalemate. With the battle less furious than it had been before, Ian had time to do more than issue evasion or firing orders. He did wish he could have seen the Kinshaya captain's expression when he had Challenger snap roll into a split-ess to evade encirclement. This was not a maneuver for large ships, but Ardy and pulled it off flawlessly. It seemed their time in Kunming had paid off when it counted. Ian had just taken a deep breath to keep himself focused when he got a ping on the command chair from Lieutenant Randall in science.

"Sir, we've made a couple useful discoveries regarding the Kinshaya."

"Do tell Lieutenant."

"We've noted a sensitivity to very high sonic frequencies over 5,000 cycles. Properly focused, this really seems to have the potential to scramble their neurogenic pathways."

"That seems like it would be a useful counter-boardin' weapon."

"Aye Sir, our other discovery is a plant based toxin that when inhaled, shuts down autonomic functions. As this is highly lethal, I don't know if we want to go down that road."

Ian wasn't too concerned about the moral aspects of such a weapon, he was more concerned with a delivery mechanism. He replied to Randall.

"Get with Ops, tie in Engineerin' if necessary and see if'n you can figure out a way to deliver this toxin. I will contact Commodore Soro ta see what she thinks."

"Aye Sir."

"Ops patch me into Commodore Soro, secure channel, eyes only."

This new weapon was a game changer, but if used, knowing the Klingons, they would exploit the discovery to exterminate the Kinshaya and that was a burden Ian was not willing to carry.

[Jettis Jyur]

[ Bridge - USS Challenger ]

The battle began in earnest, and Jettis found himself on the bridge, gripping the edges of his console tightly. Every station was operating at high capacity, and science was no exception.

With a collaboration between Operations and Science, they had managed to find two possible counter measures. However, a lot of things remained disturbingly unknown. Jettis took as many snapshots of the ship as he could, analyzing the type of weaponry, and attempted to get a read on how many might be on any given ship.

Even one boarding the Challenger would be a devastating threat. But given the size of the ships, he had a sickening hunch there might be enough in just one ship to cripple their entire roster.

[Zhukdrashar Mrekrerhas]

[Bridge]

"Roger that. Moving in!" she barked to the rest of the bridge "You want fancy flying? You got it!"

Her fingers flew across the console with the grace of a piano player as the Challenger entered the fray, weaving through the misty haze of the nebula and out into the wide open. Game time.

The ship danced through the fray, shearing past one of the spheres to give Zhuk a chance to hit it hard and give the Rainier a chance to breathe from the onslaught.

"Nice shot!" she crowed to Zhuk as she veered the Challenger around for another chance to fire.

"Let me know if you see any weakness in their ships," she said to the bridge as she dodged and weaved through showers of enemy fire.

[Bridge - USS Challenger]

Ian gripped the arms of the command chair tightly as the ship rocked yet again from Kinshaya fire. The Starfleet ships had acquitted themselves well against the globe ships having disabled a half dozen at the cost of the Tarhe and the Rainier limping away badly damaged by the initial encircling attack of the Kinshaya. Once the Federation ships recognized the tactic, Commodore Soro came up with the simple counter of just maintaining a line and never allowing any of the ships under her command to be isolated long enough to be encircled again.

Now, the bulk of the fighting was almost like sailing ships of the line trading broadsides which had resulted in a stalemate. With the battle less furious than it had been before, Ian had time to do more than issue evasion or firing orders. He did wish he could have seen the Kinshaya captain's expression when he had Challenger snap roll into a split-ess to evade encirclement. This was not a maneuver for large ships, but Ardy and pulled it off flawlessly. It seemed their time in Kunming had paid off when it counted. Ian had just taken a deep breath to keep himself focused when he got a ping on the command chair from Lieutenant Randall in science.

"Sir, we've made a couple useful discoveries regarding the Kinshaya."

"Do tell Lieutenant."

"We've noted a sensitivity to very high sonic frequencies over 5,000 cycles. Properly focused, this really seems to have the potential to scramble their neurogenic pathways."

"That seems like it would be a useful counter-boardin' weapon."

"Aye Sir, our other discovery is a plant based toxin that when inhaled, shuts down autonomic functions. As this is highly lethal, I don't know if we want to go down that road."

Ian wasn't too concerned about the moral aspects of such a weapon, he was more concerned with a delivery mechanism. He replied to Randall.

"Get with Ops, tie in Engineerin' if necessary and see if'n you can figure out a way to deliver this toxin. I will contact Commodore Soro ta see what she thinks."

"Aye Sir."

"Ops patch me into Commodore Soro, secure channel, eyes only."

This new weapon was a game changer, but if used, knowing the Klingons, they would exploit the discovery to exterminate the Kinshaya and that was a burden Ian was not willing to carry.

[Lieutenant Commander Zhukdra'shar Mrekrerhas | Bridge | Deck One | USS Challenger NCC-40117-A | Klingon/Kinshaya Border]

Zhuk smirked at hearing Ardy compliment his shooting. Her smooth, yet skilled flying certainly was doing wonders for his aim, as even with the Tactical Console, he did not particularly feel as if he was an ace in space combat. All the training he had endured up to this point was also certainly helping.

"Quite the dauntless flight, Lieutenant! Keep at it!"

After a moment of hesitation, Zhuk finally replied, hoping that the Captain wouldn't mind much the unusual response from him, considering he was mostly quiet during his shifts in the Bridge - unless spoken to. Nonetheless, Zhuk did not let the Kinshaya globe ships any breathing room, as he fired constant volleys of phaser fire at them, even firing the aft turrets and arrays when the situation allowed it. Of course, not every one of them hit, but enough to cause damage to the enemy ship. He used the torpedoes more sparingly, ensuring he had aimed correctly before firing so as not to waste the warheads unnecessarily. He kept a mix of photon and quantum warheads ready, sometimes using the photon ones to detonate the Kinshaya's own targeted missiles that threatened the USS Challenger. Such events, of course, were rare as the USS Challenger proved to be surprisingly nimble in space.

[Kyan Mackenzie]

Commander Kyan Mackenzie | Bridge, USS Challenger]

Now this was what kept Kyan in Starfleet. Sure the grups would go on and on about exploration and science and whatever else they were about. They could have all that. For Kyan, this was the reward for suffering through the diplomatic missions and the cataloging gaseous anomalies and the other boring stuff. Battles! Adventures! And Galloway even liked to listen to music while they did it. The only thing missing was getting to fire the weapons himself. But he couldn't have all the fun right? The Onlie spared a glance over at Zhuk, who was busy hammering the Kinshaya's black globe ships whenever one got close enough. He could tell by the swish of his tail that the Caitian was enjoying himself, which made him grin. If he had to give up the job, it was some solace to know that the one who took over was good at it... and liked doing it.

Sure. They might all get killed by the Kinshaya... some probably would. But Kyan reckoned that if they got him,then he'd just go to the Summerlands and be reunited with his da and all the other cool people that already went. And he could tell old Korgon that they went out fighting the Kinshaya, which he would definitely appreciate. And they might even make a song about it. All in all... not a bad way to go out if you wanted Kyan's opinion on it.

Since Zhuk and Ardy were good at their jobs, and Galloway wasn't a half bad tactician himself... certainly not some boffin captain who was gonna get everyone blown up...Kyan found himself able to watch the rest of the crew. Jettis and Wu had both seen a lot of battles, so they were used to it. But there were a lot of new people. Like the Cadet at the auxiliary tactical station, who kept looking over his shoulder at the big display on the main viewer.

In a fleet-on-fleet situation like this tactical was a two or three person job. On a Defiant or similar-sized ship, there was a single tactical station and one person. But On a cruiser like Challenger, a second person could be utilized. This allowed for the Chief tactical officer to focus on offensive maneuvers and carrying out the Captain's orders. Usually, the chief was responsible for the nine to three o'clock area, and the auxiliary officer watched the three to nine. On bigger ships it could be broken down further. Coordinating with friendly vessels was also a duty that could be passed down to the second tactical officer, which Kyan had always preferred to do so that he could focus on blasting the enemies. He didn't know if Zhuk felt the same way.

The next time the Cadet turned to look at the tactical display, Challenger shuddered from a hit on her aft shields. The POI shielding dispersed most of the impact. Kyan hopped out of his heat and made his way over.

"What's yer name?" He asked the distracted cadet.

"Morgan sir. Uhh... Wes Mo...Cadet Wes Morgan, from Earth." he answered, refocusing on his station after glancing over at Kyan, who stood at his left shoulder. It was plain to see that he was nervous, and as green as a leaf in the middle of the summer. The single elongated pip on his collar said that he was a first year cadet, which meant that he wasn't long out of high school. He was also Human, which Kyan could see now, since he didn't have spots, nose ridges, or black eyes indicating one of the species that looked mostly human but weren't. His curly brown hair was wet with sweat, even though it really wasn't hot on the bridge.

"Aye.. Mister Morgan." Kyan answered. "Is this yer first fight?"

Morgan nodded. "Yessir." Then he hurriedly added..."but I got really good scores on the simulator."

"Simulators is good, but real life's different." Kyan replied. "Ye cannae be distracted. Every time yer looking up there.." he indicated the viewscreen, "its our arse yer leaving in the wind."

"Aye sir." came the abashed reply.

Kyan looked at his console. "Have ye hit one yet?"

"Sir?"

"The Kinshaya. Have ye shot any of em yet?"

"I've been uhh...." Morgan paused... "Well I was..."

"It's distracted ye was an no mistake. Ok... look! See there? That one that on the aft port quarter, he's trying tae flank us. Blast him."

Morgan hesitated. Then he began aiming at the flanking sphere.

"Today'd be the best time ta be doing it."

"Right... " The flustered cadet finally got his target lock and fired two torpedoes from the aft launcher. One hit, the other missed.

"Hit him again." Kyan replied. "An this time be quick about it. Yer after bein perfect so ye are. But bein quick is better the now since there's lots of targets. Hurry up and hit him."

Morgan nodded and fired two more volleys in quick succession. Most of them hit and the sphere veered off, abandoning it's objective. The young human caught himself mid-whoop and glanced over at the Onlie peering over his shoulder.

"Good job Mister Morgan." Kyan grinned. "Now whenever one of them wankers gets a mind ta try and go up our arse again, you make em think twice on it. An if any of em get a shot off, you use the phasers an shoot it down. And if ye miss, We got more phasers and torpedoes. Keep shootin til he gives up or blows up. And dinna be looking at the main viewer."

"Aye sir."

"Ok." Kyan clapped him on the back. "Stay on em."

Kyan left him to it and made his way back over to his chair. When he had seared himself again, he noticed the same Kinshaya trying to flank them again. Glancing back at Morgan he saw the cadet focused on his console, likely prepping to fire a few torpedoes. A moment later the Challenger unleashed a volley or torpedoes from her aft launcher. Three seconds later the icon representing the Kinshaya vessel blinked out of existence.

"Yes! Yes! See that? I got him!" Morgan yelled excitedly from his station.

Kyan grinned before looking over at Ian. He shrugged. "It's his first one."

[Ardyn Jaeger - Wu]

[Bridge]

'Heh, you know it!"

Ardy smirked as Zhuk caused a brilliant explosion along one of the flanks of the ship, but the moment couldn't last forever. The ship shook as the Challenger took a round of heavy fire, some kind of torpedo.  They could handle the hit for now, She just had to keep running. Keep the ship flying.  "I'm moving in for another round! " she shouted to Zhuk,  sending the ship into a bit of a dive before  turning into a spin, leaving the ship in a good enough spot to fire.  They were holding the line for now.

"How's it looking for the ship?" she asked the others on the bridge.

Suddenly, she heard the comms chatter flare up.

" This is Rainier to the fleet. We are under heavy fire now! We need help!"

One look at the scanners showed her enough; They had caught the other ship in a pincer move. She mentally readied her flightpath. [As Oyari Sedaya]

[Science labs]

The cadet nodded to Aarwendil as she began to look through the notes they had made concerning the Kinshaya's biology. A very strong-seeming species, who definitely looked like they were rather tough beings

Seeing the Cardassian woman, she froze and stiffened, just a little bit, before taking the documents provided and smiled in return, cautiously. She had heard  horror stories from her parents, but the scientist didn't seem to be too hostile. Actually,  the opposite. And right now, she knew that there was a lot more at stake than to let old enemies flare up. Something to deal with later, for sure. She nodded and got respectfully closer.  not too close, but enough to discuss with the others

"Thank you; I appreciate it." said the young cadet, taking the PADD. given what limited autopsy data they had, these beings vere very tough.

Then the Gorn science lady spoke. This plant toxin could be rather potent to the Kinshaya? That was news!

"That's great! Do you think it can be aerosolized?  if it's diluted enough,  they might breathe it in and get put out of commission and  that could be a really efficient way to capture them.   Just in case they might come on here?", she asked , before the ship jolted roughly, sending the science panels flickering.

Oyari, we need you down here in medbay."

She had to go.

"On it. Just  finishing working with the science labs on something and I'll be down as soon as I can "

[ShranLahr ch'Verret]

CPO ShranLahr ch'Verret
[USS Challenger - Deck Two - Lounge (DCT1 muster point)] (prior to battle)

Of course, the most unexpected happenstance broke his concentration. An alert on the side of the screen, of someone accessing the Challenger's security camera system. By employing the code of the previous, and currently absent Chief Science Officer of the USS Challenger, Ruth Sigurdsdottir. Almost immediately, Zhuk's mind began to race, wondering if a vulnerability was being exploited by the Kinshaya. If they were being hacked in, spied upon. He decided against telling the Captain, however, instead deciding to take a moment to investigate who had accessed the cameras, and from where.
A quick search led him to a culprit in Deck Two, and the P.A.D.D. it was being accessed from. Zhuk let out a soft chuckle, but did not send a warning to his friend. Instead, he quickly prepared a message for him, and then deleted the alert from the console. The Caitian was relieved that the Kinshaya were not behind this. Of course, he was slightly miffed due to the scare, but all in all, if Lahr wished to see the battle first hand, he would not deny him the opportunity.

"I see you. Do not worry. Carry on."

When notification of Zhuk's message to him flashed up on his screen, Lahr tapped the message open and for a moment was baffled.  He glanced about but didn't see the Caitian anywhere about.  In fact, by closing the message he could see Zhuk at his security console.  Then it realization struck.  OH CRAP!  He'd been found out... but wait... the message said not to worry and to carry on.

Lahr's face broke out into a grin and his antennae perked up.  The Chief of Security knew about his misuse of command authorization code and yet was seemingly fine with it.  Sweet!

[Short while later..]

[Bridge - USS Challenger]
"Jaeger, take us in ta the Rainier hot. Full impulse. Standby ta do summat the ship is nae designed ta do.
"Zhuk. Target the closest globe, hit it early, hit it often, smack them so hard their Mama cries about it!"
...
It was at this moment that Ian realized he'd forgotten something. Something very important.

"Ops, broadcast Scotland the Brave on all channels."

The Challenger roared her defiance, just as she always did when going to battle and this made Ian smile.

On his PADD, Lahr watched as the fleet engaged the Klingon's enemies.  There was near silence on the Bridge as the officers manning the bridge stations reacted to the Captain's orders.  The comms too were quiet as the first flurry of weapons first was exchanged.  It felt wrong and Lahr's antennae sagged at feeling the impact of the enemy fire on the shields.

Then like a crucial ingredient in a failproof recipe, Lahr heard the Captain call for Scotland the Brave.  The unmistakeable wail of bagpipes was played over the comms, both internally at reasonable levels and externally towards the Kinshaya at top volume.  Lahr smiled wistfully - remembering the days when it was he who sounded the ship's banner song.  "Aye Captain."

The Andorian tapped on his PADD and set up a playlist of all his Scotland the Brave remixes.  He then send this to his ear buds as the first of the repair requests came across his PADD.  Time to get to work!

[A little later...]

[Bridge - USS Challenger]

Ian gripped the arms of the command chair tightly as the ship rocked yet again from Kinshaya fire. The Starfleet ships had acquitted themselves well against the globe ships having disabled a half dozen at the cost of the Tarhe and the Rainier limping away badly damaged by the initial encircling attack of the Kinshaya. Once the Federation ships recognized the tactic, Commodore Soro came up with the simple counter of just maintaining a line and never allowing any of the ships under her command to be isolated long enough to be encircled again.

Now, the bulk of the fighting was almost like sailing ships of the line trading broadsides which had resulted in a stalemate. With the battle less furious than it had been before, Ian had time to do more than issue evasion or firing orders. He did wish he could have seen the Kinshaya captain's expression when he had Challenger snap roll into a split-ess to evade encirclement. This was not a maneuver for large ships, but Ardy and pulled it off flawlessly. It seemed their time in Kunming had paid off when it counted. Ian had just taken a deep breath to keep himself focused when he got a ping on the command chair from Lieutenant Randall in science.

Lahr was in the Jeffries which ran alongside the Bridge.  He'd been assigned to look into and repair the power output to the main viewscreen which sensors were showing to be overheating.    Lahr had a tiny portable fan pointed towards the part, attempting to keep it cool enough that power wouldn't be disrupted.