The Big Snake of the Night Sky

[Kirok]

[Space near the station]

May 1 2399 - 12:33 am

One by one they started to arrive.  Small ships.  Barely larger than shuttle crafts.

They quietly studied the station.  By 3 am there was subspace chatter between the ships.  At 6 am, then the warning came.

"Station, this is Alpha Adrai.  You must move away from this path.  Or we will destroy you"  Then they began to power their weapon.

The night station crew responded according.  They put up shields and alerted the senior staff and day crew.  Then they went to yellow alert and told Alpha they needs some time to respond.

[Serena King]

[Katra Station | Main Engineering (approx 6:15am)]

"Alright, focus!"

Serena pulled a sweat soaked hair out of her eyes as she charged into Engineering, trying to control her breathing. Cohabitating with Gideon had its up and downsides. Two self assured Starfleet Officers who had made it a competition between themselves to be the first out the door. Oh, the alert had her charging out of bed first, although he beat her out the door only by two seconds. The two detached professionals wished the other well, then headed off for their respective duty stations.

The corridors and turbolifts were all packed, so she'd taken some shortcuts through Jeffries tubes and maintenance areas. More and more Engineers were arriving, but no one was senior to her, so she picked a console near the master systems display. The night crew didn't have much information yet, but that was fine. From her now familiar gold utility uniform, she grabbed an isolinear optical chip from a pocket and inserted it into the console. "Tracert on!"

Her custom program ran, giving her a "health diagram" of the entire station: She was able to measure how much and "fast" power and data was moving through the station, much like a person's blood flow, amount of oxygenation and testing reflexes and senses. "Spalding, Deck 16, ODN node Gamma is underperforming by 3%! Zhai, Deck 6, EPS node Epsilon is down a two percentage points! Gardner, Deck 11, EPS node Beta is showing it's overperforming at 108%, check the flow sensors!" The three named Engineers headed out to their assignments as others took their places at consoles.

The MSD showed green lights across the board. "All systems nominal, Engineering good to go."

[Gideon Drake]

[Ensign Gideon "Gryphon/Griff" Drake | Junior Commissioned Officer Quarters | Deck Five | Katra Station]

The yellow alert woke Griff in his bed and he blinked in surprise. He wondered what the bloody hell was going on.

He looked over, handsomely shirtless as he was, then looked over at his girlfriend. He and Serena had taken their relationship further in the six weeks since the ceremony. Now they lived in quarters together, though it made sense, given these were quarters for junior commissioned officers, designed for two. Though they have as of late slept in the same bed.

Now, with the yellow alert, he scrambled out and put on his uniform as fast as he could. He wasn't surprised that he would likely wake Serena.

"Morning," he said when she woke. "Yellow alert. We need to scarper to work."

By the time they were fully clad in uniform, Griff offered with a smile, their usual routine, "Race you to the door?"

Of course, he beat her to the door, though it was understandable that he often lost to her. He was a good gentleman, of course; he knew that praise made friends, while gloating only makes enemies.

[Ensign Gideon "Gryphon/Griff" Drake | Operational Control Center | Deck One | Katra Station]

In no time at all, Griff had gotten to the OCC, wondering what was going on. He saw the three wee craft and raised an eyebrow almost as high as a Vulcan can do. Most such craft wouldn't be regarded as a threat. Of course, this was the Gamma Quadrant after all; Jem'Hadar attack ships were small but, under certain circumstances, can easily hand its thrice-as-big opponent its arse. In short, small ships could make for one bloody hell of a threat.

Griff looked around, particularly for his departmental head, for orders on what to do.

[Hrafn Falleg]

[Space near the station]

May 1 2399 - 12:33 am

One by one they started to arrive.  Small ships.  Barely larger than shuttle crafts.

They quietly studied the station.  By 3 am there was subspace chatter between the ships.  At 6 am, then the warning came.

"Station, this is Alpha Adrai.  You must move away from this path.  Or we will destroy you"  Then they began to power their weapon.

The night station crew responded according.  They put up shields and alerted the senior staff and day crew.  Then they went to yellow alert and told Alpha they needs some time to respond.

[OCC - Katra Station May 1st 2399, 0610hrs]

Yawning, having taken the night shift from one of her staff who was looking after a poorly child, it was a surprise to be woken from her slumber by a call, and then to be alerted to the fact that the station was at Yellow Alert.  Thankfully the shift she'd taken from her colleague was only 'babysitting' an experiment down in Lab 2, so she hadn't had to do much bar record observations every 2 hours.

Now with mug of Ratkajino in hand she arrived to take her own shift in the OCC, smiled around at those on duty, some still waiting for the Alpha Shift to take over, some who were on the 'brownie points' honour roll for getting in early.  She relieved the person at Sciences who was a young crewman and wasn't sure what was going on... it had obviously been a long night for them and she just patted them on the shoulder, and gave a small jerk of the head.  All her staff were trained to keep up to the minute notes so she would just read that and let the poor kid get some rest.

"Someone want to bring me up to speed? I know that we have some 'friends' out there...Anyone?... someone who isn't half dead on their feet?!" she asked, putting on her brightest smile and hoping that the bags under her eyes weren't too obvious, but waving the large coffee mug for all to see and anyone who knew her would know when this mug was out, it was a case of 'Tread warily, harassed mother running on fumes!'.

[Ensign Gideon "Gryphon/Griff" Drake | Operational Control Center | Deck One | Katra Station]

In no time at all, Griff had gotten to the OCC, wondering what was going on. He saw the three wee craft and raised an eyebrow almost as high as a Vulcan can do. Most such craft wouldn't be regarded as a threat. Of course, this was the Gamma Quadrant after all; Jem'Hadar attack ships were small but, under certain circumstances, can easily hand its thrice-as-big opponent its arse. In short, small ships could make for one bloody hell of a threat.

Griff looked around, particularly for his departmental head, for orders on what to do.

"Morning Mr. Drake, anything you know of these vessels surrounding the station? I don't know what Captain Kirok's stand on food and drink in the OCC is but until I see him to ask, feel free to grab yourself one.  I've been up all night covering a shift already and this is my shift, isn't the first, won't be the last time... "

[Kyan Mackenzie]

:: Katra Station | OOC ::

~ 0615 hours

It had been a long night. First there was a fight between two shop owners at the Brauhaus Gamma, and one wanted to press charges against the other. Kyan hadn't been asleep for that one, but it had taken an hour to file everything and get the whole situation sorted.

Then two hours later, there was the Dosi freighter which one of the security crewmen had discovered was smuggling a small amount of Kemocite. Kyan had been asleep when that call came in, and it took forever to resolve. In the end, the Freighter captain ended up in the brig as well and his ship was on lockdown until it could be searched, which was going to be this morning, but now there was this whole mystery yellow alert thing happening.

All in all, Kyan was running on two and a half, non-consecutive hours of sleep when the lift doors parted and deposited a bleary eyed, crimson haired, half zombie in the OOC. He squinted as he peered around the deck and found saw Hrafn and Ensign Drake near the science station. He also saw that on the viewscreen were several tiny ships in what he recognized even through his half shut eyes to be an attack formation. That!?, he thought. That's why I'm woke up!? Three little shuttles?

He made his way over to Hrafn and Drake, mumbling a greeting that came out more like a grunt, then... "Sure and if we just kill them off before everyone else gets here, can we go back tae sleep?

[Kirok]

[Captain's Quarters]

Dillion was on his feet first.  Standing in the bed.  Howling with the sound of the klaxon.

"I'm awake.  Calm down.  I'll have it turned off as soon as I am able" Kirok said.

He rose from the bed.  Headed straight for his closet.  Then changed into the first uniform within his reach.

[OCC - Sec/Tac officer on night duty]

Before Mr. Drake could reply the officer at the sec/tac station gave the report.  "I believe the ships are associated with the Drai.  The database also called the 'Hunters.'  The ships, though many, don't really pose an offensive threat to the station.  But they do have some transport equipment that in the past allowed them to cut threw shields on DS9.  So I would suggest continuously modifying the frequency of our shield to avoid them beaming onto the station" he said to Falleg.

"Morning, Sir.  You can have the duty station" he added for Kyan.  He stood ready to give up the station, but did not wish to abandoned it until he was authorized too.

[Sirol]

< Katra Station / Simulation Lab >
[May 1 2399 / 0600 ]

The ever present, low pitched humming of the station's machinery was almost even like an odd piece of music in her ears. Most people tended to naturally tune out to spaceship and starbase sounds after a while, and Sirol had always assumed that she did as well. That was until she had set foot on Klingon and Federation vessels and soon learned that each strand of technology; materials used and even power sources themself tended to create their very own sort of white noise symphony.
While Sirol's hearing could certainly not compete with the precision of an Engineer's ear [Engine-ear?] when it came to identifying those noises, she still could appreciate the fine differences that helped setting the mood.

The mood for the second iteration of her Simulation Lab.

In the middle of the room was a roughly hexagonal workstation - to be accessed by multiple persons at once - with a holographic emitter in the centre - once again able to be accessed and used from any direction. It further served as the default light source for the otherwise dark and Reman-friendly room by emitting a blue-is/purple column of light vertically exiting the centre of the hexagon.

Behind the central console, attached to the wall was a larger, secondary screen, almost even resembling those to be found in an astrometrics lab.
As of now, it was displaying Sirol's current work schedule.
On top of it was a round shield, bearing  a - yet unknown - seal.

Around the main console were a few chairs (as apparently Starfleet appreciated every possible chance to take a seat and Sirol wanted to cater to that audience - far enough away from her console so they would not be in her way when working...), as well as secondary workstations and containment areas enclosed by smaller force fields.

One of those containment areas as of now was active, bearing what looked like an ancient alien longsword. Another - currently inactive - containment station offered room to a box containing Sirol's collection of model space ships. She had not yet taken the time to arrange them somewhere, she wanted to have the place fully operational before she started detailed furnishing.

Near the entrance of the lab were two shelves, both filled with various alien artefacts from the Alpha, Beta and Gamma-quadrant. And while not necessarily all of them were originals, they did serve the very real purpose of illustration and reference"¦
Such as the impressive replica of a Breen Adaptation Suit, which stood in front of one of the shelves - almost even appearing like a person looking at the artefacts.
Sirol had replicated it a while ago based on transporter logs, and - once her studies and theoretical extrapolations had been concluded - simply kept it with the other bits.

The pride of her laboratory though was not immediately visible.
Next to the secondary wall screen was a little alcove, leading into a room roughly half as big as the lab. A room that could be fully quarantined when necessary, and which would allow Sirol and other members of the science staff to engage with life forms dependent on other environmental conditions than those to be usually found aboard Katra. She could easily house - say - aquatic or gaseous life forms for study, without causing them any damage.

It was her first official work day in her newly restored and updated laboratory, and while she was still on light duty, that was no excuse for her to not deliver the best possible performance.
She had no appointments or projects as of now, so she took the time to do a little bit of everything"¦

The yellow alert the station had been under ever since she had woken up invited for some further investigation, and once upon accessing the sensor logs, Sirol could second-hand read about the Station having been attacked by"¦ Shuttles?!
Odd"¦ But so far there was no noticeable imminent threat, so she left this riddle for the staff in the OCC. For now.
Instead she resorted to yet another one of her own agendas: Assembling a list of potential candidates for the next steps of her very own private "˜endeavour'. She still needed a capable mind to assist her with her plans of re-creating the phasic anomaly that led to the phasic passageway back to the Trialus anomaly"¦

Her Laboratory doors however were wide open - just the way she had learned and adapted it from Hrafn and her policy of welcoming input within her own office.

She was certainly willing and welcoming to assist, if one of her fellow Katraneers needed her hand or her mind for any potential new science project"¦

[Don Damien Addams]

[Katra Kal quarters and to OCC]

Kal was sitting there in his quarters. He was hooked up recharging his life box in his chest. Sleep had vanished from him. He saw his reflection in the training window he had against the wall. He saw his dark brown eyes staring right in his soul.

He was angry. Angry at his forsaken parents! And even more angry at his mother! Not sure how the biosignatures had failed to register him as half-betazoid and the other half was human.

What he had learned was that his mother was a scientist. She had liked to babble in DNA structure and do things. He was not sure why his mother and his father abandoned him with their Godparents.

He snorted at the reflection. He yanked the cord out the socket in his life box which kept him alive from stirring trouble long time ago. How he wished he had died then. Glory to die having no news of his mother. He growled again and shook his head.

He learned his mom had remarried a Betazoid who both seem to have an interest in science. Shazam and Cazham had approached him one day to speak to him. That moment of the day he had two counselors who wanted to talk to him. They explained it was not but a personal matter.

They told him they were half brothers and they were triplets. Haitham was on Discovery. Three half brothers from his mother but a different father. This made him furious!

He learned that his mother was working with her husband to save a planet from a plagued population. The population had no females. His own mother who was his own blood had manipulated science to create females to save the planet. It had failed. Even his new half brothers don't know more information.

They were hoping to get information from Kal  about their mother. That had mad Kal angry. The Half-Betazoid half-human who was raised by Klingons told them to get away. Ever since he was in a  very sour mood.

He had looked up to see the yellow which means something had to have the crew on their feet. He grabbed his clothes and pulled them on. And stopped to look at his sash. He can't seem to see it as honor now. To him it was a reminder what his mother did to his life. She abandoned him! For what? Some exotic science experiment to save planets and he meant NOTHING to them. He grabbed the sash and threw it across the room.

THE HELL WITH THEM!

Kal left his quarters mad as hell and stepped in the turbolift and corridors to get to the OOC Station.

He came scorning and he stared at the screen. "œThey can be armed to the teeth! Size should not be taken," he harshly said. The staff would know he had no sash on.  "Small pebble can  shatter many windows with one hit!"

[Kirok]

[Crew Quarters - Zex]

Zex yawned as she work.  Miracle was still sound asleep in the bed beside her.  She stroked the kitty's head.

Then looked for Sirol.  Her roomie was no where to be found.  An early risers that one.

So the Deltan got up.  Showered and dressed.  Then headed to the OCC.

[OCC - EQ Kimball]

EQ entered the OCC right after Kal.  He had been at the gym working out before his shift.  "Sirs" he said a loud one time, covering all the officers in one short greeting.

He moved to his station and logged in.  The Hunter's ships were gnat sized in comparison to the station and the threat analysis was low.  Still he pushed more power to the shields as they were likely going to need it.

[Gideon Drake]

[OCC - Sec/Tac officer on night duty]

Before Mr. Drake could reply the officer at the sec/tac station gave the report.  "I believe the ships are associated with the Drai.  The database also called the 'Hunters.'  The ships, though many, don't really pose an offensive threat to the station.  But they do have some transport equipment that in the past allowed them to cut threw shields on DS9.  So I would suggest continuously modifying the frequency of our shield to avoid them beaming onto the station" he said to Falleg.

"Morning, Sir.  You can have the duty station" he added for Kyan.  He stood ready to give up the station, but did not wish to abandoned it until he was authorized too.

[Ensign Gideon "Gryphon/Griff" Drake | Operational Control Center | Deck One | Katra Station]

Griff could see some of the senior staff gathering. Before he could so much as ask, the sec/tac officer in charge, clearly of the night shift, explained.

"Hunters, eh?" he said. "Cut through shields? Blimey. They've got wee craft, but sounds like they're capable of causing trouble. After all, this is the Gamma Quadrant, mate...sir," he added, quickly correcting himself, as he was on duty. "Even if they aren't Jem'Hadar."

He continued looking at the craft. He could easily imagine leading them off on a merry chase on his Squall, the new Starship Seleya could be overkill...though, this being the Gamma Quadrant, overkill may have to be in order. He looked around, awaiting orders.

[Kyan Mackenzie]

[OCC - Sec/Tac officer on night duty]

Before Mr. Drake could reply the officer at the sec/tac station gave the report.  "I believe the ships are associated with the Drai.  The database also called the 'Hunters.'  The ships, though many, don't really pose an offensive threat to the station.  But they do have some transport equipment that in the past allowed them to cut threw shields on DS9.  So I would suggest continuously modifying the frequency of our shield to avoid them beaming onto the station" he said to Falleg.

"Morning, Sir.  You can have the duty station" he added for Kyan.  He stood ready to give up the station, but did not wish to abandoned it until he was authorized too.

"Aye mate, you're relieved the now. But stay ready. Ye may be called on tae help swat some gnats." Kyan replied, looking down at the tactical display for himself and seeing that there were dozens more of the small ships than he saw on the viewscreen.

No sooner than he'd taken the security station from the night shifter and jacked up the chair to an acceptable height, a very surly Kal Jim'rec  spoke up.

He came scorning and he stared at the screen. "œThey can be armed to the teeth! Size should not be taken," he harshly said. The staff would know he had no sash on.  "Small pebble can  shatter many windows with one hit!"

Kyan looked over at him from the tactical station. He wasn't yet awake enough to respond properly to height jokes, if that was what Kal had meant, but just seeing his face, even through the fog of exhaustion, Kyan could tell that he was off. But there wasn't time to address that here and now, and he wasn't really eager to do so anyway, not being a counselor type, so he ignored it. "And by the Lord and Lady that's a fine point you'd be makin Mister Jim'rec." he responded instead. "Which is why I'll need ya to be monitoring the shields now and set them to so the pygmies cannae be breakin no windows so.." Then he turned to Drake and Hrafn. "And have they said anything yet?"

[Kirok]

"Aye mate, you're relieved the now. But stay ready. Ye may be called on tae help swat some gnats." Kyan replied, looking down at the tactical display for himself and seeing that there were dozens more of the small ships than he saw on the viewscreen.

No sooner than he'd taken the security station from the night shifter and jacked up the chair to an acceptable height, a very surly Kal Jim'rec  spoke up.

Kyan looked over at him from the tactical station. He wasn't yet awake enough to respond properly to height jokes, if that was what Kal had meant, but just seeing his face, even through the fog of exhaustion, Kyan could tell that he was off. But there wasn't time to address that here and now, and he wasn't really eager to do so anyway, not being a counselor type, so he ignored it. "And by the Lord and Lady that's a fine point you'd be makin Mister Jim'rec." he responded instead. "Which is why I'll need ya to be monitoring the shields now and set them to so the pygmies cannae be breakin no windows so.." Then he turned to Drake and Hrafn. "And have they said anything yet?"

[OCC]

Kirok and Dillon walked onto the OCC just as Kyan asked his question.  Dillion was on a leash, and followed behind the half Vulcan.   Kirok walked to the central station and dropped Dillons leash.

[OCC - Sec/Tac officer on night duty]

"All they have said is to move the station.  Or they would destroy us" the sec/tac officer replied.  "I don't think they can do any damage to the station.  But they may be able to board us if they can somehow match identically the continuous changes in our shield frequency.  That's unlikely to happy any time soon" he said.

Dillon had dropped to the floor after his leash was dropped.  "Very well.  Please open a channel" Kirok said as he turned and faced the holographic projector.

[Kyle Briggs]

[In route to OCC]

Being in a new posting was taking Kyle some time to get adjusted to so he was actually up and wide awake when the Katra's warning systems began to blare. He took up his coffee and the PADD he was using to write Lisa a message and quickly changed the screen over to read the incoming reports. He entered a lift and made his way to the Command Center.

"Are these guys for real?" he asked as the doors parted and he walked out.

He looked around and saw that Captain Kirok was already present.

"Nice work on the shield shifting." he said to the night security officer before approaching the CO.

"Do they really think it's that's easy to fire up the engines and move this beast?" he asked rhetorically. He took a sip of his coffee. "These more friends of yours or are we making new ones already?" he said in reference to the two of them not having been there long.

[Don Damien Addams]

[Katra - OCC]

Kal nodded to the little warrior. "Yes, sir," he replied. He manned the shield station. All seems fine. That would still mean they can fail, lose power or anything of the matter could go wrong.

Dillion gave a small growl at Kal before he settle down to rest on the floor. The dog smelled scent of a cat on Kal. Miracle had sneaked out to visit Kal which he told it to leave. Miracle had came back to Zex without her knowing it.

[Serena King]

[Katra Station | Engineering]

"It can't be that simple... Can it?"

Serena King stood and arched her back for a few seconds, stretching her arms, then letting them fall to the sides, the tension slowly draining. When her eyes opened, she looked somewhat similar to a predator, ready to pounce. "Don't focus on their problems, focus on our limitations." Her hands flew over the console as she brought up technical manuals and readouts at a rapid rate, then bolted for the exit.

[Katra Station | OCC]

Serena strode into the OCC with a purpose. Although she spotted Gideon out of the corner of her eye, she ignored him for the moment as she approached Kirok and Kyle. Nodding affably, she stood at attention in her standard gold utility uniform. "Sirs, I believe I have figured out their shields and transporter trick. Without empirical evidence, I can't back up my findings nor test it, but I have a fair degree of confidence in my findings."