Temporal Shenanigans

Posted on Wed Mar 1st, 2023 @ 5:39pm by Lieutenant Mila Lynn & Subcommander Kaiae t'Lien & Lieutenant Rehana t'Shaan & Five of Eight & Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Ashix Zirda & Ensign Skylar Southgate

2,887 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: Chapter VII: Into the Storm
Location: Briefing Room, Ourainavassa
Timeline: 238704.24

Mila had been delighted to hear the news that Skylar would be joining the crew. She had very much enjoyed their previous brief cooperation with the scanners, and was looking forward to working with her more. Of course, there was the fact that Captain Mannerheim had hired her for Skidbladnir, before going around the Subcommander and sending her to Ourainavassa because the Nygardian ship - obviously - did not actually have any facilities for a science officer. But Mila would not let that matter deter her from being happy to finally no longer be the only science officer on the Warbird, especially now that she had finished analysing the schematics for I.S.S. Amelia the Captain had also provided.

Thus, just as the Terran shuttlecraft Magpie was departing the hangar bay on its mission to rescue Lieutenant Arnason in the past, Lieutenant Lynn had called a meeting of the senior officers of Ourainavassa's engineering, operations and science departments, as well as the Subcommander. She had prepared some data for the engineers and Skylar to review, and some ideas on how to improve Ourainavassa's capabilities both in the short and long term, using insights gained from her analysis of the Terran vessel from the 29th century.

As she waited for the others to arrive, she already set up the holoprojector, displaying a general overview of Amelia's layout, with the words "Terran Imperial Starfleet: Klein-class Temporal Destroyer - Classified top secret" hovering threateningly above it.

Rehana's eyes lit up as she walked in and saw the Amelia's layout. "Aw, Lieutenant," she sighed. "You really shouldn't have. Oh, I'm going to enjoy looking at these plans..."

Skylar arrived, happy she wasn't first. She hated arriving first. "Ah, good. I'm not first." she thought.

She wore her lab coat, smart blouse and trousers. Sleeve cuffs slightly rolled up. Protective glasses folded into the top pocket. Ourainavassa's science department had impressed her so far. A big leap from her own lab on Eden Colony. Skylar hoped Ian wouldn't turn it into an overflow for his own, numerous projects while she was gone.

"Now this is one reason why I love being a scientist." said Skylar.

Five of Eight arrived soon after Skylar and studied the plans with interest "Interesting, most interesting," he commented.

Kaiae glanced at the information projected (and more carefully, the rest of the room and those in it) as she entered and took a seat with a barley- there incline of her head in greeting: It was, quite honestly, far from the first time she had seen another empire's secrets; though in this case she was perhaps for the first time among the intended end audience of them rather than merely the messenger.

Once everyone had settled, Mila looked around the room. "Thanks everyone for coming. I'm sure you recognise what we're looking at here." As if to illustrate, she pointed towards the window, where the real I.S.S. Amelia was visible in the distance. "Captain Mannerheim has kindly provided the basic schematics for the Klein-class, and although Amelia carries some modifications that are not included in these, such as the spore drive system, there was still quite a bit to learn from them, both about its combat capabilities and its other systems. Now, from what the Captain has said, it seems to me as if it is inevitable that we engage Amelia in battle sooner or later, and more likely sooner. I will prepare a separate briefing with the bridge crew on the potential weaknesses I found that we can exploit, but the reason I have called this meeting, with representatives of the engineering team, is that I believe we can reverse-engineer some of the technology to improve our own capabilities."

She clicked a button, and the hologram changed to a set of more detailed schematics. "Now, of course, the Klein-class is powered by a matter-antimatter core, while we have a quantum singularity drive. However, as Ourainavassa was designed with quite a lot of Federation-inspired technology, the power grid is fully compatible with both Romulan and Starfleet technologies. Plus," she added, nodding towards Rehana, "we have probably the most experienced engineer when it comes to shoehorning foreign equipment into Romulan ships. I for one have never heard of anyone getting an old Romulan warbird to run on a matter-antimatter core. That being said, we only have a limited amount of time before the expected date of the supernova, and any conflict with the Terran vessal is almost guaranteed to happen before that. After careful study of the schematics, I have identified two upgrades we could implement with the resources we have available to us, but we only have time to do one of the two. We can upgrade our firepower, or our shielding. I'd like to ask all of you, which option do you think we should go with?"

If it can run on a matter/antimatter reactor, of course it can be made to run on the singularity core, Kaiae thought perhaps somewhat smugly: She was no engineer; but even she knew that when it came down to it, the latter could produce power far in excess of the former: When she had been younger she had assumed Federation ships did not use it simply because the Empire had been successful in preventing it from being yet known or available to them in the never-ending game of multi-directional espionage all the great galactic powers were engaged in. After a few more decades of experience and interaction with Federation personnel, she now rather suspected instead that they had simply never been willing to take the reasonable trade off and risk of running a power system that, while superior, could not be disengaged and shut down in an emergency.

Rehana shrugged. "I don't really have an opinion-I'd have to take a look to know for sure. But I figure if I can get a Romulan ship to run on a Federation core, I can swap it around."

"Our biggest, imminent threat will be Hobus." said Skylar. She studied the plans. "We can't defend ourselves against ultraviolet and gamma radiation with particle weapons. Where engaging Amelia is concerned, I'd rather have their shielding systems and our tactical systems. We are resourceful, we can find a way to modify our existing armament. My vote, therefore, is to duplicate their shielding."

Mila shook her head. "I would be in full agreement with you, if we were in drydock, and if we had the time to redesign this ship's entire shield system. We are set to depart for the Romulus system in a week. If we were to head to the nearest friendly facility with the capacity to do those modifications, we're looking at a six day return trip to Drozana. At the highest sustainable speeds. Add to that the time it would take to adapt the schematics to fit this ship, to fabricate the required parts, and to install them." She sighed. "As much as I wish we could perform a complete refit of Ourainavassa with all the improvements these plans have to offer, we don't have the time. No, what I am suggesting is smaller upgrades, that can be fabricated and installed here, without need for a drydock. Regardless, I think the Subcommander will agree with me that Hobus is no longer a direct concern for us."

Kaiae wondered what it was about humans, that they seemed willing to make statements that directly put their superior officer's views in their own mouths without prior consultation: You would only find that in the Empire among one's closest and highest-ranking inner circle, and then even only carefully: A commander's protegee or executive officer, or a senator's chief of staff or heir. Humans, though, seemed to do it with a lot more proclivities and free handedness. In truth she thought most everything was still a direct concern for them potentially; just in an order of precedence. She didn't say anything though; because that annoying human tendency gave one the choice of overriding the speaker - and looking like you did not have proper control of your own command - or of letting it slide; and in this case the latter seemed more acceptable than the former, for now.

She clicked the button again, and schematics for Amelia's shield system appeared. "However, there are some things that we definitely can do. For example, their shields are much more energy-efficient than ours. As are their weapons. Both of which would be very useful to have, but I doubt we have the time to upgrade both systems."

"If it is not possible to upgrade the actual shield or weapons systems yet themselves; then the fact remains that in a straight comparison of the potential draw capacity of a matter/antimatter reaction and the singularity core; we have the superior power system even if they have the superior offensive and defensive systems." Kaiae stated what was probably obvious to every Romulan at the table, but perhaps not to the rest. "The question then as to any power-related upgrades becomes one of enhancing power distribution and usage. I am inclined to agree with those who favor concentrating on increasing those characteristics as to the shields rather than the weapons, if we have to choose; in part because if we have specifications on potential weak points of Amelia, we cannot be entirely certain she does not also have similar as to us; and if so, enhancing our ability to hold out against her relative to what she expects could make a significant difference."

Skylar nodded. She could not argue with what Kaiae had said.

"Lieutenant, a supernova isn't timetabled like a bus or train." she began, looking at Mila. "All we have is a best guess, not a definitive answer. It is impossible to predict the exact moment. With our adversary, the Subcommander is correct. If we know Amelia's weak points, the weapons we have already will have to do. With better shields, we have a better chance in combat and against a supernova. I'd suggest involving Lieutenant Olmert, too. Sooner rather than later. Tactical operations is her department."

Lieutenant Ashix Zirda had been sitting on the periphery of the meeting, simply taking everything in as it came. She had not been aboard the Ourainavassa for very long, but she had been deeply impressed by the crew that she had met so far and the ship itself. Despite that she questioned exactly how successful they would be. A timeship from the 29th Century was a dangerous opponent, one which she truly wondered how they could survive against such a combatant, as their weapons and defenses would be superior. For all they knew it was entirely possible that the enemy had their exact command codes and could simply take them apart remotely.

"We can attempt to remodulate our shield systems to match those of the Terran vessel," Ashix could not believe she was saying this as she knew it would be incredibly difficult to accomplish. "If we were able to get a detailed scan of their EM Shield Frequencies at the point that our weapons hit we could run a recursive algorithm to try to match; however, our own weapons and theirs will likely cause interference in our efforts." The Sikarian paused as she Borg memories entered her brain and she tried to suppress them, "I am not certain how long we would be able to maintain against an enemy from the 29th Century. The Borg once engaged a drone from the 29th Century and he was able to destroy an entire sphere alone." She knew she was the black sheep in the room, probably getting some strange glances and views from the others, especially as she maneuvered through topics.

"I too recall memories of that incident, the drone was far too powerful for 24th century drones," Five of Eight chipped in with.

Mila shook her head. "That's different. The Borg advance not by developing new technologies, but by assimilating them from others. But yes, the survivability of a long fight is very much doubtful, in my opinion." She looked over at Skylar. "The main question right now is feasibility, now that we are in agreement that we should focus on the shields. Like I said, I have a separate briefing prepared for those who will be managing the actual fight."

Another click on the panel, and a schematic of a single shield generator appeared, next to a similar schematic of Ourainavassa's own. "Now, Amelia has more redundancies in her shield system than we do, but their overall power drain is much lower than our own. Their shield recharge rate is also higher, and they are able to remodulate according to what it is that's hitting them, be it energy weapons, torpedoes, radiation." Mila looked at the engineers. "Any ideas how much of that we can make happen for our ship, with the limited time and resources we have?"

Ashix was curious herself to hear this answer. With combat against vessels from other time frames in the past it never seemed to go well for the 'older' vessel because of advancements in their technology over the base vessel. She did have a thought, briefly from her experiences with the Collective, "I wonder how effective they will be on a long term basis anyway." She did not pause for questions, merely continued, "The Borg once encountered a temporally displaced individual who not only traveled backward in time, but across universes, arriving in our "prime" universe. After assimilation she began to experience a severe medical condition that the Collective's Medical Drones determined was caused by the assimilation; however, there were considerations made that the situation was caused by traveling across both time and dimensions, with her molecules attempting to return to either their time or place of origin. Rather than investigate further, the Drone was decommissioned."

Now it was time for her point, "Could something similar occur here as we have identified this 'Amelia' is not from our Prime universe and rather a splinter universe's future?"

Mila shook her head. "We cannot rely on such a thing. So far, we have not observed anything similar happening to any of the Terrans we have encountered. In fact, we know that several members of their crew are native to this time period, albeit in another timeline, as Captain Mannerheim, Commander Rogers, their counselor Arnason, and Perez, who defected to our own crew, have all interacted with their counterparts from our timeline. Their original science officer was our disappeared commander's ex-partner, from this universe. I am pretty sure they don't have any crew left from our timeline, but the majority of them will be native to this time period, or at least near to it. The Captain is displaced by only thirteen years, Perez by less than one."

I'm displaced by about sixty years, in running this all at the moment at this age, Kaiae thought with weary dark humor, but that sort of displacement won't show up on a chroniton scan.

"If we are in agreement as to where, in a general sense, to focus our efforts, then; time spent in this meeting is time which cannot be spent making the modifications. Unless you have anything further?" Kaiae started the statement towards Mila, who'd called the briefing together; but swept her gaze over the rest of the room for moment afterwards for anyone to raise any further issues before she adjourned the session.

Mila looked around at the engineers present. "I will supply you with all the data I have been able to extract on their shield systems, especially the shield capacitors. Once Captain Mannerheim, Major Rogers and the others return, we should go over the tactical findings."

Five of Eight was curious to learn more about the Amelia, it was hard to ignore years of seeking to 'learn and adapt' as part of the Hive Mind.

Rehana bit her lip in thought. "I'll work with you on the shields, Lynn. I'll also take a look at our propulsion. It seems to me like our best shot against the Amelia is hit-and-run tactics...which means we're going to have to get very good at running."

The Sikarian nodded, quietly to herself as she considered the possibilities of this mission. With preparing for potential combat she wished that she had kept more of her Borg components so that she could, potentially, have adapted more quickly to support the ship and crew, but she could not dwell on the past. She grinned at the thought though. For the first time since she had lost her cybernetic components she actually missed them. At least she wasn't still on M'talas Prime though.

The young Chief Science Officer smiled. "Let's get to work, then. Meeting dismissed."

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