Mission 8: Survival of the Fittest

[Gannius - Bridge]

Persephone M'Rai wrote:

[Warbird - Bridge]

"MMREOW!" she yelped, jumping in the chair before turning to look at Ezac while mentally trying to get her fur to smooth down again.  "Yes, I think we need a plan of action.  Any ideas?"

Ezac watched M'Rai, who seemed to be working on regaining her composure. He had never considered himself a very stealthy individual, yet he did take note of the attention she was being required to give by her numerous duties.

"Pardon me. I did not intend to startle you. I would not--"

Julia Rellek wrote:

[Bridge]

Julia accessed the communication systems and attempted to secure a link to both Athena and the Phoenix to no avail. "Sir, its a jamming signal... I can't cut through it." She worked trying to cuts through the signal. "I can't break through, Captain. Damned Klingon and their jamming signals. Why do they always insist on being difficult. Lieutenant Jiseth, see if can you get through it?"

Rellek's voice caused Ezac to stall, mid-sentence. He turned around and looked in her direction. I suppose that takes care of that, he thought to himself. As Jiseth captured the Klingon vessel in the Gannius' snares, Ezac turned around to address M'Rai.

"It appears that the matter has been addressed. I will keep the weapons system charged and locked onto their vessel in the event that the situation warrants such action."

Ezac paused momentarily, before returning to his console, to give M'Rai an opportunity to respond.

[Bridge]

Think, genius, think, Gavin...well, thought, frowning in his chair, somewhat oblivious to all the commotion going on around him. The tac people were going on about weaponry, of course, and Jiseth was in full-Romulan-psycho mode, making Gavin wonder exactly why Klingons and Romulans never got along. They were both bugnuts insane.

"Are our shields compatible?" he asked, swinging around again to face the center seat. "If we can't communicate verbally, maybe we can do it through our actions. What if we extended our shields to envelop the Phoenix? They might get the message and do the same. And...uh, well, the Klingons would have to be blind to think we're trying to fight each other."

Ezac wrote:

Ezac watched M'Rai, who seemed to be working on regaining her composure. He had never considered himself a very stealthy individual, yet he did take note of the attention she was being required to give by her numerous duties.

"Pardon me. I did not intend to startle you. I would not--" Rellek's voice caused Ezac to stall, mid-sentence. He turned around and looked in her direction. I suppose that takes care of that, he thought to himself. As Jiseth captured the Klingon vessel in the Gannius' snares, Ezac turned around to address M'Rai.

"It appears that the matter has been addressed. I will keep the weapons system charged and locked onto their vessel in the event that the situation warrants such action."

Ezac paused momentarily, before returning to his console, to give M'Rai an opportunity to respond.

[Warbird - Bridge]

Things were happening rather too fast for Persephone. She managed to flash what she hoped was a smile at Ezac, although it was more likely that she was just baring her rather sharp teeth at him, as he came over, even though it was redundant now. Her chief of flight was running over everything and the Caitian was finding herself lost, drowning in the moment, as if she couldn't act fast enough. Hauling the ship around into the best position for the tractor beam to function against the bird of prey. Her tail was swishing and flicking sharply from side to side in her distress, ears pinned back until they were almost lost in her hair.

Taking a deep breath, she tried to focus herself on her task again. As she struggled to keep the ship in position, she found herself subconsciously purring, trying to sooth herself.

[Warbird - Bridge]

Archangel had run her hands through and over her hair so many times now that it had all but come loose from its original tight plait.  The situation was deteriorating rapidly and now their deliberately crippled ship was linked to a bird of prey that was trying to destroy them.

With information coming in from all sides, she had to make a decision quickly on their next course of action.  Jamming signal meaning that they couldn't get a message out, weapons almost non existent...

She got to her feet, straightening her uniform.  "Jiseth, release the tractor beam.  Helm, get us over toward the Phoenix five minutes ago.  Van Gelder, I have no idea if the shields are compatible, so it's up to you to figure that one out. Talk to Engineering. Tactical, keep locks on the bird of prey, try to aim for their weapons so as to disable them.  We're going to try to present a united front.  If we confuse them enough, they might actually take the time to figure it out.  Keep trying to get in touch with the station, we're going to need backup no matter what happens."

Corman Stark wrote:

[Starbase Athena - Observation Room]

Stark watched the holographic display of the war games over steepled fingers.  He had never been a big fan of spectator sports, but this certainly felt like it.  Perhaps even an old-style pugilistic match.  It made him want to shadow-box some rights and lefts, right along with the two ships.  There wasn't much else to do, after all - his Romulan counterpart had barely said two words once the games had commenced.  

The sudden chime of proximity notifiers brought Stark bolt upright, watching as another ship entered the display field.  He didn't need the computer to tell him what kind it was...that surly-looking raptor could only be one thing.  "Who in the hell?" he muttered frowning concernedly at the statistical readouts.  "Those aren't goddamn blanks they're firing."  Stark shot a questioning look at the Romulan.  "I don't suppose you were expecting them, Commander?"

[Commander S'Tal N'Vek]
[Starbase Athena - Observation Room]

The commander had been watching the holographic feeds while casually sipping his glass of water. His dark eyes were flicking between the different screens, taking in as much of the data as possible in order to predict what his crew was likely to do.

As the bird of prey appeared, he raised his eyebrows, leaning forward slightly in his seat in order to get a better look at the situation.

"No, it would appear that they are not a part of this exercise, but I certainly did not invite them. That was perhaps an oversight," he replied thoughtfully. He wasn't concerned, knowing that the Klingons weren't likely to fire on a Federation ship, which was actually where his crew was. Instead, he was curious to see how the Starfleet officers would handle the warbird in such a situation.

Archangel T'Koris wrote:

She got to her feet, straightening her uniform.  "Jiseth, release the tractor beam.  Helm, get us over toward the Phoenix five minutes ago.  Van Gelder, I have no idea if the shields are compatible, so it's up to you to figure that one out.  Talk to Engineering.  Tactical, keep locks on the bird of prey, try to aim for their weapons so as to disable them.  We're going to try to present a united front.  If we confuse them enough, they might actually take the time to figure it out.  Keep trying to get in touch with the station, we're going to need backup no matter what happens."

[Warbird - Bridge]

"Belay that, M'Rai! Don't you touch that god damn bow!"

Jiseth's good hand flinched. The familiar surroundings, the controls, her old training. Everything was reverting back to what she had done for far more years in the Empire than in Starfleet. That same hand caught in the middle of a reach for a disruptor that was not there at her side.

T'Koris has done a lot for me, but that woman is going to get us all killed...

She took a step from the console and looked to the Captain. Then to each of the other officers. It was like being in an Academy class. Today's discussion: what to do when attacked out of the blue. A brainstorming session followed by group presentations. A regular day for cadets, but this was combat and how many Feddies before her had a clue of how to fight she truly had no idea. Perhaps just the Breen. Slowly she drew her focus back to T'Koris.

"As your advisor... I would like to remind you that our simulation weapons will have no effect on their shields even though we could score hours of direct hits with them tethered right there. We have no torpedoes. No auxiliary craft or cloak. The moment I release them we'll either be fired upon again or they will escape. There are no if's about that, sir. I will not deactivate the tractor beam."

NPC wrote:

The commander had been watching the holographic feeds while casually sipping his glass of water.  His dark eyes were flicking between the different screens, taking in as much of the data as possible in order to predict what his crew was likely to do.

As the bird of prey appeared, he raised his eyebrows, leaning forward slightly in his seat in order to get a better look at the situation.

"No, it would appear that they are not a part of this exercise, but I certainly did not invite them.  That was perhaps an oversight," he replied thoughtfully.  He wasn't concerned, knowing that the Klingons weren't likely to fire on a Federation ship, which was actually where his crew was.  Instead, he was curious to see how the Starfleet officers would handle the warbird in such a situation.

[Starbase Athena - Observation Room]

An oversight, right, Corman thought, taking a half-breath to calm himself. Instead of thinking about what he couldn't do for his people, he focused on what he could do. The options were limited. There weren't any ships currently assigned to the Athena as a part of its regular detachment. They had runabouts, but could he send them into the thick of this with any hope for survival? Maybe if he sent all four. There was also the Galaxy-class USS Gandhi, currently docked. Even if they could get there in time, which they likely couldn't, it would take a while for them to get re-activated, since most of the crew was currently off-ship...but it was better than nothing. Stark quickly went ahead and forwarded the situation to Deacon.

"Commander, its likely the Klingons are jamming your warbird, but probably not the Phoenix. Get through to your people and tell them to advise the Klingons to stand down." He realized that his sentence was phrased in such a way that it could only be construed as a command. "If you would. Please."

[Warbird - Main Engineering]

Gabe ran his hand through his short, blonde hair - a sure indication that he was starting to get flustered. The latest request from the bridge had come down, and it had him frowning in thought, pulling up available specs on the warbird's shielding.

"I think we can do it," he said to Leela, pointing at the readout. "If the Romulans haven't changed the emitter harmonic frequencies, that is, because I know ours like the back of my hand. However," he said, "it...I mean, it'll make us more vulnerable on the whole. I know it strains the hell outta Federation vessels, and I can imagine it'll do the same for this bird." He supposed that would be up for Archangel to decide, if the risk was worth the reward.

Jiseth wrote:

"As your advisor... I would like to remind you that our simulation weapons will have no effect on their shields even though we could score hours of direct hits with them tethered right there. We have no torpedoes. No auxiliary craft or cloak. The moment I release them we'll either be fired upon again or they will escape. There are no if's about that, sir. I will not deactivate the tractor beam."

[Warbird - Bridge]

While under normal circumstances, Archangel wouldn't have minded an officer standing up and offering an alternative route to the one she had decided on, Jiseth had just done what was pretty much unacceptable to any command officer: directly challenged and undermined her authority. Folding her arms, the young Romulan narrowed her eyes dangerously at the Chief Helm officer before looking past her to the Caitian sitting at the helm.

"M'Rai, when the tractor beam disengages, jump to warp one and head for the nebula, understood?" Without waiting for an answer, she turned her quiet fury back to Jiseth. "Yes, I am very aware of the fact that we only have 10% power on the phasers, Lieutenant and that we don't have a chance in Ariennye of beating them in a head-to-head, but here's the situation: You have us anchored to a ship full of Klingons who, despite the fact that the tractor beam negates part of their phaser power, still have more powerful weapons than we do and also have torpedoes. We have plenty of shield power to take a few hits as we get our butts out of here and hopefully far enough away to get out of their jamming field. So, unless you want to be relieved of duty, next time you have a concern, you will bring it to me in a quiet and civilised manner before you start countermanding my orders, do we have an understanding, Lieutenant?"

Archangel T'Koris wrote:

"M'Rai, when the tractor beam disengages, jump to warp one and head for the nebula, understood?"  Without waiting for an answer, she turned her quiet fury back to Jiseth.  "Yes, I am very aware of the fact that we only have 10% power on the phasers, Lieutenant and that we don't have a chance in Ariennye of beating them in a head-to-head, but here's the situation:  You have us anchored to a ship full of Klingons who, despite the fact that the tractor beam negates part of their phaser power, still have more powerful weapons than we do and also have torpedoes.  We have plenty of shield power to take a few hits as we get our butts out of here and hopefully far enough away to get out of their jamming field.  So, unless you want to be relieved of duty, next time you have a concern, you will bring it to me in a quiet and civilised manner before you start countermanding my orders, do we have an understanding, Lieutenant?"

[Warbird - Bridge]

"We do not. Our warp speed was limited solely to give you time to acquaint yourselves with this ship. Rather than imperil us further with a fool hardy attempt at combat and pointless debate... Helm, get us back to the station. Maximum allowable warp. We'll turn in our catch and come back to deal with the Phoenix. Stark can have the pleasure of arresting the crew of that bird of prey."

Jiseth wrote:

[Warbird - Bridge]

"We do not. Our warp speed was limited solely to give you time to acquaint yourselves with this ship. Rather than imperil us further with a fool hardy attempt at combat and pointless debate... Helm, get us back to the station. Maximum allowable warp. We'll turn in our catch and come back to deal with the Phoenix. Stark can have the pleasure of arresting the crew of that bird of prey."

[Warbird - Bridge]

It was taking quite the effort for Archangel not to lose her temper with the Romulan in front of her. She took a deep breath, knowing that she didn't have time to count to ten or recite a section of a Romulan epic in her head in order to calm herself down.

"Jiseth, perhaps I wasn't clear in the briefing. Warp one is the fastest we can go since both the Gannius' engines as well as the Phoenix's have been hobbled so that they can't exceed that speed. We may be on each others' ships, but that doesn't mean that they trust us with full warp capability. In the meantime, you have us anchored to a ship full of warriors who are likely getting angrier and more bloodthirsty by the minute."

[Bridge]

Like most of the other bridge officers, Gavin was trying to both concentrate on the crisis at hand, and pay attention to the rather salacious exchange between Jiseth and the captain.  He wouldn't have been surprised in the least if Jiseth whipped out something made by S'harien himself and challenged Archangel for dominance.  If this were a Klingon ship, she just might.

And speaking of Klingons...

"Captain!" he said, getting a little tired of sounding like a parrot.  If ever there was a time for just throwing crap at the wall to see what stuck, though...this was it.  Plus, maybe he could distract the blood-duel that was about to unfold.  "Weapons and warp might be hobbled, but most other systems probably aren't.  A concentrated graviton burst could disrupt their jamming signal."

Gavin Van Gelder wrote:

"Captain!" he said, getting a little tired of sounding like a parrot.  If ever there was a time for just throwing crap at the wall to see what stuck, though...this was it.  Plus, maybe he could distract the blood-duel that was about to unfold.  "Weapons and warp might be hobbled, but most other systems probably aren't.  A concentrated graviton burst could disrupt their jamming signal."

[Warbird - Bridge]

Another voice broke into the heated exchange between Jiseth and Archangel, distracting the command officer long enough for her to look over to the science station. She quickly tapped into her engineering knowledge, calculating the probability of success. Then again, at that point, she was willing to consider anything.

"Do it, Lieutenant Van Gelder. If it works, get a message out immediately to the Phoenix and Athena."

Corman Stark wrote:

An oversight, right, Corman thought, taking a half-breath to calm himself.  Instead of thinking about what he couldn't do for his people, he focused on what he could do.  The options were limited.  There weren't any ships currently assigned to the Athena as a part of its regular detachment.  They had runabouts, but could he send them into the thick of this with any hope for survival?  Maybe if he sent all four.  There was also the Galaxy-class USS Gandhi, currently docked.  Even if they could get there in time, which they likely couldn't, it would take a while for them to get re-activated, since most of the crew was currently off-ship...but it was better than nothing.  Stark quickly went ahead and forwarded the situation to Deacon.

"Commander, its likely the Klingons are jamming your warbird, but probably not the Phoenix.  Get through to your people and tell them to advise the Klingons to stand down."  He realized that his sentence was phrased in such a way that it could only be construed as a command.  "If you would.  Please."

[Commander S'Tal N'Vek]
[Starbase Athena - Observation Room]

Placing his glass of water on the table and then pressing his fingertips together, the Romulan considered the options for a moment, but didn't come up with much. He was aware that the station didn't have much in the way of other ships given that Starfleet was stretched thin enough as it was. One option would have been to contact the Empire, but between the fact that it would take more warbirds too long to respond and the fact that they simply wouldn't be interested in coming to their aid, that option was dismissed.

Leaning forward in his chair, Commander N'Vek's long fingers tapped at one of the consoles, trying to open a channel to the Phoenix.

"It would appear that they are too close to the Bird of Prey to receive our message. They are on their own," he said evenly, his tone almost Vulcan as he turned his head to look at the Admiral. "I know that my crew is capable of surviving such an encounter. Is yours?"

Jiseth wrote:

"Never mind what happened, just get my arm back in it's socket!"

The pain was starting to wear on Jiseth's already curt demeanor. If she had it her way she'd beam onto the attacking ship and request about 90 seconds alone time with it's crew. With her disruptor. For purely diplomatic reasons of course.

[IRW Gannius-Bridge]

"Alright, alright." Kintiss put the medkit to one side. He didn't think he'd be needing it for a task such as this. Taking hold of the Lieutenant's left arm with one hand, he held her shoulder stable and shoved the arm into the socket with as much strength as he could muster. Hopefully, she wouldn't punch him out of pain and anger, as a fair few of his patients were wont to do. He could only take that from other people so many times.

Gabriel Arthur wrote:

[Warbird - Main Engineering]

Gabe ran his hand through his short, blonde hair - a sure indication that he was starting to get flustered.  The latest request from the bridge had come down, and it had him frowning in thought, pulling up available specs on the warbird's shielding.  

"I think we can do it," he said to Leela, pointing at the readout.  "If the Romulans haven't changed the emitter harmonic frequencies, that is, because I know ours like the back of my hand.  However," he said, "it...I mean, it'll make us more vulnerable on the whole.  I know it strains the hell outta Federation vessels, and I can imagine it'll do the same for this bird."  He supposed that would be up for Archangel to decide, if the risk was worth the reward.

[Engine Room]

Leela's hair had since fallen from it's place. She removed the band that had been holding it in place and slipped it around her wrist. With one quick motion she pulled the hair from her face revealing the spots on her neck and placed the tie back in place. "We have to do something Gabe, I say we try it. I can't imagine that it would be that different from ours. I'll just cross my fingers that we don't blow any emitters in the process."

Gavin Van Gelder wrote:

[Bridge]

Like most of the other bridge officers, Gavin was trying to both concentrate on the crisis at hand, and pay attention to the rather salacious exchange between Jiseth and the captain.  He wouldn't have been surprised in the least if Jiseth whipped out something made by S'harien himself and challenged Archangel for dominance.  If this were a Klingon ship, she just might.

And speaking of Klingons...

"Captain!" he said, getting a little tired of sounding like a parrot.  If ever there was a time for just throwing crap at the wall to see what stuck, though...this was it.  Plus, maybe he could distract the blood-duel that was about to unfold.  "Weapons and warp might be hobbled, but most other systems probably aren't.  A concentrated graviton burst could disrupt their jamming signal."

Julia tried to listen to the exchange between Jiseth and the Captain but caught very little of it. She then heard Gavin chime in with, what could only be described as, an ingenious idea. She turned and looked to the lieutenant at science and flashed him a smile and a slight nod. "Yes, yes, yes Gavin." She added. "There's no reason that shouldn't work. I'm not sure what condition the deflector will be left in, but without weapons its our only hope."

Julia Rellek wrote:

Julia tried to listen to the exchange between Jiseth and the Captain but caught very little of it. She then heard Gavin chime in with, what could only be described as, an ingenious idea. She turned and looked to the lieutenant at science and flashed him a smile and a slight nod. "Yes, yes, yes Gavin." She added. "There's no reason that shouldn't work. I'm not sure what condition the deflector will be left in, but without weapons its our only hope."

[Bridge]

Genius as he was, Gavin wasn't too proud to preen under a little praise, especially when it came from his department head. Nodding, he set about to finding the deflection array. It wasn't exactly in the same place as a Federation starship's design specs would say it should be, but the concept was the universal. After all, nobody wanted to have their hull painted by space debris going at warp 8.

He called up the sensor arrays one by one, coordinating them together and sending a combined burst of graviton particles cascading at the Klingon ship. "Beam away!" he said, his cheeks coloring slightly as he realized he was shouting. "Reyaen, see if you can get a message through! Are we still jammed?"

Archangel T'Koris wrote:

"Jiseth, perhaps I wasn't clear in the briefing.  Warp one is the fastest we can go since both the Gannius' engines as well as the Phoenix's have been hobbled so that they can't exceed that speed.  We may be on each others' ships, but that doesn't mean that they trust us with full warp capability.  In the meantime, you have us anchored to a ship full of warriors who are likely getting angrier and more bloodthirsty by the minute."

Kintiss wrote:

"Alright, alright." Kintiss put the medkit to one side. He didn't think he'd be needing it for a task such as this. Taking hold of the Lieutenant's left arm with one hand, he held her shoulder stable and shoved the arm into the socket with as much strength as he could muster. Hopefully, she wouldn't punch him out of pain and anger, as a fair few of his patients were wont to do. He could only take that from other people so many times.

[Warbird - Bridge]

"Stop acting like this is a training exerc-IIIIIIISE!"

Bracing against the control screen with her good arm, Jiseth slowly began to lift her left and go about various articulations of the fingers, wrist, and elbow. After a few seconds of testing the limits she let out a shaky exhale as her eyes focused on the Ensign that had caused so much sudden pain along with relief.

"That hurt... Thank you."

If he were not for him being part of Zero's staff, she probably would have punched him out cold. Politely. She took her anger out on the lower access panel of the console with a swift kick instead. A side glance to the Captain as she lowered to her knees and pulled away the piece of composite before leaning to the side and into the bowels of the controls.

Her uniform began to glow a light green from the dancing lights and circuitry. A few clicks could be heard as she began to rearrange specific chips and controls to reroute the instructions to the engine core. All she had to do was make the ship think a much higher velocity was Warp 1.

"You know, I do recall someone saying not too long ago that those angry and bloodthristy warriors were our allies. Or that you were once a good engineer... Don't worry though, Captain, they can't fire on us at this range without killing themselves in the process, but I admit... hard part of playing chicken is knowing when to flinch."

NPC wrote:

Placing his glass of water on the table and then pressing his fingertips together, the Romulan considered the options for a moment, but didn't come up with much.  He was aware that the station didn't have much in the way of other ships given that Starfleet was stretched thin enough as it was.  One option would have been to contact the Empire, but between the fact that it would take more warbirds too long to respond and the fact that they simply wouldn't be interested in coming to their aid, that option was dismissed.

Leaning forward in his chair, Commander N'Vek's long fingers tapped at one of the consoles, trying to open a channel to the Phoenix.

"It would appear that they are too close to the Bird of Prey to receive our message.  They are on their own," he said evenly, his tone almost Vulcan as he turned his head to look at the Admiral.  "I know that my crew is capable of surviving such an encounter.  Is yours?"

[Starbase Athena - Observation Room]

Are you capable of surviving walking out of this room? Make a move, and let's see... Stark thought, his flint-grey eyes as cold as Andorian morning. He assumed that Deacon wouldn't be happy if he started slugging it out with their Rommie guest, though, so he took another breath, held it, let it out slowly.

"Of course," he said, rather tightly. "Even hobbled as they are by the technology available." Stark decided that he would let the Romulan decide just what he meant by that. "Nevertheless, the Gandhi has been activated." They didn't have a snowball's chance of making any difference, but it was better than just sitting here and watching.

Gavin Van Gelder wrote:

Genius as he was, Gavin wasn't too proud to preen under a little praise, especially when it came from his department head.  Nodding, he set about to finding the deflection array.  It wasn't exactly in the same place as a Federation starship's design specs would say it should be, but the concept was the universal.  After all, nobody wanted to have their hull painted by space debris going at warp 8.  

He called up the sensor arrays one by one, coordinating them together and sending a combined burst of graviton particles cascading at the Klingon ship.  "Beam away!" he said, his cheeks coloring slightly as he realized he was shouting.  "Reyaen, see if you can get a message through!  Are we still jammed?"

[Bridge]

With ears like hers, there had been little need for her to look up away from her console. Dominion discipline at its finest with a subtle sweetness of Vorta discretion. The disagreements between officers was no place for a cadet. Especially one with her features. The Breen among them balanced it out somewhat as best she could figure.

She wasted no time attempting to establish a link with the starbase. The question posed to her could not really be answered aside from not receiving a reply to their distress call. Part of her wanted to run to an escape pod and see how well the signal actually was before it cut out. Either by the jamming or the destruction of the warbird. One or the other.

"A moment... Attempting subspace handshake... Link established! The latency is substandard and they may just get an ear-full of static, but it's something, sir."

=/\= Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! Gannius to Athena, we are under attack! Hostile Klingon Bird of Prey! =/\=

Reyaen 3 wrote:

With ears like hers, there had been little need for her to look up away from her console. Dominion discipline at its finest with a subtle sweetness of Vorta discretion. The disagreements between officers was no place for a cadet. Especially one with her features. The Breen among them balanced it out somewhat as best she could figure.

She wasted no time attempting to establish a link with the starbase. The question posed to her could not really be answered aside from not receiving a reply to their distress call. Part of her wanted to run to an escape pod and see how well the signal actually was before it cut out. Either by the jamming or the destruction of the warbird. One or the other.

"A moment... Attempting subspace handshake... Link established! The latency is substandard and they may just get an ear-full of static, but it's something, sir."

=/\= Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! Gannius to Athena, we are under attack! Hostile Klingon Bird of Prey! =/\=

[Bridge]

Gavin felt a little bit of tension leave his shoulders as the graviton burst apparently did the trick of breaking through that jamming signal. He didn't allow himself too much time to relax, however - they still had a very aggressive problem on their hands. And he wasn't just referring to the small mutiny that had broken out on the bridge.

"Uh...see if you can talk to the Klingons, too," he added. "Maybe let them know that we're a ship full of Federation officers." Gavin supposed he should have said that in the first place, but done was done.

Jiseth wrote:

"Stop acting like this is a training exerc-IIIIIIISE!"

Bracing against the control screen with her good arm, Jiseth slowly began to lift her left and go about various articulations of the fingers, wrist, and elbow. After a few seconds of testing the limits she let out a shaky exhale as her eyes focused on the Ensign that had caused so much sudden pain along with relief.

"That hurt... Thank you."

If he were not for him being part of Zero's staff, she probably would have punched him out cold. Politely. She took her anger out on the lower access panel of the console with a swift kick instead. A side glance to the Captain as she lowered to her knees and pulled away the piece of composite before leaning to the side and into the bowels of the controls.

Her uniform began to glow a light green from the dancing lights and circuitry. A few clicks could be heard as she began to rearrange specific chips and controls to reroute the instructions to the engine core. All she had to do was make the ship think a much higher velocity was Warp 1.

"You know, I do recall someone saying not too long ago that those angry and bloodthristy warriors were our allies. Or that you were once a good engineer... Don't worry though, Captain, they can't fire on us at this range without killing themselves in the process, but I admit... hard part of playing chicken is knowing when to flinch."

[Warbird - Bridge]

"Jiseth, you are relieved of duty. Get off of my bridge!" Archangel snapped, getting to her feet. She had had enough of the other Romulan being unable to obey her orders or even bother running things past her before doing them. Something was going to have to be done, but for the moment, Archangel just wanted the uppity officer out of her sight.

Assuming that she was going to obey that order, Archangel turned her attention to Reyaen and Gavin, nodding to the two of them. "Getting through to the Klingons would definitely be a good idea right now, preferably before they take another pot shot at us. Force a channel open if you have to! Also, Julia, it would be best if you take the front on talking to them. They are not going to take me very seriously."

Archangel T'Koris wrote:

"Jiseth, you are relieved of duty.  Get off of my bridge!" Archangel snapped, getting to her feet.  She had had enough of the other Romulan being unable to obey her orders or even bother running things past her before doing them.  Something was going to have to be done, but for the moment, Archangel just wanted the uppity officer out of her sight.

Assuming that she was going to obey that order, Archangel turned her attention to Reyaen and Gavin, nodding to the two of them.  "Getting through to the Klingons would definitely be a good idea right now, preferably before they take another pot shot at us.  Force a channel open if you have to!  Also, Julia, it would be best if you take the front on talking to them.  They are not going to take me very seriously."

[Warbird - Bridge]

"This is not your bridge. This ship belongs to the Romulan Empire."

She did not bother to pull herself out to look at the Captain. Jiseth found her own blood boiling as she went about the tedious task of resetting the calibration controllers. The space was beyond cramped, but her anger gave her a zen focus as she worked.

"Starfleet Directive 010: Before engaging alien species in battle, any and all attempts to make first contact and achieve nonmilitary resolution must be made. The record already shows you ordered us to fire on them first. To fight these bloodthirsty Klingons first. Drag this out into a long fight in a restricted area. That's why Stark's here, isn't he? Because you can't hold up in a critical situation. The Klingons will face charges and your incompetence will not get in the way of that."

Gavin Van Gelder wrote:

Gavin felt a little bit of tension leave his shoulders as the graviton burst apparently did the trick of breaking through that jamming signal.  He didn't allow himself too much time to relax, however - they still had a very aggressive problem on their hands.  And he wasn't just referring to the small mutiny that had broken out on the bridge.

"Uh...see if you can talk to the Klingons, too," he added.  "Maybe let them know that we're a ship full of Federation officers."  Gavin supposed he should have said that in the first place, but done was done.

[Bridge]

"Surely they would have scanned us and the Phoenix before firing?"

Her inquiry was mostly rhetorical. Perhaps the Klingons got excited and wished to assist their Federation allies against an age old foe. Hardly a responsible act with a starship, but from her psychographic profiles of various figures in the Imperial High Command she knew such acts were not uncommon. Shoot until there is nothing left. One cannot file paperwork for something that does not exist.

=/\= Klingon vessel, you have disregarded warning beacons that this is a restricted area for combat exercise, trespassed and fired upon a vessel crewed by Starfleet personnel. Drop shields and power down weapons immediately. Respond! =/\=