"Strategic Advances", Joint Log by Ens. Pickett & Ens. Kimaris Options

[Oany Kimaris]

"Strategic Advances"
Joint Log by Ensign George Pickett & Ensign Oany Kimaris
Stardate 0509.15

_____________________________________________

Oany Kimaris stood quietly in the turbo lift, her arms
folded in front of her. She was a bit apprehensive
about this tactical training that the Chief of Science
had said that all the departments were getting; but
had told herself that in this experience of Star fleet
she'd be open to everything. As the lift stopped, she
stepped out and began to walk in a steady pace to the
holodeck .. and she saw a man waiting there. He was
standing rigidly in front of the holodeck doors and
immediately, she seemed to catch his attention.

George Pickett turned and noticed a very beautiful
woman approaching him. He wondered if this was the
science officer he had been waiting for. Ensign
Kimaris was at least 5 minutes late, but as she
brushed back a loose strand of blonde hair from her
face and came to a halt in front of him, he soon
forgot the time. She had a certain air about her.. she
held her head high, though didn't seem arrogant at
all.

"Mister Pickett? I'm Ensign Kimaris." Her voice broke
the silence like a melody. Her accent was thick and
close to sounding like Earth Irish, "Ensign Oany
Kimaris."

He smiled warmly at the petite science officer, "I'm
Ensign Pickett, it's a pleasure to meet you." George
sounded confident and in charge, but he felt a little
uneasy in his stomach and he couldn't pinpoint why. He
let out a breath and motioned to the holodeck doors,
"Shall we enter?"

Oany's dark blue eyes shifted up and then down, as she
looked him over from head to toe. It was as if she was
evaluating him. There was a lull in the conversation
and then she nodded, "Of course, Ensign Pickett. I
admit, tactical was not a strong point of mine in the
Academy, but I am sure you'll have much to teach me."
She smiled at him again, obviously a well-spoken young
woman.

Struck by the beauty and poise of the woman in front
of him, he felt the lump in his throat getting bigger
and bigger as they entered the holodeck, "I'm sure
you'll do fine, Ms. Kimaris." He said firmly, trying
to sound professional.

Oany followed him into the holodeck, unsure of what
was to come, but hoped it would be a learning
experience, "I am comforted by your confidence in me,
Mister Pickett. I only hope I can live up to
expectation." She offered him a slight grin, which
added a sparkle to her eyes.

"Computer, load simulation, Pickett-Tactical A001."
Within a blink of an eye, the holodeck transformed
into the bridge of an Intrepid Class Starship. He
turned to Oany, who was glancing around the room that
had changed on her, "Computer, Pause simulation." She
met his gaze and smiled back at him. He cleared his
throat, "This will be a simulation of the tactical
capabilities of the Morningstar and to see how much
knowledge you have to run the tactical station in a
life-like scenario." He found himself trying
desperately now not to sound too much like a rigid
computer system.

She rubbed her hands together and nodded, "Alright,
sir .. shall I take a seat at tactical then?" Oany
motioned to the station and it's nice cushy chair.

"Oh, yes .. please do. You will forgive me, as I am
new at training personnel. So perhaps we can learn
something together." He smiled at her, without really
realizing it. Despite Oany's regal posture, she had a
certain relaxing quality to her. It was obvious she
took everything on with an extremely open mind.

"You are doing excellent, Mister Pickett. I couldn't
ask for anything else." With a smile, she walked over
to the tactical station and took a graceful seat.

After making sure she was settled, and pulling his
eyes from her, he stated loudly, "Computer, please
begin the simulation." And then took a seat in the
Captain's chair.

Oany moved her fingers gently over the tactical
console, as if trying to recall memories of tactical
studies by touch. She took a nice deep breath and
exhaled .. just as the sensors beeped at her. Within
seconds, an unidentified vessel appeared on the long
range sensors, "Sir, there is a vessel on long range
sensors.."

George sat back in the chair a bit, "Can you identify
it, Ms. Kimaris?"

She focused and ran some scans, her eyes widening a
little, "Sensors indicate it's a D'deridex-class
Romulan vessel." She glanced back at him, the
slightest bit of sweat starting to bead on her brow.

George blinked. He was finding it difficult to pay
total attention to the simulation. He found this
pretty unusual for him .. he straightened his shirt
and buckled down, "Yellow alert. Are they powering
weapons?"

"No, .. looks like they are just giving us a look
right now. Sir."

"Open hailing frequency."

The simulation operations officer responded quickly,
"Channel open, sir."

"This is Capt. George Pickett of the Federation
Starship Cheesecake... please respond."

Oany glanced back at him again, with a little smile on
her face. But she turned back to face the console,
thinking she should focus on the task at hand. George
smiled back at her slightly, and was glad she was more
relaxed. If only he was feeling the same way. The
simulation operations officer interrupted his
thoughts.

"We're receiving a reply!"

"On screen!"

The image of a Romulan officer appeared on the
view-screen. Oany looked up at his angry face. Any
temptation to lean back into the cushy chair was wiped
away immediately. This guy meant business.

The Romulan officer's face distorted, "Federation
Starship Cheesecake! We have reports that you have
destroyed one of our vessels! The Romulan Star Empire
will not let you get away with this. You. Will. Pay."
With that, the transmission was cut and there was a
slew of beeping at Oany's console.

"Sir.. they are powering their weapons. All of them. I
see disruptor canons and several photon torpedo
banks."

"Red alert!" George relayed, and Oany complied,
initiating it.

"They seem pissed off .." she murmured, more to
herself than to anyone. George continued his orders.

"Target their cloaking device.. we don't want any
surprises here." Within moments, the ship rocked from
disruptor fire hitting against their shields. Oany
pressed several buttons and fired at the Romulan
ship's cloaking device, managing to stay in her seat
despite the shaking.

Her heart was racing, as this was so different from
scientific experiments and life in a palace, "..
shields are holding sir, for now."

George steadied himself in his seat, gripping the
hand-rests, "Target to disable.. I want to get to the
bottom of this." His eyes moved directly towards Oany,
and met her eyes as she turned to him.

"I suggest targetting the head of the vessel.. their
bridge and main engineering are located there. We can
easily disable them there." Oany looked at him
expectantly, recalling bits and pieces from Academy
courses. There was another hit to the forward shields
and the ship shook violently.

"Excellent! Fire!"

Oany managed to barely keep her balance and fired at
the Romulan ship; targeting their engineering and
primary weapons. She realized those gymnastics lessons
she took all those years seemed to be working to her
advantage so far in keeping balance. The weapons fire
from the Cheesecake struck the Romulan ship's shields
dead on.

"Their shields are holding .. shall I continue firing
at the same section, sir?" She looked back at him
briefly.

"Ready Photon Torpedo's, and target the same section.
Minimum spread pattern."

She nodded and turned back, her fingers maneuvering
quickly over the console like a musician playing a
guitar, setting the spread pattern and firing. George
smiled, but then wiped it off his face and said
firmly, "Keep up the good work, Ensign Kimaris." The
praise was short-lived, however, as the Cheesecake
took a heavy hit to it's forward shields.

She grabbed onto the console again, this time with
more force. Straightening up, she sputtered out, "Our
shield strength is dropping. It's down to 73%, hull
integrity is holding. I suggest re-routing power to
our forward shields from secondary systems!" Her
fingers flew, continuing her barrage of firing on the
Romulan vessel.

"Do it, don't forget to rotate through our phaser arcs
for maximum effect. This allows our Phasers to
recharge at a faster rate putting more fire on the
target." he told her, unable to hold back his grin.
Her eyebrows raised and she smiled.

"That's an idea! .. I mean, yes .. sir."

George tried to focus on the simulation again, but he
thought, 'What a distraction.' He watched on the
view-screen as the Romulan vessel disappeared from
view, using it's cloaking device, "Scan the area!"

"Yes, sir... I'm setting up the sensors to scan for
subspace variance." she said, as she watched the
scans, "I'm not picking up anything at all.. they
could have gone to warp already."

He shook his head slightly, "I can't see a Romulan
giving up on his prey that easily. Increase power to
all the sensors. If he's out there.. I want to know."

Oany went to recalibrating the sensors again, "...
yes, there is a slight variance. Possibly a warp
signature. Let me confirm.." She bit her lip as she
pressed a few controls. "Yes, definitely a warp
signature."

"Looks like you were right. Green Alert, and secure
from battle stations. Damage report?"

She quickly stopped biting her lip before she made it
bleed, "Minimal damage. Sections 14-15 report some
hull damage. The shields are nearly gone there. But
nothing that can't be fixed. And there are no
casualties."

George smiled broadly at Oany, "Very good. I am very
proud of you, Ms. Kimaris."

She exhaled a bit, and turned in her chair to smile at
him, thinking the whole thing was over. "Thank you,
sir."

He smiled back at her, realizing he loved the way she
smiled, "You're welcome."

Suddenly, the console beeped behind her, and she
turned back and look it over, "Sir.. our sensors
indicate an intruder on the ship. I'm notifying
security of the situation."

"Glad to see you are on your toes. You can't be
distracted from your duty." He said firmly, though
felt a bit like a hypocrite. He should take the
advice, he had been distracted the entire time in the
holodeck. "Can you locate the intruder, Ms. Kimaris?"

"Attempting to locate sir..." she responded, looking
very serious, "Looks like he is on Deck 14. Near
engineering. He must have taken advantage of the
damage there to somehow transport in. Security is
already on the way to that location."

"Very good, I want a full security sweep of Decks
13-15. Don't want him slipping out."

"Aye... should we also lock-down Engineering?"

He stood from the chair and crossed his arms,
"Computer, pause the simulation." The surroundings
froze around them, "I think that's enough, don't you?"

"... Yes, that's plenty." She laughed, wiping the
glittering beads of sweat from her forehead.

"You did fine, Ms. Kimaris." He paused, wishing he
could call her by her first name. This formal talk was
starting to get to him; though he was usually
accustomed to it. "I'm going to go ahead and certify
you for tactical. You can access tactical data on this
ship from the main computer and I suggest you take
that opportunity when you have time." He smiled
widely, "Computer, end the simulation."

Oany stood up just as the room returned to it's normal
decor of black with yellow lines, "Of course. I think
I'll definitely do that on my downtime. And you can
call me Oany .. if you like." She sometimes disliked
being addressed formally all the time. But at least
she wasn't being called 'Princess' or 'Highness' every
five seconds.

"I'd like that, Oany. You have a very beautiful name."
He inhaled a sharp breath. He hadn't meant to really
say that out-loud and he turned just the slightest bit
red. Oany smiled, her own cheeks flushing pink.

"Well, thank you.. you even pronounce it well.
Sometimes people mangle it beyond recognition." She
laughed a little, crossing her arms in front of her.
George perked up and looked at Oany. It was strange.
Her very blue eyes seemed to penetrate right through
him.
"I hope we will see each other when we're off duty
sometime." Perhaps that sounded a bit like a pick-up
line. He internally cringed. But Oany smiled anyway.

"Maybe we will. It's a small ship, after all." She
walked over to him and extended her hand in a serene
and graceful gesture, "Thank you for the training. I
feel much more confident now."

He took her hand in his, amazed at how soft it was
against his rough grasp, "You're welcome..." George
found himself staring into her eyes, "Uh...."

She gripped his hand back, and noticed the blank
_expression on his face. She tilted her head, "Is
something wrong, sir?" She wondered why his mouth was
just held open like that. Suddenly, she felt insecure.
Was something in her teeth? Her hair odd? She smoothed
her uniform and primped her hair instinctively.

"Uh ... we should be leaving the holodeck. Time is
limited." He said, matter of factly. Not that he
wanted to leave. God knew that he'd like to stay right
there forever at the moment. He thought that maybe he
was under more pressure during this test than she was.

"Ah yes! Of course. I do not want to keep anyone from
their holodeck fun." She smiled and pulled her hand
back from him gently. She moved over to the exit
slowly, glancing back at him. As if she expected him
to follow. He turned and followed behind slowly,
watching her walk. His eyes adverted elsewhere quickly
as they found themselves in the corridor. Oany
gestured to the direction of the nearest turbo-lift,
"I should be heading back to my work."

Work. Oh yes. He worked! "Yes, I should as well. It
was very nice to meet you .. congratulations on your
certification."

Thank you, ... see you soon." She smiled and headed
down the corridor. Oany disappeared around a corner
with a swing of her blonde ponytail.

George Pickett stood there for a moment. He felt like
pinching himself. The whole experience felt like a
dream. Surreal. As he headed back to the security
office, he only knew one thing for sure: he had never
met anyone like Oany.