Perspective - A joint log by Ens Savros and LT (jg) Kas

[Abe Kas 0]

We begin as shore leave ends, prior to leaving Earth orbit for the Klingon homeworld.

 

LTJG Kas reported for duty upon departure from Earth, and after receiving departure orders from Cyiv, assigned the crew to their assignments, and finished his shift a few hours later. Now, it was finally time to get out the "to-do" list for completing his upgrades to the "Auxiliary Fluid (refreshment) Distribution system. Standing in the cargo bay, he was dividing up the supplies he had acquired. He had not realized the effect root beer would have on space farers. Dealing with quibbling personnel always seemed easier now that his chosen brew was aboard.

 

Not that everyone liked root beer. Some certainly did not. Was it the Vulcan starship captain who wanted that obnoxious brew Dr. Pepper, the bar tender at the 602 club in San Francisco , made up? And, no one could complain about the tastelessness of replicated food. He had to replace the connectors to taps in engineering, on the bridge, the crew lounge, and his quarters.

 

Of course, he had to be careful. This precious cargo was not something he wanted to lose or cause problems. He could only imagine what would happen if the ship began spraying root beer! He would spend hours cleaning it up and worse of all! The Captain might decide it was better to not allow it in the future. No. He would have to be careful. There would have to be a secondary containment systems and a delivery system that purged the transport tubes when not in use. These the able Mr. Kas had carried out with the mind of a tactician and the speed of a seasoned engineer.

 

A security officer rounded the corner and took note of Abe hovering above his supplies. "Sir, do you need a hand with that?"

 

Abe pulled himself out of his thoughts. "Uh… No...No. I have some engineers coming up to assist me."

 

"Are you sure, sir? We all like your root beer and would be happy to help. Challenger is the only ship in the fleet so blessed. Were we living in the beginning of this century, you would make a fortune."

 

Abraham smiled. "I'm glad you like the root beer. Really, the only help I need is with coming up with a name. Can you offer any help?"

 

The security officer nodded his head. "Nothing comes to mind. But, I'm sure we can come up with a few suggestions."

 

Savros completed his discussion with Lt. Poldara. He was to begin on the profile of the Klingon homeworld. The assignment was appropriate to a science officer, even a junior one with a doctorate in alien cultures.

 

He left Poldara's office and moved down the hall. The assignment would be challenging. Although Klingons were never his favorite species, he had listened to several lectures about the time before they allied with the federation. From what he could remember, they were known for their savage and deceptive war-like practices. Captain Kirk had lost his son to them and wanted vengeance. Had he not changed his mind, it is likely that war would have ensued. Although historians disagreed on the outcome of any potential war, they almost universally agreed that the Romulans would have significantly expanded their empire.

 

Savros entered the science lab adjacent to Poldara's office and took a seat at one of the desks. He began pouring over material on the Klingon Empire.

 

The fleet was underway and Abe reflected on his work and the mishap that caused it while he completed installing the last hose connector to the taps he had to do. It appeared that one of his root beer mixing kegs had been improperly installed. The first time it was used, a stream of root beer flowed into a jeffries tube. He imagined being in the jeffries tube under zero gravity as the stream of root beer flowed. Had he the presence of mind, it would be simple thing to use ones mouth to temporarily alleviate the problem. Good thing it was dispensed in 8 ounce increments.

 

As he went about the rest of his day, Abe noted that many of the other engineers had the same thought. He smiled inwardly as he considered how much time it would save him explaining to the Chief engineer. He would have to report it. At least he could report that the engineer who failed to install it correctly was already cleaning up the mess. Fortunately, it did not cause any other problems.

 

Savros began dictating his report. He did not expect it to be very long. Much of the information he had found was speculative. Either Star Fleet did not reveal its secrets or it knew precious little about Qu'onos. Being a new ensign and one who did not go through Starfleet Academy , Savros did not have a security clearance. Although he noted a reference to a classified meeting where the destruction of Praxis was discussed, he could not seem to get access to the information explaining why Qu'onos' ozone was being poisoned. Come to think of it, he did not remember this being explained in history. Why it had skipped his mind, he did not know. The only thing left was to formulate a theory based on known information. Surely Star Fleet intelligence knew more than they were saying, but one works with what one has.

 

The convoy of ships enters Klingon space. Reports come in that the ships are in formation and a short time later the lead and rear ships are attacked.

 

Kas sat in engineering and noted the change in alert status. They had entered Klingon space and assumed there might be trouble. Yellow alert flashed across all sections of the ship. The Chief engineer had gone to the bridge and left him in charge. He contemplated the power he now held and decided it was nothing to elevate the head too much.

 

Savros noticed the ship rock and considered whether he should man a post at the bridge. Then he remembered he was only an Ensign. Ensigns did not get to choose their post during a battle and since he was new to the ship, he had not been assigned a battle station. He also knew that the other two more experienced science officers would be on the bridge. So, he put the finishing touches on his report.

 

"Computer, send message to Lt. Poldara. Mark as high priority." The computer made a noise indicating it was processing his command.

 

Outside the ship, the battle was in full swing. The Klingon warbirds were firing in a seemingly random pattern. First they struck the lead ship, then the rear. Abe noted that they were not particularly concerned about being spotted or hit. He wondered if there was an aged Klingon general giving speeches to his men while he spat out orders.

 

Damage was reported on the bridge. The secondary power relays had been hit and surged through the system causing a number of control consoles on the bridge to spark or even explode. Abe paced around engineering and checked on his men, "Everyone alright?"

 

He discovered a number of the engineers and technicians had been jostled around and helped a couple of them get to their feet. "Okay engineers. Everyone is depending on us to keep it together. Don't loose your cool! Damage reports!"

 

Dutifully engineers and maintenance technicians began reporting the damage to the ship. He quickly compiled a list of the damage and standard repair estimates for sending to the Chief. He finished his damage report with a report stating, nothing broken. He sent the report just as another attacked hit the Port Nacelle.

 

'The nacelle of a ship is particularly vulnerable to attack', Abe remembered his old instructor saying. 'Damage to this portion of the ship can cascade to the warp engines. In the worse case, it was fatal. He pressed the communication button nearest him, "Cyiv, I am rerouting power to shields and phasers." He would not make it easy of the Klingon rebels. He pressed the button ending the open signal.

 

Savros continued to note the rocking ship. They were taking a beating and he really should be on the bridge. He assured himself that everything was under control and that his commanding officer knew where to find him. Now, he needed to finish his atmospheric model of the Klingon homeworld. When they arrived, he would be expected to come up with ideas on the best sort of control system to reverse the damage.

 

Based on his analysis, the Klingons would likely not take kindly to moving their production facilities off world. That meant that he needed to come up with a list of compatible environmental controls to off set the carbon dioxide build up in the atmosphere. There was also a matter of the climatic changes on the planet surface. The majority of storms must be back to normal now, but their severity likely reeked havoc on their industry. He wondered if there would be major infrastructures left to support. Of course, the Klingons were a hardy race and the planet was already prone to severe storm systems. No. They would likely survive and have the means to support themselves. Knowing the Klingons, all their resources would be placed on their military. Convincing them to do otherwise was bound to create controversy within the empire.

 

The LTJG in Kas wanted to protect the cargo ships probably more than anyone aboard, since he had been the Chief Engineer on his family's ship, just a year ago. While monitoring the bridge, the idea of laying depth charges to defend them got him thinking. One of the antique airplanes he was especially fond of, F4F Wildcats, was used in something called WWII to defend convoys. While the escort destroyers would lay down a smoke screen, they would be launched from escort carriers to spot and attach submarines on the surface. It was the wake of the subs running at full speed on the surface desperately trying to run away that helped the pilots track and find the subs.

 

Kas remembered talking over a root beer with Savros about all of the equipment now stored in all of the cargo bays, and how it could create the atmospheric gases needed for the Klingons. Savros was anticipating using the enhanced sensors on this "Refit" ship to track their dispersal. Well, if they could be used that way, then any ship, cloaked or not, would leave a "wake" too, passing through an appropriate gaseous field.

 

Remembering his chemistry, a perfect way to not only track the ships now, but identify them in the future, would be to have fluorine isotopes "paint" the ships passing through clouds of the gas. Spread some gas on one flank of the cargo ships, and hope that the mystery ship goes through it. If our sensors don't pick it up now, some of it will react with the pirate ships hulls. Its first use historically was to etch glass, after all.

 

The rush of combat took over Abe. He checked the inventory, made a fast recommendation to the bridge after checking the specs of the equipment and its ability to generate fluorine gas, and got it approved to deploy.

 

Now hopefully, the USS Challenger could catch something in its net. If not now, then as this mission went on, maybe the pirates would try and mix in with other ships. With a half life of 8.7 years, the fluorine isotope would be around for a long time. What's more, it had the inherent ability to bond with metallic elements. Once bonded, it would be nearly impossible to identify all and remove all the radioactive elements. The science department would have to adapt the sensors, but it would leave a near permanent mark.

 

Ensign Savros paused in his atmospheric modeling to check what was happening on the bridge. There was a medical report stating that Lt Xiang was hurt and being treated. He decided this was an appropriate time to report to the bridge. He set the computer to run his simulation on minimal power and only when there were sufficient resources available. Then, he got up and went to the lift.

 

A few minutes later, he arrived on the bridge and reported to Lt Poldara. It seemed the early efforts to detect the attackers had failed. He wondered if modifying a probe with magnetic sensors might make it possible to home in on a cloaked ship. Unfortunately, even a probe emitting a strong magnetic field would have to be very close to help – approximately 100 Km. It could be set to detect electromagnetic radiation. This too posed a problem. It might pick up some stray signal and head off in a random direction. As he discussed the possibility with the Chief Science officer, he decided it might work better setting a series of small magnetic detector-transmitters. They would have to be small enough to avoid the attention of the Klingons, but be powerful enough to put out a signal. This had definite promise, but such equipment had not been invented. He could produce them in about 10 hours, but they didn't have 10 hours. This battle would be won or lost in the near future.

 

Abe worked alongside one of his colleagues in Cargo Bay 3 modifying the gas emitters to emit radioactive fluoride. These gas emitters were designed to assist in the conversion of CFCs to yield oxygen. The radioactive fluoride gas served as both a catalyst and, as the reaction continued, a byproduct gas. Since he proposed to use one third of their supply as part of his paint gun, it was a resource that would have to be replaced.

 

He noted on a pad the physical characteristics of the gas. The sensors would have to be calibrated to pick up the specific radioactivity or it would be harder to track. The communication panel chirped on the wall. Abe went to it and pressed the button.

 

"Mr. Kas, what is your location. I have been asked to assist," a Vulcan voice spoke.

 

"Ensign, I'm in cargo bay 3, but you'll have to hurry. We're almost done." He suddenly realized that Savros' coming was timely. He needed to have the sensors adjusted, but feared internal communications might be monitored. It was safer to have them hand delivered to the bridge.

 

Savros arrived at cargo bay 3 with the intention of assisting in any needed modifications. He was surprised when handed a pad and asked to hastily return it to the bridge. His return to the bridge went much faster considering he knew the way this time. He arrived and passed the pad to Lt Poldara.

In no time all was ready. The smoke screen was released; the Klingon ship was discovered and hit. The damaged warbird increased speed and turned towards Challenger.

 

Savros' mind raced as he thought about their situation. The Klingons would surely want to die in battle and ramming another ship was not as good as hand-to-hand, but it would due. He theorized that the cloak was a Romulan design and that the Romulans had insisted it not fall into Federation hands. They had no choice. He turned to Lt Poldara.

 

Ma'am, I believe they are attempting to destroy the evidence. We might be able to keep them in one piece if we turned the ship so that they hit a depressurized cargo bay."

Edited June 26, 2008 by Abe Kas