The Tactical Helmsman

[Brian Graham 0]

Assistant Security Officer's Duty Log

Lieutenant Brian Graham reporting

USS Excalibur

Stardate 200408.19

 

Brain stood on the Bridge at the Tactical station of the Excalibur. He looked down at his controls, noting the collapsed view of two separate sets of data. On the left was the standard tactical overlay, shields, phaser power display, targeting sensor, torpedo readouts, tractor beam control, and alert status indicators. Just to the right of that was another set of controls, navigation calculator, course input, relative bearing and heading indicators, and maneuvering thruster control. Cannon and rudder. Neither were being used much at the moment, thank goodness.

 

The Excalibur was currently at the periphery of an asteroid field, at full stop so there really wasn't a need for the helm control at the moment. Plus, there weren't any hostile vessels, at least on scanners, so weapons weren't being used either.

 

Brian started to wonder what it would be like to have to do both at once. It could work regarding a shuttle. Starships were a different story, especially the Excalibur, since phaser arrays required more than the point-and-shoot-mentality. That wouldn't really be a problem though, because if the need arose for both to need complete attention, another officer would step in and take care of one of them. It would have been much more difficult if the Excalibur were in the field itself. Going with the shuttle was a good idea since the field looked pretty dense and it definitely not the best venue for combat with a Sovereign-class vessel.

 

The way it was, if anyone hostile did show up, they'd more than likely come from the asteroid field, possible from the larger asteroid. If that was the case then they would have to come through the field to get to the ship, meaning having to worry with colliding with debris. That would give the Excalibur the advantage, since it would be firing from a fixed point at targets whose maneuverability was limited by the space rocks.

 

They would be easy pickings for the Excalibur and the four accompanying Warbirds. That, of course, depended on how many, if any, were hiding in the field or the asteroids themselves.