"Strategic Advances"

[Oany Kimaris 0]

"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.