The Best Defense...

Posted on 23 Mar 2018 @ 2:17pm by Captain Harvey Geisler & Commander Terry Walsh & Commander Jayla Kij & Lieutenant Commander Arjin Djinx & Lieutenant Commander Joey Geisler & Lieutenant Commander Gemma Alexander & Lieutenant Commander Camila Di Pasquale & Lieutenant Reginald Hawthorn & Lieutenant JG Jazmin Parks & Staff Warrant Officer William Griffin & Senior Chief Petty Officer Charles Stephens Jr.

8,397 words; about a 42 minute read

Mission: Crossing Over
Location: Various
Timeline: MD35 || 1025 hours

===[Space]===

One of the three alien vessels had broken formation. Instead of teleporting crewmembers off the large ship, it was advancing towards the small spacecraft that had emerged from it. Sensors hadn't yet registered hostile intent, but it did detect deactivated weapons aboard the single-person craft.

Terry looked around the cockpit. "Protection, how do I protect myself?" He closed his eyes and took deep breath, he immediately thought of the that fizzy field that he passed through in the fighter. Terry opened his eyes, "Computer, is there some kind of protective or defensive field?" There was no voice, but one of the buttons lit up and he pushed it. A slight hum indicated the raising of the fighter's shields. No weapons were armed, though. "Of course," he said. He had an instinctual feeling in his gut that this wasn't the first time he'd been in one of these things. He started moving his hands over the controls and shifted the fighter closer to their ship and to the other side. "Terry to...Harvey, I guess. There are three ships out here, smaller than ours. One is heading towards me."

"Is it going to shoot at you?" Harvey asked over the comm.

Terry looked around at the different monitors and saw that one had changed to an image of the space around him. It the visor on his helmet and displayed information regarding the approaching ship. The thing that stuck out to him was the indicator over the ship and it's color...red. "You know, I do believe it is. At least if I'm reading this information right."

A pair of green blasts lanced by the small fighter, narrowly missing the target.

"Oh crap!" exclaimed Terry. "Uh, yeah, it did. Terry out." He came around and pulled away until the beeping sound went off. "Terry to other fighters, if you can hear me and figure out how to fly, get out here!"

Gemma had been pleased to finally find out her name, though less so to find the people they'd been trying to communicate with were apparently now enemies of some sort. Feeling greatly hampered by the holes in her memory she'd watched Terry take off when she'd gotten back from helping other crew. Then, stuck with an overwhelming need to go with him, turned to another pilot, "Gather the pilots, we can't let him go alone. Check with the brass." The man nodded and took off.

Alexander checked the newly discovered computer to find out where her craft was. It took her longer than she'd hoped to figure it out with a little bit of trial and error, and throwing herself on the mercy of the crafts computer but finally she'd figured it out, "I can fly this thing..." she thought with a bit more confidence.

Terry looked around and saw another fighter coming out. This was good. Very good. He brought the fighter around... "Alright, time to fight back. Computer, I need something to shoot." The screen in the center of the fighter lit up as the visor on his helmet went back to normal. It showed the battlefield in front of him with all of the glowing icons, one of which was the larger ship that was firing on him. He glanced down to his right and saw two buttons labeled Phasers and Torpedoes. "Game on," he said.

amid shaking as the ship took hits Gemma made her way out into space, she saw flashes of light and dodged instinctively moved the craft out of the way, "I need to protection..." And the computer obligingly lit up what she needed for shields. Feeling braver as her hands moved over the familiar surface of the controls she said, "I need to know where everyone is?" She asked questioningly and the HUD popped up with allies in green including one labeled 'Walsh'. That one was under attack by a craft in red that simply read as 'unknown 1', unknown 2 and 3 were firing on the green dot that was labeled 'BlackHawk'. "Oh Boy..." She muttered.

"Terry to whoever figured out how to fly these things," he said, "Just...fire." He adjusted his fighter until the enemy ship turned a brighter red. Then he tapped both of the buttons and watched as energy beams shot forward and a small pod-like thing left his fighter.

"Gemma..um red 1...on it Walsh." She replied, one hand rested naturally on a set of controls. A quick check indicated they were weapons. "Come to momma..." She muttered in triumph, "lock weapons on nearest target..." She said to the computer bringing the craft in to support Terry. It wasn't as smooth as her usual but it would get her there, when she got close enough she fired as well.

Terry was glad to have someone out there helping. "Excellent," he said. "Let's do it."

Sito in the lead of a few other pilots who had finally managed to get out themselves, figured out much the same way what Terry and Gemma had then he got on the coms, "Forgetful Delivery hopefully delivering smack down on the right persons who can we stomp on for you today?" His HUD up and showing the 3 red targets along with now a small batch of green labeled ally dots.

Terry started laughing into the com. "Yeah, red icon on your screen. Let it have it." He paused, "On second thought, and my gut is telling me this right, let's try to focus our attacks on one area. Computer, what would be the best place to focus our attacks right now?" One of his other screens came up with an image of the ship, which then zoomed in on an area near the back of the ship. "Send this to the other fighters," he said. "That is what we focus on for now. Let 'em have it." With that, he zeroed in on that area and launched some more of the torpedoes, followed by the phasers.

After learning her name was Aurilia Moretti and that she was a fighter pilot, the young redhead took a computer aided crash course in learning what fighters were and how they worked. More importantly, she learned that she had one of the birds assigned to her and made her way to it after finding a flight suit with her name on it. Once she got it on with a bit of a struggle, she climbed aboard her fighter and instructed the onboard computer to do the startup flight check, then powered the Gryphon on.

Her stomach turned into a bundle of nerves as she taxied the fighter towards the open space filling the hangar and wondered if she should go or stay. No she thought fiercely as she nudged the bird closer. They need me out there. As the computer indicated that everything was functional - if she knew what everything was that computer said or not - she urged the Gryphon into space. She kept her attention on the readouts and had the computer indicate which were friendly and which were hostile, she launched. The computer urged her to activate her shields and weapons and with some prompting, she managed to accomplish it.

The vastness of space surrounded the Gryphon and Aurilia suppressed an urge of incredible terror at how small she and the fighter felt, but swallowed it down like bad medicine that was good for her. She moved the control stick and felt the fighter roll in response to her command and brought it back the other way as she experimented with it briefly before she headed for the big read dot the computer told her was the enemy ship.

Energy lances fired out from the small target ship. Though it was less than a quarter the size of the Black Hawk, its weapons were still strong enough to land a few punches. There were, however, more small craft than available turrets, but it didn't stop the craft from swatting at the flies that flew around it. The target's shields were lit up brilliantly by enemy fire, but they continued to hold against the onslaught.

Aurilia's warning sensors went berserk when they detected the energy being fired at her and she jerked hard to the left and the Gryphon went into a sideways spin before she jerked back to the left and fought to stability it. "Sonofa...this thing is touch!" she told no one as she lined up with the big ship that was obviously trying to kill her once again. Her eyes flicked over the weapons offered on the fighter and she selected something called a torpedo and when prompted, selected automatic targeting and fired.

Sito had acknowledged Walsh and did a fair job at not getting shot as he aimed and fired for the positions that had suddenly lit up on his screen at Walsh’s command. He was aided by his computer which aided firing and navigation as it did with the others. All in all there seemed to be a lack of proper formation but while that may bother them later Sito and his section of the flying troublemakers were doing a decent job of being a pain as they did their best to keep up on the fire. He saw something on his HUD that streaked out from one of the green tiny dots but wasn't sure what it was as he dodged another bout of phaser fire.

Alexander dodged and weaved a part of her mind almost giggling at the ballet like dance her craft seemed capable of. She really wished she could remember more about how to fly this but muscle memory and the computer seemed enough for now, “Keep on that target selected.” She said to the computer which obligingly locked on to the target Terry had indicated ready to fire again as she came around for another pass. There was a weird kind of adrenaline which one could only half be sure of what they were doing in a life and death situation. Gemma felt oddly comfortable with it.

The target's shields started to buckle under the strain from the fighters' weapons. Deciding that it was outmatched, it stopped firing on its opponents, and began to turn and flee.

It was a risk considering how few Gryphons were out, but Aurilia vectored in a pursuit course with a bit of help from the computer and took off after the other ship. When she closed the distance, she fired the phasers and two more torpedoes at the rear of the fleeing ship and continued to close.

One of Terry's monitors lit up as he saw four more fighters sluggishly exit the bay, swaying a bit from side to side. This could prove helpful. "After them!" he called into the comm. "And keep shooting!" He took a pursuit course and fired his weapons, three torpedoes and then phasers followed by another volley of torpedoes.

The target knew its shields were aboard to fall. Though the ship continued to be bombarded, it was starting to take internal damage. Its compatriots would try to take out the larger ship, but for now, it was time to withdraw. In a brilliant flash of light, the ship's warp engines engaged, propelling the ship far away from the action.

Gemma and Sito's squad followed and fired at least until it went to warp. "Guess we're turning around, new target?" Gemma said into coms, prepared to deal with the remaining two enemy ships.


===[Deck 10]===

Camila led a small group of gold uniformed personnel, all armed, along a corridor. The computer had pinpointed where a group of aliens were and she was determined to get them off of the ship. She peeked around a corner and saw a group of six of the armored aliens herding personnel from various rooms and narrowed her eyes. They were taking people and she had no idea what they had planned for them if they got them off the ship. She motioned to the others and gestured around the corner of the intersection and brought her phaser up, then her other hand to raise all five fingers, closed it, then raised one more, hoping that her team knew enough to realize she meant six aliens were there.

With a cry of vengeance designed to startle an opponent, the Security Chief rounded the corner and began to lay down fire at anyone wearing armor. Two of the four personnel with her dropped down to the ground and started firing with the other two aimed high and began to focus their beams on the armored beings.

Two of the boarders dropped instantly, caught by surprise. While the other four reacted, even grabbing some of the Black Hawk's crew for cover, the forty others in the room panicked. Most did not know their names, or where they were, or why others who dressed like them were shooting at the nice people who were just trying to help. Their solution, however, was to seek cover instead of trying to confront their brethren. In the midst of it all, three of the observers took cover using some of the corridor's built-in gangways, and the other held a teal-collared man in front of him as a shield.

"Get down!" Camila shouted at the people scrambling. "They are the enemy!" She took careful aim and fired another few shots at any parts of the armored beings that weren't protected while the others with her fanned out and began to fire at the gangways to keep the aliens cowering.

One of the boarders decided to brave the onslaught, only to be shot in the head at the very moment he peeked out. Rather than chance getting shot, the two under cover reached out with their minds, assaulting the attackers with a wave of negative, painful emotions. Meanwhile, the one with the shield continued his fire, aiming at the targets that were more exposed.

The emotional onslaught hit Camila like a tangible wall and her already fragile state of mind couldn't resist. She crumpled in on herself like someone who had just lost the will to live and hit the floor. One of the other personnel grabbed her to drag her back around the corner while the others returned fire. One's aim was thrown off and hit the person in the teal uniformed person with a heavy stun, causing them to be dead weight in the alien's arms.

Even though his shield was now dead weight, the alien still held on, trying to keep the ship's defenders at bay. He continued to fire back at the defenders, as quickly as his pistol would allow.

Griffin had a headache, something had happened, he had woken up in a room with a bump on his head and no idea where, who or what he was. It had taken him ages to figure out how to open the door, he'd eventually forced it open with a sharp curved thing that had been hanging on his wall. He figured it was some kind of weapon, although who it belonged to was anyone's guess.

A lot of noise, yelling and shouting drew his attention. He rounded the corner to see a bunch of people wearing clothes similar to his own shooting at another person who was holding one of the uniformed ones hostage and shooting back. He didn't know why, but he knew the armored person was bad, he felt anger and a need to help the teal uniformed person. Instinct took over and told Griffin's body what to do, with seemingly practiced ease he wrapped one strong arm around the armored one's neck and brought the curved weapon down hard on it's wrist. Hand separated from arm and he squeezed, hard. A crack told him that the person was dead, and he let the body drop.

He felt anger, satisfaction and something else, regret maybe? But he couldn't make sense of why. "Hey, " he roared down the corridor. "What the hell is goin' on?"

"We're being attacked by aliens in armor," one of the gold uniformed personnel said as they worked on taking out the last couple. Another officer in the same gold uniform bent down to check the ombre haired woman who had been identified as the Chief of Security. "We need to get her some help. She's still alive but not responding."

"jIyajbe'! qaStaH nuq jay’!? nuq 'oH pongwIj'e'?" Griffin replied, "SoH 'Iv? 'Iv ravDaq?" He dropped to one knee to pick up the weapon the armored alien had dropped, having to pry dead fingers off of the handle before he could grip it. He let off a shot towards where the other invaders were hiding, somehow instinctively knowing how to use the thing, then moved sideways to the wall. "Whoever she is, we gotta get her on her feet, we gotta keep moving!" He continued gruffly, tossing the dead hand aside.

The gold shirt, a Bolian nodded and lifted her upper body. "Get her legs and let's get out of here."

"Roger that," Griffin shoved the alien's weapon into the waistband of his pants and switched the mek'leth to his right, then scooped up the downed woman's legs with his left, lifting her easily. Thoughts of who he was, what was going on and who the hell all the other people around him had faded away under the burning need in his gut to take action. "There's gotta be some kinda doctor or somethin' somewhere."

"Then let's go," the Bolian said.

Suddenly, the mental assault stopped. Thanks to their cover in the gangways, the two surviving boarders dissolved in shimmering light. The dead alien, and the other injured ones, disappeared in similar columns, leaving the crew to themselves.

"Hey, they're leaving!" someone shouted as he noticed the shimmering light.

=/\= Lieutenant Parks to Chief Di Pasquale, I'm in sickbay, where are you? =/\= Griffin heard the call through the woman's comm badge, but had no idea how to respond. Sickback sounded like where they wanted to go, though.

Not a moment later, the deck shuddered and above, the lights flickered. Griffin staggered sideways, shoulder hitting the wall as he tried to balance the woman he was holding with one arm. Around them, a wailing klaxon began to sound and the panel lights all started flashing red. Griffin didn't understand exactly what that meant, but he figured out pretty quickly that it was bad.


===[Sick Bay]===

The procedure finished, Jayla looked at the four guinea pigs hopefully. “How do you feel?” she asked.

“Fuzzy,” admitted Abbey, scratching her head. “But.. I remember that I’m married. To a Vulcan. Oh, God, I remember what Vulcans are!” she sighed in relief. “Little else, though. Oh! I’ve got a son!”

Joey remained still for a moment as her once fuzzy mind slowly started to clear. It wasn't a fast process, but she was grateful that some things began returning. "I... I remember bits and pieces, but things are still rather cloudy. I remember some of my time in the academy... and artisan chocolate Khan gave me."

Before she could get any further than that, Rico and Pequeno also showed signs of their memories returning. Both dogs were up and licking Joey's face as if they hadn't seen her in a long time. She laughed and brought her hands up to rub their heads. "I remember you both, too."

Jazmin opened her eyes after the procedure, surprised that it was over so soon. "Jayla, I don't fee...." her eyes lit up as she sat up, a huge smile on her face. "Oh my God! It worked! I mean, I don't remember everything, but I know who I am, I mean really know. And I know what I'm supposed..." Her smiled disappeared and she hopped off the biobed.

=/\= Lieutenant Parks to Chief Di Pasquale, I'm in sickbay, where are you? =/\=

No response came back to the Assistant Chief of Security.

Suddenly, the room shook. PADDs and other small tools clattered to the floor. A nearby speaker began to wail, and red lights began to flash from around the room. Another shudder followed. "Hull breach on Deck Six, Section Fourteen," spoke the emotionless computer. Thankfully, Section Fourteen was well enough away from sickbay, and in an unoccupied area of the ship, but who knew if this would be the only one.

Joey jolted on the biobed, holding on to Rico and Pequeno so they didn't fall. She let out a curse, remembering the bridge was completely empty, which left them sitting ducks. Now things were coming back to her. Was it the grave situation they were in? More than likely. "Parks, Road... you're coming with me. We need to get to the bridge now," she said, then looked to Hawthorn. "Hawthorn... get me power. Now." Without waiting, she quickly made her way out of sickbay expecting the others to follow.

"No please? A thank you? Hell of a welcome back to the land of the sporadic memory tree. " Reggie grumbled, eye the deck above him as another quake rocked the ship. He began to run after Joey and her menagerie. "Guess it can wait until after we're not all dead."

Abbey snickered as they ran after Joey. She shouldn't be laughing, but in stressful situations, one had to recognize the humor when it surfaced or one would crack. and, Hawthorn had just tickled her funny bone. "High fives later," she agreed. "Right now, we save the universe! Or at least this ship."

Jazmin didn't have time for anything other than to register that Camila didn't respond. Either she couldn't respond, or was unable to respond. She acknowledged Joey and followed suit, pausing at a security locker in the corridor and after placing her palm on the sensor, opened it, pulled out three hand phasers, tossing one two each of the others.

After being stunned in the fight on deck 10 Arjin was brought in, still uncounsious, by some of the people that had been witness to the fight.

The EMH took one look at the unconscious man and motioned for three of the blue uniformed officers- including the Chief Medical Officer- to get onto bio beds. “We are going to need more doctors,” he declared, readying the neural stimulators once more. Once the three doctors were set to healing, he turned to the unconscious man, tricorder at he ready. “He’s been stunned,” he declared. “And on a rather high setting.” He presses a hypospray to the man’s neck. “He will need some rest, but this will help.”


===[Deck 19]===

Like the rest of the crew, Harvey heard the notice from the computer that the hull had been breached. Part of him wished that he'd stayed on the bridge. Of course, he didn't have the foggiest idea what to do up there. The whole reason he'd come down to Deck 19 in the first place was to get to the only room that he knew had some ability to control the ship; Main Engineering.

Harvey, leaving the security team behind, ran down the corridor, navigated its twists and turns, and found himself standing in front of closed doors to Engineering. He wasn't alone. In fact, several others were there trying to figure out how to open the door. "What's going on?" he asked. "We've got to get inside there."

Charles was well aware that they needed to get inside. Who was this new yahoo coming up throwing around orders like it was his ship or something. He didn't even look up he was looking at the console where it said there was a coolant leak and that is why the doors had been sealed as a safety precaution. "Look new boss guy, unless you are different from the rest of us and know who you are and how this works I suggest you pip it down. There is a coolant leak of some kind on the other side. We are trying to seal it off from here and vent the atmosphere so the door locks will unseal."

The Captain wasn't taken aback or offended by the man's outburst. After all, the morning had been stressful for all of them. No memories, lack of direction, and now the ship was starting to have holes punched in it. Still, Harvey couldn't let up. Not until he knew everyone was safe. "I have no idea how any of it works," Harvey fired back, "but I know I'm the Captain of this ship."

Those words 'I'm the Captain of this ship.' Rang in his ears for a second as he thought about it. It meant something but he couldn't place it. Just then his fingers ran across the board he saw a pattern and he went with it. You could hear on the other side of the door a some hissing and other things. The next thing he heard was the door locks unsealing. "Looks like that worked. Coolant has been vented and interior environment is safe."

Just as he finished speaking, Harvey watched the emergency doors rise. One of the warp core's twin coolant tanks had indeed punctured, and its darkness showed that it was completely empty. Other consoles bore burn marks and other scars from the damage that had been inflicted thus far. "Find out how bad we're hurt!" Harvey said, making a dash to the pool table, hoping to get an overview of the situation. If only there was someone around who knew what they were doing... And Harvey wished that he was that person.

Charles had the same instinct the large engineering pool table seemed like the largest source of raw data and so far his interactions with the systems seemed to be something familiar to him. He had no clue why still but he went for it. Charles started to look over some readings and after some panel strokes pull up more. "From what I can tell the core is intact but not at full power due to the coolant tank being empty." he started off with the obvious pointing to the empty tank. "We also have multiple hull breaches but emergency force fields are in place." he looked across the table at the Captain. "So if your the Captain who am I?"

"I wish I knew," Harvey confessed, taking a moment to find the crew manifest. "Like you, when I woke up, I didn't remember a damn thing. But this," Harvey finished with the manifest and gestured at Charles to take a look at it, "should help." Right as he finished, the ship shuddered again, causing a new shower of sparks to rain down from the upper level.

The manifest was listed as picture not names. This must have been the Captain's doing. It made since no one knows who they are best to match the face then the name. As he scrolled through and then looked up. "Says here I am you Chief of the Boat and a Damage Control Specialist." This didn't jog anything in his mind but it was something to work with. "It kind of explains why this panels don't seem foreign to me I guess. By the way I am Charles." He extended his hand. Senior Chief Petty Officer Charles Stephens."

"Harvey Geisler," he replied, accepting the handshake. He had no idea what a Chief of the Boat was, but Damage Control seemed to be something that was desperately needed at the moment. "As long as this... stuff... makes sense to someone then we're a leg up."

"Well it is still like trying to read a foreign language you only dabble in. I can make out some of the readings and then instinct kicks in I think. From what I can tell things are as stable as they can be down here. Its gonna take a lot of work and hopefully our memories to get it back running." Charles said as he went back to working on the table.


===[Bridge]===

Joey stepped onto the bridge, and just as she'd expected, it was a ghost town. She quickly put Rico, Pequeno and Chow in the Ready Room and made her way to the center of the bridge to assess the situation. "Road... you've got helm for the time being. Parks... you're on tactical. Take out their weapons and engines. Do not destroy them. Our people are over there," she ordered, making her way to the Intel station. "If you're not familiar with your current station, welcome to the crash course. Don't take that literally. Hawthorn... work on the power situation."

"Aye aye," Reggie said, taking the direct path over a railing to a station that seemed familiar. His memories were there but they weren't all slotting into place right. Like that damned infernal monkey, he knew that thing was the bane of his existence up to a point but-. A warning light flickered from amber to red on his screen, which he now recognised as the dedicated engineering console. Remote links, direct feeds to all primary and secondary systems. Maker bless the designer who automated half of the Century class ships to make them less manpower heavy.

"Okay I got me a bad news, good news combo special. Good news is Warp Core's online, and its humming along nicely.
Lockheed Utopia make a good core, and the automatic's kept it in good order during a...'manual restart'? I didn't do it cause I'd remember that, which...DID SOMEONE TOUCH MY CORE WITHOUT THEIR BRAINS WORKIN' RIGHT?!" steam might very well be streaming from his ears. He focused, tamping down the murderous rage that someone with good guesswork and the hand of The Maker on their shoulder had randomly hit buttons until an antimatter reactor came online.

Joey snapped her attention in his direction. "Keep it together. We have lives at stake here. Focus on getting what's needed."

Jazmin holstered her phaser and hurried to the tactical station. She tapped her access code and was rewarded by the console switching over to her personal settings.

"Tactical ready," she tapped at her controls, allocating phasers to target the enemy ship's weapons and engines as ordered. "Firing now!"

Joey waited with her hands clasped behind her back trying to formulate a plan to rescue their mission crew. She'd thought it before, and would likely think it again, but nothing was ever easy. Why would now be any different. Their saving grace... the four of them were in the process of regaining their full memories.

"Okay time for some bad news kids. When the cores in power mode it ain't at its most efficient. We're not making enough energy to have a surplus for much of anything else, and the auto's were already shutting down nonessential systems." He turned his head over his shoulder, glowering at the helm...that person didn't seem to fit that station. Which did wonders for Reggies gut. He eyed Joey. "We need to be moving. Full impulse or as close as you can get it. I can use the heated plasma from the impulse reactors to jump the warp core into Military Power mode, or we can wait fifteen minutes for the reaction to ramp up. Your choice. Right now we're nearly firing blanks here. Just pretty pretty lights."

During the conversation, the targeted enemy ship shuddered under the Black Hawk's fire, however the damage was limited to their shields. Somehow, their shields withstood the hit and pressed on with their attack, changing their target to the dimmed impulse engines on the back of the ship.

Joey grit her teeth. They didn't have time for this. "Mister Hawthorn... get me military power yesterday," she ordered as she moved over to the helm where Abbey was. "Miss Road, we need to move. I'm aware you have likely never flown a starship before, but we'll get through this." This was so much bigger then a shuttle. Taking a deep breath, Joey began giving the woman detailed instructions.

"Bring Impulse Reactor's to full power, plasma race track is stable and feeding back to the main EPS power grid. Core temp is rising, full Military Power at command as soon as the flyer hits the go pedal." Reggie said, as the lights began to brighten. Reggie gave the console a tender, almost loving stroke. "That's my beautiful girl, you shine like the star you are and burn them son's of britches to hell."

Jazmin compensated for the maneuvering of the enemy vessel, stifling an excited yelp when sensors locked on. "I have firing solution ma'am. Ready to fire at your command!"

"Gimme a minute, gimme a minute," muttered Abbey as her eyes frantically darted over the helm display. "It's no use, I have no id- there!" she exclaimed, tapping the display. "Got it! Trajectory! Now, where are the other ships...? There. So if we're at 3... then we've got to go.... oh!" She wrung her hands and closed her eyes a moment, doing the mental calculations. "Got it, I think," she said, tapping some commands into the console and checking the projected route. Satisfied, she searched for a moment before finding the command to engage the impulse drive and hit it. "I'm totally doing flight simulators during my down time," she promised.

"Wait...you're not a pilot?!" an incredulous voice that sounded an octave higher than Reggie's bleated from the back of the bridge.

Despite being impressed, Joey couldn't express it. Not yet anyway. They were on the move. "Miss Parks, fire forward torpedoes," she said, turning her attention to Abbey. "Miss Road, maneuver Beta-1. Fly between the two closest ships. If we're lucky," And she really hoped they were. "They'll disable one another. Mister Hawthorn... yesterday."

"I can blow us up or help blow them up, but I can't do both at the same-...huh. Military Power is coming online now. Looks like I can do two impossible things at once," Reggie crowed. "Now if you don't mind I have to direct the auto repair systems to make sure it stays that way. Shoot'em more than they shoot us, best advice I can give."

"I am so glad you described what Beta-1 means," muttered Abbey, doing quick calculations and setting the course as quickly as she could. She was absolutely sure an actual pilot would do it without thinking. It had been a long time since she last cross-trained. But! At least she remembered it! "Got it!" she said finally, making a correction as the ship started to move.

"Dear Maker who watches over the idiots flying the rocket ship, make sure we don't all die 'cause we forgot a turn signal..." Reggie chattered from the back.

“Amen!” agreed Abbey emphatically with a humorless laugh as she attempted to keep one eye on the trajectory and the other on the helm controls that she didn’t know very well at all. “Oh!” she groaned. “Someone find Felix and restore his memory quick!” She made a quick course correction, but had miscalculated and had to do it again.

Jazmin forced herself to focus. The engineer was beginning to get on her last nerve, if only he.... Stop it Jazmin! Focus on what you need to do! She quick-loaded the photon torpedoes in the forward launchers, they would quickly take down the enemy shields, overloading them in rapid succession. The aft launchers she set a standard load that targeted the enemy engines and primary weapon systems.

She heard the order to fire and as the Hawk made her run between the two enemy, let loose with the barrage of photon torpedoes.

Of the two targets that had engaged the Black Hawk, both had been bombarded by torpedoes. Though one withstood the barrage, the other with the weakened shields saw its protection screens fail under the stress. The remaining torpedoes hit their target, causing their engines to explode with a brilliant flash of light. The lights on the outside of the hull flickered as it lost power and fell adrift.

The remaining target continued to fire upon the Starfleet vessel, puncturing its unshielded hull with its energy weapons.

"Hull breaches on the dorsal saucer section looks like a few rooms now have skylights!" Reggie flicked away the warning tell-tales. "Forefields are in place and holding!"

This is not happening! Joey thought as she moved over to one of the consoles to check damage. "Miss Road... Delta-5. A long, relatively shallow dive to one side of our target. Bring most of our weapons to bear," she said, moving her fingers over the console. "Miss Parks, fire torpedoes and get their shields down, then fire phasers at weapons and engines. Mister Hawthorn... lock onto our crews combadges and start bringing them back. We can't wait any longer."

Jazmin acknowledged her orders. "Aye ma'am, targeting second enemy vessel." She tracked the enemy vessel, targeting stress points in their shield grid and fired, grinning as the sounds of the launchers doing their work rang out.

The torpedoes found their mark, taking down the remaining enemy shields, and shutting down the ship's engines. This one, however, still had some life left in it, and continued to cut away at the Black Hawk's hull, tearing lines into the secondary structure.

“Got it,” replied Abbey, whose memories were slowly returning. She hadn't spend much time in the flight simulators, but it was enough that now her brain was working a bit quicker. “Damn!” she hissed, making a quick correction as the ship veered a little to far to port. “Somebody get me someone who can fly this thing! I’m a doctor, not a pilot!”

"YOU'RE A WHAT?! Reggie snarled, looking at the back of Joey's head. "Why by all that's good about blue fire did you put the doctor in the driver's seat! And before you get all snappy we're locked on to all the combadges over there. I can cycle all the ships transporters at once for a mass beam out. Total before the shield can come on line will be 3 seconds but I need the power for the transporters."

Shields? Shields! Son of a... "Beam them back now! Any other grievances you might have with my choices can be dealt with when this is over," Joey snapped, preparing to raise the shields the second their people were back. How in the hell did she forget something so important? Then again, memories were still returning, and her mind felt like it still had some holes in it. "Miss Road... just hold her steady. We're all there is right now."

"Beginning transporter cycle...now," Reggie said, his fingers working the controls as matter became energy and back again. "And we got'em all. Spread across half the ship and two in a cargo bay. Bet you a steak dinner they are having an interesting time of it. And that's it, powers transferring from transporters to shields. Jazz you should be able to raise'em when you need'em."

Joey muttered a curse and raised their shields. At least they had their people back on board. "Miss Parks, target weapons and engines. Do not destroy them."

Jazmin nodded. "Aye! Targeting weapons and engines to disable. Firing now!" She tabbed the controls which sent the powerful ship's phasers slicing into the now shieldless enemy ship.

A mental sigh of relief was given just before Joey looked to the three people on the bridge with her. She was proud of them, but there was more for Abbey who was put into position she'd never been placed in before. "I know none of this was easy, and a couple of us were thrown into positions so far out of our comfort zones, but you all made it happen and should feel nothing but pride for what was accomplished. Abbey... I can't express how well you handled yourself at the helm, and I know you probably hope it never happens again, but it proves that when the cards are stacked against us, we can do just about anything," she said, sitting heavily in front of the console she was just standing at. "I'm grateful to serve with such wonderful people."

Jazmin smiled at the compliment, which, as it reflected her professional abilities, made her extremely happy. It's not that she needed affirmation, but after working so hard to prove herself in Starfleet, it was more than welcome. "Thank you, ma'am. It was a team effort."

Abbey turned from the helm console with so much relief she actually laughed. "It's been a long time since I worked in the simulator," she confessed. "There's a lot to be said for cross training. I'll never complain about it again. Long distance high fives!" she called to Hawthorn and Parks, holding one hand in the air. She was feeling too unsteady to stand; the adrenaline must have worn off already.

Jazmin stifled a giggle and raised her hand in response.

"Anything that got broke 'cause of your flying is getting a house visit from you Doc," Reggie said, still moving from left to right across the main system display. "We'll call that cross-training and lesson learning all into one. Bound to be a few bruised gel packs that need nursing back to health."

Joey turned her attention to Reggie. "Lay off of Abbey, Lieutenant. She did well, and didn't cause any damage. Those assholes out there are the ones who beat us up pretty good. If you want to pawn your job off on someone else, I suggest looking elsewhere, because Miss Road already has one that's going to require her attention shortly," Joey said, rising to her feet and holding her arms out as her level of annoyance began to peak. "If you have any issues with the choices I made in a dire situation, I'm standing right here."

Reggie said something that very well could have been words or an Eldridge curse upon all mortal kind.

"My issue is the fact there is, until everyone gets their brains back in order, one engineer. That's me. And right I got me a list of things growing in my noggin' that falling into two categories. Cat 1 problems need to be fixed soonest. Cat 2 problems are things that need to be outright replaced cause they've gone too long doing things they weren't meant to. Like the coolant control valves, they are busted open and vapor locked." He tapped the MSD screen, and red high lights began to flicker over it. "Thank God none of these are mission critical. Magnetic bottle in antimatter storage goes offline things'll get a might interesting."

He shook his head.

"Lot to do."

"It's all right," said Abbey, waving him off. "Either you're just razzing me or you're under a ridiculous amount of stress like the rest of us. Don't worry about it."

Jazmin rolled her eyes at the exchange. She had a feeling that the Chief Engineer would take some getting used to. But what was life without challenge?

Joey tapped her combadge. "Geisler to Geisler."

Down in Engineering, it didn't take much for Harvey to realize that the shuddering had stopped. He was quite thankful for the calm, but not knowing what to do at this juncture made it difficult for him. A wave of relief fell over him the moment he heard another voice from the senior staff. "This is Harvey," he said aloud. "Go ahead, sister."

Joey breathed a sigh of relief when she heard his voice. With the battle going on, she didn't know who was okay and who wasn't, but now there was verbal confirmation he was fine. "I have some news for you regarding me being your sister," she said with a smile. "Turns out I'm not your sister. I'm your wife, and you're the father of my lizards." She couldn't help but recall that moment on the bridge when she felt movement and accused others of planting lizards inside of her. "I know that, because there are four of us here on the bridge, and we're in the process of regaining our full memories thanks to the medical team."

Reggie looked over to Abbey and mouthed: 'Father of lizards?!' with a raised eyebrow.

Abbey gave him a shrug and a look that quite clearly said, I have no idea.

It was about time he had some good news. The most shocking part of it all was that the woman he was speaking to wasn't of blood relation, but that he had a wife... and baby lizards? Is this what fatherhood felt like. Harvey was forced to shake his head in an attempt to force those thoughts from his mind.

Looking up at the warp core, he said, "Things aren't looking too good down here. I know we had firefights in the hall. I take it we had something similar outside?"

"Yes, and I don't think they're going to be any better. I'm sending the Chief Engineer down that way now. He's one of the four that are regaining memories, so he'll know what's going on," Joey replied, looking toward those present on the bridge.

"I'm on my way up," Harvey replied, nodding to Chief Stephens as he left Engineering.

"Good Luck Captain." Charles said with a hopeful grin.

"Yes, Captain. I will see you shortly. Geisler out." Joey said, tapping her combadge. "Again, thank you all for what you did to help. Lieutenant Hawthorn, Engineering needs your expertise. Miss Road, I'm sure they can use another hand in Medical getting the crews memories restored. Miss Parks, keep shields up and run long distance sensor sweeps for any other ships that might be heading our way."

"Yes, sir!" said Abbey, jumping to her feet, which were a bit more steady now. "Or ma'am if you prefer. Can't say what we've been through was fun, but I'm glad we went through it together. And now, back to my regularly scheduled job." And she headed towards the turbolift.

Jazmin nodded, monitoring shield levels and compensating for any fluctuations. She couldn't imagine what it must have been like before regenerative shield systems, but it couldn't have been easy. No ship would have dared to try entering the Convergence Zone without them.

Reggie spent another second eyeing the MSD, tapping one final button to keep what he assumed was doomsday at bay with a band-aid, and scooted for the turbolift. A turbolift shared with the flying doctor herself.

"Er, Doc, look about what I said, I just gotta say something to clear the air," he said as the door closed. He took a breath, and then said: "There's this guy in a turbolift somewhere, I might've knocked him out in a fit of confused panic. Fella might not be in the best of moods so, feel warned. Can you press for the engineering level please? Deck 19."

Abbey looked around at the walls, slightly puzzled before she remembered how the 'lift worked. "Deck 6, deck 19," she said and the lift sprung into action. "Took me a bit to remember how that works. Anyway, I'm sure he'll understand. And if he doesn't, we'll talk some sense into him. We're all a bit out of sorts right now."

After a minute, the turbolift doors opened and Harvey returned to the bridge. He was pleased to see it undamaged, but the smell from the vomit had certainly begun to sour. Strangely, he noticed that it didn't upset his stomach more than he thought it should. Perhaps he was used to the smell of putrid. "So, what all was shooting at us?"

When the Captain entered the bridge, Jazmin snapped to attention. "Captain on the bridge!"

Out of habit, Joey stood at attention when Harvey made his way onto the bridge. "Two ships that are now disabled," she replied. "Computer, display the ships on the view screen."

The viewscreen shifted to show both hulking ships floating adrift. Before Harvey could say anything, he noticed several small craft fleeing the wreckage. As soon as the small ships were clear, they disappeared in a flash of light, having gone to warp speed. A heartbeat later, both vessels exploded in massive fireballs. "So much for figuring out what the hell is going on," he muttered.

Joey blinked when the ships exploded. That was not expected. "We purposely avoided destroying them in hopes of getting some answers," she spoke with a frown, wondering if they initiated self destruct. Sadly, that was something she'd never know. "We'll figure out what's going on, and we'll have a better chance of doing that once your memory is restored."

Harvey shook his head. "We need to make sure we're okay first. Let's get some of our technicians and medical staff at the front of the line. There's a Chief Stephens down in Engineering that needs to be put at the top of the list. I'm sure the Chief Engineer will need his help, among others."

"While I can agree with that, you're the Captain. Everyone looks to you for their orders. What are you going to do in the meantime?" Joey asked. "Have a shadow to help you out until you get treatment?"

"I'm staying here," Harvey said. "As I understand it, the Captain's place is on the bridge. I might not remember anything, but I know I'm no good down below. However, until I have my memories back, you're stuck in command, so technically, I'm shadowing you."

"There are worse places to be stuck, and I'll stand in as long as I'm needed," the Intel Chief assured him before she called someone from Ops to finally get the center chair cleaned. Joey had to wonder if the bridge crew were getting their memories restored, or if they'd gotten caught up somewhere along the line.

Jazmin opened a second command window, tapping orders into it for the computer. Computer, locate Chief Di Pasquale.

Lieutenant Di Pasquale is currently in sickbay, the computer responded.

Sickbay was about to become the hub for the entire ship. Though the battle had been won, with only four people having memories, it would be a herculean task to keep the Black Hawk safe with no one to reinforce them. At least this first encounter had ended. But what dangers still awaited the Black Hawk, which was now stuck in the Convergence Zone?

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