Star Trek: Theurgy

Day 08 [0830 hrs.] Can you take me higher?

December 26, 2023, 11:41:14 PM

Stardate 57674.12
April 26, 2381
0830 HRS

[Ensign Jaya Thorne | Holodeck 05 | Deck 21 | Vector 03 | USS Theurgy]
Attn: @Pierce

With the USS Theurgy in a holding pattern over Qo’noS, duty at the CONN had become a rather tedious affair. The autopilot kept the large Multivector Assault Dreadnought in a perfect synchronous orbit, and all that was required of a CONN Officer was to periodically double-check Thea’s calculations just to make absolutely sure that she wouldn’t somehow drop out of orbit due to a glitch or other minor malfunction. That, and being on standby in case something would go wrong to the extent that an immediate departure was required; something like the unannounced arrival of a Starfleet ship that could relay their position. Maybe the one thing that made CONN duty somewhat bearable, at least to Ensign Jaya Thorne, was that most of the senior staff was either involved with maintenance somewhere aboard the USS Theurgy or engaged in other affairs somewhere on the planet. As a result, the atmosphere on the Main Bridge mirrored the average graveyard shift, with most people engaged in informal and relatively idle banter while they worked their assigned stations.

It also allowed the brunette a modicum of leeway too. Thanks to some creativity on her part, she managed to extend her day off with an additional day by trading shifts with Ensign Ali Louis; switching her own morning shift for Vanilla Spice’s shift tomorrow afternoon so they would both have two full days off. In fact, knowing Chief Warrant Officer Larrant and his strict adherence to the rules, Jaya knew that there was a big chance of getting an additional day off to compensate for the training exercise which she technically ran on her day off.

And he’d better, given how Jaya dragged herself out of bed at 0730 hours on her day off. It had been thirty minutes since she arrived on Deck 21 and loaded up the holodeck program which was now running simultaneously on Holodeck 04 and Holodeck 05; two identical programs, barring the fact that the program on Holodeck 04 took place on the Battle Bridge of Vector 02 and the program on Holodeck 05 took place on that of Vector 03. While it had taken some tinkering to get it right, the two Holodecks were now linked and synchronized to perfectly mirror the command inputs given to the respective Vector of the other Holodeck.

A small, confident smirk which had become one of Jaya’s signature facial expressions appeared on her face as she casually leaned back into the comfortable seat that was normally only reserved for either the Commanding Officer or the ranking Officer of the Watch. While she did so, her brown eyes were focused on the video that was displayed on the PADD in her right hand; reviewing the training exercise while she waited for Strawberry Shortcake to arrive. It had actually only been five minutes since she’d contacted Ensign Lauren Pierce, a simple message in which she’d only stated ”Thorne to Pierce, please meet me on Holodeck 05.”, but she figured that she might as well review the footage one last time before trying it out. After all, this particular manoeuvre had been tricky enough while piloting a freighter, let alone an enormous Dreadnought outfitted with an AI that was bound to react to practically every safety protocol which they were about to break.

Re: Day 08 [0830 hrs.] Can you take me higher?

Reply #1 – January 04, 2024, 06:24:42 PM

Ensign Lauren Pierce | Lauren's Quarters | Junior Officer’s Quarters | Deck 13 | Vector 3 | USS Theurgy] Attn: @Nesota Kynnovan [Show/Hide]

Still in bed after the whole Savi capture situation. She had been shaken for sure and was a wee bit tired still from the altercation. Not to mention, she had to keep it low key since returning to the ship with her hand needing repair, and another physical checkup. Something she hadn't been looking forward to since herself, Amanda and Natalie were in the buff on that mission. The rescue was embarrassing enough. Lauren stared up at the ceiling of her room before turning over and peering out the window.

Decidedly she sat up on her bed, heaving her legs over the side, feeling her chest sway as she repositioned the weight, letting gravity take it's toll on her back as well. Wiping the hair from her face, she finally stood up and headed over to the sonic shower which wasn't too far away from her bed. Stripping down, she tossed the night clothes back into a drawer and climbed in letting the heat from the water run down before washing. She was glad today was an off day. One where responsibility was off the table. But that didn't mean she didn't want to have fun either.

Turning off the shower, she stepped out and toweled off before putting on her bra to help gravity lift the girls even if it were ever so slightly. Martian water she smirked. Stepping out of the bathroom she approached her uniform and put it on despite not really needing it. It was just comfortable and warm, especially since the recent events, she'd take the comfort.

As Lauren was about to step to her console, her communicator chirped causing a slight stir.

"Lauren here." She stated after tapping the badge.

It was Ensign Thorne requesting her presence on the Holodeck. Puzzled she acknowledged and headed out of her room to the corridor, and finally the turbolift. Hoping this wasn't anything too important or distressful, she secretly hoped for something adventurous to do.

Moments Later...

Ensign Lauren Pierce | Holodeck 05 | Deck 21 | Vector 03 | USS Theurgy]

Pierce finally arrived at the Holodeck and didn't even question it but waltzed right in to be struck by the view of a Battle Bridge. Quizzically she paused and placed her hands on her hips as if to say something when she saw Thorne in the center chair.

"Practicing for the job you want I see." She smirked at the brunette woman who turned in the chair.

"So....what's the play? I can only speculate why I'm here but I have a feeling it's going to be fun yet dangerous." She finished awaiting the game that was about to unfold.

Re: Day 08 [0830 hrs.] Can you take me higher?

Reply #2 – January 27, 2024, 12:33:09 AM

[Ensign Jaya Thorne | Holodeck 05 | Deck 21 | Vector 03 | USS Theurgy]
Attn: @Pierce

As she leaned back into the command chair and burrowed herself deeper into the soft leather, Jaya’s brown eyes were focused on the video displayed on her PADD; studying the manoeuvre which she wanted to practice with Strawberry Shortcake and trying to think not only of possible problems which they might encounter, but also of potential solutions to said problems. When she heard the signature hydraulic hiss of the holodeck doors, the brunette shifted around in the seat and turned her gaze to the doors behind her to see Ensign Pierce walking in.

Strawberry Shortcake’s entrance came with a quip and, in response, Jaya presented Lauren with one of her own signature smirks. ”Please, being in charge is the worst possible job. All they ever do is frown, worrying way too much and overthinking everything.” The tone of her voice only accentuated the sassy smirk on her face and, when the red-haired Martian asked about the play, Jaya turned around and swiped the video on her PADD directly towards the viewscreen. While the video was still paused, the viewscreen showed the separated Vector 02 and Vector 03 in close formation.

”Before I joined Starfleet, I used to haul cargo for Earth Cargo Services for seven years. That was in the period between… 2368 and 2375, give or take a year.” Jaya briefly turned her attention to Lauren for a moment and presented her with the same sassy smirk that hadn’t left her face since the red-haired Ensign entered the holodeck. ”The last two years were pretty hairy, but if there was one thing I learned while hauling freight during the Dominion War it was how to be creative. We always flew in small convoys, no more than two or three freighters at most, and while we thankfully never encountered the Dominion we did run into small Cardassian patrols a couple of times.” What Jaya deliberately left out of the conversation was that, most of those times, the cargo they were hauling wasn’t exactly legal under Cardassian law so they usually had to make a break for it. The Cardassians frowned heavily on the smuggling of relief goods and other essentials to besieged Federation worlds after all and, while some sour people might have called it ‘war profiteering’, those shipments earned Earth Cargo Services (and, in turn, herself) some very good latinum. ”Anyway, I figured that one of my old tricks in particular might come in handy. It allowed old freighters to hold off small patrol ships long enough to escape, so imagine what the effect would be for Theurgy?” With those words, Jaya turned her attention back to the viewscreen and unpaused the video. ”Alright, watch.”

When the video unpaused, it showed Vector 02 and Vector 03 slowly manoeuvring towards each other. The distance between the two Vectors slowly decreased until only thirty or forty meters remained, close enough to fall well outside any sanely programmed collision margin, but in the video the Vectors maintained a perfectly synchronised formation.

”So, the manoeuvre basically required two freighters to maintain such a close proximity that their deflector shields would overlap. It basically allowed them to boost each other’s shield power to the extent that the light weapons of the Cardassian patrol craft either wouldn’t penetrate or only do very minor damage. Earth Cargo Services always picked routes with certain anomalies such as nebulae, asteroid fields or other places for their freighters to hide, and this tactic allowed the freighters enough time to send out a distress signal to the Federation Alliance and run for a safe place to hide and wait out the storm.” As Jaya spoke, she remembered how the distress signal often forced the small Cardassian patrol vessels to call off the search out of fear of being jumped by responding Alliance ships, but she also remembered only too well how some other ECS-freighters were unfortunate enough to encounter stronger Cardassian warships with heavier weapons. Those encounters never ended well.

The video on the viewscreen reached its end and, as it began to play again from the very beginning, Jaya turned around once more and looked at Lauren. ”The reason why I called you here is because I want to practice this manoeuvre with Vectors two and three. If we can stay inside each other’s deflector field, one of us can boost their shields and the other can divert all of their power to overclock the weapon systems. Sword and Shield, if you catch my drift. I just have absolutely no idea how Thea and all the built-in collision protocols will react to this manoeuvre, so it could turn into an interesting morning.” As she spoke, Jaya’s smirk became a little bigger. ”You up for it?”

Re: Day 08 [0830 hrs.] Can you take me higher?

Reply #3 – February 01, 2024, 11:19:51 PM

Ensign Lauren Pierce | Holodeck 04 | Deck 21 | Vector 03 | USS Theurgy] Attn: @Nesota Kynnovan [Show/Hide]

Lauren took the joke at face value and gained a slight chuckle on the aspect of command crew. She saw the same pattern in her ancestor, Alana as well. But she noticed the wild streaks within those moments. They just turn them off when needed for extreme focus. Turning from Thorne's face to the display, she watched the presentation of the flight plan as her co-CONN comrade explained her own history with varied flights.

"Don't get me started on the Dominion War. Be thankful they never captured you..." She said remembering the brutality she witnessed and felt, clenching her cybernetic prosthetic hand and lower arm before returning to the task at hand.

Taking in the sights of the flight patterns with Vectors 2 and 3 caused some excitement to boil as she realized what her co-pilot was planning. "That's brilliant! So by doing this, we'll give the ship amplified shielding that will cause the enemy fire to either be absorbed or ricochet off the ship back to them! I am totally game for this!" She pumped her fists together as it smacked loudly and she jumped with giddy behavior.

"I'm ready to shake things up. Thea may not like what we're doing, but...she'll have to deal. I am the one who piloted the Allegiant through the exploding Praxis and the tight confines of the bomb in the core of it. I've done crazy before so let's see what she can do. Definitely will get more maneuverability once we're in Vector formation compared to the whole dreadnaught."

Pierce took her leave to the other bridge station in the Holodeck next door. Stepping into the Arch, she exited and walked down the hallway to the other Holodeck running concurrently with Holodeck 5. As the door opened through the arch, she was presented with the other battle bridge of Vector 3.

Tapping her combadge, she spoke to Thorn. "Hey Brownie! So, are we giving the commands to pilot this ourselves or are we using holograms? I'd much prefer to do the piloting myself. Giving the coordinates I can do but I love the sleek feel of the board beneath my fingers as I play my symphonies." She chuckled as she ran to the CONN anyhow on the eerily empty bridge. Hoping secretly she could at least add some holograms to the area to make it seem more lively as she worked her magic.

Re: Day 08 [0830 hrs.] Can you take me higher?

Reply #4 – February 26, 2024, 08:57:30 PM

[Ensign Jaya Thorne | Holodeck 05 | Deck 21 | Vector 03 | USS Theurgy]
Attn: @Pierce

When Lauren left the holodeck, Jaya strode towards the conning station and sat down in her seat. In comparison to the big, comfortable seat of the Commanding Officer, it occurred to the brown-haired Assistant Chief CONN Officer that her own seat wasn’t nearly as comfortable; it missed a headrest, the titanium armrests lacked any padding whatsoever and the seat itself wasn’t nearly as soft. Yet, as she raised her seat so she could better reach the conning console, Ensign Jaya Thorne smirked one of her content grins and knew that she wouldn’t exchange her seat for Captain Ives’ for any given price. While comfortable, that seat came with way too many responsibilities and not nearly enough fun to make it worth the problems.

After only a couple of seconds, which Jaya used to make some final calculations, the chipper voice of Strawberry Shortcake rang out from her combadge. Upon hearing the familiar nickname, the brown-haired Denevan looked up from the calculation program on her PADD and grinned before speaking up as well. ”Well Shortcake, there’s no use running this exercise if we’re not personally going to fly this, now is there?” As she spoke Jaya brushed an errant strand of brown hair behind her ear before turning her brown-eyed attention back to her PADD. ”Okay, I’ve done some calculations and I propose that we start easy. We’ll start on a parallel course, running at one-quarter impulse with 85,000 kilometers between us. If we leave our speed at that and only use manoeuvring thrusters to close the distance, that will leave us with roughly 35,000 kilometers of wiggle room before the collision warnings kick in.” The math behind that was pretty basic; the navigational computer on every starship was programmed to calculate the speed of each object and sound a collision warning once that particular object crossed a preset five-second threshold. That would leave a CONN Officer with five seconds to react and take evasive action. Knowing that Strawberry Shortcake had learned all this at Starfleet Academy, Jaya briefly paused so the redhead could run the calculations in her own head and visualize the plan. ”Let’s close the distance to 50,000 kilometers to trigger the collision warning and go from there in small steps, alright?”

While she waited for a reply, Jaya turned her attention to the computer and spoke up. ”Computer, start training exercise for Holodecks 04 and 05.” The computer replied with two confirming beeps and, with that, the holographic simulation came to life. The brunette Assistant Chief CONN Officer looked at the sensor readings which were looped back to her console from the vacant Operations station to her immediate left and saw that Vector 03, Lauren’s Vector, was indeed roughly 85,000 kilometers below her on a parallel course. ”I see you, Shortcake. Now, communication is key in these exercises. We both have to know exactly what the other is doing, especially once we go beyond the five-second threshold. I’m taking Vector 02 down to 70,000 if you go the other 20K.” With those words, Jaya brought her right hand to the control stick of the manoeuvring thrusters and slowly inched it forwards. She could see the sensor reading and, traveling at one-quarter impulse, the distance between the two large Vectors immediately dropped to 78,000 kilometers just by inching the control stick. Jaya inched the stick forwards once more, just a slight and careful nudge, and noticed that the distance between her and Lauren was now just a mere 72,700 kilometers. Close enough, given that it was better to have a little bit too much distance than not enough. ”I’m holding position at 72,700 Strawberry. Come on and bring it in.”

Re: Day 08 [0830 hrs.] Can you take me higher?

Reply #5 – March 05, 2024, 09:19:57 PM

Ensign Lauren Pierce | Holodeck 05 | Deck 21 | Vector 03 | USS Theurgy] Attn: @Nesota Kynnovan [Show/Hide]

Sitting at her own respective CONN chair, Lauren leaned back, stretched her arms out before folding her fingers and cracking them loudly as her fingers were ready to play. The intense, yet fun stare on the board and the viewscreen were keeping her attention well directed. That was when the chirp overhead told her that Brownie was setting the stage for their coming scenario to play. She took mental note.

'Start slow, check. Parallel course, check... one quarter impulse...check.' She peered at the sensors and the navigational computer as she saw the distance between Vectors. It was gonna be tight, but a lot of fun. "Communication, aye. I've set the starting parameters on my console."

Pulling the control joystick out of the console, she manually navigated the distance without letting the ships collide. The distance closing from 85,000 kilometers to 72,700. Now it was her turn to make the distance. "Coming in gradually. Maneuvering thrusters online." She tapped the console with her left hand as her right steered the ship. The spurts of thrusters pushing the ship upward with each tap of the console drawing them closer.

Leaning her hand upward, she proceeded to lift the 3rd Vector upward closing the distance slowly but precisely. Didn't want to set the alarms off yet anyhow. She grinned how this would be entertaining to Tessa who would likely bash Vectors 2 and 3 together to make a 4th Vector somehow.

"Closing....67,060....60,532...56,700....53,020...and we're on point. Ready Brown leader!" She chuckled as she remembered some old space opera program from the late 1900s. Star Battles? Battlestar? No Star Wars! Except Brown leader could be taken rather badly she thought.

The pre-warning klaxons began to sound on the display, albeit quietly until the time was right to advance further together.

"Okay, we're at 50,000 kilometers. What next?" She stated as the collision warnings came on in full effect with the room changing to a glowing shade of red.