Terror Rebalanced

 Episode Name:  Terror Rebalanced
   Written By:  Harris
         Cast:  Albertz, Caeli, Dakin, Genesis, Harris, Isole, K'net-mauri, Magret, 
                Poole, Randal and Risa.
  Produced By:  Starfleet
  Directed By:  Genesis & Harris
     Aired On:  Tue May 20 03:51:20 2003
     Stardate:  53227.1

Time: Mon May 19 22:54:04 2003

Stardate: 53226.6

Stardate 1709.2. USS Enterprise, on routine patrol in Sector Z-6, adjacent to the Romulan Neutral Zone. The crew is currently engaged with two tasks: scanning for Earth outpost number 2 -- one of a series of stations established along the Federation / Romulan border to maintain the peace. The outpost has been non-communicative for some time - and suddenly, Outpost Three stops responding to any communications attempts. The other? A wedding is occuring aboard the ship.

Isole is standing at her little winky-light box that passes for a terminal, picking lint from her uniform and occasionally buffing her nails on her go-go dancer uniform. When the situation is made apparent by the little holobriefing, Isole filters out all of the ugliness and focusses in on the bright spot. "A wedding! How charming." She looks back to her terminal and presses a button at random. What's that do?

Caeli is on the bridge, himself, sending the ship's tactical sensors probing out into the deep dark depths of space while /not/ attending the wedding. The blinking light catches his attention, and he looks at it a little harder. He looks over to the generic ensign in charge of sensors, querying, "You seeing anything out of the ordinary?" Maybe the light is broken.

Dakin is having minimal problem handling the ancient-by-his-standards flight control console, sorry, *helm.* A minimal number of buttons and toggle switches plays a part in that. He cranes his head over to the astrogator screen to his left and is quietly pleased that he can make heads or tails of the readings.

Albertz takes up station on the starboard side of the bridge. Looking over the impressive array of buttons and lights he lets out a low whistle, commenting to nobody in particular, "Not the most user friendly of ships, was she?" Turning inboard to face the other officers he throws the question out on the floor, "Who's getting married?"

Poole stands right in front of the command chair for the briefing, settling back slowly. Finally, she's seated and settles into the /literally/ big chair. She looks around at the 'crew' at their positions. It's clear she's recording this all in her mind... Crossing her legs just /so/, she responds to Albertz, after a moment's thought. "Angela Martine and Robert Tomlinson..."

A wry grin escapes Harris' lips as he leans against the bulkhead next to the turbolift and the ship's plaque that's emblazoned with 'USS Enterprise - Starship Class - San Francisco, California'. History this may be to them, but this is something straight out of his own life... literally.

Randal occupies his time at the navigation console by pressing status report toggles and reviewing and re-reviewing the readouts. He's at least a little familiar with the older control layout, thanks to a previous holodeck encounter with Harris, although he apparantly finds the button-and-switch awkward as he stabs at each control rather deliberately. He glances sidelong at Dakin, then looks back to his own controls.

Risa's spending her time getting to know the controls as well; occasionally, carefully, she touches a control or two and tries to see what it does. Engineering expertise apparently consists of pressing random buttons, and avoiding the ones that are big and red. Thankfully, she doesn't cause any alarms to go off, the warp core to jettison, or any dilithium crystals to crack, so all's well for now.

The murmured conversations in the background of the bridge bely the palpable tension in the air - discussing bridesmaid's dresses and imported sterling roses from Deneva.
Generic Sensor Ensign Number One (thankfully, he's a blueshirt, so we might see him in the next episode) returns Caeli's glance, then flicks the light with his thumb and forefinger in an attempt to make it shut off. "Just lower than normal subspace traffic in this area," he replies nonchalantly. "Nothing unusual."
Meanwhile, in the background, Lieutenant Nyota Uhura (the oft-underestimated chief communications officer of the Enterprise) continues transmitting in vain, trying to raise Earth Outposts Two and Three... and then her jaw drops. "Captain Poole, distress signal coming in on the Starfleet emergency band." Her eyebrows knit together in concentration. "It's from Outpost Four."

"Put it onscreen..." Poole says, then erms, "On speaker. That is. Ms. Uhura." She blushes, a little embarrassed, and looks to Harris.

Isole turns about at her post and rocks on her boots, sidestepping towards Risa's station to abruptly turn about and poke one of her buttons. On the terminal, that is, which may also poke one of Risa's buttons, but that remains to be seen. "You know, I find the entire premise of this whole business slightly absurd? So if I get wacky on you and make a mockery of the whole thing, that's why." She unpokes the button, just to be polite.

Caeli swivels briefly in his seat to shoot a brief grin at Risa before looking towards Poole and Uhura. There's nothing to shoot at, thus the Bolian can focus his attention on the prospect of phaser targets to come.

Dakin blinks upon hearing the distress call and hopes silently that he remembers how to kick this thing out of warp should the need arise.

Albertz clasps his hands behind his back and waits patiently for the communication to go through. He smirks a little, catching Isole's comment.

Subtly out of place in this environment, Harris performs the Picard Maneuver on his uniform as the distress signal comes in. Straightening, he inclines his head to Gwen - smile increasing ever-so-slightly. The fish out of water swims freely.

Randal frowns a little bit and taps a few more controls on the navigation console. It looks like he's making sure he can pull up the course plot databank, if and when it becomes time to set a new course. Otherwise, he remains quiet.

Risa turns her eyes immediately to Uhura at her announcement; let's face it, she already knows at least a little bit about this mission, and she's not good at pretending she doesn't. Her earlier skimpy-uniform-adjusting and button-pressing forgotten, now she's focused on the drama-in-progress.

Fingers dancing over the brightly lit buttons, HoloUhura nods to Poole as she reroutes communications to the intercom system. With a subtle click, the channel is opened... straight into hell.
"*cracklestaticBZZZZZZTRreachfuzz*Outpost 4. Do you read me, Enterprise?! This is Commander Hansen." The voice is filled with panic - the fear of a man who knows that his life is about to end, and that there's nothing anyone can do to help him.
The conversations on the bridge fall silent, all the hologram's eyes landing solidly on the boxlike center chair and the woman in it as if judging her. Their captain is James Tiberius Kirk, Starfleet legend - awfully big shoes to fill.

Poole steels herself. Hey, she's used to getting stared at like this, it's nothing new... except for the not being Kirk part... Well, she's almost as crazy as him, so, she speaks up, "Commander Hansen, this is Captain Poole of the Enterprise... We read you, what is happening?" She looks over between Randal and Dakin, "Navigation, plot a course to Outpost 4... helm, lay in that plotted course and engage at Warp 8." No sense waiting for Hansen to tell the bad news... heck, this is a distress call after all.

Isole sidesteps back to her post, poking a button or two while listening to the distress call with, frankly, quite a lack of apparent interest. If she knows this is a recreation of actual events, she's not letting on. She just exudes the aura of someone for whom this is all just a way to make a living. Holograms, after all. Her terminal is poked a final time before she turns about and leans against it, folding her arms across her stomach and crossing her legs at the ankles. A hand lazily brushes one of the curls from her eyes, and that's it for overtness. (Pert.)

Whee! That sounds like a fight. And that means things to shoot. And that means the Bolian gets to earn his pay. He turns to Poole, then. "Captain, permission to go weapons hot?" Forget about the fact that Zip sounds more like a Tom Clancy novel than a tactical officer. Just go with it.

Dakin nods to Poole and starts flicking toggle switches. Prophets, these things are loud. "Warp eight, aye."

Albertz gives the buttons on his console some of the ubiquitous fiddling, didn't people die all the time in this era? Surely there will be call for a medical officer sooner or later.

Harris takes two steps forward and grips the railing that surrounds the command pit. And Dakin thought the *switches* were loud - the engines whine and roar as the ship leaps forward.

<CONTEST> Randal contests his Shipboard Systems (Flight Control) skill vs a difficulty of Routine and Succeeds!

Randal taps on the controls, and checks the astrogator console in the middle, then glances back to his controls. "On course for Outpost Four." The whine of the engines causes him to look toward Dakin with a frown. "Uh, are we supposed to be making that noise?" He asks, voice hushed.

GAME: Risa spends a courage point.

<CONTEST> Risa (claiming advantage) contests her Shipboard Systems (Engineering) skill vs a difficulty of Moderate and Succeeds!

Perhaps only to get a better hang on these controls, Risa starts diverting power from nonessential systems (i.e. replicators and those nonexistent bathrooms) to the warp drive. Just, you know, in case. She glances to Poole briefly once her task's done, then turns toward Randal, quirking a grin. "That's apparently the standard engine hum, or so I'm given to understand. I'd just love to see us push just a little harder, for curiousity's sake." Leave it to an Engineer to want to fiddle with something like that.

"Outposts 2, 3, and 8 are gone," Hansen replies to Poole, the terror at what he's seen almost leading the man to tears over the comms. "Unknown weapon. Completely destroyed, even though we were alerted. Had our deflector shield on maximum. Hit by enormous power. First attack blew our deflector shield. If they hit us again with our deflector shield gone.... Do you read me, Enterprise?"
The holocrew exchanges glances. Shields gone in one hit? Three outposts destroyed? The tension in the air begins to mount.

The intercom beside Risa crackles into life. A male voice, with a Scottish burr, says, "Engines are holding steady, Mr. Risa. But I dinna know how much more power you can take from the nonessential systems! The ship's only got so much!"

Isole pushes up onto her hands and drops her rear end onto her terminal, squishing a few buttons at random. She crosses her legs at the kne, bounces a boot idly, and then leans to the side to poke her terminal intercom. "Whiner." She closes the channel down and offers a wink aside to Risa before settling back on her hands a bit. "Hey, Hamish! Get a load of this guy!" Isole juts a thumb towards her comm unit helpfully. "What's this thing running on, a rusty hamster wheel?"

Poole's command chair whistles with a hail from below-decks. It's from Main Engineering.

"We read you Commander Hansen... if you can, attempt an escape. We're coming Commander. Hold on." It seems Poole isn't much scared of Romulans. Even ones with big plasma weapons. She casts a glance back towards Isole, winks, and says, "Once we're within range, drop out of warp, raise shields, charge the phasers and begin scanning the area... full impulse towards the..." Hrm. A Hail. She taps the com, "Mister Scott?"

Caeli smiles at the words 'charge the phasers', and sets about charging them. "You know, Rann, I read somewhere that your average type III compression rifle could put out about as much power as these old arrays. Think that's true?"

A very angry Scotsman's voice come from the line. "Captain, I don't know -what- Starfleet Academy is turnin' out these days, but I think young Mr. Isole may have gone space-mad, speaking to a superior officer in such a tone!"

Dakin sighs and says to Caeli, after nodding to Poole's interdiction plan, "What bothers me is these things aren't collimated. Something creeps up any direction besides straight ahead and I have reposition the ship just to give you good aim."

Albertz grins across the bridge at Isole, now you've done it. "He must be from Aberdeen, tight as a duck's butt they are. If they're worried about a bit of cruising around, what did they do when they really had to cover ground?"

Poole looks over Isole's way again and winks, a playful smile on her face. "Acknowledged Mr. Scott... We're heading into combat, so I hope you're ready to work some of that engineering magic. Poole out." She gives Isole another wink, "Let Risa talk to Mr. Scott from now on, mmm, Isole? Pretty please?"

"We let Scotty run wild on the engine room, that's what," Harris offers to Albertz with a grin.

Randal turns in his seat to look over at Isole (after all, the ship's on course and there's little more for him to do right now) with a wide grin on his face. "Telling off the ship's chief engineer. What are you going to do next? Seduce the Vulcan science officer?" He chuckles.

Risa only barely manages to wipe a trace of a smile off her face at Isole's antics and Scotty's subsequent whining about it. (Let's face it, Isole's right; he's whining.) But by the time Poole says 'pretty please', a wide grin breaks out over her face. Randal's comment prompts her to lower her face into her palm, if only briefly.

And so it comes to pass that Earth Outpost Four, a bastion of military might for the last century comes into close sensor range.
There's dead silence on the other end of the comm as the starship races on. "Escape? Request visual uplink, Enterprise." Hansen's voice is soft - extremely so. Something vital in the man just snapped. "There's no escape from an enemy you can't see."

"Request granted..." Poole answers, looking over to Uhura whom she gives a nod. Her attention is then directed to the viewscreen.

Isole offers Poole an innocent expression, placing a hand at her chest lightly. Who me? "I'll be sure to call the whiner Sir from now on, Sir." Isole's attention then shifts to Randal with an amused grin. "Is he cute?" Clearly self-amused, Isole hops down from her perch and turns around to at least /pretend/ she's into this. She rights her terminal's buttons -- the one her rear end pressed -- and starts prepping damage control measures. "You ever been to Risa, Risa?" Isole makes conversation as she works. "Heckuva planet."

Caeli grins slightly at the antics of the engineers before shooting back to Dakin, "Then I hope the reason I never knew you were a pilot was because you keep your biggest talents the most secret." Checking phasers... ah, they're good. Zip turns in his seat to face the rest of the bridge, lightening up somewhat. It's just a game.

Uhura activates the necessary controls, and the outpost's interior comes into view. Hansen sits center screen, uniform tunic singed, torn, and bloodsoaked - splashes of green, blue, and crimson staining the golden fabric. Around him, fires burn out of control, and bodies lay everywhere. "Enterprise, can you see it? My command post here. We're a mile deep on an asteroid. Almost solid iron. And even through our deflectors, it did this. Can you see?" The man's eyes are hollow, having shut down for the most part - only sheer will keeping him going now. "No identification. No answer to our challenge. Only a glimpse of it. Then they fired something at us -- some form of high-energy plasma. Fantastic power. And then the whole vessel disappearing, but it's out there somewhere. Our sensors show that much. Enterprise, something coming on our viewing screen. Coming at us fast. Can you see it, Enterprise? Can you see her? It's becoming visible in the center of my screen."

Dakin smiles and nods to Zip, and starts to respond, before seeing Commander Hansen's appearance on the viewscreen. It's then that the all-business mask starts to slide down over the Bajoran's face, but not all the way (this IS a holo-sim), still, it would help to take this semi-seriously, he thinks, if for no other reason than to get into the role.

Albertz stops grinning as soon as the Commander appears on screen, this is a historical document of sorts and to be respected. Still there's a twinkle in his eye that hints at his amusement at the engineer's antics.

Poole watches. Actually, she is quite unable to look away. This may be a holosim, but this is historical. The Romulans did this. They did this to these outposts. They did this to Earth. To her family. Oh yes, the Commander has her attention. "Begin sensor sweeps of the area... we need to track whatever it is," she orders, hand to her mouth as she continues to watch.

Ever the silent, stalwart observer, Harris continues watching everyone on the bridge.

Randal offers Isole one last smirk before he settles down, himself, and turns to face the viewscreen. His expression becomes quite a bit more somber and after a moment or two, Randal returns his attention pensively to the controls before him. It may just be a simulation, but the image of desperation and destruction still strikes a bit close to home for him.

Risa puts on her own more serious expression, and while she's lacking the absolute horror, surprise, or worry that someone on the original mission would have had, she at least looks like she's taking this as seriously as any training mission, tempered with a solemnity for the dead. She turns to Poole, saying quietly and respectfully, "Sir... should we begin beaming the injured aboard, or raising our shields?"

On the screen, a small white vessel appears. It's tiny, in comparison to the (relatively speaking) Constitution-class behemoth closing on it. As it closes, Hansen starts to gibber in terror. "Our phasers are gone, Enterprise. We've got nothing left to fight them with! YOU'VE GOT TO HELP US!"
There is to be no help for Hansen, though... Enterprise is too far away. A flaming ball of plasma is produced by the fading Romulan ship, filling the viewscreen before the feed goes ominously blank.

"Not very talkative, are you, Ensign," Isole notes aside to Risa, "that's fine. I am. And I'm fairly well adept at talking to myself, too. Comes from the desperate search for intelligent conversation." Isole pokes a few more times at her terminal before puffing out a sigh, blowing one errant curl out of her line of sight. "I'll also infer from the general mood of everyone, here, that this actually happened. Historically speaking. Which makes me probably excessively disrespectful at the moment." Poke button. Poke button. This throughout the final moments of Hansen's virtual life. "You have to wonder, though. Which is more rude. Me cracking wise, or some programming that poor bastard's last moments into a rec sim." She lowers her voice and leans aside a bit towards Risa. "Holograms don't know they're not real, you know."

Caeli completely ignores Isole, at this point, having only a general recollection of this event and not wanting to botch it up. He glances back and forth from Poole to the viewscreen and his controls, waiting for something to shoot at.

Albertz looks into the telescoping viewmaster thingie at the science station. "Sensors indicate Outpost 4 has been destroyed sir." Hamish relays the information in a sober, matter of fact tone.

Poole responds to Isole. "There is every chance that was simply a recording... and that there was no hologram on that holooutpost that was destroyed. Regardless... the man's spirit rests easy, I imagine. Even his hologram's spirit... Kirk avenged him." She shrugs once, as if to close the thought, then looks to Albertz, "Scan for them... It looked like it needed to get awfully close to use that weapon." She nods to Dakin and Caeli, "You have free control at the moment... if you see the ship or it's weapon, fire and retreat... And yes, shields up, Ms. Risa. We don't need the power for warp any more."

Harris releases a long breath, glancing at Poole. "That wasn't a recording, Gwen..." he notes softly. "That's not how it happened the first time. Exactly, at any rate."

Randal winces slightly at as the hologrammatic outpost is destroyed. He glances sidelong to the damage control station where Isole resides, and can't help but smile at her running commentary, in spite of himself. "Well, it is just a computer program, either way," he comments. "So it's not like it actually feels pain. Even if it believes it does." He taps a few controls in order to look busy, since without warp travel there's nothing immediately urgent for a navigator to be doing.

<CONTEST> Risa (claiming advantage) contests her Shipboard Systems (Engineering) skill vs a difficulty of Moderate and Succeeds!

GAME: Isole spends a courage point.

GAME: Albertz spends a courage point.

"I'm... sorry," Risa murmurs to Isole of her earliest comments. "No, I've never been to Risa. I was, accidentally, given the Risa Microbe vaccination, though, which is probably as close as I'll ever get." She doesn't comment on virtual people, and their feelings; her opinions are clearly written on her face, and it's a definite sort of muted horror. Soylent Green is people. Holograms don't know they're not real. She manages to shake that idea off for later, focusing on the job at hand; Poole's orders. She's getting the hang of this whole rerouting thing, and so it's with a minimal of random poking that she gets the the power rerouted from the engine to the shields.

Isole laughs softly at Poole's self-assuaging, shaking her head a bit. "You're the expert, Gwen." Point: Arnan. "I don't suppose the moral lesson of blowing away holographic Romulans who are programmed to do harm is one anyone wants to enter into at this point, either?" Isole's rhetorical is followed by a momentary pause. "Thought not." And then she offers her chip into the pot of pretense, "Damange control teams standing by on all decks. All systems nominal." She then glances aside at Randal and bites back a comment, shaking her head once more. This time more ... bitterly, very nearly. To kill her own mood, Isole asks without a glance to Risa, "Mind if I call you 'Eight'? Magret will laugh her tail off."

The Romulan ship appears again, this time pointed at Enterprise. Another plasma bolt is unleashed, aiming for the starship.

Caeli, on seeing the Romulan come out of nowhere, calls out to the bridge, "Incoming! Brace for impact!" Almost as an afterthought, he twists some knobs, makes them do loud things, and fires off the ships phaser arrays at long range. "Firing phasers," he announces, just to make sure they know we're not just sitting here and taking it.

<CONTEST> Caeli (claiming advantage) contests his Shipboard Systems (Tactical) skill vs a difficulty of Challenging and Fails!

Dakin starts manipulating the controls to fire up the impulse drive and widen the Enterprise's distance and path away from the incoming plasma torpedo. "Hold on, everyone, I have a feeling inertial dampers weren't perfected yet...!"

<CONTEST> Albertz (claiming advantage) contests his Shipboard Systems (Sensors) skill vs a difficulty of Challenging and Fails!

Albertz grips the edge of the science console, bracing for the impending blow. Making a vain attempt at multitasking he tries to get a reading off the unfamiliar sensors and ends up with nothing.

GAME: Dakin spends a courage point.

<CONTEST> Dakin (claiming advantage) contests his Shipboard Systems (Flight Control) skill vs a difficulty of Challenging and Succeeds!

Crossing to a spare console, Harris finds a seat and flips on his side of the weapons.

Poole doesn't look over at Isole, but what she says next is clearly for the woman, "Thanks for opening up a debate on morality when we're in the middle of a firefight... plenty of time for that later." She winces as the plasma bolt is fired, but she gave her immediate orders earlier. There is an intensely pensive look on her face though. Obviously she is wondering WWKD. What Would Kirk Do? Wait a tick... Who cares? What would POOLE do? It is in that moment she sees the path. "Next time sensors pick that ship up, hit the impulse straight for it... I want a torpedo... or a spread if this thing can manage it, ready once we've made our pass. Target the plasma weapons source, do it manually if you have to, Mr. Harris."

"Well, the inertial dampers can't be that poor. They didn't bother to install seatbelts, after --" Randal's sentence is cut off as the ship jerks into evasive maneuvers. He grips across his console to the forward edge in response, and looks at the console with leery anticipation to see of the incoming torpedo will strike home.

<CONTEST> Risa (claiming advantage) contests her Shipboard Systems (Engineering) skill vs a difficulty of Moderate and Fails!

"No," Risa replies to Isole, "...providing you promise to tell me what it means once we're done kicking Romulan butt." And speaking of Romulan butt, the attack comes in, and she's wise enough to grab onto her console thanks to Dakin's warning. She makes some half-hearted poking at it when she's able to, but really all she gets it to do is beep at her in a tune vaguely reminiscent of Mary Had a Little Lamb.

The Romulan ship fades from view, having dispelled its cargo of lethal plasma.

A voice comes over Poole's intercom. "Cap'n Poole! That last turn nearly tore our left nacelle clean off! I'm reroutin' emergency power to the inertial dampeners, but another somersault like tha', and we're sure stress the hull!" It's the allegedly whining Scotsman again.

GAME: Isole spends a courage point.

<CONTEST> Isole (claiming advantage) contests her Shipboard Systems (Engineering) skill vs a difficulty of Difficult and Fails!

"I'm sorry, Gwen, am I pouring Sisyphian boulders down your slippery slope fallacy?" Isole asks this as she grasps onto either side of her free standing terminal and widens her stance like a rock star. She rides out the rocking with a grimace and straightens up with a snort of defiant annoyance. "You're flying sober over there, Chief, right?" She then pokes her comm alive and notes to Scotty, "Sir? Look to your left. There should be a terminal there. It makes the ship go. Please use it. I've got damage reports on the bridge." She pokes the comm off and sets to work. "Frickn' Aberdeen Whinerite." She sets to work at once, only to note, "This is going to take some time, Kids. May have to go down there personally."

Caeli works quickly at the targeting sensors, depressing the firing stud and lancing the Enterprise' phasers out into apparent nothingness. "Triangulating based on last known position... and firing." Not bothering to notice if the shot impacts or not, he passes the data from both of his shots along to Harris, to aid in the torpedo officer's calculations.

<CONTEST> Caeli (claiming advantage) contests his Shipboard Systems (Tactical) skill vs a difficulty of Challenging and Fails!

"No, but you are annoying the hell out of me... stop it, Isole," Poole answers, gripping the sides of her chair tightly. "Fire when ready, Robert... if you need any help, let me know."

Dakin gets the ship safely past the initial Romulan strike and gets the old girl back on an even keel once the immediate danger's passed. "Sorry, everyone, this thing handles choppier than I'd anticipated..." Inertial dampers, he thinks... WHAT inertial dampers??

Albertz lets out an indecipherable Gaelic oath as he is tossed to the deck by the helmsman's fancy flying. From his now seated position he looks up at Poole in her command chair, exclaiming "Dammit Captain! I'm a doctor, not a pinball!" He tries to deliver the line as gruffly as possible but can't help throwing in a little bit of a laugh at the end as he impersonates Starfleet Medical's most famous alumnus.

Oh, brother. Harris looks back to his console, closes his eyes, says a little prayer... and then presses the fire controls to unleash torpedo fury on cloaked Romulan opponent. Zen flows.

<CONTEST> Harris (claiming advantage) contests his Shipboard Systems (Tactical) skill vs a difficulty of Challenging and Succeeds!

As Harris' blast rains death upon the Romulans, Isole and Risa's monitors both suddenly show a sharp spike across the boards. Shields, weapon power, structural integrity, inertial dampeners...heck, even the sensors get a boost as unexpected energy pours into the system. A triumphant voice comes over Poole's comm, "Energy output increased 35, Cap'n! I dinna know how long I can hold this higher output, och, my wee bairns are strainin', but for the next minute or so, ye've got the fullest power the Enterprise can offer!"

"Okay," Isole answers Poole simply, ceasing her work on the terminal. "Computer: Arch." When the turbolift door is replaced with the rather much larger archway, Isole turns from her station and pauses only to open her signal back down to Main Engineering. No doubt getting an earfull of Scotty at this point. She saunters for the archway, calling back to Risa, "I'll tell you the story later." The doors roll open, she walks out into the lobby, and the doors slide shut again allowing the illusion to resume unblemished.

Randal continues to use his console as an anchor as opposed to an actual control station as he says, "Incidentally, if one of those plasma torpedoes can strip the deflectors off of a border defense station, how exactly do our shields compare?" He watches the Enterprise's own photon torpedo arc out across space, waiting in anticipation for it to strike their unseen enemy.

Isole steps out of the holodeck.

Isole has left.

As the torpedoes fly, they burst into golden explosions - one, two, three. The Romulan ship emerges from cloak, trailing plasma and with multiple hull breaches as it spins around.

Ooh, goody. An easier target, or so Caeli hopes. New power found in his phaser banks, he sends them after the Romulan vessel with gusto. "Firing," he says as a matter of habit as his finger sets off the control.

<CONTEST> Caeli (claiming advantage) contests his Shipboard Systems (Tactical) skill vs a difficulty of Routine and Succeeds!

On the viewscreen, the Romulan vessel suddenly...recloaks, leaving a plasma trail in it's invisible wake. Scotty's voice suddenly blares over the comm, "Cap'n! We're losing main power! The mains are gonna blow in 20 seconds if we don't power down completely!" Risa's monitor suddenly lights up with three unexpected stress tears along the port nacelle, as Dakin's rapid maneuvering tears the ship. Things have just gone from bad...to really, really bad.

The final blast from the Enterprise, lighting space with luminescent red, arcs out to the Romulan ship, hitting it's tail end. It's cloaking, so there's no way to tell how much damage was done.

<CONTEST> Dakin (claiming advantage) contests his Shipboard Systems (Flight Control) skill vs a difficulty of Difficult and Fails!

<CONTEST> Poole (claiming advantage) contests her Command (Starship) skill vs a difficulty of Difficult and Fails!

<CONTEST> Risa (claiming advantage) contests her Shipboard Systems (Engineering) skill vs a difficulty of Impossible and Succeeds!

Dakin tries to get the ship back onto a more harmonious flight path, but the ancient IDF generators don't seem to want to make the Bajoran's day all that happy. "Pah-Wraith-spawned piece of..."

Poole bites her lip as the walls seem to close in, "Get in whatever damage we can now... if that thing is able to swing around when we go to full stop and no shields..." Well, it's quite obvious what will happen. "Unless someone has some magic to pull out of their hats, power down shields and slow engines... enough that we can switch off the mains.... that's /if/ someone doesn't have a bright idea."

So much is going on, and Risa seems almost lost in thought for a moment as she watches Isole walk out. She doesn't comment to anyone for a moment; instead she seems to be checking ship's systems to confirm some kind of question in her mind. Abruptly she says, "Captain Poole, I might just have some magic." She breaks off to hail Engineering, asking the aforementioned whiny Scotsman, "Mister Scott... would it be possible to polarize the belana we're carrying in the hold to use it as a temporary energy conduit?"

Stress tenses up the bridge for long, horrible seconds as Risa speaks urgently with Scotty. Poole's commands are nearly drowned by hails from all over the ship. Damage reports, medical reports, they're all pouring in. Dakin struggles with the ship, but the Enterprise will not cooperate, and begins shaking violently, hull moaning in protest. Even as Risa works her console and relays down to Engineering, Scotty's voice comes back over the comm. "Cap'n! It's a miracle! Main power has been stabilized! Mr. Risa's theory saved the day!"

And then the Romulan ship decloaks...dead ahead. And fires, both plasma cannons raining superheated death at the Enterprise.

<CONTEST> Dakin (claiming advantage) contests his Shipboard Systems (Flight Control) skill vs a difficulty of Impossible and Succeeds!

<CONTEST> Poole (claiming advantage) contests her Command (Starship) skill vs a difficulty of Difficult and Succeeds!

<CONTEST> Caeli (claiming advantage) contests his Shipboard Systems (Tactical) skill vs a difficulty of Impossible and Fails!

Not much for Zip to do other than blaze away, even as his targeting sensors go crazy in the wake of Dakin's superb maneuvering and the plasma torpedoes' interference. He mutters a curse in Bolian and sends his targeting data Harris' way, hoping to help somehow.

Albertz grips the railing and admires Dakin's fancy flying, all the more impressive considering the ship he's doing it with. It seems a little like making a hippopotamus dance ballet.

Poole struggles to stay in the Big Chair, but she keeps on with the ordering, "Evasive manuevers..." but Dakin's already moving, so she continues on, "All weapons fire when ready..."

<CONTEST> Harris (claiming advantage) contests his Shipboard Systems (Tactical) skill vs a difficulty of Impossible and Fails!

Randal turns toward the now-vacant damage control, and glances back toward Poole. "Permission to take damage control?" He asks as soon as there's the most appropriate moment to interrupt. Why not, after all? With a sprained warp nacelle pylon, the ship's not likely to be warping any time soon, and Randal'd rather be doing something than just holding on.

Stabbing repeatedly at the button to fire torpedoes, Harris manages to send a barrage of photons all over the place except the Romulan ship. "Clean miss!" he calls through the bedlam, inwardly fuming.

GAME: Risa spends a courage point.

<CONTEST> Risa (claiming advantage) contests her Systems Engineering (Shields) skill vs a difficulty of Impossible and Fails!

The Romulan vessel cleanly misses the Enterprise as Dakin pulls the complaining ship through another tight turn. The viewscreen automatically swivels to the rear view. The Romulan ship makes a nearly impossible turn...really. It was aimed straight at the Enterprise, and executes a wide arcing barrel roll, coming down on the Enterprise's tail, and unleashing it's plasma weapons yet again.

The photon torpedos that were fired at the Romulans simply pass through its turning arc as it makes its way around. Mr. Scott's voice comes over the comm, "Cap'n! The tears in the port nacelle are going to slow us down some!"

Risa is given only an instant to relax as her idea works, when things get worse again. She looked for a moment as if she'd rush over to damage control in Isole's absence, but Randal's words pull her up short, and she stays where she's got more experience. She begins stabbing at her console, but softly muttered curses hint that either the ship can't do what she wants, or she doesn't have the hang of these controls after all.

A blue hand slams down on the console in frustration. "They're out of our firing arc, Gwen. Nothing we can do but run or turn and fight." Good job, Starfleet, designing a ship with no rear-firing weapons. Zip braces himself for the next impact, having nothing else really to do.

GAME: Poole spends a courage point.

GAME: Dakin spends a courage point.

<CONTEST> Poole (claiming advantage) contests her Starship Tactics (Naval) skill vs a difficulty of Difficult and Succeeds!

<CONTEST> Dakin (claiming advantage) contests his Shipboard Systems (Flight Control) skill vs a difficulty of Impossible and Fails!

"No. Way." Harris cries as he watches the viewscreen, pounding a fist on the console. "Not unless the designer himself was at the helm could that thing fly like that." Being an old fart in a young man's body has its advantages - Robert has faces this kind of ship in battle before, and knows its limitations. Now, if only this was a Constitution-II...

<CONTEST> Randal (claiming advantage) contests his Shipboard Systems (Engineering) skill vs a difficulty of Impossible and Fails!

GAME: Harris spends a courage point.

<CONTEST> Harris (claiming advantage) contests his Systems Engineering (Holographic) skill vs a difficulty of Impossible and Fails!

<CONTEST> Risa contests her Systems Engineering (Engineering) skill vs a difficulty of Impossible and Fails!

Risa scowls at her console, having forgotten it's just a recreation enough to get really angry at the limitations of the ship and herself. As she's attempting more and more difficult maneuvers, she spends less time flicking switches and more time studying the controls, trying to figure out just what it is she's doing here. Whatever she's trying, it doesn't seem to be working, and her curses are getting rather vehement, though still only muttered.

Poole smacks her fist against one arm of her chair, "Dammit... Bring us about... We're not running from them any more. All shield power to weapons and the engines. Target their weapon system and fire when you get a good shot at it. Helm, bring us in a course parallel to theirs... while we can still see them."

Albertz grins and winces along with the different ups and downs, successes and failures of the re-enacted duel. Since there's no spot for him to man, he's quite happily relegated himself to the role of spectator, a role that's providing a rather entartaining view.

Randal stands up, abandoning navigation, and rushes over to the damage control station, not waiting for authorization to do so. "Mind if I give you a hand?" he says to Risa, although he's already accessing the structural integrity controls. He takes a look at the readouts for the nacelle pylon and scowls. "Captain!" he calls out, "We may want to just jettison the port nacelle!" In a quieter voice, he mutters, "For the want of the horseshoe..."

Lightbulb! A moment of genius strikes Harris as he squints at Poole in the center chair and looks back to his console. He learned from Admiral Kirk, after all... but cheating doesn't win this time. With a buzz, he's locked out of reprogramming the holodeck to give them something to work with... and so, with a weak flicker, the light goes out.

As Poole is shouting, and Harris is fiddling with his controls, as Albertz watches on, and Randal makes his way to damage control, Dakin tries to evade the blast...and fails. Plasma slams into the back of the Enterprise, tilting the ship sideways. Hot fire eats up the back of the ship, bursting through the shields and the hull. The ship is battered, turning sideways into space, leaking gases and debris from the back.

. o O Harris thinks "This is not how it's supposed to be!"

<CONTEST> Caeli contests his Coordination (Reaction) skill vs a difficulty of Difficult and Fails!

<CONTEST> Risa contests her Coordination (Reaction) skill vs a difficulty of Difficult and Fails!

<CONTEST> Randal contests his Coordination (Reaction) skill vs a difficulty of Difficult and Fails!

<CONTEST> Harris contests his Coordination (Reaction) skill vs a difficulty of Difficult and Fails!

<CONTEST> Caeli contests his Fitness (Vitality) skill vs a difficulty of Moderate and Fails!

<CONTEST> Randal contests his Fitness (Vitality) skill vs a difficulty of Moderate and Succeeds!

<CONTEST> Poole contests her Coordination (Reaction) skill vs a difficulty of Difficult and Fails!

<CONTEST> Risa contests her Fitness (Vitality) skill vs a difficulty of Moderate and Succeeds!

<CONTEST> Harris contests his Fitness (Vitality) skill vs a difficulty of Moderate and Succeeds!

<CONTEST> Poole contests her Fitness (Vitality) skill vs a difficulty of Moderate and Fails!

<CONTEST> Dakin contests his Coordination (Reaction) skill vs a difficulty of Difficult and Succeeds!

The ship's violent turn tosses most of the bridge crew out of their chairs and they bounce off decks, stations and the floor. Only Harris and Randal manages to avoid getting a few good knocks, and Dakin manages to keep his position at the helm. The holodeck safeties are engaged, so no one is seriously hurt, but it does smart. A voice wails from the comm, "Bridge! We got hull breaches on decks 5, 7, 8, and 9! Main Engineering is not responding!"

And a voice, low and silky and soft, issues forth from the viewscreen speakers. "U.S.S. Enterprise. We will accept your surrender now. You have thirty seconds to signal your utter defeat...or we will blast you from the stars."

<CONTEST> Albertz contests his Coordination (Reaction) skill vs a difficulty of Difficult and Succeeds!

FAVOOM! The jolt throws Zip from the weapons station backwards towards engineering, spine slamming into Risa's chair as she too gets tossed. After a few moments of regaining his composure, it occurs to Caeli that shooting won't do very much, and so he sets about trying to help people up, starting with Poole and making his way around the bridge, trying to make himself somewhat useful.

Dakin, by some miracle manages to avoid all the jarring and stays in his chair despite the ship getting turneed into duranium swiss cheese. "Do we still have weapons capability...?"

Ayieee! Poole goes flying out of her chair and that's /not/ the sound she makes. She face plants, gets back up without Caeli's help and moves over to tactical, "Rann... bring us about... Caeli, work with me on this targetting scheme... if they're using a com channel we can track them..."

Albertz stays on his feet, all those neurons not devoted to piloting, targeting, or engineering must have been devoted to balance.

Photon torpedos are online, but phasers are offline. Damage reports show power bleeding from Main Engineering like water through a sieve. Casualty reports are in the double digits.

Aft shields are down, completely. Forward shields still have about 40 charge.

As the bridge lurches sickeningly, Robert loses his iron grip on the console and goes crashing to the deck. With a grunt of pain, he regains his feet and settles back into his seat for more torpedo launching goodness. "DIE ROMULAN BASTARDS!" he growls, no longer bothering to supress the old prejudices that he struggles with daily.

<CONTEST> Harris contests his Shipboard Systems (Tactical) skill vs a difficulty of Impossible and Fails!

"Please do," Risa starts to say as Randal asks if she needs any help. "I'm cutting off power and life support to--" she doesn't get further than that before she's thrown free, wincing as she catches a potential bruise to the shoulder. She murmurs a quiet 'Thanks, Zip' to Caeli as she's helped up, then staggers back to her post, calling over her shoulder, "Ensign Randal, I could use the help, if you're still able!"

Randal nods to Risa. "Someone needs to seal that power leak if we're gonna do anything except pop like a water balloon." He stands from the deck and rushes over to the turbolift. "And automatic controls are down. You hold things together up here, and I'll cover the back end of things." He quirks a grin as the turbolift begins closes around him. "Engineering deck."

As Harris' photon torpedo goes wild, and Dakin struggles to bring the ship around, that silken voice comes over the comm again. The bridge crew's frantic work is cut short as the Romulan commander intones one word: "Fools." The plasma weapons charge again...and fire. This time, the furious barrage is aimed right at the Enterprise's midsection, as she's turned in space to face the forward-aimed weapon of the Romulan ship.

<CONTEST> Risa (claiming advantage) contests her Systems Engineering skill vs a difficulty of Impossible and Succeeds!

GAME: Dakin spends a courage point.

<CONTEST> Dakin (claiming advantage) contests his Shipboard Systems (Flight Control) skill vs a difficulty of Impossible and Fails!

Caeli, having helped Risa to her feet, nods once to Poole and moves back to the tactical station, not bothering to sit down but only holding tightly to the console with one hand as the other pushes various buttons, speaking in low tones with Poole as the two work to achieve a firing solution. Happy with his end of the shot, Caeli fires... in hopes that perhaps this last flailing blow will disable the plasma weapon.

<CONTEST> Caeli (claiming advantage) contests his Shipboard Systems (Tactical) skill vs a difficulty of Impossible and Fails!

As Risa manages to reroute all the power available to the tattered remains of the shields, Caeli manages one more photon torpedo that follows Harris' into the void. Dakin valiantly struggles to turn the ship...but she's all but dead in the water. Plasma, hot as a star, passes through the hull of the Enterprise, into Engineering, past the dead bodies of Scotty and his men...and right into the warp core. There is a white, almost blinding light, and then the holodeck returns to the normal, with a pleasant-sounding female voice informing those present: "The Enterprise has been destroyed."

Poole frowns. Just frowns. Stands where she is and frowns. "Well. Wonderful fun, that. Who the hell set the difficulty of the sim?... That warbird should /not/ have been able to manuever like that. They're fast but in a straight line."

Caeli rubs at the bridge of his nose in thought. "And we tagged it twice while cloaked, which means no shields. Perhaps Ms. Arnan's leaving was a bit of an omen. Or not a coincidence."

Poole 's eyes narrow. "That evil tart."

Albertz blinks in surprise as the rail he was leaning on vanishes into thin air. "Good try everyone, can't win them all. We'll get those deceitful bastards next time." A wide smile and a loud clap of the hands, "Who's for a pint then?"

When the simulation dissolves into the glowing gridwork of the holodeck, Randal is standing facing away from the others with his hands crossed in front of his face. Considering his intended destination, he probably had a front row seat to cataclysmic demise of Enterprise's engineering section. Dropping his arms and turning back to the others, he raises his eyebrows and says. "Whoops. Figures I'd pick that exact instant to go to Engineering." He laughs.

Dakin crosses his arms over his chest. "Whaterv's the case, I think the authenticity of this sim needs to be *heavily* looked into." To Albertz's invitation, "Sorry, I think my wife's probably wondering where I've disappeared to.."

And so it ends. As the holodeck unceremoniously deposits him on his butt, Harris is forced to grumble, "They can do that... if the pilot has been training in that type of ship for a long, long time. Other than that? *Impossible*." As he stands, he tugs on his uniform with another grunt and starts stalking toward the doors - mumbling epithets in Gaelic. Or Swahili. Or 'I'm REALLY REALLY PEEVED RIGHT NOW'. At any rate, it's one continuous curse, invoking heaven, hell, pain, suffering, and the eternal wrath of mothers-in-law. By no means is he losing graciously, because he just knows that he got hosed in the worst possible way.

Risa managed to actually, finally, reroute the power-- still... it wasn't enough, everybody's dead, and she slumps back against her console, muttering a low growl that might be a curse, were it actually intelligible. She shakes her head, makes her way closer to the others, and abruptly says in a more positive tone, "We could beat it if we did it again... now that we can actually work the controls. I say we come back and do this again later, until we win. We were clearly at a disadvantage, given that we're not used to this kind of ship." Admit fair defeat? Not bloody likely.

Randal glances upward, vaguely, toward a corner of the ceiling. And smirks widely.

Caeli quirks a brow at Risa. "Maybe /you/ want to run it again. Personally, I'm going on duty in a little under five hours. So I think maybe that's not the best of ideas, for me. Or any of us, for that matter."

"I'll have a talk with Ms. Arnan... she shouldn't have been tampering with the program. Aside from the ethics, it's not good ruddy business at all," Poole stalks out of the Dream Factory. "Good night all."

Dakin nods in agreement. "Way we got spaaced, you'd think we were facing a warbird." He shakes his head and makes for the doors, following Poole. "Be seeing you all..."

Harris exits, stage right. Still cursing.

Harris steps out of the holodeck.

Harris has left.

Genesis steps out of the holodeck.

Genesis has left.

Dakin comes out of holodeck two, the doors sliding shut behind him.

Dakin has arrived.

Risa comes out of holodeck two, the doors sliding shut behind her.

Risa has arrived.

Poole comes out of holodeck two, the doors sliding shut behind her.

Poole has arrived.

Randal comes out of holodeck two, the doors sliding shut behind him.

Randal has arrived.

Caeli comes out of holodeck two, the doors sliding shut behind him.

Caeli has arrived.

Albertz comes out of holodeck two, the doors sliding shut behind him.

Albertz has arrived.

K'net-mauri stands behind the counter beside Isole and Magret. He watches the crew step out of the holodeck, looking over the old-fashioned uniforms.

The doors to the holodeck part, releasing one disgruntled Robert Harris in an ancient Starfleet uniform. Ignore the dark cloud of doom, and no one gets hurt.

Magret stands behind the counter, tapping at the LCARS there and looking Not At All Pleased. Her face is, in fact, blotchily red in places, though there's a particularly cruel upturn to the dark-haired Centauran's mouth that very few have ever seen before. She just looks like she could break someone's neck right about now, she's that mad. When the holodeck doors open, however, she looks up, arching her eyebrows just so.

Albertz follows the pack of angry officers out of the holodeck, smiling. He waggles ginger eyebrows at Dakin, "What ye've disappeared into is a wisp of superheated plasma, I fear." He surveys the crestfallen faces with some surprise, "Ach. It was only a game lads...and lassies! Fly around in a vintage Starship, fill the boots of the great James T. himself...it's not like we've lost the Battle of Chintoka or something! Smile a little."

Isole is still in her Kirk-Sex-Kitten attire, of course, having had little time to change between going into the office, calling in the Romulan Ambassador, and most assuredly not cranking up the difficulty of the Simulation. When the crew steps out, Isole straightens up from her regard of the terminal and turns to offer smiles all around to the emerging team. "So," she asks with delicious foreknowledge, "how did it go in there?"