PL - Extension Course or Courses? (First Assignment Part 4)
Posted on Fri Jan 27th, 2023 @ 3:28am by Ensign Kato Reon
1,029 words; about a 5 minute read
PL - Extension Course or Courses? (First Assignment Part 4)
By Ensign Kato Reon
Personal log, Ensign Kato Reon,
I spoke to Commander Parnham to inquire about when I'll be leaving to join the Aldrin Crew and she told me that the Aldrin will be held up on Earth for an indeterminate amount of time and that she will let me know when I can go there and start working. I guess I'm lucky the Aldrin is already here so I don't have to go anywhere far like my friend Rylo just did. What I wonder is, what I'm going to do with my free time. There are always options. I can take short trips somewhere close by, or I can even go to the training complex at the Academy and do some extension courses. I've always wanted to take courses outside my department. Maybe Xenobiology, tactical training, or even basic medicine. All the Commander really advised me to be aware of is to be ready for when it's time to recall the crew. Seems vague but I will have to go by it.
Reon walked into the training complex building at the Academy grounds. A huge chunk of the building consisted of holodecks which were used for training simulations for basically anyone. He had to admit, it was somewhat weird seeing it so empty now that more than half, maybe even two thirds of all the cadets who graduated have already left Earth for their respective new assignments. It was good for him though since he now had his choice of which holodeck room he wanted to use.
He tapped the console next to the door of the first Holodeck he could find and accessed the program registry. After browsing through several directories, he looked at one program and tapped it, "Computer, activate training program beginning tactical strategy."
The computer beeped, "Program ready. You may enter."
The doors opened. He leaned to the side and saw that the room turned into the bridge of an Akira-Class starship. He looked around as he proceeded in and saw it fully staffed with a holographic officer at each post. In this simulation, there were two seats at the center of the bridge with a Vulcan female in the XO's chair and the picture of an orange planet on the viewscreen. He took a seat in the captain's seat, then took a deep breath, and nodded, "Computer, begin program."
"Course heading, Captain?" asked the helmswoman.
"Uh... Take us to uhm... one-three-eight mark two. Warp five." Reon said.
The helmswoman nodded, then tapped several functions on her console, "Course laid in, sir."
Reon smiled, starting to feel comfortable in his seat at that point, "Engage." he saw the stars and planet move away then straighten out to just stars. They then moved slowly, then jumped into a quick stream and pop, erupting into what was warp.
There was an odd sounding beep behind him, "Captain," came the voice of the tactical officer who was an Andorian male, who somewhat reminded him of Sol, his roommate at the Academy, but older and beefier in build, "I'm detecting a warp signature heading straight for us."
"Oh?" Reon said, "What kind of signature?"
"Cardassian, Keldon Class."
"Hail them."
The tactical officer tapped a few functions, then got another off sounding alert, "No reply, sir."
"Uh... okay... Tactical status? Do they have their weapons charged? And how long until they intercept?"
"Yes sir. Their shields are also up. Time to intercept five minutes, forty seconds."
"I recommend red alert, Captain." said the holographic Vulcan exec.
Reon looked to her, then nodded slowly, "Alright. Red alert. Open a channel though. I want to let them know I'm aware of them coming."
"Channel open, sir."
"This is Captain Kato of Starfleet. I know you're coming. Please bear down your weapons and I will do the same. We do not wish to have a conflict with you."
There was a pause again, then the tactical officer looked up, "No reply again, sir."
"Well, I guess all we can do is... Fight?"
"Cardassian ship in weapons range and-"
Suddenly, the ship was hit hard by some sort of weapons impact. It rocked the bridge so hard that there were explosions everywhere, consoles blowing up. He almost fell out of his seat. He looked back and saw the officer at the science console was on the ground and unconscious, then looked back to the tactical officer, "Damage report!"
"They've hit our port nacelle with a volley of disruptor blasts! We're dropping out of warp!" the Andorian said.
Reon looked ahead and saw the stars slow down on the viewscreen, "Okay, attack pattern... Alpha."
"Aye sir!" shouted the helmswoman.
The ship was hit again, causing more explosions, then making the ops officer fly out of his seat onto the floor a few feet away from his console. He tapped his comm panel on his chair, "Medical team to the bridge!"
"Sir! They hit our aft torpedo launcher. Now they're targeting our phaser emitters!"
"Return fire!" Reon shouted.
"Aye sir!" replied the tactical officer, then suddenly the ship was hit again, causing the tactical officer's console to explode and throw him against the back wall and fall onto the ground.
The Vulcan exec got out of her seat and ran to the tactical console, "Captain, two more Cardassian ships dropping out of warp!" she tried to shout over all the chaos going on at that point, "They're targeting our warp core."
"Can we get warp back?" Reon asked.
"Negative!" shouted the helmswoman. "The last disruptor blast knocked out the power feed from the warp core to the starboard nacelle. We-"
Then the ship was rocked again. This time so hard, that the simulation shut off. The broken down and then underpowered holographic bridge turned back to the black and yellow grid that spanned the walls and ceiling of the holodeck. He also fell to the ground as he was sitting when it happened. Somewhat disoriented, he looked around, shook his head to get himself back into full alertness, then sighed.
"Well," he said to himself jokingly, "We're dead..."
TBC
RSS Feed