[Galaxy] FW: [New-Darwin] 2 Oct, Joint log, Knight/Kurisawa, "To Whittle Away"

[Kate Nicholson]

[ ESS Aurora ]

=Constitution to Aurora.  Prepare for imminent Romulan attack.
Shuttlepods are away, and we are moving back in to support you.  We'll
be riding shotgun momentarily.=

³Confirmed Constitution.² Knight took his thumb off the external comm.
button on his chair. ³What¹s our weapon status?²

³Phase cannons one and three are fully online, cannon two has eight-nine
percent charge. Torpedo launcher is online.² The tactical officer stated
efficiently and without emotion; although the following comment held a
hint of concern. ³We have eight photonic torpedoes.²

³Inform the armoury to set those warheads to their maximum dispersive
setting; let¹s make sure that each shot at least hits something.²
Seamlessly he swivelled his head towards the science station; hoping not
to pause long enough for his own nerves to set in. ³We¹ll need to cal...²

Knight failed to finish the sentence as the bridge jerked to one side.
The momentary discomfort was followed by the wail of klaxons. Righting
himself in his chair his first instinct was to survey his surroundings.

No one looked injured. There were no fires. ³Did they hit us?² He
shouted just as the klaxons fell silent.

³I don¹t know.² Replied a flustered science officer. ³We¹ve taken minor
damage to B-Deck, sections three through ten. No sign of an enemy vessel.²

He postulated that it could have been a mine, somehow obscured from the
reach of their sensors, but it was all but trivial now. ³Inform
Constitution of our status.²


[ Constitution, Bridge ]

"Aurora has been hit," Marx called from comms.

"The Romulans?" Kurisawa asked.  There was nothing on the viewscreen and
Hubbard hadn't announced any sensor contacts.

"Unknown, Sir," Marx replied.  "They're not even sure if it was a mine
or not."

"Closing in on Aurora now," called the helmsman.  "Matching course and
settling in off her starboard."

Kurisawa watched the viewscreen as the damaged hull of the Aurora came
into view.  "Richardson," he said to his Tactical Officer, "what does
that look like to you?"


[ ESS Aurora ]

Data was still feeding in, but little proved useful. Everything that
they learnt fed unfounded speculation and did little to help them.
Knight could not discount that they may have taken a glancing hit from a
cloaked ship: But if that had been the case why had they not taken their
time to get a good firing solution?

"Damage control teams have reached the bulkhead." He didn't like this,
not one bit.

He exhaled. "They're cleared to enter the damaged section."

There was a pause; long enough to consider what would happen to those
two engineers if they took another hit. "We're getting preliminary
information from the team now. Internal damage minimal. Micro hull
breach. Traces of plasma residue."

"Plasma residue?" The tactical officers interest perked up. "A ship
mounted weapon."

"Or a mine..." Knight added wearily. They'd been through all of this
before. "...or exploding debris...not to mention that we took
damage...it doesn't matter. Hail Constitution." He waited for a few
seconds and then started, assuming that the connection had been made.
"This is Knight. The damage to Aurora appears to be insignificant as we
first thought, the cause is unknown. Worst case...I'd say that they took
a pot-shot to determine the effectiveness of our sensors."

=Understood, Aurora,= Kurisawa replied.  =We destroyed three mines as a
diversion to get the ground teams planetside, so we obviously know the
difference between mines and junk.  It makes sense that the Romulans are
testing our capabilities, now.  We can't isolate their cloak, so they've
got all the time in the world to figure out how to kill us, even if it
means pecking us to death.  This is...=

There was a pause in the transmission as the Constitution was hit by the
Romulans.  A quick shot with the ship's beam weapon, and the Romulans
were invisible again.  Minimal damage, but enough to be worrisome if
this guerrilla tactic continued, as feared.

=Aurora,= Kurisawa continued gravely, =we can't get a sensor lock.=

Knight held down the mute button on his chair. ³Get our engineers out of
there.² The comm. officer looked as if he about to object, so more
forcefully Knight added, ³now.² He then glanced to the science officer.
³Did we see anything?²

She shrugged. ³There was maybe a small energy spike...for a fraction of
a second...nothing that we could have acted upon.²

He took his thumb away. ³We picked up an energy reading, it was very
brief. We, um, wouldn¹t have had a chance to retaliate. I don¹t know
what to suggest. We c...² The bridge banked violently this time. The
familiar pattern of fire reflected off the view screen as the klaxons
wailed again.

³Direct hit, starboard side...moderate damage.² Someone shouted.
Flickering lights finally came back to full illumination.

=Knight,= Kurisawa called over the comms, =they're reinstating their
cloak too fast, we can't react in time, either.  We're going to have to
figure out another way to deal with them.  Can you hold?=

Knight solemnly addressed his fellow Captain, ³They /might/ not manage
to peck you to death, but that beak is too sharp for us...²

<to be continued>


-----
Cmdr. Anthony Knight
Captain, ESS Aurora
Assigned to the New Darwin Colony

Capt Togusa Kurisawa
Commanding Officer
ESS Constitution
(abp Robert)

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