"Late Night Drills"
[Previous post: "Headaches Of All Sorts"]
###
Setting: USS HATHOR, Ensign Kea's Quarters
The Ops Officer had been lying on his bed reading the last of the
reports when the door chime rang.
"Who can it be at this hour?" Carft asked himself as he got up and
looked at the clock to make sure he had been right. "Uxtar? Derek?
What are you two doing here?" Kea asked having found the HATHOR's
Sec/Tac and FCO standing on the other side of the door.
"We wanted you to help us with something on the bridge," the Hirogen said.
"You do know that the crew, with the exception of you two, are probably
in their quarters getting some much needed rest before we head out
tomorrow." It was clear to see that Carft had been a little annoyed at
the other two Ensigns, but not enough to make it impossible for the Ops
Officer to smile.
"Were you sleeping?" Derek asked from behind the Hirogen. The half Vulcan pilot would have stood next to Uxtar if it had not been for the Hunter's large size and the doorway's narrow setting.
"No," Carft replied, "I was not."
"Were you resting?" Stormwind asked in an almost little-to-big brother way.
"Not really," the Ops Officer replied with a sign. "I was catching up
on reading some of the final reports on the ship's readiness and what
little information we have on the mission."
"So you were mentally preparing yourself for the upcoming mission?"
Uxtar asked. The way the Hirogen had asked the question had made Kea
instantly nervous, as if he knew that it had been a trap of some sort.
"You could say that," Carft very carefully replied, expecting the trap
to be sprung any time now.
"Perfect," Derek bounced in with as he pushed Uxtar to the side. "That
is exactly what we were planning on doing, on the bridge that is."
###
Holodeck simulations were always very useful, but the former Chief of
Security of the HATHOR had shown to Uxtar that there was no replacing
the real thing. With the crew in their quarters, the three man took
control of the bridge and began preparing for the upcoming mission in
the best way they could.
"Let's start with something simple," the Hirogen said from the tactical
station. "The HATHOR will likely be asked to take point as we head
into Cardassian space. Our main advantage will be that we will be cloaked.
I have programmed the computer to respond accordingly during the
simulation. Although the cloak is meant to make us *invisible* to
their sensors, reports from SFI have mentioned the possibility of certain
ships being equipped with tachion detection capabilities. That means
that the cloaking device would be useless, so we have to make sure that
we avoid doing anything that might draw any sort of attention to us."
"Easier said than done," the Ops Officer said, still trying to figure
out how he had been dragged into this situation by the other two men.
"Cloaking devices have a way of creating minor visual disturbances and
leaving ion trails. Us trying to suddenly change course would only
make us *more* noticeable, not less."
"That is why we wanted you here with us," the FCO explained. "We want
to come up with a few maneuvers now before we actually face that
situation. With Uxtar's hunting instincts, your skills at Ops and my
flying expertise, we should be able to come up with something that
would insure the HATHOR remains undetected even *after* a Cardassian Gul gets
it into his head that there might be something fishy happening."
"We'll have to run some simulations to make sure whatever we come up
with works," the Ops Officer pointed out.
"And that is why we are here," the Hirogen said with a large grin just
as he activated the simulation sending the HATHOR and its crew deep
into Cardassian space. "Sensors are picking up three Cardassian cruisers on
a standard patrol vector," Uxtar reported.
"This is where the fun starts," the FCO chuckled to himself as he
pushed his Human half as far back as possible so as to not have the sudden
urge to show off the piloting expertise he had mentioned earlier.
### 2006 post #013
Stardate: 60339.2100
Setting: USS HATHOR, Bridge
Stardate: 60339.2115
Mark Hutchings {h172mark16@fastmail.us}
Ensign Uxtar
Chief Security Officer
USS HATHOR
