A Fighting Chance
Posted on Wed Sep 23rd, 2015 @ 4:50am by Commander Jordan Gunning & Captain Liarra Von & Ensign Corrine Steiner
Mission:
By Dawn's Early Light
Location: Quarters and Office - Starbase 332
Timeline: Late night shift
Ensign Steiner crashed onto her bed after another nonstop day of war preparations. She would not find the rest that her body craved, however.
As soon as she plunged into sleep, she found herself by a hurricane of dream fragments. Her view point was inside the cockpit of one of the base Razor Interceptors. They were inside the primary stardock shell amidst a crushing, high-g turn. He fired pulse phasers.
Next fragment, Corrine stood just inside a dock portal. The heavy blast door slowly came down. Beyond it, a Sojourner fighter streaked by with weapons ablaze. Starbase sirens wailed. The intercom broadcast, /=Atmospheric containment is failing. Evacuate and seal all dock portals.\=
Corrine startled out of her dream, bolting up in her bed, "No! They're going to get through!" Cabin lights still dimmed, she rushed to her sink to splash water on her face. Hair dripping cold water, she stopped to focus. Nothing in the dream fragment indicated who the pilot was or which Razor she saw.
Patting at her face with a towel, she sat down at her console, "Computer, display comparative profile view of known Sojourner fighter craft types." A beep confirmed her command. Before her, the Jane's Book display appeared. "That one!" Corrie tapped her finger on the image to expand its profile. She then closed her eyes, efforting to remember. "Computer, cycle through known Sojourner combat unit markings. I'm looking for a language symbol atop a yellow diagonal divider. Beneath is a triangular arrangement of small emblems. I... can't remember any detail." About thirty candidate marking schemata displayed. She sighed, shaking her head, "I don't know. These are close." She looked at the profile descriptor, "These are main space fleet markings. Thank you, Computer. Encrypt and save these queries."
Corrie downloaded the file to her wristbook. Even flagged as important, a routine message would not suffice. She instructed, "Computer, display locations for Captain Von and Commander Gunning." Upon seeing the result, she turned off the console, threw on adequate clothes, and raced out the door.
Liarra rubbed her eyes and took another sip of her cappuccino. She had long lost track of the time, and knew that she was way past time to get to bed, especially with the threat of an impending attack. But she just couldn't bring herself to get away, insisting on finishing up one last readiness report. That had been at least a couple hours before. Now she was reading through a report from the medical department, which only made her sleepier. She felt her eyes growing heavy right as her door chimed. "I'm awake," she stated to know one as she recovered her bearings. When the door chimed again, she realized what had happened. "Come in." It didn't really matter who it was, Von needed some sort of distraction to keep her awake.
"Morning Sir." Jordan Gunning said, checking the chronometer on the wall as he entered. It had just turned 0200 hours Station Time and while he was all for burning the midnight oil, this was ridiculous. "Latest batch of departmental readiness reports for you."
Ensign Steiner rushed to catch the sliding door before it finished closing. The auto-safety opened it again, and she stood out of breath at the entrance. With wide eyes, she stared at them. There really was no way to gracefully do this. "Captain... Commander... the Sojourners will breach our defences when they attack."
Von had looked up and had prepared to answer her XO when Corrie sprinted into the room. It took Liarra a moment to realize what was going on. "Ensign, would you care to explain how you know that?"
Corrie calmed her breathing. "Yes, Captain. I saw it." She sighed, "I dreamed it. Razors were dogfighting against Sojourner fighters inside the main docking shell. I don't know how they got in. I only saw a glimpse, but all blast doors were being closed." She nervously studied their reactions, "Captain, Commander, I clearly know the difference between an ordinary nightmare and a prophetic dream."
Gunning raised an eyebrow. It was the only reaction he felt there really was about being confronted with a prophecy. He'd heard the hearsay going around about Ensign Steiner's dreams and he was open-minded enough to believe there might be something in it. Treating it seriously was very much the right course of action. "They were inside but the doors were shut?" He asked.
Corrine closed her eyes, focusing on memory. After a few seconds, they opened in startled realization. She continued to process as she stared in eye contact, "The primary doors would have to have been closed. I didn't see them, but I heard the intercom broadcast a seal-off order. If the big doors had been open, then the lockdown would have been ordered before the first enemy fighter crossed the threshold. They must have... or they will rather, penetrate the main shell in some other place."
Von gave her first officer a glance. She too had heard stories about Steiner's visions, and the ensign had given her warnings before. But none of them had been so serious as having an enemy breach the spacedock. If what she claimed was true, it not only confirmed that the Sojourners would be attacking, but that they would be able to break their defenses. The latter was especially an unsettling prospect. "Did you only see fighters, or did their starships break through as well?"
Corrine closed her eyes again, "I caught a brief glimpse inside a Razor. His tactical display... I only saw fast moving little dots representing fighters. There weren't any tactical symbols representing larger ships." She opened her eyes. Also, the weapon bolts I saw fired across dockspace, they were all small caliber."
The station's commander nodded as she digested the information. It was a long shot, but it might something. "Thank you, Ensign. Did you see anything else that might help us?"
Fatigue caught up with her. Corrie could no longer concentrate. "No, Captain. I... don't think so. Oh wait..." She handed her a data tape, "I was able to narrow Sojourner fighter craft markings down to a few known fleet units. Maybe that'll help us track the aggressors."
Liarra took the data tape from Steiner. "Thank you, Ensign. I'll take a look at this and see if there is anything that will help us. Go get some sleep. I think we could all use it."
Von waited until Steiner had left her office before speaking to her first officer. "What do you think? I don't know how far we can trust these dreams of hers."
"Nor me," offered the Commander who had been keeping his own counsel. "Even if she is right, there's every chance that something we do might let the fighters in. We should take it into account and make sure that we run extra drills in the docking bays - I hope she's wrong though. An attack like that could put us out of action completely."
Capt. Liarra Von
Commanding Officer
Cmdr. Jordan Gunning
Executive Officer
Ens. Corrine Steiner
Chief of Operations
Starbase 332
