USS Diana, M-5 Log, Supplemental
The bridge is on fire, but it isn't my fault. I blame Captain Haines. I suspect we may need to revisit the “What would Jim Kirk do?” policy.
{“Unidentified anomaly is turning towards the Kerbal vessel again. Moving to intercept. Forward dorsal shields at 35%. Rolling vessel to present ventral phaser banks.”} Diana M-5 was doing her best to keep the Diana from getting pasted by the bizarre anomaly, but it was not an easy task.
Dee Haines, captain of the Diana, nodded assent. “Good. Try to keep it focused on us. Is its warp field power levels still reduced from our last blast?”
{“Affirmative. Anomaly does not appear to have anything equivalent to deflectors. Damage we do with phasers appears to directly affect the…creature…and to reduce the power of its warp field. Firing phasers.”}
Decks below the bridge, the twin phaser banks of the scout ship fired continuous blue beams of phased nadion particles into the creature. {“Power levels dropped another 15%. Continuing evasive maneuvers against the Anomaly.”}
“Just say it,” Dee replied, as she hit another burning console with the blast from the extinguisher.
{“Say what?”}
“Giant space squid,” Diana said, smiling. ”One more console out. Two more to go.” she thought.
It was, in truth, a bizarre matchup. Even warp-capable, a two-kilometer-long giant space squid should not have been able to get close enough to hit the Diana with tentacles of all things. Perhaps, had the ship been in optimal condition, it wouldn’t have been able to. Certainly, nobody told the giant space squid that.
The Diana was struck again in passing by the “Anomaly”, weakening her shields even more, and causing the auxiliary science station’s console to burst into flames. ”OK, three more consoles to go.”
{“Giant, warp-capable space squid that is working diligently on trying to destroy both us and the Kerbal vessel.”}
“Yes,” Dee agreed, “but mostly the Kerbal vessel. Keep us interposed between the squid and the Kerbals. Priority is keeping the phasers and warp propulsion online.”
{“That would mean interposing our dorsal side more often while phaser banks recharge. The bridge is, as you may have noticed, presently on fire.”}
Putting out yet another console, Dee shrugged. “Their Kirk-fu is weak. Our Kirk-fu is strong.”
{“Seriously? No more Hong Kong Classics Movie Nights. I’m locking you out of those movies, assuming we survive this.”}
“Return fire as soon as our banks are recharged. What if we nudge the thing with our warp field? Any chance of we’ll disrupt its field more than our own?”
{“You want to ram it.”} Diana M-5 said dubiously.
“With the warp field,” Dee replied enthusiastically.
{“This business will get out of control. It will get out of control, and we’ll be lucky to live through it. Firing phasers.”}
“Now who’s quoting cheesy movies?”
{“We run a high risk of blowing out our warp nacelle. We do not exactly have a replacement.”}
“No, but we have a warp-capable civilization that may be able to help us make repairs.”
The M-5 was still dubious. {“I see no way in which this could end badly.”}
“Whiner.” Dee winced as the Diana shook again, harder than before. “Oh, that wasn’t good.”
{“Your squid is trying to latch on to our nacelle. Dorsal shields have dropped another 10% aft.”}
“Tractor beams?”
{“Not good. We’ll have maybe 15 seconds, then burn out the emitters.”}
Dee finished putting out the last console, then made her way to the captain’s seat. “Catch it with the tractor, keep us out of arm’s reach, overload the phased banks right into Cthulhu out there. Save ramming for Plan B.”
{“Simple, yet insane.”}
Dee gripped the seat tighter, as the space squid took another shot at them, forcing the Diana into another high-power maneuver. Looking down at her status readouts, she saw dangerous fluctuations in their warp field. “Got a better idea we can implement before we tear our nacelle off trying to avoid that thing?”
{“Engaging tractor beam. Phaser banks preparing to overload.”}
Dee split her concentration between the readouts on the captain’s chair, the display on the viewscreen, and what she could glean from her limited data link with the Diana, something she wasn’t as good as doing now that she was independent from Diana, her M-5 counterpart and alter ego.
Diana, the M-5, activated the tractor beams of the Diana, the ship, grabbing the creature as it maneuvered for another pass. The scout ship nearly shook itself apart at the strain, but it managed to lock on, and force the giant space squid back a few dozen kilometers outside of tentacle range. It was still far too close for a Federation starship used to engagement ranges in the tens of thousands of kilometers, but it would have to do. Diana rolled the ship further, pitching the nose down to give the phaser banks a better field of fire, just as their capacitors reached the point that any more energy would cause them to explode messily: coolant lines were already beginning to rupture, and the whole assemblies were 100% over nominal “full” charge.
On the bridge, Dee smiled grimly as the two massive beams of energy leapt out from below the forward rim of the saucer section, slamming messily into the creature. The giant space squid’s warp field fluctuated and died, and the sudden transition to having a warp field and FTL velocity to no warp field being dragged by an FTL spacecraft pulped the creature into a giant, revolting mess. “Release the kraken my ass. Damage report.”
{“We do not have a week to go into detail. We’re able to move. Recommend keeping it under Warp 2, and only then if absolutely necessary. And ouch.”}
“The Kerbal vessel?”
{“I suspect the crew is probably looking for clean uniforms. Otherwise, they’re intact.”}
Dee signed in relief. “Oh, good, they’re still alive. Mission accomplished.”
{“I’m making a note here: huge success,”} Diana said smugly.
“Quiet, you.”