S2 - M3 - A Nice Day for a White Wedding, Part II

[Rayek trLhoell]

[Katra Station - Saucer Four - Docking Bay]

The Katra Station was quite incredible, and Lorik was taking it all in.  He was overwhelmed how different it was.  And he preferred it.  Earth was so clean, so modern.  This place, despite being so far from anywhere he'd been, had some sense of familiarity he couldn't quite place.

This place that would be his new home.

He heard the voice calling out to him; the gray-bearded man.  That must have been Pip.  The young Romulan approached him quickly.  He had his pack on his shoulder.  He'd brought very few things; mainly sentimental things and the things he couldn't buy or replicate.  Best to travel light.

"Hello," he said.  "You must be Pip.  Lorik Larson, reporting for duty."

NPC Pip the Grip
Katra Station - Saucer Four - Docking Bay]

Pip raised an eyebrow at the kid's words.  Pip had thought he'd been handed off this task as a punishment for being late - but if the kid already knew his name, well then that meant that Skully - Aleksy Skullovich, the labor contractor who hired both Pip and Larson  - had this training session planned for over a week.

Pip grunted his displeasure at that notion and wished his smokeless e-cigarette could allow him to puff out his dislike of the situation into the kid's face.  Instead Pip rolled his eyes and shook his head.   "First off kid, this ain't Starfleet.  Yeah, we're on a Starfleet run station but you and I, we don't 'report for duty'.  That's a Fleet phrase and those down here will scorn you for saying such past your first day.   You can call it 'Showing up to work', 'Punching in', 'Being on the clock' whatever... but you say 'Reporting for duty' again and you'll get a razin' so bad you wish you never left the Empire nevermind Earth.  Got that? Good."

Pip didn't give the kid a chance to comment before looking him over.  "That all you brought with you? Or did you pack like an old lady and have luggage in the ships' storage compartment?  I've been told to get you settled and started on work as soon as possible. So if you got other things say so now and I can show you to your room.  If not there are personnel lockers in the change room where you can stow that.  We'll size you up for proper gear and then get you started."

[Solluk]

Ba'ku - Planetside - Wedding Ceremony - Zero Hour

Solluk shifted again, trying to get from behind the two women of unusual side who were blocking his view.  They were not rude, merely first, and quite oblivious to his struggles.  An answer-call came from within the area of the ceremony.  A call for blessings.  Solluk could not tell if it was an actual blessing, such as imploring the divine to show grace, or merely permission.

First, parents answered the call, and then relatives.  There seemed to be some confusion or pause.

Then the round of blessings continued.  Until even children were chiming in.

Suddenly, Solluk was deeply concerned that he'd missed his cue.  He bustled forward between the two women, muttering a quick, "Excuse me," before nearly shouting, "I give my blessing, as well!"

The women, for their part, seemed to suddenly realize the rude Vulcan pushing between them was connected to the ceremony's participants, and willingly moved aside to give him the room to pass.  Rather than be perturbed with him, they smiled down, seemingly forgiving his somewhat rude shoving from a moment ago.

[Lorik Dellion Larson]

NPC Pip the Grip
Katra Station - Saucer Four - Docking Bay]

Pip raised an eyebrow at the kid's words.  Pip had thought he'd been handed off this task as a punishment for being late - but if the kid already knew his name, well then that meant that Skully - Aleksy Skullovich, the labor contractor who hired both Pip and Larson  - had this training session planned for over a week.

Pip grunted his displeasure at that notion and wished his smokeless e-cigarette could allow him to puff out his dislike of the situation into the kid's face.  Instead Pip rolled his eyes and shook his head.   "First off kid, this ain't Starfleet.  Yeah, we're on a Starfleet run station but you and I, we don't 'report for duty'.  That's a Fleet phrase and those down here will scorn you for saying such past your first day.   You can call it 'Showing up to work', 'Punching in', 'Being on the clock' whatever... but you say 'Reporting for duty' again and you'll get a razin' so bad you wish you never left the Empire nevermind Earth.  Got that? Good."

Pip didn't give the kid a chance to comment before looking him over.  "That all you brought with you? Or did you pack like an old lady and have luggage in the ships' storage compartment?  I've been told to get you settled and started on work as soon as possible. So if you got other things say so now and I can show you to your room.  If not there are personnel lockers in the change room where you can stow that.  We'll size you up for proper gear and then get you started."

[Katra Station - Saucer Four - Docking Bay]

Lorik appreciated that Pip told him ahead of time, warning him that he shouldn't act so...Starfleet.  This wasn't, after all, Starfleet; this was his first job, and although it was on a Starfleet station, it was civilian.  And nothing had really prepared him for what that would be like.

"Un-I mean, gotcha," he said, correcting himself.

Pip asked if those were all of his belongings, and Lorik nodded.  Then said that he'd been told to get him settled and started.  "Yeah, I packed light," he said.  "I'm ready to learn."  This was so different from what he'd ever have expected.  He was so very, very out of his element.

[Rayek trLhoell]

Cmdr Rayek tr'Lhoell
[Ba'ku - Wedding Ceremony]

As the time for the blessing seemed to stretch with no response from Solluk, Rayek turned to glance behind him, towards the first row on his side and was momentarily stung that it was conspicuously empty.   He'd known that wouldn't have any actual family present which is why he'd asked Lek and Solluk to their blessing.  He'd assumed that Solluk would be willing and in fact the Captain had seemed willing, at his absence and silence said otherwise.

Ba'ku - Planetside - Wedding Ceremony - Zero Hour

Solluk shifted again, trying to get from behind the two women of unusual side who were blocking his view.  They were not rude, merely first, and quite oblivious to his struggles.  An answer-call came from within the area of the ceremony.  A call for blessings.  Solluk could not tell if it was an actual blessing, such as imploring the divine to show grace, or merely permission.

First, parents answered the call, and then relatives.  There seemed to be some confusion or pause.

Then the round of blessings continued.  Until even children were chiming in.

Suddenly, Solluk was deeply concerned that he'd missed his cue.  He bustled forward between the two women, muttering a quick, "Excuse me," before nearly shouting, "I give my blessing, as well!"

The women, for their part, seemed to suddenly realize the rude Vulcan pushing between them was connected to the ceremony's participants, and willingly moved aside to give him the room to pass.  Rather than be perturbed with him, they smiled down, seemingly forgiving his somewhat rude shoving from a moment ago.

Just as Rayek was turning forward again to prompt Arrun to continue yet again, Solluk's  voice rose from crowd.  The Romulan turned back round to peer over the sea of faces, searchingly until he spotted the Vulcan peering from between two rather tall women.  Rayek looked on a bit incredulous. "Captain?! As my 'brother' you do realize you had the honor of first row seating?"  Then wondered if that was something he'd forgotten to mentin.   He looked over the crowd, hoping to pick out the Admiral.  "You as well, Dylan, though I realize now that I forgot to mention it."

He looked back to Solluk and inclined his head in thanks, before turning back to the priest, wondering what words of wisdom the Bajoran would impart before they moved onto the Ba'ku tradition of 'soil and seed'.

[Arrun Dihsar]

[Ba'ku - Wedding Ceremony]

Arrun waited for a bit, as he had learned from Tess' side of the family that some even beyond the planned respondents called back. On hearing Captain Solluk's call back at last, he nodded his head in thanks. "Thus is this marriage so approved."

"Marriage is, among many cultures and peoples, a sacred and pivotal act in the lives of those who would be wedded. From across the galaxy, it takes many forms, expressing what is most important for those to wed, those to witness, and those who approve and authorize such union. It says a lot that we gathered here today come from the many walks and ways of life." He gestured to the gathering around him, allowing his voice to fall into a cadence that drew attention and a tone that was lifted with his smile.

Arrun's gaze looked over the gathering, "I wear the robes and am a sworn member of the Bajoran priesthood, I believe in the wisdom of the Prophets, wise and timeless guides to the ebbs and eddies of our destinies and fates from within their Celestial Temple. I have been taught, by my order, they of the Tiller, that our travels across the darkness of space and time are fraught with the unknown and indeed the frightening; but, we, every one of us, bear a light within that can guide us across that darkness to discover new shores and enrich ourselves by our discoveries and toils. When two join their lights together, they not only make themselves wiser and safer by it; but, they can become a beacon for all others to find happiness, safety, and their own unions. "

He then looked to Tess and Rayek, "Although these two do not seek the wisdom of the Prophets as I do. I see wisdom in their acts, I see the love they engender, and the virtuous light that shines forth from them; what my people would call Pagh."

"I pray you both wander the darkness forever together. United in your own common wisdom. I pray that neither you nor any family you stand for ever wanders alone. I pray none meaning malice dictate to you. I pray your shared light shines brightly in that darkness now and forever."

[Solluk]

Son'a Research Station - Reactor Room

The Jem'Hadar First experienced the unrelenting force of a small, smooth stone propelled by a strong-armed woman with a keen eye and a sling.  His right eye exploded like a ripe grape under the impact.  He gave a pained, angry sound in response.   At the same time, Murv was beamed away, a supply drop appearing in the TMPST team-member's place.  The Second issued a burst of disruptor fire to finish the job- too late.  An answering hail of phaser fire forced the pair to duck down behind the conduits.  One of them reached down to his belt, grabbing a grenade.

Son'a Research Station - Control Room Main Corridor

The uncanny peace of the corridor leading to the main control room was suddenly broken as the main gravity in the hall gave out.  At the same time, the clomp-clomp of magnetic boots could be heard.  It was a stampede, and the security personnel with Rayek strained to keep their weapons on-target and issuing wide-beam fire.  As they floated up and lost positioning, some had to cease fire as they flailed in an attempt to regain facing.  Others realized their weapons had run dry, and raced to reload.

Jem Hadar appeared, flickering into being, attacking, and flickering out.  Some were on the ceiling, some ran along the walls.  Their magnetic boots allowing them to approach from any perspective.  A few were successfully shot by the security crewmen who had accompanied Rayek.

They eerily stood in place, burned bodies leaving a barbecue scent in the air.  Their bodies became cover for those that came behind.

A few had large bladed weapons which they used to chop at the Healy crewmen.  The crewmen deployed their rifles to block the blades, a momentary reprieve from a bloody death.  The Jem Hadar blinked in and out as they maneuvered about.  Every surface in the hall was theirs to employ.

One heavy-weapon operator with a three-barreled repeating blaster came into view,  about to fill the hall with deadly fire.

USS Healy - Bridge

"Good shooting, Mister Saxon," Solluk said as the torpedo was successfully intercepted.  So far, they had been lucky.  Between evasion and defensive fire, they'd avoided any major hits.  And Ferris was at the helm, doing his best to avoid the foe.

Solluk monitored the transport on his beside-the-chair console, wishing for the cycle to be complete before the battlecruiser could take advantage of their less-defended state.  When the transport of Murv was complete, Solluk asked, "Out of curiosity, what did you send in that return-beam?"

Beams of deadly energy lanced at the Healy from between the spike-shaped struts of the station, splashing on her shields once the transport was finished.  At that moment, Lek came onto the bridge.  Solluk had avoided roping the skilled Ferengi engineer in on this combat.  He was on vacation, after all.  But there was no way he was going to turn down the help.

"My gratitude, Mister Lek.  If you could pull up the shield data on the technical interface table, I'd very much appreciate the aid of someone to manage the field distribution.  We are somewhat outgunned here, and while our shield generators are augmented, our warp core has its limits."  Actively adjusting the field distribution between the three external shield modules could mean the difference between a penetrating hit and a strike easily absorbed.

Hrafn reported her prep on the deflector done.  Now it was time to use the improvised assist.

"Let's get Commander Rayek his particle burst, shall we?  Fire when ready.  Mister Saxon, prepare a couple of quantum torpedoes for our battlecruiser neighbor when the particle burst is discharged.  We'll be evading less and shooting more in a moment.

Initiate."

[Rayek trLhoell]

NPC Pip the Grip
[Katra Station - Saucer Four - Docking Bay]

[Katra Station - Saucer Four - Docking Bay]

Lorik appreciated that Pip told him ahead of time, warning him that he shouldn't act so...Starfleet.  This wasn't, after all, Starfleet; this was his first job, and although it was on a Starfleet station, it was civilian.  And nothing had really prepared him for what that would be like.

"Un-I mean, gotcha," he said, correcting himself.

Pip asked if those were all of his belongings, and Lorik nodded.  Then said that he'd been told to get him settled and started.  "Yeah, I packed light," he said.  "I'm ready to learn."  This was so different from what he'd ever have expected.  He was so very, very out of his element.

At the kid's statement that he was ready to learn, Pip gave a snort and led the young Romulan to the work areas staff change room.

"You can drop your bag off here.  Then we'll get you started with the basics.  Your job put simply is to unload freighter ships of specific cargo.  And I say specific cargo because we only offload stuff that has been by marked by Customs as being approved to be offloaded.  So you'll need to constantly be checking the ship's cargo manifest that what you are offloading has been marked approved."

Pip waited while Lorik dropped off his pack (or not) then led the new hire to an area where an assortment of yellow, very reminiscent of Engineering yellow, coveralls were stacked for easy pick-up.  "Pick out one in your size.  If there ain't one that fits, you'll need to talk to the boss to requisition one from the replicator.  At the end of your shift, return the used coveralls here for recycling."   Pip pointed to the return hamper, before motioning for Lorik get his coveralls and put them on.

Pip continued his overview.  "Our shifts are 10 hours long.  You'll get a one hour lunch break and 2 half hour coffee breaks... which means you actually only work 8 hours.  So when you are working the boss expects you to be productive - no lollygagging around."

[Jada]

[Reactor Room, Son'a Research Station]

The Jem'Hadar First experienced the unrelenting force of a small, smooth stone propelled by a strong-armed woman with a keen eye and a sling.  His right eye exploded like a ripe grape under the impact.  He gave a pained, angry sound in response.   At the same time, Murv was beamed away, a supply drop appearing in the TMPST team-member's place.  The Second issued a burst of disruptor fire to finish the job- too late.  An answering hail of phaser fire forced the pair to duck down behind the conduits.  One of them reached down to his belt, grabbing a grenade.

With a clatter, the plasma grenade hit the deck plating and skidded spinning to a halt in front of the team. 'Grenade!' Jada yelled, diving forward to seize the deadly device. If it came to it...

But, by then, the team's supply drop had finished materialising, providing them with additional power packs for depleted phaser rifles, demolitions and, of course, explosive ordnance disposal equipment. Demolitions and disposal were Murv's role, but even now, she provided. Reacting just as fast, Park pulled out a device and tossed it to Jada; 'Suppression shield!' Jada grabbed it out of the air, activated it, and slammed it over the grenade. A high-strength force-field bloomed and enveloped the bomb, moments before it exploded. Almost the entire thermal and kinetic force was caught, absorbed and reflected, blasting a crater into the floor below, but nothing outside it. Even so, the handle jerked violently in her iron grip and hurled her off.

And Jada rolled and took off running, sprinting across the reactor room, seizing the opportunity while the Jem'Hadar were still taking cover. She'd dropped her rifle in favour of the suppression shield, so she reached over her shoulder, caught the hilt of the chain-sword, and slid it free of its scabbard all in one smooth arc. Time for Ngachi's gift to show what it was worth. Jada dropped to her knees and slid across the deck plating, past the conduits just as the Jem'Hadar were stepping out again. Her thumb found the on-switch; the chain-sword's many teeth whirred wickedly as Jada slashed brutally upwards, ripping across and through the Jem'Hadar First's defences, through advanced body armour, through gene-engineered hard scales, through flesh, and through bone. In an instant, the arm was severed below the elbow, blood fountained from the stump. But not for long, as the chain-sword drove on into his torso, ribcage, and heart, ending it all.

Splattered with blood, the Second looked on in shock, slow to react. But right behind Jada came Bexx, and she emptied a half-dozen well-aimed phaser shots into his chest. Two bodies hit the deck.

Huffing hard, Jada flicked the blood from her blade as its teeth slowed and stilled. 'Four! There's a fifth Jemmie somewhere.' Why hadn't he attacked? Was it bad intel, the fog of war? Or something else? 'Let's start scans and secure the reactor room.'

Lowering her heavy chain-sword, Jada fumbled for her security tricorder and began a sweep, searching for Jem'Hadar life-signs. But there were no more, they were alone. They'd gotten lucky, but Jada wouldn't relax her guard. 'Park and Bexx, I need you at those doors. Talie, can you see what's in the venting?'

'Aye, Chief.' Bexx and Park hurried to secure the entrance, while Talie climbed further up the walls and pipes to peer inside the vents, scouting out other means of entrance and exit should they be trapped or need to defend against Jem'Hadar trying to retake the reactor room. 'Eyespy sealed outway.'

'Rhade, time for you to work your craft.' she reminded the engineer, who might be stunned to witness the T.M.P.S.T. in action.

[Hrafn Falleg]

[Ba'ku Village - Wedding Site]

[Hrafn, Tidu, Nerys and Lamar]

"Mammy, I'm tired!" Lamar squirmed on Hrafn's lap.  It was the first wedding he'd attended and it wasn't something that he really wanted to be bothered with.

"Shh!" Nerys said and pointed to Hrafn's datapad "Mammy can I borrow that?" she asked.

Hrafn nodded and Nerys slipped off her seat, positioning herself so she could still see what was going on for the wedding and lifted Lamar down, then found a matching game with little cats, ponies and puppies on the pad and sat distracting her younger brother, the pair mildly giggling but not loudly enough to disrupt anything, until finally Tidu came down and sat with them, all 3 playing quietly.

"Can I join in?" Tidu asked and Nerys nodded but putting a finger to her lips to indicate that they had to stay quiet.

"And if you're very good, soon as we get back to Katra I'll make sure I find some Jumja sticks for you, but you have to be quiet as mice until this is over! Promise?!" their mother said.

"Promise!", "Promise!" the twins answered eagerly, their eyes lighting up and Lamar nodded sleepily.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[USS Healy - Bridge - Devil's Vortex]

The CSO gave a grateful look to Lt. Lek as he came to the Bridge.  Between them they might manage this after all.  She tried not to worry about the team over on the Station, and the Jem'Hadar battlecruiser sitting there.  They were massively out-gunned if her calculations were right, although she wasn't a tactical officer, she had taken the Bridge exam, but after a sabbatical on Bajor while she was pregnant with Lamar, had preferred to stay away from command other than her stint as 2nd Officer of Katra.

After they 'lost' Tidu, that had rocked her and she preferred to stick to her Sciences, very happy to just do her 3 jobs - Chief of Science, wife to Nevir, and 'Mammy'.

Praying they kept it all together she watched while Ops, Tactical and now Mr. Lek did their stuff, hoping that her little input might help with the safety of their Away Team.

[Lek]

USS Healy - Bridge

Beams of deadly energy lanced at the Healy from between the spike-shaped struts of the station, splashing on her shields once the transport was finished.  At that moment, Lek came onto the bridge.  Solluk had avoided roping the skilled Ferengi engineer in on this combat.  He was on vacation, after all.  But there was no way he was going to turn down the help.

"My gratitude, Mister Lek.  If you could pull up the shield data on the technical interface table, I'd very much appreciate the aid of someone to manage the field distribution.  We are somewhat outgunned here, and while our shield generators are augmented, our warp core has its limits."  Actively adjusting the field distribution between the three external shield modules could mean the difference between a penetrating hit and a strike easily absorbed.

Hrafn reported her prep on the deflector done.  Now it was time to use the improvised assist.

"Let's get Commander Rayek his particle burst, shall we?  Fire when ready.  Mister Saxon, prepare a couple of quantum torpedoes for our battlecruiser neighbor when the particle burst is discharged.  We'll be evading less and shooting more in a moment.

Initiate."

[Bridge - USS Healy]

Lek moved to the engineering station to meet the captain's request. He knew in the middle of a battle, the captain was always right at the very edge of information overload, so he kept his reply a short.

"Aye Sir."

Bringing up the Healy's shield systems, he could see that she was currently at 82% of shield strength. The regenerative shielding was working at proper efficiency, but as the captain had stated, the issue was a distinct lack of surplus power. It was at that point that Lek truly appreciated the second warp core on the Challenger and, especially, the modification he'd made to have both operational at the same time.

Unfortunately, the Healy didn't have that luxury and with the classic power split of shields, weapons, and movement, the New Orleans-Class ship was pretty much at it's power output maximum.

Lek was impressed by the shield modules and was certain they were the only thing keeping the ship from becoming rapidly cooling plasma. Thing was, between the station and the Son'a battlecruiser, even the additional shielding was having difficulty deflecting so much energy. The question Lek faced was how to augment the shields when there wasn't a ready source to provide extra power.

"No extra power and two powerful opponents, we can't make extra power, so the logical thing is to eliminate one of the opponents. They have an away team on the station, so the only option is the battlecruiser, but the ship doesn't have the power for that. What we need is a surge of firepower the Son'a won't expect."

Lek thought furiously as his hands danced across the console trying to stay ahead of the damage power curve.

"Shields at 78%"

He called out and decided if he was going to be helpful, he had to know what limits he had.

"Captain, permission to reroute power from non-essential sources."

[Tess tLhoell]

Lt. Cmdr. Tess Moreno
[USS Healy - Deck 6 - Sickbay]

As soon as Murv materialized on surgical bed in sickbay, Tess was at her side. The monitor began beeping with alarms as the sensors picked up her life signs. They looked on an open abdominal disruptor wound, burnt frazzled flesh, blood continuing to ooze from it.

"Beja, please activate a sterile field and raise the room's temperature 12 degrees." Tellarites posessed a higher body temperature than the average human. "Roberto, 3 cc's treptacederine and tetrovaline, and anti-coagulant."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lt. Cmdr. Tess Moreno
[Ba'ku village - Wedding ceremony - January 2nd, 2398]

While it showed that at the first stage of their wedding ceremony there was a lot of unplanned interruptions going on, Tess thought that they maybe should have made a rehearsal of this so everyone would have known where to sit and when to speak and what.

Tess gripped Rayek's hand tighter and glanced over to him, trying to focus on him and only him. This was for them, about them and they should enjoy it even if it didn't go as smooth as they had wished.

She then listened to Arrun's little speech and thought it was beautiful. She liked to notion to consider them as lights wandering through the darkness, enlighting each other's lives with their love and devotion. When he ended with his wishes for them, Tess smiled at the Bajoran. She would tell him how beautiful she had found the sermon after the ceremony, but wanted to show him now with her smile how she liked it.

[John Saxon]

USS Healy - Bridge

Mister Saxon, prepare a couple of quantum torpedoes for our battlecruiser neighbour when the particle burst is discharged.  We'll be evading less and shooting more in a moment.

Initiate."[/size]

At the Captain's instruction, Saxon allow himself a small, predatory smile. Until now, under the elder officer's venerable gaze, the Healy had been just keeping the battlecruiser off-balance, disabling or disorienting his opponent just enough to give the hint that it was more than a struggle than it actually was, forcing its steadfastly-focused Dominion crew to concentrate efforts on destroying the New Orleans-class rather than turning their attention to more usefully reinforcing the station's interior forces.

But with Solluk's order, the releasing of quantum torpedoes now being authorised, the gambit was reaching its inevitable conclusion. For while the Healy was an older ship, perhaps lacking in certain subtleties more advanced and more sophisticated classes enjoyed, the fact remained she was a highly potent tactical platform - even without her modular mission pods being fitted for offensive purposes. Her combined primary phaser arrays were the output of a single Galaxy-class array; but since her larger, and younger, cousin was quite the formidable combatant herself, that could hardly be considered a con of the Healy's ability.

"Shields at 78%"

He called out and decided if he was going to be helpful, he had to know what limits he had.

"Captain, permission to reroute power from non-essential sources."

Over the time the Ferengi engineer had been aboard, John had come to admire the ingenuity of their passenger. By all accounts, a new shield design had been created by his Starfleet colleague, which - if his layman's reading of the technical schematics had been sufficient enough - had increased the survivability of the USS Challenger by severalfold.

But, despite this, in the midst of battle, he called out in response to Lek's request for power to be diverted from non-essential systems. Ordinarily a reasonable enough request, but under a tactical situation, it fell to the Chief Tactical Officer to have the proverbial dibs on where that power was needed. "One moment Mister Lek", 'Century' called out, "I have need of supplementary power myself." The shields, if monitored and modulated correctly, could tolerate much more punishment from ship and station yet; this wouldn't be won by turning turtle, and if this strategy bore fruit, the angles of assault would be halved. The Tactical Officer continued. "Ensign Corso, I will require, in the moments after the pulse is released, an increase in the channelling ACB jackets of the main phaser arrays; 200% should suffice. Is that available?" The Ops officer had the unenviable role of balancing the power supplied by the warp core lower in the decks - in essence, an energy accountant, ensuring that all key systems had the power their needed while still having some in reserve for those real emergencies.

While he waited for Corso to find the power, Saxon armed the quantum warheads and made preparatory adjustments to the phaser's nadion density.

Penetrating the battlecruiser's shields, with Saxon's doyen administrations, was not going to be an issue...

[Lek]

USS Healy - Bridge

At the Captain's instruction, Saxon allow himself a small, predatory smile. Until now, under the elder officer's venerable gaze, the Healy had been just keeping the battlecruiser off-balance, disabling or disorienting his opponent just enough to give the hint that it was more than a struggle than it actually was, forcing its steadfastly-focused Dominion crew to concentrate efforts on destroying the New Orleans-class rather than turning their attention to more usefully reinforcing the station's interior forces.

But with Solluk's order, the releasing of quantum torpedoes now being authorised, the gambit was reaching its inevitable conclusion. For while the Healy was an older ship, perhaps lacking in certain subtleties more advanced and more sophisticated classes enjoyed, the fact remained she was a highly potent tactical platform - even without her modular mission pods being fitted for offensive purposes. Her combined primary phaser arrays were the output of a single Galaxy-class array; but since her larger, and younger, cousin was quite the formidable combatant herself, that could hardly be considered a con of the Healy's ability.

Over the time the Ferengi engineer had been aboard, John had come to admire the ingenuity of their passenger. By all accounts, a new shield design had been created by his Starfleet colleague, which - if his layman's reading of the technical schematics had been sufficient enough - had increased the survivability of the USS Challenger by severalfold.

But, despite this, in the midst of battle, he called out in response to Lek's request for power to be diverted from non-essential systems. Ordinarily a reasonable enough request, but under a tactical situation, it fell to the Chief Tactical Officer to have the proverbial dibs on where that power was needed. "One moment Mister Lek", 'Century' called out, "I have need of supplementary power myself." The shields, if monitored and modulated correctly, could tolerate much more punishment from ship and station yet; this wouldn't be won by turning turtle, and if this strategy bore fruit, the angles of assault would be halved. The Tactical Officer continued. "Ensign Corso, I will require, in the moments after the pulse is released, an increase in the channelling ACB jackets of the main phaser arrays; 200% should suffice. Is that available?" The Ops officer had the unenviable role of balancing the power supplied by the warp core lower in the decks - in essence, an energy accountant, ensuring that all key systems had the power their needed while still having some in reserve for those real emergencies.

While he waited for Corso to find the power, Saxon armed the quantum warheads and made preparatory adjustments to the phaser's nadion density.

Penetrating the battlecruiser's shields, with Saxon's doyen administrations, was not going to be an issue...

[Bridge - USS Healy]

Lek snarled internally as he wasn't used to being at a power deficit and being denied the ability to adjust power as he saw fit, leaving him to growl silently.

"How do ships function with such a small power reserve?"

He took a deep breath and that left him with one option, since there wasn't a means to augment the shields and there was only so much he could do with shuffling power between the modules, that left him with one idea that he'd used before with success. A means to create a surge of damage that the battlecruiser would not expect.

"Captain, a tactic the Challenger has used to great effect was to roll unpowered torpedoes out the cargo bay. Set them for zero thrust with maximum proximity fusing and you create an impromptu minefield. You have in excess of 200 torpedoes aboard, you can create an effective field with just twenty, especially if you set them to sympathetic detonation, that way the battlecruiser only has to trigger one mine for all of them to explode at once. It is unlikely you will penetrate their shields because too many will be too far away for maximum damage, but imagine what a volley of twenty photons going off at once will do to their shields. You'd have a free shot against them before their sensors would even clear to know you'd come about."

[Rayek trLhoell]

Cmdr Rayek tr'Lhoell
[Son'a Research Station - Control Room Main Corridor]

Son'a Research Station - Control Room Main Corridor

The uncanny peace of the corridor leading to the main control room was suddenly broken as the main gravity in the hall gave out.  At the same time, the clomp-clomp of magnetic boots could be heard.  It was a stampede, and the security personnel with Rayek strained to keep their weapons on-target and issuing wide-beam fire.  As they floated up and lost positioning, some had to cease fire as they flailed in an attempt to regain facing.  Others realized their weapons had run dry, and raced to reload.

Jem Hadar appeared, flickering into being, attacking, and flickering out.  Some were on the ceiling, some ran along the walls.  Their magnetic boots allowing them to approach from any perspective.  A few were successfully shot by the security crewmen who had accompanied Rayek.

They eerily stood in place, burned bodies leaving a barbecue scent in the air.  Their bodies became cover for those that came behind.

A few had large bladed weapons which they used to chop at the Healy crewmen.  The crewmen deployed their rifles to block the blades, a momentary reprieve from a bloody death.  The Jem Hadar blinked in and out as they maneuvered about.  Every surface in the hall was theirs to employ.

One heavy-weapon operator with a three-barreled repeating blaster came into view,  about to fill the hall with deadly fire.

The moment gravity gave out Rayek realized he'd not prepared for every eventuality.  However, weightlessness was something all security on Katra - in Starfleet pretty much - were trained to work in.  So when Rayek's feet first left the corridor floor, he wasn't overly worried.   The first few shots from his team continued to remain on target covering fore and aft as their opponents closed in using magnetic boots.

However as drift seemed to become more of an issue as the seconds passed, especially for those on point and in the rear, Rayek called out to Parcetti "Link them!"

Rayek hooked his rifle to the front of his armor and then pulled on his utility belt's tether line looping it loosely round Lina's line before pushing himself off her towards Curdo and Trenvale, and sending her close to Lambe and Maybri.  Because of hours and hours of team practice the Romulan and his team made the zero-G movements seem smooth and calculated, which in fact they were.

It was as he was attaching Curdo and Trenvale's tethers to his own that Rayek noted the heavy weapons operator coming into view.

"Parcetti! On my mark!" Rayek called out as he reached for one of the small impact explosives on his belt- pulling free its safety tab, which essentially allowed the two chemical substances to mix freely.

He lobbed the small explosive as far as he could towards the heavy-weapon.  "Now!" he shouted and hit the retract button the tether lines, drawing the drifting team members close in together like a outward facing huddle.

Parcetti at his order tossed her own smaller explosive to the rear and retracted her own tether, which she'd attached to Lambe and Maybri.

Clustered, you might think the team would be at a disadvantage, except that they now drifted as a multi-limbed ball with the four outward members having clear and unobstructed views of fore and aft, which made targeting down the hallways easier.

Rayek's explosive, thrown first and ahead, blew first as it landed at the feet of the heavy weapons operator.   The shock wave blew through the corridor- strong enough to knock over several Jem'Hadar and definitely strong enough to send the huddle of boarders tumbling back, until Parcetti's charge blew behind them buffeting the team between two forces halting their backwards tumble and throwing them forward towards the enemy instead.

(OOC Post restored due to server outage - Rayek tr'Lhoell Dec 14th 2020)

[Rayek trLhoell]

Cmdr Rayek tr'Lhoell
and NPC Rahul Skuyanhjin
[Ba'ku - Wedding Ceremony]

Lt. Cmdr. Tess Moreno
[Ba'ku village - Wedding ceremony - January 2nd, 2398]

While it showed that at the first stage of their wedding ceremony there was a lot of unplanned interruptions going on, Tess thought that they maybe should have made a rehearsal of this so everyone would have known where to sit and when to speak and what.

Tess gripped Rayek's hand tighter and glanced over to him, trying to focus on him and only him. This was for them, about them and they should enjoy it even if it didn't go as smooth as they had wished.

She then listened to Arrun's little speech and thought it was beautiful. She liked to notion to consider them as lights wandering through the darkness, enlightening each other's lives with their love and devotion. When he ended with his wishes for them, Tess smiled at the Bajoran. She would tell him how beautiful she had found the sermon after the ceremony, but wanted to show him now with her smile how she liked it.

Turning his attention back to the priest, Rayek wasn't bothered in the least by any of the interruptions.  This was an odd thing to say about the normally very controlling Romulan.  But everything felt euphoric to Rayek as he stood before the Bajoran priest with Tess, her hand in his.

He smiled at hearing Nerys and Tidu's not-so-quiet attempts to keep occupied.  He knew that for them ceremonies like this would be dull so didn't begrudge them their electronics and was just happy that they'd performed their parts of the wedding beautifully.

When Tess gripped his hand tighter, Rayek stroked his thumb over the back of Tess' hand softly, soothingly and smiled back in reassurance.   Then as she turned her attention to Arrun's speech, Rayek did as well.  The Romulan listened to Arrun speak of them joining their lights and becoming a beacon, and the imagery was beautiful – perfect.

The Bajoran priest's blessing and prayer given it was now time for the Ba'ku tradition.   Rayek turned to look to Rahul and gave a slight nod.   The Ba'ku local stood up to explain this next part of the ceremony.

"Following Ba'ku custom, before the couple speak their marriage vows in front of the priest, there is an exchange of symbolic gestures."

Set just to the side of circular archway were two side-tables.  On Tess' side, the table held a small tray of sweet, delicate-looking pastries.  On Rayek's side, the table held two small bowls, one of recently dug up fertile soil, the other of local grain seeds.

Rahul gestured to these two side tables. " Tess if you would, please select a wedding pastry and hand feed it to your groom.  The pastry is a special sweet confection that is only made for weddings.  This gesture symbolizes that the wife will always care and nurture for her husband and the family with a warm meal.  In turn the groom will a small heap of dark rich soil in his future wife's palm and plants a small seed in it. This symbolizes the husband's obligation to care for her needs and making sure to feed the family."

Rahul motioned for Tess to select out her pastry from the side-table tray.