A Matter of Honour

Chapter 21

Sarin recognized the cadence of the gamma shift bridge crewman coming from the stairwell. She waited until he got close enough that he should have cleared the doorway to the bridge then spoke without looking at him. "Thank you for joining us, Mister Alyx. Please take a spare station. Communications and Engineering."

"Aye, aye, skipper." He slid into the spare seat and reset the boards to take over the appropriate functions before looking at the next station over where Ensign Ogden nodded.

"Transferring communications now."

"Received. Engineering systems up and running." He popped an earpiece in, apparently just in time to receive a message. "Ensign Engel and Crewman Sheingold report Auxiliary Control secure and online."

"Thank you, Crewman. Mister Ogden, I assume the Romulan ship is still moving to intercept."

"It is, ma'am." She checked several readouts. "ETA to weapons' range one minute, ten seconds."

An eyebrow raised, Sarin looked at the back of Ogden's head. "Our weapons' range or theirs, Ensign?" The young woman didn't turn around, however.

"I'm sorry, captain, I should have specified. Theirs. The range limit of the plasma weapon a V4 carries is fairly well known and the estimate takes into account our closing velocity."

"And our weapons range?"

She watched Ogden's spine stiffen. "Seventeen seconds later. They may wait a few seconds to discharge the plasma weapon to cut our response time."

"Understood. Mister Rankins, You may need to react quickly." She glanced down at the miniature set of readings on the arm of the command chair, finding nothing to fault in Ogden's analysis.

"Yes, skipper." He dialed up the sensitivity of the controls. "I could wish for a photon torpedo or two."

"Really, Chief?" She hadn't thought there to be much bloodthirst in the older human.

Rankins risked a look over his shoulder but didn't visibly react when he realized she was looking at directly him. "Yes, ma'am. Theoretically, a photon torpedo detonated as it connects with the plasma ball's envelope would break it apart and we could probably pass right through the dissipating plasma without much effect on our shields."

"Interesting." But less for the idea itself than for its source. She thought perhaps the chief might have missed part of his calling. "Perhaps we can recommend it for the next design phase."

Shaking his head, he smiled as he turned back around. "I'm sure you knew that already, Skipper."

While true, completely irrelevant. It hadn't been a consideration since her input hadn't been sought in the design phase. And since a torpedo launcher wasn't part of the Nancy Wake's armaments, it hadn't been a consideration in her calculations. "I agree that a photon torpedo launcher could serve several uses in the next few moments, but until such time as we have access to that launcher, we will depend on your reflexes, Chief." And he'd proven capable enough so far.

Ogden came back into the conversation without any preamble. "We're running at Warp 9, Skipper. They're not likely to get a second shot off on the plasma weapon. It's the blasters I'm more worried about."

Something she'd considered. "At this velocity, Ensign, we won't be in range for more than a single exchange of fire. We are significantly outgunned, but speed works to our advantage."

"As you say, ma'am, so long as our shields hold during single exchange, and they're at full power, at least." She watched the sensors carefully. "Entering plasma weapon range in three, two, one." Sarin could hear the frown in the woman's voice when she continued. Interesting that humans coloured so much of what they did with emotion. "Sensors indicate the weapon is hot but has not fired."