From: Shawn _ (alamo_nate_at_yahoo.com)
Date: Fri Dec 21 2007 - 12:12:48 PST
=Fortifications=
(cont'd from "The Angry Widow")
LOCATION: GATEWAY Station
SCENE: CEO's Office
STARDATE: [2.7]1221.0855
Lt. Jake Crichton (**and man, that's nice to say,** Crichton thought) quickly scanned a stack of PADDs that had accumulated on his new desk. They all detailed systems and subsystems that needed fixing, so Crichton didn't bother reading most of them too carefully- the fact of the matter was that almost all of it was low priority. With reports of a new Dominion fleet massing on the outskirts of sensor range, the first thing to do was repair as many of the hull-breaches as possible and get the shields back into working order. Crichton had quickly realized that part of being an effective Engineer during times of crisis meant knowing when are where to cut corners, and a lot of these requests were likely to go unanswered for some time.
Then, of course, there was the question of the mines. The first thing Crichton did for that assignment was to consult the computer archives for whatever information he could find concerning the last Dominion War. Crichton recalled that Deep Space Nine had used a kind of cloaked, self-replicating mine to block the wormhole and cut-off reinforcements. In theory, the same thing could work here- with a large enough minefield, the Dominion fleet would but cut-off from GATEWAY Station.
Except that, logistically, it was impossible. Even with the Federation fleet, GATEWAY simply did not have the resources to build that kind of technology, at least not in the amount of time they had. Estimates put the new Dominion fleet's arrival at GATEWAY Station within two days or less. That was barely enough time to come up with the design, let alone put the mines into mass production.
There was a knock on the frame of the door- the door itself was still broken and hanging half-open. Crichton looked up to see the new CO, Commander Daisy Davidson, smiling at him from beyond the slightly-parted doors.
“May I come in?”
“You’ll have to squeeze through, Commander,” Crichton smiled, “..but be my guest.”
Daisy turned sideways and stepped through the door, straightening her uniform with a tug after she made it through. She glanced around the office- the desk had quickly become cluttered with PADDs, and a few had even spilled onto the floor. Daisy raised an eyebrow at the mess and looked up at Crichton.
“How are you settling in, Lieutenant?” she asked.
“It’s a little hectic around here right now,” Crichton said, doing his best to straighten up the pile of PADDs on his desk.
“I understand,” Daisy laughed, “..you don’t need to do that, Crichton.”
“So, what can I do for you, Commander?” Crichton asked.
“I wanted to check on your progress with the mines,” Daisy said. “Maverick tells me that the Dominion fleet appears to be on the move.”
“Well, if I tried to duplicate the mines used by DS9 during the first Dominion War, I might be able to complete a working prototype in, say, four days,” Crichton said. “And that’s assuming I was working with a standard pool of Federation resources. I ordered an inventory be taken on all ships in the fleet, as well as all merchant and civilian vessels still docked on GATEWAY Station, and based on what we have to work with, I think it’s going to take me a week, at least.”
“What are you missing?” Daisy asked.
“Casings, for one thing,” Crichton said. “I’ve ordered that all the science probes and warning buoys we have available be disassembled and converted to store explosives, but that still won’t give us enough to hold back the Dominion.”
“Aren’t the mines self-replicating?” Daisy asked.
“That’s the idea, sure,” Crichton nodded, “..but even then, you have to start somewhere. You have to *build* the first crop of mines and set them to work reproducing themselves. And that would take time- a lot more time than we have.”
“Can you build a mine without the casing?” Daisy asked.
“No, I-” Crichton started, but stopped. It was a crazy idea, of course, but theoretically possible. Daisy must have seen the realization on his face.
“What is it, Lieutenant?”
“Commander, you just gave me an idea,” Crichton grinned, before slapping his comm-badge. “Crichton to Lt. Yao. Meet me in Science Lab 12.”
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
SCENE: Science Lab 12
“This is tactical information of a standard Dominion battlecruiser,” Crichton said, as technical specifications scrolled down the screen beside him. “Dominion ships don’t have too many similarities to Federation design, but they do use a similar type of propulsion.”
“You mean dilithium powered warp drive?” Lt. Yao asked.
“I’m talking about sub-lightspeed impulse power,” Crichton said. He turned around and punched in a few commands. The screen changed. “These are the results of scans taken during an engagement with Dominion battleships. Comparatively, these are the energy outputs of a standard Federation vessel.”
“They’re almost identical,” Yao said.
“Right,” Crichton said. “Now, the Federation knows better than anyone what brings their ships down. The database on unusual space-phenomena or technical malfunctions that have endangered Federation ships is practically endless.”
“And if Dominion propulsion works in the same way that Federation propulsion does, we can use the same types of anomalies and malfunctions *against* them,” Yao realized, nan’s eyes wide with sudden excitement.
“Bingo!” Crichton said, slapping his hand against the console in celebration. “Damn, I love being brilliant!”
“We need a type of anomaly that we can create and control,” Yao said, calling up a science database. “Something that we can protect our own ships from, while preventing the Dominion from getting too close.”
“Any ideas?” Crichton asked.
“This,” Yao said, pointing at the screen in front of nan.
“Subspace bubbles,” Crichton read off the screen.
“Distortions in the subspace field,” Yao explained. “They come in a variety of types- some of them distort space, some of them time. Most of them just wreak havoc on ship systems or tear chunks out of the hull.”
“But can’t they be easily detected?” Crichton asked.
“Usually, yes,” Yao nodded. “But I have an idea for that, too. Similar to your sensor-masking trick with the Auroras, we can flood the surrounding space with so much sensor-noise that the Dominion fleet won’t be able to pick out *anything*, let alone subspace distortions.”
“Like trying to feel their way ahead in a blizzard,” Crichton grinned again. “Can we make the bubbles self-replicate?”
“We don’t have to,” Yao said. “They won’t disappear when a ship hits them- the ship will be damaged, but the bubble itself remains intact. We just have to surround GATEWAY Station, keep the Dominion from finding an approach vector.”
“Excellent,” Crichton said. “We can use the PATRIOT’s main-deflector dish to create the bubbles. I’ll figure out what modifications we’ll need to make.”
“How do we keep the bubbles from harming our own ships?”
“Since they’re artificial, we can control their formation,” Crichton said. “If we set all the fleet’s shields to operate at the same frequency as the bubbles, they should remain unaffected.”
As they set to work, Crichton silently dared the Dominion to come back. This time, GATEWAY would be ready.
NRPG: Been awhile since my last post, so I wanted to get one out. I’ll try to get a longer one out in a few days, and use some more characters in it.
Shawn
a.k.a.
Jake Crichton, Lieutenant
Chief of Engineering
GATEWAY Station, GS-2
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