Escort Duty (Part 3)

Posted on Fri Jul 18th, 2025 @ 1:27am by Lieutenant Nezuko & Captain Taiga Aisaka & Commander Thomas Johnson & Commander Jennifer Daxer & Commander Chisato Nishikigi & Lieutenant Commander Talia Johnson & Lieutenant Jasad Yuvek & Lieutenant Teneca Quinn
Edited on on Tue Jul 22nd, 2025 @ 3:33pm

1,414 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Preserving The Past
Location: USS Tokyo Observation Lounge
Timeline: January 21, 2397- Approximately 2 hours after departing from Starbase 234

Previously on Star Trek Tokyo:

“Impressive and exceedingly worrying” Talia added. “How do we fight technology like that?”

"To the bitter end if need be." Tom replied. "The Federation depends on us, in fact the entire milky way."

And now the continuation...

"Oh, but it gets better," Chisato continued, furnishing two nearly (but not perfecty) identical projectors and setting them down on the table. "Because we've also discovered they've developed at least three distinct variations of the same basic formula. For the intents and purposes of easily identifying which is which, we've categorized them as either stun, high density, or split beam projectors.

"It's probably best to not get them confused." Daxer pointed out, but said nothing more. She knew her moment would come, so kept her comments to a minimum.

"We'll start with the stun beam projectors, as these appear to be utilized for instances in which the Iconians would want to take someone alive," Chisato speculated. "We didn't find as many examples of these as we did the other two, which leans towards the idea that Iconians prefer the "shoot-to-kill" strategy- which, admittedly, is a bit of a grim way of looking at things, but that's getting off-topic; what you need to know about antiproton stun beams is they're intentionally weakened so they can attack a target's nervous system without completely destroying it; you get hit by one of these, and it's not going to kill you, but it's going to hurt like... oh, what'd be a nice way to put it? The dickens? Nah, that kind of undersells it..."

“Like the merry bars of hell” Talia offered a wry smile. “They want to make their victims suffer in the most painful way.”

"Yes! That!" Chisato agreed. "Right, so moving onto the lethal variety of projectors, we have the high density beam, which so far as we can tell, is designed to kill first time, any time; in addition to firing a steady energy beam at its intended target, these projectors come with a secondary fire mode that concentrates that energy into a narrow, cylindrical beam with quite a lot of firepower than you'd expect. When Kurumi-chan tested one of these in the holodeck, the recoil was so intense that it knocked the weapon out of her hand. Granted, if you're expecting the recoil it's a lot easier to manage, but the fact remains that this is designed to do maximum damage- probably even kill you before you hit the floor."

"Effective. weapons like that, there is a reason why starfleet has banned those types of weapons."

"Lastly, we have the split beam projector, which isn't as intense as the high density beam, but it deals damage in its own special way," Chisato continued. "Rather than a single, concentrated beam, the split beam concentrates the energy into a narrow arc, allowing it to hit- or, more accurately, eviscerate- multiple targets in one go. These appeared to be the most common projectors of the ones we managed to recover, which might indicate a preference towards eliminating as many targets in as short a time frame as possible, but then again, this was only a single Iconian and their forces that we encountered in an active combat situation, so these statistics may vary depending on the Iconian that's leading them."

“Like I said, how do we fight that?” Talia sighed becoming more and more concerned as time went by.

Jen watched, and listened, but said nothing yet. She knew she'd be answering Talia's question momentarily.

"Of course, as I mentioned, this is hardly the first time we've encountered antiproton beams in the wild, so we do have a few recourses towards combating them," Chisato explained, nodding to Jenifer. "Commander, why don't you take this from here?"

"I'm sure you've all noticed the new uniforms you've been issued." Daxer said as a start, as she used her PADD to change table's hologram to show a generic starfleet officer. "For the most part, they are the same, with one exception."

"While they may look the mostly the same, these uniforms were specifically designed to protect you." As she continued, she tapped the PADD, and the image zoomed WAY in, down to the unique fibers that made up the fabric. "The fabic is woven together with special poly-fibers capable of absorbing most of the energy contained in several high yield energy discharges, before burning through.

"That's not the best part. Built into the belt buckle is a skin-tight personal shield." Jen stood up, pressing the center of her belt buckle as she gestured towards the high-density beam projector still sitting on the table. For only the briefest of moments, her entire body shimmered as she stepped into the open area of the room. "Commander, if you would help me demonstrate please?"

"Right," Chisato nodded as she picked up the projector and aimed it squarely at Daxer's chest. "Now, fair warning, this might tickle a little bit..."

And with that disclaimer out of the way, she squeezed the trigger; the officers gathered watched in awe as Jen's body took a full blast of antiproton energy, and yet the beam simply dispersed upon coming into contact with the shielding bubble. The CSO didn't even so much as flinch at what would have otherwise been a tremendous and lethal impact.

As the beam dissipated around her body, Jen pressed the buckle again to deactivate the shield. "The number of shots it can take depends on which weapon they use. My testing shows it can only take 2-3 shots; 4 at most from the high-density beam, but that's more than enough to get a quick advantage." Jen sat back down, tapping her PADD to turn it off. "Are there any questions?"

The moment of silence answered her question.

"OK then everyone. Now that we're all familiar with these new improvements. I want you all to familiarise yourself with how they operate. We have a few days before we reach Amerind." Taiga told them all. "Use that time to research and prepare for when we reach Amerind. I will be running unannounced combat drills at some point. It's vital that we can respond quickly to all and any situations." She looked around the table.

"Anything else?" She asked simply.

Lieutenant Yuvek straightened in his chair as he watched the demonstration of Security's new "toys". While the personal shielding technology is impressive, his primary concern was keeping this ship and both crews alive long enough to complete the mission. That meant having every contingency planned before they drop out of warp.

"Ma'am," The Cardassian said, shifting the focus of the conversation. "What are our contingency plans for rapid evacuation if we need to extract the away teams quickly? Especially given the Iconians' demonstrated ability to appear without warning." He said.

His finger traced potential flight paths on the display. "More critically, what's our threshold for abandoning the mission? If Herald ships appear, how long do we attempt extraction before we're forced to leave teams behind?"He asked, seeking specific time parameters, "4 minutes? 15? The difference could determine whether we're performing a tactical withdrawal or a desperate escape." He inquired.

"Captain Williams and I have agreed to keep a permanent transporter lock on all away teams." Taiga replied. "If the Iconians do make an appearance, we evade them the best we can until everyone is aboard and get the hell out of there with whatever information we manage to acquire."

Taiga could sense the tension and worry that hung in the air. It was so thick you could cut it with a spoon. "Look," she said to them all. "There is no guarantee that they will show up. But there is a high probability that they will. I know that each and every one of you will give their best regardless. We have always stuck together as a crew and a family. We can do this. I know we can." She looked at them each in turn. "So, let's prove to ourselves that this is not a useless situation. Believe in yourself, but more importantly, believe in each other." she paused for a moment. "Dismissed."

Posting by:

Captain Taiga Aisaka
Commanding Officer

Commander Thomas Johnson
Executive Officer

Commander Jennifer Daxer
Chief Security/Tactical Officer

Commander Chisato Nishikigi
Chief Intelligence Officer

Lieutenant Commander Talia Johnson
Chief Counsellor

Lieutenant Jasad Yuvek
Chief Flight Control Officer

Lieutenant Nezuko
Chief Operations Officer

Lieutenant Teneca Quinn
Chief Science Officer

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