#188 Cat and Mouse

Posted on Sat Oct 28th, 2023 @ 5:59pm by Lieutenant JG Ainkara "Kara" {Meji}

Mission: Wedding Blues And Trouble
Location: runabout
Timeline: backpost

OOC: This is a severe backpost for Ainkara's situation.

ON:

Having secured Kirk in the aft section of the Runabout, and letting Burke know, Ainkara remained within the rings of ice and rock for the gas giant. Reaching out with the Core Ainkara could feel that the Orions were still searching for the runabout, but were a distance away. The Cadet ran a systems diagnostic and discovered that all Kirk had told her about the damage to the runabout had been lies. Warp still worked, as did weapons and defense. However, the blockade runner did pack a significant punch over her runabout unless, of course, she made adjustments. For now, her focus on maneuvering through the chunks of ice and rock, Ainkara accelerated. Using the Sense discipline from the Core, and allowing the energy field to aid in controlling her reactions, the Voran woman came out of the rings on the inner plane between the rings and the gas giant. Proximity alarms began to bleep as the sensors and computer were informing Ainkara that she had been spotted and pursuit was now in affect. The scans from her own ship showed that the Orions had activated their weapons and they to accelerated to try and catch up.

With nothing else left to do to maintain any type of cover Ainkara decided to take a chance and angled for the gas giant. She was at extreme range for the blockade runner and the ship would occasionally vibrate and rock from close calls, even as she kept maneuvering to avoid any direct hits. So far, the Core was keeping her from being damaged beyond repair and therefore captured. Seeing she was just above the atmosphere of the gas giant, the swirling gases and particles within it moving with hurricane force winds, Ainkara activated the shields and dove into the mists. She activated the stick control and flew by instinct, letting the Core be her guide. Even so, the winds within the atmosphere played hell with her control of her vessel. Dropping atmospherics by 25%, Ainkara shunted that power to the shields, engines and maneuvering thrusters. The runabout seemed to stabilize a bit more, making it so that holding her steady was not such a chore. The small ship kept going at one-quarter impulse power through the atmosphere, but at least she was not being pummeled by enemy fire.

-Blockade Runner-

The captain of the blockade runner cried out in anger. "Dirty little Starfleet!" His evil gaze looked to his gunner. "I suggest you not miss again."

"Got it, Boss." The gunner responded.

"Can we handle that gas giant?" Asked the Boss, looking to his own pilot.

"It will play hell with our maneuvering, Boss," answered the pilot. "Those high velocity winds may be a problem."

The Boss stood up, his voice raised as he pointed at his viewscreen. "If a runabout can do it, we can! Set pursuit course and find that ship!"

Several of the Bridge crew all glanced at each other when the Boss was looking elsewhere. This was a really bad idea. It was Humans and a Vulcan, and no slave was worth this much effort. But, being the cowards they were, they decided to not argue. The pilot did as ordered and the blockade runner dropped into the atmosphere and was immediately beset by the wind sheer. Alarms began to sound as the ship recognized the danger to itself through the main computer.

"Cut that damned noise!" Shouted the Boss, which was done immediately, the Bridge now returning to its previous quiet status. The Boss sat down in his chair and rubbed his face in agitation. "When we find this ship, people, that Kirk wench gets tossed in a cage too, for all the trouble she's caused us."

That was the first bit of reasonable news the crew had heard since this chase began, and they all felt a little better about catching the runaways and making them pay.

-runabout-

Ainkara, deciding on a new tactic, brought her runabout to all stop and then dropped down 500 meters through the gases. Her main sensors were iffy, at best, what with all the particles and gases interrupting the signals. So, instead, Ainkara switched to the navigational sensors, which were there to keep the ship right side up despite zero visibility. Tapping keys quickly Ainkara reset the navigational beacon to detect the Coriolis effects from the enemy vessel. The laws of motion describe the motion of an object in an inertial (non-accelerating) frame of reference. When the laws of motion are transformed to a rotating frame of reference, the Coriolis and centrifugal accelerations appear. When applied to objects with masses, the respective forces are proportional to their masses. The magnitude of the Coriolis force is proportional to the rotation rate, and the magnitude of the centrifugal force is proportional to the square of the rotation rate. The Coriolis force acts in a direction perpendicular to two quantities: the angular velocity of the rotating frame relative to the inertial frame and the velocity of the body relative to the rotating frame, and its magnitude is proportional to the object's speed in the rotating frame (more precisely, to the component of its velocity that is perpendicular to the axis of rotation). In other words, instead of a compass she now had a sonar system.

Ainkara waited patiently, leaning back in her seat and clasping her hands together as if in prayer, eyes closed as she reached out with the Core. They were close, but from which direction she could not surmise. Then, as she went to focus her Sense even more the navigational system began to give a soft bleep. Ainkara opened her eyes and leaned forward, hands now at the ready on her console, seeing that the enemy ship was doing a zig-zag pattern to try and locate her. As the blockade runner got closer and closer, the bleeps sounded off faster and faster. On the screen she could see a blip moving about around her, but mainly at starboard aft. Tapping keys Ainkara spun the runabout around and energized her weapons, but did not activate them just yet. She wanted to give them no chance for defending themselves.

The bleeps continued, steady and quicker, the blip moving closer and closer. Her hand near to phaser control, Ainkara got ready. Though she had been compared to a Vulcan, with her own species being Vulcanoid, Voran were not Vulcans. There was no reticence about killing an enemy. She would gladly condemn them and their ship to the core of a gas giant where they would cease to exist by the very laws of physics. They would be crushed and shredded to the point of never having existed at all. Quite satisfying, she thought.

The gases outside cleared as the wind whipped them around, and dead ahead, approximately 1000 meters distant was the blockade runner. They were also elevated above her ship by about 200 meters. Activating her phasers Ainkara tapped the key to fire, a lance of particle energy reaching out and hitting the unshielded blockade runner near to the Bridge. The enemy immediately veered to their starboard, with green disruptor fire coming her way. They had spotted her. Accelerating, Ainkara steered her way around the enemy ship, using the computer to auto-fire on the blockade runner as she kept the runabout from losing control and plunging any deeper into the deadly pressures of the gas giant. Her ship took a few hits, consoles sparking and smoking as the shields held but the excess energy played hell on the consoles.

Several of her own shots had hit vital areas on the blockade runner, and even as Ainkara ascended to get out of the gas giant she to took more hits and minor damage. An alarm began to bleep, letting her know that the warp drive was now offline, but all other systems remained functioning. One last blast hit her directly on the aft section, the shields holding but strained as she cleared the atmosphere and flew back out into open space. Turning immediately and slamming the runabout up to full speed, Ainkara set course for the Class-L world in this system. If nothing else it would grant her the ability to get set down and effect repairs. Not only on the ship, but also on Mister Burke.

This was not over yet...

TBC...

OFF: