Yesterday, 01:20 AM
Sebastian kept his attention on the science console as the Zephyr rolled hard through another evasive maneuver. The deck seemed to vibrate beneath his boots, but he barely noticed anymore. His eyes moved between the sensor returns and the increasingly unstable readings coming from the ship's systems.
Captain Braggins had taken command of the engagement, and Ameen had acknowledged the orders. That left Sebastian with one job: find something the science department could do to keep the Zephyr alive.
His fingers moved quickly across the console.
"Captain, I'm seeing something interesting in the escorts' shield harmonics."
He enlarged the sensor display, isolating the three Hidekis from the background interference.
"Their shields are cycling through a relatively narrow range of modulation frequencies. They're compensating for our ECM probes, but they're doing it reactively rather than continuously."
Sebastian glanced toward Ameen.
"If we can get another clean sensor pass, I may be able to predict their next shield frequency before they actually switch to it."
He adjusted the sensor filters, suppressing the weapons fire and engine emissions that were flooding the display.
"That would give Tactical a much cleaner window to hit the shields while they're between modulation states. We wouldn't have to overpower the shields directly."
A burst of interference washed across his console. Sebastian waited for the sensors to stabilize before continuing.
"There's another possibility."
He pulled up the Zephyr's deflector-control interface.
"The ECM probes are already disrupting their sensor picture. If I retune the deflector array to produce a narrow-band gravimetric pulse at the same time, we might be able to make their targeting computers compensate for a false relative-motion reading."
He looked toward Ameen again.
"Not enough to fool them completely. Just enough to make their firing solutions slightly inaccurate."
Sebastian's expression remained focused as another impact shook the bridge.
"I'll need a few seconds to calculate the pulse parameters, but I can coordinate it with the probe frequencies. If it works, Tactical should get a better firing window without us having to divert additional power from the shields."
He returned his attention to the console.
"Give me the next clean sensor sweep, and I'll see what I can get you."
== Tag Ameen, tag all. ==
Captain Braggins had taken command of the engagement, and Ameen had acknowledged the orders. That left Sebastian with one job: find something the science department could do to keep the Zephyr alive.
His fingers moved quickly across the console.
"Captain, I'm seeing something interesting in the escorts' shield harmonics."
He enlarged the sensor display, isolating the three Hidekis from the background interference.
"Their shields are cycling through a relatively narrow range of modulation frequencies. They're compensating for our ECM probes, but they're doing it reactively rather than continuously."
Sebastian glanced toward Ameen.
"If we can get another clean sensor pass, I may be able to predict their next shield frequency before they actually switch to it."
He adjusted the sensor filters, suppressing the weapons fire and engine emissions that were flooding the display.
"That would give Tactical a much cleaner window to hit the shields while they're between modulation states. We wouldn't have to overpower the shields directly."
A burst of interference washed across his console. Sebastian waited for the sensors to stabilize before continuing.
"There's another possibility."
He pulled up the Zephyr's deflector-control interface.
"The ECM probes are already disrupting their sensor picture. If I retune the deflector array to produce a narrow-band gravimetric pulse at the same time, we might be able to make their targeting computers compensate for a false relative-motion reading."
He looked toward Ameen again.
"Not enough to fool them completely. Just enough to make their firing solutions slightly inaccurate."
Sebastian's expression remained focused as another impact shook the bridge.
"I'll need a few seconds to calculate the pulse parameters, but I can coordinate it with the probe frequencies. If it works, Tactical should get a better firing window without us having to divert additional power from the shields."
He returned his attention to the console.
"Give me the next clean sensor sweep, and I'll see what I can get you."
== Tag Ameen, tag all. ==