On Silent Feet They Came Part II
Posted on Wed Aug 12th, 2026 @ 2:43pm by Captain Thorrin & Lieutenant Commander Tarian Aloria & Lieutenant Sivek & Lieutenant Addison Talbert & Lieutenant Junior Grade M'Ressa & Lieutenant Junior Grade Talin Nira
Edited on on Wed Aug 12th, 2026 @ 2:55pm
2,751 words; about a 14 minute read
Mission:
In The Nick Of Time
Location: Bridge - Deck 1 - USS Herodotus
Timeline: MD006 1230 hrs
There was little time to act and Thorrin knew it as the weapon impacted the shields. This was a hell of an enemy to have a new crew tango with. "Activate the Chronal Jammer and return fire. Its the Kren..." Thorrin's clipped New Orleans accent was cut short as the burst of bright light clouded his vision. His head felt like was going to explode from the intense amount of pressure in his head. His breathing quickened as did his pulse. This is death. Something that does not come often to an El Aurian. he thought. Without a further word his eyes rolled back into his head and he fell first to his knees as he gripped his chest. Then he fell face down on the deck in front of the command chair.
Nira’s hand struck the final command, carrying out Thorrin’s last order even as he hit the deck in front of the command chair.
“Chronal jammer is active,” she reported, her voice catching for half a breath before she forced it back into line. The Herodotus answered with phaser fire, lancing out toward the ancient vessel’s weapons and shield emitters. On her console, the impacts registered, then flattened into ugly, disappointing numbers.
“Direct hits on target,” Nira said, jaw tightening as she read the return data. “Minimal damage. Their shields absorbed most of it, but we caused a fluctuation across their port-side emitter grid.” Her fingers moved again, trying to make sense of the Krenim ship’s defensive pattern. “Not enough to disable them. Not yet.”
She glanced sharply toward Thorrin, then back to the console.
“They’re still weapons-capable.”
Tarian ran over to where Thorrin was on the floor with what appeared to be a head wound. Tarian tapped his combadge and said, "Medical teams to the bridge! Captain Thorrin has taken a hit and needs medical assistance!"
Tarian looked around really quick. Someone had taken his place at Temporal Ops and he realized quickly that with the XO and 2XO down on the planet, Tarian was the senior most officer on the bridge. Tarian looked over at M'Ressa and said, "Lets do some evasive maneuvers. I don't want anymore cheap shots at us if we can avoid it for a moment."
M'Ressa nodded before getting to work, her finger pads tapping across her console. Using manoeuvring thrusters and impulse engines in coordination to swing the ship around like a shuttle. Trying to keep the aggressor within the front weapons arc.
Tarian looked at the young man that took over for him at Temp Ops and asked him to verify that the Chronal Jammers were activated and were online. Once confirmed, Tarian switched gears really quick and looked over at Talin at tactical. He walked over and said, "Give me that report again? I heard bits and pieces, but I was checking on the captain. How are we doing now?"
Nira’s eyes stayed on the console, fingers moving as she kept Tactical steady through Ops.
“Chronal jammer is active and holding,” she said, quick and clipped, with no spare room in her voice for panic. “We returned fire on their weapons and shield emitters. Direct hits, but minimal damage. Their shields absorbed most of it.”
She shifted one of the tactical feeds to Tarian’s side display so he could see it for himself.
“We did cause a fluctuation along their port-side emitter grid, but it closed fast. They’re still fully weapons-capable, and their last shot left chroniton residue across our forward shields. It looks like they’re trying to desynchronise the grid, not just punch through it.”
Nira glanced briefly towards Thorrin, then back down.
“Shields are holding for now. But if they keep hitting the same facing, that may change.”
Tarian told Talin, "Alright. Lets see if you can't maybe hit that one spot and maybe open it up more? Unless you've got some other ideas? I'm not the Tactician quite like yourself. As for that one spot on our shields, I'll try and have M'Ressa have do some evasive and keep that spot covered until Sivek can fix it up."
Nira looked at the fluctuating point on the enemy shield grid and gave a short nod.
“I’m no tactical officer,” she admitted, hands already moving over the console, “but if that section is the only part that complained, I can make it complain again.”
She pulled the previous impact data back onto her display and narrowed the targeting lock around the port-side fluctuation. It was not much, barely more than a stutter in the enemy shield pattern, but it was something.
“I’ll try to hit the same spot and adjust the output based on what their shields did last time,” she reported. “No promises it opens them up, but it might keep that emitter from settling.”
Her eyes flicked briefly to the Herodotus’ shield status.
“And if M’Ressa can keep our weakened facing out of their firing arc, I’ll call that a very good plan.”
Tarian looked over at M'Ressa and said, "M'Ressa, there's a spot on the shields that it appears the other ship is trying to target and break down. I'm having Talin send you the spot of the shield where it's located. Mind doing some of those wonderful maneuvers to give us some cover until I can get Sivek to clean it up?"
M'Ressa nodded again, “I’ll do my best, they’re not making it easy and I’d rather not crack the hull with too many extreme manoeuvres.”
Tarian quickly moved over to the Engineering station where Sivek was working. "Hey, I don't know how much you heard. But, it looks like whomever is out there is trying to take the shields out and I think they're trying to desynchronise the grid, like Talin was saying? I'm no engineer. I've got M'Ressa working on some evasive actions to take pressure off of that area of the shields. Mind seeing what you can't do really quick and get it back up to snuff?"
Sivek did not look at Tarian. His fingers moved across the engineering console, bringing up sensor traces and laying them side-by-side on the main display in front of him. Between the voices and the klaxons, he didn't even notice the medical team tending to Thorrin.
Herodotus was telling him something and he needed to listen.
"Our shields do not appear to be the main target," Sivek said calmly, the majority of his focus on sensor readings. "The Krenim are employing a temporal weapon which, when focused at this point--" he pointed to a precise location on the Herodotus' shield grid--"will not only damage our shields but render our ability to transfer power between systems null."
He turned to Tarian, still calm and collected despite the tension in the air. "I suggest transferring auxiliary power from the warp engines to the temporal system to boost the chronal jammers. So long as the chronal jammers remain engaged, perhaps Herodotus can simply outlast our enemy."
Sivek said the last, his eyes landing on Talin.
"Okay, give me as much power as you can to the defensive and temporal systems as you can. Do it before they knock out the transfer systems and the shield, please," Tarian told Sivek as he looked back at the main viewscreen.
Once again, Sivek's fingers flew across the console, rerouting the secondary warp power reserves into the chronal jammer. The ship shuddered once again but he maintained his focus all the same.
The Krenim weapon was powerful and Sivek knew they were a people who would not think twice about deleting an entire species from the timeline if it meant achieving their own goals. A pesky Federation timeship removed from existence would be nothing more than killing a fly to them.
Sivek shook his head at the thought. Now was not the time to consider motives or perspectives--the Herodotus was in danger and Tarian had given him an order.
"Power transfer complete," the Vulcan hybrid replied, his voice betraying some of the urgency he felt inside.
The Krenim had their operative in place, they had no idea where this Federation ship came from. Must be something with the last temporal convergence. It was no matter this would be corrected shortly. They just had to make sure the operative hit the target. The order was given and a full barrage of torpedoes and disruptor fire erupted from the ship. The Herodotus was its target, and if that ship was not careful it would cease to be.
At the call from the bridge, Addison was quick to grab her medical bag and dashed towards the turbolift. Her heart was racing, at the fact that the ship had been attacked.
The lift doors opened Addison's eyes immediately found Thorrin on the floor. Her heart almost stopped seeing her drinking buddy on the floor. She was immediately by his side, taking a quick read of his vitals.
He was having a heart attack!
She worked on him and called to Tarian, "Can you spare some power in order for me to do a site to site transport to medical?"
Tarian looked over to Sivek and said, "How's the power situation? Think we might be able to do that to get them down there a little bit quicker?"
When Addison had requested the transport, Sivek was still too focused on his engineering display to look at her, the unmoving form of Thorrin, or Tarian. He could read the math before Tarian had even finished his request; a site-to-site transport during a chroniton-saturated dogfight was risky.
If the concentrations of chronitons were too high in either the source transport site or the destination transport site, there was chance neither would materialize... whole.
And then there was the question of transferring power once more.
"I have already locked-off power from key systems," Sivek said, his voice flat. "I will need to pull from life support."
The Herodotus was rocked yet again, but Sivek held steady to the console of his station, throwing a look over his shoulder to Talin.
"The interference is too high," he continued, directing his words to Tarian and Addison. "Move him three meters to the port alcove. I will establish a localized dampening field there--it's the only way to ensure safe transport."
Tarian looked at Addison and said, "I can help move him if we have to. At least get him into stasis until we get him down to sickbay and get him the help he needs."
"Well we could do that-" she paused her mind clicking into more focus. "No, no need to do that."Addison had sent a message for a stretcher, the turbolift doors opening with another medical person arriving.
The personnel, he steadied himself slightly as the ship was impacted by the attacking ship.
Addison was keeping tabs on Thorrin after she had administered a hypospray to stabllize Thorrin in order to get him off the bridge safely.
With a quick movement, the medical aide came over and helped Addison move Thorrin on the stretcher. Addison took one last look towards the bridge, "May the odds be in our favor." she said before the turbolift doors closed.
Now it was time to take care of the Captain, for without him there wouldn't be a ship, and without him there probably wouldn't be another life for her either.
Sivek kept part of his engineering display on the Herodotus' own systems and the smaller, secondary display on the enemy vessel's actions. It had become clear to him that while the ship could take several more hits, nothing was indestructible.
"Commander--"
The ship shook again as another energy discharge exploded across the starboard section.
Sivek pushed himself away from the engineering station with startling force as a power surge blew-out the console. Small fragments of red-hot polymer shot outward and upward as he turned his face, but the damage was done.
The bridge had flashed white to him and for an instant he heard nothing--feeling only heat and flecks of molten sand sting the right-side of his face. He continued his backward momentum, stumbling toward the railing.
He blinked through the pain and realized the entire right-side of his station was now dark and shattered with thin ribbons of smoke drifting up. A series of small flames licked along an exposed junction beneath the panel where his fingers had been just moments before.
Without any further delay, Sivek crossed to the emergency compartment built into the bulkhead and retrieved a portable fire-suppression unit. Pointing the nozzle at the disabled station, a stream of chemical foam spilled onto the burning circuitry and the flames disappeared.
Nira’s hands tightened against the edge of the Ops console as the last impact rolled through the Bridge, her display flaring with cascading alerts from the starboard shield grid. She kept her seat, barely, one shoulder braced as the tactical feed juddered and then stabilised again under her fingers.
“Starboard shields took the worst of it,” she called, forcing the report out cleanly while half her attention snapped towards the ruined Engineering station. The smell of scorched circuitry reached her a second later, hot and bitter. “Chronal jammer is still online, but the power feed is fluctuating.”
Her eyes found Sivek for just long enough to see that he was still on his feet, then she turned back to her console and pulled what engineering telemetry she could into the corner of her Ops display.
“I’m rerouting secondary diagnostics through Operations,” Nira said, fingers moving fast now. “Not enough to replace Engineering, but enough to keep eyes on the jammer and shield transfer grid.”
The enemy ship remained on her tactical overlay, vast and old and stubbornly intact.
“They’re still targeting our transfer systems,” she added, jaw set. “And our last return fire barely scratched them. If we’re going to hit that emitter again, I need a cleaner angle or a bigger bite.”
M’Ressa did her best to keep the Herodotus out of the firing arc of the Krenim ship, but kept struggling as it almost seemed like they could predict every move I made. “If we’re going to make a move, it better be soon. I’m running out of tricks”
"Talin! Are there any weaknesses in their shield grid that you might be able to punch through or anything? Anything that we might be able to use against them? Even if there's a temporary weakness or something when they fire?" Tarian said as he made his way over to Talin's station.
Nira’s eyes moved rapidly across the tactical feed, then narrowed. “Maybe,” she said, not sounding happy about the word. “Their shields dip for less than a second after each discharge. It’s not a hole, more like the grid has to breathe.” Her fingers swept across the console, marking the pattern and sending it to Tarian’s display. “If M’Ressa can keep us alive long enough for them to fire again, I can try to hit that port-side emitter during the reset. The timing will have to be very tight.”
A Joint Post By
Captain Thorrin
Commanding Officer
USS Herodotus DTI-30656
Lieutenant Sivek
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Herodotus DTI-30656
Lieutenant Commander Tarian Aloria
Chief Temporal Operations Officer
USS Herodotus DTI-30656
Lieutenant Addison Talbert
Chief Medical Officer
USS Herodotus DTI-30656
Lieutenant Junior Grade M'Ressa
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Herodotus DTI-30656
Lieutenant Junior Grade Talin Nira
Assistant Chief Engineering Officer
USS Herodotus DTI-30656
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