A stimulating simulation

Posted on 01 Mar 2025 @ 2:41pm by Lieutenant Commander Cintia Sha'mer & Lieutenant JG Zhivise Silatuyok

2,135 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Miranda
Location: Bridge, Holodeck 1

Zhiv was back on duty and at her favorite place, the helm; her fingers danced on the console, setting up a few maneuvers. Tapping a few buttons, she set the Odin on autopilot before standing up and walking to the tactical station.

"Commander," Zhiv said, noticing her rank, "....um, hello," Zhiv said, deciding that she should probably meet the tactical officer, as they would be working close together, especially in any space combat. "I am Lieutenant Zhivise Silatuyok, but you can call me Zhiv. I am the new helm officer, and I thought it was prudent to introduce myself to the bridge personnel," she said, feeling slightly less nervous.

Sha'mer looked up at the simulation she was preparing and smiled as she took in the new helm officer. "It's a Pleasure to meet you, Cintia Sha'mer, or either Cin or Sha, whichever you prefer. You joined us recently, I take it?" She had seen the woman at work earlier; she seemed quick and efficient.

For Zhiv, it was easy to tell she was new. "...um, yes," Zhiv said, snapping out of her thoughts, "...so, would we be able to run some weapon simulation so we can get some practice working with each other if we do get into a combat situation?"

"Of course, gladly," Sha'mer called up Zhiv's personnel file as she spoke and skimmed through it quickly. "Impressive list," she added as she read the various crafts Zhiv was rated to pilot. "Did you have any previous experience with Nebula-class starships?"

"Yes and no," Zhiv said, not wanting to sound vague, but it was what it was. I have done a lot of simulator work, which I know isn't the same as the real thing," Zhiv said, knowing that was true but not a bad thing. Most of my piloting has been worker bees and transports, but I have been doing some practice, mainly simple maneuvers and stuff like that," she added.

Sha'mer nodded. "Good to know. I'll design the simulation to ramp up the maneuvers' complexity. Some parts will be based on things the Odin has been up against. When would you have time to do this?" Her hands kept moving over the console as she talked, continuing her preparations.

"After the shift, I am free, and the sooner, the better, if possible," that anxious feeling crept in. She did not want to let the crew down, as this was legitimate life and death if she did. It was with transports as well, but this was indeed different.

"Sounds good. Let me check…" Again, Sha'mer's slender hands flitted across the console. "Holodeck one, half an hour after this shift ends. Would that work for you?"

"That works perfectly," sounding a bit over-zealous, but for her, this was fun. Being a helm officer was everything, and working with another department like tactical was also something she had always dreamed of. Which was kinda weird as getting into combat was something she hoped to avoid, but knew that it did happen, and there was nothing you could do to stop that.

Sha'mer looked up. Her gaze lingered on Zhiv for a moment, and she smiled. "Awesome! I look forward to seeing you there."

=/\=

As soon as the shift ended, Sha'mer hurried over to the holodeck she had reserved. She had spent the rest of the change piecing together a training scenario in her mind; now, she only had to implement it. The files she needed to recreate the situations she had pulled from the computer, and she idly tossed the data crystal up and caught it again as she made her way through the ship.

When she reached the holodeck, she got to work. She had saved several other simulations; calling one of them up was easy enough. Around her, Odin's bridge began to take shape. She sat down behind one of the consoles and used its interface to alter and refine the simulation.

Zhiv was slightly late after getting lost for what felt like the umpteenth time. "Sorry, still, well, still getting lost," she muttered as she made it to the holodeck.

"That's alright. I was still fine-tuning the simulation," Sha'mer said. She quickly transferred the data to her tactical console and got up. "So I've created a stacked simulation here. It's not one we can win, as that's not the goal of this first session. The simulation will start with attacks that will be relatively easy to dodge and destroy, and increase in difficulty. The simulation will continue until the ship cannot move, fire, or both. I hope you don't mind pyrotechnics?" she grinned.

Zhiv nodded at the simulation, which reminded her of the ones they did at the academy; they were fun, sometimes frustrating. "Makes sense. I did enjoy these at the academy," she added with a smirk as she cracked her knuckles. "Ready," she said.

"Hang on to your socks, then," Sha'mer said as she walked to the tactical console and activated the simulation. Crewmembers—none resembling the actual Odin crew—shimmered into existence at the other consoles, and the viewscreen came to life, displaying an empty starscape… for just a moment. Ships appeared in a flash of light; the simulated Ops officer began to shout a warning—one that was quickly aborted when the two ships fired on the Odin. The simulation had begun.

Zhiv was quick to her console, her fingers flying over it as she quickly got her bearings. "We got two ships," she promptly said, getting an idea of their trajectory before making a few course adjustments. She double-checked where the weapon ports on the Odin were so that they would get the best spread of fire when she fired.

"All right, I am gonna split the two, allowing us to hit both." Zhiv knew this wasn't the most efficient approach, but it would force the enemy to readjust, allowing her time to flip the Odin around and go after one. And, ideally, in an actual situation, a maneuver like this might make them flee. "...on 3," Zhiv said as she counted out loud before speeding forward and slowing down just enough to allow tactical to get target locks.

"Ready," Sha'mer said briskly, her hands already in motion. The console came to life, lights indicating weapon banks ready, others showing that full shields were deployed. Forward shields at 98% after those first shots. She smiled; even though this was a simulation, she felt herself become alive. "Locked in… Firing."

Bright beams flashed out and hit their targets. One ship disappeared in a flash of light, and the second broke off its attack as its power output dimmed. It was no longer a threat.

Three more ships appeared, now more significant and faster than the first. They split up and launched a three-pronged attack.

Three became tricky but not impossible. "commander, we are going to use a couple of torpedoes as a flashbang to blind the ships as we make a pass," Zhiv said with a grin as she set up some vectors that they had to hit so that they wouldn't get hit by the blast.

"I can do one better. Weaken their shields with our phasers, then use the torpedo spread to take out their sensor array altogether," Sha'mer said briskly, her hands racing across the console. She seemed to be entirely in her element.

It was a risky maneuver, but very much doable, "Zhiv took deep breaths," she muttered as she double-checked a vector and speed before educating the first half of the maneuver to get the enemy ships where she needed them to be, "Ready?" Zhiv called out.

"Yes. Hit it." At the moment she spoke, green beams streaked out towards the three vessels, followed a moment later by strobes of yellow, which impacted with deadly precision on the already weakened shields as the Odin twisted and wove between them.

Even with her size, the vessel was sleek and not sluggish at all; it was the opposite. The thrusters and impulse drives fired up quickly, and the ship could stop and turn on a dime, allowing for this maneuver to be successful as it needed quick stops and the ability to turn on that dime.

It was so responsive to her touch, almost like an extension of herself; it was terrific. Making a few adjustments so that the Odin would be ready for the next attack run, Zhiv said, her fingers dancing over her controls, "We are far enough away that we can launch a torpedo spread, eliminating the three ships, and they won't know what hit them." Zhiv said as her fingers danced over her controls.

Sha'mer did just that, turning off the three ships quickly now that they were blinded. Once again, they vanished, and more ships appeared. They kept coming in quick successions, with Klingon ships, Romulan Birds of Prey, Borg vessels, Sha'mer, and Zhiv exchanging attack patterns and suggestions. It was getting harder to beat them, and the Odin had already sustained a few hits, enough to weaken the shields. Now, those had to be taken into consideration when maneuvering, too.

Now, every maneuver was twofold: getting the best firing solution on the enemy while protecting the areas where the shields were weakened. This also meant those other areas were getting more damage. Zhiv shifted her maneuvers to stay as simple as possible as more enemies came; the primary move was to protect the weakened shields while still giving the commander good enough target acquisitions.

And then the next scenario came up, the final one, and a swirl in space opened and a swarm of odd, tentacled ships appeared, rushing towards the Odin and preparing to attack from all sides. Sha'mer felt herself grow cold at that sight. Even though she had programmed in the scenario herself, seeing those images again on the main screen and her tactical display was harder than anticipated. Face your demons, indeed, she thought with an inner snarl. Once again the Odin twisted, turned, twirled among those strange ships, once again lances of light and balls of fire picked out the tentacled ships and sent them up in clouds of debris, once again her panel lit up with half a dozen red points and more: indicating that the hull was breached, that they were being boarded.

"Computer, freeze program," Sha'mer called, and for the first time her voice sounded strained, coming from far away. The scene on the bridge froze, the generated crew sat or stood like statues, the main screen went blank.

As the program froze, Zhiv was about to initiate a dangerous, wildly untested maneuver. It involved the Odin to spin, while unleashing phaser fire and torpedoes, unfortunately it was a "hope 'n spray" tactic, and one used when you knew you were not gonna survive, but to make sure the retreating ships had a chance to survive.

Panting, she finally looked up from her console. She was a mess, and her hands were shaking. "That was, I mean," Zhiv stammered, lost for words.

Sha'mer nodded and took a shaky breath. "Yes. Yes, it was. This was something we encountered a few months back. They did board us. It… it was messy." She remembered it vividly, the way one of those things ripped another crewmember apart, the tentacle spearing her leg and reeling her in, shooting it at point-blank range and the thing exploding just before it could do the same to her as her unfortunate shipmate.

Zhiv didn't know how to respond, and this was the most combat she had seen, including the simulations she had to do in the academy to graduate. "I am sorry, I hope I didn't, um...," Zhiv trailed off again, unsure how to convey symphony without feeling like an apology.

Sha'mer ran a hand through her short hair, grimacing at the sweaty feeling. Yes, this had shaken her. "Well, I did say in advance that the program was designed to test us to see how far we'd get, but it was never intended to be a winnable scenario. I think the analysis will prove that you did quite well, we both did. You might want to take some time to familiarise yourself with the Odin-specific attack patterns that have been added, that can shave off a few seconds that might make a difference in an actual battle situation, but that's the only real recommendation I can think of." At least she had her voice under control again.

"Thank you, and I, well, this was a huge help. Thank you again," Zhiv said as she decided that a shower was very much needed.

"You're welcome. I look forward to working together. Computer, end program." Around them the bridge disappeared. Sha'mer waited until Zhiv had left before limping off herself, to the quiet and relative solitude of her quarters.

 

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