Lieutenant Kira was awakened from his sleep by the sound of the red alert klaxons blaring in his ears. Quickly covering his ears with his hands he bolts from his bed and moves towards the communication panel over the replicator in his quarters. "Computer, explain reason for red alert status."
<Red alert status was initiated by Commodore Pike. Reason unknown.>
"Where are the Commodore and Captain at this moment?" asks Kira as he hurriedly puts on his uniform after a quick sonic shower.
<Both Commodore Pike and Captain Christian are located on the bridge.>
"Well, I better see what is going on."
As Kira finishes putting on his rank pips and communicator badge, he also checks how much energy he had absorbed. Hmmm... just barely enough to not be noticed by the sensors. I'm getting better at this. Kira exits his quarters and makes his way towards the nearest turbolift. As the doors open he is surprised to see Ensign Haakon already aboard as well as a couple of other crew members that he didn't recognize.
As he enters the turbolift he turns to Haakon and says in a hushed tone "Linn, what is going on and why are we at red alert?"
"I'm not sure you want to hear this Markos." says Haakon as she looks over some data on a small PADD she had brought with her. "It's the Kelvans." As the words left her lips the silence that followed seemed like a deafening roar. As she lifted her eyes from her PADD to see if Kira had any sort of response she saw all the color drained from his face.
"You're not kidding, are you."
"No, this isn't a joke."
As the turbolift doors opened to the bridge Kira exited the lift and looked around to get his bearings. The bridge was full of activity as the crew looked like they were running around trying to scramble up anything to get them out of the situation. Kira followed Haakon to the ready room knowing that the senior staff would be calling a meeting rather quickly.
As Kira and Haakon entered the ready room, they were greeted by Commodore Pike in a rather grim tone. "Good, Ensign Haakon and Lieutenant Kira are here, now we can begin. Take a seat you two."
As Kira and Haakon made their way to the back of the room, Pike continued what he had been discussing before they walked in. "As you can see the Kelvans have decided that we are a threat to their empire. They seem to have brought a whole planet with them that is capable of moving at high warp speeds." Pike touches a control panel and a three dimensional view of the Kelvan battle planet comes into focus in the middle of the table. "As of now, we have the advantage of speed on this planet. Our maximum cruising speed is somewhere around warp 15, while they were traveling at warp 13. And now that Mr. Tumock has managed to damage their drive systems, we can outrun them and reach Earth with a message of warning. But, once we're there the Kelvans will be hot on our tails. We won't have much time to warn the Federation."
Blank looks and stares of horror come from most of the crew during this discussion. The former members of the Ilion seem to be shaken up the most by the situation.
"I need some options on how we're going to get away from this planet before they try to blow us up. Even though we've disabled one of their weapons moons, there are eight more. Anyone?" says Pike with a determined look as he turns off the display in the middle of the conference table to get a better look at those seated in the room.
"Sir?"
"Lieutenant Tumock, by the way I'd like to introduce you to our new Operations Officer. You were saying Lieutenant?"
Tumock looks briefly around the room and then continues his speech. "Sir, while their drive is inoperative, we could jet away from them and get out of weapons range if we jumped directly into transwarp."
"Excuse me, Commodore?"
"Yes Ensign Tunis."
"The only problem with going directly into transwarp is that we are close to their planet. We would have to keep our transwarp conduit limited to exactly the size of our ship, or else we risk the chance of the Kelvans using our own conduit to follow us."
"Agreed. Plus, we have to find out how much firepower they have in their weapons. It wouldn't do any good to begin an escape if we get blasted at the first sign of our energy disruption prior to making the jump to transwarp." says Pike as he moves towards his chair at the head of the table.
"Doctor Kira, can you do anything in this situation?" floats a query from Captain Neil, seated just to the right of Pike.
A little caught off guard by the question Kira answers in a shaky voice "I don't think I could destroy a whole planet, Ma'am." As Markos pauses to think of an alternative he looks around the room. Only the former members of the Ilion know what that last statement really meant. The other members looked rather puzzled at the comment.
"Kira, what about helping to boost our power to the shields? Have you tried anything like it before?" asks Neil from across the table.
"The only problem is I haven't been absorbing a lot of energy lately. I don't know if what I have could help much at all. Plus, the last time we were involved with the Kelvans, they must have known something was up when I started to absorb all that raw warp core power. They might not take any chances with us if they notice another power spike of that magnitude."
"Tunis, is there a way to mask the Doctor's power signature while he's absorbing energy from the warp core?" asks Neil as she turns to face the science officer.
"Well, we do have a lot more power available to use than the last time. I could create some subspace static that would mimic a problem with the warp core. That might hide some of his signature."
Haakon was the next one to speak up in the conversation. "Kira, what about absorbing some of the power from their moon satellites? You could slow down their response time in their weapons systems."
"I can absorb a lot, but not enough to stop the power supply that they have in place on that battle planet. I'm not sure that they would even notice the power draw." replies Markos.
"That may be our best option, to use the power from their own systems to enhance our shields. How fast is your energy absorption, Doctor?" replies Pike as he rises from his chair.
"I'm not sure of the exact numbers. It depends on the amount of power that I want to absorb."
"What if you didn't absorb it, but channeled it instead?" asks Pike as an idea begins to form in his mind.
"If I directly channel it to a pre planned area, it is near instantaneous. Why?" asks Kira as he wonders where this line of questioning is going.
"What if you were to try to absorb an energy beam from the battle planet, could you transfer it directly to our shields or even deflect back to them?"
"Depends on the amount of energy that they throw at us, Sir. They've not fired a shot at us yet and we don't know what the magnitude of their firepower is just yet."
"Would you be injured by transferring that much energy through your system?" asks Captain Neil as she reaches for a PADD near her.
"I honestly don't know. I imagine that as long as I don't exceed my maximum impulse energy for very long I should be fine. But, I have to warn you, I haven't tried energy manipulation like this before. I'm not sure what the outcome would be. If I can't handle the energy burst, I might blow up the entire ship and maybe part of their battle planet if we're not too far away."
At this point Tunis interrupted the conversation. "Kira, what if you evacuated nearly all of your stored up energy out of your system prior to trying to redirect their weapons? Could you allow for more energy to be run through you?"
Markos pauses to think about this before he returns a reply. "I have enough power in my systems at this moment to keep from registering a power disruption aboard the ship. That means I should have enough in my system to be slightly lower than one of the main EPS converters."
Those in the room who know about Kira stop to look at him all at once. "You mean, you have that much power stored in your system at this moment?" says Neil as he breaks the silence of the room.
"Yes. I've learned how to control my abilities a little better than before on the Ilion." replies Markos as he looks around the room. All the while he thinks to himself Well, thus begins my life as a battery.
Pike was the first to speak this time. "Can you use that extra power to boost our shields prior to redirecting their firepower?"
"If I get rid of the excess power in my systems I do have a higher chance of controlling the energy bursts. The only thing I'm worried about are the Kelvans energy absorbing weapons. I'm not sure what one of those beams would do to my physiology." replies Markos as he begins to move his leg in a nervous reaction.
"Well, that's when Dr. Haakon will have to come in. Ensign, you'll be monitoring Dr. Kira during this process for any adverse changes. Doctor, we're going to place you in the rear of the ship near engineering. Hopefully we'll have enough time to turn around before they fire. If they begin to pursue us with firepower try to direct their fire exactly to where it came from. Hopefully we might be able to disable them enough to buy us some time to warn the Federation. It's the best plan we've got people, let's get to it." finishes Pike as he moves from his position in the front of the room.
"Dismissed."
With that last order the occupants in the room begin to exit out of the various doorways. Kira just stays in his seat with a far away look in his eyes as he gazes outside of the windows and looks at the Kelvan's battle planet come into view. Obviously Pike was beginning to move the ship to a better angle to try their escape.
"If you don't mind me asking, Sir, what was that whole discussion about. I'm afraid that I, as well as a few of the other bridge crew, had no idea how this plan is going to work with all this absorption of energy."
Startled by another voice in the room, Kira turns to see who uttered the comment. "Ensign Tyran, you startled me."
"I'm sorry sir, but my question still remains. What does the Commodore and Captain mean by having you deflect or absorb their firepower?" asks a slightly confused Ensign Tyran.
"I'm not quite Human or Bajoran, Tyran. My species is unknown in this galaxy so far. I have the ability to absorb and channel large amounts of energy through my body. Up until a year ago, no one knew of that ability. Then, the Kelvans came along." Kira pauses for a moment, turns and faces the windows on the side of the conference room. "Did you hear anything about the USS Ilion's first mission, Ensign?"
"Very little, Sir, I was completing my academy training at the time."
"Needless to say, this isn't the first time that I've used my abilities to get us out of trouble with the Kelvans. The last time it involved opening up a spatial anomaly called a tesseract. It nearly destroyed the ship. Obviously, the Kelvans decided that we were a threat to them after that incident. They must have been sucked into the other side of the tesseract and placed somewhere else in the galaxy as well."
"Sir?" says an even more confused Ensign Tyran as he tries to understand Kira's cryptic words.
"I'm sorry, the Ilion was originally drawn into a natural forming tesseract while transporting prisoners from the Dominion war through the badlands. The ship didn't even see it coming until it was too late, and our shields weren't up in time to protect us from the trip. We landed right in the laps of the Kelvans area of space near the center of the Andromeda Galaxy with no appreciable power and no means of defending ourselves. The only way out of there was the way in which we came, so I revealed my abilities to Captain Christian and told her that I was able to reopen the tesseract that brought us here if I was allowed to absorb enough energy from our fading warp core. I did it and we arrived back at Deep Space Nine and were beamed off the ship just in time prior to it blowing up following the trip back home. A formal inquisition was carried out and I nearly was court marshaled for not letting anyone know about my abilities prior to enlisting in Starfleet. But, since I was the key to bringing the crew back basically unharmed, I was allowed to remain in service. Another stipulation was that I would allow myself to undergo a series of tests to determine the extent of my abilities. That was a year ago. And here we are today. Back where we started from right in the laps of the Kelvans wondering what we are going to do. The more I experience deja-vu, the less I like it."
"Deja-what?"
"It's an old Earth term in a language called French. It means that sense you get when you feel as though you've done this before."
"Can you do this?" asks Tyran.
"We're going to find out, aren't we?" says Kira with a slight smile.
The two exit the ready room and prepare for the task before them. Ensign Tyran moves towards the security console as Kira makes his way towards the turbolift. As the doors are about to close he utters "May the Prophets guide us."