In the medical bay of the USS Knight Doctors Kira and Haakon were preparing for the coming conflict with the Bariens. As they were organizing both the personnel and supplies the sounds of the battle klaxons were heard overhead. A familiar voice followed seconds later.
[All hands, this is Captain Osagawa speaking. Red alert. Prepare to engage the Barien Fleet.]
With a wry look at Linn, Markos simply said, "Here we go."
Shortly after Markos' comment, the sounds of battle could be heard throughout the medical bay. As the weapons from the Barien fleet began to hit the shields of the Knight, the ship was rocked back and forth in a manner that was disruptive to locomotion, and yet was somehow soothing at the same time. Kira was reminded of what it would have felt like to be in a Naval battle aboard seafaring destroyer ships like the USS Iowa in mid-20th century Earth.
"Kira, we're ready to go. All we can do now is sit and wait," said Haakon as she placed the final touches on an emergency surgical medical kit.
Just as Linn had finished speaking, the communications channel was activated again.
[Bridge to Medical Bay.]
Linn was the first to answer the call and responded, "Dr. Haakon here Captain."
[Dr. Haakon, have Dr. Kira report to shuttle bay two.]
"Excuse me, sir?" replied Markos to the strange request.
[You heard me, Doctor. We will need your assistance aboard one of the shuttles. Osagawa out.]
As the communications channel closed, Linn and Markos looked at each other with puzzled looks on their faces. Markos was the first to reply.
"Don't ask me, I haven't a clue what the Captain has in mind."
With that last comment Kira grabbed one of the emergency medical kits from the newly arranged stacks of supplies and headed toward shuttle bay two. As he hurried along the corridors he pondered the Captain's abrupt decision to change his duties. Why would the Captain have the Chief Medical Officer on a shuttle craft rather than in the Medical Bay treating the wounded?
As he neared the shuttle bay doors, they automatically opened for him with their hydraulic motors first whining, then hissing and finally coming to a halt with a barely perceptible thud. The noise always caught Markos off guard because it was louder than the standard mechanisms that opened the smaller doors on the rest of the ship. As he entered the shuttle bay, Lieutenant Beckett greeted him with a PADD in one hand and a pat on the shoulder with another.
"Glad you could join me, Doctor," said Beckett as maneuvered Kira toward the shuttle Pendragon, a new addition to the Knight's ensemble of support craft, named after King Arthur himself.
"Lieutenant, do you have any idea what I'm supposed to be doing here?" asked Markos in a quizzical tone as he followed Beckett's lead in boarding the Pendragon, perusing the PADD given to him a moment ago.
"It's something that Captain Osagawa and Starfleet Intelligence have been brewing up ever since they found out how the Barien's Decrum torpedoes work. Apparently, your 'unique' abilities were catalogued and deemed classified after Admiral Beard defected to the Barien side. Starfleet decided to use this lack of knowledge against him," replied Beckett as he sat down at the main helm and began to input the pre-flight instructions into the shuttle's systems in preparation for departure.
Turning his gaze toward the PADD's information, Kira begins to see the importance of his being on this particular shuttlecraft.
"They're going to use me as bait for the torpedoes?"
"More than bait, Doctor. This shuttle is quite different from your regular shuttlecraft. Its propulsion systems have been modified in a manner that enables it to move faster than the Decrum torpedoes. It uses some mixture of impulse and low-grade warp fields to generate this speed. We're going to try to draw the torpedoes away from the battle field and toward us."
"With my power signature the torpedoes will assume that we're a bigger target than one of the Prometheus-class starships," said Markos in a sarcastic tone as he looks at his orders. "Starfleet didn't include anything specific in here as to what I'm supposed to do to create this 'power magnet'."
"I guess they decided to leave that part up to you." said Beckett.
"I think I can fool a couple of torpedoes into chasing us. I'll just create a shield matrix layered over our own shields that put out a huge energy signature. Hopefully it will allow us some needed protection from the weapons fire as well as fool a couple of those torpedoes."
"Any chance you can absorb the weapons fire?" asked Beckett as he finished inputting the final launch sequence into the computer.
"I'll see what I can do. Get ready to fly by the seat of your pants Lieutenant," said Markos as he sits down beside Beckett, and tucks his medical kit underneath the seat. "It's going to be one hell of a ride."
"Just the way I like it Doc." Replied Beckett as they launched the Pendragon out from the Knight's shuttle bay and into the phaser-fire lit area of space that the battle raged within.