The Battle of Starbase 234 - Part 4 - Difficult Decisions

Posted on Sun Jan 4th, 2026 @ 3:58pm by Captain Taiga Aisaka & Commander Chisato Nishikigi & Lieutenant Commander Talia Johnson & Lieutenant Jasad Yuvek & Lieutenant Nezuko & Lieutenant Commander Nyxala Valentine & Lieutenant JG Connor Carey

1,752 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: The Return
Location: USS Tokyo Bridge/USS Tokyo Sickbay
Timeline: February 27, 2397

[USS Tokyo Bridge]

Yuvek glanced at his tactical overlay, noting the cruiser's shield distribution. "TAC- their forward shields are weakest from taking fire from the Malinche. Recommend we concentrate all forward weapons on their bow section, try to punch through before they can reinforce."

The carrier surged forward, and Lieutenant Yuvek made constant adjustments to maintain the attack vector. "Holding course steady. You'll have maximum firing time on target in five seconds."

"Understood Lt." Connor replied as he adjusted his targetting scanners. "Hitting their forward shields with everything we have got now. Torpedoes and phasers forward shields."

Taiga turned to Chisato. The Starbase had thousands of lives aboard, and there was no guarantee that they could fight the Heralds off. "Gather anyone thats not needed. Clear every room on this ship. Push furniture aside, clear cargo bays, clear the shuttlebay of shuttles. Make room for as many people as we can physically get aboard this ship." she ordered. "They may not be comfortable, but they'll be alive. Once Commander Johnson starts evacuating people, we're going to need a place for them to go. Hell, put them in the corridors if you need to!" She was dead serious, she was determined to save as many lives as she could.

"I'm on it, Captain," Chisato nodded as she got up and began making her way towards the turbolift.

Lieutenant Yuvek's mind raced with calculations even as his hands worked the helm controls, trying to balance impossible demands.

A ship this size... standard crew complement of four hundred. Emergency capacity maybe double that. But thousands? Where the hell are we going to put them all?

"I'm going to keep us in position within eight thousand kilometers of the station - maximum reliable transporter range given current interference," he called out, frustration evident in his tone as he made minute adjustments to their position.

He watched the fighters on his tactical display engaging Herald escorts, unable to provide the kind of maneuvering support they normally would. The Tokyo was locked in position by the tyranny of transporter range.

"...the fighters are on their own out there." Lieutenant Yuvek said aloud to himself.

The Tokyo itself was not in a much better position. It couldn't support the Fighters, but also couldn't maneuver aggressively away from the station.

Another Herald beam struck their shields, and Lieutenant Yuvek compensated with thrusters to hold them steady.

"Connor" The Helmsman called out. "Blackhawk is attempting to screen our position, but they're taking heavy fire." He reported. "Sync-up with the Cortana and Blackhawk - maybe we can do a rotation formation where we all rotate continuous fire while we stay within transport range," he suggested to the Tactical Officer. He understood that holding this close to the station was limiting The Tokyo's tactical options.

Connor remained silent, as he concentrated, "Their shields are down to 25, suggest we swap places with the Blackhawk" Connor replied as he looked to the Helmsman. By now the controls were memorized. "Captain, this ship carries a lot of shuttles am I right. Which can be remotely controlled. Can I suggest using them as additional firepower, sending them into the enemy ships. They may do more damage."

"If we start launching and remotely piloting shuttles, that's additional power draw for remote guidance systems and tractor controls." Lieutenant Yuvek quickly responded to the Tactical Officer.

"We take the power from nonessential power systems to make it happen. Replicators, astrometrics, Holodecks... I doubt we are going to be stopping for a break anytime." Connor replied as he fired another volley.

With the possibility of a lot of people being beamed onboard Talia was up on her feet moving around to a spare bridge station, she was already formulating a plan for the extra room needed for them, albeit temporary. Cargo bays would be the first space to fill, but if needed crew could be moved around to share quarters allowing for some overflow into guest and crews quarters.

"...remote controlled shuttles as missiles?" Jasad thought to himself as his hands maintained their position. "That could work - draw some fire off the fighters at least." He wondered just how Captain Taiga would respond to such an off-the-wall idea.

"We need that power elsewhere," Taiga responded. Their idea would take time to set up, precious time and power that they just didn't have right now. They needed to keep fighting, to give the people aboard the starbase a fighting chance to evacuate. That was their primary purpose now, even if the deck was stacked against them.

Yuvek glanced at his power distribution readouts, then back to Nezuko at Ops. "Nezuko, transporters are drawing massive power for continuous beam-outs, weapons systems are at maximum draw, and maneuvering thrusters are straining under the constant movement." Lieutenant Yuvek was interrupted as another Herald beam struck the Tokyo's dorsal shields.

"Can you redistribute power to support that without compromising transporter capacity or our ability to keep shields up?" He asked Lieutenant Nezuko at Ops.

Nezuko winced but nodded. It was possible…but not easy. She got to work.

The Tokyo shuddered again, and Yuvek made minute adjustments to hold them steady as he turned towards Tactical. "Connor - if we swap positions with the Blackhawk, we need to time it perfectly. Any gap in our transporter coverage and people on that station die. Can you coordinate the position swap while maintaining continuous fire?"

"I wouldn't have suggested it if I wasn't able to Lt." Connor stated. "I will expand our shields as well, to include the Blackhawk as we do so as well. Any gap will be covered until the swap is completed."

"Acknowledged," Lieutenant Yuvek responded, his hands already plotting the position swap trajectory on his console. His fingers moved across the helm controls as he prepared the delicate repositioning of the carrier while maintaining weapons range and transporter coverage. "Beginning maneuver now - standing by for your coordination with the Blackhawk."

"They are ready Lt." Connor replied as he nodded, instinctively, knowing the helmsman couldn't se him. "Expanding shields to include the Blackhawk now. It may get a bit bumpier but only for the short term."

The Tokyo began its controlled drift, using thrusters to shift laterally while maintaining their distance from the station. "Transporter range holding steady at seven thousand e---," he began to report.

Suddenly, a massive purple beam slammed into their port shields mid-maneuver. The bridge lurched violently, throwing Lieutenant Yuvek against his console. He was fighting to maintain their trajectory despite the impact throwing off their positioning. His hands flew across the controls, compensating for the momentum transfer.

Up on her feet Talia tried to hang onto the station as the ship lurched, but the momentum threw her sideways then solidly back against the console impacting her back with a solid blow before she landed on the deck.

Connor, watched the bridge, as he continued manning tactical, something Thomas had always taught him when they were serving on their last ship together. Seeing Talia hit the rail and collapse, wasn't a good sign. He motioned to one of the extra tactical officers to tend to her. "Get her to sickbay." He replied as he continued the maneuver.

Three medical officers soon arrived and rushed over to the counsellor. The bridge shook again as the ship took addiitonal fire from the Heralds. "Don't worry Counsellor, we've got you." They assured her as they helped her towards the turbolift door.

Taiga looked back as the medical officers helped Talia off the bridge. A thought of worry entered her mind, Talia was heavily pregnant just like herself. This was far from an ideal position for either of them to find themselves in. She returned her attention forward, right now she couldn't worry about one person. She had a ship to command, a battle to fight and people to protect.

The Tokyo's lateral movement had been disrupted, pushing them dangerously toward the station's debris field. Ordinarily, the ship could just maneuver to a more advantageous position, but it had to stay close to the station, and by default the debris field, in order to keep the transporters available. "Correcting with thrusters now," Yuvek reported through gritted teeth, working to force the carrier back into proper alignment. "Transporter range fluctuating...Nezuko, how are we on power distribution?"

That necessitated a more complex response, so Nezuko typed out a message on the vocalizer part of her console. “Everything is holding for now, but it may not last long. We may need to start prioritizing systems.”

"Transporter range holding steady at seven thousand eight hundred kilometers," Lieutenant Yuvek said to OPS and Tactical. "Swap completing now," he announced as the Tokyo finally settled into position, though their shields were battered and systems were reporting damage across multiple decks. "Position locked. Transporter range restored at eight thousand kilometers."

"Our shields are at 53 percent, the Blackhawks are down to 10." Connor replied, as he turned. "We may need to have the Blackhawk retreat."

Taiga nodded. The Tokyo was one of the most modern and technologically advanced vessels currently serving within Starfleet. However older ships like the Blackhawk had an unfortunate disadvantage in these sort of situations. However they needed every phaser bank, every torpedo launcher defencing the Starbase and the evacuation efforts. 'I can have the Blackhawk retreat... But how will we keep the Heralds at bay if we do... There has to be a way... she thought to herself momentarily.

[USS Tokyo Sickbay]

Down in sickbay Nyx had been watching everything as she'd been in and out of surgery and the new incoming from the station had filled her with even more dread. She glanced up at one of the hanging nests on the ceiling at Gigi watching as well and calculations went through her head and she tapped her commbadge,

"Bridge, Valentine. Sickbay is overrun with casualties and Doctor Hinamori is unavailable. We need to evacuate stable patients somewhere else and I need two or three people with any sort of medical experience to handle routine cases."

Posting By:

Captain Taiga Aisaka
Commanding Officer
USS Tokyo

Lieutenant Jasad Yuvek
Chief Helmsman
USS Tokyo

Commander Chisato Nishikigi
Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Tokyo

Lieutenant JG Connor Carey
Security/Tactical Officer
USS Tokyo

Lieutenant Commander Talia Johnson
Chief Counselor
USS Tokyo

Lieutenant Nezuko
Chief Operations Officer
USS Tokyo

Lieutenant Nyxala Valentine
Chief Medical Officer
USS Tokyo

RSS Feed