The following morning Jason found himself back in the holo-suit sitting on the recreated bridge of a Ravon class vessel.  On the view screen in front of him was a point in space where three boarders came together. Federation, Romulan Republic and Romulan Free State.  Here one of many monitoring satellites had been placed allowing the Federation to watch over this, at times contested region of space.  But now this particular satellite had ceased to work.

Jason Devron acting as ship’s captain for this mission now knew a little more about what to expect.  In real life you didn’t always get a second chance.  A fatal error was just that, fatal.  Only in a simulation could you reset the clock, put everything back to the way it was and try again.  Jason hoped he’d learned enough not the mess this one up this time round.

As before he was seated in the right hand chair of the forward section of the bridge operation the vessels weapons systems.  Next to him sat the Bolian male who had the role of Helmsman and Navigator. Behind Jason was the blonde haired human male. Monitoring shields and other critical systems including the Engine room where two other crew members would be working had this been a real ship.  In the fourth and final chair a Saurian monitoring communication and long range scanners.

Like the first time he’d run through this mission a pair of Romulan Shuttlecraft de-cloaked, this time though from the rear.  Jason ordered shields raised and evasive manoeuvres to be made.  This time he concentrated the ships phasers and torpedoes on just one of the two enemy vessels.  The shields of the second craft glowed with the impact of weapons as did those of the Raven as the three spaceships converged.  No sooner had they meet the distance between then grew once more.

“Statue report?”

“Shields holding at 94%, all systems functioning as normal, captain.”

“Coming in again!”  This time it was the Saurian who spoke.

As the two shuttlecraft swept in for another attack the as yet unmolested lead vessel acted as a screen for its slightly damaged comrade preventing Jason from getting any hits on the second ship before they were right on top of the Raven.  However he was able to get a few good shots into its rear shields further weakening them. After this attack run their turn was much less dramatic than the first and the Romulan vessels stayed out of weapons range, but did not run like they had in the previous simulation.

“Get use in close to that satellite we may need to be quick.”

________

Adjacent to the holo-suit was the control room.  Two men and a woman sat at a the monitoring controls, a bank of screens along the wall in front of them displaying the statue of each vessel and a view of what each one of their crew would see at any given moment.

The Bajoran female office looked from one set of data to another. “He’s moving into transporter range”

Behind them the Vulcan Lieutenant-Commander, Salan placed his hands on the top edge of the middle seat. “De-cloak the Hvi Etc Aen”

________

Moments later the image of a D’deridex shimmered into existence right above the satellite.  Jason knew he had mere seconds to react, from the point that the Romulan ship began to appear and when it would have its shields raised and start firing on him.  He gave one short command directed at the transporter room, followed swiftly by another to him Helmsman.  “Get some distance between us!”

The stationary D’deridex fired two short burst from its forward disrupters before apparently beaming the satellite on-board.

________

The Vulcan looked on, puzzled by the cadets’ tactics, a sharp contrast to those he’d displayed in the first encounter.  But he was pleased that this particular human male had learned not to go in ‘all guns blazing’, as he believed the term was.

One of the screens registered that the satellite had successfully been beamed on to the Romulan warship.  But a matter of seconds later two other screens began flashing up serval warning.

“What just happened” the perplexed Vulcan asked those sitting in front of him.

“Computer indicates massive internal explosion consistent with a Federation Photon torpedo detonating within the ship.  Heavy structural damage on desks 8 through 10 and numerus casualties reported.” One officer announced

“Several secondary explosions throughout that section of the ship.” Added another. “Unable to bring a number of fires under control.”

Salan realised that had this been a real warship and he was in command of it, this vessel was now severely crippled and it would be unwise to pursue the fleeing Raven deeper into Federation territory.

“How was this allowed to happen?” He calmly asked the man to his left. “There are safety protocols on transporters to prevent beaming anything dangerous or explosive on-board.”

The other man looked back apologetically. “Correct sir, but due to the nature of the satellite and its power unit the computer regards the whole thing as hazardous.  So I have to disengage the safety to get it aboard quickly enough.”

________

It was a couple of minutes later when the simulation came to a much less dramatic end at least for the holographic bridge crew.  The Vulcan officer entered his passive expression showing the usual lack of emotion anyone what expect to see from a member of his race.

“A quite interesting outcome,” Salan said flatly, “Debriefing in 20 minutes.”

As the Vulcan made to leave Devron couldn’t help himself as a smile spread across his lips.  The Lieutenant-Commander stopped in the doorway and without turning to address the young cadet spoke again. “Don’t celebrate yet Mr Devron, one lucky break doesn’t make a bridge officer.  Just remember that.”  And then he was gone, the door hissing shut.

The plan had sounded simple enough, at least in his own mind.  Having been pre warned of the possible arrival of a Romulan D’deridex by Lyanna, Jason had requested that a torpedoes warhead be beamed inside the satellite at the same moment the data storage assembly was beamed out.  In the transitory moment from cloaked vessel to fully visible the warship would have detected the transporters activation and removal of the key component.  However the hope had been that these actions would not be picked up by those in the control room, especially as one of them was technically working on his side. The warhead was set on a timer.  One that he hoped would not detonate prior to being taken on board or too late that it was spotted by the ships sensors and dealt with.

In the end his plan had worked perfectly!  He would have to thank the Bajoran Lieutenant for her assistance in programming the relevant parameters for this whole thing to happen and not revealing it to anyone else within the control room.