Strategic Operations Centre – USS Tigris

Riandri sat in the strategic operations centre of the USS Tigris as she and her escorts, the USS Radiant Storm and the USS Fazakerley patrolled the frontlines of the ongoing conflict with the Dominion. She looked around at the strategic operations and intelligence officers as they poured over all the data from the ship’s sensors and the data packets received from the fleet before she boarded the vessel. She had not spoken to many of them, partly she didn’t see much point as she was only going to be on the vessel until they rendezvoused with the USS Denver, at most another day or so, and because she didn’t have much to offer at the moment since she didn’t have full access to the computer; there had been no need when she was only going to be on board for a couple of days. She sighed inwardly as she watched them, ‘Why am I even here?’ she wondered absently before the sarcastic voice in her head chimed in, ‘Where else would I go, not like I do anything outside of work…’ 

Dismissing the voice she looked back at the console before here and scanned through the limited sensor readings she had access to, all appeared clear but that never meant much with the Dominion. Before she could get into anything any further the claxons sounded and the lights turned red just as the computer’s voice came over the intercom. 

== RED ALERT, ALL HANDS TO BATTLE STATIONS ==

Frowning Riandri began to stand as the station she was at would soon be occupied by one of the Tigris’ own officers. As she got to her feet her combadge chimed, “Lieutenant Nalam to the Bridge,” she quirked an eyebrow at that and tapped her badge, “Lieutenant Nalem, Confirmed and en route.” With that, she nodded to a Bolian ensign as she turned and walked out the door just as he entered. ‘Guess I will get to see the bridge of this beast.’

Bridge – USS Tigris

A couple of minutes later Riandri stepped out of the turbolift onto the bridge of the USS Tigris; as she did she brushed down her uniform as if it had wrinkles to make sure everything was sitting right and blew a few stray strands of hair blond hair from her face. She didn’t want to appear that she had run the second she left strategic operations. She did curse inwardly though for not making sure her hair would stay in place.

As she stepped out several heads turned to look at her but only one mattered. Before she could even announce herself Captain Nicholas Ryder smiled and waved her over. “Lieutenant Nalam, I am sorry I didn’t get a chance to meet you before now but things have been busy, normally I would try to meet all new officers on board, even if they are just transferring through.”

Riandri was a bit taken aback by this, after all, the battleship, one of the strongest vessels in known space was on red alert presumably about to go into battle. “Oh,..” she said lost a bit for words. “That is not a problem sir, I don’t anticipate I am here for long.”

“Possibly alot less than expected Lieutenant. We just received a distress call from the Denver, they have encountered a force of Dominion vessels. We should be there in a few moments.” Captain Ryder said as he looked back at the view screen. Before Riandri could respond the tactical officer spoke, “30 seconds Sir. The Storm and Fazakerley have confirmed weapons ready.”

“Excellent, Lieutenant Commander,” Ryder said before glancing at Riandri, “Thought you might like front row seats to this as the newest intelligence officer on the Denver.”

Moments later the three vessels dropped out of warp and the view screen showed several Cardassian cruisers and multiple Jem’Hadar fighters engaging the USS Denver as it valiantly fought them off as her fighter wins activity engaged the Dominion vessels.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Captin Ryder said, “Fire,” and the Sovereign and her Akria escorts unleashed hell onto the enemy ships. The first cruiser exploded under a bombardment of quantum torpedoes while the second was rendered all but useless by the rapid and sustained phaser fire of the four Federation ships. Seeing two of their cruisers removed from the board the Dominion forces jumped to warp and left the battlefield.

“That went as good as can be expected,” Captain Ryder said. “Get me a full damage report on all four ships and get me, Captain Talon. I have a new officer here for her.”

Bridge, USS Denver

Nick Ryder appeared on the main viewer of the USS Denver, “Good to see you still intact.”

Rebecca smirked, “You know me. Nine lives and all, but I do thank you for coming to the rescue.  They were more than we could handle.”

Nick laughed, “That’s what I’m here for.  Always bailing you out of hot water.”

“Once!  You did it once, and I wasn’t in the right head space at the time.”

Nick shrugged, “Still, if not for me you would have been academically expelled from the Academy.”

Riandri stood off to the side of Captain Ryder and tried to suppress the chuckle that tried to get out. The result was a muted snort that was loud enough for most on the bridge to hear. Resulting in a few glances her way

Nick turned to face Riandri with a grin on his face. “I almost forgot to mention,” he said turning backk to the view screen, “I have your new intelligence officer here with me. Lieutenant Riandri Nalam. I can have her transported over right away.” 

“Understood.   We are ready to recieve here.  See you around Nick,” Rebecca said.   “Denver out.”

He glanced back at Riandri and nodded. “It was great to meet you Lieutenant, I hope we cross paths again. Report to transporter room one for transport to your new assignment.”

Riandri smiled, “Yes sir,” she said as she offered him her hand and then turned and headed to the transporter room and the Denver.”