Sphere of Influence

Sphere of Influence is the sixth episode of the second RIS Bouteina season.

Teaser

While investigating a planet who held an as-yet unknown variety of kryptonite, the RIS Bouteina gets under attack by a Borg probe. After the probe is destroyed, they decide to engage the nearest Borg tactical sphere.

Summary

Act One

In orbit over a planet on the Lyran border, redshirts have detected kryptonite on it. They beam down and find a cave filled with yellow kyptonite. Accersitus asks to beam up some of that kryptonite in the labs, which prompted the transport of a test cylinder. After Taev Radaik puts the kryptonite in the cylinder, the away team is beamed up back to the ship. Radiation prompted the science officers to put the kryptonite in a radiation safe and he asks an Acamarian to transport it to the cargo bay. The crewmen involved in the away team all have a raktajino.

Act Two

A few seconds later, a Borg probe enter the system and targets the RIS Bouteina for assimilation. But the Borg onboard debate the issue until the cutting beam is fired, making it enter a fight against the Romulan ship. To evade the Borg torpedoes, the ship makes a loop and fires the disruptors to hit the power matrix. The Borg ship was hit so hard that its adaptation matrix was disabled and photon torpedoes were fired, destroying the Borg ship. Rovas goes through the PADD and finds that a Borg Sphere is due to go in Lyran territory. Annika orders the ship to go fight the Borg again.

Act Three

Vaebn Mairex reveals that he once was a Riov and he lost his command because of an overinflated ego. However, they suspect that Annika simply acts on a desire of revenge. The ship goes to warp and the crew decides to go anyway because they know that the Romulan Star Empire is in danger if the Borg sphere wasn't intercepted. As they arrived, a police cutter rammed the sphere and fired its expanding sphere generator, damaging the sphere. The Borg are surprised to see the Romulans warp in to fight them. Upon arriving, Annika orders the multi-adaptive shields raised.

Act Four

The Bouteina shot a volley of quantum torpedoes and, as they impacted, the sphere is destroyed. Explosions on that sphere sent debris flying, tearing a hole in the Borg tactical sphere as it drops out of tactical warp. When Lyran destroyers get tractored by the Borg, they fire their ESGs. Senior commodore Pfrizzek then orders all of his ships, when tractored, to use the ESGs when they are stuck by enemy tractor beams. Meanwhile, several Lyran ships are lost, like an ESG Global Operations Cruiser, when the Borg began adapting themselves to both the photons and the ESGs. They also remodulate their disruptor frequencies.

Act Five

The Borg Tactical Sphere adapting to the ESGs force the Lyrans to devise a new strategy. Rather than having the ships that were tractored fire their ESGs, they'd stay away from ESG range. Upon firing quantum torpedoes, the ship sustained only half again as much damage as the last volley of photons. Realizing that the Borg has adapted to the quantums, Annika tries a last-ditch move: firing phased plasma torpedoes at the abomination, called Sphere 911, even when the Lyrans lost another ship and the Romulan ship sustained structural damage. The abomination is destroyed, but at a steep cost. Annika Hansen requests to use their shipyards for repairs, and the Lyrans accept, only if the Romulans aid them fight the Kzinti.

Production notes

• This is the first episode where Annika Hansen actually refers to herself as a clone.

External link

• Sphere of Influence on the RIS Bouteina boards