Crisis Management

Posted on 05 Nov 2023 @ 10:38am by Lieutenant Commander Temerant Bast & Lieutenant Commander Elodin Devan MD

1,002 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Outbreak
Location: Antioch - Government Palazzo

Temerant Bast wiped the sweat from his brow, and looked at the mug of coffee sitting on the table next to him. It was something of a luxury he'd allowed himself - he'd requested that it be beamed down from the Cygnus over an hour ago. It was now cold, and barely touched. Not that it mattered - though he'd needed it to keep his mind sharp, the amount of the thing that he'd consumed over the past few days was beginning to irritate his stomach.

Of course, he'd heard all about the rioting and the assaults against Federation personnel. No one had needed to announce that they had inadventantly caused this deadly epidemic on Antioch, since the Antiocians were more than capable of putting two and two together by themselves. The epidemic had started right after their arrival. The anger was understandable, and when you assembled enough people in one place with this much anger, the mob mentality took over, which led to the violence they'd seen over the past few days. He didn't need Lamorra's extensive diplomatic experience, nor the voice of his father, Ambassador Brandeur Lochees Kilvin, playing in the back of his mind, to understand that.

Captain Bane, out of concern for his safety, had advised him to return to the ship, and carry out his duties from his office there. But Bast was worried that it would send the wrong message. If the Antiocians believed they had intentionally carried this disease to their planet, retreating back to their ship wasn't the ideal way to begin to show remorse. He'd elected to remain on the planet - but he did agree to stay in the relative safety of the Tashi's governmental Palazzo.

Antiocian society was one of the least bureaucratic that he'd ever seen, in his three lifetimes. As a result, the collapse of their way of life, as a result of the sudden disappearance of so many government personnel, was a precariously balanced but controlled chaos. Bast's role in Operations allowed him to help smoothe out government processes, help them sort out their priorities, assign their scarce resources where they were most needed, and provide what little resources the Cygnus could devote to them without violating the Prime Directive - at least, any more than they already had.

He'd been in touch with his father. The senior Ambassador had been appalled at the news of the epidemic, and had somehow insinuated that Temerant might have been in part responsible, despite the fact that it was a malfunction in the Transporter's biofilters that had caused the epidemic, which was nowhere near his area of responsibility. But he had agreed to discuss the matter with the Federation Council, in the hopes of suspending the Prime Directive on Antioch, to give the Federation the power to help these people. But, as in all matters involving politics, it would take time. Time that the Antiocian people might not have.

At present, Temerant was busy overseeing the transfer of an Engineering team from one side of the Continent to the other. The crew of operators monitoring one of the largest hydroelectric dams in the north-western part of the Continent had been decimated by the epidemic, leaving the dam practically unattended. Recent rainfall in the area had been intense, and the pressure on the dam was approaching critical levels. If the dam ruptured, it would threaten one of the largest cities in the region, where over four million people lived - or had lived, before the epidemic, according to the latest census. Bast had sent an Engineering team over there to open the floodgates to relieve the pressure, but they were having difficulty figuring out how the system worked.

As they were coming close to figuring out the basics, another message came through. The Medica in the south-eastern region had come under intense assult by the population, and was showing critical signs of structural damage. Two thousand patients were currently in the Medica, not to mention the staff, who was responsible for the treatment of hundreds of thousands in that city.

Bast pressed his combadge. "Lieutenant Bast to Lieutenant Belcourt. How are you coming along?"

"We've almost got it figured out, Sir," came the young Lieutenant's voice. "Ensign Tirok thinks they've got redundant systems that are keepig us from -"

"Do you think you can open the floodgates within the next fifteen minutes?" interrupted Bast.

"I think we need another half-hour to make sure," came Belcourt's reply.

"I don't have half an hour," said Bast. "Leave Ensign Tirok there to finish the job, since it seems they've got a good grasp on the system. I need the rest of your team to report to the Medica in Lisen on the double." He explained the situation in Lisen and how the Engineering team was required to help secure the structure.

"Sir, is it safe for us to go there at present?" asked Belcourt, the hesitation evident in the young junior officer's voice.

"I'll have a shuttle escort you there. It can project a force field bubble around the Medica, and keep out the mob while you work," explained Bast.

Belcourt agreed to the plan, and signed off. Bast out in the request for a shuttle assist, and filed the report with the Cygnus.

He stood from the desk and stretched his legs, flexing his shoulders and back muscles to work out the kinks, just as the door opened. A young page walked in, carrying a dish made from local herbs, root vegetables, and crunchy grains that Bast had particularly liked.

Bast thanked the page, took the plate from her hands, and turned back to his desk just as another message came in.

"Elodin to Lieutenant Bast," came the Chief Medical Officer's voice. "We might have something. I think we have a strong vaccine candidate, but we'll need your assistance with the Healers' Guild for volunteers to test it. And we need to discuss the logistics for distribution, once we've determined that the vaccine works."

 

RSS Feed