Haylp!

Posted on 05 Jun 2024 @ 8:21pm by Lieutenant JG Lisald Vaat & Lieutenant JG Christina Hartley

1,752 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Enigma Variations
Location: Freighter Bilitix
Timeline: Immediatley after Engineering Crew beams back to the Freighter

ON
Freighter Bixilfiz

Lisald wasn't sure why Commander Bast wasn't answering him. The readout on the display panel now read 415. Lisald wondered if whatever it was that was counting down (he was 100% sure it was a self-destruct program, but refused to admit it to himself). He turned and looked around. He had to admit that he was panicking a little. Not seeing anyone, he yelled out, "Hello? I need help over here!" He waited a moment, then yelled out again. Still nothing.

Frustrated, heart pounding, and a bit scared, he left the compartment he was in. As he rounded a large piece of structure that had collapsed, he spied a person beaming in. He recognized the person immediately. Lieutenant Hartley, the Chief Engineer, materialized into existence.

"Oh, thank the Prophets," Lisald exclaimed, rushing to his Engineering counterpart. "Christina, I need help, immediately!" His face was flush, his eyes filled with a bit of panic.

As soon as Christina beamed aboard, she could see Lisald Vaat, and the panic in his eyes... what the hell had happened? She'd only been gone for a short time.

"I haven't been gone that long. Take a moment, and tell me what's going on," Christina said.

Lisald took a deep breath, both to calm himself, and to tell the Chief Engineer what had occurred. "Ok, so you know how I told Commander Bast I would work on getting access to the Main Computer Core? Well, I did, and I started downloading files, and while I was doing so, I wasn't really paying a lot of attention, my mind kept returning to the Antioch mission, and to Jin'Tok, and you know how he is dead now, and how Winters was hurt, and how we almost lost the Captain, and I was just downloading files and not really paying attention..." he said in rapid-fire, a very long and very jumbled together run-on sentence.

"I'm going to need you to reach something of a point here," Christina said. "I'd rather not be reminded of my fuck up of the Antioch mission personally. What happened whilst I was off the ship?" Christina asked, looking at the man.

Before Lisald could respond, an Engineer turned a corner, one Lisald recognized, but couldn't place her name. "Lieutenant," she said to Hartley, then again to Lisald, nodding at them both. "Have either of you noticed there is some sort of dampener that has gone up on this half of the ship? I cannot seem to get my communicator to work."

Lisald nodded. "Yes, that is just what I was saying. Come here, look. I think I have set off some sort of computer security protocol," he said rapidly, though not as fast as he had before. The trio walked over, and Lisald pointed to the display. "That started about five minutes ago." It ticked from 400 to 399.

Christina gritted her teeth as she looked at Lisald. "So in the short time I was gone, you decided to mess around with a computer whilst not focused, and decided to make what we did pointless and kill us all at the same time? Would you like a god damned phaser in the engine room of the Cygnus whilst you're at it?" Christina snapped angrily. "Erin, get Frank on the system, I need to know how the hell this self destruct sequence works, and how to shut the whole thing down."

"On it," Erin said, racing back to where they had been. Christina grabbed Lisalt, dragging him along. "Stay with me, before you blow us up prematurely," Christina said.

She wanted to warn the Cygnus, but with the communication dampener up, that wasn't happening, so she ran to the engine room, making sure Lisald was with her.

"Give me something, people," Christina said. "I have no intentions of being a charcoal briquette today."

"Looks like the self destruct works by pumping matter and anti matter through the core without the benefit of the Intermix chamber," Frank said, looking up from the console. "This maldito piece of crap is running faster than the system can handle it."

300

"We've got five minutes to save our asses, and the asses of the Cygnus. Any suggestions?" Christina asked.

Lisald spoke up. "I already tried to do a manual shutdown via the computer system, but I was locked out, and the only way to shut it down is with voice recognition from the Captain of this vessel. He is dead."

"Okay, scratch that plan," Christina said. "Fucking asshole clearly didn't have any safeties in place."

"Can we reroute the flow of matter into a different system? Even if we eject it out of a viewport?" Marcus asked.

"Not without killing all of us," Erin replied.

"That's plan F," Christina said. "Rather us than the Cygnus, so if we're screwed, then we make sure they're not. Anyone else?"

240

"What about making a makeshift Intermix coupler to reroute the mixture where it's meant to go?" Amy suggested.

"Not enough time," Christina countered.

"We could try and put the one this ship has into place, so it'll stop the mixture before it reaches critical," Frank suggested.

"Oh, I'm sorry, did you become immortal since the last briefing?" Adam scoffed. "Or is there a Genesis device somewhere to bring you back to life?"

"I'm serious. We're wearing the life support fields. A quick adjustment could turn them into personal force fields, though we'd need to combine several of them," Frank said.

"It could work," Christina agreed. "Amy, get me the spare units, now."

210

"Chief, all due respect, I'm doing this," Frank said, his Spanish accent clear. "I'm the best person for this job."

"Did you get promoted as well as become immortal?" Christina scoffed.

"Chief, you have a wife and kid. I'm single, and loving it. If la mierda golpea el ventilador, your kid will never forgive me, and neither will I," Frank said. Christina rolled her eyes as Frank stared her down.

"If you die, I'm bringing you back and killing you myself," Christina warned.

180

"Okay, so how long do you need to link them up?" Amy asked, passing the spare life support fields to Christina.

"One minute, and a circuit coupler," Christina said, as she opened five of the devices, using her phased welder to connect all five of them, just as Frank began to pull on a life support suit at the same time.

"Extra protection," Frank shrugged, off Christina's glance.

"Will this work?" Erin asked.

"If anyone believes in gods, now's the time to start praying," Christina replied.

150

As Christina began to connect the devices main circuits, she quickly made the needed adjustments, just as Amy and Adam were working on the transporter of the ship.

"I might be able to get the transporter back online in the next thirty seconds," Amy said. "But we'll get one use of it before the power dies."

"Lock onto Frank. The second he's done, beam him out of there," Christina ordered, as she closed the devices. "Not my best work, Frank, but on the upside, if this goes wrong, you won't feel any pain for longer than two seconds."

"Muy reconfortante," Frank replied, rolling his eyes as he pulled the helmet on, just as Christina attached the now portable force field generator to Frank's suit.

110

"Make this quick, Frank," Christina said.

"If I die, name your next kid after me," Frank commented, smirking.

"Bonehead Hartley doesn't sound right," Christina teased, as Frank headed into the entrance of the Warp Core chamber. "You hearing us, Frank?"

=/\=Loud and clear, boss lady=/\= Frank replied. =/\=I can see how the mierda of a mixture is screwing around. I've got the coupler now though,=/\= Frank replied.

"Good. Now, you need to open the Chamber and get that coupler back inside. How did it get out of it?" Christina asked.

"According to the bullshit readouts, the self destruct sequence ejects the damned coupler," Amy said.

70

"You've got thirty seconds before zero barrier," Christina said. "Get that damned thing in there, now!"

=/\=Don't worry, not missing my chance to be a hero=/\= Frank replied. =/\=Here goes=/\=

Christina could barely see into the chamber area, and watched as Frank picked up the coupler and pushed it as hard as he could into the chamber. The mixture was hitting his shield, which was holding, for now. It was an old design, and Christina made a mental note to get this core replaced; whoever designed it was an asshole.

55

"It's not going all the way in!" Erin exclaimed.

=/\=Oh, this bitch is going in!=/\= Frank exclaimed, before using the chamber device as a hoist, and kicking the device into the chamber. Christina watched as the lights began to come back on, just as Frank was thrown backwards. Christina watched in horror as his shield was flickering off.

"AMY, BEAM HIM OUT!" Christina shouted. As the shield flashed off, the transporter beam engaged, beaming the engineer out of the chamber and to the back of the room.

The lights were coming back on as the intermix ratio was stabilising, just as Christina knelt by Frank.

"You okay?" Christina asked. Frank nodded, as Erin helped in taking his helmet off.

"I think I might have a tan," Frank joked weakly. His skin had burnt patches from the brief moment of exposure, but thankfully the transporter and the environmental suit had saved his only slightly crispy ass.

"You'll have a torpedo up your damned ass if you do anything that stupid again. We're getting you to sickbay, now," Christina said, just as her comm. badge began to beep furiously.

"Hartley here. There was a problem, but we've got it fixed, thanks to CPO Frank DeLuca," Christina said, knowing it was the Executive Officer, Lieutenant Commander Bast. She looked at the Bajoran Science Officer. "We'll talk later," she said, after the channel was closed.

Lisald, for his part, felt like a damned fool. When this incident got to Commander Bast, there would be hell to pay. He wondered if he would be drummed out of Starfleet for this. After all, he nearly caused the destruction of the Freighter, of the Cygnus, and the deaths of 750 or so people. It was a massive blunder. Lisald could do nothing but nod once, sharply, conveying he understood exactly what the Engineer meant.

OFF

A short, easy, and quick JP by:

Lt. JG Christina Hartley
Chief Engineer
USS Cygnus

and

Lieutenant jg Lisald Vaat
Acting Chief Science Officer
USS Cygnus

and

Engineering Department.

 

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