Surviving the Apocalypse

Posted on 01 Aug 2024 @ 2:06pm by Captain Bane Plase & Lieutenant JG Lisald Vaat & Lieutenant Commander Stovek & Lieutenant Maralen Seitha & Lieutenant JG Dylan McConnor & Ensign Emilie D'Astous

1,896 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Stranded
Location: Bridge
Timeline: Continuing from Post-Apocalyptic Views From the Bridge

The Bridge was bathed in a soft, silvery light. Not a sound was coming from the consoles. People weren't frantically moving about. It would have been almost peaceful, if not for the fallen structural beams, dismembered bodies, and the acrid smoke coming from the burned out consoles. The fires had been put out by Lieutenant McConnor, but there was still no power anywhere. They had scattered a few palm beacons around the Bridge, and the emergency lights had finally been switched on, revealing the extent of the damage.

McConnor flipped open the device and walked over to the First Officer. "He needs immediate medical attention," he said to the Captain, referring to the gravely-injured First Officer. "The tricorder is picking up massive internal bleeding, and possible brain injury. Multiple fractures. The symbiont seems bruised, but otherwise uninjured."

Bane nodded, looking down at the two officers. Just a few minutes ago, Bane was thinking how well the Commander was doing coming into his role, and now he was knocking on Death's door. The Captain tapped his commbadge, but nothing happened. Frowning, he tapped it again. "Hm, internal comms are down," he stated to no one in particular. He looked around. "I need someone to start making their way down below-decks, make their way to medical." He looked back to McConnor. "Do you have the training to stabilize him," he asked, not able to remember if he did or not.

At just this moment, Bane could hear scratching at the turbolift door.

McConnor jumped, startled by the Captain's question. He faced the ship's commanding officer, his eyes wide as saucers. "Sir, I'm just an engineer... I'm just reading what this thing tells me," he added, holding up the medical tricorder.

The Captain looked around to the survivors on the bridge. "Anyone here have any advanced medical training of any kind?" Plase looked over just in time to see Lieutenant Seitha pry open the turbolift doors. Plase noted that there was an empty turbolift shaft behind him. "Pleased you could join us, Lieutenant. Report."

D'Astous looked around the Bridge at the other crewmembers who were all shaking their heads. No one currently on the Bridge had any medical training beyond first aid procedures. She returned her attention to Stovek, and tried to help him stand up.

Maralen climbed from the turbolift shaft and took a second to collect himself. As he had climbed the shaft, he had slowly been shifting from the Calm Efficiency that he normally wore about himself to the Cold Precision that acted as a shield when he needed one in order to protect himself from his own fear of closed-in spaces. He still hated that he was vulnerable to that, a flaw which the Realm had exploited as punishment. He saw it as flawed. But he could not avoid it in situations like this so now he was taking a moment to shift himself back to the Calm Efficiency.

After that moment, he looked at the captain. "Everything seems to be down, at least from what I have been able to tell," he reported. "Comms are useless. The lifts don't work. The one I was in just stopped between decks, so I had to climb up here."

His eyes flicked around the bridge, taking in the situation that lay before him. As Security Chief, the crew's safety was his responsibility, but even the Realm had understood when circumstances were beyond the rep's control. Such was the case here, so he pushed away the guilt that had attempted to take root in his mind then looked back at Captain Bane. "I can't contact my security teams or Engineering. I had hoped to find something up here to help, but that appears to be out of the question. What are your orders, Sir?"

It was not that he felt nothing for those injured on the bridge; it was merely that he was focusing on what he could do something about.

Plase looked from Lieutenant Seitha to the dying mass that was Lieutenant Commander Bast, and from Bast to Lieutenant McConnor before looking around to the bridge itself.

He knew his duty. His duty was to the people on this ship. His duty was to the ship. His duty was to Starfleet, and to the Federation. Each of them, in their own way, depended on him to do his duty in such a manner to bring credit upon himself, and to each of those entities, and to push forward each of them the best he could, for the greater good.

For the greater good.

He knew what he had to do, what he had to prioritize. As hard as it was do to, he had been in situations like this before. When he was the Executive Officer on the USS Pegasus and the ship had been just minutes from being destroyed, he had to weigh those options and those duties. In that instance, it had cost the life of his wife, and nearly seventy other people. When he was Commanding Officer of the USS Bloembergen, and had hit the subspace eddy, crippling the ship, he had to made decisions that he had to live with up through today, and hopefully tomorrow. When he was Captain of the USS Sentinel, he had made a decision that, well, he knew that decision. While it was the best decision that could have been made given the circumstances and information available at the time, he still had to do his duty as best he could.

And now was no different on the USS Cygnus.

He knew Lieutenant Seitha would be the fastest, what with his feline-like reflexes and speed. He knew his next best option would be Lieutenant McConnor, as he was showing real calm under pressure, and could show that he was thinking appropriately. After McConnor was Ensign D'Astous. She was scared, but she was at least doing something, or trying to. Finally, he looked over at Lieutenant Lisald. The sight of blood and mangled bodies had bothered the Bajoran greatly, which was as about as far apart from Bane as one could get. Bane had served in the Resistance during the Occupation of Bajor, and had seen, and dealt out, mangled bodies long before he had served in Starfleet. Lisald had not. Simple as that. Still, there would be use of him now.

Even though Bane was extremely concerned about Bast, his first duty was to the ship, and that is where he started his prioritization of orders for the crew members he had on hand. "Lieutenant Seitha, I need you to get to Engineering and meet up with Lieutenant Hartley, if she is still alive. If she isn't, whomever is in charge down there. I need internal comms, life support and internal sensors to be the main priority. Once we get those online, next will be long range communication, external sensors, warp power, and finally shields and weapons back online. Who knows what we have coming at us. We are bleeding, and the sharks will surely smell us."

Plase then looked to Lieutenant McConnor. "Lieutenant, get to Sickbay. If anyone is alive down there, we need medical personnel to the bridge for Commander Bast, Commander Stovek, the Chief and the Lieutenant over there," he said, pointing at the bisected form that Lisald and lost his lunch on. "Have them set up triage in Cargo Bay 1, 2, Ten Forward, Fat Alice's and in the General Mess."

The Captain then looked to Ensign D'Astous. "Ensign, yours is going to be the hardest, but I know I can count on you. Get to each of the crew disaster locations and get a headcount as best you can. Recruit whomever you need to along the way to speed up the process. Remember though, internal comms are down, so it will be tough at first. I need to know what manpower I have and how to prioritize reallocation of people. You don't have to be exact, but I do need to have some idea what we are working with."

"Lieutenant Lisald," he said, looking to the Bajoran Chief Science Officer. "I need you in Cargo Bay 3 for the isolenium. I need to know if it is stable, or if we are doomed to this sector for the rest of our lives."

Bane looked around at his officers and took a deep breath, letting it out in a huff. "Alright, kick a chicken," he said, ordering them to carry out their orders.

There were startled glances among the assembled officers. While the Captain's previous orders had been clear, had he just ordered them to perform a random act of violence against a helpless barnyard animal? D'Astous said nothing. She exchanged a puzzled look with McConnor, and simply filed away her questions for later, while her brain began constructing a list of the emergency shelters on the ship. Her pilot's mentality began plotting the most effective course to get to all of them in the shortest time.

Stovek balanced himself against what remained of the Operations console. He was still dizzy and disoriented, but he was still a Vulcan; his larger neocortex granted him superior analytical abilities. "Captain," he began. "Given that we do not know the status of the Main Computer, I believe that we should initiate Emergency Procedure Alpha Two."

Maralen frowned for a second. Kick a chicken? Was that some odd colloquialism he had not been exposed to yet?

Flawed, his mind chastised him in the voice of the Executive. Irrelevant. Focus on your task.

Remembering the task was not the hard part for Maralen. His eidetic memory had recorded that. No, the hard part for him was that he now had to climb back into that Turbolift shaft and climb all the way down to Engineering, much farther than getting here. Though, he reminded himself with a small bit of relief, the lift car was stuck somewhere in between here and Engineering, which meant that he would have a momentary reprieve as he exited the shaft and found another way down. Though in the state the ship was in, all ways down were equally small.

He pushed that thought away for now. He would deal with that when he came to it. "Understood, sir," he acknowledged, hesitating only long enough to see what the captain's response to Commander Stovek's suggestion would be.

The Captain shook his head after a very brief thought. "Can't, Commander. Main computer is offline. Even if it weren't, we are blind. No telling what could sneak up on us while we are, for all intents and purposes, knocked out. I'd hate to give that sort of computer control until we have, at minimum, internal sensors back online." He looked around at everyone staring at him. "You all have your orders. Let's get to work. Commander Stovek, do what you can to stabilize Commander Bast. I'll help with the Chief."

Maralen nodded in agreement with the captain then took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Back into hell...

Lieutenant Maralen Seitha
Chief Security Officer
USS Cygnus

Bane Plase, Captain
USS Cygnus, Commanding

Lieutenant JG Dylan McConnor
Engineer
USS Cygnus

Ensign Emilie D'Astous
Flight Control Officer
USS Cygnus

Lieutenant Commander Stovek
Chief Operations Officer/2XO
USS Cygnus

 

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