Next steps

Posted on 27 Oct 2024 @ 7:30pm by Lieutenant JG Dylan McConnor & Lieutenant T'Lara Ahmad

1,919 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Stranded
Location: Main Engineering
Timeline: current

Now that auxiliary power had been restored to parts of the ship. McConnor made sure to secure Lieutenant Commander Stovek and Lieutenant Solmarr. Both had sustained serious injuries, and had lost consciousness. Without comms, there was no way for McConnor to call for medical assistance, and there was no way he could carry them back to Sickbay by himself.

His only option was to make sure they were in a safe position, and go for help.

Once the two officers had been moved to a safe corner of the impulse control room, he went back into the Jeffries tube, and made his way out to the only place he could think of, in his current exhausted state - his favorite place on the entire ship, Engineering. From there, he figured he could get assistance. Surely there were medical officers running all over the ship.

He exited the Jeffries tube near the Chief Engineer's office. In the dim emergency lighting, he saw the new Chief, Lieutenant Ahmad, looking rather frazzled. There was a medical device blinking on one side of her head, and her movements were sluggish.

Auxillary power had come online finally. That meant the officers that had gone to the reactor had been successful in their task. It was an improvement on their dire situation. T'Lara had managed to get herself upright once the emergency lights had flickered back on and was looking down at the 'pool table,' the large LCARs console that housed the master system display for the entire ship.

Huge swathes of it were cracked and unlighted from various damage. It took some considerable physical work on her part, but she managed to get herself in front of a section that did have power and was responding to touch. With far less efficiency than she was capable of, the Vulcan engineering brought up the master comms panel and set to work on her list of assigned tasks. Her compromised attention was so focused on her first task, internal comms, that she did not notice she was no longer alone in main engineering.

McConnor walked up to the Chief Engineer, sparing a glance at the broken table. "Lieutenant," he said softly. "Are you all right?"

The sounds of the newcomer's voice surprised T'Lara and she jerked her head in the direction of the sound. The sudden movement on her part caused the world to seemingly tilt on its axis and bile rushed up the back of her throat. Gripping the edge of the pool table to remain in position, she screwed her eyes shut momentarily in the hopes that the dizziness would abate.

"Irrelevant..." T'Lara retorted, her personal agitation being made clear in the tone of her voice. "Internal comms. I have routed the station here...I think?" Cracking an eye experimentally, the world seemed to have settled back into stability for the moment. "The ODN appears to be...cooked? No. Fried. That is the primary route for data and voice signals. I am currently trying to determine if we can bring the RF based terminal node devices back on line - that should allow for direct communications between critical areas of the ship via consoles - but commbadges are useless until we have run the 12,000 allocated data line sets and inspected the terminal node devices throughout the ship. I believe the ODN failure is a...hardware issue, however..supposition on my part."

"I...I require assistance..." T'Lara's voice trailed off as she focused really hard on the officer's face. Upon failing to connect the countenance to a name, she looked to his collar..."Lieutenant JG. Gold collar. Presume engineering given current location, however, if operations...should have the skillset necessary..." She didn't realize she was talking aloud. "Lieutenant. Find an operative station...damage control. I need to know what we are dealing with."

Dylan ran into the Chief Engineer's office, and returned with two things. One was a data PaDD which he'd obtained in one of the Chief's drawers, and the other was a stool, which he rolled next to her so she could get off her feet and possibly avoid unceremoniously collapsing to the floor.

He reached under the table and opened an access panel. He grabbed an optic cable, and connected it to the data Padd, to use as an alternate display, compensating for the cracked LCARS console.

"Internal sensors are still down. I can't run a complete diagnostic until this system is restored." He looked up at the Chief. "Life support, Internal comms, or internal sensors - what's the priority?"

T'Lara looked down at the stool in almost a confused manner for a brief moment before collapsing onto the impromptu seat with an audible sigh. Her head was pounding; it was most distracting. "I am re-initializing the nodes' subroutine. If they can be successfully rebooted we may have a way to communicate...You are on life support. That is the second request from from the captain."

"Yes, Ma'am," replied McConnor. He tapped the data PaDD, cursing inwardly. Working on such a small screen was a frustrating experience, but given the Chief Engineer's current state, he didn't dare venture away from the table, leaving her unattended. He feared she might collapse at any time.

He accessed the life support system, and checked the secondary sub-systems. Artificial gravity, atmospheric processors, water filtration systems, ventilation systems, atmospheric containment fields. Over forty percent of the ventilation system was offline - either damaged or destroyed. Artificial gravity was operational on most of the ship. Containment fields were top priority. Whatever air they ended up producing, they needed to make sure stayed inside the ship.

He checked subsystem after subsystem, rerouting power when needed, rebooting components that were unresponsive, bypassing others that simply wouldn't respond, writing them off as destroyed. He ended up writing an entirely new subroutine to control the atmospheric processors on Deck Eight, where over half of the atmospheric processors had been destroyed when the pod had been ripped away.

He triple-checked his work, and after working for what seemed like hours but was probably closer to forty-five minutes, he turned back to the Chief. "I have life support going on over sixty percent of the ship. No response from the other forty percent, I'm guessing those sections are too badly damaged. Atmospheric containment fields are holding."

T'Lara started to nod, but aborted the movement after the first dip of her head caused all sorts of deleterious sensations. She might have had to grip the edge of the pool table to keep from falling over for a moment there. The stool provided was suddenly very helpful. "Over forty percent without life support, Alqarf.!" The Arabic colorful metaphor was one of her father's favorites, and all things considered...it felt appropriate. "At least some of the ship's life support is back online. It is forward movement." Brows furrowing, T'Lara continued, "Just what happened?" She wasn't sure if her question was rhetorical or not.

"I was on the Bridge when it happened," said McConnor. " The ship we were towing back to Deep Space Nine exploded without warning. We were caught in the blast "

T'Lara shifted her head slightly in understanding. If there was warp core involvement, then the damage Cygnus sustained would be catastrophic. It was astonishing that their vessel had survived at all. Taking this new information, she began modifying her expectations.

"That is most...unfortunate. It is logical to focus on the issue at hand, then. Some of the RF nodes are coming back on line...I...I do not have the mental bandwidth at the moment to provide specific percentages, but it is not...good. Finding suitable routing to the bridge is proving somewhat challenging. More so because none of the consoles that I can gain access to are online on the bridge!" In a pique of some unnamed, but obviously volatile emotion, T'Lara clasped her hands into fists and 'lightly' slammed them on the table. The LCAR displays glitched, going in an out in an alarming manner before settling down. T'Lara considered herself suitably chastised. "I am sorry. My controls are...tenuous." Her eyes closed for a moment as she focused inward to her breathing in an attempt to calm the roiling 'sensations' within that threatened to overwhelm.

T'Lara returned her attention to the console and tilted her head slightly as she suddenly perceived an alternate route - it would have to get piggy backed through one of the science labs but a successful path to 'victory' had made itself visible to her. Trembling hands began initiating pathways through the online RF terminal nodes to one of the operational stations on the bridge.

"What is the word? Kairos...moment of truth..." With a few further taps, T'Lara opened the channel hopefully.

"This is Lieutenant Ahmad in engineering...please respond..." She was initially rewarded with the crackling sounds of line interference once she released the 'talk' command. She waited a moment for a reply, and upon hearing nothing, engaged again, "Engineering to Bridge...please respond."

Things up on the Bridge had improved slightly. The fires had been extinguished, thankfully, and Bast was doing better as well. Everyone heard the crackle, but nobody was near the aft Science station four, which looking at the bridge from the viewpoint of the viewscreen, was on the port wall, all the way in the very back near the door to the bridge bathroom. Easily the most undesirable position on the Bridge. Plase all but ran over to it just as the second message from Engineering came over the speakers. Plase had never known communications to come through consoles, so it took him a moment to figure out how to activate the return. "This is the Bridge. It is damned good to hear your voice, Lieutenant Ahmad!"

Hearing the Captain's voice brought instant relief to McConnor. He hadn't forgotten his primary objective, which was to send medical assistance to Stovek and Solmarr. He walked some distance away from the Chief Engineer, and tapped his data padd.

*McConnor to Sickbay. We require immediate medical assistance in Impulse control. Deck twelve, section Twelve-Alpha-Six."

His message was met with silence. He tapped his padd again, and repeated the message. This time, a burst of static came over the comm, before he heard a voice.

"This is Doctor zh'Ennev. We're on our way."

T'Lara turned on the stool and regarded McConner with open concern on her face. Solmarr and Crewman...Pepper? had gone to attempt a restart of the fusion reactor. "You have requested medical assistance for the impulse reactor. Who has been injured?"

"Commander Stovek and Lieutenant Solmarr. We had to superheat the plasma conduits to reconnect the valves. I made sure they were secure and safe before leaving them behind to get help."

T'Lara closed her eyes for a moment as a pained expression made itself visible on her face for the briefest of moments. "Understood Lieutenant. It was fortuitous that you were in attendance, there. The needs of the many, unfortunately." Her eyes gazed over the damaged pool table with a far-away look in them. There was no luxury of time to rest and consider at the moment. "I will continue attempting to bring more of the nodes online...internal sensors should be our next priority...we are going to need more assistance..."

Dylan nodded. That, he thought, wasdefinitely an understatement.

=====

Lieutenant T'Lara Ahmad
USS Cygnus, Chief Engineering Officer

&

Lieutenant JG Dylan McConnor
Engineering Officer
USS Cygnus

 

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