Damage Report

Posted on 28 Oct 2024 @ 1:09pm by Captain Bane Plase & Lieutenant T'Lara Ahmad

1,003 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Stranded

ON

Bane had been glued to the console on the Port side of the Bridge since contact had been made with him from Main Engineering. He was thrilled to know that Ahmad was still alive, as well as Christina Hartley. He had gone through every section of the ship to ask for updates. Normally, another officer would do this, but everyone was currently either not on the bridge, or making repairs as best the could, and were, therefore, occupied. He had only been able to get ahold of just under half of the sections, and by best guess, about half of the crew had died or were seriously injured during this incident.

Now, he needed to know about the ship. How bad was it, and what would his next decision need to be, based on how bad the ship was. Abandoning her was still an option, but was not an order he wanted to give. He contacted Engineering. "Bridge to Engineering."

A crackling interference announced that a comm line had been opened, and T'Lara pivoted slightly on her stool to press the connect tab on the table. "Engineering here..." Her voice trailed off. What did the bridge need, she wondered?

Up on the Bridge, Bane shifted. There was no chair at this station. Why wasn't there? Did he really expect the junior officers to stand their whole shift? If, and when they got out of this, and if the Cygnus were salvageable, he would have chairs installed at every station on the bridge. "Lieutenant, first and foremost, excellent job with the repairs so far. You and your teams are giving us a fighting chance. Now, for the meat and potatoes. I need a full rundown of the damage we are looking at. Can you give that to me, or is it still too soon to tell?"

Ah. Yes. Logical. "Preliminary reports are...not good, sir. We are trying to run deck by deck, but it is tedious. I have serious concerns regarding our structural integrity. That is just the beginning, though. External sensors and comms are completely inoperable. Given these two systems have faults at same point, I postulate that the entire structure has been sheared off. Our shield grid has been completely destroyed and the deflector dish is also inoperative. One of the nacelles has been critically damaged, and the warp core has been knocked offline. 40% of the ship is without life support and given McConner’s data I am concerned we are dealing with hull breaches in a significant number of those locations. There are also a number of plasma fires we are contending with. There just aren’t enough of us currently to adequately attend to all of the current damages.” There was a small pause. “How fares the bridge? Any information we should be made aware of?"

Bane responded. "She will hold together, Lieutenant. She will. So long as nothing else goes wrong. Up here, the Operations console is a total loss, as well as Science Station 1. We've had a structural beam collapse near the entrance to my Ready Room, but does not look like any additional collapse is immenent." He paused and thought about what she had said. It was consistent with the preliminary reports he had been given by Lieutenant Commander Stovek, then Lieutenant Ziyal. However, he had gotten more information from his Chief Engineer. If he was understanding her correctly, they had lost the entire pod that sat on top of the ship. It also sounded like this ship would not be able to go to sublight or light speed without significant repair. Without long range communication, and without being able to go to warp, they were stranded. Bane could only hope that their expected arrival time to Deep Space 9 would raise some eyebrows, and someone would come looking for them. Otherwise, someone stumbling upon them way out here was astronomical at best, and impossible at worst. Shaking the thoughts from his head, he looked over in the direction of the fallen beam. The poor Lieutenant was still laying there, half of him on one side of the beam, the other half on the other. "Oh, and the viewscreen has a significant crack in it, for what its worth. Both forward and aft Jeffries Tubes are accessible, thanks to the exploration of Commander Stovek and Lieutenant Ziyal. And the Jeffries Tube is accessible for several decks, as indicated by Lieutenant Seitha."

There was a moment of silence on T'Lara's end as she quickly tried to keep up inputting the damages the captain was describing. "The damages have been noted; priority will be given to bridge repairs once ship critical systems are stabilized." She swallowed against a dry throat; the thought of getting off the stool was distasteful, but it was necessary. "Someone will be up to visually inspect in approximately a half hour." Most likely that someone was going to be her.

"That sounds great, Lieutenant." He paused, then continued, his voice lighter. "I am thankful to the Prophets you are alive, T'Lara," he said, using her given name uncharacteristically. "There are a great many that lost their lives today, and many more that are hanging on by a thread." He looked to his friend, Temerant Bast, across the bridge. "I could not spare you being gone."

He used her given name. That denoted a certain measure of familiarity. As T'Lara could not recall any names and faces of crew she had been serving with since regaining consciousness, his words felt somewhat more emotive than what was necessary. "Your sentiment is noted, Captain. It does appear that engineers are currently...a scarcity at the moment." It was enough--hopefully--to convey that she found his relief acceptable.

Plase nodded, though he knew she could not see him. "Keep up the good work, Lieutenant. If we come across any further Engineers, we will have them contact you in Main Engineering. Bridge, out."


OFF

Lieutenant T'Lara Ahmad
Chief Engineer

and

Bane Plase, Captain
USS Cygnus, Commanding

 

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