Through the Breach (Part 4 of 12)

Posted on 18 Jul 2015 @ 2:53am by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Lieutenant JG Grayson Jones & Ensign K'os Beaumont & Chief Warrant Officer 2 Vasily Sokolov Ph.D. & Ambassador Mina Nalin & Alethea Coleman Ph.D & Crewman Apprentice Sigrid Thelin

3,140 words; about a 16 minute read

Mission: Episode 09 - Empires
Location: USS Galileo - Various
Timeline: MD 01 - 2040 hrs

Previously, on Through the Breach (Part 3)...

"There. Do you see that Dr. Sokolov?" K'os moved around the warpcore looking near the top of the reaction chamber. "Shit." K'os swore uncharacteristically "Those reactant injectors are in the open position."

K'os gave Vasily a calm and passive look, but his eyebrows were raised in slight alarm. His hyper emotionalism was threatening to lose control, but so far he was doing well enough keeping his mind intact. Now was not the time for his emotions to unravel. The last thing he needed was to have himself begin crying or worse, laughing.

Coming out of his haze, with a pretty deep and nasty gash that spread across his forehead Grayson was already tapping away at restoring the warp core and main power. For the past few moments he was trying to speak out, but no words seemed to escape his mouth. Eventually he was able to speak at the blood trickled past his lips, "Yo-you're all doing great. K'os, good work. I need you to get a team together to get as much, if any power we have to the Grav systems. Everything else will be a damned sight better when we can keep our feet on the ground. Sokolov, you are already suited up. Grab all you can, visual inspection of hull breaches. Manually seal off the bulkheads and sections, let's prevent as much loss and atmosphere as we can. The Gally needs us people, let's move." Grayson called out his odors with an authority and command that was well beyond his years. Instinct had taken over.

And Now, the Continuation...

[ON]

Having looked at the work the others were doing, he was quickly in to begin the start up of the core again. The dilithium pumps had shut down, the deuterium injectors were also off line all in the standard procedure for...whatever had just happened to them. The light of the core, as dim as it was, was beginning to flicker away, making the work more difficult. The buttons under his fingertips were dying, some needing pressed twice to confirm commands. It was a desperate measure, but he needed something to get the antimatter reaction started again. Grayson started cycling through independent systems for available power.

Right then it came to him, that damned secondary deflector still had power. Their curse was soon to become their saviour. "Someone get over here and give me a hand, bring me a cloth as well before I pass out too," Grayson managed to call out as the blood had started to cloud his eyes and vision.

K'os gave a sideways look to Vasily, "Dr. Sokolov, I think your skills are best used helping Jones at his station." He said to the man as he moved towards a scaffolding ladder. As much as K'os feared that his next actions were slightly insubordinate, the hybrid didn't hesitate on reacting with his gut instinct. As he moved towards the scaffolding ladder as fast as his anti-grav boots would allow he called over to Grayson as he moved. "Chief, Copper is a better choice for hull breaches. He's faster, and more efficient." K'os looked over at Vasily, "No offense." Returning his attention over his shoulder to Grayson he added, "I think Dr. Sokolov is better used helping you restore power."

"Oh no, Beaumont, Doctor Sokolov is so much better for fixing holes in ship than flying toaster," Vasily said, voice dripping with sarcasm. He was making his way around the warp core toward Grayson; there was a clumsiness to his gait but then again the EVA suits hardly lent themselves to gracefulness. When he arrived, he set about assisting the chief engineer without waiting for permission, grumbling as he did so. "I thought maybe I take Ph.D. in advanced theoretical physics off wall, get glue, and use it to patch up bulkhead since it is apparently just useless piece of paper now."

"Cut the snark," Grayson replied cuttingly, "you are suited up and good to go where I can trust and need you to be. You pair are cutting the chain of command, be glad this is an emergency situation or I would have you removed. Feel free to question my decisions after a crisis situation, not during. Now put up or shut up." He might have been wounded but was not in a position to be undermined, he needed his best people in the correct spots at the exact moment or things could head out of control. The fact his crew would not do this spoke volumes and cut Grayson to the core.

K'os' feet hit the ladder and he began to climb towards the top of the reactor while still calling over to Grayson. "Mirwazi can bring the gravity systems back online from the computer core as soon as she has sufficient power." He knew Grayson had asked him to do it, but K'os felt Mirwazi was a better choice for it. His skills right now were needed at the warpcore and Engineering needed to work as a team. As he neared the top he added the most crucial part.

"The matter/anti-matter reactant injectors are stuck in the open position. If we restore power to the core before we close them off there's nothing stopping the flow to the fuel tanks. It could feed back in on itself. We need to manually close them so we can control positive forward flow when you restore power." K'os continued to climb, reaching the top and opening an access panel that contained various valves and pump switches.

"Which is where we need Copper," Grayson said, trying to get his original plan back into action. "We have no time to discuss this, just do."He could get in there quicker and safer, with other people on the hull. Speaking of which, is anyone in this department following an order? Someone get to locking down the damned hull." He was now in no mood to be messed with, despite his massive blood loss now orbiting his head, the annoyed Engineer continued on.

"Vasily patch hull, Vasily help Jones, Vasily reactant injectors are open," the Russian groused.

Dr. Sokolov flailed the arms of his EVA suit in the air in a predictably dramatic fashion as he moved away from Grayson and toward the warpcore. He popped open a console on the side of the reactor housing and peered inside; it was dark, but he could make out enough from the red light bathing the room to know that something was off. It looked like the lockdown sequence had been interrupted mid-execution, either from loss of power to the mechanical system itself or a loss of power to the computer core and subsequently the software running the lockdown procedure.

"Okay, Pretty Boy #2, antimatter regulator is locked down. But yes, as you say, reactant injectors are still open. Power comes back full and we get blowback into deuterium tanks and big boom," Vasily said, leaning his body back at the waist to look upward at K'os. "You know manual shutdown procedures, yes?"

"Yes of course I do." K'os said quickly from the top of the ladder, he was however glaring at Grayson when he said it. It was his job as assistant chief to get people moving and working and he had done just that. Was Grayson not listening to anything that had just transpired? The way he spoke made it sound like Grayson not only questioned his and everyone else's experience but that the Chief's ego was clouding the fact that everyone around him was working and not just standing there doing nothing. The Chief had given two orders. Hull breaches and gravity restoration. K'os didn't defy those orders he had simply suggested who was better for those roles for which was again, part of his job even during a crisis. Especially during a crisis. Anger flared in him as his emotions broke through his control. How dare he suggest no one was following his orders. Engineering was not a dictatorship, it was a collaborative team and to K'os, it felt as though Grayson was tunnel visioned just because Vasily's attitude was brash.

"Yeah, okay, good," Vasily said, eyeing K'os and then the warp core. He seemed hesitant about leaving main engineering with such dire circumstances gripping the ship - no one yet had any idea what had happened to cause such a catastrophic power loss and systems failure. For an officer with 20 years service in the fleet, abandoning engineering felt like abandoning ship, particularly for what he perceived to be such a menial task as containing repairing ruptured bulkheads.

Nevertheless, Vasily snagged a repair kit, clipped it to the belt of the EVA suit and made for the nearest supply closet to grab as many mobile field emitters as he could. Most damage sections of the hull could be sealed off by closing doors; it would shut off significant portions of the ship, but it was effective in an emergency situation such as this. For those that couldn't be repaired in such a manner, he'd set up mobile field emitters to take the place of the ship's internal forcefield system, the operational status of which was questionable. The batteries in the mobile emitters would allow them to function long enough for main power to be restored. Hopefully.

Not used to Zero-G, Rheneas felt utterly sick as he just spun around helplessly. He heard orders being shouted but he had his eyes wrenched shut, trying hard to keep in his late lunch. Apparently, no-one had noticed him so far, which was - intruth - fine with him for now.

K'os flipped a switch in the panel and turned the unlocked valve to close off the injectors. He disengaged his anti-grav boots and shoved himself off the top rung of the ladder to glide quickly back to the floor. He re-engaged his anti-grav boots and made his way towards Grayson. As he passed Rheneas he reached up and held on to him to stop his spin. He angled him toward the locker for the EVA suits, "Get yourself suited up, Petty Officer. Ready?" When Rheneas was stabilized and ready, he gave him a gentle shove towards the locker.

Rheneas nodded minutely, not wanting to unsettle himself again. "Thank you sir," he murmured as he floated towards the lockers to get himself suited up.


Mina's Quarters

Time passed in what felt no longer than a single heartbeat, but there was a brief period of unconsciousness clouding this already jumbled reality that was the first 100min of the Ambassador's time aboard. Mina had been bent over at the waist, picking through a small cargo container of personal belongings she had brought with her to the Galileo, when the initial jolt of the vessel, and subsequent electrical explosion somewhere near by, sent her head careening into an edge of the box. Everything went still and black. She wasn't out long, but it was enough to miss the additional violent motions of the ship before she began to drift.

Mina's eyes open to the greeting of a white haze, and a dreadful ringing in her ears. She exhaled sharply and slammed her eyes shut, clutching her head in her hands, swearing and moaning unintelligible gripes. After a few rapid breaths gave way to a resemblance of normal breathing, Mina felt her senses return to her enough to open her eyes again. With the ringing in her ears mostly gone, she looked around her quarters, which were dimly lit by red emergency lighting. The place was a mess, and that was an understatement. Wires, panels, furniture... She wasn't sure what was what at this point.

That feeling of disorientation was more telling than Mina had initially realized. She had assumed she was lying somewhere on the floor of the small room, but when her hair, along with several drops of blood, floated in front of her face, it very quickly became clear that she wasn't lying on anything. At the same moment it felt like the bottom of her stomach dropped to her knees, forcing a conscious effort in fighting the urge to throw up, Mina's shoulder came in gentle contact with something firm. She has been drifting slowly backwards, and now was essentially resting sideways on the wall opposite her bed.

"Seriously." It wasn't a question, it was statement of resignation to the present situation. "Seriously. Not even two hours." Mina closed her eyes again and took a few deep, but shaky, breaths. This wasn't the welcome to Starfleet she'd expected.

You know what to do, her crisis mode, cold, logical inner voice said as she placed her hands on the wall. Mina's fingers explored the bulkhead until they found purchase on a decorative edge where two panels met. It was enough leverage that she was able to turn and face the wall, and then slowly rotate her body 90 degrees until her feet were in contact with the floor. Slowly, she opened her eyes again, looked down, choked down whatever was rising in her throat, and after a moment turned around to face the center of the room. Instantly she felt less nauseous, as her brain had decided what was up and what was down - luckily it was the "correct" orientation thanks to her efforts to ensure the floor was down. Mina pushed off the floor and wall gently at the same, crossing her legs and tucking them underneath herself as she floated slowly to the center of the room. Zero-G wasn't an issue, it was being knocked out and disoriented that was less than enjoyable.

After taking a moment to survey the damage on her head, which felt like an inch long gash and a very painful bruise, Mina used an elastic band that was around her wrist to secure her hair back into a ponytail - she'd had about enough of it floating around her face. "What in the hell happened?" Taking a good look around the room this time, Mina tapped her com badge to try and find an answer. She was met with an immediate error tone.

"Computer?"

Silence.

"Well...that's not good." Having made it nearly to another wall in the room, Mina pushed off it like a swimmer, grabbed the door frame, and pressed the manual lock release. "I regret calling this a pointless life skill," she mumbled in reference to the zero-G ballet lessons she's been forced to take as a child. Looking out into the shamble of a corridor, it dawned on Mina that she hadn't the slightest idea where she was going, who most anyone was, and questioned the wisdom of even leaving her quarters. But, something had gone very wrong, the least she could do was try and help...someone, somewhere. She didn't really consider herself fully empathic, not in the way half-Betazoids are, but she cold tell that there were many souls on board who were having a far more trying time.


Astrometrics

Coleman opened her eyes. She was buckled to her seat in astrometrics and she immediately brought her hands to her stomach, then her chest checking for injuries. Her eyes flashed to the spot at the main workstation where the insane blonde woman had been taking scans of the anomaly. While it must have been admirable to do so, Coleman thought it was plain stupidity. She was at the workstation and her head swiveled scanning the area. Astrometrics, evidently had been hit hard. Pieces of the ceiling had fallen and panels on consoles had been blown off.

A couple other science officers that had the sense to buckle in when told to, were still buckled into their seats looking wide eyed, scared, but no worse for wear. That's where she saw the blond curls amongst debris close by. She wasn't moving. Coleman sighed, and unbuckled herself from the seat and with a passive expression kicked off from her chair and glided towards an emergency locker where she was able to retrieve anti grav boots and a first aid kit. It was difficult, but not wholly impossible for the older woman to get herself into the boots. Once activated she walked herself to where Sigrid was covered in broken panels and a piece of the ceiling. Thankfully due to the zero gravity, Coleman was able to just lift and push the metal scaffolding off of the woman.

"Oh dear." Coleman said out loud when she saw Sigrid's condition. She reached out and took the woman's pulse and sighed in relief. Coleman patted the woman on the cheek and watched as Sigrid's eyes opened.

"Thank the Stars. We're not dead. Alethea? Oh you're hair looks good like that." Sigrid chuckled then winced in pain. She looked down and saw the metal shard protruding out the side of her stomach. "Huh." She said matter-of-factly. her uniform was soaked in blood and her usual pale skin was now greyish.

Coleman tapped her com badge, but nothing happened. Communications were most likely down at this point. She opened the first aid kit and began unwrapping the trauma gauzes and began forming a doughnut shaped bandage. She felt bad that Sigrid had used her first name, when Coleman had no idea what the blonde's name was.

"Can...can you take it out?" Sigrid asked naively.

"Nope." Coleman said unhelpfully. "It's punctured nearly midway between the right hypochondriac and right lumbar quadrants. This could have hit your liver or even your intestines and it looks like you're losing a lot of blood. You need sickbay."

"Ha!" Sigrid laughed, though her eyes conveyed the fear she was feeling. "Psh, that's only 4 decks up. Here, take this." Sigrid handed her a data chip with all the available information she'd been able to gather from every available astrometrics sensor and instrument she could manage during their ride through the vortex. "We need to get this to engineering or..the bridge."

"Indeed." Coleman said, frowning at the humour from the young woman. Perhaps she was also suffering a concussion. She took the data chip and placed it in her pocket. "You need a doctor before an engineer. So let's get going then, shall we?" Coleman finished adding the ring of gauze around the shard of metal, and using the lack of gravity to help her wrap it in place around Sigrid's stomach.

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

RADM Lirha Saalm
Mission Advisor
USS Galileo

ENS K'os Beaumont
Asst. Chief Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

LTJG Grayson Jones
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

PO2 Rheneas Malachy
Engineering Officer
USS Galileo
[PNPC Murray]

AMB Mina Nalin
Diplomat
USS Galileo

CIV Alethea Coleman
Ecologist
USS Galileo
[PNPC Beaumont]

CN Sigrid Thelin
Scientist's Mate
USS Galileo
[PNPC Beaumont]

RSS Feed