Tough Little Ship (Part 1 of 3)

Posted on 13 Jul 2012 @ 7:47pm by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Captain Jonathan Holliday & Lieutenant Commander Chauncey Remington III (KIA) & Lieutenant Commander Dea Mialin & Lieutenant JG Kestra Orexil & Lieutenant Commander Pola Ni Dhuinn M.D. & Lieutenant JG Delainey Carlisle & Lieutenant Commander Evelyn Coleman & Lieutenant Theron Rhodes & Lieutenant Aria Rice & Lieutenant Kiri Cho & Commander Andreus Kohl & Commander Scarlet Blake & Command Master Chief Markum Quinn & Lieutenant Lilou Zaren & Chief Petty Officer Lucalin Mrina Ph.D. & Ensign Im'er Mor'an & Captain (HoD) K'nara of the House of Torath (KIA) & Chief Warrant Officer 2 Arthur Willis & EMH Mark X-C "Shirley" & Rachel Hardaway Ph.D. & Anthony Hardaway Ph.D. & Justice Abernathy Ph.D. (MIA) & Eric Anderson & Emma Kennedy (MIA) & Lieutenant JG Brayden White Ph.D.

4,351 words; about a 22 minute read

Mission: Episode 01 - Project Sienna
Location: USS Galileo - Bridge, Various
Timeline: MD 07 - 2115 hrs

Previously, on In Pursuit (Part 3)...

"Captain, incoming torpedoes to portside aft. Brace for impact!" She punched up the shields in the impact zone seconds before they were hit and the Galileo felt the impact without the damage. "Shields at sixty percent, but they're holding." She eyed the scans, "Permission to fire a narrow-band EM pulse and aim it at their power matrix. They're readying their next torpedo; a well timed blast could backfire their next attempt, destabilize their warp field, and give us more of a lead."

And Now, the Continuation...

[ON]

Lirha braced herself against her chair just as the ship violently slammed forward from the torpedo impact. Had she not been clutching her arm rests, she would have been thrown to the floor. Though the shields held, the sudden surge of power being absorbed was too much for the shield buffers to contain, and a power surge sent energy cascading through the ship's systems, feeding back into the control centers. On the bridge, a nearby operations terminal exploded, sending debris and sparks flying across the upper alcove. Lirha looked back over to survey the damage, looking to make sure that her two operations officers were unharmed.

Remington winced and leaped away as the terminal in front of him shattered in a display of sparks. Blood ran down his arm from where a shard of the console had lodged itself. He ignored it and hurried to an auxiliary console, quickly pulling up an operations configuration.

The ship shuttered violently, unseating Mor'an. Thrown sideways, she gripped the console in front of her but, try as she might to prevent landing unceremoniously on the floor, that is where she found herself anyway. Pain shot through her wrist as she tried to break her fall; she spat out a Tarkannan curse as she regained her feet.


Sickbay

"Oh-kay," Andreus Kohl said a mere handful of seconds earlier. "That's it." The nurse was pushing an anti-grav cart of supplies into place beside a biobed. It was the third-- no, truthfully, the fifth time he had moved the supplies so far. The longer the red alert continued without any patients, the more time Kohl was given to obsess and re-consider the minutia of preparing Sickbay for hundreds of possible scenarios. He magnetically locked the cart against the bulkhead and then he threw his hands over his head in exaggerated frustration. "Nothing's going to happen," Kohl said, "Someone replicate a deck of--"

Galileo lurched upon the impact of a torpedo exploding. As the artificial gravity and inertial dampeners fluctuated to compensate, it felt like the entirety of Sickbay had hurled itself at Kohl. A biobed punched Kohl right in the stomach. The room seemed to be spinning around him, and when Sickbay righted itself again, Kohl was bent over a biobed awkwardly. His limbs were flailing and he was gasping for air, like a cat in a vacuum. The wind had been knocked out of him or, to be medical about it, his thoracic diaphragm was wracked with spasms.

Walking out of her office, Pola was taken by surprise when the floor under her shook, sending her falling into the the doorway. The boot around her injured foot and the structure working together to keep her on her feet. One of the wall monitors exploded, sending out a shower of sparks and smoke before the internal fire retardant kicked in. As the floor stabilised, she looked around, "IS EVERYONE OK?!?"

Scarlet took a moment to shake her head from where she'd rolled across the floor, shaking her head to clear it and catch her breath. "Fine, fine," she said loud enough to be heard, climbing back up onto her feet as she stretched her neck out awkwardly, frowning. That was one way to get started, she supposed.

Brayden bent his knees, sinking into the movement as the ship attempted to throw them all; as far as he went, it was unsuccessful. Surfing and boarding had had their advantages in training him to keep his balance. "Still alive," he replied, looking over towards Pola.

"I've got Lieutenant McCarthy," Nurse Vera Lin said. Both of her hands were on McCarthy's shoulders, and she was pinning the unconscious woman to the biobed. Lin moved hurriedly, hoping to complete her maneuver before anymore torpedoes struck. She tapped commands on the bio-function monitor to activate the biobed's forcefield. A shimmer of light washed over the patient, which assured her that Lieutenant McCarthy would be held fast to the bed by the forcefield.

Delainey had the misfortune of standing in front of a supply shelf when the deck lurched underneath her. She instinctively grabbed the shelf for purchase, and though the shelf held fast to the bulkhead, its contents came flying at her. Carlisle fell hard on her back, but had the sense to remember to put her hand behind her head so that it took the brunt of the impact. The air was knocked out of her for what seemed like an eternity, but she managed to call out that nothing but her pride appeared to be injured.

Unfortunately, supplies littered the floor and Carlisle bit back a curse as she scrambled to pick them up.

Looking around, Pola realised that everyone had spoken except for Kohl. Frantically looking, she saw a bundle on the floor, rushing over to check, "Brayden give me a hand." Grabbing a tricorder, she quickly preformed a scan across the body, quickly realising Kohl was conscious but struggling for breath, "Andreus, can you tell me what's happened?"

Kohl was laying on side, down on the deckplates. His knees were pulled up near his chest and his arms were tightly wound 'round his abdomen. Kohl opened his mouth to speak and, for once, no words came out. He managed to push out a small huff of carbon dioxide, but he couldn't breathe in. He couldn't breathe in, and panic exploded across his face.

Brayden hurried over to the biobed. As Pola scanned the Argelian, the Australian took a step back remembering where Andreus had been only moments before. "Knocked the wind out of him," he surmised.

The anticipatory silence in Sickbay was broken by a small ragged breath being dragged into Kohl's throat, into Kohl's lungs. The involuntary movement of his lungs were struggling towards dominance over the muscle spasms in his diaphragm. Once Kohl breathed in again, and again, he could start to think and feel about things other than his desperate need for oxygen. Aside from the pain in his abdomen --from the spasms and from the makings of a really big bruise-- he couldn't feel anything else wrong with himself. "I'll be fine," Kohl rasped out, and he swatted at the air to send the doctors away. He rolled over onto this knees, and hoarsely said, "I'll keep an ear on the comms for casualty reports until patients come in."

Brayden looked up as the overhead system buzzed just before a LCARS report came through. He half expected an explanation of the bucking ship. Instead, he heard: =^=Cargo bay to Sickbay. This is Petty Officer Mrina. Some injured.=^= Then there was a sound like a hearty sniff and an otherworldly sound not entirely unlike the coo of a dove but much lower. =^=Feels like possibly four. If it isn't too much trouble.=^= "Looks like we're up," Brayden said, looking quickly between Delainey and Pola.

Delainey handed Brayden a cobbled together medkit stuffed with extra supplies she needed to get off the floor but didn't have time to put back. "We should go."

"Got it," he answered, wedging the case shut and clasping it before handing it back to her and double checking his own as they headed out.

Nodding her head to Delainey and Brayden, Pola turned her focus back to Kohl, "Wait a second you, you've got some bleeding under the skin we need to get repaired now. It's easier if we fix you now, rather then you collapsing on us later when we are inundated with patients." Turning around, she indicated to the EMH, "Can you get Kohl checked over while I get the reports together and ensure non of our vital equipment is damaged? Blake can you give me a hand?"

Kohl nodded his agreement with the Chief Medical Officer's orders, but he bit his lip, looking downtrodden at the floor. He was supposed to be the one helping the crew. It was his job to be helping the crew. He wasn't supposed to be flailing about Sickbay like a mouthy space-jellyfish. There were crew members out there making the phasers fire, keeping the shields working, and Kohl believed it was they who needed the priority medical attention. ...But then, Kohl also believed belligerent patients should be lined against a bulkhead and shot with phasers on heavy stun. He wasn't going to waste any more time by disagreeing or complaining. Kohl leaned against the biobed he had fallen into, and he opened his uniform jacket and tunic. He looked down to see Doctor Ni Dhuinn had been right about that bruising on his chest, and Kohl allowed the EMH to tend to him.

Leaping into action the EMH instinctively followed the protocols programmed into the core of his program and grabbed a medical tricorder, deftly popping the small probe from it's housing in the rear and passing it over the midsection of the young officer in front of him.

"Minor bruising to the chest cavity, no damage to the bones or any organs that I can see....a job for the vascular regenerator I believe."

He replied in a calm yet exacting manner, before putting the tricorder back on the instrument tray and picking up the vascular regenerator and began passing it over the bruised area.

"You should be fine. You're fit to return to duty."

"Thank you," Kohl whispered sincerely to the EMH.

"Computer, can you give me a report on injuries on all of the decks?" Pola addressed the computer as she moved towards her officer terminal, needing to get a proper overview on the state of sickbay.

"Current injury reports are in place on decks 2, 3, 4 and 6. There are a total of sixteen minor injuries consisting of contusions, abrasions and mild impact wounds, no major or life threatening injuries currently in place"


Cargobay

Raising a hand to his head, Eric tried to figure out what had just happened. One minute he was standing arguing with Justice and the next the ground had moved. Hearing a moan under him, he suddenly realised it had been Lucalin who had broke his fall. Rolling to his knees, he moved to the side and looked around, "Is everyone ok?"

Groaning, Emma tried to open her eyes, only to find her vision blurred. She had moved to beside one of the containers to keep out of everyone's way. When the ship had jerked, sending everyone falling, she had banged her head on the way down. Raising a hand to her eyes to try rub and clear them, her hand came away red with blood. Uncertain what else to do, she just stared at it.

Lucalin lay on the floor trying to figure out exactly which was worse: that he could feel his nutrient bag leaking down his back or that the entirety of his torso and right hip felt like an enormous bruise from the combined momentum of the fall and the added pressure of a body landing on top of him. A combination of the two, he surmised, considering the ramifications of what might happen in about twenty minutes when his body began to work on healing his wounds in earnest without a caloric source to draw from. That wasn't going to be pretty. He smelled blood, human blood, that coppery scent on the air mixed with the vry specific scent of human musk. And then he smelled more blood. And that was less alien. An ache slowly pulsed into his awareness and he absently reached towards it, pressing his fingers into a wet hole in the back of his collar. The port was missing. He winced as he sank his finger into the hole in his flesh, stretching the cloth of his collar and his skin as he sought and located the feeding tube, pinching it between his thumb and forefinger. Rolling onto his stomach, he pressed his combadge with his non-bloody hand. "Cargo bay to Sickbay. This is Petty Officer Mrina. Some injured." He sniffed, trilled, and rolled his head. "Feels like possibly four. If it isn't too much trouble."

Justice caught himself against a wall as the ship shook. What the devil did they think they were doing, firing on the ship? They were meant to board and take the research, not destroy everything! He'd nearly secured the hold for them once more and now they were going to make his task all the more difficult by acting like the barbaric race they were. And Eric - poor, useless Anderson - seemed determined to get in the way. He'd need to be dealt with. He righted himself, looking around and froze when he saw Emma. Then he sprang into action, hurrying across the cargo bay to kneel at her side. "You're hurt. Damn it. Damn them for making us come aboard this death trap." He couldn't risk her going to the sickbay. He might lose her when the Klingons came. He had to stay with her, and with the research. His concern for her warred with his larger goals, but in the end sense won out. She was hurt, yes, and he hated to see it, but she would live. And she would live longer if he kept her with him. "There must be a first aid kit in here," he murmured, gently brushing her hair to the side to get a better look at the wound.

That was when the door opened and Doctor Hardaway returned in a blaze of chilling fury, followed by Aria. His right ear was red, from where Aria had grabbed it. "What happened?" he asked, voice demanding as ever, but calm, and a little urgent. Even as he surveyed the situation he started to give take back command. At least here, his people had the sense to listen to him, unlike that sardine can full of fools they called the bridge.

"Anderson," the doctor called as he made a beeline towards Justice and Emma, "check the stasis field, make sure the generator core is stable." He gave Aria an annoyed look over his shoulder as he knelt down on one knee. "You, do something useful for once and get a first aid kit, now." Without waiting for her response, assuming she knew better than to defy him here, he reached out to touch the vein on his secretary's neck and feel the strength of her pulse. "Where is my wife?" he asked of Justice, worried that she did not seem to be present though he had left her with them.

"She went after you," Justice said, biting back a sneer at Hardaway's hand on Emma's neck. "God only knows where she ended up. Meanwhile, the alien managed to somehow remotely wipe our data transfer, Anderson's trying to protect him for no reason I can see, and we're being jostled about in this ship like eggs in a barrel. We were safer on the starbase. Why you let them move us when we were so close to another breakthrough..." He shook his head, refocusing on Emma.

Trying to focus, Emma tried to look around, not sure what was coming on. She'd heard Justice speaking with her but then her bosses voice broke through the haze. Someone's fingers were on her neck. Feeling her body start to shake, all she knew was that she wanted Justice, "J...J....J..."

"Shh, love," Justice murmured, smoothing his hand -red with her blood - back through her hair. "I'm with you, Em. Look at me. Right here," he tapped between his eyes. "What's your name?"

Starting to cry, Emma tried to say his name again, her vision still not focusing, "J...J...J..."

Hardaway pulled his hand away. Though he appeared cold, he was fond of his secretary and didn't want her to suffer. "None of us have a choice to be here, Justice," the doctor reminded the man coolly, looking around the room.

Justice shook his head roughly, keeping his eyes on Emma. There was no point in it now. Things were working out according to plan. Maybe not his primary plan, or even his secondary, but he could adapt. It was what made him good at his job. Great. He just had to stay with Emma and the equipment and get them all out of here before the Klingons grew too anxious for battle and ruined everything.

Aria looked at them before moving to Emma's side, taking a deeper breath. They needed a medic here. She glanced around for a first aid kit, but in the end realised she would be pretty darn stuck at using it for anything except minor cuts. And this looked more serious. She removed her jacket, folding it to place it under Emma's head.

Leaning down to Lucalin's side, Eric placed a hand on his shoulder, glad someone had had the initiative to call the proper medical authorities to help, he'd had a glance at Emma and there was alot of blood, there was also alot of moaning from everyone else. "Will you be ok while I go check the equipment?" While awaiting an answer, he looked around, trying to figure out himself where Rachel was gone to.

Lucalin's brows drew together in confusion. Okay? He was on the floor, bleeding, with two fingers shoved into his own back. "I'll be here," he answered. Complaining to the scientist wouldn't bring the medical officers here any faster. And he very much doubted Eric would be able to solve his problem in the meantime. Best to focus on the task at hand and let the man do what he needed to.

Anthony's eyes flashed with anger again as they fell on Lucalin. "Do you mean that one?" he asked of Justice, tilting his chin.

Justice glanced away from Emma for an instant, following Hardaway's gaze. "Yes. The mongrel with the ears. He plugged something into the LCARS and the transfer stopped. And deleted everything that hadn't been transferred. At least according to him," he added, gently probing at Emma's wound, checking her pupil dilation and her pulse again. "Who knows what really happened."

Crying harder as she listened to what was going on, Emma grabbed out towards Justice's voice, "J...J...J..."

As the word's of his boss and Justice reached him, Eric stopped his movement to the status shield and went straight back to Lucian's side, "What the hell?!? Justice is making up theory's. The data transfer was terminated on the station not by anyone here. Your letting panic and worry go to your head. I mean look at the guy. In his duty of helping us he's been injured."

"Why don't you shut up until you have something more than your own less than sensible theories," Justice snarled at Eric as he caught Emma's hands, squeezing them gently. "I'm right here. Damn it." He swept a look around the cargo bay. "Fredrickson! Bring me a bloody medical tricorder!" He searched Emma's eyes. She wasn't seeing him. Shock. It had to be. "Breathe. Breathe, love. I'm right here. You're going to be just fine." It was a small wound on the head. Head wounds bled a lot. He wasn't a medical doctor, but he knew that much. She'd knocked her head, not too bad, and she was in shock from the whole situation, but she'd be fine. She had to be.

"Enough, both of you," Hardway said, trying to put a soothing note in his firm voice. "Justice," being in a crisis seemed to put the doctor on a first name basis all of a sudden, "consider Miss Kennedy your only duty for now. I'll worry about Sienna." Somehow he doubted those orders would be difficult for the scientist to accept.

The commotion around her started off quiet. Rachel could feel her heart beating in her brain but it was all that she could feel. The last thing she remembered was the crossing the threshold and the sense of weightlessness as she fell to the ground. That was followed by blackness and silence. The presence of her heart was at least a comfort in the disconcerting silence. Some sensation that she couldn't quite place was radiating from the place where her head used to be.

It wasn't until her eyes rolled and finally opened that the searing pain rang out across her senses. There was a delay between the command to lift her arm and Rachel's hand actually making contact with her head. The wet slickness that her fingers found explained the splitting pain that she was feeling in her head. Pushing up to a seated position her vision swirled. It took her a moment to recognize the cargo bay. She heard Anthony's voice and decided to see if her's would work. "Tony..." She croaked out.

Anthony was heading towards the wall console when he heard his wife's voice. He whirled around and looked around for her. Apparently she hadn't had a chance to leave the cargo bay after all. He stopped long enough to tap the comm controls. "Doctor Hardaway to Sickbay," he announced with the authority of a captain, "we need medical response in the cargo bay now."

His request sent, he practically sprinted to where the sound of his wife;s voice had come. He spotted her, sitting on the floor with blood on her. "I'm here, Rachel," he said, his voice blossoming into warmth for the first time since the red alert sounded. He knelt down next to her, slipping one hand around her shoulders for support and the other against her face. "Look at me, can you see clearly? How badly are you hurt?" His other concerns were forgotten, in lieu of the danger to the one thing more important than Project Sienna, her.

Rachel let out a sigh of relief as she felt the presence of her husband at her side. "My head..." She said softly as she once again raised her hand to the weeping wound that was soaking her hair. She nodded to answer Anthony's question, "Clearly, yes..." She replied as she closed one eye to look at him. "Now there is only one of you." She tried to smile but it hurt her brain. "I am quite certain I will live." She reached up and touched his face. "Are you ok?" She tried not to sound as worried as she actually was.

"I'm fine, Rachel," he assured her quickly, kissing her. "And you better live, we have a project to finish." He smiled and started to wrap his arms tighter around her to help her to her feet. "Come on, that fool ensign must have found a first aid kit by now. We'll get you fixed and you'll help me with the others. They need us."

"Better than a first aid kit," Brayden said as he rounded the corner. His gaze swept over the woman even as he drew his tricorder. "Mind if I take a look?" he asked, dropping to one knee and beginning the scan with her head based on the evidence. "Heard there were four or five down here got shaken up. The rest in there?" he asked, nodding towards the cargo bay doors.

"Get inside," the Mr. Dr. Hardaway said forcefully. "My secretary will die if not treated immediately." He gave Rachel's hand a squeeze, and herded Brayden back inside, guiding his wife with him. "Then you can help Rachel." He glanced at her, "You can wait a few minutes?" he asked her, "I'll get something to stop the bleeding."

Brayden didn't like being taken away from a patient, but the scan did show no internal problems on Rachel. Just surface damage and shock. He stepped into the cargo bay and paused, looking at the pale alien just inside, bleeding into a puddle on the floor. "Carlisle," he pointed to the man as Hardaway dragged him bodily across the cargo bay to the secretary.

"It's fine," Lucalin assured the figure who paused beside him. His head felt light and oddly hollow with blood loss, but it wasn't scary. He'd lost consciousness before and turned out all right. "I'll be here."

Brayden dropped down to one knee next to the woman, sliding his kit off his shoulder and beginning a scan. "Hey, there, I'm Brayden," he said quietly. "I'm a doctor and I'm going to look after you. Can you tell me your name?" he asked her gently, with only a quick glance at the man holding her hand tightly. She was holding back, her knuckles white with the grip. Good. She knew him, had a hold of him. Good signs all round.

Justice looked between the doctor and Emma, holding onto her hands. "Her name is Emma," he said quietly. "She was just standing here, and then the ship threw her-"

As she lay in Justice's arms, Emma's eyes suddenly rolled into the back of her head and her body went limp in his arms.

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

All Player Characters
All Positions
USS Galileo

LTJG Brayden White
Counselor
USS Galileo
NPC'd by Kestra Orexil

EMH Mark-X
Emergency Medical Officer
USS Galileo
NPC'd by John Holliday

Rachel Hardaway, Ph.D.
Lead Scientist
Project Sienna
NPC'd by Tarishiana Barel

Anthony Hardaway, Ph.D.
Lead Scientist
Project Sienna
NPC'd by Chauncey Remington III

Justice Abernathy Ph.D.
Scientist
Project Sienna
NPC'd by Lilou Peers

Eric Anderson
Scientist
Project Sienna
NPC'd by Pola Ni Dhuinn

Emma Kennedy
Dr. Hardaway's Secretary
Project Sienna
NPC'd by Pola Ni Dhuinn

CAPT K'Nara
Commanding Officer
IKS Na'vi
NPC'd by Kiri Cho

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