Who Says Nothing Interesting Happens on Gamma Shift? - Part I

Posted on 04 Aug 2012 @ 10:34pm by Lieutenant Commander Pola Ni Dhuinn M.D. & Amril & Ensign Im'er Mor'an & Lieutenant Theron Rhodes & Chief Petty Officer Lucalin Mrina Ph.D. & EMH Mark X-C "Shirley" & Lieutenant Lilou Zaren & Chief Warrant Officer 2 Oliver Sylver

3,125 words; about a 16 minute read

Mission: Episode 01 - Project Sienna
Location: USS Galileo - Bridge
Timeline: MD09: 0130 hours

[ON]

The Galileo floated quietly in the nebula, like a ship bobbing with the waves after the a mighty storm had battered it. On the damaged bridge, everything was quiet, the light dimmed. A few consoles flickered feebly, still having power problems.

Normally perky while on shift, Mor'an sat dejectedly in her chair at the operations console, idly running her fingers between the buttons. All she wanted at the moment was to go to her room and meditate, but, alas, it wasn't to be. Her captain was gone and Will had died protecting her back. Mor'an had felt a moment of guilt before realizing he was doing his duty -- she could not have prevented his death any more than she could have prevented the captain's abduction. She found herself wondering what Del'an would do, suddenly fighting the urge to leave the Bridge to find her mentor. Leaning back, Mor'an crossed her arms and gazed at the blinking lights in front of her.

She'd seen pictures of trees on Earth that had been hit by lightening: mostly untouched on the outside, but hollowed out and charred on the inside. That was how Lilou felt. She operated because she had to. In fact, for the previous day and a half, that had been all she'd really done, moving pointedly from one task to another, sleeping only when she could not fight it any longer and then only for short bursts. Rebuilding the ship in flight was no mean feat, and doing so with a scared and damaged Engineering core and the Chief- well. There was no lack of items on her agenda to keep her mind off the things that- she shuddered away from the thoughts again, slipping by them the same way her gaze skipped over the section of floor on the bridge where Will's blood had stained the carpet. She'd do something about that. Soon. Once the consoles were all in working order again and they'd figured out a way to fully correct the ODN problems the ship's battering had shaken up. She felt a need to scrub it out, or just tear up the carpet and store it away somewhere. He wouldn't want to be remembered that way, she didn't think, a ghost on the Bridge, a shadow in the heart. He'd been far too practical. Hadn't he? Spirits, what did she know? Nothing. Nothing she could say, put into words, explain to anyone. It made the grief harder and the need to secret it away all the more desperate. She'd cared for him because he'd been good and real and had taken the time to see her. He'd given her her homeworld - the closest approximation she was ever like to see. He'd been kind enough for that and they'd killed him. They'd killed him here in this room and he'd bled out on the floor and that made him still here even though he wasn't and never would be again- Lilou bit the inside of her cheek, hard, shook her head, and went back to work.

Ens. Rhodes stood at the Tactical post on the bridge. This was his first opportunity for this role since coming aboard the Galileo. He felt confident in his duties and responsibilities, yet his mind seemed to drift from time to time back to the violent confrontation that had just taken place. While checking the status of different security protocols he would get flicker images of the battle; the Klingon's fierce fighting and the hand to hand with a bat'leth for the first time. The wounds he received had been tended to, but still ached, especially the where the tip of the Klingon's weapon had pierced his back. He looked about the room at the other junior officers. All trained for their duties. And need be they would go into battle again if necessary.

At the helm, Oliver Sylver took a moment to just look over what was working and what wasn't. He was getting pretty fed up with the system errors, but it was how it went. Once one thing suffered, everything suffered.

Chewing on her thumb nail, Pola stared at the screen in front of the ship. She was trying to keep her mind focused on the nebula they were passing through, but her mind kept drifting back to sickbay, concerned about how the patients and staff were getting on. Part of her also couldn't stop thinking of what had happened only minutes ago with Jonathan and trying to figure out her reactions and truly understand them.

Sighing, her mind flashed back to how they'd had to drag the Executive Officer to his quarters, practically kicking and screaming, to force him rest. He was insistent on staying on duty until the missing crew members were found and wanted to work without sleep which would have done no one any favours. She'd half thought of using her power to remove him from duty but they needed him right now. With the Commanding Officer missing and the Second Officer dead, Jonathan was the only member of the chain of command left for them to be able to rely on, the only person the crew had left to be able to look up to for leadership through this stressful time.

Letting out another sigh, she turned the chair towards the science station. "How's things looking out there Lucalin?" She knew strictly speaking she shouldn't be using first names but it was difficult to break habits.

Lucalin had been uttering increasingly curious chirps, his hand splayed on his PADD which he'd connected to the console. "Curious," he answered, as once more he tried to better gauge just what the odd blip on the sensors meant. "There appears to be a disturbance in the nebula - an object, no detectable signs of life, but the energy signatures are erratic, making it quite difficult to track. It appears to be no more than a dozen meters in size, about a kilometer away." His ears twitched slightly as he finished speaking.

Frowning slightly, Pola got to her feet, stepping over to stand at Lucian's side, placing her hand on his shoulder once again to show where she was standing. Looking at his monitors she tried to make sense of what was being detected. Over her shoulder, she addressed Cadet Mor'an who was covering the gamma shift, "Cadet, can you get what is being seen up on the view screen?"

Mor'an sat up straighter and let her fingers dance across the buttons. "Give me a minute," she said. A moment of silence interrupted only by electrical blipping passed as Mor'an tried locking into the object. "There is it," she said as the object appeared on the view screen.

As Mor'an got the location within the nebula pulled up, the vague shape took form amidst the swirling gasses. The gasses of the nebula obscured it, making it hard to see, but a current cleared the space to reveal the sensor blip. It was so black it almost seemed like a patch of space showing through the nebula, barely reflecting the swirling gasses around it. It's shape was somewhat triangular and it could not have been more than twelve meters long, as Lucalin had said.

Frowning at the image, Pola found herself dumbstruck. She wasn't quite certain what to do. Raise shields? Power up weapons? Turning around, she zeroed in on Lilou behind the engineering console, "Peers... is this making any sense to you?"

Ensign Rhodes raised shields and brought phasers on-line.

Lilou dragged herself away from the console she was repairing and crossed back to the MEC. Her head cocked to the side as she stared at the scans. "I'm not..." She looked back at the screen, "It's not just camouflage; there's actually something... the hull's got some kind of anti-sensor field, if it's not imbedded in the - I guess it's the hull; it looks like that's been breached, so we're getting little tastes of the energy signature that's supposed to be cloaked. No idea what it is. Chief might-" she bit her lip, looking at Pola. "He might, if he's awake."

Taking note that Rhodes had raised shields and readied weapons, she frowned wondering if they could spare the energy. As she thought it over she realized that the ship couldn't take any more damage, maybe it was better to be safe them sorry.

Having taken in Lilou's words, Pola turned her full focus back to the engineer, moving to step in beside her in order to place her hand gently against the woman's arm. She seemed slightly preoccupied and the way she kept bringing up the CEO had Pola concerned. She knew this fight with the Klingons had the crew very badly shaken, especially as there had been loss of life but she needed Lilou to concentrate right now. "Lilou, Quinn is fine you know that right?"

Lilou's jaw tightened. "I saw him. I- I looped the current to cauterize his- where his- He's not fine," she whispered. "But he's alive. Maybe that's enough." She looked at the doctor, "He's not fine, but I am. And I don't know what that is. I'll see if I can't put something together."

Smiling slightly, Pola nodded her head gently, "He's in recovery right now, he'll be fine Lilou, he couldn't have a better medical team looking after him, our EMH himself performed the surgery. I have confidence in you being able to figure this out Lilou, just as I know the Chief would also."

"Yes, sir," Lilou said softly. "Thank you, sir."

Biting her lip, Pola turned her focus on the security/tactical station. "Rhodes....what's the chances this is a weapon? If there is indications that is a weapon can you tell if the object has them trained on us?"

Continuing to go over the sensor readings, Ensign Rhodes replied, "No indications that it is a weapon, but with the field around it, the chance does exist." Theron glanced up with a touch of uncertainty. He would rather have definite answer to supply.

Trying to weigh up all of the information they had been fed, Pola rubbed her eyes again as she tried to figure out the next course of action. "Lucalin... if we brought the ship in closer, is the energy of any danger to us given the current status of our shields? If we narrowed the distance do you think you'd be able to get more comprehensive readings?"

Lucalin turned in his seat, ears moving independently as he thought through the data being routed to his PADD. "So far as I can tell, it is simply an erratic radiation signature, basic to a variety of different engine types." He chirped softly, locating her, "I'm a bioengineer," he added; "If there's someone more suited to interpreting energy signatures..."

Pola wasn't certain how to interpret that, maybe it was exhaustion setting into her brain but she thought he meant he wasn't qualified to interpret the readings. Between Lilou and Lucalin, they both seemed to be having a lack of confidence in their abilities which worried her. They were both of extremely bright minds and she knew they could do this. "Ok...Oliver can you take us in as close a distance as you feel would be safe?"

Oliver shrugged weakly, giving a small smile. "Sure..." he said and adjusted their course, his head making the calculations he needed for their course as much as the equipment did.

Angling her body, Pola stood at Lucalin's side, again placing her hand on his shoulder so he could locate her as she addressed both him and Lilou. "Lilou and Lucalin... I want both of you to work together to try identify what that object out there is and see what information you can gain." If she put them working in a team, she hoped that it would distract both of them from their worries.

Lucalin nodded, patting her hand on his shoulder. If she wanted him to work on this, she had her reasons and he would do his best.

Lilou eyed the interactions between the new science officer and the Chief Medical Officer quizzically, but she was too tired to try to interpret. She was terrible at interpreting social interactions on her best day, let alone a day like the last few. "Right. Let's see if we can't get a better signature read," she murmured, chewing the inside of her cheek as she crossed over to peer at the console in front of Lucalin.

"Theron... Can you keep monitoring the situation with our shields and weapons? Alert me immediately if there's any changes which we need to be worried about. They are still delicate and last thing I need is Commander Holiday angry at me." Pola smiled softly at the officer covering tactical, knowing her attempt at humour was weak but she was hoping to try lift everyone's spirits in some small way. This was the same reason she was using first names. Nerves were frayed right now, people were upset, tired and stressed. Her use of first names was to try help people feel at ease.

"Aye, Sir." Rhodes replied. Looking of from the scanners, "An eddy of the nebula is moving up to block it."

An eddy?!? what else was this blasted nebula going to throw at them, "Is there any chance we may end up colliding with it and it damaging our shields and weapons further?"

Rhodes reponded, "That is a definate posibility. I recommend bringing the ship to port around the eddy."

Turning slightly, Pola turned to helm as she waiting for tactical to calculate an answer. "Oliver, will you be able to give us a smooth ride if it ends up hitting us?"

"If you mean by 'smooth ride' us not blowing up, I think she will hold," Oliver said and frowned as he took a deeper breath. He hoped. Sometimes, Starfleet made you want to just go 'oh God, i am going to die'.

"Im'er.... can you get me an updated report on how repairs are progressing?" Pola settled herself back into the command chair, her focus now on the object on the view screen, wondering herself what exactly it was meant to be. They were a science ship, given they were stuck in the nebula surely there was no harm in investigating.

Mor'an looked up in surprise. Why was Pola asking this of her now? Leaning forward, she pressed a few buttons. "Slow but steady," she said.

As the Galileo slowly moved closer to the object, its shape became more distinct through the swirls of nebular gasses. It was a craft of some type, small enough to be a fighter. The triangular shape came from its sleek design, the central area clearly the cockpit, with wingtips and protrusions that might well be weapon emplacements.

Rhodes spoke up as he continued looking at his instruments, "Sir, I can now confirm weapons, but appear not to be active. Propulsion is available, but off line. Some apparent leakage." Looking to the conn, "Best tactic would to approach from the rear." Theron closed his eyes in frustration and stupidity for recommending an obvious thing to a senior officer.

Nodding her head, Pola threw a soft smile in Rhodes direction, "Good work Theron. Keep an eye on your readings and let me know immediately if we need to make any further adjustments or if those weapons power on."

"Yes Sir." Rhodes replied.

Moving her direction again to face helm, Pola was suddenly glad that the bridge was so small or she's have a crick in her neck by now. "Oliver you heard the man....take us in from the rear. Be mindful of that eddy though, let me know if you need to make a course adjustment."

"Pola, I did not realise we were on first name basis on the bridge," Sylver tutted at her using his christian name again. He shook his head, looking ahead as his fingers lightly started to adjust what they needed in order to get the right path. "Everyone's a backseat starship driver nowadays," he added, in a light tone.

Allowing a grin to develop in what felt to her to be the first time in 48hours, Pola walked over to Oliver, moving her hand to squeeze his shoulder, "Come on now Oliver...I'm a Doctor in my normal day job. It's hard to drop some habits. Would you like to go see your Doctor about some issue and always be called Mr. Sylver? We are also used to being the ones who issue the orders.....on top of the fact I'm a woman, we make it our duty to be backseat driver."

He chuckled, arching an eyebrow as he watched his work. "Depends just what part the doctor is examining..." he said lightly, with a small, almost wicked grin. "Although I have to admit, I am yet to experience anyone using my first name on the bridge. Let's not make it a habit that the Captain hears..." he said and chuckled softly. "As bad as the Nuns you are, with the directing...shame on you, Doctor..."

Laughing softly, Pola tapped Oliver's shoulder before moving away again, "You just drive this girl and try not scrap her up anymore, leave the bossing and ordering around to me." Moving back to sit in the command chair, Pola knew that this banter may seem strange and disrespectful to some but at least she had managed to get some of the crew to smile. She had seen too much death and injury in sickbay to not know the true impact of what had happened, lives lost and more hanging in the balance. She recognised the need to still be able to smile and laugh or get pulled down into the truths of the situation they were in which could end up in most people drowning.

Rhodes looked up from his console looking from the Helmsman to the Conn and smiling at the banter.

As her calculations and metric approximates looped through the LCARS memory looking for similarities in ship design and specifications, Lilou glanced up. They were making jokes. The captain was gone, possibly dead. Remington was dead. Quinn had lost his arm. And they were laughing. She gritted her back teeth and refocused on her task.

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

EMH Mk-X
Emergency Medical Hologram
USS Galileo

Ens. Theron Rhodes
Security/Tactical
USS Galileo

Cadet Senior Grade Im'er Mor'an
Red Squad Intern
USS Galileo

Warrant Officer Oliver Sylver
Flight Control
USS Galileo

Lieutenant JG Pola Ni Dhuinn
Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

MWO Lilou Peers
Assistant Chief Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

Chief Petty Officer Lucalin Mrina, Ph.D.
Bioengineer
USS Galileo

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