Engineers Inbound (Part 2 of 2)

Posted on 20 Jun 2016 @ 1:38am by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Captain Jonathan Holliday & Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Lieutenant JG Natalya Kirilova & Ensign Miraj Derani & Chief Warrant Officer 2 Anthony Duval & Chief Warrant Officer 2 Vasily Sokolov Ph.D. & Senior Chief Petty Officer Keval zh'Erinov & Petty Officer 1st Class Unit Cu-47 "Copper" & Chief Petty Officer Crispin Snow
Edited on on 20 Jun 2016 @ 1:41am

2,133 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Episode 11 - Divinum Mundi
Location: USS Vincenzo/USS Semmes - Landing Site Alpha, Grid 10-298-001-20
Timeline: MD 13 - 0212 hrs

Previously, on Engineers Inbound (Part 1)...

Duval nodded. "Lets do it." He didn't even stop to consider other options because in truth he had none. "Alright, Doc. this is your reactor.. you know it better then anyone, I'll assist you."

"Better to start upstream, flip off the injectors for the deuterium and fusion-enhancement antimatter reactants at the source," Dr. Homenauth mumbled as they navigated the module, sounding almost like he was walking himself through the procedure rather than Duval. "Then we can set the fusion initiator power regulators to a manual slow shutdown, bleeding off and venting the remaining power into space. That ought to collapse the whole fusion field, eh? Nip it in the bud, twice over, just to be sure."

Duval nodded. "Do it.." he responded as he went to work.

And Now, the Conclusion...

[ON]

Waverider-class Shuttle Vincenzo

Miraj was halfway through the ignition sequence, barely noticing actions as common to her as breathing before she realised this was the first time she'd ever flown Vincenzo. Her own waverider had been heavily modified, and was warp capable, and lacked the extra scientific equipment that the vessels were meant to carry. But everything else was still the same and she finished the sequence with no less hesitation. Everything was where it should be. "Everybody buckle up, this is going to be bouncy."

Keval sat in the co-pilots seat. Not because he could handle the ship if he had to, though he did have some basic knowledge, but because no one else really wanted the honors. He cut his eyes about the cabin, taking everyone in.

Inside the Waverider, Dr. Vasily Sokolov checked his gear and enjoyed the short-lived rush from a burst of adrenaline. It would wear off soon and then he'd want a stiff drink. But for the moment, it was enjoyable. It took some of the edge off his grizzled personality; he even felt jovial enough to talk to the robot while he rummaged through his damage control kit.

"So, robot," he said, addressing the exo-comp, Copper. "I bet you one bottle of 2376 Saurian brandy that horse's ass Duval has screwed up everything over there by the time we arrive. It's a good bet for you, basically free bottle of Saurian brandy, eh? I'm feeling generous."

Copper's newly installed voice synthesizer responded, "There is a 54.68% probability that all Flesh-machines will make errors." Copper then displayed on his holodisplay a record of all the minor fixes he's performed over the last week. The machine fell silent but flashed a combination of blue and red lights at the man. After a moment, when it looked like that was all the machine had to say, it finally said, "Statistically it's safer to bet that the space-computer, Semmes will explode, vaporizing everything." He beeped optimistically.

Vasily started looking a little surly again when the robot began chattering. That new voice synthesizer was attuned to a frequency he didn't like; to his ears, it made the little exocomp sound like a whole chorus of tin cups clanging together. "Well, better to be vaporized in some explosion than drink yourself to death or die alone in your bed like an old man." He cut his eyes to the side to look at the machine. "Or rust. Whatever you things worry about."

Copper flashed a series of lights at the man, "This unit does--" He stopped speaking when the Captain walked into the shuttle.

Holliday was the last to board, making sure that the assembled party had gotten to their seats before him. As he stepped into the hatch the Captain tapped the command console to seal the batch, before stepping into the forward compartment and joining Miraj as co-pilot.

With the last of Galileo's Engineers on board and strapped in, she slid gracefully from the forward hatch, and the moment she was safely clear of Galileo's hull, she through power into the engine. It was half a heartbeat slower to respond than her Queen Anne's Revenge, and it felt like twice a lifetime, but then everything kicked in and she was jumping up into the blustering winds, climbing and banking in a single move that had everyone hanging half from their seats until they leveled out for a brief moment before descending in another curved flight path that brought the little vessel down into the wind in front of Semmes Two, so the hull of the small shuttle offered some sort of windbreak for the SAR crew toiling on the ground.

The whole thing took about a minute and a half.

Miraj looked around at her passengers, some of who looked distinctly green. She slapped her restraints open. ""Everyone okay? We're here, time to go!" She knew she'd have to load wounded, and the sooner she had cleared space to do that, the better.

"Don't rush me, pirate," Vasily grumbled, figuring he wasn't likely to be overheard given the ion storm, the Waverider's engines, and the general sense of chaos in the landing zone. He picked up his engineering kit and proceeded through the exit into the storm with squinted eyes. Rushing didn't really seem necessary - it was unlikely a few seconds stood between them and absolute destruction (though he was certain the robot could put an exact percentage on that).

Natalya held up a cautioning hand as she scanned the surroundings. It was hard to get good readings with all the ionization, but the tricorder in her hand hadn't yet picked up any alarming amounts of radiation. For the moment it was safe to proceed. "Alright, let's move in. And be careful, don't touch or move anything unless you have to!"

She then tapped her commbadge. "Kirilova to Duval, we've landed and are en-route to your position. How are you holding up?"

Duval's voice came back. "We're doing alright.. I have the designer of this reactor with me and we're working on the matter together. We've been able to shut off the system but we need to dispose of the radiation that's floating around... It'll be at fatal levels in about an hour or so." came the response. "Other then that. I feel a tad warm... my suit tells me I'm not overheating so I assume its the radiation affecting me."

Meanwhile back at the display, Duval looked at the countdown timer as it inexorably ticked down towards zero, the time when the failsafes would kick in and the system would fail, releasing a massive pulse of radiation which would probably kill everything in a range of about four miles.

"If its not one thing... Its something else." Duval sighed as he made his choice, he however paused. "Can you repair or rebuild this reactor?"

"I could... Lord knows I brought enough spares." Homenauth responded. "What are you going to do?"

"Shunt all of the power, into the colony module's weapon system, I know you guys have something for local defense... I'm probably going to destroy the weapons systems however when I do this... I'll also burn out the reactor in the process but... it'll halt the existing problem and end our troubles... well with this reactor at the least..."

Homenauth regarded Duval. "Is there no other way?"

Duval's voice was quiet. "Not in the time allotted to us Doctor... I'm sorry."

Homenauth nodded. "I understand. Let's proceed."

Duval nodded as the two men went to work, a couple of minutes later Duval tapped his combadge. "Duval to Away Team. Is the Vincenzo yet?" he inquired before he added. "Get your heads down... Fire in the Hole!"

Homenauth tossed Duval a thumbs up. "Right we're good... you can flip the switch whenever you're ready.."

Duval nodded. "Firing.." he gently tapped the display before him, Suddenly there was a loud screaming like noise as a bright light shot up into the sky from one of the colonies shield emitters, the surge continued for about ten seconds before it stopped suddenly. "Duval to... all personnel... the reactor threat has... ceased.. repeat... reactor is now safe....." he coughed softly, mid sentence which that by itself was a very bad sigh.

The team of Galilean reinforcements approached the damaged colony module and soon found themselves in contact with Homenauth and the rest of the mechanical engineers. For some reason it appeared that discharging a weapons burst had been a necessary measure, but it was only temporary.

"Status report!" Holliday called through the wreckage as he made his way to the centre of the disaster. Duval had obviously acquitted himself well looking after the bombsite that could quite rapidly have become, well, a bombsite, and the XO was keen to know what exactly the situation was.

Duval shook his head, as if trying to shake loose something. "Mmmm...well sir the reactor is powered down." he responded, his voice sounded odd as Duval realized the radiation had been really affecting him. "The threat is over sir... Now we just need to clean up... the radiation.. and start repairs... but this area will no longer become a crater... Thanks to the good doctor here." Duval explained as he indicated Homenauth who was nearby, doing some checks. "I'll need to check the various systems that I used.." while he said it, he coughed weakly.

Snow's voice came over the comm, "I've got power flowing in module 1, and rigged a deflector to act as a weather shield, if we want to get the walking wounded someone where warm. Heading for Semmes II. What needs doing there ma'am?" he asked his department head.

Duval heard the response over the com system. "Nice work Snow." he responded, now heavily slurring his words. "Crapp... wow I feel like shit.." he semi-whispered.

Duval dropped to his knees before he coughed up some blood. "Its.. raay.. dee.. ation.."

Homenauth was surprised to find out how much of a coward he was as he hastily backed away from the engineer. If he hadn't been surrounded by people, he might very well have left the man to die there. Someone so thoroughly irradiated was radioactive themselves. There were enough such atoms buzzing around as it was without some irradiated man stumbling toward you.

Bumping into someone in a blue uniform - he assumed some kind of medical technician - Homenauth mumbled, "Um, you'd better get him some hyronalin... He's, uh, he's been poisoned. Radiation poisoning, I mean."

"Medical Evac!" Holliday called out. He knew that the shuttlecraft was still being loaded with the injured ahead of departure back to the Galileo, and it seemed that Mr Duval would be joining that delegation.

It only took a couple of moments for a pair of crewmen from the engineering party to arrive with a makeshift stretcher, and after rather unceremoniously loading up the injured Warrant Officer, began to make their way back.

=^=Holliday to Galileo - be advised Mr Duval will be returning to the ship with the injured. Tell Sickbay to prepare for radiation casualties. =^=


USS Galileo - Sickbay

=^=Vinecenzo, as soon as you off load the engineers I need to transport critical back to the Galileo. High priority.=^= Allyndra called as she heard that the waverider had launched.

=^="This is Vincenzo, We're ready for you. I'll take as many as you can squeeze in if you don't mind a lack of seat belts."=^=

=^=Very good, organizing evac now. Just fly easy=^=

=^=If I can=^= The sensors were showing a shift in the weather front and a new low pressure edge was coming in , bringing even faster winds and freezing hail and thunder and lightening to boot, all thick with the heavily charged radiation of the ion storm. =^=It might not be up to me.=^=

Allyndra got back on her comm and contacted the medical team both on the ship and on the SAR. =^=Attention Medical, Vinecenzo will be taking first casualties to the Galileo=^=

The comm link to Galileo registered nothing but static. If a message could have gotten through, it was so garbled that it was unintelligible. A full communications blackout was probably pending given the amount of charged ion particles in the lower atmosphere, and it would only be a matter of time before unshielded electrical systems started going offline.

[OFF]

--

RADM Lirha Saalm
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo

Commander Andreus Kohl
Second Officer
USS Galileo

CWO2 Anthony Duval
Engineer
USS Galileo

CAPT Jonathan Holliday
Executive Officer
USS Galileo

LtCmdr Allyndra illm Warraquim
Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

ENS Miraj Derani
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Galileo

PO1 Copper
Engineering Officer
USS Galileo
[PNPC Beaumont]

CWO2 Vasily Sokolov
Engineering Officer
USS Galileo
[PNPC Mott]

LTJG Natalya Kirilova
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

and other Galileans...

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