Thread the Needle (Part 7 of 7)

Posted on 25 Mar 2017 @ 7:19pm by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Commander Aren Ban & Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Lieutenant Amaranai Franklin & Commander Marisa Wyatt & Ensign Miraj Derani & Ensign Mimi & Ambassador Soral Varro & Sub-commander S'anara Valdran & Petty Officer 1st Class Eviess & Petty Officer 1st Class T'Lin & Jaime (JJ) Fraiser & Petra Varelli Ph.D.
Edited on on 25 Mar 2017 @ 7:22pm

3,047 words; about a 15 minute read

Mission: Episode 14 - Statecraft
Location: IKS DuJa'Q, Beta Tauri System
Timeline: MD 06 - 0532 hrs

Previously, on Thread the Needle (Part 6)...

IKD DuJa'Q completed its maneuver and burst free of the star's gravity at Warp 9.5, several factors above its maximum rated speed. Be it the spirits that'd watched over the hybrid crew or some divine Q intervention, the battlecruiser was still fully intact and its systems began to stabilize.

"Woo!" Miraj shouted. "That was awesome. Lets do that again!" Miraj straightened up from where she had been pinned into a slump, shaking her head to clear her vision, and panting like she'd run a marathon. The navigation system showed them streaking along towards the Klingon Neutral Zone at a steady pace. She coughed and tried to assume a more sober and professional demeanour. "Slingshot complete. Course and speed holding steady; we can reach the Neutral Zone in two days if we can sustain it."

And Now, the Conclusion...

[ON]

Deck 6, Engineering Hull - Main Engineering

Varro felt the change and knew the instant the ship was out of the worst of it. He didn't wait to get the order. He switched the ship's chips as quick as he could, brought up he life support and hit the environmental controls. There was a resistant beep that he knew meant something wasn't engaging. He scrambled off his chair and headed to the manual override switch. One, two, three pulls and it gave way. He ran back to the console and hit the activate button again. It responded and he let out a breath that he was holding. "Bloody, Hell," he cursed as he sagged into the seat. Damned control panel stalled thank the Gods for the manual. "Varro to bridge. Life support and environmental controls up and running"

"Maintain course and speed Ensign Derani. All stations, report status." He called out to the bridge crew. He was worried about Lirha, but there was a ship to run and he had a duty to the crew.

Sparks flew and almost anything flammable either got a bit of burn or in some cases caught fire. There was little anyone could do except try to endure and hang onto to something to keep from being flung across the engineering room as the ship shook and made wild gryrations. Allyndra decided it was like trying to ride the edge of a storm front and getting sucked into the maelstrom. That had happened to her more than once.

All she could do was grip the braces and try to ignore the pain of burns and she was pretty sure that her hair had gotten singed if not worse from the smell. As soon as the ship settled, she let go and rolled on the decking and patted at her clothing and hair. She lay there taking in deep breaths and tying to get herself together. That kind of shaking and stress meant a lot of injuries. She groaned as she got up and looked to the others.

"How bad? There are probably severe injuries and I should attend to them."

T'Lin shook her head, "I am rather unscathed and I agree there will be others that are in far greater need of being attended to."

Varro walked over to Eviess who was just sitting up. "Are you alright?"

Eviess smiled. "Fine, shaken not stirred."

Varro grinned and helped her to her feet. "Doctor Allyndra we are well...sort of." His side was killing him. He probably had a few broken ribs.

"Good, if you can, try to stay here. I am sure this place needs all the help it can get." Allyndra replied. "Eviess, do what you can here and then go to sickbay to help."

Eviess gave a nod. "I will." Truth be told she was glad that she was to stay here.

=^=Marissa, this is Allyndra. I am heading to the bridge with my med kit. You are in charge of sickbay. Once I finish on the bridge I will make a sweep to tend to those injured that cannot make it there.=^=

"Got it. I'll take care of everything down here," Marisa replied.

JJ had managed to toddle and catch a couple of lifts from adults till she got to Unca Vawwo and seeing he was undistracted for a minute or two she pounced on him. "Unca Vawwo! Me stay wif you."

Varro looked horrified to find JJ in Engineering. How on earth had the little thing gotten this far. He looked at Eviess. "Eve take her."

Eviess scooped JJ up knowing that that she too needed to be treated for exposure to anti-proton radiation.

"Me in Twouble Aun'ie Eviess?" JJ stuck a thumb in her mouth sucking nervously.

Eviess lifted JJ. "No honey but you can't be here. This is not good for you." She turned to Allyndra. "We need to get back to sickbay. Casualties will be coming from all sides.

JJ looked between some of her favourite adults "Me help Aun'ie Eviess?" She snuggled into the arms holding her. All the lights and sounds were a little scary to her.

"Yes indeed," Allyndra replied. "As for you, young lady. You are to sit there, and keep an eye on those lights." She pointed toward a panel in engineering. "As Varro works, you tell him green, red or yellow alight?"

"Wed, Wellow, gween yes Ma'am" JJ said as she took on a young look of concentration. She liked having something to do "Me do something not scawy."

Allyndra knew it seemed strange and she explained quickly. "Sickbay will be having a bunch of injured people, people rushing about, and hurt and angry Klingons, wrinkle heads," she said that for JJ. "A youngster underfoot or in the hallways is going to be underfoot. Secondly, there has been structural damage, engineering is designed to be the strongest, safest place. Understood?"

"I'm sorry doctor but I don't agree. I know of a safe place for JJ. I will take her there after I finish here." Eviess said.

"Very good. I am off," Allyndra said and headed off to do what she could along the way.

Eviess made a quick sweep of Engineering and then picked JJ up. "Come on then. Let's get you somewhere safer." Eviess looked over at Varro who was busy stretched out beneath a console pulling wires and fixing things. She smiled briefly and then headed out the door.

JJ was torn she tried to stretch out toward Varro. Uncie Vawwo me want Help Uncie Vawwo!" She squirmed as Eviess held her, though she didn't mind being with Auntie Eviess either.


Deck 9, Forward Section - Sickbay

The ship shook violently, causing Marisa to wonder what was going on. Then on second thought, she didn't want to know. Sometimes plausible deniability--even to herself--was a good thing. She busied herself securing anything that wasn't locked away and keeping her balance. It wasn't much, but it kept her mind off what was going on.

Then the ship began to accelerate and alarms sounded. An ear-piercing whine and then a pop, followed by a shudder wasn't encouraging. Marisa was flung against the wall and pinned there. How many G's was that? Marisa wasn't sure. She heard several nurses cry out and someone hit the ground. The pressure began to build. Warp 9? She had no idea how a Klingon ship would respond to the stresses it was clearly being put through and she turned her mind to what would need to be done once the ship righted itself.

She straightened out very slowly and prepared for the stop that would come at any moment. Thanks to her Vulcan physiology she didn't black out, but she didn't like the total lack of control. Zero G was far preferable to feeling like she was inside a centrifuge.

The G's dropped back to normal and she fell to the floor, her ankle twisting beneath her as she landed. "Oh, for the love of..." she muttered. This was not the time for an injury. There was far too much to do right now. She could feel her foot swelling inside her boot. At least she wouldn't need to wrap it. Then again, she wouldn't be able to take the boot off until the crisis was over.

She carefully got up and hobbled to the other room to check on the nurses. "Is everyone all right?" One of the nurses was still unconscious and Marisa carefully lifted her onto a biobed and turned it on to check her vitals.

"I'll take care of her," another nurse said. Her hair was disheveled and she carefully smoothed it back into a bun as she walked over to the bed. "Her vitals look good. What happened?"

"I don't know," Marisa admitted. "But we're going to get a lot more injured shortly."

Another nurse walked into the room, straightening her uniform. "I can set up a triage station."
Marisa nodded. "Mike, you and Helga handle triage. Marco, you take bleeders. I'll take breaks and lacerations. The more serious will go to the biobeds. For the rest, put them wherever you think best."

The casualties from the maneuver began to pour into sickbay mere minutes following the restoration of life support and environmental controls. Klingons by their very nature usually had no use for the medical bay, for it was more honorable to die in battle than to be seen as a coward in need of saving. But these circumstances were different, and healthy doses of radiation poisoning from the two stars' coronas combined with those from the anti-proton leak meant weary and disoriented warriors were now stumbling their way into the medical bay unsure of what to do. In a matter of thirty seconds, ten Klingons had entered sickbay, some of them wandering aimlessly around the room while others slumped over against the walls and lay on the floor.

"Help them!" one of the Klingons barked at Sandoval. He'd been one of the senior lieutenants who'd just brought in two of his comrades. "Radiation exposure," he added, pointing to the burns on the side of their necks and cheeks.

"That's what we're here for," Marisa replied. Since the triage was still being set up, she grabbed a medical tricorder and began to scan the Klingons. "Line up against the wall," she ordered. "Those who can't stand, sit. I'll get a hypospray."

This much she could do. She'd had to deal with radiation poisoning before when a containment field failed in a science lab. Three scientists were irradiated. She grabbed two hyposprays and filled them with the proper medication and returned to the main room. "Not so good at following directions," she thought to herself. None of the Klingons had done as she requested.

She went to those who were laying on the ground first and gave them a shot. Then she moved on to the ones wandering around. One refused to hold still and she grabbed his arm.

"Unhand me, woman," he barked.

Marisa just twisted the arm and pinned it behind his back and administered the hypospray. "This is not a good day to die of radiation poisoning," she said before letting him go.

Had the warrior not been ill from exposure, he would have had no problem rising to his full height to tower over the small woman and impose his will upon her -- Vulcan hybrid or not. Instead, however, he simply took notice of her appearance then cached his vengeance for the next time she happened to be wandering the corridors by herself.

"Don't try it," Marisa replied, watching the expressions flash across his face. "There is no honor in attacking a female who tried to save your life." While she HAD been in a few fights, she generally did her best to avoid them, but she hoped a little psychology would help her keep out of trouble this time. But just in case, she'd be careful of where she went from now on.

Petra ran into sickbay. "How can I help?" she asked.

Without looking up, Marisa nodded to a Klingon still laying on teh ground. "Check on him. I've already given him a shot for radiation."

Petra nodded. She grabbed a Feinberger and went to see what she could do.

The first patient was bleeding from a head wound. She pulled out the dermal regenerator and began to work.


Deck 3, Command Hull - Bridge

The darkness slowly faded from Lirha's vision and was replaced by the familiar orange and red alert lighting on the bridge. An subtle yet uncomfortable ringing sensation persisted in her ears but quickly began to fade as she regained consciousness. She faintly remembered the 'maneuver complete' call from the helm, and blinked several times while taking a deep breath. Her first course of action was to look around and take in her surroundings; a quick visual inspection of their command center revealed that the bridge crew were not only still in one piece, but also alive and well. It seemed the oxygen was flowing and the environmental controls had been restored, and the streaking stars on the main viewscreen confirmed they were at warp and heading toward their destination.

"Is anyone injured," Saalm asked, her voice sounding a bit weak. She looked down at her console and rubbed her eyes to bring it into focus. Their current heading was exactly as planned, meaning they would now arrive at the Klingon Neutral Zone in approximately five days as opposed to the original seven-day prediction.

It took a moment before Amaranai registered the voice of the general. She checked herself carefully and found a small cut on her forehead. It was barely bleeding but she figured she should speak up. She was about to reply when she felt a pain in her arm. The brunette wasn't sure exactly what was wrong, but she would have to check with the doctor eventually.

"Minor injury, general," Amaranai said. "Nothing serious."

She checked her console and reported what she saw.

"Weapons systems are returning to normal as well, general," she offered.

Lirha spun her chair slowly around to the aft portion of the bridge to observe the rear stations. The mechanical servos came to a halt in their new position to allow the Orion to inspect her officers. Franklin didn't look too worse for the wear at first glance, but there could possibly be unseen injuries. The report of weapons system readiness was much appreciated, and with their new course trajectory, it was crucial that they return to the element of stealth.

"Activate the cloak," she ordered, then gave Franklin another once-over before tapping her commbadge. "Medical to the bridge, we acquire assistance."

Amaranai nodded and pressed a few buttons to reinstate the cloaking device. There was a soft sound of the cloaking device engaging and the tactical officer checked all systems after the cloak was stable.

"Cloak engaged," she said and went back to checking the rest of the ship.

Allyndra was slow getting to the bridge. There were others along the way that she had to do a quick patch and dispatch on. Finally she arrived, and asked, "Injuries?"

Miraj was riding an adrenalin high. This had just officially become her Best Day Ever! "I'm fine. Heh. I feel great! Is everyone else okay?"

Amaranai saw the doctor appear. "A small laceration on my forehead, doctor," she said. "And I have some pain in my right arm."

She looked around the rest of the bridge.

"But it there are any more serious injuries, I can wait."

"I will catch you now," Allyndra said and took a quick look. She knew a small laceration might be just that but could also be hiding a skull fracture. Luckily from the scans it appeared to be nothing more then a small cut. She got that healed and then turned to catch anyone else.

S'anara leaned back in her chair, rubbing her fingers along her forehead ridges. "I'm fine...just a headache." she replied feeling fortunate but relieved for that fact.

Aren gave himself a once over. He appeared to fine, lucky that none of the bridge systems had caused him any harm when they overloaded. The worst injury he seemed to have were some 1st degree burns on his face, with some carbon scoring. But beyond, he appeared fine. "I am fine." He said to the medical staff as they made there rounds around the bridge.

Finally releasing her claws grip on the console Mimi checked herself over and couldn't see or feel any injuries though her hand ached from digging her claws in. "I am ok too."

The bridge crew seemed to be okay for the moment, and with Warraquim tending to Franklin, they all seemed to have escaped a much more violent fate. Lirha took the time to run a quick series of systems checks while noting some minor structural damage to the outer hull and several auxiliary systems that were offline. It was a minor miracle that their plan had succeeded, and for now, they'd avoided angering the spirits. But the future was much more uncertain, for the Orion general knew once they crossed the Neutral Zone that the true trials would begin.

"Helm," she began, letting out a deep sigh, "maintain course and speed." She then thumbed the internal comm switch on her console. "All hands, this is the captain. Stand down from battlestations."

[OFF]

--

GEN Lirha Saalm
Commanding Officer
IKS DuJa'Q

Ensign Miraj Derani
Chief Flight Control Officer
IKS DuJa'Q

SCPO Martin Caine
Chief of the Boat (CoB)
IKS DuJa'Q

Ambassador Soral Varro
Chief Diplomatic Officer
IKS DuJa'Q

Lt. JG Eelim Galan
Security/Tactical Officer
IKS DuJa'Q
[PNPC Varro]

Petty Officer Eviess
Medical Officer
IKS DuJa'Q
[PNPC Varro]

Cmdr Allyndra illm Warraquim
Chief Medical and Second Officer
IKS Duja'Q

Lieutenant JG Marisa Sandoval
Counselor
IKS Duja'Q

Petra Varelli
Forensic Anthropologist
IKS Duja'Q
[PNPC Sandoval]

Lieutenant JG Amaranai Franklin
Assistant Chief Security / Tactical
IKS Duja'Q

Commander Aren Ban
Executive Officer
IKS Duja'Q

ENS Mimi
Operations Officer
IKS DuJa'Q

LT Min Zhao
Operations Officer
IKS DuJa'Q

LTJG Stephanie Fraiser
Chief Research Officer
IKS DuJa'Q

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