Cadet Cruise Training (Part 1)

Posted on 27 Feb 2018 @ 12:39pm by Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Commander Scarlet Blake & Commander Aren Ban & Lieutenant Amaranai Franklin & Lieutenant JG Edward Butler & Commander Marisa Wyatt & Lieutenant JG Gideon Nicols PhD & Lieutenant Lake ir-Llantrisant & Ensign Miraj Derani & Lieutenant JG Tris Shizn & Ensign Mimi & Petty Officer 3rd Class Constantin Vansen & Edward Bauer & Chief Warrant Officer 3 Alexion Wylde & Petty Officer 1st Class Gabriel Stark

9,249 words; about a 46 minute read

Mission: Episode 15 - Emanation
Location: Axanar System, USS Hathaway
Timeline: MD 94, 1858 hrs

Previously, on Field Trip (Part 4)...

USS Hathaway's four nacelles glowed gently against the backdrop of the starbase's interior docking area. Along with several small support craft also on departure routes, the Constellation-class cruiser slowly maneuvered itself through the outer doors and into space. Once clear of spacedock, her impulse engines engaged at low power and she came about before accelerating to the edge of the system in preparation for warp.

Jemima watched as the ship left the station and headed out of the system. She surreptitiously glanced around the bridge to make sure no one was watching and did a little hip wiggle. It wasn't much of a dance, but she had to do something.

From the back of the bridge, Marisa noticed and smiled.

From his station at the rear of the Bridge, Vear glanced up to see a Lieutenant smiling. He found that quite odd for a Vulcan to be smiling, but who was he to judge.

Mimi watched as the ship departed. Finally she was back out in space on a nice clean and comfortable albeit old Federation ship.

And Now, the Continuation...

[ON]

Two days following USS Hathaway's departure from Earth, the starship finally reached its first destination and burst out of warp on the outskirts of the Axanar system with a bright flash of light. Feathered warp particles misted behind the vessel when it reverted to sublight speeds and its impulse engine engaged.

On the bridge, the comm channel chirped to indicate an incoming transmission.

Cadet Vear identified the incoming transmission and turned slightly to report, "Sir, Axanar flight control is hailing us."

"Open a channel Cadet." Aren said, putting down a PADD that he had been looking at and taking a quick look at the sensor data to get a quick idea of the current system layout.

Vear had already turned back to his station and proceeded to opened the signal transmission.

The audio channel chirped to signal an open line. "Hathaway, this is Axanar control, we have you on sensors. Standby for new flight vectors to the training course and proceed at best speed," said the system controller.

Aren turned to Vear. "Acknowledge there transmission and have them proceed with flight vector transmission." Aren said before turning back to the main view display. So far he had been impressed with the cadets capabilities, and was looking forward to seeing how they handle the drills.

Vear opened the signal and identified their vessel, "This is the USS Hathaway, thank you Axanar Control, proceed with flight vector transmission." Montah was very pleased with his 'performance', as he had been practicing the last two days in transit. He dared not turn areound for others to see the smile he couldn't help but beam on his face.

As soon as the comms channel closed, another audible chirp sounded from the helm console and a small green light lit up in the corner of the display to indicate new course data.

Thasiv'Rahn sat, taking his turn at the helm. "Telemetry received, setting course along vector 774 as instructed." His blue fingers tapped out the commands deftly. He was an good pilot. Perhaps not exceptional, but his astronavigational ability far surpassed most expectations.

Behind him Miraj watched the data stream from the receiving screen through the navigation array. Not a glimmer of an issue. So far nothing she could complain about. She forced her toes to relax where she had started to hang onto the carpet again.

Aren handed a PADD he had been reading to his Yeoman. "Cadet Armstrong, please take this to Commander Warraquim in Medical." He said to his yeoman as he waited to give the order to proceed along the new vector. Aren had always found it a little strange having a yeoman at his beck and call but since departing on this cruise had found the benefits of having one.

"Y-yes sir." Jennifer responded taking the PADD from the Commander. She hurried off the bridge into the turbolift, requesting the deck with sickbay.

Aren turned his attention back to help. "Helm, engage plotted course, maintain 1/3 impulse." Aren ordered, as he watched the cadet take his turn at the helm.

Blue fingers tapped the console precisely. "Aye," he said as the engines engaged. The inertial dampeners covered any sense of movement. Only the indicators on the panels around the room and the viewscreen showed the movement.

USS Hathaway performed a course change to align itself with the new coordinates, then quickly began to cruise toward the eighth planet within the solar system. Unlike the four colonized Class M worlds within the inner-system zone, Axanar VIII was a rocky Class C world completely devoid of any atmosphere and geological activity. It was as barren as Luna which made it the perfect location for a variety of training exercises. In a matter of a few minutes, Hathaway would soon partake in such a simulation.


Deck 13 - Sickbay

After a surprisingly short run, Armstrong emerged through the doors to main sickbay. She looked around at all the officers from Commander Warraquim. After a few moments, she clenched her eyelids shut realizing the futility of her search. She had no clue what Warraquim looked like. She quickly ran over to the nearest medical officer tugging on her sleeve. "Excuse me, I really need to find Commander Warraquim." She said, her anxiety pouring out in the tone of her request.

"You found her cadet," Allyndra called out. "What is it?"

Jennifer rushed over to the Chief Medical Officer handing her the PADD.

Allyndra took the PaDD, "at ease, get your breath, we are not under emergency." She perused it and nodded. She then wrote a quick note and handed it back. "Tell the Commander that we are ready."

"Yes Commander!" Jennifer said as she took the PADD rushing out of sickbay. She was panting heavily as she sprinted towards the turbolift unsure of how long she could maintain this pace, or why no one used the comm system or internal messaging system. Was this the ONLY way Jennifer was useful?

After the cadet left it was not long before lights and indicators went to red. "Red alert everyone! Prepare for casualties. Commander holodecks for use as emergency supplemental sickbays."


Deck 10 - Engineering

Edward was struggling to find the means to be civil to Cadet Grevash. Grevash was not just blunt or tactless, he was arrogant. The Tellarite seemed to revel in the stereotype that Tellarites were argumentative. The lanky human steeled himself and turned the corner into engineering where the cadets studying engineering were gathered.

"We're arriving at Axanar VIII now. We'll be going through a number of drills. Before you head to your assignments, are there any questions?" Edward waited, silently hoping that Grevash wouldn't argue his assignment.

The tellerite raised a hairy eyebrow. "Transporter maintenance?" He sighed. "No questions, sir." he added in a grumpy tone.

"Then go to your duty stations," Edward ordered, "be prepared for things to go wrong, and you won't be disappointed."


Deck 9 - Science Labs

Jemima was in Science Lab 3, monitoring three experiments. They weren't hers, but she was tasked with keeping an eye on the computer and making sure the equipment was operating properly.

It was a boring job, but she was used to boring jobs. As low scientist on the totem pole, she spent a lot of time cataloguing and cleaning, so why not monitoring? At least she was on an honest-to-goodness starship. She checked the computer again, then got up to physically walk around the room and make sure everything was going well. She didn't expect any problems. So, she did a little dance as she walked across the room.

The computer beeped an alarm. "Warning. Containment field collapsing."

"No!" Jemima ran back to the console. "Computer, repair containment field."

"Cannot comply."

"Why is it failing?" Jemima asked, sitting down at the computer and pulling up the specs on the field.

"Unknown."

"Run analysis of potential contamination if the containment field fails."

Oci was entering the science labs when she heard an alarm. Instinctually, Oci moved quickly to the computer and started to check on the alarm. She then noticed the girl at the other computer.

"What did you do?" she asked quickly. "You were just supposed to be watching the experiments!"

Oci, without waiting for an answer, started to set up a new containment field in hopes of surrounding the failing field before it fell.

"I didn't DO anything," Jemima insisted. "I was monitoring and it just...failed."

Oci shook her head. She couldn't believe that the containment fields would simply fail. There had to be another reason. She switched her focus to figure out what might have happened.

Marisa saw an alarm on her computer and ran into the science lab. "What's going on?"

"The containment field failed," Jemima said.

"I'm trying to find out what happened," Oci said. "But the computer has no reason for the failure."

This was not good. If the field dropped, there was no telling what might happen to the ship or for them for that matter.

"Jemima, look up the types of experiments going in the lab and what could happen if the containment field or fields do not get repaired. Oci, what are some alternate ways we cn contain the experiments?

Jemima had already asked the computer this question. Since she hand't heard an answer, she looked at the computer screen. Each of the experiments was listed, along with possible contamination for each and the potential results if they mixed. "Oh, this is not good."

"What's not good, Jemima?" Marisa asked.

"We could stink out the deck, we could blow several conduits, or we could cause an explosion. Those are the worst of the possible failures."

"Oci? How can we prevent that if we can't get thee containment fields working properly?" Marisa was carefully monitoring the three experiments, their containment fields, and the relative time remaining to sove this potential problem.

Oci heard the command and started rushing her fingers across the LCARS to figure out what to do. The ramifications of what could happen would not be a good thing. Any of them. The Bajoran quickly moved from one scenario to another with no real solution available.

"Lieutenant," she said. "Would it be possible to transport the most dangerous of experiments into space?"

It was a long shot, she knew, but it was worth a try, right?

Marisa looked at the components of the most dangerous experiment. "That could work, but what about the other two? I'm detecting a cascading failure." She, too, noted how much time they had before critical failure. She was prepared to throw up a level ten force field around the room to keep the damage to this one lab, but there were other solutions, and she wanted to see if Oci could come up with one.

Oci heard the statement. She had only solved one problem, not all three. Her brain was racing trying to find a solution but there was too much to think about. She had to concentrate. The Bajoran knew that she could not admit defeat and ask for help. She had gotten to the Hathaway because of her grades and experiences and she wasn't going to prove that she didn't belong by not coming up with a possible solution.

"We could flood the experiments with freezing solution and essentially stop them from doing anything."

That wasn't the best thing, but it was the only thing her brain could think of at the moment.

"Gasses are hard to freeze," Marisa said. "You could try venting the gasses into a separate containment field, but it would have to be done in stages. Do we have that sort of time?" she asked. "Now, if we cannot do individual containment fieles, is there a simpler option?" She checked the countdown to failure on the computer. "We have two minutes to breach."

"Could we just contain the room itself?" Jemima asked.

Marisa raised an eyebrow. "We could. What do you think, Oci?"

Oci thought for several seconds. There really wasn't enough time to do anything. Jemima's comment made her think further.

"That could work," Oci said. "But we would need to get out first. I don't really feel like being blown to bits."

"Agreed," Marisa said, indicating the door. "After you two."

Oci jumped up from her station and headed to the door. If this was just an exercise, Oci was in trouble. Her brain wasn't working as fast as it should have during the situation. At least her feet were quick enough to exit the lab before anything bad happened.

Marisa waited for the two Cadets to leave the lab before following after. "Computer, put a level ten containment field around the experiments. Keep it inside the lab itself."

"Containment field activated."

Thirty seconds later, there was a large explosion inside the lab.

It felt real, Oci thought. Was it real or just pretend?

"Lieutenant?" Oci started. "What do you think happened to the original containment fields? Why would they have failed so easily?"

"I don't know," Marisa said. "They should not have failed like they did. It is rare for one containment field to fail. The odds of all three failing at the same time are minuscule. Now that the immediate crisis is over, we need to run several diagnostics on the experiments, their containment fields, and the power junctions on this deck. We also need to keep monitoring the lab to see what is going on and when it is safe to drop the force field. The three of us working together should make quick work of this." She pulled out her tricorder and began to scan the lab. "No immediate threat. Shall we move to the main science lab to begin our investigation?"

Jemima was silent. Had that lab just blown up? Really blown up? She wasn't sure if she should be sorry or excited. She close to do neither. "Yes, ma'am. Since I was monitoring, I'll keep doing that."

Marisa nodded. "Okay. Then Oci and I will look for the cause."

Oci was breathing hard from the adrenaline rush. She didn't know what was going on, but she had to keep her head together. The Bajoran heard the lieutenant and nodded.

"Yes, ma'am," she said. "Where should we start?"

"We start with a careful examination of what is in the lab now and look at computer and video logs to see what led to it," Marisa said cheerfully. "We take the pieces of the puzzle and see if we can put them back together."

The three walked down to main science and found three empty consoles they could use for their work.

Cadet Acer Vito approached the small group, the sound of unexpected disarray far more interesting to him than the screen he'd been staring at. "What on earth was that?" the young Cardassian shook his head with intrigue. "Are we blowing stuff up already?"

"Not on purpose," Jemima said defensively. "All three experiments lost containment at the same time."

"Three all at the same time? Not on purpose?" Acer pursed his lips with interest, shaking his head. "I'd hate to see the damage you can wreak when you're actually trying then...."

"Okay, now I am just worried," Cadet Zoie Herianto said as she came up behind Vito, frowning as she watched them, one hand going to rest on her hip. "What went wrong?"

Acer leant in close to Zoie's ear to lower his voice. "Better get ready to pay up on that bet, Zo..."

Zoie rolled her eyes before smirking, tilting her head onwards him. "Maybe..."

"I don't know. That's why the lieutenant brought us here. She wants us to find out," Jemima said, bouncing a little on the balls of her feet. "I get to monitor the failure and see what it's doing."

"You do that," Zoie said lightly, hands behind her back before she glanced around at the other cadets.

Marisa glanced at Zoie, but said nothing.

Since there were several people working in the lab, Marisa chose to use key commands rather than voice ones. She ran a diagnostic of the power conduits going into the lab to see if there were any problems.

Jemima took another console and scanned the interior of the lab to review the explosion and what was going on now. Besides an epic failure on her part. But when she thought about it, she really hadn't done anything to cause the failure. Had she? She had the computer play the explosion is super slow motion, watching as one reaction set off another. It was pretty cool to watch.

When Marisa had finished her own scans, she looked to the cadets. "What have you found so far?" she asked them. Right now, it was her job to help them figure this out, not do it herself.

"I found signs of crystallization after the explosion," Jemima said. "Some of the patterns remind me of fractals. They're really pretty."

"Did you find a cause of the explosion?" Marisa asked.

"Well, it doesn't seem to come from the lab itself," Jemima said hesitantly. "I think the problem was in the power coming into the lab."

"So, what should you do to determine if the problem was power-related?" Marisa asked.

Jemima went back to her console nad began to check.

"You could check the power relays in that section of the ship," Oci said. "But the power issue might actually be centered in a different part of the ship and only manifesting in the Science lab."

"Very good," Marisa said. "See what you can find out. Scientists are investigators and we need to be able to investigate many things. Sometimes, those include power junctions and relays."

Deck 1 - Bridge

Returning to the bridge, Armstrong hurried to the Captain's chair handing him the PADD. "Sir...." she panted heavily trying to catch her breath. "Sickbay......is ready."

Aren nodded at Armstrong's return and subsequent statement. "Very well." He said as he typed in a few commands onto the console, smiling to himself.

The Ops console chirped again with the familiar sound of another incoming transmission. Unlike the standard system controller messages, this one warranted a bit more importance.

Montah was startled by the chirp, because he knew that it was different and important. Vear activated the identification of the signal. Vear turned his head without taking his hands from the controls and reported, "Sir, there is an incoming hail from Rear Admiral Vega."

Aren looked up from what he was reading, unconsciously sitting a little straighter. "On Screen, and open a ship-wide." He ordered, waiting for the view-screen to chage.

"Yes Sir," Cadet Vear replied, turning his head back to the console and activated the open signal, bringing it to the forward view-screen.

When the channel was opened, the main viewscreen flashed and displayed an enlarged image of Starfleet Academy's vice commandant. "Cadets and crew," he coarsely addressed the ship's occupants, "You're authorized to start your training simulations. I'll be monitoring your sensor data from my office and you'll also be evaluated by your department heads. Good luck! And Commander Ban, don't break my ship! Vega out."

The end of the vice-commandant's transmission was punctuated by a sudden flurry of activity across multiple bridge consoles.

Montah noticed that when the signal connection ended the instrument console before him, and others too that he saw out of the corner of his eye, had flashed strangely. He performed a quick system check. He did not want to be caught with a non functional comm console. Vear found that all was functioning properly, but he wondered if this was some part of training test.

"Commander, we are getting a distress call from Anaxar VIII," Mimi said reading the display on the Ops console.

Vear looked over to Ops. He knew that not all incoming transmissions went through the Communications Station, higher priority and Intelligence items might not.

Vansen frowned as he looked at his console. He let out a breath before he looked up. "Commander, there has been an explosion at a dilithium processing facility. Reports of 100 casualities, more than 200 wounded. They are reporting a loss of atmosphere and request immediate evacuation of the facility and its staff and residents..." he brought up the number. "500 people all in all." There was footage too, but unless he was told to put it on screen...he was happy not to. Not with all of these cadets.

Aren nodded to himself. "Respond to the distress call let them know that help is on the way. Make sure to get as short and detailed a report as possible. Relay all injury reports to the Chief Medical Officer, damage to the Chief Engineer. Copy me on those reports." Aren ordered, he paused for a moment to consider his next series of orders.

Gideon Nicols had to admit, it was nice to be back on the bridge even if it was a cadet cruise. It was just nice to be back on a starship and in space. He had been on leave far too long, and he was glad to get his space legs back. Since he was a seasoned Starfleet Officer, and had been through all of this himself, it didn't phase him that things changed the moment the vice-commandant sighed off.

As the distress call came through, Gideon turned to face his workstation, long fingers danced across the workstation board. He zeroed in the sensors on Axanar VIII and tapped in several commands to start to do standard sensor sweeps. "Localizing the source of the distress call now," Gideon called out. It only took a moment for him to localize the distress call. "It's the dilithium processing facility on the northern continent, Commander," Gideon called out.

Montah followed protocol and began searching for any transmissions in that area that might provide information to assist the Captain in his decisions. He picked up several communications and began recording and cataloging the information with a cross reference to their location; transmitter and receiver.

Inwardly Aren smiled. So far the cadets were performing well, he silently wished them all good luck in the coming tasks. "Red Alert." Aren ordered. "Helm, set course for Anaxar VIII and put us into geostationary orbit above the facility, maximum impulse." He ordered before shifting his attention ops. "Ops, get a Cadet and an observer to the holodeck and get it set up for mass-casualty intake,” he said before hitting a button on his arm console, "Bridge to medical. We have incoming mass-causalities. There was an explosion at a dilithium processing facility. 200 plus wounded, with loss of atmosphere, be ready to intake some 500 additional persons for triage and treatment, pull from the counseling staff if you need to. Bridge out." Aren quickly briefed before turning to security. "I want security teams prepped and in place to assist in the evacuation, stay on top of any trouble spots and assist medical as necessary." He finished before turning back to view screen. "I want full scans on the facility, and comms put me in touch with someone on the ground." He ordered.

The overhead lighting in the bridge and across the starship's interior quickly dimmed, and the dark air was suddenly illuminated by pulsing red strobes. The alert siren sounded in a deep and monotonous blare which betrayed the age of the starship. Over the ship-wide comm channel, the master chief put the crew into action. "All hands to stations, set Condition 1. Security personnel report to the armory!"

It wasn’t too long before Cadet Vear angled his chair toward the Commander and reported, “Sir, I have a facility coordinator on the linc. He says the main Administrator is not available and personally checking out the situation.”

Scarlet Blake had been watching the movement around the bridge, taking in the way the cadets went about their business rather than what they did. She was familiar with some of the cadets from her time instructing at the Academy, and now she was interested to see if they could keep their calm. "Keep the link with the co-ordinator and let us know if the Administrator becomes available."

Montah glanced over his shoulder quickly toward the Commander before looking back at his console replying, “Yes Commander.”

Blake looked to the small readout display at the side of her chair, making sure that departments were keeping up with the orders and procedures. She sent a message to medical asking them to get the cadets as involved in the triage process as possible. It would do them good to experience the feeling of chaos that usually ensued.

"Open a channel with the co-ordinator," Blake looked to Vear, nodding lightly as she pulled back from her display.

“Yes Ma’am”, Vear replied without turning away from the console. It just took a few seconds to re-establish a signal with the facility on the planet. “Ooo”, Montah said excitedly then turned slightly, “Commander, I have their Administrator available now. I am receiving visual.”

"On screen," Scarlet nodded firmly, her eyes narrowing ever so slightly as she focused in on the situation at hand.

Vear activated the forward viewscreen with the contact signal from the facility. The view screen gave a visual of controlled chaos, in Montah’s opinion. He saw an older man with in a white coat who looked weary and his graying hair a bit messed up. Behind him people were moving about somewhat frantically, while orders and instructions were passed about.

"This is Commander Blake, First Officer of the USS Hathaway. We are preparing for mass transporter evacuation, as requested. Are you in need of direct assistance on the ground? If so, we can send teams down by shuttle, asap," Blake spoke calmly as she stood, her arms folding as she awaited a reply.

Vear noticed that the signal strength had minor fluctuations. This was evident by the glitching of the viewscreen. His attempts to boost and refine the signal was not helping. He knew it to be a problem at their end.

The gray haired man with the mustache on the view screen appeared worn and a bit out of breath, but able to reply, “Yes Commander. We do have a few critical situations here on the station. There are 3 seriously wounded that can not be moved yet, and I have a portion of the structure down, trapping a dozen more. Do you have anything to lift heavy structural beams?”

Blake gave him a firm, reassuring nod, meeting the man's eyes. "We'll send a team down with equipment and medics," she promised, her features still as she took him in.

The Administrator continued as if needing to ‘get things off his chest’, “Following the main explosion in the processing plant, we have had multiple secondary explosions across our power grid, probably 80 percent of the facility is on emergency power.”

The Administrator’s appearance changed to one of exhaustion. He leaned forward onto the counter before him. “Forgive me Commander. In all the tension I failed to introduce myself.” The gray haired man stood up straight, “I am Doctor Benjamin Fisk, Chief Administrator of this facility.” After a second added, “Thank you for responding to our call for help so quickly.”

"No need, Doctor, we'll get this done together. If anything else transpires, let us know. We'll do everything we can to help," she nodded to Vear to close off the channel. "Blake to Security and Medical, prepare to send a rescue team down to the facility by shuttle, asap...we're going to need equipment for heavy lifting, they have people trapped down there."

Thasiv'Rahn triggered the pre-programmed set of commands that would set the older ship in geostationary orbit. Most starships had these automated commands. All the Andorian had to do was enter the planetary coordinates above which the ship should remain. It took only a few moments for geostationary orbit to be achieved. "We are in geostationary orbit above the evacuation site."

Miraj watched the Andorian make the necessary adjustments to bring the Hathaway into orbit. Through her bare feet she could feel a slightly uneven shiver as the planets gravity took hodl on the ship. It wasn't as smooth as she'd do it, but she couldn't find any real fault. He'd probably be okay, given another thousand hours at the con.


>>tag Cameron - power allocation to aux systems (holodecks)


"Aye sir." Mimi said, she secured the ops console and handed over to a relief ops. "Cadet Vear, come with me."

Vear looked up uncertain for just a second, but then swivelled his chair, removing his ear-piece, setting it down as he stood, and followed Ens. Mimi into the turbolift.


Deck 13 - Sickbay

Allyndra heard the command come in. "Alright everyone, we have severe wounded coming in. Tuula please take main sickbay please for immediate surgical trauma. Cadets Yuulik and Larson you are to come with me to holodeck one and set up initial triage. Wylde and Ir-Llantrisant please handle holodeck 2 for overflow from deck one. We will send life threatening to sickbay, and severe to near life threatening to holodeck 2. The cadets and I will handle less trauma on holodeck one. Alright everyone, let's move."

"Understood." Debbie said and scurried around grabbing a few medical kits to take with her to holodeck one.

Yuulik was running to keep up with Debbie, given how his legs were so much shorter than hers. "Do not be afraid!" Yuulik declared. She scrambled to snatch up medikits from the same sources Debbie was grabbing them. "I am right behind you!"

By contrast, "Huh," was all Lake ir-Llantrisant said at first. He had nodded at the Captain's announcement, and listened even more careful to Doctor Allyndra's strategy for how they were going to pore through five hundred casualties from the dilithium processing explosion on the planet below. Five hundred. It boggled the mind to even imagine five hundred people in one place.

"In that case, it sounds as if you're with me," Lake said to Wylde. As soon as he said it, Lake pushed an anti-grav cart filled with pharmaceuticals towards Wylde, muttering, "Here, take this." The first thing Lake noticed about Wylde was his athletic build, but the very next thing was that icy gaze. Grabbing another anti-grav cart of materials to drag behind him, Lake leaped into a sprint towards the door. "I hope your bedside manner is better than mine," Lake affirmed. "I forget everything I learned in counseling school when I'm trying to remember what the rib bone is connected to."

"The 'back bone'?" Alexion Wylde replied drily, glancing his way, his eyebrows lifted and lips pursed. "I'm not sure I believe in bedside manner," he added, the same hint of sarcasm laced in his voice as he moved quickly to keep up with Lake. "I definitely won't by patient 186..."

"I don't think," Lake said, "the patients will mind a curt reply or a gruff demand if we're keeping them breathing and their hearts beating." Pulling the cart behind him, Lake maintained his affirmation as he ran off into the corridor.

Alexion gave a slight grin at the other man's response. Yeah, this new man was okay, he decided as he moved fast after him.


Deck 10 - Engineering

Grevash scuttled from one position to another, checking power levels, and redistributing latent power from the nacelles over to the sickbay and the appropriated holodeck. Then he looked at the transporters. They would need power from the main reactors to make sure that people got down and up smoothly. It took a surprising amount of megajoules to turn sixty to eighty kilos of matter to its own energy and back. So far everything was sitting nicely in the green. Everything was ready for Ops to start zapping people down to help, and bring back the most seriously wounded.

Butler watched both the cadet crew and the experienced crew move efficiently through engineering. The tall human stood at the primary systems display, monitoring power levels across the ship, system statuses, and the activities on the bridge. "Grevash," he called out, "needs more power for the transporters. Hollis, Micheals, see what you can spare from propulsion and crew comfort. We'll allocate what we can to the holodecks, sickbay and transporters." He watched as power use dropped as lights and climate control in empty quarters were shut down. The biggest boost came, as Edward knew it would, from propulsion. While the ship maintained its ability to maneuver, it spent most of the power generated from the idling warp-core on the systems Edward had identified.

"Grevash," Edward asked, "are you seeing the additional power allocation yet?" Although the master diagnostic showed that power was being routed to the transporters, there was still the procedure of checking that power was actually making it to the system.

There was a long pause, broken only by the sound of error beeps and heaving fingers stabbing at the touchscreens "I-I can see the power allocation, but its not going across!." There was more urgent stabbing sounds The generators are full, but the transporters won't draw on them!" The young Tellarite sounded slightly panicked. "Only sixty three percent power is going across!" Enough to make them energise, but the slightest hiccup and the beam could loose coherency, and the person inside would be lost.

"Take a breath, Grevash," Edward instructed, bringing up the diagnostic screen, "sixty-three percent of what we're currently providing is enough to run the transporters at normal rates for at least a half-hour." He identified the key conduits that would be transferring the power and moved to Grevash's console. "Where do you think the problem might originate?"

The Tellarite took a breath as instructed. "It must be in either the EPS conduit, or the transforming station. The power is being generated, so its not the reactor." He looked up at Edward to see if his assumption was correct.

"Don't look at me," Edward said, "your chief won't always be around to verify your assumptions. Check the system diagnostics. What do they say?" Identifying the two possible problem points was good work. It was something any ensign should be able to do, but it was still well done.

The Tellarite ran a level one. "There's a short in the secondary conduit from the reactor to the pattern buffers." He said, with satisfaction at finding the fault.

"Perfect," Edward nodded in approval. "Now that you know it's an EPS conduit, what can you do to fix it?" The problem wasn't as simple as it sounded. There were several possible solutions.

The hairy little cadet shifted back and forth between the readings from power system, and the diagnostics. "We can back flush the whole system, but that would stop transporters for a at least five minutes. But it probably needs either the breakers in the transformer replacing, or more likely we would have to splice in a new length of conduit, at least to field repair level. The whole thing will need to be replaced afterwards, but it will get us working now." He thought about it some more. "Replace the transformers first, as that is quick, then splice if necessary," he decided, reaching for his tool bag.

The tall human nodded. "Get to it, cadet. I'll expect a positive report in the next few minutes." He returned to monitoring the system from the master display. He heard the jeffries tube open up. The transformer replacement would probably work, but either way, Grevash was on the right track.

Grevash found an access point close to the transformer and only had to half worm in. He opened the cover to the transfomer unit, disconnected the power, and pulled out the breaker, just to be on the safe side, then he pulled out the two transformer units, replaced them with the spares, reset the breaker, and reconnected the power. "Transformer replaced!" he called out, "Power reconnecting in three, two, one!"

The power feed jumped to 97 percent efficiency then within ten seconds red lights flashed all over the board. The transporter systems were down. All transport functions aborted and the emergency shutoffs were engaged.

The sudden alarms made Grevash scramble out in alarm and jump to his feet at the nearest station. "There's an overload! How?" It shouldn’t have happened. There was no way an engine futzing that bad should have gone to overload just from replacing the transformers. The breaker was in place, he'd checked it twice.

"Holy.." Edward thought of an expletive, but restrained himself from voicing it. "Grevash! You're with me." The human picked up his toolkit, which had been resting under the console's lip.

The Tellarite dashed to his side, knowing that if they didn't move quickly there would be even wore problems to come.


Deck 8 - Security/Tactical (SECTAC)

Franklin had been sitting in the office setting up secondary scenarios for the cadets when the Red Alert sounded. She had been prepped on the situation, of course, so was aware of what was coming, but she still made sure to look to the cadets, who were suddenly jumping up and looking to her for orders.

"Okay people," she said. "This is not a drill."

She paused to inwardly smile at the statement.

"We need to gear up for civilian evac. Grab some gear and basic First Aid kits and report to the shuttlebay."

Cadet Tamm let out a breath as she grabbed the gear, putting on the phaser belt. She then, without any hestitation, unlocked the weapons locker and got a phaser rifle as well. Because...why not? She reached for the First Aid Kit and looked around. "Let's get a move on," she said and headed out, walking quickly to the shuttlebay.

Amaranai reached under her desk and grabbed her personal bag and waited for the cadets to do the same before heading to the shuttlebay.

Gabriel Stark checked his weapons as he moved quickly with the Cadets towards the shuttlebay, but it didn't stop him from casting a grin their way. "Ready to rock?"

"Only way to live," Tamm said and flashed Gabriel a quick smile before she motioned with her chin. "So what can we expect? Riot control?"

"That's always possible, and it's something to be prepared for when panic is involved....not to mention shock and injuries," Gabriel nodded slowly as he watched them, his stride firm and quick. "Hopefully, they'll be focused on just getting out in one piece. Be ready for some heavy lifting though...we're usually called in when they have people that are trapped."

Tamm nodded at the words before she smiled weakly to Gabriel. "At least we should all be able to direct people and patch them up..."


Deck 7 - Holodeck 1

Cadet Vear followed Ens. Mimi into the Holodeck. Just inside the door Montah stopped short. Of all the holodeck activities he had been part of, this he found to be so different. Pathetic emotional impact of the realization that this was not ‘fun and games’ seemed to hit him to a point of shock and numbness.

Mimi stopped when she stopped feeling Vear only a step behind her, she turned to look at him and she saw something familiar. Uncertainty, nervousness topped off by a little bit of fear.

"Focus please Cadet, this is important. I know you are nervous, I was too," Mimi told him.

Vear nodded his head cautiously, trying understand and replied, “Yes Lieutenant.”

"Computer." Mimi called out. "Open emergency sickbay programme."

The computer beeped an acknowledgement and the holodeck started to cycle into sickbay mode, biobeds and monitors began to materialise.

Allyndra arrived at the holodeck and noted others there. "Medical emergency! We need to commandeer this deck. Yuulik, Larson get medical programme emergency triage on line please."

"We are here to help you set up Doctor,” Mimi replied as Allyndra and two cadets burst through into the holodeck that was quickly cycling into the auxilary sickbay mode.

Yuulik was marching towards the holodeck arch at Allyndra's command, but she was too slow evidently. The reality of the slate-grey holodeck shimmered with what looked to her like heat haze, and then a starbase-grade Sickbay materalized around them all. Pivoting her head from side to side, Yuulik looked to make sure it was only the holographic hospital that materialized into place. As yet, there were no patients. "Where should I stand?" Yuulik asked, "Where should I stand?"

Allyndra dealt with Yuulik first. "Cadet take the right hand side, you are to treat more minor injuries. I will make assessments as they come in. Larson will start with me to get a feel for assessing for triage. We will then have you two switch."

"Yes, Doctor," Yuulik said, nodding wildly at Allyndra's words. Her eyes were wide, taking everything in, or maybe she was lost in her own head. Striding over to her swath of biobeds, Yuulik armed herself with a medical tricorder. Calling back after Allyndra, Yuulik said, "Thank you, Doctor."

"Ensign thank you, I think we have things here, but if you do not mind, would you make sure the corridors remain clear between the two holodecks, and also to sickbay. Anything that can be moved would be appreciated."

"Understood Doctor, Cadet come with me please," Mimi said and with that left the holodeck.

Vear nodded following the Ensign out into the passageway, uncertain as to what their role would now be.

Allyndra got a call that they were going to request medical personnel for a trip down. She hesitated considering how thing the staff already was on board. A flight down to make emergency assessment on the ground would be her charge normally but she needed to keep the cadets in order as well. Tuula was needed in surgery that left her going and pulling one of the other docs away. She wondered if the medical hologram was working on such an old ship. She decided to try. "Computer activate emergency medical hologram please."

It took a moment, but finally the EMH shimmered to existence. "Please state the nature of the medical emergency."

"Yes, we have several hundred injured coming in and are very short staffed. A request for planetside has been made. I have two docs in holodeck 2, a surgeon in main sickbay which is positively tiny, me and two medical cadets. I need you to take over this deck please. Cadet Yuulik," Allyndra pointed, "will be assisting you. Milder cases here, more severe cases to holodeck 2 and life threatening to sickbay."

"Understood, though my knowledge could be used to better facility,” the EMH responded.

"Consider it a challenge and teaching responsibility," Allyndra replied. She then turned and nodded to Larson. "Cadet Larson you are with me, take an emergency medical bag with you." Allyndra got her own.

"Yes doctor. Debbie left the rest of the medical kits she had taken with Yuulik and reslung the last one over her shoulder.


Deck 11 - Shuttlebay

Jasper Higgins wanted to be on the bridge as opposed to sitting in the cockpit of a shuttle. His fingers danced across the flight controls, prepping it for flight as ordered. He just had to remind himself that he had to do what was ordered of him and not talk back or challenge. He just had to graduate, that was all he needed to be sure his parents stayed off his back. The collar of his uniform all of a sudden felt tight and he hooked a finger in the synthetic fabric and pulled. He was all set to go, the shuttle was set to go, now he just waited for the team to arrive.

A few minutes after leaving the Security office, Amaranai and her cadets arrived in the shuttlebay and started to board in preparation for a quick flight. The security officer, despite knowing this was a simulation, was hoping that she had pushed her cadets hard so far so they not only could be of service, but do well during the simulation as well.

There was no better place for the COB to be than the shuttlebay, which was now where most of the mobilization action was centered. Standing next to the entrance door and yelling at each new cadet as they entered, he instilled a sense of confidence in the mission.

"Let's go, snowflakes! Asses and elbows, move, move, move!" he barked.

Gabriel ran up into the shuttle with a light stride before turning to the entrance, reaching out with his arm to the cadets, offering a half smile to them. "Strap in and get ready for the ride..."

Tamm strapped in and looked around, her features calm and even cold. Her hands were relaxed again, no tension in her slender body. If she was nervous it didn't show. "Stay calm, stay in control," she said aloud, her eyes on the other cadets, her voice calm but firm.

Jasper kept his gaze forward, mostly so no one could see him roll his eyes. He understood the urgency, but didn't quite understand the dramatics. Cadets weren't idiots, they knew what to do, they knew how to take orders, they knew what to do. He figured most of these officers just forgot what it was actually like to be a cadet.

Allyndra arrived with Larson in tow. She heard the comment and replied, "We are thin enough on people to handle that many injured. Let us not add to it by being too crazy in the ride."

Debbie clambered into the shuttlecraft and strappd herself in. Now she was worried, she'd hoped and expected to have the patients coming to her and have all of the sickbays equipment available to treat them, now she was going to them with just the medical kit over her shoulder

"Just remember your field triage. All penetrating injuries to head, neck, torso, and extremities proximal to elbow and knee; flail chest; two or more proximal long-bone fractures; crushed, degloved, or mangled extremity; amputation proximal to wrist and ankle; open or depressed skull fracture; or paralysis are to get immediate trauma transport.”

Jasper's fingers moved swiftly and with precision as he maneuvered the shuttle craft from shuttlebay to open space. Even though his gaze swept forward to the monitor with the streaming sensor data--he was sure to pay attention to the conversation that was taking place behind him. He pointed the shuttle toward the planet and continued to make course corrections as he went. If he was by himself doing a shuttle run, he would engage auto-navigation, but doing that would have surely gotten him talked to. As a cadet pilot, he was expected to know every flight maneuver on the book and then some... which that seemed impossible, yet he knew his stuff.

The flight was smooth, it would only take a few minutes to get from point A to point B. In a way, he felt like he was being underutilized. The shuttle entered the exosphere and was just about to cross into the thermosphere and his a bit of turbulence as he crossed into it. It was easy to compensate, and the turbulence didn't even phase him. "Whoops," he said, a bit of a smirk forming on his lips. "Sorry about that." Okay, he wasn't totally sorry, but he apologized none-the-less.

At one of the auxiliary bridge stations, Miraj watched the shuttle descend towards the planet and enter the atmosphere. She double checked all her instrumentation. Jasper didn't know it, but she had full control of the shuttle if she wanted it. He probably wasn't going to thank her for what was coming next. She'd prepared a real test of a pilots skills for him. Shuttlecraft had zero aerodynamics, they handled atmosphere by sheer brute force of their four anti gravity thrusters. to control ascent/descent. "Sorry," she whispered to Hathaway and the shuttle. And switched off two of them; starboard forwards, port aft.

The shuttle plunged into free fall.

Tamm didn't cry out. She gave herself that credit even as she white-knuckled grabbed onto her seat, breathing hard. "What. The. Hell!" she shouted, her voice shrill, her eyes wide. She did not want to die this way. But she was finding that the training was hitting her. She was grabbing onto something, she was praying in the back of her mind and in the forefront of her brain was the slow motion sensation because that was what adrenaline did to her. But with the changes, her body was starting to feel the effects and she closed her eyes against the dizziness.

Next to her, Gabriel Stark became rigid in his seat to try and remain as still as humanly possible. Sweat broke out on his skin, but only one hand gripped the seat; the young man who had recently returned from advanced training trusted the equipment. His other hand laid on his chest instead, over the spot where the small, gold cross he always wore on a chain around his neck rested under his uniform top. He felt the outline under the fabric...and also felt the faster thump of his heart. He closed his eyes, consciously fighting to even his breathing while his lips moved silently in a prayer that paced it.

Amaranai felt her stomach enter her throat when the shuttle lost control and began falling. It was not something that she had ever experienced before and based on just the few moments here, Amaranai didn't want to experience it again. Inwardly, she was freaking out - even if this was part of the training exercise - outwardly, she was checking on the rest of her team and glad that they were staying as calm as possible. It lasted a few nano-seconds. Her voice released an epic scream and she caught herself after another moment to stop herself. She caught her breath and looked to the pilot in hopes that he was getting things under control.

Everything had been going smoothly, except for the slight turbulence but that was too be expect. Then, he lost control and alarms from all over the shuttle had went off. Jasper felt his stomach drop and it took a moment for him to register what was happening. "Son of a bitch!" he mumbeled to himself as he watched the shuttle lose control and take a nose dive toward the planet.

Debbie was glad she'd only had a light dinner as her stomach went all over the place just as the shuttle did.

On board Hathaway, Miraj watched the altimeter count down. There were three points she was waiting for. The line where a novice pilot wouldn't recover from; the point an experienced pilot couldn't recover from; and the point she could recover it by, from a remote control. There was also the point she could recover it from if she was on the shuttle, and the point where Gravity won regardless, but they were moot for this exercise. The numbers dropped, and her nerves increased. She had to give him time, but she didn't want to.

SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP! Jasper screamed in his head. Willing the people behind him to keep their mouthes shut, so he could concentrate. His fingers were a blur as the moved across the workstation. The shuttle was beginning to lose power, but it hadn't drained fully... not yet. There was only so much he could do with a shuttle's power systems and he began to reroute and shunt power from various minor systems and dumping it into thruster control. "Trying... to... stabilize..." he said through a clenched jaw.

Miraj curled her bare toes into the carpet of the Hathaway's bridge, as if she could sense the shuttle through sheer association. Higgins didn't have long, and his efforts so far hadn't been quite fast enough.

The shuttle went through the rest of the thermosphere, entered the mesosphere and zipped right past that in a flash. All the while, Jasper continued to swear under his breath and fingers moved quickly. He tried everything he could to stabilize and just when he thought he got a handle on it, there would another power drop.

The altimeter on Hathaway got to ten thousand meters. And it wasn't slowing down. She let her hand hover over the switch that would let her take command. She'd give him the extra few moments. Nine thousand meters.

The shuttle entered the stratosphere and Jasper and looked up to see the ground rushing at them. His board totally went out...

Eight thousand meters. Miraj held her breath, there went the novice pilot line. Seven thousand meters. At five, she'd take over.

...and then came back to life and his fingers moved quickly as he shunted power from life support and into thruster control and at that the forward thrusters fired and the shuttle jerked hard. His fingers flew about, and he could feel the sweat on his brow begin to drip down the side of his temple. At the sudden jerk, his body jerked with it and he swore he heard something crack/tear. He didn't have time to worry about that.

"Sorry," he called out behind him. Well, sorry not sorry, he thought after. He couldn't help that he had to fire the forward thrusters which caused the shuttle to suddenly stop, jerk, and begin to level. He had heard someone barf and he rolled his eyes. I refused to clean that up!

Jasper managed to finally get the shuttle leveled off at around six thousand feet and he held the shuttle steady at that altitude for a few minutes so he could gain his own composure. What the hell was that about? he thought to himself as he dragged his sleeve across his brow and sighed in relief. Once everything was secure and all the levels were nominal, he began to bring the shuttle down. "Taking us down... gently."

A hundred-odd kilometres further up, Miraj looked at the final readings, gave an unimpressed grunt and restored full control back to the shuttle. He needed to practise more.

[TBC]

--

Narrator
[PNPC Saalm]

Cmdr Aren Ban
Commanding Officer
USS Hathaway

Ensign Miraj Derani
USS Hathaway

Cadet Grevash
[NPC Derani]

Lieutenant JG Edward Butler
Acting Chief Engineer
USS Hathaway

Lieutenant JG Gideon Nicols
Chief Research Officer
USS Hathaway

Cadet Jasper Higgins
CONN/Shuttle Pilot
USS Hathaway
[NPC Nicols]

Lieutenant JG Marisa Sandoval
Science
USS Hathaway

Cadet Jemima de la Cour
Science
USS Hathaway
[NPC Sandoval]

Lieutenant Amaranai Franklin
Security / Tactical
USS Hathaway

Cadet Oci Hafu
Science
USS Hathaway

Cadet Montah Vear
Communications
USS Hathaway
[NPC Shizn]

Cadet Yuulik
Medical
USS Hathaway

Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Lake ir-Llantrisant
Chief Counselor
USS Hathaway

Cadet Acer Vito
Intelligence Cadet
USS Hathaway
[NPC Blake]

Doctor Alexion Wylde
Medical
USS Hathaway
[PNPC Blake]

PO1 Gabriel Stark
Security
USS Hathaway
[PNPC Blake]

Commander Scarlet Blake
First Officer
USS Hathaway

Cmdr Allyndra illm Warraquim
Chief Medical Officer
USS Hathaway

Ensign Mimi
Operations Officer
USS Hathaway

Cadet Debbie Larson
Medical
USS Hathaway

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