Shockwave (Part 2 of 3)

Posted on 28 Jun 2020 @ 1:24pm by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Commander Luke Wyatt & Lieutenant Lake ir-Llantrisant & Ensign Mimi & Lieutenant JG Sofie Ullswater & Commander Andreus Kohl & Chief Warrant Officer 3 Alexion Wylde & Chief Warrant Officer 2 Oliver Sylver & Chief Warrant Officer 2 Kala Gorvel & Senior Chief Petty Officer Goldie Brown & Petty Officer 2nd Class Donald Andrews & Petty Officer 3rd Class John Hollenday & Crewman Draia Thero & Cadet Senior Grade Jemima de la Coeur
Edited on on 28 Jun 2020 @ 1:31pm

3,933 words; about a 20 minute read

Mission: Episode 17 - Crystal of Life
Location: Latari A III, Low Orbit
Timeline: MD 04, 2315 hrs

Previously, on Shockwave (Part 1)...

Multiple expanding shockwaves emanated from the detonations and traveled at mach speeds towards the Galileo. The ship was quickly overtaken by an intense microburst of air which sucked all moisture from the atmosphere inwards towards its center. The tiny Nova-class was suddenly left with no atmospheric lift or maneuvering capability as the barometric pressure readings went off the scale.

Less than three seconds behind it, a second and more powerful pressure wave spherically expanded and was actively disintegrating everything in its path on a continental scale.

And Now, the Continuation...

[ON]

Deck 1, Bridge

Lieutenant Diego was jolted forward over his console then snapped back upright at the sudden turbulence. He could feel the spacecraft yawing uncommanded and felt his stomach drop when he looked at the second incoming wave. "Captain there's not enough time," he yelled with urgency, "we need shields!"

Sylver's lips were pressed together as he moved his hands over the console. He registered the explosion, but right now his mind was trying to compartmentalise. The shaking of the ship would rip her apart, so he tried to compensate for that. The computer was doing calculations as well and he looked at them, trying to find something amiss. No. They were in trouble. "Hold on," he breathed, to the ship, his hands moving quickly as he took more control. The ship was trying to react to too many things, so he took over some of them, fingers firmly on he controls. It was going to be bumpy, yes, but he was trying to keep her from falling apart right now. And no shields were going to hold them together at this rate, the shaking in his console told him that much.

Even so, his breathing was calm and his heart rate even, adrenaline just enough to keep his mind and reflexes sharp. It was pure training now, instinct, the dance between what the computer was telling him and what he was doing to react with it. The explosion was coming closer, Sylver knew that. And it was all about riding things long enough, to hope that someone survived it all. "Keep it together for me, girl..." he breathed, too soft for anyone else to hear over the noise around them.

Kohl's unblinking sapphire eyes stared down the visualization of the shockwave that was expanding towards the Galileo hungrily. Kohl clutched his armwrests with both hands and planted his boots on the deck; all the while Kohl shoved his core back into the chair. "All hands," Kohl declared, tapping the toggle to briefly communicate to the whole crew. "Brace for impact!"

Luke followed Kohl's example and gripped the chair with both arms not bothering now to read the display unit embedded in it, the last reading had indicated that the Galileo inertial dampers had been reduced to minimum. Things were about to get dangerously bumpy. His eyes flicked to the view screen in anticipation his feet firmly placed in front of him.

Mimi stayed at her console determined to keep an eye on everything and do what she could to help the ship ride out the shockwave.

Goldie grabbed hold. This was becoming far too common around here.

Jemima dropped to the deck and grabbed hold of the console. This way, she didn't have as far to go if she was knocked over.


Deck 7, Engineering

"Impact!?" John both questioned and expletived at the same time. He wrapped his arms through the lightning holes in the nearest bulkhead hoping that they were not going to loose anything. He figured he could just touch the panel if need be with one hand.

"Inertial dampers are at minimum, tie yourself down you'll break an arm wrapping it inside stuff." She shouted from her station having taken out some replacement tubing and tided herself to a railing next to her station remaining fully focused at regulating the ships power flow.

"Shit," John thought but knew she was probably right but only seconds if that. He wiped off a belt and tied to the same spot not a moment too soon. This was going to hurt, was the last clear thought.

Draia Thero, meanwhile, was stationed at an LCARS panel at the base of a ladder. She threw herself at the ladder, and entangled her arms and legs between its rungs, as if she were a horny teenager, dancing with the ladder at her prom. Draia turned her gaze back to the LCARS panel --which was screaming out a loss in coolant system pressure-- but she knew that black slippery polymer would do her no good if Galileo hit something.

On the upper level Donald wedged himself down between one of the consoles and its chair, it wasn't the best but with little time it'd have to do.


Deck 3, Sickbay

Allyndra heard the announcement and felt the shift in way things felt as the dampers seemed not to be working properly. It was like a shift of the wind or a wave.

She realized hanging on might not work well and started running to a empty biobed called out, "Everyone! Strap down to a bed. I think the dampers are off line!"

She hopped on and commanded the restraint straps hoping they would not be so tight she could not breath. Like Terran birds, she had no diaphragm and if held tightly enough would suffocate. It was too late for that now.

As the deck shifted beneath his feet, Lake ir-Llantrisant tumbled towards a biobed in spite of Allyndra's order. His shoulder collided with the mattress and he kicked off the deck to roll his body onto the biobed. "What fresh hell is this?" Lake swore as he reached for the overhead LCARS panel. After he slapped the necessary contact, a surgical support frame rolled out and over him, restraining him to the biobed. Uncertain of how long they would have power for forcefields, he used his hands too, to grip the edges of the biobed.

Alexion was slower on the uptake, having to abandon the equipment he'd been handling. He ended up with a swollen cheekbone for his slower effort, hitting rather than lying on the bed, but it was close enough...close enough to get himself restrained for his own safety at least. His mind went to his son, the worry undeniable with the lack of distraction.


USS Kali, Akira-class heavy cruiser

When you started to ignore all the constant sounds of the alarms Kali's bridge seemed almost quiet. It was clear to Sofie that the rest of the officers were used to operating under these conditions so the calmness of the Tactical officer's voice managed not to surprise her when he frankly told the captain "We need to begin evacuating the non-essential crew and passengers."

Out of the corner of her eye Sofie noticed the Tellarite nod sadly. "Send out the evacuation plan, start the process."

Sofie really wished she didn't count as essential right now but as their most recent barrage of torpedoes smashed into the angular body of the one of the Tholian ships her screen lit up again with impact data. "No significant damage visible." She reported as she poured over the incoming data looking for anything that could render the next attack more effective.

So preoccupied was Sofie with the task she didn't notice another sensor result until the operations officer called out "Detecting a tricobalt explosion on the planet surface."

Sofie pulled up the data onto her screen too. She hadn't been briefed on Galileo's role in the mission so she was taken slightly by surprise by this latest development "Confirming, there are some huge shockwaves, and..." she was doing her best to quickly read off the results - one stood out among the rest "Galileo is there!"

The captain turned to her first officer and with a soft triumph said to him "They've actually done it."

Sofie wasn't done yet though "It seems she's caught in the shockwave." Another tremor of fear ran through her, Galileo wasn't really home but it was close enough and seeing it in danger was enough to put more butterflies into a stomach that was already looking like a lepidopterarium. "Its huge."

"Will they make it?" Called out the tactical officer. She didn't know his name but sharing the fear of battle with Kali's bridge crew she almost felt she knew them better than anyone on Galileo.

"I don't know." She replied honestly.

The captain clearly sensed a moment of unease and quickly rallied everyone back to the task at hand. "We can think about this later," she called out with a coolness and confidence that Sofie had come to expect from her "Ready our next round of torpedoes. We can't give the Tholians a moment's rest."


USS Galileo

In Latari III A's troposphere, the tiny Nova-class struggled against the atmospheric forces at work. The 180-meter starship was being swept off course by the incoming shockwave layers despite the helm's best attempt to remain steady.

"Sylver, grind the thrusters to slag if you have to, but get our nose pointing to sky," Andreus Kohl spat out the order from the Captain's chair. His order was sweaty and desperate; it felt like their only chance. "If we're losing engine power, let's use that shockwave as propulsion!" he added, cringing at the sight of destruction, stalking them on viewscreen.

"Aye Sir!" Sylver let out a breath before he shook his head, but he did as ordered. "Hold onto your ponytails..." he breathed to himself as he angled the ship, the controls flashing angrily at him for what he was doing. It was going to be bumpy...beyond bumpy. Yet he did it, calculating the angle, glancing at the readings of the shockwave coming towards them. He pushed the power as much as he could, hoping it was going to be enough as he focused on getting them out of there. You couldn't outrun a shockwave, but maybe if they were lucky...they could get enough distance so not to go up in flames.

A rolling orange wave composed of pure kenetic energy closed in on Galileo from astern. Highlighted by red streaks of volcanic debris within its composition, it quickly overtook the Federation starship and everything in its path. The ship and its crew were suddenly slammed forward with the force of ten Gs while the shields brightly flashed before collapsing under the intense pressure.

The bridge was violently rocked then started to spin on its vertical axis as the vessel tumbled out of control. The aft engineering console exploded in a cloud of shards, with some debris impacting Diego in the back. The force of the impact and subsequent blast sent the security officer flying over his console towards the ceiling. The science alcove fizzled with blue electrical pulses then also erupted, sending another bridge officer hurtling like a rag doll towards the front of the bridge where he impacted the bulkhead then lay limp.

Main power went offline and suddenly the emergency lighting activated while the deck trembled. Fires started to inflame at the rear of the bridge and an overhead bulkhead to violently spark. Thick smoke propagated through the Galileo's command center obscuring vision.

In space, Galileo was at the shockwave's mercy. The starship pitched uncommanded, completing at least one 360-degree nose roll before stabilizing on an escape trajectory. The tricobalt shockwave now started to carry the ship towards space away from the surface.

Sylver grimaced with pain, sweat on his forehead. Somehow, he had managed to cling to his console and seat, but his shoulders now ached with the strain he had put it under. He had blacked out for a second, he was pretty sure of it, because everything was a bit fuzzy around the edges. He checked the instruments, a smile tugging at the corner of his lip. He tasted blood and realised it was from a cut on his cheekbone. Fine. He swallowed and double checked his numbers, hands moving over the controls. There was nothing really he could do. The ship had steadied itself, or he had helped it...honestly, he couldn't remember. But here they were and they were riding the shockwave and would do so until either their power picked up and they could get away from it, or the shockwave dissipated. He looked around, taking in the devastation...before looking back at his work. In case something else happened, he needed to stay focused on his task, on his mission.

Not so lucky and partly due to the 360 nose forward role the Galileo had so ungracefully achieved Luke had departed his seat and was now up against the view screen, battered and bruised by no major breaks or dislocation which was lucky given that the inertial dampeners were at minimal. "Stations, report in." He barked helping himself to his feet and grabbing a portable fire suppression unit from the wall cavity before using it on one of the console fires which extinguished in a cloud of white vapor.

Mimi fared a little better than Luke, thrown from her seat as the ship rolled her feline instincts took over and rotating herself in mid air managed to land on her feet but something didn't feel right in her right hand, she tried to flex her fingers but felt noting but pain, something was broken. Rushing back to the Ops console she saw the scuffs on the screen where her hand must have hit it. "Main power is off line," She reported tapping at the panel with her good hand. "We are on emergency power only. Life support is functional, structural integrity is stable, no hull breaches."

Commander Kohl had managed to cling to his chair for slightly longer than Wyatt. Although Kohl had tumbled to the deck, he hadn't rolled much farther than the foot of the Captain's chair to the next railing to the fore. Kohl crawled to his knees and swayed on wobbly feet back into the Captain's chair.

Jemima hit her console and bounced backwards, losing balance and hitting the deck.

Goldie, already on the deck, fared better. She managed to hold on, but her arms ached with the strain. She lay on the deck, too sore to get up.


Deck 7, Engineering

Kala had barely managed to stop herself from being thrown from one side of engineering to the other. As the ship settled and she found her feet the trill engineer scanned the initial area before turning to the engineering console which was bleeding errors and warning as if the ship itself was crying in pain. Commander Wyatt's voice came over the crackly and distorted comms system but Kala knew what he wanted, a report.

=^=Kala here sir, Power transfer conduits have overloaded and are now completely offline, the warp field could in the starboard nacelle has been damaged and the reactor itself damaged. We're going to have to shut down the warp reactor before its used again else risk a warp core breach sir=^= She explained looking to the now other recovering engineers and nodded to them to begin shutting down the warp core. As if to emphasize the urgency the core began to pulse as smoke billowed from its stacks.

John hung like a rag doll with only the hastily arranged belt holding him up. He heard tall the warnings but it was like they were someplace else not here. Slowly another sensation began to filter in. Pain, it was hurt and pain coursing like pulses. "Go away," he slurred the words. "I just want to sleep a little longer ma. Get to chores later, got a headache ma, think I drank too much. Can you get the alarm."

A few metres away from John, Donald lay on the deck, blood trickling from the back of his head. His improvised position completely failing to keep him from being flung across the room and over the rail of the upper level.

Getting up on wobbly legs, Draia Thero scanned the cavernous compartment with her eyes. All around her, she saw burned out conduits, protruding opti-cable, and gold-collared crewmembers stumbling around. The way they were moving, the crewmembers looked as if they were drunk, or at least badly hungover. Pivoting her gaze from one side to the other, Draia spotted one thing that wasn't like the others: a body. Slumped on the deck.

"Donald!" Draia broke into a stumbling sprint. As she closed the distance to him, she could more easily see the blood matted hair on the back of his head. The only thing moving faster ahead of her was a bloodcurdling shriek: "Donald, can you hear me?" Draia dropped to her knees beside Donald and gave his shoulder a shake.

John's right arm hung like a pin the tail on the donkey thing. It was dislocated he was pretty sure, hurt like the devil. Blinking still he released himself from the restraint and swayed as he got his balance. He just surveyed the area and shook his head. What where they thinking taking a patched up ship and then trying to put it through as much stress as possible.

He noticed Draia hovering over Donald. "Damn it!" he thought to himself but while he was worried a lot about his friend it would do no good if they did not survive this. He shook his head one more time. Kala and some others were working to shut the core down. They were on emergency power obviously.

He was not sure anyone could hear or care but he moved slowly with unsteady steps calling out. "I will see if we can more than thrusters and emergency back online!" Tapping he worked to try to find routes to see if anything could get back online from the damaged circuits.

Slowly so slowly that it seemed ages rather than seconds, between experience and the computer circuits that could be shunted began to respond to their new functions.


Deck 3, Sickbay

The straps had automatically tightened. Allyndra could not even get words out as she gasped for air not able to breath let alone give a command for the bed to release her. Blackness was creeping in and she knew that if she gave into it, she might not wake up again. Her feet and fingers felt cold. A small rational part knew that she was going hypoxic.

From just beyond Allyndra's field of vision, an arm slashed towards her, swinging a laser scalpel in her direction. Lake ir-Llantrisant had fared better than her, restrained within the rigid shell of a surgical support frame. The frame's forcefield emitters had shown no sign of life, which meant Lake had had the breathing room to wriggle and crawl his way out of his biobed. Seeing Allyndra in distress, Lake instinctively started slashing at her biobed's straps with a laser scalpel.

There was suddenly a release of the bands that felt like a snake coiling around her and she breathed hard with a tremendous breath followed by more as her body tried to get oxygen from the air. Finally she opened her eyes seeing Lake standing there with a laser scalpel. She nodded toward him still waiting for her body to catch up.

Her sides hurt like the devil from the straps but as she took a few tentative breaths it seemed nothing other than bruises. She looked at the bed and shook her head. It was dead, not a single function. As she looked across sickbay the same sight greeted her. That was serious, sickbay usually had its own backup generator separate from the rest of the ship but it was obviously off line as well. If the sickbay biobeds were out, that meant the holodeck was out as well so everything was going to be extreme emergency medicine. A patch and dispatch operation with the dispatch mostly just out of the way.

She decided to try the EMH and gave the command but there was no response at all. It was not surprising with the sickbay pretty much out of power and working. She heard the damage reports coming and they were without engine power of any kind, just thrusters and sounded like most of the systems damaged. That made up her mind.

"Lake, I would like you to take engineering section. A big chance many injured there and it is critical we get those people up and running so they can get the ship up and running. Doctor Wylde, I want you to stay here in case people start showing up. I will head to the bridge, see what is going on in that critical area. Everyone do your best with the emergency kits."

She winched as she grabbed a kit and turned one last time to survey the sickbay. "I trust you all, you are all professionals." She turned and though it hurt to breath ran to find access to the bridge. More than likely the turbos were out as well. She would find out soon enough.

Pacing around sickbay, Lake set about looting the cabinets for a couple of extra emergency kits and the extra equipment he might need if he didn't have access to biobeds. "Engineering," Lake said, acknowledging Allyndra's order. "Got it."

Alexion rolled his shoulder with a sigh as he steadied himself back onto his feet, nodding briskly at the order. He looked around at the mess, and his sigh became heavier at what he had left to work with. Needle and thread, by the looks of it...


Deck 1, Bridge

Back in Galileo's main command center, the chaos and turbulence continued as the tricobalt shockwave kept carrying the small Nova-class into the upper atmosphere. Lieutenant Diego flopped on his stomach after crashing back down from the ceiling near his console. Hastily he clamored back to his feet then to his station but winced when he felt twinges of pain in both his upper and lower back.

"Shields offline!" he shouted with forceful breath after looking at his flickering LCARS display. The lieutenant tried to tap several commands into the terminal but with no success. "Weapons offline!"

The starship continued to tremble and wobble, putting undue stress on the vessel's assembly framework.

"WARNING," blared the computer in its familiar female voice, "Primary structural integrity field generator failure."

'Guess I spoke to soon' Mimi thought as she quickly checked her console. "Backup generator is coming online now."

Luke had finished putting out the console fire and helping any of the bridge crew who couldn't help themselves had returned to his seat, the warning honestly didn't come as a shock to Luke as he tapped away at his arm console before saying. "Find me something to reinforce the structural integrity field generator now!" He barked.

"I cannot Sir, the system is not responding." Mimi replied, the whole power transfer system was going haywire.

"If you can't do it from here, Ensign Mimi," Commander Kohl ordered, "Order damage crew to the source." Kohl had slammed himself back in his chair, gripping the armwrests for his literal life. "Sylver, you're a superstar," Kohl insisted, "Keep us aimed for sky!"

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

All Crew, USS Galileo-A

Lieutenant Diego
Security Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Saalm]

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