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Fantasy vs. Reality


Dawn OOC

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Drills had been a routine on ships, both maritime and spacefaring, almost since there had been ships. Star Fleet was no different, but the event of the Holodeck had changed how they were done. 

 

Today, Commander Elonatya Chen had been given the duty of conducting her first SAR drill as XO of the USS Odyssey. The parameters were simple: beam from Transporter 1 to the in-progress simulation on Holodeck 1 with her team. The ship was breaking up due to an unspecified emergency. The shields were flickering on and off randomly, interfering with safe teleportations and requiring a shuttle rescue. Life support was still functional but failing; there were at least two fires. Most of the crew had made it to life boats, but there were six life forms aboard, five injured; one was in the Engine Room, one in crew quarters, two in the Sickbay, and two on the Bridge.

 

Ensign Esari Sh'vhalles stood on the transporter, looming over her crewmates even without the step up. “Commander,” she greeted in a tone of voice that was respectful and a touch sardonic. Chen might have taken offense, except Esari had that dry edge to almost everything she said. Her blue fingers roamed around her utility belt, making sure each tool was in place as her antenne trembled with restrained eagerness.

 

“Ensign,” Chen responded with a smile. “Ready?”

 

“Yes, sir.” Esari grinned. “I’ve never done a SAR drill before. Looking forward to the experience.”

 

“They can be fun,” Chen said, “or they can suck. Depends on the program.”

 

Esari’s antenne rotated away as her white eyebrows rose. “Sounds like life, sir,” the Andorian responded with a touch more respect in her voice. 

 

The doors hissed open and Commander Idrudor walked into the room, followed closely by Lt. Jelal. The transporter tech, a dark-skinned man with a nice smile, nodded to the two women as they stopped in front of Chen. He opened his mouth to speak, but the door opened one more time, and Lt. Parker arrived with a bounce in her step. She and the transporter tech exchanged playfully combative looks. "Choul," Parker said with a hard edge to her voice.

 

"Parker," he greeted, but his "scowl" cracked into a smile. Remembering that there were others there, he hastily straightened and turned to Chen. “Are you waiting on any more?” he asked the XO.

 

“Nope, small team drill,” Cmd. Chen said cheerfully, looking at a datapad. “I think this is actually everyone else’s first time.”

 

“How many have you done?” Esari asked. 

 

“This is my fourth,” Chen said, shutting down the datapad’s screen and passing it to the transporter tech. “If everyone is ready, please assume your positions.”

 

The three took spots on the transporter pad; once in place, Chen said, “Energize.”

 

The transporter room faded into gold and then back into the interior of the shuttle. Despite knowing that they were in a simulation, everyone felt their heart rates pick up as the decking under their feet vibrated threateningly. 

 

 

I left the details of the ship up to you guys, but it’s not a Fed ship. This drill is meant to help crew perform SAR (Search and Rescue, if you didn’t know) on an unfamiliar ship. It doesn’t matter if you succeed or fail at the drill; this is a chance to feel out your PCs and finish tweeking their personalities. Show off a little, don’t be afaid to fail, and have fun! PM me in Disco with questions -- even if I don’t see it immediately, Mala can usually get my attention.

Edited by Dawn OOC
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Chen mentally reviewed her crew mates, sorting them out between highest priorities and what might be complications with each group that needed rescue and how best to handle the situation. 


“We’re in a Noctiluca-class small transport, in the cargo bay,” she said and glanced at the group. Lt. Parker got a small smile and nod at the look of relief on the Flight Officer’s face at the mention of very small ship. “Ensign Sc’vhalles, get to the crew quarters in the aft of the mid deck. There’s one person there and they’re not heavily wounded, so they're either blocked or afraid.”


“Lt. Jelal and Commander Idrudor, head to Engineering: upper floor, aft. The most injured crew member is there; get them moving if you can, Commander. Lieutenant, see if you can get the shields fully down so we can transport out of here.” She turned to Parker. “Lt. Parker, head to the bridge. There’s two people there, one injured and one not. Help them get down here and see if they have useful information on what’s going on.”  


She looked around, “I’m headed for Sickbay. In case the shields can’t be brought down or there’s other interference, everyone bring your rescuees back to the shuttle if you can. Keep in contact, be careful, and move quickly.”  

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Sc’vhalles nodded at Chen, attempting to conceal her excitement. The deck shivered under her feet again, and even as she knew it was the Holodeck tricking her senses, her heart jumped. Turning to the storage compartment, she opened it and pulled out a tricorder. “Stand back please,” she said, moving to the door.

 

She drew her phaser, took a steadying breath and opened the door to the shuttlecraft. The fresh, clean smell of the shuttle was replaced with an acrid tang of smoke, and suddenly she was a little afraid. Even knowing it was all pretend, the danger of fire on a ship had been drilled into her. The small bay was clear of danger and she stepped out, eyes darting around, waiting for attack.

 

Nothing jumped her and she waved to the others, signalling that it was safe. With the basic safety of the shuttlecraft secured, at least for now, she opened the tricorder and headed for the solitary signal in the crew quarters. The ship was small, so it didn’t take her long to find the room in question. 

 

The door slid partially open in three grating jerks, and Sc’vhalles had to turn sideways to step through. Narrowing her eyes in the dark, she activated the light on the tricorder. A huddled form on the floor stirred with a moan, and Sc’vhalles knelt next to it, using the tricorder to give the human a cursory exam. He was safe to move, and she rolled him upright and positioned him on her shoulder.

 

Behind her, the door ground shut.

 

“Well.” Sc’vhalles shifted and considered her options. “That’s not ideal.”

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It had been a late night in the lounge and the little private party after, with, shock of all shocks, real alcohol. Thank the prophets it had not been Romulan ale, but still, the Aldebaran whiskey did it’s job and Parker, not exactly hungover but not fresh as a daisy either, had made it to the bridge just on time only to find out that she was going on an S&R drill with the exec and a couple of others and had to get to the transporter asap.

 

Oh boy.

 

She headed to Transporter room one and the closer she got the more her mood lifted. Choul had the duty and she figured he just might be in a little worse shape that her.

 

On 6/25/2020 at 4:53 PM, Dawn OOC said:

The doors hissed open and Commander Idrudor walked into the room, followed closely by Lt. Jelal. The transporter tech, a dark-skinned man with a nice smile, nodded to the two women as they stopped in front of Chen. He opened his mouth to speak, but the door opened one more time, and Lt. Parker arrived with a bounce in her step. She and the transporter tech exchanged playfully combative looks. "Choul," Parker said with a hard edge to her voice.

 

"Parker," he greeted, but his "scowl" cracked into a smile. Remembering that there were others there, he hastily straightened and turned to Chen. “Are you waiting on any more?” he asked the XO.

 

Parker stifled a giggle and wiped the grin off her face as he gave Choul a wink and took her place on the transporter pad biting her tongue, instead of making the first sarcastic remark about rodeos that came to mind when the big blue and very attractive Andoran asked about how many drills everyone had been on. Lord she hoped this new captain was not as drill happy as her last had been.

 

After they materialized and the Exec gave her orders Parker followed Sc’vhalles out of the simulated shuttle bay. The smoke made her cough and brought back dark memories of her early childhood  with a grimace she checked her phaser to make sure it was on stun and called to the security officer as she turned away from her. “Hey Ensign, stay on your toes, these things can be tricky and they aren’t always what they are advertised as, just remember we don’t know what caused this.”

 

Sc’vhalles gave the flight officer a look Parker couldn’t read then nodded and turned back the toward where the crew quarters were supposed to be. Parker turned the other way and headed towards the turbolift as the rest of the team came out of the bay and separated to head to their respective targets.

 

The doors to the turbolift didn’t open. Didn’t quiver, didn’t squeak, didn’t do anything. “Oh come on…” Parker holstered the phaser and tried to pry the doors open to no avail. With a sigh she pulled her tricorder off her belt and checked the schematics for the Noctiluca-class. She shook her head and glanced down the smoke-filled empty corridor. The Jefferies tube that would take her to the bridge was almost directly across from where she was. On the other side of the ship. “Prohets give me strength.”

 

She started off at a jog knowing that this drill was going to be one of those kind.

 

 

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Anoh nodded to Ellie, drawing her phasor and stepping carefully down the corridor, eyes scanning, her portable med kit in her other hand.

 

Reaching the door to aft Engineering , she stops and looks to Lt. Jelal, making sure they were still with herm even though she was fairly positive they were. She tried not to cheat with the crew members, and their locations, but sometimes it was a good way to keep her own nerve, rather than keeping a check on them.

 

She pressed the access panel to open the door and quickly steps inside, heading for the nearest access point to the upper floor and the most injured crew member.

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Crew quarters

 

Sc’vhalles sighed and put her burden on the ground carefully. Scanning the room, she found a likely piece of debris -- and long cylinder of some kind of metal -- and hoisted it, bouncing a few times to get a feel for it. In the dark, in the privacy of the closed room, Sc’vhalles closed her eyes, drew a deep breath, and centered herself. 

 

With a blood-curdling scream, she rammed the long piece of metal into the seam of the door, then with a howl that would have made a Klingon sit and take notice, threw her weight against it. With a screech that threatened hearing damage, the door was forced a few inches open. The Andorian pushed harder, gaining a few more precious inches -- enough for her to drop the metal and grab the edges of the door.

 

Some part of her was aware that she was playing a little, because she knew it was a drill. Honestly, in her short tour on the Odyssey, she hadn’t gotten much of a chance to cut loose. So now she flexed and grunted, and forced the doors open. 

 

After a moment, she eased her shove a touch; the doors trembled for a few seconds before trying to shut again. “Fine,” she grunted, resuming her grip. She pulled the pole to her with her foot, then scooped it up and laid it on the floor between the two halves of the door. It shrieked shut again, but only until the two sides met the pole, where it stopped. 

 

“That’s more like it.” Sc’vhalles grinned and picked up her rescue. Wondering what else the program had to throw at her, she stepped forward--

 

As the gravity failed.

 

Bridge

 

Like everything else on the ship, it was small, and as Parker climbed the ladder to the bridge, she could hear voices. “--our lives, too?”

 

“This ship is our life, Coren!” the higher-pitched of the two voices said as Parker stuck her head into the room. “It’s all we have!”

 

A human man sat with his back against the front console; sweat ran down his pale skin, and he held one leg stiffly in front of him. The foot now pointed the wrong way, and Parker winced in sympathy. He saw her before the human woman, who stood next to him, working the controls frantically. 

 

“My wife, please help her!” the man implored pointing at the woman. “Please get her out of here!”

 

The woman spared a glance toward Parker, but when she spoke it was to the man, “I told you, I’m not leaving our ship!”

 

As if to confirm her shout, the gravity failed.

 

Sickbay

 

Chen couldn’t feel the two life forms in the room ahead of her; it might have been a matter of distance, but she knew it was really because there weren’t any minds in the room ahead. The door opened reluctantly revealing a Bajorian woman leaning over a human man on the exam table. Flickering force fields held him in place, and the woman held a suture laser in blood-covered gloves. The display over the bed told Chen he had a severed spinal cord, only half repaired. Though he wasn’t in danger of dying immediately, the spine would need healing

 

“I can’t move him until I’ve repaired the cord,” the woman said grimly, the emergency lighting flashing across her d'ja pagh. “I need your help.” 

 

A second later, the gravity cut out, and the medic yelped, grabbed for the table, missed, and propelled herself across the room. She had the presence of mind to shut down the laser but it didn’t stop her from bouncing off the far wall.

 

Engineering

 

The doors opened to Engineering, and Lt. Jelal and Commander Idrudor’s first breath of air was thick with smoke. They could hear someone yelling, though the words were incomprehensible over the scream of the alarms. 

 

Idrudor reached out for minds automatically and came back empty. It was a sharp reminder that they were on a simulation, trying to rescue fake people. Shaking off the jarring loss of emersion, she and the Lt. pushed through the smoke to the back, where one human was trying to pull another one out from under a collapsed railing, screaming at his trapped crewmember. Idrudor felt that weird disjointed sense again; the man’s cries for his friend to hang on weren’t linked to any feeling or anything from the man. 

 

“Help me!” the man screamed as he spotted them. “My brother’s trapped! Please!”

 

He hauled again and was nearly thrown away from his sibling when the gravity failed. Only the grip on his brother kept him in place.

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Engineering

 

Anoh did her best to shake off the feeling of disconnect. She hated sims for this very reason. No matter how hard she tried, she just, couldn't get into the swing of things properly, she knew it wasn't real.

 

She grabbed onto the fallen railing as the gravity in the room failed, and pulled her way over towards the two brothers, pulling out her med scanner and figuring out how to get the man out of here, alive.

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The Bridge

 

As gravity failed, Parker  fell back on her training and maneuvered her body mass to check her momentum. Star Fleet trained their members to operate in many different environments, and while the environmental systems of Star Fleet vessels rarely failed, Zero G was one of the more constant environmental training exercises that the crews had to qualify on.

 

Once her own movement was stabilized she maneuvered over to the injured man. "I'm Lieutenant Perry from the starship Odyssey, and we are going to get all of you out of here." She glanced at his leg and drew in a deep breath as she scanned it with her tricorder.

 

Beyond basic first aid Parker was a complete idiot when it came to medicine and she didn't know really what the tricorder was telling her, but it looked bad. She glanced up at the wife, "What happened here?"

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Engineering

 

Commander Idrudor didn’t like what the scanner told her. The man had a crushed spine, which wasn’t a problem in the safety of [i]The Odyssey’s[/i] med bay. Here in the middle of a smoke-filled trash-heap of a ship, he was dying from shock and internal bleeding. Worse, with the loss of gravity, yet another timer of terrible started: without g’s to pull the blood away from the ruptures, it was pooling around wherever the organs had taken injury. With every second, the injuries were getting worse.

 

Idrudor quickly prepared a hypo with medicines to help the man. “We have to get him out of here,” she said, casting a glance back at Lt. Jelal, who was bending over consoles. “Our shuttle has gravity, that’s the first step. Let’s get this girder off of him.”

 

She glanced around, noting that one end was bolted to the wall still, though it had half-twisted off that connection when the other side had come down. At the other end, a crane dropped onto the girder’s far end, tearing it off the wall. There might be controls for the crane nearby, or she could try and see if it was moveable, with the gravity off -- at least enough to get her patient loose.

 

Bridge

 

“Just a minor glitch,” the woman said, desperation and fear twinned in her voice.

 

“Nedra, please!” the man, Coren begged. “So long as we have each other, we have enough.” When she didn’t respond, he told Parker, “Something failed in Engineering. The ship shook and we heard a boom; something exploded, I think.”

 

“We can save her!” Nedra shouted.

 

Coren looked sadly at Parker and said, “If you can get her out of here, I’ll be able to drag myself after.”

 

Edited by Dawn OOC
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Bridge

Parker recognized the unwillingness to give up in the woman, she had seen it plenty of time growing up, people willing to die instead of surrendering. But these weren't people, they were holograms, and so should listen to reason.

 

"Nedra, listen to me, If we can save the ship rest assured we will do everything we can. Some of my people are on their way to engineering right now, may already be there. But we have to get your husband to safety. And I can't do that by myself. I need your help."

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Lieutenant Jelal didn't waste time going to the two survivors, and not just because the thought of what that pinned man's innards might look like made her stomach gurgle uneasily. It was because she knew the fastest, best way to save the life of that injured man was to get him back onto the Odyssey. The shields had to be lowered.

 

"A lack of gravity may be why he's survived this long," Anri said. "Commander, I'm going to see what we can do about the shields," she said as she found one of the few consoles that wasn't burned out or flickering spastically. "Let me know if you need me, but I think this is our best bet for bringing everyone home safely."

 

The engineering LCARS terminal was functioning, but Anri could tell that something else was damaged deeper in the computers. It was sluggish to respond, and sometimes needed several tries to make a command work. Partial break in one of the data trunks, maybe. Or disruptions in the main computer core from fluctuations in the processing enhancement subspace field. Even so, she managed to bring up a diagnostic report. The results were staggeringly not good. The data linkages between engineering and shield control were severed by damage. It meant she couldn't just turn the shields off from here...and because they were a secure tactical subsystem, they couldn't be powered down without an authorized ship ID.
 

So.

 

In theory, they could use Starfleet emergency bypass authorization, but that would require time and she had serious doubts that this limping, wounded computer would recognize the codes as valid.

 

She could jump into a Jefferies Tube, find the point of severance and connect to the data trunk from there, sending the command to deactivate the shields directly. Anri was no engineer though, and navigating those maintenance tunnels looking for something she'd only physically seen in training scenarios was a daunting thought.

 

If they had EVA gear they could have someone do a point-to-point transport to the main deflector array dish and manually shut it down...but that was a nonstarter. They would have had to have planned for that prior to launching the mission to realistically make it work now.

 

...the shields were damaged though. Badly damaged. They'd fail on their own in another ten, fifteen minutes tops. In that condition, maybe the best way to lower them was just to force them down. Overload the entire array. A phaser blast could do it, but that would obviously not be ideal if they wanted survivors.

 

But it didn't have to be a phaser. Any release of energy that interacted with the subspace field created by the shield array would work. Even if it was harmless to the crew.

 

"Commander," she said, glancing over at the medic. "It's going to take too long to get the shields offline unless we overload the generators. Odyssey can come in closer and use its own deflectors to generate an inverse-phase field that overlaps this ship. These shields are so damaged, they'll burn out trying to fight it. I can send them what they need to generate the field, I just need you to give the order."

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She listens to the Lt, taking in what was said as she analysed the situation.

 

"How long will that take? He needs treatment now, and I need to know which grav field will be the first available."

 

She keeps looking for a way to move the crane, looking for the controls

 

"I'd rather teleport him than move him if possible"

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Bridge

Parker tapped her combadge activating it as she pushed off gently and moved over to the console the woman was working on.

 

"Cmdr Chen, this is Perry, I'm on the bridge," she looked over the readouts and frowned.

 

 "Commander, from what i'm seeing up here systems are still failing. I have a male human with a badly messed up leg I don't think I can move him. Dropping the shields at this time might hasten the vessels collapse. It's possible we could divert power to this ships transporters and use it for site to site beaming to get the wounded and our personnel back to the shuttle and evacuate the same way we got on board."

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"That's why I'm suggesting this," Anri replied tersely. "Every other solution to the shield problem involves several minutes at the very least. Overloading the shields will take seconds. I can upload the data from here, then all they have to do is configure the deflectors and activate them. If they're standing by at the transporter...they could bring everyone back immediately once the shields are offline. It's the fastest solution I can think of."

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Anri taps her commbadge and opens her own line to the ship.

 

"Odyssey, this is Lieutenant Jelal, acting on orders from Commander Idrudor. Bring the ship to one hundred meters from us and make the following changes to your shield harmonics."

 

She squinted slightly at the engineering display, set to show details of the subspace envelope of its shields. Using her PAD, Anri sent a diagram of the anti-harmonic specifications that would 'cancel' those out.

 

"Then extend the forward shields to include this ship. And have someone ready to transport us all out immediately once our shields fail."

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Engineering 

 

“Acknowledged, away team,” came Captain Saidi’s steady voice. “Stand by for beam out.”

 

Jelal watched on her screen, absentmindedly holding herself in place against the lack of gravity and waiting for the moment when they were removed from the rom. Idrudor waited tersely, prepared to start life-saving measures when they were beamed to the shuttlepod.

 

Bridge

 

Perry waited for Chen’s response to her statement…

 

All

 

The simulation ended without warning, though the gravity returned more slowly to allow the crewmembers to regain their feet. Sc’vhalles straightened as the weight on her shoulder disappeared. Idrudor stood slowly from her crouch next to her fake patient, and Jelal caught herself from falling over when the panel disappeared. Perry found herself facing Sc’vhalles across the room with no idea that the other crewmember had been in her line of sight. Chen blinked at the sudden disruption of reality, but unlike the others, she wasn’t allowed a moment to recoup. 

 

Her combadge beeped, followed by Captain Saidi’s clipped command, “Commander Chen, I’m afraid your drill is over. Please report to the bridge and send the other members of the drill to their stations.” 

 

“Yes Captain,” Chen said, nodding to the crew. “You heard her.” Everyone hustled out the door, bound for their usual duty stations. The only thing that travels faster than illness on a ship is gossip, so all of them knew that they had picked up a distress signal and were inroute by the time they reached those stations.

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Anoh quickly and efficiently packed her kit away, straightening her jacket as she then bolted for the medical bay.

 

She did her best to block out what would be a flood of emotions from everyone she passed, just focusing on running protocol through her head as she weaved around people.

 

Arriving back in sickbay, she shelved her kit and reported into the CMO.

 

"Do we have any information on what could be coming in?"

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Parker walked along with the first officer since they were both heading to the bridge. She had been on the Odyssey for less than a month and was still finding her way with the crew especially the Captain and First officer.

 

Her last captain had been on the tyrannical side and expected his officers to be just as by the book, initiative was to be taken only after obtaining permission. That play in the exercise would have drawn the ire of her former CO and a strong dressing down. Parker was wondering how it would have played out here had it gone forward. She cut her eyes at the Xo as the entered the TurboLift. Maybe now that their was a mission or a crisis she would finally get a reading on them.

 

Parker exited the bridge a step behind the XO and noticed the flurry of activity. She went straight to the helm station and tapped the ensign there on the shoulder and slid into the warm seat as the other left the station. A quick glance at the Lcars gave her the current course, speed systems status. Once satisfied she allowed herself a moment to breath and awaited orders.

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On the turbolift, Chen gave Parker a smile - something that most people found strange on her strongly Vulcan features until they got used to her. "That was clever, by the way. The transporter idea. Dangerous, but clever. That sort of out of the box thinking is what you need when you're out in the uncharted spaces; just make sure you weight the risks and have some sort of backup plan before you take a really big leap. What would you have done if we couldn't beam everyone to the shuttle? How would you have saved that man and yourself, since you would have been the farthest from the shuttle and the ship might be breaking apart at that point?" 

The tone of the questions was clearly more 'mental exercise' than actually looking for an immediate answer from the pilot. When the doors opened, Commander Chen's smile faded to a focused expression as she took her place next to the captain. "What's our situation?" she asked her superior. 

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The interruption to the training meant it wasn't actually time for her bridge shift to start yet, but Anri wasn't scheduled to be anywhere else either.

 

After a second to chew on it, she decided to head to the bridge early. She wouldn't have a place to sit before the other science officer on duty left, but it would mean she was up to speed when it was time to take over. Not technically a regulation move, but she was satisfied in her reasoning and if command staff had a problem with it they'd just tell her to leave.

 

She just missed Parker and Chen going into the turbolift, and took the next car up. When she got to the bridge Anri glanced around to see if there were any empty seats, then stood by the door, out of the way in case anyone else was coming up.

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Sick Bay

 

Dr. Bain glanced up at Cmd. Idrudor as the other doctor burst into the room. In front of him, a surgical tray had been laid out by Nurse Ijen. The quiet Bajorian was preparing another tray of tools appropriate for a wide array of emergency surgeries. Giving Idrudor a relaxed nod, he did one last scan of the instruments and hummed thoughtfully. “Well done, Nurse Ijen, as always,” he said.

 

Bain had a reputation for being a great doctor, and Idrudor had learned much under him. His habit of finishing whatever he was doing before answering her questions was a minor but notable irritation. Straightening, he moved the tray to the precise position he wanted it next to the exam bed and finally looked at her. 

 

“All I know,” he said in his deep, even baritone, “is that it’s a private research vessel of some type. It could be an honest ship, or some kind of black market lab. But she is in distress, and so we go. We could be facing anything, really. Ijen is setting up a tray for you, and we should have another two nurses soon, including your favorite.”

 

Aarkaine, feel free to decide who your favorite (or “favorite”, if you want Bain to be speaking sarcastically) nurse is, what they are, etc. I’ll add them to the NPC roster as I can.

 

Bridge

 

Capt. Saidi had been focused on the readouts on her chair arm, but at Chen’s voice, she glanced up. “The Archimedes, a freighter retrofitted into a private laboratory has sent out a distress call. They are close to the DMZ, but not over it.” She didn’t look back at Comms as she said, “Replay the message we received.”

 

“Yes, sir.” 

 

Almost before the Comms Officer had stopped talking, a badly fractured image appeared on the screen. An older human male, obviously not one following Star Fleet’s health and fitness recommendations, crouched in the captain’s chair. His voice and image cut in and out as he frantically said, “I’m Capt. Edgers of The --imedes. Our ship has sustained cat--for unknown reasons. We dropped --olently and have a major hull rupture. Warp -- losing atmosphere. I have -- the crew and -- lifepods. If you are rece--age, we are in dire --tance!”

 

“I have already changed course to intercept them,” Capt Saidi added as the message ended. “We are five minutes away by Warp 7.” Jelal came onto the bridge and settled against the wall, waiting for her turn at the science console.

 

The crew settled in to wait tersely for their arrival. The moment they were in range, Chen ordered the image on the screen.

 

A freighter rolled gently in space, its death-dance almost graceful in the void of space. “Open communications,” Saidi ordered. 

 

“No reply.”

 

“What is their status?” Saidi asked.

 

“I count two lifepods, one with two occupants, and one with three,” Ellis, the science officer on duty said. Spotting Jelal, he subtly waved her over to the console. As she came over, he continued, “There are thirteen lifeforms on the ship, but she hasn’t got long, Captain. There’s a major rupture of the hull -- looks like something twisted the ship along it’s y-axis, and the tension is creating a ‘zipper’ effect on the hull. Also, there’s some weird energy readings.” He silently pointed them out as Jelal leaned over his shoulder. 

 

“Define weird,” Saidi said sharply, glowering back at Ellis.

 

He looking imploringly at Jelal, who quickly said, “Spatial abnormalities of an unknown type, Captain. This area of space is showing instabilities on the quantum level. I recommend conducting our rescue and then moving to a safer distance.”

 

“I think you’re right,” the captain said and tapped her comm badge. “Transporter, beam over survivors immediately.”

 

After a pause, the tech said, “I can’t lock on the survivors with the transporter.”

 

Saidi’s fingers hit her badge again. “Engineering, start towing in lifepods with the tractor beam. I want an assessment for rescuing those on board without endangering my people.” She turned and looked at both Chen and Jelal.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Chen's easy-going Human demeanor slipped away into the neutral expression most people considered the only expression Vulcans had. She scanned the information on the command console at her chair and let the data free-fall in her mind for a moment. She shook her head, "With that spacial distortion I don't know that there is a course of action that's free from danger. We could send out our shuttles with transporter amplifiers in a sphere pattern to see if we could cut through the interference and lock on to the survivors. They could close in until either the amplifiers work or the shuttles are close enough for on-board rescue. That risks the fewest people, allows the Odyssey to keep a safe distance, and I think has the best chance of actually getting them out of there. Every other option I can think of either risks the Odyssey or leaves the rescue parties without the shielding of a shuttle craft if the ship does explode."

The XO glanced over to Lieutenant Jelal to see if the junior officer had any ideas of her own to propose.

Edited by Dawn OOC
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  • 6 months later...

Capt. Saidi considered Chen’s suggestion for a moment, and Lt. Jalel didn’t have a better idea at the moment. “Very well. Cmd. Chen, take the shuttles, and enact that plan.” She glanced at Perry. “Take our best pilots. I want to stack the deck so we come home safe.” 

 

“Yes, captain,” Chen said, rising and heading for the turbolift. She waved for Perry to join her, and the two women boarded and headed for the shuttlebay. Perry’s relief slipped into the chair as they left.

 

Saidi turned to Jalel and ordered, “Lieutenant Jalel, calculate the best formation for success of Cmd. Chen’s plan; try to keep our crews in transporter range, if possible. Keep the Odyssey at a safe distance, but not too safe -- I want to be able to assist the shuttles as necessary.” 

 

“Yes, sir!” Jalel said and dug into the calculations. Once done, she sent them to the shuttles’ crews. 

 

On the viewscreen, the Odyssey’s remaining bridge crew watched the shuttles maneuver to a rough circle around the beleaguered craft. “Amplifiers on, Captain,” Chen noted over the comms. “We can lock onto survivors, and we’re starting transportations to the shuttle.”

 

Jalel, monitoring the operation through her station, noted strange readings building on the dying ship. Frowning, she reported, “Captain, we have rising levels of tachyons, gravitons, and other particles unknown.”

 

“Are the rescue teams in danger?” Saidi asked.

 

“Unknown.” Jalel looked at her commanding officer, frustrated that she couldn’t offer more concrete information for her. “The particles aren’t dangerous in and of themselves, but their effects and interactions could be. I’d have to study before--”

 

“Source?”

 

“Definitely coming from the Archimedes, sir.”

 

“Cmd. Chen, we’re getting concerning readings here, so end operations and return to the Odyssey,” Saidi coolly ordered. 

 

“Aye, Captain,” Chen replied, only a hint of frustration in her voice. 

 

“How many have you rescued?” Saidi asked.

 

“Ten between the shuttles, sir.” Chen remained professional, but her desire to do more rang in her voice. When she spoke again, she was clearly excited: “Just got lock on another!”

 

“Hurry up, Commander,” Saidi said, and started to add something when Jalel spotted something.

 

“SIr, there is a growing energy field on the Archimedes, and it is rapidly expanding!” she called out. “It’ll engulf the shuttles in thirty seconds and the Odyssey in forty-five!”

 

Saidi hit her badge. “Captain to transporter, get everyone in the shuttles back to the Odyssey, now! Captain to all crew, brace for impact.”

 

“Energizing,” Ensign Choul replied smartly, then added, “I have ten of them sir, getting the remaining now.” 

 

On the view screen, the energy wave wasn’t visible but the distortion in visual space was. The bridge crew watched as it swept through the shuttles, making them ripple and start to list. “Sir, I have them!” Choul stated, and Saidi turned to helm, “Get us--”

 

The wave swept over the Odyssey, and the ship bucked under their feet. Bridge crew grabbed for consoles and seat arms, while the ship’s systems threw out nonsense for a few seconds. Light, painfully bright, swept over them, leaving a purple haze. Consoles shorted and sparked. When the wave had passed, the bridge crew found themselves blinking at one another -- except the tactical officer, who was nursing burn wounds to his face and neck. Smoke hung in the air as the life support system attempted to clear the air.

 

“All stations, report,” Saidi said hoarsely and tapped her badge. “Dr. Bain, burn team to the bridge.”

 

Spoiler

There are minor malfunctions on the ship, mostly from non-essential functions. All essential functions are operation or their backups are. If you’re on the bridge, feel free to make up damage reports. Injuries are more varied, as the ship got shaken, and there are some deaths. Otherwise, I’ll provide hard numbers next post.

 

Sickbay was fine one second; the next, the floor was shaking under their feet. Dr. Bain yelped and went down, while Lt. Ijen remained silent as he was thrown across an empty exam table. As everyone pulled themselves back up, Bain waved away hanging smoke and coughed, “Well, I think we’re about to have a lot more injuries than expected.”

 

The door opened and Lt. Komas entered, holding his wrist. The Hekaran nurse said dryly, “I think I’ve broken my wrist. Don’t suppose I could receive treatment before we get swamped?”

 

At the same time, Bain’s communicator chirped as Saidi ordered the burn team to the bridge.

 

Spoiler

Komas can be a good friend of Anoh’s, or he could be an irritant. So interact as you will. I haven’t set much of his personality yet, beyond resting sardonic face/voice. Also, I leave it up to you if Anoh is on the burn team or not. 

 

In the transporter room, Chen and Parker had just materialized when the ship moved under them. The inertial dampeners recovered quickly, but not before everyone but Choul was knocked to the floor. In addition to the eight Fleet personnel who had been manning the shuttles, there were eleven survivors, including a Klingon, a Cardassian in an exo-suit, two Antarans, and a variety of other people on the floors. Only two wore suits of any kind, and only the two Antarans had oxygen masks.

 

Spoiler

Yes, this is the group from True Emergencies. Simon still has a head wound to deal with; Joy, L’kron, Michal and Leana are uninjured. Tal’Vykk is non-responsive but alive for now. Feel free to make up more about the others. 

 

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The jerk of the ship sent Ellie tumbling to her left, but she was able to stand up quickly. Many others in the transporter room were not so fortunate. She did as good a visual triage of the situation as she could: several injuries and the Cardassian was unconscious. She pressed her combadge and after the small chirp called out, "Medical team to the Transporter room, we've got injuries and one unresponsive rescuee." 

"Lt. Tharn," she said, picking out one of the pilots that had more than minimal medical training, "supervise here until the medical team arrives. Everyone else, assist Tharn as needed, then return to your duty stations one the medical team releases you. Lt. Parker, with me to the bridge."

With that she made her way out of the transporter room and to the nearest turbolift, trusting her subordinates to follow through on their orders and do the best they could.

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