Ring Around The Rosies
Posted on Wed Apr 29th, 2020 @ 2:38am by Commodore Jane Saulitis & Lieutenant Commander Angus Murphy & Commander Dominic Aldrich & Lieutenant Laural Hawke & Lieutenant Commander T'Par & Lieutenant Orin Sempton
Mission:
Cruel Meridian
Location: Brige/Engineering.Various locations on the ship
Timeline: MD 6
3683 words - 7.4 OF Standard Post Measure
[Bridge]
Jane sipped the last of her coffee and set it down on her desk. Deciding that she should perhaps make an appearance at least once during her shift she walked through the door and toward her chair just as time seemed to stop. She locked eyes with her XO and didn't even manage to get out a breath before the ship lurched, sending her flying against a console as it suddenly tipped to one side while still in motion.
Stood at the security console, Lhaes grabbed the edge in reflex, but his fingers only caught air as he was thrown against the console behind him. He grunted as he landed flat on his back, wind knocked from his lungs.
"Status report! Is everyone okay?" Hanover barked from his seat situated near the center of the bridge. The coffee he had been enjoying just moments prior had been wrenched from his hands, soaking some of his uniform jacket in scalding hot liquid. Amidst the assault on his senses, Jared could feel the first pang of pain emanating from his right side as the sudden lurch had thrown him against the side of his chair. He slowly limped his way over to where Jane had fallen, eyes searching around the bridge as he looked for anyone else who might need immediate medical attention.
"What the..."
The voice belonged to Lieutenant Sullivan sitting at the conn. She had been deep in idle chit-chat with her counterpart from operations when the event occurred, slamming her unprotected ribs into the console. It took every milliliter of self-control and discipline she had to keep herself from screaming in pain.
"Sir, uh," Sullivan managed through labored breaths, "something major... I think... I think one of the nacelles has an issue."
"Bridge to Ensign O'Sullivan, report to your bridge station immediately," Jared ordered over the PA. Without missing a beat, he gestured to a nearby red-shirt, directing him to assist the chief helmswoman. "Take her to sickbay immediately. And don't even think about protesting, lieutenant. We need you at your best."
"Aye, sir," Lilith replied through gritted teeth.
"Well captain," Hanover grinned as he helped her to her feet. "That's certainly one way to make an entrance."
Jane had the wind knocked out of her but was able to breath slowly again. She was pretty sure that she had a couple of bruised ribs from the experience though, as breathing hurt. "Yeah, well you know me, always the center of attention," Jane quipped back. "Define issue Lieutenant," She replied to Sullivan.
Lilith lurched to a halt as unceremoniously as the ship had done, leaning against the crewman who had been helping her towards the bridge with a good portion of her weight. The amount of distress she was in was evident by the furrow in her brow and the strained manner in which she spoke, but she still felt obligated to stop and answer the question.
"I didn't believe it at first, but the alerting system tried to warn us. The nacelle just... stopped working," she winced in pain. "I'm sorry commander, but I don't have any other ideas that aren't just pure conjecture at this point," Sullivan stumbled. The crewman kept her from falling to the floor.
"Get to sickbay, lieutenant. Thank you Lilith," Jared nodded. His respect for the pilot was galvanized.
Sulllivan slowly took a labored step towards the turbolift. "Commander Murphy will know," she called out before disappearing behind the closing doors.
"Ensign O'Sullivan, please take over." Jane said. She felt guilty for demanding more information when she hadn't realized her helmsman was hurt. It was a good thing that her XO wasn't a Betazoid in her opinion. She tapped her communicator. "Bridge to engineering, what happened. We've apparently suddenly dropped out of warp?"
Ian had rushed to the bridge after the jolt knocked him off his chair in his quarters and the XO summoned him to the bridge. He only now realized that he didn't tap his comm badge to respond that he was on the way. He passed Sullivan leaning heavily on another crewman. He gave her a worrying glance but quickly slid into the conn station as engineering started to reply.
"We've got an issue with a nacelle, Captain." Murph's voice replied with barely a delay. "We're registering damage. I've got a team on the way to check into it. In the meantime, the warp engines are off-line."
Vannan had reflexes from her Gymnastic hobby; she had learn a long time ago when Gravity took hold allow it to do what it would and in going with the flow less damage inflicted. Most 'hurt' on a person came from fighting the force; so when Vannan was thrown from her chair she reflexivly tucked and rolled. Only she had not counted on the rise of the outer platform stopped her a bit before she would have, yet she would have a little bruse and be okay in a day or two.
"Remind me not to pay so much attention to Chit Chat..." She scolded herself and rolled to one side using the railing to help her scramble to her feet and back to her console. "Getting Damage Contol evaluation reports going ma'am." Vannan had her fingers dancing across the OPS panel. "Activating Damage Control crews to initial sections." She reported; glad she wore tights rather than hose under her skirt today with her ever present bloomers just for events like this.
"Send me what you've got so far to my chair, Lieutenant Vannan," Jared nodded from his chair in the command cluster. "Let's get our people and equipment moving to where they need to be."
"Loss of power on decks seven and nine, hull buckling being shored up near the sections surrounding the Nacelles and at the junction between the primary and secondard hulls due to Space Frame torque associated with a sudden stop." Vannan relayed. "Crews reporting mostly minor damage no major issues thus far Sir."
She relayed the decks that needed the junctions checked to reconnect the main power grid; the bending of the hull was within parameters but not recommended. The repairs were numerous but minor and would eventually be repaired. Considering the lack of complaints or urgent calls from crews Vannan was willing to bet the Majestic got off easy compared to what could have happened.
"Well, some good news at least," Hanover nodded. "Thank you, lieutenant."
Lhaes groaned as he pulled himself up at his console. "What was that?" he asked, his ears still ringing from his fall. "Shall I put us on yellow alert?"
"No," Jane replied, "now that the warp engines are offline I think we're all right. At least we're still in Federation territory."
"Something is not adding up, captain," Hanover surmised as he thought out loud. Most of his attention was turned towards prioritizing which damaged subsystems needed the most attention, an old habit from his three decades spent as an engineer. His thoughts bounced back and forth between concern for Lilith's well-being, the ship's condition, admiration for the work that Commander Murphy's team was doing, and a thousand other variables that were at play.
"There's gotta be," he continued, rubbing his chin in thought, "some sort of explanation other than circumstance and bad luck. Can we be certain there was no external influence, Commander Sommers? No weapons fire, nothing outside of normal parameters that could disrupt our systems or our warp field?"
"Certain?" Lhaes shook his head as he tried to keep his attention to his readings. "No sir, we can't be certain, but we can't rule it out either. I see no evidence of any kind of attack, and internal sensors show no abnormalities either. However, that doesn't mean nothing happened as obviously it did. But security systems haven't flagged anything unusual."
"I think we need to hold our position, not that we're capable of going far fast, and have a senior staff briefing. This is not the first issue that's popped up lately and somehow I think they may be related," Jane was frowning as she tried to piece together the puzzle in her head. Next to her, Jared stopped and looked up from tapping some commands into the console. His eyes grew wide as he began to connect the dots that the captain was referring to.
"You don't think," his voice trailed off.
"Feelings of deja vu, the crew seeing themselves, the nacelle running out of fuel." She didn't explicitly say what she was thinking. "We need all senior officers in the observation lounge, as soon as everyone's been seen in sickbay." Jane needed to go herself at some point. Every breath hurt but she wanted to make sure things were stable first.
"Understood. The damage seems to be under control for the moment thanks to Lieutenant Vannan's team," Jared took another look at his console to confirm his statement. "Do you need to go to sickbay, captain?" he had noticed Jane's shortness of breath. His own pain had dulled significantly, enough for him to notice the smell of the previously spilled coffee wafting to his nose.
"Eventually," she responded, wanting to make absolutely sure that her ship was not in danger before she went anywhere.
He gave a single nod of understanding.
[Engineering]
"Report!" Lieutenant Commander Murphy yelled as he pushed himself upright from the middle of the engineering floor. He'd hit his knee when the ship tilted and threw him down, but the pain barely registered as he spun around to get some clue on the state of the the ship.
Chief Petty Officer Noble Cravens was already at the master systems display, the large display table where many of the ship's critical functions can be monitored. "Starboard nacelle, Murph. Damage to exterior panel 73 and plasma relay 12. Did we hit something? How on god's green earth did they manage to hit something all the way out here?"
"Bridge to engineering, what happened. We've apparently suddenly dropped out of warp?" the Captain's voice inquired over the intercom.
Murphy groaned and opened the channel. He didn't have any answers he thought the bridge would want to hear right now. They would certainly know already if they struck something, so he only offered up the facts and not conjecture. "We've got an issue with a nacelle, Captain. We're registering damage; I've got a team on the way to check into it. In the meantime, the warp engines are off-line." He closed the channel when he spotted an enlisted engineer. "Petty Officer! You and Cravens are going up to check it out."
[Lower Decks]
== Mess Hall ==
"Whoah!" Patrick cried out as he barely avoided being showered by hot soup. "What's going on here!"
Bert had landed on the tray of food he was carrying for both himself and Princess Leyana. He instantly regretted choosing the hot lasagna as the heat began to seep through his top and burn his skin. He pushed himself up and brushed the remains of the lasagna off him before looking at the table were the Princess was sat. Seeing she was on the floor he quickly got to his feet and ran over to where she was laying.
“M’lady, are you ok?” Bert asked concern evident in his voice.
Leyana grunted as she sat up. "I think so..." She looked him over and took note of his stained and thoroughly soaked uniform. "Are you? That doesn't look very comfortable, you should take that off before you burn. Maybe chef has a spare shirt?"
“I think it has already burnt.” Barr replied as he winced a little in pain. “Are you ok though?” He asked before slowly taking his shirt off. It was the second time today he’d had to take his shirt off due to an incident.
"I'm fine. If space travel is always this adventurous, I might come to like it." She smiled back at him. "How about you?" She reached for a nearby napkin and started to gently wipe off the sauce remains.
Patrick emerged from the kitchen, looking a little pale but otherwise unharmed. "Everyone alright here?" He asked as he did his best not to stare at the now half dressed officer.
Leyana shot him a hard to miss glare for the interruption.
“Yes yes, I’ll be fine and the Princess is my responsibility.” Barr said waving him away.
"Okay..." Patrick glanced between them, almost cowering at the royal's withering glare. "I'll be in the kitchen if you need anything."
Leyana turned back to Herbert, her expression softening. "Are you sure you're alright?"
Bert wanted to put a brave front but the burns to his chest were causing him a lot of discomfort. “That food was very hot.” He winced.
"We should go home... or at least past sickbay. That burn looks like it needs treating." She cast him her most no-nonsense look she could muster, as she wanted no arguments. "It does need treating," she added.
Bert reluctantly nodded, “Alright.” He said as he tried to push himself to his feet. The pain was awful as the burnt skin on his chest moved and stretched as he tried to pick himself up.
Cassie and Jennifer were on their way to the Intel department, as they were going to pick apart the betrothal contract with Lieutenant T'Par, when the ship lurched and sent both of them flying across the corridor. Cassie broke her fall with the hand that had been treated that very morning, a jolt of pain going right up to her shoulder. She ignored it, looking frantically around for her friend, and immediately crawling to her side when she saw her.
"You ok?" she asked in a panic, as both of them sat up against the bulkhead and caught their breaths.
Jennifer nodded. "Yeah, probably just a bruise. You?"
Cassandra rested her right wrist in her left hand, and winced in pain. "Twice today," she responded. "I'm getting myself to sickbay. Check on the princess and her entourage, then go home, yeah?"
Zeria had just been putting some seeds into pots to put into the hydroponics pipes when the ship lurched. Caught totally unprepared for it she was thrown across the room and landed with a thud, the dirt from the pots dumping all over her body and into her dark hair. She had no idea what happened but knew better than to clog up the communications by asking Dom. She would return to his quarters, once she had brushed off most of the dirt, and await further instructions.
Having spent the afternoon looking for a good romantic spot for their next date, Razmi was crawling around Jefferies tubes until she'd come to an observation port that wasn't easy to get to. She tumbled out and smacked straight into the corner of the tube, knocking herself unconscious.
Tadez collected himself off the floor, having been thrown he felt like a bad fall during one of his sparring sessions. He swore that might leave a mark; maybe just a bruise? He could see the others in the Intel area and stumbled to a table with a monitor to get a ship status called up on screen.
"Everybody still in one piece?" He asked about.
Laural pushes herself back onto her feet and quickly looked around, “yea, we really fine” she said, heading to the closest console and getting to work.
"Glad to see you are not hurt Laura." Tadez commented. "Not all that much that we can do at a stop." He tapped his Comm Badge. "Tadez to Razmi..." No answer. "Tadez to Razmi.." Another silent reply. Computer locate Civilian Razmi."
[Coom signal in Deck seven corridor 23, no lock can be made as sensory priorities in effect.] The computer acknowledged.
Grabbing his tricorder and Phaser he clipped both to opposite sides of his Belt line.
"Nothing to do hre for the moment Intel wise." He said as he moved to the door. "Hold down the fort please." He requested as he moved to the door. "This is not like her."He commented.
Laural nodded, “yea sure, I’ll be here”
T'Par stepped out of her office almost immediately after Tadez left. She had already received her transfer orders and had been quietly bringing a few things to closure. There was a greenish bruie on her left cheek but she was ignoring it completely. "Is anyone injured out here?"
Laural shook her head, “not that I know of, advantage of having a small department I guess, not many people to worry about” she said, turning to face T’Par, “though you should probably get that checked out when you can. It looks pretty nasty”
"I will," she agreed. "Where did Lieutenant Tadez go?"
Natasha grabbed the side of her desk to pull herself up and winced in pain. There was a small cut on her left arm where she had dropped and broken her coffee mug. It should be fine, she thought. What the hell, though?
Sickbay to Bridge, is everyone all right? What happened, captain?
"We're checking but something triggered the warp engines to promptly shut down, a problem with one of the nacelles. You'll probably be getting minor injury reports from all over the ship and Lieutenant Sullivan is on her way down to you with some abdominal injuries. Everyone else is well enough." Jane tapped her commbadge and ended the conversation.
The instant that Jane's disembodied voice stopped broadcasting over the PA, the doors leading into sickbay opened to admit Lieutenant Sullivan. By now, the pilot was completely dependent on the young enlisted man walking beside her for mobility. She struggled towards the biobed nearest to the door and laid down on her back, feebly wiping away a thin lacquer of sweat that was beginning to form on her forehead. The pilot had a fair complexion at the best of times, but her visage was now unhealthily pale.
"Please help her." The red-shirt, now free of his burden, frantically waved towards the approaching medical staff. "She's having trouble breathing, I think she hit her console on the bridge with her side."
Sekat approached them, feeling even more unsteady on his feet now that the deck felt off-kilter to him. "Can you talk?" he asked the helmswoman, as he offered her his free arm for support. "Natasha!" he called out, feeling the CMO might be needed.
"Barely," Sullivan managed to wheeze out. The pain continued to increase as the lights above the biobed flickered in the pilot's vision. Rather worryingly, a section of her rib cage seemed to be moving contradictory to the normal rise and fall of her breath.Then, without much warning at all, she fainted on the biobed.
Natasha finished wrapping the bandage around her arm as she rushed over to the bed. "Shit," she said, more to herself than to anyone else as she looked at the woman on the bed. She looked up at Sekat. "Sullivan, I'm going to sedate you so I can patch you up, okay? You're going to be just fine, I promise."
Orin tumbled backward over the open footlocker, the Astrarium he'd been placing into its transparent aluminum display case flew from his grip and shattered on the floor in a spray of cogwheels and brass fittings. He, himself, fair little better than the machine, landing in a crumpled pile among the historic items he was using to decorate. He managed a single thought before unconsciousness took him.
It's always the first mission after I come aboard, that things go to Gre'thor.
Lieutenant Commander Aldrich was having a rather routine day thus far. Today was not his day to work from the Bridge, so he has decided to go down to the main sensor array to work on some of the issues he had seen crop up in the system, as they always did, after normal maintenance. He was lying on his back having just rolled from his side and placing the cover to the interface panel outside of the small work space. Suddenly, he slid violently, head first through a curtain of flexible conduits that ran beneath the main console. As he slid, a set of them became wrapped around his neck. They were loose at first, but tightened the second he decided to move after coming to a stop. With his arms pinned in the small space, he tried to remain calm, all the while trying to remember if he had filed where he would be working this morning.
Qurrac was just getting himself up off the deck, being small and less weight per inch did seem to be in his favor as he just relexivly landed like being thrown in sparring.
"Good to be light on your feet' as Sensai used to tell me." He got up but had a sore shoulder from the point of impact. "Wo hit the brakes?" He questioned as he grabbed his phaser, a tricorder and First aid kit. "Time to do the real job." He set off into the corridor.
There would be wounded; probibly not major, but anyone not tied or strapped down would have taken a spill. Qurric had First Aid basics from field training so he could help a bit and also secure any vital areas along the way. Main lighting seeemed to be going so the ship had power and no major HUll alerts for Breeching is a good sign.
He would do what he could as he patrolled for people hurt.
Commander Jared Hanover
Executive Officer
Lieutenant Lily Sullivan
Chief Flight Control Officer
(PNPC Hanover)
Captain Jane Saulitis
Commanding Officer
Lieutenant Commander Lhaes Sommers
Chief Tactical/Security Officer
Patrick O'Malley
Chef
pnpc Lhaes
Princess Leyana
Alien Royal
npc Lhaes
Ensign Ian O'Sullivan
Flight Control Officer
Lt. JG Nichelle Vannan
Chief OPS Officer
Lieutenant Commander Dominic Aldrich
Chief Science Officer
Herbert Barr
Mission Advisor
Lieutenant Commander Natasha Stark
Chief Medical Officer
Lieutenant Laural Hawke
Encryptions Specialist
Lieutenant T'Par
Assistant Chief Science Officer
