Sd 241602.06 Away team joint log Part I: CEO EO SCI/Ops

Posted on Sun Feb 7th, 2016 @ 6:14am by Lieutenant Jera'turak Ros & Lieutenant Kev Walker & Ensign Elanawen Valenar
Edited on on Sun Feb 7th, 2016 @ 6:14am

1,110 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: The Rules of Acquisition

By the time Jera had arrived at the bridge of the Carolina, the fusion reactor had generated enough power to activate minimal systems ship wide. The lights, turbo lift, and full life support systems had come online and the batteries had gone into hibernate mode. All they had to do was make it to the nebula and wait for the rest of the systems to power up and then they would be home free. At least, that was the plan. Jera had barely taken two steps onto the bridge when the Carolina shook violently. "What the hell?" she muttered as she stumbled across the bridge.


"The Ferengi skiffs are firing at us," Elanawen reported as she fired the thrusters in an effort to engage evasive maneuvers. On a modern ship at full power, simple maneuvers were easy, but on an antique like the Carolina with only thrusters, it was a bit more difficult. Even as she tried to bank the ship to starboard, a series of direct hits slammed into the Carolina.


"I thought the Endeavour disabled their sensor arrays and weapons systems," Jera said as she pulled herself into the chair beside Valenar. "They couldn't have repaired their ship's that quickly."


"Unless we underestimated them, or the Endeavour might have only crippled those systems. The only other possibility is that they repaired the weapons systems and are firing blind," Elanawen commented as she fired the thrusters at full power. Even with full thrusters, the Carolina was too big and moving too slow to escape into the nebula that promised refuge from the attack.


"Walker, we need impulse power right now!" Jera snapped into the away team's open commline.


"Engines are just now coming online and the reactor needs another few hours before it's generating enough power to engage the impulse drive. We're at thrusters only right now, and I'm giving you as much as I dare to give you," Kev said as he flipped a series of switches and watched the master display panel in engineering. A series of lights were flashing red, and he had no idea what that meant. "I've got a bunch of blinking red dots on the master display down here and no idea what they mean."


"Either we have a hull breach or it means we don't have shields," Elanawen suggested as her hands flew over the helm console. She had had a few minutes to read over the manual, so she had learned a bit more about the helm controls. She flipped a switch and pressed three buttons, trying to realign some of the thrusters in an effort to gain more maneuverability. When nothing worked, she muttered under her breath and flipped a bank of switches, firing the thrusters and trying to direct the Carolina into a zig zag pattern.


Jera watched Valenar for a moment before she nodded, then turned her mind towards the primary problem. They needed more thrust in order to get to the threshold of the nebula. "We need more speed," she said.


"You've got everything I can give you right now, boss!" Kev shouted over the panel of alarms that suddenly rang out. "I've got problems down here!"


Jera started to ask what but was cut off at another direct hit slammed into the Carolina. "If they keep that up we're going to have a hull breach," she said.


"Lieutenant, I have an idea on how we can gain a few seconds of extra speed. You won't like it," Elanawen said as she changed direction and tried to jig the Carolina's bow upwards. Just as soon as the thrusters fired, she altered directed and angled the bow back down.


"Any idea is a good one right now," Jera said as another hit shook the ship. "In fact, I'll take anything you can suggest."


"We can seal off the shuttle bays internal bulkhead doors and blow the main shuttle bay external doors. The pressurized air will blow out the back and we'll gain a few seconds of additional forward thrust. It'll be enough to get us to the nebula threshold," Elanawen suggested as she fought the helm controls. Keeping the Carolina going in any heading with thrusters only while the Ferengi were beating the ship about was proving to be rather difficult, but she was enjoying the challenge.


"Wait a minute, you want to seal off an entire section of the ship and then blow a hole through the hull into open space by explosive decompression just for a few seconds of additional speed? Are you freaking crazy?" Kev shouted over the alarms that were ringing throughout engineering.


"She may be on to something, Walker," Jera said. "Can you do it?"


"I'm trying to hold engineering together and not get us killed by having something down here explode! Now you want me to actually blow part of the ship up!" Kev snapped.


"If I remember correctly, older Starfleet ship's had an explosive ejection override on the shuttle bay doors. You should be able to engage the override and blow the aft doors. As long as you seal the internal blast doors, then Valenar's idea might just work," Jera said as another series of hits rocked the ship.


"This is crazy!" Kev shouted as he grabbed a support bar and hung on as the ship rocked under the attack. "Alright, alright. I'll get right on it. But if something else blows up don't blame me!"


"If something else blows up, you get to tell me I told you so," Jera said.


"You!" Kev shouted at the security guard who was staggering to someplace safe in engineering. "Take over and keep an eye on the readouts here."

"It's Hansel!" the security nco shouted as he stumbled over.

"Yeah yeah, just watch these indicators here," Kev said as he pointed towards a series of lights on the master display. They were blinking between green and yellow. "If they turn orange or red, let someone know."

"What does that mean?" Hansel asked.

"It means we're about to blow up," Kev said before he hurried out of engineering. Running through the corridors of a starship that was shaking from phaser beams hitting directly against the hull was difficult at best, it was even worse because Kev had to climb a Jefferies tube ladder as well. Under the circumstances, there was no way he was going to trust a turbo lift. Making it to the shuttle bay, he paused to catch his breath, using the time to study the control panel at the shuttle bay control room. "Hey, Ros, the master control doesn't have a door ejection option," he said after a few moments.

Tbc...

 

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