Meeting in the Corridor (Time Zone 4)

Posted on 28 Jul 2018 @ 8:20am by Ensign Quinn Mackie & Lieutenant JG Jazmin Parks

616 words; about a 3 minute read

Mission: Fractured
Location: USS Black Hawk, Deck 13
Timeline: TZ 4 || 0930 hours

Jazmin continued on down the corridor as she made her rounds. She was still feeling great about her latest adventure with Catherine on the holodeck. It really did wonders for her emotional state to be involved in something that she didn't totally make a fool of herself at.

Dammit Jazmin! You need to get over that. The Commander hasn't mentioned it since you've returned, and no one else has either! Get over it!

Jazmin nodded to herself. She just wished the words coming out of her mouth were as wise as the ones in her head. She sighed just then, forcing herself to focus on her duties. While she didn't expect there to be any problems on board, the old adage of life on a starship spoke to her even now. Life on a starship is six months of boredom, followed by fifteen minutes of sheer, blinding terror."

Couldn't help but smile at the thought.

Then the fifteen minutes of sheer terror happened.

She was thrown from her feet as the ship was violently rocked. Hitting the wall hard, bouncing off and then rolling several meters down the corridor, Jazmin fought to stay conscious. When she finally stopped rolling she rose to her hands and knees.

"Computer! What just happened!"

The lighting started to flicker on and off as she waited for a response.

The computer whirred slowly in reply, as if it had been running for a very long time. "Unable to comply. Primary systems are in standby mode. Access is limited to command stations."

Nearby, Ensign Quinn Mackie had been performing maintenance on an EPS tap when the ship decided to act like a carnival ride and shake the crew about. Though his tools were strung about, he'd managed to avoid being knocked out. After learning that no one was responding to his combadge, Quinn took off for the Operations center thinking that he might be needed elsewhere, only to find Lieutenant Parks standing in a different corridor section. "Lieutenant?" he called out. "What's going on?"

Jazmin stood, leaning on the wall with one hand, head dropped, gathering her wits. She took a deep breath and let it out slow. She looked at Ensign Mackie, her expression determined.

"You know as much as I do, Ensign. Stay calm and we'll figure this out." She smiled reassuringly. "At least we know who we are this time."

=/\= "Lieutenant Parks to the Bridge, what's happening?" =/\=

While she waited for a response she turned back to Mackie, "The ship was obviously struck by...something. Do you have any additional information?"

Quinn shook his head. "I was performing maintenance nearby on the section's EPS tap when someone decided to rock the boat." It was only then that he noticed something was different. The more he spoke, the more he realized it. "Does the air seem stale to you?" he asked, starting to look around for a access panel to check the environmental controls.

Jazmin sighed in frustration. No one was answering comms. At Mackie's observation about the air being stale, she took a deep breath and had to agree.

"You're right, it does seem a bit stale. Life support may have been damaged." She opened a nearby Jefferies tube access. "Security is only one deck up, let's get there and see what's going on with the ship."

Jazmine entered the tube and began climbing. "Come on Ensign!"

Quinn had little option other than to follow the Lieutenant. Whatever was happening was perhaps one of the most unusual things he'd ever seen, apart from a tricolbalt torpedo interacting with thalaron radiation to punch a hole between universes. Hopefully whatever was wrong here was nothing like that...

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