Time For Drills: Operations

Posted on 07 Jun 2020 @ 4:09pm by Ensign Quinn Mackie & Lieutenant JG Ian Beckett & Holographic Assistance and Support Avatar HASA

1,603 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Sentience
Location: Operations Center
Timeline: MD 2 || 1600 hours

"Greetings, Ensign Mackie," said a newly appeared avatar. Quinn turned to face the simulated woman, who seemed to share a remarkable likeness to his girlfriend. "In accordance with the simulated war games, the ship will sustain simulated damage. As a result of the simulated damage, some personnel will be assigned simulated injuries for the purpose of time trials, testing personnel response, and knowledge of procedure during such events. Others will be responding to damage and medical emergencies. This deck has taken a direct hit, and there is a hull breach. Cracking and hull fractures have compromised this entire section, and air is venting into space. Emergency forcefields have isolated this section of the ship."

The avatar did not acknowledge the remaining personnel in the room, and emotionlessly continued, "Decompression will be complete in five minutes. Communications and computer access are offline." Then, without another word, the avatar simply disappeared.

"Well, that's unusual," Quinn remarked. "Okay, so we have five minutes to figure out how to free ourselves," he told the rest of the group.

"Ensign?" asked a nearby crewman. He pointed to an environmental readout. "I think we're losing air."

Quinn crossed the operations center to see the display. If the readouts could be trusted, and weren't simulated, then time was running out to save their lives.

"Well crap," said Ian. "That sucks. No pun intended there. But, we're isolated in this section and need to get out of here with no communications or computer. So," he began looking around the room, "what do we have that we could use to physically open the door."

Quinn looked around, wondering what they could do for a lever. "We need something thin, but strong. Like a pipe or something."

Ian looked around and starting moving things. There was surely something tucked around here someplace that would work. At the end of it all, he decided to remove a narrow rectangular panel. "Will this work?"

Quinn glanced over to Ian and saw what he had found. "We can try it," he said, motioning for Ian to come join him by the door. He reached out to feel a weak point in the middle of the door frame, but instantly recoiled when he felt the twinge of a forcefield. "Uh oh," he muttered. "Looks like we've got a new challenge."

Calissa's brain began to work. "So we are stuck, locked down, and need to get out of here. As drills go, this is like the escape rooms me and my brother used to do. If it's an emergency force field, there is a generator within the door frame somewhere. Does anyone have a tricorder?"

Ensign Mackie pulled his out and tossed it at Ensign Patton. At the same time, the computer droned through the speakers, "Four minutes until total decompression."

"You know," Ian commented, "that cold, droning voice is making this feel a lot worse. Let's get to that generator."

Quinn left the doorway and ran to a nearby tool chest. He dug around for a few moments before surfacing with a tricorder and a flux decoupler. "What if we set this decoupler to maximum and try to overload the forcefield with it?"

Ian nodded slowly. "That could work. If it overloads the forcefield generator, we might be able to overload the door. Make it easier to pry open and get out quicker. Especially if we're losing air like the crewman said earlier."

"And I can keep an eye on the power levels in the frame itself, and adjust the route the power takes, to prevent the forcefield from reestablishing. It would only keep the forcefield down for ninety seconds or so, so that gives us a window to get the door open and exit." Patton replied while tapping the various keys on her tricorder.

Quinn took off his uniform jacket. He thumbed the power button on the tool into the "on" position, and wrapped his jacket tightly around the handle, hoping that it would insulate him from any potential blowback. "Here we go," he muttered. Quinn took a deep breath, and shoved the tool into the forcefield.

The forcefield looked like it caught fire as it was overcharged by the tool. Quinn held it against the forcefield, even as the uniform jacket caught fire. He continued to hold despite the flames, preparing to give up the moment it became unbearable. The forcefield flashed and disappeared. "Beckett! Now!"

Ian shoved the rectangular panel in the small space between the doors and started pushing and wedging it. He managed to get it open enough for some fingers to fit between. "Quick! Someone grab that door and I'll grab this one! And pull!"

Quinn, having dropped his burning uniform and melted tool, grabbed the other door panel and started to heave. He growled and grunted, trying to force the door open, feeling air brush past his fingers as the decompressing room began to refill itself. "Come... on..."

Ian felt the rush of air and put his head a little closer to get a breath of fresh air in the hopes that it gave him more 'oomph.' He pulled and grunted with the new bit of air, "Work..." The doors parted a little more. "Patton, a hand or two?"

Putting the tricorder in her belt, Calissa grabbed the other half of the door and began to help Ian pull them apart. "Almost there..." she said through gritted teeth."

Quinn grunted more, still putting all his strength into forcing the panel open. A few seconds later, after it seemed that nothing would make this door move, the mechanisms gave way and the panel slid inside the wall. "Quickly!" Quinn shouted. "Everyone out!"

No one had to tell Ian twice. He leapt through the door and rolled across the corridor against the wall. "Come on! Operations, roll out!" He chuckled, rubbing the back of his head.

Calissa jumped toward the now open doorway, and got through as quick as she could, once on the other side, turned to see if the forcefield had reset itself. "Everyone have all their extremities?" She asked with a laugh.

As soon as the last person cleared the Operations center, the forcefield clicked back into place. Decompression alarms continued to sound on the inside of the room, but at least everyone was safe. "Everyone good?" Quinn asked. "We got everyone out, right?"

Ian looked around. "Um, I don't see that crewman from earlier. I think..." he trailed off and pointed to the door. "I think he's still in there."

The color drained from Quinn's face. "Who's got the tricorder?" he asked as he tried to get as close as possible to the forcefield without touching it and flooding his nervous system with electricity. "Hello?" he shouted past the door frame.

Ian picked up a tricorder from the floor next to him and stood. He began scanning the interior of the room they were just in. "I'm not detecting any atmosphere. The decompression alarms seem to be real."

"What about lifesigns?" Quinn asked. If he had a tricorder, he would have checked for those as well. "Could he have made it into a Jeffries tube? The junction here should have a couple oxygen tanks to buy him half an hour or so."

"Hang on," Ian said. "Jeffries tube...yeah, there's a lifesign. So half an hour, he should be able to find a way to another tube in that time."

"That's assuming that we can repressurize this section and get past the forcefields in the next thirty minutes." Quinn sighed. He just about turned to issue some orders to a couple of the crewmen to check the nearby sections when he remembered that Lieutenant Akorem had appointed Ensign Patton as the Assistant Chief. "Ma'am, permission to check the nearby sections to verify everyone's okay?"

"Uh, yes. Of course Ensign." Having only recently been appointed, it still felt strange to her to be giving orders. Remembering all the problems with the last force field, 30 minutes did not seem like a lot of time. "How many force fields are we looking at between us and him?"

Ian checked the tricorder again. "Well, we have the one we just went through. But if we have to back through it, we'll have to find some EVA suits. And it looks like the computer sealed off the Jeffries tube entrance with one. So, two between us and him. The rest of the Operations Center...looks like several areas have been sealed off for some reason." Ian looked over at Quinn. "Be careful. I'm not detecting any reason as to why the fields were raised. Well, other than what the hologram started us out with."

"Is there any air left in those sections that are locked off?" Quinn asked Lieutenant Beckett. "Or was Operations just an isolated incident?"

Ian adjusted the tricorder. "Looks like Operations was an isolated incident. Oddly enough."

Very odd Patton thought. "Clearly HASA has some issues. I will definitely bring that up with Lieutenant Akorem. Where's our nearest EVA locker? Do we even have time to get one and get back through all the force fields?"

"It's in the next section over," Ensign Mackie replied, pointing off to the left. "Should be a set of six near Auxiliary Control."

Lieutenant Beckett nodded. "Then let's get to it and see if we can save a crewman and find out what's going on in this place."

"Sounds like a plan, Lieutenant. We don't have much time." Patton replied, doing the calculations in her head for how much oxygen would remain there by the time they got the EVA suits.

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