A Helping Hand

Posted on 12 Jul 2021 @ 8:55am by Commodore Harvey Geisler & Ensign Quinn Mackie & Commander Terry Walsh & Lieutenant Parker Voss & Lieutenant Jennin Rhula & Conrad Hawkingsson & Ensign Kelly Khan

2,114 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Extinction
Location: USS Black Hawk
Timeline: Mission Day 19 at 1000

Ensign Mackie, one of many junior Operations officers aboard the Black Hawk, was enjoying a rare moment on the bridge during alpha shift. Lieutenant Akorem was elsewhere aboard the ship, tending to usual department head duties, allowing Quinn to spend some time on the bridge. Aside from sitting next to the love of his life, Ensign Kelly Khan, who manned the helm at the fore of the bridge, Quinn found the time to be quite boring. He very much preferred getting his hands dirty with some sort of repair or diagnostic. But here, all he could do was watch the external sensors, and keep an eye on power consumption throughout the ship.

Aside from spending the last hour thinking he should change his field of interest, Quinn found himself wondering why anyone wanted to be on the bridge at all.

A series of beeps suddenly came from his console. After two seconds of silence, the beeps repeated themselves. Finally! Something to do!

"Captain," Quinn said, after checking the alert and spotting something unusual on sensors, "we're picking up a burst of energy on the short-range sensors, almost a lightyear away. Looks like... a micro supernova."

Harvey Geisler, who had been reading a padd in the center seat, stood up to approach the Operations station. "A what?"

"Sir," Quinn said, leaning forward to check the readings and conduct a new scan. "The readings indicate that there was a supernova, but nothing on a true stellar scale. I'm also picking up traces of duranium, deuterium... looks like a ship... and debris."

Harvey frowned. He had to admit that the notion of a miniature supernova was far-fetched, but if his time in the Gamma Quadrant had taught him anything, it was that life was filled with the unexpected and the abnormal. "Helm, set an intercept course, maximum warp. Bridge to Engineering and sickbay, standby for response teams."

Kelly listened and set in the course for the coordinates, then sent the Black Hawk to its maximum warp and engaged the warp engines. She watched space warp in front of her as the warp bubble formed around the ship and the distance and time began to close with every millisecond that passed. "Course laid in and engaged, maximum warp, Captain," she reported but wondered what could survive a supernova, no matter how big or small. Odds were good they'd pick up some scrap, maybe some residue biological residue and find out what happened from there.

Voss responded to the captain, "Engineering standing by, captain."

"Understood," Rhula replied. He leaned back from the desk where he was working and took a deep breath before standing and exiting his office into the main ward. "Prep trauma two and three," he called out to the Sickbay staff. "Get a surgical team on standby. Possible multiple casualties coming in. Move!"


===[Conrad's Shuttle]===

Conrad was still writing in his book when his holographic friend appeared. Her hands were cradled behind her back and looking very stoic as usual. "Our limited sensors are picking up a ship on approach. Impossible to confirm identity, but data suggest a Century-class, five hundred plus crew and 715 meters long," she informed Conrad, who groaned in frustration. A ship that size was a pain in his ass to deal with. He didn't like people and it would be inevitable to be left alone while onboard a ship like that.

"When you get a chance to speak to them, tell them that we only need a tow, no need to..." his vision got blurry and he started to get nauseous, something was wrong. Radiation poisoning? internal bleeding? He wasn't a doctor so he had no idea what was going on. But he did know he was soon going to lose consciousness.


===[Black Hawk, Bridge]===

The Black Hawk dropped out of warp when Kelly saw the coordinates coming up fast and she looked over her shoulder as the mighty spaceship sailed through the celestial skies towards their goal.

"I'm picking up some subspace turbulence," Quinn reported from the Operations station. "The spacecraft also took heavy damage to its propulsion and power systems. Just from a cursory look, it's doubtful repairs are possible."

Harvey's eyes narrowed, looking at the small, adrift vessel on the viewscreen. With a craft that small, it was a miracle anything had survived a supernova, even on a miniature scale. "Lifesigns?"

"One," Quinn replied. "But it is faint. There's also some sort of interference, likely from the turbulence. We may have to tractor the craft aboard."

The Captain nodded. "Open hailing frequencies." After he heard the familiar chime, he pulled down on the hem of his uniform jacket and stated, "Unknown vessel, this is Captain Harvey Geisler of the Federation starship Black Hawk. We detected a supernova in this vicinity, as well as the damage to your spacecraft. The damage appears severe. We are preparing to bring you aboard for repair and medical attention."

He paused, wondering if he would get a response.

The warm female voice of T.AM.I. came back from the other end. "This is the shuttlecraft Baghmati, power will run out in 487.45 seconds. Haste is advised," after that, the link was cut off. T.A.M.I. had cut off the power to most of the systems she could access to prolong the length that the power would last.

Harvey raised an eyebrow, surprised at the woman's tone. Could someone on that ship actually be in a friendly mood, or was it a computer that he had just been interfacing with. Either way, the short timespan did not leave much to the imagination. "Miss Khan, close the distance between us and the Baghmati. Mister Mackie, standby on a tractor beam and let's park it in the shuttlebay." Had the flight deck not been engaged in a loading drill, Harvey likely would have sent the craft there.

"Acknowledged," Kelly said as she listened to the female voice responding as if everything was normal despite the obvious warning in the message. She maneuvered the ship until they were within visual range and was surprised that the shuttle had managed to survive. At this point, she saw that they had about a minute and a half to spare before all life support and power on it died. "In range, Captain."

"Mister Mackie, engage tractor beam," Harvey ordered. "As soon as you can, beam the survivor to sickbay for medical attention. Miss Khan, as soon as it's aboard, take us to a safe distance. I don't want any hidden after effects from this supernova to wreck havoc with our systems."

"Pulling it in now," Quinn stated. "The lifeform is in the cockpit, and it appears to be sealed. The shielding in that section is deflecting the transporter beams. The engineering teams will have to cut him out."

"Well that was interesting," said Terry. "And a little creepy, too." He turned to the Captain. "I wonder what a shuttle was doing that close to a micro-supernova? You'd think today's sensor pallets, even on a shuttle designed to study such things, would be so good that you wouldn't have to get that close."

Tag Harv

===[Shuttlebay]===

The shuttle, at least what was left of it, was gently laid on the shuttlebay floor. A massive hole had exposed the rear section to the hazards of space, but now the shuttlebay air filled the areas vacuum had temporarily claimed. The port nacelle was nowhere to be seen, but judging by the twisting of the short nacelle pylons, it appeared the nacelle had been ripped off rather than exploded. Burning and scarring covered what remained of the aft section, even on down to the exposed, twisted skeletal structure. A heavy door, also blackened, kept the cockpit from being exposed to space, thereby keeping the shuttle's sole living occupant safe.

Voss, in his environmental suit, approached the damaged shuttle. He carried his tool bag. When he reached the cockpit door, he pulled out his triccorder and ran scans. Then put his tricorder back in the bag and pulled out his phaser torch, Aimed it at the edge of the door, and starting cutting.

It took ten minutes to almost complete the assignment, all that was left was to cut through the last part, and if his calulations were correct, the door would fall away from the cockpit.

Voss aimed the torch at the last piece of the puzzle, and when he finished, the door just stood there...not moving. Then suddenly, the door groaned and fell. He walked into the cockpit, found the passenger, checked his vitals, tapped his commbadge, "Voss to computer, lock onto my commbadge," he placed his commbadge on the patient, "and transport to sickbay."

A few seconds later, the patient was transported to sickbay, and Voss started searching what remained of the shuttle.

Once the pilot was transported to sickbay, Voss turned his attention to the wrecked shuttle. He used his tricorder to scan the cockpit and located the flight recorder, the main computer data recorder and the ship's logs. He removed the components, and carried them to the engineering lab to begin to reconstruct what happened.
Voss hooked the componets, starting with the flight recorder, and scanned for damage. If no major damage was found, he started downloading the flight data in a secure file. He repeated the procedure with the other components.


===[Sickbay]===

The whine of a transporter served as a trigger. Around him, the medical staff jumped to action, turning their attention to the figure that materialized on the biobed in trauma two. "Computer, begin complete medical scan. Someone draw for a standard lab panel. Bridge, can you give me any context for this patient? Would help treat him if I knew more about what had happened to him."

The Captain's voice was the one to answer. "We detected an explosion on short-range sensors. When we arrived, we found a shuttle whose life support was failing, and oxygen depleting. The lifesign had to be cut out, so it's possible the air ran out."

"Push fifteen ccs of tri-ox," Rhula ordered. While a nurse administered the medication, the Bajoran physician studied the readings that were now appearing on the wall display. "He needs a neuro," he said more to himself than to any of the staff in the room.

One of the nurses hurried out of the room, returning quickly with Kal-Irdu. "Need a hand?"

Rhula didn't look up but recognized the Grazerite's voice. "Detailed neuro scan. Possible O2 deprivation."

Kal-Irdu nodded and pulled out her tricorder while approaching the head of the bed.

"Radiation exposure," Rhula announced, his eyes still fixed on the large wall display.

"Arithrazine?" a nurse asked.

Jennin shook his head. "It doesn't look that severe. Let's start with a two-to-one mix of analeptic and hyronalin. Three ccs."

"Neuro looks clear," the Grazerite woman offered. "I think the hypothermia saved him from neurological damage."

"Good luck for him," Rhula said.

Once the anti-radiation cocktail was administered, it only took about ten minutes before the scans started to improve.

"Bridge," the Bajoran called out, "our guest is doing better than expected given the situation. I'll let you know when he's up and ready for visitors."


===[Bridge]===

"Acknowledged," said Terry, " thanks, Doctor." He turned to face Harvey. "I can go down for that visit when he's ready, if you'd like?"

Harvey turned to his Executive Officer and nodded. "The job's all yours, Commander. I'm sure there's a long list of questions we'll all want answered."

Turning back to the front of the bridge, Harvey ordered, "Helm, let's resume our mission. Take us back to where we left off, Warp Eight."

"Aye, Sir, Warp Eight," Kelly said as she set in the course and brought the Century class around in a graceful arc. As soon as it came around, she engaged and send the ship to warp once again, her eyes glued on the viewscreen in front of her as the stars blurred and a smile on her face. She as doing what she as born to do.

Captain Geisler returned to his seat. Gripping both armrests, he watched the viewscreen for a moment as he silently reviewed the most recent events. In a way, it was nice responding to a distress call. It reminded him of his early days in the Gamma Quadrant, even if those early days were just a couple years ago. Since then, it had been filled with the Golden Stars, the Consortium, and even the Dolmoqour. Maybe, just maybe, there was a sense of normalcy returning.

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