Irvine Recovery

Posted on 19 Aug 2024 @ 11:19am by Petty Officer 3rd Class Klim Sokamin & Lieutenant Commander Joey Geisler & Lieutenant Commander Camila Di Pasquale & Ensign (Provisional) Bertrim Wysocki

1,863 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Shattered Unity
Location: Wreckage of the USS Irvine
Timeline: June 19, 2390 || 1230 hours

The glimmer of the transporter effect finished, leaving Petty Officer Sokamin and the rest of the away team in the dark corridor. The only light that could be seen emanated from their EVA suits, casting eerie shadows on their ruined surroundings. For a moment, Klim wished that he was back aboard the shuttle that had transported them. No, he was wrong. He completely wished he was back aboard that shuttle. At least it was attached to the hull above them. That provided some comfort.

"Welcome to the USS Irvine," Klim announced. "We are in the starboard section, roughly twenty meters from sensor control. Most of it appears to be intact, but as you can see, there's no power and no gravity."

Ensign Toby Jackson, a hulking human from Earth and the Security person assigned to the away team pulled out his tricorder and did a scan. "It looks safe enough for now," he confirmed what Klim had said. "I'll take point." He activated his wrist torches and shined them forward, then began to head the way the Engineer had said, scanning each suspicious looking area with his tricorder before he moved on.

"Sensors had showed that most of the area we need to get to is decompressed," stated Klim. "But there was too much radiation to get a clear picture. I think we can assume we'll find a lot of damage ahead."

Chief Engineer T’Kara, of the former USS Irvine, stood near the members of her current team. When she evacuated, she never dreamed she would be back, and yet, her she was. Her breath misted inside her helmet as she assessed the damage—the fractured hull plates, the ruin. It was depressing. "Damage is guaranteed. It's a wonder any of us made it out alive," she said.

Socks shone his flashlight from bulkhead-to-bulkhead to gain his bearings. This was the second time he had worn an EV suit. The first was on a Holodeck simulation for a spacewalk. They were scheduled to do that, back at the Academy as an after thought. He stepped into reality once T'Kara's voice came through his suit's open commlink.

Jackson gave a nod, his helmeted head bobbing a he searched the way ahead. "The tricorder is showing a better picture, but you're right." He took his phaser out and thumbed it to setting eight, then began to cut away a beam that had crashed through the corridor wall before he pushed it aside. "Mind your step," he said as he continued.

Walking in the EVA suits was a bit more difficult than Klim had remembered. With every step he took, he wondered if Commander Geisler would chastise him on return and force him to submit to refresher training. He put that out of his mind, or at least he tried, as Jackson continued their trek forward. "Our destination is about seven meters away." Klim looked up at his tricorder and pointed ahead at a section clearly blocked by several beams. "Right there. It looks like those beams are holding the deck above in place. We'll have to be careful in removing those, otherwise, this whole section may float apart."

This was going to be tricky, especially when it came to keeping everyone safe. T'Kara moved closer to the beams to get a better look, still holding onto the case she'd brought that contained various tools she felt might come in handy. "We may not have to remove them all," she said. "As long as the load bearing beam remains in place, we should be okay. At least long enough to do what we need to do."

"Which ones need to stay?" Jackson asked.

T'Kara studied the beams, her many years of training kicking in. "This one stays," she said, pointing to the one directly in the center. There was always a possibility that the deck could still collapse, but that was a risk that needed to be taken if they were going to complete their mission. She pointed to a second one. "And this one. It should leave just enough room for us to get through."

Jackson nodded. "I'll have it cut through in a minute," he said as he waited for the Engineer to move aside. Once she did, he began to use his phaser to carefully cut around the ones that she said to avoid.

Klim stepped to the side, avoiding the middle of the corridor while the security officer cut through the fallen beams. He used the interlude to scan ahead with his tricorder. "From what I can tell, our objective is undamaged. There will be several obstructions however as the room has been damaged."

"I'll go through first," the Engineer offered. "Unless anyone objects?"

"Be my guest," Klim responded curtly. He had no desire to put himself in the front, especially since he was the one who could determine if this mission would be a success based on what they had yet to find.

T'Kara didn't think anyone else would object if she went first, so she lowered herself down to the floor and began to army crawl through the opening. It was definitely a tight fit, but after some very careful maneuvering, she made it through to the other side. Once she got to her feet, she moved her light around, hoping not to see any of her former crewmen. "It's pretty mangled on this side, too, but we can get where we need to."

Klim was not far behind T'Kara. He had wanted to keep his tricorder out as he traversed the opening, but it was clear that caution was more than warranted when he nearly got snagged on a jagged edge. The Zakdorn pulled his tricoder back out as soon as he was clear and standing. "Integrity still looks good, but I can also see that the temperature is starting to drop in the area ahead. We should hurry. I don't know what will happen if these gelpacks totally freeze."

Jackson cleared away the last of the debris and headed the way the Engineer had indicated and soon came to the junction that was where the gelpacks were located. "Chief," he gave the Engineer a nod.

"Let's hope we can get what we need from here," the engineer said as she moved past Jackson to get the panel removed. "We still need to see what we can do about the database, too."

"We'll need a generator or power cell for a console," Klim remarked, convinced he was stating the obvious. "These consoles have enough local memory for a temporary buffer. If we can get a console online, we'll have about ten seconds to lock its memory into a cycle and retrieve what we can from the local storage."

"There should be something in there that can help," the engineer said, gesturing to the tool kit she brought with her. "You're welcome to use anything you need."

Klim fought the urge to sigh. Normally, he would not hesitate to do so, especially in front of Commander Geisler. He had no desire to be a third class forever. Reviews and evaluations were coming up, and those would factor heavily into his next steps. Still, he had not expected to have to do everything during this away mission. He begrudgingly rummaged through the tool kit and located a power cell. "This should do the trick. But I must confess, I don't know the first thing about locking a console's local memory into a loop. If I power it up, can you take care of the rest?"

"I can," T'Kara answered. "It shouldn't take much longer."

Jackson moved out of the way and illuminated the spot with his wrist lights attached to his EVA suit.

With the power cell in hand, Klim turned around to the door that separated them from the sensor array's control room. The manual release worked like a charm, and the door was easily opened. What Klim was not prepared for was the rush of air that nearly knocked him over. It would have worked too, were it not for the magnetic boots. Within a few seconds, the depressurization was complete. "Well," he remarked, "it seems our destination is a little more intact than we could have hoped for."

Despite her suit, instinct had her shielding her face. After a moment, she lowered her arm. "Since we're under a serious time crunch, I will handle this part if you three want to finish with the gelpacks?"

"That we can do," Klim confirmed. "There's three access points in this room. There," he pointed at a network junction near the door. "There," pointing at a free-standing console across the room. "And here," he said, pointing at the main console that T'Kara was about to power up. "Collect everything."

"I'll try to be quick," the engineer said before getting to work.

Jackson stumbled to the side as the hulk shifted in space and he looked at his tricorder. "One more like that and this thing is going to start coming apart," he said.

Trying not to think about warnings of impending doom, Klim took the free standing console for himself, and directed Ensign Socks to handle the network junction. "The proper way to remove the gel pack is to pull the top connection off first, and then unseat the bottom connector. It should prevent any remaining charge to automatically diffuse and not ruin the gel pack."

"Thank you," the ensign was appreciative of the non-commission officer that instructed him on how to properly remove them. He then proceeded to follow his instructions removing the gel-packs.

T'Kara also stumbled when things shifted, reaching out to steady herself. Once she regained her composure from a very small freak out at Jackson's words, she began to power up the console. She witnessed many of her shipmates perish, and while she was feeling some survivors guilt, she did want to continue surviving. "We're running. Ten minutes, and we should have everything. Let's just hope what's left of the ship holds up."

When the ten minutes had elapsed, it felt like an hour had passed. A total of eight gel packs were collected, each stored in its own pouch within a carry case. "I did not realize how large these packs were," Klim admitted, closing the case. "I know we wanted more, but collecting and carrying them like this is going to be challenging."

The plating below their feet shifted and buckled, almost as if it were some sort of cue. "But I think Commander Geisler would agree that our lives are not worth the risk. Everyone ready to go?"

"I was ready before we even left the shuttle," T'Kara admitted as she wrapped up what she was doing. Being back on the ship wasn't doing her mental stability any favors. "And, I'm finished here."

"Then let's get out of here," Klim announced. "We'll head back to the shuttle and then to the Black Hawk."

"You don't have to tell me twice," the engineer said as she gathered the equipment she just used and put it away before she began to carefully follow the same path back toward the shuttle.

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