Wake Up Call
Posted on 20 Jul 2016 @ 8:05pm by Commodore Harvey Geisler & Commander Thiago Teixeira & Commander Terry Walsh & Commander Jayla Kij & Lieutenant Commander Adam Casey & Lieutenant Jonathan Kilmartin & Lieutenant Commander Camila Di Pasquale & Lieutenant Commander Joey Geisler & Lieutenant Avery Stuart Ph.D. & Lieutenant JG Felix Langston & Lieutenant JG Catherine Cooper & Ensign Katniss Sutherland & Chief Petty Officer Tarsa Rogers
8,614 words; about a 43 minute read
Mission:
Risky Business
Location: Various
Timeline: MD 6 || 0130 hours
===[Captain's Quarters]===
If there was one thing that eluded Captain Geisler more than the Chimera and Cochrane, it was sleep. For nearly forty-eight hours, the Black Hawk was quietly searching the nebula, trying to find not one but three needles in a haystack. Already they'd come across a few hulks of dead starships. Had he more time, Harvey would have stopped and investigated.
Maybe on the way home...
Still, a sleepless Harvey laid on his bed trying to find what escaped his grasp. Before he had a chance, he heard an unusual soft clattering noise beside him. He opened his eyes to see his half-empty glass of water on the nightstand. It seemed as if the nightstand itself were placed on a vibrating stand. In fact, now that Harvey was tuning his senses to the room, he could hear clattering from all around.
His first thought was not about how amazing his mattress was, but went directly towards the ship itself. Usually the Inertial Dampeners would take care of something like this, but if just something so minor was coming through...
Suddenly, Harvey found himself on the floor. Somehow he managed to avoid the shards of glass left from the fallen glass of water. The Captain found his combadge, and clad only in a white tank top and a pair of black sleep pants, left his quarters on his way to the bridge.
Tapping his combadge, he demanded, "Geisler to Bridge! Report!"
===[Bridge]===
Lieutenant Carmichael didn't know what he was doing when he volunteered to take the bridge to let the officer of the watch run to the head. He'd switched from his primary duty shift to the wee hours of the night in order to get unrestricted access to the sensors. He didn't care that they barely functioned, but every little bit could help their understanding of the Mutura-class nebula.
What he hadn't expected was the turbulence the ship now found herself in. Why was it that every time he took the chair that something had to happen to the ship? I must be an albatross! he thought as he held onto the armrests for his life.
When he heard the Captain's voice over the comm, he responded quickly, "Turbulence!" He had no other explanation, at least not yet.
Cadet Senior Grade Kelly Khan sat at the helm as the Black Hawk slowly made its way through the nebula. So far they had encountered nothing but the dead hulks of starships and she mourned the passing of each one in her own way. Suddenly she felt the ship shudder and feared that it had taken a hit by an unseen torpedo from the Chimera or Cochrane, then her hazel eyes went wide as the ship bucked under her and nearly threw her out of her seat. The Structural Integrity Field threatened to redline and she fought to stabilize the old war horse of a ship as everything seemed to shimmy and shake before her eyes. "C'mon you b-b-bucket of old b-b-bolts, hold together!," she yelled at the ship as she brought the RCS Thrusters online for micro adjustments in the ship's sudden seizures.
===[CMO's Quarters]===
Jayla was trying to read something boring that would make her sleepy, but was having little luck. When the shaking started, she lept to her feet, alarmed, only to be thrown to the floor.
After her head hit the edge of the coffee table, that is.
She let out a trill curse as her hand went to that spot just above the eye where she'd hit the table. She felt something warm and wet and groaned. "You've got to be kidding me," she said. She tried to get to her feet, but her head spun, so she laid there for a moment and then slowly- very slowly- pulled herself to her feet and stumbled out the door. She had to get to Sick Bay immediately.
===[Corwin's Quarters]===
Zero One Thirty Hours, the clock read before it decided it wanted to jump off the nightstand and smack Joey in the face instead of waking her up the traditional way. Years of being ready for anything never prepared her for being attacked by an alarm clock, but muscle memory responded to the unexpected assault as her hand came up to remove the offending item while her other hand grabbed the phaser she kept under the edge of her bed. Something wasn't right, but she couldn't quite put her sleep hazed mind on it.
She sat up, or what she thought was up, suddenly realizing that up was now sideways. She heard a whimper next to her, and looked to Rico. He was only a couple feet away, so she found herself reaching out to grab him and pull him against her. A small stand in the room dropped from the ceiling towards them. She rolled to the side as it smashed mere inches away into the bulkhead. With a curse, she fought to claw her way with one hand to some order before the ship corrected itself, then realized the floor was fast approaching her face.
With another curse, she realized she'd never be able to turn fast enough to keep the canine safe. Wrapping her arms around him, Joey shifted his weight to her side with seconds to spare. She hit the floor, but the K-9 was on his feet before his fellow officer was and he quickly went to her and gave her face a lick and a soft whine. He had no idea what was going on, but it wasn't good and his human mama wasn't acting like she was playing. He laid on the ground next to her and gave another whine before he rested his head on top of hers.
With a groan, Joey reached up to scratch Rico's head. "I'm not dead yet, boy." She groaned when the ship lurched again and sent her crashing into the floor a second time. This was already getting old, and there would undoubtedly be bruises left from the abuse she'd just taken. Pushing that thought from her head, she rose to her feet and grabbed her utility belt along with Rico's leash. Modesty was gone presently, and dressed in nothing but a pink nightie, she made her way out of her quarters with Security as her present destination.
===[CFCO's Quarters]===
Lt. Felix Langston had just gotten to sleep when he was thrown from his bed. He hit the floor and let out an "OOF!" as he all but faceplanted. His paperback copy of Master and Commander wasn't too far behind. It tumbled off the bed and hit his shoulder before it came to rest on the floor. Felix rolled his eyes as he pushed himself up to see what was going on.
"What the..." he said wearily. His mind raced to put any coherent thoughts together. That didn't feel like a weapons blast... he thought. He reached up to the nightstand and grabbed his blue undershirt and pulled it on over his head. The ship lurched and vibrated again and he was thrown backwards. "Get up, Langston!" the young man yelled to himself as he wearily stood up. He'd taken punches to the face and hard falls to the mat before. As the floor rocked and bucked, he made his way slowly over to his dresser and found his pants crumpled on the floor. He quickly put them on and found his boots mercifully nearby.
He looked out the window in his quarters to see the swirling lights and clouds of the nebula grow bigger and more violent. Oh no, he thought. This was a worst-case scenario: a rogue wave in space. He quickly thought of who would be on duty at the helm. Then it hit him: the cadet! Hopefully she could hold her own until he got to the bridge. He ran to the door as the floor wobbled and bucked, grabbing his jacket as he left. He quickly made his way to the turbo lift and yelled "BRIDGE!" as he got on.
===[XO's Quarters]===
Thiago should have been sleeping. Instead, he was sitting on the couch in his quarters, drinking cachaça, reviewing the intelligence files on the Consortium. He hadn't had any dealings with them while on the Allegheny, so he was still playing catch up. He set down his empty glass just in time for the ship to pitch sharply, sending the cup to the deck, where it shattered. He also found himself on the floor, thrown there by just as violently as the glass had been. "Porra!" he exclaimed, picking himself up. Back on his feet, he headed immediately for the bridge, not taking the time to throw his jacket on over the rest of the uniform he still wore from his earlier shift.
===[CS/TO's Quarters]===
Sweet, sweet sleep. Well, the rest of exhaustion after being on a state of readiness for days had finally found Camila and she had passed out in a comfortable chair in her living room. The quarters on deck two for the senior officers were far nicer than the junior officers quarters she had previously had and a PADD lay on on her lap from where it had dropped when she fell asleep reading it. What should have been a restful sleep quickly turned as sideways as the chair she slumbered in and she found herself away, hurt and awake on the floor near it. "Computer!" she groaned as she picked herself up. "Identify source of disturbance!"
"Unable to comply. Sensors are picking up nothing."
"Fanculo!" she cursed as she grabbed her boots and stumbled for the door. "Is nothing going to go right?" She was grateful for the fact that she was on deck two and only had to go up one deck to the bridge. She paused by the turbolift to put her boots on and took a very shaky ride up to the bridge, hoping that the lift didn't decide to suddenly plunge thirteen decks and try to kill her.
===[COB's Office]===
Samantha was in her office writing up the reports from the assailant training programme, she believed that more work needed to be done and so she made plans to do more. As the streams of PADD had fallen on the floor, "Hmmm rough weather out." She said to herself as she picked up the PADD and continued her writing. As the ship encountered more bumps; the PADD fell back on the floor. She gave up and headed out the door for engineering but just before she headed out, "=/\= Computer, phaser status. =/\="
"=/\= Phaser array operating at ninety five percent efficiency =/\="
"That'll be the weather then. Notify when that goes back up." Then Samantha continued out the door.
===[Engineering]===
Samantha had made an appearance, the nearest enlisted crew member stood to attention and fell over, "You'll never get it right to brace up to a superior when the ship is shaking." Then they both fell over, "Errhmm, nor will I." Samantha smiled.
"Carry on." Samantha walked through. She saw the crew running around, tapping various displays and as she continued on the lower deck. One was struggling to catch up with what needs doing; she stopped behind, "Calm down, petty officer, you can do it. Get those components calibrated; you're doing well."
"Aye chief. I'm trying."
"Good. They'll be more of this throughout your career. But it does get better." The ship banked and Samantha slided to a railing. She grabbed hold, steady herself up, leant her body forward and clambered up; then the ship tilted the other way. She grabbed the petty officer and pulled him up to the console, he started to look at her with puppy dog eyes.
"Don't look at me that way, I'm a maneater." The Petty officer's face changed in fear and went back to calibration. Samantha smiled as she needed her enlisted crew focused on the task and not the random testosterone running about. She continued her rounds in engineering and in the upper deck and then eventually made her way out.
===[Cooper's Quarters]===
Cooper had just fell asleep roughly 30 minutes before the big shake, the first she was properly aware of it was finding herself on her floor and one hand gripping a baseball bat as her mind tried to wake up enough to realize (A.) She got tossed out of bed and (B.) The ship was shaking violently but it didn't feel like normal weapons fire. She didn't wait, she crammed her bare feet into 'self zipping' civilian boots and grabbed her 'Go Bag', still carrying the bat. On the way out her door she slapped a commadge on her sleeveless t-shirt that not only showed off an athletic form but proclaimed that one should 'work out like they are the last hope for Middle Earth' and shorts completed the outfit. She could have gotten hurt fortunately the pile of clothes and other soft debris broke her fall.
The Go Bag held an extra phaser, a spare utility belt and a change in uniform. She slung it over her shoulder and took off out of her quarters as soon as she could move.
She tapped her commbadge to open a channel, =/\=”Cooper to Di Pasquale, Your Status, please!” She barked barrelling toward a turbolift unwilling to trust site to site within the nebula.
Her mind was already working on the next steps. Her quarters being on Deck 5 meant she had a ways to go if she wanted to try for the bridge, security offices were closer one deck up but what she did next would depend on if and how her Chief answered.
=^=Report to the Security office. I'm on my way to the bridge=^= the Security Chief's voice came over Pooper's combadge a minute later.
Cooper jumped into the TL, answering while putting on her utility belt. =/\="Understood, on my way. Cooper out." She ordered the TL and as soon as the doors opened one deck above she took off again, arriving she immediately went for the main console, her eyes skimmed the readouts.
===[SC's Quarters]===
Terry was sleeping good, not quite real good, but just good. Yesterday had been a long day what with the rotation followed by some office work and face time on the Flight Deck. Today had been just about as boring and routine. Falling asleep had been coming a whole lot easier lately, too. He attributed that to getting out more and making new friends. Friends that he could talk to and really share some things with. And that definitely made sleeping easier because he wasn't holding it in anymore.
Terry was actually have a nice dream when he hit the floor beside his bed. The weary Squadron Commander rolled over, wrapped in his covers, for a few seconds before it hit him. The picture of him kneeling next to his first elk kill fell off the nightstand. "OUCH! What the hell?!" he exclaimed. Terry managed to unwrap himself from his covers and stand. It was then that ship lurched again. It threw him down and into his nightstand, gut first. After an 'umf,' he screamed in ancient Earth Gaelic, "Máthair milis Dé!" Then he grinned as he thought of his little Irish mother coming after him with a pan just like she used to do with his dad.
He stood up, adjusting his blue silk boxers, and tried to balance himself. Finding better footing than he had before, Terry carefully made his way over to the fallen chair that formerly held a pair of grey shorts and matching t-shirt. He grabbed his commbadge on the way out the door and attached it. As tired as he was, he still needed to get to the Flight Deck.
===[Dzhossen's Quarters]===
Wrapped snugly in his blankets, Dzhossen was thrown to the floor just as Barak-Kadan was hitting the crescendo. Jumping to his feet, arms flailing, the Vulcan looked around in a sleep confused stupor for an unexpected attacker. Seeing no one, Dzossen barked a command to the computer. "Computer, report!"
=/\= "The Blackhawk is experiencing a gravitational anomaly." =/\=
Once it was clear that no enemy was present, Dzhossen's first thought was for the safety of his Valkyrie and tugged on a pair of trousers before stuffing his feet into his boots. Thrown bodily into the bulkhead, Dzhossen bounced off the wall and out the door, running down the passageway bare chested. Just a few decks up from the hangar, he immediately dismissed the turbo lift and opened the hatch to the nearest ladder-well. Sliding down the ladder, the next gravitational flux threw the Vulcan from the stairs and stars exploded inside the ship as his head struck a pipe.
The world spun and warped in a way that couldn't be blamed on the gravity and Dzhossen clutched at the pipe for support as he felt blood trickle down his face. The fighter. That was important. Secure the hangar bay. Discord gritted his teeth and puked. Better. Two engineers scrambled past him, up the ladder on their way to their post and he let them past before Discord continued his reckless course down into the hangar. Throwing the hatch to the bay open, Discord sealed it behind him and quickly scanned for the air crew in charge of his Valkyrie.
The bay was a disaster. Caught mid-maintenance, Alpha and Bravo flights both had birds on the deck, having apparently slipped from maintenance jacks. Ordnance had sprung free from one of the carts and a torpedo was on the deck and rolling. One craft had been caught mid move and the crew had crunched one of the wings into the bulkhead. There, there was the small human female in charge of Discord's bird.
"What're you doing here sir?" Petty Officer Tabayoyung growled around her perpetual stogie as the pilot ran to join up with the crew.
"I am here to help, Petty Officer. What do you need?" Discord skidded to a stop before the yelling began.
"Tram! Lock that down you putz! Don't you dare skimp now!" The Petty Officer snarled at some unfortunate crewman before turning to her pilot. "I got the torps, sir, but I think Bravo has a man caught under B106."
Understanding, Discord nodded and sprinted over to one of the downed craft to assist it's crew in their rescue. There wasn't any screaming and that was a bad thing...
===[Alexander's Quarters]===
Gemma "Archer" Alexander oddly enough was awake when the big shake hit, well 'awake' was a relative term. She had been stumbling to the bathroom when it hit so she got flung to the floor but at least she was awake enough to brace herself but not well enough. She hit the deck wrong and felt a pain radiate from her shoulder, she tested it. She could still move and didn't seem serious. So she headed out in her pj's to see how she could help.
===[Hernandez's Quarters]===
In his quarters, Xavier Hernandez first became of the disturbance by the nervous whimpering of his puppy, Pequeno. He sat up and brought the lights up and looked where the tiny K-9 was at the window and his eyes went wide as he saw the rippling disturbance in the space outside of the ship. He jumped out of bed and wrapped his arms around the puppy before the ship jolted and shook like it had taken a volley of torpedoes. Vertical became horizontal and he tucked his chin as and prayed Pequeno would be safe in his arms as he went flying. A sickening crack and a yelp was heard when the Ensign and puppy hit the wall and slid down to the floor.
===[Summers's Quarters]===
Summers tossed for the hundredth time since she had gone to bed. She had been dreaming about a confrontation between herself and the two security department Heads. In her unconscious state, the confrontation had become aggressive with Camila throwing a fist.
"Is that all you've go..." She was cut of mid- sentence to another blow this time seemingly from Catherine.
She slowly opened her eyes and realised she was on the floor and the apparent physical assault was really her being thrown from her bed and hitting her head not once, but twice. She took a moment to take in the surroundings and come to her senses, she stumbled to her feet and reached for her comm.
===[Sickbay]===
Somehow- Jayla wasn't sure how- she had made it to a turbo lift and ordered it to Sick Bay. As she stepped out, though, she stumbled and ran into the wall. Whimpering, she slid to the floor again. Had the ship rocked just now? Or was she worse off than she thought? Her stomach lurched, but there was nothing in it, so she just dry heaved for a few moments.
"Jayla!"
Jayla looked in the direction of the voice, but her eyes wouldn't focus. It had sounded like Doctor Road but she couldn't be sure. "Abbey?" she said. "Is'at you?" Her speech sounded slurred even to her.
Abbey cursed as she knelt in front of Jayla. "What happened?" she asked and Jayla heard the sound of a tricorder near her head.
"Hit m'head," she said.
"Obviously," said Abbey. "All right, come on, let's get you to Sick Bay." And she lifted Jayla with little effort and helped her walk to Sick Bay with a shoulder under her arm.
===[Sutherland's Quarters]===
"I'll get up in a minute" Katniss mumbled out loud as the gravitational anomalies aroused her from her slumber. The next thing she knew she was half way in the air with a loud bang she came crashing down on the floor. 'What the hell' she said looking about in a daze, shaking her head as her eyes tried to adjust. The room began to shake uncontrollably again. Something wasn't right, there were sure to be casualties, she better get to sickbay. Without hesitating she headed out of her quarters, forgetting to change from her short shorts and a t-shirt. It was hard to keep her balance but she was looking forward to showing off her skills as a nurse, she liked getting her hands dirty and was eager to please. She reached her com badge
=/\= Sutherland to Lieutenant Kij, I'm heading to sick bay, or have you had reports of anyone injured that needs a medical response =/\=
===[Sickbay]===
"Sorry Sutherland," Abbey replied as she helped Doctor Kij into a biobed. "Doctor Kij is incapacitated at the moment. This is Doctor Road. We've got people spilling in as we speak. We can use all the help we can get. Road out. No, lie down," she ordered Jayla. "I'm pretty sure you've got a concussion."
Finally, as the room spun around her, Jayla relented and lay down to let Doctor Road patch her up.
=/\= Acknowledged Doctor Road, my eta is three minutes Sutherland out =/\=
A couple of minutes later Katniss rushed into sickbay, she stood for a moment looking at the chaos and in return people were looking oddly at her, her face crumpled pondering why she was getting odd looks. She noticed Doctor Road attending to Jayla on the bio bed and she rushed over.
"Everything alright?" she asked as she was rummaging for a medical tricorder, "I may be more of a hindrance, I don't know where anything is" she replied in a panicked voice.
"You'll be fine, hun," said Abbey, not pausing in cleaning the blood of Jayla's face. "Med kits are over there in those cupboards. Just grab one and pick someone who needs help."
Katniss nodded in response, Abbey was right, now was not the time to get nervous, after all she wanted to show what she was made off and show that she could be depended upon. "Yes sir." she said as picking up a spare medical tricorder and running over to the cupboard where the med kits were, she crapped a couple. That's when she suddenly realised she wasn't in her uniform, she was still in her short shorts and t-shirt. 'Never mind' she thought' as she looked up and scanned the room wondering who to treat first.
Like so many others, Avery had been yanked from sleep by the ship's violent shaking. For a split second, the counselor thought she had been dreaming, but it didn't take long for her to realize something was terribly wrong and she needed to wake up immediately. Fortunately, the counselor was a light sleeper, a consequence of being woken up frequently to attend to emergencies within her career. She was experienced enough not to panic, but no amount of experience could quell adrenaline, and it took her far longer than she'd like to make it to sickbay, but she was relieved to make it there in one piece, a feeling she only felt more strongly when she arrived and saw the chaos was ramping up with a steady stream of injured patients.
Spotting their new nurse looking a bit overwhelmed, Avery approached and said calmly, "I'm Avery, and I'd like to help with triage. If I remember, green tagged patients can wait, yellow need stabilization from us and are moderately injured, and red tagged patients need immediate care and attention from a doctor, yeah? Black tags are a last resort." Stuart was confident in her knowledge, but she didn't want to make it awkward for the nurse. Avery understood crisis situations could be overwhelming at first and it just might take a reminder of the basics to help her focus.
===[Security]===
Isobel stumbled through the doorway to the security consoles. She acknowledged Lieutenant Cooper who was already tapping commands into a console. "Do we know what's going on?"
Cooper replied without looking up, focused on her readouts, "Nothings working properly so no but it doesn't seem like a normal attack, Could just be the Nebula, we're assuming nothing, Chief's on the Bridge..." She said her voice spoke rapidly but clearly as she worked at the console, trying to order the chaos of the piecemeal information coming in stop and starts, sending it to the bridge as fast as she could.
===[Torpedo Control]===
Samantha headed in and edged to one side, "Back on a slant."
"Too bad the torpedoes are over there. It's always an uphill thing."
"That's fine. Good for the legs.....and tail. Are all the ships armament present and correct?"
"Yes ma'am."
"Good, we'll recount when we get out of here. Keep those warheads secure." Samantha said as she went to the warheads and retightened them as they were coming loose. "These will need a service, I'll come and give you a hand whilst the others are getting over the medical bay of sickness."
"Aye ma'am." Samantha didn't want anyone to get hurt....but then, she heard the drop from the non-primed stock. She ran with the crewman to give the other crewman a hand; they lifted the torpedo off and placed it on the crane lift.
"You there, secure that casing." The crane then came into operation, picked up the casing and placed it on the racking. The cradle then closed to secure the casing into place; meanwhile Samantha helped the crewman, "Come on, one, two, three HUP!" They lifted the crewman onto the stretcher then they grabbed both ends.
"Hup!" They lifted and carried him out to the medical bay.
===[Flight Deck]===
Gemma found her way to where Discord and other struggled, "Need a hand?" She called and started over, only to slip in some kind of fluid as she tried to dodge random tools etc scattered about and went sliding across the deck more annoyed than scared.
Half buried beneath B106, Discord's feet stuck out from under the wing as several other crewmen groaned against the weight. Finally the Vulcan scooted back and sat up, his chest covered in blood and slowly shook his head. Bravo's air crew released the wing and helped the wayward pilot to his feet. "Ezutid is dead. Turn the magnetic plating on and chain the bird until we are out of the anomaly. Then we can get him out safely." He reached out for support as the ship shook once again then touched the comm badge on the chest of one of the crewmen who had helped him up.
=/\= "Discord to Sickbay. We need a medical team down on the flight deck. There is no hurry." =/\=
The crew disbursed slowly, reluctant to leave the Betazoid under the craft but following orders as the gravity continued to experience occasional fluctuation. Turning to Gemma, Discord ran his hands over his face as he watched his fellow pilot shoot a dirty look at the lubricant all over the deck.
"There's so much blood, Archer," Dzhossen began. "Something must have clipped an artery. I was able to reach him, but no pulse."
Gemma's face fell as she looked the crushed personnel, after finally making her way over a bruised but not seriously hurt. She knew the guy, played cards with him. She looked up when Discord spoke, she rested a hand on his shoulder briefly, "bad luck..." She said her voice full of unsaid, heartfelt emotions.
"Bollocks luck." Discord looked around for a moment before waving over one of Bravo's leading Petty Officers. "I will not have further damage to the craft or crew. Chains and magnetics for everything until we're clear, nothing moves, do you understand?" He asked flatly before dismissing her with a sharply snapped saluted.
"Archer... how're we going to get this cleaned up in time for flight ops?" Dzhossen asked weakly. He was feeling broken, a jumble of emotions fighting to over power him. Then there were flight ops today. Chocolate. Chocolate was the key. Lots of it as soon as he got in from patrol.
"By starting, I'm going to go put shoes on...and maybe real pants then I'll be back. Gather whom you can and I'll contact The Boss. He looked a bit raw so she put a hand on each shoulder to get his attention and looked him in the eyes, "The only way to finish is to start, you're not alone eh? Duty now, grieve later, it honors them." She tried getting him to focus, it was a heck of a situation.
Dzhossen nodded slowly at Archer's reassurances. "Yeah. Yeah. We gotta get started don't we?" For a moment everything wavered, then Discord found his focus and control. Scooping a wrench up from the deck he threw it furiously at the toolbox they had come from. The tool clanked loudly and ricocheted away. "I feel remarkably better now. I will begin. See you when you return Archer."
Discord began the long process of gathering tools and placing them back into the toolboxes in the prescribed place.
Archer didn't believe him of course but he was focused and moving, that was the best one could hope for with that kind of emotional jarring. She turned and started to make her way across the bay.
Terry stumbled into the Flight Deck and leaned against a bulkhead. A mixture of emotions flooded the Commander. He saw people injured and being tended to by pilot and crew alike. Then he saw the Valkyries and thought of the mission. He. Was. Furious. Whoever authorized in-depth maintenance on craft that was supposed to be already mission capable and prepped for combat air operations in less than six hours would face a wrath beyond that of Khan. The mission was now hindered by craft that was down for more maintenance and craft that was down because someone had failed to ensure the magnetic locks embedded in the deck plating under each fighter parking slot was activated. All of which, he was not looking forward to reporting to the Captain.
But for now, he's tapped his commbadge, "Commander Walsh to Charlie One." Charlie Flight was on patrol right now.
No response. "Crap!"
"Commander!" Kilmartin stumbled his way out of the nearby turbo lift onto the flight deck having got changed out of his nightwear and straight into his jocksmock. He had figured that if all hell was breaking loose it wouldn't be long before he was in the cockpit, so the flight suit made sense to him. "What the hell's going on? Mitch took a nose dive through my living room table and smashed it to pieces..." he spotted a quizzical look from a nearby knuckledragger and elaborated, "Mitch is my potted plant. My rather large potted plant..."
"No idea, Lieutenant!" Terry called out. "All I know is that it looks like we're at least four Valkyries down. Needless to say, I am not pleased. But we'll deal with that later. Right now, I need you to take charge down here and coordinate with Sickbay. We have a lot injuries down here and it looks like some are severe. I'm going to make my way to Flight Operations. I can't raise Charlie Flight on the comm."
Kilmartin nodded and sprinted off to take charge of a cluster of Knuckledraggers who were stood around some nearby wounded.
Terry nodded his aching head to Kilmartin and slowly headed towards Flight Operations. Once he got there, he tried again to contact anyone in Charlie Flight. There was still no response. Tapping his commbadge, Terry said, "Walsh to Bridge, Charlie Flight isn't answering my hails. Request permission to scramble the available starfighters, Sir. I need to check on my pilots and find out what's happening out there."
=/\= "Standby!" =/\= called the Captain's voice over the comm. =/\= "Let's get through this patch first!" =/\= There was no need to lose any more pilots, let alone the entire squadron, before they could confirm the worst was over.
=/\= "Understood. Walsh out." =/\= It made sense now that he... Terry was thrown away from the console he was standing at as the next...whatever...hit the ship. Uh huh, there he was again acting on emotion just like in the last SAR session. He got up to his hands and knees and crawled to the nearest chair. This was definitely something he was going to have to work hard on.
About five minutes later, Terry had finally made it back to the Flight Deck. The lurching and everything else that the ship was doing made the trek from the Flight Operations Center back down difficult. And Terry wasn't free of his fair share of cuts and bruises. Once on the Deck, he noticed that someone had managed to engage the magnetic lock, for which he was thankful. At least they would lose no more fighters. There were still things flying and sliding around, one of which were torpedoes that fallen loose from their cradles. And two of them were making a bee-line for Terry at the moment. Having to physically dodge a couple of photon torpedoes would make for an interesting story some day.
Once out of harm's way, for the moment, he went over to check on a crewman that was on the ground next to his large toolbox in a pool of blood. As Terry crouched, he could see the young man's eyes were barely open. His breathing was faint, but at least it was there. Terry did a quick check and saw the jagged edge of his tibia protruding through the skin. "Don't worry, we'll get you fixed up." The Commander stood and backed up a couple of steps, tapping his commbadge. "Commander Walsh to Sickbay, we need medical teams to the Flight Deck as soon as possible. I have injured down here and some of them are severe. I have one young man with a compound fracture of the tibia. Walsh out." He then started going around from person to person as best as he could checking them. His old combat medical training from the Corp was coming back quicker than he thought.
Gemma had been trying to leave to at least put on shoes when the next wave hit and again she hit the deck with a curse. Finally able to stand, her shoulder aching she gave it up as a bad job and went to a equipment locker and pulled out a random pair of flight boots then jammed them on. So in all her PJ'd glory she turned around and went to help once again. She caught sight of her Squadron CO and breathed a sigh of relief, "Well thank god for that.." She thought then just headed back to helping, working with Discord.
===[Bridge]===
Harvey nearly fell out of the turbolift as the floor lurched yet again out from his feet. A glance in the shakiness informed him that the bridge was without senior officers, and that Lieutenant Carmichael was the most experienced man on the bridge. "Take your station, Lieutenant! Cadet! Steady us!"
As he collected his footing and made his way to the center seat, he asked to anyone, "Any word from the fighters? Are our pilots okay?"
"Trying, Sir!" Kelly said as she fought the disturbance, her fingers flying over the helm console as she tried to steer the ship away from the worst of it.
Teixeira stepped onto the bridge and took a quick glance around the room before taking his set next to Geisler. "What's going on?" he asked.
Camila stumbled out of the turbolift and onto the bridge, her uniform looking as if it had been slept and her eyes puffy. She grabbed onto a terminal to keep from falling again and made her way to her assigned station and relieved the terrified looking Ensign who had been there. "Di Pasquale reporting," she said as she managed to sit without falling on the floor again.
Langston grabbed the sides of the turbolift as the ship lurched again. He pulled himself to his feet and slowly made his way to the flight control console by leaning on the rail with every step he took. "Ms. Khan!" he shouted when he got there, "you okay? Report!"
"Disturbance of a very high degree, Lieutenant," Kelly said as she waited until the Chief of Flight was by her terminal, then gave a nod and prepared to turn off the helm. "You have the Helm, Sir!"
Felix nodded. "Great job, cadet," he said as he quickly moved to his seat. His hands flew to the console, trying his very best to stabilize the ship in the ongoing storm. "Roll with the punches," he said to himself as he fired the thrusters with each surge of the eddy. Surge port, fire starboard. He steeled his gaze on the view screen ahead, silent as the ship rocked and shook. The adrenaline surged through his veins and he made every attempt to redirect and control it.
"Thank you, Sir," Kelly responded as she moved to steady herself.
"Turbulence," Harvey replied to Teixeira through gritted teeth. Thankfully, whatever had been shaking the ship had calmed for a moment, but it was impossible to ignore the rattling of loose articles and items tucked away behind the bulkheads. Sparks shot out from one of the forward bank of consoles. Harvey found himself thankful that the bank did not explode, but the possibility was still there. "What's causing this?" he cried out. "I need answers!" Without the ability to know what was outside of the ship, he couldn't make the best decision. Stopping, reversing and even moving forward were all equal in his book, and until he knew different, it was best to continue moving forward.
Carmichael made it back to his station. "External sensors are offline!" he shouted back, doing his best to operate the control panel while the ship was still jittering. "The computer is suggesting some sort of gravimetric distortions."
Harvey grimaced, wondering if Commander Casey would make it to the bridge. More than likely, he was taking care of his children. For now, he'd have to settle with Carmichael's report. "Helm, get us steadied. Bridge to Engineering! Report!"
===[Engineering]===
Tarsa heard Geisler's voice over the comm, but it didn't register that she was on the hook to respond. She had swapped shifts with Ensign Phu, the staff engineer who normally supervised the shift. And so, Chief Petty Officer Tarsa Rogers was the engineer in charge. When she realized this, she heeded the call from Geisler.
"Chief Rogers here, Captain. Not sure what's going on yet. Give me a minute."
=/\= "Time's of the essence here, Chief..." =/\= Harvey's voice pressured over the comm.
"I'm aware, Captain. Stand by." Tarsa tapped furiously at the console in front of her. When this ruckus had started, she was in the middle of a diagnostic on the tertiary EPS distribution node in the weapons pod. "Joe," she called, getting the attention of Petty Officer Joseph Bowers, the environmental engineer on duty.
"Chief?" Bowers answered.
"Check the inertial dampeners and grav generators. Dampeners first."
Bowers nodded his understanding quickly before turning back towards a console. "Irregular power flow to the dampeners, Chief. Can you even it out? It'll help us ride out this bumps easier."
"You hear that Captain?" Tarsa called out, hoping Geisler was still on the comm. She also motioned towards a trio of engineers, beckoning them to come over to her. One of them was a power systems specialist, Crewman Andrews, while the other two were generalist staff engineers, same rank as Andrews. "Figure out the issue in the pod," she said quietly, not wanting to put that off.
=/\= "Loud and clear, Chief," =/\= came back Harvey's voice.
"We're working on it, sir. I'm working on the power fluctuations," she replied, her fingers dancing on her console. "How about now Joe?"
"I'm resetting the effected dampeners," Bowers said, his own hands deftly working a console. "Ten seconds."
Tarsa counted off the seconds in her head. When she hit ten, Bowers spoke again. "That should do it, Chief."
===[Bridge]===
Watching Geisler's face, Thiago thought it best to reposition himself behind Carmichael. The young stellar cartographer had a good service record, but Teixeira had more experience. He had no intention of usurping the Lieutenant, but he did want to lend an extra set of eyes to the readouts.
As focused as he was on the readouts, Charles couldn't help but noticed a shadow blocking the emergency lights shining on the Science station. The lieutenant looked up and became all the more nervous when he saw the new Executive Officer standing there. "C-C-Commander!" he stammered in surprise. "I'll be honest, sir, I have n-no idea what's going on here." He wished the sensors were at least somewhat functional in this nebula.
Thiago put a hand on Carmichael's shoulder, a challenge given the shaking of the ship. "Breathe, Lieutenant. Focus on your training. Think it through," he said quietly, hoping to calm the anxious younger man.
Without warning, the rear hatch to the bridge opened, and Adam emerged from it, with his two girls in tow. He hadn't wanted to bring them to the bridge, but at the same time he wasn't about to leave them on their own. "Okay, someone wanna tell me what the hell is going on? One minute we're asleep, next minute we're on our butts." Adam said, helping Maria out. "Stay out of the way girls." He said. The girls nodded, and made their way over to a wall, out of everyone's way.
Just stay calm and ride this out, Felix thought. Firing the stabilizing thrusters didn't provide as much of a jolt anymore, due to the restored dampeners. Then he saw it, a hole in the violent nebula clouds leading to the normal clouds of the Haydn nebula. "Sir! There's a break in the storm," he called out. He checked the navigational position and the view screen. "Bearing 045, mark 30. It shouldn't veer us too far off our current course."
Thanks to the open channel to Engineering, Harvey kept an ear on their efforts to reset the dampeners. After the countdown had concluded and the system began coming back online, Harvey could feel the vibrations in the deck plates start to lessen.
Harvey glanced back at Casey, ignoring the two girls for now. "Help Carmichael and Teixeira figure this out," he barked at the Science Chief.
Teixeira stepped aside, allowing Casey to better access to Carmichael and the Science I console. He wanted to allow the Chief Science Officer to take over without feeling like he was pushing the Executive Officer out. "Unless you'd rather tend to your girls, Commander," Thiago said quietly as he walked close to the man, trying to prevent others from hearing.
The Captain, confident now in his own footing, rose from his chair and approached the helm. "You did well, Cadet," Harvey said as he passed the young pilot. As to the Chief Flight Controller's announcement and suggestion, Harvey hadn't yet replied. Charlie flight was still in the air, though still unresponsive. He could not leave them behind. "Negative," he told the Lieutenant. "Bridge to Commander Walsh. Where's Charlie Flight?"
"Thank you, Captain," Kelly responded as she steadied herself by the back of Lieutenant Langston's chair.
"Aye, sir," Felix replied as he kept the current course and ignored the break in the distortions. He'd hoped the pilot wing was close by and that they were able to be raised on the comm. "Can't imagine what those pilots are going through if the storm hit our ship this bad," he said softly to himself.
Terry was already at a console and had just finished up with Charlie One. "Walsh here, Sir. Charlie Flight is scattered. The initial force caught them off guard as much as it did us. Many of them were knocked out then and others had problems with communications when their fighters were blasted and strewn out. They're awake but slightly disoriented. According to Charlie One, they're fighting waves as they try to make it back to the Black Hawk."
"Just get them back here, Commander," Harvey pressured. If only the tractor beams would function, then they'd have a better chance at bringing them aboard.
"You got it, Captain. Walsh out," he said, ending the communication. He then contacted Charlie Flight. "Rocco to Charlie One, the Flight has been ordered aboard the Black Hawk. Do not enter formation, get on Deck. And be advised that the Flight Deck is currently trashed. It will be manual landings where ever you can find empty spot. Also the magnetic locks in the fighter parking locations have been engaged."
"Copy that, Rocco," came the reply. "Glad that the Lieutenant had us training on manual landings in the holodeck. Looks like it'll come in handy sooner than we thought. Oh, thanks for the heads up. Charlie Flight inbound. Out." With that, Charlie One closed the channel and passed the information on to the rest of the flight. One by one, the fighters slowly made their way back home, fighting waves or eddies or whatever they had been hit by.
Terry's commbadge chirped about five minutes later. Tapping it, he heard Charlie One's voice inform him that the flight was aboard and he was about to enter the bay. Terry acknowledged and then contacted Captain Geisler. "Commander Walsh to Captain Geisler, Charlie Flight is aboard."
Felix breathed out a sigh of relief as he heard the news. He looked back at the cadet leaning on his chair and gave a thumbs up and a slight smile. He looked at the view screen. "The hole is still open, sir," he said. "Shall we take it out?"
"By all means, Lieutenant," Harvey sternly replied, grabbing onto Felix's chair as the ship shuddered again. "Get us the hell out of here."
Felix's hands flew to the CONN console again as he laid in the course to take the Black Hawk out of the gravimetric storm. He saw the hole slightly closing. Not a problem, he thought as he brought the engines to full impulse and brought the ship into slightly calmer skies.
Almost as soon as this disturbance began, the Black Hawk quickly stopped shaking. Harvey heaved a sigh of relief before tapping his combadge. "All hands, submit damage and causality reports immediately to the First Officer. Geisler out."
===[Flight Deck]===
The medical kit kept banging awkwardly against Deborah's hip as she jogged behind the anti-grav casualty litter. She focused on the rythmic dulling pain and tried to ignore the mental fuziness of being bounced out of bed in the dead of night. Weaving around bottlenecks, Deborah led her team through the bowels of the ship to where she was told that she needed. More than a few minutes later, she dashed through the doors of the Flight Deck. The chaos was real: equipment everywhere, shouting, moaning, clouds of vapor, engine heat. Where should they start?
Terry turned around to go check out a couple of the fighters that had managed to get locked down, but in the wrong spot. At least they weren't sliding around anymore. He started to slide a bit to the left. It was then that he noticed medical personnel. Terry waved his arm and called out, pointing a few meters in the direction that he left the crewman with the compound fracture. He started jogging in that general direction.
Deborah saw a gesturing figure amidst the chaos and followed his movement with her eyes which led her head to turn to a ‘quiet’ part of the vast room. A number of forms sat crumpled against crates or walls, a few more lay twitching and listless on the floor. Deborah rushed over, quickly settling into a crouch aside the patient.
“Hey, shipmate” She said, not knowing his name. Her eyes quickly ran from the top of his head, down across his chest, she counted his fingers – still had all of them-. Straight on down to his legs, one of which lay limp and useless. It was hard to ignore the bone jutting out of his uniform, an off white iceberg floating on a hellish red sea.
“Looks like you’ve caught a break,” Humor helped some patients, but it was mostly for her. “Don’t worry, we’ll get you fixed up right.” She waved the tricorder over him to obtain vital statistics, his heart rate had slowed, blood oxygen levels were depressed, telltale signs he’d already been medicated, now how much and what with was the question?
===[Security]===
As the shaking subsided Isobel took a moment to compose herself. As the ship steadied the pain from her head caused by the beating she had taken only minutes ago came became noticeable. She gently felt it to make sure there was no blood. A visit to medical was the last thing she wanted.
Finally the shaking stopped, "Gravametric distortions..." She read from one of the consoles, "That's some serious turbulence. She glanced over to order Summers to aid in the effort just in time to see her touch her head, "If you've been injured you should report to sickbay." She said even as she tapped orders on a console collating injury reports and sending them to the bridge.
"It's nothing." She stated, heading for the exit to assist where she could.
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