Broken Mast, Broken Compass

Posted on 15 Aug 2016 @ 4:08pm by Lieutenant JG Felix Langston

1,706 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Click Three Times
Location: USS Cochrane
Timeline: MD 6 || 1350 Hours

Lt. Felix Langston lay on the floor of the USS Cochrane, barely conscious. The violent reaction he had seen moments before losing consciousness had thrown all of the bridge crew forward or onto the floor. Felix groaned as he tried to move himself back to the captain's seat. Every muscle in his body seemed to be on fire, thoughts swam through the murky waters of his mind as he tried his best to piece together the situation. He opened his eyes to see the dim red emergency lights lining the ceiling and floors. Most of the consoles around the bridge were either sparking, flickering, or entirely offline. The main view screen was black, showing nothing.

He groaned as he pushed himself up to a seated position, seeing some of the other bridge officers trying to do the same. Ensign Davies was slowly rising from being slumped over the helm console. The enlisted crewman at Ops had his hands on his console, trying to pull himself up from the floor. Felix didn't look over towards Tactical. He knew exactly what happened there. There were a couple more crew members from the Black Hawk who were entirely unconscious on the floor, having fallen out from their stations.

"R-report..." Felix said, his voice strained and weak. He made it to the captain's chair and pulled himself up to a kneeling position. Then he took a breath, and pulled himself to the edge of the chair to sit. His head felt as through it had been trampled by a large brass band on parade. He winced and put his hand to his head, trying to clear it.

Chief Petty Officer K'mbo was the bald Klingon at the Ops station. He had managed to pull himself up to a more or less standing position. He had a large gash near his forehead ridges, from knocking his head on his station as the crew went down. He didn't seem to notice his own injury, instead trying his best to do his duty and answer his acting captain.

"Main power is offline," K'mbo said gruffly. "We have emergency power and life support, but I can't give you a read on exactly how much we have left." The Klingon's redundant nervous system made it easier to recover from head trauma than the humans who were moaning and groaning on the floor.

"Thanks," Felix said, trying his best to keep a positive attitude, despite every thought telling him he was in a "worst-case scenario" moment. "Ensign Davies," he said, still clutching his forehead. "Can you try to figure out where we are?"

Ensign Davies was still hunched over her console. She had regained consciousness, but had dislocated her shoulder on impact, possibly even breaking something in her left arm. She tried her best to manipulate the helm with her right hand, to no avail. The controls were non-responsive.

"Negative, sir," the young ensign replied. "Without main power, we have no sensors or propulsion." She let out a cry as she tried sitting up. Her arm had flopped limply to her side and the weight sent a shot of pain down her left arm.

"Davies! Careful!" Felix said as he tried to walk over to her. He managed to stand up, fighting the head rush that came with it. It felt just like his old fights and he'd just had his bell rung. He focused on the helm console and walked in its direction, taking slow and deliberate steps on the way.

"Chief," he said softly, "do we have communication with the Black Hawk?"

"Negative, sir," the Klingon replied. "Communications are down, along with nearly all the other main systems."

"Okay..." Felix said softly. "Do we have intra-ship communication?" He continued making his way toward the helm and the injured woman trying to operate it.

"Emergency power allows for the intercom to work," K'mbo replied.

"Good," Felix said. "I'm gonna do what I can, but see if you can get a medic up here." Upon reaching the young ensign, he reached out to check on her injuries. She had pulled herself up to a position where she has leaning back in the helm seat. She cradled her left arm, wincing and whimpering in pain every time she tried to move it.

"Sir," K'mbo said, "Sickbay reports sending someone. They'll be here in about fifteen minutes. They've got some wounded down there too."

"Okay," he said, trying to be reassuring. "Ensign, can you move that arm?" She shook her head no, fighting back tears. Felix nodded. "It's okay, Davies," you did a good job, medic's on the way." She did her best to manage a smile through stinging tears. Before she had come on the Cochrane, Felix had only met the young ensign once during his getting-to-know-you meetings in the Flight Control office. He could see the fear in her large brown eyes, she knew, as Felix did, that not having power meant they were more or less stranded.

Felix took off his COMM badge and placed it into his pocket. He then unzipped his jacket and took it off, wincing from his own soreness. He then took the sleeves and wrapped them around Ensign Davies' left arm, one in the front, and one around her back, tying them off above her right shoulder and making a makeshift sling. "Chief," he said, as he tightened up his makeshift sling for the Ensign, "see if you can get on the horn with Engineering. Our first and only priority right now is getting main power back online. We have to know what we can do to jump-start this thing. Those of us who can will tend to the wounded, if need be."

"Aye, sir," K'mbo called back. He punched up intercom commands near his console and began trying to converse with whomever was down in Engineering.

"Thanks, L-T," the young ensign said, allowing herself to stop cradling her left arm. "This is pretty snug."

"Yeah, I know," Felix said, "I don't have the materials to make it more comfortable. But, I hear Dr. Feelgood is going to fix you up when he or she gets up here."

Ensign Davies' face suddenly went white. She looked over in the direction of the Tactical station, seeing some of the remains of one of the Cochrane's Tactical Officers. "Oh my god," she said, starting to breathe heavily, "th-that ensign, she...she's..."

Felix gently reached out to try to calm her down. "Take it easy, Ensign," he said, to no avail. The young ensign continued to work herself up.

"Sh-she's gone!" Davies exclaimed. "I saw a bright light and I heard her..." her voice trailed off as she collapsed into hysterical tears.

Felix gently placed his hand on her right shoulder, trying to get her to focus elsewhere. "Ensign, look at me," he said softly, yet sternly, "look at me, right in the eyes, okay? There's nothing we could have done. We have to focus on us now, getting main power back is the only way we're gonna be able to know where we are and how we're doing." Ensign Davies' gaze was fixed on the young lieutenant now. "Okay, ensign," he continued, "we can get out of this, but I need you to try and stay calm." Davies nodded as she listened, eyes still welling up with tears.

"Sir," K'mbo's deep voice filled up the bridge. "Main Engineering reports that it'll be a substantial amount of time before main power is completely restored. They estimate that we have about four or five hours of emergency power in reserve battieres."

Felix walked back toward the Ops station. "How long until we can at least get to limping?" he asked.

"If by limping, you mean auxiliary power," K'mbo said, "about three or four hours."

"That's cutting it awful close," Felix said as he sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose to try and think. "So now, what we have is a ship with a broken mast and a broken compass. We don't know where we are and we can't go anywhere. And we need to try and find some way to communicate with the Black Hawk."

Both men furrowed their brows as they tried to think. "Got any ideas?" Felix asked.

"Short of the Earth traditions of smoke signals or messenger pigeons, I do not have any," K'mbo said. "Plus, the vacuum of space renders both of those options impossible."

Felix chuckled at K'mbo's dark and serious presumptions. But then, he snapped his fingers as he got an idea.

"Chief," Felix said excitedly, "do you know anything about Morse Code?"

"I remember it from my Earth studies class," the Klingon replied. "It is an antiquated form of long-distance communication. I do not see how we can use it, unless you have a telegraph pole and wire hidden somewhere in that uniform of yours."

"Maybe not," Felix said, "but maybe we can modify our intra-ship intercom to send a signal out to the Black Hawk if she's nearby, kind of like a radar pulse or ping. If we can modify the resonance to send out a series of long and short pulses, we can at least send out rudimentary messages."

"I will see what I can do," said the Ops chief as he set about to work. "What would you like our message to be."

"Well, if you can manage it, then a classic SOS," Felix said. "Three short pulses, three long pulses, and then three short pulses again. Keep repeating that until someone answers."

"Aye, sir," K'mbo said as he set about his task.

"And tell Engineering to try and do the best they can," Felix said. "Tell them to give me updates every thirty minutes." K'mbo nodded affirmative as he went to work.

Felix looked around the bridge and saw that the other two crew members from then Black Hawk were slowly stirring and moving about. As he went over to check on them, he hoped that someone out there would answer. Until then, all he could do was look at the blank view screen and hope against hope that everyone and everything was alright.

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