Assessment

Posted on 25 Aug 2016 @ 10:19pm by Commodore Harvey Geisler & Commander Thiago Teixeira & Commander Terry Walsh & Lieutenant Commander Temerant Bast & Commander Jayla Kij & Lieutenant Commander Camila Di Pasquale & Lieutenant JG Felix Langston & Ensign Kelly Khan

3,455 words; about a 17 minute read

Mission: Click Three Times
Location: Chief Engineer's Office
Timeline: MD 6 || 1530 hours

As soon as auxiliary power was restored, Harvey immediately took advantage of the communications system. Every able body aboard the Black Hawk, including many walking wounded, were put to task on stabilizing the old girl. His own best estimates calculated full repair time at over twenty hours. The ship would need to put into dock to handle assumed structural issues. Maximum warp speed would not be possible until then.

A visit to one of the observation lounges told Harvey that the ship was still in the nebula. Not that he needed confirmation on that, but his eyes could not see any evidence of the Valdore or debris left behind from their skirmish. Then again, how much could the naked eye see?

The priority was still getting the Black Hawk, Chimera and Cochrane operational again. The mission might be over, but there was still a significant Consortium threat awaiting them back home. A conflict that they absolutely had to get back to.

Now that the senior staff had the resources to figure out their total situation, Harvey summoned a meeting of the Senior Staff in Chief Rykov's office, which was next to Engineering. He didn't plan to keep them long, as not only did everyone have a lot to do, but it was important that they were all on the same page. So, he waited at the desk for everyone to arrive.

Cadet Kelly Khan parked one of the shuttles from the Chimera carefully on the Flight Deck of the Black Hawk and was stunned at the chaos. Still, she had a report to make and once again began to climb down until she came to deck fifteen where she was informed a meeting was taking place. She wondered why there was a meeting there, but she was trained to follow orders and she would. She started to check her uniform, but with the state of the ship and personnel she had seen so far, she highly doubted that she would be called on the proverbial carpet for her dishevelled appearance.

After she found out where the meeting was taking place, she entered the Chief Engineer's office and paused; the Captain of the ship looked worse than she did and she came to attention. "Cadet Khan reporting, Sir."

"Good to see you in one piece, Cadet," Harvey told the young woman. He wasn't surprised to she her uniform in a bit of disarray. After all, part of Harvey's bloodstained thigh was still bare thanks to his ripped pants.

"You as well, Captain," Kelly said. "Despite the obvious."

Feeling slightly groggy and thick headed, Jayla made her way to the Chief Engineer's office. Why the meeting was taking place there, she had no idea. Perhaps were her head on straight, she might have thought, "why, of course! That makes perfect sense," but as it was, she couldn't be bothered to think about anything that wasn't medical.

So, slightly bleary-eyed, she walked into the office and found a seat. "Good afternoon, Sir," she said, then nodded to the Cadet with one of her customary grins.

Bast walked into the Chief Engineer's office, exhaustion beginning to make itself felt. He'd removed his uniform jacket, and his shirt was now covered in grease and lubricant, some of which had also stained his cheeks and forehead. His hands had multiple nicks and cuts, and his hair was completely disheveled from crawling in Jeffries tubes and conduits that were even smaller, trying to access power relays and eps power taps necessary to restore power to critical sections of the ship. He was reluctant to stop working for this meeting, but he knew it to be necessary so they could coordinate their efforts and try to determine their current status.

Jayla gave Bast an exhausted, yet friendly grin. "Hey, kid," she said. "You look about how I feel."

"Sal'mred, Bubbles," replied Bast. He was too tired to concentrate on conversation while also carrying on his work. He kept his eyes focused on what he was carrying - two tricorders connected by a thick ODN cable. He scanned the room, oblivious to everyone who had already arrived.

A PADD on the desk beeped and the pale face of the Chief of Security appeared on it. "I'm sorry that I can't be there in person, Captain," Camila said with more than a hint of grogginess in it. "Circumstances and all, but I'll do my best, Sir."

"Just glad you're still with us, Harvey confirmed to the screen, before looking to the team that had assembled so far. Between Bast's stained uniform and the ragged appearance that everyone else displayed, he could tell that the last few hours had been rough on everyone. "What are you working on there, Commander?" Harvey asked, killing time before the rest of the command team arrived.

"Internal sensors are still down, so I had to come up with something to assess structural integrity. I hooked up two tricorders to boost the sensitivity." He tapped a few keys on the display. "It goes ding when there's stuff," he said, too tired to come up with the right words. "When I'm confident this thing is working right, I'll assign one of the junior engineers to scan critical areas." The dual tricorders were actually programmed to detect strain in the ship's superstructure. Internal sensors would normally have been able to detect this, but until they were back up, the makeshift solution would have to suffice.

"Ding?" Harvey asked, trying not to be critical. "When there's stuff?" He sighed and lowered his head. Perhaps the stress of the last few hours was getting to all of them much more than he thought it was.

Felix walked in to the Chief Engineer's office rubbing his forehead. Though it had only been a couple of hours since the Valdore had been destroyed, it felt like days had gone by. He longed for his quarters and something to quell the tension headache that had been building since he took command on the Cochrane. He found a nearby bulkhead behind some of the other staff and leaned against it, folding his arms. He looked down at the floor, trying not to think about the crew he'd lost on the Cochrane, as her med bay was filling up fast before he took the shuttle over to the Black Hawk.

Thiago walked into the office, instantly noting that he was one of the last to show. "Sorry, Captain," he said, wiping some sweat from his brow with his uniform arm.

"It's quite all right," Harvey told Thiago. He knew the Commander had plunged himself into the repair efforts and coordinating everything he could. Harvey had done the same once he'd finally made it to Deck 15, another reason why he didn't want this to be a long meeting.

Terry was the last one to show up. He wasn't quite as loopy from the painkillers Dani had given him back in his office, so that was a good thing. He was glad that she had packed well enough to take care of the bone bruising on his side. The tall, broad Squadron Commander shuffled to the nearest chair and took a seat, tired as he was. He had even forgotten to zip the jacket of his uniform back up. He pulled out a PADD that he had jotted a few quick things into and put it on the table in front of him. Terry stretched his legs out under the table and leaned back in his chair.

Now that the crew had assembled, Harvey cleared his throat to get everyone's attention. "I know we all have a lot to accomplish, so I don't want to take long. I need updates from your departments. Where do we stand?"

Bast folded away the tricorders, and rubbed the bridge of his nose, trying to concentrate. "We've got minimal life support in all critical areas. We haven't had time to map out all of the hull breaches, but there are many. We've restored auxiliary power, and internal communications are being restored as we speak. Still no internal sensors, and we have yet to finish repairs on the warp core. The power distribution grid also needs to be reset."

Camila studied something out of view of the camera for a moment, then looked back at it. "The prisoners have been rounded up," she said after a moment. "One Lieutenant Nick Taggart, a Counselor from the Cochrane claims to be Starfleet and is also in custody. I'm uncertain of the status of the torpedo launchers at this time, Sir." She sighed. "And approximiately nine Security personnel reported dead or missing."

Terry pulled up the information on the PADD. His voice was low as he began. "We've lost six fighter pilots and six Valkyries in the battle. I have two Valkyries that are ineligible for flight and two more that will be fixed as soon as the Flight Deck is back to somewhat of a working order. That brings our total number of down fighters to eight. Basically, less than half of our complement, Captain."

Jayla made a quick adjustment to her notes on her PaDD. "That brings the total confirmed dead up to 31," she said, glancing around at them all. "Including Lt. Jarvith Adan."

Harvey gave no verbal response. He'd seen the piles of ash scattered throughout the ship, and Ensign Michaels' burnt form on the bridge. He was foolish to think the fallout from destroying the Valdore would be minimal, but hearing familiar names among the dead certainly made an effect in his demeanor.

Felix turned his side toward the bulkhead and pounded it with his fist. He immediately put the same hand to his face. "Dammit," he said softly, holding back the floodgates, "damn. It." He put his hand to his forehead and winced as his headache grew. He hadn't known Adan for very long, but the two of them got along when they met, sharing a similar taste for adventure and fun. Now, he was gone. Felix felt a deep pit of guilt welling up in his stomach. He was alive, his predecessor wasn't.

A terrible sadness filled Bast's heart. The loss of a fellow Trill was horrible, but he took comfort from the fact that the symbiont would live on. Adan's life experiences would continue with another host. He had lived - or rather, he had died - through similar situations before.

Thiago hadn't gotten to know Lieutenant Adan very well. But that didn't make his death any less impactful. Losing one of their own was always an emotional experience. "Once we're more settled, I'll arrange for a memorial for Lieutenant Adan, and the others."

"One of the new counselors brought him in," she explained. "He was... too far gone. I managed to save the symbiont, though. He's in a stasis pod and he should be fine for a couple of months. Hopefully we can find him a new host in time.

"We have a number of wounded, which is to be expected," she continued. "But, still over a hundred unaccounted for. Lieutenant Salek came by shortly before I left Sick Bay to come here. He said he stopped by the classroom and found my sister reading a book to the two boys- Lieutenant Commander Casey had picked up his daughters earlier. He said they were all fine, so he told them to stay there for the time being." She looked at Cadet Khan. "Please tell Doctor Road that her husband and son are fine when you get back to the Chimera. It'll put her mind at ease and she'll be able to concentrate better."

Teixeira looked to Casey first before giving his report. "We've made some progress with sensors though, as Bast points out, internals are still offline. Chief Rogers has a team going on that, but there's no timeline on that yet."

"Cadet Khan," Harvey asked, turning to the young woman. "What about the Chimera?"

The news of Adan's death hit Kelly like a hammer and she had to take a moment as her mind flooded her with memories of her first meeting with the former Chief of Flight. He had wanted to send her to Engineering, but she had wheedled a deal with him that if she cleaned every shuttle and runabout on the ship, he'd give her helm time. She had spent ten hours on the Flight Deck cleaning and true to his word, he had given her Gamma Shift at the Helm...and now he was gone.

The brunette Cadet sighed and focused on what the Captain asked. "Right now, Captain, we have auxiliary power only. There's multiple breaches on almost every deck and most of the ship has been sealed off. I have no idea on casualties, but Doctor Road is working on getting as many people as possible on their feet. As for the rest, I'd guestimate that it won't be online for another six to eight hours at the latest. I'm having all efforts focused on engineering for now. There's life support, gravity and emergency lighting."

Harvey nodded, then turned towards his Chief Helmsman. "Mister Langston? Status report of the Cochrane?"

Felix turned toward the captain and braced himself as he prepared to deliver the news. He sat up from leaning on the nearby bulkhead. "Well, sir," he said, "I wish I had some better news for you. Even before the big explosion, the Cochrane took a beating. Main power is still offline, and the engineers tell me it'll be more than twenty-four hours of around-the-clock work before we can even think about bringing main power online. Emergency batteries are holding steady, actually lasting a bit longer than we thought they would. We have life support, a limited intercom, and some generator power keeping the lights on in Sickbay. We're still working on a way to bring auxiliary power online without frying the whole ship." Felix shifted his weight a little. "However, sensors, communications, weapons, engines, thrusters...you name it, it's still offline."

"How about the crew of the Cochrane?" Harvey asked the lieutenant. "How many are left and how are they holding up?"

Felix sighed. "Honestly, they're pretty beaten up, too," he replied. "I've been doing my best to keep morale up, but we can't escape the fact that they lost over about ten percent of the crew in the fight with us and over a quarter more in the fight with the Valdore and the explosion. The ones who are left nearly all have injuries, some minor and some severe." Felix looked down and tried not to think of Ensign Turner, whom he saw turn to dust before his very eyes.

"The bottom line," said Harvey as he crossed his arms in front of him and straightened his posture, "is that we can be thankful we're alive. For once, I'm glad Starfleet brass took a rumor seriously. I know we lost more people than any of us would have liked, but it's nothing compared to Suresh using the Thalaron weapon on Unity or against other ships. We did our jobs, and that's what matters."

Sighing, Harvey then moved to his own update. "We'll stay in the nebula until we have warp drive restored on all vessels, as well as affected all possible major repairs. Minor systems can wait for when we start making our voyage back to Unity. I'm sure you all have noticed that Lieutenant Rykov isn't with us in this meeting. As far as we know, she's missing. Lieutenant Sulvai will now be our Acting Chief Engineer. Mister Teixeria, please make sure the engineering staff is informed."

"Of course, Captain," Thiago replied.

"To those who are wondering," Harvey continued, "why we're meeting here and not the Observation Lounge on Deck One, then I'm afraid to inform you that the bridge is not just inoperable, but uninhabitable. The explosion from the Valdore wrecked havoc, destroying practically every console, and a fire took care of the rest. For now, bridge functions have been transferred to Engineering. We'll have to see what we can do about the bridge on our way back. Hopefully, it's repairable."

"Our makeshift bridge is working well for command operations. But it's hindering some progress in engineering. The sooner we can get another solution in place, the better for everyone," Teixeira offered.

"The priority for now is to get the ship back on its feet," Harvey stated, even though he personally and completely agreed with Teixeira's statement. "Once our limited resources have taken care of that, we can procure one of the science or engineering labs for a makeshift bridge. In the meantime, let's see if we can reduce our footprint in Engineering. Maybe just Flight Control and Operations for now. I know our attention with extremely limited power is still on the ship itself."

Terry stretched his arms out and interlaced his fingers behind his head. "With that in mind, Captain, I can have our Chief of Fighter Maintenance use only what parts he has on hand to repair the fighters. That way it saves resources by not using the industrial replicators for parts. And if necessary, we can cannibalize one of the non-flyable Valkyries for parts."

"Let's not get too far ahead of ourselves, Mister Walsh," Harvey said to the burly pilot. "Unity's just a couple days away and we'll be able to restock what we can. I can't guarantee pilots, but they should be able to fill a couple berths. But, proceed with your plan to use the parts at our disposal."

Terry nodded, "You got it, Captain." Terry made a few notes on his PADD for what was needed. It all would mainly fall on the Chief of Fighter Maintenance and his outstanding maintenance crews. After all, they were the ones in charge of fighter maintenance, repairs, preventive maintenance, and all such as that. So it would be up to them to determine which fighter or fighters to cannibalize for parts until they reached Unity.

"In the meantime," Harvey said, looking to the monitor to face the recovering Security Chief. "Coordinate search parties with Doctor Kij. Work in two-person teams and search this ship top to bottom, everywhere you can, to account for the missing. Draft science personnel if you have to, anyone not already working on sensors. Same with Flight Control, that is, if there's anyone left. Let's patch ourselves up and leave this nightmare behind us."

"I've already sent out most of the Medical personnel to look for injured," Jayla added. "I figured most people wouldn't be able to get to Sick Bay, so we should go to them. Hopefully, they remember to collect com-badges from the dead." Collecting com-badges was standard, but given that everyone had just been tossed around and were exhausted to begin with, she wouldn't be upset it they forgot. She made a mental note to remind any who returned to Sick Bay.

"I'll get with Cooper after the meeting, Captain," Camila said. "She's been a regular energizer bunny throughout all of this and I'm sure she'll be up to the task. I'll have her coordinate with me via combadge and my PADD until I can get released."

"If there's nothing else," Harvey said, "let's get back to it."

"Captain Geisler," Kelly spoke up when no one else had said anything. "The Chimera is in bad shape, Sir. While we may get the warp core and power back online, I doubt she'll have the ability to go far with all the damage she took during the fight."

Harvey merely nodded. He knew that it was unlikely any of the three ships would have survived a firefight, not in conditions like these. He still thought it was a miracle that twenty fighters hadn't demolished the Chimera. After all, one Jem'hadar fighter had taken out a Galaxy-class starship in their first meeting with the Dominion. "Get what you can online," Harvey told her, "and do a full survey. We'll make determinations then."

"I guess that goes the same with the Cochrane, too, huh?" Felix asked.

"It does," Harvey said. "Tomorrow, after things are a little more settled, we'll evaluate where the crews stand, and we might do a personnel shuffle before heading back to Unity."

"Aye, Cap," Felix said as he nodded. The repairs weren't going to be easy, but he vowed he would try to do his best to keep everything running as efficiently as it could over on the Cochrane.

Again, Harvey only nodded. "Let's get to it, everyone," Harvey said. "There's a lot to be done."

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