Ambush (Part 4 of 5)

Posted on 31 Aug 2013 @ 10:06am by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Captain Jonathan Holliday & Commander Scarlet Blake & Lieutenant Commander Dea Mialin & Lieutenant Aria Rice & Lieutenant Jacob Pendleton & Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Commander Andreus Kohl & Lieutenant JG Delainey Carlisle & Lieutenant Commander Amynta Markos & Lieutenant Ammar Fahad & Lieutenant Jared Nicholas & Lieutenant JG Victoria Crawley & Ensign S'Ranna T'Srrr'Kharh & Ensign Im'er Mor'an & Ensign Natalie Chevalier & Command Master Chief Markum Quinn & Tarishiana Barel & Lieutenant JG Nenokah Ral & Chief Warrant Officer 3 Amon Mormont & Chief Warrant Officer 2 Oliver Sylver & Chief Warrant Officer 2 Riley Cameron & Chief Warrant Officer 2 Arthur Willis & Chief Petty Officer K8 Yellow & Senior Chief Petty Officer Keval zh'Erinov & Petty Officer 1st Class Victarion Jaqen & Petty Officer 1st Class Gabriel Stark & Petty Officer 1st Class Siren Hex Saalm & Chief Warrant Officer 3 Alexion Wylde

2,091 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Episode 04 - Exodus
Location: USS Galileo - Bridge, Various
Timeline: MD 03 - 0050 hrs

Previously, on Ambush (Part 3)...

A small smile was on Scarlet's lips though, and she chuckled softly in her throat. "You struck gold, Rice, damage to the Borg's weapons and sensors!"

"Take our torpedo launchers offline and divert the power to shields." Lirha responded to the operations officers with a brief sigh of relief. They had for now, they had managed to strip the teeth and eyes away from the predator, but it wouldn't be long before it grew new ones.

Mor'an breathed out a few words of relief in her native tongue as she took the torpedo launchers offline. "Power diverted to shields," she reported. It wasn't over, but at least they had a moment to breathe.

Victarion breathed harder as he reinforced the aft shields, watching the various reports coming in. He was praying, inside. He was praying for their lives.

And Now, the Continuation...

[ON]

Deck 7 - Main Engineering

Down in main engineering -- the ship's second command center -- several explosions erupted around the warp core causing damage to the primary reactor. The all-too-calm voice of the ship's computer suddenly sounded, notifying them of their critical dilemma. "Warning: Warp core microfracture detected. Containment failure in one minute forty-five seconds."

Quinn and Willis looked at one another instantly as they helped one another up. "You hear that?" Willis asked Quinn.

"Get to work Arthur." Quinn stated plainly as he looked for the Chief Engineer. "Sir! We have a big problem!"

"Awwww shite!" Cameron couldn't help but curse at the sound of the warp core alert. Jumping from his console he made a break for one of the core control conduits. There was antimatter surging through the intake manifolds as a result of the damage to their power systems, and pressure in the core was building at an alarming rate.

"Core pressure is rising fast! If we don't lock down the antimatter constrictors soon we're gonna lose the ship!!"

Ammar shouted, "I know we have a problem Chief. We didn't have time to lock down the core." The man rushed to a console, barely catching himself as the ship rocked once more.

"See if we can't vent some of the plasma. It'll make it harder for the shuttles to get back into the bay, but it's better than losing the ship!" Fahad typed furiously at the console as he shouted over his shoulder, "Rothgra, get to the second level and seal the fracture!"

The Trill bolted for the ladder to the upper level where the fracture was located. "Sir, how am I supposed to fix a microfracture in less than a minute?"

"Slap some tape on it, superglue it, whatever. We're going to be venting plasma, so it should buy us some more time!" Ammar opened a comm channel to the bridge, "Captain, we've got a fracture in the core down here. We've got about a minute left before breach, unless Rothgra can fix it!"

Rothgra wiped sweat from his brow as he pulled his tricorder from his belt and scanned the core casing for the location of the fracture. It was microscopic, but with the massive forces at play inside a warp core, any breach was a bad one. "Dammit," he cursed as he dropped a hyper-spanner.

It was then that it struck him, a thin coating of nano-polymer could at least stop the gap. He searched his kit for some. It was missing.

"I need some nano-polymer sealant up here! Now!" his voice was, unsurprisingly, desperate.

"Well why didn't you say so!!" With an almighty roar, the young Scottish engineer threw the necessary tube up towards the higher level.

"I'll try to reinforce the containment field once you get that fracture sealed! No way are we losing this ship when I've only been aboard a few days eh!"

Willis entered a tertiary subroutine to for the manifolds located in the nacelles. "Venting, venting, venting!" shouted out the engineer computer specialist. "Containment field at 19%!" shouted out the Senior Chief.

Quinn managed to climb the service ladder up to the second level in a surprising rate of speed, *Amazing how fast the threat of a breach could make you run.* he thought to himself. He stopped next to Rothgra. "Let me give you a hand, son."

Quinn then yelled out, "What's the warp core pressure right now?"

Willis yelled back, "Two thousand kilopascals!..Why?"

"If we can lock down the magnetic constrictors, we should be able to get the reaction rate down before we try to seal the fracture." Stated Quinn as he looked at the new Chief Engineer. It was a hard moment when the old salt realized that engineering was no longer his department to make the calls on.

"Lieutenant Fahad!" yelled Quinn. "We can possibly avoid the breach, but it has a risk of freezing the dilithium reaction for who knows how long!"

Ammar nodded, "Then let's do it! It's better than blowing up right this instant!" He wished he had thought to do that. He had been too focused on the dozen othtag K8 Yellower things demanding his attention. "Quinn, make sure it happens."

"I'll get on the antimatter injectors!" Riley yelled to his crewmates, jumping from one console to the other as he headed around to the opposite side of the small engineering room. Using one hand to hold himself stable in front of the panel, the young Engineer prepared to deal with the inevitable sudden jump in injector pressure.

"Riley!" bellowed Quinn. "This thing is going to throw a whole lot of heat back into those injectors. Vent it into the ducts to the nacelles if need be."

"Willis, keep up with the transitions once we go!" yelled out Quinn. Lieutenant Fahad? We're ready! Just give the word, sir!"

"Do it!" Fahad was working furiously to boost the shield output, and to reinforce structural integrity in vital areas. He preferred actually doing the work, but there was a price to pay for being in charge, and it meant you gave orders and had to be at the center of the action.

Quinn showed Rothgra a console and one particular gauge. "This one needs to get no higher than Fifteen Thousand. If it does...the containment field will rupture. Keep an eye on it and tell someone if it gets to fourteen thousand. If it gets to fifteen before you tell anyone...it wont matter because we will all be vaporized already. No stress." said Quinn. "And this gauge, if it gets below six hundred, tell someone. It's the amount of output from the dilithium chamber."

Rothgra's already pale face grew even paler. "Okay, Chief." He looked intently at the gauge. "Ten thousand and rising!" he called out as the other engineers worked.

Ammar looked over his shoulder, "Lock down those constrictors, being dead in the water for a few seconds is better than just being dead!"

Willis wiped the sweat from his brow with the back of his hand. The heat was rising and so was the pressure. "I'm getting a minimal change in the dilithium output. No back feed of warp plasma yet."

"Injector integrity is holding! Heat is building up but it's venting to space via the nacelles - damn we must be putting on a good show out there eh?"

Riley called out, keeping his eyes on the temperature sensors embedded in both the nacelles and the injectors. Having slightly overheated injectors was one thing, having burned out warp coils was another thing entirely.

"Come on, come on." Ammar muttered useless urging to the overpressured system. Tension was palpable in engineering as the pressure slowly rose. It nearly reached twenty thousand. The computer registered a sputtering, second long stop to the matter-antimatter reaction.

Then, with a rush, pressure began dropping. The reaction started again, and Ammar's computer began registering that the containment field was re-establishing itself.

"What's the status of the core?" he called out, hoping the actual news was as good as his sideways glance had said it was.

"Well bugger me! Containment field strength is returning to normal - power fluctuations are minimal, antimatter flow approaching standard. I ken we've done it Boss!"

Riley shouted out, watching in delight as the containment field started to return to normality. The heat build up in the nacelles was starting to abate, and the risk of core meltdown was reducing by every passing moment.

Quinn grinned and gave a two finger salute to the new Chief Engineer. "Looks like you youngsters found a way to save us after all. Well done Chief Engineer Lieutenant, Sir." Quinn said with a grin.

Then he had an idea. "Lieutenant Fahad! All that plasma we just vented out of the nacelles is combustible....Think the Skipper may like to light the fuse and see how the Borg like a real Terran Bar-b-Que?"

"Quinn, get to the bridge console and advise the staff from there." Ammar waved Rothgra and the rest of the team to the center of the room. He turned, shocked at his presumption, "Sorry, chief. Please, if you wouldn't mind, be the engineering representative on the bridge."


Deck 4 - Sickbay

Amidst the violent shaking of the ship, the doors to sickbay swished open and a group of injured crew members began to trickle in, slowly at first and then a flood of larger and larger groups. Many of them suffered from a variety of broken bones, lacerations, and various degrees of thermal burns, and most were accompanied by at least one comrade who helped them limp their way into the medical bay.

Allyndra knew it was idiotic to go up against the Borg and the it seemed the results of the that rash decision were now being played out as people and reports and calls for help with the injured came pouring in.

As he moved towards the entryway, Andreus Kohl shared a look with Allyndra, sharing her concern.

"Lieutenant Kohl," she called, "You want to be in charge of sickbay or Cargo Bay 2? I think it best we split efforts again between the two don't you?" Allyndra was going to make darn certain that Kohl did not feel like he had been usurped too much.

"You set up that triage bay from nothing," Kohl replied. He watched biobed four become occupied by a young crewman with one of her bones protruding from her leg. They had just stabilized the Venture crewman in that bed enough to release him from Sickbay. To Allyndra, Kohl continued to say, "I'd say it's rightfully yours. You managed it well too. I'll make sure we have enough antigrav gurneys on hand to start re-directing patients to cargo bay two."

"Very good," she said with a worried look. "I will activate the EMH there. Good luck." Allyndra made her way past the incoming and headed through the crush of people coming in to make her way to the Triage in Cargo Bay 1.

As Allyndra moved off, Kohl called out to her: "Remember to take care of yourself too." Before she had gone, Kohl moved off to biobed four to make a triage priority assessment of the new patient.

Alexion Wylde was doing up a fresh jacket uniform as he moved further into the Sickbay, but he tugged the sleeves up to his elbows out of instinct more than anything else. "I'm staying here," he confirmed with a nod to Kohl, already on his way past though to get to the noise already building up in the bay.

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

CAPT Lirha Saalm
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo

CMDR Jonathan Holliday
Executive Officer
USS Galileo

Ensign Natalie Chevalier
Ecologist
USS Galileo

Lt. Cmdr Scarlet Blake
Chief Counsellor/2XO
USS Galileo

Lt. Andreus Kohl
Assistant Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

Ensign S'Ranna T'Srrr'Kharh
Flight Control Officer
USS Galileo

Chief Petty Officer K8 Yellow
Transporter Chief
USS Galileo
[NPC - T'Srrr'Kharh]

Lt. JG Victoria Crawley
Psychologist
USS Galileo

Lieutenant JG Ammar Fahad
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

Crewman Apprentice Thanis Rothgra
Engineering Officer
USS Galileo
[Played by Fahad]

Lt Dea Mialin
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Galileo

Lt. Allyndra illm Warraquim
CMO
USS Galileo

Lt Amynta Markos
Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Galileo

Ensign Im'er Mor'an
Operations Officer
USS Galileo

Master Chief Petty Officer Markum Quinn
CoB
USS Galileo

& All Others

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