The Fix (Part 1 of 3)

Posted on 20 Dec 2013 @ 11:12am by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Commander Scarlet Blake & Captain Jonathan Holliday & Lieutenant Commander Dea Mialin & Lieutenant Theron Rhodes & Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Lieutenant Commander Amynta Markos & Lieutenant Ammar Fahad & Lieutenant Asahi Kita & Lieutenant Jared Nicholas & Lieutenant JG Victoria Crawley & Commander Norvi Stace & Ensign Im'er Mor'an & Command Master Chief Markum Quinn & Chief Warrant Officer 2 Riley Cameron & Chief Warrant Officer 2 Arthur Willis & Lieutenant Aria Rice

2,002 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Episode 04 - Exodus
Location: USS Galileo - Main bridge, Various
Timeline: MD 08 - 0745 hrs

[ON]

Stepping onto the bridge with a swish of the turbolift doors, Lirha yawned and rubbed some of the sleep from her eyes while keeping a tight grip on the warm mug of hot chocolate in her other hand. It had been a restless night of sleep, as usual, with her mind preoccupied with a plethora of questions about the aliens on the surface, as well as the possible outcomes following the ship's scheduled repair process. It hadn't been an easy decision to accept the aliens' help, but after deliberations with her senior staff two days earlier, she had come to the conclusion that her ship and crew had no other option at this point. Especially if they ever expected to make it out of the system and report back to Starfleet within the next few months. No...another month hanging about in orbit next to Borg cubes and xenophobic species was less than ideal, and the Orion captain was now anxious to get underway.

Lirha walked around the side of the bridge and gave her officers a friendly 'good morning' nod before approaching Scarlet. "Hello, commander," she said in a soft voice. "I have spoken with Nar and she has provided me with the coordinates of the repair facilities. They are on the far side of the planet. Are we ready to get underway?"

Scarlet stood quickly at the Captain's approach, nodding to her in greeting as she clasped her hands lightly behind her back. "Yes. All departments are ready," she assured, moving out of the way to let Lirha get to her chair. "More than ready, I think," she added with a slight smile; a dry comment on how a lot of the crew couldn't wait to be fixed and gone, well away from the Borg cube.

The captain promptly sat down in her chair and activated the ship's internal comm system with a couple taps of her fingers on the chair's armrest console. Many of the crew were no doubt on their way to their alpha shift stations, but she wanted to double-check that everyone was prepared to dry dock. "All hands, this is the captain, report to your stations and prepare for docking."

Cane in hand, the XO made his way from his quarters to the turbolift. This would be his first time stepping foot on the Bridge since his accident and to say he was apprehensive was an understatement. Gripping the top of the walking aid for reassurance, he held his breath as the turbolift doors parted and he gingerly stepped out into the command centre.

"Ma'am....Commander Jonathan Holliday reporting for duty."

It was quite a pleasurable sight to see her XO finally back on the bridge, albeit a bit hampered following his assimilation reversal. In the back of her mind, Lirha knew he should probably be resting, but her common sense knew him well enough to not attempt to deny him the experience of being back at his duty station. "Welcome back, Commander," she replied with bright green eyes. "Take your station."

"Yes ma'am." The commander replied with a smile, slowly making his way around the guard rail, before standing in front of his chair. With one last sharp intake of breath the XO settled down into his rightful place, feeling the familiar material cushion his back as he logged onto the console alongside him and brought up the ship's MSD.

The turbo lift doors parted quite quickly open as Stace then stepped on to the bridge. She was on her way back to her quarters when the call sounded and redirected the lift back to Deck One. In truth, with the turmoil of the previous few days, Stace had lost all concept of time and responsibility. It was only after a brief but silent nod to the officers on the bridge already and logging her command code into the science station that she realised that she would have missed the alpha shift altogether had it not been for the captain's call. She shook her head disappointedly at herself and kept her eyes trained on the console readout. "Partial sensors online, Captain. We're going to have to make do with what we have."

Asahi had managed to snake onto the turbo lift after the blue-shirted female. He quickly sat at his seat, quietly keeping his eyes glued to the readout, waiting for a command. 'It's almost over... thank God.'

Quinn entered the Bridge and stopped once he reached the MSD, which was being manned by a young enlisted Propulsion Specialist. The young Bolian asked a few questions and pointed out the current integrity status of the hull. "Good job, Specialist Undar. Very good observation."

Quinn looked up for a brief moment to make his report. "Skipper, I can't stress enough that caution be used during docking procedures. Our current hull strength is at thirty-nine percent. And that's a fragile thirty-nine percent."

"Agreed," Lirha replied to the COB while also looking at Galileo's current hull strength on the center console between her and her XO. "Slow and easy, it looks like."

Victoria made her way to her station on the bridge, suppressing a small sigh of relief when she saw the captain and the XO in their places. Nothing had been right while they were...indisposed, so it was nice to see some things returning to normal. With a nod at her other crewmates, she sat down at her console.

Amynta walked quickly to her station on the bridge, taking in who was there...and it felt good. She moved to her console, touching it gently, almost to reassure it. "Okay, sweetheart..." she breathed. "Back to work."

Dea exited the turbolift and crossed the bridge to her station. "Flight Control is ready Ma'am." Quickly checking to ensure everything was online properly.

Ammar pulled on a new uniform jacket in his office. He had replicated the uniform from his office's replicator. His previous uniform had been stained and scorched. He rubbed his eyes and replicated a few caffeine tablets. It was the only thing keeping him running. He swallowed the pills and strode out of his office into the main engineering bay. Engineers were still rushing around, working on the repairs.


Deck 4 - Sickbay

Allyndra went through the reams of reports on the injured and the rescued that they had managed through a combination of hard work and excellent research between the science and medical departments and managed to do a good job with resources at hand to free the assimilated from the Borg. There were going to be a lot of tissue regeneration and prostheses to be done yet. The limited resources meant that a lot was going to take a very long time and some not until the ship got back to a starbase or shipbase at that.

She hoped that there would get away but there was always that nagging doubt she felt about these aliens. Her own experience with her own people did not help that she did not trust but then again, Allyndra wondered if her own would stay their hand as well realizing that a secret kept was not worth so many lives in the end.

Allyndra decided to go ahead after a point and put the outside feed up since others were wondering what was going on. She glanced at the structures and ships not knowing all what was going on. It seemed that there was a time they were off course but then tractor beams seemed to get them adjusted and pulled in. The shuddering of the ship finally subsided which meant they were docked.

"Interesting," she muttered going back to her rounds. They were now definitely in the hands of the odd aliens completely. She hoped they would honour their word that all would avoid this area of the ship.


Deck 1 - Bridge

The turbo lift doors opened again and Lt. Rhodes made his way quickly to Tactical. With a tap on the shoulder, the crewman stood and moved away, allowing Rhodes to sit down. He went over the systems finding; shields down, weapons down. He raked his fingers nervously through his think, a little longer hair and thought, This is not going to be a pleasant trip if they turn on us.

Jared still a little unsure of himself, but unwilling to show it took a deep breath to center himself as the turbo-lift doors opened and he stepped out into the organized chaos.

Organized chaos was just what he needed right now and he drank it all in as he went to his station relieving the Ensign who was standing there.

Once Lirha was satisfied everyone was present at their required stations, she began the process of moving the ship to the far side of the planet. "Ops, send a message to the nearest Borg cube. Inform them we will be moving to the repair yard under our own power and do not require any tractor beam assistance." The captain wasn't exactly sure what protocols the Le'kt had arranged with their Borg protectors, but she did not want another tractor beam to latch on to her ship and potentially stress the space frame even further.

"Yes'm." Asahi nodded, immediately opening up a channel to the aforementioned flying cube of doom.

+USS Galileo to...+ He paused, a tad uncertain how to go on. As Asahi's cheeks started to tinge pink with embarrassment, he found the words he needed. +... to the Borg. We are proceeding to the repair yard, as discussed and agreed upon with the Le'kt, and we will be doing so with our own power supplies. Assistance will not be necessary.+

The all-too-eerie sound of collective drone voices mashed into one sounded across the bridge's operations console. "Your vessel is damaged. Proceed to the designated coordinates. We will comply."

Asahi swallowed the lump in his throat, before responding. +We're... on our way now.... thank you. Galileo out.+

Lirha then looked over at her XO and gave him a nod to proceed. "Whenever you are ready, Commander. Take us there slow and steady. Let us not put too much work on our damaged impulse drive."

"Yes ma'am." The XO replied, looking at the systems display on the shared console between him and the CO before continuing.

"Helm set course for the shipyard - one quarter impulse maximum, engage when ready. Mr Quinn keep an eye on our engines - if they start to overheat I want them shut down, don't wait for the order."

"Aye-aye, Sir." responded the long time engineer and current CoB. "Engines operating within acceptable norms. I have battery bypass set up in case we need to shut the system off."

"One quarter impulse," Dea acknowledged the order as she carefully piloted Galileo towards their intended destination. "Everything is green so far on the Flight Control side."

"Steady as she goes Miss Mialin." John replied with a nod.

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

CAPT Lirha Saalm
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo

CMDR Jonathan Holliday
Executive Officer
USS Galileo

Lt. Jr Grade Asahi Kita
Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

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

Lt. JG Victoria Crawley
Psychologist
USS Galileo

Master Chief Petty Officer Markum Quinn
Chief of the Boat
USS Galileo

Lt. Theron Rhodes
Chief Security/Tactical Officer
USS Galileo

LT Dea Mialin
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Galileo

Lt. Allyndra illm Warraquim
Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

LT Aria Rice
Security/Tactical Officer
USS Galileo

LT Amynta Markos
Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Galileo

LTJG Jared Nicholas
Linguist
USS Galileo

LTJG Ammar Fahad
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

ENS Im'er Mor'an
Operations Officer
USS Galileo

WO Riley Cameron
Engineering Officer
USS Galileo
[PNPC - Holliday]

SCPO Arthur Willis
Computer Systems Specialist
USS Galileo
[PNPC - Quinn]

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