Malfunction! (Part 1 of 2)

Posted on 02 May 2012 @ 11:16am by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Captain Jonathan Holliday & Lieutenant Commander Chauncey Remington III (KIA) & Lieutenant Commander Dea Mialin & Lieutenant JG Kestra Orexil & Tarishiana Barel & Lieutenant Commander Pola Ni Dhuinn M.D. & Lieutenant Commander Evelyn Coleman & Lieutenant Kiri Cho & Command Master Chief Markum Quinn & Lieutenant Lilou Zaren & Ensign Im'er Mor'an
Edited on on 02 May 2012 @ 11:24am

1,920 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Episode 01 - Project Sienna
Location: USS Galileo - Bridge
Timeline: MD 04 - 1340 hrs

[ON]

Almost twenty-four hours after entering the Neutral Zone, Galileo was well on her way to her destination, coasting at a steady speed of warp seven. Despite the minor delay at the first checkpoint, the journey had been relatively stress-free. The Klingon warbird Na'vi had shadowed them the entire time, dropping in and out of cloak randomly to assert its presence but never harassing the Federation starship. With only about fifteen hours left until they reached Federation space, the crew was in high spirits.

Without warning, Galileo suddenly lurched as the subspace displacement field around the ship began to destabilize. The starboard nacelle dipped as she struggled to maintain her course and velocity amidst the sheer of warp velocity. Inside, the crew rushed to emergency stations as red alert sirens blared throughout the ship and the engineering crew frantically worked to diagnose the problem.

Orexil held onto her console as the ship bucked again. "Defensive shields are online at full, Captain. We've got no system record of attack and no bogies in sight."

"Our warp field is destabilizing," Remington called out, grunting as he was thrown against his console. "It's not shutting down, we need to stop. Hull stress increasing to 23 tetradynes."

Dea was already at her station. At the moment she really didn't like Galileo's current response. At the moment they should be flying a very smooth course that should be almost invisible to the crew. Yet just the opposite happened to be occurring. Struggling to maintain control of the ship due to being tossed about violently. Being seated didn't stop Dea from being thrown forward into her console as the ship bucked.

The XO had, up until this point, been enjoying one of the best night's sleep that he had received in ages, curled up in his bed he originally had expected to be able to lie in until shortly before his Bridge shfit started, and catch up on some paperwork whilst sat in the big chair. That plan of course, was now out the airlock. Having been woken up by the ship lurching aggressively, John had been thrown clear of his bed and been woken up by the foce of landing on the floor.

As he woke up, the eery glow of the red alert lighting, and the sound of the emergency sirens forced him to snap back to reality as quickly as he had been ejected from his bed. Throwing a uniform on and taking a moment to tidy his hair, John had bolted for the turbolift, destined for the Bridge. Waiting impatiently as the lift moved through the short distance between the uppermost decks, the Commander virtually threw himself onto the Bridge, struggling to maintain his footing as the ship threw itself around violently.

"What the hell is going on? Is someone shooting at us?"

"We are not under attack, sir," Orexil reported, keeping her tone even and calm. No need for panic.

Thrown out of the chair she had been sitting in, Pola looked around her trying to figure out what was going on. Dressed in her academy sweats, the lighting in the room suddenly went dark and only flashing red lights provided illumination. Pulling herself to her feet, she only had time to grab her commbadge and a pair of trainers, running out to the turbolift to take her to sickbay. She knew this wasn't standard uniform but her shift wasn't due to start for a few more hours, and right now her concentration was on the fact that sickbay would soon be flooded with injured and it would require all hands on deck.

Ensign Kiri Cho was clinging on to her console station on the bridge while the ship rocked. Sensors were limited while at warp, but she provided the early warning of what was around them. In this case there wasn't one, there was nothing that stood out about her scans. While there were several gravitic distortions, the largest was likely the IKS Na'vi. The others were indeterminate and could have been anything, it wasn't a detailed scan. Playing cat and mouse with the Klingons by using a tachyon scan and forcing them to modulate their cloak every once in a while would be rather hostile. It was an internal failure, by all signs. So she made sure that all the internal sensors were online and forced herself not to step on the toes of the tactical officer. It wasn't her place to scan the inside of the ship for intruders, or do anything else other than continue to scan the area around them. Her eyes towards any decloaking ships or anything else in the high risk category of her mind.

Tarishiana did her best to remain at her station despite the ships attempts to throw her out. Her fingers tapped over the screen as her eyes cast glances towards her sensor specialist. This was the one part of being a bridge officer that she had been afraid of. She didn't have the answer and for a scientist that wasn't acceptable.

Being shaken so utterly abruptly from her meditation when the ship bucked made Mor'an slightly more than irritable. With a sigh, she resigned herself to happenstance that she could not change and quickly donned her uniform. The low lighting made it easier for her to see the heat signatures of the crew as they rushed around in a frenzy of activity, trying to reach their stations. Mor'an often used her IR sight to find her way in the dark when there were a lot of bodies to navigate. Entering the bridge from the turbolift, she saw the heat signatures of the senior and junior staff, all of which she had memorized when she first boarded the ship. Mor'an sat calmly at her station, trying her utmost to stay in a sitting position.

Evelyn was at the computer station in her office when the ship violently shook, and losing her balance. Evelyn collided with the bulkhead, her head hitting the wall panel cracking the console. "Damn it!" she cried out as she found her balanced, a hand cupping her head. She looked at her fingers and was relieved not seeing any blood. She she looked at the cracked, darken panel. Evelyn quickly composed her self and rushed out of her office. She made her way to the nearest turbolift and made her way to the bridge. She arrived and quickly took her station.

In the middle of the bridge, Lirha gripped the armrest of her chair as Galileo jolted again and pinned her to the side of her seat. Warning sirens sounded at various consoles across the bridge and the circular room became drowned in a red hue as the alert light began to flash. She hastily tapped her commbadge as her mind raced for an explanation. "Bridge to Engineering, report!" she yelled.

Quinn ran to the MSD in Main Engineering. "Peers, get your ass over here!" he bellowed. Quinn then tapped his combadge. =^=Engineering to Bridge. The plasma inducers for the starboard nacell just went offline. We are running on only one Warp Engine. I need to shut her down and take the Warp Core offline or we will find out what it is like to exist as particles of space dust Commander.=^=

"Understood, Chief, shut it down!" Lirha replied as the ship trembled violently against the subspace friction now being generated. She wondered what could possibly have caused such a massive malfunction, but her thoughts were quickly consumed with the current dilemma of keeping the ship intact.

The Galileo dropped out of warp with a flash as the stars returned to normal and the small ship streaked to slow stop. Her starboard nacelle flickered and pulsed with an inconsistent blue and white flashes, and the bussard collector stopped swirling. As the warp core powered down, the familiar blue and red glows of the nacelles faded to black and left the small starship with only sublight propulsion.

Listening in to the myriad of status reports and communications being sent between various parts of the ship, John had managed to make his way across the Bridge, dragging himself along the various handrails that surrounded the main Bridge area until he had reached his chair, grateful to be sat down again and not having to fight the inertial dampeners every step of the way.

=^= Quinn to Bridge. Engines have been shut down, but the core is being a little stubborn. Peers is attempting to execute a manual shut down from the Warp Core main console. If that fails, we will either have to eject the core before it gets critical or......I crawl into the matter-antimatter chamber and essentially pull the plug, leaving us dead in the water. So other than that things are perfect down here.=^=

As the lurching slowly began to settle down, John took a moment to steady his nerves and appreciate the now much calmer Bridge environment, with the ship out of warp, their situation, at least for now, had improved dramatically.

"All stations, damage report!" He called out to the Bridge crew. Hopefully, with the exception of the warp drive malfunction, nothing too serious would have gone wrong to complicate issues.

"No significant damage to the ship, sir," Will said, looking over the damage alert panel on his console. "Medical response team reports only minor injuries."

"Shields holding. Weapons operational," Orexil reported.

=^=Quinn to Bridge. The Warp Core is offline Commander. It'll be about eight, nine hours, at least..=^=

"Nine hours?! You've got to do better than that, Chief, we're in the middle of Klingon territory and we need warp drive now!" the captain angrily replied with a final tap on her commbadge, cursing under her breath in her native Orion tongue. Looking back at her XO, she issued hasty orders to him. "Get down to Engineering and see what you can do to help. I want a full damage report as soon as you get down there" she said. Lirha had no idea what had caused the malfunction, but they were lucky to have exited warp safely after such a major failure.

Nodding to his CO, John turned leapt from his chair and headed towards the turbo lift, leaping over the barricade that ran behind the command chair that would have otherwise impeded his exit. His engineering skill may not have been up to the same level as Quinn and his team of seasoned professionals, but he could easily handle himself in an engine room regardless of the problem.

"I'll be back before you know it" he called out to Lirha before the doors closed in front of him.

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

CMDR Lirha Saalm
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo

LCDR Jonathan Holliday
Executive Officer
USS Galileo

LCDR Chauncey (Will) Remington III
Chief Operations Officer
USS Galileo

LTJG Dea Mialin
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Galileo

LTJG Kestra Orexil
Chief Security/Tactical Officer
USS Galileo

LTJG Tarishiana Barel
Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

LTJG Pola Ni Dhuinn, M.D.
Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

LTJG Evelyn Coleman
Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Galileo

ENS Kiri Cho
Science Officer
USS Galileo

CWO Markum Quinn
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

MWO Lilou Peers
Asst. Chief Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

CDT(SR) Im'er Mor'an
Red Squad Cadet
USS Galileo

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