Survival Instinct (Part 1 of 2)

Posted on 04 Oct 2012 @ 9:42am by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Captain Jonathan Holliday & Lieutenant Commander Dea Mialin & Lieutenant Commander Pola Ni Dhuinn M.D. & Lieutenant JG Delainey Carlisle & Lieutenant Theron Rhodes & Lieutenant Kiri Cho & Lieutenant Aria Rice & Commander Andreus Kohl & Commander Scarlet Blake & Command Master Chief Markum Quinn & Lieutenant Lilou Zaren & Amril & Rachel Hardaway Ph.D. & Anthony Hardaway Ph.D.
Edited on on 05 Oct 2012 @ 1:15am

2,785 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: Episode 01 - Project Sienna
Location: USS Galileo - Main Bridge, Various
Timeline: MD 11 - 1230 hrs

[ON]

With a hiss of the turbolift doors, Lirha stepped onto Galileo's bridge. She paused only several paces from the door and looked around, taking in the familiar sight of her home away from home. It looked different for some reason... perhaps it was the absence of the fallen crew, such as Lieutenant Commander Remington, or casualties amongst the others like Lieutenant Orexil... but more likely than not, it was simply her first time back in command of her new ship in four days. Four long, terrible and torturous days. Yet despite her perils, the tiny Nova Class had held up well while she was gone. As she glanced around the command center, she noticed the handy patchwork that had been applied to the damaged consoles, conduits and relays. She made a mental note to personally thank the engineering team the next opportunity she got.

Ensign Cho had found herself working almost non-stop yet again. Eyes blood shot but bright, her fingers still testing and retesting the sensors to try to insure their safe passage. The labs were still secured, Science Personnel that weren't involved with their current ground breaking project were in the designated shelter areas. If she let her mind stop now, even for a moment she knew she might just pass out. It was that morning that she had braved coffee, still feeling its effects in her chest. As it was she didn't notice that the Captain had arrived, once she did her heart rate went up another notch.

Dea was at her station on the bridge. The last four days had been ones she preferred to forget. They had tested her both physically and mentally. When Saalm entered the bridge she resisted the urge to smile even though it was great to have her Commanding Officer back on duty. Given what Galileo and her crew had been through to reach this point Dea wouldn't forget those events.

From the Tactical station Rhodes caught sight of the turbolift doors opening and the Captain stepping onto the Bridge. Several had also noticed her, but had not said anthing. He felt just a touch overwhelmed, stood up straight, and announced with authority so all could hear, "Captain on the Bridge!"

The captain paused to rub her injured shoulder and relieve some of the ache, then slowly walked around the side railing and down to the command chair where her XO was seated. She placed a hand gently on his shoulder and gave him a small smile. "Have we completed our preparations?" she asked, hoping that Sienna had been properly configured and was ready for use. There wasn't much time to waste, and if Galileo was to escape the nebula, they needed to do so at the earliest opportunity.

John was nothing if not glad to see his Captain back on the Bridge. Although he had gotten used to sitting in the big chair, it was something that he had not yet earned in his own right, and was more than happy to see it going back to it's rightful owner. Standing as the captain approached, Holliday stood at attention as a formal acknowledgement of her return to duty.

"Yes ma'am, our...guest...was most useful in helping Engineering free up the necessary power...are you sure you're ready to return to duty ma'am? There's no need to rush your recovery unnecessarily?"

Lirha gave him a wry grin. "I think I've been laying down enough over the past few days." she replied, trying to find a bit of humor in her past troubles.

"Yes ma'am...could have been worse I suppose....Coleman was just hanging around on duty."

He replied with a smile of his own before waiting for his captain to take her seat before settling back in himself.

Lirha sat down in her chair as the commander vacated the seat, then tapped several commands into the console to reconfigure the display. With a touch to her commbadge, she summoned more personnel to the bridge. "Doctor Rachel Hardaway and Lieutenant Carlisle, please report to the bridge. Ensign Rice, please escort the Vo--" she paused to correct herself, "Amril to the bridge."

Taking a breath, Rachel stepped out of the turbolift. She wished Tony was here, that they hadn't been separated once again. Sienna, their baby, was about to take her first breath and they should be standing together to watch this. Looking around, she pinpointed the woman in the Captain's chair, assuming that this must be the Captain who was missing. "Ma'am. Rachel Hardaway as requested. Where's Tony?"

The lead scientist arrived rather quickly, causing Lirha to turn in her chair to face the woman. "Hello, doctor. I would like for you to assist us from the bridge while your husband operates from main engineering." she explained, then flicked her eyes towards one of the science stations in the upper alcove next to the acting Chief Science Officer. "There should be a console for you to work from next to Ensign Cho."

Pausing for a moment, it was on the tip of Rachel's tongue to demand that her and Tony were kept together but she realised how futile the attempt would be. Turning on her heel, she headed for the indicated station, throwing only a brief nod in Kiri's direction, remembering her from earlier when they worked on Sienna's equations.

In return for the nod Kiri bowed her head ever so slightly, taking her eye of the readouts for a split second before returning to them. At first she attempted to reply with words but her throat had become so dry that nothing came out, her parched lips just going through the motions.

"Acknowledged," Delainey replied. She arrived on the bridge a few moments later and allowed herself a small smile when her eyes set upon Lirha. Though both women knew she was far from fully recovered, Carlisle decided to take the not insignificant victory that Saalm was even alive. She took a seat at Science station III, as much interested in monitoring Lirha for any signs of distress as she was in following the rest of the developments.

"Okay...no matter what, don't get too smug," Aria whispered in the turbolift, her eyes on Amril...but there was a warm, friendly hint in her eyes as she said it. "Goes for me too. God, let's hope I can keep it all clean, huh?" she chuckled and rubbed her arm nervously. She let out a breath as she stepped out, onto the bridge.

Ens. Rhodes saw the Vorta enter the Bridge with Ens. Rice. He gave a slight nod toward Rice. She had done a good job of monitoring his moves and reporting all significant issues. He knew this was baby sitting to her and did not like it at all.

Amril went into diplomat mode the instant he stepped off the turbolift and spotted the captain. "Ah, Captain, it is a pleasure to see you looking so well," he declared, despite having never seen her before, "My name is Amril and I must say it is an honor to meet the woman in charge of this fine ship and crew. I do trust my modifications have been helpful..."

It was a bit shocking to see the Vorta in person for the first time, and Lirha stood from her chair to face him as he wandered into the bridge. "Hello Amril." she answered politely, trying to treat him as she would any other member of her crew. "Yes, from what I hear you have been an asset to them. Please take your station." she said, motioning towards the mission ops console before turning her attention back to Aria. "Thank you ensign, we'll take it from here. Report back to your station."

"Of course, captain," Amril said, bowing his head and then heading to the place that had been assigned.

Aria met her eyes before nodding, taking a slow breath. "Yes ma'am," she said and glanced at Amril...her look said it all. Don't get into trouble. She gave him a small smile before walking away to the turbolift.

Theron watched as Aria was dismissed and she walked off the Bridge. Rhodes just hoped that she was going to be alright. He knew she had been put in a tough situation.

Returning to her seat, Lirha tapped her armchair console and opened the ship-wide comms. "All hands, this is the captain." she began, her voice echoing throughout the ship. "As many of you may know, we are trapped inside this nebula with no way to escape. The Klingons surround the perimeter and will track us down if we attempt to flee at warp. In addition, their warships have begun launching thermolytic charges near our position in an attempt to flush us out. If we stay here, we will die." she explained, then paused to clear her throat. "With the help of our resident scientists, we have made preparations to equip and use Project Sienna...it is our only hope to escape. In several moments, we will begin our escape run and exit the nebula, then activate the prototype once we are in open space. I won't lie to you, this technology is untested and unproven...and we will be the first to attempt a live trial of the device. I do not know what the outcome will be, or if it will work...but I have the utmost faith in all of you to do your best and make the Federation proud." she said, then paused again to issue a final preparation order. "All hands, red alert. Department heads report status."

"Flight Control is standing by Captain," Dea reported as she focused her attention on Lirha. "All systems are good to go." She did her best to sound confident and not let the emotions related to their current situation get in the way of doing her job.

Nerves seemed to be damming themselves up inside her, focus now was on the numbers, the data and her job. There was a department working under her now, she was meant to be a leader. She was starting to find the strength to be one, speaking up she answered the Captain's call "Non-required scientific services secured, sensors operational, Astrophysics ready for subspace scanning." Even if this was a brash escape, if they made it they needed as much data as possible, for once it she was involved in ground breaking science.

Rhodes checked two more readouts, sensors and shields were down and would be until the ship got out of the nebula, but there was some good news. "Sir, Tactical reports ready, I have 80% of phaser arrays responding and available. Shields and sensors should come back online once we clear the nebula."

Sickbay

Hearing the announcement echo around sickbay, Pola glanced around at the people stationed here. She wouldn't deny on how much this worried her. Making the ship move was one thing, noone knew what effect it would have on the crew themselves. They were all prepared, as much as was possible, for the worse. "Sickbay standing by Captain."

Scarlet Blake was starting to feel that she'd seen as much of Sickbay as the doctors. She strode down the corridor, twisting her long, dark hair to pin back out of the way even as she rounded the corner into the medical centre. It wasn't be a bad thing, of course, working so much in Sickbay, if only it were in better circumstances. A counsellor being called into Sickbay only meant one thing; they were about to get over run with casualties. She just hoped it wouldn't be on the scale they'd seen last time.

The entrance doors to Sickbay slid open, and Scarlet Blake walked into the Intensive Care Unit. Working beside the surgical biobed, Andreus Kohl looked to her and he raised a palm. He offered a smile and a subtle wave to Scarlet. Once the greetings were made, Kohl continued with loading cartridges of common medicines into the biobed's pedestal. He hoped he wouldn't need to apply too many doses via the surgical support frame. If they could all escape from the nebula quickly enough, then this would be nothing like the Klingon attack on Galileo. Kohl hoped he wasn't being too naive by thinking so. And if Project Sienna atomised them all... well, no amount of hyposprays or dermal regenerators would do them any good.

Bridge

"The counseling staff has reported to sickbay as assigned, Captain," Delainey reported, tapping a few keys and confirming her staff's location in moments. She simply refused to think about what could happen if things went horribly wrong. There was nothing she could do to change the outcome and if these were going to be the last moments of her life, she refused to waste them in panic.

"Very well, let's get to it then." Lirha said then crossed her legs and leaned back in her chair while brushing a lock of dark hair from her eyes. "Take us out of the nebula, full impulse." she ordered.

Carefully Dea input the final command into her console. Impulse left them very vulnerable but they didn't have any other choice. "Leaving the nebula at full impulse." Piloting around a nebula was tricky to begin with but having the Klingons lurking and ready to strike made Dea's task even more difficult. She kept a close eye on her cnsole data and relied on all her training as a pilot to help Galileo and her crew reach their objective.

The small Nova Class quickly came about and headed for perimeter of the gaseous cloud. Several long minutes passed before the ship finally began nearing open space, and new sensor readings began to flood the tactical console.

Ensign Rhodes watched the sensor display before him closely as the nebula about them began to thin allowing sensors and shield began to function more properly. He took a second to synchronize the settings, now that they were clear of the nebula. His panel beeped and he looked down and reported, "Captain, Klingon ship on intercept course, bearing 295 mark 2." With accurate sensor readings, the computer library had identified the vessel. Rhodes looked up from the display and toward the captain, "Sir, it is a Vor'cha class battlecruiser." It was unfortunate a sense of fear was obviously in his voice.

Hearing the announcement of the arrival of Klingon warships, exactly as they had expected the moment they tried to flee, the XO leapt to his feet.

"Red Alert - all hands to battle stations - auxiliary power to shields and standby weapons."

Amril leaned over the auxiliary console. "Ah, this is quite fascinating," he commented to no one in particular, "The opportunity to see a Starfleet crew respond to an emergency situation." He chuckled excitedly, "Oh, I do hope no one gets injured, of course."

Theron transferred auxiliary power to shields. That brought them from 80% to 95%. "Shields are at 95%, Sir!" He made a couple actuations on the tactical console and reported, "Phasers are on line and photon torpedoes are at your command."

The captain nodded as she confirmed Galileo's weapon status on her chair's console. "Steady as she goes, ensign." she replied, wanting to wait until her ship exited the nebula to make her move.

"I am also now getting two wake disturbances in the nebula. Sir," Theron stopped to swallow, "two more ships are coming out of the nebula from behind as well." He hoped the uncertainty or hesitation in him did not come across as he spoke.

The report of additional ships was becoming problematic, especially now that they were surrounded. But they had committed to their escape plan, and there was no turning back now.

To Be Continued....

[OFF]

--

CMDR Lirha Saalm
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo

Lt Cmdr Jonathan Holliday
Executive Officer
USS Galileo

Lt(JG) Dea Mialin
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Galileo

Ensign Andreus Kohl
Nurse
USS Galileo

Lieutenant JG Pola Ni Dhuinn
Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant JG Delainey Carlisle, M.D., Ph.D.
Chief Counselor
USS Galileo

Ensign Kiri Cho
Assistant Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

Ensign Theron Rhodes
Security/Tactical
USS Galileo

Amril
Vorta Defector
USS Galileo

Chief Warrant Officer Markum Quinn
Chief Engineer
USS Galileo

Rachel Hardaway
Lead Scientist
Project Sienna
NPC'd by Pola Ni Dhuinn

Anthony Hardaway Ph.D.
Lead Scientist
NPC'd by Amril
Project Sienna

Ensign Aria Rice
Security
USS Galileo

MWO Lilou Peers
Assistant Chief Engineer
USS Galileo

Ensign Scarlet Blake
Counsellor
USS Galileo

RSS Feed