[AU] Jeopardy!

Posted on Mon Jun 22nd, 2020 @ 6:11am by Cailus Griffin & Captain Nycolas Temple & Lieutenant Kalin Brennan-Griffin PhD & Lieutenant Krysia Kaleri-Smith & Lieutenant Commander James Smith & Lieutenant JG Vecon Fick & Sasha Vieers (Deceased)
Edited on on Fri Jul 10th, 2020 @ 4:57pm

Mission: Divided We Fall
Location: Bridge
Timeline: After "Ants At A Picnic"

A Mission Post by Captain Nycolas Temple & Lieutenant Cailus Griffin & Lieutenant Krysia Kaleri & Lieutenant Kalin 'Shae' Brennan-Griffin PhD & Lieutenant James Smith & Lieutenant JG Vecon Fick & Ensign Sasha Vieers
Mission: Divided We Fall
Location: Bridge
Timeline: After "Ants At A Picnic"

ON:

Nyx was at that part of the dream he equalled loved and hated. The part where Emilie was there, in bed next to him, whispering sweet nothings into his ear. He would lie there and remember the tone of her voice, the love in her words. But when he turned to see her, to say something back, she was gone. Every night he tried to hold onto the dream for a little bit longer, to have that moment for just a second more. This time, however, it was not to be, as he was violently awakened from his dream by the rough shaking of the ship.

Knocked out of his bed, Nyx looked around for a moment, wondering if the bubble universe and the past five weeks, had actually been the dream. But no, it was the same dark ship that greeted him. Except this time, it was rumbling and quaking in the most troubling manner. His heart racing, Nyx leapt off the floor, pried opened his doors and ran out to the Bridge.

Ensign Vieers was on watch and she looked to Nyx as he entered with a worried look. "Sir, I can't explain it."

"What?" Nyx asked as he approached her console.

"The shielding on the aft-side of Deck three has failed," Sasha replied. "We're losing part of the ship."

Krysia was already up feeling somewhat queasy when first a rumbling then a quaking shook the ship, or at least what part they had. Getting to her feet she almost fell but found herself caught by James as he came shooting out of the bedroom having finished getting ready for his shift. She smiled and nodded, “Thanks... any ideas what’s going on?”

Trying to keep them both on their feet James said, “I’m not sure but it can’t be good, I need to get to the bridge to see if I can be of assistance.”

“I’ll come with you...” She smiled even though she felt extremely awkward about walking onto the bridge out of uniform, thanks to her pregnancy she already had a small yet just about noticeable rounded bump starting to appear mainly due to the shorter period of time Drax carried babies compared to Humans. Even though Nyx had refused her resignation she wasn’t willing to remain serving as a crewman, she was still prepared to do her assigned bridge duties but not as a Starfleet Officer. She could only imagine how awkward it must be for James who’d accepted his demotion as best as he could.

Arriving on the bridge James looked around it felt weird not having his Lietenant PIPs but he was going to make the best of it. Taking a look at the read outs he watched as deck three was starting to fade and realized that they needed to get the people out of there.

Krysia stood alongside Sasha taking a look at the readouts which showed what was going on. She looked concernedly at James but paid little attention to Nyx. She looked at Vieers. “Are there any of our people in that section?”

"There were a few," Vieers replied hastily as her fingers danced over the screen. "But I can't pinpoint them."

= Deck 3 =

Cailus and Shae had been in their quarters sharing a moment of post-coital marital bliss when it suddenly felt like the room was shaking apart. Grabbing the nearest set of clothes, which for Shae had been the blue dress she had worn when they went to Nyx to say their vows, Shae jumped out of bed and ran for the door, dressing as she went. As she reached the door, the room shook again with a hard shudder, and she braced herself against the door well. She looked back to check that Cailus was with her, her heart racing in fear that something terrible was happening, then once the door was pried open enough for them to exit, they made a run for the nearest Jefferies shaft.


=Bridge=

"Sir, we're losing hull integrity," Sasha called out in a panic. "Three minutes... or more? The chronometer readings are off."

"Establish a secondary shielding wall after section C," Nyx replied, pointing at the screen. "That should isolate the region."

"Aye, sir." Sasha nodded, as she switched to a different screen and stared laying out the Captain's orders.

Nyx turned to Smith and Kaleri, about to give them directions. However, he realised he couldn't risk sending Kaleri down to that deck with her pregnancy, so he paused. "Smith, start from the stern of Deck 3 and get people up to the Bridge. Kaleri, take over from Vieers here on watch."

Krysia noticed the momentary pause as Nyx looked to her then to James before giving out his orders. “Aye, Sir.” She nodded and stood ready to take over from Vieers, her glance momentarily turning to James as she realized he was heading into danger. “Good luck... stay safe.” She understood even more so now, how it felt to watch a loved one go into dangerous situation. The feeling in the pit of her stomach was one of fear and longing for him to come back safe.

“Aye Sir.” Taking one last look at Krysia he ran off the bridge and started to make his way to deck three, praying he and the rest of those on that deck would make it out safe.

"Where are we going, sir?" Sasha asked as she stepped away from the console and allowed Kaleri to take over.

"Ensign, I'm going to need your help in the Aft section," Nyx replied gravely, not hesitating to convey the dangerous nature of their mission.

Sasha steeled her gaze and gave a nod. "Aye, sir. I understand."

"Kaleri, when Griffin arrives, get him to establish muster here on the Bridge," Nyx said. "And have Brennan investigate what's happened."

Krysia nodded as she turned her attention back to the matter at hand, for now all she could do was wait for Griffin and Brennan and monitor the situation.

With that, Vieers and Temple departed the Bridge and headed down to Deck Three.

No sooner had the captain and ensign raced down the turbolift shaft did Cailus emerge from one of the Jefferies tubes, followed soon by Shae and then by yet more people, everyone clambering out of the hole swiftly to clear the way for the next person. The Bridge had been designated the primary shelter area in case of trouble, but this was the first time that the emergency protocol was being tested amidst the threatening shuddering of the deck plates. It felt bizarre to be in a shipboard emergency without the red alert klaxon blaring or the red lights flashing, but there was nothing for it.

“Kaleri!” Cailus called out as he scanned each face that followed him onto the Bridge, counting them. “Status report.”

Krysia turned to look at Cailus, “The shielding on aft side of deck 3 is failing Sir, the Captain and Ensign Vieers have gone aft and Crewman Smith has been sent to the stern of deck 3 to work his way through and get as many people out as he can. The Captain left orders for you to establish muster here on the bridge and he wants Shae to investigate what’s happened.”

“Very well,” Cailus said curtly, then upon realising that everyone was just standing around aimlessly at the back of the Bridge, he frowned at them all in irritation. “What are you all waiting for? A written invitation to get to work? Get the light beacons out of the lockers, set them around the Bridge then find a spot to park it. Yugrid, get to the turbolift shaft and keep an eye out for anyone else climbing up that way. I want one lookout at each tube exit as well. Everyone, make sure you have a hand beacon too, just in case we lose emergency power and primary lighting completely.”

Trusting Shae to get to work without prompting, Cailus then approached Krysia, noting without comment that her pregnancy was likely the reason she’d been left on the Bridge instead of the less capable Vieers. The woman’s stomach was already noticeably swollen, yet another unwelcome wrinkle in the current situation. “Kaleri, can you manage power distribution from here, switch off all non-essentials? Every bit of power helps, even if you shut off the sonic showers.”

“I should be able to reduce power consumption where we don’t need it” she tapped the console, “I’ll start with the empty sections of deck 3 if we’re losing it then it’s not really going to matter anyway.” she looked at Cailus, “I’ll reduce power to the remaining decks as we need to...”

Shae checked the the sensors they had been using to study the Bubble Universe, to ensure that this failure was not something environmental. She felt out of place being on the Bridge out of uniform, but under the circumstances it couldn't be helped... "External influences seem to be stable, but we can't rule out that the unique space in this universe is causing more stress on the shields than were able to account for. I will double check shield modulation algorithm we were able to cobble together to see if that's the problem, but if it comes down to it we may have to abandon Deck 3 altogether if we're to survive," Shae reported. But abandoning Deck 3 would mean losing all those reminders of Aoife, most of which she had promised to Krysia anyway for her baby, but her heart still ached at the thought of never seeing those keepsakes again!

= Deck 3 =

Temple and Vieers jumped out of the turbo lift shaft and started jogging through the corridors. With light beacons on their arms, they began sweeping each room looking for any crew to evacuate. Luckily most of the officers had managed to get out from the area and were making their way up to the Bridge. The rumbling of the ship seemed somehow less now, as if it was somehow dissipating, but that didn't ease either of the officer's minds. As they approached the site of the hull breach, Nyx affixed a steely glare onto his face, trying to prepare himself for whatever they found.

The two turned around the corridor, the ship's lights still flickering ominously. However, there appeared to be a stable forcefield set up around a particular doorway, the shimmering blue hue was lighting up the area.

"Captain!" Sasha gasped as she saw there was someone in front of them.

Fick ran to the forcefield, relieved to see people and a working forcefield. "Can you lower the field from your side?" he asked. He seemed frantic and kept looking over his shoulder. "I'm not sure it's done collapsing behind me..." His right hand kept spinning in front of him like he was trying to encourage them to really, really speed it up. Tears streamed down his cheeks and his eyes were red. His hands were also red and his knuckles swollen. "Please... please... oh gods please..."

Vieers moved to a nearby panel and activated the screen, her fingers moving quickly to drop the force field to let Fick through.

“What happened?” Nyx asked as they waited, noticing the distressed state of the officer.

Once on the other side of the force field Fick tried not to just drop to his knees gratefully, instead he paced. He knew Mauricio was gone, but it was everything he could do to not want to run back and try to save him. Finally, he stopped and put his hands on his knees, bending over. "Lieutenant Mauricio is dead..." he said softly, not even recognizing the sound of his own voice.

Nyx’s face dropped slightly and he could hear Sasha gasp behind them. The Captain gripped onto Fick tightly and held Fick upright. “We’ve got to move.”

Meanwhile, Smith had gotten those out he had located, it was a time consuming process, fortunately deck 3 had very few personnel that were working their so getting them to safety went smoothly. As the rest of the personnel made their way to the bridge he stopped and took a deep breath. He thought he had everyone but he would have to check the causality list once he returned to the bridge.

= Bridge =

Krysia was keeping a very close eye on the readings from the deck 3, people had been slowly trickling up to the bridge but so far there was no sign of James, she was trying not to worry unnecessarily more for her baby’s sake than her own James knew how to take care of himself but she desperately wanted to see him walk through the doors & onto the bridge. She wasn’t sure how long she could keep up her professional demeanour but she was going to try, if it wasn’t for their baby she’d have been down there looking for him.

A solemn trio entered the Bridge soon after. Sasha made her way to a console and started helping with the muster. Temple lead Fick to his chair and allowed the Helmsman to sit down.

“Hull fractures have dissipated, Sir. The secondary shield is holding,” Sasha reported. “But everything aft of section C remains uninhabitable.”

“Any life signs?” Temple asked quietly, knowing the answer.

Sasha just hung her head. “No, Sir.”

Nyx looked to Fick and his head dropped too. He whispered, “I don’t know what to say.”

"Did anyone see James... Lieutenant Smith?" Krysia looked at the others getting more worried by the minute.

Fick was staring at the deck and sitting at his station. Everytime he closed his eyes, even just to blink, there were tears. He was completely numb and nothing anyone had said to him was loud enough to be heard over the buzzing in his ears. He wasn't really sure what to do aside from continue to breathe.

Krysia was starting to panic, although doing her best not to show it as James suddenly appeared from the Turbo shaft, she didn’t waste a moment in getting out of her seat and rushing over to him to check he was alright. Her panic had subsided but her concern was still evident she smiled as she looked at him. “I thought I’d lost you.”

Smith arrived on the bridge supporting a crewman in his arms both had barely made it out of deck 3 and both had bruises and gashes on their heads from getting thrown into a bulkhead before they escaped. As he set the injured person down Krysia was in his arms. Smiling, he said, “I’m okay, just a little banged up, but I’ll survive.” Looking around those assembled, “Did we lose anyone?”

Krysia paused checking James' wounds and looked back at the others before turning back to James and nodding in response to his question.

The Captain moved over to the Ops console as Crewman Kaleri checked on Smith. He could see the incredible strain that was being placed on the new shield wall. It was not meant to hold the ship together, but then again the Pandora was not designed to function with only three decks. None of this made sense.

Nyx turned to the others with a heavy sigh. “It looks like deck three is off limits for now, until we can find some way of stabilising power supply. Let’s take some time to relax and regroup. We’ll hold a small service for First Lieutenant Arnaldo in three hours.”

Losing an officer was never easy; they had been trusted into Temple’s care and now they were returning home with one less soul onboard. There was no silver lining except for there only be one loss instead of more, but that was small consolation. And the truth remained that the whole crew remained in jeopardy and there was still no end in sight.

OFF