Lieutenant JG Maria Alvarez - Food Poisoning

[Max]

(( USS Arrow, Deck 1 - Bridge ))

Maria typically did not love bridge shifts, relegated to periodically tapping some random button that performed some random function that had no noticeable impact on anyone or their job, but if any of those assorted tasks were missed she would be the person the department head would point the finger at.  Such was life at the operations console.  But today was different.  Today was the best kind of bridge shift to have.

First off, the bridge shift was a welcome reprieve from the endless catch-up work.  In her absence, no small amount of odds and ends had been overlooked, and that wasn't mentioning all the logs she now had to read to understand the ever-shifting situation in the Alpha Isles.  One particular curiosity was the report of a dinner with a certain T'Vaz, administrator of Raft-One.  Maria was glad, in a way, that she hadn't been present for that one, since she disagreed with the Captain's call to form an alliance, of sorts.  She didn't like anyone that offered something for nothing (and Arrow's help might not be nothing, but Maria failed to see just how much one Federation ship could help the woman against a sea of adversaries).  She could help but be suspicious.  It felt like there were strings attached, and she just couldn't see them yet.  It would be okay, so long as those strings weren't tied around their necks or nacelles.

Then there were the happenings on these very decks.  Berthing fulfillment for a Caitain called "S'Milus" (what was it with all the apostrophe-containing names suddenly?) fell on Maria and the operations staff, as did arranging special storage for the cargo she brought aboard.  It didn't explicitly say "nanites" in the manifest, but all the safety procedures listed in the padd couldn't have made more plain just what was coming aboard Arrow.  As fascinating as that sounded, just how many different kinds of fire did the senior officers feel like playing with all at once?  Maria was an ex-dancer, not an ex-circus-fire-juggler!

So it was the relief from those concerns, combined with the promise of a close-up view of a star that made this shift a pleasant change of pace.  There was rarely a mission in Starfleet as good as one that focused on foundational science, which made this possibly the best one Arrow had received yet.

Waters: Response

The call-out brought Maria's brain out of the quiet hum of bridge life and into the present.

Shayne: Take us out of warp, Lieutenant. Bring us to full impulse, and move us to within 100,000 kilometers of the star.

Waters: Response

Of course there was no mention of preemptively configuring the deflector field for such a close stellar encounter, but when did Captains ever consider such things?  The computer would re-balance the field reflexively after a hundred or so milliseconds, of course, but everyone on board probably preferred that their DNA didn't receive any kind of excess radiation for any period of time.  Maria was content to fulfill the job unordered, however, preferring not to call excess attention to herself from the Captain.  In fact, remembering the detail unprompted gave her a slightly smug sense of satisfaction.

oO If only my academy instructors could see me now! Oo

Collins: Response

Maria grinned to herself.  She hardly understood half of what was being said, but Quentin sounded enraptured with nerdy enthusiasm which was enough to delight her.  For her part, this was the first time she'd gotten to see a star so close, outside the holodeck.  The simulations hardly did it justice.

The mottled surface was covered in nuclear-fueled storms and squalls, each powerful and large enough to swallow entire planets, erasing any indication of their prior existence.  The viewscreen only hinted at the sheer scope and brilliance, but it still was enough to leave an indelible impression of awe.  Even with all the power harnessed by every warp core in every ship in the fleet, the natural processes inside a single star had them beat a billion years ago.

Shayne: Mr. Jacin, what do your readings show now? Any significant change from Commander Collins’ description?

Jacin: Response

Maria smiled again - there could hardly be a better mission for the new ensign to find her feet and hopefully gain a bit of faith in herself.  Hopefully there would be many more scientific missions like this one to come, and fewer encounters with pirates and sentient silicon goo.

Shayne: Commanders MacKenna and Serinus; tactical analysis. Anything to be concerned about, either strategically or on the surface?

MacKenna/Serinus: Response

oO Good place to make sure that bounty isn't collected, then... Oo

Shayne: Alright, then; helm, move us to 80,000 kilometers. Astrometrics, standby for close range readings. 

Maria put an end to her rubbernecking and re-focused on her console. Getting closer to the star only meant the deflector systems needed more babysitting to keep everyone safe.  It should have been an easy task, but...

Alvarez: Captain!  Showing power loss in deflectors.  Compensating, but... :: beat. :: Correction, showing power loss across all systems.

Shayne: What’s the source?

She rolled her eyes, which were mercifully pointed at the console and away from anyone that might notice.  oO How the hell should I know? Oo

Alvarez: Working on that one, stand by...

Fortunately it hadn't spread too far just yet, but the rate of decay was making it more challenging to trace just what was happening.  Fortunately, Shayne had the good sense to patch in the much more skilled specialists down in engineering to appraise the situation.

Shayne: =/\=Shayne to Engineering. Are you reading a generalized power decrease? =/\=

Hope-Sheppard: =/\= Response =/\=

The pitch of the ship's natural hum warbled and faltered uneasily, almost sounding like the moan of someone with a bellyache.  The readings on the console started to fluctuate more and more wildly - never a good sign.

Shayne: Yellow alert. Helm, start moving us back to…

Any bridge/engineering: Response

The flickering panels certainly didn't help in diagnosing whatever ailed Arrow, but fortunately a bit of frustrated percussive maintenance kept the lights on long enough to see several numbers very suddenly go very, very red.  She really hoped she wouldn't be putting her emergency procedures knowledge to use so soon, but here they were...

Alvarez: Captain!  Showing an energy resonance in the antimatter containment grid!  Best I can tell, an off-gas from the star threw out some rare and particularly unstable isotopes of Osmium and Scandium that got caught in the Bussard collectors.  The particle filters are in cascading failure, and the EPS grid is filling with reactants.  Recommend dumping anti-matter and plasma stores.

Shayne/Any: Response

Maria swivelled around for the explanation.  Realistically, she'd been pretty much reading those words off the console more than anything.  She needed to re-phrase for herself as much as anyone.

Alvarez: We ate some bad food and now we have the world's worst bellyache.  We need to stick a finger down Arrow's throat before she has an explosive bowel movement that kills us all.  We'll be adrift and without any power, but I thought you'd prefer that over vaporized.

Maria pushed her hands together, then sent them flying apart, making the sound of an explosion to illustrate her point.

Shayne/Hope-Sheppard/Any Bridge: Response

Tag/TBC…

Lieutenant JG Maria Alvarez

Operations Officer

USS Arrow - NCC-69829

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