Lt JG Imril - MORE POWER **GRUNT**!!!
Chris Taylor
((Karnack Engineering - Deck 4 - USS Karnack))
Imril: I’m not sure if anybody heard that. Let's get the power moving to the rest of the ship. Lt. K’Wara, how are the stabilizer emitters doing?
K’Wara: They’ll do the work, but we need a more permanent fix. We can’t manually shield every room we need functional in the Karnack for space flight. But first-
Lieutenant K’Wara handed off the equipment they’d procured from an emergency locker to everyone, a medkit and phasers. Imril set the weapon’s safeguards to lock in on their personal biometrics.
Jaran: While I’m glad you all have phasers, I’ll admit that I’ve never been happier to have this tricorder. I’ll use the former if I have to, though.
K’Wara: They won’t do much to the Things, if that pulse Imril just did only annoyed them, but it may be enough to make them think twice about coming in here again.
Cole: I would suggest the maximum stun setting. It should act as an additional deterrent.
Jaran started scanning everyone and seemed pleasantly surprised at their results.
Jaran: You are all so hearty! ::teasing:: You’d never know we hadn’t been on Risa for the last two weeks.
Cole: You mean we haven’t been?
But there was no room for joking when competing creatures were lurking about.
Imril: Respectfully, I suggest setting phasers to heavy thermal. If all that voltage simply repelled them, I doubt they can be stunned at all. ::Moving their phaser’s setting even higher:: For that matter, why give them any chance to run off again? Let’s just vaporize them before they can establish a foothold.
The only good dark thing was a dead dark thing.
K’Wara: According to the ship power grid, Main Engineering is online, as is the Quarantine Suite in Sickbay, the Anti-Matter Storage Bay and the Shuttlecraft Control Room on Deck 2. The Computer Core is also online. The rest of the Ship is still dark. ::taps their fingers together in thought:: What we’re missing for functional flight is... the Deflector Array, Impulse Engines, Shield Emitters, Lifesupport Systems and the Bridge.
Jaran: Are there any functional shuttlecraft that we could shield and get off the planet? Might be easier than getting the whole thing up.
Cole didn’t respond, looking inwards.
Imril provided an answer, with a shake of their head.
Imril: ::To Jaran:: Shuttles are all gone. That’s what I heard when I got hustled towards the escape pods.
K’wara’s list of systems needed for flight was missing something which Imril saw as vital.
Imril: ::To K’wara:: Don't forget the maneuvering thrusters, Sir. Unless we want the ship to only go straight forward. Which, technically, would get us off the planet. It would just take a lot longer, and cost far more energy fighting gravity and the atmosphere, given what we have.
K’Wara: The fact that those areas are still functional means they must have shielding of their own that works against the effects of the Maelstrom. Is there any way for us to capitalize on that?
Jaran: It’s an interesting question. All we did intentionally was to secure Engineering, right?
Cole: Mostly, the doors look like they were used as a scratching post by a Magato.
The thought of a Mugato or some other creature invading the engineering bay, or the ship at all, made Imril’s teeth clench. At least Fuzzball had earned their place among the group.
Jaran walked toward the team mascot, who was still cowering by a console. It looked at them and hissed.
Jaran: Hey now. What’s that all about? It’s just me.
Jaran reached their hand out, and Fuzzball gave it a tentative sniff. A few moments passed and it emerged from its cover to crawl onto Jira’s arm and up to their shoulder.
Cole: If we can’t get the lights one, could we … could we detonate a photon torpedo to create a heat source outside the ship.
Imril: That would make your target very, very hot, yes. But only for a very, very short amount of time. ::Thinking:: But the torpedoes’ EM shielding must still be intact, too, or they’d have exploded already and taken half the ship with them. We might be able to turn their matter/antimatter cells into batteries to help power the ship.
Highly sensitive, potentially explosive batteries. But batteries nonetheless.
K’Wara: response
Jaran: Hey, I know we have a lot of things on our plate, but I’m getting some real good data off Fuzzy here. It’s possible we could use what I’m getting to develop a better defence against our more angry neighbours.
Cole: ::looking at both officers:: Our team noticed their aversion to daylight, and their attraction to heat. ::beat:: I swear this isn’t because I want to blow something up.
Imril: I’m all for explosions, if they’re useful. Do you know about Project Orion? It was an idea developed on Earth in the Cold War era. Using atomic bombs to generate thrust, by setting them off behind a vessel. We could utilize the torpedoes for that, for an extra boost free of Callis I’s gravity well.
K’Wara: response
Cole: We also noticed they were drawn to our resident telepaths, so time is more of a factor.
A howl reverberated through the ship’s corridors, and Natasha’s shoulders tensed.
Jaran: They’ve found the others.
Nat pressed her fingers to the bridge of her nose briefly.
Cole: We don’t know that yet. ::too quick:: It could just be movement between decks.
Her tone was sharp.
K’Wara/Jaran: Response
Cole: If they’re attracted to heat and telepathic signatures, then we need to make them choose the more tempting option.
A small pause.
A possible attempt to refocus her vision.
Imril’s voice was gentle. Concerned.
Imril: Natasha, are you doing alright?
K’Wara/Jaran: Response
Cole appeared to miss hearing what had just been said. She blinked, too hard.
Cole: ::quieter:: We can’t let them harm anyone.
Her grip tightened on the phaser at her side. Her knuckles paled.
Imril spoke with confidence, seeking to boost their team-mate’s morale.
Imril: We’ve got this. They won’t win. We won’t let them.
K’Wara/Jaran: Response
After the others spoke, Imril laid out a plan of action.
Imril: With what we know now, here’s how I suggest we proceed. I recommend we route the Shuttlecraft Control Room’s power towards the Deflector and forward thrusters. They’re all pretty clustered together, so it’ll save time and materials. Assuming someone's manning the Shuttle Control Room during flight, we wouldn’t even have to link any power lines directly from them to the Bridge. So that’s a step we could skip, if it comes to that.
K’Wara/Jaran/Cole: Response
Imril: The shortest route to powering the Bridge would be to do to the Sickbay what we’ve done here, and then link them together. We could most likely assume control of Life Support through Sickbay as well, given the ability to pump medicines and other chemicals into the vents from there. If there’s time, I’d tie at least the Core into that chain, to shore up redundancies. That way, one energy route going down won’t cause the ship’s ‘brain’ or ‘lungs’ to turn back off.
Why a ship built for battle didn't have an actual Battle Bridge closer to the center of infrastructure was anyone’s guess.
K’Wara/Jaran/Cole: Response
Imril: The impulse engines and defensive shield emitters are best powered from right here, because they’re going to draw the most power. Once we have either up and running, we could link them to the port and starboard thrusters. And then port and starboard thrusters to the forward ones. Which will link the Shuttlebay to Main Engineering in a nice, big circle. The last and least necessary step would be connecting the Core/Bridge/Sickbay/Life-Support chain to the Engines/Thrusters/Shields Deflector/Shuttlebay chain. Pure redundancy, but useful redundancy.
This plan actually left out a number of thrusters, but it would do for a less wobbly ride out of atmo. Reasonably wobbly?
Also, it didn't address powering the tactical systems. Without which no one would be launching any torpedoes.
K’Wara/Jaran/Cole: Response
Tags/TBC
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Lieutenant JG Imril
Engineering Officer
USS Artemis-A
A240110I12