Lt JG Imril- It's Alive! It's Aliiiiiiiiiiiive!
Chris Taylor
(( Karnack Engineering - Deck 4 - USS Karnack))
K’Wara: Good news - the emitters up here all seem intact, so once we’ve got power up and running, Deck 3 is good for the forcefield. How’s the state of the dilithium looking, Imril, Doctor Jaran?
Jaran: I've gotten through about half of the crystals by now. We seem good to my untrained eye, but there are still a lot of them to look at.
Natasha, frustrated, hit the palm of her hand on the edge of the console. Imirl’s eyes never left the chamber. They’d been trained to catalogue but not react to such distractions. To no let themselves be pulled away from their own share of the work. A turned head, and dropped hydrospanner, could be the difference between a functional warp core and a very messy bomb.
Imril: Chamber's clean and aligned. I’ll help you with the last few crystals.
Cole: ::excitedly:: GOT IT! ::more composed:: We’re down to 4.2 percent power bleed.
K’Wara: It’ll have to do. Curtain call’s coming real fast. Natasha, finalize preparations for the forcefield. The rest of us will run interference if we notice any funny business in the power delivery.
Jaran returned the crystal they'd been examining back to its housing. Imril did the same with the last. Together, they pushed the handles back in and locked them down.
Jaran: I'll let you do the honours, Lieutenant.
Imril gave Jaran a nod of thanks, essentially dismissing her to help elsewhere, and moved back to the office cubicle. Giving Natasha a thumb-up along the way.
Nat stepped back up to the console.
Cole: Alright Imril, emergency quarantine force field should auto execute when you give the word.
Fortunately, this wasn’t a true cold start. Not with the energy stored and ready in the parts of the engine that had remained shielded. Several steps, and a good bit of time, could be skipped. But the control consoles were still dead, and would be until Cole commenced the power transfer from hers.
A howl echoed through the ship.
The predators sure weren’t wasting time.
K’Wara: Ready? ::brief pause:: Let’s turn the lights on.
Jaran: So we just... flip the switch, then?
Cole: ::looking to Jaran with a shrug:: I guess so
Imril: ::To Cole:: Execute.
Soon as the button was pressed, Imril’s consoles lit up. They choked down a whoop of celebration and went to work tapping directories and swiping through diagnostic screens. It was up to Imril to close off the power bleed before it exceeded Cole’s estimate. Before that happened, nothing was going to stay powered.
K’Wara: Response
Cole stepped back like Jaran did.
Jaran: Umm. Is it... it is on?
Cole: ::opening her eyes:: I … I don’t think so.
Imril: It’s on, but I have to wrangle the power bleed.
Imril fingers raced about the screens. At last, energy began banking in places where it was needed to activate the field.
K’Wara: Response
The sounds of claws on nearby bulkheads delivered a warning that time was nearly out. The howls sounded like the creatures were getting closer. Jaran moved towards the doors of main engineering with their wrench.
Jaran: Not to be a doomsayer, but I think we're about to have company. A little help?
Something in the air changed when the first field activated. That subtle flavor of sizzling, stabilized energy. Main Engineering had its quarantine zone! The warp core began lighting up, banking power for the supreme effort to come. The room's lights activated, still at red-alert settings, quicking dimming up from barely visible to full-color.
Imril: Got it!
K’Wara: Response
A wall of consoles close to where Jaran had moved erupted into a cacophony of sparks and crackling energy. Filling the area with an acrid ozone smell.
Imril: ::Groan:: … Mostly got it.
A final few taps more stopped the Master Control Display’s problems from going any further than those consoles. Main Engineering was alive and breathing, if wounded.
A fresh wound was struck, though, when claws breached the main door.
As their eyes darted over the control consoles, a dozen strategies pressed themselves into the forefront of Imril’s skull and were dismissed just as quickly. Not enough time for some. Not enough power for others. Not enough intact equipment for yet more.
Jaran: ::screams:: They're in!
Cole scooped up Jaran’s pet and tossed it off to Lieutenant K’Wara.
Cole: ::to Tamio:: Catch!
She ran full-tilt towards the Doctor.
Cole: Imril whatever magic you're about to do, bring the lights up as bright as you can!
Imril attempted her suggestion, only to have the computer negate the order. Because they -- a lowerdecker from another ship -- didn’t have command access to disengage the Red Alert or its associated light settings. And there was no time to hack -- er, convince -- it otherwise.
Imril: Lights are off-limits!
Mere moments of terror had become an agony of expectation. At last the engineer found something they could do.
Imril: ::Flurry of keystrokes:: Ha! Overclocking grav generator beneath me! Building up a charge! Polarising the deck plating from here to the door! Sorry, but it’s all I’ve got!
K’Wara/Jaran: Response
Cole had closed the distance as the darklings had finished tearing the doors down. She scooped Jaran off their feet as she pivoted away from the door and immediate threat.
Cole: ::to Jaran:: hold on, I’ve got you.
Imril rose to their feet at they finished the last pieces of the program.
Imril: When I say jump, jump! Three… Two… One… Jump!
They slammed a fist into the console, leaping into the air as they did so.
At Imril’s word Cole jumped as high as her feet would lift the two of them.
K’Wara: Response
A fraction of a second later, while everyone was nearing the peak of their leaps, a blue-white pulse raced from one side of the chamber to the other, headed for the door. The energy gathered there, and countless crackles of miniature lighting bridged the gap between torn metal and clawed flesh. All of the power drawn to the monsters before anyone’s feet touched the floor again.
The dark thing(s) howled and bolted. Headed away into the receding light of the exposed corridor. How hurt they were, Imril could not say.
Imril: ::Scowing at the door:: Not here, [expletive deleted]! This is my house!
K’Wara/Jaran/Cole: Response
Imril slapped their communicator hard enough to make their ribs hurt.
Imril: =/\= Imril to all hands! We have a dark thing on Deck Four! Headed away from Main engineering! Moving bow-ward! =/\=
K’Wara/Jaran/Cole: Response
Anyone else who hears the signal (if any): response
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?
Power was only going to flow as far as the lines that carried it remained stable.
K’Wara/Jaran/Cole: Response
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Lieutenant JG Imril
Engineering Officer
USS Artemis-A
A240110I12