Lt JG Imril - Down The Memory Hole
Chris Taylor
(( Karnack Engineering - Deck 4 - USS Karnack))
K’Wara: I’ll get the start-up sequence of the impulse engines all keyed up. If we do have to beat a hasty retreat, it’d be nice to know they can be remotely triggered. It shouldn’t take too long, and I’ll keep an eye on the stabilizers in the meanwhile. ::looks around at the team:: All right, let’s get this done. The Captain’ll have our hides if she tries to fire a phaser and nothing happens.
Jira took their post quickly.
Jaran: Aye, sir.
Imril: Ready on your mark, Lieutenant.
Cole: ::to K’Wara:: Ready Sir.
K’Wara: Let’s power it up.
Natasha’s console screeched an alarm sound.
Cole: Getting overload warnings, because of damaged conduits.
Imril: The plasma grid blowouts that took out our MCD must have found their way down there.
K’Wara nodded.
K'Wara: Compensating. Adjusting to allow for slight feedback error margin.
Something passed behind Imril’s eyes. A mournful howl sounded in their ears that did not come from the walls or battered door. A sad song sung by the trespassers into their mind.
Oh? They wanted music, did they? Well, how about a selection from a holoplay that Imril re-watched after the whole Boraxian episode?
Imril:: ::Mouthing the words:: .oO ♬Do you hear the people sing? Singing the song of angry men? It is the music of a people who will not be slaves again!)Oo.
It wasn’t the Dark Things that were rebuked by Imril’s scathing recitation, though, but … D’Tin? Pummeled into nausea by the sheer magnitude of Imril’s righteous fury!... Or was that a few minutes ago? When they’d told Jira how to hold onto themself?
K’Wara moved in a way that she had experienced some part of what Imril and Jaran had. That the process was accelerating for everyone who’d stepped into those thrice-damned transporters.
Jaran: Imril. You good? I have those metabolic stabilisers still.
Nat looked over at Imril, moving her hand slowly towards her phaser … just in case.
Good.
It was security enough to push through on the work at hand.
Imril: Not yet, Jira. ::Observing monitor:: Feedback minimizing. I’ve shut the faulty conduits out of the power routes to the emitter.
K'Wara: Power is flowing unobstructed. Redirecting bleed into the forcefields. Impulse Engines starting power-up sequence now.
Jaran: We got trouble. Things are heating up downstairs, and They know.
K’Wara: ::quiet Cygnian curse:: Powering down impulse engines, resetting to prepped cold start. ::slight pause:: I’m venting excess heat through exhaust vents through Deck 3. Hopefully that’ll distract them enough to scatter their attention a little.
Cole: We could use the good fortune.
The engineer had none to offer.
Imril: Number Two and Three distortion field relays have burned out. They’re not leaking energy, they’re damming it up. Not something we can fix from here.
… until the shield was up. Then it would be the mere flicking of a panel.
Jaran: response
K'Wara: That’s our cue. Jaran, grab the engineering kit and get into that shaft. Imril, can you come up with anything to make sure the Things can’t take a whack at the core while we’re away?
Imril: Well, first, I can close the emergency bulkhead…
A keystroke later, a heavy wall came down between the core and the occupied section of Main engineering. Thick and strong as the ship’s exterior hull plating.
Imril: Second, I can lock the access to bulkhead controls down with an encrypted access code, double-randomized…
They programmed the computer not to show Imril the code as it was generated, or transferred to the Chief Engineer’s padd.
Imril: Third… ::Devious grin:: I can set Main Engineering’s Crew Comfort setting to Winter in The Yukon. Or even all the way down to Andorian Summer.
Another tap. The room’s life-support vents began belching cold air. Air that would get colder still as the system gave time for any occupants to adjust or put on coats. Hijacking the fire suppression system or venting some excess coolant could have accomplished the same task of making the room into a refrigerator, but those systems might yet be necessary.
Jaran: response
Natasha typed her clearance codes into the console, hesitating for a split second before hitting enter.
Cole: My codes should help remove some obstacles.
K’Wara: Do it. ::to Cole:: Nat, you bring up the rear once Imril’s down. Make sure to shoot those things between the eyes if they poke their heads in before you close the hatch.
Natasha nodded and walked over between Imril and the door. She drew her phaser and held it to her side keeping her eyes focused on the door.
Imril moved to the access plate, their skin already goosebumping from the diminishing temperature in the room.
Another batch of Howls from down the corridor accompanied with the sounds of claws on the metal deck plating.
Cole: Time to go pardner!
Imril: This train doesn’t make stops.
Jaran/K’Wara: Response
Natasha lifted her phaser aiming at the door. Stepping backwards towards Imril ushering them towards the jeffries tube.
Cole: Move. Now.
Another howl.
The Darkling crossed into the doorway
Imril flipped a middle finger at it and ducked into the shaft. Anger wasn’t the answer. It might save Imril from losing themself, but it could weaken others. Already had?
But, when under siege by a pack of mind-theives, what else was there?!
Love. Love was Ava’s anchor. Love for her daughter. Harper.
Cole: I’ve got the door.
The rungs of the ladder were illuminated by thin lines of glowing red. Imril had to wait to take the first one. That word, love, lingered in the inactive seconds.
It brought to mind a recent memory. One of some fruit left by their bedroll. The smell of raktajino in Elysium…
No! They couldn't think of him. Couldn't bear the thought of him being seized as a weapon against them. Targeted. Hunted. Used. They wouldn't so much as think his name! They would not paint a target on his back!
Jaran/K’Wara: Response
Imril heard phaser fire. Two bursts.
A flare of emotion. Not theirs. Surprise more than fear. Echoed by more minds. Imril called up the image of the Starfleet arrowhead again. Let it be their buoy. Their shield. Their way to avoid thinking about - Nope! Not thinking about that!
They descended the ladder as quickly as those before them would allow. Jira’s bum leg setting the pace. Oh, what a thrill it would be to just do a two-handed firepole slide! From one floor to another in an instant! An instant’s escape from relentless pursuit!
Cole: GO!
Jaran/K’Wara: Response
Imril knew the moment that the passageway to Deck Five below them was opened. Warm air rushed up to meet Imril’s body, a soothing embrace. Seductive in its way. It lapped away at fear and hate. Offered a new and deeper form of connection with-- With everyone.
A sensory trap set by the Dark Things! Imril redoubled their thoughts on the Starfleet emblem. On the mission. On the pack of choice which they would not betray.
Imril’s feet found the floor, and their eyes looked upwards in concern for Cole before exiting on to the deck proper. To one side of the chamber was a curved wall, the visible part of the shaft down which an ejected core traveled on its way out of the ship. To the other, a double-door sided by flickering LCARS Screens. In between resting in air that had yet to lower entirely to room-temperature, was the shield emitter.
It stood before the team as a dense, many-tiered conglomeration of metal and tubing and specialized infrastructure. In scale, it more than filled the space taken up by Main Engineering’s main chamber. Here and there, strips of blue light tried and failed to glow steadily. Imril pointed K’Wara and Jaran to the rightward side of the machine, where there were no lights at all. But lingered at the passageway to wait for the final member of the party.
Jaran/K’Wara/Cole: Response
Imril: Glad you made it. ::Passing the Chief Engineer’s padd to Cole:: The access code to reopen the warpcore bulkhead is on this. You’re the only one of us who hasn’t gone through the transporter. You should be the only one who sees it. So the rest of us can’t be made to commit any sabotage.
Jaran/K’Wara/Cole: Response
Imril led Cole towards the others, and indicated to all a pair of thin transparent aluminum cylinders set parallel to the floor. Within each, frayed-out power lines had been severed. But fresh ones lay behind them, also contained within the tubes. Dark and pristine. In the event of a heated battle, there was no time to manually replace power junctions one after the other as the shields took on increasing strain. This arraignment allowed the near-instantaneous swapout of critical components… Under normal circumstances.
Imril: ::Speaking while they disengage a manual lock with a torque wrench:: See those two junction tubes? We just have to rotate them to move the backup relays into place. ::Steps back, points:: Me and Jira on one, K’Wara and Cole on the other. ::Reaching out to a cylinder:: On three… One… Two… Three!
Jaran/K’Wara/Cole: Response
Fourfold effort set the new relays into place. The transparent aluminum cylinder hummed against Imril’s palm, vibrated by the power which now coursed within it. Translucent cables within turned bright blue. The shield emitter rumbled with life, going through the motions of a cold startup. The bitter taste of ozone tickled Imril’s tongue. A nearby console screen flickered into an active mode. Imril ran to it to let their eyes confirm what their other senses were already telling them.
Imril: ::Fist pump:: Yes! We have a shield! Wrapped around the whole warp core!
Now the team just had to expand it to reach the primary emitter.
Jaran/K’Wara/Cole: Response
Tags/TBC
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Lieutenant JG Imril
Engineering Officer
USS Artemis-A
A240110I12