LtJG Jovenan – Well planned is half done, but the rest is just as important
Jovenan
((Bridge, USS Artemis))
MacKenzie: Right. Bring me up to speed. What’s your plan?
Right. The plan. Some of the decks were flowing with anaesthetic gas and the environmental controls were offline, and Jovenan had to do something about it while the other teams were focusing on the fact that their ship might be destroyed by so many other factors. Luckily, she wasn’t trying to do this alone; she turned and took a quick look on Doctor Sadar’s eyes. She wasn’t entirely convinced their plan worked, but she tried to maintain an aura of being somewhat confident. After all, she was Sadar’s senior officer, as difficult it was for a young jay-gee to grasp.
Jovenan: Sir, we are thinking of exposing the gas to another chemical that renders it harmless for a time.
Jovenan turned to Sadar. This was her field of expertise, better let her explain it.
Sadar: R-Right, yes. :deep breath: The Artemis has stock of Naloxone on board, which is used to render opioid-based sedatives inert. Unfortunately, we don’t have a large enough stock to cover the entirety of Decks 5-7, so we need to guide the Anesthezine into a smaller area for full effect.
MacKenzie: This might be a silly question, but can’t we just vent the gas?
Yalu: Response
Jovenan shook her head. If only it was that easy, they could defeat the boarders in no time. That was the gist of any game: the opponents could also be strategic.
Jovenan: Sadly, the environmental controls are non-operative in the affected area. It seems the invaders don’t want us to get rid of their best defences too easily. I suggest we instead control the gas with selective areas of higher and lower pressure, using corridors and turbolift shafts as pipes, in a way pumping the gas to the place where we expose it to Naloxone – ideally, the isolation suites in the sickbay.
Sadar: The isolation suites are programmed to automatically seal themselves if the air contaminants within rise above a certain parameter, but Anesthezine isn’t considered a contamination unless it’s well above safety limits. The isolation suite will be able to contain a significant majority of the gas, leaving only a small remainder outside. That amount will be possible for my colleagues in Sickbay to deal with manually.
MacKenzie: Sickbay’s atmospheric controls are isolated from the rest of the ship anyway, so even if the rest of the deck is flooded, there’s a low probability that Sickbay was impacted. Anyone there would likely be fine as long as they stayed put. The rest of the decks, however…
Well, it will be if they plan to divert much of the gas in there…
Yalu: Response
Jovenan: We might need to adjust some of the environmental controls and things like doors on site to make it possible. And contact the sickbay to make sure we don’t expose anyone in there while executing the plan.
MacKenzie: As long as they stay put, they’ll be fine until the other gas has been neutralized.
Yalu: Response
Jovenan turned to Sadar. The Ensign had switched for the Ops station early on after what had felt like an explosion somewhere on the ship and seemingly initiated a scan. As Jovenan watched her, her expression changed for terror.
Sadar: C-Captain… According to the computer, there’s... Been an explosion in Engineering. The warp core is going to go critical.
All colour escaped Jovenan’s face. The warp core breach was one of the top fears of any Starfleet officer, alongside uncontrolled descent and assimilation. Thousands of thoughts went through her head: Could they dump the core? Should they evacuate? What about the unconscious and trapped crewmembers? How would her family react when they heard of her death? Would God force Rubicun III back to isolation after hearing how cruel the outside world can be to their Children?
The Captain, surprisingly calm, floated to the closest console, and after a few clicks and swipes, shook her head.
MacKenzie: ::shaking her head:: I don’t think this is a real alarm… I think it’s residual shenanigans from the Berlin team.
Jovenan closed her eyes and let out a breath of relief. It would take her quite some time to calm herself. Feeling exhausted, she began to wonder for how long she would be able to present herself as a confident officer to the Ensign.
Jovenan: Good, but we have to work fast. We can’t know when something equally awful happens for real.
Sadar/Yalu: Response
MacKenzie: Alright, back to the task at hand. With environmental controls offline on those decks, what methods do we have at our disposal for employing a counteragent? We’ll have to do it manually, yes?
They had already explained the theory of their plan. As she very well had learnt, the practical side of a plan was always the trickier.
Jovenan: We can’t spread the Naloxone across all those decks. The gas needs to be sufficiently localised to combat it.
She turned to Sadar to explain how the Naloxone would be used.
Sadar: Response
Yalu: Response
The Captain went silent for a moment. Soon and unexpectedly, the Captain talked to the comms system.
MacKenzie: =/\= Artemis to Berlin… =/\=
Adea: =/\= Response =/\=
Jovenan’s creeping anxiety subsided, and joy sprung into her face. Hearing Commander Adea’s voice had been like a small promise of salvation. The Berlin team was alive, they could solve all their problems together!
MacKenzie: =/\= Alright. The Suliban didn’t just appear out of thin air – they must have a ship in the nebula somewhere. As long as you’re not compromised, see if you can flesh them out. =/\=
Adea: =/\= Response =/\=
The Captain turned yet again to them.
MacKenzie: It’s good to know we’ve got an extra set of eyes watching our tail out there so we can focus on our problems here. Now, what’s the plan for clearing the decks?
Jovenan: Sir, the Luna class environmental systems are very diverse in order to allow a variety of species in the crew. While the main controls are on Deck 9, most decks and some sectors have their own environmental subprocessors to better manage local environment of the area. We – uh, somebody – could go and manually force those subprocessors to execute simple orders, such as to increase local air-pressure. That way we can create a tunnel of high and low pressure that will blow the gas to the desired direction.
Sadar/Yalu: Response
As she had been talking, Jovenan had realised the fact that if somebody was going to have to adjust those environmental subprocessors and the Naloxone deployment, it was going to be her and Sadar. Could they even manage it on their own? The Captain was probably thinking how they could do it without exposing themselves to the gas. She felt anxiety taking over her as she waited for the Captain’s verdict.
MacKenzie: Response
Jovenan: Aye, sir. We would need to act fast. There might be dozens of unconscious crewmembers and civilians on those decks.
Sadar/Yalu/MacKenzie: Response
TAG/TBC
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Lieutenant JG Jovenan
Science officer
USS Artemis-A
E239911J11