LtJG Jovenan – Let it flow
Jovenan
((Bridge, USS Artemis))
The commlink between the Captain and Commander Adea on the Berlin was terminated. Somewhere, out there, were two ships, one who wished them harm, and another, who wished to aid them. It is ironic that it was the latter they had been trying to damage.
The Captain turned back to the blue-shirt pair.
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?
Yes, that part of the plan. It sounded more and more outlandish the more Jovenan thought about it. If it worked, the Suliban hunt would become significantly easier and could save the ship and her crew. If it failed, as it very well could, well, nothing would change, they just wasted their time. But time was latinum, and every second they spent on this project was away from something that would work for certain.
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.
The word “we” had slipped her. She had focused solely on devising the plan, not on who would actually go and do it. She had no desire to go to the danger zone and possibly face the boarders. In matter of fact, she was afraid of doing that. She didn’t want to show it to her Captain, 2XO, nor the new Ensign who probably had high expectations of her. And furthermore, cowardice is a crime – not the sensible self-preservation kind, but as an officer, refusing to face the danger in combat or to save others – and the pain of breaking the law burdened her even more than the will to live.
Sadar: Given me and Lieutenant Jovenan’s skill sets, I’d suggest that either I go alone, or we go together. I need to go in order to handle the Naloxone deployment, as we still don’t know the exact composition of the gas employed. Depending on the results of my scans, I may need to adjust the dosage compared to standards.
Can’t really so “no” now that the young ensign was signing them up to barge in there.
MacKenzie: Well, it sounds like it’s up to us. What do you recommend?
What did she mean by “us”?
Jovenan: Aye, sir. We would need to act fast. There might be dozens of unconscious crewmembers and civilians on those decks.
Sadar: Request permission to bring the Bridge’s emergency medkit along in case any trapped crewmen are in urgent need of treatment, Sir?
MacKenzie: I suppose you can, though it’s likely that anyone we’ll encounter will be unconscious and not an immediate priority.
“We”? Is… is the Captain coming along?!
Yalu: Response
Sadar: Yes sir.
The Captain pulled a phaser from somewhere under her seat and holstered it. She’s seriously coming with them, is she? Jovenan considered all the things that could go wrong while executing their task. It was nice to have a more experienced and competent officer to lead them, particularly one Jovenan knew to be a highly skilled physician, but it was not customary for a captain to leave the bridge to join a technical assault team. If the plan failed, the Captain would be seeing it with her own eyes. And if the enemy attacked them…
MacKenzie: ::pointing:: Last one into the jeffries tube is a rotten egg…
She didn’t quite understand the reference to spoilt poultry ova, but she didn’t bother asking either. Either way, the declaration had solved it, the team would consist of her, Doctor Sadar, Commander Yalu and the Captain. Let’s make sure they don’t all die on the trip down.
((Jefferies Tube, somewhere near deck 4, USS Artemis))
Jovenan does not like the Jefferies Tubes. All of her childhood and long into the teenage years she had spent running on the wide fields and chamber halls of Rubicun III. In the University, nobody ran except if they were late for a lecture, which Jovenan had found weird and restrictive. And then, then in the Academy they had stuffed her into one of these. The small corridors and rooms of the ship were not unbearable, but the tubes made her feel claustrophobic. The ladders were the worst. Once, during an emergency drill in the Academy, she had almost fallen down the ladders because the rungs had been slippery for whatever reason. Why were they wet, the fleet didn’t operate in the seas?
The lack of gravity helped her anxiety as they climbed downwards; if were to slip at a wrong time, she wouldn’t fall too far. Jovenan could hear the other officers advancing behind her. She was leading the line, an honour and a curse to her.
MacKenzie: ::calling down:: Are you sure you’re going the right way, Lieutenant?
Obviously, Jovenan had checked the route beforehand, but it was a valid question, considering how much more difficult it was to navigate within the tubes. She checked and rechecked their position and direction before she could reply with a level of confidence.
Jovenan: Yes, sir! The subprocessor we need to reach first is just a one more deck space down.
MacKenzie: Doctor Sadar, where is the optimal point to deploy the gas?
Doctor Sadar was just behind her. The ship was new to the new Ensign, so this was also a tour to her new home as well, although a bad one, considering they didn’t actually see any of the decks. Only tubes.
Sadar: Deck 13. ::grunting as she climbs:: Once the gas has been rerouted into a localized area, I need to programme the injection of Naloxone directly from the life support systems. But I need to get an accurate analysis of the gas before we start rerouting it. ::deep breath:: We still don’t know the purity or composition of it, and I might need to make some final adjustment to the counter agent to ensure its viability. I should be able to get that from one of the environmental sub processors on the afflicted decks.
The life support main control was below the affected area, so Jovenan and Sadar had to consider their route with what parts of the tubes were gas-free when they accessed them. If they failed to move the gas away from a certain part of the ship, the route would be blocked. There was no Plan B either, those require more time to come up with.
MacKenzie: And Jovenan, you can interface with the environmental systems from your tricorder?
Jovenan: Yes, sir, for as long as they’ve not entirely destroyed.
Somewhere far behind her, she could hear the slightly muffled voice of the Captain talking to Commander Yalu.
MacKenzie: What did we even come for?
Yalu: Response
She wasn’t sure if that had been meant as a compliment, veiled protest on two junior officers taking the primary role over a senior officer and the literal Captain of the ship, or a genuine question. Either way, she was too focused on the task not to think about it further.
Soon after, they reached the boundary of decks 4 and 5, and the first subprocessor the team needed to hack. Being the first in the queue of officers, Jovenan made it there first and stopped for a breather while the others were making their way. Sadar tried passing her in the crampy tube, which seemed to cause her some trouble due to her being much taller than Jovenan was. Jovenan felt bad for being claustrophobic while being the much more petite compared to the rest of the team.
Sadar: Excuse me, Lieutenant.
Sadar pulled out the tricorder and interfaced it with the subprocessor. It was great to have a verification on the system functioning, but Sadar didn’t look too pleased.
Sadar: This gas isn’t the Anesthezine stock we have onboard. It’s a combination of a number of different gasses - some anesthetic, some sedative and something with an hallucinogenic property. The standard Naloxone deployment won’t be enough - I need to make a mixture.
That was bad news. The plan relied on Naloxone being able to render the anaesthetic gas harmless, so if they lost that option, the plan failed. However, maybe it wasn’t all lost yet.
Jovenan: Oh… But making a mixture is possible? Then we should resume with the plan.
Sadar backed away so Jovenan could access the subprocessor. The Doctor was still glued to her tricorder as Jovenan pulled out hers. She was very aware of the phaser on the other side of her belt and hoped she wouldn’t need to get it out.
MacKenzie/Yalu: Response
She interfaced the tricorder with the subprocessor. As it had been with Sadar, the connection was formed easily, and the numerous virtual knobs and sliders popped to the screen. Now, let’s see, the corridor has this cross-sectional vector area, so for a volumetric flow rate of that requires the pressure difference of…
Sadar: ::Muttering to herself:: Anesthezine, Neurozine, Relorazine, Felicium, Theragen… ::To the Captain:: Captain, this gas is very dangerous. I need access to a computer to get precise measurements for the counteragent mixture.
Jovenan briefly turned to face her. The computer access they had was very limited. The plan was beginning to crumble even before they had cleared the first deck. Hoping the Doctor, and Doctor Captain, could come up with something, she turned back to her work. She had managed to complete the necessary calculation and began to implement the numbers to the subprocessor.
MacKenzie/Yalu: Response
Sadar: I can use the main Sickbay’s computer on Deck 7. We need to prepare Sickbay so they don’t attempt to interfere with the gas redirection regardless, so I can head there, warn them, use the computers to make my calculations and rejoin you then.
The new Ensign was either very keen to show her worth to the senior officers or had a death wish. They had enemies onboard, yet this person wanted to go on alone and re-join the group afterwards, if she was still alive. Na-ah.
MacKenzie/Yalu: Response
All the settings were done, and the subprocessor was ready to kick in and blow some gas out, or at least focus it on the deck below them. Jovenan activated her adjustments on deck 5, and immediately they could hear the flow of air outside the tube. One done, a few more to go.
Jovenan: Done, sir! This deck is beginning to clear up and the gas is flowing downwards where we can handle it better. The multi-deck computer core ruins the flow a bit, but we can deal it later.
MacKenzie/Yalu/Sadar: Response
Jovenan: The next deck, number 6, has two subprocessors we need to be activated roughly simultaneously. One is by the computer core roughly in the middle of the saucer, the other is on sector 17, to facilitate the enlisted and family quarters. We might need to split up, and Doctor Sadar needs to get her calculations done. ::pause:: How do you want to do this, sir?
MacKenzie/Yalu/Sadar: Response
TAG/TBC
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Lieutenant JG Jovenan
Science officer
USS Artemis-A
E239911J11