Lt. JG Natasha Cole - Hold It Together
Natasha Schell
(( Karnack Engineering - Deck 4 - USS Karnack))
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: Your ideas are good, but we don’t have any torpedoes. ::indicates the relevant part of the log:: They were reloaded to another Starship once the Karnack was slated for decommissioning. No sense wasting perfectly good torpedoes on a Sabre class heading for its final resting place…
Lieutenant K’Wara turned around, shaking their head.
K’Wara: And as much as I’d like to give those Things a good wallop, they aren’t our main focus. We have to contend with our power issues, or we’re not getting off of Callis I.
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 as she felt pressure start to build in her head.
Hostiles on the move.
Main Engineering secure, almost.
Vulnerable crew status unknown.
Jaran: They’ve found the others.
Nat’s pulse spikes.
Too many fronts.
Too many variables.
She pressed her fingers to the bridge of her nose briefly.
Can’t panic.
Cole: We don’t know that yet. ::too quick:: It could just be movement between decks.
Her tone was sharper than intended.
Jaran: ::softly:: Oh, I'm pretty sure.
Cole: If they’re attracted to heat and telepathic signatures, then we need to make them choose the more tempting option.
A small pause.
Did she already suggest that?
Focus.
Her words are precise.
Her vision is not.
The edges of the room flicker again.
Not electrical.
Physiological.
Imril: Natasha, are you doing alright?
K’Wara: The other teams know what they’re up against, Lieutenant. Our task is to get the Ship back up and running, not run interference with the Things. Every second lost on those are seconds that we’re prolonging the danger they pose.
Her hearing distorts for half a second.
K’Wara’s voice sounded farther away than it should.
She blinks hard.
Cole: ::quieter:: We can’t let them harm anyone.
Her grip tightens on the phaser at her side.
Her knuckles pale.
Her fingertips still feel wrong.
Somewhere in her mind:
You’re running too hot.
She ignores it.
Imril: We’ve got this. They won’t win. We won’t let them.
K’Wara: No one on this crew is incapable of defending themselves, Lieutenant Cole. You can’t protect everyone all the time; sometimes, you must let them protect themselves, so you can work for the safety of the entire crew. And right now, that’s by getting the Karnack up and running. ::slight grin:: Once we’re in space, let’s race the Captain to see who airlocks a Thing first, hm?
Natasha closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath.
Can’t protect everyone … that was not an option.
She could have crippled Ensign Syn during their breakdown while they had explored the city to protect the Captain, Alex and Charlotte. Instead she forcefully disarmed them and protected everyone.
Cole: ::looking straight at them:: You’ll have to keep up.
K’Wara: Good. Now, ::looks to Imril:: We know the rooms we have to get back up and running. How do we do that as quickly as possible?
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: Skipping as many steps as we can is imperative. ::looks to Imril:: What about the Bridge?
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.
Jaran: I'd be glad to handle Sickbay. I know every system in that room. Not to mention that Quarantine is already powered, and it has its own independent life support systems that I could tap into in a pinch. That wouldn't be enough to support the whole ship, but it's better than nothing.
Cole: We need to make sure the shield emitters stay operational, without those we’re standing in the universe's largest paper weight.
K’Wara: You’re right. Ultimately, this whole plan depends on the shield emitters. If we can’t get those up and running, the entire plan falls apart.
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.
Jaran: Listen, you tell me what to do and I'm on it. I know my way around at least the basics of power systems. Enough to follow instructions.
K’Wara: That looks promising. The Captain’s team must’ve made headway.
Jaran: Do we need to be communicating this to the rest of the crew, or are we just kind of going to hope they know what's going on?
K'Wara: We should be able to communicate via console. Hold on.
Cole: Since combadges are currently unreliable that beats the alternative of sending runners.
Imril: Response
K’Wara: =/\= Main Engineering Online. Remaining facilities needed: Deflector Array, Impulse Engines, Shield Emitters, Lifesupport Systems and the Bridge. Can be rerouted through Sickbay or Shuttlecraft Control Room. Recommend dividing efforts. =/\=
Jaran had started to walk towards the damage control console along the wall when something hit them, dropping them to their knees. Their pet ran back to cower in its former spot.
Coordinate plan with other teams
Protect everyone
One more heartbeat
Jaran: ::groans:: That ::pants:: was awful.
Am I going to have to subdue another fellow officer?
Nat held up a hand to the Lieutenant, to hold just a moment. Kneeling a half step away from Jaran, with one hand on her phaser at her hip and the other out towards them.
Cole: Jira?
oO Please don’t try and attack me. Oo
Imril: Response
Jaran rose to their feet, refocusing and pulling out their medical tricorder.
Jaran: These headaches can't be normal.
As Jaran finished their scan, they checked the readout, then looked at Imril.
Jaran: Lieutenant, a word?
Imril: Response
Nat watched as Jaran walked to a corner of Engineering and stared intently at their tricorder, waiting for Imril to join them. She kept an eye on the two as she walked over towards Lieutenant K’Wara.
Somethings wrong
Need to reassess
Cole: How’s coordinating with the Captain’s team?
K’Wara: Good. ::looks over:: Imril, Jaran, you good to go?
Imril/Jaran: Response
K’Wara: ... The Medkit works, right? Doctor, find a way to ensure you and Imril can keep it together until we get off of this planet - stimulants, transporter sickness tablets, try it all. We can’t risk you two becoming compromised before the power’s back on. Meanwhile, Imril and I will be working on fixing up the Impulse Engines and the Shield Emitters.
Potentially compromised crew
Cole: ::to Jaran and Imril:: If you feel like you're about to lose touch … ::beat:: Lets hope it doesn't come to that.
Imril/Jaran: Response
K’Wara: No, the Captain’s team is handling the Sickbay systems. Which means powering the Impulse Engines and Shield Emitters from here is our primary task, and then we’ll move to the Shuttlecraft Control Room afterwards. ::to Cole:: Natasha, pull the shield modifications that Commander Munro programmed into the Computer Core and have those ready for the Ship shields. Once the shield emitters are online, it should eliminate basically all the power bleed.
Cole: Yes Sir.
She walked over to the other operational console and pulled the data packet with Commander Munro’s modifications. And started making the changes for when the shield emitters went back online.
K’Wara: If you can get it to cover a larger part of the Ship - at least these three middle decks - that’d be great. It would give the teams some ability to defend themselves if they run into those things outside of a shielded room, but don’t waste power we don’t have. Better keep some in the bank, in case we need it.
The area around the console looked wrong, as she looked around everything looked flatter. She grabbed a hold of the console's edge, gripping it harder.
Get it together
Breath
Cole: Is there any chance power is trying to be sent to areas of the ship that aren't able to be secured? That might buy us some extra power for the shields.
Imril/Jaran/K’Wara: Response
Natasha was just about done entering the shield modifications.
Cole: ::entering last keystrokes:: Shield … ::shakes her head:: Modifications are ready when shield emitters are back online.
Imril/Jaran/K’Wara: Response
Cole:I appreciate it, Lieutenant. I’m operational.
Imril/Jaran/K’Wara: Response
Tags/TBC
Lt. JG Natasha Cole
Security Officer
USS Artemis-A
Writer ID A240205NC4