Ensign Imril - A Short Run To A Big Problem
Chris Taylor
(( Holodeck 3, Deck 222, DS 224 ))
Imril was among the last to arrive to the Holodeck, their latest round of repair work having been extended by a minor ‘snag’ which had cost them time to put on the specialized undersuit back in their quarters. Waiting for them were a number of familiar faces, and a stranger. A J’Naii. They waved politely to all, and would have introduced themself to the red-jacketed ensign, but Bergmen looked to be about to begin the exercise.
Bergmen: Greetings, everyone. I’m Lieutenant Junior Grade Ollie Bergmen. Thank you for signing up for this training and traveling here on Deep Space 224; your participation is greatly appreciated.
Ollie watched their faces during the moment of silence. Imril looked back to him with an expression of curious professionalism. They didn't know what to expect, but were ready to try.
Bergmen: What we will drill this afternoon is something that I would not wish on anybody, yet it is a part of our duty as members of Starfleet. ::beat:: But if you do, you will want to be ready. As I will call you names, step onto your assigned markers, so we can begin. For Damage Control Team 1, which I will command, Ensigns Imril and Cole were chosen. ::beat:: Lieutenant Storm, you are the Duty Chief of DC Team 2. Your team members are Ensigns Tho’Bi, Meris, and Bancroft.
Imril noted Storm and Meris’ names for later. The former had entered somewhere in the middle of Bergman’s introduction.
The teams split, and Bergman tapped his badge. A holodeck activated into the standard damage control room, similar to those on the USS Artemis. The DC room was eerily still, its simulated environments on ‘pause’ as indicated by the lack of animation on any of the consoles. It was empty, save for the flesh-and-blood drill participants.
Bergmen: We are in a faithful reconstruction of Artemis' Aft Damage Control Room on Deck 15. As some of you know… ::gaze at HCO and Engineering officers:: …this DC room is a backup to DC Room 15-Main. The ship will suffer failure, and your task is to stop whatever happens to become critical, and if needed, evacuate the deck to protect the crew present. This is where this exercise will begin. ::pauses for a moment:: You may have questions... I know. The answer is - this is an emergency drill. Act like that. Think about what you will do, and what has priority to do first.
Imril nodded their acknowledgment of the instructions.
Bergman stepped one step back and tapped his combadge.
Bergmen: Computer, start the simulation.
It didn’t take long for the ‘fun’ to start. A rapid charge from a blip of the MSD screen to a warning light over the warp core graphic to the words "Intermix chamber coolant leak". Then the dull red glow of emergency lighting embellished only by the multi-colored warnings that filled the MSD screen.
Bergmen: Radiation alert! Suit up!
The MSD shot back to life, pulsing red text illuminating the radiation alarm symbol and rad count. A pulsing siren pierced screeched to be heard, frantic and inescapable.
Without a moment's hesitation, Ollie rushed to the lockers containing the environmental suits and started to put one on. Just before he secured his helmet, he gazed at Lieutenant Storm.
Imril hustled to the lockers and pulled out an environmental suit, making sure to give Cole room to get her own. These weren't the bulkier models used for spacewalks, but they’d do for staving off radiation sickness and other hazards that may lay between the DS room and their target.
Cole: Response
Bergmen: Lieutenant, take the corridor right from the DC room exit, and start evacuation to the upper decks. My team takes the corridor to the left. Try to get to the Main Engineering; we need to patch the breach or manually eject the warpcore. Ok?
Storm: Roger that.
Storm double-tapped her helmet.
Storm: Okay, let’s move.
Meris: Aye, Lieutenant. We’re right behind you.
Tho'Bi: ::strong and clear:: Aye, aye, Lieutenant. Good to go.
Bancroft: Response.
Storm’s team exited the Damage Control Room. Imril wished them all a silent ‘good luck’ and continued suiting up. Before reaching for their helmet, they attached the tricorder they had brought with them to the suit’s belt.
(OOC: From this point on, I will also assume that communication is limited to Bergman/Imril/Cole)
Bergmen nodded and put on his helmet.
Imril put on theirs, and pulled up the HUD so they could confirm the readings of its radiation counter against the MSD. But now, the MSD was spewing inarticulate readings which could only mean one thing; The sensors meant to measure the radiation in Main Engineering had been burned out by sheer volume.
It was as good as starting a countdown to other system failures.
Bergmen: =/\= Listen up, team. As we exit this room, turn into the corridor to the left, and anyone we meet, we send up or mark for intraship transport, ok? But our primary goal is to get to Main Engineering and try to solve the breach or eject the core. Understood? Let’s go! =/\=
Imril hustled out of the room alongside their team-mates, taking the left side of the corridor.
Imril: =/\= The rads in Main Engineering are already hot enough to burn out the internal sensors. The bioneural gelpacks will go next; cooked to useless bags of very inedible soup by the time we get there. A slower computer means fewer options. =/\=
To the ensign, it wasn’t a matter of if the teams were going to eject the warp core, but how quickly they could do it. They’d be happy to discover and use anything along the way that could mitigate such a drastic measure, though.
Bergman/Cole: Response
A fork in the corridor lay ahead of them, a four-way intersection cast in eerie pulses of red and black by the emergency lighting. Suddenly, the right passageway plumed with sickly yellow-green light, accompanied by a series of loud explosions. Someone screamed, and out from the corridor stumbled a man so hideously burned from the chest up that his species could not be readily identified in the brief time it took him to stagger three agonized steps into the junction and fall to the floor.
Bergman/Cole: Response
Driven by instinct and training, Imril rushed forward to assist. But one close look at the steaming, wheezing man told them there was nothing that their limited knowledge of first aid could aid with. Not in the time they all had, certainly. Instead, they had to make themself look away from the dying figure and address that which had done him in.
Within the right-side corridor, a long line of the leftward wall had been blown out by fierce heat. Leaving an empty, uneven wound that might as well have been made by a giant child tearing a finger across so much tissue paper, pocked with residual flames. A pair of twitching legs stuck out from one of the many pieces of debris that lined the floor.
Imril: ::Raising their tricorder:: =/\= The plasma conduits overheated and blew out. I’m reading another power build-up headed this way. =/\=
This close to Main Engineering, there were a lot of such conduits. There to channel energy from the warp core to the nacelles. With the coolant system compromised, their vast energies were seeking paths of least resistance to less heated regions of the ship. And now they had a nice, relatively cool corridor to pour into and cause all kinds of structural damage.
Bergman/Cole: Response
Imril: =/\=If we don't seal this part of the grid off or even better shunt the power somewhere else, we won't make it to Main Engineering. Because this half of the deck will tear itself apart and us with it. ::Moving towards the nearest viable control panel:: I say we divert the plasma to the impulse engines. The boost of speed will kick the ship clearer of an exploding ejected warp core. If it comes to that. =/\=
Sure, the impulse engines would inevitably overheat and fail from all the extra plasma gushing into their fusion cores, but by then the simulated Artemis would have picked up significant acceleration away from said exploding warp core. This improvised plan was all about buying time and distance for the ship. However much of either or both that could be won.
Bergman/Cole: Response
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Ensign Imril
Engineering Officer
USS Artemis-A
A240110I12