PNPC Ens. Imogen Lacy — How to Save a Life
Naxell
((Corridor, Deck 4, USS Khitomer, Ceram Archipelago))
She gave the Cardassian woman an apologetic smile, crooked and twitchy. Ginny wasn't the ranking officer anymore, but it was her damage control team after all. And she wasn't sure she wanted to let Martz out of her sight. She wasn't sure she wanted him anywhere near anything sensitive until she had a chance to confirm he knew what he was doing with his spray.
No, not like that!
…
Okay, maybe a little like that.
Lacy: Everything you thought Khitomer would be, ma'am?
Edac: Is it always this dull?
Martz: :: Completely serious :: Not usually. Normally I'm getting in my second workout for the day about now…
For as much as Ensign Lacy struggled to find an answer the Lieutenant’s sardonic and rhetorical question, she struggled even more to wrap her head around the marine's. She felt an urge to give the man one of those cutting, slow turn-to looks. And then she realized she had already been staring at him, which meant she couldn't.
A muffled fizzle sound from off to her side caught her sharp ears and finally wrenched her eyes off of the impossibly built Gunnery Sergeant.
Edac: You lead the way Ensign, just tell me what you want me to do.
Lacy: ::mildly taken aback:: Yes, ma'am. We need to get this panel back on, it sounds like an emergency line has been nicked somewhere that way.
Edac: You look like you know how to handle your weapon. You can protect my rear.
Martz: :: Staring through Edac to the wall beyond :: Yes, ma'am.
Ginny’s fingers halted in the midst of twisting open one of the clips that held the panel in place. Was it her head that was making this all sound tawdry? Or was it genuinely so? The lengthy pause among them certainly suggested that it wasn’t only in her head.
Lacy: …Alright.
Edac: I err meant…
Martz: Anyone else smell smoke?
The abrupt redirection from Martz almost seemed to Ginny like a kindness to Lieutenant Edac. One might have suggested that the Marine was defusing tension, but as finished securing the panel the engineering officer noted two facts. First, Gunnery Sergeant Martz didn’t seem the type. Second, she did smell smoke.
Lacy: ::nostrils flared:: It’s electrical.
Edac: Ensign, Gunnery Sergeant, Im reading a build up in the bulkhead before us. :beat: Something”s going to blow! Hit the deck!
Martz: I got you!
And he did. With a speed and agility that shouldn’t have surprised Ginny, Gunny Martz tackled the two women to the deck at very nearly the same instant that the phrase left Lieutenant Edac’s lips. There the three of them lied, for yet another awkward pause.
Lacy: Yup. You got us.
And that was when the ship rocked, and hard. A noise shuddered through the hull and a vibration rippled through the deck beneath Ginny, who tried very much not to ripple in any kind of way beneath Edac and Martz. She flinched, though, when a massive bang filled the corridor and their ears. When all was relatively still again (if not silent—somewhere a pressurized hose was venting gas) Martz stood, and Ginny sat up to watch him move a large piece of debris which had been blasted free from the wall.
Edac: Response
Lacy: Fire’s out. ::pointing:: But the suppression hose is loose.
Martz: Aw, yeah. Finally a real workout…
It would have been a simple enough matter to get up and cut the flow at the now-exposed manual valve. But Ensign Lacy decided to let the marine have his fun, and simply sat up and watched as he pinned down the loose, squirrely hose.
Lacy: He’s very enthusiastic.
Edac: Response
She pushed up off the floor and approached the blown-open bulkhead. The structure of the ship there seemed mostly intact. She gingerly reached her arm safely past exposed wires and torn metal, and gripped the valve handle, twisting it ninety degrees to its shut-off position.
Lacy: Good work, Gunny. Lieutenant, I recommend we schedule a full micron-level scan of the bulkhead here once we’re back at spacedock. ::pulling out her tricorder:: This will identify larger cracks, but we’ll need more sensitive equipment than we have on board.
Edac / Martz: Response
Ginny clapped her tricorder shut and tucked it back into her belt holster. There was work still to be done in this section, but only clean-up and repair. There weren’t any filaments left, and anything that was likely to break had already done so.
Lacy: Hull plate TS-4276 is three sections back, one deck up, and accessible by a Jefferies Tube.
Edac / Martz: Response
Lacy: ::to Martz:: Possible hull breach in progress, per Lieutenant Michaels.
One of her rare smiles slipped across Ginny’s lips. The workspace would be too small for Martz to throw himself atop them, though if the reputation of the Edo was to be trusted, that might not stop him from trying. No, instead, she imagined him zealously protecting their well-being by pulling the officers out of the Jefferies Tube by their ankles, with little to no warning.
Edac / Martz: Response
TBC
——— ● ———
Ensign Imogen “Ginny” Lacy
Engineering Officer
as simmed by
Commander Nax-Ellarneii-Tellargo
Commanding Officer
USS Khitomer (NCC-62400)
A240001NH3