PNPC Ens. Imogen Lacy — Have You Tried Turning It Off and On Again?
Naxell
((Main Engineering, Deck 12, USS Khitomer))
Lacy: I suggest we start with what we can tell about the ship. If we can figure out what caused the damage, we might be able to figure out what their crew did to escape, and then work backward from there.
Dr. Ohnari hovered behind her, more eager than the Ensign would have expected of the ship's Chief Medical Officer. But valuable input came from the most peculiar places, sometimes, and Ginny had long ago learned not to discount the benefits of diversity. She shifted to allow Ohnari a clearer view.
Ohnari: Let me know if I can assist with any life signs or what not.
Morda: Ensign Lacy, let’s pull up scans of that ship and our probe telemetry and see if anything stands out. If we can establish a commonality, that in and of itself is instructive. If not, we’ve got two different vectors for harm to contend with.
Morda stepped to a different console and Ginny followed.
Morda: ::to Lacy:: Are we authorized to run active scans on that Sheliak ship and the area where the probe was lost, or are we in passive-mode only?
Lacy: Permission instead of forgiveness? ::smile:: That's a direct feed of active scans, so I think we're good.
She gestured back to the console they'd left behind, with the depiction of the Sheliak cruiser with the broken belly. Morda seemed so at ease assisting with engineering work, she had almost forgotten that he was a security officer. The concern over protocol and clearance was a strong reminder.
Morda: Do you see any telltales from the area where the probe was lost that match up with the Sheliak damage?
Lacy: ::focused, speaking slowly:: No. The probes readings were too fleeting, and the scans register only as nondescript particulate matter.
Before Morda could reply or ask any other impressively pointed questions, the lights began to flicker in the compartment. She heard a shout, but wasn't paying close enough attention to register what was said. She turned to leave behind the scan interface and find an open screen she might use to display the status of the ship's EPS network.
Lacy: ::muttering:: I swear, if it's gel packs…
Ohnari: Well that can't be good…
Two things happened, then, in quick succession. First, the thrum of the warp core slowed, and the chamber at the center of the compartment dimmed. It seemed reminiscent to Ginny of an engine lugging, its transmission stuck in too low a gear. It didn’t have any immediate effect on the ship’s systems, however, as the cut over to emergency batteries was almost imperceptible. Second, the internal comms whistled and the new Captain's voice broke through the silence.
Naxell: =/\= Attention all hands, this is the captain. We are, currently, trapped by some unknown force. But we won’t stay that way. Keep your heads, keep working, and we’ll get out of this together. =/\=
Ginny spared a glance to the officers gathered around before turning her attention back to the ship's power grid. It wasn’t long until the comms crackled in again, this time following a chirp localized behind her.
Naxell: =/\= Naxell to Commander Ohnari. We may be stuck for a while at low power, so please have the medical staff prepare. =/\=
Ohnari: =/\= Aye sir, ::beat:: Ensign Melville-Kilpatrick is assisting Lieutenant El'Heem in science, any chance you have some spare officers in your pocket...? =/\=
Naxell: =/\= Trips and falls from low-light environments, at first. Life support may get strained, so more serious problems later. Lieutenant Zerva will assist in evacuating ship sections. Colocate as many people and systems as possible, that’ll be less work for the ship to do. Naxell out. =/\=
Ohnari: =/\= Consider it done sir. =/\= ::the commline closed and she nodded:: Ensign Morda you are with me, Lieutenant Michaels the department is yours, just remember light duty. Leave the heavy lifting to the minions. Report any disorientation or increased discomfort to Sickbay immediately, understood?
Ginny turned to look at Lt. Commander Ohnari, and gave a wordless nod before the woman departed. She had been speaking to Lera, but knew already that Lera would delegate monitoring of that to others. It wasn’t, Lacy imagined, so much that Lieutenant J/G Michaels intended to violate the doctor’s orders, just that she had other priorities.
Michaels: What is happening people? We need answers and we need them the day before yesterday.
Those priorities were, playing catch-up. Ginny didn’t answer Lera right away, focused on her console. If an anomaly in their power system was acute enough, it would be immediately visible. Whatever was happening, however, was too subtle to quickly identify.
Michaels: Lacy. Morda. Tell me you have something more reasonable than Khitomer being tied to an invisible dock with invisible ropes.
Morda: Not a discrete tractor beam holding us here. There’s no-- ::sigh:: I think whatever’s holding the ship is ommidirectional - and, I’m not sure, but rather than a tractor field, it looks compressive. Like it’s squeezing us in place. Or at least got us gripped from every direction.
Talon leaned closer to Ginny, who was still focused on her console. The warm glow of his body heat, radiating through the cool ambient air of the room, snapped her out of her focus better than the conversation did. As he spoke, she looked over to his screen.
Morda: The probe telemetry, and the sensor impression that something made physical contact and begun to surround it. Do you see any similarities?
Lacy: ::thoughtfully:: Possibly. The probe would have kept going. Physical contact alone wouldn’t be enough to stop it. The default automated guidance would have told it to try and push through whatever resistance it encountered in its path that didn’t register as a solid object. If we’re being held in place, and the probe was, too… then we would have lost telemetry when the probe literally tore itself apart..
And if that was the case, they were all very lucky that the ship had been ordered to a full stop.
Nicholotti: What's our status?
The new voice caused Ginny to spin sharply. Admiral Kalianna Nicholotti was instantly recognizable, and Ginny felt flummoxed. She had heard the flag officer was aboard Khitomer but never expected to see her in Engineering. Fortunately, there was no need for verbal sputtering, as there was a more senior officer present to address the Admiral’s question.
Michaels: That is uncertain at the moment. We are motionless due to some restraint we have not recognized yet. We are generating normal levels of power but only a small amount of that is getting into the systems that need it despite there being no open switches or relays.
Morda: Another thing? Wherever our power is going, if it’s leaving the ship through other means, it’s not being transformed into heat energy or other radiation outside the ship.
Nicholotti: It may be important to set ourselves up to meet whoever resides within the nebula even if we figure out what it's made of. And if the stories are correct, it may be best to put us on equal footing.
Ginny wasn’t a scientist by training, and so she couldn’t think of any way for a natural phenomenon to hold them the way they were, out in space. And so, it made sense for her to assume there was someone who was holding them. Though, she realized, it was entirely possible that this was some remnant of a long-forgotten war, like an abandoned minefield and that whoever put it here could be long gone.
Michaels: With all due respect, Admiral... This just gets better and better. Equal footing with an unknown adversary about whom there are "stories" that I am not certain I want to hear with unknown capabilities while dealing with... with this situation.
Lacy: Might not be up to us.
The Admiral grinned, and Ensign Lacy’s eyes widened. What in heaven could have spurred that reaction?
Nicholotti: I mean, we can't run anyways. Maybe we need to look like we meant it, rather than simply playing dead and hoping we can escape.
Michaels: Meant it, Admiral? This is why I am an Engineer and not a tactician.
((Brief Timeskip))
Ginny was back at her EPS grid diagnostic. Lera and Talon were off doing something else, but that didn’t concern her. What concerned her was where the heck power was going. She’d spent the past thirty minutes or so switching on and off particular relays all over the ship. Mostly non-essential systems, nothing anyone would miss. And if it was something someone happened to be looking at, she reasoned, they’d simply see their interface flicker and chalk it up to further power fluctuations. Which, she supposed, they were—just fluctuations attributable to Ensign Imogen Lacy, instead of the Cloud-Folk, whoever they turned out to be. Or have been.
Michaels: Mr. Morda. Please confirm that we have two shield emitters that not functioning properly on each of the two main nacelles.
Morda: Uh…yes, ma’am. Confirmed.
Michaels: Two factors here. The main nacelles are the rear most portion of the ship. It is also the section with the weakest shield protection.
Ginny’s mind, focused on her work, followed along a little bit. Typically the power distributions would place greater emphasis on a ship’s forward shield facings, because typically that’s where an enemy was. But it wasn’t always, so power to the shield system could be shuffled. In principle, no one facing was weaker than the others, unless the crew or some defect in the emitters made it that way.
Morda: Marginally weaker.
Michaels: The primary function of the shields is to prevent the ship from colliding with matter at near light speed. Even a tiny rock could be devastating at that speed. We do not need shielding if we are going backwards under impulse power.
Morda: I wouldn’t think so.
Neither would Ginny, but you didn’t typically need shielding going forward under impulse power, either, unless you were expecting to encounter a substantial hazard that would be unaffected by the ship’s navigational deflector and arrays.
Michaels: Ginny. You are in charge here.
Lacy: ::skeptical, not looking up:: Doctor’s orders, Lera. No heavy lifting or beaming yourself into space.
Michaels: No I am not planning on doing something stupid. At least not that stupid. Again. I just want to check out those malfunctioning shield emitters myself. :: beat :: from inside the ship.
Ginny quirked an eyebrow, but didn’t provide any further commentary. Lera was going to do what Lera was going to do, and Ginny knew her well enough not to get in her way. She also knew that the woman was skilled in getting herself out of the binds she occasionally got herself into. Instead, the Ensign focused on turning off and on various components around the ship, one at a time.
Michaels: Mr. Morda. You are with me.
Morda: ::Deadpan:: Again?
End for Lacy
——— ● ———
Ensign Imogen “Ginny” Lacy
Engineering Officer
as simmed by
Commander Nax-Ellarneii-Tellargo
Commanding Officer
USS Khitomer (NCC-62400)
A240001NH3