Lt. JG T’Fearne - Diffusing Torpedoes & SOs
Teayl Thorn
(((OOC: Usual disclaimer, opinions of the characters are not those of the writer.))
((Torpedo / Magazine Bay, Deck 09, USS Compass Rose))
T’Fearne left Winters tending to Kessler, making him as comfortable as possible while he had, she hoped, a refreshing little nap. She hadn’t checked what level of dose the hypo had been set to deliver, she had simply sniped him with the preset dose and returned to the torpedo racks.
They opened a channel to the Ronin’s bridge, reporting that between the two of them, they believed they could keep the torpedoes stable and render them inert, but to be ready to emergency beam out if they destabilised anything.
From the compartment beneath the racks, T’Fearne pulled the Rose’s warhead stasis canisters and began the painstaking process of manually releasing antimatter pods into containment. Each disarmament took forever. With the antimatter removed, she was able to stabilise and render the torpedoes inert. The first one took fifteen minutes as she moved painstakingly slowly, second-guessing every move, though it was barely different from the training scenarios at the Academy.
Winters eventually joined her, and together they began to make headway, though nowhere near quickly enough. They needed help, Kessler’s particular expertise. The only question was whether he’d be willing and reasonable enough to give it.
She crouched beside him, patting his cheek gently, then more firmly until his eyelids fluttered. Keeping her expression strictly professional, she spoke evenly.
T'Fearne: Chief Kessler. Are you with me, sir?
Winters: ::kneeling and in a softer voice:: Easy Jack. Slow movements.
His emotions flared out—startled, confused—as he jerked upright, almost swatting her hands away.
Kessler: ::groggy:: What, happened?
It was her hope that the brief rest had blunted the paranoia. Maybe reset his mood and allowed his normal attitudes to resurface. If only things could always be so simple. She knew it wouldn’t last, but they needed his help. Winters had stripped him of his weapons while he was unconscious, and T’Fearne trusted her to know where he kept all his weapons hidden.
Hope flickered over her features, though she kept her tone crisp.
T'Fearne: Apologies, Sir. You can bring me up on charges later, when you are feeling better. Do you feel up to helping Michele and I manually eject antimatter pods into stasis canisters today?
Winters: Jack, eyes up here ::motioning to her eyes:: Hey, up here. We are mission critical Lieutenant. I need you to focus and we need an extra pair of hands. we either disarm these torpedoes or they go boom. Got it.
The junior lieutenant had to fight the urge to grin. She didn’t envy Kessler, being ordered around by Michele, but she was quietly grateful the marine had arrived when she did. It was strange that in the half hour she had spent working with the marine, she felt comfortable using her first name. Something about the direness of the situation, she supposed.
Kessler swayed, then pushed to his feet. T’Fearne attempted to assist the Chief up, but he seemed to brush off her assistance when she moved to steady him.
Kessler: Got it. ::releasing the gloves from his EV suit:: Disarm the torpedoes. We can do that.
T'Fearne: Thank you, sir. With your ordinance experience, this will go faster.
Her empathic sense was erratic at best, but even so, she found it difficult to get a sense of how the chief was feeling, a general uneasiness and displeasure were to be expected. She herself had felt better, trapped in an EV suit for hours. She couldn’t quite pinpoint it, but something was slightly off with Kessler. She wanted Michele or Kel, someone who knew him better, to confirm what she was sensing.
And then Winters nearly gave her a stroke. She watched, dark eyes wide with incredulity, as the marine pulled Kessler’s phaser pistol from her kit, slotted in a power cell, and handed it back to him.
She thought Michele was there to help, but clearly the Captain hadn’t fully understood the situation.
Winters: ::smiling at Jack:: For close encounters of the third kind.
Kessler: Thanks.
As the Chief grinned, seemingly happily with the phaser on his hip and went to work on the torpedo racks, T’Fearne turned and gave Michele a concerned glance, searing through her helmet's faceshield. She opened her mouth to object, but Michele’s look forstalled her action, flicking a comm toggle, muting the channel so only T’Fearne could hear.
Winters: It's a training power cell. Can't harm anything but should gain a bit of trust in that paranoid head of his.
T’Fearne narrowed her eyes, uncertain. She didn’t think that sort of technology was in use, and phasers had a low stun setting used in training scenarios already. A training powercell seemed redundant. But she didn’t know enough about marine training practices to comment.
oO Is it a dummy phaser cell? What for? Oo
T'Fearne: ::suspiciously:: Acknowledged. ::pause:: For the record, Captain, I’m not in favour of this tactic. If the Chief is experiencing hallucinations, tricking him will only make it worse. It must be difficult enough without giving him reasons to be confused about where he stands.
She cut the one-to-one channel, turning her back on Winters and making her way to a rack of torpedoes and back to work. She was slightly disappointed by the woman’s actions, though they had been working steadily to better the situation since incapacitating the Chief. It wasn’t how she would have handled the situation.
She kept a careful eye on Kessler while disarming the next torpedo. After a while, it was clear that he kept glancing suspiciously back at her. She sighed and wished she could remove her helmet to pinch the bridge of her nose to relieve the tension.
After a long, tense stretch, Winters finally broke the silence.
Winters: OK, I have two more torpedoes over here. What do you guys have left?
T'Fearne: Last one. ::closing and locking containment:: Complete.
Kessler: Three here. ::looking to T'Fearne:: What do you plan to do with those once they are secured?
She glanced up and caught his smirk, almost his usual grin, but sharp-edged and calculating. They had placed all the stasis containers together in a pallet crate. T’Fearne brought her last one over and surveyed the hord. She reached down and tucked a transporter tag into the pile. Just in case.
T'Fearne: For now, sir, nothing. Without antimatter, the torpedoes are inert. We can beam the antimatter into space, or perhaps wait utill the situation is less dire and have the torpedos repaired later. I know a couple of SCPOs who could handle the job, Rork and Solana. Do you have another idea, sirs?
Winters / Kessler: response
Some scuffs of footfalls and muffled suit chatter were audible for several moments early to her sharp ears, or ear, one seemed to be partially blocked, a lingering effect of the warpcore explosion. Sure enough, Commander Kel and Ensign Roop appeared through the hatch and made their way into the bay. Kel had mentioned he was on his way to them, and she felt a sense of relief warm her. A senior officer had arrived, one with advanced medical training and a close friend of Kessler's to help him through this situation.
Kel / Roop: response
T'Fearne: Commander, Ensign. ::nodding in greeting:: Sir, I can report the torpedoes have almost all been neutralised. Captain Winters and Chief Kessler are just extracting the antimatter from the last ones now. We had to dissable all the torpedoes in the process, the Rose is defenseless except for phasers, if they are even operational? We do have this crate of antimatter warheads currently in stasis containment. It could be beamed off-ship or held until repairs are possible. We were just discussing what could be done with it. An engineering opinion on the stability of containment would be appreciated, Ensign Roop.
Winters / Kessler / Kel / Roop: response
The young security officer looked slightly abashed at her actions, even though she felt they had been necessary. Her tone softened slightly as she turned back to Kel.
T'Fearne: I did think it was necessary to disarm the Chief, sir. The ACMO advised it might come to that. The hypo seemed… the lesser of evils. ::turning, meeting Kessler’s eyes:: You seemed reluctant to entrust me with your weapons, Chief. You were aiming your phaser rifle at non-existent targets in a bay full of volatiles. It just didn’t seem like an out-of-character risk, sir.
Winters / Kessler: response
Kel / Roop: response
[Tags / TBC]
===============================
Security Officer
USS Ronin - NCC-34523
R240107T14