Lieutenant Marty Tucker - Strongly Worded Letters
Martin Tucker
((Bridge, Deck 3, U.S.S. Ronin, Approximately Twenty Minutes After the Explosion))
It had been about twenty minutes since the Ronin took it on the chin, and Marty was trying to get any repairs done he could. Right now, he was buried underneath a tactical console, trying to get something, hell, anything online.
And if he didn’t shake a tail feather, they would be sitting ducks.
Shields and warp core were completely offline; other systems were running less than forty percent,
Niac: How does it look, Kirsty? We down to hurling strongly worded letters at the Alliance?
Carpenter: Response
Karrod chuckled and nearly doubled over in pain but controlled himself just enough to avoid falling over.
Niac: I'm starting to think you missed your calling as a diplomat, Commander. If I'd put you on the comm with the Alliance ages ago maybe we could've avoided all...this...
Karrod gestured towards the battered bridge and its equally battered skeleton crew.
Carpenter: Response
Karrod nodded and propped himself up as best he could.
Niac: Very well. Keep trying to raise anyone you can. Khitomer or the station. We survived...whatever that was. Odds are they did too. Our people are out there, Kirsty...I believe that. This wasn't all for nothing.
Carpenter: Response
Marty was so engrossed in his work that he hadn’t heard the captain's footfalls. As he was still about chest deep on his back underneath an offline and not destroyed console, it was like if you looked at a console on the bridge funny, it would explode just because, and it was frustrating the Chief Engineer. There had to be a way to stop those surges before they happened.
It’s something else he’d have to add to his list.
Niac: So what do you think, Chief? This damage going to buff out?
Tucker: ::from under the console:: Nothing a bit of Bondo won't fix.
Karrod snorted carefully and leaned down to gingerly help the man up.
Niac: I was worried you'd say something like that. Any chance at all of getting the core back online?
He really wished he had better news to tell the captain. He grabbed the offered hand and stood up, a spanner in his teeth, which he promptly took out and wiped his hands on an already wrecked tunic. Stains, rips, the works. But at this point, he really didn’t care, though a shower would have been nice.
Tucker: I’ve got Lieutenant Morgan on it right now. She’s the best warp specialist we’ve got. If she can’t get it up and running, then we’ll have to put it into the dock after this is all over.
The Captain gestured towards the Ronin’s view screen, where the ships were just out of range. To say he didn’t look happy was a massive understatement.
Niac: I feel like the old girl has just a little bit of fight left in her, Chief...and I'm not giving those bastards the satisfaction of just sitting here while they roll over what's left of the station. ::He glanced towards the vacant helm station and considered one final option.:: How about the impulse drive? Can you give me enough for one sustained maximum velocity burst? It...wouldn't need to last long.
Marty’s hands flew over the console, bleeps and blurts rebuffing his efforts. Finally, he got the console to stop yelling at him about everything wrong. What wasn’t wrong would be the shorter list. The Deep Space Thirty-three repair crews were not going to be happy.
Tucker: ::rubbing his hand on the back of his neck:: I can give you several micro-bursts or one heavy burst that can last about fifteen seconds before we fry the impulse generators.
Marty’s attention was brought to the front of the bridge as one of the turbolift doors opened on the side of the viewscreen. A young man emerged, looking as haggard as he felt. He was sure everyone on the ship needed a nice long shower and a nap. The young ensign's toolkit looked worse for wear.
The Captain nodded towards the bridge newcomer with a smile with not a lot of mirth behind it. As he did a loose panel freed itself from the bulkhead and dropped to the deck with a slight wump noise.
Niac: Good of you to join us, Ensign Sims. I regret your first visit to the bridge is...less than auspicious. I'm sure Chief Tucker is waiting for your damage report. He's the Lieutenant over there who looks like his uniform might be smoldering. And that slightly overcooked tactical officer is Lt. Cmdr. Carpenter but you may want to give her some space, she's angry enough to climb onto the hull with a hand phaser at this point. Not that I blame her. What's the situation below?
Sims: Damage to deck six is worse than originally thought, sir. Main power just went down a few moments ago following a power surge, and It’s going to take quite a bit of time to make repairs with all the debris that will need to be cleared out first. Both evacuation transporter rooms and one of the force field generators went down along with the power to that deck.
Marty ran his fingers through his hair. Sims was right; it was going to take a good amount of man-hours to repair just those decks alone. He also made a mental note to talk to Sims, as he was new and they hadn’t had a chance to converse.
Tucker: ::half grinning at Sims:: I’ll add that to the long list of things. How’s the damage control center doing? I heard it had taken it all pretty hard.
Carpenter: Response
Sims: Damage to the damage control center is a bit more substantial unfortunately. An EPS panel blew and started a plasma fire. The room was sealed off, and the fire should be contained, but no one can assess the damage to the room itself with the levels of plasma radiation in there.
Tucker: Good work, Ensign. Can you reroute Commander Carpenter's console over to Tactical Two? We’ll have to replace her console completely. ::pointing to the one console behind the XO’s chair::
Niac/Carpenter/Sims: Response
Tucker: ::to Kirsty:: It should only take a couple of minutes to reconfigure tactical two. And you’ll be up and running. ::head down again, looking at his console:: Deck eight reports microfractures in the bulkheads, which probably happened when the structural integrity field dipped. And I suspect those aren’t the only ones; we took one hell of a hit.
Niac/Carpenter/Sims: Response
Again, he felt the pull, or maybe the need to be down in engineering, working on the warp core. But Rachel was one of the best in the fleet, and if anyone could even squeeze an ounce of power out of the core, she’d be the one to do. The problem was it was hard to be optimistic when he knew in his gut that the warp core was borked.
Niac/Carpenter/Sims: Response
At this point, his combadge chirped; he reached up and tapped it..
Tucker: Go for Tucker.
Morgan: =/\= Sir, I’ve played all the hits and dipped into the B sides and deep cuts, but I can’t get the warp core back online. One problem is the microfractures in the Antimatter injection bay…=/\=
He wasn’t sure what to say; the warp drive was out of the question. Even if they fired it back up, it would most likely expand those microfractures and explode the core, and that, as you can imagine, isn’t the best possible outcome.
Tucker: Got it, Rach. Tucker out. ::to Niac:: Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the warp core is toast, microfractures to the antimatter injection bay. We even look at the warp core funny and could have a breach.
Niac/Carpenter/Sims: Response
TAGS/TBC!
