Lt Wil Ukinix - Drain You
Danny Lee
((Primary life support control))
Ukinix: What do you need?
Core: Answers. Which I'm hoping to find right... now.
Tristam unceremoniously shoved data cables from the nearby wall into his tricorder.
Core: The good news is, I should be able to get life support running for Deck Nine without a problem.
Ukinix: ::Smiling:: Legend.
Alse: Response?
Core: I don't know for how long we can maintain it. According to the last autocommand, the system shut down automatically in response to a threat -- kind of like that time the ship ended up something like four hundred years in the past and wouldn't do anything until some weird particle indicated by a strange symbol was 'dealt' with.
Wil’s smile began to falter, as he furrowed his eyebrows. The idea that their predicament could be time travel related hit Wil in the chest.
Ukinix: Wait-wait, what? Four hundred years? I hope that’s not what’s happening to us…
He suddenly found himself internally cursing at the so-called Temporal Integrity Commission again. His deck 4 “adventures” had him doing the same in the past. It was a little personal joke he had with himself that the TIC where somehow changing the layout of Deck 4 every time he went there.
Although, a small, slightly paranoid part of him thought that was entirely feasible. His quarters were there. They’d know that. And he’d know they’d know that. That’s why he never spoke about the TIC in reference to him getting lost on deck 4. So that they’d never know that he knew that they’d know that, otherwise it would have been on the record. He didn’t want to give them the satisfaction, just in case.
In all reality it was a crazy theory. But he’d played the whole scenario over in his mind a few times…
“We looked at the records, in a different timeline we tried to strand the Veritas crew on a tropical moon,” one of the commissioners would have said. “But they got out of it.”
“Hmm. I guess we’ll have to find another way to change the timeline, but it probably doesn’t involve the Veritas,” another commissioner would have said.
“Regardless, can we get any sort of revenge on them?” the first commissioner would have said.
“Let’s pick… this guy, Ukinix,” the second would have said, randomly pointing at a screen with the Veritas crew manifest circa late 2395 on it. “We could send someone back every day to the time that deck 4 was being designed at Starfleet, and change things slightly. That way, the deck layout will keep changing, and this Ukinix guy will keep getting lost,” the second commissioner would have said.
“Sure, that’ll be good for a laugh,” the first one would have said.
It probably didn’t technically work that way. But still…
Alse: Response?
Core: I guess you had to be there. Anyway. I'm not sure if this is a malfunction due to the damage caused by whatever anomaly we hit, or if it's a legitimate shutdown. Right now, I'm not sure it's relevant either way. We can get life support working, but until we work out why Veritas is in black-out mode, I can only guarentee life support for forty-eight hours. And that's just on one deck.
Ukinix: ::Pursing lips, nodding, snapping out of previous thought train:: Mmm hmm, had to be there… anyway, um... ::collecting thoughts:: Forty eight hours, that’s good, once we have confirmation that everyone’s on deck 9, we can set it up only for that deck. EVAs for anywhere else we have to go on the ship after that. I’ve got some of our ::thumb over shoulder:: team patching EPS, if we can get the control systems on the starboard saucer impulse engines to work, we can power some systems on deck 9. If worst come to worst, that power can be diverted to life support to buy us more time.
Although that was potentially a false economy and he knew it…
Alse: Response?
((Cargo Bay 2))
On his way down from primary life support, Wil had helped his team in a few places to get power running though the EPS grid. It was a successful exercise. Most of the engineering team that effected repairs were either already on Deck 9, or on their way down. Cables that snaked out of the Jeffries tube entrance, across the floor, to the corner of cargo bay 2 were successfully powering makeshift consoles that has been set up there.
There was now minimal power, which was better than the nothing they’d had hours before. Deck 9 was lit up with dull emergency lighting. The Veritas was ever so slowly coming back to life from whatever it was that caused it to power down in the first place.
When Wil had emerged from the Jeffries tube entrance on deck 9, there was a large collection of people there. He breathed a small sigh of relief. However, that didn’t yet mean that *everyone* on the ship was there yet. Looking around, he saw no Captain Rahman, no First Officer, no Raissa, no Tiria, no Kelrod, no Jayla. Or Nabby. No Lt Solak. Crewman Tenille wasn’t there. In fact, some of the engineering team were still missing.
(OOC: I know that Jayla is on the Diligent, but Wil hasn’t worked that out yet!)
He still wasn’t sure what the situation was outside of the ship, as the acting chief of engineering he had been focused on the internal side of things. Tristam had got life support back online, and that was great news – but everyone needed to be on deck 9, otherwise that 48 hours would become much less. The entire ship’s life support was being powered by the ship’s batteries, but that wouldn’t last for long.
Ukinix: oO Wait. No Nabby? Oo
That meant the visiting school children weren’t present. He sucked in a deep breath in shock. Looking around again one more time to make sure, he could only see two children. One of them was the young man that had the stuffed toy and the bladder problem. The other was Natalia. That was a relief to Wil. But where were the rest of the children…
Del was over on the other side of the cargo bay from Wil, with officers gathering around him. Before Wil made his way over to join them, he made a detour over to Natalia and the young boy. On his way towards them he saw Natalia holding up Limbo bear, while Ensign Payne spoke.
Natalia: ::holding up her bear:: Wimbo
Toshi: Response
Payne: Arrre you hungrrry? I have some rrrations here. They prrrobably don’t taste the grrreatest, but they arrre betterrr than nothing.
Toshi: Response
As Wil got closer, he could distinctively hear a lullaby version of a song from his collection playing on Limbo bear’s combadge.
Ukinix: Heeeyyyy Natalia! Am I glad to see you.
Wil got down on one knee to greet the little lady.
Natalia: Response
Payne: Response
Ukinix:::To Aramantha:: Jansen and Raissa are OK, they’re with the Captain. I think they’re in the upper decks at the moment, hopefully on their way down.
He looked back at Natalia and smiled.
Payne/Natalia: Response
Toshi: Response
Wil offered his hand.
Ukinix: Hey mate, nice to meet you again. You went missing, we were worried about you.
Toshi: Response.
Wil nodded, before smiling and asking a leading question.
Ukinix: What about the rest of your classmates?
Toshi: Response
Wil gave Aramantha a nervous glance, before looking back at the young man.
Ukinix: Well, we’ve got a lot of good people out looking for everyone, I’m sure they’re not far away.
Payne/Natalia/Toshi: Response
He stood up and placed his hands on his knees, still bending over. He looked over at Del, who was about to speak up.
Ukinix: ::To Aramantha:: I better head over to Del. Let me know if you need anything. ::To Natalia:: Bye little lady! That’s a good song Limbo bear is playing there.
Natalia: Response
Wil jogged over to Del to join in on the briefing with the other officers.
del Vedova: I reckon we have two major goals at this point, in addition to returning the ship to working order: Find the main group of children, and make sure they're okay; and find the captain's group, and make sure they're okay.
Blake: Who was with the kids?
Ukinix: Nabby. ::Gesturing to Toshi:: According to Mr walkabout over there, he hasn’t seen them.
del Vedova/Alse: Response?
Blake: Can we try locating them with internal sensors?
Core: Not at minimal power. Communications are down; we can't isolate com frequencies, so we'd be stuck doing low-level bio scans. And there must be at least a hundred thirty Terrans on Veritas.
Ukinix: That’d be still worthwhile doing though, if we can locate people, we round them up here and lock-in life support for this deck only.
del Vedova/Alse: Response?
Macedon: Commander!
Both Del and Blake spun around to look at the source of the voice.
del Vedova: Response?
Macedon: There's something out there, sirs.
Ukinix: Out where?
Wil sensed curiosity and fear in some of the crew that were in the cargo bay. He turned his head to see those crew looking out of a porthole into…
Ukinix: oO Why is that porthole so black? Where’s the stars? Oo
del Vedova/Alse: Response?
The blackness changed though when a blue flash raced past the porthole, before it was black again. Blake’s distinctive jaw seemed to become more pronounced as her face changed to one of puzzlement. She headed toward the group, who parted slightly to allow Sky to take a look at another blue flash that shot past the window.
Blake:::mumbling:: We've got company.
When the lights flickered, instinctively Wil paced to a nearby console, tapping it – only for it to completely power down.
Core: Primary power's being drained.
Ukinix: ::Exasperated:: No, no, no! ::looking back at cables:: We should have power!
Alse/del Vedova: Response?
Core: That wasn't a result of lack of power, though -- the ship shut that down. Our electricity is being drained.
Blake: So our deuterium...?
Deuterium wasn’t the problem, in fact it was the deuterium that *was* indirectly providing them with some power. Wil politely shook his head, while Tristam huffed at Blake.
Ukinix: oO Do these two not like each other? Oo.
Core: Those are fine. In fact we could probably use them to regenerate what we've lost, if necessary. But our actual electricity is being pulled from somewhere.
Wil walked over to stand next to Tristam, to look at the readouts on his flickering console.
Ukinix: By what?
His eyes met Tristam’s, before he looked at Blake and Del.
Ukinix: ::Pointing at porthole:: You mean… that blue light thing?
Wil’s jaw dropped in slight shock.
del Vedova/Alse: Response?
Ukinix: ::To Tristam:: Divert any power you have to sensors, we need to work out-
He was interrupted by the ship shaking and lurching slightly, with a low-pitched thunderclap like sound that seemed to come from below them.
Blake/del Vedova/Core/Alse: Responses
There was another blue flash past the porthole, as the lights went out. Wil’s nearby console came back to life. Reacting quickly, he ran a few paces over to it almost tripping over himself, and then the cables, before he manically tapped away at the screen.
Ukinix: Crap, the batteries are suddenly down to 68 percent! ::More tapping:: Hull breach on deck 11.
Before he could get any more information, his console went black again. He smacked a few times with his palm as if that would somehow get it to come back to life.
Blake/del Vedova/Core/Alse: Responses
Tags/TBC!
Lieutenant Wil Ukinix
Acting Chief Engineer
USS Veritas
V239511WU0