Star Trek: Theurgy

CHAPTER 03: The Captain of My Soul [07: Reconstruction]

November 22, 2014, 01:51:08 PM

Chapter 03: The Captain of My Soul [07: Reconstruction]

[ USS Theurgy | Main Engineering | Deck 09 | 1100 hrs. ] Attn: TheBanshee, Doctor Maya, Brutus & Nolan

With only one hour remaining before the Theurgy and the Harbinger would leave the Class-9 nebula, Main Engineering - with its upper and lower sections bared since they were in SOM-mode - resembled to Cir'Cie the vertical main chamber of a nest with Vulcan sandworms.

Crew with yellow collared uniforms bustled about in orchestrated movements along the walkways as far up and down as one could see, with the Chief Engineer being the conductor in front of the middle chamber of the warp core. Its three reaction chamber arrangement was unique for the Theurgy-class ships, and the core's height was therefore even higher than a Sovereign-class model. When they were not in MVAM-mode, all antimatter was injected at the bottom, and the matter at the top, and the fuel streams passed directly through the upper and lower reaction chambers to the meeting point in the central chamber. The height of a warp core determined its efficiency, since the longer they were, the more accurately the matter and antimatter streams could be controlled. Main Engineering was situated on the separation plane, so once the ship would split in three, the moving MVAM-hull sections would have slipped in place, and new matter and antimatter feeds would be opened to power the three separated Vectors.

The Chief Engineer was accompanied by Commander Stark and Cir'Cie's new superior officer, Simon Tovarek. The three department heads were working on a joint venture pertaining to the gravametric mines in Cargo Bay 04. Soon, the Intelligence Officer - Carrigan Trent - was likely to arrive as well.

Looking away, Cir'Cie passed along her walkway virtually unnoticed, and her steps took her to the middle hull section's plasma manifolds. A young crewman was standing by the phase compensator attached to manifolds, seemingly checking for erroneous readings with his tricorder. He might have been in his early twenties, counting Earth standard yeards, and Ci'Cie walked up to him without pausing her step. "Crewman, I require your help. Please follow me."

"Ensi... I... Yes, of course," he said and followed the Science Officer around the corner behind the manifolds. There, hidden from sight, Cir'Cie awaited him, gently removing the tricorder from his hand.

"It is easier to explain what I need this way, since you will probably not understand the reason for the request," she said in her dispassionate voice, and she raised her hand to lay it against the crewman's face. "My mind, to your mind. My thoughts, to your thoughts..."

And at first, the crewman's eyes widened in shock, but eventually... he understood.

---

[ Holographic Laboratory | Deck 09 | Adjacent to Main Engineering ] Attn: Kurohigi

On the other side of Engineering, behind the bulkhead, Holographic Specialist Lin Kae's own lab was located, and he was in the company of his main charge aboard the Theurgy - namely its Ship A.I. holographic interface projection.

"I fail to see the point in preparing the emitter's memory banks to extract tactical information," she said, a bit crestfallen where she stood before the docking place of her new emitter, which Lin Kae was working on. "It seemed to me that Captain Ives was quite clear about the odds that the order to save my daughter would be given. As it is, the odds that I will be allowed to beam aboard the Calamity is less than 4,234 %, and that is when the full yield of the gravimetric mines accounted for. In other words, that they all hit Cala mid-warp."

Dressed in her chameleon body suit, she currently wore the golden colour of Engineering, since she had been assisting Lieutenant Marlowe before her appointment with Kae.

"I find it all... unfair, even if I understand Captain Ives' reasoning," she admitted, taking a deep breath and folding her arms underneath her breasts, "Something must be odd with my subroutines, because understanding the tactical parameters does not subdue the feeling of being treated unjustly. Moreover, some of the things that were said about me and Cala linger at the forefront of my cognitive processes, making me feel anger. In fact, I admit that I am angry with you, Kae..."

She looked towards him. "How could you suggest a factory reset so readily? Would it not be best to try and determine the extent of reprogramming first, and to restore her ethical subroutines? With those reflecting my own, she would not cause us harm."

Three seconds passed, and before there was any time for Kae to answer, Thea's eyes widened. "Oh, no," she said, and she turned on her heel and ran towards the door.

---

 [ Main Engineering ] Attn: TheBanshee, Doctor Maya, Kurohigi, Brutus & Nolan

"The plasma relays are exploding all across the ship!" came the frantic cry from one of the Engineers, and the call was echoed from far above in Upper Engingeering. In Lower Engingeering, the detonations could be plainly seen between the criss-crossing walkways. The noise and the rising smoke rolled up the vertical shaft around the warp core with alarming speed - cast into eerie light by the reactor chambers.

Thea seized the railing outside the Holographic Laboratory, and the data that coursed through her might even have been more frightening.

"We are loosing one relay every second!" she called down to Tia Marlowe, met by the eyes of all present department heads, "The phasing cloak is failing! Power consumption is too high! In forty seconds, the reaction chamber will be unbalanced by the lack of EPS relays! There will be nowhere for the plasma to go but back from whence it came, and then overloading the shield emitters we use for the cloak! Either we deactivate it, or we shut down the core! Otherwise we loose both our shields and the cloak!"

---

As the subject become more functional, its mind starts working at its previous capacity, and it will find itself seeking realistic solutions to problems posed by its life that does not relate - or refer to - the incident.  If the suggestions made to the subject has taken hold, the manipulation has been successful, and the period in which it is due to act without second thought... has finally begun.
                                                                                                                       

- Manipulation of Grief, by Host named cin Nicander

Re: Chapter 03: The Captain of My Soul [07: Reconstruction]

Reply #1 – November 26, 2014, 12:22:43 AM

Tia walked with Stark and Tovarek through her department.  Finally having had something to eat she no longer felt drained from low blood sugar although she hadn't realised how bad she had felt until she had smelled food.

They were about to begin the challenge of working out how to set up and then deploy the gravimetric mines as had been discussed in the morning's meeting of department heads.  It was going to be no easy feat but with the three of them and Mr Trent, whose knowledge was a little disconcerting if Tia was honest about it, she was sure they would come up with the required devices and strategy.

"Hopefully we can run a number of simulations with variants of the mines and see which would be the most efficient," she said, thinking aloud more than directing her comment at either of her colleagues, "although we have to bear in mind that even with Trent's knowledge we will have to plan our strategy to cover a number of different scenarios since we cannot plan exactly what the Calamity will do."

The cry of the engineer sliced through her thought process and she snapped back into the there and then, the realisation of what he was saying horrifying her.  Even worse was the cry from Thea above her.  Thea's clarification of the situation left her in no doubt that she had to act immediately or there would be severe consequences.

There was only one option in Tia's mind, shutting down the cloak.  During the day before the festival she had spent several hours tidying up the installation of the cloak so no cables were laying around.  This was now a bit of a curse as the one cable she needed access to was now safely tucked away behind a wall panel. 

"Power down everything you can," she shouted as she bolted towards the offending panel, "try and prevent anything being damaged as the relays blow."  Damage limitation until she could pull the plug was priority and each thought was a shout to try and keep as much of the ship intact no matter the outcome of her attempt.

"Decloak!" she cried as she closed the distance to the wall panel, shouting orders to anyone that had their wits about them.  The power drain on the engines would decrease by 60% easily with the cloak off.  "Vent plasma!"  At least if it was given a place to go it would limit the damage it would do.  It wouldn't matter if they picked the thrusters or the impulse engines so long as there was a pressure release.

Sparks flew from relays as the precious seconds ticked away, each one taking another relay with it.  Tia slid in a style that Joe DiMaggio would have been proud of, right into the wall.  Her fingers pried into the panel, bending back a nail and leaving a white line across the quick and eliciting a hiss of pain.  After what seemed like an age the panel finally came free and she sent it flying on its way to her left.

Behind the panel was a wholly different world to the clean and precise exterior with its smooth black consoles and polished finish.  The world of the engineer in full flow, cables, junctions, relays, the beating heart of the workstations hidden from view and now at great risk.  The cable for the cloaking device was one of many but having installed it herself Tia knew exactly which one it was.  She didn't think of anything else but the consequences of not pulling it out.

Grabbing the thick tube that the device needed to pull such an inordinate amount of power through she braced her shoulder and knees against the wall and pulled as hard as she could, teeth bared in a desperate grimace.  The brilliant flash blinded her, the loud crack of angry energy deafened her and the force of the blast sent her skidding backwards across the room like a ragdoll.  Her whole body convulsed with the shock that was sent through her, her head smacked off the island of consoles in the centre of the room and blackness took away the pain of the burning and the shock.

[OOC: Just as an aside, I put the bit in about Joe DiMaggio and then looked him up to check the spelling... turns out today would have been his 100th birthday and I am now feeling a bit creeped out!]

Re: Chapter 03: The Captain of My Soul [07: Reconstruction]

Reply #2 – November 26, 2014, 02:10:28 PM

[ William Robert "Billy Bob" O'Connell | Main Engineering | Deck 09 ]



After his talk with Counselor Hayden O'Connor last night Master Chief William Robert O'Connell had decided to follow the old cowboy adage of getting back on the horse.  He had gone back to the Lohlunat festival on the holodeck and gotten himself drunk enough for some good old fashioned he-in' and she-in'.  When he woke up the next morning he was horrified to discover Lieutenant junior grade Tessa May Lance in bed with him and from the look on her face the feeling was mutual.  An unspoken agreement to never speak of that night was made on the spot and the two separated and got on with their morning that included a lot of painkillers and black coffee.

That morning Chief O'Connell was working a shift in main engineering on decks eight and nine.  His title may have been 'Maintenance Chief' when he was assigned to the Theurgy, but after the casualties they suffered everybody was doing two jobs minimum, and Captain Ives and the former chief engineers (God rest their souls) didn't let Billy Bob's experience in propulsion go to waste.  

It was a little after 1100 hours when Master Chief O'Connell noticed anything wrong.  Crewman Dom Fok was supposed to be checking the phase compensator attached to the EPS manifolds and he was nowhere to be seen.  Where in tarnation had that boy gone off to anyway? 

Billy Bob had no time to wonder about him when the alarms started going off.  He checked the master systems display table and nearly emptied his digestive tract into his trousers.   "What's going on, did someone shut off the plasma flow regulators or something?" he gasped.  

"Chief what's going on?" Petty Officer Tenchi Koizumi, a boyish young man of Japanese descent, asked him.

"The plasma relays are exploding all across the ship!" he shouted loud enough for everybody in engineering to hear.  A small explosion burst from the wall as if to emphasize his words.   "Koizumi, get down!" he shouted as he seized the petty officer by the shoulder and hit the deck. 
 
Within seconds, multiple explosions from overloaded systems detonated around them, drowning out shouts from both decks as smoke floated up the warp shaft.  As they warily emerged from cover, O'Connell and the young petty officer heard Thea call down to Lieutenant Tatiana Marlowe, the new chief engineer.  

"We are losing one relay every second!  The phasing cloak is failing! Power consumption is too high! In forty seconds, the reaction chamber will be unbalanced by the lack of EPS relays! There will be nowhere for the plasma to go but back from whence it came, and then overloading the shield emitters we use for the cloak! Either we deactivate it, or we shut down the core! Otherwise we lose both our shields and the cloak!"

"Power down everything you can," Lieutenant Marlowe shouted as she headed towards the panel that regulated the power to the Theurgy's cloak, "try and prevent anything being damaged as the relays blow."

"You heard the woman, shut everything down!" O'Connell shouted, all of his insecurities forgotten as his training and experience kicked in.  "You take the plasma flow regulators; I'll handle the power grid!"

"Aye-aye Chief!" Petty Officer Koizumi grunted as he took off to comply.

"Decloak!" Tatiana Marlow cried as she passed the master systems display table.  "Vent plasma!"

"Shutting down the cloak!" O'Connell shouted from the power grid control console.

"Venting plasma!" Koizumi's voice shouted through the smoke that was obscuring the view to the warp core.

O'Connell's brow furrowed in concentration as he shut down system after system.  Since the Theurgy was a Theurgy-class, she had even more redundant systems than most starships.  Fortunately, O'Connell was one of the few people aboard who knew which systems could safely be deactivated and which were superfluous to keep running in the first place. 

Out of the corner of his eye, O'Connell noticed the chief engineer pulling on the cable that connected the EPS grid to the cloaking system, completely heedless of the danger.  "Oh no!" he gasped.  "We're gonna lose another one!"  The Theurgy had lost three chief engineers since going on the run and right now she was about to lose a fourth.  "Not on my watch!" Billy Bob growled as he ran over to the exposed panel to stop her. 

Too late.  When the cable came free, there was a bright flash and a deafening crack as an explosion sent the burly chief tottering backwards before tumbling to the deck.  He was better off than his boss, who was hurled through the air to slide across the floor like a marionette whose strings had been cut while writhing from the jolt she had taken.  O'Connell shuddered as Tia's head hit the master systems display table.  "Man down!" he shouted as he staggered to his feet.  He hit his combadge.  "Engineering to sickbay, Lieutenant Marlowe is down!"

Re: Chapter 03: The Captain of My Soul [07: Reconstruction]

Reply #3 – November 30, 2014, 05:09:36 PM

[Lt Cmdr Natalie Stark | Main Engineering] Attn: Lucan, Dr Maya

Natalie had managed to work in that (very) brief team meeting with her department after the senior staff briefing earlier in the morning. It had been a tight squeeze, but as 1100 hours rolled around, the brunette was able to show up at Main Engineering on time, as requested. They were going to have some tough work ahead and it made plenty of sense that Natalie would be there.

The mantle of Chief Operations Officer still rested heavy on her slender shoulders, but the young woman was adjusting to the responsibility bit by bit, every day. Having the support of Sten Covington, Rory Callahan, and even to an extent, Jien Ives, certainly helped.

But that was neither her nor there. With her hands clasped behind her back, Natalie forced her attention back to the discussion on hand. Her blue eyes rose slowly, taking in the extended warp core in all its glory. Its muted pulse was soothing, the heartbeat of the Theurgy calming the woman in the yellow trimmed collar. A fine counter balance to the subject at hand - Gravametric mines.

Tia is right, Natalie thought, The sheer number of scenarios we have to go through to get this to work is going to be tasking. And we leave the nebula in less than an hour. A very visible frown formed between her eyebrows, twisting her face into an almost petulant countenance.  But those thoughts came to an abrupt end before she could even voice them, as alarms and cries rang throughout Main Engineering.

"What the Hell?" Natalie blurted out, running over to the protective banister that ringed the warp core and looking out over the edge. Sure enough, the telltale green hiss of exploding plasma conduits could been seen, decks below, bubbling up the tube along the warp core. Her face drained of all color in a moment of unrestrained panic.

Decloak!" she cried as she closed the distance to the wall panel, shouting orders to anyone that had their wits about them.  The power drain on the engines would decrease by 60% easily with the cloak off.  "Vent plasma!" Natalie heard the orders Tia Marlowe barked and she snapped herself back to the present. Orders that made sense. Orders that gave her a purpose.

"On it!" she shouted as she pushed herself away from that banister and ran in the direction opposite from Tia. She skittered across a suddenly shaking deck, before coming to an abrupt stop next to a control terminal. Pulling up the plasma flow regulators, Natalie's fingers danced across the touch screen, rerouting the flow of plasma away from the over taxed conduits and out towards the ships vents on the nacelles.

Out in the depths of space, the blue orange hues of the surrounding nebula began to be blanketed by a cloud of ever growing green plasma, forming seemingly out of nothing. As the plasma vented away, leaving a path right back to the now wounded starship, the interphasic cloaking device shut down, forcing the USS Theurgy back into the visible spectrum. Unlike during a normal cloak shut down, however, the ship seemed to flicker into existence piece by piece, with a crackle of energy.

Back in the panic that was Main Engineering, Natalie had no idea that she wasn't the only person routing plasma away. It was the combined efforts of the COO and many junior officers that managed to stall the cascade overload - however, it drained off far more plasma then was healthy. There would come a point in the very near future where the ship would need to restock. Thankfully, they were in the middle of a resource rich nebula. The delay such a restock would cause however - that would be the issue on hand.

Not that it mattered one lick at the moment. Systems all over the ship were shutting down. Including the Chief Engineer. Natalie felt the crackling explosion across engineering, more then saw it. But she clearly heard the cry of the Maintenance Chief. "Engineering to sickbay, Lieutenant Marlowe is down!"

Her eyes went wide and she turned from the console she was manning, looking over to see Robert O'Connell - a man she didn't know at all - crouching over Tia Marlowe's limp form near the center console for main engineering. "Oh no..." She looked around, frantic, trying to spot any of the Asst. Engineering officers. None were in sight as she scampered over to the prone form of the Lieutenant, pulling her tricorder out from her belt as she came to a kneeling crouch next to O'Connell.

An Engineering Tricorder was not the best tool for the job, but it was the one she had on hand, and she swept the device back and forth over the prone and slightly smoking form of the raven haired Chief Engineer as sweat poured down the back of her own neck. "Damn," she swore, hands shaking slightly. The readings weren't good. Panic and bile began to rise in her throat and Natalie sucked a deep, acidic breath to tamp that back down. "Shes going into shock. Elevate her feet, Chief, and stay with her."

Small orders, but they would help while the medics rushes in from Sickbay. She rose to her feet, knees bending, protesting slightly in pain. Standing in the smoke filled room, hair plastered across her forehead, Natalie took the scene of chaos in.

Though it felt like hours as she slowly spun around, the moment lasted only seconds. The Warp Core seemed to beat erratically as more systems were sent off line, pulsing in an angry light within the fumes. Consoles went dark, one by one. More than one engineer was strewn out across the deck, hanging over railings - or worse, crumpled in smoking piles, with flesh burned off their bodies from explosions. The silence was deafening.

Then the noise came back with a rush and a roar, alarms, beeps, hisses, and cries of pain filling her ears, and Natalie snapped into the present once more. "Someone get the fire suppression control systems on line, now," she snapped with an icy rod of authority in her voice she didn't feel. "You, and you," she pointed to two techs, "Get the vents in here working or we're all going to choke to death." She turned again and pointed to a startled Ensign, clinging to one of the starboard control consoles. "Get over there and help pull the wounded away from the reactor." She barked the order, her hand snapping from where the young man stood to the two bodies thrown against the very same barrier she had leaned over not moments before.

The red alert lights caused the eerie green haze of plasma fumes to pulse and twist, and the klaxons filled her ears. "Shut off that damn alarm," she barked, and turned, looking upwards. "Thea!" she cried out to the holographic avatar, "Whats the reactor status!?" Had they done enough to save the core? And where was medical? Had the bridge called down yet? Had she missed the surly scathing request for a report? It had barely been minutes since Thea's warning rang out...

In the center of the maelstrom that was wracking the ship, Natalie Stark was left holding the ball, barking orders in a manner far more calm and professional then the terrified woman felt.

---

OOC: who boy that post took on a life of its own. Lemme know if I missed anything, or need to make some corrections.

Edited: corrected an unintended demotion of rank for Master Chief O'Connell lol

Re: Chapter 03: The Captain of My Soul [07: Reconstruction]

Reply #4 – December 01, 2014, 02:54:55 PM

[Lt Simon Tovarek | Main Engineering]

After the satisfying breakfast with Tatiana Marlowe, Simon was walking besides her as they walked through engineering. It had been a busy morning for the fresh Chief Science Officer. He had noticed some persons of his department in engineering as he had promised Marlowe that he'd spare the extra manpower he had to her. The mission now was to figure out how to get these gravimetric mines to do their work. Simon had a few ideas in his head on how they could start with the mines. He looked over to Star as he had seen her only on a couple of occasions yet never really during an active shift. Which was logical since he usually was stocked away in the Science department. His eyes went over her for a second or two before he looked back at Tia, his eyes resting on her.

The frantic cry of relays exploding all across the ship made Simon look up to see where it came from. The stream of ideas concerning the gravimetric mines got stopped by the horrible sound of exploding relays. Simon shielded his eyes a bit as he heard relay by relay blow up. "Decloak!" he heard Tia scream yet everything seemed to slow down from Simon's point of view. He remained where he stood as he saw Tia dash to a panel to cut the power lines to the cloaking device. He looked at Stark now as she frantically started to comply with the order to vent plasma. He felt a bit out of place here as this totally wasn't his department, yet he had to help, right? Before anything more could be done on his behalf the crackling explosion of power knocked him back to this world on a normal time lapse.

"Engineering to sickbay, Lieutenant Marlowe is down!" was the first thing he picked up again and his eyes went over to Tatiana as she lay against the island. His eyes kept looking at her as his mind jumpstarted and started to bring up everything he had learned during medical classes in Uni. It wasn't one of his major subjects yet he was given the basics by Starfleet and other sources. He dashed over to her body now and took out his own tricorder just as Natalie stated that she was going into shock. His tricorder would perhaps be a bit more useful than Natalie's so he scanned Tia as well. "Spleen has been ruptured and multiple fractures, oxygen levels decreasing in her blood. Where the hell is medical?!" He hissed and looked over at O'Connell. His mind quickly made the assumption that this engineer would probably serve better with Stark than to just sit here. "Master Chief, you are relieved, report back to Stark and see if you can help her. I'll take care of Lieutenant Marlowe." he ordered him with a determined voice.

Once O'Connell was away he looked down at Tia now and gently stroked her hair out of her face "Don't you fucking dare bail out on me now." He hissed now as he felt his eyes swell up with tears. He had noticed Thea earlier on a level or a balcony above. "Thea! I want a sitrep on her condition every minute starting from now." he said to her and pulled Tia away from the island so she'd lay flat on her back away from any exploding instruments. Even though moving her was risky in her condition, he had to keep in mind that as long as they weren't anywhere safer they'd be subjected to more injuries or worse. Once he had her pulled away out of most harm's way he took his position at the very top of her body. He checked her vitals once more and checked if she could breathe properly or not. Besides the trauma damage he'd also have to keep the electrical damage into account. Yet he didn't want to think about it as his mind gave him some examples of it. "No, no, no! She won't go into cardiac arrest or have a fucking stroke or heart rhythm abnormalities." he mumbled to himself and awaited for a full sitrep from Thea who had positioned herself beside him.

Simon looked up once again after keeping his hand on Marlowe her head, preventing any more damage to happen towards her spinal cords and to be in a advantageous position should she loose breathing on her own. He looked at the chaos at the engineering department and waited for what seemed like an eternity for the medical crews to arrive.

Re: Chapter 03: The Captain of My Soul [07: Reconstruction]

Reply #5 – December 03, 2014, 01:21:02 AM

[ Main Engineering ] Attn: TheBanshee, Doctor Maya, Kurohigi, Brutus & Nolan



O'Connell shuddered as Tia's head hit the master systems display table.  "Man down!" he shouted as he staggered to his feet.  He hit his combadge.  "Engineering to sickbay, Lieutenant Marlowe is down!"

"Acknowledged Engineering," Doctor Maya's disembodied mezzosoprano voice replied, sounding eerily like a computer.  "Help is on the way."

Chief O'Connell tottered over the master systems display table and crouched over the unconscious Tia Marlowe.  The ugly bruise on her temple looked like it was bleeding.  What was this four?  Had the Theurgy really lost four chief engineers?  They had been as lucky as a rattlesnake at a mongoose convention hadn't they?  Poor Lieutenant Marlowe had barely been sworn in and...

Suddenly Lieutenant Commander Natalie Stark emerged from the chaos and crouched next to him.  Natalie Stark may have been young but she had more than earned her rank as her continued survival aboard this ship of fugitives proved.  She had a tricorder in her trembling hands and passed it over poor Marlowe, who wasn't shaping up to be so lucky.

"Damn," she grunted as she scanned the readout on her engineering tricorder.  "She's going into shock. Elevate her feet, Chief, and stay with her."

"Yes Ma'am," he boomed, adrenaline making his voice sound more gung ho than he felt.  He sidled around to Marlowe's feet and gingerly lifted them up by her ankles.  He looked around.  He was an engineer not a paramedic for Pete's sake!   It was then he noticed what a nice, peach shaped derrière that Commander Stark had.  The curvaceous twenty seven year old had staggered to her feet and was doing a quick survey of Engineering to see if she could assess the damage and forestall the next disaster. 

When the enchanting operations officer took a step to the right, O'Connell gulped at the contrasting view.  Main engineering looked like the Dominion War out there.  The warp core was pulsing like a heart suffering from tachycardia, systems were failing, engineering crew were lying about, wounded or dead.  Klaxons, chimes, hisses and pops accompanied flashes of haze obscured light, showers of sparks, and puffs of smoke.

Lieutenant Simon Tovarek ran over to them as Commander Stark left to take charge of Engineering, and he had a tricorder of his own.  The blue collar on Simon Tovarek's uniform may have indicated science instead of medical but until the emergency medical technicians arrived the chief science officer would do in a pinch.  "Spleen has been ruptured and multiple fractures, oxygen levels decreasing in her blood," he grunted as he scanned the stricken engineer.

"Frack," O'Connell muttered almost too quiet to hear.

"Where the hell is medical?!"  Simon hissed before looking at O'Connell.  "Master Chief, you are relieved, report back to Stark and see if you can help her," he ordered.  "I'll take care of Lieutenant Marlowe."

"Aye sir!" O'Connell nodded before getting to his feet and heading in Stark's direction.  Even with the smoke obscuring his vision, Commander Stark wasn't hard to find.  Just follow the sound to the woman who is barking orders.

"Shut off that damn alarm," Commander Stark ordered.  "Thea!" she shouted as she turned her head to the holographic heartbreaker, "What's the reactor status!?"

Re: Chapter 03: The Captain of My Soul [07: Reconstruction]

Reply #6 – December 03, 2014, 01:30:51 AM

[ Main Engineering ] Attn writers with characters in Medical: Searcher, Doctor Maya, Zenozine

With all the chaos unfolding below the railing that Thea stood by, she did not notice whether or not Lin Kae had followed her out from his laboratory. Her wide eyes darted to and fro, as her optical sensors took in the visual mayhem while the datafeed running through the Main Computer Core filled in the blanks for her. Life-signs were vanishing. One, two, then another one gone. A fourth... Injuries might be plenty, yet casualties were low compared to the material damage, where plasma relays was blowing out bulkheads across the ship. Her own projection flickered back and fourth with the energy fluctuations.

"Thea! What's the reactor status!?" came the call from Lieutenant Commander Stark, and Thea saw Tia Marlowe in Tovarek's arms, which explained why Natalie had taken charge.

"No coolant leaks! Antimatter containment holding!" she called back; the data that flowed through her given voice, "The central reaction chamber was failing, but emergency protocols activated the upper and lower chambers to compensate! Plasma levels are dropping fast! I recommend restoring plasma regulators to default setting, monitor which areas that needs new relays first, and cease venting plasma now, otherwise we will loose more systems than those we have already shut down!"

She supposed that between the lines, it could be read that they balanced on a knife's edge. No more relays were exploding anymore.

[Captain Ives to Main Engineering, report! I repeat, what is your condition?] The voice over the intercom was nearly lost in the noise all around the area. The steam shrouded the moving people below Thea, hiding those with injuries. So far, she had lost twenty-four EPS relays, more than half of which were located along the walls of the vertical Warp Core shaft, specifically where conduits fed the shield emitters. It seemed odd to Thea that a power fluctuation was so partial in damage. The call from Tovarek drew her immediate attention.

"Acknowledged!" she called back, and since her portable emitter was recharging and being reprogrammed, she simply de-materialised and rode the hologrid down to the Chief Science Officer, appearing right by his side. Without concious effort or time spent, her chameloid body suit changed into the teal colours of Medical as she picked up Tovarek's tricorder and scanned Lieutenant Marlowe. Thea knew she might lack the full knowledge of the EMH programs, but she could do enough until the medics arrived. Besides the tricorder readings, she could see that the Chief Engineer was breathing too quickly for her unconscious condition, and her skin-tone was becoming paler by the moment. "Ventricular fibrillation! She may go into cardiac arrest within the minute!"

It seemed to Thea that Marlowe was hurt by indirect contact to the energy source. The cables she held on to must have saved her from being set on fire. But the condition of her heart was serious, and Thea had not the means to...

"Spread out! Search for injured with your tricorders!" came a familiar voice, and Thea detected in her systems how some of the medical personnel had just beamed to Main Engineering. They had already gone to the Bridge to help a couple of injured there, with reports still coming in. Through the enshrouding steam in the warp core shaft, Doctor Nicander made his way over to Tia Marlowe, and behind him, the benevolent angels of his staff dispersed across the area, with their own lab coats fanning out behind them. When they sat down next to one of the fallen, it was as if their wings settled around them.

"She was lucky," said Nicander as he scanned the Chief Engineer, and almost seamlessly, he flipped his medical kit open. "She may live, if she can hold on a while longer..." He switched from his tricorder to his hypospray, giving her something to stop the development of Tia's heart condition. From that point on, Lucan was going through instrument by instrument at a quick pace to help ease pain and repair damages done by the shock. It was a fight against time...

...just like time would tell if Engineering could stabilise the energy currents in the ship.

With Medical on site, Thea raised her eyes to see what may come of Stark's and the engineering staff's efforts.

---

OOC: Arriving medical personnel consists of, but is not limited to, Doctor Lucan Nicander, Doctor Maya, Head Nurse Eve Jenkins, Nurse Hylota Vojona and Nurse Maal. Doctor Duv is currently on the Harbinger.

Re: Chapter 03: The Captain of My Soul [07: Reconstruction]

Reply #7 – December 04, 2014, 12:18:18 AM

Upon getting the notice of a medical emergency in the engine room Hylota was swift to get herself outfitted. All the needed equipment had just been restocked and finished being cleaned after the last incident and she had no trouble getting together the needed trauma gear and items needed for burn treatment. As she was heading out she gave one last look to the curtain where her brother was before she followed her CO and fellow medical officers as they rushed to the aid of the crew.

Upon reaching the engine room Hylota quickly set about tracking down the injured crew , she whipped out her tricorder and began to isolate where people were and set off to find them laving Doctor Nicander to take care of people his own. She was intent on finding any injured personnel ad stabilizing them before anything else, she was not the most well versed in treatment, but she had gotten all too familiar with stabilizing people suffering from burns and damage caused by energy surges. I also helped that she was a much faster sprinter than most other bipeds due to her long strong legs.

As she rushed off Hylota made sure to mark out where anyone who needed it, and was and only administered essential treatments to stabilize the injured, there had been such a rapid loss of life there was no time to waste, every second could cost a life of an injured crewmen. The way Hylota saw it, it was better to leave a crewman in a stable condition than to focus on healing one person while five others were dying, she had lost enough crew mates, she did not wan to lose any more.

Re: Chapter 03: The Captain of My Soul [07: Reconstruction]

Reply #8 – December 04, 2014, 01:58:48 AM

[ Master Chief William Robert O'Connell ]



"Thea! What's the reactor status!?"  Stark called as O'Connor reached her side.

"No coolant leaks! Antimatter containment holding!" the heavenly hologram called back. "The central reaction chamber was failing, but emergency protocols activated the upper and lower chambers to compensate! Plasma levels are dropping fast! I recommend restoring plasma regulators to default setting, monitor which areas that needs new relays first, and cease venting plasma now, otherwise we will lose more systems than those we have already shut down!"

"We'll get right on it Ma'am," O'Conner assured the chief operations officer before shouting at the top of his lungs.  "You heard the woman!  Get those plasma regulators reset to defaults!  Come on people, assholes and elbows!  Move it-move it-move it!" he bellowed before jogging off through the smoke to reach the controls to the main EPS flow regulator.  "Koizumi!" he barked.  "You still with us, son?" he called through the smoke as his calloused fingers danced across the LCARS display on the console. 

"Aye Master Chief!" the Japanese petty officer replied as he trotted over to him. 

"Reset relays four and six manually," O'Connor ordered.  "They're not responding as quickly as we'd like.  Get Manfredi and Johnson to help you."

"Aye-aye Master Chief!" Koizumi nodded before rushing away to fulfill the order.  "I'm on it!"

"Good man," O'Connor muttered under his breath as he stopped the Theurgy from venting its supply of plasma into space.   "God this is going to be a lot of overtime," he grumbled.

"Spread out! Search for injured with your tricorders!" a deep masculine voice ordered.  O'Connor could just make out Lucan Nicander and his fellow docs proliferating out from the turbolift to filter through Engineering.  He only hoped that he was in time to save the latest chief engineer.  Sometimes it seemed like it would be safer to work in Tactical.


[ Ensign Maya, MD ]



Without a word, Doctor Maya followed Nicander, Hylota, and her fellow medics out of the turbolift and searched for wounded.  There was no point lowering her psychic barriers; there were too many people with too many emotions in too many places.  Besides, after the workout her psyche had endured recently, Maya wasn't in the condition to empathize with a goldfish right now.  It was time to follow the manual and use the tricorders as Nicander had ordered.

Fortunately most of the engineers lying on the deck had only suffered smoke inhalation.  Actual burns, lacerations and contusions were rare.  Unfortunately some of the gas that could come out of the pipes could take the air sacs out of a person's lungs.  Maya crouched near one comatose engineer, place the fingers of her left hand on the back of his neck and used a hypospray to inject a triox compound to restore the oxygen levels to his bloodstream.  She sent a telepathic pulse through her fingertips and into his nervous system to get him to breathe normally before rolling her patient onto his back and straightening his legs.  Then without a word, she moved on the next patient.

---

OOC:  I'm assuming that Brutus and I need to revise our entries regarding the number and severity of causalities in Engineering.  It seems unlikely that More than one engineer was strewn out across the deck, hanging over railings - or worse, crumpled in smoking piles, with flesh burned off their bodies from explosions.  The damage wasn't that great; I assume that Cir'ce wanted to sabotage the cloaking system, not blow the ship up.  The mandatory combat at the climax hasn't started yet.  We're fugitives and Starfleet isn't sending replacement personnel to us.  If the Theurgy took permanent casualties this often the ship would soon be empty.

Re: Chapter 03: The Captain of My Soul [07: Reconstruction]

Reply #9 – December 14, 2014, 09:48:57 PM

[ Simon Tovarek ]

When Thea informed him that Marlowe was going into a ventricular fibrillation, Simon looked up and showed Thea a bitter face. If it was coming to that he'd have to undress the chief engineer to start cardial massage to keep her heart in motion. If not her oxygen levels in her blood would decrease in seconds, blood clothing could emerge everywhere in her body and the final damages would be incalculable. "Come on, where are those goddamned medics!" he shouted in frustration and looked down at Tia "Don't you fucking dare leave me now." He grunted and heard a familiar voice in the distance now.

Lucan arrived as if he were an angel sent down together with his nurses. As Lucan scanned Tatiana himself he started to give her drugs and the likes to stabilize her condition. Simon stepped back, knowing it was the best thing he could do with a professional at her side now. He looked at the engineering level now and tried to asses the damage to the whole department. Stark seemed to be running a tight ship with the crewmembers as it was. He looked back at Lucan now and took a relieved sigh as he told him she was lucky and that she'd be alright if she could hold on longer. "If there is anything I can do for you doctor. Let me know." He said and looked at Lucan.

In the back of his mind he already started to weigh in where he'd go next. Should he remain with Marlowe and go with her to Sickbay to see if she really would be fine? Or should he try and help as much as he could? It was a nerve wrecking choice yet he figured that Tatiana would opt for the second choice if she'd stand in his shoes. Duty above all, besides in Sickbay he'd only get in the way of the medical staff. "Sir, can you inform me when anything changes on her condition?" he said at last and kneeled down besides Lucan and stroked Tia her face gently.

Re: Chapter 03: The Captain of My Soul [07: Reconstruction]

Reply #10 – December 18, 2014, 05:23:07 PM

Lahkesis Saugn | Personal Quarters

Lahkesis was relieved to finally get back to her personal quarters and replicate herself a fresh uniform. Judging by the state of the room she had been out for several days. She wondered for a moment what sort of things she had unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, missed while she had been unconscious.

She was just about to upload the ships logs to a PADD to review them when the ship shook suddenly and alarms began to go off.

She quickly grabbed her medical kit from its cubbyhole by the door to her quarters and made her way towards medical. There would be no way of knowing what the situation was until she got there and even then there was no guarantee she would be much help. Though her body was mostly recovered there was no telling if there was any lasting damage done to her. There were precious few of her species and not enough of them had suffered injuries to tell how they recovered.

Yet she knew she could not be idle in a time of emergency.

When she got to Medical she quickly found herself in the thick of it. Injured crewmen were being transported in and it seemed like all of the beds were already full. She quickly found one of the nurses.

"What's the situation?" she asked pulling her medical tricorder out of her kit and crouching down next to one of the injured crewmen.

"The plasma grid, there was been relays exploding all over the ship," the nurse replied. She was panicked and this was not the time for that.

Lahkesis nodded as she listen, though she had already begun working on the crewman in front of her. His injuries weren't that bad, some minor plasma burns and a concussion. She quickly pulled out her hypospray and slipped her tricorder into the holster on her hip. She gave him a muscle relaxant and a painkiller. "Ok, use a dermal regenerator on the burns and get him out of here, I get the feeling we're going to need all the beds we've got and then some."

Lahkesis quickly got to her feet and moved to another injured crewmen, grabbing her tricorder once more. It only scanned her female on the biobed for a moment when it felt like her own heart stopped. She was going to die. Major plasma burns and her lungs were filling with liquid. Lahkesis was picking up erratic brain activity and her hear rate was dropping. Lahkesis might have been able to save her if she could get her into surgery right then, but there was no chance of that.

She was going to die and there wasn't a thing Lahkesis could do about it.

Sure she had seen plenty of people die, but not like this, not someone she could have saved if only the situation was different.

But in an instant the tricorder stopped reading any neural activity and Lahkesis found herself with no choice but to move on. She paused to tell one of the nurses to move the dead crewmen to the morgue and put her in a stasis field before she found herself in front of another crewmen, doing her best to hold a dermal regenerator steady.

The next few moments blurred together. The fine line between life and death blurred into the thick gray mess, leaving her little more than an unemotional shell, just doing her job.

And then she was in engineering.



Lahkesis Saugn | Main Engineering

She vaguely remembered the CMO saying her needed people to head down with him and then she was there. She couldn't honestly recall if they had transported or taken a turbolift.

The first thing she noticed though was the smell burnt flesh and burnt uniform.

In an instant she set to work, alternating between using her tricorder, her dermal regenerator, and her hypospray. There was no doubt that before even that hour was through she was going to be out of painkillers in her kit.

Re: Chapter 03: The Captain of My Soul [07: Reconstruction]

Reply #11 – December 20, 2014, 12:39:44 AM

[Lt Cmdr Natalie Stark | Main Engineering]

To compare Engineering to a circus right then would be an easy mistake to make. People, and bodies, were everywhere. The noise, the deafening din of it all, was all encompassing. Natalie barely heard any of the words from Lt Tovarek. She didn't register it at all, as she moved on barking orders. Master Chief O'Connell backed her, filling in the blanks with names and positions, taking her orders and applying them to those best suited to the task.

Natalie Stark and the rank and authority to make the orders - Bob O'Connell had the knowledge and experience to make them work and see them to fruition in the heat of the moment. And it was that combination that likely managed to save the ship from utter disaster. That, and the timely actions of the now wounded Chief Engineer.

Thankfully, medical was on the scene, adding to the chaos, and taking one more burden off Natalie's shoulders - the care of the wounded. It allowed her to focus on the tasks at hand instead of trying to juggle it all at once. With Dr Nicander and his team finally present, a little bit of the pressure making it hard to breathe eased for Natalie.

Someone rushed by and smacked a re-breather mask into her hands, to help fight the toxic sting in the air from the blown plasma conduits and leaking fluids. It could have been worse - the coolant held[/i] Natalie thought as she fitted the mask over her face in time to hear the hail of Captain Ives over the comm. She couldn't address it right away and left it all unanswered.

Between the lot of them, the engineering staff, and Natalie, managed to restore that critical balance to the plasma regulation system. Oh, the ship was going to need one hell of a refuel, and damn soon. Half the critical systems had to be shut down. Not to mention the damage to the crew itself. Natalie had no way of knowing the extent of the injuries that had rippled across the Theurgy. It was horrifying, really, but at that moment all Natalie could think about was the next order. Reroute flow here. Cut off that conduit there. Shut down this system, bring up that one. Route power from impulse engines to reinforce structural integrity.

Sucking in a deep, filtered breath, Natalie sagged against the console in front of her as the last red lined plasma conduit turned yellow. Not green, but yellow would do. Her head thumped against the heated screen, and she shut her eyes, as her legs and arms began to tremble. Not now, not now. Hold it together, just a little longer, hold it together. Everything that had just happened was starting to creep up on her. The enormity of it all, what it must mean. How could it have happened? Was Rory ok in all of this?

Bile rose in her throat and Natalie forced it back down to her stomach, where it smoldered and burned. She couldn't afford to panic now. Not now. She had to focus. Lives depended on it, on her, even as the danger was slowly abating.

Standing upright, she hit her combadge. "Stark to bridge," she finally replied, voice hoarse. "We've suffered a catastrophic failure in the ODS network. Plasma relays all across the ship have been compromised." She shook her head, looking at reports flashing across the screen before her, causing her sweaty, flushed skin to pale. "We had to vent over 70% of the ships stores of plasma out into the nebula to stabilize the remaining conduits. Cloak was overloaded and forcibly shut down by Lt. Marlowe," she paused, looking over at the back of Lucan Nicander where he knelt, with Lt. Tovarek and Thea, crowded around the fallen Chief Engineer, attempting to stabilize her for transport.

"Lt. Marlowe has been injured, severely," she continued her report, trying to be calm and precise, trying to ignore the acidic tang in the back of her throat, or the urge to be doing something, anything more, but knowing that this was exactly what she needed to be doing, right now. "Medical is on site tending to the wounded. And Captain, there are a lot of wounded. The immediate threat is passed, but I can't tell you what caused this, or how long it'll take to fix, not yet. We're still doing triage down here, in more ways then one."

---

OOC: Tag everybody. Lemme know what y'all need for clean up.

Re: Chapter 03: The Captain of My Soul [07: Reconstruction]

Reply #12 – December 22, 2014, 02:19:42 AM

[ Main Engineering ]

Since Doctor Nicander was by the Chief Engineer's side, Thea rose to her feet since she had little to provide in practical experience with which to assist in the treatment. Standing, her chameleon body suit changed to Engineering's golden colour, and she closed her eyes whilst she let her own ship-wide software aide O'Connell and his team in whatever way her A.I. had access to. She was hard-wired to not be able to affect many critical systems, but she did what she could to help. With her C-47 non-critical subroutines she could also open all doors wide and increase ventilation even further than the emergency settings that had been activated. She also made sure the vents in the corridors outside pushed fresh air into vertical warp core area from all the floors adjacent to it - effectively clearing the air and exposing the extent of the damage.

"I will, Tovarek," said Doctor Nicander behind Thea, addressing the Chief Science Officer, "I promise, but right now, Lieutenant Marlowe need medical transport to Sickbay so that we can treat her. I have stabilised her now, and she will make it, but she might need an artificial heart if she is to be fully restored.  You will aide better by helping Commander Stark and the engineers now that Marlowe is no longer here. I am sure she would welcome any help you could spare. Good luck, Lieutenant. Thea?"

Turning around, Thea nodded to Doctor Nicander, meeting his pale grey eyes. "Initiating medical transport, please stand by." She would have acted more swiftly if she hadn't needed to activate a couple of systems and circumvent a few others to make it happen.

"Please tell my staff to get back to Sickbay when they can. I'll need them there."

"Yes, Doctor," said Thea, inclining her head, "Energising." And like that, Doctor Nicander vanished along with the prone form of Tia Marlowe. Thea had already turned away, walking off towards the Maintenance Officer. As she made her way across the walkway, she accessed the ship intercom, and when she moved her lips to speak next, her voice was amplified from all directions.

[Attention all Medical personnel. Please report to Sickbay after conducting triage treatment wherever currently required,] she said, but when she laid a hand upon Maintenance Officer O'Connell's shoulder, she spoke with her projection's normal voice. "Thank you for acting so swiftly, and my thanks to your maintenance team as well. If you had not been as quick as you were, I would have been even worse off than I am." She spoke of herself as the ship in first person out of habit.

Further off, Lieutenant Commander Stark was finally briefing the Bridge and Captain Ives about what had happened, and Thea could overhear the reply.

[Understood, Commander Stark...] he said, sounding concened, and the bitter undertone was not directed towards Stark, but towards the fact that the chance to set out from the nebula and take Starbase 84 by surprise might have been lost. [We will assess the damage from here for the time being, hoping that the number of deaths will not increase among the injured. Well done bringing the situation under control. Begin repairs as soon as possible, find whatever it was that caused this cascade failure and please keep us updated on the development. Ives out.]

---

OOC: I mean to leave this thread open for whatever development writers desire to write (with me or other members in the Group) from this point in IC time (1110 roughly) up to 1200 hrs, which will be the time stamp for the upcoming final part of Chapter 03. I mean to push on as soon as possible in writing the next part, FYI.

Re: Chapter 03: The Captain of My Soul [07: Reconstruction]

Reply #13 – December 22, 2014, 03:41:13 AM

[ Master Chief William Robert O'Connell | Main Engineering ]



When Doctor Nicander and Lieutenant Marlowe were beamed out of engineering, Master Chief O'Connell wondered if the new chief engineer would ever be back. He had only met her once or twice at a few meetings and he hadn't even gotten to know her.  Who were they going to get to replace her?  He hoped to God it wasn't him.  Billy Bob was a capable engineer and knew his way around a warp core but with all of Starfleet against them the crew of the Theurgy needed the best, and William O'Connell knew he wasn't it.  Of course, there was also the little matter that the position of Chief Engineer aboard this ship seemed to be jinxed, and that was really something aboard a ship where the whole galaxy was out to get you.  

He was startled out of his reverie by Thea's voice coming on over the intercom system.  [Attention all Medical personnel. Please report to Sickbay after conducting triage treatment wherever currently required,] she announced before placing her hand on the burly master chief's shoulder and speaking in a normal voice.  "Thank you for acting so swiftly, and my thanks to your maintenance team as well. If you had not been as quick as you were, I would have been even worse off than I am."

O'Connell was pleasantly surprised to discovered that his hands had been doing their job while his mind was away.  And they had done it right too.  He supposed that his brains really were in his hands.  He brought himself back to the here and now to address the beautiful hologram standing beside him.  

Saint Thea, the patron saint of the Theurgy, their own mother loving Joan of Ark.  She looked like a princess and she didn't flinch, was always poised and didn't dirty her linen when photon torpedoes started flying like organics did.  And she was nice enough to say 'thank you' when the occasion called for it.  Whoever her programmer was, he certainly raised her right.

Billy Bob searched his off balanced mind for a way to acknowledge her gratitude.  He scanned his vast experience charming the ladies, added it to what his officers had told him about finishing school and said:  "Aw... shucks.  T'weren't nothin'."

Okay, they couldn't all be gems.  But he flashed her a lopsided grin to make it look like he was being witty and not merely having a senior moment.

Wait a second.  Thea.  The patron saint of the Theurgy.  How could the ship have a malfunction with Thea on the job?  There was no way something could go wrong on accident aboard this ship without her getting ample warning.  Did that mean that some backstabbing rattlesnake made it go wrong?

- FIN