Fruition

Posted on Mon Dec 11th, 2023 @ 3:50am by Captain Rhenora Kaylen & Lieutenant Commander Thriss Kla'ren & Lieutenant Commander Bonnie "Bon-Bon" Durnell & Lieutenant Thomas Haldeman & Lieutenant Alison Haldeman & Remal Kajun

Mission: Halloween
Location: USS Sunfire
Timeline: Current

Transporter Room

"Did we do it?" Bonnie asked as she hovered over the transporter controls. "Did we save the ship? There's no countdown, so we must have, right?" Bonnie glanced over at Remal who had finally succumbed to oxygen deprivation and was instantly brought back to reality. Without thinking she bolted out of the open door, and down the hall. Still wearing her EV suit which was two sizes too big, she struggled to not look like a frumpy mass of a bag running through the corridor.

Engineering

Once she reached upper Engineering, she stepped over a pair of naked corpses who appeared to be doing the 'horizontal mambo'. She grabbed the ladder, placed her feet on either side and slid down into Main Engineering. Once her feet hit the floor, her momentum carried her onto her butt with an "Omfph." Undeterred, she jumped back to her feet and rushed over to the center console where Tom, Thriss and a few other were, including the Captain.

Without thinking, she took a deep breath, removed her helmet, and then placed it over the Captain's head. There would be enough oxygen within to slowly revive the woman. Cheeks puffed out, holding her breath, she motioned to Tom and Thriss and then the warp core.

"Lt Commander Durnell, my scans indicate you have indeed captured the beings trying to take over the ship. Given they are now contained, would you and Commander Kla'ren be able to reinstate main power?" The Vulcan sounded as though this were a routine day in the office.

Still holding her breath, face becoming peekish, Bonnie responded with a nod. She then pointed up, as if to indicate the transporter room, then used crude hand signals like sign language to suggest walking, and talking and moving together.

Meanwhile the veil of whiteness slowly darkened and was replaced by the raspy rebreathing of an EV helmet and partially depleted oxygen supply. The Captain slowly regained consciousness, cracking open an eyelid a few minutes later to see the ship had not either A- blown itself to bits, or B - flown into the corona of the nearby sun, which meant that her plan had failed somewhat. As Savar would say 'Logic would dictate', well logic didn't make sense when her last set plan, and failsafe both hadn't come to pass. Which meant - something had changed.

Tom lay at the base of the console. His last thought had been of Alie and Mandy. Even now he was unaware that the situation had changed, and they were all still alive.

Thriss looked at Bonnie and understood what she meant. "Will do" he turned to one of the senior-most engineers who hadn't lost consciousness. "You're in charge of engineering until we return."

"Aye sir" the young Andorian Ensign said.

Thriss turned to look at Bonnie to wait for her. He asked, knowing she may not answer audibly. "You going to be alright Commander?"

Finally at a point where she was feeling 'Andorian Blue', Bonnie released the breath she had been holding for the last three and a half minutes with a 'pwuhhh'. Then thinking about how silly she must have looked, bashfully nodded. "Yep. Don't know what I was thinking. Let's uh, yeah, let's see about that Warp Core shall we Commander Kla'ren?"

The Vulcan engineer sat serenely at the makeshift helm controls, having carefully removed the Captain from the position and launcher on the floor in such a way that would ensure the EV helmet remained in place and her airway was not comprised. Meanwhile the Klingon security officer was feeling the heat as he catalogued the state of the crew. "Hypoxic, heatstroke, hypoxic, heatstroke. Can you not turn the life support back on crewman?" He grumbled.

The Vulcan looked towards the sweating Klingon who easily weighed twice as much as he did.

"I regret to inform you that I am unable to do so until Lt Commander Durnell and Chief Kla'ren restart the main computer and the warp core"

This was not what the Klingon wanted to hear.

"For sure" Thriss responded to Bonnie. "Should we divide and conqueror on the computer and warp cores?"

"No problem, divide, we'll have them up and humming in less than five." As the heat from the retreating sun dissipated and oxygen masks, though limited, were shared. The crew began to receive air and support. There were other ways in the interim to create oxygen, such as the air handling system in lower engineering. "You want the Core or the Core?" she asked innocently.

"I'll take the core" he said with a straight fact but motioning to the warp core, given that it was his specialty.

"Cool. I'll take the Core then." She smiled and then had to stop and think for a moment about what they had just agreed to. It down on her when he pointed to the warp core though and her eyes lit up with realization. She spin turned, pointed herself to the computer core and set to work.

Engineering 15 Minutes later...

"Computer is humming as though she were never shut down." Bonnie reported. "Live support is back online and all other systems are rebooting as we speak. Commander Kla'ren should have the warp core humming with power any minute. And..." She paused for effect as she addressed the Captain. "The energy beings are waiting to speak with you, ma'am."

Captain Kaylen had recovered quicker than the rest of those in engineering thanks to the EV helmet. She was on her feet, albeit a little wobbly but was more or less functional.

"Thank you Bonnie, ahh, where are they?" She asked, wondering where such beings were if they weren't trying to suck the life out of everyone.

"We've uh, managed to trap them in transporter room two, ma'am. I think something you did forced them to release their hold and using the anti-matter in their systems I... uh we were able to lock on and transport them into the chamber and trap them there with a negative energy barrier using a feedback loop..." She was about to continue on when she realized she was talking way to much with both her mouth and her hands and the Captain's face had gone blank.

"Okay, so they're in transporter room two." Rhenora echoed having got the gist of the message. She looked at Tom, who was slowly getting to his feet. "Care to join me Lieutenant?"

As they headed towards the corridor the Captain looked back at Bonnie and Thriss "I'm assuming it was you two who disabled the autodestruct and came up with a new plan. Thank you" she said earnestly.

Thriss smiled. "It was mostly Bonnie Captain. All I did was prevent us from burning to death or going boom when a third option was created" he said looking at his colleague, who if it weren't for her, they would all be dead."

" Well then, Lt Commander Durnell, it appears the entire ship owes their lives to you." Rhenora inclined her head in a show of respect.

Tom rose to his feet and put out a hand on the nearest console to steady himself. He nodded at Rhenora's invitation. "Count me in Captain. I'm with you."

"Thank you Tom, let's go see what these creatures have to say for themselves" Rhenora smiled as they headed out of Engineering.




TBC