Author Topic: S2 M4: Effigy  (Read 42675 times)

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Offline Solluk

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Re: S2 M4: Effigy
« Reply #210 on: December 28, 2017, 09:45:30 am »
Engineering - USS Darwin

Solluk's eyes went wide as the Orion Engineer sprang into motion.  Her fingers darted onto the consoles- responding to an image of reality that was decades out of date.  In a sad irony, she was now threatening the very ship that she was struggling to save.  Soon, Jada had grappled the frenzied figure, and Solluk's fingers were now upon those same consoles.  Even with all of his speed and precision, he was struggling to keep up with what she had initiated.

Why hadn't he thought to disable the consoles before reviving her?  He supposed that this was not the sort of situation one had a plan for, but he still chastised himself for the lack of foresight.

=/\=
Tempest, there is some possibility of an explosion and debris coming from the Darwin.  You should prepare for small object projectile collisions if this should occur.  I am trying to shut down a plasma flush here, and may not be successful.   Commander Hawk, are you able to engage manual cutoffs on the starboard nacelle?   This flush would normally begin reaching the pylon umbilicals within 1 nanosecond, but due to the plasma passing through temporal stasis shards, we should have... five minutes.  I can get to the port nacelle in that time, but there's no way I can do both of them. 
=/\= 


Solluk's fingers finished undoing the work of the Orion Engineer, but a pulse of plasma was still heading inexorably towards the nacelles.  If not contained, it would potentially cause a 4 gigajoule explosion.   That was potentially enough energy to destroy the nacelle mountings and send debris rocketing in all directions at kilometers per second.  Even with the Tempest's duranium hull reinforced by structural integrity fields, the living areas on the exterior of the ship could possibly be penetrated.   An image of a family having dinner in their quarters, only to be peppered by mach-velocity duranium shards- flashed through his mind.   

"I have to go.  Have you got her handled, or should I-?"  He made a pinching motion with his hand.
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Offline Jada

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Re: S2 M4: Effigy
« Reply #211 on: December 28, 2017, 10:22:30 am »
[USS Darwin, Main Engineering]

Jada shook her head. The engineer was no warrior like her, and was weak with weariness besides, so she had little trouble keeping her safely restrained. She gently steered her toward the door, away from the ever-imminent core breach. 'I'll take her to Doctor Kintiss.'
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Offline Ian Galloway

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Re: S2 M4: Effigy
« Reply #212 on: December 28, 2017, 10:54:16 am »
[USS Tempest | Bridge]

"Sir, The tractor beams are ready to come online.  We are awaiting separation on your go, Sir."

On his go ahead she would actvate the tractor beam and use it like a tug cable to bring the saucer section of the Darwin as close to the Tempest as possible it would then be up to engineering and flight Control to tow the behemoth ship section to a safe distance.

[Bridge]

Ian took a deep breath and flexed his fingers before he spoke to the two officers in front of him.

"Activate the tractor Mister Jus'draal. Keep a sharp eye out for spikes as we take up the load. Be especially wary of unexpected interactions with the nebula. Mister zh'Tharnak. You heard the Lass, thrusters only. Ten KPH. Steady as she goes and remember our girl is configured lighter than usual. Engage."

There was a slight jerk as the Tempest started to move under the heavy load, but slowly, the ship, and the saucer of the Darwin, began to move.

Engineering - USS Darwin

=/\=
Tempest, there is some possibility of an explosion and debris coming from the Darwin.  You should prepare for small object projectile collisions if this should occur.  I am trying to shut down a plasma flush here, and may not be successful.   Commander Hawk, are you able to engage manual cutoffs on the starboard nacelle?   This flush would normally begin reaching the pylon umbilicals within 1 nanosecond, but due to the plasma passing through temporal stasis shards, we should have... five minutes.  I can get to the port nacelle in that time, but there's no way I can do both of them. 
=/\= 




Ian frowned at this report, but figured that there were so many variables involved in what they were trying to do that something was more than bound to go wrong.

=/\= "Understood Mister Solluk. Godspeed ta ya Lad. We have solid locks on the entire away team, we will pull you out if this plan goes in the dustbin."  =/\=

Ian then stood and faced the officer at the tactical station.

"Mister Greenhill, we can't raise shields while the away team is aboard the Darwin, so there is some risk of damage. Evacuate the outer sections of the ship. Once completed, activate the force fields to seal off those sections."

The security officer replied "Aye Sir!" and set about the orders he'd be given.

Offline Solluk

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Re: S2 M4: Effigy
« Reply #213 on: December 28, 2017, 01:17:32 pm »
Airlock 23 - USS Darwin

Moments later, Solluk was at airlock 23, on the same deck as main engineering.  He activated the inner door quickly, stepping through and cycling it back closed again.  As the air was drained from the space between the airlock doors, he opened his toolkit and extracted his tricorder, multispanner, laser cutter, and PADD, clipping them magnetically to the suit's belt.  Then he discarded the remainder of the toolkit, which struck the deck almost soundlessly in the thinning air.

Moments later, the outer door cycled open, and Solluk found himself staring at a seemingly infinite nebula.   There was, sadly, no time to enjoy the view.   He pressed a function on his helmet, linking the helmet's HUD to the tricorder, giving him a virtual overlay that would show him the shape of the temporal stasis shards that peppered this area of space.  With that accomplished, he pressed a second control on his arm that activated his grav boots, and stepped out onto the hull of the ship.

It was strange to see his plane of false reality shattered.  Relative up and down were tilted by ninety degrees as he went from the previous horizontal orientation of the deck to the vertical orientation of the hull of the ship.   Now the hull's plane became his new horizontal, and the airlock took on the appearance of a trap door behind him. 

Leaning back, he craned his head to observe his surroundings.  He'd need to make a massive leap to get to the pylon quickly,  He'd chosen to go extra-vehicular to avoid having to climb up and sideways through numerous jeffries' tubes and other crawlspaces.  Unfortunately, that meant he'd have to jump the distance.

He'd brought EVA packs with him, but they were on the runabout, and there was no time to retrieve them or attach them to the suit.  No... this would have to be done the old fashioned way.

Bending his knees, he clicked off the grav function of the boots as he hurled himself into a massive leap. 

It had been a long time since his EVA training, but being a martial artist and a pilot helped a bit with balance, maneuvering, and timing.  He sailed through mostly empty space, feeling as though he was falling through an infinite chasm.   It was a long way to travel at only a couple of meters per second. 

A feeling of momentary discomfort seized him as he passed through the event horizon of a temporal stasis shard, but thankfully the isolation armband did its job and prevented him from being stuck in time like a fly on adhesive paper.  Soon enough, the distant surface of the pylon-nacelle juncture became an imminent reality, and he shifted his position so that he could land on his feet.   A moment before impact, he activated the grav boots again.   He hit solidly, giving his legs some discomfort as they absorbed the force of his landing.  Mass was still mass, even in microgravity.

No time to stop.  He began shuffling across the surface of the pylon.   In order to get to the critical junction, he needed to relocate to a spot 20 meters distant, but walking with grav boots was like trudging through mud.  Lift one foot.  Step Forward.  Clomp Down.  Lift second foot.  Step Forward.  Clomp Down.   The chronometer in his helmet told him that he'd already spent half of his alotted time.  Too soon, catastrophe would descend.

Finally, he arrived at a maintenance access hatch.   Unclipping his PADD, he transmitted the release access code to the hatch.  Once.  Twice.

Nothing. 

He'd expected as much.  The ODN lines that would carry this signal to the computer for authentication were being impacted by the same temporal stasis shard that was slowing down the plasma flow.  This whole region of the nebula was a maze of such shards, each calibrated by the brilliant ship's Engineer to move at a rate that would let her best accomplish her goals.   

Good news, bad news.  He had time to save the ship.   But he couldn't open this hatch the easy way. 

Solluk clipped the PADD back onto his belt and unclipped the laser cutter.   This would be slower- or so he thought.  Setting it to maximum output, he pressed the cutter into direct contact with the surface of the hatch and activated it.   

This was not safe.  Normally, the cutter would be held at several inches distant to allow for thermal dissipation.   But with this area of space sitting within a shard of nearly frozen time, he could not afford to do that.  He could not wait for the photons of the laser to cross even a few inches of space. 

What he did not sufficiently account for was the full impact of so much photonic energy striking the surface in what, for the hatch, was an infinitessimal fraction of a second.   Leaving the cutting tool at its usual rate, it clumped up like a 20th century traffic jam upon interacting with the temporal anomaly.  Then this massive clump dripped like thick syrup for the micron between the emitter and the hatch.

The hatch exploded into vapor as the photon packet struck it.  This vaporized metal cloud proceeded to crawl away from the ship's hull at a turtle's speed.  Solluk passed his free hand through the metallic gas explosion to clear it more quickly, and as the gas intersected with the isolation field on his person, it resumed its normal speed. 

The force of the escaping metallic gas, now liberated to interact with him in normal time, pushed him back so hard that he was nearly thrown from the ship's hull.  His hand felt like it was on the verge of burning, and it could have been incinerated by the gas, but it was safe within the glove of his well-insulated Engineering model vac suit.  Had he been wearing the thin emergency escape suits normally kept on Runabout and shuttles, he'd no longer have a hand, but rather an incinerated, metal-plated skeleton. 

Some of the gas did condense on his gloves and other parts of his suit, becoming liquid for an instant before hardening to solid metal.  The result was a thin plating of duranium on the surface fabric of the suit, which made it hard to curl his fingers or straighten them again.  It occurred to him that if he had not been a Vulcan, with his somewhat superior strength in comparison to humans, this thin coating of duranium might have fully paralyzed his gloves and doomed his efforts. 

Less than a minute left.

With the hatch mostly obliterated, Solluk pushed aside its remaining portion and leaned into the opening.  Grabbing hand-holds, he crawled into the subsurface emergency access tube.  He'd need to manually close the emergency valves here, preventing the plasma from blowing out through the disconnected umbilicals and destroying the surrounding nacelle mounts. 

There was another odd sensation as he crawled fully into this space.  He knew it meant he had again passed beyond the event horizon of a shard of temporal stasis, resuming the presence of normal time.  His helmet's HUD display confirmed this.

There.  The emergency valve.   It was a mighty thing, robust enough to halt the flow of plasma even during an attempted flush.   Solluk felt thanks for the many parallel Starfleet safety backups built into the engineering architecture.  No other spacefaring people took so much care as the Federation.

Usually, this safety valve would be closed easily, remotely, at the touch of a button.  Due to the temporal anomalies disrupting data flow, this one needed to be done in person, by hand.

Or by spanner, as the case may be.

Solluk tossed his laser cutter and took out his multi-spanner, adjusting it to clamp onto the emergency valve.   

Now began the laborious turning.  Numerous turns would be needed to fully close the valve.   

Time.  He wished he had more time.  Even with the temporal anomalies slowing the flow of plasma to this juncture, there still wasn't enough time for his liking.

That thought made him feel a swell of sympathy for the Orion Engineer who had set this all in motion.

 He worked as quickly as he could, through gloved fingers stiffened by their recent duranium coating.   Turn.  Shift.  Turn. Shift. Turn.

Over and over and over, he moved the spanner as sweat beaded on his forehead and dripped down to his nose. 

There was no Vulcan composure in this.  He worked frantially, wild eyed. 

Turn. Shift. Turn. Shift. Turn.

A red alert light activated beside the valve.  Safety sensors had detected that the plasma pulse was near.  This light was to warn him that the valve was not yet fully closed.

Hurry! 

Turn. Shift. Turn. Shift.

His teeth were clenched.  In his mind's eye, he could see the plasma snaking up the feed line.  He could feel its heat.  His stomach churned with a sense of imminent destruction.

Turn.  Shift.  Turn.  Shift.

TURN!

The red light became green, and Solluk let out a long, relieved sigh of a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding.

Now he could only pray that Hawk or Klizh had been similarly successful on the other end of this disaster.
« Last Edit: December 28, 2017, 01:23:26 pm by Solluk »
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Offline Jus'draal

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Re: S2 M4: Effigy
« Reply #214 on: December 28, 2017, 04:44:55 pm »
[USS Tempest | Bridge]

 =/\= Hot package received.  Combining.  =/\=

Jus'draal added the readings and calculations from s'Metra to her own data on her plot, and updated the graphic on both her own screen and the screen she had commandeeredin Engineering.  She wanted as many eyes on it aspossible, so she carbon copied Flight Control and the Command Console.

 She then turned her attention to the activation of the tractor beam. "Tractor emitters at one hundred percent."  She reported then frowned.  "Graviton beam at seventy five percent.  There is a temporal shard in the beam.  The gravitons are having no effect on the shard, but it is lowering the stength of the beam. Advise a two degree shift in course to allow the shard out of the path, We will have more control over the saucer section."

She was meanwhile doing her best to compensate.  This process was hairy, the gravitons did though, highlight the anomaly nd had allowedher to quickly realize the issue.
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Offline Ian Galloway

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Re: S2 M4: Effigy
« Reply #215 on: December 28, 2017, 05:04:45 pm »
[USS Tempest | Bridge]

 =/\= Hot package received.  Combining.  =/\=

Jus'draal added the readings and calculations from s'Metra to her own data on her plot, and updated the graphic on both her own screen and the screen she had commandeeredin Engineering.  She wanted as many eyes on it aspossible, so she carbon copied Flight Control and the Command Console.

 She then turned her attention to the activation of the tractor beam. "Tractor emitters at one hundred percent."  She reported then frowned.  "Graviton beam at seventy five percent.  There is a temporal shard in the beam.  The gravitons are having no effect on the shard, but it is lowering the stength of the beam. Advise a two degree shift in course to allow the shard out of the path, We will have more control over the saucer section."

She was meanwhile doing her best to compensate.  This process was hairy, the gravitons did though, highlight the anomaly nd had allowedher to quickly realize the issue.

[Bridge]

Ian was finding it difficult to remain in his seat, to not leap to the helm and make the correction himself. However, he was now in command. One of the first rules of command was trust your people. If he took over, it would display a complete lack of respect for zh'Tharnak's skill and would only serve to undercut the man's confidence. So, Ian did what leaders were supposed to do. He stayed in his seat and projected confidence.

"You heard her Mister zh'Tharnak. Two degrees to port. Keep her steady as she goes."

Ian watched the viewscreen intently and tried to imagine the chaos going on aboard the Darwin, which was beyond his control or ability to influence at the moment.

Offline Jada

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Re: S2 M4: Effigy
« Reply #216 on: December 29, 2017, 08:29:01 am »
[USS Darwin, Sickbay]

Step by step, Jada steadily manoeuvred the Engineer through the corridors, though it seemed to, and probably did, take a few hours to get to Sickbay. Along the way, the woman made the occasional feeble struggle to escape or call to be released, her words rapid-fire and dense with engineering jargon that went over Jada's head. It was tunnel vision, an incapacity to see any other alternative. Jada just cooed to her in Kolari, hoping her native language might trigger memories of a time before the explosion and calm her. She reminded her that the Darwin crew were being rescued, that she was free of the time field, that it was time to rest. Jada realised she'd been struggling for a long time, and probably didn't know how to stop, or couldn't stop so quickly. She might not be a warrior like her, but she was just as much a fighter.

Finally, they arrived in Sickbay, discovering Doctor Kintiss and Counsellor Waters still there, only now dealing with the frozen patients, seemingly forgotten about. It must have been a temporal shard, delaying their activity.

'Doctor! She needs help – some kind of temporal shock, trauma. You got an anaesthetic?'

"It'sssss nothing," he said finally, slapping one of the armbands onto the canine CMO before moving on to the patients. Using that well-trained medical eye, he examined the injuries and wounds of the poor crew, and determined which of them had the most serious life-threatening injuries. They were the ones that took priority over the others, since they were in the most dire need of treatment. It was these patients that he gave an armband to.

"Get ready," he told the others as he opened his medical kit. "There'll probably be a lot of sssscreaming."

The isolation armbands activated as one, slowly animating the scene in Sickbay. Doctors and nurses started to move, patients began to writhe, and a low droning sound was heard. They accelerated, then burst into fevered activity, with a clamour of urgent voices and cries of pain. They resumed their long-suspended actions, unaware of the 20-year interruption.

But gradually, they became aware of the new people in the room, strangers wearing different uniforms, but familiar Starfleet chevron badges. Some Security personnel moved to intercept, but Jada and th'Rasdar closed ranks around their own medical staff.

'We're from the USS Tempest! This is a rescue! No time to explain.' Jada said quickly, ignoring for now the tricky questions of how and when, even if they had all the time in the world. The Tempest began beaming away the worst injured for treatment, and the Darwin personnel soon took this in their stride, adapting their triage to those remaining.
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Offline Kintiss

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Re: S2 M4: Effigy
« Reply #217 on: December 29, 2017, 05:23:25 pm »
Finally, they arrived in Sickbay, discovering Doctor Kintiss and Counsellor Waters still there, only now dealing with the frozen patients, seemingly forgotten about. It must have been a temporal shard, delaying their activity.

'Doctor! She needs help – some kind of temporal shock, trauma. You got an anaesthetic?'

The isolation armbands activated as one, slowly animating the scene in Sickbay. Doctors and nurses started to move, patients began to writhe, and a low droning sound was heard. They accelerated, then burst into fevered activity, with a clamour of urgent voices and cries of pain. They resumed their long-suspended actions, unaware of the 20-year interruption.

But gradually, they became aware of the new people in the room, strangers wearing different uniforms, but familiar Starfleet chevron badges. Some Security personnel moved to intercept, but Jada and th'Rasdar closed ranks around their own medical staff.

'We're from the USS Tempest! This is a rescue! No time to explain.' Jada said quickly, ignoring for now the tricky questions of how and when, even if they had all the time in the world. The Tempest began beaming away the worst injured for treatment, and the Darwin personnel soon took this in their stride, adapting their triage to those remaining.

[U.S.S. Darwin Sickbay]

As time caught up with him and Counsellor Waters, Kintiss ducked his head as the computer panel resumed its malfunction, and a sheet of metal was flung across Sickbay by the explosion.

It was chaos. Just like Kintiss had predicted, the screams of pained patients filled the room, and a very angry Antican doctor glowered at the scene.

"Call engineering and get them to fix that thing!" the Darwin's doctor barked "Griffith! Get that biobed back online! T'neel, get Mortak that transfusion!" Then his beady eyes fell on the helmeted Kintiss. "What is that doing in my sickbay?"

"I'll explain later," Kintiss replied hastily. Now was really not the time. There were patients that needed to be saved, most notably another crew member suffering the unpleasant effects of temporal trauma.

"Try thisss," he called over the hubbub, loading a hypospray with an ugly purple compound. "50cc'sss Chromexaline, counterssss the negative sssymptoms of time travel." The drug worked, according to the simulations, but it hadn't been perfected yet, so administration was quite painful to even the most hardy species.

"Give everyone elsssse 20cc'sss," he added to the Darwin's doctor. None of the rest of the crew's reactions to being shunted forward in time were quite so severe, but it never hurt to make sure.

Once all this was over, Kintiss thought, he'd have to brush up on temporal medicine.

Offline Jada

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Re: S2 M4: Effigy
« Reply #218 on: December 30, 2017, 02:06:52 am »
[USS Darwin, Sickbay]

Jada pressed the hypospray to the other Orion woman's neck, injecting with a hiss. She winced, but would give no sign of pain or discomfort. She slumped and fell in Jada's arms, but still mumbled weakly of engineering matters. Orion adrenaline and robust physiology meant she wasn't going to be knocked out cold easily.

'Twenty cc's chromexaline.' the Antican CMO growled at his team, waving a paw at them to move. 'And what has that coward Corallel done now?' he demanded irritably.

'She just saved your ship and all your lives. It's a long story.'' Jada returned with as much intensity.

[USS Darwin, Engineering Hull]

Meanwhile, all over the lower parts of the Darwin, reviving crew members had begun, or resumed, a hurried evacuation to the saucer and pod. Some quick-thinking transporter operators began transporting away those still frozen. They raced to the connecting hatches, getting through just before the airlocks slammed shut and the safety barriers came down. It seemed ironic that, after twenty years, it all came down to a few short minutes.
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Offline Ian Galloway

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Re: S2 M4: Effigy
« Reply #219 on: December 30, 2017, 10:45:45 am »
[USS Darwin, Sickbay]

Jada pressed the hypospray to the other Orion woman's neck, injecting with a hiss. She winced, but would give no sign of pain or discomfort. She slumped and fell in Jada's arms, but still mumbled weakly of engineering matters. Orion adrenaline and robust physiology meant she wasn't going to be knocked out cold easily.

'Twenty cc's chromexaline.' the Antican CMO growled at his team, waving a paw at them to move. 'And what has that coward Corallel done now?' he demanded irritably.

'She just saved your ship and all your lives. It's a long story.'' Jada returned with as much intensity.

[USS Darwin, Engineering Hull]

Meanwhile, all over the lower parts of the Darwin, reviving crew members had begun, or resumed, a hurried evacuation to the saucer and pod. Some quick-thinking transporter operators began transporting away those still frozen. They raced to the connecting hatches, getting through just before the airlocks slammed shut and the safety barriers came down. It seemed ironic that, after twenty years, it all came down to a few short minutes.

[Bridge]

Ian sat coiled as tight as a watch spring as the Tempest backed slowly away from the Darwin's secondary hull. The real-time data Admiral Rellek was sending from astrometics provided a clear path through the temporal anomalies and various trouble spots within the nebula.

"That's it Mister zh'Tharnak. Well done Lad, you have a soft touch."

He said to the helmsman to boost his confidence and because he deserved it. As they pulled away from the abandoned portion of the long lost ship, Ian kept his eyes riveted on the reports from the transporter room on the number of survivors arriving on the Tempest versus the status of the Darwin's warp core. He waited until he felt he would burst and then gave the most painful order of his career, an order even more painful than the one that led to the death of Hannah Kahn.

"Mister Jus'draal, the Darwin's warp is about ta breech, we have nae more time. Raise shields and extend them around their saucer or all this fine work will go down the tubes."

Ian tapped a button on the arm of the captain's chair giving him ship-wide communications.

=/\= "All hands, this is the bridge. Brace fer impact." =/\=

The viewscreen dimmed automatically as the secondary hull of the Darwin finally succumbed to the fate that a quick acting engineer had delayed for twenty years.

"May all that's ever been holy forgive me if we didn't get them all."

He whispered as the shockwave of the massive explosion hit the Tempest and shook her like a rag doll caught in the jaws of some massive cosmic dog.
« Last Edit: December 31, 2017, 12:17:51 am by Ian Galloway »

Offline Klizh

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Re: S2 M4: Effigy
« Reply #220 on: December 31, 2017, 12:57:01 am »
U.S.S. Darwin, Bridge

Somehow, the run back C'rugh moaned, glancing around at the frozen figures surrounding him.

"No. No! C'rugh, we have to hurry. Your ship's been frozen in time. I'm from the Tempest

C'rugh frowned, working his jaw around the feel of that concept in his mouth as he looked K'lizh up and down.

he said, grabbing his cousin's arms and tugging him up.

C'rugh looked more shocked by that than anything else he had been told.

"C'rugh! K'lizh screeched. "My crew is monitoring us right now! Please save the embarrassing details of my childhood for after

C'rugh drew himself up to full height—which was not as tall as K'lizh, but he was stockier. And he managed to stare K'lizh down quite effectively.
K'lizh groaned. "Can we just get saucer separation underway, Commander

C'rugh grinned wickedly.

The two Caitians took their stations. C'rugh's command codes were the only ones that the computer would acknowledge, since K'lizh hadn't been in service when the ship had disappeared.

C'rugh asked as the ship trembled during separation.

K'lizh grimaced.


K'lizh said wryly. So much for a joyful reunion.

The Darwin's saucer lurched as its back half erupted, sending a shockwave that challenged the ship's inertial dampeners and nearly sent K'lizh flying from his seat. After what felt like an eternity to get the ship at least somewhat stabilized, shouting orders back and forth to coordinate their efforts, eventually the rattling diminished to a tolerable rumble, and K'lizh found himself grasping his station and panting. He looked over to his cousin, who seemed to have caught up a bit on the aging process denied him for several decades.

K'lizh rasped.





C'rugh stood up, straightened his uniform, and promptly swatted K'lizh's ears.
« Last Edit: December 31, 2017, 06:16:55 pm by Klizh »

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Offline Jus'draal

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Re: S2 M4: Effigy
« Reply #221 on: December 31, 2017, 01:24:21 pm »
[USS Tempest | Bridge]

At Galloway's command, Jus'draal's head shot up for a moment.  She could hear the tension in his voice.  Other times she might have made joke of the sensitivity of humans, but there was enough human in her that she knew this was not the time nor the place.  She added a couple steps to the command, making sure that the full complement of the Tempest's crew was on board before raising the shields and grunting as the envelope of protection was extended around the tractor beam and the mass of the Darwin's Saucer section. 

The impactthat shoo the ships was jarring, but even still it wasn't until after the rattle had stopped that Jusa remembered to breathe.  She let out a slow exhalation before she broke the silence of the aftermath.  "All USS Tempest personell are accounted for, Sir."

Even she could hear the tension in her voice.  She surprised herself, perhaps there was more human in her than she had given herself credit for.  Or perhaps, just maybe, some things even a Klingon Warrior felt.
DabuQlu'DI' yISuv - Klingon Proverb - When Threatened, Fight.
Si vis pacem, para bellum - Earth Proverb - If you wish peace, prepare for war

Offline Ian Galloway

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Re: S2 M4: Effigy
« Reply #222 on: December 31, 2017, 01:34:45 pm »
[USS Tempest | Bridge]

At Galloway's command, Jus'draal's head shot up for a moment.  She could hear the tension in his voice.  Other times she might have made joke of the sensitivity of humans, but there was enough human in her that she knew this was not the time nor the place.  She added a couple steps to the command, making sure that the full complement of the Tempest's crew was on board before raising the shields and grunting as the envelope of protection was extended around the tractor beam and the mass of the Darwin's Saucer section. 

The impactthat shoo the ships was jarring, but even still it wasn't until after the rattle had stopped that Jusa remembered to breathe.  She let out a slow exhalation before she broke the silence of the aftermath.  "All USS Tempest personell are accounted for, Sir."

Even she could hear the tension in her voice.  She surprised herself, perhaps there was more human in her than she had given herself credit for.  Or perhaps, just maybe, some things even a Klingon Warrior felt.

[Bridge]

Ian heard the report that all Tempest crew were safe and he relaxed a bit, but only marginally.

"Thank the Maker fer that. Scan the Darwin and give me a count on survivors. A Nebula has a complement of 750, how many do we, or the saucer have?"

Ian's fists were tightly clenched as he waited for the response to his question with one answer repeating itself endlessly despite his efforts to quell his own tension.

"PleasebeallPleasebeallPleasebeallPleasebeallPleasebeallPleasebeallPleasebeallPleasebeall!"

Offline Jada

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Re: S2 M4: Effigy
« Reply #223 on: December 31, 2017, 09:33:00 pm »
Time is on my side, yes it is.

Triggering the chroniton burst had been an act of pure impulse and desperation. One that, many times over the next twenty years or so, Corallel would come to regret.

Time is on my side, yes it is.

Oh, it had been a relief at first, as the warp core breached in front of her. It had saved her life, saved her ship, given her time to solve the problem. At the beginning it was relaxing, just standing there, working on the issue in her own time. She'd gotten so little chance for that in her time on the Darwin. But, over the following hours and days, the magnitude of the problem unfolded before her, the sheer amount of work she had to do became clear. Freezing the ship made it almost impossible to do anything. Almost. She had to shape the chroniton fields to run key systems faster, and she had to find ways of doing that. She couldn't access half the computers and systems, so she had to adapt others, and she had to visualise whole programs and protocols in her head. The work was painfully slow. Days stretched to weeks, then to months. The full scale of the task creeped upon her, a gradual and unwanted realisation. This would take years of her subjective time.

Now you all were saying that you want to be free.

She was trapped in her body, trapped in this time bubble, barely able to move, denied any escape or freedom or rest. She had no sense of time or progression herself, only the microscopically slow but relentless advance of the frozen antimatter wave, the one that would inevitably annihilate her. She had nothing else to look at or think about.

She didn't know how much time she lost to screaming.

You'll come runnin' back (like I told you so many times before),

In time, always in time, that passed. Achieving sanity again became just another problem to solve. As with many Orions, she remembered her heritage, their slow and patient struggle for freedom from the Old Masters, a struggle that had taken millennia. In her initiation as one of the Grey class, she'd memorised a suppressed tome of the secret history, and had recited it, word-perfect, over and over. She had to preserve it, lest it be lost with her. Tales of heroes old and new had inspired her, and taught her patience. Reciting the book had measured her life in sentences and chapters and re-reads, over and over and over.

You'll come runnin' back to me.

She focused on the great work, she had nothing else. Focusing on it kept her sane, kept her going. It was slow but she was meticulous, she planned many steps ahead, she found workarounds and short-cuts, any thing to save precious time.

Time is on my side, yes it is.

Out of the past, her mind became a world of technology, of circuits and systems, of physics and codes, of plasmas and protocols. She constructed a whole model of the USS Darwin in her mind, alongside the Book, a memory palace for her method of loci. It helped her get her work done. But it was a ship without any people.

Time is on my side, yes it is.

Orions were a tribal people, close-knit, bound to kith and kin, communicating always through voice and subtler senses of touch and smell. They needed people, needed each other, and everyone needs love. And she was all alone. She hadn't spoken to another person in many many books.

You're searching for good times but just wait and see,

She didn't know how much time she lost to crying.

You'll come runnin' back (I said you would darling),
You'll come runnin back (Spent the rest of life with ya baby),
You'll come runnin' back to me.

She populated the memory palace of the Darwin with people: family, strangers, crewmembers. They'd thought her a coward and a failure before, she knew it. They'd never know now. She lost herself in dreams: adventures in space she'd never get to have, fantasies in which she took out her rage and frustration, or erased her loneliness in love and sex.

Go ahead baby, go ahead, go ahead and light up the town!
And baby, do anything your heart desires.
Remember, I'll always be around.


She didn't know how much time she lost to the dreaming.

And I know, I know like I told you so many times before.
You're gonna come back,
Yeah you're going to come back baby.
Knockin', knockin' right on my door.


But in time, always in time, she grew bored of all that, as she had to. She got back to work, though she'd return to her fantasies sometimes to relieve the stress and pain of her endless existence.

Time is on my side, yes it is.
Time is on my side, yes it is.

After simply shaping and modulating the chroniton fields, she'd made many preparations, back-ups, and contingencies. She had the time. It took real, physical time for things to happen, and she couldn't simply wait a few months. In time, she got the whole ship wired the way she wanted it.

'Cause I got the real love, the kind that you need.
You'll come runnin' back (I knew you would one day),

Finally, finally, she could get to the original goal of flushing the plasma and ejecting the warp core. Funny how the original problem was always the last one you could fix.

You'll come runnin' back (Baby I told you before),
You'll come runnin' back to me.

She was so close, she could smell it. She'd eject the core, she'd save the ship and the crew who'd doubted her. Then she'd have her freedom, and then she would die, at last.

In just a few very long years.

Time, time, time is on my side, yes it is.
Time, time, time is on my side, yes it is.

She just wished she hadn't had that damn song stuck in her head.

Time, time, time is on my side.
« Last Edit: January 01, 2018, 12:48:28 am by Jada »
Academy Chief of the Boat  (Personnel File)

Offline Jada

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Re: S2 M4: Effigy
« Reply #224 on: December 31, 2017, 09:52:08 pm »
[USS Darwin, Sickbay]

The room rumbled with the separation, a deep bass ker-chunk felt through the floor. 'That's the saucer separation.' Jada informed the personnel, wondering if Solluk had successfully averted the plasma flush, and hoping that he was alright.

With sudden renewed strength, Corallel tore herself out of her arms, yelping 'Lemmego,lemmego,lemmego,Ineedtoevacthem.' Such was her intensity, and swayed by her pheromonal influence, Jada found herself letting her go. Corallel pounced on a computer, fingers dancing across the panels, flashing through systems. She'd had a lot of back-up plans and contingencies prepared... 'Replicatorsandholodecksalsousetransporttech.'

[USS Darwin, Secondary Hull]

All over the secondary hull, in corridors and workshops, the still-frozen personnel began to disappear in myriad transporter beams, whisked away to holodecks in the saucer section. Corallel had already evacuated the hangar bay, hence why it had been empty when the Tigris touched down.

The entire crew was saved.

[USS Darwin, Sickbay]

Now the whole room shook under the blast of the warp core detonation, too close to the saucer. Medical staff threw themselves over their patients, just to keep them safe on their biobeds. th'Rasdar caught Kintiss, while Jada, racing after Corallel, stopped her slipping and hitting her head against the deck. Strangely, the engineer had only a serene and relieved smile.
Academy Chief of the Boat  (Personnel File)

 

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