Aftermath - Engineering

Posted on 09 Oct 2009 @ 8:54am by Commodore Da`nal of the House of Varal

1,884 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: M2: Aggressive Negotiations

[Engineering - 47 minutes prior]

"Lock doon th' coolant on the Cloakin' Device, if it blows we're goin'ta hafta quarantine th' entire deck!" MacCallum hollered to the lower level of the engineering room. His command was indiscriminately aimed at anyone who was listening, and was really more of a common sense idea that someone was probably already hard at work on.

"MacCallum, I'm goin'ta realign the secondary EPS grid, keep that starboard impulse system running, I don' want to lose it again." MacPherson yelled to him from below, running to the power distribution center from his current workstation just below Flaherty's. The EPS grid had been acting up a terrible bit, ever since the big meltdown during the 'Big Bang' as the Engineering crew referred to the intense firefight. The Freedom was about to experience yet another epic battle, and those EPS conduits needed to be in perfect order to make the ship effective.

MacPherson had only just reached the panel covering the power distribution hub when a terrific blast blew the panel from its mountings, directly into the Chief Engineer. The man flew backwards from the blast itself, the panel only serving the purpose of gouging deep into the skin of his forehead. His head collided with a workstation on the railing around the Core, then slammed into the coarsely grated deck plating.

Wordlessly, Flaherty locked the settings on his workstation with a smack to the proper button with the palm of his hand. He ran to the end of the catwalk and leaped into the air, slowing himself slightly by sliding the sides of his boots and his right hand on the bulkhead. He crashed into the deck and rolled forward, negating any serious damage he could have accrued by such a stunt, then dashed to the chief's unmoving form.

MacPherson's eyes were rolled into the back of his head, the muscles in his neck and jaw tightened to their maximum. The signs of his injury were clear, severe brain damage as well as heavy trauma, it was doubtful that he could survive it even if it were a possibility. He reached out and held the back of his head and neck, keeping them as straight as he could. Blood bubbled from the mess on his forehead and spilled down the sides of his head, coating his hands as he held the man gently.

"MACPHERSON, SAY SOMETHIN'!" Flaherty tried for a response, but none was given other than slight uncontrolled convulsions of his body. "Bloody shite," MacCallum muttered under his breath as he tapped his communicator, "Flaherty to Transporter control, I've got one casualty to beam to sickbay." He spoke quickly in an exasperated voice. The entire room was focused on him, most of the people peeking away from their jobs at hand to the scene for a few seconds at a time, all concerned about their head engineer.

=/=How badly is he wounded?=/= came the short reply, instantly touching off a cannon full of anger from the engineer. "I DINNAE CALL YOU TO DIAGNOSE ANEYTHING, I SAID BEAM 'IM TO BLOODY SICK BAY!" Flaherty roared to the small communication's device pinned to his jacket. The outburst got the point across, as the twitching body of Chief Engineer MacPherson became engulfed in blue shimmering light and disappeared, leaving only a heavy smattering of thick red blood on the grates he lay on. More disturbing was the fact that the bulkhead below the grating that ran parallel to the Warp Core's length was now streaked with the same color as it plunged into the lower decks.

Flaherty stood, wiping his right hand on his jacket's left shoulder, streaking the grey fabric with deep maroon. He looked at his fellow engineer's, who had stopped all they had been doing once he started yelling uncontrollably. "Get back ta work." He stated in a low, angered voice. Each of the people had the look of regret on their faces, feeling useless as they had done nothing during the whole event.

[Engineering]

Flaherty stood, leaning on the railing surrounding the Warp Core, waiting for the EPS system diagnostic to finish it's work in finding out what exactly had tried to kill their Chief Engineer. He could only hope that the ships medical personnel had been able to counteract the damage, but his hope was growing ever weaker as the time wore on with no word from sickbay.

"Lieutenant, it looks like a massive power surge came through the grid when they fired the first volley of torpedoes." One of the younger looking female ensigns said, going over the diagnostic results.

"A'right, hey Petty Officer," He said, pointing to one of the nearby black haired enlisted men around the Ensign. "Go ahead and put a surge stabilization buffer around the secondary plasma feed coupling, that should do'er well." He ordered in a resigned tone, leaning back on the railing with his hips. He crossed his arms, sensing he should reassure his people some how, and for now they were certainly 'his people'.

"Listen, folks, what happened 'ere was a bloody accident, a fluke that should 'ave ne'er happened. Just let it serve as a warnin' to ye, we have a dangerous job, and it won't get aney safer as long as the ship is in this kind of condition." He shifted his weight from one leg to the other, "Just do yer jobs carefully, I dinnae want to send aneymore of ye to sickbay th' way I did th' Chief, understand?" He watched as their nods of sorrowful acknowledgment bobbed the affirmative to him.

He heard the mechanical sound of the main doors, and dismissed himself from the group with, "Good, get to it then." He uncrossed his arms and strode towards the door, finding the Commanding Officer and the XO on his heels. "Gentlemen, do ye have any word on th' Chief?" He wore a concerned expresiion that fit his words perfectly, "We're all startin' to get a wee bit unnerved doon 'ere." His accent was starting to get really bad due to stress, and it warped some of the words as they came out of his mouth.

Da'nal and Andrew turned into Engineering as the doors parted and several engineers parted no doubt to get about the task of repairing the ship. The officer's concern for his superior was genuine and he looked as tired as rest of his senior staff. At the question, Da`nal shook his head slightly. "He didn't make it."

"Sonofa..." Flaherty turned his head away from the senior officers, stifling the rest of the statement. He looked back to them after a moment. "I'll 'ave the EPS grid back up in fifteen minutes, but the shield generators and weapons will be difficult," He paused for a moment "When do ye need 'em, When do we get ta go after the swine that 'ave been havin' their way with mae ship?" He questioned the men, trying to keep the anger in his tone as slight as possible.

"Now is not the time. MacPherson and the others died honorably...do not dishonor then with rash action." Placing a firm hand on Flaherty's shoulder. "Their deaths will be avenged though our victory over those that stand in our way. But before that can happen we must repair the ship. Have you compiled a damage report?"

"Yes, Ah've got most of th' secondary systems up to speed, but alot o' th' primary systems are severely damaged. The Warp Drive, main power, weapons, shields," Flaherty paused to let them sink in, "There's just alot that cannae be done out here, I'm going to need a drydock t'do aneything of real consequence." He had he most sheepish look on his face while he spoke, it wasn't usual for an engineer to admit that they needed outside help, let alone from a much loathed drydock. "But I'll tell ye Sar, even without th' repairs, if push comes t'shove," He put on a slight mischievous smile, "I'll make sure we can still make a fight of it."

The next bit of news chafed him as much as it no doubt would the engineer in front of him. "Well we will be getting some assistance with the major repairs. It seems that the Ambassadors allies are offering facilities in order to make repairs."

"Ye cannae be serious, the Romulans? MacCallum asked incredulously, "That's madness Sar, I don' know if that's a good idea." He kept his tone low to keep the other engineers from hearing his opinion. He had no good experience working with Romulans, as they tended to be a rather angry and devious bunch of people. MacCallum entertained the thought that if they were friends, that may mean that these particular Romulans were a bit less prolific.

"I don't like it any more that you Lieutenant...believe me. But we are deep in Romulan territory. There are those that seek our disruction, and while I have no fear of them and the glorious death it would bring. I refuse to give our enemies that victory. Our own replicatiors will be able to hand fabrication of the internal components yes?

"Yessar, and if ye recall my sayin', most of the subsystems are secure and functioning, save for th' bloody EPS grid." Flaherty gestured to the blown out conduit junction behind him, the same one that had taken the life of the Chief Engineer.

"Good" then we will let them handle the structural repairs thus keeping them away from our syaytems."

"Mae big issue righ' new is the power usage, we've got several structural stress points bein' held together by nae but forcefields." Flaherty crossed his arms, "If we cannae get 'em sealed up soon, I cannae be sure how long I can keep 'er goin' strong." He moved quickly over to a nearby panel that showed the superstructure of the Freedom, "See 'ere Sar, this nacelle is aboot to shear clean off, even with th' repairs the Chief and the Flyboy did earlier."

He stroked the stubble on his unshaven chin in thought, "Hell, I could save us aboot 20 TerraWatts an 'our by simply blastin' the thing off inta space an' sealin' th' hole." His voice had a touch of enthusiasm in it, as the idea was enticing only because of the opportunity to blow something up.

"O' course, that'll nae be happenin' Sar, don' ye worry." The Lieutenant quickly corrected himself with a sheepish smile, as blasting the ship apart was the opposite of his job.

Da'al looked for the schematic nodding. "Shut down whatever non-essential systems you need to to reinforce those force fields. And get the cloaking device operational as soon as possible I got a hunch we'll be needing it."

"I'll divert any personnel with Engineering backgrounds to you Chief. We'll get repairs effected as quickly as possible." he said, turning now to Da`nal. "With priority being the hull breaches and cloaking device." he added.

Updating the padd he carried Da`nal pulled down the damage report, as he nodded in agreement, he took notice of the time. "Good. If there's nothing else I will be in the ready room contacting next of kin."

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Cmdr Da`nal
Commanding Officer

Lt Cmdr Andrew Fienneman
Executive Officer

Lt MacCallum Flaherty
Engineering Officer

 

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