Not In Kansas Anymore Part 3

Posted on Wed Oct 23rd, 2019 @ 3:54pm by Captain Bethsabée Leroux & Ensign Michael Sloan & Major Samuel King & Lieutenant Aurelius Davis & Lieutenant Min Seong

Mission: Mission 1 - One Step forward
Timeline: After the Bridge is Secured by Bethsabee's Team
1972 words - 3.9 OF Standard Post Measure

While the ship was only a few decks tall, the ride from Engineering to the Bridge felt like an eternity for Michael. As he felt the turbolift slow slightly as it arrived at the Bridge, the Chief Armory Officer rubbed his forehead as a way to soothe the stress he was feeling. His gaze slightly fell on Benedict as he stated, "Here we go."

Just as the words left his mouth, the turbolift doors opened, revealing the slightly less manned Bridge. Sloan exited the turbolift and motioned for Benedict to take his spot at the helm. Michael's eyes fell upon Beth with his expression fairly grim. "I need to speak with you in the Ready Room, Commander," he stated firmly but unemotionally. His body language said nothing, but inwardly he was a hurricane of emotion. He did not want to lose his composure in front of the crew.

The woman turned relieved to see more senior officers but it wasn't hard to miss the fact the Captain wasn't with them at all. "I believe that might be a good choice." The woman said moving to where the room was situated. She had her own news that the people that had been on the bridge with her until the Armoury Officer showed up only knew so far.

Ensign Livingston stepped off the turbolift behind Michael, and while he asked the commander to speak in the ready room, Livingston moved to the helm, sat and started several diagnostics.

Having felt stupid for sharing her dream about not being able to find a bathroom, Darcy had entered the bridge earlier and she'd kept perfectly quiet. There was tension all around them and she knew it had nothing to do with her admission but still, she had no desire to offer up any other tidbits of her stupid subconscious.

Next to step foot on the bridge was Min, who simply took a look at her surroundings before returning to the work she had in front of her. The number of people currently in Sick Bay were staggering, but in order to help find everyone a safe place, she would have to leave the confines of her work and join the others. She chose to stand toward the back of the Bridge, out of the way of most of the others working around her.

Sam noted the arrival of the others from the rec room. They looked dejected as if something had happened, something severe. A young Asian woman moved over to near where he was standing, she too must have thought it was best to stay out of the way. As a MACO officer, he didn't have much to do on the bridge as others began to fill it.

The diagnostics were in, and everything seemed to be operating normally, so Ben stayed at the helm station and kept the ship steady.

As the pair disappeared into the ready room, Darru turned to look at everyone else who seemed to be staring at the ready room door. "Is this the time for the use of the human term 'there may be trouble of ahead'?" The Vulcan asked in the dry voice that Vulcans did so well.

Jordan, still coming to grips with their current situation, nodded. "Nothing logical is about to happen," he quipped nervously. He had still not gotten a great lock on their position.

Ben called up the nav computer to pinpoint their position. Then he checked for any navigation hazards...black holes, asteroid fields etc. Then he tried to locate the nearest Subspace beacons.

“Don’t bother, we are too far to locate any of the Andorian or Vulcan subspace beacons,” Jordan called to Ben as he read the helm console. “We’ve got to be hundreds of light-years off course, there’s no explanation.”

"There's always a way to find out where you are. You just have to look for the brightest star that looks familiar. Once you find that, you ask the computer to give a position on that star, taking into effect an unknown distance." The computer couldn't find a comparable star. "Well, it usually works." Ben looked at Jordan. "Did you check the computer memory core? If it was online, there should be a record of where we are and how we got here."

Shaking his head, Jordan replied, “I’ve already done that. Nothing in our database or the Vulcan and Andorian database matches. I’ve got the computer running an equation based on Sagittarius A, the supermassive black hole at the galactic core.” He tapped his console and added, “Still waiting in that to come back.”

"If that comes back negative.....we got a problem, a very big problem." Ben kept checking the helm settings.

As if on cue, the console before Jordan beeped to indicate that the computer had finished its computations. A look of shock slowly began to cross the engineer's face. "Can't be," he said in an almost panic. He pressed the onboard communications button that would link him to the Ready Room, then said, "Commanders, the computations have completed, you are needed on the Bridge."

"Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Something tells me we're about to take the path less traveled whether or not it makes a difference." Darcy had been silent up until this point. There was no point in speculation she thought, and no one else needed to be overly worried about it though she knew they all were.

Beth came out of the ready room first and looked at the ground. "So where are we?" She asked softly. Her voice was calm and composed but she could see the stress on Jordan's face.

Wiping his brow, the engineer tapped a few commands. "Better if I show you ma'am," he said, clearly stressed. A map of the Galaxy popped up on the viewscreen as Jordan tapped some of the buttons on his console to bring up his display. Known systems were colorized and known borders were added, deep into the Alpha Quadrant was a red box that seemed impossibly far from the rest. "We are inside that box, I can't narrow it down past that due to the unknown nature of this area of space."

Swallowing his emotions as he readied himself for what he was about to say, Jordan said, "We are approximately 9 point 5 thousand light-years from Earth. At Warp 4, it will take us about 150 years to get home." He then fell silent, not able to say anything else. Odds were that he had already seen Earth for the last time.

Livingston looked at the map. "There might be wormholes or something else that could shorten that trip, ma'am."

Sam looked at the viewscreen, his eyes never wavering from their calm appearance. Internally he was half excited to be somewhere too far from home, uncharted stars to visit but half of him thought of never seeing his children again. It tore him up a little albeit he was good at hiding such chaotic emotions. "We should lock down the ship. If we don't know where we are then we don't know what is out there." Sam added to the discussion. "Potentially unknown dangers are where you least expect them to be."

"That's... pretty far." Min narrowed her eyes at the viewscreen as if it would tell her the answers she would need. Predictably, it did not. She frowned. "There's more at stake than what could be coming onto the ship," she pointed out. "... Much, much more. I'm more concerned about those on the ship itself..."

Having already known they were lost, Darcy didn't think the news had really sunk in yet but she was going to have to deal with it sooner or later and she was going to have to tell those in her department. She blinked, staring at the screen but didn't say anything.

"Go to sickbay Lieutenant. Check out what has happened and what is happening." Beth said softly as turned to look at the other officers that were on the bridge. "Goes for the rest of you senior Officers." She looked them all over quickly for signs of injury other than a few cuts and bruises. "Go to your crew, find out how they are, find out if anyone is injured or worse. Find out the state of the ship and of our supplies. We will meet back here in two hours with reports." The new Captain didn't need to go into which department did what they knew their areas of expertise.

As the Chief Armory Officer, Michael had been trained to never show his fear on the outside. Inside, he just wanted to go to the ship's gym and wear out a punching bag, but there was no time for that now. Looking to Beth, Michael stated, "I'll work up an inventory of our exact armament as well as posting security personnel at all airlocks and important locations on the ship, food storage and Sickbay for example." He looked to the Major and gave a slight nod. The two of them would need to talk once the initial shock wore off the ship.

Sam noticed the nod from the Armory Chief and reciprocated in kind. He would happily assist him in anything he needed as for the moment the ship was priority. The ship was not where Samuel's authority lay. He was experienced in a lot of things but would defer to the space travel was not one of those yet, not as much as the others on board possibly.

Ben spoke up. "Ma'am. I don't know if there is any other helmsmen on the ship."

Beth turned and glanced at the Officer at the Helm."Then Mister Livington I hope you've had some coffee as you might be there a while until Aurelius Davis can be found." The woman said knowing the Chief Helmsman couldn't be far. She glanced at the centre chair but didn't take it instead moving to the comms console. She wasn't going to sit in that chair just yet, it would be like sitting on someone's grave. You couldn't just replace someone so easily.

"I'm ready, for as long as you need me, ma'am." He turned back to his console and started more diagnostics in case something was missed in the other tests.

Before heading to the turbolift, Michael stopped himself. "Our food stores are rated to last up to a year under normal running conditions. With the radiation and sudden shift halfway across the Galaxy, we will need to check our supplies. In any case, we will need to move from food to food, water to water. What are your orders, Ma'am?" his tone was not derogatory or condescending like it had been in what would have been his Ready Room. His voice bore real concern for those aboard the Atlantis.

"Secure the areas for now. I will catch you up in half an hour." Beth told the man with a quick nod before she turned to the communication console. She needed to listen to the sounds around the ship for a moment, work out if anyone else was out there as no other communication officer was on the bridge.

"I'll have my MACO's do a search of the ship for unaccounted for crew ma'am. Let Lieutenant Sloan's teams focus on securing the ship." Sam said as the crew began to move.

OFF::

Commander Bethsabee Leroux
First Officer/Chief Communications Officer
NX Atlantis

Lt. Commander Michael Sloan
Chief Armory Officer/2XO
NX Atlantis

Lieutenant JG Darcy Blair
Science Officer
NX Atlantis

Major Samuel King
MACO Commanding Officer
NX Atlantis

Lieutenant Min Seong
Chief Medical Officer
NX Atlantis