When We Stop

Posted on Wed Oct 26th, 2022 @ 3:47pm by Captain Bethsabée Leroux & Commander William Gerhard & Lieutenant JG Calanthe 'Cal' Diaz & Ensign Luis Martinez & Chief Petty Officer Nish Karalo

Mission: Sojurn
Location: Bridge
Timeline: Day 330 08:00
1588 words - 3.2 OF Standard Post Measure

The handover had been pretty straightforward apart from the strange reading from engineering that she had been assured was nothing and she was sure that Sloan and his team will be able to cope with whatever was the glitch from the readings down there or let her know if it was something more. Beth watched the gamma watch leader leave the bridge and sat down on a chair looking in a mug of coffee not at all taking in the small discussion around her.

The month since Smith had been full of guilt and heart wrenching realisations for herself and for the crew but Beth was finding herself sinking more and more into coolness as a way to cope with it all and the guilt she felt for allowing Aurelius’ death to be over shadowed and more crew lost. It was a dark place to be. “Everything good?” Beth asked wanting to hear reports.

Manishie sat at the helm controls. She needed some brushing up on her skills so she and the Captain had agreed that she would sit in on Alpha shift with an experienced helm officer helping her understand all the nuances that might've slipped to the back of her mind. She was so engrossed in the controls and the complexity of it compared to the simple shuttles and low warp vessels she was used to that she hadn't noticed the call to report. The helm officer gave her a nudge and she looked up at them. "All systems nominal Captain." She called out the moment that she realised what was going on.

“Good.” Beth confirmed she had heard.

The night shift had gone by fairly quietly. The only activity that had come across Luis' console was not very noteworthy. A rogue comet had been of particular interest to the science crew and a sensor echo from the night before as they passed through a harmless interstellar dust pocket. Looking to the Captain, Martinez replied, "All tactical systems are fully operational, nothing out of the ordinary to report."

“Perfect, Ensign.” Beth responded looking over the information as each station reported in.

"We had a small spike in thermal output in the warp engine, but Commander Jamesson seems to have stabilized it," Ensign Jenkins stated from his seat at the bridge's engineering console. Glancing down at the current readings, the engine was well within all regulations, "All systems seem to be within standard tolerances."

Beth turned a little bit to look at the ensign that stood the engineering console. She had 100% faith in Benjamin Jameson and Michael Sloan but that did not mean a slight spike was something that should not be invest Fated. She made a note to speak to Michael later.

Having been given the chance to sit at the Science station for a shift, Ensign Jenkins reported, "All systems are green." The most exciting moment of the night had been when he forwarded the sensor logs of the comet mentioned by Luis to the science departments astrology lab.

Preoccupied with her own hand-over debrief, Calanthe eased herself into the faintly-squeaky comm's chair with only a brief grimace to indicate she'd forgotten the consequences of the 'casual flop'. The grinning delight of the departing NCO earned the brunt of a withering glare before the brunette turned to make sense of the night's transmission data. Like most nights, it was predominantly a bunch of highly decorative static.

"Looks like another night without any dinner party invitations, Captain." Cal flicked through the recent logs and offered a huff of unsurprised laughter. "Not even a casual drink or two."

“A shame. McManus’ hooch could do with a different cliental of customers.” The silence on the bridge made everyone look around awkwardly as no one realised that the Captain was fully aware of that side hustle. Beth looked around taking in the looks and rolled her eyes. “Who do you think approved it?” Beth asked finally when she could no longer stand the silence.

"Forget approving it," Cal grinned at her display, "have you actually tasted i..."

Beth did not have a chance to answer with a witty retort or quip the whole mood of the bridge changed as an alarm klaxon blared and emergency lighting flashed plunging the space into a gloom that focused on consoles. Before anyone could react, the ship violently lurched as the warp bubble collapsed sending Beth forward to her knees and hands.

Calanthe caught herself with both hands, a motion that jarred her wrists for a moment but stopped her from slamming her abdomen into her work station. A faint 'pop' from her chair had either solved or exacerbated its squeaking issue, the brunette had no time to experiment as she moved to pull up internal communication logs.

Suddenly all the lights, bells and whistles started from Nish' console. Something was horribly wrong with the engines but the overload of information made it impossible to tell what exactly that was. Her instinct was to completely shut down everything to give them a moment to assess, but none of her commands seemed to make any difference to the state of the engine or ship's speed. It seemed to be stuck in gear. Then another lurch as suddenly the warp bubble just disappeared and spat them out into normal space, their forward momentum carrying them onward into the black of space.

“Report?” Beth demanded as she gripped her chair and pulled herself up as the ship attempted to lurch again.

From tactical, Luis scrambled to regain his balance. He quickly skimmed through the various scanners and shook his head. "Empty space all around, no external force caused us to stop," he reported. Confused he glanced toward the other bridge officers as the sensors picked up a new gas, "Whatever it was, we're bleeding coolant into space."

Beth turned to see the view screen taking in the strange hue that was now all they could see. "Engineering? Flight?" Beth demanded as the ship lurched again and Beth held on to the chair. The forces would rip the ship apart if the lurching carried ont.

"I... I don't know," Kendrick Jenkins stammered from his station. Looking to the Captain, he continued, "Everything was normal, the last thing the sensors picked up was a spike in all metrics as the warp bubble collapsed. Main Engineering is cut off from the Bridge and we are dead it the water."

Beth staggered through the bridge at the ship carried on lurching. “What do you mean cut off from the bridge?” She demanded as the ship went to red alert. “Comms raise some communication with engineering.” Beth added she started to look over the console with its operator trying to make sense of it all.

"Working on it," came the terse response from Comms. With Leroux's own insistent thoroughness to thank for her methodical recall of all available communication relays in the affected area, Cal persisted, sending out a request for contact, until one of the relays directly outside Engineering's main doors finally produced a crackled response. "Bridge here, we hear you."

"We had to evacuate," Victoria's voice sounded from the communications console. The sound of some fidgeting and a few different checking on others could be heard in the background. Michael's voice took over for the Ensign. "The warp engine had a catastrophic failure and a massive coolant leak. We cannot enter to assess the extent of the damage and begin repairs until the ventilation clears the coolant," the Chief Engineer's voice explained.

Beth felt a sense of relief as she heard first Jemisson and then heard Sloan. “Is everyone clear?” Beth demanded. It was the only question she had right then and there.

"Everyone evacuated, all crew accounted for," Michael replied.

Beth nodded. And gripped the console hard to ground herself from the rising panic she had been feeling of more people being lost. She glanced up to see William rushing in the bridge.

William had been in the main armory when the ship had violently dropped out of warp. He had tried to contact the bridge as the alarms had sounded, but the comm lines had been down. Stepping out of the turbolift, he reached out and grasped the nearest hand hold as the ship seemed to shudder once more. "Captain, I tried to reach you on the comm. Main Armory is secured, what's the situation," he asked.

Beth looked at him and raised an eyebrow. She had expected him to still be in bed but it seemed that he had been getting ahead of himself. “Catastrophic failure and a massive coolant leak.” Beth said as she brought up images on the main screen of the engine room and the team outside looking worst does wear.

William looked at the viewscreen as the images flashed across showing the extent of the damage. While the ship had suffered its fair share of damage in the Vrav incident. William was no engineer, but the damage appeared to be far more extensive. His eyes lingered a bit longer before he looked towards Beth in the center chair. "Where do you need me Captain," he asked. His tone conveyed he was behind her, no matter what decision she made.

“Engineering. I need you down there will a communicator telling the bridge what is happening and keeping the lines of communication going.” Beth said quickly. Beth shared a look with William. Both of them were thinking just how bad it looked and how the phrase Catastrophic failure was ringing through the bridge still.