Trying To Stay Ahead

Posted on Mon Aug 14th, 2017 @ 11:22am by

693 words; about a 3 minute read

Mission: Unknown Life, Unknown Dangers
Location: Various Engineering Spaces; USS Dreadnought
Timeline: Current

=^= Commander O'Connell, I've been monitoring from Secondary Engineering. I would recommend venting the nacelle, sealing off the warp core from the nacelle at the Engineering level. It's feeding off the radiation absorbed in the metal sir. All we can do is buy time, its going to follow the conduit from the nacelle down the strut to Engineering. I can have a team go in and sever the conduit at the strut base but were talking at least 25 hours of work for a section with radiation rotations and to buy us any real time we need at least 4 sections. =^=

James pressed his communicator, "Excellen' idea Lieutenan'." He turned and nodded to a couple engineers to get to work venting the plasma from the nacelle. Both complied.

=^= Hood to Engineering, I'd like you to begin sectional shut down of power in local areas, I'm aware you cant shut off the energy flow but we can slow it down by reducing available power to feed off of.=^=

Commander O'Connell pressed his communicator, "Aye sir." He double tapped it, "Lieutenant Bradshaw, begin a system by system shut down of all affected areas."

"Understood." I replied and began working. The theory however was sound but the application was more complicated. Anything I tried to do to shut down power to nearby sections near the strut the more the organism choked the system. Safeties kicked in, barriers stopping me from doing what I wanted to do engaged.

"Commander O'Connell, we have a new problem. I can't shut down all the sections, what ever it is is choking the system, sensors are counting what ever that is as life and wont deactivate some systems because doing so would put said life in danger." The very life admittedly we were trying to kill off. "The only other option I can think of is to lower the seal doors in the strut, it will sever the connection and buy us time but if this things growing inside and outside the ship, it wont hold it back for long."

James knew there might be personnel in that section, but he felt that they had little choice in the matter. "Sound a general alert for all personnel in tha' section to evacuate then seal it off after one minu'e."

I gave the alert and the 60 seconds before closing off the section, the heavy bulkhead collapsed the specially designed section like a tin can. The only way that nacelle was going to work now was to raise the bulkhead, replace the section and that would take a week, minimum. I sent word to the Commander it was done and that it would only buy us time. I just hoped the command group could come up with something else.

O'Connell had already been formulating a plan to combat the issue, "Wha' if we go out onto the hull of the ship and remove the nacelle and strut?" He asked, "How much time do ya think that'll buy us?"

I sighed. "Honestly, it's too hard to tell. We need to get out there, with sensors are they are we cant accurately tell. Best call would be an EVA up the strut and take scans. We could even secure the tricorders to the hull for safety if needed but until we get accurate scans, it's too hard to tell."

James thought it over before thinking to himself, What the hell right?. He nodded silently for about ten seconds, "EVA suits it is, bu' one of us has to stay here an' keep the ship in one piece."

"Agreed, who should go?" I asked the Chief, since really it was his call.

"My place is in engineerin'... Take a team an' begin the sensor scans." He responded.

"I'll take a small team of 5 including myself, EVA should take 30 minutes from the nearest airlock, the ships not the smallest of the fleet." I joked as I left my station with hand pointing to my fellow 4 to follow me. It was going to be a long walk and had been a while since I'd EVA'd. It was going to be an experience to be sure.

RSS Feed