You Can't Do That....

Posted on Sun Oct 20th, 2019 @ 3:26pm by

1,319 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: What Stalks The Night
Location: Geothermal Reactor Room

James walked over to what appeared to be the master control console which was surprisingly still active but the information that it told him revealed that things were bad, very bad. The power generator was dishing out power but because of the damage done to the conduits supplying that power to the various areas of the facility it was raising the power levels more and more to meet demand. From the console he could see the huge demands the greyed out sections were asking for, what ever was going on in there needed a lot of power to do.

The core's design was efficient and more than capable of powering the facility but not under such a damaged state. Red lights flashed around key components, warning indicators threatened him with failures if attention was not given. "Get comfortable folks, this is going to take a while."

A while it would, James was pressed to stem the tide of damage. He could see one of the capacitor relays had blown under the stress and while there were backups, at such high demands even they wouldn't last long. His only hope was to stabilise the power system in some way and reduce its load.

Thankfully there were storage sections that housed spare parts, repair kits, safety gear, all of which James would make use of. With the capacitor bank already blown it was an easy task, if somewhat heavy, to replace the unit with the old one landing on the floor with a heavy dis-guarded thud. As he worked he continued to monitor the readings the console gave him. The EPS powergrid to the facility was a mess, junctions were down which some would be an easy fix while others revealed secondary problems.

His main focus though was to make sure this generator didn't explode while they were still around.

More time passed but missed by James as he worked but gradually through his efforts some measure of stability was restored to the reactor. Even as everyone waited watching him work, he knew he could have asked them for help but in a situation like this is was easier for him to do it in order without risk of issues from those not trained. It was nice however when some water was offered to him, his tunic jacket hanging over a rail, his grey undershirt clearly stained in patches of sweat.

*** 3 Hours later ***

Walking back to the master console, with a small cut to his brow from hitting it, a cut or two on his hands from working he saw that the situation was improved but they needed to cut the power demands. From the console he was able to deactivate power to the rooms that were greyed out before.

"Alright, so I've done what I can to the reactor, but I need to lower the power demands. The major drains are these rooms that the map didn't show any information." James put up the power consumption readings to a console closer to the group.

"With the damage to the grid I need to turn off power to one of the rooms."

"You can't do that, valuable research will be lost." Stefan barked. "If you turn off any of those rooms all the work those people that have died will be lost."

"In case you have not been paying attention genius, I turn one of those rooms off, or we all die. Now the choice is, death by what ever did the killing which Im sure will be very painful. Or death when this thing blows in which you will be dead and all of it will be lost anyway. So please, enlighten me."

"Those labs contain research vital to the Federation, we can't afford to lose them." Stefan returned.

"Well, in my professional Engineering opinion. You lose one, or you lose them all when this thing goes." James was not in the mod for games, he'd just spent hours trying to keep this thing from failing and killing everyone. "And when you are ready to start giving some actual answers, helpful answers then maybe you might have more of a say in what keeps us alive but until then...." It was obvious that through James's persistence in repairs, his mood for BS had soured considerably.

"Commander?" James said looking at the First Officer, waiting for the choice to be made.

It was the sharpness to Stefan's barked statement that made Bianca turn away from Vic, watching what was going on much more intently as she listened to the exchange. Finally, she offered a nod to James. "Do what you need to do Lieutenant, what ever that involves." She turned her attention back toward Stefan, a scowling expression on her face. "Now, I suggest you start talking," she said to him quietly, her voice taking on a slightly more menacing tone. "Because if you don't start talking, I'm going to have my friend there," she nodded in Vic's direction, "throw you back out in the corridor to fend for yourself, and Lieutenant Bradshaw is still going to turn everything off anyway."

Stefan turned to the Commander. "Take your threats elsewhere Commander. You don't scare me, or your friend." Stefan spoke showing a previously unseen steel, clearly a man of thought and consideration and knew how to play the game. "You need me, the sad and bitter truth is, you are stuck here with me and like it or not you need me, my access and my codes. Like typical fleet you think you can show up and push us around well guess what....We are not on a starship, you are where I work, so you can stick your threats somewhere else because you are in the same mess I am."

Stefan had to accept that as bad as it was, one of the labs were going to be turned off but the idea of dying held even less appeal.

Bianca drew in a sharp breath. No matter how angry he made her, the reality was, at least for the moment he was right. They did need him, or at least, PARTS of him. She pursed her lips and pressed her fingers into her temples before shaking her head slightly. "So help me, if I find out that you are behind any of this and you've put MY crew in danger, I will tear you limb from bloody limb and feed you to whatever is out there piecemeal! Got it?" she said before turning on her heel and shifting her attention back to James. "How are we going?" she asked calmly.

"The three rooms are taking up most of the power output but its putting a strain on the reactor even with my repairs. I can turn off one of the rooms which should reduce the stress levels and ease the burden on the reactor." James offered, one way or another one of the rooms needed to go.

Bianca turned back toward Stefan, raising an eyebrow slightly. "Well, do you want to pick which one you lose? Or shall we just go with eenie meenie miney moe?"

Seeing that Stefan was loath to answer and considering they were going to close one anyway James turned off the one needing the most power. What he didn't realise was that it was the cryogenics and stasis room. The moment the room turned off the lighting seemed to stop flickering. The room took on a more stable appearance as consoles came to life, emergency or back up lighting activated just proving how much of a drain the rooms were and the damage the reactor had suffered.

This little triumph however was short lived, as James smiled at a job well done and staving off destruction for a bit more a loud screech through the vents.

It sounded distant though but it was there and unmistakable. "I hope we didn't just ring the dinner bell...."

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