[Galaxy] 2161.11.06 - JL - Spearling/McDonald - "Aftermath, Pt2"

[Anna H.]

//  Main Engineering, D Deck, Challenger  \\
 
 
Sasha couldn't
 get in through the portside access hatch, which was the first one she 
tried.  It appeared as though the hatch opening had been warped somehow,
 so that the hatch itself would /not/ budge.  She limped further down 
the access corridor toward the starboard access hatch, and discovered it
 open.  
 
It had taken a while to make it down to D Deck from the
 Bridge.  Numerous times she had stopped to help the crew:  whether it 
was with moving a piece of fallen panel from in front of a door or piece
 or equipment, or helping the injured, it had taken the most part of an 
hour to make it this far.  Now Sasha took a deep breath, expecting the 
worst but hoping for the best.  She bent down, hand pressed to her 
wounded ribs, and then stepped through, straightening up with a loud 
exhale.  Damn.

Flames radiated and lit the bay from several 
different directions, with emergency lighting providing a complementing 
glow of red to the ambiance of "what used to be" main engineering.  
Faint blue light was still present at the main reactor, but no engineer 
was at the controls.  Coolant was venting into the chamber, but not at 
toxic levels, at least not that anyone noticed.  Sharp, acrid smoke and 
mist left visibility as problematic, with the bay venting fans fighting 
to remove the disruptive smoke.
 
Sasha looked around, but she 
couldn't really see anyone.  She took a breath in order to yell, but the
 smoke started her coughing -- and that was /not/ good with her 
bruised/or/cracked ribs.  Pain shot through her chest as she fumbled at 
the bulkhead to her right, hunting for the emergency panel -- hoping to 
find one of the emergency O2 masks there.  She found the panel and 
discovered it was already open, but lucked out:  several of the personal
 oxygen devices were hanging there.  Sasha slipped one on, took a 
careful breath, coughed a few times with her hand pressed tightly to her
 left side, and blinked her streaming eyes.
 
Avoiding the coolant
 that was misting from the righthand accessway, Sasha moved along the 
catwalk until she could walk no more.  The catwalk had been severed by a
 now unrecognizable piece of equipment.  She stared at the bulkhead, 
trying to envision what had once been bolted there.  Was it ... a 
regulator? Anyway, it was gone now.  And the breach in the catwalk was 
too large to jump.  She was standing there, staring at it in an 
almost-stupor, when she became aware she was not alone.

"Captain,"
 McDonald said in a raspy voice, struggling to support one of the 
younger engineers who could not walk on his own.  A few others could be 
seen casting shadows on the far side of the bay, their much slower 
movement a contrast to the flickering flames in other areas of the 
cavernous room.  Broken equipment littered the floor of the compartment,
 with other 'shapes' mingled in here and there, and only a careful 
examination could reveal their true natures.

The chief engineer 
sat his companion down on a fallen bulkhead brace, and hobbled over 
towards his superior.  "I think she'll need a refit, ma'am."
 
Walking
 around the catwalk to join the Chief Engineer, Sasha once again avoided
 the coolant leak.  They met at the back of the bay, overlooking the 
warp core.  It was eerily silent in the bay, only the sounds of hissing 
leaks and crackling sparks could be heard.  The warp engines were 
quiet.  Approaching Rick, Sasha put a hand on his shoulder and looked up
 into his face.  "Are you all right?" she asked, her voice muffled and 
distorted by the face mask.  
 
McDonald shrugged.  "Better than 
most, I think."  He gestured around the bay.  "Certainly better than the
 ship.  I have no idea what's keeping the reactor going.  One of the 
coolant conduits must be intact below the deck."
 
"How about your
 people?" Sasha knew they'd lost crew.  But the damage and casualty 
lists were still incomplete ... it was too soon.  
 
"I frankly 
don't know, captain.  I haven't heard anything from the damage control 
teams since before the shock wave hit us."  He did see a few men and 
women on the deck that were not moving, but he thought she could see 
them, too.  There just wasn't a need to bring it up.
 
She nodded 
brusquely.  It was the same story all over ... she had to keep telling 
herself that they'd just gone up against the entire Romulan fleet and 
/won/.  By all rights, they should be a cloud of gas right now.  "We've 
got impulse power, that's one thing to be thankful for," she said, a 
grim smile on her lips.  She pushed stiff, blood-caked hair out of her 
face and let out a slow breath, surveying the bay.  "We're a long way 
from home ... a long way from /anywhere/," she said quietly.  "What will
 it take to get warp back online?" She turned back to him, looking at 
his eyes as he replied.
 
Gently wiping a smudge away from his 
eye, which teared up when a foreign object made it in, McDonald sighed. 
 "We are moving.  The reactor is generating power.  The impulse engines 
are pushing us through space.  Right now, that's all I know.  If we try 
to engage the warp drive without making sure our structural integrity is
 relatively intact would...well..."  He thought for a moment, forcing 
his brain to fight through the haze.  "If we lose coolant to the 
nacelles, or worse, to more than one...we won't need a rocket to fly 
through space."




Sasha
 had heard enough.  "Commander!" she snapped.  Her voice sounded 
ridiculous through the mask and she ripped it off.  "I didn't crawl all 
the way down here to be told things I already know.  Two things.  Give 
me report and then tell me what you need right /now/."  

Stunned
 at her abrupt tone, McDonald blinked hard, and attempted to answer her 
question.  "Since you crawled down here, you might be able to tell me 
what the state of the rest of the ship is in.  Getting the warp drive 
back up will take a back seat to major hull breeches.  My board is down right now.  I can't see a thing."



The
 Chief Engineer had barely begun when the hatch that had been locked in 
place was forced open behind him, with the screeching sound of wrenching
 metal.  Immediately a head of luxurious white hair was visible as what 
could only be an Andorian, ducked through.  The woman stood up, looking 
around her.  "Well?" she said.  "What can we do here?  My captain said 
you needed help."



Sasha
 stepped forward quickly.  "I'm Captain Spearling.  This is Commander 
McDonald, chief engineer.  He'll tell you what you need to know."  She 
turned back around to face him.  "You have help, Rick.  Put it to good 
use so we can get my ship out of here.  'Sitting duck' is not a term I 
enjoy."

Nodding
 gently, McDonald limped towards the Andorian.  "Aye, captain."  Seeing 
an Andorian female was startling enough to halfway bring him out of his 
stupor.  "To start, what did you see from the outside?  I don't have 
status on damage control and ship's systems right now, so a short 
appraisal would be a good start."


The
 Andorian woman snorted.  "I'm Yusuth.  You're venting all over the 
place ... but at least it looks like most of the venting is oxygen and 
plain water."  She looked around the bay.  "I've got teams standing by 
to work on the outer hull whenever you are ready.  What's going on in 
here?"

Looking
 around with her, McDonald conceded he had only regained consciousness a
 few moments ago.  "The reactor is online, but our internal sensors are 
compromised.  I think we have limited communications.  As long as we 
continue to have power, we should be able to keep most of the lights 
on.  My concern is people trapped in compartments losing atmosphere, and
 whether we'll have a cascade of bulkhead failures.  If you could have 
some of your personnel accompany a few of my engineers, I think we can 
get that situation under control."



Sasha
 watched the interplay between the two.  As she did, there was another 
arrival through the recently-forced hatch.  The brightly-colored 
'uniform' left no doubt.

"Ho
 ho!" said a smiling Denobulan, straightening up after coming through. 
 "Captain Larana sent us ... Chigara, I see several injured, come on 
through, come on through ... there you go.  Separate into groups of two,
 search the bay, find and treat, folks, find and treat!" He walked up to
 Rick, Sasha, and Yusuth.  "Walking wounded?" he said, eyeing them 
expertly.  

"Uh, yeah," McDonald replied, eying the newcomer.  "A
 stimulant should be enough for me, but not too much.  I need to keep my
 wits right now."
 

"One picker-upper, coming right up!" 
the smiling alien replied.  Swiftly, he manipulated a small device in 
his right hand, his arm darted out, there was a quick hiss near 
McDonald's neck, and then the man turned to Sasha.  "Captain Spearling, 
I'm Sashel ... we almost share a name, yes? Now ... you look like you've
 taken a beating.  May I scan you for injuries?"

 

"No thanks," Sasha said firmly.  "I know what's wrong with me and it'll keep.  Just dose me with the stimulant, too."

 

Behind them, Andorians began filing 
through the smallish hatch, lugging equipment and tools.  They came to 
Yusuth, who began issuring orders based on McDonald's assessment -- and 
she gave them in Earth Standard, with no small amount of pride visible 
on her haughty face.  The Denobulans were scattered around the bay, 
searching for wounded and treating them when they found them.

 

"All right, Captain," Sashel said.  
"But I insist on one more thing."  He injected her with the drug, then 
whipped a small package out of a belt pocket.  "Arms up!" he chortled 
cheerfully.  Sasha looked at him suspiciously, but raised her arms, 
having a bit of difficulty with the left one.  Damn, her ribs ached.  
Sashel unfolded the packet, gave it a snap with a wrist, and then 
flipped it around her torso with an experienced flourish.  It 
immediately swathed her from just beneath her breasts to the tops of her
 hipbones, and snugged down tightly.  The relief was instantaneous.

 

Trying
 not to stare, McDonald monitored the professionalism and skill of their
 Andorian allies, paying particular attention to Yusuth.  An occasional 
antenna crept around to acknowledge him, accompanied by a half-smile 
from the female.  When her engineers departed for their assigned tasks, 
she nonchalantly whispered to him.  "I've heard of you, too."  Rather 
than staying near him, she began a walk/crawl around debris and static 
obstacles that were once a proud engineering bay.

"What
 happened in the battle, captain?  What produced that kind of..."  He 
stopped, remembering his 'special' task in the armory.  "The nukes?"

Sasha
 smiled at him.  "Yes.  And from what we can tell as of now, it really 
did the trick.  There's no trace of them left -- although that's not all
 due to our nukes, you know that they destroy anything that we could 
maybe find and analyze."  She ran her hand up her left side, feeling the
 tightly-wrapped ribs.  She thanked Sashel and then turned back to Rick.

"Amazing. 
 The shock wave seemed to do a number on us, too, but it looks like we 
are on the road to recovery.  I'll get us underway as soon as I can, 
captain."

"Excellent.  You'll have plenty of help, I'm thinking.  Looks
 like the Coalition forces suffered a lot of damage and casualties, but 
we can be proud of our efforts.  Now we're going to get everyone 
space-worthy and head for Earth -- /all/ of us."  Sashel had moved on, 
directing the treatment of Rick's injured crewmen and teasing Yusuth.

McDonald
 thought for a moment.  "Wouldn't it be prudent to monitor this area for
 awhile?  I mean, some of them could be hiding behind the debris 
field."  He paused.  "I'm not trying to be the tactical officer.  I've 
got my work cut out for me here."

"It's so far out," Sasha 
murmured.  "We can drop subspace communications buoys on our way back to
 keep this area linked-in, and suggest to Command that this system is 
monitored on routine sweeps.  But it'll be up to them in the end."  She 
put a hand on the railing to steady herself as the ship took a dip -- 
they must be working on the grav system or the stabilizers, Sasha 
thought.   "Rick -- thanks for all your hard work.  It won't go 
unnoticed, I'll make sure of that.  Nor will the losses you've suffered 
here." 

He looked around a moment, finding that the crewmen who 
had been down were gone, either on their own or on stretchers.  "I guess
 you never get used to it.  I can only imagine what the rest of the ship
 looks like.  If the damage is half as bad as it looks, it might be less
 trouble to retire her and build another one."  He looked at her out of 
the corner of the eye.  "I don't really mean that, you know."

"You
 had me going for a second there," Sasha said, pretending to recover 
from a swoon.  "No, structurally she's still pretty sound, from what 
I've been able to ascertain so far.  We'll patch her up and get her 
going again -- and there's some new mods I'm going to insist on, too, 
Rick.  Let's get together after we arrive at Earth, we'll do the meet 
and greet and then tell them what we want.  After a battle like this, we
 should be able to write our own ticket."  Another smile, although the 
haunted look remained in her eyes.  So many lost.  So many hurt.  

McDonald took a deep breath and let it out.  "Very well, ma'am.  I'll see how the repairs are going and report back to you.  Would you like hourly updates?"

"No ... how about 'event-based' updates.  As you find things out, as you get things fixed, let me know.  Sound all right to you?"

"Yes, Captain."

"Then ... as you were, Commander.  As you were."



Captain Sasha Spearling
Commanding Officer
&
Lt Cmdr McDonald
Chief Engineer
====================
FCL-04 Challenger 		 	   		  
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