Taking her back
Posted on Fri Apr 6th, 2012 @ 3:39am by Walter Jones & Hank Tasco & Charlotte Ashcroft & Jan Valentine & Bruce Air (PNPC)
3,141 words; about a 16 minute read
Mission: Session 6: Take 5
The old shuttle that Jones had "commandeered" as he told the crew, impulse engines sputtered. "Damn it! Jan see if you can adjust the admixture."
"Compensating...Got it. The manifold is nearly burned out though, we better dock soon or it's gonna blow apart." Jan said.
"We'll make it," Air said between gritted teeth, wrestling with the manual controls, "even if I have to coast in on the RCS. Take some power from the IDS, I can't do any sharp turns in this bucket anyway."
"Re-routing...There, that should do it." Jan said, adjusting the powerflow.
Behind them Lottie grimaced as she shouldered the bulkhead for what felt like the hundredth time. "Right now I don't care, just get us there in one piece."
Passing by several derelicts, the Warden started to loom large in the distance. Its yellow paint a stark contrast to the other vessels that had been left to die.
"Alright everyone, once we dock with the old girl, we should be good to get in and get her back operational status. There is a crate of weapons in the back in case there's anyone in there squatting on our claim"
"I don't remember it being yellow..." Lottie squinted.
"Looks like it's holding together pretty well, I'd imagine being transported and abandoned would have destroyed most of the primary systems. One of the derelicts appears to be leaking sulfur compounds, that probably stained the warden" Jan said.
Air nodded, "The Impulse reactors will need to be stirred before we do any hot burns. Any idea if someone has filched the fuel? Ship's no good without juice."
"Not at all, when we get on there, we need to do a quick sweep, she was supposed to be laid up as was when I put her into storage." Jones reached into the case and grabbed a disruptor. "Worse case scenario, we siphon some out of one of these junkers."
Air muttered something about Deuterium half life but keep the shuttle moving. When they were close he cut the main engines, used the RCS to spin on the spot and began a breaking maneuver. As the rear hatch bumped into the auxiliary docking port of the Warden there was the smallest of bumps.
Air turned and smiled at them. Behind him the control panel began to make popping sounds and blue smoke began to show.
"Ah," he said noticing flame begin to lick out, "We might want to disembark quickly. I took the fire suppression off line to get extra burn out of the rear quads. I'm sure it will be fine, but until Jan can fix the scrubbers in here the air is going to be... "
"Toxic," Morgan finished.
"The hell with this piece of junk, I've rigged it for remote control. If needed, we can crash it into something and blow up, should make for a nice distraction." Jan said, using a hand extinguisher on the console.
"I'm with Jan here, ditch this piece of crap and get board the Warden," Lottie was already moving drawing her weapon. "Just remember to squish the vermin."
"Yeah, we ain't coming back to this piece of shit." Jones made his way to the back hatch door and kicked it open as soon as pressure equalized. The must of old air flowed into the tiny shuttle Jones landed heavily on the deck. "Alright, everyone spread out, I'm heading up to the bridge. Mr Tasco come with me, Bruce make sure they didn't part out our shuttles, Lottie, head to the engineering compartment with Jan, Doc check out your lab. Everyone keep a comm channel open and keep an eye out for anything moving."
"Smells like the atmospheric processors are offline. Either that or the filters are clogged." Jan said, heading towards engineering.
"Lead the way." Hank said as he adjusted the camera around his neck before following Jones to the bridge.
Dr Morgan Pass made his way to Medical. As he suspected it had been stripped. Medical supplies seemed to be in such high demand. I wonder, he thought ruefully, how much a box of tongue depressors gets on the Black Market.
Luckily, he had found a cache of replacement pharmaceuticals and tools, which he had convinced the Captain were vital. Hopefully he would remember to have them removed from the shuttle before they burned or blew up. He was an old man and literally not capable of stevedore work.
He began to pick up the dropped trays and discarded medical equipment deemed to old or broken to be salvageable. His lab was more or less untouched, thought the tissue samples he had been forced to abandon were useless now. He would have to start all over...
He frowned and looked down at one of the petri-dishes. There was a faint but virulent purple pattern, something like a fern leaf inside it. He placed it carefully back on the bench. Perhaps there was some salvageable work here still.
Elsewhere...
"Damn, this place is a wreck!" Jan exclaimed, looking at the damaged and stripped consoles and bulkheads.
Lottie followed in behind swooping low to avoid the overhead cables that had worked loose. She whistled lowly; "Kept safe my ass, more like savaged."
Jan tried some of the controls on his main console, and brought up emergency lighting throughout the ship.
"Jones, I've got the emergency batteries online. It's not enough to get the primary systems online, but I can do a systems check. Engineering looks like someone took a hatchet and a phaser to it." Jan said, over the com.
Meanwhile...
Jones led the way up the conduits, pointing the disruptor and his flashlight down every corridors. "Hank, what do you think about our first outing? Exciting huh?"
"Its certainly interesting...." Hank said trailing of as he snapped a few pictures of something in the dark. "So if you actually manage to pull this off, you'll be one of the few people to have been deep into Romulan space without being destroyed, killed or maimed. How does that make you feel?" Hank asked as he caught up to Jones.
"Hopefully it will make me feel richer" Jones shone the flash light into what was the kitchen and mess. "Jan go ahead and start getting everything up online as you can, once we get internal sensors up, Lottie make sure that we do a sweep of the living quarters. Doc, see if you can do something about getting the air cleaner in here, I'd hate to think we've got a deuterium leak."
In his study the doctor considered the request. Surely he wasn't to be expected to strip clean the atmosphere scrubbers. Even linking them through the bio-filters was better suited to Jan, than he. So the Captain will be expecting Pass to deal with things in his own special way. Morgan was surprised. He had been planning a little "cleansing" anyway, he was just surprised he would be allowed to use it with the Captain's knowledge.
Jones turned back to Hank, "She's a lot prettier when she's cleaned up. I'll admit, it is a little exciting, that is why I decided to get back into the business."
Jones looked around the disaster. Something didn't feel right. "Ever had to fire a phaser at someone?" Jones pointed his disruptor at one of the food stores as he moved over slowly toward it. Reaching it, he kicked it open revealing some old food. "Heh, can never be to careful."
"I have on occasion." Hank replied thinking back to his days in the marines. "But that was in a past life, the only shooting I do now is with this thing." Hank said tapping his camera lightly.
"I'll go and do that now while Jan works his magic, everything's pretty safe down here, though there's not much left to search through," Lottie said having going through most of the engineering section already.
"Next time I'll find the place to park the ship..." Jan muttered, kicking an empty ration can aside.
"What was that Jan?" Jones lifted himself up and peered into the cockpit of the Warden, some cobwebs had formed, and a layer of dust had formed on some of the control panels.
"Maybe a loud tumbleweed?" Hank joked. "This place looks like it hasn't seen any action in a while."
"That will make an unique change," Morgan's asinine voice came through from below. Jones felt a sharp stab in his leg and looked down to see Pass taking a blood sample.
The doctor turned to face the newest recruit, "Your turn."
"What the hell are you on about doc." Resisting the urge to kick the man in his face. "I don't own other than my blood."
"Given you are so precious about your blood, you do a very good job of spilling it as often as you possibly can." Morgan placed the device against Hank's arm and there was a similar sharp jab and the vial filled with a blood sample. "This will not be the last time you spill blood for this crew. Get used to it."
"Okay..." Hank responded, trailing off as he tried to figure out whether or not he had just been violated.
Elsewhere...
"System check complete. Dammit...Power grid is heavily damaged, engines are gonna need a rebuild, and 85% of our deuterium is gone." Jan said, reading the report.
"That doesn't sound good," Lottie's voice carried from further down the chamber.
"Jones, problems!" Jan said over the com.
Walter had plopped down into the captains chair and started fiddling with some of the controls "What is going on Jan"
"The systems check isn't telling me much good news, the power grid is smashed, at least 3 days to restore ship-wide main power. Someone started to strip the warp coils out, 3 to 5 days to fix the nacelles. Someone also stole almost all our deuterium, but that's not a problem since the auxiliary generators can run on basically anything with a few tweaks. The main reactor is damaged, and the plasma manifold is fused. A week to fix the main reactor. If we can find something to sustain the auxiliary generator, best I can give you is warp 2." Jan said.
"Warp 2 will have to do, I doubt that the Romulans are going to care as long as they are getting off their dead world. Do you think we can scavenge anything from the ships around" He paused for a minute as a loud clank echoed from the lounge area that he was just in. "Try and get what you can, I think I've got some rats up here." Walt motioned to Hank and pulled out his disruptor.
"Definitely heard that," Hank whispered.
Following Walter down the corridor slowly, the two of them crept quietly into the lounge. It was eerily quiet; to quiet.
"Do you see anything?" Hank hissed as he and Jones checked both sides of the room.
"I'm not sure, it sounds like it is coming from one of the air ducts..." Walt grabbed a chair and pulled it over towards the nearest one. "Cover me while I look inside."
Walt pushed the chair against the wall and pulled himself up. His bones starting to creek and crack. As he reached the entrance his eyes met 2 yellow eyes peering back at him. "WHAT THE HELL!" Frightened he fell back off the chair and landed hard on the deck. "SHOOT IT SHOOT IT!"
"I am!" Hank shouted as he whipped his camera up to his face and took a dozen pictures. As the thing with the yellow eyes dropped to the floor it slowly dawned on Hank that maybe it was a real threat and he shouldn't just be there standing like any idiot.
Picking up a nearby chair Hank smashed it over the things back, as it was distracted by Jones who was making a ton of noise on the ground. "Think its dead?" Hank asked as he stuck out his hand to help Jones up.
"Thanks for the hand, you ever seen anything like that before?" Walt picked himself up off the ground and stared at the corpse of the creature on the floor.
"Can't say I have." Hank said as he snapped pictures of the dead creature from different angles. "You figure there's more where that came from?"
"More than likely" Jones motioned for Hank to follow him back to the bridge.
Meanwhile in engineering...
"Well, we might be able to scrounge up some deuterium. Our dilithium crystals are intact, uh, I think I saw a ship with some useful warp drive components. I'll have auxiliary power up in a few minutes, I'll have to re-route what's left of the deuterium into the generator." Jan said.
Ripping off a nearby panel, Jan saw something large moving toward him. Instinctively out of surprise he pulled out a phase pistol and fired several times.
"Whoa shit!" Jan shouted.
Alarmed at the sound of phaser fire and Jan's started cry Lottie jogged back to his side with her weapon drawn. Whatever it was Jan had already put paid to it. She kicked the vermin with her boot, "Well depending on what food Jones can find you've got your supper sorted. God knows what it is mind you."
"Vole stew, never really learned how to stomach it..." Jan said, looking at the smoking corpse.
"Oh I dunno," Lottie bent down and lifted the critter up by its tail. "Might not be too bad with the some of moldy excuse of food we'll bound to find in the mess. Or many with some other fleshy thing hiding in the quarters."
From one of the ventilation ducts, he stared down at the intruders into his home. He hadn't seen them before, hopefully they would just take some things like the others and leave. His hissed at them, if they didn't leave, he'd have to make them leave.
"Did you hear that?" Lottie turned to Jan.
"Probably a leaking steam pipe, I'll check it out after I get auxiliary power online." Jan said, switching isolinear rods and turning valves inside the conduit.
The doctor arrived an looked at what Lottie was holding, "Hmm, I expected as much. I will need a blood sample from each of you. The records I have are compromised and I want to be sure I don't make any mistakes with what I am doing."
"Well I'm afraid you'll going to have to wait," Lottie let go of the vole which landed back upon the deck with a wet splat. "I ain't gonna give a sample freely, you know I can't stand those needle things."
"Charlotte Ashcroft," Morgan began, with just a hint of warning in his voice, "In three hours I will have completed a bio-genic virus which will cleanse this tub of anything that is on it. I am programing it with the DNA of the crew, so they will not be affected. So unless you want yourself and your unborn child to be... cleansed... I suggest you rethink your priorities."
"That's a bit overkill don't you think Doc? Besides, I still have to purge all the air filters anyway, gonna be hard to distribute a virus without the ventilation system." Jan said.
Morgan Pass blinked in surprise at Jan's comment. "I have killed over two billion people on my home planet, with no centralized distribution system like your environmental control. So, no, I don't feel cleansing the ship of bacteria, vermin and hitchhikers would be overkill."
He motioned to the dead vole, "And I would suggest it is a slightly more elegant solution to your own hand weapon. Now, about those blood samples?"
Lottie fixed Doctor Pass with a new look of surprise and new found respect: "Two billion people?" she said slowly.
Morgan returned a level gaze, "I will tell you about it when you are less busy."
Then she seemed to suddenly snapped out of it: "And how did you know about... about, that." she moved for arms around her abdomen the swelling from the growing infant not overly defined at this stage.
Morgan just shook his head, "I wouldn't be much of a geneticist if I didn't recognize the first signs of pregnancy. I can't give you an exact date, but my guess would be some time between week 8 and twelve? I am sorry if you were planning on keeping it secret."
"Fourteen," she replied deadpan pulled her arms across her torso tighter.
"Well I don't know about Lottie, but you can have mine when I finish getting auxiliary power online, about....5 minutes at least. That ok with you?" Jan said, continuing to adjust various valves and computer chips.
Pass folded his arms, "I'll wait."
"I'd rather stab myself then allow you near with one of those needles, they'll like some blood sucking creatures in stories." Lottie repeated her displeasure.
Pass sighed, "That would be acceptable at a pinch, but you will contaminate the sample with any bacteria on you skin, the blade or the air. I would prefer to have a Cord Blood sample to insure the safety of the infant, but I can extrapolate from your sample."
He shook his head, "This crew seems so keen to spill it's own blood at every opportunity, yet when exposed to a simple medical examination they become so squeamish. Our lauded security officer is afraid of needles."
An idea occurred to him, "Tell you what, you agree to the sample and I will tell you about my past. You sounded interested, and you should probably know at some point."
"I could stab her if you want, if it will get you two out of my way." Jan said, scanning a deuterium inlet pipe with his eyepiece.
"Hmm, should replace that eventually...." Jan said quietly to himself.
"Fine, just don't let me see it to tell when you're going to do it," Lottie caved in.
Suddenly all the lights in engineering went out, plunging the three into total darkness.
"Uh...Whoops." Jan said. "That wasn't supposed to happen..."
Lottie was about to give Jan a generous serve of her opinion when she felt a sharp stab in her abdomen. Instinctively she struck out but Morgan had been expecting that had was already ducking when her blind strike whistled past his ear.
"All done," he said backing away quickly.
As he passed Jan he said, "Have you considered some Biro-luminescence? A few strips along corridors or containers in each room would mean that if the power ever does give out we still have enough lighting to move around. We used them as night lights for our children, back home."
"I'll consider it, though I can see in total darkness now regardless." Jan said.
Flipping a switch, both the lights and auxiliary generator fired up, a low hum filling the room.
"There we go, auxiliary power is online." Jan said.
TBC:
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