Bring Her To Life

Posted on Thursday 7 June 2018 @ 18:42 by Commander Cale Llewellyn DSci & Captain John "Apollo" Barstow, M.D.

Mission: Lost Souls
Location: =/\= Main Engineering =/\=
Timeline: Current
1375 words - 2.8 OF Standard Post Measure

John crawled out of the Jefferies tube onto the main engineering deck and leaned on the bulkhead, "I'm getting to soft, ugh," he muttered before pushing off the bulkhead and moving forward.

It wasn't long before he came to the engineering bays main doors. The doors were cracked open, just wide enough for someone to squeeze through. Apollo paused and pulled out his phaser before crouching down and moving for cover behind one of the heavy doors, "hello," he called out and, his voice echoing around the darkened room, adding to the eeriness as he strained his eyes trying to see any movement in the darkened room.

=/\=Llewellyn to Barstow. What's your location? I've got that data you requested.=/\=. came Cale's voice over Barstow's combadge.

=/\= Engineering,=/\= Barstow replied weakly, doing his best to keep his composure after what Kai had told him.

=/\=Commander, can I meet you there? There are a few things we need to discuss,=/\= Llewellyn asked.

=/\= Aye,=/\= John replied and sat against one of the work stations once he was sure the engineering bay was empty, =/\=just give me a shoutout before you enter, challenge lightning, counter sign Zeus,=/\= he added, not that they needed that extreme, but, now that he was alone the emotions finally were overwhelming him and he wanted to have warning so he could regain his composure before anyone else saw him. The CO knew he was allowed to have feelings, but he also knew in his position he needed to keep them in check publicly and could not just fall apart in front of any of the crew, especially mid-mission.

"Aye, Sir," was Cale's simple reply. "I'll be there shortly." Cale left his current location and made his way to Main Engineering taking his time. He felt some of Barstow's pain event through the comlink. There were things they needed to discuss indeed. But Cale wasn't sure he would be willing to talk about the, especially to him. The ship wasn't all that large and his abilities had grown over the year he had been away. Cale had greater control over them since they had emerged. Even though he wouldn't push the issue, he needed the captain to come clean to him.

By the time Cale arrived Apollo was already under the main engineering console, throwing out old wiring and bio-neural gel packs that had become brown slime. It wasn't unusual to have to replace them, but, when he'd left the Merlin had just been refitted, there was no way that the equipment could be showing the age it was. With the cold, in fact, it should have been pretty well preserved.

Cale entered into Main Engineering and called out "Lightning." He waited for the counter sign. He felt Barstow's uncertainty and his pain even before he entered Engineering but decided not to let the Commander know he felt them. He knew he needed time to process this also as Commander/Captain, he needed to present an air of calm and trust for his crew. So Cale decided against broaching the subject with him. There were many other subjects to discuss.

"Zeus," John called out and looked out from uner the console, "check out the bio-neurals...they look like they're twenty years old, if not older," he said and pulled himself into a sitting position.

Cale moved to sit next to Barstow and began to look at the bio-neural gel pak that he was holding. It did look old but he couldn't understand why; the cold should have preserved it. "Commander, what's going on here? Where is the crew? Why is the Merlin sitting at the bottom of an ocean on some unnamed planet?"

"I wish I had an answer to any of those questions," Apollo replied with a sigh and motioned to the store room hidden down the corridore, "and all spares look like that too. I'm having Grissom send parts down."

"Very good, Sir. I'll get right on installing them as soon as they get here. Are you allowing anyone else from the Grissom down here like an engineering crew? I could really use the help I mean 'we' could use the help," Cale corrected himself.

Apollo couldn't help but smile, "yes, I get the point, we'll get teams down here," John replied, reminded how much he liked Cale's straightforwardness, "I've just spend to long with intel, got used to only trusting a select few," he explained.

Cale smiled at Barstow. "It's quite alright, Sir. I understand completely. And thank you, I'm sure I can speak for everyone in saying that you can trust all of us as we trust you."

John smiled, "I know, and I'll work on that, it'll just take me a minute to get back to who I was," he replied and took a breath, "Sierra was in one of the stasis pods they found in medical," he said and looked at the deck, "I intended on saying something, but, I was trying to put the crew first.....as much as it's killing me and I really can't show it, Captains have to maintain that exterior," he added as a look of defeat and worry filled his face.

"I'm sorry to hear that, Sir but I'm sure she will be fine. I have every faith in Dr. Ki; he seems to be a fairly capable doctor. I met him while I was aboard the Grissom. Remember, I'm always here if you need to talk. Despite the fact that I'm not a counselor, I am a very good listener. You should remember that or at least I hope you remember that," Cale said with a soft smile after laying a hand on Barstow's shoulder and he left him alone to decompress.

The CO just nodded before standing up, "Cale, what did you need to talk to me about?" he asked and wiped the wetness under his eyes away.

"Sir, I just wanted to know what all this meant. The ship. The crew. This strange message about the Capra. I mean what does is that all about? What have we stumbled into...yet again?!" Cale looked confused and not for the first...nor the last...time in his life. He was a haunted man and it was obvious to anyone who knew him that it was so.

"I wish I knew, I honestly do," Barstow replied, his turn to rest a reassuring hand on Cale's shoulder, "We'll figure it out, we always do. I need to go to the Grissom, can you take charge of coordinating the engineering teams?"

"I understand, Sir. I'm sure we will, Commander. Of course, I can," Cale smiled at his old CO and nodded.

Apollo squeezed his shoulder, "let me know we have power then we'll start searching for CAPRA...." the Commander said then grabbed his head as a sharp pain hit him right in the center, causing a buzzing in his ears and a few drops of blood to trickle from his nose before it stopped, "....the hell was that..." he said and ran his sleeve under his nose as memories started flooding his mind, "it couldn't have.... get those engines up, I need to go," he added and ran for the door.

"Commander, are you OK? Where are you going?!"

Barstow didn't answer, so focused on the memory he just didn't hear the question, "Barstow to Grissom, one to beam up. And start beaming engineering crews down, Commander Llewellyn will be coordinating them....and tell Colonel Bayushi to meet me in sickbay," he called just before disappearing.

Apollo squeezed his shoulder, "let me know we have power then we'll start searching for CAPRA...." the Commander said then grabbed his head as a sharp pain hit him right in the center, causing a buzzing in his ears and a few drops of blood to trickle from his nose before it stopped, "....the hell was that..." he said and ran his sleeve under his nose as memories started flooding his mind, "it couldn't have.... get those engines up, I need to go," he added and ran for the door.

"Aye, Sir."

A post by

Commander John "Apollo" Barstow, MD
Commanding Officer
USS Merlin

&

Lieutenant Commander Cale Jason Llewellyn, DSci
Chief Science (Strategic Operations) Officer
USS Merlin