Out of the frying pan......

Posted on Thursday 16 June 2016 @ 20:28 by Petty Officer 2nd Class Pete Burg & Captain Melody Jones & Lieutenant JG Velin Ikiri

Mission: Old, New Ship
Location: Bridge
1006 words - 2 OF Standard Post Measure

ON:

Burg stepped back as the console erupted in sparks and shielded his face. After the sparks stopped he walked back over and grinned, "teach it who's boss, ma'am," he joked, "are you alright?" he asked as he came to a stop beside Jones and crouched down.

Melody straightened her uniform and brushed the hair out of her face "A little singed, but nothing broken" she added, patting herself down "Bridge to Lieutenant Ikiri, we are running out of time here" then hitting the ship wide intercom panel "All hands, this is the bridge. Proceed to emergency escape pods and stand by."

From the helm, the young ensign piped up once again "Sir, if the ship explodes the escape pods will not make safe distance in the time left."

Melody stepped up beside him "What if we programed the helm to move the ship away when all the escape pods have been launched?"

The ensigns face blanched "Computer helm control has been totally disrupted, someone would have to be physically at the helm."

Melody looked upward and sighed "Why am I not surprised" Then raising her voice to address the rest of the bridge "Ok, all non essential personal report to your assigned escape pods. The rest of you we'll give engineering another 2 minutes then clear the bridge."

Putting her hand again on the young ensigns shoulder "I relive you, get to your pod now."

He turned to her with a look of disbelief on his face but when he saw the look on hers, he knew better than to argue with her. All he could muster was "Aye sir" as he left the bridge.

Melody eased herself into the helm position "Come on Ikiri, save my life" she whispered.

Pete went back and sat down at the ops station, bringing up what he could when the computer came on overhead, "all escape pods disabled."

Burg blinked and muttered curses under his breath, "ma'am, we've got a problem, no ones getting out. I think someones in the core because all systems just went offline..." he reported then turned, "suggest we send out runners, ma'am. We need to know whats going on around the ship, without information we're stuck staring at the windows blue screen of death..."

"Right then, that tears it!" Melody rose and walked over to the replicator on the bridge "If we are going to cheat death, we need the right equipment. Computer..... An Apple"

She picked up the red fruit, took a bite then threw it in the air and caught it with the same hand.

"Now then.... Not today" she muttered to herself, then turning back to Burg "Has anyone checked the warranty on this thing? You're right. We need to know what's going on, but time is against us. Send who you can and tell them to hurry!"

The Petty Officer nodded and went back to the escape pods for the bridge, "alright, change in plans, I need everyone to get out here and run messages. Two to engineering, one to the computer core, one to TIC and one to security. We need to know what's going on, so take notes and come back."

Velin had finally reached the primary computer core and as he knew it would be he could tell how bad it was. He set down his tool kit and said, "Alright everyone were disconnecting the computer core and forcing a shunt to the backups with that the systems can be reset and we can avoid the danger." He pointed to two of the crew, "You two start disconnecting the secondary connections and ill work on the primary." He pointed to another two and said, "You work on disconnecting the power in case one of us is unable to complete the procedure." With that he started lifting deck plates out of the way to access the connections to the rest of the ship.

The moment of calm on the bridge was suddenly interrupted by the computer "Warning. Warp core pressure has exceeded designed safety limits and is continuing to rise. Warp core breach in 60 seconds."

Melody sat down hard on the captains chair. "If anyone has any bright ideas, now would be a good time" she said with a wistful smile on her lips. Her own thoughts turned to her father and she wondered how he felt when he faced the end, when he saw those Borg coming for him and his family and he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that this was it. She wished she could have known him better, and hoped that he would have been proud of her. As the seconds passed, she looked around the bridge at those left, determined to meet her fate with composure.

The computer continued "Warning. Warp core breach in 10 seconds...... 9......... 8......... 7....... 6...."

Melody steeled herself, bracing her back against the chair, her hands gripping the armrests. Her eyes closed, her face a picture of calm.

"5............4........3.........2.........1...................."

She sat and waited. Would she even feel the explosion? An eternity seemed to pass. Then realization dawned on her....... Nothing had happened. She slowly opened her eyes, half expecting to see the great unknown which oddly enough looked like the Captain standing in front of her.

"Hmmmmmm" she mused to herself "Not what I was expecting."

"Kaboom," Barstow said with a grin as the lights came back up and everything powered up, "let me know when your heart stops racing and we'll talk," he added with a grin then slapped his comm badge, "Barstow to all department heads, report to the briefing room in an hour. Barstow to Kai, bring Walker to my ready room," he ordered then looked back, "you have the bridge again, I'd like to see you before we go to the briefing, though."

Melody sank back into the command chair. She took a few moments to regain her composure then rose and followed the Caprain into his ready room?

OFF:

Commander John "Apollo" Barstow
Commanding Officer
USS Merlin

Lieutenant (jg) Melody Jones
Chief flight control officer
USS Merlin