A shuttle of salvation

Posted on Friday 18 March 2022 @ 16:27 by Captain Melody Jones

Mission: Disaster!
Location: Suttlebay 1, deck 13
Timeline: 0500Hrs
599 words - 1.2 OF Standard Post Measure

ON:

Compared with what came before, getting down the next couple of decks to the shuttlebay was relatively easy.

Melody forced open the door and stopped, looking in dismay at the scene. One of the shuttles had slid into the far wall and the front end had been stoved in, completely writing it off.
Melody then spotted what she had hoped for, one of the shuttles present had survived the incident undamaged. Melody walked over to it with purpose and activated the rear hatch which started opening.

"Maybe we've had a change of luck?" She said to Mathias. There was a dull twinge from her stomach, the foreshadowing of something much, much stronger. She knew what it could mean, but Melody kept quiet about that for the time being. Now was not a good time.

It took both Mathias and Melody to open the door, and looked in dismay at the mess there was. "Looks like Engineering and my people are going to be busy."

Melody sat down at the console and started accessing the communications array "The Merlin's communications array is still functional. I can tie it into the shuttlecraft to boost the transmission. The screen flashed up with the message 'Recording'.

"To anyone within the sound of my voice, this is Captain Melody Jones of the USS Merlin. This is a priority 1 distress call. We have been heavily damaged by an unknown event and require any and all assistance."

Satisfied Melody set the message on a loop and then initiated transmission.

Melody turned her attention to the shuttle's emergency transporter. "Let's see if we can shave some time off our journey shall we?" She quickly shut her mouth to stop a groan from escaping her lips as what was unmistakably a contraction radiated through her belly. 'Not now boys, this is not a good time.' she thought to herself as she studied the transporter panel.

"There's an emergency forcefield around the warp core that's interfering with the transporter lock, we won't be able to beam directly into engineering."

Mathias looked in concern at Melody, catching her body language, his lips went into a thin line they had to get somewhere more safer than here. "It looks like we can get at least in the corridor just outside and i can get us in there. The chief ops stated. "Let's get this done. however...." he went to where the emergency kit from the shuttle, and also got an emergency blanket. He had a feeling that they were going to need one. In fact he took a scan of her. "Melody, you are going into labour aren't you."

Melody chuckled as she worked the transporter panel. "Oh, Mathias! Always jumping to the worst-case scenario. It's just a cramp, probably from crawling through those Jefferies tubes in my condition. It will pass, I'm sure..." She smiled at him as she finished that sentence but then winced as she drew another deep breath. Ignoring the pain, she raised an eyebrow "Ready?"

Mathias gasped, "What moi? I am actually just stating a fact but, yes let's get going and get us to safety." casting a worried expression towards where they were at. "Ready to energize us my lady?" deciding to give a smile in order to cast off the worry he was feeling.

Melody nodded with a resolute expression. "Standby! Energising!"


OFF:

●●●● Captain Melody Jones
Commanding Officer
USS Merlin


●● Lieutenant Mathias McPhee
Chief Operations Officer
USS Merlin