Situation with a Romulan Design?

Posted on Thu May 25th, 2023 @ 10:57pm by Captain Taiga Aisaka & Commander Thomas Johnson & Commander Chisato Nishikigi & Lieutenant Kylynn Adams & Lieutenant Talia Johnson & Lieutenant Jasad Yuvek & Lieutenant JG Nezuko & Ensign Kehl th’Kaaliq
Edited on on Fri May 26th, 2023 @ 10:17pm

1,667 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Descent
Location: Station Operations

The main operations center of the station was a mess. The air filtration system struggled to evacuate the smoke from smouldering consoles as officers and crew ran around from task to task. The floor was littered with debris and many of the control consoles and panels were either burnt out or flickering.

Lieutenant Commander Petra Ral was trying to keep everything in order. It was obvious she was stressed as she moved from station to station, co-ordinating rescue and damage control efforts.

As they beamed in Talia was immediately hit with a barrage of emotions that made her temporarily reel. She paused to give herself a moment to adjust before looking around, the station was a mess not that it was a surprise.

Ensign Kehl began immediately scanning the cloud of smoke pouring from the environmental system. He was worried about the counselor’s seemingly nauseous reaction.

"Whoa, there," Chisato called out, reaching out to offer Talia support. "You okay, there, Lieutenant? You looked like you were about to faint for a second."

Talia offered a warm smile. “I’m fine now, thank you. It’s because of all of this..” She motioned around at the damage. “The emotions here are running pretty high.”

Science officer Kehl th’Kaaliq’s heart was racing. He’d only been on two away missions with the USS Bynhomme. “We might all become a bit dizzy if we don’t get away from this smoke”, the youthful looking Andorian said while he studied his tricorder. “I’m reading a mix of nitrogen dioxides, sulfur dioxide, volatile organic compounds and sharp particulate matter.”

"I can work in this environment." This was an automated voice coming from Nezuko's handheld PADD. "Where is the air filtration system? I can fix it while others stay where it's easier to breathe."

Thomas took a moment to adjust his breathing as well, "Lt Johnson, find a clear area. Its not good to breath this while pregnant. Nezuko, take whoever you need. Make environmental top priority. I need to find the CO."

Talia nodded as she looked towards her husband. “Aye Commander” she pulled out her tricorder, heading off to find an area that would be safer for her.

"I'm with you, ma'am", Ensign th'Kaaliq said to Lt. JG Nezuko as he followed her. "I'm sure there must be a diagram that leads us to the air filtration system." He placed his hand over his mouth to partially shield his breathing.

Nezuko nodded as th’Kaaliq to follow her into the smoke. She had brought up a layout of the Ops Deck on her PADD and was following its directions deeper and deeper into the thick air.

Upon spotting the new arrivals, Petra made her way over. "Lieutenant Commander Petral Ral. Current Commander of this station," she introduced herself to Commander Johnson. "I guess you're from the Tokyo?"

"Commander Thomas Johnson, first officer of the Tokyo yes." He turned. "Any report on the extent. besides a falling orbit? Asteroids don't usually go rogue without us knowing about it."

"Primary systems and power are down. We can't contact anyone in the lower levels. Emergency forcefield ate not functioning and the main computer is offline" Ral reported. "This station is full of cadets Commander, many of them will have no idea what to do. I can't get in contact with any of the senior staff either, it's likely they're all dead or injured"

Petra sighed. "Sorry its not good news, that asteroid appeared literally seconds before ot hit us. We didn't have time to act, and for some reason our shields went offline the moment it appeared" she explained.

"That doesn't even begin to make any sense," Chisato noted. "An object capable of doing this sort of damage should have shown up on the station's long-range scanners well before it posed any threat to the station."

"I doubt this was a natural thing its highly illogical, for one to. Let alone multiple. If My guess is correct. This is an attack, and the fact that so soon after it started. It was meant to be found."

Meanwhile Talia had managed to locate a rebreather, testing it to make sure it worked she put it on and headed back to Thomas. She nodded to Ral as she stood at Thomas’ side.

"We've been trying to stabalise the stations orbit, but not having much luck." Petra told them all. "Have you started evacuating the cadets?"

"Given that the shields have been dropped right before the asteroids hit, is a cause for concern, Commander. We will evacuate, but I think security precautions have to be taken before we send them over." Thomas replied. "It does seem like there is someone dropping our shields for direct impact, or someone has the codes to do so. I will need to contact the Tokyo."

Petra nodded simply. "Only I have those codes now Commander. Our chief of security was killed in the impact."

"Presuming they're still operational, do you mind if we have a look at the sensor logs?" Chisato suggested. "If this was a deliberate attack, we should probably comb for evidence to support that theory."

"We can't wait until we have the evidence that prove either way." Thomas replied as he looked to the acting station commander. "We have a very capable operations officer, that can get them operational should they be down. But we do need to contact the Captain that it can be an attack, or a really strange coincidence. sensors not picking up asteroids, and shield drops just prior."

Petra nodded.

**

It wasn’t long before Nezuko and th’Kaaliq found the damaged ventilation system. Indeed, damage from various Ops Deck systems, from small smouldering electronics systems to medium sized plasma fires in the underlying EPS grid, continued to add smoke into the room while the main ventilation system was inoperable and backups had failed to activate. It looked like the sensors which would detect the offline fan were among the fiery systems, so the backups didn’t know they needed to turn on.

Thankfully, the smoke failed to bother Nezuko, and her Andorian science officer assistant appeared to be made of stern stuff, or at least wasn’t letting the smoke get to him.

She opened two panels which so far remained safe from plasma fire and exposed the isolinear chips therein. Moving a number of the chips would bypass the sensor and force the backup vents to activate. She gestured for th’Kaaliq to work the chips, which were thankfully below the worst of the smoke.

Ensign th'Kaaliq's eyes were watering from the smoke and he coughed sporadically. In truth it reminded him of his youth working within asteroid mining caves. This smoke was much more acrid. He would have to check into sickbay after the mission for smoke inhalation treatment.

His academy courses on basic Ops was still fresh in his mind. He could tell which chips needed to be rearranged because they were no longer illuminated and flashing. He would swap them with lit chips of the same color and rearrange chips of other colors until entire rows re-lit.

It would be a time consuming process of trial and error, but the Andorian considered it good practice.

Leaving him to work, Nezuko went deeper into the smoke. She could feel the heat of plasma fires behind certain panels. Ventilation aside, the fires needed to be put out. She found a fire suppression canister and used the butt of it to open a particularly hot panel. The fire briefly flared out, catching her uniform, but Nezuko put it out quickly and then began to spray the fire with foam.

Kehl found progress moving faster than he'd expected. He could hear one fan seem to turn on, letting out a coughing fit. He'd been trying to keep one sleeve over his face while he worked. His eyes felt more and more irritated as he fought to organize the chips.

The ventilation system was starting to work, but he had several more rows to complete.

Suddenly all their comm badges chirped. "Captain Aisaka to all away teams. We're sending over evacuation shuttles now. Start to move evacuees to the intact shuttlebays. Any critically injure contact Transporter control for immediate beam out" Taiga's voice called.

"Captain, we may have a situation of Romulan design. Suggest security be assigned to all sensitive areas of the ship, and a minimum of two per cargo bay, as precaution." Thomas paused as he looked over to the Commander. "Commander Chisato, while Nezuko continues to enable us to breath... can you get to those sensors through the console over there." He motioned over to some consoles along the wall.

"You can count on it," Chisato winked as she made her way over to the console in question. "Okey-Dokey... let's see what there is to see..."

A few seconds of silence followed before Taiga responded. "Are you sure Commander?" She asked.

"Commander Chisato is looking into getting the sensors now Captain, however it seems that the asteroids were cloaked right before the time of impact at which point the shields dropped. It could be just a very badly timed coincidence."

"Understood," Taiga replied. "I highly doubt its a coincidence, keep me appraised." She said.

"Also, The Commanding Officer has not been accounted for. Has any of the other teams found them yet."

"Understood. Do what you can Commander, fpcis on getting everyone to safety first. That must be your first priority," Taiga replied. "Tey and download as much of the logs as possible, maybe then we can find out what happened."

"Understood Captain. Johnson out."

A post by

Captain Taiga Aisaka
Commanding Officer

Commander Thomas Johnson
Executive Officer

Lt Commander Chisaro Nishikigi
Chief Intelligence Officer

Lt Talia Johnson
Chief Counsellor

Lt Kylynn Adams
Chief Science Officer

Lt JG Nezuko
Chief Operations Officer

Lt JG Jasad Yuvek
Chief Halmsman

Ensign Kehl th'Kaaliq
Astrometrics Officer

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