Into the Black

Posted on Saturday December 21, 2024 @ 10:15pm by Captain Vott Mrall & Lieutenant Jieral & Commander Telas (Tel’hasu) Jaxx of the Eighth House of Betazed & Lieutenant Ryan Price & Lieutenant JG Elias McEntyre & Senior Chief Petty Officer Isem Mesu & Master Chief Petty Officer Zack Patterson JR.

2,584 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Prologue: First Steps
Location: USS Mohawk
Timeline: Current

Captain Vott Mrall stood looking at the Master Systems Display at the aft part of the bridge. He watched as it showed the power flow from main engineering to all the other parts of the ship. The turblifts were doing their usual rounds: stop, go, stop, go. Taking the PADD from under his arm, he turned and walked around sat down in his command chair. Turing to Telas, "Commander, please have all departments report for departure."

“Aye, sir,” Telas said from the newly installed XO’s chair next to where the Captain just sat. Most, if not all of the modular components of the ship had been replaced, including the entire bridge module, both nacelles, the main deflector dish, as well as the new mission pod that sat to the aft of the engineering section. Telas tapped several commands into the small XO’s console at his right side, requesting a departure readiness report. After a few moments, he turned and looked to the Bolian sitting next to him.

“All departments are ready for departure, Captain,” the XO said to the Vott, his cultured tones easily heard over the din of several conversations taking place on the bridge. “All stations accounted for,” he continued as he tuned and read out the last report that appeared on the console screen. “Chief Isem reports both the SIF generators and the EPS grid is stable, all in the green.” Turning back to the Captain, he nodded. “We’re ready, sir.”

Vott nodded, "Good. Open a channel to Starbase Control." He said looking at the Caitian at the Tactical Station.

“Tactical and Security stands ready; channel open to Starbase Control” The Caitian replied with a nod of the head and a swish of the tail.

"Starbase control. This is the Mohawk. Requesting permission to proceed to Spacedoors and proceed to warp speeds." The Bolian captain said.

"Acknowledged and permission granted, Mohawk. Proceed on maneuvering thrusters only." A woman said over the speakers.

"Acknowledged control. Mohawk out." The channel closed with a beep. "Helm," He turned his attention to the solo station in front of them and the Deltan male sitting there, "Release all moorings. Ahead on thrusters."

The Deltan nodded and turned towards his console. His fingers flew across the panel and the console showed the status "Clear" Hitting thruster control, the ship moved away and started to move forward towards the doors. Within a few minutes, the ship cleared the space doors. "Captain, we are cleared to navigate and warp speeds."

With a nod, the captain once again opened the intership comms, "Bridge to engineering. Prepare for warp speeds."

"Yes sir. Engineering stands ready. Warp engines are good to go. And honestly I look forward to breaking the limitations this class had on it." Senior Chief Isem said. His daughter was on board with a family member to watch her when he was on duty. They had to get this right. So many eyes were on them now

On the bridge, the lift opened and Zack stepped out. While he could be elsewhere, mostly in the armory, he felt his place was on the bridge. He needed as he stepped out and went to a back part of the bridge.

Smiling, the captain looked forward, "Warp 5. Heading 274 mark 4."

"274 mark 4, warp 4. Aye sir." The Deltan said as the he punched in the command. The ship lurched forward, which they all felt. They shouldn't have.

Raising his brow at his XO, "That shouldn't have happened." Vott said looking over at the XO at his chair, "Engineering. Are the inertia dampeners working? When did we feel the ship to go warp?"

Telas immediately turned the XO’s console toward him and started tapping away intently, inputting commands and getting warning readings after half a minute’s time.

“Level 4 diagnostic confirms we have a power fluctuation in the inertial dampeners,” Telas said, his cultured tones sounding slightly clipped, mild annoyance barely seeping through as he continued.

“The EPS grid is stable. Presumably, we may have a fault in the dampening field. Chief, try a Level 3 diagnostic of the inertial dampeners, start with the inertial couplers themselves.”

"Understood sir. Got one running now." Isem replied.

Ryan felt that rumble in his feet, he changed direction and started make his way to engineering, he looked at a read out, "Chief Isem you need some help?"

"We'll see once the diagnostic is completed, sir. Running it on all parts to the dampeners, both internal and external." Senior Chief Isem replied.

Ryan looked at a display "One of the dampeners is showing up as offline...look here." Ryan said pointing too the readout.

Isem grumbled for a moment. "Yeah. I see it. " when they had done their work, he had run all of the diagnostics himself. He had helped put in a few new dampeners. This wasnt one of them. He focused his thoughts, keeping the thoughts of others from leaking into his. "Bridge, I suggest dropping slowly out of warp." He turned to his engineers. "Four teams of two. Two port, two starboard. We'll send information on the bad dampeners, replace the offline ones. Bring the bad ones to me." For a moment he pondered why intel was there. Then he shrugged and went to his work again.

Looking at the same display, "It's been a while but these flow regulator readings are not even close to normal, I'll help with the controlled slow down." he paused "Bridge it might be wise to get all off duty and non-essential personnel to emergency shelters while we slow down." he turned to the engineer "Does this look like that control circuit issue the Enterprise had or something?"

Isem glanced over. "Could be. Honestly I just wanna know why, everything was good to go not even an hour ago."

Ryan opened up a new display on the console he was at, "Chief, I've started the shutdown cycle on my end, looks like a safety interlock has disengaged, who the hell was working on this system?"

Telas heard the entire exchange between the Chief and Lt. Price, cocking his head to the left pensively as he worked in mitigating some of the power flow to the damaged inertial dampeners.

What is Lt. Price doing in Engineering?<\i>, Telas thought to himself as he continued to tap away at his console, a beginning a brief Kholinar breathing exercise while he worked.

Chief Isem and himself were in charge of the ships repairs, spending the better part of 72 hours crawling all through the bowels of the Mohawk, upgrading everything according to the plan, as well as making sure all the items of the ships old systems. The Chief was indeed correct; they had run multiple integrity tests on all the new and old ship’s systems and made sure everything was up to spec. He knew how important was for the Mohawk to show its worth, regardless of the odds.

Something the Chief said had piqued the XO’s curiosity. The ship’s systems were at indeed full working capacity, all systems in the green after running about a dozen or so simulations based on the ships readings after the repairs.

“Chief” Telas said in his cultured tones, the annoyance heard in his voice before now quashed by the Kholinar exercise. “I’ve done what I can from up here. I’ve managed to reroute power to the still working dampeners. We definitely don’t want those to fail.”

"Agreed, sir. Once we get stopped we'll give all of the dampners another once over." Isem ran a hand through his hair. This wasn't going how they hoped. And he really wanted to see one of the failed units.

Listening to the exchange between his officers he asked his XO or Chief Engineer. Whoever would answer him first, "Should we drop out of warp or will be good till the planet?" The captain said turning to look at his XO.

Ryan looked to the Chief engineer, "We're within the upper tollerences Chief, your call." he said trying to be ressuring.

"I say we drop out of warp. I have crews already going to the spots, but non warp speeds may be best." Isem said. "I need to look over everything, because this shouldn't have happened."

Ryan began to key in commands, "Cycling down the warp drive now, Chief." he paused "Levels are stabilizing, passing down to warp three." he heard the moan as the drive continued to cycle down "That didn't sound right" he commented.

"Wait!" Isem called out, turning his head to see the officer.

“Belay…” Before Telas could finish, the ship gave another, even harder lurch as it suddenly began decelerating, several of the bridge crew flying off their seats to land hard on the deck, shouts of surprise could be heard as they flew and landed. The ship’s automated systems immediately detected significant flight irregularities turning the lighting on the bridge red as the Red Alert klaxon sounded on the overhead.

Telas was thrown out of the XO’s chair but had the wherewithal to tuck his arms close to his chest, rolling a couple of times before coming to a stop against Flight’s seat, then tried to quickly spring to his feet, struggling against the tidal forces of the ship’s partially un-negated momentum and went to help the Captain.

Isem was jerked forward, slamming his head into the bulkhead above the computer. Stars filled his vision as he fell backwards. The thoughts of the crew and their emotions threatened to overwhelm him. He closed his eyes for a moment, trying to ignore the pain in his head.

Behind them, Zack had been tossed across the bridge. Luckily nothing seemed to be hurt as he slowly stood up.

Once Telas was sure that Vott and the others were all right, he struggled slightly, just managing to take his seat and began typing away the XO’s console.

“Chief,” the XO said, strain easily heard in his voice. “What happened? I am seeing warp power levels dropping, though not from a fault.” After a few taps on the console, he saw why. “Who ordered us to drop our speed? Neither the Captain nor myself gave that order!” Telas had to struggle against the rising anger that threatened to burst out of his mind, taking a few calming breaths as he did a brief Kholinar mental exercise, before the crew began feeling his agitation. There was enough tension in the air without his telepathic projections altering the crew’s perceptions.

::Down in the Engineering::

Isem blinked a couple times. He could feel something on his head. He didn't want to move but he had to answer. "Wasn't me, sir." He groaned out. He wiped a hand on his brow and pulled it back to see blood. "I was waiting for the order, sir."

"No kidding...the safety systems engaged, I still have a standby on the throttle down on the board." Ryan said pointing to the display with the safety engaged on the majority of engine systems, "Cheif did anyone do any of the recomended retrofits to the navigation systems?"

Isem got up and turned slowly. His mind working through what happened. "Safties?" He thought. He knew every system had diagnostics run on them. This shouldn't have happened, unless something was wrong elsewhere. "Simmons, get your crew and check out the computer. Namely the part that runs diagnostics use a tricorder." The man in front of him got up and sprinted off. Isem wiped his brow with his sleeve. "Chief Isem to all engineering staff. Double check all work with a tricorder please."

Then he spoke again. "Bridge, this is Isem. The lieutenant is right. It's reading safties engaged, but it didn't before we took off. I'm have engineering double check everything. Commander Telas, when you get a chance, I'd like to meet with you."

“Acknowledged Chief,” Telas said to Isem, nodding absently. “I will see you down in Engineering as soon as we are under way and all systems are stabilized.” While he spoke, Telas continued to tap away at the XO’s console, confirming that there was indeed a safety shut down. “We’re reading the same thing on the safety override now. Strange. And to answer your question Lieutenant, the Chief and I went over the ship stem to stern before embarking. Before we left Spacedock, all systems showed in the green. As a matter of fact, the Chief has a tendency of manually marking all of his work. Call it old fashioned, but it works as a visual confirmation that the system was visually inspected.”

On the bridge Zack had gone to one of the computer screens and pulled up a report. "Captain, status report. No major hull breaches of structure damage. Multiple injuries and medical is responding."

Nodding at Zack, "Thank you Master Chief. Helm. Drop us out of warp.... slowly..." The Bolian captain said to the Deltan at the helm. Tapping the comms on his chair, "All hands brace for a bumpy ride."

"Eye captain." The Lieutenant checked the speed, Warp 5, right where the Captain wanted them. But the ship was shaking like it just had a good time. "Warp 4.5... warp 4... warp 3.5..." The Deltan continued to count down, but the ship was still shaking, if anything it was getting worse. Within a few minutes the ship was at impulse. The shaking stopped, but now lights flickered.

"Damn... so much for a first flight." Vott said looking at Telas, "We need to get back underway. Get down to engineering and lend a hand." Tapping his comms again on the chair, "Engineering. We are at impulse. See what happened."

“Aye, sir,” Telas said, nodding once in the affirmative as he turned his console screen to the locked position, raised the left arm of his chair and stood, immediately heading to the turbolift and down toward Engineering. He and Chief Isem would go and assess the damage and see where the faults came from. They had both visually inspected practically every inch of the ship while the refit and upgrades were being installed. The IDF generators should not have caused a problem sufficient enough to cause a cascade failure of this nature. Maybe there was a power fluctuation in the EPS conduits, seeing as most of the ships EPS grid was replaced including the manifolds. He would need to run a level 1 diagnostic on the entire power grid as well as the IDF generators. ”Engineering,” he said absently when the doors swooshed open and closed, zipping him down to the engine room.

Isem’s voice came through the com. The sounds of others in the background could be heard. "Understood, sir. I'll report when we have something."

Telas continued to muse as the ‘lift doors opened on the Engineering deck, stepping out deep in thought. While they were at it, it might be a good idea to check the new SIF generators they had installed as well. There was a slight possibility that the added draw of four SIF generators was too much for the power grid, but he doubted that. They had run countless simulations and all of them came to the same conclusion; there was more than enough power with the modifications they had made to deal with 10 new SIF generators, let alone 4.

“I’m here Chief,” said the XO as soon as he entered the controlled chaos of Engineering. “Where do you suggest we begin?”

END

 

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