The Beginning (2nd post)

Posted on Thu Oct 26, 2017 @ 12:13pm by Fleet Captain Rhea Kennit & Lieutenant Commander Miguel Torres & Lieutenant Penelope Naroot & Lieutenant Nicole Anderson & Senior Chief Petty Officer Samantha Summers

1,581 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Dīvide et Impera ~ Chapter One: Sending Out An S.O.S
Location: Bridge

Bridge
Two months after departing from Starbase Celayur

For the past two months, the USS Victory had been on station running standard security patrols at the edges of Federation secured space, ostensibly to stand as first responders against potential hostile incursions by other space faring civilizations in the Delta Quadrant such as the Borg, Hirogen, even a Kazon Sect.

Over the past four hours on the Bridge, the Captain hadn’t said much. She was clearly bored, everyone on the ship was bored to be honest. There had been nothing detected since arriving on station two months ago. Not even a stray comet or asteroid to break the dull monotony of their assigned patrol. It was no secret, Captain Kennit was bored and of the opinion they’d been pushed out here to the middle of nowhere to keep her from going after the Romulan presence which was clearly present in the Delta Quadrant..

They were out there, no one doubted it. Somewhere, as yet unknown..

Letting out a sigh, the Captain took a sip from a mug of hot tea brought to her by the on duty yeoman and immediatedly made a face. Glancing over to where Alec was seated, she said “I can’t decide what is worse, this mission or this cup of tea..I don’t care what she says.. I’m getting coffee.” Taking the cup of tea with her to dispose of, Kennit headed to the Ready Room for a decent cup of coffee.

Alec chuckled, "If it's that bad, it makes me glad I'm not a tea drinker. Go get your coffee. Your secret is safe."

“Miss Naroot,” the Captain said on her way to obtain a cup of coffee. “If any sort of unusual absolute nothing should transpire, sing out.”

Penny nodded. "I'll let you know if the interstellar dust makes any pretty pictures," she said. She'd been spending most of her time on the Ops side of the board, coordinating with Engineering as the ship stretched its new joints and worked out its new kinks. There'd been a whole lot of nothing in their path and she'd gotten a bit bored of seeing it.

After retreating to the Ready Room, the Captain settled down at her desk with her much yearned for cup of coffee and decided it was likely her crew was every bit as bored as she was. Being the kind, caring commanding officer she was, Kennit felt it was her duty to at times alleviate the boredom of a long, uneventful patrol run in order to help maintain crew moral.

Thus, she touched a series of commands on her console. A moment later the ships alarm sounded, followed by an announcement over the Victory’s 1MC.

“General Quarters, General Quarters! All hands man your battle stations. The flow of traffic is up and forward on the starboard side, down and aft on the port side. Set material Condition 1 throughout the ship. This is a drill."

Immediately following the initial announcement, came the heart of the matter. “Fire, Fire, Fire, Class C Fire in Compartment T-8-351A! “ (OOC: Deck 8, Tertiary Section, Deuterium Fuel Pumps and Fill Port)

“Away the Fire Team! Provide from Repair 2!”

A fire in the deuterium fuel pump and storage area meant the fire and repair teams only had a short window of opportunity to take control of the matter before the computer simulation would declare the ship lost due to severe structural damage caused the explosion such a fire would generate in an actual event.

Coffee in hand, she returned to the Bridge to monitor the drill progress and see if the fire teams would get the fire out in time...or if she’d be assigning extra training drills later that day.

Penny had snapped to attention when the alert had come, but as the Captain came out she put her thumb to her nose and wiggled her fingers, sticking her tongue out before returning her attention to her board. She began monitoring the fire-suppression systems and attempting to bypass the stuck vent, coordinating with Engineering.

As Rhea returned to the bridge, a mug of her beloved coffee in her hand, Alec turned to face her. He knew what she had been up to besides getting coffee. His face was devoid of displaying any emotion. His eyes however told a different story. The twinkled in amusement at her little 'wake up call'.

When she got closer he leaned towards her and whispered. "Really?"

Settling into her seat, the Captain just gazed back at her First Officer, her expression one of innocence. A stray bit of the whipped cream she’d added to her coffee (might as well enjoy her small rebellion against the Doctor's absurd idea that she drank too much coffee and should cut back) slightly spilled over the side of the mug in response to her movement to run down over her index finger. Shifting her attention to the sweet cream, the Captain shifted her mug to her other hand and then with slow deliberation, brought her finger to her lips and sucked the cream from her skin slowly all while locking eyes with her First Officer while the monitors at their sides displayed the status of the crews ongoing response to the drill.

Alec watched as Rhea with a display of great exaggeration,slowly sucked the whipped cream from her finger. God! Wasn't it time for the shift change yet? Forcing himself to remain calm, he fidgeted in his seat and shook his head from side to side as he offered a quiet remark, "Yeah, that's what I thought."

::Sickbay (someone feel free to do one of those cool color things here)

Nicole looked up at the sound of the alarms and looked to Addison. "Secure the doors."

As Addison nodded, Nicole moved to the center of the room. "Listen up! Trauma teams one and two prep for retrieval and move into position! We're going to have burn victims and smoke inhalation, I want tri-ox compounds prepped and dermal regenerators ready!"

The orders were somewhat unnecessary, and perhaps more wordy than in a real crunch, but drills were about streamlining and efficiency. Everyone knew what to do, but they needed to build the muscle memory of actually doing it.

Sickbay moved smoothly the trauma teams rushing out of the room as those still on duty kept their stations and watched for calls for help. Nicole grabbed a padd and made notes, watching Addison take care of the details.


::Meanwhile...on Deck 8 ~

Moving as quickly as she could while wearing fire fighting gear, Lt. Raylen muttered under her breath. The Captain had been running a number of drills, more than usual and with decidedly challenging mock situations for the crew to work out. This one was a doozy! A fire in the deuterium fuel pumps compartment would be a disaster...ordinarily the ire suppression systems would have vented the compartment atmosphere into space to smother the fire but.. Captain Kennit’s drill indicated a failure of the vent system which meant they had about six minutes before the ship would be crippled by a simulated explosion and the drill declared a failure..

Just freaking peachy...

Reaching the compartment, first thing to do was access the space and then determine the level of fire inside. “Commander Torres..we are at the compartment access hatch. Internal sensors indicate the fire has reached a temperature of 704°C...we don’t have much time before the temperature will reach critical and set off the tanks!”

Miguel watched the readout. "Then you better get in there and put it out." he said as he put in the command that would activate the emergency force fields in that area and he could decompress the area thus putting out the fire as a backup. "Fire surpression is still out so it's upto you. If it get's to 720°C it's going to blow. I'll decompress at 715°C if you haven't put it out by then."

“Opening the hatch!”she reported. Immediately they entered and set up fire fighting gear. It was odd, fighting a fake fire and hoping to beat the computer’s unknown parameters for pass or fail...

"Temp just spiked to 710°C" Miguel called out.

She nodded, though he couldn’t see it. Aloud, she answered “we are showing the fire is closing on the coolant system pumps..if the actuators go offline we’re done..focus the suppression on the pumps.. we can’t loose cooling to the tanks..”

Miguel's fingers were already running over the commands to do just that.

Pushing closer to the indicated region, Raylen along with the rest of the fire control team set up their gear and were gratified to see the computer data on the simulation display showing that they were getting the “fire” under control.. “I’m seeing a drop in temperature .. do you concure Torres?” she asked.

Miguel continued to watch the monitor in front of him as he read the sensor information. "Yes... yes it is. Temperature is already down to 675°C and falling rapidly."

“Maintain current system pressure to the suppressant lines.. we got it on the down swing...” Raylen ordered.

Another ten minutes brought an end to the drill, the computer determining the fire was out.

"Not bad engineering teams... But I want everyone's after report by tomorrow morning at the latest. I also want suggestions on how to improve our time." Miguel told his teams.



*~*

 

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