Desperate Hope
Posted on Tue Jan 29th, 2013 @ 9:38am by Captain T'mpest Michaels & Captain Elsie Halliwell & Lieutenant Cedric Shepherd & Lieutenant Jimmy Cooper & Lieutenant Commander Dylan Blake
1,340 words; about a 7 minute read
Mission:
Sowing the Seeds
Location: Shuttle searching the Dubai debris
ON
T'mpest kept a close eye on the comm for any sign of a distress call. Cooper was monitoring sensors and Shepherd was analyzing the debris.
As the shuttle neared the wreckage of the Dubai, T'mpest turned to Jimmy and Cedric. "Any signs of life or indications of what happened?"
"None whatsoever, Commander." Jimmy answered, "I am mostly keeping an eye on the anomaly, at this point it seems the most likely candidate for this disaster."
"Agreed. You focus on the anomaly, I'll look for survivors," she said. Although, like Jimmy, she doubted they would find anyone alive.
A last minute addition to the away party Lieutenant Blake was reviewing the last known transmissions and sensor logs from the Dubai along with those gathered by the Ranger in an attempt to piece together something to support the physical facts the team were hoping to find on the debris. Honestly, he believed he was wasting his time both looking through the data and being on board since Commander T'mpest had everything covered already.
__________________________________
"Commander," Jimmy said, "We are coming onto the piece of debris now. It seems to be the better part of the front saucer, which must've been ripped at the bulkheads. Still, as the air will be stale and gravity none-existent, I suggest we go suited-up."
Behind Blake grimaced hoping he wouldn't have to experience that.
"Agreed." She turned to Shepherd. "If you and Jimmy want to beam over, I'll stay here and man the shuttle. If you can get power to the main computer I'll upload as much information as I can."
"Will do," Shepherd nodded, rising to make for the EV locker. He stopped when Captain Halliwell's voice buzzed into the compartment.
"Ranger to Away Team," Elsie chimed in over the comm. "What's your status?"
"We just arrived and are beginning our search now," T'mpest said.
"Good," Elsie replied, her eyes flicking about the console as she checked the sensors. "I want you to work on restoring power to the section as quick as you can. We can then start work on this side of things."
Restoring power? "Aye, ma'am," T'mpest said, looking to Jimmy.
The eyebrows of Blake lifted in surprise at the Captain's request. Did she have an idea of the condition of the section they where about to explore? She wanted the impossible at times.
"I only need a console active, Commander. I can work with that."
Shepherd shared a quizzical look with Cooper.
"Well, time to suit up, then." Jimmy sighed as they disappeared into the back compartment to don their space suits.
As the blue teleporter haze disappeared, Jimmy looked around, phaser in hand, flashlight on-wrist. Shepherd was next to him, carrying a Mark 17 rifle, the light atop its housing flooding another section of the compartment. The place was, except for the flashlights, dark, and while the suit's magnetic shoes kept Jimmy in place, he immediately felt nauseous as up and down didn't match his expectations. After a minute of swallowing he recovered and started to take in the surroundings.
"Commander," he said over the comm, "we seem to have landed in the mess hall, we're heading up to the replicator controls now." He had switched the phaser for his tricorder, and he was now looking for lifesigns, computer controls and anything else which could explain the destruction of the Dubai
Aboard the shuttle with T'mpest Blake could imagine Cooper's surroundings with both his imagination and with the schematics of the Dubai he pulled earlier knowing they'd be working the darkness. "They should be roughly five meters to your left," he informed. "The panels my prove awkward with you suit but persistence should pay off."
While Jimmy made his way to the replicators, T'mpest had an idea. Several minutes later, she tapped her combadge. "Michaels to Cooper."
"Aye?" Jimmy wondered briefly if the earlier comm message hadn't come through, but let it go.
"I've sent you a program to help access the data. I don't know how much of it will be corrupted, but the program will help fix some of that, if you can get a terminal to work."
"Yes, I'm examining the terminal now... Attaching meta-generator... Yes, I have power now. Give me a moment to examine it, I'll send information up as soon as I have... oh, dam ~ eh, darn it." Jimmy frowned.
"What?"
Blake felt himself lean forward with baited breath at Jimmy's curse.
"There's no memory core in this section, I'll gather what's in the local memory chips but it might not be everything we needed. Perhaps we could find the actual computer core in space... if it's not blown to bits."
"Keep looking. I'll search for the memory core, but it's likely gone."
"Oh I wouldn't be so sure Commander..." Blake smiled slyly.
The captain again contacted T'mpest, interrupting Blake's chatter. "We have managed to establish a telemetry link with the ship, Commander. Report should you yourself discover anything significant. But until then, Halliwell out." And with that she closed the comm.
T'mpest sat for a moment after the connection closed. She hoped the Captain would run a scan on the data before she uploaded it. If the crew of the Dubai was paranoid enough to blow up their own ship, there was no telling what they would put in the computer, fearing someone would try to access the data.
A minute later she contacted the CO and advised her to run a scan of all data.
"Ok, this is all we're gonna get here," Jimmy said over the comm. "Please get us out of here, I'm getting dizzy."
"Deep breaths," quipped Shepherd, the smile audible in his voice.
"Okay. When you get here, I think we've found the memory core," T'mpest said. "Beaming you back now."
The team rematerialized on the shuttle a moment later and T'mpest plotted a course for the memory core.
"God, I feel awful." Jimmy said as he stripped himself of his suit. "Can't we just go back? It's not like we're gonna learn anything from another busted memory core."
"No. You're probably right, but we can't go back until we find out for sure," T'mpest said. "And have a good look around the debris field. We're here not just to look for survivors, but to find out what happened."
"What are you, Vulcan?" Jimmy sat down at his console, annoyed, and started reporting. "Well, titanium debris, what a shocker."
T'mpest turned to him and replied very calmly. "As a matter of fact, I AM Vulcan. On my father's side. Now, can you adjust the sensors to search for everything but titanium?"
"If you want to do my job, I won't stop you." Jimmy answered. "I'm reading silicon debris at heading 2-50-7."
The exchange had Blake's eyes racing across the room as if he were watching racket ball. Jimmy's comments were becoming increasingly aggressive and unnecessary, he fought to maintain his silence since it wasn't his place to preach at him, that right was reserved to Commander Michaels.
She was surprised by Jimmy's comment. He was normally so cheerful and easy-going. "Altering course," she said, heading for the debris. She slowed the shuttle as they approached. "Any viable pieces?"
"I'm reading a mostly intact one, it's not too big either, we can transport it." Also, we can go home then. Jimmy thought.
"If we can," she said. She ran a quick scan herself. There was a good likelihood of finding intact data. "See what you can do, Lieutenant Cooper."
A moment later, Jimmy looked up, saying "It's in the hold. Feel free to inspect it, I'll get us home."
T'mpest nodded. "Very good. The helm is yours."
OFF
Captain Elsie Halliwell
Commanding Officer
USS Niagara
Commander T'mpest Michaels
Executive Officer
USS Niagara
Lieutenant Jimmy Cooper
Chief Science Officer
USS Niagara
Lieutenant Dylan Blake
Chief Operations Officer
USS Niagara
Lieutenant Cedric Shepherd
Chief Security Officer
USS Niagara
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