Pressure Cooker Phase One - BACKPOST

Posted on Wed Mar 6th, 2013 @ 11:29am by Lieutenant Commander Kadie Mora
Edited on on Wed Mar 6th, 2013 @ 11:34am

518 words; about a 3 minute read

Mission: Sowing the Seeds
Location: Cargo Bay
Timeline: Mission Day 4: 1815 hours

"I really wish they could have warned me first." Mora said with a scowl as she and Telana headed through the corridors of the Ranger toward the cargo bay, where a chunk of a Galaxy-class ship's saucer section was awaiting them.

"I only heard about it about twenty minutes ago myself, commander. I'm sure they have their own reasons."

"None of which matters right now," she replied as they turned into the cargo bay. Even now, this small piece of the primary hull was huge. "What have we got, chief?"

Chief Petty Officer Ossan Mel approached almost warily, ducking underneath an exposed structural beam. The Bolian had heard that the Chief Engineer was aboard but this was their first meeting. "To be honest with you commander, I can't tell you a lot. We've had this fragment here for less than twenty-five minutes, so we're still performing the first line analysis. Information from the bridge and the sensors suggest that it was a warp-core breach, and so far the tricorders seem to support that; we can't find any evidence of weapons fire or anything else untoward."

"Say the sensors are correct, what caused it?" Mora asked.

"In twenty-five minutes sir, I couldn't speculate."

"Try." Mora stated sternly.

"Commander, there could be any number of reasons why a core could go critical, you know that."

"Yes I do, chief," she interrupted shortly, "What I don't know is why this particular one did. The Galaxy-class has seen almost thirty years of service with only one being destroyed by unknown or at the least unconfirmed causes. Are they just old? Is there a flaw that is only coming out now due to the age? Is there any evidence pointing to negligence or dare I say it, foul play?"

"Commander, I..."

Mora could see the chief's expression and where his words were leading, "Chief, I don't want to hear excuses, I want to hear answers and for you to get results. These are your people, do something with them!"

"Commander... Kadie," Telana butted in to attempt to relieve the tension, "why don't we let the chief continue his job? I'm sure that it won't take long to make some sort of determination. Besides, it's not like we have the core to assist us in making any judgements--this looks like part of the hull adjoining ten-forward. We may not even be able to get any concrete answers."

Mora sighed. "At some point very, I'm going to have to make a full report to Captain Halliwell and the Mission Advisor... Kendry or whoever. I cannot hand over a padd containing pure speculation, but I do need to hand over a padd." Turning back to Mel, she added "Make sure it contains something tangible." and then stormed out.

Chief Mel turned to Telana, and make a slight whistle by pursing his lips. Telana just nodded her reply before actually speaking. "You better get on it, chief. If you need any more resources from Engineering, well, you better let me know for now and I'll arrange what I can."

"Thank you, lieutenant, I will do."

 

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