Part 1
2171
How could a nearly empty ship be so cramped?
One might want to say USS Resisting Sublimation had enjoyed better days, but it probably wasn’t true. She was a three-tubes-and-a-ball Daedalus built at the absolute worst of the Romulan War, cranked out in a hurry from some hidden asteroid shipyard that hadn’t been there 6 months before and was atomized dust a few months later. An Andorrian admiral, Shran, had hastily named her and a Vulcan clerk had unwittingly translated it into English without context when they decided to go with an Earth crew, instead. It would have been cooler as the Not Fade Away, but no one bothered to fix it.
Some past officer had carved “Born to Die” into the dedication plaque brass. No one ever bothered to buff it out. The ship had served in multiple engagements, had enough casualties to re-crew her entirely, and been patched so many times it could give the Ship of Theseus a run for its money on which ship was more original. But it didn’t die. An ugly anachronism by the time the war was over, it was parked in a boneyard for 10 standard years.
And now it was alive again. Filled with sacks of carbohydrate and protein powder for an emergency food prep machine needed on a colony whose crop had failed via solar flare. One last flight.
Ekwo got out of his cramped cabin. The Resister, as they’d taken to calling her, had flown with far more crew than intended. By that point people were cheaper than automation. And though there were only 20 on board now, most of the small cabins were filled with food material. Ekwo himself shared his small space with dozens of water purifier tablet boxes. He made sure his uniform was tidy enough and took the ladder to the bridge deck. The turbolift didn’t operate, during warp. They found that out while under way.
Captain Levin was sitting at the center chair, going over engine reports from engineering.
“Captain, how are we doing?” he asked her.
“She’s not shaking apart at the moment. The vibrations on the grav plating are controlled. It’s safe to go into the upper decks as needed, again. You have the conn. I’m getting some sleep.”
They didn’t have enough people to manage three duty shifts so they had split it to two, staggered, so it wasn’t two separate crews operating things, as XO he barely saw his captain, once they’d gotten underway. But she wasn’t particularly personable, and he appreciated her aloofness. There was little worse than having to pretend to be a buddy to a motormouth captain who wanted to tell you every war story and give you lurid details of port visits, or their “Trip Tucker is Alive” conspiracy theories, while you were held captive by rank and custom.
Ekwo eased into his chair for another long duty shift. It was his first time as executive officer. Not as grand as flying in something cool like the Kon-Tiki, but it was a start. Thibodaux was piloting, and Renko was juggling ops and coms. Everyone else still awake and on-duty was doing their best to keep engineering running.
“let’s get some Sus-Shma on the speakers, yeah?” he said, and they turned up the Vulcanian-Techno loud. In space, no one can hear you rave.
But an hour later it was back to the doldrums. Renko was replaced by Yanyan, a rather foul mouthed Andorian pilot who liked to tell lurid sex jokes that didn’t make much sense from a human point of view, and so were plausibly inoffensive enough to keep her out of trouble. But what she got from telling jokes that no one but her found funny was a mystery. Time moved on.
He saw a minor alert. “Gravity fluctuation ahead. Mr Thibodaux.. take us .01 starboard .002 nadir. Let’s not get close enough to get hurt but get a decent sensor reading to update the nav charts. We might as well do something useful while we’re out here.”
Yanyan confirmed the manouver “We will pass by the gravity anomaly in 10 minutes.. 8 minutes..4.. Lt-Commander the object is moving, rapidly towards us”
Ekwo shouted “Evasive, hard starboard. General Quarters! Shields up!”
Klaxons rang out all over the ship. 30 minutes later she was struck, stomachs lurching and shuddering as gravity went bye bye and warp flight flung them back into reality with a harshness. Blue plasma ran along the walls. In their command chairs they were protected from the arc of whatever had hit them but anyone out in the corridors would not be so lucky. The ship was out of warp and completely black save for the starlight in the windows. Then lights returned as auxiliary power kicked in.
“Engineering” no response.
“Captain Levin” no response.
Ekwo studied the scanners to see what had hit them but saw nothing identifiable. The graviitic anomaly, whatever it was, was still out in subspace, zooming about them in a figure 8 loop. Or an infinity symbol.
“If they’re pirates, why haven’t they come in for the kill?” he wondered out loud, then stood up, “I have to find the captain and see what’s going on in engineering. Thibodaux, you have the conn. YanYan, get a message to starfleet, current sitrep and distress. Send out the marker buoy. If for some reason you all find us back under main power, call me before you go to warp. We don’t know how badly we’ve been hit, yet.” He grabbed a phase pistol and a communicator on the way out.
He found Captain Levin’s body crumpled at the bottom of the ladder. She’d been on her way up when the attack occurred. Her clothes were charred where the plasma had arced out into her body, and her hands were likewise severely burnt. He hoped it had been instantaneous. He took off his uniform jacket and laid it over her open-eyed face. There wasn’t more he could do now, as he ran down the corridor to make the next junction down to the secondary hull where engineering would be.
A bulkhead was sealed. He tested for vacuum on the other end. Finding none he opened the hatch manually, finding a scared ensign crouching on the floor. They’d been burned from the plasma but they were still conscious.
“Alami, can you walk?” he offered a hand which Alami took, shakily getting back to her feet, with difficulty.
“Aye captain. What was that?”
“Not sure, but get yourself to sick bay. If they clear you, stay and help. If they don’t need you, I want you to start checking personal quarters.. see who needs attention in their bunks. Provide assistance as needed. Is your communicator still working”
Alami checked her device on her belt. It came to life. She looked relieved.
“Good. We have to count our blessings, now.” He raced past her down to the small tube corridor to the secondary hull where Engineering resided, out of the “ball.” He hadn’t told her about the captain. He should have. If she chanced upon Capt. Levin’s covered remains.. He let the thought go. There was too much happening at once.
Engineering still had klaxons going off, multiple artificial voices sounding out alarms, and radiation barriers thrown up to impede progress.
“Is that you Ekwo?” the chief engineer called out informally from a nearby console. He was wearing an environment suit. “Get your ass in a rad suit if you don’t want cancer treatment.”
“How Do How Do!” Howie Donaldson, or How Do, had been Ekwo’s friend in the Academy. It was dumb luck that they’d both wound up on this assignment, reunited after a few years. Ekwo opened an emergency locker and stepped into a protective emergency environment suit and was helping him clear debris to get to the damaged portions of Engineering.
How Do asked, “how bad is it up top?”
Ekwo was grim behind the visor, “Bad. Real bad. Captain Levin is dead.. She was.. fried gripping a railing. We’re on the drift.. not sure of casualties”
The Chief Engineer looked shocked, “Ekwo.. you’re the captain now. What the hell are you doing down here?”
Ekwo thought about it, “I needed to check status and get things running..”
“Okay. You have the status. We’re working on it. I'll send you an ETA shortly once I can diagnose the situation. But you need to get back up there and be a captain, even if there’s not much you can do. Coordinate. Delegate. Decide. Me and the rest, we’ll get things sorted here. Ship needs you, my friend.”
Ekwo realized that his initial urge to visit engineering had been more for his friend and perhaps also to evade responsibility than to perform his job. He nodded and quickly got out of the protective gear. “I’ll send help, as I am able. Alami should be down soon.” He ran the long way back to the bridge, determined to do his job, even if it was the last thing he wanted to do.
2171
How could a nearly empty ship be so cramped?
One might want to say USS Resisting Sublimation had enjoyed better days, but it probably wasn’t true. She was a three-tubes-and-a-ball Daedalus built at the absolute worst of the Romulan War, cranked out in a hurry from some hidden asteroid shipyard that hadn’t been there 6 months before and was atomized dust a few months later. An Andorrian admiral, Shran, had hastily named her and a Vulcan clerk had unwittingly translated it into English without context when they decided to go with an Earth crew, instead. It would have been cooler as the Not Fade Away, but no one bothered to fix it.
Some past officer had carved “Born to Die” into the dedication plaque brass. No one ever bothered to buff it out. The ship had served in multiple engagements, had enough casualties to re-crew her entirely, and been patched so many times it could give the Ship of Theseus a run for its money on which ship was more original. But it didn’t die. An ugly anachronism by the time the war was over, it was parked in a boneyard for 10 standard years.
And now it was alive again. Filled with sacks of carbohydrate and protein powder for an emergency food prep machine needed on a colony whose crop had failed via solar flare. One last flight.
Ekwo got out of his cramped cabin. The Resister, as they’d taken to calling her, had flown with far more crew than intended. By that point people were cheaper than automation. And though there were only 20 on board now, most of the small cabins were filled with food material. Ekwo himself shared his small space with dozens of water purifier tablet boxes. He made sure his uniform was tidy enough and took the ladder to the bridge deck. The turbolift didn’t operate, during warp. They found that out while under way.
Captain Levin was sitting at the center chair, going over engine reports from engineering.
“Captain, how are we doing?” he asked her.
“She’s not shaking apart at the moment. The vibrations on the grav plating are controlled. It’s safe to go into the upper decks as needed, again. You have the conn. I’m getting some sleep.”
They didn’t have enough people to manage three duty shifts so they had split it to two, staggered, so it wasn’t two separate crews operating things, as XO he barely saw his captain, once they’d gotten underway. But she wasn’t particularly personable, and he appreciated her aloofness. There was little worse than having to pretend to be a buddy to a motormouth captain who wanted to tell you every war story and give you lurid details of port visits, or their “Trip Tucker is Alive” conspiracy theories, while you were held captive by rank and custom.
Ekwo eased into his chair for another long duty shift. It was his first time as executive officer. Not as grand as flying in something cool like the Kon-Tiki, but it was a start. Thibodaux was piloting, and Renko was juggling ops and coms. Everyone else still awake and on-duty was doing their best to keep engineering running.
“let’s get some Sus-Shma on the speakers, yeah?” he said, and they turned up the Vulcanian-Techno loud. In space, no one can hear you rave.
But an hour later it was back to the doldrums. Renko was replaced by Yanyan, a rather foul mouthed Andorian pilot who liked to tell lurid sex jokes that didn’t make much sense from a human point of view, and so were plausibly inoffensive enough to keep her out of trouble. But what she got from telling jokes that no one but her found funny was a mystery. Time moved on.
He saw a minor alert. “Gravity fluctuation ahead. Mr Thibodaux.. take us .01 starboard .002 nadir. Let’s not get close enough to get hurt but get a decent sensor reading to update the nav charts. We might as well do something useful while we’re out here.”
Yanyan confirmed the manouver “We will pass by the gravity anomaly in 10 minutes.. 8 minutes..4.. Lt-Commander the object is moving, rapidly towards us”
Ekwo shouted “Evasive, hard starboard. General Quarters! Shields up!”
Klaxons rang out all over the ship. 30 minutes later she was struck, stomachs lurching and shuddering as gravity went bye bye and warp flight flung them back into reality with a harshness. Blue plasma ran along the walls. In their command chairs they were protected from the arc of whatever had hit them but anyone out in the corridors would not be so lucky. The ship was out of warp and completely black save for the starlight in the windows. Then lights returned as auxiliary power kicked in.
“Engineering” no response.
“Captain Levin” no response.
Ekwo studied the scanners to see what had hit them but saw nothing identifiable. The graviitic anomaly, whatever it was, was still out in subspace, zooming about them in a figure 8 loop. Or an infinity symbol.
“If they’re pirates, why haven’t they come in for the kill?” he wondered out loud, then stood up, “I have to find the captain and see what’s going on in engineering. Thibodaux, you have the conn. YanYan, get a message to starfleet, current sitrep and distress. Send out the marker buoy. If for some reason you all find us back under main power, call me before you go to warp. We don’t know how badly we’ve been hit, yet.” He grabbed a phase pistol and a communicator on the way out.
He found Captain Levin’s body crumpled at the bottom of the ladder. She’d been on her way up when the attack occurred. Her clothes were charred where the plasma had arced out into her body, and her hands were likewise severely burnt. He hoped it had been instantaneous. He took off his uniform jacket and laid it over her open-eyed face. There wasn’t more he could do now, as he ran down the corridor to make the next junction down to the secondary hull where engineering would be.
A bulkhead was sealed. He tested for vacuum on the other end. Finding none he opened the hatch manually, finding a scared ensign crouching on the floor. They’d been burned from the plasma but they were still conscious.
“Alami, can you walk?” he offered a hand which Alami took, shakily getting back to her feet, with difficulty.
“Aye captain. What was that?”
“Not sure, but get yourself to sick bay. If they clear you, stay and help. If they don’t need you, I want you to start checking personal quarters.. see who needs attention in their bunks. Provide assistance as needed. Is your communicator still working”
Alami checked her device on her belt. It came to life. She looked relieved.
“Good. We have to count our blessings, now.” He raced past her down to the small tube corridor to the secondary hull where Engineering resided, out of the “ball.” He hadn’t told her about the captain. He should have. If she chanced upon Capt. Levin’s covered remains.. He let the thought go. There was too much happening at once.
Engineering still had klaxons going off, multiple artificial voices sounding out alarms, and radiation barriers thrown up to impede progress.
“Is that you Ekwo?” the chief engineer called out informally from a nearby console. He was wearing an environment suit. “Get your ass in a rad suit if you don’t want cancer treatment.”
“How Do How Do!” Howie Donaldson, or How Do, had been Ekwo’s friend in the Academy. It was dumb luck that they’d both wound up on this assignment, reunited after a few years. Ekwo opened an emergency locker and stepped into a protective emergency environment suit and was helping him clear debris to get to the damaged portions of Engineering.
How Do asked, “how bad is it up top?”
Ekwo was grim behind the visor, “Bad. Real bad. Captain Levin is dead.. She was.. fried gripping a railing. We’re on the drift.. not sure of casualties”
The Chief Engineer looked shocked, “Ekwo.. you’re the captain now. What the hell are you doing down here?”
Ekwo thought about it, “I needed to check status and get things running..”
“Okay. You have the status. We’re working on it. I'll send you an ETA shortly once I can diagnose the situation. But you need to get back up there and be a captain, even if there’s not much you can do. Coordinate. Delegate. Decide. Me and the rest, we’ll get things sorted here. Ship needs you, my friend.”
Ekwo realized that his initial urge to visit engineering had been more for his friend and perhaps also to evade responsibility than to perform his job. He nodded and quickly got out of the protective gear. “I’ll send help, as I am able. Alami should be down soon.” He ran the long way back to the bridge, determined to do his job, even if it was the last thing he wanted to do.
