Star Trek: Shepard, Recovery
First off, I would like to apologize for the delay in continuing this story. It won’t go out of my head, even while I’m busy with everyday life and working on other writing projects. The good news is that I’m now a paid author (yes you may chuckle). I tried re-posting the original story up until this point so people could catch up without reading all the comments, this is the first new part in embarrassingly almost two years.
Thanks for being patient,
Dulak
Chapter 10
USS Persepheron
Engineering
Just prior to losing power on the bridge
Master Chief Rexar Arthrun looked at the readout panel and studied the scrolling data with a scowl. The look on Chief Marconi’s face was no less dour. Petty Officer Thompson looked on as if he felt left out of something. “What is it Master Chief? I’m not sure I understand why you ran a level 2 on the contact sensor array, it’s the deflector we’re supposed to be fixing.
The Andorian Engineer looked back at the much younger crewman and nodded, “It’s all part of the puzzle, in effect…”
Shouting from the tractor beam power control module Richelieu interrupted urgently, “I’ve got a prob…” and was cut off himself by an explosion that sent him flying backwards away from the control panel and left him crumpled on the deck.
Thompson rushed to check on the Bolian, but both Rexar and Marconi darted to the control panel. By the time the two reached it, a light was blinking indicating the start of the automatic diagnostic which ran in case of catastrophic overload.
Although Rexar had never worked an emergency situation with Marconi before, they fell into a complimentary style enhanced by years of practical experience and engineering casualty drills between them. As Rexar frantically attempted to override the diagnostic from the control panel, the annoying buzzing of the temporarily disabled panel told Marconi what to do more quickly than any exchange of words.
Not waiting for the mag-clamp to disengage as he pulled open a side access panel, Marconi simply tore the metal cover off and discarded it. Then he reached inside and bypassed a relay causing a shower of sparks. He blinked and looked away, but continued working by feel. A more melodious beep sounded from the control panel, indicating that his jury-rig had worked, at least partially.
Rexar renewed his efforts to bypass the diagnostics and get the tractor beams back online, but suddenly the ship lurched so severely that both Marconi and Rexar stumbled a step away from the console. Before either could resume working the ship went completely dark.
As if feeling the need to state the obvious, Thompson’s nervous voice carried through the now quiet engineering space, “That’s not good.”
Rexar countered, his voice controlled and level “Gentlemen, I suggest we get power restored.”
USS Persepheron
Transporter Room
Despite Lt. Townsend’s reassurances that the Borg with them was not a threat, Crewmen Parker kept her archaic firearm trained on it even as she called for Dr. O’Connell. Tara knelt over the prone Cardassian and began a quick examination. Luckily, he had a pulse, and was breathing. Tara hoped it was a normal pulse for a Cardassian, but other than holding his head stable and seeing that he was not bleeding anywhere, there was little else she could do until the doctor arrived.
Lt. Townsend looked at the “Rexar” drone standing passively beside her and was about to ask it a question when the ship lurched and went dark. Only the dim light from her forgotten tricorder readout gave any illumination. It was enough light to see Parker raise her machine gun to firing position on her shoulder.
“Wait,” the cry left her lips to no avail as the Thompson burped a stream of lead in a series of blinding flashes.
USS Persepheron
Bridge
No sooner had the ship lost power then Chief Prak ran from the bridge, shouting back to Commander Ridgeway as he went, “Do what you can from here, I’m going to engineering.” The Tellarite knew his ship well and didn’t need light to find his way, although it slowed him somewhat. He found it immediately disturbing that the emergency lighting had not snapped on as it should have, but didn’t waste time speculating if it was yet another maintenance area that had fallen through the cracks of stretched-to-the-limit resources or due to the Borg. He would sort that out in engineering.
On the bridge Crewman Davis managed to fumble through an emergency kit and snap on a chem-light. The green glow barely filled the space, but allowed those remaining on the bridge to at least see one another.
“What do we do now?” asked Lt. T’Noor from the sensor console, her fingers never ceasing to endeavor to bring the panel back to life.
Ridgeway grasped the overhead bar, letting it take some of his weight briefly. “We wait for power to come back. I have a hunch that we might have to do something quickly when we have control restored.”
In reality, Ridgeway was a bit lost, he saw and heard Davis attempting to get any other station on the comm panel, but also saw that the crewman was having no success. They were not only blind and deaf on the bridge, they were helpless. Still, Ridgway couldn’t bring himself to desert the ships control center like Prak had, so he waited.
USS Sutherland
Ready Room
“I don’t care if he’s dealing with something Ensign, get me Admiral Selak NOW! I’m pretty sure I have more information than he does about what he’s dealing with, so put him on.” Captain Shelby was as close to fuming mad as she had been in a long time. The Ensign from starbase 214 was obviously the self-important type of administrative assistant that Shelby despised. She would never understand what made people think they could push others around because of who they worked for.
The station wasn’t even on alert, and the Ensign seemed more than a little amused at the incongruence of being called by a nearly naked female identifying herself as the Captain of a starship. The ensign seemed on the verge of another flippant remark when an alert klaxon sounded from panel speaker, followed by the telltale flashing red light behind the ensign.
At least someone on the station was paying attention. Shelby was about to order the ensign to put her through again when the view screen set into the table of her ready room desk shifted to the Starbase 214 Starfleet logo.
Shelby blinked twice in disbelief. “I’ve been put on hold.”