Off to Auxiliary Control (Time Zone 4)

Posted on 16 Aug 2018 @ 6:51pm by Ensign Quinn Mackie & Lieutenant JG Jazmin Parks & Lieutenant JG Catherine Cooper & Ensign Shay Mitchell & Ensign Aidan Crehan & Senior Chief Petty Officer Mila Rasputin

6,160 words; about a 31 minute read

Mission: Fractured
Location: USS Black Hawk
Timeline: TZ4 || 1000 hours

After their stint in Security with other members of the crew, it was back to the Jefferies Tubes. Thankfully, the trek from security to auxiliary control would be brief, especially since they were a deck apart. The hard part would be wandering vacant corridors in dim lighting all the way to auxiliary control.

To make matters worse, Quinn wasn't entirely sure where it was, other than it was somewhere near the rear of the ship. As soon as they were in the corridor, Quinn kept his palm light and phaser both up and at the ready. "So, Lieutenant," he said, his tone dripping with caution, "this is probably a bad time to ask if you're enjoying your tour on the Black Hawk."

Jazmin smiled despite the bad situation. "Actually, Ensign, I'm enjoying it more and more, current situation excluded of course. It's becoming a real home to me and I'm grateful for the opportunity."

She thought for a moment to get her bearings in the dark, then looked at Mackie. "This way, Ensign. Down the access ladder we came up on, then we head aft." She slowly moved on ahead, keeping her phaser and flashlight swiveling back and forth to cover the corridor.

"You haven't seen much yet," Quinn remarked, following closely behind the lieutenant. "Under Captain Geisler, I've seen the ship boarded three times, a near-civil war in Starfleet caused by alien influence, a trip to an alternate universe, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. I'm starting to get the feeling that today's madness is going to be right up there with those."

"At least things stay interesting." She opened the access tube and looked both up and down for any possible threats. Seeing nothing she stepped onto the ladder and started down. "The Scorpio was interesting, but nothing compared to what happens here."

Reaching Deck Thirteen, she peered out into the corridor, looking both directions before stepping out. "Clear, Ensign."

Quinn had remained concealed until she'd given the signal. Sliding out into the corridor behind her, he spun around, shining his light around, only to illuminate a couple dead bodies. "Oh boy," he said, trying not to gag at the sight of skeletons. "I really hope we find some answers soon, ma'am. This is a bit unnerving."

Jazmin nodded. "I agree, it is unnerving. But you can do this. Just keep talking to me and we'll make it to aux control in no time."

She continued on, resisting the urge to pick up the pace, she figured another ten minutes, barring any unforeseen encounters, and they'd be at aux control. "So, Ensign," she began, sounding as relaxed as if she were sitting in the lounge, "what brought you to Starfleet?"

"You know," he said, his attention focused on the dark corridors, reminding him all too well of the time the first Black Hawk had been boarded nearly a year prior. "See the universe. Explore strange new worlds. Breathe space dust. The usual spiel."

Jazmin chuckled. "Well, Ensign, I think that the air in here might qualify as space dust. So, it looks like the recruiting posters didn't lie." She laughed a bit harder, sneezing for effect. She led him around a turn in the corridor and they saw their destination, Auxiliary Control.

She clapped him on the back. "See, you did great. Didn't even notice seven of those bodies along the way." She pulled out a door opener from her tactical belt and affixed it to the door.

"Just let me know when you're ready."

Seven!? thought Quinn as he spun around. He'd noticed two, but there had been more? What the hell happened on this ship? His hands started to tremble a bit, as indicated by his flashlight not being able to stay still at all. How many people had died on this ship in the last few minutes? "I... uh..." Quinn gulped, pressing himself against the bulkhead beside the door. "R-R-Ready."

Jazmin noticed the abrupt change in Mackie. She put a hand on his shoulder, hoping he didn't mind. "Ensign. Look at me. You're doing awesome. Nothing has attacked us, we haven't sustained injuries, we're doing okay."

She stepped back a bit. "I know it's a lot of pressure, but right now, you are the most important person on the ship. You need to get auxiliary power up and running, once that happens we're one step closer to solving this."

She thumbed back down the corridor. "Yes, there are bodies. But, if I'm right we jumped to the future. Our time is probably about five years ago, so actually, no one is dead. Imagine that. In our time no one is dead. No one is dead."

She paused to hopefully let it sink in. "No one is dead. Now, I'm going to open the door, you're going to restore power. I won't let anything happen to you. That's why I'm here. To keep the most important person on the ship alive."

She smiled warmly. "Besides, if you pull this off, you get a new title." Her smile turned into a grin. "Absolutely Badass."

She put her hand on the door opener. "Are we good?"

Despite his nerves, Quinn nodded. It was only in this moment that he wondered where Kelly was. Seeing how few people he'd seen alive in the last hour, he hoped that she was not among that number. If anything, her scrappiness and her will for adventure should have kept her on the other edge. He tightened the grip on his phaser and hoped that there would be nothing behind the door other than workable consoles and a way out of this mess.

Jazmin nodded then activated the door opener. With a groan and loud snap from mechanisms long unused, the door opened. She scanned the room with her flashlight, phaser held just below it. Dust was heavy in the air, obscuring her vision somewhat, At the rear of the room, near the turbolift and engineering station were the unmistakable shapes of two bodies, each covered with dust that rendered them featureless.

"We're clear, Ensign, but I have to warn you, we have a couple of bodies. Remember, this isn't our time. They aren't dead."

She stepped inside the room, her movement stirring up dust and stepped to the left to let Ensign Mackie into the room.

He followed her inside, and naturally his light illuminated a crumbled corpse. Turn on the lights... Turn on the lights... he reminded himself, a vain attempt to keep himself focused on the task at hand. Looking around the room, he spotted a couple things that didn't belong, such as a power generator and a closed tool kit. Quinn was no expert in forensics, but the bodies looked like they had just died in their sleep or something. There were no tools in their hands, nor were there signs of a struggle.

Quinn approached the power generator and immediately took note that a padd laid on top of the generator's controls. He picked it up and blew off the dust before giving the screen a tap. It flashed for a moment before dying itself. Between the padd and the generator was a small power cell, one that belonged to a padd. He checked the charge on it, only to be surprised that it held about half of a normal charge. It didn't take him long to switch out the cells and reactivate the padd. He couldn't remember the last time he powered up a device like this, and thankfully the boot cycle wasn't terribly long. It did, however, feel much longer than it should thanks to the darkness around them.

The screen lit up, instantly displaying the only file in its memory. "What the...?" Quinn muttered. "Instructions for powering up the USS Black Hawk," he read aloud. He blinked in surprise. This was far from standard procedure, yet it had been approved by a Lieutenant Kemm, recognized on the device as the Acting Chief Engineer.

What happened to Lieutenant Hawthorn? Quinn found himself asking.

There'd be time to think about that later. Quinn refocused on the instructions. "Step one," he murmured. "Activate the generator." He looked down to see a slowly pulsing button on the generator, indicating it had been in standby mode all this time. He pressed it, more so out of curiosity than instruction. The generator hummed to life, and before long, the overhead lights flickered on, as did a glow on a nearby console, which until now, neither of them noticed had been covered by a sheet.

Jazmin punper her fist in the air. "What did I tell you? Absolutely Badass!" She grinned and surveyed the room. The bodies looked peaceful, as if they lay down and died. She approached them carefully, stopping just short of them. "First things, Ensign, can you get life support functioning properly again? It'd be nice to breath some clean air once again, get rid of this dust."

"Second," she turned to face him, still grinning from the relief of having hte lights back on, "Communications with the others."

As she waited for a response she pulled out her tricorder, and began scanning the bodies. More to herself than anyone she mumbled. "I wonder if it was some sort of pathogen that killed them. Of course if it is and we've been breathing the same air," she let the words trail off and studied the tricorder.

"Could be any number of things," Quinn said, standing to remove the sheet that covered the control console. It flew off with one fell swoop, blanketing the rest of the room with additional dust. Quinn himself gagged the moment it touched his nose, forcing him to use the backside of the padd he held to keep what he assumed could be bits of the dead crew from entering his lungs.

The console displayed several things, including diagnostic readouts of the ship's auxiliary power generator, which was running as he'd suspected earlier. It utilized the same deuterium fuel that powered the warp core, and he couldn't help but notice that the tank levels were at thirty percent and falling. Assuming they could get the ship to warp speed, they'd be lucky to hit the barrier, much less cross it.

Another screen on the console displayed the computer's status, which was in standby mode awaiting a user to coax it back to life. Quinn looked at the instructions left for him and inputted the commands it gave. Additional lights flickered back to life, as did the remainder of the consoles. Several hums and whirrs could be heard in the background as the ship's life support system began to return fully online, cycling the stale air through its carbon scrubbers to freshen it up.

"Systems are coming back online," Quinn reported to Lieutenant Parks. "Computer controls, environmental functions, communications. Give it a shot."

Jazmin breathed a sigh of relief. While she knew that it would take some time for the air to be completely free of dust, she nonetheless felt that the air was somehow more fresh than a few moments ago.

=/\= "Parks to Bridge, Ensign Mackie has aux power up and running. Anyone there?"=/\=

There was no response, and she was about to try again when her tricorder beeped. She wasn't a medical expert by any stretch of the imagination, but the readings were clear. "It shows they didn't die from the impact. No broken necks, lingering signs of internal damage, whatever it was, it was quick," she knelt down and brushed the dust from one of the heads, "and seemingly peaceful."

"Sorry, Ensign, I know this is a bit much for you, but you are handling it well. It's a testament to Starfleet training that we can manage situations like this at least enough to do our jobs. You've done well." She smiled and inspected the security/tactical station and tapped at the console, trying to pull up any kind of log. As she did this she tried comms again.

=/\=Lieutenant Parks to Bridge, Ensign Mackie has power going, anyone there?"=/\=


===[Bridge]===

On the bridge, Abbey's eyes lit up in a pleased grin. One could almost hear the "eeeexcellent" in the look in her eyes. "Road here," she answered. "That's fantastic. Concentrate on getting life support up and running first. Or, I dunno, how far have you got?"

Aidan nodded to the internal communications. He was thankful that they weren't the only ones left. Life support would be a nice thing to have, but so would environmental control. Not breathing in humanoid death and decay, as well as dust, would be welcome. But then so would knowing what caused all of this, as pointed out by the others. He made his way over to the science station to see if it had power coming to it.

Relieved Cooper went over to the security station to check it, hoping it would come on online without any problems.


===[Auxiliary Control]===

Quinn entered a few more commands as instructed by the padd of destiny. "Life support is coming back up now," he said aloud, not caring who heard him. Internal sensors, main computer, replicators, subspace transceiver, torpedo launchers." Quinn shook his head. "This is an odd selection of systems. These were all in standby mode, as if someone knew we were going to need these. What we don't have is the warp drive, shields, main power, and so on."

Jazmin knew they were far from a resolution to this situation, but she couldn't help but feel a sense of excitement that they had managed to get the power going. As the systems in auxiliary control started to power up, she tapped at the controls a the security/tactical station.

"Computer, send a list of all living crewmembers and their locations to this station."

The computer whirred, buzzed, and beeped as it attempted to process the request. After a few moments, the computer generated an image of the Black Hawk with dots indicating the location of every crew member. Several were spread throughout the ship, but many of the one hundred and ten lifesigns were already clustered together.

=^=What is being your status, Parks?=^= Mila's voice came over the combadge.

Jazmin smiled at the sound of the Senior Chief's voice. =/\= "Good to hear you, Senior. Ensign Mackie and I are in Aux Control, life support has been reactivated and we are bringing other systems online. Internal sensors, main computer, replicators, subspace transceiver, torpedo launchers should be online in short order. Ensign Mackie finds it odd that these systems specifically were left in standby mode, almost as if it were planned. He also tells me that warp drive, shields, main power, and other key systems are offline."

She paused, collecting her thoughts. "Computer informs me that one hundred ten crewmembers are onboard. Some are scattered while most are congregating in key areas. We're awaiting Captain Road's orders."

Quinn interjected before the acting Captain had a chance to respond. "The power-up sequence will be completed in about five minutes. It seems whatever subroutine was left behind was meant to power up anything that's working. Someone definitely wanted us to be ready for something."

===[Bridge]===

"Hm," mused Abbey. "Try to contact the other groups and individuals. Have we got internal and external sensors? They could help us figure out what we're meant to be ready for."

"We seem to have both," Ensign Dagee said, having moved over to the dusty Operations station. "They're a bit sluggish, but I'll see what I can do."

===[Auxiliary Control]===

Jazmin began to pace. Just what the hell happened? She'd heard about temporal rifts and other anomalies at the Academy, but she actually never thought she experience anything like it. Of course it could be an elaborate hoax. No. She knew that she had to treat this as the real deal, if she didn't she and everyone else could end up dead.

She cleared her throat which had become dry and scratchy from all the dust. "Computer, what happened here? Is there any sort of log or report on the last events before the ship was powered down?"

"Affirmative," replied the computer in its monotone voice. "The last entry in the ship's log was on Stardate 117107.8 and was made by Captain Harvey Geisler."

Jazmin felt as if the pit of her stomach dropped away. She took a deep breath before replying. "Computer, play ship's log."

The viewscreen flashed, showing an image of the poorly lit bridge. Centered in the image was a waist up shot of the ship's Captain. Perhaps it was stress, perhaps it was the lighting, but his face looked hollow and ashen, as if all of the hope had been drained from his soul. "Ship's log, stardate... unknown. This will be my final entry as Captain of the USS Black Hawk. Three days ago, I was sitting in the conference room with most of my senior staff. In a flash, everyone was gone. Over the last three days, we've learned that fifty years have passed. What happened or why, we don't know. Our antimatter is sour, and our impulse engines fused. A quarter of the crew is still missing. Whatever happened to them is what happened to us, and prior generations. Theta radiation," Harvey grunted. "Terrible way to die."

"It is my hope that the person viewing this log is a member of the missing crew, or a Starfleet survey team finally finding our lost ship. All of our logs, all of our study, everything we have on the zone and what happened to us has been collected in the data recorder. Some of us believe that there is a way to fix all of this, but a solution has eluded us. If it is not possible, then I wish to make my final act to commend every member of this crew for standing fast in the face of adversity and certain doom.

"And, if there is a way, we wish you the best of luck. This is Captain Harvey Geisler, signing off."


===[Bridge]===

As the communication channel had never been closed, silence gripped the bridge as the crew slowly came to terms with the shock and awe left behind by the Captain's final log.

Shay blinked when she heard that, looking toward Abbey since she was the one in charge. "Lieutenant Road, you're the one in charge. What are your orders?"

Cooper got the answers she sought but naturally they were not useful. Her mind forced itself past the ghost from the past voice of her Captain to survival matters. Perhaps the information the Captain spoke of would be, they could analyze it and...then she recalled part of his final words, about the radiation. "Well hell."

"Well," said Abbey, voice small, but not in fear. It was almost as if she felt speaking too loud would be irreverent. "That was.... Are sensors showing any more evidence of Theta radiation?" she finally asked.

Ensign Dagee approached an active console and ran what sort of quick scans the sensors would allow. "Affirmative. The ship is flooded with it."

"The theta radiation is coming from the antimatter. You heard Captain Geisler's last log," Shay pointed out. "As long as the sour antimatter is on the ship, we're going to continue to be exposed, and it's going to kill us all. We need to get rid of it somehow and replace it. I'm no engineer, nor am I a scientist, so if there is a way to do it, I'm not going to be any help there. I'm just the muscle."

On the bridge, Mila went stock still as she heard the log entry and looked over at the covered bodies. "How could it have been so long?" she whispered. "Is there being way to purge ship of it?" She asked. When it came to administration, she was on top of her game. When it came to the running of the ship, she left to the others who were trained for that. Now she felt helpless. Finally, Mila looked at the young Security woman. "Nyet," she said. "You are being protector of ship and I am being glad you are here."

"Just doing my job, Senior Chief," Shay said, offering Mila a polite nod. With Cooper still on the bridge, she could make her way down to Auxiliary Control to speak with Ensign Mackie face to face. If there was a way to make things better, she was going to do what she could to help out. "Doctor Road, Senior Chief Rasputin and I are going to meet up with Ensign Mackie and Lieutenant Parks. If there's a way to make this happen, it might be our only hope. The theta radiation is the reason this is happening. Until we can get rid of it, we're all as good as dead." Without waiting for a response, she excused herself from the bridge so she could make her way to where Quinn and Jazmin were.

"Good idea," replied Abbey. "In the meantime, I'm going to see if there's any inoculation left in Sick Bay. It won't do for the long term, but it'll buy us some time. Oh, and since comms are up," she added, tapping her com-badge and hearing the satisfying chirp that meant a channel was open. "Attention all hands, this is acting Captain Road speaking. Everyone is to report to Sick Bay immediately for inoculation against Theta Radiation. All available medical personnel to Sick Bay to administer inoculations. I wish I had more news for you all, but for now, we need to protect ourselves against the most immediate threat. Road out."

Glancing around, she realized she would have to stay on the bridge. Perhaps the remaining medical personnel could handle it. "Computer, how many medical personnel are on the ship?" she asked.

=/\=There are six medical personnel onboard the Black Hawk,=/\= intoned the computer.

"Right, the other five can handle it," she said. Another glance around the bridge and she settled herself, cross-legged on the floor. There was no way she was taking the Captain's chair, even if he wasn't still in it. As soon as they got themselves out of this, she was retiring to a tiny house on Luna, with her husband, if he was still alive.

"Nope, not gonna think about that," she muttered.


===[Auxiliary Control]===

Jazmin felt like someone just gut-punched her. She began to pace, trying to control her breathing. The room seemed less dusty, and she realized that the environmental systems were now doing their jobs. Fifty years had passed for the Captain and the others. Everyone looked to her to be dead for several years. "Oh God," she whispered, "how long since the Captain had died?" She snapped her head up, determination welling up inside her.

"Computer! How long has passed since the Captain died?"

Please don't say fifty years. She thought to herself.

The computer replied with a resonating sequence of chimes followed by a factual statement, "Captain Geisler's life sign was last detected sixteen years, two months, six days, four hours and nine minutes ago."

She sighed. Sixty-six years in the future. No wonder everything is shot to hell. Relax Jazmine, you're just a security guard. Other people have a lot more know-how and training. Besides what am I going to do? Shoot the timeline with a phaser? "No!" She said aloud, almost shouting, not realizing that she was no longer thinking, but rather speaking. "It's my job to keep these people safe. I may not be an engineer or a scientist, but dammit, I am a Starfleet Officer, and by God I'll see this through."

She lowered her voice, "Now, my thinking may be way off, but if the buoy came from a hundred years in the future, we have about thirty five years to go. Someone sends a message." She paused, holding her head, "temporal mechanics always did give me a headache in the Academy. We need to make sure whoever survives until then can send that probe. But why not just tell us not to come? Unless we had to come?"

=/\="Captain Road, this is Lieutenant Parks. I think we need to come up with a plan."=/\=

She cringed, hoping that Mackie didn't think she was nuts. "You're not the Captain, Jazmin. Road knows what she'd doing." She let out a pent up breath, let others do thier jobs. She smiled when she thought of Commander Suvot, the Vulcan always did tell her she had, how did he put it? "An overreaching and illogical tendancy to want to fix everything."

Quinn's ears perked up at the mention of the probe. He knew that he was not supposed to know about it, but his other responsibility required that he be more than aware of his existence. In that moment, he knew he had to find Carmichael. Events were not unfolding as they were supposed to, and if Lieutenant Parks was going to start blabbering about purpose and probes, then he had another issue on his hand. Keeping one eye on her, he remained focused on his work, trying to restore power to the ship.

=/\=I'm working on it,=/\= came Abbey's voice over the comms. =/\=Any suggestions are appreciated.=/\=

Jazmin frowned, continuing her pacing. "Dammit Mackie! I feel so helpless. At least you're getting power up and running again." She folded her arms in frustration. Security is your concern Jazzy. And, like it or not, you're the Chief right now. Cooper may be the senior officer, but Tactical is her purview, and she's going to have her hands full with ship defenses. I hope I make you proud Camila.

=/\= "This is Lieutenant Jazmin, Acting Chief Security Officer. All security personell report immediately to Auxiliary Control for security assignments."=/\=

=/\= "Captain Road, as soon as I have some people, I'll get them assigned to vital areas."=/\=

Jazmin came to stand next to Mackie. "No more doubt, Ensign. We'll get things up and running and find a way to get all of our people back to one place." She put a hand on his shoulder. "Fantastic job, by the way. Any chance security systems are online? I'm thinking we need a forcefield around that probe. The Captain didn't say much about it, but I do knows that it needs to be guarded. I doubt there's anyone watching over it."

=/\=One thing at a time, hey?=/\= replied Abbey via the comms. =/\=Let's get the inoculations done and power fully restored. I think the probe will be okay for the time being. Also, stick to Doctor, okay? I'm only in charge temporarily.=/\=

=/\=Affirmative, Doctor. I'll get security personnel making sure that everyone is getting to Sickbay so we stay alive to figure things out. I think that perhaps we might have a bit of confusion among the remaining personnel, plus if there's anyone who may be in a comms blackout area or incapacitated."=/\=

Several security personnel began to filter in. Jazmin waved them over. "Glad to see you. There's not much time for briefing but for the time being, we need to make sure all remaining crew get to sickbay for inoculation against Theta radiation poisoning.

She tapped out a series of commands on her console. "I'm sending the information to your tricorders for the location of the survivors. Two-person teams and let's make this double-quick. Once you get your charges to sickbay, get a shot yourself and then head to the next group. Once we have everyone inoculated, we'll get sensitive areas under control. Dismissed." Security personnel double-timed it out and she saw Shay talking to Mackie.

The call for all Security personnel wasn't the reason Shay made her way into Auxiliary Control. In fact, if the Acting Chief tried to order her to do anything, it would be received with a negative as there were more important things that needed to be tended to presently. How Lieutenant Parks wanted to deal with that when this was all over didn't much matter to her as her priority was to see to it that everyone that was still breathing stayed that way. "Ensign Mackie... do you have a moment so that Senior Chief Rasputin and I might be able to speak to you?"

Jazmin stepped forward, noticing that Shay didn't even look her way. She wasn't offended, everyone had things on their mind in this crisis, and that was understandable, but they had to work as a team. "Ensign Shay, a moment?"

Quinn had looked up at Shay's and Mila's arrival, but was too busy following the instructions left out for him in order to respond before the Lieutenant approached. To Mila, he handed her the padd and said, "I'm trying to get the emergency forcefields back online, but it's needing a command authorization. Are you able to help me push through that?"

Mila accepted the PADD and entered her authorization on it, then smiled. "Da. Is being done, Ensign," she said as she handed it back to him. "You are being good to go."

"It's actually Ensign Mitchell, Lieutenant. Shay is my first name," the Ensign said, turning her attention toward Parks when she addressed her. There was nothing in her tone that was disrespectful, just a bit of clarification. "What can I do for you?" Of course, Shay had bigger things on her mind presently, but she could take a few seconds out to speak to Lieutenant Parks.

Jazmin laughed nervously. "Sorry, I just meant to call you by your first name." She rubbed her temples. "Sorry. I understand you're probably working on something for Doctor Road, so I wouldn't dream of sticking you on guard duty somewhere." She sighed. "But I would like to be apprised of where my people are." She stopped realizing how that must have sounded.

"Sorry, I'm not trying to replace Camila or take her place, but she's not here and it unfortunately falls to me." She leaned back against a nearby console. "I don't want to have to count on people or resources that are being used elsewhere, so I would appreciate being kept in the loop. Besides, that also means that I am in a better position to get you the help you need if it comes to that. If we're going to get out of this in one piece we can't just all start running off doing our own thing."

She nodded towards Mackie, "If he's done getting critical systems up, he's all yours."

Before either of the officers could respond, something that Mackie had said bothered her. She raised a hand to stop them from responding.

"Sorry, but something just struck me as I said critical systems." She looked at Mackie. "When you first started getting things running, you said. "Internal sensors, main computer, replicators, subspace transceiver, torpedo launchers." and then "This is an odd selection of systems. These were all in standby mode, as if someone knew we were going to need these."

She paused trying to gather her thoughts and not babble. "Since when would replicators and the subspace transceiver, be considered critical? I took quite a few engineering classes at the Academy, and even so, I'm no engineer, but to me that makes little sense."

"The antimatter is what's killing us all slowly," Shay said without hesitation. "The theta radiation is coming from inside that, and until we can get it off the ship, we don't stand a chance at surviving. So, that being said, does anyone have any ideas?"

"It's not the antimatter," Quinn replied, relying on the knowledge he'd learned in engineering school. "We're talking about at least twenty years of radiation here. If the antimatter was that lethal, don't you think the Captain would have had it ejected all those years ago? Shields are inoperable thanks to the warp drive being out, so the radiation likely seeped through the ship from the nebula. And, if it's been bombarding the ship for decades, then we likely have less time than those who were here before us."

Jazmin folded her arms against her chest. "So, we may already be dead and we just don't know it." She snorted in derision. "It's nothing we can't handle. Is there anything that can neutralize radiation, some sort of gas or a field that we could generate that would flood the ship? I mean, we have replicators operative, isn't there something we could build. Or perhaps we could figure out how to get everyone in some sort of protective or environmental suits, maybe replicate those?" She wracked her brain trying to remember her courses for something that would work.

"Question is being how are we getting here and how are we to be stopping something that has been happening for years?" Mila questioned without looking at anyone. She was feeling helpless and just imagined what it was like for Aidan who had the capacity to live for centuries.

"We do have the Captain's last entry," Quinn said, looking through the computer records. "And several entries that have been spread out over the last fifty years. Perhaps if we review them, they might give us some direction."

"That seems as good a place as any to start," the young Security Ensign said.

"Agreed," Jazmin chimed in. "Still, we need to try to keep the radiation from killing us before we can do anything. At least slow it down some since we only have a matter of days, if not hours."

=/\=Doctor Road, would Engineering radiation suits or environmental suits give us any protection from the radiation onboard, however minimal? Also, are the escape pods shielded against radiation? Perhaps we could use them as a last ditch effort?"=/\=

=/\=I don't know the answer to any of that, unfortunately,=/\= replied Abbey. =/\=But, we'll keep it in mind. I don't think the escape pods will be much of an option as they're not shielded against the barrier and we'd likely be killed trying to cross into normal space. But, as long as we don't mind being stuck here...=/\=


===[Bridge]===

Cooper, seeing things unfolding, at least there was a plan, slaved tactical to the security station she stood at after shay reported to aux control. "Doctor, confirmed we have torpedoes but energy level on phasers is currently offline. I am running diagnostics and available tactical personnel are reporting to secure and check systems. Internal sensors are online I'm not getting green lights on the other security measure systems, hopefully Mackie will have good news. I can do sweeps with external sensors for dangerous changes and threats but until Mackie secures things a bit more I'm leery over too much power use."

Her tone was matter of fact, professional, she was focused on survival. She'd been pushing away the thoughts of what happened to the Captain and the others but glancing at a nearby blanket covered form brought them back, and her professional face shifted into a pained concern. "Perhaps we should..." She said slowly and softly to Road, "see about moving the bodies when people can be spared."

"Yeah," answered Abbey in a tight voice. "Good idea. I'd've gotten there eventually. You should probably head to Sick Bay for inoculation, though. See if they'll give you a dose to bring back for me."

Cooper hesitated, "If it's all the same to you Doctor let me see if I can get a security officer here with some injections for those who shouldn't leave post. Many have a first aid certification though most anyone can carry and use a hypo, in fact if any of the other..." She paused not wanting to use the word 'survivors' and continued, "remaining crew have medical training perhaps they could assist if they are not doing other things, going to other areas werein personnel must remain to work and so on." Her voice was respectful, with a kind of gentle firmness as spoke to the Acting Captain.

"Good point," replied Abbey. "Let's do that, instead. To be honest, I didn't fancy the idea of being alone up here." She glanced behind her at the former Captain, covered in a sheet and shivered slightly.

Cooper nodded, "I understand." she said heartfully and bent to her console to see what could be worked out, focusing her mind on survival.

Aidan had been exploring the science station when the date and all the other information coalesced in his mind. That's what didn't feel right! It has to do with time! Time isn't right. It was like when I was in the Nexus, it seemed like forever. But in reality, it was only minutes. Temporal mechanics... He realized that he had paused in his current job and went back to it.

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