Runaway! (part 2)

Posted on Sun Mar 18th, 2018 @ 5:22am by Lieutenant JG Elizabeth Jackson & Commander Hans Munich & Lieutenant Yui Hirasawa & Lieutenant Rosaleen O'Donnell & 1st Lieutenant Leroy Mangalia & Lieutenant JG Jhosa & Lieutenant JG Annie Dixon

1,128 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Pulling Together
Location: Calypso

[CONTINUED]

[OLD]

"Confirm Commander has the Bridge." She almost smiled at the sight of Munich so serious as to have his 'German Boy' come out with the contrast of being in civilian clothes. "We have just lost communications range with the Planet." Jhosa reported knowing well the German accent might worsen as it was a 'tick' of the Commander that all the Communication veterans knew well as they had served several years with him. "The horus is planet side and has the possibility to give pursuit and could be a communications relay should they do so."

[NEW]

"Goot." Munich nod and turned to Helm. "Lt Hirasawa, please give me low-down on vhat happen-t?" He asked the Helm. "The ship has broken orbit at full power by da look of tings, how did dis happen?"

"We have no idea" Yui replied from the helm. "I can't stop the engines and we didn't engage the warp drive. Currently we're stuck at full warp speed on a direct course for deep space. Engineering are attempting a manual shutdown, but we're not having any luck re-establishing helm controls" she reported.

Leroy stumbled onto the bridge from the turbolift, still bleary eyed and half asleep. He was even half dressed in a pair of pajama bottoms and no shirt. "What in the nine levels of anything ever considered holy is going on?!"

[Arboretum]

In the Arboretum, Lizzie heard the engines start up. "Wait, what?" She turned to look at the forward viewport and saw the stars streaking past. "Computer, what's going on?"

"The ship is going to warp," the computer replied.

"No it's not."

"You are incorrect. The warp core has engaged the warp engines and the ship is heading out of the system."

"Well, tell it to stop, we're supposed to be orbiting Vulcan. Where's Commodore York?"

"Commodore York is on Vulcan."

"Bloody..." she turned and went into her workroom to send a message to Lieutenant Hale asking her what was going on.

There was no response.

[Engineering]

Once she had a plan, Annie knew what she had to do. She unceremoniously grabbed Ensign Murphy by the sleeve and dragged him to Engineering's second level catwalk. "You go port, I'll grab starboard. We have to deactivate the injectors simultaneously to trigger shutdown, else the magnetic containment will overload." Her usual awkward stutter was oddly absent.

He nodded and immediately moved to the manual valve controls. She moved to the other side where an identical but reversed set of valves sat. Rather than an electronic control panel, they would be using old-style levers and wheels; not unlike an early 20th-century steam ship. There were many redundancies in the LCARS system, sure, but there always had to be something people could put their hands on and manipulate.

The deep thrumming of the warp drive between them meant verbal communication would be impossible. She instead leaned back to ensure he was coordinating. She raised three fingers, then two, one... and when her hand dropped, they both went through the manual procedure of closing the injector valves. Levers were pulled, wheels were muscled around. Annie gritted her teeth with the effort.

Once her valves were closed, Annie glanced to the console nearby. Red warning messages flashed all over it, indicating the fuel flow that was suddenly blocked and clogging the manifolds. The pileup at the closed injector was heating up and melting the valves in place. It wouldn't last long as once EPS power from the warp core was lost the fuel pumps would shut down, but the damage would already be done. She glanced back to the core where Ensign Murphy was standing, staring at the pulsing blue light. It would take a few moments for it to use up the remaining matter and antimatter in the system. But shortly, the pulsing began to slow. Annie allowed herself a rare smile.

But their work had only just begun. A manual shutdown like that wasn't recommended because of all the additional work it generated to get the system back up and running... between resetting the matter and amtimatter feeds, reconfiguring the core itself, and replacing the injectors.

Annie tapped her commbadge, "Bridge, can you confirm we are slowing?"

"Confirmed," came the response. "Thank goodness."

[Volga Class Runabout: USS Declan]

As the Volga Class Runabout entered orbit around Vulcan, the lone occupant was trying to figure out what had just happened. Rosaleen had been about to Hail the Calypso when suddenly a multitude of sensor alarm went off, and the ship launched out of orbit directly into warp. She was trying to make sense of what the readouts were showing...a task made all the more difficult because there mere more anomalous readings than normal. After a few moments, she decided the hell with it and activated the comm system.

"USS Declan to Calypso...do you copy?"

"This is the Calypso."

Rosaleen continued to study the readouts. "Calypso, this is Lieutenant O'Donnell. I was supposed to rendezvous with you at Vulcan for personnel transfer. Is...is everything alright?"

"Umm...no. Engineering is attempting to shut down the warp core so we can stop the ship. And the commodore is still on Vulcan."

[Bridge]

Yui stared confused at the helm. the ship was starting to slow down but not enough to physically stop.

"Commander..." she said simply. "We've slowed down to Warp Six, however we're now at cruising speed" she explained. "I can attempt to stop us, but I'm afraid that we'll end up damaging the ships engines" she explained.

"And with current speed and system not being under our control I voiuld say we have broken someting already." Munich surmised. "I am no Engineer but dis iz bad, we need to stop and get the engine troubles handled."HE looked at the Helm. "Vhat can you do?"

"I can create an overload in the nacelles from the helm. That would collapse the warp field and allow us to drop out of warp. The only risk is that it can trigger a warp core breach. But as things are now, we're stuck at warp six instead of warp nine" she explained.

"Set it up." Munich said as he crossed to teh Center chair and keyed the Ship wide Intercom. "This is COmmander Munich; we will be attempting and Emeregency Drop from Warp, Everyone brace for exit, hold onto anything you can in ten seconds."

Munich looked ot the Helm and as his mind counted down.

"Engage..." He took hold of the arms of the command chair.
____
OFF

Lieutenant Jhosa
Chief of Communications

Commander Hans Munich
Executive Officer

Lieutenant Yui Hirasawa
Chief Flight Control Officer

1st Lieutenant Leroy Mangalia
Flight Leader

Lieutenant JG Elizabeth Jackson
Botanist

Lieutenant JG Annie Dixon
Assistant Chief Engineer

Lieutenant Rosaleen O'Donnell
Chief Operations Officer

 

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