Foundered

Posted on Thu Nov 10th, 2022 @ 1:50pm by Captain Samuel Woolheater

Mission: Season 6 : Episode 1: Circinus
Location: Deck Thrity-One
Timeline: MD03 - 0200 hours
1683 words - 3.4 OF Standard Post Measure

[ON: Foundered – concurrent with events from “Catastrophe”]


USS ELYSIUM – DECK 31 – HOLODECK NINE 0200 HOURS

Dressed in combat gear, tonight was the third night of boarding and repelling maneuvers that Captain Woolheater and marines from the first, second, third and fourth platoons were practicing. They had been doing far better than they had two days ago. And teamwork was starting to pay off. More cohesive fire teams, better collaboration. Samuel even cracked a smile. The boarding practice was over, and Sam was enjoying a coffee on the holodeck as a cross section of the platoon took a break. The holodeck was displaying a re-creation of a Romulan warbird bridge that had been successfully taken. Sam took a big “victory gulp” of Romulan Veeda coffee and set the mug down on the simulated tactical array. He was all smiles. Jesting even with a few marines who did some ballsy moves to win this simulated run. Something caught Sam’s eye.

The coffee mug. The coffee inside had ripples in it. Concentric circles as if there was some speaker or other sound emitting device under the mug. He felt a low hum too. The ship rumbled and people looked around. Sam said, “The simulation is off…” those were his last words before everyone was violently tossed to one side of the simulation. It was like the floor beneath them gave way. Sam felt like he was flying and then he hit the wall. The entire holodeck exploded in a huge, illuminated burst of photonic energy from the quantum filament that Elysium had foundered on.

Technically, this was referred to as a photonic shockwave. The holodeck safeties were off, the program was paused. Normal gravity and conditions applied. Until they didn’t.

The photonic energy turned corrosive and almost everyone got some form of mild to moderate light burns. Not to mention being temporarily blinded as the system overloaded and then collapsed. Every marine was hurt in some manner. Some were knocked unconscious, only a few. The combat armor protected them, from severe damage. Faces and necks were “suntanned” one might say. Sam had the wind knocked out of him and he was seeing stars for a moment. He rolled over and said, “OK, that wasn’t in the simulation.”

“Captain? You, OK?” a marine asked. Helping him Sam said, “I will be. Casualty report? Let’s find out what the hell is going on?” Sam got to his feet, but the ship felt “wrong”. The deck plates were vibrating…shivering…is a better word. The holodeck was pitch black now except for the lights and sparks coming from the “arch” near the doorway. Sam tapped the COMM link on the panel,

=A= Bridge? This is holodeck nine. Is everything OK up there? =A=

=A= … … =A= there was no reply. Not even the sound of a connected system. Sparks flew out from the panel. Sam tapped the COMM link on his combat suit,

=A= Woolheater to main bridge? Please respond? =A=

Again, there was an eerie silence. Th rest of the platoon was looking at him and wondering what was going on. There were about sixty marines here.

Sam said to a few marines standing nearby, “Get this door open please?”

“Sir!”, they replied and got to work.

Sam said to a 2nd Lieutenant, “Nobody’s answering?”

The LT replied, “Could have hit a plasma storm? Knocked out the COMM?” he suggested.

Sam shook his head, “No, I don’t think so. We go our asses thrown across the deck. That’s one hell of a plasma storm. Hell, what’s going on?” He addressed himself to the computer, “Computer? Status report? What hit us?”

There was no reply.

“Computer?” Sam was getting concerned. “Fuckin’ ay! Make a hole please? I need access to the terminal.” He said as he stepped up to the LCARS interface. He tapped it and it lit up. But it was red and there was an alert message on it that he had never seen before. He turned and called out, “Listen UP?! I need a Logs person up here! Computer tech? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?”

Marine logistics IT tech Bueller responded, “Sir! Yut!” and he stepped up. Sam let him see the terminal. “Are you seeing what I’m seeing? Could this be a glitch?”

Bueller kneeled to get a direct look at the terminal and the casing underneath it. On the display was an alert message. All in red:

=== ALERT === CONDITION: RED === ALERT ===

HULL BREACH DETECTED ON DECKS:
--- *** ---
Saucer Section: 4, 5, 8, 9, 12, 14, 15, 16, 19, 20 - EMERGENCY BULKHEADS IN PLACE
Stardrive Section: 21, 23, 25, 27, 29, 31, 33, 37 - EMERGENCY BULKHEADS IN PLACE

DAMAGE REPORT:
===============
MAJOR HULL DAMAGE
PRIMARY POWER SYSTEM FAILURE
SHIP WIDE SYSTEM FAILURE
COMMUNICATIONS
ENGINEERING
NAVIGATION
WEAPONS
=============
WARNING - EMERGENCY ISOLATION PROTOCOLS INITIATED

LCARS LOG ID: USSELYNCC89000-220209-11-SYSFAIL-0201:3006955
SYSOP:NEGATIVEMODE
EOL
=== ALERT === CONDITION: RED === ALERT ===


It was bad. And those who saw the screen knew it.

Bueller paled in his expression, “Negative captain. Not a glitch. We must have collided with something. You see here at the end, the ‘sysop failure’? Computer has gone into default, automatic mode. The computer is either damaged or offline. The ships on life support."

Sam’s jaw muscle bulged as he clenched his jaw, “The ship’s damaged? How bad?”

“Pretty fuckin’ bad captain. The bridge might be gone. It may be impacted something and everybody’s dead up there?” Bueller said starting to get concerned.

“Let’s not start guessing. We need to find out what happened and that means we need to get out of here. Marines! Let’s regroup in marine country and report back to the barracks. Report back to your platoon CO. Nobody panic. Let’s get back to our stations.” Sam said and tried to sound confident and calm.

He turned to the marines at the holodeck door, “What’s the problem? The door is still shut?”

They looked at him, “Yes sir. Damn thing has the bolts engaged.”

Bueller chimed in, “That makes sense captain. Isolation protocol.”

Woolheater asked, “What’s that?”

Bueller responded, “Isolation protocol means that the computer, the main computer goes off-line because of some catastrophic damage to the ship. Emergency bulkheads engage. All over the ship when that happens. And turbolift controls revert to manual mode and go offline. Its to slow movement down throughout the ship. Something happened. Something major.”

Sam opened his combat tricorder and ordered, “Bueller, can you get internal sensors online?”

“Negative. Not from here.”

Sam scanned the other side of the door. “I’m reading atmosphere and life signs. This might be a prank. Come on, how do we get the fuckin’ door open?”

After a few minutes, they disengaged the retaining bolts and manually undid the locks. Then they slid open the doors.

DECK THIRTY-ONE

“Aww shit!” someone said.

In front of them, almost the entire length of the deck was cracked in half and missing. Emergency forcefields were in place and holding and the ship appeared to still be in QSD and travelling. The QSD tunnel wrapped all around the outside of the ship as it hurtled along. Sparks, fire and smoke as well as injured and dead crew lay in front of them.

Sam said, “It’s no prank. Marines! Get the wounded! MEDIC! TO the front!” Sam called and the marines sprang into action. Slinging their weapons behind them and shouldering their rifles on their backs. They helped as many injured crew as they could. And they moved everybody out of the area. The only way was to climb the turbolift one-deck down o deck thirty-two. Which, somehow, while damaged was still mostly intact. They worked quickly. There was no telling how long those forcefields were going to hold. When they got the last surviving crewman off deck thirty-one, they closed the hatch to the turbolift and sealed the emergency bulkhead manually. Meanwhile, Captain Woolheater was on deck thirty-two assessing the situation.

DECK THIRTY-TWO – MARINE COUNTRY

“Where’s the XO? Where’s the Colonel?” Sam asked. The answer was, at 0230 hours, “Not here”. Sam was stressed. He was outside of the command structure now and there wasn’t the XO or the Colonel to take command of the situation. He looked in their quarters and they weren’t there. They lived elsewhere with their spouses. When he realized the situation he asked another Lieutenant, “Who’s in command here?”

He answered, “You are captain.”

Sam looked around and said, “Ffffuck me! SITREP?!”

They walked him over to the MARDET office and to a tabletop LCARS display. On the damaged tabletop display was the MSD (master situation display) of the ship.

“Comms are down, internal sensors are on and off. Mostly off. We can’t get anybody on the main bridge. Main computer is offline and we don’t even know where we are. Although, based on what you said when you got here, the ship appears to be in QSD travel?”

Sam nodded his head, “That’s right.”

After a moment another marine asked, “So what do we do?”

Sam looked at all their faces. What was left of the 62nd Company was all that they had, and this was it. He saw the fear, hell he was anxious too. “I’m taking command of the Company until we locate the Colonel and the XO. We suit up in EV gear and we get to the bridge. We must regain control of the ship. That’s either the main bridge or main engineering. We drop the ship out of the slipstream, and we call for help. We find as many as we can along the way and help as many as we can. Get your gear, get suited up. MOVE!” Sam said as he returned his attention to the MSD. It sputtered, fizzed and then, much to his dismay, fizzled out and went dark.

“Terrific!” he said.


[OFF:]

Captain Samuel Woolheater
“Saepius Exertus, Semper Fidelis, Frater Infinitas”
Division VI, MARDET 62nd Company "Spartans", 1st Platoon CO
=/\= USS ELYSIUM - NCC-89000 =/\=

 

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