The First Good News

Posted on Thu Dec 8th, 2022 @ 5:35am by Gunnery Sergeant Luxa Gami [Naxea] & Captain Samuel Woolheater

Mission: Season 6 : Episode 1: Circinus
Location: DECK THIRTY-TWO
Timeline: MD3 - 03:50
1430 words - 2.9 OF Standard Post Measure

[ON:]

Gami walked down the corridor, exhausted. Her body still ached from the impact she took from the forcefield earlier and the feelings of frustrations throughout the ship that she was sensing didn't help matters as she stepped into Captain Woolheater's office. "Captain, we've gained access to the emergency batteries. We should have emergency power restored any minute now but then again, we're not engineers."

Sam was here just to grab a protein bar from the SAR rescue kit. "No, you ain't Engineers..." He retrieved two bars and two bottles of water and offered Luxa one of each. "You're miracle workers in my book."

This caused Gami to chuckle as she accepted the bar and water. "And you officers get all the credit for it," she teased. But deep down it was something she believed in. The enlisted did the dirty work while the brass always got the credit--especially when it came to those poor engineering saps.

He smirked and said, "Yeah, yeah...if it goes right then an officer did it. If it goes wrong; its the enlisted's fault." Sam backed his rump against his tipped over and broken desk. There was no where to sit in the office at the moment. All the working furniture had been given out to the crew on the deck. There was smoke in the air and his body armor light illuminated the haze in the office.

He considered how hard GSgt. Gami was working. "That's some good news then, about the battery power. I'll have to remember to thank the Colonel for her foresight. Not a moment too soon either, I'll tell ya. Hey? I got more good news. Jamaal Kingman made it to the bridge. Here, take a read..." Sam withdrew the slip of paper from Captain Taylor and handed it to Gami.

Sam,

Bridge extensively damaged. Multiple injuries but none life threatening. We are attempting to bring the ship under control. May have to use battle bridge if unsuccessful here. Understand your situation and extent of damage to ship. See if you can contact main engineering and get power even partial restored. We are attempting to restore power from here to sensors and other systems as well as bring Avalon online. If successful, bulkheads will be released. Set up temporary command post for you and your personnel. Set up triage area for injured. Continue to evac areas of ship that you can and move personnel to a central holding area. We will work on restoring ship wide coms to make communication easier. Above all else ensure safety of personal as integrity of ship is suspect.

Gary

Sam opened up his protein bar and hungrily took a bite while Gami read the note. He repositioned himself against his desk that was overturned on one side and in three bites had consumed the bar.

"Well, that's some good news, Sir," she replied, handing the note back to Woolheater. She wasn't bound to get emotional as there was still a shit ton of work to be done and in all honesty, she was too busy to feel anything at the moment. Though she had been relieved to no longer sense pain coming from the Colonel--if anything, just feelings of tiredness and happiness. 'She had to have had that baby,' she concluded.

Taking the paper back and folding it back into his body armor he said, "Yeah, we need a lot more of that type of news." He remembered all of the kids that were going to be orphans around here. There was still much pain ahead and they had more problems than solutions at the moment.

Sam said, "You getting power restored to marine country gives us options and possibilities. Corporal Ensubiya is working on getting our mission op table up again. He thinks he can route computer processes through the secondary processor in Engineering. Which - before you ask - no, nobody's been able to find a way in." Woolheater opened the water bottle and guzzled it down. His adam's apple visibly moving with each gulp and the water was gone. "We get the MSD up again, maybe if we're lucky we can get some sort of COMM's going and see if anybody is..." he paused here because he didn't want to even think that the Engineers were dead. "...anybody is still alive there."

"I would like to think there is, Sir," Gami replied, wishing she had gone with Kingman to help him get a better feel for Main Engineering.

"Yeah...me too" he said. Sam knew that Gami was betazoid. But since she rarely spoke about herself he didn't know the extent of her abilities. He realized at that moment that if she could sense other people, even individuals then she was an asset that he needed to know about. Sam respected people's privacy but he also had responsibilities. He approached carefully, "Gunny...can I ask you a personal question?"

"Depends on how personal we're going, Sir," she teased, pausing for a bit before nodding. "Go ahead."

Sam's eyebrows lifted and he guffawed, "No worries....ummm...I read from your file...not because I was snooping...jus' tryin' to get to know the detachment. I read that you're Betazoid. Some percentage of your heritage is Betazoid? And...word on the lance corporal underground is that you have some abilities in that area? Can you tell me some more? Can you sense other people, individually? Or in general? How far do your abilities go if you have them?"

Gami chuckled at the Captain. "I am pure Betazoid so yes, I can sense anyone who isn't notably Ferengi, android, or Breen. As for my abilities, I learned to fully develop and hone my abilities during the Dominion Invasion of Betazed. If I wanted to Sir, I could flay your mind, making you think your skull was on fire or make you think you were a twelve-year-old girl, though using my abilities in such a way does give me a headache and appears to dull my abilities for a while. I can also use my abilities to get the location of enemies during a boarding action.

"I see. Well, I'm not looking to be flayed or become a twelve-year old. I'm concerned that we're missing people due to interference. Either from outside the ship, like ionizing radiation or from inside the ship as in failed systems, radiation from the warp core affecting the combat tricorders. Internal sensors are still offline. We need to get to Engineering. The SAR teams, all four of them have come back and failed to get through the bulkheads. And they all say that lifesigns are inconclusive. Like you said earlier Gunny, we are not Engineers. But we're in a situation where we better find some. And I refuse to believe that a ship this size even at 0200 hours had not one Engineer on duty on any of the four decks. Either everybody is dead or something is interfering with the tricorders. All that metal, the doors, the forcefields; I need something different. That's where you could help us. I'd like you to lead the next SAR missions to Engineering. Find a way in that we haven't thought of. And use those Betazoid powers of yours to find anybody alive or needs help. Can you do that Gunny?"

"As you humans say, Sir. Easy peezy lemon squeezy," Gami grinned. I'll go and round up some Marines and head out within fifteen minutes. Is there anything else before I go, Sir?""

"Thank you. Wake up anybody you need from whatever team they are on. This is top priority." Sam thought for a moment and said, "I need to do a SITREP with the other Platoon CO's. You must be tired? I appreciate your willingness to keep going. I hope, sometime soon, you can get some rest. Until then, you have your orders Sergeant" Woolheater said.

"I'll sleep when I'm dead, Sir," Gami commented with a grin. She was far too busy to worry about resting. Just then, several computer screens and back up lights popped on. "Looks like the emergency batteries are running."

"Well. Hell's yeah! Look at that. Things are looking up" Sam said with a grin. A cheer rose up from the whole deck. "More good news. Let's keep the good times rollin'." Sam said and went to the door of the destroyed office and looked out. "Let's do it to it Sergeant. Keep in touch? Give me updates as you are able." And Sam nodded and went to his next meeting in the Tactical Office.