Making Connections from the Battle Bridge

Posted on Wed Dec 28th, 2022 @ 10:58am by Lieutenant Commander Rin & Captain Gary Taylor & Lieutenant JG Miraj Derani & Lieutenant Commander Malakai Starr [Taylor] & Lieutenant JG Jason Danvers [Taylor] & Senior Chief Petty Officer Fernando De La Rosa [Taylor]

Mission: Season 6 : Episode 1: Circinus
Location: Battle Bridge, Deck 23, Star Drive Section
Timeline: MD 3, 0700 hours
2197 words - 4.4 OF Standard Post Measure

For the next 20 minutes, Lt. Rin continued to coordinate what she could, getting people to where they were most needed or where they could get the best help. She did what she could with Avalon's sketchy data. The rest was coming in through Marine coms and word of mouth as people moved around Deck 23.

"Sir, we've got a connection to Main Bridge," one of the marines reported.

Rin breathed a slight sigh of relief as she hit the button for communication to the bridge.

"This is Lt. Rin on the Battle Bridge. Calling Main Bridge. Please respond."

There was deafening silence for several seconds before a voice answered, "Captain Taylor here, hello Rin, good to hear from you. What is your status in the battle bridge? Have you been to get a take on the damage to the ship?"

Rin allowed herself a longer sigh of relief, not realizing until just now that she had been holding her breath hoping for an answer.

"Good to hear you too, sir," she responded. "Wouldn't have been able to connect with you if not for the Marines. I feared the bridge was gone."

She paused, closing her eyes as she continued to visualize the data Avalon was able to collect, coupled with what people had also verbally reported. "Damage is catastrophic, sir. Avalon can detect multiple hull breaches, and there are large sections of the ship she cannot reach. I think it reasonable to assume many of those outer sections are breached as well. I'm sending civilians to the emergency shelters in case we need to evacuate, but we have no access to external sensors. We do have access to propulsion, but I have no idea where we are, how fast we're going, or what kind of motion we're moving in. Do you have anything up there. sir?"

More silence followed as Gary took in what Rin was telling him about damage to the ship. It was as he feared widespread and devastating. "We're in a spin. Miraj confirmed that. We're currently working on getting sensors back online. Helm control is dead. Samaire is working on getting Ops rebooted and powered up. If she can, we can hopefully see the power grid and where power is and where it needs to be restored." Gary lowered his voice as he said the next. "We have several injured here including the Commodore. She needs to be in Sickbay as soon as possible." Another pause, "Miraj, Lt. Commander Starr and Warrant Officer Sandtail were heading to the shuttle bay to see if they could find a shuttle to take out on a survey of the ship. Have you heard from them?"

"I have not heard from them. I'll see what I can do." Rin filed it away as #13 on her mental list of things to do. "Be advised we have Marines going EVA to rescue people from Decks 34-37. They have also reached main medical, which is operational. It's my understanding the Marines have been in communication with you. Are they aware you need assistance evacuating wounded?"

"Understood on Marines going EVA as well as main medical being operational. I have been in contact with Captain Woolheater via courier." Gary confirmed. As for them being aware of wounded needing to be evac'd, no they are not. They are aware we have wounded however."

"By courier?" Did Woolheater pass a note under the door? Rin thought for just a moment before setting aside the mental flippancy.

"I'll get people up there, sir. What we need are transporters. Marines are attempting to contact Engineering. Have you had any contact?"

"It would be greatly appreciated Rin. The Commodore needs to be in Sickbay," Gary repeated. As for contact with engineering, no you are the only one we have had contact with you and Woolheater."

Rin rubbed the back of her neck. Focusing on so many things at once was getting confusing. Her brain really wasn't made to do what she was doing, and then she had to pay attention to everything going on on the bridge as more people were collecting there. But they had no working computer screens or projectors for Avalon to use. This was the only way Rin could figure out how to process Avalon's raw data.

Her head hurt.

--Ebi....--

Every once in a while, when she had a free moment, she sent out the signal. Nothing responded.

Couldn't let that distract her.

And then an idea. She looked to an engineering crewman working on the consoles. "Hold on a moment. Can you access the system that lets us upload data to PaDDs?"

"I think so, sir. Far less complicated."

"Good. Do it."

She removed her tubules from the system she had plugged herself into and strode out the door. "I need PaDDs. Whatever people can find in the adjoining rooms. Quickly," she said to no one in particular and everyone within earshot.

People scattered. In normal times the battle bridge area went largely unused. As such, it wasn't particularly well stocked. After several minutes she had three PaDDs in hand.

She returned to the engineer. "Do you have it working?"

"I think so, sir. I'll need a..."

Rin handed him the PaDDs before he could finish the thought. "Avalon, upload all the data we've been working on onto these PaDDs. We're going to hand out maps."

Behind Rin the light flickered in shades of white and blue and the familiar hum of a transporter beam manifesting annouced an arrival. Miraj was now standing there, looking as wild and disheveled as the rest of them, cupping her hands to her chest so she didn't drop what she was holding. She quickly looked around, looking for others, hoping she wasn't the ranking officer, and gave Rin a very relieved smile when she saw the ex-borg. Not only were there more survivors, she wouldn't have to make any hard decsions. "Am I glad to see you!, Lieutenant."

"Me too, ensign," Rin replied, excited. If they had transporters working... "Where are you transporting from? Can we use them shipwide?"

"We've got to the main shuttle bay. Its not taken too much damage, so we can use the runabouts for transport. I've also brought these," She held out her hands to show half a dozen commbadges. "These are linked through Acheron's comms grid, so we can by pass the damage to Elysium and still talk. We're beaming them around the station, hopefully prople will start picking up."

Rin nodded. "The Marines have comms between themselves as well. Otherwise I've been working off of info from people physically moving in and out. We have injured on the bridge, including the commodore. Can you transport them to Medical?"

"We don't know what state medical is in," Miraj explained. "Legate Imik and Ensign Kyler were going out to scan the ship. But If you've got a medic here, we could send them down to Lethe, and they can set up in her." The medical runabout wasn't a substitute for a full sick bay, but it could triage like a champ. "Best we've got right now."

"The Marines have been in contact with Sickbay," Rin shared. "But you're right, they may be overwhelmed. Send the injured bridge crew to the Lethe."

Rin hit the switch to re-establish communication with the bridge. "A rescue team will be beaming in shortly, Captain."

She snatched up the three PaDDs the engineer had been loading. "This maps out everything I've been able to gather from people reporting in and Avalon's limited internal sensors. Personnel, damage, etc. Black sections we have no information for at all. Purple are known hull breaches. Green are evacuation locations we know are accessible. I want to move civilians there as we find them. Also set up triage in those areas when we have the manpower. White are spots engineers have identified as being the most critical for us to access - some of which is only accessible by transport. Marines are attempting to establish contact with Engineering. Get in touch with Captain Woolheater if you haven't already. He's organizing things from the Marine side. I need one PaDD to go to Captain Taylor, who is on the bridge. One should go to Woolheater, if you can get it to him. Use the last as you see fit. Get me more PaDDs and I'll keep downloading info. As people report in with your comms, I can add it to the dataset. Can you and your people do that?"

Miraj hesitated. She didn't have any people. Not with Commander Star in place, as he outranked her in anything other a chain of command of issue, and this wasn't one. She'd been told to get the ship under control by Captain Taylor. But Rin didnt' sound like she wanted to hear the word 'no' right now.

"Miraj, are you with us?" Rin asked more cautiously, softly. Everyone had been under immense stress for the past few hours. Some had been climbing between decks all that time. People were exhausted. She wanted to make sure the pilot was ok.

"Err, I just. I'm supposed to sort out the conn." Miraj pointed at it, as if that explained everything.

Rin looked rather confused. Miraj had just brought her the best news she had heard since this nightmare began. Her language had implied, to Rin, she was part of these developments, not merely being a messenger. Still, what was past was past. Rin still needed to get things moving.

She pointed to Miraj's badge. "Who do I reach if I use that comm, and can they do what I need done? Can they transport the injured off the bridge? And can I coordinate information gathering with them via these badges?"

"Commander Starr is in Main Shuttlebay. We're using the runabouts to scan the ship, plus Lethe is ready to act as a mini sickbay. And we're beaming communicators linked through Styx's network to all kinds of places. bridge, sick bay, Main Engineering, anywhere we think."

Rin nodded as she took the offered badge, tapping it as she did so. "Lt Rin to Commander Starr, do you read me?"

In the main shuttlebay Malakai was surprised to be contacted by anyone outside their little group. He looked at the others as he replied. "Starr here Lieutenant. Good to hear your voice. What is your location?"

"I'm on the battle bridge. Miraj just arrived. I have communication with the main bridge. They have injured that need evac to medical ASAP, including the commodore."

"Most welcome news Lieutenant. I am aware of seriousness of the Commodore's medical condition. The sooner she can be transported to sickbay the better her condition can be treated and she can recover."

"Do you have the capability to transport them? My impression from Miraj was you did," asked Rin.

"We should have that capability now." Malakai admitted, "We can use one of the shuttle's transporters and transport the Commodore and others from the bridge to Sickbay."

"Good." Rin nodded, not that Malakai could see the gesture. "Miraj gave me the short version of what you were doing. I've been setting up an information hub here old school: a lot of word of mouth, people moving back and forth. If your people can get information back to me, I can continue to coordinate and feed data back to you. I've just started downloading data to PaDDs, mapping out what we know of the ship's status. Does that work for you, sir?"

"It works very well Lieutenant." Malakai replied, his voice sounding tinny through the com. after hearing Rin's efforts to coordinate and share information and data. "The more information we are able to obtain on both the state of the Elysium as well as crew location and injuries the better we are able to make a more comprehensive plan. I commend you on both your plan and your efforts. Well done,"

"Thank you, sir," Rin replied. People were running out of time. Hell, everyone was probably running out of time. The faster they could get a picture of what was happening, the more likely people were going to survive this. "

"Do you have access to a replicator?" Rin added. "I could use more PaDDs. Also, if you can spare it, a uniform. I'm running this in my pajamas."

Despite the seriousness of th situation, Malakai couldn't help but chuckle at Rin's comment. "We do have access to a replicator. There's one on the bridge and another in the Commodore's Ready room. I can replicate more PaDDs for you as well a uniform. I can transport the uniform and PaDDs to your location on the Battle Bridge. Oh, has Miraj gotten any boots yet? If not, I'll send a pair with the uniform and PaDDs."

"She has not. Wish me luck on convincing her to wear them."

"Order her to wear them, Lieutenant. Call it a safety issue. Don't want the good ensign stepping on something and slicing her foot open." Malakai replied seriously. "I'll send a pair of boots along with a uniform and PaDDs to you."

"Thank you, sir."

"You are welcome, Lieutenant." Malakai replied before he closed the link.

 

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