Unusual Enterprize

Discussion in 'Roleplaying Forum' started by Xiao_Caity, May 26, 2009.

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  1. Xiao_Caity

    Xiao_Caity New Member

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    Ensign Amy Louisa Graham coughed and swore under her breath, waving smoke away from her face. Through the chaos, she saw a couple of medics carrying the captain into a turbolift. Most of the injured were already off the bridge on the captain's own command, only Uhura remaining. Her concussion was a minor injury compared to most of the others, so she was having to wait for a medic to have the time to treat her. She'd likely be there for a while.

    The helmsman was dead, his body stretched out on the floor with his hands crossed over his chest. There was no time to remove him.

    Glancing around at the crewmembers on the bridge, she took the science station, grimacing at the damage reports and casualty reports pouring in from across the ship. Whatever had hit them had done so quickly and very hard, hard enough to almost cripple them.

    "All weapons are down, sir," she said, glancing across at Chekov. As the ranking bridge officer, he was in charge unless someone of higher rank took over. "Shields are at 9%, and life support is at half power."

    We are so very, very screwed...
     
  2. Peter Quincy

    Peter Quincy Member

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    "I can'na repair the bloody thing if you keep spraying fire-retardant foam en it! What''s the status of the core?"

    Quentin could hear Chief Engineer Scotty roaring from the other side of Engineering. He leaped a pile of burning debris and started tapping a funtional console.

    "Warp core is stable sir!" He yelled, "Main coolant systems are all fried, but the auxilery is working!"

    "Well there's some gud news for once. Crewman Jaxley! What's the status o' life support?"

    Sparks flew out of an exposed wiring conduit, causing Quentin to flinch. Scowling, he started anylysing the power relay systems.

    "Life support is barely operational sir!" answered Robert. "The air recyclers keep turning on and stutting off again! They aren't recieving enough power!"

    "Take crewman Fargo and see if ye can bypass the feed safeties! That should buy us soom time!" yelled Scotty. "Do we still have any weapons?"

    "I don't know sir!" shouted another crewmember. "I'm showing strange reading in the torpedo bay - no one seems to be alive in that section!"

    "Turbolifts are down, naturally," said Scotty. "Is there anyone fast here?"

    Quentin raised his hand before he had figured out what he was volunteering for, and gulped.

    "Get down there and find out whits wrong - fix it if ye can, seal it off if ye can't! NO, what are ye doing, ye stupid-" roared Scotty at a pipe as it started spraying orange liquid out of its joints.

    Quentin grabbed a tricorder and slipped out the door. Crewmembers were rushing past, many carrying or assisting wounded crewmates.

    A thousand terrifying ideas assaulted him as he set off down the corridor, involving ruptured weapons, hull breaches, toxic gas, death, injury, and much else. Then he was running and the only thing he could concentrate on was his alternating feet.

    Left-right-left-right-left-right-turn-left-right-left-right...
     
  3. Xiao_Caity

    Xiao_Caity New Member

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    Amy winced at the string of Celtic curses coming from Engineering. Apparently asking Scotty for a status report when you weren't Captain could be dangerous...

    "Engineer Scott is working on life support," she told a very pale Ensign Chekov. "He's also sending someone to check on the strange readings in the torpedo bay."

    "Wery good, Ensign," he said, ducking as a conduit shorted and sent sparks flying across the bridge. He was commanding from Navigation - there were only three qualified navigators on board at the moment, and at least one of them was in Sickbay at the moment. "Vhere are Commander Spock and Lieutenant Sulu?"

    The dark-haired Betazoid who had taken over Communications tilted his head slightly. "Lieutenant Sulu trapped is in a turbolift on Deck 4, Sir. He's attempting to make his way up here. No response from Commander Spock."

    "Kulak," Chekov swore. At least, she assumed it was an obscenity from the way he said it - she'd never heard anyone say anything polite like that. "Ve need someone at ze helm! Ensign, you have training, take ower! Yeoman, take Science!"

    Amy gulped, but dashed to the helm and slid into the seat so recently occupied by the dead man. She'd only flown a Constitution-class in simulation a couple of times at the Academy...

    I can do this... I can do this... Oh, god, please let me be able to do this...
     
  4. Peter Quincy

    Peter Quincy Member

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    Quentin skidded to a halt before the red doors stenciled with "Torpedo Bay One". The doors remained stubbornly closed, so with a muttered curse, he yanked the override panel open and began keying in a command sequence.

    ...gas leaks...or no air at all...

    His hands trembling, Quentin stopped working the panel and opened his tricorder. A brief scan revealed that there was still oxygen beyond the doors, but beyond that...there were wildly conflicting matter readings. Unable to make anything of the elemental spectrograph, Quentin finished the override code and pried open the doors.

    The amber emergency lighting was oddly distorted and Quentin could feel a charged quality to the air. Panning a utility light around, he gulped as he realized the situation. Everything in the torpedo bay had merged as if it had been liquefied and then swirled together. Quentin could see a half-coherent torso embedded in the floor, and an elbow protruding form a wall. Clapping his hand to his mouth, he desperately looked for something to distract him, anything that hadn't been living...and his eyes found the torpedo launcher.

    His mouth suddenly dry, he keyed his comm.
     
  5. Xiao_Caity

    Xiao_Caity New Member

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    The dark-haired Betazoid went very pale. "Sir, I've got a transmission from Crewman Denner in Torpedo Bay 1. You... you might want to hear this, sir..."

    "Wery vell," Chekov said, even as his fingers flew across his console, feeding Amy navigational data. Even with her attention on keeping to the course that the Russian was setting, the note of repressed terror in the Betazoid's voice was enough to get her attention.

    "This is Crewman Denner," an unfamiliar voice came across the room. "Uh... who's in c-charge up there?"

    "Zis is Chekov, Crewman. Vhat is your status."

    "Ensign Chekov, sir... it's... oh god, it's horrible! It's like everything melted, sir, there are people in the walls!" There was a pause, and a sound that suggested the crewman was fighting down the urge to vomit. "It get worse, sir... the torpedos are armed, they think they've been launched, oh god they're going to explode!"

    Chekov looked up from his console, his face now so white that he was as pale as she was. His hands were shaking, and there was unmistakable terror in his eyes. "Suggestions?" he asked weakly of the silent bridge.

    There was a long, silent moment, and then something in her head clicked. "Could we jettison them into space? Cut a hole in the bulkhead or something?"

    Chekov met her eyes and nodded gratefully, and for a moment it seemed like the bottom was falling out of her world. She could feel the blush rising in her cheeks. Damn you, traitor hormones! This is NOT THE TIME!

    "Is it possible, Crewman Denner?"
     
  6. Peter Quincy

    Peter Quincy Member

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    Quentin spared a moment to wish that he'd never been born in order to cut out a section of hull that had fused with active torpedoes, then abruptly re-focused his thoughts with a mental epithet.

    "Uhh...I think so, sir," he replied. it should be possible he was realizing, as long as the antimatter hadn't merged with the hull...

    ...And if it had, he wouldn't be standing here.

    "Standby, bridge."

    Quentin quickly rooted through the portable tool bag, and pulled out a mirco-plasma cutter. He couldn't cut all the way through the hull of course, but if he cut almost all the way through and rapidly pressurized and depressurized the room, the colder outer hull should fracture, allowing the dangerous portion to snap off.

    Gulping, he realized he had to cut to within 2 millimeters of the outside for that to work. Carefully focusing the length of the beam, he began pushing his cutter through through hull.

    His cutter...

    It was his cutter - with the worn-down handle, and special energy flux readout he'd installed as a teenager - not a shiny, recently-issued, starfleet model. Quentin stared shocked at the tool in his hand, and wondered if he'd somehow fallen asleep or died.
     
  7. Xiao_Caity

    Xiao_Caity New Member

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    (Bweeheehee. Let's start ratcheting the paranoia up a little...)

    She was almost completely focussed on the helm now, following the navigational data that seemed to be coming ever faster. Amy was starting to lag - the simulations had never been longer than a half-hour, and had certainly never included the incessant pain in her shoulder that was starting to wear her down and hamper her movements.

    Half-way through a complicated doubling-back manuever to avoid debris, something clattered against the console. She ignored it until the manuever was completed, and the looked down.

    She almost fell off the seat.

    It was a slender silver chain, an old-fashioned necklace, and hanging from it was a charm carved from smooth brown stone, the colour of dark chocolate. She picked it up with a shaking hand, her fingers instinctively seeking out the carved letters on the back. She didn't even need to turn it over to see what it said. Good luck. Her grandmother had given her this charm when she left for the Academy, but she'd left it back in her room at Eden when the ship left the system for it's five-year mission...

    She turned to Ensign Chekov, to tell him of the strange appearance, only to see him looking at a small cat sitting on his console with a look that was equal parts affection and disbelief. She looked around the bridge, and saw that everyone shared that expression, looking at pets and old charms and even, in one case, a copy of the Terran Bible.

    She voiced what seemed to be going through everyone's minds. "What the hell?"
     
  8. Peter Quincy

    Peter Quincy Member

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    It couldn't be real. The last time Quentin had seen it, he'd been packing up his workshop for storage, in preparation for his departure to the Academy. He finished cutting around the fused torpedoes in a daze. He couldn't understand it. The only explanation could be that he was hallucinating - how much sleep had he missed lately? More than he'd thought?

    Finished, he repacked the tool case, and stepped into the hall. He re-sealed the doors and, overriding the atmosphere controls, began alternating the pressure. after two cycles, he heard the sound of breaking metal and the clang as the piece tore off and bounced away. Only then did the full impact of the experience hit him, and he sank to the floor, his hands shaking.

    It took Quentin three tries to activate his comm, but he managed at last.

    "The torpedo section has been successfully removed," he stated weakly. "However...I believe I need to report to medical for...a psychiatric exam."

    There was a long silence on the other end of the line.

    "...Would zat be because...something of yours has...turned up unexpectedly?" Ensign Chekov's voice sounded the way he way feeling in his gut.

    "...Yes, sir," his voice cracking over the words.

    It's not just me...what the hell is going on?
     
  9. Xiao_Caity

    Xiao_Caity New Member

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    Chekov winced. "Crewman Denner, turbolift sewenteen appears to still be operational. Please report to ze bridge."

    Everyone was freaked out to one degree or another. The sudden appearance of precious items - and in one case, a sweet-natured kitten who kept alternating between attempting to climb Ensign Chekov and attacking her fingers - had thrown everybody for a loop.

    Amy was especially freaked out. She was reviewing the course of the last half-hour. This can't be right, it just can't. Except... the computer keeps giving me the same pattern.

    "Sir..." she said, her voice shaking. "Sir, look at this..."

    He leaned over to look at her console, and his eyes went wide. "Bozhe moi..." he breathed, and she agreed with the sentiment entirely. "Ve have been flying in circles..."
     
  10. Arthgon

    Arthgon Well-Known Member

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    In middle of the bar Edward Duke staggered to his feet, coughing and waving his hand to remove the smoke from his face. He looked around the bar and saw wounded or dead people lying on the ground.

    *Imitating the captain of the academy* "Oh yes, do not worry about this, it feels like a real ship and is very safe." "I am going to keelhaul him, when I get back there in safety!" he said angrily.

    Suddenly he heard something moving in the behind the bar, and he went to investigate. He saw that one of the patrons was stuck behind one of the tables. Upon closer inspection he saw that the table had almost cut the patron in half. So the table must have come lose and hit the patron with high speed. He could only break the man's neck, because this patron had no chance for survival. Walking back he pressed the communication button.

    "Here is Edward Duke, I am in the bar, and we need some medical help here."
     
  11. Xiao_Caity

    Xiao_Caity New Member

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    "McCoy here. I'm sending a couple of medics your way, they're all we can spare. I hope you paid attention to your first aid courses, Ensign."

    ***

    It didn't make any sense. The stars moved, the computer was certain of it, the points of reference were clearly changing... and yet they were flying around in a circle. The computer was just as clueless as the crew, and that disturbed her on some primitive level she couldn't quite explain.

    A pair of turbolift doors shuddered open, forced from the inside, and Lieutenant Sulu climbed up into the bridge, turning to help a yeoman and a crewman in after him. They looked surprisingly unscathed, considering that they'd just climbed through four decks of sheer metal turbolift shaft.

    "I vote we give a medal to the man who thought of putting a ladder in side of the shaft!" Sulu said, chuckling. The laughter died as he looked around the bridge. "What the hell?"

    "Indeed." Chekov shrugged. "Bring us to a full stop, Ensign, then return to ze Science Station. Start a series of full scans and inform me of any anomoly, no matter how slight."

    "Yes sir!" Amy brought the ship to a full stop and surrendered the chair to Sulu, wondering why giving up the helm hurt so much.
     
  12. Arthgon

    Arthgon Well-Known Member

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    "McCoy here. I'm sending a couple of medics your way, they're all we can spare. I hope you paid attention to your first aid courses, Ensign." He heard on the other side of the communications speaker.

    "I shall do what I can, sir." and released the button with a sigh.

    He walked back to the wounded, some of them had heavy bruising or single or multiple broken limbs. Edward cared for the wounded, when he suddenly saw something move from the corner of his left eye.

    When he looked that way, he saw a cat walking in the middle of the rubble. "What the hell" he said surprised, and he ran to the cat. The cat was blue black and had white paws.

    "How did you come here, Bluebeard?" Edward grabbed the cat, and patted him. Very strange, because it was very certain that Bluebeard had been left at home.

    The door of the bar went open, and couple of medics came inside. "We shall take it over now", said one of them and they began to help the wounded. Many of the heavy wounded were brought to the sickbay for further investigations. Flying to sickbay some of them died of shock or internal bleeding.

    Letting the medics do their job, Edward and Bluebeard walked out of the bar, to investigate the ship. While he is moving around the ship, he used his communicator.

    "Sir, I gonna investigate the ship, for there are strange things happening here."
     
  13. Xiao_Caity

    Xiao_Caity New Member

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    "We are already aware, Ensign," came a female voice from the communicator. "Ensign Chekov is assembling everyone who has had... strange experiences... on the bridge."

    There was a muffled conversation in the background.

    "Also, can you please let us know if you encounter First Officer Spock? The internal sensors are having trouble locating him."
     
  14. Arthgon

    Arthgon Well-Known Member

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    "Also, can you please let us know if you encounter First Officer Spock? The internal sensors are having trouble locating him." He heard the female voice spoke to him through the speaker.

    Edward pressed the button, and said "Aye, I will immediately call you once I've found him." Now, where have you seen him for the last time? So I know where I can look for him."

    Meanwhile the cat is getting restless, and began to meowing. “Calm down Bluebeard, I am here.”
     
  15. Peter Quincy

    Peter Quincy Member

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    Quentin had to circumvent several damaged sections before he made it to turbolift 17. Pausing for two sandy-haired twins carring a crate of power relays to disembark, he entered the lift and selected the command deck. Instead of it's normal hum, the lift had decided to serenade him with some of the most unsettling clangs and metallic screeches he'd ever heard.

    Quentin sent off a few heatfelt prayers under his breath, tried not to listen, and instead found his thoughts returning to the tool in his box. What could have caused it to appear? No reason he could thirk of was particularly comforting and most were beyond the realm of what he hoped was possible. He didn't even realized he'd been chewing his lip until he tasted the tangy flavor of blood in his mouth.

    The lift announced it's arrival with a final protesting whine, and doing his best to push his mounting terror to the back of his mind, he stepped out. The bridge doors were slow to open when he arrived at them - a relatively simple repair he promised himself he'd take care of if they made it out of whatever the hell had happened to them - and he stepped onto the bridge.

    "Crewman Denner, reporting as ordered, sir."
     
  16. Xiao_Caity

    Xiao_Caity New Member

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    "First Officer Spock was last seen near Shuttle Bay Three, Ensign Duke," Amy said, checking the blueprints of the ship. "You should be passing it on your way to turbolift seventeen."

    She turned at the sound of a groaning turbolift and shuddering doors, to see an almost gaunt man in a crimson jumpsuit climbing out, his eyes wide and his face very pale. "Crewman Denner, reporting as ordered, sir," he said in a voice that shook only a little.

    "Very good, Crewman," Chekov said with a quick nod. "Ensign, any more reports of strange appearances?"

    She shook her head. "Not since Ensign Duke reported in, sir," she said, thinking hard. "Strangely, the phenonemon seems to have avoided Sickbay and Main Engineering entirely, despite the fact that there are large numbers of people there."
     
  17. Arthgon

    Arthgon Well-Known Member

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    "First Officer Spock was last seen near Shuttle Bay Three, Ensign Duke," Amy said, checking the blueprints of the ship. "You should be passing it on your way to turbolift seventeen." He heard the female voice spoke to him from the speaker of his communicator.

    Edward pressed the button on the communicator again. "Thanks, I will immediately go there."

    Then he saw some crewmembers and a female medic coming his way. He told the Medic to follow him, because the First Officer might be injured. Together they ran through the corridors, past the turbo lift seventeen, and came to the Shuttle Bay Three. The female medic called in, and suddenly he heard the First Officer from the speaker of his communicator. It appeared, therefore, that he was in the shuttle bay, but could not get out, because it was depressurized and damaged.

    He pressed the button of his communicator again and said with a smile” I have just found the First Officer Spock; it seems that he is stuck in the shuttle bay three. The only problem is that it was depressurized and damaged. We need some technicians here."
     
  18. Peter Quincy

    Peter Quincy Member

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    As he listened to the birdge crew, Quentin was having to fight an increasing urge to flee back to his quarters and hide in the refresher unit. He could also feel a major headache coming on, no doubt a product of all the stress he'd been under in the last hour. Not to mention he was now on the bridge - the domain of senior crewmen and officers, not low-level engineers. He let out a slow breath, took another, and refocused on the issue at hand.

    Assume that the impossible events had a possible reason. How would we discover it?

    He walked over to the science station and began reading the data readouts over the operator's shoulder.

    "Was there any pattern to the appearences?" he adressed the two Ensigns, who seemed to be the most together of the crew.

    "Not zat ve can see," replied Ensign Chekov, "Did you notice anysing, Ensign Graham?"

    The white-haired ensign's glance flickered to Chekov before returning immediatly to her console.

    "There doesn't appear to be any pattern outside of it's avoiding engineering and sickbay. Though...Every occurence happened to someone who was within five meters of the hull at the time." She shrugged helplessly.

    "Vat about our flight path?" Asked Chekov. "Did its discrepancy-"

    "Wait!" Quentin had the crewman zoom out and re-impose the appearence data on the whole ship.

    "All the appearences happened in areas where both shield and inertial damper subsystems were offline! Maybe that combination allowed them to occur!"
     
  19. Xiao_Caity

    Xiao_Caity New Member

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    Amy blinked. Had she really missed something that obvious? She checked the data again, her eyes widening. "Crewman Denner is absolutely correct. All the occurences took place in areas where the shields and inertial dampeners went down during the initial crisis."

    She shot the crewman a grateful smile. He had good eyes.

    The communicator in her system beeped, and she took the message from Ensign Duke.

    "Ensign Chekov!" she said, her eyes wide. "Ensign Duke has located First Officer Spock! He's..." she listened carefully to make sure she knew exactly what the situation was. "He's trapped in one of the shuttles. His transporter unit is offline, but everything else seems to be in order. Ensign Duke is requesting a repair team."

    "Oh, I don't think that will be necessary. Mister Spock is far too logical for my tastes."

    She spun in her seat to find the source of the unknown voice. An older man stood in the centre of the bridge, wearing one of the fleet uniforms that had been in style a good two decades ago. His hair and beard were salt-and-pepper black and grey, and his eyes... his eyes were dark and as old as the stars.

    Despite his genial appearance, she felt a thrill of fear running up her spine. How had he even gotten aboard? The crew was notoriously young, which caused major problems whenever the Enterprise had to work with almost any other ship...

    "Now, Mister Chekov, I'm afraid I need a little information from you in order to provide for your crew."

    Without even thinking, she was out of her seat and across the bridge, standing defiantly between the stranger and Chekov. She was shaking with a wild combination of fear and rage, but there was no way in hell she was letting the man get his hands on him.

    "Get the hell away from him," she growled, all too aware that her voice was anything but intimidating.

    The stranger gave her a bemused look, then smiled gently. "Very well, Miss Graham. You shall take his place."

    His hand fell almost gently onto her head, and she felt dizzy... Then she realised that her vision was fading as the man... being... something... was reaching into her mind...
     
  20. Peter Quincy

    Peter Quincy Member

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    Quentin watched with increasing horror as the man placed his hand on Ensign Graham's head and she was instantly rendered immobile, her eyes rolling back in their sockets. Flashes of light seemed to flicker deep in the man's eyes, and his visage became otherworldly, and terrifyingly cold.

    Desperate to do anything to stop the intruder, Quentin grabbed the cutter from his toolbag and threw it at the man's head.

    It took a moment to realize that his hand had never made it out of the bag. In the second it took for his fingers to close around the cool metal handle of the tool, the old man-thing's eyes briefly looked over and met his. He couldn't look away from that gaze, and was distantly aware he could not feel his heart beating. The entire bridge seemed frozen. Quenting heard a voice echoing in his mind...a threatening voice, saturated with power...

    I won't allow any interference, boy.

    Abruptly the terror which had been churning in the back of his mind lunged out to engulf it. Every light, wall, face, and color distorted into threatening, demonic proportions. Green fire poured out of his mouth as he opened it to scream.
     
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