Trial by Fire: Revving the Engines

Deck 7'''
 * 05-12-2011, 21:45Tom O'FlaghertyTrial by Fire: Revving the Engines'''USS Atlas

The read lights flashed in the halls, but the corridor was empty. The Bridge had been full of support staff running in and out making it easy for him to start the next stage of his plan. Now, he was headed for the shuttlebay. The overrides to open the doors would be easy to by-pass, the fools working in Operations would never be able to keep him from hacking that part of the mainframe. ''It’s amazing the level of incompetence in Starfleet. Especially on their so-called, test-bed ships.''

Bridge

“Get the secondary power online now!” Tom was standing in the middle of a maelstrom as different personnel moved from station to station. Everything was starting to become a blur. The sights, the sounds all started to fade as he retreated into himself. ''What am I doing here? What do I do?''

“Sir?”

Deck 7

He took a deep breath and put his and on the remote in his pocket again. It was now or never. Once he pressed the button, there would be exactly three minutes to get to a shuttle, and get off the ship. He took his thumb and took a second before pressing the button and then set off at a brisk run.

Bridge

“Sir?...What are you orders, sir?” Lt. Mari stared at Tom like he had two heads, but he didn’t seem to be hearing her. Slowly, she reached out her hand tugged on his elbow to get his attention.

“Huh?”

“Sir, the subspace beacon on the warp core is not all that powerful and we will lose it if we don’t do something soon. What are your orders?”

Tom impulsively slapped his commbadge. =/\=Lieutenant Lebowski, this is the Captain. I want a Security team with full load-out ready to go in the shuttle bay, yesterday.=/\=

=/\=Aye, sir.=/\=

“Mr. Castillo, you’re with me.” Then, Tom turned and started for the corridor.

“And where the hell do you think you’re going?” Tom stopped in his tracks and turned around to see Chris standing there staring at him.

“I’m going to get my damn warp core back. Are you coming, or what?”

Chris walked up to Tom, trying to limit the damage of who happened to overhear them. “Of course I’m going. You’re not though.”

“Like hell I’m not.” Tom’s jaw set into rigid defiance as he stared at his friend.

“Tom, you’re the captain, and the captain belongs on his ship. I’ll take care of the warp core. You just figure a way to come and save my ass when I catch up to them.” Before Tom could protest, Chris and Castillo were through the door.

'''Deck 7 Shuttlebay'''

The Type-11 shuttle was just about ready to fire up when the blast doors to the hangar opened, and an armed security team filed in. ''How the hell? How did they figure it out so fast? There’s not way?'' Mason York walked down the ramp to the sound of Lt. Lebowski shouting orders to his men.

“Alright, we are going to be taking two shuttles. I want Chief Broland to take you three while the rest go with me. You are support, and Commander Vaughn has the call on this mission. Be ready to deploy if we get the opportunity.”

A collection of chorus of “Aye sir” roared through the bay, and he knew he was off the hook, but the second part of his plan was probably going to kill them all. He had to figure out another way to get off the ship. His mind raced to find another solution. Time was running out fast, and it was looking bad. Then, the floor moved.

Bridge

Things were starting to get situated again when the ship heaved port severely, hurling people around the room. Klaxons blared again as displays crackled and sparked. Tom righted himself in his command chair. “Report!”

“Sir, we have a hull-breach on Deck 3, but there are no casualties. The deck was relatively uninhabited. Containment fields are holding.” Lt. Mari continued to direct damage control teams, her hands flying across the console.

“Get Security to Deck 3. I want an investigation started immediately. And get Lieutenant Rahner up here, yesterday!” Tom retreated to his Ready Room. Once the doors closed, he grabbed the nearest padd and hurled it across the room and into a wall as a primal howl roared out of him.

Featuring a quick appearance by Chris Vaughn
 * 05-12-2011, 23:06Gerhardt RahnerMain Engineering

The klaxxons were silent, but the lights still flashed red. Gerhardt stood in the middle of the busy pit barking orders like a captain on the deck of a sailing ship in a storm.

"We need secondary power already and I want a report on how long those cells will last. Shut down all unnecessary power drains and close off every plasma conduit juncture. Warp just became impossible and we are far from home. Assuming the core has not breached in open space there should already be a team working a retrieval op. I want ten hypotheses on what the hell just happened before they get it back."

"Sir!" the voice of crewman Liu cut through the rest of the noise. "Report from ops: The warp core has been stolen."

Everything came to a screeching stop. The red lights seemed to blink slower in the still silence. All eyes shot to the Chief Engineer's stare.

"Someone," he said slowly, "Stole. My warpcore."

"Yes, sir," Liu confirmed. "Tactical is attempting to retrieve it and Ops requests contingency plans for power availability based on prolonged use of secondary power."

"Someone," Gerhardt said again, just as slowly, "Stole. My warpcore?"

"Y-yes, sir," Liu said again. "And the captain ordered you to the ready room."

This final report snapped Gerhardt back from whatever dark pit of hell he'd just visited. "Alright, people. We now know that this was no accident. Get to work and keep your eyes open. If you see anything out of the ordinary, I want a report immediately. Lt. Cressida, take over."

He stormed to the turbo lift and, as the doors opened, the ship slammed hard to port, knocking everyone off their feet. Gerhardt pulled himself up and shouted, "What the hell was that?!"

Liu stood at his station again and looked over the reports. “Hull-breach, deck 3. No casualties.”

Gerhardt's face went from shock to anger. Without another word, he entered the turbolift. “Bridge.”
 * 05-16-2011, 14:22Lisbet UlrikaLaramie made her way down the quiet corridor on her way to Sickbay. She’d known that the Atlas was doing her shakedown cruise with a minimal crew, but she still wasn’t used to making her way from place to place on a starship without running into an assortment of crew members. Something else was bothering her as well, and it wasn’t until just before entering Sickbay that she figured out what it was.

The ship wasn’t moving. Since being pulled out of the slipstream and being forced to eject the warp core (which she’d only found out about because three engineers were tearing down the corridor past her on the way to damage control and shouted over their shoulders), the ship was immobile. No warp, no impulse power. Unless a bunch of people with powerful jetpacks got out and started to push, the Atlas wasn’t going anywhere any time soon.

Bet was sitting at her desk when Atlas suddenly lurched forward. She thumbed a button on her console that silenced the klaxons that immediately erupted into action. She left her office and checked the nurses that were on duty, no one was hurt. “Get our beds ready, we may be getting some visitors.”

The Head Nurse, Adali Fuqua, was accessing the main console, which monitored ship wide communications in the event of an emergency. “The trauma team have all reported in and are ready to mobilize. All decks report minor injuries, but nothing serious as yet. Dr. Holt has initiated a scan of the ship, in case someone was alone and injured. He’ll report should he find anything.”

Laramie started to sigh, then realized it would make her nose hurt more and stopped herself, as the doors to Sickbay opened in front of her.

“Hello?” she called out. “Anyone on duty? No emergency, I just caved my stupid face in!”

Adali started forward but Bet’s raised hand forestalled her, “Caved in faces are a specialty,” she said with a wink. She approached the striking cadet, holding her nose against the now slowing flow of blood, “Oh, here, use this,” and she handed her a towel, grabbing it off a bed she was just passing.

“Come on over here and we’ll take a look at that.”

“Thanks doc...um, Lieutenant Commander. I’m Laramie. Cadet Walking Bear from Life Sciences. This... the Atlas is my first assignment.” She continued to dab at her nose. “Is it broken? I don’t think it is. I’m more concerned about the fact that I hit my head when the ship fell out of the singularity drive. It hurts pretty bad, and I’m a little nauseous.”

“Well then, why don’t you lie back and we’ll see what’s going on.” Bet activated the bed’s tricorder. While they waited for the scan to be completed, Bet said, “Welcome aboard Atlas.” The machine beeped, alerting Bet the scan was complete. “Your nose is in fact broken, but it will heal straight once I’m done with you. You have a minor concussion. I can give you something for the pain, do you have allergies I should be aware of?”

“Latex,” replied the cadet, feeling a swell of nervousness about her broken nose. Not from any overwhelming sense of vanity; she’d broken it once before. She’d been seventeen then, and had slipped while exploring California’s Black Chasm Cave back on Earth. But she still remembered the two black eyes and ugly swelling, and the simple fact was, she just didn’t like doctors. “Aw, man,” she groused.

“Doctor... I’m sorry, I don’t even know your name yet,” she said apologetically. “What’s going on upstairs? I heard something about ejecting the warp core. I mean, I’m no engineer, but I do know that we’re not supposed to do that.”

“My manners are terrible, I’m Doctor Lisbet Ulrika. And I have no idea what’s happening, save for the fact that enough of us on board are VERY stressed about it.”

“That’s a relief,” said Laramie. “Not that no one knows what’s happening, but it’s nice to hear that I’m not the only one feeling stressed.” The young cadet tried to manage a smile. “I guess if there’s something to know someone will tell us, right?” Unless the ship explodes, she thought to herself.

“Though we might have only a skeleton crew, our staff are all highly qualified. I’m sure that whatever the trouble, it will be squared away before you know it.” Bet prepared a hypo, “I’m going to give you a mild anesthetic, so it doesn’t hurt so much when I set your nose. You’ll want to rest here in Sickbay for a very short time, so we can monitor you, just as a safety precaution, against possible complications from the concussion, though I don’t expect any.”

“Yes ma’am,” replied Laramie to the doctor. It helped a lot that the doctor was so calm; Laramie reasoned that if they were in any immediate danger, she’d be busy preparing a triage area, or maybe asking about where the nearest escape pods were. She squirmed a little on the bed until she got comfortable. “Ready when you are,” she said.

A JP brought to you by Laramie Walking Bear and Moi!
 * 05-17-2011, 22:55Gerhardt RahnerReady Room

Tom fumed behind his desk. He was the CO of the Atlas for a whole two months and now they were set adrift with only emergency power. The fusion generators were running and so all the systems were online, but they wouldn’t be going anywhere fast. His ship was thoroughly crippled and everyone was now waiting on him to get things together, but the truth was, he didn’t know if he could do that. Part of him wanted to crawl under the desk and never come out. His jacket was unzipped and his head was back staring at the ceiling when the door chime sounded.

“Come in.”

Gerhardt entered in a huff. On his way to the ready room, he had yet to come up with any answers to the several questions running around his head, most important of them being, Who the hell would dare to steal a warp core. He hoped to get some answers now, but he came to parade rest in stoic silence.

Tom looked at the man’s locked face, his expression already asking the question. “Well, Lieutenant? Report. What’s happened to my ship?”

Gerhardt had been ready to answer this question, but still he hesitated. “Sir... What we know for certain right now is that something caused the warp core to push excessive energy to the quantum phase variance matrix, increasing our relative velocity within the subspace corridor. The malfunction occurred at some point in the plasma conduits, likely the magnetic dampeners, but there are other possibilities, which caused the warp core to overload and begin to breach. We had just enough time to exit quantum slipstream and eject before the core... that is, before the core should have breached. We can speculate that this malfunction was an act of sabotage, but there are still too many questions to be sure of anything else.”

“What sort of questions, Mr. Rahner?”

Gerhardt tried to hold back, but couldn’t stop his voice from rising almost to a yell, “Who the hell stole my warpcore?!”

Tom jumped up from his desk. “Mr. Rahner! You will control yourself in my ready-room. We already have that question, but we have to get there. Start with ‘how’ and then we will get to ‘who.’”

He motioned for the Lt. to sit on the other side of his desk as he took his own seat again. “We need to figure out how to get moving. I have two shuttles going to chase down our core, but there is no telling what they will run into. I don’t want them hanging out there, and that means you and I need figure out how to get this ship moving faster than impulse if we are going to be their back-up. What can we do about that?”

Gerhardt’s face contorted into confusion. Of all the possible questions he could have expected, movement had somehow slipped his mind. He had been so focused on answering the question that he’d forgot how to ask. “Er, faster than impulse? That would be quite impossible with the ship’s current capabilities. The only warp-capable ships we have on board are the other three shuttles, but their cores are incompatible with the Atlas; they are just too small.”

Tom thought this over before asking, “Well, can we use the shuttles to get us up to warp? Perhaps they could tow us?”

Gerhardt shook his head, “No, sir. The shuttles cannot handle that sort of stress. Besides, I do not think they are massive enough to make much difference if they could handle the stress.”

“Well, then, could they push us?” Tom asked.

“That is dangerous, if possible,” Gerhardt answered. “The shuttles’ warp bubble would either move right around us or tear us in two, based on how many shuttles we tried to use. Hm, then again... Well, as long as were talking about impossibilities, I once heard of an idea using two shuttles and combining their warp bubbles. But it would require zero-time precision and even then, there is no guarantee that it would work."

Tom leaned back in his chair and rubbed his temple. It seemed that ever since he had taken this position he was having more and more stress induced headaches. “So, you’re telling me there is a theory that will allow us to travel faster than light, but it might tear us to pieces?”

“Yes, sir.” Rahner was still sitting bolt upright in his chair as the equations danced through his head.

“Well, it wouldn’t be the first thing on this ship to be experimental. I want your team to begin working on it immediately, and a Security Team is going to be performing an investigation of all the systems in Engineering. I want your people to be ready to assist.”

"I will personally ensure complete cooperation with Security. As fo the impossible task," Gerhardt paused and considered his next words carefully; he had seen some amazing things in his tenure with Starfleet, but this was insane. "We will get right to work on it."

Impossible is just a hurdle for a good engineer, and crazy is where he starts off.

"Very good, Lieutenant. I'll have Mr. P'Rim start making the rotation of pilots. Once you have a theory in place, I'll have the flight crews report to you." Tom was starting to feel his level of stress ebb, but only slightly. "You get this done, and we figure out what caused it to begin with, and I'll get you a commendation. If there's nothing else, you're dismissed."

Gerhardt nodded and turned for the door. This concept should never have been considered, but now that it was, they needed to plan, simulate, dry test, mock-up, and live-run test it before using it on an inhabited ship; they might have time to do a live test, if they could work out the formulae and logistics soon enough. It would be a long night.

A JP brought to you by our stalwart captain, Tom, and the crazy German.
 * 05-19-2011, 22:15Christopher VaughnChris moved down the dark lonely corridors of the Atlas. The speed and determination of his stride was aggressive in nature. It was necessary to maintain the appearance of control, in truth he was terrified at the idea of going out in a shuttle with only a handful of personnel to hunt down whoever had stolen the warp core.

His pensive moment cut short as Lt. Lebowski and a small detachment of security personnel rounded the corner and falling into step by him and Lt. Castillo.

Lebowski gave him a sidelong glance, “What do we know sir?”

“Not much.” Chris replied tersely. “Lt. Castillo has a lead on their warp vector, we are taking a shuttle and following them, we will see where it goes from there.” He glanced over at Castillo and Lebowski, “You two get to the shuttle bay. I’m going to make a quick stop, be ready to launch when I get there.”

“Aye aye, sir.” The response came from both as they moved passed him toward the main shuttlebay. Quickening his pace he breezed into the sickbay and took in the situation. All in all, it looked relatively calm.

In Sickbay, her nose set, her eyes blackened with bruising, and her head still aching, Laramie was just finishing up with Dr. Ulrika when the doors opened and the Atlas’ XO entered.

“You there.” Chris demanded of a passing petty officer in medical department teal. The petty officer stopped and turned toward the XO, “What's your job?”

“Medic, sir.” The petty officer replied.

“And what is the casualty situation down here? Is the situation stable?” Chris pried.

“Yes, sir. Just bumps and bruises - one broken nose but…”

Chris cut off the young medic, “Well congratulations, you’ve been drafted. Report to the main shuttlebay.” Hopefully you won’t be needed, but can’t take that chance given our luck.

Chris took another look around the sickbay hoping to see Lisbet about the crewman he just hijacked but she wasn’t immediately present and he didn’t have time to wait around. Too bad she doesn’t have a few extra security hands tucked away down here somewhere.

Turning to leave he saw only one extra person sitting in the current ward who wasn’t part of the medical staff. A young attractive female cadet who’s appearance was temporarily marred by bruising near her eyes and nose. “You…what's your situation?”

Laramie sat up as quickly as she could. “I’m fine, sir. Broken nose, small concussion.” Oh hell, that’s the XO! she thought to herself. “Cadet Laramie Walking Bear, sir,” she said, saluting the handsome older man. “Life sciences. I’m fine, sir.” She realized she was repeating herself. “I’ll just get back to the lab, sir. We’re not going to die or anything, are we sir?”

“No lab work for you today, cadet.” Chris shook his head. “Since you have a clean bill of heath you’re coming on this field trip too. Warp core’s been stolen and we need to run down the culprits. We need any extra hands we can get and since this is a relatively uncharted region a life science specialist might be useful.” As they started moving toward the door and down the corridor Chris wondered how Tom was going to get the Atlas mobile if they didn’t find the warp core. I always knew Starfleet wouldn’t let us keep a ship for too long, but I figured this wouldn’t be how our adventures in command ended. “So, Cadet…Walking Bear…is your phaser qualification current? Just in case.”

“Is... my phaser qualification?” Laramie was walking beside the lieutenant commander, but she didn’t remember exiting Sickbay. Everything was moving too quickly for her liking. “Sir, I think there’s been some mistake. I just got here. I’m just a cadet. I mean, yes sir, I am rated to carry a phaser, but I’ve never shot one outside of the Academy. I’m a scientist.” She continued to walk alongside the senior officer. “I don’t even have my tricorder or my tools!” She looked over at him. “We’re going after whoever stole the warp core? Like chasing them down?” Laramie had to admit, the cowgirl in her was a little excited to be part of a posse, and it would beat sitting in a laboratory waiting for an update on the ship’s condition.

“Congratulations, cadet. You’ve been deputized. And your damn right we are going after them, I got the impression they didn’t plan on returning it.” Chris said stepping into the turbo lift. “Main shuttlebay.” The doors closed and the lift began to move.

“Can we make a pit stop to pick up my stuff?” asked Laramie. “My tricorder? I mean, if there’s time.”

“Your what?” Chris blurted. “Oh, scientist…right. Ok, lets get your toys.”

A quick stop in the science labs and Laramie was outfitted with the tools of her trade: not only her science tricorder, but a small bag of tools designed to retrieve biological and airborn samples.

“Okay sir,” said Laramie, moving as fast as she could. “All set.” She followed Vaughn hurriedly back into the hallway so they could meet the rest of the away team in the shuttlebay.

 a JP with the lovely Laramie Walking Bear.
 * 05-21-2011, 16:31Adina WolfeMain Engineering

With the entire ship on secondary power, the MSD lacked the usual flow of information displaying around the inlaid ship diagram. The transparent plotboard now showed nothing but the ship diagram and hand-written equations written in erasable marker. Laid out on the large console in front of the MSD was a large graph with a hand-drawn model of the Atlas and two shuttles, one in front and one behind, with various measurements and further equations written arcanely around it.

Adina glanced through the equations as she packed up her toolkit, absently tweaking a figure mid-way through a particularly complex looking equation.

“What the hell are you doing?” A passing Cadet hissed, “The Chief’s been working on those like mad for ages.”

“No wonder.” Adina mused out loud, “He’s been twisting the field mechanics the wrong way over the dorsal facing...Not to mention the fact that with a ship this size we should be trying this with at least four, maybe even five shuttles, definitely not two.”

“Interesting,” said an all too familiarly accented voice behind them. The two cadets spun around and snapped to attention.

“What’s that, sir?” asked the chastiser.

“Well, two things, actually,” Gerhardt responded. “First, Cadet Wolfe’s correction to that equation. It is the answer to the exact problem I was just trying to solve. But also, that you feel inadequate to correct a mistake in my work. Why is that, Cadet?”

The poor man looked like he could piss himself. “Buh, uh, uh... Because, uh... you’re the Chief, uh, sir?”

Gerhardt grinned pitifully at the man, “But that does not mean I am above correction. Remember that, Cadet. As you were.”

The Cadet sped off as fast as he could, trying to remember what he was doing before his life flashed before his eyes. Gerhardt looked over the equations again before turning to Adina with a conspiratorial grin. “Well now, Cadet, I believe that is the second time you have corrected me, in public, and saved this ship from needless waste and possible destruction. What do you have to say for yourself?” he playfully asked.

“Aah, oops?” Adina tried with a smile, “I can’t claim enlightenment on this one sir, just the first thing that caught my eye.”

“Perhaps you should look over the rest of the idea. Are there any other eye-catching aspects?”

“Well like I said sir, I’d only feel safe trying this idea with a minimum of four of five shuttles, not two.” Adina turned and punched up a pair of technical schematics on a nearby padd. “I know the Class-8’s can only pull Warp 4 but, well frankly, it’s still magnitudes better then running on Impulse.”

Gerhardt sighed. “I agree this would be an easier problem to solve with all five shuttles, but we only have three, which would not be enough to tow the Atlas but would be more difficult to drive it into warp. However, if we use just two of them, one in the fore and one aft, we might be able to combine the two shuttles’ warp field, using the forward warp-depression of the aft shuttle to subsume the aft warp-expansion of the fore shuttle. The problem I was facing, which you have solved, was the distance, both in space and time, between the two shuttles’ going to warp, and the position of the Atlas between the two. It would seem I was applying the field mechanics incorrectly, but we have you to thank for not letting the ship twist into an alternate dimension!”

“Aye, I hear that can be bad for you.” Adina smiled absently, her mind whirring round the problem before her. “Say... say we use all 3 shuttles, two to create the warp field, and the third to keep the field steady, like the old stabilizer module on the NX class.”

“Hmm,” Gerhardt considered this as he stared hard at the plot board equations. He stepped up to the dead MSD and adjusted some of the more troubling figures. “Yes. Yes, I think that would work. That will require one hell of a pilot, and even then I should think it will be best to keep our velocity at Warp 3, but a third shuttle would provide a healthy amount of insurance against the Atlas falling out of warp. Well done, Adina.”

“Just offering what my brain deems fit to supply sir.” Adina chuckled lightly. “Oh! I think I remember reading an engineering article about linking shuttle computers with the ship’s main core... Reckon that could help us stay in one piece?”

Gerhardt stared at her with admiration and a hint of embarrassment. “That would make much more sense than my conception.”

Adina looked at him quizzically. “What was that, sir?”

“Um, I was planning on timing subspace communications between the two shuttles and putting a dampening program in the fore shuttle’s computer so that the aft shuttle would receive the message and institute the commands simultaneously with the fore shuttle,” Gerhardt admitted sheepishly. “Perhaps I have had my head floating around space-time too much lately. Could you see to the computer links, Cadet?”

“Me? Certainly sir. Would you mind me stealing say, a half dozen engineers to help out? Three shuttles and a core and all...” Gerhardt was quick to acquiesce. “Done. Take who you need and report as soon as the work is done.”

“Aye sir.” Adina saluted neatly and grabbed her toolkit, tapping her commbadge as she headed out of Engineering.

Gerhardt watched her go before turning back to the charts and equations. He looked at the changes Adina had made with admiration. Now that she had shown him, they seemed so obvious, but without her viewpoint, he had practically been stuck in a different phase. Her ability to see things from a more practical view had stopped him from running headlong into disaster twice now. He would have to keep her close, and he still hadn’t assigned his administrative crew. Perhaps she was exactly the aid he needed...

Making the impossible, possible: A JP with Gerhardt and Adina. Section 24 Delta'''
 * 05-22-2011, 20:49Tom O'Flagherty'''Deck 3

Tom couldn’t stand to sit in his ready room anymore. The urgent need to do something was driving him insane, and that was what had caused him to be standing here in this section of his crippled ship. A security detail from the Sentry division had the corridor sealed while Ensign Phillip Joel tried to conduct an investigation. Unfortunately, the rather slim, fare-skinned human was having a fairly heated argument with a rather burly lieutenant from Engineering.

“You can’t start fixing the room until I have conducted my investigation, sir.”

“Listen, Ensign, Mr. Rahner needs my team to start now. We don’t have time to wait. Now you will step aside so I can get started.”

“Mr. Lebowski has ordered me to conduct this investigation, and the Captain wants it done first. I’m sure you understand, my captain beats your lieutenant. It’s simple poker.”

Tom walked into the middle of the fray to try and defuse the situation before the engineer came a part at the seams. Unfortunately, he wasn’t in the most diplomatic mood, and so it sounded rather short. “What seems to be the issue, gentlemen?”

Both officers snapped straight so quickly Tom was sure he heard one of their spines pop. The lieutenant from engineering was the first to speak. “Sir, Ensign Joel is wanting my team to stay out of the damaged area until his finishes his investigation, but these are the Chief Engineer’s quarters, sir, and we need to get them fixed...sir.”

Tom wasn’t much older than either of them, but they way they seemed to talk to him, it made one think he were a twenty year vet. “Lieutenant, I don’t believe I know your name.”

“Ugh...McDaniels, sir. Ensign Heath McDaniels, damage control division.”

“And you, Ensign?”

“Phillip Joel, sir. Patrol division.”

“Good, now that’s out of the way.” Tom walked past the two of them and into the room. He just barely crossed the threshold when the extent of the damage struck him. The entire outer wall had been vented into space by the explosion. The containment force fields gave a dramatic view of some of the debris floating just beyond as it raced away from the ship. It was quite startling to be honest. “Mr. McDaniels, I believe I would rather we find out what caused this. We only have a skeleton crew, and so we have many different quarters to house Lieutenant Rahner. I’m going to give Ensign Joel the room. You and your team are dismissed to aid your colleagues in Engineering.”

As soon as McDaniels and his team were gone, Tom turned back to the small SO, “What’s the preliminaries?”

“Well, sir, we have detected trace elements from the explosive, which looks to have been located roughly where the issued dining table would have been. I need to take these readings down to sciences and get their help in determining the overall composition before I can say for certain where the explosive came from.” Joel handed Tom his tricorder showing the readings and the young man’s preliminary model of the explosion.

“Ensign, is someone trying to kill our Chief Engineer?”

“I don’t know, sir. Judging from the amount of damage, they wouldn’t have needed an explosive quite this powerful in order to make that happen. I’ll know more once I get a full analysis back on the explosive.”

“Understood. Make that your top priority, Ensign. Patrol is now a secondary concern.”

“Aye, aye, sir. I’ll get right on it.” The fare skinned human turned to leave, but stopped just outside the door. “Do you think we will be able to get the core back, sir?”

“We better, Ensign. If we don’t, I’m going to need you to get out there and push. Just hope Commander Vaughn and Lieutenant Lebowski can track these people down, and that Lieutenant Rahner can find a way to get us moving in the mean time.” In the back of his mind, he had no idea if they were going to be able to pull this off. The first of the puzzle pieces weren’t shedding as much light as he would have liked.
 * 05-25-2011, 12:12Laramie Walking BearLaramie took her seat in the shuttlecraft, next to the medic that had also been drafted by Lt. Commander Vaughn. The petty officer looked to be a few years older than the cadet, and far more at ease. “Hey,” she said to the medic, holding out a hand. “Laramie Walking Bear. Science cadet.”

The other woman gripped Laramie’s hand and gave it a firm shake. “Yeah, the blue collar was kind of a giveaway. Plus I saw you in Sickbay. Petty Officer First Class Amy Finch.” she pointed to her own collar.

“Medic,” said Laramie.

“Good job, cadet,” said Amy with a wry grin.

“Everyone, ready for warp?” Chris said, standing behind the pilots chairs as Lebowski and Castillo prepared to engage.

Lebowski turned toward Chris handing him a PADD with little more than one would find on a travel commercial or an atmospheric report. “Looks like from the best guess I have they will be heading to some sort of commerce world or trading planet several light years way. Atlas sensors detected some warp traffic from other ships but nothing we have any serious information on. This world is practically off the books for the Federation.”

“This is all we have on it?” Chris replied incredulously. “Are we sure this is where they went?”

“Yes.” replied the Chief of Security. “and...maybe. Look, this is the only place to put into port in the sector so if they plan on either storing, off loading or outright ditching that big ass warp core this is the only place to do it.”

“Fair enough.” turning toward Laramie as the shuttle jumped to warp he handed the PADD over. “Here is a little in-flight reading material about the world we are about to storm. Any thoughts cadet?”

Laramie’s eyes opened wide as she took the PADD from the XO, but she fought the urge to say “Why the hell are you asking me?” and instead began studying what little information they had.

“Larkus II,” she said aloud. “Class M, but barely. Planetoid. Elliptical orbit between binary stars. Well that’s curious.” She looked up at Vaughn. “From what’s on this PADD, it looks like Larkus II is approaching the perihelion of Banshee, one of the two stars.”

“Peri...?” asked Amy Finch.

“Perihelion,” replied Laramie, looking back down at the PADD. “Coming closest to the star. And from what I can see, when Larkus II is closest to Banshee, the surface is pretty much uninhabitable for three months, except for some indigenous reptile and succulent plant life. After that it’s far enough away for everyone to come back to the surface again for another two years or so, until it’s orbit brings it back around again.” Subconsciously, she clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth, paging through the data. “That close to a star, the magnetic disturbances from the solar flares are going to make communication a bitch.” She blushed and looked up at her XO. “Er, sorry sir. Anyway, if I were a betting girl, I would say two things. One,” she held up a thumb, “the residents of Larkus II have a sweet setup underground to protect them from the oncoming cosmic inconvenience. Two,” she held up her forefinger, “messing with sensors and communications makes for a great time to have a galactic flea market. It’s hard to get in, hard to get out, really hard to trace, and everyone’s on a time line. I estimate we’ll have about 60 hours from when we arrive before everyone’s underground for three months.”

“Two and a half days,” translated Amy, “To search a planet?”

Laramie shrugged. “Just look for the signs that say ‘Everything Must Go.’”

Chris gave a slight smile at the cadet’s moxie. “So, if they plan to off load this thing they need to do it fast. And no real Federation contact to speak of either...”

---

After a nearly two hour flight they dropped out of warp over what Chris figured could only be a galactic sand ball. “Looks like crap.” he commented looking over the instruments. As the shuttle approached the dry world several dozen ships could be seen; they were of all makes and models. Some newer looking, some old, some civilian and some...not so civilian looking. Even without checking the life-signs or metallurgy readouts from the sensors Chris could tell the ships came from a hodgepodge of races.

Lebowski let out an annoyed sigh, “Walking Bear was right about communications being a bitch.” he furiously worked to clear up the comms channels and mid range sensors. “Well well well.” pulling up an external view and enlarging the image of one of the ships he pointed. “Look familiar, sir?"

It was immediately recognizable. The Atlas’s warp corp secured to the underside of an old cruiser which hung above the planet lazily. It was the same cruiser which had made off with the core several hours ago. As the shuttle approached they could see the cruiser’s tractor beam activate and load the core into a large container affixed to another shuttle.

“What the hell...” Jackson Lebowski’s hands moved toward the controls.

“Wait.” Chris said leaning in close to watch the pirates work. “That cruiser is old by the looks of it but more than a match for a standard Starfleet shuttle.” After a few moments the warp core was sealed in the rugged looking container and the shuttle turned toward the planet and started to descend. “Track where that shuttle lands!”

“Already on it.” the security chief replied, his hand dancing across the controls. "Looks like they are putting in at a landing complex near the equator. I can't tell if there is an underground city or not...the sensors are shit.”

Chris felt his hands tighten on the back of the pilots chair as he watched. ''Damn it I wish Tom where here. This is more his ballgame than mine''. “Ok...” he exhaled sharply to steady his nerves. “Ok. Let our friends here get landed and then take us down.”

As the minutes wore on, Lebowski flew the shuttle into the atmosphere until the landing complex what in visual range. Still, even as they approached one of the empty berths no one attempted the hail them. Lebowski looked over at him and Chris nodded. A few seconds later the shuttle landed. And no one on-world seemed to care.

A joint post with Chris Vaughn
 * 05-27-2011, 14:46Lisbet UlrikaBridge

Tom had finally made his way back to his chair as the shuttles left the bay. In tense silence, the crew had watched their two hounds jump away at warp, and leave the Atlas behind. Hopefully, Engineering would be ready to start testing the attempts to get the ship moving within the hour, but in the meantime, the new CO was left with his thoughts. ''This is not how I imagined being a CO would happen. I don’t remember Sarah Leibmann ever losing a warp-core, or Javier Costala for that matter. I’ll be the butt of every joke for the rest of my career if we don’t get that core back, and I most definitely lose my career if its not retrieved.''

Bet waited until final word on casualties from Atlas’ mishap before heading to the bridge. She felt Tom’s strong worry over whatever had happened and her own concern for the welfare of the ship. As CMO she had an open invitation to the Bridge and decided now would be the time to pay a visit.

“Adali, I’ll be on the Bridge. If anything major happens here please contact me there,” she said as she headed for the lift adjacent to Sickbay’s entrance.

“Doctor, could you let us know what’s happening once you find out?” Adali asked before Bet could get away.

“I’ll bring back all the info. We’ll have a Medical Staff meeting and I’ll brief everyone once I get back. Hold the fort while I’m gone.”

Bet entered the lift and requested the Bridge. Upon arriving she strolled toward the Captain’s chair, “Captain, I’d like to report on casualties and current crew readiness.”

Tom had feeling Bet had been getting closer for the last few minutes and when she had walked through the blast doors to the bridge, he had known it was her. It was a feeling he was still getting used to, and on some level still unsettled him. “Of course, Doctor. Let’s step into the Ready Room.”

As he walked down from his perch, he turned to Lt. Mari at Operations, “Lieutenant, you have the Bridge.”

Bet waited until the doors closed before approaching Tom and offering a hug. She’d never consider doing that where anyone could see, but in the privacy of his office or their quarters she let her guard down.

Feeling her body against his, and the warmth in her embrace comforted him deeply. They stood there holding each other for a few seconds before he finally spoke. “Things aren’t going so well.”

Leading him to sitting area she sat down on the couch and pulled him after her. “So, what happened? Tell me everything.”

It didn’t take him long to relay the story to her, everything had happened so fast that he wasn’t sure he knew the full story. “We are stuck out here, without power, and I just sent Chris in a shuttle to track down our thieves. I almost wish I were on that shuttle instead.”

“This waiting is killing you, I know. How close is Engineering to a solution? It’s got to be tough, with limited staff aboard. And no idea how this happened? Seems to me, with the quickness of the core’s pick up, this was all planned. We might have a saboteur aboard.”

“That’s what Lieutenant Castillo thinks, and I agree. The explosion on Deck 3 is no coincidence.” Tom slumped back into the couch and rubbed his temples, through which he could feel his pulse pounding. “Engineering says it will take a few hours to get their solution to a place where they can run simulations. After that, not too long to implementation, but if there is a saboteur it could take even longer.”

“I’ve got a Deltan on my staff, between her and I we can ‘scan’ the ship and localize anyone that is harboring thoughts about the destruction of the ship or concerns about a pay out. He/she/it has got to be wondering how to get off this boat...if they haven’t already that is. Are all shuttles accounted for?”

“Yes, the shuttles are accounted for, but you and I both know that regulations won’t allow me to send you and a Deltan through the ship probing everyone’s mind.” Tom stood and crossed to the replicator for coffee, offering to get Bet tea, which she accepted. While the drinks whirred into existence, he continued to talk. “If I did that, everyone on this ship would think I were Captain Bly. I’d have my psionic secret police to keep everyone on the straight and narrow. That’s not an option.”

”It wouldn’t involve probing everyone's mind, just reading surface thoughts...but I get your drift. Its not the sort of thing I’d offer unless it were a dire situation, and this is. We’re dead in the water and supplemental power won’t last forever.” Bet took the offered tea, “How else can I help?”

“Do you have anything for this headache? It’s been driving me mad since we went to Red Alert.”

“Here, lay back with your head in my lap and take slow even breathes.” Tom did as asked, but remained tense. “Thomas dear, you have to relax. With every breathe out, feel a bit of the stress leave your body, and trust me.” She felt him start to relax a bit and gently rubbed his temples. With each of his breathes she matched with her own, pulling the stress from his body, forcing the muscles to let go and relax.

The pain in his temples finally started to subside, and a low rumble of contentment started to come from Tom. "Mmmmmm....that feels good. Why couldn't the warp core have been stolen on another day? Or maybe steal one from another ship?"

“Find the culprit that enabled it to be stolen and force the answer from him/her/it...that should help ease your tension,” Bet teased. “You’re a fine leader Tom, and this crisis will pass and you’ll come out of it stronger than you know you are already.”

"How do you stay so calm? Here I am about to explode and you are the picture of calm."

“I am working under the understanding that I only have to answer for my medical staff and those that I care for, not the entire ship. Add to that the fact that part of my job IS to stay calm, how am I supposed to calm the worries of my patients when I’m in hysterics?”

Tom didn't want to go back to the bridge, even though he knew it was getting close to that time. There was still a lot of work for him to do. Covering her hands with his, Tom stared into her eyes in the hopes of making time stand still. Unfortunately, it didn't work, and after a couple minutes of comforting silence, he sighed, "I think we need to go back to work."

“I know, darn it! But thank you for this small bit of time, I know you’re very busy with all that is happening.” She kissed him then, a quick peck and moved her hands away so that he could sit up. “Later, for supper? I’m at your beck and call, and will even deliver.”

"I'll do what I can, but there is no promise we will have that opportunity. There is no telling where we will be when that time rolls around." Getting up from the couch and started for the door, but stopped just before the sensors and turned, pulling Bet close to him and kissing her passionately. The emotions a mix of fear and passion. "For luck."

“We don’t need luck!”

A JP with Tom and Bet
 * 05-30-2011, 20:37Adina Wolfe'''::USS Atlas::
 * Main Shuttlebay::
 * Deck 7::'''

“No, no, the other way!” Adina shouted out of the shuttle as the drive console above her sparked violently. “If you run the polarity that way again we’ll have to start all over.”

“Sorry.” Came the rather meek sounding reply. “I thought I got it right this time.”

“It’s okay,” Adina replied, rubbing the bridge of her nose with her spare hand whilst shuffling back under the console, “Just...check twice next time okay?”

“Yes Sir, sorry.” The voice replied.

“And for goodness sake Lianna, stop calling me sir.” Adina sighed. “One: I’m still a Cadet. Two; I am entirely void of the required equipment for the male descriptive, got it?”

“Then what do I....” Lianna started.

“For now, let’s stick with Adina, kay?”

“Yes Sir-Ma-Adina!” Lianna stammered, desperately correcting herself.

“Better.” Adina smiled, reconnecting a loose Isolinear circuit under the console. “Now, where are we with the computer alignments, do you know?”

“Um... last I checked in Thomas and Burnes said they’ve finished the Rhea and were going to help Ya’n and Lornell with the Calypso.”

“And seeing we’ve already done the Main Core that’s just leaves us and Helen here.” Adina noted absently, reaching up for another tool.”

“Helen?” Lianna offered, a bemused look set on the Bajoran’s face as she peeked round the shuttle’s open hatchway.

“Name of the shuttle Crewman.” Adina chuckled, “Or hadn’t you noticed?”

“Oh...right, sorry.” Lianna blushed heavily, “I guess I’ve been a little...distracted recently.”

“Loosing a Warp Core would do that to any engineer.” Adina noted, tapping her sonic screwdriver absently as the tool stuttered slightly.

Lianna shook her head as she pulled herself into the shuttle and started rummaging through the toolkit. “It’s not that it’s-” She cut herself short, realising she was speaking out loud.

“Oh?” Adina prompted, not missing a beat. “Then what is it?”

“Nothing, it’s nothing.” Lianna offered quickly, desperately trying to back-peddle the conversation.”

“Oh no, I’m not letting you get away that easy.” Adina chuckled, pulling herself from the console and sitting up, facing the Bajoran Crewman eye to eye. “Come on....spill.”

“Well...there’s this guy.” Lianna managed before she stuttered to a halt, her blush now colouring her face the deep red of Command.

Adina smiled, reaching into the toolkit for a fresh adaptor. “Oh yes? Picking off a partner already are we?”

“N-no, nothing like that!” Lianna stammered, “He asked me out! And... and I turned him down.”

“Not your type then?” Adina smiled as she leaned back and returned her attention to the underside of the console.

“Not really, no.” Lianna nodded, “I told him I was already with someone.”

“And are you?” Adina inquired as she finished the last main connection and replaced the panel cover.

Lianna blushed again, “Ah...no, I’m... actually trying to put together the courage to ask someone though.”

“Who’s that then, if you don't mind me asking?” Adina smiled as she started to pull herself out once more from beneath the console.

Lianna’s blush intensified once more. “You.”

Adina shot immediately upright, her head impacting hard into the edge of the console, smacking her straight back down into the shuttles deck plating. As her vision slipped into blackness all Adina could hear was Lianna's desperate apologies... Northern Hemisphere Klotrap City'''
 * 06-01-2011, 18:52Tom O'Flagherty'''Larkus II

Small auxillary craft moved back and forth across the sky like swarms of small insects. Marvud-Tang had been waiting on the landing platform for hours while his new prize piece of merchandise came down from orbit. The hours had been tense while waiting to see bit the Starfleet vessel had dropped to sub-light speeds where it was supposed to. If it hadn't, it would be the last time York would have failed him. This time though, the little human had managed to pull it off, and now they were going to be rich.

His silent reverie was broken when an odd shape began to break through the light clouds. The sound of the craft breaking the sound barrier over the planet was the first warning drawing the hulking Orion's attention as a large cylindrical object started coming down. It was the largest warp core he had ever seen in person, which wasn't saying much seeing has he had never sold one before, but he was sure that there weren't many larger.

The two small shuttles, golden beams of tractor energy issuing from both, made long slow turns as the descended towered the landing area. As with the other auxillary ships in his pirate fleet, these shuttles had been scavenged from different races over the decade he had been working in the Gamma Quadrant. The systems had to upgraded to work together but once these two worked in tandem like two dancers cutting across a dancefloor in choreographed steps. The stolen core spun between them as they guided it to the ground where a ground-mounted tractor emitter took over and set the huge piece of tech down with the softest of landings. As soon as the emitter was shut down, Tang made his way to inspect his newest piece of merchandise.

He placed both of hands flat on the surface of the inert core, a habit he picked up from a human that had worked for him, and began to rub them slowly across the surface, feeling every slight groove. He slowly started to become aware of the fact that there was still enough anti-matter trapped inside the thing to blow most of the city off the surface of the planet, and that caused a smile to spread across his face. He just needed to decide to auction it off as a whole piece or break it up into large components.

While he tried to come to a decision, one of the shuttle pilots, a Gorn named Z'Khessshira, exited her crafted and bounded over with large strides, but Tang spoke first, "It seems you've done very well. This is the biggest haul so far, and we stole it from Starfleet at that."

"Thank you, sir," the Gorn hissed. "The Federatio ship was not destroyed though. The explosion was inconsequential, detonating along the outer hull as we departed. The power drain from towing the large core limited our sensor range so we weren't able to descern much as to their ability."

The Orion underboss was quiet for a dew moments as he contemplated the possibilities before coming to a conclusion. "It's of no consequence, they are dead in the water without their warp core. We will just have to sell it as a single piece to make sure we don't leave time for their shuttles to arrive and try to take it back."

Tang turned towards the workers who were standing by to attend to the core and bellowed, "Get this inside! And tell the auctioneer this is being inserted ahead of its original lot number. Tell him to make the necessary changes."

As the technicians secure the core for its transport into the auction house, a grin began to spread across his face. I just have to sell this thing and then whoever buys it can deal with Starfleet. Even with a deadline pushing his sale, Tang knew there was money to be made. He could squeeze enough out of the auction to purchase two more ships even after paying off his debts.

Then he remembered the one loose end to his plan, Mason York. The human had failed to destroy the ship, and if he hang been able to get away, then he was most likely caught. While the cowardly human didn't know where the auction was being held, he did know who Marvud Tang was, and that was going to be a problem.

There was a possibility that an early retirement was in Tang's future if he couldn't tie-up Mason York in a hurry. Unfortunately, the new ship had been pressed into service so quickly that Tang hadn't even known York was onboard until the human contacted him. When he had tried to get a manifest of the crew, every security protocol had been engaged, leaving him with only his assets information on the crew which had been sparse, to say the least. The grin faded fast as realization that this may be his last score settled on his sharp features.
 * 06-02-2011, 00:22Christopher Vaughn“Did you see the other shuttle with our core?” Chris asked.

“Yeah, from the air it looked like they are in a berth about a kilometer away.” Jackson relayed.

As the team gathered their gear, Laramie asked, “Sir, should we find some civilian clothes? If those pirates see us in our Starfleet uniforms they’re going to assume we’ve come after the stolen drive. Unless that’s the plan.” Please don’t let that be the plan, she thought, pictures of phasers and shooting and running for her life running through her head.

“We are going in gun’s a blazing.” He replied in a matter of fact tone. Seeing both Lt. Lebowski and Cadet Walking Bear start to protest he held up his hands, “Of course we aren’t, this isn’t a Marine Corps advertisement. As for the clothing I agree cadet, but I didn’t exactly have time to bring a spare set of clothes with me.” Looking both of the security officers, “Ok, you two stay with the shuttle for now, and we will comm in if there is any issue. Everyone else, let start replicating some new clothes."

Laramie headed to the replicator and requested a simple outfit: black linen trousers, a dark blue cotton blouse, a back leather jacket, calf-high boots, and a back cowboy hat.

“A hat?” asked Amy Finch as she watched the cadet pick up her clothes and head for the refresher.

“A cowboy hat,” corrected Laramie. “Cowboy hats are cool. If I’m joining a posse, I’m gonna dress the part!”

Amy called up a maroon and gold dress that fell to just below her knees, a short green jacket, and a pair of red hightop sneakers, and waited for her turn to change.

God, I hate replicated clothing. Chris sighed heavily as he ordered a simple set of khaki slacks and a button down shirt with a sport coat. He quickly changed and insured everyone else was decent before opening the hatch from the shuttle and stepping out. The sunlight was harsh, more than he was expecting. Recalling what Laramie said about the orbit he frowned slightly and stepped back to replicator and ordered as set of sunglasses. Stepping back out of the shuttle he noticed an alien briskly walking up to him. He glanced back at the others before turning his attention to the approving individual.

“You have a docking permit?” the officious little man demanded.

Well, at least the universal translators worker “There was no communication when we came down.” he explained. “I wasn’t aware there was a requirement for one.”

“Well,” the other began. “We assumed you were coming for the last few barter days...”

“Yes.” Chris interjected. “We are actually.”

“Then why don’t you have a permit?”

“This is our first visit. We heard about your world’s legendary barter days from another trader and figured we would check it out.” Chris reached into the inner pocket of his sports coat and withdraw the almost all the latinum he had on him and planted it firmly in the others hands. “Perhaps you can forgive our bureaucratic faux pas.”

“A bribe?” the dockmaster said looking up at him.

“I prefer to think of it as lubrication for the gears of commerce.”

“I don’t foresee you having any docking issues for the remainder of your stay.” pocketing the currency the dockmaster scampered away.

Laramie watched silently as the transaction took place, glad that Vaughn had thought to bring some hard cash along. “Is there more where that came from?” she asked. “How much do you think we’ll need to buy the warp core back?”

“Who says they will sell it to us?” Lebowski retorted.

“No one.” Chris replied for the cadet. “But she has a point; they wouldn’t come to a commerce world like this at such a critical time if they weren’t looking to sell it.” Chris withdrew his considerably thinner wallet. This isn’t a problem I deal with very often. “I’m just about tapped out unless they have a bank around here.” He split the remaining funds among the crew. “That’s it for now so don’t go crazy. Lebowski, you go and keep an eye on the pirate shuttle and our warp core. If they start to move it let me know.” He looked over at the security guards, “You two say with our shuttle. I don’t want to get towed and this doesn’t seem like a good neighborhood. Cadet Walking Bear and PO Finch, do some snooping around and see if you can find out where someone could exchange a high credit item like a warp core in this town. I’m going to contact the Atlas and then see about procuring more funds. Everyone clear?”

The group nodded in acknowledgement with a few nervous yes sir’s, thrown in “Ok, let’s be about it.”

 A JP with Miss Walking Bear
 * 06-02-2011, 17:39Adina Wolfe'''::USS Atlas::
 * Sickbay::'''

Blackness...

That was all she could see...

Slowly the blackness gave way to a spec of light, the light gave way to a varied mix of colours, before the colours gave way to just one...grey. As everything else in her head started to catch up with her eyes Adina realised she was staring at a ceiling somewhere, a few failed attempts and a dizziness inducing twist brought her vision across slightly, to the sight of crew with teal colours walking back and forth. “W-why am I in Sickbay?” Adina muttered out loud to herself.

“Because you gave yourself a nasty knock to the head,” Shia Solomon said from the other side of the bed. “You’ve a concussion nasty enough that I’m going to insist you stay here for observation overnight.”

“Overnight?” Adina repeated, “I can’t have banged it that hard....”

“Are you still seeing stars?”

“Uum... only if I blink too fast.” Adina admitted, “Can’t you just dose me with a Hypo to fix it?”

“That decision needs to come from your doctor. Until I get an answer, you’ll have to stay here...I’ll not have another patient disappearing from Sickbay, not on my watch.”

“Another patient?” Adina repeated, trying to sit up and instantly regretting it. “You been loosing many recently?”

“One earlier today, but the XO took her so there wasn’t much to do about it. You sit tight and I’ll send the doctor over the talk with you.”

Adina waited for several minutes until a striking woman approached. The slight point to her ears, visible due to the severe and tight bun her hair was pulled back in, showed her to be part Vulcan. “Nurse Solomon tells me you want to be released sooner than we might like. I understand that we have a slight emergency going on, so I’m going to allow treatment along the lines you expressed to her. But...and I must insist on this...I will be sending someone around to check on you later, but if you feel any dizziness at all, or changes in your vision you return here immediately.”

Adina paused for a moment, lost slightly in the woman’s eyes before replying. “Hmm? Oh, sure, no problem Doc, anything else I should be aware of?”

“I’d suggest avoiding surprises in future. Miss Lianna was most distressed when she requested you be beamed here. I’ll have Nurse Solomon give you something for the pain.” She started to turn away and paused, as if remembering something, smiling awkwardly she said, “Have a nice day.”

“Um, thanks.” Adina replied, a slight blush creeping across her face.”I’ll try to avoid low flying consoles next time...”

Another awkward smile and Dr.Duncan strode away. Adina saw her conferring with Shia and then the nurse headed over, hypospray in hand. “You understand the instructions Dr. Duncan gave you? You are to return immediately should you have any difficulties the next few days.” Indicating the hypo, “This is a pain reliever and a little something to help with any dizziness you might have. Before you go back to engineering, please stop at the Mess and get yourself some food, your blood sugar is a bit low.”

Adina relaxed as the hypo hissed it’s contents into her neck, the pounding in her head already fading. “Lunch? I knew I’d forgotten something,” she chuckled. “Thank you, So I’m good to go now?”

“You are indeed,” Shia offered a winning smile as she helped Adina off the bed.

“Then to Lunch I go!” Adina chuckled, taking a bold step forward, and promptly wobbling into the nearby wall. “Okay, I’ll take it slow.” Adina chuckled, gently heading out of Sickbay. “Though now that I think about it....I’m starving...”

A tale of head trauma, hypos and the possibility of sandwiches brought to you by Lisbet and Adina!
 * 06-06-2011, 17:20Jesse Baxendale*Post takes place slightly before Tom gets to deck 3*

The day for Jesse had started with a thud and it seemed like that theme was going to continue throughout the day. It had been a couple of hours since him and Elysa had been sipping coffee in the canteen. That was a nice start to the day and a chance for him to catch up with one of his best friends onboard the Atlas. He met Elysa in the first week of star fleet academy and since then they haven’t been apart. Every class and lecture they always seemed to end up in together and it just sort of fell into place that every social event they would either host or attend together. Now everyone thought they were an item, they weren’t they were just good friends. Let’s just say they had their experiences and it didn’t work out. Brother and sister was the term they liked to go by these days, they get on better as friends although the mischief they cause seemed to be worse.

After leaving the canteen that morning Jesse was headed up to his shift on Deck 7 in the operations office where he was to meet Johanna Mari. As he was making his way there the whole ship shook violently and Jesse saw several sparks and crewmembers heading for the ground or scuffling to grab hold of the bulk head.

“Not again!” Jesse exclaimed, recalling his earlier fall out of bed.

Luckily this time he managed to grab hold of the protruding red light beam that ran horizontally along the bulk head and he steadied himself back to his feet. The door which he was about to go through was now behind him and quickly opened with the traditional swish. Heath McDaniels ran out of the door and acknowledged Jesse as he came out, clearly he was in a rush.

“Jesse! Follow me!” Heath shouted as he ran into the turbolift.

“Yes Sir” Jesse instinctively replied and dashed towards the Ensign

He wasn’t quite sure where they were both going or even why he had summoned him to go with him, assuming it was because they were short staffed he did as he was told.

The turbolift doors closed and Heath indicated to the computer vocally where he wanted it to go. As the low hum of the lifts movement echoed around the cylinder shaped vessel the red alert klaxon could still be heard.

“Jesse we’re headed to Deck 3! There has been a hull breach, were short staffed and I could really use your help!” Ensign McDaniels explained to the young Cadet.

At this point Jesse was a little bit nervous, inside that was, he would never dream of showing it on the outside.

“Yes Sir, this is what it’s all about!” Thinking for a second Jesse continued. “Actually what exactly has happened?”

“The warp core was ejected while tests were being carried out and then this explosion, just as I was running towards here I heard the warp core had been stolen!” Heath explained whilst catching his breath.

“Are you serious?” Jesse felt like he had been thrown into a TV show. “You’re telling me we have no warp core! Whats going on? I bet Lieutenant Mari is pulling her hair our redistributing all that energy. I guess were on rations.” Jesse tried to make light of the situation as the lift stopped at Deck 3.

As the doors parted the air felt very thin and the atmosphere of the corridor didn’t feel right, readjusting would be the correct term. They both walked around the corner and saw the utter devastation of what had happened. There were scorch marks everywhere and small glowing embers around the bulkhead where the remaining fires had been put out by the fire suppression systems.

Looking further ahead you could see the glistening glow of the forcefield keeping the outside out and the inside in. Jesse just stood in awe of what he was seeing, even Heath took a moment to contemplate his actions.

“Come on Jesse! Remove that panel and see how long this field will last for. I’ll start co-ordinating efforts to get this deck secured.”

“Aye Sir!” Main Engineering'''
 * 06-07-2011, 19:25Gerhardt Rahner'''USS Atlas

Gerhardt was leaning his full weight on both arms, palms flat on the central console in the pit. His face was contorted in confusion as his eyes darted between the three people who had just spoken to him all at once, all with a high note of urgency. At his left, and joined by two others in red uniforms, was a Denobulan male. In the middle, a yellow shirt ensign, human male, who Gerhardt vaguely recalled worked in Ops. On the right, crewman Jordid, one of the Andorian engineers.

Gerhardt tried to unravel all the information that had been thrown at him, failed, and ungracefully asked, “Umm... What?”

All three blurted out their messages, stopped, looked at each other, and then politely and clumsily offered each other the floor. Gerhardt rolled his eyes and sighed loudly to shut them up. Pointing at the ops officer, he barked, “You, go.”

“Oh, ok,” the human bumbled, “Um, the captain has a standing order for you to report to the ready room when you’ve completed work on the current dual-warp model. It was issued when you left his office an hour and a half ago.”

It had already been an hour and a half? Gerhardt had been immersed in equations and computer models the whole time and lost track of time. “So, if they are standing orders,” he asked the officer, “Why are you delivering them?”

“Well, sir,” the ensign seemed reluctant to finish the sentence, “The order includes an addendum for an ops officer to remind you every hour... in case, um, you get caught up in your work and, um, forget.”

Gerhardt opened his mouth to protest, saw the wisdom of the order, and closed his mouth with a nod. “Thank you, ensign. Dismissed. You?” he pointed at Jordid.

“Just relaying a message, sir,” the Andorian said. “Cadet Wolfe was sent to sickbay with a concussion while completing work on the Helen’s computer. The other two shuttles and the main core are complete, and cadet Lianna is finishing the work on Helen.”

Gerhardt slapped a hand to his forehead. ''What else can go wrong? Wait, a concussion? What the hell happened?'' “Is she ok?”

“I’m sure she is, sir, but if you’d like I can ask sickbay to keep you posted.”

“Yes, do so. You are dismissed. You?” he pointed at the trio of red shirts.

“Chief Petty Officer Phoss, sir,” answered the Denobulan. “We’re the pilots selected for the shuttles. We were ordered to report to you directly, sir.”

Gerhardt nodded, thought for a moment, then shook his head. “Yes, yes... no, wait, what? Why are reporting here? You are pilots, yes? Then get to the shuttles! We will begin the first test run as soon as you are in position. Now, please.”

The pilots nodded and jogged to the turbolift. Gerhardt looked about himself, trying to regain the train of thought the trio of messengers had derailed. ''Let’s see, the inverse cube of... no wait, that’s resolved with... um, captain’s standing order. Shit.''

“Lt. Cressida! What was I just doing?” Gerhardt yelled across main engineering.

“Going to see the captain, sir!” came the reply from his office, followed by Ayla stepping out and leaning over the railing. “The concept is set and the shuttles’ computers are linked with the main core. Cadet Lianna just reported in that the Helen is done. You were about to report to the captain and watch the test run from the bridge.”

“Oh, right,” Gerhardt said. “Thank you, Ayla.”

Captain’s Ready Room

Tom was sitting behind a mountain of padds. Most of them had been from the last week. The plan had been to get to them during the long trip to the Epsilon Indi System, but with the change in situation came a change in priority. Now they were beginning to pile up, and so he started to move them off of his desk. Right here next to the head should be a good place for this stack.

When he was finished, he was only left with the preliminary report from Operations on the upcoming power consumption for the new shuttle configuration they were going to use to move the ship. Unfortunately, the mixture of tension, caffeine, and exhaustion were making it impossible for him to make heads or tails of the information. Thankfully, the door chimed allowing him to put the padd down.

“Enter,” he said, beginning to massage the bridge of his nose for the tension headache that was coming back.

The doors slid open and Gerhardt walked in. His fingers massaged his temple and his gaze was downcast. The worries of their predicament weighed heavily on him, and all the more so with the only test run they had looming. Gerhardt looked up and realized where he was. He stood straight and said, “Reporting as ordered, sir. We are prepared to test the warp combination with the shuttles.”

Tom looked up, but stayed silent for awhile, taking in the state of his chief engineer. The look on his features showed that the captain wasn’t the only person feeling the stress of being without power. “Lieutenant, I need you to help me understand what is going on. I’ve been scanning over these reports over what we are about to do, but it’s just not clicking. Do we have everything we need?”

Gerhardt considered this for a moment before answering. “The shuttles are ready. The pilots are in place. Cadet Wolfe oversaw the computer links, and I trust her work. This test will be without the Atlas, so if there is a problem, the pilots can break it off. Other than that, the last thing we will need is luck.”

“Luck.” Tom chuckled softly as he thought about the ironic choice of words. “It seems we haven’t had a lot of that, lately.”

The Irishman flopped into his chair as he offered for Gerhardt to take a seat across from his desk. “Give it to me straight, Lieutenant, what kind of odds are we looking at? We need to get moving faster than impulse.”

“Well, if this works, we are certain to make at least Warp 2,” Gerhardt began. “As for the odds that this will work...”

Gerhardt sat down with a sigh. “It is certainly possible. It will require precision, both in placement and timing. It will...” he stopped himself and regathered his thoughts. “When Albert Einstein first published his theory of general relativity centuries ago on Earth, mathematicians and physicists noted a possible flaw in his work. They pointed out that if his equations were stretched to an extreme of gravitation and density, they required a divisor of zero, which leads to an infinity, something gross and impossible to a physicist’s mind. Einstein did not see this as a problem because he believed nature could not form such an extremity. A few decades later, a physicist found evidence of one of these extremities in nature. We now call it a black hole.”

Gerhardt stood up again and started pacing. “We stand at a moment like that. All of the equations and models say this can happen and will happen under the circumstances we will create. But if I saw this theory in an academic standing, I would reject it as unnecessary, frivolous speculation. Now, this frivolous speculation will save our lives. It will work, no matter how much my inner physicist says it should not be attempted.”

“I appreciate your enthusiasm.” Tom stood up and zipped his tunic closed as he rounded the desk. “Well, let’s go and do the impossible.”

A JP with the most fabulous...simply awesomest...Captain O'Flagherty
 * 06-08-2011, 00:04Christopher Vaughn:::Larkus 2:::

Humans. Chris watched from his patio seat at the coffee house he had stopped at. There are other human’s on this planet. The revelation came to him as he watched the myriad of passerby’s on the street while sipping a latte. The fact other humans were on the planet didn’t surprise him. Free traders had been delving into the expanses of the Gamma Quadrant for two decades now, no doubt they had found worlds well before official Federation representatives would come along to chart commerce worlds like this one. If humans were hitting up this worlds markets and ports then there had to access to Alpha Quadrant banking…somewhere.

He returned to the counter and ordered another of the strong local latte’s before stepping out onto the street making his way toward one of the passing human’s in the crowd. There weren’t many too chose from. “Excuse me!” he called out to one of them. “Excuse me…fellow human!” he shouted through the crowd. Most of the aliens ignored him but the human stopped and turned but said nothing.

“Sorry to bother you.” He began. “My ship found this world on by accident…”

“Good for you.” The other said preparing himself for a street scam of some sort. “I’m not interested.”

“No, no.” Chris assured the other. “I am just trying to find out if there is a bank with an uplink to the Alpha Quadrant on world, that’s all.”

The other human eyed him suspiciously. “I guess they might, two streets up and a block west.”

“Thank you.” Chris replied. “Again, sorry to have bothered you.”

The other nodded and started to walk off, “Yeah, whatever.”

“Prick.” Vaughn mumbled under his breath as he started toward the location of the bank.



“We don’t match databases with your Federation as such.’ The bank administrator explained. “But we do have an uplink with Vaynalor Prime, who I believe does.”

Chris found the other looked like less of a banker than a used starship salesman. “In that case, I’ll need to get a line of credit verified and make a withdrawal.”

“We have thousands of aliens just like you on our world trying to uplink to their foreign accounts. We can offer only so many long range banking transactions before our proximity to the sun prevents us from receiving verifications, why should we push you to the top of the list when we have other customers who have been waiting longer?”

Pursing his lips, Chris inhaled slowly, “Why should you push…me…to the top of the list?” he asked rhetorically. “I’m Chris Vaughn, and I’m worth it.”

“Not likely.” The other retorted.

“I’m not some trader or pirate lord looking to move a few thousand bars of latinum here and there. I deal in millions and billions. If the universal translator doesn’t put the decimal point in the right place I can write it out long hand.” Chris reclined in his chair comfortably. “I’ll tell you what. Verify my account and withdraw 2.5 million, and add an additional 5 percent for your trouble.”

“And if you’re lying?” the banker fidgeted.

He shrugged. “If I’m lying you wasted maybe half an hour of your time. But if I’m telling the truth you walk away with a cool 125,000 bars and I write it off as the cost of doing business.”



The walk back to the shuttle had been nerve-racking. Chris might have been a billionaire but he couldn’t think of one point in his life (which was filled with excess) in which he wandered around an alien city with two and a half million bars worth of latinum in a brief case. His standard issue phaser seemed somehow inadequate for personal protection now.

Stepping into the shuttle the two security officers stood at attention, “Any news sir?” they asked, excited for action.

“I’m rich, the coffee on this world tastes like shit and banks are a pain in the ass here just like everywhere else. Anything from Lebowski or the cute cadet and petty officer combo?”

“No sir, not yet.” One of the officers replied.

Setting the briefcase on the console he cracked it open and replenished his personal stock of cash from the rolls of latinum vouchers.

“Holy shit!” the young officer caught himself but it was too late. “Sorry sir….just that’s a lot of…”

“…yes, I know.” Chris smiled. “I’m going out to do some more recon. Guard the shuttle and this case. If it comes down to losing one or the other….we can always get another shuttle.”
 * 06-09-2011, 10:43Laramie Walking Bear"Larry?" asked Amy.

"Yeah, Aimless?" asked Laramie.

"This sucks. And so does my nickname."

The pair had taken a table at a dank cafe across from where the tents that would hold the auction would take place. The tents themselves were being constructed as extensions from the pre-fabricated warehouses that currently housed whatever it was that would be auctioned off, including, Laramie supposed, the Atlas's warp core.

Amy Finch had a point. It did suck, from a certain perspective. The coffee was terrible, and she had had to shuck off her light jacket within twenty minutes of leaving the shuttle, which meant that her phaser was now wrapped up in the jacket on her lap, and she found herself checking it every few minutes to make sure it wasn't exposed or in danger of slipping out and falling to the ground. Still, the cadet was fascinated by the array of life forms that made their way through the marketplace. Humanoid, avaian, reptilian, siliconian, even one species she didn't recognize that looked like a giant plant with a brain that looked like a two-foot cauliflower on top of its foliage. The creature moved either by an anti-gravity device or telekinesis.

"I'm tired of sitting here," said Amy, rising and straightening the pants that were sticking uncomfortably to her legs. "Let's take a walk."

Laramie stood, but said, "We're supposed to be watching!"

"We're supposed to be getting information," retorted the medic. "Which we aren't doing right now. What we're doing now is nothing. I hate doing nothing." She moved away from the table and began walking towards the bazaar. Laramie dutifully followed, checking her phaser once more as she tucked her jacket under her arm.

"Is good for gun?" asked a musical voice from behind Laramie. Startled, she turned to see the floating plant creature hovering just above the ground behind her. "You is liking? Have cases. Lot number 1771 dash A dash A. Is equipping army. You is liking?"

The gun in question was a large plasma rifle, nearly half the science cadet's height, with a log grip and a side-loading energy clip. Laramie doubted she could carry the weapon for very long, but didn't doubt it was a lethal-looking thing.

"Uh, yeah, nice," she replied. "Not my thing, big guns, but, you know, you uh, never know."

She felt a frond run across her shoulder, and flinched.

"You is liking," said the creature. "How much you bid?"

Laramie shook her head and looked for Amy, who was two tables down and engaged in a discussion with a Ferengi. She tried to will her partner to look over, with no luck. "I'm not bidding," she told the floating plant. "I'm just looking."

"Say you like, means you bid!" replied the plant, touching Laramie again, this time in the small of her back. "You is of fear. What you is hiding, Human?"

"Look," said Laramie, facing the creature. "You've got two seconds to back the hell up off of me before I start pruning your leafy ass." If the creature could pick up on her fear before, she was likely spiking his empathic receptors now.

"I is liking you!" said the plant creature. It hovered itself away about three feet. "Something is hiding, you are. Is liking mystery. Maybe you come back, I bid on you."

Disgusted, Laramie moved quickly over to Amy Finch, who was gesturing widely with her hands at something the Ferengi had said.

"200,000!" exclaimed Amy, turning to notice Laramie. "Larry," she continued, "Woroq here thinks a warp core is only worth 200,000 bars of gold-pressed latinum. Tell him he's crazy."

"You're crazy," said Laramie dutifully, having no knowledge of what a warp core was worth.

The Ferengi shook his head, smiling sadly. "You watch, hew-mons. Prince Felix knows the value of an engine, and he knows what it takes to install a Federation warp core. It's not the thing itself, it's what it takes to make the thing compatible. He won't go above 200,000, and anyone who does is crazy."

"Crazy like a fox," said Amy.

"What is a fox?" asked Woroq.

"It's an animal that people think is crazy, but is really just clever."

The Ferengi smiled. "Is it? I like that! Maybe I'll put it on my sign. 'Woroq's Used Weapons. Crazy Like A Fox!' "

"Go for it," said Amy, then took Laramie by the arm and led her away.

"What was that all about?" asked the cadet.

"Getting a point of contact," said the medic. "Prince Felix. He's an Edosian merchant, deals mainly in things other people don't have time, money, or ability to handle. He's about one contact short of being an Orion."

Laramie shook her head. "How'd you get all that information?"

Amy smiled. "I talked to a Ferengi. Now come on. Let's go find Prince Felix." Bridge'''
 * 06-20-2011, 16:07Adina Wolfe'''USS Atlas

Gerhardt stepped out of the captain’s ready room and onto the bridge. He looked around the vast room, wondering why nothing looked familiar. He knew every circuit and conduit of the ship, but for some reason he couldn’t quite put a finger on, this room was completely foreign to him. His eyes searched for the engineering station and, just as he found it, he realized why the room looked so strange: he had never been there. In the weeks he had spent on board the Atlas, Gerhardt had scoured Main Engineering, toured the Science Labs, visited the mess hall, and even seen the bilge, though that had been to fix a decompression false alarm that would sound at inopportune times before the bulk of the skeleton crew had boarded.

He walked to one of the engineering stations on the starboard side of the bridge and rubbed a sore left arm while the engineer at the station came to attention and stood relieved. The test run was set to begin, and Gerhardt was brimming with excitement.

Adina walked onto the bridge, a little surprised she'd been picked to go find the Chief. Apparently the fact she’d called him on a few small points had led many to believe she was a miracle worker of some kind, so here she was. “Main Engineering reports the Main Computer link is stable and all shuttles report full link up sir.” She offered a small smile as Gerhardt looked over the engineering station.

“Cadet Wolfe! Nice to see you out of sick bay,” Gerhardt said. “And thank you for the report. Will you take the other station?”

With a nod from the captain, Gerhardt signaled for the test to begin. The comm rang out, “Shuttle Rhea, ready,” “Shuttle Calypso, ready,” “Shuttle Helen, ready.”

The three shuttles were parked in formation three kilometers off the port nacelle, Helen in front, Rhea a scant 400 meters behind her, and Calypso drifting off-center, ready to swoop in and adjust for any anomalous shifts in the warp bubble. With the distances so close, the computer link would manage the intricate flying maneuvers, but there was still a major risk factor. Gerhardt’s heart began to pace harder.

Gerhardt opened the comm to all shuttles and bridge stations. “Shuttle Helen, you will have the point. Pilots, let the computers do most of the flying once you are at warp. If you get any inkling that this test starts to fail, pull out. We can work on a new theory; this test is not worth your lives. When you are ready, Shuttle Helen, bring the flotilla to full impulse.”

Adina watched from the auxiliary engineering console as the three shuttles quickly picked up speed, a glance at another screen showed the date link to Atlas was still strong and stable, the distances between the three ships barely wandering more then a few centimetres from its set parameters. “Looks good so far sir.” She offered.

Tom sat in the command chair, trying his best not to rip the arms off due to stress. "How are we looking?"

“Shuttles are in position, ready to go, and the link to Atlas is reading steady Captain.” Adina offered immediately, her Academy training kicking in so suddenly she didn’t even realised she had answered until after the words had left her mouth.

"Very well, Cadet." Tom took a deep breath to try and relax, but it wasn't helping. "Lieutenant Mari, monitor all the sensor logs, and mark them for study. Lieutenant Solari, have your department lend a hand with any analyzing duties should they be needed."

Adina brought her attention back round to her console, watching the feed readouts from the three shuttles, looking for any line of code that was out of place. If all went well all three shuttles’ feeds should be 100% identical at the end of the trial run. So far everything seemed to be following the plan.

Gerhardt’s pulse hammered as he entered a few commands, then said, “Helen, bring the flotilla to Warp 2.5 and hold that velocity until we signal the end of the testing.”

“Affirmative,” came the pilot’s reply. “What’s the estimated time on this test?”

The computer displayed the shuttles’ sudden increase in velocity as they jumped to warp. The scans began pouring in and one thing was immediately certain: it worked. They still needed to complete the tests to be certain that the combined warp bubble would hold steady and that it could push the Atlas, but the two warp fields had most certainly combined without incident. “Initial tests are complete,” he happily told the pilot. “We should be finished with the further testing in a few minutes.”

All the trepidation he had been feeling leading up to the test flight and the joy of an initial success crashed within him and his already hammering heart began to dance. He grinned boyishly at Adina in the station next to him, but his expression quickly shifted. He had been so excited by the result that he hadn’t noticed that his chest was hurting. His breathing grew labored and the soreness in his left arm sharpened and his pulse became erratic. Pain shot through his chest and his right hand clutched at his heart. Gerhardt looked from Adina to Tom with a pained expression as he fell first to one knee, then flat on his back. He was still conscious enough to feel the pain and hear someone yelling his name, but he could feel the room started to fade.

Tom was on his feet as Gerhardt hit the ground, slapping his commbadge. "Medical emergency in the bridge, send responders!"

By the time he had worked his way down from the command chair, Adina Wolfe was by her chief's side, trying to understand what was happening while Tom called to one of the Security officers stationed at the doors to the Bridge, "Grab the medkit!"

Once it was brought to him, Tom removed the tricorder and started scanning the engineer. His pulse was racing and erratic. "I think he's having a heart attack."

Gerhardt was struggling to stay conscious, but the pain in his chest was nauseating. Two medics poured out of the lift and ran to his side, taking over Tom’s tricorder. A voice from far away seemed to say, “He’s going tachycardic. We need to get this man to sickbay. Medical emergency, three to beam directly to...”

Gerhardt made a desperate grab for the medic’s arm. “No! Not enough... power... Secondary... save for... ship. Adina... it works,” he managed to sputter before dropping to his back again, struggling for breath, this time not finding the strength to fight the dark grip of unconsciousness.

The medics hesitated. Unsure of what to do, they looked to the captain. “Sir, time is essential. We need to get him to sickbay, now.”

"Then, I suggest you get a stretcher and start carrying." The two petty officers looked up at Tom with incredulous expressions on their faces. "You heard the man...there's not enough power," the captain said with a shrug.

“Sir with respect-” Adina started, already turning to Gerhardt’s console and entering a multitude of commands at a speed of knots. “ We need a Chief of Engineering that’s not dead more then we do a few quads of power. With your permission I want to cut life support to the sections of the ship currently empty or unused, that’ll give us more then enough to save the Chief.”

Tom nodded, "Go for it, Cadet. Have those sections sealed." Turning back towards the center of the Bridge he zeroed in on Lt. P'Rim, "Get those shuttles back and have our course plotted. We need to get underway, now."

Engineers dropping like flies; Brought to you by Tom, Gerhardt and Adina! :: Sickbay ::
 * 06-21-2011, 13:57Gabriel Holt:: USS Atlas ::

As soon as the call came from Captain Flagherty, Gabriel ran over to his station and grabbed his Quick Response Bag. His Quick Response Bag was the size of a backpack and had a wide array of various medicines and medical equipment that could serve as a way to quickly stabilize a victim before proper and more extensive medical attention could be given to the patient.

Gabe flew onto the Beam Station and quickly spoke his command to be transported to the bridge. Within moments, Gabe materialized on the bridge. Immediately, his eyes flew to Gerhardt laying on the floor. The ship's Chief engineer ws laying on his back and Gabe could see his chest slowly coming up and down in shallow breaths. Two medics were standing over Gerhardt. Gabe ran from the platform and quickly unlsung his QRB as he came to Gerhardt's side. "Give me some space," Gabe spoke to the medics as he quickly looked Gerhardt over. Gabe's hand went to Gerhardt's neck and began to take his pulse. Rapid heart rate. The color of Gerhardt's skin had grown more pale and his skin was cold and clamy. "It looks like he is having a cardiac infarction," Gabe said aloud to anyone who wanted to know what was going on. "Medics, get me an Anti-grav lift here, Stat! We need to get this man to the Sickbay Immediately!"

Gabe quickly reached into his bag and pulled out a Hypospray which he quickly loaded with a substance known as Lectrazine. Lectrazine was a substance that served to stabilize the heart's functions, particularly with malfunctioning heart valves when a cardiac infarction was occuring. He gently injected the substance into the patient's shoulder. Almost immediately, the slow, shallow breathing of the patient began to improve, but only slightly. Gabe then quickly pulled out another subtance called Glucamine which served to thin the blood slightly. This would help the heart to have an easier time trying to pump Gerhardt's blood through his body.

A few moments later, the medics arrived with the Anti-grav lift trailing behind them. Gabriel reached into his bag and retrieved a small Holographic Diagnoses plate. This was an invention of the Medical Company that he owned and operated on the side. These were small holographic displays about the size of an index card that could be placed on the patient's clothing or on the patient themselves. They were used to let any medical personnel that treated the patient know what medication had already been prescribed and in what dosaged. Taking a stylus from his bag, he quickly jotted down the information needed for the card. As he filled it out, he got in touch with Sickbay. "This is Cadet Holt, I need a station set up for a cardiac infarction, stat! Beaming to Sickaby momentarily. After filling out the Holographic Display Tag, he slapped it right onto the patient's chest just below his rank. "Let's move!" ordered Gabe as he slung up his bag and moved to the beaming station.

The three men moved with precision with their patient onto the beam station. As Gabe moved, the myriad of medical textbooks he had read over the years were flashing through his mind. He looked down at his patient to check on his breathing. While it had improved slightly, there was still things to be alarmed about. Moments later, the men were all in the Sickbay. As they glided Gerhardt over to the station, Gabe's mind began to go through treatments and procedures to save the Chief Engineer's life...
 * 06-21-2011, 23:19Tom O'FlaghertyShuttlebay

Lieutenenant P'Rim stood in the midst of his chosen flight crews for the threes shuttles that would guide the Atlas. In his mind, he formed the image of a Terran shark slipping through the water with pilot fish attached to it's skin, and imagined that would be how the Atlas would appear passing through space. The irony of the image was not lost on the Kolhinar master of how it would be the pilots propelling the shark.

“We will maintain open communication lines throughout the duration of the current exercise. I will direct your placement and spacing, while you will be required to monitor and modify those positions on a moments notice.” Many of the assembled pilots looked on in tense concentration. Chief Phoss, on the other hand, maintained a level of professional calm that rivaled the Vulcan’s own self-control. “If we fail to maintain proper alignment and spacing there could be cataclysmic effects.”

A human Ensign, fresh out of the Academy, seemed to be smiling as he interjected, “Piece of cake! Nothing like moving a massive starship through space, in a tractor tow, with a shuttle to spice up the first mission. We’ll all be heroes.”

“Unless you are all killed, Mr. Nichol.” P’Rim responded dispassionately. In his 70’s, the Vulcan had grown accustomed to human efforts at “gallows humor”and had learned the ritual. This tim, his sarcastic remark, learned after years of false attempts, elicited a chuckle from the entire gathering, much to the Ensign’s chagrin.

Ensign Kazago, the small Ferengi in charge of Resource Allocation, was the next to speak. His words were direct, “There will be limitations on our power resources. The fusion generators for auxillary power are capable of keeping the ship running, but will not be enough to provide additional power to the shuttles. You will have to kill all nonessential systems in order to give us enough power.”

Chief Phoss had the distinction of being the most experienced shuttle pilot, and was therefore chosen by P’Rim to command the shuttles, under the Lieutenant’s supervision. “I’ll take the Helen and maneuver to the bow of the ship while Ensign’s Berry and Kakalina will take the Calypso and Rhea to their respective positions. From there, we wait for Lieutenant P’Rim’s order to begin forming the warp bubble around the ship.”

"Is it true, chief that the Chief Engineer is in sickbay? He's not going to be able to help us?" The question came from a stricken looking petty officer from Operations who was going to be part of the shuttle crews. P'Rim could tell that the fear engendered by her comment could spread if he didn't so anything about it soon.

"Lieutenant Rahner has been taken to sickbay, but I believe the abilities of Doctor Ulrika and her staff will be more than capable of handling the situation." That seemed to ease her conscience quickly, and so he dismissed them and left the shuttlebay for the Bridge at his usual brisk pace.

Bridge

Tom had returned to his chair in the center as soon as the stricken engineer had been beamed out. To her credit, Cadet Wolfe was trying to operate her station with the same amount of composure, but the unexpected events were still lingering on the minds of all the bridge crew, save for P'Rim, who entered the room with his implacable mask of calm.

"What's the situation, Lieutenant?" Tom asked as the Vulcan started to approach his station at the lower level if the bridge.

P'Rim stopped and turned on his heel to face the captain, his face a resolute mask of Vulcan control. "Our shuttles are refueled and ready. The crews have been briefed. Currently, they are taking position around the ship."

"Very good," Tom replied as the Vulcan continued to his seat. "Signal the shuttles to begin their link."

Using the controls on his armrest, Tom opened a channel through the ship. "This is the captain. All hands, prepare for improvised warp speed. This may be a slightly bumpy ride."

Once he closed the channel, Tom turned back to his Vulcan Flight Contoller. "OK, Lieutenant. Steady as she goes."

A post featuring NPC Lieutenant P'Rim of Vulcan