WRITING CHALLENGE: Shiny!

Posted on Wed Sep 28th, 2016 @ 1:17am by
Edited on on Wed Sep 28th, 2016 @ 1:21am

Mission: Mission 2 - Contagion
Location: Engineering
Timeline: MD 05: 0130 hours
1198 words - 2.4 OF Standard Post Measure

Engineering was quiet, with only the low pulse of the matter/anti-matter core as it went through its phases. Mark rubbed his face in his hands, trying to become a bit more awake than he was. It had been a long two days for him. He'd pulled his regular shift yesterday, getting off just after 0800. The chief had arrived shortly before that, looking dragged out and under the weather himself. But he had insisted that Mark go get some sleep because he would probably need it.

And he was right. Luckily he had felt so dragged out himself that he had headed straight to his quarters after shift change and had collapsed on his bed, passing out almost immediately.

Only to be awakened by the chimes of the comm as Chief Gordon called him in to pull the swing shift, as Jeassaho was too sick to stand duty, and Tinsdale was in Sickbay. At least the chief had let him know about ninety minutes before he had to report, so he had taken a hot shower - glad once again that the chief had gotten them to get the water systems running properly - and tried to eat something. He had gotten through a third of a bowl of oatmeal, thinking that would sit okay on his stomach. But even that sat like a lead weight in his guts.

The shift had been a quiet one. The Rose's systems were running pretty much on automatic. He knew the bridge was manned, as he had reported in to them when he had started his shift, per the chief's orders, but that had been it. He hadn't seen or heard from anyone since then.

And then when he thought it was about over and he could go crash, the chief had called and told him he'd have to stand watch until 0400. Then at that time the chief would show up early and take over.

Looking at the chronometer, Mark saw that was still two and a half hours from now. He tucked his head back into his hands, trying to find relief from a headache that had started just after midnight. His eyes seemed to be more sensitive to the light, too. Even the soft glow of the consoles and readouts strewn around the room caused him to wince in pain.

After a moment he stood up to begin making his rounds of the room again. His bones ached as he began the circuit; first over to Environmental, where he checked the readouts to ensure all was still in the green. Why did they still say that? he thought to himself as he looked at the displays. Green hasn't been used in forever. The buttons were all in different colors now. Pretty colors. They flowed together so well, blending from red to orange to yellow, then back again to red. So pretty.

Mark lost himself in the Environmental displays, a slack look taking over his face as he watched the lights on the displays. he stood there, entranced, his mind blank, the wonders of the lights filling him. He kept thinking over and over there are four lights.

A shrill beep of an alarm filled the room, jerking Mark out of his daze. For a moment he did not know where he was. Then it came back to him. Engineering. He was the engineer on duty. That meant he should be doing something about that noise, shouldn't he? He blinked his bleary eyes as he tried to figure out where the noise was coming from. Then he saw the blinking red light - that still meant the same thing, not like the green - coming from one of the displays over at the Power station.

He stared at it for a moment or two, his mind fading until there was only the blinking light. Then the noise picked up a bit. Startled, looked over at the console, then made his way across the room to the blinking light. In the back of his mind, he realised that he should be doing something about that light, 'cause red meant something bad. But the noise had taken over his head, driving out most of his thoughts, leaving only voices talking way in the background of his mind.

The blue lights, he thought to himself as he looked at the blend of colors in front of him. He raised his arms to catch the edge of the console, only to see the console, along with his hands and arms, slowly rotate like they were going down a drain.

"Now that can't be right," he muttered as he saw his arms twisted around in a way that Mother Nature never intended. He put a look of concentration on his face as he moved his hand toward one of the controls marked PURGE. That should shut that noise off, he thought to himself triumphantly.

A large red light suspended from the ceiling began to rapidly emit a rapid pulsating of light across the room as the Red Alert sirens screamed across the Rose.

"Warp Core Emergency Scram," the computer's voice said calmly as the emergency partitions slammed down from the ceiling, cutting off the warp core from the rest of the room.

"Purging." Several large slams could be heard. Then the sounds of the warp core being violently ejected from Engineering and sent out into space could be heard. The main power systems cut out, and the backups, not prepared to take on the full load of the ship, failed.

The Mary Rose dropped out of warp with a crash translation, all systems offline. The ship shuddered as she did so, the sounds of the hull stressing filling the air. Items not secured were bounced about, and anyone unlucky enough to be standing was tossed around like a rag doll. She began to spin slowly along her vertical axis, to all appearances dead in space.

"Engineering! What the hell is going on?"

Mark picked himself up from the floor and started giggling when he rose up in the air. No gravity. He loved swimming in space! He began to do the breast stroke through the air.

"Engineering! Respond!"

Mark made his way over to the main desk, grabbing things here and there to steer himself, giggling the whole way. He saw that the emergency comm channel was still up. Glad I fixed the backup battery for that. Otherwise, I couldn't talk to anyone. The thought triggered another set of giggles.

"Engineering! Crewman Rhodes! You there?" The voice sounded angry and afraid at the same time. Finally, Mark reached out, watching his hand spin like a drill as he did. and attempted to hit the respond button. After the fifth try, he got it.

"Hello. Are you in there?" he asked, looking at the console slowly spin. "What do you want?"

"What is going on with the ship? We have lost power and dropped out of warp!"

Mark giggled into the open channel. Finally, he calmed down enough to answer.

"Oops?"

OFF:

Mark Rhodes
Engineer
SS Mary Rose
(PNPC Gordon)

 

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