When The Lights Go Out

Posted on Thu Jan 20th, 2022 @ 10:11am by Nollel Livaam (*) & Captain Rueben Gregnol & Chief Operations Kendra McIntyre & Beya & Laurier Cami
Edited on on Thu Jan 20th, 2022 @ 10:11am

Mission: Mission 14: Holoworld
Location: Bridge, Deck 1, SS Mary Rose
Timeline: MD 05 20:00
1314 words - 2.6 OF Standard Post Measure

From the Comm station, Kendra had diverted helm control to her station so that the ship would have a pilot in case anything happened. With the ship being docked, it was more of a secondary concern. At the moment, Kendra’s primary responsibility was to monitor the away teams to keep up with communications between the teams and ensure each team checked in on time. It was a pretty tedious job and certainly not as glamorous as going in an adventure, but holodeck a still creeped her out. Considering the incident in Mars had served to create a more isolationist Federation and ships routinely reported frightening incidents with holoprograms , she really did not trust the holograms.

The timer on her console beeped and brought up a display showing a second team. “Now that is odd,” Kendra stated allowed in a subconscious effort to draw attention while she assessed the situation. “Sir,” the old Starfleet habits were hard to break, “we have two teams that are late in reporting. All teams have been within a minute of each of the scheduled check-ins, but both teams are more than five minutes late.” Holding a finger to her ear out of habit, she attempted to raise the teams on comms. “Mary Rose to away team, report.” Waiting a few seconds for the silence to turn to voices with no success, she tried again. “Mary Rose to away team, report,” turning to Gregnol, she somberly shook her head.

Gregnol frowned at what he was being told. He spotted Nollel just coming onto the bridge to take over the watch over night. “What is going on?” She hissed to Beya as a third countdown timed out and started beeping.

"Two teams are several minutes late on check-in," Beya answered. She wasn't normally on the bridge, but with most people away on the holoship she had a chance to stretch her legs - physically and metaphorically - to spend time in new slot. She was concerned by the news, but maybe not as much as some. Having grown up in a starbase lounge she remembered how often her mother had had to send bouncers in to practically drag customers out of holosuites when they ran past their allotted time.

“Whatever it is, I don’t like it,” Kendra replied staring at her screen. Sure, they were a civilian vessel with crew mates of colorful backgrounds. But, they still had standards and she would always put her faith in this ragtag group of plucky underdogs. Still, Kendra had to admit that she was getting worried as she quickly attempted to ping the communicators of the crew. Blowing out a frustrated breath, the woman reported, “The system is reporting that the pings aren’t event making it to the away teams.”

Nollel winced and looked at the ship in the view screen realising Burnie was over there. It had been fun over there but the fact all the teams had now missed their check-in was off. “Can you find their bio signs?” He demanded a strange knot in his stomach at how many people he had over there.

Beya played at the sensors, adjusting settings in search of a result. "Negative. They were there before, but I'm getting no readings now."

“How is that possible? Is there a shield now?” Gregnol asked. Nollel moved to another console as she saw Gregnol move to where Kendra was stood and started to look at who was onboard.

“Does not look like it but would need someone to confirm.” Nollel replied but she could not be sure. Gregnol nodded. Bio signs from this end meant they could not transport the crew off but it did mean if they got to a transporter from that end they would be able to get off.

"Not exactly a shield," Cami explained, peering over Nollel's shoulder at the readings. "We checked. The holoship doesn't have anything close to modern military-grade shielding. Standard navigational deflector, though. Hmm..." she slid in alongside, curious now. "If I was trying to block sensors from peeking, I'd have repolarised some of the hull plating and added an ionic charge to throw them off. Not easy to do, nor is it easy to overcome. Might need to send a shuttle over to pick them up."

"Medical emergency transport will work if that helps that seems to be pinging," Nollel said helpfully as she stepped aside to let Cami get at the console. She smiled at Cami as she helped and explained what she had missed. There was no reason to get hurt or mad if someone knew more and could explain it better, it was just not a way to go through life. She appreciated the knowledge that everyone was bringing to get Burnie back. The crew for the most part worked like machines in a cog, they all had their parts to play in it.

"Who is over there?" Gregnol asked knowing he was not going to like the response at all.

"Who isn't over there is the better question," Kendra replied. Motioning at the people on the Bridge, she followed up with, "We are the rescue party, the reinforcements, however else you would like to word it."

"So how are we going to rescue?" Gregnol demanded as he truly saw the number of people that were over there with no access to communication.

"If you need a medic to come along, I'll go," Beya volunteered, throwing a brief unhappy look at the instruments on the bridge. "I certainly can't seem to do anything helpful up here."

"I can just about fly a shuttle," Cami shrugged, looking around the group. It didn't look like anyone else was volunteering for that job, and she had friends over there. "If that helps...?"

Gregnol offered a smile to Cami. "I can shuttle but I want you along encase of engineering issues. Nollel can you keep a handle on the ship here if I take Kendra with me?" He asked looked at the blonde. She had run multi-million latinum and credit organisations personnel, he was sure she could handle the ship. Nollel looked at him shocked and resisted the urge to cry that he was finally forgiving her enough.

"Yes, Captain." She said simply moving backwards. Gregnol smiled at the woman's reaction, she had come so far from the bride who blew up his ship. He was the type to give a second chance and the karma had come back in folds to him. "We need to get some weapons," Gregnol said feeling like it would be a really good idea in his mind, something was wrong and he was not going in unprepared.

"Would be nice if our own armoury folks weren't already over there," Cami rolled her eyes. "Maybe we can grab that new Trill girl we picked up? Nasha?"

“Typical right.” The Captain commented thinking it was just their luck that anyone of any fighting abilities was already out of the picture. “Kendra go grab her and bring her up to date meet the rest of us in the shuttle bay.”

“Err Captain. Someone has gotten back but they need medical help.” Nollel said looking at Beya.

“Looks like you need to stay to support,” Gregnol explained looking at the fact the communication and emergency transport had gotten through. It was interesting that a medical emergency had gotten through when nothing else had.

"Yes," Beya agreed, already rising to head to medbay. "Grab Lucas - people down there might need a medic."

“The rest of us need to get some weapons.” Gregnol was no fool that something had gone wrong over there but they were limited by what they could go against a ship as it was the only thing that he could think of. There were no other ships in the sector so there were only limited options as to what it could be.