Freeing The Ghosts

Posted on Sun Mar 4th, 2018 @ 4:49am by Captain Rueben Gregnol & Executive Officer Valiyi Uhin
Edited on on Sun Mar 4th, 2018 @ 4:50am

Mission: Mission 5 - Liberation
Location: Deck 8 - New Areas
Timeline: MD 04 08:00
1706 words - 3.4 OF Standard Post Measure

“Da… I understand that you all thought you saw something but really people trapped in the machine. Are you sure it isn’t just some holographic protection?” Reuben demanded from the much small groups of First Mate, Armory Officer, Medical staff and a very reluctant Engineer who had been brought along.

Valiyi crossed her arms over her chest. "If it were a hologram, I think it would not have been so unclear. Holograms even in the age that the Rose was running in Starfleet were rather vivid and detailed. There is something going on with this transporter, and we thought it best you should know before we started attempting to pry people loose."

“You guys truly believe something is trapped in the transporter?” The Captain asked as the voices of his crew died down and the strange noise that had signified the start of the eerily strange display on the transporter started again. Reuben’s face twisted in first surprise then a grimace to just plain worry. “Give me a tricorder?” He demanded holding out his hand. With no science or operations chief, he needed to work out himself what exactly he was dealing with here.

Paul scratched at his eye implant as he popped a wire from it, "I've scanned it several times even ran a image scan with a tricorder feeding through my implant. This should not be working. Who ever put this together was somewhere between insane and a genius...I can't make heads or tails of this. Give me time and something for the headache it causes to link to the tricorder and we might get a seventy to eighty percent accurate map of the device."

Micheal spoke up. "My Grampy used to operate one of these on an old Connie. He even built me an exact replica when I was a kid, that he taught me how to operate. If you want, Cap, I could take a look at it?"

It took Valiyi a moment to give Reuben his own tricorder, having to rifle through a spare engineer's kit she had picked up for the initial examination of the area. "There is a good chance that whomever, or whatever is in there may attack, so I believe we should be ready for anything."

Reuben nodded as he looked the device and ran it over the console. "This console is busted." The man sighed pulling the access panel at the bottom apart to look properly at the inside trying to work out what they could do to resequence whoever was trapped inside. "Was this the fire you were talking about Roberston?" He wondered thinking on the conversation with Saa.

Micheal nodded, then knelt down, next to Reuben, to get a closer look at the opened access port. "Yes, Sir, it is. If I may? I think I know how to bypass the damaged controls, though, with a piece of equipment this old, I can't promise anything."

"Maybe you need a bit of good old chemistry," Adrian spoke up from his position in the doorway.

Reuben had been about to open his mouth to answer Micheal but the other man spoke up confusing the situation. How would chemistry help in this situation when the broken console was the problem in retrieving whoever was in there. "What do you mean?" He asked gently trying to keep his tone gentle.

"That thing is inoperational...maybe it just needs some additional battery power. It's quite easy to generate a battery, simply from chemical components." Adrian stepped closer as he explained what he meant.

"I don't think juice will help this thing now." Reuben looked at the man and shook his head showing the broken console and the fact it was covered in the fire retardant foam from Saa putting the console fire out a few days earlier.

It was now that Lorenzo decided to make his entrance. He was pushing a small trolley, piled with mugs and two large steaming jugs, one of coffee and one of tea. "Hello friends," he said "hello. I thought you might want some drinks to keep your minds working." He began handing out mugs and filling them, grinning from ear to ear the whole time, "so, have you made much progress yet?"

"Ah, a savior in our time of need." Having spent most of the time up to this point simply observing, as her Starfleet Diplomatic training did not extend to broken transporter consoles, Valiyi found the refreshments a break from the situation. "You wouldn't happen to have any experience fixing broken machinery, would you?"

Lorenzo shook his head "Alas, the only machine I have ever fixed was the stove when I came on board, it was not providing any heat."

Having already knelt next to the Captain, Micheal glanced up at Valiyi and Lorenzo. "I can get this old piece of junk working. Unless anyone else here is familiar with this tech?"

"It is out of my league so go ahead," Jeassaho spoke up from her postion looking over the platform. Everyone looked at her and she turned around sensing the looks. "If he knows how to fix it i'm not going to argue at the help espeically with all that foam." She muttered.

"Perhaps we should remove the foam...." Adrian suggested with a shrug, "but hey...if you don't want a chemist's help.." He held up his hands as if to defend himself against an unknown foe. 'Who am I to argue..."

Micheal pulled out a small knife and began to carefully peel off the solid foam. Thankfully, it came off in sold hunks, leaving little to no residue behind. As he slowly investigated the mess of wires and circuits, he looked back at Jeassaho and asked, do you have a hydrospanner or a set of laser cutters? Oh, and an infrared welder?"

Jeassaho looked over at the chemist and rolled her eyes. “It might be inside the console and compounds be careful with it cowboy.” Jeassaho commented on as she turned the tricorder to show the Captain and First mate what was actually happening in the loop and what was underneath all the information. Once Reuben looked the tricorder she passed her tool kit to the Chief Armory Officer.

“Structural damage and…” Rueben sighed as he saw why the Starfleet Engineers had never noticed, they had noticed but didn’t know how to get them out so in the rush so had never reported it higher offer than assured that there was more than enough power going to this area. He looked at Jeassaho and closed the tricorder. They would discuss it later on when it was just him, Kea and Uhin but more importantly when they had gotten these people out.

"Most early-era Constitutions were not fit with a failsafe until later in the era," Valiyi commented. Without the prerequisite engineering knowledge or capability, she would not have been able to recognize what the failsafe actually looked like. "But it may be possible the transporter chief took liberties..."

Taking the offered tool kit, Micheal set it on the deck next to the open console and opened it up. After finding a tool that would work, he moved to start the repairs, but paused and looked at Rueben. "Cap, once I start this, I'm not sure what the outcome will be. Due to the age of the equipment and the damage, we will either save these people, or they will be lost forever. I need your orders, one way or the other. Either way, once I start the repairs, there's no turning back.

Reuben looked at the man and nodded, if he hadn't stopped him before now he wasn't going to stop him now from freeing the crew in the transporter. Someone needed to try and get them out. "You have my permission," Reuben said firmly. He would take any guilt or anything associated with it.

Micheal nodded, then began the delicate work. It took him about ten minutes of rewiring and rerunning the available circuits, followed by a spark or two, but finally, he stood up and put his hands on the controls that he had repaired. "Okay," he whispered. "Here we go." He manipulated a few controls, which beeped and whistled softly. He then took hold of the three slide knobs and slowly slid them from the bottom of their assembly to the top. As he did so, the transporter chamber lit up and the sound of incoming transporter signals could be heard.

Slowly, several humanoid forms began to coalesce. The process was painfully slow. During the process, Micheal kept his eyes moving from the chamber to his controls. Suddenly, the transporter signals started to flicker. Cursing under his breath, Micheal manipulated the controls on his console. "C'mon! Damnit!" He worked furiously, trying to get the system to work. "I'm losing the signals!" Growling on frustration, he slams a balled up fist on the console.

Suddenly, the chamber lights stabilized and the figures fully rematerialized. As soon as the transport cycle completed, the people, wearing extremely old Starfleet uniforms, all collapsed to the deck of the chamber.

Lorenzo's eyes widened with surprise as the officers collapsed across the room. He moved closer to them as the medical staff began doing their jobs. "Are they still alive?"

"Shouldn't we call for a doctor?" Adrian suggested, rushing forward to kneel beside one of them. "Or get them to sickbay maybe?"

Reuben looked at the man amazed that he didn’t think that medical were already here. The Captain rolled one of the revealed people into there back. He was surprised to see the woman was Vulcan but she was certainly breathing. “She’s alive.” Reuben said thinking it wa the best news he had heard all day. It seemed like Lady Luck was on there side for once.

OFF::

Paul Cullars
Hydroponics Operator
SS Mary Rose

Valiyi Uhin
First Mate
SS Mary Rose

Micheal Robertson
Chief Armory Officer/Bounty Hunter
SS Mary Rose/Shuttle Alexandria

Reuben Gregnol
Captain
SS Mary Rose

Adrian Sage
Chemist
SS Mary Rose

Lorenzo Di Julio
Chef
SS Mary Rose

Catelyn O’Malley
Senior Medical Personnel
SS Mary Rose