(Untitled)

[lt_cmmdr_scott]

Who: Engineering crew
Where: Engineering
What: KABOOM

Something was wrong. The away mission had gone well, but something was off, something was not right. The day had started out well. Things were looking up. But now... Scotty, who'd been talking to Keenser, paused in the middle of the conversation, as if alerted by some sixth sense that

Comments

[ensign_singh]

It was a typical day down in the hull for Sanjay. He was reading through the reports of the night's activity log, making notes in his PADD of what he had to work on that day. Nothing unsual, some weakening in the connection of some pipes, easily fixable with some welding, and some other ensigns asked for his help about a "strange" readout in the transport room. He referred them to Lt. Kyle for that...

Just then he heard a low, drawn out groan and witnessed the pipes vibrate. "What the...?"

The controls on the command desk monitoring the piping network began chirping wildly just before he heard Mr. Scott's question over the comm.

"Sir, the pressure is severely decreasing!" He tried to remain calm, "I don't know what happened, but I think we have a massive leakage somewhere... some damage somewhere."

[lt_cmmdr_scott]

The minute Scotty heard Sanjay's report, he sent out an order for all available crew to find the leak and work on getting it contained. There were failsafes in place to keep the entire ship from depressurizing, but the sooner the leak was contained the better.

"Singh, I've got my PADD on me," he told Singh when he was finished barking out orders. "Keep me updated. If you learn anythin' new, let me know. I'm on my way, you just keep an eye on those pressure levels, you hear?"

Another rumble, and he cursed inwardly, speeding up to a quick jog. He was halfway to the command desk when a sudden thought hit him - where was Liz? There wasn't any time to send a message to her right now.

[ensign_singh]

The pressure levels were dropping steadily, and he commed his overseeing Lieutenant, who seemed to be unresponsive. Pursing his lips, he ran another analysis on the piping network and finally managed to pinpoint the location.

"Mr. Scott, it appear the disturbance originated in the transporter room." He checked the fail-safe mechanism readouts, "I believe the pressure has been contained...But I haven't heard of any communications coming out from the room... Perhaps the computer is down?"

He frowned, and checked the pressure readouts again, taking note that things were stabilizing.

[lt_cmmdr_scott]

Scotty took his time getting to the command desk; he wanted to make sure the sudden drop in pressure hadn't affected anything down here in the engine. After all, with a ship as intricately networked as the Enterprise, anything could set off a chain reaction under the right circumstances.

By the time he reached Sanjay, the ensign's words about no communications from the transporter room were proven wrong by a cryptic message from Lt. Kyle, the transporter chief. Coming up beside Sanjay, he tapped his PADD once or twice, as if it were his computer's fault, and muttered, "Cargo's... somethin'... stay clear? Room down..." Well, he'd sent a crew to go check it out, at the very least.

"Looks like the transporter room's out o' commission for a bit, but otherwise, I think we're alright," he added, looking over Sanjay's shoulder at the stabilizing pressure readouts.

[ltkyle]

John knew that something was weird about that away mission. He very rarely felt weird about anything and when he scanned the cargo, it didn't show as anything. John stood behind the console in transporter room three, loading a small shipment of the cargo that no one seemed to remember needed to be beamed aboard. He was already irked that he was taking his time to do this since he had other things scheduled, let alone that the ensign - whose name he couldn't remember - didn't know how to do this himself, but he rolled with it. The cargo materialized in front of him and that was when he knew there was something wrong

[beannyouredone]

Keenser started at the sudden rumble he could feel through the floor, hands coming down to rest on the metal beneath him. Shaking his head at Scotty's question he watched the engineer move away, and start to talk to someone over the comm.

Scrambling to his feet he watched as other engineers started to move throughout the engine room before moving to the dilithium crystal room. He'd found out early on that he was one of the only engineers able to reach the top and fix whatever was broken. If there was the possibility that there might be more rumblings and shaking, Keenser wanted to make sure that nothing broke in there, and that it was all safe. Climbing up to the top of the chamber he quickly start to check over everything, checking for any problems.

[master_charm]

In her more wistful days, Charlene would liken the dilithium crystal room to a secluded island hidden within the mass sea of Engineering. The natives consisted of her and a few assistants, knowledgeable in the ways of dilithium and chambers. There wasn't much that could disturb the peace of this imaginary island, except for a loud "KABOOM!"

During the rumble, Charlene grabbed hold of the nearest surface. Once it stopped, she ordered her subordinates to safely figure out what the hell was going on. She herself began to scan the chamber for any problems when she spotted Keenser near its top. "Keenser! Do you spot anything wrong up there?"

[beannyouredone]

Keenser was stretched to the extent of his height, checking panels and wires for anything wrong when he heard someone's voice from below. Tilting his head he saw that Charlene was standing at the bottom of the room looking up at him. Turning back to his work he quickly finished checking over everything, cataloging that a few of the wires were becoming worn out and would need to be replaced, but nothing that couldn't be fixed later.

Sliding down he joined Charlene, shaking his head as looked at her, starting to become disconcerted over what the boom had meant. If nothing in engineering had exploded Keenser couldn't imagine what else had gone wrong, and all he'd been doing was sitting there. 'Nothing. Anywhere else?' He figured as long as he was there he might as well check any other places she needed looked over for damages.

[master_charm]

Charlene sighed with relief. While she didn't share Scotty's intense adoration for the Enterprise, the dilithium chambers were very special to her. Those were her crystals powering this entire ship. Any damage to them would result in a very distressed Charlene.

"Thank you for checking, Keenser," she replied back to him. "We should probably look over the converter assemblies themselves for any damage." She then motioned Keenser to walk with her to the dilithium chamber hatch.

[ensign_singh]

After concluding the piping network was stable, Sanjay raced down the short flight of stairs to another command station where there seemed to be an argument brewing between a couple other ensigns. "Guys! What's going on?" He was about to offer assistance, but then without warning following a moment of eerie silence alarms screamed through the room.

"What the...!?" Sanjay covered his ears just as an explosion ripped through the far east side of the hull.

Scraps of metal went flying, causing multiple small explosions as pipes burst and a vacuum being formed. "Mr. Scott!" Sanjay managed to stablize himself on a nearby railing. "The overrides to lock down the room!" He couldn't tell if the Chief Engineer was alright, since his platform was in a higher location than Sanjay's and things were starting to fly out said vacuum.

[lt_cmmdr_scott]

Scotty was engrossed in following the incoming reports from his repair crews, but everything seemed to be settling down. He breathed a sigh of relief, his shoulders relaxing, and then... silence. Brow furrowing, he glanced up, and then the sharp blare of klaxons and warning sirens shattered the silence, and before Scotty knew what was happening, everything went to hell.

The explosion knocked him off his feet, and the force of the sudden vacuum dragged him across his platform; bits of scrap metal and shrapnel from the multiple blasts ripped past him, and it was all he could do to reach out and grab onto the railing just before he fell over the edge.

He was cut and bleeding in too many places to count, but he couldn't worry about that right now. Hanging on for dear life, he shouted the override codes to Sanjay, praying that the man could hear him.

[ensign_singh]

Sanjay shook his head, trying to clear his mind as he felt his chest tightening from the vacuum that seemed to have grown more severe within seconds. But he managed to hear Scotty shout something which....

"Override codes!" He scrambled to the counsel, pushing a passed out ensign (or so he hoped, no time to really check) out of the way of the keyboard.

Just as he began furiously typing, the counsel short-circuited, causing Sanjay to quickly pull back his hands shaking them from the sting. Quickly muttering a curse, he scrambled to another counsel 5 yards away, trying to dodge flying debris (but managing to get cut).

"Scotttty!" His voice carried, "The codes, what are theeey!?"

[lt_cmmdr_scott]

Gritting his teeth, ignoring the blood trailing down his arms, Scotty swung over the railing of the platform he was on, gripping the bars as tightly as he could. He had to get down to where Sanjay was, and fast, but one wrong move, and he could very well be dragged off with the debris still flying past him.

"Sanjay! The codes--" He was cut off by a large piece of metal slamming into his back, and he faltered, and almost lost his grip on the railing, his fingers slipping, slick with blood, and he couldn't hold on, couldn't keep going--

Liz. He shut his eyes, gritting his teeth. He had to know if Liz was okay. He had to stay alive long enough to find Liz. That thought got him on his feet again, and with what felt like glacial slowness he fought his way to the console where Sanjay was, shouting the codes as he approached, praying that they would work, that the console wasn't broken beyond use.

[beannyouredone]

Keenser had just finished checking the wires beneath one of the nearby consoles when he was grabbed by the arm and pulled away from a suddenly sparking compositor. Blinking over at the sparks he barely had a chance to react before he was thrown against one of the walls by a sudden blast or the compositor exploding. Slumping to the ground, ears ringing, he could barely move, his limbs laden down by his own pain, he only hoped that Charlene had missed most of the blast.

Gathering himself he flipped over onto his stomach, opening his eyes to look over to where Charlene was, voice raspy, 'Okay?'

[master_charm]

Despite her ringing ears and disoriented mind, Charlene was able to cough out a reply. "I'm fine. Are you okay?" She glanced at Keenser, and her question was answered. Even when she moved him away from the compositor, he still managed to get injured.

Pulling herself to her feet, she rushed over to Keenser. "Oh god, Keenser. I'm so sorry. Where are you injured?" Guilt was starting to rear its ugly head again in Charlene's mind.

[beannyouredone]

Keenser could only shake his head, trying to disperse the ringing, and push himself to his feet. Reaching up a hand he patted her softly on the arm, voice soft, 'Not fault. Slow.' No matter what she thought, it wasn't her fault that he'd gotten caught in the blast, Keenser had always been a magnet for these types of things. Ignoring the pain he could feel spreading through his side he grabbed her by her sleeve and started to pull her out of the chamber. 'Need leave.'

He barely made it a few steps before he collapsed to the ground, the pain in his back becoming too much for him. Groaning he shut his eyes, grimacing as he pushed himself to his knees and lent against a nearby wall. No matter how much he was hurting he had to get Charlene out of there in case something else happened to blow up. 'Go!' Pointing his arm towards the opening he lent more of his weight against the wall, trying to gather enough strength to get back up.

[master_charm]

Charlene allowed herself to be pulled by Keenser, still feeling guilty about letting him get injured. No matter what he said, it was her fault that he got caught in the blast. If only I noticed the sparking sooner...

Her thoughts were interrupted when Keenser collapsed to the ground. She stared at him incredulously as he pointed for her to leave without him. "I am not leaving without you, Keenser. You cannot order me to do so," she said firmly. With that, she pulled him onto her back, both taking care of his physical wounds and ignoring any embarrassment she might potentially have caused him (this was for his own good after all), and rushed towards the opening.