The Trailblazing Saga - Noises in the Dark

Posted on Tue Oct 12th, 2021 @ 3:52am by Captain Aurther Winters

Mission: Death's Triangle
Location: U.S.S. Trailblazer
Timeline: 42 Years ago

OFF: Lets continue to see what was going on in the past!

ON: (U.S.S. Trailblazer - Engineering)

To say that it was frustrating was an understatement. To say that the Chief Engineer, Lt. Cmdr. Hobson was doing everything in his ability's to fix the problem, was an understatement. It was surreal that everything was running optimally and within parameters, then there was this sudden high pitch whine that seemed to encompass the entire ship. Without warning, or even a chance to react, all power in the ship just failed at the exact same time.
Engineering, usually filled with the blue glow of the warp core as well as the normal ambient lighting was only lit now with the small amount of emergency power and flashlight beams. Hobson made his way over to an open Jefferies tube when he leaned down and stuck his head into it.

"Anything yet?" He called out loudly and then waited.

"Nothing yet sir! It seems that whatever phenomenon took out the power of the ship also had an effect with half the subsystems. There are bulkheads that are sealed, but it appears to be random. We are having a little trouble navigating our way around."

"Have you been able to make any progress?" Hobson could hear the voice getting closer.

"We have, and it's not good. Like I said, half the subsystems seem like they are fried. It's the kind of damage that we could only fix in space dock." Suddenly out of the darkness any man popped out of the small door.

"And we don't have any of those around." The Chief Engineer grimaced back.

"Well, that would be the most neutral news."

"Well, give me the good news back news."

The Lieutenant who just came out of the darkness, the Assistance Chief Engineer, took deep breath before answering. "Good news, is that from what my teams and I have been able to piece together, is if we at least could get the warp core back online, we could stitch up the ship enough to probably get us to limp back to a safe port."

"That is good news, which make me very skeptical about the bad." Hobson replied through his teeth almost, trying to prepare himself for what might be next.

"Ackmer and Vinney, our two best warp specialists, they were in shuttle bay 1 when this happened working on a new system for one of the shuttles. We found out way to bay 1, and it seems that the emergency bulkheads failed when the power went out."

Hobson took a deep breath, although he knew the answer before he even asked the question. "So what you're telling me..."

"There more than likely dead. The entire shuttle bay was decompressed. From the duty roster, they, and 5 others were probably blown out into space when the force field lost power."

"Damn..." Hobson hung his head low for a moment. There wasn't a lot of time to feel remorse yet, there was still a ship and many other lives to save. Another high pitched whine started bounce off the bulkheads as lights looked around trying to locate the origin of it. Within seconds, the sound was gone. "Damn." Hobson seemed to repeat himself. "Any word from the bridge or any other decks?"

"Not yet." the ACE replied and then saw the look in Hobsons face. "I know... damn."

OFF

Captain Aurther Winters
Commanding Officer
U.S.S. Chuck Norris