[snip]

Looking around and realizing the turbolift did not take him to the bridge, he tried calling it back, but it wouldn’t open back up. =^= “Commander Sanks to bridge”=^= He called on the comms, but there was static and no answer. After a few minutes, he opened up a panel to a jefferies tube and started climbing his way up to the bridge. He came out of a tube to the side to the entrance of the Captain’s ready room and stepped onto the bridge.
He surveyed the area and saw the CMO.

“Can I get an update? Comms and the turbolift is down, what’s going on?” Lt. Cmdr. Sanks asked the bridge crew.

George looked to Dr. Cross to reply. He hadn’t even had a chance to look at the Comms yet, what with all these questions.

Cross was about to tell Sanke where the hell have you been but then she changed her mind ‘’Well Cmdr glad to see your presence on the bridge ,now we have an ex Cmdr and you ,all I know is that the warp drive is down due to interference either from the planet or from some other source .All communications are down we cannot get through the landing party and they cannot make contact with us ‘’ she paused making eye contact with Lt Cmdr Sanks ‘’ In a few word nothing is working ‘’.

Then she turned her attention to the Engineer ‘’I wish you can communicate in simple English ,have you said you can take the ship further away from the planet in the hope that it would solve the interference problem ? ‘’ the CMO asked.

George now had his head under the Comms station, but he popped out again and replied, “Using, the impulse engahn? Yes, it darn well oughta still wawk…”

’’ Hope so ‘’ Cross replied back ‘’ If you need help just ask but you have to tell me what to do ‘’ she offered.

Joe gave himself an invisible pat on the back. For he was pretty sure that given enough time the ship’s engines might actually be nudged for enough time to make them lose what was now their stable orbit and put them into an unstable orbit which would only end in a a wonderfully brilliant way to die. All flame and explosions as Merrimac fell through the sky and crashed into the planet below. A magnificent ending to one’s life if you were a character in a novel but Joe was neither a character in a novel or some fool who didn’t want to live anymore. With nothing else being said Joe broke the silence of the bridge by looking at Cross and asking. ” So Miri how’s the baby business going?”

‘’Eh?’’ Cross asked looking down at her protruding abdomen as if seeing it for the first time ,she pressed it with her finger and got a kick back ‘’Guess he’s enjoying the drama’’ the doctor replied with a chuckle and a smile.

George came back out from under the Comms console. “Thanks, but ay’m okay,” he replied to Cross. “These here transceiver circuts still wawk… Ay’m nahwt sure what’s wrong! The self-diagnostic routeen should have done fixed it, but there is no power!”

And for the first time Cross gave up ‘’ Since the ship and crew isn’t facing any serious immediate or unexpected dangerous situation requiring immediate action I suppose the landing party may find the source of interference on the planet and hopefully contact will be restored ‘’ then as an after thought the CMO mumbled ‘’ I hope nothing unexpected is thrown our way ‘’.

“Ay’m Daggawn Deedly Doodly if ay know what’s up!” replied George, scratching his head.

With nothing else to go by Cross decided to head to sickbay ,once off the bridge she made a turn for the Jeffrey tubes while trying to remember the layout to get to sickbay ,It had been a long time since she had used them.

“Were it something ay done said?” George asked the Commander and the Barman as the Doctor left. “Ay guess it’s all powuurr done related problems! Ay’ll just try one mawe thing!”

If the plasma conduits were still working George couldn’t understand why they weren’t distributing power to the Comms console. He could try to reroute power, but he’d have to be careful not to cause the console to explode in a shower of sparks. It would be tricky to get right, like powering a transceiver or a monitor screen directly from the Warp Core itself. Luckily though, the surge protectors would still be turned on because the Red Alert had not yet been activated, but they turned them off during combat mode, and then… well, let’s say Sickbay had better expect a few redshirts.

So, George scratched his head a little more.

“Are ya’ll planning ta go ta awful Red Alert?” George asked before he checked on the main plasma conduit.

Joe sat on the edge of the captain’s chair trying to understand what this Scotsman was saying. If he were actually saying anything. Joe rubbed his chin still waiting for the man to show a bit more enthusiasm for his job when Joe finally decided to earn Cross’s trust in him. ” George?” Joe began with a soft understanding voice. Have you actually visibly walked up to the engine and looked at it? I mean just stood in front of the thing. Is it dark or does it go off and on? Have you taken core temperatures to see if there is any reactions still going on in there? “

“Nahwt ay, ay were just there darn done told ta come ayn’ fix the Comms,” George replied.

Joe then shifted on the arm of the chair not to make himself seem more threatening or anything but because it was quite simply becoming a pain in his rear. ” Have you checked the electro-magnetic eddy currents into the Dilithium structure. Is something wrong there? For all we know we may not have any antimatter. By crackly I’ve also heard of creatures, not that I believe the tales mind you that come along and try to take the energy from a star ship. We have no reaction that we can measure sir why not? Or at least it seems as if we have no reaction. If you can’t figure it out turn the thing off. Shut it down and restart it. If that doesn’t work, we’ll start the auxiliary engines up just so we can have more lights and get the turbo lifts working. Now be off and curse at your engines like you would your errant children. If you need help let me know somehow.”

“Engineers are a-doin’ all that there darn a-testin’ raheet now!” George answered. “Thay …uhh powuurr is dead up here so ay done might as whel darn go ayn’ help them!”

Joe’s temper was growing sharp with the man. He didn’t seem to want to answer a question straight on or make any move but to complain. He thought anyway. With whatever blathering the man was doing it was in the tone of one who is complaining. ” So then,” Joe began. ” The engineers are all running tests and have no results? On anything? And they haven’t even that they have no results on anything? Are you sure there are people down there sir? Maybe everyone has fallen dead from a radiation leak? I mean no one is reporting anything. We might have been boarded, and no one has informed us. So far the only thing we know is that the power is dead up here.”

” So then.” Joe said as he rose from the arm rest of the captain’s chair which was not the only thing giving him a pain at the moment. ” Can anyone explain why point ton point comms on the ship isn’t working at least? No of course not.” Joe then pointed to the navigation console. The poor dead thing laying there like so much expensive scrap. ” George!” Joe snapped pointing at the console. Sit! That console is your mother protect her with your life. If she grows lonely or sad you sing her a song. But above all things you stay there with your mother and tend to her!” It was with that that Joe went to the ductwork for the Jeffries tube and kicked it out of the way. ” Want something done right you have to do hae to do it yourself is what me pappy used to say!” And with that Joe slipped himself into the access tube and started falling. Rants and curses in two languages and one language he made up along the way until his voice had disappeared.

A short time later would find Joe being unceremoniously deposited onto the floor of engineering on his keester.

George was baffled as to why Joe had got so hot under the collar. The power was off all over the ship. George had been sent up here to fix the Comms, but the problem didn’t appear to be the Comms system. There was nothing wrong with the actual physical components that George had been looking at, but they were dead. No power was getting to them. So, he had been sent on a wild goose chase. That wasn’t his fault.

And George was even more baffled as to why the barman was giving him orders. He was so surprised at the outburst that he sat down at the navigational console anyway. George wasn’t a navigator or a pilot, and he thought that he’d be much better employed back down in Engineering trying to see what the problem with the power was, but he sat there anyway and looked up at Lieutenant Commander Sanks for his next instructions.

“Ay ain’t no pilot, Sir,” he told Lt. Sanks. “With no powuurr ay cannot change awbits!”

Joe rose up from the floor cursing as he swept his rear clean with his hand. He immediately set off at a determined pace toward the warp core. About halfway there he began to feel sorry that he had snapped on George. The man just seemed to want to accept things as they were though, and not wanting to try anything else. No great engineer ever had just thrown up his hands and declared that something was broken simply because it was. Joe himself had started out as an engineer and the first thing he had been taught was to make your preliminary report heavy on real and imaginary technical jargon and to assure your commanding officer that it was nothing that couldn’t be repaired. This of course being what CO’s wanted to hear and it would give a good engineer time to do the job properly.

” Well then Joe.” he said to himself as he rounded the corner which led to the warp core. ” Let’ s see if the inside of this beastie is glowing a bit at least.”

“I only have the basic knowledge they teach you at the academy, but I’ll worry about flying it, especially on impulse, I should be able to do as you suggested when I was entering the bridge…” Lt. Sanks responded then paused before adding, “I’d appreciate it if you continued working on the comms panel and see if there’s any visible possibility as to why it has no power. If nothing else, we seriously need comms shipwide back.” He continued. “Listen, I haven’t really had much interaction with him, but he seemed a little frustrated at this situation, I appreciate what you’re doing and how you’re helping.” He added.

It hit Joe like a lightning bolt then. Before he even reached the cursed warp core.” Wait! He spoke out loud to himself as there didn’t seem to be an engineer anywhere. Why am I so comfortable? ” Joe rubbed his arms and then his hands together. Everything seemed the same. He took several deep breaths inhaling and exhaling over and over. . ” If we don’t have any power at all as everyone is saying,” why am I so warm and breathing so well? Why do we still have gravity?”

Joe didn’t want to but he felt that he should climb up that bloody tube to the bridge. He needed to apologize to George for one thing and then maybe they could find a common language and try to repair this heap. Joe’s head popped out of the Jeffries tube. His face was smudged, and he was out of breath. ” George old buddy is there some reason why we’re warm and comfortable”?

It appeared there was still power from the emergency system, enough to keep life support on but not enough for anything else.

Joe moaned as he crawled out of the Jeffries tube. He sank down to the floor then shaking his head. ” Batteries.” he murmured. Batteries it is. Just batteries keeping us alive. ” He almost tried to have another idea but gave it up. Always before he would be able to find a cheat of some sort even if it would be something to keep him going a bit longer. He looked around for George and asked him. ” George why pray tell me boy would batteries be working when we cannot even run a small little systems check?” Joe was not about to be wrong again and go chasing through the ship. George was the engineer for one thing and a lot more limber.

“What do you think George? All those empty decks. Decks that could be evacuated to a better location so that we have all our people in a small space.” What if we had a limber young engineer who …” Joe paused and finished saying, “What if you could take some of the power from those batteries and do something that might help us all? What I don’t know we’d have to leave that up to the XO. But at least he would have something he could do with the ship instead of just letting it float about like some lazy old walrus or something.”

George considered the question carefully. “Ay don’t know how much powuurr is in those there batteries. Y’all asking if we turn off powuurr on certayn deks, will there be enough ta change awbit? Ay don’t know!”

Joe leaned his head back and sighed. He decided that maybe he was being a bit too rough on George. Maybe his hormones were messing with him. It was only the lives of his soon to be bride and his unborn son at risk. ” Oy George . Sunds bluddy wunnerfool .” Joe replied as he closed his eyes closed and he began to fantasize about a Reuben sandwich and a cold beer.

A crewman mostly out of breath entered the bridge, handing a note to Joe - Utilize Energy from Life Support Systems: Temporarily divert energy from non-essential systems to restore critical power…raise the shields up to prevent whatever is interfering with the engines and maybe get some much needed power back .Joe its absurd that we are in this situation which we need to get out of and have yet to figure out how -.

Joe would obviously recognize the handwriting ..............

Put up the shields which is only a small bit at best.

Joe read the note indeed. ” So, then we take the power. Which isn’t designed to run such things. Then we divert what would probably be at least a few hours of life at least in order to raise the shields for some reason. I mean nothing else is working why would the shields? The only thing we’d accomplish by this is to fritter away what power we have in those batteries. “

Joe was feeling about suicidal enough to raise the shields up against something that they couldn’t understand. No one knew what was going on as far as he knew. If they were in an asteroid field, or if someone were shooting at them. Certainly. Have at it. But they would be throwing rocks at a ghost in the dark or perhaps it was someone ‘s dog if they did anything else. The idea wasn’t good. You needed something. A reason, some data something from the tarot deck maybe? Anything would be better than giving their lives away for nothing.

” Crewman. Kindly tell the good doctor that if she would care to she can join me in the Dragon. I’ll be there having me a sandwich and a bottle of beer. “

‘’Yes Joe,em Cmdr whatever’’ the crewman left making his way up and down the Jeffrey tubes ‘’Wait what am I doing running around in the dark for those two nuts heads!’‘
He said to himself and decided to join some of his friends who where sitting down in one corridor with a candle light cracking jokes.

George felt that he had exhausted everything he could achieve on the Bridge. Diverting power from Life Support to the Shields, or using it to reach a higher orbit, those were all Executive Decisions well above his responsibilities, and he would leave it to the XO ( and to the ex-XO who was really just the barman.) George wanted to return to Engineering where he hoped that the CE or someone else in his department were working on restarting the Warp Engines (and then all of these difficult decisions would no longer be necessary) and he couldn’t understand why it hadn’t happened yet. He thought that he was probably best employed helping them in any case, so he made his excuses and asked if he could leave.

“Ay think Ay oughta get to Enguneering and restur the powuurr!” George said.

Joe in the meantime after swallowing what may have been the last sandwich and last sip of beer he may ever have sat thinking for a moment before burping. As he did, he noticed that the place was boring and getting a bit dark. “Dammit I hate to just be standing about.”. And with this he found the nearest Jeffries tube with a few things in a toolbox and a flashlight. Kicking out the vent and shouting out ” HIHO!” He stepped forward and dropped down the tube to land this time in front of the warp core itself.He stood a bit crookedly having landed a bit off center. Standing then with his hands set on his hips as if he were about to challenge the core to a duel, he asked the warp core. ” So, you’re all dark, are you?”

After Joe and George followed Dr. Cross and both disappeared off down the Jefferies Tube to Engineering, that only left a few people remaining on the Bridge.

Dariusz Pokorski, the Navigator was also covering Helm while Eros was on the planet surface. He had heard the discussion about all kinds of things, including using what little power was left aboard the ship to raise the shields, or to move to a higher orbit. However, no order of such had been given, and anyway, he wasn’t sure that they could do either of those with the power reading he was getting now. Maybe if they had tried earlier? Of course, there were ways to save power, like cutting lighting and life support to some lower decks, although power already seemed to be off and a good many decks if he had heard right from the Doctor.

“Commander?” Dariusz asked Sanks. “I’m confused, sorry! Is it your intention to order me to try to move the ship to a higher orbit and attempt to avoid whatever dampening field has put out the Warp Core reactions, or am I to maintain the present orbit? The ship won’t be able to maintain the present orbit indefinitely. Without power it will also begin to decay. So unless someone fixes the problem with the Warp Core fairly soon, giving me any more orders will be pointless!”

Hercules, the Weapons officer, appeared out from the Jefferies Tube that now seemed to be the only way to get between the decks.

“Commander,” Kahuna said to the XO. “Sorry, I couldn’t get out my Quarters as the door was jammed, and power to that deck is completely off. I had to smash up my bed and then use one of the side supports as a crowbar to prise the doors apart. I got here as fast as I could!”

“What have I missed?” Kahuna said.

A somewhat larger crewmember was next to appear from the Jefferies Tube situated to the side to the entrance of the Captain’s ready room and stepped onto the Bridge. Cara Meow joined Sanks and Kahuna as Pokorski was briefly explaining what had been going on…

“After the XO got here, the CMO left for Sickbay,” Dariusz explained. “An Engineer was here to fix the Comms but he said that he couldn’t as it was a power problem, and he went away to Engineering with the barman, who used to be XO, and before that he was once the COS… Anyway, then you came up and now Cara has arrived. I was just asking what my orders are exactly, because doing our best to do nothing isn’t really a viable option. The power levels are draining, and even if we turn stuff off, they won’t last forever. We could try to move into a higher orbit where whatever it is that it is won’t affect us, but we may not have enough power for that any longer since we’ve wasted a lot of time just discussing it. Or else, ignoring it completely!”

Both Cara and Hercules looked to the XO for an answer. If Roger wasn’t going to make a decision, then Hercules would have to make one for him.

“When the power reaches a certain critical level,” Cara added, “then the Impulse Engines will no longer function, and then the Merrimack will begin a slow orbital decay due to atmospherically friction. After that, there will be nothing Dariusz can do to stop the deterioration. After entering the atmosphere of Ardan V the Merrimack will likely burn up, break up or explode.”

Hercules released that he would need to take charge of the Bridge as the XO had stood motionless for a very long time without replying to any conversations or even to direct questions to him.

“Cara,” he instructed, “Please determine if the XO is well or not?”

He walked around and sat in the Captain’s chair.

Not having communications was a huge problem. For all Hercules knew, the Captain could have already discovered the problem on the planet surface and was waiting to be beamed back up, or the engineers could soon have the Warp Engine back online. But he couldn’t know any of that and couldn’t think of a way to find out. He had to concentrate on the here and now.

“Dariusz,” he said, “Firstly, please calculate the course changes necessary to take up into a standard higher orbit. I want an orbit that will take us the furthest away from the planet surface but still within effective range of transporters and weapons. It doesn’t need to be geosynchronous. Then secondly, check what the power consumption that would require and whether it is possible with our present reserves, and if, as assume not, then what can we shut down that would make it possible. As quick as you can please!”

While Cara went to check on the condition of the XO, Dariusz ran the calculations to determine the power remaining and the power consumption required to change orbit.

Pokorski’s calculations showed the ship had full power actually, the problem was not the lack of power but the lack of anything running due to They would have sufficient power to change orbit once the warp core was running.

GM Nosferatu
Your Darkest Nightmare

“Sir, we have enough power to change orbit,” Pokorski replied. “In fact, the warp core appears to be running again. The problem is the lack of anything else running because of the signal interruption between anything that required signals to run. Shall I make the course changes?”

• Daiusz, Navigator

“Yes, indeed crewman,” instructed Kahuna. “Make the course corrections!”

• Kahuna, weapons