1Chapter 4: Haywire Part 3
At last! Something to do. "Well, if everyone's theory is correct," Tobias started to scan for the little demons, "The 'gremlins' are attracted by heat and power. Anything that could give them... Wait, here we go!"
Meassesa leaned over and read the readouts being displayed. "Heat and energy, huh?" she questioned looking at Chesic "Well at least now
we know they can eat one or both," she thought out loud.
"Apparently we picked these things up recently..." her voice trailed as
she turned back to Tobias, "Scan for any possible place out there that would be a natural home environment for these creatures. After we get that settled then we need to figure out a way to get them to leave the ship. All before everything shuts down."
~I need security on decks 4 and 10. Try and move as many people there. Those that are in their quarters and life support is functioning shall remain until further notice.~ Meassesa ordered, projecting for all to hear.
~Remain where you are,~ projected Neri towards her children.
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Kevvin slapped the panels shut and handed the PADD to Rollins for a
double-check. "We need the engine and core calibrations in order to
adequately input the exact amount of speed and power generated at the time of entry, before the computer was shut down."
"That'll take a while, especially with computer readings offline and the
confusion," Rollins grimaced, glancing over the outline of what the pilot
wanted. "It'll take a while."
Kevvin quickly glanced around and turned to Rollins. "We'll need several
power couplings and a transmitter of some sort, a sub-system that wasn't
exposed when the ship was encountered."
Saerah popped up from underneath the shuttle. "You mean like a new computer?"
"Something like that, a component with the data already in but separate and isolated as to guarantee safety from exposure."
They looked around until, as if three people were one, their eyes fell upon the Ghost. "You don't suppose..."
Saerah got to her feet. "Its computers were given a full overhaul at Earth and we ran several simulations using continuous data feeds from the computer. Its a very good possibility that the settings are still in there, the original settings..."
Kevvin and Rollins quickly swarmed over the internal structure of
the shuttle, accessing the onboard computer systems and checking the data.
"Okay, it'll be a while before we know for sure but it looks good," Kevvin said. "Lieutenant Rollins, go back to Engineering and gather those sequence numbers, we need to be damn precise about this, not one joule off. Also inform the Admiral of what we're planning on doing. Its only theory right now but if we can somehow jury rig a bypass from Engineering into the Ghost and get the correct information, we can get minimum helm control here. It's better than nothing." Rollins nodded and ambled up and disappeared into the tube.
"I'll get you the numbers from the bridge, I think I can get the sensor
readings from the backup log slides." Saerah moved quickly and soon Kevvin was left alone.
"Just like the Academy days...always finding yourself doing the absolutely bizarre..." He activated the Ghost's bay thrusters and pushed it out into the middle of the deck before securing it and turning to work.
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Pathon returned to his console and Tobias went back to what he was
doing before Meassesa got her brilliant idea. Only some of the consoles
were active, and still they couldn't do anything. Then, suddenly, the
battle bridge's lights came on. "We have power!" Someone yelled form the
access tubes.
"We have communications!" Another said form Ops.
"Good work, everyone." Ryan exclaimed. "Now, we have to use this to our advantage. We don't know when the systems could shut down again. What about the computer?"
"I'm working on it, Admiral." Pathon said from his console. "Admiral, I advise that we should call up Starfleet Command and tell them of our situation before things get worse." Tobias suggested. "I don't know how long we could get this power running, but it's better to be safe than sorry."
Ryan walked to Pathon. "I will take that under advisement, but first things first. We get the ship into shape first. I'm not losing another ship!"
"We'll have to do it manually," Chesic said as he fell to his knees and pulled off a panel. "I should be able to do it from here."
Ryan nodded again. "Whenever you're ready," he added.
Chesic began to change the frequency of the power. "Dropping to point five, point four, three, two..." As the energy frequency began to fluctuate, the computer panel began to glow as the "bugs" behind them changed color rapidly. Green, red, blue, yellow, orange, and so on.
"Reaching dangerous frequencies," Chesic warned.
Ryan shook his head. "Return to normal." The power was restored to normal frequencies. The glow behind the consoles began to dissipate as the animals no longer had to adjust. "I think the key is figuring out why they came on board... and how and from where. Once we figure these things out then we'll have a good chance. We've got twenty-seven hours, people. Let's do this."
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Kevvin threw the tools down in disgust and leaned back against the shuttle interior. Saerah's numbers didn't mesh at all with the readings Rollins gave him, they were completely different and out of sync, as if the root of the problem was in their engine readouts.
"This doesn't make sense!" he screamed, picking up the PADD again and
refactoring the variables, attempting to find the exact point of variance
in the stream, whether it be from the kickback or a mis-calculation in the warp fields.
~That's what I got, sir,~ Saerah telepathically projected, picking up on his frustration. He ran the scan again on the computer frame, parlaying the original signature data over what he had gotten and compiled from the
bridge and engineering. The sequences were the same until just before they entered the space, a sudden energy spike sent them into a premature warp acceleration.
"Saerah, I'm getting this flux. Until the entry, everything was the same
but afterwards, it diverges into 3 separate lines. It's like some sort of glitch entered the systems and just took over."
~I'm getting it too, the readouts are completely out of sync. I did the work as you showed me and you're right, the point of divergence increases
by a flux factor of .3."
Kevvin looked at the PADD. "Well, whatever it is, it sure messed up
Navigation and the computers. We'll have to enter the courses manually
until we can run a full diagnostic on the system."
"Kevvin, the Admiral announces we have about 27 hours to get to the bottom of this and route out the bugs," Saerah said outloud. "Meassesa and the others are working on the bug."
He smiled. "That's the first good news I've heard. Okay, they'll be
working on that. Meanwhile, you access the navigation sensors and begin gathering as much navigational data as you can and run a check with your longhand. If it works, plug it in and let me know."
"What are you going to be doing?"
He looked at the computer and quickly brought up the navigational systems. "I'll be here course-verifying it on the Raven. Chances are we can verify it through here before you enter it and we tell Engineering."
"Right, be careful."
"You're starting to sound like Meassesa," he laughed as his fingers began
to fly over the panel board. They all had to do their part, he was glad
they were able to do what was best. She was helping take charge of the
ship, he was working out a way to get them out of there.
"Be careful, my love..."
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As the humming got louder, several people grabbed a phaser rifle or other weapon. Ryan said, "I don't think that those can hurt them. Besides, they're life forms, I'd rather not kill them." One by one the rifles went down. The humming was louder. Suddenly, a jefferies tube door shot open and a swarm of yellow glows shot out and flew through the air, entering a console in under ten milliseconds.
Ryan sighed. "Where'd they come from?"
Someone scanned the conduit and said, "I think their trail leads back to
deck fourteen."
"Fuel storage!" Ryan said, realizing that the only reason they'd leave was if they'd consumed all energy from that deck - including emergency fuel.
"You all have - twenty hours to figure out what we can do. TWENTY!" he screamed. "I will not kill them, so we need to draw them - ALL OF THEM - off-board. Something that emits higher energy, more warmth. Anything, a stray comet, a pulsar. ANYTHING! And figure out a way to get us there. Because we're not close enough to anything."
Tobias just got a great idea hatched from his head. He started to work with the little time that they had for the consoles. He scanned the planet's atmosphere for its mixture of gasses that. "Admiral, I think you
would want to see this." Tobias called to him, knowing that the Admiral
too was a science officer once.
"What is it, Lt?"
"I've scanned the planet's atmosphere, thinking of what could be
feeding these 'Gremlins', and found this. Vast amounts of nitrogen,
methane, carbon monoxide, neon and krypton. Krypton, emits electric
discharges, making our hypothesis of the critters being attracted to
energy, true. Then, methane, which is a byproduct of heat. Must be the
result of the sun's rays hitting the planet.
Meassesa looked around the engineering department and slowly left the science station. She took mental notes on what was working and at what proficiency they were at.
~Be careful , my love...~ she heard Kevvin's though and smiled. A big part of her wanted to be in his arms right then but knew that duty came first in their current situation.
~Same to you , my love.~ she projected.
~Meassesa, I have your children here in sickbay. Life support is down on deck five and Janice brought the triplets here. They are all fine.~ Niaha projected, knowing her sister would hear.
~Thank you and what of the Counselor's children?~ Meassesa answered.
~They are not here.~
Meeassesa looked toward the Counselor and would broach the subject with her in a moment. ~Is sickbay at full capacity?~
~It's filling up fast, security is doing an excellent job.~ Niaha replied.
~Let me know when you can't take in anymore and then we may have to divert a section of the shuttle bay into emergency shelter.~ Meassesa projected back and turned to the Admiral.
"Admiral, Niaha informs me that life support on deck 5 is down and all personnel from that deck have and are being moved to sickbay. We may need to divert a part of the shuttle bay into emergency shelter but that is not needed at this point. Should I keep that option open at this point, sir?" Meassesa asked, verbalizing the report.
"Yes, do so. Inform Kevvin of the option." Ryan replied.
"Done sir." Meassesa acknowledged and projected, ~Kevvin, we may need to divert a part of the hanger bay into emergency shelter as life support on deck 5 is down. Niaha has informed me that she has our children in sickbay with her and that they are fine. Is there anything I should report to the Admiral from your end?~
She leaned over the communications console and did a visual inspection.
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"We'll try adjusting the Inertia ratio by 3-quarter, maybe that'll account for the discrepancy." Kevvin inputted it into the Raven's Computer, keeping in mind to adjust for the mass differential between Shuttle and the ship.
~You'll need to compensate for the Warp factor. Just before the ship went
offline, we had a temporary warp core flux.~
"I got that already calculated in. What do the logs account for?"
Saerah's reply was a bit delayed in coming. ~Nothing, really. They say that the spike bypassed the initial computer programs and went straight for the engine datalinks between the computer core and Helm Control. When it took down the computer, Helm went with it.~
Her mental voice relayed the exhaustion and he smiled slightly, his
shoulder cramping up a bit. "We haven't done something like this since the Yorktown Trials. You remember?"
She laughed. ~How could I forget? It's the almost exact scenario.~
"Yeah, the newly developed 'Kobayashi Maru' exam, meant to defeat even the best of pilots." The computer began its readout, everything ran according to plan and he tapped the computer happily. "Saerah, we got it. Put in the coordinates with the guidelines that we established."
They waited a few seconds. ~~Sir, its working!~~
He leaned back in the chair and ran his hand through his hair, breathing a sigh of relief.
~Kevvin, we may need to divert a part of the hanger bay into emergency
shelter as life support on deck 5 is down. Niaha has informed me that she has our children in sickbay with her and that they are fine. Is there anything I should report to the Admiral from your end?~ Maessesa projected.
"Meassesa, tell the Admiral that we have re-configured the navigation data and at this moment, Saerah's manually entering the new data into the helm."
A tired but happy man, he looked around at the open bay. "I'll get
working on the preparations."
Activating the thrusters, Ghost 1 slowly was moved into docking position at the far end of the bay. Being the biggest of the shuttles, Darkness was also moved, along with 4 standard shuttles. Kevvin and 2 other techs
quickly stored and secured the tools and heavy equipment, clearing out the 6 docking areas.
"Meassesa, we've cleared and secured an area, Hanger Bay's ready whenever
you are."
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After hearing Tobias blurt out his findings Chessic stated to the Admiral that it might just be possible to launch a torpedo or probe with a power signature of between .001 and 5.9 kilocochranes to get them to lace the planets atmosphere to draw the bugs out of the ship's systems. But he explained that manually doing it would take a bit of time. He asked for Tobias help in making the modifications to the torpedo.
"Thought you'll never ask? Where the heck did that come from?"
Tobias asked himself. "Im coming, Mr. Pathon."
"Hurry up. Were not running a food chain!"
"Im coming too!" Ensign Maneek said. "If you'll have me, Lt.?"
"We will need all the help we could get. Come along, ensign."
Pathon said.
"Lets go. Got my gear!" Tobias said.
The power had not been restored to the turbolifts, so they went
back into the jeffries tubes and crawled all the way to the torpedo bay.
"We have to get moving!" Pathon said when they had arrived. "Don't have all the time in the world."
"We have to get the right amount of mixture to the torpedo. The
right mixture of methane, krypton and neon. I don't know if this would
really work, but it's worth to try."
Ensign Maneek stepped forward. "We should make 3 torpedoes. In
case the first one doesn't work, I mean."
"Let's start."
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Niaha held Alexia close to her chest and gently bounced her as she tried to comfort the crying child. She could feel Alexia wanted her mom and dad and yet couldn't do anything about it.
She looked at Steve with an exasperated look and said, "She's dry and not hungry. She just wants her parents."
"Here, let me have her," Steve offered and held out his arms for Alexia. Niaha handed her over.
Steve crossed her legs in front of his chest and laid the baby back with one hand. His other hand, holding her back. "Hey, your parents are working on getting the ship back in order. They'll be here soon enough." he smiled and sat down on one of the empty bio-beds.
"You know, I have a daughter..." he began telling of one of his forklore tales and winked at Niaha as Alexia calmed down.
"Must be a man's voice." Niaha half whispered.
The doors slid open and in rushed a large group of people...
