Rise of the ECH

Posted on Saturday 12 October 2019 @ 10:09 by Captain Melody Jones & Commander Save'ena (Sav) Tillatix & Commander Caroline Miller & Lieutenant Marbim Rejal & Lieutenant Michael Ki MD & Lieutenant Commander Hayley Godding & Master Chief Petty Officer Harris Zim

Mission: The New Collective
Location: Main Bridge
Timeline: After The End
3623 words - 7.2 OF Standard Post Measure

ON:

The Bridge was still a mess but more systems were back online. Everybody was pitching in, including Melody who was currently lying on her back underneath one of the aft bridge terminals trying to get the computer voice pickups working again. After a few moments, she let loose a short "Yes!" before dragging herself our from under the console and stood up. "Computer?"

There was a beep before the computer voice responded: "Computer standing by."

Melody clapped her hands together before going over the files on display. She paused and frowned. "Computer, identify the program currently displayed."

"Program is the Emergency Command Hologram."

"It says here it was deactivated, which explains why I haven't heard of it before. Can it be reactivated?"

"Affirmative."

Melody rolled her eyes "Ok, then do it!"

The computer beeped "Standby."

A few paces away, a female in a Starfleet uniform appeared.

It had been so long since she had been plunged into the blackness of non-existence. So long alone, but, not really alone. While she saw the dark void around her she also “saw” every star, cloud, planet, anomaly and ship within the Merlins sensor range. She “heard” the whale song of pulsars and voices of the ship's crew, the background noise of the very universe. Yet, she was still alone, listening and “feeling” the damage to the ship, what a biological life form would call stabbing, burning pains from the recent Borg attack. She could feel the crew moving around, attempting repairs like a bodies immune system attempting to seal tears and cuts in the skin. Then there was a sure of sudden brightness and an almost tingling sensation. Then the dark haired hologram materialized into existence, her molecules pulled together through the holographic technology installed on Merlins bridge, and looked around quietly for a moment, an almost calm peace on her face, before her expression twisted, “were is that imp that turned me off, I’ll gut him,” she growled before her eyes rolled back momentarily, “and for nearly a year he left me down?!”

The Turbolift opened to find Commander Save'ena Tillatix entering the bridge. She noticed Echia on the bridge and exclaimed, "Echia, you're back. Thank the Creator, they reactivated you. So much has happened since the shutdown of the Merlin, you are back." Sav, with her cyberapathy, had linked with 'Echia', her personal name for the Emergency Command Hologram ima 'Female' Atuitty 'In perpetuation'. I was hoping you would be recalled from Stasis, just as I was."

Melody raised an eyebrow at the familiarity Sav had with the new arrival but then, she thought to herself, Sav knew the ships computer better than anyone. She turned her attention back to the hologram. "I'm not sure who turned you off, the records don't indicate. So..... You are?"

The hologram looked over at Sav and her expression softened for a moment and she gave the helm officer a smile before looking back at Melody, “I’m the ICOS avatar and the executive officer is who shut me down mid-“

Just then there was a beep from tactical and the ensign there spoke up. "Sir, the Apollo is hailing us."

Melody held up her hand “Excuse me a moment.” Before she turned to the tactical station. "Open a channel." She then raised her voice slightly "Yes Captain?"

"Commander Jones, all repair teams have been beamed over and, we have a new security chief for you as well. Her order just came through from Starfleet Command. She's standing by."

"Thank you Captain. I'll meet her in the transporter room. Merlin out."

Melody turned back to the hologram "Well, this looks like a good time to let you gate back into the swing of things. Think you can keep things together?"

“Of course,” the avatar replied and anger turned to curiousness.

Melody nodded "Then I'll be in transporter room 1. You have the bridge." And with that, Melody headed for the turbolift.

“So, Save’ena, want to tell me what happened?” the hologram asked as she moved toward the Commander.

Sav snorted out in light humor and replied, "Well, it is a very long story. However, short version. We ran into a powerful alien entity protecting a planet, it transported the crew away from the ship except for me and Captain Barstow's daughter, the ship was transported many lightyears away to another planet and into its ocean, the daughter and I were in coldsleep for over six months until discovery, Merlin was put back into service, and now we are pretty badly beat up after a run in with some sort of hyper rogue Borg sect and the planet we were around blowing up. That's about it in a nutshell."

Melody walked into the transporter room were the Chief was waiting. "Energize!"

Hayley would never really grow to love the feeling of the transporter as it effectively broke you down into your constituent atomic parts and transmitted you across space to another point, reassembling you at the other end. As far as she was concerned, each time she was transported, she was killed off and her consciousness moved over to a new body. The fact that the transporter could screen out biotoxins and other unpleasantries only really confirmed that viewpoint. Depending on how the transporter was calibrated, it could add or remove things from the person being transported prior to rematerialization. This time, she rematerialized in a transporter room almost identical to the one she'd just left, only this one had a Bolian male behind the transporter controls and a female human officer with the most vivid red hair she'd ever seen in her life wearing a command division uniform and sporting three devices on her grey collar.

"Permission to come aboard, Commander." Hayley asked, formally. It was a naval tradition from old-Earth that was a courtesy to the ship being boarded that the boardee requested the consent of the officer of the watch to come aboard.

Melody smiled and held out her hand. “Of course Lieutenant. Welcome aboard the Merlin, I’m Commander Jones.” She gestured to the damage on the bulkheads “I apologise for the condition of the ship, we had a slight run in a Borg cube and planet that our Chief engineer managed to vaporise. If you’re up to starting duty straight away we could use some assistance. Please accompany me.” Melody turned and started to lead the way towards the door. She paused as her comm badge beeped. She tapped it.

"Captain. I've got some of the power systems re-routed through secondary and tertiary systems. The warp drive seems stable at the moment. I'm heading down to the other damaged decks to see what miracles we need there. So far I haven't encountered any seriously injured folks. Rejal out." Ok, now how to get down in decks when the turbolifts are offline, hmmm, Jefferies Tubes yeah. Miles high fives the wall section he is standing next to, then spins around to make sure no one saw him, before he heads for a tube to get down to the lower levels of the ship.

Melody talked as they walked “Acknowledged Lieutenant Rejal, keep me informed. Jones out.” Melody looked back at the young woman with long brown hair. “Now then where were we.......”. They entered a turbolift and Melody spoke “Main Bridge.”

"You were explaining that you'd encountered a Borg cube and that your Chief Engineer vaporised both them and a planet, ma'am." Hayley replied, as if she were reporting on the weather. Internally, she was at a loss to understand exactly *how* that had occurred. Even with an Excalibur class vessel, that kind of thing should not be possible in a one-hit-wonder. Mind you, those who underestimated the ingenuity of the Starfleet Corps of Engineers did so at their peril...

As the turbolift rose Melody went onto explain "The Borg were being controlled by an artificial intelligence which called itself 'The Puppet Master'. We manged to get hold of an alien computer terminal which gave us the ability to hack into the Borg systems. The idea was to disable the Borg weapons but unfortunately both the Ship and planet exploded. The combination of the battle and the explosion has severely damaged the ships systems. We need all hands on deck to help with repairs.”

The turbolift doors opened onto the bridge with the scene pretty much the same as she left it with Sav explaining the situation to the ECH.

Melody spoke up "If i could have your attention, I'd like to introduce our new security officer, Lieutenant Godding."

Hayley looked around at the chaos that was the Merlin bridge following the altercation that Commander Jones had been talking about. It was obvious that it had been pretty rough, looking at the scorch marks on the walls, the blown out consoles, the dried blood on the floor, the dangling wires that were sparking ominously - it was obvious the ship has been through one hell of an ordeal. Mind you, the crew, despite their battered looks, appeared to be in good spirits, which did speak volumes about the command crew. "Pleasure to be here." Hayley said, offering a smile.

The Female 'skunkette' on the bridge returned the smile and said, with a lilting 'churr' sound behind her words, "Great to meet you. I'm Commander Tillatix, and off duty, Sav is fine. I'm here to help with repairs... umm, I'm really good at them."

It was the first time that Hayley had met this species before and she had to admit, even for a non-human species, Commander Tillatix was quite attractive in her own way. The word 'cute' was probably a tad bit demeaning, in her estimation, but she was visually appealing. The security officer could appreciate that the commander was probably a beautiful female in her species. "I'm pleased to meet you as well Commander." Godding replied. "I get the feeling with all this mess, I'm going to need all the help I can get!"

Caroline appeared on the bridge to find two new faces. "Captain," she nodded at Melody while taking her seat. "Welcome aboard," she directed at the two new faces.

"Thanks Commander." Godding said briefly, as she returned to her repairs with Sav.

Melody looked back at Hayley. “I’m afraid the internal sensors are still offline. The XO is conducting a deck by deck survey and we’ve already had the Chief encounter some Borg on board so we could do with those sensors back online and a complete and thorough scan of the ship. Think you can handle that?”

Hayley nodded. "Depending on the level of damage, it could be a simple fix or a massive pain in the butt. However, I won't know until I've had a good look." She said. "Do we know what deck they were spotted on? We can do damage limitation by sending in some specialists with TR-116B rifles to take down the drones. Your marines should have them, assuming they're in one piece after all this." She gestured around her.

Melody nodded "The Borg were found on deck 27, however their link to the collective had been severed. I believe they are in sickbay now. I'm waiting on word from Doctor Ki on their condition. I'm just hoping we didn't pick up any more uninvited guests. By all means, dive right in and see what needs to be done."

Sav shuddered lightly, saying under her breath, "Darned Mechanii." She scooched under a console, her tail laying down and out away from her, and began quickly and very efficiently changing out damaged circuit boards without using an analyzer. "Captain, I'll have right console running in a few, left console station will be after that."

"Good work Commander." Melody replied before raising her voice to address the bridge. "Good work everyone. I know it's been a difficult time but you've all performed admirably."

Zim walked back onto the bridge, the wound on his head had been dealt with when he was in Sick Bay. His face was stern and stone cold. He did little to acknowledge anyone, the thoughts of what he had done to the Drones, those people still plagued him. He knew that they would fade into memory but for now there was nothing for it.

=/\=Ki to Bridge. We are just getting back in order down here. However, I have one Romulan, one Klingon, and a Human patient. They may not look like they fit the description but they are here. I can use an engineering team to get the surgical fields back online so I can keep them quarentined. They are still confused and want to assimilate the medical staff."=/\= Michael tapped the comm badge on his chest to activate the channel. He dabbed at some sweat that was on his brow, and missed the days of being back on Earth in a lab. At least he did for the moment.

=/\=“Acknowledged Doctor, do what you can for them and keep me informed. Jones out.”=/\=

Melody sat down in the Captain's chair. She looked back at the ECH. “So. How can we use you to the best of your ability?”

“Give me an order,” the Avatar replied and looked back from behind Sav, “I have full access to the ship along with safeguards that unless you order it I cannot take over the ship and turn off life support,” the hologram replied with a smile.

=/\= Rejal to Captain Jones. The lower decks need some serious attention. I'm watching space go by. The environmental shields are keeping the air in, but there are several sections of these decks that are just missing. You could almost land a shuttle through one opening. I'll keep a repair team down here to make sure we don't lose any further hull integrity. The lifts between Decks 11 to 20 are malfunctioning, and I have a team trying to track down what the issue is. Unless I'm needed anywhere else, I'm heading back to the bridge. Rejal out. =/\=

Melody tapped her comm badge "Copy that Number one." She looked back at the ICOS, an idea forming. "Can you track down the lift malfunction and assist our Chief engineer with repairs? I believe you'll find her hard at work in Main Engineering."

As the lift doors slide open, Rejal enters the bridge with a smirk on his face. "Captain, I ran into a rather mouthy hologram who said she'd pinned down the lift issues. She didn't seem very happy with anyone, where'd dhe come from?" Even though he is addressing the Captain, he is looking over to check on Commander Tillatix.

The lower half of the torso of Tillatix was sticking out of the left control console for the ship. Her tail was down and away from her between her legs. Her hips and lower torso were moving about from the actions of repairing the console.

Melody chuckled “It’s ok Number One. That just our resident Interactive Computer Operating System. It seems someone deactivated her and she’s non too happy about it.” She gestured to Lieutenant Godding. “This is our new Chief security officer, Lieutenant Godding. Lieutenant Godding, this is Lieutenant Rejal.”

Reaching out his hand, Marbim smiles, "Godding, glad to have you aboard, although you missed our little Borg party. Our weapons system seems to be experiencing some fluctuations and the program I had the computer running to randomly target the Cube may be part of the issue. If you need my help let me know."

"Thanks." Godding replied, accepting the offered hand.

With a nod Miles walks, not runs, over to Commander Tillatix at her station, and with concern in his voice asks, "Are you okay? I saw that the enhancements we had done to your chair helped somewhat, looks like we may need to play with those plans some more is the Borg keep coming after us, for a few moments I thought I saw you on the floor..."

Sav shoved herself out from the left console and wiggle shifted over to her right. As she did, she saw Miles and her eyes widened in delight. She gently waved and replied, "I thought that was a familiar voice. On our enhancements to the consoles, they didn't blow up, no shrapnel from them, so that was all good." She blushed lightly as she looked up at Miles from the floor and continued, "And, yeah, I was fully immersed into Merlin and had no control of my body, sooo, yeah, my body was on the floor for a bit. However, Caroline got me all good again. Now, wait a minute." She now shoved herself into the right console to start repairs on it. Meanwhile. the left console showed lvl 4 diagnostics even as it tracked the towing ship and where they were going.

Now working on the right console, her upper torso buried into it, she asked, "How did you fare, Miles? Are you alright?"

"I survived. One of the medics running around got my head wound to stop bleeding, beyond that, I'll go back later to get my ribs looked at, felt like they got squished." Lowering himself to the floor he sidles up next to Sav. "Now, what's the problem here?" Once he's close enough, he'll reach out, squeeze her hand and almost in a whisper say, "I'm glad we made some of those modifications, and hopefully you weren't hurt either..."

Sav smiled over to Miles and replied, "Hurt just from landing on the floor and slamming into the console. Internal organ damage with out of place shoulder and hip were not due to our mods. I'm good. Just, *heh*, my light duty might have been extended." She took a breath, then said, "The problem I am solving even as we talk. Remember, I know what is wrong with my cyberapathy. Once I replace these four modules, the right console is back up and running."

Looking at her, Miles' grins crumbles, "You're going to sickbay after this right, I, I don't want you to be in pain Sav. Tell me what to do and I'll finish here. We're being towed anyway, show me and I'll fix it, you go to sickbay, please..."

Sav snorted in humor. "Ah just came from Sick Bay. Caroline, err, Commander Miller patched me up already. Ah just need some R and R after this, which Ah think is what is next, Ahma right?"

"She better be going to sickbay," Caroline said catching the tail end of their conversation and waving her tricorder over her again, "And we better be getting R and R next. We were promised Risa."

Looking over at Commander Miller, then back at Sav he sighs, "I guess the jig is up. Once Sav get this station working I'll make sure she gets to Sickbay, besides, I think I still have some cracked ribs that need to be looked at."

Sav opened her mouth, sighed out in exasperation, then closed it, her tail doing a small multiple flicker of annoyance. She had just come up from Sickbay, released to do Damage control, having been seen to by Caroline, then another doc, and now she was going back again after only getting the bridge flight and nav consoles done? It... it... boggled the mind. She now managed to answer, "Aye Aye, all.. back to sickbay to be asked why I am back already, aye." She now plugged in the last module as the right station lit up ready to go. Coming out from under the console, she stood up and headed to the turbolift, then stopped and held the door for Miles to join her.

Joining Sav in the turbolift Miles will look her over for any major wounds not dealt with. "If we're going in for repairs, you and I should show our plans for the new consoles and seats to the Captain so can get everything replaced before we leave again." Once the doors close Miles, reaches out and wraps Sav in a big 'ol hug. "I was worried for you. I didn't see much, but I saw you were on the floor. I almost ran to you instead of heading below deck."

Sav blushed. She replied, "Umm, that's what happens when I am fully submerged into a ship. I... kind of leave my body... it's weird, but how it works. Anyways, Caroline got me patched up, no worse for wear. Sorry to worry you, Miles. Soo, let's get yelled at in Medical as they already cleared me and sent me on my merry way. Why do you think I was on the Bridge, my good looks?" Sav snickered lightly.

Lifting her chin up a tad Miles looks into her eyes, "Yes, and also because you can fly the Merlin like no other person I've ever encountered."

OFF:

●●● Commander Save'ena Tillatix
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Merlin

●●● Lieutenant Marbim Rejal
Acting First Officer / Chief of Operations
USS Merlin

>>>> Master Chief Petty Officer Harris Zim
Chief of the Boat
USS Merlin

●● Lieutenant Michael Ki
Chief Medical Officer
USS Merlin

●●● Commander Melody Jones
Executive Officer
USS Merlin

●●● Commander Caroline Miller
Chief Counselor
USS Merlin

●● Lieutenant JG Hayley Godding
Chief Security/Tactical Officer
USS Merlin


ICOS (APB Barstow)
ICOS Avatar
USS Merlin

●○ Lieutenant Breana Rathburn
Chief Engineer
USS Merlin