The Explosion
Posted on Wednesday 19 January 2022 @ 18:40 by Admiral David Jackson & Captain Melody Jones & Commander Seklar & Lieutenant Marbim Rejal & Major David Scarlet & Lieutenant Nir’anyar
Mission:
First Contact
Location: Main Bridge, USS Merlin
Timeline: MD7 1930
2534 words - 5.1 OF Standard Post Measure
ON:
Melody was sat in her chair as the Merlin dropped out of warp on the outer edge of the Ocronian system. She decided it was best to approach at impulse than just drop out of the sky on top of them. The admiral was stood at the back of the bridge, ready to assist if needed. With the help of Commander Gainsborough, a special team had been briefed and was ready to beam down to deal with any Omega molecules they detected from Orbit.
Though Miles had offered the Admiral his seat, the Admiral had turned it down. Miles was on his station, running the numbers on the total population, attempting to figure out a way to save the most amount of survivors in case the worst were to happen.
The comm chirped to life on Melody's armrest controls just before Anya's voice filtered through the internal comm system.
"Sickbay to Bridge, sickbay and trauma teams are prepared... We are converting cargo bays one, three, and six into triage should they be needed... Are you able to provide any information of projected casualties in a worst-case scenario?"
"Let's hope it won't get to that Doctor, " Melody replied "Make sure you're ready to treat extreme cases of theta radiation poisoning."
"Aye sir. Medical teams standing by on all decks... Doctor Kyhl is prepared to manage sickbay should you want me on the bridge!"
“Very good Doctor. I’ll keep you informed.”
Suddenly an alarm started beeping. From the science station, a Lieutenant reported “Captain, sensors just picked up a massive detonation on the planet. It’s sending out a shockwave, impact in less than three seconds.”
Melody just had time to call “Shields up, brace for impact!” When the ship was hit hard.”
Melody just managed to hold on to her chair.
Miles laid on the floor for a moment and then sat up. Looking at his left arm and shoulder he sighs, "Not again." As he stands he looks around to see who might need help up.
Gregor picked himself up the floor and rubbed his shoulder where he had hit the floor. A few parts of the tactical board were out but could be repaired quickly enough, he grabbed the kit from his station and began to effect repairs of his station. He also thanked the gods that the shields came up in time to blunt the blow or the ship would have been a lot worse off than the state they were in.
Mathias had Jack with him on the bridge manning one of the areas that weren't being covered. He was thrown from his seat, by the impact of the explosion. Mathias was stunned for the moment staring up at the ceiling then with a groan he rose to a seated position.
"Jack are you okay?" looking around for the other operations specialist.
Standing next to a now disabled workstation, Jack was cradling his arm while he did his best not to scream in pain, "yea, I'm fine. it's only some major electrical burns" he said, looking over his arm that was still steaming. "it'll only slow me down a little"
Then Mathias looked to see if others were alright as well. Hearing what Jack had said, Mathias was over there quickly, "You need to get that looked at." he responded with concern.
"I'll get it looked at after we're not exploding" Jack replied, looking over at the station to see how damaged it was. Giving a sigh, he looked back to Mathias, "looks like we've just added another job to the repair list"
"Yes we do indeed have more work to do," Mathias replied.
When the ship finally stopped shaking, many of the consoles were dark. “Damage report!”
“We’ve got partial failure of the main computer, sensors seem to be still working and… “ his face went pale as he doubled checked his readout. “Captain, subspace in this star system has been completely destroyed, warp drive won’t function and, there’s been so kind of exothermic nucleonic reaction which has completely burnt off the planet's atmosphere.”
Gregor responded to the request for a damage report. "All vital systems are online. Life support, shields, weapons, sensors, and communications are normal. The hull is intact and no major damage has been reported. There are however scattered reports of injuries throughout the ship, none severe thankfully. Beginning repair work on the tactical station, I should have it done in less than an hour."
This shocked Melody. “On screen.”
After a moment of static, the planet appeared on the viewscreen. Instead of a living, breathing world, there was just a dead hunk of rock.
Gregor glanced up at the screen as it flickered to life and his eyes widened. "Dear God!! What happened?" he took a moment as the image absorbed into his mind. "Is there any way that there were any survivors? Perhaps some are trapped in pockets where they might have a limited supply of air, maybe in a deep cave or a shelter. If so we're their only hope."
Miles stands in shock at what he is seeing. He mutters something in Cardassian and again in Klingon, both are prayers to the powers that be that someone survived this catastrophe.
Gregor began running scans of the surface of the planet to see if there were any survivors.
Sickbay
Sickbay had seen better days, the shockwave had knocked over a few of the biobeds and some of the trays. Kyhl wiped a bit of blood from her brow as she sat up from the floor. "Get this place operational and prepared to expect casualties. Whatever that was hit us and hit us hard!"
"Reports of injuries coming in" called Anya from the main system's display. "Bridge, Engineering, Almost every deck but so far no reported fatalities... Medical teams responding... You got things here Kyhl?" she asked grabbing her medical kit knowing that injuries in Engineering would probably be high in number.
"Yes, Doctor! Kyhl replied quickly. "Send the serious cases here and we'll patch them up."
Kevin walked into Sickbay and looked around at the medical staff rushing about, he was still holding the blood-soaked washcloth over his nose and had his two teeth clenched in his other hand. Yeah, he looked like he had been dropped into a grinder, but he was in better shape than some of the people here. There were a few screams here and there, But it was the ones who couldn't scream that was getting the immediate help. So he found a place to sit until someone was free to assist him.
Tag Medical
Marine Barracks
"Everyone with medical training hit the decks and support medical teams." Scarlet tapped his comm badge. "Scarlet to Morgan, do you need back up?"
Pearl came stumbling in where Scarlet was, she looked like she was going to sport a shiner. "Sir, what the heck happened?"
"Trying to figure that now Bijoux." Scarlet said quickly as he held up a hand for silence.
Bridge
Gregor opened a channel to the Marine Barracks. " Scarlett, we need you to scramble your people to help out with medical and rescue efforts around the ship. There was an explosion on the planet's surface and it wiped out the planet's atmosphere, we're running scans of the surface to see if we can locate any survivors. that shockwave battered us pretty well and we're still a bit shaken up."
Marine Barracks
"We're on it, Morgan," Scarlet replied quickly. Gritting his teeth, the Marine Commander walked around his desk toward Bijoux.
"We're handling the internals. Get the medics deployed and assist the injured. You're taking lead on that while I scramble the rest of our squads to cover security and damage control."
"Yes sir!" Pearl had a thought also about a certain gentleman and hoped that he, Jack, was alright. It was only momentary though as she scrambled to get the medics gathered.
Engineering
Down in engineering, Seklar picked himself up from the deck, feeling something warm trickle down his face. He caught a flicker from the corner of his eyes and he turned just in time to see the warp core blink offline. Around him, several consoles were either sparking or completely dead. "Bridge, this is Seklar, what was it that hit us? Warp core is offline, we sustained heavy damage and we got a great many wounded." He knelt beside the very still form of one of the junior engineers. "Ensign Blackstone is dead, and I doubt she is the only casualty sir." He closed his eyes a moment to steady -and centre- himself, still not sure just how exactly he had hit the deck, or what had hit him in the head. He wasn't even sure if he'd been conscious the entire time.
Main Bridge
Melody was still looking with shock at the image on the viewscreen. "Acknowledged Engineering. Medical teams are on the way. Secure all primary systems, begin repairs and I want you to bring me a full damage report personally Chief Engineer." Melody said, not wanting to discuss Omega over an open comm channel."
"When able ma'am," the Vulcan replied, "I do not feel well..."
From the science station, the young Lieutenant reported, his face pale and covered in sweat. "Captain, I double-checked. There are no life signs from the planet, there are not even bacteria. The planet is dead.
Mathias looked towards Jack, his own face going white at the news of the devastation. He looked to see how Jack was reacting to all of this.
Jack sighed, "This is worse than antimatter. what the hell have we been dealing with?"
Mathias said to Jack, "It's bad very bad indeed, it's the Omega particles. Let's see what we can do something with things here." giving a nod.
Melody turned to Mathias trying to focus on the mission at hand "Did any Omega survive the explosion?"
Directing his attention from his injured crew member, Mathias made his scans and shook his head. "No Captain I am not reading any signs nor Residue of any Omega."
Melody took a deep breath and looked to the Admiral who stepped forward. "You don't look too hot Captain, think you should go to your quarters and get some rest. I'll have someone check in on you later. There's nothing we can do here and it wasn't your fault Captain."
Melody nodded, feeling drained. "You're right David, thank you."
The Admiral addressed the bridge crew "I think we should have a moment's silence for all those people who have just lost their lives."
Mathias bowed his head in the reflection of those lives lost, then raised his head upwards once more. "Time to get back to work."
Standing frozen where he was, Jack was staring at the devastation on the view screen trying to process what was going on. After a moment, he snapped back to his senses and turned to his division commander, “what do you mean it’s the Omega Particle? What the hell are we dealing with here?”
"A particle that can just decimate a planet just like that one down there," Mathias remarked, "Can't talk too much about that though. It's a top-secret subject," he added quietly to Jack.
"then what the hell are we doing here playing with it? Shouldn't we call in someone who knows what they're doing?" Jack asked, still trying to get his head around the current situation.
After the moment had passed, "Helm lay in a course out of the system, we'll be stuck at impulse till we clear the subspace distortions. Keep an eye out for any other subspace phenomenon. The explosion could have damaged the surrounding space in any number of ways. All hands are to assist with repairs."
Melody watched as the bridge crew busied themselves with their duties, ever professional. She headed for the turbolift.
"Admiral! " Gregor call out. "More injury reports coming in." He hesitated a moment. "We've got several causalities reported in engineering, exact number unknown at this time." Gregor's face paled when he heard the news of no survivors anywhere on the planet. He bowed his head in a silent prayer for those that lost their lives on the planet below and then continued on with his repair work to his station.
Miles turned from the viewscreen, to look at his crewmates, "One person survived, our guest. Caroline may want to share with him the terrible occurrence we just witnessed and help him process the fact that he may be the last of his species." Although looking at the Admiral, Miles is watching Melody head for the turbolift as he says, "We seem to be cursed with our First Contact opportunities, we need to work on making that change."
The admiral was trying his best to remain composed but the level of devastation was shocking, even to him. "Is there any sign of the undercover team's ship?"
"Negative Admiral, There is no sign of their ship at this time." Responded Gregor.
This concerned the Admiral for a moment but he brushed it off "I suspect it was vaporized in the explosion. I'll have to notify their families. Helm! Take us out!"
Pearl arrived with corpsmen and they spread out to start first aid on those needing it, she gave a nod to Gregor, and said "Sir." and turned to see Jack there, and noticed his injuries. There was an expression of concern but that was all that there was. A corpsman came over to tend to his wounds. "We've got people going around to help out." looking towards the admiral. "My people will assist anyone who is needing help to the infirmary."
Gregor tapped his combadge. "Gregor to all security personal, I want all persons with first aid training to assist where needed, the remainder will do security sweeps of the ship and help with search and rescue operations. Squad leaders, I'll need an hourly update report. Gregor out."
OFF:
●●●● Captain Melody Jones
Commanding Officer
USS Merlin
○●● Lieutenant Commander Marbim Rejal
Executive Officer
USS Merlin
●●● Commander Seklar
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Merlin
● Ensign Zirvell
Nurse - PNPC Cmdr Seklar
USS Merlin
○● Lieutenant JG Gregor Morgan
Chief Security/Tactical Officer
USS Merlin
>>>* Chief Petty Officer Johnathan "Jack" MacGyver
Operations Specialist
USS Merlin
●● Lieutenant Mathias McPhee
Chief Operations Officer
USS Merlin
* Major David Scarlet
Marine Company Commander
USS Merlin
●● Lieutenant Nir’anyar
Chief Medical Officer
USS Merlin
●●● Commander Caroline Miller
Chief Counselor
USS Merlin
