Planet Hell - Power Problems - Part II
Posted on Mon Aug 31st, 2026 @ 5:04pm by Captain Robert Burke & Lieutenant Setek Dr & Lieutenant Juno Jones & Lieutenant JG Maël "Gideon" Beauregard & Lieutenant JG Gianna De Luca & Ensign Julia Vonner & Ensign Clementine "Clemmie" Vidamour & Ensign María Dolores "Lola" Rivera & Ensign Shanice Winters
2,819 words; about a 14 minute read
Mission:
Fabulae Explorationis
Location: USS Hecate
Timeline: MD01
[And now the continuation ...]
[Deck 11]
Six decks below them and tucked away between the Shuttle Bay and the Deuterium Storage Tanks, was Clemmie Vidamour and her team. Faces were taut with barely-concealed frustration and even Clemmie found herself pushing her jaw forward the same way she used to as a child--usually when one of the other girls at school had said something unkind to her.
The replacement power node had been troublesome since 0500 hours. Every time they thought they had it settled, some tiny fluctuation appeared somewhere else along the network. They had chased the problem back to this specific node three times now, and the aggravation was beginning to reach a critical point.
"Enough with the carrot," Clemmie declared, passing her diagnostic scanner to Crewman Kafraan and removing an optronic modulator from the tookit at her feet. "It's time for the stick."
She let the modulator do its work, hovering the tool over the exposed ODN line for less than ten seconds, hopefully providing the line with a little more slack than what it was given once tacked.
"Kafraan?"
"Holding at point-zero-six," the Tellarite said, his eyes focused on the diagnostic screen.
"Much better," Clemmie said, before turning her attention the four idle engineers and technicians nearby. "Shall we move on to the next segment, then?"
Anyone who was even a little familiar with Ensign Vidamour knew her English ways. The whole "Shall we..." schtick was just a sweet way of kicking others in the arse when they needed it.
Ensign Opa and Petty Officer Kibruni scrambled to their feet, toolkits in hand, while Ensign Borgersen managed to pick up one of the coils of new ODN line, balancing the bulky lines over one shoulder.
"This is going to be Three-Gamma-Seven-Eight," Kafraan announced, verifying the information on the diagnostic scanner.
"Oh really?" came the sarcastic response from Opa, the diminutive young man from Earth's Papua New Guinea. "I could've sworn we were at Three-Gamma-Seven-Nine."
Kibruni threw a playful punch at Opa's shoulder in response.
The team were ready to begin the long crawl through the next access tunnel when suddenly, everything went dark.
"What the..."
[Counsellor's Office / Quarters]
Gia had a headache, the type that would stick around in the front between her eyes. Something that was a cross between a sinus and a stress headache, she thought. Either way, it was causing her to lose focus on her job at hand.
In all fairness, Gia was still annoyed with Vin about his absolute dismissal of her want to be a part of the away team, but her professionalism had let it slide during the meeting. "Pompous ass," she grumbled as the padd in front of her went sliding along her desk toward the edge before coming to a rest with the others.
She got up from behind her desk and walked over to the coffee machine she'd just had repaired to get her fourth or fifth cup of coffee since her shift had started - she couldn't remember exactly - and her process was cut short by it suddenly going dark in her office.
Looking up at the ceiling, she said to herself, "You've got to be joking, right?"
[Deck 5]
"Lieutenant?" came a feminine voice somewhere to Gideon's left. He knew it was Taylor. She was on his left before the lights in the access tube had quit on them.
"I'm here, Ensign." In a louder voice, he added, "Y'all just stay calm and try not to move. Movin'll get you injured."
Gideon hated the dark. There was just no two ways about it. It had all began when he was six years-old back in Louisiana when one of the tropical depressions had escaped Earth's weather net and drenched the entire Parish over night. Almost everyone in Plaquemines had their own power source but in emergency situations, it was common to conserve it at all cost. His mother had decided to break-out several candles for them while they stayed up late listening to the rain and playing cards. If his mother hadn't been there, he was sure he wouldn't have survived the night.
He tapped his combadge.
"Beauregard to Bridge."
Nothing.
"Beauregard to Engineering."
Still nothing.
"Anyone reading me?"
Once more, nothing.
"Sir, I'm going to drop this line of ODN next to the bulkhead."
Gideon recognized the voice as Crewman Poehling, one of his youngest technicians.
"Go ahead, Crewman. Just be careful."
"Aye."
They all heard Poehling shuffling and then with a grunt, let go of the line as it thumped loudly against the grating.
There was a long moment of silence where only the inhales and exhales of the team were heard.
"Everyone alright?" Gideon inquired.
"I'm good," Taylor replied.
"Getting a leg cramp, sir. But otherwise alright." The voice had been Lasker's from just to Gideon's right.
Gideon activated his diagnostic screen, green and blue light reflecting off his face. He turned the screen toward the remaining two members of his team--Crewman Poehling, and Ensign Turcotte--both on their backs in the narrowest part of the access way. Poehling waved at Gideon through the faint light, while Turcotte lifted two fingers to signal she too, was fine.
"Listen up," he said, making himself more comfortable and putting his butt under him. "I reckon the Bridge is on it and it'll wind up bein' temporary. So sit tight."
He hoped it wouldn't be too long.
[Bridge]
Starting in concern, Burke watched as the Bridge of the Hecate shut herself down panel by panel, console by console. The crew around him raced to find an answer before the next panel put itself to sleep. They failed, some standing, some sitting as they stared at their consoles. Leaning in to their neighbours, Burke heard the murmured talk around him and got to his feet. 'Alright,' he said firmly, looking around the bridge. 'Power's gone down, the Hecate is out of commission. Does anyone have a working console?'
He looked around at the shaking heads and nodded in response. 'Well, that's a start.' The Bridge lights dimmed, slowly losing their luminescence as the last of their power faded, Burke looked over to Winters, 'get torches out of the emergency kit - quick.' Burke's mouth set in a grim line. They were far from home. Far from the nearest star, between systems in the quiet abyss of space. The man was suddenly aware of the thin skin of metal that protected him from the nothingness of space. He had seldom been this exposed and blind.
Moving quickly, Shanice did exactly as instructed. Grabbing the torches, she moved about the bridge placing them strategically providing the bridge crew with a source of light.
"No! Warte!" Julia had exclaimed when the power failure began claiming the helm, its suddenness rendering her delayed instinct to stop the ship incomplete. Exasperation incited her to slam her palms atop her now-dead console. Contemplating the situation preserved that posture.
She finally moved as Shanice foiled the onset of pitch blackness, first turning to her neighbor at Ops, then Captain Burke while asking, "Why hasn't auxiliary power come online?"
Moving to the Engineering console towards the rear of the bridge, Burke tapped at the dead screen. 'I'm not sure,' he said momentarily thrown off-balance. 'There must have been some sort of cascade failure ... you hear that?' he asked the Bridge in general.
"We're also still moving," Julia declared, standing. The lack of ambient sensation from Hecate heightened her suspicion that their predicament was ship wide. She then looked to Shanice. "There should be handheld communicators in the emergency kit. Can you get them?"
Taking hold of the emergency kit, Winters pulled out the communicators. Handing one over to Julia and then handing the other to the captain. "With this ship still in motion at the last current speed and course. What does that look like?"
"We're years away from any major celestial bodies. But a collision with celestial debris could still be catastrophic," Julia induced of the navigational deflector's likely shutdown.
'Yeah, we have another problem too,' Burke said, looking up at the circulators. 'Air isn't cycling. We're going to need to get this fixed as soon as possible.'
Having opened the communicator given to her and checked it for operability, Julia posited her next course of action.
"Let's see if we can reach anyone belowdecks."
[Main Sickbay]
Sekhet was staring intently at the incision he had made into the crewman’s back. Kaferians’ chitinous skin was notoriously brittle, and he was proceeding at a slow, but steady pace. Having read up on his colleague’s species, the Vulcan knew that the most optimal outcome for their healing was if the chitin he removed could be spliced back into place once the fibrous growths within had been removed.
For a Kaferian surgeon this would be a routine procedure. For a Vulcan who’s only experience with the operation were the papers he had read in preparation, it was a more serious affair. Luckily, he had steady hands. The first sign that something was wrong was when the air circulators shut down, his Vulcan sense of hearing noting the soft whirr dying to nothing. His eyebrow twitched but he said nothing. It would be a momentary thing, surely.
He carried on, then abruptly halted as the lights died, the team around him exclaiming in shock. In a quiet, authoritative voice, he turned to the nurse next to him. ‘We need illumination. And I need a more experienced Medical Officer. Please locate the nearest emergency kit, and summon the Assistant Chief Medical Officer. I must remain here. My scalpel is embedded in the Kaferian.’
"Right away, Doctor," Lola replied. The energetic nurse moved quickly, light on her feet, first dispatching two corpsman to set up independent lighting. The towers were part of an expanded version of medical kits taken on medical relief field missions. She had the emergency kit open and on a table next to the Vulcan doctor in less than a minute, before paging the ACMO, and returning to Dr. Sekhet's side.
"I'm sure Dr. Costescu will be here in a flash," Lola announced as she returned. "How can I assist in the meantime?" She asked. The portable lights were still being adjusted, but they seemed to make the area around the surgical bed brighter than the standard lighting in Sickbay, while the open space behind them faded into darkness.
'Ensure that the bio-bed is hooked up to a portable energy source,' Sekhet stated slowly, the pressure of keeping the scalpel still in place taking every ounce of his concentration. 'The schematics I was following are power-dependent. Unless we can get both the bed and terminal working, I cannot continue.'
Moments later there was a rattling and then pounding outside of Sickbay's doors as Cristian Costescu tried to get inside. Without being asked one of medics who was working with the lights jogged over to the doors, quickly removing a panel to manually pull the override, making it easier to pull the doors open by hand. The medic was then easily able to glide the door open as the physician came rushing in.
"I'm paged, but then the door is locked when I arrive. I can't help if I can't get in," he announced impatiently, though not gruffly. "What do we have?" Cristian asked as he pulled off his standard uniform shirt to change into scrubs. While wearing his black sleeveless undershirt, he went to sterilize his hands with the ultrasonic equipment next to the scrub-in equipment, and was only then reminded of how bad the power outage on the ship actually was. "Good God, do we even have life support? How much air do we have left? Someone get me a couple of bottles of isopropyl alcohol," he ordered, quickly running from one thought to the next without pause.
'The crewman is currently sedated,' Sekhet said measuredly, a tremble of the eyebrow betraying his strain. 'They have a chronic case of interdermis irritation, causing growths in the membrane between the exoskeleton and inner dermis. I have made the incisions to remove the first section of exoskeleton, and have begun to remove a growth via scalpel as you can observe.
While the Vulcan doctor spoke, Cristian took the bottles of alcohol he was handed, and began pouring them over his hands and forearms, letting the extra liquid fall to the floor. He then pulled on a clean scrub shirt, and Lola then quickly helped him with his surgical gloves as the doctor examined the Kaferian patient's back, and the incisions that Dr. Sekhet had began.
"I don't suppose anyone printed any physical copies of their condition, 3-D models rendered, anything that I could take a look at?" Cristian asked. "Or are we about this blind under operations can get some bloody power down here to Sickbay? You'd think we might be a priority."
"Darlings, these lights are just a bit too much like a spotlight, pull them back a bit, would you?" Cristian said to the medics who were doing their best to create a workable environment for the surgeons. "Then get us a couple of handhelds in here, so we can draw some focus where we need to."
"Any power generators in that magic bag of yours? What is the likelihood of getting someone from operations down here to help us with getting a bit of power going?" Cristian was still addressing the aids who were scrambling with the equipment.
A nurse's aid had brought over a couple of blurry images, similar to an xray, showing the excess growths. They weren't much to work with, but it was clear that the growths were dense, more like excess exoskeleton growing where it shouldn't, but because of the nature of the imaging, it was impossible to see what vascular and organ systems might be affected. "This is all we have," the young Andorian said apologetically.
"Alright, Doctor. I think the best thing is to just work on the most critical excisions now, and then keep the patient comfortable until we have power," Cristian suggested. He spoke quickly, giving out orders without waiting for responses before moving on to the next. The medical crew all moved rapidly, well-trained, as they understood this was how it worked in an emergency situation. Cristian didn't slow down until he finally addressed his Vulcan counterpart across the table, "Had you identified any of these as in danger of causing further medical complications in the near future?"
'There are at least three. The first, I have begun the incision, risks creating an abscess dangerously close to the bowel, growths two and three would create an unbearably painful pressure on the thorax, rendering our patient unable to fulfil their duties until they were removed.'
"Well, we're quite lucky that our surgical instruments aren't reliant on the ship's power then, aren't we, Doctor," Cristian's tone was cheeky, though a bit playful if the Vulcan were in tune to pick up on it. "Your incision is clean, let's get some traction in here and clear the area for you to continue."
A microtwich of his cheek betrayed the trepidation the Vulcan was feeling. He was used to state of the art facilities, fully lit, fully powered and with the assistance of the ships' Main Computer to boot. 'Very well. Nurse, traction, if you would.' Setek sighed. This was going to be interesting ...
The generator that Sekhet had ordered finally started up the biobed, startling Nola as began to enter the wound with the small retractors to pull the tissue away from the excess chitin.
After examining the growths a little more closely through the magnifying glasses, Cristian selected a specific microtome often used to to cut cartilage and held it in his left hand, and had a small pair of alligator forceps in his right.
"Doctor, I am going to start cutting away at this ossification toward you," Cristian explained. "This one looks like it's imbedded pretty deep. I'll let you know when I need you to begin to cut away and remove the external areas so I can continue."
"Delores - Nola, I'm sorry, be ready with suction, would you?" Cristian ordered. "Steady," he reminded her.
[To be Continued ...]
::OFF::
Captain Robert Burke
Commanding Officer
USS Hecate
Lieutenant Marques Hunt
Chief Flight Control & Second Officer
USS Hecate
Lieutenant (JG) Maël "Gideon" Beauregard
Chief Operations Officer
USS Hecate
Ensign Julia Vonner
Flight Control Officer
USS Hecate
Ensign Shanice Winters
Chief Diplomatic Officer
USS Hecate
[PNPC Lt Marques Hunt]
Ensign Clementine "Clemmie" Vidamour
Assistant Chief Operations Officer
USS Hecate
[PNPC Lt JG Maël "Gideon" Beauregard]
Lieutenant Sardanto Eloth
Assistant Chief Engineering Officer
USS Hecate
[NPC Captain Robert Burke]
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