Planet Hell - Power Problems - Part III
Posted on Wed Sep 30th, 2026 @ 9:08pm by Captain Robert Burke & Lieutenant Juno Jones & Lieutenant Nelar & 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
2,032 words; about a 10 minute read
Mission:
Fabulae Explorationis
Location: USS Hecate
Timeline: MD01/MD02
[And now the continuation ...]
[Main Engineering]
The heartbeat of the ship was eerily silent. Eloth stared up at the vertical warp core and frowned, arms folded. The twisted luminance of the energy nexus within was the only source of light on deck, save the emergency torches that were now balanced precariously on consoles scattered around the space.
Urgent conversations susurrated across the space, some of Starfleet's finest Engineers bending their heads together to get to the source of the problem. Exhaling in disgust, Eloth cursed under his breath, 'I told them not to break anything ...' An old hand, experienced in the ways of Starfleet's starships, there was little that could shake him. Prolonged time without power though, was not good and a small worm of worry began to coil around his insides. An unwelcome symbiote. He moved to Jones, the younger, though more brilliant, Chief Engineer.
'Looks like power's been interrupted across the whole ship - no way of knowing what it's like on the other decks,' Eloth said as he approached her.
"Lieutenant Jones," a deep voice interrupted.
The speaker was a broad-shouldered Tiburonian crouched beside an open access panel near Auxiliary Systems Control. Ensign D'Ker pulled his large frame upright, a diagnostic tricorder still in his right hand.
"I've completed a sweep of the auxiliary distribution grid. Auxiliary power is offline throughout this section--and probably the entire ship. Independent circuitry isn't responding to reset commands." He glanced back toward the darkened panel. "If the failure does extend shipwide, we can assume most localized systems are also dead. That means turbolifts, access hatches, doors, environmental serviceways--anything relying on independent power nodes will require manual operation, sir."
Juno was shaken back to the moment, the reality of what was being presented to the Chief Engineer hit them. "I don't see where we have any other viable options. Manual operation is going to have to do it. If that is what's necessary, then we will just adapt a make due with it" replied Lieutenant Jones.
"Hopefully everyone has been keeping up on their cardio," commented Jones. "I have a feeling we're in store for a lot of climbing and crawling" he added.
D'Ker grunted at Juno's remark, finding it equally funny and exasperating. While he wasn't one to shy away from any sort of manual labour, he viewed this unfolding situation with annoyance, and the quip did strike him as prescient.
"Sir, it is entirely possible that if any of our engineering teams were in the access spaces during the power failure, they may be stuck there."
Eloth sucked in air through his teeth, then let it blow out. 'We'll need to retrieve them, Engineering teams can manually override any locked doors between us and them - and then perhaps we can assist Beauregard in repairing whatever failure happened in the system.' The Trill was gruff, but he held no anger about the situation. Space was unpredictable. The fact the Operations department was in charge of such maintenance did not sit well with him, but that was something to take up with Command when the next service reform came about. 'D'Ker, can you get us the areas the teams were working in?'
The Tiburonian didn't hurry when he retrieved the PADD. Even in the absence of light, even with the warp core reduced to a dim, uncertain glow behind Main Engineering's own dearth of illumination, he moved patiently.
Returning to Eloth and Juno, he angled the display toward them.
"We know there are three engineering groups assigned to the ODN replacement project," he said, his voice sounding slightly ominous in the dark. "I've isolated their last confirmed positions before the cascade failure."
His fingers moved across the PADD's display, tracing the Excelsior-class's deck-by-deck schematic.
"Beauregard's team was last reported on Deck Five, port-side crawlspace adjacent to Main Phaser Fire Control. It's tight in there, and the maintenance hatch configuration is, well, not good. Manual override requires simultaneous torque engagement on both locking spindles and the spacing up there barely allows one small body to reach for it."
Juno nodded. "We need to check on our teams out there, make sure everyone is accounted for," stated the Chief Engineer. The last thing Juno wanted was anyone injured or worse under their watch.
Folding his arms and resting them on his potbelly, Eloth grunted in agreement and looked to D'Ker.
D'Ker nodded and paused for a moment at the schematic. He continued, "Ensign Vidamour's team is on Deck Eleven, maintenance tunnel between Shuttle Bay intake and Deuterium Storage. That section is far more forgiving in that there is actually space to stand. Three exits are available"--he pointed at an almost imperceptible point near the aft of Deck 11--"here, here... and here. One leads to Deuterium Storage, which is a sealed termination space, so dead-end. The second is a Shuttle Bay access hatch. The third leads to the adjacent corridor. They should be fine."
"Less concerning, but still worth checking on them when we can," Juno commented.
'Depending on how much manpower we have spare, we could head to those after getting Beauregard out - his section is cramped enough that they're going to be damned uncomfortable,' Eloth thought that having the Chief Operations Officer loose might help with identifying what had shorted the entire system too, though was too proud to mention the fact.
His eyes lifted briefly. "Team Three remains on Deck Fourteen aft, near ODN diagnostic arrays. That section should have multiple escape routes, though they are likely experiencing similar system-wide failure."
D'Ker looked from Eloth to the Chief Engineer, waiting for orders.
"Do we have personnel to spare?" inquired Juno of D'Ker. "The first team is priority. I don't want to leave anyone out there potentially trapped if we haven't had contact in a while."
Eloth cut in, 'we can work on taking Engineering out of the main power flow system - if we can pinch ourselves off, we might be able to get something jury-rigged to get the doors open.' The Trill shrugged, 'beats cracking every door and turbolift shaft between here and the Operations teams.'
D'Ker's took two steps away from Juno and Eloth, his broad hand disappearing into an open toolkit that was barely visible in the dim lighting. It emerged with a matte-black emergency microcell scarcely larger than a child's toy. It rested comfortably in his palm, a flattened sphere wrapped in conductive ribs and its indicator still glowing amber.
Without any ceremony, he pressed the cell onto the side of a nearby engineering workstation. Within seconds, the console and the adjoining screen came to life with its backlights shining like a lighthouse in the dark.
"Sirs," D'Ker said, motioning for both Juno and Eloth to come closer. He leaned over the console and keyed-in some basic commands.
"No connection to the main computer," he reported. "Core processors remain offline. The optical trunks aren't handshaking with any of the primary subnetworks."
The Tiburonian frowned and then opened another menu.
"The workstation retained its workspace before shutdown. Whatever processes were resident in the local memory are still here. It isn't much--local engineering cache only."
"Sometimes, something is just enough," replied Juno. "It is better than nothing."
'We can work with it, that's for sure,' Eloth said, leaning in to look at the screen. 'Is there anything else we can use?'
D'Ker shook his head grimly. "No."
The Tiburonian picked up a tricorder from his toolkit and held it just above the now-active console. "I've downloaded the final snapshot of internal sensors before the power failure occurred. This should give us an idea of where the failure originated."
Quietly, D'Ker held the tricorder higher, his eyes glued to the real-time readings from around engineering. He turned toward the warp core and then back to several conduits running along the bulkhead.
"When I compare the snapshot of engineering systems taken prior to the failure and compare them to where we are now, I can see that there are no anomalous readings here."
Snapping the tricorder shut, he turned to the Chief Engineer. "We will need sweep the ship on foot with calibrated tricorders."
'Alright,' Eloth said after a glance towards Juno. 'Use all available personnel - we'll run Engineering with essential only. Get those tricorders calibrated, and in each teams' hands. On the double.'
D'Ker nodded and motioned with two fingers toward the nearest engineers that they should follow him. "My team will begin in the forward compartment of Deck Three and work our way aft and ventral. I would suggest teams or two or three begin sweeping aft-to-fore and another team to verify all crawlspaces and turbolift shafts."
The Tiburonian quickly copied the settings from his own tricorder to two fresh ones and handed them to the two engineers that would join him. To Juno and Eloth, he added, "Comms are down, therefore I recommend our rally point be Transporter Room One on Deck Ten. It is the more central point from stem to stern."
'Very well,' Eloth responded.
[Accessway | Deck Five]
The accessway here wasn't so much empty as it was compressed, as though the corridor had consumed a large brunch, bloated itself, and tightened around Gideon and his team. The crawlspace near Main Phaser Fire Control had always been narrow, but without power it seemed to contract further--steel and conduit becoming far more intimate than Gideon wished. Only the glow from his diagnostic scanner allowed them to see their cramped surroundings.
Gideon stayed where he was at first, listening to the ship. When nothing was heard, he let his hand rest against the bulkhead, feeling for vibration more than any sort of reassurance. There was something there, faint and steady. Hecate was still breathing.
"Alright," he said quietly. "We're not stuck in anythin' permanent. Just temporarily inconvenienced is all."
A soft and strained sound emitted in unison from the team--half in agreement, half in relief.
Ensign Turcotte shifted, careful not to knock over the overhead conduit. "Fore hatch still sealed, Lieutenant. Manual override panel isn't responding.
"Yeah, I heard it," Gideon replied. He moved toward the hatch without urgency, though the space forced him to turn sideways and carefully push past Lasker, nearly crawling over the poor man.
"Nothin' personal, Clayton," he quipped as his crotch and legs passed uncomfortably close to the Petty Officer's face.
Gideon plopped himself down, elbows perched on knees which he kept his head low. The hatch assembly sat recessed into the left-side wall--older design. Almost cruel. Any torquing of the lever inside could only be done with one arm. Glancing to the right-side wall, there sat the same recessed assembly with an identical lever. It was impossible to reach both as one person.
He blew out his cheeks. "How'n the name of Monoceros' Ring are two people supposed accomplish that?"
Taylor's voice piped up from somewhere further back.
"I'm pretty small, sir. Pretty sure I can wiggle myself to one of them."
"You can sure try," Gideon said with a sigh, carefully reversing himself in the dark on all fours. "Lasker, you're skinny enough. Think you can try'n torque those levers with Taylor?"
Lasker had squeezed himself as tight as possible against the opposite wall of the accessway, allowing Gideon to continue his withdrawal without making contact.
"I'll give it a try, Lieutenant. No promises--I had a bit of a heavy lunch."
Gideon chuckled somewhere in the blackness. "Ya just had to grab that chicken pot pie, huh?"
"I knew I'd regret it."
[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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