Turning the Tide
Posted on Wed Dec 12th, 2018 @ 10:07pm by Captain Liarra Von & Commander Titus Livius Drusus PhD & Commander Walter Prescott
Mission:
Weathering the Storm
Location: Station Operations
"Ops to Luciano. Commander, do you copy? Ops to S’er’in’e. Colonel, do you copy?” The words spoken by the communication technician seemed to be on repeat as Von stood by helpless. It had been some time since Leo had last checked in alerting them of his status and location. He and Colonel S’er’in’e, who had joined him on the trip to the reactor section, should have had plenty of time to reach the reactor. But now it was just radio silence.
Liarra left the communication station, pacing back and forth as she grew more and more antsy about the situation. Sometimes no news was good news, but now was not one of those times. Not when the fate of the station hung in the balance. Her first officer as well as a dear friend and confidant had both set off towards a potentially dangerous situation. A failing reactor was leaking power like a sieve, trying to compensate for a heavy power drain by increase the rate of power generation. Left unchecked, the best case scenario was that they ran out of reserve power, leading to shut downs of structural integrity and life support. Worst case, the reactor exploded. Neither option was acceptable, but there was nothing that anyone could do from Ops.
Commander Luciano and Colonel S’er’in’e had been dispatched to conduct repairs, with Lt. Commander Prescott walking them through the process. It was an older reactor, and a type that when failing had a bad tendency to leak radiation. If that was the case, the duo would be unprotected. Nor would they have time to seek proper protective equipment. Not if they were going to keep the station alive. But just when around the time that they were expected to reach the reactor, communications cut out. They were completely cut off from Ops.
Now Von was stuck even further in the waiting game. And waiting was not good for her. Waiting gave her time to think. And when she had time to think, she had time to worry. And every worst case scenario that she could imagine was running through her head. She tried her best to stay optimistic, at least on the outside, though it was doubtful that she was fooling anyone. On the inside, she already started to feel herself crumble.
Walking away from communications did mean that the repeating message was much quieter. But she hadn’t walked away just for the silence. “Commander Prescott,” she said to her chief of operations as she neared his console. “Any updates on that reactor?”
Walter shook his head.
Liarra sighed. “What about the comm system? Any idea why we’ve lost contact?”
"Every reactor has its own built-in shielding," Walter explained, keeping one eye on the readouts in front of him, "partially to protect it from outside interference and partially to protect the rest of us from whatever radiation is produced in the process." He paused. Something seemed to have changed in the telemetry, but when he looked more closely, Walter realized it was just another intermittent power spike like the rest. "The storm has been affecting our communications network," he continued, "Without knowing the exact situation down there, I'd say their combadges alone aren't enough to cut through the shielding and the added interference."
The station commander disliked both of those answers. But there wasn’t anything that she could do about it. Right now, there wasn’t much that she could do about anything. And feeling helpless was really starting to take its toll. She continued her pacing, desperate to hear anything new, good or bad.
Minutes passed by in relative silence. Everyone was trying to keep themselves occupied as they waited to see what would happen. While much of their attention was focused on the emergency reactor situation, there were still other things that needed tending to. Some were keeping an eye on the progress of the storm itself, others the security of the ships docked inside, and still others the safety of the station's inhabitants. In addition to the reactor, Walter was also monitoring several different issues throughout the station. Any one of them, he knew, could easily cause trouble if it got out of hand.
Walter was just about to start another run through of the list when he noticed a change in the readings coming from the emergency reactor. Whereas the energy spikes had been increasing in both frequency and magnitude, they now seemed to be leveling off. "Captain..." he said slowly, "...I think I may have some good news. It looks like they are doing something down there. The reactor is beginning to stabilize."
"That's good news." Von let out a tiny sigh of relief before bracing herself for her next question. "With the reactor stabilizing, how much longer is that going to give us with power?"
“They just bought us a few more hours.”
Von quickly turned to Drusus. “How does that line up with our predictions? Are we going to make it?”
Drusus nodded slowly as a smile cracked his usually stoic expression. "We're going to make it," he said without even trying to hide his relief.
Captain Liarra Von
Commanding Officer
Starbase 332
Commander Titus Drusus [P: Whitlam]
Chief Science Officer
Starbase 332
Lt. Commander Walter Prescott [P: Rutilius]
Chief of Operations
Starbase 332
