Reboot!

Posted on Tue Aug 3rd, 2021 @ 5:07pm by Ensign Noah Balsam

Mission: The Place of Skulls
Location: Starship Sojourner; Main Computer Core, Deck Five; Concurrent to the end of the Bridge Post
Timeline: Mission Day 4 at 1300

[USS Sojourner]
[Computer Core Control Room]
[1300 Hours; concurrent to the end of Eyes in the dark, Bridge Post]

"Emergency lights!" Someone called amid the clamor. The entirety of the computer systems staff had rushed to their posts at the sudden Red Alert- and some were still trickling in. The youngest of them, the greenest, looked fearful. In the dark, the lead- Chief Prel- was working his teal fingers over one of the few working consoles- one labeled, "Kernel Operations." It glowed a hateful red, a scarlet penumbra of its console light was across the ring-shaped room.

"Shipboard communications are spotty!" A woman called through the crowd.

"Has there been any orders to evacuate the ship?" Prel called back over his shoulder before his protuberant gaze turned back to the Kernel. The temperature was rising- and that was a massive concern.

"Negative, no word or contact from the Bridge yet!" The woman replied. Finally, someone found the emergency lights and an equidistant ring of spotlights cast along the outer edge of the control room.

"How about Auxiliary Control or Engineering? For all we know, the Bridge is gone!" Prel announced back. He wanted to ask if anyone knew what had hit them but they were all as in the dark as he was. The Kernel console beeped. Temperature Threshold Alert. "Alright people, suit up! The Kernel's running too hot! we to cool the core down, or we'll start poaching the bioneural gelpacks!" He swept sweat off his nose and cranial bifurcation: the heat in the room was immense. His guess was it had pushed past forty degrees Celsius. That was well outside a Bolian's comfort zone.

"I've got packet response in-in the t-tertiary subprocessor!" Called a young voice. Noah Balsam had been one of the officers that pushed through when the system had gone to red alert. He'd been forced to abandon the Holo-Lab for critical operations, but his thoughts were still straying to what he'd seen on the Away Mission. Via his cameras, it appeared a group of Orions had beamed down and attacked.

"Route all shipwide communications through it!" Prel called back to the Midshipman.

Noah's fingers moved fast on the white hardboard keys, feeling clumsy as he'd become so used to the holographic interface. "Communications, theta... and theta tertiary auxiliary, priority redirect, force start emergency comm channel," Noah muttered to himself as he stabbed at the keys. The computer squawked. "Disaster Condition Protocols. Authorization Balsam Iota 71 Iota Charlie Delta 6 Ampersand." His panel lit up with a Christmas tree, in reds and whites. "I-I have shipwide comm systems online!"

"Good! Now jacket up!" Prel called. Noah looked back to see most of the staff pulling on heavy, reflective coats and face masks despite the insane heat. He followed suit as the doors parted and a group of Engineers bolted out with engineering kits in hand. Noah threaded his skinny arms into the jacket, pulled up the hood, and then pulled on his gloves. Then he secured the coat closed and pulled on his mask.

A rounded warning bong sounded and the perimeter of the computer core suddenly washed in a dark blue light. "Here we go! Brace!" Prel called. The entirety of the staff turned away from the core as a ring undocked from the top of the core. With a loud hiss, a fog of extreme cold fogged the room as the ring descended down the height of the core and back up. Once it latched back into the housing ring where it had begun, Prel called out.

"Alright, get in there! Get in there! We need sensors and communications online!" And immediately several crewmen, who were shedding their gear, were clamoring for the door into the inner control room. "Balsam! Take a comm booster and get up to the Bridge! Just in case that processor needs to be shunted to something else. Like preventing a warp core breach!"

"Yes Chief," Noah was peeling his own gear off. He could feel the cold, clammy melt of frost on his face, stiffly. He went for the equipment locker and located a comm booster. he slung it around his skinny body and then went for one of the access ladders. It was a long way up to the Bridge.

A Post By:

Midshipman Noah Balsam
Systems Specialist