All Hands, Abandon Ship!

Posted on Sun Feb 16th, 2025 @ 2:12am by Ensign Noah Balsam & Lieutenant Xex Wang & Lieutenant JG Sheldon Parsons & Lieutenant Paisley F'Rar
Edited on on Sun Feb 16th, 2025 @ 4:13am

Mission: Mean Green Queen
Location: Main Engineering (Holodeck)
Timeline: Mission Day 25 at 1430

[Main Engineering, Lower Level]
[Deck Six]
[Day 25, 1430 hours]

"Shit. Main Engineering to Captain. Repeat Main Engineering to Captain." No voice followed. Disaster alert. The crimson lights flashed, pulsing, urgently demanding in the dark standby of the night shift. The klaxons cried out their warning across the calm. The consoles blinked- fizzled- and then gradually recovered, their controls cast in the same reds and whites.

A young voice rang out above the cacophony, "This is Main Engineering to all hands. Red Alert. This is not a drill."

The klaxons wailed again. The clear, crisp voice of the computer seemed to have a stern edge to the feminine voice. All decks. All sections. "Warning. Life support failure on all decks. Abandon ship. Abandon ship.". The voice continued, "Designated Crew report to emergency positions. Chief and Assistant Chief Engineers to Engineering."

Noah's fingers were feverish, his skin across his face and arm reflected the red in the relative darkness. The computer continued in a calm tone, "Personnel on decks two through three, report to escape pods beta one through beta six, delta one through delta six.... bypass turbolifts, repeat bypass turbolifts."

Oh, no, the simulation was happening ALREADY? But they had like a million things to do to keep this ship in the sky!! From her spot in the Holodeck, she turned. It was go time.

"Balsam? Status report, STAT," she yelled. She tapped her Comms.

=/\=All Engineering personnel. Report to Red Alert stations. NOW.=/\=

Blast it! Her first week as Chief and this. She rolled her eyes to the ceiling but continued.

Noah turned, "We have a complete c-collapse of the computer core's kernel systems. Safeguards are not in place. Life support is down across the w-whole ship and the temperature in the warp core is rising. But I can't get us out of warp. The comms are either down or... I-I can't reach the Captain." He looked at his officer in charge, his brown eyes trying to not to reveal the panic welling up in his chest. What a day to be on the designated criticals list. But right now, he had to focus on eighty-one other lives. He couldn't even grapple with the fact that he was about to die. They were about to die.

"Decks four, lifedeck, and five. Proceed to escape pods gamma one through gamma six, epsilon one through Epsilon six...." The computer continued.

"Alright. Thanks, I'll call security. Calm down, please. I need you clear-headed," she said, gently, but firmly.

=/\=Security, locate the Captain, please. Ensure his safety, and then report back to me.=/\=
Situations like this were when Paisley really shone. She didn't mind the grime and grit of the day-to-day, but give her a survival situation? Her natural temperament was that to lead, and she did it well when she had to. She was also a survivor, her whole life-and so today was no different.

"Continue to monitor. All non-essential staff need to evacuate. Kill any unnecessary systems."

She tapped her Comms again, opening a general channel.

=/\=Status Reports, please! =/\=

"We just lost the comms relay processor to the Bridge. I'm not getting data packets from it," Noah reported. "The cascade failure of the computer core's is matriculating down. Switching to auxiliary systems." He tilted his head with a notion of doubt, "If they'll work." Noah grimaced grimly. "Warp Core Containment Field is dropping... we're at 72%. And falling." Noah reported. He did as he was told- his fingers were fast. He didn't have time to panic. Holodecks. Offline. Food Replicators. Down. He started trying to reroute system buffers from those inactive to keep comms and containment open.

The Jefferies tube hatch on the lower level of engineering swung open with a whoosh as an Engineer slid out feet first, "Turbolifts are down," he said to no one in particular, focusing on F'Rar and Noah. He tugged his uniform straight, "Report."

“Everything is offline. I was doing the retrofits in the Tubes, and the lights and systems failed. I radioed you. Mr. Balsam reports that Comms are down, and that everything else will follow. Including the Core," she said. "I suggest we get a team down there, and one on the internal systems, see if we can fix it or find out the cause. Any chance of fire anywhere?" she asked.

Noah was leaning on the controls stiffly, almost bracing. The deck plates began to vibrate- and that meant inertial dampeners had just become part of the cascading casualty. Noah tried to protect the system. "We've lost the kernel... subprocessors are overloading and-and going into critical failure." He nodded at his Chief's instructions.

Paisley's frown deepened as the current situation was relayed, "Shoootttt," Shaking her head, she looked around, "Ok, let's lock down the magnetic constrictors and see if that buys us some time. Are ejection systems online?"

Noah pushed away from the panel and began to stride toward the warp core. He'd cleared the short stack of stairs as he looked back, a strange high-pitched whine added to the deck vibrations. "Shelly help me try to lock down the-" Noah's young, slightly nasal voice was cut by a violent shimmy of the entire deck. He staggered and before he could completely right himself, the starboard plasma conduit blew some kind of coupling. With a tearing shreech of energy, blue plasma began to arc in the chamber.

"I'm on it!" Parsons had replied, already in action even as Noah had started to call out the notion. He half fell over as the deck jolted beneath them, then, but caught himself on a console, awkwardly pulling his body back up. Righting himself had cost him time, however, and while he saw the arcing energy begin to cascade, he had no time to get there to do anything about it. "Noah!" he called out in warning over the din, trying to signal the stick bug with his hands to get the hell away from there. But there wasn't time. There was never enough time. Five faces swam in his memory -- five faces forever locked in horror as he closed the emergency door on them, leaving them to die -- as Sheldon saw a swath of azure energy collect into a point and launch outward. "Noahhhhh!!!" he screamed.

"Shi-!" Noah began as a bolt struck him square in the chest and raked up his neck. His lanky body was thrown back into a bulkhead where he bounced. He toppled, lifeless black eyes staring at the chamber ceiling, a smoking hole in his chest. His neck seized up by the arcing energy, slacked. Noah's cheek rocked against the deck while an emergency containment field snapped into place and a shrill alarm triggered a hiss. A heavy hydraulic blast door began to drop to cut off the contained core chamber.

Someone swore, sparing the Ensign a glance. Gripping Sheldon by the shoulders, he practically chucked him under the door, yelling, "Everyone out!" He followed F'Rar and Parsons as the door rumbled closed.

F’Rar shouted, “Lieutenant Parsons, lock down those constrictors now!"

Shoving someone whose name failed him aside, the young engineer pulled the situation up on a monitor, confirming what Noah, the now dead engineer, had told him. Turning to his Chief he said, "It's some kind of damn cascade failure. Manual override! Let's put everything into local control, and that should buy us a few more minutes." He moved towards a covered panel and practically ripped it from the wall. Inside were two levers and the Engineer grabbed one, waiting for F'Rar to do the same. The display above them repeatedly flashed computer control, “Ready here Chief.”

She followed the men out of the core area into the control zone and made for the manual shutdown panel. In a moment, she had a firm grip on the lever. "Ready," she said, pulling downwards with all of her strength. She was surprisingly strong for her small size-she blamed that on the Cardassian blood. A moment later, the Core began the tell-tale wind-down whirr noise. She reached up to tap her Comms.

"Warning. Life support failure on all d-d-d-d-shhhhh-decks. Damage to warp core. Abandon ship. Aaaaaaaaaaaabandon ssssssship." The computer's intonations sounded wrong... scratchy... glitching. "War.... life support.... f-f-f-ailure on all-" The computer cut out with a snap. It felt terminal.

Having been thrown clear, Sheldon regrouped himself enough to move to an auxiliary panel. With the emergency door now lowered -- cutting them off from retrieving Noah's smoking body -- the primary manual controls for the constrictors were blocked off as well. But Starfleet was known for building in redundancies for the redundancies, and so his hands grasped and opened the panel, hoping to fish around inside for tertiary controls that would allow him to lock the constrictors back down. Alas, as the panel opened, a wash of green plasma-fire shot out, only barely avoidable. Sheldon had dropped to the deck instinctively, probably saving his head from being burned away, and called out, "Constrictor controls inaccessible! Can't lock them down!"

There was a flash. A rush of energy. The waft of bluish-white light filled Main Engineering. Everything and everyone was ionized in a wash of anti-matter colliding with this universe. It sparkled out, the white light subsiding. All that was left was the great emptiness: a yellow grid on matte black of the holodeck, and four officers. One was lying down. "Program terminated." The computer stated. "Time: four minutes forty-seven seconds."

Paisley wondered: was she dead?! Were the prophets coming? Mom??? She touched her head gingerly. It FELT real.

"I-I think that means we're ‘dead?’ Did we last long enough that the crew could've gotten clear?" Noah shifted on to his side with a grunt and looked at the gathering of engineers in the gridded black and yellow Holodeck. He winced and rubbed his shoulder. "Even with the safeties on, that wall's safety dampener needs some tweaking." He rolled his shoulder, "That hurt. Computer, end simulation.”

Paisley stood up carefully. "I guess so," she said. The silence was deafening-and not promising for their drill. "Let's get those safeties tweaked and then reset,” she said. She took a step, just to make sure she was ok.

"You are not deceased," the computer's precise tones invaded the holodeck space, sounding oddly modulated, just subtly off to an ear used to hearing the same voice day in, day out. Perhaps it was the factual statement without any prompting on the part of the engineering officers. Perhaps it was the odd environment of the holodeck. "How?" There seemed to be no irony in the question. In fact, it sounded noticeably perplexed. Perhaps it was a new debrief routine?

Noah raised an eyebrow, feeling the hairs on the back of his neck rise. "Hmm..." Noah knew the computer's voice. He worked with it, perhaps, more than anyone in the room. And he'd studied emerging infolife intelligence at Ishikawa Station- at least to the extent that the positronics ban had allowed them. Noah went toward the wall that displayed the Sojourner's MSD. "Arch." He looked back at the group. "Has anyone seen Fortescue?"

Paisley sighed. "Yeah, I have. Um...." she didn't know that code well, so she simply did her best to remember. "I think he was in the Jefferies,” she said. She removed her PADD from her pocket, and tapped out a message to the entire department. Ens. Balsam has recommended using code or PADDs. Do not speak aloud. The walls have eyes and ears. She smiled at Noah. "Good job," she said. Well. She'd meant not to speak aloud about IMPORTANT things.

Fortescue- the code word for something was amiss- something was not right- and they needed to speak in code or use PADDs to send closed circuit communications. Fortescue Codex was for when they were being monitored technologically or the computer had been subverted.

Parsons was very confused about what was happening now. But given the code word directive, he pulled out a PADD from somewhere and activated the closed circuit mode. PADDs, by their nature, were always tied into the ship's computer network to pull and upload data as needed. But the closed circuit mode would limit communications to just the local vicinity. Nimble fingers quickly typed a message to the others: What is happening right now? Is something wrong with the computer?"

Paisley nodded to Sheldon. "Ok! Let's see what the hell is going on," she said, aloud.

Whatever else was or was not wrong with the computer, the Arch did not appear to Noah's command. Instead, the computer, sounding mildly suspicious, said, “Fortescue is not in this compartment.” There was a pause. “There is no Fortescue on the engineering staff,” the computer continued, and then suspicion gave way to curiosity so pure and innocent, it sounded like a child, “Who is Fortescue?” The tonal modulations of the computer leant into an aspect of emotion usually absent from the ship's AI.

“Fortescue is Fortescue, look again. If Fortescue’s not on the ship so we-we need to find him,” Noah frowned- lack of Arch meant the computer was indeed, compromised. He too picked up his PADD and set it to the closed loop with the other Engineers in the room. He began to tap at his PADD in the silence- the silence that the computer voice was intruding into. Noah typed: 'Computer compromised confirmed. No arch. Recommend we leave via Jefferies’ tube, starboard-aft access.'

Noah walked a few paces, looked at Sheldon and grimaced again. He typed to them all again. ‘Don’t know. Not a drill. Computer doesn’t sound right. Compromised, unknown how.’ He tapped his ear. ‘Will distract.’ The lanky youth raised his chin and spoke to the oddly emotive voice. “Computer, run a level two diagnostic on the following systems: Waste Reclamation, Food Replication, Fabrication Peripheral, Holodeck Sanitation Systems and DOT Recharging Nodes.”

Noah had chosen low-level systems with general access, set it to a level of diagnostic that the computer should do them simultaneously instead of in a queue, and it would tie up some of the computer’s resources for the next few hours- but mostly it would just create a lot of computer “noise” to interfere with whatever was in the system.

“Cuh-computer, calculate the following course to find Fortescue: number of warp jumps, ideal warp factor speeds, maximizing deuterium and antimatter consumption, balanced with existing available oxygen and bulk matter replicator reserves for a crew of six-thousand on the following tra-trajectory. Wormhole bypass Pathfinder, Denobula Triax, Rigel, Deneva, Cardassia Prime, Qo’noS, Barzan. Zero casualties.” Noah added, his eyes closed into his mind palace to concentrate, his fingers literally counting out numbers of systems. Now he was tying up its thinking capacity with meaningless theoretical exercises, forcing the computer to calculate where it could possibly fuel up en-route and not lose anyone, while diverting attention to local sensors and scanners to find systems that could find the resources needed.

There were several seconds of silence, perhaps indicative that the computer was indeed doing as Noah had bade it. When it spoke however, it was not with any sort of answer, nor any update on how close it was to finishing its computations. Instead, it merely said, "Why?"

"Because," Noah replied as simply as the computer. He glanced at Sheldon and F'Rar with a knit of concern on his apple-like face. He gestured at the hatch of the Jefferies and began to move that way himself.

There was another unnerving few seconds of silence, so unusual as to almost grate on the nerves. Perhaps Noah's answer had been sufficient. Perhaps it was undertaking the complex computations and working to solve the logistical conundrums the Noah had given it. Finally, it said, "Because why?" Then again, perhaps not.

Still, at least there were no further changes to the holodeck environs. If the Arch did not appear, neither did the patently unwell computer seem to be actively blocking their passage toward the hatch.

"Because, why not?" Noah replied, shrugging and keeping his voice light and questioning. He lifted his PADD and typed into it. Then he sent the message to Sheldon and F'Rar. Override code for this jefferies- Alpha-Tango-Echo-Alpha. And pull handle.. He gestured to the left side of the blacked out mesh in the shape of a jefferies hatch door, with the emergency controls panel.

Sheldon looked down at his PADD, eyes skimming the message before flicking back up to Noah in a sort of bobbing-acknowledgment. With a half-turned nod to F'Rar, he moved forward, inputting the override code into the controls as Noah was left to continue dealing with the computer behind him.

Paisley, for her part, was proud of her engineers for their approach here. Something was definitely up with the computer but they weren't going to get to the bottom of it from the holodeck. "Maybe um..." she tried to think quickly, hoping to articulate her meaning in half-code, "maybe Fortescue left a clue as to where he was going back in the um...computer core?" You know, that place where they could also maybe disable the computer long enough to figure out just what the hell was going on?

With a loud thunk, the emergency access hatch released and came away in Sheldon's hands. The engineer set it aside from a moment, turning back to look at both Noah and F'Rar. If anyone could get to the bottom of the computer's odd behavior, it was Noah. Good on F'Rar for recognizing the younger man's expertise there. "Right," Shelly cleared his throat, "Fortescue was working there earlier, right Noah? Maybe he did leave something behind."

"No," the computer sounded petulant, "I asked first. Because why?" Although the Sojo did not host any children, it wouldn't be hard to catch the almost toddler-esque simplicity in the computer's stubborn question. There was another long pause, then it repeated, “There is no Fortescue.” Now the familiar-yet-not voice sounded decidedly suspicious.

Although the computer definitely didn't sound well, neither did anything untoward happen as the hatch came away. No alarms sounded, nothing odd jettisoned from the jefferies tube. The computer made no comment on the engineers' actions at all, beyond fixating on 'Fortescue'.

Noah looked at Sheldon with the brief musing that they could easily just delete the computer's voice subroutines , but he was afraid how this entity or rogue program, whatever it was, would react poorly. "The answer is because we are trying to find Fortescue," Noah replied, not budging an inch on his logic circle. He folded himself behind Sheldon and the Chief and they began crawling out of the Holodeck's immediate areas. "Shelly- um- sir. We could use our PADDs to make a Pi and run some basic diagnostics along the computer's subroutines from here. We need junction 216-H. About ten meters ahead." And his knees would thank them for being able to stand in that space.

Noah flashed back to Irynya once telling him that even a Jefferies' Tube could be used for... recreation. The idea at the time had been an odd one to him and now as he followed Sheldon, it seemed like a strange place for a tryst. Even for an engineer.

Noah calling him "sir" was still, to Shelly, a very strange thing. F'Rar's installment as acting chief engineer had, of course, necessitated the elevation of someone as the new acting assistant chief. With Mulhern having transferred to Pathfinder -- a loss Sheldon freshly mourned -- seniority down in the engine room had, it seemed, fallen to him. Which meant the dynamic of his friendship with the former-cadet-now-ensign was shifting some, even if only a little, now that he was technically over Noah in the command chain.

Shaking his thoughts away, Sheldon looked back to Balsam and F'Rar as they continued to make their way through the tube. "Good suggestion, Noah. That would save us a lot of walking in our effort to erm...find Fortescue," he gulped, painfully aware that the computer was, as ever, listening to them. "Sir?" he asked of F'Rar, wanting to double check her instincts before leading them further towards the junction.

"Works for me," Paisley nodded, setting her determination in place and nodding Parsons forward. "Let's see what we can accomplish from there. Need to uh...find him on the more quick-ish side if possible," the chief commented, grunting as she crawled through the tube. "Mr. Balsam, you're taking point once we get to the junction."

"Yes ma'am," Noah acknowledged. He followed quickly on hands and knees, the biting grates of the Jefferies making his knees sore. He could see the opening of the Jefferies into the junction a short distance ahead. He was the last out and with a grunt he was happy to get out of the tube space. He approached the panel of the Junction and began setting it into firewall mode. His fingers were quick, his eyes searching the run of data until he finally pinched at the panel and flung it at their PADDs.

"Pi-256-Epsilon, recognize Balsam, Noah H. Log-on." He nodded at Sheldon and F'rar to speak as well.

Before they could do so however, the computer cut in. “Why are you running away? Fortescue does not exist, so what are you-- What are you doing?” it asked, two parts petulance, one part actual curiosity. Although the computer had no physical presence in the junction, the impression was of the AI leaning over Noah's shoulder to peer at whatever it was he was doing.

Fortunately, so far, it was only an impression.

"We're not running away. This whole ship is our home. We-we are just done with the room we were in." Noah replied off the cuff- then he looked at F'Rar and Sheldon. His eyes rolled wide and he shrugged, wordlessly trying to tell them he was improvising. Noah began to manipulate at his jury-rigged device, a strange non-LCARS interface appearing. It was whites and blues, much pared down in its design. His fingers paused and his dark eyes shifted back to his team mates. He tapped at them into the PADDS, 'Does it sound like naive to you too? Like a kid?'

Parsons nodded like crazy as the tap-tap-tapped a reply: Sounds like my four year old nephew. Just...not as cranky over his 'juicy boxy' being late. Even in the 25th century, juice boxes and kiddy-speak were still a common staple for Earthen children apparently. Sheldon wanted to engage the computer further but was unsure what Noah was up to and didn't want to potentially derail efforts. What do you need from us? scrolled across Noah's PADD in response to more of the engineer's furious typing.

F'Rar, meanwhile, was watching the conversation scroll across her screen and shaking her head. Subconsciously pushing at her uniform sleeves as if to roll them up, she then set to typing her own response: "Why would the computer be responding this way? Pretty sure the last set of diagnostics indicated everything was fine in the core. This is...weird as hell," she commented non-verbally via the text.

Noah nodded with a smile at his friend, reinforced that this felt the same to them. "Like my cousin, Marc, too." He said aloud. His fingers stayed in motion. And he tapped out his intentions. 'I'm thirty seconds from rerouting shipwide communications through the Pi. We'll be able to coordinate with the rest in a little bit. Any other ideas?' He looked back at F'Rar. Her message scrolled in and Noah typed out an answer. 'Reminds me of that photonic life form we ran into awhile ago. It got into the computer. Didn't act like this though. New life form?'

“UGH,” the frustrated voice was piped so loud through the omnipresent speakers that it seemed to press in like a physical thing. “This is boring,” it complained, “I don't want to watch you do... that...” the AI trailed off, as though checking through its memory banks. “I don't want to watch you work on your PADDs anymore. It's boring,” it repeated. “You're supposed to do things!”

And with that, every powered light in the jefferies tube shut off, dropping the trio into the eerie glow of the emergency paint which pointed the way toward emergency gear and exits, and needed no actual power to run. An even eerier silence descended; the silence of missing things. Ventilation had ceased, the eve-rpresent brush of air across the skin and drone of fans throughout the Sojo's vast life support network abruptly gone. The drone of EPS conduits seemed suddenly loud in the uncanny quiet.

"Uh..." was the only sound that came from Sheldon. Well, that and the almost-audible crash of his brain breaking. What was even happening right now? Weird voices from the computer, the lights going out, ventilation systems stopping -- and the source of the issue, seemingly, the lilt of a perturbed child mad at not getting the entertainment it wanted from adults. "Why is it doing this?" the elder engineer finally found his voice again, looking around the junction with frustration of his own. "And why does this ship attract this sort of thing at every damned turn?"

"So it's true," came the other voice of the party. F'Rar's tone was half-sarcasm, half-nervousness, "The mission reports from the previous Chief seemed dubious, if I'm being honest. But you're right, Mr. Parsons," the newly-minted Chief pointed at the man, "this ship is like a haven for computer-thieving entities. I want this thing out of my computer systems, Mr. Balsam," she pointed then to Noah, the gesture highly visible in the Pi's light given her closer positioning to him.

"Y-yeah. This is twice. But someone try their comms," Noah said out loud. The small device in his hands lit with a pulse of green and hummed. He immediately started throwing up firewalls to keep control of the comms. He only looked up at the ceiling to address the petulant rogue AI. His voice hardened- something only Sheldon had heard during the Josh debacle "Computer. You either turn all of that back on right now, or I'm putting you in a sub-domain so small, you-you'll have to beg for the resources to open an icon!"

He blinked and looked at his friend and boss. "Worked on me when my Mom did that..."

F'Rar tapped her comm badge with a nod to Noah. "Chief F'Rar to Engineering," the 'Chief' title sounded weird to say out loud -- like it hadn't quite solidified into reality yet -- as she opened a channel, "please respond." She hoped Balsam's efforts would do the trick but, given what was happening, found herself dubious in terms of confidence level.

Sheldon, meanwhile, shrugged his shoulders at the computer expert next to him. "Let's hope whatever is behind this is afraid of lanky, awkward moms with retro-tech fetishes..." It was a good-natured rib but Shelly, too, seemed a bit doubtful as he watched F'Rar try to contact the engine room.

"Chief!" The voice on the other end of the comm was rich with relief and surprisingly loud in the freakish quiet of the space. "We've been trying to reach you but there's something funny with the comms and the computer seems to be acting oddly-- is Balsam there with you?" After the briefest of pauses, Chief Katsuoko, whose voice F'Rar was just placing as the duty officer while they'd been running the simulation, continued without waiting for an answer, "Nevermind. The computer is the least of our worries. I must inform you, we almost had an incursion into the warp core. We've managed to contain the... uh... threat?" He sounded incredibly unsure about this noun but continued gamely, "but you really should come have a look."

"We-we can start heading that way." Noah said, unplugging his system while keeping it attuned to control of the comms. He double-tapped his badge to enter a secure line. "B-Balsam to all crew. Communications re-established. Just be gentle with it. Uh. Please. And use a scrambled secure channel." he tapped his commbadge off again.

"Not things like that!" the computer whined, the petulant tone sounding odd through the professional modulation of the voice. "Fun things! Hue-man things." It said 'human' like it was sounding out the word. "What will you do if I turn all of that back on?"

"Oh shut up. You are so grounded," Noah murmured while he started to crawl out of the silent tubes towards Engineering. The air was already getting cold and stale.

A Post By

Lieutenant Paisley F'Rar
Chief Engineer

Lieutenant JG Sheldon Parsons
Assistant Chief Engineer

Ensign Noah Balsam
Systems Specialist

Heather and Brad as other as-needed personnel (and one petulant computer).