Ringside Seats

Posted on Thu Jun 18, 2015 @ 1:20pm by Lieutenant Daniel Rivera
Edited on on Thu Jun 18, 2015 @ 1:22pm

1,026 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Eye of the Beholder
Location: Dyson Shipyard
Timeline: *BACKPOST* - (during the evacuation)

[ON]

Dan Rivera slapped the commbadge on his chest. "All EVA personnel, get inside quickly!" He was looking through the windows of Dyson's tiny operations module which overlooked the docking facility and the USS Helios moored within. There were scores of people out there right now. Some walking along the hull of the ship and some hovering about with thruster packs attached to their backs. There were also several workpods helping out with the heavy-duty work. Now, in a frantic ballet that would have been comical under other circumstances they were scrambling to get inside and take cover.

Rivera tore his eyes away from the window and took another look at the small viewscreen on the bulkhead. The image was a zoomed-in, real-time feed of the station, over 300,000 kilometers away. More interesting than that was the planet emerging out of nothingness right behind it. One didn't need the external imagers to see that. It was visible to the naked eye.

The operations crewman on duty reported to Dan as he read the data from his console. "The station is caught in the planet's gravity. Also, there's a meteor storm passing through their position. It's causing some damage."

Everyone felt the drydock lurch as the planet exerted its gravitational influence on them, too. "Report!" Dan Rivera said.

"Gravimetric waves," another crewman said from her console. "They're pushing and pulling us like waves from the ocean."

The drydock began a slow spin. One of the lighting rigs mounted inside the dock tore loose and smashed against the hull of the Helios. Shards of debris scattered and tumbled off in all directions.

"Thrusters at station-keeping," Dan ordered. "Get us steady!"

"Trying, sir!"

Through the bulkheads they could hear the groaning of metal. The entire drydock structure was being tested by the abnormal stresses. Rivera rushed back to the observation windows. There were still people out there, struggling to get inside amidst the spin and flying debris from the shattered lighting rig. He touched his commbadge again. "Rivera to Chief Durhak, begin locking on to the people outside. Beam them aboard!" The yard had a single four-person pad. It wasn't much but it was all they had.

"Acknowledged," the transporter chief replied from a deck below.

"Asteroids!" Somebody yelled. Another glance out the window confirmed it. A single rock whizzed by. Followed by another. Then many more. Those were frightening, but not as much as the first one that hit the drydock like a thunderous metallic hammer. Another hit the Helios. Now everyone in the operations module was looking out the window. They all witnessed in horror as a spacesuited crewman outside was struck and killed instantly.

Dyson Yard didn't have shields. It was never believed that it needed any. In the event of an enemy attack the structure and anything within were to be scuttled, according to established procedure. As for flying rocks, they had never been a factor in this system. Not until now.

Rivera pondered his options. Just abandon the whole thing and flee for our lives? That was the first instinct, of course. But flee where? There wasn't time to transport everyone the long distance to DS5 and besides, DS5 didn't look like it was in much better shape.

"What do we do, sir?" The operations crewman asked. For the first time it struck Dan Rivera that they were all looking to him. He was in actual command of this mess.

Another asteroid hit the yard. A big one. It blasted its way through the metal framework causing one section of a duranium support structure to disintegrate. The impact was powerful enough to knock Dyson off its Z-axis. Everyone screamed and panicked.

Rivera had to make a decision quickly. They couldn't endure much more of this or the yard would be ripped apart. He looked outside and considered the possibility of escape using the Helios. Her nacelles were stripped down to the field coils for refurbishment; and several components of the impulse manifold had been swapped out, waiting for replacement parts to arrive from DS5's manufacturing facility. The Helios wasn't going anywhere.

Her warp core was still fully connected, though currently on standby. How soon can we get it fired up? "Everyone get back to your posts. We're going to die if we don't move fast."

He turned to his propulsion systems specialist. "Call up the remote interface for the chief engineer's table on the Helios. Bring the warp core online. Immediately!"

The specialist froze, not sure if he could really do what Rivera was asking of him. Activating a warp core from "cold" standby required preparatory diagnostics to be performed followed by a two-hour checklist of procedures. Mostly for safety reasons. The regulations book didn't simply permit one to turn the thing off and on like a switch. "Sir, I..."

Rivera clamped his hand down on the man's shoulder. "Just do it, okay? It's an emergency start-up procedure."

The specialist raised an eyebrow. "Is there really such a procedure?"

Rivera nodded. "There is now."

The specialist moved quickly to do as he was told. His fingers moved quickly, tapping out the commands on his console.

Rivera pointed at another crewman. "As soon as he gets that warp core up I want you to raise the ship's shields. Then extend them to cover us."

"Aye, sir."

Seconds later the warp core on the Helios was purring at idle. The plasma flow was way out of calibration but no one cared. They had enough power to raise the shields. Those, too, came up only seconds after that. They were now protected from the lethal storm of asteroids, though the impacts were still felt.

Dan Rivera wondered if it was some kind of record. Not that it was any cause for celebration. When the casualty count came in he found out he had six dead and ten wounded. It was a legitimate disaster.

"Send our status to the station," he said to his comms chief. "Tell them we'll need some medevacs as soon as they can manage."

"Yes, sir."

[OFF]


Lt. Dan Rivera
Starship Repair Team Leader
Dyson Yards
(NPC Bert)

 

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