= USS Rapier - Bridge =
The group of Chimera officers materialized in the corridor right outside of the Rapier's bridge. Immediately they were coughing as open vents filled the air with steam and smoke. Ahead the bulkhead leading into the bridge was open and from she stood, it looked pretty bad to Natalia. She turned around and addressed that came with her.
"Kroitzer, life support is your first priority, then try to get shields up. Dr Rice, assess which patients are critical and have them beamed to the Magellan's Sickbay," the Chimera's XO ordered as the teams split. Dr Rice followed her ahead into bridge to start his assessment of the Rapier's personnel.
They entered carefully into the dim bridge. It was eerily quiet and dark with several console flickering in and out of existence. Rice lifted up his torch and shone it ahead into the darkness, moving to the centre of the bridge to the command chair. Natalia followed him, stepping carefully over a fallen ceiling plate, but what she saw made her stop. In the command chair, the form of Commander Telson was slumped lifelessly to the right side, a large gash running from his neck down to the centre of his chest. Without hesitating, Dr Rice opened his medical tricorder and scanned the Rapier's CO, but Natalia already suspected the worst, and for the first time since the Battle of Aeran III, she felt the effect of the war begin to hit home.
"He's dead," Rice said matter-of-factually and moved on to the nearest person who was sprawled on the floor of the bridge.
Natalia heard a scraping sound towards the front of the small bridge and moved towards it. She saw a large ceiling plate beside the helm console that was propped up at an angle against the wall, and heard the sound again as the plate moved slightly.
"Hello? Can you hear me?" she said as she dropped to her knees and peered beneath the fallen plate. Next she heard a soft groan and as she shone her torch into the darkness, she saw a hand reaching out and then a familiar face with a mane of dark brown hair; it was Lieutenant Dacour.
"Rice! I found the XO, she's trapped under the steal plate," Natalia called out. Just as Rice rushed over a surge of power brought the emergency lights on and dimly illuminated the bridge. A few console sparked and died but the rest came to life.
"Kroitzer, was that you?" Natalia tapped her commbadge.
"Yes, Commander," the engineer replied. "Emergency power is on and we're working on life support now."
"Keep me informed. Trzetrzelewska out," Natalia replied, then turned back to Rice. "How's she doing?"
"A few badly bruised body parts, but she'll be fine," Rice commented. "She can be lucky she's half Klingon."
= An hour or so later =
With emergency power up it didn't take take Lieutenant Kroitzer too long to life support up and running to essential decks. The upper decks had taken the most damage and had been evacuated, with the exception of the bridge. All non-essential areas and systems were also shut down with Dr Rice and the injured personnel having beamed to the Magellan's Sickbay.
"How are you feeling?" Natalia asked as she turned around on her stool where she'd been sitting at an auxiliary console, reading the latest report from Kroitzer.
"I've been better," Pazla Dacour admitted honestly from where she sat at the helm console, also going through system checks. "I'll be fine soon enough."
"I can take care of things here, if you want to take a trip to the Magellan's Sickbay." Natalia knew it was a silly thing to say. It was unlikely Pazla would willingly leave the Rapier; with Telson dead, she was the acting CO and Natalia certainly wasn't going to order her off her own ship.
"I'm fine," Pazla reiterated a little more firmly. "Besides, there's too much to do here. From a crew of 50, a third of the crew are dead, and another third are in the Magellan's Sickbay." For a moment she paused and looked back at the helm console, then slammed her fist in anger against it.
"What is it?" Natalia asked as she got up and moved over to her side.
"Tactical sensors are picking up five Romulan ships inbound," she said.
Natalia quickly tapped her badge. "Kroizter, how long until we can have warp?"
"That's difficult to say, Commander," came the reply. "The Rapier's got one nacelle, which can give us Warp 2 at best, but without shields the outer hull will apart."
"Two warbirds just decloaked!" Pazla called out. "They've fired on the Magellan. As much as I hate to say it, we can't take another hit. She's not strong enough."
Natalia nodded, understanding. "We'll come back for her later, I promise," she said, then tapped her badge. "Rapier to Magellan. We're in no shape to take another beating, requesting emergency beam-out of all personnel. Repeat, requesting emergency beam-out of all personnel."
With a heavy sigh, Pazla stood up from her chair and joined Natalia. A moment later, they were engulfed by the transporter beam and were whisked over to the Magellan.
= End Log =
Commander Natalia Trzetrzelewska
Executive Officer
USS Chimera NCC 96899-C
-
Lieutenant Pazla Dacour
Executive Officer
USS Rapier NCC 61582
[NPC by Bren]
