The Vashon Backstory - Part 5

Posted on Thu Apr 1, 2021 @ 4:33pm by Master Warrant Officer Angus Chaplin & Chief Petty Officer Steven Bryd

Mission: Birds of a Feather
Location: USS Vashon
Timeline: After Part 1

Angus traversed narrow corridor of the Vashon bound for main Engineering. He hadn't had a good night sleep. Concern over the ships lack of Warp flight was plaguing him; in addition, the continuation of the sensor grid to show unexplainable anomalous blips. Long range communications had also started to become affected by whatever was plaguing his craft. Making sure he was as visible as possible, there was a slight 'on edge' building amongst the crew. They had received back advise back that the Engineering Frigate would spin around to investigate after it had finished deploying the replacement Tachyon Detection Nodes, but that was days away.

Approaching the Main Engineering Hatch, Angus sighed, he knew he needed to appear strong for the crew, but the circumstances seemed to be building against them. Opening the hatch, he climbed into the Main Engineering. It wasn't a large engine room, but it had the relevant accesses to the bowels of the ship. Spying Charge flat on his back with tools in hand, Angus joined him.

"What's the diagnosis Doc? Will I play the piano again?" Angus smirked at his lame joke.

"Hey Skip, don't know what to tell you,” Bryd began continuing to work, “It’s as if every attempt to bring the warp engines back to life are being sucked away from us. [I] can’t find anything technically wrong with them, other than they just won’t work.”

“What about my Sensors?” Enquired Angus. Bryd motioned for a tool from his kit that Angus had moved just out of reach. He handed what he assumed Bryd was looking for. The gesture he received back told him that wasn’t the right one.

“Would need to go for a spacewalk. It could be anything,” Bryd’s irritation at the division maintenance crew was evident.

“Skip, I don’t have answers. We’re producing enough power from primary systems to run at warp, but we just can’t establish a field. It could be something physical with the nacelles, it could be external. But without being in dock, it’s not something we could easily remedy. If we could put down on a planet, maybe I could come up with some answers, get something together. It’s not like I’m enjoying this casual stroll either. We’ve gone through everything accessible, the fact the lights are stable and Impulse is working better than tolerance. There’s no reason that glowing thing shouldn’t make us go zoom.” Bryd said, tossing something the direction of the Warp core, which landed and skidded across the ground only a few feet from him, thanks to his lack of actual desire to damage the Warp Core and the awkward way he was laying checking the isolinear circuitry.

Angus got up with a slight groan to collect the tool that his Chief Engineer had discarded. Staring at the Warp core and walking over to the console in front of it. He wanted to peruse the latest results of warp attempts for himself. It had been many, many years since he’d specialised in command, but he still tried to keep the knowledge up there on Warp mechanics, particularly with such a small crew.
Suddenly the red alert klaxon began to sound, and the ship shook violently. The power faded and Angus was thrust against the bulkhead, hitting his head hard. A loud bang and creak from the hull echoed ever seam of the ship as the world began to go dark around him. As his consciousness drifted away, an eerie lack of voices could be heard.