USS Penumbra Sim Narrative, SD 202102.26 ANNOUNCEMENTS: . We were visited by the Fleet Commander herself, Admiral Killian Sylver, who presided over the promotion ceremony of Captain Zachary Taylor to Commodore. In addressing the Captain, the Admiral said, "you have given many years of excellent service, and have gone above and beyond more times than can be counted." . The Admiral also promoted Lieutenant Colonel Travis Patterson to full-bird Colonel, saying, "you have served with distinction and dedication that is commendable in first officers." . Let it be shown in the Official Record, that as of Stardate 202102.26, the USS Penumbra is now under the command of a Flag Officer! Introduction: . The Penumbra was adrift without power, having passed through the Rift from the Mirror Universe. But, they'd been forced to jettison the super-powerful antimatter fusion core known as the Heart of the Ancients, which then exploded, damaging the Penumbra and collapsing the Rift behind them. . Emergency Power eventually kicked in to restore basic life support and minimal lighting. Sickbay was running off their own emergency generator, but those batteries wouldn't last forever. Communications was being handled through individual commbadges or hand-held communicators. Bridge: Initial Assessments . On the Bridge, the newly promoted Commodore, Zak Taylor, sat slumped in the Command Chair. He groaned, "Ow." . The newly promoted Colonel, Travis Patterson, released the harness that had strapped him into the Executive Officer's chair beside the Commodore and moved to check on him, "Zak?" he asked. . Zak tried to raise his head and started forming words, "I'm f-- ahh!" His face contorted with pain.
. Patterson watched Zak's face and quickly tapped his commbadge, "Patterson to Sickbay, Medical Emergency on the Bridge." Then he grabbed the older man's head, locking it in place. He called out, "C-Spine! Now!" calling for a cervical collar. Then he gazed solemnly into Zak's face and said clearly, "I relieve you, Commodore." . Zak just groaned and muttered, "Did we make it through? Can we tell?" . Patterson shook his head, "Not yet." . At the Helm, LtCmdr. Jason Carter groaned, then checked the console. "No helm control," he reported, "but, we're not tumbling anymore." . On the floor behind the Tactical Station, LtCmdr. Denovan Hawke picked himself up off the deck and pulled up to his dark console. "No Tactical systems either," he reported. . At the Operations Console, LtCmdr. Tabeshk Tibris rubbed his head, "Ow, what the frick, man?" He glanced around, "Everyone else okay? I can't see sh-- ... never mind." . Near the Science Station, LtJG. Jackson Carshel picked himself up, rubbing his wet forehead, then glancing at his bloody hand. "Aww, man," he exclaimed, "can I go one day without bloodshed?" He felt around his console and found the emergency flashlight. He flipped the switch and said, "Let there be light!" . "Checking backup systems," Den announced, then noticed Patterson holding Zak's head. He quickly moved to the emergency medkit and rushed to Patterson's side. "Here, Colonel." . As if he'd had some kind of prescient ability (which he actually didn't have), Dr. Shadow K'Trevala stepped onto the Bridge, having climbed up four decks' worth of ladders in near record time. While he wasn't a psychic with the ability to see the future, he was a strong empath and telepath and he'd sensed the Commodore's pain and injury before the ship had even stopped lurching and had started up the ladders as soon as they were stable. He helped Patterson and Den put the cervical collar on Zak, locking it into place.
. Sternly, Patterson said to Zak, "Don't ... move." . The Commodore was feeling somewhat helpless as Shadow, the Colonel, Den, and Ensign Proxima Filler strapped him to a backboard, but he was aware enough to know he was injured and surrendered to their ministration. Once strapped in, Patterson stood and stepped back. Shadow and Filler lifted the Commodore and started down the corridor for the laborious task of getting him to Sickbay without the use of the Turbolifts. Eyes On . Patterson turned to the Chief of Flight Operations, "Carter, get Delta One up in the air. We need to see what's outside." . Having completed assisting Patterson and Shadow with Zak, Den sat back on his heels and called his sister over their Borg interlink, ~Are you okay, Kat?~ . Lt. Katarina Hawke had made it back to Sickbay from Main Engineering, having made it there just as Shadow was sprinting out. She responded, ~I'm fine, Den, though I came to see how Shadow was doing and I think he's so distracted he didn't realize I was here and left.~ Kat, too, was somewhat distracted and not sure what to do with herself. She grabbed a medkit of her own and headed back out searching for any other injured officers unable to make it to Sickbay. . Unable to hear the dialog between the Hawke siblings, Patterson sat himself in the Command Chair. He asked, "Carter, are the inertial dampeners working?" . Carter checked, then nodded. "Yes, Colonel. We're at full stop." . Den moved back over to the Tactical station. Emergency power had rebooted his sytems, but not much was actually working. "Oh, come on! Not even sensors?" he grumbled, then gave a heavy sigh. . Patterson shook his head, then tapped his commbadge. "Delta One, as soon as you can get the doors open, we're gonna need you out there. Get eyes for us and relay sensor data to our Tactical Officer."
. Almost immediately he got a response from CfWrnt. "Sandy" Sandoval. "Delta One, aye, sir. Should be able to get free in 2 minutes. These doors are pretty slow without power." . Den commented, "I was going to go down there for that, but they are still down there, aren't they? Works for me, Colonel." . Carshel was moving around the Bridge, assessing various consoles. As he grew close to Tabby, the half-Klingon called, "Oy! You all right? Your head has a scrape." . Carshel touched the spot. "I'm aware. I felt it. How are you? Looks like you might have a bruise on yours. Must be that ridge, right?" . Tabby smiled back at him, "Yeah, it CAN be helpful." Klingon skulls, even half-Romulan, are significantly harder than Human skulls, and their skin is significantly thicker as well. . Carshel wiggled his flashlight and asked, "Do you have a light under your console as well?" . Tabby muttered, "Yeah, now that I can see and ...," he reached under and pulled out the emergency flashlight. He flipped the switch and together the two of them crawled under consoles trying to get more of them fixed and power to them. First Look . Eventually, Sandy managed to get Delta One launched without damaging the Flyer or the Hangar Bay doors. He began a slow sweep, scanning the ship and relaying data back to Den on the Bridge. . Den mumbled as the feed came through, "It's a little lagging but the data is coming through. It's really not good." . There was a LOT of scarring on the hull. Most of the Absorptive Hull Plating was burned off, and the Ablative shell beneath was heavily damaged. In a few places, the hull had been peeled back so far as to expose the inner laminate beneath the armoring. . Hawke called Sandy to ask, "Delta One, does it look like any spots have actually breached? I don't think we have force fields." . Sandy answered, "I don't see any actual breaches, sir, but she sure looks banged up."
. Kat made it to the Bridge about then, medkit in hand. "Anyone need medical attention?" But aside from Carshel's relatively minor head scrape, everyone else was in good shape. . Tabby and Carshel were working under the Ops console trying to figure out a way to get more power to Bridge systems even while the whole ship was running on emergency power only. Eventually, Patterson called out, "Hey, tinker-twins, why don't you two head down to Main Engineering. Link up with Bevin and see what you can do to help get main power back online." . Tabby popped up, "Uh, yeah, that would be smart." . Carshel mumbled, "Yeah, yeah, Uncle Pat." . Kat flopped into a seat near the Auxiliary Medical Station, exhausted from having literally run from one end of the ship to the other, from Deck 8 to Deck 1 using only the ladders. She couldn't stop herself from yawning. . As Tabby and Carshel headed for the corridor to find the ladder, Tabby tapped his commbadge, "Love, I am headed your way. Don't stress yourself." . She didn't respond over the commlink, but Tabby could visualize her response: a grunt and a swipe at a stray lock of bright red hair. Yeah, not stressing wasn't very likely. . As they dashed down the side corridor, Tabby glanced at Carshel running alongside him and asked, "Damn, since when did you get fit like a warrior?" . Carshel answered without breaking stride, "When I damn near got blown up." . Patterson stood and moved over to stand beside Den to take a better look at Delta One's reports. As he did, he tapped his commbadge, calling Bevin. "Bridge to Engineering. I've sent Tabby and Carshel down to assist. Not a whole lot we can do up here at the moment, so you have Executive Authority to enlist anyone you need to get power back online." . Again, there was no audible reply but if Patterson knew Bevin at all, he knew she'd already been recruiting anyone with any skill at all to get her ship back in top order.
. And then Sandy called the Penumbra, excitement in his voice. Federation comm chatter was coming through on Delta One! It was Klingon, with some Gorn and Nausicaan. . And then, a direct call from Deep Space K-7, the listening post at the edge of Klingon space! Flight Deck, Delta One, Cargo Bay, & Main Engineering: Getting To Work . SgtMaj. Derek Hines was on the Flight Deck, Deck 10, running the Roster of their Marines, checking injury reports. He called out, "Khal'Gon? Kyle? Are your teams good?" . Cpl. Homer Kyle just gave a quick "thumbs up" sign and a nod of his head. . MstSgt. Khal'Gon nodded as well, but added, "A few minor cuts and bruises on a couple of people. Nothing we can't work through." . CfWrnt. "Sandy" Sandoval was inspecting all of their Delta Flyers to make sure they were flight worthy. The former Delta Three had been re-designated Delta One (the original One was still undergoing repairs, and Two was destroyed against the Ivorez's shield), meaning of the original eight Flyers, they had a squad of six that were flight-worthy. . Two decks up, on Deck 8, in Main Engineering, LtCmdr. Bevin MacArdry growled like a bad- tempered Le'mayta with a thorn in his paw as she started working on restoring power to the ship. She was working on restarting the warp core while she had Damage Control Teams throughout the ship replacing wiring harnesses and conduits and burned out breaker panels and consoles. Emergency power had life support functional (they had air and some heat) but couldn't run forever or just battery power. And the smell of fear sweat (as well as the sweat of effort) was thick in the stale air throughout the ship, a sure sign that life support wasn't in top form.
. Lt. Katarina Hawke poked her head in, making rounds to check on injured throughout the ship. "Everything OK in here?" she asked, but Bevin just grunted and the other technicians and engineers waved her off. They were too busy to be hurt, and Kat just shrugged and turned on her heels headed back to the ladders (since the Turbolifts weren't working yet). Injured Vulcans . At the other end of Deck 8, in the hallway just outside Cargo Bay One, where they'd had the Heart of the Ancients until very recently, Cmdr. Relok and LtCmdr. T'Lin lay sprawled on the floor. When he'd jettisoned the overheating Heart, Relok had dived through the door while T'Lin hit the emergency close button - after all, the Cargo Bay had just been explosively decompressed to blow out the Heart. . And then, before they had solid footing, the Heart exploded and the Penumbra was hit by a powerful shockwave. The two Vulcans had been flung against one wall, then the other as the ship bucked and heaved on the wave and through the Rift. Relok had landed on top of T'Lin. He rolled off, flinching at a twinge in his arm. He called, "T'Lin? You OK?" . T'Lin put a hand to the back of her head. "Great Mother," she groaned, "I think you broke the wall ...WITH MY HEAD!" . Relok took a breath and reached for his commbadge, but flinched again at the pain in his shoulder. He used his other hand to hit the comm and called, "Relok to Bridge, did we make it through?" He didn't get an immediate response. . T'Lin pulled to her feet, slipping in blood on the floor. Her eyes darted to Relok, cradling an arm, then turned to track up the wall. "Oh," she said, "that would be my blood then." . Relok glanced at her and confirmed, "Yes, the side of your head has a bright green mark. Sorry. And I may have fractured my clavicle."
. "How lovely," she said. She ripped off the bottom of one pant leg and pressed it against the side of her head. She glanced around, seeking something to make a splint or sling for Relok's arm. They both knew that Turbolifts would be out and getting to Sickbay, three Decks above them, would be a difficult climb with Relok's arm or shoulder injured. Eyes Outside . Back on the Flight Deck, a call came through Sandy's commbadge. It was Col. Travis Patterson up on the Bridge. "Delta One, as soon as you can get the doors open, we're gonna need you out there. Get eyes for us and relay sensor data to our Tactical Officer." . Sandy had anticipated those instructions. The Flight Deck had been cleared of all personnel except for those essential for launch, and those were all wearing EVA suits. They had already begun manually opening the Hangar Bay Doors and the whole Flight Deck was now in vacuum. He opened the commlink in his Combat Armor and responded, "Delta One, aye, sir. Should be able to get free in 2 minutes. These doors are pretty slow without power." . They continued working to open the doors and finally had enough clearance for Sandy to fly Delta One out without damaging the Flyer or the doors. He began a slow sweep, scanning the ship and relaying data back to LtCmdr. Denovan Hawke at the Tactical Station on the Bridge. It didn't look good. . There was a LOT of scarring on the hull. Most of the Absorptive Hull Plating was burned off, and the Ablative shell beneath was heavily damaged. In a few places, the hull had been peeled back so far as to expose the inner laminate beneath the armoring. . Hawke called Sandy to ask, "Delta One, does it look like any spots have actually breached? I don't think we have force fields." . Sandy answered, "I don't see any actual breaches, sir, but she sure looks banged up." A Little Help
. Slowly, matter and antimatter began flowing through the dilithium crystals and warp coils again as the core began to slowly warm up. Bevin figured she'd manage the reboot in ten minutes or so, not bad for a cold restart. . Her commbadge chirped. It was LtCmdr. Tabeshk Tibris, her betrothed. "Love, I am headed your way. Don't stress yourself." . She just harumphed and brushed a lock of bright red hair from her face. Not stressing wasn't very likely. . Her commbadge chirped again, this time from Patterson. "Bridge to Engineering. I've sent Tabby and Carshel down to assist. Not a whole lot we can do up here at the moment, so you have Executive Authority to enlist anyone you need to get power back online." . She grunted her acknowledgement. She was already enlisting anyone with any engineering or repair skills to fix her ship. She didn't need the Colonel to tell her that. But still, it was nice knowing he wouldn't get in her way. Sickbay: Triage . Even though main power was out throughout the ship, Sickbay, as a designated emergency shelter, had its own generator. They had lights, even if they were somewhat dimmer than normal, and most of their diagnostic and treatment devices were functional. But emergency generators were meant for short-term use, they wouldn't be able to rely on them for long. . Dr. Shadow K'Trevala had turned off and shut down everything not currently necessary in order to conserve power and had popped several light-sticks and placed them strategically around Sickbay. . Lt. Katarina Hawke, the Head Nurse, and theoretically Shadow's Assistant Chief Medical Officer, had made her way down from the Bridge to assist with any injured who had begun streaming into Sickbay after their bumpy ride through the Rift.
. Shadow was efficiently setting up triage teams and sending them out to scour the ship for any injured who couldn't get to Sickbay, especially since the Turbolifts and Transporters were offline. He didn't notice, or at least didn't directly acknowledge, Kat's arrival. . But, just as Kat arrived, Shadow tensed. He wasn't exactly prescient, that is, he couldn't see the future or anything, but his empathy and telepathy, he had sensed the Commodore's pain and injury. He grabbed a medkit and started for the exit just as the call came from the Bridge. "Patterson to Sickbay, Medical Emergency on the Bridge." Before the comm signal broke, they heard him call, "C-Spine! Now!" . Shadow was off at a run before Kat could even say anything. She just shook her head and turned back to the triage teams and continued getting them dispersed. As they all left, she got a call in her head over her Borg interlink. ~Are you okay, Kat?~ It was her brother, LtCmdr. Denovan Hawke. . She gave a slight smile as she replied, ~I'm fine, Den, though I came to see how Shadow was doing and I think he's so distracted he didn't realize I was here and left.~ Kat, too, was somewhat distracted and not sure what to do with herself. She grabbed a medkit of her own and headed back out with the triage teams, searching for any other injured officers unable to make it to Sickbay. Trickling In . After some time, Shadow and Ens. Proxima Filler, with a couple of medical assistants they'd encountered on the way back, carried Cdre. Zak Taylor into Sickbay strapped to a backboard with a cervical collar around his neck. They lifted him up onto a biobed and activated the diagnostic sensors. It soon showed that there were no broken bones, just some seriously pulled muscles and ligaments.
. Cpl. Homer Kyle came in with a small group of four Marines, each showing some injury. There was a broken wrist here, a sprained ankle there, a gouged forehead on that one, and a quite obviously broken nose on the last one. Kyle was a trained combat medic and had treated each injury, best he could, as he gathered them and brought them to Sickbay for better treatment. . Other triage teams began trickling in with their various injured. Most were bruises or cuts from getting thrown around. A few had a broken bone here or there. Some, like the Commodore, had soft-tissue injuries. . Shadow greeted each patient and quickly assessed their injury and gave them a moment of his empathic healing. That would eventually cause problems for him as he "absorbed" injuries into himself. He'd have to pace himself or end up suffering some debilitating injury of his own. . Eventually, Cmdr. Relok and LtCmdr. T'Lin arrived. T'Lin was supporting Relok, who had a makeshift sling over one shoulder. T'Lin was missing half of one pant leg and had a green-stained bloody bandage around her own head. . Once everyone had been assessed, their wounds cleaned and the makeshift bandages replaced with sterile ones, they finally had a moment to catch their breath. . "Well," Zak said, a bit uncomfortable, "glad to hear nothing's broken anyway ... but, I'll probably have to wear this damn collar for a while, huh?" . Shadow shrugged, "Sorry, Commodore. Not 'til I say you can get out of here." . On the bed next to him lay Relok, his right arm in a sling. "If we had full power, I could have had an osteo-regenerator and be back on the Bridge, sir." . Zak twisted his whole upper body so he could see Relok. "Huh, yeah, miracles of modern medicine kinda need enough power to work."
. T'Lin leaned against another biobed, pressing an icepack to her stitched head. She glanced around at the other injured and then turned to the doctor, "How may I be of assistance, Shadow?" T'Lin was also a trained combat medic. Savage Song . Shadow studied T'Lin a moment, a half smirk on his face. "T'Lin, how good of a singer are you? I can use your voice to help me focus on my work." . T'Lin nearly scowled at him. "I am a warrior, not a performer, Shadow. I ... have not sung since I was little. I believe ... it would simply distract you. It would not be good, to say the least." . Shadow only smiled. "Well, one of the places I trained was Vulcan, so I remember them using the chants to help center-in for the healings, and that was what I was wanting to try now, to help speed things along." He didn't actually say that HE was the one needing the music for healing. Absorbing all those injuries was probably starting to tell on him. Music would help him slow his own metabolism and process that absorbed negative energy. . "Very well," T'Lin acquiesced. "I do not believe there is a human translation, so it will be in my dialect." . "That's fine, T'Lin," Shadow said. "I appreciate it." He turned and said, "Kat, could you check the triage station outside Engineering to see what it's like there?" . Relok smirked, "I'm sure I'll be able to understand a few words here and there. Our cultures may have existed on different continents, but I've seen enough similarity between them, I suspect our ancestors interacted in our distant past."
. T'Lin began to sing in her native Vulcan. Her voice was surprising deep, resonant and melodic. "Nash-veh t'nash-veh ko-mekh's kwai ko-fu, wuh veh vi sahr-tor sai-fam-ash'yaik, viltah nasik kov."
((This is a Vulcan translation of the song "Savage Daughter", written by Karen Kahan, aka Wyndreth Berginsdottir, as performed by Sarah Hester.)) This portion translates "I am my mother's savage daughter, the one who runs barefoot cursing sharp stones."
. Relok mumbled along with T'Lin's song, trying to pick out words. "Mother ... daughter ... barefoot ... stone ...." . Shadow let himself relax into the music and softly hummed a descant, harmonizing with her melody. The music helped him center and cleared much of the wounds he'd taken into himself. . As T'Lin sang, she used her own empathic abilities to project a wave of calmness to all those in Sickbay. Her baritone voice continued singing, "Nash-veh t'nash-veh ko-mekh's kwai ko-fu, nash-veh dungi ri tresahk t'nash-veh isachya, nash-veh dungi ri weh-neik t'nash-veh spes."
((Translation: "I am my mother's savage daughter. I will not cut my hair; I will not lower my voice."))
. Shadow hummed a descant tenor as he resumed treating the injured patients, feeling better himself as the song continued. As his energy balanced, he felt more able to use his empathic powers to heal more wounds, and speed the healing of those worst off. . Zak lay back on his biobed, closing his eyes, relaxing into the song himself. He muttered under his breath, "Not a bad singer, just a bit out of practice, maybe." . T'Lin cut him the side-eye. "I'm watching you," she said.