Lines of Communication

Posted on Mon Feb 7th, 2011 @ 2:57pm by Provisional Lieutenant Commander Narayn Ballard

Mission: Bug-Eyed Bogies
Location: Main Bridge - USS Endeavour

[ON]

Ballard stared blankly at the bulkhead. There wasn't much that could be done with Byrne and Vanders tear-arsing their way to the communications array. After a while he looked around at the smattering of NCOs and officers who were left on the bridge. A rag-tag bunch of misfits. They always were in these situations. He beckoned his Encryption Specialist, Crewman Jonathan Bannan over. Bannan was only a specialist in encryption because he'd spent so long decrypting classified files for any organisation that would pay enough latinum. How the kid had ended up in Starfleet, Ballard would never know.

"Bannan. I want you to do your best to encrypt every entry-way and arch that the Captain and Lieutenant Vanders pass through when they're down there. I don't want anything sneaking up on them from behind. Lock down bulkheads, force-fields, doors. Everything. You're going to guide them back out of there once they're done. If they get caught from behind- it's on you, boyo."

Bannan suddenly looked nervous. He'd gone from sitting at a console staring blankly at the erratic sensor readings coming in to being responsible for the life and death of the Captain and the Chief of Security. Just how he'd wanted to spend his day off. First getting chased around the ship by massive... things and now this. He rose from his chair and slowly approached the security console. "You got it, Chief."

"Relax, kid. It could be much worse." Ballard said in a tone that was hopefully reassuring. It probably couldn't be any worse, in all honesty. He thought to himself.

As the Crewman got to work, he watched the progress of the officers on the screen. Enough hits in the right places on these things and they'd probably make it through alive. He hoped. They navigated the junction at the Jeffries tube simply enough. The hard part was coming up. He turned to the engineering station. "Engineer- pull all available power and divert them to the internal sensors. If they're going to run into anything, I want us to be able to shut it down straight away."

Bannan's eyes felt like they were on fire. Probably down to the smoke he'd had to get through to get to the bridge when the Fire Suppression went down. The entire ship was going to be a complete state. Even if they got their intruders off the ship, would they be able to make it to a Starbase? They were sitting ducks out here. Wherever the hell here was...

The Chief was now doing circuits of the bridge, probably wearing out the carpet in the process. "Progress?"

"They're making some, Chief." Bannan reported. "Slow progress but I think they'll make it."

As if he had just jinxed them- the security feeds dropped. The bridge slowly plunged into darkness. Tricorder screens began to light the room slightly. A voice from behind the Intelligence Chief said that backup power had gone down. What little was left was being diverted to life-support. They were blind. Things could only get worse from here.

"All right, grab what light-sources you can and get down to the front of the bridge. If they're going to come in, I highly doubt it's going to be from outside." Ballard ordered. "Arm up. Be vigilant. There's nothing we can do to help them now."

[OFF]