Post 467: A Visitor

Stardate.70929.0640
Title: A Visitor
Author: Commander Salvek
Scene: Engineering, USS Alchemy
Time: Shortly after Damage
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Salvek exited the access tube, having finally arrived at engineering after his decent down from the bridge. He felt the anticipation of seeing his wife bite at his conscience, as he really did not know when he entered the room if he would find her alive or dead.

The tube had deposited him in the rear of engineering, behind the warp core, and it was quiet here, just too quiet. The core hung dark and lifeless and there were no voices. He expected if everything had been all right he would have found Xhian and Kellyn here trying to figure out how to restore power.

As he stepped around the core, his eyes lowered slowly to the floor, searching for anyone who may not have made it. There was a small pool of blood that stained the carpet, but nothing else. At least, he thought, if she were injured, perhaps it was not fatal, and Xhian had taken her to sickbay, or vice versa.

"Sickbay." Salvek said to himself, he needed to restore power to sickbay so the EMH could help the injured Reece. They would also need the EMH to help Xhian and Kellyn, if they were indeed headed for sickbay.

Salvek tapped at a panel, bringing it to life. He brought up the status report on the ship's power systems. Main power was gone. The antimatter transfer conduits were damaged and the computer had sealed them shut to prevent loss of containment. The storage pod containment was steady at the moment.

Impulse reactors were also shut down by the computer when automatic control was lost. Salvek rebooted the systems into computer memory, and brought the impulse reactors on line, and shunted the power into the main grid. The lights in engineering flickered back to life.

"Computer, activate the EMH in sickbay."

****************Sickbay***************

"Please state the nature of the medical emergency."

"Your timing is fortuitous." Xhian said. He had just arrived in sickbay and set Kellyn down on the bed, while he attempted to find any power he could to operate the EMH. He hadn't done enough yet to accomplish that, so he surmised someone must have routed power to sickbay. "She is wounded." Xhian directed the hologram to Lair Kellyn.

The hologram set to work, scanning Kellyn, as Xhian stood nearby.

"Level 2 laceration and a mild concussion. Nothing to be too worried about."

"Easy for you to say." Kellyn grumbled, as she drifted in and out of awareness of her surroundings. She wasn't exactly sure if she had even heard the EMH's voice, or if she had even spoken out loud in reply.

"Doctor, what is the source of your power?" Xhian asked.

"Well," the EMH smiled and shrugged, "I have been programmed with the knowledge of the greatest minds in medical history, in fact..."

"No, I mean, what is powering your holoprojectors?"

"Oh," The EMH sneered and sighed, testy that his sermon had been interrupted. "On moment please." He stared at the ceiling, processing the request. "The holoprojector is being powered by impulse reactors three and four, which have been placed in manual bypass and tied into the main power grid at junction node 45762 located at subgrid...."

"That will do Doctor, thank you." Xhian was not sure how whoever rerouted power knew that he needed their help, but he was glad they did.

************Engineering*************

"Computer, what is the status of internal communications?"

[Offline.]

"Bring them back on-line."

[Unable to comply. Computer files have been compromised.]

"Restore backup files from protected memory."

[Files restored.]

"Salvek to EMH. Status in sickbay."

[Treatment to Lair Kellyn is progressing. She will be ready to return to duty in three hours.]

"How did she get there?"

[Commander this is Xhian. I brought Lair Kellyn here from Engineering. It appears she will be all right.]

"Well done Ensign."

[Commander, I do not believe we are alone here. After the crash I awoke outside the ship in the snow, and it appeared I was dragged out there. There may still by intruders aboard.]

"How is that possible? I thought we crashed on one of the moons, and Yensul is the only inhabited planet in this system."

[I do not know sir, but it is.]

"Arm yourself Ensign, the next opportunity you get. Avoid contact if at all possible and do not attack unless your life is in danger. Until we know what we are dealing with, the Prime Directive is in full effect. May I speak to my wife?"

Xhian removed his combadge, and held it near Kellyn's lips. [Go ahead, she can hear you.]

"Kellyn, I... I am sorry. If I had listened to Mr. Reece I could have avoided this."

[Don't blame yourself.] Came her hoarse reply. [I'm going to be fine. Don't worry about me, you need to do what you can for the rest of the crew.]

Salvek understood her meaning. This was his mission and his command, and he could not have his mind in sickbay while the crew was in peril, especially if Xhian was correct, and there were intruders about.

"Dabin Reece is injured, on the bridge. I will need Xhian's help restoring power to one of the transporters to get him to sickbay."

[He's on his way. The EMH and I will be here having a grand old time while you boys do your work.] Kellyn waved Xhian away, indicating that he needed to go help Salvek now.

"I will be there as soon as I can." After speaking to Kellyn, he hailed the bridge. Biggs informed him that Dabin was stable for now, but still needed medical attention within the hour if they were going to avoid serious damage. Salvek closed the channel, and returned to work.

He had determined it would take him and Xhian both to restore the transporters, so for the time being he set to work seeing if he could restore power to the torpedo bay, in hopes he could launch a probe into orbit to act as a distress beacon for when Independence arrived. He stepped to the weapons locker and extracted a phaser, clipping it to his hip, just in case before returning to the panel he was working at.

He accessed the weapons systems and brought up the status report. The forward bay was blocked by a rock face and useless. The aft bay however, was clear. There was insufficient computer control to modify a probe to emit a distress beacon. Someone would have to go to the bay itself to modify the torpedo.

As Salvek worked, he noticed a creak in the deck plating. It was a minuscule sound that no one would have noticed if they didn't have the supersensitive hearing of a Vulcan.

Salvek was not alone.

Someone had entered engineering, and was slowly stepping towards him from behind. Salvek closed the torpedo bay readouts and brought up the internal security grid. He cycled through the list of force field emitters, till he located the ones for engineering.

Without a word he activated the forcefields around the intruder behind him. Salvek heard a gasp in what sounded like a feminine tone, as whoever the intruder was realized they were trapped. He turned around to see a shrouded figure, holding a crude weapon.

"Greetings."

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Commander Salvek
Commanding Officer,
USS Alchemy