They Bloody Turned it Off!

Posted on Mon Dec 14th, 2015 @ 5:22pm by Lieutenant Rianna DiMarco & Lieutenant David Windsor

Mission: The Belle of Bellatrix
Location: Science Bay/Engineering
Timeline: Shortly after "Science Lab"

"No..." David said, worriedly. "No no no..." He smacked the side of his science scanner. "Wesley... Wesley, they've done something... down in engineering, they've done something! I've lost access to the scan database in the central computer... They've turned it off..." He said, looking up at his now dressed Science Officer, distraught.

Wesley was lying across a console seductively, "There need to be more women here. You'll girly, but not enough."

David slammed a hand into a nearby console, "I have one bloody thing keeping my head on straight, and that's this bloody scanner! If you want to have any hope of being able to DO anything about the next time you see the underside of a young ladies skirt, you'll get off of your sorry ass and guard the Science Lab with your life until I return. Are we clear?!" David roared.

Wesley jumped to his feet and saluted before he knew what he was doing, "I... I.... Yessir! I will sir!" He said, watching David go. Once the doors shut behind him he sighed, "But there could still be more women..."

== Corridors ==

"Windsor to DiMarco, come in," David said, having pulled out his communicator and flipped it open. "Do you copy?"

"Hi. Hello.. Bobby?" a woman responded that was certainly not DiMarco.
"Oh, wow, it's been like ten years! I missed you at the reunion! How are
you- wait-why are you-" There was a brief bit of background noise and the muted sound of a guitar strumming tinnily and then the voice on the other side of the com was correct. "DiMarco here. Spill it fast: I'm super busy and way shorthanded."

"They turned it off, Ri!" David said frantically. "We're not being boarded by Klingons, right?" He asked, walking directly ahead as several gaggles of angry Klingons rushed passed him. Not real. Couldn't be. Couldn't be.

“No Klingons champ. Where are you? Are you in medical?” The woman suddenly drew in a frustrated breath. Ahh damn it! Borked the wiring those sons of- That’ll take an hour to rewire..”

“No, I’m in the corridors coming to you. Ri, I need the scanner. I’m barely keeping my head together without this scanner… can’t track what’s real… what isn’t… … you’re real, right?” He asked, stepping into the turbolift and grabbing the handle to begin his decent to Engineering.

“Hello,” He said to the knight in medieval armor.

“Good day, my lord,” The Knight replied.

“Oh, bugger all, you’re not real are you,” He said.

“Not. No.”

“Bugger. Ri? I’m losing my mind.”

“I tend to agree with you there, bub.” The sound of her moving around- nearing and retreating from the guitar and various conversations and someone shouting- all in the background. “Break those two up Hoss! -I don’t know why any of this is happening or what the hell is going on, but we’ll fix it, David, and you’ll go back to being you, but first I need to make sure that we don’t explode or anything because someone screwed up real bad in here.”

“I’m coming to fix the scanners. I can fix that. I know I can – GOOD LORD! AGH!—“ David paused and looked down, “Sorry, sorry… the lift no longer has a floor. I’m… god, Ri, I need the scanner working again. It’s all I was holding on to,” He said as the turbolift stopped and deposited him right outside of Engineering.

“Just listen to me then while you’re here. You know me. You know I’m steady. I’ll keep talkin’ to you, just focus on that okay?” The engineer was making a concerted effort to keep the frustration out of her voice and have that strong, calm tone that she figured David needed. “I’m in Control Room A off the hub in main engineering. Can’t miss me. I’ve got a lovely scorch mark down one hand at the moment, but otherwise I’m very much me.”

David walked into Engineering… and total chaos. There were people singing love songs, a few fist fights, people happily disabling systems while singing to themselves, something that sounded like some kind of murder on the level below, and general chaos everywhere in between. David could see Ri in the control room nearby and shouted, “I’m hallucinating right now, correct?”

Ri looked up and scrunched her nose. She saw a pair of people talking by the door. Well, talking in so much as they weren’t necking yet. Yet. Then there was a guy sitting on the floor with one boot off examining his toes. What David made of all of that, she didn’t know. “I can’t see your hallucinations, D. Just elbow your way past the budding sweethearts and get over here. I need your to hold this while I solder for a sec.”

“Yes… quite…” David rushed over to where Ri was and offered out his hands, “What am I holding?” He asked, trying to figure out the best angle to assist.

“Part of the wiring that will allow the power grid to properly pass energy to the shields again. So before we hit an appropriately sized chunk of rock that is moving at a speed sufficient enough to punch through the deck like paper, let’s get this done.” The woman said as she pointed out two ends of thickly shredded wire. She took the gloves that were normally tucked in the rear of her belt and passed them to David as well. “Don’t worry, it’s not live at the moment. I rerouted, but it can’t stay that way or we’ll start grossly overtaxing. You know, I thought this was a pretty safe place up here. Ships can run on forever and a day and never see action, but not this one. This one kicks up right outta the gate. I should’ve thought twice before bringing Sal onboard. This ain’t the right place for a kid.”

“Sal?” David asked, slipping on the gloves and grasping the wires firmly – and ignoring the giant slime creature slowly devouring Ri as she worked on completely unaware.

Ri paused to give David a terribly serious glance over. He really was losing his mind. “You are losing touch, D. We all had dinner a few days ago. You were picking on me about the steady diet of mac and cheese and hot dogs. You met him then: my brother. You really don’t remember him?” After a moment she waved the notion off. “Doesn’t matter now. We’ve gotta get this done.”

David furrowed his brow and stared at the work she was doing. He remembered lunch with her, picking on her… but there’d been no boy. He hadn’t shown any signs of altered memory to date… no… this was new… but… “Ri,” He asked, as casually as he could, “What’s the effect been on you? Noticed anything yet?” He asked.

“Aside from my patience reduced to null values? Not much. That I can attribute to my engineering department becoming a nut house and my carefully calibrated systems being powered down, ripped up or peed on. In fact, I think I’m taking the last part quite well. O one’s anatomy’s been tied in a knot yet.” As she spoke she carefully worked the heat gun and coaxed the wires to meet again, wincing as her hands came too close for comfort a pass or two. “After this is over, though, all bets are off. Some of my guys and I are gonna have epic words..”

“Interesting that you’ve managed to avoid effect,” David replied. “Where is Sal. Is he safe?” David asked, still having no recollection of the boy, though he remembered reading something in Ri’s file about a lost little brother… the name hadn’t been listed. He only hoped that what he was assuming wasn’t right.

“Yeah, he’s holed up in my office with the locks on. Anyone short of senior staff or security isn’t getting in there- not that they’d need to. I promised him he’d be safe there. I hope it was truth ‘cause I can’t fix it now if it isn’t. I don’t need to be thinking about that right now.” Ri bit her lower lip as she worked, intently staring at the wires as they merged together. “Won’t mean a thing how secure he is if we up and drift into the planet or lose life support or explode, you know. No pressure.. Once the power grid’s up and the brawls die down I’ll worry.”

David nodded, “Of course, of course… Do you want me to go and check on him?” He asked.

“After this? If you would?” Ri nodded as she worked. “That’d be a big damn weight offa my shoulders. I’ll work on getting the scanners online next. I’ve got a gal pulling together the rest of the damage assessments. With power back to half the damn systems, things should go quick from here.”

“I’d be happy to,” David replied, smiling broadly, and hoping to god that he found her brother under the desk in her office. “One moment,” He said, nudging the wires together a bit closer to help her finish the solder. “It’s not a snake.” He told himself, firmly.

“Not a snake,” she agreed rather firmly. “Just wires. You’ve got this, bud. Another second and.. we’re done!” Thumbing off the heatgun with a wince for her blisters, Ri set it aside and snatched up her communicator. “DiMarco to Carmine. You’ve got power. Are we green?”

“Yeah we’re singing! Give me a few minutes ma’am and I’ll get this routed back to normal. Are you sure that.. you’re sure that I can..” The woman on the other end of the comm spoke haltingly, fearful.

“Yeah you can, hon. I’ve seen you walk. You’re okay now. Your body knows how to do this even if you’ve forgotten. Stay put if you need to and I’ll come to you in a few to finish hammering this out.” She clicked close the communicator without waiting on a response. “I can work on the scanners from there. Just check on Salvadore for me if you could? I’m sure you’ll know real well when you’ve got your scanners back, right?”

“Yes,” David replied, “I’ll… I’ll check on Sal and let you know if he’s okay.” David said, smiling, then turning and heading toward her office.

Godzilla was not in the engineering bay.

That was not a harem of naked women calling for him – he really needed to get his mind out of the gutter.

Lava was not suddenly pouring toward him.

He tapped in his command clearance on the door key panel – which was not a swarm of venomous Vulcan Ne’eg spiders – and stepped into the office, “Ahem… Sal?” He said, tentatively as he rounded the desk and peered under it.

Under the desk there was little more than a handful of drafting markers and a few sheets of blank drawing film. No child. As he started to stand the small green light on the lip of his scanner bloomed to life. The unit gave an encouraging beep and hummed slightly as power coursed through it.

He was about to open his communicator to tell her it was working when he thought better of it. He sat in the chair – which was not covered in spines – and pulled up the crew records, quickly shuffling over to what he could view of hers. One brother. Salvador. Deceased. David’s jaw clenched as he stared at the screen. He didn’t know what this damn radiation was doing to people… but now it was making him mad. His friend… the pain that she was going to have to live through again…

He stood and flipped open his communicator, “Sal isn’t in danger,” He said, simply. “And… my scanner is working.” He wouldn’t say more than that. It wasn’t a lie but… he didn’t know what shattering this would do to her right now. “I’ll… figure out a way to counter act this if I can,” He said, urgently.