| Author | Message | ||
     Daren |
USS Coronado Junction 8A-4, Deck Eight Stardate 240403.22 ----------------------- “Hell of a time to repair a damaged plasma conduit, I’ll say!” Ensign Marty Jenkins crawled along the tight Jeffries tube until it opened into a larger section and let out a sigh of relief. Tight spaces never were a particular favorite of his, but he was an Engineer; a grunt Engineer at that, and that meant crawling around in tight spaces repairing plasma conduits. Several other tubes met here from all conceivable directions, even above and below. He had to steady himself on a small ledge at the mouth of the opposite opening. He hooked his feet around rungs of the ladder that stretched below to deck 9 for safety. “Well, it could be worse, my man.” His partner Ensign Dean Hallen, followed behind him. “You could be out there in a Spectre getting shot at!” He smiled. “And that’s no place for Engineers of our talent.” Jenkins opened his tool kit and scoffed. “Whatever you say. But if we’re so damned talented, what are we doing in here repairing something that should be third priority?” “Look, Farley said this needs to be done now. So, it needs to be done now. Besides it’s not like Coro’s actually in the fighting anyway. That thing out there still has our power systems going crazy.” Hallen said. “Well that would explain this.” Jenkins looked oddly at his tricorder. “The plasma flow is completely irregular!” Hallen crawled closer to get a look. “Strange. Any ideas on how we fix it?” “We’re going to need to trace the problem all the way back to--…”, Jenkins paused. “Did you feel that?” Hallen looked up. “Feel what?” “Felt like we were hit by something.” “You’re paranoid.” “What if it was a stray torpedo or phaser blast?” “And delusional.” “Seriously D! I’m pretty sure I felt something.” Jenkins began scanning the surrounding area more closely, his mind now completely off the plasma flow. “You’re probably right. It was just a lucky shot..or maybe one of those Xur fighters actually got inside Xanadu for a second.” Hallen grinned. “But don’t worry man…we’ve got a whole squadron out there preventing anything from getting this close to Xanadu. Now can we please focus on the plasma conduit? I’d really like to finish the shift a bit early tonight.” His grin became a full smile. “Jennifer asked me out for drinks. The brunette from Xenobiology…I didn’t see it com-…” The junction shook hard and both men stared at each other for a silent moment. It was an impact much like that of a torpedo hitting the ship’s hull, but both men had been through more than their share of battles and felt many hull impacts. This one somehow felt hollow, if that made any sense. “I’m getting some really unusual readings.” Jenkins was glued to his tricorder display. “It’s almost as if…” Before Jenkins could finish his statement, his tricorder was enveloped by a swirling mass from above. He screamed in shock as the tricorder seemed to attach itself to his hand. But it wasn’t the tricorder, it was the mass. It felt like some kind of adhesive complex and when it came in contact with his skin it was the most painful sensation he had ever felt, and it was also the last. The swirling tendrils spread across his arm in an instant to envelop his face and seep into his brain through his eye sockets. Hallen’s eyes widened and he nearly fell off the support beam he was sitting on. His grip tightened on the closest rung of the ladder he could grab above him. Jenkins had been completely enveloped by the mass in less than a second, and the formation seemed to jump toward it’s second victim. He tapped his commbadge, “Hallen to Engineering…my god…it’s-…” The mass, now all across Jenkins’s body reached across the small space between the two men! Hallen suddenly thought perhaps falling was the only way to escape his fate, and he let go. The tendrils were holding onto his commbadge and were beginning to burrow through his shirt when he dropped. As he fell he knew he would probably die, but it seemed a better fate that what Ensign Jenkins had done to him. He saw a flash of bulkhead that read “Deck 12” on it and then blacked out. He woke up later on a biobed, fortunate enough that he only had a few broken bones and a mild concussion. It began with Ensign Marty Jenkins and it ended with most of deck eight… +++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Commodore William Daren Commanding Officer (IC) USS Coronado NCC-97901 Sim Executive Officer http://www.jestertrek.com/coro2400/bodies/depts/command.html#co |