[USS Ottawa] The road to hell..

Posted on Wed Oct 3rd, 2018 @ 1:29am by Lieutenant Commander Gabriel Sharpe
Edited on on Thu Oct 4th, 2018 @ 10:42pm

619 words; about a 3 minute read

Mission: [USS Ottawa] S1, E3: The True Way
Location: Starbase 205
Timeline: 2 years ago.

Lt Gabriel Sharpe jumped over the railing at full speed as the alert signal blared in his ears. People were running away from section 23 while he was running towards it. He caught a few shoulders as he ran but he paid it no heed as he saw the forcefield ahead of him flicker. Calculations ran through his head as he reached for the control panel, his fingers dancing across the panel with well practiced ease.

He saw multiple Starfleet officers grasping onto anything they could as the air flooded out into space through the intermittent force field.

A few seconds later the field stabilised and remained active. Gabriel was about to breath easy when the field flickered and the panel bleeped.

"Lieutenant, The computer virus has taken control of the field generators in that area, we can't keep the force fields active anymore."

Gabriel's fingers danced across the panel again, "Forget the fields, I can keep them active for now." He said, rerouting systems to try and keep ahead of the virus, "Just get those people outta there!"

The outer bulkhead force field sparked again as the virus rerouted to counteract his effects. Sweat ran down his brow as he moved to counteract the virus' rerouting, he still had multiple systems he could use.

"We can't access the transporter systems..." The voice coming through his comm badge started.

"Then get some bloody runabouts out there or send in the marines, I don't bloody care how ya do it just get it bloody done!" he shouted.

The panel bleeped and shut down, Gabriel swore loudly and kicked open his toolkit. He grabbed a laser cutter and as quickly as he could cut into the bulkhead then wrenched the panel out of the bulkhead, then grabbed a multitool and began cross connect various data nodes. His eye flicked sideway to see that everyone in the room was still in danger. The panel flickered back to life and Gabriel sat cross legged so he could work the now dangling panel

"Where the bloody hell are those rescue teams?" He asked, getting no answer, "Ops respond." He tapped his comm badge and getting the signal that denoted that the Comms system was down.

He was running out of time and he knew it, he couldn't keep up with the virus for much longer. The outer force field disappeared and Gabriel rerouted again, "Come on, come on." he muttered as the forced field powered back up.

He heard the sound of someone running towards him but he ignored it as the panel died again. He jumped to his feet and started to cross connect a few more data nodes as the area around him went dark... deck 12 was now powerless.

"No.. no." He shouted as the force field died for the final time. Grief ran through him as he punched the exposed internals of the bulkhead, the metal of the ragged hole and components tearing in his flesh before he turned and dropped to the floor, blood running down his hand and forearm as he watched 37 bodies float off.

Tears ran down his face as he felt a hand on his shoulder, the bearer's words lost.

Two days later he stood and looked at the memorial plaque that had been placed over the hole he'd made, the names and faces of those that had died stared at him. Names and faces he couldn't forget.

He reached towards his chest with a bandaged hand and pulled his comm badge from his dress uniform. He turned it around in his hand as best he could. "... Never again." He said weakly as he attached the comm badge to the bulkhead next to the plaque and walked away.

 

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