Act II Scene I: Aftermath of the Battle of Axanar

[RorytheRomulan]

While the engineer fiddles with the power systems, Drennan drifts over to life support on standby to figure out what's wrong and fix it, taking a page from Alik and trying to encourage the gravity to turn on first from her end.

action

6 on INT + Life Support. Gravity, then oxygen and other functions if practical.

[Orvost]

Even in poor lighting and on an unfamiliar ship, Alik intuitively knows where to find access panels. Working in zero-g doesn’t slow him down either. Having Weathers on hand is helpful, as their shared time at Starbase 11 made her a competent assistant to him. In a few minutes Alik has the generator hooked into the ship’s power grid. As he eases the generator on, it begins the rhythmic thrumming of warp power. Suddenly the lights blink on, but nothing else does. The overhead monitor, the dozens of control panels, even artificial gravity all remain off. Still, having basic light goes a long way toward making this place hospitable again.

Alik immediately turns his attention to the ship’s computer. He reboots the system, but receives screen after screen of system failures. When Starfleet Intelligence ran their cleaning operation, it seems they removed whole sections of the computer system’s programing. Quick and dirty. Like doing brain surgery with a chainsaw instead of a scalpel. Many of the background systems the computer would normally run aren’t functioning, which explains why everything needs to be manually reset. The computer is now active again (thanks to Alik’s prompting and power supply), but it’s like Hal 9000 when it starts singing Daisey Bell.

Alik realizes he is going to have to access the hardware to make any progress with the computer. The computer’s mainframe should be in a dedicated room somewhere close to main engineering.

As Alik wrestles with the computer, Zea gets to work reestablishing life support. Even without full computer functionality she is able to bring up the manual controls for life support. She eases artificial gravity back on and shouts a warning to everyone so they know to expect it. Atmosphere and temperature are next. When atmosphere and temperature are back to ideal comfort levels, Zea takes a bicorder reading to verify then prepares to remove her helmet to show everyone else they can breath outside of their suits now.

[RorytheRomulan]

Zea sets her bicorder in advance to read for lifesigns - or rather, signs of life having been present aboard the ship, either/or - and removes her helmet for the moment of truth.

[ManWithDoor]

Alik breathes a sigh of relief that the power is back on, and life support active enough that they don't need to worry about asphyxiating should someone rip a suit. "Well done, everyone." He nods to Weathers, letting her back off from the generator and relax.

"Unfortunately, I'll need to get down to main engineering, or close by at least, to access the computer's hardware to continue my work. Whatever they did in the bridge bungled the system up too much, I need to work with the mainframe itself to recover what we can." He packs up his tools, readying himself for the journey. "Anyone coming with?"

[Orvost]

Cadet Drennan breaks the seal of her helmet and only hears a slight hiss as the air pressure on the bridge is nearly identical to the pressure in her suit. She quickly removes the helmet and takes some deep breaths. Soon the other members of the away team have removed their helmets and are enjoying the fresh air of the reestablished life support system, except for Cadet Campeador. He keeps his helmet on as a precaution, in case there is a problem with the air with a delayed manifestation. Drennan activates her bicorder and starts taking background readings of her companions and looking for other nearby life signals. It is difficult to pick up readings beyond the walls of the bridge.

Alik tries to find schematics for the ship so he can locate the computer room. He starts looking through the computer system and is surprised that he is able to find what he is looking for almost immediately. He wonders about this momentarily until the reason dawns on him: The protocols Starfleet Intelligence uses to protect the layout of the King in Prussia are identical to the protocols Commodore Singh uses to protect the layout of the Pas-de-Calais, and Alik has familiarized himself with the process of accessing the schematics of the Pas-de-Calais. Putting aside the possible implications of this information, Alik mentally maps the path he needs to take to get to the computer room.

“Anyone coming with?”

“We should all stay together, or at least close. Unless you want to wait for my team and I to sweep and clear the whole ship.”

Cadet Campeador has prematurely removed his helmet so his voice can be heard. He and his team take positions near the door off the bridge so they can exit and secure the outside corridor. As they open the door, everyone gasps or is taken aback by the scene outside. The walls are marred with scorch marks from energy weapons fire and blood spray. The floor is also covered in blood, which is gently sloshing back and forth from gravity being restored. There are no bodies. It seems the cleaning operation included taking the bodies, but leaving the blood. And there is so much blood. It looks like the crew of the King in Prussia made a valiant stand to protect the bridge from Klingon boarders. Based in the pristine state of the bridge, it seems they were successful.

[RorytheRomulan]

In abject silence, Zea holds her bicorder out towards the scene, knitting her eyebrows as she tweaks the settings. "I can't get a clear reading," she says, barely having to raise her voice. "It's just too much blood, or, maybe there's some alien blood confusing the sensors."

[ManWithDoor]

The engineer pulls back from the pooling blood, not wanting to get near it. "Wow, yeah. I think we'd have to take physical samples back to the lab for analysis. The analyzers there would be able to pull apart individuals and species to get answers, so we should gather samples and get answers later." He looks for a path through that won't have him coated in ichor. "The priority is to get the computer files. There might even be internal sensors or even recordings that could give us direct answers to what happened here."

[RorytheRomulan]

Zea stoops to get out a vial to collect a blood sample before following the team.

[Orvost]

The team tries their best to move around the blood but there is simply no avoiding it, and as they pass through they leave a sticky trail of red foot prints behind them. Zea fills three sample vials before hurrying to catch up. The security team takes the lead with hand lasers drawn as they move in sweep patterns, making sure the corridors are clear before the others continue on. Alik guides the team to the mainframe computer room.

When the team reaches the computer room, they find the door has been physically pried open from the inside like a tin can. The scene in the interior is just about how Alik imagined it would be: computer parts purposefully removed and strewn across the floor with many damaged or destroyed. It is going to take Alik at least an hour just to do an inventory of what is salvageable, then he will be able to guess how long it will take to make repairs.

The work Alik has to do takes a trained eye, so the others can’t lend a hand. It seems a waste (not to mention unnerving) to have everyone else sitting around watching Alik work. Against Campeador’s wishes, it may be advisable to split the team and put everyone else on some other project. Perhaps systematically searching the ship room by room, level by level? Or perhaps Zea would want to find and use the medical facilities?

GM

The engineer needs to make an INT and Electronics Technology roll again.

[ManWithDoor]

Alik kneels among the mess and starts in with the inventory. He has Weathers help as his scribe, recording his findings and categorizing notations, saving him having to switch back and forth himself constantly. He feels a little bad about using her for so menial a role, but if the situation is ever reversed and she the specialist in need of an extra hand, he promises to himself to do so.

The computer room ... is a lot. The inventory definitely won't go any faster than his estimate, let alone starting to salvage what can be found. He is certainly in favor of the others using their time more efficiently than staring at him work. If they're worried about danger, they can leave a guard to watch out for him and Weathers. And work first on clearing the nearby areas, so they can run back swiftly if something happens.