Incommunicado – What goes up . .
by Lieutenant Vincent Kramer & Lieutenant Bridget Stapleton & Chief Executive Officer Wayne Bradshaw & Citizen Min Zhao & UFP Ambassador Ryan O'Hara & Arrival Kaia & Arrival Augustus Cyphadrus
Post Details
ON:
0700 hours
( Resident Quarters )
(Deck 596 - Suite 96742)
Tios ran from his bed upon arising to the desk size encasement. Placing his hands flat on the transparent wall and pressing his face to the surface he looked desperately for Shoofa. He couldn’t see it yet, among the rocks and few plants in the terrarium. “Shoofa? Where are you?!” Tios exclaimed.
After another moment of bobbing about and running to the other side, “Lights.” Tios called out. The illumination of the room did not help the young bolian to locate his new pet. He had been so excited 2 days ago when his uncle Tisosk had presented the gift to him. Tisosk had informed him that Shoofa had been a rare find and wanted Tios to take very, very good care of it.
Finally, under a large leaf, Tios saw the crystalline rock creature. “There you are!” Tios said affectionately. The Koski, his uncle had informed him, could make a wonderful pet. Tisosk had instructed him to hold it each day, to talk to it, and keep electronics away from it.
The Koski was small enough to hold in two hands. Its surface was dry with gray and silver coloring and covered with crystal nodules and scaling. It moved like a slow amoeba. It had no definable eyes or mouth, but did see through the crystals on its surface like a multifaceted eye. Uncle Tisosk had informed him what type of mineral rocks to place in its encasement. Tios was told that it would crawl upon them; express a concentrated acid to dissolve the crystals in the mineral; then absorb the nutrients through its surface. From time to time, the koski would express small clear crystals that were its waist. Uncle Tisosk had looked at Tios very seriously that evening and instructed him to pick up the clear crystals and save them for him. The one thing Tisosk did not explain was that the clear crystals contained carbon and only carbon.
Tios opened the encasement and picked up the koski. It felt cold to the touch and was not moving like yesterday. Nor was it humming as it did when his uncle laid it in his hands the first time. Tios was very concerned. “Oooh, poor Shoofa.” He carried it over to his play desk that had a desk lamp and turned it on.
“Tios” his mother called to him from the other room.
Tios didn’t want to leave his new pet just yet. He was very concerned, because it was not moving. “Please Shoofa.” Tios exclaimed softly. “Please be better.” After a moment the koski began to move slowly, just a little bit. “I’m coming.” Tios finally called back. He set the koski on the desk under the lamp. “I’ll be right back.” Tios said and ran out of the room.
The koski began to flex a little bit more. Then, an electric discharge occurred between the koski and the lamp and the light went out. The koski slowly flattened out and slid off the desk. It moved across the floor in a rolling action to a small access panel in the wall. Part of the koski reached up pressing and gripping the corner of the hands size panel. It pulled and popped open the panel. The koski squeezed through the small opening, around the components in its way.
Tios ran back into the room to his desk and found Shoofa missing. He looked under the desk and around the room. A very sad look came upon Tios, "Mamio, it's gone!” he cried. Sadly with his head down he walked out of the room.
0900 hours
(Deck 595 - Suite 95891)
Wayne could not believe what he was seeing. Everything in his quarters was floating and for that matter so was he. He did however thank his lucky stars that he had, had some zero G training. Though this was not a combat situation by any means the basics were still the same. He relaxed and slowly swam his way to the door that would lead out to the hall and hopefully gravity would be established in the corridor.
(Deck 594 - Suite 94867)
Min looked around her new quarters. All the boxes she still had to unpack lay everywhere in random piles. Aside from her small bag near the door, most of this stuff was paid for by 'The Box' as part of a private sting operation aimed at several ladies. Min's role in all this being the mole.
Giving one last glance around, Min reached for the switch to turn off the lights, but felt a bit lightheaded. She felt the distinct sensation of swimming and glanced around the room. Most things were sitting in place, but a couple small items on the table by her work area were not. Recognizing the symptoms of a disruption in gravity, chief among them her queasy feeling, Min tapped the comm panel beside the door.
=^= Leah to Engineering. I'm having some issues with the gravitational plating in my quarters, can you have someone come take a look? =^=
=^= Ens. Walters here. I have identified your location. We have a team on the way. We recommend that you remain where you are. Try to secure yourself to the floor or wall for safety. =^=
=^= Understood. =^=
(Deck 595 - Suite 95891)
Wayne having reached the door after about a 5 minute swim through his room managed to open his old boot chest in which he had stored a few things that he kept from his days in the service chief among them being his anti grav boots. They would not help with the light headedness he was feeling, but at least he would be able to walk around and maybe just maybe allow him to get things done. He knew better then to leave his quarters as he had no idea what the corridor would be like. There had not been an explosion so it was unlikely that there was a hull breach, still he did not want to add to the confusion that he was sure would be going on in other areas.
(Deck 593 - Suite 93948)
Ryan held Tiera in his arms and gently caressed her silky skin with his fingers, tracing the row of spots that ran down the right side of the Trill’s body. He kissed her in the neck and whispered, “Hi, beautiful. What you say we go back and finish what we were doing?”
“Are you nuts!” the brunette shouted, her voice slightly shaking. “We are floating, we are literally floating!”
Ryan glanced around the room, and as if noticing for the first time the various objects suspended in midair, he nodded, “Oh, yeah.” Turning back to Tiera, he grinned mischievously, “So you want to try it with the gravity off?”
Tiera was not amused. “Pass me that robe.” She said sternly, her eyes on the white bath robe that was slowly drifting by.
(Deck 601 Room 101)
Rick was sitting in his lounge chair enjoying a book when the gravity went off in his room. Not put off or disgruntled, Rick picked up the tricorder on the coffee table. It chirped and beeped as he used its diagnostics functions. Nodding to himself, he looked about the room. It was his experience in these circumstances that normal the problem was when they switched the gravity back on and all toughs those breakable items that were floating in the air came crashing to the ground. Rick pushed away from his chair and started floating around his room gathering up those breakables and packing them in a cupboard so there was little to no depth for them to fall in when the gravity came back on.
(Deck 594, turbolift)
Alone with her thoughts, Bridget Stapleton rode in silence and reflected on the patient she was about to see. Pregnant and near the due date, the woman had been promised a visit by one of the medical staff to organize her delivery. Bridget was glad to take on the responsibility; house calls were a frequent part of her routine and an old-fashioned medical indulgence she often granted to those under her care.
Her reflections were cut short as the turbolift slowed and came to rest with a swish of hydraulics. Stepping out into the corridor, she suddenly lost her balance as a wave of dizziness hit her. She instinctively caught herself with a hand against the nearby bulkhead, grateful that she hadn't had an audience to her stumbling steps. She wasn't exactly sure what had happened, but she turned her back against the coolness of the wall to wait for the sensation to pass. It didn't; in fact, the feeling of being lightheaded changed to being lightfooted, and she realized there was a decided lack of gravitational pull on her body.
=^= Stapleton to Engineering =^= she said with a light tap on the comm badge clipped to her uniform. =^= I'm experiencing a gravitational anomaly just outside the turbolift on deck 594. =^= ~'Anomaly, my ass'~ she thought to herself as the aforementioned body part began rising into the air, dangling her legs below it.
(Deck 593 - Suite 96585)
The sound of whistling show tunes accompanied Augustus as he walked with a skip in his step back to his quarters with a to-go plate of fresh Wistan Gagh in Targ Blood. Racht was his meat and potatoes, but today he spoiled himself. His whistled rendition of "Aktuh and Maylota" was midway through the second refrain when he arrived at his door. As soon as he was through the threshold he lost his footing. He cut out with a high pitch whistle of amazement when he realized he was floating. As soon as it began, it was over, and Augustus was on the floor, his face buried in smashed Gagh. He quickly got to his knees and scooped up a pile of them. "You guys alright? Guys?" He sorted through them with a finger. "All dead?" He gnawed on one hopelessly, before spitting out the inedible critter. "Dammit all, they're ruined!" He threw the rest of them at his mirror, splattering blood all over the wall, as he made his way into the bathroom. Mumbling angrily, he took his clothes off and hopped in the sonic shower. He quietly let the particulates fall off until he felt his stomach turn ferociously. His eyes opened wide as he became gravity's new naked plaything. Finally, he landed on his back. Augustus looked around to realize he was pinned to the ceiling. Covering his genitals, he sighed and said to no one in particular, "So this is how I die."
0915 hours
( Main Engineering )
Lt. Kramer sat in his office going through 3 days worth of scheduling reviews, personnel evaluations, and proficiency reports, commonly known as paperwork. The Chief had left for Kramer to deal with when he came back from medical leave. Kramer guessed that the Chief hadn’t appreciated the doctors letting him have 3 days off.
“Lieutenant?” Lt. Decker said from the doorway of Kramer’s office. “We’re getting some reports of gravity plate failure.”
Setting the PADD down amongst the others, Kramer looked at Decker with a wrinkled brow, “Have we had any power losses?”
“Nope.” Was Decker’s quick reply.
“I assume you’ve run a diagnostic on the system?” Kramer asked as he stood and walked around his desk heading out of the office toward one of the Engineering Diagnostic tables on the platform, which lead to the Core Control.
They stopped and looked at a 3 dimensional hologram of the Alpha strut joining the Residential Ring of the Deep Space 5. “These yellow flashing areas,” Decker pointed out, “Are where we are having fluctuations.”
“Is our team there yet?” Kramer asked.
“Yes, and have done several spot checks.” Decker began, “I have two men headed down to the gravimetric generator now.”
“Sounds good.” Kramer replied as he reached under the table and pulled out a diagnostic kit. “I’m heading to that area to check things for myself.” Kramer turned and walked toward the turbolift, positioned between Kramer’s and the Chief’s office. Kramer stepped in and turned, “Keep me appraised.”
“Aye aye, Sir.” Decker replied.
0920 hours
(Residential Ring - Deck 595)
When the turbolift door opened Kramer immediately felt gravimetric fluctuations. The artificial gravity was active, but it felt like he was being tugged down from time to time. Carefully stepping off with diagnostic kit in hand, Lt. Kramer headed down the passageway. Several people were making their way down the passageway, past him toward the turbolift. Even though they had been informed to remain in their quarters, which was safer. Apparently, many residents believed that it was better for them to be out of the area. Kramer noticed several items cast about on the walkway, that use to either sit on a small table or hang on the wall. He couldn’t determine if this had been caused by the gravity fluctuations for by the residents hurriedly moving down the passageway.
Lt. Kramer stopped behind two engineers looking at an open access panel, which was for controlling atmosphere, gravimetric plating, and power in that area. After a moment, Kramer asked, “What have you found, fellas?”
"Not alot as of yet Lt. we only just got here a few minutes before yourself. However, if I were to make an educated guess, I would say one of two things. Though the first is unlikely and the second is next to impossible." said Lt.jg William Sabo.
Kramer blinked his eyes and tried to keep a straight face. He did not want to be sarcastic or laugh at the Lieutenant, who seemed to mean well. "Please explain. Sabo, isn't it?"
"Yes sir." Said Sabo calmly, "This system has what amounts to triple layer security and what we are experiencing should not be happening. That being said we are looking at intentional sabotage or faulty gravity generators. I say the first is unlikely because there is no way this could be done." He said as the floor gave way.
Halfway through his explanation, it felt like the floor just dropped away, and then came back a second later. Kramer had to get catch himself before falling down.
"As I said there is no way this could be done except by someone with detailed knowledge of our system and extensive computer skills. I would say the second is all but impossible, because the generators are tested and examined down to the microscopic level due to how important they are." Sabo finished.
Kramer reached up to his commbadge, =^= Lt. Kramer to Engineering. I need 6 pair of anti-grav boots brought to Deck 595 - Suite 95891. On the double! =^=
=^= Aye Sir. Hang in their Sir. =^= With a bit of sarcasm in their voice.
Kramer had no time for this silliness, =^= Just get them here quick. Kramer out. =^=
Looking at Lt. Sabo, Kramer said, "Sorry Sabo. You were saying?"
"I really have nothing else to add sir, other then a suggestion that we examine each generator we can get to. If one or more have failed it could stand to reason that others could be targeted or faulty." Said Sabo flatly. He was not looking forward to what would happen if the generator failed in say sickbay or CiC.
“I can see your point Lieutenant.” Kramer stated, “Let’s confirm the cause before we jump to conclusions.” Kramer then stepped up to the diagnostic display on the panel. “Look here,” pointing to a section plate cabling, “These lines in the walls seem erratic or semi-functional. Let’s check that out.” Looking up and down the passageway Kramer said, “That wall is just a few suites down that way.” pointing to his right.
"Alright sir." Said Sabo calmly. He hoped that it was just a case of faulty wiring as that would be easy to solve.
0925 hours
(Deck 595 - Suite 95891)
Kramer pressed the door chime. The plate next to the door read [Wayne Bradshaw].
"Enter." Said Wayne firmly. He was sitting in one of the chairs in his quarters reading over some reports that he had brought with him a few days ago.
"Sorry for the intrusion. I'm Lt. Kramer from engineering."
"No intrusion I am just glad that you are finally out here. I take it that you are trying to solve the gravity fluctuations that have been happening in the area." said Wayne calmly.
"Yes. We are investigating the cause at this time." Kramer explained. "We need access to one of the wall panels in your quarters."
"Not a problem, take your time." said Wayne calmly.
"Here Sobo," Kramer said walking to one side of a sofa, "Help me move this."
"Sure thing boss." said Sabo calmly as he walked over and got ready to move the sofa.
At that moment the door opened again and in walked a technician with 3 sets of anti-grav boots.
M'Erise smiled. "Thought you might need these. Grav plating issue?"
Standing up straight, Kramer smiled, "Just in time. M'Erise isn't it? I thought they had you rebuilding #11 secondary Reactor?"
"O'Flanherty did. The Fusion Initiator is shot and we used the last spare on the #2 Primary reactor. Spares are coming on the next Transport from '74, but they won't be in till the morning. Figured I'd be useful here."
"I think we can use all the help we can get to solve this." said Sabo softly.
Kramer took a pair of boots, but without warning all artificial gravity shut down. This time it did not come back like before.
"Frak." said Sabo as he felt himself floating off the floor
"Ah Crap!" Kramer exclaimed as he found himself floating horizontally with a slight spin at work.. "Couldn't it have waited for me to get the blasted boots on?"
Kramer thought quickly and grabbed the couch with the other hand and threw it up, which thrust him to the deck. He engaged the boots in his other hand, so when they hit the deck they stuck.
M'Erise grabbed the door frame as the grav plating failed. She repressed a feeling of nausea and pushed herself back down to the floor where her boots sat. Slipping into them, she grimaced and took a few tentative steps. "Forgot how much I enjoyed zero G."
Kramer finished tightening the boots to his ankles, stood up and smiled at M'Erise, "Hang in there. We'll get through this." He said encouragingly. Kramer noticed that Sabo and Stiles had also gotten their act together. "Okay, let's look at that wall panel."
After the panel was removed and diagnostics were ran, it was found that the gravametric energy conduit had lost some of its shielding. It had not been scraped or cut. It looked more like it had been rubbed or sanded away, possibly dissolved by some kind of solvent or acid.
Kramer bent down to look inside the opening and the light caught several small crystals floating, slowly spinning in the wall panel. They seemed to be about 1 mm to 2 mm clear crystals, very ruff, uncut crystal.
Kramer pulled out his tricorder and ran a mineral scan. "Hmm, that's interesting." He picked up 3 floating crystals and put them in a bag. Using his light he looked for anything else, but that was it.
Looking at his PADD, Kramer said, "I'm finding similar readings going up this wall to the deck above us." Putting his PADD and Tricorder away, he said to the other engineers, "Let's move up to the next level and check that out."
Making his way out of the suite with his anti-grav boots, Kramer turned to the resident, “I would recommend remaining secured to the floor in some way. Contact security if there is any hazard or danger.”
"Will do. Good luck fixing this."
0935 hours
(Deck 595)
Lt. Kramer walked out of the suite with the other engineering personnel in tow. Stopping in the passageway, Kramer turned to M’Erise and then Sabo. Kramer just closed his eyes and shook his head. There were probably a half dozen people of all ages not just floating in the passage way, but launching themselves down the passage and playing some kind of game, possibly tag.
"Looks like it could be fun. *smiling* I hate zero G & water too, so I wouldn't know."
Looking at his engineers Kramer stated, “Let’s go. We don’t have time to play constable."
"That's too bad," said a grinning, red-faced Bridget Stapleton as she swam the backstroke in midair. "We could use a couple referees." The engineering team passed soberly by without comment.
0950 hours
( Deck 594 - Suite 94867 )
Exiting the turbolift on Deck 594, the team made their way down the passage way. Here too they observed station residents not following the guidelines about stating in their suites. The opportunity for free-fall in a residential location was just too good to pass up, apparently. Vince was very grateful to have the grav boots for him and his team.
They stopped in front of a suite with the plate marked [Deck 594 - Suite 94867] and pressed the door chime.
Min was floating in a corner when she heard the door chime. Her recently opened boxes of stuff were floating all over the place and she'd been trying to recover most of it before the station restored gravity to her quarters. She really didn't need a bunch of smashed things when the gravity plating finally came back on.
"Enter."
The engineering team entered the room, "Good Morning, I’m Lt. Kramer from engineering. I'm very sorry for the gravity issues at the moment." Kramer said to the slender brown haired young lady that was floating mid way to the ceiling.
"Any idea as to the cause."
"Yes. We are tracking that down as we speak.” Looking at his PADD, "Leah Zhang, is that correct?"
"It is. Any idea when the grav plating will be restored?" Leah tried her best to keep her mouth shut. Being a former engineer herself, she wanted to dive into the problem with the others. But she wasn't a Starfleet Engineer anymore.
Kramer explained, "Pretty quick.” He tried to answer her without committing to a time table. “We are still investigating the cause.” Looking about the room, he added, “I need to access a panel in your suite to confirm to look at some of the damage."
Kramer felt a little bad for her with all the apparent breakables floating about the room. "Fellas, help the lady secure her self and her possessions while I pull this panel." Pointing to the left.
M'Erise nodded and clomped in her anti-grave boots over to where Leah was floating. "Ma'am. If you like some assistance.."
Leah nodded. "Most of the stuff isn't breakables, but a few things are. Those I'd like to stuff back in their boxes and tuck those somewhere they'll be safe." Looking around she couldn't find a place except in a closet near the far end of her quarters. "Probably that closet would work best."
As Kramer turned his attention to the panel, Leah & M'Erise began to grab the various floating items out of the air and place them back in several boxes they'd started out in. After a while they had everything tucked away.
Kramer stood at the wall that should have been where the access panel should be, but it was a plain wall. He looked at his PADD and then about the room. He noticed the team members were about done helping secure her personal possessions. He looked at the PADD and the Wall again in confusion. He then looked at Miss Zhang, "Excuse me, but . . um, have you done some remodeling here?"
"I put an application in with the civilian authority to do so, but I'm still waiting on an answer back. Why?"
"Well," Kramer began, "This wall is not in the right place, and I need to find the panel in the wall about 3 feet that way." Pointing towards the wall.
"You're welcome to enter my workspace if need be. I'm still unpacking, so you'll have to excuse the mess.
“That’s fine.” Kramer replied, “Please lead the way.”
Leah floated into the room first, quickly scanning to make sure things were still intact. The various boxes of props and other 'tools of the trade', floated around the room, but the heavier boxes, containing her larger items, had thankfully stayed close to the ground.
Kramer had walked around a corner, down a short hall, through another door, and into an unfinished area. He couldn’t tell if she was moving out or moving in. Looking at his PADD again, he walked over to a wall and opened the panel.
M'Erise looked around the room. She noticed signs of higher density EPS conduit placement and ODN links. "Did your application include requests for increased power and data links?"
Leah nodded, "It did in fact. Why?"
"I've just noticed that someone had already placed the extra links into the walls. Who did the work?"
Leah grinned sheepishly. "I used to work on Starships. Figured stations weren't much different. The civilian authority is more of a rubber stamp I'd assumed."
With the tricorder, Kramer found similar results as the other panel a deck below. Then he saw several crystals floating up and out of the panel area. Unfortunately, so did the other engineers.
"Chief?"
Kramer stood and took a deep breath to see if he could answer this in the best possible way. “These appear to be Crystal Carbon."
Leah looked at the engineers. "I may toy with engineering without permits, but I haven't the foggiest where that came from."
Kramer looked at his PADD once at again to read, “Carbon in crystalline form . . now wait a second. I didn’t see this before. Organic film covering the crystals made of enzymes, folates and amino acids.”
After gathering up the crystals that could be found, the engineers made their way out of the suite, back into the passageway.
(Deck 594)
Standing in the passageway with his fellow engineers, Lt. Kramer was very grateful to have the gravboots, since he could see a multitude of things floating about the passageway. Looking both ways, he could see and hear more and more residents were now taking the opportunity to play in the zero G environment.
"Okay fellas," Kramer began, "I think I've got this one figured out."
"What do you have in mind, Sir?"
"Utilizing the scans of this sector of the residential ring and sensor readings we took around the inactive areas," Kramer stopped mid sentence to show the display on his PADD to the others. "The cable shielding from the graviton emitter to the grav-plates has been dissolved or eroded away."
"I can see that. Do you know what caused this, and the gravity to fail?"
Kramer continued, "My guess is that the safety protocols kicked in and dropped the power output when the computer decided there was a definite problem."
"I just don't understand," Kramer said frustrated, "why the computer could not explain this when I put the question to it earlier." Kramer shrugged.
"So, not to overload."
"Yes. That's right." Kramer replied. "So, we are going to go to where I believe the origin of the erosion began. If things work out, we should be able to reinitialize the grav-plating with a couple safety overrides."
"Isn’t that unsafe?"
Kramer replied, "Yes and no. We'll still have to come back and replace all the eroded grav-cables." Kramer smiled at his team, "But we'll let the repair guys deal with all that."
1030 hours
( Resident Quarters )
(Deck 596 - Suite 96742)
The Engineering team arrived at Suite 96742. Kramer turned to M’Erise, “How are you holding up?” He was concerned about her nausea.
"Well enough. I'm going to need some holodeck time to recover my internal balance though."
Kramer pressed the door chime next to he plate marked [Biskos – Suite 96742]
"Come in." was the cry from inside.
Kramer opened the door and entered to see a woman clutching a wall light to keep from floating.
"Oh, I am so glad you are here." she exclaimed. "This zero gravity is driving me crazy."
"It's all right. We'll have the gravity back in place soon." One of the engineers comforted.
"No, you don't understand." The woman explained, "It's Tios."
Just then a small body launched through a door into the room they all were standing, with the boy screaming with joy as he did, and making a perfect landing with his feet to the wall. He immediately launched himself again about the room squealing at the top of his lungs.
"That is my problem." The woman said pointing to the boy. "Ever since the gravity when down I just can’t keep him in line." Looking up and yelling at her son, "Tios, When your father gets home, he is going to paddle your ftostket. And you wont be able to sit down for days.
Kramer turned to M'Erise next to him and whispered, "Ftostket?"
"If I understand humanoid idioms correctly, I'd assume she meant his posterior region. Apparently a favorite spot for inflicting physical discipline among some humanoid species, Humans & Bolians among them."
Kramer directed his comment to the Bolian woman, “Mrs. Biskos, we just need to check a couple things and then we’ll get the gravity back on.”
Laying her face into her hands, “Oh, that’s fine.” She sounded disheartened and then waived her hand in the direct the boy had flown.
Kramer glanced at Sabo and shrugged, then walked into the next room.
Kramer stopped dead in his tracts causing the others to bump into him a little. Kramer looked about the room and couldn’t believe his eyes. Probably every toy this child owned was careening about the room on different trajectories.
M'Erise smiled. "I guess this is what Terran's mean when they say a storm blew though the room."
Kramer had not entered the room too far, because he was kind of concerned about being hit by something sharp. Looking at his PADD, he determined that the wall they needed to look at was that one to their right. “It’s that one over there.” He said to the other engineers.
As Kramer slowly made his way across the room, many toys impacted them. He was looking for the boy, but he was not in sight, possibly hiding. Kramer then caught sight of the large clear encasement or aquarium near the wall. All the rocks and small vegetation inside had been stirred up and was floating about inside and some flowing out.
As they approached the wall, Kramer stopped short when he saw that a small panel flap was open and something was moving out of the wall.
The engineers looked at each other, then to Kramer. "That looks rather interesting."
Kramer held up an arm to keep the others back. What he saw was incredible. A thick fluid type object was moving out of the small opening, wiggling and squirming, not making a sound. Its flexible surface was gray and silver and covered with crystalline nodules. There were no discernible eyes, mouth, or limbs. It was very much fitting what Kramer had suspected some type of creature that was mineral based. And after some tests they would probably find out that it didn’t need Carbon, and it was discharged as waste.
As the creature finished emerging from the wall it flattened out into a thick circular disc the size of a dinner plate and as thick as a hand. The sides of the creature began to wiggle in a rhythmic fashion front to back on both sides. This slow action was causing a meagre force, but was actually propelling itself through the air toward the large encasement.
Kramer looked to his left and saw a clear bucket floating about, “Sabo, bring me that bucket.”
Taking the bucket, Kramer positioned it from behind the creature and basically scooped it in and closed the lid.
‘Well fellas,” Kramer began, “I think we found the culprit.”
M'Erise scanned the open area behind the panel with her tricorder. "I'm seeing similar readings on the cabling as we did in the other affected areas."
Kramer replied, “That’s pretty much what I expected.” He then handed the container with the creature to Lt. Sabo.
Just then, “Noooooo!” came a high pitched squeal and a small body shot across the room towards them.
Sabo holding the sealed bucket moved it and prevented the boy from taking it away.
“Now, wait a minute little one.” Kramer said in a sympathetic voice.
“Give Shoofa back!” the boy demanded as he stood on the wall.
Kramer noticed that the boy had launched himself across the room, missed getting the container, flipped himself around, and then stopped himself on the wall, without bouncing off. It takes a lot of skill to be able to stop yourself in zero-G like that.
“What’s your name, young Bolian?” Kramer asked in an encouraging way.
“I’m Tios, and you have my Shoofa!” the boy stated as fact.
“Yes,” Kramer looked at the container. “Yes, I do. Your Shoofa has been apprehended for crimes against the United Federation of Planets.” He sounded official.
The boys seemed to almost turn white and the look on his face turned to dread or loss. “But . . but, Shoofa is mine.” He said quietly.
Kramer then smiled, “It’s all right. I’m sure I can get all the charges dropped. We just have to process him through the system first. It’s just a first time offense, right.?”
The boy looked uncertain, “Ahuh. He’s never done anything bad before.”
Kramer pulled out the small clear bag with the crystals in it that he had gathered from another panel. “Here is some evidence that I have collected . . .”
Tios interrupted, “Oh, I’ve got a big bag of those.”
"You do?” Kramer asked surprisingly, “May I see them?”
The Bolian launched himself with just his toes to a drawer in the wall and pulled out a sack as big as his head.
As the boy came floating to him, Kramer held up his arm to catch the boy.
“Here they are.” Tios shyly stated fearing that he too would be arrested.
Kramer opened the bag and saw that is was full of the dazzling crystals. Very similarly, they were raw crystals, though some as big as his thumbnail.
Both Sabo and M’Erise looked amazed.
“Okay.” Kramer began, “Let’s get this taken care of.” As he put the bag of crystals in the bucket with the creature.
Kramer reached up and tapped his communicator, =^= Computer, prepare to re-initialize gravimetric generators for Sector Alpha Nine of the residential ring, sending power to gravimetric plating, overriding safety protocols, utilizing the program Kramer 596G. Confirm that artificial gravity will slowly come up to 1 earth standard gravity over a 5 second period. =^=
After a moment the computer replied, =^= Program ready. Gravity to be reestablished in Sector Alpha Nine over a period of 5 seconds. =^=
Kramer tapped his Comm badge again, =^= Operations, This is Lt Kramer of Engineering. =^=
=^= Operations, go ahead Lt. Kramer. =^=
=^= I am prepared to re-establish gravity in Sector Alpha Nine. Several safety protocols have been superseded, but this does fit into pre-established repair protocols and maintenance procedure. =^=
=^= Lt. Kramer, stand by. =^=
The engineers looked at each other in anticipation.
After a moment, =^= Lt. Kramer, you have the go ahead with re-establishment of gravimetric generators and plating. =^=
Kramer then instructed, =^= Computer, I need to make a sector-wide announcement. =^= Kramer waited for the computer to give the appropriate chime. =^= Attention all residents, station personnel, and guests in Sector Alpha Nine of the residential ring. Please prepare for re-establishment of gravity. I would advise that everyone hold onto something secure during this process, preferably something close to the deck and not under floating objects. =^=
Kramer looked to Lt. Sabo, “Will you monitor the Gravimetric generator and let me know if the override is going as expected, but not too much.”
"Aye Sir."
Kramer glanced at M’Erise, “Would you monitor the flow to the plating. I’m concerned about lack of insulation allowing unwanted discharge.”
"Agreed." M'Elise switched the scanner settings on her tricorder to monitor the magnetic corona around the cables.
Kramer looked to his left where Tios was still hanging onto his arm and seemed to be thoroughly enthralled in the current procedure taking place. He smiled at Tios, and then said, =^= Computer re-establish gravity as set forth by program Kramer 595G, security authorization Kramer-Alpha-Sigma-Epsilon-7-7-2. =^=
M'Erise watched as power was slowly restored to the gravimetric plating. The cabling withstood the power restoration though in a few areas she noticed signs of coronal discharges forming.
"Looks good. I'd strongly suggest we have repair teams replace any of the damaged cables promptly though. I'm seeing evidence of minor corona discharges in several of the cables. If we get much more power flow through those cables, we could face arcing and several EPS & ODN conduits in this area pass in close proximity."
“Agreed.” Kramer replied, “Send your data to Main Engineering where they will dispatch the needed technicians.”
Letting Tios release his arm, Kramer looked at his PADD and watched as the readings came in of the gravimetric flow to the plating. He switched over to Station sector scan, confirming gravity levels on all the areas within the Alpha Nine sector. He found the levels to vary from 85% to 105%. Kramer figured that the wavering was caused by the loss of cable shielding coming to the plating, but it was within acceptable limits.
Glancing about the room, all the toys that had previously been floating about were now covering the floor.
“Well, young sir,” Kramer said and turned to face the Bolian child. “I’m afraid that Shoofa will be coming with me for a short while.”
Tios responded “My Uncle Tisosk is sure going to be upset with me.” As he said this, his mom came up from behind him and wrapped her affectionate arms around his shoulders and held him close to her.
“Don’t you worry about that.” Kramer replied, “I’ll talk to your Uncle Tisosk for you.”
“Thank you for all your help.” The Bolian woman said.
“You’re welcome,” Kramer replied, but then looked around the room at the disarray of everything in that room and said sympathetically. “Sorry for the mess.”
“Oh, no,” She retorted, “There is a young Bolian that will be cleaning up this mess.”
“But mah-ahm” Tios whined.
As the Engineers exited the resident suite and out into the passageway, Kramer could still hear the arguing continuing between mother and child.
“Well fellas,” Kramer began, “now the real work begins. “
END:
Lt. Vincent Kramer
Asst. Chief of Engineering
DS5
&
Lt. Bridget Stapleton
Doctor (General Practitioner)
Main Sickbay, DS5
&
Min Zhao ( as Leah)
Civilian
&
a couple others that added their 2 cents. - Thanks
OOC - Word count - 6534. Just a touch longer than I expected. - Kramer
by Lieutenant Vincent Kramer & Lieutenant Bridget Stapleton & Chief Executive Officer Wayne Bradshaw & Citizen Min Zhao & UFP Ambassador Ryan O'Hara & Arrival Kaia & Arrival Augustus Cyphadrus
Post Details
| Title | What goes up . . | |
| Mission | Incommunicado | |
| Author(s) | Lieutenant Vincent Kramer & Lieutenant Bridget Stapleton & Chief Executive Officer Wayne Bradshaw & Citizen Min Zhao & UFP Ambassador Ryan O'Hara & Arrival Kaia & Arrival Augustus Cyphadrus | |
| Posted | Wed Feb 15, 2012 @ 9:55pm | |
| Location | Resident Ring | |
| Timeline | SD 52 0700 |
ON:
0700 hours
( Resident Quarters )
(Deck 596 - Suite 96742)
Tios ran from his bed upon arising to the desk size encasement. Placing his hands flat on the transparent wall and pressing his face to the surface he looked desperately for Shoofa. He couldn’t see it yet, among the rocks and few plants in the terrarium. “Shoofa? Where are you?!” Tios exclaimed.
After another moment of bobbing about and running to the other side, “Lights.” Tios called out. The illumination of the room did not help the young bolian to locate his new pet. He had been so excited 2 days ago when his uncle Tisosk had presented the gift to him. Tisosk had informed him that Shoofa had been a rare find and wanted Tios to take very, very good care of it.
Finally, under a large leaf, Tios saw the crystalline rock creature. “There you are!” Tios said affectionately. The Koski, his uncle had informed him, could make a wonderful pet. Tisosk had instructed him to hold it each day, to talk to it, and keep electronics away from it.
The Koski was small enough to hold in two hands. Its surface was dry with gray and silver coloring and covered with crystal nodules and scaling. It moved like a slow amoeba. It had no definable eyes or mouth, but did see through the crystals on its surface like a multifaceted eye. Uncle Tisosk had informed him what type of mineral rocks to place in its encasement. Tios was told that it would crawl upon them; express a concentrated acid to dissolve the crystals in the mineral; then absorb the nutrients through its surface. From time to time, the koski would express small clear crystals that were its waist. Uncle Tisosk had looked at Tios very seriously that evening and instructed him to pick up the clear crystals and save them for him. The one thing Tisosk did not explain was that the clear crystals contained carbon and only carbon.
Tios opened the encasement and picked up the koski. It felt cold to the touch and was not moving like yesterday. Nor was it humming as it did when his uncle laid it in his hands the first time. Tios was very concerned. “Oooh, poor Shoofa.” He carried it over to his play desk that had a desk lamp and turned it on.
“Tios” his mother called to him from the other room.
Tios didn’t want to leave his new pet just yet. He was very concerned, because it was not moving. “Please Shoofa.” Tios exclaimed softly. “Please be better.” After a moment the koski began to move slowly, just a little bit. “I’m coming.” Tios finally called back. He set the koski on the desk under the lamp. “I’ll be right back.” Tios said and ran out of the room.
The koski began to flex a little bit more. Then, an electric discharge occurred between the koski and the lamp and the light went out. The koski slowly flattened out and slid off the desk. It moved across the floor in a rolling action to a small access panel in the wall. Part of the koski reached up pressing and gripping the corner of the hands size panel. It pulled and popped open the panel. The koski squeezed through the small opening, around the components in its way.
Tios ran back into the room to his desk and found Shoofa missing. He looked under the desk and around the room. A very sad look came upon Tios, "Mamio, it's gone!” he cried. Sadly with his head down he walked out of the room.
0900 hours
(Deck 595 - Suite 95891)
Wayne could not believe what he was seeing. Everything in his quarters was floating and for that matter so was he. He did however thank his lucky stars that he had, had some zero G training. Though this was not a combat situation by any means the basics were still the same. He relaxed and slowly swam his way to the door that would lead out to the hall and hopefully gravity would be established in the corridor.
(Deck 594 - Suite 94867)
Min looked around her new quarters. All the boxes she still had to unpack lay everywhere in random piles. Aside from her small bag near the door, most of this stuff was paid for by 'The Box' as part of a private sting operation aimed at several ladies. Min's role in all this being the mole.
Giving one last glance around, Min reached for the switch to turn off the lights, but felt a bit lightheaded. She felt the distinct sensation of swimming and glanced around the room. Most things were sitting in place, but a couple small items on the table by her work area were not. Recognizing the symptoms of a disruption in gravity, chief among them her queasy feeling, Min tapped the comm panel beside the door.
=^= Leah to Engineering. I'm having some issues with the gravitational plating in my quarters, can you have someone come take a look? =^=
=^= Ens. Walters here. I have identified your location. We have a team on the way. We recommend that you remain where you are. Try to secure yourself to the floor or wall for safety. =^=
=^= Understood. =^=
(Deck 595 - Suite 95891)
Wayne having reached the door after about a 5 minute swim through his room managed to open his old boot chest in which he had stored a few things that he kept from his days in the service chief among them being his anti grav boots. They would not help with the light headedness he was feeling, but at least he would be able to walk around and maybe just maybe allow him to get things done. He knew better then to leave his quarters as he had no idea what the corridor would be like. There had not been an explosion so it was unlikely that there was a hull breach, still he did not want to add to the confusion that he was sure would be going on in other areas.
(Deck 593 - Suite 93948)
Ryan held Tiera in his arms and gently caressed her silky skin with his fingers, tracing the row of spots that ran down the right side of the Trill’s body. He kissed her in the neck and whispered, “Hi, beautiful. What you say we go back and finish what we were doing?”
“Are you nuts!” the brunette shouted, her voice slightly shaking. “We are floating, we are literally floating!”
Ryan glanced around the room, and as if noticing for the first time the various objects suspended in midair, he nodded, “Oh, yeah.” Turning back to Tiera, he grinned mischievously, “So you want to try it with the gravity off?”
Tiera was not amused. “Pass me that robe.” She said sternly, her eyes on the white bath robe that was slowly drifting by.
(Deck 601 Room 101)
Rick was sitting in his lounge chair enjoying a book when the gravity went off in his room. Not put off or disgruntled, Rick picked up the tricorder on the coffee table. It chirped and beeped as he used its diagnostics functions. Nodding to himself, he looked about the room. It was his experience in these circumstances that normal the problem was when they switched the gravity back on and all toughs those breakable items that were floating in the air came crashing to the ground. Rick pushed away from his chair and started floating around his room gathering up those breakables and packing them in a cupboard so there was little to no depth for them to fall in when the gravity came back on.
(Deck 594, turbolift)
Alone with her thoughts, Bridget Stapleton rode in silence and reflected on the patient she was about to see. Pregnant and near the due date, the woman had been promised a visit by one of the medical staff to organize her delivery. Bridget was glad to take on the responsibility; house calls were a frequent part of her routine and an old-fashioned medical indulgence she often granted to those under her care.
Her reflections were cut short as the turbolift slowed and came to rest with a swish of hydraulics. Stepping out into the corridor, she suddenly lost her balance as a wave of dizziness hit her. She instinctively caught herself with a hand against the nearby bulkhead, grateful that she hadn't had an audience to her stumbling steps. She wasn't exactly sure what had happened, but she turned her back against the coolness of the wall to wait for the sensation to pass. It didn't; in fact, the feeling of being lightheaded changed to being lightfooted, and she realized there was a decided lack of gravitational pull on her body.
=^= Stapleton to Engineering =^= she said with a light tap on the comm badge clipped to her uniform. =^= I'm experiencing a gravitational anomaly just outside the turbolift on deck 594. =^= ~'Anomaly, my ass'~ she thought to herself as the aforementioned body part began rising into the air, dangling her legs below it.
(Deck 593 - Suite 96585)
The sound of whistling show tunes accompanied Augustus as he walked with a skip in his step back to his quarters with a to-go plate of fresh Wistan Gagh in Targ Blood. Racht was his meat and potatoes, but today he spoiled himself. His whistled rendition of "Aktuh and Maylota" was midway through the second refrain when he arrived at his door. As soon as he was through the threshold he lost his footing. He cut out with a high pitch whistle of amazement when he realized he was floating. As soon as it began, it was over, and Augustus was on the floor, his face buried in smashed Gagh. He quickly got to his knees and scooped up a pile of them. "You guys alright? Guys?" He sorted through them with a finger. "All dead?" He gnawed on one hopelessly, before spitting out the inedible critter. "Dammit all, they're ruined!" He threw the rest of them at his mirror, splattering blood all over the wall, as he made his way into the bathroom. Mumbling angrily, he took his clothes off and hopped in the sonic shower. He quietly let the particulates fall off until he felt his stomach turn ferociously. His eyes opened wide as he became gravity's new naked plaything. Finally, he landed on his back. Augustus looked around to realize he was pinned to the ceiling. Covering his genitals, he sighed and said to no one in particular, "So this is how I die."
0915 hours
( Main Engineering )
Lt. Kramer sat in his office going through 3 days worth of scheduling reviews, personnel evaluations, and proficiency reports, commonly known as paperwork. The Chief had left for Kramer to deal with when he came back from medical leave. Kramer guessed that the Chief hadn’t appreciated the doctors letting him have 3 days off.
“Lieutenant?” Lt. Decker said from the doorway of Kramer’s office. “We’re getting some reports of gravity plate failure.”
Setting the PADD down amongst the others, Kramer looked at Decker with a wrinkled brow, “Have we had any power losses?”
“Nope.” Was Decker’s quick reply.
“I assume you’ve run a diagnostic on the system?” Kramer asked as he stood and walked around his desk heading out of the office toward one of the Engineering Diagnostic tables on the platform, which lead to the Core Control.
They stopped and looked at a 3 dimensional hologram of the Alpha strut joining the Residential Ring of the Deep Space 5. “These yellow flashing areas,” Decker pointed out, “Are where we are having fluctuations.”
“Is our team there yet?” Kramer asked.
“Yes, and have done several spot checks.” Decker began, “I have two men headed down to the gravimetric generator now.”
“Sounds good.” Kramer replied as he reached under the table and pulled out a diagnostic kit. “I’m heading to that area to check things for myself.” Kramer turned and walked toward the turbolift, positioned between Kramer’s and the Chief’s office. Kramer stepped in and turned, “Keep me appraised.”
“Aye aye, Sir.” Decker replied.
0920 hours
(Residential Ring - Deck 595)
When the turbolift door opened Kramer immediately felt gravimetric fluctuations. The artificial gravity was active, but it felt like he was being tugged down from time to time. Carefully stepping off with diagnostic kit in hand, Lt. Kramer headed down the passageway. Several people were making their way down the passageway, past him toward the turbolift. Even though they had been informed to remain in their quarters, which was safer. Apparently, many residents believed that it was better for them to be out of the area. Kramer noticed several items cast about on the walkway, that use to either sit on a small table or hang on the wall. He couldn’t determine if this had been caused by the gravity fluctuations for by the residents hurriedly moving down the passageway.
Lt. Kramer stopped behind two engineers looking at an open access panel, which was for controlling atmosphere, gravimetric plating, and power in that area. After a moment, Kramer asked, “What have you found, fellas?”
"Not alot as of yet Lt. we only just got here a few minutes before yourself. However, if I were to make an educated guess, I would say one of two things. Though the first is unlikely and the second is next to impossible." said Lt.jg William Sabo.
Kramer blinked his eyes and tried to keep a straight face. He did not want to be sarcastic or laugh at the Lieutenant, who seemed to mean well. "Please explain. Sabo, isn't it?"
"Yes sir." Said Sabo calmly, "This system has what amounts to triple layer security and what we are experiencing should not be happening. That being said we are looking at intentional sabotage or faulty gravity generators. I say the first is unlikely because there is no way this could be done." He said as the floor gave way.
Halfway through his explanation, it felt like the floor just dropped away, and then came back a second later. Kramer had to get catch himself before falling down.
"As I said there is no way this could be done except by someone with detailed knowledge of our system and extensive computer skills. I would say the second is all but impossible, because the generators are tested and examined down to the microscopic level due to how important they are." Sabo finished.
Kramer reached up to his commbadge, =^= Lt. Kramer to Engineering. I need 6 pair of anti-grav boots brought to Deck 595 - Suite 95891. On the double! =^=
=^= Aye Sir. Hang in their Sir. =^= With a bit of sarcasm in their voice.
Kramer had no time for this silliness, =^= Just get them here quick. Kramer out. =^=
Looking at Lt. Sabo, Kramer said, "Sorry Sabo. You were saying?"
"I really have nothing else to add sir, other then a suggestion that we examine each generator we can get to. If one or more have failed it could stand to reason that others could be targeted or faulty." Said Sabo flatly. He was not looking forward to what would happen if the generator failed in say sickbay or CiC.
“I can see your point Lieutenant.” Kramer stated, “Let’s confirm the cause before we jump to conclusions.” Kramer then stepped up to the diagnostic display on the panel. “Look here,” pointing to a section plate cabling, “These lines in the walls seem erratic or semi-functional. Let’s check that out.” Looking up and down the passageway Kramer said, “That wall is just a few suites down that way.” pointing to his right.
"Alright sir." Said Sabo calmly. He hoped that it was just a case of faulty wiring as that would be easy to solve.
0925 hours
(Deck 595 - Suite 95891)
Kramer pressed the door chime. The plate next to the door read [Wayne Bradshaw].
"Enter." Said Wayne firmly. He was sitting in one of the chairs in his quarters reading over some reports that he had brought with him a few days ago.
"Sorry for the intrusion. I'm Lt. Kramer from engineering."
"No intrusion I am just glad that you are finally out here. I take it that you are trying to solve the gravity fluctuations that have been happening in the area." said Wayne calmly.
"Yes. We are investigating the cause at this time." Kramer explained. "We need access to one of the wall panels in your quarters."
"Not a problem, take your time." said Wayne calmly.
"Here Sobo," Kramer said walking to one side of a sofa, "Help me move this."
"Sure thing boss." said Sabo calmly as he walked over and got ready to move the sofa.
At that moment the door opened again and in walked a technician with 3 sets of anti-grav boots.
M'Erise smiled. "Thought you might need these. Grav plating issue?"
Standing up straight, Kramer smiled, "Just in time. M'Erise isn't it? I thought they had you rebuilding #11 secondary Reactor?"
"O'Flanherty did. The Fusion Initiator is shot and we used the last spare on the #2 Primary reactor. Spares are coming on the next Transport from '74, but they won't be in till the morning. Figured I'd be useful here."
"I think we can use all the help we can get to solve this." said Sabo softly.
Kramer took a pair of boots, but without warning all artificial gravity shut down. This time it did not come back like before.
"Frak." said Sabo as he felt himself floating off the floor
"Ah Crap!" Kramer exclaimed as he found himself floating horizontally with a slight spin at work.. "Couldn't it have waited for me to get the blasted boots on?"
Kramer thought quickly and grabbed the couch with the other hand and threw it up, which thrust him to the deck. He engaged the boots in his other hand, so when they hit the deck they stuck.
M'Erise grabbed the door frame as the grav plating failed. She repressed a feeling of nausea and pushed herself back down to the floor where her boots sat. Slipping into them, she grimaced and took a few tentative steps. "Forgot how much I enjoyed zero G."
Kramer finished tightening the boots to his ankles, stood up and smiled at M'Erise, "Hang in there. We'll get through this." He said encouragingly. Kramer noticed that Sabo and Stiles had also gotten their act together. "Okay, let's look at that wall panel."
After the panel was removed and diagnostics were ran, it was found that the gravametric energy conduit had lost some of its shielding. It had not been scraped or cut. It looked more like it had been rubbed or sanded away, possibly dissolved by some kind of solvent or acid.
Kramer bent down to look inside the opening and the light caught several small crystals floating, slowly spinning in the wall panel. They seemed to be about 1 mm to 2 mm clear crystals, very ruff, uncut crystal.
Kramer pulled out his tricorder and ran a mineral scan. "Hmm, that's interesting." He picked up 3 floating crystals and put them in a bag. Using his light he looked for anything else, but that was it.
Looking at his PADD, Kramer said, "I'm finding similar readings going up this wall to the deck above us." Putting his PADD and Tricorder away, he said to the other engineers, "Let's move up to the next level and check that out."
Making his way out of the suite with his anti-grav boots, Kramer turned to the resident, “I would recommend remaining secured to the floor in some way. Contact security if there is any hazard or danger.”
"Will do. Good luck fixing this."
0935 hours
(Deck 595)
Lt. Kramer walked out of the suite with the other engineering personnel in tow. Stopping in the passageway, Kramer turned to M’Erise and then Sabo. Kramer just closed his eyes and shook his head. There were probably a half dozen people of all ages not just floating in the passage way, but launching themselves down the passage and playing some kind of game, possibly tag.
"Looks like it could be fun. *smiling* I hate zero G & water too, so I wouldn't know."
Looking at his engineers Kramer stated, “Let’s go. We don’t have time to play constable."
"That's too bad," said a grinning, red-faced Bridget Stapleton as she swam the backstroke in midair. "We could use a couple referees." The engineering team passed soberly by without comment.
0950 hours
( Deck 594 - Suite 94867 )
Exiting the turbolift on Deck 594, the team made their way down the passage way. Here too they observed station residents not following the guidelines about stating in their suites. The opportunity for free-fall in a residential location was just too good to pass up, apparently. Vince was very grateful to have the grav boots for him and his team.
They stopped in front of a suite with the plate marked [Deck 594 - Suite 94867] and pressed the door chime.
Min was floating in a corner when she heard the door chime. Her recently opened boxes of stuff were floating all over the place and she'd been trying to recover most of it before the station restored gravity to her quarters. She really didn't need a bunch of smashed things when the gravity plating finally came back on.
"Enter."
The engineering team entered the room, "Good Morning, I’m Lt. Kramer from engineering. I'm very sorry for the gravity issues at the moment." Kramer said to the slender brown haired young lady that was floating mid way to the ceiling.
"Any idea as to the cause."
"Yes. We are tracking that down as we speak.” Looking at his PADD, "Leah Zhang, is that correct?"
"It is. Any idea when the grav plating will be restored?" Leah tried her best to keep her mouth shut. Being a former engineer herself, she wanted to dive into the problem with the others. But she wasn't a Starfleet Engineer anymore.
Kramer explained, "Pretty quick.” He tried to answer her without committing to a time table. “We are still investigating the cause.” Looking about the room, he added, “I need to access a panel in your suite to confirm to look at some of the damage."
Kramer felt a little bad for her with all the apparent breakables floating about the room. "Fellas, help the lady secure her self and her possessions while I pull this panel." Pointing to the left.
M'Erise nodded and clomped in her anti-grave boots over to where Leah was floating. "Ma'am. If you like some assistance.."
Leah nodded. "Most of the stuff isn't breakables, but a few things are. Those I'd like to stuff back in their boxes and tuck those somewhere they'll be safe." Looking around she couldn't find a place except in a closet near the far end of her quarters. "Probably that closet would work best."
As Kramer turned his attention to the panel, Leah & M'Erise began to grab the various floating items out of the air and place them back in several boxes they'd started out in. After a while they had everything tucked away.
Kramer stood at the wall that should have been where the access panel should be, but it was a plain wall. He looked at his PADD and then about the room. He noticed the team members were about done helping secure her personal possessions. He looked at the PADD and the Wall again in confusion. He then looked at Miss Zhang, "Excuse me, but . . um, have you done some remodeling here?"
"I put an application in with the civilian authority to do so, but I'm still waiting on an answer back. Why?"
"Well," Kramer began, "This wall is not in the right place, and I need to find the panel in the wall about 3 feet that way." Pointing towards the wall.
"You're welcome to enter my workspace if need be. I'm still unpacking, so you'll have to excuse the mess.
“That’s fine.” Kramer replied, “Please lead the way.”
Leah floated into the room first, quickly scanning to make sure things were still intact. The various boxes of props and other 'tools of the trade', floated around the room, but the heavier boxes, containing her larger items, had thankfully stayed close to the ground.
Kramer had walked around a corner, down a short hall, through another door, and into an unfinished area. He couldn’t tell if she was moving out or moving in. Looking at his PADD again, he walked over to a wall and opened the panel.
M'Erise looked around the room. She noticed signs of higher density EPS conduit placement and ODN links. "Did your application include requests for increased power and data links?"
Leah nodded, "It did in fact. Why?"
"I've just noticed that someone had already placed the extra links into the walls. Who did the work?"
Leah grinned sheepishly. "I used to work on Starships. Figured stations weren't much different. The civilian authority is more of a rubber stamp I'd assumed."
With the tricorder, Kramer found similar results as the other panel a deck below. Then he saw several crystals floating up and out of the panel area. Unfortunately, so did the other engineers.
"Chief?"
Kramer stood and took a deep breath to see if he could answer this in the best possible way. “These appear to be Crystal Carbon."
Leah looked at the engineers. "I may toy with engineering without permits, but I haven't the foggiest where that came from."
Kramer looked at his PADD once at again to read, “Carbon in crystalline form . . now wait a second. I didn’t see this before. Organic film covering the crystals made of enzymes, folates and amino acids.”
After gathering up the crystals that could be found, the engineers made their way out of the suite, back into the passageway.
(Deck 594)
Standing in the passageway with his fellow engineers, Lt. Kramer was very grateful to have the gravboots, since he could see a multitude of things floating about the passageway. Looking both ways, he could see and hear more and more residents were now taking the opportunity to play in the zero G environment.
"Okay fellas," Kramer began, "I think I've got this one figured out."
"What do you have in mind, Sir?"
"Utilizing the scans of this sector of the residential ring and sensor readings we took around the inactive areas," Kramer stopped mid sentence to show the display on his PADD to the others. "The cable shielding from the graviton emitter to the grav-plates has been dissolved or eroded away."
"I can see that. Do you know what caused this, and the gravity to fail?"
Kramer continued, "My guess is that the safety protocols kicked in and dropped the power output when the computer decided there was a definite problem."
"I just don't understand," Kramer said frustrated, "why the computer could not explain this when I put the question to it earlier." Kramer shrugged.
"So, not to overload."
"Yes. That's right." Kramer replied. "So, we are going to go to where I believe the origin of the erosion began. If things work out, we should be able to reinitialize the grav-plating with a couple safety overrides."
"Isn’t that unsafe?"
Kramer replied, "Yes and no. We'll still have to come back and replace all the eroded grav-cables." Kramer smiled at his team, "But we'll let the repair guys deal with all that."
1030 hours
( Resident Quarters )
(Deck 596 - Suite 96742)
The Engineering team arrived at Suite 96742. Kramer turned to M’Erise, “How are you holding up?” He was concerned about her nausea.
"Well enough. I'm going to need some holodeck time to recover my internal balance though."
Kramer pressed the door chime next to he plate marked [Biskos – Suite 96742]
"Come in." was the cry from inside.
Kramer opened the door and entered to see a woman clutching a wall light to keep from floating.
"Oh, I am so glad you are here." she exclaimed. "This zero gravity is driving me crazy."
"It's all right. We'll have the gravity back in place soon." One of the engineers comforted.
"No, you don't understand." The woman explained, "It's Tios."
Just then a small body launched through a door into the room they all were standing, with the boy screaming with joy as he did, and making a perfect landing with his feet to the wall. He immediately launched himself again about the room squealing at the top of his lungs.
"That is my problem." The woman said pointing to the boy. "Ever since the gravity when down I just can’t keep him in line." Looking up and yelling at her son, "Tios, When your father gets home, he is going to paddle your ftostket. And you wont be able to sit down for days.
Kramer turned to M'Erise next to him and whispered, "Ftostket?"
"If I understand humanoid idioms correctly, I'd assume she meant his posterior region. Apparently a favorite spot for inflicting physical discipline among some humanoid species, Humans & Bolians among them."
Kramer directed his comment to the Bolian woman, “Mrs. Biskos, we just need to check a couple things and then we’ll get the gravity back on.”
Laying her face into her hands, “Oh, that’s fine.” She sounded disheartened and then waived her hand in the direct the boy had flown.
Kramer glanced at Sabo and shrugged, then walked into the next room.
Kramer stopped dead in his tracts causing the others to bump into him a little. Kramer looked about the room and couldn’t believe his eyes. Probably every toy this child owned was careening about the room on different trajectories.
M'Erise smiled. "I guess this is what Terran's mean when they say a storm blew though the room."
Kramer had not entered the room too far, because he was kind of concerned about being hit by something sharp. Looking at his PADD, he determined that the wall they needed to look at was that one to their right. “It’s that one over there.” He said to the other engineers.
As Kramer slowly made his way across the room, many toys impacted them. He was looking for the boy, but he was not in sight, possibly hiding. Kramer then caught sight of the large clear encasement or aquarium near the wall. All the rocks and small vegetation inside had been stirred up and was floating about inside and some flowing out.
As they approached the wall, Kramer stopped short when he saw that a small panel flap was open and something was moving out of the wall.
The engineers looked at each other, then to Kramer. "That looks rather interesting."
Kramer held up an arm to keep the others back. What he saw was incredible. A thick fluid type object was moving out of the small opening, wiggling and squirming, not making a sound. Its flexible surface was gray and silver and covered with crystalline nodules. There were no discernible eyes, mouth, or limbs. It was very much fitting what Kramer had suspected some type of creature that was mineral based. And after some tests they would probably find out that it didn’t need Carbon, and it was discharged as waste.
As the creature finished emerging from the wall it flattened out into a thick circular disc the size of a dinner plate and as thick as a hand. The sides of the creature began to wiggle in a rhythmic fashion front to back on both sides. This slow action was causing a meagre force, but was actually propelling itself through the air toward the large encasement.
Kramer looked to his left and saw a clear bucket floating about, “Sabo, bring me that bucket.”
Taking the bucket, Kramer positioned it from behind the creature and basically scooped it in and closed the lid.
‘Well fellas,” Kramer began, “I think we found the culprit.”
M'Erise scanned the open area behind the panel with her tricorder. "I'm seeing similar readings on the cabling as we did in the other affected areas."
Kramer replied, “That’s pretty much what I expected.” He then handed the container with the creature to Lt. Sabo.
Just then, “Noooooo!” came a high pitched squeal and a small body shot across the room towards them.
Sabo holding the sealed bucket moved it and prevented the boy from taking it away.
“Now, wait a minute little one.” Kramer said in a sympathetic voice.
“Give Shoofa back!” the boy demanded as he stood on the wall.
Kramer noticed that the boy had launched himself across the room, missed getting the container, flipped himself around, and then stopped himself on the wall, without bouncing off. It takes a lot of skill to be able to stop yourself in zero-G like that.
“What’s your name, young Bolian?” Kramer asked in an encouraging way.
“I’m Tios, and you have my Shoofa!” the boy stated as fact.
“Yes,” Kramer looked at the container. “Yes, I do. Your Shoofa has been apprehended for crimes against the United Federation of Planets.” He sounded official.
The boys seemed to almost turn white and the look on his face turned to dread or loss. “But . . but, Shoofa is mine.” He said quietly.
Kramer then smiled, “It’s all right. I’m sure I can get all the charges dropped. We just have to process him through the system first. It’s just a first time offense, right.?”
The boy looked uncertain, “Ahuh. He’s never done anything bad before.”
Kramer pulled out the small clear bag with the crystals in it that he had gathered from another panel. “Here is some evidence that I have collected . . .”
Tios interrupted, “Oh, I’ve got a big bag of those.”
"You do?” Kramer asked surprisingly, “May I see them?”
The Bolian launched himself with just his toes to a drawer in the wall and pulled out a sack as big as his head.
As the boy came floating to him, Kramer held up his arm to catch the boy.
“Here they are.” Tios shyly stated fearing that he too would be arrested.
Kramer opened the bag and saw that is was full of the dazzling crystals. Very similarly, they were raw crystals, though some as big as his thumbnail.
Both Sabo and M’Erise looked amazed.
“Okay.” Kramer began, “Let’s get this taken care of.” As he put the bag of crystals in the bucket with the creature.
Kramer reached up and tapped his communicator, =^= Computer, prepare to re-initialize gravimetric generators for Sector Alpha Nine of the residential ring, sending power to gravimetric plating, overriding safety protocols, utilizing the program Kramer 596G. Confirm that artificial gravity will slowly come up to 1 earth standard gravity over a 5 second period. =^=
After a moment the computer replied, =^= Program ready. Gravity to be reestablished in Sector Alpha Nine over a period of 5 seconds. =^=
Kramer tapped his Comm badge again, =^= Operations, This is Lt Kramer of Engineering. =^=
=^= Operations, go ahead Lt. Kramer. =^=
=^= I am prepared to re-establish gravity in Sector Alpha Nine. Several safety protocols have been superseded, but this does fit into pre-established repair protocols and maintenance procedure. =^=
=^= Lt. Kramer, stand by. =^=
The engineers looked at each other in anticipation.
After a moment, =^= Lt. Kramer, you have the go ahead with re-establishment of gravimetric generators and plating. =^=
Kramer then instructed, =^= Computer, I need to make a sector-wide announcement. =^= Kramer waited for the computer to give the appropriate chime. =^= Attention all residents, station personnel, and guests in Sector Alpha Nine of the residential ring. Please prepare for re-establishment of gravity. I would advise that everyone hold onto something secure during this process, preferably something close to the deck and not under floating objects. =^=
Kramer looked to Lt. Sabo, “Will you monitor the Gravimetric generator and let me know if the override is going as expected, but not too much.”
"Aye Sir."
Kramer glanced at M’Erise, “Would you monitor the flow to the plating. I’m concerned about lack of insulation allowing unwanted discharge.”
"Agreed." M'Elise switched the scanner settings on her tricorder to monitor the magnetic corona around the cables.
Kramer looked to his left where Tios was still hanging onto his arm and seemed to be thoroughly enthralled in the current procedure taking place. He smiled at Tios, and then said, =^= Computer re-establish gravity as set forth by program Kramer 595G, security authorization Kramer-Alpha-Sigma-Epsilon-7-7-2. =^=
M'Erise watched as power was slowly restored to the gravimetric plating. The cabling withstood the power restoration though in a few areas she noticed signs of coronal discharges forming.
"Looks good. I'd strongly suggest we have repair teams replace any of the damaged cables promptly though. I'm seeing evidence of minor corona discharges in several of the cables. If we get much more power flow through those cables, we could face arcing and several EPS & ODN conduits in this area pass in close proximity."
“Agreed.” Kramer replied, “Send your data to Main Engineering where they will dispatch the needed technicians.”
Letting Tios release his arm, Kramer looked at his PADD and watched as the readings came in of the gravimetric flow to the plating. He switched over to Station sector scan, confirming gravity levels on all the areas within the Alpha Nine sector. He found the levels to vary from 85% to 105%. Kramer figured that the wavering was caused by the loss of cable shielding coming to the plating, but it was within acceptable limits.
Glancing about the room, all the toys that had previously been floating about were now covering the floor.
“Well, young sir,” Kramer said and turned to face the Bolian child. “I’m afraid that Shoofa will be coming with me for a short while.”
Tios responded “My Uncle Tisosk is sure going to be upset with me.” As he said this, his mom came up from behind him and wrapped her affectionate arms around his shoulders and held him close to her.
“Don’t you worry about that.” Kramer replied, “I’ll talk to your Uncle Tisosk for you.”
“Thank you for all your help.” The Bolian woman said.
“You’re welcome,” Kramer replied, but then looked around the room at the disarray of everything in that room and said sympathetically. “Sorry for the mess.”
“Oh, no,” She retorted, “There is a young Bolian that will be cleaning up this mess.”
“But mah-ahm” Tios whined.
As the Engineers exited the resident suite and out into the passageway, Kramer could still hear the arguing continuing between mother and child.
“Well fellas,” Kramer began, “now the real work begins. “
END:
Lt. Vincent Kramer
Asst. Chief of Engineering
DS5
&
Lt. Bridget Stapleton
Doctor (General Practitioner)
Main Sickbay, DS5
&
Min Zhao ( as Leah)
Civilian
&
a couple others that added their 2 cents. - Thanks
OOC - Word count - 6534. Just a touch longer than I expected. - Kramer