Taking the Reins on this Derailment

Posted on Mon Mar 5th, 2018 @ 6:06am by

706 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: S1:2: Rubicon
Location: Various Decks
Timeline: MD 14 :: 12:05h (slight backpost)

Onir was on deck 5 when the ship was attacked, and somehow was lucky enough to get away with minor injuries. He helped some of the science officers get to sickbay before he saw Tolkath, which made him freeze. The injuries were extreme, and as his superior was whisked away in the beam of a transporter, he had followed the direction of the engineers and cleared the area. If the chief was in sickbay, someone needed to be on the bridge.

After crawling through Jefferies tubes and finally getting onto the bridge, he now stood at the science station, looking at the data that was coming in from the sensors and other departments. It was so much, and his eyes darted back and forth as he tried to calm himself, but the effect compounded and all he could see were meaningless words and numbers. He heard Remas say something to him, and other bridge officers were moving about, but all he could do was stare at the screen in front of him.

He felt his chest tightening with each intake of breath, and after another moment passed he left the station and ran to the back of the bridge, tucking himself into one of the short side halls with a door before leaning against the wall. He was panicking. Closing his eyes, he forced himself to try and take deep breaths, which looked more like he was a fish gasping for air. He had never expected his first mission to go like this. It felt like everything he had learned at the Academy was going out the airlock.

"Focus..." he muttered to himself. He knew the science chief would be back soon, so he just had to hold down the fort until the doctor patched him up. "Mara, report," he said, tapping his comm badge.

"About half of our department is in sickbay, sir," Mara replied. The woman was down in the science department, or what was left of it, helping get some kind of order in the chaos. "Last I counted was 7 people injured and three dead."

Lutko nodded slowly, regaining more of his composure. "Ok, uh, get whoever is left in the department and... uh..." His eyes went back to his station, which was in view of where he was standing near the back. "We need to analyse what the sensor has been picking up. I'm sure Mr. Tolkath would want to see the report once he's patched up-"

"Sorry, sir, he's dead. I got the news right before you called."

"He... what?" Lutko was frozen in shock. When Mara repeated what she had said, Lutko's face paled. The Chief is dead? That meant... oh no. The Bajoran felt his stomach churn. "H-hold on..." he said to Mara before tapping his comm badge with a shaky hand.

He then ran to find the nearest bathroom to go hurl his lunch.

"At least turn off your comm before doing that," Mara said, her voice clearly disgusted. He missed the badge, which in turn failed to turn off the comm link, so she heard every chunk that came up.

"Sorry," Onir stammered, forcing deep breaths again as he lingered by the sink he ended up using. "Ok... well, like I said, let's gather up the department and then get to work analyzing the sensor data... and since Tolkath is... uh... just keep me updated with what you find."

"Wait, who made him boss??" Someone's voice carried into the comm link.

Gathering a little more strength to settle his stomach, Lutko responded with less wavering in his voice. "If you want to run the department and have a better idea, please, let me know!" The response, or lack thereof, told him what he needed to know. "Since it sounds like you don't want to step up, I suggest you get to work on that analysis."

There was another pause before both Mara and the other officer responded, and Onir cut the comm link. Gripping the edge of the sink, he took a couple more deep breaths. "You got this," he told himself. Turning on the water, he let his lunch drain away before cleaning up. "You got this."

 

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