The Nuclear Option

Posted on Aug 14, 2015 @ 11:41am by Commander Jacob Crichton
Edited on on Aug 14, 2015 @ 11:41am

Mission: The Lights of Hyperion

=The Nuclear Option=

(cont'd from "Cruxes")



LOCATION: USS PHOENIX

SCENE: Main Engineering

STARDATE: [2.15] 0813.1453



The ship shuddered, enough so that Jake had to reach out to steady himself on his engineering console. Warren and Rochemonte reacted similarly. Jake looked over, and saw that Chaucer took the sudden jolt with barely a shift in his stance or expression. Jake had time to feel jealous of the Gorn's poise, before turning his attention to back to his workstation.



"Saucer and drive section link-up is complete," he said. "Sounding all clear on blue alert."



"All clear," Warren repeated.



Jake spared a moment to send silent thanks to Russ BaShen, whom he was sure had performed the piloting miracle they'd just witnessed. Manual docking a saucer and drive section was hard enough under optimal conditions, let alone doing it with a prototype ship in what was rapidly becoming a full-on disaster area. Wherever he was, Jake had a feeling that Russ was breathing a heavy sigh of relief.



But they weren't out of the woods yet.



"Okay," Jake said. "Ball's back in our court. I want radiation levels monitored throughout the ship. Warren, try to get back in touch with our response teams, we need to get the repairs going again."



"Aye sir."



"Lt. Rochemonte," Jake said, turning now to regard his bespectacled second-in-command. "Get me a full damage report on the saucer section. I want to know what Embry was hitting, and how hard. Coordinate with Warren and prioritize repairs to vital systems first. We need full functionality back ASAP, Specs."



"On it," Rochemonte nodded.



Jake activated his comm-badge. "Engineering to bridge."



[[Bridge here,]] replied the voice of Aerdan Jos.



"Nice to have you plugged in again, sir."



[[The feeling is mutual, Commander. Where is Captain Kane?]]



"He went to talk to Embry," Jake said. "And since Embry isn't on the comms gloating, I gotta figure that conversation is still happening."



Now it was Eve's voice that responded: [[We need to get Embry off the battle bridge, Jake. He's unstable. I think there's a real chance he'll kill Kane.]]



"Transporters?" Jake offered.



[[No good,]] Jos siad. [[Most of the PHOENIX's systems are still locked out. If we locate Dr. Foster, he and I can have Kane declared unfit for duty and invalidate his command codes.]]



"And surprise surprise, Foster isn't at his post," muttered Jake.



[[We're sweeping the ship for him now, but it's taking time,]] Eve said. [[Embry hit us pretty hard, comms are spotty on several decks. Anything you can do on your end, Jake?]]



Jake turned his attention back to his workstation. Systems ships flickered on the holodisplay, most of them glowing an angry red, indicating they'd been locked down from the battle bridge. Embry's approach hadn't been thorough- scattered secondary systems were still available - but it had been effective enough. Transporters, weapons, shields, even deflector control...none of them were accessible as long as the computer lock-out was in effect.



"Not much," Jake sighed. "We can try finding a backdoor into the command system, but it'll take time. Lots of time, probably. Can't Kane just rescind the lockout?"



[[We have to assume the captain is no longer a factor,]] Jos said, his voice pitched half an octave lower, as though he didn't want the universe to hear the implication in his statement. [[What about the Amaterasu?]]



"All that phaser fire has them pretty stirred up," Jake said. "Thytos and Barton are headed to deck 4 to clear them out before they bump into something volatile."



[[Barton?]] Jos asked, sounding confused. Jake realized his mistake.



"Oh right, you weren't here for that," Jake said. "Long story, boss. Point is, I trust Thytos to get it done, but that's still just damage control. We need to get the Amaterasu away from the ship before they break something I can't fix."



[[I might have something,]] came a new voice, this one belonging to Thomas Varn. [[Stand by.]]



A blinking light on the holodisplay caught Jake's attention. He turned, inspected the readout, and frowned.



"Better hurry," Jake said. "Radiation levels are spiking all over the ship, and Embry locked down our accesss to the countermeasures. Right now, I don't have any way of keeping them out of anything they want to get into."



[[What about deflector control?]] Jos asked. [[The graviton pulse.]]



[[No!]] came Eve's voice once again. [[We can't do that, they're not--]]



[[As a last resort,]] Jos said. [[Jake, is it an option?]]



"Deflector control's locked down," Jake said, doing his best not to sound relieved. "Sorry, Commander, looks like barbecue's off the menu tonight."



"Unless it's us," Cindy Rochemonte said. Jake glanced at her, and tried to give her a reassuring smile, but it didn't look like it worked.



Chaucer, meanwhile, was still standing stock still. The only indication the Gorn was even still alive and following their conversation was that his yellow eyes kept shifting to whomever was speaking; otherwise, Chaucer might as well have been a statue.



[[I need you to get access,]] Jos said. [[We need options, Jake, even if they're bad ones.]]



"Yes sir," Jake said. "We'll do what we can. Engineering out."



Jake sighed, then turned to Rochemonte.



"Specs, you're in charge down here," he said. "I'm heading to deflector control. Maybe I can find a way to isolate it from the ship's command systems."



"We're not really going to *kill* them, are we?" Warren asked.



Jake didn't answer. He could only hope that Varn was on to something. From this end, it looked like they were rapidly running of options. He went to an equipment locker, pulled out a toolkit and slung the strap over his shoulder.



"Jake," Cindy said. "You can't go down there alone. There's too much radiation in that area to get a reliable scan, but you know what that means. That deck is probably crawling with those things."



"Can't spare you down here," Jake said. "The situation's too fluid, I need someone in Engineering who I know can improvise under pressure."



"So I'll go and you stay," Rochemonte said, crossing her arms.



"No," Jake said. "Call's been made, Specs, now run the play."



"I can take care of it," Rochemonte said. "You need to rest."



"We're not negotiating," Jake said, setting his jaw. "Get back to your post, Lieutenant."



Color blossomed in Rochemonte's cheeks, and her eyebrows drew together in an angry slant. She took another step towards Jake, frowning at him.



"You just called the captain 'Mike' in front of everyone, and now you want to pull rank on me?" Rochemonte countered. "I don't know if you've noticed, but you're *not* the only genius aboard this ship!"



"This needs to get done, Specs," Jake shot back.



"Jake, it isn't *safe*. You're no good to anyone if you wind up like that Vulcan did."



"And that's as likely to happen if I do *nothing* as if I go down there," Jake said.



"You're exhausted, you're upset, and you aren't thinking straight," Rochemonte said, refusing to be cowed. "You can't go in there with no backup."



"And we don't have any backup to spare!"



A calm, quiet voice cut through their argument so softly that, at first, they weren't sure they'd even heard it:



[[Help.]]



Jake blinked. So did Rochemonte. They both turned, and saw that Chaucer was standing right next to them. Neither of them had seen or heard the Gorn move, but he loomed over them now, his lips peeled back over needle teeth in an expression that wasn't exactly comforting, but which Jake supposed could have arguably been called a "smile". Chaucer's hand was on one of the buttons on his wrist-mounted Vox unit, and as the two engineers regarded him, Chaucer pressed the button again.



[[Help,]] the Vox repeated softly, exactly the same as it had the first time.



"No," Jake said. "Look, big guy, you've been a big help already, but this could be dangerous. I can't guarantee your safety, and you don't owe us--"



[[Help,]] the Vox interrupted. The Gorn didn't move, nor did his expression change.



"You could die," Jake said.



[[Yes.]]



"And you want to come anyway?"



[[Yes.]]



"Why?"



The Gorn stared at him for a moment, perfectly still. Then, he activated his Vox. Jake already knew what it would say. It was rather obvious given the Gorn's limited verbal repertoire, and Jake had after all seen Chaucer respond in this exact way to a similar line of questioning from Savaar only a few minutes before. But just the same, something about the calm certainty of the words managed to bring a smile to Jake's weary face.



[[My name is Chaucer.]]



"Guess I had that coming," Jake said. "Okay, fair enough. You can come."



Chaucer's lips folded down over his teeth again, and his large reptilian head dipped once in an affirmative nod.



Jake turned to Cindy. "Good enough?"



"I suppose it has to be," she said. She turned to Chaucer. "Watch his back."



Chaucer nodded again to her, then turned back to Jake.



"Get yourself a toolkit," Jake said. "Let's move."



=[/\]=



SCENE: Jefferies Tube, Deck 21, near Deflector Control



The radiation indicator on Jake's tricorder had been steadily climbing for the last five minutes or so. Both he and Chaucer would need radiation treatment after this was over, but the levels were still low enough for Jake to feel reasonably sure that no Amaterasu were lurking in the tubes ahead of them. Jake didn't like the idea of encountering one of the creatures in a confined space like the Jefferies tube, where there was no room to dodge; he'd witnessed the effects of the Amaterasu's touch first hand on Savaar, and he didn't want to experience it first-hand.



Behind him, Chaucer moved through the tube with surprising ease, given his size. Jake kept looking back, worried that he was going too fast for the bulky Gorn to keep up, but each time Chaucer was right there. The Gorn moved not only quickly, but *quietly*; Jake would turn, expecting to see the Gorn at least a few meters behind him, only to find that Chaucer was almost right on top of him, his yellow eyes shining in the low light of the tubes. It was quite unsettling at first... but then, Chaucer would give him that creepy needle-teeth smile and raise one hand in what was unmistakably a "thumb's up" gesture, and the effect was softened somewhat.



"Gotta forgive me," Jake said, a little breathlessly; crawling through maintenance access tubes could be hard work. "Don't know much about Gorn. You guys aren't extra allergic to radiation or anything, are you?"



From behind him: [[No.]]



"Good," Jake said, glancing down at his tricorder again. "Because I think you and I might be coming out of this with a nice tan."



[[Help.]]



"We got radiation treatments standing by," Jake said. "We should be fine. Uh, that is, if that's what you were asking."



[[Yes,]] the Vox buzzed.



"Heh," Jake said. "Not so hard to understand you, once you get used to it. And you gained access to the ship's systems too, huh?"



[[Yes,]] Chaucer's Vox replied.



"You know your way around a toolbox, I'll give you that," Jake said. "Better be careful, Chaucer, you're quickly becoming indispensable."



[[My name is Chaucer,]] the Vox said.



"Me too, buddy," Jake said. He was too tired to care that the reply didn't strictly make sense. "Alright, we're deflector control. Let's get this panel open."



=[/\]=



TIME INDEX: Minutes later



With the panel removed, the blinking, pulsing life of the deflector dish control systems were revealed. Jake located the isolinear subprocessor and opened it, revealing stacks of isolinear chips.



"This subprocessor links up with the ship's main computer," Jake said, narrating his work as he did it. "We pull these babies, and the computer can't talk to deflector control anymore."



He glanced over at Chaucer, who was watching him in perfect silence, his eyes fixed on the work Jake was doing. Jake grinned, and started to pull the chips out of their sockets.



"Now I know what you're thinking," Jake said, as he worked. "'But Commander Crichton, isn't the whole point of this to restore the bridge's control of the deflector dish?' Sound about right?"



[[Yes.]]



"You're a good sport," Jake said. "Well, the next step is linking back *into* deflector control ourselves. Bridge talks to us, we talk to deflector control... not the most efficient way to do it, but, circumstances being what they are, it'll do."



Jake turned, and started to ask for a hypospanner and a length of opticable from Chaucer's toolkit, but he found that the Gorn was already holding both items out for him. Jake smiled, and took the equipment.



"You keep up pretty good," Jake said.



[[Yes.]]



"Don't suppose you'd be interested in sticking around once this is all over?" Jake asked. As he spoke, he plugged the length of opti-cable into his tricorder, then began fixing the other end into one of the isolinear ports on the deflector control unit.



Chaucer didn't answer, but Jake hadn't been expecting one, so he kept speaking.



"I guess people don't wind up on a place like LIMBO after a run of good decisions," he said. "We don't really know who you are, guess we don't know if we can trust you, but what the hell. You've done us right so far, and you saved my life."



[[My name is Chaucer,]] the Vox buzzed. Apparently, that was the Gorn's go-to response for anything more complicated than 'yes' or 'no'.



"I don't know what our situation's gonna be like a month from now.. hell, even next week is up in the air at this point... but I can talk to the captain, Chaucer," Jake said. "He, uh... might be mad at me for that scene in Main Engineering, but he's not the kind of man who walks away from talent. There might be a place for you here, if you're willing."



Chaucer stared at him with his unreadable yellow eyes. The silence lasted long enough to become uncomfortable.



"I know," Jake said. "This isn't exactly the best first impression."



Jake's tricorder beeped, acknowledging the link-up with deflector control. It was good news and bad; they had access to their last-resort nuclear option again, and Jake still wasn't comfortable with the idea of using it. If the order came down to activate the graviton pulse, with Jake sitting here with his finger on the button, he wasn't sure he'd be able to do it.



"Well," Jake said. "Offer's open. Think about it."



Chaucer regarded him quietly for a moment, then activated his Vox: [[Yes.]]



Jake didn't know if it meant "yes, I'll stay" or "yes, I'll think about it", and he was too tired to go through that particular song and dance right now. Instead, he activated his comm-badge.



"Crichton to bridge," he said. "We got the deflector dish back. Awaiting further instructions."



[[Understood,]] Jos said. [[Radiation levels still climbing throughout the ship. Stand by.]]



Jake leaned back against the wall of the tube and closed his eyes. Chaucer didn't move, but Jake could feel the Gorn's gaze.



"Don't worry," he said, without opening his eyes. "Not sleeping."



The Gorn didn't reply.


And so, Jake sat in silence, waiting to act as executioner of an entire race, and silently willing Thomas Varn to give him a better solution.



=[/\]=



NRPG: Now it is I who am off the hook!



Shawn Putnam

a.k.a.

Jake Crichton, Commander

Chief Engineering Officer

USS PHOENIX