SD242104.27 - Joint Duty Log - CD & DA - "All hands to the pump"

Posted on Tue Apr 27th, 2021 @ 4:40pm by Brigadier General Jonathan Grey & Lieutenant Commander Abela Walker & Lieutenant JG Aleethia Sacraterra

1,560 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Escape Velocity
Location: Versailles
Timeline: Current

Alee could hear the fire alarms everywhere. However, she had Ambassador Nanin to to tend to. She wanted to be sure he was safe before she did anything else. And as soon as the male was safe, she would join in on the effort to contain the fires. Luckily, Nanin's quarters weren't that far away.

She just prayed no one nearby would die before she had escorted Nanin to his rooms. She had every intention on joining in on the rescue efforts later on. As she had found out a couple of weeks ago, her headaches were emotions, rather than just pain.
She also had to report to Commander Abela. However, that would have to wait until Nanin was safe. Then she would call Abela through her padd, and then she would go where she was needed.

Hustled through the corridor like smuggled goods amidst a crackdown, the Ambassador saw a number of frightened faces and began to doubt that this was typical black hole anxiety. Though his species lacked the ability to literally smell fear, he felt ready to buck the trend.

"Excuse me, Lieutenant, but are these alarms unusual? I was to understand that system malfunctions were par for the course, this close to the event horizon."

Alee's face was grim. "It seems that things have become quite a mess. I haven't had time to contact the Chief Diplomat, Commander Walker, but I believe this isn't a small alarm", she said as she checked her padd for information. She pulled up a map about current emergencies. There were many of them. "It seems like most of the station is having troubles", she told Ambassador Nanin. "There are fires many places. Allow me to escort you to your quarters. Then I must talk with Commander Walker and inform her of my whereabouts. I doubt I'll be back at the Diplomat's office after this. It's all hands on deck, so to say. I haven't had time to read up at things yet, but it certainly seems that there's an immediate need of help everywhere", she went on, studying Nanin's face. She had no idea what the male was thinking.

Splitting his attention between the Lieutenant's words and his own footing proved a challenge for the Bolian. Most of his negotiations took place around a conference table, where you could sit and think without worrying about walking into anyone else. Since those around them seemed in a hurry to get somewhere else, it was only a matter of time before someone had an accident.

Soon enough...

*WHUMF*

*thud*

"Ohh..." groaned Nanin, knocked to the floor by a passing teenager.

Stiff and aching, the man rolled over onto his front and slowly pushed himself to his knees. "Perhaps you are right." he admitted, reaching for her hand to help him up. "I should be in my quarters. My bones are far too old for this."

Alee nodded. "It's not far from here. Only 5 buildings away or so", she told Nanin. She helped Nanin to his feet. "We better get going, before the panic gets out of control", she said grimly. She only hoped that Nanin wouldn't get knocked down again, or ending in Sickbay.

Nanin nodded, and did his best to shuffle along as his hip ached in protest. The crowd streamed past them in a never-ending river of anxiety, but fortunately none came close enough to do more than jostle the duo as they gradually made their way through the winding corridors.

Eventually, the diplomat's assigned quarters loomed before them. Staggering through the door, Nanin offered a tired smile.

"Thank you, Lieutenant. I can find the bed from here. I appreciate your help today." he added, waving a fond farewell as the door closed between them.

No sooner had the Ambassador's quarters sealed themselves, than the Lieutenant's comm badge started chirping for her attention.

"This is Commander Walker to all diplomatic staff! There are fires and wounded all around the promenade, located in the Inner Ring. Get there as fast as you can and assist wherever you can. Walker out." she rattled off, her normally fluffy demeanour pressed hard by this sudden crisis.

Alee looked around. The smoke was everywhere and people were trying to put out fires. She ran to the nearest group of people and asked "Where can I be of use?". A male told her to help carry the wounded to a field hospital, which was 5 blocks from her current location. A woman handed her a 5-year-old boy and an infant girl, and gave her directions as to what route was the best to use. She hurried down the path to the field hospital. Most of the area seemed like the house she had grown up in. Just way out in space.

"We are almost there", she told the boy in her arms. The child had a thumb in his mouth and was clearly frightened by both the chaos and her, being a stranger. "Mommy", he said. "Is right behind us", Alee promised the boy. And it was true. The children's mother was right behind her, carrying another toddler, this one a girl.

At the field hospital, the mother thanked her profoundly and took her children inside to be tended by the medics.
Alee returned to where she had picked up the children and went to help with securing doors, gates and paths, so the people coming this way could get out of the flames. It was tiring work. But she kept going on. People needed help and it was important that everyone did their part. She put her focus on helping. Everything else could wait.

Soot-smudged faces rushed past her as she worked, their worried expressions atop clothing marked with ash and burns. The whole scene was so quiet as to be surreal; as everyone needed their breath for running. Now and again though, a carried child or stretcher-borne wounded would disrupt the silence with cries of distress. These would fade with the stomping of their carrier's feet, echoing into the distance.

While most of the traffic was one-way, a few came back. Some were civilians trying to ferry the wounded or retrieve some favoured item from the flames. A few were almost certainly looters, carrying empty sacks into the danger zone, and toting their ill-gotten wares back out again. Security was hot on their tails though, and more than one villain found themselves escorted to the brig by a Security officer.

Not everyone was on a mission though, illicit or not. A group of clueless crewmen looked nervously at the chaos all around them, shuffling towards the center of the madness with some vague intention of "helping".

"Lieutenant!" declared the most senior-looking member of the team, spying the officer hard at work clearing yet another path. "Lieutenant, I'm glad to see an officer here. Is there a fire? What's going on? What can we do?" he asked, rambling a little.

Alee looked at the man. "We need to evacuate the people near the fires. We'll need to put said fires out. "Let's start with locating the nearest fire and we can start helping out there. Right now, it's important that we get people to safety, as well as saving homes", she told the group.
She was slightly bewildered. She hadn't even been here for 2 days and she was already being put to the test. However, there was no time to hesitate. People needed help. "If you see injured people, guide them to the field hospital. If they can't walk, you might have to carry them. The rest of us will keep trying to contain the fires", she said.

"Yes Lieutenant!" replied the seniormost crewman, waving two of the stronger-looking crewman to assist the injured personnel to the field hospital down the hall. One took the arm of a woman with blood soaking through her trouser leg, and the other knelt beside a burn victim lying prone; waving for a medic to join them.

The rest of the team donned fire-resistant outfits from an emergency locker, helping each other with the tricky zips at the back. Smart bits of gear, the shoulders of the thick, black outfits even changed colour to match the uniform underneath. The final addition to the suits were the helmets, each with a bubble-forcefield; making the wearer look like an old-timey spaceman.

Built into the suits wrists were thick fire-suppressors; drawing in air, stripping out oxygen, cooled it, and projecting it forward from the wrist. The super-cooling of the oxygen-deprived air resulted in an immediate chill, but had the benefit of being able to suppress most forms of fire without making the situation worse.

Advancing on the bright green flames of a dangerously-radioactive plasma fire that was raging within a nearby shop, the crewmen moved cautiously. They stepped over broken glass and concentrated their blasts of frozen air at the source of the fire; quickly snuffing out the green flames spewing from a ruptured minor plasma conduit.

Alee nodded at the crewmen. "Will you hold the fort here? I need to check in with the Chief Diplomat. I need to see what orders she has", she said to the men.

"Aye Lieutenant!" cried the crewmen, moving on to the next fire.


=^= End of Log =^=


Lieutenant JG Aleethia Sacraterra
Diplomat's Aide
Starbase Versailles

&&

Lieutenant Commander Abela Walker (NPC)
Chief Diplomat
Starbase Versailles

 

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