Science and Diplomacy

Posted on Tue Oct 6th, 2015 @ 1:06am by Commander Bertrand Cuprum & Captain Elijah Michaels & Lieutenant JG Elliot Keller

Mission: Commanding the Elements
Location: Capital Command

T-52 hours
The first thing the away team noticed as they materialized was the noise. They were inside some sort of prefab building but it was quite gloomy, with only minimal lighting showing what must have been a grand structure. They could hear it rattling in the savage winds form outside. Though most of the windows were boarded up, it was not hard to imagine the tempest that was raging.

Counselor Tekar was waiting for them with a short Vulcan woman. He rushed over and shook Elijah by the hand.

"Captain, thank you so much for coming. I don't know what we would have done without your help. This is First Minister San. Please come this way. We'll take you to operations."

"It's Commander actually." Elijah said following on with his Team, aware that they had bigger issues than rank to contend with.

They were led into a large room with two circles of monitors. The outer wall held large displays showing weather patterns and Some of the feed from the USS Tolstoy as it moved into a better position to monitor the solar flares.

The inner ring was work consoles where dedicated staff were working to manage the vast calls for assistance, and try and keep data and people flowing. Long ago they had given up on the automated tracking and reverted to a T-card system, and runners for vital intel. as such the operations room was a hive of activity.

"Communications comes and goes," San explained coolly, "Science feeds form remote surface locations drop in and out. Getting a full picture of the situation is difficult."

Elijah looked at Wyatt and Honey. "Anything we can do on our end?" He asked curiously towards his Officers.

The team were quickly set up with their own interfaces, allowing them to filter the data from ships and surface stations. The news was not good. The evacuation was a rushed job, and there was very little infrastructure to support it. Shuttles were ferrying people from the most remote locations while Transporters were pulling people through small windows in the ionized atmosphere. All the while the storms raged and the planet shuddered.

Conversations flowed around them.

"T'simo city has been cut off by the fires. We are going to need to route more shuttles to get the last people from there."

"Those shuttles were due as medical transports."

"Well, the hospital will just have to hold out as long as possible."

"What's the hold up at the starport?"

"Seems the Starfleet engineers are not happy with the conditions of the vessels."

T-48 hours.

It was about two in the morning when the first piece of good news arrived. "The USS Agamemnon has just pulled into orbit. They are hailing us."

"Captain Maldive of the Agamemnon," A tall bronze skinned man appeared on screen. "Sorry we were delayed. We stopped to unload our Civilian compliment to make more room. The USS Victory has given us an orbit vector. We will be ready to start beaming up your non-essential personnel in 17 minutes."

T - 44
Dawn crept over the station and with it reports that the evening storms were lessening a fraction.

"Message coming in for you from the Hospital, sir," one of the Bajoran technicians reported to Elijah

=^= "Dr Antos to Captain! =^=

"Go ahead Antos." Elijah said on the Comm

=^= We have a new development of an unknown infection or contagion were doing our best to contain. We have separated the dead and the infected from the non infected. I figured we better add the update to you and others! I am still waiting results from the EMH." =^= Antos said with a solemn tone and obvious exhaustion in his voice.

"Understood, keep my updated." He said before closing the link.

The Commander looked at the Committee Members. "Nothing to worry about I assure you."

T -36 hours (16:00 local time)

"The Prospero has reached capacity and is moving off."

"Reroute any further sick or injured to the USS Cairns via shuttles not transporter. Its shields will be needed to protect the fragile ships around it."

T- 30 hours (20:00 local time)

"The Cairns is reporting she is now at capacity and needs to move off."

"Signal Captain Maldive to take over."

Counselor Tekar approached Elijah, "Sir, we are loosing power systems. We need to decide which parts of the city grid will be abandoned to storms so we can put priority power to shielding the priority systems."

"We have also received a report from your doctor that people are unwilling to abandon sick or dead relatives, insisting the bodies are shipped and not left behind. He has suggested using your Cargo transporters to move them en masse."

T-28 (22:00 local time)

It was nearing the end of the eight hour shift when the comms received the following message form one of the freighters.

=^= Moriloth to Victory. I am encountering some technical difficulties. We have a plasma leak and I am loosing power to the RCS. =^=

=^= Victory to Moriloth. Can you stabilize the power drain?=^=

=^= Negative commander. I am pulling power from the IDF, but that is straining the Structural integrity fields. =^=

=^= I've lost sensors, =^= Moriloth reported, the whine of ship under strain in the background of her transmission. =^= I am to high to try landing again. I am going to push on to try and get above this weather. =^=

=^= I am loosing altitude! I am going to have to try and put her down.=^=

=^=Hold tight, Ensign. We are coming!=^=

=^= We've lost IDF and our SIF is failing. I don't think we can...=^=

The com line broke into static and went dead.

T -25 hours.

"The Agamemnon reports she has reached capacity and will need to leave. That means the Victory is the last ship remaining in orbit."

Elijah looked around the command centre. All but a skeleton staff of twenty including the away team had left, but these had been deemed vital to stay till the last minute to maintain the protective power grid over key areas and coordinate the final moments of the evacuation from the surface.

T- 24 hours.
A message came through from the USS Victory:

=^= Attention all remaining away teams, we have an emergency situation. The solar event has radically shifted and the time table has shifted from twenty four too two hours, I repeat two hours. We are re-prioritizing pick ups. Again, the time table has become two hours and we a re-prioritizing pick ups. Please Acknowledge. =^=