Damage Assesment

Posted on 06/30/2021 @ 3:05am by Colonel Jack Patton & Lieutenant Hiro Yoshida

1,759 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: The Mirror’s Edge
Location: The big hole where Airlock 6 used to be.
Timeline: Shortly after "Devastation"

ON:

Chaos. Utter chaos and destruction. That was what Hiro saw from and Engineer's perspective. Airlock 6 was no more. Only a giant hole. "Like we didn't have enough problems." he mumbled as he stared into space. Looking to his left he could just see a part of planet Aquil. He wondered if the Aquilians had noticed anything. The explosion must've been big enough to be picked up by their sensors down on the planet.

A sudden spray of sparks caused the Chief of Station Operations to raise his right arm and shield his face. To no one in particular he called out, "Cut off power to this section. We don't need any more wounded." He trusted his order would be taken care of by one of his Engineers that were walking about, and it didn't take long before he heard an "Aye, sir!".

At the edge of the gaping hole Hiro noticed two figures in EVA suits. Probably assessing the damage. He had not yet ordered any Engineers of Operation Officers to do that, so the two must be be from another department. As he followed the two persons outside the station he saw that their EVA suits were not the standard ones that were used throughout Starfleet, which led him to conclude they were Marines. Good thinking, Major. Hiro thought as he turned to look for Jack Patton.

In a scene like the one at the Airlock Jack's battlefield senses took over. That is to say he was hyper aware of everyone and everything around him. As such he almost sensed Hiro's approach. With a small smirk on his face he turned to the other man. "Afternoon Lieutenant a wonderful day to take in the beauty that is the planet Aquil." Sparks and Spitfire were making their way past the view port. The MARVEL EAS suit thus far had performed better than they could have hoped. This was the first mission that they were being pressed into service for and it had BlackJack a little on edge. "Will she hold together?" Jack asked as he glanced at the hull of the station he had come to call home.

"Wonderful day? Surely you don't mean that, Major." Hiro said surprised as he stood beside Jack. As soon as he'd said that he thought that perhaps Jack had made a small joke or was being cynical. He didn't wait to find out. "It will hold. Stations are designed to take a beating like this. What I need to know is how bad it really is. I can't see the whole picture from where we're standing."

"No worries..." Jack punched in a few commands into the PADD he was holding. "I just updated their mission parameters. Sparks & Spitfire will investigate the cause of the explosion and check the integrity of the station..." Jack paused in his speaking to reflect on his question to Hiro. "...I guess I meant the station and the people. I mean this is an exceptional amount of stress. A terrorist attack, certainly not unheard of but certainly few and far between. Also, with all due respect I have found that some of Starfleet personnel are not used to the mass injury and casualty of a situation like this. It could be too much to bear for the communal psyche."

"Hm, I see what you mean. I'm not sure what impact it will have on the people and how long they'll carry it with them. But I can't imagine it didn't scare them. And I wouldn't be surprised a good part of them won't feel entirely safe on the station for some time, some may even decide to leave." Hiro followed the edge of the large hole that the explosion had formed. "What the hell happened here...? We need to find out. And soon."

"Agreed... And once we find out we need to identify how the culprit got through all of our security measures. If I had to guess my theory would be the Romulans. They have the cloaking technology and they are opposed to the Federation's courtship of the Aquillans. This bombing could be their way of showing the Aquillans that we cannot keep them safe..." Jack paused as another thought occurred to him. "Is it possible that the explosion was technical in nature? That it was caused by a malfunction of some sort."

"It's possible. I mean, it can't be ruled out..yet." The chance that this all could've been caused by a technical failure caused Hiro to frown. He took pride in being able to say the station was in tip top shape. But he had to admit that the Nanites and the EMP had done their fair share of damage. It was going to take some time to undo that. "Perhaps the Nanites and EMP had something to do with it. But I really hope that I'm wrong in saying that. It would mean I... we would be responsible for what happened here."

That was something that Jack had not considered. Were they responsible for all of this, perhaps in their hurry to right the nanite problem they simply caused a larger problem. The sound of his team outside on the comm channel brought Jack back to the present. He turned toward Hiro after he acknowledged the message. "It seems that according to my people this was not a technical failure. It was definitely an attack. They are going to check the rest of the station for other explosive devices before proceeding. At least we can take a small amount of solace in that."

"It's something." Hiro said, thereby acknowledging Jack had a point. What he didn't say was that he felt relieved that it hadn't been a technical failure, thinking it was misplaced, inappropriate, and not really important right now. "Can they also assess how large the section is that needs to be replaced? A rough guess is enough. Engineering will do a full structural analysis later to narrow it down."

After a moment as Jack relayed Hiro's request to Spitfire and Sparks he had an answer. "It seems that the entire hull plus bulkheads for the airlock and three decks above and below need to be fully replaced. It is quite the explosion, and they are reporting that there are chronitons present at the blast site." Jack turned to Hiro with a slightly perplexed look on his face. "What the hell could that mean?"

"Chronitons?" Hiro looked as surprised as Jack. "That can't be right. Ask them to do another scan. It must've been a glitch."

Jack did as Hiro asked and a short time later turned back toward the Lieutenant. "They confirmed, chronitons are present. For the time being my team needs to maintain radio silence. It seems that they have found another device and are defusing it as we speak. Once it is defused I will ask them to get you the device so you can see what is what. There is something big happening here, what is isn't exactly clear. However, if chronitons are involved nothing good can come of it."

"There's a good chance you're right, but I'm hoping you're wrong." There are only so many things that could produce Chronitons but Hiro never heard a small device could produce them...unless it had come from another point in time. And that wouldn't spell much good either.

"Anytime anything deals with time it just garbles my brain..." Jack began with a chuckle. "However, right now I know one thing. The Captain must be made aware of these chronitons. Do you have any speculation as to where or when these could have come from?"

"I have no idea. Probably the only way to figure that out is analyzing the Chronitons itself. Or the other device your team found." There wasn't really anything else Hiro could say. "I've got a bad feeling about this."

"As do I..." Jack began by way of reply. "And yes they are going to bring the defused device to you as soon as it is all clear. From what I have read of the past mission logs some of the crew have had dealings with the universe that we know as the mirror. I wonder if this is something that is coming back to haunt them."

"I never heard about Chronitons being produced when crossing the boundary between our Universe and the mirror one or vice versa." The Chief of Operations was intrigued by Jack's remark. "Do you know something I don't?'

"The Corps does not have much in its files about time travel, but it does have quite a bit about the Mirror Universe. Marines have to be prepared for invasions or something like. Anyway, what I have learned is that anything or anyone that traverses time or the universes have residual chronitons. When it comes to parallel universes the chronitons have a unique signature that can tell you exactly what universe they came from. It is the only way that we can track anyone who breaches into our universe, at least the only way that we know of." Jack explained. As he spoke Jakc brought up the Corps' relevant files on his PADD for Hiro to have a look at. The files were not classified so jack so no reason that the Operations Officer should not see them.

Hiro took the PADD from Jack and started reading the summary from the various reports. "I knew about the connection between time travel and Chronitons, and between Romulan cloaking technology and Chronitons, but this.. I didn't know this." He returned the PADD to Jack. "I beginning to think we better get the defused device directly to the Science department."

"Agreed I will have my people bring it there as soon as they are back through the airlock. In the meantime I think it may be time for me to bring the Captain up to speed. If this has to do with the timeline then perhaps he could shed some light on the matter." Jack replied solemnly, this day was certainly going from bad to worse.

"I'll wait for the device and bring it directly to the Science department. Hopefully they can find out more by analyzing it and the Chronitons it emits." Hiro said and once more looked out into space though the hole where once airlock 6 had been. "The sooner we find out, the better."

---

Lieutenant Hiro Yoshida
Chief of Station Operations
Poseidon Station

Major Jack Patton
CO The Kingsmen
Chief Strategic Operations Officer
Second Officer
Poseidon Station

 

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