From: Katie T (kayteese_at_gmail.com)
Date: Thu Apr 26 2007 - 06:45:09 PDT
=/\= "Countdown" (Continued from Rahul's "Phase 2") =/\= Location: SFA Stardate: 2.70426.1447 Scene: Holodeck (Simulated Engineering section) Ginny cursed loudly in a variety of languages while her fingers danced over the controls in front of her, assessing the new situation. Cochrane took the time to look at her with a mixture of surprise and amusement. "That sound colorful. I don't even understand half of it." "Just more of the same," the partially Caitian woman replied with a sly grin. "It's quite astonishing how many swearwords one can pick up growing up among entertainers and always travelling the cheapest way possible." She finally slammed her hand down on the console in frustration. "This is *too much* power, I can't even tell where half of it suddenly came from!" [[Power flow will exceed maximum tolerance in six minutes,]] the monotone voice of the computer informed them right on cue. "The instructors probably accelerated the program so we wouldn't get bored," Cochrane guessed while furiously working his own panel. "Hang on, I think I'm onto something." Ginny felt the seconds stretch into eternity while she waited for her class mate to explain. A coolant pipe burst right above her and she was drenched in lukewarm liquid which smelled faintly like fish, and she wiped at her face to get the moisture out of her eyes. Cadet Stephens grabbed two toolkits which they had discovered earlier and tossed one to Ginny. "Come on." Then he quickly headed deeper into the bowels of the engineering section. She hurried to follow him. "Where are we going?" "The core." [[Power flow will exceed maximum tolerance in five minutes.]] More coolant pipes were cracking all around them, leaking liquids into damaged consoles which exploded in showers of sparks. In contrast to the gloomy darkness which had reigned when they first came aboard, the rooms were now lit by dark green emergency lighting which reflected off the wet surfaces. When the two cadets reached the warp core, Cochrane started ripping open access panels until he found what he was looking for. "The matter/antimatter ratio is off," the male cadet explained hurriedly. "There's too much antimatter in the system, which is causing an accelerated reaction and hence the power buildup. We'll need to channel some of it elsewhere." He paused briefly to throw Ginny a worried look. "The problem is..." "... that we'll need to do it manually," Ginny finished the sentence for him, having caught on quickly and already leaning down to check which parts of the systems were accessible from their location. Then she shook her head and straightened again. "It won't be enough if we do it from here. I'll go up." She pointed to the upper level of the room and was already climbing the ladder that led there when Cochrane had recovered from his shock. "It's too dangerous!" The computer cut into his attempt at stopping her. [[Power flow will exceed maximum tolerance in four minutes.]] "It's the only way!" Ginny retorted over her shoulder and kept climbing. She pulled herself up the last bit of the way and raced across to the warp core. The reaction chamber glowed a sickeningly bright shade of purple, and the maelstrom of matter mixing with antimatter looked more like a fierce tornado than the slow, lazy swirls and eddies commonly associated with warp power. Cadet LaGrande threw open her toolkit and proceeded to open a series of valves and shunts which would channel some of the antimatter away from the core. The tricky part was that she could not let any of the matter escape with the antimatter, or it could initiate a chain reaction in the branch conduits which could very well tear the whole ship apart almost as effectively as a real core breach. Sweat mingled with coolant liquid dripped into Ginny's eyes, making them sting. Having no free hand too wipe her eyes, she just blinked forcefully a couple of times. Briefly she wondered if she would have volunteered quite as readily for this dangerous undertaking if the situation were real and not just a holodeck simulation. Then she pushed the thought away and again concentrated on the task at hand. [[Power flow will exceed maximum tolerance in three minutes.]] =/\= NRPG: Will they make it before time runs out? ;) Take it away, Leigh! =/\= Katie T. Cadet Eugenie LaGrande ACT Candidate Class 0703 Starfleet Academy From HyperNews_at_youth.net
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