Now It's Serious

Posted on Sunday September 19th, 2021 @ 1:23pm by Commander Sam Perkins & Captain Franklin Johnson & Commander Kanaka Shakura & Lieutenant Commander Paul Sharpe & Lieutenant Commander Calvin Hirsch & Ensign Lethe Sivarr

2,119 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: S1-A1-Ep. 1: Spectrophobia
Location: Sickbay
Timeline: Arrived at Betreka Nebula; During the Replicator Issues
Tags: Replicator Incident, Betreka Nebula, Sam Perkins

[ON]

- Sickbay -

Sam slowly opened his eyes. His arm no longer hurt and he was not jerking around anymore. But even better he was no longer trapped in the replicator slot.

How did it happen?

Everything was a blur. It was Norman and Susan’s feeding time. The plants were flailing their tentacles. The poor things were hungry. Perkins had gone to the replicator and ordered their plant food. But the replicator kept going on and off. Not wanting to call an Engineer again. As that would take time and his little friends were hungry. He attempted to fix the thing himself. But the slot trapped his hand and started to shock him.

The last thing before he lost consciousness was Norman and Susan waving their tentacles in dismay. Behind their containment force fields for the smell of freshly roasted Perkins.

Security had been informed of an injury. It was per protocol, be it engineering or sciences, to investigate. Purely to understand how the accident had happened, regarding the replicators ensuring there were no mal-intentions.

Standing aside, Calvin had waited for the Doctor to address Sam regarding his arm. Sam finally had a chance to rest and looked to be coming around.

“ Papa…..Why won’t mummy see me?………….” Perkins moaned,

"Sam." Calvin had spoken softly. He didn't want to cause him trauma, to relieve the situation so soon. "It's me, Cal. From Security, bud." Hirsch had felt awful seeing him lay there on the bed. In all his security breakdowns along the way, Calvin was trying to hold the ship. It turned his stomach to see a good officer like Sam now injured.

“ Granny…….why does mummy hate me?….” Sam moaned.

Taking a seat quietly, Calvin had brought with him a small plant to cheer up Sam. It was a personal favourite of Calvin's, the Ontario White Trillium. A rare and native plant to the region he had called home, back on Earth. At least leave it at his bedside if he was still to sleep. "The Doctor and crew are aware you had an accident."

Slowly Perkins's eyes opened.

“ That……bloody…….slot……..tried……to kill me!” Perkins said breathing hard from the pain.

Hearing of Sam's predicament Sharpe rushed to Medical and saw where he was and walked up to his biobed, he looked over to the Security Chief "we meet again Lieutenant Hirsch, you are well I hope?" He asked and turned to Sam "okay Sam, what happened here?" He asked.

Perkins blinked he looked around.

“ Where am I? How did I get here? My arm really hurts……replicator…..oh crap…” Sam passed out again.

A medic hurried over pushing the two crewmen away. They pressed a hypo against Sam’s good arm. Perkins groaned and opened his eyes. “ ……Hello Paul, Calvin. What happened to me?” Sam said confused.

"I have no idea Sam, I heard there was a tech problem with your quarters and that you had been taken to medical, so here I am to find out what actually happened to you," Sharpe said.

“ My arm feels cold,” Sam said

"The Doctor will fix you up, right like Sam, is the replicator how you left it?" Sharpe asked Perkins.

“ To be honest I cannot remember everything went fuzzy very quickly.” Sam said.

The doors to sickbay hissed open, and Ensign Sivarr stepped inside, tool case clutched in one hand, as he paused and turned, slowly surveying the medical bay, until he spotted the officers around Perkin's biobed. Dropping the case of tools to the side of the door, Lethe strode inside, politely avoiding the attempted interventions of a nurse, and joined the others. "Sirs. How is he doing?"

Looking at the Ensign "a question for the doctor I think" Sharpe commented.

Perkins looked at his friend's concerned faces. He tried to remember what had given him a ticket to sickbay.

“ It’s all a little hazy. It was Norman and Susan’s feeding time. I was in the lab yes. Do you say I was found in my quarters? How did I get there? No, I was in the science lab yes. Norman and Susan were flailing. The bloody thing would not work……replicator slot. Kept turning itself on and off….. Did not want to…..oh bugger…” Perkins passed out again.

Hirsch was concerned for Sam, as he noticed how he was faring from the accident mentally. "Sam." Hirsch had turned to Sharpe and Sivarr. "We will be working on an investigation. Operations and Engineering to take apart the replicator, see what issues it had..." Cal didn't feel like saying anything more at that point. As far as he knew, the whole ship was compromised by LCARS. They had scanned and checked everyone.

No. No. No.

“NO!” Perkins shouted himself awake.

“ Replicator has scrambled my noggin…yes yes needed to feed Norman and Susan but replicator kept going on and off. Knew busy Sharpe was decided to repair it myself did I. Into slot did lean…..lean….voice heard…” Sam drifted off again.

"Scrambled his noggin?" Hirsch, confused, turned to an attending Nurse. "What is he talking about? Can you scan his head?" Hirsch narrowed his eyes discerning Sam's apparent distress. He shook his head. He had to secure the site, ensuring nobody tampered with evidence.

"While you do that, Nurse. I will go, secure the site." Hirsch stood there dumbfounded as he turned to Lieutenant Sharpe. Hirsch tapped his Communications badge.

=/\= Lt. Hirsch to Capt. Johnson. I'm in sickbay along with Lt. Commander Sharpe. There has been another replicator incident, Sir. =/\= Hirsch had turned to see if there were any other listening ears, other than the present. Communications were compromised on the ship, there was no telling if the ship's coms were being monitored as well.

=/\= This is the Captain, I'm on my way =/\=

Franklin cursed softly as he left his post at the bridge. Glancing towards the Officer of the Watch, he gave them a verbal cue to take the conn. Afterwards, he was swiftly transported below decks by the turbolift as the computer guided him to the present location of Lieutenant Hirsch, he gave slight nods to those who passed by as his mind fully focused on the issue at hand.

As the Security Chief was notifying Captain, Sharpe looked at Sivarr "ensign Sivaar get you down to the main computer core and check the replicator files and the circuits leading to all replicators, I will take a look at the one in Commander Perkin's quarters" Sharpe instructed while he waited for the Security Chief to finish.

Lethe gave a single nod in response to Sharpe. "On it sir." At this point, there was little he could contribute in sickbay, but perhaps he could help preserve the records around the incident in question, to possibly prevent it from happening again elsewhere. Turning on his heel, he retrieved his tool case and headed back out into the corridor. He sidestepped long enough to allow the captain to pass unhindered, then continued to the turbolift, to make his way to the central core.

Franklin rounded the corner into sickbay. "What's all this about?" he announced in question, stopping in his tracks as he saw Lieutenant Commander Perkins.

When Sam heard the Captains voice he tried to stand up to attention. But his arm would not move! Perkins fell backwards onto the biobed. The pain was terrible like all the blood in his arm had turned to hot needles.

“ Sorry……..Captain……can’t use my…..my….. this thing here…” Sam said pointing to his dead arm.

Hirsch had tapped his communication badge, informing his Security staff to meet him, along with Operations, at Sam's quarters. If it was one, that was to be determined.

Looking at the Captain "It seems Captain the Replicators have struck again, Commander Perkin's replicator exploded on him, so it did I am about to go to his quarters to have me a look, I have sent Ensign Sivaar down to the main computer core to see if the issue is there or if it is just localised, but currently I advise that a general shipwide notice be given that replicators are not to be used, at least not until I can ascertain why only a select amount of replicators are behaving in such a way, but we may need to use ration packs for food" Sharpe said.

The treatment started to work. Slowly Sam began to come around everything seemed a lot clearer. His arm seemed to tingle but he was beginning to feel his fingers again.

“ Hello. Medication is starting to kick in. Sorry about that. If you go back to the science lab. Any chance you could feed Norman and Susan. The poor little things will be terrified. Perhaps ask Kord to pop by? Norman likes him.” Sam asked.

Looking between Sam and Sharpe, the Captain nodded to the Chief Engineer first.

"Alright, go ahead and send a ship-wide notice. I'll back you up if anyone disagrees with your orders, Mr Sharpe," Franklin replied.

Looking to Sam, he said, "I'll take care of it, you just get better," as he placed a comforting hand on the good shoulder.

Tapping his Commbadge "ship-wide" =/\= All hands this is Lieutenant Commander Sharpe Chief Engineer, please avoid using the replicators until you get the all-clear from myself or the Captain, there is a possibility that anyone's replicator could explode at any time they are used, if you need clarification of this order please speak to Captain Johnson =/\= he paused as he walked over to the nearest console and locked the replicators down all over the ship =/\= apologies for this, so seek out your departmental liaison to be issued some emergency ration packs, thank you, Sharpe, out =/\= he looked at the Captain "I Will double check the replicators in Medical first, and perhaps we can unlock the ones in Medical, what say you, Captain?" Sharpe asked knowing that Medical assistance was important.

"Yes," the Captain replied, nodding firmly. "Do it. I have to return to the bridge. Keep me updated."

Franklin then placed a good pat on Sam's shoulder and the Captain left in a hurry to notify the bridge of the ban on replicators as well as handle other affairs.

Perkins watched them all leave. He felt very sad as he lay on the bio bed.

==== Sometime later... ====

Kana let out a tired sigh as she concluded reading the report on the accident suffered by Sam at the hands of his faulty Replicator. The prevailing question of whether this was just a fault, or the result of more nefarious activity, still hanging heavily on the minds of the senior officers. With each passing day, it was becoming harder and harder to contain the growing unease that was spreading out amongst the rest of the crew, in particular the cadets.

Standing from her desk and making her way round to look out of the viewport to the Nebula beyond, Kana considered her options. If this went on any longer without any sort of considerable answer, an injury could become grievous, or worse. All this on top of the likely confrontation with more pirates in the near future put them in a rather tenuous position. Something had to be done. Closing her eyes and focusing her mind, the Betazoid began to dig deep, seeing if she could harness her mind to search through the tumult of emotion aboard the ship to find the source of malice that was infecting it.

But she knew, of course, that it wouldn't be that simple. There were just simply too many hearts and minds aboard to ever effectively whittle it down to exactly the culprits. But she could feel it there, bubbling below the surface. She just needed to seek them out, and fast. One would be enough to potentially reveal the rest.

From then on, she concluded, she would need to return to one of her common pass-times that she had neglected since taking on the responsibility of Executive Officer: moving amongst the crew and observing. Listening. Feeling. It'd be harder now that she was in a much more high profile position, but now it was serious.

"Detective Kana, back on the case..." She thought to herself, as she continued to stare out into the Nebula, searching for some answers amongst the clouds.

[END]

-----

Lieutenant Commander Sam Perkins
Chief Science Officer
USS Poseidon

&

Lieutenant Commander Paul Sharpe
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Poseidon

&

Captain Franklin Johnson
Commanding Officer
USS Poseidon

&

Ensign Lethe Sivarr
Damage Control Specialist
USS Poseidon

&

Lt. Calvin Hirsch
Chief of Security
USS Poseidon

&

Cmdr. Kanaka "Kana" Shakura
Executive Officer & Chief Counsellor
U.S.S. Poseidon

RSS Feed