Star Trek: Starbase 777

It was just after 0400 hours and it was boring on the command deck. Some freighters had arrived, some had left, Security had reported apprehending a drunk person trying to lick the exterior of a jumja-stick stand on the promenade… But that was it. Currently in command of station operations was Ensign Allister Majewski, and he was trying to stop himself from falling asleep out of sheer boredom. When he had been asked if he’d like to do some shifts on the command deck he had been ecstatic, but he hadn’t thought it would be like this. What he wouldn’t do for some action right now… Of course, he had no idea that action was exactly what he was going to get. The chiming of the comms station cut through the silence of the deck where everyone had given up on even talking to one another, that was how bored they were. “We’ve got a hail incoming from one of the Hromi Cluster planets, sir. Would you like it on screen?” The NCO manning the comms station asked. There was a nod from Ensign Majewski and a figure appeared on screen, although it was difficult to see them through the fuzz of static. “Starbase 777, this is the weather monitoring station on Gamma Hromi I. We’ve just had a massive ion storm hit the planet – most of our comms systems were fried, so we couldn’t contact you. We’re back online but our projections show that it’s heading your way. We wanted to give you a heads up.” divider

20:39

As if on cue there was a chime from the science station, and the NCO there looked up. “Sensor scans indicate that this is correct, sir – but there’s something else. The ion storm seems to be approaching from the east, but there’s something else from the west. Some sort of… Inversion field, judging from the scans. It also appears to be heading our way.” It would appear that Ensign Majewski had no idea what either of those things were, aside from the fact that they didn’t sound great. “…What happens when those two things hit us?” He asked, looking to the science officer. Their expression already seemed to say it all. “Bad things, sir. Bad things.” There was a moment of stunned, incredibly concerned silence as the very-junior officers manning the command deck looked back and forth between one another, wondering what they should do… And then they jumped into action. Ensign Majewski had never thought that he would be running a red alert one day but here he was, calling for someone to hit the klaxon- -Which gave a solitary ‘whoooop’ noise and then cut out… Along with the lights, comms system, consoles, and seemingly everything else. ’Ah, bugger,’ thought Ensign Allister Majewski.

Kya popped out of the nearest tube door as she took a few deep breaths after climbing for a good long while. Kya sucked in air before she stood to her feet and looked around. “Hello? I’ve come from the lower decks, and I’ve got updates.”

A man and a cat popped out of a different tube. "Give me the rundown, Lieutenant."

And only a moment after Mo and Co. appeared so did Xaran, out of yet another completely different tube, sounding frankly knackered from their climb, breathing heavily and all but wheezing by the time they got to the Command Deck. "Need... To go... To... The gym..."

“Ah! Yes sir. After the recent blackout, a large group began forming on the crew deck, maybe about 8ish officers and a few children. It seems anyone with technological prosthetics or augmentations is having them turn off. The universal translator is also off, given the officer having her child translate for her.” She said as she stepped further into the hub * “There also is another group in the mess hall I believe, from my understanding most of the group on the crew deck went to set up a triage down there for anyone hurt.” *She said before taking a breath. “But yes, those are the not obvious details I’ve observed. I’m sure you already know of the doors being off and what not.”

"Yes Sir... Can confirm..." The hybrid wheezed out as they forced themself to their feet, bending over with their hands on their knees as they desperately tried to regain their breath. They had full intentions of petitioning for stairs to be installed once this was over.

Aisut seemed more exhausted than him. He took this as a sign of two things: one, that his route had been well-planned; two, that his level diet and fitness had gotten way better than it used to be. Oh, and Bandit's emotional support probably helped. "Hmmm. Okay. You know what I wanna know, actually? How long this damn thing is going to last. Then we can plan accordingly. Unfortunately, I'm guessin' all the instruments the eggheads - term used affectionately, I'm an egghead too - use to predict that kinda thing are fried. Maybe they can figure it out anyway if someone wants to go down there and tell 'em to. Triage is good, but considerin' the state of transportation right now, d'you think it would be good to add more than one? Less walkin' distance for some people."

Kya nodded. “I would think that would make sense yes. We likely won’t need weapons for the duration, and ranged ones are off the table, so perhaps the armoury could be turned into a triage centre? It’s the first thing that comes to mind.”

"Third time lucky, I think I'm going the right way, at least I think I am... This time." Phoenix said as he got to the top of the jefferies tube as he poked his head out of it just to double check that he was in the right location. Taking a few seconds as he pulled himself out of the tube as he briefly took a minute to try and regain his composure. "Sorry for the delay in coming here, I haven't exactly traveled by jefferies tube before. I believe I should have studied them before this disaster happened."

Sakchai was here to help! He finally managed to get to the command deck only to remember-- if the UT was down.... oh.. "Jolan tru, kiba, I only speak Cardassian and Rihannsu, just a warning," He said in Cardassian, hopefully at least one person would understand. He wanted to help though so he stated in the best Standard he could, "Space Traffic Controller Sakchai, here to help. I can do some engineering."

Kya nodded and spoke in Cardassian. “[I can translate if need be.]” She said with a small smile. “I’ll stay here and help where I can.” She said, before saying the same in Cardassian.

"Oh bless the elements, a Cardassian. Thanks," Sakchai clapped his hands together and breathed a sigh of relief. "Okay, yeah, I can help with redoing any wires and whatever. Space Traffic is probably crazy, but I can manually relay courses to ships if needed... well, if we have off station communications that is."

Bellona cursed as she climbed out of the jeffries tube and did a bellyflop of sorts onto the floor. 10/10 way to get in, by the way, for someone like her. She swore to Minerva right there and then she would learn the jeffries tube layout of this station by heart - not a light oath, mind. "I apologise for the delay. How may I assist?" She asked the rest as she approached them.

Kya nodded to Sakchai. “[Half-Bajoran as well, but the point stands.]” She said with a smile as she took up a seat in the hub, quickly translating what Sakchai said to the rest of the room. “[I don’t think we have off station comms], do we have any exterior lights? We could try to flash a do not approach message in morse?” She said before repeating the back half in Cardassian.

"Alright. Hold on." He told a random Ensign, one who hadn't already tired themself out climbing through the tubes, to get to medbay and instruct the doctors to set up a triage in the armoury and other such places, though without the conveniently quick communication they were all used to, it would probably be a while before they set all that up. "We don't have any sort of communication. Nothin' we have is working. T'be honest, I think most people already know to not approach, but there's no harm in that idea, I s'pose. My main priority is finding out how long this thing is gonna last and how the hell we can insulate our electronics from it somehow. Usually I'd have engineering and science put their heads together and work on it, but communication between them ain't gonna be speedy enough."

"Thanks, I really should have learned a second language at the Academy," Sakchai joked with a dry laugh before heading to one of the communications consoles and getting down on his hands and knees. He couldn't see anything, but if he had a light, maybe he could. He heard the sound of the Captain's voice but of course, Sakchai didn't know how to make any sense of the words. "Can you tell the captain that I could try and get the comms working if I had some light? I know how to like.. hotwire stuff. I used to be a field agent for Cardassian intelligence, the good ones, don't worry," He said, feeling the need to specify he was never into facism.

Phoenix pondered about for a few seconds as he felt a bit out of place while wearing his pjs. It wasn't every day that you stood in front of a commanding officer with these types of clothes on, his thoughts trying to rational deduction to help him come up with a plan that he could present to the others. "I have a weird thought just now. I'm probably daft for sharing it... But would the shuttles work off a personal supply of it's own energy. Or would it be tapped in to the same energy system that powers the station?"

Kya quickly nodded as she looked over to Mo. “Sir, the space traffic controller, [apologies, I don’t know your name] could use a light. He says he can hotwire stuff and could use that to try to get comms working, sir.” She said before taking a breath, so much talking. Her lungs hurt.

"As long as any electronics are in the storm, they won't work right. Any power we do have right now is being entirely directed toward life support, and I dunno about you, but I ain't inclined to redirect to toward anything else..." He sighed and scratched his head, pondering, and then when Kya spoke, he replied, "Sure, but don't draw too much power. If only I knew how long this storm was gonna last, I'd know if we should be botherin' to even fix it or if I should be figurin' out some way to evacuate everyone. Without power, the escape pods aren't gettin' into space unless someone builds a giant fuckin' catapult."

Hearing Standard from the perspective of someone who did not speak the language was pretty funny. Sakchai knew what 'giant fucking' meant, but the word catapult was lost on him. Still, he could tell the Captain's statement at the end was a humorous one and smiled. "My name is Sakchai, I know, not a very Cardassian name, I'm half Romulan and my Romulan name is insane to say," Sakchai said with a laugh. The last thing people needed in this crazy event was trying to pronounce the name S'Tcaevra tr'Valdore. "What did the Captain say? Giant fucking.. something"

"I guess we are sitting ducks till the time being then. Hopefully I've used that expression of comedy in the right way." Phoenix sounded deadpan serious as he couldn't exactly show expression that very well. But he tried his best to get along with the others even though he didn't understand what the expression meant. "I don't really have proper reasoning at the moment due to lack of sleep." Phoenix slightly yawned as he looked all around him as he tried his best to think about other things that didn't fall into the category of sleep. "What about using the jefferies tubes, could they be used for communication due to how they can echo at times?"

Bandit, his cat, after hanging around his legs for a bit, was starting to get bored, and so she approached Phoenix and sniffed at him. "I don't think they echo that far. Sorry, is anyone here allergic to cats?" Mo asked.

Kya looked towards Sakchai with a small laugh. [“A giant fuckin catapult, it was a joke. He said sure, but he doesn’t want you to draw too much power. Do you need any help from myself? Kya Pok, by the way.”]

"Ah too much power yeah, okay... I would say we should probably focus on shielding ourself from whatever is causing this. I don't think I'd be able to hotwire fast enough not to drain power," Sakchai stood back up and shook his head. "Oh caapult, I get it. Well, can you ask if there are any shields or something we could activate? Or maybe like... I don't know, reverse polarise the hull?" Sakchai didn't actually know what was wrong, he was just throwing out ideas.

"I don't think I'm allergic to cats." Phoenix was tempted to pat the cat at that time, but knew he had to put his work first. "Perhaps we don't try to extend the range of how far the echo travels though, what if officers were placed where the echo cut off, communicated via through each officer as they pass on the message. Kind of like the earth game of Chinese Whispers?"

"Which may still run the risk of inaccuracy - and, in the absence of the universal translator, possibly a loss of meaning. Though I suppose it could work." *Bellona said to the young ensign. *"However. Would that not also mean stationing personnel inside the jeffries tubes at intersections?" (edited)

Kya nodded as she looked to the gathered crew. “Could we try to reverse polarize the hull? Just a suggestion from Sakchai.”

"Reverse polarise the hull? To accomplish what?" He asked Kya, and by extension Sakchai. "You lot've conjured this amusing image of people yelling at one another down the tubes, but yeah, having a relay of messengers in the tubes is actually not the worst idea. We'd just need to look at a map of the tubes and decide which points would be the best place for messengers to be stationed... Wait, there's no physical map, nobody uses paper any more. We'll figure it out." Bandit continued her sniffing, approaching Kya and staring up at her.

Kya smiled as she kneeled down and gave her a very light pet. “I’m sorry, I don’t have a treat.” Kya said with a hum. “Sakchai suggested it in place of shields to defend ourselves, I believe. I wouldn’t know if that’s even possible given our current power status.”

Bandit gave Kya's hand a gentle headbonk, as if to ask her to continue. "It probably isn't, and even if it was, that sounds like too big a power drain. Honestly, we don't really need to defend ourselves from anything at the moment, at least externally. Unless some big danger pops outta nowhere, we need to concentrate on getting a line of communication set up. How many feet apart do you guys reckon each person should be stationed in the relay?" Wait, would they even understand human measurement systems without the UT converting them?

Having somewhat recovered from their climb and now leaning against the back of a chair, Xaran had been quietly listening in on the ongoing conversation and incoming suggestions for a while now, trying to figure out just what could be done when all you had available was emergency power. Needless to say they were no engineer, so their knowledge of how things worked was far less than some. "The tubes have directions to different sections in them, so even though we don't have a full blown guide we could still quite easily figure out how to position people to form a chain. My only concern is the lack of Universal Translator and the possibility of it turning into a chain of misinterpretations, people not correctly conveying the message. Say it has to go down five hundred decks. That's a lot of people who have to get the message right." They stated simply, mind whirring away as they spoke.

"Maybe they could pass a piece of paper. Reinvent the whole postal system." Postman pat's time to shine.

"But I thought you said that we don't use paper anymore?" Phoenix gave the Captain a brief look as his gaze returned back towards the jefferies tube.

"Kya, I wish I took my second language seriously at the Cardassian Academy," Sakchai stated with a laugh as he sat back in his seat and just listened to his colleagues speak amongst themselves.

Kya hummed as she continued to pet Bandit as requested. “”Who’s a good kitty? You are! I would suggest perhaps somewhere in the realm of 30-50 feet? Just so people can reasonably get back to their point in the chain without much in the way of difficulty.” She quickly conversation the conversation in Cardassian as well for Sakchai, giving a laugh at the his comment.

As Kya hummed, Bandit purred. Mo should really bring her to work more if it meant she got all this attention! "People do, just not for the map of the tubes I wanted. I actually do carry a notebook with me. I use it for, uh, writing important notes." Usually he wouldn't have it on him, but he actually wasn't in uniform right now - he had a turtleneck and dark grey jeans on, as well as a small messenger bag. He dug the notebook out from it, and flipped through the doodles of various raccoons, bugs and frogs until he got to a blank page. "Let's say 50 feet, and each person passes the messages along on this notepad." (edited)

"Alright then, I personally volunteer to go down to one of the sectors to share the plan?" Phoenix shrugged as he was ready to put in the hard work just to get some sort of communication going between the sectors. "I will need a few pieces of paper if possible, Captain." Phoenix walked over to the captain his hand open to possibly receive a bit of paper as he was ready to create the chain of communication. "Can I possibly have ten pieces of note paper, just until we get the chain going."

He ripped off ten pieces of paper and handed them to Phoenix. This felt so old-school. "Sure. In fact, it's best we gather as many people as possible - preferably able-bodied and multilingual."

"I'll get it done, hopefully I'll see you guys after this are all over. Otherwise I wish you the best of luck." Phoenix took the pieces of paper, turning around as he went over to one of the jefferies tubes as he began climbing down the way to go to another sector.

Bellona watched him disappear into the jeffries tubes with a look of concern on her face. "There is a Jem'hadar serving in Tactical, isn't there. The seconded officer from the Allied Fleet Service. I glanced over his file in brief; as I see it he has satisfactory scores in several Alliance world language tests including rarer ones such as Kardasi and Ferengi. Perhaps if we can reach him somehow." She suggested. "He would be a valuable asset. Assuming, of course, we correctly predict where he is at this current moment."

"Sure, sounds useful - but I don't have any more idea where he would be than you do. What's more helpful is for you to gather as many able-bodied, preferably multilingual people as possible for the relay and then help get it set up. I need to let the other departments know what's going on ASAP." He started tearing out more bits of paper to write the details on, and as per the Nar in the various jeffries tubes, a relay system was soon set up.

Kya had moved to take up a empty station, and relayed anything anyone brought up from the tubes to the rest of the room (just so the people in the cycle could take a break and head back.) “Well, this has been a fun first week on the station.”

Phoenix appeared once again from the jefferies tube as he scrambled his way back up to the command deck. "All connections to each sector is open, the messaging system is working." With that Phoenix flopped onto the floor, as he just couldn't deal with all this exercise instead of doing sleep. "I'll get up in a second, just give me a few minutes."

Having grown tired of Kya, Bandit moved onto her next victim: Phoenix. Seeing that he looked vaguely comfortable, she stepped onto his back and curled up there, ready to use him as a cat bed. He was now becatted. "Don't let anyone tell you that 'nothing happens on Starbases. Shit happens here all the time." He even got stabbed once. "Right. Can someone get a message to science, to an astrophysicist preferably, asking them how long an ion storm plus inversion field like this usually lasts? Maybe we can at least get an estimate." (edited)

"I would if I could, it appears the cat is holding me hostage on this current spot..." Phoenix didn't exactly know what to do, remaining still as he tried his best to comfort the cat on his back. "Can you call your cat, so I could pass the message on?" He asked, hoping that he could be freed from Bandit's adorable so-called hug.

He wrote down his message on a piece of paper and handed it to Kya. "Hand this to the start of the relay going to the science labs." He looked at Phoenix. "You can get up any time you want, you know."

She waved bye to Bandit before quickly moving to hand the paper to the relay heading to the labs. “Yes sir!”

The jeffries tube hatch popped open, out of which appeared a rather harangued-looking Maran'agar. Climbing up and down the jeffries tubes was a chore at best - and, well, considering his frame was rather bulky and didn't always fit well... well, that was a problem for another day. "Captain. The science labs are attempting to figure out how long this storm will last." He said, walking up to Mo while dusting off his uniform. Seriously, were these infernal tubes rarely ever cleaned? Granted they were getting a ton of use today, but still.

Having been here the whole time, of course, yet completely out of character for her, Essen was alarmingly quiet. Normally she would have talked up a storm and been a little shit (of course within reason) but this? This was different. She went along with everyone and did what she needed to do when ordered, of course. But this? This was like the nightmare coming true. This entire blackout, or whatever it was, shellshocked Essen, made her timid, something she rarely ever was. In her mind tumbled so many possible outcomes to this. What if they never got the power back on? What if someone got hurt because of this? Especially Kaylee? This made Essen extremely uneasy. A playing factor in this was the fact that she was sleep deprived and couldn't think as clearly as she could. But that was a scary place for her, in her mind, at least. So, she stood back, a look of pure fear on her face. Who said Starfleet officers couldn't be scared and slip every once in a while? It was okay to be scared at times. Especially now. This was something entirely different. She hoped and prayed Kaylee was okay... she hoped and prayed everyone was okay.

Yeah, he would assume so. That wasn't what he'd asked for. "Did any of the scientists give any sort of estimate, or are they just working on it?"

"Presently? Yes, there is." Maran handed him the slip of paper he'd been hiding in his pocket. God, he hadn't had to use a pen and paper in who knows how long.

Kya hummed as she looked towards Maran, oh she had met him. Small world, she could see the look of fear on Essen’s face so she stood up and walked towards her. “What’s the matter, lovebird 1?” She asked softly.

He read the piece of paper. "Reportedly, Evoras guesstimated it would be a few hours, but the note says this was an extremely shaky guess. Right, so, if after few hours - let's say two - pass and this isn't over, or if it looks like the life support is starting to go, we should start evacuation procedures... Although we need to figure out how to evacuate first."

Genuinely unaware that Kya was approaching, Essen jumped a bit upon hearing Kya speak, but then recovered quickly. "Oh! Well, sir, I'd be lying if I said nothing was wrong," Essen admitted sheepishly. "Brings back a lot of perilous memories concerning my... lovebird." With a breath, Essen tried to find some inner strength. "But that's not right now. Right now I need to be present. You all could definitely have used my help earlier and I am sorry for having not given it due to my inability to handle myself well. How can I best assist, sir?" (edited)

Kya nodded as she looked at her, the older woman giving a long smile. “Kid, I remember when I was married, every time we got in danger or something my heart would race, I’d be terrified for my partner, and my performance would suffer. It took me a….conversation with my ex-wife, well then wife to realize I didn’t have to worry. I could put all my eggs in one basket, her basket . It’s all about trust, do you trust your other lovebird to do her best? Then you have nothing to fear. As for the assistance? Just be there to offer a hand for someone if they need it, i’m basically working the top bit of the relay here. So if anyone’s tired or something, just be kind aye?”

Essen was going to respond to Kya right away but stopped - she was right. Essen did trust Kaylee - Kaylee was capable of taking care of herself, yes. But without Essen's help Kaylee would have bit the dust in the turbolift from the tribble! It was a fine line that Essen needed to be able to find in her mind - and now was the time to find it. Essen and Kaylee were junior grade lieutenants now - officers that learned a lot since that incident. She did care about Kaylee, and love Kaylee endlessly - but she knew she'd have to learn to let Kaylee save herself if Essen wasn't there. The same would be true for Kaylee, Essen surmised - Essen would need to learn to save herself if Kaylee wasn't there. While it felt... uncomfortable to think about... Kya was right. Maybe Essen... didn't have to live in fear. "You don't have to give an order for me to be kind to everyone, sir," Essen chuckled. "That should go without saying. And... thanks. For the pep talk. You really didn't have to but it was so generous of you to do so." Giving Kya a genuine smile as a tear welled up and fell down her face - a tear of relief. Those weren't easily shed from Essen, not tears of relief. But they were. And they were here now. And she knew... Kaylee was going to be okay. She knew it.

Maran had to try to ignore the lovey-dovey talk happening behind him. He still had a job to do, after all. One thing he'd learned after his brief time spent in the Allied Fleet Service was that Federation citizens could be incredibly sentimental when it came to their loved ones - even in inconvenient situations such as this one. "If the shuttles do not work I suppose we could push them out the shuttlebay doors via inertia somehow." Maran suggested. "Electronics only fail when they are within the ion storm, possibly. Hopefully the inertia will allow the shuttles to coast clear..."

Kya nodded. “Go, you got this.” She said as she moved back to her station,

With a salute to Kya, and a newfound confident smile, Essen nodded back to Kya and turned about face to approach Maran and Mo. She kept herself at attention when beside Maran, having him as a new higher ranking officer. She looked to him. "That makes sense, sir," Essen said to Maran. "If we have enough force to push the shuttles out to begin with."

He nonchalantly picked up Bandit from where she'd been sleeping on Phoenix, who'd been alarmingly still on the ground since they'd last spoken. Maybe he was just tired. Glancing at Essen, he said, "Let me know if you need an emotional support animal." Then he looked at Maran. "Push them... Physically? That would be far too slow. Anyway, problem is mainly that the electronics inside the pods themselves are fried by the storm, so they wouldn't have any guidance system and would float in space forever. We'd pretty much be sending people out in their own coffins." (edited)

With a chuckle, Essen looked to Mo. "Well, sir, while a dedicated emotional support animal is not necessary nor do I have the proper medical paperwork to have one, I certainly won't say no to Bandit," she replied with a smile. Then, thinking about the shuttles, the got an idea - although she wasn't sure it was going to work. "Sir, I may have an idea, although I don't know if it's possible. I remember the time Admiral Picard steered the Enterprise-D within an asteroid field on minimal power, using the asteroids' masses and gravities as a slingshot to propel the Enterprise out of the field. But with....with fried electronics, being able to steer the shuttles or figure out their destination is impossible..." She realized. "And pushing them out of the shuttlebay would be a challenge, but maybe thinking about using the masses and gravity of the starbase to propel any one of us in a certain direction in a shuttle could be useful so we can get help? Especially if there's a nearby starbase we can try and aim for? Just an idea. I know it's not ideal but this is the best I can come up with."

Maran took time to consider what both of them said. God, he hated having to think of stuff like this. "Perhaps if we had an interstellar map that didn't rely on electronics. Surely there must be one somewhere..." Starfleet facilities, as he'd learned, often had an excessive amount of failsafes. When all electronics failed, surely they had analog methods to fall back on?

Essen turned to Maran, glad he was able to understand what she was saying. "Yeah, almost using the star charts as a guide instead of having the electronics do the work for us, we can send out the shuttles or escape pods and use the gravity of the starbase or any surrounding masses to propel us in the direction we want, so we can make contact with another starbase or nearby vessel... if we can send out the shuttles or escape pods, that is..." (edited)

"We'd have to ask the stellar cartographers if they have something like that." It was plausible. Most star charts were digital so they could be three-dimensional, but there might be some people who tried to put their work to paper. "I'm not entirely sure what you mean when you say you want to use the gravity of the Starbase, since it doesn't have any - and even if we did, with the escape pods' navigational and thrust capabilities, there would be no force it could activate at just the right time to pull it out of the orbit of whatever it was orbiting around." (edited)

Ah... she didn't think about that. But she did feel the need to clarify to Mo what she meant. "Oh yeah, my bad, sir," Essen began sheepishly. "If I learned correctly, nearly any large or massive object in space such as a planet has a gravitational pull that gets stronger the closer you get to it. Any of the asteroids Admiral Picard used to slingshot himself away from them needed to be big enough so that their gravitational pull would be strong enough for a slingshot maneuver. But, as you say, we don't have a force to activate the pods or shuttles at the right time...however, is there something we could use within the paper starmaps the cartographers might have to help us?"

Sensing her nerves, he approached and handed Essen a fluffy, groggy Bandit, who meowed croakily like a little frog. "I think you might be overestimating the size of this Starbase a little. We're big, but not big enough to have any significant gravitational pull. If we did, we wouldn't need to use artifical gravity generators. What're you hoping to find out there that would help us somehow?"

Half-forgetting she even said she wouldn't mind Bandit, Essen smiled as she gracefully accepted Bandit. Gatto!!! "Thank you, sir," she remarked with a polite nod. "What do you think, Bandit? You thinkin' of anything that might be able to help us? Hmm? Hmm?" She spoke to Bandit, cradling el gatto like a newborn baby. "Oh, you're big'un, aren't you? Aren't you?" Welp, Mo's generosity certainly helped - that was very nice of him. "This is already helping, sir, thank you," Essen continued. "But to answer your question, I have another idea. Something that doesn't involve any of the crew leaving the station just yet but may be able to help us get noticed by a nearby vessel if there is one. Do we have any distress beacons we can jettison outwards? I was thinking by using the starmaps we could estimate when or in which direction to send out a distress beacon - oh wait... you said there was no force to activate it at the right time..." She realized, cuddling Bandit closer in a bit of embarrassment. (edited)

"Maybe getting personnel to try and push them out of the shuttlebay might help." Maran suggested. "Yes, it will be slow and time-consuming but in the absence of electronic assistance it may well be our best solution. Hopefully a Starfleet vessel will see it and trace it back here."

Bandit wriggled, disliking the way she was being held. She was not a baby, even if she was very cute. She put her paws on Essen's shoulders and tried to pull herself up so she could perch on Essen's shoulder like a parrot. "Actually, if we sent out distress beacons, we wouldn't need to do any slingshot maneuver stuff. As long as we could generate enough force to get 'em out of the ion field quickly, they'd be able to send signals from there. The issue is, if any ships do come here, they'll just get caught in the storm like we are. Same issue if a Starfleet vessel sees any floatin' escape pods - if we push them out manually, their journey will be so slow, by the time anyone got close enough to see them they'd also have gotten themselves trapped in the storm." (edited)

"Oh--!" Essen exclaimed as she watched Bandit paw her way up to perch on her shoulder. "My bad bruh, didn't know you didn't like being held like that," Essen remarked. "But hey you're still good up there! Cute and cuddly." Before she turned back to Mo. "So we... can't use the shuttles or escape pods, and while we technically can use the distress beacons we can't use them without consequence..." Essen tried to recount what Mo told her and Maran. (edited)

He sighed deeply, reaching over to Bandit and giving her chin-scritches. "If there was an easy solution to this problem, we wouldn't have been standin' here discussin' it for ages. The only thing I can think of is the Eventide. If we could get that thing moving outta here somehow, it wouldn't matter if its navigational systems weren't functioning as long as there were enough engineers on it to fix it as soon as it got outta the storm." (edited)

Just then, as Mo mentioned the Eventide, Essen got an idea. "The Eventide... even with its electronics fried, that would be an easy way to get an away team evacuated onto it. Do we know how massive the distress beacons are, captain?" Essen asked Mo. "If they're massive enough, we can tie the distress beacons to the front of the Eventide. Then, we'd jettison the distress beacons, and with enough force, the distress beacons will be able to launch the Eventide out of the starbase. Almost like an old-style ancient car, towing a trailer behind it. That way we won't have to physically push the Eventide out. Plus, with enough force, we'd be able to get the Eventide up to speed to hopefully evade the storm, giving the engineers more time to fix it afterwards." (edited)

"Perhaps that should be our secondary focus, sir - if we start later rather than sooner it may well be too late." Maran reckoned. "If there are spare engineering personnel to do so."

"The distress beacons... I'm actually not sure how big they are. They would certainly have more force than we would just pushing the Eventide, I suppose. Only problems are I have no fuckin' clue how we'd attach them to the Eventide, especially if they're big, since it's not like we just have a massive spool of the world's longest rope lyin' around, and it's just occurred to me that they might also be fried. We'll have to check." Though he remained composed on the outside, in his mind, he let off a string of Ferengi curses. He was sick of this. Every solution he could think of involved technology somehow. Modern society was simply too dependent on it to solve all its problems - which, as an ex-engineer, he had no problem with in most circumstances, because technology was great - except this particular one, where basically the only electronic thing working was the basic stuff like life support, which was power he didn't want to drain to do anything else or they'd all suffocate faster. "Hold on a sec. I'm gonna send some messengers to check on how Science and Engineering are doing. If they've made any progress restarting any of our tech at all, that might help us." (edited)

Then he did that.

As Essen stayed behind, she remained with Maran. "Well, this is certainly proving to be a bit of a head scratcher. I just hope everyone's alright. Things would honestly be a lot easier if Copia was-- wait. Where's Copia?!" Essen realized. As Copia was an android, she was almost certainly affected by the storm. "Shit! She's in trouble! Copia's already been through surgery once, she can't have this happen to her! None of the androids can! She's gonna-" And just as Essen was about to go into a panic, she remembered she had Bandit on her shoulder, which calmed her down as she took a deep breath, in and out... in and out... "No. She's gonna be okay. Everyone's gonna be okay. I'm gonna be okay. Phew... you're a good girl, Bandit." She said, petting Bandit. "Sorry, sir," She told Maran. "A friend of mine. She's an android. She's like an older sister to me. I just hope she's alright." (edited)

Kya thought for a moment before cursing. “Does the Eventide have a shuttle bay? If one was to blow that you could get it moving, but the problem would be damage to the station. Likely not catastrophic but in our state not ideal.” (edited)

Phoenix began moving again after a while, he was there listening but was too exhausted from constantly going up and down the ladders to get the communication started between sectors. Struggling to his feet as he tried to maintain his professionalism once again, even though he wasn't dressed for it. "Sorry about that, I may of fallen asleep..." Phoenix cleared his throat as he noticed that there were more people in the room, he didn't mind that due to how things worked on the station. It always helpful to have an extra pair of hands on standby if things went wrong. "Could the station or the Eventide be used as a sort of lightning rod? Would that be able to allow one of the things to break free and escape the storm?"

A messenger arrived! They had a piece of paper, which they read out loud: "'Waiting on a troubleshooter from '87 to load for life support backup, but it looks okay currently. Reloading every isolinear chip into the computer manually.' And then he asked me to leave a heart at the end, so, I doodled one." They handed the paper to Mo.

He examined it. "Yep. I think I know who wrote this."

Another messenger arrived! "'Nother one for you! This one says 'we managed to get minimal readings of the situation outside and have an idea to return power to the station that we need to run past engineering before I'm able to estimate a chance for its viability.'"

"Hmmm. No clue who wrote that one."

Maran seemed very, very confused indeed as he peered over the captain's shoulder. "Seems unusually casual to me. Perhaps a junior officer in engineering." He suggested.

"I assure you, he's quite senior in rank." He put the message with a heart in his pocket. "Not important right now, though. It seems like the other decks are making good progress. Maybe we won't have to evacuate people at all."

Kya smirked to herself as she saw the message pocketed, she wasn’t quite sure on the social set up on the station but, good for you captain, good for you. “It’ll be good to have a failsafe in place, regardless.”

Things seemed to be underway in Science and Engineering to get things fixed. That meant that it was the perfect time for other things to un fix, right? Without warning, a sudden feeling of weightlessness swept over everyone here. Objects began floating. People began floating. It would appear that the gravity had turned off: a sign that the life support system was losing more power.

Guess what else began floating? Bandit. And boy, she was NOT happy. She flailed around in the air, trying to grab anyone or anything, her small brain unable to comprehend why she was suddenly flying. Mo pushed off the ground and floated towards her, and as soon as she was able she clung to him, her claws digging into his shoulder as he held her to his chest, her ears flattened and her fur sticking up, letting loose a series of pathetic meows. Mo was now floating toward the ceiling, but seemed rather unbothered by all this. "Shit. Not a good sign. Well, okay, let's find a way to turn this to our advantage, then. People in the tubes'll be faster, at least."

Having mainly been thinking for the majority of their time on the Command Deck, as well as trying to work things out in the background along with a few of the Delta shift who were on duty. When they noticed the Captain pocket the note they gave a slight eyebrow raise, but that quickly vanished when they began... Floating? "Oh bollocks." They muttered. Immediately grabbing onto the back of a fixed chair, their antennae spiking upward, they looked around the room to make sure everyone else began following zero gravity procedures.

Kya began to lift into the air as she felt the gravity leave. “Hm, yes this is a problem.” Kya hummed as she floated there. “It’s like swimming in a lake in Dakur province.”

Maran scrabbled immediately for an item to grab onto - which happened to be a chair that was not fixed to the floor. Well, they can't be if people want to move around, right? So that too began to float, and he spent a second or two panicking before finding a fixed console to grab onto for dear life. "Lovely." He murmured. "I suppose now we'll be floating everywhere - at least now we won't have to walk."

Phoenix just went with the flow regarding gravity as he had trained in these conditions before, there wasn't a need to hold onto anything. It didn't stop his thinking or slowed him down in any shape or form. "The question is how do we get out of this scenario, that is the true question that is stumping me right now." Phoenix's legs his off a console unit as he slowly began to cartwheel clock-wise in front of everyone.

"Whoooaaa wait wait wait wait wait wait no!" Essen exclaimed, as she began floating in the air, and her headband floated off her head. "Hey! That's my signature look!" She said, swiping for her headband and just catching it in time before it got out of reach.

Out of nowhere the entire station went dark. There was no more emergency lighting, an absent void inside; nothing but the view from the windows displaying the swirl of the combined ion storm and inversion field outside. It was almost peaceful - until suddenly, everything lit up. Any external windows were suddenly illuminated in hues of greens, blues, and purples as the station's shields onlined, inverted, and interacted with the storm. Up and down the station a mini-aurora had formed, giving everyone the view of a truly awe-inspiring, once-in-a-lifetime phenomenon. The aurora was also accompanied by another source of light. A familiar hum suddenly kicked to life; the usual background noise of the station's engines powering on once more. Consoles lit up with a blue 'backup LCARS' screen, monitors began to chime, and both objects and people fell down to the ground as the gravity came back online again. If anyone's cybernetics had been made non-functional they now powered back on - as did any Androids who had been completely oblivious of the situation! For Liberated Borg officers, it was like a surge of energy as nanoprobes started to work at their usual rate and implants worked once more. It would appear that whatever had happened, the station was now shielded from the storm. Somewhere on 777, some rather brilliant minds had fixed things.

Phoenix gracefully fell back towards the ground as he managed to stick the landing, as he stared outside of the windows as he took the amazing lights that were going on outside. "How the... What is going on outside..." Phoenix lost all rational thinking as he didn't think of this option that appeared in front of him. "I think it's some shielding of some description. How long is it going to last for?"

He floated all the way up to the ceiling and then kicked himself off it with not too much force, floating down until he could use one hand to grab the Captain's chair, which was firmly bolted down. That's when the gravity kicked back in, which just had him land on his feet quite gracefully. It would have been quite impressive if his cat didn't yowl. "Sounds like the solution engineering were workin' on. It looks like we won't have to do a bunch of malarkey to evacuate the station after all."

Kya fell back into her seat with a breath. “Good work all, and here I thought this would be a quiet posting when I came on at the start of the week.”

As the power went out seemingly entirely Xaran's attention was drawn to the only light source in sight: Space. Despite the circumstances, despite everything, they couldn't help but appreciate the view. And their eyes only widened as the aurora-like phenomenon occurred, antennae moving as they processed what they were seeing. However, they were quick to spike upright as they heard the familiar hum of their home waking up once more, coming back to life. As the gravity kicked on their feet returned to the ground, having been holding onto the back of a chair to stop themself from going to far. With a sharp inhale they tugged down their uniform jacket before looking around the room once more, now with proper lighting. "Everyone good?" They asked the room, wanting to make sure no one had been injured when the gravity was re-enabled.

Before anyone got chance to respond the room was filled with the sound of... Music? What the heck? Looking up at the ceiling Xaran's brow furrowed. Who had authorised that? And what era was that music even from?